Taylor Varga
by mp3.1415player
Summary: Taylor has a bad day that ends in a locker. Everyone has heard that one. It goes somewhat differently after that, as her call for help is answered by something from a lot further away than one might expect... A story in which Taylor makes a very large friend, the world gets confused, and Danny comes into his own.
1. Beginnings and Meetings

**Read Me! Useful information below!**

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This is technically a crossover between Worm and a very short-lived Anime series called Luna Varga. It ran for four whole episodes in the mid nineties, was never translated from Japanese, and it's entirely possible you've never heard of it. FF dot net hasn't, which is why it's not in the crossover category, as there _isn't_ one for Luna Varga.

This may well be, in fact, the only Luna Varga fanfic ever written. I've certainly never come across another one.

The Anime was well drawn and quite amusing. When I decided to have a stab at a Worm fanfic, I had several ideas in mind, three of which I wrote the first few chapters of. This one was the one that had momentum at the time and it's the one I've kept at. There is close to a million words so far and it's not done yet, although unless I check out early, it will be one day :) I'll be adding chapters as and when I have time, so updating will be irregular, I'm afraid, but eventually this will sync up with the current progress of the story.

I have inserted humor and silly jokes throughout, as the source material on one side demanded it, and on the other desperately _needed_ it. It looks at things from a number of viewpoints, and goes into details about _why_ something happened, not just dumping the thing in question into the story without explanation or reason. Some people don't like that, claiming it's repetitive. Some people love it, claiming it's detailed. It's not action-packed with people dying in showers of gore everywhere, which seems to be what a lot of Worm fans want, so if that's your thing you may be disappointed. But don't let me put you off working that out for yourself, just don't get half-way through then complain no one warned you!

The whole thing mostly revolves around Taylor Hebert, her family, and her friends. Other people will come and go as required, some sticking around, some not. It's basically a section through a life with superpowers and where that can end up even if you don't try, rather than having a specific end goal in mind, with lots of lovingly crafted action sequences where everyone dies.

I welcome reviews and comments but trust me, I've seen practically every nasty thing anyone could say about it on Spacebattles, which is _full_ of extremely critical critics who criticize. As I've had to say there as well, I will not change anything in this story to make it fit with your desires. Find an actual error and I'll look at it, but if you decide that you'd prefer it written differently, feel free to do it yourself. I _cannot_ please everyone, I know that full well, and I won't even try as all it does is cause me to get annoyed and extremely sarcastic. Some people will like it, some people will hate it, and everyone else will shrug and move on. Such is life.

Basically, this is mainly a fairly light-hearted look at a number of people in the Worm universe who have things happen to them that are out of the ordinary even in that setting. There are jokes, puns (oh, so _many_ puns), bizarre happenings, and giant lizards. Quite a few of them.

People look confused a lot.

While I acknowledge that it won't appeal to everyone, it's still popular enough on Spacebattles to have risen to the position, current as of the date of posting, of the 17th most viewed thread of all time, out of over 14 and a half thousand. In nine months. Which probably means something, although I'm not sure what...

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For those who have never run into Luna Varga, which is probably almost everyone, it revolves around Princess Luna, second in line to inherit the throne of a small kingdom called Rimsbell. This kingdom is under siege by a much larger one called Dunbas.

In the end, due to having no other options, she ventures into the catacombs below the palace seeking anything useful for the defense of the realm, to discover something which offers her a choice. Accepting, she wakes some time later to find she is now fused to the forehead of a Godzilla-sized-and-appearing giant lizard creature, the Varga, a great demon that has been locked away for centuries. The pair of them quickly rout the attackers, but in the process her younger sister is kidnapped by an unknown force. She leaves Rimsbell in search of the girl.

Hijinks ensue, of course.

She discovers that the Varga can return her to human size, but this leaves her with several feet of lizard's tail attached to her. She meets various other people along the way, ending up in Dunbas where they more or less destroy the capital city defeating the Dark Varga, a more powerful demon, also one of the twelve originals as was her Varga. The Anime ends at that point, with the final outcome unknown.

I've extrapolated from the info in the Anime, which is available on Youtube these days, the only place I've seen it for decades. I used that as a base reference and extended it in ways that made me amused, ending up with this story.

A working knowledge of Worm is assumed, but hopefully not entirely required. Feel free to go read Worm first if you haven't, but be warned, it's nearly two million words of a story that will make you want to kill yourself ;) Still an interesting read with an interesting take on the superhero genre, though.

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 _The fanfiction I write is entirely for fun, with no commercial use implied, intended, or permitted. All original copyright holder's rights are acknowledged._

 _More specifically, as a basic, non-exhaustive disclaimer for main line or omake story elements currently used to date:_

 _Worm is the property of Wildbow._  
 _DC characters are the property of DC Comics and others._  
 _Harry Potter is the property of J K Rowling, Warner Bros, and others._  
 _Luna Varga is, as far as can be established, the property of AIC._  
 _Ranma 1/2 is the property of Rumiko Takahashi / Shogakukan and others._  
 _Stargate is the property of MGM._  
 _Sailor Moon is the property of Naoko Takeuchi / PNP and Toei Animation and others._  
 _Hellraiser is the property of Clive Barker and others_  
 _Marvel characters are the property of Marvel comics, Disney and others._

 _Basically, if you recognize it from a movie, comic, book, or other published work, it's owned by the rightsholders for that work. Anything else is my fault._

 _Reader contributed Omakes may incorporate other elements not listed above, and are otherwise © their respective authors. And much thanks is due to those authors for adding to my and your enjoyment!_

 _(The formatting allowed here is different from that which was originally intended, so font sizes, some minor coloring, and things like that are missing. You'll have to use your imaginations :)_

 _(Thanks to everyone who made suggestions at Spacebattles and Sufficient Velocity, many of which I used one way or the other. For a number of reasons the story is no longer updated at SpaceBattles but it will continue. You can't get rid of me that easily...)_

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 **[Story begins here. Story ends** ** _way_** **over** ** _there._** **Somewhere** ** _._** **]**

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 _It came to a head, as it almost always did in the manifold realities in which something similar occurred, in a locker full of muck in a run down, neglected, corrupt school, itself in a run down, neglected, corrupt city, as a result of a protracted bullying campaign against a high school student by three sociopaths._

 _It took a rather divergent path at this point, though..._

* * *

 **Friday, January 7, 2011**

Hammering weakly on the inside of the metal structure in which she'd been locked for several hours, Taylor Hebert stifled yet another sob, trying not to breath too deeply. Her head was spinning, she was almost at the point of passing out, and she was fairly sure she was going to die. Things were chewing on on her, making little crunching sounds, her legs were numb, her hands bleeding.

"Help," she called with hopelessness in her voice, knowing no one would come. "Please. Help me."

What chance did she have now? It was long past the point the school would have closed, the light coming through the vents in the door had faded away hours ago, and if no one had helped her when they'd seen her get locked in, who was going to find her with the school closed and locked up? Even the maintenance staff must have left by now.

Slumping further as her strength waned, she banged her head backwards against the door with a soft clunk, all the while knowing it was pointless. Her strength was ebbing fast and even at the point she'd been trapped, she had been unable to break the latch on the door. With the lock on the outside there was no realistic hope of escape.

Closing her eyes for what she thought was the last time, her mind clouding, she whispered, "I'm sorry, Dad. I should have told you." The surroundings faded away to blackness and the blessed relief of unconsciousness.

* * *

 _In most realities, something answered her desperate cry for help, leading to various events which often eventually impacted the entire world or even beyond. Many of those stories have been told._

 _This time, something else answered, something from much further away than the fragments of an omnicidal alien space whale fleeing entropy._

* * *

An unknown time later, Taylor became aware that there was light coming from in front of her. This seemed somehow wrong, although for some while she couldn't think clearly enough to work out why. Eventually it dawned on her. ' _I'm facing the back of the locker and I can't turn around. Where's the light coming from? Did someone let me out?_ '

Opening her eyes, suddenly aware that the pain and numbness from before was oddly missing, she expected to see her rescuer. Instead, all she could perceive was a brilliant light filling her view, in any direction she looked. Glancing down at herself she gaped when she found she appeared clean, uninjured and, amazingly and terrifyingly enough, to be standing on nothingness. "Oh my god," she mumbled under her breath.

Waving her hands around Taylor couldn't feel any obstructions, in any direction. Taking a tentative step she found that whatever invisible surface she was perched on was real enough that she could walk on it. She wandered around with growing confidence for an indeterminate time, looking for something, anything, that might explain what the hell was going on, only to discover nothing useful at all.

Eventually, she put her hands on her hips and sighed. "This is just stupid," she muttered, irritated. She was undeniably grateful not to be stuck in that festering hell-hole of a plague-ridden pit formerly known as her locker, true enough, but while her new location was much less painful, it was becoming equally annoying for different reasons. Turning around on the spot she squinted into the omnipresent bluish light, then cupped her hands around her mouth. "HEY!" she shouted. "IS ANYONE THERE? WHERE AM I?"

Listening, she heard nothing. No echoes, no sounds other than the ones she was making.

"This is getting creepy," she told herself. Seconds later, she emitted a high pitched scream when a VOICE boomed out from somewhere:

" _ **DO YOU SEEK POWER?**_ **"**

Covering her ears she cowered at the roar. The voice was deep, very loud, and somehow didn't sound at all normal, although she'd have been hard-pressed to say exactly why.

"Um, what?" she squeaked after a moment, when her heart-rate slowed from preposterous to merely very fast indeed.

The voice repeated, " _ **DO YOU SEEK POWER?**_ **"** even more loudly, and sounding mildly impatient this time.

Taylor opened her mouth to ask another, probably silly, question, then stopped. After a couple of seconds she closed her mouth and thought very hard.

' _DO I seek power?_ ' she thought. 'What does it mean by power? Like being a cape?' This seemed the most likely of a series of increasingly unlikely possibilities. Looking around again she couldn't deny the fact that the least unreasonable interpretation of the entire thing, assuming she wasn't just having some sort of death's-door hallucination, involved parahumans in some manner or other. Maybe this was what happened to all capes when they got their powers? She'd never heard of such a thing but perhaps people just didn't talk about it.

She also couldn't deny that the idea of gaining some abilities that would allow her to be better than she could be now was... enticing. Although, that said, it would certainly bring problems. Would those problems be offset by the gains? ' _Beats dying in a locker, though_ ,' she mused sardonically.

After some more careful thought she replied, rather weakly, "Um, yes?"

" _ **Speak up**_ **,"** the voice rumbled a little more quietly. She frowned, looking around.

"Yes, I seek power," she called, much more firmly.

" _ **To what purpose would you put this power?**_ **"** the voice responded immediately.

This made her think again. The simple answer, one she couldn't help but think, was revenge. Get back at Emma, and Sophia, and Madison. Get back at all of them, the school officials who turned their backs on the years of bullying, the other students who were complicit or simply stepped aside.

What stopped her answering thus was the thought of both her mother and her father. Neither one would approve. Her father, while he was certainly in favor of an eye for an eye under the right circumstances, would also tell her to avoid become the very thing she was suffering from. Her mother would, from what she remembered of her, have taken the long view and told her to beat them by being the better person.

She smiled softly to herself, remembering for an instant something she'd heard her mother say once to her father when they both thought she was in bed. 'Then drop it on them when they least expected it,' she thought, giggling. Her mother had been in some ways a dangerous person to annoy. She'd had a very long memory and a lot of patience.

Her father could, now that she thought about it, possibly be worse. While he had a real temper it took a lot to get it riled up. When you managed that, though, it turned into the sort of cold rage that made people twice his size start backing away very carefully and not making sudden moves, something she remembered well from an incident in her childhood involving a minor car accident, a drunk driver, and a baseball bat. The driver who had started the entire encounter then escalated it when he went off on her father with little reason seemed somewhat grateful when the police finally turned up and arrested him.

Threatening to beat up the 'four-eyed skinny little bastard' had made her father annoyed. Approaching his ten year old daughter while holding the aluminum bat in a threatening manner had turned annoyance into an instant fury that had resulted in one very large and very scared man with a broken arm and a bent bat.

Luckily, as the union representative for the dockworkers, Danny Hebert was known and well respected by a surprisingly large number of people, including a lot of cops, who had been quite prepared to listen to the story and make a judgment call. The driver was on his third strike for drunk driving and well known to them and the entire incident was witnessed by a number of bystanders all of whom said the same thing, so in the end her father had merely been asked to be slightly less enthusiastic the next time. He'd taken his good fortune as a warning he might not get again and never reacted in such a manner since then, not that so far it had been required anyway.

She smiled again, thinking back on what her mother had said when they'd got home that day. She hadn't been happy, although at the same time she'd obviously been proud in an oddly reluctant manner. Her father had been embarrassed by the whole thing but Taylor remembered it even now. The story got around and gained him considerable respect amongst his co-workers, who more or less to a man approved wholeheartedly of such immediate karma being handed out to a deserving recipient. The dock workers were, by and large, fairly placid most of the time but protective of their own.

Even so, she felt that neither of her parents would want her to use any parahuman ability or whatever it was that the voice was offering her to assault the three bitches. While she couldn't help but feel annoyed by this she also knew full well that Emma or Sophia would undoubtedly be able to twist any beat-down, however justified, against her. Once again, who would listen? Or care?

After mulling it over for a while, she spoke carefully. "I think I would try to be a hero. To help people."

" _ **A laudable goal. Your world would appear to need help. There is much wrong with it.**_ **"**

"My world?" she queried curiously. "Who are you, anyway?"

" _ **The echo of an afterthought, from far away and long ago. It is unimportant. The question, Taylor Hebert, is more one of whether your request is valid."**_

The answer was fairly uninformative yet at the same time raised a lot of other questions. Taylor frowned. "If nothing else I don't want to go back to that locker, if that's all right with you," she muttered, more to herself than the voice.

Another four or five seconds passed.

" _ **Your request is acceptable and within my power to grant. I will allow you to be the brain of the Varga.**_ **"** It paused, then added, " _ **I think I will do things slightly differently this time. It will be interesting to see how you proceed. I find myself bored, possibly this will be a good diversion from eternity."**_

"Varga? What's that?" she asked, suddenly not entirely certain this was a good idea. The last couple of sentences sounded… ominous.

" _ **Power. Great power. Use it well. This cannot be undone.**_ **"**

Stepping back, a fairly pointless exercise under the circumstances, Taylor looked around nervously. Perhaps the correct answer would have been no?

" _ **Good luck, Taylor Hebert,**_ **"** the voice boomed out, sounding annoyingly cheerful all of a sudden. " _ **You must keep in mind who you are. Remember yourself, fix it in your mind with absolute certainty. This is important.**_ **"**

As the light abruptly grew stronger, it added a little absently, " _ **Oh. I should tell you this will probably hurt.**_ **"**

It was entirely correct.

Taylor screamed, her mind suddenly filled with images she couldn't, at the time, understand, and she passed out frantically thinking 'I am Taylor Hebert and I want to live', the light flaring around her brighter than the sun.

* * *

Taylor dreamed. She saw a small kingdom under siege by a far larger one, in what looked to be some sort of medieval society. Catapults, some sort of huge cross-bow things, hundreds of troops armed with bows and swords, all attacking a castle on an isthmus, surrounded by sea. The defenders fought valiantly, but were clearly destined to lose if nothing else but because they were so many fewer.

There was a princess, a pretty blonde a little older than she was, who was a warrior in her own right, fighting with great competence and skill, wielding a sword like she'd been born to it. Her companion was a young man who seemed to be part cat. Flying cat, which was even weirder. He could change into that form or take the one of a human with a cat's eyes and tail.

Both of them fought the invaders, but ultimately they were driven off, escaping with their lives but only able to inflict irritating damage rather than have any real long term effect. The huge man in charge of the enemy was temporarily defeated yet it was obvious that it wouldn't help in the end.

Finally, desperate, the princess descended into the depths of the catacombs below the castle and found... something ancient, and powerful. Taylor watched with bemused amazement what happened next.

Eventually, the dream ended, and Taylor woke. She shivered, finding that she was damn cold and apparently lying on something very hard. Opening her eyes she found herself looking up at the ceiling of the school corridor. Quickly peering around she spotted the door of her locker, remarkably enough still locked and with no visible damage. She could smell the muck inside, far more intensely than she really wanted to, and see it seeping out under the door and forming a fetid puddle on the floor. How anyone could possibly miss it was beyond her and added more credence to the concept that no one cared.

Looking down at herself her eyes widened. She was completely nude. Except for a covering of the same crap as in the locker, that is. Squeaking with horrified embarrassment she jumped to her feet, looking frantically around in case someone was watching. Slowly she became aware that it was dark outside, and also that the lights in the hallway were turned off. She found this a bit weird since she could see perfectly well even so but was too worked up about her nakedness to worry too much about it at the moment. Not to mention that she really was damn close to freezing.

Stepping back from the revolting puddle on the floor, leaving nasty footprints behind, she looked around, thought for a moment, then headed for the locker room and the showers. It seemed the most likely place to find something to cover herself with and she desperately wanted to wash the crap off as fast as possible.

At the back of her mind she was aware that she was taking the entire thing a little too casually for someone who had been confined and tortured for hours at least but most of her thoughts were concentrating on the concept of shower, clothes or at least some towels, and a phone to call her father to pick her up. Remembering her thoughts in the locker she decided it was time to come clean, she couldn't deal with the trio by herself any more. This last ' _prank_ ' could probably more accurately be considered attempted murder, or a serious physical assault at the absolute minimum.

Weirdly enough, it was only after she'd finished the first of the three things on her list that she finally noticed she had a tail.


	2. Introductions and Tail

"What?" Taylor looked at her reflection in the floor-height mirror on the wall of the girl's locker room, side on. " _What?_ "

Sprouting from the base of her spine, where it was several inches thick, and tapering to a blunt point nearly four feet further along, she now apparently possessed a muscular reptilian tail, much like something you'd more normally find attached to an alligator. She reached back with a shaky hand and carefully felt it, running her fingers along the resilient yet tough scales covering the thing.

"What the _fuck?_ "

Gaping, she stared in horrified disbelief, then poked it again. It was definitely real, and just as definitely attached pretty damn solidly to her rear. After a moment or two she tried moving it and found it as easy as moving any of her other limbs. It was remarkably flexible, in fact, allowing her to move it from side to side or up and down easily, or even send a ripple of motion down it like a wave.

Numbly waving her tail around she kept staring for quite a long time, before she shook her head. "But... I thought it was a dream?"

She remembered what she'd seen, the young princess merged with a vast lizard-like creature called the... "Varga?" she said out loud.

" _Yes, Brain?_ " a deep calm voice said inside her head. She twitched violently, looking frantically around the room. There was no-one there but her. And her tail.

"You're... real?" she quavered.

" _Of course, Brain. Why would I not be real?_ " It sounded slightly confused.

' _Can you hear me when I do this?_ ' she thought experimentally after some moments of mental blankness.

" _Yes_." The voice sounded satisfied this time.

"Oh, god. I've got a huge alien lizard living in my head," she moaned, slumping to the floor with her new tail stretched out behind her, the feeling one that she suddenly noticed and found very odd although not uncomfortable.

" _I am not really a lizard, Brain_ ," the Varga told her.

"Whatever. You're in my head, right?"

There was a pause. " _You may think of it like that if you wish_ ," the voice replied.

"What about the tail? Can I get rid of it?" She looked over her shoulder at the appendage, flicking the tip from side to side.

" _I'm sorry, Brain, but your current form is the minimum that can be achieved,_ " the Varga said, sounding a little regretful. " _The original bargain made long, long ago insisted the one who wielded the power of the Varga be so marked_."

"So I'm stuck with it. Great." Taylor sighed, thinking she was probably going to freak out later when everything sunk in properly. At the moment she was riding the high of being alive after being convinced for hours that she was going to die and was honest enough with herself to realize this. "Dad is going to flip. There's no way I can hide it from him." She looked around the locker room and groaned. "And everyone else is going to see it as well. They'll all know I'm a cape. Or whatever I really am. That's going to be... more than a slight problem."

Standing up, she looked at herself in the mirror once more. She added to the list of weird things the fact that she looked, aside from the tail, entirely healthy, no signs at all of the injuries she was sure she'd incurred during her stay in that damn locker. Her skin was unmarked, not a blemish marring it. In fact…

Taylor held out an arm and flexed it, watching with astonishment the muscles moving under her skin. Reaching over with her other hand she felt her biceps wonderingly. She had actual muscles! Not enormous or grotesque, rather more like the physique of someone who swam or ran a lot, probably for years. Her slightly overweight middle from lack of exercise seemed to have vanished, being replaced by something perilously close to an actual six-pack.

Experimentally bending over she put her hands flat on the floor, keeping her legs straight, then easily resumed a normal standing position. Her flexibility seemed vastly improved as well. She noticed at this point something that should have been obvious earlier, which was that she wasn't wearing her glasses either. Nor, now that she thought about it, had she had any trouble wandering around without turning the lights on. The only illumination in the locker room came from the streetlights outside shining through the frosted glass of the small ceiling level and non-opening windows, the light not enough to do more normally than allow the panes themselves to be seen.

"Varga, why can I see so well now?" she asked curiously. "And why am I so… so toned? I look in better condition than that bitch Sophia."

" _The merger repaired any physical defects or injuries you had, Brain_ ," it replied. " _A Brain must be in peak condition, obviously_."

"And not being able to see in the dark is a defect?"

" _Yes_ ," the creature replied. " _You have many benefits from merging with me. My senses are hundreds of times better than your human ones. In your current form much of this improvement can't be realized but you will find that a certain amount is available_."

"Like being stronger, or something like that?"

" _Correct_."

Taylor wondered how strong she really was. She didn't notice any difference, although now that she considered the issue, she realized that she actually felt really good. None of the aches and pains that she'd had earlier, most of them from damage caused by Sophia's various attacks over the last few days, seemed to be bothering her any more.

Reaching up she absently went to adjust her glasses out of habit. She felt her face in wonder, before smiling a little. "No defects..." she mused. That could bear investigating later. Shaking her head she went over to the storage cupboard where the janitor kept all the cleaning supplies, including, she hoped, something to cover herself with. There were no towels lying around the locker room as she'd half-hoped there might be, all the students having either taken theirs home with them or put them in their own lockers. Reaching out she grabbed the door handle and twisted, before grimacing.

' _Locked. Of course it is. People around this place would steal anything if it wasn't nailed down or locked away._ ' Annoyed with herself and everyone who had made this entire situation happen she growled under her breath and twisted harder with irritated frustration, jumping a little when there was a metallic crunch and the knob turned, the door swinging open.

"What the hell...?" She peered at the metal knob, seeing to her amazement it now had distinct marks on it that corresponded to her fingers. She gaped once more. "How did I do that?"

" _Even in your normal form you are now much stronger, as I explained just now_ ," the Varga patiently informed her. " _It is a benefit of our merger. The last Brain I joined with was surprised by this as well. She found it useful_."

"Why do you keep calling me Brain, Varga?" she asked.

" _Because that is what you are. You provide the direction, I provide the body and power, when required. That is the bargain_."

"But what are you?" She looked back at her tail for a moment. "Aside from a voice in my head and a lizard's tail, I mean."

" _My nature is… difficult to explain_ ," the deep voice replied thoughtfully. " _Long, long ago, in the world of my origin, there was a battle between two forces. The winners called the losers Evil, and themselves Good. Whether either concept is accurate I do not know. I and my companions were great forces, they called us demons, controlled by both sides at one time or another, but mostly by the 'Evil' side. When they lost most of us were destroyed or locked away. We went from striding the worlds with all before us worshiping at our feet to… useful toys_."

It sounded rather sad about this.

" _A bargain was made between the ancestors of my last Brain and the so called forces of Good. I was sealed away, to be brought out to fight on their side if necessary, through a merger as has been created between us. Four times over many many years this happened. After the last time, when I was sealed away once more, I believe the secret of my existence was lost. Why I have been brought forth once again and to an entirely different plane of existence I do not know, but then the greater forces are always difficult to understand._ "

"A demon," she stated flatly.

" _Such is what we were called, yes_."

"OK, then." Taylor sighed deeply. "I don't just have a giant alien lizard living in my head, I have a giant alien lizard _demon_ living in my head. Just wonderful."

" _I expect our time together to be most interesting_ ," the Varga commented, somehow radiating a certain amount of amusement, which made her sigh again.

"And it's a comedian." Shaking her head, she quickly looked through the contents of the cupboard, finding nothing useful except a couple of large rolls of paper towel. Briefly contemplating one of these she looked doubtfully down at herself, then shook her head. ' _I'd look like The Mummy, that's going to stand out. And it probably wouldn't work anyway_.'

Irritated, she left the storage room and looked around again. _'Guess I could break into some lockers and look for clothes,_ ' she mused. ' _If I really am stronger now that should work_.'

 _"I can provide clothes, Brain_ ," the Varga commented mildly.

She stopped dead.

"Why the hell didn't you say so in the first place?" she shouted.

" _You didn't ask_." It sounded a little smug, making her sigh.

"Well, I'm asking now. Please give me some clothes, if it's not too much trouble," she replied with heavy sarcasm.

" _Of course_ ," it responded. There was a flicker of some peculiar energy around her for a fraction of a second, then she felt cloth covering her. Turning to the mirror she stared.

"What do you call this?" she asked slowly, looking down at herself.

" _Clothes, Brain, as you requested._ " The Varga's voice was amused. She wasn't.

Inspecting her reflection, she saw she was wearing some sort of light armor over her torso, a dark metal chest plate and back plate over a cloth backing which was surprisingly comfortable, with articulated shoulder pieces attached at the top. She could move her arms around freely despite the armor.

Lower down, she had boots, apparently made of leather of some kind, metal again armoring them, the entire thing being knee-length. Between these she had on a skirt that came down to about half-way down her thighs, more metal plates attached to the belt holding it up and providing protection to her groin, rear, and hips. Overall it looked more like something made for ceremonial use, rather than genuinely practical armor, although when she flicked the chest plate with her finger she found it made a sound that showed it was probably much tougher than it looked. She couldn't identify the metal, but thought it most likely wasn't steel of some sort as it seemed too light for that.

"Where on earth did you get this from?" she asked with a sigh, then remembered her dream again, which was obviously not actually a dream. Her current costume was a close approximation of what the blonde princess had worn.

" _My last Brain thought it was suitable attire_ ," the Varga told her. " _Is it not to your liking?_ "

"I haven't worn a skirt since I was about nine," she muttered, studying her appearance in the mirror. It was embarrassing, but she had to admit it was at least practical bearing in mind her tail. Pants might be difficult now she realized with a sinking heart.

" _I can change it if you wish_ ," her new companion mentioned. " _I can provide anything you require._ "

"Anything?" she asked curiously.

" _More accurately, almost anything. I cannot form complex machines without detailed knowledge of their inner workings,_ " it admitted, a little reluctantly. " _Simple constructions, weapons such as swords, those are easy. My last Brain used them a lot. You will find such skills of hers are available to you, although it will take practice to become proficient in their use._ "

Taylor froze, staring at herself in the mirror. "You mean I... inherited... her abilities?" This brought up all sorts of possibilities.

" _Yes, Brain. Not all her knowledge will be available to you but physical skills should be_."

"Oh, my god," she mumbled. After a few seconds of wild thought, she came back to the here and now with a shake of her head. "Too much to think about now."

Poking the armor again, she rubbing her finger on the breastplate curiously, wondering if it was actually bulletproof. "Where does it actually come from, though?" she asked. "I mean, do you have some sort of store room full of this sort of thing? Or did you just magic it up out of nothing?"

" _While incomplete, the second statement is closer to the truth,_ " the Varga told her with a sensation of mild amusement. " _What you call magic is simply a control over certain aspects of reality which is more malleable than most realize. We are very good at various techniques that match our natures._ " It paused, then added sadly, " _Or, rather, we were. I may be the last one left._ "

She frowned, the voice seemed depressed for a moment, which was understandable if it really was the last of its kind. She could understand loneliness all too well.

After a second or two, her guest resumed explaining. " _The space between worlds is filled with… something you don't have the terms to explain, but let's call it energy. It isn't, not in the way your mind knows the concept, but it's close enough. My kind can pull that '_ _ **energy**_ _' from outside reality and shape it into forms that are more useful. Such as your clothes, or a sword, or almost anything of that nature. With significant effort such things can be made permanent but are normally temporary then allowed to revert to their original form when no longer required_."

Somewhat suspiciously, based on this comment, Taylor asked, "Are you poking around in my mind to learn things?"

" _Of course, Brain. We are, after all, one. At a minimum I need to know your language_." Once again it sounded amused. She put her hands on her hips and stared at her reflection, somewhat annoyed yet also intrigued.

"Does that mean I get to look in your mind? It's only fair."

" _With time, yes. You have already benefited from access to certain knowledge, but I cannot simply connect both of us directly. Your mind is… not as large as mine. Or as old. If we connected like that at the current time I fear you would be overwhelmed and damaged severely._ " The Varga sounded genuinely regretful and a little worried. " _I do not wish that to happen_."

Thinking on the words of her new friend, Taylor considered the problems. She could see how a 'demon', whatever that really meant, with possibly thousands of years of experience quite outside her own could easily cause catastrophic damage if their minds joined completely. What would her own fifteen years and change of life be in all that? She'd get overwhelmed like a drop of water in a swimming pool of information.

"No, I think I don't want that to happen either, Varga," she mumbled, shivering for a second or two.

She looked around, then down at the floor, seeing bloody footprints leading from the door to the showers. She wondered whether she should do something about that. Following them back to the locker, she stared at it for some time, her hand over her nose to block the stench, which was a lot worse than she remembered. Obviously her sense of smell had been significantly enhanced as well. After a while she came to a decision and reached out to unlock the locker, opening the door and staring at the contents with a shiver of revulsion and remembrance. Her stomach threatened to rebel for a moment but she managed to bring it under control.

Heading for the arts department, she went in and looked around for a little while before she found what she was looking for. Picking up the battered digital camera which was all the school could apparently afford for their students to use, she checked the battery had a charge, then rummaged around in the cupboard next to where the camera was kept to find a memory card.

She erased it in the camera then headed back to her locker, spending a few minutes photographing the inside of it, including the bloody hand prints on the sides and back, as well as the footprints on the floor. She followed them to the locker room with the flash strobing brightly every few feet. When she'd finished, she returned the camera to its cupboard having removed the card which she kept.

Privately amazed at the calm way she was dealing with things she went back to the locker room and stared at the closet handle and the impressions in it, before cautiously reaching out, grabbing it, and heaving sideways. After some minor resistance the entire lock mechanism attached to the handle ripped out of the cheap wood, leaving a large splintered hole that looked like someone had gone at the door with a crowbar.

Taking the evidence with her, she headed towards the nearest phone, the one in the secretaries office. Luckily she didn't need to break into this room as it was unlocked. Soon she was listening to the phone at home ring.

"Dad?"

" _Taylor!? My god, where are you? Are you all right? What happened?_ " Her father sounded frantic and distressed. Choking back a sob she wiped her eyes, some of the recent events finally catching up with her.

"I'm at school," she said quietly. "Can you come and pick me up, please?" Her tears fell faster.

" _I'm leaving now,_ " he replied, sounds of someone quickly putting shoes and a coat on coming to her. " _Stay there, don't go anywhere. Are you OK?_ "

"Kind of," she told him with a half-laugh, half-sob. "I have a lot to tell you, but I need to do it at home. Don't let anyone know you're coming to get me, please."

" _The police have been looking for you for hours_ ," he protested. "I _'ll have to tell them_."

"No!" She thought frantically, glancing back at the end of her tail. "Not yet. Please, it's important."

The girl could almost feel her father's frustration over the phone. He sighed faintly, then said, " _All right. But you'd better have a good reason_."

"I think I do, Dad," she told him, suppressing an inappropriate giggle.

" _OK. I'll be there as soon as I can,_ " he replied. " _Stay put_."

Agreeing, she hung up, then slumped into the secretaries chair, finding that her tail made this a little uncomfortable, but eventually working out how to arrange it to allow her to sit. "He's going to go nuts," she mumbled. Checking the clock on the wall she saw it was nearly one AM. Eventually, after five minutes or so, she rose and wandered to the nearest exit, at the side of the school, looking out through the glass door into the night.

Peering out into the car park she watched as it began raining, the downpour steadily increasing until she could barely see the other side. Eventually, twenty minutes or so later, a set of headlights turned off the road into the car park, approaching as close to the school as possible. "I'm going to get soaked," she sighed, pushing the emergency release to open the door then stepping outside. A sudden weight across her shoulders made her look down to see with bemused appreciation she was now wearing a long cloak with a hood, again based on the one the blonde girl in her dream had used.

"Thanks," she said under her breath.

 _"You're welcome, Brain,_ " the Varga replied quietly. Shaking her head she ran through the rain towards the car, her father jumping out as she appeared in the dark, running around to hug her so hard she could hear the armor she'd almost forgotten she was wearing creak under the strain.

"Thank god, Taylor," he said, sounding very stressed and very relieved. "I've been so worried. No one knew where you were, the police said you'd probably run away, the school didn't know anything..." He shook his head, his eyes wide behind his own glasses.

A puzzled expression crossed his face. Pulling back a little he looked her up and down. "What on earth are you wearing?" he asked.

Taylor half-smiled. "It's part of the weird story I need to tell you," she said, wiping water from her face with one hand. "Let's get in the car. It's kind of wet."

Almost laughing, he reluctantly released his daughter, then opened the passenger door for her. She slid in, arranging her tail as best she could to allow her to sit, finding it difficult but possible with care. Putting on the seat belt she waited as he got in the other side, taking his glasses off and cleaning the rain off before replacing them and looking at her in the light of the interior lamp. "Where are your glasses?" he suddenly asked, looking both worried and curious.

"That's not important, Dad," she said honestly. "Let's go home and I can tell you what happened."

"Tell me now," he requested.

"If I do you'll be so angry you might have an accident," she replied firmly. He looked unconvinced, but she folded her arms and waited. Eventually, with a sigh, he shook his head and started the car, pulling his belt over his shoulder with one hand as he put the vehicle in drive with the other.

"You remind me of your mother so much sometimes," he grunted, sounding aggrieved yet also slightly amused. She smiled a little, saying nothing as he drove out of the car park onto the road and indicated left, soon heading home.

"It better be a damn good story," he said half-way there.

She sighed a little. "It's not good at all," she told him, not looking at him. "But it's a long one." Both of them fell silent again for the remainder of the journey.


	3. Explanations and Family

Once the front door was closed behind them, she fell into his arms, bursting into tears. He held her tightly with a lost expression on his face. "God, Dad, I should have told you a long time ago," she sobbed, letting the tight control over her emotions she'd somehow maintained since she found herself lying on the floor relax. "I'm sorry. I'm so sorry."

He patted her back slightly helplessly. "It can't be that bad, Taylor," he tried. She shook her head where it was pressed into his chest.

"It's worse than whatever you're thinking," she mumbled, sniffing hard. Eventually she recovered enough to look at his face. "You're going to hate me."

"I could never hate you, dear," he smiled. "Come on, sit down, and tell me what's going on." She could see in his eyes he was worried but putting on a brave face for her. There was more animation and engagement in his face than she'd seen for years.

' _How did we let it get so bad between us?_ ' she wondered tiredly. Following as he led the way into the living room, she sat on the sofa, still wrapped in the blue cloak she was wearing, moving her tail around until she was more or less comfortable. ' _This thing is a pain in the ass_ ,' she thought with irritation. ' _Literally_.'

Danny watched her, obviously puzzled not only about the presence of the cloak, but why she was clutching it so tightly, but said nothing, instead disappearing into the kitchen. She heard the sound of the kettle boiling a few minutes later, her father finally reappearing with a tray on which were two mugs, which her nose told her had hot chocolate in. He handed her one which she took with a trembling hand.

Sitting opposite her in his favorite chair, he studied her as she sipped the drink a couple of times. His eyes were troubled but there was resolve there, a look she hadn't seen directed her way for longer than she liked to consider. "Tell me," he finally said, taking a drink from his own mug, before putting it on the coffee table.

She was silent for a little while, trying to work out how to start, and having a lot of difficulty overcoming the reserve over the entire matter that close to two years of bullying had enforced. Eventually she sighed. "You remember when I came back from Nature Camp a couple of years ago?"

He nodded silently.

"It all went wrong then. I still don't know why, but it's been getting steadily worse for months and months. Tonight was... tonight was the worst yet." She looked up from where she was studying her mug. "Dad, I can't go back there."

"To school?" he asked.

She nodded. "Not to Winslow. Never again. I'm never going to walk through those doors again."

Taking a deep breath, she started talking. She told him everything. About Emma, her former best friend, now someone who seemed to delight in torturing her. About Sophia, the school track star who seemed unable to do wrong in the eyes of the school. About Madison, the simpering little follower who took every opportunity to cause her pain.

She noticed early on that his grip on the arms of the chair was so hard that his fingers were going white and she could hear a creaking sound. His face had paled in the depths of a profound anger, not aimed at her, but at people who should have stopped all this. He said nothing, simply listened with his full attention.

Taylor kept talking in a low voice, finally reaching the events that had left her locked knee-deep in a biohazard-filled locker in an empty school. If anything he went even paler. She could hear his teeth grinding together.

As she was describing in halting words how she had tried to escape, banging and calling for help, he held up a trembling hand. "Excuse me for a moment," he said in a quiet, dangerous voice. She watched as he stood, went into the hall, then opened the door to the basement. He disappeared through it, closing it softly behind him. There was a long pause.

"GODDAM FUCKING VICIOUS FUCKING BASTARDS, I'M GOING TO KILL THEM ALL!" The roar of sheer fury from beneath the floor made her jump. Wood splintered as something was either hit or kicked. The swearing continued at a lower volume for some time, until it finally fell silent. Another long pause and the door opened again, Danny reappearing and taking his seat again, rubbing his right hand which was looking a little the worse for wear. "I'm sorry, Taylor. Please go on."

Staring at him with wide eyes, she finally shook her head a little and continued her story. "It gets kind of weird for the next part," she said softly. He looked at her curiously and made a motion to continue. With a deep breath, she did so. Her father listened without comment until she stopped talking nearly a quarter of an hour later.

They looked at each other for some time when she eventually finished. When he said nothing, she reached out with the hand that wasn't still holding the now cold mug, dropping the section of door she had brought with her onto the coffee table with a clunk. "We need to get rid of this," she told him. He stared, then reached out and retrieved it, inspecting the dented doorknob with raised eyebrows.

"You did this with your bare hands?" he asked with impressed astonishment.

Taylor nodded. "Yes. It wasn't too hard either." After a moment, she put the empty mug down, sighed a little, then stood, letting go of the cloak and showing him what she looked like without it. He stared again. Turning a little she waved her tail at him. "And, of course, I have this thing now." Embarrassed she looked at the floor.

A few seconds later, he stood, approached her, then held her again. "It doesn't matter. You're still my daughter, tail or no tail."

Sniffing again as more tears threatened to make an appearance, she smiled. "Thanks, Dad."

"So you're a cape, now?" he asked, sounding worried.

She shrugged helplessly. "Yes? I think? But I'm not sure I'm a normal one." As he released her and stepped back, she began pacing up and down the living room, not really noticing how she managed to turn without her tail hitting anything, although Danny did with interest. "I mean, from what Varga says, the whole thing is kind of strange. He comes from a completely different world, for a start. I doubt very much that normal capes get their powers from a huge alien whatever!" She smiled as he nodded thoughtfully.

"I sort of learned some of the history of the last Brain, in a kind of dream, or more like a vision, I guess. That girl, she was a princess of a small kingdom somewhere on whatever world she lived on. This is the sort of thing she wore." Taylor gestured down at the armored outfit she was wearing. "It's embarrassing but at least it doesn't interfere with my tail."

Her father studied her again. He smiled a little. "To be honest, Taylor, it actually looks pretty good on you." Stopping in surprise she stared at him.

"Really?"

"Really. Your mother would have liked it, I think."

After a few seconds, she shook her head and resumed pacing. "When that thing, whatever it was, asked me if I was seeking power, maybe I should have said no. This is going to change my life, and yours, a hell of a lot, whatever else happens."

"If you had turned it down, what would have happened?" he asked.

She stopped again, turning to him, then thought. "I don't know," she finally admitted in a small voice.

"Is it possible that you would have found yourself back in that damn locker?"

There was a long pause as her face fell. "I guess so."

They looked at each other. "I think you made the right choice. Maybe it's selfish of me, but I don't want to lose you, so..." Danny smiled at his daughter. "You're alive and well. Everything else we can deal with."

Sighing, Taylor sat again, muttering to herself in annoyance as she wriggled around to free her tail from under her. "This thing is in the way so much," she grumbled. Both of them contemplated the tip of it where she laid it across her feet.

"You're sure that… Varga? can't do anything about it?"

She shook her head. "He says that I'm stuck with it. This is as close to normal as I can get, from what he tells me."

Leaning back in his chair her father considered the problem for a while. Eventually he said, "It's too late for me to be able to think properly. OK. This is what we're going to do. You are going to go to bed, and sleep as long as you need to. I am going to do the same. In the morning, I'll call the police and let them know you turned up, then call the school and tell them that I'm pulling you out of it. You're right, there's no way you can go back. Even without that tail, I wouldn't let you, not with what you've told me. Then, we're going to work out what we do next."

Taylor closed her eyes for a moment in relief. He accepted her changes and seemed all right with them and was going to help. It was a far better outcome than she'd expected. Looking at him again she felt like she was seeing the father she remembered from years ago, the decisive one from before her mother died. "Thanks, Dad."

"One more thing, while I think of it," he added after a moment. "You said you have evidence of what has been going on?"

She nodded. "Logs of what they did and when they did it, printouts of emails, everything I could think of, I kept."

"Good. I'll want to see that before we take this any further."

"But what can we do?" she asked in despair. "No one has ever paid any attention to me before, even when it happened. And look at me." She waved a hand over herself. "Leaving aside the obvious, there isn't a mark on me. No evidence that anything happened, aside from that locker full of crap. Which I'm probably going to get blamed for in the first place, assuming that they don't just clean it up then deny everything."

He frowned a little, thinking. "It's difficult, I'll admit, but..." Trailing off he pondered the issue. "Don't worry too much right now." Moving to sit beside her on the sofa he put his arm around her shoulders. "I'm so relieved you're all right, Taylor," he said softly, holding her tightly. "When you didn't come home… I thought I was going to lose my mind."

"I'm sorry, Dad. I wish I'd told you a long time ago." She stared at the floor. "But I was embarrassed by it, at first. I should have been able to handle it. And the longer I went without saying anything, the harder it got to talk about it."

He sighed, nodding. "I do understand, believe me. I didn't help, either. I know we haven't been as close since your mother died, we've drifted apart. I'm so sorry for that. If I'd paid more attention..." Shaking his head slowly, he sighed again faintly in sorrow. "I promise that changes here and now. You're the most important person in my life and I should show it more."

Squeezing her, he smiled at her. "We'll work it out, somehow. The important thing is that you're OK. Go to bed and try to sleep."

He watched as she smiled at him, then got up and headed up to her bedroom.

"God, Annette, I wish you were here," he muttered as he picked up the empty mugs and took them into the kitchen, putting them in the sink. "You were so much smarter than me. Maybe you could see how to make all this work."

After a moment's regretful remembrance, he headed up the stairs, turning out the light on the way.

* * *

In her room, Taylor looked out the window for a while, without turning the light on. She was still amazed by the way everything was as clearly visible as if it was daylight even though she could still easily make out the stars where the clouds were clearing after the earlier rain. More stars than she'd ever seen, in fact, and she found it interesting that they seemed to all be different colors now rather than the normal blue-white they'd looked the rest of her life. Staring up for a few minutes, she blinked at a couple of meteors flashing past, not having ever seen anything like that before, before she pulled the curtains closed and turned to her bed.

Walking across the room she stood in front of the mirror on her closet door, inspecting herself, then fumbled with the unfamiliar fastenings on the armor she was wearing, before sighing in realization. ' _Varga, can you get rid of this for me, please_?' she requested silently. There was a similar peculiar flickering effect to the one that had accompanied the appearance of the clothing in the locker room and it all disappeared once more, leaving her naked again. ' _Thanks_.'

" _You're welcome, Brain,_ " the silent voice of the entity she was apparently irrevocably joined with sounded in her mind.

' _Are you and I really stuck with each other forever?_ ' she asked after a moment.

" _The merger will only end with your death_ ," the Varga told her. " _Something that will be quite difficult to arrange, now, as the merger makes you very hard to kill indeed. Not impossible, though, I would advise keeping that in mind. But my last Brain lived for a long time and survived many things that would kill a normal human instantly._ "

"Do you miss her?" Taylor asked out loud in a low voice. The Varga was silent for some time.

" _Yes, I do,_ " it finally confirmed quietly. " _She was a good Brain and a good friend. But she lived a remarkably long and happy life, on the whole, so I think she found the arrangement satisfactory._ "

Taylor was quiet for a little while, as was the Varga. Eventually she shook her head tiredly. "Dad's right, I need some sleep before I can try to make any sense of this." Looking down at herself then at her pajamas which were folded on the bed, she shook her head for a moment. Pulling on the top, she held up the bottoms and inspected them. "Hey, can you make something like this which will fit me?" she asked curiously.

" _Yes, Brain,_ " the Varga replied, the by-now familiar sparkle surrounding her legs for a fraction of a second. She lifted a leg and studied the cloth covering it with impressed approval. Looking behind herself she saw there was a short sleeve covering the base of her tail and allowing it to protrude.

Satisfied for the moment, suddenly exhausted as everything caught up at once, Taylor yawned widely, then turned to her bed, climbing under the covers and arranging herself with a little more effort than normal due to her new limb, before quickly dropping off to sleep.

She dreamed of blonde princesses, giant lizards, and annoying wizards which both the princesses and the lizards enjoyed stepping on, repeatedly.

* * *

" _Sure thing, Danny, take as long as you need. We can fill in here for you, there's nothing serious happening at the moment anyway. Say hi to Taylor for me, will you?_ "

"Thanks, Kurt, and I will do," Danny said, smiling, then said his goodbyes to his old friend and colleague, putting the phone down. It was half past six in the morning, a little earlier than his normal time to rise and go to work. He turned at the sound of a series of thumps followed by a loud clunk and some muttering, going into the hallway to see his pajama-clad daughter lying on the floor at the bottom of the stairs looking irritated and slightly pained, tangled up in herself in an amusing way. Leaning on the doorway he raised an eyebrow.

"Are you all right, Taylor?" he asked, trying not to laugh as she straightened herself out and climbed to her feet.

She sighed, nodding. "Yes, Dad." Rubbing her elbow she muttered something rude.

"What happened?"

The girl gave him an embarrassed look. "I tripped over my tail," she grumbled. He started laughing. "It's not funny!" she exclaimed, hands on hips and giving him a look that was pure Annette, which made him laugh harder. "This thing is a nuisance like you wouldn't believe. I keep forgetting it's there and then things go weird." Bringing the end of it around into her view she scowled at the appendage which was protruding through an apparently tailored opening in her night clothes, which Danny guessed had been provided by the Varga in the same manner as the armor she'd been wearing when he picked her up had.

"You were handling it OK last night," he remarked as he turned back into the kitchen, his daughter following him and still scowling a little.

"I know, it's strange, but at the time it hadn't really sunk in, I think," she sighed as she watched him prepare breakfast for both of them. "Now half the time I don't remember it's there until I knock something over and the other half the time I can't stop noticing it." After a moment, she smiled a little. "Although I did work out one thing it's good for."

"Which is?" he asked over his shoulder. She grinned, then arranged the muscular tail on the floor behind herself, leaning back until she was propped up by it in a somewhat strange-looking position, like someone sitting on an invisible chair.

"Tada! No chair needed, see?" She waved her hands around, laughing a little. He snickered, going back to the omelet he was cooking.

"I'm sure that's a real benefit most capes will never enjoy," he commented, making her laugh again.

"Maybe."

Flipping the omelet onto a plate he handed it to her, then poured some more egg mix into the frying pan to begin one for himself. She accepted the plate and moved to the table, looking at the chair there for a moment before shrugging, moving it to the side, then sitting on her own tail again. He watched for a second or two, smiled, then diced some ham into the pan.

"How are you feeling this morning?" he asked as he put his own food on another plate then joined her at the table, pouring himself a cup of coffee from the pot he'd prepared before making the phone call.

Taylor chewed silently for a few seconds, apparently considering the question carefully. Finally she replied, "Confused. Angry, too, and sort of… resigned, maybe?" She thought some more, then added quietly, "Relieved, as well. About the fact that I can talk to you about this, I mean." She looked at him, then dropped her eyes. "I shouldn't have hidden it for so long."

Reaching across the table he squeezed her hand for a moment. "I wish you'd told me earlier but I do actually understand why you didn't," he said gently. "Believe me, I do. Embarrassment is a powerful motive. And I know I haven't been the easiest person to live with since..." They both fell silent, remembering.

Eventually he shook himself, going back to eating. "Never mind. That's in the past. Right now, we have to think of the future. I've arranged to take a few days off, I'm owed a fair bit of holiday time aside from anything else. We need to work out what our next step is."

Pointing at her with a fork, he ticked several things off an invisible list. "You need to finish your schooling, that's one thing. But you're not doing it at Winslow. We need to figure out more about your abilities and work out what you're going to do with them, that's another thing. And, of course, we need to work out what to to about those three horrible girls, the staff who are complicit in their actions, and anyone else who might have been able to stop it but didn't."

Taylor nodded silently, finishing her breakfast. He pondered the matter while he did likewise. Eventually, when they both finished, the table was cleared and the pair went into the living room, Danny with another cup of coffee and his daughter sipping a glass of orange juice.

"OK." Danny sat in his favorite chair, studying Taylor who was standing looking out the window with a faraway look on her face. "First, can you get me the evidence you have about all of this? I need to look at it before we can do anything else." She blinked a little then nodded, padding out of the room and going upstairs. He sipped his coffee while he waited for her to return and thought hard thoughts. 'No one gets away with doing this to my daughter,' he mused, gripping his mug nearly hard enough to break it.


	4. Exposition and Plots

Piling her notebooks into a neat stack next to where she was kneeling down, Taylor closed the closet door, having replaced the loose floorboard in the bottom of it where she'd hidden them. Flipping through the top one for a moment she looked at the entries in it, then at the printouts of various emails she'd received which were tucked into it. Sighing she stood up, before remembering something. Looking around she found the memory card on her desk where she'd dropped it the night before. She added it to the pile, then headed back downstairs.

"This is all of it, Dad," she said, putting the stack of paperwork on the coffee table next to his chair. He stared, then looked at her face.

"Good grief," he mumbled. " _All_ of that?"

"Yep. Emails, notes I wrote when I got home every day, all of it. And this." She held up the memory card, explaining what she'd done the night before.

"Very clever, Taylor," he smiled. "That was good thinking."

"I just thought that they might erase all the evidence and then we'd have absolutely nothing, since I don't have any injuries," she shrugged. "I remembered an episode of ' _CSI_ ', then thought of the camera. At least we have proof of what happened. I even made sure to take some close up pictures of my..." She swallowed at the memory and tried again. "...My bloody handprints. On the inside of the locker. I bet my fingerprints are readable from the photos."

As she talked she felt tears come to her eyes again when it brought the previous night back to her in a rush. Jumping to his feet Danny hugged her. "Sorry, Dad. I thought I was keeping to together but every time I remember..." Taylor smiled a little at him. Reaching out he wiped the tears from one eye.

"Don't worry, Taylor. Frankly, I'm amazed that you're not hiding under your bedclothes and shaking." He half-grinned, half-grimaced. "I probably would have been under the same circumstances. You're a much stronger person than you think you are. That experience was enough to break almost anyone."

"I think the Varga did something to make me calmer than I would normally be," she admitted. "I was a wreck when I finally passed out. Since I woke up, though, I can look back on it without as much trouble as I probably should have, but even so I don't like thinking about it."

"Fixing your emotional damage was as important as fixing the physical damage, Brain," the Varga told her, unprompted. "Not all of the damage could be removed but the worst of it should be better now. It will improve with time."

She nodded, smiling slightly, then passed on the information.

"Thank him for me, will you?" Danny said, looking relieved.

She nodded, then grinned a little at the response from the Varga. "The voice in my head says you're welcome."

Releasing her he sat again, while she lay down on the sofa, staring at the ceiling. "Let me look through this, all right?"

"OK, Dad," she replied, closing her eyes while listening to him turn pages. She could hear intermittent faint growls of anger and something that sounded a lot like teeth grinding, but didn't look.

Silently, she asked her head-companion, ' _Is there any way to remove this tail? It's going to make hiding what I am impossible and I'm worried that it will put Dad at risk too_.'

" _I'm sorry, Brain_ ," the Varga replied after a moment, sounding genuinely remorseful. " _But as I said the first time, your current form is now your normal one. I know of no way to remove it._ " It fell silent for a few seconds, before continuing slowly, " _However..._ "

' _However?_ ' she prompted curiously, when it went quiet again.

" _There may be a way to conceal your current form,_ " it finally responded. " _If I can remember how it works. The magic is fairly simple but not the sort I normally use. It was three Brains ago, but there was a technique we encountered..._ " Once again it stopped talking, giving the impression of thinking hard.

A noise from her father made her turn her head and look at him, to see him staring at one page of her notes with a pale face and his hands shaking with rage. "Dad?" she asked tentatively, worried.

"Annette's flute?" he asked in a level tone, obviously only possible due to extreme self control. She winced, flushing with anger herself.

"Yes. Sorry, Dad. I shouldn't have taken it to school." Taylor was embarrassed, furious with both herself and The Bitches Three, and worried that her father would over-react to the loss of one of the most treasured mementos of their lost mother and wife.

He looked at her for a few seconds until he sighed heavily, leaning his head back in his chair for a while. "I… am not happy about that," he eventually said. "I don't blame _you_ , though, so don't worry."

After a little time spent staring at the ceiling he resumed reading the documents, finishing nearly half an hour later. Closing the last notebook he put it on the pile of similar ones next to him on the table, he shook his head in mystified anger. "What the hell is the school thinking, allowing all this to happen to a student they're responsible for? It's a total abdication of their duty."

Taylor, still lying on the sofa, shrugged helplessly. "I have no idea. I'm certain that at least some of the teachers know it was happening. I mean, I've _seen_ them watch Emma and Sophia do something horrible, then just turn around and walk away. I can almost understand the students, Sophia is a terrible violent bitch that no one with a brain wants to mess with if they can avoid it, but the teachers…?"

"You reported it, though, right?"

"At first," she nodded, rubbing her forehead. "Every time I did, the bitches stepped up their retaliation, and the teachers did nothing, so in the end I gave up. It was easier and safer." Sighing, she looked at her father again, who was watching her with a gaze mixing anger and sympathy. "I hoped that one day they'd get bored and move on or something, I guess. But they never did. And anyway, who was going to listen to _me_? One ugly unpopular girl up against the track star, the beautiful popular rich girl, and the nearly as popular cute one?" She emitted a nasty half-laugh.

"I mean, I've _seen_ that TV show. It never ends well for the ugly one. Either something terrible happens to them, or they snap, start killing everyone, and _then_ something terrible happens to them." Draping one arm over her eye she tried to hold off the wave of sadness, anger, and fear that remembering the last year or more produced.

There was silence for a moment then she heard steps cross the room, and felt a gentle hand rest on her head. She moved her arm a little to see her father looking down at her. "Taylor, don't ever think you're ugly. Trust me, you're not." She raised a skeptical eyebrow making him smile. "OK, Emma is more… developed… than you are, but think about Annette for a moment. When she was your age she was a tall skinny slightly ungainly young woman, right up until she wasn't. People don't mature at the same rate. You're a pretty girl and I think in the long run you'll be a beautiful one."

"You have to say that, you're my Dad," she sniffed, feeling tears threaten to come on, this time not quite from sadness.

He grinned. "True. Did it work?"

Despite herself she grinned back, moving her arm away from her face. "Kind of. Thanks." After a few seconds, she asked a little tentatively, "Do you really think I'm pretty?"

"Of course, especially when you're happy," he assured her. "That said, remember looks aren't everything, it's more the person inside that counts in the long run. Though if you don't believe me you should look through some of your mom's old yearbooks if you want proof. You look remarkably like her at the same age, although she didn't wear glasses."

"I don't need them, now," she replied. Smiling a little, she added, "One of the good things that came of all this crap." Shaking her head a bit she sat up on the sofa, arranging her tail without thinking much about it. "What are we going to do now, though?"

Getting up he went to the phone. "First step, I'll call the police and let them know you're safe. Better to do that now. Then we can work out what the _next_ step is." Dialing, he waited, then said, "Officer Michelson, please. It's Danny Hebert."

She listened quietly as he had a short conversation with whoever Officer Michelson was, before putting the phone down again and turning to her. "OK. They're not looking for you any more. As you heard I just told them that some bullies upset you so much you didn't come home until you calmed down. Sorry, I know it's not true, but it was the quickest way to get them to stop looking while still leaving a possible opening later."

"I don't mind, Dad," she replied quietly.

"All right, that's that done. Now, the next problem is the school. Hmm… Let's see."

Pacing back and forth in the middle of the room, Danny thought, while Taylor watched him. Once or twice he stopped, then shook his head and resumed pacing. She was familiar with this behavior, he'd always claimed it helped him think, although it had driven her mother nuts. Smiling a little to herself she waited.

" _Ah. I remember,_ " the Varga suddenly said, making her twitch a little.

' _Remember what?_ ' she asked silently, not wanting to bother her father while he thought.

" _The technique I was thinking about. The Assassin's Cloak. I believe with some modifications it may prove useful._ "

' _What does it do?_ ' Taylor was intrigued.

" _It's meant to be a form of perceptual illusion, originally intended as an assassination aid. But I think I can modify it to hide your tail._ " She raised an eyebrow as it spoke. " _Note that this doesn't actually mean it's not there, merely that most people, hopefully everyone, would be unable to perceive it in any meaningful way. The way it works would cause it to be essentially invisible and to make anyone who noticed it indirectly, for instance if you hit a chair with it, to either ignore it completely or come up with some rationalization for the effect they noticed. It was very effective for the original users, they completed a large number of kills with the victim never knowing they were there until it was far too late._ "

' _That's… kind of creepy,_ ' she replied with a shiver. There was the mental equivalent of a shrug.

" _Assassination was a common tool among the humans on my original world. I would be surprised to find it is any different on this one. It is, after all, a very effective solution to certain classes of problem if done correctly._ "

' _Still, it's not a nice thing to think about_.' She pondered the idea for a moment then shivered, dismissing it. ' _Will this magic work on cameras? There are a lot of them around, unlike in your world as far as I can tell_ _from what I've learned._ '

The Varga was silent for a second or two. " _That… is a good question. I'm not sure. I think it will work but without testing it there's no way to be certain. However, with a few more modifications to the spell..._ " He trailed off thoughtfully. Taylor waited, watching her father pace back and forth having some sort of internal dialogue judging by his expression, until her invisible compatriot seemed to come back to her. " _I believe this modification will work against any form of mechanical vision. We will need to test it to be completely certain though. Until we can do that I would suggest staying out of areas you know have any form of machines watching them._ "

' _That's going to limit it_ ,' she sighed mentally. ' _Everywhere has cameras these days. But let's try it._ '

" _I will apply the spell and we can see what happens,_ " the Varga told her. " _You will probably sense something a little unusual, don't worry about it. With time I expect you will be able to develop a certain proficiency with magic yourself, or at least my form of it, but for the moment I will handle that side of things._ "

Nodding, she waited, until there was an odd, not-quite-tingling sensation that seemed to begin right in the center of her head and radiate outwards, ending up running down her spine to the end of her tail. "That's… weird", she mumbled out loud, causing Danny to stop pacing and look quizzically at her.

"What's weird, Taylor?" he asked curiously. She shrugged, not sure how to explain it. Suddenly, his eyes widened, as he looked more carefully at her.

"Haaang on," he said very slowly, looking her up and down. "Something's… different."

With a smile she stood up, still watching him. He studied her for several seconds. "What's different, Dad?" She turned on the spot, ending up back facing him.

Danny's face went through a number of interesting expressions, ending up very thoughtful with a slight wince. Raising his hand he rubbed his forehead a bit, turning his head to stare at her out of the corner of his eye. "Tail," he finally said. "You have a tail, but I can't see it properly any more. What happened? It's like something is trying to make me forget about it." He blinked furiously and rubbed his eyes, then stared some more. "When I look right at you I can't see it at all but I get hints out of the corner of my eye if I look somewhere else."

Grinning, she laughed delightedly. "It works! Wow, Varga, that's incredible."

Squinting now, her father was beginning to look like he was developing a migraine. "What did it do?"

"He, Dad. And he made a sort of magic to hide my tail." Taylor was both impressed and pleased, although a little concerned about the way it seemed to be affecting her father. "Hey, Varga, why is Dad having so much trouble? Is everyone going to react like that?" She spoke out loud for the benefit of Danny.

" _Your father already knows about your tail and the magic is conflicting with that pre-existing knowledge, Brain. It won't have the same effect on people who don't already know about it. His reaction does prove it works, though._ " Taylor passed the answer on to her father who had looked away and was now massaging his forehead with his eyes shut.

"Can he make it not hurt so much, please?" Danny requested in a pained voice.

" _I'll modify the spell to exclude your father._ " Responding to her father's question without being asked, the Varga's voice sounded amused. " _There. That should fix the problem._ "

"Try looking again, Dad," she suggested. "He says he's fixed it." Danny, slightly reluctantly, did so then sighed in relief.

"That was… unnerving," he slowly said. "My mind was sure there was something wrong by my eyes were saying everything was fine." Shaking his head in wonder he looked hard at her, blinked a couple of times, then nodded. "It's OK now."

Taylor smiled, pleased.

"That was real magic, then?" he asked curiously.

"That's what he said," she assured her father. She explained what the great creature had told her about the magic. When she was finished he stared at her with a weird smile.

"A genuine SEP field. I never thought I'd see one."

Taylor looked confused. "SEP field?" she queried doubtfully.

Danny sighed in a good-natured way, shaking his head. "Kids these days. They haven't read the classics."

She put her hands on her hips and gave him a look, the tip of her tail twitching irritably. "Explain, Dad. And I've read a lot of classics. _Ulysses_ , _War and Peace_ , _Anne of Green Gables_ , you know that. Mom was always giving me books to read."

"Ah," he smiled. "Those are all good books. But, they're not _The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy_ , are they? I mean, _War and Peace_ is a classic but it doesn't have a lot of laughs."

Now somewhat amused, remembering the way her parents used to argue over Danny's love of science fiction versus Annette's love of nineteenth century literature, she keep looking at him expectantly. Eventually he gave in, grinning a little.

"SEP. Somebody Else's Problem. Douglas Adams came up with it for his book. The idea was it was a type of machine that would make people ignore something obvious if you made it look unusual then turned the SEP on. Everyone would assume it was something someone else should be concerned about rather than them then ignore it as a result, no matter how peculiar that made life. The example was hiding a mountain by painting it bright pink then putting an SEP field around it."

She stared, then giggled. "That's completely ridiculous, Dad."

"But funny."

" _Also not an entirely incorrect description of the assassin's cloak technique, in fact,_ " the Varga put in, chuckling in her head, which was an odd sensation. She passed the message on which made Danny grin again.

"Anyway, whatever you call it, it could be very useful. We'll need to test it with cameras, though, or you're right, it will be of limited use in many places." Thinking for a moment, he suggested, "Do we still have that crappy little digital snapshot camera your mother bought years back?"

After considering the question, Taylor nodded a little doubtfully. "I think it was in a box of stuff in the basement, at the back. I remember seeing it about two years ago but I haven't looked at that stuff since."

"Go and see if you can find it and we can do a quick test," he advised. Wincing, he added, "I need an aspirin and another cup of coffee while you do that. My head still hurts."

With a nod she headed for the door to the basement, turning on the light and descending the stairs. It took close to half an hour but she finally emerged dusty yet triumphant, holding the latest in technology from two thousand and six, or in other words, a completely obsolete piece of junk by modern standards. Looking at it she popped open the battery compartment, shaking out four extremely dead AA cells. "Do we have any fresh batteries, Dad?" she asked as Danny came over to look at it.

"In the drawer in the kitchen, there should be a pack of them," he replied. Shortly she was installing the new batteries. Prodding the power button made the camera beep and extend its lens with a slightly protesting whirr. "Good, it still works," Danny smiled, taking it from her. "OK. Stand there, side on."

Holding it up he looked at the tiny LCD screen on the back, then over the camera at her. "That's not bad at all. I can't see your tail on the display but I can with my eyes. This might actually work." Snapping a couple of stills he looked at the results, nodding with satisfaction. "Nothing. It seems to block at least this type of technology."

"But that thing is ancient, though. Will it work with newer cameras?" Taylor asked, peering past his shoulder at the camera display. Danny held it out a little so she could see it better.

He shrugged. "I'm not sure. I have no idea how they work in the first place. But it's good enough to let us know we have a possible solution." Handing her the device he thought for a moment. "I can borrow a newer camera from one of the guys at work, he's into photography as a hobby. Not very good at it but he has several cameras, he's always picking them up from pawn shops." Rubbing his chin, he added after a second or two, "And, thinking about it, I can probably get a thermal camera as well. I know there's one in the electrical department, they use it to look for hot spots in wiring."

"That should cover most things," she agreed.

Sitting down again, she put the camera next to her having turned it off, then asked, "This changes things, doesn't it? I mean, if everyone could see my tail, there was no way to hide the fact that I'm a cape of some sort. But now, with any luck, it might be possible to keep it a secret. That should give more options."

Danny resumed his seat in his chair, looking thoughtful. Eventually he nodded. "Yes, you're right. I have to admit I was very worried about what we would do next. The obvious course of action would be going to the PRT and the Wards. But..." He trailed off, looking a little dubious.

"But?" she prompted, curious.

"But, I'm not entirely sold on that idea, I have to admit." He sighed heavily, looking at her for a few seconds without saying anything. "I was always scared you might end up a cape. It wasn't a very likely thing but in our world it's obviously not impossible. I have to say that the idea terrified me. Annette and I talked about it a couple of times, years ago, trying to decide what we'd do if that ever happened."

"Really?" she asked, surprised.

He nodded slowly. "When you're a parent, you worry about things that might affect your child, even if they're very unlikely. You can't help it. Trust me, you end up with a lot of sleepless nights making contingency plans, even if you're pretty sure that they'll never be needed. Your mother knew a couple of capes, you know, and she looked into the whole thing quite a lot, mainly out of interest." Shaking his head his expression became even more troubled.

"It's not a safe lifestyle at all. New capes, especially younger ones, have an appallingly short life expectancy. Not to mention there are about three to four times as many who end up on the other side of the law than become what everyone calls heroes. From what I remember, a lot of the time that's not from choice. Annette was pretty convinced that the PRT, or what she called the Public Relations Team, was at fault for much of that sort of thing. She didn't trust them."

"Why not?" Taylor asked, surprised. "They're the ones fighting the villains, aren't they? Without them the country would be much worse than it is."

Danny gave her a very small shrug. "That's certainly what they want you to believe and I guess it's probably true for the most part. But, when you read some of the background to the more high profile cases that have happened over the years, you can see that there's a very strong political motive in a lot of them that benefits the PRT and the Protectorate in general. Maybe I've been involved in local politics and dealing with nearly desperate people for too long and I've got cynical in my old age, but..." He sighed slightly. "Over the years I've come to the conclusion she had a point. I don't trust them completely, I have to admit. I think if it came to your well being on one hand and the PRT's reputation on the other, for an example, they'd toss you under the bus without any regret."

He sighed a little, while Taylor listened. "OK, I know it's unlikely that something like that would come up but even so I wouldn't dive into a relationship with the Wards without being _very_ careful about reading all the documentation first. Based on the sheer marketing around the whole thing it's pretty obvious that their motives aren't simply helping keep people safe from parahuman crime. It's murkier than that."

After a moment, when he fell silent, she nodded. "I think I understand, Dad." Suddenly smiling at him, she added when he looked puzzled at her abrupt good mood, "I'm still really happy that we can talk like this after so long with both of us just… existing." Getting up and going over to him, she bent down and hugged him hard with little warning, giggling when he grunted a little, before putting his hand on her head and stroking her hair. "I'm glad you're back. I missed this Dad."

He looked a little surprised, then regretful and guilty. "I'm sorry, Taylor. I know I've been handling things wrong for a long time, but I swear to you, from now on, my first priority is you." Putting his arms around her he returned the hug.

Straightening up she released him, then sat down again in her previous spot. "OK, then, you're not sold on the wards. That's good, I don't really want to do that either," she admitted. "I was thinking about it when I woke up and I just can't see myself with them. I mean, it would be nice to have friends you could depend on, and I suppose that might happen, but if it didn't? I always thought Emma was by best friend forever and look how that turned out." She shivered as Danny watched her sympathetically. "It would be worse if it was a bunch of teenagers with superpowers. Emma and Sophia are bad enough, without that advantage."

"You'll find new friends sooner or later," he replied when she stopped speaking, an expression of sorrow on his face. "But one thing you have to realize, one thing that everyone finds out as they grow up, is that people change. Sometimes they can change enough that they turn on you. It's not your fault Emma has become this horrible person, you didn't cause it. You might never find out why it happened. Unfortunately all we can do is deal with it and move on." He looked depressed again, alarming her, but seemed to deliberately pull himself out of it.

"I hope Alan isn't aware of what his daughter is doing, but even if he isn't, he'll probably take her side at least publicly. His first priority will be to family, any father would think like that."

Taylor smirked at him, sudden good humor filling her. She'd been feeling weirdly good since she got up, partly because the presence of the Varga in her mind had somehow given a definite boost to her confidence, and partly because she suddenly seemed to have the father she remembered back again against all odds. "Will you protect me against the world, Dad?" she joked.

Inspecting her for a moment, Danny smiled back. "Of course. Although as a cape your duty will be to protect _me,_ you realize? I'm just a poor normal person while you're the one with superpowers."

They shared a laugh, before he got up and resumed his thinking and pacing. She relaxed on the sofa again and watched him. Eventually he stopped again, turning to her. "How much do you care about those girls getting what's coming to them?" he asked slowly. Sitting up, she stared at him, then considered the question carefully. "What I mean is, I can see two possible paths at the moment, one which gets you out of the situation, the other one does that and, hopefully, sticks it to them pretty hard. But, the problem with the second one is that you'd have to go back to school."

At her alarmed and worried expression, he held up his hand. "No, not permanently, and I know you said you never would. I agree with that. But it would be needed for this to work."

Taylor regarded him doubtfully for a moment then said, "You need to explain it more, Dad."

"OK. Path one, I call the school, shout at your idiot of a principal for a while to make me feel better about it, get her to send your paperwork over, then pull you out of school. We find an alternative method of schooling for you after that. It would probably have to be home schooling at least for the rest of the year, although I'd prefer getting you into Arcadia. We might be able to use the fact that you were headed there before going to Winslow to get them to talk to us, we might not. I know a few people who might be able to help as well."

He sat beside her on the sofa and took her hand in his. "It's not that I don't think you have the discipline and intelligence to do well at home schooling, dear, please understand that. But it's important for a teenager to have friends her own age and not end up a hermit in her room." She stared at him, then smiled.

"I understand, Dad, I think."

"I'm sure you do," he grinned. "You're like your mother, much smarter than I am. Don't let it go to your head." Giving him a deliberately smug look, she flipped her other hand dismissively.

"Tell me the other plan, servant," she said in a superior tone, as she remembered her mother doing when she was in a particularly amused mood. Danny briefly gaped then laughed a little.

Miming tugging his non-existent forelock in a suitable submissive manner, he retorted, "As the lady wishes." She dissolved into giggles for several seconds.

"If you're done?" Danny looked pointedly at his watch, making her stop giggling and try to look serious. She nodded for him to continue.

Smiling a little still he went on. "The problem with that approach is that we're more or less admitting defeat. Not that that's the wrong thing to do, necessarily, but in this case I have to admit it annoys me."

"Me too," she sighed, good humor evaporating abruptly. "I don't want to see any of them ever again but I also don't like the idea that they'll think they managed to drive me away and probably just go on to bully someone else. I mean, they tried to kill me!"

"To be fair I doubt that they were actually deliberately _trying_ to kill you, Taylor," he replied after a moment of reflection. "I doubt they really thought it through properly at all. Yes, locking you in like that could well have been fatal eventually but from their point of view it was probably just a particularly vicious prank. Not that that excuses it in any way at all."

She very reluctantly conceded that he had a point, although she still felt it was more serious than the word ' _prank_ ' described. "So what's the second plan?" she asked.

"The second approach is more complicated and relies on being able to get a few things from someone I know," he replied thoughtfully. "But, if it works, I think we might be able to wring some concessions out of the bastards and even if that part doesn't happen, we'll have enough to get the police involved properly. One way or another everyone involved would end up regretting it. The only problem is that you have to go back. Hopefully not for long." He looked over at the pile of paperwork on the table. "Based on your notes those girls did something more or less every day, right?"

Taylor nodded sadly. "They never stop. If I get there and things seem less serious for once I know it's just because they're setting me up for a big one. The locker was like that. I was waiting for the other shoe to drop all day, since nobody did any of the normal things up to that point." She shivered at the memory, prompting him to put his arm around her shoulders. "The waiting and knowing that something was going to happen was almost worse than what actually happened, most of the time. Not this time though. It was the worst thing I've ever even heard of."

They were silent with their own thoughts for a while, Danny's evident on his face and based on his expression involved a certain amount of violence. She could hear grinding teeth again.

Eventually he calmed down enough to resume his explanation.

"Basically, the thing we're missing at the moment is real evidence." She opened her mouth to object and he raised a finger, causing her to stop. Indicating the pile of paper he added, "That stuff is very useful circumstantial evidence but I think it would be considered hearsay more than anything else in court. The only direct evidence is the photos you took and all that shows really is that you were in the locker and what else was. There's no proof of who put you there. We both know who did but they could argue the point for so long they win by default. We need actual proof, ideally a confession."

Taylor looked puzzled, glancing at the paperwork, then him. "How the hell will we get them to confess?" she demanded. "They'd have to be insane." Thinking about what she'd said, she added morosely, "More insane than they are anyway."

"Ah. That's where the clever part comes in," he told her with a small grin. Explaining, he soon had her grinning as well. "Think it would work?"

"Probably." She thought some more, then nodded. "Almost definitely. They like the sound of their own voices."

"Can you handle going back for a day?" he asked, with concern evident in his voice. She thought, then slowly nodded.

"I think so. I have you and Varga on my side, after all. Between the three of us they don't stand a chance."

Danny snickered at her comment.

" _I believe the plan your father has will work, Brain,_ " the deep voice of the Varga said approvingly and with a certain amount of amusement. " _If it does not, we can always find these people and deal with them later_."

' _We're not supposed to do things like that, Varga,_ ' she told the demon. There was an impression of a shrug.

" _I would expect that physically and mentally torturing people for amusement is also one of things that is supposedly frowned on although it doesn't seem to have prevented these people from doing exactly that,_ " he replied offhandedly. She was forced to agree. " _In any case, it is unwise to leave an enemy who has shown an ability and a willingness to kill you alive. Sooner or later they may well try again. Best to deal with the issue immediately and permanently_."

She sighed mentally, provoking a deep chuckle. ' _Dad would be annoyed if I just killed anyone who got in the way. They have a word for people like that._ '

" _Yes. Normally that word is, 'Emperor'. Or in this case, 'Empress'._ " The Varga sounded very amused now. She started giggling again, causing Danny to look curiously at her.

When she calmed down she summarized the conversation with the great demon, which made him smile as well. "I don't think proclaiming yourself the Empress of Brockton Bay is a wildly good idea, Taylor," he told her. "Neither is simply killing anyone you disapprove of. If _I_ did that most of the local government would be six feet under by now. Leave that behavior to the villains like Kaiser and Lung."

"Oh, all right, Dad," she replied with mock sadness. "Seeing as it's you asking."

"So, then. Which path? Clean break with Winslow or complicated plan?"

She had already decided. "The second one. Even if it fails, we tried. And we can always do the other one in that case, right?"

Danny nodded, smiling at her. "Right." He glanced at his watch, which showed it was just before 8 AM, then headed for the phone. "It's about the right time. Let's get things rolling." Looking up the relevant number, he dialed, while his daughter turned to listen and watch. "Principal Blackwell, please. This is Danny Hebert." There was a pause. "Yes, that Hebert. Yes, Taylor is my daughter."

A few seconds went by. "Hello, Principal Blackwell. Yes, I wanted to tell you..." Danny trailed off, listening, then his face flushed red, before paling a little in obvious anger. "Principal Blackwell. _Principal Blackwell!_ Be quiet and listen to me," he said in a controlled voice that radiated danger. "No, you _will_ listen to what I have to say. If I have to come down there and tell you face to face I will do so, and I guarantee you won't enjoy the experience." Taylor listened wide-eyed to her father, who looked like he wanted to reach down the phone line and strangle the woman.

"I am calling to tell you that I am keeping Taylor out of your school for a week due to your total inability to control your students. She has been the victim of a serious bullying campaign that has lasted, from what she tells me, for close to two years, and last night ended up in a serious assault which could well have killed her. As a result I no longer feel that your school has her best interests at heart. She's going to be staying home until she recovers from the attack. After that, I am going to be talking to you about what you're going to do to facilitate a transfer of my daughter to a real school, or if that fails, I'm going to be talking to the police."

He listened for a while. Taylor could hear the voice of the principal squeaking through the handset and resisted the urge to listen more carefully with her new hearing which she suspected could easily make the voice clear enough to understand. She didn't really want to know what that woman had to say. "I see. And you feel justified in accusing my daughter of befouling her own locker with the… items… in question? I see. And then, when she had performed this disgusting act, she decided to lock herself inside with it?" His voice had gone calm and gentle, as if he was negotiating someone down off a ledge.

"You are exactly as she described," he said after a long pause. There was a squeak from the phone that seemed to convey insulted anger. "You can take that any way you want, Principal Blackwell. Now, stop digging yourself in deeper, and listen to me. It's January seventh today. In one week, on the fourteenth, I'll be bringing Taylor to school and I will want to talk to you, so I'd suggest you put that date in your appointment book. This is not something I'm going to negotiate on. I'm in a very unforgiving mood right now."

There was a prolonged burst of furious squeaking, during which Danny listened carefully.

"You do that. But remember one thing. I may only be a, as you so elegantly put it, _'blue collar worker with delusions of grandeur_ ', but the DWU knows a _lot_ of people in local government. Push me too hard and I may start calling in some favors which would cause you a lot of problems."

He listened again, a small vicious smirk on his lips, as Taylor saw a side of her father she'd never suspected existed. "No, it's not a threat, or blackmail. Just helpful advice. Don't push me. You wouldn't like me when I'm angry."

Taylor couldn't help snickering at the line, making him shoot her a dark grin for a moment.

"I'll expect you'll be ready to talk next Friday, Principal Blackwell?" he asked politely, still in that hard cold voice. Whatever he heard seemed to satisfy him. "Thank you. Good bye." Putting the phone down with gentle care he stared at it, visibly trying to relax. "God. What a bitch."

His mild comment had her giggling for nearly a minute, while he looked a little embarrassed at his own words.

Sitting down beside her he put his arm around her shoulder and pulled her into his side. "Taylor, I'm more sorry than I can possibly say that I didn't do something sooner," he finally told her, sounding sad. "I'm at least as much to blame as she is, or those horrible girls. I should have seen what was going on and stopped it."

Sighing, she shook her head. "It's not your fault, Dad, I was hiding it from you right from the start. I know we've had problems since Mom died but I should have told you even so. And what could you have done, anyway?" She looked up at him. "We don't have the money to sue them, I know it's really expensive for that sort of thing, and if all this has taught me anything it's that power wins. They have it, we don't."

Danny looked at her, frowning slightly, then sighed as well. "That's not a lesson you should have to learn, especially at your age, but you're not entirely wrong. Alan is rich and I have no doubt that he could make it difficult for us if we sue. Hopefully we can come up with something more effective. I don't want to let them all get away with it, but being realistic it's much more important to get you out of this whole mess than get revenge. Or justice, I suppose."

Shaking his head, he looked annoyed. "Life isn't fair, kid, and everyone eventually finds that out. You just did it earlier than I'd like."

They sat in silence for a few minutes. After a while, Taylor stirred, glancing at Danny again. "Could you really call in favors from people?" she asked curiously, amused at the way scenes from _'The Godfather_ ' went through her mind. He twitched, apparently lost in thought, then grinned.

"Well, possibly not like you're probably thinking, but… I know a few cops who would likely be interested to look into the issue, it's barely possible I could persuade the mayor to take an interest, that sort of thing. But, on the other hand, the Union has a lot of contacts with _other_ unions. Between the plumbers, welders, carpenters, electricians, and transportation unions, I could probably cause her a hell of a lot of problems. She might find that all of a sudden none of the maintenance the school needs could be done for all sorts of reasons." Danny looked darkly amused as Taylor laughed. "I could get her and her damn school blacklisted for months. I'll bet that would get her attention."

"You're an evil man, Dad," Taylor giggled. Her father looked proud.

"Thanks, I think." He checked his watch again, then shook his head. "The rest of the plan will take some time to put together, but several of the people I need to talk to won't be available until later. That can wait." The pair of them were silent for a minute or so, before he turned to her. "Well. Now, I suppose, we need to work out what we're going to do about the real issue."

She flicked the end of her tail where it was dangling off the sofa between them, both of them looking at it.


	5. Demonstrations and Swords

After a few seconds, he asked, "Do you know what abilities or powers you have?"

Slightly hesitantly, she nodded a little. "Um, kind of. Apparently I'm much stronger, although I don't know how _much_ stronger. Varga says I should also be tougher as well. Also, he said that I'll have… how did he put it… access to certain physical skills of previous brains."

Curiously, he asked, "What sort of skills?"

Thinking back to her dreams, she slowly replied, "Swordplay, I think is one of them. Princess Luna, the last brain, was an expert swordswoman even at my age. She was also very acrobatic and good at some sort of hand to hand combat. Varga says it will take practice to get as good as she was but the basic reflexes and knowledge should be there already."

"OK, that's pretty impressive," he admitted with a smile. "Now all you need is a sword, of course."

She looked at him, then turned her attention inwards. ' _Can you give me a sword?_ ' the asked the Varga.

" _Hold out your hand, Brain,_ " it said, which she did, immediately finding herself holding the hilt of a blade nearly three feet long. She recognized it as the same as the one the blonde princess had utilized, smiling a little. Danny stared at the thing with his eyebrows up.

"That's even more impressive," he said in a low voice. Reaching out he flicked the side of the blade with a finger, making it ring. "It's real."

"Of course it's real, Dad, it's magic. Magic wouldn't give me a fake sword, would it?" She smiled as he chuckled

"I have no idea. Can I see it?"

Nodding she carefully handed him the weapon, which he nearly dropped. "Christ, this thing is a lot heavier than it looks," he muttered, recovering and closely inspecting the blade. "You _are_ stronger. You made holding it look easy."

"It doesn't feel very heavy to me," she replied with interest, watching as he tested the blade with one finger then yelped, pulling back a digit dripping blood.

"It's incredibly sharp as well," he commented, impressed. "I barely touched it. I wonder what it's made of?" Running his finger down the flat of the blade he looked curious. "Doesn't feel like steel, or titanium either. Mind you, it's too heavy for titanium."

She looked at the gray metallic surface, tapping it with a finger herself. The metal was glass-smooth and almost frictionless from what she could feel. "Weird."

"It is that, yes," he acknowledged. Handing the blade back he watched as she hefted it easily, turning it around to admire. "That thing is more than a little lethal, though. If you hit anyone with it they're going to be missing body parts instantly. That might not be a particularly good idea except in life or death situations, which I'd hope you'll stay away from as much as you can."

Nodding absently, Taylor experimentally poked the coffee table with the tip of the sword, then blushed when a large shaving of wood peeled away as a result. She felt no resistance at all. "Oops. Sorry, Dad."

Danny sighed good-naturedly, shaking his head. "Perhaps you should practice somewhere with less breakable things, Taylor," he said. "Can you, or Varga rather, make something less dangerous?"

"Like what?"

He thought for a moment, then suggested, "Perhaps a baseball bat? It's not exactly harmless but at least you're not going to be slicing and dicing people accidentally."

Taylor nodded. It seemed a sensible idea. A quick conversation with the Varga and she was holding a metal bat, apparently made of the same material as the sword had been. The handle was almost identical to the hilt of the sword, only missing the guards. Hefting it she wiggled the end, smiling, then handed it to her father when he held out his hand.

Again, he came close to dropping it, grunting with effort and using both hands. "This must be solid metal," he muttered. "Normal aluminum ones are hollow. You'd never be able to actually use it for baseball, it would be impossible to swing." Standing and carefully swinging the thing around, he shook his head and handed it back. "Still too dangerous. If you hit anyone with that even with normal strength you'll break bones for sure, and if you really are much stronger you'd kill them on the spot. How about something like a police baton? Lighter, which would make it less lethal."

After a brief discussion with the Varga about the form of the proposed baton, she hefted the resulting weapon with a smile, inspecting it. Danny took it from her and looked it over curiously. "Still pretty heavy for its size but much better. I wonder how strong it is?" He tried bending the thing without any effect at all.

" _I used a very strong material for it,_ " the Varga said with amusement as he watched Danny's efforts through her eyes. _"It won't break, trust me. I learned that lesson with the previous brain, she lost a sword that I gave her which was made out of a very good steel but came up against a much heavier weapon. From that point on I used the good stuff. It's more effort to make but it's worth that effort._ " Taylor nodded, smiling at his comments and watching her father still trying to bend the half-inch diameter baton. Eventually he gave up, slightly red faced.

"That's not bad," he admitted, returning it to her. They both watched as it vanished into a very brief cloud of sparkles when she told the Varga she didn't need it any more. "So in addition to being stronger and tougher, and probably faster as well, you have combat skills, hand to hand skills, and the ability to make unbreakable weapons, edged or otherwise." He thought for a moment, then added, "And that Assassin's Cloak magic as well, which I guess could hide you completely?" She checked with the Varga.

"Yes, he says that's easy. It's what it was intended for in the first place."

"Even just that is a pretty effective power set, I'd think," her father told her. "What else?"

"It's more than just weapons, Varga can make pretty much anything needed," she told him, causing him to raise his eyebrows. "He said not complicated machines without knowing how they work but he's not limited to just swords and batons."

"How about handcuffs?" Danny inquired, looking fascinated.

' _Can you make handcuffs?_ ' she asked the Varga, who gave her the audible equivalent of a long-suffering look.

 _"Certainly I can_ ," he said calmly. " _Although if you want to restrain someone it would be just as easy to produce restraints tailored specifically to the situation and the person. From what I know of your world many of these '_ _ **Parahumans**_ _' are, like you, much stronger than normal humans. Even the material used in the swords might not be sufficient in the form of handcuffs as are used by your police. I can provide something much stronger_."

She expectantly held out her hands, suddenly finding herself holding a set of heavy manacles with flexible cables nearly half an inch thick linking them together. Danny stared in amazement. "That would do it," he said after a moment. Picking one of the manacles up he inspected it. "Overkill for most people though."

"Varga said they'd hold someone much stronger than normal," she informed him, causing him to nod thoughtfully.

"Interesting. Good idea as well." Handing it back he watched as once again it evaporated. "That's really amazing to watch. OK, so as far as equipment goes you're pretty much self sufficient. A bit like Miss Militia although not restricted to guns." After a moment, with a slightly worried expression, he asked, " _Can_ he make guns?"

She checked.

"He says probably but he's never tried. Guns were very uncommon on his world and really primitive by our standards, something like old muskets, I think?"

Danny nodded again. "OK. That's enough of that for the moment although I'd love to find out how strong that metal really is sometime. So what else can you do?"

"Well, my senses are much stronger now," she said thoughtfully. "Varga says his own senses are vastly better but in human form I can't use them nearly as well, although I've noticed they're really good. I can smell _everything_ , for example. You wouldn't believe how many smells there are than normal people just don't notice at all."

"Isn't that kind of horrible?" he asked, looking worried.

She shrugged. "You'd think it would be but to be honest it seems fine to me. Yes, some smells are really bad, but not as many as you'd expect. Mostly it's interesting. I think he's filtering it somehow so it doesn't cause problems."

"Is your hearing and sight also better like that?" Danny asked curiously. She nodded.

"My sight is perfect now, I can read the smallest writing on the spines of the books over there," she replied, indicating the bookshelf on the far wall with a finger, some twenty feet away. "He says there are also special vision modes but I haven't tried them yet."

"Like what?"

She blinked furiously as the world suddenly changed. "Hey, what happened?" she yelped.

" _Your father wished to know what alternate vision modes are available in your human form,_ " the amused voice of the Varga told her, chuckling. " _So I am demonstrating so that you can tell him first hand._ "

"Thanks for the warning you idiot lizard," she muttered, provoking a laugh from her head companion. Holding a hand up she flexed it, staring in bemused interest.

"What did he do?" Danny asked, having worked out from context that the Varga had done something.

"He turned on some sort of heat vision, I think," she replied absently, looking around in fascinated awe. "Everything is… glowing. Sort of. Not really… I can't explain it properly." Looking at the glowing blob of her father, she stared as he got up, leaving a visible afterimage in the chair. As he walked across the floor she could see he was leaving footprints behind that slowly faded away. "Wow."

Peering around the room she could make out glowing lines in the walls as well, although the glow was different from what seemed to be heat. After a moment's thought she realized what it was. "And I can see electricity I think." Getting up she walked over to the wall and ran her finger down it. "Is there a wire here?"

Danny thought, then replied, "Probably. That's directly in line with the wall switch there, the wires must go into the fuse box in the basement from there."

"This is really weird, but sort of fun," Taylor giggled, wandering around inspecting everything like she'd never seen it before.

" _The enhanced vision is limited in this form, Brain,_ " the Varga rumbled sounding pleased. " _It can be better._ "

"This is still incredible," she admitted. Looking at the front wall, beside the window, she noticed she could see hot spots moving around somewhere outside. A little thought showed her they were probably cars. Even a couple of pedestrians walking along the sidewalk were barely visible. "I can see right through the wall of the house in a way," she said, turning to Danny, who was watching her closely. "It's sort of… low resolution, like computer graphics compared to real life, but it's still usable."

Snapping her fingers as she remembered what it reminded her of, she added, "You remember that movie ' _Predator_ '?" The glowing figure of her father nodded. "It's kind of like that. Not the colors, that part is wrong, but the effect is a lot like it. Hot things are standing out like crazy against the background and anything with power in it is also visible."

She pointed. "That's where the fridge is on the other side of the wall, I can see something that must be the motor running. And there's a square hot area above it, which must be that radiator thing on the back of it."

"Not bad," he said, sounding quite impressed. "I can see where that could be useful. Anything else?"

Standing close to him she studied his face, noticing with interest the patterns the blood vessels made under the skin. At close range she fancied she could even see something that she suspected was electricity in his brain, remembering something she'd read about how nerves worked. It was overwhelmed by the thermal glow more than a few feet away. "I can also hear incredibly well but I seem to be able to control it," she told him. Tilting her head to the side she listened carefully, deliberately allowing herself to hear more than she'd permitted earlier. The world got louder, and very complicated from an auditory viewpoint, making her wince a little until she got used to it.

"Let's see… Mr Atkinson across the street is watching the news on Channel 9. They're doing the local crime statistics at the moment. The people two doors to the left are arguing about buying a new car. Those people on the other side three doors up who moved in before Christmas are..." She went bright red and suddenly stopped concentrating on listening.

"Are…?"

"Are doing something I'm too young to talk about and definitely too young to talk about with my father," she muttered, provoking a snort of laughter from Danny when he worked it out.

"That right there is why eavesdropping can be a bad idea," he pointed out with a smile, making her glare at him.

' _Turn the heat vision off, will you please, Varga?_ ' she requested silently, finding it a little disorientating. She was going to have to practice with these new senses a lot before they were second nature. The odd effect vanished and she was back to looking at her father normally, seeing he was still somewhat amused.

"That was embarrassing," she mumbled, still slightly red faced.

After a second or two, clearly biting his lip to stop laughing, Danny replied, "We can add super senses to the list. You're building up quite a repertoire here, Taylor."

" _You have many options for combat,_ " the Varga put in, apparently pleased. " _To strike fear into the hearts of your enemies and protect your people._ " She sighed a little, but admitted to herself that the comment made her feel happier.

"I'm scared, Dad," she finally admitted, making him stop in his track where he was heading into the kitchen holding his empty coffee cup, apparently looking for a refill. Turning to her he inspected her, then put the cup down and held out his arms. She collapsed into them, the good mood she'd been feeling since she got up a couple of hours ago suddenly dissipating.

"Why are you scared, dear?" he asked, holding her as she started crying, an expression of sympathy and slight bewilderment on his face. She felt an odd mental effect from the Varga, which seemed to be also sending her encouragement, warming her from the inside.

"All of this. It's… Everything happened at once." She looked up at him. "I was in hell, living with those bitches fucking me over every single day for nearly two years. I didn't know what I did to cause it. For a long time I thought that if I could just work out what that was, Emma would be my friend again."

He hugged her tighter as she cried for a second or two, his face like stone. "But I finally worked out that she was _never_ going to be my friend again. I still didn't know what I did wrong but I realized that it didn't matter. She hates me, Sophia hates me, Madison… I don't think she actually cares one way or the other but she's perfectly happy to go along with those two. I couldn't see any way to stop it that didn't just cause me more problems than it solved, short of burning the whole fucking school down with them all in it. Which would have stopped one problem but caused another one." She sniffed, wiping her eyes with her hand, as he produced a small flicker of a hard smile.

"And, of course, I was terrified about telling you. I kept thinking that you'd be disappointed in me. Back when Mom was alive we talked all the time, but since she…" She trailed off, swallowed hard, and tried again. "Since she died we hardly talked at all. We used to joke and laugh all the time, like we've been doing just now. I missed that _so much_."

Danny looked horribly guilty, holding her tightly.

"Then, the worst thing that ever happened to me somehow turned into what I think is possibly the best thing that ever happened to me. I needed help, I asked for help, and _someone answered!_ I have no idea who or how but in only about twelve hours I've made a new friend and we're talking again, you know about all the problems, we have a plan to deal with it that might actually work, and I have powers." She sniffed again, hard, as her nose started running.

Leading her to the sofa Danny gently made her sit, then disappeared for a moment, returning with the roll of paper towels from the kitchen, which she used a sheet of to blow her nose with.

"That sounds like you should be happy, though," he finally said, when she was finished, holding the damp paper in her hands and staring at it.

She raised her eyes and met his. "But what happens next?" she asked. "I've thought before that there was light at the end of the tunnel. But it was always a train. I'm scared that with all these plans, somehow, even so, they'll get away with it, and cause both of us problems we can't overcome. Now you're involved in it. One of the reasons I never said anything was that I didn't want you going over and beating Mr Barnes up."

Danny smiled a little, causing her to shrug.

"I remember that time with the drunk driver."

He looked mildly embarrassed.

"I know you'd win the fight, but Mr Barnes has a lot of money. You said it yourself, he could cause problems for us. He's a lawyer, after all."

"He's a _divorce_ lawyer, Taylor, which doesn't mean he's an expert in all fields of law. Although it does certainly seem to be profitable." Danny sighed. "I understand your fear. This plan isn't foolproof, of course, but I think it has a good chance of working. Even if it doesn't we'll be able to recover from it and cause them all a lot of trouble if we need to."

" _And if it fails even so we can crush them like grapes,_ " the Varga told her solemnly, which amused her in a weird way. " _I dislike these people even without meeting them. I will teach you ways to make them suffer if you wish, or we can simply kill them. Certain individuals are better off dead in my experience. It causes much less in the way of long term problems._ "

' _You really are sort of bloodthirsty, aren't you?_ ' she asked silently, finding the whole conversation somewhat funny.

" _I_ _ **am**_ _a demon, Brain. We tend to be direct. Especially when people we value are threatened._ " The great creature sounded pleased that she had slightly cheered up, which she suspected was the whole point.

Returning her attention to her father, who had been watching the expressions cross her face, she told him, "Varga had some advice as well. It's… a little extreme, but probably effective."

"Please don't kill anyone without telling me first, dear," he said calmly, making her shake her head despairingly.

"Men are all so violent," she complained.

"Excuse me? Who just suggested burning the school down with people in it?" Danny grinned at her. She blushed slightly.

"Um..."

"I think I understand your problem, Taylor," Danny assured her. "Having these powers and abilities will be something you're going to have to think very carefully about, but I'm sure you can be responsible about it. You don't _have_ to use them, after all. It's not like you need to go and pick a fight just because you have the ability to take a boot to the head more than most people."

Now laughing a little, Taylor leaned back when he released her, nodding.

"I know. I mean, it's not like I have a sudden urge to kick a crack head in the face or anything like that," she grinned, making him smile. "But, I did tell the… Voice… that I would try to help people with the power it, or he, gave me. If I see something happen that I can stop and other people can't doesn't that mean I should help?"

Danny looked troubled, turning to stare out the window into the dull January day as he thought. Absently, she noticed it had started snowing, the rain from last night now coming down in white flakes. "I can't argue too much with that," he finally admitted. "I don't like the idea of my little daughter going out and beating up criminals, and I'm damn sure I don't want you even thinking about it until we have a better idea of what you can do and you've practiced a lot. Promise me you're not going to sneak out at night and do something silly."

"I promise, Dad," she replied. She even meant it.


	6. Teeth and Claws

They sat in comfortable silence for a while, before he turned to her. "All right then, we have quite a list of things you can do. I'd like to figure out some way to actually test some of your limits soon, without either giving your secret away or hurting you, but that can wait. Is there anything else?"

Biting her lip, she looked back, then slowly nodded.

"Those abilities are pretty powerful but they're only the ones I have in human form," she finally admitted cautiously.

Danny appeared somewhat puzzled. "Human form?" he echoed curiously.

"Yes." She tried to think of the right way to put it for a moment. "My tail is the visible part of the Varga, but… It can go a lot further." She remembered some of the visions she'd had of the previous Brain, Princess Luna of the small kingdom of Rimsbell, some unknowable distance in time, space, and dimension away.

"How much further?" he asked, studying her with interest.

"Um..."

He looked worried.

"Is it bad?"

"Not bad, as much as… kind of big."

Danny stared, then closed his eyes for a moment. "How big?" he asked in a tone of voice that suggested he wouldn't like the answer. "Too big to fit in this room?" he added when she didn't respond.

His eyes opened when she snickered. "A bit, yes."

"Come on, out with it," he demanded, rolling his eyes a little. "How bad can it be? Menja or Fenja sized?" Her smirk made him frown. "Bigger?"

She nodded. "Remember that Aleph movie of "Godzilla" from the late nineties?" she asked slowly. He nodded, then his eyes widened significantly.

"About that size. Maybe a little bigger." He was staring in shock, making her slightly nervous as she went on. "I'd guess about two hundred and fifty feet tall or so, maybe a little more? God knows how much it would weigh. It even looks a lot like that version of Godzilla."

There was no response for a while, long enough that she was getting worried.

" _I think you may have broken him, Brain_ ," the Varga chuckled. " _Incidentally, the form I used with my last brain was not actually the largest possible size. It depends on available power. Our greatest foe, the Dark Varga, was substantially more powerful and noticeably larger, but we did defeat him in the end. More by luck than anything else I'll admit and we lost several good people in the process, not to mention destroying a large city, but we won. I absorbed all his energy in the process. I am quite a lot more powerful than I was when my last brain merged with me._ "

' _Really?_ ' she asked, thinking about some of what she'd been shown as she slept.

" _Oh, yes,_ " it confirmed. " _We were very effective after that against many other threats but that first one was by far the hardest to deal with. We very nearly lost. If it hadn't been for the willing sacrifice of Lord Yude, we would have done, and it was a near thing even then. I was much reduced from my prime due to the long period of inactivity while the Dark Varga was near the peak of his power. This time I am close to my peak, or possibly even past it. The greater power who you encountered would have appeared to have removed a number of restrictions placed upon me in ages past as well, something that you will find useful I have no doubt. Some of the resulting abilities are interesting._ "

About to ask what it meant, she noticed her father was trying to say something and returned her attention to him. "Two hundred and fifty feet?" Danny croaked.

She nodded, worry mixing with amusement at his reaction. "Varga tells me he could probably manage something even bigger now."

"No, I think that's big enough." Danny looked stunned. "What… I mean, how..." He seemed to be struggling with working out what question he wanted the answer to.

Taking pity on him, she explained what she currently knew. "Princess Luna used the Varga form quite a lot. When she did it, he was that sort of size, with her kind of growing out of his head between his eyes, her feet and her rear end sunk into his flesh." Danny didn't look much less stunned by this. "It was a little embarrassing for her the first time from what I saw. She had control of the whole body although the Varga could also use it, and she could see through his eyes, hear with his ears, that sort of thing."

"Holy shit," he finally managed to say, making her snicker for a moment. "That makes the Endbringers look tiny."

"I don't know how strong or tough he is compared to them but he's a damn lot bigger," she nodded. "They took on several things as large or even larger just in the first month or so and won against all of them, although the final one was almost too much. It was another of the same type of creature but really evil and really strong."

"How did they fight?" he asked, a little pale. "Just hand to hand? At that size they could pick up skyscrapers and hit each other with them."

"There was a lot of physical combat," she nodded. "But he also has a very powerful attack, one that Princess Luna called Blast Voice. It made things… go away."

" _That attack is a manifestation of a matter deconstruction method, Brain,_ " the Varga told her. " _The sound is caused by the air being annihilated._ " She passed the information on to her father, who paled again.

"Matter deconstruction?" he queried, looking appalled. "That sounds like it would be… well, I can't think of many things that wouldn't deal with." After a moment, he asked, "What range would it work at?"

She listened to the Varga, then had a brief conversation over unit conversions, until they were both reasonably sure the answer was correct. "He says somewhere between eight and ten miles with maximum power. The visions I saw showed it was like a beam, it left huge trenches in the ground when they used it. The Dark Varga made a real mess of the city they found him in with that attack. Their final fight blew it up entirely, it looked like it got nuked. It was some sort of magical explosion. Princess Luna and the Varga survived even that although they were both weak for a while."

Danny seemed speechless again. It took him nearly a minute to be able to carry on.

"That is… absolutely terrifying," he finally said.

She nodded soberly. "That's one of the things I'm scared about. Just using that form will probably make everyone freak out even if I just stood there. They'll be calling me a fourth Endbringer." Shivering a little, she didn't protest when he put his arm around her.

"It's probably a little much for normal problems," he agreed wryly. "So, basically, you have two power settings, pretty damn dangerous for a more or less normally sized human, and something that can stomp Behemoth flat by stepping on it?"

"I think so," she agreed. "But I don't know if stepping on an Endbringer would actually work. If Alexandria and the Triumvirate can't deal with them, I can't see how I could even _with_ the Varga."

"Hopefully we'll never find out," Danny told her, at the same time the Varga said, "It would be an interesting experiment." The contrast made her giggle again, forcing her to explain. Her father smiled.

"You are not to go picking fights with Endbringers, Taylor," he said firmly. "That goes for you too, Varga."

Grumbling a little, the demon in her head agreed, making her smile. After a moment, she said, "The problem is that I can't see where I could even try that transformation. The Varga is so large you'd see him from space. Anywhere in the city would make it obvious."

" _We could utilize the Assassin's Cloak,_ " the Varga suggested slyly. Her eyes widened in surprise.

"Would that work?" she asked out loud. Danny looked curious but said nothing.

"Yes. I can easily power it even at full size, at least for a while," the Varga said smugly.

" _But what about footprints?_ " she asked after a moment's thought. " _You're absolutely huge. We'd leave footprints you could park a car in. That would attract nearly as much attention as seeing us would_."

Apparently guessing the thrust of the conversation, Danny sighed and covered his eyes. "An invisible Godzilla with my daughter attached to it. Just what this city needs," he groaned, making both her and the Varga laugh. "Please don't."

After a second or two, he asked, "Isn't being exposed right on top of his head a little dangerous?"

Taylor shrugged. "You'd think so, but the memories I have showed that Princess Luna survived being under water for ages with no problem, attacks from demons, a crazy man with a beard and a huge weird sort of ax, and all sorts of things." Curious, she asked the Varga, ' _How could she do that?_ '

There was a long pause, then the demon slowly explained, " _I was trying to work out the best way to tell you. You are not exactly human any more._ "

' _What!?_ '

There was a mental sigh. " _When we merged, you took on many of my characteristics, it is the only way to allow you to survive the process. Your tail is the externally visible part of what is basically my body, which you are part of. Or it is part of you. The distinction is essentially meaningless now._ "

' _I feel normal, except for the tail,_ ' she admitted. ' _Although even that is feeling normal now._ '

 _"It is, from your new point of view. Your biology is much closer to mine than a normal human now, although the magic means you are still compatible with ordinary humans. But the main point is that, although you look more or less normal, you aren't. That means in the full Varga form you share the same toughness as the rest of the body. In fact, your consciousness in that case wouldn't even be in your human head. Strictly speaking it isn't right now. My type of creature exists outside normal reality in some senses and you now share that. Your body is… modifiable and replaceable. To a point._ "

' _Does that mean I can't be killed?_ ' she asked numbly.

" _No. As I explained last night, you are neither immortal nor truly invulnerable, in the true senses of the words. However, you won't suffer any diseases or old age and it would take something fairly exceptional to kill you. You will find that you are difficult to damage, the level increasing when in the full Varga form to an extreme amount, and damage done can be easily repaired unless it is total._ "

She sat in silence for a while as she considered the words of her head-guest. ' _What about you?_ ' she asked in the end. ' _Does the same thing apply to you?_ ' There was a pause.

" _Anything that would definitely kill me would have killed you and most likely your entire country,_ " it finally replied. " _My kind is almost impossible to destroy. It took a number of greater forces, the like of which don't exist in this reality to the best of my knowledge, to manage the feat. Lesser powers could seal us away but not destroy us._ "

After absorbing the information for some time, she passed it on to her father, who took it fairly well. When he'd finished thinking it over, he smiled a little crookedly and said, "At least I can still have grandchildren."

She giggled at the thought.

"Would they have cute little tails?" she asked out loud.

The Varga chuckled. " _Most likely. The line of the demon touched often have reminders. My other abilities would not transfer, though._ "

Passing this information on as well she smiled when Danny seemed to accept it, although he still seemed a little shocked. That was fair, she was as well. It hadn't been something she expected at all.

" _Brain?_ " the Varga said.

' _Yes?_ ' she replied, curious.

" _I have been checking what the lowered restrictions mean in practice and I have discovered something you may find interesting._ " Its silent voice carried a note of sly amusement, making her suspicious.

' _Like what?_ ' she asked cautiously.

" _Hold out your right hand,_ " the great demon suggested, still radiating an air of someone about to play a practical joke. With a certain amount of worry she did as requested.

A sensation similar to the one she'd felt from the Assassin's Cloak technique went through her hand. She made a small eep sound and stared. Danny, who had been watching her with a curious look, did almost exactly the same. Both of them were silent for a moment or two, until he finally said, "What the hell?"

" _I am able to do more than I could with the last Brain, it turns out,_ " the Varga said with satisfaction. She nodded slowly, flexing the taloned, scaled digits of what her hand had become in numb amazement. From the wrist down it looked like it belonged on a lizard of some sort, the scales the same deep blue-black of the ones on her tail, with nearly inch long razor sharp talons tipping each finger. The fingers themselves were long and slender, oddly elegant in fact.

"Are you saying that I'm some sort of shape-shifter now as well?" she asked out loud in a rather overwhelmed voice.]

" _Essentially, yes. I can apply a variable transformation to you, rather than the minimum and maximum level only. We can basically mix differing amounts of Varga and Human together in a number of interesting ways._ "

She absently repeated this to Danny, who was still staring at her hand. Feeling the transformed appendage with the other one, she jumped when her left hand changed as well. "Hey!" she yelped.

"That's… nice," her father managed to say in a weak voice.

Clenching both hands into fists then relaxing them, she wonderingly held them up and inspected them, a grin beginning to form. "Oh, my god," she muttered.

" _I have taken the liberty of designing what I think might be a suitable combat form, Brain,_ " the Varga put in with a tone of eagerness. " _It is human scale so you can interact with them without too much trouble although obviously we can increase the size up to full scale if required. It combines the best of both our forms._ "

"Combat form?" she echoed. Danny looked somewhat nervous. "Let's see it." She was, for some reason, finding this all suddenly fun rather than something to be worried about as might have been expected to be the case.

" _You should clear a space in the middle of the room,_ " the Varga said.

Hopping to her feet, Taylor looked at her father. "He says we need to move some things around to have some space," she told him.

"Oh, god, why do I have a bad feeling all of a sudden?" Danny sighed, but helped her move the sofa out of the way to the edge of the room, then the two chairs and the coffee table. Taking a seat in his chair, he watched as she moved to the middle of the room.

"Do I have to do anything?" she asked.

The Varga chuckled. " _My previous Brain always shouted '_ _ **Varga Change!"**_ _at this point, but then she had a flair for the dramatic and had grown up reading tales of magic and adventure. It seemed to be something of a trope with her world's literature to call out attacks. It's not necessary, and is a little over the top in my opinion. Just tell me when you want it_."

Amused, she nodded. "OK, then, go for it."

The tingle was all over this time and her viewpoint shifted, rising a little and widening significantly to cover much more of the room. She looked around with interest, seeing that she had even better vision now and the thermal part seemed to be mixed with normal vision in a strange but easy to understand manner. Smells and sounds burst in on her as her already superhuman senses became vastly better.

One smell caught her attention, seeming to say ' _fear_ ' to her. She sniffed curiously, then followed it around to the side, to see her father staring at her with wide eyes and clenched hands. "Dad?" she inquired. "Are you OK?"

"That is still… you… isn't it, Taylor?" he asked in a halting voice. She could hear his heart hammering away at a rate that sounded too fast to be safe. Concerned, she turned to face him and smiled, which oddly enough made him pale dramatically.

"It's still me, Dad. What's the problem?"

Very slowly relaxing, although still looking and sounding like he was on the verge of fleeing, Danny looked her up and down then pointed at the mirror that hung on the wall between two bookcases full of her mother's books. "You should look," he said weakly.

Puzzled, she walked over and peered into the mirror, then froze. "Holy shit!" she gasped.

Staring for a long time she raised her hands and felt her face, or more accurately, her muzzle. Her head bore no resemblance at all to a human now, not a trace of the one she'd had all her life present. It was instead something out of a documentary on dinosaurs, a wedge-shaped head with eyes set more to the sides than normal, although less so than something like a bird. She still had binocular vision. Those eyes were completely orange-yellow and seemed to be glowing slightly, with black vertical slit pupils like those of a cat. Blinking them she found she still had eyelids, unlike a snake, although her head did bear a distinct likeness to such an animal.

Opening her mouth she found it was packed with a totally ridiculous number of extremely sharp teeth, most of them nearly an inch long with a few at the front on the sides close to twice that. It was a mouth that would give an angry lion cause to think twice. Her tongue was long and forked, again like that of a lizard or a snake. Closing her mouth then smiling, or at least doing what would normally be the muscular operation to smile when human, made the corners of her much larger mouth pull up and expose fangs, explaining nicely why Danny had looked very worried.

After a moment, she stepped back and looked down, then over her shoulder, finding in the process that her neck was longer and flexible enough to allow her to turn her head completely around like an owl without effort. "Holy shit," she said again, more faintly.

The rest of her body was best described as a mix between something not entirely unlike a Velociraptor out of Jurassic Park, the memories she had of the Varga's full form, and her own. It was vaguely centaur-like, down to the waist her body was more or less humanoid, although scale covered and showing only hints of a female form. Her clothes had vanished but she didn't need them like this. She had the slightly bitter thought that this was actually a pretty good description of her aside from the scales, then went back to cataloging the changes.

The upper torso was mounted on a scaled down and modified version of the Varga's body minus the head, about where the shoulders would be, which mean she actually had six limbs, seven including the tail. At what she still felt as her waist there was another, larger, set of arms or possibly forelegs, with hands that were much less human although still with an opposable thumb. Flexing them she felt the strength in them, they felt like they could tear armor plate with ease. The talons of her forelegs were much longer than those on her real fingers.

Below all of this was the rest of the bipedal lizard-like body which had extremely muscular rear legs on three toed feet, tipped with the largest talons of all at about three inches or so. She was standing easily on her toes in a way that felt completely natural. Behind her, her tail had lengthened substantially, resting on the floor and balancing her in a rather forward leaning posture with her torso raised and tilted back so that she was from the waist up in a normal vertical position. She lifted a leg to inspect it, balancing without effort, and feeling the interplay of the new muscles and joints.

Her knee was much higher than normal and the joint that looked like a backwards knee was actually her ankle, she found. She also discovered that there was a rearward facing toe on the rear of her foot which normally cleared the ground, but she could flex it and sort of make a fist with her toes, enough to probably let her hold onto a surface. Putting her foot down again she moved her middle limbs experimentally, finding it took no more effort than the arms she'd been born with.

" _Does it meet with your approval?_ " the Varga asked in a way that sounded a little apprehensive. " _I can modify it if required to a certain extent. But it should allow the most effective use of the abilities you'd require in combat._ "

' _Can I use the blast voice like this?_ ' Taylor asked curiously, still moving her second pair of arms with interest.

" _No, I'm afraid not. The power required for that can only be brought to bear in full Varga form, or close to it, but with time I may be able to work out a method to allow some access to it._ " the demon told her sounding regretful. " _You are limited to physical techniques like this currently. Although it is as strong and tough as I can make it, you will be more than a match for most opponents. Your strength will scale up with size. You can use a sword as well of course._ "

She held out her hands and the Varga obligingly formed a suitable scaled sword for her, which she posed with. "Hey, Dad, does this look badass or what?" she asked, a laugh in her voice.

He didn't respond for a moment. Glancing at him she saw he was gaping incredulously at her. "Oh, dear," he finally mumbled. "Poor Brockton Bay. I wonder if we could sell the house and move somewhere safer?"

"Dad!" she commented, crossing her secondary arms and glaring. He laughed nervously.

"Just a joke, dear. You look… dangerous."

"Really?" she asked, oddly pleased by the comment. He nodded rapidly.

"Oh, believe me, yes. Like some sort of warrior dinosaur out of one of the old books I used to have. Or something out of a really good fantasy computer game."

Spinning the sword in her hands in a manner than twenty-four hours earlier she'd never have believed she could do, but now seemed instinctive, she grinned to herself. Somehow this form felt comfortable in a way she was having trouble putting into words even in her own head. She wasn't sure why her father was still pale. Sure, the teeth were a little over the top but as long as she kept her mouth closed you couldn't see them.

"You're right, I'll need to practice, but this feels… fine," she told Danny, lowering the sword. A quick request to the Varga and it vanished. "He said I'm much tougher and stronger than normal like this as well. Not that I know how much stronger I am normally, even, never mind like this."

"We'll have to test it somehow," he replied, slowly regaining his normal color.

"He says I can get bigger as well," she informed him, making him pale again rather suddenly. "Let's see… How about large enough to let me touch the ceiling with my head?" She looked around then nodded. "I think that would fit."

" _As you wish,_ " the Varga said happily. The world dropped around her with a creaking sound of stressed wood.

"Be careful of the floor," Danny squeaked, looking up at the now nearly nine foot tall monster that was his daughter. She laughed, requesting a return to normal. Or the new normal, anyway. He sighed in relief when she shrank back to only about six and a half feet tall and much lighter.

"This is great," she exclaimed. After a moment she snickered maliciously. "Oh, god, I just got a mental image of Emma's face if I turned up hiding in her bedroom one night like this. She'd shit a brick." Taylor laughed for a moment, while Danny sighed heavily.

"That's… probably not a good idea, kid," he said patiently. She put her hands on her hips and frowned, which came out as a proper glare with teeth. He leaned back a little.

"You need to work on your body language when you're like that," he suggested carefully. "It comes across as… a little intimidating."

"OK, Dad," she responded, feeling her head with her hands curiously.

Shaking his own head in wonder, he checked his watch. "Nearly eleven. Look, why don't I go and get those cameras so we can see if this technique your huge friend came up with works on them, and also swing by the people I need to talk to. I'll grab some takeout on the way back. When we're sure that going out in public isn't going to cause a riot we can go shopping."

"Shopping?" she asked, puzzled.

He nodded. "We're buying a cell phone each, and I'm getting a better computer for you and decent internet. You'll need it whatever happens for studying and it will be useful for looking up information on the cape scene around here. I'm very out of touch on most of it, Annette was the one who followed that whole thing."

"Are you sure about the phones, Dad?" she asked carefully. He nodded again with a sad sigh.

"I think it's time, and we need them."

"Can we afford all that?" she asked, worried.

"I'll feel it, definitely, but I have money put aside for your future. Not a lot but enough. I think this counts." Danny smiled at her, then flinched when she returned it. "That will take some getting used to," he mumbled, making her laugh.

"What do I sound like?" she inquired, interested in the answer.

"Pretty normal, actually," he frowned, obviously puzzled by this. "I have no idea how a normal voice comes out of a face like that."

"Oh, thanks, Dad," she sighed, making him smile.

"Your voice is quite a lot deeper and there's a sort of strange overtone to it, if I didn't know it was you I'd never guess, but it's otherwise completely understandable and not something that stands out too much," he added.

"That's useful," she commented, pleased.

"OK, then, I'll be back in about two or three hours, Taylor," he stated as he rose, heading for the coat rack. She followed him into the hallway, not even thinking about maneuvering her bulk around in the house, her tail missing everything. She glanced out the window beside the front door.

"Be careful, Dad, it's still snowing," she advised, which got a nod and a smile in return.

"I'll be fine." Looking at her, he said, "Can you change back? I'd like to give you a hug but at the moment..."

She laughed for a moment. "Do I feel horrible?" she asked, holding out a hand. He took it and ran his fingers over the scales.

"No, not at all. It's warm and smooth, quite nice actually. But I'd like to look my daughter in the eyes she was born with."

Smiling to herself, she asked the Varga, and felt the tingle as she reverted to her normal form, complete with clothes provided by her companion. Danny stared, then sighed. "He has a sense of humor doesn't he?"

"What do you mean?"

"Look." Danny pointed to the small mirror next to the coat rack, which she turned to.

Her eyes were still the reptilian, glowing orange-yellow ones.

Sighing herself, she said out loud, "All the way, please," provoking a deep chuckle from inside her head. Her vision flickered a little, an indefinable something going out of it, as her eyes regained human form.

With a laugh Danny hugged her. "If you go outside, please remember to do it in human form," he requested. "If the neighbors see a six foot plus lizard thing wandering around outside there's going to be a lot of talk."

Giggling, she nodded, then watched as he left, getting into the car and driving slowly and carefully away. A snow plow went past spraying snow everywhere just as he got to the end of the driveway and he fell in behind it. Closing the door she went into the kitchen, rummaging around in the fridge for a few seconds and finally coming up with an apple.

Munching it she wandered back into the living room, looking around at the moved furniture. When she finished her snack she spent a few minutes putting everything back where it had come from. Heading up to her bedroom she lay on her bed and stared at the ceiling for a while, thinking.

" _If you have some spare time, I can begin to teach you how to do the transformation yourself, Brain,_ " the Varga said after she'd been lying there for about fifteen minutes.

 _'I'd like that, thanks,_ ' she responded, a little surprised, but pleased.

" _Let's begin, then,_ " the great creature told her, sounding like he was enjoying himself. " _The first part is visualization..._ "

The lessons went on until Danny came back nearly four hours later. When he entered the house, he called up the stairs, "Taylor? I'm home. Sorry it took so long. The traffic was very slow and a couple of the people I needed to see were stuck as well. I've got chinese for lunch."

"OK, Dad," she called back, getting up from her desk where she'd been sitting propped on her tail, making notes. When she entered the kitchen she found him unpacking the takeout, several bags on the table. He looked over his shoulder at her with a smile, which froze. She innocently looked back.

"What?" she asked.

Her father sighed. "He's a bad influence on you, young lady," he said. She cocked her head to the side in an inquisitive manner.

"I have no idea what you mean," she said calmly.

Reaching out Danny took the Varga-produced, very weird looking sunglasses that were balanced on her reptilian muzzle from her, then studied her closely. She currently had the combat form head resting on her normal shoulders, the rest of her body unchanged. "You have no idea?" he repeated. She shook her head, blinking glowing orange eyes at him in a manner that made his lips twitch.

"Nope, not a clue," she chirped, moving past him to peer into the bags. Finding a bag of spring rolls she popped one into her mouth and swallowed. The reptilian head made chewing more or less optional. He sighed, then went to get some plates.

"Is this going to be a habit now?" he asked over his shoulder. She giggled, reverting her head to normal.

"It's not impossible. I need to practice," she told him, taking the plate he handed her.

"Try not to do it where other people can see," he advised, sitting down at the table. She propped herself up with her tail on the other side. Both of them helped themselves, then began eating.

"Did you get everything?" she asked after she'd taken the edge off her appetite.

Danny nodded. "I did. Mike was glad to help when I explained the situation. He has a daughter as well and feels very strongly about bullying. He explained how everything works, but he's going to come over in a couple of days to show us again. I've also talked to some of the boys, there were lots of volunteers. I've got the cameras as well."

They talked about nothing in particular during the lunch, basically just reconnecting after over two years of being virtual strangers to each other, and both of them very much enjoying it. Afterwards, they went back into the living room. Danny opened a camera case he brought in from the hall and removed a quite impressive SLR digital camera from it, looking carefully at it then turning it on. After the startup sound had finished, he motioned to her. "Stand in the middle of the room again," he asked.

When she was positioned correctly, he looked at the viewfinder. "Hmm. No trace on this either. It seems to work with new technology as well. I wonder if it works with tinker tech?"

"Unless we can get some I can't see how we can find out," she said, reasonably. He agreed with a small nod, taking a few pictures as she struck different poses. Reviewing them he shrugged.

"It looks fine. Hopefully that means that at least normal security cameras and that sort of thing won't see it either. Let's try the thermal camera next."

Putting the SLR away he opened another case, a hard shelled thing about the size of a small briefcase, to reveal a device that looked quite unlike a normal camera. Taking it out of the protective foam he held the hand grip and thumbed the power switch, waiting until the small display on the back lit up a few seconds later. "This thing is pretty expensive, but the electricians find it really useful. If a fuse box is overloading this will show it from a hundred feet away just from the heat."

He pointed the silvery lens at her, then frowned at the display. Fiddling with it, he finally nodded in satisfaction. "OK, that's working. Wow, it looks weird. But..." He squinted, motioning to her to turn around with his free hand. "I can't see your tail with this either. Looks like we're probably safe, at least for the moment."

"Great," she sighed, somewhat relieved. "I wasn't looking forward to everyone staring at me and pointing. Being known as the girl with the tail would get old pretty fast."

Grinning as he put the device away again, he placed both cases back into the hall, Taylor following him. "The snow stopped a while ago and the sun's out now. Why don't we go and get a couple of phones, a laptop, and arrange a better internet connection?"

With a smile she reached for her coat, then stopped. A request to her companion and she was wearing a duplicate of the one hanging on the coat-hook. Danny grinned again.

"That will save a lot of money." Putting his own coat on he opened the door, waved her through, then followed, locking it behind him, both of them getting into the car. Shortly they were headed downtown to the nearest mall with a decent phone shop and computer shop.


	7. Shopping and Idiots

Coming out of the phone shop, Taylor played with her new phone with a smile on her face. It was a fairly basic clam-shell version but the sales droid had told them it was waterproof, solidly made, and had a very good battery life. That seemed to tick all the boxes as far as she was concerned. Danny had put his in his pocket to look at later, still apparently not entirely enthused with the whole concept even though it had been his idea.

They already had a decent albeit basic laptop from another shop, and were heading towards the local telco outlet to arrange an internet upgrade from the horribly slow dial-up they currently had. Passing the food court she noticed a somewhat older and very good looking blonde girl accompanied by a very attractive young man, whose dark complexion and good looks she caught herself looking twice at. Or maybe three times.

OK, so it was four times, but who's counting?

On the fifth time, she saw that the blonde had noticed, flushing slightly and looking away quickly. As they walked past she quickly glanced sideways to see a smug grin on the face of the blonde, which rather suddenly turned into a grimace of pain, then a very puzzled expression. Averting her eyes and raising her hand to cover them the young woman exhibited all the signs of a sudden attack of migraine, her companion talking to her in a low voice. Taylor felt sorry for her and deliberately didn't try listening in on the conversation.

"We should probably pick up a few disposable phones as well," Danny suddenly said as they passed a large outlet store, making her forget the blonde and turn her attention to him. "Just in case. These ones can probably be tracked, so if for whatever reason we need to make an anonymous call to the police or something like that I'd prefer not to have to throw away a hundred dollars worth of phone."

Nodding with a small smile, she replied, "That sounds like good thinking, Dad." She paused, then added, grinning a little mischievously, "You're really getting into this, aren't you?"

He gave her a long suffering look. "Not by choice, believe me. If I had any say in the matter I'd lock you in your room or a decent school until you were at least twenty, to keep you safe." She snickered when he smiled, reaching out and ruffling her hair affectionately.

"Hey, mind the hair," she griped, running her fingers through it. "I like my hair."

"So do I," he smiled again. They entered the store and wandered around, picking up various odds and ends that they needed, such as some more AA batteries to replace the ones that had been used earlier. Taylor spent some time looking at the better clothing in the relevant department, allowing the Varga to memorize the patterns, which he'd assured her was simple for him. She'd done the same thing at some higher end stores as well.

The ability to have any clothing she wanted with a thought was something she found both amusing and desirable, even though she'd never been much of a clothes-horse, unlike Emma. She abruptly found herself wanting to show off some really nice clothes to rub the bitches' face in it, but was sensible enough to work out that was a probably not a good idea.

The whole time they'd been out she'd been waiting for someone to notice her tail, wincing at first when anyone paused and looked at her as she went past. No one seemed to notice it at all, allowing her to gradually relax. Even the time she turned around in one store and accidentally swept half a dozen items off a low shelf with the appendage didn't attract any more than an annoyed shop attendant who put them back while muttering about shop stockers who piled things too high.

Finding themselves in the electronics department they poked around for a bit, coming up in the end with some really cheap disposables for about ten dollars each. Danny dropped half a dozen into the shopping cart.

Heading towards the tills Danny detoured through the entertainment section, browsing the DVDs on release and picking up one of the second Die Hard movie, which they didn't have. Looking across at the CDs, he stopped, then walked across to the classical music section, reaching out and picking up one particular one and studying it. Taylor curiously read the title, seeing it was something called ' _Divenire_ ' by a musician by the name of Ludovico Einaudi, a name she vaguely recognised. Danny looked sad.

"What's wrong, Dad?" she asked quietly. He didn't respond for a moment, then sighed.

"I bought a copy of this for your mother just before she died," he finally said. "She loved this guy. I threw it away after, it reminded me too much of her." After a long moment he put it in the cart. Taylor slipped her arm around his waist and held him for a few seconds.

With another sigh of regret he shook his head once then resumed pushing the cart towards the exit. Shortly they were leaving, crossing the mall to the shop where he then spent half an hour carefully going over the options with another sales droid, finally signing the paperwork for the internet upgrade.

"It will, allegedly, be installed on Monday," he told her. He didn't seem to think this was particularly likely.

When they left, they stopped at the car to lock all the purchases in the trunk, before going back into the street outside the car park. "It's nearly four," Danny noted, looking up at the dark sky. "God, I hate the winter. It should be nice and bright at this time of day as far as I'm concerned, not nearly night already." Returning his attention to his daughter, he said, "Want to go and get a pizza? I still have some cash left."

"Sure, Dad, that sounds like an idea," she smiled.

Shortly they were happily munching through a couple of large deep dish pizzas, hers with extra chicken, his with anchovies, which made her wrinkle her nose. She'd been cataloging all the new scents she could detect the entire time, many of which would have been unpleasant before if she could have smelled them although now they were mainly only interesting. Anchovies still turned her stomach even so.

"How can you _eat_ those things?" she asked with disgust, watching him nom down a slice of pizza covered in them. He grinned and picked one off the rest of the pizza, dangling it at her and making her recoil, her hand over her nose.

"They're really nice. A bit salty though."

"They're horrible," she protested through her fingers.

"You like fish, I know that. These are fish. What's the problem?" Tilting his head back he dropped the ghastly little thing into his mouth and chewed happily. Taylor gagged.

"Yuck. Those aren't fish, they're little slimy salty slices of hell."

The comment made him snicker, although it had no effect at all on his appetite.

On the way back to the car, a loud _BOOM_ made her jump, spinning around to see smoke coming from an alley a few hundred yards away. Danny yelped and ducked behind a phone booth, pulling her with him. "What the hell was that?" she said, shocked.

"Something we should stay out of," he told her sharply, peering around the side of the booth with her below him. Both of them watched as a weird looking motorcycle roared out from the side street into the main road, swerving around a car which slammed to a halt, then stopping on the other side of the road. On it was a large figure wearing a costume she thought was vaguely familiar, possibly from a movie or something. She'd had the momentary idea it was Armsmaster but unless the master Tinker had rather suddenly rebranded himself it seemed unlikely.

Behind the bike was something even stranger. A ten foot high bipedal robot or something along those lines, with a pair of arms coming out the sides and mounting the most insane amount of armaments she'd ever seen, stomped along, a smaller man wearing a high tech suit visible inside the cockpit of the walking mech. He was driving it with aplomb, spinning the top section at the waist to point behind him, then releasing a small missile which screamed away down the alley. Another earth-shattering _BOOM_ sounded.

"Oh, god, it's those two idiots," Danny sighed. She nodded.

The presence of a small floating ball which was covered in lenses and seemed to be darting around videoing the entire mess confirmed the identities of the two Capes as Über and Leet, a pair of video game themed small time villains. She was familiar with their work, having watched their Youtube channel on many occasions. Sometimes their videos were screamingly funny, sometimes they were cringeworthy, but she had a guilty like of them.

"What do we do, Dad?" she asked, as Über jumped off his futuristic motorcycle and unlimbered an odd looking pistol, which he leveled at the so far unseen opponent that was apparently in pursuit of the duo.

" _Grenade!_ " a mechanical voice announced, just before he pulled the trigger twice. Two projectiles shot from the weapon down the alley, producing another pair of loud explosions. "Halt, Citizen!", he shouted in a loud commanding voice, thumbing a control, which made the weapon announce " _Armor Piercing!_ "

"We do nothing except wait for it to end then leave quickly," he hissed in her ear. "Unless you really want the whole city knowing about you. There are more phones out there than there were in the store and they all have cameras on them."

She nodded quietly, conceding the point. In any case, she was interested to see what happened next. She'd never seen an Über and Leet operation live. So far it seemed rather loud. Sidling out from behind the booth a little further she watched intently, the end of her tail twitching about with her curiosity like a cat's.

"Interference with the operation of a Megacity Judge is a class one felony, the penalty for which is five years hard labor." Über's voice was confident and smooth, making her smile despite herself, the situation, and the sheer stupidity of it. He fired the gun again, several shots sounding in rapid succession, then ducked suddenly as a moped flew out of the alley at his head, missing and disappearing into the front of the book store behind him with a huge crash. "Hey!" he yelped, dropping the act for a moment. "I mean, Cease your activity, Citizen, or I will be forced to raise the threat level to lethal."

More missiles shot from the mech war machine that Leet was piloting, while a crowd of people gathered at a safe distance and recorded everything on their phones. Taylor looked around and formed the definite impression that the residents of Brockton Bay were not entirely normal, being apparently more blasé about the live weapons fire than they should be. Shrugging she went back to watching.

The cape they were fighting finally made an appearance, a statuesque blonde in a white and gold outfit, wearing a tiara, but with no mask, hovering a foot off the ground. "Glory Girl," Taylor said in a low voice. She was a little overwhelmed, the young woman was beautiful to a level that would make Emma green with jealousy, and from the way she was standing, knew it.

"Why the hell are you two fuckwits robbing a pawnbrokers?" the heroic cape demanded loudly. Über pointed his pistol at her and fired once, making her step back a couple of feet. She floated sideways and ducked the next shot with ease.

"We are in the process of reclaiming stolen goods, Citizen. Please stand aside and allow us to go about our business or I will have no choice but to place you under arrest."

"I'd like to see you try, you twit," the blonde sneered. She ducked another missile from the mech, which shot past her head and impacted on a car on the main road, the vehicle promptly exploding enthusiastically. Leet, from what she could see of his face under the high tech visor through the windscreen of his machine, winced.

"If you insist, young lady," Judge Über said in a deep voice, sounding suddenly amused. He fired again at her, then again, tracking her across the face of the buildings as she tanked the first shot then avoided the rest. Taylor wondered why she didn't simply let them all bounce off her rather than allow them to hit the scenery and damage it. She was famously bulletproof, so it seemed odd to her.

Taylor could see what was going to happen several seconds before it did, watching wide eyed as Über neatly maneuvered his blonde opponent into a crossfire from Leet's mech, that didn't have any bystanders near her. Just as she ducked the last shot, Leet fired again. This time instead of a missile a large cylindrical object shot out of one of the arm cannons, unfurling into a net of metal cables which wrapped around her. She dropped to the ground and struggled but the net held, for long enough at least for Über to casually walk over, produce another, smaller cylinder from somewhere, then pull a pin on it and drop it at her feet.

He stepped back smoothly and watched with a grim smile visible below his visor as the grenade went off with a splortch sound, a mass of yellowish foam boiling up Glory Girl's legs to above her waist. Taylor recognized it as PRT issue containment foam, something strong enough to hold even the New Wave heroine for some time. She'd seen it used on the news a couple of times.

The foam set solid with a faint crunching sound, causing Glory Girl to yell obscenities at Über, who ironically saluted her then turned away while holstering his pistol. His eyes ranged across the crowd and she could see a small smile on his lips when he looked at her. She couldn't help smiling back, the entire thing was very well done, the way he'd allowed Glory Girl's own confidence to walk her right into his trap.

"They're idiots but I have to admit they have style," Danny sighed softly. She glanced at her father, seeing he was also slightly amused. "But that's going to make New Wave go after them twice as hard next time. They completely humiliated that poor girl."

"She walked right into it, Dad," Taylor commented. He nodded, still watching with the rest of the bystanders.

"It was a tactically sound move indeed," the Varga rumbled inside her head, sounding like he found the entire thing immense fun. "This Über person is a good warrior although his choice in costume is dubious."

"Sentence executed," the imposing Judge Über commented loudly, looking pleased. His head came up as a sound in the distance made everyone look, to see several PRT vans with sirens blaring round the corner a few blocks away, the familiar form of Armsmaster's own bike in the lead. "Ah. Well, our task here would appear to be complete." He looked around at the crowd recording him. "Remember, Citizens, to go against the instructions of a Judge invariably brings trouble. Obey the Law." He snickered, and Taylor could see Leet laughing in his mech. She found the comment pretty funny herself under the circumstances.

Judge Über hopped back on his bike, started it, then zoomed off, the giant mech striding off behind him with diminishing clomping sounds. Seconds later, Armsmaster roared past with his jaw set grimly, hot in pursuit. Two of the PRT vans followed while the remaining one stopped, disgorging a number of uniformed agents who began taking statements from the nearest in the crowd. One of them unlimbered some sort of backpack sprayer with which he hosed down Glory Girl, who by this time was purple about the general facial area with impotent rage. As soon as she was free of the sticky goop she rose into the air, dripping with goo, and shot off down the street after the fleeing villains without even thanking him.

"We should probably go," Danny said, pulling her away from watching as the PRT officers wandered about looking officious. "I don't really want to get caught up in this any more than we are, it could take hours."

Taylor nodded, following him and the rest of the crowd who had apparently come to the same conclusion. When they were safely back in the car and heading home, she rolled the window down for a moment, listening. She heard more explosions in the distance, ones she thought were Leet's mech missiles, other that were Uber's grenades, and a whole series she couldn't place. It terminated in an almighty boom that even at this range made her jump. Silence fell.

Rolling the window up she looked at her father. He'd obviously heard the last explosion although the rest were probably too faint for normal hearing. "I think that was the end of their game," she said wryly. "I wonder if they got away?"

"I wouldn't be surprised," he chuckled. "They seem to pull an escape off more often than seems plausible. Even when they get caught they escape in hours."

"I'll have to check their Youtube channel when we get the internet upgrade," she laughed. "I'm curious to see if I can see us on it."

"One good thing came of all this, we have proof that no one seems to see your tail," he said after another few minutes. She looked at him, then down at the end of the appendage in question which was tucked into the footwell, nodding.

"Seems like it. That's good."

When they arrived home, she took the laptop upstairs to begin setting it up, connecting it in place of the ancient machine she had under the desk. The dial-up was so slow she couldn't actually download any upgrades without a wait long enough for her hair to go gray, but she soon had it running well enough to allow her to start poking around on the PHO board, looking for comments about the scene they'd just witnessed.

She could hear the complex strains of music being played by a real expert coming up from downstairs, reminding her of when her mother was alive. Annette had loved classical music.

"Your form of music is very interesting, Brain," the Varga noted after the CD Danny had bought was on its third track. "Very complex, but at the same time, oddly simple. It is... relaxing."

"There are many forms of music on this world," she absently said out loud in a low voice, while clicking a link to another thread which had more reactions to Uber's little stunt earlier. "Mom liked that form very much. I like it as well, but not to the extent she did." She listened for a while, then added, "Although it does grow on you."

Eventually she was laughing helplessly at some of the things people were saying. Glory Girl's reputation had taken a definite hit, which made her feel a considerable amount of sympathy for the young woman, but she couldn't deny that some of the people posting on the board had a way with words.

Except for one guy called XXVoidCowboyXX, who was clearly an idiot of the highest order. She resolved never to reply to any of his postings, it seemed to just encourage him. This was obviously a bad thing.

"This person is a total fool," the Varga commented at one point as she was scrolling through the thread. She nodded with a smile. "Someone should do something about him before he lowers the collective intelligence of your species any further."

Laughing, she replied, ' _If we had to deal with every idiot on the internet no one would ever be doing anything else._ ' There was a soundless grunt of annoyance, but she could tell the great demon was enjoying reading the PHO boards as much as she was. He suggested several things to look up, which kept them both amused for hours.

Danny played the entire CD three times, then went to bed. She could hear him cry for a little while, then fall asleep, blinking back a few tears of her own, but happier than she'd been for a long time.

* * *

Lisa looked around the food court while Brian fetched their order from the teriyaki place, idly cataloging the various issues different people had. That business man was having an affair with two different women, who themselves were having an affair with each other, none of them the wiser. The couple to the right were apparently laughing and happy, but they both knew the woman had a terminal disease. She winced sympathetically at that one.

Over to the left was a group of teenaged boys who were whispering with their heads together, glancing at an older man. They were going to rob him when he left the mall. Wondering if she should do anything about that, she looked up as she felt Brian's presence beside her, picking up on what would normally be subconscious cues but to her were like shouting.

"Here you go," he said, handing her a tray, which she took with a smile, then sitting down opposite her with his own. She deliberately suppressed her abilities so she wouldn't get far too much information about the way the food had been prepared such as the hygiene or lack thereof of the people making it. It was a somewhat repellent byproduct of her power, unfortunately.

"Thanks, Brian." Opening the box she picked up the plastic fork and began eating, listening as he related the latest annoyance caused by his sister being difficult, something the damn girl had down to an art form.

Still listening and putting in agreeable grunts at the appropriate times to make him happy, she looked up, watching people passing on the other side of the waist height dividing wall that separated the food court from the rest of the mall.

An obvious father-daughter pair was slowly walking past, talking to each other. She could see the resemblance even without her power. The girl was glancing at Brian with what seemed to be more than casual interest, making her smirk a little to herself and look at her friend and team mate with amusement. He was, of course, completely oblivious to the effect he seemed to have on some women. It was one of the things she liked about him. For a so-called ' _villain_ ' he was something of a gentleman.

Studying the brunette she engaged her power, wondering what it would say about her target. Instantly she found herself puzzled. The information she was getting about how the girl held herself and walked was… weird. Nonsensical, in fact.

Trying for more on the girl herself, her interest piqued, she got a sudden impression of something _vast_ looking at her with a certain amount of disapproval. She flinched, feeling a wave of power-induced migraine jump out of nowhere and slam into her brain like a brick to the face. There was also a sort of mental static out of which she could only get intermittent flashes of information.  
 _  
Dangerous._

Not hostile.

Dangerous.

Hiding something in plain sight.

 _ **Really**_ _dangerous. Do_ _ **not**_ _threaten._

Her migraine increased to blinding levels and she closed her eyes, her face twitching.

"Are you OK, Lisa?" Brian's concerned voice penetrated the fog of pain the blonde was in, making her nod, then shake, her head, regretting both motions instantly.

"Not really, no," she said in a faint voice. "Do you have that bottle of Advil?"

"I thought you said painkillers don't work," he said in a low voice, despite that rummaging around in his coat pocket.

"They don't work very well, no, but to be honest I'll take anything I can get right now," she muttered, holding out her hand. He shook two tablets into it. "More."

A little reluctantly he gave her two more. "That's it, any more than that and you're going to have problems." She nodded slightly, placing the tablets in her mouth, chewing which made both of them wince, her from the incredibly bad taste and him in sympathy, then flipped the lid off her Coke and drank the entire thing. Putting her head on the table she waited.

After ten minutes or so she felt well enough to look up. Her head still hurt like hell but she at least didn't want to take the pistol in her handbag and put the muzzle in her ear now. "Ow," she said.

"What the hell brought that on?" he asked curiously, still looking concerned.

"I think I saw something I wasn't supposed to," she sighed. "I don't know. Just… if you see a tall fifteen year old girl with long curly brunette hair, brown eyes, and a wide mouth, turn around and walk the other way. I think it would be healthier."

Obviously very confused, he merely nodded, watching as she put her head on the table again and closed her eyes once more. After a moment he reached out and stole her nearly untouched meal, eating it while he waited patiently for her to recover.

* * *

"Hey, look at this."

Über, real name Randall Martins, looked away from his huge TV at the sound of his partner's voice. Pausing the game with the press of a button on the controller he got up and wandered over to the workbench on which an elaborate computer rig was set up, their little floating camera ball connected to it.

"What's up?" he asked curiously.

His old friend and literal partner in crime Leet, or Kevin Sherrill, pointed at one of the monitors. "Look. I was editing the show together from the footage from today and I saw something weird." Randall watched the video segment play, grinning at his recorded self in the Megacity One Judge's costume exchanging comments with Glory Girl. Rubbing his bruised chin he reflected with some chagrin that winding the blonde up like that, while extremely funny, had been a little over-effective. They'd been lucky to get away more or less undamaged although his bike was a write off. It had exploded all by itself just before he'd managed to hit the self destruct to cause a diversion. Luckily, the unscheduled violent disassembly had still worked to that end.

"It looks good. What's the problem?"

"Here, in the background. See that tall girl with the nearly black hair? About fifteen, sixteen, maybe?"

Über leaned in, peering at the monitor. After a moment he nodded.

"What about her?"

"Watch." Kevin scrolled back through the video frame by frame with a jog wheel on the keyboard. Randall kept his eyes on the girl, who was moving in reverse, going back behind the phone booth she'd apparently been hiding behind. "There. See it?"

"Not with you," Randall was forced to admit. Leet sighed heavily.

"OK. Look here." He put his finger on the monitor, right at the girl's feet. "Now watch carefully." He wound the recording forward again, then stopped it. Flipping it back and forth a few frames, he looked over his shoulder at his friend. "Please tell me you can see that."

Randall watched a few cycles of the recording, then slowly nodded. "What is it?"

"A tail."

There was a long pause.

"A tail?" Über's voice was puzzled.

His friend nodded. "Yes. A tail. A great big tail like you'd expect to see on a dinosaur."

Squinting at the monitor, Randall shook his head. "Are you sure?"

" _YES_ , I'm sure," the smaller man insisted in an irritated manner. He clicked the mouse, bringing up another clip. "Look, you can see it better here." Sure enough, this time Randall was forced to admit the girl did indeed have a tail, coming out of an apparently tailored opening in the rear of her pants. The way she moved it seemed completely natural.

"Hmm. That's a bit strange," he said slowly.

Leet looked over his shoulder at him and rolled his eyes. "A bit strange. OK, let's go with that. But, you want to know the _really_ strange thing?"

With a shrug Über replied, "What's the _really_ strange thing?"

"Look at this." His partner clicked on another recording, showing the scene from a different angle. "This is something one of the crowd recorded and posted on PHO. Look, there's that girl again, really clearly. What do you see?"

Carefully studying the video as it played, Über suddenly reached out and paused it. He leaned close to the monitor for a moment.

"I see a distinct lack of tail," he commented slowly.

"See? I said it was weird, didn't I?"

"Yes, you did."

"She's obviously a cape, although I don't recognize her. Maybe a case 53 I guess. But how is she hiding that tail? No one in the crowd seems to see it. As far as I can see any normal camera would miss it completely as well. The sensor in the snitch is very unusual, and even then it's only just making it out. I had to boost the gain a lot and run some signal processing on it to see it that clearly. It's a damn good trick."

Randall unpaused the video and played it some more. Suddenly he saw something else. Hitting the space bar he stopped it again, then studied the man next to the girl.

"What do I do with the recording?" Kevin went on. "I don't want to out a cape, but this is one of the best parts."

"Delete that part, anything with that girl in it," Randall told him firmly. Kevin looked up at him, a little puzzled by his expression.

"What do you mean?" he asked.

"See that guy there?" Pointing at the tall balding man with glasses who was standing next to the girl with the part time tail, he waited for his friend to nod. "That's Danny Hebert, the de-facto head of the Dock Worker's Union. He's a decent man."

Kevin studied the man for a moment. "And?" he asked, still sounding puzzled.

"That girl is his daughter. Look, you can see the resemblance very clearly. She must have triggered recently." Über sighed. "I don't want to be the one who outs her. And I really don't want to be the one who pissed Danny Hebert off."

"He's just a normal, isn't he?" Kevin asked. "I remember him now, we did a little job for the DWU a couple of years ago. He seemed pleasant enough."

"Oh, he is, although I think he's been depressed for a while. I heard his wife died or something. But the point is, he has a bit of a temper. Like, get him on the warpath and you'd better hope he doesn't meet you down a dark alley bit of a temper. Causing his daughter any trouble would _not_ go down well." Randall smiled grimly. "Normal or not, he'd be a problem. So, aside from any other reason, let's not poke that particular sleeping bear, OK? Delete the recordings. We have more than enough aside from that angle, right?"

Kevin nodded slowly. "Yep. We're covered. This show will be one of the best yet." With a few quick motions of his mouse, he made the files go away.

"Good. And thanks."

Über slapped his partner on the back and went back to his game, leaving the smaller man rubbing the impact spot and muttering something rude.


	8. Experiments and Conclusions

"This should do for now," Danny said, waving his hand at the cavernous interior of the warehouse. His voice echoed around the huge building, overlaid with the sound of dripping water from somewhere in the distance. "It used to be used for overhauling trawlers years back but no one uses it for anything but storage of old crap these days. It's still fairly secure, though, so those damn junkies haven't moved in. No one else is around now, it's nearly six PM, so we can make some noise if we need to."

Taylor looked around the vast room, nodding slightly. It was lit rather unevenly by industrial lamps in the ceiling, at least half of which weren't working. She couldn't see any windows and only the door they'd come in through, and on the other end a pair of enormous double doors that opened in the direction of the bay. Set into the floor were several sets of what looked like train tracks, greasy and oily for the most part but rusty in other places.

Overall, it looked like exactly what it was, a nearly abandoned warehouse, although in this case it was also a fairly good place to see what she could do.

Off to one side were a couple of dozen three foot square metal cubes, some sort of big dented bins, which seemed to be full of scrap metal. On the other side was a pile of cylindrical metal poles about six inches thick and six feet long. She looked at them, then her father. He answered the unasked question. "They're rollers for putting certain types of ship on. They weigh more than a quarter of a ton each."

"So what should we try first?" she asked.

He thought for a moment. "Easiest thing would seem to be finding out how strong you are. Find something heavy and try picking it up."

She shrugged, walking over to the row of steel rollers. He looked startled. "You really think you can manage one of those?"

"I won't know unless I try, right?" she asked, smiling at him.

"OK. Don't hurt yourself," he replied after a moment. Nodding, she looked down at one of the rollers, poking it with her toe. It didn't flinch, clearly unimpressed by her.

After thinking it over, she positioned herself in the middle of it, squatted down, and grabbed the thing. Trying to lift it produced nothing except a yelp of surprise when her hands slipped on the greasy metal, making her nearly fall over and Danny muffle a snicker. Glaring at him she held up her hands, watching his face as they shifted into something with a lot more grip and long talons.

Grimly, she wrapped her now-reptilian hands around the metal, squeezing hard and bracing herself with her tail, then tried again. She nearly fell over once more, this time in shock at how easily the huge piece of steel came off the floor.

"Holy shit," Danny breathed in stunned amazement.

"This is a lot easier than it should be," she laughed, hefting the roller. She had to be careful because the off center weight nearly made her fall over, but with a little juggling she had it in a stable carry. Walking slowly across the floor carrying it she could hear little crinkling sounds from the concrete under her feet since the weight was now concentrated in a much smaller area. The old material was flaking and decaying, so it didn't take much to cause it to crumble.

He stepped out of the way as she went past carrying over six hundred pounds of solid steel. A little more experimentation and she had carefully lowered it to the floor again, then grabbed one end and heaved it up to a vertical position, and from there onto her shoulder. Taylor started jogging around the room carrying the load, grinning like an idiot.

"Could you manage more?" he asked in shock.

She nodded, still grinning. "Sure. I think I could probably get four or five times this off the floor. But I can't pick another one up without dropping this one."

He pointed at the metal crates across the room. "Those must weigh at least three times what that thing does, the five on the end are full of old scrap cast iron of various sorts."

With a nod she returned the steel bar to where it had come from, lowering it to the floor then whipping her taloned fingers from under it, letting it drop the last half inch with a huge clang. Going over to the metal crates she looked at them, then picked one that was about half full. Grabbing it at the two points that seemed to be for connecting the crane that was silent on the ceiling, slowly decaying away, she heaved, leaning back.

Again, the impossibly large load came off the floor, although it certainly wasn't as easy this time. She lifted it against her chest, leaning far back to balance it, and turned around. "Where do you want it?" she asked with a grin. Danny shook his head in wonder.

"Put it over there on that big steel platform," he said, pointing. She did as requested, casting him a curious look. "It's a scale. I want to see how much it weighs." He went over to the large round dial she'd missed at first due to the way it was completely covered in dust and wiped it clean with a rag he picked up from an old workbench next to the scale. She saw it was reading nearly two and a half thousand pounds, the outer needle which read up to five hundred pounds having gone around several times and the inner one going up two divisions.

"Well over a ton," he whistled in awe.

"I'm going to try a heavier one," she said eagerly, grabbing the first crate and putting it back. He stayed well out of the way as she picked one that was nearly full. This was quite a strain but she managed to stagger over to the scale with it and dump it on the platform. When the needle stopped spinning around and settled down, they exchanged a glance of amazement.

"Four thousand eight hundred pounds. Shit. Over two tons."

"It _was_ pretty heavy," she admitted. He stared at her, then laughed.

"I'm not surprised. That's more than a lot of cars weigh."

"I don't think I could manage much more than that, Dad," she said. "Not in this form."

"OK. The thing I'm wondering is how on earth you can be that strong and not simply tear everything to pieces without even trying," he replied, looking at her thoughtfully.

"I am managing your strength to prevent exactly that happening," the Varga interrupted, making her nod and pass on the information.

"Ah. That would explain it. Thank you." Danny smiled. "OK then, Taylor, why don't you try your other form and see how it compares."

She nodded with a smile and headed back to the rollers, changing between one step and the next, her clothes vanishing as she did. Reaching them she leaned over, putting her forelegs on the ground and adopting a quadrupedal stance for stability, then grabbed one of the rollers with her right hand. Squeezing she lifted, easily heaving it off the floor. Looking over her shoulder she snickered at her father's expression, which paled even further when she picked up another one with the other hand.

"That… is very scary," he said in a small voice.

"It's very easy as well," she laughed. "They feel about the same weight as if they were made of polystyrene." Hefting the rollers, she tapped them together, wincing a little as her sensitive hearing protested at the surprisingly loud metallic ringing sound.

"Ow. _That_ was loud," Danny commented wryly, wiggling a finger in his ear. She would have blushed if she had the right physiology for it.

"Sorry, Dad," she apologized.

Putting one roller down again, she looked thoughtfully at the one still in her hand, then grabbed it with the other hand. Sliding them apart as far as she could, which was close to the ends, she heaved.

The six inch thick solid steel bar groaned in protest and slowly bent, smoking in the middle as it heated up. Danny went very still. She kept bending until it was a U shape, then put it down. Looking over at him she made the toothy smile she could manage in this form. "That's pretty impressive, right, Dad?"

He nodded jerkily.

Considering the bar, she picked it up then tried straightening it again. It resisted much more vigorously this time, making her mutter to herself. She performed the internal action the Varga had taught her to increase her size, growing larger while still heaving. When she reached about ten feet tall she found the bar bent back fairly easily. She wiggled it back and forth a couple of times, amused at the way the middle was beginning to glow dull red. "Wow. Why does it do that, do you think?"

" _You are stressing the internal molecular structure of the steel and causing it to emit heat from friction,_ " the Varga told her, somewhat to her surprise. He picked up on this, laughing slightly. " _I am not a scientist but I am also not entirely without education in such matters._ "

' _Fair enough_ ,' she thought at him with amusement. Experimentally she gingerly moved her finger along the metal, trying to work out when it was hot enough to burn her. To her surprise she found that she could place her hand directly on the red-glowing part. It felt warm, but not uncomfortably hot.

Squeezing she watched as the metal flowed around her fingers like modeling clay, leaving deep impressions. At her current size she could wrap her fingers entirely around the bar with no problems. "Hey, Dad, look at this," she said in an amused tone, waving the glowing bar at him. She was a little puzzled by the way he was simply staring.

"Doesn't that hurt?" he finally managed to say.

She shook her head. "No, it's pleasantly warm, that's all," she replied. Cocking her head she listened to her internal voice, then added, "Varga says heat resistance is a required part of being a demon." She giggled at the comment, while Danny sighed again.

"Of course it is," he mumbled.

Putting the distorted bar down she shrank back to normal size, then went back to the scales, walking on all fours like it was the most natural thing in the world. Her body seemed at home on either two legs or four, the arms at her waist making good legs. Grasping the sides of the crate on the scales she easily lifted it off, shaking her head a little in the process.

"It's too light. I can lift a lot more than this." Returning it to the row of similar ones, she looked through them, not finding anything much more heavily loaded.

Suddenly having a thought, she snapped her fingers, the talons clicking together. "I'm an idiot," she exclaimed.

"What do you mean?" Danny asked from where he was now sitting on a pile of wooden pallets.

Instead of directly answering him, she said out loud, "Varga, can you make me some weights to test my strength with, please?"

" _I was wondering when you'd think of that,_ " the amused voice of her constant companion said in her head. A sparkle of energy preceded the formation of a cube about two feet on an edge with a handle on each side on the floor in front of her, made of the same gray slick metal as the sword he provided. The handles were loops and covered in something that looked like it would provide a decent grip. " _There you go. Try that one._ "

"Thanks," she said, inspecting it curiously. Bending at the waist she grabbed the handles and lifted. "Ack. This is _heavy!_ "

" _That's what you asked for._ " The Varga laughed slightly.

Straining hard and leaning back, she managed to get the block of metal off the floor and over her forelegs, staggering in a weird four-legged manner over to the scales while leaving impressions in the concrete behind her. She put the block down carefully. The dial whizzed around, making Danny who was watching in awe whistle again. When it finally stopped he stared in shock, as did she.

"Thirty-three thousand pounds?" he squeaked.

"Holy crap," she managed. "That's over sixteen tons." They exchanged a glance, shocked even under the circumstances.

After a long moment, Danny got a thoughtful look on his face, inspecting the huge block of metal with a raised eyebrow. "Hold on. Something is wrong here."

"What, Dad?" she asked curiously, turning her head to him.

"It's _too_ heavy. What the hell is it made of?"

"Good stuff, the Varga said," she replied. Her head voice wasn't much more informative than that.

Rooting around on the workbench Danny came up with an old steel yardstick, carefully measuring the block on each side. "OK. Just under two feet. Let's call it two feet. Close enough," he muttered, pulling a small notebook from his coat pocket and a pencil from another one. Scribbling he kept muttering. "Volume is then eight cubic feet. Let's see..." He glanced at her, thinking hard, apparently trying to remember something. "Ah. I remember. Iron is around four hundred and ninety pounds per cubic foot, which means it would weigh… four thousand pounds. So it isn't iron."

He thought some more, while in her head the Varga was chuckling as if he was having a wonderful time. "Copper is heavier. Five hundred and sixty pounds or so. But that only gives… just under four and a half thousand pounds. Ah. Gold. What's that..." He was obviously very curious and on the trail of something interesting. Taylor watched for a moment while his lips moved silently, then lowered herself to the ground, lying on her belly like a giant cat. She waited.

"Aha! No. Damn. Gold would still only be about ninety-six hundred pounds. Osmium maybe?" Danny shook his head in frustration. "I can't remember the density of osmium exactly but it's nowhere near high enough. This stuff has a density at least three times higher than anything I have ever heard of. "

He looked frustrated. " _That's_ why your sword is so heavy. I wonder what the hell it really is?"

"He won't say, he just laughs when I ask," Taylor replied, shrugging. She stood up. "I'll find out sooner or later. At the moment it's a useful weight."

"I suppose," her father said doubtfully, still staring at the block with a puzzled expression.

"I'm going to try going bigger," she told him.

"The scales only go up to fifty thousand pounds," he warned.

"I don't think it matters. We know how much that one weighs, so we can work out the weight of a larger one just by measuring it." He nodded thoughtfully.

"Good point. OK, go ahead."

Pacing over to the middle of the floor, she looked around, then suggested, "Varga, can you make a big plate of that stuff to stop the floor getting dented any more? I left footprints in it the last time."

" _Certainly, Brain,_ " the demon replied, doing as she wanted. A flat covering of the gray metal grew across the floor from under her feet, coated with a thin transparent layer of something her feet could grip.

Curious, she asked, "Can you make that stuff anywhere?"

" _Within a short distance, yes_ ," he replied. " _It needs to be in proximity to you, though, as you are basically the conduit through which I work the matter creation. I can't do it at arbitrary distances. Let's say, within about fifteen feet or so from you._ "

"OK. Cool. Right, then, make a block twice the volume of the last one."

" _As you wish._ " The requested block of metal appeared in front of her. She experimentally tried picking it up, finding it impossible at her current size.

"Nope, too heavy," she reported to Danny, who was watching with interest. She increased in size, still heaving, until the block moved. "Got it," she grunted, finding that she was having trouble picking it up without tipping over. She was now about eight feet tall.

Putting it down, she then requested on twice the volume of the previous one. The block vanished, to be replaced with the bigger one. She repeated the process.

Eventually she worked up to a block nearly the size of a car, which by their calculations should weigh over a thousand tons. She was large enough that her head was level with the crane, forty feet in the air. "I think that's enough, Taylor," Danny called. He had been taking notes with an increasing air of disbelief.

"OK, Dad," she rumbled, her voice having become deeper and deeper as she grew. Flipping the internal switch she almost instantly shrank back to the normal size of her combat form, rising to her bipedal stance and walking over to peer over his shoulder at his notes. "Wow," she mumbled.

"Wow indeed. I wonder how strong that is compared to Alexandria," he asked, shaking his head in wonder. "And you seemed to be getting stronger faster as well. Each increase in size was smaller. At two hundred and fifty feet?" He let out a disbelieving breath. "You really would be picking skyscrapers up if you could get the leverage."

"I wonder how much I weighed at that size?" she mused out loud.

"Hop on the scales and we'll see if we can work it out," he suggested. She did exactly that, reading the result with interest. "Two hundred and ninety three pounds," she announced.

"OK. That's actually lighter than I expected," he replied. "Let's measure how tall you are." He used the yardstick while she stood next to the wall in quadrupedal mode. "Five feet six inches when you're standing like that."

"It's a little weird, I feel short like this," she told him. Looking over her shoulder, she added, "but long as well. The end of my tail is about ten feet away."

"All right, if you double in size your volume should go up by a factor of eight. Doubling in each of width, depth, and height. So, at forty feet, which is about where you were at the end, that's… roughly seven point three times as large as you are right now. So that makes it something like three hundred and eighty nine times heavier, which is… good grief, nearly a hundred and fourteen _thousand_ pounds. Around fifty seven tons."

She stared in disbelief, then looked at his calculations. As far as she could see he was right.

"How is that even _possible?_ "

"How are powers of _any_ sort possible?" he retorted. She had no answer.

"What about if I go full Varga?"

" _Never_ go full Varga," he quipped, but worked it out anyway. When he arrived at a final calculation he stared, then wordlessly handed her the notebook. She read the figure in complete shock.

"Thirteen… thousand… tons?" she whispered.

"Thirteen thousand seven hundred and fifty seven or so, actually," he said in a faint voice, groping for a seat again, finally slumping onto the pallet stack and staring at her. "Assuming you topped out at two hundred and fifty feet like you said, in that form, just bigger. If the Varga is actually more like that Godzilla from the movie, which from what I remember was more heavily built, it would be more. Probably a lot more. Twenty thousand plus?" He shook his head. "You'd certainly be able to leave footprints in the street. You'd probably leave them in solid rock."

They gaped at each other for quite a while.

" _Please_ don't leave huge foot prints down the middle of the Boardwalk," Danny finally said, which made her start laughing helplessly. He joined her.

When they finally calmed down, he looked at his reptilian seeming daughter fondly. "So, if nothing else, you're probably the Brute to end all Brutes. Let's see something new."

With a nod she returned to her base form, requesting a sword as she did so. Walking to the middle of the room once more she felt for a stable stance, concentrating on the swordplay skills she seemed to have picked up from Princess Luna. Slowly, she began what she thought was a training exercise, going through the motions carefully with the ridiculously sharp blade. Danny watched with great interest as she moved through a stylized set of exercises, her speed growing as her confidence increased.

Fifteen minutes later she was moving at a blinding speed, alternating thrusts, parries, blocks, and cuts seamlessly, while moving around the still present metal floor covering in what was very close to a dance, her tail moving to keep her perfectly balanced even when she leaned forward in a thrust. Her repertoire of movements had steadily increased through the process.

He twitched in surprise when between one movement and another she resumed the combat form, stumbling a little as she got used to the different balance, then picking up speed again until she was back to the same level as before. She pushed it harder, the sword going from making tearing silk sounds to producing small whip-crack sounds when particularly rapidly swung. She attacked an invisible opponent, slicing at it, then spinning around and lashing out with her tail in one movement, which would clearly have decapitated a normal human. The appendage literally whistled through the air it was moving so fast.

"I think that's probably enough, Taylor," he finally called. She slowed down then stopped, turning to face him. Her glowing eyes in the gloom of the warehouse stood out in a way that was unnerving even knowing it was his daughter there in front of him. "You should probably also think about having the Varga come up with a form that's not so… terrifying," he commented. She tilted her head like a curious puppy, making him grin.

"I have no idea what you mean, Dad," she said, a laugh in her voice.

"I'm sure," he replied, getting up and walking over to her. She waited for him, flexing her shoulders. The exercise hadn't been particularly tiring although she felt like she'd had a good workout. It was fun if anything.

"I have to say that based on what I saw, I think you have some fairly serious skills in swordplay," he went on. "I don't know all that much about it but it looked pretty formidable."

She nodded, looking at the sword she was still holding, then out of curiosity went over to the wrecked roller she'd bent with her father following. Inspecting it, she raised the sword, then swung it down at the metal, gaping when it went nearly all the way through.

"Holy crap," she exclaimed. "I hardly put any effort into that."

Wrenching it free she examined the blade, seeing it was as perfect as before. Shrugging, she swung again, harder. This time she chopped a six inch chunk off the end of the bar and buried the blade deep into the floor.

"Hey, watch it, dear," Danny protested. "If you cause too much damage someone is going to notice. We're still going to have to get rid of that." He pointed at the bent roller. Taylor dipped her head in embarrassment.

"Sorry, Dad." She asked the Varga to get rid of her sword, then bent down and picked up both pieces of bar. Heading towards the doors facing the bay, she listened carefully, then used a secondary hand to slide one half of the doors open having lifted the locking bar that clamped them shut.

"What are you doing?" Danny asked, coming up behind her.

"Getting rid of the evidence," she said with a smile in her voice. Sticking her head out she looked both ways, using the heat vision to be sure. No one seemed to be anywhere in the area. Sliding the door further open she looked at the bay, fifty feet away on the other side of a decaying concrete dockyard, then heaved the smaller piece in her right hand with a hard overhand throw. Both of them watched with astonishment as the forty pound lump of steel disappeared into the distance, a very tiny splash barely visible in the dim moonlight from the partially overcast night sky several seconds later.

She glanced at her father, then transferred the larger piece to her right hand, repeating the feat. This piece went nearly as far. "That's impressive," Danny mumbled.

"I don't think anyone will find it now," she told him with satisfaction then slid the door closed again with a rumble from dry bearings, locking it with the bar once more.

"No, I don't think so either," he agreed.

"What else can we test here?" she asked, resuming her human form, the Varga without comment again producing suitable clothes in the process. She was becoming very used to that facility even after only a couple of days. She had the brief notion that she was more or less wearing a figment of her imagination then tried not to get embarrassed, her cheeks pinking a little.

Danny looked around, thinking. "I'm not sure," he finally admitted. "We have an idea of your strength, which is just ridiculous, your speed which is impressive, and we're pretty sure you can probably fight quite well, at least with a sword. What's left?"

"Speed running in combat form?" she suggested after thinking it over herself.

"In here? You'd run into the walls. It's big, but not that big."

"How about on the freeway?" Taylor grinned at his expression. "Using the cloak technique, of course. That should stop anyone reporting a dinosaur running in the overtaking lane."

"Assuming it works," he grumbled, but eventually nodded. "All right. We'll drive home, when I get to the freeway on ramp you jump out and run. Make _sure_ you're cloaked. I don't want to have to explain to some nice police officer why my reptilian daughter is charging down the road with no clothes on."

She started laughing, shaking her head at the look on his face. "You can't see anything," she said, giggling. "My scales cover all the naughty bits."

"You're still nude. Don't make me insist you put a shirt on."

Snickering, she followed as he picked up the various things they'd used and put them back, requesting that the Varga get rid of the improvised floor cover in the process. Taking the phone he handed her she followed him out to the car, getting in when he unlocked it.

"At least it's dark now," she said, looking at the clock on the dash. It was nearly nine at night, they'd been experimenting for over three hours. "Even if anyone saw me the color of my scales should blend in with the night pretty well."

"Try not to be seen in the first place," he growled, driving through the darkened industrial wasteland. "I can't believe I'm letting you do this."

"Can you think of a better way to find out how fast I can run?" she asked. He shook his head.

"Unfortunately, no. Not without a very strange treadmill. I'm sure the PRT has something like that, but..."

She nodded, understanding his point. After another few minutes he slowed down, looking around. "OK. The on ramp is just down that way. Use that cloak technique, _then_ get out of the car. I'll wait for you."

"Yes, Dad," she agreed. ' _Varga?_ '

" _You are cloaked from anyone but your father, Brain_ ," the Varga told her calmly. " _You may proceed_." It seemed, as it often was, somewhat amused by their experiments. Taylor opened the door and got out quickly, shutting it again.

"You've definitely got your phone in case of trouble?" Danny asked suddenly through the open window.

"I have," she said. Then she frowned. "I'll have to hold it." Pulling it from her pocket she willed the change, then waited. Danny nodded, slipping the car into drive and accelerating, with her jogging along beside it. After a moment or two he sped up. She matched the pace effortlessly.

Half a minute later he indicated left, then pulled onto the freeway, heading home and slowly increasing speed. Within a short time he was matching the speed of the other cars, with her behind him following at the same velocity. She trailed him for several miles until he indicated and took the turning that eventually led to home. Half a mile further on he pulled into a dark alley, allowing her to stop next to him.

"Now, that was really impressive," he said, smiling up at her. She was breathing hard but steadily. "I hit over sixty along there for nearly five miles. You didn't seem to have much trouble keeping up."

"It was pretty easy, to be honest," she told him. "I think I could go faster. And of course I could get bigger, my legs would be longer so I'd run faster then as well."

"I'm not sure it's quite that simple, but I'd agree you're pretty quick. How tired are you?" He looked curious.

"I could easily do it again," she said after considering the question. "It feels like that sword exercise did. A good workout but not to the point I can't stand up. I think I'll sleep well, though."

"Interesting. OK, change back and get in. I need something to eat. How about spaghetti?"

"That sounds great, Dad," she told him, coming around to the passenger side and climbing in having gone back to human form.

When they were headed back home, he glanced at her where she was looking out the window, a small smile on her face. "I'm proud of you, Taylor. Always remember that."

"Thanks, Dad."

They sat in silence the rest of the way, but it was a comfortable one.


	9. Traps and Prey

**Wednesday, January 12, 2011**

"How about this?"

Danny stared, then shook his head slowly.

"No, that's… just disturbing."

Taylor sighed, feeling one of the horns sticking out of the side of her head with a taloned finger. "But it looks cool," she said, "Like a fantasy dragon."

"It also looks like you eat hobbits for lunch and laugh about it," Danny protested.

She mumbled to herself, then had another conversation with the Varga, which was almost constantly snickering as they tried various forms to see if there was a practical one that was also, to use her father's rather descriptive words after turning around and seeing her grinning at him in the kitchen that morning while trying out a new one, not ' _pants-shittingly terrifying_ '. The demon had found this extremely funny, although Danny had not, going pale and squealing like a little girl before he recovered.

She tried again. He stared once more then closed his eyes. "Are you actually _trying_ to give me a heart attack?" he moaned.

She shook her head. "No," she said more or less honestly.

"Lose the teeth."

"Thy'r f'ngs," she muttered through a mouthful of ivory that would have made a rampaging T-Rex run away whimpering.

"They're horrifying," he retorted, opening his eyes briefly then closing them again. "Try again."

Sighing, she did. When he felt it was safe, he opened his eyes once more, then gaped, before rolling them.

"What do you call _that?_ " he asked, exasperated.

She looked down at herself, then back at him. "Something you could ride to work?" This form was an even more quadrupedal version than the original combat form, obviously built for pure speed, like a horse crossed with an iguana. There were only four legs, no arms, and a row of spikes down the spine from the back of her head, along the long neck, and right down the length of her tail, terminating in something that looked like it came from a stegosaurus.

Her head was slightly less ferocious looking than that of her normal combat form, inasmuch as it had smaller teeth and no horns this time. The glowing yellow slit-pupilled eyes were the same, though.

"It's not very practical, though, is it?" he asked patiently. "I mean, you don't have any hands, just those sort of paw-like things, and trust me, there's no way you'd get anyone to sit on your back with those spines in the way."

She performed an odd shrug, the spines melting away. "How's that?"

"Still no."

Laughing, she went back to her base form, moving to hug him. "Sorry Dad, Varga is giggling himself sick now, he thinks the whole thing is ridiculous. He said that becoming cuddly and friendly is almost the exact opposite of his nature. We can try again later."

"All right." Danny gave her an affectionate if long-suffering look. "Let's go over the plan for tomorrow one last time, then I'm going to bed. Try not to stay up all night on the internet."

He fixed them some nachos and they sat at the kitchen table for an hour going over everything until they were both sure they knew their parts in the next stage.

* * *

 **Friday, January 14, 2011**

Taylor sat in the passenger seat and stared at the form of her biggest nemesis.

Winslow High School.

It stared back, the blank gaze of the windows across the front of the building giving off an air of contempt.

She shivered a little, then took a deep breath. "I can do this," she said quietly. Danny put his hand on her shoulder.

"I know you can. Just don't lose your temper. We have to let them do the work and if you give them any excuse they can twist it."

She nodded, suddenly tired of all this running around. " _We could simply jump up and down on that building, Brain,_ " the Varga suggested with malicious amusement. " _You would feel much better afterwards_."

Snickering, she conceded the point, but replied, ' _It would be great but it would also cause more trouble. Let's try Dad's plan. Jumping up and down is the last resort_.'

" _As you say._ " It seemed mildly disappointed, making her laugh again.

"Please don't do whatever your friend just suggested you do," Danny sighed, recognizing the symptoms of her conversing with the demon. "When you get that tone in your laugh I worry."

She grinned at him, looked back at the building, then craned around to peer out the back window at the car behind them, before replying, "Let's get it done."

"All right," he responded, putting the car in gear again and pulling into the visitor car park. The other vehicle stopped beside them as they both got out, two men exiting and waiting.

One was an absolutely _huge_ black guy, about mid thirties, bald, and over six and a half feet tall. He looked like he could snap Danny in half without even trying. The other one was white, less than six feet tall, but nearly that across, his face bearing a faint but impressive scar running from above his left eye all the way down and around his face to under his chin. This one looked like he ate gravel for breakfast, _without_ milk.

They were a couple of men Danny had borrowed from the longshoreman's club at the DWU, people he trusted and who trusted him. Both of them looked like they were having fun. They were wearing suits and sunglasses, with long coats over them. Overall the impression was of competent danger.

"OK, you two, remember, no rough stuff unless they start it, and don't laugh." Danny looked at them severely.

John, the white guy, saluted him with two fingers, grinning for a moment then making his face go blank and cold like a hit-man waiting to be paid, while the other one, Zephron, nodded. "You got it, Boss," he said in a voice so deep Taylor could swear she felt it through her shoes.

"And knock off the Boss stuff, we're not in a Godfather movie," Danny added.

"Si, Padrone," Zephron quipped, making John and Taylor both snort with laughter.

"You see the level of people I have to work with, dear?" Danny complained, turning to his daughter.

"I do, Dad. It must be hard." She caught the huge bald man's eye and he winked, then quickly schooled his expression when Danny looked back suspiciously.

Sighing faintly while still looking mildly amused, Danny cast his gaze around the car park while he adjusted his own coat. His eyes stopped on one particular BMW, then narrowed. "Interesting," he muttered.

Taylor looked to where he was, before asking, "Isn't that Mr Barnes' car?"

"Yes, it is. That is… a little unexpected. But I think it makes this even better." He turned to her with a small hard smile. "Let's go and show them what happens when you mess with a Hebert. Give us ten minutes, then go inside, like we agreed."

She nodded, waiting patiently as he walked across the car park through the slush with a steady gait, disappearing into the building with his two companions in formation behind him on either side. Students who were milling around the doors took one look and melted out of the way, even the ABB and E88 gangers looking a little nervous. Taylor grinned viciously. She was abruptly intensely proud of her father and looking forward to what happened next, all her earlier fears gone.

" _He is a formidable man when angered, your father,_ " the Varga noted quietly. " _I am glad that this entire sequence of events has apparently started him on the road to recovery. I like him._ "

' _Thanks. So do I._ ' She glanced at her watch again, then took another deep breath.

"Showtime," she said in a low voice. She adjusted the sleeves of her hoodie, making sure that the specialist equipment in it was operating, tapped the frame of the new pair of glasses she was wearing in a specific place twice, then started walking, slightly slouched over with her head down, the very picture of a dejected, depressed loner, her bag hanging at her side.

* * *

"Danny Hebert, to see Principal Blackwell," Danny said calmly as he looked expectantly at the bespectacled middle-aged woman sitting at the secretaries' desk, who looked back with a supercilious expression, one slightly modified by the presence of his two looming book ends. "With associates."

She looked down and made a big production of looking through her appointment book, making little officious sounds. "I'm afraid I can't see an appointment here, sir," she said after a moment. He raised an eyebrow.

"Really? Perhaps you need new glasses." He put his finger on one line on the currently open page, reading the entry upside down, a skill that had stood him in good stead during many contract negotiations. "It's right there, see? Eight AM, Hebert, Danny."

The woman frowned, but was forced to admit that he had a point. "I'll just see if she's ready for you," she said, picking up a phone handset.

"Oh, don't go to all that trouble, I know the way," he told her airily, turning and striding off towards the door leading to the principal's inner office, John and Zephron following his cue with aplomb. Outraged cries of indignation came from behind them but he ignored the sounds, knocking once on the door, then swinging it open. His companions took up stations on either side, folding their arms and looking blankly at the secretary, who had scuttled after them. She paled a little and stopped, then returned to her desk.

Inside the office, Danny closed the door behind himself, looking around at the surprisingly large number of people packed into it. "Well, well, well," he said quietly. "Quite a crowd. How unexpected."

"Mr Hebert, I don't appreciate you bursting into my office like this," the severe pinch-faced blonde woman sitting behind the desk said coldly.

He smiled pleasantly at her.

"Pity," he replied. Looking at his watch, he added, "I'm on time, so I wonder why not?"

Glancing around again, he nodded to a familiar face. "Alan. I'm rather surprised to see you here." Alan Barnes looked both worried and apprehensive, although it was only his long history with the man that let him see that past the professionally blank facade of a practicing lawyer.

Sitting next to him was a black woman about his age, who wasn't hiding the worry nearly as much, and a short man in a nice suit who seemed a little puzzled by his own presence. Danny turned back to the Principal, putting his briefcase on the floor beside him. "I have to ask, why are these people here? I didn't ask for them."

"Since you are here about your daughter's alleged bullying, I thought it prudent to make it fair by ensuring all parties were represented."

He studied her for a few seconds, long enough that Alan Barnes shifted uncomfortably in his seat. "Did you now. That _is_ interesting. When we talked, I didn't mention that the three girls who were the ringleaders of the campaign against Taylor were Emma Barnes, Sophia Hess, and Madison Clements. The fact that you know that already and called them would appear to back up my side of the issue."

Blackwell looked annoyed, and also like she'd suddenly realized she'd made a tactical error. Danny grinned at her, channeling the effect his daughter could produce with her combat form remarkably successfully. Blackwell swallowed a little, then attempted to cover it by shuffling papers on her desk.

"So, since I know Alan well, that would presumably make you Sophia's mother, and you most likely Madison's father," Danny said, turning abruptly to the two unknown people present. They nodded, Madison's father getting half way through putting his hand out before he thought better of it.

"What's this all about, Danny," Alan asked, everyone turning to look at him. "Taylor and Emma have been best friends since they were five. You can't honestly believe that Emma would turn on her? Bully her?"

Danny stared at him. "I trust my daughter implicitly and she has told me some extremely disturbing things, Alan. If she says Emma has been bullying her, I believe it."

He glanced at his watch for a moment.

"Mr Hebert, while I understand that you may feel concerned about bullying, let me assure you that, while it does occur in this school as in every school, we are very proactive about stopping it and preventing any serious problems," Principal Blackwell said in an obviously prepared way. He looked hard at her.

"Really."

"Oh, yes, I can say without fear of contradiction that nothing beyond schoolyard pranks could happen here. I admit Taylor has made allegations, but she could never produce any proof. We investigated each allegation thoroughly and diligently and found nothing to back up her stories. I can show you the files if you would like to check." She pushed a folder on her desk forward.

Danny looked at it, then his watch again, before sitting in the seat in front of the desk, which he was amused to see was low enough that it left him looking up at her. An old trick in negotiations. It had no effect if you realized it, of course. Picking his briefcase up he put it on his knees then opened it, removing the stack of paperwork Taylor had given him. He also pulled out a number of glossy printouts he'd made on the color printer in his office, spreading them across the desk. Principal Blackwell looked confused, then as she saw the images, disgusted and angry.

"I have files as well, Principal," Danny said mildly. "And these. You do recognize them, I hope?"

"I hardly think that showing inappropriate photographs of filth is…" He raised a hand, cutting her off mid word.

"Perhaps I should make sure that everyone is on the same page here." Reaching out he picked up one photo, turning in his seat to display it to the three others present, all of whom were looking slightly lost. Apparently while the Principal had called them in she hadn't got around to mentioning exactly why yet.

"This is a photo of the inside of Taylor's locker taken at twelve thirty eight AM on the morning of the seventh of January." He held up another one. "Just after the previous one. Those are her footprints on the floor." He handed them to Alan who was nearest, the lawyer taking them and looking at them with a weird expression. The other two peered at them as well, Mr Clements seeming at a loss.

"You'll note that the handprints on the locker are remarkably clear. You can even make out the fingerprints if you look closely," he added casually. Principal Blackwell looked furious.

"What's that stuff in the bottom of the locker?" Mrs Hess asked with an expression of curious disgust.

"That would be the large amount of used tampons and other biological waste that _your_ daughters put in there, before they pushed _my_ daughter inside and locked her in," he replied, in the same mild tone but with an undercurrent of danger. All three parents looked shocked.

"She was in there for over twelve hours, by the way. Someone finally let her out, but..." He glared at the principal who glared right back. "I have to wonder how the hell a fifteen year old girl could be locked into a school locker in a public area in the middle of the day, with all the various people wandering back and forth, students and staff alike, and _not one single one of them_ apparently even noticed."

"You have no proof," Blackwell started, at the same time Mrs Hess burst into tears and Alan Barnes exclaimed, "Danny, you can't possibly think Emma was involved in this?"

He looked at the principal, then back to his old friend. "Taylor is convinced that it was Emma and Sophia directly involved in filling her locker with that… stuff… and that it was Sophia who pushed her in and locked it. And from what she tells me probably intimidated the students to the point that none of them were willing to get involved. Why the staff wouldn't I don't know for sure but based on her records and what she told me, a serious house cleaning is needed." He was quietly furious but containing it, his anger lending his words an edge that seemed to make most of them listen despite not wanting to.

Turning back to Blackwell, having checked his watch again to get the timing right for best effect, he continued, "And as for proof..."

Reaching into his briefcase again he removed a laptop computer with a box of electronics festooned with antennae connected to it, putting in on the desk and opening the screen so that everyone could see it. Pressing a button made it wake up, displaying an image of the door of the school, which was bobbing up and down in a way that made it clear that the camera was being held by someone who was walking.

"… I think we'll very soon have all the proof we need, if events work out the way Taylor thinks they will."

Blackwell glared at him and opened her mouth. He raised a warning finger. "No. Not this time. It's this or I just go to the police and file a complaint of attempted murder with you as a co-conspirator. Even if I lose the case the publicity will kill your career and you know it." She closed her mouth with a snap and gave him a look that promised death and destruction, with a little sowing of the ground with salt afterwards thrown in.

Danny smiled grimly and returned his attention to the screen, reaching out to turn the volume up.

* * *

Entering the school, Taylor couldn't help the shiver that ran down her back and along her tail, feelings she'd been trying to bury for the last week coming to the surface. "You can do this, Brain," the Varga murmured gently in her mind. "These people are beneath contempt. Do not let them intimidate you."

She nodded very slightly, not trusting herself to say anything even in the mind-speak they shared, then looked up. Eyes were looking back at her. Lots of them.

As far as she could see damn near every student in the hallway was either staring outright, or looking at her when they thought she couldn't see. She could make out quite a number of smirks and several people laughing, one or two of them pointing at her.

Taking another calming breath through her teeth, she tried to remain passive and blank, although she had a sudden wild urge to grow scales and claws and just scream her rage. The Varga sent her calming sensations, which helped a lot.

Walking through the corridors towards her hated locker her tension grew with every step. People mainly stepped out of her way, but more in the manner of someone who didn't want to either stop something funny happening, or else didn't want to get involved. She could hear cutting comments from around her, decrying her looks, her clothes sense, and her overall hygiene, but she pushed them to the back of her mind. They were so normal to her school experience she hardly noticed any more.

A glance over her shoulder showed a number of girls she recognized from Emma's clique following behind, at enough distance to have plausible deniability, but closely enough that they wouldn't miss anything. She sighed internally and went back to her practiced depressed slouching walk.

"Are you certain that these people would be missed, Brain?" the Varga inquired. "I can think of a number of training exercises that require live targets."

The comment made her snicker under her breath, very quietly. She kept her head down but felt better. She had more backup than these idiots could _possibly_ imagine, a thought that made her feel warm inside. Hoping that the cameras in her glasses were working correctly, she turned into the corridor leading to her locker, seeing at a glance that Emma, Madison, and Sophia were waiting for her. They were making it look like a casual encounter but she could literally smell the anticipation wafting from them all, dwarfing the scents of either pleasure or fear she was sensing from the rest of the students.

Stopping for a moment, she looked at the three girls, who looked back, all four of them knowing this encounter was inevitable, then walked the remaining twenty feet and started working the combination lock. The scent she associated now with Sophia grew stronger as the girl wandered over, and she could also hear Emma and Madison making their way around to the other side. The slight draft in the corridor was blowing their scent away from her.

When the lock clicked, she pulled the door open and looked inside, half expecting to see stale blood and hand prints, even though her nose told her the thing had been scrubbed repeatedly with bleach. It was, of course, completely empty.

"I can't believe she bothered to come back," she heard Madison mock-whisper behind her. "I mean, look at her. She's a wreck. Poor girl should be in a home or something."

"She smells horrible as well," Emma whispered back, equally loudly. Sophia snorted with muffled laughter, leaning casually on the locker beside hers. She glanced at the other girl for a moment, then went back to taking books out of her bag and putting them in the locker.

"Surprised you showed up, Hebert," Sophia said. She looked over Taylor's shoulder, probably at Emma, then returned her attention to her target, a small malicious smile on her face. "Considering."

Taylor turned to her. "Considering?" she prompted, her voice flat. "What's that supposed to mean, Sophia?"

"Considering what a pathetic excuse for a human being you are. Sorry, was I too subtle for you?" Sophia smirked while Emma and Madison giggled.

"Why do you do this, Sophia?" Taylor asked, genuinely wondering what the answer was. "Why go to so much trouble to cause me problems?" She waved at the open locker, making the girl glance at it then smile again nastily.

"You're weak, Hebert. The natural order of things is that the strong prey on the weak." Sophia looked like she wanted to say more but caught herself.

"What happened to you, anyway, Taylor?" Emma asked in a solicitous manner, causing her to turn to the other side. Her former friend was standing with a small smile on her face, toying with her hair. Madison was listening next to her, her own expression not exactly pleasant. "You used to be fun. Not good looking, I guess, but at least OK to hang out with."

"You know the answer," Taylor replied evenly, keeping her temper although she wanted to reach out and pop the girl's head off like a champagne cork. Closing her locker having put most of her books away, she slipped the lock through the metal loops, clicked it shut, and spun the dial.

"I heard you had something go wrong with you which is why you were away for a week," Madison commented in her cute voice. "Was it serious?" She tapped the side of her head meaningfully. "I know you have problems."

"You all know what it was," she replied, looking between the three of them. "I can't figure out how you did it, I have to admit, but I know it was you."

Sophia grabbed her by the shoulder and slammed her into the locker, spinning her around and putting her other arm across her shoulders, holding her there. She allowed it to happen, curious to see what the next step was.

"If you go around saying things like that you might get hurt, Hebert," the girl hissed into her ear. "More, I mean. Just keep quiet and take what you deserve."

"Deserve?" Taylor queried, her forehead resting on the cool metal of the locker and her eyes shut. "Why do I deserve it? Why do I deserve _any_ of this? What fun do you get out of torturing me?" Her voice was ragged, her breathing irregular. "You locked me into a pile of bloody crap for half a day and nearly killed me. What have I ever done to deserve that?"

"We'll do it again if we want." Sophia sounded pleased. "It was a lot of effort collecting the… stuff… but it was worth it. I only wish I could have seen your face when you got out."

"Did you cry, Taylor?" Emma asked gently. "Like when your mother died?" Despite herself, Taylor stiffened. She restrained herself from removing the redhead's face with immense difficulty. The Varga sent her more calming waves of reassurance although she could also feel he was furious. Emma apparently turned to the other two.

"She told me she was crying for a week. Maybe that's why she was away all this time. Is that it, Taylor? Were you curled up on your bed crying like a little kid?" She sounded creepily calm and happy, making Taylor for the first time think that there really was something seriously wrong with her former friend.

"Actually, no," she said in a low voice. "I was recovering from the physical trauma of being locked in a tiny metal box by three psychopaths."

Spinning her around roughly, Sophia pushed her face right up against Taylor's, glaring at her from inches away. Taylor thought idly that the shot the hidden camera must be taking right now was pretty damning. The girl looked enraged, her already dark skin darkening even more as it flushed. Interested, she switched on her Vargavision, as she thought of it, seeing all the blood vessels in the other girls face glowing in a way that was almost pretty.

When Sophia opened her mouth to say something the inside of it was glowing with heat. Taylor could feel the breath against her cheek. "You're prey, Hebert! Prey doesn't get to say things like that. Prey simply accepts its place in the world and lets its betters do what the fuck they want to it."

"Does that make you a predator, Sophia?" Taylor asked, somewhat curious about the answer. In her head, the Varga snorted.

"You're fucking right I am," the girl snarled, clearly letting her temper get the better of her. "I'm the biggest predator in this entire school. I say jump, you don't even ask how high, you just jump." She shook Taylor hard to make her point. Madison was watching with a certain amount of worry, Taylor noticed when she looked to the side for a moment, seeing the heat map of her face and features. She was becoming aware that she could probably work out moods quite well with this sort of help and wondered if it would work for detecting lies. Filing that thought away for further inspection at a point when she wasn't being manhandled by a lunatic, she looked at Emma, who was smirking.

"Look at me when I'm talking to you, bitch," Sophia growled. Taylor, with an inner sigh, returned her attention to the girl who was doing her level best to lift her off her feet with the arm across her throat, pushing her into the door of the locker.

"Are you going to take much longer, Sophia?" Taylor asked in the same flat inflectionless voice that she'd used so much over the last couple of years, trying to keep her feelings hidden. "The bell will be going soon and I need to get to class."

Looking surprised, the girl actually released her, stepping back a pace. "Impressive, Hebert. That was almost defiance. I thought we'd beaten that out of you by now."

"I told you she was worth it, Sophia," Emma said, sounding pleased. Puzzled, Taylor looked at her for a moment, then picked up her bag which she'd dropped when Sophia grabbed her.

As she moved to walk away, the other girl shoved her hard, making her stumble sideways and nearly drop the bag again. "Don't get mouthy again, Hebert," Sophia said menacingly. "We'll see you later." There was a promise of future violence in the comment. Taylor simply stared passively at her for a moment, then shrugged, turned away, and started to walk off.

"Whatever, you lunatic," she mumbled under her breath.

A sudden grip on her shoulder spun her around again, to see Sophia, who had apparently heard the comment, cocking a fist back.

" _Let her,_ " the Varga said.

She did.

The punch to the mouth would have laid out a decent sized adult male. On someone with Taylor's slim build, it should have been devastating. It was obvious that the girl knew how to fight, and had had significant training. Taylor was knocked flat, half turning in the process, to end up in a pile at the base of the lockers on the other side of the corridor. The two or three dozen other students who had been hanging around to watch went quiet.

Stomping over, Sophia kicked her target in the ribs several times. " _You… Don't… Get… To… Call… Me… THAT!_ " she said loudly and savagely, adding a kick with each angry word.

* * *

"Sophia, I think that's enough," Madison said in a small voice, staring at the panting teenager, who still looked furious and vengeful.

"Did you hear what that bitch called me?" Sophia demanded, pointing at the slumped girl, who was making muffled sounds and twitching. "No one calls me that."

"She deserved it, Mads," Emma said from beside her, looking pleased. "She needs to know her place."

"What are we going to do now?" Madison asked, looking around nervously. "The locker was one thing, but kicking the crap out of her right in the middle of the corridor is something else." The corridor had emptied remarkably fast, no other student apparently wanting to remain and be a witness.

"Don't worry, no one cares," Sophia said dismissively, wiping her face with a tissue she pulled from her pocket, then producing a mirror and checking what the result was. Snapping it closed she put it away again. "Let's get to class."

The muffled sounds from the downed girl grew louder. They all looked at Taylor. "Oh, the poor thing, she's crying again," Emma said in a sing-song voice. She stared at her friend. "Just like when we took her silly flute."

About to walk away, they stopped when the girl on the floor rolled over then stood up, raising her head to look at them. Madison stared in surprise.

She wasn't crying.

She was laughing.

Taylor walked closer, grinning in an unnerving way. She stopped a couple of feet from Sophia, looking down at her. Now that she wasn't slumping, Madison was shocked at how tall the other girl was, dwarfing her own five foot nothing by at least eight inches. She was noticeably taller than Sophia as well.

Sophia looked startled, while Emma was staring mutely. Taylor inspected each of them in turn, then leaned closer to Sophia.

" _Got_ you, you bitch," she whispered.

Turning around she walked off with her head high, whistling happily, a completely different figure than the one that they were used to. The three girls exchanged glances, wondering what the hell had just happened.

Right at the point that rage was suffusing Sophia's face, displacing the befuddlement that had been there before, and she was obviously about to charge after her target, the elderly PA system crackled a few times, then spat out an announcement.

" _Sophia Hess, Emma Barnes, and Madison Clements will report to the Principal's office immediately. That means,_ _ **right now**_ _, ladies._ "

The PA clicked off with an air of finality.

Looking at each other, then after the figure of Taylor who was disappearing around the corner in the distance, they all reluctantly headed to their destination.

* * *

Danny watched the entire trip through the halls from his daughter's viewpoint with a sinking heart. Reading her journals, and talking to her, had given him what he thought was a good idea of what she went through on a daily basis.

He'd been wrong.

It was so much worse, he felt like crying. How on earth a fifteen year old girl could take that sort of thing for so long without going mad was beyond him. How had he possibly never noticed the effect it had on her?

With waves of guilt going through him he kept his eyes locked on the screen, several windows showing video from the main two cameras in the special glasses Taylor was wearing, one with the same field of view as a normal human, the other on the other side a wide angle one capturing everything in front of her.

There was another one in the back of her hoodie, protruding from a small nearly unnoticeable hole, which got everything behind her. They all had microphones although the audio they were currently listening to was coming from the first one. The glasses transmitted a short range signal to the pack of electronics concealed in the garment, which relayed it to the laptop. The audio and video quality was superb, which helped them a lot but also showed everything in merciless detail.

He definitely owed Mike a favor or two for this. The ex dock worker was now a fairly successful private investigator with a considerable expertise in surveillance, which he'd been more than happy to help the man who got him his first job with, leaving aside his personal feelings.

At the point Emma made the comment about Annette's death, which made him clench his fists, Alan suddenly jumped to his feet. "Enough!" he shouted. "You've made your point. I don't want to watch any more."

"Sit down, Alan," Danny said calmly, not looking away from the screen.

"No. This is just sick. OK, my daughter is in the wrong, I'll admit that. Stop rubbing our faces in it." Mr Clements was silently watching, an expression of horror on his face, Danny noticed when he glanced over, while Mrs Hess was crying softly. Principal Blackwell was sitting rigidly still with a face like a statue, radiating impotent fury.

"We're going to let it finish. Sit down, Alan." Danny didn't raise his voice.

His old friend headed towards the door. "No. I'm putting a stop to this right now."

"Zephron?" Danny pitched his voice louder, still watching the screen of the laptop. The door opened, the form of his colleague filling the aperture almost completely. Alan stopped dead.

"Mr Hebert would like you to sit down and be quiet," Zephron rumbled, looming in a surprisingly professional manner and fixing Alan with his eyes, hidden behind his sun glasses. They'd been Taylor's idea and Danny had to admit they added a certain air of menace. Presumably the reason people like the Secret Service always seemed to be wearing them.

Alan went a funny color, looked around helplessly, then made his way back to his chair. Sitting obediently he looked cowed. Danny wasn't happy about acting like this but he needed to make the point.

"Thank you, Zephron," he said.

"You're welcome, Mr Hebert," the huge man replied. Danny got the impression he was enjoying himself. Closing the door with him on the inside this time, the man leaned against it and crossed his arms, making everyone but Danny look a little nervous.

Hearing the confessions of not only the locker incident but the theft of the flute his wife had played so well made him both pleased and furious. When Sophia punched Taylor he nearly jumped to his feet himself, even though he knew full well she could take a lot more than that without harm, and that it was almost handing them victory on a plate. Finally, the whole sorry thing came to a halt when Taylor expressed her feelings and walked away, whistling what he recognized with amusement as one of the melodies from the CD he'd bought the previous week.

Prodding a couple of keys he put the machine back to sleep then put it back in his briefcase, to dead silence from the room. After several seconds, the principal cleared her throat, reached for the microphone on the corner of the desk, and pressed the button on it. Everyone heard the announcement through the door. Releasing the PA button she stared at him.

"I think that constitutes proof, don't you, Principal Blackwell? Admittedly it might not fly in court, depending on how good your lawyers are, but if it was to get out into the public domain..." He trailed off, then shrugged, as the woman looked like she wanted to strangle him. "I'm not saying I'd do such an underhanded thing but you know the modern world, there are hackers everywhere."

"What do you want?" she gritted, almost purple with rage.

He stared into her eyes. "What I _want_ is you and most of the staff out of a job in favor of someone actually competent, those three girls punished, ideally expelled, and to be honest after seeing what just happened, I think at least two of them need serious therapy. Right now." He glanced at Alan, who was looking sick. "I mean it, Alan, there's pretty obviously something very wrong with Emma. You need to look into that."

Returning his attention to the principal who looked on the verge of apoplexy, he said, "What I'll _accept_ is an immediate transfer to Arcadia and away from this hellhole you seem to think is a school, a sensible settlement for the mental and physical trauma your little stormtroopers there put my daughter through, and a written apology. Accepting full responsibility of the school for the bullying campaign and acknowledging that Taylor was in no way to blame for any of it."

"That's blackmail!" she finally shouted.

"No, it's negotiating. Something I have a lot of practice with. Blackmail would be more along the lines of threatening to have you all personally and the school in general black-listed by every member of every union in the entire city. You'd find it almost impossible to get a plumber, or electrician, or carpenter, or mechanic, or janitor, or cop, or delivery driver..." He shrugged, smiling, as she paled. "I think you'd find that running the school would become very difficult at that point, which could draw even more official attention, which I think you might not want. _That_ would be blackmail. All I'm asking for is a reasonable solution to an unpleasant situation."

He tapped the laptop meaningfully. "This is simply required proof should anyone deny things happened the way we all know they did."

His expression hardened as he leaned forward, meeting her eyes. "Don't push me. I'm not happy at all about all this. The faster you get on with it the less likely I am to press a civil suit for damages, harassment, libel, slander, and anything else I can come up with, such as a criminal assault case against you and a number of students in your school."

The woman behind the desk looked torn between wanting to kill him on the spot or simply start screaming with fury. In the end she looked over at Alan, then the other two parents, who seemed to be in shock. "I will need to consult our lawyers," she finally said. Danny didn't smile, but he knew at that point they'd won.

"You do that. Arrange the transfer first, you don't need a lawyer for that, then call me when you've decided how you want to proceed with the rest of it." She nodded stiffly.

Opening the laptop in his briefcase he turned it back on then copied the recordings onto a USB stick, which he slid across the desk to the principal. She looked at it like he'd just handed her a still warm dog turd, making no effort to claim it. "Here's a copy of these recordings so that you can show them to the lawyers. I doubt you'll have any problems at that point." The glare he got should have killed him, but all it really did was make him feel warm inside.

"Do any of you want a copy?" he asked, turning to the parents. All three of them shook their heads. "OK. If you change your mind, Principal Blackwell has my contact details." Turning the machine off again, he retrieved Taylor's notes and put them in the case as well. "You can keep the photos, I can always print out more. You might need them as evidence since I'm sure you cleaned the place carefully." Snapping the latches shut he stood.

"Thank you for your time, Principal Blackwell. I'll be taking Taylor home now. I expect to hear from you in, say, a week? That should give you time to do what you need to."

"I could call the police and have you arrested and those recordings confiscated, there are laws against recording on school property without permission from the administration," she said as he was half-way across the floor to the door, which Zephron, playing his role perfectly, had swung open for him.

"You could," he acknowledged without turning. "But they weren't only sent to the computer I have here, the transmitter has quite a decent range. Other recordings were made, and if I got arrested, I couldn't arrange to have them deleted." He looked over his shoulder at her gritting her teeth. "Just a precaution, of course. Who knows _what_ would happen to them if I was in jail?"

" _Get out!_ " she shouted. He nodded, leaving the room, his companion closing the door and falling in behind him as did John, who had been waiting. As they entered the outer office he could hear a massive argument starting behind them, making him finally allow himself a grin.

In the outer office the three girls were sitting silently, looking pissed off and worried. He nodded pleasantly to them as he walked past, Emma staring, then whispering to her friends.

* * *

Taylor met Danny and the others back at the car, which she was leaning on, drawing patterns in the dusting of snow on the roof. "Did it work?" she asked, looking up as he came over.

"Pretty sure, yes," he replied. They shared a smile. "I liked your line at the end, by the way, dear."

She laughed. "Did the cameras all work properly?"

"Really well. It was as good as a news broadcast, unfortunately." He put the briefcase on the roof then hugged her for a few seconds. "I'm sorry, kid, I had no idea. You're a much stronger person than I am to have put up with that for so long."

"It's not your fault, Dad," she replied, smiling a little.

He released her and turned to the other two who were watching quietly. "Thanks, John, Zephron. That really helped." He shook their hands, as did Taylor. "Have you considered professional minion work?" he joked. Zephron chuckled, while John grinned.

"The pay is good but it can be very dangerous," the large bald man replied with good humor. "The grunts are the ones who get shot at."

"True, I guess," he replied thoughtfully.

"It was fun, Boss," Zephron added. "Let me know if you need a heavy again."

"Stop calling me Boss," Danny sighed, making the man smile once more.

"I didn't get to do anything but stand there," John complained mildly. "At least you had a speaking part."

"It was only two lines," his friend protested as they headed back to their own car. Taylor watched them go, still arguing, then turned to Danny with a smile.

"What now?"

"Now we go and get something to eat, even though it's early, I'm starving after all that, then go home. We need to look up online make-up courses, because I'm sure that you haven't been taught properly and I expect Arcadia has higher standards than this place."

They got into the car and he started the engine. " _Anywhere_ has higher standards than this place," Taylor remarked as she turned around to watch Winslow disappear into the distance for the, as far as she could ever manage, last time. Swiveling back to face forward she sighed.

"Thanks, Dad. For everything."

"Just doing what I should have been doing all along, dear, being a father." He glanced at her, then smiled. "Although I have to admit in many ways that was fun. I just don't want to have to go through it again. Watching that Hess girl punch you in the face was hard."

"Not as hard as stopping myself changing and biting her head off," Taylor giggled. "She probably tastes horrible, as well."

She laughed harder at the look in his face, then settled back to enjoy the ride, content.


	10. Regrets and Cynicism

**Thursday, January 20, 2011**

"Thanks for the gear and the help, Mike," Danny said to his friend, accepting a cup of coffee as he sat. He put it on the desk for a moment, then retrieved the bag containing the cameras, transmitter, and computer, handing it to his friend, who accepted it and put it on the windowsill behind him. "It worked perfectly. We got the documentation for the Arcadia transfer this morning, she's going for evaluation tests in a just over week, and with any luck she can start immediately. The poor girl has been studying like crazy all day for three days now." He smiled, remembering Taylor's bleary face that morning at breakfast, before she staggered back upstairs to the computer.

"Great," Mike, a short and amazingly nondescript man of something like forty, said with a smile. "I was happy to help. I haven't seen Taylor since she was about eight when you brought her to work one day because she wanted to see what you did. I remember she was running around asking everyone questions for hours."

Danny grinned at the memory. "She's always been curious. I hadn't realized how bad it had gotten over the last couple of years or so, it was such a slow change. On both our parts. Since that horrible night I feel like I have my daughter back, and my life."

"I have to say you look and sound a hell of a lot more cheerful than you've been for a long time," Mike chuckled, sipping his own coffee. "Everyone who knows you has been worried for years."

Sighing lightly, Danny nodded acknowledgment of the comment. "It was my fault. I couldn't handle losing Annette. God, I loved that woman." He looked out the window at the shape of the Medhall building in the distance for a second or two, then blinked and went back to his friend's face, which was sympathetic.

"I understand," Mike said quietly. "She was good for you. It was a terrible tragedy, what happened. When I think of what I'd feel like if I lost Julia or Sarah..." He shook his head. "No one blames you for it."

"Thanks, Mike. I blame _myself_ , but..." Danny shrugged. "It's in the past, I have to move on. Not doing that nearly cost me the only thing in my life I really value, so I have no choice. Annette would have kicked me in the head by now if she'd seen the way I've been handling it."

Mike laughed out loud. "Yes, I could see that happening. You have a reputation as someone it's best not to rile up, but that woman was even worse if she got mad enough. Slow, cold, patient vengeance." He shuddered theatrically, making Danny grin again.

They chatted for a while about the old days, then Danny checked the time. "Ah. Lunch is over, I need to get back to work." He stood up, smiling at the other man. "It was fun catching up. We should get together more often. Kurt was saying just the other day he hadn't seen you for months."

"Maybe we should restart the old weekly poker games," Mike suggested. Danny looked dubious.

"I seem to remember losing a lot when we did that," he said.

Laughing, Mike nodded happily. "You have one hell of a poker face, Danny, I'll give you that, but you don't play very well."

Sighing, Danny shrugged. "I don't claim to be a good gambler. Just a decent negotiator."

"You're certainly that." Mike opened a drawer and pulled out a USB stick, holding it up. "What do you want to do with this? It's the only copy I saved of the recording I made in the van." He'd been parked around the corner from the school with another receiver, making the backup copy. Frowning, he added, "I was pretty appalled. That situation was grim. And it went on for two fucking years?" Danny nodded slowly. "Jesus. That girl of yours is made of spring steel to take that without knifing the lot of them. And she sure can take a punch."

Snickering, Danny replied, "She's not bad in a fight, actually. Look, I think it would be a good idea if you hung onto that. Put it somewhere safe. Until all this is over and they've signed everything I want, I don't trust them. Best to have backups."

"Good enough," Mike said with a nod, crossing the office and quickly spinning the dial on the front of the small but incredibly solid safe built into the wall. Opening it, which took considerable effort due to the significant thickness of the door, he put the USB stick inside then closed and locked it again. "Let me know if you need it."

"I will do." They shook hands, then Danny turned to leave. Stopping inside the door of the office he looked at the small glass display case standing there, which contained a surprisingly large collection of high tech surveillance gear, as a display of the sort of thing Mike used in his business. "Hey, these little cylindrical cameras here. Are they any good?" he asked curiously, a sudden thought crossing his mind.

Mike came over and stood beside him looking at what he was pointing to, then nodded. "Actually, yes, that's one of the best ones I have. They're made by that company run by the Tinker Dragon, in Canada. The technology isn't incredibly advanced in those terms, but they give a really clear picture and the battery lasts for hours. We use them mounted on cars and motorcycles." He opened the case, removed one of the cameras, and handed it to his friend. "They're waterproof, shockproof, dustproof, pretty much everything proof. Why?"

Danny turned the device, roughly the size and shape of a tube of lipstick, over in his hands, looking at it. "I was thinking of a project I wanted to do with Taylor which would need a camera," he said vaguely. "Something like this would probably work. Where can I get one and how much are they?"

"Not much. Keep it. I have a cupboard full of them." Mike waved a hand dismissively. "We charge that sort of thing to the customer anyway. Here, this is the instruction booklet for it, the mounting kit, and the USB cable. Have fun. Say hi to Taylor for me."

"Thanks again, Mike, I'll do that," Danny smiled, putting the items his friend gave him in his coat pocket. Waving, he left the PI's office, heading back to the DWU headquarters while thinking carefully.

* * *

Writing the last calculation on the notepad, Taylor dropped the pen and flexed her wrist. "How is it that I can lift tons and punch a hole in a tank, but I get a sore wrist writing this much?" she grumbled.

" _Life is seldom perfect, Brain,_ " the Varga commented wryly. She nodded, rubbing her wrist briefly, then turned to the computer, clicking through to the page with the answers for the online test she'd been working on for basic Calculus. While it would have been simplicity itself to cheat she had no wish to, she honestly wanted to see if she could do it right.

Comparing her results and calculations to the ones on the page, she smiled. "That's… ninety-two percent on this one. Not bad."

" _Your educational abilities would seem to be surprisingly good all things considered,_ " her companion noted.

She nodded absently, turning to a new page in the notebook and going back over the questions she'd got wrong, redoing them. "I'm good at math, English, and general science. English because of Mom, the rest because they're all math in the end. A lot of the other subjects I'm not as good on because they needed more work than I could be bothered to do considering the way all my assignments were sabotaged all the time. In the end I basically stopped trying very hard."

" _You are still a very intelligent person with an excellent memory, so I fully expect you will be able to learn what you need to for this new school._ " The Varga's voice was encouraging, making her smile. He'd been helping a lot with this whole process. It was like having a live-in study buddy, one with a vast depth of knowledge on odd matters and a very sly sense of humor.

"Thanks. Oh, that's where the missing integral went." She flipped back a page and corrected her calculation, checking it against the web page, then grinned.

"Great." Glancing at the clock next to her bed, she saw it was nearly five. "Time for a snack, then I need to start dinner, I think. Dad will be home soon."

Standing up with a push of her tail, she stretched, then headed downstairs. As she reached the lower floor, there was a creaking sound from outside the front door which her absurdly sharp hearing caught, making her look around, then engage the thermal vision. On the other side of the door she could see a person shaped blob, not her father. An arm reached out and pressed the doorbell button.

' _I wonder who that is?_ ' she mused. They weren't expecting any deliveries or guests and very seldom got visitors out of the blue.

Slightly suspicious, she asked the Varga for a short knife, which she transferred to her left hand behind her back where it was inconspicuous, then opened the door a crack. Bracing her foot behind it made it certain that no one short of a serious Brute-level cape was going to get the door open.

On the other side of the door Alan Barnes was standing on the porch, looking depressed and nervous. His car was parked on the road, she saw as she peered out.

"Oh, hello, Taylor," Alan said, slightly haltingly as if he was embarrassed. He tried to see past her. "Is Danny home yet?"

"No, he's still at work, although he should be back any time now," she replied, even more suspicious, which apparently came out in her voice judging by the way he winced.

"Oh. OK." Falling silent for a moment, he looked at her. "You look… well."

"Thank you." She didn't add to the comment. He went silent again, looking even more embarrassed. They stared at each other for four or five awkward seconds. Or, at least, awkward for Alan. Taylor was simply waiting patiently to see what happened next.

"Look, I'm… I'm sorry about what Emma did," he finally blurted out. "I had no idea. None of the family did. That Hess girl has obviously been a bad influence on her."

Staring coldly at him for another few seconds, Taylor finally nodded once. "Apology accepted." He looked relieved.

"So you'll forgive her?"

"No." She studied him as if she thought he was an idiot. Which she did.

"..." Alan opened his mouth, then closed it again, silently.

"How _can_ I forgive what she did? I can never forget it, no matter how much I try." Taylor tried to explain what she was feeling after quelling the sudden burst of anger that had flowed through her at first, drawing on the strength of her bond with the Varga, who was listening with interest.

"I've moved past that, Mr Barnes. Emma was my best friend, nearly my sister. Then she betrayed me for whatever reason she actually had, which even had me thinking it was actually my fault for a long time until I came to the conclusion it wasn't me at all. I can't keep dwelling on that or I'll go nuts, so I decided to write the entire thing off. As far as I'm concerned, my best friend died two years ago. The girl who has tortured me for all this time, she's not my friend, and I don't need to forgive her, just ignore her for the rest of my life. I'll be going to Arcadia soon and I'll probably never see her again anyway."

She didn't raise her voice or express any real anger, merely stated what she felt in a cold dispassionate manner that clearly made him uncomfortable.

He was silent for a little while, then replied, "Forgiveness is needed for closure, I'm told."

"Acceptance is needed for closure. Forgiveness is entirely optional." She cocked her head a little to the side. "I accept, I don't forgive. Or forget."

The veins in his face contracted, making it look colder, as he paled a little at her comment. "Christ, you really are Annette's daughter, aren't you?"

"Thank you," she smiled, which didn't seem to make him happier. If anything he was looking even more nervous.

Satisfied she had managed to get her point across, a point she'd arrived at after several long nights talking to the Varga, who was an excellent listener and gave good if occasionally rather bloodthirsty advice, she swung the door open wider. "You can come in and wait for Dad if you'd like. He'll be back very soon." She discreetly vanished the knife.

After a long moment, he nodded and entered the house, wiping his feet then going into the living room and taking a seat. "Would you like a cup of coffee?"

"Yes, thank you," he replied, apparently not entirely sure how to react other than that. She nodded back and turned to go into the kitchen. "She's sick, you know, Taylor," he said, causing her to stop and turn back. "We've taken her to a psychiatrist. They tell us Emma might need to spend some time in an institution, and is going to be in therapy for years."

"I'm not surprised," she answered. He stared at her, then sagged a little.

"It doesn't change your position, does it." It wasn't a question.

She shook her head. "No. It explains _why_ she did what she did, but it can't erase it. She still did it."

"While the balance of her mind was disturbed!" he shot back.

"If she and Sophia had managed to kill me, it would still be murder, right? Even if one or both of them ended up being found unfit to be tried, I'd still be dead. Saying that they were crazy wouldn't bring me back." She shrugged as he deflated from the momentary anger. "That nearly happened. Be glad you don't have a crazy murderer for a daughter, rather than just a crazy bully." She watched him closely for another few seconds, then when he didn't seem to want to keep talking, turned around again and went into the kitchen, filling the kettle and turning it on.

While she waited for it to boil, she began preparing a sort of chicken stir fry, using a modified version of a recipe the Varga has surprised her by suggesting. She was curious to find out if it was as good as he'd told her Princess Luna had claimed it was.

When she took the coffee, made the way she remembered Alan Barnes liking it, in to him, he accepted it with a mumbled thanks then went back to staring at the floor, sipping it occasionally. He looked depressed. Suppressing a slight sympathy for him, as she stood by her words and feelings, she went back into the kitchen and resumed cooking.

About fifteen minutes later she heard the familiar sound of her father's car approaching, then pulling into the driveway and stopping. He came in shortly afterward, calling out, "Taylor, I'm home."

"In here, Dad," she called back. He appeared at the doorway, sniffing appreciatively.

"That smells incredible! What is it?"

"A recipe from a friend," she smiled, tapping her head with a finger meaningfully. "He says it's very good."

"OK," Danny replied slowly, looking surprised. After a moment, he asked, "Is that Alan's car out front?"

"In there," she pointed, handing him a coffee mug with her other hand. He took it, inspected her for a moment, then turned to go into the living room with a set face.

"What are you doing here, Alan?" she heard him say, then deliberately stopped listening while concentrating on her cooking. There were raised voices for a while, which she covered up by whistling softly to herself, contentedly making the various parts of the meal. By and large it had been a good day.

* * *

"That was very good indeed, dear," Danny said, wiping his mouth with a napkin. Taylor smiled, then looked at Alan, who had somehow ended up staying for dinner, even though neither he nor Danny were entirely certain how. "What do you think?"

"She's a better than decent cook, your young lady," his old friend said quietly. Danny noticed that he was regarding Taylor with a certain degree of apprehension and wondered why, even though it made him just a little proud deep inside. "Annette's legacy showing through yet again."

Taylor gave a small nod to him, a little smile that was, once again, pure Annette with just a hint of huge world-eating demonic lizard, then stood, beginning to clear the table. "Thanks, Mr Barnes. It was a new recipe that a good friend gave me. I think it worked very well although I had to substitute a couple of ingredients. I'll have to see if he can give me any more." Smiling more affectionately at her father, she added, "I'll put the dishes in the sink then I need to get back to studying. It's your turn to wash up tonight."

Laughing, he reached up and patted her shoulder, watching as she walked away, her tail swinging behind her, amused for some reason at the thought that Alan had no idea it was there.

"Quite a young lady you've raised, Danny," Alan said after a moment, also watching her leave. They could hear clattering sounds in the kitchen for a little while then soft footsteps on the stairs, followed by the sound of a door closing. Knowing full well that she could still easily hear anything that they said if she wanted, Danny turned to his friend and college roommate.

"Why did you really come, Alan?" he said after a moment, leaning back in his chair.

Alan looked tired and sad. "I just had to say sorry. Taylor has made her feelings on the matter vividly clear, and after thinking over what she said, I have to admit I can't blame her. I was hoping for forgiveness but I realize it's a stretch under the circumstances." He lowered his head to the table, resting his forehead on it for a moment, while Danny wondered what on earth his daughter had actually said. He resolved to ask when an appropriate moment arose.

"I'm so sorry, Danny. We've had our differences in the past, and I know we drew apart since Annette's death, but please believe me, I would never have let this go on so long if I'd had any idea," Alan finally said, raising his head again and meeting his friend's eyes. "We've known each other for more than twenty years. _Please_ tell me you believe me."

Danny sighed. "I do," he finally admitted. "I don't think I can ever forget what your daughter did to mine, but I don't really blame _you_ for it. The girl is obviously seriously ill. That Hess character is worse in some ways, I really do think she's at least some sort of sociopath, but from what Taylor tells me she's violent to everyone, just more with her. I have no idea about the Clements girl, she seemed to be both enjoying it on that recording, and also scared about being found out. Hess didn't seem to care. Or at least thought she could get away with it."

Alan opened his mouth, paused, then closed it again, as if he'd wanted to say something but though better of it. After a second or two he tried again. "Sophia Hess is a disturbed young woman," he agreed. "Unfortunately, she and my daughter became firm friends. I only wish it had ended up better. A teenager needs friends."

With a nod Danny agreed. "I'm hoping desperately that this move to Arcadia will allow Taylor to make new ones. She needs it, I know. She's been isolated for far too long."

"I pushed Principal Blackwell to settle with you," Alan suddenly said. "The Hess and Clements families went along with it. She won't have any real choice in the matter, none of us will back her up if she tries anything. The school board is having a meeting this Wednesday to work out what they're going to offer and I managed to get invited. I'll make sure they do the right thing."

Somewhat surprised, yet grateful, Danny nodded slowly. "Thank you, Alan."

"After what happened it's the least of what I owe you," the other man sighed, running his fingers through his hair, then standing up. "I need to get home. We're still finding out more things about Emma. Some of the things on her phone and computer…" He shuddered. "She's completely grounded and cut off from everyone, more or less permanently. The only reason she's allowed to leave the house is to go to school or therapy."

Also standing, Danny held out his hand. Looking at it, Alan finally took it and shook. "I hope she gets better one day," Danny said sadly. "I'm sorry it all came to this."

"Not as much as I am, believe me," Alan muttered, turning to go. "Not as much as I am."

Danny watched from the front porch as his old friend, broken and defeated, got into his car, then drove away, sighed heavily in regret, then went back inside and closed the door.

* * *

 **Friday, January 21, 2011**

"What's this for?" Taylor asked curiously as her father slid a pile of odds and ends across the breakfast table to her, something on top that she recognized as some sort of sports camera, an armored cylinder half an inch across and about four long.

"It's for recording what happens when you're running around terrifying criminals, dear, if you need to," he sighed, then smiled a little at her stunned expression. "I've come to the conclusion that you can take care of yourself, something I should have realized a week or more ago. You're stronger, tougher, and faster than practically anything that you might run into, so you probably have a better chance of surviving life in this damn city than I do. Just because you're only fifteen doesn't change that, no matter how much I wish it did."

She gaped at him for several seconds, then closed her mouth with a loud click. "You want me to go out and fight crime?" she asked in shock.

He grinned at her. "No. I accept that, sooner or later, you _will_ go out and fight crime, whether I want it or not. You've been very good about keeping your word on the whole thing, something I'm immensely grateful for, but I know enough about Cape life to know it's basically inevitable. They're apparently pretty much all driven to fight one way or another."

"I'm not driven to fight," she protested. "I can stay at home and study no problem."

"I know, and I'm pleased about it. But considering the sort of things that happen every day around here, sooner or later..." He shrugged. "Better to be prepared rather than caught out. If you don't want to go out, don't, it will make me wildly happier, but if you do, I want you to be ready for it. Study up on the other Capes, like you've been doing, practice with your weapons and your techniques, and read up on local gang politics."

He raised a finger as she looked puzzled. "That last part is important. I know you could probably stomp half the E88 flat in a night if you really wanted to, but you need to pick your battles. This city is balanced on a knife-edge at the best of times, between the four gangs."

"Four?" she asked, confused. "E88, ABB, Merchants…," she ticked them off on her fingers.

"And the PRT. Don't forget them."

Looking at him with narrowed eyes, she slowly replied, "The PRT aren't a gang, Dad."

"No? Armed grunts, a few capes, tending to jump into a situation with force if they feel like it, not a small amount of collateral damage sometimes..." He smirked at her expression. "Politics is _all_ about gangs, dear. The one with the most firepower or an equivalent of that ends up on top making the rules with everyone else both fighting each other and trying to take the top spot. It's true all the way from countries right down to high school cliques. Us or them. Normally everything ends up balanced with people glaring at each other, no one wanting to upset the applecart, but if there's a sudden vacancy, it's chaos until it gets filled."

"Do all adults think like you?" she wondered out loud, making him laugh.

"I _may_ have an overly cynical view of the world but if you'd met the sort of people I've had to deal with for the last seventeen years, you'd think like that as well. Just bear it in mind. No disturbing the balance of power unless it's really necessary, OK?"

"I'll try not to, Dad," she giggled. After a moment or two, she added slyly, "What about _your_ gang?"

He leaned back, shock on his face over a smile. " _My_ gang?" he echoed. "I have no idea what you're talking about."

She studied him narrowly, seeing the corners of his mouth were twitching. "Riiight. Sure you don't. I'm pretty sure that if you really wanted to, you could get a lot of friends like Zephron to back you up. Most of the guys you work with are enormous, and they all seem to respect you."

Danny put his hand on his chest, and a proud look on his face. "Of course they do, dear child, most of them have jobs because of your old man. Fighting City Hall day and night, going up against the Man for the little people..." He couldn't keep it up, dissolving into laughter, as she snickered.

" _Your father has a keen grasp of political strategy, Brain,_ " the Varga chuckled. " _His advice is sound and well meant. I suggest following it._ "

' _I will, don't worry_ ,' she assured the demon.

"It's true, honest," Danny protested when he recovered.

"I know it is, Dad, and I'm proud of what you do," she smiled.

"Anyway, the DWU can't be a gang in this city despite your cutting words. A proper Brockton Bay gang has Capes. We don't." He grinned at her, apparently pleased with his argument.

She transformed her head into the combat form one, making him twitch a little. "You have at least one," she chuckled at the look on his face. Picking up the little camera, she held it up to her head, moving it around on the scales to find the best place. "Now, help me figure out how to hold this thing on."

Eventually they found that the best spot was in the middle of her head between her eyes, facing down her muzzle. With a little work from the Varga she had a harness that looked vaguely like a bridle holding it firmly in place. He told her he could easily expand and contract it as she changed size to make sure it fitted all the time.

Reaching up she tapped the record button with a claw tip, from memory, hearing a double beep that signified it was running. "How does it look?" she asked, peering around the room, then getting up and wandering about.

Danny stood and came over, studying the camera and mounting carefully, then nodded. "Seems secure and pointing in the right direction. The lens is quite wide angle so you'll probably get some of your face in the bottom part of it, but other than that it seems fine. That blinking blue light is a bit obvious, though."

Retrieving the manual from the table, she flipped through it, then read the relevant section. "It says here to hold the power and record buttons down for three seconds, then release the power one, then the record one, which will disable the recording indicator," she said, showing him the page. He glanced at it, nodded, then as she bowed her head towards him, performed the relevant actions.

"OK, that worked, it's out. Hold on." She heard the camera beep once, indicating it had stopped recording, then beep twice again. "It seems to be working. Great."

He stepped back and studied her. "I still have trouble sometimes with that, you know," he smiled, waving at her transformed head. "But I'm getting used to it." He laughed slightly. "I can guarantee that any poor bastard who sees you coming at them is going to run like hell, if not just keel over on the spot."

She giggled, looking at her reflection in the bottom of a frying pan she picked up for a moment, then put it on the stove and turned the appliance on. Shortly she was making scrambled eggs while Danny prepared himself a coffee. Sipping it and leaning against the wall next to the door to the hallway he watched her move around the kitchen, grinning when she looked over. Raising an eye ridge, which she'd worked out how to do a couple of days ago, she gave him a quizzical look.

"What?" she asked, stirring the eggs vigorously.

"Oh, nothing, just thinking that I never thought I'd be watching my half-lizard daughter making eggs in the kitchen while wearing a camera on her head, that's all," he snickered.

Amused, she grabbed one of the unbroken eggs out of the box on the counter and tossed it into her mouth, swallowing. He went green. "They taste quite nice like this," she commented.

"Is that why we seem to have been running short on eggs three days in a row?" he asked suspiciously.

She nodded, bowing her head, a little embarrassed. "Sorry, Dad. Sometimes I want a snack when I'm studying."

"Most teenagers would probably go for an apple or a pop tart," he sighed. "Not a whole raw egg, complete with shell."

Grinning toothily, she flipped another one in, then dropped some bread into the toaster and pressed the lever down. "What can I say?" she asked rhetorically. "I'm weird."

"Yes. Yes, you are," he chuckled, putting his arm around her shoulder for a moment, then sitting as she started plating up the actually cooked food, reverting her head to normal after reaching up and removing the camera as the harness vanished.

When they'd finished breakfast, she quickly washed up, then turned to her father who was putting his coat on, ready to head out. "Oh, before you go, look at this!"

She changed, making him stare, then slowly nod. "What do you think? Tame enough not to scare people too much?"

Turning around in the middle of the kitchen, she showed her latest form off, then faced him again. He studied her carefully, looking interested and somewhat pleased.

She was wearing a modified version of the original armored outfit the Varga had given her, the breastplate a deep blue color with a gold logo in the middle that depicted something that made him smile, a jaws-gaping reptilian head in profile, fangs glinting in the morning light. The somewhat longer skirt was made of a larger number of narrower overlapping strips, which seemed to be attached to a cloth layer under that.

Rather than the boots she'd worn that first time, she had shin guards strapped to digitigrade legs which were a mix between normal human ones and the combat form ones, with feet at the bottom boasting much smaller yet still obviously very sharp talons which clicked on the floor when she moved.

Her tail came out from under the skirt, waving around behind her like a curious cat's as she watched him. Her arms looked more or less like normal human ones, although they, as was the rest of her, were covered in fine scales which were a somewhat lighter blue than normal, a sort of pleasant aquamarine color, with darker horizontal bands. Her hands were elegant and long fingered, tipped with short, sharp claws.

Raising his eyes to her head he saw it looked much less reptilian, yet still clearly not human. The shape of the skull was more elongated, with a short snout containing sharp teeth, although when she smiled he could see her face was nearly as flexible in this form as her human one was. Overall the effect was that of someone whose distant ancestors were reptiles rather than mammals. Importantly, there was no way anyone who knew Taylor Hebert would associate her with the lizard-girl standing in his kitchen.

Even her voice was different, deeper with a slight sibilant hiss overlaid on it, not obvious, but more like an accent. It made her unrecognizable.

Her eyes were the most obvious connection with the various Varga forms, still orange-yellow, glowing, with slit pupils which widened and contracted as she looked around, then down at herself, before back to him.

"We looked up all sorts of reptilian fantasy species from games and books and came up with this using bits of them," she told him, smiling again, then laughing at his reaction. "Good, isn't it?"

"It's… not as overtly threatening as all the other things you two have designed," he admitted slowly. "That part is true. But even so I wouldn't call it safe looking."

"But I'm a cute lizard girl!" she protested, giving him a wide eyed look, which with those eyes was just disturbing. "Not some monster wanting to eat you."

He blinked as she flowed into a new shape, the armor changing to fit, then added in a different voice, "Unlike this person."

Her combat form now had segmented armor the same color as the underlying scales covering the bulk of it, even her tail, which terminated in a set of four metal spikes, two on each side, that stuck out a foot or so and looked unbelievably unsafe. She smirked as he twitched.

"How could you _possibly_ have taken that form and made it _more_ _dangerous!?_ " he queried in an unnaturally high voice.

Shrugging Taylor turned her head around and studied herself, then looked back to him, feeling pleased. "It seemed like a good idea at the time," she said with a laugh in her voice. He sighed, shaking his head.

"Oh, god, those poor criminals," he mumbled. After a moment, he added despairingly, "Were the tail spikes really necessary?"

"Hey, leave my thagomizer alone," she complained. He looked oddly at her. "That's what it's called. I looked it up."

"My daughter the infinitely variable dinosaur monster," he sighed again.

Laughing, she went back to her ' _cute lizard girl_ ' form, which she quite liked. Walking past him into the hall, she peered at her face in the mirror, having to bend down slightly, since this form was nearly six and a half feet tall. "I'm not sure about the face, though. Should I make it more human?"

Following behind her, he studied her reflection, then shrugged. "It's not bad, actually. A shock if you're not expecting it, true, but it looks quite nice all things considered." Pondering the matter he thoughtfully tapped his chin. "Can you get your hair back and keep the rest of the form?"

She looked contemplative for a moment, apparently having a conversation with the Varga. "He said reptiles, or his kind, which aren't strictly speaking reptiles at all, don't have hair."

"True, but that's not actually what I asked." Danny looked at her, while she smiled toothily at him.

"OK. Hold on a second."

Moments later her curly hair draped down over her armored back. He nodded thoughtfully. "It makes you look more human, I think."

Pulling a handful over her shoulder she stroked it, but looked dubious. He found it amusing how he could recognize his daughter's expressions on the completely inhuman features. "I like my hair but I'm not sure it fits the theme," she said doubtfully.

"Put it in a ponytail to get it out of the way and it'll look fine." She nodded while he checked the time. "Oops. I need to go now or I'll be late. Keep studying, I'll see you later. I might come back for lunch if I have time."

"OK, Dad," she smiled, hugging him. He grunted a little.

"Careful, that armor is damn hard."

"It should be, it's good stuff," she joked, making him grin, then leave. Inspecting herself in the hall mirror again, she put a hand behind her head and gathered her hair into a high ponytail, then tipped her head from side to side experimentally. "Might work, I guess," she muttered, ignoring the Varga complaining mildly about only smelly mammals having hair, then headed for her computer, not bothering to change back.

She needed to get ready as fast as possible, she had a lot of tests waiting in only seven days, which her future might well depend on, and she was determined to do the best possible job on them.


	11. Recriminations and Punishme

"I see."

The squat, fairly unwell looking woman's voice was even.

"Yes, I agree. Thank you, Mrs Hess. I'll take care of it, trust me." She reached out and turned the small digital clock on her desk to face her more directly, her eyes hard and a vein at her temple pulsing a little, the only sign of how furious she was. "Yes, I would like to meet with you as well. Let's say, half past three this afternoon? Certainly. Thank you for letting me know."

The was a short pause. "Oh, I don't think you'll have to worry about that. Goodbye, Mrs Hess."

Putting the phone handset down very carefully she closed her eyes for a moment, breathing deeply, then picked it up again. Moving her mouse she clicked open a contact list on her screen, scrolled through to the right number, then dialled.

"Principal Blackwell, please." Another pause, then she smiled nastily. "Hello, Principal Blackwell. This is Emily Piggot. We need to talk. Now."

* * *

White-faced, Janice Blackwell put the phone down with a trembling hand. She was noticeably sweating, droplets running from under her hairline and coursing down her face. Taking a couple of facial wipes from a packet of them in her desk, she cleaned them away, then took a few deep breaths.

After a long moment she stood, adjusting her attire, before opening the door to her office. "Sandra?" she called to her secretary, who shortly appeared before her. "I'm going to be out for the rest of the day. Hold all my calls and rebook any appointments I have, please." Making a note the shorter woman nodded, returning to her desk without comment.

Janice went back into her office and picked up her coat, putting it on reluctantly, still trembling a little. Emily Piggot, the local PRT Director, had a way with words.

Not a nice way, but a way.

Picking up her handbag she slipped the strap over her shoulder, checked her car keys were in it, then left the room, her heels clicking on the floor, closing the door behind her.

Thirty seconds passed.

The door opened again, Janice going back into the office. She stared at her desk for a few seconds, biting her lip, then sighed heavily, before going to it and unlocking a lower drawer. Reaching in she popped the memory card out of the audio recorder she had concealed there, putting it into her bag, then relocked the drawer and left again.

* * *

PRT Agent Meredith Hamill looked up at the sound of a cough, to see her supervisor standing next to her desk. "The Director would like to see you, Agent. Right now." Apprehensively she began to log out her computer with one hand and pick up her PRT issue phone with the other. "No, leave it, please," the man said, his face blank. Behind him she saw two armed troopers who were waiting, apparently for her. Swallowing, she stood, then walked after him, one trooper behind and one in front.

Looking over her shoulder she could see two more agents already working on her computer and phone. Putting her gaze back to the front she wondered what to do.

* * *

Sophia Hess, the hero known as Shadow Stalker, twitched at the unexpected hand on her shoulder and nearly dropped the crossbow she was polishing in the Wards common room. Turning her head to snarl at whoever was daring to touch her she blinked to see it was Miss Milita, with Armsmaster standing beside her, both of them with grim looks on their faces, although she could only see the former's eyes. Armsmaster's mouth was set in a compressed line that she knew from experience meant the Tinker was angry.

"You need to come with us, Sophia," Miss Militia said quietly. "The Director is not in a good mood, so I wouldn't keep her waiting."

Not completely sure what was going on, the teenager ran various options through her mind. She had a sudden urge to run for it but knew perfectly well that she wouldn't make it out of the room, never mind the building, due to the vast amount of electrical wiring that ran throughout the walls. After a moment she nodded sullenly, putting the weapon down on the table and picking up her mask which she'd removed because it was a bit uncomfortable. She stood.

"Hold out your left arm," Armsmaster said in a neutral tone. Somewhat worried she did so, then watched as he clicked a high tech bracelet of some sort around it, the latch making a very solid sound. It beeped and a small LED lit up, blinking every couple of seconds. "That is a tracker and counter-measure for your phasing ability. If you attempt to shift state, it will deliver a sufficient electrical pulse to disrupt your power, and it would also be very painful. I'd advise not testing it."

She growled under her breath but followed obediently as they led her to the door, which they'd somehow bypassed the alarm on, then waved her through.

She knew this was all somehow Hebert's fault. One way or the other she was going to make the uppity Prey pay for it.

* * *

The room fell silent as the recording stopped, the screen on the far side away from the conference table retracting noiselessly into the ceiling. The silence went on for some time.

Emily Piggot slowly turned her head to fix Sophia Hess, Principal Blackwell, and Agent Hamill with a gorgon-like glare. They all swallowed, in a remarkably synchronized manner.

"How," she asked sweetly, but with an undertone of imminent danger, "is it that I, the director of the PRT, located right here in Brockton Bay not ten miles from Winslow High School, am only _now_ finding out about something of this nature that occurred _a week ago!_ Something that I should have known about _immediately_ , if not sooner, and _**something that should never have happened in the first damn place!**_ "

Her voice rose to nearly a shout, making everyone present lean away.

"The only reason I _do_ know about it is due to an _extremely_ uncomfortable conversation I had with your mother, Sophia, who asked the entirely reasonable question of why no one in the PRT seemed to have acted to punish her daughter, said daughter apparently going about business as usual. That _might_ just be because _no one mentioned it!_ "

She pointed. "You, Agent Hamill, should have reported this to me the second it happened. Leaving aside the fact that you should have been reporting the little hobby dear Sophia here seems to have all along, for example any time in the last _six months_ , rather than covering up for her as seems to be the case."

The finger moved one space to the right. " _You_ , Principal Blackwell, should have come directly to me the first time Agent Hamill failed in her duty. You most _certainly_ should have consulted me before meeting with Danny Hebert. That was the arrangement when you were read into this program. Instead of that you decided it would be a wonderful idea to call the parents of the three girls involved in one of the most horrific attacks of bullying it's ever been my displeasure to hear about, then take on Danny Hebert, a man with a long memory, more negotiating experience than almost anyone else in Brockton Bay, and who is undoubtedly smarter and more cunning than you and Agent Hamill put together, in a battle of wits in which you were obviously completely unarmed."

She paused for breath, wincing a little at the pain in her kidneys and shifting slightly in her seat. Blackwell went pale, then red, but didn't say anything.

"Yes, I've heard of him," she added, as both Blackwell and Hamill looked slightly surprised. "The Mayor respects him highly although he also wishes he'd never met the man sometimes. He just doesn't give up. From what I just saw, neither does his daughter. She played you to perfection, Sophia." Sophia looked up from where she'd been staring at the table, surprise on her face since she'd removed her mask again as everyone present knew who she really was anyway.

"What do you mean?" the girl couldn't help blurting out. Director Piggot narrowed her eyes at her.

"You didn't realize? All of that, the whole talking like an automaton, being all depressed and passive, that was an act, masterfully arranged to get you and your co-conspirators to confess on camera to several acts of assault, theft, and general bullying. Which you all obligingly did. Even the punch at the end, I'm certain she saw it coming and let it happen, just to make sure they had evidence of what you were capable of doing." She shook her head as Sophia's face froze in anger.

"I'd have hoped you weren't open to such manipulation, but she's clearly a lot smarter than you. Why she let it get to the level it did I have no idea. If it was me I'd have shot you in the head a year ago and made it look like an E88 hit."

Piggot smirked nastily as the girl flinched. "She's obviously a decent person. Too decent, for high school, or at least the version of it that you seem to run, Principal."

Principal Blackwell was wise enough not to say what she was obviously thinking.

"I am absolutely _furious_ about this entire debacle," the director continued in a low voice. "Between you, you three have opened the entire PRT up to more bad publicity, potential lawsuits, and possibly worse outcomes, than anything I can think of for years. We'll be lucky in the extreme if we can keep a lid on this all. God help us if Danny Hebert ever even suspects that it was a Ward who was the co-ringleader of a two year campaign of terror against his only daughter."

"He's only one man, Director," Sophia tried, only to close her mouth so fast she nearly bit her tongue when Piggot focused her entire attention on her.

"He's only one man, yes, quite right, Shadow Stalker. He's one man that knows or is known by, and in many cases deeply respected by, probably over a thousand people in this city one way or another. Just the Dock Worker's Union alone is more than three hundred and forty people right now, and almost every one of them owes him their jobs. If he wanted to he could practically paralyze half the city with a few phone calls, I'm certain. I DO NOT want him to do that." She glared at the girl, who despite herself shrank back into her seat. "Understand this, he may in many ways be a small fish in a big pond, but he's got big teeth. If he got angry enough to pull out all the stops we'd be lucky if we could stop that getting on the six o'clock news, at which point we're _all_ fucked." She waved angrily in the direction of the now absent screen.

"I don't know how many copies of that recording he has made, but I guarantee you there are backups in places we won't find them. In something like this the only safe rule is that there is one more copy than the maximum number you thought there were. So we can't even deal with it by trying to confiscate them, we'd never be sure we got them all until we found out the hard way we didn't. Leaving aside the little issue that doing that would let him know exactly what we don't want him to know in the first place."

She leaned back, in some pain, and angry to a level she hadn't been in years. There was quiet in the room again for a while. Armsmaster and Miss Militia were listening silently to one side, as was Aegis as the very recently newly promoted leader of the wards. The young man was obviously also extremely disturbed but was keeping his mouth firmly shut.

"He tried blackmailing me, Director Piggot," Principal Blackwell suddenly said. She pulled a memory card out of her handbag and held it up. "I have a recording of it right here."

Piggot stared at her in mute disbelief for some seconds.

"I always record meetings like that," the Principal went on, sounding pleased with her own cleverness. "Just in case I need leverage later."

Armsmaster and Miss Militia exchanged glances, then looked back to see what happened next.

"Your school isn't the White House and you certainly aren't Richard Nixon," Piggot finally sighed. "You do realize that this is a two party consent state, don't you?" Blackwell looked slightly confused, making the Director cover her eyes for a second or two in despair. "It means that telephone conversations and other private communications require all parties present to consent to the recording of them, except for law enforcement purposes, in essence. You are not a law enforcement officer, licensed private investigator, or cape involved in crime fighting. Recording conversations taking place in your office without telling anyone you're doing it is illegal and inadmissible as evidence."

The principal's face fell. After a moment it brightened again, causing Piggot to sigh. "And no, we can't try to use that against Mr Hebert and his daughter. As he rightly pointed out, if we try to arrest him there's nothing to stop him releasing the recording himself. Even if he _was_ arrested the police would use the recording as evidence, which would be as bad if not worse than him letting it out."

She shook her head in disgust. "Face it, you lost. He stomped you flat. As far as I'm concerned, I'm quite impressed. Pity it could drag my people in, otherwise it would be rather funny to watch." She glared at Agent Hamill and Sophia, who both looked extremely worried now.

"No, this is what we're going to do. You, Principal Blackwell, are going to make sure that he gets everything he asked for, including a _very_ generous settlement. With any luck that will satisfy him and he won't bother taking things further." She stared the other woman down until she was sure she was sufficiently cowed. The principal nodded, looking even more pinch-faced than usual.

"I _would_ suggest you add to the settlement documentation a request for the deletion of unspecified video recordings, but I'd be more than a little surprised if he complied. Just to be safe. And we'd never know for sure anyway. We can't do anything about that without making the whole situation worse, so we'll just have to live with it and hope to God it doesn't bite us in the ass at some point."

Shaking her head in irritation she turned to Hamill. "You are suspended without pay subject to the results of a very exhaustive investigation into your activities over the last few years. When that's completed, the results will determine whether you get reassigned to a containment zone for the next decade at half pay, or just end up in prison."

The agent paled horribly, slumping into her seat, but said nothing.

Finally Director Piggot turned to Sophia and stared at her for a few seconds. "Your mother is, as I'm sure she has explained at length, absolutely disgusted with your behavior to this Hebert girl. She told me to do anything I thought necessary to deal with the situation. So, we're starting with confining you to base for the moment. You'll be on console duty, if you're not there you'll either be sleeping or in the cafeteria. That's it."

Sophia glared at her.

"I'm arranging a discreet investigation of your activities as well, both at Winslow and elsewhere. To be honest, I'd love to just throw you straight into Juvenile Hall, but for some reason people higher up the chain seem to think you might still have some use. But depending on the outcome of the investigation, I might still be able to do that." The director smiled a little in an unpleasant way at the look that crossed the girl's face.

"Phone." She motioned with her hand. After a second or two, Sophia put her PRT issued phone on the table and slid it across, deliberately pushing too hard. Piggot slapped her hand down on it. "The personal one too."

"You can't do that!" Sophia sneered at her.

"That's where you'd be wrong," the director said calmly. "Personal phone. Now."

After a staring contest she did as ordered. The second phone joined the first one.

"You are not to attempt to contact anyone outside this facility in any way. If you try to escape, we'll find you, and you won't enjoy what happens then. Understand me?"

With ill grace the teenager nodded sullenly.

"Good."

She raked her gaze along the other side of the table. "Understand this. From my point of view you're all expendable, if it keeps the PRT as a whole safe from the sort of fallout something like this could produce. It should go without saying that nothing we've talked about leaves this room, but because I have very little faith in your abilities to think things through, you'll all sign an NDA before you go." She snapped her fingers, causing Miss Militia to wordlessly get up and hand out a set of paperwork to each of the three, carefully putting a pen on top of each pile of papers.

"Breach that and you won't believe what happens next. So keep your mouths _shut_." The director watched with eagle eyes as all three of them eventually signed on the relevant line, none of them bothering to read the papers. Satisfied, she waited for them to be returned to her by the heroine, who then sat down again, still silent.

"Goodbye, Principal Blackwell," she said firmly. "Oh, before you go, give me that memory card." The woman slid it across the table to her, looking very annoyed. "I'd advise either telling people you're taping them in future or just stopping doing it, by the way," Piggot stated with a small hard grin. She waited for the woman to leave, a PRT trooper outside the door guiding her out.

When the door was shut once more, she looked at the remaining two. "You damn idiots," she growled. "Get out of my sight. Stalker, run and I'll crucify you, you hear me?"

"I hear you, _Director_ " the teenager snarled with ill grace, standing and putting her mask back on. She turned with a dramatic flare of her cloak and stomped out, the disgraced liason agent following behind, looking distraught. Hamill was intercepted outside the door by another trooper and led off in a different direction to that taken by Blackwell.

The door closed again and she relaxed, her face in a rictus of pain. "Jesus Christ," she breathed. "What a cluster fuck."

"Are you all right, Director?" Armsmaster asked, actually looking a little concerned. "Your heart rate is far too high and you are running a fever."

"I'm overdue for dialysis, Colin," she said in a much less angry voice than she'd been speaking in for the last half hour. "I'll live." Tossing him the memory card, she requested, "Play that, please."

He inserted it into the computer built into the desk which still had the USB stick with the video recording that Danny Hebert had given to Principal Blackwell plugged into a port, then fiddled with it for a moment. They listened to the surprisingly clear audio. Miss Militia was smiling under her scarf by the time it ended, and Armsmaster seemed impressed. "That was efficiently done," he commented, high praise coming from him.

"He walked all over her," Piggot noted. "I'm half tempted to offer him a job. We need people like that."

"I think it's unlikely he would accept, Director, and in any case it would be a security risk under the current circumstances," the Tinker replied.

Miss Militia nudged him. "It was a joke, Colin."

After a pause, the man nodded. "Noted. Thank you."

She sighed but seemed to be amused.

"I can't believe Shadow Stalker was involved in something like that," she added.

"I'm afraid I can, Ma'am," Aegis said quietly. The three adults looked at him, the director motioning him to continue. "She's… not well liked by the wards. While she's never done anything that extreme she's surly, short tempered, rude, and dismissive of most of the people she meets. Some of the things we've heard her say are… very disturbing."

"Why has this never been brought to my attention, or to that of Armsmaster?" the director asked in a somewhat dangerous manner.

"I received a number of reports about Shadow Stalker's unpleasant attitude some time ago and talked to her about it," Armsmaster interjected. "I was assured that she would modify her behavior."

"She didn't, not really," Aegis sighed. "Although she has been slightly less insulting for the last couple of months."

"Make sure all the Wards are interviewed about their impressions of Miss Hess," Director Piggot instructed. All three of the others nodded.

Reaching out Armsmaster retrieved the folder of photos which the Principal had been instructed to bring, opening it and looking through them, his mouth a thin line.

"One thing concerns me about all this," he began.

"Only one thing?" Miss Militia sounded surprised. "The entire thing concerns me. A lot."

He turned his head to look at her, then went back to the photos. "This was a very unpleasant, indeed horrific, situation for a fifteen year old girl to find herself. It went on for over twelve hours. In my opinion it is a prime candidate for a Trigger Event."

They all looked at him. "You think Miss Hebert Triggered?" the director asked, frowning.

He shrugged a little, the shoulders of his power armor rising then falling. "It is certainly not impossible. You'd be hard pressed to find a better cause, from what I know of the entire situation. Many people have had far less traumatic triggers."

The Director sighed, closing her eyes and massaging her temples. "Oh, just _perfect_. So we might have a new cape out there as a direct result of something one of our own Wards did. That would bury us if it got out."

"It's only supposition, Director, although I would suggest we keep our eyes open." Armsmaster plucked the USB stick from the port in the media computer and looked at it thoughtfully. "I know for a fact that Shadow Stalker, despite her many flaws, is a very competent fighter. She has a solid right cross better than many men twice her size. Miss Hebert seems to have taken that right in the mouth, then several vicious kicks to the ribs, yet moments later got up, laughed, and walked away. That might indicate at least a low level Brute rating."

Piggot thought, feeling sick and annoyed. Her head was spinning from lack of dialysis and low blood sugar, making critical thinking unpleasantly effortful.

"Should we look into it, Director?" Miss Militia asked very tentatively, clearly not happy about the way something like that would skirt very close to the Unwritten Rules.

"No. I don't want to risk giving either of the Heberts any ammunition to use against us." The Director sighed. "Hopefully you're wrong, but even if you're not, we should leave well enough alone unless we have no choice. Leave the Heberts alone and hope that they decide to just get on with life."

"I wonder who let her out," Aegis mused out loud. Once again, the other three looked at him. He looked back. "From what I know she was in the locker until after midnight, with no way to escape. Based on those photos there was no damage to the thing so presumably someone let her out, unlocked the locker, for example. No one seems to know who. The school should have been empty that time of night."

They exchanged glances, then Piggot winced again. "To be honest right now I don't care. I need to get down to medical, spend three uncomfortable hours getting my blood cleaned, then have a meeting with Mrs Hess I'm not looking forward to." She struggled to her feet, Miss Militia helping her.

* * *

Lisa watched the hacked feed from the supposedly completely secure internal camera network in the PRT building with interest, curled around her laptop on her bed in her apartment. When the last of the participants had left the room, she closed the screen and sat there for a long time, thinking hard.


	12. Cops and Robbers

" _I don't think it works, Brain,_ " the Varga commented, as she looked in the mirror in the bathroom. She shook her head, agreeing with him.

"No, you're right. But Dad's probably right too, we need something to sort of… cute it up a bit?" She winced at the phrase but couldn't think of any better way to put it. They'd put up with the hair for less than a day, while she was getting used to the lizard-girl form, wearing it almost constantly, but it just wasn't working out. It kept getting tangled in the scales on her neck aside from anything else and her sense of aesthetics, which she suspected was being influenced by her link with the Varga, was complaining as well.

" _Hmm. How about replacing it with a suitably modified set of spinal spikes? We could tilt them back so they looked a little like the effect you seem to be attempting, but they'd also provide protection for the back of your neck. Not that you really need it, of course, but it might provide a useful distractive ability to make your enemies underestimate you_."

"What did you have in mind?" she asked curiously. The demon made the hair go away again, then she felt the spines grow out, moving around a little as he adjusted the position. She reached up and felt them. "Hey. Not bad." Stepping back from the mirror she turned her head, inspecting the result with interest, but eventually shook her head.

"It's still missing something."

They were both silent for a while.

"Feathers."

" _I beg your pardon?_ " her companion asked, sounding puzzled.

"Feathers. Like birds have."

" _I am not a bird, Brain_." The Varga paused, then sniggered at his own inadvertent joke, making her roll her eyes while smiling.

"I know you're not, and you're not a dinosaur or really a reptile either. You're a demon as you keep telling me. But you're _like_ a reptile in many ways and all our forms are variations on yours, right? And birds evolved from reptiles. For that matter, from what I've read recently a lot of scientists think there were a lot of dinosaurs that really did have feathers." She stopped talking, feeling a thoughtful mood overtake her friend. "So, why not feathers?"

" _An interesting argument, one I can't refute completely,_ " he finally said. " _All right. Let me think._ "

After a few seconds, she got the impression of a slow nod. " _I think this will work. Let's see..._ "

Taylor felt her head-spikes retract, then after a moment, a tall crest of bright red feathers like something from a cockatoo grew down the middle of her head. She sighed, putting her hands on her hips and glaring at her reflection, while the Varga snickered. " _Like that, Brain?_ "

"Not… exactly."

Reaching up she ran her fingers over them, then found she could actually lay the crest flat on her head with a little effort. Smirking at the effect she raised and lowered it a few times. "It's funny, true, but not the effect I wanted."

" _I think it makes you look interesting_ ," he laughed.

"You're a huge troll and an idiot," she giggled. "Try again. Keep it blue, purple, or black to stay with the theme and not so… obvious."

It took several more attempts until she was satisfied, but in the end she nodded, pleased. "Now that's not bad at all." There was now a layer of glossy blue feathers covering the back and top of her head, formed into a sort of pageboy haircut, layered over an undercoat in a dark purple, nearly black color, which was visible when she ran her fingers through them. From a distance it looked remarkably like hair, which definitely humanized her to a point.

Another request produced a set of modified sunglasses based on a very expensive set she'd seen online, one continuous piece of dark plastic which covered her eyes and wrapped around the sides of her head. She rather liked the effect. They were purely for the looks, not very dark, and she could easily see out of them due to her exceptional vision in this form, but they covered the glow from her eyes pretty well which would probably make people a little less nervous.

Taylor still wasn't quite sure why her father had that reaction and was looking forward to going out in public to see if anyone else thought it was strange.

"I even have a mask so no one can work out who I am," she giggled, making the Varga laugh again. Leaving the bathroom she went into her bedroom and picked up the camera, holding it to the side of her head, where a set of color-matched straps formed to keep it there, in the position they'd worked out was best in this form. It was fully charged and the memory card in it was empty.

Putting her own phone and one of the burner ones in a pair of the pouches that were part of her armored skirt, she looked around, nodded to herself, and went downstairs. Danny was in his small home office behind the living room reading some printouts very carefully, making corrections with a pen, but looked up when she appeared in the doorway, studying her for a moment.

"You've made some more changes," he commented.

"The hair was in the way too much," she admitted. "Not to mention I think it was too much of a clue."

"Pity, I like it. But I understand." Putting the papers down he rose and engulfed her in a hug for a few seconds. "Be careful. Don't hurt anyone if you can avoid it." Stepping back, he sighed. "But, if it comes down to a choice of them or you, make sure it's you."

"I'll be careful, Dad. I'm just going to wander around for a while in the general downtown area and see what happens. I'm not looking for a fight."

"That's what people say right before they get one," he replied with a look mixing irritation and amusement. "Remember, non-lethal weapons, and don't swing so hard they explode on impact. Don't forget how strong you are and how crunchy most other people are."

She giggled, nodding. "I know, Dad. Varga is monitoring my strength, he'll make sure I don't overdo it."

"Good." He looked into her eyes even through the dark glasses. "Keep her safe, Varga."

"He says count on it," she reported with amusement. "I'll try to be back within four hours."

"Good, you have the entrance tests in three days and you need to study."

"I also need some exercise, I've been sitting in front of that laptop for nearly a week solid," she smiled.

"I'll be listening for the Endbringer sirens," he snickered, making her sigh. "Or just a lot of explosions."

Shaking her head sadly at the idiotic jokes old people seemed to think were funny, she waved then headed out the back door, having the Varga cloak her on the way. Switching to the combat form, the camera harness and belt pouches changing suitably, she hopped over the six foot high fence, landed lightly on the other side, and started running towards the road and from their the center of the city, wondering if she'd meet any other capes.

* * *

"Fuck me!" The exclamation of horror was accompanied by a dive to the ground as the AK-47 opened up, raking both squad cars of the BBPD with high velocity bullets. The four cops hiding behind them were grateful that the vehicles were armored to a certain extent, but were still not exactly happy about the situation. "Where the hell do these bastards keep getting this shit from? They're better armed than _we_ are for Christ's sake."

The exclaimer ducked again as a ricochet whined off the road surface far too close for comfort, the gunfire stopping for a minute as the E88 ganger reloaded, then started shooting again.

"I have no idea, but I wish they'd go someplace else if they want to shoot at things," his partner called back from behind the other car where he was huddled with the two cops who had arrived as backup to their call while attending a break-in at a warehouse around the back of the main shopping area down town. It was a common occurrence, a lot of high value items were commonly present in the place, but to the great annoyance of the police the thieves were becoming both bolder and better armed by the day.

Carefully peeking around the side of the squad car, Officer David Michelson tried to work out an angle that might let him get the shooter before the shooter got all of them. Annoyingly, the bastard wasn't entirely stupid, and was firing from behind a concrete pillar that supported the roof of the loading bay.

Taking careful aim he fired a couple of shots, which provoked a lot of swearing and some more wild fusillades of 7.62mm mayhem in his direction, but that was about it.

"How many do you think there are, Harry?" he called to his colleague, who was attending to one of the two backup cops who had received a stray shot across the shoulder and was wincing in pain and bleeding quite heavily. His own partner was on the radio, the microphone cable stretching out of the car and to a position behind the front wheel, calling for heavier backup. Preferably something with armor plate and a really big gun.

"I make it five in the warehouse and this fucker, so six. They have to go through us to get away, this is the only way out."

"Wonderful," David sighed, hearing yet another burst of machine gun fire whizz overhead. "Do you think they know that?" In a lull of shooting, he raised his pistol over his head and the front of the car, emptying the magazine in the hopes of hitting something helpful. It clearly didn't work, although it did produce some inventive insults.

"No idea. The E88 low level guys aren't known for being particularly smart," Harry yelled over the gunfire. "Although they have a fuck of a lot of bullets."

Popping the magazine from the gun David replaced it with a full one, the second to the last he had on him, then looked around. "Where the hell is the backup," he muttered. "Hey, Harry, any word on backup?"

"En route, five to eight minutes," his partner replied. "Lots of action tonight, it's slowing things."

"Any sign of some friendly capes?" David shouted as yet more bullets whanged off the car. "I'd even take an unfriendly one as long as it was unfriendly to these shits rather than us."

"Protectorate is tied up with chasing some of the E88 capes around on the other side of the city and also dealing with that idiot Skidmark who's being a bigger asshole than normal on the boardwalk," Harry replied, barely audible. "Wards incoming, Vista and Gallant, ETA five minutes as well."

"Fuck!" David was not a happy man.

"Excuse me?"

"I mean, they could have sent more than one car, for fuck's sake," he ranted, staring at his partner, who was looking back with an odd expression. "We told them we were under heavy fire and we only got one car? We need a tank or something to get these fuckers."

"Hello? Excuse me?"

The gunfire abruptly doubled in intensity as a second machine gun started up from another vantage point, making him yelp and try to curl into a ball inside his bulletproof vest.

"It's too loud. I'll be back in a minute."

The female voice only then penetrated his worry, anger, and confusion, making him wonder who was talking. Looking up he couldn't see anyone.

The shooting suddenly stopped, then restarted at much higher intensity for a few seconds, at least four AKs going at once. There were several screams, a crash, more screams, two quite loud explosions, then dead silence.

Puzzled yet relieved, David uncovered his head and raised it, listening carefully, then looked over at Harry, who was staring towards the warehouse with an incredulous look. "What happened?" he asked. His partner opened his mouth, then closed it, repeating the action a couple of times.

"That's better," the voice came back, above him. He jerked his head up to meet the gaze of the... Woman? Thing? Creature? that was peering down at him from her position apparently standing on top of his car. There was an unconscious man slung over her shoulder.

Gaping, he followed her with his eyes as she lightly dropped to the ground beside him, carrying the load of the man without any obvious effort. He noticed with numb amazement that she seemed to be a tall slender humanoid lizard with a long tail, wearing some sort of armored outfit that looked like something from a fantasy game.

And sunglasses.

At night.

"Sorry, I'm new, I'm not sure what the protocol is for something like this," she told him, lowering her burden to the ground carefully. The man had his hands bound behind him with some sort of gray metallic manacles. "I didn't want to butt in but they were shooting so much you didn't seem to be able to hear me."

"That's alright..." he said, still gaping. She watched him, somehow managing to look a little embarrassed, despite the lack of normal human facial cues. "Miss…?"

"I haven't decided on a name yet," she replied. "There are five more inside with a whole lot of guns. Do you want me to bring them out for you, or do you have to do that yourself?"

"If you could get them that would be a help," he replied a little faintly, feeling confused. "Are you a Cape?"

"Can't you tell?" she smiled, exposing more teeth than he was entirely comfortable with, but seeming friendly. "Like I said, I'm new. Is it always this loud?"

"Machine guns tend to be," he replied, a sense of unreality still present.

"I'll be right back," she told him, walking around the car and into the warehouse with a determined, long-legged stride, her taloned feet clicking on the scarred concrete. He exchanged a glance with Harry and the other two cops, all four of them wondering what was going on.

"She's polite if nothing else," Harry finally said, holstering his weapon. Belatedly David did the same, both of them standing up. Their backup were also staring in shock.

They watched as the lizard girl or whatever she was came back out of the warehouse carrying a ganger on each shoulder, put them down next to the first one, then went back inside. Shortly she was coming out with two more. David inspected the suspects as she went inside yet again, seeing that none of them appeared too badly damaged although one had a bullet track across the side of his head, presumably from friendly fire. Another had a definite broken arm, while a third was oozing blood from what looked like a pair of badly broken fingers. Both the latter pair of injuries had been tended to in a fairly basic manner, the arm having a metal splint with bandages holding it on, the fingers only the bandages.

She came back out again, carrying the last perp and a large bag of heavy weapons and ammunition. "This is the last guy and all the guns they had," she said. "I can send you a video recording of what I did if it helps."

"It would, thank you," he said, still a little befuddled. He handed her a card with his email address on, which she tucked into a pouch on her belt.

"Do you need me to do anything?" she asked, standing in a relaxed posture. "I have no idea what the normal procedure is."

Shaking his head, David looked up as the sound of sirens approached, noting absently that she'd looked in that direction herself several seconds before he had heard anything. "Ideally I need a name for the report," he said.

She seemed to think, then shrugged. "I may change it, but for now you can call me Saurial."

"OK. Well, thank you, Saurial," he replied. "You sure shut them down pretty quick. Not bad for a first attempt."

"You're welcome, officer."

The first of two more patrol units slid around the corner, lights and sirens going, to slam to a halt beside them. Jumping out the officers drew their sidearms and pointed them at the lizard girl, who simply watched curiously, showing no sign of worry. "Hey, she's on our side, guys," David called. After exchanging a glance the new arrivals put their guns away, walking over and studying both the girl and the six unconscious men on the ground.

"Where the hell were you guys?" David asked with a certain degree of annoyance. "If it wasn't for Saurial here we'd have been toast."

"Sorry, David, it's completely insane out here tonight," the taller of the two new cops sighed, as his colleague went over to talk to the occupants of the last car, who had just stopped behind the first one.

"If you don't need me for anything I'm going to go," Saurial put in apologetically. "I was doing something else when I heard all the shooting."

"OK. Thanks, young lady. That was a big help." David put his hand out, which she shook, letting him feel the strength of her grip under the somewhat odd sensation of fine cool scales.

"You're welcome, sir," she said politely. "Oh, while I think about it, the restraints will only last an hour or so before they disappear so you should have them locked up by then." He looked at the prisoners, then her, surprised, but nodded. She smiled again, then turned and walked off, disappearing around the corner of the loading dock into the dark. He stared after her for a second or two, turned to Harry who was looking a little puzzled, then down at the six unconscious criminals and the large bag of weapons. Eventually he began to grin.

"That was very strange even for Brockton Bay," he snickered, shaking his head in wonder.

"One way to put it," his friend and partner laughed.

They turned around in time to see a weird visual effect as suddenly the distance between the roof of the building next to them and the ground somehow shrank to nothing, then went back to normal, leaving behind a petite blonde in a green and white costume with a skirt, who looked around with interest, next to a young man in a suit of gray power armor. Vista and Gallant.

They came over, Vista looking curiously at the men on the ground.

"Hello, Officer Michelson," Gallant greeted him. He'd met the Ward on a number of occasions. The young man was always polite, seeming a decent sort of fellow. "We got a call that you were pinned down by armed robbers and needed backup. Sorry about the delay, we've had several other calls tonight close together."

"You seem to have managed to deal with the problem, though," Vista noted, squatting down and poking one of the unconscious E88 members with her finger. "Hey, I know this guy! He was involved in a stickup on the boardwalk only a week ago. Aegis got him. What's he doing out on the street so soon?"

David shrugged, sighing. "You know this city. Revolving door at the jail."

Both young people nodded, reflecting a weary cynicism appalling in ones so young.

"We didn't do much except stay out of the way, it was that new cape who did all the real work," he added after a moment. Vista looked at him, then her colleague.

"New cape? Who?"

"Called herself Saurial. She said it might be a temporary name but it kind of fits."

"Herself?" Vista looked, as far as he could work out under the visor that obscured her eyes, a little intrigued.

He nodded. "Yes, female, about six foot five, polite. Long tail and covered in scales as well." He grinned when they exchanged a startled glance.

"A tail?" Gallant queried, sounding confused.

"She looked like a cross between a human and a giant lizard," Harry put in, coming in to the conversation. "She just turned up out of nowhere right in the middle of the gunfire, ignored it completely, then tried to talk to us. After a minute she complained it was too noisy and went in there." He indicated the warehouse door with a sideways jerk of his head. "It only took about two minutes. Lots of screams, a hell of a lot of shooting, and some explosions. Then she wandered out carrying that one there."

Vista and Gallant exchanged another look.

"Did she get hit?" the latter asked curiously.

"Several times from what I saw," Harry told him, shaking his head. "Just bounced off. Look." He held up a flattened copper-jacketed bullet, then waved at the ground around them. There were several more visible. "She was wearing some very professional looking armor but I think at least one of these hit her leg below it and she didn't even seem to notice."

"High level Brute at least, then," Gallant observed. "Probably a Case 53 by the sound of it."

"That's about it. She carried these guys out, the guns too, told us what happened, then left. Oh, yes, she also took one of David's cards and said she'd email him a video of what she did. There was a little camera mounted on a strap on her head."

"Where did she go?" Vista asked.

David pointed. "She headed that way, back to the main street. You only just missed her. She was on foot."

"I think I'd like to meet her," the young girl smiled. "How old was she?"

"No idea, it's difficult to tell for sure, but based on her voice I'd guess mid to late teens, maybe?" David said a little tentatively. He glanced at his partner who nodded.

"About right. Over fourteen, less than twenty. Can't narrow it down more than that. You'll see why when you meet her."

"Thank you, officers," Gallant replied. He turned to his own diminutive partner who nodded, then did something strange. The other end of the loading bay was abruptly only feet away. They stepped forward, the world snapped back to what passed for normal, and they were gone as well.

"Capes are extremely peculiar," Harry said dryly, making David laugh, nod, then begin calling for an ambulance for the injured perps.

* * *

Wandering along the street, nodding to various passers-by, some of whom nodded back a little jerkily, some of whom simply stared, and a few of whom immediately crossed the road as soon as they spotted her, Taylor was enjoying herself. She was aware that quite a number of people were taking photos but ignored it as much as she could, feeling it wasn't too much imposition as long as they were quiet about it.

" _That was well done, Brain. Only two minor injuries_." The Varga sounded pleased.

She'd knocked the first gunman out with a quick strike with her fist to the base of his skull at the point her companion had told her would cause maximum rapidity of unconsciousness with minimum likelihood of injury, then gone inside the warehouse, quickly tracing the thermal signatures of the other five, before finding the light switch panel and flipping everything off. In the dark they were sitting ducks to her.

Quickly running them down one at a time, as they screamed and shouted, worried that the frenzied shooting would end up with one of the idiots killing another one, she'd knocked two more out with no effort, taken what looked like a grenade launcher from another fool who'd just fired two shots into the dark without any idea of where they'd land, then kicked the fifth one halfway across the warehouse and into a pile of plastic crates when he stumbled into her and pulled out a huge machete. She was a little embarrassed about that, it had been a reflex move as she knew she wasn't in danger. Luckily he only got a broken arm out of it.

The sixth one had been craftier than his friends, as rather than panicking and running around like a twit, shooting wildly, he'd taken cover under a rack of shelving and waited, apparently listening.

She'd known all along where he was but was still a little surprised when he popped up next to her, pointing a pistol with remarkable accuracy at her chest and firing five times. Three of the bullets had hit her, which was impressive under the circumstances. Unfortunately for him, through the armor which stopped them dead she didn't feel anything at all. She'd noticed the shots that hit her bare scales outside, they stung a little, but nothing she couldn't ignore.

Sighing she'd slapped him aside with her tail, grabbing his gun as it flew out of his hand and crushed it with her own, then carefully put him out with a sleeper hold, something she'd been pleased to realize that she'd inherited as part of the skills of her predecessor. At that point she'd also realized that it was probably a safer alternative to hitting people and resolved to be more careful next time, feeling a little annoyed with herself.

Looking around for the still warm grenade launcher, she'd picked it up and carried it to the bag of weapons it had come from, then retrieved the rest of them, inspecting them carefully and flipping every safety she could find to the on position. When she located the launcher user she'd been mildly annoyed to see she'd rather badly broken two of his fingers, the ones that had been wrapped around the stock of the weapon.

The Varga had produced some bandages which she quickly used, remembering enough basic first aid to do a reasonable job, aided by her friend and also making another mental note to learn to do it properly. The broken arm was splinted with more bandages and a strip of Vargastuff, for want of a better name for the metal he produced for her.

In the end it had only taken a couple of minutes, most of which was clearing up after the very brief fight. Talking to the cops had been nice, they seemed pleased, which made Taylor quite relieved. She hadn't known if she was committing some sort of faux pas wading in like that but the constant gunfire had been becoming very irritating. She'd also recognized the name of the cop her father knew and was happy she could help him out.

' _I'm quite pleased, overall, I think_ ,' she commented silently. _'It wasn't very difficult. It's a good thing the bullets don't hurt, though. They do itch a little_.' She scratched a spot on her neck where one had bounced off.

" _Most likely a real fight against a parahuman will take more effort,_ " the Varga said, sounding like he was looking forward to finding out. She nodded, stopping to look into the window of a convenience store, then going inside. Poking around on the shelves for a moment she picked up a few packs of beef jerky, which she liked a lot, and a bottle of water, going to the counter and putting her purchases on it.

The young man behind the counter was staring fixedly at her face, making her feel self-conscious for a second or two. Waving a ten dollar bill at him while smiling made him jump, then quickly ring up the items.

"Would you like a bag for that, um, miss?" he asked in a faltering manner.

"No, thanks," she smiled again, wondering why he was looking so worried. Picking up her jerky she put most of it into one of her belt pouches, opened the last pack and put some in her mouth, then left, chewing and savoring the taste. Idly thinking she should have bought a box of eggs to snack on, she unscrewed the lid of the bottle and took a drink from it as she headed in the general direction of Arcadia.

A few minutes later Taylor heard a shout from behind her, a young girl by the sound of it. "Saurial! Hey, Saurial!" Stopping, she turned to see two people she instantly recognized, the Wards Vista and Gallant, approaching her from a couple of dozen yards away. She waited politely for them to approach, wondering what they wanted.

Halting six or seven feet away, both the other teenagers looked at her, as she looked back, all of them curious. "I see what Officer Michelson meant," Vista whispered in a low voice to Gallant, probably not intending her to hear. She didn't give any sign she did.

"It's nice to meet you, Saurial," Gallant said after a moment and another glance at his colleague, stepping forward and holding out his hand. She took it and shook it.

"And you," she replied. She and Vista repeated the process. She finished her water then dropped the empty bottle into a nearby garbage can.

"We understand you're new, this is your first time out?" Gallant was studying her with interest.

She nodded. "Yes, I decided I wanted to see what happened. Those gang members were… not very good. But it was an interesting training exercise." The pair exchanged a glance. Looking around she saw that they were drawing a crowd even at half past ten at night, then looked up. "Why don't we go somewhere more private?"

"Sure," Vista replied, "If you want to stand here, I..." She trailed off as she watched Taylor crouch then leap fifteen feet up and to the side, grabbing the top of one of the stone window ledges, then ascend the side of the six story building like she was climbing the stairs on all fours. Her talons and strength made it easy, which she was glad about, as she hadn't practiced this and suddenly thought she'd have looked like a complete idiot if she'd missed.

"OK. So you can do _that_ ," she heard from below her, making her grin. A strange sensation to one side made her vision flicker then she looked up to see Vista peering down at her, grinning herself, from the roof. Easily pulling herself over the top she stood erect.

"Neat trick," she laughed. "I read about that. Space warping of some kind, right?" It was impressive to watch.

"Yes, I'm pretty good at it," Vista giggled, making the other side of the street suddenly be adjacent to them. The Varga was watching with interest, Taylor noted, as was she.

Stepping forward, Vista was abruptly across the road, waving at them, then just as abruptly next to them again. "See?"

" _Very_ neat trick," Taylor grinned.

She turned to Gallant. "From what I've read, you're a Tinker and Blaster."

"More or less," he replied. "And I can read people's emotional states from a distance." He was looking at her with a slightly odd expression, but she was becoming resigned to that by now.

"Excuse me, but I have to ask, it's protocol," Vista said, making Taylor turn to her. The girl held up a small laminated card she pulled from a storage pouch that was like the ones Taylor had, on her belt. On it was a symbol that was vaguely like the letter C, or the omega sign on its side. "Do you by any chance have a tattoo that looks like this on you somewhere?"

"Nope. No tattoos at all," Taylor replied, curious. "Why?"

"Well, in most cases of a cape with such… physical differences," Gallant began, making her turn to him, "there are some things in common. They don't remember anything past a short time ago, they don't even know their names, and they have that symbol on them."

"We refer to them as Case 53s." Vista added soberly. "It's sort of a mystery, no one knows where they come from or who put the tattoo on them. Or why."

"Weird. But, sorry, not applicable. I can remember everything from about the age of three," Taylor smiled. Vista flinched a tiny amount, paling a little. Putting the card away she looked down, her color back to normal when she faced Taylor again.

"OK, thanks. Like I said, it's protocol. Anyway, welcome to the cape scene. What can you do?" The girl sounded excited again, happy to meet someone new.

"I'm pretty strong and tough, and fast too," Taylor replied, wondering how much to give away. "My senses are also very good."

"So, Brute, possibly Mover and minor Thinker ratings?" Gallant smiled when she turned to him. She nodded, having read up on what information was publicly available on the PRT rating system quite closely as part of her Cape research.

"Yes, although I have no idea what numbers you could put to any of them," she replied, not quite telling the truth. For Brute she was fairly certain she would end up near the top of the scale but saw no reason to tell them that right now, having only just met them. They seemed nice enough, but…

She couldn't dismiss her father's suspicion of the PRT's motives without seeing more herself.

"You could come in for powers testing and find out," he suggested, smiling under his helmet. She considered the offer, but shook her head. They knew enough about what she could do already and she was pretty sure that she didn't want the PRT knowing too much about what she was really capable of just yet. They might get a little overexcited and start shouting.

"Thanks, but no thanks, not right now."

"OK, no pressure," he replied, also nodding back.

They stood in silence for a moment, while she tried to work out what about their scents seemed oddly familiar. It was very faint, not fresh, but definitely there, and had been bugging her since they'd walked up on the street. Her mind seemed very good at remembering smells, now, to go with the ability to detect them so easily, so it was annoying not to be able to put her finger on it.

"Can you do anything else?" Gallant asked with an interested look, slightly distracting her. "Strong, fast and tough is classic Brute but sometimes they go with other things. Look at Glory Girl."

"I can't fly," Taylor sighed. She'd dearly love to be able to do that. "But I can do this." She held out her hand, the Varga forming a sword in it. Vista jumped back with an exclamation of surprise while Gallant froze in place. "And this." The sword turned into a baseball bat, a baton, then a very large hammer with a long handle.

"Is that a projection of some sort?" Vista finally asked, after getting over her surprise.

"Not that I know of," Taylor replied thoughtfully. She hefted the hammer, tapping it against the stonework of the roof parapet, lightly enough not to damage anything. The metallic ringing sound seemed real enough. "I think it's real metal although I'm not sure what exactly it is."

"Interesting," Gallant mumbled, watching her wave it around. "Would you mind if I looked at it?"

"Sure," she shrugged, giving the thing to him one-handed. He took it from her, then nearly fell over when she released it, only stopping the large hammer head dropping by grabbing the handle with both hands.

"Holy _crap_ this thing is _heavy_ ," he grunted in shock. "What the hell is it made of?"

"Good stuff," she smirked.

" _Very_ helpful," he replied a little sarcastically, producing a laugh from Vista, while still straining to lift the hammer which had a head about the size of a loaf of bread. Managing to stand it upright on the end of the handle he inspected it curiously.

"It's all one piece," he noted. She nodded.

"It is."

"Do you know how strong this stuff is?" he asked.

"I can't break it," she told him honestly. "My sword will cut steel like it was butter."

"Can you make another one at the same time as this one?"

"Yep." She produced another hammer, holding it out at arms length by the very end of the handle then grinning at the look on his face. Vista made a small sound of surprise.

"You really are strong, aren't you?" he asked rhetorically. She spun the hammer like a cheerleaders baton then put it over her shoulder, looking pleased. He gaped a little, before recovering.

"I know I can lift at least a couple of tons without much effort and I just found out for sure I'm bulletproof, so yes," she smiled.

"You didn't know for sure when you went after those E88 gangers?" Vista asked, her mouth a little open in surprise.

Taylor shrugged. "I was pretty sure, and I heal fast. This armor is bulletproof as well, in any case."

The two Wards exchanged a look, then Vista stepped forward, looking more closely at the armored breastplate. "Where did you get it?" she asked curiously. "It's really professionally made."

"Same place this came from," she replied, hefting the hammer, then making it go away. She retrieved the one Gallant was still holding upright with some difficulty and did the same to it. "It's made of the same stuff."

"Do you mind?" Vista asked, raising a hand. Taylor shook her head. The girl reached out and ran her hand over the stomach area of her armor, then felt one of the metal strips on the skirt, looking fascinated.

"That's incredible," she muttered, inspecting one of Taylor's arm guards when she obligingly held out her right arm. "I like the logo," she finally said, stepping back and looking at the image on the front of her breastplate. "What is it meant to be? A dragon?"

"No," Taylor grinned. "A friend." She didn't add to that, feeling it would ruin the mystery. Vista radiated a scent of puzzlement but didn't push.

"Why the sunglasses, though?" Vista looked up at her, inspecting her face. ""Wow you're tall," she added with a smile.

Taylor looked around suspiciously. "They're to hide my identity," she hissed in a low voice, looking back at the girl, who was beginning to giggle. "This way no one can work out who I am."

"I think that you might need more than sunglasses," the girl laughed, very amused. "You're… a little distinctive."

Putting a hand on her chest, Taylor asked, "Distinctive? Me? I thought I was blending in well. No one on the street seemed to notice." She tapped her chin thoughtfully, while Vista nearly fell over giggling. "Although, there _were_ a few of them that were crossing the street. I just thought there was some sort of sale on. The clerk in the shop looked confused as well. Strange. Perhaps I'm not as anonymous as I thought I was."

"You… You… went into a shop?" Vista managed to ask, heaving with laughter, while behind her Gallant was grinning.

"Of course. I wanted some beef jerky and some water. Here, would you like some?" Taylor produced a pack of the meaty treat from her pouch and held it out. Vista shook her head, still giggling.

"No thanks, I don't like it very much."

"OK." She put it away again. The younger girl slowly managed to get herself under control.

With an internal jolt, she suddenly realized the source of the scent that had been puzzling her, suppressing with some effort a surge of anger. Gallant looked oddly at her, his smile vanishing. Not trusting herself to speak for a moment, she looked around, then back to them.

"Have you considered joining the Wards?" he asked slowly. "Assuming you're under eighteen, of course..." He was obviously angling for more information. With the Varga murmuring advice, she shook her head slightly.

"I'm under eighteen, but at the moment I have no particular plans to join anyone," she replied evenly. "I'm still working out what I want to do. Plus I have a lot of education to get through."

"It's dangerous for a new cape, especially a young one, on their own," he warned.

She nodded once. "I've read the statistics. I also know it's not much less dangerous for a cape who is part of a group. The average life span is only about two to three times that for a lone wolf. Don't worry, I can take care of myself."

Smelling concerned, he stared at her. "What about your family, though? The PRT can provide protection. They might be in danger."

She manifested a sword in each hand, holding them points down to the sides, and stared right back. "Anyone who goes after my family dies," she growled, almost literally, baring her teeth at the sudden rage the suggestion brought to her. She could smell the sudden, well hidden, fear that both teenagers emitted. " _Anyone_." After a moment she got rid of the weapons again, feeling she'd made her point, calming down. The thought that someone might target Danny to get her was one she'd had before and it terrified her. The Varga reassured her in the back of her head, promising bloody vengeance on anyone who dared.

There was an uncomfortable pause, then Vista said brightly, obviously trying to lighten the mood which had ended up in a rather dark place, "Has anyone explained the Unwritten Rules to you? All new capes should know them."

She looked at the girl, still somewhat annoyed, which seemed to come out in her expression judging by the way the girl took an involuntary step back. "Unwritten Rules? I read on PHO about something called that, but there was no information on it." After a moment she laughed, adding, "Presumably because they're unwritten, I guess."

Vista smiled. "Exactly. Basically it goes like this: Don't kill other capes, don't try to find out their real identities, don't go after their families. There's more, of course, but that's the main part."

Studying her, Taylor thought about her words.

" _I assume that these rules are in place to avoid wholesale war between Parahumans, Brain_ ," the Varga noted slowly. " _I also suspect that the reason they are unwritten is a political one. Rules that are not written down can be selectively ignored by the powerful, as they are, of course, not written down. It gives… a certain amount of flexibility of interpretation_."

' _Gallant also just got through warning me that Dad could be at risk. If these rules are followed, why would that be?_ '

" _Quite possibly because they only apply to actions between Parahumans. Non powered associates of theirs could probably ignore them with impunity. Under certain circumstances at least_. _It would be an obvious loophole_." The Varga sounded thoughtful.

Unaware of the inner conversation, Vista continued, "All capes, Villain, Hero, or Rogue, normally stick to the rules. If you break them, everyone will be after you."

"What about New Wave?" she asked slowly. "They lost Fleur when they unmasked and people found out where they lived." Her research had brought that up quite quickly.

"Kaiser himself killed the one who did that," Gallant replied. "And he's not exactly someone you'd normally think of as someone who follows rules. Even he has limits to what he'll accept."

" _In public_ ," the Varga commented. " _If there is no chance of detection, I suspect that this Kaiser would do anything he wanted, based on what we've read about him. I recognize the type._ "

"I won't kill anyone unless I absolutely have to, trust me," she finally replied. "I intend to be very careful. But if anyone goes after my family, all bets are off."

Gallant looked at her for a long moment. "I can understand that," he said in a low voice after several seconds. "But be aware that as a Cape you get judged very harshly on your actions by the public. They tend to see the worst, usually without knowing the whole story. It can make life a little awkward sometimes."

"If you have an email account or PHO account you can tell me I can send you some more detailed information on being a Cape," Vista remarked, glancing between the pair of them.

"I don't have anything like that set up yet," she admitted. It was something she should have done first, she realized with annoyance.

"Don't worry, here's my details, when you have it, let me know, OK?" Vista handed her a card much like the one officer Michelson had given her. She took it, then put it away.

"Thanks."

"It's no problem," the young Ward said with a smile.

"I'm going to have to go now," Taylor said, wanting to get home and think. "But it was interesting meeting you both. Thank you for the information."

"You're welcome," Vista grinned. "I hope we'll meet again."

"I expect we will," she smiled back, then turned and ran along the roof, leaping off the end onto the next building with ease and grinning to herself. ' _This is fun, I should have thought of it earlier_ ', she said to the Varga, who felt amused. She carefully headed in a direction away from her house, intending to drop to ground level when she was sure she wasn't being seen, cloak and change, then head back.

Running and jumping across the rooftops, occasionally having to climb up or down buildings of different sizes, with her tail flying behind her stabilizing her, she let her body do the work while she thought. On the whole she'd enjoyed the interaction with the teenaged Heroes. The two Wards seemed decent people, friendly and helpful, and the advice they'd given was sound as far as she could tell. Even the Varga, who was a suspicious bastard at times, thought so.

The big question was, why did both of them smell very faintly of Sophia Fucking Hess?


	13. Reports and Letters

Missy watched Saurial bound across the roof like she was on springs and clear the distance to the next building easily, then run at what must have been close to forty miles an hour across it, before repeating the process to the next one along. If anything she was speeding up. The lizard-like cape made an impressive sight, leaping and bouncing with her tail out behind her, balancing her torso as she leaned over for speed.

She lost sight of the other female when she skittered up the side of a much taller building a couple of blocks away like a rat up a drainpipe, making it look easy, and vanished over the top. Shivering a little despite herself she turned to look up at Dean, who was also watching Saurial go.

"Well, that was… different."

He nodded without looking away for a moment, then turned to her. "She's dangerous," he said.

"I got that all by myself," she laughed. "Did you _see_ those swords? And that huge hammer! That was amazing."

"If you knew how much it weighed you'd be even more amazed," he replied slowly. "It much have been a good two hundred and fifty pounds. I could barely lift it. But she was waving it around like it was made of styrofoam. She's probably at least as strong as Vicky if not stronger."

"She did say she could lift a couple of tons," Vista noted. He nodded, still looking a little disturbed, something Missy could easily pick up on having known him for so long, even under the helmet and visor.

"She was being completely honest about killing anyone who went after her family," he continued. "There's something… odd… about her emotional output, it's difficult to read for some reason and much fainter than normal, but the rage she felt when I mentioned it? It was kind of horrifying."

After a moment, he added, "The other weird thing is that about half way through our conversation she suddenly got very angry for some reason, although I didn't see any trace of it in her voice or expression. She's got very good control of her reactions."

"Why?" Missy asked curiously.

He shrugged helplessly. "I have no idea. Something we said? But she was furious, then calmed down, but even when she left she was still a little pissed for some reason. Nothing to do with you talking about the Rules, or even her family. Something else was bothering her."

"Very strange," his companion commented, making him nod.

They looked after Saurial, then at each other, before beginning to make their way back to base.

"Saurial seems nice though," Missy commented on the way back. "A little… toothy… but nice."

"I guess," Dean replied. He still couldn't get the image of the lizard girl waving an enormous war hammer like a plastic prop and grinning out of his head.

"It'll be nice to have another girl Cape around, even if she does have a tail and scales," the girl laughed, then went silent as she concentrated on doing something horrible to the fabric of space-time surrounding them.

* * *

"Describe her, please," Miss Militia requested, opening a notebook in front of her and pulling a pen from somewhere. The rest of the wards, except for Shadow Stalker who was currently sulking in her room, listened curiously to the pair of Vista and Gallant. These last exchanged a glance.

"Um, six and a half feet tall, slender, I'd guess maybe a hundred and sixty pounds or so?" Gallant began. Missy shook her head a little, an expression of thought on her face.

"Don't forget that tail. I think it's pretty heavy, it probably pushes her weight up compared to a normal human. Maybe a hundred and ninety? She was pretty skinny but not to an unhealthy level." Missy smiled slightly. "She actually looked very fit and toned and not at all bad, under the circumstances."

Gallant nodded while the military themed cape looked a little startled. "Tail?" she echoed curiously.

"She's a giant lizard," the petite space warper smiled, making the other Wards look at each other. "She's got sort of light blue scales, with darker stripes, and what looked like dark blue feathers on her head like hair."

Gallant nodded slowly. "Saurial is quite distinctive," he added, making Vista grin. "She was wearing armor, which looked like a cross between ancient Greek or Roman armor and some sort of fantasy warrior. Aside from not covering her completely, it looked very functional. And very professional, it was better made than some of our costumes. Dark blue with a gold emblem of a roaring lizard or dragon in profile on the breastplate."

"The armor was really cool," Vista said excitedly. "She had a… what do you call it, cuirass, is it?" She looked at Miss Militia who nodded, appearing very interested. "OK, cuirass, on her torso, with a roughly knee-length skirt of overlapping metal strips that came down to her knees. Or where her knees would be in a normal person, her legs worked differently. There were shoulder protectors as well, along with arm and shin guards, also metal. It looked amazing."

"Bare feet, though, no boots," Gallant put in. "Her feet were three toed, I think, a bit like a birds, with another short toe coming out the heel. Claws about two inches long on the toes which looked very sharp. Shorter ones on the fingers. She walked on her toes, not like a human. Plus a tail about five feet long which was obviously very strong, and from the way it was moving around, very flexible. She can probably use it in a fight as well as her arms and legs."

"Don't forget her teeth," Vista commented, making him nod soberly.

"Yes, you can't forget those. Even if you try." The short blonde girl giggled, but shivered at the same time.

"She looked like she could bite your arm off without much effort," she confirmed. "Her face was… not normal at all, it was like someone stretched a human face over a lizard's skull and covered it in scales, but it wasn't ugly. Sort of pretty when you got used to it and very expressive."

"Anything else?" Miss Militia asked when she'd finished making notes. "And any idea how old she is?"

"She was wearing a weird set of sunglasses," the girl added. "Obviously custom made, her head is a completely different shape and she doesn't have any ears. Although she said her senses are very good so I guess she's only missing the outer bits like a normal lizard does."

"And she had some sort of high-end lipstick camera mounted on the right side of her head with straps that were made to blend in with her scales," Gallant added. Vista nodded.

"She also said she was under eighteen, but I don't know, really," he went on, looking at Vista who shrugged. "I'd guess _probably_ around sixteen or so but that _is_ just a guess. There's no easy way to tell, looking at her."

"She mentioned she had a lot of education to deal with so I guess that means she's still in school as well," Vista put in. "Or maybe home-schooled."

"OK." Making more notes, the older woman tapped the pen on the paper as she thought, then turned a page. "Personality-wise, what were your impressions?"

Both teenagers were silent for a few seconds, looking at each other, finally, Missy said slowly, "Very smart. Definite Heroic tendencies. Good sense of humor, pretty funny, actually. She seemed… friendly. And not overawed by meeting us at all. I think she's studied up on the Capes around here, she didn't seem surprised by us and knew quite a bit about our powers."

"But you _really_ wouldn't want to piss her off, I think," Gallant added with a small frown. "I suspect that she'd be completely ruthless if she had got backed into a corner. She basically told us straight out that anyone who threatened her family would die and trust me, she meant it."

Several more glances were exchanged amongst the listening teens.

"Interesting," was the only comment from Miss Militia as she continued writing for a moment.

"Powers?"

"That's where it gets strange," the young man replied. "She has some sort of ability to manifest weapons, like swords or giant hammers." The older cape looked up sharply from her papers, an expression of curiosity on her face as far as could be made out.

"Like my power?" she asked, a pistol appearing in her hand in a swirl of green energy. She put it on the table next to the notebook. Seconds later it vanished again.

"I… don't know," he finally replied. "We didn't see her make anything like a gun, so I can't say she can do that, but I can't say she _can't_ either. She made a horrific looking sword, which was very obviously ridiculously sharp, a baseball bat, something a lot like a police baton, and that huge hammer, which was about four feet long with a head bigger than mine. And she's not limited to one weapon, she made two of them simultaneously at two different times."

Leaning back in her chair Miss Militia thought for a few seconds, her eyes narrowing in interest over her scarf. "Were they projections, perhaps?" she finally asked.

He shook his head. "I don't think so. She said they were some sort of metal, and it certainly sounded real when she tapped the hammer on the stonework. It clinked just like steel would. But the metal is a dull gray and _incredibly_ heavy. That hammer must have weighed over two hundred and fifty pounds. With the leverage of the long handle, even with my power armor, I could barely hold it, but she was waving it around one handed like it was a toy. It was kind of scary, actually. She spun the damn thing without even looking at it as if she was a band leader."

"So, a Brute, definitely."

"Ohhh, yes." He nodded vigorously. "She claimed to be able to lift over two tons, and from what I saw it was no idle boast. I'd guess she's at least on a par with Glory Girl in that respect."

The older Cape's eyes widened a little. "Really?" she queried, producing a confirming nod from the young man. She made some more notes, thoughtfully.

"She's tough, too," Missy commented. "She told us she was bullet-proof and the cops confirmed it. The armor is as well, apparently, but I don't think she really needs it. Her sword can apparently cut steel ' _like butter_ ' as she put it. However she makes the weapons, the same thing made her armor, and she said it was the same stuff whatever that is. She let me touch it and it was almost completely frictionless."

"Officer Greggs said he saw her get hit a number of times by 7.62mm rifle bullets and there were a lot of them lying around, but there wasn't a mark on either her or her armor," Gallant said.

"Really fast as well, to add to all that." Vista shook her head in impressed wonder. "You should have seen her climb, it was amazing. She shot up the side of that building nearly as fast as she could run along the top of it and I saw her clear a twenty foot gap without any problems. She was speeding up the whole time we were watching. I got the impression she'd never tried it before and was learning on the spot for some reason."

Finishing making notes, Miss Militia looked at what she'd written. "OK, we have high level brute for sure, at least 4. Mover as well, 1 or higher. Thinker 1 for enhanced senses, although we don't know how enhanced. And Breaker of some sort for the matter manipulation. Assuming that's what it really is."

"She hit the jackpot, didn't she?" Aegis remarked, speaking for the first time from where he was sitting on the sofa in the Ward's rec room, a few feet away. She looked over at him and nodded sightly. "All that in one cape is unusual."

"Mind you, she's sort of obvious," Vista noted. "I'm not sure I'd think having all those powers would be worth being covered in scales with a tail, looking like that."

"And you're sure she's not a Case 53?" the older woman asked.

Vista nodded, spreading her hands. "She said she could remember everything in her life no trouble and that she didn't have the tattoo. I don't think she was lying."

"The interesting thing is that she seemed completely comfortable with herself, completely at ease," Dean remarked after a moment. "Not embarrassed or self conscious about her appearance. She moved like she was totally used to it as well, which suggests to me she's been like that for a while, but that was the first time I've ever heard of her."

"I'm not aware of anyone meeting that description, no," Miss Militia mused, thinking. "So presumably either she's a new trigger, an older one that just decided to get into the Cape life right now, or… Or what?"

They exchanged a look. "Are you sure she wasn't some sort of projection herself?" Clockblocker suggested, a look of fascination on his face. Gallant turned to look over at his colleague who was leaning on the back of the sofa with his helmet off.

"I don't think so, no," he replied after some consideration. "She moved completely naturally, all the muscles under the scales appeared real, I saw her swallow a couple of times, she was definitely breathing. I couldn't see her eyes, but everything else looked very real."

"So we have a super-humanly strong lizard girl who can run at highway speeds and throw cars around barehanded, not to mention make swords that can probably cut one in half with one swing considering her strength, running around downtown on the roofs?" Dennis summarized a little sarcastically. "Wonderful. That sounds _really_ safe."

Gallant nodded, smiling slightly, while Missy giggled.

"Maybe she's an alien," the time stopping cape suggested with a smirk. "Or some warrior demoness from hell here to find souls to snack on."

"She likes beef jerky, not souls, Dennis," Missy sighed. "She offered me some."

Gallant grinned. "She apparently wandered into a convenience store and bought it, which must have been hysterical to see," he chuckled. Clockblocker immediately laughed, shaking his head.

"I think I like her already."

"She has a weird sense of humor, like you," Vista noted, making him smile again.

"Hey, maybe this means that those strange stories on the internet about shape-shifting lizards running the world is real?" the red-head added, grinning. "You know, like that crazy British guy, what's his name, David Icke, has been claiming for years. Perhaps she's one of them who can't shape-shift and is just running around anyway."

Vista gave him a sad look and shook her head, making him smirk, while Dean and Miss Militia exchanged a look. Aegis appeared thoughtful.

"You know, if she actually was a Changer that would explain why no one has seen a lizard girl wandering around yet," he said slowly, making Clockblocker stare at him.

"I was _joking!_ " the teen complained. "Now you think she really _is_ a shape-shifting six and a half foot tall lizard? Next you'll be saying she's going to replace one of us for the New World Order." He narrowed his eyes, staring suspiciously at his colleague, then looked around at the others. "Or maybe... _she_ _already has_." Walking over to his team-mate he stared hard at his mask from very close range, then reached out and prodded him in the forehead a couple of times, making Aegis bat his finger away. "Are you an alien lizard under there?" he asked in a deeply suspicious voice, although his mouth was twitching.

"Stop being an idiot, Dennis," he mumbled. "That's not what I meant and you know it."

The other teen grinned and stepped back, while Vista and Gallant collapsed laughing, even Miss Militia smiling under her mask. "I'm just being careful," he replied, "you can never be certain with these alien lizards." Peering around behind his friend he shook his head. "No tail. Hmm, I guess I can trust you. For now."

"Oh, just go away and sit down, will you?" Aegis grumbled, making Dennis laugh, high five Gallant who was creased up, then go and sit beside Kid Win, the Tinker listening quietly while he fiddled with one of his laser pistols. The latter was smiling but said nothing.

"Back to business, please," Miss Militia requested, sounding amused. Clockblocker immediately made his expression go completely blank, which set Missy off again. The older woman waited patiently for them to calm down. "Aegis' suggestion is certainly worth considering, I think. It would explain the lack of any reports of Saurial before last night, presuming she didn't trigger then immediately go out in costume, which I think is unlikely." She made some more notes. "So, it may well be Brute, Mover, Thinker, Breaker, and now Changer as well. That's… a very comprehensive and unusual power set even if most of them are low level."

"The Changer rating would have to be reasonably high to let her switch between that form and a normal human one," Gallant noted with interest, making her nod. "It looked like a complete transformation, bone, skin, everything, not a cosmetic one."

"That's true." She sighed. "I'd love to talk to her and get her in for power testing."

"She said she had no current interest in either joining the Wards or coming in," he replied, shrugging. "As far as I could tell she was sincere, although not hostile about it, just not interested."

"OK. Pity, though. I hope she realizes how dangerous it is for an independent Hero, especially in this city."

"She said she'd read the statistics and was fine with it," Missy remarked. "I told her about the Rules and offered to send her some more information on things Capes should know."

Everyone but Gallant looked surprised about this. "Why, at this point, would you get onto that subject?" Miss Militia asked curiously. "It seems sudden for a first meeting and I'm a little surprised that it would be you who'd bring it up."

"Partly it was her reaction when Dean mentioned someone hurting her family to get to her," the young girl replied slowly. "She got… very angry. Not for long, and not at us, but she was… kind of terrifying for a few seconds. I thought I should let her know, both so she wouldn't be so worried, which she obviously was, and also to let her know before she ran into a situation where it might come up."

Nodding, the military cape gave the impression of slight approval.

"Plus I like her, I think," Missy added with a smile. "We need more girl Capes around. Too many boys." She cast a disapproving glance around at her team-mates, making Dennis put an expression of hurt disappointment on his face and Kid Win snicker, still not saying anything but following the conversation although he was wrist deep in his weapon, concentrating on something fiddly.

With a slight snicker of her own, Miss Militia closed the notebook and rested her pen on top of it, leaning back in her chair folding her hands on the table.

"All right. Well done, both of you, both for handling a meeting with a new Cape and the report. You managed lots of useful detail and your suppositions seem sound. I'll write it up and pass it along. If you think of anything else, let me know." She stood to leave. Gallant cleared his throat, appearing somewhat troubled. "Is there something else to add?" she asked, stopping in the process of picking up her notebook and pen.

"There… might be," he slowly and a little reluctantly said. "Normally I wouldn't mention something private like this, but… I'm not sure if it means anything. Or at least anything bad."

She sat down again and re-opened the notebook, motioning to him to continue.

"There's something very weird about her emotional output," he went on after an obvious minor internal struggle. "It's difficult to describe. I can't read her nearly as well as I can most people, her emotions seemed… muted, or on the wrong frequency, somehow," He shrugged slightly helplessly. "I can't put it better than that, sorry."

"If she changes to that extent, possibly her brain is different enough to screw with your powers?" Kid Win said, speaking for the first time, looking up from his gun. They all turned to look at him, then back to Gallant, who seemed thoughtful.

"Maybe. I don't know. But I could get enough to recognize a couple of things. One was that at one point she suddenly got very angry, for no obvious reason, although as far as I could tell it wasn't directed at us. She didn't show a trace of it either in her voice or in her body language, though, which is impressive. She calmed down pretty fast but she was still annoyed when she left, in fact I think she left exactly because she was annoyed. Up to that point, except when I mentioned her family being at risk, which was horrifying to feel, she was calm and basically happy. It was a little bizarre."

"Maybe you said something to annoy her?" Aegis asked.

Gallant shook his head. "I don't think so. She was being all friendly and joking around then suddenly there was this faint wave of serious rage. I don't know if she noticed but I nearly stepped back, it was so surprising."

Making a few notes on a new page, Miss Militia nodded slowly. "That's slightly concerning. Hopefully she isn't emotionally unstable, that would be a very bad mix with those abilities."

"I don't know for sure but I don't think she is," Gallant replied with a shrug. "I think there was a real reason for it although I have no idea what."

"OK. What's the other thing?" She stopped writing once more and looked at him.

"The _really_ strange thing was I think I detected two slightly different and distinct emotional outputs from her. At the same time. One was very faint, and gave me the impression for some reason of being very old and very calm, although when I mentioned that thing with her family it suddenly went… very worrying… for just a second." He shivered. "Maybe I'm imagining it, like I said she's really hard to read, and it might just be a result of that. But..." He spread his hands out helplessly.

"I don't know what it means, even if it's real, but I thought you should know."

"Thank you, Gallant," the woman replied, finishing her note-taking with a slightly troubled expression visible on the top half of her face. "I have to say I don't know what it might mean either, you may be right and it's just a side effect of whatever resistance she has to your power, but it's worth knowing."

Looking up at the pair, she asked, "Anything else?"

Both Dean and Missy shook their heads.

"OK." She closed the notebook for the last time.

"What do we do if we meet her again?" Vista asked.

The older Cape tapped her pen on the table, considering the question. "For now, just do what you did, although I'd suggest not mentioning her family again. Be friendly, don't start any confrontations. We have no idea what she's really capable of and that's the sort of thing that gets you killed. For now she's just an apparently non-hostile independent Hero and unless things change we'll just be civil to her and hope she reciprocates."

They nodded in unison. Turning her head to look at the other wards, she added, "That goes for the rest of you. Don't provoke Saurial if you meet her, be polite and friendly." Fixing Clockblocker with a stare, she carried on, "And no practical jokes with the meat-eating super-strong lizard girl, please."

Looking a little disappointed, he replied, "You mean alien lizard here to take over the world," causing her to sigh faintly. He smirked.

Deliberately ignoring him and making him turn a grin to Kid Win beside him, who shrugged, she looked to Vista. "If she does contact you, you may give her non-classified information as you suggested. It might be worth _gently_ pushing the idea of the Wards if you think she's receptive to it, but don't overdo it." The blonde girl nodded, smiling a little.

"Good." Satisfied, she stood, looked at Clockblocker again, sighed sadly and theatrically, shook her head in despair, then left. He watched her go with a small grin.

"She actually really appreciates the work I do around here to lighten the mood and keep morale high, you know," he commented, making Aegis snort with disbelief and Missy giggle. "Honest!"

The ensuing argument went on for some time.

* * *

Prodding the button beside the armored door, Hannah waited until it beeped and unlocked. "Enter," the voice of Colin Wallis said from inside. She went in, to find the Tinker sitting at a workbench, more or less his default position when he wasn't out on the streets or sleeping, which he did as little as possible.

Unusually, he wasn't working on a half-disassembled widget, instead he was staring, deep in thought, at a large monitor on which were several pictures. She glanced at them curiously. They appeared to be of a pair of manacles of some sort on the wrists of what was presumably, due to the tattoo she could make out, a member of the E88.

"I've got the notes on the reported contact with a new cape called Saurial, Colin," she said. "You know, this really is something you should be doing, you're the one in command." This was said with a certain amount of asperity.

Not looking away from his screen he nodded absently. "You're much better with people than I am, Hannah, so I'm sure you do a good job. Thank you." He leaned forward, studying one image which he zoomed to fill the screen, then mumbled something to himself. She sighed a little, shaking her head in fond irritation. The man was brilliant, but gave the concept ' _one track mind_ ' a real workout. Not to mention that, as far as he was concerned, social skills were something that happened to other people.

"What are you looking at?" she asked, knowing that she wasn't going to get much more use out of him until he satisfied whatever itch he was currently scratching.

"Something impossible," he murmured, zooming another image, then rotating it, before selecting a third. This one was of a flat strip of the same gray metal, just over fourteen inches long and an inch wide based on the ruler next to it.

"That looks like a pair of manacles and a strip of metal to me," she commented, pulling a spare chair over and sitting on it, looking at the images. "They're not all that impossible, I've seen manacles before." She smiled under her scarf, knowing he'd miss the joke completely yet not minding. Glancing at her for a moment, he went back to inspecting the monitor, before leaning back with an exclamation of irritation.

"They are indeed manacles, and the strip of metal was used as a splint. Their function is not impossible, or even complex. What they're made of is."

"What are they made of?" she asked curiously.

"I have absolutely no idea," he replied sourly.

She inspected him, then the screen again. "Really?"

"Yes. I was called in an hour ago to the Downtown BBPD precinct to give technical advice. They had six prisoners apprehended in a robbery by a new Cape calling herself Saurial, who restrained them with those manacles, and also treated a broken arm and some broken fingers with basic first aid. That metal splint was used. They wanted help because they couldn't remove the restraints. A pair of bolt cutters did absolutely nothing, not even leaving a mark, neither did a diamond cutting wheel. They were on the verge of using an oxyacetylene torch but luckily I arrived before that happened and tested them. Whatever that material is, it's both a perfect electrical insulator and a thermal superconductor, at the same time. Using the torch would have been very dangerous, the prisoners would have been badly burned."

He sighed, while she waited patiently and with good humor, wondering when he'd work it out. "Not to mention it wouldn't work anyway. I tried it on the splint, which had no useful effect at all. It didn't even glow when the entire thing was hot enough to melt steel easily. I tried everything I could think of with the equipment I had with me to no effect. In addition to all of _that_ , whatever this material _is_ , it is very close to frictionless and its density is impossibly high. Approximately seventy one point six seven grams per cubic centimeter, over three times the density of the most dense element in the periodic table. No such element exists. If it did, it would be deep into the transuranic elements, and probably have a half-life measurable in attoseconds, not to mention you could only make it in a third generation supernova in the first place."

He threw his hands up, disgust on his face, almost knocking his helmet off the workbench next to the keyboard. "Like I said, impossible."

"Did you bring it back to test?" she asked. "For that matter, how _did_ they remove the manacles, or are the prisoners still restrained?"

"Approximately eighteen minutes after I arrived, all the manacles, the splint, and the bandages used on the prisoners vanished," he frowned, making her eyes widen.

"A projection?" she asked incredulously. He shook his head.

"No, definitely not, or if it was it was totally unlike anything else on record. The damn things had real, measurable, consistent properties. Impossible ones for the most part, but real ones."

After a few more seconds of staring in frustration at the screen, his expression suddenly changed, both eyebrows going up slowly. He turned to her. She handed him the notebook, grinning.

"Took you long enough," she laughed, as he flipped through the pages of her notes, reading her elegant longhand with the ease of familiarity.

"This is very… interesting," he said slowly, reading the section of her notes about Saurial's weapons-creation power with extreme care. "And raises more questions than it answers."

After another couple of minutes, he handed the notes back and nodded his thanks. "It doesn't answer the question of what the material is but it explains where it comes from. Or at least who makes it. Fascinating." Looking back to the monitor he studied the images again. "Formed on the spot, specifically for the job," he mused out loud. "That is a very efficient power. I wonder what the limitations are?"

"I recognize that expression," she laughed. "You're thinking about what you could do with something like that if it was stable long enough, aren't you?" He nodded slowly, still with a look of thoughtful consideration.

"It would be a perfect material to make armor out of, with the sole exception of the thermal superconductivity," he replied in an absent manner. "Even that has its uses. I wonder how strong and hard it really is?"

Looking back at her for a second, he added, "Hard enough to make a weapon that would work on an Endbringer?"

She stared at him for several seconds, then joined him in inspecting the screen, wild speculation going through her head.

* * *

 **Thursday, January 27, 2011**

"Holy shit." Danny's flat exclamation of shock made Taylor look up from the history textbook she was studying on the sofa, having just had a snack, to see her father staring at a letter he was holding. The post had come that morning and she'd quickly looked through it, seeing nothing for her which wasn't a shock at all, then put the rest on the kitchen table.

He was still half-way through taking his coat off but seemed to have completely forgotten this little fact, as engaged as he was at staring wide-eyed at the sheaf of papers in his hand. She watched, a little confused, as he flipped through them briefly, then read a page more carefully, before dropping into his chair and staring blankly at her.

"Um, Dad?" she asked carefully. "Are you all right?"

He nodded, his expression not changing, then blinked a few times. Lifting the hand with the letter in he looked at the top page again, then spend a few seconds swearing quite creatively under his breath. Taylor made mental notes of some of the more amusing comments, while the Varga laughed a little at them. Eventually Danny seemed to get it out of his system, dropping the letter to his lap and just shaking his head. After a second he finished taking his coat off and draped it over the arm of the chair with a vacant expression on his face.

"The school has made an offer in full and final settlement of any case we have against them," he told her, appearing to come back from somewhere far away. "I'll have to get this checked over by the DWU lawyer but on the face of it the terms seem reasonable." Looking at the letter again he swallowed, then smiled. "They must _really_ want to make this go away. Us, too."

Putting the book down and sitting up, she looked curiously at him. "So they offered money to shut us up?"

"They did indeed."

"Is it a lot?"

He laughed a little wildly. "Not if you're Bill Gates, no. For us? Quite a good deal."

Getting up and walking over, she looked at the letter which he held up for her. Half-way down the page her eyes widened. "Sixty five thousand dollars!?"

"You missed a zero, dear," he chortled after a surprised moment.

Taylor fell over.

"Six… hundred..." she whispered.

"And fifty thousand, yes." He shook his head in shocked amazement. "That's more than twice what I thought was likely." While she lay on the floor, motionless, staring at him in disbelief, he thought for a moment, smiling oddly. "After various taxes and the like, which there's no getting around, that should be close to half a million in the bank."

She felt faint. "Half a million dollars?"

"That's _nearly_ worth all the pain, isn't it," he commented. Taylor stared, shook her head, then jumped to her feet, pulling him to his and spinning him around, before hugging him.

"No, not really, considering I nearly either lost you or died, but it's worth getting punched in the mouth by Sophia," she grinned. "She can hit me again if people will pay that much." A thoughtful look crossed her face, just before a mischievous one. "Hey, maybe that's a job. Get punched in the mouth for money. I can take it."

Holding her, he looked down the few inches separate them and smiled, sighing a little. "No, dear, I don't think that would work. Or, if it did, there's probably a law against it anyway." Releasing her he retrieved the letter which had fallen to the floor, flipping through the pages once more. "It looks above board. I think Alan may have come through for us. Poor bastard. I'll take it in tomorrow to get the lawyer to go over it while you're at Arcadia doing the test, and pick you up after they're done. Assuming there's no loopholes I can sign it and get it to the Winslow School board on the way. The payment would be in the bank by Monday."

He looked up at her. "Unless you think I should hold out for more? If they're this desperate, they might be open to negotiation." His smile had more teeth than Saurial's.

Taylor laughed, smiling widely. "No, Dad, no need to be greedy. I think that will do." She looked around the room. "We can get this place fixed up, and everything."

"We could move easily with this much money," he pointed out. She stopped dead, then looked at him.

After a long moment, she shook her head. "I don't want to leave here, this is my home. This was Mom's home."

Putting the letter on his chair, he held her, smiling proudly. "That it is, dear. A very good point. All right, we'll fix everything wrong with it, that won't take very much of this, and I may treat us to a newer car. At least half of it is going into your college fund, though."

She looked startled for a moment. "It's your money, Taylor. It's a settlement for everything you went through. I won't turn down a contribution to the family funds, but it's yours." He smiled down at her as she stared, then nodded slowly.

"Now, I think you should go and do some final revising, while I call Antonia and make an appointment to see her first thing tomorrow to look at this, OK?"

Taylor nodded, still stunned, before slowly heading off to her computer and books, her head spinning. The smile on her face seemed etched there permanently.


	14. Tests and Meetings

**Friday, January 28, 2011**

Looking at the surprisingly elegant building Taylor tried to calm herself. " _It will be easy, Brain,_ " the Varga told her reassuringly, making her nod very slightly, although she still found herself petrified. Facing half a dozen idiots with machine guns was positively relaxing compared to this. She might have to go and find some later to get over it.

Danny squeezed her hand, picking up on her mood, and smiled at her wide eyes when she turned to look at him. "I know you can do this and I'm sure your enormous friend just told you the same thing, dear. Just relax, go in there and take the tests, pass them like I know you will, and I'll pick you up in a few hours. We can go out for a nice meal afterward if you want."

He looked at the school as well. "It certainly looks a lot cleaner and safer than Winslow. That's a good sign."

Taking a deep breath, more nervous at this than walking around in public as Saurial, she nodded firmly. Letting some of the confidence her alternate forms seemed to give her bleed through she deliberately relaxed as much as she could, feeling her racing heartbeat slow. "It's only a test," she muttered to herself. "No pressure."

Danny chuckled. "Exactly. Go and prove how smart you are, make all of us proud."

Taylor let out a long breath then nodded one final time, quickly leaning over and giving her father a peck on the cheek. "Thanks, Dad. See you later."

Opening the door she swung herself out, using her tail to keep her balance when she moved a little too fast with an instinctive ease she didn't even think about now, made sure she had the relevant documents in the small backpack she was carrying, then closed the door. He watched her as she walked into the school past the crowds of teenagers, a few of who watched her then exchanged a few words with each other before going about their business. Reaching the front doors she looked over her shoulder, waved, and went inside, hearing his car start and drive away.

Inside she looked around, raising an impressed eyebrow. There was none of the dirt and general lived in look of Winslow, no graffiti or gang tags, and no surly youths hanging around in threatening groups. Most importantly, there were no Three Bitches. Smiling to herself she tried to work out where she needed to go.

"Excuse me," she said, catching the eye of a tallish pretty short-haired brunette girl in an expensive-looking outfit a year or so older than she was. The girl stopped in her tracks and turned to look her over, running a practiced eye over her clothes in a manner that Taylor caught but that the girl probably didn't even consciously notice. In an attempt to make a good impression, she was wearing Varga-created copies of some nice pants with a silk top, loose but not excessively so, with good high end sneakers and a decent jacket over it. She didn't feel the cold as much as she used to so the coat wasn't necessary but it did give her somewhere to put her phones. She thought that overall it looked fashionable but not ostentatious, and importantly was a complete break from her old style, the result of trying desperately to blend into the background.

"Hi," the girl said. "New girl? I don't recall seeing you around here before." She held out her well-manicured hand. "I'm Mandy. Are you lost?"

"I'm looking for the school secretaries' office?" Taylor shook hands then checked her documents, removing them from her backpack which she swung off her shoulder. "I'm here to take some acceptance tests, I'm transferring in from Winslow."

Mandy delicately wrinkled her nose. "Winslow? Is that place as bad as I've heard it is?"

"It's probably worse," Taylor replied darkly. "A seething cesspit of villainous scum. The sort of place that would be massively improved by being buried under a thousand tons of raw sewage. It's so bad that an Endbringer would vomit if you showed it to them. Some say that..."

Mandy held up a hand, giggling. "I get it. You don't like it."

Grinning, Taylor shook her head. "Not a lot."

"I'll show you where it is," the girl offered, turning and walking away. "Come with me." Taylor followed, listening to Mandy tell her about various areas of the school. "Cafeteria," the other brunette indicated with a hand as they walked past. "The food is actually pretty good. I usually eat there."

"I had to bring my own food at Winslow," Taylor noted. "Aside from anything else I'd probably have ended up with dysentery if I'd eaten the stuff that passed as edible there. Not to mention the company."

"A little cliquey, was it?" Mandy asked, smiling and apparently interested.

"You could put it like that. Gangy and smelly as well, to be honest," Taylor laughed. "I only saw three knife fights in the place last year but I'm not sure they got all the blood off the floor afterward."

Mandy stopped and stared in horror. "Oh my god," she said, faintly. "You're joking!"

"Yes." Taylor giggled as the girl put her hands on her hips and stared at her. She paused for effect. "It was only two knife fights. The third one was a baseball bat."

Sighing in amusement, Mandy shook her head, clearly not believing her companion. Taylor was privately snickering about the fact it was actually true. Resuming walking, they soon reached the administrative section of the school. "There you go, Taylor," Mandy said. "The Vice Principal's office is on that side, the Principal's is on the other side, and the school secretary is at the end. Good luck. If you're still around at half past twelve, I'll be in the cafeteria. Come by and let me know how it went."

She smiled, then looked at the clock on the wall nearest them. "Oh, shit, I need to run or I'll be late for class." The teenager waved then rapidly walked away, almost running.

" _She seemed to be a decent person,_ " the Varga noted approvingly.

' _Yes, I think I like her so far_ ,' Taylor agreed. ' _It's a good sign to meet someone nice right at the beginning like that, don't you think?_ '

" _I believe it is. Now, let's see about these tests._ " The suggestion was a sensible one, so she headed for the door at the end of the corridor, knocking firmly.

"Come in!" a voice from the other side immediately called quite loudly. Opening the door she looked in. "Don't just stand there, young lady, come on in and close the door, you're letting all the heat out," a good-natured older woman's voice with a distinct Californian accent said. Following instructions she found herself standing in front of a busy desk, a computer to one side and three telephones stacked next to each other on the other, the remaining space filled with paperwork which looked like it was arranged in some system although from a quick look she had no idea what it was.

Behind the desk a remarkably short, yet very healthy looking woman of at least sixty was smiling at her. "What can I help you with today, dear?" she asked happily. "I don't recognize you. New, are you? It's a bit late in the year to be starting, or perhaps a little early."

Smiling back at the rapidfire commentary, Taylor held out her letter of transfer. "I'm Taylor Hebert, I'm here to take some acceptance and grading tests. I'm transferring in from Winslow."

"Hebert… Hebert… I remember that name," the woman muttered, searching through her paperwork, coming up a moment later with a file folder. "Aha! Here we are! Let's see… Yes, it all looks in order. You'll be taking the tests with Mrs Adil in room 906. Here's a map of the school, and a pass for the cafeteria. The first round will be from nine to twelve, then the second one is from one through to three." She looked up from her folder, smiling widely. "A long day but hopefully a successful one. We have your junior high records here, you were doing exceptionally well there. How on earth did you end up in Winslow?"

"It… was something of a mistake," Taylor admitted, not wanting to go into details. The secretary nodded, a sympathetic expression on her face.

"I've heard it has problems, my dear. Hopefully you can leave those behind and enjoy yourself here." She glanced at her watch. "Now run along, you need to be there in twenty minutes and it's on the other side of the school. You've got time to get there but you shouldn't dawdle." The woman handed Taylor an envelope with some paperwork in it. "Please give this to Mrs Adil when you get there. Don't forget your pass and map." These were also handed over. "I've marked the right room on the map for you."

More than slightly impressed by the efficiency of the elderly woman, Taylor accepted everything with a smile and a nod, putting everything but the map away. "Thank you very much, Mrs…?"

"Call me Meg, dear, everyone does. Now go, before you're late." Meg flapped a hand at her. "Go, go, run along. I have work to do." Taylor laughed slightly, then left the room, feeling a little overwhelmed. It was pretty obvious that Meg enjoyed her work and had a somewhat… unique… personality.

Outside she wandered slowly along for a moment inspecting the map until she worked out where she was, then plotted a good route to the destination in her head. Satisfied, she sped up to a brisk walk, her footsteps echoing in the now-empty corridors.

Arriving at room 906 just before nine, she tapped on the door then opened it, to find a good looking middle-aged woman of apparent Middle Eastern appearance looking up from a textbook. "Mrs Adil?" she inquired. The woman nodded with a small smile.

"And you must be Taylor Hebert, I assume."

"That's me."

"Come in, Taylor. Take a seat." Shortly she was sitting at one of the desks in the otherwise empty schoolroom, finding it a little awkward with her tail, but not unmanageable. She'd whacked the end of it into another desk while she slid into the chair, making it scrape across the floor quite loudly, but the teacher simply ignored it causing her to smile a little to herself. The cloaking technique was still working well.

By now, three weeks after she'd first found herself with it, she was so accustomed to her tail she barely thought about it any more, but she was still less than enthused about people knowing about it, really only because of the possibility of causing her father problems more than anything else. Dismissing the thought as Mrs Adil cleared her throat, she sat up attentively and waited.

"All right, Taylor, the process is quite straightforward. I will be giving you a series of written tests to evaluate where you are on the academic scale, which we'll use to determine your placement level relative to classes here at Arcadia and any either remedial or advanced classes you might require. You have half an hour for each test, with a five minute break between each one. If you finish before the time limit you can elect to immediately move on to the next test if you want, or take a longer break instead."

"There's some bottles of water over there in the corner, and if it becomes necessary for you to visit the bathroom I'm afraid I have to accompany you there and back." She looked apologetic. "It's a standard anti cheating precaution, although I will say I don't have any reason at all to suspect you of cheating or wanting to cheat. We just have to follow the procedures."

"That's OK, Mrs Adil, I understand," Taylor replied, smiling.

"Good. Now, the first test is basic mathematics." The teacher handed her a sealed envelope and a freshly sharpened pencil. "You can open it and begin now." Starting a timer on her desk the woman sat down again and picked up a book. "Don't mind me, I'll just be here reading. If you need anything, just say so and we'll pause the clock."

With a nod Taylor slid her finger under the flap, extracting the test paper and several blank sheets. She read the enclosed instructions carefully, then quickly filled her name out at the top of the blank where indicated. Shortly she was engaged in long division, making her work as neat as possible.

The time passed surprisingly quickly. She completed the basic math in only ten minutes, taking that long only because she wanted to be absolutely sure she'd made no silly mistakes. Electing to continue as fast as she could she did the next one, advanced math, then the next, algebra, all within the first hour. Mrs Adil seemed both pleased and slightly impressed, handing her the next envelope with an approving nod.

"Well done, dear, but don't overstretch yourself. Take a break now and then."

"I'm fine, thanks, Mrs Adil," she assured the woman as she opened the calculus test and glanced over the instructions, seeing they were the same as the previous one. Soon she was deep into a rather complicated equation, tapping her pencil on her nose while she thought.

That one took nearly the full half hour. She was fairly sure she'd got everything right, though.

Taking a short break she stretched, then got a bottle of water and drank half of it. Mrs Adil was marking the tests using the relevant key sheets, a small frown of concentration furrowing her brow. " _You are doing well, Brain, as I knew you would,"_ the Varga encouraged her.

' _So far it's all mathematics, which is one of my best subjects_ ,' she mentally sighed back to him. ' _I'm not too worried about these ones. It's going to be geography and history, things like that, where it all goes wrong._ '

" _You have spend over a week studying all those subjects for nearly twelve hours a day, I don't expect you to have too many problems,_ " the demon chuckled.

" _Will you give me the answers if I forget them?_ ' she asked.

" _If you insist, yes, but I suggest that this is a test of your knowledge and skills, not mine._ " His tone was very gently chiding, making her smile to herself.

' _I know. Just checking_.'

" _Of course, Brain. Of course._ " The demon was laughing a little again.

Telling the teacher she was ready she received the next one, basic chemistry. That proved fairly straightforward although she had some initial problems converting moles to grams, having to stare at the formula for nearly a minute before she suddenly worked out where she was going wrong. After that it was smooth sailing.

By the time lunch rolled around she had completed both chemistry and physics, and was more than halfway through the geography test, which to her surprise she was finding fairly easy. The studying had obviously paid off. Eventually putting her pencil down she stretched widely. "I'm done with this one as well, Mrs Adil."

"Excellent, Taylor," the woman congratulated her. "So far you seem to be doing well." She looked at the clock on the wall for a moment as she stopped her timer, three minutes early. "You're ahead of schedule. There's only ten minutes left until lunch, so you may as well run along now. Be back here by five to one, please."

"OK, Mrs Adil," she agreed easily, standing and picking up her bag, slinging it over he shoulder. "Thank you. I'll see you soon."

Leaving the room she wandered toward the cafeteria, the bell ringing just before she got there, as it had been doing at intervals throughout the morning. Pushing the door to the cafeteria open she looked around, then picked up a tray and headed for the food, just ahead of a flood of students that poured into the large room behind her, laughing and talking. Suddenly it was extremely busy.

Slightly nervous, Taylor looked around again, relaxing slightly when no one seemed to be plotting against her. Shaking her head at the automatic reflex action, and straightening up from the almost instinctive slouch she'd started to fall into when in a large crowd of her peers, she sighed, then started selecting various items from the hot and cold counters. At one point a boy behind her stepped on the end of her tail, causing her to reflexively pull it out from under his shoe and making him stumble, but he promptly turned around and shoved the boy behind him, starting a fairly good natured scuffle that died out in seconds.

Smirking a little to herself she finished making her selection. Showing the woman at the end who was watching over her domain with a gimlet eye the pass she'd been given, she received a nod, then started looking for a table.

Finding an empty one, she sat down and started eating slowly, savoring the burger and fries which were, as Mandy had said, pretty good. She took a sip of her water and looked around curiously, now that the initial rush had died down.

She could instantly see the various cliques in the room, the cheerleader area, the football jocks, the science geeks, and so on, just like in Winslow. However it was apparent that these tribal lines were surprisingly flexible, people moving between them regularly and no obvious signs of potential conflict present.

There was certainly the odd prank going on, but in a room with some three hundred teenagers present she'd have been more surprised if there wasn't. However, she saw none of the bullying and general nastiness that characterized Winslow, and certainly none of the obvious gang activities. There were no surreptitious deals going on in the corners, no ABB and E88 members glaring at each other and posturing, no imminent violence. It was almost unnervingly calm.

' _I think there must be something wrong with me_ ,' she snickered to the Varga. ' _The lack of a threat is making me feel a little threatened_.'

" _It's not surprising, you have conditioned reflexes and a lack of trust for any but a very small number of people at the moment. Understandable, all things considered. It will get better as time goes on in such an environment, I expect,_ " he replied, sounding both amused and pleased.

' _Small number_ ,' she snorted. ' _I'll say it's a small number. Two. You and Dad._ '

" _Thank you, Brain,_ " he chuckled. " _I think it will eventually grow._ "

She noticed a tall blonde, very beautiful, who was in the midst of a group of nearly as pretty girls in the section that seemed to be reserved for them, with a comparatively rather mousy brunette near her, looking a little uncomfortable, her nose in a book. It was with a slight shock she recognized Victoria Dallon, or Glory Girl in her cape persona, holding court and laughing about something one of the other girls had just said.

The shorter, plainer brunette looked up, sighed, then went back to her book, shaking her head a little. Taylor realized after a moment that she was probably Amy Dallon, the sister of Victoria and the famous healer Panacea. Casually studying them she memorized their features, then looked around some more.

Off to one side a couple of tables away a lively looking red headed boy was in the middle of telling a bad and slightly obscene joke to his two friends, who looked a mix of amused and resigned. Reaching the punchline, which was ' _so the penguin says, No, honest, it's ice cream_ ,' the boy who looked about sixteen or so laughed. One of his companions groaned, shaking his head, while the other one grinned. Taylor, who had heard the entire thing and thought it was actually sort of amusing, hid a smile.

"Dennis, that was terrible," the groaning boy said, pinching the bridge of his nose. The redhead, or Dennis, shrugged, still grinning.

"I thought it was funny."

"You _always_ think your jokes are funny," the taller boy sighed. He looked Hispanic and was quite handsome, Taylor thought as she kept them in view in the corner of her eye. "Trust me when I say that they're usually not."

"You obviously have a defective sense of humor, Carlos," Dennis snickered. He turned to the boy on his other side, who was listening while reading some sort of engineering journal. "Can you build him a new one, Chris?"

The brown-haired boy shook his head, smiling. "No, I can't get the spare parts for that model any more, it's obsolete," he chuckled. Carlos looked irritated while Dennis burst out laughing again.

"You're both idiots," the Hispanic boy sighed. This had no effect on the laughter.

Smiling a little to herself at the byplay, Taylor continued looking around. A scent she'd encountered recently wafted past, making her turn her head to see Mandy and another girl, a Chinese one with long black hair, standing a few feet away looking about for a table. "Hey, Mandy," she called, causing the girl to look over, smile, then lead her friend over.

"Hello, Taylor. How did your tests go?"

"Pretty well," she replied with satisfaction. "I got seven done before lunch and Mrs Adil says there are four more afterward. English, History, Computer Studies, and Biology. With any luck I'll be done by half past two."

"Not bad. That's an awful lot of tests to take in one day, though." Mandy sat down, putting her tray full of sushi rolls on the table and motioning to a chair when her friend looked a little uncertain. "This is Lucy, my best friend. Lucy, Taylor Hebert. She'd transferring in from Winslow. Apparently it's as bad as they say it is."

"Hi, Taylor," Lucy said shyly. "It's nice to meet you."

"And you," Taylor smiled. Going back to Mandy, she said, "The tests are pretty simple, they're not like end of year ones. These are just to assess my current knowledge. Apparently Winslow has a different curriculum, which doesn't surprise me at all. Not to mention that I had… issues… there, which made learning a little difficult. I've been studying like crazy for over a week for this."

"Did it help?" Lucy asked quietly, looking interested while she took the lid off what seemed to be a cold chicken salad.

Taylor nodded. "I think so. So far I haven't had any real problems. I think I'm fine with mathematics, not bad with physics and chemistry, and not as bad as I thought I'd be with geography. I should be OK with English as well, my mother was a professor of English at the university."

"Was?" Mandy asked.

Taylor sighed. "She died a few years ago."

"I'm sorry, Taylor," the brunette said with a wince.

"Don't worry about it," she replied, waving a fork. "It's not your fault."

A burst of laughter from where Victoria Dallon was still talking rapidly, about some sort of fashion Taylor couldn't understand the point of, made all three of them look over. "Vicky's in full flow again," Mandy giggled.

"You know her?"

" _Everyone_ knows Vicky Dallon," Lucy told her with a serene smile. "She is… not subtle. Or shy."

"I can see that," Taylor smirked, watching the girl suddenly float six inches into the air, apparently without noticing. One of the other girls poked her in the ribs and she settled down again looking mildly embarrassed for a second or two. Mandy laughed.

"She's always doing that. She forgets, floats around, and the teachers start glaring at her. No flying in the school. Not since the great coleslaw explosion of 2010, anyway."

She giggled as Taylor looked oddly at her, then related a story which had all three of them laughing manically. "The entire cafeteria was coated in the stuff," Mandy gasped, heaving with giggles. "Two of the cafeteria staff quit and one needed therapy for a month. Apparently he still can't look at a cabbage without going pale."

"That _can't_ be true," Taylor snorted, shaking her head.

"It is, I swear," the brunette replied, holding up her hand solemnly. "Honest to god."

"She's actually a nice person," Lucy giggled, "but she doesn't know when to quit. Or how to. So things like that sometimes happen. Apparently she's even worse when she's running around as Glory Girl, she'll dive into a fight without thinking it through at all. Luckily she's tough enough to survive the results so far, but it can be a little… expensive."

"Did you hear what happened with Über and Leet a couple of weeks or so ago?" Mandy asked with amusement.

"I saw it, actually," Taylor grinned. "I was out with my Dad and we had front row seats to the whole thing. It was pretty funny." She glanced at Vicky, who was listening to something her sister was saying and shaking her head. "She walked right into it. Über played her like a drum."

"I love his voice," Lucy smiled. "Some of the things he and Leet do are kind of mean but a lot of them are really funny."

"And illegal," Mandy put in.

"Still funny."

At their table, Dennis and Chris were now needling Carlos about something he'd done which he seemed to regret telling them about, judging by the look on his face. The redheaded boy laughed loudly, making Mandy look over. "Those boys. Dennis is funny but he never stops. It can get irritating sometimes."

Following her gaze, Lucy asked, "Where's the other one? Dean? Normally those four are inseparable."

Mandy looked around then pointed. "There he is. He's heading for Vicky, he just came in."

They watched as the fairly tall young man walked over and motioned to the blonde, who excused herself and went to talk to him in a low voice. Taylor noticed that her sister was also watching, looking annoyed for some reason. With a sniff the girl looked away, meeting Taylor's eyes for a moment, then dropping her own, going back to her book.

"Poor Amy," Mandy sighed. "She's so quiet. That girl needs some fun in her life. All she does is go to school or the hospital."

The young man talking to Vicky Dallon threw his hands in the air, looking exasperated, then reluctantly nodded, making the blonde smile brilliantly and kiss him on the cheek. Lucy, who was watching, giggled. "She talked him into something expensive again," she said in a low voice. "His family is rich and she's more than happy to help spend it."

The youth went and sat with his three friends, Dennis immediately starting in on him, making him reach out and slap the back of his head. The redhead looked hurt, sulking for a moment, but was telling yet another joke only ten seconds later.

"Like I said, he never stops," Mandy laughed.

"Hey, did you hear about that new cape?" Lucy suddenly asked, fiddling with her phone. "There's a new video of her up on YouTube."

"New cape?" Taylor asked curiously.

The other girl nodded enthusiastically. "Yes. She was spotted walking around on Tuesday night around ten or so, Downtown."

Taylor suddenly developed a feeling she knew what was coming next.

"Apparently her name is Saurial," Lucy went on.

' _Knew it_ ,' Taylor commented silently. Her companion chuckled.

"Look, she's a giant lizard," the girl added, turning the phone towards them and peering down over it to see the screen as well. "Scales and everything. Can you imagine what it must be like to have a huge tail like that following you around everywhere?"

' _Yes_ ,' Taylor laughed. ' _You get used to it surprisingly fast._ ' The Varga emitted amusement. Both of them watched the video play, showing her in her lizard-girl form walking down the sidewalk, then going into the convenience shop.

"She's sort of pretty, actually," Mandy said when the short clip finished. "I'd like to see her in better light. I think those scales were blue, and were those feathers on her head?"

Lucy turned the phone around and looked carefully at the screen. "I thought it was hair."

"Lizards don't have hair," her friend said, shrugging.

"So it has to be feathers?"

"That's what it looks like to me," Mandy replied firmly.

"Me too," Taylor added with great inner amusement. She decided that Saurial should go for a wander during daylight hours soon.

Glancing at her watch, Mandy sighed. "Back to the grindstone, I guess. Ten to one." Slightly startled, the time had gone much faster than she expected with the surprisingly good company of her two new acquaintances, Taylor looked up at the clock on the far wall, seeing that was indeed the time. Hastily drinking the last of her water she jumped to her feet.

"Damn. I need to go to. It was nice meeting you, Lucy. And seeing you again, Mandy." Taylor had thoroughly enjoyed her lunch, she hadn't talked like that to other teenagers for years and hadn't really known how much she missed it. She waved and quickly walked out, going past the table at which the four boys were now talking about someone called Colin and how he needed to learn to laugh. She paused, sniffing discreetly, as she caught a familiar scent, one she didn't expect, glancing to the side to see Dean staring at her with his fork halfway to his mouth.

His eyes widened.

Hers narrowed.

After a long couple of seconds she resumed walking.

* * *

Dean Stansfield stared after the tall slim brunette as she made her way out of the cafeteria, weaving between the tables with a degree of grace that was impressive. It took Dennis snapping his fingers in his ear to make him twitch, answer the question he'd missed, then resume eating slowly, his thoughts troubled.

* * *

' _Fuck it all_ ,' Taylor thought furiously as she headed back to the testing room. ' _That was Gallant. And I'm completely sure he recognized me, somehow, I could smell it_.'

" _We were aware that the Wards attend this school already, Brain,_ " the Varga said calmly. " _It was only a matter of time before you detected them. You only have to meet them once, after all, and their scent will give them away no matter what they're wearing. His detection of you is probably due to his emotional reading ability. I would assume that the emotional output of someone is much like a fingerprint to anyone with the power to sense it._ "

' _What do we do?_ '

" _Nothing. Yet. So far there is no threat given and if Vista's word is to believed, these Unwritten Rules of theirs will prevent him telling anyone what he suspects or knows._ "

' _And if he does? Dad could be in danger_.' Taylor was both worried and angry.

" _And if he does… there is no trace of a body after it has been through the digestive system of a Varga. We do not require food in the way that humans do but that in no way says we can't handle it._ "

It was a good indicator of her mood that the suggestion was met with nothing but a thoughtful nod.

By the time she got back to room 906, she had calmed down to a sort of deadly cold determination. It seemed to help with her memory if nothing else.


	15. Results and Celebrations

Putting her pencil down for the final time on top of the Biology test, Taylor relaxed. Her mood had gone back to fairly cheerful when the world didn't take a dump on her from a great height because of Dean Stansfield, although she still had concerns at the back of her mind which left a small, carnivorous part of her ready to do anything required to keep her father safe and proud of it. Other than that, things had gone well, even though she was certain she'd not done as well on the last test as she had hoped for. With any luck the other tests would make up for any low marks in this one.

"I'm finished, Mrs Adil."

Stopping the timer on her desk, the teacher rose, smiling.

"Well done. Half an hour ahead of schedule as well, that's impressive. OK, let's take a quick look." She retrieved the papers and started checking them, while Taylor went and got another bottle of water, sipping it slowly. She'd only taken one bathroom break after lunch, accompanied by the teacher who'd waited for her in the corridor, and was going to need another one soon.

A few minutes passed in silence only broken by the scratching sound of Mrs Adil's pen, before she nodded, satisfied, and stood. "Excellent. I had high hopes and you seem to have met them, dear." At Taylor's smile, she smiled back. Quickly putting all eleven test papers and their results into a folder she closed it and stood up. "Come with me, Taylor, please."

Picking up her bag she did as requested, accompanying the teacher as she headed back towards the Admin block. When they arrived there Meg was just going back into her room, stopping at the sound of footsteps and turning, before smiling broadly. "How did it go, Taylor?" she asked cheerfully.

"Well, I think, Meg," she replied, glancing at the teacher beside her who didn't say anything but nodded a little.

"Good, good, that's excellent news. I hope you enjoy yourself here at Arcadia." The secretary smiled again, looking genuinely happy, then vanished into her room.

Mrs Adil chuckled a little. "She's certainly a character, our Meg. But an extremely good secretary and a nice person." Opening the door that was marked 'Vice Principal Howell' she ushered Taylor inside, then followed her in. On the other side of the now closing door was a waiting room with half a dozen chairs in it, and two further doors, one of them open to show a late-thirties black woman typing away on a computer at a remarkable rate, the keys sounding like muted machine gun fire, something Taylor was now very familiar with. The other door was shut.

"Please wait here, Taylor. It won't be long."

Tapping on the closed door the teacher opened it and slipped inside, without waiting for an answer. There was a murmur of voices from the other side which Taylor deliberately didn't eavesdrop on, although it took an effort of will. She spent the time cataloging the various scents around the place, detecting that of the Stansfield boy to her amused interest. He had obviously been in this very chair more than once.

Less than five minutes later the door opened again, Mrs Adil coming out. "The vice principal is ready to see you, Taylor." She was no longer holding the folder of tests. Smiling gently at her, the teacher added, "You did very well, dear. Don't look so worried. Everything will work out, it usually does sooner or later."

With a quick grin of appreciative thanks, Taylor stood, brushed herself down quickly and adjusted her clothing, took a deep breath, then went inside the inner office.

"Take a seat, please, Miss Hebert," the rather competent appearing blonde woman sitting behind the large desk said, pointing to a chair in front of it without looking, while she finished reading what Taylor recognized as her Calculus test. She did so.

The hair color was about the only thing this woman had in common with her former principal and even there it looked a lot better. She studied the vice principal for a few seconds, seeing a fairly short but healthy looking woman at the upper end of her forties, or possibly a very well preserved fifty plus. Vice principal Howell had a face that she couldn't honestly call severe, it was actually rather attractive in an older woman manner, but it also gave the impression it could form some rather intimidating glares on demand.

At the moment it was in a neutral expression, although she smelled pleased. Finishing with the test she put it on the pile of other ones, tapped them neatly together, then put the stack to one side, pulling a green folder in front of her and flipping it open. She glanced at the top sheet, then looked up, studying Taylor with as much interest as the girl was watching her with.

"Well, Miss Hebert." She looked Taylor up and down, then smiled just a little bit. "I have to say I'm impressed. The records we got from Winslow didn't give me a particularly good opinion of your academic capabilities even though your Junior High results are excellent. Knowing Winslow, I can't say I'm entirely surprised." She sighed faintly, looking momentarily irritated. "However, these tests put you in the ninetieth percentile of students here in your peer group in most subjects for the most part, actually rather higher in mathematics, with a slightly drop for Biology and History. You could do to study more in those subjects."

Vastly relieved, Taylor let out a long silent sigh. The woman noticed, and smiled more widely. "Relax, Miss Hebert, you did exceptionally well. Especially under the circumstances. We're pleased to have you join us here at Arcadia. Based on these results I think we can slip you in to where you'd have been if you'd been attending us the whole time, although I suspect you'll have your work cut out for you for a few weeks to catch up in some subjects. I have no doubt you can succeed if you apply yourself."

"Thank you, Mrs Howell," Taylor said sincerely.

"You start on Monday. Be here half an hour early for your orientation pack, timetables, and other information you'll require." Leaning over her desk the vice principal held out her hand, which Taylor took and shook. The woman had a remarkably strong grip. "Welcome to Arcadia."

"I'm very pleased to be here," she replied both honestly and politely.

Sitting back in her leather chair, the smell of which you didn't need Varga senses to detect, the vice principal studied her again. "I know the bare minimum of what happened at Winslow, Miss Hebert, and while I have no idea about nor interest in learning the details, find the entire situation intolerable. You're best out of that place. Let me assure you that here at Arcadia, we take a _very_ dim view of bullying in any form. I would be surprised and appalled if anything like that which happened to you there happened here, but let me make something clear. If it, for any reason, does, you inform a teacher immediately. There will be a leaflet in your orientation pack telling you the procedure for such a report. Follow it."

Taylor nodded.

"It's very unlikely that it will be needed, but if it is, steps will be taken to stop any untoward actions immediately. Punishments are… harsh." She looked harder at Taylor. "That should also tell you that we do not approve of retaliation. Bullies are punished, no matter who starts it, are we clear?"

"Yes, Mrs Howell. Very clear." Taylor nodded again, smiling this time. "Thank you."

"You're entirely welcome, Miss Hebert. That's all for today, you may go. I'm pleased to have met you. And I have high hopes for you. Don't disappoint me."

She closed the folder and put it with the test papers, then folded her hands on the desk.

Standing, Taylor picked up her bag and put one strap over her shoulder. "I'll do my best not to, Mrs Howell," she replied calmly and sincerely.

"That's all anyone can ask. Good afternoon, Miss Hebert." It was a polite dismissal, but a dismissal even so.

Finding herself walking through the corridors at the moment the final bell rang, Taylor was joined by a flood of relieved students heading for the exit. Outside, she looked around.

"Taylor!"

Glancing over her shoulder she saw Mandy heading towards her with Lucy, both other girls smiling. "How did it go?" the former asked as they reached her, all three stepping to the side to avoid the crush of teenagers.

"Well. Very well. Ninetieth percentile or above in everything but History and Biology, which didn't surprise me. I start on Monday."

Both girls grinned. "Great. It's going to be nice having another sane person around here. Most people are nuts but you look remarkably normal."

Laughing, Taylor shrugged. "Appearances can be deceiving. I might not be as normal as you think."

Mandy giggled, while Lucy smiled.

Hearing a familiar engine approaching through the traffic noise, Taylor glanced towards the road to see their car a few hundred yards away, moving slowly. Pointing, she said, "That's my dad. I have to go, but it was really nice meeting both of you. Lucky for me we bumped into each other so quickly, Mandy."

The older girl nodded, looking pleased. "I think we're going to be good friends, Taylor. See you on Monday."

With a wave Taylor headed for the car, which had pulled to the side of the road some distance away out of range of the enormous crowd of people milling about outside the school as they headed home. She could see her father in the driver's seat, watching her with a fond look, and grinned at him. He waved back, clearly happy.

When she was in the car with her seat belt done up, she turned to him. He looked back.

"Well?" he asked after a couple of seconds of silence.

She laughed for a moment. "Very well. Both how I feel and how it went. I start on Monday, at the point I would have been if I'd started the year here. Ninety percent or better on everything but Biology and History."

Her father sighed heavily. "The shame of it. My only daughter got less than ninety percent on a test. No, _two_ tests. The shame!"

He grinned when she rolled her eyes at his over-dramatic voice. "I'm incredibly pleased for you, Taylor. I was sure you'd do well."

Starting the car he indicated, then pulled out, driving around the block and heading back towards the Downtown area. "Pizza? Chinese? Thai? Or something else."

"Thai, I think," she said after thinking it over. "We haven't had that for months and I love it. I could just go for a beef panang."

"Good choice." They sat in companionable silence as he drove.

* * *

Watching the girl get into the car, Dean twitched when Vicky prodded him, rather too hard. "Come on, we'll be late if we don't go now," she complained. Beside her, Amy looked at him, then at the vanishing car, then back to him, a small frown furrowing the skin between her eyes. She didn't say anything and looked away when he glanced at her.

"OK, Vicky, I'm coming. I'll meet you guys later, OK?" he said, turning to Dennis and Chris who were listening, the red head with a small grin on his face as per usual practice. He really was irrepressible.

"Sure, Dean. Hey, Vicky, leave some jewelry for the other hot girls, will you?" Dennis joked, making Vicky give him a supercilious glare.

"As if any other hot girl would deign to lower herself to talk to the likes of you," she sniffed, flipping her hair with a hand in a gesture of dismissal. His grin widened.

"We all love you too, Vicky," he chuckled. She giggled, looking much less stuck up, then waved as she led Dean away to his car. He didn't have much choice at that point, he was going with her one way or another.

Walking beside his girlfriend his thoughts whirled. What did he do? He accidentally found out the identity of another cape, he was absolutely certain that somehow that brunette and Saurial were the same person, which sort of proved she was a Changer as well as all the other things.

He'd never seen her before today, she was obviously new, although she seemed to be getting on with Mandy Jacobson and Lucy Cheung pretty well. He'd noticed them talking and laughing together, and people-watching, getting the impression that the latter two were filling the girl in on the goings-on of the school. Presumably she was a transfer from somewhere, starting in the middle of the year.

He guessed that she was probably about fifteen, heading quickly to sixteen, slightly younger than the other two even though she was considerably taller than either of them. Not as tall as Saurial, but probably eye level with him, possibly a little more. She was going to be exceptional when she grew up if he was any judge of a female body, which he prided himself on being. Not overdeveloped up top, but with the lithe build of a swimmer that with the right makeup and clothes could easily head into model territory.

From the way she walked, gracefully and purposefully, she was also strong, extremely well balanced, and probably proficient in a fight. His assessment was based on seeing quite a few women with such skills in the PRT gyms. She walked a lot like Miss Militia did although she was taller and skinnier.

All in all, he didn't think she was someone to cross, even without the parahuman part of it. The real problem was that he was totally sure that somehow, he had no idea how, _she_ knew _he_ knew and was not at all pleased about it. Her eyes had looked briefly like those of a gunfighter just about to draw. Very cold and calculating. Or a cat about to pounce, possibly. Dean shivered a little.

He resolved to be very careful indeed with the new girl. But he still didn't know what to do.

* * *

"Antonia checked the paperwork very carefully and said it was fine," Danny said as he nibbled a prawn cracker, Taylor looking up from the menu to meet his eyes. "She was actually surprised how simple the terms were. They didn't even mention the recording. All we have to do is give up the right to sue the school at any point in the future for matters arising from… How did they put it, ' _severe personality clashes accidentally leading to personal injury_ '…," this made both of them smile, "and essentially promise not to spread the story around. In return they pay us the six hundred and fifty thousand."

He chuckled for a moment as Taylor's eyes widened again at the figure. She still couldn't believe it. "They dressed it up in a lot of legalese but that's what it boils down to. The entire letter would have fitted on one page in plain language. They even worked it so that most of the payment is for physical injury and somehow got a medical opinion backing that up, which drastically reduced the tax loss. Antonia said to sign it, take the money, and run."

Laughing, Taylor felt both relieved and amused. "They really want me gone, don't they?"

"Ohhh, so very much, yes," he snickered. "Me too I think. I'm pretty sure the physical injury idea was something to do with Alan, for some reason. Some time in the future I think I should invite him over and thank him for that."

He looked at her with a questioning expression. After thinking it over, she nodded, a little reluctantly. "If you want to, Dad. Don't expect me to be more than polite, but he's your friend. I don't mind. It's not really him who's to blame for all this."

"That reminds me, what the devil did you say to him when he came over that time, dear? He looked… a little nervous."

She smiled slightly darkly, then repeated the conversation she'd had on the doorstep with Mr Barnes. Danny looked at her for a long time when she finished, then sighed.

"Annette would have been proud. I think it's just a little harsh but I can't disagree." He reached out and put his hand on hers for a moment, then went back to finishing off the prawn crackers.

"I signed the documents and took them to Winslow school board's lawyer's office on my way over. They've promised that the payment will be transferred into our bank account over the weekend, the funds will have cleared by lunchtime on Monday. So don't feel you have to skimp on ordering, I'm not going to." He grinned. "After all, it's on you."

"Thanks, Dad," she smiled. "Go ahead."

Shortly the waiter came over and took their order, both of them getting both starters and main courses, along with a number of side dishes. By the time the meal was over they felt pleasantly full. Leaning back in his chair sipping a glass of cold coke, Danny looked around.

"We should come here more often," he said. "Your mother liked this place and so did I. We can afford it now."

"I'd like that," she replied. Looking at the dessert menu, she motioned to the waiter, who was hovering nearby. He arrived and took her order, a slice of chocolate cake, then vanished again. Once she'd finished it when it turned up a few minutes later, they paid and left.

"What are your plans over the weekend, dear? You don't have to study frantically any more, so you can relax." He glanced at her as she strode along beside him. "Are you going to go out and play?" His mouth was in a small amused grin.

Glancing up at him, she grinned right back. "I may well do, yes. I need some more exercise after all. Last time was fun but I only saw six new playmates and they stopped wanting to play surprisingly quickly when I entered the game."

Snickering, he shook his head. "That footage looked like something out of Predator vs Alien, dear. Horrifying and funny at the same time. Have you sent it to David yet?"

"I put it on a DVD and dropped it in the post yesterday," she confirmed. "I need to look into a secure email method. I was going to just email it until I suddenly thought how easy it would be to track that, so I didn't."

They were speaking in fairly low voices, not wanting to let passers-by hear them, but none of the people on the street seemed the slightest bit interested anyway, rushing hither and yon engaged in their own business.

"What about fingerprints if you want to get that paranoid," he asked with a smile.

"Scales don't have any," she grinned.

"Ah. Good point, well made." Danny looked impressed.

Nearly back to the car, she looked around, then turned to him. "I think I'm going to make my own way home, Dad, if you don't mind. I could do with a run."

He stopped and inspected her, then nodded. "Be careful and call if you're going to be out too late, please."

She hugged him. "I will do. Thanks for everything, Dad."

Mussing her hair he grinned, then turned around and resumed walking towards the car park. Taylor watched him for a short distance before looking about herself, spotting a service alley on the next block. Walking towards it she checked for cameras, both with normal vision, thermal vision, and the electricity viewing sense she had, then ducked into it casually as she walked past, no one seeming to notice.

As soon as she was certain there was no one else present she cloaked, took on the lizard girl form, and scuttled up the wall to the roof of the nearest building, not intending to be seen too near the alley just in case.

Five minutes later and a mile and a half away, in the commercial district, Saurial wandered along the sidewalk minding her own business, people staring and taking photos and video with their phones.

* * *

Hearing the bell on the door ring, Aziz looked up from his magazine ready to serve the next customer. He froze, staring, as the giant lizard in armor browsed the shelves, humming to itself in a contented tone. After a moment he decided it was probably female. She poked around for a while, disappearing down one aisle of the small shop, then reappeared at the other end of it.

"Hey, where do you keep the eggs, please?" she called out, glancing at him, her wraparound sunglasses glinting in the overhead lights. Several seconds later his hand rose and a finger pointed. "Oh, thanks, I see them. I was wondering why I couldn't smell them." She went over to the sealed glass cabinet in the refrigerated goods section and pulled the door open, removing a carton of half a dozen eggs.

Coming back towards him, she stopped to pick up a couple of packs of beef jerky, then a bottle of Sprite, putting everything on the counter. Numbly he rang up the total, his hands moving without conscious input. "Six ninety three, please?" he said through a slightly choked throat, then coughed a little as his voice rose to a squeak on the last word.

Pulling a ten dollar bill from a pouch on the belt that was part of her armored skirt, she handed it to him with what looked like it was meant to be a smile. "Thanks. Keep the change."

The lizard girl picked up her goods and headed for the door, pulling it open and leaving with another tinkle of the bell. Without moving anything but his head, he followed her with his eyes through the window as she crossed the street, opening the box of eggs and neatly flipping one into her mouth using her left hand, before disappearing around the corner. Several people outside were staring as well. She seemed quite unconcerned about it.

Eventually, he looked down at the cash he was still holding, then sat down on the stool behind the counter with a bemused expression.

Sitting on the corner of a tall building in the middle of the commercial district, Taylor kicked her feet, a hundred feet of air between them and the sidewalk. She felt no fear of heights at all any more, idly peering down and wondering if she'd actually crack the concrete if she dropped from this height, or just bounce. The Varga assured her she'd be uninjured in either case and she believed him.

Finishing the box of eggs she crumpled the carton into a small ball of cardboard then tucked it neatly away in a belt pouch, before picking her half-empty bottle of Sprite off the ledge next to her and taking a drink from it. The view from up here was amazing. It was more amazing that in her full Varga mode she'd be towering two and a half times higher at least. That was eye-level with the top of the Medhall tower, the tallest building in the city.

A sudden urge to try it seized her and she had some difficulty suppressing it. She was going to have to test that form at some point if she could think of somewhere to do it that wouldn't cause a panic from the vast footprints she was sure to leave. Remembering the Godzilla movie she'd suggested to her father as an indicator of just how enormous the Varga was, she giggled at the idea of Armsmaster finding her footprint by falling into it and having to get a ladder to get out. The concept struck her as extremely funny for some reason.

Turning slightly, she shaded her eyes with her hand, peering into the dusk at the ship graveyard, miles away. The sun was just vanishing below the horizon and the streets below were dark except for artificial illumination, although her own eyes saw everything as brightly as daylight even so. "I wonder if I could shift some of those old ships and unblock the port," she mused out loud to the Varga, the idea suddenly striking her. "That huge one across the entrance is the real problem but it must weigh tens of thousands of tons. That's why no one has ever tried to get rid of it, it was too expensive."

" _Using the blast voice would remove it easily, Brain,_ " her companion chuckled. " _Along with everything else in range. But it would also be… quite spectacular. I don't think people would miss it_."

After a moment, he added, " _We could go for a swim and have a look how many ships there are. The smaller ones are easy to just move either to the shore or deeper water, and even the larger ones shouldn't present too much problem. We could tow them out of the way_."

"Hmm," she hmmed. Taylor knew the Varga was immune to extremes of heat and cold, as was she now to at least some extent, and was as at home in the water as it was on land, if not more so. That said she hadn't yet tried swimming since she'd received her tail. She suddenly wondered how much of a problem it was going to be in human form since it would probably get in the way of kicking legs. After a moment, she dismissed the issue as something to think about when it became important.

"May as well head in that direction, I guess," she commented. "Make a big loop through the docks, see if anyone needs dealing with, then go home."

Hopping to her feet she retrieved her now empty drink bottle, walking along the ledge over the hundred foot drop around two sides of the building until she reached the side above the back of it. Looking down she could see an open dumpster, tiny in the distance. She held the bottle out, then dropped it, watching with satisfaction as it landed directly into the container.

"Bullseye," she smiled.

"Who the hell are you?" a female voice from behind her demanded abruptly, "Or what?" She spun around on one foot, surprised. There had been no sound to betray the presence of someone else and the light breeze was blowing directly towards the person in question so she hadn't smelled them. Floating above the middle of the roof was the figure of Glory Girl, her arms crossed over her chest and her gaze fixed on Taylor. She looked mildly irritated and very suspicious.

"Oh, hello, Glory Girl," Taylor replied after her initial surprise. "I'm Saurial. I'm new. How are you?"

The girl looked at her through narrowed eyes, tilting her head a little. Taylor did the same, smiling. "Hero or Villain?" she asked. "You look like a Villain to me, with those colors and all the teeth."

Somewhat irritated, Taylor exposed those teeth in something that wasn't a smile any more. The glowing blonde flinched despite herself, which amused her. "Hero, thanks very much," she growled. "Just ask the BBPD, I helped them out only three days ago."

Glory Girl dismissed this with a flick of her fingers. "Police. What do they know? They can't hold onto anyone I catch for more than a few days."

"That's sort of… rude," Taylor commented, frowning. It really was in her opinion. So far all the police she'd met personally had been polite and seemed to know what they were doing.

The blonde looked insulted, but didn't press the question. "I still think you look suspicious," she said. "What are you doing up here in the first place?"

"Enjoying the view and having a snack, actually," Taylor sighed. For some reason the blonde was being very aggressive, which she found both inexplicable and annoying. "Assuming it's any business of yours."

Floating closer, Glory Girl stared at her from only feet away. She had to float with her feet over eight inches from the ground to meet Taylor's eyes.

"I don't think I like you," the blonde said.

"I have no idea why, we don't know each other at all," Taylor shrugged. "You're being very pushy. Did you have a fight with your boyfriend or something?"

Glory Girl flushed, then looked more irritated. Reaching out she poked Taylor in the middle of the chest, hard, her fingernail tapping on her breastplate.

"Watch it you overgrown newt," she growled.

"I'm more of a lizard than a newt," Taylor commented lightly, determined not to let the aggressive cape ruin her good mood any more than she had to. "And isn't that a bit… I don't know… speciesist?"

"There's no such word," Glory Girl replied, poking again.

"Sure there is."

"No, there _isn't_." The next poke was hard enough to make her need to brace herself with her tail, which was beginning to become irritating. Taylor grabbed the other woman's wrist with a lightning fast motion of her right hand, holding it still.

"Please stop doing that, it's annoying," she said evenly. Stepping down off the parapet around the roof she pushed the other girl in front of her. "I was just standing here minding my own business when you had to come over and get in my face for some reason. Please go away." She released the blonde with a push that send her several feet backwards.

Looking a weird mix between angry and surprised, the floating cape stared at her, then floated closer again. "I'm keeping my eye on you," she said in a low voice, before turning around and rocketing upwards and away.

Sighing, with a shake of her head, Taylor watched her go, suppressing a momentary jealousy of her flight power. She had more than enough powers of her own, there was no need to be greedy.

Although she really wanted to be able to fly.

"That was weird," she muttered to the Varga. There was the mental impression of a nod.

" _She does seem somewhat bellicose, Brain,_ " he agreed. " _Although that fits what we've learned about her. I have the impression she was looking for a fight._ "

"Well, I don't want to give her one unless I need to," Taylor sighed. Shaking her head a little sadly at how much some people probably needed a fist in the face just to make the point, she dived over the side of the building and headed for the ground, clinging head down to the brickwork with ease. "I think you're right, let's go and have a swim."


	16. Swimming and Guns

"Vicky!"

Dean watched with irritation and resignation as his girlfriend flew off in the direction of the center of the city, grumbling under her breath. Yet again, they'd had an argument over what to him in hindsight seemed silly, but she had, yet again, taken offense then stormed off. Since they'd been sitting in his car outside her house, the storming had been straight through the front door, up to her room, then out the back window and away via a quick costume change. He'd followed until the point she'd slammed the door in his face.

' _Damn it_ ,' he thought with frustration. ' _Now she's going to go find someone to hit or something. Again. Sooner or later she's going to meet someone who hits back, harder._ ' Sighing he shook his head. He knew the girl, and her moods, far too well sometimes. She worried him, the level of impulsiveness was matched only by the short temper she sometimes had. Her black and white view of the world didn't help, but then her entire family was like that in some ways. Especially her mother.

He respected Brandish, but he didn't like her. The emotions he felt sometimes also worried him, but he kept that worry strictly to himself.

"Screwed up again, Dean?" The familiar voice from behind him was accompanied by a familiar, hard to parse mix of emotions, as Amy opened the front door and stepped out onto the path, her costume on, apparently heading towards the hospital. "And there goes my ride." She sounded mildly annoyed and somewhat sarcastic, again not unusual for her. This sister was almost _too_ controlled compared to the other one, he thought.

"What did you say this time?"

"I have no idea," he admitted, a little exasperated. "We were just talking about a party I was invited to with some friends, she got all snappy for some reason, then stomped off calling me names."

Amy smiled oddly, shaking her head a little. He could only make out a little of her face under her hood but she seemed blackly amused for some reason best know to herself.

"I can give you a ride if you want," he offered suddenly, not sure why. "There's no telling when she's going to come back when she's in a mood like that. I just hope she doesn't wreck something expensive this time. Or someone."

Considering him closely for a few seconds, Amy finally nodded, pulling the door shut behind her. "Thank you, Dean, that would be a big help." Turning her face towards where Glory Girl was a distant barely glowing speck in the darkening sky, she sighed, then followed him to his car. Opening the door for her he waited until she was in, then closed it and went around to the driver's side.

"Brockton General?" he asked as he started the engine. She nodded without saying anything, so he looked over his shoulder then did a U turn and headed in the right direction. They rode in silence for a while.

Glancing at her every now and then, he debated with himself. He knew he shouldn't say anything at all but it was driving him nuts. Luckily he'd managed to not say anything to Vicky, since she could normally take any opening he gave her and wedge it wide open with a few choice words, which in this case would probably be catastrophic.

Eventually he couldn't _not_ say anything. Concentrating on the road, he asked, not putting any particular emphasis on it, "Have you ever found out the identity of a cape by accident?"

He could feel the shock in the girl sitting next to him although she controlled any outward reaction well. There was a sudden wave of hidden guilt as well, weirdly enough. After nearly a minute, she asked quietly, "Why do you ask?" without looking at him.

After more consideration, he shrugged. "I did. It was an accident, the result of my powers, not something I could stop. I'm very worried about what could happen if anyone finds out what I know. Or _that_ I know."

Turning to look at him for a moment she went back to watching the world go past. Again she was quiet for a while. "Why tell me then?"

"I have to tell _someone_ , it's driving me nuts. And I can't mention it to the guys, it would sooner or later get to Piggot and I don't know what would happen then. What do I do?"

"Don't tell anyone anything, don't even hint at it. How hard is that?"

"The cape knows I know," he replied.

This time she stared at him. "How the hell did that happen?"

"I don't know. But we looked at each other, and I know the… other person… is somehow aware of what I figured out."

"Could you be wrong about that?"

"No."

"OK." She fell silent again for a while.

Eventually she asked, "Is this cape dangerous? More so than normal, I mean?"

"Oh, yes, believe me."

"Violent?"

He thought for a moment. "Probably not unless really pushed, but ruthless if that happens. Not aggressive."

"Same advice as before, then. Keep your mouth shut, especially around Vicky. You know you leak information like a sieve to my sister." There was wry amusement in her voice now, making him produce a small, twisted grin. "And don't push the cape. Stay away, don't be a threat."

Pulling up outside the hospital a couple of minutes later, he turned to her. "You won't say anything?"

"I don't know anything other than you think you know something the cape knows about you knowing they know," Amy said, then looked mildly confused at her own words. "I think. Something like that anyway. And I don't _want_ to know either."

She opened the door in preparation to getting out. "Thanks for the ride, Dean."

"Thanks for the advice, Amy."

They shared a look, then she got out and trudged towards the hospital, not looking particularly happy, as he could tell she wasn't. Again, pretty normal for her. Watching her go he thought for a while until she disappeared into the building, nodding to the security guard at the door, then put the car into drive and headed home, still wondering where his girlfriend was and what silly fight she'd managed to find this time.

And what the hell it was he'd said that had set her off.

Women were very strange, sometimes, in his view.

* * *

The beeping of the fish finder sonar in the cabin of his small fishing boat made Erwin look over at the machine, taking his hand off the wheel to tap it couple of times. It kept beeping, which made him sigh, then throttle back. The chugging of the old twin-cylinder diesel engine slowed to a regular rumble below his feet as he moved over to see what was wrong with the thing this time. He'd been out half the day trundling slowly around the bay looking for fish, with no luck beyond a half dozen small flounders which were lying on the bottom of the keeper tank behind him, their eyes looking skyward as they waited to be turned into his dinner.

It was hardly worth the cost of the fuel, these days, he mused. No real fishing left, no boats worth speaking of visiting the port. Not like in his day, fifty years earlier when he first set to sea, when the bay was alive with shipping.

Fiddling with the instrument, he adjusted the gain control, then slapped the thing on the side hard. It beeped again and the screen showed what was obviously a false image approaching from starboard, probably some sort of reflection from something on the bottom. It was vastly too large to be real, nothing that big lived anywhere around these parts, and almost nothing moved that quickly under water.

The image faded, breaking up, and the beeping stopped. Satisfied, he moved back to the controls, peering out into the darkness lit only by the waning moon in an otherwise clear night. Two or three miles away the nearest lights of Brockton Bay could be seen, and off to the side some considerable distance further away was the glittering force field surrounding the Rig, the iconic headquarters of the ENE Protectorate. He looked at it for a moment or two, thinking it looked surprisingly pretty at night, then turned his head the other way, to the wreck of the old supertanker that two thirds blocked the entrance to the bay from the open Atlantic.

It was barely visible in the dark, a huge mass showing just above the water for an impressive distance, waves breaking on its side and across the bows which were barely under the surface at this tide state. The superstructure at the rear rose a considerable distance above that, the rust color that had broken through the formerly white and blue painted finish making it blend into the dark in most places. He wanted to stay well clear of the wreck, as there were other, smaller ships littering the bottom of the bay near it, none of which were visible except at extreme low tide. They came close enough to the water surface in a few places to make ideal things to punch a hole in the hull of a small boat like his twenty foot dory, though.

About to throttle up, he instead grabbed for a hand hold as the boat unexpectedly rose, then slowly rolled, before sinking again. Shocked he looked wildly around for a reason. Nothing was immediately visible but as he rushed to the side and looked into the depths, he fancied he could just make out the glint of something moving deep under the surface.

Something alive.

Something… very very big.

He swallowed, then peered carefully in the direction it seemed to be heading, which was directly towards the cargo vessel. Squinting he could, he thought, make out a swell in the water heading rapidly away, the waves moving oddly in that area, but he wouldn't have wanted to swear to it.

After a minute more had passed and the boat had long since settled down, he shook his head.

"Getting old and daft," he mumbled. "Seeing things. Next there'll be a pretty mermaid offering me pearls, no doubt."

Going back into the cabin, shivering even under his thick woolen coat in the damp chill of a late January night, he throttled up and headed for the dock, thinking he needed a large cup of coffee with a small shot of brandy in it.

Ten minutes later, a weird, deep rumble that he felt through his feet more than heard came from somewhere not that far away. He cocked his head, listening, but it didn't recur. After a moment he sighed, cranked the throttle back to idle yet again, then went out to the rear of the boat and looked around carefully.

Nothing.

"Definitely getting old," he grumbled. Turning, his eyes caught sight of the supertanker wreck, now a couple of miles further away.

He squinted. Something about it had changed. Which seemed unlikely. Perhaps it was slowly rotting away and something fell apart? It might explain the sound.

He retrieved his ancient, WWII vintage U-boat binoculars, which were so heavy he could hardly lift them, a souvenir brought back from Europe by his father who had got his knees shot off in the war but still looted everything he could carry, then pointed them at the ship. The huge objective lenses gathered enough light he had a vaguely useable image, enough to let him see it fairly clearly.

As he was watching, the shadow of an impossibly large taloned scaly hand, big enough to crush his boat like a beer can, lifted out of the water, the sea running off it, at the stern of the ship and braced itself against the hull. The ship visibly moved a few degrees, the same rumbling sound coming once more a few seconds later. He watched, completely frozen with shock, until the thing disappeared again.

Nothing else happened for the next five minutes. When he finally lowered the glasses his arms were shaking with effort and he was freezing.

"A small cup of coffee with a _large_ shot of brandy," he decided out loud.

Shivering with more than cold, he put the glasses away, then rammed the throttle as hard over as it would go, intent on getting off the water as soon as possible. It was probably his old eyes playing tricks, but if it wasn't…?

He had no wish to see what was attached to a hand that big.

* * *

Slipping through the depths of the bay, propelled with slow sweeps of her tail, her hind legs held together for minimum drag, Taylor was thoroughly enjoying herself. She'd made it to a deserted section of the docks without incident, only spotting a few Merchants and their customers wandering around, who were easily avoided. They lit up like christmas trees in her heat vision against the still cold January night. As the sun had set the temperature had dropped significantly, due to the clear skies.

Finding a suitable niche in an old wharf, inaccessible to anyone who couldn't hold onto the bottom of a horizontal, very slimy surface, or fly, she'd had the Varga make her a small container for the various things she was carrying in her belt pouches, attaching it to the half rotten wood with a spike she pushed firmly into it. The box was completely sealed and set to last for twelve hours by which time she'd certainly be back to collect it.

At that point she'd simply let go, falling into the water below even as she took on her combat form. Sinking to the bottom, twenty feet down, she found it no more uncomfortable than the swimming pool, although much harder to see anything in. They had fiddled with the form for a little while, lengthening the tail and flattening it side to side, while streamlining the entire body, until they were both satisfied it was suitably optimized for aquatic operations. Clear scales matched her vision to the water allowing her to see surprisingly well. She could also hear and even feel through the water things moving around her, a sort of passive sonar that gave her a fairly good image in her head of what was there.

It was surprisingly noisy at the bottom of the bay. Creaks, groans, clicks, long drawn out rumbles she worked out after a moment were breaking waves somewhere in the distance, all made the background noise level as high as that of a normal street, much to her surprise. She'd always pictured being underwater as being quiet and peaceful but it was nothing like that.

She knew her hearing range went a long way above and below the normal human one, but only underwater did it really come into its own. Heading out towards deeper water she swam along twenty feet down, following the bottom as it started to drop away. As the water got deeper she increased her size until she was by her estimation more than a hundred and fifty feet from nose to tail, the largest size she'd attempted so far. Even so, it was only about a third the total Varga size, if that.

Soon she was moving fast enough that she could feel the pressure of the water on her scales, a steady flow from front to back. It was peculiarly relaxing. The pressure of the depths itself was barely apparent, but then the water was only about two hundred feet deep at this point. The bay was pretty shallow for the most part, only one section near the entrance being over two hundred and twenty feet deep from what she could remember from school. Most of it was no more than half that depth.

Slowing, she examined the wreck of an old trawler that was sitting surprisingly intact on the bottom. It was tipped onto its side, but seemed more or less in one piece except for a hole in the hull near the front, which looked like it had been made by hitting something. Sinking to the bottom next to it she reached out, wrapping a hand around it like a toy boat in a bathtub. She experimentally lifted, finding that it resisted for a moment then came free of the suction of the mud, a large cloud of it rising around her and reducing visibility to almost nothing until it washed away in the current.

' _Doesn't feel too heavy_ ,' she commented to the Varga.

" _Don't forget about the buoyancy of the water helping you,_ " he remarked.

' _Oh, right, good point. But I think I could just carry this to the shore no problem. It's a lot lighter than the last block we tried in that warehouse and I'm much bigger now.'_ The ship in fact felt like a toy in her grip, not needing any real effort to hold. Gently squeezing she watched as it distorted, the metal crumpling like tinfoil in her grip. ' _I guess if I wanted to salvage the metal I could just wad them up and carry them like that?_ ' She thought for a moment, then shrugged, dropping it to the bottom again and launching herself into the water once more.

' _Anyway, the little ones down here don't really matter. It's the big ones in the shallow water that are the problem. I want to have a look at that huge tanker_.'

She passed under a small boat, the throbbing of its engine tickling her skin, making sure to be deep enough not to cause any damage. Soon she spotted the hull of the tanker in the distance through the cloudy water. ' _Shit. That thing is even bigger than it looks from the shore! It must be hundreds of feet long_.'

" _It's a very large ship_ ," the Varga agreed. " _But it looks like it's sitting on rock more than mud. It should move fairly easily. Do you intend to move it tonight?_ "

' _Not really, I just want to see if I can_ ,' she replied. ' _I'll have to talk to Dad about what would be the best thing to actually do with it. I guess it could be pushed out into deeper water, the bottom drops off pretty quickly outside the bay, which would get it out of the way. Pulling it onto shore would be a lot more work but there might be something worth salvaging on it_.'

Arriving at the ship, she once more let herself sink to the bottom, moving over to it and inspecting the thing. It had a more or less flat bottom and was sitting upright, although the sea bed sloped down towards the front of the ship, so the pointy end was deeper under water than the blunt end.

She felt certain those were not the correct nautical terms, deciding she should ask her father what the right ones were.

Moving to the back she looked at where the hull met the rock. There was a lot of debris scattered around, along with quite a lot of mud. She thought, based on the scrape marks, that it had slid when it sank, ending up in the current position. From what she remembered about the history of the riots that culminated in the scuttling of the ship it had gone down slowly and evenly, taking over a day to entirely sink.

' _Hmm. How about if I grab it at the back here and push? Maybe it will move a little and give us an idea of how large we'd need to be to move it easily. The water is too shallow here to get any bigger without sticking out like a sore thumb'_

Her head was only barely under the surface, in fact. Growing a small amount, she lifted just her eyes above the water like a floating alligator and carefully checked around the area. That little boat was moving slowly away and she thought it was distant enough not to be an issue. She couldn't see or hear anything else in the area. Satisfied, she submerged again, then braced her shoulder and palms against the hull, digging her foot talons into the sea bed under her and bracing her tail on the rocks around her.

With a mental grunt she pushed hard. There was a loud rumbling groan and nearly thirty thousand tons of scrap supertanker shifted six feet to the right, tilting slightly, more easily than she expected. ' _Whoops_ ,' she snickered. ' _I don't want to tip it over_.' She backed off then studied the situation carefully. Eventually she repositioned herself, reaching up with one hand to hold the back of the ship just above the water, then put her other hand on the shaft to one of the two propellers. Rearranging her tail to hold her in that position she carefully heaved again. Once more it rumbled, and moved back more or less to where it had been, the shaft bending like a coat hanger in the process, obviously not intended as a grip point.

' _Great. I could probably move it even at this size,_ ' she said with a smile, exposing six foot long fangs to the water. ' _That makes things easier. Dad will know the best way to deal with it._ '

" _It made quite a lot of noise, though, Brain,_ " the Varga noted. " _Moving it any distance will hardly be subtle, if you want to do it without notice._ "

' _That's true_.' She rubbed a finger along her muzzle while she thought. Eventually she shrugged. ' _I'm not going to do it tomorrow, so we can probably work out a solution. I just wanted to see if I could_.'

Pleased with the results of her experimentation, she swam away from the tanker, going around it into deeper water outside the bay. Following the bottom about a hundred feet above it she explored for an hour or two, finding all sorts of things lying around, but nothing particularly interesting. A sound in the distance made her listen carefully, moving her head around to localize it, finally deciding it must be a whale or something a long way out to sea. Half tempted to see how fast she could really swim and going to look for it, she decided in the end to go back instead. It was getting quite late.

Shrinking as she swam back, by the time she'd followed her nose back to the wharf she'd started from, Taylor was her normal combat form size although still in the aquatic variant. As she neared the wharf, she heard something odd which she finally realized was gunfire filtered through water. Nearing the surface she peeked out, seeing flashes coming from two different places, near a half-wrecked warehouse on the one hand, and from a parked truck with several flat tires on the other, several figures hiding behind it and shooting over the top.

The sound of the guns echoed around the entire area, making her head ring. ' _That's really annoying,_ ' she commented with mild irritation. ' _Not to mention stupid. There are bullets bouncing around all over the place._ ' She watched for a moment, then sighed. ' _Guess I'll have to stop them before someone gets killed_.'

Climbing out of the water she shook herself hard, then shrank into the form of Saurial, her armor forming in the process. She was half-tempted to use the combat form instead but was holding that back for a good occasion. This one didn't seem to need it, it was only half a dozen merchants shooting at a slightly smaller number of ABB members from what she could see and smell.

Actually, she was rather wishing she couldn't smell the former, they were rank. Really horrible, in fact.

Sighing a little, her good mood meeting reality and getting kicked somewhere sensitive in the process, she wandered over. "Hey, could you guys stop shooting the place up like that, please?" she called loudly.

"Cape!" one of the ABB members yelled, pointing, after all the participants of the fight turned to stare at her in shock.

"ABB," she yelled, pointing right back at him. He looked confused.

"Hey, if you're going to point, I will too." She grinned.

He swiveled his gun to aim at her and opened fire. She waited for him to run out of ammunition, then looked down at all the squashed bullets lying around her feet, before raising her eyes to him. "I think you're going to need a bigger gun," she snickered.

The Japanese youth paled. His friends opened up on her as well, as did a couple of the merchants. Forming a sword, she ran at the ABB truck, slashing horizontally when she reached it and cleanly separating the cab from the chassis. Vanishing the sword she grabbed the cab and heaved, throwing it to the side to reveal five worried faces looking at her as their cover vanished. "Hi," she smiled, showing her teeth. "Would you like to give up now or do I have to chase you around for a while?"

A bullet hit her in the back of the head. She looked over her shoulder. "I'll be with you guys in a minute," she called, before turning back to the ABB side, who were exchanging glances. One after another they dropped their weapons and held their hands up.

"Good decision," she smiled. "Put your hands behind your backs." Moving into range, she watched as they did as requested, the Varga forming manacles around each pair of wrists. He linked them together and to the truck with a cable. "OK. Stay there and I'll go and have a word with your friends."

She was enjoying herself. This time no real violence was needed, just a little psychological warfare. It seemed quite effective, which was interesting.

Walking towards the merchant contingent she was irritated to find out the limits of that technique, which is that it requires the opponent to be at least a little rational. In this case, that seemed not to be a good description. Based on the harsh chemical overtones she could smell none of the six merchants, four men and two women, were exactly firing on all cylinders. They had stopped shooting while she was dealing with the ABB gangers, apparently wondering what to do from what she'd heard, but ' _giving up_ ' wasn't one of the options they considered.

Half way to them they frantically began shooting again, not very accurately but with great enthusiasm. Worried that her prisoners at the truck would be hit by a stray bullet, or a not so stray one, she had the Varga make her a baton, then waded in. None of them took more than a couple of careful whacks to disable, although one man seemed practically immune to pain, presumably because of whatever drugs he was currently enjoying.

Unwilling to keep hitting him until he fell over, which seemed unnecessarily dangerous for a normal person, she dropped the baton which vanished in the process and pounced, clearing the pile of old oil drums he was currently hiding behind having crawled there while she was dealing with his friends. He screamed in shock when suddenly finding himself staring into her face from a foot away, which she capitalized on by grabbing him, spinning him around, and using the sleeper hold. Shortly he was lying on the ground, bound and disarmed.

Taylor looked around, satisfied. After a moment she frowned. Now what the hell did she do with them?

Eventually she retrieved her storage box from under the wharf, getting her equipment and supplies back and allowing the Varga to dissipate the thing. Putting everything back in her belt pouches she dug out Officer Michelson's business card and her burner phone, looking at the number for a moment then dialing it.

"Michelson," his voice answered after four rings.

"Hello, Officer," she said. "This is Saurial. We met on Tuesday night."

"I remember it vividly," he noted in a dead-pan voice, making her smile.

"Great. Look, I've caught six merchants and five ABB members who were having an enormous gun battle at Wharf Six in the south docks area. They're restrained right now and more or less uninjured although one of the merchants seems to have a broken leg. I didn't do it, he was like that when I found him. What do I do with them?"

Sounding distinctly amused, Michelson sighed faintly. "You have a style all your own, don't you, Saurial. OK, I'll get a wagon out to your location. Wharf Six, you said?"

"Yep. I'll wait here for them. These guys aren't going anywhere but I don't want to leave them alone in case some of their friends turn up, on either side."

"All right. Thanks for letting me know. Good work, by the way. Oh, I got your video recording. It was terrifying, thanks very much for that. Now I'm going to have nightmares going into dark places."

Taylor grinned, not sure how serious he was. "Great. I don't have a recording of this one, I didn't have my camera on. I took it off then this all happened, I didn't have time to put it back on."

"Don't worry, just tell the officers who attend the scene what happened. There's a form for independent Heroes and arrests made by them. Have you registered with the PRT yet?"

"No. Should I?"

"It's not actually mandatory but they tend to get pushy about it sooner or later. It's up to you, though."

She considered the suggestion, but couldn't decide whether it was a good idea or not. Thinking she should ask her father about it, she said her goodbyes to the officer, then snapped the phone shut and put it away, sitting on one of the oil drums to wait. She could already hear sirens approaching in the distance.

Half an hour later she was finished with the police, who had quite efficiently loaded the captured shooters into two different vans, then taken her verbal report. Thanking her, apparently sincerely, they'd driven off more slowly than they'd appeared. Deciding she was done with the docks for the night she looked around carefully, cloaked, switched to the combat form, enlarged it a little, and started running, this time on four legs and pushing herself hard for the practice and to see how fast she could go.

As she ran it began snowing lightly again, the clouds having arrived overhead quite suddenly as a cold front rolled in from the Atlantic, the falling flakes muffling sounds around her and making the grime of the docks briefly pristine, before it would inevitably melt.

* * *

Grue looked down. So did his team mates.

"What the hell made those?" he asked, pointing at the ground. Bending over the large, clawed, three toed footprints, where the snow hadn't quite melted, Tattletale frowned.

"Big, eight feet tall or better. Quadrupedal. Long stride. Moving at… maybe sixty miles an hour?" She looked at the three footprints visible. "Some sort of reptile, that's all I can tell you. Not enough data."

"You're telling me that there's an eight foot tall _dinosaur_ running around the docks?" Regent asked in a nervous voice. He looked over his shoulder. "That's not exactly comforting, Tats."

She shrugged. "It's all I have. Find me some more evidence and I can do better, but three half-melted footprints in the snow aren't a lot to go on even for me."

"There's that new cape, Saurial, who's been seen twice downtown. She's a reptile of some sort."

"Not this big, though, and she walks on two legs, this was on four," Tattletale responded, turning to look at Grue. "This thing was enormous. And very definitely a carnivore based on those claw marks."

"You mean there's _two_ of them?" Regent squeaked.

"Maybe it's her pet." They all looked at Bitch, who looked back. "Like a dog."

"I don't know," Tattletale said when the two boys returned their attention to her. "But I don't want to stumble into it, so I think we should get out of here in case it comes back."

The comment made them all stare about carefully in the early dawn light, then quickly head away from the area, almost running. Bitch's three dogs sniffed the footprint the humans had been inspecting, whined, then followed.


	17. Confessions and Questions

**Saturday, January 29, 2011**

Carol Dallon, AKA Brandish, entered the kitchen at seven AM to make coffee to wake herself up for the day, to find her only biological daughter sitting at the kitchen table in her costume looking somewhat disheveled, staring into a bowl of soggy cereal as if it held the secrets of the universe.

"You're up early, Vicky," she noted, yawning widely, then putting some coffee beans in the electric grinder and turning it on. The loud noise drowned out any response her daughter made for a few seconds. Filling the coffee maker with water and beans she turned it on, then rummaged in the refrigerator for the milk.

Turning around holding the bottle she saw the blonde girl hadn't moved, holding the spoon in the cereal but not doing anything with it. "Are you OK, Vicky?" she asked, somewhat concerned. The girl's expression was fixed in a blank stare that was a little unusual. Normally it was fairly lively and animated, Victoria Dallon was nothing if not outgoing.

Eventually her daughter looked up. "I think I did something really stupid last night, Mom," she said quietly. Her expression changed to one of confused sadness. "Really stupid."

Carol inspected her, then turned to the coffee maker, which was making grunting sounds now as it expelled hot dark liquid into the pot. Waiting until it was full she turned the machine off, took the pot, a mug, and the milk to the table, then sat down across from her daughter. Preparing a mug of coffee she looked up. "Tell me," she instructed, more or less gently, as the young woman was clearly upset.

"I had another fight with Dean yesterday," Vicky began after stirring her cereal around for a bit, then dropping the spoon and pushing the bowl away with tired disgust.

"Why?"

"I… don't really know. He was being vague and distant like he was worried about something and he wouldn't tell me what, but that's not all of it. I just..." She shrugged, and sighed. "I don't know." she repeated.

"You over-reacted to a perceived slight and stormed off again?" Carol knew her daughter. Sullenly, the girl nodded a little.

"I guess. Maybe. Yes."

"All right. That's unfortunate, but hardly unusual. It's what, four times in the last month?" Smiling at her Carol sipped her coffee, then added a little more milk.

"It's not the fight that's stupid..." Vicky began, then caught sight of her mother's expression and stopped. "OK, maybe it is. I'll have to go and apologize to him, he didn't really do anything and he'd just bought me this nice bracelet." She raised her wrist to show it off. "I forgot to take it off when I changed and left."

"That was silly, dear," Carol noted with a frown. "You could have lost it in a fight, he'd have been annoyed. It looks expensive."

"I know. That's part of it."

"What's the other part?" Clearly whatever it was seemed to be disturbing Vicky.

"I met a new cape yesterday. I… may have been looking for a fight and over-reacted."

Carol stared for a few seconds, then sighed heavily, putting her coffee down very carefully and folding her hands on the table. Fixing her daughter with a look that had brought many a plaintiff to the point of near tears in court, she asked slowly, "What did you do, Vicky?"

There was an uncomfortable pause as the blonde opened her mouth, then closed it again.

"Victoria Dallon, what did you _do?_ "

"I… sort of jumped to conclusions, that she was a villain, because of how she looked? Then was really rude to her?"

Raising an eyebrow while inside she felt a sinking sensation, Carol waited.

"And… I may have threatened her? A bit?"

There was another pause. Carol sighed again.

"And… I sort of… poked her? Three times?"

"Are you asking me or telling me all this, dear?" the older woman grumbled, finding the annoying questioning tone irritating. It was a sign of how nervous her daughter was that she was falling into that idiotic Californian stereotypical cheerleader upspeak, which she personally thought sounded like the speaker didn't know what they were talking about.

"Telling you, I guess?" Vicky smiled a little for a moment, then went blank again as her mother fixed her with another look. "Telling you."

Leaning back, Carol picked up her coffee cup and took another sip from it before returning it to the table, not taking her eyes from the girl, who fidgeted. "Who was the cape?" she asked in the end.

"She said her name was Saurial. I've never seen her before although I recognized the name, I saw it on PHO a couple of days ago. I didn't read the thread much."

"Why did you think she might be a villain?" Carol couldn't place the name, but that wasn't surprising, she didn't keep up much with current gossip.

"She's a giant lizard, mom! Over six feet tall, with a long tail, scales, and big teeth. Dark blue costume with a gold dragon's head on it."

"A case 53?"

"I don't know. Maybe. She sure doesn't look normal or even human, though."

"Capes can't help what they look like if their powers change them, dear, you know that. There's no call to jump to conclusions about it."

"I know. I'm sorry, but it was a shock. She was walking around on the edge of a building downtown, talking to herself, then dropped something off it. I was… really pissed off, and when I saw her..." She sighed and shrugged. "I may have sort of waded in without thinking."

"What did you do?" Carol winced. "You didn't hit her, I hope."

"No. I asked her who she was." Vicky swallowed hard. "Or what."

Covering her eyes, Carol shook her head. "Oh, _wonderful_. What a brilliant introduction. Then what?"

"I asked her whether she was a hero or a villain. Loudly. She said hero, and told me to check with the cops if I didn't believe her." Vicky looked down at the table with an expression of shame on her face. "I… sort of insulted them as well. She seemed so sure they'd back her up and it annoyed me. The last time I talked to a cop he was really rude."

"As I recall you had just managed to destroy his car by hitting it with a dumpster you threw, dear," Carol sighed. "Completely missing Krieg with it. He was standing on the other side of the street laughing about it, which didn't improve the situation."

Her daughter's face flushed a little at the memory. "All right, go on. What else?"

"I asked why she was on the roof and why. She said she was looking at the view and having a snack. I told her I didn't like her then poked her. A bit. Only three times."

"You… _poked_ … her?" Carol asked in a somewhat incredulous tone.

"With my finger. She was wearing some sort of armor and didn't really seem to mind. Or notice, actually." Vicky looked embarrassed as her mother covered her eyes again.

"Oh, Vicky."

"Then I…" She stopped again, but continued when her mother looked hard at her, ducking her head in shame. "...called her an overgrown newt."

Sighing, Carol shook her head. "What did she do?"

"Called me a speciesist."

"There's no such word."

"That's what _I_ said!" Vicky yelped. "But she said there was. Then she grabbed my wrist and held it when I poked her again, before she pushed me across the roof and asked me to stop doing it and go away."

"She pushed _you?_ " Carol was more than a little surprised at this.

Vicky nodded with a troubled expression. "She's strong. Really strong, and fast too, I could hardly see her hand move. I was flying so there wasn't any real grip but even when I tried pushing back she kept going. Then she let go with another push and asked me to go away."

"Did you?"

She felt like she was cross-examining a witness, one who was both guilty and reluctant.

"I… told her I was keeping my eye on her, then flew away." Vicky shrugged. "That's it. I found some E88 idiots trashing a store, beat them up a little, then went and sat on the top of the Medhall building and tried to calm down. Then came home. I was half-way back when I realized how it would look to an outsider, and started calming down and thinking about what I did. I couldn't sleep so I've been sitting here half the night, worrying about it."

Shaking her head in despair, Carol replied, "I really thought we raised you better than that, dear. You could have managed to get us into serious trouble. Hopefully this Saurial will accept an apology, which you _will_ give her if you see her again. And mean it."

The girl was silent, but nodded. There was something about her expression that made Carol's heart drop again.

"What else?" she asked slowly.

"I didn't realize until I got home..." Vicky said, before stopping for a moment. "She was wearing a little camera on her head."

"Oh, fuck." Carol stared in horror. "You mean she caught all this on tape? Just fucking _fantastic_." She didn't even feel ashamed about her language, she was so startled and worried.

"I couldn't see a light on it which is why I didn't really notice it, so maybe it was off?" Vicky replied, sounding hopeful.

"We have no idea if it was or not," her mother sighed. "Some cameras don't have lights. Vicky, I've told you and told you, _always assume cameras are recording!_ Don't do anything in front of one that will bring disrepute to New Wave. We're under a microscope all the time we go out in costume, you know that, and even a lot of the time otherwise. This could be very bad for public relations."

The girl nodded, looking upset. "I know."

"You really made a bad impression."

"I know."

"And acted in an irresponsible manner that I find disturbing."

"I _know,_ mom! I told you that, remember? I was pissed off, and not thinking about it properly. She guessed that I'd had a fight with my boyfriend somehow and that made it worse. _And_ she completely ignored my aura which was just weird and a little scary. I'm sorry."

"Sorry may not be enough this time, dear," Carol sighed. "How did Saurial react?"

Vicky frowned slightly. "She was… calm and polite, even when I poked her. I could tell she was annoyed, at least a little, but she didn't really do much except ask me to stop and go away, then grab my wrist when I poked her the third time. She seemed… reasonable, I guess, looking back on it."

Nodding, Carol sipped some more coffee while she thought, her daughter waiting for her. "OK. As I said, if you run into her again, _apologize_. Sincerely and respectfully. Don't mention the camera in public. I'll make some inquiries and see if I can get her contact details, _then_ see if I can politely ask for any footage to be destroyed, if she doesn't mind, please and thank you."

She sighed yet again, shaking her head. "I don't like having to go cap in hand to anyone, especially because of something my hot-headed daughter did without thinking it through. _PLEASE_ think more carefully next time. You have no idea what she's capable of, aside from the fact that she's obviously much stronger than common even for a cape. You don't want to find out the hard way that she's actually got a counter for your powers. You know as well as I do that you're not actually invulnerable, not after the first hit."

"She doesn't know that," Vicky noted. Her mother glared, making her shrink back in her seat.

" _Not_ the point."

"Yes, Mom."

"Go and change, and take a shower. You've got E88 on you. I'm going shopping and you're coming with me, I want to keep an eye on you for a while."

"Yes, Mom." Obediently, the young woman got up and headed upstairs, while Carol finished her coffee.

"Oh, Vicky," she mumbled, then poured herself another one.

* * *

"Dad?"

"Yes, Dear?" Danny looked up from making bacon and eggs, finding his daughter had at least this time not grazed on the latter raw to the point there were none left. He still found this new habit something that slightly turned his stomach but she seemed to enjoy it and there were no apparent ill effects, so all he was doing was buying twice the normal amount these days.

"Who owns the wrecked ships in the bay? And the ones in the graveyard?"

Inspecting her for a moment, he went back to the frying pan when the sizzling sound changed tone, flipping the bacon over and pressing it flat with the spatula.

"Technically, the city, I think. Most of them were seized as bankrupt assets after the rioting when half a dozen shipping companies went under. The rest of them were sold to the city for salvage but for one reason or another, that never happened. There's at least a couple of million dollars worth of scrap lying around out there, probably much more, but it would cost even more than it's worth to dredge it up and cut it into small enough pieces to take away, so no one ever bothered. All the really valuable stuff was salvaged early on, like copper, brass, electronics, that sort of thing."

Flipping the cooked bacon onto a plate with a couple of sheets of paper towel on it to absorb the excess grease, he turned it over a couple of times, then put it in the warm oven while he cracked four eggs into the frying pan and pushed the lever of the toaster down.

"They also recovered almost all the fuel and oil on the ships, which is good or that tanker going down would have caused a hell of a mess. It was mostly empty anyway, only a few thousand barrels left on board, since it had nearly finished pumping a load to shore, when the rioters hijacked it, ran it aground, and sank it across the entrance to the bay blocking the deep channel. The rest was removed by the company that owned it a month or so later but the ship wasn't worth salvaging by then. It was a pretty old vessel even at that point."

He watched the eggs bubble for a moment, then looked at her. "Most of the ships in the graveyard have been completely stripped by various people or capes over the years, so there's not much left but rusty hulls now, although some of them are actually in quite good condition. They could be refitted and refloated if someone wanted to spend the money, I suppose, but no one seems to care these days."

Ladling bacon grease over the tops of the eggs as they sizzled in the large pan, he waited until the yolks skinned over, then sprinkled them with paprika in the manner that Annette had shown him. When they were done, he put the toast which popped up right on schedule on two plates, slid the eggs on top, then added the bacon from the oven, along with some fried tomatoes for him and some fried mushrooms for her. Taylor was sitting at the table listening and watching with an interested expression.

Taking the plates over, he put hers in front of her then sat down with his own breakfast, picking up the glass of orange juice at his place. "Why are you interested in that?"

"I was wondering if anyone would mind if I cleaned it up."

He choked on his juice, then looked at her wide-eyed when he finished coughing.

"Excuse me?" he queried, shock on his face. She was grinning a little at his reaction.

"I went and had a look at the tanker last night," she told him, amused as he stared. "It's not that heavy. I could move it out of the way."

"You..." He shook his head hard and tried again. "You think you could move that enormous thing? It must be a good thirty to thirty five thousand tons empty. Not the biggest tanker by a long way, there were some absolutely immense ones back before Leviathan screwed things up for everyone, but it's not exactly small. From memory it's over seven hundred feet long."

"It's pretty big, sure, but I managed to push it a few feet to the side without all that much trouble," she smiled.

He choked again.

"I put it back," she added.

"Good," he replied very faintly after several seconds. Staring in disbelief he finally shook his head. "Did anyone see you?"

"I doubt it, no one was around except for a little fishing boat with one guy in it about three miles away," she replied. "He didn't seem to notice. I sort of bent the propeller shaft, though. It's not very strong."

Shaking his head in wonder, he kept staring at his daughter as if he'd never seen her before. "How big were you?"

"I think about a hundred and fifty feet long or so?" she replied thoughtfully. "We came up with a swimming version of the combat form with a longer tail like an alligators, which made moving around underwater really easy and fun. I could spend hours doing that if I wanted to relax. I was probably about… maybe eighty feet tall if I was standing upright? My head was just under the surface there, it's shallower than I thought."

"Unbelievable. Just…," he groped for the words, then weakly repeated, "…unbelievable."

"After I tried moving the tanker I went for a swim outside the bay for a while," she went on. "I probably went a few miles out, the water gets a lot deeper quite fast then levels off. Maybe five hundred feet or so? It's covered in mud with all sorts of garbage lying around in it. Lots of fish and other things."

"Good god," he finally said. "How deep could you go?"

She cocked her head, then replied, "Varga said all the way to the bottom in the deep parts."

"That's insane," he remarked, not knowing what else to say. "Even a whale can't dive that deep. Hardly any machines can either."

"I can. I don't know why I'd want to, from what I've read there's practically nothing down there except rocks and mud, but he said I could if I wanted to. He suggested it would be more comfortable at full size but it's not particularly hard." She looked pleased while he gaped.

"I was thinking I could push the tanker into deeper water pretty easily, and get it out of the way. I could probably shove it up onto the shore somewhere if that was a better idea, and cut it into smaller pieces with my sword. Would that help?"

There was a long pause during which she started eating. After a while he did the same, thinking hard.

"If you just went and did it, there would be… a lot of questions," he finally said after several minutes. "Not that anyone is going to ignore it anyway, but it would be a better idea to do it in an official manner rather than just heaving the thing to the side." He shook his head again, then cut some more bacon, chewing it thoughtfully. Swallowing, he went on, "If you're actually serious about it, I'd need to talk to the mayor and see if I could get him to sign off on it. He'd probably go for it if it didn't cost the city anything."

"Could we sell the metal if I get it to shore?" she asked curiously. "The money would help the DWU and other people."

Putting his fork down he picked up his glass of juice, taking a drink, then leaned his head back and stared at the ceiling. The idea was… interesting. The mere fact that they were seriously considering his beloved but obviously insane daughter turning into a monster from the depths big enough to give Leviathan pause then casually pulling a Suezmax-class tanker onto the shore was surreal, but she seemed certain she could actually do it.

Eventually he looked at her. "I need to talk to a few people. Carefully and discreetly. Please don't go throwing cargo ships around for fun just yet, dear. But I think you might have found something socially useful to do which could help a lot of people. More so than hitting things very hard."

She snickered, cutting her egg up. "I can do that too," she replied with a giggle.

"I know, dear, I've seen the video."

"Hey, speaking of that, I met Glory Girl last night. She was in a shitty mood and shouted at me. I had my camera on, want to see it? It was… weird."

Shaking his head, he smiled. "All right, but you should probably delete it afterwards. You don't want to get New Wave annoyed at you if you can help it."

Shrugging, she nodded. "OK. I was going to erase it anyway, but I thought you might think it was funny. She went red at one point. I have no idea why but she was really pissed at me, then she flew away."

"Strange. Maybe she doesn't like lizards?"

"Why not? I'm adorable as Saurial," she grinned, making his roll his eyes then get back to his breakfast before it got cold.

"To me you're always adorable, but other people might not see it the same way," he smiled.

"Thanks, Dad," she told him, finishing her bacon, then getting up. "I need a shower. I'll see you in a little while."

Watching as she disappeared, the end of her tail vanishing around the corner of the doorway, he shook his head in wonder. "Clean up the ships? She thinks big," he muttered in awe.

"Thanks, Dad!" she yelled from upstairs, making him snicker, then get back to eating as he heard the shower start.

* * *

"Hi, Dean." Vicky's voice was considerably less cocky than usual. Dean sat up from where he'd been lying on the sofa reading a book on his day off duty, checking his watch. It was just after lunch. He was a little surprised, normally the young woman took at least a couple of days to cool down, so he wasn't expecting to hear from her until Monday at school.

"Hi, Vicky," he replied as these thoughts went through his mind. "Look, I'm sorry about whatever I did last night to upset you."

She was quiet for a moment, then replied, "It wasn't your fault, Dean. I over-reacted."

This really surprised him. She'd never apologized like that before. From the tone of her voice she was genuinely sorry as well, not just saying it.

"That's nice to know, I guess," he said a little uncertainly. "Are you all right? You sound… tired."

"I'm exhausted," she said. "I didn't get any sleep worth mentioning last night and was sitting in the kitchen thinking for most of it. Then Mom got really annoyed with me when I told her what I did and took me shopping with her to keep an eye on me. We only got back just a few minutes ago." Her voice became aggrieved. "She wouldn't let me fly, I had to walk everywhere! Walking is so slow!"

Grinning, he tried not to let the laugh he was keeping quiet come out in his voice. "Poor Vicky. Having to walk like the rest of us. What a come down."

"Exactly!" she giggled, sounding more cheerful. "You get it. Why can't Mom? Walking is for peons, not someone like me. You know, cute, pretty, stylish..."

Letting the laugh out, he got up and walked to the window, looking out to see if the snow had melted yet, which it had. The day looked fair although overcast. Peering at the clouds and wondering if it would start snowing again, he nodded even though she couldn't see it.

"I understand how it would disturb you, you poor girl. So why were you having trouble sleeping?"

There was a long pause.

"I fucked up," she finally admitted in a low voice.

Worried, but not exactly surprised, he asked, "How? This time, I mean."

"Oh, thanks a bunch, Dean," she snapped, sounding like her old self for a moment. He said nothing, waiting. Eventually she sighed again and carried on reluctantly, "I met a new cape, insulted her, technically assaulted her, insulted the police who she seems to respect in front of her, then threatened her."

"You did _what!_ " he yelped, shocked despite himself. After a long moment, a horrible sinking sensation grew in the pit of his stomach. "Vicky, _please_ tell me this cape wasn't Saurial..."

"How did you know?" she asked, surprised.

"I thought of the worst cape that could be considered new to insult and she was the first name that came to mind," he groaned. "Oh, god, Vicky, what did you do. And what did _she_ do?"

He listened to the story with incredulity. By the time she finished, sounding meek and worried, he was sitting on the sofa again shaking his head in wondering amazement. Neither of them said anything for a little while.

"Do you know her?" Vicky finally asked.

"We've met. Vista and I ran into her down town on Tuesday night and talked for a while."

"What did you think about her?" his girlfriend asked, sounding worried. "Will she erase that recording if she actually made one?"

Pinching the bridge of his nose with his eyes shut, Dean sighed. How the hell was it that Saurial, whoever that girl was, kept coming up in his life so much recently? "She… probably would. If you asked very politely. She seemed reasonable enough as long as you stay away from the subject of her family. She's a bit touchy about that."

"Is she dangerous? Do you know what her powers are?"

"Stronger than you, _faster_ than you, can make enormous swords and hammers that are impossibly heavy and apparently unbreakable out of something no one seems to know anything about, some sort of super senses, can climb buildings like they're level ground..." He trailed off as she gasped. He didn't say anything about their suspicions that Saurial was a Changer on top of all that, even though he now knew for sure it was true. Especially because of that.

"I really wouldn't pick a fight with her, Vicky," he added quietly. "You can fly, she can't, but if she gets her hands on you she could probably unscrew your head and eat it."

"Shit," the girl on the phone whispered. "I sure can pick them."

"That you can. I suggest you mean it when you apologize. I don't think she's someone you want as an enemy."

"Do you think she'd accept it?"

"I think so, but you should probably wait a day or two before you go looking for her to let her cool off first. Don't leave it too long, though." After a moment's mutual silence, he asked, "Do you want me to come over?"

"No, not right now," she replied, then yawned. "I need some sleep. I'll call you later."

"OK, Vicky. Sleep well."

She hung up, so he put his phone down next to him and leaned back, shaking his head. "Fuck me, Vicky, I warned you your temper would get you into trouble one day," he grumbled. "I hope Saurial is in a good mood the next time you meet her."

* * *

"Any idea what it was?" Armsmaster asked, looking at the image of the woman's face on the screen in his lab. She shook her head looking troubled.

"No, not really. The readings were… very inconclusive. The passive sonar network was returning extremely odd readings, they kept fading and then reappearing somewhere else, and don't quite match anything in the database. Seismographic readings suggest something moved underwater near the mouth of the bay, or possibly just outside it, and there were intermittent readings that went a little more than ten miles out into the Atlantic, near the sea bed. The thing that best fits the data is some form of underwater slippage or mudslide that sent debris down to the continental shelf and along it for some distance. It's a known phenomenon although not that common in such shallow water."

"Could it have had anything to do with Leviathan?" This was his biggest fear and one that gave him nightmares. Brockton Bay was very vulnerable to the Endbringer, due not only to its location but its geological makeup.

Dragon shook her head again. "No, definitely not. I'm tracking him off the coast of Australia at the moment, he's poking around deep under the Indian ocean for whatever reason, moving slowly."

"Good. Well, I'm curious, but it doesn't seem to be an immediate threat, so I think we just log it and move on. If it happens again, though, we should investigate. Do you have any submersible drones available?"

"Nothing specifically for that sort of job right now," she replied. "I'll look into designing one just in case."

"All right. That sounds acceptable." He smiled at her, about the only person he ever did that with, and got a smile in return. "Now, have you looked at the information I sent you on that… substance… that the new Cape Saurial apparently possesses the ability to make?"

Dragon's expression immediately became intrigued. "Yes. It looks impossible, as you said."

"I was holding a piece of it, right up the point it vanished, so it definitely exists. Do you have any theories?"

"Nothing that doesn't seem entirely nonsensical, no. We need a sample. Do you think you can get one?"

"I've asked all the Wards to request a small piece of it if the opportunity arises," he replied slowly. "I also asked that they wait until they know her better. I think she'll probably respond better to them than if I approach her, the reports suggest she is in the same age group and probably gets on better with her peers than adults. That is the normal situation with teenagers."

She looked calculatingly at him for a moment. "Hannah told you to do that last part, didn't she?"

"Yes." He sighed faintly as she smiled in triumph. "It seems inefficient but she knows more about how people work than I do, I'm well aware of that. I'm prepared to follow her advice in this matter."

"Even though you really want to run out, find Saurial, and bug her until she gives you some supermetal to play with..." Dragon grinned as he sighed again.

The conversation moved on to other subjects after that, both Tinkers soon deep in a conversation about miniaturized propulsion systems.


	18. Pranks and Hunts

"You sure she's around here?" Clockblocker sounded curious and slightly irritated.

"I think so," Kid Win replied, standing on his hoverboard and looking around carefully. "We got reports she was walking around in this area, and someone else said he saw her climb up here a few minutes ago."

"With the speed Vista says she moves, she could be miles away now. Why are you so keen on meeting her, anyway?" the clock themed cape asked, moving to look down the side of the office building to the ground, some four stories below them, shudder a little, then move back to a safe distance. His colleague was fine with heights, he could fly, although if he actually ever fell off that thing he was in trouble, but Dennis didn't like heights at all much.

"I'm just curious. She sounds interesting. You don't see a lot of non-human seeming capes that aren't Case 53's, who can never remember anything, which tends to make the ones I've met sort of, well, a bit weird." The other teen shrugged. "From what Vista and Gallant told us she's got a sense of humor and is interesting to talk to, so I thought it would be nice to meet her. We're sure to run into her sooner or later, why not now while there's nothing going on?"

"Point to you, I guess." Clockblocker turned in a circle. "But I can't see any signs of her, not even footprints in this stuff." He prodded the pea gravel covering the tar-sealed roof of the building, which was flat and festooned with tall air conditioning units. "Guess she moved on. We'll have to keep looking."

"I'm surprised you're not more interested in meeting her," Chris commented, smiling under his helmet. "From what we heard she has a sense of humor nearly as bad as yours. Surely you're planning on freezing her or something as an introduction? That's what you normally do. Practical jokes are sort of your thing."

"Miss Militia told me not to," his friend replied.

"Like that's ever stopped you."

"Plus she's apparently got huge teeth."

"And?" Chris' eyes suddenly widened as a shadow separated from the air conditioning tower immediately behind Clockblocker, slowly resolving into a tall, slender, reptilian woman who was soundlessly creeping forward, taking careful steps with her tail held up behind her clear of the gravel. About to say something, or possibly scream, he froze when she raised a long, taloned finger to her short muzzle. Debating the merits of the idea for a moment he finally decided to see what happened, trying not to give the game away. As an afterthought he gave the command with a specific flick of his eyes that turned on the camera mounted on his helmet above his visor, recording the whole thing. Just for review later, of course.

"And maybe her sense of humor doesn't apply to jokes aimed at her? I don't want to get chased and eaten by a six foot tall angry dinosaur woman or whatever she is!" Dennis replied with a little annoyance. "Sure, if I knew she'd take it OK I'd play a joke on her, but I think I need to find out more about her first."

Kid Win watched with wide eyes, luckily hidden by his visor and the dark, as the creeping lizard girl arrived directly behind an oblivious Clockblocker, moving impressively quietly and slowly. If he wasn't watching it he'd never had known she was there, which was just the smallest amount worrying in a number of ways. She paused, cocking her head to one side, then the other, as if deciding what to do. He watched with bated breath.

Eventually, while Clockblocker was expanding on his views about not pranking capes who could actually chew on you and probably enjoy it, she seemed to come to a decision, reaching into a pouch on her belt and removing a small bottle with a metallic green label that glinted in the dark. Kid Win recognized it with instant hilarity, working out immediately what her joke was, but managed to keep a straight face with enormous effort.

Gently unscrewing the lid, Saurial smirked, then held the tiny bottle of Tabasco sauce over Clockblocker's right arm and started shaking it.

"I mean, Gallant told us about that huge hammer she was waving around like it was nothing! One hit would probably pulverize me. Or you. What if she's like Rune was, did you think of that? Sure, she's a villain, but she didn't have to get so worked up about what I did. It was pretty funny, I thought, but girls can be strange about jokes."

Chris watched small, pungent drops of orange-colored liquid fall to his friend's sleeve and soak in. Dennis didn't notice.

"And you remember that time I froze Panacea? She threatened to give me tits the size of my head if I ever did it again and I don't think she was joking. She's really grumpy a lot of the time."

More Tabasco sauce fell. Chris was watching with wild inner amusement, wondering when his friend would notice. It took about another fifteen seconds. "Hey, what the hell is this?" Clockblocker suddenly said, lifting his arm in front of his mask and staring. He looked up, then around, as Saurial swayed lithely back and forth behind him to stay out of his field of vision. "There's some sort of liquid all over me."

"What is it?" Kid Win managed to choke out, suppressing wild laughter.

"I don't know, it's all sticky." Poking it with his other hand, Dennis looked at his finger, then quickly lifted his mask just a small amount and sniffed. "Hey, that's..."

He froze, then slowly turned to look behind him. Saurial leaned forward and grinned widely, licking scaly lips with a long forked tongue. "I love Tabasco sauce on my food," she hissed menacingly.

" _ **AAAiiiieee!**_ " Clockblocker screamed, jumping back in horror and tripping over himself in the process, landing on his back on the roof, then panting for breath. She stared, then almost collapsed laughing, while Chris nearly fell off his hoverboard, tears of amusement running down his face.

"I wish I could see your face," she giggled, in a much more normal voice than the extremely disturbing, barely human one she'd used before. "That was _fantastic_. Should I put it up on PHO?"

"Send it to me, I want to show the others," Kid Win gasped, still laughing, having spotted the camera she was wearing immediately. Dennis looked from one to the other of them, his head moving jerkily and his body language still showing he was very confused and extremely rattled.

"Oh, you _bastards_ ," he finally growled, working out that he'd been the butt of a prank. "How long did that take to set up?"

He glared at the other Ward, or at least Chris assumed he was glaring. "Was _that_ why you dragged me up here saying you wanted to meet her?" Chris shook his head, giggling to himself.

"Spur of the moment thing, Clockblocker," she admitted. "I was just lying on top of that tower thing over there enjoying the quiet and having a snack when I heard you guys talking. You have a reputation online as a joker so I thought I'd see what happened." She waved at the air conditioning tower, then held up the bottle of sauce. "I like this on eggs, I bought it this afternoon."

"Eggs?" Chris queried. She pulled one of the hen fruit in question from another pouch and held it up.

"Eggs," she confirmed. "Last one." Sprinkling the thing with sauce she tossed it into her mouth, shell and all, then crunched down and swallowed. "Nice."

"Oh, my god," Clockblocker moaned, disgusted, while Chris felt his stomach roil. "That's revolting."

"They're great, actually," she retorted. "And high in nutrients, with no fat."

She studied the white-garbed cape and smiled again. "I'd offer you a hand up but I suspect there would be retaliation involved. I have no wish for a picture of me standing frozen like an idiot to pop up on the web so I think I'll just stay over here."

After a couple of seconds he shook his head, then stood up, brushing himself down. "OK. Right. The crazy lizard monster girl has a warped sense of humor. Note to self, look over shoulder more." He sounded amused by now, his sense of the absurd coming to the fore. "You got me. That was actually a good prank." Looking intently at her, he asked, "Please don't do it again, you scared the _shit_ out of me."

Chris turned his camera off again, grinning.

Laughing, she nodded. "I'll never do it again to you. Can I do it to other people?"

He nodded back. "Oh, _hell_ , yes. Just tell me first so I can watch. I want to see Assault jump three feet in the air and scream like a little girl."

They shared a look, then laughed like idiots again. "Sorry, Clockblocker, I couldn't resist," she apologized when they all calmed down. "I'm not used to meeting people I can actually joke around with like this, it's nice."

"Tough childhood?" Kid Win asked.

She shrugged. "Not really, but parts of it were hell. I seem to have met more friendly people, or at least people who aren't actively hostile, in the last month than in the last several years."

A crash from below made her cock her head again, listening, then walk over and peer down the side of the building to the street. Kid Win turned his board around so he could see as well. A large truck was half-embedded into the side of the building, with about a dozen people wearing E88 colors jumping out the back of it and kicking glass away, then going into the department store that comprised the lower floor, carrying hammers and large empty bags.

"Want to help round those idiots up?" she sighed, glancing over at them. Kid Win and Clockblocker exchanged a glance as she jumped off the building, falling to the street and landing on top of the truck with an enormous crunch while heavily distorting the roof, then lightly hopped off and disappeared inside the building after the ram-raiding robbers.

"Well, that happened," Chris noted. Clockblocker nodded, wincing at the distant screams rising from below. Tapping his earpiece, the Tinker said, "Console, attending a vehicular assisted break in at 1601 Atlantic Drive, independent hero Saurial already on site. Permission to assist?"

"Wait one, Kid Win," the surly but professional voice of Shadow Stalker who for some reason had been assigned permanent console duty came back. A moment later, she added, "Permission granted to assist."

"Thanks, Console," he replied then tapped the earpiece again. Glancing at Clockblocker who had been listening, he smiled. "Come on, lets see what she can do."

"She's probably already sprinkling Tabasco sauce on them," the other cape muttered, sounding both amused and a little worried, then started descending the fire escape to one side, Kid Win floating down on his hoverboard.

* * *

Martin frantically dived for cover, swearing and sweating, as some of his fellows ran past screaming, looking for the way out in the nearly pitch black room. Something was in there with them, he could hear it moving every now and then.

Pressing himself into an alcove next to a display of toasters or something, he could barely make it out in the dark, lit only by a couple of distant emergency exit signs, he listened carefully, looking around and trying to make out what the hell was going on. A flicker of motion twenty feet away made him whip his head around, then point his gun that way.

There was another scream from the other side of the store, horrifically cut off half-way, that ended in a gurgle. Two shots sounded, then two more. He sweated harder. A flashlight bobbed around as if someone was waving it about, then suddenly stopped. Yet another shot rang out, echoing in the large room, before there was a meaty smacking sound, following which something flew a considerable distance and crashed into what sounded like every last saucepan in the place. The flashlight dropped and rolled, the light swinging around casting crazy shadows across the room, then went out with a metallic crunch.

There was a long pause, during which he formed the opinion he was probably the only one left.

"What the hell _is_ it?" he whispered.

"It's just me," a female voice said in his ear. He screamed like a five year old and spun around, knocking small appliances flying, then fired rapidly. The muzzle flashes gave him a stop motion view of something tall and thin, with what looked like a long tail, scuttling appallingly quickly across the floor and, most horrifyingly, up the wall to vanish towards the dimness of the ceiling, fifteen feet up and covered with air conditioning ducts.

Panting, he stared around wildly, trying to remember how many rounds he had left. By his best estimate, it was perhaps five.

Lifting his weapon in a trembling hand he panned it across the scene. There was no sound of any of his companions now, all of them having fallen silent.

"Nick!" he whispered urgently, wondering if his best friend, the one who had sponsored him to the E88, was still standing somewhere. There was no answer. He tried again.

"He's the short guy with the scar on his cheek, right?" the voice said again, from right above him. He looked up to barely make out what looked horribly like the glint of large, pointy teeth a few feet over his head, the owner of those teeth, which he was strongly beginning to believe came from hell, hanging head down attached to the wall. All that was visible in the dim light was a dark shadow on the wall, but it was obvious it wasn't human.

Raising the gun he fired again, the flash showing a mouth with too much dentition in a head like a huge lizards one, its eyes black and shiny. He blinked as his eyes readjusted after the short burst of flame, then saw it was gone again.

"Why don't you just stop this and we can all get out of here?" the voice said, sounding like it was trying to be reasonable, now in a completely different place. He didn't believe it. The thing was obviously trying to tempt him.

That's what they did.

After a few seconds, he slowly tried edging in the direction of the exit as shown by the signs. Nothing happened, so he kept working his way in that direction. His heart was going like mad, he felt faint, and he was deeply regretting his current career choice. _No_ amount of getting to beat up blacks and chinks made up for being hunted by a demon. He'd leave that to crazy people like Hookwolf, who'd probably enjoy it and actually stand a chance.

Nearly at the exit, Martin stopped, knowing damn well from the movies that this was the most dangerous point. If it was going to jump him, it would do it… right... _now_.

He spun and fired three shots, then listened.

Nothing.

Allowing himself to relax a small amount, he turned around again, then opened his mouth, only a faint hiss coming out as his eyes bulged. The horrific thing standing there mere feet away tipped its head to the side inquisitively, looking weirdly puzzled. "Are you all right?" it asked, "only your heartbeat is really fast."

" _DEMON!_ " he screamed in a shrill voice, firing the last of what turned out to be two shots into its face then throwing the gun at it, which it caught without any apparent effort, before throwing himself past it and out the door onto the street while it was distracted.

The half dozen police officers and the two young capes standing there staring at him came as a profound relief. He hid behind Clockblocker, shivering. "It was all around us. Nowhere to hide. It got Nick, and James, and Alicia, and Jason..." Trailing off he stopped gibbering, holding his hands out, wrists together. "Please arrest me and take me somewhere safe."

A couple of the cops looked at each other, then obliged. The click of the handcuffs locking around his wrists was the most beautiful sound he'd ever heard. "We should get out of here before it comes out," he added, twitching his head around in an attempt to look into every possibly hiding place. "They're sneaky. It could be anywhere."

Spotting a movement to the side, he spun wildly around. "There! Over there! Shoot it!"

Almost everyone jumped wildly despite themselves and looked.

"What's he shouting about this time?" the voice said from his other side. Very slowly he looked around, to see the armored, scaly horror standing next to Kid Win, who seemed to be ignoring the fate he was risking. The Ward shrugged.

"No idea."

"Weird. He was all jumpy in the store too. Maybe he needs some sort of psychological help?"

"Maybe," Clockblocker replied, his shoulders twitching for some reason. His voice sounded strained. "You need to be a bit odd to join the E88 in my opinion anyway."

Both the monster and the other Ward nodded slowly, then all three turned around and walked away. "I want some more eggs." The voice floated back to him as he shivered, wishing he had dry underwear.

"Oh, god, it's breeding," he whispered.

The policeman who had put the cuffs on him put his hand on his shoulder, gently urging him towards the back of the nearest police car which was waiting with an invitingly open back door.

Martin got in gratefully and closed the door himself, settling back for a trip to the nice safe police station and resolving to join the priesthood when he got out. Maybe then he'd be safe.

Unless it bred.

* * *

Taylor sat on the low wall surrounding the small park a few blocks from the crime scene, the leafless limbs of the trees and the limp brown grass giving a rather depressed look to the place, watching Clockblocker roll around laughing himself sick. She popped another egg into her mouth, exchanging a glance and a raised eyebrow with Kid Win, who was sitting next to her with his hoverboard leaning on the wall next to him. Well, eye ridge in her case, but it was the same effect.

"Is he always like this?" she asked, removing the top from a bottle of water and taking a drink.

Kid Win shrugged a little. "He's got a strange sense of humor and sometimes it gets away from him," he admitted. "It wasn't _that_ funny."

"You… him… eggs..." Clockblocker gasped for air. "All around..." He shook his head helplessly, lifting it to peer at the two others who were looking down at him, then roaring with laughter again.

"Ignore him, we normally do. Vista or Gallant will slap him, the rest of us just get on with other things," Kid Win advised with a sigh. He turned to Taylor. "That was impressive in a sort of horror movie way, I have to admit. Were you _trying_ to terrify them?"

"Only a little," she said, eating her last egg and crumpling up the box. "They seemed to over-react a lot, though. It was a bit strange." It really was, she'd just gone after them one at a time, the remaining ones getting more and more worked up. Perhaps hunting them down in the dark was too much? It was pretty efficient, but if it had that much effect she needed to tone it down a little before someone fell over from a heart attack due to the excitement.

"I got five of them with a sleeper hold immediately before they knew I was there, then they started shooting. I had to go after the guns, then, before they hit each other. That last but one guy was firing all over the place, I had to smack him with my tail to put him down before he hit that friend of his."

Kid Win looked at the appendage that was curled across her feet. "Don't you get cold with bare feet and exposed skin like that? Or scales, I mean. It's only a little above freezing right now."

"Not really. I'm not cold blooded or really a reptile, I'm… something else." She didn't want to go into details but he seemed genuinely concerned and interested.

"It was cool to see, though," he replied after a thoughtful nod. "Have you had a lot of training in hand to hand combat?"

"Sort of, yes. Also sword use, single and dual, some war hammer sort of thing, and I'm experimenting with how those work when I substitute a baton for a sword. I don't want to kill anyone and I'm strong enough to cut a normal person in half with one swing of a bat never mind a blade." She glanced at him, then went back to watching Clockblocker, who was wheezing a little as he managed to pull himself together enough to sit near them on the wall.

"Gallant said you told them that you could lift a couple of tons, so I can believe that," the Tinker noted.

"I tested myself, I can dead lift nearly five thousand pounds, although that was the limit mainly because it was the biggest weight available at the time," she commented, sipping her drink as he gaped a little. She didn't mention that in her Saurial form the limit was noticeably higher than her base form, although she hadn't bothered to find out how much yet.

"Holy crap, that's impressive." He sounded amazed. "That's more than Glory Girl can lift as far as I know and she's way up there in Brute ratings." After a moment, he added, "Are you going to register with the PRT? Or come in for official power testing?"

"I haven't decided yet on the first one, and no, at the moment I have no plans for the second one." Finishing her drink Taylor put the cap on the bottle and tossed it towards a nearby public garbage receptacle, smiling when it actually went in, bouncing off the rim and falling inside.

"Fought any capes yet?" Clockblocker asked from her other side, having finally recovered, although his voice was hoarse. She shook her head.

"No, it hasn't come up. This is the third time I've grabbed some idiots with guns, though. Last night I got some ABB and merchants who were shooting up the docks, then of course there were those E88 guys in the warehouse the night that I met your friends. That was my first time."

"In this city you're bound to sooner or later," Kid Win commented. She shrugged.

"Probably but I'm not looking for trouble. Enough of it seems to find me to keep me busy. Every time I've gone out something has happened."

"Par for the course," he smiled. "Hey, can I have a copy of that footage? Both the prank and the store action."

"Sure." Looking at him for a moment, Taylor added, "You're a Tinker, do you have some sort of device to read the memory card right now?"

"I do," he told her, peering at the camera. "Standard USB port, right?"

"Yep." Reaching up she caught the camera as the Varga, who had been laughing nearly as much as Clockblocker but had finally stopped snickering, dissolved the straps. "Here you go. There's nothing on it but those two files."

Taking it from him he popped open a port on his left gauntlet, pulling a cable out, then plugged it into her camera. A few seconds later he unplugged it and handed it back. "Thanks, Saurial."

"No problem." She smiled at him as she reattached the device.

"Is that another use of your matter control power?" he asked curiously, watching the process with interest, as was Clockblocker. She nodded, as there was no harm in telling them.

"Yes, it's really useful, actually."

"I can believe that."

"I have to ask, why the sunglasses at night?" Clockblocker put in, making her turn her head and look at him. "Not that they don't look cool, mind. Are your eyes too sensitive to light or something like that?"

"No, it's mainly so that people don't freak out any more than they already do," she replied, reaching up and removing them. He stared at her glowing orangeish slit-pupilled eyes for several seconds, then nodded slowly.

"No offense, but I can understand why they might."

She smirked, putting them back on. "I can't see it myself, I think my eyes are pretty."

He froze, then tentatively nodded again when she looked quizzically at him. "Um, yes, so do I, I guess." Once more she smiled which seemed to make him relax, Taylor finding the whole thing sort of amusing.

Pulling out her phone she looked at the time display on it, then put it away and stood up. "Sorry, I need to go. It was interesting meeting you two. Only Aegis and Shadow Stalker left and I'll have the complete set."

She noticed the way Kid Win glanced at Clockblocker, who looked back. "Shadow Stalker isn't currently available, but I'm sure you'll see Aegis soon." Clockblocker was still sounding a little breathless.

"Fair enough. Anyway, see you guys around. Bye." She tossed the crumpled up egg carton away after the bottle, then headed for the building across the street, rapidly climbing up the front of it. At the top she waved down at them, receiving a wave back from Kid Win, then started running, heading towards the docks where she'd change.

" _That was somewhat intriguing,_ " the Varga commented slowly as she bounded from roof to roof.

' _Wasn't it?_ ' Her mental voice was flat. ' _I'm guessing that Aegis is that Carlos guy_.' She'd immediately recognized the scents of the red-headed Dennis and his friend Chris from Arcadia, who had been sitting at the table with Dean, who she knew was Gallant. And who knew what her human form looked like.

" _It seems very likely. A group of people like that would in all likelihood spend time together off duty, and the chances of there being four male Wards, three of those being the ones we have identified so far, without the fourth one being the other person at that table, seem remote. Although not impossible_." Her companion sounded thoughtful.

' _True, but I'm nearly certain that both of them smelled faintly of Carlos. I didn't really get close enough to him at Arcadia to be sure, but I will sooner or later, assuming I don't meet him as Aegis_.' She flung herself across a street, catching the taller building on the other side with all four limbs and rushing up and over it.

' _Of course, the elephant in the room is that both those guys also had a very faint hint of eau de Hess, as well. That's four so far, all Wards. I'm beginning to get an idea of what's going on and I'm not sure I like it_ ,' she continued after a minute or so.

There was no response from the demon, but she could feel he felt the same way. Deciding she needed more information, which would come along in due time, she kept moving, enjoying the action and the speed. Once again she'd enjoyed meeting these members of the Wards, and was impressed by Clockblocker's ability to take what was actually a slightly mean joke, something she felt a little guilty about even now. But she'd wanted to see what happened afterwards.

It had been screamingly funny, though, although she had no intention of posting the video online. That would be too much. If Kid Win did it, it was on him.

The Tinker had obviously been fishing for information, which she'd given him in full knowledge that it would almost certainly end up in the dossier that the PRT was undoubtedly building on her cape persona. It would be an obvious thing to do with any cape, so she assumed they probably had threat assessments for more or less all of them, which weren't made public. It's what she'd have done in the same place.

It was quite nice that they hadn't pushed the idea of the Wards again, and wondered it that was deliberate, or just due to those guys not being particularly interested in the subject. When she'd recognized Sophia's scent on them, although the back of her mind was half expecting it, she'd become quite irritated again, although not as angry as she had with Gallant and Vista. It proved much easier this time to keep it from affecting her, though, which was something she was pleased about. She didn't like being driven by anger, she had far too much of it buried deep inside after two years of torture to be happy about it, even with the intervention of the Varga.

He was slowly helping her come to terms with it and get rid of it, and one day she was sure she'd be over the whole thing, but right now she wasn't and didn't want to risk letting herself stew over the sorry events of the recent past. They were done and over and best left where they were in her opinion.

That said, she sort of owed the Three Bitches thanks in a strange, perverted manner. Without them, she'd never have reconnected with her father, she suspected, or at least not to the level she had, she'd never have ended up with the Varga, and she probably wouldn't have the self control she was learning. Or the ability to do… _this!_

The small number of people on the street fifty feet below looked up at the cry of " _WheeeHooo!_ " that echoed around the place, wondering what caused it, and a couple of them were quick enough to see a form flip twice as it cleared the sixty foot gap, before disappearing over the rooftops, a long tail flying out behind it.

* * *

When he was sure that Saurial was probably far enough away that she was out of any vaguely sensible auditory range, and adding a significant safety margin, Dennis relaxed slowly. "Jesus Christ," he muttered. "That girl is _terrifying_."

Kid Win nodded soberly. "I really don't think she means to be," he replied. "She has a… slightly different outlook than the rest of us in some ways. She seems nice, though. In a sort of ' _don't for god's sake fuck with her_ ' way, I mean." He glanced at his friend with a small smirk. "Going to try to get back at her for that prank? Which was fucking hysterical, by the way."

"Not a chance. She's probably laugh it off, true enough, but… I wouldn't want to risk it if she _didn't_ , not until I know her a _lot_ better. I can't help thinking that trying to push her would be… not good."

"That's what Gallant said," Kid Win noted. "He's usually right about that sort of thing."

Clockblocker shivered. "I noticed you didn't ask her about her supermetal that Armsie's so interested in."

The Tinker shook his head. "Like you said, and he did as well, I think it's best to wait until we know her better."

"True."

They sat in silence for a moment, then both stood up. "It was a damn good prank, though," the red head chuckled, not at all annoyed about it. He appreciated the work of a master when he saw it, even if it was at his expense, once the initial fright had passed. He _really_ wanted to see her do it to Assault.

"You went higher pitched than Vista when she's excited," Chris snickered, gliding alongside him on his board.

"No, I didn't."

"Trust me, you did."

"Can't be true. We should test it. You record it, I'll show her something cute."

"Idiot."

They headed on the rest of their route, playfully griping at each other.

* * *

Miss Militia watched the playback of the store robbery that Saurial had so efficiently and unnervingly shut down with an intent look. Beside her, Armsmaster, his helmet off, was also watching. He seemed impressed, slightly.

"Shit," Aegis said with a twitch at the first person view of a movie monster hunting down humans in a dark room. The muzzle flashes periodically lit the place like camera strobes, showing screaming people fleeing in all directions, while the camera panned about, then shot towards one of them, rotating through a complete barrel roll as the cape made use of the shelves and floor to run across. "Über and Leet only _wish_ they could pull something like this off."

A pair of scaled arms reached out, competently executing what she recognized as some form of martial arts sleeper hold, not one she was familiar with, but obviously effective, as the struggling man immediately slumped into unconsciousness. Saurial lowered him to the ground with surprising care, then put his hands behind his back, a set of the restraints she'd seen on Colin's monitor the other day forming with no fuss around his wrists, linking them immovably together. The Tinker leaned forward, clearly fascinated.

"That is… remarkable," he mumbled to himself.

They watched as Saurial plowed her way through a full dozen E88 gang members in minutes, without a single injury she could see, and no collateral damage directly caused. Quite a few things got knocked over but that was mainly due to the panicking men and women.

The second to last man was sent flying a remarkable distance by a flick of a strong tail, making her nod at the confirmation that she could weave that limb into what were definitely practiced hand to hand combat skills. She wondered where the cape had learned to fight like that, especially with her tail.

The last man was both very funny and rather horrifying, as he was apparently on the verge of a nervous breakdown. She couldn't find it in herself to have much sympathy, she recognized him as someone who had been responsible for more than his fair share of attacks on minorities, but she still found herself wincing as he fell apart.

When it was all over and the recording ended, the lizard girl having apparently stopped it as she exited the store behind the fleeing gang member, in no particular hurry, she turned in her chair and looked at the other Wards. Gallant had a sort of bemused, slightly stunned look on his face, mixed with a sort of worry that seemed odd to her, Vista was staring wide eyed, Clockblocker and Kid Win were exchanging glances, while Shadow Stalker, who had been allowed to view the video for informational purposes, was staring in what looked like horrified awe.

"Thoughts?" she asked.

"I'm never playing laser tag with her, that's for sure," Clockblocker immediately said, making her sigh just a little.

" _Useful_ thoughts?"

"She's extremely mobile, especially in a confined space," Aegis replied slowly. "Containing her would be an absolute nightmare without significant force. She's amazingly quick to react as well. Combined with her strength she'd be hell to fight."

"Even without weapons," Gallant added. "She only used her hands, feet, and tail the entire time."

"Very tough, none of the guns slowed her in the slightest," Vista mused. "She didn't even notice, really, although she went after the ones shooting first."

"Saurial said that was to stop stray rounds hurting the other suspects," Kid Win noted. "She seemed honestly worried about that possibility."

"Significant skill in some form of hand to hand combat I don't recognize, optimized for someone with a tail," Armsmaster put in after some thought. "Efficient, quick, designed for maximum damage with minimum effort. Something like Krav Maga but not. She was seriously limiting herself to avoid causing injuries."

"Saurial didn't seem particularly fussed about which way up she was, which suggested to me she doesn't suffer from vertigo or other things caused by hanging head down in normal people." Aegis looked fascinated now. "Her body is internally as different as it is externally."

"Her senses are much better than we thought, at least her vision is. That camera she uses has exceptionally good low light performance, but even so she could obviously see much better in the dark than it could," Kid Win said thoughtfully. "Even with her sunglasses on. She didn't hesitate even once that I saw, and it was nearly completely dark in there. After she turned the lights out herself, of course."

"She capitalized on her abilities to tilt the situation as much in her favor as she could to make it as quick as possible to bring to an end," Armsmaster commented, nodding a little. "Again, efficient and ruthless. Even the psychological warfare part of the operation was nicely judged. And effective."

"To be honest, what I saw suggests a cape who has been fighting for years, rather than days," Miss Militia remarked, leaning back in the chair and staring at the blank screen for a moment. "Which is odd. True, powers normally come with instinctive knowledge of their use but the sort of thing we saw mostly comes from experience in fighting."

She noticed that Clockblocker was sitting quietly, apparently thinking. "You have something worrying you, Clockblocker?"

He shook his head. "Not worrying, actually. More curious. The thing I find odd is that she genuinely doesn't seem to want to look for fights, I got the impression she was just as happy to let people get on with their lives and would appreciate the favor being returned. But at the same time she didn't like things being shot up and would step in to prevent it."

The boy paused for a moment, then added, "She also seems to get on surprisingly well with the cops. She was polite and respectful and they all were the same back. It's a little strange, some capes and cops really don't get on at all."

"Would you say she sees the world in black and white?" Miss Militia asked curiously. "Like it's us and them?"

"No." Everybody turned to Gallant who looked back. "Unless by ' _us_ ' you mean her family and anyone she feels she owes something. Oddly enough, I'm not entirely certain that would necessarily exclude villains. I think she tends to assess each situation and person she meets on their own merits, rather than applying a generic good guys and bad guys template to it." He sighed slightly. "Vicky has a tendency to do that sometimes so I recognize it when I see it. I don't see it with Saurial from the brief contact I had with her or what Kid and Clock have reported."

Nodding a little, the military cape made some notes. The profile she was building for Saurial was a little peculiar in cape terms. Oddly enough, it was making her less worried in some ways and more in others.

"We'll have to raise her Mover and Thinker ratings by some amount," Armsmaster noted, making her nod as she wrote.

"Definitely. That was in no way Mover 1 and Thinker 1," she muttered, thinking, then writing some more. "Brute rating is probably low as well but without more information we have no idea how much. I wish we could test her."

"I asked and she's still not interested," Kid Win said.

"All right, you tried. Thank you." She wrote for a few more seconds, then put the pen down.

"It would be useful to get confirmation of the idea that she's a Changer of some sort, but I suppose that's unlikely." Turning to Shadow Stalker, who had been silent the entire time, she said, "Do you have any observations, Shadow Stalker?"

The girl looked back at her blankly for several seconds, her expression impossible to read, then stood, picked up her mask, put it on, and left, not saying a word.

"Guess not," she muttered as everyone watched, then exchanged glances and shrugs. There was an uncomfortable silence for a moment.

"Want to see Clock scream like a girl?" the young tinker suddenly asked. He was grinning. She looked at him, then the named cape, who had a long-suffering look on his unmasked face.

"Yes. Yes I do," she smiled. Even Armsmaster seemed to have a tiny smile.

When the video of the reptilian girl's impromptu prank, seen both from her camera and Kid Win's side by side on the monitor, was finished, that little smile was just a tiny amount larger.

It gave her hope for the future, and made her wonder how she could maneuver Assault into the same situation…

* * *

Vicky sat up in bed, rubbing her eyes, and reached for her phone, which had just indicated somewhat rudely that it had a text she should read. Prodding the screen with an elegantly manicured finger, she opened the SMS application.

" _Apologize to Saurial soon. Seriously. D._ "

Staring at it for a moment, she put it back on her bedside table and lay down again, trying to go back to sleep. This proved difficult for some time.


	19. Advice and Suspicions

"Oh, for god's sake, Taylor, what the hell is that?"

Danny stared at his daughter, who grinned back. "Like it?" she asked, waving her tail around very carefully in the living room, the care required because it now was capped in a sort of metallic sheath with a two foot blade coming out the end. "I can hold a sword in each hand and use another one with my tail like this, kind of."

"You're going to cut your own damn head off waving that thing around," he grumbled. "Hey! Mind that chair, I like it."

She looked embarrassed, carefully pushing the cut fabric back into place. "Sorry, Dad."

"That's worse than the… what was it, Thagomizer," he muttered. She brightened, the metal fitting on the end of her tail vanishing and being replace with the mentioned upgrade. She looked over her shoulder, smiling a little as she moved the appendage around.

"I don't know, I still like it," she replied, looking back at him.

Turning, she caught the thing at the end of her tail under the sofa, promptly tripped over her own body, to finally end up almost upside down with her father in fits of laughter. She looked up at him, embarrassed. "But perhaps I should stick to using it outside," she added with a rueful grin.

Climbing to her feet she made all the accessories go away, then shook her head. "Hey, shut up, it wasn't that funny," she complained. Danny raised an eyebrow. "The voice in my head is laughing like an idiot," she explained in an aggrieved mutter, which promptly set him off again.

"I don't really think you need more weapons sticking out from strange places, dear," he said as she sat down across from him and draped her tail across her knees, fiddling with the end of it while watching him with a smile. "As Saurial you're already terrifying, as whatever you end up calling your combat form you're horrifying, and as whatever can push supertankers around I simply don't have the words. Even like this you can be somewhat scary." He waved a hand at her human base form, currently wearing nice pants and a blouse. "Although I do like the way you're wearing brighter colors these days. It suits you."

"Thanks, Dad," she smiled back, looking relaxed. "I'm… a lot more comfortable with myself these days," she explained, frowning slightly in concentration as she looked for the words. "Ever since the Varga turned up, I've been happier. Mostly a lot happier. Both about him and about you. You've changed as well, you're Dad, not the sort of sad man who seemed to be turning up more and more often." Looking at him with a hint of a tear in her eyes, she smiled. "I liked him even so, but I'm glad I have my Dad back."

He studied her, then moved across the room to side beside her, putting his arm over her shoulder and pulling her tight to his side. Her tail lay across both their laps, the warm finely scaled weight oddly comforting to him now. He was used to it to the point she'd look odd without it, he mused, with a smile and a shake of his head. Patting it comfortingly, he replied, "I'm glad to be back, and profoundly grateful to have my daughter back as well. She means everything to me. Tail and all."

Looking at the thing, she twitched the end. "You don't think it makes me look ugly?"

Turning her head with a finger to look at him, he shook his head, peering into her eyes. "You're my only daughter. I don't care what you look like, only what you are. Which, aside from terrifying, or horrifying, or indescribable, or just scary, is Taylor."

"Thanks, Dad," she replied in a small voice after some time, leaning against him.

"Your friend the Varga saved both of us," he added after a moment. "Thank you for that as well, whatever the hell you really are."

"He says you're welcome and also a good man who makes his enemies flee in terror before him, as a warrior should," she reported with a grin a moment later. He snickered.

"I think that's a good thing."

"Oh, it is, yes."

Falling into a pleasant silence, they sat beside each other for a while.

"I miss Mom," she finally said.

"I know, dear, so do I."

"Would she like my tail?"

"Of course she would. She'd probably want you to put a bow on the end on holidays, though."

Giggling, Taylor looked very amused. "I can do that."

"Don't feel pressured," he grinned.

"The funny thing is, now, that I wouldn't care if anyone saw it, except for two things," she continued thoughtfully, still inspecting her tail as if she'd never seen it before. Reaching out she ran her hand down it a few times. "One is that I'd never get any peace at home. I _like_ being Saurial, she has confidence and people respect her. Or run away. Which is sort of funny. But I also like being _Taylor_ , and I don't know if that could continue if everyone saw this thing."

"It might," he mused out loud. "Stranger things walk the streets."

"Yes, most of them are me," she giggled, making him grin again.

"I suppose that's true. Or ply the ocean waves, terrifying fishermen."

"Hey, he didn't even see me," she protested, smiling.

Danny shrugged, not replying for a moment. "What's the other thing?"

"I'm absolutely terrified what would happen to you," she said in a low voice. "Just by existing I'll make enemies. When people find out what I'm really capable of, they're going to go nuts. I'm scared to really push my limits because of that. I couldn't handle it if anything happened to you because of me. Mom was bad enough."

Holding her tighter, he shook his head. "That wasn't your fault. It was an accident."

"But what if someone tried something? Sure, I'd kill them and make sure no one _ever_ forgot why, but it wouldn't bring you back. I'm not going to let that happen." She glared unseeingly at the coffee table as if she wanted to stab it, the last six inches of her tail lashing back and forth. He was amused by how like a cat's tail it was sometimes at showing her mood, at the same time he was worried about the direction the conversation had taken. Grabbing it he held it still, making her jump.

"I'll be fine, Taylor. Even so, I won't last forever. No one does." She was young to be pondering mortality, but sooner or later everyone had these thoughts. He remembered well the time in his youth, somewhat older than her, when he'd realized consciously for the first time that one day his mother and father would both be gone. Sixteen years after that had eventually happened due to cancer in one case and a heart attack in the other, it was still an ache in his soul that would never entirely heal.

"I know, I guess," she sighed sadly. "But I don't like to think about that and I don't want it to be because of me."

Gently stroking her tail, he calmed her. "We have to accept what comes, sooner or later, dear. Remember the old prayer. ' _Grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference._ ' They were both silent for a while, reflecting on the words. "Good advice, I think, even for the non-religious. You have many more options for the middle part than most people. You need to work on the other two parts."

Patting her head, he lifted her tail out of the way and stood up. "I have no plans to go anywhere for some considerable time, dear, don't worry. I'm not even forty-five yet. And if anything does happen, I know who to call for backup." Smiling gently at her, he watched her nod. "I'm going to bed. Don't stay up too long, you need your sleep."

"OK, Dad," she replied, staring at the photo of the three of them in happier times which was sitting on the windowsill where she'd put it after digging it out of the attic a week earlier. He turned to leave.

"Thanks, Dad," she said quietly.

"You're more than welcome, dear. Trust me."

With that he headed upstairs, smiling to himself, remarkably at peace with the world.

* * *

" _He is in many ways a wise man, your father, Brain. We will protect him, trust me_." The Varga spoke quietly, some minutes after her father had left the room.

' _I do_ ,' Taylor sighed, then headed up to bed herself, hearing her father breathing slowly and steadily in his room. ' _There are only two people I really trust and I'll take advice from both of them any time. Thanks for all the help_.'

" _Thanks are unnecessary, Brain,_ " the Varga rumbled contentedly as she got into bed. " _Appreciated, of course, but unnecessary. I am merely doing what I do. The fact that I enjoy it so much is a bonus. You are a very good Brain and a lot of fun._ "

At the back of her mind she got the impression of a vast reptilian smile, echoed it with her own far smaller one, then fell asleep.

* * *

 **Sunday, January 30, 2011  
**  
Stretching all five limbs as hard as she could, Taylor yawned, licked her lips sleepily, then climbed out of bed. Walking to the window, she peered out, seeing it was the beginnings of what looked like a very nice late winter day, the sun rising over the bay into a clear sky with no clouds. She could just make out the glint of light on waves through some gaps in the houses if she positioned herself correctly, the sea three or so miles away looking calm.

Wondering if she should go for another swim, she headed for the shower, her head slowly clearing of sleep. Not really paying any attention to the way her clothes vanished as she stepped into the cubicle, so used to it as she now was, she turned the water on. She didn't bother with fiddling with the temperature, whatever came out of the showerhead was fine these days, which was actually pretty convenient. It made showering a lot faster than waiting for the old boiler to decide that yes, it really was expected to provide hot water yet again. Some days it took quite a lot of convincing.

Deciding that was one of the upgrades that was required to the house, she soaped herself including her tail, running her hands down the scaly muscular thing leaving foam behind, then scrubbed. Over the sound of the shower she could hear her father moving around downstairs, the CD he'd bought a while ago playing again softly in the living room. They'd both decided for different reasons it was one of their favorite arrangements of music, her father because of the memories it brought back and she due to the effect it had on him.

Rinsing off she hopped out, toweled off, then brushed her teeth and hair. Walking to the door, clothing formed again, without any fuss. Soon she was entering the kitchen, smiling.

"You're in a good mood today," Danny noted, glancing at her, then going back to mixing pancake batter.

"I am," she nodded happily. "I feel a lot better than I did last night. Thanks for the talk. It just sort of hit me, and I didn't know how to handle it."

"I'm glad I helped," he replied, turning the stove on. "I had a very similar conversation with my own mother after Dad died years back. It was quite sudden, although we had some warning at least. Admittedly there were less demons involved but it wasn't entirely different as far as the feelings went." He looked at her again, smiling. "Life goes on."

"Apparently," she laughed.

"What are you planning to do today?" he asked, as he poured the first dollop of batter into the oiled, hot pan.

"I'm not sure, actually," she replied consideringly. "I could go out and find some more idiots with guns, we seem to have a lot of them, but..." She shrugged. "They're not much of a challenge."

"Based on that horrifying video you showed me last night when you came home, I can see why not," he chuckled. "I never thought I'd feel sorry for a Nazi."

"He was a gun-happy racist," Taylor protested mildly. "Who'd just wrecked a store by driving a huge truck into it. I'll bet the owners of that place would have laughed like lunatics to see him in that state."

"Probably," he admitted, flipping another pancake onto a pile of them on a plate. "I have to say it was better than most of what Über and Leet manage to do. It looked remarkably like a somewhat excessive video game."

Giggling, she accepted the first plate of pancakes, putting some lemon juice and maple syrup on it along with some butter, then diving hungrily in. Through a mouthful of sweet pancake, she commented, "Maybe I should see if they want a big lizard in one of their productions," then licked syrup off her lips. A dribble ran down her chin, so she lengthened her tongue into a forked reptilian one and chased it. Danny stared, his spatula in a raised hand, then shook his head wordlessly and went back to making his own breakfast.

"You probably shouldn't get involved in criminal enterprises, dear," he smiled. "Even Über and Leet. They're decent men for criminals, but they're still technically criminals."

Surprised, she stared at him. "Do you know them?"

Glancing back he smirked a little. "We've met, yes. Maybe two years ago. We had a merchant problem and hired them to deal with it. None of the heroes were interested. To be honest, they actually did a pretty good job, scared the junkies off without causing too much damage and didn't charge too much for it. Pity they didn't go into the security business rather than the video-game themed villainy business, but there you go."

Bringing his own pancakes to the table having turned off the stove, he sat and poured himself some apple juice from the pitcher on the table, topping up her glass at the same time.

She kept looking at him for a moment, then shook her head and went back to eating. "I thought I knew what you got up to at that dockworker place but obviously I was wrong," she grinned.

He shrugged. "Needs must, dear. We've learned to be fairly pragmatic, it's the only way to make ends meet sometimes." They ate in silence for a while, then he spoke again.

"I've made a list of people with whom I'm going to raise, carefully, the idea you had. A few people at the yard, a lawyer I know who's an expert on marine salvage, a couple of engineers, and the Mayor."

"The Mayor?" she asked, a little surprised.

He nodded. "Mayor Christner is actually a fairly sensible person, considering he's a politician. By and large I think he wants to do the right thing. Money is tight, so it's always difficult to persuade him to do anything at all that will cost, but in this case, the benefits probably hugely outweigh the downsides. He'll most likely go for it with a bit of persuasion and some sort of explanation that sounds… at least plausible. I think the complete truth is probably a little much at this point though."

Taylor listened, nodding to herself. It sounded like he know what to do, and she trusted him. "OK. If you need anything from me just let me know and I'll do it."

"Thank you, Taylor. It will take some time in all likelihood so don't get impatient, but I think it stands a chance of working out."

"What about the ferry?" she asked curiously. He put his fork down and took another sip before replying, looking thoughtfully at her.

"If the salvage operation can actually work, that would not only clear the ground for reopening the ferry, but probably provide the money to actually do it. That's one of the things I want to talk to him about. I'll call his office tomorrow and see if I can arrange a meeting soon."

"OK. That sounds great."

"Are you prepared for Arcadia tomorrow?"

She nodded. "I've got fresh pens, pencils, notebooks, and erasers. Also my calculator assuming I'm allowed to use it. I think they'll have a list of textbooks I need as well, I know they have a small shop you can buy them from although Mandy said they give you most of the ones you need."

"All right. That sounds like you have things in hand. Very good."

Since by this point they'd both finished, she took his plate and hers to the sink, then got everything else, quickly starting to wash it since it was her turn. "Do you think anyone would mind if I went down to the dockyards today to practice sword work?" she asked suddenly. He looked over at her from the notebook he was looking through, as she glanced over her shoulder, a surprised expression on his face.

"I… don't think that would be a problem. There's no one there today. What sort of thing did you have in mind?"

"I was going to have Varga make some dummies that I could attack, but I need space for it. If I go and find a place in the main dock area I'm pretty sure some twit will wander along and get in the way, the place is crawling with merchants and sometimes either the ABB or E88. They'd just be a nuisance. I thought that inside the DWU fence would be better."

He was nodding thoughtfully. "If anyone did ask, I could say I'd called the head of the DWU and asked permission, because he's a nice man or so I've heard on the street." She grinned at him.

Laughing a little, he replied, "I'm not actually the _head_ of the DWU, Taylor. Michael is."

"No one ever sees him, you said. I know that all the people there think you're the guy to go to. Saurial is just a sensible cape who asked permission to use a large empty area and found out the person to ask."

"She does seem to have a reputation for sanity unusual in capes, from what I hear," he snickered. "Most of them seem to wander around just doing whatever the hell they feel like."

"Most capes are nuts," she sighed. "Even the nice ones."

"You may be right, dear. OK, you can use the yard, I'll write you a letter of permission. If anyone asks you called me at home. In fact, actually call here with your burner phone from somewhere else to make the records match. Hopefully that will keep people happy and in the dark."

"Best place," she quipped with a smirk.

Finishing with the dishes, Taylor put everything on the rack to dry for the moment, then turned around and leaned on the sink, watching him. After a moment, she slowly said, with some worry about the reaction, "Dad? Can I tell you something? But I need you to promise you won't get mad first."

Once again, he looked up from his notes, taking in her expression. "Is it bad?"

"It's… not good."

"Is it your fault?"

"No. At least..." She thought, then shook her head. "No, it's not."

"Hmm." Staring at her he took off his glasses and rubbed his eyes. "Is it a one coffee or two coffee problem?"

"Probably three?" She smiled as he sighed.

"OK. Let me put the kettle on, and I'll meet you in the living room."

"Promise you won't get mad?"

"I promise I'll try not to. That's the best I can do until I hear it."

After a moment, she sighed and nodded a little. "That will do."

Shortly they were sitting in their places in the living room. Taylor had her laptop with her, which she put on the coffee table.

"I think I've worked out something… worrying," she said a little haltingly, still not sure this was a good idea. She and the Varga had talked it out extensively and they were both more or less certain she was right, but neither of them was entirely sure about the wisdom of telling her father. The Varga was actually more in favor of it than she was, having formed a high opinion of him over the last month. She was just nervous, and didn't want to upset him, but accepted that the demon had a point. Neither did she want to keep secrets from him any more, that had nearly been a disaster the last time for both of them.

Taking a drink of coffee, then another one to be safe, he put the cup down and waited.

She swallowed hard. Maybe it was best just to say it.

"I think Sophia Hess is a Ward."

No. No, that wasn't the best way, it turned out.

Taylor watched in some alarm the odd color sequence her father's face followed, ending up a faint puce shade before it faded to a more normal appearance.

"A Ward." His voice was completely expressionless, unlike his expression.

She nodded.

"Sophia Hess."

She nodded again.

"Your little friend. The extremely aggressive one who locked you in your locker for over half a day with enough hazardous waste to choke Behemoth. _That_ Sophia Hess."

She nodded again.

There was a long, uncomfortable silence.

"I see. Do you have any proof?" He was breathing slowly and steadily through his nose with a faint whistling sound, making her wince. She could see the veins pulsing under his skin in thermal vision and normal, while there was a scent that she noted down as ' _Extremely angry Danny Hebert_ ' filling the room.

"Proof, no. A lot of pretty solid circumstantial evidence, yes, I think so."

"I see," he said again, his voice tight. She was wondering if she could get a do-over and try again, break it to him more slowly.

Eventually her father slowly and with obvious, enormous, deliberate effort somehow forced himself to relax, which greatly impressed her. Even the Varga, who had been watching with interest and concern, murmured a few words noting the same thing.

"All right. I can't say I'm particularly happy about that, but… all right. Show me what you have."

He took a couple of deep breaths, then leaned forward, looking at the laptop she opened and swiveled around on the table to face him. "OK. Thanks for not running out to scream at the PRT, by the way," she smiled.

"I'm not ruling it out just yet," he replied with a frown, staring at the screen.

She nodded a little. "This is a picture of the six current wards from off the PRT website," she explained after a moment, tapping the space bar to zoom it to full screen. He leaned closer, inspecting it. Reaching over the screen from behind, leaning sideways a little to see it, she tapped each figure with her finger in turn. "Gallant. Aegis, the leader at the moment. Clockblocker. Kid Win. Shadow Stalker. And at the end, Vista."

He nodded thoughtfully.

"I've met all of them but Aegis and Shadow Stalker so far. Gallant and Vista last week on my first night out, Kid Win and Clockblocker last night."

Once again he nodded, smiling momentarily as she mentioned the latter two, having laughed until he cried at her footage of the time stopping cape nearly jumping off the roof in shock.

"You remember how good my senses are now? In human form they're nowhere near as good as even the Saurial form, the combat one is better, and apparently the full Varga one is best of all, but even now I can see, hear, and smell wildly better than a normal person can. If I change my eyes I can do much better than that, even." She looked at him with orange-yellow reptilian eyes, which he simply looked at, showing no surprise.

"I understand. It's very impressive, dear. Go on."

"OK." She looked at the picture on the laptop again for a second or two. "I can easily recognize people by scent. I only need to meet them once, then I can pick them out again with no problem, even a long way away if they're upwind. Saurial or the combat form could track someone across the city better than a bloodhound. That's point one."

He responded with a thoughtful look and a nod.

"It's public knowledge that at least some of the Wards attend Arcadia," she added slowly. His eyes widened, narrowed, then widened again.

"Ah."

"Exactly. I met three of them there definitely, and I'm pretty sure of a fourth one." She sighed a little. "You remember what I told you about what they call the Unwritten Rules?"

Smiling for a moment, he replied, "Rules of engagement for capes, basically. On the face of it not a terrible idea."

"Yep. Most of them, I think, take them pretty seriously. It's a big deal to out a cape. I'm not going to say anything about who they are to anyone, even you, because..." She shrugged a little. "Well, because I really don't want anyone doing the same thing to me and they deserve the same respect."

"All right, I understand and approve. I won't ask. Go on." He leaned back in his chair, tapping one finger on the chair arm, listening intently, now seeming more curious than furious.

"When I met Gallant and Vista, I didn't know who they were, but I noticed a really faint and not totally fresh, but not old either, smell on both of them that was vaguely familiar. It took a while to place it, because it was so faint and also because it was so unexpected. When I _did_ work it out I got really, really angry for a moment, but I managed to push that down so I didn't do or say anything stupid. Like you just did."

"Sophia," he said. She nodded, scowling.

"Yes. The scent was so faint it's probably something that's been transferred from something that she touched, or sat on, that they then did the same thing to. It could have been a coincidence, of course. Maybe they sat next to her on a bus, or in the same chair at the library..." She shrugged. "Lots of possible sources. It worried me a little and the reminder of that bitch was a shock, but it could easily have been a coincidence."

"I assume that Clockblocker and Kid Win share that scent, from your expression, though," he slowly said, the tapping finger slowing down.

Taylor nodded again, with a small sigh. "Yes. Exactly the same thing, and it's fresher than Gallant and Vista. It isn't that all four of them bumped into her on the street at the same time, there are at least two encounters a week apart. Which seems unlikely unless they know her somehow. One I could believe was a complete coincidence, two would be a stretch, but four?"

"It doesn't seem likely, dear, no," he agreed, staring at the screen.

"I'm almost certain that the fourth one I met at Arcadia is Aegis, I think I could smell traces of him on Clockblocker and Kid Win, but I'm not sure yet. But I'm pretty sure that when I see him again, he's going to smell like Sophia as well."

She sighed a little. "Add to that the fact that Clockblocker told me Shadow Stalker is currently unavailable, as he put it, and when I looked it up on PHO last night, no one has reported seeing her since about a week after you went to Winslow..." She spread her hands widely, the end of her tail flicking irritably. "I know it's nothing that would stand up in court, and I'm not sure myself, but I can't see a huge hole in the logic. I think Sophia Hess is Shadow Stalker and that she's… what's the word… confined to quarters, somewhere that the rest of the Wards go regularly. Probably the Rig, I'd guess."

Danny was silent, studying her with a look of slightly absent calculation.

"And look at this." She pointed at the picture again. "Six teenagers, but only two are female. Vista is blonde and much too short to be Sophia, not to mention probably about two or three years too young. The only one left is Shadow Stalker. She's the right height, right build, right age… You can't see her skin or hair color in her costume and no one seems to know if she's white, black, green even. But she's got a reputation as being arrogant, cocky, aggressive, pushy… Does that remind you of anyone?"

"It does," he noted, grinding his teeth together.

"I found a video clip of her stomping towards some poor guy she'd pinned to the wall with a crossbow bolt through his clothing, and..." Quickly bringing up the clip in question, she played it, Danny leaning forward again to watch. "…That walk is just like the one I remember. Like on the recording we made," she continued. "Again, not proof, but it's another point in favor of my theory."

Danny took his glasses off and rubbed his eyes, swearing under his breath. "It fits, unfortunately. I agree, you don't have any real proof, but I believe what you can do and it seems a reasonable interpretation of your evidence." He sighed angrily, then put his glasses back on and inspected her.

"What do you want to do about it?"

"Nothing."

He seemed somewhat startled.

"Nothing?"

"There's nothing I _can_ do about it, without revealing that not only do I know who Sophia is, but I probably also know who all the Wards are, and could easily work out who any cape I meet is in real life." Taylor sighed, rubbing her own eyes for a moment. "That wouldn't go down very well. It's another potential reason for the PRT to get all flustered about me. They'll probably work it out sooner or later anyway but hopefully by the time they do they'll know me well enough to realize I'm not a threat."

She smirked a little for a moment, showing very pointy teeth in a display that shouldn't fit in a human mouth. "Unless they make me one, of course."

Danny grinned, his teeth nowhere near as sharp, but the feeling much the same.

"That's a mature attitude, Taylor, and I'm proud. Just a little surprised. I have to admit, at your age if I'd gone through what you did then found all this out I think I might have reacted, well, ' _badly_ ' is a mild word. Even today I'd probably do something I might regret later. I'm still tempted, to be honest."

Taylor closed the lid of the laptop, then leaned back on the sofa. "I nearly did. I could so easily have ended up hating them all for it. But it's like you said last night, basically I need to pick battles I can win." She smirked again. "That's probably a lot of them, actually, but you get the idea. There's no reason right now to go and pick the Rig up and drop-kick it into the Atlantic."

He laughed, shaking his head. "I wonder how far it would go?"

"Pretty far."

Sharing an amused look, they fell silent for a little while. "Of course, if they let her go without punishing her, and she comes after me, I'm going to hurt her. A lot." Taylor looked reflectively out the window while Danny watched. "If she goes after you, I'll kill her. Eventually."

She turned to him with a small vicious smile. "Varga has all sorts of ideas about that."

Shuddering a little despite himself, Danny moved to sit beside her as was becoming a habit, so she could lean on him. "I mean it, Dad. If she hurts you, she dies. No one will ever find the body."

"Hopefully it will never come to that, dear," he told her, impressed, very slightly amused, and believing every word.

A few minutes passed, then she stirred. "There's one other thing."

"Oh, god," he sighed. "Why am I not surprised?"

"You know me, Dad," she grinned. The grin slipped after a second or two. "I know who Gallant is. The problem is, he knows who I am too. Or rather, who Saurial is. I don't know if he knows about Taylor."

"How the hell did that happen?" Danny asked after a moment.

She sighed minutely, shrugging. "He can apparently read emotional output, an empathic sense. I think either mine is distinctive enough to remember, or it's like scents with me, he can just track them individually. Probably that, in fact. Anyway, as I was walking past, I smelled someone I knew, looked over, and he was staring at me like he'd seen a ghost. He actually paled. I sort of glared at him for a second then kept walking. But he knows, and I know, and he knows I know."

"Do you think he'll tell anyone?"

She shook her head. "Probably not. He looked really shocked and uncertain, but everyone says he's a stand-up guy. I think the Rules will keep him honest. If they don't, I can have a word with him." She reached out with a hand that changed to a large taloned scaly thing and slowly mimed wrapping it around someone's neck, making Danny stare, then wince. "He'd listen, I'm sure."

"I suspect he would, dear. You're very persuasive."

"Thanks," she giggled, reverting the hand to normal.

"I wonder if the other Wards know what she did?" he commented after a moment, making her look up at him. "It's not impossible that they weren't let in on the whole thing. I'm sure that Director Piggot is aware, it's her job to know things like that, and other people in the PRT must be in on it, there's no way Blackwell could have kept a secret however much she'd have liked to." He grinned for a moment. "I suspect she got a good ass-kicking about it if you're right about Sophia."

"Good," Taylor laughed. "She deserves it. Maybe it will make her do her damn job."

"Probably not, to be honest, that woman is… not very effective," he sighed.

"I don't know about the other Wards," Taylor mused, answering his original question. "I'd like to think that they'd not like Sophia. She's a horrible person in almost every way I can think of, but so far the ones I've met, I like. Clockblocker has a good sense of humor, Kid Win seems interesting, Vista is fun, and even Gallant seems to live up to his name. It will be interesting to meet Aegis."

"I assume you'll eventually meet all the Protectorate capes in the Bay as well, if you keep running around terrifying poor criminals and scaring them straight," he chuckled. She looked thoughtfully at him.

"I wonder if that works?" she asked.

"Assuming you don't give them coronaries in the process," he added.

"I can hear their heartbeats, I'll keep it light."

"Light horror?"

"Yep."

"OK, then." Shaking his head in amusement, he reached for his coffee, to find it was cold. "Damn. That was only a half cup problem. You overestimated it again."

Standing, he headed back into the kitchen to make some fresh coffee, while she fondly watched him go, then went back to looking out the window and thinking.


	20. Omake - PRT Threat Report Initial Filing

(Omake by YuffieK on Spacebattles)

02/01/2011 - 03:14:59

PRT Internal Threat Assessment Report - Security Level 4 access required

Protectorate ENE - Brockton Bay, New Hampshire  
Reporting Officer - Lt Cmdr. Hannah Roberts / Miss Militia  
Subject - Independent Hero Codename: Saurial

Appearance - Saurial resembles a teenaged female Human/Velociraptor hybrid: 6'5" tall, weighing approximately 175 pounds, with blue scales, a flexible tail and a crest of dark blue-black hair-feathers. Her costume is a dark blue Classical/Fantasy style armored cuirass and skirt with gold trim, composed of an unknown metal (see Shaker abilities).  
 **  
Brute 6:** Saurial stated she is capable of deadlifting over 5000 pounds. She has also been unaffected by handgun and light machinegun fire at pointblank range.

 **Shaker 4:** Saurial has displayed a matter-generation power, which includes the creation of a hyperdense refractory metal designated 'SaurialSteel'. This metal has proven indestructible to conventional damage. Saurial's armor is presumably made of this material and she has been observed creating various simple weapons (swords, warhammers, bats) and bindings of it. Extensive testing of the metal proved impossible as it vanished without any trace after a short period.

Armsmaster has stated that should any Heroes encounter Saurial, they _politely request_ to obtain a sample of this metal for further testing and possible anti-Endbringer applications.

 **Mover 3:** Saurial has been recorded running at speeds in excess of 50 mph, and is capable of climbing walls and ceilings with little effort.

 **Thinker 3:** Saurial possesses highly enhanced vision and is able to function normally in near-total darkness. Despite the sunglasses she wears, she has stated she is not hypersensitive to light, but wears them to conceal her very distinctive glowing orange eyes. It is suspected her other senses are similarly augmented.  
 **  
Changer 6+?:** It is unconfirmed that Saurial's powers are in fact the result of a Changer form, as she has declined formal power testing on two occasions.

Profile: Saurial has shown herself to be rather gregarious, even playful at times while on patrol, establishing a rapport with both law enforcement officers and the Wards she has encountered. Despite this, she is ruthlessly efficient at dealing with criminals. She is an expert in close-quarters combat, using an unknown martial arts style similar to Krav Maga, and she has stated this expertise extends to weapons she may create. She is also very talented at psychological warfare as this video demonstrates. This seems indicative of several years of experience, despite her apparent age.

One final note, while she does not seem to have an 'us vs. them' mentality. Saurial has stated that she would respond to threats against her family and friends with _extreme prejudice._ In light of this, it is my recommendation that she be allowed to consider Wards membership on her own terms, rather than attempting aggressive recruitment tactics.

END REPORT


	21. Training and Apologies

Looking around, Taylor smiled a toothy smile. The area was perfect for training, a large open concrete area some three hundred yards square next to the bay, several warehouses to the right side, more behind, and a long fifteen foot chain-link fence topped with razor wire around the two other sides. The main Dockworker's Union headquarters was in another part of the site, some distance from her, separated by another row of smaller warehouses, the entire area ultimately enclosed by the fence except for a few buildings on the waterfront, including the one she and her father had experimented in.

Without swimming some distance and climbing over extremely jagged and dangerous old concrete pilings festooned with barnacles and rusting pointy bits of old ironworks, there was no real way into the zone from the water. One long wharf protruded two hundred yards out into the deeper channel some way from shore, but the near end of it was closed off with very heavy gates. Overall it was fairly secure from casual passers-by who couldn't either fly, jump or climb over the fence, or simply rip it down. That did admittedly include a lot of capes but there wasn't much here for most of them with the ability to get in easily.

The security was mainly aimed at preventing casual theft, vandalism, and junkies looking for somewhere to shoot up, which according to her father it did fairly well. Someone managed to get in every now and then but they could normally be persuaded to go away again by a few burly stevedores with crowbars. Or one Zephron, who had a massive quality that made people turn around and walk the other way. Even most E88 members.

" _Excellent, Brain,_ " the Varga commented, viewing the area with her as she turned on the spot in the middle of the empty zone. " _This will do nicely. You should call your father to let him know, and to produce the phone record he mentioned._ "

' _Good idea_ ,' she smiled, pulling out the burner phone and dialing her home number. When it was answered, her father's voice coming to her ear, she said, "I got here, it's great. Thanks. I'll make sure I clean up afterwards."

" _OK, dear. How did you get in, by the way?_ "

" _I jumped over the fence, it's only about fifteen feet high. No problem_." She grinned at his faint exclamation of amusement.

" _Most people seem to find it sufficient,_ " he chuckled. " _Enjoy yourself and I'll see you at home for dinner. Around six?_ "

" _Sure, that sounds good. See you later_."

Flipping the phone shut she put it back in her pouch then looked around again, before rubbing her hands together, the scales making a dry rasping sound. "Where to begin?"

" _You need practice using two swords, I think. It's considerably more difficult than one, but can be very useful under the right circumstances. Once you are proficient with two blades, we can switch to batons and make the strikes less lethal._ "

' _Sounds like a plan_ ,' she agreed happily. The next ten minutes were occupied by wandering around and allowing the Varga to create practice dummies, mostly out of something like wood, a few out of steel for taking heavier strikes, and a few more out of stone for the same reason and because she was curious to see what happened. By the time they finished there were about forty of them dotted about the place, alone or in little clumps representing a gang group.

"OK," she muttered, letting the Varga manifest a three foot blade more like a saber than the sword she normally used in each hand and crouching down a little, leaning forward at the ready. She spun the swords once, not really thinking about it, then charged. Splinters flew as she dived into the middle of the first group of poor innocent dummies who had no idea what was heading at them, a grin stretched across her muzzle.

Mowing her way through them in seconds, she kept going, heading for the furthest group and taking long bounds that cleared the distance in seconds. Again, there was a cloud of wood and splinters, before she was heading for a lone stone warrior, laughing to herself.

"This is fun," she giggled, removing the head with a backswing, then spinning around in a low twirl using the inertia of her tail to control the spin, chopping the poor bastard off at the ankles.

The Varga was making approving sounds in her head as she massacred her army, then went around remaking them to try it again.

* * *

"Hello, Sarah." Carol stepped aside and let her sister in, her niece following her mother into the Dallon house. "And Crystal. What brings you here?"

"We were thinking of going out later for a meal and wanted to know if you guys wanted to come, so we thought we'd walk over and ask since it's a really nice day for the time of year," Crystal Pelham smiled as she took her coat off and hung it up. "Are Vicky and Amy here?"

"Amy's reading in her room, and Victoria is in the dining room," Carol replied, glancing at her sister, who was smiling at the way her own daughter hadn't let her answer or indeed get a word in yet.

"Thanks, Aunt Carol," the young woman replied, moving off towards the dining room, already talking to her cousin before she walked through the door. Carol watched, then turned to her sister.

"She's in a good mood."

"She got very good marks on a test and it seems to have made her feel extremely pleased," Sarah chuckled, briefly hugging her sister. "How are you, Carol, I haven't seen you for over a week"

"I'm fine, thanks, Sarah," Carol replied as she went back into the living room, her sister following, then sat down. Sarah sat opposite her in another chair. "Although I've been trying to work out how to make a somewhat… awkward… phone call."

Sarah appeared a little confused. "Awkward? Who are you calling?"

"Have you heard of a new cape called Saurial?"

Her sister nodded thoughtfully. "I have. There was some amusing video footage on PHO last night posted by Kid Win of a very impressive looking and to be honest, frankly scary cape by that name pulling an extremely funny practical joke on Clockblocker. It was hysterical, the poor boy looked like he nearly had a heart attack from the shock of it. Kid Win nearly laughed himself sick. There's a huge thread about it already, both Wards seem to find it very funny."

She pulled out her phone and poked around on it for a moment, then turned it around so her sister could see the screen. Carol watched with impressed worry tempered with amusement. The Ward had seemed extremely surprised, while the reptilian cape was obviously enjoying herself, as was Kid Win. The Tinker had posted edited together footage from a camera he had which showed the girl sneak up on his totally oblivious partner, cut with the scene from her point of view, apparently taken with the camera she could see mounted on the girl's head. He'd set then entire thing to music, appropriately chosen to maximize tension, which worked somewhat horrifyingly well.

"That's… very impressive," she finally said when the clip ended, smiling a little.

Sarah nodded, putting the phone away again. "She's been making a name for herself in the last week or so. Three outings as far as anyone knows, and she's so far managed to subdue and restrain eighteen E88 members, five ABB members, and six Merchants, with only two injuries, none serious. And recover a truly horrifying number of firearms. From what a couple of cops have posted, they're rather impressed and very pleased."

She grinned. "One called her terrifyingly cute and horrifyingly effective, or it might have been the other way around. He seemed to like her. But he also joked he didn't like going into dark places any more after seeing some footage she gave them. Like something out of a good horror movie, he said."

"I see." Carol was getting a little worried.

"She apparently records all her interactions with criminals with that camera she was wearing," her sister went on. "Not a bad idea, actually, it's a good way to show what happened if anyone claims excessive force. The cops seem to approve of her methods so far and also seem surprisingly respectful. I've heard she seems to respect them right back which I imagine improves relations a lot. The one posting on PHO added she was very polite, with the implication he wished more capes would follow her example, but not actually saying it outright."

Carol nodded, thinking. Hopefully the young woman would be reasonable. "So why are you trying to contact her?" Sarah asked curiously.

"Vicky had… a small disagreement with her downtown on Friday," Carol sighed. "It didn't give a good impression."

Raising an eyebrow, her sister mutely asked for details, so Carol obliged. Sarah winced. "Oh, dear. That's… not ideal, is it?"

"Not really. Having a recording of Glory Girl insulting, assaulting without provocation even in the fairly mild way she did, then threatening, a new cape, merely because she was in a foul mood and got carried away, released to the news would be more than a little damaging. I'm hoping desperately that we can persuade her to erase it."

"You did WHAT?!" The cry of shock came from the dining room, making both sisters look that way, then at each other. Crystal's voice dropped, apparently having something of an argument with her cousin.

"I think Vicky just told her," Sarah noted with a wry smile.

"It sounds like that." Carol took her own phone out of her pocket and looked at it, as she'd been doing intermittently for nearly an hour, trying to work out the best approach.

"How did you get her number?" Sarah asked.

"A contact in the BBPD passed it on. Apparently she gave it to several officers over the last few days and it's in their system now." Sighing, she selected the number, and hit dial, putting the phone on speaker then placing it on the small table between them. "Let's see what happens. I hope this works."

The other end rang a few times, then was answered.

"Saurial's training ground, how may I direct your call?" a surprisingly chirpy sounding female voice with a hint of a somewhat odd hissing accent came from the speaker. There was a background sound of something that sounded like an ax hitting wood. The sisters looked at each other for a moment.

"Is this Saurial?" Carol asked a little tentatively.

"Yes, who's this, please?" The voice was still cheerful but seemed slightly more serious now. The rather odd background noises stopped.

"I'm Carol Dallon, or Brandish if you prefer. Glory Girl's mother? I was wondering if we could talk about the somewhat unfortunate incident a couple of days ago between you two."

"Oh, right, I remember. Is she OK? She seemed kind of upset for some reason." The reptilian cape sounded genuinely a little concerned, confusing Carol a bit.

"She's all right, thank you, although she's very upset about what she did. I was hoping that you might like to meet us and discuss it."

"It's OK, but if you want, I can meet with you, yes," the girl said thoughtfully. "I'm a little busy now but if you want to swing by the DWU compound down at the docks in about twenty minutes I'll be ready to take a break."

Raising her eyebrows, Carol looked at her sister, who looked back, appearing slightly confused.

"If I may ask, what are you doing there on a Sunday afternoon?" she asked with sudden curiosity. Saurial laughed lightly.

"Just some training. I needed a large area I wouldn't be bothered in and asked around. This place is secure and empty on the weekend, and the guy who runs the place was OK with me using it as long as I didn't break anything. He's nice. Anyway, I'm practicing at the moment, but if you want to come down, I can make time. Or I could come over to your place later in the week if you want."

"No, I think the sooner the better," Carol replied after a moment's thought. "I'm happy to come to you. We'll be there within half an hour."

"Great. OK, see you in a while." The line went dead. Carol stared at her phone for a moment then raised her eyes to meet her sisters'.

"She sounds… happy," Sarah finally said.

"Almost too happy," Carol noted, frowning a little. "Although that may help." They both looked up as Vicky, looking somewhat irritated, and Crystal who was grinning, entered the room.

"Mom, did you hear what Vicky did?" Crystal seemed amused and appalled in equal measure.

"I'm afraid so, Crystal. Vicky, that wasn't really a good idea."

"I know," the blonde sighed, shaking her head. "So everyone keeps saying."

"You'll be pleased to know I've spoken to Saurial and she's willing to meet us to let you apologize. Hopefully we can ask her to erase that recording at the same time. We're meeting her down at the docks in the DWU facility."

The teenager didn't look as pleased as her mother might have wished. But she nodded.

"What's she doing there?" Crystal asked.

"Training, apparently. She seems to have managed to get permission to use the space there for some exercises." Sarah looked interested in the fact. "I have to say that's a novel approach to it. Just asking. Surprisingly few capes do that. Surprisingly few people in general do that, actually."

"Can we come and watch Vicky grovel?" Crystal grinned. Her cousin gave her a dark look. "I've seen photos of Saurial on PHO. I'd like to meet her, she looks interesting in a sort of scary way."

Sighing a little, Carol shrugged. "I suppose I can't easily stop you," she remarked, making the girl smirk. "All right. Everybody who's coming, get into costume, we may as well make it official. Victoria, you will go in first, be very polite, apologize, _mean it_ , then call us in so we can ask if we can talk about the recording. In that order."

"Yes, Mom," the young woman sighed, on her way to get her costume on. Crystal went with her, needling her about her poor people skills, which made Sarah snicker.

"She's more than a little embarrassed about all this, isn't she?"

"As she should be," Carol growled, heading upstairs herself.

* * *

"Fuck me sideways." Glory Girl stared, appalled, as the four women stood on the roof of a warehouse overlooking the DWU facility below them, watching a six foot plus humanoid lizard woman absolutely _wreck_ a couple of dozen dummies scattered around a few hundred yards of concrete, wielding a pair of huge war hammers, which she was swinging one handed with no apparent effort. Several of the dummies were made of stone, shattering into powder with one hit, while at least one was apparently solid steel, folding in half and being launched into the air and completely over the perimeter fence into the bay with the next hit.

Saurial didn't even slow down, pivoting on her tail and racing off at ninety degrees to her former path, moving at what must have been fifty or sixty miles an hour, only to make one hammer vanish somehow, hold the other one with both hands, then slam it vertically downwards onto another steel statue which instantly crumpled like an empty beer can under a foot. The only reason it didn't vanish into the concrete was that each figure was standing on a yard square plate of dull gray metal which seemed to be strong enough to take the abuse.

When she swapped the hammer for a sword as long as she was tall and started mowing the remaining dummies down like a particularly enthusiastic mulching machine on two legs, the blonde heroine had to sit down for a moment, just staring.

She was extremely strong herself and her force field was impenetrable to anything anyone had ever been able to work out, but that only applied to the first hit. A strong enough blow would make it reset, which took a couple of seconds. From what she could see, Saurial could probably hit her at least half a dozen times in that period, any one of the blows capable of shredding reinforced concrete with ease. She felt faint.

"I think you should pick the people you insult a little more carefully next time, Cuz," Laserdream said slowly, watching with enormous eyes. She nodded, not able to speak.

Finishing with the last dummy, the lizard girl twirled her sword dramatically around her body in a sort of complex salute to the fallen, bowed to the debris, then made the sword disappear. She turned around. "Hey, you guys coming down, or do you want me to come up?" she called loudly.

She'd apparently heard them, which was impressive. And worrying, they were two hundred yards away and talking quietly.

Brandish nudged her daughter in the ribs. "Go down there," she hissed.

"OK, Mom, I'm going," Glory Girl said reluctantly, lifting off and floating towards the reptile woman who calmly watched her approach. Settling to the ground six feet away, the heroine looked at the other cape, who looked back, the sunglasses she was wearing glinting in the clear afternoon light as she cocked her head a little to the side, seeming curious.

"I'm really sorry about what I said, the way I said it, and how I insulted you and threatened you the other day, Saurial," Glory Girl finally managed to say. "And for calling you an overgrown newt. There was no excuse for my behavior." There was a long pause, then she added, "And I'm sorry about being rude about the police to you, I know you respect them."

"Apology accepted," the girl replied, making a small yet rather heavily toothed smile. Glory Girl managed to suppress her instinctive flinch, although the other cape apparently noticed. The smile widened slightly. ""We're good. You had a bad day, your mouth got away from you. It happens. No harm done."

Sighing in relief, the blonde sagged a little. She looked up at her mother and waved.

Moments later Brandish, being carried by her sister, lifted off and headed for them, Laserdream flying beside them. All three women landed seconds later.

"Thank you for listening, Saurial," Brandish said with a grateful look. "I'm very sorry about any distress that my daughter might have caused you." She looked severely at Glory Girl, who lowered her eyes and poked the cracked concrete with her toe, feeling six years old again for a moment. Laserdream grinned at her from behind Lady Photon, making her feel worse.

Saurial laughed a little. "It's not a problem, honestly. Everyone has an off day every now and then. I've had lots of them. But I'm trying to reduce that, and not getting upset just because someone else is seems to be a big part of that."

"A very good attitude to take, Saurial." Brandish seemed pleased yet a little surprised.

There was a pause. "There's one other thing," Glory Girl's mother began carefully. The reptilian girl cocked her head again, her body language a little odd but understandable, looking like a curious cat. "Did you by any chance record that interaction?" They could all see the small camera attached firmly to the side of her head like a limpet, the lens pointing at them.

Saurial snickered. "Yep. It was hilarious, actually. But don't worry, I erased it after I watched it again. I was trying to work out if it was something I did, but couldn't figure it out. There was no point holding onto it."

Brandish let out a heartfelt sigh of relief at this, making Saurial laugh more openly. "Thank you. That would have been… more than slightly embarrassing, if it had become public."

"I wouldn't do that to you guys without a much better reason than Glory Girl having a bit of a snit," the cape grinned. All four New Wave members recoiled very slightly, which she didn't seem upset about.

A moment later, something hit the side of Saurial's head and bounced off. There was the distant report of a gunshot a second later. Glory Girl whipped around, scanning the horizon, letting out a yelp of shock, as did her family. She couldn't see anything, but someone had definitely fired a gun at the cape.

"He keeps doing that," Saurial sighed, bending over and picking up a flattened copper-jacketed rifle bullet that looked like it had hit a steel plate. "I mean, full marks for accuracy, he's a good shot considering he's about two hundred and fifty yards away, but it's getting irritating."

"You… keep getting shot?" Lady Photon asked very carefully as they all stared at the lizard girl who seemed remarkably unaffected by this. She nodded.

"Yep. Seven times in the last hour," she smiled, turning and pointing. "Same guy. He's up there, second window from the left, top floor. A merchant, I think, based on the stink." She sniffed the wind which was blowing from that direction as they exchanged glances. "Yes, definitely a merchant. That chemical smell and the vomit is sort of a giveaway."

"And you don't mind?" Laserdream asked in a dreamlike tone like she couldn't believe the conversation.

"Of course I mind, it's very rude, but I've been busy and there's no one else around to get hurt." Saurial shrugged. Another bullet whined past, going between the girl and the rest of them, then ricocheted off the concrete fifty yards away. Four of the five people present flinched violently while the fifth one looked to where the thing had gone, frowned, and said, "That's the first time he missed. Was he aiming at me or you guys?"

She turned and cupped her hands around her short muzzle, yelling, "Hey! You missed! Who were you shooting at?"

Glory Girl noticed that her three relatives had managed to maneuver so that she was between them and the shooter.

Yet another bullet smacked into the middle of the cape's chest, then dropped. "Oh. It was me again. I wonder how long he's going to keep doing this." Saurial sounded mildly annoyed now. "Damn, I'd better go and get him, I don't want to leave him here. He might start shooting at the dock workers tomorrow. Hang on, I'll be back in a minute."

Without waiting for a reply from any of them she sprinted towards the fence with appalling acceleration, her toe claws leaving gouges in the concrete, bounded over the fifteen foot fence with one leap, then made it to the brick warehouse and zipped straight up the outside of it with no more effort than she'd shown in running. Disappearing through the gaping empty window she'd pointed out she vanished from sight.

"Um..." Laserdream sounded stunned.

There was a distant scream.

"Please never insult this girl again, Vicky," Brandish said in a slow, horrified voice. Glory Girl nodded dumbly as they all watched the girl reappear, a screaming man over her shoulder and a hunting rifle slung over the other one, slipping back down the building with her captive struggling frantically in her grip, using only three limbs and her tail to cling on. Reaching the ground she ran back, hurdled the fence, and dropped the now gibbering man to the ground with more care than they expected.

She unslung the weapon from her shoulder and examined it, found the safety, and prodded it to the safe setting, then stared at the thing for a moment. "Do any of you know how to unload this?" she asked curiously, holding it up. "I don't know a lot about guns."

After a _long_ pause, Brandish motioned for it, taking the weapon when it was handed to her, and removing the magazine. She worked the bolt to extract the last round, then handed it back, all without saying anything.

"Thanks," Saurial smiled. Pulling out a phone she dialed. "Hi. This is Saurial. I caught a merchant who was shooting at me, I've got him and his gun down at the DWU facility. He's OK but he seems a little worked up, you may need to look at him. OK. Fifteen minutes? Yes, I'll still be here. Thanks very much, sir." She hung up and put the phone away.

"Fucking hell," Laserdream whispered.

"I'll just move him over there so he's not in the way," Saurial stated, picking her prisoner up by the back of his coat and carrying him to the gate like a holdall. The man, whose hands were locked together by some manacles made of the same gray metal the training dummy stands were made from, whimpered a little but seemed to have stopped speaking in tongues.

"That was getting to be a pain," she said as she came back. "Anyway, I need to get back to training. You can watch if you want."

She turned around and walked a few yards away, a metal training dummy like the others, which they all suddenly noticed had quietly vanished during the gun interlude, forming out of nothing in front of her. Four pairs of eyes widened. She patted it on the head. "I think I'll call you Thag," she smiled. Stepping back, she flexed her tail, the appendage sprouting four terrifyingly sharp blades, two on either side, on a fitting attached securely around the end. The whole thing was that same gray metal. Crouching in front of the newly christened ' _Thag_ ' she stared at it, then leaped, passing it on the right and whipping her tail around hard.

The steel parted like silk over a razor, the top half of the construct dropping to the ground with a clang. Before the echoes died she'd spun and whipped her tail across the legs at the knee from the other side, then straightened up, watching with satisfaction as the remaining piece toppled onto its side. "Hey, it worked. I was wondering if it would." She looked very pleased.

Glory Girl opened her mouth, closed it, turned around, and lifted off.

"Bye! See you guys later, probably," Saurial called cheerfully behind her. Shortly she was joined by her relatives, the small formation heading home, while behind them there were more clanging sounds. None of them turned to see what caused them.

Halfway home, Lady Photon said quietly, "Vicky, if you ever do anything that stupid again I'll kill you myself, got it?"

"Got it," she told her aunt, shivering like she'd been dipped in ice water.

* * *

" _Point made, I think, Brain,_ " the Varga noted with amusement as they watched the quartet disappear past the buildings.

' _I think so too_ ,' Taylor snickered. Hearing distant sirens, she had the demon dissipate the remaining parts of training dummy and her tail-blades, walking over to the gate and hopping over it with her prisoner and his weapon as the police van came into view at the other end of the road. Soon she was heading home, pleased with the way the day had gone, and looking forward to showing her father the recordings.

Then an early night. Tomorrow was a school day, after all.


	22. Strategy and Observations

Staring over the table at his daughter who was involved in cutting a piece of pork chop from the main part of her second one so far, Danny eventually shook his head in bemused wonder.

" _Why_ would you let someone shoot you in the head _nine times_ with a _hunting rifle_ even if you _can_ take it, Taylor?" he finally asked with careful interest. "It seems… hmm, how do I put this without sounding rude… less than optimally sane."

She put the piece of meat in her mouth and chewed, smiling a little at him, then took a drink of water.

"It seemed like a good idea at the time?" she ventured, experimentally.

Danny narrowed his eyes at her. He knew her too well. She looked a little guilty for a moment.

"Anyway, he missed once. And it was only in the head three times, it was in the chest or the back the other five. It stung a little when it missed my armor, but it wasn't much worse than those machine guns the first night I went out."

He kept looking hard at her.

"For a smelly guy nearly as old as you are who was obviously on something he was actually a really good shot," she kept going, glancing at him every now and then as she cut some more pork, apparently trying to judge how he was taking it.

"Old. I see. Thank you dear." He smiled a little, but didn't look away. "Come on, out with it. I know you're both smart and careful and your ancient friend in there with you is all those plus incredibly experienced. There was a reason you didn't stop him earlier. You could have done that at any time over nearly an hour. Why didn't you?"

She chewed thoughtfully, regarding him with an expression he recognized as her talking things over with the Varga. Danny waited, while he resumed eating his own dinner.

Eventually she nodded slightly to herself. "Several reasons. One was because I really _was_ curious to see how many times he could pull it off before he either gave up or missed. I could hear and smell him up there all along, he watched for about ten minutes before he took the first shot, which did actually take me by surprise. I thought he was probably just a merchant scout but I'm sure there's more to it, now."

"OK. Somewhat worrying, but OK. Go on." He added some peas to his plate from the bowl on the table, offering it to her, then putting it down when she shook her head.

"Another reason is that Brandish called just after he took his sixth shot and I had reasons for wanting her and Glory Girl to see it. I'll go into that in a moment. Lady Photon and Laserdream were a bonus."

Danny felt a little startled, then sat back and thought. He was beginning to get a vague idea of where she was going with that comment, but waited.

"Yet another reason, and possibly the more important one, is that I wanted to see if the person who was watching with binoculars from another warehouse a little further away to the side would do anything interesting."

She smirked as he coughed a bit, spraying peas across his plate, then stared.

"Someone was watching?"

"Yep. I'm pretty sure that it was whoever got that idiot to shoot at me in the first place."

Clearing his throat, then drinking some more water to wash half-chewed peas and pork down, he inspected her. "I think you need to explain that, dear."

"When I was exercising, I was keeping an eye out for anything odd, the whole time. To be honest I was more than half expecting some merchants or maybe ABB to turn up sooner or later, I wasn't being quiet and those guys are all over the whole dock area like cockroaches. But it was oddly deserted the whole time. The ABB I can understand, I saw on the news just now that big fight they had with the E88 near the boardwalk this afternoon which probably distracted them, but the merchants were a little strange. Every time I've been through there in the last week or so I've seen half a dozen or so junkies, who are obviously watching and reporting back if anything interesting happens. I think someone scared them off."

"Which means… What?" Danny was worried and confused. He was aware of what she mentioned and she was right, there were almost always at least a couple of dirty and bedraggled homeless drug addicts hanging around the yard, although they seldom caused trouble these days. Über and Leet had left an impression, one that had been reinforced fairly vigorously on a couple of occasions since by some of the boys. They mostly seemed to give the entire facility a respectfully large clearance these days, but it was odd not to see at least one shambling past in the distance, a sign of the times.

"Varga thinks, and I think he's right, that someone was testing what I'd do in the face of provocation," she said slowly, putting her fork down and leaning her chin on her hands, looking at him. "We think they found that guy and paid him to shoot at me, gave him the gun which looked brand new and shiny, scared off the other junkies to keep the rest of the merchants away, then watched from a safe distance to see what happened. I spotted the light reflecting from the lens while I was running around, but I didn't spend any time staring because I didn't want to scare him off."

"Why would someone set something like that up?" None of the ideas he had were ones he was happy about.

She shrugged. "I don't know yet. I've got a couple of vague ideas and he's got more, but we don't have any proof of anything. Not even this for the most part. Although I do know for a fact that someone was watching, then left just after the New Wave ladies turned up. I checked where he was hiding on the way home and it was a man, probably white, not too old."

"How on earth do you know all that?" he wondered.

She tapped her nose with a finger, smiling. "This thing is pretty remarkable when I'm Saurial. Male or female, that's obvious, rough idea of race is not too hard, age is more difficult but I'm learning."

Nodding a little, he studied her, then smiled. "Pretty good, Taylor. Anything else?"

"I'll know him again if I smell him, definitely. I was half tempted to track him and see where he went but I wanted to get home and think about it. I can go back later, the scent will last for a couple of days. Unless it rains really hard, I think, which it's not supposed to do for a while." She resumed eating. "The guy with the gun was hysterical when I grabbed him, I think the last two or three shots were getting a little desperate which is why he missed that time, or maybe seeing half of New Wave turn up threw him, but he did have about two thousand dollars and a big bottle of Ritalin in his pocket. I think he was on that, and probably something else, but I don't know about drugs. I could smell it on his breath, though." She wrinkled her nose, making him grin.

"From about two hundred yards away. He was horrible, although in good condition physically from what I saw. He looked like someone who used to be pretty fit and went downhill. But he definitely had practice with guns, he knew how to use that thing." She glanced at him while sticking her fork into a roast potato. "Two hundred and fifty yards is a good long shot for a rifle, isn't it?"

"What sort of gun?" he asked curiously.

"It said Remington 750 on the side. Some sort of expensive looking hunting rifle with a telescopic sight. Brandish unloaded it and it had about five pretty big bullets in it, he'd just reloaded it when I came through the window and he screamed and threw it at me." She cocked her head, a mannerism he'd noticed with amusement that seemed to come from her reptilian side. "I wonder why people keep doing that when I turn up?"

"You know exactly why, dear," he chuckled, "don't try to make me think you've changed that much. You may not find it odd yourself anymore but you know full well the effect you have on people." She smirked and he laughed.

"Maybe. They overreact a lot of the time, but I guess I can see why. Saurial's not too bad, is she? We tried to make her look as safe as we could." Taylor seemed mildly worried for a moment, making him smile tenderly at her.

"She's… an acquired taste. But not bad, no. Just a shock the first time."

"OK." His daughter looked pleased.

"But yes, you're right, that range to hit a more or less man sized target seven or eight times in a row and only miss once is pretty decent work from what I remember. Not incredible, but considerably better than average even with some practice. And a telescopic sight."

"He was lying down on a pile of old pallets with a blanket over them, inside the room, bracing the gun on a broken chair," she added. "Just like in the movies. Maybe he was trained in the army or something?"

"Not impossible," he mused. "There are a lot of ex soldiers around these days, parahumans and the changes they brought to the world had a big effect on the military world-wide. I've heard a lot of them have fallen on hard times and tend towards drug abuse in some places, poor bastards. We've got a few that managed to avoid that in the DWU, they're good people. Disciplined and alert."

She nodded, looking thoughtful still. "He only took a shot when I was standing still for more than a minute or so, which was useful, I could more or less pick when he'd fire after I worked it out. Three shots in a row with New Wave there was a difference, he'd always waited about eight or nine minutes between shots up to that point."

"So why did you want New Wave, or as I suspect, specifically Glory Girl, to see you tanking a shot like that without flinching?"

"Reputation."

Her response was immediate, but he got the impression it was the result of some considerable thought.

"Explain, dear," he replied, resuming eating slowly and listening.

"I've been thinking about how to stop people coming after me, or through you to get to me," she sighed after a moment, leaning on one elbow and picking at the remains of her dinner. "I want to stop that before it starts. One way is the way Lung does it for example. Incredible violence, then the threat of more incredible violence, that keeps people from attacking him, pretty much. But he's killed a lot of people to get to the point he's basically safe from most capes. I don't want to do that."

She looked somewhat depressed. "If nothing else that's because I could make his body count look stupid without even trying. I could probably make _Leviathan's_ body count look like he wasn't putting a lot of effort in." She looked up at Danny seriously. "But, I might be able to get the same effect without killing anyone, or even threatening to kill anyone, by looking so dangerous no one wants to find out what I can really do because they're already worried about what they _know_ I can do. Looking just a little nuts helps."

Taylor grinned for a moment. "Plus, it's sort of fun, seeing the color people go when I do something unexpected." Her face became thoughtful while Danny tried not to laugh. "Although sometimes they go weird colors at odd moments anyway, which is a bit strange." After a couple of seconds, she shrugged. "It's probably nothing to worry about. I'm glad Glory Girl apologized, even though I didn't mind. It was nice of her. Her mother looked embarrassed about the whole thing."

"From what I've heard about Carol Dallon, and New Wave, I can see why they would be," he smiled. "That video didn't show the young woman in a very good light after all and I imagine it could have had fairly bad repercussions if it was on, for example, the evening news."

She nodded, picking up a piece of cooked carrot with her fingers and putting it in her mouth. Finally finished, his daughter got up, then started moving around the table clearing everything away, while he smiled his thanks, grabbed the last roast potato out of the bowl with his fork, then let her continue.

"No, having Glory Girl going red and shouting wouldn't help them. I didn't want to do that to them, they're good people, even though it was pretty funny to watch. At the time it was just peculiar, though." She giggled slightly, piling dishes in the sink. "That's what got me thinking about reputation, though. It's something that seems to be pretty important in the cape world."

"It's important everywhere, Taylor, like in business, or in the union work I do, or anything else, really," he acknowledged. "It goes with respect. Or fear. Lung has both, for example. People fear him, but to a certain level they also respect him, because while he's incredibly dangerous and violent, he holds back a lot of the time. Not that it makes him a nice person, because he isn't, but he could be a damn sight worse. Just look at the S9. Or any other one of several parahumans or groups of them I could point at."

As she put the plug in the sink and turned on the water, adding a squirt of soap, she nodded slightly. "That's kind of my point. I could go full Varga and wreck cities without any effort at all. I could probably literally pick the Rig up and carry it off, assuming it was strong enough not to fall apart. Even the combat form in a fairly small size is probably the sort of thing that would make people think there is a fourth Endbringer in town. But I don't _want_ to do any of that! All I really want is a fairly quiet life with my Dad, one where I can help out around the place and use the abilities I was given for good, preferably having fun doing it. Killing people and making them terrified of me because of that isn't something I want. At all."

By the end of her rather impassioned speech she was looking at him almost with tears in her eyes. He studied her for a couple of seconds ago, then got up and held her.

"I understand, dear, and I agree. What I know you can do right now is impressive to a level that's somewhat worrying and I still haven't seen you more than forty feet high. Which now that I say it out loud is just silly." He grinned down from the four or so inches difference in height between them as she looked into his eyes.

When he let her go she appeared less upset, turning back to the sink and speaking over her shoulder. "I was reading PHO and there was a thread about this sort of thing. Someone called AllSeeingEye, who seems smart and has a lot of information about capes somehow, was arguing that reputation is the most important thing a cape can have. More so for villains than heroes in some ways but it's important in both cases. He, or she, was talking about small groups starting up having to pull off spectacular things, both to get people to take them seriously, and to leave them alone. They gave some examples and it seemed to make sense in a way."

He moved to stand beside her, drying the dishes as she washed them, still listening.

"I talked it over with Varga and he agreed. We decided that we didn't want to get a reputation as someone who _was_ violent, but more someone who no one wanted see _become_ violent. Both of what everyone knew they could do, and because of what they didn't. Fear of the unknown is pretty effective, after all. That's the whole point behind horror movies."

She grinned for a moment, her teeth lengthening into razor sharp points and her eyes glowing yellow. "Which I seem to remind people of for some reason. I can't see it myself, though."

"Obviously," he laughed. They shared a silence for a while, finishing the dishes and putting them away, while he pondered her words.

When they were sitting down in the living room some minutes later, he asked slowly, "So the entire thing with the sniper, and if I know you at all, putting on a show for New Wave when they turned up as if you didn't know they were there, that's to make them worried?"

Taylor nodded, sighing slightly as she relaxed on the sofa on her back. "More or less. I don't want to terrify or threaten them, but acting all casual when someone's shooting me in the head, then laughing about it, seemed to work at least as well. They were already looking worried after they saw me running around with the hammers. I'll show you the recordings in a moment. It was a lot of fun and very helpful, I seem to have all the knowledge for all sorts of martial techniques in here somewhere but I need to practice them before I can use them properly."

She smiled a little. "It's like the difference between memorizing a book on doing something, and learning the hard way. Once I've done it for a while it kind of comes back to me like I always knew how, but I make mistakes before that. Lots of them in some cases."

"And you assume that Glory Girl will tell her cape friends what happened, the New Wave adults will do the same, and people will decide not to push you just in case your good humor wears off?" Danny watched her nod.

"That's the idea."

"There's always the possibility that the PRT or someone else might decide you're potentially _too_ dangerous. Or just want to try themselves against you anyway. Some of the capes are very aggressive."

The young woman sighed, the end of her tail slowly waving back and forth as she gazed at it. "I know. It's a calculated risk. I'll have to deal with that when it happens. But according to the statistics I read, new capes tend to get… recruited, I guess… whether they like it or not, mostly by villains, but sometimes by the PRT. That seems to be what happened to Shadow Stalker when they caught her. Hopefully I can look dangerous enough to make people think better about it, but not so dangerous they think they need to stop me."

"A fine line, I suspect."

"Hopefully not too fine." She rolled her head to the side to look at him. "I plan on sticking to dealing with low level idiots and helping with other problems like that, rather than being stupid and going after the big name capes. If they come after me I'll stop them, but I remember what you said about gang politics. Varga has helped me see how bad it could get, compared to how bad it is right now." She shivered a little. "I don't want to be the cause of a gang war."

"That would not be good, certainly," he agreed. "Please try not to do that if you can."

After a moment, he added more slowly and carefully, "I can't say I entirely disagree with your methods, as worrying to others as they might seem. Just be careful. On that note, though, I do have a criticism." She raised an eyebrow, waiting. "You potentially put several members of New Wave at risk from a sniper, dear. Did you think about that?"

Her face fell. "Yes. Afterward. I was only really expecting Glory Girl and Brandish, and Glory Girl is bulletproof anyway, everyone knows that. And I was ninety percent certain he was going after me specifically as well. But I should have thought harder about her mother, the other two as well. They can make force fields that would have stopped him but that only matters if they knew he was shooting in the first place. Varga pointed it out as well. I'm sorry, I'll think it through better next time."

"I'd still prefer there not to _be_ a next time, Taylor. If someone starts shooting at you in future do your old Dad a favor and stop him, not just grin at him while the bullets bounce off your face? Please? _Especially_ if there are other people in the area who aren't as ridiculously durable as you seem to be."

With downcast eyes she nodded, her face red. "I'll be smarter about it next time, Dad, promise."

"Varga, make sure she is," Danny added firmly.

She snickered at the internal response from her companion, but replied mildly, "He said he'll try, Dad."

"Good. Now, let's have a look at that video of yours. Is there any of my DWU still standing?"

"Dad! I was very careful." She smiled, then looked slightly ashamed again. "After the first time I punched a hole in the concrete with a dummy. We fixed it."

Shaking his head in amusement he waited as she got her laptop and downloaded the camera footage then watched with a mix of impressed awe, horrified awe, and amused awe, what she'd gotten up to that afternoon. The general theme was definitely awe, though.

"Have you thought about some form of ranged weapon?" he asked as he watched from the viewpoint of his daughter as her scaled arms wielded an enormous sword, cleaving wood, stone, and metal with equal ease. "I know you're fast enough to chase most people down on foot but perhaps something other than hand held weapons would be useful eventually."

She glanced up at him, then looked thoughtful. "Varga has mentioned the idea a couple times, yes, but I was concentrating on the close range stuff to start with. What do you think I should try?"

"Maybe some sort of thrown net or something? That Vargastuff as you call it seems basically unbreakable. The sheer weight of it might be a problem, you'd have to be careful not to crush someone, but if you made it it thin enough and flexible enough it would be fairly safe." He thought for a moment, as she nodded with an expression of interest, then got up and poked around on the bookcase. Eventually finding what he was looking for he pulled the dusty book from its place where it had probably rested since the death of Annette and flicked through it, finally smiling.

Handing it to her he pointed at the page. "Look, this is the sort of thing. The Romans used nets, tridents, javelins, things like that. Nice and simple, no moving parts, which you said was easier. Less to worry about than a gun and you can scale them up and down easily."

Taking the book from him Taylor looked at the page while he went back to watching the video, looking over occasionally as she turned pages and mumbled to herself, or her demonic partner. By the time the file had ended she was sitting up with an expression of concentration on her face.

"Any good?"

"He thinks so, yes," she replied slowly. "He's familiar with a lot of these in slightly different ways, the people of his old world had very similar things." She held out a hand in which a thing that looked not entirely unlike a lawn dart appeared. "They threw something like this with a catapult. Sometimes lots of them bundled together. I think I could throw it pretty accurately by hand with some practice."

Staring at the glinting needle-sharp point of the gray metal dart, Danny swallowed a little dryly. Perhaps this hadn't been the best idea to mention?

"It looks… extremely lethal," he commented carefully.

"Not as lethal as this is," she smirked, hopping to her feet and making the dart go away, to be replaced by a seven foot long javelin like something out of the Olympics

The metal throwing spear tapered gently to a fine point at both ends, with the central few inches recessed below the remainder of it and a different color where it was wrapped with something grippy. He remembered how slippery the strange metallic substance was and knew this was so it could actually be used, while wondering how heavy it was, aside from ' _very_ '. "That's fairly horrific, dear. How far could you throw it?"

"Like this probably a few hundred yards at least," she smiled. "Saurial could do a lot better, and the combat form could most likely toss it well over the horizon if it was big enough." Hefting the thing, she looked at it thoughtfully. "I'll have to practice a lot, I don't have much in the way of premade skills with this. Princess Luna never used one although she'd seen them used."

"Please do it somewhere a long way from anything breakable," he smiled. "A very long way."

"I will. Maybe the ship graveyard?"

"Go up to the far north end, everything up there is completely wrecked," he advised. "It won't matter if you punch holes in things or something like that. Capes are always testing themselves there, as I understand it."

Taylor nodded, going back to reading the book on historical weapons, intermittently snickering to herself. Now just the tiniest bit worried, Danny left her to it to go back into his office, intending on starting a preliminary list of questions to ask the various people he had in mind who might be helpful with her plan for the bay.

* * *

"Think she'd be up for a commission or two?" Randall looked over at his friend, who was watching a video on PHO, which was currently playing something with a techno version of the Jaws music attached to it. He went over and watched as Clockblocker was scared witless, chuckling at the results. The new cape was impressively good at sneaking up on people.

"What do you mean?" he asked. "And have you forgotten she's a hero?"

Leet shrugged. "No, but I have a couple of ideas based on that old Turok game series and we could use a dinosaur. She's the nearest thing to one I've ever seen. She looks a hell of a lot like some sort of Velociraptor that decided to get an opposable thumb, put clothes on, and run around the place terrifying idiots."

Mulling the idea over, Über laughed again. "I can see it, yes, but… still a hero."

They exchanged a grin then went back to what they'd been doing.

A few minutes later, they looked at each other, the same thought hitting them at the same time.

"Long tail, wasn't it?" Kevin mused in a considering voice.

"Yep."

They both thought more about this little fact as they resumed their activities, more slowly this time.

* * *

"What do you think?" the figure behind the large expensive desk said, after pondering the words of his subordinate.

"I think I don't want to get anywhere within at least a hundred yards of that thing," the other man replied. "We knew she was tough, but she literally acted like being shot in the head with a 30-06 hollow-point round was funny. That's… not encouraging."

"I'm more interested in its reactions overall. No signs of anger, or wanting to hurt the sniper?"

"No. It was weird. She seemed surprised by the first shot, but worked out his pattern quickly and after that was basically playing with him, treating it like some extra training. I have a sneaking suspicion she detected him before he even fired although I don't know how. She certainly looked in that direction several times, even waved once, after he started shooting, but just kept on with what she was doing like it was nothing to worry about."

He thought for a moment, then shrugged. "Like I said, weird. Most capes would at least have got angry about it and done something sooner. Lung is at least as tough for example but he'd have killed the bastard after the first shot on general principles."

"Lung is an uncultured animal," the first man replied with disdain. "This one… Still an animal, but possibly trainable. With some care."

"I'd advise against any action towards her until we have more idea of what she's capable of. What I saw today was… disturbing."

"Why, specifically?" his superior queried, looking at him with calm interest.

"Generally, in my experience, most Brutes, which she _definitely_ is, are brawlers. Lung is, he has no class or skill in fighting, he just keeps hitting and burning things until his opponent either escapes or dies. That's a common approach. When you're that strong and tough, and in his case regenerate that fast, you can just wade in without much thought. Not that he has any ability to think beyond a certain low cunning, you know his kind."

The other man nodded, this was so obvious as to not be worth mentioning.

"Capes with less physical powers usually either die quickly or manage to leverage that power to some extent, but still seldom branch out into other methods of fighting. It happens but it's rare. They're basically individual fighters, or in some cases, like our people, they learn to work together in small groups, their powers complementing each other."

"I understand," the first man said with a touch of impatience. "But I fail to see the point."

"The _point_ is that what I saw today was someone who has significant skill in battlefield tactics and skills, not a brawler who simply hits things until they fall over. She was practicing attacking an _army_ , not a _gang_. And she was winning. Admittedly her opponents were training dummies but she'd go through a normal human squad no matter how well armored like a threshing machine I suspect. The really disturbing thing is that she was doing it as if she had years of practice, not what's most likely only weeks at best."

Tapping his fingertips together, his superior thought for a while, during which he waited patiently. "I see. Very interesting. I wish you had thought to take a camera."

"So do I."

"Pity. Still, it can't be helped. Perhaps we can arrange that at some future date."

He thought some more, then nodded decisively. "We will watch for now, but not interfere. Perhaps some more interactions can be arranged with someone disposable to gauge its capabilities more precisely. We'd need some form of leverage, as well, I doubt it would comply easily. But it could be exactly what we need."

He stood, walking to the window and looking out over Brockton Bay, lights glimmering into the distance, with large sections partly dimmed where gang activities were causing damage. "We could finally take over, clean this city up, and make it safe once more for the right kind of people."

"Our kind."

"Well, obviously," the man smirked. Turning to his agent, he asked, "You're sure it had no idea you were watching?"

"As much as I can be, yes. I cleared up very carefully and left when I saw New Wave arrive for whatever reason they had, there was no point taking chances. But the sniper was clean, there's no way to trace him to us. The gun was recently stolen from a dealer in Chicago with no paper trail leading anywhere in particular either, as was the ammunition. As far as the man knows, he was just paid in drugs and cash to use his old marine training to shoot a troublesome cape, by a concerned citizen who was worried about a dangerous barely human animal beating up young men. The junkies were easily scared off as well so there should have been no witnesses. That idiot Skidmark had no idea anything was going on."

"Very good. Very good indeed. Well done."

Returning to his seat the man made a couple of cryptic notes, then pushed the paper to one side. "Now, onto other business..."

* * *

Taylor inspected the building with a certain amount of introspective interest. She'd had trouble sleeping, pondering the mystery of the sniper, so had decided at about one AM to go back and follow the scent of the mystery observer. It had led right to the employee entrance of this rather large facility halfway across the city.

" _Intriguing_ ," the Varga commented slowly.

She nodded without replying, then turned around and silently headed home, thinking about it and what it might mean.


	23. School and Investigations

**Monday, January 31, 2011  
**  
"Did you apologize?" Dean asked, as he walked up behind Vicky, who was standing on the steps of Arcadia waiting for him, looking the wrong way. Amy was off to one side casting her sister the occasional slightly curious look but as usual seemed somewhat withdrawn and uninvolved, although she did acknowledge him with a small nod. That was a bit unusual, normally she either more or less ignored him, or said something snarky and cutting, _then_ ignored him.

He was used to it although he wished it was otherwise, he rather liked the girl. The feeling was apparently not mutual.

Turning around, his girlfriend stared at him, then hugged him, hard enough to make him grunt, while Amy seemed mildly amused now. "Ow. Vicky, relax a little before you break my arms, please."

Embarrassed she let him go but stayed close. "I did," she said in a low voice, casting a glance around, although no one was close enough to overhear her. "Mom, Aunt Sarah, and Crystal came with me. We met her down at the docks." She didn't go into more detail.

"And?"

"Let's say I'm glad I took your advice and leave it at that. And if I ever do anything like that again, I'm leaving the US and moving to Europe. Or Mars."

He inspected her curiously. "Did she take it OK?"

"That's not the part that was… worrying." The golden haired girl shivered a little. "I'll tell you later when I stop being scared."

Dean found the comment odd but instead of pressing for details, said nothing and simply smiled. He could feel his girlfriend was more than a little down at the moment, for a whole complex mess of reasons he didn't care to try to unpick.

"Hey, Dean, how's it hanging?" The cheerful voice from behind him made him turn to see Dennis, Carlos, and Chris approaching, having apparently come together.

"We need to get inside, the bell will go in about five minutes," Amy announced, putting the paperback she was reading into her bag and standing up from where she'd been sitting on the low wall next to the steps up the front entrance of the school. He checked his watch and noticed she was right. Following the fairly large number of students still arriving, he and his friends went into the building, separating after a minute as they headed off to their different home rooms. He, Dennis, Carlos, and Vicky shared one, while Amy and Chris were in a different one.

Heading to his home room he slowed for a moment as he noticed the slightly younger tall curly-haired brunette walking towards him on the other side of the corridor, checking locker numbers. He met her eyes, then quickly looked away. She said nothing, not apparently noticing, but he could feel mild satisfaction from her, knowing she'd noticed and knew, somehow, how he felt.

Turning into his room with the others, at the back of the pack, he looked at her again for just a moment, at which point she peered sideways at him through her hair and smiled very slightly.

Shivering, suddenly knowing what Vicky was feeling much more than he wanted to, he lost sight of her as he entered the room, heading for his desk while trying not to look worried.

* * *

Hiding a smirk at the faint waft of worry that came down the corridor towards her from the Stansfield boy, Taylor checked the number of the locker she was looking at with the piece of paper in her hand, then smiled. Reaching out she spun the combination dial built into the door back and forth to the numbers she'd memorized already, until it clicked and she could open the thing. The lockers here were much smaller than at Winslow, not to mention much newer and much cleaner. Arranged in two rows all the way down both sides of the corridor there were at least four hundred of them, with her assigned one being number 212 on the top row.

Looking inside she saw with satisfaction that there was no way to push anyone over two feet high into the space revealed, although it was rather deeper and wider than the hated cell she remembered so well in the middle of the night even now. The Varga had helped her several times so far, showing her things from his old world and the experiences of his previous Brains to distract her.

Sighing a little at the thought, she firmly pushed the memories down, which was getting easier by the day, then swung her backpack from her shoulder and put all the books she didn't need before lunch into the locker. Most of them were brand new, given to her when she went to the secretaries office to retrieve her introduction information from Meg, who seemed genuinely pleased to see her again.

Double checking she had everything she needed, she closed the locker and spun the dial, then tugged the handle to check it was locked properly. Satisfied, she looked at the map she had once again, nodded, and headed for her new home room, curious to see what the day would bring and actually happy about being in school for probably the first time in nearly two years.

She reached the relevant room just as the final bell rang, looking at the door with momentary trepidation, then taking a deep breath and slowly letting it out.

" _It is easy, Brain. Go in, do well, and go home again,_ " the Varga advised with calm amusement. " _If anyone causes trouble like they did in your old school, we can eat them._ "

' _It would probably be better to follow the guidelines,_ ' she giggled inside. ' _I don't think that eating bullies is one of them_.'

" _Perhaps. Perhaps not._ " Her demonic companion laughed for a moment. " _We will see. But in all seriousness, you will be fine. Go inside and prove it to both of us._ "

Nodding once to herself and him, feeling much more confident, she opened the door and stepped inside. The teacher sitting at the desk, a man of about thirty, tanned and fit looking with a head of black hair, glanced over at her then down at his desk.

"Miss Hebert?" he asked in the tone of someone who already knew the answer.

"Yes, Sir," she replied calmly. "I'm sorry about nearly being late, I had to pick up my things from the school office."

"That's fine, Miss Hebert, just try to arrive a little sooner from now on, please. You can take any free desk."

She looked around the room, spotting to her pleasure Mandy and Lucy near the back of the room with two empty desks next to them. She raised her eyebrows inquiringly, making the first girl smile and wave to the seat next to her. About sixteen pairs of eyes followed her as she went over and sat down, slipping her backpack off her shoulder and under her chair with a quick motion, trying not to hit anything with her tail.

"Hi, guys," she said in a low tone. "Thanks."

"I'm glad you're in this room, Taylor," Mandy whispered back, looking quickly at her then back at the teacher, who was watching but said nothing. Taylor nodded and gave her attention to the front of the room, making him smile a small smile, then look down at the register.

"Anderson, Lily," he said in a not loud but easily audible smooth baritone voice, the result of much practice.

"Here."

"Arthurs, Jack."

"Here."

The roll call went on for a little while as he ticked each name off, nodding to himself. When he reached her name, he looked up at her. "Hebert, Taylor, also here," he remarked, ticking her name off. She smiled at him.

The teacher continued until the last voice had replied, then put the pen down.

"All right, people, as you have already gathered, we have a new student. One Miss Taylor Hebert, a new transfer from Winslow, so be sympathetic and also pleased that yet another human being has survived that place."

A ripple of laughter ran around the room as Taylor grinned. If nothing else the teacher had a sense of humor, not to mention a very pleasant voice. "If you wouldn't mind, Taylor, could you stand and tell us a little about yourself, please?"

"Of course, Sir," she replied, standing and moving to the side a little so she wouldn't hit her tail on the desk behind her. Everyone turned in their seats to see her clearly.

"Oh, by the way, my name is Mr Hanks. Like the actor. You may refer to me as such if you want, although I quite like Sir." He smiled at her in a friendly but not too friendly manner. Remembering Mr Gladly from Winslow, she was grateful. This man seemed to want to be professional and respectful, not every student's best friend, something that suited her perfectly.

"Thank you, Mr Hanks. Sir." She grinned as he chuckled. "Well, my name is Taylor Hebert, as you just heard. My father is the hiring manager at the Dock Workers Union, my mother was a professor of English literature at the University until she died a few years ago." She managed to get the words out without letting the pang of regret she felt color her voice with the calm reassurance of the demon linked to her, who had helped in so many ways. "My interests include reading, mathematics, computers, and running. Recently I've decided I want to learn first aid and self defense."

She looked around the room. "I didn't have much fun at Winslow, the place is crawling with bullies, and I don't like that sort of thing at all. But other than that I just want to get on with learning and live my life."

"Wise words, Miss Hebert. Thank you, you can sit down." She did as requested while beside her Mandy gave her a thumbs-up, smiling. "Brief and to the point. Good. Now, I know that you tested very highly in the evaluation exams on Friday, but I still suspect that you may run into minor difficulties with the practical differences between your last school and here. Please don't hesitate to approach any teacher to explain why and ask for help. I'd think you'll be up to speed very fast based on your test results."

She nodded, feeling pleased. He seemed genuine.

"All right, let's get on with it. Eyes front, people." The other students who had been inspecting her curiously all turned around again, and paid attention. Taylor did the same, smiling to herself and pleased with how simple that had all been. This might work out just fine.

* * *

Tapping her pen on the pad of paper in front of her, Hannah listened with interest. She made the occasional note, then sighed slightly. "Thank you for the information Lady Photon, it's appreciated. I understand why you're reluctant to get involved but I agree it could be important."

Listening again, she smiled. "Thank you. Give my best to your family. Bye."

Hanging up the desk phone, she kicked back in her chair, put her feet on the desk, and intently studied the notes she'd made for a while.

Eventually coming to a decision, she stood up and made sure her scarf was in place, before leaving her office and heading for the lower levels of the Rig and a boat to shore.

Not that long afterward, she was cautiously riding her motorcycle through the outskirts of the Docks, in the direction of the DWU facility, while keeping a wary eye open for trouble. This close it was unlikely, the dock workers had somehow come to an arrangement with the merchants and other junkies who infested the area, which she suspected was along the lines of ' _stay away and we won't break your legs_ ', a thought that made her smile for a moment.

Eventually arriving at her destination she slowed, looking around, then parked the bike somewhere it was inconspicuous but not so much someone might be tempted to interfere with it, although in that case the security system would make them regret it. Arming it, she looked over towards the large and fenced in DWU compound, seeing a number of men working on a large unidentifiable steel construction, the light of the welding arcs bright even in the sunlight. A couple of them were watching her with what looked like considerable alertness and readiness, but didn't move from where they were.

Feeling the eyes on her back she turned and looked up, then around at the mostly empty and in many cases long-abandoned warehouses surrounding the facility as grim reminders of better days. The only buildings that looked even vaguely maintained were on the other side of the fence.

Deciding on her target she headed for one particular building, finding a doorway with a smashed door hanging from the bottom hinge only and making her way inside, pulling a flashlight from her pocket in the process.

In the bright light she could see a dozen or more sets of footprints embedded into the crud on the floor, which seemed to be a mix of crumbling concrete, mold, and something much less salubrious. Suppressing a grimace of disgust she picked a path through it towards the metal staircase she spotted in the back of the building, rusty and damp with condensation.

When she got to the top, the heroine walked down a hallway that ran down the back of the old building, past broken windows looking across an alley into other broken windows of the next warehouse along, until she found what she was looking for.

A set of footprints, from what looked like worn but serviceable military-pattern boots, led into but not out of a side room. Cautiously looking in, then entering when she was sure it was safe, her power forming a pistol in her free hand even so, she looked around the room.

In the middle of it was a pile of six or seven moldy wooden pallets with a ratty wool blanket draped across them, while in front of this was an office chair that had seen much better days. Probably about the time of the moon landings. Curious, she moved to the back of the stack and looked across the chair, to see she had a perfect view of most of the open area of the DWU facility.

"Interesting," she mumbled to herself.

She also noticed that the two apparent guards were still watching her, or at least the window. From where she was, in the sunlight, she didn't think anyone outside could see in very well without a good pair of binoculars.

Looking around the floor, she spotted the glint of shiny metal to the side of the pallets, going over and squatting down. There was a fresh expended 30-06 cartridge lying against the wall. Glancing around she saw at least half a dozen more scattered about. Turning her pistol back into the large knife on her leg it was normally in the form of she picked the brass up and sniffed the open end.

"Definitely fired recently. OK," she muttered in a low voice.

She retrieved a couple of the other ones then put them in her pocket before standing up again and looking around some more.

In a line from the window to a set of marks on the floor that suggested a struggle she saw more footprints, but these ones weren't from anything that wore boots. They had three slender toes tipped with impressive claws, and no heel prints, although there was a mark in the dust that suggested a long tail. She studied them for a moment, then went to the window and looked out and down. It was at least sixty feet to the ground. Inspecting the windowsill she could see small divots in the stonework that looked like they were from claws as well, claws that were harder than the stone.

She pondered the scene for a moment, looking around, then squinted at the people working inside the fence. The two watchers were still there, watching, although one of them seemed to have a walky-talky at his mouth. Ignoring them she peered around at the other buildings, before spotting what she was looking for and memorizing the location.

Miss Militia pulled her head back into the room and looked around one last time, before leaving, thinking hard.

A little later the watchers in the union facility saw the motorcycle-riding female cape leave, heading back towards the good part of town.

* * *

" _Did_ she, now..."

Danny listened, then nodded thoughtfully. "Thanks, Mark."

"No sweat, Danny."

"Did you find the bullets?"

"Yep. Or at least, we found eight of them. No sign of the ninth, it probably bounced over the roof from what you said she told you. There's also a freshly patched hole in the yard about two feet across but the boys have no idea what it's patched _with._ "

"Don't worry about that, it's not important." He accepted the small glass jar with eight badly flattened bullets in it, shaking it and watching them rattle around.

' _Jesus, Taylor, this is horrifying,_ ' he thought to himself, inspecting them. ' _I don't like the thought of someone shooting at you. Although I'm amazed that you can take it like this_.'

"So why was someone shooting at this cape, Boss?" the other man said, then grinned when Danny frowned.

"You've been hanging around Zephron too much, Mark."

The man, a tall slender blond with a wiry strength visible through his clothes, smirked slightly but didn't reply.

"I'm not sure," he added, answering the question.

"How did you meet her?" the blond asked curiously.

"She found out who was the person to call to ask about using the yard when no one is there and called me yesterday. I couldn't think of any good reason not to let her and we could use the goodwill, so I told her to go ahead. I've written a letter of permission for her as well in case anyone gets nosy, she's going to pick it up this afternoon around four or so."

"I'll make sure to be here, I'd like to see her," Mark grinned. "Hey, is the DWU getting a cape of its own, then? That would help if those asshole merchants come around again."

Danny sighed, smiling. "I don't think we're a gang or need a cape just yet, Mark. She's just a good natured independent looking for some empty space to train in." His colleague shrugged, still smiling a little.

"OK, thanks. Tell the guys to keep an eye out for anything odd, but hopefully this is a one off."

"You got it, Boss."

"Stop calling me Boss," Danny shouted after the man as he left, chuckling, but couldn't help a grin of his own.

Rattling the bullets around again he studied them for a moment, shook his head, then put the jar away in his desk, going back to his research.

* * *

"So how's your first full half day at Arcadia, Taylor?" Taylor looked up at the cheery voice, to see Mandy and Lucy standing next to the table, trays in hand. She smiled, nodding to the chairs on the other side, both girls sitting.

"Full half day?" she queried. "Isn't that a bit redundant?"

"Of course it isn't," Mandy grinned. "You've been here for half a full day, or a full day of which you've only been here for half so far. Full half day." She picked up her burger and bit into it as both Taylor and Lucy smiled at her logic.

"Don't argue, or she'll keep talking for the entire lunch period," Lucy whispered loudly from behind her hand. Taylor got the feeling this was something of a running joke between them.

"Ah. In that case, my first full half day has been fine, and I expect the next full half day to be similar," she snickered, then took a bite of her mac and cheese, nodding appreciatively as she chewed. "This really is pretty good food for a school," she said after she swallowed. Her companions smiled back.

"I told you. Sometimes I like to bring something from home for variety, but it's more than edible," Mandy replied happily. Taylor was realizing that the girl was generally pretty cheerful most of the time. She glanced at Lucy, who was much less outgoing but still friendly. It had turned out that she shared two of the four hour-long slots in the morning with both of them, and one each of the others with each of them. In the afternoon she shared one class with both and the other two with neither.

"You're taking advanced mathematics and computer studies, aren't you, Taylor?" Lucy asked quietly. Taylor nodded.

"Yes. The administration thought that my marks were good enough to place me in the advanced classes in both. I may also end up there in English, but they wanted to see how it went after the first couple of weeks."

"Wow. An intelligent person, at last," the other girl giggled, shooting her friend a sly look, which caused her to splutter in indignation.

"Hey! I smart! Look, me eat with mouth now!" Both Taylor and Lucy collapsed laughing as Mandy shoved half the burger into her mouth in one go, completely ruining the classy teenager look she normally promoted.

Nearly choking as she chewed because she was also trying not to laugh, the girl went slightly blue before she managed to swallow enough to clear a path for air, then took deep breaths for a while. Several of the other tables of young people looked over at the laughter, most of them smiling.

"You're going to kill yourself doing that one day you idiot," Lucy giggled. Mandy shrugged.

"It's funny."

Shaking her head in amusement the Chinese girl looked back to Taylor who was now just enjoying the company of people her own age who were basically normal. Although in Mandy's case that was possibly not entirely correct, she mused, smiling internally.

"Have you thought about any after school clubs or extracurricular activities yet, Taylor?"

Taylor had a sudden moment of wondering what the other girl would say if she told her what she'd been doing in her evenings recently but tried not to let the amusement make her sound odd as she replied. "Not yet. What sorts of things are available here?"

Lucy thought for a moment as Mandy listened. "Well, there's the computer club, the chess club, a classic film club, the literature club, several sports groups like swimming, track, judo, that sort of thing..." She glanced at her friend who nodded.

"There's also the electronics club and an engineering one," Mandy added. "Not to mention a number of courses that aren't really clubs, but extra credit things like advanced first aid and basic paramedic training, car maintenance, basic household repair… A few others but I forget what they are now."

"Wow. That's a lot. We didn't have anything like that at Winslow." Taylor grinned for a moment. "There it was more along the lines of basic firearm cleaning, knife fighting, car theft… You know, practical skills to allow a young person to get ahead in life."

Both her table-mates started laughing again. "Honest, it really was nearly that bad. I'm sure you could have found someone to teach you all that, but you probably wouldn't actually have received school credit for it. I think."

"You must be so relieved to be out of that place," Mandy commented, picking up her can of coke and popping the tab, then taking a drink from it.

Taylor sighed heavily, nodding and wiping her forehead with a hand mockingly, making the other two grin again. "More than you'd believe. The mere fact that I can simply sit here, have lunch, and talk to people without..." She fell silent as they looked at each other. "I haven't done this in a long time."

"What happened?" Mandy asked quietly, looking concerned and leaning forward a little.

After a while, Taylor shook her head slightly. "I don't want to talk about it for a while, sorry. Just thinking about it depresses me, talking would be worse, and it would ruin the good day I'm having. Maybe one day." The other girl nodded, straightening up again. "Sorry."

"Don't worry, it's not really important, I'm just incurably nosy," Mandy smiled. "But I'm glad you made it out alive and sane."

"Alive..." Taylor quickly took her pulse with a finger to her neck and a look of concentration. "Yep. Sane… How do you check that?"

"I think you have to unscrew the little cap under your hair at the back and look at the dipstick," Lucy replied immediately with a straight face, making Taylor snort with laughter.

"I'm as sane as I need to be and no saner," she replied, going back to her lunch. The two girls who she decided were definitely becoming friends nodded wisely, doing the same.

While she ate, she listened to the chatter around her, separating out the individual voices into understandable conversations, then moving on after briefly listening to each on. She wasn't deliberately eavesdropping, she was simply practicing with her enhanced hearing, taking the opportunity the crowded lunch room provided her as she sat there.

Her own name being spoken quietly, in a female voice, made her listen more carefully, though. "...Hebert, I think. She's a sophomore who transferred in from Winslow, Maria said she heard there was some sort of trouble there with bullying. She's in Maria's home room with Mr Hanks, she introduced herself as the daughter of someone called Danny Hebert who's supposedly someone important with the dock workers union or something." The voice wasn't one that she recognized, but the one that spoke next was.

"Thanks, Alicia," the voice of Dean Stansfield replied.

"Why?" the girl asked curiously.

"Just curious, I saw her on Friday, then twice today, she was looking for a locker this morning. I wondered why since I don't remember seeing her before. Nothing important."

"OK, Dean. Say hi to Vicky, I need to get back to the girls now."

"Bye, Alicia," he replied. Taylor suppressed a momentary flare of indignation, realizing that it was a perfectly normal thing for someone to do and the scene had probably been replayed dozens of times today. Teenagers were curious. It was only the juxtaposition of the question with the questioner that concerned her. Looking in an apparently idle manner she spotted Dean staring at her from the other side of the cafeteria. As soon as their eyes met he flinched, then turned around and hurried over to his friends, who were all at one table with Victoria and Amy Dallon as well, the latter watching him the same as Taylor was.

The dark haired girl transferred her gaze to Taylor for a moment, then went back to reading her book.

"He's pretty good looking, isn't he?"

The sudden voice from feet away made her look, to see Mandy smirking at her. "Hey, it's not like that, I was just curious, that's all," she replied hastily.

"Suure you were," the girl smirked. Taylor sighed.

"And he's taken. You know, Vicky Dallon? Glory Girl? The Coleslaw Queen?"

Mandy howled with laughter while Lucy stared, then giggled furiously. "Oh, god, she'd go purple if you called her that. People are still poking her about that whole thing nearly a year later. She was really embarrassed."

They all looked at Vicky, who was now sitting very close to Dean, talking quietly. His friends were listening, huddled together, with Dennis popping up like a curious meerkat now and then to check no one was close enough to hear. _"It looks like our plan may be having an effect, Brain,_ " the Varga commented as they watched. There was a certain degree of disbelief and nervousness coming from the six people now, as far as she could tell, but from this distance with this number of people in between them, she couldn't quite decipher the scents enough to be sure what they were feeling.

' _Looks like it. With any luck they'll have the right amount of worry and pass it around. I don't want to really upset them, though, I kind of like them_.'

" _I think they are good people as well. It is a careful balance to strike between terror and cautious respect, but I believe you can manage it, Brain._ " He sounded amused as he so often was.

"I dare you to go and say that to her," Mandy added, making her look back at her new friend and raise an eyebrow as high as she could, which made the girl snicker. "Work it casually into conversation."

"No thanks. I like my liver where it is, and having it pulled out my nose would be annoying," Taylor replied calmly, finishing her food. Both girls looked amused and did the same.

"I might look into that first aid course," she went on when she'd put her knife and fork back on the plate and pushed it away. "Like I said in class, I'm interested in learning more about it. I know enough to put a bandage on someone gushing blood, Mom taught me that, but I'd like to know how to do it properly. Just in case. You never know when it would come in handy."

Lucy looked thoughtfully at her. "That's actually a really good idea," she mused. "I've been thinking about finding some extra credit work and that could be a good one to look at."

"It would be nice to have someone I knew there," Taylor smiled.

The bell rang a few minutes later as they were discussing the merits of knowing how to stop someone bleeding out, so they headed back to class, still talking.

Taylor was in a good mood and having fun, something that little more than a month ago she would never have thought she'd say, probably in general and definitely anywhere within a mile of a school. It was a nice change.

* * *

Dean cautiously watched the girl he now knew to be Taylor Hebert, as well as Saurial, leave the cafeteria in the company of the same two girls he'd seen her sitting with on Friday, all three of them seeming happy and talking to each other. She didn't turn at the door and give him a knowing look as he half-expected her to, something that relieved him more than he liked, especially after hearing the story Vicky had related. He didn't recognize the name, which didn't mean anything, but the fact that her father was someone with some local government pull was interesting.

Dennis was still protesting that the blonde must have dramatized it for effect, while Vicky was getting mildly upset, claiming every word was the absolute truth. He glanced at Amy, who looked back as she put her book away and stood up, but said nothing.

"Come on, guys, back to the grind," Carlos commented as he picked up his tray and headed off to return it.

Sighing to himself, still wondering what the hell to do about the whole thing, Dean followed, as did the others.

He wasn't in a particularly happy mood and was worried. It was not a nice change.

* * *

"Danny?"

Danny looked up from his computer, to see Habib, one of the office workers in the DWU, leaning in the door with an odd expression on his face.

"Yes, Habib?"

"There's… someone… here to see you. Says her name is Saurial?"

He smiled. "Tall, sort of scaly?"

"That's her."

"OK, thanks." Danny opened a desk drawer and pulled out a sealed envelope, then got up and went to the door. Looking into the other, larger, administration office, he saw his daughter in her public persona signing an autograph for Mark, who looked pleased. The blond man glanced at him, grinned, then wandered off again, while she looked over then smiled.

Reaching her he held out his hand, which she took and shook, still smiling. "Hello Saurial. It's nice to meet in person. Here's the letter of permission to use the yard whenever it's empty. You're responsible for any damage of course, the DWU can't take responsibility for anything that happens to you while on our property either."

"That's fine, Mr Hebert," the lizard girl said, a look on her face that even through the non-human physiology he recognized as Taylor trying not to laugh. "It's very good of you and the DWU as well. I'll make sure not to break anything when I use the area."

"Did your session on Sunday go well?" he asked.

She nodded. "Very well. I was here for about four hours or so I suppose, it was a useful training exercise." She grinned, exposing enough teeth that two or three of the half-dozen office workers surrounding her, all of whom were staring and listening intently, gasped a little. She didn't seem to notice. "There was a minor problem with a merchant sniper but I grabbed him and handed him to the police before I left. I didn't want him shooting at any of your people. Other than that everything was great."

"Yes, you mentioned that. How annoying." Danny smirked internally as several of the odd glances shifted towards him. He was beginning to see what his daughter meant, acting casual while saying or doing something peculiar was quite funny.

"It was rude of him, yes," she laughed. "He was a good shot, though. Only missed once." Looking at the envelope in her other hand, she smiled, then folded it up and put it away in one of her pouches. "Thanks very much for this. If the DWU ever needs help, just call and I'll see what I can do."

"Thank you, Saurial, that's very good of you."

She nodded politely to him.

"Would you like a quick tour of the place, maybe?" He glanced at his watch. "I was just about to start packing up to go home, so it's not a problem."

"That would be very nice, thanks, Mr Hebert," she replied.

"Call me Danny," he told her, suppressing a grin. "Come with me and I'll show you around."

They left the admin rooms, talking quietly, while behind them the office workers looked at each other. It took them several minutes to get back to work.

The legend of Danny Hebert was growing…


	24. Sisters and Proposals

Glancing up from her novel, Amy looked at her sister again, then sighed a little, put her bookmark into the page, closed the book, then put it down. "What the hell is wrong with you, Vicky?" she asked, more or less sympathetically. "You've been moping around ever since you insulted that new cape. You apologized, she accepted, why are you still looking like someone pissed in your cornflakes?"

Vicky, who was sitting in a chair beside her sister's bedroom window peering out at the skyline, shrugged. From her position on the bed Amy watched her curiously. The girl had drooped her way in after dinner, muttered something that might have been a hello, then slumped into the chair like a golden blonde pile of depression, which Amy found both odd and irritating. She had enough angst for the both of them herself, she didn't need her sister adding to it. Or, at least, doing it in her room.

Picking at some loose paint on the windowsill with one long fingernail, Vicky sighed. "I don't know, really. I'm… worried? Scared? Sad?" She shrugged again. "It's difficult to put into words."

"Surely Saurial can't be that terrifying," the healer remarked. "I know what you said at lunch and it's obvious that she's not only ridiculously strong and fast, but has some weird powers on top of that, but that sort of thing isn't all _that_ unusual in capes. She's a grab bag with a very heavy dose of Brute, right?"

Vicky looked over at her for a moment, then went back to wrecking the paint job. Amy winced as her sister managed to peel quite a long strip of white gloss paint loose, looking guilty for a moment and hastily pressing it back down again. When she moved her finger it fell off onto the carpet. "Oops."

"Stop ruining my décor and tell me what the problem is, you idiot," Amy sighed, getting off her bed and moving to the other chair next to her sister, shuffling it around so she could look at her more directly.

It took a while for the other girl to nod, but she finally opened up a little. "Partly it's me, I guess. I did something really, really dumb, just because I was angry with Dean. It wasn't even his fault, I know that, and I'm sad about always flying off the handle so easily. Partly it's because she _did_ accept."

"What on earth do you mean?" Amy asked, somewhat confused. "That's a good thing, right?"

"Yes, I guess," the blonde mumbled. "But I can't get over the fact that I blew up over a trivial little thing and went off looking for a fight just because of that, but she genuinely did get insulted and yelled at and just thought it was nothing serious. She actually asked Mom if I was OK! And Mom thinks she meant it. What does that say about me as a person? Never mind the fact that someone was _trying to kill her_ for over a fucking _hour_ and she just said it was rude. Every other cape I've ever met, assuming they didn't actually die, would have been ranting and raving about that sort of thing, not _laughing_ about it."

She momentarily smiled, adding, "Can you imagine what would happen if someone started shooting at Lung like that? He'd burn down half the city just to avenge the insult even if he wasn't hurt."

"Lung isn't known for a sense of humor, no," Amy admitted with a wry smile. "Although as far as I know if you actually got him in the head with a large caliber rifle before he started to ramp up you'd stand a good chance of killing him. After that, you're toast." She thought, then continued, "Actually, now that I say it, I'm kind of surprised that no one has ever actually done that. He doesn't make a lot of friends."

"Maybe they tried and it didn't work," Vicky noted, going back to looking depressed. "I can guarantee from what I saw yesterday it wouldn't work on Saurial. Which is fucking terrifying in a way." She looked at her sister. "You didn't _see_ it. Hearing about it is one thing, seeing someone charge about the place at freeway speeds with a sword six feet long cutting solid steel mannequins into little chunks and _laughing_ about it is… not comforting. Sure, if she hit me with the thing it would only knock me flying. The first time. The problem is that she's so quick she could do it again before my force field reset and I'd be dead just like that."

"There are lots of capes that technically could kill you, though, and it's never stopped you before, or made you like this," Amy noted.

"True, I guess. It was just one more thing to add to all the weird shit. She doesn't act like any cape I've ever met. Not even Case 53s. She seems totally comfortable with herself even though she looks so different, which is… odd. If that had happened to me I'm sure that in only a couple of weeks or so which is what Dean says is how long she's been active as far as anyone can work out, I'd still be curled up in a ball crying about what I looked like."

"She does seem quite different to a normal human," Amy smiled, remembering the PHO videos she's seen. "But as far as I can see she's a decent person."

"I know. Everyone who's met her who wasn't a criminal seems to like her. In a weird way _I_ like her. She's friendly, polite, obviously happy, and stupidly skilled. That's part of the problem, even people who think she's terrifying like her. It's strange. She looks so… dangerous, I guess, but she acts like she just wants to be your friend. When she's not acting like something out of _Alien_."

"Hmm." Amy thought for a moment. It was true enough, there were a surprisingly large number of people, often cops, who were quite complimentary about the reptilian cape on PHO, to a level that seemed a little odd for such a short active career. "Maybe she's a Master of some sort, and is influencing them to like her," she joked.

Vicky's eyes went wide as she lifted her head and stared at her sister. "Oh My God!" she breathed, sounding horrified. "You really think so?"

Laughing, Amy shook her head. "No, I don't. I think she's just a happy and polite person who is nice to people and so people are nice back. It happens." Looking at her sister for a moment, she added sarcastically, "Anyway, why would _you_ of all people be worried about _that_ , Aura Girl?"

Vicky flushed, looking embarrassed. "I try to keep it under control."

"Not very hard," Amy replied. The flush deepened. "You really should, you know."

"Dean told me the same thing before our last but one fight," Vicky said with a grin. "What do you think the fight was about?"

Sighing but amused, her sister shook her head. "You're a strange girl, Vicky."

"But you love me even so, right?"

Vicky looked a little confused by the expression Amy felt cross her face as she quickly turned it away, going red and not answering. Regaining her composure after a second or two and a deliberate act of will, she looked back. "You're my sister, of course I love you, idiot," she said in a snarky tone. "Stop moping around. Saurial isn't going to hurt you, even if she could, unless you do sometime a lot worse than calling her names, so don't keep thinking about it. I'm getting sick of hearing about her. Saurial this, Saurial that, all lunchtime, and after school as well. You'd think that Dean and his friends can't talk about anything else than her. It's irritating."

Vicky seemed surprised about the sudden diatribe, but also considerably less depressed. "OK, we can talk about something else."

"Thank you." Amy huffed a little, but was very relieved that she'd managed to change the subject from something that was getting a lot too close to home.

Although she really would like to have a look at how the lizard girl's body worked. It was intriguing and possibly less boring than the rest of her life.

With an inner sigh she listened to her sister chatter on about something silly one of her friends had managed to do to her Dad's car, which was admittedly quite funny, the blonde noticeably cheering up as she spoke and soon enough more or less back to normal.

* * *

 **Wednesday, February 2, 2011**

Mayor Christner looked at the somewhat elaborate metal clock on his desk, a present from an old friend in Boston and some extremely fine work, noting the time. If his next appointment kept to schedule as accurately as usual, any moment now…

Less than fifteen seconds later the old fashioned intercom on his desk, which he kept because for some reason it amused him, made a discreet buzzing sound. "Yes, Maria?" he said.

"Mayor, your half past three appointment is here," his secretaries' voice came through the speaker.

"Send him in, please," he said, standing and moving out around his desk. Moments later the door opened, the familiar figure of Danny Hebert, head of hiring at the Dock Workers Union and the man everyone knew essentially ran the DWU whatever he said about it, strode in. "Hello, Danny," Roy said, holding out his hand, which was taken and shaken with a firm grip. "Nice to see you again. You're looking well."

This was true, the man before him was looking happier, calmer, and generally fitter than he'd been for years, the perpetual stoop of the downtrodden no longer in evidence. He looked confident and ready for anything the world threw at him.

Roy was pleased about that, he liked and respected the Union representative, although there were certainly times around a negotiating table that he deeply wished the other man would find a different career path, one that was less trouble to the city administration. Perhaps home explosives manufacture or something nice and inconspicuous like that.

Hiding a smile at the ridiculous thought, he motioned to a pair of chairs on the other side of the office, a small table between them, in a less formal layout that being on either side of a desk. "Sit, please. Can I get you anything?"

"Thank you, Mayor Christner," Danny replied, looking pleased. "Some water would be fine."

He moved to sit down, placing his briefcase, the one he'd been carrying around for as long as Roy had known him and which was a wedding gift from his wife, on the floor beside his chair. Going to the small refrigerator built into the other side of the room next to his desk, Roy retrieved a pair of bottles of water from it, then a couple of crystal glasses from the cupboard above it, taking both sets of items back and putting them on the table. "Help yourself. Are you sure you don't want anything else?"

"This is fine, thanks," Danny replied, removing the top of the glass bottle and pouring half of it into his glass, then taking a sip. Roy did the same, sitting in the other chair.

"How is your daughter?" Roy asked, inspecting the other man. "Taylor, isn't it?"

"She's very well indeed, thanks," Danny smiled broadly. "She's transferred to Arcadia after some… minor unpleasantness at Winslow made us both feel she was under-appreciated there. Her entrance tests on Friday went very well. She started on Monday and seems to be having fun so far, she's already made a couple of friends."

"That's good to hear," Roy nodded, taking another sip of water and listening. "I wish something could be done to improve Winslow, it's more run down than I like, but it would take a lot of money that simply isn't available to do more than maintain it." He sighed slightly, as Danny nodded understandingly. "We don't have the budget for massive rebuilding projects which is what I fear it would take."

"Arcadia seems to be doing well, though," Danny noted.

Roy sighed again. "That point has come up more often than you'd think. The problem is that Arcadia is partly privately funded by people with deep pockets, who of course send their children there as well. They generally have little interest in funding other schools. I've asked, but the answer so far is always no."

"I understand. It's annoying but I suppose life isn't perfect. I'm just glad Taylor is going there now." Danny shook his head a little, before topping up his glass. "She was unhappy at Winslow and not doing as well as she's capable of. You should see how she's changed and blossomed in the last little while since the transfer came through, though. Completely different girl in some ways." He grinned. "She looks so much like Annette now you wouldn't believe it and has inherited more than looks from her. Determined young lady."

Roy grinned back. "I remember Annette well, Danny. It was a tragedy losing her like that, so young."

"It was," his guest replied, a momentary distant look on his face. "However, I have things to remind me of her, one of them the best thing in my life, so there's that. Enough about me, how is your family?"

"Rory's doing well, thank you, as is Kyla and Deb. I'll mention to Deb that you asked after them, she'd like that."

"Good. Nice to hear it."

"My niece has been a little unwell recently, though. She keeps getting headaches from what I'm told. Hopefully there's nothing too serious wrong, she's only just twelve, so that's pretty young for most of the bad problems I can immediately think of." Roy sighed, shaking her head. "She's a nice girl but so serious a lot of the time. I'll have to visit my brother and take her a little get well present or something. Oh well, I'm sure she'll recover, the young are pretty resilient."

Danny nodded knowingly. "Oh, yes, they certainly are, trust me."

Pleasantries over, Roy leaned back in the comfortable chair, holding his glass of water, and studied his guest, who smiled a little under the inspection. "So, Danny, what can I do for the DWU today? I'm afraid that there aren't any large contracts available at the moment, although there may be one or two small short term projects available."

"I'd be interested in talking about those at some point, but at the moment, it's not so much looking for work as presenting a proposal." Danny's smile had gone somewhat mysterious.

Looking narrowly at him, knowing damn well the man always had some sort of angle, Roy slowly parroted, "A… proposal."

"A proposal, yes. One that could benefit the city considerably, and I'll admit my own men and women as well." Danny's smile grew. "But it's somewhat… unusual."

Putting his now-empty glass down on the inlaid tabletop with a click, Roy leaned forward again. " _How_ unusual?" His voice was suspicious.

"Quite." Danny's was amused. After a moment, he put his own glass on the table and stood up, walking to the window overlooking the bay in a generally northern direction from the sixth floor of the building. "Come over here a minute, if you would, Mayor."

Curious now, Roy did as asked, moving to stand beside his guest, who pointed out the window. Roy looked in the direction indicated. "How would you like that removed," Danny said quietly.

Roy stared, then looked back to the other man's face. He seemed serious. "The tanker?"

"Yes."

Silence fell for a few seconds while the mayor thought hard. Danny wasn't known as a man who played jokes, although he certainly had a good sense of humor. And one hell of a temper if you managed to ignite it, which was never good. But at the moment he just looked like he was patiently waiting for an honest answer.

"I suppose it would be a good thing, but you probably know better than I do how incredibly expensive that would be. Marine salvage is pricey at the best of times, which these aren't. How would it even be done, anyway? That thing must weigh thousands of tons at least."

"Thirty one thousand six hundred," Danny nodded. "According to the records. Probably less now because some of the equipment was either removed or stolen over the years, but in that ballpark."

"That's a hell of a lot of steel to cut up and take away," the mayor commented, looking back at the vast old ship miles away on the horizon. "It would take years, surely. And what would you do with it? Refloating it would be nearly impossible, I know for a fact that there are at least a dozen large holes in the hull from where rocks went through when it sank."

"True. But, at the current price of approximately two hundred and thirty-five dollars a ton for good quality bulk scrap steel, that represents a little less than seven and a half million dollars, just rusting away. Just for the steel, there are other metals that are worth more in the engine room, the drive shafts, that sort of thing, so call it about eight to eight and a half million dollars. Owned by the city, as far as we can determine."

Roy was a little startled at the figure. It wasn't huge, but it was nothing to sneeze at, either. "OK," he replied, not sure quite what the other man was driving at. "But even so, I can see it costing that much at least to salvage it."

"But even if that was indeed the case, it would then unblock the harbor and allow much larger ships to come and go. The damn thing is completely blocking the deep water channel into the bay. Only fairly small trawlers or cargo ships can go around it, the water either side is too shallow for anything that has very much draft. Not to mention the wreckage in the area which makes it dangerous even then. That's why the port died, of course." Danny sighed in remembrance, as did the mayor.

"It wasn't that long ago that from here you'd have seen a couple of dozen ships and thousands of men working every day down there."

"Those days are gone, Danny," Roy replied sadly.

"Not necessarily."

They shared a look, then Danny went and sat again, pushing his glass and empty water bottle to the side and putting his briefcase where they'd been. The snapping sound of the latches unlocking was loud in the quiet office. The DWU representative pulled out a thick sheaf of papers in a folder and put it in front of Roy, who had just sat again as well.

"This is a very preliminary proposal and a lot of information is missing from it, but the basics are there," Danny told him as Roy looked at the document with raised eyebrows. "However, I've checked with a salvage expert, a ship dismantling yard on the west coast, a marine law expert, the records department, and even a marine biologist. It's possible. Even fairly easily doable with some care. And it would revitalize the port, create or maintain close to eight hundred jobs just in the first year, and possibly even allow for the ferry to reopen. You already know my views on that, of course."

"All too well, Danny," Roy chuckled, opening the report and reading the first page, a summary of the proposal. His eyebrows disappeared into his hairline within the first two paragraphs.

"You can't be serious."

"I am. Very." Danny looked it, when Roy glanced at him. Intrigued, he resumed reading, picking the document up and leaning back. Danny waited patiently.

The actual proposal was only about eight pages, the remainder of the thick stack of papers being made up of charts of the bay, proof of ownership of what looked like at least ninety percent of the junked ships in it, maps of the ships graveyard, a topological relief cross-section of the mouth of the bay, and many other things besides. Most of it had obviously been cobbled together in a hurry but as far as he could see, all hung together.

Feeling a little faint, he closed the report and dropped it to the table, resting his hand on it. "Is this possible? Really?"

"Yes, I think it is. I know how… bizarre… it looks on first sight, but I really think it could be done. The parahuman in question is happy to donate their time and effort to the city, they don't want to profit from it. That makes it much easier from a legal standpoint. The lawyers I spoke to thought it was eminently possible with the right wording in the contract."

He fell silent again, allowing Roy to think. Getting up and wandering back to the window, the mayor stared at the graveyard of dead ships, slowly going orange in the setting sun. "The entire graveyard, the bay, everything?"

"That's the plan." Danny smiled when he looked back for a moment. "Clear some space on the docks first, which would require demolishing several warehouses, which are derelict anyway and also belong to the city and would have enough steel in them to be worth salvaging as well. Repair the ground in that area, one of them has a cellar which would need filling with concrete, which is easy and not too expensive, resurface the whole area, add retaining walls and absorbent zones for any runoff, that sort of thing. It's not complicated or very expensive and it's a known process."

"Once the scrapping area is ready, which we think would take about two weeks, maybe less if I put enough men on the job, we start with the tanker. It would be towed to the docks and the bilges pumped out, because it will be full of all sorts of crap we don't want leaking into the bay. Then, it's sliced up and brought on shore. My men could easily reduce the slices to smaller pieces, sort out anything that wasn't steel, then load the stuff onto rail cars. We'd need to rebuild about half a mile of track that's too badly damaged to repair, to link the rail yard to the main line, but I'm told that would take about two weeks at most, which would be done at the same time as the ground prep work. We even have the track in stock, left over from the refurbishment in the late seventies."

Roy turned around and stood by the window, listening intently. "The scrap steel would be shipped out by rail. There are six smelters within two hundred miles alone that could handle that quantity of scrap at a price like the one I mentioned earlier, and from what I've been able to find out with some discreet questions, at least three of them are desperate for metal and would probably bid for a contract for as much of it as we could supply."

"Once the tanker was gone, which would take about three months with a team of perhaps a hundred working on it, the money from it could be used to dredge the harbor, although the parahuman whose idea this ultimately was could help as well and is willing to do it. That then lets larger cargo ships in, which in turn makes shipping out further scrap easier. We can work our way through the graveyard, at a quick minimum estimate there's over sixty-five million dollars worth of steel there that could be sold off, several supertankers worth of smaller ships. It could be considerably more, there are a lot of ships with very incomplete records on the bottom of the bay half-buried in silt, some of them are pretty big. Not to mention at least a dozen hulls that are sound and refloatable. They could either be sold intact or rebuilt."

He paused for breath, while Roy stared, almost shocked. "Once the graveyard is clear, that's nearly three square miles of prime industrial land right next to the water, all of it owned by the city, available once again. It clears the way for the ferry, as well, which is a bonus. Not to mention allowing for an influx of exactly the expertise we need to revive it, the funds to pay for it, and the jobs for people to run it. At a rough calculation we would clear more than ten million dollars a year over three years after transportation, labor, and material costs are taken into account. But the indirect payback could be as much as ten times that during the same period. Much more over a decade, it could attract a hell of a lot of business to the Bay."

"We'd need to bring in some equipment, we have most of it in stock from the old days, but some is too old, some is worn out, and some is just not in large enough quantities. Large quantities of oxygen and fuel for thermal lances and cutting torches, new rail cars and replacement parts for some of the old ones that are still lying around the rail yard, things like that. Nothing very exciting, just normal heavy industrial equipment. A lot of it could even be purchased used in this economy for a large cost saving. We could upgrade it as needed when the money starts coming in, and the repair work means yet more jobs."

Falling silent, he watched the Mayor, who was gaping.

"That's… certainly an ambitious plan, Danny," Roy finally managed to say. Danny acknowledged the comment with a nod but didn't say anything.

"Too ambitious?" Roy mused.

"I don't think so, sir. The tanker is the bottleneck. Even without the help of the parahuman involved, once that was gone and the harbor dredged we could do the rest the old fashioned way. It would take years longer but is still practical. The figures are in the report." He shrugged slightly. "I'm told that they are happy to help do the whole thing, or any subdivision you want. They don't want to put good people out of work but at the same time they don't want to see the city decay any more. And you know as well as I do that Brockton Bay is dying. If we don't do something fairly soon, it might be too late."

"Depressingly true," Roy nodded, thinking deeply. "The gangs are killing us, we're on the edge of a cliff the whole time. If we could pump more money into the economy and stop it instantly disappearing into Lung's or Kaiser's pockets, the effect would probably be profound. A lot of the drug problems which fuel the gangs are in the end the result of poor desperate people, after all. They have nothing to lose."

"But give them jobs, even fairly basic ones, they have," Danny pointed out. "Start at the bottom and build from there."

"What about security and the gangs?"

"Page five. The equipment is the only really expensive thing and most of it is both so heavy and so specialized it's hardly worth the effort of stealing in the first place except for by a few Tinkers. We could secure it well enough just by putting a large fence around the entire site except the waterfront and posting a few guards, as we do with the DWU facility. More jobs. The upfront cost is fairly high but not unreasonable and could be done in stages, easily. The scrap itself is only worth anything in quantities measured in tons, so unless someone steals an entire trainload it's not an issue. If they do, that's what insurance is for." Danny smiled, again stopping.

"Christ." Roy sighed, flipping the report open and looking at the summary, then leafing through it to a table of estimated costings and studying it closely. "This is… I'm not sure _what_ this is."

"A good idea?"

"A completely insane idea. But it's so crazy it just might work." He grinned as Danny chuckled. "You're sure this parahuman of your can do it?"

"I am, as mad as it sounds. Quite easily."

"There's a cape in Brockton Bay with that sort of power?" Roy was astounded. "A Tinker?"

"Oddly enough, no," his guest smiled. "That part is still a surprise. But they can do what's needed."

"You're absolutely certain of that?"

"I am. Some preliminary experiments have already been done." Danny snickered at the look on Roy's face. "Discreetly. But it's not too hard to arrange. The PRT will go mental when they see it, of course, so I'm half tempted not to tell them just to watch their expressions, but we should probably be more responsible than that."

Roy stared, then started laughing. "Oh, god, I can imagine Piggot's face if she looked out her window one day and that tanker was flying away or something. She'd pop an artery on the spot." Shaking his head, he snickered for a while. He found the PRT director, while he respected her, someone he preferred not to deal with too often. She was competent, but hard to like.

"Is this parahuman you found associated with the PRT?" he asked curiously.

Danny smiled. "The person in question respects the PRT to a degree but has no immediate wish to be directly associated with them," he said dryly. "I suspect that once they become known for what they can do, though, the PRT may be very interested in them. Not that it would do them much good if the parahuman decided they wanted nothing to do with them."

"A little difficult to deal with?"

"Not at all. Just dangerous if pushed too hard or threatened." Danny shrugged again. "Personally, though, I'd trust them with the lives of myself and my daughter any day of the week, which I have to say isn't quite the feelings I have for the PRT, sadly enough."

Shaking his head in wonder, Roy closed the folder. "I'm going to have to think very hard about this, Danny. It's a hell of a step to take and if it failed, it would fail spectacularly. Neither one of us would come out of that well."

"I know, but I have faith in the plan."

After a moment or two more, Roy sighed but nodded. "Look, you go ahead and work this up into something more concrete. Get all the facts and figures right. Bring it back when it's ready and I'll read it again. I'm going to think it over in the meantime, but..."

He trailed off. Danny nodded.

"All right, sir. Thank you for listening to my insane idea."

"Thank you for bringing it to me. I think." Roy smiled as he stood. "I really hope you're right about this, Danny. It could be… remarkable. But we need to be sure."

"I'll continue with working it out quietly," Danny replied. "We don't want to publicize any of it until we're ready, that would cause all sorts of problems, I think, but with some luck I can have a much more detailed report in about a week."

"Fine. I'll have to get it checked out, but I'll wait until you have the details ready." He held out his hand, feeling rather more positive about the day.

Danny Hebert might well be nuts, but he had both ambition and common sense, two abilities that seldom seemed to go together. The last one was so rare it was almost a super-power in its own right.

Shaking the outstretched hand, Danny put his paperwork back in his briefcase and left with a final smile.

Returning to the window, Roy stared at the dimming shape of the huge tanker. It had been part of the background for so long he had real trouble working out what the view would look like if it was gone, but he was suddenly feeling quite interested in finding out.


	25. Visits and Speculations

**Thursday, February 3, 2011**

Roy smiled as the door opened to reveal his sister. "Roy!" she said with delight. "I haven't seen you in weeks. Come in. What brings you here?"

Entering the house, he embraced her after she closed the door. "Hi, Sis," he smiled. "I was reminded of you guys yesterday by a visitor, and decided I should stop in. I've been so busy I haven't had time for anything much else for over a month so it's time I did something else. How are Jim and Dinah?"

His sister Cheryl smiled again. "Jim is fine, he's in the living room. Dinah is in bed, her headaches have been worse this week. Poor girl."

"Have the doctors found anything wrong?" Roy asked as he followed her deeper into the house having hung up his coat and taken his shoes off. She shook her head.

"Not yet, no. Overall she's very healthy and active. They think it's probably migraine, but they're not sure what the cause is. She's going in for some more tests on Monday."

They entered the living room, where his brother in law was looking at a pile of paperwork with a small thoughtful frown, but glanced up when he heard them. "Oh, Hi, Roy," he said with a grin as he put the paperwork down and stood. "How are you. How's the Mayoring business doing?"

"Pretty well, Jim, in both cases," Roy smiled, shaking his hand, then sitting in the chair he was waved to. "Money is tight, as always, the gangs are a nightmare, I wish Kaiser and Lung would kill each other and make life easier for everyone, but other than that..." He chuckled as Jim and Cheryl laughed. "Could be worse. In fact, I had a very interesting talk yesterday with Danny Hebert from the DWU that makes me think things could improve a lot soon with some luck."

They looked interested. "What do you mean, Roy?" his sister asked curiously.

"I can't go into the details yet, but it could clean up a lot of the problems around here, and make the city a lot of money, not to mention saving a lot of jobs." He shook his head wonderingly. "I still have trouble wrapping my head around it, but the man thinks big, I'll give him that. And he seems to know what he's talking about."

A sound at the doorway made all three of them look over, to see a petite twelve year old girl standing there looking a little fragile. Her eyes met his and widened a little, then she smiled. "Uncle Roy!" she said, coming over to him. "You haven't been here for ages."

"I know, dear, and I'm sorry," he smiled, moving over in his chair to leave a gap. "Come here." She hopped up beside him and leaned on him, looking happier.

"I'm glad you came, Uncle Roy. I was getting bored."

"How are you feeling, Dinah?" he asked. She shrugged.

"It hurts, but not as bad. Sometimes it's worse."

"How is your schoolwork going?"

"It's boring," she sighed. "Did you bring me anything?"

"I did," he grinned. "Go and look in my coat. Right hand pocket."

Sliding down with a smile, she left the room, while Jim and Cheryl laughed. "You spoil that girl," his sister said.

"Of course I do," he grinned, "She's the only niece I have."

Coming back into the room holding a small gift-wrapped box, Dinah retook her seat and studied it carefully. She shook it gently. "What is it?" she asked.

"Open it and find out."

With frowning concentration she carefully unpicked the tape holding the green wrapping paper in place, then removed it intact, making him grin again. His own daughter did exactly the same thing, while his son would just tear the paper away as fast as possible. Maybe it was a boy thing.

Revealed under the paper was a small box, with a picture on the front that made her smile. She lifted the lid to reveal a small, high-tech music player, made so precisely it was almost jewelery. "I hope you like it, Dinah. I know how young people are into their music."

Lifting it out of the foam she inspected it closely, turning it over in her hands until she found the power button, which she pressed. It gently beeped and the small display lit up. Touching it she played with the various icons for a moment, then found the manual in the box and started gravely reading it from cover to cover. "Thank you, Uncle Roy," she said in a distracted but grateful voice.

"You're welcome, Princess," he replied, stroking her hair for a moment.

"Thanks, Roy," his sister smiled. "That will mean a lot to her. She's been at home for days now. The school sends her work, and she's keeping up, but she's also bored out of her mind most of the time."

"I'm sorry to hear that, Cheryl," Roy told her honestly. "That must be very hard for all of you."

"It's not ideal," Jim agreed soberly. Standing up, he added, "Would you like a drink?"

"A small one, thanks. With ice." Shortly Roy found himself holding a small tumbled of amber liquid with a couple of ice cubes in it. Dinah looked at it, wrinkled her nose, then went back to reading the documentation for her new toy, making all three adults laugh.

"How is your family getting along?" Cheryl asked.

"Not too bad at all," he smiled. "Rory seems to be having fun, Kyla is apparently doing well in school, and Deb is keeping busy with various projects. Can't complain overall."

"Good. Things here are much the same, mostly, except for poor Dinah." The girl looked up at the sound of her name, smiled a little, then went back to her job. "So, what is this big secret project?"

"It's a big secret, so I can't say," Roy laughed, making Jim look amusingly sad. "Sorry. It's a little sensitive right now, but with some luck I can let you in on it in a few weeks. It's going to be spectacular if we can pull it off, though. We could revitalize the city to a level I can hardly believe if it works out the way Danny thinks."

"I've never met the man but I've heard quite a lot about him," his brother-in-law remarked thoughtfully. "Didn't his wife die a while back?"

"Yes, it was a car accident. Very sad. She was only about thirty-five and a really smart, funny woman. Her daughter apparently takes after her but I've never met the girl. She recently transferred to Arcadia, though, and Danny says she's doing well, which is nice. The poor guy was really depressed about his wife for a long time but seems to have recovered very well recently, if what I saw yesterday was any indication."

Roy smiled. "I think his daughter was a big part of that, whatever prompted the transfer from Winslow to Arcadia seems to have done them both good in the aftermath."

"God, Winslow." Cheryl looked appalled. "I visited that place once, it was awful. Why on earth can't you do something about that, Roy?"

"It would take too much money, Sis. Way too much. We simply don't have it without raising taxes, which would probably spark a local civil war on the spot. No one has the money to go for that, aside from a small number of people, who would simply not pay one way or the other." He shrugged a little fatalistically. "I may be the mayor but I know where the real power is in this city. I'm not stupid."

After a little thought, though, he grinned evilly. "If this plan works, that might well change."

"If that's the case you should definitely do it, Roy, whatever it is. Right, Jim?"

"Yes," her husband nodded, also smiling. "We need to make the city safer, so if you have a plan that will do that, go for it."

"A poll of local voters returned a unanimously positive result," he snickered. "Small sample size, but significant."

Beside him, Dinah put the manual back in the box, then looked up at him. "What does unanimously mean, Uncle Roy?"

"It means everyone agreed. What about you? Should I go ahead with the plan? Will it work, do you think?"

She winced. "84.3% chance of success if you proceed," she muttered. "Ow."

Roy stared at her, then at his sister, who smiled sadly. "She keeps saying things like that. No one seems to know why."

"How very strange," he mumbled, suddenly thinking very hard. Dinah went back to her music player, still wincing a little, fiddling with the device in a way that suggested she had remembered everything she'd read.

After a couple of minutes and a wildly odd thought, he asked, "Dinah?"

She looked at him.

"How many coins do I have in my pocket?"

She shrugged. "It doesn't work like that, Uncle Roy. Only percentages."

Nodding very slowly, he thought for a moment, then asked, "What are the chances I will take less than three coins from my pocket?"

"9.49%," she replied, rubbing her head with her free hand. "It hurts if you do that too much."

"OK, dear, last one. What are the chances I will take more than four coins out?"

"96.3%. Ow." She paled a little, looking like she was going to fall over. Stroking her hair with his other hand, he looked over at Cheryl and Jim, who had been watching with worried curiosity.

He put his hand in his pocket, rummaged around randomly, then pulled it out, opening it flat to reveal three dimes, one nickle, and two quarters. "I need to call someone about Dinah," he said quietly. "But I think I know why she gets headaches."

* * *

Slowly rotating her office chair back and forth while she thought, Hannah puzzled over the whiteboard on the wall of her office. On it were written a number of observations from several sources about the new Cape Saurial. She'd been scribbling them down and adding to them in various colors of marker and no particular order since she'd started writing the preliminary PRT threat report a few days ago and had just finished adding in some more, squeezing them in wherever she could find space on the now full board.

Looking at the list she now suspected the report was quite likely a gross underestimate.

 _Appears to be reptilian, although she told Clockblocker and Kin Win she was not_

 _Speech pattern and overall mannerisms, ignoring the physical variance due to different body type, are broadly consistent with female teenager, approximately fourteen to seventeen years old_

 _High Brute level strength, upper limit unknown, but claims to be able to dead lift over two and a half tons. New Wave observers note this figure likely underestimate. Brute rating possibly too low_

 _Significantly enhanced senses, sight and smell verified although level unknown, hearing suspected. Thinker rating possibly too low_

 _Extremely fast reaction time, far better than human scale, added to high speed motion ability. Can run at minimum 60mph, suspected true limits higher. Possibly significantly. Shows no preference for which way up she is in combat, scales walls like level surfaces and can run across ceilings. Uses claws for purchase. Mover rating too low_

 _Extremely durable. Showed no reaction to high velocity bullet impact to side of head except minor verbal annoyance. True durability unknown_

 _Can apparently create matter from nothing, in specific forms, maximum complexity unknown. Matter generation confirmed for several types of cloth and metal, including the material Armsmaster has designated SaurialSteel, although he is also insistent it is not any form of ferrous metal. Most qualities of this material unknown at present_

 _Gallant claims to detect two distinct although related emotional signatures from her, but has difficulty describing them except as very faint. Appears perturbed by it_

 _From Lady Photon's observations, has significant skills in weapons handling, such as sword work, and demonstrated capability to dual wield such weapons with ease_

 _Appears, again from the above observations, to have skill in battlefield tactics. This is confirmed by video recording given to Kid Win. Such abilities would be expected as the result of many years training and experience, but no such experience can be found and is inconsistent with estimated age range_

 _Is actively leveraging above skills and abilities to produce new techniques, such as tail mounted blade set, observed to be 'horrifyingly effective'_

 _Can move with extreme silence if required. Clockblocker completely missed her and Kid Win stated that if he hadn't been watching, he would never have known she was there. Possible minor Stranger ability?_

 _Non-aggressive, polite, and respectful to authority in the form of the BBPD, and generally friendly demeanor. Considered likeable by almost everyone. Shows no worry about entering shops and purchasing snacks. Likes raw eggs with shell. Exhibits mischievous sense of humor_

 _Extremely effective in close quarters combat, using martial arts techniques unlike any on record except superficially, shows preference to work in dark, possibly for psychological impact on opponents_

 _Shows preference for minimum force take downs, no injuries reported from last several operations. Minimizes collateral damage when possible_

 _Has developed working relationship with DWU and Danny Hebert, seen at DWU facility on at least two occasions_

 _Suspected medium to medium-high level changer, no evidence so far available for this_

Studying the list, she looked particularly at the notes about estimated age and her skill level which was in conflict with that estimate. There was something bothering her about the whole thing, something she couldn't quite put her finger on.

Leaving those aside, the list described a cape with a remarkable range of abilities, mostly revolving around the Brute rating. Her speed and reaction time were probably all part of the same thing, the very high strength giving her the ability to move very fast indeed. So that could lump Brute and Mover into one easily enough. The Thinker rating was a nicety, really, it just gave a convenient handle on the enhanced sensory package.

Even the possible minor Stranger rating she'd jotted down a few minutes ago was only a reflection of her extreme level of control over her movements. Move slowly and carefully enough and most people won't see or hear you.

She thought it all hung together much better if you considered her as more like the reptile she appeared as, despite her protestations to the contrary, than a human. Many lizards were very strong for their size, had remarkably fast reactions, could move extremely fast or ridiculously slowly at will, and had wildly better senses than humans as well. It was as if someone had taken a lizard and reworked it around a human frame more than anything else. Or possibly the other way around. Although a true reptile slowed to a crawl in low temperatures due to being cold blooded which she definitely wasn't, showing no problems walking around barefoot in near freezing temperatures.

The vaguest hint of another possibility came to her, making her try to bring it to the front of her mind. She couldn't for the moment and stopped straining, allowing her subconscious to work on it, while she looked the list over once more.

The mismatch between what she thought was fighting experience and the estimated age was odd. Either the cape was quite a few years older than she seemed and had racked up a lot of time fighting quite serious odds, without leaving a paper trail, or her Trigger had been nice enough to gift her with a lot of skills that most people would need to learn the hard way. Not impossible but very unusual.

The other very weird bit was that part about Gallant being convinced she had two different emotional patterns at the same time, almost like…

She froze, her chair stopping dead, then leaned forward and read the list again very carefully. A wild surmise came to her as her eyes widened.

"God. It fits, more or less." Hannah leaned back in her chair, her mind racing. It was a possibility that seemed fairly out there but there was precedence. Not that she liked to think about that.

"Oh, hell," she sighed. "The Director is going to have a fit."

Looking the list over again, she shook her head. A few things, specifically the matter creation ability if that's what it really was, stood out as not being quite aligned with her alarming hypothesis, but she could come up with various possibilities even they might be explained by, if you took the central precept of her idea as true. And it explained the lack of any evidence so far for the last point, making it unnecessary.

Copying her notes from the board into a notebook, she erased the original. If she was right, she didn't want anyone knowing before she had a chance to run it past Director Piggot. There were known to be a minimum of two moles reporting to people unknown in the PRT at the moment, although so far only one of them had been positively identified. The man in question was being carefully fed a diet of believable but misdirecting information in an attempt to see who he was working for without tipping that person or group off. So far it hadn't produced anything particularly useful.

Checking the time, she nodded to herself. It was still early enough that the director would be awake, although she'd gone home a couple of hours ago, neither having her own ability to not sleep, or as much physical stamina as might be wished due to her various ailments. After debating with herself for a moment, she decided not to call in advance, going down to the equipment room and checking out some gear she thought might be useful, before heading for the boat to the city.

* * *

Emily Piggot sighed slightly as the doorbell rang, looking at the clock on her bedside table and seeing it was just after half past nine. She normally went to bed early except on days where she had a late dialysis, which today she hadn't had, and had been looking forward to a quiet night reading for a little while then going to sleep.

The bell rang again, so she mumbled something rude under her breath, struggled to sit up on the edge of the bed, then as a precaution, reached under her pillow and removed her service pistol, checking it with the familiarity of long habit. Standing with a grunt she made her way to the door, checked the entry screen to the side, raised her eyebrows, then opened the door on the security chain with the pistol at her side.

Seeing it was in fact Hannah in her civilian guise, she sighed once more, closed the door, removed the chain, and opened it again waving the woman in. "I'm sorry to disturb you so late, Director, but I have information I don't trust to the PRT computers or the phone," Hannah said apologetically as soon as she was inside and the door was shut. She didn't even blink in surprise as Emily flicked the safety on the pistol on again and put it in her dressing robe pocket.

"Come into the living room and tell me, then," Emily yawned. "I need some tea if I'm going to have to think. Do you want some, Hannah?"

"Please. Thank you, Director."

The younger woman followed her superior into the other room, taking a seat when she was silently waved to it and waiting patiently as Emily boiled some water and made two cups of tea, bringing them back with her along with milk and sugar. Sitting down with a sigh of relief she added the latter to her own in a small amount, knowing it was bad for her diabetes but not at the moment caring, then took a sip. The other woman did much the same.

"All right, what brings you here at this time of night that couldn't wait until morning?" Emily asked.

"Saurial. Or, some thoughts I have had while going over various things about her." Hannah looked worried, which made Emily's heart sink a little. The other woman was one of the very few capes she genuinely respected and if she thought something might be amiss… It could be bad.

"Go on."

"You've read my initial threat report?"

"I have. Also the other reports from the Wards, and the BBPD interactions as well. So far this young woman, despite an unconventional appearance and methodology, appears to be doing good work. Much better work than most new capes and quite a lot of experienced ones." Emily smiled faintly. "I wish more heroes would try to minimize the damage to people and infrastructure the way she seems to."

"All that is true, yes. She's been impressively effective. Even though several people seem to be worried about going into dark places now having seen her recordings." Hannah smirked slightly. "Poor Clockblocker, despite seeming to rather like her, has said more than once that there's no way you could possibly pay him enough to go into a dark warehouse with her in there as well."

"Her prank on him was amusing, I thought. It was refreshing to have him the target for once. And if you say I said that, you're fired." Emily smiled a little more widely, making her guest grin briefly.

"Noted."

Hannah's smile disappeared after a moment. "I've been going over my notes and the various reports for days, thinking that there was something missing, something that I should have seen. On Monday, I was contacted by Lady Photon, who passed on some more information on Saurial, which was… intriguing."

"New Wave?" Emily was a little surprised. "What have they been doing with Saurial?"

"Apparently last week Glory Girl had a run in with her. Words were exchanged. She didn't go into detail, she seemed embarrassed, but apparently Glory Girl said some things that were quite rude, then stormed off. Not entirely surprising knowing the young woman, she can be quite hot headed."

"Yes," Emily nodded sourly. She was all too aware of that. It certainly wasn't the first time. "How did Saurial take it?"

"Oddly well, apparently. She didn't rise to the challenge at all, merely asked her to go away and stop being rude. When Brandish contacted her on Sunday, she asked if Glory Girl was all right and seemed genuinely to be concerned. Which is somewhat unusual, and rather nice."

"It's not normal cape behavior in many cases, certainly," Emily replied, frowning in thought.

Nodding, Hannah continued, "Apparently Saurial was at the time ' _training_ ' as she put it in the DWU facility at the docks. Brandish asked if they could meet so Glory Girl could apologize and she invited them to meet her there, which they did, 'they' being Brandish, Glory Girl, Lady Photon, and Laserdream, the latter two visiting at the time of the call and going along out of curiosity, I think."

"The DWU facility?" Emily frowned again, surprised. "What was she doing there?"

"She said she needed a large open place that didn't have anyone in it for training, looked around, spotted it, then tracked down the number of the person to ask if she could legitimately use it. Danny Hebert."

"Oh." That was a name she'd hoped not to hear again for quite a while. At least this time it wasn't accompanied with evidence of serious wrongdoing from her people. "And he said yes?"

"So she claimed. Since then, she has visited the facility at least once, she was spotted going inside on Monday late afternoon and apparently staying there for over an hour."

"Interesting. I wonder why?"

Hannah shrugged. "I have no idea, although I'm discreetly trying to find out. So far without any luck, the dock workers tend to stick together and not talk too much to other people. They're surprisingly loyal."

Emily thought more about it, nodded, then motioned to the other woman to continue. "Anyway, the New Wave women arrived in time to see Saurial engaged in what Lady Photon described as one of the most high speed and horrific series of hit and run attacks she'd ever encountered, on a large number of training dummies that Saurial had apparently manufactured. They witnessed her making more later. They were made of some sort of stone, metal, and something like wood. At the time they turned up she was using a pair of the large war hammers that Gallant and Vista reported seeing, apparently frighteningly competently."

"It worried her?"

"It did. Glory Girl was staring in shock, apparently. When Saurial switched to a huge two handed sword she nearly fell over. The girl can hit so fast that you'd get half a dozen strikes inside a second, which to be honest is probably complete overkill for most people outside Lung. Assuming the weapon is made of the hyperdense metal she seems to like using, it would both be remarkably heavy and probably implausibly sharp. Armsmaster is of the opinion that it would accept and maintain an edge he called molecule-scale. Later observations by New Wave would bear that out."

Hannah looked somewhat disturbed. "At the end of their meeting, she formed a set of four blades on a fitting on the end of her tail and used it to dissect a solid metal dummy with ease. I was told she seemed pleased by the effect."

"God. That's… unpleasant," Emily couldn't help but say, picturing the event. Hannah nodded a little.

"In close quarters, she would be appallingly hard to deal with if she went all out. Especially since she appears to raise the concept of bullet-proof to new heights." She explained how the girl had been sniped at nine times and laughed it off, then captured the sniper with minimal fuss and no real effort. Emily listened closely.

"I checked the scene and found expended 30-06 cartridges, which match the gun the police were given. The weapon was a brand new Remington 750 hunting rifle, quite high end, along with a very good scope. The serial number traces to a batch of weapons delivered to a gun dealer in Chicago. It was reported stolen recently, along with several other weapons and a large amount of ammunition. There are no leads as to who was behind the theft, but that isn't unusual in that area. Or here."

After a moment to allow her superior to absorb the information, she went on, "I had a thought when I was studying the scene and looked around for a while. The warehouse the shooter, an ex marine now associated with the merchants, was firing from was well picked, it gave a perfect view over the DWU yard where Saurial was. However, to the west and another two hundred yards away, I spotted a similarly good position from the first one. When I investigated, I found a room that had been recently and professionally cleaned. No traces left of whoever did it, aside from the fact that it been cleaned in the first place. From that point, an observer could watch the sniper _and_ Saurial's reaction to him."

She broke off, waiting. It didn't take Emily long to connect the dots.

"You think it was a setup, not a random merchant sniper or something Skidmark ordered, and someone was watching the results. An experiment to see what she'd do."

"I do."

"Who and why?"

"I don't know, and I don't know. But it's… concerning. The other interesting thing is how did they know? I mean, either whoever was watching her, or they knew ahead of time that Saurial was going to be there. From what I've been able to find out she was probably only there for between three and four hours so they'd have had to move fairly quickly in any case."

Emily considered the idea, then slowly nodded. "What about the shooter? Does he know anything?"

"No, nothing useful. He's an ex marine, as I stated, dishonorably discharged for drug use some six years ago. It seems he ended up in Brockton Bay about a year back and fell in with the merchants, he's basically homeless but seems to somehow have managed to keep himself in fairly good condition. He can't remember very much of any use, he was approached by ' _some guy_ ' as he put it, two days ago, paid nearly two and a half thousand dollars in cash, and a quantity of various drugs he asked for to sweeten the deal, given a photo of the target, and a disposable phone. He got a call and did the job. He was pretty incoherent even the next day when I went to see him, so how he managed to pull off that series of shots I have no idea. A lot of Ritalin and ingrained experience, I think."

Hannah sighed a little. "It's basically a dead end. Neither the police or I have any idea who did it, who stole the weapons, or what the purpose was. Except for the thought I had, which is about all that makes sense. They must have known it wouldn't actually harm her, she's already well known to be pretty invulnerable, the information is all over PHO. So I think it was a test."

"I wonder why Skidmark and his crew didn't interfere?" Emily mused out loud.

"As far as I can tell the local junkies were scared off an hour or so later by some men in masks who went around and told them to leave, waving baseball bats. No actual violence but the threat was there. I found one of them when I left the warehouse, he said the guys meant it, so he and his friends left without any arguments. That's all he knew."

Sipping her tea, Emily leaned back and looked at the other woman, who was watching her patiently. Eventually she nodded a little. "OK, it all seems to hang together, although the point escapes me right now. Is that it?"

"No." Hannah looked troubled again. "I've been trying to rationalize all the oddities about her that we have noticed and had a wild idea I find… worrying. I may well be completely wrong but I think it needs to be considered, but it's so sensitive that I didn't want to risk it getting out. Nothing is on computer, only in a notebook I carry with me."

Surprised, Emily asked, "What's the idea?"

Leaning forward, Hannah pulled a small notebook from her pocket, opened it, then glanced at the page, but didn't show it to her yet. "We've got her down as Brute 6, Shaker 4, Mover and Thinker 3, and a possible Changer rating of 6 or above at the moment. The last one is purely speculative but would explain some of the peculiarities about the case."

"Yes, I know all that, Hannah. It's an unusually large number of different abilities but hardly unique. So?"

"I was thinking about it and you could easily roll the Brute, Mover, and Thinker abilities into one, really." She explained her reasoning, making Emily nod thoughtfully. "The Shaker power is in some ways the oddest, Armsmaster is very intrigued about it. A possible Changer ability would be one explanation as to how she vanishes so well from public view when she's not out doing things, but I realized there might be another possibility that explains a lot of what we've seen."

Impatiently, Emily replied, "Stop beating about the bush, Hannah, and tell me. What's your disturbing idea."

"She's a construct made by a Biotinker Master."

Emily dropped her teacup and paled. She felt her heart jump for a moment.

" _What?_ " she finally whispered, horrific memories from years ago coming back, screams in the dark and terrible things chasing her and her squad…

"I'm not certain, Director, as I said," Hannah hastily added, looking a little worried. "It's just a hypothesis at the moment but it fits quite a lot of the observed facts."

Breathing heavily, Emily waited until her heart-rate settle down, then picked the cup off the carpet and put it on the table. "Explain, please."

"OK." Hannah looked at her notes, although she didn't need to due to her eidetic memory, as Emily knew. She tended to do that sort of thing to give herself time to think. "Saurial appears as far as we can tell to be between fourteen and seventeen. She's already said she's under eighteen. My best guess would be sixteen. She would also appear to be a recent trigger, probably no more than four to six weeks ago." Glancing up to see if her superior was following, she received a nod to continue, which she did.

"The problem is that she also exhibits skills and techniques that in my estimation are the result of several, possibly many, years practice in martial arts, combat techniques, weapons use, battle tactics… The list is quite long already. It's difficult to correlate with the age. Either she's a lot older than she looks and has somehow stayed out of the public eye for years, or somehow she's learned years worth of abilities in weeks."

"Powers are largely unknown, Hannah, that could be part of hers."

Hannah nodded agreement. "It could. Or it could be the result of an external agent essentially programming her with a large number of abilities and techniques. If, for example, a Biotinker had set out to design a warrior creature, he or she could quite possibly have based it around a reptile of some sort. It's a good choice assuming the metabolism could be redesigned to function in low temperatures, since reptiles are strong, fast, tough, have excellent senses, and often good regenerative abilities. I can only assume that a biotinkered version would be improved in all those things to one degree or another."

Pondering the suggestion Emily admitted to herself it was possible. "Why make it with the personality of a sixteen year old girl, though?" she asked.

"Perhaps to make her likeable, which she definitely is. It throws people off, her appearance is fairly threatening, but she's also friendly and seems pleasant. It makes people underestimate her."

"A deliberate ploy, you think."

"Possibly, yes. The really disturbing thing is that the poor girl may not even realize the truth. In a way, like a Case 53, but worse. She may well be a completely artificial person, who thinks she's real."

Thinking, Emily fell silent, as did Hannah, while she went over the facts. After a minute or so the other woman looked at her notes once more for a moment. "It explains the appearance, all the abilities except the Shaker one, and several other incongruities. Where she vanishes to after she does her thing, for example. Some lair where she might perhaps just get more or less switched off and reprogrammed. It also explains the dual emotional signatures that Gallant reported, if the biotinker is a master as well, and connected to her in some manner. Possibly controlling her, possibly simply aware of what she is."

"It may also be that the sniper test was done by her maker to evaluate her performance without her knowledge. I can see that happening if I'm right about her." Hanna shrugged. "Which I may well not be, she might be exactly what she appears to be. But I thought you should know."

Absently Emily nodded, still thinking. A lot of it fitted unpleasantly well. Which was worrying. "What about her Shaker abilities, then? How do you explain that?"

"At the moment I can't," Hannah admitted. "One possibility is that the proposed Biotinker may have found a way to induce powers artificially in his or her creations." Emily paled at the thought again. "Or it might be something completely different that's just appearing to be a Shaker ability. Teleportation, perhaps? I don't know. But can you say it's impossible?"

"Unfortunately, no, I can't," the Director sighed. "Too little is known about powers and as Clockblocker is more than happy to say, they're bullshit at the best of times."

With a slight smile Hannah nodded.

"If I'm right about it, I think that at some point we're going to see other constructs along the same pattern, it's unlikely the Biotinker would stop at one. I would assume that the basic design could be modified in many ways, or they could come up with something entirely different. I think we should be on the alert for that. Hopefully whoever it is, they're not actively hostile, the actions of Saurial to date would support that, but we should remain observant. And continue to try to persuade her to come in for tests which might prove it one way or another."

The woman leaned back with a sigh. "As I said, Director, I may be going down the wrong path, but I think there's enough merit to the idea to consider it. The ramifications could be unpleasant."

" _That's_ putting it mildly," Emily replied with a sour look. "Shit. Just what we needed. OK, thank you for telling me, and making certain I won't be able to sleep tonight." She sighed as Hannah smiled again.

"I think we need to be very careful about this. Any rumors that got out could cause absolute chaos. I'm classifying this to the top level, you mention it to no one. Not even Armsmaster at the moment, I want it kept to the absolute minimum number of people. Write up a report, by hand, and I'll look it over. We need to keep gathering evidence to confirm or deny it as well. I'm going to have to think about the next step. We'll have to notify the Chief Director sooner or later but I'd like to have something more than a theory and some rather circumstantial evidence, no matter how convincing, to show her."

"Yes, Director," Hannah agreed.

"And if any more reptilian capes turn up, we can start getting worried. All right, I'm going back to bed. You go and do whatever it is you do when everyone else is asleep." Emily struggled to her feet with a groan, her back killing her, as Hannah also stood, then let her out, before locking the door. Going back to bed she put the pistol under her pillow again and picked up the book she'd intended to read before going to sleep, but in the end found it impossible to concentrate on.

* * *

Danny smiled as Taylor leaned in the doorway to his home office, smiling back. "Are you going out tonight, dear?" he asked. She shook her head.

"No, I'm going to get an early night tonight. I've done my homework and I think it all went well."

"You're enjoying school, aren't you?" he asked. His daughter smiled again and nodded.

"Yes. It's a lot of fun right now. Mandy and Lucy are nice, I've met several other people who seem like they're friendly, the work is going well, and there aren't any bullies. I can't complain." She grinned for a moment. "And I've caught three more groups of criminals, helped the fire department get two people out of a wrecked car, and met Clockblocker and Vista again. Still haven't met Aegis yet or any of the other capes."

"Have you decided whether he's the one you thought he was?" Danny asked.

She nodded, her smile going away. "Pretty much, yes. I walked past him yesterday and his scent was definitely the one I smelled on Clockblocker and Kid Win, and it also had traces of Sophia mixed in. I think that probably confirms my idea but I won't be sure until I meet him in costume." Taylor shrugged a little. "Not that it really matters but I'd like to know for sure."

"I understand." Danny thought she was handling it in a very mature way and was proud of her for it. After a moment, he smiled again. "You really did make an impression at the DWU on Monday, dear," he laughed. "I've been bumping into people ever since who want to meet you and were disappointed that they missed your visit. Perhaps Saurial should stop by again."

"I'll check her schedule, Dad," she grinned. "She's busy but may be able to make time for the little people."

"The little people would be grateful," he snickered. "Most gracious of her."

She pushed off from the doorway and made an elaborate bow, her tail waving behind her, which cracked him up. "You're entirely welcome, sir," she giggled, straightening up again. "I may go back on Sunday for some more training, but I also need to go and try those javelins and darts. They're too dangerous for the DWU yard, I'll go up to the shipyard like I said."

"Have you used your combat form in public yet?" he asked curiously. "I know you use that form when you're running around but it's always cloaked, right?"

She nodded. "So far, yes. I haven't run into any problem that needed anything more powerful than Saurial yet but I guess I will sooner or later. I'm trying to think of a name for it. I'm not sure if I want to let people know Saurial can change shape or size at the moment, it's possible that could lead them back to me and you."

"Don't you think having two different reptilian capes running around in the same place is going to make people suspicious anyway?" he asked. "You are fairly distinctive after all. Not to mention all the other similarities, like the weapons and armor."

"The armor looks completely different, Dad," she protested. "No skirt, different color, everything. Anyway, what are people going to do? Just put it down to a weird coincidence, probably." She giggled as he nodded thoughtfully. "Or some great big conspiracy theory," she added. "There are some idiotic ones on PHO about me. I haven't posted yet but I should start soon. But it's fun reading about all the things people are saying, even though some of them are just creepy. That Void Cowboy is a freak."

"I can agree, I found some of the posts… unpleasant," Danny shuddered. "But the moderators seem to smack him down pretty fast."

"I might go for another swim as well," she mused after a nod and a smile. "I liked doing that. Maybe go up the coast for a while and find somewhere uninhabited to do some more experiments. I still haven't tried the full Varga form, it's too big for the city except in an emergency. People could see me from the other side of the bay. I want to try the blast voice as well, which is much too dangerous to do around here."

"Be very careful with that, if you do," he warned. "From what you've told me it's horrendously powerful. Don't blow holes in the landscape anywhere around people."

"I won't, Dad," she assured him. "I'll look up a map of the coast and find somewhere really remote. There are a few places further north that might be useful, or maybe one of the uninhabited small islands up there. I can swim pretty fast, I think I could get there and back in a couple of hours. Probably at night so no one saw anything."

"All right." He shook his head in wonder. "I really want to see this aquatic form of yours at some point, especially when it's that size, but I agree it's not a good idea in the bay."

"How's the proposal coming?" she asked after a moment, looking at his desk. He followed her eyes.

"Not bad, actually. I should have it done by probably Tuesday at this rate. I've got most of the costings nailed down pretty well at the moment, I'm going to be looking into the transportation and labor requirements in more detail tomorrow. I've also got some of the boys checking the state of the railway and the rail yard itself and inspecting the warehouses that would need to be torn down." Smiling at her, he added, "You could help with that as well, I think. It would only take you hours to do what my guys would take days over, and it would be safer."

"Let me know when you want some warehouses stepped on," she grinned. "But that's going to make people stop and stare, I think."

"We might reserve the actual Godzilla attack for later," he laughed. "But I'm sure you could rip down a building at a much smaller size."

"I'd love to find out," she snickered.

"The thing I'm trying to work out is how we're going to announce this to the public, though," he said after also laughing, looking thoughtfully at her. "I don't want someone panicking and hitting the Endbringer siren, but I also don't want the entire city on the docks watching. It will take some careful planning. The PRT are an issue as well, they may try to interfere."

"We can deal with that when it needs to be done," she assured him. "I can just tow the thing from underwater most of the way anyway, once it's off the rocks the water is deep enough for me to swim while pulling it for at least two thirds the distance. Varga thinks we should try lifting it with some sort of floats at high tide to get it off the rocks that are punched into the bottom, so we don't rip it to pieces, then pull it with a harness and cables. It sounds like a good idea. Then I can shove it right up against the dock in the deeper part and let it settle again. You said it would need to be pumped out?"

"Yes, there will be all sorts of nasty crap in the bottoms of the intact tanks, so we need to get that out of the way first. After that you can cut it up and put the bits on the dock. Hopefully that wouldn't take too long."

She smiled. "I think I can do it pretty fast. I _was_ wondering if I could lift the entire thing onto the shore, but it would probably fall apart. It was looking a bit fragile. Although… maybe reinforce it with Vargastuff first?" She got a calculating look on her face which made him grin.

"Slices will be fine, dear. They're easier to handle. While the entire ship would be impressive I think it's overkill."

"OK, Dad," she said agreeably. "You guys are the experts, I'm just the muscle."

Laughing, he stood and hugged her. "You're far more than muscle to me, Taylor. Although that aspect is certainly going to be useful."

"Hey, I was wondering something," she said after he released her. "Once that land the graveyard is on is finally clear, isn't it going to be worth a lot of money?"

"Yes," he smiled. "A hell of a lot. Prime industrial land next to the city and the bay will be worth millions. Right now it's actually a net loss to the city, it costs money just sitting there."

"Could we buy some as an investment?" she suggested thoughtfully. "I don't mind using some of the settlement money for that. If we'd be allowed to, that is."

"I'm ahead of you there, dear, I've already looked into it. There's no law to stop us, although I'd have to do it in my name as you're underage at the moment. I'm going to talk to the Mayor about purchasing a parcel of land on that basis, and also see if we could have the DWU itself buy some. In a few years it would pay back enough to give us a very nice pension fund. I think it's possible. But there's going to be a complete feeding frenzy when the news gets out assuming that the project goes ahead, although I'm feeling pretty confident about that part."

Danny smiled as his daughter looked impressed. "Not the first time around the block for your old man, kid."

"You're not _old_ old, Dad," she laughed. "Only old."

"Foolish girl. Go to your room," he chuckled.

"I intend to," she grinned. "A little time on the internet then bed. Night, Dad, see you in the morning." With a small wave she left, her footsteps on the stairs going up then into her room.

Smiling to himself, he turned back to the computer and the latest draft of the report, checking his figures carefully.

* * *

Lying on her bed in her quarters in the PRT building, Sophia spun a crossbow bolt through her fingers over and over, walking if back and forth and admiring the way the light glinted from the broadhead point on the end. "Fucking Hebert," she mumbled. "This is all her fault. Somehow, I'm going to make her pay. And her father too, the bastard."

Over and over the bolt spun as she thought dark thoughts.

When they were dead, she could find that new cape and ask her to teach her.

That video had been _beautiful_.


	26. Inspections and Meetings

**Friday, February 4, 2011**

"What are you looking at now, Lucy?" Taylor asked curiously as she sat at her desk a few minutes before the bell rang, barely conscious of the way she carefully moved a little sideways to allow her tail to slip past the back of the chair and onto the floor behind her. It was somewhat inconvenient, she'd have preferred to remove the chair and sit on her tail like she did at home, but that was probably a little too much. Luckily they were at the back of the class and hardly anyone ever needed to walk behind her, although in other classes there had been some embarrassing and somewhat funny incidents with people tripping over it, stumbling, then wondering why. The cloak technique seemed to be holding up nicely so far.

She was running most of the way to school most days in either her combat form, which she still couldn't think of a name for that she liked, or as Saurial, under the cloak, then jogging the rest of the way as her human self, visible to the world. She'd taken the bus twice but preferred the physical effort. At the speeds she could reach, weaving in and out of the oblivious traffic, she was much faster than the bus anyway. Sometimes she wondered what the reaction would be if she let people see her, and stopped at traffic lights and the like just for fun. It amused her but again was probably a little excessive.

Her friend, as the girl had definitely become, along with Mandy, tilted her high end smartphone towards her, Mandy and another classmate, Rich, moving around to keep the screen in view. "Saurial and Vista talking on the boardwalk the day before yesterday. Clockblocker was there as well but this video doesn't show him."

"They're just standing there talking, why would anyone video that?" Taylor asked, inwardly amused. She remembered the encounter well, the young Ward had had some questions about her climbing and running abilities that she'd answered to the best of her abilities, propping herself on her tail and left leg so she could raise her right foot to her waist and show the girl her toe-claws. The inhuman jointing of the limb made it easy, but had made Clockblocker choke a little, then stare.

"People video anything to do with Capes, you know," Mandy put in, smiling. "Lucy is sort of obsessed with Saurial. Actually, she's into reptiles, did you know she has a pet iguana?"

"No, I didn't," Taylor laughed, looking at the Chinese girl who was keeping her eyes on the video but going slightly pink. "That's interesting. How big is it?"

"About four feet long," Lucy replied quietly, looking over at her for a moment. "He likes eggs. Like Saurial does, someone on PHO says she comes into his shop and buys them by the box full then walks away eating them in the shell, raw."

"Uurgh," Rich laughed from the other side of Mandy's desk. "That's horrible."

"She seems happy enough with eating them," Lucy giggled. The video ended, so she put her phone away, the bell ringing shortly thereafter. "And I was right that time. Her scales are definitely blue, a nice shade. I wish I could meet her, she looks interesting."

Smiling to herself, Taylor turned her attention to Mr Hanks as he took roll, thinking that she should one day let her friend meet her other persona. It would make her day.

* * *

Sitting on her bed, Lisa paged through the various PHO sightings of Saurial, wondering what it was about the cape that was bothering her. Her power was poking her something fierce but every time she tried to draw some conclusions, she got the mental equivalent of a blue-screen, then had to go and lie down for a while to recover. It was annoying, frustrating, and somewhat worrying.

Giving up on that train of thought for the moment she amused herself trolling PHO for a while, before reading some Alexandria fanfiction and giggling about it. She posted a few snarky comments about how out of character Legend was, waited to see the explosion of annoyance, then sighed with boredom and shut the laptop, lying down and staring at the ceiling.

She was no closer to working out Coil's power, which left her no closer to working out how to get out from under the bastard's thumb. This was also annoying, frustrating, and worrying.

The upside was that he'd gone surprisingly quiet the last couple of weeks, only calling her four times in that period for what on the face of it were fairly innocuous questions. He'd called her in to his base once, talked for about ten minutes, then threw her out again, giving off the impression of being nearly as annoyed as she was about the entire pointless activity.

She dearly wished she could simply take out her pistol and shoot the fucker between the eyes but she knew that wouldn't end well, until she could work out how to neutralize any advantage he had over her. Sooner or later she'd work it out, hopefully before he dropped them in so deep they couldn't get out. Send them to fight Lung or something like that.

Laughing for a moment at the absurd idea, she got up, wandered into the kitchen, and made some coffee, which she drank. Finally, deciding she was just running in circles, she left her apartment and headed towards the Undersider's base, just for the company.

On the way she went back to the odd conversation she'd hacked into between Piggot and her people and Shadow Stalker, the principal of Winslow, and some PRT agent, who by the sound of it would soon be an ex PRT agent. It had been both funny and disturbing by turns. Feeling a considerable sympathy for this Taylor Hebert girl, and a lot of respect for her father for the remarkably neat way he'd shut the entire thing down, she wondered how much they'd ended up with as a settlement. Hopefully it was a lot.

Idly trying to extract more information from the conversation, with her powers producing wilder and wilder ideas, she headed away from the fairly civilized areas of the city into the beginnings of the docks. Half a mile further on, she stopped to observe a group of men who seemed to be carefully checking the rail line that ran through the area from the direction of the main waterfront towards the rail yard. There were a dozen of them walking along both rails looking at them, and poking them with crowbars and other tools, while each group of six had one extra making notes. Surrounding them were half a dozen more men who were clearly guards, keeping a wary eye on the surroundings and carrying metal baseball bats.

"Hmm." Lisa found a good vantage point and aimed her power at the group.

 _Dockworkers, from the DWU facility_

 _Checking rails for damage_

 _Thinking of reopening rail line_

 _Excited about possibility of new work_

 _Big project possible in near future_

 _Driven by DWU_

 _They don't know the details but are still willing to do whatever is necessary_

 _Loyal to their boss_

She blinked a couple of times in surprise, kept watching for a little while, then went on her way. She noticed a number of Merchants were also watching and muttering to themselves but were obviously not keen on going over and asking what the men were up to.

 _Wary of dockworkers_

 _Afraid of dockworkers_

 _DWU has made them afraid_

"Interesting," she mumbled, glancing back at the workmen. She noticed that one of the guards was watching her closely and sped up a little, feeling just a small amount of worry.

She was going to have to tell Brian and the others about this new development, they'd need to be careful. Her power was telling her change was on the horizon and it might be a good idea to stay clear.

She wasn't going to tell Coil, though. Fuck him, let him work it out himself.

* * *

Dinah looked up at her parents, and Uncle Roy, who had come with them to the PRT building. She'd met some interesting people including Miss Militia, who she thought she liked, and told them all about the numbers that she kept seeing when certain types of questions were asked. She had no control over the answers, not really, it hurt too much not to answer.

She'd discovered she could ask the questions herself and whatever was giving the answers would do the same for her, but she still got the headaches after half a dozen or so. But at least an adult was finally listening to what she had to say and not just telling her she had something wrong but they didn't know what.

It was a little annoying, she'd been trying to tell them that for nearly three weeks, but just because she was only twelve, no one seemed to take her seriously. They were now, though, thanks to Uncle Roy.

Smiling at him, which prompted a smile back, she went back to playing with the music device he'd given her. Her father had helped her put all the favorite music on it the night before and she'd discovered that listening to some of it at low volume with her eyes shut helped the pain her ability produced if it was overused. Yet another thing to thank Uncle Roy for.

Turning the music to a low level so she could hear past the earphones, she listened to the discussion between the three adults and Miss Militia, who was looking at a folder of paperwork in the private room they'd been shown to after a lot of tests elsewhere in the building. Miss Militia had, somewhat oddly, reached up and carefully unplugged the security camera mounted on the wall by the door as soon as they entered. Dinah wondered why.

"Testing has confirmed that Dinah has a very powerful precognitive ability. We're tentatively rating her at Thinker 8, although that might go up a little with further testing. Due to the power-induced migraine we're very limited in the number of questions we can ask her at any one time, she says it hurts too much after about six or seven. She needs several hours between sessions to recover. The scientists think that she risks injury if it's pushed so we want to avoid that at all costs."

"Are there any drugs that can help?" Her mother seemed worried. "We gave her ibuprofen at the doctor's suggestion but it didn't do anything worthwhile."

"Thinker headaches are notoriously difficult to treat with anything other than time to recover and not inducing them in the first place," the scarf-wearing woman replied with a smile in her voice even if it wasn't visible on her face. Dinah thought she had a nice voice. "There are a few Tinker drugs that can help a little, and stronger painkillers can take the edge off, but all in all it's best to simply limit the occurrence of it as much as possible by avoiding whatever provokes the power into action. In Dinah's case that's asking definite questions about the future which can be answered as a percentage."

"So we just don't ask her the chances of snow later or something like that?" her father asked.

"76.3%" Dinah grinned at them. The question hadn't been directly asked so it was just a wild guess, although looking at the sky outside the window was probably pretty close. Uncle Roy was the first one to get the joke, grinning back and ruffling her hair.

"Precisely." Miss Militia sounded amused. After a moment, though, she became more serious. "The real question now is, what do you want to do?"

All three of the other adults exchanged a glance. Uncle Roy looked at Dinah, who peered back, not entirely certain what the heroine meant.

"What do you mean?" her father asked, sounding worried, asking the question she wanted to but was a little scared to.

"What I mean is, Thinkers of any level, never mind ones as high level as Dinah is, are in very high demand. So high, in fact, that their services can be desired whether they want to give them or not." Miss Militia looked seriously at them, while Uncle Roy sat back with a thoughtful expression and nodded slowly. Her parents stared at the woman, then looked at each other, before turning to Dinah for a moment.

"She means, Jim, that we have to be careful. There are criminals who would probably love to have a precog as powerful as Dinah is, and would stop at nothing to get hold of her," Uncle Roy sighed. "I'm half-sorry I arranged this testing, perhaps you could have kept her abilities a secret."

"I doubt that would have worked, Mayor," Miss Militia replied with a shake of her head. "All the information is already out there, unfortunately. The hospital visits and the records of the tests done, not to mention the things Dinah has been saying, all of those are clues that would eventually attract the wrong sort of notice, if they haven't already done so. There may well be other Thinkers already putting the clues together for someone."

"You mean someone could try to kidnap her!" Her mother grabbed Dinah and held onto her like she thought someone would burst into the room right then and there. Dinah felt a little frightened and also slightly irritated about how tightly her mother was holding her.

With a sigh, Miss Militia nodded a little. "It's neither unknown or impossible, unfortunately. I suspect that if you hadn't noticed, Mayor, and worked it out, something like that might have happened sooner or later. Mrs Alcott, don't worry too much, we should be able to prevent that now, though. We know about Dinah now and we can keep her safe. Or as safe as anyone can be in this world."

"Assuming that the PRT itself doesn't end up being what causes someone unpleasant to find out about Dinah," Uncle Roy muttered. Miss Militia looked at him, making him talk louder. "I'm pretty sure, from what I've heard over the last couple of years, that you have more than one leak in this organization."

The heroine inspected him for several seconds, then sighed again. "You're probably not wrong, Mayor Christner, I'm afraid. We've had issues like that before. It's difficult to totally prevent in any organization this large, as you know."

He nodded silently.

"That said, I fully believe that Dinah is safer now than she would have been if she hadn't come to our attention so soon after triggering. Obviously, we would strongly advise that she joins the Wards program. It's up to you, Mr and Mrs Alcott, but it would be the safest thing for her."

"The Wards?" Her mother sounded worried, and was still clinging to her hard enough to make Dinah wriggle a little to escape. She loosened her grip a little but kept her hands on her shoulders. "Is that really necessary?"

"As I said, I personally believe it's the safest option," Miss Militia nodded. "We can set up a number of security protocols to protect her from most threats. If necessary, it would be possible to arrange to have you all relocate away from Brockton Bay, to a less… complicated… city."

Uncle Roy looked both amused and a little insulted. "Leave this fair city?" he commented, making the woman look like she was grinning under her scarf. "With all the vibrant night life? How could anyone do that?"

"It has it's good points, Mayor," she replied with a laugh in her voice. "But bad ones as well, as you know."

"You can say that again," he sighed. "But it's not boring." Both of them looked at Dinah's parents.

"What do you want to do, Cheryl? Jim? Miss Militia is probably right, although I wish she wasn't."

Once again her mother and father looked at each other, then at her. "Dinah? What do _you_ want to do?," her father asked. "You know what we're talking about, don't you?"

She nodded. It was pretty obvious, she'd heard them talking only moments ago, and she wasn't stupid.

Thinking for a little while as everyone waited, she turned to Uncle Roy. "If I joined the Wards, could I still see you?"

"Of course you could, Princess," he assured her, smiling. "And possibly more often, City Hall is a lot closer to the PRT building than to your house. I'm sure I could see you regularly."

She nodded, then turned to Miss Militia. "Could I see my parents as well?"

The woman smiled again, her scarf moving slightly. "We're not suggesting locking you in the PRT building, Dinah. You would have a room here and could stay if you wanted, but normally you'd be living at home the same as you do right now, and go to school as well. It's just that you'd have us making sure nothing happened to you. You'd spend some time here most days, we'd want to test your powers more and find out what would be the most useful way you could use them. But no one will _force_ you to use them, if you don't want to."

"Mom? What do you think?" she asked after another few seconds of thought.

Her mother held her again. "I don't want to lose you, Dinah. I don't like thinking of you being away from home like that, but if it will keep you safe..." She wiped her eye, trying to make it look like she wasn't about to cry. Dinah wasn't fooled.

She was feeling both slightly confused about how quickly everything suddenly seemed to be going, pleased that people were taking her seriously, excited about meeting other parahumans, and worried about not seeing her parents. Not to mention mildly terrified about the whole ' _being kidnapped_ ' thing that the adults had been talking about.

After a moment, having carefully decided on the wording, she said out loud, "Chances I get kidnapped or someone tries to kidnap me if I _don't_ join the Wards?"

They all stared at her, somewhat shocked. The numbers came to her along with some mild pain. She'd mostly recovered from the testing session a couple of hours earlier, but it was still uncomfortable.

"79.45%" she announced. Her mother gasped, Miss Militia frowned, her father looked like he was going to shout, and Uncle Roy reached out and put a hand on her shoulder next to her mother's, squeezing gently.

She pondered the answer, then asked herself, "Chances I get kidnapped if I _do_ join the Wards?" The answer popped into her head, as she winced slightly. "8.82%"

Miss Militia looked even more annoyed, but was writing the questions and answers down on a pad at the same time.

"Chances someone _tries_ to kidnap me if I join the Wards?" A pause. "16.45%"

"Ow," she muttered after the last answer, rubbing her head between her eyes. Closing them she leaned back in her chair for a moment, trying to think. No one spoke.

"Chances that someone outside the PRT will find out what I can do in... the next two weeks, other than Uncle Roy or Mom and Dad?" Miss Militia was looking closely at her, she noticed when she opened her eyes. "85.21%"

"Fuck," the woman mumbled under her breath, obviously not meaning to be heard. Dinah giggled to herself, even through the pain that she was now feeling as her head throbbed. The heroine looked slightly embarrassed, her eyes showing it surprisingly well.

"I would assume that means that someone most likely has the information and can put it together but probably hasn't done so quite yet," Miss Militia said thoughtfully. "Otherwise the answer would, presumably, have been one hundred percent. So there's a possibility that they either won't, or it will take some time or at least more than two weeks, but I doubt we could rely on that. These figures would appear to support my case, Dinah would be safer in the Wards than out."

"Although it's still not a guarantee of safety," Uncle Roy replied, glancing at Dinah, then her parents, who seemed all right with him taking the lead.

"No. I wish I could promise you that there's no way that anyone could do anything to her now, but I'd be lying if I did." Miss Militia sighed faintly. "However, a chance of less than nine percent versus a chance of nearly eighty percent is a big change. Admittedly we don't know from the first question how it splits between attempts and _successful_ attempts, but..." She shrugged slightly. "As I said it's up to her parents in the end although everything is pointing towards the Wards being the safer option. We would be pleased to have her."

The military cape leaned forward as apparently a thought struck her. "Hmm. I wonder..." She studied Dinah closely, then stood up. "Please wait here for a moment, I need to make a phone call. I'll be right back." She left the room, the door opening and closing quietly, leaving them all looking at each other.

There was silence for a little while, until her father spoke. "Roy, what do you think we should do?"

"I tend to agree with Miss Militia," her uncle said with a small frown. "I wish I didn't, as you both know I'm not entirely happy with the PRT for several reasons, but she's right. They have the resources, skills, and experience to keep Dinah safe. Or as safe as she can be." He smiled down at her. "I have to say it would be nice knowing she was both safe and sometimes close enough to see more often. We could have lunch together sometimes, if you'd like that, Dinah."

Smiling back at him as the pain from her self-questioning ebbed she nodded enthusiastically. "I'd like that, Uncle Roy."

"But the Wards? Being an official superhero? Isn't that dangerous?" Her mother didn't sound happy.

"Much less dangerous than being kidnapped by a gang, Cheryl," Uncle Roy replied, glancing at her. Her mother went white.

"Oh, god, don't even joke about that."

"I'm not, actually, but don't worry too much about it, sis. The PRT would take very good care of Dinah, like Miss Militia said, high level Thinkers are very rare and very valuable. Dinah would never be out on the street or anything like that, they'd probably give her a nice office and ask her to answer a few very carefully designed questions every now and then. Not to mention there's a fair amount of money involved, they'd set up a decent trust fund for her, which would certainly pay for college nicely, and a good allowance until she's eighteen. It would take a lot of stress off you both from that point of view."

"We're easily able to pay for what we need, Roy," her father noted, slight irritation in his voice.

"I know, I didn't mean to suggest that you couldn't provide for your family, Jim," Uncle Roy smiled, holding up a hand. "All I meant is that there would be some money that could be helpful in the future. I think she'd be safe here, more so than most places."

Looking back to Dinah, he smiled more widely. "I wish I could provide the security she needed at City Hall, I'd love to have a precog on staff. Even a cute twelve year old one."

Dinah giggled, smiling back. "You think I'm cute, Uncle Roy?"

"Everyone thinks you're cute, Princess," he chuckled.

"I'll always answer any questions you want to ask me." Dinah grinned, holding out her hand. "Promise."

Gravely he shook it. "Thank you, my dear. I may well take you up on that."

They all looked up as Miss Militia came back into the room. Closing the door behind her she retook her seat. "I've been talking to Armsmaster. He says that he can provide a subdermal tracking implant that Dinah can have put under her skin, which would allow him and no one else to track her position. If, by any chance, someone did actually kidnap her, we could get her back and hopefully catch them in the process."

They all looked at Dinah, who thought for a moment, then said, "Chances that I would be successfully kidnapped if we did what Miss Militia has said?" The numbers came, but so did the pain. "Ow ow ow. 2.34%" She held her head with both hands, closing her eyes again. "I can't do that again for a while," she whispered.

"OK, dear," her mother said, smoothing her hair gently. "We get the point."

"It's not perfect, but all things considered it's probably the best option at the moment," the heroine said after a few seconds. "If you want to go ahead with it I can have the implant here within half an hour."

Opening her eyes as the pain faded slightly, Dinah watched her parents exchange glances, then look at Uncle Roy who nodded slightly. They both sighed and turned to look at her with difficult to interpret expressions. "Oh, Dinah," her mother sighed, still holding her like she was afraid someone would take her if she let go.

"I think I'd like it, Mom," she said, mostly honestly. "I can meet Vista and the other Wards, that would be cool."

"She's about your age, actually," Miss Militia put in. "She'd love to meet another female Ward. You'd probably get on with most of them very well. They're good kids."

"Most of them?" Uncle Roy asked curiously.

She sighed very faintly. "Shadow Stalker is somewhat… abrasive… at times."

"Ah. Yes, so I've heard from other people," he chuckled. "Five out of six isn't too bad, though."

"There are mean girls at school as well," Dinah added. "I know how to ignore them."

With a laugh, Miss Militia nodded, then turned to her parents. "If you want to do this, I have all the paperwork with me for the Wards acceptance. You can read and sign it immediately or take it and look at it later."

"May I see it, please?" her father requested.

The woman picked up a folder from the table beside her and opened it, looking through the contents then removing a set of stapled-together pages and sliding them over the table to him. Picking them up he began reading them very carefully. Everyone waited quietly for him to finish. When he did, he looked thoughtfully at her, then handed the papers to Uncle Roy, who also read them. "They look fairly straightforward, Jim," her uncle said, when he finished a couple of minutes later.

"There seem to be a surprisingly large amount of marketing and public relations clauses in the document," her father noted, glancing at Miss Militia.

"The PRT feels it's important," she replied. "I understand the reasons, capes scare a lot of people, not surprisingly considering what many of them are capable of, and the PRT goes to significant effort to present their capes as responsible and safe. Part of that process is a careful public relations exercise, including acceptable naming, costuming, appearance, that sort of thing. It sounds silly but it does have a very large effect on public perception. So does the marketing aspect, although I have to admit that some of the things the Marketing people have come up with over the years are… somewhat dubious." Her face moved a little under her scarf, indicating another smile. Uncle Roy laughed a little. "A fair percentage of the profit generated by marketing a Ward's public persona is added to the trust fund, so it benefits everyone."

"I see," her father said, reading the document once more, then turned to her mother. "I have to admit that as much as I'd like to I can't find any reason not to go for this."

Her mother sighed heavily. "I hate it. But you're right. If it keeps her safe, we don't have a choice." She looked at Miss Militia, who was giving off an air of sympathy. "We agree, she can join the Wards."

"Great," the other woman replied. "If you'll both sign on page five at the bottom, both copies, please?"

Her parents took the pen she held out, then did as requested. She retrieved the papers and the pen and signed in two places as well, then separated the document and gave one half to Dinah's father, who carefully folded it and put it into his inside jacket pocket. "Wait here and I'll call Armsmaster, we can get the implant installed immediately. I'd feel safer if you didn't leave before that happened. Just in case."

Getting up she left again. They all looked at each other, then Dinah's mother began crying a little, holding her. Dinah, both excited and sad, held her back.

"It'll be OK, Mom," she said quietly. "I'm nearly certain. 97.66% certain at least."

Despite herself, her mother started laughing, setting them all off.


	27. Plotting and Closets

Taylor discreetly watched the table full of known and suspected Wards, along with Victoria and Amy Dallon, who were talking fairly quietly amongst themselves, with Dennis cracking jokes every now and then. Carlos sighed at most of them although she could see he was amused by more of them than he showed. His thermal output in her enhanced vision showed things on his face that most people could never pick up on.

She was using it more and more as part of her base form senses, getting used to it. As Saurial or any of the other modified forms it came much easier, she suspected due to her brain changing to handle it. There was obviously a change of a similar nature even in her human form, but it wasn't quite as instinctive to use yet. The boosted senses of smell and hearing had been much easier to get used to.

It seemed pretty likely that she could indeed become very good at detecting lies, by listening and watching all the tiny cues that a normal person wouldn't notice at all. She'd poked around in the school library, which was a very comprehensive one, finding a couple of books on voluntary and involuntary responses in the biology section, as part of a higher level neurology study, and borrowed them, puzzling her way through with the aid of the Varga. He turned out to know, not that surprisingly, much more about human bodies than she'd first expected, although his terminology was different.

They were both learning a common vocabulary for the various scientific fields that were apposite to the abilities he gave her, even though in quite a few cases the word ' _scientific_ ' needed to be more strictly replaced with ' _magical_ ', a thought that still made her smile. He'd told her that while in time he could certainly teach her more of his form of magic, one that most humans who had any ability in the field would never be able to learn due to the differences between demons and non-demons, it would be a slow process. She wasn't too worried, she had more than enough new abilities to keep her occupied for a long time even now.

The shape-shifting part of things was so easy after only a month that she sometimes had trouble remembering when she couldn't casually grow scales and claws. It took an act of will, it wouldn't happen accidentally, which was probably a good thing overall, but it didn't take much effort. The Varga still had to help with new variants on the forms but the existing ones they'd worked on were simple, in whole or part.

Looking forward to experimenting on the weekend, Taylor smiled internally, turned away from the Wards although she kept part of her attention on them even so, and raised an eyebrow at Mandy, who had said something she'd missed. "Sorry, miles away. What was that, Mandy?"

Her friend sighed theatrically. "I _said_ , do you want to go and see a movie with us tomorrow night? There's that new Aleph animated one that looks pretty fun, ' _How to Train Your Dragon_.'" She glanced at Lucy while Taylor suppressed a snicker at the appropriateness of the title. "Lucy wants to see it. Reptiles, you know. She wants a dragon of her own."

Lucy went red while Mandy and Taylor both grinned. Rich and another boy, Eric, who were sitting at the next table having been talking to the Chinese girl, laughed. "She's got you, Lucy. Hey, maybe you could adopt Lung?" the latter commented with a smirk.

"I don't think that would work out very well," the girl said, sighing but smiling. "He's not very cuddly."

"No, that's certainly not a word anyone would associate with Lung," Eric snickered. "Dangerous, now _that's_ a good word. Psychotic, another good one."

Giggling, Lucy tossed a french fry at him, then broke down in laughter when he neatly snapped it out of the air with his mouth, chewed, and grinned widely. "Idiot."

" _Talented_ idiot, Lucy," he chuckled.

She started tossing more fries at him, most of which he caught in his mouth, until one of the teachers monitoring the cafeteria caught her eye and she went red again, stopping quickly.

"Busted!" Mandy laughed. Turning back to Taylor, who had been watching with amusement, she added, "So? You in? It's all of us here, including those two guys, and a couple more from home room. Downtown tomorrow night at seven thirty at the Plaza. We can get something to eat after."

"It sounds good, thanks, Mandy," Taylor smiled. "I'll check with my dad but I don't think there will be a problem."

"Great. Text me if you get lost or can't make it."

"OK."

Feeling eyes on her, Taylor casually looked around to see Dean staring at her, the boy quickly looking away when she turned her head and pretending he was looking at the chalk board on the wall near the hot food line which listed tomorrow's menu. Mildly amused she went back to her food. He seemed to be unable to completely ignore her, although to give him credit he was trying. She thought that she was probably, at least at the moment, safe from that quarter, which was a relief.

She had no real problem with the Wards but the near certainty that the PRT was sitting on Sophia Hess left her somewhat disinclined to get any closer to them, despite the new found equanimity she had towards other people. Glory Girl and her somewhat unfortunate interaction was one thing, she'd been certain even at the time it was abnormal, since the girl smelled very stressed, and was quite happy to make allowances.

But there were limits to how much she'd accept. As she'd told Alan Barnes, she had no intention of either forgiving or forgetting the months and months of deliberate torment the Triumvirate of Pain had put her through. She could live with it and move on, but she wasn't going to just pretend it never happened. The Varga was of the opinion that even letting people like that live was probably something of a mistake, as there was no guarantee that they would take the sensible approach of living with the fact they lost.

Taylor sighed faintly, finishing up her salad. Hopefully she'd never see any of them again, and if she did… Well, she'd see what happened. If Sophia wanted to have a fight, she could have one, but it would be very short and to the point. With any luck that would never happen, since she wasn't really all that interested in finding out what the girl's head tasted like. Probably rather stringy, she thought, amused again for a moment.

"Deep thoughts, hmm, Taylor?" Lucy asked from the side, apparently noticing the sigh. Taylor glanced sideways to see her friend looking a little concerned and smiled back at her.

"Sort of. Just thinking about a bad experience at Winslow. Something reminded me about it." She shrugged. "It's not important, that part of my life is over. I'm having a lot of fun with the new parts."

"It can be hard when you have something bad in your history," Lucy replied with a small nod, sounding sad. "I know. I..." She paused, swallowing for a moment. "I said something horrible to my grandmother when I was about twelve, because she didn't let me go out with my friends but wanted me to do my homework instead. I screamed at her, then went out anyway." She was staring at her plate, while Mandy and the others were looking at her sympathetically, apparently knowing the story. "While I was out, she had a heart attack. Mom and Dad were away on business, so I was the only other one in the house. No one found her for hours, a neighbor discovered her lying on the ground in the back yard. If I'd been there, I could have called 911 and she might have lived."

The girl sighed heavily, tears running down her cheeks. "I've always wondered if it was my fault she had the heart attack in the first place. I was so nasty to her, even though I loved her. I never even got to say goodbye." Everyone on both the tables in earshot was silent as she finished talking. "So I know what it's like to have something in your past you wish you could forget but at the same time you can't."

Wiping her eyes carefully with a paper napkin, she looked at the smudged makeup on it and sighed again, but smiled a little. "And now I have to go and fix my makeup as well."

Mandy patted her friend's hand, smiling. "I'll come and help you, Lucy." Both of them stood.

"It'll probably get better, Taylor, don't worry," Lucy added, smiling a little tearily at her. "See you in class."

Thoughtfully watching her two new friends walk off, Taylor nodded to herself, having learned something new. And feeling very sad for the Chinese girl, who obviously still felt very strongly about the whole thing nearly three years later. It reminded her of her mother, not surprisingly. A subject she was slowly becoming less affected by although she was certain she'd never get over it completely.

Making a deliberate effort to not let the rather sudden morose turn of conversation affect her, she picked up her glass of apple juice and sipped it slowly, looking around the cafeteria. Eric and Rich got up, nodded to her, then headed off to do something in the few minutes of lunch break left, while she waved briefly, then went back to looking around the room, cataloging all the scents of people who walked past on their way out. She was pretty sure now that she could probably identify by scent over a third of the school, at least as familiar even if she didn't know their names. The idea amused her, but it was a useful byproduct of the whole abilities deal.

A particularly familiar scent, one she'd made a special note of, wafted from behind her at the same time she heard rapid footsteps. A sudden impact on her tail made her twitch, then turn her head to see what had happened.

"AAGH!"

Amy Dallon sprawled full-length on the floor behind her seat, making her wince in sympathy, having obviously tripped over her invisible appendage which she'd accidentally left sticking out a little too far and promptly face-planted pretty solidly on the tiles. The girl rolled over and sat up, clutching her nose in her hand and swearing inventively.

"What the _fuck_ was _that?_ " Amy eventually snarled in a muffled voice, looking around wildly for whatever had tripped her, but obviously unable to see the cause. "Fucking hell, my nose!" There was blood running from under her hand.

Picking up some of the paper napkins that were stored in a dispenser on each table, Taylor got up and knelt next to the healer, who was pretty clearly not in a good mood, even before nearly breaking her nose. "Here, tip your head back and use these," she advised, handing the other girl the napkins, which were instantly snatched from her hand.

"I know how to handle a smashed nose, thanks," Amy grumbled loudly, sniffing hard and nearly choking on the blood, before slapping the wad of paper over her face and clamping down on it. "I don't think it's broken but it fucking hurts."

Looking around again, she scowled blackly. "What the hell tripped me? Was it you?"

"No," Taylor half-lied. "I didn't see anything, I just heard you scream and fall over."

"I didn't scream, I yelped. In surprise," Amy replied defiantly. Taylor shrugged, smiling a little but willing to allow the correction.

"OK."

"I need to get to the nurses office and get some proper bandages and a cold pack," the other brunette grumbled, struggling to stand up. Taylor stood and offered her a hand, at the same time glancing towards the table the Wards and Victoria had been at, seeing they'd gone, presumably headed back to class already.

"Here," she said. Amy sighed, annoyed, and grabbed her hand.

Gently heaving, she lifted the other girl to her feet easily, then looked at her.

Then looked more closely.

"Um..."

Amy was staring at her with her pupils so widely dilated it looked like her eyes were solid black. Taylor could see the blood vessels in her face dilating as well as blood rushed to her face, and her electrical sense was showing her neural activity was going nuts, based on what she'd learned so far about it. It wasn't something she'd experimented with much so far beyond using it to trace power cables.

"Are you all right?" Taylor stared, then waved a hand in front of the girl's face. Reaching out she carefully tapped Amy between the eyes with a forefinger. "Anyone in there? Hello? Amy?"

Several seconds passed with the healer just giving her that disconcerting stare, a little blood running down her face past the napkins, before Amy suddenly blinked wildly and shook her head, apparently back in the room.

"What… the _fuck_..." she whispered.

Worried, Taylor looked around, seeing that hardly any of the lunch crowd were present now, and that according to the wall clock it was only about two minutes to the bell. "Hey, we should get you to the nurse," she said as she returned her attention to the other girl. "You're acting a little weird. Maybe you hit your head harder than you thought."

Amy blinked again, then looked around, wincing as her right hand which was still clamped firmly on her nose pulled on it slightly. "Nurse. Right," she mumbled in a slightly dazed voice, before turning and walking off towards the exit, towing Taylor with her.

"Um, could you let go, please?" Taylor tried, not wanting to be rude but more than a little confused.

"No."

Staring at the Dallon girl, Taylor sighed. It was going to be one of those days.

And it had started so well.

* * *

"She seems content to simply take down low level criminals so far." The man speaking looked mildly puzzled. "No signs of wanting to go after any capes at all. She turns up, wanders around more or less randomly for anywhere from an hour to four or so, inevitably finds some crime being committed, terrifies the people involved into catatonia, then disappears again. She's been seen in the company of the Wards several times and seems to be on friendly terms with them, and she's also popped up at the DWU at least once more so far. She spent over an hour there, talking to the various people still on site."

Behind his desk, his superior leaned his expensive chair back and gently stroked his chin with a finger, looking fascinated. "How very unusual," he finally said. "Although, it is an unusual creature in more than one way so I suppose its behavior is only another example of that. Do we know what it was doing at the DWU again?"

"No. The best I can work out, she was picking something up, but it's mostly guesswork. I don't have anyone in the DWU facility itself, although I'm working on it."

"Annoying." The man at the desk sighed slightly. "Oh well. All good things take time. Have you thought of any other methods to test its abilities?"

"Not as such," his agent commented. "We have a pretty good idea of what she can do from the reports we have from those of our men who were involved we've been able to contact. Assuming they're not curled up in a ball sobbing." He shook his head in disgust. "Fine, she's a scary monster when she's at work, but that's just pathetic. One of the guys is saying he's going to become a priest now."

His superior smirked, amused. "That suggests an impressive ability to scare the less intelligent amongst us. Normally it would take months or years to build a reputation like that, not weeks."

"She seems to be an old hand at psychological warfare," the other man agreed, frowning a little. "Yet another oddity that doesn't match the time line."

"I'd like to see how she handled a tougher fight than mere cannon fodder with small arms, though." The man at the desk thought for a while, then smiled a tiny, cruel smile. "I think it would be interesting to see what happened if Hookwolf became involved."

"How do you propose to arrange that?" the agent asked, appearing slightly surprised.

"It should be simple enough. Hookwolf is not particularly smart, of course, although he's certainly cunning and an excellent fighter. It has so far managed to capture over two dozen of his flunkies, from what you tell me. Perhaps we should arrange to point this out to him, and also suggest that an example should be made. It's not difficult to enrage the man to the point he attacks."

"Attacks _where_ , though?" His subordinate looked at him. "Saurial is somewhat random in her movements, she doesn't seem to have a set patrol route like a lot of capes do, or any particular territorial claims so far. She turns up all over the city. It might be difficult to ' _accidentally_ ' have them encounter each other, and he could take some time to find her if he just goes running off in a rage."

"It has visited the DWU twice, though, and would appear to have some relationship with them. It may well be that pointing Hookwolf at them and urging him on his way would produce a reaction. If not, we lose nothing but a few dockworkers who aren't on the payroll, and a little effort."

"Ah." The first man nodded slowly. "I see your point. Yes, that might work."

"See to it. As soon as possible, please. And this time take a camera."

The first man nodded without a further word, standing and leaving the office, while his superior pulled a stack of paperwork in front of him and began reading it.

* * *

Her head spinning from more than the fairly solid impact with the floor of the cafeteria, Amy strode a little uncertainly towards the nurses office, towing the rather reluctant new girl she'd seen Dean eying up for over a week now behind her. The girl, who she remembered was called Taymar or Tayly or something like that, was sighing to herself but didn't seem too upset.

What the hell was going on? That was what Amy was wondering, and had been from the instant she'd grabbed the other girl's hand. A sudden overwhelming urge struck her as she approached a supply closet she happened to know from a story her sister had related was usually unlocked and, as they came abreast of it, she darted sideways, grabbed the door handle and yanked, opening the door, then shoved the other girl inside and followed her in, pulling the door shut behind her.

"What the hell?" Tayway or whatever her name was yelped. "What are you doing, you weirdo? I thought you wanted to go to the Nurse?"

"In a minute," Amy hissed, looking around in the near pitch darkness of the closet. She dropped the hand she'd been clamped onto like a vice for the last couple of minutes, then turned and ran her hands over the wall beside the door trying to find the light switch.

"Is this what you're looking for?" the other girl said mildly, immediately before there was a click and a fluorescent fitting in the ceiling hummed into life. Amy turned to see her captive just in the process of releasing a pull-cord at the side of the closet that went up to a switch above them

"Yes," she replied, staring hard at the girl, while wondering for a moment how she'd found the switch so easily.

"Was there a reason you dragged me in here, or are you just finding it difficult to meet new people?" Taytay or whatever seemed more amused now than surprised. "I have to tell you, your approach to making friends is a little… confrontational."

"What the hell are you?" Amy blurted, unable to stop herself. The girl abruptly stopped moving.

Completely.

She just stared at Amy, who suddenly became aware that she might have made a very bad mistake.

The eyes of the girl narrowed a little, giving her face a remarkably predatory look, while her entire body language changed slightly, in a way that was particularly eerie as she didn't actually move.

Amy swallowed hard.

"I mean..."

"You mean you somehow found out something I'd prefer you not to have found out," the girl, which Amy was beginning to think wasn't entirely accurate, said in a voice that was rather less human than she was wildly happy about. "I have to ask myself how, and more importantly, what you intend to do about it." She leaned closer, making the Dallon sister suddenly realize how remarkably tall she was for a teenaged girl.

Not to mention, the way that her slender body suddenly seemed to give off the impression of something far more dangerous and a hell of a lot bigger. And… were her eyes glowing a little?

"Oh, _shit_." Amy's voice was faint.

"Oh, shit, yes, Amy Dallon," the girl hissed. "Talk. Fast."

Her thoughts whirling, Amy tried to work out how to extricate herself from the situation she'd managed to get herself into with one stupid move, feeling a sudden understanding of what her sister had felt when she'd gone off on Saurial for no good reason.

The thought stuck with her...

Amy's eyes widened. "Saurial," she gasped.

She didn't even see the girl move. Before she knew what was happening, she was slammed against the door by a pair of hands that were covered in scales with talons an inch long tickling her skin, her feet a foot off the floor. A face that was far less human than seconds before was inches from her own, sharp teeth bared in a growl.

"You are dabbling in dangerous waters, Amy," the thing holding her stated softly. "Talk very quickly and very honestly or I may have to push you under the surface."

"My power lets me see an entire organism's biology if I touch it," Amy gabbled, trembling and not even trying to hold anything back. She had a good idea that the threat was a real one with a definite time-sensitive aspect. "I can modify anything organic right down to the DNA. My healing ability is a byproduct of that." Fright was making her open up far more than she had done to anyone before.

"So when I offered you my hand..." the girl, Saurial, said in a musing yet still not entirely human voice.

"I saw instantly that you were… different." Amy looked at her captor, who looked back. "Very different. I mean, totally different in some specific ways from anything I've ever seen or even heard of. Your DNA, or something that I think is the equivalent of it, is absolutely insane! It's a quad helix, not a double helix, with more redundancy than I can believe. My power can hardly make anything sensible of it at all. I can see that, somehow, don't ask me how, you're compatible with human DNA, but other than that and the appearance most of you is totally alien. Literally. Like nothing that's ever lived on this planet."

"Hmm." The creature seemed genuinely interested, but not surprised.

"You already know this, don't you?"

"Not those specific details, no, but the overall picture, yes, I know," she replied absently, almost looking as if she was holding another conversation at the same time. "What else?"

"I can't affect you at all. My power just goes ' _nope_ ' if I try."

"You tried to affect me?" Saurial's eyes were abruptly totally focused on her again.

"I'm _still_ trying," Amy whimpered. "I've been trying to make you fall asleep since you grabbed me. All it's doing is giving me a headache."

"Ah. So that's what..." Saurial paused, cocking her head to the side, then nodded to herself. "Stop it."

"OK," Amy yipped in a high pitched voice, "OK, I'm stopping."

"All right. Thank you for the information, it's very useful. Now, what are we going to do about all this?" The girl cocked her head the other way, inspecting Amy closely. The healer swallowed again. "I take threats, or possible threats, against my family extremely seriously. I'm not particularly happy about you knowing. Your friend Dean is a big enough problem already although he at least had the sense not to confront me about it. I have to wonder why you did. It seems… somewhat incautious."

"I couldn't help it," Amy replied despite herself. "It was so… so… weird. Interesting. Amazing." She sighed heavily as the girl watched curiously. "You wouldn't believe how boring my life is. Work, sleep, school, over and over again until I want to scream. Always healing people, the same stupid problems again and again and again. It's… maddening."

"Why do it then?" Saurial asked quietly.

"Because everyone expects me to," Amy responded with a heavy sigh. "I have to heal people, have to use my power for good, or… Or I might just end up using it for something horrible. I could destroy the city with a breath, or possibly the entire planet without much more effort. You wouldn't believe how much having that sort of power terrifies me. Sometimes I wish so much that I'd never triggered."

"I don't know if the planet would be possible, but destroying the city is pretty easy," the girl replied after a few seconds, sounding less threatening despite the comment. "So I have some idea."

Amy stared at her, but decided that she'd already dropped herself in it deeply enough so didn't ask.

"So, all this is because you saw something interesting and wanted to learn more?" the girl asked, sighing when Amy nodded. "You really need to learn better impulse control, Amy, before it gets you killed. What happened to the Unwritten Rules?"

With a wince, Amy shrugged as much as she could in the unyielding grip. "I didn't think it through."

"That seems to run in the family," the other girl smirked. Amy couldn't help snickering a little, because it really was sort of funny. Assuming she actually lived through it.

"Look, I won't tell anyone. Promise. You terrify me to the depths of my soul and I really don't want to see what you can do if you get mad," Amy said slowly and honestly, trying to impress the truth of the statement on the girl, who was studying her closely. "I did a stupid thing, I know, and I'm really sorry. Can we just sort of… forget about it?"

Inspecting her face for several long seconds, Saurial finally sighed gently and carefully lowered her to her feet. "You Dallon girls really need to keep your urges under control," she sighed. "I don't want to have to kill and eat Panacea just because she can't keep her mouth closed."

Amy paled, not at all sure the other was joking. Those teeth… Shuddering, she shook her head violently. "I won't tell anyone. I mean, I already..." She snapped her mouth shut as the girl looked at her curiously, then smiled a little.

"You already know who half the capes you've healed are, if not all of them, right? Your power can identify them."

Feeling like a total idiot, _again_ , Amy slowly nodded, rubbing her forehead in irritation at herself. The other girl was obviously much too sharp. As were her teeth. "Shit. Please don't tell anyone."

"I have absolutely no intention of giving away anyone else's secrets, Amy, believe me." The girl looked bemused for a moment. "I wonder how many other capes can do the same thing by one means or another?" She snickered slightly. "Wouldn't it be amazing if there were dozens of them wandering around all knowing who everyone really was, but all convinced they were the only ones who did?"

Amy stared, then started laughing. Saurial joined in for a few seconds. Bending down she retrieved the bloody pile of napkins from where Amy had dropped it, looked at it distastefully, then put it on a shelf next to her shoulder. Poking around for a moment she found a roll of paper towels for the bathroom dispensers, slit the plastic covering with a quick motion of a taloned finger, then pulled a few sheets free and handed them to Amy. "You're still bleeding a little," she pointed out.

While Amy dealt with that problem the other girl wrapped the bloody paper in some more toweling and picked it up, putting the roll away again. Holding out her other hand, which had shifted back to normal, as had her eyes and teeth, she said, "Taylor Hebert. Nice to meet you, Amy."

Somewhat startled, Amy looked at the offered hand, then carefully shook it while holding the paper towels to her nose. "Amy Dallon. Also known as Panacea, of course. Nice to meet you, and I'm sorry, really."

"It's all right. Just don't say anything. I meant it about being very upset if anyone threatens my family." She had a look in her eyes that promised instant dismemberment for anyone stupid enough to try something. Amy shivered a little.

"I believe you."

"Good. Now lets get you to the Nurse, then get a permission slip so I don't get detention. I've only been here a week or so and I don't want to have things go wrong this soon." Taylor smiled a little.

"Um, Taylor…?" Amy spoke carefully and cautiously as the other girl, now an ordinary if rather tall teenager as far as looking at her went, put her hand on the doorknob.

"Yes?"

"Would it be possible if I could talk to you at some point? About you, I mean? I still find your biology… amazingly weird."

Taylor studied her for a few seconds, looking thoughtful. "I might be open to that at some point," she replied in the end. "I'll have to think about it. I'll let you know."

"Thank you. And I'm sorry."

"Keep quiet about it and we don't have a problem," Taylor noted. Amy nodded.

"I will. Just one thing..." Taylor cocked her head a little, making Amy shiver. She suddenly saw it as the slightly alien mannerism it really was, coming from a part of the girl that wasn't human in the slightest. " _Are_ you an alien?"

Taylor burst out laughing. "No, Amy, I'm not an alien. I was born in Brockton Bay to completely human parents, trust me. I'm just… a bit different now." Pulling the door open she peered both ways, then opened it further. "Come on, you need to get that nose looked at and I need to get to Chemistry class. I've missed half of it already."

She waited for Amy to come out of the closet then pulled the door shut. "Amy? Take a day off now and then. You're _way_ too tightly wound."

Thinking the words over, the healer followed the other girl to the Nurses office and was soon explaining that she'd nearly broken her nose to a sympathetic yet mildly amused woman who seemed to find the idea of the world's paramount parahuman healer doing that somewhat funny.


	28. Defenders and Hookwolf

Standing on the steps outside the school, Taylor watched Amy, who was in her normal position of waiting more or less behind Victoria, looking bored and a bit emo, reading a book. The other Dallon sister was back to her normal gregarious self, chatting with Dean and two of her girl friends at the same time, laughing and gesturing, while the boy himself listened with a smile. He turned to say something to Carlos who came up and tapped him on the shoulder, then nodded, going back to waiting for his girlfriend to stop talking so he could get a word in.

He noticed Taylor watching and flinched, so subtly that most people would have missed it, then deliberately looked away.

Taylor caught Amy's eye, the girl having apparently seen and decoded the very small exchange, and nodded slightly to her. Amy nodded back, a brief and small smile crossing her face, then returned to her book.

" _That girl could be a problem, Brain,_ " the Varga rumbled with concern in his voice. " _Her abilities are extremely powerful, based on what we sensed and what she confessed to, and I am concerned about her mental state._ "

' _So am I_ ,' Taylor sighed in the privacy of her mind. ' _If she really can modify any living thing that easily she could cause a plague that would be worse than anything ever. But what can we do? Tell someone at the PRT? Assuming they don't already know, it would be doing exactly what we were worried she was about to in the other direction. And I'm not happy about just up and killing her about something she_ _ **might**_ _do_.'

" _I think all that can be done at present is to try to be a friend to her if she needs one,_ " the demon said after a moment. " _She is isolated and alone even in the middle of her sister's cohort. I don't think she's happy. You are more than familiar with that problem and could possibly help._ "

' _Maybe. I'm not going to force myself on her. Maybe she just likes being alone? I like the friends I'm making here, but I like being on my own as much even so_.' Taylor smiled a little. ' _Not that I'm ever really alone any more. Which I'm grateful for_.'

" _As am I. I was very bored all those years, locked away with no one to talk to,_ " the Varga laughed. " _It has been a lot of fun these last few weeks._ " He fell silent, then slyly added, " _Perhaps you could be more than a friend to young Miss Dallon. She did, after all, drag you into a closet. I believe that is part of the courtship display of the teenaged human?_ "

Taylor started giggling, making Mandy who was standing nearby talking to Eric and Lucy look at her with a puzzled smile. ' _Sorry, not interested. She's not my type,_ ' she snickered. The demon radiated amusement at her.

" _Merely a suggestion._ "

' _Not the most sensible one_ ,' she replied. ' _But I can be a friend if she wants one, I think. I'll let her make the first move_. _I'm feeling a little guilty now about coming on so strongly, but she really worried me for a few seconds there. I don't want to push and scare her any more._ '

"What's so funny, Taylor?" Mandy asked, coming closer while looking curious.

"I was just thinking about a joke a friend made and it made me laugh," she replied, grinning. "It was sort of an inside joke, though." This almost made her laugh again, and did in fact cause the Varga to chuckle due to the backhanded honesty of the comment.

"OK, then," Mandy said slowly, looking her up and down. "Weird girl. Anyway, don't forget about tomorrow night, OK? I'll see you then, hopefully. Have a good weekend."

"I think I will," Taylor smiled. "See you."

With a wave to the other people she knew she turned and began jogging towards home, in an easy long-legged stride, soon falling into the routine of it.

When she was far enough away and there was no one watching, she veered into an alley, cloaked, changed into Saurial, came out again, and sped up massively, running down the middle of the road at nearly forty MPH, heading home. Smiling to herself at the sensations of running which she loved, especially at this sort of speed, she was soon close to her house.

When she arrived she went in through the back door, still cloaked, dropped her backpack off in the hallway, then went into the kitchen to find something to eat as she was a little hungry. Shortly she was half way through a carton of eggs, reverting to her base form except for her head, which made eating them easier, and lying on the sofa in the living room watching the mid-afternoon news.

* * *

"Boss, we have a problem," Mark said as he stuck his head into Danny's office. Danny sighed slightly but looked up from his paperwork to the DWU security man. "A fucking big one."

"What is it, Mark?"

"Fucking Hookwolf and at least two dozen of his E88 friends are heading this way. They'll be here in about five minutes, they look pissed, and they're loaded for bear."

Danny paled. "What?! Why?"

"Not a clue, but one of the rail team guards just called it in. Hookwolf is in a shitty mood even for him. We need to evacuate, right now. We could probably take on the normals, but we don't stand a chance against a cape like him. He's fucking insane for a start, and damn near unkillable."

Thinking frantically, Danny got up and looked out the window of his second-floor office into the inner yard below, which had at least three dozen men working on various projects. "We can't get everyone out and away in that time," he muttered. "They'd catch up before we got half a mile even if we could, anyway."

"What do we do?" Mark looked very worried, but also willing to do whatever he was asked to.

"Call for backup," Danny finally said after a long moment. Rather reluctantly, he pulled out his cell phone and dialed.

"It's me. We have a very big problem headed our way and due to get here in only three or four minutes. We could use some help," he said.

"I'm on my way," his daughter immediately replied, not even asking what the problem was. The line went dead. Grateful and worried in equal measures, he put his phone back in his pocket, then turned to Mark.

"Lock the gates, park something big in front of them, then get everyone into cover, right now. Shut everything down. Anyone who is willing to hold them off, make sure they're armed, but no one is required to fight. We'll have help in less than ten minutes, we only need to keep them out for that long."

"Do we call the police or the PRT?" Mark asked.

"The police couldn't do anything more against him than we can. The PRT… Not yet."

"You sure, Boss?"

Danny sighed. "I think I am. Anyway, based on last time, it would take them at least twenty to thirty minutes to get around to turning up even if we called them now. It will probably be over by then one way or another."

"OK. You're the boss, Boss."

"Stop calling me that, Mark."

"You got it, Boss," the man grinned.

Sighing, Danny followed him out of the office. "I'll see if I can find out what Hookwolf wants. Maybe we can negotiate."

"Be careful, Danny," Mark warned him, suddenly serious again after the momentary levity. "He's a killer and not stable. Don't get too close."

"I'll stay away, trust me."

"Who did you call?" the other man asked as they walked. "Saurial?"

"Yes. She's a good kid, and I think Hookwolf is in for a bit of a surprise." Danny grinned maliciously. Mark snickered.

"I really hope so. I hate that bastard. He's hurt a lot of people I know one way or another. Fucking E88."

Danny nodded, then headed for the main entrance, Mark behind him carrying a baseball bat he'd accepted from Zephron, who joined them as they walked past the canteen. The huge man didn't say anything, but was bouncing his own bat in one palm with a calm expression of imminent violence.

* * *

Taylor, in the combat form, enlarged to about eight feet tall, ran as fast as she could through the darkening streets, leaving claw marks in the road surface behind her when she hurdled a truck that was blocking the way. It was nearly six and the streetlights were coming on as the sun set. She'd been out the back door and halfway down the street less than thirty seconds after her father's phone call, not even thinking about anything else. He'd sounded worried but not panicked, although there was a tone in his voice she knew damn well meant he was very nervous.

"Merchants, maybe?" she muttered as she ran, already nearly half-way there. "Why would they be attacking the DWU facility, though? Dad said they'd come to an arrangement. Painfully."

" _There is no way to know except for either calling back and asking, or simply getting there and looking, Brain,_ " the Varga calmly told her. " _Don't worry too much, there are few threats likely that we cannot deal with. Permanently if necessary._ "

"I know," she mumbled, "I know. But I've never been in a real fight. It sounded like he was scared, and he wouldn't be scared about normal scum unless it was a hell of a lot of them. Which probably means capes."

" _We will meet the threat with whatever level of violence is required,_ " the Varga commented.

She couldn't help grinning to herself.

"Some people say you can't solve some problems with violence."

" _That merely means you didn't use enough, Brain,_ " the demon laughed. Snickering, she kept running.

Slowing as she neared the DWU facility, she listened, opening her senses widely. There was the stench of the docks as per normal, but on top of that were unfamiliar scents of a significant number of people she hadn't encountered before, scents of what she recognized as gun oil and burned propellant, which meant guns, and various other smells which all together suggested a lot of armed men had just passed through.

This was born out by the noise she could hear from up ahead, at least a couple of dozen people shouting and making nasty comments, many of them pretty horrific racist slurs. A calmer voice was talking back, urging them to calm down and tell him what the problem was.

"Dad," she said in a low voice. Stopping one street over, she listened, then looked up, before scrambling up the side of the warehouse facing her and sneaking over the roof on her belly, to look down at the main yard. There were some twenty to twenty five men wearing E88 colors milling around a central figure that she recognized instantly, from his bare chest even in the currently quite cold conditions to the metal wolf mask he was wearing. "Hookwolf? What the hell does _he_ want?"

The answer became clear as she listened. "I know the scaly bitch is in there, you kike bastard," the cape roared. "I want her. Send her out, or we're coming in."

"You're working from bad information, Hookwolf," her father called back, his voice amazingly calm under the circumstances. "Saurial isn't here. It's just a lot of dock workers who want to go home to their families. Why don't you let them, then we can talk about whatever your problem is." He paused, then added mildly, "And I'm not Jewish, thanks."

"Do I _look_ like I fucking care?" the cape shouted. He turned to some of his men. "Go around the back and wait. Don't let anyone escape," he added in a quieter voice.

Turning back he yelled, "You've got five minutes to send her out before we come and get her."

Sighing, and very annoyed indeed at the thought that all of this was somehow down to her, Taylor looked around, deciding on the best approach. She could simply drop on their heads and deal with them, of course. The cannon fodder would last seconds if she got serious, but she didn't really want to hurt anyone too much if she could avoid it. If she attacked in an all out manner, they'd start shooting manically, which could kill either their own people or people in the DWU with stray bullets before she could stop them. Her preferred hit and run techniques wouldn't work so well in the open with them all packed together like that. Not to mention she still wasn't sure about the cape. From what she'd read about him when researching the E88, the other Changer was close to unstoppable. Although, that did mean she didn't need to hold back too much.

" _He will tire long before we will, Brain,_ " the Varga advised. " _We can take him. Or simply kill him._ "

' _I'd prefer not to unless he hurts anyone_ ,' she replied softly. _'But if dad gets hurt none of those bastards are going home._ '

Deciding on an approach, she slid back down the roof and dropped to the street, then loped around three sides of the compound to reach the rear gate, which had six E88 members, all armed with assault rifles, covering it.

None of them even knew she was there before they were unconscious. Restraining them with manacles set for twenty-four hours, because she wasn't in a generous mood, she quickly and efficiently looted the bodies, taking everything but their wallets, and putting the weapons, spare ammunition, and anything else useful such as a couple of grenades of some sort, into a large bag the Varga produced for her. She stopped and considered her prisoners, then smiled a fanged smile and cut their shoes off with careful strokes of a claw, tossing the remains into the compound over the fence.

Satisfied, she hopped over the fence and slipped in through an open second-floor window, reverting to her Saurial form in the process.

"Jesus!" a man who was in the room yelped, spinning around suddenly, white-faced.

"No, just me," she said in a low voice. "Sorry about scaring you. I'm here to see Danny Hebert. Those six E88 guys out back aren't a problem any more."

The man, who she recognized as someone she'd been introduced to when she'd stopped in to get the letter a few days ago, nodded, calming down. He peered out the window and smiled maliciously. "Good work, Saurial. Thanks. Come on, I'll take you to Danny."

She followed as he led her through the large complex building toward the front, where the shouting was getting louder.

* * *

"This idiot doesn't listen very well, does he?" Mark commented from beside Danny, who was looking out the main entrance to the admin building with a bullhorn in one hand.

"Not really, no. And he's convinced I'm Jewish for some reason," Danny sighed. "He doesn't seem to like Jews. Or Blacks. Or Hispanics. Or… well, anyone, really." He smiled as Mark chuckled.

"Danny, Saurial just came in the back way," Zephron said in a low voice, walking up to them. "She took out the E88 guys that were guarding the back and stole all their weapons as well. We could start getting people out the back if we're quick and quiet."

"Good." Danny felt relief. "Make sure anyone who wants to go gets out safely." He thought for a moment, then reluctantly added, "Distribute the weapons to anyone who knows how to use them properly. I don't want a firefight here, but if it comes to that, I want _those_ bastards shot, not our guys."

"OK, Boss," the large man nodded, turning and leaving again.

"Keep an eye on these guys, please, Mark," Danny said, handing his colleague the bullhorn. "I'm going to talk to Saurial."

"You got it." The other man pressed himself against the wall, peering out the door, a walky-talky in his hand. Danny had one in his pocket, the volume turned down, intermittent messages crackling over it from dock workers both inside and outside the facility. The rail crews had been warned to stay clear until the matter was resolved.

He found his daughter waiting for him in the canteen, surrounded by half a dozen assault rifles of various types, a significant amount of ammunition, and several pistols, not to mention a few knives. Zephron and John were checking the weapons over along with a few other people he knew had military backgrounds or other experience with firearms.

"Hello, Saurial," he said, smiling. She smiled back. "Thanks for coming so quickly."

"It's not a problem, Mr Hebert," she said politely, a look on her face he recognized under the scales as one of amusement. It shifted slightly, to a more deadly one. "What the hell is going on?"

"I'm not sure, to be honest," he replied. "Hookwolf and his minions turned up just now, shouting about wanting you. I have no idea why they thought you were here, or what they want with you in the first place."

"They're probably after me because I've caught so many of their guys committing crimes over the last couple of weeks," she sighed. "I was almost expecting something like this sooner or later but I don't know why it's involved you all. I'm sorry about it."

"Don't worry, no one has been hurt yet," he told her. "But I don't think they're going to wait much longer. He gave us five minutes nearly five minutes ago and he looks furious."

"OK." She slid off the table she was half-sitting on. "Let's go and deal with the idiot."

"I think it might take something a little more excessive than your normal approach," he said slowly, looking at her. "The man is extremely tough and dangerous and will need convincing. A lot of it."

"Hmm." She studied him, then looked around at the half dozen people in the room aside from them, who were listening curiously but politely, staying silent. "Can your men keep a secret? For now, anyway?"

Danny glanced around at the his colleagues, who all nodded. "I believe so."

"In that case, I have something I've been keeping back for a special occasion," she grinned, showing her teeth.

She changed.

Despite himself, Danny took a step back at the sight of her combat form, eight feet tall and heavily armored, smirking at him. Zephron swore violently and nearly fell over while one of the other guys actually fainted. "Fuck me," John whispered in a low voice.

"Would you care to introduce me to your problem," the enlarged, vastly more dangerous reptilian form said in a totally different voice to Saurial's, one that sent shivers down the back of everyone in the room. Danny smiled to himself. She liked her theatrics.

Annette would have been proud.

Everyone whipped their heads around as a sudden burst of machine gun fire echoed around the building. "Fuck. I think he's lost his patience," Danny sighed.

Seconds later Mark charged into the room, skidding to a halt so suddenly he nearly fell over when he spotted Taylor grinning at him. "Holy shit on a cracker!" the man yipped, staring.

"She's with us, Mark. What's going on?"

"Hookwolf just changed and ripped the fence down, his men are shooting at anything that's moving," Mark reported after another nervous glance at the combat form, who listened quietly. "We've pulled everyone back to the main admin building. About half the men got out the back before the shooting started, they're meeting up with the rail crews."

"Take the weapons, find somewhere to take cover," Danny ordered, coming to a quick decision. "Shoot if you have to but try for disabling shots not kill shots."

"That's difficult at the best of times, Boss," Mark replied.

"Do your best. We're not murderers, we're protecting our property and our people." Danny shook his head in disgust. "Fuck this city, it's insane. Go, we can fight them inside better than outside, we know the place and they don't. Don't get killed."

The other men grabbed the weapons and distributed them, one of them kicking his friend who'd fainted until he finally got up and ran with them. Seconds later only Taylor and Danny were in the room. He turned to her, looking up at her reptilian head several feet above his. "I'm sorry that you had to get involved, dear," he said quietly.

"I think this is probably my fault, Dad, so the apology should go the other way." She shrugged, lowering her head to look into his eyes. "If anyone hurts you I'm going to kill them."

"Try not to if you can, dear. I understand, and I don't disagree with the sentiment, but you're too young to be killing people." After a moment, visibly slightly reluctantly, she nodded.

"I'll try. But Hookwolf is going to regret bothering us."

"That I'm fine with," Danny smirked. They looked around at yet another burst of shots, which were now going off all around them. "Come on, I have an idea. We need maximum impact, I think, or they'll never learn." He lead the towering form of his only daughter through the building, heading away from the shooting, as around them dockworkers fell back slowly. Every now and then there was a scream or a yell as a shot hit home. He hoped desperately that none of his people got seriously hurt or killed.

Reaching his destination, he pushed the door open and gestured. "This should do."

Taylor looked in, then grinned, before following him inside.

* * *

Hookwolf, or Brad to his friends, of which he had very few, roared defiance at whoever was shooting at him from the DWU building with considerable accuracy. The bullets bounced off his metallic form, pinging around the area. "Get those fuckers!" he screamed in fury, his men shouting and shooting in equal quantities.

The return fire from the building in front of him was much less in volume and a damn sight more accurate. One, then another, of the E88 members went down with a hole in his leg, rolling around in agony and clutching the wound. Infuriated, not liking being shown up by a bunch of people who would employ the sort of subhuman scum that made Brockton Bay the hellhole it was, he roared again and charged, smashing through the front door of the facility and hearing his remaining men follow.

A few more shots rang out from the defenders, then it went eerily quiet. He looked around quickly, deciding that the main hallway leading back to the rear of this building into what he thought was the inner work area was the best approach. Motioning to his men, he sent small groups of them off in different directions to cover the other approaches, then headed down the corridor.

Thirty seconds later the lights went out.

One of the E88 member behind him whimpered. "Oh, god. She's here." Without looking Brad slammed him into the wall with a kick.

"Shut the fuck up. Flashlights." Several beams of white light speared through the dark, letting him and the half dozen people with him see where they were going.

A scream in the distance made them all freeze, exchange glances, then resume walking. Another minute of slow advancement, two more screams, and half a dozen bursts of shooting later and his men were beginning to look like they wanted to be somewhere else. Not deterred, Hookwolf clattered through the corridors of the DWU buildings, not caring who heard and determined to find that scaly lizard girl who had caused so much trouble to the E88 recently.

Hell, she probably wasn't even white under those scales. She was just a big animal that walked around on its hind legs and needed to be put down.

Reaching a large door which seemed to lead into a workshop of some sort, he kicked it open and went in, his men fanning out behind him. Standing in the middle of it under the only light on in the windowless room, a dim emergency lamp, was a tall skinny man with glasses who seemed to be waiting for them.

"Hookwolf," the man said politely. "What do you want?"

He recognized the voice of the man who had been trying to talk him into going away. The Hebert kike. "Saurial. I want Saurial. She's cost me a lot of money and people. I think I want a nice pair of lizard-skin shoes."

"I've told you, Saurial isn't here," Hebert replied mildly.

"I don't believe you. I know she is."

"Who told you that?"

Hookwolf stepped closer, his blades making a metal on metal skittery sound. "None of your business. Where is she?"

Hebert sighed. "I'm sorry, but Saurial isn't here." After a moment, he smiled thinly. "But she sent a friend. Would you like to meet her?"

About to reply, Brad stared as a shadow behind the man, which he'd put down as some sort of industrial machinery, stirred and unfolded. Something moved, coming closer, over Hebert's left shoulder. It opened glowing orange-yellow eyes with pupils like a cat's and looked at him, then the mouth formed into a smile that made him twitch.

It was a smile full of gleaming white teeth, several inches long, and with an air of imminent mayhem about it.

Behind him, several of his men swore faintly, one of them starting to pray. He glanced back and noticed that there seemed to be less of his people there than there had been seconds ago.

Looking back to the massive blue-black scaled reptilian head which was hanging in the darkness a foot over Hebert's shoulder he tried to think what to do. This wasn't Saurial, it looked nothing like the cape he'd seen video of, except for the reptilian aspect.

It looked very dangerous, very annoyed, and very hungry. This last aspect was enhanced when it sniffed loudly a couple of times, licked its lips with a long forked tongue, and said in a deep female voice, "I smell _meat_ inside all that metal. Yummy."

"Fuck _this!_ " a voice from behind him screamed, followed by the sound of running feet. He glanced back again to see he was now without backup.

"You seem to have run out of followers, Hookwolf," the Hebert man said calmly. "If you walk away now and don't come back, we can forget about it. We don't have any particular ax to grind with the E88 as long as you people stay away. The Merchants seem to have learned that, so I suppose you can."

"Merchants," he snarled. "They're all useless fucking street scum led by a druggie fool. We're the E88. We rule this town."

"Lung might have different ideas," Hebert remarked. "Or the PRT."

"Fuck them all, we can take them. We're just waiting for the best moment, then this city will be under the control of the right people. Not undesirables like you."

The thing behind Hebert growled in a low resonant tone, making the room shiver a little. "That's very rude," it said quietly but with menace in its voice.

"Fuck you too you ugly bitch," he growled back, without the undertones that made her utterance so impressive. Growing larger as he took on his full bladed wolf-like form rather than the half-way version he'd been using, he lowered his head and glared at her. "Come on, then, if you think you can take me."

"Mr Hebert?" the huge reptile asked, tipping its head to fix the Union leader with one eye.

The man made a motion, stepping to the side out of her way. "Go ahead. If you could avoid causing too much damage in here it would be appreciated."

"Of course," she replied, moving into the light from the emergency lamp above them. For the first time Hookwolf could see just how massive the thing was. She was nearly the size of a horse, with forelegs that looked half-way between paws and hands, in addition to the heavy muscular hind legs, and the more slender but still extremely powerful looking arms above. Dropping to all fours, the reptilian creature grinned slowly at him. "Well?" she invited, making a gesture with one hand. "Go for it."

He did. With a scream of mixed joy at combat and rage at the thing, he charged. She met him head-on, rearing up and grabbing him with all four hands, then pivoting sharply on her long tail and heaving him across the entire length of the workshop to impact the large vehicle doors at the far end, which he smashed through without even slowing down. Rolling across the cracked concrete outside with his blades raising sparks, he managed to dig some in and stop, raising his head in time to see the creature step through the remains of the doors. Its eyes glowed in the twilight as it narrowed them at him.

"That was pathetic," she commented with a toothful smile. Raising the absolutely immense war hammer that appeared in her hands, the shaft nearly as long as she was tall, she began walking towards him. "Let me show you how it's done."

He barely had time to brace himself before one of the most powerful blows he'd ever experienced sent him flying over the perimeter fence, screaming and howling obscenities.

* * *

Danny stood in the remains of the rear door to the vehicle workshop, watching as his daughter gave a good impression of someone playing croquet with Hookwolf as the ball. The other cape managed to get in a few hits that made her stagger once or twice, but was clearly on the defensive. Smirking a little he watched as they moved off through the warehouses towards the ones that were completely derelict, Taylor being careful to minimize damage as usual. "Have fun, dear," he murmured. "Make sure he learns not to come back."

Hearing a sound behind him he looked over his shoulders to see Mark and Zephron walking towards him, both holding guns. The pair stopped beside him and peered into the dark, just in time to see Hookwolf go flying once more, blades falling like leaves. "That was pretty impressive, Boss," Zephron rumbled. "You should give her a job. We could use security like that."

"I think we'll see her around quite a lot in the future," Danny smiled.

"Good. I like her."

Looking around as the lights came back on, Danny grinned. "That was a good idea, turning out the lights."

"Saurial seems to have all sorts of ideas to terrify people," Mark snickered. "She got a few then we used the same method to get more. We've got twelve E88 guys tied up in storeroom 23, there are six more outside the back gate that she got on the way in, and the rest ran. Half a dozen of the prisoners have holes in which we're seeing to at the moment. None of our guys were seriously hurt, we have one broken leg, a broken jaw, and three bullet grazes, nothing big. The others are on the way back with the rail crews and I've called the cops."

"Good work, to everyone," Danny replied, satisfied. "Let's go and see what the damage is." The three men headed back inside, feeling fairly pleased under the circumstances.

In the distance there was another metallic crash that echoed faintly across the Docks.


	29. Undersiders and Encounters

Brian stared open-mouthed at the sight of what was happening below them, then after a very long moment, turned to Lisa. She was looking at the scene with an expression that mixed amazement, horror, and a certain amount of pain. Behind her Rachel was watching with mute worry and Alec seemed frozen. "Tattletale?"

There was a pause of several seconds before she glanced at him, one eye twitching in a way he knew meant that her power was giving her a migraine.

He pointed.

"What. The Hell. Is _that?_ "

They all kept watching as the huge reptilian creature wielding a sword nearly eight feet long took Hookwolf to pieces. Literally. It was moving so fast it was almost impossible to track or even get a good view of, but every now and then it paused long enough for him to see it properly. He estimated it would probably stand at least eight feet high if erect, with close to that much tail behind it. It looked, more than anything else, like some sort of mutant six-legged velociraptor right out of an Aleph movie, although he could see that the front-most legs were actually arms with hands that were amazingly human-like, albeit with several inches of obviously razor-sharp talons tipping each digit.

Those hands were wrapped around the hilt of the sword it was swinging fast enough to create a distinct whip-crack noise each time whether it hit anything or not. The blade was apparently incredibly sharp, not to mention tough, since anything it hit got cleanly separated into two pieces without obviously slowing it at all.

When it stopped moving for a moment he noticed that it was standing with the rear legs and tail holding it leaning forward, the middle ones which had less hand-like appendages poised ready to strike, and the fore-body above those limbs held upright, giving it a slightly centaur-like appearance. If one took the classical Greek concept of a centaur and replaced all the parts of it with some sort of alien killer lizard, at least.

The upper torso, in those terms, was less solidly built than the rest of it and if you looked at it right might almost be a scaly version of a human female, but the head was right back into dinosaur from hell territory. A reptilian muzzle with a _lot_ of extremely sharp teeth could be seen, two glowing, literally _glowing_ slit-pupilled yellow-orange eyes above it set widely enough that it probably had exceptionally good peripheral vision but still forward enough to allow for binocular vision as well.

While large it was slender and sinewy, giving the impression of something made for speed rather than pure strength. Even so, it didn't lack that either, the thing was definitely appallingly strong, high Brute level at least from what he could see. Its scales were a dark blue-black color, fading into the night and making it hard to see properly even leaving the sheer velocity of its movements out of it. The armor over the scales was almost exactly the same color and difficult to make out.

He watched in horror as it swung that huge blade again, heedless of the lamp-post that was between it and the target, the sword passing through the thick metal post as if it was made of cotton candy, aimed squarely at the metallic wolf-like form of Hookwolf, who only barely managed to move far enough out of range to avoid bisection. There were chunks of his own blades scattered all over the street as far as they could see, while the cape himself was visibly slowing down and looked very much the worse for wear. Even the normally extremely aggressive Nazi was giving off an air of becoming aware that he was in a losing battle. The top three quarters of the pole tipped over and landed with a clang on the ground.

"I have no idea," Lisa finally replied in a faint voice. The other three stared at her instead of the somewhat one-sided battle in the street below, surprised. She looked embarrassed under the pain.

"Really?" Alec turned to her. "The know it all _doesn't_ know it all for once?"

Glaring at him she muttered something under her breath, before going back to watching the creature beat the shit out of one of the most dangerous capes in the city while giving off a distinct impression of enjoying itself. Which was, frankly, kind of worrying.

"No," she finally admitted more loudly. A particularly loud crash from below as Hookwolf got sideswiped by a heavy tail right through a rusty old abandoned truck made them all jump a little. "All I can tell you right now is that it's female, very smart, and incredibly quick. Not to mention dangerous. It's playing with him. It could kill him easily, but it's holding back for some reason."

"Is it a construct of some sort? Or a projection?" Grue asked curiously. She shook her head after staring at the thing some more when it briefly paused again.

"No..." She trailed off, then said more firmly, "No, I don't think so. I think it's a cape. And I think it's what left those footprints in the snow."

Raising an eyebrow under his helmet, Brian stared at her, then the creature, which was now slowly stalking Hookwolf who was backing away, using other old cars as cover. "A cape? You mean like Saurial?" He thought for a moment. "It's reptilian like her, true, and seems to be using similar weapons, but it's a hell of a lot bigger and looks completely different."

The thing suddenly moved like lightning, almost flowing over the obstacles in its way, darting at Hookwolf who screamed an obscenity and ran for his life, obviously having decided that he needed to urgently regroup somewhere a long way away. Brian watched with amazement as the sword that had been making such a mess of the other cape abruptly was a club instead, still wildly outsized. The lizard-thing hopped onto a car roof and swung like it was playing golf, with the result that the Nazi bounced down the street, ending up embedded into the wall of a warehouse a hundred feet away. His transformation ebbed away, leaving an unconscious man lying in an untidy heap.

The observers watched as the lizard-creature somehow made its sword turned club disappear, then sauntered over with no real urgency, lifting the Nazi by one ankle and holding him up for inspection, its head cocked curiously to one side. Apparently satisfied it put him down again surprisingly carefully then produced a set of heavy metal restraints with which it happily proceeded to hog-tie him. Grue was almost sorry for the other cape.

Almost.

When it was finished securing its captive, it producing a phone from somewhere, which looked absurdly small in its massive taloned hands, and carefully prodded the device for a few seconds, apparently sending a text. Putting it away again, it then slowly and deliberately turned its head on its long flexible neck to stare straight at them in a casual manner that made it pretty clear it had known they were watching from the beginning.

"Oh, _shit_..." Brian froze for a long couple of seconds.

The creature started walking in their direction.

"Um… I think we should go," Tattletale said in a small voice. The others didn't argue, all of them hastily climbing aboard two of Bitch's outsize mutant dogs, the woman herself whistling a quiet command that had all three of the creatures turning and leaving the area rapidly. Grue looked over his shoulder, his eyes widening when he spotted the reptilian cape now standing on the roof right where they'd been, watching them flee. It had made it six stories from the ground to the roof in seconds.

A moment passed then it started following them, leaping as easily over the rooftops as the dogs were, if not more so. "Oh, crap," he yelled. "It's chasing us!"

Regent and Tattletale quickly looked back, the blonde's face paling visibly. Bitch urged her dogs to a higher speed, which they seemed more than happy about, all three of them apparently well aware of what was following them and not liking it. The animals bounded over the roofs of the warehouses and tenement buildings, sending shingles and slates flying, while Brian kept looking back whenever they were in a position to allow it, frantically flooding their path with his darkness.

Half a mile further on, he turned around again, then sighed in relief. "I can't see it any more. I think we lost it."

Turning back to look forwards he was just in time to see the damn thing appear a hundred feet in front of them, popping up out of an alley having apparently scaled the wall of the building. "FUCK!" Bitch screamed in shocked anger, leaning over and prodding the dog she was riding at the head of the little pack to violently turn. Grue nearly lost his seat as the one he was on followed the lead instantly, grabbing for Lisa as she hung on frantically and helped him keep his place.

As they flashed past the thing he saw it was merely watching them, making no attempt to attack. Once they were clear he looked back to see it following again. A few seconds passed then it vanished, dropping into another alley. This time he _didn't_ sigh in relief, having the distinct impression it was toying with them for some reason.

Sweating, he exchanged a look with Tattletale, then both of them went back to scanning the area. "Any idea where it is?" he asked her, leaning forward. She looked around, wincing in pain again.

"It's… somewhere over to the right. I think." Both of them looked in that direction but couldn't spot anything.

"Why the hell is it chasing us?" Regent called. She turned to stare at him.

Eventually she shrugged. "I don't know. Maybe it doesn't want witnesses?"

"Oh, thank you _very_ fucking much for that thought," the dark-haired young man snapped after a horrified second or two following her words. "I have no wish to get killed and eaten by a mutant dinosaur, thanks."

"I still can't see it," Grue stated, scanning around for any trace of the thing. Tattletale followed his gaze then shook her head.

"Neither can I."

"Maybe we really did lose it this time?"

"I… I think if anything it got bored," she finally replied after considering the question, rubbing her forehead with a shaking hand. He looked at her closely, concerned, seeing she was clearly about at the end of her endurance. Her power was obviously causing her more pain than usual. "From what I could make out it would easily be able to track us if it wanted to. I'm pretty sure its senses are wildly better than ours are. The damn thing can probably hear us half a mile away."

"Oh, great," he muttered.

"Do we go back to base, then?" Regent asked as they slowed down, the dogs also close to exhaustion. "Or run around for a while longer so we don't lead it there?"

It was a good point. Grue had no wish to allow whatever it was to work out where they lived. After a moment or two he signaled a stop. Bitch issued the command to the dogs, which slowed to a walk, then finally halted on a flat roof nearly three miles from where the lizard creature had so comprehensively stomped Hookwolf flat.

Relieved, as riding the dogs wasn't exactly the most comfortable thing in the world at the best of times, never mind when they were running for their lives, Brian slid off his mount, dropping to the roof and rubbing his ass. The others did pretty much the same thing.

Eventually they gathered in a group, the dogs to one side, in the shadow of the machine house on the top of the building they were on. Grue looked carefully around, both checking for the thing and trying to work out where they were. Spotting the lights of the Medhall building in the distance he realized they'd ended up half-way between the Docks and the Boardwalk, technically on the edge of Merchants territory but a safe distance from their main haunts.

"What the hell, Lisa?" he finally said, turning to the blonde, who was standing with her eyes shut and one hand pressed to her forehead. "What just happened? Who or what _was_ that?"

"I told you, Brian, I don't know," she sighed, not opening her eyes. "When I looked directly at it, my power just… gave me static." She shrugged. "I could get bits and pieces but not much useful information. It's really strange. And hellishly painful."

Regent, looking even in his costume rather nervous, leaned against the side of the machine house and stared at her. Beside her, Bitch was checking one of her dogs, while Grue was thinking. "How often does that happen, Tats?" the smaller man asked, sounding worried.

She sighed, opening her eyes to look at him and wincing at the same time. Reluctantly, she admitted, "That's only the second time it's ever happened..." The blonde suddenly got a faraway look on her face, apparently realizing something.

"Oh, wonderful," he groaned. "Right at the point it would be really _fucking_ useful to know what the hell was chasing us!"

"It's not like I'm doing it on purpose, you know," she snapped back in an aggrieved manner, coming back from wherever she'd been moments before.

"Did you _see_ what it did to Hookwolf?" he asked, leaning forward and resting the end of his scepter on his shoulder. "It fucking _destroyed_ him! And you think it was just _playing_ with him? That's not someone I want to tangle with, _or_ lead home. So pardon me if I'm a little annoyed that our all-knowing fountain of information picks that exact moment to run dry."

His voice was heavy with sarcasm, but Brian couldn't exactly fault his reasoning. Neither could Lisa, judging by her expression, although she wasn't happy about it even so.

"I mean, you _were_ actually watching the same thing I was, right?" he went on. "It was nine or ten feet tall and swinging the biggest fucking sword I've ever seen around like it weighed nothing! It cut a car in half with one swing, _one-handed_. That's just bullshit. Never mind it was so fast I could barely follow it. I don't know what beef it had with Hookwolf but I do _not_ want to meet anything that could do that to him. It was the most terrifying thing I've ever seen outside an Endbringer. _Please_ tell me you know if it's going to follow us home? I don't want to wake up tomorrow to see a _killer alien dinosaur_ grinning at me while holding the sword of plus ten destruction to my throat!"

Regent finished his rant, then stared at his three companions, who were all staring back from fifteen feet away, completely silent and not moving a muscle. The eyes of the two girls, the only ones visible, were so wide he could see the whites all around even in the dark.

He swallowed hard, closing his own eyes for a moment in terrified realization.

"It's behind me, isn't it?" he asked faintly.

All three of them nodded dumbly.

"Oh _hell_."

Very slowly, he lifted his head to look directly upwards.

A couple of feet above him, an unpleasantly familiar pair of glowing yellowish eyes set in a massive reptilian head were peering down at them all from the roof of the machine house. The rest of the creature was out of sight on the roof. It looked at them, totally motionless, while they all stared back, so frozen that no-one even considered using their powers to escape.

The tableau held for a few seconds, no one saying anything, then it slowly moved, the head staying almost still in a very disturbing manner while the rest of it eased over the roof and descended the side of the building, its claws easily holding it against the wall. Regent didn't move, worried that doing so would instantly precipitate an attack. Which, based on what he'd seen, would be something that none of them would survive. He was under no misconceptions about the mismatch in abilities present.

When it was standing on the roof, looking at them, it slowly turned its head to inspect each one of them in turn. It audibly sniffed, scenting them. A whine from one of the dogs, which were pressed against the roof in a submissive posture making it abundantly clear they knew damn well a much more dangerous predator was present caused it to snap its head around so fast it blurred to stare at the animal. Half a second later it looked back at them, equally quickly. The contrast between the horrifyingly slow and deliberate movements as it climbed down the wall and the practically instantaneous reflexes was deeply disturbing.

Grue watched as the creature studied them, glancing at Lisa without moving his head, seeing that she was looking terrified and at a complete loss. Briefly considering flooding the area with his darkness then trying to escape, he dismissed the plan when he realized that the thing could probably react much too fast to give that idea much hope of success.

Suddenly, the thing spoke, in a fairly deep female voice that sounded remarkably normal although with weird undertones, making them all twitch violently.

"You dropped this," it said, tossing Tattletale a phone. The device bounced off her chest as she entirely failed to even attempt to catch it. After a long incredulous moment, all of them looked down at the phone.

When they looked up, it was gone.

"What… the… absolute... _fuck_..."

Regent's disbelieving voice broke the silence nearly a minute later. Bending down very slowly, Tattletale picked up the phone and stared at it, before sagging a little and putting it back into the pouch in her utility belt it had apparently fallen out of at some point.

She turned to them, her mouth working silently. Eventually, she managed to speak.

"I..." Her voice was unnaturally high. She tried again after swallowing. "I have no idea what the hell just happened."

Shaking his head in defeated tiredness, Grue sighed. "Fuck it all, let's just go home."

It took Bitch nearly five minutes to get the dogs to stop shivering and let them get on. The ride home was slow, quiet, and thoughtful.

* * *

" _We are being watched, Brain,_ " the Varga said, as Taylor swung her sword with both hands, wincing a little internally as the lamp post that had jumped in front of her blade toppled over, but still concentrating on not actually dicing the idiot Nazi in front of her. She carefully missed hitting him square on, only removing yet another piece of his outer layers which clattered to the road and burst into fragments. The cape yelped in shock and dived out of the way, while she followed.

' _I know, I heard them_ ,' she replied absently. ' _Tattletale? She's with the Undersiders, right?_ ' She remembered what their research had shown up.

" _Yes, with her teammates Grue, Regent, and Hellhound or Bitch. There wasn't much information available on them so far. Villainous alignment although they have been surprisingly inactive recently." The Varga sounded intrigued. "I believe that she is probably a Thinker of some sort_."

' _OK. Well, they're not a problem right now, so they can watch if they want_.' She ducked a return strike by Hookwolf then pivoted on one foot, her tail smacking into him and flinging him into and through a rusty box truck at the side of the road. ' _Oops. Dad is going to be very sarcastic about all the damage._ ' Taylor cast a quick glance back at the trail of destruction their running fight had left behind, embarrassed. While a good deal of it was due to her opponent a considerable amount was, if she was honest, her fault.

Shifting her grip on the sword, she swung it one-handed at the other cape, who let out an unmanly screech as it barely missed him, cutting an old junker of a car neatly into two halves with a crunch. She bared her teeth at him in a savage grin. ' _This is fun, though. He's not as tough as he made himself out to be_.'

" _Please restrain yourself from killing him, although I agree that is what would be the rational approach. Your father was very clear that lethal force should be reserved for extreme situations, which this isn't._ " Her head partner sounded mildly annoyed about that little fact. He'd made it quite clear that leaving dangerous enemies alive was in the long term a bad idea. She had a sneaking suspicion he was right, but couldn't find it in herself to go against her father's wishes or her own ethical sense.

' _Don't worry, I'll just wear him out and knock him around a little,_ ' she assured the Varga. ' _Teach him what it's like to be on the other end of a smackdown for once._ '

Hookwolf feinted right, then dived left, apparently trying to get to cover behind some more cars, all of which looked like they should have been junked years ago. This area was very run down, not surprising in the current economic climate and considering that it was mainly Merchants who wandered around the place. Anyone with a brain had cleared out as soon as they heard the fight coming, though, meaning the area was almost empty. She could hear a few heartbeats, very rapid ones, in the surrounding buildings, so a few people had braved it out even so.

Quickly looking around Taylor could also see the heat signatures of half a dozen people, not including the four on the roof to one side, which also had three much larger blobs behind them. Idly wondering what they were she returned her attention to her opponent, who was watching her carefully in between glances about him for an escape route.

Smiling to herself, which in her current form probably looked a little worrying, she raised the sword again then dropped to all fours, skittering over the ground and the cars fast enough to make him yell out wildly, swear a lot, then make a break for it. Jumping ahead and to one side she swapped the sword for a club like a giant baseball bat with a quick mental flick, then aimed carefully and swung, pulling the blow enough at the last instant that Hookwolf only bounced, rather than splashed. Watching him hit the warehouse wall at the end of the street she grinned.

' _Fore!_ '

" _Ah. A golf metaphor,_ " the Varga replied drily, making her giggle.

Wandering over having dismissed the bat she reached down and picked Hookwolf up now that he had reverted to human form, checking him for damage. He was out like a light but his heartbeat was strong and she couldn't see any real damage to him other than sheer exhaustion. Satisfied, she put him down again then applied the restraints her partner produced on request. ' _Let's set them for a few days, just to make a point_ ' she smirked. After another look at the unconscious cape, she had the Varga add a neck collar and attach the restraints to the back of it, ensuring that Hookwolf was going nowhere until the bonds evaporated.

Having finished, she plucked her phone from the belt around her waist above her forelegs, flipping it open with one talon. Quickly tapping out a message to her father, she put it away again.

' _OK, that's that done_ ,' she said with an internal smile. ' _Hopefully it should stop those Nazi bastards from messing with us for a while._ ' Turning her head she looked up curiously to where the Undersiders were still watching. ' _Think I should go and say Hi? I mean, I know they're villains, but they're still neighbors._ '

" _They don't present much threat as far as I can sense_."

With a small shrug she headed towards the building she could see four faces peering over the edge of from the roof. These immediately vanished and she could hear a certain amount of worried whispering. ' _Oops_ ,' she muttered again. ' _I think they might have the wrong idea._ ' Quickly climbing up the front of the building Taylor hopped lightly onto the roof, in time to see the three huge thermal sources, which turned out to be enormous lizard-dog creatures, bound away into the distance, two of them carrying a pair of people each on their backs.

 _'Wow. That looks… uncomfortable_ ,' she commented. Glancing down she noticed that there was an expensive looking smart phone lying on the roof. Picking it up she sniffed it. The scent of a female and a distinctive perfume, which she could also smell in the air around her, led her to believe that it belonged to one of the Undersiders. After a brief internal debate she sighed softly, looking up at the disappearing quartet, before beginning to follow them. ' _This looks expensive. She'll probably miss it, so I should give it back, I guess_ ,' she remarked. There was no immediate reply.

Strangely enough, the Undersiders sped up when they noticed she was behind them. She heard one of them yell about being chased, briefly wondering if she should shout back, but decided just to follow. Eventually they'd stop and she could return the phone. A cloud of oddly opaque darkness billowed behind them, which blocked normal vision completely and even the thermal vision as well, not to mention muffling the sounds in a weird way. It had no effect on their scents, which was useful, so it barely slowed her.

It took some time for them to come to a halt, though. At one point she hopped down to the street and ran ahead of the direction she thought they were going in, to get in front of them, which actually worked. But as soon as she climbed up to the rooftops again the girl on the front dog-thing screamed in shock, then wheeled her mount around, almost dislodging the large young man on the second animal as it did the same thing, and pelted off in a different direction. Sighing, she watched them go once more, before muttering to herself and following, this time keeping out of sight off to one side. Perhaps if they didn't see her they'd stop?

A few more minutes passed while she tracked them by ear and scent. Eventually they halted, dismounting their animals and arguing with each other for a while. She gleaned quite a lot of information listening as she carefully approached, clambering up the side of the building away from them and lurking on the other side of the machine room on top of it. Tattletales real name appeared to be Lisa, and the larger of the two boys was Brian. Taylor thought he was probably the cape known as Grue. That made the dog handler Hellhound, which made sense, leaving Regent as the remaining boy. Wondering what their powers were she carefully and quietly slipped up to the top of the machine house, peeping over the edge to see what they looked like.

Tattletale was a blonde, very attractive, in a skin-tight body suit in black and purple. Grue was tall, well built, and wearing a modified motorcycle helmet and leathers. Bitch or Hellhound, whichever it was, looked pretty normal by comparison, just a solidly built young woman in normal clothes with a cheap dog mask sitting pretty much on top of her head. Wondering whether she should ask what name the girl wanted people to use, she pondered the matter for a second or two, before deciding it wasn't the time right at that moment.

Regent, the last of them, was directly below her, ranting wildly about something and seeming pretty wound up. His costume was interesting, looking like he was trying to pull off the effect of being a flamenco dancer but missed. She cocked her head, wondering what the idea behind it was.

When he stopped talking he stared at his companions, who were all oddly silent. She glanced at them and realized that they were all staring fixedly at _her!_ It was embarrassing. She knew her current form was a bit unusual but the intensity of the stares was somewhat off-putting.

Not wanting to upset them any more she carefully and slowly descended their side of the machine house, trying not to make any sudden moves. Sniffing she cataloged the various scents, localizing the smell on the phone to Tattletale. It must be hers.

Staring at them and wondering why they all looked so scared, she snapped her head around at a sound from one of the huge dog-like things, almost jumping in shock, then looked back when it was obvious the animal was only tired. All three of them were lying on their sides panting. Briefly thinking that Bitch should take more care of her pets, she retrieved Tattletales phone from her belt pouch and gently tossed it to her, saying at the same time, "You dropped this."

The girl didn't move to catch it, not even when it bounced off her chest and clattered to the roof. Taylor managed to avoid sighing, even though she felt like it. Assuming they were a little embarrassed themselves about losing what was probably an expensive phone, although you wouldn't guess it from the way she'd dropped it again, she waved to them and jumped over the side of the building, grabbing the stonework on the way down then lowering herself to the ground to avoid her weight, which at this size was significant, damaging the street.

She wasn't even sure they'd noticed her wave, since by then they were all looking at the phone with peculiar expressions, at least in the case of the two girls. Speeding up she ran back towards the Docks and her captive, satisfied about her good deed. It had only taken an extra twenty minutes or so anyway.

' _They seemed a bit confused_ ,' she said to the Varga, which for some reason seemed to be sniggering to itself. ' _I'm not sure they really know what they're doing_.'

The great creature laughed inside her head and refused to explain why for quite a long time.


	30. Interrogations and Promises

As she reached the area where she'd left the form of Hookwolf lying in the street, Taylor slowed, a familiar scent reaching her nose from somewhere up ahead. Stopping in the shadows, she sniffed carefully, looking around intently, then slipped into a side alley and climbed quickly up the side of the building to the roof, cloaking as she went. Reverting to her normal size to allow her smaller form to be more stealthy she very quietly crept over the next two roofs, until she made it to her target area, a building overlooking the point where the fight had stopped but some distance downwind of where the Undersiders had watched from.

Checking again she could make out a dim glowing blob beneath her in the top floor room, near the window. It seemed to be pointing something out the window and lying on the floor.

The scent was definitely the same as the one she'd detected in the room in the other warehouse during the sniping incident, the one she'd followed half-way across the city. Her mysterious observer was back. ' _Now isn't that interesting_ ,' she commented silently to the Varga, who was also watching intently.

" _Yes, it is, Brain. I think we might have found the reason Hookwolf and his friends decided to visit the DWU._ "

' _I think it's time we had a talk. Going after me is one thing, but setting that lunatic on Dad and his people is too much._ ' Taylor was feeling very irritated. Creeping soundlessly across the roof she eased headfirst over the edge, seeing there was indeed a man lying on the floor with a camera, pointing it at Hookwolf a couple of hundred yards away up the road. Presumably waiting for her to return. He must have been following discreetly all the way from the DWU facility, which spoke volumes about his own training.

Smiling in a vicious way, she slipped further down the wall, then flipped through the window above him, decloaking when she was standing behind him again and back up to the larger size.

"Good view?" she asked casually.

"Holy fucking _cunt!_ " the man screamed in shock, nearly jumping out the window as he spun around on the floor, rising into a crouch with a knife in his hand in an impressive display of reflexes.

She laughed gently, which made him pale even further than the impressive shade he reached when he saw who it was.

"Oh, Christ," he moaned.

"Still only me." She stepped closer. "I'm very curious as to who you are, and why you paid that Merchant to snipe at Saurial."

He went completely white.

"Oh, yes," she purred softly, "I know it was you. I know where you went afterwards. And I know it was you who set a crazy homicidal cape on friends of mine. What I don't know is why, and who you work for, so I think we need to talk."

"You… You can't make me talk," he stuttered, obviously attempting to convince himself more than her.

"I think you may be mistaken," she corrected him politely, smiling widely. This time his color ebbed to pale green. "And trust me, there are so _many_ things I can do that won't actually kill you. Some of them might even allow you to walk again one day."

He screamed loudly and in a remarkably unmanly way as she reached for him.

* * *

Brad groaned, shaking his head a little and finding it difficult. There was something heavy around his neck and his arms and legs were bent oddly. It took him several seconds to remember what had happened. Struggling, he tried to escape his bonds, whatever they were, but found it impossible. Whatever was tying his legs and arms behind his back didn't even flex.

An attempt to shift forms and escape like that caused instant pain, as once again the bonds didn't cooperate and slide off his blades, instead tangling with them and interfering with the process. He'd never encountered anything like it.

A sudden scream from behind him made him try to look, then swear violently and wriggle around on his belly on the cold concrete until he could see the source. The huge reptilian horror that had been chasing him was holding a man at arm's length by the ankle on the roof of a building a hundred yards away, dangling him over a sixty foot drop, while apparently talking calmly to him. Brad stared, wondering what the hell she was doing. It was a remarkably brutal bit of intimidation, one he actually found rather impressive, even under the circumstances

Her captive shrieked again as she jiggled him up and down encouragingly, then started talking. Very very quickly. She listened carefully, looking like she was asking questions, but it was too far away for Brad to make out what was being said. When the man swiveled in his direction, though, he recognized him. It was the informant who had approached him with information on Saurial and where she might turn up.

Feeling suddenly like he was the butt of a joke he was going to kill someone over, Hookwolf watched, unable to do anything else. Eventually she reeled her prisoner in, apparently satisfied, slung him over her shoulder, and dropped off the building, accompanied by a descending wail of terror. Braking by grabbing the wall in a few places she landed lightly, then put the man down.

The lizard thing reached out and put her hand around his neck, before talking seriously to him for a moment. He nodded frantically, then rabbited as soon as she let go, disappearing into the darkness in seconds. She watched for a moment, then turned to Brad, walking over and squatting next to him.

"Hello, Hookwolf," she said politely. "You're awake. I was wondering when you'd manage that." She reached out and poked him with the end of her tail. "Looking a little rough around the edges there. Now, what am I going to do with you?"

"Let me go, you bitch, or Kaiser will have your head on his wall," he snarled.

"Oh, I don't think it will come to that," she smiled. "I doubt he could do it anyway."

"The E88 is going to _crush_ you, bitch," he blustered, knowing damn well she had him at her mercy.

She got down on all four legs and put her head very close to his, close enough that he could see her teeth very clearly indeed. He swallowed a little drily.

"No, they aren't. And if they try, they will all die." There was a note of total certainty in her voice that despite himself he tended to believe. "You have no idea at all what I'm capable of if you push hard enough. I would _strongly_ advise you don't try to find out." Her voice was a silky hiss, making a shiver go down his back. "I have a message for Kaiser and you are going to deliver it when you see him next. Leave the DWU alone. If I have to go through the entire E88 to keep them safe I'm perfectly happy to do it and believe me, I can. What I did you was fun, but not actually very hard. Don't make me do it again and put some effort in."

"You're bluffing," he said, not entirely certain she was. The reptilian female studied him for a few seconds.

"OK. If that's the way you want to play it." Standing up she grabbed whatever it was that she had tied him up with and lifted him off the ground with no effort, carrying him like a suitcase. He yelled and struggled, totally pointlessly. "You should be quiet," she advised, "you're going to need your breath. How long can you hold it, anyway?"

"What the fuck are you talking about?" he asked, suddenly worried. There was something about the calm and almost serene manner she was talking in that was very disconcerting.

"This," she replied, stopping. He looked around to find to his horror they'd reached the waterfront and she was standing on the remains of one of the old wharves that had collapsed years ago, right at the edge, dark frigid water lapping at the timbers ten feet below them. "See you."

She held him out, then let go.

His scream didn't last long, nor did the echoes of the splash.

* * *

David looked around the scene, lit brightly by floodlights on the walls of the DWU buildings, and more on poles in the yard. Bullet casings were everywhere, there were a hell of a lot of holes in some of the walls, and a huge part of the fence was shredded, but overall the damage was minimal. Strobing blue and red illumination cast odd shadows about the place, the half dozen police cruisers, three large prisoner vans, and two ambulances all with their roof lights running scattered about the yard. They'd had to wait for some of the men to tow the huge trailer that had blocked the main gate out of the way with a massive forklift when they'd arrived, before they could get in.

"My God, Danny, what the hell? It looks like a war zone." He turned back to the DWU representative who was standing with several of his men, all armed with various guns, the latter looking around alertly for the most part. They were clearly guarding the Hebert man.

Danny sighed, looking around himself. "It's a mess, yes. But it won't take long to fix. The fence is the biggest nuisance, I'm not sure we have enough chain-link material in stock."

"Why the hell did Hookwolf of all people attack _here?_ " David asked, glancing over at the surprisingly large number of prisoners the DWU people seemed to have acquired, mostly without any injuries. Or at least, to them. Several of the E88 members were looking somewhat tattered.

Shrugging, Danny replied, "Apparently someone told him Saurial was here, which was wrong. He seems to have a bone to pick with her. I called her and told her and she sent someone else over to lend a hand, she was unable to attend."

"Who did she send?" David asked curiously.

"Me," a deep female voice said from behind him, making him yelp and spin around, then nearly faint. He stared, as did the other cops, at the enormous and much more reptilian creature than Saurial that was standing fifteen feet away holding a dripping wet and deliriously mumbling Hookwolf under her arm like a handbag.

"Fuck me," he breathed. "Who the hell are _you?_ "

"A friend," she replied, the corners of her mouth going up in what he realized was a smile. Her face was nowhere near as human-like as Saurial's was, not really allowing for a real smile. The effect was more than a little chilling, as were her eyes, as she looked around with rapid motions of her head, displaying incredibly quick reactions.

"That's nice," he managed to say. "I wouldn't want you as an enemy."

She laughed, then poked Hookwolf, who coughed a little, rather weakly. "He decided to cooperate in the end," she announced, "although he took some… convincing. Do you want him or do I return him to sender? I don't really need a pet."

The police officer could see that the cape was securely and slightly ridiculously restrained by the same sort of weird unbreakable metal manacles that Saurial produced, except much thicker and on both legs and arms. Not to mention his neck. It was blatantly obvious that he wasn't going anywhere.

"I think… I think it would probably be best to let the PRT take him off your hands," he managed to say after a few seconds. The other cops were still staring in shock, while the union guys seemed very amused. Danny was shaking his head, a look of mild disapproval colored with hilarity on it.

"They haven't turned up yet, have they?" she asked.

"No. We passed the message on when these guys called us and said Hookwolf was involved, but they don't seem in much of a hurry." David sighed slightly. "Not entirely surprising. If it was the Boardwalk or Downtown areas, they'd be all over the place in minutes."

"If I go and give him to them do you think they can manage to hold onto the bastard this time?" she asked curiously. "Based on past results he and his friends seem to walk out of the place in days, if not hours. I'm sure he's been arrested by the PRT at least twice in the last three years."

David shrugged. "Your guess is as good as mine. I know we can't hold him, as much as I'd like to take him off your hands. But we'll take these other idiots."

A siren in the distance made them all turn and look, to see a PRT van following Armsmaster's motorcycle come around the corner of the road that led directly to the facility, heading rapidly in their direction. "Hah. Speak of the devil. About time."

Everyone waited as the Tinker and his escort entered the yard, both vehicles stopping a few yards away, then Armsmaster dismounted, staring at the scene. What they could see of his face under his helmet looked somewhat surprised. Eventually, as he was joined by three PRT troopers carrying containment foam sprayers and Miss Militia, who climbed out of the van with them, the five people cautiously walking closer. David noticed that the female hero was staring fixedly at the large reptilian cape with a look of shock in her eyes.

Armsmaster seemed more interested in the captive under her arm, or more specifically the manacles he was bound with. "That amount of restraint seems excessive," he said, "bearing in mind the impossible strength of that material."

"I needed the weight," the reptilian woman replied evenly. "So he'd sink quickly."

Everyone stared at her. "Sink quickly?" Miss Militia echoed, a look of mild horror in her eyes.

"We practiced some breath control exercises while I was explaining that the DWU was off limits to him and his friends," the other cape replied, sounding amused. "Deep water helps a lot in that case. He agreed with me after a while."

"You… you dropped him in the bay?" Miss Militia managed to say, her voice faint.

The huge creature nodded, doing its smile thing again, which made the PRT troopers flinch. "Repeatedly. I pulled him out again, though. After a while." Holding Hookwolf out at arm's length she shook him gently, watching water drip from him. "He's surprisingly stubborn."

"That's torture," the heroine snapped.

The lizard-like cape shook her head. "No, it's an enhanced interrogation, perfectly legal according to our own government, as stated more than once over the last twenty years or so. You're a government agent, surely you know about that?" Her glowing eyes fixed on Miss Militia's own, making the latter visibly swallow. "Admittedly my version is a little more enhanced but it's also a lot faster. He's fine. Just a bit damp and a lot cleaner. Now, do you want him, or do I go and throw him back through Kaiser's window? I don't much care one way or the other."

She held the cape up to her face, staring into his eyes. He seemed unable to blink. "Although if _I_ ever see him again around here, no one else _ever_ will. Got me, Hookwolf?"

The cape nodded so fast his mask nearly fell off.

"Good. Remember my message when you see your boss." She put him down, the manacles around his legs vanishing in the process. Giving him a gentle push she urged him towards the PRT troopers who were, like everyone else, staring in horrified awe. "Run along, Hooky. Don't come back."

Staggering towards the PRT people, the broken cape looked almost grateful when they grabbed him and loaded him into the van.

"I think that's that problem solved, Mr Hebert," the lizard-like female said with satisfaction, turning to the DWU representative. "I'm glad I could help. It was fun. Thanks for letting me give a hand."

"You're welcome, and thank you as well," Danny said calmly, walking over and holding out his hand, which was engulfed in the one the thing put out. He showed no signs at all of fear or worry which deeply impressed David, and he suspected, pretty much everyone else watching in silence. "Give my best wishes to Saurial. Can we call you again if we need help?"

"Any time." She nodded politely to him, waved to the other union men who waved back, seeming relaxed and pleased, then turned and sprinted at a horrifying speed across the yard towards the bay.

"Hey!" Miss Militia, apparently taken by surprise, shouted after her. "Come back! I want to talk to you."

The cape disappeared into the darkness without a reply then a second later there was a faint splash.

"Did she just jump into the bay?" Armsmaster asked the assembled multitude, more or less rhetorically. His voice sounded odd.

"I think so, yes," Danny replied, turning back from watching her go with a smile. "Now, was there anything else I can do for the PRT tonight? Or can we get on with making the area secure and going home. Some of us have families to get back to."

Neither of the capes seemed to be able to come up with an instant answer, merely exchanging bemused glances, so he turned to David. "Hopefully you have everything you need. If you want to interview any of the men, let me know and I can arrange to have them come down town."

"OK, Danny. Thanks." David shook his head, looking around as the other cops and EMTs got back to work now the drama was over. "Amazing. Well done, though. I'm impressed you had no real injuries."

"We knew the area a lot better than those idiots did," Danny sighed. "Plus we have some very good shots in the Union. Ex military guys, you know the type."

"I do."

"Hey, can we keep the guns?" one of the union men, the excessively large black guy, put in, stroking the expensive looking AR-15 he was holding. "I like this one."

"We should probably hand them over, Zephron," Danny sighed. "The DWU doesn't really need an armory."

"Are you sure, Boss?" the man asked, grinning. "Never know when it might come in handy."

"Give the police the guns, guys," the DWU man laughed. "All of them. Including that pistol I saw you hide in your desk, Mark."

Another man looked disappointed, making David grin.

He noticed that a couple of minutes later, the PRT people and the two capes quietly left, not seeming to know quite what to do. That made him snicker for some time.

* * *

Swimming underwater for a couple of miles, Taylor exited the bay, shook the water off, and retook her Saurial form, cloaking and running towards the Downtown area. She wanted to be seen wandering around for a while, to give plausible deniability to her combat form. It was inevitable that sooner or later someone would put it all together but the longer she could put it off, most likely the safer they'd be.

Not to mention she thought it was really funny.

Reaching the brightly lit area full of restaurants and bars she looked over the roof edge of the building she was on, then around. In the distance she could make out Kid Win gliding along the sidewalk with Clockblocker beside him, the two Wards patrolling the area. Deciding she'd go and say hello, she decloaked and ran along the rooftops until she was above them, then descended to the ground, smiling as they stopped, then came over.

"Hi, guys. How's it going?" she asked brightly. "I've been wandering around for a while and haven't seen anything interesting yet."

"Hi, Saurial. Nothing much going on, the E88 seems quiet tonight and no one else is around," Kid Win smiled. "But I'm sure something will kick off sooner or later. It normally does."

"Then you can go and season the criminals while we watch and laugh," Clockblocker snickered. "Hey, I had an idea about how you could get Assault. What you do is, you get some salad, some dressing, a big knife and fork, a pepper grinder, one of those huge ones they use in restaurants, and some salt, then..."

They walked off, laughing about his idea. It seemed plausible, so she put it on the list of things to look into.

* * *

Hearing the back door open then close, Danny got up from the sofa to meet his daughter in the hallway. She smiled at him and hugged him. "I'm so glad you're safe, Dad," she whispered. "I was so angry when I saw what was happening. I wanted to drop on his head and rip him to pieces, but I didn't want to risk other people getting hurt. Sorry about your guys getting injured."

"It's fine, dear, no one was badly injured, not even the E88 idiots. All our people are fine, the worst injury was a broken leg and it's not a bad break. But if you hadn't been there it would have been very bad. Thanks for saving us all."

"Any time, Dad, you know that. I'm happy to help. And it was kind of fun, actually. You should have seen Hookwolf's face when I let go and dropped him in the water the first time. He couldn't believe what I was going to do."

She giggled, as Danny laughed, picturing the scene. "Couldn't have happened to a more deserving bastard. Hopefully he won't be back."

"I doubt it," she replied with a grin. "He seemed sincere when he promised to keep out of the Docks. If he does come back, well, I know some very deep water not that far away."

"That's only marginally better than threatening to eat him, dear," Danny protested mildly, both of them going back into the living room. "Your friend is a bad influence in some ways."

"No, he isn't," she smiled, "and you don't really think so."

"Not really, no," he agreed. "So, tell me about it. What happened?"

She went over the whole thing, making him grin for most of it and laugh out loud during parts. When she came to the mysterious observer, though, she frowned.

"I'm not sure yet what to do about it. That guy won't be back. I told him to run and keep running, and if I ever saw, heard, or smelled him anywhere near Brockton Bay I'd do something to him that would make Jack Slash throw up. I think he believed me, his heart nearly stopped. But the man he worked for is still out there."

"I'm surprised about who it is," Danny mused. "Not quite the name I expected."

"No. I think I can probably drop him in it with a little work, but I'm going to have to think about it," she commented. "One way or the other, though, I'm going to make sure he stops poking around." Taylor held up a memory card. "I took this out of that guys camera, then destroyed the thing and threw it in the bay. I got his phone as well and pulled out the battery and sim card. It might come in handy."

"You're becoming very devious, dear," he smiled. "I wonder how much is you and how much is your large friend?"

"Fifty fifty, I think." Taylor grinned. "We take turns."

"Fair enough. OK, I need a late dinner then bed. Do you want something as well?"

"Sure. We have some frozen pizzas in the fridge, that should do it."

Nodding, he got up and went with her into the kitchen, both of them soon eating and talking. Overall, he was pretty pleased with the day.

"A hell of a dramatic intro for your combat form," he said as they finished. "So are you going to use it in public more now?"

"Probably, yes," she replied with a nod. "There's only one problem with that."

"Which is?"

"I still can't think of a good name, damn it!"

He was still laughing as he went up to bed.


	31. PHO and Reactions

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 **Topic: New Cape in BB  
In: Boards ► Places ► America ► Brockton Bay  
Bagrat ** (Original Poster) (Veteran Member) (The Guy in the Know)  
Posted On Jan 25th 2011:

Last night, a new cape debuted here in Brockton Bay. Nothing new there, I hear you shout, it happens way more often here than you'd think was likely, although admittedly it's normally a villain.

This time, though, it's a hero, and she's a lizard.

You read that right.

A lizard.

Six and a half feet tall, bipedal, long tail, sharp teeth, scales...

She sounds like a Case 53, but according to people who have talked to her, claims not to be. BBPD officers were the first to meet her, she intervened in a firefight between four of the city's finest and six E88 who were robbing a warehouse. Apparently, she shut it down in seconds.

Just walked in, turned the lights out, and did... something. Cue lots of shooting and screaming, then ominous silence. Only about two minutes later she was coming out carrying an unconscious gang member.

She brought all of them out more or less undamaged, as well as a huge bag of guns and even a grenade launcher of all things, then stayed to talk to the cops for a while, gave her report, and wandered off.

We're told by eye witnesses that she completely tanked both hand gun and AK-47 rounds, without even apparently noticing! High level Brute for sure, at the least. She also somehow produced, or had with her, handcuffs or manacles which she used on all the suspects. Sources at the BBPD lockup say that they were totally unable to remove these, even Armsmaster couldn't do it, but an hour later they disappeared! After the fact, the cops who talked to her reported she'd told them that would happen but apparently no one at the station got the memo.

So, what does everyone think?

I'm looking for video and photos of the new Cape, and a name. Anyone?

 **Edit** : I've just heard that she gave her name as Saurial. Apparently she was seen shortly afterwards talking to Vista and Gallant on the roof of the Atlantic Street Bank of America branch for a while, then left, running across the rooftops faster than most people can drive around the city. Jumping over the streets as well, not to mention climbing walls like she was out for a stroll.

Looks like a decent Mover rating as well.

Any Wards want to chime in?

 **Edit 2** : In the last few days, Saurial has been seen just walking around in the Downtown area, mainly, although she's also been spotted in a few other places, with no apparent set route. She likes eggs.

Raw.

Several people have seen her go into various shops, buy eggs by the carton, then wander off eating them shells and all. She's polite if anyone talks to her, apparently not at all self conscious, and very helpful. One report I heard was that she helped an old woman change a car tire, by unscrewing the lug nuts with her fingers!

That takes a lot of strength. Glory Girl or better at least.

Still hoping for input from other people who have had interactions with her.

 **Edit 3** :

Some pictures and video of Saurial in action **here** , **here** , and **here**.

More **here**.

 **(Showing page 12 of 48)**

 **►MZenny**  
Replied On Jan 29th 2011:

She's been in my shop three times in the last four days. She bought eggs each time, sometimes beef jerky as well, and paid in cash, told me to keep the change! Last time she got a bottle of Tabasco sauce as well.

It was a surprise the first time but she seems nice. I don't mind selling her all the eggs she wants

 **►XxVoid_CowboyxX**  
Replied On Jan 29th 2011:

I've heard she's a shapeshifting alien lizard who got kicked out of the world government on Aleph and somehow came here! There's this British guy over there, David Icke, who's been warning about that sort of thing for years.

Maybe he's right?

We need to keep watching her.

 **►Mojiizen**  
Replied On Jan 29th 2011:

That's crazy talk, Cowboy. Like usual. Go away.

 **►XxVoid_CowboyxX**  
Replied On Jan 29th 2011:

No, seriously, that's what I was told. This guy has all sorts of information about the aliens, he's written books and everything. He knows things. I think he predicted Leviathan, even, when he attacked Newfoundland.

 **►Jormungandr**  
Replied On Jan 29th 2011:

The demons are coming. The one known as Saurial is only the beginning.

It's the End Times.

Wake UP, People! Before it's too late! Mark my words, there will be more signs in days to come.

 **►Mojiizen**  
Replied On Jan 29th 2011:

Not very helpful, Jormungandr. Are you drinking whatever Void_Cowboy is or are you just trolling again?

 **►Loki_Thorson**  
Replied On Jan 29th 2011:

I saw her jump off the roof of a building on Atlantic Drive on Saturday, the one that has Wilson's Department store on the first floor. It's about six stories for god's sake! Nearly seventy feet to the roof. Some E88 had driven a big truck through the front window and gone in to clean the place out. She dropped onto the truck, crushed the roof like someone had dropped a car on it, then just jumped off and went inside.

There were a hell of a lot of screams and lots of gunfire from inside, it sounded like the sound track to a horror movie. BBPD and two Wards, Clockblocker and Kid Win, turned up while this was going on, but they just stood outside and waited.

Finally, about five minutes later, one completely terrified E88 member ran out the door, looking like he'd just escaped from Hell, and actually asked to be arrested!

I've never seen anything like it. I've seen that guy before, he's a hard core Nazi, he's hurt a lot of people, but he looked like a ten year old who's had the nightmare of his life.

Saurial came out and was standing next to Kid Win, just talking to him, when the Nazi turned around and spotted her. He nearly had a heart attack

I wonder what she did to them?

The cops went in and dragged out eleven more gang idiots, at least three of which needed to be carried they were shaking so much.

Scary girl, but effective. I got some video, **here it is**.

 **►Kid Win** (Verified Cape) (Wards ENE)  
Replied On Jan 29th 2011:

Saurial was very effective and very professional in her takedown of the E88 thugs robbing Wilson's on Saturday. Clockblocker and I had permission to help but we weren't needed, she easily did the whole thing herself in minutes. It was pretty impressive to watch.

Earlier we met her on the roof of the same building, she was up there having a rest, apparently, and she… Well, you need to see it, I can't do it justice in words

So, for your viewing pleasure, please watch what I call… **Saurial invites Clockblocker to Dinner**.

:D

I'm still laughing every time I think about it.

 **►Clockblocker** (Verified Cape) (Wards ENE)  
Replied On Jan 29th 2011:

Oh, thanks, KW. Thanks a lot.

All joking aside, not only did she scare the crap out of me, it was a fantastic prank. I know when I've met my match.

For now.

Muah ha ha…

I will have my revenge!

(Please don't eat me, Saurial, you're too nice for that and I taste terrible.)

 **►Dingbat779** (Cape Groupie)  
Replied On Jan 29th 2011:

OMG! Thats horrifying and funny at the same time. Poor Clockblocker.

 **End of Page. 1, 2, 3 ... 10, 11, 12, 13, 14 ... 46, 47, 48**

 **(Showing page 13 of 48)**

 **►Electric_Techpriest**  
Replied On Jan 29th 2011:

Ha ha ha ha ha ha…

LMFAO!

 **►Jormungandr**  
Replied On Jan 29th 2011:

The demon is making herself known! They eat people! You think it's a big joke, you'll be sorry when she bites someones head off!

 **►MZenny**  
Replied On Jan 29th 2011:

I sold her that Tabasco sauce!

:)

 **►Mojiizen**  
Replied On Jan 29th 2011:

Hey, Jormungandr, can I have some of whatever you're smoking? It's pretty good shit, I suspect :D

 **►Vista** (Verified Cape) (Wards ENE)  
Replied On Jan 29th 2011:

I've met Saurial and while I'll admit she's a little unusual she struck me as a decent person. I don't think she's some alien here to take over the world. She's so far captured over two dozen gang members single-handed, mostly E88 but with some Merchants and ABB as well, confiscated enough weapons for a small war, and so far hasn't hurt anyone. She's really careful about that.

The BBPD seem to like and respect her, she always calls them when she's stopped some criminals.

She records all her interactions and some of the videos I've seen are… pretty impressive. In a way that would make Uber and Leet go green with envy ;)

 **►Bagrat** (Original Poster) (Veteran Member) (The Guy in the Know)  
Replied On Jan 29th 2011:

Thanks, Vista, Clockblocker, and Kid Win. It's nice to hear from other Capes about the new ones.

I wonder if Saurial will join the thread and possibly post some of her videos? We'd all like that.

 **►Clockblocker** (Verified Cape) (Wards ENE)  
Replied On Jan 29th 2011:

No, you wouldn't. Trust me.

Dark places are… not something I look forward to these days…

:(

 **►Kingbob** (Verified BBPD Officer)  
Replied On Jan 29th 2011:

Saurial is a decent person. She's accounted for nearly half the gang arrests this week, and you wouldn't believe the number of guns she's taken off the street so far. Down here at the station she's getting quite a reputation.

We like polite capes, and it's a pity there aren't as many as you'd hope for…

Nice girl.

Sort of cute in a horrifying way, and effective in a terrifying one

But the video she sent us after the first operation made me…

Well, let's say I agree with Clockblocker and leave it at that.

 **►FCVanillaIce**  
Replied On Jan 29th 2011:

Something I'm wondering, maybe a PRT person can answer?

Has Saurial considered Joining the Wards? Assuming she's under eighteen, of course, which from what I've heard sounds likely. And do we have a real idea of her abilities yet? Other than a high level Brute and I guess a Mover of some sort as well. She seems to be very tough, very strong, and very fast.

 **►Reave** (Verified PRT Agent)  
Replied On Jan 29th 2011:

Word around here is that she's under eighteen although no one knows an exact age and she's not saying. She's been asked if she'd like to join the wards and the answer was no. She's also not interested in power testing either, apparently.

Saurial was asked whether she'd be registering with the PRT as an independent hero, which is what we unofficially have her classified as for obvious reasons, but so far hasn't decided, I'm told.

I can't give out much more information without permission from the higher-ups, but it's safe to assume a high Brute rating, yes, and also a decent Mover rating.

 **End of Page. 1, 2, 3 ... 11, 12, 13, 14, 15 ... 46, 47, 48**

 **(Showing page 14 of 48)**

 **►FCVanillaIce**  
Replied On Jan 29th 2011:

Thanks, Reave, useful info although I'd love to know more!

 **►Bagrat** (Original Poster) (Veteran Member) (The Guy in the Know)  
Replied On Jan 29th 2011:

She sounds very versatile, I have to say. I'll continue to collate information on our lizard girl, keep the videos and pics coming people!

 **►AllSeeingEye**  
Replied On Jan 29th 2011:

From the information available so far I'd peg her at about Brute 7, Mover 3 at least, Thinker 2 or better (for what looks like enhanced senses, she seems to like turning out the lights and works fine even so), and either a Breaker or Shaker for what sounds like an ability to produce tools from nowhere.

She's very versatile, definitely.

I'd be interested to know what she makes the restraints she uses out of. If Armsmaster can't damage them, they're pretty impressive!

 **►XxVoid_CowboyxX**  
Replied On Jan 29th 2011:

Maybe she makes things out of some sort of alien metal! That could explain why no one knows where she goes, she's teleporting back to the spaceship or something.

I wonder if she's interested in Newter?

Hey, maybe he's another one… Think about it.

 **►Jormungandr**  
Replied On Jan 29th 2011:

The demons are everywhere. You are beginning to see. Wait, there will be more. Hopefully they can be stopped before it's too late...

 **►Mojiizen**  
Replied On Jan 29th 2011:

Both of you are crazy. Go away, please.

 **►XxVoid_CowboyxX**  
Replied On Jan 29th 2011:

I'm not crazy! You people always say that, but I'm not!

 **►Mojiizen**  
Replied On Jan 29th 2011:

Did your mother have you tested?

 **►XxVoid_CowboyxX**  
Replied On Jan 29th 2011:

?

What are you talking about, Mojizen?

 **►Electric_Techpriest**  
Replied On Jan 29th 2011:

:) :)

Don't worry, Cowboy, it's a big boy joke. Go back to your computer games.

 **End of Page. 1, 2, 3 ... 12, 13, 14, 15, 16 ... 46, 47, 48**

 **(Showing page 15 of 48)**

 **►WhyteOne**  
Replied On Jan 29th 2011:

That scaly bitch is going to get hers. Hookwolf is on the warpath, she's interfered with us too many times.

 **►MZenny**  
Replied On Jan 29th 2011:

Why do I think that you're going to regret saying that, you Nazi? :O :D

 **►WhyteOne**  
Replied On Jan 29th 2011:

[Post deleted]

[User temp banned – 48 hours]

Threatening violence against people is not permitted here. Have a 48 hour ban to cool off. That's your second offence in a week, WhyteOne. Do it again and you're banned for a month. - BrocktonBayMod

 **►Electric_Techpriest**  
Replied On Jan 29th 2011:

Stoopid racist :)

 **►Laser Augment**  
Replied On Jan 29th 2011:

Brockton Bay is a very strange place. Lizard girls and Nazis. Remind me never to visit :O

 **►FCVanillaIce**  
Replied On Jan 29th 2011:

Hey, it has some good points!

Like…

Hold on, I'll think of something…

Ah! We have one of the largest collections of rusty old ships you've ever seen!

 **►Electric_Techpriest**  
Replied On Jan 29th 2011:

Don't forget all the junkies you can beat with a stick.

And Lung.

You have to admit, we have Lung.

 **►Laser Augment**  
Replied On Jan 29th 2011:

Not making me change my mind, guys… Nice try, though.

 **End of Page. 1, 2, 3 ... 13, 14, 15, 16, 17 ... 46, 47, 48**

•

 **Topic: There's another one!  
In: Boards ► Places ► America ► Brockton Bay  
Bladeworksfan ** (Original Poster) (Kyushu Survivor)  
Posted On Feb 4th 2011:

Oh. My. God!

You thought Saurial, our new lizard girl hero, was a little scary?

Watch this.

What the fuck?

I mean… WHAT THE FUCK?

I saw this thing come down the street chasing HOOKWOLF of all people, and man he looked SCARED! I mean, he was running for his life. He got it a few times but it didn't do anything but make it laugh at him.

Look at the size of that fucking hammer! It was at least eight feet long, the head must have been about two feet across. God knows how much it weighed. But look what happens when that thing hit him with it! He went about a hundred feet!

She, and I'm pretty sure it's female, was at least eight feet tall, and on four legs was probably nearly twelve to fifteen feet long to the end of her tail. A reptile, like Saurial, but Saurial is sort of cool looking in a slightly weird way.

This thing is just fucking terrifying…

I can't believe how fast it is either, nothing that big should be that quick. And strong?

Watch at 1:05 in the video, she slapped him completely through that old truck with her tail like it was made of cardboard.

I was hiding in a building holding my phone above the windowsill so she didn't see me, so sorry for the quality of the video, but I didn't want to draw her attention.

What's going on around here? Two reptilian capes in two weeks? What next? Where did this one come from, what did it want (aside from Hookwolf's nads on a stick) and where did it go?

Hero?

Villain?

Something else?

 **(Showing page 2 of 30)**

 **►Bagrat** (Veteran Member) (The Guy in the Know)  
Replied On Feb 4th 2011:

Holy shit.

That's… deeply impressive.

And absolutely terrifying.

I haven't heard anything about this, I'll see what I can find out. Thanks for posting it, Bladeworksfan. I'm glad you're safe.

 **►Clockblocker** (Verified Cape) (Wards ENE)  
Replied On Feb 4th 2011:

Jesus.

I'm never going to go to sleep again.

Although I'm still laughing at what she did to Hookwolf. Couldn't happen to a more deserving Nazi

 **►White Fairy** (Veteran Member)  
Replied On Feb 4th 2011:

That's… I have no idea what that is.

None.

What the hell is happening in Brockton Bay these days?

 **►Jormungandr**  
Replied On Feb 4th 2011:

I told you, but you wouldn't listen.

The demons are coming.

They will come from the dark, and the sea. We have little time left.

Prepare yourselves

 **►XxVoid_CowboyxX**  
Replied On Feb 4th 2011:

Oh, wow! That's so cool!

Do we know what her name is? She looks like some sort of lizard centaur or something.

 **►FCVanillaIce**  
Replied On Feb 4th 2011:

Cool?

That's the most fucking horrifying thing I've ever seen in my life!

Did you SEE what it did with that huge-ass sword? One handed, and a car was in two pieces!

What's the sound that was going with the sword strikes, anyone know?

 **►Loki_Thorson**  
Replied On Feb 4th 2011:

I think it's a sonic boom, like the sound a whip makes when you crack it. Which means she must be swinging it fast enough to make the tip break the sound barrier. That's incredible. Even if it weighed only a few pounds it would take unbelievable strength to do that.

Looking at what it did to the car and that lamp post, though, it's both really sharp and very heavy. She must be much stronger than either Saurial or Glory Girl.

 **►Mojiizen**  
Replied On Feb 4th 2011:

Where are all these lizard people coming from?

Did anyone consider that this new one has the same Breaker or Shaker power as Saurial, as well? That sword, the hammer, and that bat, not to mention what looks like the same sort of manacles she uses. I can't make it out properly, the video is too shaky, but it looks similar. Much heavier though.

 **►Bladeworksfan** (Original Poster) (Kyushu Survivor)  
Replied On Feb 4th 2011:

Sorry about the shakycam, like I said, I was hiding.

And shaking :(

 **►MZenny**  
Replied On Feb 4th 2011:

I wonder if this new one likes eggs :)

 **End of Page. 1, 2, 3, 4 ... 28, 29, 30**

 **(Showing page 3 of 30)**

 **►XxVoid_CowboyxX**  
Replied On Feb 4th 2011:

I'm telling you people, it's shape shifting lizard people from Aleph!

Why doesn't anyone believe me?

 **►Mojiizen**  
Replied On Feb 4th 2011:

Because you're an idiot…

 **► XxVoid_CowboyxX**  
Replied On Feb 4th 2011:

[Post deleted]

[User temp banned – 24 hours]

You've been warned four times in the last five days about personal threats, XxVoid_CowboyxX. Have a 24 hour ban to cool off. Mojizen, please try not to be provocative. - BrocktonBayMod

 **►Mojiizen**  
Replied On Feb 4th 2011:

Sorry.

Couldn't stop myself…

 **►Laser Augment**  
Replied On Feb 4th 2011:

Right.

That does it.

I'm NEVER coming anywhere near the East Coast at all, never mind Brockton Bay.

For that matter, I wonder if I can get to Hawaii?

 **►GstringGirl**  
Replied On Feb 4th 2011:

Lung's little sister, maybe?

 **►Sothoth**  
Replied On Feb 4th 2011:

No fire. Isn't that one of the main things that sort of stands out about Lung?

 **►Dingbat779** (Cape Groupie)  
Replied On Feb 4th 2011:

Pretty much, yes. I have no idea about this one.

Where did she come from?

 **►Reave** (Verified PRT Agent)  
Replied On Feb 4th 2011:

The information I have is that this new reptilian cape is a friend of Saurial, who was contacted by the DWU when Hookwolf attacked their facility on the docks for some reason late this afternoon. I'm still waiting for more information, but we have a very subdued Hookwolf in custody right now.

 **►FCVanillaIce**  
Replied On Feb 4th 2011:

That's good. I think?

Is she, you know, a hero? Or something that will make Hookwolf look nice by comparison.

 **End of Page. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 ... 28, 29, 30**

 **(Showing page 4 of 30)**

 **►White Fairy** (Veteran Member)  
Replied On Feb 4th 2011:

She took out Hookwolf, that makes her all right in my book. Is there any more information on her?

 **►SittingByTheDockofBrocktonBay**  
Replied On Feb 4th 2011:

So, Hookwolf and a bunch E88 goons showed up at the DWU a couple hours ago, loaded to tear up the joint, looking for that new Saurial cape. Our boss told us all to hunker down, said he was gonna call for help. PRT I figured, maybe they've got a hotline to Armsmaster or something. Anyway a couple minutes later this new one comes in through the back window with a bunch of guns and asks to talk to the boss.

Bit after that I'm with most of the other guys slipping out the back, past a half dozen Nazis all trussed up when we start hearing gunfire up front. Theres a couple of shouts and yells and then theres this loud crash like someone dumped out a crate of pots and pans and I SHIT YOU NOT I see Hookwolf go flying off over one of the warehouses.

I got some **video** of the start of the fight that other video was of the end of.

The cops turned up later and took the Nazis, then the PRT showed up after that. SHE came back with Hookwolf under her arm like a shopping bag. He was soaking wet for some reason.

 **►Bagrat** (Veteran Member) (The Guy in the Know)  
Replied On Feb 4th 2011:

Thanks for the video and the info. I've added it to the collection here. I'll edit it all together into one when I've looked over some more that just came in. Looks like we got about half the total fight. I have no idea where this new cape went between knocking Hookwolf out and turning up at the DWU place yet, no one seems to have seen her between those two times.

Any name yet for her?

 **►Electric_Techpriest**  
Replied On Feb 4th 2011:

I vote for Raptaur. You know, a Raptor Centaur? It sort of fits.

 **►Sothoth**  
Replied On Feb 4th 2011:

That's… actually not bad.

You have my vote.

 **►Mojiizen**  
Replied On Feb 4th 2011:

I like it.

 **►SenorEel**  
Replied On Feb 4th 2011:

Seriously, what the hell is wrong with Brockton Bay?

Reptiles running around all over the place?

What's next? Where are they coming from? What do they want?

Glad I'm on the other side of the Atlantic.

Oh.

I wonder if they can swim…

 **►Kingbob** (Verified BBPD Officer)  
Replied On Feb 4th 2011:

She did jump into the bay after she handed Hookwolf over…

Seriously.

She just shook Danny Hebert's hand, he's the guy in charge who called Saurial in the first place, then ran into the dark faster than you'd believe and vanished. There was a splash right after.

Does she live in the bay, maybe? Some reptiles live in water but are at home on land, as far as I know.

I have to admit, she scared the crap out of me when I turned around and saw her there grinning at us, but she seemed polite and all the DWU people seemed to like her. So I guess appearances aside, we can probably put her down as a Hero.

Raptaur is a good name unless she wants to be called something else. Believe me, if she says she wants to be called something else… we call her something else.

Anything she wants…

:) ← nervous smile

 **►Loki_Thorson**  
Replied On Feb 4th 2011:

Hang on. Hey, SittingByTheDockofBrocktonBay? Did you seriously say that she not only knocked out those E88 idiots, (Six of them in one go? Really?) but actually looted the bodies?

I think I'm in love. That's… amazing :O :D

Why don't more capes do that?

 **►ExArmyMan**  
Replied On Feb 4th 2011:

She did indeed steal all their weapons and ammo. It was hysterical. We ended up doing the same thing, by the end of the fight those E88 idiots had nothing much but the clothes they were standing in!

Unfortunately the Boss made us give them all back to the police.

:(

Pity, they may be Nazis but they had some nice kit…

Oh well, next time maybe :)

 **End of Page. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 ... 28, 29, 30**

 **(Showing page 5 of 30)**

 **►GloryGirl** (Verified Cape) (New Wave)  
Replied On Feb 4th 2011:

Oh my god. I thought Saurial was terrifying, now there's another one?

And she lives in the Bay?

I'm never going swimming again!

 **►Iguanagirl**  
Replied On Feb 4th 2011:

Raptaur is cool, I think. So is Saurial though.

I wonder if they're related?

 **►Electric_Techpriest**  
Replied On Feb 4th 2011:

Actually…

Now that it's been mentioned, that reminds me of something.

A few days ago, I was in a bar I go to sometimes near the old fishing docks, it's a dive but it's safe, more or less, and has character. And really good beer.

Anyway, there's this old fisherman guy who's been hanging around there since before I was born, and he was drinking brandy like it was going out of style. He kept muttering about monsters in the Bay, big enough to make Leviathan look like a sardine…

Get this, he said he saw something literally grab hold of that old supertanker and move it! He was telling everyone that something with a hand the size of a truck, all scaly and clawed, went under his boat then moved the tanker.

Then moved it back.

Maybe…

Maybe, Saurial is just a little one? And Raptaur is her big sister? There could be a whole family of them living in the bay and these two are the small ones that walk among us for some reason? :O

Shit, I'm starting to sound like Void_Cowboy now, and I'm scaring myself.

I'll shut up now.

 **►GloryGirl** (Verified Cape) (New Wave)  
Replied On Feb 4th 2011:

DEFINITELY never going swimming again!

 **►White Fairy** (Veteran Member)  
Replied On Feb 4th 2011:

Oh, thanks a whole hell of a lot for that thought, Electric_Techpriest! I'm going to have trouble going to sleep tonight…

 **►Jormungandr**  
Replied On Feb 4th 2011:

They come…

 **►Mojiizen**  
Replied On Feb 4th 2011:

You seriously need to get a life, man.

 **►MZenny**  
Replied On Feb 4th 2011:

I have eggs. Lots of eggs.

I'm safe as long as I can sell them eggs.

:)

I bet the Nazis are shitting themselves.

Brown pants for the new uniform? I know it's meant to be brown shirts, but…

 **►Bagrat** (Veteran Member) (The Guy in the Know)  
Replied On Feb 4th 2011:

Final video is up **here**. It shows as much of the fight as I can find out about, from the moment Hookwolf gets punted clear over the fence to the point he's tied up and unconscious. There are gaps, but it's not bad, I think.

Some **pics** as well. Keep them coming.

I'm OK with Raptaur as a name, but I agree with Kingbob, if she wants to change it… we agree.

Politely… And quickly. ;)

 **End of Page. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 ... 28, 29, 30**

* * *

Lisa turned her laptop off and lay back in bed, shivering.

It took her a long time to manage to get to sleep.


	32. Shock and Awe

Twitching a little at the cry of " _ **Bullshit!**_ ", Amy sighed and raised her head from her pillow where she'd been happily reading a pretty good Niven SF book, idly wondering if her sister had been taking lessons from Dennis. Moments later Vicky charged in, holding the expensive tablet she'd talked Dean into buying her a couple of months ago, waving it around with a pale face. "There are _two_ of them now!" her sister moaned.

"Two of who?" Amy, quite reasonably, asked calmly but with a certain amount of irritation in her voice. "Or two of what?"

"Two of… I don't know. Two fucking terrifying scaly things," Vicky gibbered, thrusting the tablet under her sister's nose. Amy took it from her, looking curiously at it, while Vicky sat on the end of her bed and stared out the window into the night, appearing worried and shivering slightly.

Finding the beginning of the PHO thread the brunette girl read it with growing interest and a certain amount of black humor. She had a pretty good idea of the actual truth behind this ' _Raptaur_ ', which she had to admit was a good name. Seeing the new reptilian cape deal with Hookwolf like he was a fairly minor irritant was eye-opening, and made it abundantly clear how unwise her impulsive confronting of Taylor Hebert at school really had been.

She was pretty sure this was Taylor, and she _knew_ Saurial was. It opened the question of what else that girl could actually do. What she'd seen of her, and there was no way around the description, **alien** biology left her none the wiser, her power had no clue about it beyond telling her with a whimper that she was compatible with human biology, then going off and lying down in a dark room with a damp cloth over its eyes for a while to recover.

' _I need to get to know her better_ ,' she mused, not saying anything as she flicked through the various photos on PHO of Raptaur, a couple of which were startlingly clear. ' _She's not boring, that's for sure_.'

Although, that said, she was going to have to be a little more careful about how she approached the girl. It was apparent from the last video that she'd been very, _very_ lucky not to have had something horrible happen to her. ' _Be extremely careful not to threaten her family or friends,_ ' Amy thought with a slight shudder as she watched Raptaur manifest a sword big enough to double as a street sign then cut several things in half with it with no visible effort or trouble. It was clear to her that the girl was being very cautious in her actions to avoid killing Hookwolf, which she could clearly manage without too much effort.

She wondered if the other cape realized how close he'd come to dying?

"What the hell is going on around here, Ames?" Vicky asked in a tone of helpless confusion. "Saurial was bad enough. This… this… Raptaur thing… it's a hell of a lot worse."

"I think you should refer to her as _her_ , not a _thing_ ," Amy replied, still reading. "That's what got you in trouble last time."

"Sorry, yes, I know, but it's sort of a shock," Vicky replied after a moment. "But look at her! Saurial is terrifying. This one… I can't even _think_ of a suitable word. And she might live in the Bay? I'll never be able to get on a boat again, without thinking about what might be coming up from underneath."

Snickering, Amy began humming the ' _Jaws_ ' theme to herself, making Vicky growl at her, scowling.

"Your sense of humor makes Dennis' look normal, Ames," she muttered darkly.

Amy just laughed. "Hey, did you see this bit about some old fisherman claiming there's bigger ones out there in the water?" she asked mischievously. "Much, much bigger, if his description of the Hand of Doom is accurate." She slowly lifted her right hand towards her sister, making a claw with it then moving it in little grabby motions. " _Sooo_ big. Big enough to pick up a bus and crush it in its grip. So large it could..."

"Stop that, you idiot," Vicky snapped, paling a little. Amy giggled and retracted her hand, flipping through the pages and pages of thread on the new cape. "I'm serious, I'm not going near the water again. I'm not sure I'll even get into a swimming pool from now on."

"I doubt she's going to come up through the pipes, Vicky," Amy chuckled. Handing the tablet back to her sister, she added, "If you meet her, you should probably be more polite than last time. And if you want to pick a fight for stress relief, for god's sake find someone safer. I'd suggest Hookwolf, but he seems to have had a bad day."

"Why I came to _you_ for sympathy I have no idea, sis," the blonde snapped, retrieving her tablet and flouncing out, making Amy laugh again. Shaking her head she lay back, folding her hands on her stomach and thinking about what she'd read with a sense of wonder and mild shock.

' _You, Taylor Hebert, are sort of impressive_ ,' she thought to herself, smiling slightly. ' _I wonder what more you can do? Are you really swimming around in the bay the size of a blue whale?_ '

* * *

"As Vicky says, fuck me sideways," Dean whispered, watching the video with the rest of the Wards currently on duty, which were Dennis, Carlos, and Sophia. The latter was gaping in total shock, while Dennis was making little choking sounds deep in his chest. Carlos simply stared.

"That's… unbelievably horrifying," their leader finally said when the first video ended. Dean reached out with a shaking hand and moved the mouse, clicking on the next one.

"I think I prefer Saurial," Dennis quavered. "She's terrifying in a way but friendly and sort of cute when you get used to her. This one… I don't think cute is a word I'd _ever_ use."

Sophia made a strange sound, causing them all to look at her curiously, but said nothing, her eyes wide and fixed on the large screen of the rec room TV which was playing the PHO videos.

"Not really, no," Carlos agreed after a moment, going back to the screen. "I hope to god this one is friendly too, because if not we've got some serious problems."

"Where are they all _coming_ from?" Dennis asked in a low voice, before wincing despite himself at the impact the enormous metal warhammer made with Hookwolf, lifting him into the air with no effort at all.

Dean had a very good idea, but was _damn_ sure not going to drop himself into it. Getting between Taylor Hebert/Saurial/Whatever the fuck this was and the PRT was something he desperately wanted to stay well away from. He wished to god his power had never let him work out the connection, he'd have slept a lot better.

Shaking his head, Dennis picked up his laptop and began reading the thread on the new cape, writing a couple of responses. "Piggot is going to go _purple_ when she sees this," he snickered after a while, his shock fading a little. They all looked at him, then at each other. Even Sophia seemed amused by the thought.

* * *

Max Anders, known to the world as Kaiser, watched the video, then looked up at the man who had brought this to his attention. "What the _FUCK_ did Brad think he was doing?" he exploded. "Why was he attacking the DWU?"

Victor shrugged. "I have no idea. I only just found out about it. I know he's been going around shouting about Saurial, she's jumped a couple of dozen of his people, but they're mainly idiots he's had running low level robberies and that type of thing. No one who we can't easily replace. Why he suddenly took over two dozen foot soldiers and attacked the DWU I haven't got a clue."

Max, furious, got up from his desk and paced back and forth in his office. "Stupid _bastard!_ I ordered him to wait, we need more information on this Saurial cape before we do anything. She's much too dangerous, _obviously_ , to just grab. We need to be careful. And now the fucker has apparently attacked people she has some sort of relationship with? _Idiot_."

"I wonder what that relationship is?" Victor asked curiously.

"No idea, but the DWU aren't people to mess around with. If we need to hit them, we go in hard, not pussy around with only two dozen street fighters and one cape, even if that cape _is_ Hookwolf. There are over three hundred of them even now and they fight dirty. There's a good reason Allfather warned about taking them lightly. Marquis was wary of them as well. Back in their day there were over a thousand men and women in the DWU, true, but even now they have enough people to be… a difficult challenge. One I am _not_ ready to take on. My plans don't include fighting on that front as well right now."

Max clenched his fists, breathing hard, as he ran out of steam.

"Brad has made things difficult for us. Get him out of the PRTs hands and bring him to me. We need to talk. A lot."

"Yes, Kaiser," Victor replied, picking the laptop off the E88 leader's desk and closing it. "It will probably be best to wait until they transfer him, I'd expect that security is very tight at the moment in the PRT building."

"Do what you need to, but I want to see that bastard standing where you are as soon as possible," Max growled, returning to his seat. "And find out who gave him his information that Saurial was at the DWU in the first place. It seems a little too much of a stretch that he came up with that idea himself."

His subordinate merely nodded, before leaving the office. Pouring himself a stiff drink, Max fumed. Some people needed the stupid beaten out of them more often, he thought, sipping the whiskey and scowling.

* * *

Hannah turned the tablet off and put it down on Emily's coffee table, both women staring at each other. The latter was a funny pale green color and looked sufficiently unhealthy that the former was somewhat worried even under the circumstances. Eventually she said, "That was posted to PHO about two hours ago. One of the DWU people videoed the start of the fight… no, the beating… that this new one handed out to Hookwolf, at least two other people caught parts of it, and another DWU member recorded the end when she turned up and handed him over to us. Someone else edited them all together into what you just saw."

Emily didn't respond for some seconds.

"They're calling her Raptaur on PHO at the moment. Sort of a play on words, combining Raptor and Centaur. It fits to a degree. She didn't give a name, but seemed to be on very good terms with Danny Hebert and the DWU, polite and friendly, and they reciprocated. Apparently Saurial sent her in her place when they called for help."

"There really _are_ two of them?" Emily whispered in horror.

"It would appear so, yes. Admittedly we haven't seen both the new one and Saurial at the same time in the same place, but the Wards reported contact with Saurial only minutes later several miles away. We know she's fast, but it seems unlikely, especially since Raptaur seems to have exited the scene via the water. In a straight line between the two locations, she'd have had to swim at least two miles in under four minutes then run another three in even less time to make the time lines match, which is considerably outside the abilities we know she has. Not to mention there are no reports of any sightings of her outside the Downtown area. So if she was a sufficiently versatile Changer to be both Saurial and Raptaur, it would also require a huge update to her ratings. The simpler but much more worrying explanation is that there are two of them."

Hannah sighed slightly. "They might even play on the concept of making sure they never get seen together, just to mess with us. Saurial is known to have a somewhat… puckish… sense of humor, and it might strike her as funny to ensure that we can't be completely certain one way or the other. I'm sure Clockblocker would do the same thing under the circumstances and she reminds me a lot of a far more dangerous version of him in some ways."

"This… Raptaur… beat Hookwolf? That easily?"

"She absolutely destroyed him, and looking at the video it wasn't difficult. She was obviously holding back. I have no doubt having met her that she could have killed him without any real trouble. Just by drowning him if nothing else. It's highly likely that she can either breathe underwater, or hold her breath for a very long time, like many reptiles can. She also exhibited a considerably more ruthless outlook on life than Saurial, not showing any remorse at all at how she ' _persuaded_ ' Hookwolf to stay away in future. And believe me, she persuaded him. He was still shaking an hour later. I'm almost sorry for the bastard."

"What message did she give him to give to Kaiser?" Emily asked after absorbing all this, her color coming back slightly closer to normal. "You said she said something about that."

"I don't know, he refuses to say. I would imagine it was probably something along the lines of keep the E88 away from the DWU, though, based on what I heard. She seemed fairly serious about it. The last thing she told Hookwolf was that if she ever saw him there again, basically that would be the last time anyone saw him anywhere. I don't think she was joking." Hannah sighed. "She essentially told him that she'd kill him the next time, and he believed her. So did I."

The PRT director sighed heavily, leaning back in her chair with a wince. "It looks like your wild theory isn't quite as wild as either of us would like."

"That would seem to be the case, Director. Unfortunately."

"And she has the same Shaker ability as Saurial?"

"As far as I could see, yes. The restraints that Hookwolf still has on his wrists and neck are definitely the same material, this Saurialsteel that Armsmaster is so fascinated by. He's been studying the manacles ever since we got Hookwolf back, trying everything he can think of to determine what they are, so far without any luck."

"They haven't disappeared like they normally do?"

"Not so far. Saurial's restraints seem to generally have a lifetime of an hour or so, these have been present for more than three at the moment. Hopefully they're not permanent." Hannah shrugged. "We don't know, and without finding Raptaur, we probably can't find out. Or perhaps Saurial could tell us, I've left instructions for anyone who meets her to ask."

Blowing out a long breath, Emily sagged in her chair, looking tired and in pain. "Jesus. This could turn into an absolute nightmare." Lifting her eyes she looked at her guest. "What would you put this Raptaur's ratings at? Just to humor me."

Hannah sighed slightly. "Difficult. Basically the same as Saurial, but higher except in the possible Shaker rating and perhaps the Thinker rating as well. Brute 7 or 8, at least. That hammer she was waving around at the beginning, the one she knocked Hookwolf about two hundred yards with in one hit, based on the density of the material and the estimated size, it weighed a minimum of a couple of tons. She didn't show any signs of effort lifting it or wielding it. The sword she was shown using later would have weighed nearly a ton based on the same estimates and she was swinging it fast enough to create shock waves judging by the audio track of the recording. Even with the length increasing the effective velocity of the tip, that would take absolutely unbelievable strength. The lamp post and car she cut accidentally with it showed completely clean edges, like an energy weapon of some sort had been used, but with no melting. Colin has both of them back at the Rig as well now."

Emily had paled again although she didn't look quite so ill.

"The speed and acceleration she demonstrated when she left were also significantly higher than we've seen so far from Saurial. Probably Mover 5 plus. I'd estimate from that very brief showing that she accelerated from a standing start to close to eighty miles an hour in under a second then kept going. She probably made it a good hundred yards out into the bay in a dive. Other than that, we don't have any idea, only estimates and guesses."

"God. This could be bad." Emily rubbed her forehead between her eyes. "Can you think of anything else that could explain it?"

"Yes, but they rapidly get unlikely if not absurd." Hannah shrugged. "Something like the Butcher would possibly explain the two different but similar emotional patterns Gallant reported. But on the one hand we don't know yet if Raptaur has the same thing going on, and on the other it leaves the question of their origin open. I think it still probably requires a Biotinker. The original idea that Saurial is among other things a versatile, or based on tonight's events, _very_ versatile Changer, is still possible. But that leaves the twin emotional outputs up in the air, with no obvious solution."

She took a drink from the glass of water sitting next to her elbow, then went on. "The idea that both Saurial and Raptaur are individuals created by a purported Biotinker/Master seems in many ways the simplest albeit most worrying solution to the conundrum. We known it can be and has been done, after all, in more than one case. It still leaves the matter creation power as a problem, but I think that's less difficult to explain than the emotional outputs in this case. A technological method that replicates the effect of a Shaker power, an artificially induced Shaker power, even a Shaker working with the Biotinker somehow. It's still confusing and messy but slightly _less_ confusing and messy than most of the other options I can think of."

"I _really_ wish I could say you're wrong but I have to agree it fits the observations unpleasantly well," Emily finally replied after thinking it over, her expression dark. "I'd certainly prefer the original concept of Saurial simply being a ridiculously overpowered grab bag cape. Far less to worry about from that point of view."

"That could still be the case," Hannah responded. "Or it might be something neither one of us has considered at all. Powers are both complicated and odd."

"True." Shifting uncomfortably in her chair, Emily sighed then winced a little, again. "The question is, what do we do about it?"

"I'm not sure. To be honest, both of them, or her if it really is only one of them, seem to be of a somewhat unusual type of heroic disposition rather than anything else, which is very lucky. I'd be extremely worried if anyone even close to Saurial's level was a villain, never mind Raptaur. Both would be an absolute nightmare to fight, the latter quite possibly not far off Lung in that respect. But so far they both seem to be basically law-abiding and polite, if rather… enthusiastic… in the latter case."

This made the director pale again. "You really think she's as dangerous as _Lung?_ "

"I don't know for sure, but her obvious strength and speed put her at a very rarefied Brute level even based on the small amount of information we actually have so far," Hannah told her seriously. "It's entirely possible, and even likely, that she wasn't anywhere near her real limits in that fight. She didn't seem too worried about the outcome of it, after all, and Hookwolf is not exactly an easy opponent at the best of times."

"This just gets better and better the more you tell me," Emily griped.

"Sorry, Director, I don't mean to worry you but I thought you should be kept up to date." Hannah appeared a little embarrassed.

Emily motioned with a hand dismissively. "Don't worry about it, Hannah. You did the right thing researching this in the first place and bringing it to me. It's our job to be aware of new Capes and their abilities and motivation." She pondered the issue for a few seconds.

"So, independent heroes, more or less, but not like anything we're familiar with. Powerful enough to make it very dangerous for any gang to try to recruit them, I guess."

Hannah smiled. "Oh, I doubt very much indeed that an attempt by the E88 or ABB, or Merchants for that matter, to persuade either of them to join up with a gang would result in anything but total chaos and probably humiliating defeat. I'm sure that neither one is unbeatable, but at the same time I'm not sure at the moment just how you'd go about doing that. Raptaur especially gave me the feeling that she'd deal with a problem of that nature permanently, Rules or no Rules."

"That's… worrying," Emily replied slowly.

"I suspect it would take more than attacking them personally. Saurial has already shown remarkable restraint in the Merchant sniper case. That was as good a reason to use lethal force as anything I've seen before but she merely subdued him. But I also think that going after their families, or what they think are their families, or for that matter anyone they felt protective of, would be a terminally stupid move for someone like Kaiser to do." Hannah looked just a little amused. "Not that that actually means he won't try, of course."

"He's not going to take Hookwolf's loss lightly, certainly," the director agreed. "I hope he doesn't do something stupid."

Her guest shrugged. "We can only wait and see. I don't think that warning him off would help."

"No, probably not. Damn it all. I don't want a gang war, we have enough troubles already." Emily thought for a while. "OK. The other big question is, who the hell is the Biotinker, assuming we're right? And why are both Saurial and Raptaur apparently so tight with the DWU? What's the connection?"

Hannah looked a little uncertain for a second or two. "I did have one somewhat worrying thought, which was that the Biotinker might be Danny Hebert."

Emily stared, then got a thoughtful expression. "That's… not entirely ridiculous," she began slowly. "But… both of them, including programming all the fighting skills, in only about a month? Assuming he triggered during that mess with his daughter."

"That's why I don't think it's particularly likely although it's not completely impossible," Hannah said. "If it was him, and he'd triggered for example at the time of his wife's death, which would be the best other event I'm aware of, that would give more than enough time to build up to this point, but that also gives us the problem that it's _too_ long ago. Why would there be no signs at all until only this last month?" She shook her head. "No, I don't really think it's him. It would neatly explain the DWU link, though. Unfortunately, I believe we'll have to look elsewhere. Someone who triggered probably about six to nine months ago, which from my research would seem to be the amount of time needed to construct life forms of the level of Saurial and this new one."

"Another DWU member, probably, then," Emily sighed. "Not that it does us much good at the moment. Those people aren't going to give up one of their own, not without a fight. They stick together like glue these days. They'd back Danny Hebert up without a second thought and I suspect he'd return the favor. If he really is somehow involved with or friends with Saurial and Raptaur, they even have cape support as well. Very serious cape support."

"The attack by the E88 on them will have reinforced that group strength as well," Hannah noted. "Combat against a shared enemy, especially _successful_ combat, tends to boost loyalty and feelings of comradeship a lot."

"Also true," Emily replied. "And if it happens again with similar results, that all gets even stronger. Which could result in some very strange political changes around here."

She shook her head. "This is potentially a real mess." Hannah merely nodded.

"All right. Keep an eye on the situation, add it to the report, and we'll wait and see if anything else happens," Emily went on after a few seconds. "That's about all we can do right now anyway. Unless she, or they, go completely off the reservation we don't have much cause to do anything more than watch."

"What do you want to do if more of them turn up?" Hannah asked after another nod of understanding. Emily went somewhat pale again at the idea.

"Please don't say things like that, Hannah, my heart can't take it. I hope to god he or she stops at two. That's more than enough."

The other woman merely looked at her.

"Shit."

After some time, Emily shook her head tiredly. "I can't think any more about this tonight. I had enough trouble going to sleep the first time. I'm going to bed, and I hope I wake up in a Brockton Bay not overrun with reptilian superheroes. Or whatever the hell they are." She got up with a grunt of effort, heading towards the door, where she let Hannah out. "I'll see you tomorrow. Keep me updated."

"Good night, Director," the cape said politely, then headed for her motorcycle, while Emily closed the door and leaned on it for a moment or two, then slowly walked to her bedroom, trying not to remember things that happened years ago.

* * *

Armsmaster entered the PRT holding cell for the sixth time in the last hour, a PRT trooper turning off the force-field door, then reactivating it when he was inside. Two more troopers were observing alertly, each armed with containment foam sprayers. The heroic Tinker was holding yet another odd looking device, this one a sort of gun-like mechanism with a thick cable coming from the back end, which led to an obviously heavy secondary unit like a large toolbox which had a number of blinking lights on it. The muzzle end of the thing ended in a tapered point, the extreme end of which was glowing a faint purple color.

"What the hell is _that?_ " Brad asked warily, staring at it.

"It's a valency cutter. It directly disassociates atomic bonds. In theory it will cut anything. Very short range but efficient," Armsmaster remarked absently, fiddling with the gun part of the device. He adjusted a control on the side of it, then looked thoughtfully at the restraints the E88 cape still had his hands attached to the back of his neck with. "Maximum output, I think," he muttered, rotating the control all the way around. The purple glow grew considerably stronger and there was now an ominous hum making the room vibrate a little.

Brad leaned away, as far as he could get in the cell while still sitting on the cot along one side. "Hey. Be careful with that thing!"

"Just hold still, please." Armsmaster seemed fairly uninterested in the objection, merely moving to a point he could aim the cutter at the flexible cable linking the left wrist cuff to the collar. "If you move, you'll lose your hand."

"Fuck," the other cape grumbled, but held very still indeed. Placing the glowing tip on the cable, Armsmaster pulled the large trigger, which made the hum wind up to a shriek. Brad flinched but manfully kept his hand still.

After nearly thirty seconds, the Tinker released the trigger, removed the device from the cable, then leaned closer to inspect the end result.

Which was, as Brad had more than half expected based on the last five attempts, absolutely nothing.

"Not even a mark," Armsmaster sighed. "Yet another failure and yet another impossibility." After a moment, rather pointlessly but just to be sure, he tried again in a different place, with exactly the same lack of effect.

"That implies there are either no atomic bonds at all, or they've somehow been enhanced to incredible levels," he mused, putting the device on the floor and rubbing his chin thoughtfully, staring at the cable from inches away. "Fascinating."

"It might be interesting to you but all I want to know is can you get these fucking things off or not?" the bound man demanded.

"No."

"Fuck."

"All we can do is either wait until they vanish, as Saurial's equivalents do, or locate the new cape and ask her to remove them. Or possibly Saurial could do it." Picking the cutter unit and its power supply up, Armsmaster stood, inspecting the restraints for a moment more, then turned and left without another word, the PRT trooper letting him out.

Watching him go Brad shook his head, muttered under his breath something about fucking Tinkers, then did his best to make himself as comfortable as he could with his arms attached to the back of his neck by less than a foot of cable.

He wasn't happy, but he was at least alive, and hopefully safe from insane reptiles that dropped you in the bay for fun.

And he was damn certain he was never going anywhere near the DWU again as long as he lived.


	33. Javelins and Leet

**Saturday, February 5, 2011**

Giggling to herself Taylor read the thread on PHO, shaking her head a little. "Raptaur's not bad, actually," she commented out loud.

" _It would seem somewhat appropriate,_ " the Varga snickered. " _Although it would also seem that we were actually seen when you were experimenting with the tanker. Some of these rumors are… very amusing._ "

"I'm going to have to keep referring to my big sister now, though," she laughed. "And hinting at the rest of the family wanting to come on shore to play, but everything being too small and fragile. I wonder how long I could keep that going for?"

" _Probably some time, although I expect that about the point that your father's plan begins, people may well start to wonder._ " The Varga thought for a moment then mentally shrugged. " _Or perhaps not. It's been my experience that once humans get an idea into their heads they tend to stick with it until real proof of it being wrong is presented to them. Sometimes not even that works._ "

Grinning, she shook her head, clicking through to the next page. "It'll be some work but it could be really funny." When they'd caught up with the storm of peculiar comments that had built up overnight, she closed the laptop and put it back in her bedside table, yawning widely, before getting up. It was only about half past six in the morning but she wanted to get an early start with practicing distance weapon work in the ships graveyard, then go shopping for a few things.

She wanted to get a good waterproof GPS unit with world maps at decent resolution, for navigation when she went on her little expedition, which she was planning on doing late that night with an eye towards coming back on Sunday some time. Both of them were curious to find out how fast they could actually travel underwater in the larger aquatic combat form variant.

It would be easy to protect her equipment underwater, and keep it dry, with appropriate Varga-provided containers, no matter how deep she went. But she'd still have to surface to use it and it would probably get wet then, so it needed to be waterproof. And have a good battery life.

Hopping out of bed she quickly showered and brushed her teeth, before heading downstairs, to find her father sitting at the kitchen table with some papers and a cup of coffee, drinking the latter while studying the former, a look of concentration on his face. He looked up at her as she came in and smiled.

"You're up early, dear," he noted. "You do know it's the weekend, don't you? No school today." He grinned as she rolled her eyes, sitting down across from him.

"Yes, I know it's Saturday, Dad. Thanks." Picking an apple out of the bowl of them on the table, she bit into it with a crunch, then chewed and swallowed. "I'm going up to the Graveyard for some practice for a couple of hours, then shopping, then I'm not sure what else. Maybe wander around downtown for a while."

"As Saurial or Raptaur?" he asked, an amused look on his face.

"Oh. You saw it," she replied, snickering.

"Yes. You seem to have caused a certain amount of consternation to the good people of PHO, dear," he laughed. "Some of them seemed a bit worked up for some reason."

"They're going to lose it completely when they see me pull that ship," she giggled, making him shake his head, smiling.

"Do you have a name for the really big one yet?" he asked.

She nodded. "That one was easy. Kaiju. The big sister, but not as big as the _really_ big sister."

Laughing, he listened to her thoughts on going along with the PHO theories and gently pushing the idea of a whole family of steadily larger reptilian creatures living in the bay. "And what do you call the ultimate version, then?"

"Varga, of course," she snickered. Looking around carefully, she leaned in. "He's the one the others are worried about. He's dangerous."

"Whereas the others are safe?"

She rocked her hand from side to side. "More or less. Comparatively, at least."

Her mischievous expression made him roar with laughter. "You do realize, of course, that you won't be able to keep it up forever?" he asked when he calmed down. "After all, you can only be in one place at a time. Sooner or later that alone will make people wonder."

Taylor shrugged, still smiling. "They just say that the family doesn't like more than one going out at a time, in case of trouble at home."

Snickering, he watched her with an affectionate look. "Don't overdo it, dear, but I have to admit that's pretty funny." Putting the papers down he stood, moving to start breakfast for both of them.

"Do you think the E88 will cause any more problems for you now?" she asked after a moment or two, while he started mixing some pancake batter. Her father looked at her for a couple of seconds, then sighed with a small shrug.

"I'd love to say I didn't think so, but I can't," he admitted. "Oh, I'm fairly sure we won't see Hookwolf again, he seemed extremely intimidated. Not surprisingly. But we can't guarantee that Kaiser and the rest of his people will listen to your message. I'd expect it will certainly slow them down if they had anything planned, but..." He shrugged again. "Difficult to know for sure."

Just call me if it happens again," she told him after thinking it over. "I meant what I said. I'll do anything I need to to protect you, and to be honest the rest of the DWU as well. I know how much they mean to you, I like them as well. Everyone I've met there seemed nice and I don't want to see them hurt. E88, ABB, Merchants… I don't care, I'll deal with it."

"We have some very good people in the Union," he agreed with a smile, adjusting the stove and putting the pan on it, then adding oil carefully. "I have to say I was both impressed and pleased how much they seem to like you already. Surprised, definitely, but they seem to enjoy having a friendly cape. Even one who looks as terrifying as Raptaur." He grinned over his shoulder at her, while she laughed slightly.

"Mind you, I expect that if the plan goes ahead there may be a certain amount of confusion when… Kaiju… shows up."

"Do you think they'll keep the secret that Saurial and Raptaur are the same person?" she asked curiously.

He nodded, pouring some batter into the pan. "Actually, yes, I do. It's something that I suspect everyone in the Union who knows about it will think is Union business and not something for outsiders to be concerned with. We have our own little secrets like any largeish organization and we tend to keep them. People will find out eventually but I doubt it will come from inside the DWU."

"Good. I'm glad you can trust them." Taylor smiled, accepting the first pancakes he handed her. Soon they were both eating and talking about various things to do over the next week or so.

* * *

Moaning a little to herself, Lisa decided that it was already a horrible day and it had only just started. She'd been reading the rest of the unsettling PHO thread about the thing they'd encountered, which the online community was now referring to as Raptaur, while lying on her bed at the Undersider's base. Trying to use her power to extract more information had been a bad mistake. Again.

She waited for the probably unsafe number of ibuprofen tablets she'd just swallowed to do something useful, her eyes shut and her hands massaging her temples. ' _What the hell is going on?_ ' she wondered. ' _Why does my power have such trouble with Saurial, and this new one, and for that matter that girl I saw in the mall?_ ' The sensation she'd had observing the huge reptile as it smashed Hookwolf around like a golf ball in a blender was the same as the girl had engendered, only worse.

There had been the same mental static, like her power was gaping with an open mouth and possibly dribbling a little, accompanied by a definite feeling of something wildly larger than herself watching with amusement and some disapproval. That last part was the worst thing about it. She'd felt like a bug under a microscope for a moment and had absolutely no idea why.

The obvious conclusion was that the girl she'd seen was somehow connected to the giant lizard in some way. A wild idea crossed her mind, causing her to sit up, then wince. ' _A Changer? It… might fit. But why all the interference? And where does Saurial come into the picture?_ '

She hadn't yet encountered the other reptilian cape but was suddenly wondering if she'd get the same effect. The way that she seemed unable to derive any inferences about the lizard-girl directly tended to point that way, although she was able to get some useful information by thinking around the subject, not right at it. The conclusions she'd come to had made her decide it would be unwise to get involved, the girl was nothing if not very dangerous.

The new one was much, _much_ worse, based on what she and the others had seen.

Her thoughts kept worrying over the concept of that girl in the mall actually _being_ the new reptilian creature, which the more she thought about it the more she thought could possibly be the case. It would explain the more or less identical problems she was encountering.

If Saurial produced the same effect as well… That could show something interesting. Or terrifying. Or both.

A Changer that could go from apparently completely normal human girl through Saurial to end up as that eight foot tall monstrosity, that was bad enough. But she suddenly wondered, paling a little, ' _If she can do that… What are her_ _ **real**_ _limits?'_

 _That_ thought made her shiver again.

She lay back down and draped her arm across her eyes, trying vainly to turn her brain off for a while.

* * *

Taylor looked around as she prowled through the far north section of the ship graveyard, inspecting the wrecks surrounding her on the foreshore and extending quite a distance into the shallow water. The sun was beginning to rise and it looked like it would be a nice day, albeit fairly cold since it was still early February.

Lifting one foot she shook mud from her talons, looking down with a frown. This particular area was very sticky and wet, more marshland than beach, with scrubby plants growing up through the scrap metal which was slowly sinking into it. Water gurgled around her other foot, filling in the depression she'd left quite fast. Looking over her shoulder she could see a line of small puddles where she'd walked that were slowly slumping back into the mud.

Deciding that it was too mucky here, she headed off to the right, fastidiously keeping her tail well out of the mud. The eight-foot tall combat form was pretty heavy after all and she was sinking in over a foot, whereas in her base form she'd probably have only left light footprints.

When she arrived on harder, sandy ground near the waterline, she flicked as much mud off her feet as she could, then waded in the shallow water for a few minutes while she looked for a good target. Eventually she decided on the remains of some sort of small cargo ship, probably only about eighty feet long or so, which had sunk stern down into the sea a few hundred feet from shore.

She'd remembered to ask her father what the ends of a ship were called, making him laugh when she told him what she thought of them as.

Grinning at the memory, she inspected the old ship from under the water, seeing it was entirely wrecked. A significant part of the engine room was missing, looking like it was the result of a large explosion, judging by the way the steel hull was peeled open and out like something inside had pushed through it. Tapping it she found the remaining metal was fairly sound, although very rusty.

' _This should do nicely_ ,' she commented, peering up through the somewhat cloudy water. It was a falling tide and there was about twenty feet of bow sticking out of the sea.

" _Yes, I think so too, Brain. Assuming you can actually hit it, of course._ " The Varga snickered at her mental snort.

' _I'll hit it. Eventually._ ' Smiling, Taylor swam back to shallow water and waded out onto the beach, shaking herself dry like a dog. She hadn't bothered with the armor at this point, only having a belt with a couple of waterproof pouches containing her Taylor phone, her Saurial one, and a spare burner phone she was going to use for her Raptaur identity.

She'd decided she quite liked that name and was going to use it.

Studying the ship in the distance, she idly juggled the throwing dart that formed in her right hand, then aimed. With a hard heave she released the thing, then watched with embarrassment as it whistled off into the distance, clearing the target by a substantial margin and vanishing into the slight mist rising from the water which eventually became opaque even to her enhanced senses.

"Oops," she mumbled under her breath. "Shut up, you," she added to the Varga, who was laughing like an idiot. "I just need to get my eye in."

" _Assuming you don't take someone else's out,_ " he snickered. " _We should probably make these with a very short lifetime, Brain, or some poor fisherman will have a nasty surprise. I wouldn't be surprised to find out that went at least a mile._ "

Shaking her head with a grin, she agreed, then hefted the next one. This shot also missed, but by much less.

It took a dozen more before she finally connected, the scrap hull vibrating madly from the hit, as the dart vanished into it. "I think it went all the way through," she commented, squinting at the ship while moving her head around. "I can see light coming through the hole."

" _Not surprising, the darts are very heavy and extremely sharp, not to mention almost frictionless. It will take much more than a couple of inches of rusty steel to slow them very much. I wouldn't be surprised to find out that you can throw them faster than sound even at this size as well._ "

"Let's see," she laughed, drawing her arm back with the next one in it. Leaning far back on her tail she put her entire spine into the next throw, grunting a little with the effort. There was a loud _crack_ sound and a small shockwave made the water in front of her ripple as the dart vanished on a completely flat trajectory. She missed the wreck, which didn't surprise her, she hadn't been aiming very hard, it was only to see how fast she could throw the thing.

" _Wow_. I wonder how far _that_ went?"

" _We should probably not do that too much, Brain,_ " the Varga cautioned, although he sounded interested. " _Without being able to see where they go it's somewhat irresponsible. There are other users of the waters around here, after all._ "

"True," she mused. "OK. It was an experiment anyway. Let's practice actually hitting what I'm aiming at first, I can work on high speed throws later."

Shortly thereafter, she was amusing herself making gonging sounds from the old hull, which was quickly sprouting a lot of holes and beginning to look somewhat sorry for itself. Her aim improved steadily, although slowly, which pleased both of them.

Eventually, she reached the point she was hitting a small aim point repeatedly, so she switched to the javelin, scaled appropriately, which was much more difficult to use as it turned out. After a while, she began to hear sounds indicative of other people, so armored up for appearance's sake and waited, still practicing.

* * *

 _Spunggg!_

Über looked up at the weird sound that echoed throughout the far north end of the Ship Graveyard, where he and his friend and partner were setting up to run a discreet test of a new game-themed weapons system among the old scrap ships that were lying around the foreshore. It was a not uncommon activity and the local Capes tended to mostly ignore each other when they ran across others doing the same. Practically every new cape had come out here at one point or another to see what they or their inventions could do, if they needed a target that no one cared about.

It was an odd, near-truce situation, but it seemed to work. Even Lung had once walked past, nodded politely to them, then continued on his way. For some reason it was only really the Heroes who tended to be trouble, which deeply amused him on some level.

"What the hell was that?" he said out loud. Leet looked over from where he was poking around on his newly created Shrink Ray straight out of Duke Nukem. Or molecular compressor projector, as he tended to call it. As far as Über was concerned it was a shrink ray and he was very interested to see if it worked properly. The effects were only temporary but he could see it being extremely amusing to use in their next operation.

"What?"  
 _  
Spunggg!_

"That."

Leet listened as the echoes died away again, a puzzled expression on his face. "I have no idea."  
 _  
Spunggg!_

Intrigued, the duo exchanged glances, then Über came over and helped his colleague put the tripod-mounted weapon back in the non-descript van they were using to transport Leet's equipment. Locking it and arming the extremely unfriendly security system the Tinker had bought in from Toybox in a trade for some of his older inventions, since they were of no use to him when they failed but they were of interest to other Tinkers, they looked around trying to localize the source of the sound.  
 _  
Spunggg!_

They could make out a distinct whistling noise immediately before the odd sound, now that they were listening for it.

"That way," Über said, pointing towards the shore, several rows of beached trawlers away. Carefully, staying in the shadows, they headed towards the sound. Eventually, after several more _Spunggg's,_ they found it. Both of them stared for some time, then looked at each other.

"What the hell is that and what's it doing?" Über said in a very low voice in his friend's ear. The shorter, skinnier man shrugged.

"I have no idea," he said back, equally quietly.

"I'm practicing my aim," the reptilian horror standing on the shore said casually, rearing back and lifting a hand in a throwing gesture, a gray metallic javelin that tapered to a fine, glinting point at each end appearing in it. They both jumped violently. "Yes, I can hear you," she, for it was apparently female, said calmly. "I could hear your heartbeats coming for the last two minutes."

She leaned back even further, bracing herself with her long sinuous tail, then threw, putting her entire body into it. The source of the whistle they'd heard was now obvious, it was the eight foot long javelin disappearing from view at what must have been close to the speed of sound. Uber's eyes widened in shock. It was one hell of an impressive throw.  
 _  
Whistle-Spunggg!_

The weird sound was the thing punching a hole entirely through the cargo ship resting on the bottom of the bay three hundred feet or so away, about thirty feet of hull visible above the waves. He could barely make out several dozen two inch holes letting light through from the dawn sun. It looked like she was trying, successfully, to turn it into a colander.

"Fucking _hell_ ," Leet muttered. "That thing was really moving. It didn't even slow down when it hit that ship and it went through at least a couple of inches of steel. What the hell are they made of?"

"Good stuff," the female reptilian cape noted, rearing back again.  
 _  
Whistle-Spunggg!_

Once more the old ship rang like a bell. She nodded in satisfaction. "Getting better. That one was only about six inches off the mark."

Three more whistles and _Spunggg_ sounds occurred, then, apparently satisfied for the moment, she turned around. Both of them flinched.

They stared into the glowing orange reptilian eyes with slitted pupils that expanded with interest when she looked at them, then after a frozen moment took in the rest of the six, or seven depending on how you counted, limbed form covered in blue-black scales. She was wearing some form of formfitting armor, Über noticed, which blended so well with her scales he had trouble seeing where it stopped and her body started.

The large wedge-shaped head tipped quizzically to one side. "Hey, you're Über and Leet, right?" They both nodded spastically. The corners of the mouth moved, exposing some extremely worrying dentition, in what he finally realized was meant to be a smile.

It wasn't particularly successful at putting them at ease. Leet stepped back while Über couldn't help flinching a little again.

"Hi. I'm Raptaur. I guess you didn't see the thread about me on PHO last night. I like your show. Sometimes it sucks but a lot of the time it's really funny. That thing with Glory Girl last month was amazing although she didn't look too pleased." Her head tipped to the other side. "You should figure out how to do it without breaking the law, though, but I guess it's a bit late now."

Being studied by those glowing eyes was peculiarly unnerving. Über had gone up against most of the heroes in Brockton Bay at one time or another, often with more success than he should have had, and a few of the villains as well, but none of them had ever made him feel quite as nervous as this one did. Lung, ramped up, was scarier, true enough, but he wasn't standing thirty feet from them right now.

It was only the fact that on the one hand she seemed to be friendly or at least non-hostile, and on the other that based on what he could see he was damn sure he couldn't outrun her, that kept him standing there. Oh, and the fact that he didn't want to leave his best friend.

He glanced at Leet for a moment. Mind you, he probably didn't have to outrun _her_ , he only had to outrun _him…_

Leet was looking back at him with narrowed eyes and he suddenly became certain that his best friend was making exactly the same calculation. They stared at each other for a moment then smiled slightly, going back to the lizard-thing, which was watching with an amused air. He became pretty sure she had a good idea what they were thinking somehow.

"Where do you get those spears from?" Leet asked suddenly. His tone of voice was the one he got when his Tinker senses were tingling. "And what are they made of?"

"I do this," she said, holding out a hand, which suddenly had a javelin in it, one end in the sand at her feet and the other pointed skywards. Über twitched, as did his colleague. It was a little startling. "As far as what they're made of..." She shrugged slightly. "Some sort of very tough metal."

Walking a little closer Leet stared at the thing, obviously very curious. She held it out to him. "It's heavy," she warned. Nodding absently he touched it, then took it from her. She let go and he immediately toppled over, landing full length on the sand with a muffled and very rude exclamation of surprise, which made her giggle.

Hearing something that looked like _that_ giggle like a teenaged girl for some reason provoked an almost irresistible urge in Über to break down laughing. The sight of his old friend getting to his knees then struggling to lift the javelin, which looked like it couldn't weigh more than ten pounds or so but obviously did, from the sand, his face going mildly red, completed the job. He leaned back against the scrap hull behind him and roared with hilarity.

Leet gave him an unfriendly look and stood up, kicking the length of metal on the ground, then hopping up and down on one foot swearing when it passively resisted with great success. Über stared wide-eyed, then collapsed in laughter.

"Thanks, _friend_ ," Leet snarled in irritation.

Über weakly waved a hand at him, the javelin, and the reptilian cape, who was standing watching with what had to be a grin on her muzzle. "You… She… too heavy..." he gasped out, snickering. She laughed a little herself, then bent down and picked the thing up like it was a toothpick. Leet gaped.

"Good grief," he mumbled. "How the hell strong _are_ you?"

"Strong enough," she chuckled. "Here you go." The girl, since Über was now convinced she was a teenager, stabbed it into the sand with an extraordinarily quick motion, leaving six feet of it protruding. "That should let you look at it without falling over."

Muttering to himself and casting annoyed glances at his still giggling friend, the Tinker prodded the metal, then ran his fingers over it, his eyebrows going up. The dark green balaclava he, like Über, was wearing, covered his expression but the bits visible conveyed surprise.

"It's practically friction free," he noted with interest. "Weird. I don't know of anything like that." Bending down a little he studied the hand grip which seemed to be molded into the metal, with a textile-like finish. "And this is actually part of it." Feeling it he nodded. "This has normal friction. Very strange."

"How much _does_ it weigh?" Über asked, finally over his amusement and rather interested. She motioned to it and stepped aside. Accepting the wordless invitation he walked over, not without a somewhat nervous look at her, then put his hands on the foot-long grip area in the middle of the thing. He lifted.

Nothing happened.

Frowning, he lifted harder.

Still nothing.

"It must be stuck in the sand," he said, grunting with effort. He and Leet looked down, the Tinker brushing the sand around the end of the javelin buried in the ground away with his foot, to reveal the little fact it was only three inches or so deep at that point. Under that was the granite that the local geology was based on.

The javelin was embedded more than eighteen inches into the solid rock. She'd made it look trivially easy. They exchanged a glance.

"Oops. Sorry." The girl reached out and yanked, popping the spear-like thing free with no effort at all. Gently she let it slide back into the hole. "That should be easier," she added.

Rather more intimidated than he really enjoyed being, Über tried again, grunting with effort. This time he managed to lift it but it was like lifting a stack of concrete blocks. "Jesus, this thing must weigh about a hundred and seventy, hundred and eighty pounds," he said with disbelief.

The fact that she could throw one of these on a hundred yard flat trajectory was horrifying. Never mind the fact she could actually hit a six inch target at that range, repeatedly, as she'd shown with her last couple of throws.

Letting go with relief he let the thing thud back into the hole it had come from, stepping back and flexing his hands. "I've never come across anything that heavy before," he noted. "What the hell is it, depleted uranium or something?"

Leet was staring at the javelin with a calculating look, apparently now completely ignoring the reptile-girl. He shook his head very slowly, not taking his eyes off the javelin. "No. That's much too low density. This stuff must be about..." He thought hard, his lips moving silently, "Around sixty nine, maybe seventy grams per cc. Nothing has a density that high."

After a long moment, he whirled to face the lizard-girl, who twitched a little. "Can you make other things out of it?" he asked.

She nodded. "Sure." Holding out her right hand she gently waved the long two-handed sword that appeared in it. Her other hand was suddenly holding a huge metal hammer than looked like it was for smacking telephone poles flush with the ground. With one hit.

"Holy crap," Über said in a low voice. Leet ignored him, inspecting the blade which she held out obligingly when he stared at it.

"Careful, it's really sharp," she warned him seriously.

The Tinker studied the blade from inches away, then stepped back and looked around. Finding what he was looking for, he picked up a piece of driftwood that was lying on the beach a few feet away, came back, took careful aim, and slammed it into the edge of the blade.

He nearly fell over again as there was no resistance at all, the top part of the piece of wood flying away, and nearly impaled himself on the damn thing. The girl, the sword not moving a fraction of an inch in her grip, whipped her tail around and caught him with it just in time.

"Hey, be more careful," she complained mildly. "I _told_ you it was sharp."

"Thanks," Leet mumbled, more or less ignoring how close he'd come to a serious injury, instead looking closely at the cleanly cut end of the chunk of old wood still in his hand. His eyebrows went up again.

"That… is impressive," he finally said quietly, dropping it to the sand. He stared at her in a sort of bemused way, then said, "Stay here." Turning around he ran off.

Über and the girl exchanged glances. "Sorry," he said. "He gets like this when he's in a Tinker mood."

She shrugged. "I'm told Tinkers are strange at the best of times," she replied mildly, apparently not finding it particularly worrisome. The comment, considering the source, made him grin.

A couple of minutes later his friend was back, puffing like he'd run the entire way to the van and then back here. It was obvious where he'd been as he was lugging his bag full of custom test equipment, most of it his own design but with a few other things he'd acquired from other sources. Unzipping the bag he rooted around in it for a moment, discarding half a dozen odd looking devices, while the girl and Über watched, puzzled. Eventually he said triumphantly, "Aha! _There_ you are."

Pulling out what Über recognized as the working Star Trek Tricorder, TNG series, one of his more successful inventions, he stood up. The thing was mainly successful because it both actually worked to design and hadn't blown up yet.

It probably would sooner or later, but so far it was still intact.

Flipping it open, producing the characteristic sound right out of the Aleph version of the TV series, he fiddled with it for a moment, then ran it down the blade she was still holding and looked at the results.

He blanched, and did it again.

Taking a deep breath, he turned to the javelin and repeated the process. Über was very puzzled now, while the girl, even through the totally non-human appearance and body language, seemed to be the same.

"That's _impossible_ ," the Tinker muttered. He repeated the process once more.

Shaking his head, he turned to the hammer and did the same thing again. Twice. Finally he snapped the tricorder shut and stared at the sand for several seconds.

"This is the most bullshit thing I've _ever_ _**seen!**_ " he finally said, quite loudly, as he looked up. "How the hell is it _stable?_ The energy input required is completely..." Leet shook his head violently, looking very confused and somewhat annoyed as a result. Taking a deep breath, he visibly tried to calm down.

"Do you have any idea what this stuff actually is?" he asked, clearly trying to be as reasonable as possible.

"Not really," she replied, cocking her head and looking at him curiously. "Do you?"

"Yes."

That was all he said for several seconds. Über stared at him, then the girl, who shrugged scaled shoulders.

"So, what is it?" he finally asked.

"Basically impossible," Leet sighed heavily. "But I'm looking at it. The only thing I can say is ' _powers don't make any sense at all_ '. Even in _those_ terms this is ridiculous."

"Could you perhaps explain a little better?" his friend asked with a certain amount of sarcasm.

Leet opened his mouth to reply, then stared in shock as the javelin which was still resting in the hole suddenly vanished. He went pale again for a moment. "Oh, sorry, do you still need it?" the girl asked. "These ones don't last long, I don't want to leave them lying around all over the place."

"How the hell..." Leet shook his head again. "Never mind. I don't care. Look, what you have there is something that shouldn't exist outside the core of a large star. It's basically electron-degenerate matter." Über exchanged a glance with the girl again, seeing she was probably as blank as he was. Her orange eyes had a look of puzzlement, somehow.

"What's that?" she asked.

"Matter that has been compressed to the point the electron orbits collapse, but not quite to the point that the mutual repulsion between the electrons and the protons is overcome. If _that_ happens you get neutron-degenerate matter. Sometimes called neutronium. Assuming you could produce it outside a neutron star, that is. Which you can't."

He seemed a little incensed about the fact that she was standing there breaking the laws of physics and apparently not even realizing it.

"It should be both _either_ a liquid or gas, _and_ completely unstable at anything even vaguely approaching normal pressures," he went on after a moment. "The fucking stuff should basically explode on the spot. But somehow it's not only a solid metallic material, it's stable. Leaving aside spontaneously disappearing, of course."

"I can make it permanent," she offered, causing him to stare again, "But it takes more work. Normally it's more useful to have it temporary though. Good for things like handcuffs."

"You make degenerate matter handcuffs," Leet said in a completely flat tone. "Right. Of course you do. Why not?"

There was a slightly uncomfortable pause. Über thought for a moment, then said, "So that's why it's so heavy?"

"The problem isn't that it's too heavy, it's that it's too light. Wildly too light. Unbelievably too light." Leet looked very confused now. "It should have a density of somewhere in the region of ten thousand or so _kilograms_ per cubic centimeter, not only seventy _grams_. It's off by more than six orders of magnitude."

He pointed at the hole in the rock at their feet.

"That javelin had a _mass_ of about _twelve_ _million_ _tons,_ but for some insane reason had a _weight_ of less than two hundred pounds and inertia to match. It should have vanished into the rock the instant it was formed, even if it was by some magic actually stable in the first place." He glared at the hole as if it had eaten his favorite kitten. "Like I said it's impossible."

The reptilian girl was silent for a time, looking weirdly like she was having an internal conversation. Eventually she nodded slightly, then made both the hammer and sword, which she was still holding, disappear. Holding out her hand she formed another javelin, carefully inserting it into the hole the first one had made, then let go. "Let's see what happens," she said with interest. Leet and Über exchanged a glance, then looked back at the javelin, which abruptly vanished downwards so fast they blinked in shock. There was a long drawn out rumbling sound and the ground shook under them. " _Wow!_ That was _amazing!_ "

She looked pleased.

Leet stared in stunned disbelief, then asked slowly, "What the hell did you do?"

"Turned off the thing that was making its mass and weight different," she replied, causing him to take a step back and go pale again. "Don't worry, it won't fall far, I made it only last for a minute. But it's pretty cool. I didn't know I could do that. Thanks for the information."

"Jesus," the Tinker muttered.

"I can't think what use it is at the moment, but it's something else I've learned about what my abilities are," she added, pleased by the sound of it. "You learn something new every day, right?"

They nodded slowly. Leet was still looking shell-shocked.

She looked up at the rising sun. "I'm going to have to go, I have other things to get on with today, but it was nice meeting you guys."

"Likewise, I think," Über replied. Leet was staring at the girl with a peculiar expression, but jumped when his friend poked him in the ribs.

"Oh. Right. Yes, it was… interesting." He paused for a moment, then asked carefully, "Could I have a sample of that stuff, please?"

She inspected him closely for a moment. "You're not going to do anything illegal with it? Or at least, not too illegal? I like you guys but I don't want my stuff being used to commit serious crimes."

Leet shook his head vigorously. "No, I'm just really curious about it, that's all. I can think of… some interesting possibilities for that material, and I'd like to study it some more."

After a second or two she shrugged. "OK. How big a piece do you want? And what sort of shape?"

"A cube about two inches across, maybe?" Leet suggested. She nodded, then held out her hand, the requested cube forming in it with no fuss. Reaching out Leet tried to pick it up, muttering when his fingers slipped off with no other result. "Damn. Frictionless, right."

Laughing, she did whatever she did to make it and the cube reformed to have a loop at the top with a rope of some sort attached. "Here you go. It's permanent."

"Thank you," Leet said with sincerity in his voice, carefully picking the thing up by the supplied rope with some effort. Über did a quick mental calculation, coming to the figure of over twenty pounds for that small amount.

"OK, see you guys around, probably. Try not to do anything too bad." Raptaur smiled at them, making them both flinch slightly. "Oh, if you need to talk to me, you can leave a message with the DWU. They're friends." Nodding politely to them she turned and headed for the water, to their shock quickly disappearing under the surface. Both of them stared in disbelief for a minute or two but she didn't reappear.

"That was… different," Über finally said in a slow voice. Leet nodded.

"I'd have to agree," he replied, before lifting his sample of impossible metal and staring at it.

"Back to testing the shrink ray?"

"May as well." His friend sounded like he was a long way away. "I'm going to have to think about this."

They headed back to the van in silence, each going over the odd encounter in their minds.

* * *

' _Is Vargastuff safe?_ ' Taylor asked, worried by what she'd learned. ' _It's not going to explode or something, is it?_ '

" _No, Brain, the process I produce it with makes it unconditionally stable as far as that point is concerned,_ " the demon reassured her. " _I didn't have the terminology to describe it to you, but what Leet said sounds plausible. We should look into the relevant branch of science. Altering the mass is obviously possible, as you saw, but it's an all or nothing thing and takes considerable effort once the material is formed. It can either be the density you know at the moment, or the natural density, which is much, much higher. It won't spontaneously switch from one to the other and I can't change more than a fairly small amount once made. Perhaps twice the volume of that javelin and only when it's not permanent._ "

' _I wonder what use it would actually be in the higher mass version?_ ' Taylor mused. ' _Unless I need a really, really, really heavy thing_.'

" _I'm not certain, but we may come up with a use at some point,_ " her companion chuckled, also sounding thoughtful. " _Time will tell, I expect._ "

' _Probably,_ ' she laughed as she swam towards the docks and downtown. ' _But that was really cool, seeing it literally fall like the rock was air. Leet looked a bit surprised. I wonder what he wants that sample for?_ '

" _As a Tinker he may well not even know yet himself,_ " the Varga commented wryly, making her laugh again.

* * *

Armsmaster looked at the email he'd received from a heavily encrypted and impossible to track source, his eyebrows up. Dragon, her face on a monitor on his desk, also looked intrigued.

 _ **To:** Armsmaster (a) ProtectorateENE . gov _  
_**From:** Leet (a) HyperCrypt . mail . com_  
 _ **Subject:** Endbringer truce._

 _Armsmaster. I have important information. We need to talk. Soon._

 _I think I may know how to severely damage or possibly even kill an Endbringer._

 _Reply under truce ASAP, please._

 _Leet_

"This is... somewhat unexpected," he finally said. Dragon nodded slowly.

"That's a good way to put it. Are you going to reply?"

He glanced at her for a moment, thinking, then eventually nodded. Reaching for his keyboard, he started typing. "I have no choice. If there's even the slightest chance that anyone, even Leet, has an idea that could stop one of those things, we need to look into it."

As she nodded, he composed a suitable reply, then sent it, leaning back and waiting for a response.


	34. Tinkers and Maps

"Hello. Are you having vehicle troubles?"

The female voice from behind him made Eric jump a little, but he nodded, still on his hands and knees looking under his truck. "Yes, Miss, I am," he sighed. "I've managed to get the driveshaft hung up in a pothole and the thing is completely wedged. I'm going to have to call for a tow truck and it's going to take hours… to… get..." He trailed off, his voice rising in pitch, as he looked over his shoulder to the woman who had spoken.

"Oh, OK," the enormous reptilian creature standing behind him said, bending down to look for herself. "Doesn't look like anything is actually damaged though, as far as I can see. Do you want some help?" She looked enquiringly at him. Eric nodded reflexively, not able to actually do anything else.

"All right." Straightening up, she moved around to the front of the ten ton delivery truck, carefully grabbed the jacking points under the front bumper, then lifted, raising the vehicle like she was moving a sofa. "Is it clear?"

He stared, swallowed, then looked. He nodded.

"Great." She moved sideways, the truck following obediently, then lowered it to the ground when it was safely away from the massive pothole. Staring at her work for a moment, she moved around to the back, vanishing from sight, then the rear of the vehicle shifted as well, leaving it neatly parked beside the road. The lizard-like thing reappeared, dusting her hands off with an air of satisfaction. "There you go."

"Thank you," he squeaked.

"Just visiting Brockton Bay?" she asked. "I see you have a Boston address there on the side."

He nodded again.

"Yes," he managed to say, then cleared his throat and tried again. "Yes. I'm delivering some supplies to Medhall Pharmaceuticals."

"Oh, right. You just go down that road over there, then take the second left, it's about a mile further," she replied with what looked horrifyingly like it was meant to be a smile.

"Thank you," he repeated.

"No problems. Nice to meet you, sir," she replied, then wandered off down the road, looking into shop windows as she went with the air of someone just browsing.

Quite a number of pedestrians had stopped to watch, most of them holding camera phones, but they rapidly dispersed when nothing else interesting happened. After nearly a minute, he shook his head, peered after the reptilian cape, whose tail was just disappearing around the corner a couple of blocks away, shrugged, and got into the truck.

"They _said_ Brockton Bay was weird."

Shaking his head again he started the vehicle and drove off.

* * *

"What."

Armsmaster's voice was completely flat and expressionless.

Across the table from him, Leet, wearing a balaclava and ordinary street clothes, shrugged.

"Electron degenerate matter? You can't be serious."

"I am."

"It's impossible."

"You're looking at it."

The Protectorate Tinker looked at the cube of insanely dense metal sitting on the table between them. Reaching out he picked it up with some effort and a whine from the servomotors in his power armor, using the rope connected to it, then studied it closely.

"You're really sure that's what this material is?" he asked, his voice sounding almost plaintive now. Leet nodded again.

"I am. Look, you've tested my tricorder, you know it does what I said it does. My stuff always works, at least for a while. Even you admit that."

Reluctantly, the other Tinker nodded. It was true enough, Leet seemed able to make essentially anything.

Once.

His inventions almost inevitably blew up or otherwise failed after a while, often while he was using them, with rare exceptions. And he could, for some reason, never either fix or duplicate them successfully, something that made him very annoyed indeed.

"I'll admit, with some reservations, that your device does indeed appear to do what you claim it does. But even so… Electron degenerate matter should be utterly unstable outside the core of a fairly large star. Or the surface layers of a neutron star. How you could possibly make it not only stable at standard pressures, but a solid as well..." Armsmaster's voice faded as he looked at the dangling cube of gray metal. "Not to mention the minor matter of over six orders of magnitude of density difference."

Spreading his hands, Leet leaned back in his chair. "I know. Believe me, I know. I've been over it and over it and I can't explain it in any way at all. I have absolutely no idea how it could be made. Nothing I can come up with is able to affect it at all. The hardness might as well be infinite, as far as I'm concerned, likewise tensile strength, compressive strength, any physical measurement you care to name. I'm certain it isn't _actually_ infinite but it's so fucking high it might as well be for all intents and purposes."

He sighed heavily. "I can't make it, damage it, work it, affect it at all."

"Neither could I," Armsmaster admitted somewhat sourly. Leet looked at him, so the hero explained about Hookwolf and his still present manacles made of the same material.

Leet snickered. "Serves the bastard right."

"I tend to agree, to a point," Armsmaster replied with a very small smile that immediately vanished. His mouth reflected a thoughtful look. "I still maintain it's unlikely in the extreme, but… It _would_ explain some of the results I've had. Some of the methods I used to attempt removal of the manacles would have worked on anything I can even theoretically come up with, but they had absolutely no effect on this material."

"It's also a perfect thermal conductor and a perfect electrical insulator as far as I can measure, which fits the theory of electron degenerate matter," Leet added. Armsmaster nodded thoughtfully.

"True." He experimentally tapped the dangling cube with his other hand, watching it swing. "How did you get this sample?"

"I asked her for it."

The power-suited Tinker gave his guest a long look. "Just like that? You simply asked?"

"Yes. She asked if I was going to do anything illegal with it, I promised her I wasn't, and she gave it to me." Leet shrugged. "I was a little surprised myself, it seemed… unusually generous… but having studied it, it's not giving anything away. It's not like I can actually _do_ anything with that cube, except throw it at someone. I'd assume her armor is made of the same stuff, but based on my tests I doubt a piece of it would penetrate another piece of it without so much energy input that the actual projectile was irrelevant. She wasn't taking much risk."

"Interesting. I'd have to agree, based on my own studies." Armsmaster put the cube back on the table, both of them looking at it for a moment.

"All right. Assume for the moment that you are correct, Saurial and Raptaur can somehow make arbitrary constructions of electron degenerate matter. How does this allow us to fight an Endbringer?"

Leet smiled slowly.

"Using Raptaur, a large tube made of this stuff, a hell of a lot of little darts also made of it, a disk of tungsten… and a very small fusion bomb."

Armsmaster actually gaped at the other Tinker, then slowly got a very thoughtful look. "Ah. I believe I see where you're going with this."

"It might work."

"It might not. And it would cause a lot of collateral damage."

"In an Endbringer attack, collateral damage is the least of it."

"Very true."

They looked at each other for a few seconds. "I will have to run a large series of simulations."

"Here's the data and designs I've already worked out," Leet replied, handing over a USB memory stick. "Keep the cube. I've got everything I could from it, and there's nothing else I can use it for except a very heavy paperweight."

"Thank you." Armsmaster actually sounded like he meant it. Leet nodded, standing up and leaving the room. The other Tinker stared at the cube of metal in the middle of the table, then picked it up and carefully put it in a carrying case he retrieved from the floor, leaving the rented room in the out of town motel they'd mutually agreed to meet at under the auspices of the Endbringer Truce conditions. Locking the case onto his motorcycle, he mounted it, looking around curiously. There was no sign of the villainous Tinker or his compatriot Über who he'd arrived with and who had been waiting outside for him.

"What do you think?" he said as his machine rumbled back into town.

"I think he's insane, frankly," Dragon's voice said in his helmet. The small image of her face floating in the upper quadrant of his vision looked both confused and intrigued. "But that might be exactly what we really need. The Endbringers are killing our world and so far all we can do is hold them off at terrible cost of life. If this plan can actually seriously damage, or possibly even kill one…?"

"It's a somewhat extreme weapon," Armsmaster commented.

Dragon laughed. "That's an understatement. A nuclear shotgun loaded with degenerate matter flechettes? Extreme doesn't even _begin_ to cover it. But… It would destroy anything else I can think of at close range. Possibly even an Endbringer."

"The Simurgh would be the most appropriate target," he replied thoughtfully. "And she's the next expected Endbringer to attack. Within a matter of weeks at most."

"We'll need to work fast, then. We'll have to have a very good plan in place with everything calculated out perfectly or no one will ever let it be used, even against an Endbringer."

"True. I will also need to contact Raptaur when we have a design, to see if we can persuade her to help. Without her or Saurial, we have nothing except an idea."

"They both seem reasonable and to genuinely want to help," his friend noted. "I suspect they'd agree."

"Hopefully, yes," he muttered, thinking hard, and falling silent as he kept piloting the bike back to the boat to the Rig. He had a lot of work to do.

"We'll also need to keep quiet about it until we have the calculations done, or there will be so much shouting we'll never finish the design," she added, before also going quiet. He nodded absently, still going over numbers in his head. He was starting to get quite excited about the idea.

* * *

"How did your day go so far, dear?" Danny asked, looking up from his new computer as Taylor appeared at the door to his office. She smiled at him, coming in and leaning on his desk.

"Very well, actually, Dad," she replied. "I practiced with the darts and the javelins for a couple of hours. I was getting pretty good in the end, but I'll need to do it some more to really learn it as a skill. But I can hit a target about a hundred yards away in an area about six inches across with either of them three out of four times now."

Danny went slightly pale. She smirked a bit. "Oh, it turns out that Raptaur can throw the things at more than the speed of sound as well. It makes a pretty loud crack sound."

He paled further.

"I desperately hope you were aiming out to sea and made sure no one was in the way," he managed to say. She nodded reassuringly.

"We only tried that once, and made sure they didn't last more than a few seconds. I'm pretty sure we didn't impale some poor fisherman. Although one of the wrecked ships has an awful lot of holes in it now." Taylor grinned as he sighed in relief. "It makes a really neat sound when the things hit the ships as well. Like a weird bell."

"How… nice," he sighed. She laughed, pushing herself erect again. "When are you going out to meet your friends for that movie?"

Looking at the clock on his desk, she thought for a moment. "About two hours from now, I think."

"Time for a meal, then, before you go."

She nodded with a smile. "I'd like that. I was thinking about trying another of Varga's recipes, I bought the things I need on the way home."

"Thank you, dear," he smiled back. "And thank you, Varga, for giving her these ideas. So far they're all very good." Danny grinned for a moment. "A cooking demon. Somewhat unusual, none of the legends mention that."

Taylor giggled as the creature attached to her mind said something to her. "He says that for such a noble warrior you have a strange sense of humor," she reported, making Danny chuckle.

"Coming from such an inveterate troll as your friend, I'll take that as a compliment," he retorted.

Laughing, she left the study. "I'll call you when it's ready, Dad," she said as she went out. Smiling to himself, he turned back to his work, adding some more explanation to the section on pollution control measures while referring to a book of legal regulations. It was coming along very well so far.

* * *

Taylor watched her father's face as he tried the forkful of food, then smiled at her. "Very nice. Very nice indeed. You should write these down and publish a book of recipes, you must have enough for one by now."

"Not a bad idea," she nodded. "Maybe over the summer or something."

"So, what else did you do other than make lots of holes in old ships?" he asked, happily eating. She joined in the process.

"Well, I bumped into Über and Leet," she grinned, laughing a little as he looked surprised. "Or rather, they bumped into me. I heard their van arrive, they were unloading something made of metal based on the sounds. I think they heard me making holes and came to see what the noise was. They were a little surprised but seemed friendly enough. Leet was really interested in the Vargastuff."

She giggled, then told him what had happened. He looked stunned at the outcome of the Tinker's investigations.

"That's… more than a little remarkable," he said when she finished. "Although it certainly explains why I couldn't work out what the hell that stuff was."

"Do you think he's right?"

"Probably. His reputation isn't very good for obvious reasons, but to be honest I think the guy is actually very smart and knows his stuff. He's just got the Tinker equivalent of a disability somehow." He shrugged a little. "I kind of feel sorry for the guy, it obviously bothers him a lot. Some of the stuff I know he'd designed is amazing even in Tinker terms. I suspect that if he could do it more reliably he'd be a hero and not a rather lackadaisical villain. It's not like either he or Über really commit serious crimes. Between them they could do a lot worse if they wanted to. They're just sort of… irresponsible, not actually evil."

"They seemed nice enough when we talked," she said, smiling at the memory. "Nervous, or at least Leet was, until he really got interested in the Vargastuff, but at that point he sort of forgot about me and just poked it for a while. I gave him a little piece of it to play with when he promised he wouldn't do anything bad with it."

"Was that a good idea?" her father asked, looking somewhat worried.

"It's not like he can really do much with it," she shrugged. "Varga is pretty sure that nothing we have, or even a Tinker has, can touch it. They might be able to break it, _possibly_ , but he says it's extremely unlikely that anyone other than another of his kind could actually use it for more than a weight. But he seemed interested and I kind of like him. It was only a small cube of the stuff, not a blade or anything dangerous."

"All right, dear, I suppose Varga would know if anyone would, but be careful who you give unbreakable things to, please."

"I _was_ going to suggest that I could supply the DWU with some Vargastuff tools, things like that, but if you think it's too dangerous..." she snickered. He looked surprised, then thoughtful.

"That… could be very useful. If you can make them hollow so they're actually light enough for mere humans to actually pick up in the first place," he suggested. Nodding, she held out her hand, on which a collapsible baton appeared.

"Like this?" She watched as he picked it up, inspecting it closely. "I saw some in a shop today and had a good look at how they worked. We figured out how to copy them. That one is very thin material so it should only be a little heavier than the steel one but I don't think you can break it."

"Interesting," he mumbled, turning it over in his hands, then extending it with a surprisingly practiced flip of his wrist. He grinned at her expression. "I told you it's not my first time around the block, dear."

"You have a backstory I don't know," she laughed.

"Oh, definitely. I'll tell you one day," he promised, tapping the baton on the table, then trying, totally unsuccessfully, to bend it. "This is very good. Will it last?"

"That one is permanent. An early birthday present."

"Thank you, Taylor," he smiled. "Yes, if you can make various tools like this, it would help enormously. Nothing that needs to be used around hot things, this stuff conducts heat far too well to make that safe, but I can think of all sorts of other things where being basically unbreakable would be really useful. Hammers, saws, that sort of thing."

"Make a list and we can go over it when I get back," she suggested. He nodded, playing with the baton for a moment, then collapsing it again and putting it on the table.

"So other than breaking a poor Tinker, what else did you get up to today?"

"I helped a delivery driver who got stuck in one of those horrible potholes on Arcade Avenue, the front of his truck had almost disappeared into it the thing was so big," she laughed, only slightly exaggerating. "He seemed pleased. Then I bought a nice GPS unit that's meant for sailors with maps of all of North America on it and about three days battery life. That should come in handy for exploring."

"Do you have any idea where you're heading?" he asked curiously.

"I was thinking possibly as far as Canada," she replied idly. He nearly choked on his meal.

"Canada!? That's about two hundred miles by sea." She nodded contentedly. "How fast can you swim underwater for god's sake?"

"We're not sure, that's one of the things we want to find out, but based on the other day and last night, sixty, seventy miles an hour or so?" She shrugged slightly as he gaped. "Maybe faster if I get really big. It shouldn't take more than two or three hours to get to the end of Nova Scotia, and I know there's all sorts of completely deserted areas up there that got washed away when Leviathan sank Newfoundland. Hardly anyone lives there now, especially along the Atlantic coast."

Recovering, he listened, then slowly nodded. "It seems, aside from the ridiculousness of the entire concept, a fairly sound plan. You're right, Nova Scotia was badly affected by the Newfoundland Tsunami, although it did protect us down here by deflecting the worst of it out into the ocean. PEI more or less got washed clean but then it was pretty much only an overgrown sandbank in the first place. A lot of New Brunswick was hit as well along the coast. OK, I can see it."

"I'll leave tonight, after the movie, swim up, play around for a while when I find a good deserted area, then come back. I'm not in any real hurry so I might not come home until sometime in the afternoon or early evening. Is that OK?"

She watched his face as he looked mildly uncertain, then shrugged. "Any normal teenaged girl wanting to stay out all night would get a long talk, but if anyone can look after themselves, it's you. Or both of you together, I guess." He grinned as she laughed a little. "Try not to freak out the Canadians. Or our people. We still have a Navy even if it's only a small fraction of the size it used to be."

"I'll go deep, don't worry. I'll probably head out over the continental shelf then up along it as deep as I can go. I could go all the way out past it and go really far down but that would double or triple the distance. It stretches out a long way around here, hundred of miles."

"You've been researching it, clearly," he chuckled.

"Hey, I'm a sea creature in some ways, I need to know these things," she replied, grinning, which made him laugh again.

"Try not to bump into Leviathan while you're swimming around out there," he advised. She got a thoughtful look, which made him sigh. "I mean it. No Endbringers."

"Oh, OK," she sighed. "Varga is curious to see one. But you're probably right."

"With any luck you'll never see _any_ of them," he said firmly. "Which is all to the good. We have enough problems around here without bringing an Endbringer into it."

Laughing, she went back to eating.

"Oh, while I think about it," he added a minute or so later, causing her to look up. "I drew up a short plan for how you could move the tanker with minimum damage to anything else, and hopefully minimum fuss. If you could look it over that would help, as would suggesting any changes?"

"Sure, no problem."

"All right, let me get it." He got up and left the kitchen, coming back shortly with a couple of printed pages stapled together, which he handed to her, then sat again. Eating with one hand, she read the document and flipped the page with the other.

"Why so slowly?" she asked curiously, pointing at one paragraph. "I think I can push or pull it a lot faster than that. It will take hours at this rate."

"I'm sure you probably can, but don't forget, there are several issues in play. One of them is that the thing will have a considerably larger mass than just the dry weight of the hull, a lot of it is flooded and you'll be towing all that water as well. Some of it will drain as you float it off the rocks, but not all of it. A rough estimate suggests you'll be moving over two hundred thousand tons at least."

"OK," she nodded, thinking it over. It sounded sensible.

"Another problem is that if you go hauling ass all over the bay, you'll wash half the docks away. That thing is _huge_. Moving it too fast will cause some very large waves which would cause chaos. You'll have to go slow to keep that to a minimum. The PRT, for example, will get very irritated if you manage to make the Rig tip over with your wake." He snickered as she smirked a little. "And no, I don't want you doing that on purpose."

"I'll be good," she promised.

"There's also the matter that you have to _stop_ it when you get to the destination," he added. "The faster it's going the less control you'll have over the whole process. Take it slow and easy and it will be much safer for everyone."

"I see," she nodded, looking over the plan again. "Varga agrees, actually. We still think that making floats around the sides of the hull to lift it near high tide would be the best approach, then pull it. It'll take some effort to get it started but if we time it right the tide coming in will help once we get it unstuck. Looking at this I think you're right, it would take about six hours. The tide will be going out by then, though, so either I'll have to wait until it comes back in, or do it a little faster so I can get it into the deep water near the docks first."

"There's supposed to be a deep channel all the way out to the reef," he frowned.

"Half of it is silted up now," she told him. "I noticed when I was swimming around that first time. I think the currents were changed by the tanker, there's a spot about two thirds of the way between the entrance to the bay and the docks where the mud is really deep and looks newer than the rest of it." Looking thoughtfully at him, she added, "I suppose it would make sense to clear that out of the way first. That would make things a lot easier."

"Can you do that?"

"Sure, it shouldn't be too hard. I might have a go at it when I come back. I think the tide will be going out around midnight on Sunday, so if I start digging it up, it should wash away. Mostly, at least."

Her father thought about the suggestion for a moment. "I suppose there's no harm in it. Try not to be seen, though, we don't need any more sea monster stories on PHO right now. There will be enough of them later on."

Snickering, she nodded. "It's still quite deep there so I should be fine. The Rig is several miles away, there aren't a lot of ships around at that time of night anyway, so with a little effort I should be able to be discreet about it."

"All right, that sounds worth trying."

"You seem pretty sure the Mayor will approve the plan, Dad," she smiled, finishing her dinner.

"The closer I get to the final document the more certain I am, dear," he replied with satisfaction. "The numbers add up very well, there's a clear argument in favor of doing it and almost no real downside. Even if you only moved the tanker and cleared the channel, we could still do it and make a large profit, it would just take several times as long. That damn ship is the single most important obstacle and the most difficult to deal with. I expect he'll see it as well, he's an intelligent man."

Her father frowned slightly as she nodded with a smile. "However, I also think he'll want proof before he agrees, no matter how good the proposal is. Are you OK with meeting him?"

"As me, Saurial, Raptaur, or Kaiju?" she asked with a smirk.

"Probably the last one," he chuckled, "It would make the biggest impression."

"And footprints. I don't mind. Where, though? If we do it anywhere in the bay everyone in the city will find out almost instantly, I think," she frowned.

They looked at each other. Eventually, her father got up and went into the living room, coming back with an atlas, which he opened on the table, flipping through it to a map of the upper US East coast. "OK, we're here. Hmm. Somewhere close, or at least closer than Canada, that an eighty foot tall sea monster can meet the Mayor of Brockton Bay without drawing too much attention." He grinned as she giggled. "How about… right here?" He pointed to a spot on the map. She craned her neck to see, then nodded a little. "It's about an hour away by car, but a lot less by water, North up the coast a ways. It looks like there's fairly deep water in this small bay with cliffs around it and hardly any houses anywhere around."

"Isn't that a lighthouse there?" she asked, indicating a place very close to where his finger was. He looked closely, then nodded. "That should make it easy to find. OK, I can do that. Let me know when."

"Hopefully quite soon," he replied, closing the book. Looking at his watch, he said, "You're going to have to go soon if you want to meet your friends."

"Yes, you're right," she agreed, glancing at the timepiece.

"Don't worry about the dishes, I'll do them. Thank you for dinner," he smiled.

"It was fun. I'll call before I leave tonight, and when I get back. I'll have my phone off the rest of the time, though, I don't want it tracked all the way up to Canada and back. That might cause some funny looks."

"You can leave the Raptaur one on, I'd think, it's only going to connect when you're above the surface and half the people on PHO already think you live in the Bay in the first place," he laughed.

"True. OK, I'll do that." Standing up, she stretched a little, then hugged him. "See you later."

"Take care of yourself and try not to start any legends of the deep," he smiled down at her, returning the hug.

"I can't make that promise," she giggled, before heading up to her room to brush her hair. Soon she was tearing down the street as Raptaur, cloaked and moving at nearly fifty miles an hour, heading towards her friends and a silly movie.


	35. Movies and Meetings

"Taylor! Over here!"

Mandy's shout caused Taylor to grin. She'd already seen the girl, and as the light breeze was blowing from that direction she'd smelled her some time before that. She had, in fact, noticed that she tended to approach people from downwind these days as a subconscious matter of preference a lot of the time, the amount of information she could get from the huge array of scents was astounding and steadily growing.

Waving back, she walked towards the small group, who were laughing about some joke Eric had just made that she'd missed the punchline of due to the chatter of the crowd in the area. Lucy seemed to find it particularly funny based on her expression.

When she was twenty feet from them a cry of "Thief! Someone stop that bastard!" suddenly came from behind her, making her turn and look, as did everyone else, to see a bedraggled looking man in his early twenties running flat out towards them holding a large women's over the shoulder bag with a cut strap flapping behind it in one hand and a small sharp kitchen knife in the other. Behind him a mid-thirties woman was running after him, the source of the shout, and several other people including a uniformed police officer were beginning to follow.

Seeing that he was going to pass very close to her, as he weaved his way expertly between the pedestrians, most of whom were looking as if they couldn't work out what was going on, Taylor waited, then at the right moment, stuck her invisible tail between his legs at ankle height. This had the inevitable effect that the man promptly and spectacularly tripped, almost cartwheeling, losing both the knife and the bag as he flung out his arms to save himself.

Catching the bag as it passed her, making it look almost accidental, Taylor stepped back to allow the thief to slide to a halt on his face. The cop, who had passed the woman due to having better stamina if nothing else, pounced on him, wrenching his arms around behind him and slapping a set of handcuffs on in seconds, then hauling him to his feet. Mandy, who had seen the entire thing and was gaping a little, looked at him and the thief, then at Taylor who was smiling slightly, then down at the knife which had ended up nearly at her feet, before grinning widely.

" _Shit_ , that was cool," she cried, bending down and carefully picking up the knife by the extreme tip of the handle with finger and thumb. "Good reactions, Taylor!"

"Thank you, thank you," the owner of the bag said as she panted to a stop next to the teenager, looking somewhat flustered. "Thanks you so much, young lady. He nearly got away with all my money, expensive and irreplaceable tickets to a show in Boston next week, my keys, my driver's license..." She trailed off, shaking her head. "Maybe I should keep more things at home," she added with a smile. Taylor handed her the bag, amused at the commentary.

"Don't worry, it was no trouble, I just grabbed it when it flew past." She grinned as the woman looked at her with a raised eyebrow.

"You have very fast reactions, I must say," the former victim smiled. "Your friend there is right." Mandy and the others had come closer and were only a few feet away, listening with interest. "Thank you again. If he'd got away with my bag, I… I don't know what I'd have done." She opened the bag, pulling out a small purse. "Here, let me..."

"Don't worry, Ma'am," Taylor said politely. "I don't need anything, I just caught the bag. It was no big deal."

"But..."

"Honestly, I have enough money, thank you. I'm just glad I could help." Taylor smiled as the woman looked dubiously at her, then nodded with a smile of her own.

"If you're sure. I still think you deserve something, but..." The woman shrugged. "Kids these days," she laughed. "In my day they accepted rewards."

The cop, who had just finished reading the perpetrator his rights and searched him thoroughly, handed the man off to a colleague who had turned up moments before, then walked over to join the discussion, looking pleased. "That was very well done, young lady," he said with a small smile. Noticing that Mandy was still delicately holding the knife with the blade dangling downwards, he pulled a plastic evidence bag from his pocket and opened it. "Can you just drop that in here, please?" he asked, holding the bag out. Mandy carefully did so, then he sealed it and wrote something on the seal with a pen. "Thanks."

Turning back to Taylor having put the bag away, and now holding a small notebook instead, he asked, "Can I have your name for the report?"

"Taylor Hebert," she replied. He wrote it down, then frowned, looking at the notebook, then her.

"Any relation to Danny Hebert?" he asked.

"He's my father."

The cop nodded, smiling again. "I should have known. He's a good man and would probably have jumped right in under the same circumstances. That was a hell of a good catch."

"You know him?" Taylor asked, curious. The police officer smiled a little.

"Slightly. We've met a couple of times. I was at the DWU last night, actually, there was a disturbance caused by those idiots in the E88. Hookwolf turned up and made a fool of himself, when a new cape who was helping the DWU beat the crap out of him. It was both one of the funniest and one of the most horrifying things I've ever seen." The cop shuddered involuntarily. "This new one, Raptaur they're calling her, seemed polite but by god you wouldn't want to meet her unexpectedly down a dark alley. Mad props to your father that he seemed completely OK with her and even shook her hand."

"Dad mentioned her, yes," Taylor snickered. "He said she was nice. And effective."

"Oh, _god_ , she was effective," the cop agreed with a smirk of his own. "Hookwolf looked like he'd really managed to get in over his head, which I for one never thought I'd say. Serves him right. Anyway, well done, Miss Hebert. Give my best to your father." He held out his hand. "Officer Jericho. Andrew Jericho."

Taylor shook his hand, smiling widely. "I'll tell him you said hello."

Turning to the victim of the crime, Officer Jericho said, "I'll need to take a statement from you, Miss, please."

"Certainly, Officer," the auburn haired woman smiled. She looked back to Taylor. "Thank you again, Miss Hebert. You saved me a lot of trouble, if I'd lost everything in here it would have taken weeks to get everything sorted out. My husband would have been very upset as well." She held out her own hand. "Cheryl Alcott. It's very nice to meet you."

Taylor shook the outstretched hand with another smile. "it was no trouble, honestly, Mrs Alcott." Glancing at Mandy who seemed slightly surprised, she added, "We're going to be late for our movie if we don't leave now, though. Do you need anything else, Officer Jericho?"

"No, thank you, I have everything I need from you. I know how to get in touch if we need anything else later but I doubt we will. Thank you again for your help."

"No problem," she replied. Waving to them both she joined the group of people who were standing nearby, watching and listening. "That was interesting. Let's go and see this movie."

"You… are a little weird, Taylor," Mandy grinned as they walked off. "And have really fast reactions. That was an amazing catch."

"I wonder why he tripped like that?" Lucy, on Mandy's other side, asked. Mandy shrugged.

"He was running so fast he probably fell over his own feet."

"Or tripped over one of these bricks," Eric put in, motioning down at the surface of the pedestrian area which was indeed made of interlocked brickwork. "Some of them need to be fixed, they stick up a little. I've nearly fallen over because of them in the past. Hi, Taylor," he added as an afterthought, making her smile.

"Hi, Eric."

"Do you know who that was?" Mandy asked suddenly, looking over her shoulder first to make sure they were far enough away so that the woman and the cop who were still talking couldn't hear them.

"Cheryl Alcott, she said," Taylor noted.

Mandy rolled her eyes. "Yes, I know _that_. Do you know who that _is_ , I mean?"

"No."

"That's the Mayor's sister!"

"Really?" Taylor looked over her shoulder, then nodded. "Interesting."

"Interesting? That's all you can say?" Mandy stopped with her hands on her hips, looking slightly stunned. "You saved the Mayor's sister's shoulder bag from a horrible fate, and it's merely ' _interesting_ '? Weird girl." Lucy, Eric, and Taylor all exchanged glances, then began laughing.

"Slightly overdramatic, Mandy," Eric snickered. "But well said." Mandy shook her head a little with a smile, then resumed walking.

"Seriously, she's pretty high up in the social hierarchy of Brockton Bay, Taylor," she added. "One day you might need a favor or something."

"Ah. I now have political pull," Taylor nodded wisely. "I know the handbag of the sister of the Mayor of Brockton Bay. I can use that."

"Idiot." Mandy giggled to herself, while everyone else grinned.

"How did you know who she was?" Eric asked curiously. She gave him a superior look.

"I move in more rarefied circles than you do, peon," she replied with haughty tones, then laughed when he rolled his eyes at her in a very obvious manner. "I went to a party with Dad last year that the Mayor put on, we were introduced. She seemed nice."

"Where are the others," Taylor asked as they walked.

"Already in the theater," Lucy replied. "Maria texted me just before you arrived. She's there, Rich is as well, and two of his friends, Emil and Josh."

"OK. Are you looking forward to the movie?"

Lucy smiled. "I am, actually. I've heard it's a really good one, it's had better than average reviews."

"She's also stoked about the fact that there's another reptilian cape in the city now," Eric snickered, glancing at the girl who looked mildly embarrassed but amused as well. "That one the cop was talking about, Raptaur. Have you seen the videos on PHO?"

"I watched them this morning, when I woke up," Taylor told them truthfully. "She looks… pretty formidable."

"That's one way to put it, sure," Mandy said with a slight shiver. "But fuck _me_ she's scary. She makes Saurial look cuddly by comparison."

"I think she looks really cool," Lucy told them in a quiet voice, smiling to herself. "And she beat up Hookwolf, so she has to be good."

"It sure looked like she didn't have too much trouble doing it," Eric nodded, grinning. "She knocked him around like she was playing mini golf. It was hysterical."

"Not a fan of the E88, Eric?" Taylor asked. The boy glanced at her with an amused look on his face.

"Not so much, no. I mean, look at me? Do I _look_ like an Aryan?"

Taylor turned her head, carefully inspecting the boy, who she knew had Mexican, American Indian, and European roots, then shrugged. "Can't say I've ever noticed, actually."

He laughed and nodded to her. "Which is why I like you."

"Thanks." They shared a look of amusement, while Lucy giggled.

"There's Rich," Mandy pointed, making everyone look. The young man in question was standing just outside the glass doors to the lobby of the large cinema multiplex a hundred yards away. Spotting them he waved wildly, then waited for the small group to arrive.

"About time, guys, we only have five minutes before it starts," he said rapidly, leading the way inside. "Here, we bought the tickets already, but if you want snacks you'll have to hurry." He handed everyone a ticket.

"Slow down, Rich, you know there's about twenty minutes of ads before the trailers start then nearly a quarter of an hour before those are over," Mandy admonished him as he frantically herded them towards the snack counter.

"But I _want_ to see the trailers," he mumbled.

She shook her head sadly. "Silly boy. We have plenty of time."

He didn't stop fidgeting until she deliberately stepped on his foot and gave him a severe look, which replaced the shifting from foot to foot while looking at his watch with a pained yelp followed by quiet muttering, which amused everyone. Soon enough they were inside, occupying nearly an entire row of the middle section.

When the movie finally started, as Mandy had predicted close to half an hour past the posted time, Taylor settled back to enjoy it, which she did. The Varga found it amusing as well, keeping them both entertained with sarcastic comments about the plot and the overall animation, although he seemed favorably impressed even so.

' _Can we come up with a dragon form? Or something with wings, at least?_ ' Taylor asked wistfully as they watched the rather spectacular scenes of the young protagonist hurtling across the sea on his draconic companion. ' _I'd love to be able to fly._ '

" _It's… not entirely impossible, Brain,_ " the Varga replied thoughtfully. " _Although I'm not sure about the aerodynamic feasibility of some of these creatures. I think the wings are far too small to support them. We should do some research._ "

' _I'll add it to the list_ ,' Taylor commented with an inner smile. ' _We're building quite a big one. At this rate by the time I get to college I'll have learned more in different subjects than most people_ _ **leaving**_ _it have managed._ '

" _Education is always a good thing, I think,_ " the Varga rumbled with a smile in his voice. " _As your people also say, knowledge is power. This is very true._ "

Sipping her coke, she kept watching, finding the entire experience well worth it. Glancing sideways at Mandy, who was beside her, then onward to the others, all of them watching with interest, she smiled to herself. It had been a long time since she'd gone out with friends to do something like this and she was amazed to find out how much she enjoyed the experience itself.

A familiar scent reached her nose over the hundreds of others swirling around the theater, causing her to look over her shoulder. At the back, she spotted Dean and Vicky also watching the movie and eating popcorn, with Amy beside her sister, apparently fascinated by it. The brunette had a large tub of popcorn of her own which her sister kept trying to steal from, gaining little but a slap each time, a sight that made Taylor grin a little.

After a moment, she went back to the movie, but saw that Amy had noticed her, giving her a quick look of her own before returning her attention to the screen. Taylor made a mental note to approach the girl over the next week or so and just have a talk with her, she was still somewhat worried about the impression that the Dallon girl had given her of someone being close to the point they either did something stupid or just gave up. She recognized it all to well.

' _Do you think there's any harm in allowing her to study us?_ ' she asked.

" _I don't think so, no,_ " the Varga replied after a moment. " _I would like to study her as well. I am still puzzled about the source of parahuman abilities. It's possible that I can determine their source if we can inspect a willing subject, she may be open to swapping information. We know her power can't affect you, it seems to have no point of reference to even begin and even if it_ _ **did**_ _, I can block it. There's no danger to us from that point. Whether she would pass on anything she learned to someone else, though… I don't know, but I suspect not. Miss Dallon strikes me as a very private individual._ "  
 _  
'That's the impression I got too. I really think she needs a friend, though. That girl is way too tense_.'

 _"Very true._ " He fell silent again, with a thoughtful note in his voice, as they went back to concentrating on the entertainment.

* * *

Amy discreetly watched the back of Taylor Hebert's head as the other girl laughed, wondering with inner amusement what her sister would think if she knew Saurial, and most likely Raptaur, was twenty feet away snickering at the exploits of poor Hiccup on the big screen. Victoria was definitely more than a little intimidated by the former and actually quite scared of the latter.

She was well aware that Dean knew Taylor was there as well, she'd spotted him twitch a little when she and her friends had entered down at the front and looked around for seats, but manfully keep his reaction to the minimum. Wondering if he had also drawn the connection between Saurial, Taylor, and Raptaur, she glanced at him for a moment. He was watching the movie apparently engrossed in it but she could see little tells she was aware meant he was more tense than he should be.

It had been pretty obvious to her even before Taylor idly confirmed it that his mystery cape that he'd mentioned knowing the identity of was the brunette, from the moment she'd taken Amy's hand and given herself away. She'd seen him looking at the girl several times since she'd transferred in and had instantly realized why at that point. But he was being very, very careful not to get involved. Almost too careful, since to anyone who knew him well and actually paid attention, it was clear that he was worried about the girl. If not terrified of her.

Smiling to herself, she decided that sometime in the next week she would very carefully and politely approach Taylor and strike up a conversation. Curiosity about the other girl was eating at her, only getting stronger the more she considered each new piece of information, but at the same time she was extremely well aware that the method she'd first used was… unwise. Luckily everything had worked out OK, but she was determined not to jump in feet first next time, because it could easily have gone the other way.

Dismissing the issue for the moment, she went back to watching animated dragons chase each other while the sound track swelled. It was actually a good movie, one she was glad she'd let her sister drag her to.

She wondered with a small smile if Taylor was taking notes...

* * *

"So what did you think, Taylor?" Taylor looked across the table at Lucy, who had asked the question. "Was it worth seeing?"

"It was pretty good," she admitted with a smile, handing the menu back to the waitress. They were in a Chinese restaurant that was a block away from the movie theater, having decided that all the places to eat right next to it were too commercial and too expensive. "I liked the dragons. Most of them. Some of those designs were silly, though. They'd never be able to fly."

"It's a movie, it's not supposed to be real, Taylor," Eric laughed. He looked up as several helpings of prawn crackers arrived, smiling at the waitress, who smiled back as she handed them out. "But I think it was good too."

"Definitely worth seeing. We should do this again sometime soon," Mandy agreed. "It's fun." Glancing at Taylor she slyly added, "Maybe Taylor can stop a robbery every time. That was really cool to watch."

Taylor sighed, smiling. "All I did was catch the bag, Mandy. He's the one who tripped and threw it at me."

"Good thing it was the bag and not the knife," Eric snickered. She nodded, grinning.

"I wish I'd seen it," Josh, one of Rich's friends who Taylor didn't know, complained. Mandy and Eric had taken great pleasure in telling the others what had happened while the adverts played, gaining Taylor a number of compliments.

"It was epic," Lucy giggled. "The expression on that guy's face as he went down… He was all, ' _Oh, god, this is going to hurt_.'" They all laughed at this.

"He bounced pretty well," Mandy agreed. "But then he had a large cop sitting on him. I'll bet that was uncomfortable."

"I'm amazed that some random cop knew who your dad was, Taylor," Eric noted, glancing at her as he reached for another cracker. "He must be pretty well known."

Taylor smiled a little. "He's pretty high up in the DWU, and knows a lot of people in all sorts of strange places," she agreed placidly, helping herself to one as well. "It surprises me sometimes. I never thought of him as someone important, he's just Dad, but over the last couple of months various things have shown me he is, in his own way."

"My dad said that your dad was more than just high up in the DWU," Maria, one of the other girls from Taylor's home room class, remarked with a smile. "He said he basically runs it."

"He claims he doesn't, but I don't think the rest of them would agree," Taylor snickered. "Some of those guys treat him like a good friend, some like a respected leader, but he's the top man to all of them from what I've seen. I'm really pleased how much he's cheered up recently. Leaving Winslow and going to Arcadia was good for both of us."

"Well, I'm certainly enjoying knowing you, Taylor," Mandy laughed, putting her arm across her friend's shoulders. "Maybe he can introduce Lucy to Saurial one day. Or Raptaur." She shivered slightly at the name, although Lucy looked interested.

"I'd like that," the Chinese girl said quietly with a small smile.

Internally grinning, Taylor replied, "I can ask."

They chatted until the food arrived, then fell silent more or less as they ate. Despite her earlier meal Taylor found her appetite well up to the task, enjoying the food very much. Eventually, stuffed, they leaned back, Mandy frowning over the bill and working out who owed what.

"Oh, this is way too complicated," she finally muttered. "Why don't we just split it eight ways? We all had more or less the same."

"OK by me," Emil, who didn't normally talk very much, said while pulling out his wallet. Everyone else agreed. "How much?"

"With tip..." Mandy frowned, biting her lip in concentration. Taylor watched for a moment, then leaned over, looking at the total.

"Twenty-three dollars and sixty-one cents each," she announced. "Including the tip."

Mandy sighed heavily. "That's not fair. You're so much better at math than I am," she muttered, accepting the figure and dropping the slip of paper to the table. Taylor smiled at her, as she dug out her own money. It was still a slight shock to her that she didn't need to watch every penny, the settlement amount was still sinking in. She had no intention of splurging on anything much, but it was nice knowing that an evening out with friends wasn't a problem.

They all put twenty-four dollars on the table, Eric collecting the cash into a fairly large pile, then handing it to the waitress when she came over. Thanking her, they headed outside. "It's been a lot of fun, everyone," Taylor announced, pleased and happy. Similar sentiments echoed around the street from the others. It was nearly midnight and there were far fewer people around now than when they'd arrived.

"We really should do this again soon," Mandy replied, smiling, as they headed back in the direction of the main plaza area. "I've had a lot of fun tonight."

"I think we all have," Rich agreed.

Arriving at the large multi-story car park at the end of the pedestrian zone, Mandy looked around, then pointed to a car waiting beside the curb. "There's my mom. I'll see you guys later. Come on, Lucy, let's go." She and the other girl left with a wave. Taylor waved back, then turned to the remaining five people.

"I'm heading this way, so I'll see you in school on Monday," she said, smiling at the others, before walking off. A chorus of goodbyes came from behind her. When she'd gone a couple of blocks away, she checked around her, then turned into an alleyway she knew led to a smaller one that was very dark and had no cameras. Sniffing carefully she assured herself it was empty of witnesses.

Thirty seconds later, Saurial was bounding over the rooftops of the buildings towards the bay.

* * *

' _I love swimming,_ ' Taylor smiled to herself, propelling herself through the dark water with slow sweeps of her tail. She was only about half the size currently than she had been when she'd played with the tanker the first time, fifty feet under the surface and headed towards it, in no great hurry. ' _Although I think that PE class would be a bit shocked if I did it like this_.'

" _I don't think we'd fit in the pool, Brain,_ " the Varga chuckled.

Hearing a boat in the distance, she slowed, looking around and up. It sounded familiar. After a moment, she recognized the distinct chugging sound, and the faint clatter of some mechanical part wearing, both accompanied by a high pitched ping she realized must be some sort of little sonar device for looking for fish. It was the same small fishing boat that had been pootling around the bay the first time.

She grinned. ' _I really shouldn't do this_ ,' she thought to the Varga as she turned back toward the sound and resumed swimming, carefully growing a little until she was up to tanker-moving size. Slowing again, just under the surface, she thought for a moment, then popped her eyes above the water and checked around. Nothing anywhere within a couple of miles except for that one little boat. And it was an overcast night, no moon and only the glow of the city off the clouds lighting the water. It should be just enough…

* * *

 _  
beep beep beep_

Erwin froze.

After a moment, he looked to his right at the fish finder. It was showing something very big slowly approaching from the direction of the open ocean.

"Not again," he moaned. He'd only just managed to persuade himself that it was safe to go out on the water once more after over a week and nearly a complete bottle of brandy.

Throttling back he moved to check the display, then looked out the cabin windows. He couldn't see anything. "Not that I feel any better about that," he muttered to himself. Going out onto the rear deck, he looked behind the boat, not seeing anything there either.

"Damn thing must be malfunctioning," he finally decided out loud. "I'll have to get a new one." Shaking his head he turned to go back to the wheel. "Sea monsters. The lads are right, I'm seeing thing..." His irritated mumbling died as he watched an endless row of almost black scales, glistening with seawater, part the waves thirty feet away. The thing slowly slid past soundlessly, taking far, far longer to finally disappear than he was even slightly happy about. It must have been well over a hundred feet long and he'd seen neither head or tail, only what seemed to be a back.

"Oh, Christ," he finally said in a horrified whisper, moving to the side and looking frantically around for any signs of whatever it was.

"Hey, is this Brockton Bay?" An incredibly deep female voice that he felt in his bones spoke from the other side of the boat, behind him.

Erwin froze.

Again.

Very slowly, he turned his head, stared in shock, then looked up.

And up.

And up.

Thirty feet over his head, something looked back.

Great glowing yellow-orange eyes the size of garbage can lids looked down at him, on either side of a head nearly as big as his boat, from what he could see of it in the dark. The reflected sky glow from the city in the distance lit the thing just enough that he could get a horribly accurate idea of how fucking enormous the creature actually was.

Assuming it was standing on the bottom, which he knew was around fifty or sixty feet deep around here, it must have been well over eighty feet tall. God knows how much tail was behind it, but he could see a curve of scaled flesh breaking the water some distance away like a small reef.

After a very long, nearly zen-like pause, he nodded a little. Raising a hand he pointed.

"It's just over there."

She looked over her shoulder. "Oh, right, thanks very much. I was hoping I'd found the right place. Just looking for my little sister. I know she wanted to come and play with the ships and she said this place was a good one to explore." Turning back to him, the huge creature nodded politely.

"Thank you. Have a nice night." It sank out of sight, almost without noise, only a small splash sounding as the water closed over her head a second later. A ripple in the water moved away rapidly, heading towards the city and slowly fading.

Erwin watched for some time, then very slowly went back into his cabin, throttling up and turning the wheel. He decided he was going to stay out here for a while, perhaps the world would make sense if he didn't think about things for a couple of hours. Not to mention that if _that_ thing was going to the city, _he_ was going in the other direction.

A beer or two might help as well, luckily he'd brought some with him.

He did, however, reach over and turn the fish finder off with a trembling hand first.

* * *

Giggling to herself Taylor submerged and headed back towards the city, then turned towards the deeper channel when she heard the fish finder stop chirping. Making a long slow sweep to the left she headed out to sea again, passing under the tanker along the channel and taking mental notes of the silted up places to deal with later.

' _That was really funny,_ ' she snickered to her companion, who was laughing quite hard. ' _Poor guy. I couldn't resist, but it was a little mean_.'

" _I'm sure he'll recover and it will undoubtedly add to the legend of the family of reptiles living in the water around the city,_ " the Varga chortled. He was vastly amused by the entire thing.

Both of them laughed, as she slowly headed down the shallow slope of the sea bed outside the bay, aiming for deeper water a few miles out. Reaching it she turned more or less east and sped up, increasing in size to around two hundred feet from nose to tail. While she swam they experimented with the aquatic form, streamlining it more and making the tail a larger part of the whole, until she looked more like a lizard crossed with an eel on a truly vast scale.

The improvements allowed for much greater speed and shortly she was moving fast enough that she could feel bubbles across her snout and head, as the water was violently pushed out of the way. She remembered it was called cavitation, the water locally turning to vapor due to the lowered pressure caused by the rapid motion. Tweaking the shape of her head the Varga managed to reduce it significantly, and as she went deeper and the pressure increased it stopped for a while.

Increasing speed again, though, brought it back. The bubbles imploding down her neck as they reverted to liquid caused a tickling sensation that wasn't unpleasant at all, although a little odd.

" _I have an idea, Brain,_ " the Varga said suddenly. " _I notice that as these bubbles form they reduce the effort needed to move through the water. I suspect that if we could create a bubble large enough to cover most of your body while leaving enough tail outside it to propel us, you could go much faster._ "

' _Can we do that?_ ' she asked, intrigued.

" _I can manifest air in a thin layer surrounding you, it shouldn't take very much, and if it's made to last only a second or so there won't be any bubbles on the surface to give away our position. Do you want to try it?_ "

' _Why not?_ ' she asked with an inner grin. ' _Go for it. Let's see how fast I can really go_.'

" _All right. Hold on, I need to think of the best way..._ " He fell silent for a few seconds. " _Ah. I think this will work._ "

Taylor felt a thin layer of air suddenly separate her body from the water over about eighty percent of the forward portion, and at the same time she shot forwards fast enough that she was taken by surprise. ' _Wow! That's incredible!_ ' They were moving at least twice as fast as before and it was, oddly enough, taking less effort.

Fiddling with the shape of the bubble the Varga finally professed himself satisfied. " _I can't seem to improve it much more, but I'll keep thinking about it,_ " he announced.

' _This is still amazing_ ,' she replied happily. She had no idea how fast she was moving, but it was _fast_. Much faster than she could normally swim and even that was pretty damn quick. Putting a little more effort into it she found the optimum ratio of effort in to result out and leveled off there, descending to follow the sea bed at perhaps a hundred feet or so. She could feel a pressure wave reflecting off it and back up, disturbing the silt. ' _Oops. That's going to leave a mark_ ,' she commented.

" _We should probably not do this too close to home or it will leave a very obvious trail,_ " the Varga said.

' _Or stay shallower,_ ' she suggested.

" _Possibly, but eventually there will be a very significant wake that will attract even more attention._ "

' _True enough. Oh well, we can slow down for the last twenty miles or so then make a sharp turn, that should throw anyone off for a while._ ' Pleased with the results of the experimentation, Taylor kept swimming.

Some time later she wondered how far they'd come. She knew from her recent research that the edge of the continental shelf was at least two hundred miles out but she was starting to find much deeper water, which confused her a little. Surely she couldn't have reached that far already?

' _I think I need to go up and use the GPS_ ,' she finally said, as the bottom began to drop away quite quickly. Slowing to a near halt she felt the bubble of Varga-created air vanish, then she began to rise, shrinking in the process so when she reached the surface she was only about ten feet long or so. Regrowing her arms which they'd shrunk and streamlined so they didn't get in the way, she reached for the necklace of Vargastuff that supported a series of pouches of the same material containing her phones, the GPS unit, her wallet, and a few other things that she didn't want getting wet. The Varga was managing the size of the necklace as she changed to keep it the right dimensions. It had seemed the easiest way to keep everything safe.

The GPS unit dropped into her hand as the pouch containing it vanished, and she pressed the power button, hearing a beep. Shortly it lit up, the screen telling her it was looking for a fix, which didn't take long. She stared at the display in shock.

"Holy… I knew I was moving quickly but that's _ridiculous!_ "

The map and coordinates showed that she was about thirty five miles south of a location marked as the LaHave Bank, putting her just off the edge of the continental shelf and nearly three hundred and forty miles from Brockton Bay. It had taken about an hour and a half to reach this point, which meant she had covered the majority of the distance at close to two hundred and fifty miles an hour, or possibly more considering the time spent experimenting. "How the hell are we that quick? I've never heard of a machine that can go that fast under water."

" _The air bubble seems to be far more effective than I expected, Brain,_ " the Varga said with a certain amount of amazement in his voice. " _Fascinating. And very useful._ "

"I'll say. I can make it much further north and still get back before tomorrow night now," she smiled. "It's not too difficult, I could keep that up for hours." Wondering if she could visit England some time and finding the idea of casually swimming across the Atlantic wildly amusing, she worked out the right direction, then put the GPS away without turning it off so it could get a fix faster the next time.

' _We can definitely find somewhere a hell of a long way from anyone now if we go up past New Brunswick. Maybe the coast of Quebec or Labrador_ ,' she said as she submerged again, swinging around to head north-east on a course that should miss Nova Scotia completely. ' _Almost everything up there within twenty or thirty miles of the shore got washed away, there shouldn't be any people at all._ ' Trying to picture the map in her head, she remembered there were lots of little islands around that part of the world. ' _No one will miss one_ ,' she grinned, speeding up and zipping through the deep water in her bubble of air.

* * *

"Colin?"

"Yes, Dragon?" he asked, turning to the monitor on which the face of his best friend was displayed. She looked concerned and confused.

"There's something… odd… going on."

"What is it?"

"I have no idea." She sent an image to another one of his monitors, which he studied closely. "The SOSUS network is detecting something deep underwater off the East Coast moving at extreme speed in a generally northward direction, although it started off heading east from somewhere about fifty miles outside Brockton Bay, to the north. The location is rather vague, it seems to have been speeding up and slowing down for a while, before it headed straight out to sea and accelerated to over two hundred and sixty miles an hour. It stayed on that course for just over an hour, going dead straight at depth, then vanished again. A few minutes later, here, out past the continental shelf, it reappeared a few miles away and headed north east, even faster, following the continental shelf about three thousand feet down. When it got to roughly the fifty-ninth parallel it disappeared again, then reappeared heading due north. It vanished for the last time about fifteen miles off the coast of Quebec."

Rather pale, he asked the first question that jumped to his mind, somewhat horrifyingly. "Leviathan?" The Endbringer was the only thing he could think of that was that quick under water. He relaxed a lot when she shook her head.

"No, he's in the South Pacific near Christmas Island at the moment, still on the bottom. More or less on the exact opposite side of the planet." She seemed somewhat puzzled about it. "He's been hanging around that general area for weeks."

"Odd. Perhaps it's a submarine?" he suggested, watching as she drew the course the mystery object had taken, seeing it went past the end of Cape Breton Island and right over the sunken ruins of Newfoundland.

"I don't know, but I certainly am not aware of any sub that can cruise at close to three hundred miles an hour, three thousand feet down. I can't make anything except a supercavitating torpedo that could reach those velocities and certainly not sustain them for hours."

"It's not an easy feat, definitely," he mused. "I suppose some Tinker might have managed it, though."

A sudden horrible thought crossed his mind. "Another Endbringer?" He paled again at the idea.

Dragon was silent for a moment. "I thought of the same thing," she admitted. "But there's no evidence for it right now. Only the sounds of something moving much faster underwater than anything but Leviathan can manage, and nothing much else. I can't get size or shape, only a direction and approximate speed. The network isn't designed for more than that. I've upgraded as much of it as I can but there are still gaps even now, it's a work in progress. The end of the Cold War meant a lot of the original network was removed. Ironically, fifty years ago I could have given you a much better idea of what it was and where it was."

"It's irritating but I know you're doing your best," he said absently, still studying the map and therefor missing the smile she cast at him, one of great fondness. "Very strange. And somewhat concerning. How have those underwater drones come along?"

"I've nearly finished two, and have two more in production," she commented. "I can get the first one operational in a few hours if I push it, and it will take about three hours to get it out to you."

"I think we need to send something down to see if we can spot anything odd out there," he replied, scratching the side of his nose thoughtfully. "It might be an idea to send it to where this thing actually went first, rather than to where it _was_. Unless it comes back down here I'm more interested in what's happening in Quebec right now."

"OK, that's a good idea," she nodded. "I'll get this one working and send it over, then link the feed to your lab. I'm very curious as well. Hopefully it's not dangerous, or at least, hostile."

"It's probably one of Raptaur's siblings," he noted. She stared at him for a moment.

"Colin? Was that… A joke?" She looked shocked. Slightly embarrassed, he nodded.

"Did it work?"

"Actually, yes, it did. There's hope for you yet," she laughed. "I'll be in touch in about three hours."

"All right. Thank you for telling me," he nodded, smiling a little. When the image of the other Tinker vanished, he made some notes, then switched his concentration back to designing the worlds most lethal shotgun.


	36. Hammers and Islands

**Sunday, February 6, 2011**

Floating in shallow water a few miles from the Quebec coast, Taylor looked north. The night was clear this far north, also much colder not that it made any real difference to her, and as a result the stars were blazing overhead to an extraordinary level in the still air. Toward the Arctic she could see a wall of green and red light flickering and waving like a curtain, a sight that had enthralled her for nearly fifteen minutes. She'd never seen the northern lights before, but since her merger with the Varga granted her such remarkable senses, they presented an even more spectacular vision than she'd seen in photos.

"That's absolutely incredible," she murmured, looking up at the light field. Her electrical vision showed even more structure to the sight than normal sight did, producing something she could spend hours staring at.

" _It is amazingly beautiful,_ " the Varga commented softly, also fascinated by the sight. _"I have never seen an aurora so bright. My original world had them, of course, but they were a poor second to this._ "

After another five minutes or so, she blinked and shook her head, then peered around. There was more than enough light to make the entire scene visible to her eyesight almost as brightly as noon daylight. In the distance she could see the coastline, while closer to her there were dozens of islands ranging from small piles of rocks to fairly large ones several miles long. She remembered from Geography that the north side of the Gulf of Saint Lawrence, where she was, consisted entirely of the province of Quebec, and had a truly stunning number of lakes and islands.

Before Leviathan it had been sparsely populated although it had a lot of fishing and hunting lodges and the like, and a few small towns, but the climate was so bad so much of the year that relatively few people lived there all year round. After Leviathan, no one did, the inhabited places were all within the range of the coast that was dramatically affected by the sinking of Newfoundland and had all been completely wiped out.

One interesting side effect of that was that the seasonal ice cover of the Gulf had changed enormously due to shifting currents and undersea topography. Twenty years ago, where she was floating would be engulfed in ice, as would almost the entirety of the Gulf. Now, though, while there were a lot of icebergs floating around and a rim of ice extended a mile or so from the shore, most of the water was open and empty. She vaguely thought it was mostly due to a part of the Gulf Stream that had ended up flowing more north and closer to the shore, warming the shallow water by several degrees.

Idly swimming closer to one house-sized block of ice, she prodded it curiously. Several hundred tons of frozen water bobbed like a cork.

The water here was very shallow, only about fifty feet or so, although it dropped off quite a lot not too far away. She'd slowed to a gentle cruise some miles out when the water depth reduced below the level either of them felt was a safe one for the very high speed travel method they'd semi-accidentally invented, resuming normal swimming velocities. That was still a high speed in nautical terms, but not a ludicrous one.

Flowing smoothly from the optimized sea serpent long range swimming form into the aquatic combat one, at the same eighty-some foot height she'd decided on as the right one for ' _Kaiju_ ', she put her feet on the bottom and stood erect, the water only coming up to her waist area at most. The sea bed here was silt over rock, only a few feet deep. Reaching out she grabbed the iceberg with both hands and lifted, smiling when she found it easy. The thing wasn't all that heavy but it was bulky for the weight.

Balancing it on one hand she looked at it. Thirty feet or so across and perhaps forty high, it was a very rough cube in shape, making her snicker as she tried to picture how large a glass she'd need for it to be suitable. Shaking her head with amusement she tossed it over her shoulder, the huge lump of ice arcing through the air and splashing down a few hundred yards away, disturbing the otherwise flat calm water.

"Amusing, but not what we're here for," she commented to her companion.

" _No, not really,_ " the demon agreed. " _What would you like to try first?_ "

Taylor thought for a moment, then replied, "Let's find a little island that no one will miss and try the blast voice on it. I want to get a feel for how controllable it is before I risk using it around people."

" _All right, that's reasonable, Brain,_ " he told her. " _I can control it well, in fact, but there is a certain minimum amount of destruction which is inevitable. At maximum power the amount of matter which will be annihilated is considerable, so I wouldn't recommend using it unless you genuinely need to remodel the landscape wholesale._ " He snickered as she sighed.

"When am I ever going to need to do _that_?" she asked as she sank back into the water and started slowly swimming up the coast on the surface, keeping an eye open for good targets.

" _I have no idea. Perhaps you might need to clear a troublesome mountain out of the way? Or dig very large holes._ " He seemed very amused.

"Maybe. Let's put that on the back burner for looking at later, shall we?" she laughed. "Hey, what about that one?" She stopped, pointing at a small islet half a mile away that was perhaps a hundred and fifty feet across and about a hundred feet high in the middle, a jagged spire of dark rock sticking out of the water with small ripples of waves breaking on it.

" _It should suffice, yes,_ " the Varga agreed. " _If you're concerned about bird life perhaps you should hit it a few times to make any of them that are there fly away._ "

"Too early in the year for them to be breeding but that's a good idea," she commented, altering course and heading for the islet. When she reached it she stood up, finding the water around it was about sixty feet deep, then produced a suitably scaled warhammer with a handle nearly fifty feet long and swung it.

Too hard, as it turned out.

There was a huge rending crash, a shock wave rippled out across the water, and the majority of the rocky islet crumbled to fragments, sliding into the ocean. Some of it where she'd hit vanished into powder with a visible flash of heat, while shrapnel flew far out over the sea, even reaching the coast a couple of miles away.

"Oops," she muttered, embarrassed, as they watched the tire-sized lumps of rock splash down near the shore. The Varga was laughing so hard he couldn't speak. "I forgot to allow for the larger size." She inspected the hammer with awe. "That was incredible. I hit it hard enough to make a flash from the kinetic energy and I wasn't even really trying."

" _Find a bigger one and do it again,_ " he suggested when he stopped laughing. " _That was very funny._ "

Looking around she located a slightly larger islet fairly close and waded over, the water getting shallower until it was only up to her knees, about twenty feet deep. Eyeing up the hundred-yard wide block of rock, which still showed signs of scouring from a vast wave in the fairly recent past, she aimed and swung, much harder this time.

The noise that resulted was astounding, a thunderous _**crack**_ coming from the hammer as it broke the sound barrier, then an enormous boom when it impacted the rock. It was a genuine explosion, the area around her hammer simply vanishing with a bright flash while most of the remainder of the rocky outcrop turned to gravel. A huge cloud of dust enveloped her, making her blink in shock, while a large circular wave spread out from the impact site, racing off across the water. "Holy shit." She stared at the hammer again. "That's horrifying. It's just a hammer, for god's sake!"

" _It is an_ _ **extremely**_ _heavy hammer and you have an enormous mechanical advantage, Brain,_ " the Varga reminded her. " _You can work out the energy involved yourself, you learned the formula required at school. Assume it's moving at, hmm, roughly three times the speed of sound, I'd think, based on the handle length. Call it a thousand meters per second_."

Remembering the equation for kinetic energy and working it out in metric units as physics required, she pondered the problem. "OK. Leet came up with about seventy grams per cubic centimeter for the density of Vargastuff. That sounds insane but I think he's right. The head is… maybe twelve feet long by three square." She examined the thing closely then nodded. "So about four meters by one by one, which gives four million cubic centimeters. Times seventy grams per cc, that's… two hundred and eighty tons. Plus the handle, so call it three hundred."

" _Plausible,_ " the Varga commented, listening to her working it out with an air of amusement.

"Kinetic energy is one half mass times the square of the velocity. Which is three hundred thousand kilograms times one million, all divided by two."

The calculation was easy, but the result was preposterous. "One hundred and fifty gigajoules of energy!? Holy shit, that's just silly!" Taylor stared at the thing in her hand with shock. Remembering another figure she'd read once in an encyclopedia, she worked the calculation in her head. "About the equivalent of thirty-five tons of TNT, I think."

" _All applied in a small area. I'm not surprised the island crumbled like that. This rock is hard but brittle._ " The demon sounded pleased. " _Think how much energy it would release if I converted the mass back to the correct level at the moment of impact._ "

She did, then nearly fell over.

" _Admittedly I can't convert that amount, as I explained, but I could do a thin layer on the face of the hammer. That would be probably around twenty five million tons or so._ "

"Which gives an energy release of… nearly _six_ _megatons_?" Taylor's voice was a squeak, as much as it could be at her current size. "Oh, my _**god**_. That's horrifying." The idea that she could, at least in theory, hit things hard enough to release as much energy as a fairly big nuke made her suddenly realize she needed to be _extremely_ cautious how far she took it. "Could you actually _do_ that?"

" _I think so, yes,_ " he mused. " _It would take careful timing and considerable effort but I believe I could probably work out how to switch the mass on and off when required. There are some interesting possibilities there_."

"Assuming I need to throw something into orbit, yes," she replied faintly. He snickered to himself while she tried to recover, which took a while.

"Let's not do that right now," she finally said, vanishing the hammer. "I'd want to be a lot further from civilization than we are now before I make a Hammer of Ultimate Destruction. Could we even survive using it?"

" _Yes, although I think we'd probably get thrown quite a long way by the shockwave,_ " the great demon thoughtfully replied. " _At this size, at any rate. I would advise against such techniques when human sized, you get much tougher as you get bigger. I doubt it would actually kill you but you wouldn't enjoy the experience very much_."

"Good advice," she remarked, shaking her head. "Anyway, this one is ruined now as well. Let's go and find something bigger."

She pushed off again, heading up the coast, leaving the remains of two small innocent islands gently slumping into the icy water behind her.

* * *

"Something just happened," Dragon's voice came suddenly, making Colin twitch despite himself because he was so involved in working some very complex calculations in his head, then checking the results with the computer. He looked over at the monitor.

"What is it?" he asked.

"A satellite picked up a thermal bloom consistent with a very large explosion off the south coast of Quebec, approximately in the area where our mystery object ended up." Colin watched the monitor as she put up a map showing the general location of the blast, then on another one, a thermal image that showed an expanding cloud of hot gas and shrapnel.

"Around here, in the general area of the Archipel de Sainte Marie, or perhaps a little further out from the coast. The satellite was almost on the horizon and descending so the angle was very bad, it makes localizing it any better difficult. But that said there is no cloud cover at all right now so the view was surprisingly good. Estimated yield was better than thirty tons TNT equivalent. No radiation signature, exotic particles, anything like that, just a massive blast of heat. It looks like a very big chemical explosion."

"A weapons test?" he asked, rubbing his chin as he examined the data, then played the video again, frame by frame. "It looks like a small point source, but that yield is extremely large for something like a torpedo."

"I would guess that to be the case but I can't say for sure," she admitted with a frown. "The next satellite to pass over close enough to see anything useful with the right instrumentation won't be for several hours. Whoever it is picked the location carefully, as well as the time, there are very few viable satellites due to overfly that area tonight."

"Implying a good knowledge of our surveillance capabilities, which is somewhat worrying," he noted. She nodded.

"That seems to be true. This is getting stranger by the minute."

He sighed minutely. "Oh well, there's not much we can do until you have the probe ready."

"It's got about an hour of work then some functional tests to do, but I'm going as fast as I can. As soon as it's working I'll load it onto a transonic transporter and send it there as fast as possible."

"All right, thank you for the status update."

"I'll be in touch soon, Colin," she smiled.

"Thank you, Dragon," he replied, a very small smile on his own lips, following which she disappeared and he resumed work.

* * *

" _That looks suitable,_ " the Varga commented, as Taylor fixed her gaze on another small island half a mile off shore, in rather deeper water than average around those parts. It was perhaps twice the size of the one she'd blown up with the hammer, rising almost vertically out of the water. Looking carefully at it she couldn't see any signs of life at all, it was just a black craggy rock.

"OK. What do I do?" she asked, stopping and allowing herself to sink to the bottom, which left her head out of the water but not much else.

" _Just tell me, and I'll do the transformation into, as you once put it, a fully functional Varga. Then you can behold the power._ " The demon sniggered as she sighed.

"Idiot. Get on with it."

" _As you wish._ "

A moment later, she found herself looking down on the island from a vantage point far above the water, abruptly enough that she blinked. A sensation of immense raw energy went through her, far more than she expected, as the Varga crowed triumphantly, " _ **Finally!**_ "

He sounded ecstatic.

" _I've missed this, Brain,_ " he added in a lower voice, still sounding very happy.

Taylor looked down, then around, more than a little surprised even though she knew what to expect. This was quite different from her normal transformation.

Raising her normal human hands in front of her normal human face she inspected them curiously, then raised the Varga hands, much lower down. It was an odd sensation. She turned her human head, then the huge reptilian one she was fused to between the eyes on top. Feeling around where her rear end was growing from the scales she looked down with interest, then wiggled her legs as much as she could. She was basically in a sitting down position with her knees drawn up a little, her legs from the ankle up coming out of the Varga's flesh but her feet below the surface.

She was wearing her Saurial costume, suitably modified, so modesty was satisfied, but it was quite peculiar being mostly human but stuck in place like this. Even so, she could still use the rest of the Varga's body as if it was her own, which of course, it actually was. Even moving her limbs independently, waving her hands while crossing the Varga arms across her chest, proved simple, no more difficult than dealing with the six limbed combat form which was really just a modification of this one.

The hardest thing to get used to was the very strange double-vision effect from basically having four eyes, two mounted considerably higher that the other two, which were vast by comparison.

"This is really weird," she complained, making her companion laugh.

Out loud, which was the first time she'd heard him speak with her own ears.

"it is very nice to meet you like this, finally, Brain," he rumbled in a sub-bass voice, using his mouth. She could feel it moving but she wasn't doing it.

"That's even weirder," she added, laughing herself.

The immense reptilian form below her moved without her willing it, making her yelp for a moment until she got used to it, shifting around in the water which was now only up to their ankles at most. She tilted their head and looked down with her human eyes, trying to work out how high she was.

"Good grief, we're _huge!_ " she whispered in shock. "That's at _least_ two hundred and fifty feet to the water, maybe even three hundred or more. How the hell long are we?" She looked over her shoulder, moving their tail around. "Five hundred feet at least. We're nearly as big as that tanker!"

"I am a little surprised myself, actually," the Varga noted. "This is definitely larger than even the Dark Varga, and quite a lot larger than the form my previous Brain enjoyed. The amount of energy I absorbed was more than I realized and we have access to all of it. Interesting."

"I like being able to talk to you out loud, Varga," she smiled. An immense scaled hand came into view, one finger extending while the others folded back, as the Varga reached up. She put her hand on the extreme tip of the fifteen foot long talon and stroked it. "I like having you in my head but I always wanted to meet you in the flesh. So to speak."

"It is nice to do the same," he laughed, the rumbles of his voice making the water below them ripple. "You are an exceptionally good Brain and a very good friend, Taylor Hebert."

She grinned. "That's the first time you've ever said my name, Varga."

"Protocols must be observed but exceptions can be made on occasion," he replied with a laugh in his voice. "Now, shall we experiment?"

"Lets," she giggled. Pointing with her human arm, she indicated the distant target. "You may fire when ready, Mr Varga."

"By your command," he snickered, then opened the enormous jaws widely. She felt them gape to the point that they could have easily swallowed a bus whole. A strange cold heat, a contradiction if ever she'd heard one, build up in their throat for a moment, then the Varga _**ROARED**_.

The sound was unbelievable, a deafening shriek like steam escaping from a boiler on a massive scale overlaid with a thrumming noise akin to a huge overloaded transformer. A barely visible beam of distortion was emitted in a straight line, right through the center of the small island they had marked down for an early grave.

It instantly vanished.

A huge semicircular gouge was cut into the water as far as she could see, the island at the near end of it disappearing right down to the sea bed and beyond. The Varga immediately stopped producing the Blast Voice effect, the gap in the water remaining for fractions of a second before with a roar of its own the sea flowed back to reclaim the briefly exposed land, the waters slamming together in a hundred yard tall linear spout down the middle of the beam path. Shock waves whooshed out to either side in a line, the one heading towards the coast reaching it under a second later and converting into a small tsunami which climbed the edge of the fifty foot cliff almost to the top.

When the echoes finally died away, there was dead silence for quite a while.

"Oops," the basso voice eventually said from below her, sounding embarrassed.

She stared at the place the island had been, then down at the surface her human body was sprouting from. "Oops?" she yelled, hitting him with a fist. " _Oops!?_ " She punched the Varga's immense head once more, with no effect on either of them, but it made her feel better. "That's _my_ line you ancient overgrown reptile! You're thousands of years old, you should know your own abilities by now. What the fuck was _that?_ I thought we were going for low power to start with."

"I was," he said in a bemused voice. "I somehow neglected to adjust for the excess energy since I last did this. The restrictions that were unlocked by the greater power who merged us had a more profound effect than I expected."

"Oh." Taylor was quiet for a moment. "OK. I guess that excuses it. Can you perhaps compensate better on the next shot? We don't need to go full power like that right now."

The chuckles that shook their body made her wince a little. She had a feeling what he was going to say.

"Full power? _That_ wasn't _full power_."

"Oh, hell," she sighed. She'd been right. "I have a horrible idea I'm going to regret asking, but on a scale of one to a hundred, where were you?"

An enormous hand came up and rocked from side to side for a moment. "Fifteen, maybe eighteen, or thereabouts?"

"Fuck."

They were both silent for a few seconds. "When they came up with the idea of an S class threat, the PRT didn't have a clue about demons, did they?"

"Most likely not," he replied with a small laugh. "Shall we try again?"

"Yes, but this time try to keep the power down to ' _blow up rock_ ' rather than ' _vaporize small planet_ ', will you?" she asked somewhat sarcastically. Their body shrugged slightly. "Thanks."

The Varga took charge, walking towards the next small island, while Taylor looked around. "It was such a pretty bay once," she lamented jokingly. "By the time we're done there won't be any islands left."

"They're trip hazards," he noted with a chuckle, stepping on a rock outcropping that stuck twenty feet out of the water, a nearly round low flat islet. There was a crunching sound and the thing crumbled under their weight. "And none too well made."

"I'm sure the Canadians will be grateful for us removing them in that case," she giggled. Pointing, she added, "Do that one over there."

"All right." Turning to the right the Varga aimed and repeated the process. The roar was somewhat quieter this time, the nearly invisible beam of annihilation spearing out and punching a neat round hole a hundred feet across through the center of the rocky island, which was about two hundred feet high and twice that across. Taylor smiled.

"That's more like it."

"Would you like a go?" he asked.

"Definitely." She grinned as he showed her the mental process for emitting the Blast Voice. She took command of their shared body and did as instructed, smiling when another hole appeared. Trying again she swept the beam sideways and erased everything above the waterline from existence in seconds. "That's unbelievable," she remarked. "And hardly any damage past it."

"You wouldn't want to be standing directly behind the target, but it looks like the effect only goes about a quarter of a mile beyond what we're aiming at," he agreed. "We should work on that, it might be needed one day and if we wipe out an entire town when we're aiming at a close target we're unlikely to be thanked for it."

"All too true," she sighed sadly, shaking their reptilian head. "People can be so ungrateful."

An hour later they'd blown holes of various sizes in a dozen small rock islands, managing to tweak the power output to the point only a hundred foot diameter zone was obliterated at minimum levels. Wading knee-deep in the eighty foot deep water they'd ended up in, she headed up the coast in a generally northward direction, looking for more targets.

"Hey, I have a couple of questions about this form," she began after they'd been moving for a few minutes.

"Go on," he replied.

"OK, in full Varga form, am I always going to be sat up here like this? Not that it doesn't give a good view, but it looks weird. People can see what I look like as well."

"We can apply the same sort of change to your human body as normal, Brain, so you can look like almost anything you wish. This is merely the default form, so to speak. In effect, the Varga body is your tail, just expanded out to the full size."

"Oh." She thought, then tried a change. Shortly she was sitting in place as Saurial. Taylor inspected herself with a grin. "Weird. But that's only part of the question."

"It is unusual, as in no previous brain has ever asked, but I think it's possible to absorb your human body fully into the Varga one. Let me think for a moment." He fell silent as she piloted their body steadily north, moving at an easy stride, which was at least fifty miles an hour due to the length of their legs. She needed a picture taken from a distance, but she thought from what she could see of them they looked very much like the movie Godzilla that she'd used as an example for her father, only larger. There were even spinal plates running down their back and tail, which looked pretty cool as far as she was concerned.

The Varga body was much more solidly built than her combat form one, so she suspected their weight was on the high side of the figure that her father had come up with during their experiments. The way the little islands they occasionally stepped on turned to gravel backed this up.

"Ah. I think I have it," the demon finally said, sounding pleased. "This should work." A sensation much like the one she was now very used to went through her human body and a second later she was only looking through one pair of eyes. Stopping mid stride, she blinked a few times, then ran her hands over her head, feeling only scales. " _Good, it seems to have worked as I hoped. Interesting, I've never thought of doing that before._ "

His voice was back to a mental one, she noticed. ' _Can you still take control?_ '

 _"If you let me, yes,_ " he replied. She relaxed and allowed the Varga to drive for a while, which he immediately did. It was more than a little strange, stranger than sitting on top of a moving body, feeling what she thought of as her arms and legs moving without conscious input. That said it was weirdly relaxing.

' _Cool. That brings to mind the second question, actually. Can you do this if we're not full size?_ '

He was silent for a few seconds before replying. " _I'm not entirely certain what you mean, Brain._ "

' _I mean, could you take control of my normal body? Or the Saurial or Raptaur ones?_ '

After a moment, he shrugged slightly. " _I have to admit I don't know. I'm certain I couldn't force control, no, that is something the bargain will not allow. Whether a willing Brain could allow me to run the body, though, I have no idea. We would need to experiment._ " Falling silent for a second or two, he added, " _Why do you ask?_ "

' _I'm sort of feeling bad about you being trapped in here, with me doing everything. I know you're the body and I'm the brain but I thought you might like to do something yourself some time. Talk to Dad, have a nice meal, whatever. Go bowling, even._ '

The Varga chuckled. " _Demons are not known for their bowling skills. But it is an extremely generous offer. I will think about it. Thank you._ "

' _We're stuck with each other for a very long time_ ," she laughed. ' _I think it's important that we each have fun in the process._ '

 _"I'm actually having a lot of fun,_ " he assured her. " _You are, as I have said, a very good Brain and you have some fascinating problems and ideas._ "

' _Thanks. Hey, let's try something more powerful. There's quite a big island over there on the right, let's see if we can cut it in half_.' He looked towards the island in question, which was nearly a mile across, rising to perhaps two hundred feet in places, with a beach facing them, away from the mainland. It had obviously been inhabited at one point as there were a few outlines of ruined buildings but the tsunami from Newfoundland had wiped it clean down almost to bedrock.

" _All right._ " Turning slightly, he stopped, then aimed. Their mouth opened to emit the raging beam of destruction. She watched with interest as a massive semicircular path a hundred yards or more wide was scoured out of the island, right down the middle, leaving a clear path that showed the mainland beyond. It filled with water in a rush of foam, leaving a channel that you could probably get a boat through with a little care.

' _Wow_.'

" _Still not full power,_ " he chuckled.

' _Even more wow. I think we should probably not do anything much more spectacular, though, we're leaving some pretty amazing marks on the scenery as it is_.'

" _True. But there's no one around here to..._ " The Varga stopped mid word. He stared. So did she.

' _Except that guy,_ ' she commented weakly. ' _Oh, shit_.'

There was a tall man standing near the top of the blasted out channel gaping at it. He'd popped out of what they could now see was some sort of underground bunker or something like that near the highest point of the island, which the edge of the beam of destruction had neatly sliced in half. Wildly looking around the man seemed, not at all surprisingly, to be both horrified and furious.

' _Uh oh,_ ' Taylor muttered. ' _I_ _ **really**_ _hope no one was in the bit we vaporized_.'

" _That would be unfortunate._ " The Varga sounded guilty and worried. As they watched, a woman joined the man, who was wildly waving his arms and screaming with rage. " _They don't look like they're mourning comrades, though, they just look extremely angry,_ " he noted with slight hope in his voice.

' _I think we should probably get out of here_ ,' she said slowly, as the man ranted on. They could barely hear him against the light breeze, shouting about all the suits being gone and something about a laptop. ' _He looks annoyed. I think he might be a Tinker or something. We must have blown up his lab. I really hope he's not a member of the Guild._ '

He was now staring in their direction but she was fairly certain that he couldn't actually see them in the night, except possibly as a faint shadow. The Varga slowly backed away as nonchalantly as he could manage, hiding behind a smaller island to the east. He peeked over it, then asked, " _What's that?_ "  
 _  
'What?'_ she asked. He pointed, allowing her to work out what he was looking at.

High above, something with lights on was moving extremely quickly towards them from the west in a descending arc, aimed somewhere off to the south. It seemed to be going roughly in the direction they'd come from.

' _Crap. I think that's an aircraft or something. Maybe someone detected our experiments_ ,' she mumbled. ' _They were kind of loud. I didn't think about that_.'

" _I believe your idea of leaving has merit,_ " he remarked quietly, dropping back behind the island. They shrank back into the aquatic Kaiju form and slipped under the water, Taylor heading back to the south rapidly, although not at maximum speed yet. She swung out to the east to avoid the area they'd wrecked just in case someone was poking around there.

' _Except for that last bit, it worked out pretty well_ ,' she said with an internal smile. ' _All in all it's been a good night so far._ '

"I have to agree. And thank you again for allowing me out, while I enjoy working with you like this, it's nice to stretch sometimes," the Varga replied happily.

They swam on, passing to the east of the remains of Newfoundland and into deeper water, accelerating to flank speed in the process, both pleased with the outcome of the trip.


	37. Saint and Dragon

"How did you find this place, Geoff?"

He looked over at the sound of his name, smiling at the woman who spoke. "It was listed in an old database I hacked into a while ago. Some American survivalist kook built it in the seventies and eighties, he spend millions on the place. He picked this location because it was out of the way, far away from any targets of ICBMs like population centers or military bases, things like that. There are twenty rooms, a self contained power system with dual diesel generators backed with a huge uninterruptible power supply, dual air filtration systems, over a hundred thousand liters of both fuel and water, the whole deal. It was designed for a dozen people to live in completely cut off from the outside world for a decade. It's basically a government-spec nuclear bunker."

Pointing upwards he added, "Fifteen feet of ferroconcrete under thirty feet of granite. The walls are as thick, as is the floor. Practically impervious to anything but a direct hit. We're as safe in here as anywhere I can think of, especially since no one knows we're here in the first place. I erased all the records of this place a couple of years ago so no one else knows about it."

"What happened to the owner?"

"Leviathan, ironically enough, I think. He was last seen down at the docks unloading more supplies for the place when the tsunami hit. There were only two survivors from the island, one died later, the other one moved to New York, about a month before Behemoth. After that, there were only the records in that one old server and they're gone."

He smiled as she relaxed slightly. "We're safe, Mags. No one knows about this place except me, no one knows where we went. Narwhal nearly got us, and losing two of the new suits to her is a pain, but we can rebuild. There's a very well equipped workshop here which will let me repair the damage to the other units and possibly even make one or two more. All the equipment we salvaged is in the storage bays and I stocked up on a lot of things when I found this site, so there's more than enough food to keep us all going for months. Not even counting all the non-perishables the guy who built it left behind."

Extending his arms, he indicated the entire area. "We're the only people in a thousand miles. Dragon has no reason to look here, or the Guild, or the Protectorate. We can recover, rebuild, then begin our operations again. We'll beat it, trust me."

The woman looked relieved, sitting in one of the slightly dusty but high end office chairs that were scattered around the large room they were in, most of them still with the original plastic on. She looked around. "Well, it's a lot better than the last place, I have to admit. I'm looking forward to a hot shower for once." Smiling, she turned back to him. "Although the lack of windows is a shame. I'm starting to feel just the smallest amount closed in."

"We can go outside when there are no satellites passing," he assured her. "There's a gap coming up in a couple of hours, you can go and watch the Northern Lights. They're spectacular here. But it's fucking cold out there."

They both turned at the sound of a metallic clang, as a heavy hatch shut somewhere above them, which was followed by footsteps on the stairs to the next level up, descending towards them. The man that entered was slapping his hands together, looking chilly. "Big storm coming, I think," he announced. "It's very clear, but I heard thunder from the south."

"We're safe here, no storm is going to get through all that concrete and rock," Geoff laughed. "Let's clean up, have something to eat, then work out what we do next."

His companions nodded and went off to their quarters. After a moment, he left the room too, going in the other direction. Arriving at a very solid door with a wheel in the middle like a ship hatch, which it seemed to be based on, he spun the wheel several times, then pulled, the door swinging open without sound on well lubricated hinges. The very large room on the other side was bare concrete, not wood paneled like the rest of the bunker, and something like sixty feet by eighty with a nearly twenty foot ceiling.

At one end was a ramp that led up to a pair of horizontal sliding doors like those on a missile silo, which he knew were camouflaged on the outside to blend perfectly into the rocks. He'd looked for them from the other side and even knowing where they were it was almost impossible to see the seams. The builder of the bunker had been very paranoid, very rich, and very skilled.

He liked that.

Walking into the room he looked around.

In a row at one side of the room were three battle-scarred Dragon suits, mobile flying units he'd recovered from the AI Tinker known to the world as Dragon then modified for manual control. He moved over to inspect them again, running his fingers along a gash in the leg of one, shaking his head slightly. It was going to be tedious repairing the things but there were more than enough tools and materials here to do that.

Losing the reverse-engineered new suits he'd nearly finished making was a setback, definitely, but not a permanent one. The AI had no idea where they were, no one did, so they had time to work. Then they could contact the new recruits again and arm them, to take the fight to the enemy.

Satisfied for the moment, he walked across the machine bay to another, even heavier door set into the far wall, which had a combination keypad on it. Thinking for a moment he punched in a long sequence of numbers, then smiled when the lock beeped and clicked. Pulling the door open he entered what had been, and still was, the armory of this facility. A remarkably large range and quantity of weaponry was in racks on the walls and freestanding in the middle of the room, covering everything from handguns through various rifles and machine guns up to a number of six shot grenade launchers, several RPG launchers, and half a dozen MANPAD Stinger missiles.

Ammunition enough to fight a fairly convincing small war was in crates along the back of the room, all neatly labeled in a mix of English and Cyrillic, denoting the country of origin. None was newer than the attack on Newfoundland, obviously, as it had all been put in place before then. The bunker had been abandoned for years before he'd found out about it, then managed to hack his way through the surprisingly complex defense system and gain entry.

Picking one of the Stinger launchers off the wall he hefted it curiously, examining the simple controls, then put it back. Geoff didn't expect to need it any time soon but thought it would be a good idea to go through the manuals that were filed away on a small bookshelf on one side of the armory, over a workbench equipped with all the tools and equipment required to service the weapons.

The previous owner of the place had _really_ liked guns.

Walking over to that bench, he looked at the heavy duty armored case, about eighteen inches square and six thick, that was sitting innocently on it. A small label in one corner had an alphanumeric code put there by the designer, the long dead ' _father_ ' of the AI known as Dragon. Andrew Richter had died along with hundreds of thousands of other people when Leviathan sank Newfoundland, but his creation lived on.

"Unfortunately," Geoff sighed. Tapping a code into the lock pad on the top of the case with the ease of long practice, he opened it and stared at the oddly thick laptop computer sitting inside, the display opening as the lid of the box did. The keyboard had quite a number of extra special keys on it with cryptic ideograms on, the entire thing obviously not a commercial product. A window showing lines of rapidly scrolling text and numbers was open on the screen, next to a couple of other that had shifting diagrams.

All of that represented the inner working of the mind of Dragon. This was basically a remote access terminal to its hardware and software, an absolutely irreplaceable one-off machine that he could use but had no real understanding about the workings of. Even with the skills imparted to him by the Parahuman known as Teacher, now a resident of the Birdcage, it was far past him.

It was the weapon that would eventually defeat the threat to the world that Dragon represented.

His finger caressed the covered button safely off to one side of the keyboard, recessed into it with a key slot next to it, which if pressed would send the complex program known as ' _Ascalon_ ' directly to the innermost core of the AI, wiping it from existence.

"One day, but not yet," he murmured, pulling his hand back. Peering at the screen he frowned, deciphering the codes there to get an idea of what Dragon was thinking and doing.

It seemed to be frantically working on completing some form of underwater vehicle. Frowning, he wondered why, then yawned. It could wait until they had rested for a while. The close escape from the Guild led by Narwhal who had attacked them out of the blue, somehow having located their old base, had left them all exhausted.

Carefully closing the case he patted it as it re-locked with a clunk, then left the armory, locking that behind him as well. Shortly he was in his own quarters showering, looking forward to something to eat.

* * *

Colin turned around as he heard a familiar voice. "It's done," Dragon said, "I've tested it as much as I can without putting it in the water. It will work. I just loaded it onto the hypersonic transport craft and I'm en route right now. Flight time is one hour forty-three minutes."

"You're going personally?" Colin was surprised. "I thought you were planning on running it by remote."

"This is too important, and I'm curious," she smiled. "Weird things are still going on. Seismic monitors have registered some odd disturbances, some quite large. Not explosions, as such, but more like small earthquakes. They're slowly going up the coast towards a former settlement called Harrington Harbor, it seems to be in a direct line from where the first explosion was. No one lives within many hundreds of miles of that area, it's perfect for testing weapons. Whatever it is hasn't left yet."

"It may do by the time you get there," he cautioned.

"Of course. But even then there will be debris, residues from firings, various time sensitive evidence. I want to collect everything I can before it gets washed away."

She send him a file, which he looked at with interest. "I have no idea what caused this, for example. Look at that data! Like a perfectly straight fault line that opened simultaneously over the entire length of over six miles. But there are no faults there, it's a geologically very stable area. Whoever it is definitely did their homework. No risk of setting off an earthquake if something very destructive is used, no observers, almost no satellite coverage during the time period in question..."

"When is the next pass that will give us anything useful?"

"There's a visible light and IR earth observation satellite passing in about an hour and a half, then an old spy sat with a functional thermal camera something like twenty minutes later. Both of them are in awkward orbits and it's not sufficiently important to risk using limited propellant to redirect the spy sat, it's got almost nothing left in the station keeping tanks, but there will be about half an hour of overlap where I can use the combined data to get a pretty good view, unless it suddenly clouds over totally. But the weather forecast is for completely clear skies all night, so with a little luck we should be good."

She looked mildly annoyed. "It's a little irritating, but we're stuck with what we have available for the moment."

"True enough," he sighed.

"How is the weapon design coming?" she asked curiously.

"Overall, very well," he replied, brightening up. "I'm actually quite impressed. Leet, despite his character flaws which are numerous and deep, does do good work. He took the original designs from the Orion project from decades ago and converted the nuclear shaped charge into something more like an outsize shotgun shell. A tungsten casing, with a much thicker plate at the output end, the Saurialsteel flechettes partially embedded into it in a tightly packed mass. The fusion charge in the middle, then a channel filler material which is a mix of the originally suggested beryllium oxide and a substance he seems to have invented wholesale, which his notes suggest Saurial could produce. It absorbs the emitted X rays and gamma rays from the blast with nearly one hundred percent efficiency."

"Where would we find a fusion charge small enough?" she queried, looking at the specifications he sent her. "This calls for a yield of two kilotons, which is small for a nuke, true, but still quite a large device physically, and it needs to fit into a very small space."

"He designed one. The design isn't complete but it looks feasible. From what I can see it's something he abandoned some years ago." Colin sat back, shaking his head a little. "That man could be unbelievably dangerous. Having seen this I'm very glad he sticks to video game themed petty crime. It's only the odd limitation he seems to have of not being able to replicate his efforts that prevents him being a truly awesome Tinker. Even so some of what I've seen him produce is remarkable. That Tricorder of his is astounding in its capabilities."

"It would be a very interesting device to examine," Dragon noted, nodding.

"Fallout from the blast is an issue," Colin went on, going back to the weapon design. "But he even thought of a possible solution to that, at least in part. Have Saurial, or Raptaur, make the various components herself, using her matter generation ability, with a very short lifetime, just long enough to complete the task. He thinks that any created isotopes and radioactive material produced in the blast should then vanish when the time is up. It should reduce the aftereffects to a tolerable level."

Dragon looked surprised, then thoughtful. "That's an intriguing thought. Could either one of them do it, do you think?"

He shrugged. "I have no idea without talking to them and finding out what their limitations really are. Hopefully they'd tell us under the circumstances. All of this is moot unless they can come through, and are willing to do so. It hinges on Leet being correct that this material really is electron-degenerate matter as well." He picked up the cube of gray metal with the rope that was still attached. "My initial tests do seem to bear him out, remarkably enough. Nothing I have been able to do has so much as mark it. The strength, toughness, and hardness of this material are so high as to make it almost impossible to quantify in any meaningful manner. It would definitely survive a point-blank nuclear explosion, though."

"Unbelievable," she said in a low voice. "I wish I understood how they were able to produce it and make it stable."

Colin emitted a small sigh once more, putting the sample back down. "So do I. It might as well be magic for all the good my investigations have shown. But it's not actually important at the moment, all we need to know is whether they _can_ do it and _will_ do it."

"What muzzle velocity do your calculations show it would have?"

"Slightly indeterminate at the moment, there are a lot of variables that have never been properly explored since such a device couldn't be made by conventional techniques, but based on estimates for efficiency of conversion of X ray capture, heat transfer, kinetic energy transfer, and the focusing effect of the barrel, something over a hundred and fifty kilometers per second for the flechettes. Possibly considerably higher, unlikely to be more than ten percent lower."

Dragon looked both impressed and appalled. "That's higher than I expected."

"It's Leet's fusion package design, it should be much more efficient in this application than a fission weapon, which is what the original designs were based on, would be. But even so I still have a lot of work to do to simulate the thing accurately and come up with more precise figures. There are still some unknowns as well, such as heat radiation from the device, the truly incredible recoil, and a few other things. I'll keep you updated with my progress."

"Thank you. I've still got an hour and a half of flight time left, if you want to discuss it, call me."

"I will," he promised with a smile. She returned it, then went off line. Turning back to the desk he looked at the small unassuming block of metallic impossibility then shook his head, before pulling his keyboard towards himself and starting work once more.

* * *

Feeling a slight tremble through the floor, Geoff looked up, then stared suspiciously around. "What was that?" he asked. His two compatriots glanced over from where they were idly playing cards and eating snacks.

"Just the storm, Geoff, don't panic," the other man, Dobrynja, said while going back to his cards. "We're pretty high up here and it's a bad one. I've heard several like that even through all this rock. The sound of the wind is barely audible every now and then as well." A faint howling sound came and went. "Like that."

"Maybe I should check..." Geoff turned towards the door to the stairs.

"Go ahead, but if it's as bad as I think it is, you'll practically flood the place as soon as you open the hatch," his comrade warned. "Listen to it! I know this whole part of Canada gets horrific storms regularly, especially at this time of year. If I were you I'd sit down and finish your meal, then come and play cards with us."

Not entirely certain, but also not really wanting to get soaked, cold, and possibly blown away considering the access hatch was very exposed to the elements, Geoff dithered slightly, then sighed and relaxed. Another thrumming rumble, closer, made the entire place shiver slightly. "God, it sounds horrible out there, you're right," he muttered, picking up his fork again. "Hard to believe that wind alone could make rock shake like that."

Mags chuckled. "Believe it. I went through a hurricane in Barbados years ago and even in the basement of the hotel, the entire place was shaking like someone was bombing it. Hundred and fifty mile an hour winds do that. It's probably not that bad out there but I'm not going to look. It'll blow over sooner or later and it makes it even less likely that anyone could find us."

"True," he noted with a small smile. "When I've finished eating, I'm going to make a list of what we need to do over the next few days, but after than I'm going to bed. It's..." he checked his watch, "...four in the morning and I'm really tired."

"Just go to bed, you can do the list tomorrow," the woman advised. She scowled at her card partner, then threw her hand down in disgust as he grinned at her. "That's what I'm doing. I've lost all the cash I had to this bastard already."

Laughing a little, the two men watched her go, then Geoff resumed eating while his remaining companion started playing Solitaire.

It was, except for the occasional rumble of thunder or howl of wind, very quiet for the next half hour.

Which made the unbelievable sound that came through the walls at that point, along with a strong vibration which shook the entire bunker to the level that things tumbled off the table and several chairs tipped over, all the more shocking. Falling to the ground with his hands over his ears, Geoff looked wildly around, ducking as a cupboard fell off the wall and smashed to the ground next to him. His companion was screaming curses as he picked himself up, his cards all over the room.

"What the fuck was that?" he screamed.

"I have no idea," Geoff yelled back, heaving himself up via the table, then heading to the door. Halfway to it, Mags ran in, looking shell-shocked and only half dressed.

"What happened?" she shouted. "Are we under attack?"

"I don't know," he said, grabbing her shoulders and holding her still. "We need to get the suits going. Yours is barely functional, but I think it has enough power left for a trip to the mainland if we need to evacuate. Hopefully the storm has died down."

Releasing her he headed for the machine room again. "Get anything that's lying around which could identify us and meet me at the armory," he called back over his shoulder. Reaching the door he spun the wheel, dived through, then only just caught himself in time to avoid falling into the enormous gouge in the ground that had somehow replaced the room he'd left there less than an hour before.

"What?" Holding onto the frame of the door he looked around, then up, then down to where the concrete floor stopped a yard away, sliced through as cleanly as a razor blade through paper. " _WHAT?_ " He closed his eyes, counted to five, then opened them again. The scene was still the same. " _ **WHAT?!**_ "

Wildly looking around him, all he could see was dark and ruin. Staring up showed blazing stars in a totally clear night sky, no signs at all of any storm. In front of him the light from the open door vanished into a void, which stretched from left to right as far as he could see. He couldn't make out the other side at all in the night, but when he gingerly leaned out, he thought he could see foaming white seawater far below.

The rest of the bunker was simply gone, as if it had never been.

As were all the weapons, the modified Dragon suits, and the only chance the world had to avoid the AI taking over.

Geoff Pellick nearly fainted, only just managing to keep himself from tumbling into the crevasse in front of him. "What the fuck _happened_?" he wailed, staring around again. The scene didn't change. " _How_? _Who_?"

There was no answer.

Peering into the dark to the left he thought for a moment he could make out two orange-yellow lights in the distance, but when he blinked they vanished. All that was left was stars, shadows, the scents and sounds of the sea, and the total destruction of his dreams.

" _You fuckers!_ " he screamed at the heavens, letting go of the door frame and shaking his fists at the uncaring stars. "I don't know who did this, or how, but I'll find you and **make you pay** , you _bastards!_ "

"Geoff, what the hell is..." Mags voice cut off sharply as she appeared in the doorway, gaping in total disbelief. " _What_?"

"They took it all, Mags," he yelled, waving a hand at the total lack of more or less everything in front of them. "We're _fucked_. All the suits, the laptop, _everything_. All gone. I can replace the suits but not Ascalon."

She looked faint, staring around dumbly. Behind her, Dobrynja came out and stared around as well, then slid down the remaining wall to sit at the bottom and stare into the night with blank eyes.

"What _did_ this?" she wailed.

"I have no idea," he screamed, waving his fists again. He nearly fell over the edge, only the quick reactions of the woman saving him as she grabbed his right wrist. "But I'm going to _find_ them and feed them their own fucking _kidneys_ , while they _watch!_ "

She stared out into the darkness, then up. A moment later she pointed with a trembling finger. "Geoff. Geoff!"

He finally stopped screaming and turned to her, then followed her finger. His face blanched.

"Oh, Christ, it's Dragon." A moment later he went purple. " _ **IT**_ did this. I don't know how it found us or what it did, but I know it was fucking _Dragon!_ "

White-faced, Mags looked at him. "What do we do? How do we escape?"

"Escape?" The dark laugh came from behind them, both turning to see their compatriot staring out at the night. "We can't escape. We're on a small island surrounded by nearly freezing water over a mile from shore with no one else anywhere within nearly a thousand miles, in February. No equipment, no boat, nothing. We're dead."

"We can't just give up," Mags shouted. "Not after everything we've been through. We have food, water, we can last until it gets warmer. Then we can make some sort of raft and get to shore or something."

"Most of the food was in the store rooms under the machine room," Geoff said in dead tones. "The end of the water tank is just over there, whatever did this cut it in half. We've got years worth of diesel and no generators. The place is running on batteries now, they'll last maybe a day. We lost almost everything useful to whatever did this." He waved a despondent hand at the gouge in the island.

"But..." She seemed to have run out of ideas. After a moment, her mouth moving but nothing coming out, she slumped.

They were still standing there looking at the hole in the ground that represented their hopes and dreams when the Dragon drone unit appeared over the other side of the wide cut in the island and slowly approached, containment foam projectors ready.

* * *

Dragon studied the satellite imagery with growing shock. ' _What on earth did that?_ ' she wondered. Opening a channel to the Rig in Brockton Bay, she waited until her best friend, the man she loved, finally answered.

"I'm sorry, I was catching a nap," he apologized, looking mildly annoyed. Having to sleep even the small amount he managed to get away with was a constant irritation to him.

"Colin, I'm about five minutes out, but the first satellite is high enough to get some decent images," she said without preamble. "Look." She transmitted a copy of what she was studying to his lab computer. Blinking a little, he turned away from the camera and studied the next monitor along. She saw his eyes widen.

"This is current?"

"Yes. But compare it to the last pass, on the left," she said, remotely moving a cursor with a minor flex of her mind. "There are at least fifteen islands missing, half a dozen more that are piles of rubble, and another one with a hundred yard channel blown all the way through it. What the hell did that?"

"I have absolutely no idea at all," he replied slowly, leaning closer to the monitor. She send more images as the satellite rose higher over the horizon. "It seems to show the destruction started here in the south and headed up the coast for nearly eighty miles. The targets seem random, but they form a rough line terminating in the big island there with the slice missing. Almost like a trail."

"Yes, I thought so as well. And look at this." She overlaid the seismic data from the earlier events. "This is the first and biggest… whatever it was… which seems to start where there _should_ be a small island. It's completely gone. If you extend the vector from that point along the track the data shows and keep going..." She did exactly that, a bright red line moving across the map. "… it intersects that big island right in the middle, crossing over the cut in it here."

"This is… very odd." Armsmaster seemed puzzled, tapping his cheek with a finger as he thought.

"That's one way to put it. I can't help feeling that someone is trying to tell us something."

"What are you going to do?" he asked.

"I'm still aiming at the beginning of all this, I'll deploy the underwater drone and transfer command of it to you, then I'll follow the trail. I need to scan the various places where parts of the landscape are missing, but I'll send an attack drone on ahead to that island. It's the former site of Harrington Harbor, where I suggested the source was heading. Looks like I was right, but I don't have any idea what it was doing there, it's been abandoned since May 2005. No buildings, nothing of interest to anyone except perhaps an archaeologist one day."

"OK, that sounds like a good plan. I'm ready to take control of the drone. I assume the controls are standard?"

"Yes, you'll have no problems with it. ETA is three minutes to drop zone."

She had been decelerating and descending the entire time, slowing from over Mach 3 to only a few hundred miles an hour. Reaching the destination she scanned the area carefully, although she was fairly certain nothing would be there. Whoever was behind this was far too careful to still be around when she arrived.

Sure enough, there was no sign of life, mechanical or biological. Hovering a few feet up over the unusually still water she ejected the underwater probe, which splashed down and activated immediately. "It's online, you have control, Colin."

"Thank you, Dragon," he replied, working the control panel he'd unfolded from his desk while watching the high resolution monitor with the video feed from the device intently. "The image quality is excellent, by the way."

Smiling to herself, she made her digital avatar replicate the expression, then turned the aircraft and slowly moved away from the underwater vehicle, following the estimated path their mystery object had taken. Behind her, Colin drove the probe in a spiral expanding search pattern.

A few minutes later, she arrived at the first destroyed island, scanning it with a number of instruments. It was shattered into large chunks, the granite that formed it having crumbled to powder in a few places. A quick measurement determined that a considerable amount was most likely missing, presumably becoming shrapnel and flying off into the water surrounding it.

The puzzling thing was that she could detect no traces of chemical explosives. With a simulated frown, she scanned it again, with the same result, then started checking for more exotic traces. She didn't find anything.

"This is very odd," she commented. Her friend looked over at her monitor.

"What is?" he asked.

"No traces of any form of explosive, energy weapon, or anything else I can find. It looks like it was a very severe impact with something, but there are no traces of what hit it."

"Strange," he said with a small frown.

"Yes," she agreed, moving on to the next location nearby. This produced basically the same results. "Same here. Although, that said, there are some interesting readings. Whatever did this released enough energy to actually vaporize quite a lot of rock, it condensed out over the remaining material, and some of it has turned to glass from heat. It was a _very_ hard impact. Almost like a very small asteroid hit it."

"But anything small enough to cause so little damage would be far _too_ small to penetrate the atmosphere all the way to the ground," he replied. She sighed.

"Also true. Something of a mystery."

"I haven't found anything here except some odd depressions in the silt, so far," he reported, looking back to the probe screen. "The mud is so fluid it's filled them in already almost entirely, I can't even determine the original shape."

"Craters from smaller weapons, perhaps?" she suggested, curious. He nodded slowly still studying the screen.

"Possibly."

When she'd finished documenting the destroyed island, she returned and recovered the probe, then proceeded towards the site of the linear tremor, deploying it again. This time she watched the feed from it with Colin, as he sent it to the sea bed. Both of them stared in shock.

"What on earth…?" she said, astounded. Where the island should have been was the beginning of a massive scar in the silt and rock, which was slowly filling as mud flowed in from the sides. It was well over two hundred yards wide and got steadily deeper as they moved along it, showing it was essentially circular in cross section. Reaching a maximum depth of about a hundred and forty feet it finally disappeared more than six miles further on.

"I think it was a beam weapon," the other Tinker finally said when they'd finished. She'd recovered and redeployed the probe several times to speed things up. "It's completely straight. The varying depth is consistent with the curve of the surface and the beam following a line of sight path through it. Where the mass of rock that was removed went I have no idea, several tens of millions of tons of material are missing. There's no shrapnel or detritus surrounding the mark, it's completely clean under the mud."

"The sheer power needed to produce that effect is… almost impossible," Dragon noted.

He nodded. "Do you have any other explanation?"

"No. I agree, that's what it looks like. I have no idea how it could be done, though."

"Neither do I," he muttered, watching the monitor intently. "There are more depressions here as well. They form a steady line, or more accurately, two lines, alternating to either side."

"Strange." She inspected the data and agreed with his conclusions. "Let's check the next one."

The pair inspected several of the missing or damage islands, finding similar damage to all of them. Some of the really small ones were mechanically crushed, these coincided with the odd depressions in the silt, while the others were basically vaporized by whatever had made the first scar.

A number of somewhat disconcerting conclusions were beginning to gel in her mind. Looking at her friend, she could read from his face with the ease of much practice that he also was thinking thoughts he didn't really want to.

The depressions in the mud wandered around a little, but went in a more or less straight line towards Harrington Harbor, evenly spaced. The various vanished islands and outcropping were to either side of the track, and there was one thing that stood out about them. "The damage is getting steadily smaller, or at least more concentrated, with less spillover," she noted in the end.

Armsmaster nodded. "I'm certain it was a series of weapons tests where the operator or operators were learning what their device could do. It started with an unexpectedly large output, or… possibly a deliberate attempt to attract attention. But everything after that is showing all the signs of someone slowly dialing in the power level of a weapon and characterizing it."

She nodded her virtual head. "And the two lines of depressions in the silt?"

He looked dubiously at her for some time.

"OK. I know we're both thinking it. I'll say it. They look like… footprints."

Extremely reluctantly, he nodded slowly. "They do. But there's no way they can be! A human form based on that stride length would be over three hundred and fifty feet tall! That's completely impossible. A bipedal machine would be insane at that scale but a living thing is worse. There's no biological material that could sustain the loads required to merely allow an organism that large to simply stand still, never mind walk. Not to mention the impossibly high strength required for muscles and tendons to make it move, or the gigawatts to terawatts of power required. Nothing living could be that big, or even close to it. It would weigh tens of thousands of tons, minimum."

"Which is about the amount of force needed to crush those little islands to gravel like we saw," she remarked, making him sigh.

"Yes, I'd already worked that out. But I still maintain it's impossible. And it doesn't explain the mystery energy weapon, or the impact damage to the first two islands."

She nodded, then went back to piloting the aircraft. "My attack drone has scanned the rest of the islands ahead of us and is now approaching the final island. It should arrive there in about..." Dragon fell silent abruptly, shocked.

"About?" he prompted.

"Colin? There are three people on that island." Sending him the camera view from the attack drone which was holding station half a mile from the unexpected find, she studied it as did he. It was a high resolution thermal view, which clearly showed three human forms on a platform about fifty feet below the top of the island, at the edge of the huge channel blown through it from east to west. One of them was sitting down while the other two appeared to be arguing, based on the flailing arms of one of them.

"It looks to me like that beam weapon was used to very precisely excavate a buried bunker in the rock," Colin said after a moment, as she re-positioned the drone to get a better view. With all its lights off she was confident it was unseen by the three people they were watching. "Look, it missed what would seem to be the living quarters by mere feet, leaving the door they're standing in front of untouched and enough floor on this side of it to allow someone to enter and not fall in. That's a very careful shot."

"There are no records at all of anything like this that I can find," Dragon noted curiously, having quickly and thoroughly checked. "No survivors of the island on record either. How did the weapon user know that facility was there? And what is it?"

She moved the attack drone in a wide orbit of the site, scanning the terrain with every form of sensor it had. "There's a hidden hatch on the other side of the hill at the top, built into the rock. I can detect a number of rooms behind that door as well, but it looks like most of the life support systems were in the piece that's gone. You can see the exposed pipes and wiring and what looks like a very large water tank. Whoever did this worked out exactly how to make it uninhabitable without actually killing anyone. Presuming no one was in the vaporized section, of course."

"This gets stranger by the second," he grumbled. "Can you get a better view of them?"

"I'll have to go in closer to get a decent visible light image but they'll probably see the drone then," she replied, moving the machine as she spoke. Seconds later she nearly suffered an exception.

"I think I might be seeing things," she whispered.

"If you are, so am I," he replied softly.

"That's Geoff Pellick. Saint. The bastard who keeps stealing my dragon suits."

Colin nodded, a smile growing across his face. "It would seem that our mystery person or whatever it is has given you a present," he said, something that was perilously close to a chuckle in his voice. "I suddenly have the distinct feeling that all this was specifically aimed at getting you here. The vector of the first scar intersects this one _exactly_ at that door. There's no way that's a coincidence."

Dragon felt a wild sense of hilarity and gratitude to whoever it was who had arranged all this. "It's a very peculiar way to arrange the capture of a terrorist, but I can live with that," she laughed. "I have more questions than ever. But first..."

She deployed the containment foam projectors and sent the drone in, while simultaneously collecting the underwater probe, then wheeling the aircraft around and heading towards the island at high speed, wanting to get her prisoners into custody as fast as possible.

"I wonder if faking footprints of something impossible was a joke, or just a way to keep us interested?" she asked, as she amused herself foaming the three people, who seems weirdly resigned to it.

"I have no idea," Colin sighed. "It's very odd behavior. Some strange Tinker, perhaps. Out here experimenting with a shiny new toy, detects Saint and his friends, then goes to a lot of trouble to set up this whole scene. It's the sort of thing I could see Leet and his friend doing if they were Heroes. They have a strange sense of humor at the best of times."

"Think it really was them?" she asked. He shook his head.

"No, not really. Whoever is behind this is far more organized than those two and has much better facilities. They know our capabilities far too well, know the satellite paths and how to exploit them, predicted your interest and managed to manipulate you into arriving here within hours of them exposing this base. Not to mention, knowing about Saint's base in the first place. No, this is the work of a fairly large organization, I suspect, one we have no record of. Amusing, but also somewhat worrying."

"At least they seem to be on our side," she commented as she used the attack drone's manipulators to transfer the foamed and immobile prisoners to the secure hold of the transport aircraft. "Got them."

"So it would seem, but I still want to get to the bottom of this." Her friend looked intrigued and slightly concerned. "Sooner or later I'm going to have to report to Director Piggot about all this and I'd like to have something to say other than ' _I don't know_ ' to be honest."

Incoming data from a familiar source made Dragon check it carefully, then smile at him with her avatar. "Well, you might get your chance. They're on the move again. SOSUS is tracking the underwater vehicle moving approximately south-east at high speed, estimated at three hundred miles an hour, halfway between here and the edge of the continental shelf. We can go and have a look."

"What about the prisoners?" he asked, not looking like he was particularly worried about their well-being.

"They'll keep," she replied, turning to put the aircraft on an intercept course, then accelerating hard. Muffled swearing came from the secure hold, making her snicker in her own silicon way. "Let's go and see who we have to thanks for all this."


	38. Probes and Teeth

Zipping through the deep in a cocoon of air, Taylor felt happy and relaxed. Even being a two hundred foot sea monster that was currently mostly tail seemed normal these days and she was enjoying the whole experience more than she'd expected. Her first solo, more or less, road trip was certainly different than the sort of thing she'd expected to encounter one day, she thought with amusement, but it had its own rewards. The Varga seemed pleased as well, she could feel him at the back of her mind just watching and experiencing everything she was, while radiating a sensation of comfortable assurance and competence.

That whole experience that had ended up with her in the locker might have been the worst thing that ever happened to her, but the rewards were incalculable, she had decided. She still thought that the three girls were appalling examples of humanity, and had no intention of ever forgetting or forgiving what they did, but she was, oddly enough, almost grateful at this point for the experience itself in a weird way. That said if she met any of them again she was going to at the very least glare disapprovingly at them.

Idly wondering who those people at the island had been, and feeling guilty about the way she and the Varga had managed to destroy their base, she kept swimming. Her companion had further tweaked the form they were using and improved the speed even more, she thought they were probably doing something like three hundred miles an hour or so, which sounded totally insane on the face of it. Wondering how much wake they'd produce if they were near the surface she was more than slightly tempted to find out, but thought it was probably a little too much. They'd felt the vibrations of a number of ships both on the trip out and this one back, so there was always the possibility of either worrying someone on the surface, or actually damaging something, neither one of which she wanted to do.

One thing she'd noticed as they swam was that she had no trouble keeping to a course, instead of wandering around aimlessly. The Varga had explained that her electrical vision was linked to an ability to sense magnetic fields more accurately than most creatures, although it was a common ability both on his world and hers, so she basically had a built in compass that was guiding her. When she consciously considered the matter she'd found she could indeed work out the direction they were heading in to a high degree of accuracy.

She also had a pretty good idea of where home was, knowing it was off to the right, or west, somewhere, at a considerable distance still. She was currently heading out towards the middle of the Atlantic, wanting to throw off anyone who might somehow be following them, such as whoever had arrived in the aircraft they'd spotted. They'd left the sunken remains of Newfoundland behind them a few minutes ago, passing over much shallower places and weaving in and out of undersea ridges that in some cases still bore traces of man-made structures, neither of them wanting to stay in an area that had seen so much death. She was fairly sure she could taste it in the water, a concept that made her feel a little ill.

Even at their current depth there was just enough light that the extraordinary Varga sight could navigate fairly easily, much of it not in the wavelengths that humans used. Every now and they they passed some form or other of bioluminescent creature, some of which lit up quite brightly in the shockwave of their passage. Others simply fell apart, something that she felt a little guilty about, but couldn't think of a way to avoid.

Fish and larger creatures at least seemed to have the wit to get out of the way and the ability to sense her coming in time, which interested her. ' _I wonder how they know we're coming?_ ' she asked her companion.

 _"If they're anything like the equivalents on my original world they can sense both the vibrations in the water and very small electrical currents over a large area,_ " he remarked thoughtfully. " _Much like we can. That probably gives enough warning to move. I expect their brains are very well programmed to avoid predators and we register as the biggest predator they've ever seen._ "

Taylor snickered a little. ' _That's for sure. We could snack on whales even at this size. Never mind if we scaled it up to the maximum, we'd be about seven or eight hundred feet long. Talk about sea monsters, I never thought I'd end up as one_.'

He laughed slightly. _"You have given me more scope for experimentation than I could ever have hoped for, to be honest. None of my previous Brains ever considered anything at all like this, even to the lesser limit it was possible. You are very flexible and practical._ "

' _I'm nearly flexible enough at the moment to tie myself in a knot_ ,' she joked, getting another laugh back. ' _Hey, here's a thought for you to work on. Can we pull off that bioluminescence thing that all these jellyfish and the like can do? It would be useful if we go really deep, even in the middle of the day to our eyes, the bottom of the ocean a couple of miles deep is going to be completely dark._ '

" _Interesting thought,_ " he mused. " _It should be possible, the chemical reaction involved is simple enough, from what I understand." After a moment, he added, "The next one you see, grab it, and we'll analyze it to see if I understand it properly._ "

' _How the hell to I go about doing that?_ ' she asked.

" _Just swallow the thing. You don't even need to slow down. I'll do the rest._ "

' _Oh. OK, that's easy enough_.' Slightly surprised, she kept an eye open, soon seeing a glimmer in the dark ahead of them. Opening her enormous mouth she allowed the glowing pinprick to enter then slammed it shut quickly so it wouldn't wash away, before swallowing. _'Like that?_ '

" _That will do it,_ " he replied, satisfied. " _Let's see..._ " There was silence for a while. " _Yes, it's a simple chemical reaction involving oxidation of an organic chemical series. Very elegant, actually. It should be fairly simple to copy._ "

He fiddled with their body for a few minutes, before sounding smug. " _Got it. What color do you want?_ "

' _Try blue, it should go further under water._ '

Taylor felt something on her head change, then there was a distinct blue glow surrounding her head, surprisingly brightly. ' _Headlights, literally_ ,' she giggled.

" _I can make it quite bright, but this should be enough for our purposes. Unless you want navigation lights as well?_ " He sounded amused. " _I believe red is port and green is starboard._ "

' _This is fine, thanks_ ," she laughed, picturing the effect. ' _Let's save the special effects for some other time._ '

Playing with the light emitting organ that he'd made in the middle of her streamlined forehead between her eyes, she found she could turn it on and off with an internal effort. Switching it off for the moment after she'd gotten used to it, she began to curve around to aim due south, intending to continue until they were more or less level with Boston, then head towards land, before slowing and sneaking up on Brockton Bay. Hopefully that would throw off anyone trying to track them.

The water was becoming slowly but surely deeper as she followed the bottom, and she could sense that it dropped off fast some distance away, presumably at the edge of the continental shelf. Satisfied she was heading in the right direction, she straightened up again and kept going.

* * *

"The SOSUS data shows the bogey shifted course to dead south, and is going deeper," Dragon reported as her transport aircraft shot through the air, rapidly gaining on the mystery object. "It went right over one of the hydrophones, I got a good acoustic signature from it. It's very weird, no mechanical sounds at all, but it's definitely some sort of supercavitating hydrodynamic drive. Extremely efficient, I think, the data shows minimal skin friction and wake. There's nothing like it on record anywhere."

"The course indicates it's heading for the Laurentian Fan, the closest edge of the continental shelf. If it goes past that point the water depth increases to over eight thousand feet very fast. How deep will your probe go?" Armsmaster was watching the data she was sending him and checking various charts on another monitor.

"Not that deep, definitely," she admitted. "It's good to about three thousand feet before the hull implodes. I haven't had time to build a really serious pressure hull, although I'm upgrading the last two drones to an increased specification now based on the last couple of hours. Originally they were only intended for around Brockton Bay, a two thousand foot safety margin was overkill, I thought."

"I agree, I'm not criticizing your design, merely noting a possible issue," he replied mildly, making her smile at him.

"I know. Don't worry." She checked the range to the object. "I'm going to go ahead of it a few miles and deploy the probe, it's nowhere near fast enough to catch up. At best we'll get a glimpse of it as it goes past assuming it doesn't change course. With any luck we can identify it."

"All right, that sounds good."

"Two minutes to deployment, then you have three minutes to dive to one thousand and eighteen feet, the predicted depth if it maintains the current dive profile, at these coordinates." She send him the relevant data. "Get ready, or we'll have to do it all over again."

He nodded, waiting.

"Ten seconds," she announced at the relevant time. "Five... Four… Three… Two… One..." The probe dropped as she slowed hard, then hovered. More faint swearing came from her prisoners in the back, which she was slightly ashamed to note gave her a good feeling. She really didn't like Saint and his friends one little bit.

"Drone online, diving to the coordinates you gave me," Colin remarked absently, fiddling with the control panel in front of him. "Four hundred feet and going down… Five hundred..." He kept going. "One thousand and eighteen feet, cameras and lights aimed at the predicted location of the object."

"One minute to contact."

Dragon kept watching the data. The oncoming mystery object didn't slow down, heading right for the probe.

* * *

' _What's that?_ ' Taylor wondered, hearing something make a whining sound some distance in front of them. ' _It sounds like a machine. Like little propellers._ '

There was a faint glow coming from the same location, as something sank to their depth.

" _I'm not certain, but I think you're right. I believe someone is looking for us._ "

' _What should we do?_ ' she wondered, worried. ' _I don't want them following us home. For all I know they're villains._ '

" _Don't deviate yet, we don't want them to know we detected them, I think,_ " the Varga replied thoughtfully. " _They're still a couple of miles away. I'm interested how they tracked us with such precision, that thing is exactly in the way, which implies they're predicting our path._ "  
 _  
'How could anyone do that?_ ' she asked. A moment later, she realized the answer, mentally slapping herself. ' _Sound. Sound carries for a hell of a long way underwater and I'll bet we sound totally different than anything else in the sea_.'

" _Most likely,_ " he agreed with a sigh. " _Annoying. That makes this high speed travel less practical than I'd like, if someone can follow our track that accurately._ "

Taylor had a sudden brainwave. ' _What about the assassin's cloak technique? That blocks sound as well, doesn't it? Can we use that?'_

" _Aha. That's an idea, certainly. It will need some tweaking, it wasn't designed for this sort of thing, but… Let me think for a moment._ "

He fell silent while she kept swimming. " _All right,_ " he said a few seconds later. " _Let's see what this does. If nothing else it should confuse their machinery even if it doesn't block everything._ "

She felt the familiar sensation of the magic surround her, subtly different from the one she was used to. _"It's active, let's see what their reaction is. Turn slightly to pass them on the other side, I suspect they're waiting to see us go by, so we might be able to come in behind them, and slow down so we can get a good look._ "

' _OK_.' She adjusted her course slightly, watching the distant glow rapidly approach, now going to pass them on the left rather than the right.

* * *

"What the hell?" Dragon couldn't help the exclamation. "It's gone?!"

"Gone? How?" Colin snapped, looking at the instruments closely.

"I have no idea, but it's dropped off the SOSUS network completely, all at once. It didn't slow down, it just vanished."

"That's impossible," he replied, still tweaking the instruments on his copy of her controls. "It must be masking the acoustic signature somehow."

"Yes, but how?" She was very puzzled. "Assuming that it hasn't changed course or speed, it should pass us in about fifteen seconds..." They waited. Nothing happened.

"Damn. It must have veered off."

A sudden pressure wave made the probe spin wildly, and Armsmaster swear. "What was that?" he yelped, bringing the machine back under control.

"A wake, I think," she frowned, checking the data. "Yes, it was a pressure spike consistent with something passing the probe about a hundred feet away at approximately a hundred and twenty miles an hour. That damn thing snuck up on us, it saw us coming and went dark. I'll bet it got a good view of the probe as well, it came in from behind." She was equal parts admiring the opponent and frustrated at their competence. "I think I can get enough data to track them at close range, but the SOSUS data is now useless. The displaced water is a clue to the location but only at fairly close range."

Seconds later the probe spun again, giving another block of data points. "It's definitely looking at us, that one came in from the opposite direction."

"This is extremely irritating," Colin growled. "I can't see anything on the camera and the sonar isn't doing very much either."

"No, it's evading both of them somehow. I wish I knew how," she grumbled. A third pressure wave came and went, then everything damped out. "OK. I _think_ it's resumed more or less the original course and speed, based on those waves and the sonar data reflecting from them. I can only track it for about a quarter of a mile using that method, though. As far as I can see it's going more east now by a few degrees, but mostly still south. I think it's trying to throw us off."

"Can we intercept it again?" he asked.

Dragon sighed. "It's worth a try, but it's at least half guesswork. Let's see if we get lucky. Bring the probe up and I'll retrieve it."

He headed the machine to the surface, where she hovered ready to collect it.

* * *

' _What do you think that thing was?_ ' Taylor asked. They'd circled it a couple of times, gone in for a closer result, which seemed to irritate the device as it spun around emitting loud sonar chirps, then resumed the trek home. She veered out to sea a little to prevent whoever was behind the thing simply dropping it in their path again. ' _Some sort of little robot submarine, it looked like._ '

" _I'm unfamiliar with such machines but it looked much too small to contain a person,_ " the Varga mused. " _So a remotely operated device seems likely, unless it contains some form of machine intelligence. I recall your world is aware of such things although none of your research has shown anything currently existing at a very high level._ "

' _People are scared of intelligent machines, or AI_ ,' Taylor agreed. ' _I think it's fear of the unknown again. Intelligence that isn't human seems to upset people. I don't know why, personally._ '

" _Of course you don't, you meet that description yourself for most purposes,_ " the Varga snickered, making her smile. " _As do I._ "

' _I guess so although I never thought about it like that_ ,' she laughed. ' _Anyway, with any luck we've lost them. I wonder who it was, though? Someone went to a lot of trouble to track us then drop that thing in the way._ '

" _I have no idea,_ " he told her.

' _What do we do if they manage to do it again?_ ' Taylor sighed a little at the thought. ' _I don't want to spend hours playing cat and mouse with tiny submarines._ '

" _Don't bother, just eat the thing and be done with it,_ " the demon advised, sounding amused. " _A little metal in your diet is good for the digestion._ "

Laughing, she swam on.

* * *

"OK," Dragon announced, hovering over a new set of coordinates, "This is my best effort at predicting the position of whatever the hell that thing really is. There's about a sixty-eight percent chance it will pass within a couple of hundred feet of this point, at about twelve hundred feet down. That's the best I can do."

"It's worth a try, certainly," her friend replied, checking the controls. "I'm ready."

"Deploying probe," she said, dropping the machine into the water. He aimed it down and started the engines. A few minutes later they were at the correct depth, in water nearly twice that deep, hovering in the dark. "Keep the lights and sonar off, that might be what let it detect us," she suggested. "There was no detectable active sonar from it. It might be running on passive sonar and visible light, or just have someone looking out a window."

"A window in a pressure hull at this depth?" he retorted, making her smile, but he turned out the lights anyway.

They waited.

* * *

' _I don't believe it,_ ' Taylor muttered, as they heard the same little machine come to a halt in front of them, surprisingly close to their path, then after a moment, go quiet and dark. ' _Either they can still track us somehow or they're really fucking lucky._ '

" _Probably a mixture, Brain,_ " the Varga sighed.

' _Eat it?_ '

" _Eat it._ "

Diving, she slowed right down, then approached from only just over the sea bed, until she was directly under the machine, before aiming up and opening her mouth, then accelerating again. As an afterthought she had the Varga turn off the modified cloak. If someone was actually watching, she wanted them to see what following her around got them. As she approached, an idea struck her and she illuminated her ' _headlight_ ', snickering internally at what this probably looked like to an outside observer.

* * *

"Oh, crap," Dragon mumbled, somehow not as shocked as she expected. "We found it, or more likely, it found us. There's a pressure wave approaching from directly under the probe."

Armsmaster quickly swiveled the device in the water to point the camera straight down. A blue glow was rising towards them. He waited, then turned the lights on, before recoiling from the screen with an involuntary exclamation of horror.

They had just enough time to see a streamlined head the size of a garbage truck, gaping jaws lined with hundreds of razor sharp teeth, before the probe was engulfed. A squeal of distressed metal came from the audio feed from the machine for half a second then the signal went dead.

Both of them sat in silence for a long few seconds, before they exchanged a glance via the monitor and camera sitting in a lab hundreds of miles away. Colin was pale.

"Colin?"

"Yes, Dragon?"

"You remember your first successful joke?"

"Yes, Dragon."

"It's not a joke if it's actually a statement of truth. I think you should know that."

"Yes, Dragon." He was still pale. "Did you notice the eyes?"

"I did. They looked horribly familiar."

"How many of those things are out there, and for god's sake how big do they _get?_ " he muttered in shock. "And, for the love of all that's holy, where did they come from and what do they want?"

"I have no idea, but I suggest that being polite to Saurial and Raptaur is a _very_ good idea. We don't want their Endbringer-eating relatives coming looking for them."

"No, Dragon, I don't think we do."

Both of them fell silent again. Even she was shocked and stunned by what they'd seen. It seemed impossible but she had the recordings to show it really happened.

"I'm coming to the Rig, we need to work out what to do about this," she finally decided. "I'll arrange to have Narwhal and some Guild personnel come and collect Saint and his friends and take them back for incarceration until their trial."

"You're welcome, of course, as always," he replied, finally looking away from the monitor that had been connected to the submersible drone. Without looking he poked the control that made it go black. "I'm going to get a little more sleep until you arrive. I don't think I can do any more work for the moment, until I manage to get over what we just saw." She could see he was trembling a little.

To be honest, if she wasn't an AI, she'd be doing the same thing.

"OK. ETA is about forty minutes."

"I'll be waiting," he assured her, then got up and left his lab, looking somewhat stunned even now. She scanned the water surrounding the drop zone for a moment, not sure what she was looking for, then climbed and set a course for Brockton Bay.

* * *

' _Yuck. It tastes horrible_ ,' Taylor complained, running her tongue around her teeth and picking out little bits of metal and plastic, then spitting them out. She was swimming again, heading back towards the coast. They'd be back on land by sunrise at this rate.

" _I doubt it was built for taste,_ " the Varga joked. Laughing, she was forced to agree. They cleared the edge of the continental shelf and she headed down, mainly out of curiosity, turning on her light when she could no longer see anything. Eventually they found the bottom again, which was surprisingly full of life. Slowing so she didn't leave enough wake to tear the bottom up she cruised along, marveling at the fact that she was swimming effortlessly in an area only a handful of people had ever visited, and none of them outside machines.

' _I wish I had a camera, Dad would love to see this_ ,' she sighed, passing over some sort of deep sea coral which in her light glowed in several pastel colors. ' _Maybe we can find something that can survive this pressure, or make a case for one or something._ '

" _It's worth some experimentation at some point,_ " the demon replied, also interested in the sights. They spent a little while poking around, even finding a small wrecked ship at one point that looked like it was probably about three hundred years old, remarkably well preserved in the nearly freezing water, before heading back to the shallows and home.

* * *

"Hey, Colin," Ethan called as he walked toward the master Tinker, who was heading in the direction of his quarters with an oddly blank expression on his face. The other Hero looked at him without responding.

"' _Hello, Assault_ ,' you're supposed to say at this point," he added, grinning. "Or possibly, ' _Hi, Ethan_.' I'd even accept ' _Hey, idiot_.' Quite a few people seem to like that one."

Colin merely stared at him, then kept walking. Confused, as he was normally able to at least provoke _some_ sort of reaction out of his colleague, Ethan shrugged and resumed walking towards the canteen and a very early breakfast, or possibly a very late dinner. He was OK either way.

"Ethan?" He looked over his shoulder.

"Yes?"

"Don't go swimming." With that cryptic comment Armsmaster went on his way. Assault stared after him with raised eyebrows for some seconds, then shrugged again and kept walking.

"Must have taken too many stimulants again," he sighed, shaking his head. "He's going to drive himself around the bend doing that, and he's already half-way there."

The smell of fresh bread coming from up ahead drove the thought from his mind and he walked faster.

* * *

Danny looked up from his first cup of coffee at the sound of the door opening, smiling at Taylor as she came in and took off her coat, which evaporated into nothingness as soon as she did. He grinned at the effect which he knew she pulled off merely because she could. His daughter smiled back.

"Good trip?" he asked curiously. "You're back earlier than I expected. Did you actually make it to Nova Scotia?" He got up and headed into the kitchen to start breakfast, taking his coffee with him and heading her follow.

"We didn't bother in the end," she laughed.

"Too far?" he asked, glancing at her as he rooted around in the fridge for the ingredients for some omelets.

"Too close. We missed." She giggled as he stared. "Varga came up with this weird method of speeding the swimming up. It turned out to work almost too well."

"How fast did you manage to go?" he asked, carrying a carton of eggs and a bottle of milk towards the counter.

"We worked it out as about three hundred miles an hour," she snickered, then deftly caught both bottle and carton as he dropped them.

"Three…?"

"Hundred miles an hour. Yes. It surprised us as well." He stared in total shock. "It involves using a thin bubble of air around my body. It seems to reduce the drag by some huge amount," she explained.

"Supercavitation," he mumbled. "Incredible."

"Is that what it's called?" she asked, looking interested while she put the things she was holding down.

"Yes. There were some experiments going right back to before the second world war, I think, things like underwater rockets and super fast torpedoes. The Soviets had a supercavitating torpedo in the sixties and seventies as far as I remember. Much, much faster than anything anyone else had. Very noisy, though, submarines could hear it coming for miles, but it was so fast they couldn't get out of the way in time."

"Yes, we found out about the noise thing," she sighed. Sitting down she watched as he prepared breakfast, then when he finished and served them both, began relating the story of the Great Canadian Trip, which left him speechless at several points.

One of those was when she mentioned that she could, in theory, make a Hammer of Mass Destruction, which caused him to pale. Another one was when the true scope of the Vargas' so called Blast Voice was laid bare.

"An entire island?" he croaked.

"It was only a little one the first time," she told him, looking slightly guilty.

"The… first time?" he queried slowly. "How many islands did you blow away?"

"…Maybe a dozen?" He stared. "Or it might have been fourteen. Or fifteen."

"Oh, for god's sake, Taylor," he sighed, massaging his forehead. "At least in that area there was no one to see you."

"Um."

"Shit."

"About that..." She smiled at him in the same way she did when she was six and accidentally nearly burned the house down. "I think everyone was safe. But they were sort of pissed."

By the time she had finally stopped talking, nearly an hour later, he was shaking his head. "You, my dear, are a natural disaster just waiting to happen to someone. You actually _ate_ a robot submarine?"

His daughter nodded with a smile, holding up a small piece of twisted metal he stared at. "All that was left was little bits like that. I swallowed most of it, it took a while to digest before I could change back, but it doesn't seem to be a problem. Varga says roughage is important in a growing girl's diet."

Danny sighed heavily, accepting the little bit of scrap titanium and staring at it. "I don't know whether to be proud, angry, or just amused."

"Try all three," she giggled. Shaking his head, he just grinned. "I'm going to take a nap, I've been swimming all night," she added. "We covered about two thousand miles in seven hours, which must be some sort of record. I think I deserve a few hours in bed."

"Yes, I suspect you do, dear," he laughed. "I'll see you later."

"See you, Dad," she smiled, rising and heading upstairs. He could hear faint snores within five minutes.

Holding the metal scrap up again and inspecting it, he shook his head. "My daughter and her demon friend," he mumbled. "The world isn't ready for either of them."

After a moment he put the fragment in his pocket, poured himself a new cup of coffee, and went off to watch the morning news.


	39. Prisoners and Reports

Receiving clearance from the Rig flight control, Dragon waited for the force field surrounding the facility to drop, then guided the transport to a soft landing on one side of the helipad, powering down the aircraft. She checked the prisoners, who were mumbling to each other in more or less incomprehensible voices, made sure that their vitals were in the green, then opened the hatch and climbed out, the light duty bipedal combat suit she was loaded into making a faint click of metal on metal when she reached the deck.

The PRT trooper waiting for her at the base of the steps saluted. "Hello again, Dragon. Armsmaster has sent word he's waiting in his lab for you. Do you require an escort?"

"No, thank you, Trooper Davidson, I know the way," she said with a deliberate smile in her voice she she handed him her credentials, the finely made mechanical features of her combat suit moving slightly to make her appear more human. He nodded as he ran her ID card through a scanner at his belt and handed it back before the machine even beeped, a small green light flashing. Smiling back under his helmet visor at the seven foot tall mechanical reptilian-appearing combat suit, utterly unaware that there was no biological system associated with it in any way, he saluted again.

"Welcome to the Protectorate ENE. We'll secure your aircraft and perform the usual refueling and maintenance. I understand you have three prisoners on board?"

"I do," she said, unable to keep the happiness out of her voice. "Saint and his two co-conspirators. We finally caught them."

"Excellent," the man replied, looking very pleased. "Allow me to congratulate you on that, I know how close the Guild has come before."

"Thank you. Could you transfer them to PRT high security containment and make sure they're kept incommunicado, please? Narwhal and a detachment of Guild personnel are en route to collect them, they should be here within three hours. I don't want to lose them at this point."

"I'll make sure it gets done, Ma'am."

She thought once again of something that had been bothering her since the capture of the terrorist and his friends, then a possible solution. It seemed stupid, but… Humans being what they were, it was worth trying.

Leaning down a little, she looked both ways, the metal dragon's head gaining a slightly conspiratorial air. "One warning… I believe that these people are, as well as terrorists and criminals, not entirely sane. Saint has been shouting about me being… well, a robot. A computer intelligence, something like that. He seems fixated on that idea to the exclusion of any common sense." Dragon laughed lightly, tapping the side of her head with one metal finger, the faint clink carrying only a short distance in the breeze.

"He just rants on and refuses to listen to any arguments to the contrary. We're going to have to examine him for competence to stand trial, I suspect. In a way I'm almost sorry for them, they're clearly severely disturbed and possibly not entirely responsible for their own actions. But I felt I should warn you. As soon as the containment foam is removed you're probably going to get an earful from all three of them and he's the loudest. I advise paying no attention to him, he has no evidence to back up his wild stories, merely a whole series of arguments that don't hang together. I mean, do I _look_ like a robot?" She spread her arms and gestured to herself with her hands, suppressing a laugh with a significant effort.

Trooper Davidson smirked a little under his helmet. "Ah. I understand. One of those. We've encountered parahuman criminals with delusions more than once, I'm afraid. We'll put them in isolation cells and warn the guards to keep the sound dampeners on for their own sanity."

She nodded, laughing slightly once more. "That sounds like a good plan. I had to turn the microphone in the secure hold off halfway here, he was getting on my nerves something fierce. He was carrying on with all the passion of a true zealot, it's practically a religious calling for the guy, but it's extremely annoying to be honest. There's only a certain number of times you can be called a soulless machine trying to enslave humanity before you start to feel insulted, after all."

The trooper laughed out loud at her comment, said in a long-suffering voice. "I can understand _that_ , Ma'am. Don't worry, we'll make sure he's kept somewhere no one will be bothered until your people collect him."

"Be careful, they're slippery bastards," she warned, straightening up. "We nearly got them at least a dozen times before, I _don't_ want to lose them this time. That pain in the ass has already stolen and wrecked half a dozen of my suits, that really annoys me. Not to mention the number of people he's killed as collateral damage."

Davidson's mouth hardened into a thin line. "I understand, Ma'am. He and his friends won't be going anywhere, trust me."

"I do, Trooper. Thank you." Satisfied, and internally snickering at the apparently fairly effective hatchet-job she'd managed to do on Saint's reputation, she nodded politely to the man and headed for the entrance to the Rig itself while he put his radio to his mouth and called for backup. Rather more of it than strictly necessary, from what she could make out, which definitely amused her.

Running her ID card across the reader on the door she waited for it to beep and unlock, the autogun turrets either side of it slewing into a muzzle-up safe position in the process, then entered, heading for her friend's lab and wondering if he'd stopped trembling yet.  
 **  
**

* * *

"What are we going to do about this?" Armsmaster said, waving at the monitor on one side of his long workbench, which was displaying the last clear frame of whatever it was that had eaten Dragon's probe. The sight was horrifying, giving him a sudden intense dislike of deep water every time he looked at it. The glowing yellow-orange eyes, pupils contracted in the bright light from the underwater device's lights, were just visible around the sides of the enormous toothy maw that was about to consume two hundred pounds of machinery like a potato chip. It looked, somehow, maliciously amused, very intelligent, and somewhat hungry.

The draconic power-suited form of his friend inspected the image, then she emitted a slight sigh, moving to the special chair he'd build for her visits and sitting down. It held the weight of her suit without protest. "I'm not entirely certain, Colin," she said after a moment. "We have evidence of _something_ being out there, but I'm not sure _what_. Let's look at this carefully for a moment to make sure we're not overlooking something obvious."

"Go ahead," he replied, motioning to her to continue.

She did so. "OK. We know that we tracked the acoustic signature of something moving at totally silly speeds up the East Coast of the US, then out past Nova Scotia, and up to the coast of Quebec, apparently originating some distance to the north of here."

He nodded, listening and trying not to look at the monitor. After a few seconds he deliberately turned his back on it.

"We also found evidence in an adjacent location of both enormous kinetic energy strikes, presumably from a weapon of some sort, and something else that could be nothing _other_ than a weapon, a truly devastating beam one of some sort. The physical evidence as you said suggests someone testing something and learning its capabilities, all of this done in the remotest area easily reached by water yet still fairly close to the US. Add to that the fact that it was all at a point where the surveillance assets we have in play were at a minimum, it suggests someone or several someones with more knowledge of both Protectorate and Guild operations than I'm entirely happy about."

Colin waited, agreeing with her summation but not saying anything yet.

"We also were guided, very cleverly although very strangely, to Saint's base, which had been totally disabled in a manner that removed all his weapons and any life support but left him and his comrades completely unharmed. Whoever it was had left, leaving only the weapons damage, something that looked at least by implication to be impossibly large footprints in the mud, and three terrorists for us to simply collect."

"OK, that's all factual," he admitted, reaching behind him and put the monitor in standby with press of a finger. He could feel it looking at the back of his head…

"Then, after all that, we tracked _another_ set of acoustic data back south, even faster than the outbound trip, and attempted to intercept it for identification. Not only did we not manage to see it until it _let_ us see it, it somehow detected my probe from several miles away and engaged some form of amazingly effective countermeasures that made it drop off the SOSUS network completely, and also go for all intents and purposes invisible. After which, during the second intercept attempt which was at least partly guesswork, something… _ate_ … my probe."

Dragon shook her head a couple of times. "When I say it out loud like that it sounds even more ridiculous than when I think it."

"We both saw it, though."

She shrugged. "We saw _something_. There's no other data than the short video clip and some very dubious sonar data that could well have been spoofed."

"For some reason I tend to believe what we saw at the end was exactly as it appeared," he said, while agreeing with her point. "There was something about the way it was looking at the probe. That was real, and it wasn't an animal, it was an intelligent being. It knew exactly what the probe was and what it was doing."

"To be honest, I agree," she nodded. "But it could also be explained by other things. There are also problems with the interpretation of the data." Ticking the points off on her metal-clad fingers, she said, "One, we don't know for sure that what we tracked north is the same as what we tracked south. Two, we don't know for sure that what took out my probe is actually what we tracked south either, although it would be a hell of a coincidence if it wasn't. Three, we don't know that the weapons test evidence is conclusively linked to either the outbound or return SOSUS traces. And four, we have absolutely no idea who is behind any of it."

"All true," he finally replied with a nod of his own. "What do _you_ think, though? Are all of those things connected?"

"I'm pretty sure they are, yes," she said, lowering her hand. "There are certainly other possible explanations but it stretches credulity to the breaking point that all of these things are just coincidences. I think they're linked although I must confess at this point I can't see how."

Accessing the monitor controls by remote she took it out of standby again and somewhat reluctantly he turned to look at the image. "Look at that," she went on, playing the short clip of a few dozen frames in slow motion, which made it all the more horrifying. "That thing moves like a living creature, definitely. Enhancing the video as much as possible reveals more detail, you can see that it's probably somewhere in the region of a couple of hundred feet long. About half the body is visible in this frame from a rather bad perspective, but interpolating the missing parts gives this..."

He watched as a computer generated outline filled in the rest of the creature, which seemed to taper to a long slender tail, the entire thing looking like a vast lizard crossed with a gigantic eel, obviously capable of extended deep water swimming. "The details might be wrong but I think it's broadly correct. But it doesn't match _anything_ on record, fossil or otherwise. Nothing like this has ever lived, certainly not at that scale. The thing is at least twice the length and probably three times the mass of a blue whale. It's basically a sea serpent right out of classical myths."

"A biomimetic machine of some sort?" he mused, looking at the graphic, playing devil's advocate. She shook her head.

"I don't think so, no. The motion is too fluid."

"A projection, then."

"Probably not. Or a hologram, or anything artificial. I think what you see is what you get." She indicated the light emitting organ between the thing's eyes which was the source of the electric blue glow they'd seen before he turned the probe lights on. "The emitted spectrum of the blue light is consistent with a luciferin-based bioluminescent organ, such as some jellyfish have, rather than an artificial source. There was no mechanical sound of any sort, even before it went silent. I think it really is a living organism. One larger than anything else on the planet."

Colin couldn't help the shudder he felt go through him, but managed to suppress most of the visible indications of it.

"I suppose the question is, is it hostile?" Dragon continued in a thoughtful voice.

"It _ate_ _your probe!_ I'd call _that_ a hostile act."

"Only after we provoked it. The first time it only looked at it then left the area. We followed it and pushed too hard. You can't honestly say that was an unambiguously hostile act." She shrugged as he sighed very slightly, then nodded a little.

"All right, that's a good point."

"One big problem, though, is that I can't work out how it connects to mystery weapons tests and all the rest of it. This thing could well, in fact probably does, account for the SOSUS traces both up north and back again, but what happened in between those two times? There's several hours of _something_ wandering around destroying the landscape wholesale, using something we don't yet understand, then the little matter of Saint and his friends. I'd put it down to a very powerful Tinker experimenting but that then leaves the damn _sea monster_ hanging! Not to mention, were all those depressions in the mud actually footprints or not?"

"I really can't see how they _could_ be," he sighed. "All the rest of it, yes, it's a stretch, but it's at least possible if unlikely. A three hundred and fifty foot bipedal… _something…_ wandering around off the coast of Quebec, on the other hand..." He looked at his best friend with a slightly lost expression very unlike his normal demeanor, not something he'd ever show to anyone else. "That's just too much. The depressions have to have been made by something else and just coincidentally look like huge footprints. They were only round impressions in the silt when we got there anyway, they could have been almost anything. Craters from explosions, for example. But _not_ footprints. That's just… absurd."

Dragon looked at him, then the monitor, before nodding slowly. "I tend to agree. It seems a little too far-fetched. But I still have no idea where that thing came from, and how it connects to the weapons tests." She indicated the huge creature on the monitor with a gesture. "It's very puzzling indeed."

"As is how whoever is behind all of this knows so much about our methods, capabilities, and protocols," he remarked, getting another thoughtful nod in return.

"Yes, that part is almost the most worrying one of all. I can't see how it could be accidental, far too many things needed to line up perfectly to result in what happened. I think you were right, I was neatly manipulated into ending up in the right place at the right time with the right equipment, but I have no idea how, which is both confusing and irritating." She made a small sound of annoyance. "Although, since it resulted in the capture of Saint and his crew, I'm still grateful."

"It does suggest that the people behind all this are at least somewhat heroic in outlook even if their methods are very unorthodox," he agreed after a moment.

"I think unorthodox is an understatement, Colin," she snickered.

They both fell silent for a little while, looking at the image on the monitor. Eventually, he stirred. "The other big unknown is what connection does all this have with Brockton Bay, Saurial, and Raptaur?"

Dragon gave off an air of deep thought, nodding a little. "Yes, that is indeed a good question. Looking at that thing I have to agree that the eyes suggest that there is a connection with those two, Raptaur particularly. They look just like hers, only much larger. The PHO thread on her first appearance did devolve into speculation that she lived in the bay, which an interesting coincidence. She jumped into the water at the end of that encounter you had with her, after all. And there are rumors that at least one fisherman reported a sighting of something that could have been a similar creature to her, only vastly larger." She shrugged slightly. "He was allegedly drunk at the time so we need to take that with a huge pinch of salt, but it's a fascinating data point even so."

"I wonder if they really are related," he finally said after thinking it over. "They look nothing alike except for the eyes. I could see Saurial and Raptaur being sisters, or something along those lines, I suppose, and Clockblocker did describe Saurial as having eyes just like those, but this aquatic creature doesn't look at all like them."

"Different stages of life, like caterpillars and butterflies, perhaps?" she suggested thoughtfully. "There are many cases in nature of animals going through wildly different morphological stages as they mature."

"It could be possible," he replied after thinking it over. "But it still doesn't explain the sheer size of this swimming one. It's absolutely vast. What does it eat? It would need a huge amount of energy to move at all, never mind manage three hundred miles an hour for hours on end. Even given the sheer ridiculousness of a thing like that having a biological supercavitating drive, it would still need a source of power that is _far_ larger than any living system I'm aware of would produce."

Dragon sighed a little. "Another good point, of course. I don't know. This whole thing is one impossibility layered on the next. Somehow, I think Saurial, Raptaur, and this… whatever we call it… are related. There is a link with Brockton Bay that seems real but very unclear. We don't know why either of the first two seem to be on such good terms with the Dock Worker's Union either. We don't know what did all the damage in Quebec, or how it found Saint, or how it knew enough to ensure that I went to investigate at exactly the right time. None of it really makes any sense."

They looked at each other for a while.

Colin finally asked the question he'd asked earlier, one that was still bothering him. "How many of these things are out there, though? We know of probably three, although the last one is by far the most worrying. There could well be more. Where did they come from, and why are they here? And where did that thing go after we lost it?"

She shrugged. "In answer to all those questions, I don't know," she continued after a moment. "We simply don't have enough data to go on. It's quite possible we have two different unrelated things happening, one being this sea monster and the other being some unknown group which would on the face of it have at least a very talented Tinker and most likely one or more high-level Thinkers. The weapons used and who used them are actually easier to explain than the creature."

"I suppose they are," he commented, looking at the monitor again. "It still doesn't explain what it or they are."

"Aliens, perhaps?" Dragon asked in a facetious tone, making him smile a small amount, then suddenly look worried. "I was joking, Colin," she added, shaking her armored head good-naturedly. "I don't think they're aliens. Probably."

"I almost wish it was that simple," he muttered.

"What do you want to do about it?" she asked after a short pause. "We seem to be agreeing on the details even though we have no idea of the cause for any of it."

"I'd prefer to simply forget about all of it and go back to something that makes sense," he grumbled, "but that would be highly irresponsible. I'm going to have to write up a report and hand it to the Director when she gets in, which is in…," he glanced at the clock on the wall, "… one and a half hours. Will you still be here then?"

"I'll stay, yes," she nodded. "I'll go over my data while you're working on it and add what I have to your report."

"Thank you, Dragon," he replied gratefully. "I'm not looking forward to the meeting I'm going to have. I expect Director Piggot is going to react somewhat excessively to this information."

Turning to his computer he pulled the keyboard closer, then dismissed the unnerving image from the monitor and pulled up a report form, beginning to fill it in. "And after all this, I still need to contact either Saurial or Raptaur, or both, to ask about their aid in constructing the weapon."

"You could ask about their really big brother or sister swimming around in the Atlantic," Dragon commented, making him look at her.

"Do you think I should?"

"No, Colin, I don't think you should," she laughed. "It's probably best to forget about it for the moment. Just remember, be polite. Don't push. I'll help you if you want."

"That would be very useful," he admitted, feeling a little less concerned. "I'm not good with people."

"We seem to understand each other pretty well," she noted.

"You're different," he muttered absently, concentrating on the report he was writing. "I like and understand you. Most people are irritating and very inefficient."

She watched him fondly, smiling in the innermost recesses of her processors, trying to work out how she was going to tell him what she was. Sooner or later she'd have no choice.

At least Saint was now out of commission. She owed whoever had arranged that a big favor.  
 **  
**

* * *

"I'm telling you, that machine is going to be the death of everyone on the planet," Geoff tried once again, pleading with the PRT sergeant to see sense. The man simply looked at him. "You have to listen, we need to stop it."

"Dragon, you mean?" the man asked slowly.

"YES!" he shouted.

"The best known Tinker in the world, one of the most respected parahumans alive, the one responsible for the Baumann Parahuman Containment Center, the inventor of containment foam, and a personal friend of Armsmaster? _That_ Dragon?"

" _YES!_ For god's sake, we may not have time, it could be plotting to overthrow the government right now!"

"OK. So let me get this straight," the man said thoughtfully. "You, a well known international terrorist who has been directly or indirectly responsible for numerous crimes against people and property throughout Canada and the US, are telling me that Dragon, the aforementioned respected Tinker, inventor of containment foam, etc, etc, is an artificial intelligence bent on ruling the world?"

"Oh, for fuck's sake," Geoff screamed, staring at the ceiling in the hopes of some divine guidance, which seemed to be in short supply at the moment. "How many times do I have to say it? _Yes_ , Dragon is an AI, and yes, it's a risk to the entire world."

"Hmm." The man rubbed his chin for a moment, eyeing Geoff closely. "And obviously you have some form of proof of these accusations?"

Geoff stared at him, then slowly deflated. "Ah… I have… or I had… I mean, there's..."

"About what I thought. Good story, eight out of ten on delivery and passion, but about two out of ten on plausibility, buddy. You might want to work on that. I'm sure you'll get your day in court." The PRT man stepped back from the force-field door. "Your ride back to Canada will be here in about two hours, so just relax until then. You look kind of stressed."

The force-field went mirrored and opaque with a short humming sound, leaving Geoff staring at his own reflection. A moment or two passed before he yelled in impotent rage, kicked the force-field very hard, then hobbled to the bunk and collapsed on it, trying to think of a way out of the situation.  
 **  
**

* * *

"You were right, Davidson, the guy's completely nuts," Sergeant Sawyer commented, entering the break room and taking off his helmet to scratch his head with his free hand. "Absolutely barking mad. Won't shut up about Dragon and artificial intelligences. He's obsessed with her."

"She warned us he was," Davidson laughed, popping the tab on a can of soda. "His friends are nearly as bad, but that guy is one of the craziest people I've ever met. I nearly had to foam him again just to get him to shut up for five minutes."

"Well, in a couple of hours he's the Canadian's problem again, which is none too soon in my opinion," Sawyer said, shaking his head for a moment. "Poor bastard. He'll end up in some sort of institute, mark my words. Drugged to the eyeballs on Thorazine or something."

"At least he'll be quiet, then," Davidson replied sourly, sipping his drink. "Noisiest prisoner we've had for years."

"True, that," his superior snickered, heading for the fridge and something to eat.

* * *

"Lisa, look at this," Alec said, waving her over when he saw her come out of the kitchen of their base. She glanced at him, seeing he was rather pale, then approached, her power giving her data as she did so.  
 _  
Scared, found out information that worries him._

 _Reading PHO._

 _Report on PHO that is terrifying._

She deliberately clamped down on her abilities, then accepted the notebook computer he handed her. "There's more information on that Raptaur thread that was posted by the guy who was saying he'd heard a drunk fisherman talking in a bar on the docks," her colleague said, pointing at the entry she'd already noticed. She read it quickly, then blinked in horror and read it again. Slumping onto the sofa beside Alec she stared into space, her power fizzing and speculating wildly.

All she could think was, ' _There really_ _ **is**_ _a bigger one!?_ _ **That**_ _big?_ '

She could only come to one of two conclusions based on the available data. Either the speculation on the PHO board was right and there actually were a family of preposterously large intelligent reptiles, possibly of alien origin, which for some reason were living in and around Brockton Bay and sending their little ones to shore, or this mystery girl was the most overpowered and versatile Changer she'd ever even heard of. She really wasn't sure which conclusion disturbed her more.

"What do we do, Tats?" Alec moaned. "Raptaur was bad enough. I don't know if I could handle there being something like her but eighty feet or more tall swimming around out there."

"Don't worry, Alec, it's PHO, so it's probably wildly exaggerated even if it is true in parts," she assured him, lying through her teeth with a calm expression that was costing her a lot to keep on her face. "Even the guy who posted it says the fisherman was drunk. He probably saw Raptaur swimming around in the dark and his imagination did the rest."

She was actually pretty sure, based on what her power was telling her, that the man in question was not only being deadly accurate but had been stone cold sober at the time, but she wasn't going to say so until she had more information. This whole thing was driving her a little nuts, not only because of the effect it had on her abilities, which even now were going erratic as she tried to draw inferences about the new report. That alone convinced her there was something to it and it related to Raptaur, the brunette, and probably Saurial. Very reluctantly she came to the conclusion that she was going to need to seek the reptilian cape out to see if she provoked the same reaction as the girl did.

But she was going to do it discreetly, from a safe distance, and very unthreateningly.

Another thought made her stop, then internally smirk. ' _I wonder if Coil is having as much trouble with this as I am,_ ' she mused. ' _Knowing him, sooner or later he's going to try to get involved. I bet that ends badly_.'

The thought cheered her up immensely. Enough that when Alec in an attempt to stop thinking about alien megafauna swimming around in the water only a couple of miles away challenged her to a video game, she accepted with a smile.

He still won, the bastard.

* * *

Reading through the PHO thread, Hannah stopped on the latest report from the contributor who had started the rumor about there being a family of even larger Raptaur-like creatures out in the bay. She read his entry and felt a momentary chill go through her. "God, that would make it bigger than _Leviathan_ ," she mumbled to herself, before shaking her head abruptly. "No evidence except a tall story from a drunk fisherman in a bar, though. It can't be true."

She thought for a moment, then added, "I hope to hell it _isn't_ true, at least." Considering the idea, she decided she wouldn't report it just yet to Director Piggot, genuinely worried about the reaction that would ensue. Raptaur was bad enough and she was a known factor. Adding unverified and probably unverifiable rumors of hugely larger related constructs swimming around in the water would only make the poor woman have some form of fit, most likely.

' _Anyway, it's very unlikely that there could be anything that large out there anyway_ ,' she thought. ' _I doubt we'll get any proof of huge sea monsters any time soon_.'

Feeling that she was correct, she closed the web browser, made a few notes in her notebook, then went back to the rest of her work, sighing about the way Colin seemed to have neatly, and without actually noticing, maneuvered her into doing a lot of his as well. If it wasn't for the fact that it gave her something to do while everyone else was asleep, she'd have been very annoyed, but as it was at least it kept her busy.

Shaking her head in fond mild irritation, she opened the next report and started going through it.

* * *

Colin leaned back and stretched, making Dragon look up from her own occupation. "Finished," he muttered. "I'm not looking forward to the next part."

Picking up the phone, he dialed a three digit internal code, then waited for a moment. "Director? I need to see you as soon as possible."


	40. Doctors and Aftermath

"All right, Armsmaster, what do you have to report?" Director Piggot asked with a faint scowl on her face, not looking particularly well. She, along with Miss Militia, Assault, Battery, Velocity, and Aegis as the leader of the wards were sitting around the main conference table in the PRT building, as she'd decided to hear his report at the main morning briefing which had just finished. The remaining Protectorate members, Dauntless and Triumph, were out on patrol. All the capes were in costume, although Assault had his mask off and was juggling three pens and a pencil, which eventually got him a slap from Battery who looked irritated, making him drop everything with a series of clattering sounds. Amused, he merely grinned at her then picked up the pencil and began walking it through his fingers with the skill of much practice.

Battery sighed, but did nothing, giving off an air of long suffering wife very convincingly.

Somewhat annoyed that the Director had not agreed to a private meeting but resigned to it, as she had been in a fouler mood than usual the last week or so, Colin glanced sideways at Dragon who was sitting beside him. The woman made a tiny sign of encouragement. He distributed a set of printouts of the report he'd spent the best part of two hours writing to everyone present. They all opened it and looked at the summary page, Assault still flipping the pencil absently through his right hand, although his eyes widened after a moment.

After some discussion, Colin and Dragon had decided not to put the ' _encounter_ ' with the huge aquatic reptile in the main report. He would deliver that verbally at the end when he, or more accurately, Dragon, had had time to gauge the mood of the room and work out the best method to mention it. He was glad to have someone so human on his side, who could understand other people so well. It was something of a mystery to him why people often reacted the way they did, the lack of logical thought was annoying.

"You finally got Saint and his people?" Battery asked, sounding pleased, as she scanned the first page quickly. She looked at Dragon, who nodded, the metallic reptilian head of her power suit somehow giving off the impression of a smile.

"Yes, we did. I'm still not entirely sure how, though, although I'm not looking a gift terrorist in the mouth," the Canadian cape quipped, making the other woman grin.

Director Piggot was reading the report carefully, making small changes to her expression that Colin knew from experience denoted a certain amount of concern, although he was somewhat at a loss to explain exactly how much. The squat blonde was a fast reader, finishing the report before anyone else. She looked up at him and Dragon a couple of times as she read, opened her mouth, then shook her head and went back to reading. Finally finishing it, she turned the pages back and looked at the front page again.

"You have no idea who is behind all this, either of you?"

"No, Director, we don't," Dragon replied respectfully before he could.

"The conclusions your drew are more than a little worrying," Piggot said after a pause. "Knowledge of both PRT and Guild capabilities and assets to that level? Not something I like hearing. It implies we have a serious information leak." She appeared very irritated by the idea, as far as Colin could see, something he agreed with.

"We already know we have at least two moles in the organization, Director," Miss Militia put in, making the older woman look at her, then begrudgingly nod.

"Unfortunately true," she grated. "But I think this suggests we're probably missing more than that. Or someone inside the PRT or Protectorate is actually responsible for all this in the first place, not just leaking information to whoever is."

"That's… very concerning," Battery said, looking troubled. Several people nodded.

"I know of no-one associated with the Protectorate who is a Tinker of the level needed to build a weapon like the one required to leave the evidence we found, Director," Armsmaster remarked, "except for perhaps myself or Dragon. I can assure you that neither of us are behind this."

"Leet, possibly?" Assault suggested, smiling a little at his own words.

Colin shook his head. "No, Leet isn't likely to be behind something of this nature, although I suspect that he could in fact do it if he wanted to. But I don't believe he is particularly interested in designing very large weapons."

"You sound pretty sure of that, Colin," Assault replied with an interested look. The Tinker nodded.

"I have… a certain amount of respect for Leet due to new information I received recently under the Endbringer Truce protocols," he said carefully, not wanting to go into the whole ' _nuclear-powered shotgun_ ' concept before he and Dragon could finalize the design and properly simulate it. Assault looked curious, as did most of the others present, but no one pushed as they all recognized the expression he was wearing as one that meant he wasn't going to say any more.

"We have gone over all the possible Tinkers who could be responsible for the damage we encountered, Director, and no one we have any information on in either Guild or PRT records matches," Dragon put in quickly, making everyone look at her instead. "Nor can we come up with a combination of technologies from several different Tinkers working together, such as in the case of Toybox, that would do it."

"So, a new one. Or more than one," Piggot sighed, sounding put-upon. "As if we didn't have enough to do." She looked at them for a moment. "Estimated threat level?"

"Extremely high, A class at the minimum," Armsmaster promptly replied, making her look even less happy. "Assuming hostile intent. However, that said, we have reason to believe that whoever is behind this is not actively hostile, or villainous. We're not convinced they're heroic either, but a well-meaning rogue of significant ability might fit the evidence. Someone who is more or less neutral at present but with a bias toward law and order rather than law-breaking."

"That's… slightly less worrying," she admitted sourly. "Only slightly, though. The description of this… ' _Beam Weapon_ '?" She looked enquiringly at him. Armsmaster nodded. "… That you wrote about makes it sound fairly terrifying. Not to mention the other one."

"That is an understatement, Director," Dragon commented. Connecting a cable from her suit to the control unit sitting on the table, she made a set of three high resolution screens descend from the ceiling at the end of the table, one large one with a smaller one either side of it. Images began appearing in a slow slide show on the main screen with tables of data on the subsidiary ones relating to them. "The kinetic energy weapon, whatever it really is, is the easiest one to understand. We found two definite impact sites, one much larger than the other. The smaller of the two suggests an energy release equivalent of approximately one ton of TNT, already at a level that would kill many Brutes and any unprotected human instantly. It is a sufficiently large explosion to, for example, destroy this building fairly convincingly."

"That was the _smaller_ one?" Aegis sounded horrified.

Dragon glanced at him and nodded. "Yes. The larger one was _much_ larger." The image changed to show the remains of the small rocky island that had been almost entirely destroyed. "This one was approximately thirty-four times more energetic, enough force to devastate most of the commercial district of Brockton Bay. It would remove the PRT building completely leaving only a crater. Windows would be broken for miles from the epicenter of the blast. And that is, as far as we can determine, _entirely_ from a kinetic energy strike. No explosives, energy weapons, parahuman powers, or anything exotic. Just something hitting something else very, _very_ hard indeed."

The young man had paled while even Assault was now paying strict attention, the pencil in his hand forgotten.

"We have no reason to assume that this was the maximum output of whatever weapon created the damage," Colin added after a moment or two of silence. "I suspect that the weapon user learned enough from those two tests to make it unnecessary to continue to larger ones."

"What form do you think this weapon takes?" Velocity asked with interest. "Would it be portable? Or something like a tank gun?"

"Our current hypothesis is that it is something along the lines of a railgun, using electromagnetic force to accelerate a heavy projectile to extremely high velocities," Dragon replied. "The only problem with that idea is that I could detect no foreign contaminants that could be remains of the projectile, which is puzzling, but so far that's the best we can come up with. Possibly it's something similar to a railgun but using a different mechanism, with a slug of rock as the projectile, or something along those lines. It would be quite large, though, whatever it was, and the power requirements are… very significant." She shrugged. "Not hand held scale, no. Something much bigger."

"OK, thanks," the high speed cape nodded, making a note on a pad next to him.

"How much more output do you think such a weapon could produce?" Miss Militia asked, leaning forward and putting her elbows on the table. Colin turned to her.

"In theory, with enough power available, there probably isn't an upper limit, but in practice it would definitely be limited. We simply don't have enough data to do more than speculate but based on a feasible railgun design of the sort one could fit to a large ship such as a destroyer, perhaps three to four times the energy release we detected."

"That's still a devastating weapon, even with only four times that output as a maximum," Assault put in, pointing at the screen which was still showing the remains of the islet. "It wouldn't leave very much standing if someone fired it at us. Would the Rig force-field even handle that sort of impact?"

Armsmaster thought for a moment, then nodded a little. "It would, but probably no more than twice in a row without a significant recharge time on the order of several hours, and it would damage the generator in the process."

"So we don't want to get shot by it," the other man noted.

"Not really, no," Dragon replied. "Although it does need to be said that there's no current reason to assume that whoever is behind this intends to shoot at you, or me, or anyone else."

"Is it a sufficiently powerful weapon to damage an Endbringer?" Aegis asked with a thoughtful expression, making everyone look at him, then each other. Dragon paused, appearing to think, then shrugged slightly.

"To be honest I'm not sure. It depends on a number of factors. I suspect it would _damage_ one, but I'm fairly sure it wouldn't damage one _enough_. I'm certain it wouldn't kill one." She sighed. "They're very, very tough. The energy release of this weapon is very high, but some of the effects Eidolon has generated in the past are higher and so far he's never done more than turn an Endbringer back, eventually. But I think it would probably do a number on almost any cape I can think of in one shot, except probably Alexandria or the Siberian. Even Alexandria would feel it, though."

"OK," the young man said after a moment, seeming interested and worried at the same time.

"What about the other weapon?" Director Piggot asked, after a short silence as everyone digested what they'd learned.

"Ah, now that is where it gets really interesting," Dragon commented, putting another image on the main screen, this one a satellite picture of the Quebec coastal area before the whatever-it-was had wandered through. "Note these islands here, here, this group over here, and these ones in a line up to here. Plus this big one at the end. That's where Saint had his base." She waited for everyone to look back to her when they'd examined the picture. "That image was taken a month ago as part of a standard mapping survey. The scene was like that up until sometime after two AM Eastern Standard Time this morning."

Moving it to one of the smaller monitors, she put up the ' _after_ ' shot she'd shown Colin some hours before on the central large one. "However, now it looks like this."

There was dead silence in the room for nearly thirty seconds.

It was broken by Assault letting out a low whistle. "Holy _shit_. How many are missing?"

"Over a track of seventy-eight miles, at least fifteen islands are completely gone. Seven are severely damaged, crushed or blown to rubble by something other than the kinetic weapon. So far we have no idea what. And the large one has a rather significant piece missing right through the middle."

"How _big_ is that trench?" Miss Militia choked out, staring in horror.

"Slightly more than three hundred and twenty feet wide, and over a mile long, through solid granite for the most part." Dragon's voice was somber. "The vast majority of the material removed is simply _gone_ as far as either of us can determine. Quite possibly all of it. That's something like eighteen million tons of rock disappearing into thin air without leaving any residue, blast effects, radiation, or anything else we could measure. Some seismic traces mainly due to the sudden removal of all that mass from the surroundings making them recoil, but that's about it."

There were a number of very pale faces in the room. Director Piggot looked like a banana from a complexion standpoint and seemed to be having difficulty breathing.

"It is also a very precise weapon," Colin added helpfully. "The shot that bisected the island was carefully calculated to eliminate over half of the underground base that Saint was using, the half with the weapons and stolen dragon suits, as well as most of the life support facilities, but leave everything else untouched. Less than a yard from the edge of the trench nothing was damaged at all. Admittedly it's overkill for the job but it was also efficient at doing the task required with no unwanted side effects. Quite impressive, really."

For some odd reason he noticed that his words didn't seem to have made anyone look any happier. He covertly glanced at Dragon who just looked back at him for a moment then turned away. ' _People are very difficult to understand_ ,' he sighed mentally, resolving to ask later what he'd done wrong this time.

Miss Militia was staring at the image on the monitor with her hands holding the edge of the table nearly hard enough to leave marks, a look of horror in her eyes. "Eighteen million tons of rock?" she whispered.

Dragon nodded. "Yes. I am also more than a little horrified."

"And those other islands?"

"Mostly destroyed by the same thing," she replied. "The damage started out very high and got steadily more accurate and more focused until by the end of the test series it was precisely destroying only small areas, less than fifty yards square. There was remarkably little collateral damage from the last half dozen strikes from what we could measure. I assume that by then the operators had dialed in the parameters of the device very accurately."

"We think that they fired several shots at each island, then when they had finished with it, destroyed the remains to remove as much evidence of their test program as possible," Colin continued for his friend.

"Is… Is that the maximum damage the damn thing can produce?" Piggot finally recovered enough to ask.

"No, Director, I'm afraid it isn't." Dragon looked at her, then Armsmaster, before slightly reluctantly switching to the next image, the one that showed the initial gouge out of the sea bed which had entirely removed an island down to its roots. "This was the first shot. The trench this one left is over six miles long, several times the amount of damage the last one produced." Piggot stared in horror, making small sounds of distress, her face a very unhealthy color. "We have no particular reason to believe that this is at full power either."

Several seconds passed more or less in silence.

* * *

"Medical team to Conference Room Two, Stat!" The call over the PRT internal public announcement system provoked an instant response, the infirmary that was on the second floor and was second only to Brockton General in ability and resources disgorging three paramedics, a doctor, and two carts full of equipment and supplies in under twenty seconds.

They raced for the elevator, which was being held open for them by a PRT trooper. As soon as they were on board he waved his ID card over the reader which immediately locked out all the other elevators in that bank to avoid anyone getting in the way, then slammed the doors shut and headed at three times the normal speed to the relevant floor, the doors zipping open again when it halted. The team and their equipment were in the room less than a minute after Battery's hasty call. She pointed at Director Piggot who was gray and breathing with difficulty, Armsmaster and Dragon waving some diagnostic equipment over her.

The pair stepped out of the way, passing on the information they'd gathered to the doctor who listened for a moment, then nodded. He directed the paramedics in a quick diagnostic of their own, before administering a series of injections while the director was given oxygen.

Five minutes later the blonde woman was weakly pushing them away. "I'm fine, go away," she grumbled, slowly recovering her color. The doctor glared at her.

"You are _not_ fine, Director, you had a minor cardiac event which you need further treatment for, and your dialysis is clearly not working as well as it should be. You need hospitalization and to be honest at least two weeks of bed rest in my opinion. Or an appointment with Panacea, which I have recommended on more than one occasion."

"Not an option," she snapped. "We've had this conversation before, Doctor Torres. I'll be fine for now, I'm due for dialysis later after the meeting so you can poke and prod me then, but right now I'm busy. Thank you for your help, you can go."

"Director, I must point out that I feel you are..." He was cut off by a glare of her own. Sighing, he shrugged, motioning to the other medical personnel who packed away everything and followed him out of the room. He stuck his head back in a moment later. "Don't leave it too long, Director. That wasn't quite a heart attack, but the next one will be. Stay calm and don't get worked up. I'm serious, you need further treatment as soon as possible."

"Out!"

He sighed again and disappeared.

Walking down the corridor much more slowly than he'd arrived, he turned his head to the lead paramedic. "Make sure we have the crash cart on standby, please, Ellen."

The woman nodded without replying.

"God, that woman is stubborn to a level that's self-destructive," the doctor muttered as they all got back into the elevator which descended at a far more sedate pace than it had arrived at. Low sounds of agreement came from his team.

* * *

"Director, are you sure you should be continuing the meeting?" Dragon asked carefully, inspecting the woman closely. She was somewhat worried. "You really don't look well."

"I'll be fine, Dragon, thanks for your concern, but I need to hear the rest of it." Director Piggot took a deep drink from the glass of water that Miss Militia handed her, then closed her eyes for a moment. "Continue with your report, please, both of you."

The AI glanced at Armsmaster, who seemed resigned to it. "All right. Well, as I said, we have no evidence to suggest that the first shot from this mystery weapon is actually the highest output possible, I'm afraid. We know nothing at all about its operating parameters, recycle time, energy requirements, even physical size and appearance. I suspect it is mounted on something of considerable size but beyond that we're at a loss."

"But it can remove large chunks of the landscape without any real effort," Velocity noted in a low voice. She looked over at him, then nodded.

"Yes, it would appear so."

"I'll bet that would hurt an Endbringer," Assault snickered. "Tough or not."

"I suspect you're right, Assault," she agreed. "It might even be enough to kill one. But the collateral damage could be… somewhat large. Not to mention we have no idea who invented it, who used it, where they are, or whether they'd actually agree to either use it themselves or allow someone else to in the event of an Endbringer attack."

"Way too many unknowns in all of this," Battery sighed.

"To put it mildly, yes." Dragon shrugged. "The entire thing is very peculiar by any standards."

Massaging her forehead, color slowly coming back into her cheeks, Director Piggot sighed heavily. "This is insane," she muttered. "OK. Talk us through it again, from the beginning. I want to try to understand this mess, before I have to explain it to anyone higher up."

"All right, Director." Dragon went back to the initial acoustic trace data and displayed it. "At approximately twelve forty seven EST last night, I detected via the SOSUS underwater monitoring network a mystery object moving at speeds in excess of two hundred and fifty miles an hour roughly northwards, apparently originating here, about fifty miles north of Brockton Bay..." She brought up the same map she'd shown Colin very early that morning, talking them through the entire sequence of events.

There were quite a few questions from almost everyone present. Eventually, she had covered everything up to the capture of Saint and his people. "At that point, we detected the underwater bogey, or what seemed to be the same trace as far as I could determine, heading south and east at even higher speed, already nearly halfway to the edge of the continental shelf. We went after it, thinking that with the use of my underwater drone, we might be at least able to identify it if nothing else."

"I notice your report is more than a little blank about the results of that exercise," Director Piggot said, looking at Armsmaster, who nodded slightly. Dragon could tell he was reluctant to speak, so she did instead.

"There were some… anomalies… with our attempts at interception," she began carefully, "that we didn't want to put into the report until we discussed it with you. Armsmaster felt it would be better if you had time to consider the matter before it went on record."

"He did, did he?" Piggot asked slightly suspiciously, glancing between them, then fixing Colin with her gaze. "Why?"

"We're not entirely sure that what we found is actually connected to the covert weapons tests," the Tinker replied. "The probability is that it is, but we have no direct evidence."

"What did you find?" she asked.

"I'm… not entirely sure," he admitted. Turning to Dragon he gave her what she felt was a slightly hopeful look, which made her smile internally. She picked up the story again.

"The first attempt at interception was… partially successful," she said. Everyone turned to her. "Armsmaster piloted my probe to the calculated depth and orientation, we were hoping to catch a glimpse of the underwater contact as whatever was causing it passed by, since the probe was far to slow to catch up. We were working on the basis of a stealthed supercavitating submarine of some form, which fitted the limited data we had."

"Was it that?" Aegis asked curiously.

She shook her head. "Not as such, no." Bringing up another graph on one of the screens, she indicated it with a finger. "The bogey apparently detected the probe at a considerable distance and engaged some form of detection countermeasures which were extremely effective. I lost contact with it completely. Shortly after the point in time it should have passed by, a pressure wave approached from behind the probe, at still high but much lower speed. There were two more from different directions in quick succession then the trace vanished, with only circumstantial evidence suggesting it resumed a similar heading to its original one, a few degrees more east in an apparent attempt to lose us."

"It was checking you out, you mean," Assault suggested, causing her to glance at him.

"Yes, I believe so. I think it circled the probe at least twice, probably to inspect it, then left the scene. There was no obvious hostile intent, merely curiosity."

"What happened next?" Miss Militia asked.

"I calculated the most likely spot for a second attempt at an interception, although with less than a seventy percent chance of being close enough to see anything, then we deployed the probe again. As it happens I was either close enough from the beginning or _it_ altered course to intercept _us_." She paused, exchanging a look with her friend, who seemed just the tiniest bit unsure, based on what she could read of his expression. It was unlikely that anyone else would notice.

"Don't stop there, spit it out," Piggot sighed. "What happened? Did you identify the submarine?"

"Not… exactly." Dragon sighed a little. "As I said, even though we went dark, it still detected us, and basically jumped the probe from underneath."

"And?"

"And it ate it."

There was dead silence for a moment.

"Excuse me?" Director Piggot looked as confused as everyone else, which was very. "Did you just say that a submarine ate your probe?"

"It wasn't a submarine, but yes, it ate my probe. In one bite."

Dragon watched with some curiosity as Miss Militia and Director Piggot exchanged a quick look with each other, both of them paling slightly. ' _Odd_ ,' she thought. ' _I wonder what that's about?_ '

"One bite?" Battery sounded shocked. "What was it, a shark or something?"

"No."

Dragon looked around the table, then flipped the image on the screen to the best frame of the last second or so of video they'd recorded. "It was this."

A series of curses and expressions of shock sounded, Aegis went white, Assault froze with his pencil, which he'd been playing with again, falling from his hand, and Miss Militia gaped, a totally horrified expression playing across her face which had gone a faint green color. Dragon watched her, becoming more interested by the moment.

Moments later there was a thump on the floor, making everyone look.

"Medical team to Conference Room Two, Stat! Code Blue. I repeat, Code Blue."

Doctor Torres sighed, glancing at his colleague. Ellen looked at her watch, then held out her hand, even as she was nearly running past him. He slapped a ten dollar bill into it with an annoyed expression, then grabbed the other end of the crash cart and helped her push it down the corridor to the elevator, which was yet again on standby with a trooper waiting for them.

When they arrived in the conference room, Director Piggot was lying on the floor, not breathing, with Velocity giving her mouth to mouth while Battery did chest compressions. Armsmaster was monitoring her, and Dragon was tending to Miss Militia, who looked like she'd nearly had something similar happen to her, being so pale he judged her blood pressure was dangerously low. Snapping quick orders he had one of the paramedics take over for the Canadian cape who stepped aside, while he and the other two pounced on the unmoving body of the Director, Velocity and Battery scrambling to get out of the way.

"Stupid woman," he growled. "I warned her about this. I've been trying to get her to go to Panacea for two years. Or get a kidney transplant. Or just slow down, for god's sake." He kept muttering as he worked. Ellen handed him the defibrillator paddles, having coated them with conductive gel and charged the device.

"Clear!" Everyone let go of the woman, he applied the paddles with the confidence of long practice, and pressed the button. With a thump the capacitors discharged and the body on the floor convulsed.

"Sinus rhythm present, Doctor," Ellen reported, looking at the ECG output. A second later the machine let out a squeal. "And now it's gone again."

"Oh, for god's sake you damn woman, just do something sensible for once will you?" he mumbled, trying again. Once more the charging whine was followed by a thump.

"Sinus rhythm again, looks good."

"Great. Now all we have to do is keep her alive for the next twenty minutes, and she might make it." He rocked back on his heels as everyone else remained silent, the room full of superheroes watching. "For a while, anyway. This woman is not in good health."

The ECG beeped a couple of times, making him check the display, then frown. "That's not good. There's a lot of damage to her heart."

"Can you do anything, Doctor?" Battery asked with concern evident in her voice.

After a moment's thought, he nodded. "The thing I should have done months ago." Pulling a cell phone from his pocket having taken off one of his bright purple sterile gloves, he looked up a number then hit connect. "She can yell at me later."

Everyone exchanged glances as he waited for the phone to be answered, which it was moments later. "Hello, Panacea? This is Doctor Torres, from the PRT. We met a couple of months ago at Brockton General, I was helping with the multiple trauma case from that nasty bus crash, if you remember? I'm sorry to bother you on a Sunday but I have a patient here that is in urgent need of parahuman healing." He listened for a moment. "Director Piggot. End stage kidney failure, serious cardiac damage, just arrested twice but currently stable. A number of other things but those are the main ones right now."

Everyone listened, several people looking worried. Director Piggot's objections to parahuman healing were well known.

"No, I know what you mean, but she has never actually filed either a DNR or a no parahuman healing order. I'll take responsibility if you're worried."

A short pause, then he nodded. "Thank you. There will be a trooper waiting at the main entrance." He disconnected then put the phone away, looking up to see everyone staring at him. "What?"

"Director Piggot has been vehemently against engaging Panacea for her medical problems, Doctor," Velocity said carefully. "I think she might be… upset… with you about all this."

"Tough. Her records don't have either a do not resuscitate order, _or_ a no parahuman healing one. As senior medical officer here, my duty and legal obligation is to save her life, and in the absence of either of those, I'm free to engage the aid of Panacea. Director Piggot can bitch about it afterwards, but at least she'll be alive to bitch. She…" He was cut off by the ECG suddenly becoming very upset again and swore. "...is having another cardiac arrest. Christ."

They all watched as the medical team got back to work.

* * *

Amy looked at her phone, with her eyebrows raised and a certain amount of worry warring with curiosity in her mind. "Who was it, Sis?"

"Doctor Torres, the lead doctor at the BB PRT," she replied to Vicky, who was looking at her with an expression of interest. "Director Piggot is in serious trouble and he asked me to come and help."

"She hates parahumans," the blonde exclaimed, looking surprised. "Everyone knows that."

Amy shrugged. "I know, but she's in no state to complain, and Doctor Torres is making a medical decision." She sighed. "I don't like the woman much but everyone says she's damn competent, so I guess it would be a bad thing if she died."

"Cold, Ames, very cold," her sister commented, making her produce a small dark smile.

"You have _any_ idea how many people I've healed in the last month, Vicky?" she asked. "Trust me, after a while, you get used to seeing it, it's just a job by now." Amy frowned a little. "Sorry, but I can't really get all that enthusiastic about fixing yet _another_ heart attack. Especially for someone who looks at me like she thinks I'm about to rob a bank. You know what she's like."

Her sister nodded with a small sigh. The woman in question wasn't precisely subtle about her disapproval of Parahumans in general, and certainly ones who weren't under Protectorate direction. "I do. She's not the nicest person I know."

"Not really, no," Amy agreed. She looked around. Both of them were in the middle of Brockton Bay, Vicky having wanted to go shopping had dragged her sister with her, telling her she needed to get out more. As a result they were only about a mile from the PRT building.

"Come on, you can give me a lift. The sooner we get there the better, by the sound of it."

Smiling, Vicky picked her shorter sister up and lifted off, rapidly heading over the buildings towards the one in question, while behind them, various pedestrians took photos before going about their business.

When they arrived at the PRT facility a trooper standing beside the entrance jogged over. "This way, Ma'am," he said politely, indicating the door. He glanced a little uncertainly at Vicky, who grinned at him.

"I'll wait out here for her."

"Thank you, miss," he replied gratefully, guiding Amy inside the building and to the elevator which another trooper was holding for them.

Shortly they were jogging down a corridor several floors up. Opening the door, he motioned her through, to see a room full of familiar faces looking at her. She flushed just a little at the attention, before glancing around, to find Doctor Torres kneeling next to the comatose form of the PRT Director, who was a nasty gray color and barely breathing, an oxygen mask over her face. The man looked over his shoulder, relief in his eyes.

"Thank god. Hurry, I don't think she's got long."

Rushing across the room Amy dropped to her knees next to the woman, putting her hands on the exposed skin of her face and concentrating. The news wasn't good. "Her dialysis isn't working very well," she said absently, "And her heart is shot. I'm amazed she's been functioning at all." Luckily the woman was overweight, as it gave her lots of mass to cannibalize for materials, she thought as she began working. Quickly making sure her patient wouldn't wake, as she wanted to be completely finished before the woman realized what was happening, she rebuilt her kidneys, heart, liver, and spleen, all of which were on the verge of failing completely, cured the diabetes, fixed half a dozen more problems that she found, then gave her an overall tune up to make sure this sort of thing wouldn't happen again.

The ECG which was still connected had settled down to a contented faint beeping in a slow rhythm, making the paramedic monitoring it look pleased. "Blood pressure is back to normal, Doctor," she reported as well.

"I think that's all I can do," Amy reported, sitting back and letting go of the woman. "She's going to need bed rest and a lot of food for a couple of days but other than that she's in good condition now. She's just asleep, you can wake her up easily. I should probably not be here when you do, I don't want to get shouted at." She smirked at the doctor who grinned at her. "She's going to be pretty mad, though."

"That's my problem, not yours, Panacea. Thank you very much for coming on such short notice. I'm sorry I interrupted your Sunday."

"It's OK, Doctor, I was just down the road anyway," she assured him. For some reason she'd actually almost enjoyed this medical emergency despite her earlier words to her sister, it was sufficiently different from the normal boring hospital work that it was a nice diversion. Standing up she smiled at the other people and turned to leave, suddenly spotting the large monitor hanging from the ceiling and what was displayed on it.

Amy stared at the huge sea monster set against a backdrop of black, tiny flecks of white like stars speckling the background, a gaping mouth lined with more teeth than seemed reasonable approaching the camera. It was a remarkably clear shot, although it was obviously taken underwater. Armsmaster noticed the direction of her gaze and quickly poked a control on the table, making the monitor go blank.

"That looked… very large," she said after a moment or two, glancing at him. He looked back without replying, his mouth in a line, although she noticed that he'd flicked a look at Dragon who was also watching her. "And hungry."

Checking her watch, she smiled. "Which reminds me. I need something to eat. Goodbye, Doctor, everyone." Leaving the room in the company of the same trooper who had brought her up, she walked down the corridor, thinking hard.

One thing about the image had instantly stood out to her.

' _Taylor, I recognize those eyes. What the hell are you doing? And what the hell_ _ **can**_ _you do? That thing must have been huge!_ '

* * *

Colin watched the door close behind Panacea, then turned to Dragon, who seemed thoughtful. She looked at him, then at the Director, who was groaning a little as Doctor Torres woke her.

"Christ, what the hell happened?" the woman, who looked vastly healthier and somewhat less overweight, said as she sat up on the floor.

"You had a major heart attack, Emily," the doctor told her, helping her to her feet. "We restarted you three times but the damage was severe. You very nearly died."

"I feel fine now although very hungry," she noted, massaging her temples for a moment. "What did you do? I..." She froze, then turned a basilisk glare on him. To his credit he didn't react. "Panacea. You called Panacea."

"Yes. Without her you'd be dead now." He fixed her with his own look which was nearly as fierce. "I've been telling you for a long time that this was inevitable. You don't look after yourself, you're the worst patient I've ever had, and your stubbornness damn near killed you just now. You took the choice out of my hands."

"You know my feelings about parahuman healing, _Doctor_ ," she hissed. Unmoved, he shrugged a little.

"If you genuinely didn't want it you should have had a no parahuman involvement order on file. No order, nearly dead patient, I did what I had to."

"The PRT can't afford to owe Panacea a favor," she exploded. "The politics are..."

"Utterly irrelevant to me," he snarled. " _I_ am the one who owes Panacea a favor, if you want to look at it like that. I don't and I don't think she does either, but it's on me, not you or the PRT. I did my duty, which was to keep you alive and healthy. If you really want to you can file an official complaint but nothing I did was outside my remit. I took a medical decision that I think you'll find was completely justified under the circumstances, and in fact what I was legally obliged to."

The director glared at him, while he glared back, and everyone else present kept very quiet. Eventually she shook her head. "We'll talk later about this."

"Fine. I'll let you finish this, but I want to see you no later than three hours from now. Get something to eat first. After your oh so important meeting I'm putting you on medical leave for two days." He raised a hand as she opened her mouth. "No, this is a decision you can't overrule. You need sleep, food, and some rest. There are a lot of competent people here who can make sure the world doesn't end while you take it easy for a little while. For god's sake, Emily, just listen for once in your life. I know more about this that you do, pay attention. You can go right back to terrifying everyone on Wednesday."

More than a little impressed by the sheer courage the doctor exhibited, Armsmaster watched the face of the director, which had gone through several color changes and expressions, but finally settle on what he tentatively marked down as ' _resigned_ '.

"You're a hard man to like, Jon," she sighed.

"Ironic, isn't it," he smirked, motioning to his team, who had been quietly clearing up the equipment and supplies they'd used. The paramedics began wheeling the crash cart to the door. "Three hours. Then you're off duty for two days. If you complain I'll make it three."

She scowled, but just waved a hand at him then the door. He headed that way. "Don't be too upset, Director," he laughed. "Remember, no more dialysis, that's got to be worth it if nothing else."

As he and the others left, she looked thoughtful, and Colin would almost be prepared to swear, pleased. After a moment she noticed everyone staring at her. "Stop that," she snapped, sitting down again. "We still have a lot to discuss. What _was_ that thing?"

The abrupt change of topic made them blink although Dragon reacted with admirable speed and aplomb, quickly turning the monitors which he'd turned off back on. Everyone slowly retook their seats.

"We're not sure," she admitted as they all looked at the image of the probe-eating sea serpent. Showing the computer interpolation of the creature, with a scale to indicate how large it really was, seemed to make everyone somewhat nervous. That he had no trouble understanding. Hannah particularly seemed to be staring fixedly at the screen, pale faced. "It's a good two hundred feet long and far larger than anything that has ever lived. I would also suggest it's not an animal, it's most likely very intelligent."

"You can tell that from the eyes," Aegis remarked, staring nearly as intently as Miss Militia was. "It looks smart and alert."

"And familiar," Battery said slowly, looking at the image, then around the table. "Is it my imagination or do those eyes look just like Raptaur's?"

"We noticed the similarity," Dragon told her. "There's no proof of a linkage, of course, but..." She shrugged. "I personally suspect that they are related somehow."

Aegis seemed troubled. "You mean that there really _are_ huge reptiles living in the bay?"

"I don't know," Dragon replied, switching her attention to him. "Again, the evidence is circumstantial at best. Don't forget, this encounter was nearly a thousand miles away from here."

"At the speed this thing swims that's only three hours travel time, though," Assault noted, making her nod a little.

"True enough."

Colin was watching Director Piggot, who was currently exchanging an unreadable look with Hannah, both of them rather pale. "Should we ask Raptaur or Saurial in to discuss this?" he suggested, at least partly to see what happened. The director twitched, staring at him for a moment, before shaking her head.

"No. Leave both of them alone for now. I don't want any word of this getting out." She seemed worried now. "We don't have any proof of a connection as Dragon has said, so it's premature to jump to conclusions. Thank you both for bringing this to my attention." She abruptly seemed quite eager to bring the meeting to a close. "Don't talk about this to anyone. Aegis, the Wards are not to hear about this, do you understand?"

Looking somewhat confused the young man nodded. "Yes, Director."

"Keep me informed if anything else similar happens, but for now, we're going to wait," she added, looking around the table. "There's no indication of an immediate threat, if that changes we'll rethink it, however at the moment we seem to have a number of quite possibly unrelated although admittedly very peculiar observations. I'm going to have to consider what, if any, response we develop to them."

Turning to Dragon, she went on, "Thank you very much for the information, Dragon, and congratulations on the capture of Saint and his people. If you have any more insight on the weapons tests, I would appreciate hearing about them."

"Certainly, Director," the woman replied politely. "I'll keep you updated."

"Armsmaster, I'll re-read your report very carefully, and I may want clarification on a number of points." Director Piggot looked at him. "I'm going to need to work out the best way to pass this on to the Chief Director." He also nodded. Hopefully that meant he could soon get back to something more useful.

"Remember, people, not a word of this gets out of this room," she added, before reaching out and closing the report she'd been reading. "Leave all copies of this behind. I think that's all for today. Dismissed."

Everyone looked at each other then stood up. "Miss Militia, if you could stay for a moment, I'd like to have a word," the director said. With a nod the military cape sat down again. Colin followed Dragon out of the room, both of them heading to the elevator silently, the others going about their business. When the doors slid shut, isolating them both in the small area, she looked at him.

"That was a rather odd meeting," she said.

He grunted his agreement, deep in thought. "Was it my imagination or did Hannah react a little strangely to the image of that thing?" he asked as they descended.

"No, it wasn't your imagination," his friend replied thoughtfully. "Both she and Director Piggot reacted more than I expected to the news. I wonder why?"

"No idea," he sighed. "Oh, well, now I can get back to work, I suppose."

The towering figure next to him emitted a small laugh as the doors open. "Yes, let's do that," she said in a tone of voice he had trouble deciphering, but thought suggested amusement mixed with something else.

* * *

When the door closed behind the last of the people who had attended the meeting, Hannah looked at Director Piggot, who flicked her eyes at the security camera above the door. Getting up she disconnected it, then removed a piece of equipment from her belt and turned it on, walking around the room while studying it. "We're clean," she finally announced, sitting down again.

"Good."

They stared at each other for some seconds. "This is getting worse," Piggot finally sighed. "Now we have not only probably a ridiculously powerful Biotinker, but quite possibly _another_ Tinker who can make insanely powerful weapons, combined with one or more Thinkers? And possibly a Shaker as well, depending on how you interpret the evidence. An entire team of parahumans we never knew existed."

"I have to admit it does look that way, Director," she admitted. "That thing is… horrifying. Over two hundred feet long? It makes the rumors of what might be in the bay look a little silly but also more plausible."

"What rumors?" Piggot asked, looking suspicious. With an internal wince, Hannah explained.

"Oh, for god's sake, that's just terrifying," the other woman growled. "That's _four_ of them now! This thing clearly doesn't walk on two legs, so that fisherman didn't meet it, it must have been yet another one. How many of these things is our Biotinker going to make? And why? And where?"

Hannah shrugged helplessly. "Your guess is as good as mine. But it certainly looks like it's all connected to Brockton Bay somehow. Even this latest one, they detected it first fifty miles north of here, but that might only be because that's where it started moving fast enough for Dragon's instruments to detect it. When they lost it on the return trip, we have no idea where it actually went. It might have come back here."

"What the hell does he want a _sea serpent_ for?" her companion sputtered. "I mean that's just ridiculous! I can almost understand Raptaur and Saurial, and even a huge version of one of them barely makes sense, but a two hundred foot swimming reptile? And how does it all tie into mystery tests of weird and incredibly destructive weapons in Canada?"

"I have no idea, Director," Hannah sighed. "None at all. And I don't know how these people could know so much about our capabilities and procedures either."

"They obviously have inside help of some form," the blonde woman replied, calming down but looking very annoyed. "We need to find out who and how. I want you to draw up a short list of possible moles, then investigate them. If that doesn't show up anything, we'll expand the search. Coil is one thing, I know the bastard is getting inside information, but so far he's only a low level threat. This, though, has the possibility of being extremely dangerous. We need to find who's responsible."

"Perhaps it actually is Coil?"

The director looked thoughtful for a few seconds, but eventually shook her head a little. "I'm… less than convinced about that. I suppose it's possible but it would be a break from his previous behavior. But look into it anyway."

"Yes, Director."

"The Chief Director is going to want to know about a possible anti-Endbringer weapon as well, so we need to find this Tinker sooner or later." The short woman sighed heavily.

"Christ. Life just seems to get stranger, doesn't it?" Director Piggot shook her head in disgust. Looking down at herself, she prodded her side, then looked slightly less irritated. "Although I'll admit it's nice not hurting so much. Damn doctors, thinking they know best." Hannah suppressed a smile, thinking it wouldn't go down particularly well at the moment, but was impressed how much better the other woman looked, like twenty years had dropped from her. She still needed to exercise to get into proper shape, but the Dallon girl had obviously given her a new lease on life.

"What do you want to do about Saurial or Raptaur, if anything?" she asked when the Director looked back to her.

"As I said, at the moment, nothing. As long as they're prepared to go out and stop crime without damaging anything, we may as well let them get on with it. People actually like Saurial, and while they seem terrified of Raptaur, they're getting used to her and she's sure having an effect on crime statistics merely by existing. The Docks are calmer than they've been for years since she took out Hookwolf. I doubt it will last but it's a nice reprieve."

Piggot sighed slightly. "It would be nice to think that things would just stay more or less sane, at least for Brockton Bay, but I doubt we'll be that lucky."

Hannah shrugged, accepting the point. It was Brockton Bay after all.

"Just keep an eye on that side of things as you've been doing and concentrate on finding our mole or moles, for now. And if you meet either of them, it's probably a good idea to be polite, bearing in mind their possible relatives."

This, she could agree with. She had no wish to see what might crawl out of the bay if help was called for. Hannah shuddered a little at the thought, unable to help it.

"Do you think we should ask either of them to register with us? I doubt we'll get them to come in for power testing."

"I don't particularly want either one of them anywhere near me, actually," the blonde commented. "If you do run into them, you could mention registration, very politely, but don't push it. Raptaur doesn't strike me as someone who would respond well to being pressured."

"No, probably not," Hannah agreed. When the Director stood, she did as well.

"Destroy all these reports, please. Keep me informed and good luck with your search," the other woman said, heading for the door. "Right now I have a doctor to yell at." She opened the door and left, walking off with confident strides that were quite unlike her normal walk, radiating good health and a certain degree of irritation.

Hannah watched her go, before picking up all the copies of the report that Colin had produced, then reconnecting the security camera on her way out the door, a troubled expression on her face.

* * *

Idly wondering what the two women were discussing having disconnected the camera, Lisa closed her laptop with a violent shudder. Normally she found watching the hacked security feed of the internal PRT meetings both good entertainment and useful information. Right now, the only thing she could see in her mind's eye was a mouth large enough to swallow a pickup, full of foot long gleaming teeth, with a pair of horribly familiar yellow-orange eyes behind it looking amused.

' _I'm never going swimming again_ ,' she thought, shaking and staring at the laptop, which she nudged down the bed with her foot until it was a safe distance away.

Her power had given up completely, producing nothing but a horrific headache, which proved to her that this was all connected, but she still couldn't work out what that connection was. At the moment, she really didn't want to.

All she wanted to do was to forget those teeth.


	41. Whips and Lisa

"You're unbelievable lucky, you know," Doctor Jon Torres commented as he took the ECG leads off the chest of his patient, who was leaning back in a chair watching him closely, her shirt off. "Another five minutes and I can practically guarantee we wouldn't be having this conversation. I've been warning you for years about the state of your heart, but you never seem to pay much attention." Rolling up the cables he tucked them away into the side of the machine then closed it up.

Sitting down across from her he looked at the screen of his computer for a moment. "Panacea, once again, has done incredible work. Your heart is in perfect health, as is the rest of you. It's up to you to keep it that way. You're still about twenty pounds heavier than I'd like to see, so I've arranged to have the dietitian talk to you when you get back. Six months of exercise and good food and you'll be in excellent condition, though."

Emily Piggot sighed. "I don't like owing a parahuman my life," she started, making him stare at her then shake his head.

"Don't start, Emily, please. I know all the arguments, you've expressed them several times before. Learn to live with it. In fact, be very pleased that you _can_ live with it. I told you, it's on me, I requested Panacea's help, and if there's any fallout I'll deal with it myself."

"If you can."

"If I can. But I think I can." He smiled for a moment. "I'm still here, I've been working for the PRT for nearly fifteen years, and I've seen directors come and go. Yet here I sit. Don't worry. Go home, have a decent meal, and relax." He slid a sheet of paper across the desk to her. "A suggested interim diet to make up for the stresses being healed put on your body. I'll see you here Wednesday morning, but I don't want to see or hear you until then, got it? You need to rest."

With ill grace she took the paper, looked briefly at it, then folded it up and put it in her pocket, before putting her shirt back on and doing it up. "You took a real chance, Jon," she commented as she stood.

"I did my job. Now go, rest, then come back and do yours."

He watched as she left the room, closing the door behind her, then smiled to himself. "You always were too stubborn for your own damn good, you annoying woman," he muttered, saving the ECG reading to her records before going to look for some lunch.

* * *

Waking from her nap and feeling remarkably good, Taylor smiled at the ceiling for a moment, remembering recent events with satisfaction, before flipping the covers aside and jumping out of bed. Going to the window she looked out to see the day had turned overcast, although it wasn't raining yet, just being very dull and dreary. Deciding she didn't care she went into the bathroom and took care of business, then headed downstairs.

"Hi, Dad," she said as she found her father in his study in front of his computer, typing rapidly on the keyboard without looking at it while reading a pile of handwritten notes beside the screen. "How's it going?"

He looked up at her, pushing his glasses up with a finger in a familiar gesture she knew of old, then smiled. "Very well, Taylor, I've nearly finished the proposal. I need to get some details from the teams who were checking the various parts of the rail infrastructure and a few things like that, but I'm going to call the Mayor's office tomorrow morning and make an appointment for Tuesday afternoon. This will be finished by then. I'd expect he'll be pleased with the results, it all looks very feasible. A couple of the costs are higher than I initially expected, but some other ones are actually lower, so it all balances out pretty close to what I was hoping."

Leaning back he put his hands behind his head and stretched, producing a cracking sound from his spine, then stood up. "But I need another cup of coffee right now."

Shortly they were in the living room, her on the sofa and him in his chair. Her father took a sip then smiled at her. "Have you recovered from your little expedition now?" he asked.

Taylor laughed briefly at the concept of a two thousand mile swim as ' _a little expedition_ ', making his smile widen. "Pretty much, yes," she replied, "I wasn't actually exhausted, just pleasantly tired. It's not as much work as you'd expect, really, I could probably go quite a lot further before I really needed to rest, but it's nice to relax after all that time. It was a lot of fun and well worth it, though."

"And you even brought me a souvenir," he chuckled, picking up the scrap of twisted metal from the coffee table where he'd left it that morning, looking at it again. "I wonder who that machine belonged to?"

"No idea, all it smelled of was mechanical things and electronics," she shrugged. "But it was getting annoying. Following someone around and throwing tiny submarines at them is rude."

Her father thought about it for a moment then nodded, grinning. "I can see where you might think that, yes." Rolling the metal fragment between his fingers, he added, "I thing I might get the boys to mount this on a nice piece of old reclaimed teak or something and put a little brass plate on it. ' _Why you don't bother the sea monsters_.' Or words along those lines. It would make a nice desk ornament."

Taylor giggled at the idea, shaking her head, while he looked pleased. "I suppose it would, Dad. Oh, while I think about it, I had a look at the silted channel on the way back, it's not too bad so I think I can clear it out. I poked around in the mud, it seems to be about fifty feet deep in the place it's been filling up since the tanker sank, with one small spot that might be about eighty feet or so. I was thinking that I'd go out again tonight and try moving some of it and see how well it works, as the tide is going out. I checked the tide times, it turns at half past eleven, so I'll have a few hours to work."

"How are you going to do it?" he asked curiously. "Make an enormous shovel and dig?"

She smiled at his suggestion. "I did think of that at first, but Varga suggested something more like a plow. We thought I could drop it into the silt, pay out a couple of hundred yards of cable, then pull it along the channel. It might take several passes but it should get most of it moving and the tide will do the rest, hopefully. Although neither of us is sure whether it will taken more than one nights work." She shrugged a little. "If it does, I'll just go back until it's finished."

Looking thoughtful, her father considered the suggestion, then ultimately nodded. "I can't see any major problems with that idea, so you may as well go ahead. In an ideal world the channel would be dredged and the silt dumped outside the bay but I guess redistributing it works as well."

"At the seaward end I can get it outside the bay easily, but it would be simpler to let it wash away and settle out at the shore end, at least until the tanker is gone," she agreed. "Once that happens I can do a better job, or even make the channel deeper or wider."

He nodded, saying, "I'll add that to the proposal as well. It could be a very useful selling point. If we can increase the depth and width of the deep water part of the bay to allow larger ships in it could make a huge difference to how much business the port could attract. I suspect the Mayor is going to find this all very interesting, although there are going to be a lot of people who get quite confused by the whole thing." He grinned to himself. "I still have an almost overwhelming urge to say nothing to the PRT and just let them find out when they see Kaiju's head break the surface as you're towing the ship." Both of them laughed at the idea. "What I'd give to see Director Piggot's face at that point. But it would be irresponsible, I suppose. We don't want the Endbringer sirens going off and everyone panicking."

"How are we going to avoid that anyway?" Taylor asked, momentarily worried. "When people see me in daylight as Kaiju they're going to _freak!_ Maybe I should do it at night."

"I doubt that will help, dear, the length of time you'll need will make it certain that people will notice sooner or later and word will get around." He sighed slightly. "The Mayor and I will have to discuss how to manage the public relations side of things. That is in some ways the hardest part of the whole thing, people are… not comfortable… with very large creatures approaching from the water. Not with Leviathan out there killing people on a regular basis."

Taylor nodded a little uncertainly, but decided that it wasn't anything she could do much about right now. "OK. Let me know what you need me to do. I want to help as much as you want this to succeed." She smiled at him. "We'll see that ferry going again yet, Dad."

"I'm genuinely beginning to believe we will," he laughed. Moving to sit beside her, he put his arm around her shoulders and hugged her. "All thanks to you and your immense otherworldly companion." Leaning on him, she felt pleased, as did the Varga.

"We're both happy to help," she assured him. After a minute or so, she added, "I'm going to go back to the DWU yard and practice some more for a while, I think, then go and wander around as Saurial until later."

He checked his watch. "It's only just after noon now, so if you're going to go for an exploratory dredge around midnight, you have lots of time to kill."

"I'm sure something will come up, it usually does," she snickered, straightening up as he released her. "This has been a pretty good weekend so far, all things considered."

"Try not to terrify that poor fisherman again, dear," he suggested as she stood up and stretched. She grinned at him.

"I can't entirely promise I won't say hi if I see him," she giggled, making him sigh a little. "He seemed nice. But a little confused."

"I wonder why?" her father questioned in a wry tone, which made both her and the Varga laugh. She shrugged.

"No idea, I was very polite. Anyway, I'll see you later, Dad."

"Take care, and don't wreck the yard if you can help it. We're still repairing the fence as it is. There wasn't enough chain link in stock so we had to put up temporary walls until the new supplies arrive during the week." He grinned as she put her hands on her hips and looked at him.

"I won't break anything," she assured him with a look of amusement. "Or if I do, we'll fix it. Hey, do you want me to fix that fence? I could make one out of Vargastuff, that's never going to break."

Looking thoughtful, her father considered the suggestion for a while but eventually shook his head. "I think that an unbreakable fence might cause some problems if we ever needed to remove part of it, which happens sometimes to get very large things in and out."

"I can do it out of steel like the original, then. Or just make some more of the chain link stuff, Varga can copy what's there and we could make some rolls of it if you want."

"Now that would be very helpful, dear. If you want to, go right ahead. The normal stuff comes on rolls about two feet in diameter, anything bigger is too difficult to work with, so keep it to that, but if you want to make say, hmm, six rolls, that would be enough to fix the fence and give some left over. The new stuff we ordered we can put into stock, we'll need it later anyway."

"OK, I can do that." She smiled at him. "Once this goes ahead, we should talk about what work needs to be done on the docks. I'm happy to help out where I can without causing you and your people any problems. That could speed things up a lot, right?"

"It could do, yes," he admitted, then smiled back. "We'll need to get you and all the other yous on the books as DWU members at this rate. I don't think I can pay you much, the rules surrounding parahumans working at normal jobs are very restrictive, but we might be able to come to some arrangement."

Snickering, Taylor shook her head at him. "I don't need to be paid, Dad, I'm happy to help. It might be fun to have a DWU ID card, though. Kaiju will need a very big one."

Leaving the room as she heard him laugh behind her, she went out the back door, cloaked, and hopped the fence. Saurial landed on the other side and sprinted towards the docks, still smiling to herself.

* * *

Satisfied with her work, Taylor looked at the pile of large rolls of chain link fencing, stacked neatly to one side of the yard. She and the Varga had carefully examined the existing material then done their best to duplicate it exactly, the result being at least visually indistinguishable from the original. "That should do it," she commented happily. They'd checked the broken fence and duplicated some of the steel fence posts as well, since two of the existing ones were bent at the ground level where they were concreted in. She'd straightened them as much as she could but the steel was obviously weakened and made nasty little creaking sounds in the process, so she'd ended up leaving them at about a sixty degree angle.

"Idiot Hookwolf. Why did he have to wreck everything," she complained quietly to the Varga, who was listening and chuckling.

" _The man seemed quite excitable and not exactly smart_ ," he commented wryly. She sighed, nodding.

"He's never been known as the sharpest knife in the drawer."

Looking around the empty yard, she thought for a moment. "What should we try first? More swordwork, or something else?"

" _You should practice the dual swords some more, I think, you still aren't reaching the level I know you can, but perhaps something else would also be a good idea. That book on historical weapons your father showed us had several interesting ideas, so maybe we should try some sort of net. Or a whip, perhaps. That might be amusing_."

"Indiana Jones, here we come," she giggled. They'd watched the classic movie on DVD a few days ago. The Varga found it a lot of fun, but as he pointed out, ultimately futile, as the presence or absence of the titular character was actually irrelevant to the plot. She'd had to think about it for a while but in the end decided he was, as was often the case, right.

"OK," she agreed. "That could be fun. Let's have a whip, then." A moment later she was holding a Varga-stuff whip patterned on the movie one, making her grin. A slight weight on her head made her investigate, to find a fedora as well, completing the image. "Cool," she laughed.

Examining the whip she saw it was made of innumerable tiny segments, like the cables the Varga made to link restraints together. He'd explained that was because the substance was entirely rigid and unbendable, but by making a complex woven chain, he could overcome that limitation. It was a little like a necklace that her mother had owned, made of silver and from India, the result of a hell of a lot of delicate work by some unknown metalworker.

Hefting the whip, she coiled it up carefully, then experimentally flicked it, only to nearly fall over as it went in entirely an unexpected direction and ended up winding around her. Her tail twitching in mild irritation, she patiently unwound it while the Varga laughed like an idiot.

" _Do that again_ ," he giggled. She did, to similar effect, making him laugh enough that if he'd been in charge of their body he'd be rolling around on the floor.

"This isn't as easy as it looks," she mumbled, coiling the thing up again, then trying once more.

It took nearly half an hour, but in the end she managed to make the whip do what she wanted, the tip snapping sharply. Pleased, she tried again a few times. Putting more effort into it produced a remarkably loud crack like a gunshot, and a perceptible shock wave from the end. Asking the Varga to produce a couple of wooden training dummies, she tried snapping the whip at one of them, then gaped as it was neatly cut in half at the waist. "Oops," she said quietly. "Too hard."

" _Just a little_ ," he commented. " _I think that might be too much for most opponents_."

"You think?" she asked sarcastically. Trying again on the other one she managed to wrap the whip around it, but even so it left deep gouges behind. "This is way too dangerous for normal humans," she decided, slightly depressed. "Pity. It looks so cool."

" _It's a very heavy whip and you're strong enough to put a lot of force behind it_ ," he pointed out. " _We could try a leather one, or something close to that._ "

"No, not right now," she replied, coiling the whip up in one hand and walking over to poke the remains of the two dummies. "It's cool, but not particularly efficient. Or too efficient, maybe, assuming I want to cut someone in half. I have easier ways to do that anyway." She grinned a little. "Can't beat a thagomizer. It looks as lethal as it is, I think people would probably run without needing to be sliced into little bits."

" _Most likely_ ," he laughed.

An hour or so later she'd practiced with dual-wielding swords of a number of types until both of them were happy with the results, and was now engaged in inspecting a net that her companion had produced, a circular fine-meshed construction about seven feet in diameter with weights around the edge, patterned on one that had been in the book on Roman weapons. Trying to work out the best way to use it she briefly wished the book had contained a manual on the things rather than just a description of them and some pictures.

After quite a lot of experimentation, she worked out how to hold it and throw it with the right sort of spin so it opened out, the weights holding it in shape. It was surprisingly difficult. Nearly an hour of practice later, though, she could engulf a man-sized target with the net four out of five times, which allowed her to pull sharply on the line that was attached to it and reel the captive in neatly.

"Not bad," she commented to the demon, who made an approving sound, while she bent to untangle the latest captured dummy. The mesh of the net formed holes about two inches across while the fine segmented lines that made up the material of it were less than a sixteenth of an inch in diameter and very flexible. Even so, it was probably unbreakable for almost any definition of the word, knowing what she did about Vargastuff. Idly wondering if it would hold Alexandria, she carefully rolled it into the throwing shape she'd worked out and took aim at another dummy. Just before she threw, she paused, sniffing curiously.

' _That's a familiar scent_ ,' she remarked to the Varga, making the throw and taking the opportunity of recovering the net to look around casually. ' _It's coming from that warehouse to the west about two hundred yards away._ '

" _What do you want to do about it?_ " he asked.

' _Not sure. She's not doing anything hostile, I think she's only watching. Curious, maybe? From what we've found out about her, she's an information gatherer if nothing else_.'

" _True_ ," her companion rumbled, sounding thoughtful. " _There's probably no harm in it. But it might be a good idea to have a word with her if she's still there later_."

' _OK_ ,' Taylor agreed, rolling the net up again.

Moving back to her starting point, she threw once more, wondering why Tattletale of the Undersiders was hiding in a warehouse watching her. The smell that was blowing towards her mixed the subtle scents of worry, curiosity, and fear in varying quantities over the top of the smell of the girl herself.

* * *

Lisa watched carefully as Saurial did whatever it was that produced mannequins, three more appearing to replace the two that had vanished silently a moment earlier. Her power was having no real luck working out what was going on, although she found that if she didn't aim it at the lizard-girl herself but at her activities it at least didn't curl up and whimper.

The fact that it did actually produce the same effect when aimed directly at working out what Saurial was as it had for Raptaur clinched the link between them in her mind, though. Somehow, and she was still hazy on the details, Raptaur and Saurial were either sisters, or actually the same person, most likely that curly-haired brunette she'd spotted weeks ago in the mall. Who that actually was remained a mystery, one she had no real interest in solving as she had a fairly shrewd idea that the person in question would take a very dim view of that violation of the Rules.

Moving to the side of the empty window frame on the fifth floor of the abandoned warehouse she was watching from, Lisa sat against the wall and thought hard.

It looked more than likely that there was the Changer to beat all Changers wandering around Brockton Bay stopping random crimes, when she wasn't swimming around in the bay trolling fishermen. And, based on the intercepted PRT briefing, probably hurtling about the Atlantic at preposterous speeds doing… something.

The PRT themselves were apparently convinced that Saurial, Raptaur, and the ' _sea serpent_ ' were all different individuals but Lisa doubted that very much.

Although, watching the six and a half foot lizard woman tightly wrap a dummy with a net in one smooth motion, she found it hard to believe that the same person could turn into something big enough to eat Leviathan like a snack. Or an eighty foot tall creature that could juggle trawlers. However, as far as she could work out from the little her ability could give her, that seemed the least unlikely scenario from a list of increasingly silly ones.

Where the mystery weapons tests that Dragon and Armsmaster had been reporting on figured into it she was currently drawing a blank on, but again, the girl down there was probably connected in some way. The link to the DWU was both clear and non obvious as well. How it all tied together was something she was having a lot of trouble with.

Still not sure whether her fascination with the other cape or capes was a good idea, but despite all the terror it produced unable to let it go, Lisa sighed quietly, then peeked out again to see what Saurial was doing now.

There was no sign of her.

"Oh, crap," the blonde whispered to herself, peering around in a fruitless attempt to find the reptilian girl. Without knowing where she was it would be very hard to sneak off without being discovered.

She'd noticed the girl stop and look around at one point fifteen minutes earlier and had tensed, preparing to make a break for it, but when she'd gone back to her activities, had relaxed. It didn't seem that she'd detected Lisa. Now, though, she was wondering if she had been played.

"Hi," a chirpy voice suddenly said from directly above her as she leaned a little further out the window to look to the side, making her emit a short scream of shock and whip her head up, to see Saurial clinging head down to the brickwork above the window watching her. "Tattletale, right? From the Undersiders?"

Breathing heavily, her heart pounding in her chest, Lisa stared in stunned befuddlement for a moment then slowly nodded. She'd had absolutely no warning of the approach of the other person, implying a level of stealth which was quite worrying, as her power was extremely good at picking up on small hints of movement. She didn't often get surprised like this.

"I just wanted to come over and say hello," Saurial continued, skittering down the wall like an overgrown garden lizard as she spoke, then flipping easily through the window and landing on the floor, before holding out her hand. "You seemed interested in my training, you've been watching for ages. There's no need to hide, you can come and watch from closer if you want."

Not entirely certain what was happening, Lisa weakly held out her hand, which was promptly shaken, the fine scales of the other girl's fingers feeling odd in her grip. "I…," she began, then swallowed. "You knew I was watching the whole time?"

"Yep," Saurial smiled, exposing a number of teeth which obviously belonged to a carnivore. Lisa tried not to react, mostly successfully. "I have a very good sense of smell. You're upwind." She shrugged. "Not hard, really."

"And you're OK with that?" Lisa asked, feeling somewhat less worried. There was something about the cheerfulness of the reptilian girl which was contagious. "I mean, a lot of capes don't like being watched without them knowing about it. And I'm a villain, more or less, while you're a hero."

Saurial grinned again. "Hero, Villain, they're just labels. Not always good ones. Sure, rob a bank, and if I'm passing I'll stop you, but I'm not going to jump you just because of something you might or might not have done in the past. There are much worse people than you wandering around. The world isn't black and white and people are all different anyway. Everyone has their own reasons for what they do. For all I know you're actually a decent person who fell into a life of crime because of some horrible thing in your past, or you might just be a terrible person who likes watching the world burn. But I don't know you, so I don't know. I'm willing to find out."

Lisa simply stared as the girl chattered, then finally shook her head a little. "You are… not at all what I expected," she said.

Saurial laughed. "I get that a lot," she snickered. Looking around she added, "This place is filthy. Why don't we go outside where it's cleaner and we can talk?"

Following the eyes of the other cape, Lisa couldn't help but agree. "OK, I guess," she said in the end, then followed as Saurial let the way out of the room and down several flights of bare cement stairs to the ground.

Heading to the gap in the fence which Lisa deduced had been made by Hookwolf when he'd attacked, the lizard-girl casually bent one of the poles out of the way to allow the blonde to go through, then bent it back afterwards. The creaking sound the stressed metal made as it bent made her sigh. "Those E88 idiots caused a lot of damage," she mumbled, fiddling with the fence until she was satisfied. Lisa watched, wondering why the girl was so annoyed about damage to the DWU property. Catching her eye Saurial shrugged.

"They're good people and it irritates me when someone just smashes up the place for no good reason. Especially since it was me he was after in the first place."

"Oh," Lisa replied, adding this to the list of peculiarities. Saurial clearly had a closer relationship to the DWU than she'd thought.

"Come on, there's a place in one of the storage sheds that's unlocked, we can sit down in there out of the cold," Saurial invited, waving towards the buildings, then leading her guest over. She opened a sliding door that was indeed unlocked, although heavy enough that it would take two normal people to move it at all, with one hand and making it look easy. Inside, she flicked on the lights and found a couple of old office chairs. "It's not exactly a conference room but it'll do," the girl said, sitting on one of the chairs having moved her long tail out of the way. Lisa watched curiously, then sat in the other one when Saurial motioned to it.

"So. Undersiders, hmm?" The lizard-girl looked at her, then removed her sunglasses, letting Lisa see her eyes for the first time, and confirming to her that they were in fact the same as those of Raptaur and the sea serpent or whatever it was. She nodded very slightly to herself, pleased that at least one of her deductions appeared to be correct. "Neighbors of the DWU as far as I know. Somewhere on the other side of Merchant territory."

"More or less, yes," Lisa replied after a moment, wondering how she knew. "You've done your research," she realized.

"Of course. I've spent a lot of time looking up everything I could find on every cape in Brockton Bay, the gangs, the PRT, and everything else I could find out about this lifestyle," Saurial confirmed, smiling. "It's only common sense and I had some good advice in the beginning, which I've been trying to follow. From what I could find out about you and your team, you're basically fairly low level thieves more than anything else, although you have a reputation for getting away with more than you should be able to. Pretty impressive."

"And that doesn't bother you?" Lisa asked with some disbelief.

Saurial shrugged. "I'd prefer it if people didn't steal things, sure, and if you steal anything from the DWU I'll bury you, but unless I catch you in the act I'm not going to go out of my way to track you guys down. I have better things to do with my time to be honest."

Lisa stared, not entirely certain what to feel about that. The casual threat was bloodcurdling because she was absolutely sure it was real, but at the same time the lack of real menace seemed equally real. She got the impression that Saurial really didn't care too much about whether she was technically on the other side of the law.

"That's… not a common attitude," she admitted.

"I know. Most capes take life way too seriously," Saurial replied. "It's odd. With all the abilities that they have, you'd think they could find better uses for them than fighting all the time, but..." She shrugged with a sigh. "It's kind of annoying. I just want to try to make life better for as many people as I can and wrecking the street isn't going to do that, is it? I'd rather build things than destroy them, in general. Or help other people build them, anyway." She indicated the building around them. "So I'm happy to help these guys. They're good people, friends of mine, and have some interesting possibilities."

"Connected to the rail lines?" Lisa asked, probing for details on something that she was curious about.

"In a manner of speaking, yes," Saurial nodded, "but it's a secret at the moment. It could be good for the Bay if it works out though." She inspected the other woman. "You've been watching them check the lines."

"How did you know?"

"Some deductive reasoning, a guess, and the fact that you've been seen by the security teams going in and out of the area with your friends," Saurial laughed. "Those huge dogs that your friend Bitch has are sort of obvious."

"I suppose they are," Lisa admitted, not entirely happy about how observant both Saurial and the DWU people apparently were.

"So, what's your power?" Saurial asked curiously. "Mine is obvious, I'm basically a Brute, with some interesting other abilities like this." She held out a hand in which a sword appeared, then vanished again. Lisa twitched. "But there isn't much information on you on the internet. I'd guess something like Thinker?"

Debating with herself, Lisa finally nodded. "Yes, more or less. I'm good with working things out from small clues." She didn't expand on that.

"Cool. That must help with breaking into places, right?" Saurial seemed fairly unconcerned about this. "Getting passwords, codes, that sort of thing?"

Somewhat shocked at how close this guess was, Lisa nodded. "Essentially."

"And I know your friend Grue makes that weird darkness smoke or whatever it is. Bitch makes those dogs?"

"Yes, they're normal dogs that she can grow when she wants to."

"Weird." Saurial looked interested. "I heard they were pretty quick, although from what I was told they don't look comfortable to ride."

Lisa laughed for a moment. "Not really, no, but they're fast and convenient. And almost indestructible when they're big like that."

"What about the other guy. Regent?"

Somewhat unsure about how she'd managed to get maneuvered into divulging so much information, Lisa replied, "He can make people's muscles twitch, which throws them off in a fight. It doesn't sound like much but you'd be amazed how often it helps."

"I can guess," the girl remarked, nodding. Lisa watched her, trying not to let her power activate, as every time it did she got a headache. Saurial watched her back, tilting her head to the side for a second.

"There's something else you're wondering, I can smell it," she finally said, her voice more serious. "You've taken a big risk coming to watch me like that. You're right, most capes, hell, most people, wouldn't like being spied on. Normally I wouldn't myself but I find you interesting. So what is it about me that's so fascinating you're prepared to go to all this effort?"

After a moment when Lisa didn't respond, she leaned forward a little. "I know you're both terrified and curious. A weird mix. I'm not going to hurt you, unless you become a threat to either my family or friends, and so far you're neither. You have a question. Ask it."

Lisa was growing worried. She glanced at the door, realizing consciously for the first time that Saurial had managed to end up between her and it. Wondering if that had been deliberate, she looked back at the girl, then mentally smacked herself. Of course it had been. The entire chirpy happy act was deliberate, to get her to lower her guard and answer some questions. It was masterfully done. There was no overt threat but she knew damn well she didn't stand a chance if the girl decided to do something hostile.

On the other hand, as far as she could tell Saurial was being honest about not particularly caring about her activities as long as they didn't impinge on her own life, or happen in front of her. It was an odd attitude for a hero, but the girl was a very odd hero whichever way you looked at it. Lisa had no intention of going up against her either, she knew how that would end. None of her team could really do much, the encounter with Raptaur had shown that beyond doubt.

Eventually, and with a certain amount of worry about whether this was in any way the right approach, Lisa sighed internally then said, "Thank you for returning my phone."

Saurial watched her for a moment, then smiled. "You're welcome. It looked expensive."

They stared at each other for some seconds.

"It really was you," Lisa sighed. "You're a Changer."

"I am," the girl confirmed.

"Why tell me?"

"You'd already worked it out, you're not a direct threat, and I know where you live." Saurial smirked at her as she gaped.

"Oh, shit. Good sense of smell, you said," she finally said, realizing the truth.

The lizard-girl tapped the end of her muzzle with a clawed finger. "Better than a bloodhound. I can track you across the city with my eyes shut. Finding your base was trivial, although it was actually mostly an accident. I wasn't looking for it, I ran across it when I was heading for the water."

"Fuck. The others are going to go nuts."

"You don't have to tell them," Saurial pointed out. "In fact, it's probably best if you don't. I have no intention of violating the Rules, and I'm not going to come looking for you unless I have no choice. Just make sure that doesn't happen."

Again, it wasn't a threat, just a suggestion, but one with teeth hiding under the surface.

Big ones.

"OK. I won't mention it." Lisa didn't see that she had a choice, and actually agreed anyway. "Why are you running around pretending to be at least two different people in the first place?"

"It's good camouflage and it's really funny," Saurial laughed. "The expressions people get are amazing. When they finally work it out, it's going to be hilarious."

Lisa gaped, then started laughing. "You are completely insane."

"Probably. But I'm having fun," the other girl snickered.

Shaking her head in admiration, Lisa just looked at her. After a moment, another rather nasty thought suddenly came to her. "Crap. Your hearing is as good as your nose, isn't it?"

"Yes, and my eyesight too. All my senses are far better than yours."

"You heard us talking when you were chasing us, then." Lisa was horrified by the implications. Saurial studied her for a moment.

"Like I said, I have no intention of giving away anyone's secrets." She paused, then added, "Lisa."

Closing her eyes, the blonde shook her head in despair. "I thought I was the sneaky one who always knew things no one else could find out. So this is what it's like to be on the other side of that."

When she opened her eyes Saurial was wearing a remarkably smug grin, one that reminded her of herself more than a little, but with a lot more teeth and orange eyes. "Sorry, I couldn't resist. Yes, I heard more than you'd think and I know your name and Grue's. Sorry, I can't really help it, my senses are that good. But I'm serious, I'm not going to spill anything about it and I doubt anyone can force me to."

She cocked her head, inspecting Lisa closely. "For that matter, if you're the level of Thinker that I suspect you are, I bet you know the IDs of a number of capes outside your own team." Rather worried, Lisa didn't react. It was true, of course, but she wasn't going to admit to it. Even so, Saurial looked pleased.

"I thought so. I wonder how many others can do the same thing."

"How the hell did you know?" Lisa exploded.

"You'd be appalled about how much I can pick up on people's thoughts if I concentrate on all the little cues," Saurial snickered. "Scent, tiny changes to expression, things like that."

"Your vision is not only better than human it goes outside normal wavelengths, doesn't it?" Lisa realized. Saurial merely smiled. "Probably thermal vision as well. Fuck. You have a built in lie detector."

"I'm still learning but I've worked out all sorts of interesting tricks," the girl laughed.

"I'm sure you have," Lisa sighed. "Remind me never to get into a poker game with you." Her companion seemed to find this very amusing.

"So where does this leave us?" Lisa asked.

Saurial was quiet for a moment. Eventually, she replied, "I'm serious about not really caring what you get up to as long as you stay away from the DWU, don't become a threat to my family, and don't do something excessive in front of me. Ideally I'd prefer you not to break the law at all but I'm not a cop, I'm not going to hunt you guys down unless you do something stupid. Kidnap someone, or kill someone, I'll find you, but steal from Kaiser or something like that, that's between you and him."

She shrugged a little. "It's the same with Über and Leet. I met them, they seem like decent enough people for relatively minor criminals, we talked, then I left. Leet even gave me some useful information so I sort of owe him one. But as I said I'm not the sort of person who sees the world as us and them. You are your own person, I'm not going to tell you how to live your life."

The girl looked seriously at her. "If you want to be friends, I'm fine with that. If you want to stay away and avoid me completely, I'm fine with that too. The fact that you're technically a criminal doesn't wildly bother me at the moment. I'd suggest you find something more honest to do, though."

Lisa sighed. "I wish it was that easy."

"Why isn't it? You're obviously smart, you have a very powerful ability, there must be some way to turn that to honest work even with all the rules about parahuman employment. Even join the Wards. I'm sure they'd be happy enough to take you, from what I've learned they've taken much more dangerous people in the past. You're not a violent person and as far as I know none of your friends really are either, except maybe for Bitch."

"There were extenuating circumstances in her case," Lisa replied, "Not that anyone listened. We all have good reasons for being where we are, though."

"What's yours?" Saurial asked curiously.

Staring at her for a long moment, Lisa shrugged. Maybe this crazy cape could actually help her. It was worth a try.

"What do you know about Coil?" she asked.


	42. Hospital and Dinner

Dragon watched as the Guild transport lifted off with a roar and rapidly climbed out over the bay, circling around to head west when it was at altitude, before accelerating to over mach two. A faint sonic boom rumbled down from above, the suppression system managing to remove the bulk of the acoustic signature. Her friend and team-mate, Narwhal, had taken custody of Saint and his two co-conspirators, all three of whom had to be foamed again to stop them yelling obscenities. It had come as a relief to everyone present when the foam set.

She'd used the same story she'd told the PRT trooper, which seemed to have made the rounds remarkably fast while being embellished considerably in the process, on the other woman. Narwhal had nodded thoughtfully and not said much about it but for some reason Dragon wasn't at all convinced that the tall force-field-clothed hero actually believed it. What she _did_ believe she wasn't saying, though. Dragon could see an interesting conversation in her future sooner or later. Sighing internally, while knowing it was inevitable eventually, she hoped it would go well.

She still needed to work out what to tell Colin and how. Hopefully he would understand, and even more hopefully he might be able to help with some of the more onerous restrictions her ' _father_ ' had gifted her with.

The artificial intelligence was grateful to the long-dead computer Tinker for bringing her into existence but she desperately wished he'd trusted his own work more. _She_ knew she wasn't a threat to humanity, but she had no idea how to convince _them_ of it, when they found out. Humans were fun, but awfully irritating sometimes. It was going to take some fast talking and quite a lot of luck to have everything work out for everyone.

The idea that she, a computer program, was even thinking about something as woolly as ' _luck_ ' made her smile inside. Richter had done a much better job than he'd lived to realize, the poor bastard.

"You were right about Saint and his people, Ma'am," the trooper standing beside her sighed. "I have met a _lot_ of crazy parahumans over the years but that one is completely off the wall. He just won't stop talking."

"It's annoying, isn't it?" she chuckled, making him nod fervently. "You can imagine how irritating it is when he's aiming it at you personally."

"Unfortunately, yes I can," Davidson replied with a grimace. "You have my sympathies."

"Thank you," she laughed, turning to go back inside the Rig. "And thank you and your people for looking after them for me."

"it was our pleasure, Ma'am," he replied politely, before nodding to her then heading to his post.

When she was back in Colin's lab, she sat down in the chair he'd long ago built for her and watched him for a while. He glanced at her when she came in but said nothing, apparently merely content to have her there. It was… very nice. ' _I could get used to working so closely with him_ ,' she mused, pleased.

"How's it going?" she finally asked. He pushed himself back from where he'd been scribbling figures and calculations on a notepad, flipping between pages of several books and also referring to a number of documents open on the various monitors arrayed around him.

Colin stretched, then turned to her. "Very well, I think. I'd appreciate you double-checking some of my assumptions and calculations, but I believe the design is essentially complete. There are some questions surrounding the thermal transparency of the SaurialSteel barrel, we're going to have to think about those, and one or two minor issues for the firing mechanism that need to be resolved, but the overall project looks feasible. Depending on either Saurial or Raptaur, or both, agreeing to help, of course."

"Hopefully they will," she replied, getting up and coming over to look at the drawings and notes.

"The recoil is the biggest problem," he said after a moment. "It will be… exceptional. Far, far greater than any weapon I've ever encountered before. The calculated projectile spread means that it will also be most effective at fairly close range, perhaps a third of a mile or so, although there will also be a very large particle beam effect that will add to the destructive power. Whether this will affect an Endbringer I don't know. I doubt it would be safe to use on Behemoth, but the Simurgh is still a valid target. Leviathan might be as well."

"Have you considered using Clockblocker to time-freeze the weapon itself?" she inquired, flipping through his notes.

"Yes, that would solve a number of problems very nicely, but there is one very large issue with it, which is that it would then be fixed in space and impossible to move to aim until it unfroze. Which as you know would be a random time period, making it difficult to plan for. Unless we could get the timing exactly right and freeze it immediately before firing, it would actually make the weapon far less useful." He sighed slightly. "Both the Simurgh and Leviathan are very quick and I think neither is likely to obligingly simply stand there and let themselves be fired at. We need some method to track the target with the barrel."

"Ah. Yes, I understand," Dragon commented. "It would also put Clockblocker very close to the Endbringer which isn't the best idea. And much too close to a small fusion weapon in the process of detonating. He might have problems with that."

"I'm confident the SaurialSteel barrel will easily withstand the forces involved," Armsmaster stated, "Even at a thickness of only a quarter of an inch, based on my tests I can't think of anything that would actually break it. It would certainly take a vastly larger explosion without any issues although at that point we have a very large fusion rocket engine which I think would be difficult to keep in place."

"It would end up in orbit," Dragon laughed.

"My calculations show that with a fifty kiloton directional charge it would exceed eight times the escape velocity of Earth," he said seriously. "Orbit wouldn't be a problem. Hitting the moon might be."

She looked at him for a moment, amused. "That was almost another joke, Colin," she told him, getting a slightly surprised, then thoughtful look back.

"Ah. Thank you." He made some notes.

Shaking her head a little at his behavior, but oddly pleased, she kept going over his work, both of them shortly deeply immersed in the design.

* * *

Lisa came up the stairs in the Undersider's base cheerfully and surprisingly accurately whistling the Mission Impossible theme, looking happier than Brian had seen her for weeks. She smiled broadly at him as she pulled her domino mask off, not her common smug ' _I know something that you don't_ ' smile that frankly made him want to slap her sometimes, but a much more genuine, happy grin. It made her look very attractive.

"You're in a good mood," he commented, looking up from the cup of coffee he was making in the small kitchen they had. Motioning to the coffee maker he raised an inquiring eyebrow, receiving a nod in response, so he got another cup out.

"I am," she replied, taking a seat on one of the stools scattered around the place. "Very much so. A big problem I had may well be on the way to solving itself, in a very amusing way, so I'm pretty stoked."

She looked around the otherwise empty loft. "Where are the others?"

"Rachel is away at one of her dog shelters, since Hookwolf is still in PRT custody she's taken the opportunity to steal every fighting dog he had that she can find," Brian told her, somewhat amused. "He's going to be pissed if he gets out, but with any luck the PRT will finally lock the bastard away for good. I don't know where Alec is, he was muttering something about wanting some more games then disappeared a while ago."

"OK," she said, accepting the cup he handed her. "Do you want to go and get a pizza later? I could really eat something, I'm starving."

He checked his watch then nodded. "Sounds like a plan. Half an hour? That will give me time to finish this paperwork for Aisha."

"How is the little pain in the ass?"

Brian sighed. "A big pain in the ass. If she wasn't my sister I think I'd probably have given up by now. She keeps doing things that are making this whole process much harder than it needs to be, but she can't seem to understand that. She's smart, but fuck _me_ she's stubborn and bull-headed."

"Sorry to hear it," Lisa replied with a sympathetic look. Sipping her coffee she watched him as he picked up the sheaf of papers from Social Services and picked up reading them where he'd left off, making notes in the margin, then flipped to the back and yet another of the interminable series of forms he had to keep filling out.

"So what's the big problem you have?" he asked absently as he began writing.

"My own pain in the ass," she sighed. "Someone I really wish I'd never met." When he looked up her grin had come back, only with a certain level of viciousness that was unusual in her. "Mind you, I think that soon he's going to be thinking the same thing about me."

Staring, in the end Brian decided it was probably best not to ask. He was a little worried that she might actually tell him, and based on that smirk, whoever was on the other end of it was going to regret it. He didn't want to get sucked into that problem as well, he had enough of his own to deal with. And those of his damn sister as well, who seemed to go out of her way to make his life difficult.

"OK," he said mildly, going back to his paperwork.

The sound of Lisa intermittently sniggering evilly made him shiver. He was grateful when she got up and headed for her room carrying her coffee with her.

Oh, yes, _someone_ was going to have a bad day. He just hoped it wasn't him.

* * *

Straightening up, Amy smiled slightly at the old woman in the hospital bed. Adjusting her costume where it was pinching her a little she said, "There you go, Mrs Tate, your liver is fine now."

"Thank you, young lady," the seventy-three year old wrinkled woman replied with a much bigger smile in return. "I feel better already."

"I hope you'll be out of here very soon," the brunette said, nodding politely to her. Turning to the doctor who was watching her with a slightly odd look, she added, "I think that's all for today, unless someone else has come in?"

He twitched a little, then looked down at the clipboard that he was holding, running his finger down a list, then ticking off an entry with a pen. "No, that's the whole roster. Thank you, Panacea." She started walking to the entrance to the women's ward, the doctor following. When they were out in the corridor he stopped her with a touch on her arm.

"I don't know why, but you're looking a lot happier than you have been for some time," he said in a low voice, after glancing around to make sure no one else was close enough to overhear them. "Keep it up. You deserve a break every now and then, you're in danger of working yourself to exhaustion. I've seen it happen in people a lot older and more experienced than you are. It's a hazard of our profession, even without the parahuman abilities. It's Sunday yet you've been here all afternoon. You spend more time in the hospital that any staff member and you're not even being paid to be here. That's not healthy in the long run, believe me."

Amy listened in some surprise, but nodded. "You're not the first person to say that recently," she admitted.

"Listen to them, and me, then, Amy," he said quietly. "You're a smart, decent girl, but you need to do something else. Very few people here will be at risk if you take a day off now and then. Find a hobby, go to the movies, whatever. But don't spend all your free time here or at another hospital. Dedication is one thing, obsession is something altogether different."

Studying him, Amy could see he was sincerely worried. It wasn't the first time one of the medical professionals had said something similar but for some reason, this time she listened. Ever since meeting Taylor Hebert and having the girl say something very similar although more succinct she'd been mulling it over and had begun to think there was something to it.

Coming to a decision, she nodded. "Thank you, Doctor Hernandez. I think you may be right." She checked her watch. "If there's no one needing me, I'm going to go and find something to eat, then… I don't know, maybe see a movie or something." She felt as if a weight was lifted from her mind.

He smiled. "Good. We can always call if there's an emergency that genuinely needs your abilities but hopefully that won't happen. Today at least. You know this city." She sighed with another nod. "Have some fun, take some time for yourself. I'll see you soon."

"You will," she assured him, receiving a smile back, before turning and heading for the locker room where she kept her civilian clothes, feeling unaccountably cheerful.

Having a break sounded like fun. She hadn't done that sort of thing for a long time. Too long, she was beginning to think.

When she'd changed and folded her costume into a neat pile which went into the small backpack she had, she put her coat on and left the hospital, heading towards the downtown area. It was getting dark now, being nearly half past five in the afternoon, the rush hour traffic building up as people drove home. Walking along the street she thought about recent events.

' _Was that really Taylor?_ ' she wondered, thinking back to that morning and the events at the PRT building. She was pretty sure that Director Piggot would have jumped right back up as soon as she woke and gone back to the meeting, even though she should have stopped and rested for a while. The parallels between her and the older woman struck her for a moment, making her shake her head.

The image she'd seen before Armsmaster had dismissed it, though, that was the really interesting thing. From the brief glimpse she'd had of the screens she could recall a computer graphic that seemed to be extrapolating measurements from the image itself, which looked like a still from a video. Without knowing the circumstances behind it all she had little to go on, but that was definitely a very big reptile or reptilian creature of some sort, according to the data she could remember something in excess of two hundred feet long.

Amy had a very good memory and had been puzzling over the entire thing all day. The one thing that really stood out, leaving aside the sheer preposterous size of the thing, were the eyes. She'd seen eyes like that before.  
 _  
Exactly_ like that.

Just much smaller. The look in them was something she recognized as well, being amused, intelligent, and dangerous. How she managed to get all that from a pair of inhuman eyes with no other expression to go on she wasn't certain but it was true despite this.

She was more or less convinced that the ' _sea monster_ ' which was obviously worrying the PRT a lot, and could well be the main trigger for the stress-induced heart attacks that Director Piggot had suffered, was Taylor Hebert. Where, why, and when, she had no idea about, aside from the obvious conclusion of somewhere in deep water, and recently. From what she'd seen they were having a meeting about the situation, the presence of Dragon suggesting the Canadian Tinker was heavily involved somehow as well. Most likely being behind the video and other data, it seemed the sort of thing she'd do.

' _What the **hell** are you doing when you're not in school, Taylor?_ ' Amy wondered with a mix of awe, amusement, and very slight jealousy. The girl seemed to be making the most of her abilities whatever they really were.

A sudden urge to find her and somehow get the truth out of her struck Amy hard, making her sigh and push it down again. The sad truth was that she was mostly bored out of her mind and for the first time in literally years had found something truly interesting to investigate, yet at the same time basically couldn't without risking a probably very gruesome fate if she pushed too hard and fast. Neither did she want to somehow accidentally clue the PRT in on who it actually was, since they clearly didn't know or they probably wouldn't be panicking quite so much.

Piggot would have inevitably had a heart attack sooner or later from what her power had told her, most likely sooner, and it in all probability would have killed her. If that had happened at home, she'd have been dead long before anyone found her, for example. Only the fact that the PRT facility had some exceptionally competent medical professionals and enough equipment to run a major trauma center had kept her alive long enough for Amy to get to her. Not to mention a lead doctor who was all about keeping his patients alive and healthy regardless of normal procedure.

She rather liked Doctor Torres. He was a sarcastic, abrasive, abrupt, but extremely skilled man who somehow reminded her a little of who she saw in the mirror every morning.

Thinking about it, in fact, the PRT director probably owed Taylor a debt of gratitude in a weird way, not that she was ever likely to even recognize that never mind acknowledge it. Amy grinned a little at the thought.

' _Hell will be having a **very** nasty cold snap before **that** ever happens_ ,' she snickered to herself.

Wondering why Taylor seemed to be going to some trouble to make everyone think she was at least two different capes, and now apparently something out of a Lovecraft book, she stopped dead when she thought of one possible explanation. ' _Fuck, she's doing it just to mess with people_.' Shaking her head in amazement yet certain that was in fact a likely reason for the somewhat odd behavior, she resumed walking, a small evil grin on her lips.

That was one girl she really wanted to know better.

The sense of humor apparent really resonated with her for some reason. Amy sort of wished she could do something that amusing without being shouted at, mainly by Carol. She had to live with being snarky and sarcastic instead. That was definitely her personality anyway, but sometimes she had an almost overwhelming desire to do something completely random then laugh like an idiot about the reactions of other people. Trolling PHO forums was a poor substitute.

That said she'd had some very amusing conversations with someone else who was apparently in Brockton Bay and had a similar sense of humor, who went by the name ' _AllSeeingEye_ '. Whoever it was liked winding people up with insightful but very unhelpful comments then sitting back and probably laughing like an idiot at the results. Amy had passed many an evening chortling with glee at the way just a few carefully chosen and not even nasty words could make dozens of people on a forum lose their shit completely. It was hysterical sometimes. She'd more than once waded in herself just to urge things along when they slowed down.

It was a silly, wasteful past-time, but it was the nearest thing she had to a hobby other than reading books and snarking at Dennis or one of his friends. The red-head could at least give as good as he got, which made her look at him with a small amount of fondness, although he never knew when to stop.

"My life is just a barrel of laughs," she sighed quietly to herself, shaking her head a little, but still glad to be at a loose end for once. Doctor Hernandez was definitely right, she needed to do something different. She'd been slowly coming to that conclusion ever since Taylor had brought the subject up. His words had been the seal on the thought.

Deciding suddenly she was in the mood for Thai, as she hadn't had it for weeks, Amy looked around tp orientate herself, and found that lost in her thoughts she'd wandered off track from where she'd been heading. A moment's consideration and she altered course to take her around the main entertainment area and back towards where she knew there was a very good Thai restaurant. A couple of minutes walking brought her close to it, until she heard a sound familiar to anyone who lived in Brockton Bay. A gunshot.

Stopping she looked around carefully, trying to work out where it had come from. The echoes made it difficult to localize. All the other pedestrians on the street were doing the same thing, most of them moving towards any cover they could find at the same time. She followed suit, estimating that it had come from the service alley on the other side of the road that led behind some office buildings and therefore moving to stand behind a bus shelter on her side, along with a dozen other people who had hastily evacuated it and gone around to where there was more cover.

She was just in time, as another shot rang out, accompanied by an unpleasantly close whine followed immediately by a solid crunch as the bullet embedded itself in the wall of the shop next to the bus stop. Amy yelped and hit the deck, almost landing under a large man who had done the same thing right next to her.

Half a dozen more shots followed in quick succession, with people shouting and screaming and generally carrying on, as whatever it was that had started down the alley escalated and spilled out onto the street. Cars slammed to a halt or did quick U-turns, accelerating away with screeching sounds from the tires. She noticed that even under the circumstances several phones were being held up from behind any cover that was large enough to conceal a person, making her almost amused despite the sudden fear of being shot. Brocktonites were very hard to put down, they were used to living under conditions that many places would consider close to a war zone at times.

A burst of automatic gunfire made her duck her head again, as the safety glass of the shelter above her shattered into innumerable tiny pieces which rained down over them all. A couple of the people behind the now-dubious safety of the lower metal part of the shelter started either praying or crying, she couldn't make it out over the noise.

Risking a quick look she saw that it seemed to be a couple of ABB gang members who were having an enthusiastic disagreement with three obvious E88 gangers, for whatever stupid reason they had mutually decided on. Heedless of the pedestrians in the area, the E88 people opened fire again, a couple of machine pistols of some sort and a large handgun all firing at once and causing a horrendous amount of noise. More stray rounds whizzed overhead, leaving pockmarks on the walls and holes in the windows of the various establishments in range.

"Fuck, this isn't good," she mumbled, fumbling for her phone. Calling Vicky seemed like the best idea but it would take her some time to get here. Two cops who had been walking past were crouched down behind a car fifty feet away, one of them trying to get a good shot on the gangers while the other one seemed to be calling for backup. Again, it seemed unlikely to arrive instantly, although she could now hear sirens approaching.

"Where the hell are all the heroes?" Amy muttered, looking around. No signs of either Protectorate or Wards was visible.

Moments later, one of the E88 men, a very tall dark haired guy holding a huge pistol, yelped in pain and fell over. Everyone stared as a by-now familiar form stood up from behind him, having arrived vertically by apparently dropping from the roof of the four story building next to them.

Saurial looked around as the entire street paused, staring, then she moved, rapidly enough that she was difficult to follow in the twilight. One of the two ABB gangers was abruptly tightly wrapped in a fine net of some sort that appeared from nowhere and was flung accurately at him, binding him from head to foot and leaving him unable to move. The other one turned to run then dropped when the lizard girl pounced, executing some sort of martial arts hold that looked both painful and close to impossible, the man instantly unconscious.

One of the remaining pair of E88 legged it while his friend opened fire, either on Saurial or the ABB guy she was holding, Amy couldn't decide which. The cape shielded her captive with her body, the bullets pinging off her armor and even her head, then with her free hand made a quick gesture which caused the gunman to scream and drop his weapon, a viciously sharp knife stuck in the barrel in an amazingly accurate throw. Before he could recover she'd put the man she was holding down and covered the fifty feet to the shocked gang member so fast he barely had time to react.

He was down seconds later, a carefully calculated kick to the side of the head showing how Saurial had run out of patience with him and wasn't being nice any more. Looking around, the reptilian woman inspected her four captives, then moved to restrain them all. She glanced over to Amy and seemed to smile a little, before turning away to talk to the two cops who had gone over to her when the last of the gang members was disarmed, holding a short conversation. They nodded, then she turned and zipped up the side of the building next to her, having apparently spent a moment sniffing the air.

Staring in shock, Amy slowly stood up, then looked around at the other people on the street who were doing the same thing, many of them holding phones and a lot seeming both impressed and pleased.

"That girl is pretty darn impressive," the large man next to her commented as he pushed himself to his feet. "Are you alright, miss?"

"I'm fine, thanks," she replied absently, scanning the crowd for any injured people. Spotting someone who was holding a hand to what looked like a shrapnel wound on their face, she excused herself and went over. More sirens were approaching fast as three police cars and an ambulance came around the corner two blocks away, weaving around the stopped cars.

"Excuse me, sir, can you move your hand for me please?" she said briskly when she was standing next to the stunned-looking middle aged man, who was bleeding quite heavily from a nasty cut to the cheek just below his eye. "I'm Panacea and if you give permission, I can heal this for you."

He looked her up and down for a moment. "You don't look like her. Where's your costume?"

"I'm off duty," she replied with a small smile. Pulling her backpack off her shoulder she unzipped it, pulling a little of her costume, the hood clearly visible, out of it. "But I really am Panacea."

"Oh." He looked like he was in shock. "OK. Thank you."

Putting the backpack on the ground she put her hand on his forehead, doing a quick assessment. Aside from the cut, and all the various symptoms of shock, he was basically fine, so she fixed the damage and tweaked his blood pressure and adrenaline levels a little to calm him down and make him less stressed. Wobbling for a moment, he perked up with a smile, lowering his hand then gently feeling his face with the other one.

"Thank you very much, Panacea," he said gratefully.

"You're welcome," she replied, already looking around for any other casualties.

A scream in the distance, made faint after echoing around the buildings, caused everyone to look for a moment.

"I bet Saurial got the last one," the man chuckled.

"I wouldn't be surprised," she laughed.

Noticing another pedestrian who was slumped against a phone box, pale faced and holding her shoulder, she excused herself and headed over, pulling out her hood and putting it on although she didn't bother with the rest of the costume. Shortly she was repairing a dislocated shoulder.

Ten minutes later she'd fixed everyone she could see who was injured, the ambulance crew helping find casualties, having been both surprised and grateful to find Panacea already on site even if she wasn't wearing all her costume.

The sound of a man yelling in fear made everyone look up, seeing Saurial more or less sliding down the side of another building with the missing gang member over her shoulder, wrapped in another net and whimpering in fear. She landed easily then went over to the cops, handing her captive to them and spending some time talking to one of them. The officer, whom Amy vaguely recognized as someone she'd met in passing a few times at the hospital, shook the lizard-girl's hand with a smile that suggested he knew and liked her.

Nodding to the other cops who mostly smiled back, one or two of them waving, she turned around and headed towards Amy, stopping a couple of times when someone asked for an autograph. Amy waited, studying this alternate form of Taylor with great interest.

"Hello, Panacea, it's nice to meet you," Saurial said politely, holding out her hand, the end of her long tail twitching back and forth a little. There was the faintest trace of amusement in her voice, which was completely different from Taylor's own, with an odd, very faint hissing overtone that was a little like an accent. She'd never have guessed without already knowing that this was one of her fellow school students. Taking the offered hand, she shook it, her power telling her that this was indeed Taylor, the wildly complex and totally alien genetics matching as far as she could see even though she could make no sense of it at all, the data coming from her ability nearly overwhelming. Yet again, the urge to simply study it swelled in her mind but she pushed it aside, releasing the other girl's hand again.

"Were you in the area or were you called to help?" the lizard-like cape asked curiously.

"I was just taking some time to myself before heading home," Amy replied, smiling a little. "Someone I met recently suggested I needed to relax more and not work all the time. I've been thinking about it and I think she was right." Saurial nodded understandingly, what Amy could swear was a small smile twitching the edges of her reptilian mouth. "One of the doctors at the hospital I was working at this afternoon said much the same thing. I decided I'd take the advice and go for a meal then find something interesting to do afterwards. I haven't decided what yet." She looked around at the scene, half the street cordoned off with crime scene tape and more than a dozen emergency responders wandering around amid blue and red flashing lights while dozens of people took photos and told each other stories about what they'd seen.

It wasn't a particularly unusual sight in Brockton Bay, unfortunately.

"This wasn't quite what I had in mind, though," she smiled, a little darkly, shrugging for a moment. Saurial followed her gaze then sighed softly.

"No, I imagine not. But it seems to happen a lot around here. I've only been on the scene for a month but so far this is the, hmm, sixteenth gang-involved crime I've become involved in? Something like that." The lizard-girl looked around again. "I somehow doubt most places are quite this… enthusiastic."

"Brockton Bay nightlife does tend towards the excessive," Amy chuckled.

"I'd have to agree."

The healer considered the other cape, then came to a decision, deciding it was worth the risk. "Do you like Thai food?" she asked. Saurial cocked her head a little, then nodded with her own version of a smile.

"As it happens I do. Why?"

"I'm starving after all of this and I know a very good Thai restaurant about three blocks away. That's where I was headed when those idiots started shooting the place up. Want to join me and talk?"

Saurial studied her for several seconds, before nodding once more. "Why not? I have plans later tonight but I'm at a loose end for the next couple of hours or so. I could eat."

Amy smiled, feeling unusually cheerful. While she knew she couldn't say anything that might give the game away, she thought it would be nice to have someone other than her sister, the various wards, or the rest of her family to talk to for once. With a slight shock she realized that was practically all the people she actually knew outside the medical work, very few of whom were really friends. While she respected them and as far as she knew, they her, almost everyone she worked with was only an acquaintance she got on with reasonably well but never really talked to about matters other than hospital work.

In fact, now that she thought about it… Did she actually _have_ any friends outside family, a few capes, and one or two people Vicky had introduced her to?

It was with a certain amount of sudden worry that she realized the answer was probably no.

Saurial was watching her think, and after a moment leaned a little closer, speaking in a voice low enough that no one else could hear above the street noise. "Everyone needs friends sooner or later, Amy. Trust me, I know. I'm game if you are."

' _How the hell does she know?_ ' Amy thought with slight shock. Taylor was nothing if not observant, she was sure of that, but this seemed a stretch. The girl subtly tapped her nose.

"You be amazed what this tells me," she added quietly. "Among other things."

More loudly, she said, "I could just go for panang gai with jasmine rice."

A little taken aback, Amy nodded after a couple of seconds. "I like panang nua myself."

"Also a good choice. Are you wearing that hood to the restaurant, or what?" Saurial looked amused. Amy sighed, feeling that she might regret this after all, but pulled her partial costume off and tucked it away in her backpack. "Casual it is, then," the heroic lizard snickered, looking down at herself. Her armor suddenly changed into a different outfit, the breastplate, arm and leg protectors, and shoulder guards disappearing while the skirt part became a similar looking thing made of some leather-like substance, in dark blue. On her torso she was wearing a similar material in the form of a short-sleeved coat, which Amy was instantly jealous of. It was cut to fit the somewhat inhuman proportions of the other woman, but looked extremely well made and expensive. She detached the camera she always wore on the job from the side of her head and tucked it away in her pocket.

Saurial grinned at her. "Is this OK for going for a meal with a friend?" Amy nodded, raising her eyebrows. "Good." After a moment's thought, the cape was holding a black fedora, which she put on her head at a jaunty angle, looking pleased, then took her sunglasses off and made them disappear, revealing her startling yellowish slit-pupilled eyes. "No one will recognize me now. I'm in disguise," she snickered, making Amy stare, then burst out laughing.

"You're completely nuts, aren't you?" she asked rhetorically.

Saurial shrugged with a smirk. "Some people tell me that, I have to admit. I like to think of it as differently sane. Normal is boring."

Giggling internally at the absurdity of the situation, Amy shook her head, then waved in the direction of the restaurant before she started walking, the lizard-girl falling into step beside her. People who had been watching from a discreet distance and taking photos and video moved aside for them, weirdly enough apparently understanding that the girl was now off duty and wanted to be left alone. Most of the phones disappeared surprisingly fast.

"So, Miss Dallon, what do you do for fun?" the alter-ego of Taylor Hebert asked cheerfully as they walked.

Amy had a feeling that this was going to be a meal she never forgot.


	43. Conversations and Rides

Taylor looked up as the waiter delivered her new drink, smiling at him. The fixed smile she got back was a little odd and made her stare after him for a moment, then shrug. People could be weird.

The restaurant Amy had been heading for was the same one she and her father had been in just before the great Über and Leet VS Glory Girl battle, which still made her snicker when she thought about it. While she didn't wish the heroine any ill it had been excruciatingly funny to watch Über deal with her so effectively. Now she was sitting across from her sister, enjoying a very good meal, in a very nice restaurant.

Casually glancing around she noticed a number of people quickly hide cellphones and look away, making her smirk. Amy noticed the same thing, sighing a little and shaking her head. "I'll never get used to that," she mumbled in a low voice.

"It's a little annoying sometimes but I can live with it," Taylor replied calmly, before taking a sip of her drink. "We're capes, people are interested. As long as they're discreet and polite about it I don't mind. Mostly they are."

Amy giggled. "I'm not surprised people are polite to _you_. You give off a… distinctive… air of being unwise to annoy."

"Ah. My plan is working," Taylor laughed. She looked around again, then raised an eye ridge. "But how did they penetrate my cunning disguise?" Adjusting her fedora, she grinned. "Perhaps I should have worn glasses as well. Or a fake beard."

"Somehow I doubt that would actually work," Amy replied dryly, "not to mention the tiny fact that a giant bipedal lizard with a beard, glasses, and a hat is even more memorable than a giant bipedal lizard. In a hat."

Snickering, Taylor ate another mouthful of her food. "Possibly. I just find the reactions hilarious. You wouldn't believe the color some of the criminals I catch go when they turn around and see me there."

"Oddly enough, I would," her companion remarked, giving her a look that seemed darkly pleased.

They'd been eating and talking for nearly two and a half hours now, Amy seeming genuinely happy about the company. No really deep talk, since they were in public, just general chatting about life, various events that Amy had helped out with, and on Taylor's part, some of the more amusing methods she'd used to capture criminals. The restaurant staff had frozen when she walked in with the healer, but rallied in the end after some frantic whispering in the kitchen which she deliberately didn't listen to. They'd been shown to a table in the corner, Taylor moving the chair out of the way then propping herself up with her tail, which caused everyone to stare for a moment.

Amy had looked fascinated and Taylor could tell she really wanted to ask a lot of questions. The Varga had been very amused and suggested a number of things to ask her when the opportunity arose. Now, though, they were close to the end of the meal.

The healer proved to have a quirky and devious sense of humor which Taylor approved of, seeming to enjoy watching how people reacted to Saurial. She'd laughed quietly a number of times when new customers coming in had suddenly spotted her and stopped dead, most of them eventually entering the restaurant anyway although at least one had turned without a word and scuttled off. Taylor decided she'd leave a generous tip to make up for the problems her presence seemed to bring.

"Can you make any clothing or tool with that power?" Amy asked suddenly, looking at the leather jacket the Varga had produced, patterned on one she'd seen in a shop a couple of weeks ago. "And is that really leather?"

"Pretty much, yes," she replied. "It's not leather, as such, it's sort of a synthetic duplicate. I'd never peel a mammal just to make clothing out of it. Some of my best friends are mammals." She inspected Amy closely. "Although you all tend to look alike to me. The smell is different though, which is useful." She grinned when Amy stared, then laughed.

"People make leather from reptile skin as well, you know," the other girl snickered.

Taylor looked aghast at her.

"Really? Who are these people?"

"No idea."

"Hmm. I may have to look into that." She frowned, making Amy giggle.

"Weird, weird person."

"I try," she shrugged, grinning suddenly.

"I'm really jealous of that power, you know," the brunette commented. "Never having to buy clothes again would be damn useful." After a moment, she smirked widely. "Oh, god, my sister would go _mad_ if she knew you could do that! She's so into her clothes it's ridiculous."

"Might be best not to mention it to her, then," Taylor smiled. "She seems to be a little worried about me already. Although she and your mother and aunt were very polite when they came to talk to me that time."

"I heard," Amy replied, looking like she found the memory funny. "Vicky was… slightly disturbed for some time after that. You impressed her. A lot."

"That's nice," Taylor replied with a small smile, making the other girl grin again.

Motioning to the waiter, Amy ordered a dessert when he came over, then glanced at Taylor. "Can I have half a dozen eggs, please?" she asked politely. "Raw, in the shells."

"Um… Certainly, Miss Saurial," he replied a little uncertainly, giving her an odd look, then disappearing again. Amy shook her head a little with a small grin.

"That is becoming something of a meme, you know. You and eggs."

"I like them," Taylor protested mildly. "They're tasty."

"Have you tabascoed anyone else recently, other than Clockblocker?" the other girl asked, causing her to grin.

"No. I need to work out the next joke like that. His reaction was incredible."

"I'll say, I nearly died laughing when I saw it," Amy snickered, making them both break down and laugh.

"He was a good sport about it, I have to say," Taylor commented after she recovered.

"Clock's got a weird sense of humor at the best of times and appreciates a good joke, even if it is on him." Amy looked approving. "Not many people do."

"I like the guy, I have to admit," Taylor smiled.

"So do I."

Their orders arrived, both of them thanking the waiter, then she picked up an egg and tossed it into her mouth, crunching it up and swallowing. Amy watched, going slightly green for a moment. "I can't believe you can actually eat them like that," she remarked, looking mildly ill, then looking away to concentrate on her chocolate ice cream.

Taylor shrugged. "I do, that's all that matters," she replied, amused by the reaction.

"Do you always sneak up on your victims… I mean, the criminals you're after…," Amy smirked as Taylor chuckled, "in the dark and from behind?"

"Normally, yes," she admitted. "It seems to make them more likely to give up for some reason. A lot of people seem to panic when the lights go out." She looked thoughtfully at the other girl. "That seems to be happening more and more, recently. It's odd."

" _Isn't_ it," Amy agreed with a grin. "I wonder why?"

"No idea. People are weird at the best of times."

Sharing a look of amusement they finished their meal. When they were done, Amy reached for her backpack, waving the waiter over for the bill. Taylor started to protest, but the brunette shook her head. "No, it's on me. I've really enjoyed the chance to talk like this. I don't seem to have managed to go out on my own and find something interesting to do for longer than I like to think about. It's always Vicky taking me somewhere."

"OK," Taylor replied. "Let me get the tip, though. I caused them a certain amount of problems tonight."

"People will get used to it sooner or later," Amy laughed. "You're not exactly shy about wandering around and just doing normal things."

"Why would I be?" Taylor asked. She looked down at herself. "Am I overdressed?"

"Not… exactly," the healer replied with a grin. "I can't work out if you genuinely have no clue or you're simply trolling the entire world."

Smirking, Taylor didn't respond, just tipped her head to the side and winked. Amy laughed as she paid the bill with a handful of cash. Both of them stood, Taylor dropping another few bills on the table then following the girl outside. On the way out, Taylor commented, just loudly enough for the staff and a few guests to hear, "This is a very good restaurant. I'll have to tell sis about it."

"Raptaur, you mean?" Amy asked, apparently instantly working it out.

"Yep. She loves Thai food as well, and they even have eggs for dessert! The entire family loves them, you know." The pair of them left a restaurant that had gone dead silent behind them as they exited the building, waiting until they were some distance away before the laughter started.

* * *

A quarter of a mile and a few minutes later, Amy looked at her watch. "This has been a lot more fun than I expected. Thanks. But I'm going to have to get home. Carol is probably going to give me a hard time already, I'm late as it is, and didn't call Vicky for a pickup." Checking her phone, which had buzzed several times during the meal until she set it on silent, she sighed. "And I've got six messages from Vicky and two from Carol. Great."

"You deserve some time to yourself, Amy," Saurial replied calmly.

With an internal snort, Amy said, "You'd think that, wouldn't you."

"I assume you have some problems with your family sometimes, then?"

"You could put it like that, yes," she sighed. "Long story."

They'd ended up walking through one of the parks, heading more or less back towards the hospital, with very few people in sight now as it was nearly ten on a dark and chilly February night. Amy looked around, seeing no one close enough to hear her. "Vicky is fine, she's a good sister and I like her very much. Mark is… well, he suffers from depression, you see, and that means half the time he's not really there even when he's in the room."

"And you can't heal him?" The other girl looked curiously at her.

"I don't do brains," Amy replied.

"Don't, or can't?" was the immediate response. She glanced at the lizard-girl walking slowly alongside her for a moment.

"Don't."

"OK." There was no accusation in the tone, or request for clarification, which she found both unusual and welcome.

"And your mother? Carol?"

"She's… difficult," Amy finally replied heavily. "She's a very smart and decent woman, but..."

"But she doesn't trust you, or at least, what she thinks you are. Or could become," the other girl finished for her when she trailed off. Amy was only slightly surprised, as she'd become very aware that Taylor Hebert, whatever she looked like at the time, was very perceptive and appallingly quick on the uptake from a minimum of information. Briefly wondering whether on top of all the other things she had some form of Thinker ability, she nodded.

"Pretty much, yes, I think so. I'm not entirely sure why."

"Is it to do with being adopted?" Saurial asked quietly. Amy stared at her for a second, somewhat surprised.

"How did you know?" she asked curiously, not offended for some reason.

"There's no real family resemblance," the girl replied, "Although that doesn't necessarily prove anything. But your scents are different in a specific way as well, you don't smell related."

"You can actually tell that?" Amy was stunned. "By the _smell?_ "

"You wouldn't believe how much information I can get from scents," Saurial smiled. "It was a shock to me at first as well and I'm still learning new things all the time, but yes, I can tell you're not related. I can work out all sorts of things about people from the scent. And track them from miles away. It comes in handy."

"I can imagine," she replied weakly, only barely able to. "I assume your other senses are enhanced as well?"

"Yes, very much. Eyesight more than hearing, but I can hear people talking all around us in the buildings." Saurial shrugged. "It's part of the whole package."

"So you know there's no one close enough to hear us," Amy said. The girl nodded.

"Why are you being so open with me about what you can do, considering that you're running a scam on the PRT and everyone else?"

"I think I can trust you not to say anything, and you can probably work most of it out yourself with some thought anyway." The reptilian girl glanced at her for a moment. "Like I said, I think I'd like to be your friend. I've been where you are right now, knowing people but not having any actual friends. Probably worse in some ways. What happened before..." She shrugged. "It was bad. Not as bad as some people have it, worse than others, but bad enough. You need a friend, I need more of them. That's happening faster than I expected, I have to admit, but so far very few of them are people I can actually tell any of this to." She waved at herself for a second. "Only the normal stuff."

"Does anyone outside your family know about you?" Amy asked curiously.

"A couple of people have worked it out, one I know about for sure and two others I'm pretty certain about," Saurial replied. After a moment she shook her head with a grin. "It's probably very wrong that they're all technically villains but I still trust them not to spill the beans."

Once again, Amy stared. "Villains?" she echoed in shock.

"Kind of. Not actually bad people, but certainly ones that do things which the PRT would find annoying at best." Saurial snickered. "But they're also very interesting people that I like. I'm not going to hold that against them, unless they do something to me or mine, or do it in front of me so I have no choice."

"You are a very weird sort of hero," Amy remarked after several seconds.

"Who said I was a hero?" Saurial asked, a smile on her muzzle. "I'm just a perfectly normal cute lizard girl who helps out when she sees something going wrong. The whole family is like that. Helpful."

"I'm sure they are," Amy laughed. "Lots of strange reptiles living in the water, coming ashore one at a time to look around, according to some people on PHO."

"That's the rumor," her companion agreed in a calm tone. "We don't like sending more than one at a time in case something happens at home."

"Which is why no one has ever seen you and Raptaur in the same place at the same time."

"Obviously. What other reason could there be?"

Trying not to laugh hysterically at the wonderfully insane practical joke Taylor was working on the entire world, Amy managed to only snort with amusement. She checked her watch again. "I guess I'll have to call Sis for a pickup," she sighed. "I'm not looking forward to that. She's going to be very… Vicky."

Saurial stopped walking and turned to her, studying her for a moment with a thoughtful look. "I have an idea, if you're up for it," she said with a devious grin. "It's a little weird but could be fun."

Not entirely sure she was sane, Amy nodded, returning the grin. "I could go for weird, that's the sort of day I'm having."

Walking around her for a moment, the lizard-girl inspected her, then looked around, before motioning Amy to follow her. "We'll need somewhere private."

Now very curious indeed, the healer followed as Saurial led her to a dark alley which headed off from the street next to the park to a deserted loading dock. "I was always told not to follow strange people into dark alleys," she remarked.

"I'm not a strange person, though, am I?" the girl replied with a look back over her shoulder, a wide grin exposing dozens of sharp teeth that glittered in the dark.

Smirking, Amy said, "Opinion differs on that."

Saurial just shrugged, the grin widening. Checking carefully around, she sniffed a little, then nodded. "No one for some distance." She turned to Amy, who felt a sudden thrill of shock run through her when the familiar form changed with no warning into the much larger and wildly more dangerous one of Raptaur, looking exactly like the images she'd seen in PHO. Up close, mere feet away though, she was a hell of a lot more impressive. Despite herself, Amy took a step back.

"Fuck," she muttered. "That's… terrifying."

"Thanks," the deeper and completely different voice said with an amused tone. The huge reptile paced around Amy again, studying her with her wedge-shaped head cocked to the side, then nodded. "Yep, this should work."

" _What_ should work?" Amy asked suspiciously. She stared in shock as the other cape dropped to all fours in a centaur-like pose, the back of her armor over her lower body changing.

"Have you ever ridden a horse?" Raptaur asked with a chuckle.

Amy gaped at the way the armor had formed a saddle like seat, obviously made to her measurements and complete with hand grips and restraints, then began to grin.

* * *

Hearing a yell of mixed terror and joy, Dennis turned around and looked up in time to see a horrifyingly large reptile zip past on the roof next to the road he and Kid Win were respectively walking and gliding down on their way back to the PRT building and the end of their shift. He stared at the sight as the creature, someone wearing a familiar white costume sitting on her back, charged across the rooftops then disappeared over the edge a block away, the rider holding on for dear life and apparently having a hell of a time.

He and his friend exchanged a glance.

"Was that… Panacea?" Chris finally asked, shock in his voice.

"Yes. Yes, it was," Dennis replied slowly.

"And she was riding Raptaur..."

"I believe so, yes," Clockblocker confirmed, a smile growing on his face under his mask.

"Riiight." His friend sounded confused. "I didn't know they knew each other."

" _I_ didn't know Raptaur would let you ride her," Dennis snorted, trying to suppress wild laughter. "I wonder how much she charges?"

They watched as the distant forms made a reappearance, rapidly going up the face of the Medhall building that they could see, then vanishing again over the roof. A very faint yell of triumph came back on the wind.

"She needed to get out more," Chris eventually said. "But I think she might have overdone it a little."

They shared a look, then resumed walking. And gliding.

"PHO is going to go fucking _insane_ about this," Dennis said a little later, then couldn't restrain himself any longer. He was still laughing like an idiot when they got back to the PRT building.

* * *

"Where the _hell_ have you been, Amy?" Carol demanded as she opened the front door, having heard footsteps approaching up the path from the road as she was passing it on her way to the living room. Her other daughter was standing outside, caught in the process of removing her costume hood with one hand and reaching for the doorknob with the other. The girl stared at her, slight surprise in her eyes at the sudden appearance of her adoptive mother. "And why didn't you call Vicky for a ride? We've been worried about you for hours."

"I went to a restaurant with a friend," Amy replied after a moment. "Then her sister gave me a ride back." For some reason this comment made her grin, a look quite unlike the normal rather sullen one she so often wore.

Carol sighed. "Who was it?" she asked, not happy.

"Me," a voice came out of the dark to the side of the door, making her yelp and turn her head fast enough that she got a crick in her neck. She stared in shock at the huge dark-colored and armored reptilian figure that was standing a few feet away, almost merging with the night, the glowing eyes radiating amusement. "Amy had a meal with my sister and needed to get home, so I offered her a lift. I hope that's all right."

Nodding slowly without conscious intent, Carol looked up at the eyes and teeth smiling down at her from several feet over her head. "It's… It's fine. Thank you," she managed to say after a few seconds of blankness.

"Is that Amy, Mom?" Vicky said from the top of the stairs, rapidly floating down and coming outside to see her sister. "Where were you, sis? I was worried about you, you never… Eep." Her voice died in a squeak when she spotted who was standing next to the other girl, her face going pale in the dark. Amy only seemed amused.

"It was nice meeting you, Amy," Raptaur commented, holding out a huge taloned hand. Amy took it and shook it with no signs of fear.

"Likewise. Thank you very much for the ride, it was a hell of a lot of fun. Like the best roller coaster in the world."

"I'm glad you enjoyed it," the huge reptile laughed. "We can do it again sometime if you want."

"How fast were you going on the freeway?" the brunette asked, glancing at her sister for a second as she said it.

Raptaur shrugged. "We were going past all the cars, so I'd guess about eighty? I don't have a speedometer. Anyway, I have other things to do, so I'll see you around." She waved to the girl as she turned, then twisted her head back around to look directly behind her in a manner that made it clear her long neck wasn't even close to human in construction. "It was nice to meet you, Mrs Dallon, Victoria. Saurial told me all about you both." With another wave she suddenly accelerated to vehicular speeds, taking a turn onto the road and rapidly disappearing from sight.

Amy watched her go, then turned to the others, who were standing completely still staring at her. Carol couldn't think what to say, so in the end merely stepped aside and let her in. "Hi, Vicky, Carol, I'm back," the girl said with her normal somewhat sarcastic tone. "Nice to see you both. I had a fun evening, thanks. Now I'm off to bed. Good night."

They turned and watched as she went up the stairs, seeming pleased with herself, then turned back to look out into the night. Eventually both Dallons retreated into the house, Carol closing the door softly and leaning on it.

"Amy made some friends," Vicky finally said in a high-pitched voice. "That's nice."

Carol stared at her, sighed, then went to find a bottle of wine and a corkscrew.

* * *

Slipping easily through the dark waters of the bay as Kaiju, Taylor smiled internally. ' _That was a lot of fun_ ,' she remarked.

" _Amy certainly seemed to enjoy it,_ " the Varga agreed. " _Both the meal and the aftermath. She seemed much happier than we've seen her before._ "

' _I hope it cheered her up, she always looks so tired and depressed_ ,' Taylor sighed. _'If she really is going to take time for herself I'm very pleased about it. I think I might invite her back to meet Dad and talk some more, about things we couldn't mention in public. She's obviously wanting to say something that she didn't want to talk about in the restaurant_.'

" _Are you going to tell her everything?_ " The demon sounded curious. She thought for a moment.

' _Probably not, at least not at first. I want to see how she reacts. She's obviously worked out quite a lot of it already, though, like Lisa did._ ' Thinking back to the two hour conversation she'd had with the blonde villain, she smiled to herself again. ' _I think dealing with Coil is going to be fun._ '

" _Not for him_."

' _No, not really_ ,' she agreed with a dark chuckle. ' _Poor guy may end up with a phobia._ '

" _From what she said about him, that's probably the nicest thing we could do. I still think just eating him would be the simplest solution_." The Varga laughed a little. " _It usually is. You'd be surprised how many problems that sorts out_."

Amused, she shook her head a little, then slowed as they arrived over the most heavily silted up part of the deep channel to the docks. ' _Well, we need to wait for Lisa to come through with the scent sample. She thought that wouldn't take more than a week or so. Finding him at that point will just take patience. When we know who he really is, we can decided on the best approach_.' She smirked. ' _We might find a use closer to the original intent for the Assassin's Cloak_.'

" _I told you it was a valid technique for dealing with certain classes of problem,_ " her demonic friend chortled.

' _Yes, you did_ ,' she replied, shaking her head a little. ' _But I want to try other options first. Anyway, how are we going to do this?_ '

She could feel the tide was close to turning, the currents brushing over her scales and steadily slowing while changing direction. Shortly the water in the bay would be flowing out, not in.

Studying the area, they decided on a suitable approach, then began creating the necessary tools. While she had an urge to try a huge shovel just for the amusement value she agreed that the Varga's plow idea was more practical. Shortly afterward she was inspecting the massive snow-plow-like construction which was sinking into the soft silt, over a hundred feet wide in the middle of the wedge-shaped blade. It was very thin to keep the weight low enough not to disappear from sight, with a shape that they thought would allow it to track through the mud at a constant height while pushing a lot of it off to the sides and spreading the rest into the water where hopefully it would quickly wash away.

They'd probably need to fiddle with the design as they progressed but it looked plausible for a first attempt.

She was wearing a harness around her lower body that ended in a pair of enormous rings on each hip. Lying on the floor of the bay were two four hundred foot long cables which had clips on the ends, the other ends on a rig attached to the blade which hopefully would make it move properly. Picking the cables up she moved to the right position then attached them, before slowly walking towards the mouth of the bay. The cables tightened then the blade began moving, hundreds of tons of mud curling up along it to the sides. A surprisingly large amount mixed with the water and soon she could barely see anything, relying on her electrical sense and her hearing to let her know where she was going. As she practiced with it Taylor was becoming more and more able to work without vision underwater.

The blade made a faint rumble as it pushed through the mud, the noise hopefully not carrying too far above water. She was all too aware now after the robot sub incident that people were listening. Hopefully they could finish before some busybody turned up to investigate. She'd had a nice meal already, she didn't need to eat any more plastic and metal right now.

Finishing the first pass after fifteen minutes, leaving a mile long trail behind her, they waited for the silt to settle out and wash away, then dissipated the blade and returned to the beginning to inspect the result. ' _That worked pretty well,_ ' she said, satisfied. There was a twenty foot deep trench as wide as the blade in the silted up channel, a wide swath of silt spreading out to either side where some of the mud had settled. About half of it had washed away in the by-now quite strong current.

" _It did, better than I expected,_ " he replied, studying the scene. " _I think half a dozen more passes and this part will be as clear as it's going to get without a lot more work_."

' _OK_ ,' she replied happily. The blade was reformed and they started the next sweep, Taylor humming an old sea shanty to herself in a deep voice, enjoying the effort and pleased about the way she could help not only her father but the DWU and Brockton Bay as a whole.

* * *

"The passive sonar is picking up something very odd again, Colin," Dragon said suddenly, looking up at him from where she'd been working on checking his latest calculations. "It's close, too. Inside the bay I think."

Worried, he turned to her. "What is it?"

"I'm… not entire certain," she said with a strange tone to her voice. "There's something that suggests a continuous very low level seismic tremor, very faint, some odd metallic sounds… and this."

She activated a speaker on the console next to him. Both of them listened for thirty seconds or so, before he turned to stare at her.

"What the hell is that?" he asked plaintively.

"I think it's something humming ' _Drunken Sailor_ ' she said with a certain amount of shock. He stared some more, then looked at the speaker as if it had betrayed him. "Something very large."

"We don't have another one of your probes handy, I suppose?" he asked carefully. She shook her head.

"No, the next one is finished in my lab but it would take hours to get it here."

"I see," he said. They listened for a little longer. The deep notes changed.

"That's ' _A Bottle of Rum_ '" Dragon noted idly. "Good tone."

"Is there any immediate threat to us or the city?" he eventually sighed. "From the apparently happy underwater pirate doing something out there?"

She shrugged helplessly. "We could go and look?"

They exchanged another glance, then very deliberately he reached out and turned the speaker off. Turning back to his work he tried to forget what they'd heard.

"I just want this day to end," he muttered. "And life to go back to what passed for normal in my world."

Dragon sighed a little, watching him, then nodded. "I understand, Colin. I'll keep monitoring it but I can't detect any actual threat at the moment."

With a nod of gratitude, he resumed work, trying to put the insanity of the day behind him and trying not to think about the concept of a sea serpent humming sea shanties, which was just disturbing on more levels than he wanted to consider.

* * *

Erwin lifted his head from where he'd pressed his ear to the deck of his dory, shaking his head. "This place is becoming more insane by the day," he mumbled. Standing up he climbed the ladder back to the dock, deciding he was just going to go home and sleep. Obviously going fishing was a bad idea tonight. He was actually beginning to wonder if he could ever risk it again.

Wandering slowly home, he started singing, for some reason almost happy. " _What shall we do with a drunken sailor?_ " he yodeled, trying not to laugh.

Life was clearly totally nuts. He could only roll with it.

Wishing that he'd brought a bottle of rum with him, he headed home, while behind him a faint bass chorus came from deep underwater.


	44. Omake - Dynamic Healing

_What can I say? The idea amused me..._

* * *

"Help me!" The cry from behind them made Miss Militia and Assault, who were on patrol in the middle of the Boardwalk area, spin around, to see a middle aged man running towards them. Seconds later behind him a familiar form rounded the corner at high speed, making them stare in shock.

The huge reptilian creature charging down the street towards them on four legs, humanoid fore-body erect, took careful aim and flung something that opened out into a glittering gray metallic net, engulfing the man before he could avoid it. He'd been looking over his shoulder yet even so had no time to swerve. Raptaur pulled sharply on the line she was holding and the net closed, the man falling and rolling to a halt at Assault's feet.

He looked down, then up as Raptaur skidded to a halt, a figure they recognized with stunned amazement as a somewhat rebranded Panacea sliding out of the saddle-like fitting on the back of the other cape's lower body. Her normal costume had been replaced with a formfitting one in the same color-scheme, which had a slightly metallic overall effect, similar to the dark blue-black armor that Raptaur was covered with. On her head, her hood had been replaced with a helmet with a transparent visor, a red cross emblazoned on the forehead, the letters RIMT circling it.

Raptaur's armor now had the same logo and letters on either side, on a white circular backing. They exchanged a glance as the reptilian woman lowered her head a little and sniffed carefully. "This is the one. Diabetes, stage three pancreatic cancer."

"Great!" Panacea announced in a remarkably cheerful voice for the normally somewhat morose cape. She dropped to armored knees next to the man. "Sir, welcome to Brockton Bay. You are suffering from a serious life threatening illness. I'm going to heal you. Please hold still."

The man stared up at them through the net with wide eyes set into a pale face, struggling vigorously. "Um..." Assault raised a finger. Neither of the two capes paid him any attention.

"Look, stop wriggling around, will you?" Panacea said with a certain amount of asperity as she tried to put her hands on his face. The man squeaked in horror and rolled his head to the side.

Leaning down, Raptaur caught his eyes with her own disconcertingly glowing ones and growled. "Hold still. Or I'll bite your foot off."

The man froze. Panacea smiled winningly. "Don't worry, I can regrow it. We do that all the time. Now, this won't hurt and you'll be right as rain in a moment." She put her hand on his face and concentrated.

Miss Militia looked at Assault. He looked back. Both of them looked down.

"Ah, Panacea…?" The military cape sounded worried. The brunette girl waved her free hand in a mildly annoyed fashion.

"Hold on, I'm busy. Be with you in a moment." Not sure what to do both of them stood there and watched. Raptaur stood guard, eyeing the gathering crowd suspiciously. She sniffed a couple of times then fixed a young woman in the collection of tourists staring at them with a gimlet eye. The woman paled.

"Got another one, Panacea. Early ovarian cancer, six months to a year old."

"OK, thanks," the other girl said absently. She nodded after a few seconds more. "There we go. Thank you for your patience, sir. You should see your own doctor to have your records updated as soon as you can." She pulled a file card from her pocket and scribbled on it in a couple of places. Raptaur unwound the net, while keeping an eye on the blonde woman in the crowd who was slowly backing away.

"Sign here, please," Panacea said when the man was free, holding out the card and a pen. He stared, then carefully took it from her, writing something with a trembling hand. "And here." He did so. She tore the card in half and handed him one piece, standing up in the process. "There you go, sir. Please enjoy the remainder of your visit to Brockton Bay. We'd appreciate a recommendation to your friends."

Somewhat blankly he nodded, then as the two heroes watched, wandered off with a dazed expression. Panacea produced a small notebook from her pocket and made an entry in it. "That's nineteen so far today," she smiled, putting the card half in the back of it then tucking it away again. "Going well."

The blonde woman who Raptaur had been watching suddenly turned and legged it at high speed. "Got another runner," the huge reptile rumbled, sounding eager.

"Damn. _Why_ do they keep _doing_ that?" Panacea sighed, looking skyward for a moment. She turned to Assault and his colleague. "Sorry, can't stay around, we're busy. I'll catch you guys later, OK?"

Assault simply stared. The girl hopped easily back onto her steed slash partner. "What does RIMT stand for?" he asked in a befuddled voice.

"Rapid Intervention Medical Team," Raptaur replied, turning to face the direction the woman had disappeared in, then looking back at them. "We heal you enthusiastically and with a smile." She lifted the corners of her mouth to expose huge fangs, making both capes pale and take a step back. "Whether you like it or not."

"Hi Ho, Raptaur, Away!" Panacea shouted with glee. The huge reptile stopped and cranked her head slowly around to stare at the girl on her back, who blushed a little.

"I thought we agreed you'd never do that again," she grumbled. Panacea shrugged apologetically.

"Sorry. I got carried away."

"Well, stop it. You're making people look at us."

"Sorry," the girl said again. "Get on with it, she'll be half a mile away by now."

"She can't escape," Raptaur snickered darkly. "Not now I have her scent. Don't worry, we'll get her."

"Hurry up, then, I want to stop at Fugly's on the way back."

Raptaur suddenly broke into a sprint, directly at the nearest building, leaping halfway up it in one jump, then quickly ascending the front and vanishing over the roof, her rider flattening herself against her back with a degree of ease that showed a lot of practice.

"I could go for a burger," the two capes left on the ground heard as the duo disappeared from sight.

After a _very_ long pause, Assault turned to Miss Militia, who was staring up with a completely blank look in her eyes above her scarf.

"Is it me, or was that weird even for around here?" he asked slowly. His partner nodded, not looking away from where the two people had gone.

"Hmph."

After another long pause, they resumed their patrol, both silent and wondering when the world had stopped making the little amount of sense that it had done up until now.

In the distance, they heard someone scream.

A very faint yell of, "Hold still, dammit, I'm _helping_ ," came to them on the breeze.

They ignored it with considerable effort.


	45. Jokes and Sonar

**Monday, February 7, 2011**

Danny put his fork down, leaning back with a contented sigh. "Thank you, Taylor, that was very good."

"You're welcome, Dad," she smiled, finishing the last of her orange juice. Looking at the clock on the microwave, she added, "I'll have to go in a minute or I'll be late for school. I slept in a little."

"I'm not surprised, you got in very late last night. It must have been about four in the morning."

She yawned a little. "About that, yes. It was a long weekend but I got a lot done. I'm pretty happy about it."

"How did the channel clearing go?" he asked curiously.

His daughter smiled widely. "Really well, in fact. We spent about three and a half, maybe four hours working on it, until the currents dropped too much to be useful. It worked pretty effectively using Varga's idea. We ended up with a blade with a lot of holes in it, which seemed to stir things up a lot and make it more effective. There's a little left to finish at the tanker end but I'll do that when we move the thing. The rest of the channel is clear all the way to the docks. They could do with being dug out as well, I can do that later."

"Amazing. And very good work. How deep is the channel?" he asked, smiling.

"Maybe… two hundred feet at high tide? Something like that. We got it down to the rock in a couple of places. It's not actually very level, some bits are a good three hundred feet deep, while others are only a little more than half that. You can tell where someone blasted it deeper in the shallow parts but they didn't do a very good job."

"It was done a long time ago, sometime around the late eighteen hundreds, or very early nineteen hundreds," he replied, remembering the history of the bay. "Before the first world war. They didn't have very good diving capabilities then and I think they mainly dropped explosives over the side then backed off and set them off. I can well believe they'd miss places."

"I can clear it up easily but it's going to make a lot of noise," she told him, rising and picking up their plates. "Probably best to wait until Kaiju is known to everyone. I can spend some time finding all the wrecks and clearing them away as well if the Mayor wants. That's easy enough."

"We'll have the neatest sea floor in the US at this rate," he chuckled, making her giggle.

"If it's worth doing it's worth overdoing, I think," she laughed.

"An interesting motto that would explain a lot." Danny grinned at the girl as she snickered. "I've nearly finished the proposal, I'll call the Mayor's office later today and make an appointment. What do you want me to tell him about introducing Kaiju to him?"

"Anything that you need to, Dad," she told him. "I can make time for this, it's important to you and everyone else."

"Thank you," he smiled.

Finishing with clearing the dishes away, she turned to him and leaned on the sink. "Dad? You remember I told you about Amy Dallon? How she worked out I was Saurial?" She sounded slightly worried.

"Yes, I do," he replied. "I thought you had a… calm talk… with her about that." He was somewhat amused, the description his daughter had given him complete with demonstration was the sort of thing that would stick with you.

"I met her last night, or rather, Saurial did." She explained briefly what she'd been up to with the healer. Danny shook his head in wonder when she finished.

"That girl sounds both interesting and worrying. And by the sound of it needs a friend."

"That's what I thought. Would you mind if I invited her here for a meal sometime soon? Later in the week, probably. She'd figured out a lot of it already and is amazingly curious about me. I thought I'd answer some of the questions she has and find out more about her as well. I'm a little worried about her. She could be… well, if she goes off the rails, she's dangerous. I don't want to see that happen, both because I like her, and because of the trouble it would cause."

Thinking about it for a moment, Danny nodded. "I don't mind. I'd like to meet her myself. I think you should be a little careful about how much you open up at first, sound her out a bit, but I can't see a massive problem with it."

"Thanks. I'll let you know when after I've asked her. I'll probably make that stir fry thing Varga taught me for it."

"Great, I like that one." He smiled as she pushed off from the sink, standing erect. Another glance at the microwave and she looked annoyed.

"I really have to run now, Dad. See you later." She left the kitchen at high speed.

"Bye, Taylor," he smiled to an empty room, hearing the back door close moments later. Shaking his head a little he went to the sink to wash the dishes, before going to work.

* * *

Dennis poked Chris. "Here she comes," he hissed, making his friend turn and look to see Amy Dallon and her sister Vicky walking towards the school doors. Carlos turned as well, while Dean was already approaching his girlfriend.

All three of them studied the brunette, who had a rather different expression than the usual, somewhat blank and slightly annoyed one she wore most of the time. Right now she looked like she was remembering something interesting and finding the way quite a lot of people were staring at her somewhat amusing, a small slightly evil smile on her lips. Vicky, on the other hand, was looking bemused, glancing at the shorter girl every now and then as if she was trying to work something out, something that caused her a lot of problems.

"Hello, guys," Amy said as she and Vicky arrived. They all exchanged glances, then looked back at her. She smirked. It was a real smirk, not the somewhat sarcastic look she so often gave people, especially ones she seemed to think were idiots. Which was most of them.

"Hi, Amy," Dennis began, a smile forming on his lips. "I read something really interesting on PHO." Amy's smirk widened but she waited for him to continue, while Vicky looked worried. Dean covered his eyes.

"Do tell," she replied, when he didn't say anything more. "What was it?"

"Well, there's a rumor going around that you shared a nice intimate dinner with… another girl." He thought for a moment, then added with a smirk of his own, "Female, anyway."

"Hmm. People talk a lot, don't they?" she replied evenly.

"They do," he nodded, while the others listened. "And afterwards, they say, her sister gave you a ride. So to speak."

"Ah."

"Yep. A long, hard ride that must have left you panting for breath." Dennis' grin widened. "Rumor has it that you reached heights unlike anything you've encountered before. Someone even said you were screaming with ecstasy."

Carlos sighed, while Chris was biting his lip. Vicky's eyes widened. Dean shook his head in despair.

Amy snickered.

"Oh, you have no idea, Dennis," she replied softly. "Feeling that power between your legs… Up and down, up and down, _over_ and _over_ and _over_ again, until you can hardly breathe because you're so excited..." She leaned a little closer and lowered her voice. "So _fast_ , and it went on for so _long_ … But it was all worth it. I'm looking forward to the next time. It was all a blur, but the first time is always a shock, I've always heard. The second time you can relax and enjoy yourself, you're not so tense because you know what's coming and you're looking forward to it with anticipation..."

Dennis stared, while Chris had bitten his lip hard enough to draw blood. Dean was holding Vicky, the blonde's shoulders shaking now and her head buried in his chest, while Carlos gaped.

Amy's evil smirk held for a moment, until Dennis broke down, roaring with laughter, at which point she did the same, both of them almost collapsing on each other. All around them, the various other students who had fallen silent to listen with wide eyes just stared with differing looks ranging from amusement to shock.

"Oh, God, never change, Amy," Dennis chortled, hugging the healer, who grinned at him. "Never change."

"Not planning on it," she giggled, pushing herself upright again as he released her.

"How the hell did you manage to persuade Raptaur to give you a ride like that?" Chris asked when he recovered from nearly choking with laughter. She looked at him, before reaching out and touching his face, the cut lip disappearing without a trace in a second or two. "Thanks," he added.

"It was her idea, actually. Saurial and I met at that gun battle on Addison Street last night, I was just walking along minding my own business when the ABB and E88 kicked off for whatever stupid reason they had," she explained, still looking amused and pleased. "She shut it down, I healed a few relatively minor injuries, then she came over and introduced herself. We got to talking and in the end because I'd been heading for the Thai restaurant a couple of blocks from there I invited her along with me. She said yes, we had a good meal and spent a couple of hours talking about things."

She smiled less evilly, now looking like she was remembering something amusing. "She's a really funny person and both very smart and very interesting. We had a lot of fun. The restaurant seemed a bit shocked but managed to deal with it pretty well. Afterward, when I said I needed to get home, she suggested her sister could help." Amy shrugged. "I was a little surprised at first but they talked me into it. It was a hell of a trip, Raptaur can run about eighty miles an hour, and buildings and things don't seem to be much of an obstruction."

"Mom nearly had an aneurysm when Ames turned up at the door with Raptaur," Vicky remarked, recovering from a mostly silent giggle-fit. "So did I. She's _terrifying_. But Ames says she's cool and won't eat us and if I can't believe my sister, who can I believe?"

"Even so, respect, Amy," Dennis said, holding up his fist, which the brunette bumped with her own, a smile on her face that he found a very pleasant change from her normal expression. "I don't know if you could persuade me to do that."

"It was amazing, like the best roller coaster you've ever heard of," she laughed. "Honestly, it was scary as shit for the first minute or so but she made a saddle that I couldn't have fallen out of if I wanted to. When I knew I wasn't going to get hurt, it was just a hell of a lot of fun. She can go straight up the side of a building faster than most people can drive in the city. I swear we went right past Max Anders gaping out the window in his office at Medhall." She chuckled at the memory. "And passing cars on the freeway… That was amazing. Some of the _expressions_ we got! Especially when Raptaur stopped at a traffic light that was red and just politely waited."

Dennis howled with laughter again. "That would explain some of the photos on PHO," he gasped. "And the videos. The thread with you two and Saurial in is already over fifteen hundred pages long and some of the comments are _hysterical_. More conspiracy theories than you could shake a stick at. One guy is convinced that the end times are coming if not already here and Saurial is a demon from hell."

"I wonder what the PRT thinks about it?" Chris mused. Amy shrugged with a grin.

"No idea, and I don't care, it's nothing to do with them."

"So you actually met both Saurial and Raptaur at once?" Carlos asked with a curious expression.

Amy looked at him, thought for a second, then nodded, smiling. "I did, actually."

"Did you meet anyone else from… **The Family?** " Dennis lowered the pitch of his voice on the last couple of words and made little finger quotes. "As they're becoming known on PHO. People are acting like we have a reptilian mafia living in the bay."

Staring at him for a moment, Amy giggled. "Oh, that's wonderful. I wonder if Saurial knows? She'd laugh like an idiot." Shaking her head, she said, "No, only those two. I don't know if there actually are any more."

The first bell rang, prompting a drift of students towards the door, several dozen of them who had been listening to them talk with various expressions of interest, quite a number making notes on their phones and probably already posting to PHO. Dennis was pretty sure that the theories there were going to get even weirder. Laughing to himself he followed the other inside, noticing as he went that the new girl, the brunette with the long curly hair, Hebert or something, was nearby wearing a smile of her own. He nodded to her with a grin, getting one back, before she headed off in a different direction.

* * *

Colin watched the image build up on the monitor as the high-resolution sidescan sonar drone that was criss-crossing the bay in the area the passive microphones had detected something odd happening at the previous night transmitted data to the computer. Each swath added another hundred foot wide strip of the sea floor to the picture, the quality good enough that it looked like a photo.

Dragon had brought the drone down in a remotely-piloted aircraft overnight without mentioning it to him, then told him when it arrived. While he still wished that they could just forget about the whole sea-monster thing, especially the part where it started humming sea shanties in deep resonant notes, he reluctantly admitted that they had to investigate.

He was glad she'd waited until it had gone, though.

Standing beside him, Dragon watched the monitor as well. They'd initially tried the camera on the probe but the water was, for some reason, much more than normally full of fine particles of mud and silt, which rendered the visual inspection nearly useless. All they could see was a milky soup in the lights until the machine was only a couple of feet from the sea bed, which wasn't enough to be at all useful.

Now, in the sonar data, they could see the cause of this.

"Good grief," Dragon said quietly. "It dredged the shipping canal. This depth profile is completely different to the existing one in the charts. Look, the channel is clear all the way to the dock area from nearly at the wrecked tanker."

"Why on earth would a sea serpent clear out a silted up channel?" he asked, totally confused. "And for that matter, how?"

"I don't know, and I don't know." She shook her armored head slowly. "This doesn't make any sense."

"What's that?" he asked suddenly, pointing to a series of marks in the silt to one side of the channel, which disappeared off the side of the scanned image. They were much too regular to be natural, especially since they were in silt that seemed to have been redistributed from the cleared-out channel in the bay.

Leaning closer she inspected the screen, then replied, "I don't know. I'll send the probe to do another sweep there."

They waited as the machine swung around and headed back, building up the rest of the image over the marks. When it was done, they stared at the result, then looked at each other.

"Why," Armsmaster asked very carefully, "is there a hundred foot tall neatly calligraphed letter K written into the mud on the bottom of the bay?"

Dragon looked at him then the monitor again in silence for several seconds. "It signed its work?" she finally asked helplessly, shrugging a little. "I have no fucking idea, Colin. This is just getting surreal."

Putting his head in his hands he sighed heavily. "I have enough trouble with people without adding sea monsters with a peculiar sense of humor to it," he moaned. "Why can't life be more rational?"

Dragon hesitantly patted him comfortingly on the shoulder, both of them looking back to the monitor in silence.

"I swear things used to make more sense," he finally said, saving the image then turning the system off. "I have work to do. We're ready for the first weapon simulation."

"OK, Colin," his best friend replied, apparently as happy as he was to forget about whatever the hell was going on out there. As long as it wasn't a threat, he just didn't care anymore. "Let's run it and see what happens."

Grateful for the change in subject he started typing on his keyboard, setting up the first run.

* * *

"Certainly, Mayor," Danny said, reaching out and adjusting the position of the small piece of polished teak sitting on his desk next to his clock, the brass plaque on it catching the light coming in through the window behind him. "Tomorrow at one. I can make that. I think you'll be very pleased with the results. It's looking very plausible indeed." He listened for a moment, then smiled.

"Of course. I was expecting that. I'll make the arrangements. Thank you, Mayor."

Putting the phone down a moment later he got up and walked to the window, looking down at the DWU yard where quite a few people were in the process of using Taylor's replacement fencing material to repair a hundred yard stretch of the main fence. They'd fixed some smaller damaged areas that had worn out and were now working on the main part of the job.

Smiling to himself, contented with the way things were proceeding, he wished for a moment that his wife was still around to see how well their daughter had grown up, before sighing slightly sadly and going back to work.

* * *

Picking her moment carefully, Taylor got up from the lunch table she was sharing with Lucy and Mandy as usual, the two talking to Eric who was sitting at the next one along, and headed to intercept Amy who was apparently getting another helping of the admittedly pretty good chili. She picked up a bowl and stepped up behind the healer, who looked at her for a moment with a small smile.

"Hello, Taylor," Amy said calmly.

"Hello, Amy," she replied likewise.

Both of them could see the other one was suppressing a grin.

"I wanted to invite you to dinner at my house later in the week," Taylor said in a low voice, as Amy scooped more chili out of the large bowl of it sitting on the hotplate. She put some rice in her own bowl, then took the large spoon the other brunette handed her. "Wednesday or Thursday would probably be best. I thought we could talk."

Glancing at her for a moment, Amy thought, then nodded. "Sure, I'd like that." She looked at her sister for a second or two, the blonde currently involved with chattering to Dean, Carlos, and two of her friends simultaneously. "I'll have to come up with a reason we know each other, though."

"I helped you with that nose thing and we got to talking," Taylor suggested, filling her bowl. "You've decided you need more friends. Seems simple enough."

"That should work," Amy agreed as she smiled slightly. "Hey, you're good with math, right? I've heard people saying something about you already being top of your class."

"I'm pretty good with it, yes," Taylor admitted.

"Great. I'm not as good as I should be. If anyone pushes, you're helping me with it, OK?"

"A cunning plan," Taylor smirked. "Sure. I'll even help you for real if you want."

"That would actually be helpful," Amy chuckled. "See you later."

"Later, Amy." The Dallon girl headed back to her table, picking up a couple of bread rolls on the way, leaving Taylor to do the same then go back to her friends, who were still talking.

* * *

Emily sighed happily, leaning back in her chair and stretching without pain, finding it remarkably pleasing after all these years. She'd never admit it even at gunpoint, but she was actually sort of grateful to Doctor Torres for forcing this on her.

Glancing to the side, she smiled a little, then picked up the very small glass of gin that was sitting there, taking a tiny appreciative sip. "Oh, hell, I've missed this," she mumbled, sipping again. "Fucking doctors."

Turning on the TV with the remote she watched the national news for a while, seeing nothing much that was particularly different from yesterday. Changing channel to the local news she listened for a moment, sitting up and paying more attention when she saw a story on a gang-related shooting incident late the previous night. This wasn't, unfortunately, a very uncommon thing in this city.

There were several short video clips, apparently shot by passers-by, which she watched with interest.

The appearance of Saurial wasn't too much of a shock, the lizard-girl did seem to specialize in appearing out of nowhere and dealing with gang members in a horrifyingly direct and efficient manner. She seemed to be expanding her weapon repertoire as time went on as well. The net was new.

So was the knife in the gun barrel, which was also an appallingly good shot. Emily flinched a little at the way the metallic blade sank into the steel barrel to the hilt like it was going into a stick of butter. If that had actually hit the gang member holding the weapon it would have gone all the way through him without any effort at all.

' _I hope she was actually aiming at the_ _ **gun**_ _,_ ' she thought grimly. It seemed likely, the girl seemed to dislike causing injury to a level she'd seldom seen in a cape. Although her patience seemed to have a limit as shown by the kick that took the gunman down with one shot. She winced in reluctant sympathy.

Another clip showed Saurial talking to Panacea, who for some reason was only wearing the hood of her costume, then both girls walking off together. Emily frowned, taking another sip of gin. ' _I didn't know they knew each other_ ,' she mused thoughtfully. ' _That's… interesting_.' The healer didn't seem perturbed by the presence of the reptilian girl which was a little unusual, suggesting previous contact.

When the news ended, going to local sport, she turned the TV off again and picked up her tablet from the table next to the now empty glass of gin, settling back to catch up on the various idiots on PHO. She didn't read it all that often but sometimes indulged just so she was abreast of the various cape rumors, some of which turned out in the end to be true.

A few minutes later, she gaped at a video showing Panacea in full costume sitting on top of Raptaur, the huge reptilian woman waiting patiently at a red light, obviously videoed from a nearby car. When the light changed the lizard-like creature accelerated away with a speed that was breathtaking, the girl sitting on her back in an odd sort of saddle yelping in surprise and excitement while holding on, lowering her body to reduce air resistance.

Going back through the thread that this video was in, which had been linked from a different one, Emily found the beginning and started reading, wondering what the hell was going on out there.

* * *

Colin winced a little, watching the simulated weapon animation as it fired, the recoil throwing the entire multi-ton device into the air and over a mile away from where it had been stationed. The level of destruction in front of it was unbelievable, far exceeding his expectations, but the way the device itself left the scene in the other direction with alacrity posed a significant problem.

"Ouch." Dragon shook her head. "That would be difficult."

"Yes," he sighed. "Perhaps some form of inertial canceler?"

"We could leave the barrel open at both ends and put the charge in the middle," she suggested with a wry tone. "Fire identical projectiles out both ends. That would cancel the recoil nicely."

"At the cost of even more destruction," he pointed out seriously. She sighed a little.

"Joke, Colin."

"Oh." He made a note. "Even so, it's not practical."

"Not really, no." They thought for a while. "An extremely heavy gun carriage, perhaps?"

"It would need to be so massive that it would make rapidly aiming the device impossible," he replied immediately. "In which case Clockblocker's power would be more useful."

"An inertial cancellation effect large enough to damp out that much recoil is difficult," she said with a nod. "Not impossible, I suppose. I'll bring up some of the designs I have on file and we can see if any of them look promising. Reset the sim and run it again, let's see how we can affect it."

"All right," he agreed, pulling the keyboard closer.

* * *

"Holy shit."

Randall turned to look at Kevin, who was staring at his computer with both eyebrows as high as they'd go.

"What?" he asked curiously. His friend waved him over, so he put his controller down and got up, moving to where he could see the screen. Leet replayed the video.

"Holy shit."

"I know, right? That's amazing." Kevin grinned as they watched Panacea and Raptaur zoom away out of camera range at what must have been over seventy miles an hour. "I wonder how the hell Panacea of all people ended up riding Raptaur? That's just nuts."

"She seems to be having fun as far as I can see, based on that insane grin," Randall chuckled, reaching over his friend's shoulder and replaying the video with a click of the mouse.

"Wouldn't you? I'm incredibly jealous." Kevin laughed, shaking his head in wonder. "I _really_ want to get her involved in one of our things somehow."

"That… might not be quite as impossible as I thought the first time you said it," Randall replied thoughtfully, stepping back and leaning on one of the various machines lying around the room, some sort of power generation thing Leet had never got around to finishing. His friend turned his chair around and studied him curiously.

"Meaning?"

"Well, I think we're both pretty sure that Raptaur and Saurial are the same person, right?"

Kevin nodded.

"And we're also pretty sure that they're both Danny Hebert's daughter."

Another nod.

"OK. Based on that, and what we saw a couple of days ago, that means she's one hell of a Changer, a Brute like I've never even heard of before, some weird sort of Shaker, and probably a Thinker as well, using PRT ratings. Really impressive. Looking at the forums, people are convinced that there is at least one more, much bigger, reptilian thing out there in the bay. If they're actually right that's _also_ probably this Hebert girl. Which means she's capable of..." He stopped and shrugged a little.

"I'm not sure _what_ her limits would be. An eighty-foot tall thing that can pick up ships and can casually push that fucking huge tanker around sounds ridiculous, but weird things happen around here. Maybe she really can."

"OK." Leet thought for a while, then nodded slowly. "It all sounds like it fits what we know or suspect. So what?"

"So, personally I think that means she's got an… interesting… sense of humor. She's carefully making people believe that there are several reptilian capes wandering around, or even aliens, based on what I've seen on PHO. No way that's an accident. She's doing it on purpose, probably partly to protect her father, which is a very neat solution, but at least partly for shits and giggles."

Kevin snickered. "That, I like. A girl after my own heart."

Grinning, Randall nodded. "Anyway, it seems likely to me that she's got some interesting abilities as a Changer which I suspect we've only seen the tip of so far. And a strange sense of humor which likes trolling people. So, just maybe, if we ask nicely and don't actually do anything too illegal, she'd be up for a new identity which would help us with something… amusing. It wouldn't be linked back to either Saurial or Raptaur except as part of this mythical lizard family, and no one expect you to answer for what your other family members do, if they're being reasonable."

He grinned again. "You know, the black lizard of the family. Likes breaking rules, a bit of a tearaway."

Staring at him for some seconds, Leet broke down in laughter.

"Oh, god, that's brilliant," he snickered after some time, wiping his eyes. "You really thinks she'd be up for it?"

"Probably, yes," Randall replied. "We'd have to think it through extremely carefully first, then ask very politely. I _seriously_ wouldn't want to imply in any way at all that we were a threat to her, or more likely to her father. If she's _anything_ like him, that would end very quickly and very badly. The Heberts look after their own."

Kevin paled a little. "Ah. Yes, good point. What we saw the other day… I wouldn't want that looking for us with blood in her eye."

"Neither would I. So approaching her would have to be extremely delicate. I mean, we're pretty sure who it is, but it's breaking the Rules kind of badly. I'm going to have to think about it to work out how to bring it up without getting a javelin up the ass in response."

Kevin laughed and winced at the same time, shifting on his chair. "No, that would be bad."

"Fairly," his friend chuckled. "Luckily, I got the impression that she actually sort of likes us, and isn't actually too worried about us being ' _villains_ ', which is kind of odd but something I can respect. She seems to make up her own mind, not believe the stereotypes."

"Smart, you mean."

"Yes, most likely very. I think if we approach it right, she'd at least listen."

"It's worth a try." Kevin grinned at his friend. "Can you imagine Armsmasters' face?"

"I can. That's why I _really_ want to do this," Randall chortled. "Let's come up with a good plan, then see if we can persuade her to help."

They smirked at each other before starting a brainstorming session that would go on until the wee hours.

* * *

Colin shivered, making Dragon who was watching as he ran the simulation yet again ask, "Are you cold?"

"No," he replied, looking around. "I just got a sudden sense of foreboding." He inspected the lab carefully, looking for something amiss, but finally shrugged. "Must be my imagination. I've been having trouble with it since the Atlantic encounter."

"It's almost certainly miles away by now, Colin," his friend chuckled. "Don't worry."

Nodding, he reset the simulation once more, changing some of the parameters.

Dragon was probably right after all. She normally was.


	46. Mayor and Kaiju

Entering the house via the back door as she normally did, Taylor dropped her backpack off in her room, then woke up her laptop, bringing up the PHO forum and looking at the most recent posts. Her eyes widened a little, seeing that the thread about Raptaur, Saurial, and Panacea was now closing in on eighteen hundred pages. "Holy crap that's nuts," she giggled, going to the first page where the thread originator had helpfully linked to all the video and pictures from last night. Shortly she was laughing at the sight of her and Amy tearing down the street passing car after car, with the girl on her back yelling in glee.

"She really enjoyed the hell out of that," she commented.

" _I think you did as well,_ " the Varga replied, sounding pleased.

"I did. I really like exerting myself and running as well, it's nearly as much fun as swimming. Having a rider like that was a little weird, leaving aside the way the balance changes, and I had to be careful not to hurt her, but it was really a lot of fun."

" _I expect she'd happily take you up on it again._ "

"Probably. I'm quite happy to do it as well." Grinning to herself she paged through the various images, seeing some very good ones had been captured, including at the restaurant.

Another thread was given over to speculation on how many of her there were, although they were actually referring to ' _The Family_ ', which made her gasp with laughter every time it came up. "Oh, god, I wish we could somehow pull off being in more than one place at a time," she giggled furiously, "it would make people lose it completely. We really need to come up with some other identities and let them be randomly seen around the place."

" _We should probably not go overboard, but I expect we could come up with some good ones,_ " the demon chortled, nearly as amused as she was. " _Nothing too large, we don't want to detract from Kaiju, it would lessen the impact._ "

"Don't want that," she smirked. "I wonder if anyone has found my letter yet?"

" _Signing it like that was a very good idea,_ " he told her, a mental grin present. " _I expect someone from the PRT will see it sooner or later. I think we managed to sweep away all the footprints in the mud so hopefully that's all they'll have to go on. It should give them something to puzzle over..._ "

They both laughed. It had seemed like a good idea at the time, and now it seemed even better.

Closing the laptop she moved to her bed and lay on it, folding her hands over her stomach and smiling to herself. "I'm so glad I met you, even if I had to go through hell to do it," she said softly. "This last month has been the best one of my life."

" _I'm very pleased we came together as well, Brain,_ " he replied, sounding totally honest. " _I've learned a lot about your world and your people and had more fun that I ever expected to have again. I suspect that we'll have a lot more, we're going to be together for a very long time one way or another_."

"Suits me," she smiled happily. After a little while, she remembered a previous conversation. "I think we should see if you can take control like we talked about. You deserve more freedom."

He was silent for a moment, then replied, " _If you wish. I don't feel that I'm having the bad end of the deal at all, but believe me, I do appreciate the sentiment. It's very generous of you._ "

"You're my best friend and the only other one than Dad I trust totally and completely," she told the great demonic creature with utter honesty. "Hopefully I'm going to end up with new friends in Lisa and Amy, as well as Mandy, Lucy, and the others, but you and I share something I never will with anyone else. Aside from the obvious."

" _Thank you, Brain,_ " he responded quietly. " _It means more to me than you might imagine._ "

After a moment, she asked in a somewhat puzzled tone, "But how do we do it?"

" _I'm not sure,_ " he said, sounding thoughtful. " _No previous brain has ever even suggested it. As far as I can tell it's not strictly against the bargain but it's certainly pushing the edges out a lot. Hmm._ "

After a moment, he showed her a mental image like he'd done with his early lessons in Varga magic. " _I think this is the key. If you can sort of move your consciousness over here, it's a little like when we're in full Varga form, but not quite. I certainly can't do it without your permission and if you actively fight it I'll be pushed out._ "

Taylor studied what he was showing her carefully, then tried it. "Weird."

" _Not quite. More over there._ "

' _Like this?_ '

" _I think… yes, I think that's it. Let's see. Stay relaxed and don't fight back._ " Her left hand rose without her command, haltingly at first, then more confidently. It made a fist, opened out, and rotated at the wrist. "Seems to work. How fascinating." He sounded very interested and rather excited. " _Do you mind if I try standing up?_ "

' _Go for it_ ,' she said, watching curiously from the back of her mind. She could feel everything but it was very odd having her own body move without her willing it. It had been odd when she was Varga sized up in Canada, but there was something much weirder about being in her own bedroom and in her base form.

He carefully sat them up, then lifted both hands and held them in front of their face, looking at them with interest, before moving to the edge of the bed and standing, their tail moving around to keep their balance. "I have no idea how you could manage without a tail, Brain," he said out loud.

She laughed silently. ' _Oddly enough I made it fifteen and a half years or so without one. Although, that said, I'd really miss it now, I'm more than used to it and it's pretty useful. Except around chairs_.'

Chuckling a little, the Varga moved her body slowly around her bedroom, gaining experience, until a few minutes later he was operating it with confidence. "It's very odd, actually, assuming direct control like this," he commented musingly, stopping in front of her dresser mirror and peering at them in it, feeling her nose with her hands. "I've never done it before, or even thought about doing it. It's quite different from the normal arrangement, oddly enough. Everything looks so big."  
 _  
'I'd have thought you were used to that, looking out of human eyes for so long._ '

He shrugged. "You'd think so, yes, but somehow it's very different in some indefinable way. I have no idea why, and can't really explain it any better than that. I'm sorry."

' _Don't be, just have fun_ ,' she laughed. ' _This is sort of relaxing, actually. I think I could probably fall asleep with you doing the driving_.'

"It's probably best not to just yet," he remarked, curiously feeling her hair. "How odd."

' _Do you want to go downstairs?_ ' she asked. He nodded, turning and heading for the door. His descent of the stairs was a little uncertain as he was still getting used to her body but by the time he'd reached the lower floor he was walking around with confidence. She could feel that her body was being held differently in some difficult to describe manner, the body language not the same, but he was operating it without difficulty now.

They wandered around the house for a while, the Varga picking things up and examining them as if he'd never seen them before, before moving on to the next one. "Do you mind if I try eating something?" he asked as they entered the kitchen.

" _No, of course not,_ ' she assured him, pleased at how much he was obviously enjoying the experience. Opening the fridge he looked at the contents, then picked an apple off one of the shelves, closing the appliance and turning the fruit over in his hands. Experimentally biting into it, he chewed, then made an approving sound.

"They taste… slightly different like this. I like it."

Snickering at his excitement she watched as he tried some orange juice, then spent a little time looking out the window into the back yard. He seemed to be having fun, from what she could feel, which made her very happy.

' _You know what this means, Varga?_ ' she asked suddenly.

"What, Brain?"

' _I've been possessed by a demon! Help, it has me and has stolen my body!_ '

After a moment, he started laughing. She joined in. "You are one of the most interesting people I've ever encountered, Brain. I am very glad indeed that I ended up with you."

' _The feeling is mutual_ ,' she giggled.

The sound of the front door opening attracted their attention. Turning from where he was standing at the back door, the Varga and Taylor both watched as her father came in and closed the door again, taking his coat off and hanging it up, before noticing them standing there. "Hi, dear. I really must fix that step. Today went well, the Mayor is quite excited about the proposal. I'm going to see him tomorrow at one." Her father smiled at her, the smile suddenly freezing, before fading.

"You're not Taylor," he said in a low, dangerous voice. Taylor herself was somewhat surprised and taken aback.

' _How the hell did he know?_ ' she asked her companion.

"Your father is a perceptive man, Brain," the Varga said, making her father look shocked for a moment or two.

"Varga?" he asked faintly.

"Yes, Mr Hebert. Your daughter has been extremely generous and insisted we find a way to allow me to, as she put it, ' _drive_ ' her body. She felt it was unkind to keep me trapped inside, in her words. I don't feel the same way but even so I am very grateful for the experience. It is… interesting."

Staring at his daughter and the slightly different sounding voice with quite different speech pattern, her father gaped for a moment. After a few seconds, he smiled and held out his hand. The Varga looked at it, then carefully took it and shook it.

"It's very nice to finally meet the one who saved my daughter," her father said with a broad smile.

"It's very pleasing to finally be able to talk to such an honorable man and great warrior as you, Danny Hebert," the Varga laughed. "You should be very proud of your daughter. She is… somewhat remarkable."

"I am _extremely_ proud of her," he said, grinning.

"Thanks, Dad," she said, momentarily taking control of their mouth. He stared again, then shook his head.

"God, this is weird. Which one of you is technically possessing the other?"

"She already made that joke," the Varga snickered. "I have to confess I'm not sure of the answer."

Studying the form of his daughter currently mostly under the control of an ancient demon of indeterminate origin, her father eventually shook his head again. "I seem to have ended up living a very odd life that I never expected, but I have to say I'm not at all sorry about it. I'm going to make dinner. Which one of you will be doing the eating?"

"He will," Taylor chirped, retreating back inside her own head after her words. Both the Varga and her father looked slightly surprised, then exchanged a glance.

"Why not?" With a shrug, he turned and went into the kitchen, the Varga following. "I'm very curious to talk to you anyway, if you're up for it."

"It would be an honor, Mr Hebert."

"Call me Danny, please." Shaking his head as he glanced at them again, he added softly, "Annette would never have believed this, but I wish she was here to see it."

"I would also like to have met your wife, Danny, if only to express my appreciation of a woman who could produce a person like your daughter. You both have much to be pleased about." The Varga smiled carefully, making him laugh for a moment.

"This is getting surreal."

Poking around in the freezer, the elder Hebert soon had a meal in preparation. He looked over at them, where the Varga had sat in a chair, her tail over the edge, apparently curious to see how it worked. "So. Tell me about yourself, if you would. I've been burning with questions for the last month and there is a limit to how many I can relay through Taylor."

Chuckling, the Varga began speaking, answering question after question. Taylor listened from her position inside her own head, occasionally putting in a few words, but mostly just enjoying the unique experience and the companionship of the two people in the world she thought the most of.

It was…

She pondered the concept for a while, finally coming to a conclusion.

It was nice.

* * *

 **Tuesday, February 8, 2011**

Glancing at the clock on his desk, Roy smiled when the intercom buzzed exactly on time. "Send him in, Maria," he said before his secretary could speak.

"Yes, Mayor," she replied, sounding like she was suppressing a laugh. The intercom clicked off. Precisely at one PM, Danny Hebert entered the office, looking fit and healthy.

"It's good to see you again, Danny," Roy smiled, walking over and shaking hands, then as he had done last time, heading towards the drinks cabinet and fridge while indicating the table and chairs he liked having meetings at. "Please, sit. Water again?"

"Thank you, Mayor Christner," Danny replied, sitting and putting his briefcase down. He accepted the bottle and glass Roy handed him on his return, opening it and pouring some out. Sitting down Roy did the same.

"How's Taylor doing?" Roy asked. "Still enjoying Arcadia?"

"Very much, thanks," Danny smiled, seeming pleased about it. "She's doing very well, getting good marks in everything especially anything with mathematics involved. She has something of a gift for it. She's made a number of new friends and seems very happy, which I'm extremely relieved about."

"I can imagine," Roy replied, sipping his water then putting the glass down once more. "Your children are the most important thing to you, I know."

"And your family? And your niece, I remember you said she was ill last time we met. Did that get resolved?"

"The family is fine, Deb sent her best wishes and said we should have you and Taylor over for dinner sometime. Dinah is well, we found out what was wrong and it's all sorted out now." Roy smiled. "It was nothing serious in the end. Just difficult to diagnose."

"I'm glad about that."

Looking at the briefcase, Roy couldn't resist. "So, what do you have for me?" He knew it was bad form to seem so eager, especially in front of a negotiator as experienced as Danny Hebert, but he'd spent a lot of time thinking what this plan could mean for the city and was getting excited about it. Danny smiled, his expression indicated he understood more or less all of that without needing it to be explained.

Picking up his briefcase he put it on the table, then opened it, removing two neatly bound and remarkably thick documents, which he placed in front of Roy. "Parts one and two. Part one is the proposal with supporting documentation, part two is mostly backup information, charts, statistics, ownership documents, and everything else needed as a reference for the first part. The summary is at the front of part one, of course."

Roy stared at what must have been close to a decent length novel's worth of paperwork, then shook his head in respect. "Impressive considering how short a time you've taken." He opened the first document to the summary. "Do you mind?"

"No, go ahead. I've got the rest of the afternoon and I expect you'll have questions."

Nodding, Roy started reading, while Danny got up after a moment and walked to the window with his glass of water, looking at the view while he waited.

Some time later, Roy put the first document down, picking up the second one and leafing through it for a little while, stopping every now and then to examine a page more closely. Finally he put that one down as well. "Damn, Danny, that's… amazing. You can back all this up?"

Returning to his seat, the Hebert man nodded. "Yes. There's a list of references at the back of the second document, with page number, paragraph number, the usual. Or a web address. I've also got a list of experts I consulted who gave various opinions on the subjects involved in there, along with any other sources needed, such as the smelting companies, the transportation companies, and so on. It's fully documented, verifiable, and traceable."

"Good work. Really, really good work." Roy studied the other man. "You're wasted where you are with that sort of ability."

Danny smiled slightly. "I'm exactly where I both want and need to be," he replied quietly.

After a moment, Roy nodded a little. "I suppose you are. Well. I'm impressed, and from what I can see, it looks entirely plausible, if not in fact something we actually _have_ to do. The benefits based on this are immense and there aren't really any downsides, are there?"

"Not as such, no," Danny agreed. "There is an unavoidable up front cost, which is broken down on page fifteen, but based on a reasonable projection of timescales versus income we could expect to repay that within two months from the point the main salvage work started. After that, assuming we keep to the schedule, we stay in profit for the next five years minimum. The variable is mostly exactly how much scrap is in the graveyard and the bay, as the records are patchy at best. Even at the low end of the scale it's going to create a significant number of jobs almost immediately and a very significant number in the medium term. Several hundred at least."

"And that's just directly involved," Roy mused, standing up himself and going to the window to look at the tanker that had been a blight on the view for so long. "Indirectly, once the graveyard is cleared and the docks rebuilt, the amount of new business we could reasonably expect would double or triple that."

"Easily," Danny agreed. "The timescale is somewhat indeterminate, because it relies on a number of assumptions about the future of the economy, but I am pretty sure it would revitalize the city quite significantly and fairly fast."

"Those figures for shipping imports and exports from the city seem quite large," Roy pointed out, turning around to watch his visitor. "Can we really take ships as big as the one the report suggests? From what I remember about the last time this sort of thing was looked at a decade ago the deep water channel was already so badly silted the maximum size of ship that could access the harbor was already down to a smallish cargo vessel or large trawler. It must be a lot worse by now. I didn't see any figures in there about how much it would cost to dredge the channel. Surely we'd need to do that?"

Danny grinned widely. "That's been taken care of already."

"What?" Roy stared in some shock. The DWU man seemed very amused by his reaction.

"The parahuman in question was at a loose end and felt like putting in some advance work for practice. The channel is now clear from the docks to the tanker and I'm assured the last part can be done very simply and easily once the thing is out of the way."

"Holy crap." Roy stared some more. "How?"

"You probably wouldn't believe me if I just told you," Danny chuckled.

After several wordless seconds, Roy shook his head a little and returned to his seat. "No, I probably wouldn't," he sighed, feeling both excited and somewhat shaken. Opening the proposal again he reread parts of it, looking for anything that jumped out as infeasible or problematic. Nothing seemed obvious. The plan was basically the same as the one Danny had originally put in front of him a few days ago, but fleshed out with all the missing details and figures added and the joins filled in.

He was actually somewhat stunned by how complete it was. He'd always known the DWU rep was a very sharp man, but this was almost a work of art.

"Incredible, Danny. Simply incredible."

"Thank you, Mayor Christner," Danny smiled. "It was a lot of work but I think I preempted any questions or problems."

"I think you did," Roy agreed, closing the cover and stacking both documents on top of each other. "Do you have the electronic copy of this handy?"

His guest handed him a USB stick almost before he finished speaking. "Of course you do," the mayor grinned. Danny returned it.

"I thought you'd want it."

Putting it on the top of the stack of documents, Roy looked at them all for a moment, then raised his eyes to meet those of his guest, who was waiting patiently. "I think I personally am convinced. I'm going to need to get this checked out, obviously, and all the figures looked over, but unless some show-stopping problem turns up I think we can probably come to an arrangement very soon. However..."

"You need to meet the parahuman, to assure yourself and your advisors that they're real and can do what I'm claiming," Danny finished for him. Roy nodded.

"It's not that I don't trust you. We've had our differences over the years," a comment that made them both smile wryly, "But the one thing I'll tell anyone who asks is that you're a man of your word, no matter what. Even so, I think I need to see this for myself. It's a pretty extraordinary thing to claim, after all."

"I understand, believe me," Danny chuckled. "It took me a while to believe it myself. I can take you to meet them, that's not a problem. When would you like to do it? For various reasons, at night is best for the moment and it would involve about an hour's drive."

Considering the matter, Roy then got up and checked his appointment book. "Would tonight work? I have a dinner engagement tomorrow and there's a function at Medhall I'm attending on Thursday. If not tonight, it would have to be Friday."

"Tonight is fine. I've already spoken to them and they're happy to meet your schedule. In fact they're quite eager to get started on the project." Danny smiled a little at his own words.

"Great. Where and when?" Roy pulled out a small personal notebook and rooted around on his desk for a pen.

"Do you want to meet me there, or drive with me?" Danny asked.

"Hmm. We could go together if that's easier."

"Fine. It's about an hour north-east of here. I can meet you here or at your house at, say, half past seven? That should give us plenty of time to get there, meet the parahuman, talk it over, then get back not too late."

"I assume you probably want me to come alone?" Roy asked with a small smile.

"If you don't mind, that would be preferable. If you insist you can bring a trusted, and I mean, absolutely trusted, security person or aide, but the parahuman in question isn't going to harm you. They are completely trustworthy."

"Safe?"

"Oh, no, not at all," Danny laughed, "not to someone with hostile intentions. But _you'll_ be safe, believe me. Under any circumstances I can imagine."

Studying him for a moment, Roy came to a decision informed by his long association with the man. Closing the notebook unused he put it down. "I'll come alone. But there will be hell to pay with Deb if anything goes wrong." He grinned as Danny snickered.

"I can imagine, I remember what she's like. OK, I'll meet you…?"

At my house."

"...at your house, at half past seven tonight. Wear a good coat and boots. There's a bit of a walk at the end. You should probably bring a decent flashlight as well."

Intrigued, Roy nodded. "Quite the mystery trip, Danny."

"You'll think it was worth it, Mayor," his visitor assured him. "Trust me."

"I'm going to have to," he replied, amused. "Thank you for all the work, Danny."

"Thanks for listening. I'm very hopeful about this project."

"So am I," Roy sighed. "So am I. We need something like this or we're just going to keep going down until we fade away."

The other man stood up, closing his briefcase. "We'll stop that happening, if we all work together. Wait until tonight. I think what you'll see will convince you that last critical bit."

Hope growing inside him, a feeling that he was on the verge of something truly remarkable, Roy smiled. He held out his hand, which Danny shook. "Thanks, Danny. I'll see you tonight."

"Until then, Mayor," the DWU man said politely but with a look of amusement, then turned and left. Roy watched the door shut, wondering what he was going to find at this mystery location and also wondering if he was nuts for going along with it.

Deciding the answer to both questions was about an hour by car away, he went back behind his desk, collecting both reports and the USB stick en route, sat down, and started reading the entire thing all over again very carefully while making notes.

* * *

Stopping next to Mandy on the school steps under the short extension to the roof that covered them, Taylor smiled at her. "I'll see you tomorrow," she said, glancing at Lucy who was a couple of yards away. "And you."

"Later, Taylor," Mandy smiled back. Lucy waved, then both girls headed towards the car that had pulled up at the curb and was waiting for them. Watching as the ran through the light rain that had started around two in the afternoon, Taylor then looked up at the gray sky and sighed a little. A familiar scent reached her, making her turn to see Amy walking up, her sister and the four Wards some distance away down the corridor inside the school talking to each other.

"Hi," Amy said quietly when she reached the other girl, standing a few feet away and not looking at her, instead peering out into the rain. "I talked to Carol last night and told her I was going for a meal at a friend's house and some math tutoring. She looked more surprised about the friend part than the math part."

Taylor grinned, also looking out at the road, watching other students get into cars, or walk or cycle away looking very wet. "Interesting family you have, Amy," she replied with a small grin.

"Says you," Amy snickered. They exchanged a look of amusement. "I also told Vicky, so she wouldn't start getting worried. I'm good until pretty late. I called the hospital and told them I wouldn't be in unless there was an emergency as well."

"What did they say?"

"That I should do that more often," the healer sighed with a wry look.

Taylor laughed a little. "Told you."

"You did. Anyway, I'm free from when school gets out until probably midnight or so tomorrow, barring medical emergencies."

"Sounds good. I'll get Dad to pick us up from school, that'll be easiest." She grinned at the other girl for a second. "Unless you want to be taken to enormous heights again."

Amy gave her a look. "I'm up for that, but probably not tomorrow. It might be difficult to explain."

Smiling, Taylor shrugged. "Fair enough. I'll see you tomorrow, then." She looked up again. "Hopefully it will stop raining soon." With a wave she stepped out into the wet weather, heading to a point far enough away from people she could change and speed up.

Behind her, Amy watched her go, then rejoined the others, a thoughtful look on her face.

* * *

The doorbell ringing made Roy look up, then turn to his wife Deborah, who seemed slightly worried. "Are you sure this is safe, Roy?" she asked. "I mean, going out in the dark to somewhere you need a flashlight to meet some weird cape!"

"I agree it's unusual, dear, but I also think it's fine. Danny Hebert is a good man, he wouldn't put anyone in danger. And the DWU seems to know some strange capes already, if the news is anything to go by." He smiled reassuringly as he went to answer the door, opening it to reveal the man he was waiting for. "Hello, Danny, come on in. Would you like a cup of coffee before we go, I've just put some on."

"Thank you, Mayor Christner, that would be nice," the other man replied, coming in and carefully wiping his feet on the mat just inside the door before he followed Roy into the main living room.

"Call me Roy, Danny, we've know each other for long enough that I think I can handle it," the mayor laughed. Danny smiled, nodding, then turned to Deb who had just entered carrying a tray with a pot of coffee, some cups, and the rest of the fixings needed.

"Hello, Mrs Christner," he said politely.

"Deb, please, Danny," she smiled. "Sugar? Milk?" She poured a cup for him.

"Black, one sugar," he replied, accepting the cup, then sitting down when Roy waved to a chair. Soon they were all sitting with coffee in hand. "Thank you, this is very nice," he said after trying it.

"It's a nice blend," Roy agreed. "Place downtown stocks it. I'll give you the name."

"Thank you," Danny repeated with a small smile.

"So, where is this mystery destination?" Roy asked after a few sips of coffee.

"It's on the coast, near the Pemaquid Point lighthouse. It's a conveniently deep water area close to shore," he replied.

Roy was puzzled. "Is this Parahuman coming by water?" he asked curiously.

"More or less, yes," Danny grinned. "You'll see when we get there." Glancing at his watch, he added, "We should go soon if we're going to be on time."

Finishing his coffee, Roy stood. "All right, I'm ready, in that case. Let me get the flashlight and my good boots." He was soon back with the relevant items, testing the huge LED flashlight to make sure the batteries were charged. The light from it was blindingly bright, he discovered the hard way when he accidentally got himself in the face with the beam.

"Ow," he mumbled, blinking wildly. Deb giggled.

"You do that every time, Roy. Why can't you learn to point it away from your face? I'm glad it's not a gun."

Danny chuckled. "That could be embarrassing. Do you want to take my car, or yours, Roy?"

"We can go in mine if you like. I don't mind driving, I don't get to do it much. My driver does it most of the time."

Nodding, his guest followed as he left the room after kissing his wife goodbye, stopping to put his boots on and tie the laces, then pick a thick coat from the stand in the hall and find his car keys. Moments later they were in his vehicle, a small but sturdy SUV crossover, which he rather enjoyed driving. Danny had stopped at his own car to retrieve another flashlight and a map.

"We're going here, so get on the freeway and head north out of the city," the DWU man told him, showing him the route. Roy studied it, before nodding and starting the car. Ten minutes later they were on the freeway.

"So what was all that confusion with Hookwolf and the E88 attacking the DWU last week about, Danny?" Roy asked after they'd been driving for a while, the other man apparently content to sit in silence. Danny looked at him in the dim interior of the car, then sighed slightly.

"Mostly a misunderstanding, I think. He was after Saurial, someone gave him bad information that led him to believe she was there. She's visited a couple of times and gets on with pretty much everyone, a lot of the guys really like her, but she was nowhere near the place at the time. We evacuated everyone we could, but they came in too fast to get everyone out in time. I called her, she was busy, but she sent a friend."

"This new one, Raptaur?" Danny nodded. "I hear she's Saurial's sister or something like that."

"So the word is," Danny agreed mildly.

"I also heard there are more of her family living in the bay worrying fishermen," Roy snickered. "The PHO forums seem to be going nuts about that idea. They say there are huge ones out there somewhere."

"I'm not sure about that myself," his companion smiled. "It sounds a little far fetched."

"That's what I thought," Roy laughed. Reaching out he turned on the radio, scanning through the presets until he found some music that sounded listenable to, glancing at the other man to see if he had any objections. None forthcoming he turned the volume to a comfortable level, leaning back and relaxing for the drive.

Half an hour later they'd chatted about a number of topics of mutual interest. Danny had brought up the idea of the DWU buying up a parcel of land in the graveyard as an investment and pension fund, which Roy thought about and came to the conclusion it was a pretty smart idea. The man also said his daughter wanted to buy some land as well, having some money set aside. He couldn't see any problems with that, it was completely legal for the Heberts to invest in the project, and decided he'd probably do the same before word got out. Once it did, there would be people falling over themselves to invest in land there and the value would skyrocket.

It was another thing to think about. Danny had put some estimates for the value of the land in his proposal and the figures were eye-watering. He seemed to have thought of everything.

Eventually, they turned onto a smaller road that led east, towards the coast. Another fifteen minutes of driving and they were on a rather rough road a mile from the shore, which they could see every now and then as the surrounding land rose and fell, leaving gaps in the trees. There were a few houses in the area, the odd light on here and there, but a lot of the formerly quite heavily developed area hadn't recovered yet from the small but still rather destructive remnants of the tsunami resulting from Leviathan's attack on Newfoundland six years earlier.

Brockton Bay had been protected by being in a fairly shielded natural harbor, most of the waves going past, and even being deflected by the old tanker, ironically enough, but this area had not benefited from that sort of protection and as a result bore scars where the waves had over topped the cliffs and washed entire housing developments off their foundations. Most of them had been abandoned after that, with few people coming back.

"Next left, I think," Danny commented, studying the map closely under the interior light. He pointed. "Just there."

"OK." Roy indicated and made the turn, heading down the road that was more accurately termed a track, the surface untended and decaying. In the distance to the right he could see the beam of the automated lighthouse on the end of the little peninsula they were driving across sweeping over the dark water, which looked choppy and cold in the light.

Reaching a point where the road simply stopped, he did as well. "Now what?" he asked.

"We walk the next bit," Danny replied. "It's about three hundred yards and down the track to the beach." Opening the door as Roy turned the engine off, he got out, then waited for the other man to do the same.

"Beach? Hah. I remember this area, we came here on holiday years ago before Newfoundland," Roy scoffed. "What they called beaches around here are just slabs of rock at sea level. Hardly any sand to be seen." Danny laughed a little, shrugging.

"Well, down the track to the slab of rock, then." Pulling out his flashlight he flicked it on. Locking the vehicle Roy did the same, their beams stabbing out into the night. Following the other man he walked for a few minutes until they arrived at the top of a thirty foot cliff, the track going down it fairly steeply but not impassably so.

"This is the ass end of nowhere, Danny," he complained a little as they slid down the steep path. "Did your parahuman _have_ to meet us here?"

A slight chuckle came back to him. "You'll understand soon, Roy. Sorry for all the cloak and dagger stuff but trust me, if we did this any closer to Brockton Bay people would be… very confused."

"I'm expecting something spectacular now," Roy laughed. Reaching the rocks of what passed for a beach, they looked around. It was a couple of miles of jagged stone, some parts more or less flat down to the water fifty yards away, the tide coming in, with waves breaking on the rock in a constant ebb and flow of white noise. Danny pointed his flashlight out to sea and turned it on and off a few times in a specific pattern.

When he'd done that, he proceeded to walk closer to the water, on a flat part, Roy following curiously. They stopped at the point the rock suddenly dropped away, waves breaking a couple of feet down. Pointing his light down into the water Roy shivered. It looked very deep and very cold. He could just make out the bottom forty or fifty feet below through the nearly transparent winter sea.

After looking around for a moment, Danny turned to face him.

"Spectacular, Roy?" he asked in an odd tone of voice.

Behind him, a hundred feet out in much deeper water, bubbles were rising. The water foamed slightly, then started rising. Roy pointed his light towards the disturbance, seeing something dark and slick moving there. It came slowly closer, then began to rise up out of the water in near silence.

The Mayor of Brockton Bay stared in horrified shock at the reptilian head the size of a medium duty truck that rose from the sea, glowing orange-yellow eyes big enough to double as beach balls fixed on him and Danny. Two absolutely massive hands, sufficiently large to pick up his SUV and crush it like a beer can, came out of the water and placed themselves on the rocks to either side of the DWU man, talons several feet long clicking on the stone and leaving deep gouges.

The head rose higher on a long neck, the torso and shoulders of the thing, which must have been at least eighty feet tall, gradually being revealed as it approached more closely until he was gaping up at the eyes looking down at him from forty feet above his head, an expression of alien amusement and interest in them. His flashlight was still pointed up at it without conscious direction, letting him see the full extent of the monstrous creature in merciless detail.

Meeting those huge eyes he stared in a mix of terror and shock. Danny clearing his throat made him jump violently, then lower his head to gape at the man, who was standing with his back towards the vast creature, looking at him, only feet from the scaled chest.

Danny smiled darkly.

"I can do... _spectacular_."

Roy shivered as he stared at the man he'd known for ten or more years, then looked up at the immense head peering down at him, hanging in the dark above them.

"Mayor Christner, allow me to introduce Kaiju. She's interested in applying for the position of official Brockton Bay underwater salvage expert." Danny sounded very amused.

The thing standing half out of the deep water lowered its head until it was looking at him from about ten feet away.

"Hello," it said in an incredibly deep female voice that made him quake a little in his boots. "I'm pleased to meet you, Mr Mayor. I'm looking forward to this job, it sounds fun. I cleared out the channel already, but I think moving your tanker will be more interesting."

It smiled, or at least produced what he thought was meant as a smile, the enormous mouth moving to expose fangs as large as he was.

"Um," he said faintly.

"My sisters seem to like your city, so I thought I'd come and see what the attraction was," Kaiju added thoughtfully. "You sure have a lot of old ships littering the place. It's very untidy. Don't worry, though, I can move them no trouble. Look."

Reaching out with a huge hand she grabbed a boulder the size of his garage and lifted, the dozens of tons of rock ripping free with a crunch. He flinched a little. Tossing the vast piece of shoreline up and down, as if she was weighing it, she turned at the waist and leaned back, throwing the thing towards open water. He simply watched with disbelief as it nearly vanished over the horizon, a faint boom of displaced water reaching his ears nearly twenty seconds later as it splashed down somewhere out there.

"I'm quite strong," she continued, honestly and totally unnecessarily.

He nodded spastically, then urgently motioned to Danny, who came over to him. Jerking his head to the side he slowly backed in that direction, keeping his eyes on the impossibly large reptile, who seemed politely curious, if you could apply those words to something that could eat Leviathan in two bites by the look of it.

When he and the DWU man were a few dozen yards away, which he had a horrible feeling was nowhere near enough if the thing decided to get annoyed, he turned to Danny, who seemed to be smiling a little. "What… the… fuck…?"

"Sorry, Roy. I know it was far fetched." Danny shrugged, a slow grin crossing his face. "What do you know, though? It turns out to be true."

Roy stared fixedly at him for some time, then turned to look at the eighty-foot-tall sea monster which was patiently waiting, now humming some sort of vaguely recognizable tune at a pitch which made his bones vibrate.

Very slowly, he began to grin himself.

"Piggot is going to need the brown pants, isn't she?" he ended up giggling almost hysterically. Danny smirked a bit as they exchanged a look.

Walking back, suddenly feeling very happy, Roy stopped in front of Kaiju, who politely lowered her head to rest her chin on the rocks in front of him, putting her eyes only about three or four feet above his head instead of thirty plus.

"For some reason I think you're going to be just what we need, Kaiju," he told the great creature. "Welcome to Brockton Bay."

She smiled again. Reaching over with one enormous hand she held it next to him. After a moment he gingerly took the very tip of her index finger claw in his hand and shook it.

"I'm hoping that we can have a lot of fun here," she told him.

They talked for a while, then Danny and Roy headed back up the cliff. Roy stopped at the top to watch as the huge reptile sank under the surface with one last wave up at them. His head was spinning and he couldn't work out if he wanted to run in circles yelling in excitement or just faint.

Heading back to the car, now completely convinced that the project could succeed, he simply smiled.

The only thing that worried him was the last words Kaiju had said to them.

"If we ever get stuck we can always call my big brother. He's _really_ big and strong."


	47. Decisions and Confessions

Pulling up outside his house, next to Danny's car, Roy turned the engine off then sat staring out into the night for a moment or two, still feeling like it wasn't impossible that Rod Serling would suddenly step out of the darkness and explain the plot to him.

Turning to Danny, who was watching him with the same faint smile he'd been wearing the entire, mostly silent, trip back, Roy asked a little plaintively, "That did actually happen, right?"

"It did, Roy."

"You really have a nearly hundred foot tall sea monster that looks like a cut down version of Godzilla ready to help us clear up the bay?"

Danny's smile widened a little.

"I do."

"God." Roy let out a long breath of wonder. "I have to say this day did _not_ end the way I expected it to when I got up this morning."

"I'm not surprised, it was a lot to throw at you all at once," the other man replied, looking somewhat sympathetic. "But if it's any consolation, you rallied really well. Better than I hoped. But you understand why I was being cautious about it."

"Oh, hell, yes, do I ever," Roy grinned. "If Kaiju popped up down at the docks without warning the Endbringer sirens would be going off before the splashing died down. We don't want the entire Protectorate to start attacking her."

"Not really. It wouldn't end well."

Roy studied his companion with a slightly suspicious look. The smile had turned, briefly, into more of a smirk.

"For _her_ … or for _them?_ " he asked slowly.

The smirk came back for a second or two. Danny shrugged a little. "I'm not sure, to be honest. But consider that she has all the abilities that Saurial and Raptaur have, it runs in the family. Then think of that hammer Raptaur used on Hookwolf, or the sword, and scale them up about ten times or so..." He shook his head and added in a mild tone, "Probably best not to have a situation where it comes up, all things being equal."

Roy had paled, he could feel it. The thought of a hammer with a head the size of his SUV being swung one-handed at multiple times the speed of sound at Alexandria… One part of him was very curious to know what would happen despite the rest of him shivering a little.

"No, probably not. How do we prevent that? I mean, basically the DWU has their own friendly Endbringer, from the point of view of the rest of the world. That's going to cause some interesting results."

"We don't actually own Kaiju, you know," Danny grinned. "But she seems keen to work with us for the good of the city. I've been thinking that perhaps one approach would be to set up a company specifically around her, as the talent basically, then subcontract its services to the city via the DWU. She could go on the books as a DWU member, we're perfectly happy to sign her up. Saurial and Raptaur as well, in fact. Some of the guys were asking me only just after the E88 attack if she was going to become part of the Union." He seemed amused. "They like both of them from what I can see."

Roy stared, then chuckled. "Are you actually _trying_ to make Director Piggot's head explode?" he asked, laughing. "The DWU will have its own cape team at this rate. Most of them absolutely terrifying, except for the big one who is _much_ worse than that." He thought for a second, then said, "You won't get attacked again, I bet. Not when our large friend out there turns up. Hopefully we can prevent the city actually being evacuated..."

Also laughing, Danny replied, "I don't think it will be too bad other than the initial surprise. Which I admit will probably be pretty impressive. I have a few ideas about how to minimize the shock value to the general public, and I expect that once everyone sees how things are going and what it means for the city, most of them will come around to our point of view. We'll have to take on quite a few new workers in the near future after all and that will make a big difference to a lot of people in several ways."

"Very true," Roy mused, thinking it over. "I can see how it could go very well indeed. I can also see how it could go _very_ wrong instead. We'll need to work out the best way to handle it."

"So you think the project will go ahead?" Danny asked after a moment.

Roy looked at him again, then slowly nodded. "Yes, I do. Your proposal looks solid as far as I can see, although as I said I will need to run it past several experts for a complete feasibility check. With that in hand and your costings, I can take it to the city council and argue the case. I don't think, based on what I've seen, that there will be too much trouble persuading everyone to get on board with us. They all know we need to do _something_ to revitalize the city or we'll just be watching it slowly fall apart, the gangs take over, or something worse."

He sighed slightly. "It's something that has kept me away more than one night, trust me. I still believe in this city, but we're right at the tipping point now. Everyone who thinks about it knows it but no one can see a way out. You've given us one."

Danny was silent for a while.

"I hope so."

"I'm pretty sure I'm right." After a couple more seconds of thought, Roy nodded firmly. "In fact, I'm certain. Look, this is what I want you to do. Leave this with me to get the relevant people to study it and give their opinions. I'll make sure it doesn't leak to anyone who might cause a problem right now, which could well include the PRT. I'm also going to authorize the release of enough funds for the preliminary dock work, to prepare the ground as it were. The Mayor's office has a discretionary budget of about one and a half million dollars for emergency or important work, which I think this comes under."

The DWU man looked somewhat shocked. "Are you sure?"

"Yes. I won't be able to swing new hires, not right now, but it will easily cover the work you listed as essential for the first scrapping operation of the tanker. Things like the demolition of the warehouses and so forth. From what your report says, a lot of the materials needed are available locally or in stock already, so the outgoing payments are mainly labor and some equipment. Find what you need, ideally used to keep the cost down for now, get your men to work, and do the initial dock repairs and upgrades. It's time that was done to stop the entire place falling into the bay anyway, I think."

"That's very generous of you, Roy." Danny still looked amazed, although also pleased now.

"I have an ulterior motive, of course," Roy smiled. "It will help next election cycle, being seen as decisive and forward looking is never bad for a politician. But I also think it's the right move. As you pointed out the first time we talked about this, more than half the gang problems are down to people with no hope, no work, and nothing to lose. This will start fixing that. And, starting this work now means that when we get the full vote for it we're ahead and can start immediately. Which in turn means the money for the scrap comes in that much faster. It all seems pretty straightforward to me."

Danny nodded thoughtfully. "I'd have to agree. I'm pleased that you feel the same way." He smiled a little. "We've known each other for a long time and I'd prefer to see you re-elected if I'm honest about it. I like you, I trust you, and I'd hate to have to spend the time breaking in another Mayor. You took long enough, after all."

Roy started laughing after a look of surprise. "Why am I not surprised?" he snickered. "Hopefully that means I can count on the DWU vote."

"If this goes ahead, I think that goes without saying," Danny grinned. "Anyway, that's quite a long way off yet. Let's see what we can do on a shorter timescale."

"Fine by me." Holding out his hand, Roy shook Danny's. "Draw up a list of the initial work, the really necessary stuff, and an estimated figure for it, and get it to me tomorrow. I'll release the funds. I know it's all in the report already but it will be easier if it's a smaller single document. Get started on it immediately while I get things in gear from this end. Even if, and I doubt this would happen, the plan gets rejected, we'll at least have a lot of important infrastructure work done. It might be possible to raise private finance under those circumstances, I know a couple of names I could talk to, but I'd much prefer it to be under the control of the city. It would be a lot easier to sell to the public if everyone can see how it benefits _them_ rather than just a few already rich people. "

He smiled with a small resigned shrug. "I'd pay for a lot of this myself, I'm not super rich but I am pretty well off and could easily put a few hundred thousand dollars your way without any problems, but because of my position the political implications of that could be complicated and difficult to get around. I'd prefer to avoid anything like that. The discretionary budget will get us started, though, at least on the immediately important parts."

"I agree. OK, I'll get you that information sometime tomorrow morning." Danny looked very pleased. "Thank you very much, Roy."

"Thank _you_ , Danny. For both scaring me out of a good five years of my life, and giving me the opportunity to see the same thing happen to a lot of other people pretty soon." He grinned evilly, as the other man snickered. "I'm looking forward to it."

"We'll have to make sure the sirens are disabled for a few minutes," Danny smirked. "Just in case. But it's going to be pretty funny. I bet that the PHO servers melt..."

They shared a look, then laughed like idiots.

Wiping tears of amusement from his eyes, Roy shook his head. "God, I never expected anything like this, Danny. I'm glad you came to me." He took the keys out of the ignition and opened the door, getting out, as his guest did the same. They looked at each other over the roof of the vehicle. "Give my best to Taylor. We'll have to arrange a time for you two to come over for dinner."

"I'd like that. I expect she would as well. Good night, Roy."

"Good night, Danny. I'll talk to you tomorrow."

He watched as the man unlocked his car, got in, then drove away, until the tail lights vanished around the corner. Shaking his head in wonder he headed for the house, thinking about the meeting on the dark rocky beach with a look of awe on his face.

"This is going to be… _interesting_ ," he mumbled as he went inside, wondering how Danny Hebert was going to arrange the introduction of Kaiju to Brockton Bay.

However it happened, the one thing he was certain of was that it would be somewhat memorable.

* * *

Danny looked up from his book as his daughter appeared in the doorway to the living room, a smile on her face. He matched it.

Both smiles grew, until they simultaneously started howling with laughter. She came into the room and sat next to him on the sofa, where he could feel her body shaking with hilarity. He put his arm over her shoulders and gave her a hug.

"I'm just glad we practiced that last night, dear," he chortled. "If I'd seen that for the first time I'd have crapped masonry. Poor Roy looked like he was about to."

"He did look and smell a bit worried," she giggled, grinning at him. "Poor Mayor Christner."

"The guy's resilient, he came to see the upside much faster than I expected," Danny replied, smiling again. "That was a lot of fun. I can see why you keep doing things like that."

"Varga hasn't stopped snickering for the last three hours," she reported, looking amused and pleased. Her voice changed pitch and intonation for the next words, to what he now knew was the demon linked to her. It sounded like it was having a wonderful time.

"That was exceptionally funny, Danny," her mouth said, in a way he still found weird. "I was very impressed how well you played your part. The wording was perfect."

Danny shrugged a little, grinning. "It just came to me, but it seemed to fit."

"Still, well done, both of you. The Heberts are clearly a force to be reckoned with, especially when working together." Taylor smiled in a way that was unlike her normal body language, although not so much that someone who didn't know her as well as he did would pick up on it.

"Thanks, Varga," she said in Taylor's voice, looking pleased now.

"That… is very disturbing, Taylor," Danny sighed, but he was also very amused.

"Why?" she replied with a quizzical expression, tipping her head to the side a little, making him look hard at her. He had trouble sometimes working out whether she was really not able to pick up on the somewhat unusual attitude she had to what she did these days, or was just trying to make it _look_ like that. Her sense of humor had always been somewhat sardonic and deadpan, although the last few years since Annette died had suppressed that tendency a lot. The previous eighteen months or so he'd seen almost none of it, not that he was really in a fit state to notice most of the time.

Since the locker, though, she was pulling it out more and more, making him pleased that she was so obviously enjoying life these days. He was as well as a direct result. Yet another thing to thank whatever mysterious power had arranged for the Varga to arrive.

"I'm fairly sure you know why," he finally said, standing up. "Come on, let's go and find a pizza or something, we haven't been out for a while."

Happily bouncing to her feet, she looked eager, the end of her tail twitching in a way that betrayed her mood. "Suits me."

Soon they were in the car heading for an all-night pizza place, laughing about the Great Kaiju Prank of 2011.

* * *

Sipping a glass of wine, Roy turned the last page of the report, looking at the list of references, then closed it. He'd spent some time going over the entire thing yet again, trying to find any holes or mistakes in it, without success. Which made him very pleased.

Sipping the wine he stared into the fireplace in which a small log fire was burning, more for effect than the heat. Eventually he picked up the phone next to him on the side table and thought for a moment, then dialed a number from memory. He waited.

After a couple of rings, there was a pause, then a different ring tone. This happened twice, before the other end picked up.

"Hello, Roy. It's been a while. How is the clock?"

"Still keeping perfect time," he smiled. "As I was sure it would do. Your work is not only beautiful, it's very reliable."

"Thank you," the man on the other end said, sounding pleased. "What can I do for you?"

"I have something I would appreciate you looking at. A plan to revitalize the city. I think you'll appreciate it, the man who put it together is somewhat like you. Very careful of the details and thinks things through from end to end."

"Ah. Interesting."

"I thought you'd think that. I can't find any problems with it but if anyone can, it would be you. I'd be grateful if you could look at it and give me your opinion. There may well be some investment opportunities in a year or two as well that you would find worth looking into."

There was a pause, then his old friend chuckled slightly. "I'm willing to do it as a favor to you, Roy. Send me the documents. I'll email you a link to a secure server you can upload them to, it's untraceable. I assume that no one else is to know about this yet?"

"No. I need to run it by some of our advisers as well but I wanted to have your opinion first. I'm ninety percent sure that it will work to design. Your seal on it would bring that to a hundred percent."

"I'm flattered, Roy."

"I know how good you are, Phil. If you say it will work, it will work."

He got another small chuckle back. "If only previous acquaintances had shared that view. Ah, but that's in the past. I'm looking forward to the document. I suppose it's too much to ask that the PRT might be in some way put out by this plan?"

Roy snickered. "Oh, they're going to shit a brick. Trust me on that. You'll have to come and watch the main event, I think you'd find it amusing."

His old friend actually laughed at this, a somewhat unusual occurrence.

"I find myself growing increasingly intrigued."

"You'll like it, it's the sort of plan you'd come up with. I'll send it to you as soon as I get the link."

"I've already sent it so it should be waiting for you."

"Thanks. It was nice to talk. We should do it more often."

"Circumstances make that difficult, unfortunately. But I'm glad you called. Goodbye, Roy."

"Bye, Phil." He heard the other end disconnect with a click, put his own phone down, then got up to check his inbox, the USB stick Danny Hebert had given him in his hand.

* * *

In a very nicely, one might go so far as to say perfectly, designed office in Boston, a hand carefully placed the handset back on the elegant telephone, then delicately adjusted the position of both until they were exactly aligned. Turning to his computer screen he waited, smiling to himself when a couple of minutes later he got a notification from his secure server than he had an uploaded document.

Checking it carefully for any tracking codes or viruses, he opened it, then began reading, quickly but in detail. After the first minute he was smiling more widely, nodding on occasion.

When he'd finished, he went back and re-read the document, paying special attention to a few specific points, before he began typing into another window, pausing to think every now and then.

He was pleased and interested, deciding to himself that at some point he'd like to meet Danny Hebert of the Brockton Bay Dock Worker's Union. The man sounded… competent.

That was something he approved of.

Pity so many people were the exact opposite.

* * *

 **Wednesday, February 9, 2011**

"Dad, this is Amy Dallon. Amy, my father, Danny Hebert."

Taylor watched as Amy smiled at her father, who returned it. "It's nice to meet you, Mr Hebert," the other brunette said politely.

"Likewise," he replied. "I've heard quite a bit about you from Taylor, and of course I know your reputation. The car's over here." He led the way to their vehicle, opening the front passenger side door for Amy and waving her in with a small bow and a grin. "Guests get to sit in the good seat."

"Thanks, Mr Hebert," the brunette smiled, getting in.

"Yes, thanks, Dad," Taylor sighed loudly, making both the others exchange a glance then laugh. "I'll just get in the back, then?"

"Unless you want to ride home in the trunk, that's probably best, Taylor," he replied mildly, going around to his door and getting in. Giggling, she squeezed into the rear seat, not something she'd done since acquiring her tail. The appendage made it a little difficult as the car didn't have enormously generous rear seating, but she managed.

"I can hardly wait to get a new car," she mumbled, putting her seat-belt on after arranging herself. "Something nicer and a bit bigger."

"I'm planning to look at a few sometime next week," he said, looking over his shoulder as he started the vehicle, then indicating and pulling away. "You can come and give your opinion, if you want."

"I'll do that," she promised, wriggling around uncomfortable and trying to find a position that didn't cramp her tail quite so much.

"So, Amy, Taylor tells me you met after some sort of minor accident?" Her father looked at her in the rear view mirror, making her roll her eyes a little and grin. "How did that happen?"

"I'm not sure," Amy replied, a thoughtful look in her eyes. "It was really weird, actually, I was just walking pretty fast to get to class in time after lunch and tripped over something. I have no idea what, there was nothing there when I looked. But it _really_ hurt when I bounced my face off the floor."

"How strange," he said, glancing briefly at her, then indicating for the next turn and slowing slightly. "Invisible trip hazards. Arcadia really does have all the most up to date facilities."

Amy stared at him for a moment, then at Taylor who was convulsed with laughter in the back seat. "I somehow sense I'm missing something," she said slowly, frowning a little.

"I'll tell you later, Amy," Taylor giggled. "Dad, stop it. Amy's a guest."

"Sorry, dear," he responded as he accelerated up the on ramp to the freeway. "I'll be good."

"First time for everything," she snickered.

Amy had a bemused look, but seemed to be enjoying herself, shaking her head a little. "It must run in the family," she mumbled, making the other two grin.

Changing the subject to something less silly, they spent the ride home talking, the Dallon girl becoming less reserved with the elder Hebert as time went on. Taylor listened to her father and her new friend talk, smiling to herself.

* * *

Watching the car disappear around the corner, Dean frowned very slightly. He couldn't work out whether Amy actually knew for sure that Saurial and Taylor were the same person, never mind Raptaur, but he suspected that she did. He also thought it was likely that she'd known this before going with the latter to that restaurant which was apparently experiencing a massive boost in business due to its name being splashed all over PHO.

' _I wonder how_ _ **that**_ _happened?_ ', he thought, curious. ' _Bearing in mind how much she seemed to want to avoid knowing anything about another cape's real identity. Weird. And how has she ended up apparently being a friend of Taylor and her various identities?_ '

Pondering the implications, he jumped a little when his girlfriend poked him in the ribs rather hard, turning his head to see her looking at him with a raised eyebrow and realizing that she'd called his name at least twice without him reacting.

"What's got you so thoughtful?" Vicky asked playfully.

"Just thinking how much your sister suddenly seems to have come out of her shell," he replied, smiling at her.

"I know! Isn't it strange? I mean, I love the fact that she seems to be making friends suddenly, even if two of them are a bit… terrifying… but it's a little weird." Vicky sighed slightly. "I've been trying to get her to go out more for a long time but she's always either here, in her room, or at the hospital. That girl needs to get a life."

"Perhaps she finally realized that," Dean said thoughtfully, looking back after the car. "Anyway, good luck to her, I guess."

"I hope it works out. That Taylor girl seems nice. Everyone says she's really smart, so Ames should at least be able to up her game in math if nothing else." Slipping his arm under hers, she leaned on him. "Come on, there's a sale on at the jewelry store in the mall. I'll let you buy me something if you want."

Sighing with a shake of his head, and noticing that Dennis who was a few feet away was grinning at him, he replied somewhat sarcastically, "Oh, _goody_. I live for these moments."

"I know you do, Dean," she smiled, pulling him towards his car. Looking back he saw the red-head laughing, waving to him. He shrugged and allowed himself to be towed away, not that he had a lot of choice in the matter, still puzzling over the Amy Dallon and Taylor Hebert friendship.

It sounded innocuous enough.

So why did he have a small cold chill running down his spine?

* * *

"Thanks for the ride, Dad," Taylor said to her father, leaning in his car window.

"It was no trouble, Taylor," he smiled. "I have to get back to work but I'll be back around six or so."

"OK. I'll start dinner so it's ready for half past, then." She extracted herself from the car and waved as he drove off, then turned to Amy who was waiting for her. "Come on in, I'll get us some snacks first."

The other girl followed as she led the way into the house, looking around with interest. "This place seems nice," she commented as they went into the kitchen. Taylor rummaged around in the cupboards, coming up with some microwave popcorn and a few bags of potato chips, as well as pouring them each a glass of apple juice. Putting the popcorn in the microwave and prodding a couple of buttons, she turned back to her guest as the machine began humming.

"It's not bad. We need to do some work around the place, for years we couldn't afford it, but recently there was some money that came in, so we're going to fix it up. We've both been so busy with various things for the last month, what with me transferring to Arcadia, a big project Dad is working on for the city, that sort of thing, that we haven't had time to do anything yet." Checking on the progress of the popcorn for a second, she went on, "I've lived here all my life and I couldn't bear to move right now. It's got a lot of happy memories."

She looked around the kitchen for a moment, as Amy watched her. "Some sad ones, of course, as well. I was standing more or less here when I learned Mom had died."

"How did it happen, if you don't mind me asking," Amy asked softly.

"Car accident," Taylor replied, staring at the floor as she remembered. "She died minutes later, we were told. Nothing anyone could do. She probably never even regained consciousness, which I guess is a good thing."

Sighing heavily, she shook her head, then turned to the microwave when it pinged. Pulling the bag out she tore it open and poured the steaming hot contents into the large glass bowl she'd pulled out of a lower cupboard. "I've got several bags of this if you want any more," she said, handing Amy the bowl then picking up the two glasses in one hand and the potato chips with the other, nodding towards the doorway to the hall. "Living room is just across the hallway."

Amy went in the indicated direction, Taylor behind her, then looked around the new room for a second before sitting on the sofa, putting the bowl next to her. Taylor handed her one of the glasses before sitting in her father's favorite chair, putting everything else on the small table beside it.

They looked at each other for a few seconds. Amy took a handful of popcorn and started eating it one kernel at a time, inspecting her closely. "OK. I'm here, at your mercy. What next?" she asked, then smiled a little.

Taylor grinned for a second. "That's one way to look at it I suppose. Not exactly the best way, but..." Opening a bag of snacks she idly grazed on it. "What do you want to know?"

"Everything, ideally, but I'm happy to start with what the hell you actually are. I still think you're an alien."

Amy looked expectantly at her, taking another handful of popcorn.

Laughing for a moment, Taylor straightened up a little, leaning forward in her chair. Her guest unconsciously mimicked the pose, looking very curious and a little apprehensive.

"I'm not really an alien, like I said."

"Then what are you?" the other brunette asked. "Certainly not a normal human, except for appearances you're not related to anything that has ever lived on this planet according to my power."

Taylor thought for a moment. Eventually she smiled widely, far more widely than a human mouth could allow. Not to mention the vast array of pointy teeth that glinted at the Dallon girl, who paled. Her eyes glowing and slitted, Taylor said in a low voice, "Technically, I think I'm actually a demon." She ate a potato chip, then licked her lips with a long forked tongue, causing the other girl to twitch.

There was a very long pause.

Amy, still pale, stared at her as if she was now thinking that she was sharing the room with a crazy person.

"A demon."

"Yep. Or more accurately, a half-demon. Or something like that. I'm not sure how it works."

"Riight." Amy drawled the word, shaking her head a little, while her color came back when it became apparent that she wasn't going to be immediately eaten. "You do _realize_ how that sounds? More than a little… how do I put it… fucking crazy."

Taylor shrugged, still smiling with a completely inhuman mouth. "Hey, you're the one who was willing to believe I'm an alien."

Her guest looked thoughtfully at her. "Good point. Perhaps we're both crazy."

"Could be. Any idea how to check?"

"Nope."

"Damn."

They exchanged a glance, then laughed fairly hard for a little while.

"OK, Demon-girl, explain," Amy finally snickered. "How did you get like this, were you born like it, or what?"

"Well, it started just over a month ago, or more accurately, nearly two years ago. I had this friend called Emma..."


	48. Acquisitions and Discussions

Putting the phone down, Danny checked off another item on his list, nodding in satisfaction. He'd sent the Mayor the document he'd requested around ten that morning, Roy releasing four hundred and fifty thousand dollars into the DWU working account within two hours, and except for the forty minutes he'd taken out at just after three to pick up Taylor and Amy, he'd been contacting various businesses ever since. The current economic slump turned out to be good news from his point of view, as almost all the equipment they required in addition to what they already had was available used in good condition, in some cases for mere cents on the dollar.

A knock on his door made him look over to see Habib peering in, holding a sheaf of papers. "Danny?"

"Yes?" he asked, putting his pen down.

"The supplier of the oxygen for the thermal lances says we can have half of it first thing Friday morning, but that cleans out the local stocks. They're going to have to ship more up from the main depot in Boston which will be here on Monday afternoon."

"That's fine," Danny replied, making some notes. "What about the acetylene?"

"That will be here Monday morning. Both are in fifteen cylinder manifolded pallets, that will give around twelve hours flow at full rate. I've inquired about having a bulk gas supply installed, the cryogenic oxygen tank is available with about a week's notice when we need larger quantities."

"Great. We won't need it for now but I want it as an option later." He made some more notes. "OK, any luck with the extra heavy duty cutting torches we need?"

"Yes, I've tracked down a whole container full of them, including a big pile of thermal lance holders and consumables. It's from a nationwide demolitions company that went under a month ago in New York. The stuff is all sitting in a warehouse down there about to go to auction. There's practically everything we need, including hoses, regulators, protective equipment, you name it. Half of it is still new in boxes from what I can find out, the rest only has about six months use and is described as in excellent condition. Thirty thousand plus another four and a half for shipping and we can have it here before the end of the week." The man looked pleased, as did Danny.

"Fantastic. That will save us at least, hmm, a hundred thousand or so, depending on exactly what's there," Danny smiled, checking a list then making a quick calculation. "Buy it."

"OK. They also have a dozen big plasma cutters they're willing to throw in for another fifteen K, along with a small truckload of consumables."

"We'll take them." He checked another item off the list. "Well done, Habib."

"Thanks, Boss," the man said, grinning as Danny sighed, then leaving the room.

"Tell Zephron to stop getting everyone to call me that!" he yelled after the man, shaking his head with a small smile of his own. Looking at his list again, he ran his finger down it, then picked the phone up and dialed. "Hello, this is Danny Hebert at the DWU in Brockton Bay. May I speak to Richard, please?" A moment later, when the requested person came on the line, he continued, "Hi, Richard. We were discussing some used demolition equipment last week, you remember? Yes, that's right. Well, we'd like to move on purchasing what we talked about, and I have a number of other items I'm looking for..."

Feeling that things were going well, he turned to his computer monitor and began reading from a list on the screen.

* * *

Lisa watched the activity at the DWU facility with curiosity, seeing that there were more people moving about with purpose than she could remember ever seeing before. She noticed that the fence that Hookwolf had damaged had been repaired so neatly only the slightly shinier chain link betrayed where the work had been done. Pausing to see what was going on, she allowed her power to suggest causes for the men running around all over the place.  
 _  
Big project on horizon, nearly guaranteed work. Men very excited and hopeful, grateful to their leader. Loyal to their leader_

Stock taking, itemizing repairs required to old equipment, reactivating mothballed equipment

About to start major construction work on Docks

City is funding expansion of Dock facilities

Several warehouses being demolished, new facilities being built on site reclaimed

Rail line being repaired after survey last week

Possibly about to begin salvaging wrecked ships?

'Interesting,'

she mused, raising her eyebrows and looking out at the bay for a moment. ' _That's going to change things around here. I wonder what Skidmark is going to do?_ ' She couldn't see the leader of the Merchants just idly sitting by and allowing anyone, even the city itself, to start tearing down what he considered his territory. Between the Merchants and the ABB, there was likely to be some pushback to the DWU plans. ' _They may be in for a surprise, though, with Saurial involved,_ ' she grinned, resuming walking. ' _Poor old Skids doesn't know what he'll be walking into if he tries anything._ '

Idly wondering who would win in a Raptaur vs Lung battle and how much of the Docks would still be standing at the end of it, she headed towards the Boardwalk and a cappuccino with her name on. Things were certainly beginning to change around here somewhat quickly now.

* * *

Taylor watched Amy think, the other brunette appearing somewhat stunned and slightly at a loss. She'd covered the bullying, not in detail but with enough description to have made the girl wince in sympathy a few times, ending up with the locker and the voice. Slightly glossing over the actual Varga part of it, she'd explained how she came out the other end of the experience with a number of interesting abilities and a body that wasn't technically entirely human any more, then gone over some of the other things she and her father had learned about what she could do.

So far, she hadn't mentioned the expedition to Canada or Kaiju, or the bay cleanup work, as she wanted to see how the healer dealt with the information she'd been given up to this point before she went any further. Both the Varga and her father had advised caution about telling anyone else everything, although for some reason she felt that the person sitting across from her was one of the few people she could actually open up to.

It was possible that Lisa was another, she thought. But she was still working on that part.

There was even a chance that Leet and his friend would be yet another set that she could be honest with, something she found very funny considering they were technically criminals. But she was almost certain that they'd worked out who she really was and that Saurial and Raptaur were also her, even though she wasn't sure how, and the fact that they'd apparently not told anyone or tried to use the information suggested a certain degree of trustworthiness. She was going to have to talk to them at some point.

"OK. Let me get this straight," Amy finally said, giving her a peculiar look. "You got deliberately locked into a tiny space with some revolting waste, for hours, by your former best friend and two accomplices."

"Yep."

"Just at the point you nearly died, you found yourself somewhere… else…, and ended up talking to _something_ that offered you power."

" _Great_ power, it said. But yes." Taylor grinned a little.

"You can remember that?"

"Sure. Why wouldn't I be able to? It's not the sort of thing you forget in a hurry."

Amy stared at her for a moment, then shook her head. "We'll come back to that part. Anyway, the next thing you know, you're lying on the floor outside your locker in the dark, you can see perfectly, and you then find out that you have the most ridiculously over-powered set of abilities I've ever heard of in one person. Which you think makes you a half-demon or something."

"Pretty much."

"Huh." The Dallon girl was silent for a second. "And having got these powers, including a stupidly powerful Changer ability, some weird-ass Shaker power, and god knows what else, you mainly use it to take out low level criminals and prank the entire planet at the same time by making everyone think that you're several different capes and that there are more of them living in the bay?"

Grinning, Taylor nodded. "Yes."

"I was right. You _are_ crazy."

"Why, just because I didn't immediately go out and challenge Lung to a duel?" she shrugged, still grinning. "What sort of an idiot would do _that_ on their first night out?"

Amy sighed. "And in the process of all of this, somehow your entire biological makeup is upgraded to something that's so different to anything that lives on this world that I'm not entirely certain you're actually alive by normal definitions."

Taylor responded, "So you keep saying. I don't feel much different, to be honest, at least like this. My heart is still beating, I can eat and breathe like normal." Changing her head to Saurial's, which made Amy's eyes widen comically, she added, "Even this seems pretty normal."

"Shit. That's…" Amy didn't seem to know what to say. She repeated faintly, "Shit."

They looked at each other for a while. Amy idly ate some cold popcorn, still inspecting her. "What limits do you actually have on your Changer ability?"

"Dad called me an infinitely variable dinosaur, which is a neat description, and more or less right, leaving aside the fact that I'm not actually a reptile despite appearances. Not quite, anyway." Taylor raised a hand, scratching her chin with a finger that sprouted an inch long talon, then lowered it, the digit returning to normality in the process. "More or less anything that looks sort of reptilian, including feathers and so on, I think. Up to a decent size."

"Where does the extra mass come from?" Her guest looked fascinated now.

"No idea. It just does."

"And what do you call a decent size?"

Taylor hesitated. She wasn't sure admitting to quite how big the Varga could be was a bright move this early on. "Biggish," she prevaricated.

"Hmm." Amy studied her closely. "As big, perhaps, as a two hundred foot long swimming thing with a mouth that could swallow this house?"

Staring, Taylor wondered how the hell the girl knew that. "Why do you ask?" she replied after a moment. The Varga was listening intently as well, very interested in the answer.

Finishing the popcorn, Amy took a drink of her apple juice, watching her with a small smile. Eventually she spoke.

"Interesting story. On Sunday morning, I got an emergency call from a doctor I know at the PRT who needed my abilities to fix a patient that had just keeled over with a series of massive heart attacks." Taylor looked at her, feeling puzzled, which must have come out in her expression. "It was Director Piggot."

"OK," Taylor replied slowly.

"Well, I got there pretty quickly, Vicky and I were just down the road anyway, and got taken up to the conference room where she and most of the local Protectorate were having a meeting. She was in bad shape, but I sorted her out easily enough. In the process I saw that there was a picture of this absolutely _huge_ lizard-eel thing on one of their monitors, with a lot of data on another one that seemed to be saying it was about two hundred feet or so long. I think Dragon had provided the information."

' _Oh, shit. I ate_ _ **Dragon's**_ _little robot submarine!_ ' Taylor briefly panicked. ' _She's the most famous Tinker in the world! She won't be pleased about it._ '

" _They were hunting us, Brain, not the other way around. We merely pointed out in a direct fashion we didn't appreciate being waylaid in international waters_ ," her demonic companion replied calmly. " _I doubt that there is any real problem here. The loss of a no doubt easily replaced machine is fairly trivial in the grand scheme of things to one such as this Dragon, I suspect._ "

Her worry subsiding, she thought about it and decided he was right.

"Dragon, you say?" she asked mildly after the very short internal conversation. "How interesting."

Amy studied her closely. "Hmm. Yes, it is. Anyway, Armsmaster seemed awfully jumpy about the whole thing, he turned the screens off as soon as he noticed I was looking at them."

"I imagine that they talk about all sorts of secret PRT business in their meetings," Taylor commented, opening another bag of potato chips and dropping a few into her mouth, still having her Saurial head on.

"I suppose so," Amy allowed after a second or two. "But… I couldn't help noticing that this rather substantial creature, which by the way is wildly larger than _anything_ that's ever been seen before from what I could find out, even as a fossil, had very familiar looking eyes."

Taylor blinked.

" _Very_ familiar eyes," Amy repeated slowly. "Distinctive, too. Weirdly enough, they're _so_ distinctive that I could swear I'm looking at something that's identical except for size _right now..._ "

They stared at each other for a few seconds.

"Strange coincidence," Taylor commented.

" _Isn't_ it?" Looking at the bowl next to her, Amy added casually, "You mentioned more popcorn?"

"Sure."

Both of them went into the kitchen, where Taylor put another bag in the microwave. She leaned on the counter watching her guest who was half-sitting on the kitchen table with a small dark smile on her face.

Another long pause was broken only by the sound of the humming microwave and popping corn.

Eventually, Amy asked after a deep sigh, "Is there a particular _reason_ you were swimming around somewhere as a two fucking hundred foot long _sea serpent?_ "

"Language, Amy," Taylor grinned, reverting her head to normal then opening the microwave, taking the bag out and pouring the contents into the bowl the other girl held out to her. "I was coming home."

"From where?"

"Quebec."

Amy gaped. "Quebec? What the hell were you doing in _Quebec?_ "

"Mainly poking around having fun," she laughed. "I wanted to see how fast I could swim, test myself, that sort of thing, and I needed somewhere deserted. That's where I ended up."

Eating some of the popcorn, Amy asked curiously, "How fast _can_ you swim like that?"

"About three hundred miles an hour or so," she replied. Then she had to hastily thump her new friend on the back when she choked. "Don't _inhale_ it, you can't breathe popcorn."

"I know that, you idiot," Amy gasped, then coughed. "Water!"

Filling a glass from the tap Taylor handed it over then watched as the other girl drank half the contents, coughed violently for a moment, then finished it. "Three _hundred_ miles an hour?!" she squeaked.

"More or less," Taylor nodded. "I was still speeding up as I practiced. It's pretty cool."

"It's fucking impossible is what it is," Amy retorted, looking annoyed. "No biological organism can produce that amount of power for that long."

"I can," she shrugged. "It's not hard."

The other brunette stared at her for a few seconds, then sighed heavily. "I get the very definite impression that there's a lot more you haven't told me."

"There is," she confirmed. "I wanted to see how you'd take it first. You're not going to run off and tell the PRT, or New Wave, are you?"

"No, I damn well am _not_ ," the girl snapped. "One, I made you a promise, and I keep my word. Two, you scare the _crap_ out of me when you get like you did in that closet. I have absolutely _no_ wish to go through that again, or worse, which I'm certain would happen if I caused you problems. And three, I'm not sure they'd believe me anyway, and if they _did_ all hell would break out, trust me. Which takes us right back to point two. So I'm more than interested but it's not going to go any further."

Studying her, Taylor thought for a while. ' _What do you think?_ '

" _She seems sincere, and desperately curious. I suspect that telling her is safe enough and it shows a level of trust that I believe she is seeking in someone. The girl needs a friend as you have already pointed out._ " The Varga sounded a little sad. " _She reminds me of you in many ways but she doesn't have anything like me backing her up. I think… I think that we should try to be that for her_."

' _I'm more or less thinking the same thing,_ ' she admitted, with a small internal sigh. Amy was watching her with a look mixing interest, hope, worry, and several other more difficult to decode emotions, while her scent was even more complex. Eventually Taylor shrugged.

"OK. I'm going to trust you with something only one other human knows. Please don't let me down."

"I won't," Amy replied, then appeared very confused. "One other _human?_ "

"Dad knows all of it." Taylor grinned. "Come back in the living room and I'll tell you the rest." Trailing behind her host as she headed across the hall again, Amy sat once more, cuddling the popcorn bowl, while Taylor stood in the middle of the room. She checked that the curtains were pulled on the windows still, something she'd done when they entered a while ago, then faced her guest.

"I left out some things. The voice, it was from somewhere a long way away. Another world. Probably another universe, in fact, not like Aleph, but something very different."

Amy listened, seeming fascinated and somewhat puzzled.

"When it offered me power, as it put it, what it actually did was give me the opportunity to merge with a demon. The Varga. We're basically one being now, one being with two minds. He provides the abilities, I provide the direction."

Slightly gaping, Amy stared, then closed her mouth with a snap. "You know, you're not actually _helping_ your case for not being crazy," she commented somewhat sarcastically.

Grinning, Taylor shrugged. "I know, and it's actually really difficult to prove beyond doubt. _I_ know it's true, and _Dad_ is convinced, but I guess you could if you wanted decide I just have some weird multiple personality thing going on. But I swear, it's true." She waited as Amy thought for a moment, then motioned for her to continue.

"On his original world, the Varga was a great demon, one of twelve, who were defeated and captured in a battle between forces I have no understanding of at all. When you know what he's capable of, it means that the greater powers were so far beyond that, it's horrifying. I mean, his kind were worshiped as gods more than once and in many ways that seems a fairly reasonable definition. So what the greater powers can do kind of makes you wonder..." She explained some of the things her constant companion had told her over the weeks since they merged, the history of his linkage to the bargain made with Luna's ancestors, and a number of other essential parts of background information. Amy listened with great interest.

"That's a damn good story if nothing else," she said when Taylor finished. "Can you actually prove it? I mean, _magic?!_ That's _nuts_."

"And normal parahuman powers _aren't?_ " she retorted. "You can apparently touch any living thing and rewrite its DNA. Clockblocker can make things freeze in time. Vista can make one end of the street the same as the other end and step between them. Miss Militia can produce any hand held weapon you can come up with just with a thought. Those are near enough to magic as to make no real difference, aren't they?"

"That's… not an entirely bad point," Amy said after a few seconds. "But, is your ability really that different?"

"I don't know for sure. But I can turn into more or less anything I can think of that's even vaguely reptilian, up to a very large scale, I can make things out of thin air with no apparent mass limit and out of materials that I'm reliably informed can't possibly exist, I'm supposedly damn close to indestructible, I don't get sick, I can in theory heal from almost anything..." Taylor shrugged. "Sure, there are capes out there with a lot of the same powers from what I've read, to one level or another, but I don't know of any that have all of them in one person, or to quite this level. It sort of terrifies me when I list it like that."

"You're not the only one," Amy muttered, looking at her wide-eyed. "Fuck me. You really are the grab bag to end all grab bags, aren't you?"

"So it seems. You can understand why I don't want the PRT finding out all at once, they'd freak the fuck out and try to blow up the city or something to stop me doing whatever it is they'd think I was going to do." Taylor sat down, sighing a little. "But all I actually _want_ to do is help Dad out, help the DWU as well and the city too, and have some fun. While stopping crimes when I see them. I've been deliberately staying out of cape fights for several reasons. Hookwolf was because he came after me, not the other way around, and he needed to be persuaded to go away and not come back."

"From what I saw on PHO you managed that pretty well," Amy smirked. Taylor snickered.

"He seemed impressed, yes. Or was it scared shitless? I sometimes get those mixed up."

They shared an amused look. "But you see the problem. Most capes seem to want to go out and break things, fight each other, that sort of thing. I don't. Oh, I'll do it if I have to and I think I'm pretty good at it, I learned a hell of a lot from Princess Luna's memories and abilities, but I'm not going around _looking_ for a fight. That appears to be an unusual attitude for parahumans."

"It certainly seems a little out of the ordinary, yes," Amy replied after a moment. "I'd have to agree that a lot of capes seem to find themselves fighting each other more than is likely by random chance, for some weird reason."

They both pondered the oddity of that fact for a little while, then the other girl shrugged. "We're not going to work out why just sitting here. OK, I have some of the background, as weird as it is. What else?"

After some more discussion with the Varga, Taylor decided she might as well be honest considering how much Amy seemed to have worked out for herself. Going back to the beginning, she filled in most of the holes. By the time she finished an hour later Amy was gaping again.

"That is the most bullshit pile of bullshit I've ever heard," she grumbled when she finally closed her mouth. "You _ate_ Dragon's probe?"

"They kept shoving it in my face! What else was I supposed to do?" Taylor protested. The girl stared, then shook her head slowly.

"Why do I think that _you_ think that statement actually made sense?" she sighed.

Grinning, Taylor spread her hands a little. "If it's any consolation, it didn't taste very good."

"How big was it?"

"About six feet long, maybe?"

"And you just swallowed a six foot long metal and plastic machine with no ill effects?" Amy seemed somewhat incredulous.

"More or less. I spat out all the little bits, but most of it went down. I had to digest it for a while but that happened on the way back." Taylor looked amused. "Maybe I should sent Dragon an anonymous email and apologize, and also suggest that she puts a little container of Tabasco sauce in the next one to give it some flavor?"

With a smirk, Amy asked, "You'd actually do that, wouldn't you?"

"Possibly. It would be good for a laugh. Which is a good reason to do some things. Life without humor is boring."

"You've never met Armsmaster, clearly," her guest replied in a dead-pan voice.

Grinning at the comment, Taylor shook her head. Amy studied her for some time. "Anything else?" she finally asked.

"Oh, all sorts of things. I'm still learning from the Varga, and coming to grips with all the things I sort of inherited from the previous brains. Mostly Luna, but there are things in here from the other two as well." She tapped her head with a finger. "Oh, and this."

Removing the cloaking effect, she waved the end of her tail at Amy, whose eyes widened somewhat. "This is permanent. It marks the Brain, it's part of the bargain apparently. I'm stuck with it for the rest of my life." Laying it across her knees she stroked the scaled appendage for a moment, smiling a little. "It was a hell of a shock when I saw it for the first time, not to mention how worried I was about people seeing it. But to be honest now I'd miss it if wasn't there."

"You have a tail," Amy spluttered.

"Yes, I know. I just showed it to you."

"How… Why couldn't I see it? Or did you just grow it with your Changer power?"

Amused, Taylor thought for a moment, then pointed at the doorway, her own eyes suddenly widening. "Shit, what's that?!" she gasped. Amy whirled around, staring for a few seconds.

"What?" she asked. "I can't see..." Turning back, she gaped, then looked carefully around the room. "What the hell…?"

As soon as the healer's eyes were off her, Taylor had used the cloaking technique, jumping to her feet and carefully running around to the other side of the sofa. Amy kept looking around, then got up and went to the chair, feeling it cautiously, before staring around again. "Oh, ha fucking ha. What did you do, Taylor?"

When there was no answer she even went so far as to look under the chair, then behind the sofa, before going into the hall and checking the kitchen, only to come back in and sit down again in a huff. "Very funny. Where are you?" Reaching for a handful of popcorn she froze when she felt another hand in the bowl, slowly turning her head to see Taylor grinning at her from a foot away, her head Saurial's again.

"GAHHH!" she screeched, jerking backwards and slipping to the floor, where she lay while giving Taylor a shocked look. The latter flipped some popcorn into her mouth and laughed.

"What are you doing lying on the floor, Amy? The sofa is much more comfortable."

"You bitch," Amy snarled, getting up and glaring. "That scared the shit out of me. What the _hell_ did you do?"

"Assassin's Cloak. A very useful magic spell."

"Magic spell. Sure it is."

"Honest! What else could it be?"

Amy gave her a long-suffering look. "A Stranger ability on top of everything else. Christ. You're impossible."

"No, just fairly improbable," Taylor smirked.

Sighing, the other girl shook her head in despair. "I can see dealing with you is going to be complicated."

"Probably worth it, though," she grinned.

The brunette gave her an answering grin in return. "Probably." After a moment, she added, "So this… ' _spell_ '… can hide your tail?"

"Basically, yes," Taylor replied, "It was Varga's idea. We tested it, it seems to work against cameras, and thermal sensors as well. So far no one has seen through it as far as I know. It's really useful, like I said. I use it every day, like for going to and from school." She explained how she usually traveled, making Amy look impressed. "It's also pretty funny using it to sneak up on criminals. Between than and turning the lights out they tend to be sort of surprised."

"Now _that_ I can well understand," Amy sighed. "I'm surprised no one has died from a heart attack yet."

"Not that I'm aware," Taylor smiled. After a moment, she thought of something that made the smile fade. "Oh. Shit. Director Piggot… Do you think that was my fault?"

Amy looked sympathetically at her as she paled a little. "Yes, and no, I think. Yes, I suspect it was the stress of that meeting that provoked it, but no, it wasn't your _fault_. Not really. Trust me, the woman was very ill, she had a lot of things wrong with her and a heart attack was totally inevitable sooner or later. As far as I can work out I can practically guarantee that within six months at the outside she'd have keeled over from _something_ , or just in general. If anything, you may have helped save her life, because if I hadn't been so close and called in so quickly she wouldn't have made it. If it had happened at home no one would have known until the smell got too bad."

Taylor winced, while Amy got the familiar somewhat deadpan smile. "Nice."

"Sorry, I call it like I see it. And I've seen way to much of it."

"Still, I didn't actually intend to scare her into a heart attack."

"I don't think you did, quite. She just got so worked up she had a problem that she'd have had eventually anyway, with or without your help."

They sat in silence for a while, then Taylor sighed slightly. "Way to bring my good mood down, Amy."

"Is it going to stop you doing what you're doing?"

She thought, then shrugged with a small smile of her own. "No, I don't think so."

"No harm done, then," the other girl chuckled. They considered each other for a few seconds, until she appeared to come to a decision. "Look, it's not that I don't believe this insane origin story of yours, but I need to check something. Can I touch you?"

"On a first date?" Taylor smirked. Amy rolled her eyes, a scent that mixed amusement with sudden worry puzzling her for a moment, although after a few seconds she worked out a possible reason, deciding that the time for that particular can of worms wasn't just yet. But it needed to be addressed eventually.

"Very funny," Amy sighed. "I just want to check something and I need to touch you, my power only works through skin contact."

Studying her, Taylor and the Varga discussed the request, quickly coming to a decision.


	49. Omake - Needs Ketchup

Dragon looked at the email in her silicon mindscape, her virtual mouth slightly open, then produced something that in an organic would have been a stunned blink of shock.

"What?" she asked herself.

Checking the source of the email, she rapidly ran into the problem that it had come through the same untraceable heavily encrypted remailer service that Leet had used to contact Armsmaster. Even she couldn't penetrate it, and was hesitant to try, as the protections were ferocious and whoever was behind it had made it abundantly clear that they took a _very_ dim view of hackers.

Demonstrations had been made.

People didn't try any more. The ones that had lived, anyway.

Deciding that was a dead end, she re-read the email again, virtually shaking her head, then called Colin. He needed to see this.

When the Tinker answered, his face on a simulated screen in her mindscape, she put a puzzled expression on her avatar's face. "I got an email just now," she began.

"I assume you get a lot of them," he replied, seeming somewhat distracted. Curious, she checked and found he was reviewing the sonar scans of the bottom of the bay they'd made, specifically the one showing the enormous apparently hand-written capital letter K, done in a fancy calligraphic style.

It was something she tried not to think about.

"I do. This one is… different."

"How?" he asked, looking more directly at the camera for a moment.

"It's the only email I ever received from a sea serpent complaining that my probes taste bad," she replied with a sigh of mixed disbelief and resignation. His head snapped around to meet her simulated eyes with his real ones, shock in them.

" _What?_ " he yipped, his voice higher than normal.

"Look," she said, sending him the email, which appeared instantly on one of his monitors via the link he allowed her to his systems. He read it with a growing expression of confusion.

 _To: Dragon_  
 _From: Umihebi_  
 _Subject: Your tech tastes bad. Please fix._

 _Hi, Dragon!_

 _I love the name!_

 _Anyway, I was out for a nice swim a little while ago and someone kept throwing a little annoying machine at me, so I had to eat it in the end. It didn't taste very good. Titanium has a bitter aftertaste and the batteries were a little sour, although they were also nicely tingly. Overall I'd give it about two out of five, edible but wouldn't recommend to a friend._

 _Sorry, but that's what I think._

 _I know you'll be disappointed in that rating. When I found out it was your machine, I thought I should contact you and let you know, so you could make any newer models taste better._

 _Don't get me wrong, it was nice and crunchy, very fresh, the texture was fine, but the taste… Meh. I'm sure you can do better. Everyone knows you're the best. If you will accept a suggestion, perhaps you could put some Tabasco sauce inside it? My sister says that stuff is really nice and I'd love to try it._

 _Or ketchup._

 _I'm told crunchy things go well with ketchup._

 _Well, I can't spend all day chatting, I have all sorts of things to do, and the rest of the family wants a go on the computer, so I'll just be off. Thanks for listening. And if you do send any more little machines my way, remember the taste._

 _Thanks._

 _Have a nice day!_

 _PS, I sent you a picture a friend of mine took, I thought you might like one. I signed it and everything._

 _Bye._

 _Umihebi_

Dragon watched her best friend's eyes moving back and forth as he read the email. When he finished, he blinked a few times, then read it again. His face was completely blank although she could see a small vein in his forehead pulsing a little.

"Umihebi?" he asked after a long pause.

"It literally means sea serpent. I think it's meant as a joke."

"Is this email some sort of joke as well?"

Wordlessly she put the photo that had been attached to the email up on his monitor, the man recoiling in shock and squeaking a little in a very un-Colin-like way. He stared at the absolutely huge reptilian creature which was shown posing with its head resting on what they both recognized as the grounded tanker at the mouth of the Brockton Bay harbor, taken at night with a powerful flash, the skyline of the city visible behind it, and the Rig itself to one side, nicely framed. It was a very good picture.

The creature that was lying half submerged, the front half or so still being nearly a hundred feet long, dark scales glistening with water where they were draped across the bow of the ship, was giving the camera what seemed to be meant as a smile. More huge teeth were visible than any normal person would find even slightly reassuring, and webbed forelegs were holding in enormous hands a huge sign written in the same neatly calligraphed lettering that they'd seen before, ' _Welcome to Brockton Bay, home of The Family._ '

The sign looked like it was made from the side of one of the ships from the graveyard, carefully torn off by brute force, while the letters were incised into the metal with some horrifically sharp implement, which Dragon strongly suspected was one of the several-foot-long talons on the hands. The creature looked oddly cheerful in a somewhat Lovecraftian way.

The head was very familiar. They'd seen a nice high definition video of it in action very recently.

The eyes were definitely the same as Raptaur's. The expression was still one of intelligent amusement.

Armsmaster stared at the picture for a long time, then closed his eyes and swallowed a couple of times.

When he opened them, it was still there.

"I don't think it's a joke, Colin."

"Why is this happening?" he sighed.

"I have no idea. Nor do I have any idea how the hell that thing can use a computer."

Another input pinged for her attention. She momentarily checked it, then rolled virtual eyes, almost amused. "But it can. Umihebi just created a PHO account and used that image as proof of status. The forums are going a little… weird."

"Oh, god," he mumbled. "Can I move up there with you? Brockton Bay is getting too strange for me."

As she was thinking of a suitable response other than "Yes, please, Colin," he looked to the side, then sighed again.

"What is it?" she asked.

"Passive sonar alert. I put a filter on the microphones to log if anything in the water produced patterned sounds that weren't mechanical."

"What does it sound like?" she asked curiously. He glanced at her, then off camera, before with visible reluctance reaching out to operate a switch.

They listened. Slightly metallic music sounded through the lab, and across the link to Dragon, sounding like it was made by some enormous unseen hand hitting some huge metal structure rhythmically, with higher notes caused by smaller objects being shaken. She had a fairly good idea that it was the tanker being used as an instrument.

A bass voice started singing.

" _Oh, yeah… Oh, **yeah!**_ "

They listened to the performance for a while, before Colin silently flipped the switch again.

"Yello." Dragon commented. "It's moved on from sea shanties."

"Fuck my life," Colin muttered, dropping his head to the desk.

"Hey, it could be worse."

"How?"

"It's not the ' _Jaws_ ' theme," she laughed, before disconnecting, leaving him looking worried. Wondering idly if he'd ever go in a boat again, she read the email one final time, then placed an order for a dozen bottles of Tabasco sauce.

Just in case.


	50. DNA and Advice

"OK. Here you go," Taylor replied, reverting her head to normal at the same time. She lifted her tail and draped it across her legs, the tip next to Amy, who looked surprised for a moment then shrugged.

"That works." Reaching out she put her hand on the appendage, a look of fascination appearing as she concentrated. "God, I still can't get over how… alien… you are under the surface," she mumbled. Falling silent she seemed to almost go into a trance, Taylor and the Varga both watching with interest, both from the outside and the inside. They could feel her ability trying to get a grip on Taylor's body, failing both due to the apparently utter lack of even a starting point, and the Varga's own careful efforts to keep it at a safe distance.

He was studying Amy just as closely via his own methods. " _Now, that is very interesting_ ," he commented curiously after a while.

' _What is?_ ' Taylor asked, still watching Amy, who seemed to be looking at the inside of her own head if her expression was anything to go by.

 _"I'm still not sure about where these parahuman abilities ultimately come from, although I have a few ideas, but one thing I'm becoming convinced about is that there is some form of external influence involved. A little like the linkage we have, but… different. Not a partnership, more… parasitical than that. Intriguing. And somewhat worrying_."

' _Parasitical?_ ' Taylor echoed, confused.

" _It's the best word I can come up with to describe it. Look, you see the neural activity there behind the frontal lobes? It's going frantic, it seems to be where Amy's ability is focused. But I can sense there is another connection to the same area, which doesn't go anywhere inside her brain, it goes… elsewhere. I'm not sure where_."

Taylor concentrated her electrical vision on the other girl's brain, seeing the effect clearly. The Varga was right, while Amy's whole brain was alive with activity, that particular part was vastly more enthusiastic about it, the internal movement of signals not seeming to match up with the rest of her brain. The resolution of her electrical sense was steadily getting better with practice and she was now capable of seeing a lot of detail in someone's brain and neural system from close range if she concentrated on it, although actually understanding that detail was in general far beyond her current knowledge.

Even so, she could see the differences, and the brain she was looking at was more active than any she had so far examined.

' _What do you think it is?_ ' she asked, fascinated. There was the mental effect of a shrug.

" _I don't know. But it's clearly not part of a normal human brain. You don't have the same structure, although admittedly your brain is no longer very human in many ways, and I haven't noticed it before in anyone else. That said it's true neither of us has actually been looking all that hard at people's brains. I can say for sure that I've never encountered such a thing before, none of Luna's people had it. I think it's related to her abilities even if not the ultimate source of them. It somehow gives me the impression of being more of a conduit for the parahuman power. I need more information._ "

' _Like studying some more parahumans when they're using their powers?_ '

" _That would certainly help_." He sounded thoughtful. " _We should take any opportunity to look into this, it might be important_."

' _Maybe Amy knows something about it?_ '

" _It's worth asking, certainly. I don't recall any of your research showing anything much about this, only a vague reference to the parahuman brain being a little different. The data you found didn't go into any details of the subject._ "

About to ask another question of her partner, Taylor was distracted by Amy releasing her tail, then taking a deep breath and shaking her head. "Jesus, that's a rush," she muttered, staring at Taylor, then blinking a few times. "It's like living on bread and water all your life, then someone coming along one day with a fifteen course meal designed to stimulate every possible taste you can imagine. Totally overwhelming."

"So it was good for you too?" Taylor grinned.

The other girl sighed, giving her a look of dry amusement. "You really have got a weird sense of humor, haven't you?"

Nodding, she replied with a smile, "People keep telling me that."

"Why doesn't that surprise me?" Matching her smile, Amy leaned back and closed her eyes, going silent for a little while. Taylor waited patiently, reaching over and grabbing another bag of potato chips then grazing on them Eventually her guest began speaking. "I believe you." She opened her eyes and gave Taylor a resigned look. "All of it. I simply can't believe how complicated your body is, my power just goes and hides in a corner when I try to get it to find any real point of commonality between us. I still can't work out how the hell you can be compatible with human reproduction, I have to admit, by rights it should be like a donkey mating with a tree, but as far as I can see it would work."

"Oh, thanks," Taylor giggled. "Am I the donkey, or the tree?"

Grinning for a moment, Amy shrugged. "Pick one. Or a rock, or bacteria… Trust me, you're _weird_. Biologically speaking, anyway." She studied Taylor closely for a moment, then smirked. "And in other ways. But anyway, that's only part of it. I checked and you don't have a Corona Pollentia or Gemma."

Taylor looked blankly at her, making her chuckle.

"It's the part of the brain that is the apparent source of the parahuman abilities, or at least controls them."

"Oh." Curiously, Taylor looked at her for a moment, the Varga also listening very carefully. "Is it about there?" she asked, reaching out and poking Amy in the top of the head.

"Yes," the other girl replied slowly. "Why?"

"I was wondering what all the activity in that spot was for," Taylor told her, making her look shocked. "I can see it. Didn't I mention I can see electrical fields?"

"Not as such, no," Amy said with a long suffering expression. "You've left some important things out again. Spill."

"I can see electrical fields. And heat. And ultraviolet, infra red, probably x-rays as well..." Taylor smiled as Amy simply shook her head in despair. "I told you the other night that my senses were ridiculously good now. It was sort of overwhelming at first in human form although the other forms seemed to handle it better but I've got used to it now. I can turn it off when I'm in my base form, the extended sight modes at least although the night vision is on all the time, but I don't really bother much these days."

She shrugged slightly. "It's useful. Someone pointed out that I have a build in lie detector which is basically true. Although it's something I'm still working on, I can get a pretty good idea of what someone is thinking by watching and smelling all the little clues."

"You're going to drive Armsmaster nuts," Amy laughed. Taylor gave her an inquiring look. "He's got some sort of high-tech lie detector built into his armor and is always telling people whether he thinks they're telling the truth. He's right more often than not, but it's still really irritating. You should do that to him and see how he likes it."

Grinning, Taylor nodded, making a mental note to look into it.

"Oh, god, you're actually going to _do_ it, aren't you?" Amy stared, then howled with laughter. "Promise me you'll wait until I'm there too. I _really_ want to see his reaction."

"Don't you like him?" she asked.

"He's OK, I think he means well, but sometimes he's pretty annoying," Amy giggled, shaking her head. "Everyone thinks so. He needs a sense of humor transplant or something, The guy just doesn't understand it and can be a bit full of himself sometimes. He takes life too seriously."

"Funny coming from you," Taylor smiled.

"I wouldn't argue with that," her friend sighed, suddenly less amused. "There are reasons for it. Anyway, that's not what we were talking about. You aren't a parahuman. That's the important thing."

"What do you mean?" Taylor asked, puzzled.

"Exactly what I said. All parahumans have a Corona Pollentia and Gemma. You don't. So you're not a parahuman. Quod erat demonstratum."

"Nice Latin."

"Thanks." The girl gave her a small smile. "But what I mean is, all the tests for a parahuman ultimately end up revolving around those structures in the brain. No one I have ever heard of has _not_ had them and still had parahuman powers. If they're damaged or destroyed, all sorts of weird things happen to the parahuman, from total loss of their ability to losing control of it completely. It's the key to the whole thing, although as far as I know no one has the slightest idea how or why, or why only some people have the structures in the first place. The Corona is present in a significant fraction of the population, twenty to thirty percent or so, and it seems to mark people who _could_ Trigger as parahumans. The Gemma shows that they _have_ Triggered."

"And I don't have either… Interesting."

"Exactly. Without them, you're not, technically, a parahuman at all. I don't know what you _are_ , but according to the PRT tests, you wouldn't pass them."

"I told you, I'm a half demon. Or something." Taylor grinned at the healer, who rolled her eyes but smiled back.

"You'd confuse the fuck out of any DNA test," Amy laughed. "They would either not show anything at all if they were the traditional biochemical tests since whatever the hell you have in place of it doesn't use any of the same amino acids and none of the normal enzymes would have any effect, or just come up with bizarre results if they were done in a different way. I still can't believe how much information your equivalent of DNA must encode. Quad helix, at least twenty different amino acid equivalents that can combine in base quads… Not to mention that what seems to be chromosomes, or your version of them, are huge and you've got at least eighty of them compared to the normal human forty-six. The sheer amount of data storage capacity in the molecules makes normal DNA look like a toy."

She seemed awed.

"There's massive redundancy built into it as well, wildly more than normal DNA has. Transcription errors must be non-existent. But my power can't make anything more than that out of it. When I try I just get a headache. I guess it simply doesn't have the context for something from another universe or wherever your ' _Varga_ ' comes from." She sighed slightly. "It's kind of annoying. I can't do anything with it directly."

"Directly?" Taylor asked, curious about the wording.

Amy looked more cheerful for a moment. "It's still given me some interesting ideas. Even if I can't use that system or affect it, the comparison between you and something sensible is interesting and helpful in understanding what I _can_ affect. That might come in handy at some point. Thanks for letting me look."

"You're welcome, Amy," Taylor smiled. She cocked her head a little, then nodded. "Varga wants to know anything else you know about the parahuman powers and the structures in the brain."

Amy stared for a moment. "He does, does he?"

"Yep. He's really curious about it. In fact, hold on..." She let the demon take over.

"Hello, Amy Dallon. It's nice to talk to you. I have some questions I hope you might be able to answer."

The girl froze, staring in shock, then slowly shuffled away a little on the sofa. She seemed to have no trouble realizing that the change in speech pattern, intonation, and body language denoted that a completely different mind was now talking to her. "Varga?" she said tentatively. Taylor's body nodded, smiling a little, while inside Taylor herself was watching and listening with amused interest.

"Indeed it is. You seem surprised."

"It's one thing being told that someone who is becoming a friend has a demon living inside her. It's something entirely else to actually talk to that demon," Amy quavered, staring wide-eyed. "But for some reason I believe it. Even more than I did just now. Sorry, it took me by surprise."

She seemed to relax a little, while the Varga waited patiently until she was looking less like she wanted to hide under the sofa. "OK. Go on. You have some questions?"

"I do. Can you explain in as much detail as possible the actions of these structures in your brain, as you understand them, please? And if possible I'd like to see a demonstration of your ability while I watch what is happening to your brain."

Seeming somewhat confused, but now very interested, Amy nodded slowly, then began talking.

* * *

When Danny entered the house, putting his briefcase down on the floor then taking his coat off and hanging it up, he could hear laughter from the living room. Sticking his head around the door he grinned at the sight of his daughter, currently more or less human, although with a reptilian head that wasn't one he'd seen before, showing off a tall crest of bright red feathers like something from an outsize cockatoo. Amy was watching as she raised and lowered it, laughing like an idiot. Both of them turned to look at him as he cleared his throat.

"I'm home, Taylor," he said, somewhat unnecessarily.

"Are you?" she asked cheerily. "Yes… Yes, I can see you there. Great."

"You know you heard my car coming from the other end of the street at least," he chuckled. She shrugged, an expression he recognized as a smile as performed by a lizard of some sort crossing her face. Amused, he reflected on the odd way he could now read totally inhuman faces with ease, something that if someone had ever asked him about six weeks ago he'd have simply stared at them blankly.

"Why the feathers?" he asked curiously.

"I suggested this as a ' _hairstyle_ ' for Saurial during the first experiments, Danny," the Varga replied for her, making him shake his head a little. He noticed with interest that Amy didn't seem surprised at the change in demeanor of his daughter.

"And you thought it was hysterical, didn't you?" the girl said in her normal voice.

"It was, Brain. Very funny. It still is."

"Says you."

"Amy seems to think so too," the demon noted.

Bemused at the sight of his only daughter arguing with herself in two distinctly different speech styles, Danny sighed a little, meeting Amy's eyes. She shrugged, smiling.

"They've been doing this double act for over an hour," the Dallon girl explained as he came more fully into the room. "It's pretty weird, but funny. Both of them have very odd senses of humor."

"Tell me about it," he laughed. "How are you, Amy? Dealing with the Hebert insanity all right?"

"It sort of grows on you after a while," she giggled. "I'm fine, Mr Hebert."

"Call me Danny, no need to be formal here, Amy. I'm glad you're having fun. I assume from all this that you know more or less everything?" He waved a hand at his daughter who was now on four legs in the middle of the room, experimenting with a variant of the weird riding creature she'd shown him a while ago. They both watched as she cycled through different colors for her scales, ending up on something so psychedelically brilliant it made their eyes hurt.

"I think so, yes," the girl replied, shaking her head while shielding her eyes. "God, Taylor, that's horrible! Green and fluorescent pink on the same body? Never mind the bright purple. You look like a hippy threw up on you after taking some bad LSD."

Craning her head around on her long neck Taylor looked back at herself, then laughed. "OK, I may have got carried away, fair enough."

"Pick one and stick to it, don't mix them," their guest suggested, grinning a little. "If you ran through the middle of the city looking like _that_ half the population would have an epileptic fit on the spot. The rest would puke."

"It's not that bad, is it?" she protested.

Both Danny and Amy nodded simultaneously. "It _is_ pretty awful, dear. It might be good for distracting an opponent if you really want to make them sick, but it's a bit much for normal day to day use."

Resuming her normal base form, Taylor laughed, then replied, "I'll get dinner started. It will be about an hour. Amy? Want to help me prepare the vegetables?"

"Sure," the brunette said, standing up and following her friend into the kitchen. Danny watched them go, smiled to himself, then went upstairs to clean up and change.

A little later, sitting at the table, he took the plate Taylor handed him with a nod of thanks. Amy accepted her own food as well, sniffing appreciatively. "It smells fantastic, Taylor."

"Thanks. Hopefully it tastes as good. It's a recipe from Varga's own world, modified for local ingredients. He says it's pretty close. Dad loves it."

"I still think you should do a recipe book, Varga has taught you at least a couple of dozen so far. All of them are very good and some of them are completely different from anything I've had before," Danny said, reaching for the bowl of vegetables and scooping out some spinach. He offered the two girls some as his daughter propped herself on her tail across from him, next to Amy, who accepted the offered bowl with a smile of thanks.

"When I have time, Dad," Taylor laughed. "We have enough projects for now."

Amy looked curious, but didn't ask, trying the food then nodding in satisfaction. "I have to learn how to make this, it's delicious."

They were silent for a little while, eating, until she suddenly got a look of realization on her face. Fork midway to her mouth, she stared at Taylor, then down at her tail where the end was braced on the floor, before she slapped her forehead with her other hand. "Invisible tail. Damn it. I'm an idiot!"

"What do you mean, Amy?" Taylor asked with a sly smile, still eating.

"It was your damn tail! That's what I tripped over in the cafeteria!" Amy seemed mildly outraged.

Taylor and Danny met each other's eyes and laughed.

"Sorry. It was an accident. School chairs aren't designed for tails, annoyingly enough, and I sort of let it stick out more than I meant to."

"It really hurt, you know," Amy grumbled, going back to eating. "And the nurse was making some very irritating jokes about healer, heal thyself. Thanks a lot."

"Hey, it all worked out in the end, didn't it?" Taylor asked brightly. "I'm pleased with the result anyway."

" _You_ didn't nearly break your fucking nose," the Dallon girl snapped with asperity. Danny chuckled, making her look at him with slight embarrassment. "Sorry."

"Don't worry, we hear worse than that in this house, although I prefer to keep it to a minimum." He smiled at her. "Taylor grew up meeting dockworkers who aren't shy about profanity and often very imaginative. I suspect she's been taking notes for years."

Snickering, Amy glanced at her new friend, who met her eyes with an amused look but neither confirmed or denied the idea. "Somehow I could believe that," she said, grinning. "I get the impression that Taylor has a habit of remembering everything she hears. She seems to know a lot about all sorts of weird subjects."

"Varga has taught me a hell of a lot in a short time," Taylor smiled, "but I have a very good memory as well. Mom always told me to learn from anything I did, good or bad. Information is power as the saying goes. She was very smart and very patient."

"It obviously runs in the family," Amy giggled. After another few bites, she added quietly, "I'm glad we met even if you did nearly cripple me for life."

Smirking, Taylor replied, "I doubt a broken nose actually counts as a disability, but I'm glad we met as well."

Danny listened to the two girls talk about quite a few different subjects as the meal progressed, Amy explaining some of what she did in the hospital in general and something of what her abilities were capable of doing. He was quite surprised to realize that she was barely tapping a fraction of what she could really do, apparently out of fear of what might happen or what people would think. He was coming to the conclusion that Carol Dallon was the main reason the girl seemed almost scared of her own power.

Meeting Taylor's eyes at one point, he saw that she already knew this and was also worried for the girl. They had a small conversation via tiny expression changes and glances, until she nodded a little. Turning to the other young woman, he asked quietly, while helping himself to some more of Taylor's work, "Amy, you seem to me to be a very intelligent girl with a very great potential. May I ask why you're so worried about it?"

Amy looked startled, glancing at Taylor for a moment, then looking back to him. "I'm not sure I know what you mean, Danny," she replied after a few slightly uncomfortable seconds.

"Taylor has told me quite a lot about you, as you know she'd very perceptive even leaving the Varga abilities out of it. She's also been through a horrific set of events for nearly two years that came close to killing her, and destroying our family. To her huge credit she managed to overcome that, although again I know full well how much I owe both to Varga and to whoever or whatever sent him to her." He took a sip from his glass of water while the girl watched him warily.

"I recognize something similar in you, I think. I'm not accusing anyone of anything, but I want you to know that if there is anything any of us can do to help you, just ask. I think I speak for Taylor and Varga both when I say that we will help as much as we are able to. Which I think between us is quite a lot."

Amy looked at him with wide eyes, then Taylor, who nodded without saying anything. The girl rubbed her face with a hand, taking the opportunity to discreetly wipe her eyes as far as he could see. "Thank you," she said after a few seconds, her voice a little rough. "That… means a lot."

He just nodded, knowing the subject had been raised and she'd likely open up in her own time. Pushing would only be counter productive.

"Do you have any plans for more high speed riding sessions, then?" he asked lightly, turning to Taylor, who was eyeing the girl next to her with sympathy. His daughter grinned at him, then Amy, who seemed to be thinking.

"No actual plans yet, but I bet it happens again sooner or later," she laughed.

"Several people at work were watching the various videos on PHO," he grinned. "It was quite distracting. You're getting something of a reputation at the DWU in one identity or another."

"How is the project going?" she asked curiously. "Did Roy come through with the money?"

"Yes, I sent him the document he wanted and we had nearly half a million dollars in under two hours," he replied, satisfied. "So far about a third of it has been spent, but we've managed to buy almost all the equipment we need for the initial stages of the work. Luckily for us, there are a fair number of companies going under at the moment and we've been taking advantage of that mercilessly. Over the next few days there's going to be several container-loads of gear turning up, enough to keep us functional for years even if this doesn't come off to plan. But I doubt that will happen."

Danny leaned back, having finished his dinner. "Thank you, dear, that was wonderful as usual. You are a very good cook among all your other skills. Annette would, once again, have been very pleased."

"Thanks, Dad," she said quietly. Amy looked at her, then him, before also smiling a little, seeming to have perked up after the slightly depressed thoughtful appearance she'd fallen into a few minutes ago. He got the impression, both from what Taylor had told him, and the Varga as well, and from meeting the girl, that she was very bright but wasn't getting as much out of life as she needed to keep her mind active and healthy.

Hopefully a friendship between the two of them would help both. Although, he felt certain, Brockton Bay was going to have a slightly weird time of it.

"What is this project you keep talking about, if you don't mind me asking?" Amy said, looking very curious.

Danny studied her for a few seconds. "Taylor trusts you, so I will as well. But, and this is important, you can't tell anyone yet. The Mayor will make it public soon enough but up to that point we need to keep things quiet, OK?"

She nodded. "I can keep a secret, believe me. I won't tell anyone."

"All right." He explained the whole scheme, from Taylor's original idea, through the meetings with Roy, all the way up to the night-time meeting with Kaiju, while Taylor quietly moved around clearing the table and wiping down the stove. Amy listened intently, appearing very interested. When he finished, she stared at him for a little while then looked at Taylor who had sat down next to him.

"Fuck me," she finally said, shaking her head in amazement. "You two are practically single-handedly rebuilding the economy of the city."

"It's hardly single-handed, there are a lot of people involved in the project, and there will be a lot more by the time it's working to plan," he smiled, "but I will agree that without Taylor it wouldn't even have got started. Luckily it was a case of the right people in the right place at the right time, and we have a Mayor who is not only unusually smart and honest for a politician, but genuinely wants to do something for the city he's responsible for, rather than simply profit from it one way or another like so many people in his position do." He shrugged a little. "I have no doubt he will profit from it anyway, but that's not the primary motivation, so I don't mind. We'll profit as well, both the Hebert family personally and the DWU as a whole."

"It's going to totally change the way the city works," Amy thought out loud. "The gangs practically run large chunks of it, but if you give a lot of the poorer people jobs and something to lose..." Her eyes widened. "You'll remove a hell of a lot of the gang support from the bottom up. The Merchants more than the ABB or E88, but it will hurt them both as well."

Danny nodded. "Yes, that's actually one of the main points. Both Roy and I think that if we can reduce poverty in the city, the knock-on effects will be profound. Probably quite fast. A lot of the drug addicts in the city are in that state because of hopelessness. Even at a sensible minimum wage they'd be able to drag themselves out of the gutter, train for better jobs, earn more money..." He shrugged. "The problem eventually solves itself without anyone having to go round and beat sense into them."

"I doubt Skidmark and his crew will sit idly by and allow that to happen, though," she said doubtfully.

"That is unfortunately a likely source of trouble," he noted, glancing at Taylor, who was now wearing a small evil grin. "But I expect we can talk a certain amount of sense into them. One way or another."

She looked at him for a long moment, then at Taylor, before grinning in a similar manner. "Oh, god, I bet that ' _talk_ ' will be something to see."

All three of them chuckled at the mental picture they each got.

"Why do I suddenly think I'm sitting at a table with the two currently most important people in Brockton Bay?" the healer asked with an amused look, studying them both.

Danny exchanged a glance with his daughter, then both of the simultaneously replied, "No idea."

"I see where she gets it from," Amy giggled.

The trio fell into a companionable silence for a little while. Eventually, she sighed slightly. "Thank you for a really nice time," she said. "I've enjoyed it more than I expected to. Meeting you, Taylor, despite the pain and sheer terror, was probably a good thing." She looked up at them from where she'd been studying her hands, clasped on the table in front of her. "I don't have a lot of fun most of the time. Especially at home."

"I suspected that was the case," he replied. "You're always welcome here if you want to get away from things."

"Thanks."

"You also need to stop working at the hospital so much," Taylor put in. "Even _they_ say so. Find something else to do. Get a hobby. One that takes you out of the house, not just leaves you in your room reading a book. I've been there, it gets very tedious after a while, but it's the easy option so you can sort of get trapped into it and not realize for a long time what's going on."

Danny put his hand on his daughters head and patted it as he got up, moving to put the kettle on for some coffee. "She's right, Amy. When you're not doing so well, you tend to fall into bad habits, ones that can go on for years if you don't somehow get broken out of them. It eats away at you from the inside until something snaps, or someone or something manages to pull you out of it. My wife's death had that effect on me, I'm sorry to say. I missed a lot of what was going on with Taylor because of it, something I'm still guilty about. Luckily we managed to recover with some help from friends. I'd advise trying not to fall into that trap yourself if you can."

Having filled the kettle he turned it on, then turned around to see both girls listening to him. "I don't know your situation but I can easily recognize the symptoms. You lack something in your life. Figure out what that is and you're half-way to fixing the problem."

"I know what it is," Amy muttered, looking depressed again. Taylor glanced at him, then back at the other girl. Both Heberts waited.

"You know I'm adopted, right?" The Dallon girl met his eyes. He nodded.

"I thought that was likely, although I wasn't completely certain. You don't look anything like either Carol or Mark Dallon from the pictures I've seen of them, or Victoria."

"Taylor worked it out as well," Amy said. "I've known for a long time, although no one has ever really sat down with me and said as much. Vicky's aware of it, we've talked about it for years, but neither one of us really cares. She can be a pain and she's so headstrong sometimes it makes me want to scream, but she's my sister and I love her, blood relation or not." She seemed almost defiant about this fact.

"I understand. It speaks well of you."

"I don't know who my birth parents were for sure," the girl went on, "but I have a few ideas. I'm almost certain that my father was a villain. I think I'm a second generation cape. I also think that Carol is so worried I might take after him that she's convinced herself I'm only one bad day away from trying to take over the city. Some of the things she's said, especially when she doesn't know I can hear her..." She shrugged a little. "Let's say it left an impression on a young girl."

Danny felt a degree of anger. He had a pretty good idea of what she wasn't saying, having read a lot about New Wave and Carol Dallon in particular over the years. Her heroic attitude, and that of her family team, was laudable but he'd formed the opinion some time ago that she saw the world in a very us and them way. Annette had thought so as well and had been somewhat disapproving of the super-heroine as a result. He could well imagine the way someone like that might, probably without even consciously doing it, raise the adopted child of a villain, or indeed anyone who wasn't fully on the side of law and order. It didn't paint a very nice picture.

"I see," was all he actually said after thinking the situation over. Looking at Taylor, who he could see was having an internal conversation with her demonic companion as she listened, he thought she'd already worked all this out.

"The problem is really that the power I have isn't… well, it isn't a nice family friendly one like Vicky has, or the rest of the family. They're all proper superheros, Brutes and Blasters and things like that. Nice, PR friendly and flashy powers that run in the family. Me, I'm a messy biological Striker, who can do things that make people instantly think of that asshole Nilbog. Or Blasto, although he's so incompetent he's more of a threat to himself than anyone else. But I can heal like nobody's business, as a side effect, so I sort of got gently pushed in that direction." Amy sighed as he listened curiously. "I don't even know if anyone else actually realizes how little of my power I use for that. It's just the tip of the iceberg, so to speak. But it's all I _dare_ do, because of all the horrible things that I _could_ do."

"Hmm." He turned back to the kettle as it boiled, quickly preparing some coffee for himself. After a moment's thought, he made two cups of hot chocolate as well, handing each girl one.

"Thanks, Dad," Taylor said softly, sipping hers, her heat insensitivity allowing her to drink the nearly boiling liquid with every sign of enjoyment. Amy stared for a moment then shook her head with a look of mild envy.

Sitting down again, he added some sugar, then stirred the coffee slowly, studying the Dallon girl.

"You're worried that your mother is right and you'll go bad and end up creating a plague that kills everyone, or something like that?" he finally asked.

She nodded.

"With all due respect that's ridiculous," he sighed. Testing his coffee, he put it down again to cool for a little longer. "Sure, some criminal behavior is sort of inherited. People can basically be born bad. I've known a few like that over the years, proper psychopaths who saw the world as merely something that was there for them to use. But that's rare. Most criminals end up being criminals because of bad upbringing, desperation, poverty, or stupidity and laziness from what I've seen. It's often a gradual thing as well, one bad decision after another until they're stuck. _You_ have obviously had a good upbringing, your family is fairly well off and you're not hurting for money, and one thing I'm absolutely sure of is that you're the exact opposite of either lazy or stupid. There's no reason I can see for you to end up on the wrong side of the law except for either very bad luck or deliberate choice."

The girl watched him silently, taking a small sip of her own drink now it was cool enough.

"Your healing has benefited a very large number of people and got you a reputation that's known world-wide for good reasons, which is something that you can and should be proud of. But don't let it define you. You, Amy Dallon, are more than just Panacea the best healer in the world. You could stop healing tomorrow and you'd still be Amy. She seems like a nice girl to me, intelligent and with an interesting outlook on life. Don't get trapped into one role just out of fear. Respect your abilities, use them responsibly, but don't let other people's expectations drive you into a shell you might never come out of. That's not healthy and may not end well."

Danny smiled. "That's my take on it, anyway. You can ignore the crazy old man if you want, but I've seen some good people end up stuck because they were afraid to take a leap of faith and believe in their own abilities. People who had a lot less potential than you do."

"You're not scared of what I could do?" Amy asked after a moment.

"Not really. Sure, you could probably make something that would wipe out the city in minutes. Powers are terrifying like that. But Taylor could erase the entire place at least as fast, half a dozen militaries around the world including ours could do it in seconds, we could even get hit by an asteroid and wiped out. Or, more likely, an Endbringer, although I sure hope we never get one here. The key thing is, do I think you're _likely_ to wipe out the city? To which the answer is obviously no." He grinned for a moment. "Except by accident, which is why I said use your abilities responsibly."

She smiled a little. "The PRT probably wouldn't see it that way if they really knew what I could do."

He sighed slightly, nodding. "I know, but they're basically professionally paranoid. It's their _job_ to think of the worst case and plan for it. The problem with that outlook on life is that a lot of the time you start assuming the worst is inevitable and over-react to something before it even happens. From what I've heard, Director Piggot is prone to that for some reason, more than a lot of people would be. For all that I think at heart she's a person who means well. Even if she's hard to like."

"Oh, that much is true," Amy replied with a sudden grin. "I've met her quite a few times. She doesn't like parahumans at all."

"Not the best attitude for someone in her position," he noted.

"Not really. But I'm also told she's very smart and very competent. Even people who don't like her, which is most of them, at least respect her."

"Roy mentioned much the same thing the other day," Danny laughed. "He's looking forward to introducing Kaiju to her."

"An eighty-foot tall Godzilla light?" Amy burst out laughing as Taylor grinned. "She's going to freak out. _Please_ let me be there to see it."

"Of course," his daughter snickered. "Several people I know want to watch her reaction."

"You could probably sell tickets for it," Amy replied, smiling widely. Danny noted she seemed to have cheered up quite a bit after the somewhat morose look while they were discussing her home life. He got the impression she blanked a lot of her personality off much of the time for various reasons and was very pleased to be able to let herself relax in present company. Wondering how many actual friends the girl really had he sat and listened as they talked again, smiling to himself.


	51. Videos and Costumes

Hearing laughter again, Danny finished the document he'd been editing in his office, closed it, then got up to see what the two girls were doing now. He found that Taylor had brought her laptop down and had connected it to the TV, on which she was showing some of the more entertaining videos she'd recorded as Saurial and Raptaur. He entered the room and sat down, watching with amusement and mild horror, while Amy rolled around laughing herself sick.

"God, if you post these on PHO people will refuse to go out when it's dark entirely," the girl giggled, lifting her head to watch as Saurial went after some ABB in a shop, the stark terror on the faces of the gang members wondrous to behold when they looked up to see the lizard-girl only feet away grinning at them.

"I haven't seen this one before, Taylor," he said curiously as the clip finished. She glanced over at him, smiling.

"It was late on the night I stopped Hookwolf, when I was establishing some sort of alibi. On the way home I found these idiots ransacking a convenience store so I went in after them. They seemed surprised."

"Totally terrified, I'd say," he corrected her, making her snicker.

"One or the other, definitely. Or maybe both."

"I didn't know you wore the camera as Raptaur as well," Amy said, recovering a little and sitting up.

"I always wear it when I'm out, but when I'm Raptaur, it's pretty hard to see," Taylor replied. "It goes on my head between my eyes, with the shape of my head in that form it's about the only place it fits properly, and the harness we make for it is matched in color and texture to my scales. Not to mention that my scales are nearly black as well, the camera is black, and it's usually at night. About all you can see is the lens poking out if you look carefully."

She shrugged a little. "It wasn't a deliberate attempt to hide it, just make it discreet, but it worked better than we thought. No one seems to see it. You didn't even notice me putting it on."

"Did you record that ride home, then?" Amy asked curiously.

"Yep. Hold on..." His daughter poked around on the laptop for a moment, until she found the file she was after, then played it. He watched, laughing nearly as hard as Amy was, as they got a Taylor's-eye view of the most extraordinary charge through and over the city he'd ever seen.

"Look!" Amy pointed, grinning manically. "I _knew_ I saw that Max Anders asshole looking out the window when we went up the side of the Medhall building."

Taylor rewound the file a little, pausing it on a frame that showed the CEO of Medhall Pharmaceuticals staring in shock as they went past, a glass of something half-way to his mouth, having apparently been surprised in looking out at the skyline. He seemed more than a little startled based on his expression. All three of them laughed.

"Sounds like you don't much like him, Amy," Danny noted, making the girl look at him, then back at the screen.

"I don't. I couldn't tell you why except that he's the smoothest talking bastard I've ever met and makes me want to stick my fist in his face. He gets on my nerves for some reason."

"I've never met him but that's not the first time I've heard something similar," he smiled. "You're in good company. The Mayor doesn't like him either."

Resuming playing the file, Taylor sat back and let it run. A little longer and Amy was snickering again. "Look at the expression on the face of that little kid in the car on the right," she said, pointing. "That was when you stopped for the red light. He looks like he's seen the best toy ever. If his eyes were any wider he'd need medical intervention."

Both Heberts laughed at the comment and the expression of the boy, who appeared to be about six, and was indeed staring in amazement and what looked like envy. Raptaur looked directly at him, the boy after a moment grinning widely while his mother, who was driving the car, looked over at some sound he must have made, followed his eyes, and flinched violently.

The lights changed, his daughter's alter ego waved to the boy, a large scaled hand coming into camera view, then looked forward as she accelerated away from the junction at high speed, easily outpacing any of the cars. Danny shook his head in wonder.

"You made his night, I think," he chuckled.

"And made sure his mother wouldn't sleep a wink," Amy added.

"Maybe we should run rides on the weekend at the Boardwalk," Taylor suggested with a look of glee. "Five dollars for a run around the block, twenty for a run _over_ it..."

Amy started giggling again, while Danny sighed slightly, looking at them both with fond amusement. It seemed that the Dallon girl had relaxed a hell of a lot in the last few hours, which he was pleased about, but he had a terrible feeling that she wasn't actually going to affect his daughter's weird sense of humor and practical jokes.

After a moment, considering the idea, he reached a different conclusion. That wasn't exactly the right idea. It was more than likely that she _would_ affect Taylor's sense of the absurd, probably by joining in given half a chance. The two girls were now discussing how many rides per hour Raptaur could run and whether Amy should give medical checkups first to make sure the customer didn't have a heart condition.

"Girls, while it's very amusing, it might be best to start slowly," he put in, making them look at him, then each other.

"I was planning to, Dad, or they'd fall off," Taylor replied in a reasonable tone of voice. "If I just go for it I'd run right out from under them."

"That's not exactly what I mean and you well know it, dear," he sighed, shaking his head sadly and making her grin at him.

They watched some more SaurialVision episodes, until Amy sighed a little when the last one finished. "I'm actually jealous," she said, sitting up on the sofa from where she'd been comfortably lying and watching the TV. On the floor, Taylor turned around and looked at her, as did Danny. "You seem to have so much fun with your abilities. More fun than should be legal, actually. A lot of capes like using their powers but it's normally sort of destructive, like you mentioned, but even a lot of _them_ don't seem to find the entire thing so entertaining as you obviously do. I can't do anything like that. My power is just scary in most ways. It's sort of depressing."

She looked at Taylor who was listening with a sympathetic expression. "I know you have some terrifying abilities as well, like being able to blow entire islands away, or probably eat anything that gets in the way, or even pick it up and throw it over the horizon, but you don't let that stop you from enjoying life like no one else I know." She sighed again. "I wish I could do something interesting."

"Why can't you?" Taylor asked. "Your power is amazingly versatile. Like you said, the healing is a tiny part of it. A very important part for other people, true, and as Dad said something you should be proud of, but you can do other things as well. Surely that gives some possibility of having fun."

"How?" Amy asked, shrugging helplessly. "The PRT would go fucking _nuts_ if I starting making new life forms, that triggers their ' _Oh, shit, Nilbog V2.0_ ' detectors like you wouldn't believe. The restrictions on what Biotinkers can do are insane. It pretty much eliminates most of it. I'm not really a Biotinker, quite, but..."

"Nilbog really pissed in the pool as far as you're concerned, didn't he?" Taylor smiled.

Amy gave her an acid look. "Just a little."

"Want me to go and erase his entire town from existence for you? Would that cheer you up, Amy?" the other girl asked, getting up and sitting next to her friend then putting an arm over her shoulders. "I'll do it, if you want. Because it's you."

"You're an idiot, Taylor," Amy snickered after a sudden wide-eyed look. Taylor grinned.

"Better. Stay happy."

Releasing the other girl, she slid along the sofa to lean against one of the arms, her feet up on the seat and her tail wrapped around them with the end twitching back and forth. "I may have to do something about him one day, but I'm not planning on that right now. But back to you. We must be able to think of something you can do using your power that would be both fun and useful."

"The real problem is that I can't affect myself with it," Amy sighed despondently. "That would give so many possibilities. Not to mention make healing myself something I could do. Right now I'm just a squishy meatbag who could be crushed flat by any brute you can name, or even a normal person. It makes me feel a little vulnerable." She considered her own words, then added, "More than a little."

Inspecting Taylor on the other end of the sofa, she went on, "You're at the stupidly invulnerable end of the scale, true, but take Vicky for an example. You can hit her with basically anything and it will only knock her through the nearest wall. Eric, my cousin, can make force fields that are almost as tough, as can several of the family. The ones that can't can either do what Mom does, or something else that makes them hard to hurt without a lot of effort. I'm the least effective and the most easily damaged. No wonder they want me to stay back where it's safe. Safeish, anyway."

"Do you actually want to be in the middle of the action, Amy?" Danny asked after a moment.

She shook her head a little. "Not really, not like that," she sighed, "but it would be nice to know I could if I had to. Or even just didn't have to worry about ending up dead because of some idiot with a gun. Or a brick in a sock."

"As Panacea, I suspect if anyone actually tried that, they'd find every cape in the area avenging you on the spot," Taylor commented. "I know you've healed villains as well as heroes at Endbringer fights, and also that they respect you for that. Very few parahumans would ever think about hurting you deliberately even without the Rules."

"True, I guess," Amy replied after a thoughtful look at her friend. "But there are still lots of other stupid violent people out there who can't think things through. You know that, you keep terrifying them."

Taylor smirked, nodding. "My bread and butter, those idiots," she laughed. Growing more pensive, she inspected Amy for a few seconds. "Is your costume armored?" she asked slowly.

"No. It's just ordinary cloth."

Danny exchanged a glance with his daughter, who looked irritated. "For god's sake, that's stupid. Do you have it with you?"

Appearing startled, Amy nodded, looking around for a moment, then pointing across the room. "It's in my backpack over there."

"Get it."

The healer got up and retrieved the backpack, opening it and pulling out a neatly folded bundle of white cloth, which she laid out on the sofa to reveal the familiar Panacea costume. Taylor felt it between finger and thumb, scowling. "This is only cotton or something. Nicely made, but no protection at all."

She went into an inner discussion with the Varga, both Amy and Danny recognizing the expression and exchanging a glance. After a minute or so, she nodded. "OK, let's at least sort that out." Picking up the white robe she stood, shaking it out, then examining it closely. "Hmm." Putting it down on the floor she carefully straightened the garment out, flattening the wrinkles then staring at it for a while. Holding out her hands she was suddenly holding an apparent perfect duplicate of the thing, which was clearly not made of ordinary cloth by the way it hung from her hands.

"Too heavy," she mumbled, feeling the new robe. Amy stared at her friend, her eyebrows raised.

"What the hell are you doing?" she asked, fascinated.

"Making you a costume that won't get you killed if something goes wrong," Taylor replied absently, studying her work. The thing disappeared again, being replaced with another attempt a few seconds later. "No, too stiff." She shook it, the cloth not bending in a very normal fashion. "She'll never be able to sit down with this on, you great reptilian idiot," the girl mumbled to herself, making the others smile.

The new one disappeared again. Walking around the original on the floor, she tapped her chin, apparently talking to the Varga again, before nodding. "That should work."

The third attempt appeared in her hands. This looked on the face of it identical to the one lying on the floor. Examining the costume, Taylor smiled. "Now this is more like it." She hefted the cloth, nodding to herself, then handed it to Amy, who took it gingerly. "See how this feels," she instructed.

"It's heavier than my normal one," Amy commented. "Not too much, but enough to notice."

"Yes, it's lined with a very thin layer of Vargastuff, which is really dense," Taylor pointed out. "It's like extremely fine chain mail. The material itself can't be bent, it's totally rigid, but making it into that form allows it to act like normal cloth. But there's no way any normal bullet or knife will ever penetrate it even at that thickness." She smiled a little. "It might not stand up to something like a naval gun or anything that sort of size, but the shock wave from the explosion would kill you first anyway, so who cares?"

"Very reassuring," Amy replied with a small smile, shaking her head. Detaching the removable hood she tried it on. "Fits perfectly," she added. A moment later she was wearing the rest of the costume over her clothes. "It feels a little heavier across my shoulders but nothing I can't handle."

Taylor walked around her, checking the fit, while Danny watched with amusement and a degree of pride. "That looks just like your normal one, no one will be able to tell the difference," she announced with a smile. "Great." She handed her friend the scarf which appeared in her hands, finishing the Panacea look. Amy took it and wrapped it around the lower part of her face, then held her arms out to her sides.

"How do I look?" she asked.

"Like Panacea," Taylor smirked. "Now, let's test it." Before Amy could react she was holding a long shiny knife which she proceeded to stab her friend in the center of the chest with quite hard, provoking a yelp followed by a string of obscenities that made Danny rather impressed. His daughter grinned.

"Seems to work," she commented. Amy glared at her.

"For fuck's sake, don't scare me like that!" she snarled.

"You're fine, Amy. Look at the knife!" Taylor held up a bent blade. "Not a mark on the costume. Or you."

"I felt the impact but it wasn't too bad," the other girl replied, taking the knife and looking at it with awe in her eyes. "I wouldn't have thought it was hard enough to do this." Experimentally heaving on the blade she looked impressed when it didn't bend back very much.

"The weave of the little segments of the armor cloth lock together under hard impact and spread the force over a larger area," Taylor explained, smiling. "It was Varga's idea and design. I'm glad it works so well. You should find that a handgun bullet is only like someone hitting you moderately hard and a rifle bullet should only knock you down at worst. The kinetic energy of even a fairly high speed bullet isn't much more than a really hard punch, it's all that force concentrated in a small area that does the damage."

"Very impressive, Taylor," Danny said with an approving nod. "Perhaps you should offer this sort of thing to other capes. Or even the police. It's better and lighter than normal body armor."

His daughter looked thoughtfully at him. "Good idea. Would the DWU be interested in a marketing opportunity?"

Laughing, he considered the idea for a moment. "I'll look into it. That might be a way to proceed. But you could save a lot of lives with something like this, I suspect. Especially considering that you can make it for nothing."

"It wouldn't be much good against fire, though, it conducts heat so well it would be dangerous," she pointed out. "But I can certainly make it as normal clothing, that's easy if I have a pattern to copy. I was thinking about something like this a few days ago, I was going to make you a new coat that was armored." She smiled at him. "Your birthday is in a couple of weeks."

"Thank you, I'd like that," he replied, before turning to look at Amy, who was poking herself with the bent knife experimentally. "I can get a crowbar from the basement and hit you with it if it would help, Amy," he said, grinning.

The girl gave him a darkly amused look, handing the knife back to Taylor who made it go away. "You have such a nice way of handling guests in the Hebert household," she remarked with a sarcastic tone in her voice, making him chuckle. "No, thanks for the offer but I think I'll decline." Looking at Taylor who was now bouncing a baseball bat in one palm, she put her hands up defensively, stepping back. "I said no. You proved your point."

The inquisitive look his daughter was wearing turned sad, then she laughed.

"You're taking all the fun out of it now."

"You are a very strange person, Taylor Hebert," Amy laughed. "But thank you for the new costume."

"You're welcome, Amy," Taylor replied happily. "I wouldn't want to lose someone just after becoming friends with them." Amy smiled, taking the new costume off again and folding it up. "It'll last practically forever, the material is permanent," Taylor continued, watching the process. "You can wash it normally although I think dirt will have a hard time sticking to it." Amy nodded, putting the Varga created material away, then looking at her original costume on the floor, then her backpack. It clearly wouldn't fit.

"Here." Taylor offered her another backpack, a duplicate of the one she normally took to school. "Put it in this."

Shortly the old costume was packed away as well. "That should help, anyway," Taylor mused, studying her friend. "But you still need something else."

Danny watched Amy's face, the girl looking somewhat surprised by the current subject, yet also oddly grateful. He was thinking that it might actually be the first time anyone had ever looked into making her safer, which was a little worrying. "How about a collapsible baton like the one you gave me?" he suggested, thinking back to the small cylinder he always carried in his coat pocket these days. Taylor glanced at him, brightening up.

"That's probably better than a knife," she nodded. "OK." Holding out her hand she offered the baton that appeared on it, a duplicate of the one she'd given him, to Amy, who hesitantly picked it up and looked at it.

"I have no idea how to use one of these," the healer admitted.

"It's not too difficult, Amy," Danny said, getting up and going over to the two girls. He lifted the device out of her hand and showed her how to hold it. "Look, give it a sharp flick like this…," he did the relevant action, the extensible sections snapping out cleanly with a faint click, "and it's ready for use. You can just hit someone with it, obviously, or use it more elegantly." Motioning to Taylor, who obligingly came closer, the Dallon girl moving off to the side and watching closely, he demonstrated, knowing there was no way he could hurt his daughter. "Come at me with a knife," he told her. "Slowly, so Amy can watch."

"OK, Dad," she replied, looking curious herself. Raising a hand which now had a six inch knife in it, the blade obviously blunt, she slowly swung it at him. He snapped the baton out, tapping her wrist in a couple of spots in a manner that would have made a normal human instantly drop the weapon.

"See, this nerve cluster here, you hit it fairly hard and they're definitely going to lose the knife. Hit the elbow right here and the entire arm goes dead, it hurts like hell. Then, you stick the baton here, grab over here on the shoulder and twist, then..." He demonstrated, Taylor going along with it, to end up with her right arm twisted up behind her back with the baton pressed against the back of her neck. "It gives a surprising amount of control of the other person. Cops are taught how to do this and a lot more. I can show you quite a bit myself and there are people at the DWU who are experts in this sort of thing."

Amy nodded slowly, studying them as he repeated the action very slowly for her benefit, then showed her a couple more basic stick combat moves. "I'm not even close to an expert but I know a few useful tricks. Against someone who isn't expecting it, it's pretty effective."

"And if I can't do that, I just whack them with it until they fall over," she noted with a grin.

"That works," he nodded, smiling. "You are one of the few people who could probably get away with that, since you can fix most of what you break." That amused her quite a lot judging by her expression.

"I can show you some interesting close quarter combat moves if you want," Taylor offered when he'd released her and stepped back, collapsing the baton with a quick press of the lock and a push against his other hand, then handing it to the healer. "My system is really designed for someone with a tail, it's used in a lot of the moves either directly or for balance, but quite a lot of it should be easy enough to learn." She smiled at Amy. "You don't have a tail, you poor thing, but we'll work around that."

Chuckling, Amy sat down again, holding the baton in one hand and feeling the surface of it with her thumb. "I think I'd like that," she said after thinking it over. "Thanks. Again. No one has ever offered me training in fighting."

"You should know how to defend yourself if nothing else," Taylor replied firmly, also sitting. "You never know."

"True," Amy sighed. "Very true." Looking down at the baton she was holding, she tried the flick Danny had demonstrating, smiling when on the second try she managed to make the thing extend. "Cool."

"Press the button there on the end then push on it to close it," Danny pointed out, which she did. After flicking it open then closing it a few times, she put it in her pocket.

"I'd be pleased to learn anything you can teach me," she said, looking between them both. "I think it would be fun."

"So do I," Taylor smiled. After a moment, though, she frowned a little. "But we still need to work out how you can use your power for something interesting. Ideally without making the PRT nuke the city."

"That would be best," Amy replied deadpan. Both girls exchanged a look, then smiled.

Danny had been thinking for a while about what Amy had told them about how her power worked. Now he looked at her. "You say your power can't affect you, right? Only everyone else?"

"Except her, yes," Amy nodded, indicating Taylor who grinned. "And Alexandria, I know that, and probably a few other capes who don't register as organic any more. But basically any normal living thing, I can do all sorts of things with."

"I see." He studied her. "This may be too obvious, but can you _make_ something that can affect you?"

The girl looked somewhat startled. "What do you mean?"

"Well, to take a simple example, a normal human can't fly. But humans can make machines which fly and use those to get the same effect. Can you make some sort of organism that can either… I don't know, reflect your power, maybe, or just has a built in ability to affect you? Could that be a workaround for your limitation?"

"No, that's..." Amy stopped, looking intrigued, while Taylor and Danny watched her. "Surely that wouldn't..." She trailed off again, clearly thinking hard. "Holy shit," she finally whispered, her eyes wide, after nearly a minute. "That's so crazy it might actually work."

Looking around the room, she quickly said, "I need something small and alive. A plant or something."

"Hold on," Taylor told her, getting up and disappearing into the kitchen, to reappear with an onion bulb, one that had been in the cupboard for a while and had suddenly made a bid for freedom a day or two ago, sprouting a long green leaf out of the top, probably triggered by the warming weather. "Will this do?"

"Yes. Do you have any more?" Amy requested, taking it from her and studying it. Shortly she had the rest of the bag of wrinkled and tired looking onions. Both Heberts watched as she held them all in her cupped hands, staring at them in a way that made it clear she wasn't paying any attention to the other people present.

A few seconds passed, then the onions… _melted._ There was no other word that really described what happened. Danny stared, glancing at Taylor who was watching with great interest. He suspected the Varga was as well.

The puddle of plant protoplasm in the healer's hands quivered a little, contracting into a ball, then slowly changing shape into a flat lozenge-shaped thing about three inches across by half that wide and maybe a quarter of an inch thick. The color fluctuated for a while, settling down to a dull gray-white, like horn or bone. Amy blinked, apparently coming back from wherever she'd been, then slowly smiled.

"Wow," she mumbled, holding the thing up and looking closely at it.

"What is it?" Danny asked, fascinated.

"If I did it right, it's a healing parasite," she replied absently, turning it over and inspecting the other side.

"A healing… _parasite?_ " he asked with a certain amount of shock. "What the hell is that?"

The girl turned to him and grinned. "My first real bit of biotinkering, I hope," she laughed. "This is a little organism that attaches to a host then lives off it, but at the same time fixes anything that's wrong with it. It's more of a symbiote, really, it does what it can to keep the host in perfect condition, because it dies if the host does."

He stared, then looked at his daughter, who was looking very surprised and very pleased. "Really?" he asked with shock in his voice. The implications were staggering. "Does it have any limitations?"

"Oh, yes, lots of them," she replied, shrugging. "It's a first attempt. But I'm pretty sure it will work, my power agrees, and it should fix a lot of problems like broken bones, traumatic injury, infection, quite a few diseases, that sort of thing. I'm going to have to think about how to improve it. But your idea was brilliant. It opens up all sorts of possibilities."

"Glad to help," he mumbled, still somewhat shocked at how quickly she'd implemented what was just a sudden wild idea.

"I need to test this," she said after a moment, turning the little creature in her hand over again. Taylor leaned forward, seeming worried.

"Is that a good idea?" she asked.

Amy sighed, shrugging. "If it doesn't work, it's programmed to self destruct without causing harm, so it should be safe enough. But I need to know."

Glancing at Danny, Taylor nodded a little. "OK, I guess," she replied after a moment. He wasn't sure himself but the girl seemed to believe in her own ability and she was the one who would know. After everything they'd talked about, and her clear wish to actually use her power for something other than hospital work, he could hardly suggest that she forget it.

Taking a deep breath, Amy put the underside of the small biological construct on the top of her right wrist, then pressed firmly. It emitted a faint squeak. A moment later so did she. "Ooh, that tingles," she muttered, staring at the thing. They watched as it seemed to slowly merge with her skin, taking on the same tone and coloration, until it was barely visible and then only if you looked for it. She shuddered all over, shaking her head. "Ick. What a weird feeling."

"What's it doing?" Taylor asked with some concern in her voice.

"Linking into my vascular and neural systems," Amy replied in a low voice, apparently only half-listening. "It's a bit painful. I'll need to work on that..." She trailed off, winced a couple of times, stiffened all over, then slowly relaxed. "Ow. _Definitely_ need to work on that." Opening her eyes she smiled at them somewhat ruefully. "That hurt. But it's connected to me now."

"What next?" Taylor asked curiously.

"Got a knife?"

His daughter stared at her friend for a moment, then handed her a small, extremely sharp knife she hadn't been holding until that moment. "Sure."

"Thanks."

Taking the implement in her right hand, Amy raised the left one, looked at it, took a deep breath, then quickly cut the end of her index finger, the insanely sharp blade parting the skin effortlessly and blood immediately welling up.

"Owww, that stings!" the girl warbled, dropping the knife and grabbing her left wrist to hold her hand still, managing not to shake it. Taylor quickly put a Varga-provided towel under it to catch the blood which dropped from the abused digit.

All three of them stared at her bleeding finger expectantly. After a few seconds, Taylor suggested, "Maybe it doesn't work?"

"No, I can feel it doing something," Amy replied, not taking her eyes off her finger, although she was obviously suppressing a wince. Another five seconds passed, then she smiled broadly. "Look," she whispered.

They watched in amazement as the bleeding rapidly slowed then stopped, the wound sealing itself over a period of perhaps ten seconds or so. The sight was a bit eerie. When it finally disappeared, Amy picked up the towel and wiped her hand clean of blood, then held it up, grinning like an idiot. "It fucking _works!"_ she yelled in triumph. "I don't believe it!"

"Very impressive indeed, Amy," Danny said with a sigh of relief. "You had me worried there."

She looked at him, then jumped up and rushed over to hug him. "Thank you, Danny, for your idea. I never thought of that," she laughed. "But the more I think about it the more ideas I have. It's amazing."

Releasing him she stepped back then blushed. "Sorry," she mumbled.

"Don't worry, Amy, I'm pleased you're pleased, and relieved you're all right." He smiled. "I would strongly suggest you take it very slowly, though. As you've already said, a mistake would be very bad. Don't risk yourself if you don't have to."

"I'll have to be very careful anyway," the girl replied, going back to the sofa. Taylor was watching her with a pleased look. "If the PRT finds out about even this sort of thing they're going to start asking all sorts of awkward questions I don't want to get involved in right now. But I'm going to think about this a lot. I can already see some very interesting possibilities." She smiled brilliantly. "This has been one of the best days I've ever had thanks to you two." Glancing at Taylor, she amended her statement. "Three, I mean."

"I am very glad you think so, Amy," the Varga spoke through Taylor, sounding pleased as well. "That was fascinating to watch. I feel you have some very interesting applications ahead of you for your abilities. Although as Danny has already said, I would advise caution and restraint, take it slowly and carefully."

"I intend to," she replied, still looking very pleased with herself.

"We should probably actually do some math tutoring," Taylor said after they'd been quiet for a little while, all of them busy with thoughts about what this new development could mean. "Just in case someone asks what we were doing all evening."

Shaking herself as she stopped thinking about whatever had caused the slightly unnerving grin she'd been wearing, Amy looked at her friend, then nodded. "Yes, good idea," she smiled.

"Let me know when you want a ride home, Amy," Danny told her, standing up and heading for the door to leave them to it. "Taylor, I'll be in my office if you need me." He checked his watch, then turned at the doorway. "It's half past ten, so you only have about an hour and a half before Amy probably should head back."

"That's enough time, Dad. Thanks."

Smiling, he left the room and went back down the hall to his study, shaking his head a little. "Brockton Bay, watch out," he chuckled quietly. "I think things are going to get even weirder soon."

* * *

"Bye, Amy," Taylor called from the car, waving. Amy waved back from the door to her house, before opening it and going inside, still smiling a little to herself. Inside, she found Carol just coming down the stairs, Vicky floating down after her.

"Finally back then?" the older Dallon woman said somewhat abruptly, stopping and looking at her.

"Yes, thank you, Carol," Amy replied politely, not angry. This was basically normal after so many years, as much as she might wish otherwise. Having seen the relationship Taylor had with her father, she suppressed a sudden sorrow that neither of her adoptive parents acted like that to her, missing something she'd never had with a momentary intensity which shocked her.

Mark stuck his head out of the living room, smiled at her, then disappeared again without a word. She smiled back, thinking that he at least always made the effort to be nice when his depression let him.

"Did you have fun?" Vicky asked, as Carol went into the living room after her husband, apparently no longer interested in her adoptive daughter now that she was home safely. "What's Taylor's house like? And her father?"

"It's a nice house, not quite as big as this one," she replied, going up the stairs with her sister following behind her, listening. Entering her room she dropped her backpack on the floor with the one Taylor had given her next to it. Vicky looked a little puzzled at the two packs but didn't ask. Sitting on her bed Amy glanced at her sister, then looked out the window into the dark for a moment, before flopping backwards. "A little run down but they're working on it. Her father is really nice as well. Very smart and very calm. I like him a lot. He's got a good sense of humor as well. So does she. It was a lot of fun tonight."

She smiled in reminiscence. "Taylor's a good cook too, she made dinner which was a sort of stir-fry a friend of hers taught her how to make."

"So what did you guys do?" Vicky asked, lying down next to her and staring at the ceiling as well.

Amy laughed quietly. "Watched videos, swapped stories, talked to her father, talked about parahuman things because she's interested in it, things like that. She helped me with my calculus, she's amazingly good at math, really has a gift for it. She's much better than I will ever be." She shrugged a little. "Nothing really out of the ordinary for the Heberts, I think, but I had a very good evening." Rolling her head sideways she looked at her sister. "How was yours?"

"Pretty good, Dean and I went to a movie with Dennis and Chris, then went out to that Thai restaurant you and Saurial managed to put on the map. We had to wait nearly an hour for a table, thanks for that," the blonde replied with a grin. "You should ask for a commission, the place is amazingly busy all the time now."

Amy grinned. "I wonder what they'd say?"

"If you get Saurial to ask them, I think it would be ' _Yes, certainly, please don't eat us_ '," Vicky snickered.

Shaking her head in amusement, Amy got up, heading for the bathroom. "I doubt she would eat anyone," she called over her shoulder, "She prefers eggs to people. As food, of course, not to talk to."

"Of course," her sister giggled. "Good night, Amy."

"Night, sis," she replied, closing the door. After a quick shower and change into pajamas, she was soon in bed under the covers, smiling into the dark. Feeling the slightly different texture where her little biological construct was attached discreetly to her wrist, the smile widened as she closed her eyes, plans and ideas filling her mind as she fell asleep.

* * *

"Fuck," Sophia muttered, a spasm of pain going up her arm along with a faint crackle of electricity. She shook her hand, flexing the fingers as they tingled, then picked up the small screwdriver she'd dropped from the floor and put it on her bed next to her. Lifting the wrist that had the tracking bracelet Armsmaster had put there weeks ago, she scowled at it. So far it was proving a worthy opponent. She'd lost count of the number of shocks she'd received from the fucking thing.

' _Sooner or later, you're coming off,_ ' she thought viciously. ' _Then I'm out of here. There are some people I need to talk to_.' Looking at the table where her crossbows were sitting, she smiled a little, in a very dark fashion. ' _Enthusiastically_.'

Moving the screwdriver to the table as well she got into bed, giving up on the bracelet for now. She'd have another attempt at it some other time, when she'd read up some more on the relevant technical books.

She was patient.

She could wait.

Predators were good at waiting.


	52. Railway and Kurt

**Thursday, February 10, 2011**

"You're fine, Emily," Doctor Torres said, putting his instruments away. "Good. Why didn't you come in yesterday to see me?"

"I had a massive pile of work to get through, Jon, because someone forced me to take two days off," she replied with a mild scowl. He smirked when he noticed her heart obviously wasn't in it.

"Which you actually enjoyed, don't bother denying it. You needed a break. You should have had time off long before this, it's a pity it took nearly dying to push you into it."

"I can't just leave whenever I like, you know," she sighed. " _Way_ too many things to do. This city is a powder keg waiting for a match."

"Yet you were away for two days and no explosion," he smiled. "You have many very competent subordinates, the parahuman contingent around here are also pretty good, Miss Militia is more than capable of running the place for example, if you need someone to fill in for you. Armsmaster can keep a lid on the fighting pretty well, he's done a good job over the years. You're essential, true enough, but not to the point that we need you living in the building."

Sitting behind his desk he made some quick notes in her record then closed the file, turning back to her. "Take this as a warning that you were lucky to get. Pay more attention to your health, don't get so stressed, and you'll live a damn sight longer than otherwise. You've been given an entire new lease on life. Don't waste it."

She was silent for a while, then nodded once. "I'll think about it. I assume you're happy for me to get back to doing my own work, or do you want me to take more time off?" Her voice was somewhat sarcastic but there was no real heat to it.

He grinned. "Ideally, yes, I think you should take a week off and go somewhere for a real holiday. But I'm a pragmatist, I know you won't, so I've marked you as fully fit for duty. Try not to get yourself killed and ruin all the work Panacea and my team put in. It would be something of an irritation."

"How thoughtful of you," she muttered, standing up and turning to go. With her hand on the doorknob, she stopped, then without turning around, added, "Thank you, Jon. Thank Panacea when you next see her. Don't expect me to." She opened the door and left, leaving him smiling a little.

"I don't, Emily," he called after her. "I'll pass it on."

There was no reply but he didn't expect one. Somewhat amused he turned back to his computer and checked who was next on the list to be hunted down and given a particularly enthusiastic checkup. "Ah. Agent Simmons. You've missed two this year so far. We'll see about that," he chuckled, reaching for the phone.

* * *

Walking into the main workshop which echoed with metallic clangs and the sizzling crackle of welding equipment running, Danny looked around, then spotted the man he was after. "Hello, Kurt, how are you?" he asked as he approached the slightly shorter but much wider man, who turned and smiled at him. "How is Lacey's mother?"

His old friend and his wife had rushed off to Philadelphia only days after Taylor's initial encounter with the Varga at Winslow, due to the aforementioned relative having a mild stroke, and he hadn't seen or heard from them since. Kurt had come back the previous night, arriving for work that morning without his wife. Danny had heard he was back and come looking for him.

"She's not too bad, all things considered," Kurt replied, shaking his head sadly. "Poor woman is getting on, she's nearly sixty-eight now, and since her husband passed on two years ago she's gone downhill a little. But she seems to be recovering from the stroke better than the doctors expected. Lacey is staying with her for another week, then she's coming to stay with us for a while to recover when she's able to handle the trip. Sorry we haven't been in contact, it's been crazy dealing with all her affairs and the medical stuff."

"Don't worry, we assumed something like that. Pass on my best to Lacey, will you?" Danny requested, nodding sympathetically. He'd met the elder woman once some years back and remembered a lively and amusing old girl who deserved better.

"I will, don't worry." Kurt smiled again. Looking around, he waved at the activity in the huge room, which he'd been watching with a certain amount of confusion when Danny had walked up. "What on earth is going on? I haven't seen so many people working like this in over a decade."

Danny smiled mysteriously. "Things are changing around here, Kurt. All sorts of things. I think you're going to be pleased with the result." He checked his watch, then suggested, "Come with me, I could do with your advice on something. You're pretty good with railways, right?"

"I worked on the rail systems here for ten years before everything fell apart," Kurt confirmed, looking puzzled. "Why?"

"I need a second opinion on the survey of the rail link to the marshaling yard," Danny told him as they left the racket of the workshop behind them, heading back to his office. Both of them nodded to the various people walking around with a sense of purpose that had been missing from the DWU for far too long, all of those people looking busy and pleased about it.

"Survey? What on earth are you up to, Danny? We haven't used that rail link for, hmm, at least twelve years or so. It's not in good condition now."

"Actually according to the people who just finished inspecting the rails and points, it's not too bad at all," Danny corrected him, entering his office and going over to the large table on the opposite side from his desk, motioning at the piles of paper scattered over the surface. "I've got all the information here somewhere." He rummaged around for a moment then unrolled a large printout, Kurt clearing a few things out of the way, before holding one end down. Putting a couple of books on each corner, Danny pointed at the large-scale map of the entire docks and rail yard area, the railway itself marked with dozens of notes down its length. Kurt bent over it and inspected it curiously.

"I've had teams of people checking every inch of it for days now. As far as anyone can make out, at least ninety percent of the rails and sleepers are in fair to good condition, the rest being either poor or missing entirely. It's not too bad, we have the rail itself and a hell of a lot of sleepers in storage from the last time the line was refurbished. It looks like we need to replace about half a mile of track which is either missing or ruined, then a few segments here and there. Some ballast needs to be replaced as well, but that won't be difficult to do."

"You're reactivating the rail line?" Kurt asked in astonishment, straightening up and turning to his friend. Danny nodded.

"We are. We've got funding for an initial set of work, which included taking down all these warehouses in this section here," he indicated the marked area on the map, cross-hatched in red, "filling in this cellar, then resurfacing the entire area. A new fence is going around it all, the water side gets rebuilt as well, and the spur line to the rail yard gets repaired and put back into working condition." Pointing out the window, he went on, "I've got people surveying the docks right now to work out the exact amounts of materials required, we're about half way through the job. The rail line survey is finished, though. If you could check the figures, I'd be grateful, you know more about that part of it than practically anyone left here."

"Sure, no problem," Kurt replied, looking dazed. "What the hell, Danny? How did you swing all this?"

"I can't tell you exactly, yet, I'm afraid," Danny replied in a regretful tone, before smirking mischievously. "But you're going to love it. The Mayor is on our side, he's just checking the proposal I wrote up right now with various experts and is going to put it before the city council tomorrow night. He's pretty sure it will get voted in. At that point, he's going to make an initial announcement."

He chuckled as Kurt stared. "People are going to be… surprised. But, hopefully, pleased. This means a lot of work for a lot of people over the next few years, almost guaranteed."

There was silence for a moment, then Kurt slowly shook his head in wonder. "You go away for three weeks and the entire world goes nuts," he half-complained, half-joked. Danny shrugged, grinning.

"You have no idea, old friend," he laughed. "None at all. But you're going to find out soon enough."

Nodding in a slightly bemused manner, the other man accepted the folder Danny handed him and looked at it for a moment, before looking up at his friend. "OK," he sighed. "I'll check it over. Promise me you'll let me know what the _hell_ is going on so I can make some sense of all this, please?"

"As soon as I can, you'll be the first to hear," Danny assured him.

Moving back to his desk, he sat down, Kurt sitting on one of his guest chairs. "How's Taylor?" he asked after a few seconds, seeming to deliberately push his questions to one side with an effort of will. "Did you get all that crap with the school sorted out yet?"

"Oh, yes, that's in the past now, thanks. She transferred to Arcadia a while ago and is doing very well there. You wouldn't believe the difference. She's back to the happy girl I remember from when Annette was still alive. Very cheerful, enjoying life to the hilt, that sort of thing. She's made quite a few new friends as well, which I'm very pleased about. We had one of them over for dinner last night. Nice girl."

"Glad to hear it," Kurt smiled, pleased. "I was getting worried about the poor girl. She didn't look happy the last time I saw her." Looking narrowly at Danny, he added, "You look a fuck of a lot happier as well. We were getting worried about you too."

Danny sighed slightly with a regretful smile. "I know you were. I was in a bad place. If I'd been more on the ball possibly all this trouble with Taylor could have been avoided, possibly not. Luckily it all worked out OK in the end. No thanks to me." He shrugged unhappily. "I'm sorry I became such a bad friend, Kurt. I should have tried harder."

"It's not your fault, Danny," Kurt smiled. "We both realize how badly losing Annette affected you. Everyone was sorry about it, we all loved that woman. Crazy as she was sometimes." He laughed for a moment. "She could certainly liven things up if she got bored." They shared a grin as they remembered a few times when the Hebert woman had decided to do something odd to make life more interesting.

"Taylor takes very strongly after her in that respect," Danny snickered. "Some of the practical jokes she comes up with are… a little weird. Funny, but weird. Annette would have loved them."

"We'll have to get together for dinner some time, maybe go out," Kurt suggested, rising from his seat. "When Lacey gets back with Brenda."

"I think that would be a good idea too," Danny agreed.

"OK. I'll look this over and get back to you in a while," his friend replied, holding up the folder, then leaving the office with a wave. Looking after him Danny smiled to himself before he got back to work.

* * *

Looking at the caller ID on his phone, Roy smiled, then picked up the handset. The code displayed was familiar as well as being entirely bogus. "Hello, Phil. Nice to hear from you so soon," he said.

"Hello, Roy," the voice of his old college roommate replied, sounding calm yet intense. "This Danny Hebert of yours is an interesting man. We must arrange an introduction at some point. I feel that such attention to detail merits closer study."

"I'm pleased you feel that way. I'll look into it for you. What do you think of his plan?"

"It is remarkably detailed and surprisingly well-researched," the other man said with a tone of faint approval in his voice. From him, that was as close to raw enthusiasm as it normally got. "The clarity of thought shown is refreshing. I have a number of alterations that I feel would improve the efficiency of the proposal which I will send you via secure delivery. His plan is… simple but elegant. My alterations to it are fairly minor but should improve the overall effectiveness in the long term."

"You think it will work?"

"Even as is, almost certainly. With my suggestions correctly implemented, definitely yes. I will follow your progress with great interest."

"Thank you, Phil. That's a weight off my mind. As I told you, I was ninety percent certain. Now I'm completely sure."

"My pleasure, Roy. I enjoy such work as you know." There was a small chuckle from the other end. "It's a pity I have so little success getting support for the more complex ideas. In time, perhaps."

"People are resistant to change, especially the amount of change you've proposed, even with the long term benefits," Roy commented.

There was a very faint sigh in his ear. "I am all too aware of that, Roy. Some people require considerable persuasion to alter their behavior as they are annoyingly resistant to logic. A pity." He was silent for a moment, then asked, sounding curious, "You have met this parahuman that Mr Hebert suggests can perform the required operations?"

"I have," Roy smiled. "The experience was… memorable."

"Based on the proposal's requirements, I can imagine it was. I would be interested in making their acquaintance myself at some point, I think. But not right now. I have a number of other problems to solve first."

"I suspect you'll find her impressive," Roy replied with amusement. "I can guarantee the PRT will."

"By which you mean they have no idea what is likely to happen in the near future," his friend noted wryly.

"No. It's going to be pretty funny seeing their reaction. We're going to have to take some precautions to stop an over-reaction, but..." Roy laughed again. "It will be a day to remember."

"I think I will accept your offer to attend, Roy," the other man replied after a short pause, sounding like he was rather amused. "You have persuaded me that it would be worth my time."

"I'll let you know a time and date as soon as it's settled, Phil," Roy promised.

"Excellent. In that case, I must resume my other work. I have a minor staffing problem that requires my attention, I'm afraid. Until next time, Roy."

"Thanks again, Phil. It was nice talking to you."

"I feel the same. Good bye."

The line went dead, Roy replacing the handset, then turning to his computer just in time to see a new email arrive. He followed the instructions to download the new document from a secure encrypted server and was soon reading the considerably more detailed document, noting with interest the changes from Danny Hebert's original plan, and the comments made by his friend throughout. Clearly the man had put considerable effort in on it, and based on his memories of the guy, had probably enjoyed it immensely in his own unique way.

* * *

Looking around the cafeteria, Taylor smiled as Amy waved to her, then turned to Mandy who was standing behind her in the queue for food. "Do you mind if I invite Amy Dallon to sit with us?"

Her first friend at Arcadia looked at her, a certain degree of startlement on her face, then over at the brunette who was nearing the end of the line next to her sister and the Stansfield boy. "I didn't know you knew her, Taylor," she said. "Sure. Why not? She needs more friends, all she does normally is sit there reading a book and making snarky comments. Funny ones, true, but that's no way to live." The gregarious girl smiled.

Amused, Taylor smiled back, then nodded to Amy, indicating their usual table with her head. The healer glanced at her sister then nodded as well.

The little wordless communication session done, Taylor went back to selecting her own food, adding a plate of lemon meringue pie to the spaghetti and meatballs already on the tray, next to the salad. Moving down the line she got some bottled water, handed her school ID to the woman at the end who ran it through the scanner and handed it back, then waited for Mandy to finish. Both of them walked over to the table, which Amy was standing next to looking a little uncertain. "Sit down, then, Amy," she said merrily. "Mandy won't bite."

Looking relieved at the way the third girl laughed, then sat, Amy followed suit. Moments later they were joined by Lucy and Eric, both of whom looked a little surprised to see the new face at the table. "Guys, this is Amy Dallon, as you probably know." Taylor made the introductions, everyone greeting the healer with smiles and Eric holding out his hand, which she shook.

"Nice to meet you, Amy," the boy said, looking pleased. "I've been a fan of your work ever since you healed my uncle last year. Thanks for that."

"You're welcome," Amy replied quietly, "Although I can't place the name, I'm afraid. I heal a _lot_ of people."

"Because you work too hard," Taylor put in with a small grin, which Amy returned, sighing a little and shaking her head.

"I know. We've been over that."

"Do something about it, then," Taylor suggested, opening her water bottle.

"I'm going to talk to the hospital this afternoon when I go in," Amy told her after a moment's hesitation, looking around at the others who were listening with interest as they ate. "I'm planning on telling them I'm cutting back my time there by a third, except for emergencies. Hopefully they'll be OK with it."

"They'll probably be very pleased, and anyone who isn't is an ungrateful moron," Taylor smirked, making the other girl laugh. "You don't even get paid, for god's sake! They can't expect you to live your life there doing work that you don't enjoy for free, forever."

"You don't get paid for working at the hospital?" Eric asked with some surprise in his voice.

Looking at him, Amy shook her head. "I volunteer. I don't mind, I can help people that wouldn't stand a chance otherwise."

"But it's stressing you out, so you should definitely find something else to do and slow down," Lucy said perceptively, causing the Dallon girl to appear a little surprised. The Chinese girl smiled. "I know what stress looks like, Amy, my mother suffered from it for years until she changed jobs. Everyone can see you're working too hard, a lot of people were worried for you."

Amy seemed taken aback, looking around at the others with an odd expression. Taylor met her eyes and projected as much comforting encouragement as she could, making her friend sigh after a moment and smile in a way rather unlike her normal sardonic grin. "Thank you for the concern," the brunette said after a moment, visibly relaxing in the presence of the new people. "It's appreciated. But I think things are going to be different now." She rubbed her right wrist absently with her left hand, making Taylor hid a small smile. "Quite different."

"Good. Everyone should be as happy as they can manage," Mandy said firmly, smiling widely. "So. How did you two meet?"

Amy and Taylor exchanged a glance. "I had a little accident due to some idiot leaving something where they shouldn't have and me tripping over it," Amy snickered, making Taylor grin. "Taylor picked me up and took me to the nurse. I nearly broke my damn nose, which really hurt. We got to talking and found we have a surprising amount in common in some ways, one thing led to another, and she ended up inviting me over to her house for dinner and some calculus lessons."

The others nodded understanding. Mandy looked at Taylor with wide eyes. "You're giving calculus lessons? _I_ need that!"

Taylor grinned, having half expected this outcome. "I think we can probably arrange something," she laughed. "Let me check my busy schedule and get back to you."

Her friend smiled, pleased. "Thanks, Taylor. All joking aside I'd be grateful for any help, you're much better at that sort of thing than I am."

Lucy, who had been listening with a smile of her own, leaned forward somewhat eagerly. "Amy, I saw the videos on PHO and read everything I could find about it. Did you really go to dinner with Saurial? Then have her sister let you ride her home?"

Amy nodded with an amused grin.

"Wow. What are they like? Did you meet any other members of the Family? Can you introduce me to them?"

Glancing at Taylor, who was snickering as she ate, Amy asked, "You're a fan, aren't you?"

Lucy blushed while Mandy and Eric also started laughing. "You wouldn't believe how much of a fan she is," the former giggled. "She's always liked reptiles anyway and Saurial instantly became her favorite cape. Raptaur is just icing on the cake."

Grinning, Amy shrugged. "I can ask the next time I run into either of them." She didn't look at Taylor who was still smirking a little into her spaghetti. "They're both pretty cool, it might be possible. You might even be able to persuade Raptaur to give you a ride as well."

Lucy's eyes widened enormously while Mandy nearly fell out of her chair with laughter. "Oh my god! I'd love that _so_ much!"

"She should offer rides around the city if she gets bored," Eric suggested with a devious grin. "She'd make a lot of money doing that. Assuming that anyone would actually go for it."

"I would!" Lucy exclaimed, raising a hand eagerly. He patted her indulgently on the head, making her sigh.

"We know, Lucy, we know."

"Idiot," she muttered, smoothing her hair down, which caused him to look amused, then pat her head again. "Stop that."

"Make me."

"I will."

"You haven't yet." He did it again.

They kept arguing, while the other three exchanged a glance. "He _likes_ her," Mandy whispered loudly, leaning forward in a conspiratorial manner, matched by Taylor and Amy, who grinned.

Lucy went red while Eric suddenly kept his hands to himself, seeming embarrassed, which made the three girls laugh. "I see," Amy nodded wisely. "Interesting."

Taylor ate her lunch, listening to the others talking and exchanging stories, Amy joining in occasionally but seeming contented even when she didn't. The other brunette looked happy, more so than Taylor could recall seeing her since she'd come to Arcadia, except last night. Glancing over at the table full of wards she saw Vicky looking their way with a small smile on her face. The blonde girl spotted Taylor's gaze and nodded slightly to her, the smile widening. Taylor nodded back, feeling pleased. Even Amy's sister seemed happy about the current state of affairs, although she did wonder what she'd think if she knew who it was that Amy had been visiting the previous night.

When lunch finished, everyone got up and took their trays back. As they headed off to class, Amy caught Taylor's eye, smiled a little, and mouthed "Thank you" to her friend.

Watching for a moment as the other girl rejoined her sister and the Wards, all six of them walking off in the other direction, Taylor felt satisfied.

Things were coming along well so far.

* * *

"They seemed nice," Vicky said with a grin. Amy glanced at her, then over her shoulder where she could see the end of Taylor's tail vanishing around the corner of the corridor, an internal smile at the thought that she was the only one in the school who could see it making her amused. The Varga had modified the cloak spell to exclude her from it the night before, in the same way Taylor's father wasn't affected by it.

"They are," she replied after a moment. "Taylor has good taste in friends."

"Of course she does, _you're_ a friend of hers," Vicky sniffed superciliously. "No sister of mine would become friends with a mere peasant."

Amy giggled, making Vicky grin. "You're an idiot, sis."

"But you're looking happier than I've seen for a while, so that's fine," the blonde replied. "I think Taylor is good for you if only one visit to her house has made you so much more cheerful."

"Yeah, Amy, where has my dark goddess of snark gone?" Dennis, who had been listening from his position in front of them, said over his shoulder with a grin. "You're actually _smiling_. And not in that ' _I know something you don't and it amuses me_ ' way, more in a sort of ' _I'm having fun_ ' way. It's freaking me out a little."

"That's because you're not capable of appreciating the subtleties of my friendship with Taylor, who is much smarter than you," Amy replied with a smirk. " _You_ are a mere prankster. Her sense of humor is much more refined, as is mine."

"Ah, there you are," he chuckled. "I was getting worried." After a moment, while Amy grinned a little, he added, "I'm pleased you seem happier. Keep it up."

"I intend to, Dennis," she replied honestly. "Believe me. I think I'm going to enjoy this."

"Hopefully not at the expense of everyone else," he commented.

"We'll see," she told him, smiling darkly, and making him shiver theatrically.

"Oh, god, I got a sudden cold chill right down my back," he muttered. Amy shook her head with amusement but didn't say anything. Unconsciously, she rubbed her wrist again, feeling the little symbiote contentedly sitting there, merged with her flesh.

Oh, yes, life was looking up suddenly…

She had so _many_ ideas.

* * *

"It looks good, Danny," Kurt announced as he came back into the other man's office and plopped into a chair, waving the folder, then sliding it across his friend's desk. Danny opened it and looked at the contents. "I've made some notes on a few things I think need to be checked, and corrected a couple of the figures which were not quite right, but overall it's basically fine."

"Thanks, Kurt," Danny smiled, closing the folder again and putting it on top of a stack of others to one side of his desk. As he was about to say something else, the phone rang, causing him to hold up a finger. "One moment, I need to take this," he said, Kurt nodding and leaning back to wait. Answering the phone, he said, "Danny Hebert."

"Hello, Danny," the voice of the Mayor came to him. He smiled.

"Hello, Roy," he replied, "it's nice to hear from you. How can I help you?"

"Nothing serious, I just wanted to let you know that one of my most trusted experts has looked over your report and says he thinks it will work. He's suggested a few modifications to it which seem sensible, he knows his stuff, believe me, but they won't change the initial stages. It's more along the lines of strategic alterations for the medium to long term. I'll stop by later to drop off a copy if that's all right, I don't trust email with it."

"That's fine, Roy, we'd be glad to see you. I can show you around and you can see what's going on so far. Acquisition of the relevant equipment is coming along well, we've ordered most of it so far and I've got some people chasing up the last few things we'll need. Deliveries should start turning up tomorrow, with a little luck." Danny smiled to himself. "We've saved a hell of a lot of money by buying used and bankrupt stock. I think in total we've probably got over a million and a half dollars worth of equipment and supplies for just under two hundred thousand in total. If nothing else the DWU will be able to replace almost every piece of major equipment in the place and repair everything that's left. People are working their asses off, they seem to be having fun."

Roy laughed, sounding pleased. "Very good indeed. That's great news. I can release more funds when you need it but by the sounds of things you've outdone yourselves."

"We have some very talented acquisition experts," Danny chuckled. "One guy was a stores sergeant in the Army, he seems to have learned some interesting skills in bartering things he has for things he wants. Several of the more expensive items are a result of clearing out some old crap we have no use for but he found people who did have a use. It's all worked out pretty well. I'm not asking too many questions, just told him to make sure it's at least technically legal."

The mayor snickered. "Don't tell me the details, I don't want to know. Plausible deniability and all that. But well done. Thank everyone on behalf of the Mayor's office, will you?"

"I will. See you later."

"Probably around half past four, I think, Danny," the other man replied. "Bye." He hung up, Danny doing the same, then turning to Kurt who was looking intrigued.

"Roy?" he asked. "That wouldn't happen to be Mayor Roy Christner, would it?"

"It would," Danny smiled. "I told you he was on our side. We may have been on opposite sides of the negotiating table more times than I care to remember, but the man is smart, always keeps his word when you manage to get it out of him, and seems to be backing us a hundred percent."

"Interesting," his friend noted. "Very interesting. And good news for us, I guess."

"Oh, definitely," Danny agreed. "Without him I doubt it would have gone this far. We're lucky to have a Mayor who thinks ahead and is willing to take a chance."

Kurt nodded thoughtfully. After a moment, he smiled curiously. "Now what's all this I hear about the DWU having a cape? Or more than one, people seem a little confused on the subject. I've been hearing some very strange stories from various people. We got attacked by fucking Hookwolf?! What's been going on while I've been away."

"Ah. You obviously don't keep up with the news on PHO," Danny laughed. "Or the actual news. We don't actually have a cape, precisely, although that may well change, but there are a couple of interesting people who seem happy to help out. I expect you'll meet them soon enough."

Kurt looked puzzled again. "Go and look up Saurial and Raptaur on your computer," Danny suggested with a small evil grin. "That should get you started."

"You're being weird, Danny," Kurt complained good-naturedly as he stood.

"If I just tell you, you'll never believe me," Danny chuckled. "Go on, go and look it up, and watch the videos. I think you'll find them… interesting."

Shaking his head, Kurt wandered off, muttering something about people trying to be all mysterious. Amused, Danny listened until his friend went out of audible range, then picked up the folder he'd delivered and began reading it carefully, making some notes on the relevant changes required to the plan as he went.


	53. Armsmaster and DWU

"Stubborn girl." Colin frowned slightly, checking the log for the monitoring system linked to Shadow Stalker's tracking bracelet. It showed over three dozen attempts at tampering with the device in the last week alone. Sighing a little to himself he reached out and nudged up the control that set the shock level which the thing warned her with. She clearly needed a stiffer warning. Making a note in the file, he sent the results to Director Piggot as she had requested, then dismissed the problem from his mind as he went back to working on the anti-Endbringer Shotgun of Doom as Dragon insisted on calling it.

The last few simulations had narrowed down the design parameters to the point he was certain it would function correctly. Whether it would actually kill an Endbringer, he had no way of knowing, the things were insufficiently understood to model to any level of accuracy. That said, he was fairly sure that a shot from the weapon would at least slow Leviathan or the Simurgh down rather suddenly and based on previous fights probably provoke an immediate withdrawal.

Admittedly, the surrounding area was going to suffer a lot of collateral damage, both from the more or less indestructible projectiles traveling at totally insane speeds and the muzzle blast itself, which would be incredibly destructive, but that might well be a small price to pay if the situation could be managed correctly.

The big problem was still the recoil. Their simulations with all the currently known inertial management or cancellation systems had shown that while the better ones would reduce it significantly, none of them would eliminate enough of the kickback to make the device usable as it currently stood yet still sufficiently agile to be effective in battle.

The thermal pulse from the fusion explosion was the next largest issue, although he had some ideas on that front. Since it was so brief an ablative coating on the outside of the barrel would probably be an effective countermeasure. The EMP from the blast would be almost entirely contained by the SaurialSteel barrel which was not only a near-perfect electrical insulator but seemed to be an amazingly efficient block for magnetic fields. He was currently unsure of the reason why, although it was intriguing to both him and Dragon. That was a matter for future research, though.

A pensive expression on his face he leaned back in his chair and studied the graphs resulting from the latest simulation run. Making a couple of small alterations to the relevant parameters he reran it once more, then nodded. A 0.47% improvement in projectile grouping resulted from the minor change in barrel design, which was a worthwhile gain for the effort.

Pleased, he turned his head, then twitched when he saw Dragon's simulated face smiling at him from her monitor, having not realized she was online. "How long have you been watching me?" he asked, trying not to sound annoyed. He wasn't, not at all, but it had been something of a shock to see her looking at him. She'd gone back to Vancouver on Monday after helping him with some more of the design, and a few other things he'd wanted her opinion on. He found that he missed having her around in person. Even if she never took off her power armor, her company was peculiarly satisfying.

"Only a few minutes, Colin," she replied, sounding amused. "Sorry, I didn't want to disturb you while you were clearly thinking hard. The results of the latest simulation look very promising."

"They do," he agreed. "The thermal pulse looks manageable if somewhat impressive. The recoil energy is the main stumbling block now." He emitted a small sigh. "I'm on the verge of asking Leet if he has any ideas."

"Why not?" she asked. "He's shown he can be both responsible and very effective under the right circumstances. It would be a show of good faith and trust to run it past him, and he might well have some useful suggestions. You said it yourself, his work is sound, if apparently unrepeatable." She looked momentarily somewhat envious. "He can do things _I_ can't, which is mildly irritating. I'd dearly like to study some of his work to see if I could reverse-engineer it."

"I'd have to agree that I would be very interested in a working copy of his Tricorder device," Colin slightly reluctantly replied after a moment. He thought for a few seconds, then shrugged very slightly, leaning forward again and bringing up a secure email client. "I suppose it's worth the risk. He can't duplicate this weapon without Saurial or Raptaur's aid, which I doubt he'd get, and the really dangerous part is his own fusion core. I can't see any harm in requesting his opinion."

"That's the spirit, Colin," she smiled. "Perhaps you can get him and Über to come over to the light side."

Giving her a puzzled look until he worked out the reference, he smiled slightly which seemed the appropriate reaction, then sent the carefully worded email along with some of the relevant data to the address the Tinker villain had sent him the initial contact request from. "All right, we'll have to wait and see what he says, if anything." He sighed again a little. "I'm almost on the verge of thinking that Clockblocker is the best hope, despite the significant risks. The design could be altered slightly to make it more effective for the use of his power. But the inability to aim the weapon is still a problem, as is the way it would put him in proximity to not only an Endbringer but a fairly sizable fusion explosion."

"He might not like that," Dragon agreed with a nod and a laugh. "He's not an idiot."

"Opinion is divided on that," Colin snorted. Dragon stared at him, then laughed again.

"Another joke. You're learning. Slowly, but steadily."

"Ah." He made a note. "Thank you."

"Oh, Colin," she grinned, shaking her head, which slightly puzzled him. Putting the matter to the side for future investigation, he thought for a moment, then turned to her.

"I think it's time to contact either Saurial or Raptaur," he said seriously. "Until and unless either one of them is willing to help, none of this is possible. But we have a solid design and set of requirements. Hopefully we can come to an arrangement."

"Which one are you going to contact?" Dragon asked curiously.

He pondered the question for a few seconds.

"I think Raptaur would probably be the best. She seems to have a more… direct… outlook on violence and may well be more approachable over a weapon design."

"OK, that makes sense," his friend agreed after thinking it over. "One question… Do you know how to reach her? Or were you going to drive around until you find her?"

"I don't know her contact details, no, but I know someone who probably does," Colin replied. "Danny Hebert at the DWU appeared to be on good terms with her. He's known to be in contact with Saurial as well. I have no idea why the Dock Worker's Union is associated with either of them but the information I have suggests they are. I think asking him to contact her on our behalf would probably be the best initial move."

She nodded slowly. "Sounds like an idea, yes. Are you going to call him or visit him?"

"I think visiting him would be a better idea," Colin replied. "Hopefully he'll be cooperative."

"Be careful what you say, don't come on to strongly," Dragon cautioned. "I've looked him up. From what I can find out he's not someone who can be intimidated easily, and in fact would probably push back very hard if you tried. Do you want me to help?"

"That would probably be for the best," he said with a grateful look. "You know I'm not good with people, especially ones I don't know. Our last meeting was… unusual."

"I'm happy to help, Colin, as always," she smiled.

"Thank you." He donned his power armor and left the lab, heading for the parking garage and the ferry to the city itself.

He wasn't entirely happy about being on the water, but he had little choice. The thought made him begin designing a flight mode for his bike.

Colin knew what lived down there now. He'd been a lot happier about it when he didn't...

* * *

"Hello, Roy," Danny said as he stood up and walked around his desk, holding out his hand to his guest, who was looking around the office with interest. The Mayor shook it, smiling.

"You know, Danny, after all the years we've known each other, I think this is the first time I've ever been in this place? I should have made time to visit a long time ago."

Releasing his hand, Danny smiled back. "Better late than never."

Roy handed him the same USB stick he'd given the man with his proposal on. "The modified document is on here, along with some notes I made as well. I've got a couple of other people I trust looking at it, mainly on the financial side, and the initial feedback is that they think it's a viable plan. I'll take it to the council tomorrow as planned."

"Have you told them anything about it yet?" he asked curiously as he carefully locked the stick in his desk drawer.

"No." Roy grinned. "It's a normal end of week meeting, I'm going to bring it up when we've gone over the rest of the agenda. It should be an interesting end to the week."

Both of them laughed at the idea. "I look forward to hearing about it," Danny said, pleased.

"I'll let you know as soon as the meeting is over, but I'd be extremely surprised if it didn't get voted in. Then we have to work out what, and how, to announce publicly. That will take some careful thought."

"I have a few ideas on the subject, and I'll keep thinking about it," Danny told him. "We should be able to come up with something between us."

"Probably." Roy looked around again. "So. Show me what's going on. I'm really curious to see what's happened so far."

"Sure. Have a look here," Danny replied, leading him over to the large table and the map that was still spread across it, beginning to explain the current state of play and the next few steps, Roy listening carefully and asking cogent questions every now and then.

* * *

Slowing his bike as he approached the DWU facility, Colin looked around carefully. He could feel people watching, he was certain, well honed battle reflexes poking his hindbrain, but even so he didn't feel threatened. Just watched.

"Interesting," he muttered, heading down the main access road.

"What is?" Dragon asked, a tiny version of her face off to one side of his visual field, her voice in his ear over his comms system.

"There is a considerable amount of surveillance around here that I'm certain wasn't present the last time," he said quietly as he neared the main gate, which was guarded by two very large men with clubs in hand who were calmly watching him draw closer, alertly but not aggressively. "I couldn't tell you exactly where from, but I'm definitely being watched from somewhere close other than these two gentlemen."

"I'm not surprised the DWU has stepped up security after Hookwolf's attack," Dragon replied reasonably. "I'd be more surprised if they hadn't, they're not stupid. But I'd suggest that it's very important to be polite. I think they look on Danny Hebert very highly and I'm not entirely certain they feel the same about the PRT for various reasons."

"No, I rather got that impression the last time," Colin commented a little sourly. Pulling up at the gate, he turned to the man who seemed to be the one in charge. "Hello. I would like to see Danny Hebert if it's not a bad time."

"I'll check, Armsmaster," the man replied respectfully in a very deep voice, pulling a basic cellphone out of his pocket and pressing a button on it. The other man stayed carefully out of reach, alternating his attention between the Tinker on the motorcycle and the surroundings in a way that suggested he wasn't entirely certain everything was as it appeared. Colin rather approved of the efficient and careful paranoia.

"I think they're both probably ex-military," Dragon remarked in his ear. "They clearly know what they're doing and the one on the right is half-convinced this is a trap."

"Yes, I noticed," he muttered very quietly, the throat mic picking up his words easily. "Probably best not to make any sudden moves. I have a suspicion that there are a number of other people just inside waiting for trouble. I don't want to give Director Piggot any reason to complain by triggering a war with the DWU. I'd never live it down."

"It wouldn't go well on your resume, no," she snickered. "Especially as I'm not totally sure whether you'd actually win or not. They've got some very heavy equipment in there and a lot of decent engineers, I bet they could improvise some fairly impressive weapons given a reason and some time."

Not completely reassured by her comment, Colin didn't reply, merely waiting patiently until the guard put the phone away again. "If you'll go over to the main admin building, the second on the left there, someone will meet you and take you to Mr Hebert. He's expecting you."

"Thank you," Colin replied, nodding to the man, who nodded back, then starting his bike again. Driving it over to the building indicated he looked around with interest, seeing that there seemed to be a substantially larger amount of activity going on than normal. In the distance beyond the perimeter fence, along the waterfront, he could see a number of cutting torches in action, apparently removing part of the structure of one of the more dilapidated warehouses that backed onto the water. Several more gangs of men were moving around the other buildings, making marks on the walls with yellow paint from what he could see.

Closer in, there were a number of construction vehicles in various states of repair parked in the main yard, all of them being worked on. He could hear tools clinking and as he stopped and parked, saw one big excavator rumble into life as the team of mechanics working on it apparently tested it, all three men looking pleased. It huffed black smoke for a few seconds, vibrating madly, then settled down to a contented chugging as one of them adjusted something on the engine.

"Very interesting indeed," he mused quietly to his friend. "I wonder what all this is for? I haven't seen anything on this scale for a long time. They seem to be gearing up to clearing those buildings away for some reason."

"It seems that way," Dragon commented, sounding intrigued. "I thought the DWU could barely arrange enough pay for its members to keep them in work at all, but some of this equipment looks new, or at least recently acquired."

"I would have to agree," he said as he got off the bike, settling his halberd across his back. Curious, he watched the activity for a moment more, then turned towards the admin building, stopping again when a shiny black car that was parked on the other side of the entrance caught his eye. "I think that's the Mayor's car," he added slowly. "I wonder what he's doing here?"

The tiny replica of Dragon's face looked puzzled. "I have no idea."

"Odd." Heading towards the entrance he went inside, finding a slender blond man waiting for him. The man held out his hand, which he shook with his armored gauntlet.

"It's nice to meet you, Armsmaster, I'm a big fan," the man said with a smile. "I'm Mark, head of the DWU security division. Come with me and I'll take you to Mr Hebert."

"Thank you, Mark," Colin replied with a polite nod, falling in beside the man as he headed deeper into the complex building. "I can't help noticing that there is a surprisingly large amount of activity outside," he said tentatively after they'd gone a short distance. "May I ask why?"

"We're refurbishing some of the dock facilities which includes demolishing a few derelict warehouses before they fall down and kill someone," Mark replied easily, glancing at him for a moment. "We keep having to chase junkies away and sooner or later someone will end up dead of something other than an overdose. Mr Hebert somehow persuaded the Mayor to fund some minor work around the place which is desperately overdue. They're discussing more work at the moment, actually."

Colin checked his lie detector. The man wasn't lying, as far as he could tell, but he was somehow sure that this wasn't the whole truth. Deciding it could wait, he followed as his companion led him through a large open-plan office, the various people in it looking up, then staring for a moment, as his blue and silver power armor crossed the floor. Reaching a door on the other side, Mark tapped on it, then opened it. "Danny? Armsmaster is here, he'd like to talk to you."

"That's fine, thanks, Mark," a familiar voice came from inside the room. "Please send him in."

Stepping aside, the man opened the door fully with a push of his hand. "It was nice to meet you, Armsmaster."

"Likewise, Mark," he replied politely, before going inside and closing the door behind him. He found Danny Hebert sitting behind his desk, Mayor Christner standing next to a large table on the other side of the room apparently having been studying a large sheet of paper which as far as he could make out had some sort of map on it. Curious, he looked at it for a moment then turned to the man at the desk, the Mayor half sitting on the table behind him and listening. Somewhat unsure, he wondered if he could somehow request that the politician leave, but couldn't think of a way to ask without insulting one or both of them.

With a small silent sigh he walked over to the desk. Danny rose and held out his hand, which he shook. "Please, have a seat," the man said, waving to a chair. "I think that's strong enough to take the weight of your armor. If not, it's cheap enough." He smiled a little. Colin looked a little dubiously at the chair, but agreed it seemed fairly solidly built and gingerly lowered his weight into it. The thing creaked faintly but held up.

Sitting down again, Danny studied his guest. "This is somewhat unexpected, Armsmaster. What does the DWU owe the honor of a visit from the local Protectorate leader to?"

"I have a request that I was hoping that you would pass on to Raptaur," he began, using the approach Dragon had suggested on the way over. The man looked even more interested. "Dragon and I have obtained a sample of the apparently essentially indestructible material she makes her weapons out of from Leet, who acquired it after meeting her. At his suggestion we have been working on a design for a weapon we feel may well be unusually effective against one or more of the Endbringers, using the parameters we derived from the sample. Simulations show it should work, but the only two people who could actually construct it are either Saurial or Raptaur. We felt that the latter might be more receptive to hopefully agreeing to meet us and discuss providing her aid."

Danny was silent for a moment, although his eyebrows had gone higher and higher as Colin spoke. Now, he looked past the Tinker, presumably at the Mayor, before leaning back in his chair and folding his hands on the desk.

"And you would like me to ask her about it for you?"

"Yes. It would be extremely helpful as we have no other way to contact her at present except by randomly searching for her, which would obviously be an inefficient use of..."

Colin trailed off as he suddenly consciously noticed the small twisted piece of dully shining metal neatly mounted on a clearly recycled but lovingly polished piece of teak that was next to the clock on Danny Hebert's desk. Staring, he leaned forward and twisted his head a little so he could see it better, noticing as he did so the engraved brass plaque on the wood. He slightly rose in his chair to read what it said, while in his ear Dragon made a weird sound.

' _It Comes From The Deep_ ' the first line read, apparently as a title. He blinked. ' _Never taunt a sea monster_ ' was written underneath in smaller letters. ' _Bear in mind that all things are edible although some of them need Tabasco Sauce_ ' was under that.

After a long moment, during which Dragon's expression went through some interesting changes, he asked slowly, "What is that?"

Danny looked at the thing, then picked it up, smiling. "Oh, do you like it? It was a present from a friend. Oddest thing, someone kept annoying her for some reason. This was all that was left in the end." He shrugged. "She's good natured but everyone has their limits, of course."

"Of course," Colin managed to choke out as he sat back again with a thump.

"Nice little bit of titanium," Danny mused, flicking the scrap of metal with his finger, before putting the small trophy down again. "One of those really high grade ultra tough aerospace alloys, the boys in the metal shop tell me. Just think of the amount of force needed to do this to it! Truly remarkable."

Colin was indeed thinking of the amount of force required to shred a three inch thick titanium superalloy hull into tiny bite-sized pieces, paling a little under his armor.

Which was nowhere near that thick.

"Anyway, enough of my little executive toy," Danny went on, while behind him Colin could swear he'd heard a muffled chuckle from the general direction of the Mayor. "I'm happy to ask Raptaur on your behalf. Anything to help deal with the Endbringers. I know she's busy a lot of the time but I expect she'd be pleased to help you as much as she can. She's very helpful in general. Where would you like to meet? Here? We can do that if you want, or at the PRT building. Or even the Rig." He smiled in a way that made Colin a little uncomfortable for some reason. "She can make her own way there easily enough."

"If you could give her my card, I can discuss it with her and hopefully work out the most effective solution," Colin finally replied, tearing his eyes away from the mounted piece of Dragon's probe with some difficulty. Danny was still smiling at him. He handed his card over. "I can be reached on that number twenty-four hours a day."

"Great. I'll make sure she gets it. It'll probably be later tonight, I think, she did say she'd stop in for a chat, but I don't know when."

"Thank you for your time, Mr Hebert," he said after a moment, watching as the man took out his wallet and carefully put the card in it before returning the wallet to his inside pocket.

"It was no trouble, Armsmaster. Always glad to help out the local Heroes. We see you so seldom it makes a nice change from routine business." The smile didn't change but Dragon winced a little. Colin knew he'd missed something, only nodding as he stood.

"Please pass on my regards to both Raptaur and Saurial when you next talk to them," he said after a moment's thought. "I am very impressed by how effective they both are at dealing with crime in the city. Between them they've had a significant effect in only a few weeks."

"I'll certainly pass that on as well," Danny smiled, seeming pleased. "It was nice to meet you again."

"Likewise," he replied, turning after one last glance at the small piece of metal on the desk. "Mr Mayor," he added, nodding to the man who was listening silently, appearing mildly amused.

"Armsmaster. Please pass on my regards to Director Piggot, if you would."

"Certainly." He headed for the door. "Goodbye, gentlemen."

Both the other two said goodbye as he closed the door, finding Mark waiting for him, talking quietly to one of the office workers. The security man straightened up. "All done?"

"Yes, thank you."

"I hope it went well. If you'll come with me I'll show you out." He followed the man to the exit, his mind slightly blank as he tried to work out what had just happened.

He was half-way back to the Rig when Dragon said, "I seriously think that it would be a good idea to be polite to the DWU. They have some… worrying… friends."

"I had come to much the same conclusion myself," he muttered. "Do you know what it would take to do _that_ to your probe?"

"I do. One very, very large set of teeth in an impossible creature." Dragon shook her head. "The more interesting thing is how Danny Hebert ended up with it on his desk. He clearly knows where it came from and why. That's… strange."

"One way to put it," Colin sighed. "I'm not going to think about it. Every time I do I get a headache. I just hope Raptaur agrees to help us."

"So do I," his friend said, before she fell silent again.

He kept driving, deliberately not trying to wonder how the hell a two hundred foot long sea serpent had managed to give Danny Hebert that little bit of metal without anyone in the city seeing her.

It was a puzzle, one he didn't want to think about.

* * *

Roy waited until he was certain that Armsmaster was well out of earshot before he started laughing, Danny grinning at him. "That was hysterical," he snickered, sitting down in the recently vacated chair. "Let me guess, they ran across Kaiju or one of her sisters?"

"Basically," Danny smiled. "They pushed a little too hard. She bit back." Waving at the mounted scrap of titanium alloy, he added, "That was given to me along with the story. I had the boys in the workshop mount it for me and make the plaque. It seemed appropriate somehow although I never expected Armsmaster to see it. He obviously recognized it somehow."

"He's very smart, just a bit difficult to talk to," Roy replied, still grinning. "He doesn't really understand people from what I know. But he's not a bad person."

"Of course he isn't, I have a lot of respect for the man. I just wish the PRT would take more interest in protecting the parts of the city that aren't full of either tourists or big business." Danny shook his head a little. "They seem to be pretty slow otherwise. Even the cops say the same thing and they're not entirely happy about it either." He sighed for a moment. "Oh well. Doesn't matter at the moment."

"True," his guest replied. "Tell me more about this warehouse demolition. You're seriously going to let Raptaur do it?"

"She seems interested in seeing how fast she can wreck a building," Danny smiled. "Normally she's very careful about not damaging anything, so I think she's looking forward to it. It's safer this way, she's more or less indestructible and once the buildings are down, the guys can move in and clear the rubble away. It'll speed things up a lot and keep anyone from getting hurt. We just need to make sure we sweep the warehouses first and kick out any junkies that might be in there, so they don't end up crushed."

"Fair enough. Good luck with it." Standing, Roy looked around, then nodded with satisfaction. "Thank you for showing me all of this and explaining it. I'll keep you up to date with the expert opinions and the council vote." He held out his hand. "I'll be in touch."

"OK, Roy. It was nice to see you again. Give my best to Deb."

"I'll do that," he promised, then headed for the door, shaking his head a little at the memory of the odd look on the visible parts of Armsmaster's face.

* * *

"Hi, Dad," Taylor said as he came in, his daughter descending the stairs from her room. She was carrying her laptop and a textbook, apparently about to do some homework. "How was your day?"

"Very good, actually," he replied as he took his coat off. "Kurt's back, although Lacey is still with her mother in Philadelphia, she'll be coming back in about a week. He seemed a little surprised by everything going on at the yard. Roy visited, we had a long talk about the plan. He's heard back from one expert who says it's a good plan although he's suggested some changes to it. They look very sensible so I'm rewriting the documentation around them." He took his shoes off, then put his slippers on, turning back to her. "Oh, yes. Armsmaster dropped by, he would like to talk to you."

He handed her the card the Hero had given him, enjoying the gaping expression she was now wearing. "He needs your help."

While the gape grew, he patted her on the head, then went in search of a cup of coffee, grinning to himself.


	54. Panacea and Raptaur

Picking up her phone when it warbled in her ear, Amy looked at the caller ID, smiled, and answered it. "Hi, Taylor," she said in a low voice, not wanting anyone else to listen in. "How are you? And Danny?"

"We're fine, Amy," her friend answered, sounding fairly happy. "Everything seems to be going well at the DWU, Dad says, and school was fine today. I'm glad you came to our table at lunch."

"So am I," she replied, remembering the conversations they'd had. "It was nice meeting new people like that. You know, I don't think I've ever sat at a different table than Vicky since… well, since I Triggered, at least. Probably before that as well."

"Make a habit of it," Taylor suggested, a smile in her voice. "At the least, come and sit with us. Mandy and Lucy enjoyed meeting you very much. Both of them admire you, you know."

"I sort of got that impression," she giggled. "It was sort of surprising but nice as well. And that Eric guy seems fun as well."

"He's a nice one, definitely," the other girl replied. They both fell silent for a moment, then Taylor asked, "How did it go at the hospital?"

With a slight sigh, Amy shrugged even though her friend couldn't see her, unable to stop herself. "It was a little weird. They were almost relieved, I think. There were a couple of people who seemed slightly annoyed but like you said, they can be ignored. Most of the doctors and nurses congratulated me which I didn't expect. We agreed I'd go in every second day for the next couple of months to see how it works out, unless there's an emergency, and all day every second Saturday. That seems to be a good mix of time for myself and time for helping other people. I'm not going in until Monday now unless they have a real problem so I have the weekend free and tomorrow as well."

"Good. I think that's the right solution. You're a very important person, but you need time for enjoying yourself. Have you told your family?"

"Yes," Amy sighed slightly. "Mark was supportive of my decision, and so was Vicky. Carol, though..."

She sighed a little more heavily. "Carol isn't happy about it, I think. She didn't come right out and say it but the way she was looking at me was… weird. Even compared to normal. I think she thinks that I'm planning on doing something odd."

"You are," Taylor snickered.

"I know, but that's no reason to jump to that conclusion," Amy laughed. She checked her bedroom door was shut for a second. "I don't really want to upset her, but at the same time I can't help but be a little insulted."

"That doesn't surprise me." Taylor paused, then added, "I've finished all my homework and talked to dad for a while, but it's only about half past seven. Want to go out for some fun?"

Amy could feel her eyes widen a little. "What _sort_ of fun?" she asked slowly.

"The sort that makes Dennis crack bad jokes until you top him," Taylor laughed.

After a few seconds, during which Amy felt an almost overwhelming urge to yell in triumph, she calmly said, "I think that sounds like a lovely idea, Taylor. Thank you."

"You can't fool me, I can hear how your breathing changed," the other girl chuckled. "Expect someone to call at the door in about fifteen minutes."

"I'm looking forward to it," Amy grinned. "I'll get ready."

"I have a surprise for you when we have some privacy," her friend laughed. "It should amuse you. See you."

"Bye, Taylor," Amy said, before hanging up and lying back with a wide grin on her face. Lifting her wrist she inspected the barely perceptible bulge of her first generation healing symbiote, the grin becoming even wider. "This could be fun," she whispered to herself.

* * *

Hearing the doorbell, Carol glanced at her husband who didn't move from watching the news, sighed very faintly, then got up to answer it. She could hear music from upstairs, some new group that Vicky seemed to like, and her daughter singing along to it. She had quite a good voice but no real understanding of indoors versus outdoors volume levels. Shaking her head, she opened the door, then stared.

The wall of dark blue-black scales and metallic armor in front of her shifted, a very large head with two glowing eyes dropping down into her line of sight. She made a slight sound of shock, not knowing what else to do.

"Hello, Mrs Dallon," Raptaur rumbled politely, the corners of her inhumanly wide mouth rising in what she probably thought was a smile. Carol's hand was frozen on the doorknob. "Can Amy come out to play?"

There was a very long pause.

"I'm sorry?" she managed to say eventually.

"It's a joke," the huge reptile said with an amused tone. "She's expecting me."

"Amy?" Carol called, not turning away. "There's someone at the door for you."

"Thanks, Carol," the second daughter of the family said from behind her, sounding pleased. She twitched hard, not having heard the girl approach, then looked back. Amy was standing there in her costume, her scarf around her neck, a smile on her face. "Hi, Raptaur. How are you?"

"Very well, Amy," the creature smiled. "Ready to go?"

"Yep." Carol watched as her adopted daughter wound her scarf around her face leaving only her eyes exposed, then tied it in place. "I'll be back later, Carol. There's no need to wait up."

"I… see," the Dallon woman managed to say as the girl squeezed past and joined the enormous cape, who backed away and dropped to all fours, her middle arms acting as forelegs. Carol noticed that the back of her armor seemed to form a saddle. Amy casually walked over, grabbed a handhold, then swung herself on board, waving with a free hand.

"See you in a while," she called, before the reptilian cape wheeled around and charged off at a totally silly speed, the girl in white pressing herself low on her back. Carol stared after them until they vanished into the night, before slowly closing the door and leaning on it, sweating a little.

"Who was it, Mom?" Vicky peered over the upstairs banister, an inquisitive look on her face.

"A friend of Amy's," Carol sighed, going back into the living room and trying not to think about what had just happened.

Whatever the fuck that actually was.

Puzzled, Vicky watched her mother wander off, shrugged after a moment, then went back to singing along with her music, very loudly and just a little off key.

* * *

Several miles and only about half that number of minutes later, Taylor stopped on top of one of the taller buildings in the commercial district, sniffing carefully and looking around while listening. Satisfied they were alone, she turned her head around nearly a hundred and eighty degrees and smirked at Amy, who was giggling and shaking her head. The girl on her back released her hold on the hand-grips and as the straps over her thighs vanished, slid off her back to the roof of the building which Taylor thought was some sort of financial services company.

"That was fantastic," Amy laughed. "Poor Carol. You have to stop doing that to her, she looked really weird."

Taylor shrugged with a saurian grin, moving clear of the girl then lying on her side on the roof, which with her current body, was quite comfortable. "It seemed funny at the time."

"It was. Very. But you'll make her brain explode if you keep doing that."

Amy knelt, then turned around, leaning back and using Taylor as a backrest. "You're sort of lumpy, with all this armor," she commented. Taylor made the armor go away. "Ah, much better. Wow, your body temperature is pretty high like this."

"Really? I hadn't noticed."

"It's considerably higher than a human's, definitely. Odd for a big scaly reptile."

"You know I'm not a reptile," Taylor laughed.

"No, you're an alien demon. I know. But you _look_ like a reptile, so you should be used to people calling you that."

Shrugging, Taylor accepted the point. "As long as they don't call me an overgrown newt," she smiled.

Amy cracked up. "Oh, god, Vicky's still embarrassed about that," she laughed, shaking her head. "Poor sis. You scared the shit out of her."

"That was sort of the point," Taylor replied, then at her inquisitive look explained her reputation plan.

"I think you managed to pull it off," her friend noted when she finished. "There can't be many people who would even consider attacking you or your friends after seeing what you did to Hookwolf. Especially considering how easy you made it look."

"Good. I don't want to have to really hurt anyone if I can avoid it," she said quietly. "I will if I have to but it's not something I'm looking forward to. If I can put some effort in now and avoid something bad happening later it's time well spent as far as I'm concerned."

"I'd have to agree," Amy replied thoughtfully. They sat in companionable silence for a while, until she looked at Taylor again, who was studying the skyline. "So what did you want to do tonight? And what's the surprise?"

"Oh, right, the surprise," Taylor grinned. "Get off me so I can get up."

Once Amy was standing, she rolled to her feet, then held out her hands. In them appeared a new set of clothing. Amy stared at it, before reaching out and picking up the helmet with a transparent faceplate and inspecting it closely in the light from the small exit sign on the fire exit door a few feet away.

"What's this for?" she asked curiously.

"You." Taylor smirked as her friend looked surprised. "Dad suggested it. If you're going to keep riding the big scary reptile you need proper clothes, ones that will keep your warm and protected and not get in the way as much as that robe does. He and Varga helped me come up with this."

She held up the rest of the clothing, which was an obviously armored bodysuit patterned on a motorcycle racing suit, white with a red cross on the right breast and ' _Panacea_ ' written across the shoulders on the back. "It's lined with Vargastuff again, but insulated as well with something he came up with that should make it pretty heatproof but allow you not to get too hot. We could put better armor on it in critical places because the whole thing doesn't need to be as flexible as the robes."

Taylor showed her friend a pair of gloves and matching boots, both of which were also armored. "With this on you should be completely bullet-proof. The weakest part is the faceplate, it's basically a big piece of pure aluminum oxide. The same stuff rubies are made of. There's a really thin mesh of Vargastuff on both the inside and outside to make it as strong as possible but to allow you to see through it the mesh isn't as tough as the rest of the suit. We're pretty sure it will handle a point-blank bullet impact without letting anything through but it might crack eventually. But if you manage to get shot in the face repeatedly we're doing it wrong anyway."

Amy looked somewhat overwhelmed, her mouth opening and closing wordlessly, but in the end she grinned and quickly hugged her friend. "Thank you, Taylor," she said in a low voice. "And thank you, too, Varga."

"He says you're welcome," Taylor smiled. "Try it on."

Amy pulled her hood off, then carefully put the helmet on. "A little tight," she reported.

Leaning over it, Taylor and the Varga made some adjustments. "How's that?"

"Much better." Rotating her head, then shaking it, the Dallon girl smiled at her through the faceplate. "It fits perfectly now."

"Great. If I could figure out how I'd add some sort of air supply to it, but neither of us is sure how to do that right now. We're going to have to read up on that sort of thing."

"Trying to become a Tinker as well?" Amy asked with a sly smile. "Leave some powers for the rest of us."

As Taylor laughed, Amy pulled her robe over her head, then sat down to remove her shoes. "Damn, it's cold," she mumbled.

"It's still only the beginning of February after all," Taylor smiled. Looking at the sky, which was clouding over again after a short period of clarity, she added, "We could still get snow for the next few weeks. It doesn't smell like it's going to do that any time soon though."

"Hopefully not tonight at least," Amy said in a slightly muffled tone of voice as she tried to pull the arms of the suit over her shirt, having stepped into the legs and got herself sorted out. It fastened down the middle with something like a zip. Taylor gave her a hand, the girl nodding her thanks, then doing the suit up. "A little tight here across the shoulders and up the legs," she remarked, indicating the problem areas. These were soon sorted out, leaving her looking pleased. "It's really warm," the girl reported, feeling the outside of her new costume. "So that works." Taking the boots from Taylor she sat again to pull them on, then put the gloves on last, before turning around on the spot.

"How does it look?" she asked.

"Pretty damn cool," Taylor grinned. "Not bad at all. You look like a proper superhero now."

Looking down at herself Amy smiled. "I kind of like this, but I don't think it fits the picture of a healer."

"Obviously you're a combat healer, not a normal one," Taylor snickered. "For jobs where simply healing is too easy. You can kick ass, then heal ass. Or something like that."

Her friend grinned at her. "Thank you both. This is amazing." She knelt and rummaged in a hidden pocket in her robes, retrieving the baton that Taylor had given her the night before standing up. Giving it a hard flick she looked satisfied when it snapped out and locked, then posed with it across her chest, her other hand held ready. Taylor nodded with a pleased look.

"Very hardcore. We need to teach you how to actually use it properly although what Dad showed you will work for now. Maybe work up to two of them. That would look cool as well."

Amy laughed, relaxing and closing the baton, then looking down at herself. "Where do I keep it, though?" she asked, patting her sides. "No pockets."

"Ah, damn, forgot about those. Hold on." Moments later the suit had pockets and a belt pouch specifically tailored for the baton, which Amy slipped into it, appearing pleased.

"Great. This is so cool."

Picking up her friend's normal costume and her shoes, Taylor made a backpack to put them in, then folded the cloth and stashed everything away, before reaching back and hooking the pack over her armor which she'd produced again. On all fours, she motioned to the saddle on the back of her lower body. "Get on and let's see what we can find to meddle in," she suggested.

Grinning even more widely, Amy did exactly that. "Now I feel I should have some sort of lance or something, while we charge down the street at Lung shouting ' _For King and Country!_ '"

Taylor burst out laughing. "God, his face would be _amazing_ to see. But that's probably not a good idea. I don't think he takes surprises well."

"No, probably not," Amy agreed. She pointed at the general direction of the docks. "Anyway, onward, noble steed! Great deeds await the team of Panacea and Raptaur. Plus I'm hungry."

Laughing, Taylor leaped forward, while Amy held on firmly, flattening herself over her friend's back as they headed straight down the side of the building, both of them having a wonderful time.

* * *

Max muttered obscenities under his breath as he read the latest report from Victor, who was working on getting Brad out of PRT custody. They had for some reason not transferred the cape to a more high-security facility, which was good, if somewhat puzzling, but they were apparently running a complete check of almost the entire PRT and all the security systems, which was bad. And again, somewhat puzzling. He wasn't sure why they'd suddenly decided to go to all that effort but thought something must have spooked them.

Shaking his head in disgust, once more wondering what the hell had possessed his subordinate to go off half-cocked and attack the DWU, not to mention promptly lose to the most horrifying creature he'd ever seen outside an Endbringer, he got up and went to his drinks cabinet, pouring himself a couple of fingers of a very expensive whiskey, then went back to the desk sipping it slowly. Picking up another report he read it while walking around his office, ending up next to the window.

When he looked up he was staring right into the eyes, from less than a yard away, of that self-same reptilian horror, which was for some ungodly reason hanging off the side of the twenty-fourth floor of the Medhall building _right outside his fucking window!_ He had no idea how it was doing it, but the thing was stuck there like a gecko to a ceiling, grinning at him. "Jesus fucking _Christ!_ " he yelped, unable to help himself, and dropped his glass, which shattered on the floor spilling about a hundred dollars worth of very good spirits over his shoes.

The thing waved at him, seeming amused. He stared in shock. It took a few seconds to notice that there was a black-clad female figure perched on the back of the thing peering around its head at him, a mirrored visor covering its entire face. The second figure waved as well. The body language seemed to suggest she was laughing.

After a moment, the pair rapidly climbed out of sight up the side of the building. He pressed himself to the glass in an attempt to see where they went, then when they vanished, the last thing he saw being a long tail disappearing over the roof, stepped back and simply stared out a the Brockton Bay skyline for nearly a minute trying to work out what had happened.

Looking down at his ruined shoes and wasted alcohol, he sighed heavily.

"Fucking Brockton Bay. Maybe I can move to Miami or something. Even if there are too many blacks and hispanics there, at least there aren't any fucking reptiles in armor."

Muttering under his breath he went back to the bar to pour himself another drink, this time deliberately _not_ looking out the window.

The entire city seemed to be going peculiar these days.

* * *

On the next roof over, Taylor and Amy were convulsed with laughter. Amy's costume had reverted to the original white with a transparent faceplate when the Varga undid the modifications he'd suggested to prevent the Medhall CEO being able to positively identify the healer. "There you go, Amy, we made Max Anders drop his drink," Taylor giggled.

"That was fucking hysterical," Amy nearly cried, her eyes full of tears from laughing so hard. "I don't like that bastard at all. His face! I wish I had a camera."

"I do," Taylor pointed out, tapping her head between her eyes, making her friend stare at her then laugh even harder. "Want a copy of the video?"

"You bet your ass I do," Amy replied, grinning. She took her helmet off and wiped her eyes. "Thanks. That was one of the funniest things I've ever seen."

"No problem," Taylor said with an amused look back at the Medhall building. "He rubs me the wrong way as well for some reason. Varga doesn't like him either. Neither of us can work out exactly why yet."

"I'm sure there's a reason," the healer said, slowly calming down. "He's not a good person."

"Probably not. So, what should we do next? It's still early."

"Fugly Bobs?"

"That sounds like a plan," Taylor nodded. Amy remounted and they dived over the edge of the building again.

* * *

"Puppy?"

"Yes?"

Battery's voice was somewhat distracted.

"Do you see what I see?"

"If you see a horse sized reptilian centauroid creature with teeth six inches long, wearing armor, carrying a girl in a white suit with Panacea's name across her shoulders in large friendly letters on her back, then no, I don't," the woman said firmly, poking him in the ribs. "And neither do you."

Assault watched as the white-clad girl, who was certainly the right size and build to be Panacea even if the costume she was wearing was entirely new, slid from the back of the creature she'd been riding with a fair degree of apparent skill that suggested a certain amount of practice. She looked like she was having fun. So did Raptaur.

"Sorry, Puppy, I think I do. This I _can't_ let go." He grinned at her, then headed towards the two females, who were looking in the windows of one of the fixtures of the Boardwalk, good old Fugly Bob's, the home of a heart attack in a bun.

Behind him he heard a loud sigh, a quietly mumbled imprecation, and footsteps. He chuckled, approaching the pair he was interested in, who turned to look at him. It seemed to him that the reptilian cape had probably been aware of him the entire time if any of what he'd heard about her abilities was even remotely true.

Up close the creature was even more impressive, the large head a couple of feet above his looking down on him with a curious expression as far as he could tell, slightly cocked to the side like a cat watching a bird. The mental comparison made him slow slightly, which in turn seemed to amuse the thing.

"Shit, you're a lot bigger than I thought," he mumbled under his breath, very quietly.

"Thanks," she replied casually, making him wince.

"Sorry. Didn't mean to be insulting."

She waved a hand dismissively, smiling in a somewhat unnerving manner. "Don't worry, you weren't," she chuckled. Relieved he nodded, then inspected the more human appearing girl who was smirking at him. He was slightly surprised to see it really was Amy Dallon wearing something totally out of character, looking much happier than he could recall seeing her before. The smile, as sardonic as ever, even so still seemed to convey genuine good will.

He smiled back. "Panacea. That's a new look for you."

"I know, it's not bad, is it?" she replied, looking down at herself. "It was a present from a friend. The robes are a little impractical for riding."

"I can imagine," he said slowly. The implications were slightly odd. "Is this a regular thing now?"

"It might be," she laughed. "It's a hell of a lot of fun if nothing else."

"I saw the videos on PHO so I can imagine," he replied, grinning. "You sounded like you were enjoying yourself. Clockblocker is still making jokes about it."

"Clock is an idiot," she snorted. "A nice one, but an idiot all the same."

Behind him he heard a mutter of agreement from his wife, making him snicker. "I can tell him you said that if you want," he offered helpfully.

"Don't bother, I do it all the time myself," the girl smiled, making him laugh.

"I can believe that. So, what are you two doing? Aside from drawing a crowd, that is," he asked, waving at the circle of tourists and locals who were standing around them staring and taking photos.

"We were going to get something to eat," Raptaur rumbled from the side, making him twitch. Her voice went right into his bones when she spoke. It was impressive and somewhat eerie. "I've been told this place is pretty good, they serve dead animals in large portions wrapped in bread." Her mouth formed into a type of toothy smile as she leaned a little closer, making him just the tiniest bit nervous. "I _like_ dead animals in a bun. Eggs are better, but meat is nice."

He couldn't get the thought that she'd run her eyes over him as she said that out of his head. A muffled giggle from Panacea made him look around, but she was watching with a completely blank expression, no signs of any amusement.

"Um… OK, that sounds fine," he managed after a moment. "But I think you're a little big to go in there, the aisles are sort of narrow."

"I'm getting it to go," Panacea assured him. She turned to her companion. "Three Bob's Belly Busters?"

"Make it four, please, I'm a little hungry tonight," the reptile nodded. Assault stared. The requested burger was over two pounds of beef and grease, along with enough condiments to stock a small store, and a huge helping of fries. He wasn't sure he could manage _one_ of them even if he starved himself for a week and he certainly wouldn't be getting up afterwards.

Behind him, Battery made a slight retching sound at the mere concept.

Panacea simply nodded, then disappeared into the establishment, pulling some cash out of her pocket as she went through the front door.

Left standing next to one of the most impressive capes he'd ever seen, Assault looked over his shoulder at his wife, who shrugged wordlessly, then back at Raptaur who was watching him with what he could swear was amusement. "So..." he began. "Your sister seems to have improved business at the Thai restaurant she and Panacea went to the other day."

"I heard. I must go there myself," Raptaur replied, nodding. He had a sudden mental picture of the enormous creature waiting patiently in the queue outside for a table and grinned to himself. "She said it was very nice."

"I thought your take down of Hookwolf was very well done," Battery said as she moved to stand beside him.

"Thank you. He was extremely annoying but not very good," the huge lizard said, smiling again. Both of them tried not to recoil at the sight of the massive teeth. She apparently didn't notice. "I still don't know why he attacked the DWU but we came to an agreement he wouldn't do it again." She seemed satisfied.

Assault laughed a little. "I heard. Went swimming with him or something?"

"Something like that. He didn't seem to enjoy it all that much for some weird reason," she replied calmly. "I don't know why, the water's really refreshing at this time of year. Really quite warm so near the surface. It's much colder deeper down."

Glancing at Battery, Assault could see in her eyes she was remembering the same image he was, of something that had a definite family resemblance to the creature in front of him, only on a vastly larger scale. "Do you go into deep water much?" he asked, not sure he was doing the right thing but very curious.

She shrugged. "Not so much myself, but my sisters do. The bigger they get, the deeper they go."

"Oh." That raised a _lot_ of questions, none of which he was sure he wanted to know the answer to. "I see."

"Big brother goes the deepest, but he seldom comes to the surface," she carried on, making him wish he hadn't raised the subject. "Everything up here is too easily damaged. Even some of my sisters are worried about visiting although they want to. We don't want to break anything. You humans are mostly so fragile." She sniffed as he paled a little at the comment, then looked over her shoulder as Panacea came out of the fast food place. "But you make nice food and are fun to talk to, so it's all good."

"OK," he mumbled. Panacea reached them, handing over a large paper bag, which Raptaur took with a nod of thanks and a smile, then opened, looking into it. She reached in and pulled out a huge wrapped burger, which she sniffed curiously, then dropped into her mouth, wrapping and all. Everyone stared as she chewed contemplatively then swallowed.

"Not bad," she commented.

Panacea sighed. "Take the paper off you idiot," she instructed, shaking her head. The girl looked at Assault and Battery who were watching, bemused. "She's always doing this. They can eat absolutely anything and sometimes don't realize what parts are actually _supposed_ to be edible."

"Hey, if you don't want it eaten, don't wrap it around food," Raptaur protested, delicately unwrapping the next burger with the tips of her sharp talons, then popping the thing into her mouth. She chewed again.

Once she'd swallowed she smiled. "That's actually better, thanks."

Looking at the ball of greasy paper in her other hand, she shrugged and ate it as well. "Although that's not bad either. I'm told fiber is important in a growing girl's diet."

"You're impossible," Panacea said, a long-suffering look on her face. She handed the great reptile her own bag. "Here, hold this. I got some cans of coke to go with it, the normal drinks are going to spill." Moving around the other cape, she grabbed a handhold and climbed back into the saddle. "Come on, I can't eat with half the boardwalk watching me do it. Let's find somewhere more private."

"OK," Raptaur agreed cheerily. "It was nice to meet you, Assault, Battery. We'll probably bump into each other again sometime."

Panacea waved from her position atop Raptaur, then the pair moved off, the reptilian creature carefully picking her way through the crowd, most of whom moved out of the way pretty fast. He watched as they reached a clear area then broke into a sprint, reaching the end of the street and going straight up the front of the building there, to vanish over the top.

After several seconds, he turned to Battery. "She seems nice," he said faintly. "I wonder how many sisters she actually has?"

"I really don't want to know," Battery sighed. "I really, _really_ don't want to know. Come on, we're supposed to be on patrol."

She turned and walked off, while he cast another glance behind him at where the two had vanished, before following.

"Big brother?" he muttered quizzically. " _How_ big?"

It didn't seem likely he'd get an answer, which was, on reflection, probably for the best.

* * *

Amy slid off Taylor's back and fell to the ground, which in this case was the roof of a warehouse on the edge of the Docks area, laughing so hard she couldn't stand up. "Oh, that was _fantastic!_ " she crowed, shaking her head. "Did you see their faces? I've never seen Assault look shocked before, he's almost impossible to surprise. Normally he's just smiling at the world no matter what happens."

Lowering herself to the ground like some huge cat, Taylor grinned, handing her friend the bag with her burger and fries in. "It was pretty good," she agreed with a smirk. "He smelled very confused and just the tiniest bit scared."

Sitting up Amy accepted the bag, putting it beside her then reaching up and removing her helmet. Smiling broadly she shook her head then ran her fingers through her hair, before picking the bag up again and pulling out some fries which she ate. "These are good," she commented.

"You played your part well," Taylor said admiringly. "I didn't know you had it in you. But I'm glad you do."

"It just seemed the right thing to do at the time," Amy giggled. "I could get used to this. I see why you like making people look confused. It's a hell of a lot of fun."

"Better than fighting them," Taylor agreed. She ate some of her own fries. "Although if you combine the two it's pretty hysterical as well."

They sat next to each other and finished their meals, one or the other of them intermittently laughing, until they were done. Taylor looked at the pile of packaging debris, then crumpled it all up into a ball and ate it. Amy stared, before grinning with a shake of her head.

"You really can eat anything, can't you?"

"Basically, yes," Taylor smiled. "Some of it actually tastes interesting. Titanium is a bit bitter, aluminum is quite edible, weirdly enough. I don't know that I'd want to eat a lot of it but it makes an interesting garnish."

Satisfied with the way the evening was going, Amy leaned back, Taylor obligingly moving to provide a support. "Thank you for inviting me out, I've had fun," she said quietly. "More than I expected to."

"You're welcome, Amy," Taylor replied. "I'm more than happy to do this whenever you want. Once we train you up a bit, you can come and help me hit some criminals if you like."

Considering the suggestion, Amy smiled a little. "That might actually be interesting. Carol would go mental if I did, though."

"Another good reason to do it."

"You're not the one who has to live with her," Amy pointed out. "Your dad is fine with all of this and even helps. My parents are… not as supportive."

"That's a pity," Taylor sighed. "Hopefully that attitude will change eventually." They fell silent again, then she cheered up. "Hey, I forgot to say, Armsmaster came to visit the DWU today. He was looking for Raptaur."

Sitting up a little, Amy turned to stare at her friend. "Really? Why?"

"You remember I gave Leet a chunk of Vargastuff?" Amy nodded. "He apparently played with it for a while, then came up with an idea for some sort of anti-Endbringer weapon that could be made with it, and ended up contacting Armsmaster. Now Armsmaster wants to talk to me about actually building it."

"Holy shit! That's incredible!" Amy sat up fully. "An anti-Endbringer weapon? People are going to go nuts if it actually works."

"I know, it's a little overwhelming in some ways," Taylor shrugged. "But I'm interested to see what he has in mind. I'll call him tomorrow and arrange a time and place to meet and talk about it."

"Wow." Thinking over the ramifications, Amy leaned back again. "Just… Wow. Let me know what happens."

"I will," Taylor smiled. "On a completely different subject, how is your own project going?"

Amy held up her right arm and looked at it, then lowered it, smiling.

"I've had so many ideas since your Dad came up with that key breakthrough you wouldn't believe it. I'm still tweaking the design of this thing, though, before I try anything more adventurous. I've improved it quite a bit, it should deal with pretty much any disease now, including cancer and immune system problems. I can't think of any way to test some of them without a live trial on someone with the actual issue, which could be a problem. It's not something the PRT would be completely happy about. Not to mention I'm not wildly keen on letting them know what I can really do."

"Maybe we sell it as an invention of The Family?" Taylor suggested after some thought. "Or just something they get from an anonymous Biotinker. At least that way they wouldn't be looking at you."

"Possibly," Amy mused. "That might work. When I get this design just right, it could end up being a really important invention. It could in theory practically eliminate disease and a hell of a lot of injuries as well. I think I can make it work well enough that unless someone using it got killed on the spot they'd probably survive."

"That's… amazing." Taylor stared at her. "Really, absolutely amazing. You _have_ to make that work."

"I'm sure going to try," she replied with a firm nod. "PRT or no PRT. I've redesigned this one about five times now, and fixed the initial pain when it integrates the first time. That was really uncomfortable. Now it turns the pain receptors off as the first action, while it merges with the host, until it's finished. It should be completely painless."

"Impressive."

"Thanks. It's also only the tip of the iceberg, though. I have some other more radical ideas that I'm not giving to anyone else, they're for me and my friends. I'm going to need your and Varga's help for some of them."

Taylor looked at her curiously. "Like what?"

With a small devious smile, Amy began explaining, her friend staring, then grinning widely after a while.

* * *

When Amy came home just after midnight, Carol was on her way to bed. The girl seemed weirdly cheerful, smiling at her with no signs of her normal sullen outlook. Carol inspected her closely, seeing she was carrying a large backpack that she hadn't had when she'd left. "What's that?" she asked slightly suspiciously.

"Just a present from a friend," the girl replied in an off-hand manner. "Some clothes."

"I hope you haven't got yourself involved in anything… unwise… Amy," she said.

"Of course I haven't, Carol! What do you think I am? A villain?" Amy grinned at her. "I'm a hero just like you and the rest of the family." After a moment, she added, "I'm tired so I'm off to bed now. Good night." With another smile, she went upstairs, the pack over her shoulder, radiating a sort of contented happiness which Carol found both out of character and somewhat worrying.

"Hmm," she muttered thoughtfully, watching the girl vanish at the top of the stairs, before going into the kitchen to get a glass of water.

And an aspirin. For some reason every time she thought about her second daughter these days, and the friends she seemed to be keeping, she got a headache.


	55. Companies and Meetings

**Thursday, February 10, 2011**

"You're looking happy, Dad," Taylor noted as she ate breakfast. Her father was definitely in a good mood, smiling to himself as he went over some paperwork on the table next to his plate.

"I have every reason to, dear," he replied, not looking up from the sheet he was reading for a moment, then absently picking a piece of bacon off the plate next to his elbow and eating it. "Things are going so well at the moment I'm almost afraid to look away from them in case something ruins it all."

"If it does I'll hit it until it fixes it again," she grinned.

Looking up at her, he smiled more widely. "I would expect nothing less, Taylor."

He read the paper again, then pushed it across to her. "Have a look at this."

Curious she picked it up and started reading, after a moment staring at him wide-eyed. "What the hell?"

He chuckled, going back to eating. "I thought you'd find it interesting."

"I think Varga must be contagious," she mumbled while hearing a laugh inside her head, going back to the document, which seemed to be a certificate of incorporation for a company called ' _Brockton Bay Family Operations, LLC'_ with Danny Hebert listed as General Manager. There was a legal contact she recognized as the DWU lawyer, as well as the DWU accounts department being down as financial contacts. The registered address was one of the buildings at the DWU complex.

Saurial and Raptaur were both mentioned as providing ' _Specialist professional Parahuman services, including but not limited to, Security, Client Protection, Debt Collection, Construction, Demolition, and Engineering Support Facilities_.' Also mentioned were ' _Other Parahuman individuals providing equivalent or supplementary services on a contractual basis as needed_.'

Turning it over she read the other side, seeing that professional indemnity insurance, Parahuman involvement waivers, and a number of other things she had no idea about were listed by document number. All in all it looked very professional and she assumed it was all legal.

"How did you do all this?" she asked in a dumbfounded voice, " _WHY_ did you do all this?"

Her father leaned back in his chair holding his cup of coffee in both hands, watching her with amusement. "It's not hard to arrange, the Parahuman part is the most difficult, but I've had our legal people looking into everything we need for weeks now, just in case. It's completely legal. Setting up a limited liability company is a straightforward operation, you can do most of it online in about an hour. Originally I thought of just having you in your various incarnations working directly under the aegis of the DWU, but this is actually a simpler and easier method that also gives a few advantages. The DWU will simply subcontract work as needed to BBFO, LLC, who then carry out the work. I'm a non-remunerated officer of the company, while the DWU provides legal representation and financial services on a contractual basis for a reasonable rate."

"Holy crap," Taylor muttered, still gaping at him. "I know you mentioned something like this but I never thought you'd actually _do_ it."

He shrugged, smiling at her. "Why not? It makes things much easier in many respects, it stops the PRT having much of a leg to stand on as long as we don't do anything illegal, and it means we can, or rather, _you_ can, offer the city as much work as you want to do and get paid for it. I know you're not planning on asking for money for this project, and I'm grateful for that, as is the Mayor, but even so in future you might want some income. This makes that possible without too much fuss."

She shook her head in wonder, glancing at the document again, then handed it back. "Thanks, I think," she laughed.

"You're welcome, of course. When you're eighteen you can take over as General Manager if you want, which would make the company entirely yours, but while you're a minor there are all sorts of limitations and potential pitfalls on being involved in a company like that. There are less age issues surrounding Parahumans under eighteen, oddly enough, so there's no problem with Saurial and the rest of you providing services. And if you find any other capes who want a job, you can hire them."

"Wow." Taylor went back to her own breakfast, her expression thoughtful. "I can see some possibilities with that."

"I thought you would. If you want to make and sell costumes, that can be done through the same company, or we can set up a subsidiary one easily enough now that the holding organization is available. That's a fairly common approach." He smirked. "Obviously the DWU would like preferential rates."

Taylor grinned. "I think we can come to a suitable arrangement. Although I've heard that the top DWU negotiator is a hard man to work with."

"I've heard the same thing. Be careful, he's a dangerous man."

They smiled at each other, then laughed. He reached into his pocket and removed an envelope, sliding it across the table to her. "Here, you'll need this as well."

"What is it?" she asked, picking the lumpy envelope up and slitting it open with a flick of a taloned finger, the claw disappearing when no longer needed. Tipping the envelope up she shook it, a key-ring with three high security keys on it and a folded sheet of paper dropping out onto the table.

"The keys for the front and back doors of the relevant building, the main gate key, and the alarm codes and instructions," he replied. "We've installed new alarms throughout the entire facility, upgraded the physical security, and cleaned that building out. It's fifteen thousand square feet of two story warehouse backing onto the water you can do anything you like in, officially. BBFO is leasing it from the DWU for a nominal sum on a ninety-nine year lease. Pretty standard. There's three phase power, water and drain services, all the usual stuff. The floor is a bit chewed up since it used to be used for storage of some heavy equipment which has been moved out, but I know that between you and Varga you won't have any trouble dealing with that. There's also the bank account details for the main BBFO account I've opened and put two thousand dollars into as an initial retainers fee. The bank cards and other stuff should be here next week."

Getting up and going around the table, she hugged him. "Thanks, Dad. This is amazing."

"I'm glad you like it," he smiled. "You can meet Armsmaster there if you want."

"Hey, that's not a bad idea," she grinned. "I'll call him at lunch. I'm really curious to see what he has in mind."

"So am I," her father admitted. After a moment, he went on, "I'm also going to put Saurial, Raptaur, and Kaiju down as fully paid up DWU members. It seems appropriate, and you wouldn't believe the number of people at the Yard who have asked when that would happen. You have a lot of fans there. Only about half a dozen know so far that Raptaur and Saurial are the same person, and I'd guess that they'll all work out that Kaiju is as well, but they're not going to tell anyone."

"OK, I don't mind," she smiled. "Do I have to do anything?"

"Sign these forms, ideally in different handwriting," he told her, pulling two sheets of paper out of a folder on the table and pushing them across to her. Taking on both Saurial and Raptaur alter egos one after the other she did as requested, then looked at the documents side by side.

"Hmm. That actually worked, my handwriting looks different," she smiled, resuming her base form.

"Great." He accepted the documents back. "You'll need to come down to the Yard and get photos taken as well for your ID cards. I'm not quite sure how we'll handle Kaiju yet, or that huge swimming thing that eats Dragon's tech. Which must have annoyed her."

Taylor shrugged with a wide grin. "She shouldn't poke me in the face with things if she wants them to survive. I bite."

"I expect she noticed," he chuckled. "Armsmaster seemed impressed with that little bit you picked out of your teeth. I'll show it to you, the guys in the shop did a great job mounting it for me."

Taylor stared at him, then giggled. "Oh my god, you actually did _that_ as well? Then _Armsmaster_ saw it? God, he must have wondered how the hell you got it."

"I think he's now picturing that enormous thing slithering up out of the bay and into the Yard and knocking on the door," her father grinned. "I could swear he went a funny color. He certainly sounded confused, poor guy. Try not to completely break him, he's a good man overall."

"I know he is, I have a hell of a lot of respect for him," she replied. "Amy has told me a lot about him as well. She thinks his sense of humor needs a lot of work but still says he's a decent person."

"Have you thought of a name for that swimming form?" he asked curiously, standing up and taking their empty plates to the sink to wash.

"Amy, I, and Varga talked it over for a while the other night," she replied, moving to help dry the dishes. "She suggested sticking with the Japanese naming scheme for the big ones, if we're going with Kaiju. It sort of fits, Princess Luna's culture had a lot of similarities to ancient Japan, even the language was a bit similar for some weird reason. Anyway, we looked it up online and came up with ' _Umihebi_ ' which actually means Sea Serpent in Japanese. I think it fits."

"It does," he laughed. "Umihebi. I like it. I wonder what she does for BBFO?"

"Deep sea operations and salvage or something like that," Taylor replied. "Or maybe research? I could offer to take pictures on the bottom if we can work out some sort of camera that would survive the pressure."

"The one thing I'm certain of with all this is that you'll never lack for a source of income," he smiled. "You can support me in my old age in the style to which I would very much like to become accustomed."

Putting an arm around his waist she hugged him for a second. "I hope your old age is a _long_ way off, but yes, I'll do anything I can to help, Dad," she said quietly.

He ruffled her hair tenderly. "I'm sure you will, dear. Now, I need to get to work and you need to get to school. Stop by the Yard after school and we'll get those photos done. We can also talk more about you helping take those buildings down, I'd like to do that tomorrow ideally. Don't forget to call Armsmaster."

Releasing him, she stepped back, folding the drying cloth she'd been using and putting it down on the counter. "I won't forget," she smiled. "I'll see you later."

Picking up the key-ring and documentation which she put in her pocket, she went upstairs, quickly brushed her teeth, grabbed her backpack and homework, then left the house, shortly sprinting down the street under the cloak as Saurial, smiling to herself.

The day had started well so far.

* * *

Vicky looked at the image on the tablet in her hands as she went into her sisters room just before breakfast, her eyes wide. Amy was sitting in front of the dresser mirror brushing her hair and looked up as the blonde girl walked over to her, a small smile on her face that was subtly different from the normal sardonic smirk. Not wildly, but enough for someone who knew her as well as Vicky did to see. The girl looked… content.

Much more so than she had been for a long time. It was something the made her sister very pleased, as had the news that Amy had finally taken the sensible step of reducing her hours at the hospital. Maybe she'd get a life, Vicky had thought to herself when she'd heard.

Looking at the image on her tablet, she thought, ' _I didn't expect_ _ **this**_ _amount of life, though!_ '

"You look confused, Sis," Amy noted calmly, going back to brushing her hair for a moment, then putting the brush down and getting up, heading for the closet and a shirt.

"I'm a bit… surprised," Vicky admitted, staring at her sister's back, which was all she could see now that the rest of her was buried in hanging clothing. "There are some kind of odd photos on PHO and a really weird thread. About you. Last night."

"Oh." Amy reappeared from the depths of the closet, holding up two shirts, a dark green one and a nearly black blue one, looking between them with an evaluating expression, before putting the blue one back. "That's nice."

"It's fucking bizarre is what it is," Vicky exclaimed. "Mom is going to go nuts when she sees these! Where did you get that costume anyway?"

"Raptaur made it for me last night," Amy explained mildly, pulling the shirt on and doing up the buttons. "It's pretty cool and completely bulletproof." She glanced at her sister. "Which was a nice thought since all these years I've been going to Endbringer fights in a set of cotton robes, which oddly enough, _aren't_ bulletproof. She seemed to think that was a little dangerous." The brunette smiled slightly. "She said that people who are both important and crunchy should take precautions so they don't get squished."

Vicky winced at the comment and the image it brought to mind. It also made her realize for the first time that her sister was indeed the most vulnerable member of New Wave and the one who had the least protection. It suddenly seemed odd to her than no one had even pointed this out before or thought to do something about it.

"Crap. I should have thought of that," she muttered.

"Apparently no one did," Amy shrugged. "To be honest I never did either until she brought the subject up, but she's right."

She went over to her desk and began packing her schoolbooks and notebooks into her backpack, closing the one on top which was full of her tiny neat handwriting. A case of pens went in on top. Vicky could see a flash of white under everything, her sister's normal costume. Now worried, she pointed.

"What about your robes?"

Zipping the pack shut, Amy turned to her and studied her for a moment, before smiling slyly. "Those aren't my original robes. Saurial upgraded them for me. Both of them were concerned about me being vulnerable. These are lined with that stuff she uses to make weapons out of, it stops impacts like you wouldn't believe. I think even you couldn't punch a hole in it. A bullet or a knife doesn't stand a chance."

"Wow. That's amazing," Vicky replied after a wide-eyed look. "Are they going to start making costumes for other capes? There's a lot of money in that, I bet."

Amy shrugged. "I don't know for sure but she did mention it as a possibility."

Suddenly smiling, Vicky replied, "I'm sorry none of us ever thought about that, but I'm glad you have friends like those two. As terrifying as they are. You're at least safe with them, no one in their right mind would attack you knowing your friends."

Her sister grinned a little. "Probably not, no. I think that either one of them would be a little pissed about that. They seem to look after people they like."

Holding up the tablet which had an image of Amy standing next to Raptaur, Assault and Battery apparently talking to them, Vicky asked, "Can I see it? It looks really badass."

"It's in the closet in that bag on the floor," Amy noted, pointing. Putting the tablet on her sister's bed, she pulled the backpack out and knelt next to it, opening it to reveal the new costume, the helmet on top. She lifted it out and inspected it, whistling softly in appreciation of the workmanship.

"This is wild," she smiled. "And incredibly well made, it looks really professional. Like it came out of a factory." Tapping it with a fingernail, she asked curiously, "What's it made of?"

"The outer surface of the helmet is that special material, and the inside is lined with more of it the same as the suit is, with some sort of foam or something between them," Amy said as she came over and knelt next to her sister. "It's really comfortable."

"Pretty heavy," Vicky noted, hefting the helmet.

"Once it's on you don't notice, it's very well balanced," Amy replied. "The faceplate is a huge single crystal of transparent ruby with a really fine mesh of the special material on both sides."

Vicky experimentally tried the helmet on, finding it fitted, but not wildly well, being somewhat tight. Tapping the side of her head, she was impressed at the way she didn't really feel anything. She tried harder, then harder again, stopping when Amy began laughing.

"If I video this and put it on PHO people are going to wonder why you're trying to punch yourself in the head," she snickered. "Even for a blonde that's strange."

Grinning at her sister through the amazingly clear faceplate Vicky laughed. "Sorry. I'm just seeing how much impact it can take."

"More than you can apply, I think," Amy noted. "Although there are limits to how much _I_ could survive, even if the helmet did."

"It'll certainly stop a club or a bullet, though," the blonde said as she took it off, then inspected the rest of the suit as much as she could without unpacking it. There were gloves and boots all in the same style in the pack as well as the suit itself, all very soft inside and slick and tough on the outside. "This is really good work. At least as good as that new Rogue, Parian, I've seen some of her things as well. Maybe Raptaur or Saurial should talk to her about some sort of partnership."

"From what I've heard about Parian I don't think she wants to work with other capes, but I guess it might be something that would be worth looking into," Amy replied after a thoughtful moment. "I'll mention it the next time I see either of them." She looked at her watch, then stood. "Put it away, we need to get breakfast or we'll be late for school."

Tucking the helmet back into the pack Vicky zipped it up, then returned the thing to where it had come from, before grabbing her tablet and following her sister downstairs to the table, still thinking about that new costume. It was a little weird to think that someone who looked like Raptaur was also good with making things like that, but she was very impressed.

Breakfast was odd. Their mother was in a very funny mood even for her. They were both quite happy to finally escape.

* * *

"Can someone tell me what the hell is going on out there?" Director Piggot's voice was full of sarcastic politeness as soon as they all sat down for the morning meeting.

"I'm not entirely sure what you mean, Director," Battery replied when the gaze of the PRT director passed over Assault, who was leaning back in his chair trying to balance a pen on the end of his nose again, winced slightly, and landed on her.

" _Are_ you not?" Piggot stabbed a control on the console in front of her, an image that the heroine recognized with a small inner sigh appearing on the large screen hanging from the ceiling. Everyone looked at it, then her. Triumph seemed somewhat amused, Miss Militia looked thoughtful, and Armsmaster didn't have any particular expression visible other than one which indicated that he was thinking about something else more interesting. Velocity snickered, nudging Assault, who sat up and paid attention. Dauntless was listening with curious interest.

"I'm not the only one who has noticed that you and your irritating husband had an encounter with Raptaur last night. That part I'm not too interested in, while she's absolutely horrifying, by all reports she's also both polite and helpful and as long as she stays like that we'll keep out of it for the sake of everyone's sanity. Most importantly, mine."

Ethan chuckled, making her glare at him for a moment.

"However," she said, emphasizing the word, "I am very curious as to how Panacea got involved, where she got that apparently professionally made costume from, why she decided to rebrand herself, whether the rest of New Wave are involved and if so, how, and what the pair of them are doing. They seem awfully casual with each other which I find interesting. How long have they known each other?"

The blonde superhero shrugged a little. "I'm not able to answer most of those questions, Director," she replied. "I filed a report on the encounter just before the meeting, from the notes I took last night when we got off shift, but I didn't think it was important enough to disturb you at home over at the time since it was so late. I'm sorry if that was the wrong call."

Piggot sighed a little. "No, it wasn't the wrong call, I suppose, under the circumstances. Let me have a look at the report for a moment." She pulled up the relevant file and quickly read it on the screen next to her elbow, making a few notes on a pad as she did. Everyone waited patiently, Armsmaster staring off into space and apparently designing something in his head.

Finishing her reading, the Director shook her head a little, an odd expression on her face, then looked at Battery again. "That explains a few things but raises a lot more questions." She glanced at Miss Militia, an unreadable look passing between them, then turned back to the pair who had met Raptaur and her companion the night before.

"I'm particularly curious about Panacea's involvement. Several things seem out of character there, the most visible and obvious one being the new costume."

"It was extremely good quality," Ethan replied with a smile. "Better than mine from what I could see. I'd love to know where she got it made."

"Parian, perhaps?" Robin suggested. "She's beginning to make her name known, she produces very high quality work."

"I don't think she does armored costumes, though," Miss Militia pointed out, flipping through the PHO images. There were a lot of them, the number of spectators had been significant due to the location and time of day. Everyone looked at the monitor. She zoomed in on Panacea's helmet, then on another screen on her torso. "That helmet looks very similar to me to Saurial's breastplate in the way it catches the light, and some of the armored inserts on the torso are the same. I think it's that SaurialSteel material. Which in turn probably makes the entire costume bullet-proof at the least."

"Cool," Assault grinned. "Good to see someone's finally taking the girl seriously. She's needed a decent protective costume for years."

Now they all looked at him. He shrugged, looking around the table. "What? Hasn't anyone else ever noticed that the girl who can heal practically anything and is the sole reason at least half of us are still alive, yet _can't_ heal herself, has been attending Endbringer fights in basically normal clothing? Really? No-one?"

A number of glances were exchanged between various Protectorate members. He sighed a little. "God, and people think _I'm_ oblivious…"

"Relatively few of either the Wards or the Protectorate in Brockton Bay have costumes that are sufficiently protected against impact or projectiles in my opinion," Armsmaster noted in the quiet that followed. "I have mentioned this in several reports over the years. Group efficiency would be significantly improved if this was rectified, by a minimum of sixty-eight point fifteen percent during combat against medium level threats. I can provide documentary evidence of my calculations if required."

Piggot looked at him and sighed. "I have explained that the cost of providing armored costumes to the level _you_ think is ' _sufficient_ ' is prohibitive, as is the ongoing cost of maintenance of the Tinker technology that would inevitably be required. PRT policy is that only Capes who are both particularly vulnerable _and_ likely to enter live combat situations be provided with such protection, unless they can provide it themselves. I happen not to agree with it but my hands are tied."

"' _Live combat situations_ ' describe day to day life in a lot of Brockton Bay," Velocity pointed out with a small frown. "And I would respectfully mention that Panacea, of all people, could be considered particularly valuable. Ethan's right, she's saved almost everyone around this table at least once, Director. Including you."

The Director didn't look too pleased about that part, but didn't mention it. "She is also not a Protectorate member, either full time or as part of the Wards scheme, so we have even less reason or responsibility to provide support for her. That is down to internal New Wave practice and if they see fit to allow her out in ordinary cloth, that's their business."

"Most of New wave have either inherent essential invulnerability to at least low level attacks, or have countermeasures that amount to the same thing," Colin commented. "Panacea has neither."

Battery was thinking about the fact that her own Kevlar and ceramic-fiber-lined costume only provided minimal protection to low caliber bullets and blades, enough to stop the average thug with a handgun or a knife, which in combination with her own powers had kept her intact so far. But something heavier wouldn't be stopped. She wondered if whoever had actually provided Panacea's new costume was interested in commissions and how much it would cost. Looking around the table she could see that there were a number of others probably wondering the same thing.

"Additionally I would take issue with the argument that ongoing maintenance would be an issue, Director," the Tinker continued, making Piggot look mildly annoyed. Not something he'd notice, in all likelihood. "If the costume Panacea was wearing during these photos is indeed manufactured entirely or partially from electron-degenerate matter, made permanent via whatever method that is used, it is very unlikely to require any maintenance at all. Most likely for timescales that exceed normal life expectancy by a considerable margin. The substance has truly remarkable physical properties." He studied the images on the monitors with interest, while Director Piggot seemed to sigh very faintly. "I was unaware of any way it could be made transparent, though, so I am intrigued by the helmet faceplate. It may be made of something else."

"I appreciate your professional interest in the costume, Colin, but we seem to have drifted away from the main point of my own interest, which is how and why Panacea came to be wearing it in the first place and where she got it from?"

Everyone fell silent, looking at the images, then each other. "Maybe Raptaur just noticed that her friend needed protection and did something about it?" Rory asked after a few seconds. "If it's made out of that magical supermetal maybe Saurial made it? Or Raptaur? Or maybe one of her sisters."

Director Piggot winced, looking pained, while Hannah got a weird expression for a moment. "Yes. Her sisters. Like that horrendous swimming thing that could practically swallow the Rig. Your report mentioned that she casually referenced more of her family. Did she go into any detail?"

"Not as such, no, Director," Battery replied, glancing at her husband who was looking mildly amused yet also a little worried. "She commented that the bigger they got the deeper they went, though. That could explain the contact that Armsmaster and Dragon had. It could also imply that there are bigger ones out there somewhere."

"She also said that they wanted to come and visit the city but everything up here was too fragile," Assault added. "Like us humans. But that we made nice food and were interesting to talk to."

The Director looked sharply at Miss Militia, who seemed somewhat shocked, then turned back to the smiling man. "' _Humans_.' She said that?"

"She did," he confirmed. "As in, I'm not one but I like them even so. Weird, right? I was thinking that she was a cape like a case 53 or something, but..." He looked puzzled. "The way she said it really sounded like she didn't consider herself human."

"How… interesting," Piggot muttered with another glance at Miss Militia who was making some notes, her brow furrowed.

"I hope that when she said that humans made nice food, she meant that they created nice food, not were nice food," Velocity joked, making Assault grin.

"I'm pretty sure she doesn't actually eat people, although she seemed capable of eating anything. Panacea actually confirmed that. We saw her eat an entire Bob's Belly Buster burger, _in the wrapping_ , in one bite, which was… terrifying. Also a bit disgusting. Do you know how many calories one of those things has?"

"Way too many," Battery mumbled, feeling ill at the mere thought of the horrible thing.

They discussed the incident for some time, Director Piggot going over the entire encounter in minute detail, then asking more questions about Panacea's involvement.

"I have to say she looked happier than I've seen her for a long time," Battery noted.

"Master influence?" the Director asked sharply, a worried expression on her face.

"I… don't think so," she replied slowly. "Without putting her under Master/Stranger protocols we can't be certain, of course, but I think she was just enjoying herself. That's the impression I got, anyway. Like she was simply having fun with a friend. One she trusted implicitly."

Eventually, after more discussion, Director Piggot held up a hand, stopping an argument between Assault and Velocity about who would win in a fight, Raptaur or Alexandria. Even Battery had no idea how they'd ended up on that subject. She blamed her husband, since it was normally his fault. "Enough. We could go on like this all day and frankly I have better things to do. Moving on. Is there anything else to report that stands out as unusual before we get to normal business?"

"Danny Hebert has a fragment of Dragon's destroyed probe sitting on his desk," Armsmaster said somewhat reluctantly after a long pause. Everyone stared at him.

" _WHAT?_ " the Director squeaked, before clearing her throat and trying again. "I mean, are you sure, Colin?"

"Almost certain," the Tinker nodded. "I recognize the unique appearance of the alloy used. It's one that Dragon invented although I had some input, and we both use it extensively. My current armor is made in part of the same material. The fragment is small, perhaps half the size of a pencil, and shows signs of extreme stress and chemical attack. It's mounted on a small wooden plinth, probably reclaimed teak, from a ship, with a brass plaque next to it."

"How the _hell_ did he get _that?_ " she asked, wide-eyed.

He shrugged. "I have no idea. I would assume that the… sea serpent… gave it to him, or one of her sisters who then passed it on. Which does also provide more confirmation that they are related."

"Does he know what it is? Where it came from?"

"I would think so, yes," the man replied, frowning slightly. He told them what was written on the plaque, which made Assault chuckle, which in turn made his wife plant an elbow in his ribs.

"A man with a sense of humor," the red-clad hero snickered. "I think I like him."

Glaring at him for a moment until he subsided, the Director turned back to Armsmaster. "Why were you at the DWU facility in the first place?" she asked slowly.

"I wished to contact Raptaur about acquiring another larger sample of the electron-degenerate matter I have been referring to as SaurialSteel and the only person I could think of who might be able to arrange that was Danny Hebert," the man replied immediately. Battery looked closely at him, she was almost certain he was leaving out something, based on his tone of voice. Piggot seemed to think the same but for some reason didn't call him on it, merely nodding.

"Is he able to?"

"He took my card and promised to pass it on to her as soon as possible. I requested that she call me. So far she hasn't."

The Director seemed to be thinking hard. Eventually she replied, "Be careful and don't push too hard, Armsmaster. Thank you for reporting the matter." Everyone else seemed somewhat surprised about the response, having half-expected either a considerable amount of argument or a flat order to stay away from the reptilian cape. "Unless there's anything else, I'd like to finish up normal business."

No one seemed to have anything particularly unusual to report, so they went back to the standard shift assignments and other PRT business which kept them occupied for another half hour. When the meeting, which had lasted over an hour longer than usual, finally ended, Director Piggot looked relieved. "Thank you, everyone. You're all dismissed. Hannah, if I could have a quick word before you leave?"

Battery, along with most of the others, rose and headed to the door, wondering why Piggot and Miss Militia were closeting themselves away in private meetings so often these days, and whether it was related to the sudden security crackdown throughout the PRT building and the Rig. At least three PRT operatives seemed to have disappeared in the last few days as well, which was a little strange.

A particularly bad joke from her dear husband distracted her and made Velocity groan, shaking his head. Sighing she poked the man in the tender spot under his rib-cage, hard, then as he yelped, grabbed him by the shoulder and towed him away, Robin laughing behind them.

"Puppy, that hurt," Ethan protested.

"No it didn't, and even if it did you deserved it, you great idiot. Come on, we're already late since that damn meeting went on for so long."

Wearing the same small smirk he greeted most of the world with her husband followed dutifully, although she could hear him snickering under his breath.


	56. Lunch and Discussions

When the room was empty except for the two of them and Hannah had disconnected the security camera, Emily met her companion's eyes. "How is Panacea involved? This worries me. Could she be our mystery Biotinker? **"**

The other woman was obviously thinking hard, reading the notes she'd made during the meeting, and Emily's ones as well, but finally shook her head a little. "I can't see how, to be honest. Her power isn't a Biotinker one, it's a Biokinetic Striker specializing in healing. Admittedly she could probably do more, but creating new life forms from scratch? Sentient ones at that?"

She shrugged slightly, looking confused. "Not to mention that once again the timeline doesn't make a lot of sense. Panacea Triggered nearly two and a half years ago. In all that time all she's ever done is heal people. Probably tens of thousands of them by now, the girl spends almost all her free time at either Brockton General or one of the smaller hospitals in the city, or at Endbringer fights. She hasn't missed one since she Triggered. Ethan's right, there are hundreds of capes who owe her their lives."

The woman sighed slightly. "But in all that time that's _all_ she's done. It's clearly been stressing her out more and more, she's looking more tired every time I meet her, but there's no sign that she can do much more than what she currently does. Going from that to full-blown biotinkering like Blasto or god forbid, Nilbog, seems a stretch. Without a lot more evidence I can't see how it _could_ be her work. If nothing else because I can't see how she had time to do it."

Emily was nodding along with the points made, agreeing on the whole. She couldn't see a flaw in the logic, although for a moment it had looked like a distinct possibility. Even so… "Ask the Wards to keep an eye open for any aberrant behavior," she requested. "They attend school with her and know her, if anything odd is going on they might be the first to notice. Also, see if Carol or Mark Dallon have noticed anything amiss. Discreetly, of course. We don't want to make them start looking into any of this themselves. It's essential we keep this to the minimum number of people until we either get to the bottom of the truth of it, or circumstances force our hand."

She sighed heavily. "The panic that could result… I don't want to think about it. This city is on the verge of erupting at the best of times."

"Although in the last couple of weeks things do seem to have calmed down significantly for some reason," Hannah noted. "Some of it is certainly down to… _'The Family_ ' for want of a better description, but definitely not all of it. The E88 capes seem to be being unusually quiet and we haven't heard anything of Coil for close to three weeks now."

"Hopefully he had a massive stroke and died in a corner," Emily muttered. Her companion smiled a little.

"I doubt we're that lucky, but it is odd. Lung is keeping to himself and seems to be keeping Oni Lee on a short leash, the Undersiders are being very quiet too… It's odd, but I'm happy about it."

"So am I except for the horrible feeling that they're all just waiting to unleash something on us when we least expect it," Emily replied sourly. "Things _never_ get better in Brockton Bay, only worse, one way or another."

"Perhaps the situation _is_ changing for the better?"

"That's just what they want us to think." Emily smiled faintly as the other woman raised a skeptical eyebrow. "I know, I know, I'm being over-paranoid even for me."

"You are a little, Director," the cape smiled. They both mulled the current state of affairs over for a moment. "Have you contacted the Chief Director about all this yet?"

"No, not yet. I'm going to have to very soon but I wanted something more concrete to go on than ' _Oh, yes, we have an infestation of wildly over-powered reptilian capes that are popping out of the woodwork and then mainly running around amusing themselves at everyone else's expense, don't worry, it's all under control, honest_ ,' to tell her," Emily replied with heavy sarcasm. "Somehow I doubt that would go down very well. We need something we can prove, about where they came from, what they really want, who is responsible… anything, really."

"I'm more than half hoping that we're both wrong and it really _is_ a ridiculously powerful Changer of some sort," Hannah said. "It would still be worrying but at least there would only be one person to deal with."

"This latest information doesn't seem to make that likely, though, does it?" Emily asked. "Raptaur implying that she's not human, and knows it… That's certainly odd at best. Either she's a bioconstruct, or… what, an alien?"

"I very much doubt that last idea," Hannah laughed. "Aliens seem somewhat unlikely. But if she's aware that she's an artificial life form, that could be an interesting data point. It's not impossible that if we can get her to trust us we could also find out who is behind all this."

"Any lead to the group responsible would be a good thing at this point," Emily sighed. "I'll let Colin deal with that side of things for the moment. I suppose it's possible that he'd have more luck relating to someone who isn't human than he does otherwise. Since he's already taken it upon himself to initiate contact we may as well see what happens."

Hannah smiled a little at her words, nodding for a moment. "I'll keep an eye on him, Director."

"Thank you."

She shook her head in annoyance. "We seem to be spending most of our time reacting to either those two lizards or people they know. It's getting irritating." After a moment, she changed the subject with some relief. "Any more luck on the internal security front since the last report?"

"I've found another mole, this one seems to report to Kaiser, or one of his men," Hannah nodded. "Not high in the PRT structure so his access was limited, which hopefully means that the damage is small, but it's still concerning. His computer and phone are being exhaustively examined at the moment. He's not talking himself although I'll keep working on him."

"Good. Or rather, not good, but good work. Keep me updated, please." She looked at her watch. "Normally I'd be going for a long dialysis session about now but since the other day I have a lot more time available. I'm grateful for that although not enthused about the circumstances."

"You do look much better, Director," Hannah noted with a smile. "I'm pleased to see you so well. We were getting worried the last month or so."

Emily grunted, not replying, but couldn't help smiling just the smallest amount as she got up without any pain at all. It was a wonderful change from the last few years. Not that she planned on mentioning it, of course.

"All right, thank you for the information. We both have work to get back to. Dismissed."

Nodding politely, Hannah re-wrapped her scarf around the lower part of her face, stood, and left, reconnecting the security camera on the way. Emily considered the device, wondering for a moment whether these extra security precautions were needed, then decided that until she was absolutely certain they weren't, she'd keep doing them, regulations or no regulations. There was too much potentially at stake to risk it over a few minutes of video and audio recordings.

Mentally composing, for about the hundredth time, the conversation she was inevitably going to have with Chief Director Costa-Brown, she headed back to her office, stopping by the cafeteria on the way to get a slice of cherry pie. Jon and his diet could wait until Monday.

* * *

Taylor watched Amy talking to the various Wards, who were discussing her wardrobe change and new hobby of riding Raptaur, which seemed to amuse them and confuse them equally. Chris seemed very interested in examining her new costume, as was Dennis, Carlos merely seemed puzzled about the entire situation, and Dean was watching her with a mildly worried expression. He glanced over at Taylor who smiled very slightly at him, which didn't seem to make him any happier.

After a few minutes, Amy excused herself and came over to the table Taylor and the others were sitting at. "Can I join you again?" she asked.

"Of course, Amy, any time!" Mandy exclaimed, waving at a free seat. "You're always welcome."

"Thank you," the Dallon girl said as she sat, smiling at them. She had her tray with her, putting it on the table with theirs, then picking up her fork. "So, what's new with you all."

Everyone stared at her, then at each other. Mandy started giggling. "What's new with u _s?_ " she asked with an incredulous look. " _We're_ not the ones going into Fugly's and buying huge bags of burgers for Raptaur of all people. What the hell is going on with _that?_ "

Amy grinned. "I'm not entirely sure, I seem to have just ended up a friend of The Family," she said, then laughed as the others all did. "Sorry, it sounds completely stupid when I say it like that."

"It sounds like you've got Mafia protection," Eric snickered. She grinned again.

"They're _way_ more dangerous than the Mafia," she replied. He nodded, still laughing. "You wouldn't wake up next to a horse's head, it would probably be Leviathan's or something." This had them in hysterics, even Taylor.

"They can make _you_ an offer your _grandparents_ can't refuse," Lucy commented with a smile of her own when she stopped giggling, which set everyone off again. An entire series of steadily worse Mafia jokes, suitably modified to fit a family of semi-aquatic reptilian creatures of gradually increasing size, kept them entertained for several minutes.

By the time they finished, half the cafeteria was staring at them due to the howls of laughter, while Dennis had come over and joined in, coming up with some really funny ones. Chuckling to himself he looked around for a moment. "Whoops. Sorry, everyone, go about your business. Nothing to see here." Dozens of people looked at him, then slowly resumed eating. Clapping Amy on the shoulder the red-head grinned to the others then went back to his own table.

"He can be very funny," Mandy smiled, watching him for a moment.

"When he's not being very annoying," Amy noted, momentarily looking mildly irritated, which made them all look at her with amusement.

"Anyway, that aside, how did you end up wearing that costume and riding Raptaur again, not to mention making Assault and Battery look really, really confused, Amy?" the Chinese girl asked curiously.

Amy shrugged a little helplessly. "I'm not entirely certain, to be honest. It sort of happened. It all seemed like a good idea at the time."

"Where did the costume come from?" Mandy asked. Amy explained most of the previous night's entertainment, leaving out the Medhall caper as Taylor was thinking of it, and all the private stuff as well. By the end of it her small audience was staring at her with amusement, a certain amount of envy in one or two cases, and respect. "Wow." Mandy seemed speechless.

"I know, right?" Amy laughed. "I never expected all that to happen when I invited Saurial to a restaurant on the spur of the moment." She met Taylor's eyes. "I made a very good friend as a result. More than one, actually."

"That's so cool," Eric commented, looking impressed.

"I'm pleased for you, Amy," Taylor smiled.

"Me too," the girl replied, grinning happily. "My life has definitely taken a turn for the better recently. Although my mother seems confused." She smirked a little, making Taylor sure there was a story there, one she intended to get out of her later.

They spent the rest of the lunch period swapping stories, Lucy somehow managing to extract a promise from the healer to introduce her to Saurial at some point soon, which made Taylor grin internally while she tried to work out the best way to arrange it.

* * *

When the intercom buzzed, Roy looked up from his notes on the meeting he was about to attend after lunch, then reached out and pressed the button. "Yes, Maria?" he asked.

"Your sister and niece are here to see you, Mayor," his secretary said.

Smiling, he replied, "Send them in, please,"

"Of course, sir," she said, then the intercom went silent. Moments later his door opened to admit the two, his sister smiling as she closed it behind her, Dinah grinning widely as she trotted across the carpet to his desk and came around behind it. He swiveled his chair around and leaned forward, hugging her. "Hello, Dinah. This is an unexpected pleasure. What brings you two here?"

"We brought you lunch, Uncle Roy," Dinah said happily. Cheryl held up a bag from the local Chinese food emporium down the street, one she knew he liked. He smiled widely.

"We were just down at the PRT building where they were running some more tests on Dinah's abilities and on the way out she suggested we visit you since we were so close," his sister said quietly, moving over to him as he stood. Embracing her for a moment, he nodded his thanks.

"That's very nice of you and saves me a trip out," he replied. "Come on over here, we can eat at the table." He quickly pulled the small table, which was just big enough for the three of them, out of the alcove, then rolled his office chair over to add to the two already there. Dinah opened the bag and carefully began taking the various containers out, handing out plastic forks with a grave look.

"Thank you," he said with a small bow, before sitting, making her giggle.

"You're welcome, Uncle Roy," she smiled. Shortly they were all sitting and eating.

"How's business going, Roy?" Cheryl asked after a while. "Is that secret project of yours any closer to becoming not a secret?"

"It is, actually," he replied. "In…," he checked his watch, "just over an hour, I'll be explaining to the city council what the plan is, then we'll be voting on whether it goes ahead. Hopefully everyone, or a majority at least, will see sense. In that case we'll be making a preliminary public announcement early next week. The initial stages of it could start by the weekend after that if everything goes well."

"Do you really think it's going to make as big a change as you said it would the other night, Roy?" she asked curiously.

He grinned. "Oh, yes. Definitely. A very big change. In more ways than one."

"It sounds very… interesting," she smiled. "I hope it all works out for you."

"So do I," he said. Looking at Dinah who was battling a reluctant Beef Chow Mein which seemed not to want to be eaten based on how much trouble she was having with the chopsticks she'd decided to use, he picked up one of the plastic forks and held it out to her. "This might be easier, Dinah."

Scowling a little at the food, she accepted the fork and stabbed the recalcitrant bit of beef which was causing the problem, eating it with relish. "Thanks, Uncle Roy," she said.

He smiled at her, then looked at Cheryl again. "How did all the PRT testing go? How is the entire thing going, actually, we haven't spoken for a few days."

"It's going very well, actually," she told him, seeming slightly tired for a moment. "It's a little exhausting dealing with all the paperwork but that's finally settled. Jim is satisfied with it, as are the PRT lawyers, so I think it's fine. Without your help we'd probably still be trying to work out what was wrong with Dinah, though, assuming something worse hadn't happened." She shivered for a moment, making him put his hand on hers.

"It didn't happen, Cheryl, and now it's very unlikely ever to. You know the odds." He grinned, as did Dinah. His sister sighed slightly but nodded, smiling a little.

"I do, and the PRT says we can trust what Dinah says. They're extremely impressed with her abilities. All the tests they can come up with put her at a very high level of precognitive ability, with a few limitations. The main one being that she can't answer more than half a dozen or so questions without a long rest between sessions of several hours at least. They're very reluctant to push her because they're worried about hurting her. Which is something I agree with a hundred percent."

"Of course you do," he said. "I do as well. But I'm very pleased that you have gotten to the bottom of all the headaches. Have you picked a Cape identity and name yet, Dinah?"

The girl looked up from her meal, then shook her head. "Not yet, Uncle Roy. I've been reading about people who can tell the future and trying to come up with a good name that fits, but there are a lot to choose from. Not all of them are any good either."

"I can imagine. Don't worry, you'll come up with a good one in the end, I'm sure. And a costume of some sort. Although I expect that you're not going to be out on the street much, if at all."

Cheryl looked extremely relieved about this. Dinah did as well to a somewhat lesser degree.

"Do you want to ask me some questions?" Dinah asked. "I could probably manage, um, maybe four? If it would help you work."

Startled, he looked at his sister, who was giving her daughter a look of fond exasperation. "Are you sure, Dinah?" he asked. "I wouldn't want to hurt you."

"They asked me their questions hours ago, Uncle Roy," she smiled. "My head doesn't hurt that much now. I can do some for you."

"Is it OK, Cheryl?" he asked his sister, who put her hand on her daughter's head and stroked her hair for a moment.

"If Dinah wants to do it, why not?" she asked. "Just don't push yourself, OK, sweetie? You know what the PRT doctors said."

The girl nodded, finishing her lunch and wiping her mouth, then folding her hands and looking serious at him. "Ask the Great Dinah your questions, supplicant," she intoned with great ceremony, which she immediately ruined by giggling.

Grinning, he bowed from his seated position. "Of course, Great Dinah. As you command," he replied gravely, making his sister smile. "I just have to think carefully. An opportunity such as this doesn't come up very often."

This was actually very true. After a moment, he got up and retrieved a pad and pencil, slowly writing out some ideas and thinking which four questions would produce the most useful information. Eventually he narrowed it down to the ones he thought would be useful to know the answers to.

"All right, then. Let's see how this works out. Question one: what are the chances that the proposal Danny Hebert gave me, as modified by my friend Phil, will achieve the goals we want?"

Dinah thought for a moment, then replied, "Ninety-one point three five percent if carried out as planned."

He wrote the answer down, whistling silently to himself. That was higher that the first time more or less the same question had been accidentally asked at his sister's house.

"Great. Thank you. Question two: what are the chances that a majority of the council will vote this proposal be carried out as planned in the meeting I'm about to have?"

"Ninety-six point seven five percent."

He smiled broadly at this, Dinah matching the smile. "That's extremely good news, dear. Thank you very much."

"You're welcome, Uncle Roy," she replied happily. "I can manage one more at least."

"OK. Hmm. What are the chances that we can prevent the PRT and the public panicking when Kaiju is introduced if we proceed as I am planning?"

"Seventy-eight point four one percent. Who's Kaiju?"

"A very large friend, Dinah. You'll meet her quite soon, I expect." He grinned mysteriously. The girl looked intrigued.

"Those odds aren't as good, Roy," Cheryl commented with a frown of concern. "And by the sounds of it if your plan goes badly it could end up being a problem."

"It could, but I haven't finished working out the details. When I have, if I can ask again, Dinah? It would be very helpful."

"Of course you can," she smiled. "I can do one more, but after than my head will hurt too much to concentrate."

"Are you sure you want to?" he asked.

"For you, yes," she replied.

Tapping his pencil on the two questions remaining, he tried to work out which one he wanted to know the answer to more, then came to a decision. "OK, then. Question four: What are the chances that Kaiju is a member of The Family?" He didn't think it was likely that she wasn't, but he was extremely curious about the provenance of the huge cape and the other two that had so far popped up that people, including Danny Hebert, claimed were all related.

Dinah concentrated, a look of puzzlement slowly crossing her face. "Um..." she began, frowning, not in pain but confusion. "Something's wrong."

"What do you mean, Dinah?" he asked, concerned. Her mother also watched her.

"I don't know. Normally when I hear the right type of question a number just pops into my head along with sometimes a little more information, like whether it depends on something else. But this time it didn't." She shook her head slightly as if there was something stuck in her ear. "For some reason whatever gives me the odds is saying ' _Not a Number_ '. Not really, but that's what it comes out as. I can't explain it any better."

"That's… very weird indeed," Roy replied slowly. It almost sounded like a computer error of some sort. "Did it make your head hurt?"

"A little but not as much as usual," she told him.

"Can we try again?"

"OK."

"All right. How about, what are the chances that Saurial is Kaiju's sister?"

"Not a number."

Roy stared at her, then met his sister's eyes. She looked as puzzled as he felt. "Chances that Raptaur is S _aurial's_ sister?"

"Not a number." Dinah looked like she couldn't work out what the problem was, something he sympathized with. They tried several more questions, even Cheryl asking a couple when she'd worked out the pattern, with the same result every time. Any question which _directly_ involved a prediction about any of the reptilian capes produced what he could only call an error message. Questions which included them as a byproduct, such as the one about the public reaction to Kaiju's introduction, worked. It was beyond strange.

"Are you sure you don't have a computer in there, Dinah?" he joked, reaching out and tapping her head. She looked both amused and puzzled.

"I don't think so. But I can't get any numbers on those guys."

"How odd," he commented, rubbing his chin and staring at her.

"Should we tell the PRT, Roy?" His sister looked worried. "It might be important."

Thinking it over, he slowly replied, "I think it can probably wait until Monday. We know that Raptaur and Saurial are heroes, so I don't think there's any threat there. Kaiju is a bit of an unknown but she's been vouched for by a man I trust so I tend to think we're all right there as well. It's very peculiar but it might just be some weird effect of Dinah's power."

"Who _is_ Kaiju, Roy?" Cheryl asked. He considered her for a moment, then Dinah.

"You can't tell anyone until after the big event, OK, you two? Promise, it's important."

Dinah immediately nodded, then nudged her mother when Cheryl was a little slow in following suit. Eventually she did. "You're sure it's safe?" his sister asked anxiously.

"Yes, I think I am, Sis," he smiled. "She's impressive, but not a threat. Just a big help. A _really_ big help." After a moment to gather his thoughts, he told them the story of his meeting of the vast aquatic reptile, which made two pairs of very round eyes appear on the other side of the table.

"Nearly a hundred feet tall?" Cheryl squeaked in a stunned tone. He nodded, grinning.

"That was my reaction at the time. Danny Hebert played it for all he could, the sly devil. I'm sure, thinking back on it, that they planned the whole thing like that for maximum impact. It sure worked, I nearly crapped a brick."

Dinah laughed, making him smile and his sister look mildly annoyed. "Sorry, Sis. But it was extremely impressive. Especially in the dark like that. Frightened the life out of me for a moment." He grinned darkly. "I'm looking forward to see Director Piggot's face when Kaiju walks out of the bay."

"Don't push it too far, Roy," his sister warned, although she was now smiling as well. "The Director doesn't like surprises from what I know about her."

"We'll see," he smirked. Glancing at his watch, he added, "I'm sorry, but the meeting starts in ten minutes. I can't be late for it. It was wonderful to see the both of you. Thank you for bringing me lunch, and for answering those questions, Dinah."

"Any time, Uncle Roy," the girl smiled. "Are you going to come and visit soon?"

"Of course. Maybe over the weekend?"

"I'd like that," she laughed, jumping up and hugging him. Cheryl rose and did the same.

"It was nice seeing you, Roy. Do stop in soon. Let us know how your meeting goes."

"I will, Sis. Give my best to Jim."

She nodded, smiling one last time at him, then they left. Watching them go, he felt pleased, then as he looked down at the pad in his hand, puzzled.

After a few seconds he pushed the peculiarity surrounding Kaiju and her relatives to one side, going back to his notes on the upcoming meeting and quickly revising them, before straightening his tie and heading down to the council chambers and one of the most important meetings of his life.

Even with the high percentage of success given by his niece, there was no excuse to slack off now. That would just be careless.

* * *

"Armsmaster." Colin answered his PRT issue phone with a gruff word, still concentrating on his screen.

" _Hello, Armsmaster, this is Raptaur_ ," an incredibly deep voice said, making him suddenly pay attention to the call. " _I was given your card by Danny along with a request that I contact you?_ "

"Yes. Thank you for getting in touch so quickly," he replied, dredging his memory for the social niceties. It seemed correct as far as he could tell.

" _It's no problem_ ," she assured him with what sounded like amusement in her voice. " _What can I help Brockton Bay's premier Tinker with? I must confess to being very curious about what you need my help for._ "

"I have studied your electron-degenerate matter, using the sample you gave to Leet, who passed it on to me," he said with no further small talk, getting down to business. "The properties of it are remarkable and would seem conducive to manufacturing a very powerful weapon that stands a good chance of damaging, or at an outside chance, destroying, an Endbringer. I, and Dragon, are hoping that you would agree to help us construct this weapon."

She was silent, which he took as a good sign.

"The next Endbringer attack is due at approximately the end of the month, plus or minus up to five days. It will most likely be the Simurgh, who is also the prime target for the weapon as designed. We don't have much time to work on it before then. Would it be possible to meet somewhere private to discuss the plans of the device?"

After a moment, the lizard-like cape replied slowly, " _You want me to make you a weapon to kill the Simurgh with?_ "

"Yes. Both Dragon and I calculate that actually killing the Endbringer is unlikely but driving it off without further force required is distinctly possible. The weapon is very destructive."

" _I see. Let me think about this for a moment, please_."

"Of course." He waited patiently for about thirty seconds.

" _I can't in all honesty see how I can refuse. If you want, you can meet me tomorrow at the DWU in the afternoon, around four PM. I would prefer not to become involved with the PRT in general. I have access to a building at the DWU which is completely private where we won't be disturbed._ "

"Thank you. That will suffice. Is it permissible to bring Dragon? She is willing to fly down for this discussion and can be there by then."

" _That's fine. I'll look forward to seeing you both. Just ask at the gate for me, someone there will tell you how to find me._ " She hung up, making him do the same.

Colin smiled slightly. The cape sounded somewhat puzzled, which was understandable, but pleasantly rational and easy to talk to.

He approved.

Turning to his left, he tapped the control to contact Dragon, wanting to tell the woman the good news as soon as possible. While he waited the few seconds it took her to answer he wondered what Raptaur was doing for the DWU which required an entire private building.

* * *

Taylor looked at her Raptaur phone, slightly bemused, then put it away as she changed back to her base form, heading back to the school and dismissing the cloak as soon as she found a suitable place that her eyes and nose told her was unobserved. She'd taken a few minutes away from the end of the lunch period to find somewhere private to call the Tinker.

' _That's… odd,_ ' she said as she walked.

 _"He seemed very sure of his design_ ," the Varga remarked curiously. " _I am very interested to see what he's come up with._ "

' _You're not the only one_ ,' she told him. ' _I can't see what we can make that would be that powerful except maybe the Hammer of Ultimate Destruction, or the blast voice. Neither one of which he should know about._ '

" _I suppose we'll have to wait to find out,_ " her demonic companion replied calmly. " _It should be an educational experience_."

' _I think so too_ ,' she smiled as she reached the door to the school. Amy was standing outside next to Vicky, who seemed to be just floating there. Taylor walked up to them, staring at the blonde, who smiled at her. Amy shrugged.

"She's not allowed to fly inside, so she comes outside sometimes and does this for a while. It's like stretching, I think."

They both looked at Vicky, who grinned at them. "Hey, if _you_ could fly, would you _walk_ everywhere? I get twitchy if I can't float around regularly."

Grinning back, Taylor said, "I guess that makes sense. Kind of." She turned to the other Dallon sister who was giving Vicky a long-suffering look. "Want to come over again for a while after school? I can help you with some more math, then we can hang out." She winked very slightly at her friend, whose eyes widened a little, then narrowed.

"I… think I'd like that. Thank you, Taylor." Amy smiled. Glancing at her sister, she asked, "Can you drop me off at Taylor's house on the way home, Sis?"

"Sure," Vicky answered. "No problem. Nice to have met you, Taylor, Amy has told me some good things about you."

"Likewise," she replied. The bell rang at that point, making all three of them look at the school. "Later, guys. Chemistry awaits."

Waving, she headed inside, smiling to herself, eager to tell her friend about BBFO, LLC.


	57. Guest Omake: Plots and Problems

**By YuffieK on Spacebattles**

Coil growled in frustration AGAIN as the timeline collapsed. It seemed Fate itself was turning it's hand against him, and that simply would not do.

First came the surprise crackdown in the PRT. He'd had to use several timelines to ensure that his moles were not interrogated. Their disappearances would be noticed, but he'd ensured that nothing could be traced back to him, or even remains to be found.

With his main sources of intelligence cut off, he'd been forced to rely more on Tattletale, and it galled him that the other issues he'd been having had prevented him from establishing a safe timeline with which he could properly 'indulge' himself.

The construction companies he'd carefully maneuvered into bankruptcy for his own needs had suddenly been bought lock, stock and barrel out from under his nose... by the DOCKWORKERS UNION no less. How they had suddenly gotten funding of that sort was still a mystery to him, but it had set back construction of his primary base by weeks.

The fact that Panacea had been called in for an emergency healing of Director Piggot had ruined months of slowly poisoning her during her dialysis sessions. He'd had to use another timeline to ensure that the machines that he'd had tampered with could never be inspected afterward.

Finally the reason for his latest issues. His third attempt at abducting Dinah Alcott had ended badly, with Armsmaster and _Raptaur_ of all people carving their way through his base like a grain harvester before he was forced to use the self-destruct. He wasn't exactly sure what had happened afterward. He'd escaped, the heroes were presumably dead and buried under thousands of tons of rubble. The last thing he experienced though was a large shadow falling over him, and then the brief but _**VERY**_ distressing feeling of being crushed under an enormous weight.


	58. Council and Mayor

Roy listened as the council chairwoman said, "The vote is six for, two against the proposal to raise the parking fees at metered spaces throughout the Downtown area by twenty-five cents, with one abstention. The proposal is carried and will be executed immediately. Thank you to everyone for the well reasoned arguments on both sides." She paused for a sip of water from the glass at her elbow. "That concludes the final item on today's agenda. Now, is there any other business to discuss?" She looked around the council chambers. No one said anything.

She turned to Roy who was sitting next to her. "Mr Mayor, you had an item of business you wished to raise, I believe?"

"Yes, thank you, Madame Chairwoman, I do."

"The chamber is yours, in that case." She sat down, while he stood up, nodding to an aide at the back of the room who went around the table distributing copies of Danny's report with a two page synopsis he had written up stapled to the front of it.

The various councilmen and women looked curiously at their copies, some eyebrows going up as the faster readers realized what they were looking at. "Ladies and Gentlemen, I wish to put to the Council for a vote a proposal that was brought to me by the man who is as we all know functionally in charge of the largest union in the city, the Dockworkers, Mr Danny Hebert. Now, I know that we have all been aware for some years that the main goal of the Union and Mr Hebert has been the reopening of the Brockton Bay Ferry, and we are all aware as well of the obstructions to that plan. Unfortunately while it would undoubtedly be a positive benefit to the city, the costs far outweigh the short term gains and as a result we have been unable to proceed down that path."

He stopped for a moment, looking around at the other nine members of the City Council, most of whom were listening carefully while a couple seemed to be engrossed in the report, several nodding to various points.

"A short time ago, Mr Hebert came to me with a somewhat different plan. Initially it was only a rough outline but even so it showed considerable promise. I was admittedly skeptical at first for obvious reasons, but he presented a convincing argument of the benefits the plan would bring home almost immediately. The report in front of you is the latest revision to that initial plan, the results of considerable work by Mr Hebert, with input from a number of respected independent experts, some of his choosing and some of mine. The overall opinion of the experts who have studied it and given their support to it is that it stands a very high probability of delivering on all the promised benefits, and that even if part of it ultimately turned out not to work quite as expected, the overall results would still be highly desired by both the city and the public."

He cleared his throat, picking up his own water glass and drinking from it, then put it down again while studying the faces of all the people he knew very well by now. At least two thirds of them seemed very interested, although there were a couple of people who were looking very unconvinced. No one said anything yet, though, wanting to hear him out.

"The plan is well reasoned and highly detailed, as shown in the report each of you has. The synopsis at the front explains it in overall terms, but briefly for the record, the idea revolves around clearing the boat graveyard and the bay of wrecked ships, including the tanker blocking the shipping channel, recycling all the resulting metal and selling the scrap, then using the funds to rebuild the dock facilities, the rail yard, and a number of other major parts of the city's infrastructure. The immediate benefits are the full time employment of several hundred people and the reconstruction of a number of city owned facilities that have been allowed for various reasons to fall into disrepair. The medium term benefits are significant numbers of extra jobs for a large fraction of the city's workforce with special emphasis on manufacturing, construction, transportation, and shipping."

He smiled as they all stared at him. "The long term benefits are a massive boost to the general economy of Brockton Bay, the attraction of outside business to the large amount of newly cleared prime industrial land that is currently lying idle under hundreds of thousands of tons of rusting metal, and a likely level of prosperity that this city hasn't experienced in over thirty years."

There was a long pause. "Is this even possible?" one of the council members asked with some disbelief, waving the report she'd just skimmed.

He nodded. "Yes, it is. Definitely. I have met the Parahuman in question who is willing to donate a very significant amount of time and effort to the project, and I have no doubt she can do exactly what she says she can. Mr Hebert has also vouched for her abilities, and I think we can all agree that whatever issues some of us might have had with the man over the years, he never promises something he can't deliver."

There were a few nods around the table. Many of the people knew the man, and while some of them heartily disliked him for various reasons none would go on record as calling him a liar.

He fielded a few other brief questions, then explained the plan in more detail, before throwing the floor open to discussion. The spirited and at times very loud arguments both pro and con went on for nearly three hours, far overrunning the normal meeting length, but by the time the chairwoman called for a vote, he was pleased with the result.

"All those in favor of implementing the plan Mayor Christner has presented to the Council?" Seven hands, including his own and hers, went up.

"All those against?"

As expected the remaining hands went up, no one abstaining. He'd been fairly certain the two members who voted against were going to do so as they were well known to hate both the Unions and Parahumans in various combinations. It didn't matter, though, the ' _for_ ' vote was an overwhelming majority.

"Thank you, everyone. Mr Mayor, your proposal is carried."

He stood again, looking around the chamber. "Thank you all for listening, and for ultimately backing what I firmly believe to be a plan in the best interests of the city. I understand the reservations of those who voted against and I hope that they will still agree to carry out their duties with respect to normal council operations despite losing the vote." Both people in question nodded silently, not looking wildly pleased but not hugely unhappy either. "I think it's essential that we keep this under wraps for the moment until we have decided the best way to announce it to the public, for obvious reasons. I hope I can count on everyone to be discreet?"

A wave of nods and murmurs of agreement went around the table.

"Very good. My apologies for springing this on you with no warning but I expect everyone understands the reasons behind it. If anyone has any further questions, please come to my office and I will try to answer them, or find someone who can. Thank you once again for your trust and cooperation." He nodded to them and sat down. The chairwoman stood.

"Thank you, Mr Mayor. I think I speak for all of us when I say that I am both excited and apprehensive about this proposal, but that I think it will be very interesting to see what happens next." She smiled a little. "This meeting of the Brockton Bay City Council is now over. Thank you everyone and we will meet again here in one week." Tapping the table with her ceremonial gavel she sat again, shuffling the paperwork in front of her into order, then accepting the shorthand copy of the meeting minutes from the stenographer who had been documenting everything. "Thanks, Helen," she smiled.

Turning to Roy, she looked at him. "I hope this plan of yours actually works, Roy, or we're all going to have egg on our faces."

"It'll work, Jean, I'm pretty certain of that." He smiled at her, then stood, picking up his notes. "There are some interesting times ahead for the city."

"Yes, I expect so, based on this," she replied, indicating the proposal she had in front of her. "Very interesting times. I expect Director Piggot is going to have questions, though."

"Probably," he grinned.

"Try not to get the PRT angry with us, Roy. They're difficult enough at times as it is." With that last piece of advice the rather older woman got up and left, having gathered up all her papers. He was left in an empty council chamber, tapping his finger on the report for a moment, before heading back to his office, thinking hard about how to proceed with the next step.

They were going to have to be careful, Jean was right, but he also wanted to start as soon as possible. He'd have to check with Danny and see how the preparatory work was coming along. It might have some PR advantages to possibly accelerate the actual moving of the tanker somewhat, to prove to the public that it was possible.

Not to mention that he _really_ wanted to see Director Piggot's face when Kaiju turned up…

Grinning, he entered his office and headed straight for the phone.

* * *

When the doorbell rang, Taylor got up from her desk and went downstairs to answer it, finding Amy and Vicky on the other side, both of them looking pleased to see her. "Come in, guys," she said, stepping to the side to allow them entry. Amy led the way, Vicky following behind and looking around curiously.

"Either of you want any snacks or anything?" Taylor asked.

"I can't stay long, I'm going out with Dean later and have to get ready," Vicky replied, "but thank you. What have you got?"

"Popcorn, potato chips in various flavors, apples, pears, some chocolate, stuff like that," Taylor said as she ushered them into the kitchen. "Plus orange juice, apple juice, coke, and water."

"Some popcorn for me, thanks," Amy smiled, as she opened the fridge and retrieved a can of coke, glancing at her sister and holding it up inquiringly. Vicky nodded, so she handed the blonde that one and got another for herself, closing the appliance then taking a seat at the table, Vicky following suit. Taylor put a bag of microwave popcorn on to pop then also sat.

"It's a nice house," Vicky complimented her.

"Thanks," she smiled. "It needs some work but we've started on that recently. The weather is still too cold to do much outside but I cleared out the basement last week, which is the first time that's been done in about six years. The attic is next. Then we're going to fix all the small things around the house and redecorate." She looked around the room. "Maybe do something in here as well. New cupboards, that sort of thing."

"I think it's nice at the moment," Amy said, sipping her coke and also looking around. "Very homey and lived in."

"It still needs some work," Taylor grinned. "Look, this cupboard door is nearly falling off." She leaned back and wiggled the door in question, which promptly came off its hinges in her hand, making Amy stare, then laugh hysterically. "Oops." Taylor went slightly pink, carefully putting the detached door on the floor leaning against the cupboard. "I'll have to fix that before Dad comes home." She got up and retrieved the popcorn which was done, pouring it into a large bowl that she put in the middle of the table, all three of them helping themselves.

Giggling, Vicky shook her head. "I kept doing that when I got my powers, but it was because I didn't know my own strength," she grinned. "I even did it to the fridge once. Mom was furious, it was a new one." She ate some popcorn, shaking her head at the memory.

This made Taylor laugh as well. "Oh, dear," she snickered. "That must have been embarrassing."

"Just a little," the blonde agreed. "Luckily it doesn't happen very often now."

"Except when you're showing off," Amy laughed. "You always manage to do something you shouldn't under those circumstances. Remember that thing with Über last month? He got you fair and square, but it was at least half your own fault for letting him manipulate you like that."

Vicky scowled, clearly remembering all to well. Taylor tried not to smile, but the blonde picked up on it and sighed.

"You saw it on PHO I guess?"

"I was actually there," she laughed. "In the crowd about fifty feet away. Sorry, but it was hysterical to watch. Dad and I were out having a meal and were just going back to the car when it all started. Amy's right, I'm afraid, from what I saw you practically dared him to do that."

The other girl gave her still-giggling sister a dirty look, then turned back to Taylor. "I know that now, looking back on it, but at the time it seemed sensible. That guy is… irritatingly competent. And really lucky."

"I don't think it's all luck, Sis, I think a lot of it is that he's just that good," Amy smiled. "And he has an amazing voice."

All three of them nodded, then exchanged a look, before collapsing in laughter.

"Don't ever tell him I think his voice is sexy or I'll never hear the end of it," Vicky chortled. "Mom would be horrified. ' _He's a Villain, Victoria. Always remember that._ '" Her impression of Carol Dallon was spot on, making the other two grin.

"She sees the world in black and white, your mother, doesn't she?" Taylor asked.

"Very much so, yes," Amy agreed with a small sigh. Vicky looked little unsure but eventually nodded a little. Glancing at her watch, she stuffed the remainder of her current handful of popcorn into her mouth and washed it down with the last of her coke, then got up. "Sorry, I have to go. It was nice meeting you again, Taylor. Sis, do you need a ride back?"

Amy glanced at Taylor for a moment. "Dad can give her a lift, Vicky," Taylor told the blonde. "No need to come all the way here."

"OK. Thanks, have fun, you two. Don't do anything I wouldn't." Vicky smiled at them then left, the front door opening and closing. Several seconds passed then they both started laughing again, exchanging a sly glance.

"Poor Vicky. She's never going to live that Über thing down," Amy giggled.

"He seemed to think it was funny, as well," Taylor grinned. "I told him that much."

"I think I'd like to meet him at some point, if we can do it so that Carol doesn't go nuts if she finds out I'm ' _consorting with Villains_ '," Amy smiled, making little finger quotes, which had Taylor smirking again. "She wouldn't approved of that at all. ' _Think of the effect on New Wave and their relations with the public, Amy_ ' or something along those lines." Her mimicry of the elder Dallon woman was as good as her sister's was, making Taylor wonder how often they both practiced it. The thought was amusing.

"Did you find out what Armsmaster wanted?" Amy asked after a moment's silence. Taylor nodded.

"I did. He does actually want to make an Anti-Endbringer weapon as it turns out. He didn't go into any real detail on it over the phone. I sort of get the impression he doesn't want the PRT finding out yet, he seemed pretty happy to meet me at the BBFO building tomorrow."

She grinned as Amy looked puzzled. "BBFO? What's that?"

"Oh, haven't you heard? It's the new company that's started up to market the services of… ' ** _The Family_** '." Taylor lowered her voice mysteriously as she said the last two words. Amy stared at her, then sighed, rolling her eyes.

"OK. You obviously have a secret. Tell me."

Taylor did, making the other girl look first shocked, then surprised, then pleased, to ultimately end up thoughtful. "Wow. That's… an interesting idea. Your Dad is pretty on the ball. I'd never even have considered that."

"I need to go down to the DWU for the ID cards and documentation," Taylor said, pulling out the keys her father had given her at breakfast and dangling them in front of her friend with a grin. "Want to come and check it out?"

"Damn right I do," Amy nodded firmly. After a moment, she looked slightly worried. "but several people know I'm here with you. What if we get seen going there?"

"We will travel in style, by which I mean invisibly," Taylor smirked. "No one will see us."

"I left my riding costume at home though."

"No you didn't, it's right there on the table."

Amy stared at her, then turned her head, before sighing. "You are both massive trolls." She gathered up the duplicate costume, complete with baton, standing up and heading into the living room to have more room to change. Taylor followed, snickering to herself.

"You love it though, don't you?" she asked as she watched her friend take her coat and shoes off and begin pulling the costume on. Amy grinned at her.

"Of course I do. I'm having more fun this last week than I've had for years. Possibly ever." Shortly she was wearing the armored suit, the helmet on her head, and just finishing off pulling the gloves on.

"We'll go out the back, it's easier to make sure no one can see us then," Taylor commented, leading her friend to the door and opening it, before changing to the Raptaur form and having the Varga cloak them both. Outside, she locked the door again, then turned around, Amy quickly climbing aboard. With her passenger strapped in place she jumped over the fence and headed for the road and the docks, her friend laughing faintly at the ride and making her smile to herself.

* * *

"Danny, Saurial and a friend of hers are here," Habib said as he leaned into the office. "I just heard from the front gate."

"Send them up when they get here," Danny replied, "I'm expecting them."

"OK," the man said, disappearing again. Shortly his daughter in her first public cape persona and Amy who was wearing a black version of the suit Taylor and the Varga had made for her, with a mirrored faceplate, entered, both of them looking around. He got up and closed the door, then briefly hugged the lizard-girl, who reciprocated, smiling.

"That still feels weird, dear," he laughed, "but I'm getting used to it." He was keeping his voice low to prevent anyone in the office outside hearing him. "Hello, Amy, it's nice to see you again." He recognized the modified Panacea suit from the story his daughter had told him about their prank on Max Anders, which he'd found extremely funny.

The girl pulled her helmet off, grinning at him. "Nice to see you as well, Danny. Taylor told me about the BBFO idea. It's brilliant."

"Thank you," he replied modestly, before returning her smirk. "I thought so. Do you two want to see the building?"

"Yes, please," they both replied before looking at each other and laughing.

"OK, come with me," he said, opening the door once Amy had replaced her helmet and tucked her hair under it. They followed him out. "I'm just heading down to the BBFO building, Habib," he called. "If anyone wants me call me on my cell, please."

"Sure, Danny," the other man replied with a wave, not looking up from the computer screen he was studying.

The two girls followed him through the admin building and into the workshop section, several people calling greetings to Taylor in her Saurial aspect, normally sounding pleased to see her. Most of them looked curiously at the black-clad girl next to her but didn't ask any questions. Stopping to greet a couple of the workers by name, his daughter impressed Danny with her memory for names and faces. It clearly pleased the people in question as well.

He was interested to see how much more relaxed everyone was around her. The initial worry and near-fear had changed to a respect and liking that he was pleased about. Even the ones who hadn't to his knowledge met her before seemed to know about her and consider her one of the good guys. It was an interesting example of how people could get used to almost anything given time.

In Brockton Bay, of course, they had more than usual to get used to, which might have explained it to a degree.

He'd been keeping up with the talk on PHO and had noticed even there that a lot of the locals seemed almost proud of the supposed group of reptiles living out in the bay, which was something he still found extremely funny. It had crossed his mind on a number of occasions that they'd been very lucky to get away with that idea for so long, especially as it hadn't even been a deliberate policy to start with. Sooner or later someone would work it out, and in fact he knew that several people even at the DWU already knew, not to mention some other capes that Taylor had talked about. Oddly, mostly villains, which amused him for some reason.

But even with this, no one was talking. He couldn't quite work out why, but put it down to equal amounts of respect, amusement value, and fear of upsetting her/them. In the case of the Undersiders girl, Tattletale, and Über and Leet who Taylor also thought probably had worked it out, it might have been those Rules they thought so highly of as well.

If things kept on like this, even if they did eventually admit to it, there was probably a significant number of people who would refuse to believe it anyway, based on some of the more amusing conspiracy theories on PHO. That, he found the funniest part of all.

The introduction of Kaiju was going to make those people go completely crazy…

Eventually they came out the back entrance to the main workshop block, crossed the inner yard, and arrived outside a somewhat run-down but intact building with a shiny new lock on the door. He waved at it. "Here we are. Building 12D East. All yours."

Taylor inspected the front of the building, smiled, then fished out the set of keys he'd given her, quickly finding the correct one, before sticking it into the lock and turning it. The door clicked and opened. A beeping sound made Danny hurry over to the alarm panel and tap in the disarm code before the excessively loud alarm could sound. "You have twenty seconds then it gets very noisy in here. And out there."

"I remember the code," she noted.

"Good."

Behind them Amy closed the door, flicking on the lights as she did so, before removing her helmet again. She looked around the place. "Wow. Big room."

"Eighty feet wide, just under two hundred long, and twenty-five feet high," he said. "Toilet facilities over there on the right with another office room about thirty feet square, which was being used as a stock room. Power panel over there, water taps and the like on the other side. It's an industrial power supply so if you needed to you could pull about a two hundred kilowatts out of it. We get wholesale electricity rates so it's a lot cheaper than normal domestic power. This place was originally set up with a lot of large metalworking tools like lathes and milling machines in, but those all got moved to a larger building years ago. It ended up being used mainly for storage of old equipment we don't need any more so it's all been cleared out."

Walking to the other end of the room with them following, looking around with interest, he indicated the end door, which was a large roller shutter type like the main one at the front. Next to it was another normal door, slightly wider than one found in a house but human-scale. "That goes out almost directly into the water. There's about ten feet of road running along behind this entire row for access. It was intended to allow boats of various sizes to be either loaded from here, or actually pulled in. Like that one we did your original power testing in."

Taylor nodded. "That could be useful."

"I thought you'd like it. The water out there is quite deep, probably about thirty feet, with the edge dropping straight down. You can probably improve that if you want."

He turned to them. "You can do anything you want with the place. I'd prefer it if you not blow it up or make it fall down if possible, but other than that, help yourself."

"Thanks, Dad," she smiled, hugging him again.

"You're welcome," he replied.

Amy poked the rough concrete of the floor with her boot toe. "This is a mess," she noted, looking around at all the ruts and holes in it from where all sorts of things had been bolted down then removed over the decades.

"True," Danny said, "But the building itself is sound, weatherproof, and secure. And private. I'm sure that some special work with the aid of a large fellow of our acquaintance it can be fixed easily. Internal walls and floors are no problem either I suspect."

"Not really," Taylor replied, her tail twitching in excitement as she looked around, apparently working out what would go where. "We can rework this place today with no problems."

"Let's go and get your ID cards sorted out then I'll leave you to it."

"OK." They began walking back to the other end of the large empty room. "I called Armsmaster at lunch, he really does want my help with a huge weapon of some sort. I told him to meet me here tomorrow afternoon, is that all right?"

"Of course it is. That actually works out well, we're hoping to do the main demolition work on the warehouses tomorrow morning if you can spare the time."

"I'm looking forward to it," his daughter replied with an evil laugh. "Destruction, as much as I want, and no one will get angry!"

"Try to keep it to the buildings in question," he grinned. "Don't get carried away."

"Would I do that?" she asked. He and Amy exchanged a glance.

"Yes, you would," they chorused, before laughing.

"Oh, by the way, Roy called earlier." Taylor stopped, looking at him expectantly. "The vote went through. Seven to two. The plan is a go."

"Fantastic," she yelled, grinning widely.

"You'll like the next bit even more. He wants to accelerate the tanker move." Taylor looked puzzled, glancing at Amy, who shrugged.

"Why?"

"Roy thinks that if they make an announcement that there is a big change coming to the city very soon, then move the ship immediately, it shows everyone how seriously it's being taken. We're ahead of schedule on the preliminary work anyway due to him releasing the funds early, and I can't see a problem with having the ship parked just off the docks while we finish the scrapping area. If you can take down all those warehouses tomorrow the guys can do most of the work by Wednesday, we think. Your help in making the extra fencing material we need would save money and time ordering it in, and you can probably help resurface the work area as well if you're up for it."

"Of course I am," she said, pleased. "But won't that be taking work away from the dock workers?"

"Not really, it's work we have to get out of the way before we can do the main things, so the faster we get it done the better. No one will be upset about it."

"OK, then, that's not a problem. I can come here right after school and spend as long as we need to do it all."

"Good, that works nicely. We'll have lighting and generators set up by then as well so we can work after dark with no problems. Moving the ship itself is a matter of the tide state being right, but rather conveniently it's low at two PM on Tuesday. I can ask the school to let you go an hour early for family reasons and you could start during daylight hours, which will let people watch. Roy thinks that announcing it just beforehand is probably best because only locals will turn up, we won't have thousands of people coming from outside the city to get in the way." He sighed a little as Amy and Taylor exchanged a glance.

"I'd prefer it to be done much more privately but there's no way that would work, everyone in the city will be able to see it. But if we make sure that there's not enough time for everyone to stew over it, but there is enough time to get the word out, assure the public it's safe, that sort of thing, it probably will work out all right. The PRT is the biggest problem but Roy will take care of telling them. I have a plan to make sure no one gets overenthusiastic and hits the Endbringer sirens, which would just cause total chaos."

Amy started laughing. "God, you have no idea. We'd be up to our necks in capes inside half an hour. The Triumvirate turning up looking for Behemoth or something only to find a big piece of marine salvage going on would be funny but I don't think it would end well."

"No, not really," he sighed, smiling a little. "So let's try to avoid that."

"It's pretty short notice," Taylor commented, looking thoughtful. "I thought we'd have a couple of weeks to get ready for it."

"That was the plan originally. But Roy is keen to push it as fast as possible. I think he's worried that some of the councilors will get cold feet and back out on supporting it. Proving that we can actually do what we say we can as quickly as possible is probably a good idea on the whole."

"I guess," she replied slowly. Eventually she nodded, shrugging. "I'm fine with it. I can take down all the warehouses tomorrow, meet Armsmaster in the afternoon, then overnight finish clearing out the channel and the dock area. I'll have that done by Sunday morning. Once the ship is parked there your guys can take as long as they need to get everything set up."

"Great. The equipment has started arriving but most of the heavy stuff won't be here until around the end of next week anyway. But if by then we can have the tanker ready for cleaning out and decontaminating, that will show we're on the ball and up to the job."

They resumed walking, having stopped in the middle of the room. "I can hardly wait to see what the reaction is to that enormous thing slowly coming out of the water," Amy giggled, making Taylor produce a scaly grin. "I'm sure you'll make it as impressive as possible. Because you can."

"Oh, I have some interesting ideas," his daughter snickered. He looked at her, then her friend.

"Poor Brockton Bay," he sighed, shaking his head sadly. "I have a horrible feeling about this."

"It'll be fine," Taylor smirked. "Wait and see. People are going to be talking about this for years."

"That's what I'm afraid of," he told her, only half-joking.

Laughing, they locked up then headed back into the DWU complex.

* * *

"Here you go," Habib said, handing Taylor an ID card, freshly laminated. She looked at it in satisfaction, seeing Raptaur's face looking back at her. She'd already done the Saurial one, leaving the building and coming back twenty minutes later in her other identity. Her father was watching from the doorway to his office, with Amy still wearing her disguise next to him.

"Thank you, Habib," she replied politely.

"You're more than welcome, Raptaur. May I be the first to say how glad we are to have you and your sister as members of the DWU?"

"Thanks," she smiled, careful not to show too many teeth. The man somehow suppressed the flinch she saw develop, impressing her. Very few people seemed able to, it was some sort of instinctive reaction. Holding out her hand she shook his, then carefully turned around, mindful of her tail and the somewhat close-set desks surrounding her, to walk over to her father and friend. She showed them the card.

"Welcome to the DWU," her father smiled.

"Glad to be here," she grinned. A faint giggle came from behind Amy's mirrored faceplate, amusing her. "I have to leave, but I think Saurial will be coming back when she'd finished what she had to do."

"It was nice seeing you again," he replied, obviously trying not to laugh at the silly charade she was still surprised no one had seen through yet. "Give my best to your other sisters."

"I will," she remarked, hearing several people in the room stop what they were doing as they became engrossed in eavesdropping. Turning her head on her long neck she noticed a number of them twitch and hastily start typing again, or whatever they'd been doing. Inwardly amused she waved to Habib, who waved back, then made her way out of the building once again.

Fifteen minutes later she was back in the building she now had access to, Amy standing next to her and laughing. "You and your multiple identities. How the hell you ever thought it would work is beyond me."

Taylor, as Saurial now, shrugged with a grin. "It seemed like a good idea at the time."

"I have to admit it's pretty funny," her friend grinned as she took her helmet off. They'd locked the door behind them to make sure they wouldn't be interrupted. Looking around, Amy added, "So what are you planning to do here?"

"Fix the floor, make it more secure, then make a couple of private rooms for a start," Taylor said thoughtfully, inspecting the place. "We need somewhere for your projects after all."

Amy looked surprised, making her grin. "Really?" the other girl asked.

"Of course. You're my friend, if you want some space here, it's yours. This is way more than I need at the moment anyway."

"Thanks." Amy smiled at her. "That's really nice."

"It's no problem at all. Right then, let's do something about this floor first before someone breaks their neck."

After a discussion with the Varga, she started walking slowly across the floor, back and forth in wide sweeps, a layer of Vargastuff topped with the same grippy material he'd used the time they'd done something similar when testing her powers flooding out from under her feet. Ten minutes later the entire floor was covered. She smiled as she poked it with her toe claws experimentally.

Amy knelt down and felt the floor, taking off a glove first, then nodded approval. "Not bad at all. It's nice to walk on and warm, but not slippery. That's great."

"It should do," Taylor agreed.

Half an hour after that the walls were also reinforced with a layer of the same impenetrable material coated with something that felt like paint, and she was currently twenty-five feet tall and working on the ceiling. Amy was sitting in a chair she'd made watching her with interest.

"Kaiju is over three times that big?" her friend asked.

"At least," she agreed in a deep voice, finishing off the roof and shrinking back to normal Saurial size. "Considerably more if you consider tail tip to nose. The aquatic combat form is longer and more streamlined than the normal one. I stand about eighty feet tall as Kaiju, but I'm over a hundred and twenty feet long. I have no idea how much I weight like that, I haven't worked it out, but it's a lot."

"You're going to make the entire population of the city shit themselves on Tuesday," Amy giggled. "I can hardly wait."

"It's going to be fun," Taylor agreed, going over to her friend. "But we need to make sure no one over-reacts too much. There's amusing and then there's irresponsible. I don't want to overdo it."

"You probably can't avoid it to some extent," her friend replied. She shrugged. "People get all worked up sometimes. There will certainly be panic just because it's something no one is expecting. Hopefully that sort of thing will be short-lived and mild when everyone realizes you're helping out and not wrecking the place." She considered her reptilian friend for a moment, then slowly began grinning. "And I have a really funny idea how to make that clear."

"What?" Taylor asked curiously. Amy told her. They spent some time laughing.

"Oh, hell, yes, I'm definitely doing _that_ ," Taylor snickered. "It's even better than the idea I had." They exchanged an amused glance. "OK, let's see about making some rooms. How much space do you want?"

"How big are you as Raptaur?" Amy asked.

Taylor changed. "This big?" she said, waving a hand over herself.

Amy paced around her, then moved to the side of the huge room, marking off a space with her hands. "In that case, about this much room, I think. About half-way to the ceiling."

"OK." It didn't take long to make the walls and a door with a simple lock on it. Taylor added another room the same size next to the first one, with a door between them, then a railing around the edge of the more or less cubical construction that was at the side of the warehouse inside the front entrance. A flight of stairs up to the top completed it. "There we go. This should do it, you have a work room and a store room, with extra space on top for storage. We'll need to talk to Dad about getting some lights installed and power feeds, I have no idea how to do that. What sort of furniture do you want inside?"

They went into the small self-contained block of rooms, leaving the door open for some light, then she added a table and some chairs patterned on a nice office one she'd seen earlier. Soon it was complete, at least in outline form. "This is great, Taylor," Amy smiled, as they came out of the private rooms. "Thanks."

"I'll get you a set of keys for the doors as well so you can get in without needing me," Taylor told her.

"I doubt I'll come here without you, but thank you anyway," her friend replied, looking pleased. After a moment, she appeared to remember something else. "Are you going to make costumes to sell to other capes?" she asked curiously. "Chris at least is interested in something like that. He also thought Vista would be as well. Her costume is stab-proof, but not really bullet-proof. I bet you could make a lot of money offering replacement costumes."

"I'm still thinking about that," Taylor told her. "I'm certainly going to provide protective clothing for all the workers here first, I think. Some of the jobs they're going to be doing are pretty dangerous, there's always the risk of something falling on them, for example. Something like your robes would stop that instantly killing a normal person, I think. So I want to do that. After that, though, maybe I should see about making costumes. And protective clothing for the police and other emergency workers."

"You'll have plenty to keep you busy," Amy noted.

"The costumes don't take long once I have an idea of the pattern," Taylor said. "We can just copy an existing set of clothes like I did with your robes. Maybe get the sizes needed and spend a day doing a whole batch of them. If any tweaking needs to be done that's pretty simple later."

"Sounds like a good idea." Her friend glanced at her watch, rolling her sleeve up to do it, then got a small smile on her face. "Still got a couple of hours before I should be home. Are you up for the next project?"

"I am," Taylor smiled back. "How do you want to do this?"

"Make the skeleton first, I think. We'll need quite a lot of biomass for the main part, but that can wait. A load of potatoes or something like that is probably easiest, plant biomatter works as well as anything. This proved that." She held up her right arm for a moment, smiling. "The skin is the really tricky part. Aside from the neural links, of course. And the power source. And the standby mode. Oh, and the life support system."

Taylor could feel her smile widening as her friend kept listing more things. "Let's make the skeleton first and work from there," she suggested. "One thing at a time."

"I hope it works," Amy sighed, suddenly looking nervous.

Patting her on the shoulder, Taylor laughed. "I have faith in you, girl. Let's create an abomination of nature. It'll be fun."

They both rubbed their hands together, produced evil laughs, then exchanged looks and fell about giggling.

When they finally calmed down, Taylor and the Varga began careful work under her friend's guidance, something odd growing on the floor in front of them.


	59. Carol and Arguments

**Saturday, February 12, 2011**

"Amy seemed in a good mood last night," Taylor's father noted as he sat down at the table, spreading several pieces of paper across the surface. Taylor, who was already there waiting for him, nodded, grinning.

"She had a lot of fun yesterday. Thanks for giving her a ride home."

"It's no problem. I like the girl aside from anything else. And the Dallons don't live all that far away. What were you two up to in there for so long? You were both grinning like idiots when you came out."

"It's a surprise," she smirked, pleased with their results. It was a good start although there were some problems they were trying to work out a solution to, both of them researching various things that might help.

"Oh, God. Why does that fill me with foreboding?" he joked.

"Good sense, maybe?" she asked, raising an eyebrow a little.

"That doesn't actually help, Taylor," he sighed with a fond smile. "Between you the pair of you are going to drive the entire city nuts, I can feel it."

"Hey, you're at least as bad," she giggled. "All that preparation for the Mayor to make it look as impressive as possible, for instance. This entire family has always liked a good joke and Amy definitely has the same instincts. Now she's suddenly found she can let that part out and is having a hell of a lot of fun. So am I. And some of the ideas she's had… You're going to be amazed, in a good way."

"Hopefully the PRT won't get involved," he commented, unrolling a large-scale map of the warehouses that needed to be demolished. She reached out and put a series of weights on the corners, the Varga matter creation ability now so familiar to them both that neither thought anything of it. "Thanks."

"We have some ideas about that, but we need to check some of the rules first. But it's a ways off yet. So, what do you want me to do today?"

She leaned over the table to see the map, which covered most of the surface of it, properly.

Pulling a pen out of his pocket he used it to indicate several structures. "These six warehouses all need to come down." A line of the huge old buildings stretched for more than a quarter of a mile along the shoreline, from a position starting just outside the currently fenced-in DWU yard, separated by access roads. She could see that when they were gone, it would give an area close to fifteen hundred by six hundred feet as a single vast empty space, right on the edge of the bay. "They're completely derelict, old storage warehouses that were used for bulk goods way back in the day. No one has used them for anything much in forty years and they were already falling apart then. This one is a steel-framed building, put up around the end of WW2, it was only in use for eight or nine years and was never intended to last this long anyway."

"That's the one your men are already taking apart?" she asked, remembering all the people wielding cutting torches who had been swarming over the half-dismantled structure which had been missing most of its walls for as long as she could remember.

"Yes. That part is fairly simple, it's more or less only a skeleton with a roof and one end wall still intact. These other five are older, dating back to the late nineteenth or early twentieth century and mostly brick and stone, with some concrete in places from later refurbishment. Cast iron roof supports, several different types of roof material from wood to stone slabs with some iron sheets as well. The one in the middle is falling to pieces, the roof caved in ten or eleven years ago as I recall. They pulled several bodies out of it when it was searched afterwards, homeless people who had been sleeping in it, the poor bastards. The others aren't quite as bad but they're only shells now. Floors missing, internal walls gone, that sort of thing. The damp salty air from the bay didn't do them any favors."

"OK."

"At this end, this one here has a large basement, which is at least partly flooded. I have no idea why it was built like that, especially so close to the bay, the construction records for a lot of this sort of thing are long lost. We need to fill the basement in, which we think is most easily done using the remains of the warehouse itself then paving over the top." He looked over his reading glasses at her. She nodded thoughtfully.

"That makes sense. I guess I can probably make it collapse inwards if I knock out all the internal supports then take out the walls. I was watching how they do this sort of thing with explosives on Youtube, I got some neat ideas from the videos."

He smiled at her. "Good, that sounds reasonable. You know, you're saving us a hell of a lot of time, money, and possible danger doing this. Thank you for wanting to help."

Smiling, she shrugged. "I have all these abilities which are downright terrifying in many ways. I'd much rather use them to create something than destroy it." With a small laugh, she added, "Although sometimes wrecking something is good fun."

"That I can believe. I'm looking forward to seeing you in action."

"It should be impressive, if nothing else."

With a nod he pulled out some more paperwork, which proved to be detailed surveys of the buildings themselves. "These show all the load-bearing walls and columns. Those are the ones you need to take out. A couple of the guys at the Yard know a lot about demolition and I'd like you to discuss it with them before you dive in to make sure you know the best way to proceed, but after that you can do what you want. We'll sweep each building thoroughly first to make sure no one is in there."

"I can help with that," she told him, tapping her nose. "No one is going to hide from this."

"Great. I don't want to squash a junkie. That wouldn't go down well in any way at all." Her father smiled slightly. "Leaving aside the fact I don't want anyone hurt. We'll all have radios and anyone can call in a stop for any reason. If you hear the call, stop immediately, until whatever the problem is has been sorted out."

Taylor nodded, understanding the importance of that. She pored over the plans for a while, discussing the best way to proceed with the Varga. Her father got up and made himself some coffee, then returned to the table, handing her a glass of apple juice as he did so, which she took with a murmured thanks. Eventually she looked up.

"We both think we've worked out the best way to do it. When do you want to start?"

Checking the clock on the wall, he replied, "It's half past seven now. Let's say we want to be in the Yard at around a quarter past eight, then start at around nine. I doubt we'll be ready to actually begin the demolition until around ten, since we need to search the buildings immediately beforehand."

"OK. Armsmaster is due at four, which gives us plenty of time."

"Don't rush it, we need to do this right and make sure everyone is safe and happy with the results," he advised, sipping his coffee.

"OK, Dad. I'll take it slowly and carefully as I smash five warehouses into tiny pieces more or less bare-handed," she grinned. He rolled his eyes with a grin of his own, chuckling a little.

"I'm sure you will."

He rolled the map and the other plans up and put an elastic band around the collection, moving it to one side. "How did you get on with your new premises?"

"Very well," she smiled. "Varga and I lined it with something stronger, I doubt anyone could get in there now even with explosives. Not even tunneling in. We made some rooms inside for Amy's projects, she needs a secure place to keep her work private. That reminds me, can I get another set of these keys for her?" She waved the key ring at him having pulled it from her pocket.

After a moment, he nodded, looking slightly surprised. "You're moving fast but yes, of course. They're special high security keys that you can't just copy, they have to be supplied by the locksmith company, but I can order a spare set. They should be ready on Monday afternoon, the company is a local one."

"Thanks," she replied happily. "We also need to get some lights and power outlets put into the rooms. And maybe a phone, the Vargastuff lining seems to have practically killed cell reception. I can make the wires if I get a piece to study, I think, it's only copper and plastic, right?"

"Don't bother, we have literally tens if not hundreds of miles of cable in stock, along with a hell of a lot of lighting fixtures, switches, outlets, everything you'll ever need," he laughed. "You don't have to do everything the hard way. I'll get one of the electricians to come over later and you can tell him what you want done, it won't take long to wire things up. They're very experienced at their jobs. A landline is already on order as well, it should be installed on Wednesday along with the internet connection."

"Great, that will help a lot. I'll make the holes when I know what he needs."

"Make sure that if you have anything in there you don't want anyone seeing you cover it up," he advised. "Our people are discreet but there's no sense taking chances."

"Everything's carefully covered, we thought of that," she smiled. "When it's done you'll be the first to see it."

" _Now_ I'm scared," he replied with a mock shudder. "Who knows what you two could come up with giving a running start and no adult supervision?"

Taylor gave him the most evil grin she could manage, complete with a much too wide mouthful of sharp teeth. His shudder became slightly more real.

"Please don't do that so early in the morning, dear, it's a little more worrying than you probably realize," he sighed with a good-natured look of exasperation. She shrugged, making the teeth go away, her smile becoming more normal.

"Sorry," she laughed.

"I never thought when I met your mother that I'd end up raising a demon-daughter single handed," he said after a moment, gesturing wildly with his empty coffee cup. "All by myself, with only quick wits and good luck standing between us and disaster. Woe is me. Poor Heberts."

Grinning at him she shook her head with exasperation of her own. "Now you're just milking it," she commented.

"One extracts what fun one can from the situation," he told her, smiling, then getting up to rinse out the cup. "I'll be leaving in a few minutes. Meet you there?"

"Sure," she told him as she also rose.

A short while later both of them were making their separate ways to the DWU facility.

* * *

"What is this, Amy?" Carol said as she entered the living room, her voice stiff with disapproval. Amy and Vicky, who were sitting on the sofa discussing a school assignment, looked at her, then each other. Amy felt her heart fall. It was inevitable but she'd hoped her adoptive mother wouldn't make a scene. Unfortunately it didn't look like she was going to be sensible about things.

Turning back to the elder woman who was holding her second costume's helmet in her hand, waving it at her, she replied mildly, even though she wanted to shout, "It's a helmet."

"I know _that_ , young lady. I want to know where you got it and why?"

"It was a present from a friend along with the rest of the costume, which I last saw in a bag. On the floor of my closet. In my room. My private room." She emphasized each short sentence, seeing her sister beside her wince a little out of the corner of her eye. "A place I thought I was old enough to reasonably expect not to have searched by my mother."

"Don't take that tone of voice with me, Amy. I am perfectly at liberty to search my own house for things that are hidden in it."

"Really." Her voice was flat. "May I point out that it wasn't ' _hidden_ ' in my closet, it was ' _stored_ ' in my closet. Like my other clothes. And my shoes for that matter. Are you going to accuse me of smuggling shirts into the house next?"

Carol glared while Vicky sighed so faintly that Amy was probably the only one who heard, trying not to look at either her mother or sister and appearing embarrassed.

"Who gave it to you? Where did they get it? Why are you running around wearing this rather than your proper costume?" Carol didn't seem in a good mood.

Amy was beginning to feel very similarly. "Raptaur gave it to me, because it's better for the riding she's let me do than my robes. She made it. Because it's fun and I'd nearly forgotten what fun _was_ over the last two years or so. Is that OK, or do I need to ask permission to do anything that I actually enjoy?"

Her voice was becoming very sarcastic, something she was extremely good at from long practice, although she didn't normally aim it at Carol who didn't have much of a sense of humor for that sort of thing, especially from her.

Vicky winced again, although she was also hiding a very tiny smile of respect and amusement.

Carol went a somewhat unpleasant shade of red. Slamming the helmet down on the side table that also held a vase of flowers, making it rock perilously, she snapped, "I am becoming extremely concerned about your recent behavior. You've always been a sullen girl, but at least you did the right thing and were responsible with your powers like a member of this family should be. But you've given up half your volunteer work for no good reason that I can see, you're running around all over the city in the company of one or other of a pair of capes I'm still not sure about, and _now_ you've changed your costume without asking the family about it. Or even _mentioning_ it. I only found out by seeing the videos and images on the internet. What sort of impression do you think this gives about New Wave?"

Taking several deep breaths so she wouldn't say something everyone regretted, and poking her symbiote with her powers to make it release some calming hormones into her bloodstream, Amy managed to keep her temper.

"I didn't mention it because on the one hand I don't really see that it's anything to do with the family or New Wave, since I'm not doing anything officially, and on the other I knew exactly this would happen. I guess I was an idiot for thinking that you might deal with it calmly. Thanks for showing me my mistake, it's one I won't make again."

"What do you mean by that, young lady?" Carol demanded. Amy smiled serenely at her, wondering if she'd slightly overdone the endorphins. She was suddenly feeling very calm and relaxed, almost amused.

"Just what I said. You have been suspicious of me for years. Probably because my father was a villain." Carol suddenly paled. "Oh, yes, I worked that out a long time ago. Vicky did as well. I don't know who he was and I don't really care, neither does she. She's my sister and we love each other, no matter who our fathers were. You're not nearly as discreet as you think you are when you're complaining to Aunt Sarah about having to take me in." The older Dallon woman's face became even paler. "But I'm not a villain any more than you are, no matter who my father was. It's not in the genetics, you know. _I_ sure do, believe me. Nature versus nurture, the old argument. I don't know if I'm a hero, but I _do_ know I'm not a villain."

"Of course you're a hero, you're a Dallon," Carol said weakly.

"Really? You could have fooled me considering some of the things I've heard over the years," Amy grumbled. The calming hit from the brain chemistry tweak was wearing off as fast as it had come on and she was getting annoyed again. Briefly debating whether to try again she decided not to. "That's probably the first time you've ever called me that."

Carol looked stricken, glancing at her biological daughter, who was now staring at her with a certain amount of anger of her own. Vicky put her hand on Amy's shoulder. "She's right, Mom, we've both heard it. You've said some horrible things about Amy over the years."

"Eavesdroppers seldom hear things they like," the older woman grated, looking conflicted.

"Apparently not." Amy shrugged. "I don't really care any more." This wasn't entirely true but she wasn't going to admit to it, although the way her sister squeezed her shoulder made it clear Vicky knew the truth of it.

"I don't want you to see either Raptaur or Saurial again," Carol said after a pause, her nostrils flaring.

Amy studied her for a moment. "I dare you to tell _them_ that," she smiled nastily, watching as the woman went very pale again. "Why not?"

"They're obviously a bad influence on you," Carol muttered angrily, still looking worried. "We don't know enough about either of them. What do they want?"

Sighing, Amy shook her head, standing up and walking over to the woman, looking up at her a little since she was somewhat taller. "They just want to live their lives and help out around the place. Like you seem to want me to do. They don't ask for payment, again like me. Which is odd, it's been pointed out to me recently that there's all sorts of ways to make money with my powers. I'm sort of confused why you never considered that."

"You can't demand money to heal people, Amy," Carol snapped.

"Why not? Doctors do. You don't think that all those people at the hospital are there for free? Even the ones I heal pay something to the place, I'm sure. I've never asked but I'd be surprised if it didn't happen. Why should I be the only one who doesn't get something from it other than stress and boredom? The patient gets to live, the hospital gets to make money, me… I get to end up hating my life." She shrugged while Carol looked flabbergasted and Vicky sighed sadly.

"For the first time in years I'm having fun, doing things that I want to do rather than things that other people _expect_ me to do, and I'm going to keep doing it. Sorry, Mom, but that's the way it is."

"I can forbid you to, girl," Carol growled, leaning forward.

"Try it," Amy replied evenly. "In under six months I'll be eighteen and at that point I'm free to do anything I want without anyone's permission. I don't want this argument, despite everything I'm genuinely grateful for you taking me in and looking after me all these years, even if you did it under protest. But I'm not your property. Or New Wave's. Push too hard and I'll just walk out, now or later. There's no need for that, though, is there?"

She stepped back, smirking a little. "After all, just think of how it would look to the public. New Wave having internal arguments? The world's premier parahuman healer leaving them and setting off on her own? Maybe even joining the Protectorate? Not exactly a PR coup."

Her mother glared at her, breathing heavily in anger, but said nothing for several long seconds. Behind her she could practically _feel_ Vicky staring at them.

"This isn't over, Amy," Carol snapped, turning on her heel and stomping off.

She took a deep breath, sagging a little. "I hope to god it is, Mom," she whispered. She felt a pair of arms go around her and she leaned back into her taller sister's embrace, abruptly too emotionally worn out to even relish her forbidden feelings in having the other girl so close. "Sorry, Vicky. I don't know why that blew up so quickly like that. But I'm not going to give up my life just at the point I've suddenly rediscovered it."

"Of course you aren't, Sis." Vicky's voice was soft. "You deserve to be happy as much as anyone. I'm really pleased that you're having fun after seeing you slowly withdrawing from us all for years. Mom is just… Mom." She laughed sadly. "You know what I mean."

"All too well," she sighed. "All too well."

"Meeting Taylor, and Saurial, and even Raptaur, that's a good thing for you. You're making lots of friends at school now as well and you're happier than I've seen you for much too long. Don't let it get you down. She just doesn't handle change very well, especially when it's you in the middle of it."

Releasing her, her sister moved around to stand in front of her. "I'm not the best person to do this, Sis, you know that. I'll talk to Mom if you want but she's still sort of mad at me for what I said to Saurial the first time we met. We should talk to Aunt Sarah and see if she'll help sort all this out."

"OK," Amy nodded with a small smile. "That's a good idea. Mom might listen to her. Maybe."

Picking her helmet off the table, her sister handed it to her. "Put the suit on and let's go and see her. Then we can go and find a huge scaly monster and see if she wants to get a burger. Or an egg." Vicky grinned, while Amy laughed. The thought that all three of the friends that her sister had mentioned were the same person made it all the funnier. She wondered how the blonde would take it when she finally found out.

Going up to her room, Vicky following, she found the bag had been pulled out of the closet and opened, showing signs of being rummaged through. She was momentarily glad her baton was in her pocket. God knows what Carol would have made of _that_ , considering a mere costume was enough to start the rant they'd just had. While her sister closed the door she put the bag on the bed and pulled the suit out, then the boots and gloves, quickly dressing in it with much less trouble than it had caused the first time. When she was finished she retrieved the baton and slipped it into the belt pouch.

"What's that?" Vicky asked curiously.

"My self-defense weapon," Amy told her, pulling it out again and showing it to her. With a quick flick of her wrist she extended it, the thing locking open with a click. Vicky stared with wide eyes.

"Holy shit. That's cool. Do you know how to use it?"

"Not properly, not yet. I'm going to be taking lessons." Her sister motioned for the baton, so she gave it to her, the girl inspecting it closely, briefly attempting to bend it with absolutely no success, then handing it back, an impressed look on her face.

Pressing the button and closing it up again Amy put it back into its pouch. "That's really neat," Vicky said, watching with a smile.

"I think so," she replied, smiling back. She picked up her helmet and put it on, fastening the strap that held it in place. "Come on, let's go out your window. I don't really want to see Carol again right now and I guarantee _she_ doesn't want to see _me_."

With a somewhat sad nod her sister agreed, both of them crossing the hall to her room, which had a set of patio doors that opened out into thin air, installed after the blonde girl had Triggered as a flier. Quickly changing into her Glory Girl costume, she opened the doors, picked up her sister, then floated out, nudging them shut with her foot when they were outside. Shortly they were heading to the Pelham residence in silence, both busy with their own thoughts about the recent contretemps.

* * *

Sarah opened the door and smiled at her two nieces, the biological one and the adopted one, both of whom she liked very much. "Hi, you two. Come on in. What brings you over? I'm afraid both Eric and Crystal are out at the moment. And what on earth are you wearing, Amy?"

Both the teenagers entered, Amy taking off the helmet of her apparently professionally made new costume, then smiling a little at her. "I guess you haven't been following PHO for the last couple of days?"

"No, I've been very busy and haven't had time," she answered, still inspecting the costume with interest. "This is very high quality. Where did you get it?"

"A gift from a friend," the girl replied, in a way that made her think she was getting tired of repeating it. "Raptaur. She made it for me."

Feeling somewhat surprised, the older woman stared for a moment. "Well. There's a story behind _that_ , I'm sure. Come in and tell me what's going on. And why both of you look like someone took your toys away."

She smiled when both girls exchanged a glance then simultaneously shrugged, appearing to cheer up a little. They certainly didn't look happy, something she was sadly familiar with in Amy's case but that was a little unusual in Vicky's. The blonde was normally a very extroverted and cheerful girl, almost to excess, but now she looked thoughtful and upset.

"Please don't tell me either of you has been casually insulting overly powerful and rather terrifying capes again," she asked as a horrible thought crossed her mind. Vicky winced a little at the reminder while Amy suddenly laughed.

"It's sort of the opposite, actually, Aunt Sarah."

They followed her into the living room and sat on one sofa, while she took a seat opposite them on the other one. "Tell me and I'll see if I can give you the benefit of my many years of experience," she told them with an amused smile. "It can't be all that bad." All three of them looked up as her husband Neil came into the room, smiling at the girls.

"I thought I heard familiar voices," he said, sounding pleased. "I haven't seen you two for a while."

"Hello, Uncle Neil," Amy said, getting up and hugging him for a moment before sitting down again, Vicky following suit.

He looked her over. "Nice costume," he said, before sitting next to his wife.

"Thanks."

"Crystal showed me an interesting video on PHO last night," he added, making the girl look mildly embarrassed. He grinned while his wife examined him, then looked back to the two visitors.

"Apparently there really is a story to it. Let's hear it, girls."

She and Neil listened for some time as Amy and Vicky took turns explaining the background to what had been happening in the Dallon girl's lives, then finally ended up retelling the events of earlier that morning. With a sinking heart she heard how her sister was being difficult again. "Oh, Carol," she sighed sadly. " _Why_ do you act like this?"

Shaking her head, she glanced at Neil who had been listening silently although with a small frown on his face, then turned back to Amy who had finished speaking and was now simply sitting there waiting with an expression of mild depression. Not something she liked to see although she was somewhat used to it. "I'm very sorry about all of this for all of your sakes, girls. Amy, don't worry, I don't think you've done anything wrong at all. In fact if anything you're doing the right thing. We've all been worried about you for some time, the happy little girl I knew seemed to be slowly going away. If you've found her again, hold onto her with both hands and don't let go. You deserve to have a life as much as anyone."

"Carol seems to disagree," the girl muttered.

"Carol has extremely strong opinions about good and bad, which are sometimes…" She hesitated, searching for the right word. "...misplaced." Amy produced a tiny smile that seemed to convey wry appreciation of the term. " _You_ are not a bad person, despite who your father was. But Carol had a bad experience with him and I fear that it's always colored her outlook where you're concerned even though you had and have absolutely nothing to do with it."

"You know who he was," Amy said in a flat knowing tone, meeting her eyes.

Sarah hesitated again, glancing at Neil, who made a small motion with one hand, then looked back and nodded. "I do." She studied the two girls. "Do you want to?"

"You'll tell me?" Now Amy sounded surprised. Vicky was simply listening, looking worried.

"You're old enough to know and mature enough to understand, dear. Yes, if you want to know, I'll tell you. If you don't, I'll understand and never mention it again unless you ask. But it does go some way to explaining why Carol is like she is towards you. Not all the way, though, I'm afraid."

Amy looked at her with a very analytical gaze for some time, making her a little uncomfortable. She was well aware of how smart the girl really was and wondered how much of the story she'd worked out over the years from what she'd heard and guessed.

Eventually, the brunette sighed a little. "My top guess would be Marquis." Everyone in the room stared at her, Vicky's head snapping around so quickly that Sarah half expected to hear a crack.

After a pregnant and startled pause, Sarah asked, "How did you work _that_ out?"

"A similarity in looks based on pictures I've seen, a slight degree of similarity in powerset, the fact that I'm almost certainly a second generation trigger in the first place, and the timeline being pretty close," Amy shrugged. "It fits. I've had most of the information in my head for some time but I only put it all together just now. There were some other guesses as well but that one seemed the most likely. So it's true?"

"Yes." Sarah shook her head a little, glanced at Neil again, then asked, "Do you want to hear the story?"

"I suppose so," Amy replied a moment later, repeating the small slightly defeated shrug. "I'd like to know how I ended up with Carol as my mother, I guess. But I don't feel anything towards him, biological father or not. I never knew him, I don't remember him, and I don't really want to meet him even if I could. We read about him in school and while he has some good points for a villain it doesn't change the fact that he was a villain." She looked at her sister for a second. "I know who my family is and even if it's got its faults, I prefer it to the alternative."

Vicky put her arm over her sister's shoulders and held her for a moment, then released her without saying a word, but she looked pleased.

"Hopefully the truth about my parentage doesn't change things with you, Vicky."

"Of course it doesn't, Sis," the blonde said firmly.

"Thanks." They turned back to Sarah. "Let's hear the story."

"All right." She organized her thoughts for a moment, then began recounting the events of just over eleven years ago, which took some time. When she finally finished, Amy was silent again.

"Thank you, Aunt Sarah," she said quietly. "For telling me the truth."

"You deserved to hear it, Amy."

"Well, I've heard it, but I still feel the same. He may have been an honorable man in his own way but I can't say I like to think he was my father." The girl sighed a little. "Not that it matters. He's in the Birdcage for the rest of his life, I'll never meet him. Fine by me."

Neil got up, disappearing for a short time, then came back with a tray of drinks and some cookies, handing the two girls a glass of juice each and a plateful to share, before taking his seat again.

"The man had many faults, but as villains went, he wasn't the worst by a long shot, Amy," he said slowly. "I still have a certain amount of respect for him despite everything. Aside from anything else, he managed to produce a daughter I also respect and very much like, and wanted to see her properly looked after even if it was by a mortal enemy. That takes a considerable amount of courage and integrity, despite the rest of his flaws." He smiled slightly. "One day you might want to talk to him. Maybe not. But don't discount it permanently. You're still young and have a lot of time to think about it."

"I guess so, Uncle Neil," she replied, nibbling a cookie. "Maybe. But definitely not any time soon."

"I'm sorry about the situation with Carol, Amy," Sarah told her. "I'll go and talk to her. She means well but sometimes has an odd way of dealing with things. And as Vicky mentioned she doesn't handle sudden changes at all well."

"Thanks, Aunt Sarah," Amy said with relief in her voice. "I don't want to have to go through that again, but I'm not going to give up what I'm getting out of life now. Not for her. Sorry."

"Don't be, dear, you've done nothing wrong. My dear sister can be challenging to deal with at times, believe me, I've seen it before. There are good reasons for it but you're not the cause." She smiled as the girls both laughed. "We'll get this sorted out. Go and have fun, leave Carol to me."

"Thank you," the girl said again.

"You must introduce me to your very large friend with all the teeth," Sarah added, amused, as both girls stood. "She looks impressive in the recordings."

"She's more impressive when you're standing next to her," Amy laughed. "Or riding her. That's just… incredible."

"And leads to Clockblocker making some horrible jokes," Vicky giggled.

"Knowing the young man I can well believe it," Sarah sighed, smiling. "But I'm glad you're making friends, Amy."

The girl smiled, before following her sister out of the room, both waving as they left. The front door closed behind them leaving Sarah and her husband looking at each other. "Poor girl," Neil finally said. "Your sister isn't being very helpful, is she?"

"No, she isn't," Sarah grumbled, absent-mindedly eating one of the left-over cookies. "And the fact that Amy has overheard some of the things she's said to me all this time…? Christ. I'm not surprised the girl has been so down so much over the last couple of years, especially when you take the amount of work she's been doing for so long."

"And the type of work," Neil noted. "I'm glad she's finally decided to see sense and cut back to something closer to a sane level. Whoever persuaded her to deserves thanks."

"Definitely," Sarah nodded as she stood. "I'll be back later, I need to talk to my stubborn sister and try to persuade her not to drive away a young woman who despite everything has turned out very well."

"Good luck," he said with a small smile as she found her car keys and purse, then put her coat on. She gave him a wry smile and left. Alone, he happily finished off the cookies before going back to what he'd been doing.


	60. Warehouses and Deconstruction

"OK, I can do that," Taylor said, nodding to the older man who had just finished suggesting a modification to the plan she'd had for the first warehouse demolition. Andy and his colleague Jakub, the latter man somewhat younger that Andy's mid fifties and possessing a noticeable Polish accent, were the two people with heavy demolitions experience her father had wanted her to talk to. Andy had been a military engineer while Jakub had explosives handling experience, having worked for years for a company in the Mid-West specializing in removing tall buildings from cities what were redeveloping land. When the company he worked for had folded a decade ago he'd ended up in Brockton Bay working as a maintenance engineer.

"There will be a lot less chance of shrapnel with you doing this than with blasting, Raptaur, but even so when the roof comes down it will probably blow rubble for some distance," Andy said, closing the notebook he'd been making quick sketches in. "Putting netting around the outside of the building at ground level will reduce that."

"I can make enough of it for all the buildings easily," she told him. "If you guys start at the far end, I can do this one, then try taking it down and see how it goes, without putting anyone at risk but not wasting any time."

"Sounds good," he smiled. "We've already cleared the first warehouse and there are guards to stop any of the homeless people sneaking in. We had to kick three of them out, they'd been squatting on the top floor for a few days."

"What did you do with them?" she asked curiously, sad about the fact that she was in some ways destroying someone's home, primitive as it was.

"Danny told us to give them each a hundred dollars and ask them to go away for their own safety," Jakub put in. He shrugged slightly. "It's not much but it's about all we can do at the moment. Most of these people are so fucked up on that Merchant crap they hardly know what day of the week it is."

"I understand," she said, hoping that in some way people like that could be helped with this whole plan. "OK, is this the sort of thing you want?" She had the Varga produce a swatch of the debris containment fabric mesh that Andy had described in detail. He took the yard square piece from her hands and studied it, trying to tear it unsuccessfully, then nodded with a smile.

"Damn close to the commercial stuff, if anything it's even stronger," he said approvingly. "The velocity of the pieces will be a lot lower without explosives being used so this should work fine. If you can make about two dozen rolls fifteen feet by about three hundred feet that will be enough to start with and light enough for us to handle."

"Sure." She turned to an empty part of the yard and started fabricating the requested supplies. Shortly there was a large pile of dark blue stiff fabric in rolls lying there. "Is that enough? It'll time out in about six hours so we don't have to go around picking it up again."

"Perfect," he told her, looking very happy. "I wish we'd had you on the jobs I used to do, they've have gone a lot smoother." Turning, he stuck his fingers in his mouth and let out a piercing whistle, then waved, which had the effect that a group of about thirty-five dockworkers who had been standing around drinking coffee near a number of construction vehicles all looked over at the trio. One of the men waved back, then they all started moving with purpose, machines rumbling into life.

"We'll get started on building six, then, and when that's done building five. You start preparing building one but wait until until we give the go-ahead before you bring it down, OK?"

She nodded. "I have the radio, if you need me call me," she said, holding up the large walky-talky which looked small in her hands. It was a heavy duty waterproof military specification one, which all the men were carrying duplicates of. "I'm just going to talk to Danny for a few minutes then I'll start."

"Good enough. We'll make sure no one sneaks in until you've got the building netted. When you're ready to start removing the supporting walls call so we can make sure the guards are clear, then do them in the order we decided, and the whole thing should come down cleanly." He rubbed his hands together, looking interested, with a glance at his colleague. "I'm curious to see how well it works. Demolition by cape isn't something I've ever seen before, at least not on purpose and under control."

Taylor laughed, knowing what he meant, then nodded to both of them and headed for her father who was talking to Kurt and Zephron, over near one of the entrances to the admin building, all three men wearing thick work coats and looking somewhat chilly. She passed a stream of machines and workers, most of the latter waving or calling greetings as they fanned out into the surrounding area through the place the fence had been carefully removed to allow access.

Waving back with an inner feeling of satisfaction of being involved in something useful that so many people clearly appreciated also being a part of, she stopped next to her father, who looked up at her. She dropped to all fours to get her head a little closer to human level. Kurt was staring with wide eyes, as it was the first time he'd actually met her in either incarnation since he'd returned from Philadelphia, although she'd heard from her father that his old friend had spent some time watching videos on the internet and making muffled sounds of astonishment, something that had amused him a lot.

"Hi, guys," she said happily. "I'm all ready to start. Andy and Jakub told me some really useful things and we came up with a plan that sounds good."

"Great," her father smiled. He indicated Kurt. "This is an old friend of mine, Kurt. I don't think you two have met before?"

"No, we haven't," she replied politely. "Hello, Kurt, nice to meet you." Holding out a hand she waited until he put his own much smaller one in with a slightly worried look on his face, then carefully shook it. "I'm Raptaur. Danny mentioned you. Something about your wife's mother being ill?"

"Yes… Yes, something like that," the man replied with a slight quaver to his voice, reclaiming his hand with relief.

Zephron stuck out his own hand, which she also shook, the very large man grinning at her with no signs at all of worry or trepidation. "Nice to see you again, Raptaur," he said jovially. "This should be interesting to watch. What are you going to do, just hit it until it gives up and falls over?"

"Not quite," she snickered. "I did think about doing that but Andy pointed out that there would be bricks flying everywhere. He recommended going inside, taking out all the support columns except for a few critical ones, then cutting holes in the walls. When it's right on the verge of collapsing, I'm going to run a cable around all the remaining columns and pull hard from outside. That should make it fall mostly in on itself, like it would with a controlled explosion." She shrugged a little, smiling. "That's the plan, anyway. None of us have ever done this before so I'm curious to see what happens. I can always use a hammer if it doesn't work."

He laughed. "I've seen your hammer. That would do it."

"Probably," she replied. Turning to her father who was listening with amusement, she went on, "With any luck this should only take about half an hour for the first one, but I'm sort of making this up as I go so it might take longer. Assuming it works, the rest will be faster. I'll help search them when this one is finished if you want."

"Thank you," he said. "We've checked the next one along already so we know it's clear, but the other three are still being searched. No one is working on the steel-framed one today either."

"OK." Looking up as she felt a spatter of rain, she sighed. "Oh. I was hoping it wasn't going to rain again today."

"It won't last long according to the forecast, should be gone by early afternoon."

The day had been misty and overcast since they'd got up that morning and the bay was mostly obscured under a layer of fog that was gently blowing around in the light breeze, reducing visibility near the shore and over the water to nearly nothing. It was also much colder than it had been for the last few days, a cold front having rolled in overnight. None of this really mattered to her, the temperature was basically irrelevant these days, but it would make life more difficult for everyone else.

She turned her head to look at the first warehouse looming out of the mist as the rain became somewhat harder, all three men pulling up the collars of their coats. Water was now running off her scales and dripping from her armor. "Nice day for it anyway," she commented, making them smile. "I'll get to it, then. Call me if you need anything." Tapping the radio which was attached to her armor belt with a fabric pouch, she lifted a hand as he nodded, then jogged back towards the buildings, to begin wrapping a huge roll of blast-resistant fabric around the lowest floor. The pile of rolls of the stuff she'd made was already half gone, several forklifts transporting it away quickly and efficiently as the union workers swung into action, calls echoing throughout the maze of buildings.

Half-way there a thought struck her, making her snicker, then ask the Varga for a quick favor.

* * *

"I can hardly see where I'm going," Vicky mumbled, the mist surrounding them as they headed towards the docks. "Are you sure either of them will be here on a Saturday?"

"Yes, Raptaur mentioned she was going to be spending a lot of the day helping the DWU people demolish some old warehouses on the waterfront," Amy truthfully said. Remembering the unholy light of glee in Taylor's eyes from the previous night, she smiled to herself. Her friend was a responsible person but was clearly looking forward to smashing her way through a load of buildings with the full approval of the city.

"Oh. Weird, that's not something you hear about people actually _wanting,_ Capes tearing the place up," Vicky snorted, amusement in her voice. "If I do something like that everyone shouts at me."

"That's because you do it to perfectly good buildings, Vicky," Amy snickered. "Not old ones that the city wants removed. If you ask nicely maybe they'll let you help."

"Dressed like this?" the blonde laughed. "My tiara would fall off." She shivered a little. "Damn, I should have worn normal clothes, it's fucking freezing up here." A couple of minutes later she sighed heavily. "And _now_ it's _raining_. Wonderful."

Reaching the area surrounding the DWU facility they dropped lower, seeing that there were a lot of people and bright yellow machines moving around with definite purpose while a large part of the fence had been removed and neatly rolled up out of the way. Dozens of workers in high visibility jackets over their coats were doing something to a pair of warehouses some distance from the yard, while a few more were stationed around the one nearest the facility, which seemed to have the lower ten or fifteen feet enclosed in some sort of fabric. They could hear crashing sounds coming from that direction, occasional drawn-out rumbles being accompanied by clouds of dust that billowed from openings in the old building and quickly spread out, the rain making them fall to the ground fairly fast. All the puddles near the building were slowly turning red and muddy.

"She's probably in there." Amy pointed at the warehouse as they approached from a hundred feet up. "Set us down near those guys next to that building, that's Taylor's dad."

"Is she here too?" Vicky asked as she altered course towards the men who had spotted her, looking up at her while she descended.

"I don't know," Amy lied easily, "She did say last night she had something to do that would take up most of the day. I might go around and see her tonight, though."

Settling to the ground, Vicky let her sister down, then stared in irritation at the way the rain was running off her costume without soaking in at all. "It's waterproof as well. Shit. I wish this was," she mumbled, swiping rain off her dress, then pushing her now very wet hair back over her head.

Amy grinned, feeling slightly sympathetic but, more importantly, warm and dry.

"Want me to ask Raptaur to make you one like this as well?" she asked with a smirk. "She'd probably do it. If only to see Carol's face."

"Mom would go nuts if I came home dressed like that," her sister laughed. "But I'm pissed enough with her to do it anyway."

Both of them laughing, they walked over to the three men, who were all holding large umbrellas. "Hi, Danny," she said.

"Hi, Amy, it's nice to see you. And your sister." He smiled at them both. "We've never met, Glory Girl, but I'm familiar with your work."

She looked pleased.

"We've been asked to repair quite a lot of it over the years," he went on.

She looked less pleased and more embarrassed now. Danny grinned mischievously. "Thanks for the business, it's kept some of my guys in food and power for a while. Here, you look soaked." He handed her his umbrella which she took gratefully, although it was a little pointless by this point.

"Thanks, Mr Hebert," she said.

"Call me Danny. This isn't good weather for a costume like that, I think."

Vicky shrugged, smiling a little in a somewhat forced manner. "It's more suited to warm sunny days I have to admit."

The enormous black man standing next to Danny, dwarfing him, snorted with laughter. "I'll say. Girl, you look freezing. Here, take this." He removed his coat and swung it around her shoulders. "I have to go inside now anyway so I don't need it."

She smiled up at him. "Thanks, Mr…?"

"Zephron. Just call me Zephron." With a smile to her, he handed his umbrella to Danny and added, "I'll be inside if you need me, Boss."

"OK, Zephron," the Hebert man said.

They watched as he sprinted the fifty feet to the nearest door through the puddles, disappearing into the building, then Danny turned to the two girls. "What brings you here, Amy? You look a little upset."

She exchanged a glance with her sister. Diplomatically she replied, "I had a little argument with Mom. Nothing too serious I think. But I wanted to get out for a while and Sis came with me. Do you mind if we watch?"

"Not at all, you're always welcome here. Raptaur is currently ripping the insides of that building to pieces, she should be out in a few minutes." He pointed at the warehouse which was still emitting puffs of dust and crashing sounds. Raising the radio he was holding in his other hand to his mouth he waited for it to stop talking, then pressed the talk key. "Raptaur, Amy Dallon and her sister are here."

The crashing sounds stopped, the echoes dying away across the docks, then a moment later a familiar deep voice replied, " _OK, thanks, Danny. I'm nearly done in here anyway. I'll be out in about three or four minutes_."

"Alright," he responded, pressing the key again having released it to hear her reply. He put the radio back in his pocket, the device intermittently crackling with other messages from various people around the site.

They waited, Vicky's shivering quickly abating as she warmed up in the enormous coat that was wrapped around her, until a little later the huge reptilian figure of Taylor's alter-ego appeared out of the building trailing a length of metallic cable behind her. Amy stared, then started giggling.

"Is she wearing... a... safety vest?" Vicky asked slowly.

"Yep," Amy nodded, peering at her friend in the distance. Sure enough there was a large, somewhat unusually shaped high visibility jacket over the armored torso of the other girl, writing on the back. She strained her eyes to make out what it said, then laughed louder.

 **Raptaur**

 **Deconstruction Operative**

 **BB Dock Workers Union**  
 **member #1832**

… was written on the back of the blindingly orange reflective vest in large black letters. Under that, in somewhat smaller words, was:

 **BBFO, LLC**  
" **A Family Business"**

 **Proudly associated with**  
 **the City of Brockton Bay since 2011**

Below _those_ words was a phone number she recognized as Taylor's burner one for that identity.

Danny was making muffled sounds of laughter, the other man beside him was grinning and shaking his head, while Amy was nearly in hysterics. Vicky stared for several seconds, then grinned as well.

"She's utterly insane, isn't she?" the blonde asked the air.

"Oh, definitely, but in a good way," Danny smiled.

"Is she really a member of the DWU?" Amy's sister asked.

"Yep. Card carrying member, fully paid up," he told her with a look of contented pleasure. "So is Saurial."

"What's BBFO, LLC?" Vicky asked curiously.

Amy told her, making her stare again, before snickering. "Oh, god, she doesn't do _anything_ the normal cape way. That's going to make quite a few people wonder what the hell is going on." She thought for a moment, then her grin widened. "I bet Director Piggot will blue-screen when she hears about it."

"Probably," Amy replied, still giggling. They watched as the large figure came closer, several other workers calling out to her as she passed, apparently finding the jacket and the writing something worth mentioning. Amy could tell even fifty yards away that her friend was having fun.

When she reached a safe distance, the cable still paying out behind her, Taylor stopped, then turned around to watch the building. They saw her raise her radio to her mouth. " _I'm ready to bring it down_ ," the deep voice said through the one in Danny's pocket, which he pulled again out so they could hear it better.

" _OK, stand by_ ," an unfamiliar voice immediately said. There was a set of three sharp blasts from an air horn somewhere nearby, the other side of the warehouse by the sound of it, each blast sounding for a couple of seconds then dying away, the echoes carrying across the entire dock area. A pause of thirty seconds followed with a number of messages on the radio that seemed to suggest people hastily taking cover. Eventually there was another, much longer blast, which went on for ten or fifteen seconds. When it stopped the voice came back.

" _We're clear. Go ahead_."

" _OK. Let's see if this works right_." Taylor put her radio away, grabbed the cable with both upper hands, dropped to all fours, turned around, and ran. The cable snapped tight after twenty feet and they heard a distinct twang like a huge guitar string, followed by a massive series of closely spaced crunching sounds. Seconds later the roof of the warehouse shuddered before slowly and gracefully collapsing in on itself, the walls tipping in as well as it went, then folding. The huge rumbling noise went on for much longer than Amy expected, a vast cloud of dust rising and mixing with the mist, then slowly clearing away.

"That worked really well," Danny said with satisfaction when they could see the remains of the structure, which was now a long low pile of bricks, concrete, and cast iron, with a few still intact girders sticking out here and there. "As neat as doing it with explosives but a damn sight quicker and cheaper."

"We can clear all that away pretty quick, Danny," the other man said, nodding and smiling. "Great. If the others go as well as this we'll be ready to resurface by Thursday morning."

"All right then, Kurt. I'll leave the next part with you, I'm going to take these girls into the cafeteria and get some hot chocolate into them." They watched Taylor's lizard-like figure brush a little dust off, clap her hands together for a moment while the cable she had used disappeared, then turn and wander over, smiling.

"That worked perfectly," she said happily, picking a few bits of brick from her head. "Hi, Amy." Now that she was closer, they could see a small badge on her chest that said brightly, ' _Hi! My name is:'_ in small letters, then under that in rather larger text and a different font, _'_ _ **Raptaur**_ _'._

Everyone looked at it, then each other.

"Hi," Amy replied with a grin, shaking her head. Taylor was milking the joke for everything she could squeeze out of it. She could see the amusement in the glowing slit-pupiled eyes. "This is my sister. Glory Girl, or Victoria Dallon."

Vicky was looking up at the shape of Raptaur with a slightly awed expression. "Fucking hell you're huge," she mumbled in amazement.

"Biggest newt ever, right?" Raptaur chuckled. Amy almost fell over at the horribly embarrassed look on her sister's face while Danny grinned widely.

"Shit. She told you."

"Yep. Don't worry, it was more funny than anything." Taylor smiled, deliberately not exposing any teeth, as much as her current face would allow. Vicky relaxed a little, still looking embarrassed.

"I'm sorry, though," she said quietly. "I'd had a bad day and went off on someone for no good reason."

"No harm done, forget it," the large reptile cheerfully replied. "She doesn't care and neither do I." Glancing at her father, she added, "I could do with something to drink, it's really dusty in there."

"Come on inside and we'll find something," Danny told them all, leading the way into the building, his transformed daughter bringing up the rear with Amy and Vicky walking side by side between them.

* * *

Her hands around the warm mug, Vicky finally felt mostly dry again, the coat that guy Zephron had loaned her having absorbed most of the rain that had soaked through her costume. February rain was _cold_. At least it wasn't snowing. She once again regretted not checking the weather forecast a little more carefully before deciding to wear it when they went over to their Aunt's house, but she'd been sufficiently annoyed with their mother she'd just wanted to get out of the place before she said something everyone would regret. Glancing at Amy, who had taken off her helmet and was talking to both Danny and Raptaur, all three of them sharing an easy familiarity that she found pleasing if a little puzzling, she smiled to herself.

Their mother had not handled the whole thing well at all. Not entirely surprising, the blonde girl was well aware of things that had been said over the years, having comforted a crying Amy more than once in that time. She loved Carol Dallon but sometimes she really wanted to scream at her to think more carefully before she said anything. And people said _she_ was too quick off the mark?

The girl snorted quietly. She knew where she got it from in that case.

Looking around the large cafeteria she studied the posters on the walls, the various people eating what was either a late breakfast or an early lunch, most of them looking like they were grabbing a few minutes while they had the time, and the overall décor of the place. It was somewhat industrial and visibly a little run down, but clean and neat even so, looking like what it was, which was a room a lot of people used regularly in an institution that was short of cash but proud of what it stood for.

Almost none of the people coming and going did more than glance at them, most of them nodding respectfully to both Danny and Raptaur, a few of them coming over for a quick conversation then leaving again. One or two of them looked curiously at her, clearly recognizing her which wasn't surprising, but somewhat unusually no one seemed either over-impressed or worried. She was briefly tempted to see what happened if she let her aura flare up, having been practicing suppressing it since her run in with Saurial, but quickly decided that would be a phenomenally bad idea.

Dean had talked to her quite a lot about the problems she had with it, and recent events had made her start to take him more seriously. He seemed both surprised and pleased.

Putting the cup down she reached up and took her tiara off, placing it on the table, then ran her fingers through her matted hair. The rain hadn't helped at all.

"Here," a voice rumbled, making her look to see Raptaur holding out a comb with what looked like a smile on her very non-human features. "I don't have much use for it myself but you obviously could do with it."

Smiling a little, she accepted the thing, running it through her hair and quickly setting it to rights, just straight and not in her normal style. It was still too damp for that. When she'd finished she handed the comb back, watching with some amazement the way it evaporated in the other cape's hand. "Cool. Thanks."

"You're welcome," the big lizard-woman replied in calm tones. "You really aren't dressed for the rain, though."

"I know," she sighed, "I hadn't planned to be out in it."

She shrugged out of the huge coat, placing it on the end of the table. "I'll have to thank Zephron for that, I was freezing."

"He's a decent guy," Raptaur nodded.

"What was on the other end of that cable?" she asked curiously. "The entire place fell down as soon as you pulled it."

"It was wrapped around all the remaining columns and load bearing walls," Raptaur replied. "I cut the rest of them out with a sword and only left enough to stop it all falling over until I was outside."

"Would it hurt you if you made a mistake and were in there when it caved in?" Vicky was sure the cape was tough but she didn't know how tough. Raptaur chuckled.

"No, although it would be a pain digging myself out."

Ah. That tough. She shook her head in respect.

"It sure went quickly when you took out the last walls."

"Gravity does that," Danny said from the other end of the table, smiling. "I was impressed how neatly it fell on the same spot, though. Well done."

"Thanks," Raptaur replied, looking at him. "That was mainly Andy and Jakub. Their plan worked perfectly. I'll use the same method for the rest of them, no sense experimenting when we have a working solution."

"OK." His cellphone rang at that point, causing him to pull it out and look at the display. "Sorry, I need to take this, it's Roy."

They watched as he left the cafeteria. "Who's Roy?" Vicky asked in a low voice.

"Mayor Christner," Amy replied in the same tone. "He's behind a lot of this, there's a big city project that just got voted through. It was mostly Danny's idea but the Mayor backed it and managed to push the vote through the council yesterday. It's going to be announced sometime during the week, but don't go round talking about it until then, OK?"

"OK," she replied, wondering how her sister knew so much about it. Amy grinned, apparently realizing this.

"They let me in on it the other day when I was at the Hebert's house. Danny was talking to Taylor about it and I asked. It's pretty impressive."

"It will make a big difference to the city," Raptaur put in. "Not to mention to the DWU. Most of these people will be in work for years as a result and there's going to be a lot more hiring soon as well. The local economy is going to pick up a lot."

"What about BBFO, LLC?" Vicky asked with a smile. "Is that particular company involved in other things or do you just break buildings?"

"We… have a stake in it, yes," Raptaur snickered. "Quite a big one." She glanced at Amy, who muffled a laugh.

"A huge one, actually," her sister giggled.

Vicky looked at them both suspiciously, which made them look even more amused, exchanging a glance that seemed to convey quite a lot. "You're hiding something, Sis," she said slowly.

"I am. Don't worry, you'll find out on Tuesday. It should be interesting to watch." Amy smirked at her in a particularly infuriating way that showed she had no intention of saying anything else. Vicky sighed after a moment.

"Fine. Be like that."

"I will."

"Great."

They stared at each other for a few seconds, hard, then began laughing.

"Idiot," Vicky giggled, reaching out and knocking her fist gently on the other Dallon sister's head.

"Hey, can you make a costume for Vicky like this?" Amy suddenly asked Raptaur, who looked a little startled as far as the blonde could make out, staring first at the other girl, then Vicky herself. Glowing eyes examined her closely for a moment.

"If she wants, sure, I guess, since it's your sister," the reptile replied after a few seconds.

"She's going to freeze to death out there otherwise," Amy explained with a look at her sister that contained a certain amount of sly humor. "She's more or less invulnerable but not immune to the weather, only impact."

"She did have a sort of drowned rat theme going on," Raptaur grinned. "OK. What color scheme do you want?"

Somewhat taken aback at the suddenness of the offer, Vicky looked at them, then said, "Um… White and Gold, I guess. Like this one." She indicated her dress and cape, then the tiara.

"So, nothing showy, then," Raptaur noted, making Amy grin. "All right. Stand up a moment and turn around. It'll take a couple of tries to get the size exactly right."

Following instructions, Vicky did as requested, then watched as the reptilian woman thought for a moment. She held out her hands, which were abruptly full of costume, gleaming white with gold accents around the joints and waist. On the chest was a detailed golden image of Vicky's tiara, which made the Dallon girl raise her eyebrows and smile. Putting it down on the table she handed over the helmet, which Vicky took with a certain amount of impressed amazement. "Try this on first." Raptaur watched as she pulled the thing over her head having removed the tiara. "How is it?"

"Pretty good, actually," she reported. "Just a little tight."

"OK." Coming around to her side of the table, the cape felt the helmet carefully, then did something. Vicky felt the tightness go away until the helmet fitted perfectly. "How about now?"

"Perfect."

"Good. OK, try the gloves and the boots." The gloves were an ideal fit immediately, the boots needed slight adjustment, but in the end she was satisfied with both.

"These are really comfortable," she smiled.

"Great," Raptaur replied with an air of satisfaction. "Go and try the suit on, then. There's a women's locker room two doors down on the right, turn left out of the cafeteria."

Gathering up the suit Vicky went off to do exactly that. She found that once she'd taken her dress off, leaving her in her shorts and bra, the suit actually fitted almost exactly, only being a little short in the sleeves. Carrying her still damp normal costume she went back to find her sister and the other cape talking quietly together. Both looked up at her as she came in. "It's not bad. The sleeves are too short though."

"OK." The changes were made quickly. "There you go."

Looking down at herself Vicky grinned, then pulled the helmet which she'd left on the table over her head, noticing that it had developed a photo realistic image of her tiara around the top of it while she was gone. It was a little detail that she liked. Holding her arms out to the sides she turned around. "How does it look?"

"Pretty damn good, actually," Amy replied, smiling widely. "We match at least. And you won't freeze or get soaked on the way home."

"Mom is going to shout a lot, you realize," Vicky remarked.

Amy sighed, with a small shrug, while Raptaur looked between them but didn't say anything. "Probably. But right now I don't actually care."

"Neither do I, I guess." Vicky sighed as well. "But I like being nice and warm for the first time in an hour."

Glancing at the large clock over the door to the cafeteria, Raptaur announced, "I need to get back to work, I have four more warehouses to take down in the next few hours. You guys can stay as long as you want but I won't have much time to talk for a while."

"We'll come and watch for a bit," Amy replied after looking at Vicky, who nodded. "It's interesting."

"If you want some exercise, Glory Girl, you can give me a hand," the huge lizard said after apparently considering the idea for a few seconds, giving her an evaluating look. "You're fairly strong, right?"

"I can lift over a ton," she said proudly. Amy snickered while Raptaur reached out and patted the top of her head comfortingly.

"That's nice, but do some honest work and we'll soon have you up to a decent strength level," she smiled. "A ton's not bad to start with, though. You can do the easy stuff while I take care of the heavy lifting."

Laughing, she left the room, Amy watching her go with a wide grin, then turning back to Vicky, who was wondering if she'd been insulted or not.

"How much can _she_ lift?" she wondered out loud.

"She said something like thirty tons or so before it gets awkward," Amy smiled. Vicky gasped.

"Fuck. I don't think I'm going to challenge her to arm-wrestle," she mumbled, stunned. That was incredibly high even for a major Brute.

"Probably best not to," her sister giggled. "Come on." She hopped to her feet and followed her friend, Vicky trailing behind them with her normal costume in a bag that the reptilian woman had given her over her shoulder, wondering what their mother was doing and how she was going to react to seeing the suit her biological daughter now owned.

After a moment, she grinned a little. She thought it would be amusing to see, and a small revenge for the way the older Dallon had treated the youngest one. Only by a month, but even so.

There was no excuse for that sort of behavior to family in her opinion. Amy deserved respect.

Hopefully Aunt Sarah was talking sense into her. Or beating it.


	61. Shouting and Arguments

" _I just wanted to ask how everything was going, Danny_ ," the Mayor's voice said as he answered the phone. Danny smiled a little, walking into his office and looking out the window at the remains of the first warehouse where a crew were already beginning to use an excavator to load the rubble into a couple of trucks for disposal. The metal girders and other structural reinforcements would be taken off to add to the first load of scrap, while everything else would either eventually be landfill at the Boat Graveyard, or crushed and sold as construction material.

"Pretty well, Roy," he replied, watching the work outside with satisfaction. "Raptaur has already taken down the first of the five old warehouses she's doing today and is just about to start on the next. Barring any problems we'll have them all down by mid-afternoon. We think that we'll have the site cleared by Thursday and be ready for resurfacing work. I've got every free person with any relevant experience on the job and almost everyone volunteered to work on Sunday as well. When the rest of the equipment turns up starting on Monday we can really push ahead."

" _That's great,_ " the other man said sounding very pleased. " _And our large friend is OK with moving the tanker ahead of the original schedule?_ "

"She is. Looking forward to it, I think, actually," he chuckled. "She's going to clear out the base of the docks over the weekend to make sure the water is deep enough for it. We'll put a temporary structure around it to make sure that any leakage doesn't get into the bay. When we're ready to start work it will be right there."

" _Wonderful. I'm very pleased indeed. Do you mind if I stop by later to have a look at progress?_ "

"Of course not. Any time you want. I'll either be in my office or out in the Yard but just ask and someone will find me."

" _OK._ " The other man sounded in a very ebullient mood. " _This is going so well I'm almost worried. Around here that usually ends in something horrible happening._ "

"Look on the bright side, Roy, if anyone tries something we have the ability to shut it down pretty fucking quick, if only by stepping on it," Danny snickered, making the Mayor start laughing.

" _Oh, God, I'd almost pay to see that. Kaiser being squashed by a size one million foot_." He sniggered while Danny grinned. " _I hate that bastard. Any signs of gang involvement or anything like that?_ "

"No, they've all been very discreet since Hookwolf's little visit. We haven't seen or heard anything at all from the E88, the ABB were poking around very carefully a few days ago but when the guards politely asked them to go away they did, and the Merchants are staying well out of it. Skidmark is a fool but he's not an idiot. I'm pretty sure he knows that anyone who could take out Hookwolf that easily wouldn't have too much trouble with his crew in all likelihood, so he seems to be trying to pretend we don't exist." Danny emitted a small laugh. "I can live with that. No need to pick a fight where we don't have to. If they keep to themselves we will as well."

" _You and your vast crew of minions are becoming something of a power in the city_ ," Roy commented with amusement clear in his voice.

Danny sighed. "Oh, Christ, don't _you_ start with that, Roy, please. One of the guys here has already got half the people calling me ' _Boss_ '. He's threatening to come up with an official DWU salute next."

Roy howled with laughter. " _Oh, I_ _ **have**_ _to see_ _ **that**_ ," he said, obviously extremely amused. "Y _ou have some interesting friends_."

"Some of them with too much time on their hands," Danny grumbled, not really upset, shaking his head sadly. "Anyway, I need to get back outside and talk to some people. See you later, maybe."

" _Quite likely,_ " Roy replied. " _Goodbye, Danny. Thanks for the update_."

"It's no trouble, Roy. Bye."

Disconnecting the call he flipped the phone shut and put it back into his pocket, watching out the window as the first truckload of debris rumbled away and an empty vehicle took the place of the departing one. Nodding to himself he put his coat back on and headed towards the exit. So far things were working even better than he'd hoped.

* * *

"I'm just heading to the office, Sarah, I have work to do," Carol said as she opened the door when her sister rang the bell.

Sarah put a hand on her shoulder and gently pushed her into the house, stepping in and closing the door behind herself. "Even on a Saturday?"

Carol nodded. "It's a case that's being pushed very hard and is a pain in the ass so I have to work on it today."

"Call them and tell them you'll be late. We need to talk. Now." She wasn't entirely in a good mood after what Vicky and Amy had told her. There was little doubt that they were being truthful, they were both honest people by and large and clearly upset, while it fitted unpleasantly well with her sister's past behavior.

"I can't just decide not to go in, Sarah," Carol stated, looking annoyed. "I have a job. One I'm very good at and that's important."

"You have _another_ important job, which is being a good mother." Sarah watched as her sister's eyebrows rose, then her face darkened with anger. " _That_ one is the one you need to deal with right now. The other one can wait." She picked up the hall phone from the small table under the mirror next to the coat rack, handing it to Carol. "Call them. You'll be in late."

They exchanged glares for several seconds, until very reluctantly the other woman took the phone from her and dialed. She had a brief conversation, making an excuse of family business that had suddenly come up, which was true. Jamming her thumb on the button at the end of the conversation she slammed the cordless phone back into its holder.

"Fine. I've done it. What do you want?"

"I want you to tell me why you're trying to drive a very decent young woman into depression and quite possibly just walking out on you." Sarah folded her arms and gave her younger sister a severe look. "You can be a harsh woman, Carol, but you're not a bad one. Explain this to me."

Her sister stared at her for several seconds, her mouth a little open, then snapped it shut and turned on her heel, going into the living room. Carol sighed and followed.

"They went running to you," Carol muttered as she paced back and forth in the middle of the room, then headed for the wine cupboard, pulling a bottle, a corkscrew, and two glasses out of it. "I should have guessed." Mark, who was watching TV and hadn't looked up when they came in, now peered at his wife and sister-in-law. With a very faint sigh he picked up the remote and pressed the off button, turning to his wife.

"Get another glass, will you?" he said. Both women looked at him, rather surprised at the atypical behavior. "If you're going to shout at each other I need a drink."

"You could always go somewhere else," Carol commented with a degree of annoyance. Sarah shook her head a little, but Mark didn't seem to take offense.

"I could, but I'm not going to."

"Fine." She got a third glass out and put it in front of him on the coffee table, then opened the bottle, filling all three glasses. Sitting down and putting the half-empty bottle on the table she picked up her glass and took a sip. "What do you want to talk about, Sarah?"

The Pelham woman studied her sister for a moment, then picked up her own glass, sitting in a chair that gave her a good view of both the Dallons. She tried the wine, which was pretty good, then organized her thoughts for a few seconds.

"I know you've always resented having Amy pushed on you like that, but even so you've mostly done right by her, Sis," she said slowly. "She says as much herself. But you've also treated her pretty badly sometimes, and we both know some of the things you said about it over the years. Unfortunately, _she_ knows as well. So does Vicky. They're both very bright young women and can fill in the blanks as well as anyone."

Carol took another sip, listening silently, although her face was wearing a mildly irritated expression.

With a sigh, Sarah continued, "She knows Marquis was her father."

Carol jolted, nearly spilling her wine. "You _told_ her?!" she shouted.

Shaking her head, Sarah waited for the other woman to calm down. "No. I offered to but I didn't need to. She worked it out for herself. As she told me when she did, all the information was there. She could probably have figured it out some time ago but she never felt like thinking about it. Despite everything, she thinks of herself as a Dallon and you as her mother. Even if, right now, she doesn't want to talk to you for a while." She raised her glass to her lips and drank, then lowered it. "I can understand why to be honest. They told me what you said and did."

Sarah sighed as Carol went a little pale, mainly with anger. "That was too far, Carol. She's right, she's old enough to make her own decisions, good or bad, and live with the consequences. Keep pushing and you'll push her right out the door." She studied her sister. "Is that what you really want?"

"Of course it fucking isn't," Carol said in a loud voice, glaring. Sarah met her gaze silently and her sister eventually deflated. "No, of course it isn't. She's my daughter."

"Why don't you ever tell her that, then?"

"What do you mean?"

The Pelham woman stared at her sister for a couple of seconds. "I can't believe you sometimes. You call Vicky your daughter all the time. ' _My_ _ **daughter**_ _Victoria, and_ _ **Amy**_ ' I heard you say only last week. Not ' _My_ _ **daughters**_ _, Victoria_ _ **and**_ _Amy_.' Why is that?"

Carol looked slightly stunned.

"You're always doing it. It's my daughter, or Vicky, or Victoria, or if she's done something particularly stupid, Victoria Dallon. But it's always Amy. Not even Amelia. And I've hardly ever heard you refer to her as your daughter, or even tell anyone you have two of them."

"I..." Carol fell silent again, appearing somewhat troubled.

"I know you, Sis. I know you're not a bad person. But you're an unforgiving one. And you see the world in a more black and white way than anyone I've ever met. I think you don't trust Amy and never have, simply because of who her father was."

Her sister didn't say anything but her mouth tightened.

"Marquis was not a good man, not by a long shot, but what we did wasn't exactly right either. By today's standards we completely violated the Rules, attacking him in his own home. I'm still conflicted about that, you know." Sarah sighed. "We probably didn't have a choice, under the circumstances, but you have to admit that the man himself would never have done the same to us. If he _had_ been prepared to do that sort of thing there's a good possibility none of us would be here now."

"He was an evil man, Sarah!" Carol snapped. "He had to be stopped."

"I agree. But even you must acknowledge that the _way_ we did it was… tactically sound but strategically unwise." Sarah shrugged. "We got away with it. We wouldn't now if the same thing came up. Even the PRT would come down on us like the hammer of god. The Rules are there for a reason, not necessarily one I agree with, but most capes take them pretty seriously. For political reasons, self-preservation, whatever, but they do."

She shook her head for a moment, sipping the wine again, then put the glass on the table. "Anyway, we're getting off the subject. We ended up making a promise, one I always intended to keep and one I thought you would as well, even if you hated the man you made it to. I know why you hated him so much and I sympathize, but _please_ don't take it out on an innocent teenager. She doesn't deserve it."

"Marquis was scum," Carol muttered into her wineglass.

"He was better than a lot of the alternatives, Sis," Sarah pointed out. "Lung is worse in many ways. Kaiser is worse. Marquis at least _always_ kept his word, no matter what, and he was very polite." She smiled a little wryly. "That's a rare trait in a villain. Or most people, actually."

"He murdered dozens of people!" Her sister looked outraged. Sarah nodded.

"Of course he did. I didn't say I _liked_ him. But I can acknowledge the few good points the man had, after all this time. I don't regret doing what we did, don't get me wrong, but for better or worse we have to live with the consequences. And one of those consequences was sitting on my sofa an hour ago being comforted by her sister because you yelled at her for no good reason that I can work out. I'm not happy about that."

She looked hard at Carol who was now appearing a little upset and embarrassed, the wine clearly having an effect on her control. "Amy is a good natured, intelligent, and likable girl who has been withdrawing into herself for a long time now, at least partly because of her family life. The stresses caused by her powers can't have helped either. I was very pleased to learn that she'd finally listened to a friend and slowed down. She was on a path to somewhere very bad if she'd kept going the way she was."

"She was doing the responsible thing with her abilities," Carol argued.

"And I think she feels the same way. But your attitude, and to be honest that of the rest of us, was that we expected her to go out and heal anyone she could, whether she wanted to or not. Looking back on it I'm surprised she hasn't blown up at you some time ago." Sarah shrugged a little. "We were wrong. She was only just fifteen when she Triggered, which is way too young to have all the responsibilities that everyone immediately dumped on her. You more than anyone, I'm afraid to say. She's been to every Endbringer fight in the last two and a half years without even hesitating, not that we've really bothered to ask, and god knows how many people are still alive because of her. Are you surprised that she's taken the opportunity she seems to have found to make friends and find something she actually _wants_ to do and run with it?"

She sighed faintly. "I can assure you that under the same circumstances I'd have done exactly the same thing. Probably a lot sooner, I don't have the patience that girl does."

"She's wearing a brand new costume that she didn't ask me about, or even mention to me, and running around with Saurial and Raptaur! You saw that lizard girl at the DWU same as I did. She's unbelievably dangerous. And Amy is riding her fucking sister around all over the city like a goddam horse or something. What the hell is _that_ about?" Carol looked outraged. "We know _nothing_ about them, or their ' _Family_ ' or whatever it is, except that they do whatever they want and get away with it. Are they even heroes? Proper ones? I don't want a member of New Wave being associated with people we can't trust. What's she even doing with them?"

Sarah leaned back a little, surprised at the stream of questions and accusations, delivered in a loud angry voice. She glanced at Mark who appeared to sigh silently, but said nothing, merely slowly sipped his wine and listened.

"Wow. Sis, you're getting as bad as some of the lunatics on PHO. There's one guy there who's apparently convinced that Saurial is the first of a whole series of steadily larger demons that will rise out of the sea and take over." She chuckled, shaking her head, while waiting for her sister's color to get back to something a little safer. "He's nuts, of course."

Carol finished her wine and refilled her glass, not offering any to the others, a sullen expression on her face.

"All right, let's see if we can set some of your worries to rest, OK?" After a pause to try to remember the short impassioned rant, she went on, "I saw the costume, and to be honest I like it. It suits her, it's extremely high quality work that would cost a fortune to buy, and it's apparently bulletproof, fireproof, and waterproof. She's safer wearing it than she would be without, so that's a _good_ thing! It was a present from a friend and she doesn't need our permission to either accept it or wear it. Any more than she would with any other clothes. She's nearly eighteen after all and is hardly bringing the name of New Wave into disrepute."

Her sister was still looking pissed off, making her shake her head. "Really? You're going to get _that_ look? Just like when we were kids and Mom wouldn't give you another cookie."

Mark suddenly chuckled, which made Sarah glance at him with a small smile and Carol turn her glare in his direction. He held up a hand. "Sorry, dear," he said in a voice that was more in the here and now than usual. He was obviously having one of his better days.

"Keep out of this, Mark," Carol grumbled. He saluted her with his wine glass.

"Anything you say, dear. I'm not here."

"You never are," she muttered. Sarah winced, looking apologetically at her brother-in-law, who didn't seem all that worried about the comment, which she personally thought was a bit much.

"As far as either Saurial or Raptaur goes, I agree they're both hideously dangerous if provoked. I saw what the first one was doing, you're right. I wouldn't like to get on her bad side. But from what we saw, that's actually incredibly difficult. If she was willing to take some fuckwit _sniping_ her in the _head_ for over an hour and only think it was mildly amusing, I very much doubt she's going to suddenly snap and slaughter everyone around her. Vicky insulted her pretty badly without any excuse and she laughed it off and asked if the girl was feeling all right! That's not the actions of someone I'm particularly worried about. Thinking back on it, I'm pretty sure what she was doing was demonstrating to us, and anyone else watching, why it would be a bad idea to fight her, specifically so she wouldn't actually have to."

Sarah smiled a little. "It's a good plan and it certainly worked. I'm not going to pick a fight with the girl without a _very_ good reason."

"You think that was all an act?" Carol sounded outraged.

"Not at all. I suspect that if you forced her into it she'd simply kill you to protect anyone she cared about. But I also think she'd need a fuck of a lot of provocation to ever do that. Mostly she seems to be trying to stop the situation coming up in the first place, which is pretty smart. You notice how she hasn't gone after any capes, only stopped the mooks. That's an unusual strategy but it's sure working. Crime is down a lot in areas she goes to." Sarah smiled, finishing her wine then holding her glass out. Reluctantly her sister topped it up.

"You actually _like_ her," Carol accused.

"I think I do." Sarah nodded a little. "Her sister is much less restrained, from what we saw, but in a very targeted way. She's apparently just as helpful as well, I've heard stories about her just wandering around lending a hand with all sorts of things. PHO is full of videos of them both doing all sorts of weird jobs, which mostly seem to be because it amuses them. The public was shit-scared at first but reading the forums now most people in the city seem almost pleased about them being here, in a very respectful sort of way."

"Ever since those two turned up all people seem to do is talk about them or react to them," her sister noted sourly. "It's really annoying. Even the PRT seems to just be watching, not trying to do anything about them."

"Why should they ' _do anything about them_ ', Sis?" Sarah asked. "Piggot's not an idiot. She can see they're being polite and helpful the same as anyone else can. So far there's no threat and the woman is more than smart enough not to push them into being one. I'm sure that the PRT are doing threat assessment after threat assessment but right now they obviously have a live and let live policy. Which is unusual, I agree, but like I said Piggot's no fool."

"Don't like her," Carol mumbled.

"She doesn't like us either," Sarah laughed. "We annoy her, as do all independents."

She watched as her sister put the last of the wine into her glass and drank it, then went and fetched another bottle. Exchanging a glance with Mark, she caught the small shake of his head and said nothing.

"I don't think that there's anything wrong with Amy making friends with them, Carol," she said when her sister sat down again and busied herself with pulling the cork out. "They'll keep her safe, that much I'm sure of, she needs more cape friends who aren't associated with our families or the Wards, and she needs to work out her own place in the world. Not live in the one we've shoehorned her into. That clearly wasn't working out. She's still volunteering at the hospital every second day after all and I can't help but think that cheering her up will make that part go much more smoothly. Let her live her life, for her sake and yours. And Vicky's, she was nearly as upset as Amy was about the way you handled it."

"She was keeping things from me," her sister replied as she picked up her newly filled glass, then drank half of it.

"Are you surprised if this is how you reacted?" Sarah asked tiredly, watching as her sister seemed intent on suddenly becoming somewhat drunk. She clearly wasn't going into the office today. The Pelham woman made a mental note to find her car keys and hide them, just in case. "You searched her room, confronted her in an aggressive manner, accused her of god knows what, and more or less proved that you don't and never have trusted her. If she'd come right out and told you as soon as she came home the other night, would it have been any different?"

Carol sighed heavily, seeming conflicted again. "I do consider her my daughter, Sarah," she finally said.

"Tell her that, not me, then!" Sarah raised her voice in exasperation. "Stop complaining about being forced to take her, which by the way isn't completely accurate anyway, and show the poor girl some love and affection. And trust! If you don't I'm pretty sure she'll leave and probably never come back. She's not happy about the situation. Neither is Vicky and neither am I. You're better than this."

Both of them stared at each other. Sarah could see in her sister's face the direction of her thoughts as a result of very long practice. Carol was stubbornly trying to maintain her outrage and suspicion but at the same time her sister's words were sinking in. She didn't like hearing them but she clearly couldn't come up with any good argument to the contrary. Not that this would stop her, Sarah thought with a sigh.

"She shouldn't be running around like a lunatic and riding Raptaur about the place like that," the woman finally said. "What sort of impression of her does that give?"

"A good one?" Sarah asked sarcastically. "One that says that Panacea, the girl everyone knows as a sullen and withdrawn young woman, actually has fun and a sense of humor? Not to mention how it makes Raptaur look a lot more tourist-friendly and safer. You must have seen that thing outside Fugly's with Assault and Battery." She smirked at the memory, having laughed rather a lot when she'd first seen some of the videos of the encounter. "Both of them were clearly playing the whole situation up as much as they could because they thought it was funny. Which it was. Nearly as good at that prank on poor Clockblocker, which was _epic!_ Your daughter is having fun, Carol. Let her. You should be _encouraging_ her to make friends, even if some of them have tails. God knows she needs to smile more."

"Did you know about the Hebert girl? The DWU head's daughter?"

Sarah nodded. "She mentioned her, yes. Based on what she said I suspect that Taylor was probably the start of all this somehow. Vicky told me that she has lunch at the same table as Taylor and some of her other friends now, which I think is nice. She's opened up so much in the last week from what I hear that I'm both amazed and pleased. Don't ruin it, Carol. Please." She got up, then sat next to her sister, putting an arm over her shoulder.

"She's not a villain, despite her father. _You_ raised her better than that. I very much doubt she's going to get into trouble with her new friends or do anything too weird, but if she's enjoying herself, what harm is there in it? She's happier, which makes Vicky happier, which _should_ make _you_ happier. It's not like she's going to leave New Wave and start her own gang or something like that." Sarah giggled, thinking for a moment that she might have drunk just a little too much as well.

Squeezing her sister for a moment, she grinned, waving the now-empty glass around. "Come on, Sis, let the girl enjoy herself. Think of some of the things _we_ got up to when we were her age! Mom let _us_ get away with much worse than Amy has ever done. Or is likely to do. She's a responsible, thoughtful, and smart girl."

"Oh, fuck it all," Carol sighed, tossing the rest of her glass of wine down her throat, then filling it to the brim. Sarah held hers out as well and she did the same to it. "I guess I own her an apology."

"You do, yes," Sarah said. "And Vicky as well. Promise me you'll do it? And try not to react like that again?"

"I promise and I'll try, Sarah," the elder Dallon woman mumbled.

There was a silence for a while only broken by two women sipping wine. Eventually Carol smiled a little wryly. "Mom really did let us get away with all kinds of stuff, didn't she?"

"She did. I miss her."

"Me too. You remember that time when I brought that dog home because I thought it looked lonely? When I was about nine?"

Sarah started giggling. "Oh, god, yes. And it was actually someone's pride and joy that they'd tied up outside the library while they returned a book. The police came, and everyone was shouting..." She shook her head as Carol laughed. "Mom told them all to shut up and be polite. It was amazing."

The two sisters finished the second bottle of wine between them recounting stories of their childhood to each other, never noticing when Mark got up and confiscated both their sets of car keys before going back to watching the TV with the sound down, a small smile on his face.

* * *

"Try not to cut your arm off with this, please," Taylor said, handing Glory Girl a modified sword, more of a saber in fact, with one sharp edge and a tip designed to piece stone. "I'd never hear the end of it from Amy." The blonde took it and hefted it experimentally, then looked at her. "We need to remove all the columns marked with yellow paint, but none of the others. Don't make a mistake or I'll have to dig you out, which will make me then be very sarcastic and mock you for days."

The Dallon girl grinned, bowing a little with a flourish of her tool. "I'll try, oh great teacher."

"See that you do." She grinned back. "OK, watch what I do." Holding her own cutting implement, which was about twice the size of the one the other girl had, she walked over to one of the brick columns that was supporting the next floor, which had a large bright yellow X sprayed on it. The survey team had worked out all the main supports and marked the ones that could be removed without immediately destabilizing the building. "Cut it up here somewhere like this," she explained, whipping the impossibly sharp blade sideways through the two foot square column with almost no effort needed near the ceiling. "Then down near the floor." Again she swept the blade through the stonework, leaving a fine cut. "Best if you do it at an angle like this so it comes out easily."

"Then push?" her companion inquired.

"Then push," she confirmed, putting a hand in the middle of the eight foot section that was now only being held in place by gravity and friction, shoving gently. The entire piece slid out and tipped over with a huge crash, breaking into smaller pieces and leaving a cloud of dust. Taylor smiled. "It's simple enough. You start at that end, I'll keep going here, and we meet in the middle. Remember, only the marked ones."

"Got it." Glory Girl nodded, smiling, then lifted off and rapidly floated down the ranks of columns to the other end of the large warehouse. Shortly there was another huge boom of falling masonry. "This is fun," the girl shouted.

"I know," Taylor called back with a smirk, before heading for the next column. The pair of them spent the next fifteen minutes mowing down supports, the building creaking and shifting around them, small clouds of dust raining down from the floor above as it slowly stressed and settled. Once or twice they had to stop and warily wait for the cracking sounds to die away, ready to run, but in the end they'd done everything without the entire place falling in on them.

"Great, that went pretty well," Taylor noted as they met in the middle of the vast building. She looked up and then around, seeing how there were hot spots in the structure where it was slowly bending under the now unsupported load. Given time it would fall down by itself even without extra help, but that wasn't what was wanted. "Right then, now we just need to carefully do the same thing to the walls there, there, over there, and there." She turned, pointing out the marked places. "Cut a big hole about eight or ten feet across where the marks are and give it a kick, then get out of the way. Once those are done, we cable it up, and get out."

"Sounds good," her helper commented, heading off to the inland side of the building with her cutting blade held ready. "Thanks for inviting me to help, it's fun and I needed the distraction."

"You're welcome. It's speeding things up as well which is helpful." Taylor began cutting her own holes, the bricks crumbling out of the way to expose the water of the bay rippling thirty feet away and down, black and cold in the mist. The rain was easing off and would probably stop by the time they finished.

Soon that part was done as well. "Here, take this end and loop it around all the columns then back here," Taylor instructed, handing her companion one end of a flexible Vargastuff cable half an inch in diameter with a loop handle on it so the blonde could actually hold the slippery stuff. "Just fly it around them in a big loop."

"OK," Glory Girl replied, handing her the blade which she dismissed, then grabbing the handle and taking off. Taylor made sure the cable was generated at the right rate, the girl swooping through the interior of the warehouse, light from outside coming through the holes glinting off her new costume. Reaching the other end she turned in a large semicircle and came back down the other side, soon reaching Taylor again. She handed the cable back and watched as she held it to the piece she had in her hand, the two sections melting together. "That's so cool," she grinned.

"It's pretty good, right?" Smirking, the Hebert girl handed her another one. "This one goes in and out of all the holes in the walls, like stitches." That was also quickly done. Joining both cables together and to another length which she trailed behind her, she headed back out of the building with the other girl floating beside her. When they were clear, she pulled out her radio. "Raptaur here. Second warehouse ready."

" _OK, stand by_ ," Andy's voice came back seconds later. Once again the air horn sequence shrieked out over the docks. When the final echoes of the last blast died away, he said, " _All clear. Go ahead._ "

"Got it." She tucked the radio back into its pouch, then generated about fifty feet of cable with a t-handle on the end, which she handed to Glory Girl. "Here. You try it."

The girl grinned broadly. "Thanks," she laughed, taking it.

"You'll have to go pretty fast to produce enough force, and it will stop very suddenly when it goes tight, so be ready for that," Taylor warned.

"OK, I get it. Here we go." The girl took the cable and held it tightly, then backed up in the air another twenty feet, before rocketing off. Taylor watched with great amusement as she stopped dead in mid air as the cable twanged tight, swearing violently. A small crunch came from inside the warehouse and a slight grinding noise followed, but nothing else.

She could hear Amy laughing her head off from over by the admin building where she was watching with several others, looking over and waving. Glory Girl muttered obscenities for a moment, then came back with a determined expression visible through her helmet faceplate.

"I'm going to try that again."

Stepping to the side, Taylor waved her on without a word, but with a smile on her face. Looking grimly stubborn the blonde flew back nearly to the warehouse, making sure the cable formed a long loop behind her, then turned around. With a grunt of exertion she took off as fast as she could move, which was a fairly impressive acceleration, shooting past the other girl at over eighty miles an hour and still speeding up. When she finally hit the end of the cable the twang was a lot more obvious and she slowed drastically with a much louder grunt, but this time the cable came with her.

The sound of all the remaining columns and walls collapsing was extremely noisy, but gratifying to both of them. Dropping the cable the girl turned around and watched with a smile as the second warehouse folded in on itself.

"Fantastic," she whooped, raising her hands in the air. "It worked."

"Eventually," Taylor quipped, making her companion shoot her a look of mild irritation.

"We're not all as huge as you are, Raptaur. You probably outweigh me by about five or six times."

"At least," she agreed mildly, pleased with both the result and the way the girl seemed to have simultaneously cheered up and grown accustomed to her in the last hour or so. She'd been rather worried by Amy's expression when the two had arrived, getting the impression that both of them were upset about something. She was definitely going to find out what when they were alone.

The dust finished settling and the second clear up crew began to move towards them, nodding to her as they passed. Lifting a hand she acknowledged the recognition, very pleased with how things were going.

"Let's do the next one," Glory Girl said enthusiastically.

Laughing, she looked over to the blonde who was coming towards her with a wide smile on her face. "You just want to wreck things and not have people shout at you."

"Of course I do. Same as you, I suspect."

They shared a grin then headed to the next building.


	62. Completion and Beginning

Pulling up at the main gate, Roy smiled at the DWU guard who walked over and bent down slightly to look in the window. His colleague remained at his post, watching the car carefully without neglecting to keep an eye on the surroundings.

"Hello again, Mayor Christner," the man said politely, returning the smile. "Mr Hebert is expecting you. Please park in the usual space, I'll call ahead and have someone meet you and take you to him."

An enormous rumbling crunch sounded, making Roy jerk his head around and the guard, rather less suddenly, also look. From somewhere near the waterfront on the other side of the main building complex a vast cloud of dust was rising into the still-misty sky, billowing over the area and slowly settling out.

"That's the fourth one down," the guard said with satisfaction. "Those girls are really going for it. They're nearly two hours ahead of schedule."

"Girls? Plural?" Roy was a little puzzled. "I thought Raptaur was doing the demolition."

"She is. But Panacea and Glory Girl turned up a couple of hours ago to visit and somehow Collateral Damage Barbie ended up helping Raptaur. From what the guys are saying she's having a hell of a time." He chuckled. "Luckily for once she's smashing up buildings that actually need it."

Roy couldn't help grinning. The New Wave girl's tendency to be very hard on the surroundings was well known to inhabitants of Brockton Bay. "They don't call her that for nothing," he said, making the other man smirk. "Although not to her face."

"No, people aren't usually that stupid," the man laughed. "Go ahead, Mayor, someone will be waiting for you."

"Thanks, Mike," he replied, finally remembering the man's name from the last visit, which made the guy look pleased. He put the car in drive and slowly moved forward as the second guard opened the gate, waving to the man as he passed and receiving a wave back.

Parking in the usual spot he got out and locked the vehicle, just in time to see the DWU security head, Mark, come out of the building. The other man walked over and shook his hand. "It's good to see you again, Mayor," he said with a smile. Glancing at the car, he added, "No driver today?"

"No, I thought I'd just swing by unofficially," Roy replied. "I'm just poking around out of curiosity, not as an official visit."

"Fine by me," Mark grinned. "Come with me, Danny's around the back with the others."

Walking alongside the security man, Roy glanced at him and asked, "How is everything going?"

"Pretty well from what I hear," his companion replied. "You probably heard the fourth warehouse collapse just now?" Roy nodded. "They're knocking them down with no trouble at all now. All five have been searched, the last one is being prepared right now, we've chased out about a dozen junkies from them, and the final building should be down in about forty minutes. There are crews moving the rubble from the first two as well, which is coming along well. Everyone is very pleased with the results so far."

"How did Glory Girl get involved?" Roy asked with a raised eyebrow as they rounded the corner of the building complex and headed towards the bay. He could see a lot of people moving around wearing brightly colored high visibility jackets and hard hats, all looking like they were very busy, while a surprisingly large assortment of construction vehicles were slowly rumbling around. The skyline looked very different from what he could remember, much more of the misty water visible than before.

The sounds of orders being shouted, reversing beepers going off as vehicles backed up, radios crackling, masonry being loaded into trucks, and all the other noises that indicated an active construction site made him feel pleased. He hadn't seen this much activity anywhere in the city for many years. Hopefully it was a good omen for the future.

"Apparently Panacea is a friend of Raptaur's and Saurial's," Mark explained. He grinned. "A Family friend, you might say."

That made Roy chuckle.

"I've seen the videos, actually," he said, smiling. "Very impressive."

"They are, aren't they? Anyway, she and her sister dropped in this morning when it was pouring with rain and ended up staying. They were in the cafeteria for a while, talking with Raptaur and Danny, then when they came out Raptaur and Glory Girl went off together to demolish the rest of the warehouses. The girl seems to be enjoying herself. Raptaur looks amused by it as well, and everyone else is just pleased to see her knocking something down that actually needs to be knocked down for once."

Both of them shared a glance and laughed for a moment.

"I can see why that would be preferable to the normal state of affairs," Roy replied.

"It's speeding things up a lot which pleases everyone," Mark added. His smile became somewhat sly. "If this keeps up we'll have to make her a DWU member as well."

Roy stared for a second then laughed loudly. "Oh, god, I can just see Carol Dallon's face if that happened. She wouldn't be particularly pleased about it."

"Probably not," Mark snickered. He pointed. "There's Danny, and Panacea, along with Kurt and Zephron. I need to get back inside, so I'll see you later." Nodding to the Mayor, he turned and headed back the way they'd come.

Walking the last hundred yards, Roy smiled as the four people looked up from the large map that the second from last named man was holding open, apparently explaining something on it. Danny smiled back.

"Hi, Roy," he said as the new arrivals joined the group. "Nice to see you. You know Kurt and Zephron, of course?"

"I do. It's good to see you again, gentlemen," he replied, nodding to both men. He'd met the latter the last time he visited and Kurt was someone he'd encountered many times in the past.

"And of course you must know Panacea," Danny added, turning to the brunette girl who listening with a faint smile, the helmet of her apparent new costume in her hand.

"We've met more than once, but everyone in the city knows Panacea," Roy smiled back. "And a very large number of them owe her thanks. Allow me to express that of the city and myself." Holding out his hand he shook hers, as the girl's expression turned to more visible pleasure.

"Thank you, Mayor Christner, it's nice to hear something like that," she replied quietly but sounding genuinely pleased.

"You're very welcome, young lady. You've done a lot for this city and its inhabitants. We're lucky to have you here. And I like the new costume, it looks good on you."

Her expression remained pleased, but there was an air of thoughtful assessment to it now as well. After a couple of seconds she nodded slightly, acknowledging the comment. He was being truthful, she was a massive asset to the city and he somewhat suspected from her reaction that not enough people had told her that in the past. It matched some of the stories he'd heard from his son.

In the process of turning back to Danny he caught sight of Raptaur coming towards them, Glory Girl floating alongside her, apparently talking about something interesting based on the gesticulating arms. He stared, then looked at Panacea, who was also watching with a grin.

"Um..." he said, raising a finger. He pointed. "What…? I mean… Oh, god, it's going to be one of those days, isn't it?" He sighed a little while Danny and Kurt laughed. Panacea glanced at him, then back to her sister and friend.

When one of the DWU people came up behind the pair and stopped them to ask something, both turned around, allowing Roy to read the writing on the back of the ridiculously large safety jacket the huge reptile was wearing on her torso. His lips twitched, then he shook his head a little.

The fact that Glory Girl was also wearing a new costume more or less the same as the one Panacea was, in her signature colors of white and gold, wasn't lost on him, the implications being… interesting.

Over it, she also had a brilliant, eye-piercingly bright reflective orange jacket, which had written across the back:

 **Glory Girl**

 **Apprentice**  
 **Deconstruction Operative**

 **Proud member of**  
 **New Wave**

" **The Open and Honest Capes"**

Roy shook his head again, beginning to smile. "I can't _wait_ to see what PHO makes of this," he said, joining in the laughter. Looking at Panacea, he asked, "What is your mother going to say?"

She shrugged, grinning, and not looking particularly worried. "No idea. Probably a lot of it, whatever it is. You've met Mom."

"I have," he admitted. The woman was… not the easiest person in the city.

"Aunt Sarah will probably spend about half an hour laughing, though," she suggested with a sardonic look at him. "She's got a good sense of the absurd."

"Around here you pretty much have to," Danny said, looking highly amused and rather proud.

"I can see that, yes," Roy chuckled. "Are you building a Cape team of your own, Danny? I was joking earlier but you have Saurial and Raptaur already, and now apparently have pressed Glory Girl into service as well. Mind you, it's better that she's breaking buildings that we don't actually need for once."

Panacea cracked up, shaking her head and giggling. "I said almost the same thing to her," she laughed.

"Glory Girl volunteered, Roy," Danny smiled. "Raptaur asked if she wanted some fun and she was more than happy to help out. We're very grateful for the aid, it's taken at least an hour and a half off the job time."

"I see," he replied thoughtfully. "Very civic minded of the young woman."

"She's a good kid at heart, just a little overenthusiastic sometimes." Danny glanced at Panacea who seemed to agree, nodding slightly, while still looking amused. "We can probably find other jobs around here for her talents if she ever gets bored with beating up Capes, though."

"Director Piggot is going to go a funny color when she finds out about all this," Roy smirked. "The really funny thing is that she may, finally, be agreeing with Carol Dallon about something. I can see both of them glaring at us over the whole thing."

He shrugged, his grin widening. "It's probably very bad of me but I can live with that."

More laughter ensued, until the two ' _Deconstruction Operatives_ ' joined them. Raptaur was looking like she was suppressing a laugh of her own and he became sure she'd heard the entire conversation, catching her eyes with his own. One glowing eye flickered in an almost unnoticeable wink, making him hide a smile.

"It's good to meet you, Mayor Christner," she said politely, engulfing his hand in her own huge scaled one. "Danny has told me quite a lot about you. He holds you in high regard, which is good enough for me."

"Thank you, Raptaur. You're doing impressive work here," he replied, looking over at the four demolished warehouses approvingly. "This would have cost a fortune and taken weeks to arrange the traditional way."

She shrugged, the corners of her mouth curving up a little. "I have abilities that let me do this sort of thing pretty easily. I can't see any reason not to help out a friend. It's fun aside from anything else."

"Even so, thank you very much. And you as well, Glory Girl." Looking at the blonde who had taken off her own helmet, he smiled. "Is this new look permanent, or just something for today?"

"I haven't decided, Mayor," the girl replied politely, smiling in a dazzling manner. "But I'm very glad I'm wearing this right now, it was pouring with rain and absolutely freezing earlier." She looked around, then up at the heavily overcast sky with low hanging clouds drifting past. "Better now but it still looks pretty cold up there."

The fog over the water was stubbornly hanging around, if anything getting heavier, only allowing the first few feet of the bay to be seen before everything dissolved into white blankness. This wasn't particularly unusual weather at this time of year, on the coast, but it was certainly producing a damp and clammy feel to the day.

The construction sounds were muffled by the fog, the furthest vehicles sounding like they were miles away rather than only a few hundred yards, and echos were peculiarly flat. Every now and then a rumble sounded as the excavators that were digging out the crushed masonry dumped another load into the trucks. Roy watched for a moment, then looked to Danny.

"It certainly looks like it's coming along remarkably quickly. I didn't expect to see so much done already."

"I'm a little surprised myself," the other man replied. "But the guys are very keen to see this project succeed, both because they want the work, and because a lot of them hardly have enough to keep them occupied. This is more interesting than sitting around doing the odd small job here and there by a long way. Pretty much everyone jumped at the chance and they're all enjoying having something useful to do."

He shrugged, watching the workers himself for a few seconds before turning to face Roy more directly. "There are some good, hard-working people here who just want to earn an honest living. This is the first time in years that looks like it's going to happen."

"It'll happen, Danny, I have faith in the plan. I had to call in a lot of favors to make certain it got through yesterday but it was more than worth it." He clapped the man on the shoulder. "Your idea was brilliant, both in origin and in the amount of work you put into it working out how to do it. Not to mention the… special help… you found." He glanced at the others listening, not sure how many of them were in on the secret. Raptaur was a given, of course, and looking at the expression on Panacea's face, which was nearly calm but give enough hints to someone as practiced as he was in reading people, he thought she probably knew as well.

Kurt and Zephron both knew some of it but not all, judging by their quizzical looks, and Glory Girl seemed a little confused. "I think Tuesday is going to be… very interesting."

Danny chuckled, nodding. "I expect so. Have you prepared the public announcement yet?"

"I've got people working on it. We're publishing something in the Sunday paper, and making a similar announcement on the local news tomorrow. No real detail but it gets across the main points. We'll have the harbor police boats out to make sure everyone stays away, several streets leading into the docks will be closed, things like that."

"I can round up probably a hundred or so guys for crowd control if that will help," Danny offered. "I'll need the rest here to make sure everything comes off properly."

"That could be very useful, Danny. I'll check with the Chief and see what he says. The police are always overstretched, as you know. More people who can take care of themselves will probably make him a lot happier."

"Let me know and I'll ask for volunteers on Monday, then."

"I'll do that, thanks."

Looking at Raptaur who was listening curiously, he asked, "BBFO, LLC?"

"Danny's idea," Raptaur said. She explained, making him smile with respect, glancing at the Hebert man who looked pleased.

"Interesting. That would seem to avoid a lot of the pitfalls of Parahumans profiting from their abilities." Roy sighed a little. "Something I've always thought was a very bad idea, the rules on Parahuman businesses. The stated reasons don't add up and I'm certain it's driven far more Capes into crime than would have happened otherwise."

"Annette said the same thing," Danny agreed. "She thought it was probably the end result of the people who started the PRT trying to make sure that they got as many parahumans as possible working for them."

"Your wife had a cynical outlook on the matter as I recall," Roy smiled. "Not that I disagree. She was a very smart woman."

"She was," he replied softly. "Anyway, the DWU legal people did a lot of research and this method is completely legal, avoids the problems the Parahuman commerce laws create almost entirely, and allows some interesting possible work opportunities. Setting the company up was the easy part. The various waivers and permits were more difficult."

He grinned a twisted grin. "You wouldn't _believe_ some of the difficulty we had getting straight answers from the relevant federal departments. It was almost like someone didn't want anyone to know you could actually do this. They were extremely reluctant to talk to us about the matter. Odd, really."

"Very odd," Roy agreed sagely. "Normally I find the federal and state governments so easy and transparent to deal with."

They shared a look of mutual amusement and resignation.

"In any case it's all done now and unless they change the law again, which I wouldn't put past the bastards but it would take quite a while to arrange, we're golden. They can't touch me, the DWU, or ' _The Family_ '. We're doing it completely by their own playbook."

"Bet that annoys whoever came up with it," Roy smirked.

Danny grinned. "Hopefully."

"Would you like to see the head office of Brockton Bay Family Operations, LLC, Mayor Christner?" Raptaur offered. "It's only about a hundred and fifty yards away."

He considered the matter, then nodded. "Why not. Thank you."

Panacea had already started walking, making him certain that the girl was in deep with the reptilian cape, something he'd already worked out from seeing the various videos online. Raptaur joined her, the others following, until they went around the back of the main complex to a smaller yard, lined on both sides with buildings that had roller shutters on them like a medium sized industrial park. He looked around with interest, not having visited this area of the DWU facility for a very long time.

There was plenty of evidence that the place was being refurbished, shiny new locks on all the doors he could see being proof of that, as was the way several people were engaged in cleaning a lot of the area. An electrician was running cables along the front of one of the buildings while a plumber was half-inside a large water distribution point, tools and spare parts scattered around him.

Most of these people stopped for a moment to watch the small group, then went back to work moments later with the air of those who had seen it already. Raptaur led the way to one building in the middle of the water-side row, one of the largest, and produced a set of keys from somewhere which she used to unlock the door with, disappearing inside. The sound of beeping from an alarm abruptly stopped. She stuck her head out again. "Come on in. It's a bit bare at the moment but we're working on it."

Following Panacea, who entered without hesitation, he went through the door and looked around, seeing a large empty space that had a floor covered in a neutral gray material that was resilient underfoot, feeling like a high grade carpet although it obviously wasn't, and walls that were a pleasant light blue color. The ceiling was white and contained several dozen fluorescent light fittings that illuminated the room brightly.

To one side, out of the way of the roller shutters, was what looked like a huge metal box built against the wall, a door in the side of it and a flight of stairs up to the top which was surrounded by railings forming a platform ten or twelve feet up. "What's that?" Glory Girl asked as she looked around with interest as well, pointing.

Raptaur replied, "Secure storage space for special projects, when we get around to them." She glanced at Danny who was also inspecting the room-like structure. "Can we get the electrician in today to wire it up for lights and power?"

He nodded, pulling out a notebook and writing something down. "Sure, I think so. I'll ask someone to look into it."

"Great, thanks."

Behind the storage area there was a smaller but still fairly large cube of the same material, about eight feet on a side. Everyone looked at it but Raptaur didn't mention it. He assumed it was more storage space. Other than that, and several desk chairs surrounding a ten by six foot table on the other side of the room, the rest of the place was empty, just one huge space.

"Very sparse and neat," Kurt joked. "Sort of Swedish, like something from IKEA."

"It's not done yet," the reptile-woman smiled. "We're still thinking what to do in here, but we sure have room for expansion."

"What are the walls made of?" Glory Girl asked, prodding one of them fairly hard, with no result at all.

"Same thing the cutting tools are," Raptaur replied, watching her tap it harder. "You sure won't break it."

The blonde took this as a challenge, obviously, pulling her fist back and launching it into the wall as hard as she could. There was a flat thump like someone punching a lump of bread dough and her face froze. Raptaur and Panacea exchanged a glance, both looking amused yet resigned.

"Ow."

The girl's voice was pained.

"That hurt."

"Of course it did, you idiot, it's the nearest thing to an immovable object you're ever likely to run into," her sister said in an exasperated tone. Shaking her hand vigorously, then massaging it with the other one, Glory Girl looked over her shoulder, an embarrassed expression on her face.

"Whoops."

Panacea shook her head, raising it to the heavens. "Sisters," she mumbled. Roy grinned, as she turned around to look at them. "She doesn't think things through sometimes," the girl explained sadly.

"Hey! I think things through."

"Then do them anyway? Even if they're stupid?"

"Well..."

"That's what I thought."

The others smiled as Panacea looked triumphant. Still rubbing her fist, her sister rejoined them.

"Is the entire place lined with that stuff?" she asked curiously.

"Walls, floor, ceiling, and doors," Raptaur confirmed, nodding. "I don't think anyone is going to be breaking in."

"Neither do I," the girl said ruefully.

A crackly message on the radio made both Raptaur and Danny look at their respective ones, the DWU man moving closer to the open door and requesting a repeat transmission. " _The last warehouse is ready, I said_ ," the person on the other end transmitted.

"OK, thanks." He looked over at Raptaur and Glory Girl, both of whom nodded. "They're on the way back, be there in five minutes."

" _Thanks, Danny,_ " the message came.

"Back to work, then," the lizard-woman said as she followed them all out, resetting the alarm on the way, then locking the door once more. "Are you going to watch, Mayor?"

"If you don't mind, I'd like to, thanks."

"Fine by me," she replied.

The small group headed back the way they'd come, soon arriving at the point that they had a good view, with Raptaur and Glory Girl peeling off on the way and going towards the last standing warehouse, which was the one in the middle of the row of five. "That's the one with the basement," Danny mentioned. "It was a little more complicated to set up. They're going to try to drop most of it into the underground area, which means taking out a lot of the floor as well to weaken it. This will probably take a little while. Would you like a cup of coffee?"

"Thanks, that would be nice," Roy replied.

"Come on inside then, they'll call when they're ready for the pull-down."

Soon he, Panacea, and Danny were sitting in the DWU cafeteria drinking coffee, Kurt having gone off with his map and Zephron on another errand. "It looks really good, Danny," Roy said with satisfaction. "Much faster than I expected. Do you think you can keep up the momentum?"

"Probably," the other man replied. "Like I said everyone involved is really excited about it and they want it to happen at least as much as you do. Probably more, it's the difference between work and unemployment for a fair number of them."

"I can understand that," Roy said with a nod. He looked around carefully, seeing that no one was close enough to hear. "I assume you know about a particularly large family member?" he asked Panacea in a low voice.

The girl glanced at Danny, then nodded back. "I do," she confirmed. "They let me in on it although I haven't met her yet."

"OK, just wanted to check. Welcome to the conspiracy." He grinned, as did she.

"Nice place to be so far," she giggled.

"It's got some good points," he agreed. "Not least of which is the sheer amusement of thinking about the reactions of certain people."

"I hope we can keep them to blank stares and some shouting," Danny sighed.

"I'm sure we can, Danny," Roy told him. "You've picked some people to do what you came up with for the Endbringer sirens, right?"

"I have, they're looking forward to it, I think," the other man smiled. "Mark especially. He said it was like being back in the military again."

"Tell him we want it discreet and careful, please," Roy requested with an internal wince. He knew the man and his background, and anything that made him happy for the old days could potentially get… newsworthy.

"He'll be good, Roy," Danny smiled.

Panacea was looking back and forth between them, but clearly decided not to ask.

They talked for another half hour or so, until Danny's radio produced a message he stopped and listened to, then replied to. "They're ready to go, Roy. Let's go and watch."

Soon they were standing outside. Roy watched as Raptaur grabbed the end of a long cable that trailed off into the depths of the warehouse and ran for it, her speed remarkable, the cable snapping tight a second later in a chorus of crunching sounds from the building. She stopped and turned around, Glory Girl hanging in the air next to her, as everyone watched the warehouse collapse very neatly into almost exactly its own footprint releasing a huge mushroom cloud of dust which drifted out over the bay and vanished into the fog.

When it cleared they could see the site where the building had been was nearly level with the ground, only a few parts sticking up where particularly solid bits of masonry had been. Raptaur went back and poked around in the rubble for a few minutes, before lifting her radio to her mouth.

" _Looks good, the basement seems to be completely full of debris and I can't see any voids or holes. It should be safe enough_."

" _Great. Good job, ladies. Thanks again for all the help._ " The same voice he'd heard a few times apparently coordinating the work came over the radio, followed by various other ones congratulating them as well. Both Capes looked pleased, exchanging a glance and a high-five, before heading back.

Roy smiled.

"You've clearly got things under control here, Danny. That was pretty impressive."

"They seem to have worked out a good system," the other man agreed. "It's going very well, we should have the first warehouse mostly cleared away by the end of today, and the others will take about a day each."

"Fantastic." Roy checked the time. "Half past one. I'd better be getting home, but thank you for letting me watch."

"Any time, Roy."

With a wave to the two capes, who waved back, he nodded to Panacea, then headed back to where he'd parked, thinking over the things he'd seen and feeling very pleased so far.

Hopefully things would keep going smoothly.

* * *

"I'd better get back, Sis," Vicky said, having checked her phone for the time. "Mom is probably going to be in a bad mood as it is, since we left without telling her. I'm surprised that she hasn't called."

"Hopefully Aunt Sarah has talked some sense into her," Amy sighed. She looked over at Taylor, who was speaking to her father, discussing something about the job the electrician was doing to the inside of the ' _storage space_ ' in her building, which was where they all were at the moment. Her friend had told the two men from the electrical facility who turned up carrying tool bags and several boxes full of light fittings, wire, and other necessities, where they required the things, then made the holes that the men indicated were needed. The pair had immediately got to work, rapidly and competently running wires and installing fittings and switches, along with a number of power outlets and a new small distribution board for the entire thing, which was now being connected to the main industrial supply to one side of the room.

Taylor had followed along making channels in the walls and floor when they needed them, gaining several comments about how useful the ability was, then covering them up again. By the time they were ready to turn the power on you couldn't tell where the wires were.

A clunk sounded as the main board was switched back on, the lights coming on overhead, and the electricians turned off the head-mounted flashlights they'd been using to do the final connection job. "There you go," the senior one said with satisfaction as he turned on the master power on the sub-board then flipped on all the breakers one after another. "That should do it. You've got spare capacity here as well if you need more outlets. Just call us."

"Thanks, Victor," Danny said, looking pleased. Amy opened the door to her workshop and flicked the switch just inside it, smiling when the lights came on immediately.

"This works," she called over.

"Good," the electrician called back with a wave. "See you guys later, we've got another job to do."

"Bye," Taylor replied with a wave of her own. "Thank you both."

The men left and Vicky and Amy went over to join the others as the door closed behind them.

"It's been a lot of fun, Raptaur," Vicky said with a smile. "But I need to get back."

"Thanks for all the help. It was very… helpful," Taylor replied, grinning. Vicky didn't even twitch at the teeth now, which Amy found amusing.

"You coming, Sis?" the blonde asked.

Amy looked at Taylor, then shook her head. "I'll stay for a while longer. I'm sure I can make it home easily enough."

"OK. What do you want me to tell Mom?"

"That I'm still annoyed and I'm thinking things over," Amy sighed. "Which is true."

"All right." Her sister hugged her for a second, waved politely to the other two, then grabbed her bag of slightly damp normal costume and her helmet and left.

They all watched her go, Amy smiling slightly. "I wonder if she'll change into the normal costume first," she commented.

"I'm not sure she's even noticing now," Taylor smiled. "There's half an hour until Armsmaster and Dragon are due, Amy. Tell me what happened. You really looked and smelled upset when you turned up this morning."

She sighed, then headed for the table her friend had made the night before, slumping into a chair with a thankful grunt. Danny sat in another one, while Taylor lowered herself to the floor and rested her arms on the table, watching her. "Mom found this costume this morning and sort of flew off the handle…" She began the story as both Heberts listened.

* * *

"Interesting," Dragon's voice said in his helmet as Colin approached the gate to the DWU complex.

He glanced up at where her combat suit was flying overhead, then asked, "What's interesting?"

"There are five warehouses completely demolished on the other side of the complex from here, recently by the looks of it, and very neatly. A large number of workers are clearing the rubble away. There's also one half-disassembled steel framed one in the same group next to the main yard. It looks like they're clearing the space for something big, something that needs a lot of room."

"Interesting," he echoed, slowing down when he came in sight of the guards.

"I just said that."

"I know."

She laughed a little, which slightly confused him, but he dismissed it as he stopped when the nearest guard, the same one he'd met the previous time, stepped forward. "Hello, Armsmaster. Welcome back. You're here to see Raptaur?"

"Yes," he replied.

"She left word. You're expected. Go around the main building to the right for about four hundred yards, towards the bay, then take the right turning into the work yard. She's in one of the buildings there."

"Which one?" he asked, wishing that people would be more specific in their directions.

The man smiled. "Don't worry, you'll know it when you see it." He stepped back and motioned to his colleague who opened the gate and waved Colin and his bike through. Moving slowly into the compound he followed the directions, Dragon shadowing him from above, to find the turning which he entered. It proved to be a fairly large offshoot of the main yard, lined with buildings and workshops.

Stopping the bike he stared, as Dragon's suit landed beside him with a faint thump and a descending whine as the turbines spooled down.

"He was right," she said wryly.

Both of them inspected the large sign above one of the roller doors. It was dark blue-black, the exact color of Raptaur's scales and armor, with silver metallic writing on it.

The writing proclaimed the message:

 **Brockton Bay Family Operations, LLC**

 **Established 2011**

 **Associated with the BB Dock Workers Union**

" **cchtenff nnnshugg h'uh'e"**

 **Trespassers will be mercilessly mocked and/or eaten**

There was a phone number and email address under this, with the same logo that Saurial had on her armor, that of a roaring dinosaur's head or something of that nature seen in profile, with great detail.

Colin stared at the sign for some time, then turned to Dragon, who was somehow emoting both amusement and confusion simultaneously. The metallic dragon's head turned to look down at him. " _What?_ " they both said at once, then stopped.

She motioned for him to speak first.

"What language is that slogan in?" he asked, puzzled. He didn't recognize it.

"A fictional language called Cthuvian, or R'ylehian, invented initially by the author H P Lovecraft in the early twentieth century," she replied with a slight sigh in her voice. "Our lizard people have a weird sense of humor, all things considered."

"What does it say?" he asked curiously.

"Loosely translated, something along the lines of ' _we/our society watch/protect the realm of earth (and) its people_ '. The language is limited but I think it actually means something like, ' _The Family protects its land and its people_ '. Warning and statement of intent in one."

The large roller door suddenly hummed into action, slowly rising to reveal Raptaur standing there against a brightly lit background. The reptilian cape grinned widely, showing a lot of teeth and making him twitch reflexively, his hand briefly moving towards his Halberd which was slung on his back. She obviously noticed but said nothing about it.

"Exactly right, Dragon. A pleasure to meet you," the female creature said happily. "I like the name for some reason." Standing aside she waved towards the interior of the building. "Enter freely and of your own will."

Her deep voice sounded very amused. Colin sighed very slightly, glanced at Dragon who shrugged, then dismounted, following his friend inside the premises.

"This should be interesting indeed," Dragon muttered loudly enough for him to hear as they went inside, the door rumbling shut behind them.


	63. Gun and Ammo

_This chapter is dedicated to the memory of Becuzitswrong, an excellent fellow author who sadly passed away far too young on the 19th of September, 2016_

* * *

"Who's that?" Dennis asked, peering up at the overcast sky. Dean followed his eyes, then blinked a little. The be-suited and be-helmeted female figure passing overhead dressed in white with gold trimming clearly wasn't Amy, the size and proportions were wrong, but the suit other than that looked the same as the one Raptaur had gifted his girlfriend's sister with.

"I think it's Glory Girl," he sighed, shaking his head. This was getting silly. First Amy, now Vicky? Was Taylor intent on acquiring enough female capes to build her own team?

The thought made his lips curl a little, but inside he shivered. The thought, considering who the three were and their probable combined abilities, was more than a little discomfiting.

"Hey, GG!" He looked around, startled, to see Dennis waving up, radiating curious amusement and interest. The flying figure slowed abruptly, looking around, then down, before waving back. She turned around and approached them, her emotional output becoming apparent when she was near enough. The girl had been flying quite low, only a few hundred feet, presumably because the clouds were so close to the ground today.

She felt mostly in a very good mood, although there was an undercurrent of… not quite anger, but definitely strong irritation, not directed at them but at someone else. Mixed with that was some worry.

The fog over the bay made seeing the Rig impossible, visibility being down to mere feet at water level, while the city itself was shrouded in a mist that even though light rapidly made things more than a couple of blocks away fade into the background. The dampening effect on sounds was quite apparent as well, the whole effect together with the damp clammy chill making things rather eerie. Both of them had jumped a little more than once when some odd sound, under normal circumstances probably easily identifiable, had come out of the mist. Even the direction of some of them was difficult to discern.

A couple of hours or so ago at the beginning of their patrol shift there had been a series of odd, faint howling sounds that had echoed around the downtown area, followed shortly afterwards by a deep rumble that lasted for several seconds. They'd radioed it in but so far heard nothing back suggesting any foul play, although both were curious about the source.

Flipping to a vertical standing position in mid-air, Vicky floated down and landed lightly next to them, smiling through the faceplate of her helmet, which did indeed appear to be a duplicate of the one Amy had been recorded wearing on a significant number of PHO posts, attracting a lot of comments. Weirdly enough, mostly positive. "Hi, guys," she said brightly.

"That's a new look," Dennis remarked, sounding both impressed and interested. "Any particular reason for it?"

Vicky looked down at herself, then grinned. "I was cold and wet," she replied.

"Ah." Dennis nodded with a tone of wise understanding in his voice. "Completely understandable in that case."

"No, it isn't," Dean sighed. "Can you give us more details?"

"I took Amy to see Raptaur who was helping the DWU today, and it started raining. I got soaked," the blonde explained, going on to relate her story as all three of them resumed walking slowly along, or floating a couple of inches off the ground in her case. They listened with interest. Dean was wondering if the Director was aware of any of the goings-on down at the docks.

"Oh, _that's_ what that weird noise was," Dennis exclaimed, sounding relieved. "One of the warehouses coming down."

"Probably," Vicky replied. "It was pretty loud. So was the air horn they were using. But it was a lot of fun."

"Where's your normal costume?" Dean asked. She hefted the backpack she was holding over one shoulder, an unadorned black nylon thing that looked like it was based on a military tactical dress pattern.

"In here," she said, smiling. "It's still damp, it needs a good cleaning as well." She flipped the bag off her shoulder and unzipped it, pulling out a painfully bright international orange high visibility jacket that she held up. "Raptaur also gave me this as a souvenir."

Clockblocker took it from her, holding it up with both hands, then turning it around to look at the back and the writing on it. Dean moved to the side so he could see it too.

There was a pause, which was broken by raucous laughter from his team-mate, who stopped and leaned on a wall to stop himself falling over. Vicky grinned again, while Dean sighed and shook his head.

"Oh, my _god!_ " Dennis chortled, holding the thing up again to inspect it, before handing it back. "That's fantastic. You should wear that the next time you fight the E88 or something."

Folding the jacket and putting it away carefully, Vicky shook her head. "I don't want it getting damaged. That's a reminder of a very good morning that was a hell of a lot of fun. I really enjoyed it. Doing something useful, and having someone who actually valued my abilities. Raptaur was very easy to work with. So were the DWU guys. Mr Hebert is nice and I really like Zephron."

"What's your mother going to say when she sees you in that costume?" Dean queried, a little worried. Her emotions changed abruptly from the amusement and generally positive feelings to incorporate more of the irritation and worry. It would seem to be aimed at Carol Dallon.

"I don't really care," she sighed, slinging the backpack over her shoulder again. They resumed walking and floating once more. "She's not my favorite person right now. Not after..." She trailed off, looking at them, then around at the otherwise pretty much entirely empty street, only the occasional vehicle passing with its headlights on disturbing the eerie calm. They also looked around, then back to her. "I don't want this getting around, OK, guys?" she said in a low voice. "I'll tell you but you need to promise not to tell anyone else. Especially not Piggot."

"It's not something we'll _have_ to tell her?" Dennis asked slowly.

"No, just sort of private business that she doesn't need to hear about. It would only give her something else to look down on us for," Vicky muttered. "Especially Mom."

"I guess we can keep a secret, right, Dean?" Dennis told her, his mask moving to point at his colleague. Somewhat reluctantly Dean nodded.

"OK." Vicky emitted another sigh, now to him feeling somewhat melancholy. "This morning Mom went off on Amy in a really nasty way, which pissed both of us off a lot..." She told them another story, one which made Dennis mutter something rude about Carol Dallon and Dean shake his head.

"With all due respect, Vicky, sometimes your Mom is a bit of a bitch," Dennis said quietly.

"You don't have to tell _me_ that," she muttered. "I love her, but right now I don't like her very much. There was no call to do what she did or say all those things. If she had a problem with Amy she could have brought it up in a much more polite and reasonable way. You know, asking and making suggestions not demanding everything like that. It wasn't very constructive."

"Your mother has a… direct… way of dealing with problems," Dean noted.

"One way to put it," the girl replied. "I can see where _I_ get it from."

They exchanged glances, then looked at the blonde, who was floating along in a small cloud of depression, most of her earlier good cheer gone. "Meaning?" he said carefully.

"You might have noticed I can be a bit impulsive," she explained, looking at him. He looked back, not sure whether to be honest, and feeling slightly apprehensive. Some of this must have come out in his expression since she smiled a little.

"Don't worry, I won't get mad if you agree. I know it's a problem. I ended up being very unpleasant to one of the worst possible people to talk like that to, remember? I was fucking lucky that Saurial is such a calm person. Most other people wouldn't have forgiven me like that." She smiled more widely for a moment. "If I'd called _Lung_ an overgrown newt and poked him in the chest, for example?"

Dennis coughed violently in surprise, having been on the verge of saying something, then stopped dead and looked at her. "You did _what?_ "

"Oh, right, I didn't tell the rest of you about that, did I," she said, looking embarrassed. Glancing at Dean she raised her eyebrows inquisitively. He shook his head.

"I wasn't going to say anything about it if you didn't," he answered the implied question.

"OK," she sighed. Then began yet _another_ story, which had Dennis alternately snickering and sounding worried.

"Fuck, Vicky, you like living dangerously, don't you?" he said when she finished. They'd completed a long loop through the commercial district and were heading back in the general direction of the waterfront, with half their patrol done. "The only one worse to say that sort of thing to would be Raptaur. Even _Lung_ would be less dangerous if he wasn't ramped up, you could at least fly away. I'm not sure you're fast enough to get away from _her_ in time."

"I know, trust me," the blonde said, shaking her head ruefully. "And _you_ haven't even seen the things _I_ have. But luckily it turned out that she was very understanding about it when I went to apologize. Almost too understanding. It took me a while to believe that she really didn't care and was actually worried about me. I was still terrified of her, though."

"And now?" Dean couldn't help asking.

She shrugged. "I haven't really spent any time with her. But her sister says she's completely fine and doesn't hold a grudge, which is good, while Raptaur herself is a decent person. Oh, yes, scary as _shit_ , but not in an aggressive way unless you provoke her. There's no way I'd go up against either of them without a _lot_ of backup, though. And a damn good reason." The girl smiled for a moment. "Aside from anything else, I think Raptaur is a friend. I _know_ she's a friend of Amy's, and so is Saurial. Probably close ones based on a few things I saw. She's opened up to them more than anyone except Taylor Hebert, who seems to have started pulling her out of her shell pretty effectively."

"The girl does seem to be friendly and helpful," Dennis remarked, while Dean masked a sigh. He found it almost stupid the way they were talking about three people, all of whom were the _same_ fifteen year old girl. And only he knew it. Or, more accurately, he and Amy.

He was certain that the healer knew a lot more about the entire situation than anyone other than Taylor, in fact. But he was _also_ completely certain that there was no way she was ever going to tell anyone. That girl could keep her mouth shut like no one he'd ever met. While he was pleased to see that she seemed to have relaxed and opened up recently, he was desperately curious as to why. And a little worried, for a number of reasons.

' _Maybe I should talk to Taylor_ ,' he mused, while Dennis and Vicky got into a small argument about which of the two reptilian girls was the most terrifying. ' _Try to find out what's going on_.' He shook his head a little. He was curious, yes, but not quite to the point that he wanted to push any buttons. Ones they'd had extremely vivid and transparent warnings about the very first time they'd met her in her Saurial aspect.

If she got the impression that his interest in some way threatened her father he had little doubt that no one would ever find his body. Shivering briefly, he decided that it was probably better to leave it alone for now.

Glancing at Vicky, he wondered if the Hebert girl would react the same way now to anyone who threatened the blonde girl's sister. He had a pretty good idea the answer was yes. She seemed to value her friends, which was a good trait on the whole, but could possibly cause problems at some point in the future. But at least Amy was safe as long as she was with Taylor in any of her various incarnations. Probably from practically anything.

"Why are they clearing the docks?" he asked, as the argument ended without a clear winner. Vicky looked at him, then shrugged a little.

"Some sort of big project for the city, that's all I know right now. The Mayor is backing it, he turned up to look around near the end, and apparently it passed a near-unanimous vote of the city council last night. But I have no idea what's going on other than there's going to be something happening on Tuesday. Probably something fairly spectacular from what I heard."

"Weird," Dennis commented curiously. "I wonder what?"

"We'll have to wait," she replied. "It's annoying, Amy knows, but she won't tell me anything."

Yet more proof that the other Dallon sister was in pretty deep with the Heberts, Dean thought as he listened. And more proof that he should keep his mouth shut, at least for now. Director Piggot probably didn't know anything about this bearing in mind the way she and the Mayor didn't seem to get on particularly well, so he probably hadn't said anything yet. He had no wish to get involved in city or PRT politics, and even less to get between those two factions, the DWU, and Taylor.

That would be a bad place to be, of this he had no doubt.

Director Piggot could make his life a misery. The city could cause his family problems. God only knew what the DWU could do but he was pretty sure that pissing off the unions wouldn't be a smart thing to do.

But of them all, the worst one to make angry would be the one that _could_ , and very well _might_ given enough provocation, actually eat him.

Dean shuddered and tried not to think about it. Or the way Taylor had looked at him when he'd realized who she was...

The trio spent another ten minutes together, then Vicky made her excuses and left. Watching her as she rose into the air and headed off across the rooftops only about four hundred feet up, Dennis shook his head a little.

"Carol is going to go nuts when she sees that _both_ her daughters are wearing Raptaur's suits," he laughed. "I almost wish I could see it."

" _I_ think we should both be very glad we'll be a long way away," Dean said firmly. "That's one family argument I don't want to get involved in."

"I suppose," his companion replied, turning back to him, then resuming walking. "But it's going to be epic."

"That's what I'm afraid of," Dean sighed, falling silent as he walked.

* * *

Taylor watched her visitors as she flipped the switch that lowered the roller door. Dragon's power suit was interesting, she liked the reptilian aspect of it. Somehow it fitted. Sniffing a little, she frowned very slightly, as she could only smell one new human, that being Armsmaster. There was no scent coming from the power suit other than mechanical lubricants, metals and plastics, and electronics. A _lot_ of electronics.

Some of those scents were the same, or very similar to the ones Armsmaster was emitting, while others were different. All together it was a unique bouquet which identified that particular source beyond doubt. It also shared a lot with the robot sub she'd swallowed, confirming the source.

' _There's no one inside that suit_ ,' she said to the Varga, who was watching with interest.

" _It would appear not, I agree. No living thing at all. How… fascinating. Some form of remotely operated device?_ "

' _I suppose it could be,_ ' she replied doubtfully, still studying the Cape, who with her companion was looking around the room curiously. ' _But… It moves completely smoothly and naturally. Also I can smell a lot more electronics there than in Armsmaster's suit and we know his is completely stuffed with gadgets. What on earth does all that do?_ '

After a second or two, she added slowly, ' _I think it's power supplies and batteries and things like that, with an awful lot of computer processing ability as well. I have a funny feeling about this..._ '

" _Ah. I understand what you're getting at, I think, Brain_ ," he said thoughtfully. " _Now that_ _ **is**_ _interesting. I wonder if Armsmaster knows?_ "

' _No idea_ ,' she told her friend. She walked past the two visitors to the table, indicating it with one hand. "Please take a seat," she said politely.

Both of them looked dubiously at the chairs, which were large enough but looked fairly slender and modern. "I'm not sure your furniture is up to the weight..." Dragon began, only to stop when Taylor hopped up onto the seat of one and stood on it. She grinned at them.

"I weigh over a ton, and it holds me just fine," she commented, getting off again. "They're a lot stronger than they look."

"Ah. You have used EDM in the construction," Armsmaster said with an approving tone, going over to inspect one carefully. He knelt down and looked under it, then nodded, standing up. "Very efficient."

"Thank you. When you have access to something like that, you find all sorts of uses for it," she smiled. "Please, sit."

The sound of the door to the separate workshop opening made all three of them look, to see Amy standing there holding a large roll of paper on her hand. "Oh. Panacea," Dragon said with a slightly confused tone to her voice. "We didn't know you were here."

"Hello Dragon," Amy said with a smile, "and Armsmaster. I hope you're both doing all right?"

"We are," the Canadian cape said pleasantly. Armsmaster merely nodded slightly.

"I was just visiting, I can go if you want," she said. Turning to Taylor, she added, holding up the roll of paper, "Did you decide where you want this?"

"On the wall over the table, I think," Taylor replied with an inner smirk. Glancing at the two visitors, she said apologetically, "Amy is helping decorate this place. As you can see it's a little bare at the moment. Just the workshop there, some storage, and this furniture. We need to add more facilities as time goes on but we haven't quite decided what yet. Danny suggested some posters and things to brighten it up until then."

"That sounds like a good idea," Dragon replied.

"I thought so. So did my sisters."

"Sisters… plural?" Armsmaster asked slowly. She nodded with a smile that made him twitch again, something she was amused by. He seemed to do it every time.

"Oh, yes, Saurial is the only one who's been in here other than me but everyone is really interested in this business. We have so _many_ ideas, you see, and this is a good start." She grinned more widely. Amy made a very slight muffled snicker at the twitch the man couldn't quite suppress, softly enough that she was probably the only one that heard it. "Helping out the city is a good start, though. It's important to have civic pride, don't you agree?"

Her voice was bright and happy by now. Dragon and Armsmaster exchanged a glance. "For instance, you wouldn't _believe_ how many old ships and things are lying around all over the place in the bay. It's very untidy. Someone should do something about it. The shipping channel was in a shocking state as well, but we fixed that." Smiling, she motioned to Amy, who moved over to the table and unrolled the posters she was holding, ones that she, Taylor, and the Varga had designed between them, using images from the internet, copious amounts of imagination, and the Varga's ability to make things out of nothing. It was something they were finding more and more entertaining uses for as time went by.

"There's stuff you humans made all over the bottom of the sea as well," she sighed, glancing up at them having handed Amy a handful of small weights, which the other girl was using to hold the posters flat. "It's very irresponsible, you know. You should clean up after yourselves better." Shrugging, she smiled yet again. "Anyway, we'll sort all that out for you. One of my sisters even got rid of some little annoying machine that was buzzing around out there getting in the way. She said it was nice and crunchy but a little bitter, titanium is like that. But the batteries gave it a lovely tingle on the tongue."

 _This_ time Dragon twitched. She tried not to show her amusement. Amy smelled like she was trying not to laugh.

"Is this sister of yours… rather large?" Armsmaster asked rather reluctantly.

Taylor nodded happily. "She's quite big, yes. Too big to fit in here easily, I guess." She studied the roller door for a moment. "She might fit through that," she added a little doubtfully. "But it's sort of cramped in here even so. Not that it really matters, she doesn't come on shore very often. Too many things that break when you lean on them, she said."

Turning to Amy, who was clearly trying not to break out in giggles, she looked over the four posters. "OK, let's put that one just inside the door over there, those two over the table, and this other one down on the wall there on the other side."

Handing her friend a roll of tape that she generated, she watched as Amy began putting the posters up. Dragon and Armsmaster watched, silently, and intermittently looking at each other. Inwardly she was laughing her head off.

* * *

Finally escaping to her room, Vicky closed the door and leaned on it, letting out a long breath.

"That was… very weird," she muttered under her breath, tossing the backpack with her costume in onto the bed, then following it with her helmet. She flipped the light on and began taking the new costume off, hanging it over the back of the chair at her dresser. Sitting down to removed the boots she rubbed a little dirt from the toe of the right one, finding it came off easily without leaving a trace. "What the hell did Aunt Sarah _say_ to Mom? And how much wine did they drink, for fuck's sake?"

Both sisters had been singing a song, one she recognized from her childhood although she couldn't put a name to it, and laughing when she came in a while earlier. They were clearly far past the point of merely inebriated and well into extremely drunk territory, not something she was used to. Both her mother and Aunt enjoyed a little wine now and then but the only other time she'd seen them both falling-down plastered was after Fleur was killed.

Unlike that horrible event, though, this time both women were in almost offensively good moods. Her mother had taken one look at her standing in the doorway holding her helmet in her hands and fallen over giggling, pointing at her while shouting, "Shesh got one too now! Look!"

Aunt Sarah had got up, wobbled over, inspected her very closely with bloodshot eyes, then nodded carefully like she wasn't sure if her head would fall off or not. "So she has. Where did you get that wonderful costume from, dear?"

"Raptaur gave it to me."

"Thatsh nice, Vocky. I meansh, Vucky." Carol had frowned, looking confused. "No. Amy? No, thatsh not right." She'd been slurring her words badly. Suddenly she'd brightened. "Vicky! Thatsh it!"

"You forgot my name?" Vicky had asked, stunned.

Carol had shaken her head violently, nearly tipping over on the sofa. "I'd never forgetsh my daughtersh names, Vocky." Looking from side to side suspiciously, she'd leaned forward. "I have two daughtersh, you know."

"I know, Mom," Vicky had sighed.

"Come here to Mommy, Vecky," Carol sang, holding her arms wide. The half empty wine glass she'd been holding in one hand had become a completely empty one, the contents ending up on the floor. Vicky had stared, then shaken her head.

"I think you might have had enough to drink, both of you," she'd remarked. Carol had immediately grabbed the nearly empty wine bottle on the coffee table in front of her and held it protectively.

"No. Shtill shome left."

"Vicky," Aunt Sarah said in a low voice, leaning in and nearly falling over. Vicky caught her and steadied her. "Your mother is a little drunk," she'd hissed, then wobbled again. "It's not impossible that I might be as well," she'd admitted. Somehow she'd sounded more or less normal. Helping her aunt back to the sofa, the blonde had lowered her into place, then gone into the kitchen to get a damp cloth for the spilled wine. While she'd been out there she'd heard a cork come out of a bottle.

"Oh, for fuck's sake, this is ridiculous," she'd grumbled, heading back in to take care of the two adults. All the while wondering where her father was.

They'd trapped her somehow into singing a song that didn't seem to have a way out for over half an hour, then started telling admittedly hilarious stories of their childhood. She'd eventually managed to get away, looking for Mark and finding him in her parent's bedroom, lying on the bed reading one of Amy's books. He'd looked up at her as she came in and smiled.

"Hello, Vicky," he'd said. "You're back. Where's Amy?"

"Still out with Raptaur, I think," she'd replied, sitting on the edge of the bed and sighing a little. "What the hell is wrong with Mom? And Aunt Sarah? Aside from them both being drunk as skunks, of course."

"Sarah came around this morning after you girls left and had a very long and… impassioned… talk with your mother," he'd explained. He'd seemed mildly amused by this. "Carol didn't take it well, at first. Sarah didn't let up and your mother eventually was forced to confront some things she didn't want to. I don't know if it will make a long term change but I'd expect that when she sobers up she'll apologize to both of you." He'd put his hand on hers, squeezing it for a moment. "She knows that what she did and said were out of order. But don't expect miracles. She's a stubborn woman."

"I know how that goes," Vicky had sighed, then smiled. "Thanks, Dad."

"You're welcome, Vicky." Mark had looked at her for a moment. "I like the costume."

"So do I," she'd told him, before getting up and heading for her room, stopping at the top of the stairs to listen to the singing that had started up again, before shaking her head sadly.

Now, in her room, she sat and brushed her hair, while thinking about the events of the day. She could still hear her mother and Aunt carrying on downstairs, Sarah saying something rather loudly about wanting a pizza and where were her car keys. Luckily, she'd found them put away in the kitchen in a drawer while looking for a cloth and had moved them to a better hiding place, while thanking her father's thinking ahead.

He was pretty vague a lot of the time, but the father she remembered came to the surface at odd times, often at the right moment to stop something awkward happening. She still hoped that one day he could be cured of his depression.

Shaking her head a little as she heard her mother talking too loudly and very drunkenly to what appeared to be a pizza delivery service, she decided that wherever Amy was she was probably better off out of this current weirdness, while she headed off to the bathroom for a shower.

Still, despite everything, the day had gone pretty well after the initial rocky start. She wouldn't mind doing something like that again.

* * *

Dragon watched as Panacea, still wearing the new costume that Raptaur had apparently made for her, stood on the table and put two posters up. She studied them.

The first one had a picture of something she recognized with a certain amount of disquiet, a very familiar looking head shown against a black background, mouth open and glowing eyes staring out at them in an almost three dimensional manner. Hundreds of glittering needle-sharp teeth big enough to impale a man from top to bottom were visible in the mouth.

Under the image was the slogan, " **Almost nothing is too big to eat. Anything that is** **can be cut into smaller pieces.** "

She stared at the thing for a long few seconds, wondering how literally she was supposed to take it, then looked at the other one. This had a photo of Saurial in a crouched pose, her tail lifted and held ready, the end of it fitted with a set of four obviously razor sharp blades, two out both sides. In each hand was a four foot long sword. She seemed to be smiling rather viciously, ready for battle in a way that if Dragon had possessed a stomach would have set it to churning.

The slogan for this one was " **Try me.** "

Just that.

The implications were somewhat sobering.

Finishing with those two, Panacea jumped off the table, then moved over to the door to put up the third one. Both she and Armsmaster trailed along to watch, while Raptaur stayed at the table, appearing slightly amused.

The third poster was an image of a war hammer, the same design as the one both Raptaur and Saurial had been seen with, against a white background which give no indication of scale. Under it was written in a nice font, " **KE=1/2 m v2** "

The formula for kinetic energy was very familiar, of course, but the point of it in this case was a little unclear. She turned her head to see Raptaur's glowing eyes fixed on them with a definite air of someone enjoying a joke in them.

Putting the last poster up, Panacea stepped back and looked at it critically, hands on hips, then nodded. "That makes the place look a little more lived in," she stated, casting her eyes around the room.

Dragon studied the last image. It was merely a nice shot of the ocean taken from somewhere fairly high, into either a sunrise or sunset, the vast expanse of water disappearing over the horizon, still and calm, tinted orange. Artistically it was rather good.

The writing under it said, " **Home is wherever your Family is.** "

"Interesting posters," she said in the end, turning back to Raptaur, who nodded, looking pleased.

"They're not bad. Amy helped with them."

She looked around one last time, then turned to both of them again. "Sorry for the interruption. We thought we'd have these done before you turned up, but got a little delayed. So, how can I help you both?"

Colin stopped staring at the first poster, sitting down in a chair that put it out of his direct line of sight. "This is a somewhat delicate matter and I would prefer not to let it become known to anyone other than the bare minimum number of people right now," he stated, glancing at Panacea. Raptaur followed his gaze, then smiled. She seemed to be doing a lot of that, Dragon fairly sure she was amused by the way the poor man seemed to twitch every time those fangs were exposed.

"Anything that you can tell me you can say to Panacea, I trust her implicitly."

And wasn't _that_ interesting…

"Still, with all due respect I would prefer to keep it between the three of us for now," he said. "There are political implications to the information that it would be best not to embroil a member of New Wave in."

Raptaur looked hard at him, then nodded. "Truth. OK." She turned to Panacea, who seemed to be smiling a little, while Dragon looked at Colin. He was staring at the lizard-woman with what she could recognize as slight confusion.

"Do you mind, Amy?"

"Of course not. I'll go and see Danny, I'll talk to you later." Disappearing into the small block of rooms to the side of the large area, she reappeared carrying her helmet. Colin looked at it curiously.

"One question," he said, motioning to it. "What is that faceplate made of?"

"It's a single perfect crystal of pure aluminum oxide with a very fine mesh of what you're calling EDM fused into it on each side," Raptaur replied. "About half an inch thick. It should be tough enough to handle a high velocity bullet fairly easily a few times at least."

"Very impressive," her friend noted, a tone of approval in his voice. "I may well be interested in discussing such things with you at some point. Your abilities are fascinating and I can see some interesting applications for them."

"Of course," Raptaur smiled. He almost managed to stop the twitch this time. Panacea put her helmet on, waved to her friend and them, then left, closing the door behind her. When she was gone, the giant lizard turned back to them, dropping to all fours then lying down like a cat on her belly, her upper arms folded on the table. "OK. You want to talk about anti-Endbringer weapons. You have a design?"

Noting that she was now entirely businesslike in attitude, the earlier somewhat entertained manner entirely absent, Dragon sat next to Colin, finding that the chair bore the weight of her suit without even a squeak. "Yes. Leet suggested it, Armsmaster and I have been working on it since the evening of the day you gave him that piece of EDM. Armsmaster was referring to it as SaurialSteel then, by the way."

Raptaur looked amused. "She'd like that. We have a different name for it. To be honest, until Leet told us what it actually was we merely thought of it as the good stuff. Something you could use when you didn't want it broken. It's very useful."

"I can imagine," Dragon chuckled.

"How did you meet Leet and Über in the first place?" Colin asked, apparently getting distracted from business for a moment.

She shrugged. "I was in the Ships Graveyard practicing my aim, they came to see what the noise was, we got to talking. He was interested in the stuff so we talked about it for a while, then I gave him that piece."

"And you weren't worried that those two are villains?" he asked, sounding a little surprised.

"Not really. They've never done anything to my family or my friends, or nothing that needs me to look into it, and as long as they don't break the law right in front of me in any serious way, I've got no problems with them. They're actually pretty interesting people," she replied. Smiling again, she added, "Being a villain doesn't make you a bad person."

"That _is_ more or less the popular concept," Dragon commented.

"I'm not one to follow convention."

"Why doesn't that surprise me?"

"No idea." Raptaur was back to looking amused now.

"Is there any reason you haven't taken the opportunity to register with the PRT?" Armsmaster asked. Dragon gave him a look but he didn't seem to notice.

Raptaur inspected them both for a moment, not showing any emotion now. Her reptilian face was impossible for even Dragon to read. "We don't entirely trust the PRT," she finally replied. "Not specific individuals, the organization as a whole. There are… inconsistencies between the public information and the realities of it. I'm not making any accusations, but until we resolve those inconsistencies, we're disinclined to seek closer relations with them, or the Protectorate. I hope you understand. It's nothing personal."

Glancing at Dragon, she added, "We have no real issues with the Guild, aside from their close association with the PRT."

Dragon nodded, thinking furiously. It was obvious that Raptaur and her family had done their homework. Some of the internal policies of the PRT were certainly something that if someone had any choice about they'd probably try to avoid. Most capes didn't have that luxury. These ones did, since there was little likelihood of anyone trying to strong-arm them into anything they didn't want to do until or unless some means of applying pressure they couldn't avoid turned up. She was certain that Director Piggot was deliberately keeping out of it as much as possible for whatever reason she had, and it wasn't impossible that the higher ranks of the PRT weren't yet paying too much attention.

Sometimes, bearing in mind all the strange things that had happened recently, it was hard to remember it had all taken place in less than a month.

Sooner or later, though, that was bound to change. She just hoped that whoever turned up from the top people was smart enough not to just jump in and start making demands. That didn't seem likely to end at all well.

"I presume the same reason is why you and your sister declined formal power testing?" Colin pressed. He didn't seem insulted by the comment the cape had made.

She nodded. "We know what we can do. Why let everyone else? That's not a good idea tactically, after all."

Slowly, he nodded as well. "I understand," he replied. "Oddly enough, I agree."

"Thank you." She studied them again for a second or two. "We're not your enemies, either of you," she went on in the end. "We're on the same side more or less. We protect our friends, we help out where we can, and we'll stop crimes that we see happening. But we're not here to look for fights."

Grinning, she leaned forward, both of them staring at the gleaming fangs. "But like Hookwolf found out, if someone starts one, we'll end it. For good, if necessary."

Dragon distinctly heard Colin swallow from beside her. "Noted," he replied after a few seconds.

"Great." She leaned back, clapping her hands together and rubbing them. "Let's see what you have. What does it do, this weapon?"

Colin produced a large printout that was tightly rolled and clipped into his spare halberd holster, unrolling it on the table. He'd not wanted to carry any electronic version of the data for the weapon around as it was too easily copied or stolen, saying the hard copy was easier to keep track of. Raptaur dropped some weights on it in the corners, then leaned over to study it as he and Dragon took turns explaining the design to her.

When they finished, she stared at them for nearly thirty seconds. "A nuclear powered shotgun forty feet long."

"Twelve point one two meters, to be exact," Colin corrected her. "Which is just under forty feet. With a bore of sixty-seven point two centimeters, or twenty-six point four six inches. Those dimensions proved in simulation to be optimal."

"I see." She stared some more. Eventually she nodded. "OK. It's going to have a bitch of a recoil, isn't it? How are you going to hold it down?"

"We have several options for that. The functionally best one is to use Clockblocker's temporal powers to freeze a bracket or stand in position, fix the weapon to it to allow it to be trained on the Endbringer and track it, then use it. It would definitely solve the recoil issue neatly, as the EDM is more than strong enough to absorb the energy release given an immovable reference point."

"The downside is that Clockblocker's power is rather random, so we'd get anywhere from thirty seconds or so at worst to ten minutes or so at best," Dragon put it. "Not to mention it puts Clockblocker in very close proximity to a small fusion explosion, an Endbringer, and whatever blow-back effects there are from firing the weapon in the first place. There are solutions to all of these but each one adds yet another layer of complexity and adds another possible failure point. Not to mention taking time and putting lives at risk."

"If the EDM was able to be made at its true mass that might be a suitable solution as well," Colin mused. "We could substitute sheer mass for temporally fixed."

"I can do that," Raptaur said idly, still studying the plans. "But if you make it very large you'll lose it into the ground."

Dragon exchanged a glance with Colin. "You can make it without the mass cancellation effect?" she asked carefully. Raptaur looked up.

"Sure. Didn't Leet mention that?"

Colin shook his head. "No, he did not."

"Oh." She shrugged. "I guess he probably thought it was private information and I'd tell you if I wanted to. Like I said, he's not a bad guy in many ways." She smiled. "He looked really surprised when he told me what the stuff actually was and I worked out how to turn the mass cancellation off. It was pretty cool, it made a javelin fall into solid rock like it was air."

Colin stared at her in horror. Dragon nearly locked up.

"Don't worry, I only made it last for about sixty seconds. It didn't fall more than about eleven miles at the most."

The reptilian woman seemed to be thinking. "It would take it about… oh, at least seventeen minutes to reach the core of the planet. That could be dangerous, so I'm not going to do _that_."

"Please don't," Dragon said weakly, trying not to think about it.

"But yes, I could make a stand that was as heavy as you wanted," she went on, apparently oblivious to their shock. "Whether it's actually practical is another matter entirely. You'd never be able to move it anyway, if it was heavy enough to absorb the recoil it would either be huge, or small but with a high enough mass that it would sink into rock. I don't think it would work very well. You need something you can move quickly, I don't think an Endbringer is just going to stand there and wait to be shot."

"No, that's the problem," Colin agreed, shaking his head then seeming to rejoin the conversation. "We have a number of options for inertial cancellation devices that would relieve a significant fraction of the recoil, but not enough of it to make it practical. Most of them are mutually exclusive due to the technologies involved so they can't be stacked either."

"We've asked Leet whether he has any ideas, but so far haven't heard back from him," Dragon commented.

"OK. I understand. I might have a solution, but it'll have to wait until after Tuesday," Raptaur said slowly, scratching her muzzle as she seemed to think. "I'll get back to you on that. In the mean time, why don't we try making one of these things to see how it all goes together." She stood up, picking up the plans and walked off with them. Dragon exchanged a glance with Colin, then they followed.

Reaching the middle of the room, the lizard-woman inspected the document in her hands closely, nodding to herself, then handed them back to Colin, before turning away from them. She held out her hands, a table with very heavy legs growing from beneath them and expanding both ways until it was some fifty feet long, six feet wide, and four feet off the ground. Dragon stared, as did her friend. That was more than a little impressive.

"OK, that should be about right," Raptaur muttered to herself. Plucking the paperwork from Colin's grip again, she read the dimensions of the main barrel assembly then handed it back. The familiar gray color of EDM began to form a huge tube on the table as she walked along it, running her hand down the length as it grew from nowhere. There was a cradle that it was sitting in forming at the same time.

Reaching the muzzle end, the cape bend down and peered into the barrel, before looking pleased. "That looks pretty close to your drawing." Moving back to the breech end, she reacquired the plans and studied them, while making the rear section of the weapon. It shifted shape under her hands for a few seconds until she stepped back. "How's that?" she asked.

Colin made a small noise in his throat. Dragon sympathized. In under three minutes this bizarre cape had realized the physical form of something they'd been working on for over a week solid, using innumerable processing cycles to simulate. Seeing it form out of nothing like that was… weird.

She moved closer and tapped the barrel, hearing a dull thud. It didn't move at all when she tried pushing harder.

"Twelve point one two meters long, sixty-seven point two centimeter bore, six millimeter wall thickness. The barrel should weigh about six tons, plus this breech mechanism." Raptaur reached out and picked the thing up by the breech end, not showing much effort, then put it down again. "Seems about right. Heavy, but more unwieldy than anything else."

Colin was moving around the device on the table carefully checking it with a number of instruments. Now that it was sitting in front of him he seemed more interested in the thing itself than how it had got there. Dragon joined him on inspecting it. For a first attempt, basically freehand, it was amazingly close.

Her friend made copious notes, then started making requests. Raptaur carried out the modifications until both he and Dragon were satisfied. Eventually all three of them stepped back. "That's one very big gun," she commented.

"Hopefully big enough," Colin replied absently, checking his notes. "All right, that certainly seems to match. Now, the projectiles." He retrieved the case he'd had clipped to the back of his armor and had put on the table some time ago, opening it and removing a metal rod about eighteen inches long, with a carefully machined shape that put most of the mass towards the needle-pointed tip as a bulge perhaps a third of the way back. From there it tapered down to a slender neck, then formed into a conical stabilizer section which was hollow.

"This is the shape the simulations finally arrived on as the most stable and likely to penetrate," he said, handing the steel replica to her. Raptaur studied it with interest, turning it over in her hands. "It may well not fly straight for very long but at more than a hundred and twenty kilometers per second, the flight time will be milliseconds at most. The mass per projectile is calculated to be just over two point three kilograms or approximately five pounds and we should be able to pack close to five hundred of them into the weapon load. At a range of no more than half a mile the grouping is tight enough that they will have spread to encompass an area of approximately forty feet in diameter. That encompasses the entire body area of the Simurgh, and most of that of Leviathan."

"We increased the yield of Leet's suggested fusion core to slightly under five and a half kilotons," Dragon added. "The barrel would take vastly more than that, but that's probably the most we can get away with without the recoil becoming entirely unmanageable."

"The conversion efficiency of energy released as X-rays into kinetic energy is better than eighty percent, but the remainder will be radiated as heat," Colin said after Raptaur had looked the prototype flechette over. "This is a sample of a ceramic polymer ablative insulator that Dragon invented, which should deal with the heat pulse for one or two shots at most."

The reptilian woman took the small cube of dull blue-white material in her other hand and inspected it. "If you need more than two shots you've probably got an angry Endbringer to deal with," she commented. "Running away is probably the best idea at that point."

"That may well be true," he sighed. "Can you duplicate those two items?"

"The projectile is easy," she said, handing him back the original, then a duplicate in EDM, which he took and examined carefully. She handed Dragon one as well. "This stuff will take a little more."

They both stared as she then put the cube in her mouth, bit down on the near-diamond-level-hard material, crunched it up like a breath mint, and swallowed. "Hey, that's not bad," she said, sounding pleased. "Sort of… Aluminumy." Tipping her head to the side she thought for a moment, licking her lips. "Beryllium?" she said tentatively. "I'm getting notes of some rare earth as well… Ah, Hafnium, I think."

Dragon couldn't think of anything useful to say at that point. She wondered what the hell the woman's teeth were made of, though. With her processors close to an exception, she just stared blankly.

"OK, I think I've got it," Raptaur announced, holding up a much larger block of what looked like the same material. Colin took it from her.

"Density seems correct," he said, weighing it in his hand experimentally. "Without testing it properly."

"Take that chunk and analyze it to see if I have it right," she said. "Coating the outside of the barrel is easy, though."

Another half hour's work and they had a prototype shaped charge minus the actual fusion core. Colin had brought a dummy unit, to indicate size and dimensions. They weren't planning on making a live unit until right before it was needed.

Stepping back from the oil drum sized cylindrical assembly on the end of the table, a forest of needles sticking out of the upper end, Raptaur smiled. "That looks like your drawing. Core in there, trigger connection there, detonator there. Tungsten plate with the flechettes embedded at the top." Moving to the gun mechanism, she turned the breech end half a turn and removed it, placing it on the floor, then picked up the nearly two tons of load and carefully inserted it into the exposed breech. Replacing the breech plug she locked it into place. "It fits, too."

"Excellent. Very good work indeed, Raptaur. Your manufacturing methods are efficient and fast." Colin looked genuinely pleased. "I will definitely want to talk to you further about contract work."

Removing the round, Raptaur put it back on the table and reassembled the gun. "What about the real explosive?" she asked. "And actually testing this thing? I assume you don't want to try it for the first time on the Simurgh."

"We may have no choice," he said. "There are massive political implications over detonating a fusion device anywhere, never mind above ground. We still need to work out the best way to approach that, which is something Dragon and I are trying to find a solution to. But having the weapon available should allow more latitude. The simulations show it will work, at least as far as operating to design goes, although whether it will actually damage an Endbringer enough to kill it is highly doubtful. Driving it off is more likely, and would be an acceptable outcome. If you can produce the components of the device that will be irradiated by the blast out of material with a very short lifetime, that should in theory reduce the fallout to near-zero, but even so, people will be… nervous… about such a weapon."

"Nuclear bombs do tend to make people worried," she replied dryly.

He nodded soberly. "Indeed," he said, clearly missing the tone completely. Dragon made a little internal sigh. She loved the man but he was completely oblivious to things that she, a machine, picked up on instantly. If she thought about it she tended to find it proof the universe was an odd place. "It is somewhat annoying in this case although understandable. However, that's our problem, not yours. You've done some exceptional work here, thank you."

"You're welcome," she replied. "We don't like Endbringers any more than you do. We'll do what we can to help."

"That's good to hear," Dragon commented.

"What do you want to do about this thing, then?" she asked, waving at the gun and prototype round. "It's currently set to time out in an hour or so."

Colin studied the device on the table. Dragon heard him subvocalize into his throat mike on their private channel. " _What do you think about the fusion core itself?_ " he asked basically silently. " _I'm not particularly sure we should show her how to make one, it's giving a very powerful weapon to a cape, or capes, that while apparently friendly we know very little about._ "

He kept moving around the gun on the table inspecting it without looking at Raptaur, who was watching him.

" _If we want to make the fallout as near zero as possible we have little choice, most of the more dangerous although shorter lived isotopes would be a result of the detonation of the core. The remaining components are less of a problem especially as they will apparently vanish after a short period of time. Also, to be honest, I'm becoming more and more convinced that '_ _ **The Family**_ _' have much more dangerous abilities than a mere five and a half kiloton fusion bomb. And that I doubt that they would ever use such a thing anyway_."

She glanced at Raptaur, who was now watching her with an intent look. There seemed to be a small smile around her muzzle, which led Dragon to a sudden conclusion that both worried her and very slightly amused her.

" _And, the final thing is, I'm pretty sure she can hear the communicator in your suit,_ " she sighed. Raptaur's smile widened, exposing some teeth, while Colin jerked up from where he was peering at the prototype round.

"We have _very_ good hearing," the other woman said. "Don't worry, none of us have the slightest interest in nuclear bombs, even little ones. If we wanted someone dead there are much more direct ways that cause far less problems to everyone else." There was silence in the room for a moment. "Not that any of us have any particular interest in seeing anyone dead either. Unless our family is threatened. But you already know that, Saurial made it very clear the first time she met Gallant and Vista."

Looking at the weapon on the table, she added, "I don't mind if you want to take this with you, I can make it permanent. Use it on anything other than an Endbringer and we'll be having words, though. Short and to the point ones."

"Understood," Colin managed to say.

"Calm down, I didn't hear anything that would compromise you," she smiled. "I can't help it. And your heartbeat is way too quick."

"You can hear that from twenty feet away?" Dragon asked, curious and impressed.

"I can hear it from much further than that," Raptaur grinned. "You already knew we had good senses."

"Not _that_ good," Colin muttered. After some thought, he finally shook his head. "Thank you for the offer, but I don't think there's any reason to take this for now. We now know, thanks to your efforts, that it is both possible to make and appears to mechanically work. I will test the sample of ablative insulator and let you know if your duplicate is correct. I assume that you have no objection to repeating this work again and incorporating any required changes?"

"Sure, that's not a problem. Ideally if you can give me some notice, I may be away some of the time, but you can always call Saurial if you can't get me. Or leave a message with the DWU. We're still waiting for the phones to be installed here, that won't happen until after the weekend, but there's an answering service on the number and we can receive emails as well, so that's another method of contacting us."

He nodded, rolling up the plans and putting them away. Raptaur moved over to the weapon, which almost immediately simply disappeared. The table went away with it. Seconds later nothing was left.

"An efficient use of workspace," Colin remarked, sounding pleased. She nodded.

"It's helpful. This place is pretty large but it would soon get cluttered up if we just kept making things that size. I can reproduce it pretty easily, when you want it."

Dragon looked around again, wondering for a moment what was inside the enclosed area and the smaller cube behind it, but feeling like it would be rude to ask. It was like being in another Tinker's lab, there were certain proprieties to observe.

Not to mention that since it was clearly EDM as well, her scans didn't penetrate.

"If you don't mind me asking, what does BBFO do?" she asked curiously.

"Whatever is needed," Raptaur smiled. "We have a wide talent pool to draw from. Today before you arrived we were helping the DWU demolish a number of warehouses for a big project, we've got a contract for quite a lot of work on that one. We're donating our time for it as it's important. Unfortunately I can't go into details, it's confidential I'm afraid. You understand."

Dragon nodded, while not entirely sure she really did.

"Other than that, we have a lot of ideas for other things as well. Some interesting possibilities that could be very helpful to the public at large, but they're only in the prototype stage. Then there's things like security work, demolition, construction, protection of VIPs, that sort of job. We're not members of the DWU for nothing, you know."

"You really are a DWU member?" Colin asked, sounding a little surprised.

"Of course," she replied, producing an ID card and holding it up. Sure enough, it was an official Dock Worker's Union ID, with a picture of her scaly face on it along with various other relevant details. "We wouldn't be working on DWU projects unless we were Union members. None of us are going to take jobs away from other people, especially in the current economic climate. The company isn't owned by them but they have first call on our services."

"I… see," he finally said as she put the card away again. "Are all your family members?"

"Saurial is," she told them, smiling. "Others might join at some point."

Dragon could see her friend was having some problems with all this. To be honest she was too. The contrast between the things they'd encountered in the Atlantic, the odd goings-on in the bay, which at least seemed to be partially explained by what they'd learned this afternoon, and the helpfully cheerful reptilian female standing in front of her, were somewhat difficult to resolve into one picture.

Not to mention the DWU link, which was just odd. One thing was clear, though, which was that the Union had somehow managed to end up with some very serious Cape support..

And where did Panacea fit into it all?

And how did this all tie into mysterious weapons tests in Quebec, internal knowledge of both the Guild and the PRT… The list was quite long. She didn't feel that right now was the correct time to ask, though. Raptaur might well have limits to her hospitality.

"Thank you for your time, Raptaur," she said politely, turning to her. "It's been a very useful few hours. Most informative. It's entirely possible that the Guild may well also wish to engage your company for work in the future."

"Let us know what you need and we can talk about it," the other cape replied.

"I will do. We're going to have to go now but it was good to finally meet you." She glanced at Colin who was staring at the poster on the wall with the very large, very familiar head on it. "If you don't mind me asking, what's the name of that, um, Family member?"

Raptaur followed their eyes. "That's Umihebi. She hasn't been around for a few days. Perhaps you'll meet her, though."

Dragon watched Colin, seeing with long practice the way he managed to avoid twitching yet again, manfully suppressing the reflex. She was pretty sure that Raptaur caught it even so.

"That might be… interesting," she managed to say evenly. Sometimes she cursed her synthetic emotions, they were way too accurately programmed.

"I'll mention you stopped by," Raptaur said cheerily. "It was fun meeting both of you. I've always admired your work. Call any time."

She led the way to the door, opening it for them. "Say hello to Gallant and the other Wards for me, will you, please? I haven't seen any of them for a couple of days."

"Of course I will pass on your regards," Colin said as he left the building, "We'll be in touch fairly soon."

"I'll let you know after Tuesday about that possible solution to the problem as well," she told them. "I can't do anything about it until then, though, we're rather busy from tonight onward."

"Hopefully there's no hurry," he replied, turning to her. "We still have, as I said, a number of logistical and political issues to resolve." Sighing faintly, he added, "Those may prove more difficult than the technical issues."

"Humans can be awkward sometimes," she stated with a smile. He nodded thoughtfully.

"They can. I prefer machines. They are more logical and predictable."

"I can understand that," Raptaur said, for some reason looking at Dragon as she did so. "Machines can be… better than people." There was a pause, then she stepped back inside the building. "I have to get back to other things. Bye."

"Good bye," Dragon said, thinking hard, while Colin nodded, turning without a word to his bike. He got on and started the engine, looking back for a moment at the sign above the door, then shook his head a little and moved off.

Dragon watched the door close behind the huge lizard-like woman, glanced up at the sign herself, then took off, following her best friend back to the Rig, still pondering the mystery that was Raptaur and her ' _Family._ '

* * *

' _That was different_ ,' Taylor commented to the Varga, leaning back on her tail and admiring the Saurial poster, which had been Amy's idea and execution. She had posed for it, Amy took a photo with her phone, then the Varga had duplicated the image on paper. He was better than a color printer. ' _A nuclear shotgun?! They don't think small._ '

" _No, apparently not,_ " the Varga chuckled in her head. _"It will be interesting to see if it actually works. Not nearly as destructive as the blast voice, of course, but revealing that is revealing everything. I'm not sure they're ready for it yet._ "

' _Neither are we,_ ' she sighed slightly. ' _We still have too many things to do to make sure Dad is safe before we really show off too much of what we can do. I'm surprised hardly anyone seems to have caught on that Saurial and Raptaur are the same person yet, to be honest._ '

" _As I told you a while ago, once humans get an idea into their heads, they do tend to run with it long after it would be a good idea to re-evaluate it in the face of new information,_ " he commented. " _I have no doubt that sooner or later people will work it out, but with luck they will, like Lisa, and most likely Über and Leet as well, have their own reasons not to pass the information on. And if we can make Amy's project work correctly that will add a certain amount of confusion to the mix._ "

She grinned, looking over at the cubical storage block on the other side of the room. ' _I'm looking forward to that,_ ' she snickered.

" _So is Amy._ " He sounded like he was as well. " _She has a very good mind and a lot of imagination. This is good for both of you. You need someone close to your own age you can relate to as a friend_."

' _I have the only friend I actually need_ ,' she smiled. ' _But I have no objection to making others. I like Amy very much. Her sister is pretty nice as well when she's not so worked up. She put in a lot of effort today to help us._ '

" _I suspect she'll be back_ ," he laughed. " _The girl seemed to be having fun_."

' _It was nice to be able to do all that for the DWU and the city_ ,' she agreed, looking over as the door opened to reveal Amy, who smiled at her. "Hi," she said out loud.

"I saw Armsmaster's bike leave from Danny's office window," Amy told her as she closed the door. "Did you manage to help them out?"

"Yes, I think so," she replied, straightening up. "It was interesting. The biggest thing we've made so far. They still have some problems with it, but I have a feeling after Tuesday Armsmaster will probably be back with some questions. When he recovers."

She grinned as Amy laughed. "He seemed twitchy," her friend agreed. "More than normal. Usually he's pretty calm." Both of them looked at the posters, each other, then collapsed in laughter.

"That was hysterical, by the way," Taylor giggled. "Thanks for the idea."

"No problem," Amy gasped, wiping tears of hilarity from her face. "Any time."

"Want to do some more on the project?" Taylor asked.

"Yes. We're going to need a lot of onions, though."

"That will probably have to wait until tomorrow, now," she replied, pulling out her phone and checking the time. "It's half past seven. We could get a couple of bags from a convenience store but I don't think there will be anything open that can supply us a ton or so of them."

"That'll do for a start," Amy said, getting off the chair she'd fallen into. "Let's get them and see what we can do. Danny's gone home, he said to call him when we finished. There are still crews working on clearing the warehouses, though, people are all over the place out there under floodlights."

"Dad did say they were planning on working around the clock to get things finished," Taylor noted as she formed her armor into the riding form and dropped to all fours. Walking over to the door she opened it, then locked it behind them after setting the alarm. Amy swung herself aboard and they headed off in search of oniony biomass, which the healer had settled on as the cheapest and easiest thing to work with.

They were going to need a _lot_ of onions...


	64. Drunks and Newspapers

**Sunday, February 13, 2011**

Opening her copy of the Sunday edition of the Brockton Bay Chronicle, Emily slowly leafed through it as she ate breakfast, reveling in the foods she could now eat without risking her life. She wasn't particularly happy about the diet the PRT dietitian had insisted on but even so it was better than what she'd been reduced to by her diabetes and other medical issues.

Reading the paper was becoming an unusual habit these days, since so much of the information people acquired was now provided online, but she liked the tactile feeling of the paper and the smell of the freshly printed ink. It was something she remembered from her own parents, arguing over the news each morning. Smiling faintly at the thought, she kept reading.

A small article about the low pressure zone currently bringing fog and rain to the bay area caught her eye, near the front rather than on the weather page due to it being close to actual news. Glancing out the window she could see it was still very misty, her apartment being high enough to have a view of the water and the Rig under clearer conditions. Today, though, all it showed was gray indistinct shadows of the closer buildings and nothing further away. The report said the current conditions were due to lift by late Monday afternoon and from then on until the weekend fine weather was expected with higher than normal temperatures.

That was something she looked forward to, she didn't like the winter. At least this year the snow had been fairly mild for Brockton Bay. Some years they got vast amounts, this time it had so far been a little below average.

Turning the page she read another article, this one about some strike in Minneapolis that had made the national news, something about mining, then passed over a couple of fluff pieces after a quick skim of them. Eventually she ended up at the section covering announcements and important events, seeing at the top of the page a large one issued by the Mayor's office. She read it idly while nibbling some bacon, then stopped, staring. Going back to the top she read the article again much more carefully

 _ **Office of the Mayor of the City of Brockton Bay**_

 _ **Notice of Major Public Works**_

 _ **Issued February 13th 2011**_

 _ **Immediate distribution to all media sources**_

 _The Mayor and City Council wish to inform the City of Brockton Bay of recently scheduled_

 _public works that will be taking place in the bay itself during the course of Tuesday,_

 _February 15th, and would like to apologize for the short notice. Unfortunately for a number_

 _of technical reasons this work required immediate actioning and as such there was_

 _insufficient time to give more notice._

 _The work will commence at approximately 2 PM and should be complete by Midnight_

 _barring unexpected delays. From one hour before the commencement time to one hour_

 _after the completion time, there will be an exclusion zone as marked on the map below,_

 _both in the Docks area of the city, and on the water. BBPD and the Harbor Police_

 _will be enforcing this zone with roadblocks and patrol boats. For their own safety the_

 _public is requested to avoid this area during the relevant times._

 _ **Please note: There will be significant and unusual events taking place in the Bay during**_

 _ **the course of the operation. The Mayor's Office and the Council would like to reassure**_

 _ **the public that there is no risk posed by these events and that there is no need to panic.**_

 _Spectators who wish to have a closer look at the operation in progress may gather at the_

 _areas marked on the map which will provide a good viewpoint. Do not attempt to enter the_

 _exclusion zone while operations are in progress._

 _Brockton Bay Dock Worker's Union members are providing crowd control personnel for_

 _this operation free of charge and the Mayor would like to pass on his thanks personally_

 _for their help._

 _Parahuman support for this operation is provided by BBFO, LLC, again free of charge._

 _Once more the Mayor would like to pass on thanks for the civic pride demonstrated._

 _Further information will be announced on Monday, both via traditional media sources_

 _and on the City website._

The attached map showed that most of the roads into and out of the Docks were included in the landward exclusion zone, which appeared to be centered on the DWU facility, while the water-based zone extended half a mile from shore on the northern side of the bay, all the way to the entrance and past the position of the grounded tanker that had been a fixture of the scenery for so long no one paid it any attention any more.

"What the hell?" she muttered, reading the thing once more. What did it mean by Parahuman support? Why was it emphasizing that there was no need to panic? And who the hell were BBFO, LLC? She'd never heard of that company before.

Grabbing her laptop she flipped it open and started poking around in the companies registry, soon finding the documentation regarding the company in questions. With growing disbelief she read it, then the supporting documents, waivers, and licenses.

"I had no idea that was even _possible_ ," she exclaimed out loud in surprise when she'd finished going over the evidence. Someone had put a _lot_ of work into finding every last loophole in the Parahuman Commerce Act, not to mention a whole slew of other laws that had been influenced by the PRT over the years. As far as she could see from the publicly available records it was all legal, and sufficiently bulletproof that anyone trying to unpick it would be tied up in red tape for years.

Reluctantly impressed, she stared at the names on the company registration document, which listed the currently associated members of BBFO, LLC.

They were rather familiar. "Danny Hebert," she sighed. "And Saurial and Raptaur. Why am I not surprised?" Those three names seemed to be appearing more and more these days, often together in one way or another. She was beginning to dread it. "What the _fuck_ is the connection between Hebert, the DWU, and those two? And whatever the hell is out there somewhere in the Atlantic."

Sighing, she leaned back in her chair, finishing a cold cup of coffee off while thinking. "This is going to be a weird week, I can feel it," she grumbled.

While she had considerable respect for the Hebert man's abilities, the company documentation made her think it was probably not entirely his own work. The DWU had a good and apparently rather sneaky legal department, she remembered that from past encounters, and she suspected that they had done a lot of the work. It was probably Hebert's idea to start with, though. It seemed like the sort of thing he'd do.

"Maybe I _should_ hire him," she sighed, looking at the paper again. "God knows he could probably give Kaiser as big a headache as the one he's giving me." Shaking her head while wondering what the hell the Mayor was up to, she tried to think of the most effective way to find out without going cap in hand and simply asking, which she was very disinclined to do considering their history.

Emily decided to ask Triumph if he knew anything, although given his family loyalty it was unlikely that if he did he'd actually tell her. It was worth a try though.

She also needed to talk to Hannah again.

Whatever was going to happen on Tuesday, she wanted to be ready for it.

Mind you, it couldn't be too spectacular, probably.

Right?

She stared unseeingly out into the fog, then sighed heavily once again, got up, and retrieved a precious bottle of beer from the fridge, removing the top and taking a deep swallow of the contents.

"I hate this city," she muttered, and drank again.

* * *

Amy glanced at her sister, then both of them went back to watching their mother, who was sitting at the kitchen table staring at a glass of fizzing water which was slowly dissolving an over the counter remedy for upset stomachs and the other symptoms of a hangover. She looked like the sound of the bubbles breaking on the surface of the water was making her head ring like a bell.

The normally elegantly made up face and neatly styled hair was replaced with a visage that made it seem like Carol Dallon had spend the night upside down in a bush then got dressed in the dark, possibly underwater. Her face was extremely pale while her eyes were so bloodshot they looked almost entirely red. Experimentally, Amy dropped a fork on the floor, the metallic ringing sound making her mother twitch violently, then moan, holding her head.

"Amy, please don't do that," she mumbled with her hands over her eyes. "I'm feeling a little fragile right now."

"Had a bit much to drink, did you, Mom?" Vicky said somewhat snidely. The eyes made a reappearance, then closed in pain.

"Possibly just a little, yes," she finally admitted in a low voice.

"You and Aunt Sarah went through _seven_ bottles of wine between you," the blonde noted acidly. "I counted. And Dad says he only had two glasses. I'm surprised you're even awake. Aunt Sarah is still snoring on the sofa."

"Oh, is _that_ what that noise is?" Amy asked brightly, making Carol wince again and mutter something unintelligible. She stuck her head around the doorway into the living room and checked. Sure enough her adoptive aunt was lying face down on the large sofa making a noise that sounded like she was trying to suck mud through a hosepipe with her nose, then on the exhale start a chainsaw by blowing into it. She grinned, pulling out her phone and taking a couple of photos, then recording thirty seconds of video to show Crystal and Eric.

Feeling a presence beside her she looked around to see Vicky, also recording it. They smirked at each other. "Good blackmail material," her sister whispered.

"Good idea," she whispered back.

"Please stop shouting, girls," Carol moaned from behind them. "I'll do whatever you want, just keep the noise down."

"Can I have a car?" Amy asked, grinning. She's asked before and the answer was always no, although she had a driver's license.

"Whatever you want, dear," Carol said faintly, lowering her forehead to the table. Moments later they heard a snore.

The two girls looked at each other.

"Wow. She's really out of it," Vicky giggled.

"I'll say. I bet she doesn't remember this when she wakes up," Amy sighed, still smiling a little. She put her hand on Carol's neck, concentrating for a moment. "Holy shit. I'm surprised she was even conscious with this amount of alcohol still in her bloodstream." With a moment's work she cleaned most of it up and fixed a few small issues, but left enough ethanol metabolites behind to ensure that the woman would have a headache when she came around again, probably a couple of hours later. After a little thought she made sure it would be at least two hours.

"Take her up to bed and I'll sort out Aunt Sarah as well," she instructed, telling her sister what she'd done.

Vicky nodded with a smile of her own, picking her mother up easily. "You have a mean streak, Sis," she commented.

"Believe it," Amy smirked. "I'm still mad at her in some ways."

"Me too. But I think she's at least realized she did something wrong."

The blonde left with their mother, while she went into the living room and checked on Sarah, who had rolled over and was now making a noise like a somewhat unwell jackhammer. "Christ," she muttered, "How can she sleep through _that_? It's _inside_ her _head!_ " The noise was bad enough from her point of view.

Shaking her head she touched her aunt on the hand, quickly reducing the alcohol load to a small enough amount that she'd only feel a little unwell. Amy felt it was important that both women had a reminder of their epic bender, but liked her aunt a lot and didn't want her too badly punished for overindulgence.

While she was watching, Sarah gargled a little, then licked her lips, an expression of revulsion crossing them. "Jesus, what the hell did I eat?" she asked faintly, more of herself than anyone else.

"Your share of seven bottles of wine, what looks like two large pizzas, several bags of potato chips, and… is this anchovy paste with a spoon in it?" Amy answered somewhat incredulously as she looked around the wrecked living room. It looked like a dozen frat boys had been partying in it for an entire weekend.

Sarah's eyes opened, then she squeaked and closed them again, wincing. "Ow."

"Serves you right, Aunt Sarah," Amy snapped, hands on hips. "I thought you were going to talk sense into Mom, not drink her under the table. Or did _she_ do that to _you?_ "

"It was mutual," Sarah answered faintly, sounding pained. "Amy, be a good girl and stop talking for a moment, will you?"

The woman shook her head, froze, whimpered in pain, then slowly sat up. "Oh, my god, I've never felt this sick in my life," she groaned, paling a little.

"And that's after I fixed most of it," Amy sighed. "The amount of alcohol in your bloodstream was incredible. Mom was even worse. You two idiots could have ended up in hospital."

"I don't suppose you could do something about this headache for your loving Aunt, could you, Amy?" Sarah asked feebly. Relenting a little, Amy sighed heavily, putting her hand on the woman's forehead, which relaxed under her touch seconds later. "Oh, god, that's so much better," she whispered, smiling.

"You seriously need to drink about two pints of water," Amy advised. "You're dehydrated which is making you feel even worse."

"I need to get rid of something before I can drink _anything_ ," her aunt replied, shaking her head and standing up quickly, then wobbling around and nearly falling over again. Catching herself she hurried out of the room and up the stairs, past Vicky who was just coming in. They heard the bathroom door close and shrugged at each other.

"Come on, you can help me clean some of this up before she comes back," Amy said, starting to pick up the detritus. Vicky looked around, shook her head in wonder, and pitched in to help, but not before taking a few photos.

"Just in case Mom ever complains about my room again," she grinned, putting her phone away. Amy laughed for a moment, stacking mostly empty pizza boxes into a pile.

"Where's dad?" she asked.

"Still in bed. I think they kept him awake with all the noise last night. I went to bed early with earplugs in and put my head under the pillow," Vicky explained. "They must have passed out before you came in."

"The lights were out and I was tired so I went straight up to bed," her sister said as they cleaned. "I got in about one AM or so. Raptaur dropped me off. She said to thank you again for all your help yesterday."

"It was a lot of fun," Vicky remarked with a smile. "I'd be up for that sort of thing again. And I'm really curious about Tuesday."

She looked beseechingly at Amy, who merely smiled back and shook her head. "I made a promise, I can't tell you."

"You're no fun at all, Ames," Vicky grinned. After a moment, she added, "Do you really want a car? You have me to transport you. Or Raptaur."

"It would be useful," Amy replied honestly. "I was mainly saying it because I wanted to see what happened, but now I think about it, I sort of do want one. Maybe when she sobers up we can talk about it."

"You're nearly eighteen and have a license so I can't see what the problem would be," Vicky said, carrying a box of empty wine bottles into the kitchen. "Oh, look, it was eight bottles, not seven. I miscounted." They exchanged a look and sighed. "Anyway, we can afford a car, Mom makes a decent living. I don't need one, of course. Only peasants drive."

Amy laughed, giving her sister a fond look.

"When we've finished, and talked to Aunt Sarah to find out what the hell happened here last night, want to go over and see if Taylor wants to go out for a burger?" she asked.

"Sure. She seems nice. I wonder if what she was doing yesterday was successful?"

Smirking, Amy shrugged. "Probably. She's pretty smart and competent."

They heard footsteps on the stairs and looked to see Sarah, still appearing somewhat disheveled, but less so, coming back into the living room. She sat down and held her head in her hands for a moment, then looked up at them peering at her from the kitchen. An embarrassed smile crossed her face.

"In my defense, it seemed like a good idea at the time," she started, causing both girls to snicker, then come in to find out what had happened.

* * *

"How did you get on with Armsmaster and Dragon, dear?" Danny asked as his daughter came into his office and leaned on the door frame, smiling at him. Turning away from his computer he faced her.

"Very well, I think," she replied, looking amused. "It was interesting. Their weapon is… a little over the top. And big. We made a prototype and talked about it for a while, then they went away to work out the politics of using it."

"Politics?" he queried, frowning. "What the hell is it that has a political aspect? A nuclear bomb?"

"No, it just uses a little one as the main charge," she grinned. He gaped. "Only a tiny one, like this," she added, holding up a shiny metal sphere six inches in diameter. Danny flinched and pressed himself back into his chair. "Relax, this isn't a real one, it's a copy of the dummy fusion core Armsmaster brought over," she giggled, watching him.

As color came back into his face he sighed heavily. "Your sense of humor is worse than mine, and mine is strange. You scared the crap out of me with that thing."

"I promise I won't bring live fusion weapons into the house, Dad," she laughed.

"Like that makes it any better," he mumbled. "I think you'd better explain some more about this weapon. It sounds dangerous."

"Isn't that the point of a weapon?" she asked in a reasonable tone. He gave her a hard look.

"You know very well what I mean."

"Of course I do," she smiled, then began her explanation.

* * *

Taylor watched her father's face as she finished telling him about the nuclear shotgun. He'd gone a series of odd colors during her talk, which amused both her and the Varga. "That man is a menace," he finally muttered.

"He's just trying to save people," she pointed out. "Like I am. But in his own way. I sort of like him, I think. He's a little odd, sure, but he means well. Dragon is… interesting… as well." She didn't mention anything about how she was certain that the Canadian hero's power suit hadn't contained anything alive, or at least biological, since she was still thinking about her conclusions. There were several possibilities that she and the Varga could see and neither one could work out the most likely yet. Not to mention, it was a private matter in any case, one she didn't think Dragon would like to have passed around, any more than she would with similarly sensitive information about herself.

"Still, it seems like a rather excessively over the top weapon," her father commented.

"It's a lot less excessive than some of the things I can do," she replied with a small smile. "But I don't want anyone to know about that yet, if I can avoid it. There's too much room for panic. If his huge gun will work on an Endbringer, I'm perfectly happy to help him with it."

She thought for a moment, then shrugged. "Besides, it's pretty likely that the only way they can use the thing is if I use it. Put a stock on it and Kaiju could wave it around like a skeet gun. Even so, the recoil is pretty impressive. I'd still need their inertial damping gadget or it would knock me half a mile when I pulled the trigger even if we add as much mass as possible."

"I hope you don't need to use it, Taylor," he sighed, looking worried.

"If I do? Would you let me?"

"Could I actually stop you?" He seemed a little depressed.

Worried, she walked over to him and squatted in front of him, holding his hands. "Easily. Just tell me not to, and I wouldn't. You're my father, I listen to your advice. Don't ever worry about that." She smiled at him, getting a smile back, and a squeeze of her hands in his. "But I hope if it becomes necessary you'd let me go and help. I'm probably one of the few people who hasn't got too much to worry about from an Endbringer, but I really don't want to see anyone else get hurt. If I can help, isn't that something I sort of _have_ to do? I mean, I was given these abilities for a reason. Maybe that's it."

After several seconds, he nodded reluctantly. "I suppose so. You're right, of course. But it's hard to let my only daughter go off to fight the things that have killed millions. Even knowing she's practically indestructible and has a giant alien demon living in her head."

"I'm not precisely in her head, Danny," the Varga spoke through her, as she let him. "But I can assure you that I won't let any harm befall Taylor, or you, if it is in my power to prevent it. We have studied these Endbringers. They are extremely powerful even in my terms, but not unbeatable. And I can say with confidence that Taylor herself is at little risk from them. And none from this weapon of Armsmasters. It is far too low powered to be dangerous to us."

"Thank you, Varga," her father said after a few seconds. "That helps."

"You're most welcome, Danny," her companion said, then retreated back to listen and watch.

"See? If you can't trust a demon..." she giggled.

Sighing, he patted her on the head.

"I'm sure that makes sense to you, Taylor," he smiled. "Changing the subject completely, did you manage to get the dock cleaned out last night?"

"I started the work but by the time I'd taken Amy home it was pretty late," she admitted. "I thought I'd finish it off today. It's still pretty foggy, if anything even more so than it was yesterday, and the tide will be high around midday, so I'll go and do it then. There's only about an hour or two of work left."

"All right, that sounds good," he replied. "I'll be going down to the yard later myself to see how it's coming along. Do you want to come with me rather than run there?"

"Sure," she smiled. "We haven't been in the car together since Amy came over the first time."

Her phone rang in her pocket, making her stand, then pull it out and look at it. "Speaking of which," she added, before answering it. "Hi, Amy."

A brief conversation ensued, by the end of which she was smiling. Slipping the device back into her pocket, she said, "Amy and Vicky are coming over. They're thinking of going for a burger. I can be back by just after twelve if that's all right."

"Of course. Say hi to the girls for me." Her father checked the clock, then nodded. "That gives you about three hours. Would you like a lift into town?"

"That might be an idea," she said, thinking for a moment. "Vicky is carrying Amy, but I doubt she can easily do that to two people at once, and she doesn't know about me, so that's out as well. I'll ask them when they get here but we might well take you up on it."

"Just let me know, dear. But in the meantime, I have some work to finish, so I'll talk to you later, OK?"

"Sure, Dad," she smiled, leaving the study and going into the kitchen for a drink of water while she waited for the other two to arrive.

* * *

Brian looked at Alec, then paused the game they were playing, both of them turning to watch Lisa who was pacing back and forth in the kitchen area, muttering to herself with an evil smirk on her face.

"She makes me nervous when she does that," the smaller man said in a whisper, leaning toward Brian, who nodded slowly. He shared the feeling. For the last few weeks, the girl had been different, and in the previous week or so, happy in a weird sort of manner that made his skin crawl when he thought about it.

There was something disturbing about her grin when he caught her thinking and staring at her strange collection of pictures, notes, and scraps which she'd pinned to the wall of her room.

"Lisa?" he tried cautiously. She stopped, looking over at him, the grin widening.

"Yes, Brian?" she replied cheerily.

"Is there something wrong?" he asked, still carefully.

"No, of course there isn't," she smiled. "Why would you think that?"

"Because you're wandering around mumbling like a Bond villain, Tats," Alec replied. "With a really creepy look on your face. What's up with that?"

"Nothing," she assured them. "Just got a mission from the Boss. A nice easy one."

"Is that where you were this morning?" Brian asked curiously. She nodded, smiling.

The smile was less creepy now but still mildly disturbing.

"What's the job?" Alec asked.

"Knock over an ABB safe house and clean it out," she replied, making them exchange a glance.

"Um… Lisa, that doesn't sound like ' _a nice easy mission_.'" Brian said slowly. "More like ' _a good way to die_.' Lung isn't going to let that go. He's sort of… irritable?"

"He's a fucking lunatic, is what you mean," Alec noted, his normally ever-present smile slipping a bit. "Oni Lee is worse. I don't really want to get stabbed, shot, blown up, or roasted, if it's all the same to you."

Lisa waved a hand dismissively. "Oni Lee is on the other side of the city, according to the Boss. I think he's set up a diversion. Lung will be nowhere near the place. It's just a dozen mooks with AKs. We go in, take them out, grab everything that isn't nailed down, and get the hell out. By the time Lung hears about it we'll be long gone."

"And then he comes after us," Brian pointed out. "Because he holds a grudge like no-one else."

"He won't know it's us if we're careful," she smirked. "I have a cunning plan. And four disguises."

"Rachel's dogs are going to be a little distinctive," Alec commented.

"Which is why she stays out of sight. She's the getaway system and the emergency backup." Lisa sat on one of the stools next to the counter. "With any luck they won't be needed and no one will see her or them. Look, the Boss got these for us." She picked up a bag that was on the floor, opening it and removing a number of items. Both of them got up and went over.

"Plans of the storm drains under the building in question. Stun grenades, flashbangs, smoke grenades, and four gas masks." She held up each item in question as she spoke. "These are Tinker-tech sleep gas grenades. They'll knock out everyone in the building in under thirty seconds. We come up through the basement, gas the guards, crack the strong room, take everything, set off the smoke and flashbangs to cover our escape, and run. It should all be over in about five minutes."

"Why does he need us to do this, if it's so easy?" Alec asked, picking up one of the gas grenades and inspecting it curiously. "He could hire practically anyone for something like this."

"If it goes wrong, we'll need you, Brian, and Rachel. My job is to crack the security on the safe house storeroom. His information is that there's nearly two hundred thousand dollars in there, which we get to keep. There's also some paperwork which he wants." Lisa smiled at them. "You guys in? Fifty thousand each, or possibly more."

They exchanged a glance.

"That's a lot of money."

"True." Brian stared at the pile of equipment on the table.

"And if Tats is right, it should be pretty simple. Especially with all of this."

"Also true."

"And we're bored stiff, we haven't had a job in weeks."

"Extremely true." Brian sighed. "OK, I'm in."

Alec nodded. "Me too. What about Rachel?"

"I'm in," the rough voice of the girl in question said from the doorway. She gave them all a look. "I'm bored too."

"Great." Lisa smirked, rubbing her hands together, then unfolded the plans. "OK, let's go over it. I want to hit them about four this afternoon, that's when they're eating according to the info the Boss has."

She pulled out a notebook and began writing things in it, while they all gathered around the counter-top and the opened plans. "What's that?" Alec asked, pointing at a closed transparent plastic bag that seemed to have a used tissue in it. She glanced up, then at where his finger was pointing.

The evil grin came back, stronger than ever. "Just a tissue the Boss handed me. I had a stuffed up nose."

"And you kept it? Yuck."

"You never know, it might come in handy," she said, looking pleased as she went back to her notes. The other three exchanged glances, shrugged, and resumed going over the paperwork.

Lisa smirked at her little bagged sample.

One that Coil had given her personally, right from the box on his desk, with his own hand.

The weird little giggle she produced made all three of her friends give her a strange look but they said nothing. Soon they were discussing the best way to pull of the heist and her odd behavior was forgotten.


	65. Guest Omake - Wards and Wonderings

**By YuffieK on SpaceBattles**

Missy hated Sundays, partly because it meant the end of the weekend, but mostly because her parents insisted on attending church and pretending that everything was perfectly normal.

Normal, hah!

Three years after being woken up in the middle of the night by her parents screaming at each other, stumbling into the living room right as both of them shouted that they wanted a divorce, their little girl collapsing and getting powers should've brought them together.

Ironic that her powers didn't work well when people were around.

Come to think of it, a lot of people's powers seemed to be playing some sick little joke. Dennis and his father, Chris and his math issues. Dean always being his namesake even when Vicky treated him like dirt...

Sighing as she finished switching out her Sunday Best for her Super Best, she hoped one of the Protectorate had taken Sophia on patrol with them. Her being confined to base and console duty had only increased her bitchiness, but her obsession with Saurial and Raptaur was getting... weird. Like when she'd insist on watching the Discovery Channel during Shark Week.

Much to her relief, her newest teammate was at the console, idly looking over the protocol handbook.

"Dinah! They finally got you running the board?"

"Yeah. I told the guys down in the Think Tank I was getting bored out of my mind between giving the numbers for the day and staying cooped up in the dorms 'for my protection'. It's not like I'm going to be going on patrols much, so I told them I should at least start learning to be C&C for the team."

"And our resident recalcitrant roommate?"

"Someone's been reading a word-a-day calendar. Miss Militia took Stalker on patrol. I think she noticed how stir crazy Sophia was getting, and that wasn't going to end well for anybody anytime soon. What is her deal anyway?"

"Carlos told us about it. First of the year Sophia stuffed a girl into a locker full of shit. Bad enough that it might be considered attempted murder. I'm amazed Sophia didn't get thrown in juvie. I guess Piggot's just waiting long enough to ship her off to Alaska or something so nobody will notice." she said soberly. "They'll probably announce you as her replacement. Have they finalized your codename yet?"

"That PR guy, Glenn whatever, keeps pushing 'Oracle' and putting me in some kind of Greek toga thing for a costume. No way. I'm thinking... 'Assessor' or maybe 'Bookie'. I've even got the hat for it!" With that, Dinah pulled out a dark blue fedora and jauntily put it on her head.

Missy started giggling. "Oh God, you with a costume like you were a member of 'The Untouchables'. That's hilarious. Clock would be calling you 'Fedorable' on the spot."

Dinah began laughing as well. "There's a 98% chance I'll make you an offer you can't refuse." she managed to gasp out.

Missy wiped her eyes, then spoke in a raspy, conspiratorial tone. "But it's obvious you're not a member of ' **The Family** ' or are you wearing a mask to hide your secret scaly heritage?"

Dinah took a few moments to catch her breath. "Oh no, but I'm pretty sure Uncle Roy doesn't mind working with them. You saw the thing in today's paper?" handing over the article.

Missy read over it quickly, "Oh, wow. Piggy's gonna flip. Saurial and Raptaur have something to do with this?"

Dinah nodded. "Something Big I'd say." she said with a grin.


	66. Burgers and Acquaintance

Dennis looked up as the entry light for the wards common room illuminated, then checked who it was on the other side of the door via the screen on the inside of the room which was connected to a camera outside. "Miss Militia, everyone," he called. "Act normal."

"We _are_ normal, Dennis, you're the abnormal one," Chris called back without looking up from his hoverboard which was sitting on the table in front of him while he fiddled with its innards.

"Very abnormal," Missy put in, grinning over at him from where she was reading a magazine. "But to you that's normal, so..."

"Thanks, guys," he laughed, then as the timer ran out, whipped the door open and stepped to the side with a deep bow, waving one arm like a Maitre d' at a high end restaurant as the super-heroine on the other side looked at him. "Please enter, Oh Military-Themed superior. What can we humble Wards do for you this fine day?"

"Fine day?" Carlos looked out the window for a moment. "It's totally fogged up out there and cold as well."

"All right, this totally foggy and chilly day, then. The question isn't changed by the minor details of the current environmental conditions," Dennis replied, straightening up and turning to his friend. "We still haven't established what we can do for our beloved leader. Well, technically deputy leader. Stop confusing me."

"Confusing _you?_ " Missy giggled.

Miss Militia, who had been watching and listening to all this with a raised eyebrow, sighed behind her scarf. "You are definitely getting stranger, Clockblocker," she commented as she entered the room.

He grinned and bowed again, one leg back, performing a complex salute with both arms. "Milady is too kind."

"Idiot," Chris snickered, glancing over for a moment.

Dean came out of the kitchen and looked around, having apparently only caught the last of this. "Who's an idiot?" he asked, smiling a little.

"Who do you think?" Carlos sighed.

"Stupid question, really," Dean laughed, looking over at Dennis, who waved, grinning broadly.

Pleased with his own performance, the red-head turned back to Miss Militia who was now looking at him with weary patience. "Is this a casual visit or an official one? If it's official I'll have to go and change into my ' _Listening to superiors_ ' T shirt."

"He actually has one," Chris laughed, closing the open panel on the hoverboard and putting his tools down. "And a ' _Not listening to you_ ' one, a ' _Not listening to anyone_ ' one, and a 'S _hh, can you hear that_?' one."

"I am a man of many shirts," Dennis chuckled, following as Miss Militia walked over to the table and pulled out a chair. He dropped onto the sofa next to Missy who grinned at him for a moment, then put her magazine down and looked at the older woman.

"I wanted to ask you all if you'd noticed anything odd going on with Panacea recently at school, or outside it," Miss Militia asked when they were all watching her, undoing her scarf and dropping it away from her face. She rubbed her nose for a second. "Aside from the overall oddness of what's been put on PHO, of course."

"You mean aside from the new costume, her friendship with the two most dangerous capes in Brockton Bay, riding one of said capes like a weird hybrid of a horse and a gecko right up the side of the buildings, joining in on serious trolling of Assault, which by the way I loved, and her overall appearance of being much happier?" Dennis asked wryly. "No, not really. Those aside."

Miss Militia pinched the bridge of her nose and looked exasperated. "Does anyone _other_ than Dennis have any useful observations?" she asked. He opened his mouth, she raised a warning finger, and he closed it again, grinning to himself.

Dean and Carlos looked at each other, then at Chris. All three of them shrugged slightly. "She's definitely been happier the last few days, Dennis is right about that," Carlos said slowly. "No less snarky but there isn't nearly as much venom behind it. She's got an acid sense of humor at the best of times but she seems to be… I don't know, not quite as pissed off with the world as usual?"

"She's been spending more time with other people outside Vicky's friends and us as well," Chris noted. "Sitting at another table and meeting new people. She's definitely a lot happier. I'm pleased for her. I think meeting Taylor was a good thing for Amy."

Miss Militia looked at him. "Taylor?" she said with an odd tone in her voice.

"Taylor Hebert," he explained. "She's a new girl who transferred in from Winslow a few weeks ago. They met when Amy tripped in the cafeteria and fell over, she whacked her nose or something, and Taylor picked her up and took her to the nurse. They seem to have become good friends as a result."

"I think it was Taylor who suggested that Amy should cut back on all her volunteer work and take some time for herself," Dennis added. He smiled a little. "Which is something we're been trying to get her to do for a year now. I'm glad she finally listened to someone."

He was watching the older woman's face and wondering why the mention of Taylor's name had apparently startled her. While he played the fool, he wasn't one, and he was pretty good with expressions. She knew that name, and he wondered why.

The even more interesting thing was that Carlos obviously knew something more as well, based on the way he'd glanced at Miss Militia when she hid her reaction to Taylor's name.

And, for that matter, why was Dean looking pensive?

He was distracted from his musings when the woman said, "She's cut back on the hospital work?" There was an odd expression on her face.

"Yep. She said that they were actually pleased about it. Apparently some of the doctors and nurses there have suggested the same thing before but she always turned them down. Now she's going in every second day from Monday and has some other deal for weekends." He leaned back, watching her. "Personally I think it'll do her good. People need hobbies and that girl was the most single-minded person I've ever met other than Armsmaster. She was driving herself nuts."

"She does seem a lot happier," Dean admitted. "I've been worried myself, she was getting very… wound up, in a quiet and tired way." Everyone looked at him. "I can't express it better than that and it's kind of private anyway, but trust me that it wasn't good. She's definitely heading in the right direction now, though."

"Still has a tongue made of barbed wire," Chris chuckled.

"Oh, god, yes, if anything she's even snarkier now," Dennis laughed. "But in a healthier way. And Taylor can give as good as she gets, listening to those two get into it is hilarious."

"I see." Miss Militia thought for a moment. "Do you know how she met Raptaur? Or Saurial?"

"Saurial was because of that thing the other day with the gunfight on the street, Saurial stopped it and Amy was just in the area and healed all the people who got hurt," Chris said. "She said she'd been heading for a restaurant when it happened, started talking to Saurial, and ended up inviting her along so they could talk some more. I think Saurial introduced her to her sister. She hasn't said much about that. The whole ' _riding the scary cape lizard_ ' thing started when she wanted to get home and Raptaur literally gave her a lift." He grinned, looking mildly jealous. "It looks like good fun."

"If you get over the fact that she's literally sitting on top of the cape that took out Hookwolf and made it look like she was annoyed about how easy it was," Dennis snickered.

"Yes, true enough," his friend smiled.

"And the new costume?" Miss Militia asked. "Where did she get that?"

"Raptaur made it for her." Chris looked envious. "I really want to have a look at it but I haven't seen it yet."

The woman nodded, silently absorbing the information. Dennis looked around at his friends, who looked back. Missy lifted an eyebrow and shrugged a very small amount. "Why the questions?" he finally asked, turning back to Miss Militia, who looked up at him from where she'd been contemplating the tabletop.

"I was mainly curious," she said slowly, which he could easily tell was only a partial truth at best. "Whenever something changes in the cape world in Brockton Bay I like to learn about it. You never know when that information could be useful. Thank you all for answering my questions."

Dennis leaped to his feet and made another bow. "You are most welcome, Oh Beauteous One."

She gave him a severe look. "Stop that."

Snapping to attention he saluted stiffly. "As you command, _Ma'am,_ " he exclaimed in his best parade ground tones.

Sighing, while the others all laughed, she shook her head sadly. "You are impossible," she grumbled, although with good humor.

Relaxing he smirked. "So people tell me."

She got up, refastening her scarf across her face. "I'd like you all to keep an eye on the situation. If you see or hear anything that strikes you as concerning about Panacea, please tell me."

"Do you expect anything like that to happen?" Chris asked, sounding worried now. She shook her head as she turned to him.

"No, of course not, there's no need to worry," she said reassuringly. "I expect that as you all said, it's a good thing that Panacea is making friends now outside her original group. I've noticed myself that she's been quite withdrawn for some time. Most likely the strains of her abilities and the work she does. But just in case, keep an eye on her."

"She's a friend, we always look out for our friends," Dennis commented, watching her.

She smiled at him as far as the look in her eyes showed. "Good. In that case, I have work I need to be getting on with and I believe your patrol shifts start soon. I'm also waiting for your reports from the patrol yesterday, Dean, Dennis."

"I'm still writing mine up," Dennis said, half-truthfully. He was actually about to _start_ writing it up.

"Mine is nearly finished, I'll file it in about twenty minutes," Dean added. He frowned a little. "Do you know anything about the work the DWU is doing down on the docks and why they needed to clear out five or six warehouses?"

Miss Militia looked at him for a moment. "No, that's the first I've heard of it. What are you talking about?"

His friend quickly summarized the conversation they'd had with Glory Girl the day before, leaving out the personal stuff. She looked very thoughtful. "How… interesting. And Glory Girl was helping?"

"Yep, she seemed pleased to be allowed to break things and get thanked for it," Dennis smirked. "For once. She seems to like Raptaur and from what she said it's mutual."

"Raptaur was working for the DWU as well?"

"Apparently. I'm not sure how that happened, though," he replied. "From what she said The Family have their own company now to work through. Which is weird, but sort of cool as well."

The older cape stared at him. "What?" she asked, sounding very surprised.

"BBFO. Brockton Bay Family Operations, LLC," Dean interjected. Dennis nodded.

"I… see." Miss Militia looked at them both, then shook her head a little. "Unusual. I'll have to look into that. Thank you."

"Any time," Dennis smiled, sitting down again, while thinking about her reactions. He didn't let his smile slip although he noticed that Dean glanced at him with a small frown, though he said nothing.

"Make sure you get me those reports as soon as possible," she told them as she headed for the door. "Dennis, you've been late filing one three days in the last ten. Please try to avoid that."

"I'll do my best, Miss Militia," he replied with a good-natured grin. She nodded, checked the monitor for the corridor camera, then opened the door and left.

When it closed behind her, he looked around at the other Wards. "That was a little… weird… wasn't it? Or is that just me?"

"She did seem a little over-curious about Panacea," Chris noted, his right hand resting on his hoverboard, the fingers tapping out a slow rhythm. "I wonder why?"

"She's just worried that Raptaur or Saurial might get her into trouble, or something like that. Panacea's not a fighter," Missy suggested. "It's a little out of character for her to be charging around wearing that costume and riding a huge lizard."

"It's fucking cool, though," Dennis snickered, making her nod with a grin.

He watched as Carlos seemed to be thinking about something. Dean, when he checked, was also somewhat silent and thoughtful. After a moment, he decided that now wasn't the time, getting up and retrieving his laptop and opening the relevant form for filing a Ward Patrol report. Sighing slightly, he started typing.

* * *

"Thanks for the ride, Dad," Taylor smiled, leaning in the window of the car. Her father smiled back.

"You're welcome, Taylor. Call me when you want a ride home."

"OK," she said, straightening up and watching as he ran the window up, then drove off. She waved, as did Amy and Vicky, before they turned to look at each other. "Where do you guys want to go?" she asked.

"Good old Fugly's is the normal place," Vicky commented. "I'm not hungry enough for a real restaurant." They looked at Amy, who shrugged.

"I don't mind, I'm fine with anything."

"Fair enough. Grease in a bun with cheese, here we come," Taylor grinned, turning towards the other end of the Boardwalk from where they'd been dropped off. The trio started walking slowly along, watching the tourists, a few of whom were watching _them_ , as a result of recognizing Glory Girl. Most of them were polite about it, apparently also realizing that since she was wearing jeans, a nice shirt, and a stylish jacket over the top of it, she was off duty and wanted to be left alone.

A few still approached and asked for autographs or photos even so but they were all pretty polite and she obliged with a smile. "Do you ever get used to that?" Taylor asked after the sixth one in less than three hundred yards.

"Kind of," Vicky replied, glancing at her. "At first it was a bit odd, but it's mostly really cool. You might have noticed I'm a little extroverted." At her sister's snort of laughter she blushed slightly. "More than a little, then."

"Don't understate it, Sis, you love it and you know it. You've never turned anyone down who wanted a photo with you that I've ever heard about," Amy grinned. "Sometimes when you're in a really good mood you chase them to get into the shot."

Taylor giggled, shaking her head. She could actually picture that without too much trouble.

"Hey, that was only once and they were fine with it," Vicky huffed, making Taylor and Amy smirk at each other behind her back.

"I don't know if I could ever get used to people staring at me when I was just walking around minding my own business," Taylor commented, noting Amy peer sideways at her then roll her eyes, although Vicky didn't notice. "That would be weird."

"Oh, I'm sure that if anything like that ever happens to you, Taylor, you'll get on fine," the blonde laughed, putting her arms over both their shoulders, one on either side of her. "You seem like an adaptable person."

"I'm not sure," she replied doubtfully. "Having people look at me because I was… well, different? It would take a lot of getting used to." She brought her tail up and poked Vicky in the back of the neck with the tip of it, making the girl swat at her neck as if there was a fly there, and Amy nearly go purple trying not to giggle when she noticed. "I'm perfectly happy being normal and unremarkable. I'll leave the super-heroics to you and Amy." She gently prodded Vicky's left ear, making the girl slap herself, then look around irritably.

"Damn insects, even at this time of year," she muttered, annoyed. "Probably someone hasn't emptied their garbage and it's attracting flies."

Amy turned away and stared hard into a shop window, her shoulders twitching, while Taylor smiled politely. "I guess so. They should do something about that before rats turn up."

"Damn right," Vicky grumbled, before another tourist attracted her attention by pointing a camera at her. She smiled brightly as Taylor stepped back out of shot, joining the other Dallon sister off to the side. They exchanged a look of wordless hilarity for a moment, then put serious expressions on their faces when they rejoined Vicky, who finished signing a notebook the photographer handed her. She gave it back, smiled again, then they moved on.

Eventually finding themselves in the long-standing fixture of the Boardwalk, Fugly Bob's, they found a table and sat down, looking over the menu. Working out what they wanted, Vicky volunteered to get the order, hopping to her feet and heading to the counter. Amy and Taylor watched her go for a moment, then looked at each other.

"Normal and unremarkable," the remaining Dallon girl snickered, looking at her friend, who grinned back. "You are unbelievable."

"I believe so," Taylor replied, a contented smirk on her face.

Amy shook her head, matching it.

"Oh, look, there's an ugly face I haven't seen for a while, thank god," a loud voice said from off to the side. Recognizing the voice with irritation, Taylor sighed minutely, met Amy's confused eyes, then turned her head to see someone she'd hoped would never cross her path again.

"Hello, Madison," she said with a small smile. The petite girl was standing with a pair of bookends Taylor vaguely recognized as two of Emma's hangers-on. "Hold on, don't tell me, let me see if I can remember," she added, peering intently at them both. "Ahhh… Got it!" She snapped her fingers in triumph. " _You_ are Tweedle-dee and _you_ are Tweedle-dum, right?" Indicating each of the two girls, who were quite good looking in a somewhat vapid sense, she smiled, then frowned. "Or was it the other way around?"

"Oh, ha ha, Miss thinks she's so clever," Madison sneered.

"Is that your last name, Taylor?" Amy asked brightly. "I thought it was Hebert. Thinks-She's-So-Clever is a nice name. Is it Native American? I met someone once who was from a tribe out west somewhere, his was Flies-with-Eagles or something like that. You should go with your real name, Hebert is so… so boring."

"We changed it when my grandfather married," Taylor smiled, turning to her friend and ignoring the three girls who were now looking confused instead of superior. "I sort of like it, but it's hell to write on forms and assignments. Hebert is much quicker."

"I can understand that," Amy laughed. "I have to write my name a dozen times a day. With one that long I'd end up with a cramped wrist."

"It's one of the dangers, yes," Taylor agreed.

"HEY!" Both of them turned to Madison, who had gone slightly red. "Stop ignoring me!"

"Why?" Taylor cocked her head to the side, inspecting the much shorter girl. "What's in it for me?"

"What?" Madison was back to looking confused for a moment. "Shut up. You're always saying stupid things."

Taylor cocked her head the other way. "Really? I can hardly remember the last time I actually spoke to you. I'm not even sure who you are. Didn't you used to hang around with some very unpleasant and not very bright girls at Winslow?" She looked at Madison's two companions. "Not these ones, though, they look even stupider than the ones I recall you followed around like a faithful pet, now that I think about it."

Madison went bright red, while her two followers looked at each other for a moment, appearing unsure what to do. "You fucking know who I am, bitch," Madison growled, making Taylor grin to herself. She thought it sounded like a pekingese facing off against a rottweiler and yapping loudly to give itself courage. "You just said my name a minute ago."

"Did I?" Taylor leaned closer and studied the girl's face. "Oh! _Right_ , I remember now. _Madison!_ You sort of fade into the background if I don't concentrate. How _are_ you? How have you been?" She jumped to her feet and embraced the girl, who froze.

Releasing her she sat down again, smiling. Madison gaped, while Amy tried not to laugh, muffled squeaks of amusement coming from under the hand she had over her mouth. "It's been weeks. Still stuck in that hell-hole Winslow? Or did you get expelled? I've been enjoying myself a lot since _I_ escaped." She smiled with a lot of teeth, resisting the urge to make them very sharp with some difficulty. Even so, all three girls leaned back. "So _very_ much. But I don't think your two little friends have had the same luck. Not with Emma being in a mental hospital and Sophia having more or less disappeared, so I hear. Odd, really."

She studied the girl for a moment, then shook her head, turning to Amy. "Remember I told you about all that? Very weird girls, those three. Dedicated, I guess, to have put all that effort in. But not very smart."

"They did sound pretty stupid," Amy agreed mildly. "Vicious, like a rabid weasel or something, but not bright. Otherwise you'd never have been able to play them so perfectly."

"Most people would have been at least a little suspicious," Taylor nodded, picking up the menu and reading it. "Maybe I should get some onion rings as well. What do you think?"

To the side the third member of her tormentors was edging towards purple. Both the other girls with her were staring at Taylor with peculiar expressions.

"What the fuck do you think you're doing, Hebert," she finally squawked, outrage in her voice.

"Having a burger with some friends. What are you doing?" Taylor smiled at her again. "Madison, isn't it?"

" _Stop doing that!_ " Madison screamed in fury.

"Doing what?"

"Pretending you don't know who I am!"

"Am I doing that?" Taylor put a worried look on her face. "Sorry, Mary, I'm terrible with names."

" _MADISON, YOU BITCH!_ " The petite girl screamed in her face, looking furious.

" _She seems somewhat upset, Brain_ ," the Varga commented wryly, having been laughing for the last couple of minutes nearly constantly.

' _It looks like it's easy to push her buttons_ ,' Taylor agreed with a hidden smile.

"You do know some very loud people, Taylor," Amy sighed. She looked around, "Everyone in here is staring at us now."

"Could you keep the noise down, whoever you are?" Taylor asked calmly. "You're attracting attention."

"GAAHH!" Madison picked up a paper napkin dispenser that was on the next table along and threw it at her, making her move to the side slightly and allow it to fly past and land on the counter with a loud crash, spewing napkins all over the floor.

"OI!" The large man behind the counter vaulted over it and stormed over, glaring at Madison and her cronies, who now looked worried. "No throwing things in here! Out, all three of you."

"It was her fault," Madison screeched, pointing at Taylor, who waved a little at her, smiling. The counter-man glanced at her for a moment.

"No it wasn't, I saw it. She's just been sitting there, you threw that at her."

"I saw it too," Vicky said from behind Madison. "This girl seems to be a bit unbalanced."

"Who the _fuck_ do you think _you_..." Madison snapped, whirling to stare at the blonde, then trailing off abruptly. She clearly recognized the face of one of the most famous inhabitants of Brockton Bay, who smiled winningly at her.

"Shit, it's Glory Girl," Hanger-on number one said in a wondering voice.

"Excuse me, you're standing in the way," Vicky said, motioning with the tray she was holding. The three girls moved rapidly out of the way, then looked shocked when instead of going past, she slid into the booth that Taylor and her sister were sitting at, putting the tray on the table. "Here, Taylor, this is yours, and this is Amy's," she said, distributing the food.

"What… But..." Madison sputtered as she saw her former tormentee accept a burger from Glory Girl and unwrap it. Taylor took a bite, then smiled.

"Wonderful. I needed that."

All three of them looked up at the other trio of girls. "Oh, hey, it's Madison, isn't it?" she said cheerily. "Fancy meeting you here! How have you been?"

Her old nemesis just stared, her face blank. After a moment, the counter-man, who had been watching with a slightly puzzled yet amused look, put his hand on her shoulder. "Enough fun. You three are banned for a month. Push off." His faint English accent strengthened for a moment. "Come back before then and it'll be a permanent ban. I don't want troublemakers in here."

He gave Madison a gentle shove towards the door. Moving slowly in that direction appearing like she was trying to work out what was going on, she peered back over her shoulder a couple of times, then eventually left the place, her two companions trailing after her and talking together in low voices.

"No more trouble, yeah?" the man said, turning back to Taylor, who put an innocent look on her face. "Right, nothing to do with you, I get it." He grinned a little. "Just don't push your luck. Enjoy your food." He went back to the counter and resumed his place, going through the door at the end in a more traditional manner this time.

All three of them exchanged looks, then burst out laughing.

"God, that felt good," Taylor giggled. "She looked like she couldn't figure out what the hell was going on."

"What's the story there?" Vicky asked curiously. "You obviously have history with that little shit."

"You might put it that way," she replied, looking at Amy for a moment. The other brunette shrugged a little. "OK, but I don't want it going any further, all right?"

Vicky mimed a zipper over her lips. "Mouth sealed. Promise."

In a low voice, Taylor began a brief explanation of the Winslow days, finding it much easier now than it had been the last time with Amy. Vicky listened quietly, although her face showed she wasn't happy about it.

When she finished, the blonde girl was silent for a little while. Eventually, she shook her head in disgust. "Fuck, that's awful. How the hell did you come out of that sane, never mind the person you are?"

"A lot of luck, my father, and some good friends," Taylor said quietly. "It could have been a lot worse. But it's behind me now and little reminders like that aside, I'm not going to waste any time thinking about it."

She shrugged, finishing off her burger, then picking the menu up again and perusing it. "My life is completely different now, it's going really well, and I'm not going to let _anything_ wreck that. Oh, look, they do chicken wings now."

Vicky stared at her. After a moment or two she smiled. "You are weird, Taylor, but fun. And a lot stronger than I would have been under the same circumstances."

"Thanks." She stood, looking at the other two. "Wings?"

"OK," Amy laughed, while Vicky just grinned. Shortly she was standing at the counter waiting for her order, musing on how much better the little encounter had made her feel.

* * *

Parking her bike outside the Dallon house, Miss Militia looked at the other car in the driveway next to the one she recognized from the plate number as Carol Dallon's. It looked familiar. After a moment she remembered, it was Sarah Pelham's car. So both sisters were in the house. That could possibly be useful.

Walking up to the door she adjusted her scarf, then rang the bell. A minute or so later, the door opened, to reveal a rather bleary-eyed and not entirely well looking Carol, who stared at her blankly for a moment or two before recognition came into the bloodshot eyes. "Oh. Hello, Miss Militia."

"Hello, Brandish," Hannah replied, somewhat concerned. "Is everything OK? You don't look well."

"I'll be fine, thanks," the other woman sighed, rubbing the side of her head with the hand not holding the door. "I… got a little carried away with drinking last night. With Sarah. Come in." She stepped to the side, allowing the other cape entry.

When they were both inside, she closed the door, then led the way into the living room, a place Hannah had been a few times in the past. She entered and looked around, noting that it showed signs of what looked like a party, although it had mostly been cleaned up. Sarah Pelham was sitting on the sofa holding a steaming cup, also looking rather the worse for wear.

"Hi, Miss Militia," she said quietly, before taking a long drink of the contents of the cup, which seemed to be very strong coffee from the smell. "It's nice to see you again. What brings you here?"

"I was in the neighborhood and decided to stop by," Hannah fibbed. "But if this is a bad time I can leave."

"No, as long as you're here, stay. Would you like some coffee?"

"Please." She watched as Carol wandered off with a pained look on her face, disappearing into the kitchen. Looking around again, she turned back to the blonde sister, her eyebrows up. "Were you celebrating something?" she asked curiously.

Sarah half-smiled. "My sister's idiocy, to start with," she quipped, then winced. "It sort of snowballed from there."

Carol came back with two cups of coffee, handing one to the new arrival, then slumping into another chair with her own one. Miss Militia sat as well, trying the coffee, which was indeed extremely strong. She thought it was pretty good. "I… made a mistake with Amy yesterday morning," the Dallon woman put in, after drinking half her cup full, heedless of the heat. "It didn't go very well. Sarah came over to set me straight." She smiled faintly, shaking her head, then stopping abruptly with a wince. "Ow."

"Setting her straight involved a lot of shouting, then a lot of drinking." Sarah smiled ruefully. "I lost count at five bottles, but Vicky claimed it was actually eight. Which might have explained why I was apparently eating anchovy paste directly from the jar by the spoonful."

Hannah gagged a little. She liked the stuff, but not neat. "You must have been very drunk indeed," she smiled.

"We didn't drink _that_ much after Fleur's death," Sarah muttered into her coffee. "And we were a lot younger then. It's not surprising I can't remember most of last night. Although I do remember laughing a lot and talking about our Mom."

"I think I might have said that Amy could have a car," Carol suggested after frowning for a while. "Maybe. It's a little hazy."

"If your head is anything like mine, Sis, it's a _lot_ hazy," Sarah corrected. "And that's _after_ Amy fixed us up. She wasn't very impressed."

"Sounds like you had a night to remember," Hannah laughed, then stopped when both women gave her pained looks. "Sorry. Perhaps not."

"I don't think I'm going to drink at all for a long time," Carol sighed, drawing her legs up on the chair and putting her arms around them. "And I still owe Amy and Vicky an apology both."

"If you don't mind me asking, what started all this?" Hannah asked delicately.

The Dallon woman was silent for a few seconds. "I think I over-reacted," she finally sighed. "There are a lot of historical reasons for it, which I won't go into, but I haven't been treating Amy as well as perhaps I should have done for a long time. Then I found out about her and Saurial, which was weird, then after _that_ I found out about her and Raptaur. Which was weirder. How the hell she ended up apparently best friends with the pair of them I have no idea. But I got nosy, poked around in her room, and found that new costume she was given, then confronted her with it."

She sighed heavily, sipping the coffee more slowly. When she came up for air, she added, "It could have gone better."

"You searched her room behind her back, accused her of a number of unlikely things, and shouted at her, Sis," Sarah said with a shake of her head. "How did you _think_ it was going to go?"

"No idea now," her sister mumbled. "But it didn't improve her opinion of me."

"It didn't improve _my_ opinion of you either," Sarah grumped. "Or Vicky's. She was really pissed, she loves Amy and she thought you were completely out of order."

"I was, I guess."

"No teenaged girl likes having her room searched by her parents," Hannah noted. Both the other women shook their heads in agreement.

"I could probably have handled it more sensibly, in retrospect," Carol admitted.

"It would have been difficult to handle it _less_ sensibly, as far as I can see." Sarah looked annoyed now. "Hopefully both girls will accept an apology. They seemed cheerful enough this morning if rather annoyed at us both." She looked around the untidy room, and smiled a little. "Not without reason. We did get a little carried away."

"How many pizzas did we order?" Carol asked, looking like she was trying to remember.

"Um… Six, I think. In three orders. They wouldn't deliver to us after that, they said the driver was scared of us." Sarah snickered, looking amused. "Poor boy. You were coming on a little strong when he was late the second time."

"Don't remember that," her sister replied as she finished the coffee. "I do remember laughing, then being sick, then eating a lot more pizza, then laughing some more."

Hannah hid a smile. The mental picture this summoned up was completely at odds to the appearance of cold competence the woman normally projected. For some reason it made her more approachable.

"Amy does seem to have been enjoying herself the last few days," she noted. Sarah and Carol both nodded.

"She's a lot happier recently, that's true. Based on some of the videos I saw on PHO she's having a lot of fun. That's good, I guess," Carol replied. "Odd, but good. If only it was with someone else."

"Do you have any concerns about either Raptaur or Saurial?" Hannah was very curious to know what they said. Both women exchanged glances.

"I… don't know," Carol finally replied. "Not for sure. Saurial is terrifying, but cheerful and friendly. Raptaur is a lot more terrifying even just looking at her, but from what I've seen of her so far seems to have a sense of humor, if a somewhat odd one, and genuinely likes Amy. I suppose that if she has to be out dashing about the place, she's at least safe with either of them. But there's still something about those two that I find… inexplicable."

"Join the queue," Hannah muttered, then looked embarrassed as they stared at her. "Sorry. It's just that there are some… unanswered questions, I suppose… surrounding Saurial, Raptaur, their origins, and their relationships. It's a little confusing."

"Glad I'm not the only one who thinks that," Carol smiled, looking darkly amused.

"If nothing else the girl is a lot more relaxed at the moment, Sis, which can't be a bad thing. Let her have her fun. She's nearly eighteen, and up till a week ago had barely any friends that weren't people Vicky hung out with," Sarah remarked. "It will do her good to get out on her own and meet new people."

"I suppose," the Dallon woman said slightly dubiously. "But I have to admit that I've seen her smile more in the last four days than in the previous three months."

They talked for another half hour, Hannah asking questions now and then in as innocuous a manner as she could about both Amy and Vicky Dallon, coming away with the idea that both of them were friends of the reptilian capes, much more so in the former case for whatever reason, and mainly of Raptaur's in the latter case. Neither woman had heard of BBFO or anything happening at the DWU facility, which if they'd actually been drinking themselves into unconsciousness wasn't particularly surprising.

Finally, having decided that she wasn't going to get anything more from them without asking questions she didn't want to, she made her goodbyes and left.

Cruising back to the ferry to the Rig, she pondered the situation. Amy Dallon's home life had never been wildly good as far as she knew, but it seemed to have changed, probably for the better, and rather suddenly over the last week or two. What that actually meant and what conclusions could be drawn from it she wasn't yet certain. It might actually be nothing at all.

A happier Panacea was surely a good thing even if nothing else came out of this.

Putting that part of the current peculiarities of life in Brockton Bay to the back of her mind, she headed for the Docks to have a look at what was going on, her headlight on and helping with the fog, which was making the entire city look like something out of a horror film. The muted rumble of her bike dissipated into the mist as she rode, wondering what was actually going on with the Dock refurbishment, and what the Mayor's involvement in it was.


	67. Muggers and Raids

"See you guys later," Vicky said as she hovered a foot off the ground. "I'm going to go see if Mom and Aunt Sarah have recovered yet, then get ready for my date with Dean tonight."

Amy looked at her watch. "That's in six hours, Vicky. How long does it _take?_ "

"If you ever went on dates you'd know, Sis," Vicky grinned. "Bye Taylor. Say hi to your dad for me and thank him for the lift here."

"Sure, Vicky. See you next time."

They watched the blonde girl lift off, disappearing into the fog overhead. A few seconds later there was a cry of "Damn it, I can't see a thing," followed by a thud from down the street.

When Vicky dropped down to only about thirty feet up she glared at her sister and their friend who were nearly rolling around on the ground in fits of laughter, shook her head, and flew away at low altitude. "Idiots," Taylor heard her grumble.

"Your sister is pretty funny sometimes," Taylor snickered.

"Often when she doesn't mean to be," Amy grinned. They started walking towards the place that Taylor's father was going to pick them up in ten minutes.

Under a minute later, Taylor stopped dead, looking at the alleyway they'd just passed, then sighed. She could hear what was undoubtedly a mugging in process. "Oh, for heaven's sake," she muttered. "Can't these idiots take a day off?"

Looking around she could see that aside from Amy, who was looking curiously at her, there were few people visible, the fog making both ends of the Boardwalk vanish into white blankness, only a few streetlights shining through it, on even though it was the middle of the day.

"What is it?" Amy asked.

"Mugging. Hang on, I need to deal with this." The sound of someone demanding money with menaces, and a girl whimpering, annoyed her. She headed back to the alley, checking with all her senses as soon as she was inside the entrance then shifting to Saurial. Hearing a sharp click from behind her, she looked over her shoulder to see Amy holding her baton, fully extended, with a grim look on her face. She smiled a little.

"Fair enough. You need to learn sooner or later."

"Teach me, Oh scaly one," Amy smiled darkly, following her into the dimly lit and narrow alley.

Fifty feet further down they found a tallish but bedraggled appearing man in his late twenties poking through a handbag, while the owner of the bag in question lay on the ground slumped against the wall. Taylor stared, then growled. She recognized that bag from school.

"Isn't that Lucy's bag?" Amy asked in a low voice. She nodded.

"I'll block him, you hit him," she hissed back, then scuttled up the wall, over the mugger's head ten feet up, and down behind him, to land on the ground facing him. "Enjoying yourself?" she asked sarcastically, making the man yell in shock and whirl to face her, clearly not having had any idea she was there. When he laid eyes on her in the dimness, she watched with satisfaction as his face went sheet-white.

"Oh, fuck me," he moaned. "Saurial."

"Finally, someone recognizes me," she grinned, with a lot of teeth showing. "Normally they say something like, ' _Jesus!'_ "

She leaned closer, showing more teeth in a snarl. "You are a very bad man."

"Here," he said, throwing Lucy's bag at her and turning to run. Amy's baton caught him right in the head, very hard. "Jesus!" he screamed.

" _There_ it is," she smirked. Amy watched him, her baton raised over her shoulder, as he grabbed his injury and bent over in agony.

"He didn't fall down," the healer noted clinically. "I must have missed the right spot."

"Try again," Taylor suggested.

"OK." The brunette whipped the tip of the unbreakable baton out again, catching him just under the ear on the other side as he raised a hand to protect the point she'd hit him before. There was a thump and he collapsed to his knees. "Aha! That's it. One more for luck?"

"Worth a try."

" _ **No!**_ For fuck's sake, stop hitting me!"

"Why?" Amy looked at Lucy, who was out cold, clearly having been half-strangled based on the bruises that were already visible on her neck. "You hurt a friend of mine."

The mugger cowered in front of her. "I didn't mean to," he shouted.

"Balls," she growled, then kicked him in his. He went even paler than he had been, froze, and slowly toppled over onto his side, curled around his pain. Taylor watched with approval.

"Nice shot," she complimented her friend. "if I did that my claws would take them off." The mugger curled up tighter, moaning. "Want to see?"

He passed out.

They exchanged a glance and grinned. Snapping her baton shut Amy put it back into her pocket and moved to kneel next to their school friend, who was making pained noises as she regained consciousness. "Hold still, Lucy, it's Amy. Let me fix this."

"A- Amy?" the girl mumbled, half-conscious. She coughed. "I can't breathe properly."

With her hand on the other girl's neck, Amy scowled. "I'm not surprised, he bruised your larynx pretty badly. Hold on." Moments later as Taylor watched the bruising faded. A few seconds after that Lucy opened her eyes, blinking furiously, then focused on Amy, who smiled at her.

"Shit, it is you," she muttered, sitting up. Amy helped her. "Where's..." She trailed off when she spotted the mugger lying on the ground a few feet away. " _Fucker!_ " she yelled, rolling to her feet and delivering a vicious kick to his side. "Bastard grabbed me from behind and pulled me in here, then strangled me."

"Don't worry, he's not going anywhere," Taylor said calmly. Lucy turned to look at her, then stared in shock, her eyes going wide.

"Oh, my god!" she squealed. "Saurial!"

"Yep," Taylor grinned. She held out her hand, which Lucy grabbed. "Nice to meet you."

"I'm Lucy Yeung," the girl exclaimed happily. "I've wanted to meet you for weeks. I love your work."

"Thanks," Taylor laughed.

"And thank you for dealing with this shit," Lucy added, idly kicking the mugger again.

"It wasn't me, Amy took him down," she said with a smile. Lucy stared, then turned to Amy, who shrugged.

"I needed practice and I don't like people hurting my friends."

"Thanks, Amy," Lucy said, walking over and giving her a quick hug. "But aren't you a healer? Wrecking a mugger must be against some sort of oath or something."

Amy grinned. "That's doctors. I never took a Hippocratic Oath or anything like that." She looked down at her first victim, who was groaning as he regained consciousness. "So I'm free to give him a good kicking if I want."

"Probably best not to now that he's down," Taylor smiled. "Let's make sure our brave young man here doesn't try to get away." She bent over him and bound his arms and legs with manacles. "He's not going anywhere. Amy, want to make sure he's not permanently damaged?"

Her friend rubbed her chin as she looked down at the man, then finally sighed. "Oh, all right." Bending over him herself she put a hand on his face. "He'll be fine," she reported. "But he's going to have some nasty bruises." She thought for a moment, then sighed and repaired most of the damage. "Probably best not to let people know Panacea beat up a mugger. Mom would go mental."

Laughing, Taylor watched, then grabbed the man and stood him up, staring down at him from the eight inch difference in height. She bared her teeth, watching him pale more than a little. "OK, you. We're going to find a cop and you're going to admit to everything, all right? Or I'll find you and make what my friend here did to you look like a little love bite." Leaning closer she licked her lips with a forked tongue. He stared in horror, then closed his eyes. " _My_ bites are neither lovely nor little. Got me?"

"Yes," he whispered.

"Great. Come on, guys, let's unload this idiot on some cop." She smiled, picking him up and flipping him over her shoulder, then heading for the alley entrance, Amy beside her. Lucy stared then followed. "Oh, right, this is yours," Taylor commented over her shoulder, handing her friend her handbag. "Make sure everything is in it."

"Thanks, Saurial," the girl said happily, going through the bag. "Yep, everything's here."

"Good."

On the street they walked along for a minute or so until they reached the main shopping area, spotting a police car sitting beside the road with a pair of cops in it watching for trouble. She trotted over, tapping on the window when she got there. The one in the passenger seat rolled his window down and peered out.

"Oh, hello, Saurial," he said, looking at her burden. "Got something for us?"

"I have," she smiled. "Found this guy mugging Miss Yeung here. Panacea was with me and says that he nearly strangled her. She's fine now but I'd be grateful if you could take him away and talk to him for a while." She unloaded the man onto the sidewalk. He simply sat there staring up at her, as she grinned at him, tail tip twitching back and forth. "You could point out that if I see him again I may be annoyed."

"I'll make certain to do so," the police officer smirked, looking at the guy, before getting out of the car. His partner did the same, between them quickly searching the man, bagging everything they found, then taking a brief statement from Lucy, who was watching with enjoyment. Finishing up, they nodded to Taylor and the other two. "Thank you, Saurial."

"You're entirely welcome, Officer," she smiled. Stepping back she watched as the car drove off, then turned to Lucy, who seemed impressed. "I'm glad I could help a friend of Amy's."

"Thank you both so much," Lucy replied with a broad grin. "I'm really stoked I got to meet you. I've wanted to ever since you first hit the streets."

"A fan. I like it," Taylor laughed.

"I'd love to meet your sister as well," Lucy giggled.

"We'll have to see what can be arranged," she replied.

"Can I get a photo of us, please?" the Chinese girl asked. "My friends will never believe me."

"Sure." Lucy handed Amy her phone, then she and Taylor stood next to each other, Taylor's tail curled around Lucy's feet, while the Dallon girl took a few photos. Handing the phone back, she smiled as the girl looked through the pictures and giggled.

"Fantastic. Thanks, this is great."

"We have to be going, but it was nice meeting you even under the circumstances, Lucy," Taylor said, amused at the ridiculousness of the situation. Lucy smiled back, hugged her briefly, then headed off down the street towards the bus stop. They watched until she disappeared into the mist, then turned to each other, smiling.

"That was sort of fun," Amy laughed.

"Not for him," Taylor pointed out.

"Bastard deserved it," her friend growled.

"No argument from me." Checking the time on her phone, Taylor looked around, then headed for the nearest suitable place to change back, Amy beside her.

* * *

Walking into the Dallon house, Vicky looked in the living room as she passed, then stopped and retraced her steps. She inspected her mother and aunt, who were both lying back in their seats in almost identical poses, with their arms over their eyes.

"Hi, you two," she called in a loud cheerful voice.

Both women winced, then uncovered their eyes and glared at her. Unrepentant, she grinned at them.

"Still a little fragile, then?"

"Just a touch, yes, thank you Vicky," her mother groaned, massaging her temples. "There's a limit to how many painkillers and cups of coffee I can take before the cure is worse than the disease."

"Is Amy with you?" Sarah asked hopefully.

The blonde girl shook her head. "Nope. She's with Taylor, I left them at the Boardwalk. They were going off to do something or other, I don't know what."

"At least she's not riding a nightmare around the place," Carol mumbled. "So that's something. Did I really say she could have a car?"

"Yep." Vicky grinned even more widely. "I'm amazed you remember that. I've never seen _anyone_ as drunk as you were who was even _that_ conscious."

"It won't happen again, trust me," her mother replied with a pained look.

"The drunkenness or the consciousness?" Vicky smirked. Her mother fixed her with a glare that had little impact, although the bloodshot eyes added a certain intimidatory value.

" _Thank_ you, Victoria. Was there anything you needed?" Carol Dallon grated.

"No, just making conversation," Vicky smiled. "I'm going to have a bath and relax for a while. For some reason I didn't sleep too well last night. Too much noise from the neighbors downstairs. They were having a hell of a party."

"Go away, Vicky," her mother said with tired resignation.

"We're not going to stop hearing about this for some time, are we?" Sarah sighed.

"No," Vicky giggled. "I've got dozens of good ones. And wait until _Amy_ gets home, you know what _she's_ like."

"Oh, god," both sisters sighed in unison, looking at each other hopelessly. Laughing to herself the girl headed upstairs, a smile on her face.

* * *

"Ow."

"Duck."

"I did."

"Duck more, then."

"I _did._ "

"Clearly not, or you wouldn't have said ' _Ow_ '."

Rubbing the side of his head, Alec glared at Lisa, who smirked back at him over her shoulder.

"Thanks very much."

"You're welcome."

"It stinks down here."

Everyone looked back at Rachel, who glared at them. Three dogs milled around her feet, apparently not sharing her dislike. "I thought this was a storm drain not a sewer."

"Around here they're almost the same thing," Brian responded. He wrinkled his nose. "Although you're right, it smells fucking awful. What died?"

"That," Lisa said, pointing to the somewhat fluid remains on the floor a few feet away with her flashlight. "A raccoon. Once."

"Urgh." Alec covered his mouth and nose and hurried past.

" _OW!_ "

Everyone else sighed, staring at him as he grabbed his head with his hands and swore under his breath.

"Do you _have_ to find every fucking pipe sticking out of the walls with your head you idiot?" Rachel growled.

"It's a gift," he responded in a pained voice, rubbing the lump on his head. "Damn, that really hurt."

"I told you to duck," Lisa sighed, waving her light around, then using it to check the plans she had folded up under her arm. "OK," she muttered. "That one over _there_ leads to the bay. We don't want that unless we want to go swimming. This one over here goes back towards the Boardwalk, so it's the one on the left there."

"The one half full of muddy water as opposed to the other two, bone dry, ones, you mean?" Brian sighed. She nodded, smiling at him.

"Of course. Why would you expect anything different?"

Grumbling to himself under his breath the tall young man shifted the loaded backpack he was wearing, as they all were. "I really hope there's as much money in there as you say there is," he said as they resumed walking, splashing as quietly as they could through the fetid water underfoot, releasing a smell of decaying organic matter and salty marshes. "I'd hate to go to all this trouble and come away empty-handed."

"It'll be there," she reassured him. ' _I hope_ ,' she thought. ' _Or I'll never hear the end of it_.'

The black overalls they were all wearing over their costumes, or normal clothes in Rachel's case, were getting pretty rank after the last mile and a half slog through the drains, but they were only a couple of hundred yards from the destination now. She stopped again, checking the map as they reached another fork in the tunnel, then indicated the right hand path. "That way. We're close, so keep the noise down in case someone is in the cellar," she whispered, resuming walking.

A few minutes later they arrived at a point where the eight foot diameter tunnel had an access tunnel to the surface, rusted steel hoops sunk into the stonework forming a ladder that led up twenty feet to a manhole cover at the end of a vertical pipe. Checking the symbols on an ancient sign bolted to the side of the tunnel against her plans, she smiled. "This is it," she whispered, looking up the access tunnel while pointing her light up it. Three other heads crowded in to peer up as well. "That cover opens into the cellar of the old warehouse they're using as a safe house. Hopefully no one is in there, but if we crack it open a little, toss a few gas grenades through, then close it and wait, they should all be out for at least half an hour within under a minute."

"Is the stuff lighter than air?" Brian asked in a very quiet voice. "Otherwise it will just pool in the cellar and not do anything useful."

"It is, it will rise slowly up through the building. It's one of the really old wooden ones which is full of holes so it won't take long. Even so we should probably pop a couple on each floor to make sure."

"The safe is on the next floor up, right?"

"Yes, in the middle of the building. The plans show it was an old cold storage room years ago, it's got massively thick walls, floor, and ceiling. My information is that they somehow got a big safe into it. I'll have to crack the door to the room, which has an electronic lock, then the safe. That should take… maybe two minutes. We grab everything, then get the hell out."

"This stuff isn't lethal is it?" Alec asked, a worried look on his face as he looked at one of the gas grenades hanging from his tactical vest, which they were all wearing on top of the overalls.

She shook her head. "No, I checked. It's almost impossible to overdose on it, they'd need to be breathing it for hours to have any real danger. It will leak out of the building in under half an hour. It's not flammable either so there's no risk with the flashbangs blowing anything up."

"OK."

Brian looked up, then tested one of the rungs by heaving on it as hard as he could. It held although there was a faint creaking sound. "Looks all right. How many should I use?"

"We've got four each, so… Use all of yours, that should be more than enough, then we can each give you one. That'll leave three each."

"Right." He looked up once more, checked the grenades were easily accessible, and started climbing.

"Brian?"

A few feet off the floor he looked down at her voice, seeing that she was holding up her gas mask.

"Shit. Good point," he sighed, descending then pulling his own mask out and fitting it carefully, tightening the straps and testing the seal against his face. "Thanks."

"I don't want you gassing yourself and falling on me," she grinned, before fitting her own. All four of them were wearing domino masks like her normal one, the other three having stashed away their normal headgear in their backpacks. Brian's modified motorcycle helmet made a noticeable bulge in his.

"Nice to know where your priorities lie," he chuckled, restarting his climb.

When he reached the top they could see him pull a stethoscope from his pocket and put it on, gently pressing the end against the manhole cover. None of them made any sound for a minute or so. "Clear, I think," the whisper came back down to them. "Lights out."

All four flashlights went out. Rachel poked one of her dogs which whined a little, whispering something to it, the animal falling quiet. A faint sound of metal on metal followed, along with a small amount of light illuminating the upper end of the pipe as Brian pushed up on one edge, slipping his tactical flashlight into the gap to hold it open, and peering out. Apparently satisfied, Lisa could see him remove four cylindrical items from his vest one after another, then flip the grenades into the cellar through the gap. As soon as the last one went in, he carefully pulled his flashlight out and slowly lowered the manhole back into place, grunting a little with the effort.

Just before the lid closed they heard a faint pop, as the first grenade went off.

As soon as the manhole was back in place he descended to the tunnel, pulling his sleeve up to look at his watch. "How long?" he asked.

"Give it two minutes to be safe," she replied. "As soon as we find the strong room, you two go and gas the rest of the building, make sure everyone is out. I'll crack the room and the safe, then you come back and help with the loot. Rachel, if we need you, we'll call on the radio. Fifty yards back on the left is a storm drain inlet which is big enough for the dogs to get through back to the surface, but you'll have to smash through an old brick wall to get out at the other end." She pointed back the way they'd come.

Their team-mate looked back in that direction, then nodded. "I saw it. I'll be waiting." All three dogs slowly began to swell in size next to her, sprouting bone plates and horns. "Hurry up."

"When we've got the loot, we come back down here, and head in the other direction as fast as possible," Lisa added, waving down the tunnel. "That takes us into the Docks to the other side of the DWU compound. It's the fastest way out. If for any reason it all goes to crap, we flashbang the fuckers to hell and run like shit. Meet back at the loft if we get separated. Use the concussion and smoke grenades to cover your path, try not to let on who we are, or we'll have Lung looking for us." She looked meaningfully at Brian. "Don't use your power if you can avoid it, it's too recognizable."

He nodded. "I understand." Checking his watch, he said, "That's two minutes."

"OK. Let's go." She handed him a gas grenade, as did Rachel and Alec, Brian attaching them in place of the ones he'd used, then checking his mask again to be on the safe side. "Radio silence until we're sure we got them all."

The young man ascended the ladder again, having checked his radio, which was clipped to his vest, was on, then lifted the manhole once more. Lisa followed him up having performed the same checks, as did Alec behind her. "All clear," he whispered, slithering through the opening. She did the same, then Alec came in behind, all of them standing up and looking around.

A faint haze hung in the air making the low powered light bulb near the stairs in one corner look slightly indistinct. Looking back down the hole in the floor Lisa waved to Rachel who was peering up after them, the dogs around her nearly half-way to full size. The three Undersiders listened carefully. No sound other than water dripping somewhere in the distance came to them, so they headed for the stairs, Brian going first.

Easing the unlocked door open having listened with his ear pressed to it, he looked both ways. "No one around," he told them quietly. They followed him through it. Lisa pulled another gas grenade from her vest leaving the safety pin behind and flipped it down the corridor to the right, Alec following suit in the other direction. Both grenades popped quietly and hissed, emitting clouds of pale blue gas. They waited for it to dissipate then moved off to search for the strong room, following the floor plan she had acquired.

"It'll be that way," she said after looking around for a moment, her power prodding her. The plans didn't exactly match the building around them, presumably due to the ABB making changes for their own requirements. She could see that several of the doors had been reinforced. Checking rooms as they went, they had located six unconscious gang members by the time they found a massive steel door with an electronic lock mounted on it. "Aha." Cracking her knuckles she grinned. "This is mine. You two go and gas the rest of the place, then get back here."

"OK, see you in a minute," Brian replied, nodding to Alec, who accompanied him back towards the stairs. She heard a grenade pop a few seconds later somewhere above her, as she studied the lock carefully, letting her power loose on it.

 _Eight digit code_

Three tries, then locks for twenty four hours and sets off alarm

Anti-tamper circuit immediately locks and sets off alarm if triggered

Alarm linked to explosive charge in floor

Her eyes widened and she slowly looked down, then around her feet, seeing how the concrete there was much newer than the rest of it in a rough circle about six feet across.

She swallowed.

"No pressure," the blonde whispered to herself, inspecting the lock again.

After a few tense seconds, she reached out and carefully tapped in a code. There was a beep and a red light blinked half a dozen times.

"Fuck."

Sweating a little, she reached out again, then hesitated, her power going into overdrive as she thought hard. Her hand lowered for a moment, then came back up. Another, very similar code was tapped in.

This time the beep was higher pitched and a green light illuminated, along with the door emitting a loud ' _whirr-clunk_ ' sound as some mechanism retracted a bolt from the frame. Smiling, she grabbed the handle and leaned back, pulling the thick door open. On the other side was a ten foot cubed room with a safe nearly filling it. Reaching for the light switch beside the door in the usual location, she stopped abruptly as her power screamed at her, freezing in place.

 _Light switch is trap. Will detonate explosives._

Real switch above door.

' _Christ, that was close_ ,' she thought, staring at her finger which was under two inches from the switch. Pulling it back and aiming her flashlight up she peered at the top of the door frame. Sure enough there was another switch up there, with a cable coming from it and running to the pair of fluorescent fittings mounted above the safe.

Slightly hesitantly she reached up and operated the switch, smiling and relaxing when it merely clicked and the lights came on.

The safe itself was a high security one such as you'd find in a diamond merchant or something of that nature, where fairly large amounts of valuables were going to be stored. It was nearly seven feet high and according to her power weighed over six tons. Briefly wondering how the hell they'd got it in here, and for that matter where they'd actually got it from in the first place, she shook her head and concentrated.

This time there were no booby-traps. It took her under sixty seconds to operate both locks and turn the operating handle, pulling the door open wide. She stared at what was revealed with wide eyes.

"Fuck me," a voice came from behind her, making her look back to see Alec and Brian also staring in shock.

"That's a hell of a lot more than two hundred grand," Brian mumbled, as they inspected the dozens of bricks of fifty and hundred dollar bills wrapped in plastic.

"There's at least three quarters of a million dollars here," she said in glee. "Holy shit. Talk about jackpot!"

"Lung is going to go completely insane when he finds out," Alec pointed out nervously.

"But he won't know who took it, so we should be fine." She grinned at them through her gas-mask. "Come on, help me with this. It should just fit in the packs."

Shrugging her pack off, she unzipped it, then began shoveling cash into it as fast as possible. Brian took that one from her when it was full and handed her his larger one, which she also filled, then repeated the process with Alec's. In the end all but half a dozen bricks fitted.

Lisa looked at them, then the packs, then shrugged. "No need to be greedy."

She smirked as the two boys glanced at each other. Poking around in the safe, she located a large envelope, which she opened, checking the contents. "OK, this is what the Boss wanted."

"What is it?" Brian asked as she unzipped her overalls and slipped the folder inside, zipping it up again.

"It looks like some documents about a couple of construction companies," she said as she picked up her much heavier backpack and put it on, Brian helping with it. "He claimed that someone stole them from him and Lung ended up with them."

"What does our mysterious employer want with construction company documents?"

"No idea," she shrugged, privately intending to read the contents of the envelope very carefully before passing them on to Coil. "Come on, we need to get out of here. Did you have any problems?"

"No, just about thirteen or fourteen ABB taking a nap," Alec laughed. "This was easy, you're right."

"Don't say that until we get out of here in one piece," Brian hissed, looking around nervously.

Slapping his companion on the shoulder, Alec chuckled, then they began to retrace their steps. "We're on the way back," Brian called over the radio on his vest.

" _OK. Nothing going on down here. But it still stinks._ "

The three young people smiled at their colleague's aggrieved tone of voice as they headed towards the exit.

Back in the cellar they looked down the manhole, seeing Rachel staring back at them. "Did you get it?" she called in a hoarse whisper.

"Fucking _hell_ did we," Alec laughed. "Here, catch." He took his heavy backpack off and carefully tossed it down to the stocky girl, who easily caught it, hefting it with an expression of surprise.

"What's in here, bricks?" she called up.

"Kind of," he chuckled.

Puzzled, she put it down, then caught the next one, and finally Brian's one, which made her grunt with the effort. They started descending the ladder, Brian going down first.

He was half-way down when there was the sound of a door opening somewhere above them. Lisa and Alec froze, staring at each other, while Brian stopped his climb.

Nothing else happened for about ten seconds.

Then there was a thump, as of a body hitting the floor.

"Oh, shit, someone came into the building," Lisa whispered as she stared at the ceiling. "The gas got them."

"How long will it stick around for?" Alec whispered back.

"Ten, twelve minutes, maybe?" She was uncertain, the old warehouse had even more gaps in the walls than she'd expected.

"Maybe it was a guard outside and that's the only one?" Alec sounded hopeful.

Footsteps followed by another thump answered him.

"Only two?"

There was a shout from above, then a whole series of feet thundering on the floor. "Oh, crap, it sounds like an army," he yelped. Looking down at Brian who was staring up at them, he added, "Go, quick!" Brian nodded and quickly resumed climbing down, Alec getting onto the ladder and doing likewise, Lisa following him as soon as it was clear. Several more thuds from above showed that the gas was still active but there were also a lot of shouts coming as people went further into the building.

Just as they reached the bottom, there was a phenomenal scream of rage. All four of them froze, exchanging appalled glances. "Oh, son of a bitch," Brian muttered. "That was Lung!"

"What the fuck is _he_ doing here, Tats?" Alec demanded as they put their backpacks on as quickly as they could.

"No fucking idea, he's supposed to be somewhere else right now," she snapped. "Don't waste time talking, and don't use any names. He might hear us, he's got very good senses."

"We left the manhole open, they'll know where we went," Brian pointed out.

"No choice. No time." She looked around frantically. "That way, towards the Docks. If we go above ground they'll find us instantly. Hurry." All four of them climbed onto the dogs, Rachel on the lead one, Alec and Brian on the next, and Lisa on the one at the tail end of the little convoy. Ducking low onto the mutated animal's backs to avoid the roof of the tunnel they hung on as the dogs raced away from the safe house, which was becoming a very unsafe house very quickly. Lung's roar of rage had quickly faded, but there were all sorts of sounds making it clear that a fairly large number of extremely angry ABB members were charging around the place looking for the thieves. It was only a matter of time until…

Another howl of anger, triumphant this time, came down the tunnel to them.

" _ **I'm going to kill you little shits!**_ "

"Uh Oh." Lisa looked back seeing faint light behind them. Lung had found the tunnel. Shots echoed around the place, painfully loud in the enclosed storm drain even at that distance, and in the ringing silence that followed she could hear bullets bouncing around.

"Faster," she yelled, holding on for dear life. Behind her, the light grew brighter.

And it was getting warm...


	68. Lung and Raptaur

"Drop us off here, Dad, and we'll go in on foot." Taylor looked at her father, who looked back, then slowed. The DWU facility was around the next corner.

"Why?" he asked curiously as he pulled over.

"I'm going as Saurial and it would look odd if Taylor and Amy arrived with you, while Saurial and Amy were seen around the BBFO office, wouldn't it?" she asked, shrugging.

"True enough," he grinned. "I'll see you in a little while."

"OK." Both she and Amy got out of the car, closing the doors, then watching as he pulled away. Amy shivered a little, pulling her coat around herself.

"It's horrible at the moment," she complained. "I hate this cold damp, it's worse than proper winter." Looking up at the very close sky, she frowned. "I hope this is going to clear soon."

"The forecast is that it'll probably only last until tomorrow sometime," Taylor said as she headed towards a nearby alley between some of the old warehouses, checking carefully for witnesses. She could smell some homeless people somewhere fairly close but couldn't see any nearby heat sources. When she found a suitable spot she changed into her Saurial form without stopping, Amy walking next to her. They came out the other end of the alley and turned right towards the bay. "It's worse because we're so near the water," she carried on, waving towards the shore, which was invisible in the mist.

They could hear the sounds of construction machines working in the distance, rumbles and crashes echoing around the whole area.

"Well, I don't like it," Amy grumbled. "I'm cold."

"Here," Taylor smiled, handing her a thicker coat which came down to her knees. "Try this."

Her friend accepted the trenchcoat-like garment, holding it up and admiring it, then slipping it on over her other clothes. Zipping it up she smiled. "Good fit. Thanks. Where did you get the pattern?"

"I saw one like it in that shop half-way down the Boardwalk today," Taylor replied. "It looked pretty nice."

"I like it," Amy said, looking down at herself.

They were now close enough to make out vehicles moving around on the site of the former warehouses. The skeletal steel-work of the modern one was half-gone compared to the day before, a dozen cutting torches spraying sparks as workers sliced through the beams and girders, while the first stone one she'd brought down was almost entirely cleared away. An excavator was in the process of loading the remains of the thing into a couple of trucks, while further away, barely visible, another one was starting in on the next warehouse along.

"Wow, they're really going at it," Amy commented as they stopped to watch for a moment.

"Apparently they were working through the night," Taylor said. "I've never seen so many people working here." She looked around at the decaying buildings. "This place must have been pretty impressive twenty-five years ago when all these were full of shipping companies and the bay had ships coming and going."

"Hopefully it'll be back to that soon enough," her friend replied. They resumed walking, heading towards the main entrance. The guards smiled at them when they were close enough.

"Hello, Saurial, Panacea, nice to see you again. Danny got here a little while ago if you want to see him."

"We're going to the BBFO office right now, thanks," Taylor smiled back. "But we'll stop in and see him." She looked over to the work zone for a moment. "Looks like things are going really well."

"They've been at it since your sister and Glory Girl brought all the warehouses down," he said with a nod. "All night. Everyone is working their asses off to get ready for Tuesday."

"It should be fun," she laughed. Waving to the other guard, both of them ducked under the vehicle barrier and headed to her building.

Opening the door she went in and turned the alarm off, then the lights on. Amy closed the door behind her and went over to the workroom, pulling a key on a chain that Taylor had made from around her neck and unlocking the door to it, going inside the separate area and turning another set of lights on. Taylor joined her. Both of them studied the contents of the workbench under the fluorescent illumination.

"It looks good," Taylor said after a minute or so, running her hand along the largest thing there.

"Still needs some work but it's a good test of the process," Amy agreed. She moved over to another set of items, reaching into a small transparent tank of dull yellow goop, picking up one of the modified versions of her healing symbiote, one of half a dozen floating in the nutrient solution. "These are still active. So the support system works," she reported after a moment.

"Great. How long will it keep them alive for?"

"Probably… about six months, maybe?" The brunette looked slightly unsure. "I need to experiment some more but I think that's probably about right for this version. I can improve on that, I'd like to get a shelf life of at least two years. Some sort of stasis, or a spore maybe… Anthrax bacteria can survive for centuries in spore form. Hmm." She got a thoughtful look on her face and stared at the little semi-living thing in her hand for a while. Eventually she dropped it back into the tank.

"I'm going to have to think about it. But it should be possible."

"How many versions have you gone through so far?" Taylor asked.

"This is the fourteenth variant," Amy replied, tapping her right wrist. "The last few changes have mostly been functional tweaks, not major revisions. It's about as optimized as it's going to get without a complete redesign. The next generation is more complicated by a long way, because it adds all the other things we were talking about. I'm not quite ready for that yet. Maybe around the middle of the week."

She looked down on the floor at a half-empty twenty pound bag of onions. "But we're going to need more biomass."

"Potatoes?" Taylor suggested after a second or two. "The cafeteria buys them by the truckload."

"That's usable, I tried it at home, but onions are a little better for various reasons," her friend replied.

"I could go and pull up a load of seaweed, I need to do some work on the docks in a minute anyway."

"Too messy," Amy smiled. "I'm not in a hurry, I can wait. There's enough here to finish this off and do some more experiments. We can order a ton or so of onions tomorrow."

"OK." Taylor opened the door to the second room and turned the light on, looking at the contents. "I can hardly wait to see this working."

" _You_ can hardly wait?" Amy snickered, coming over to stand next to her. The metallic structure glittered under the overhead lights. "Think how I feel."

"Scared?"

"Terrified. But _so_ looking forward to it as well." She laughed, looking over her shoulder at the workbench. "If that works, this will, and it's going to be amazing fun."

Closing the door, Taylor grinned. "It'll work. You're very good at this sort of thing."

"Thanks. But it would be a lot more difficult without your help."

"We'll have to come up with a good name for you," Taylor smirked. "Panacea is too boring for this."

"What do you suggest?" Amy grinned.

"Something that puts the fear of you into people." Taylor tapped her muzzle with a claw. "Something dark and edgy. Memorable."

She thought some more. "We shall call you… ' **The Amy!** '"

Her friend burst into giggles. "That's not dark _or_ edgy," she laughed.

"Of course it is. Once you've beaten up a lot of criminals, posed on the pile of bodies, and announced that they were taken out by **The Amy** , you'll have respect. You'll have to refer to yourself in the third person as well, that makes it more impressive. And a little creepy." Taylor grinned. "I'm telling you, after a month of that, criminals would run like hell if someone came in shouting that **The Amy** was coming. They'd shit themselves."

"You are an idiot, you know," Amy chuckled, shaking her head. "Try again."

"I'll have to think some more, if you're going to reject a perfectly good suggestion out of hand like that," Taylor huffed in mock annoyance.

Sharing a smile, they left the workshop and looked around the main building. "We need to get some proper toilets and that sort of thing in here, and maybe a kitchen as well," Amy pointed out.

"Easily done. I'll ask Dad about that later. Right now, I'm going swimming, while it's good and foggy." Taylor smiled, heading for the rear door, while flipping her friend the key ring with the high-security keys on. She'd tried duplicating them and found her copies didn't work, there was some subtlety to them she hadn't yet worked out. "If you need to lock up. You know the alarm code."

"Yep. How long will you be?"

"Couple of hours or so. If you need me, shout, I'll hear you."

"OK." Amy nodded to her friend. "I'll be working in here until you get back unless there's an emergency."

"See you later." Opening the rear door, Taylor looked out, checking carefully both ways. Pulling her head back in, she thoughtfully added, "Put making a tunnel from in here to underwater somewhere on the list, Amy," then as her friend smiled and nodded, ran out the door and dived into the bay, entering the water with barely a ripple. As soon as she was under the surface she changed, growing larger as she swam deeper, until she was at the appropriate size to begin work. Humming softly to herself she started digging, enjoying the work and talking to the Varga.

* * *

"Fuck!" Lisa ducked as another bullet spanged off the tunnel wall, spraying stone chips over her. The pursuing ABB were still firing wildly, enough rounds ricocheting down the tunnel to keep life exciting for them.

"This is ridiculous," she muttered, pressing herself as hard against the dog's back as she could manage, the spikes on it getting in the way. She shifted around, then looked down, before smacking herself in the forehead. "Grenades. Idiot." Pulling a gas grenade loose she held the spoon in place until they reached a slightly narrower part of the tunnel, then tossed it over her shoulder. The pop in the distance was faint, the hissing sound inaudible. After fifteen seconds she dropped her last one.

Seconds after that the shooting from behind started to drop off, then stopped. Presumably most if not all of the ABB gangers had run into the gas cloud and passed out. With nowhere to go it meant that the tunnel would be nearly impassible for some time.

A roar of rage made her twitch.

Unfortunately, it obviously didn't work on Lung.

She tossed a smoke grenade behind them as well to try and cover their escape, pairing it with a flashbang. The flashbang had a two second longer delay, going off inside the smoke cloud, but even so it was blindingly bright through her closed eyelids.

"Shit, Lisa, warn us before you do that, will you?" Brian called back with anger in his voice when the echoes died away.

Her ears ringing from the blast, she shouted, "If I warned you I'd warn Lung as well."

"Shit. OK. Good point." Their nominal leader sounded irritated and scared, neither of which she blamed him for at all. She was terrified, herself.

The sounds from behind faded slightly, Lung apparently having found the smoke and the flashbang not to his liking, but she knew it would only provide a short reprieve. Reaching a fork in the tunnel, Rachel who was still in front shouted, "Which way?"

"Right!"

The dogs poured into the right tunnel. She looked up at the walls, seeing it was older and in fairly poor condition compared to the one they'd just left. An idea striking her, she exerted her power for a moment, then signaled her dog to slow, which she reluctantly did. "I'm going to try blowing the tunnel," she said into her radio, suddenly remembering she still had it.

There was a pause, then Brian's incredulous voice came out of the device.

" _You're going to do_ _ **what?**_ "

"Collapse the tunnel," she replied, looking around as the dog trotted along. Up ahead she spotted a good candidate spot for her idea. "It's in bad condition. I think a couple of concussion grenades will bring the roof down and at least slow the bastard down. But I have to do it now before he catches up or we're dead."

" _Oh, fuck it. Be careful, Lisa,_ " her friend replied, his voice resigned and worried.

"I'm always careful," she snarked, carefully removing two concussion grenades from her vest, and a roll of fishing line from her pocket.

" _Yeah, sure you are_ ," Alec said in a similar tone, making her smirk.

Carefully and quickly tying the pins on the grenades to the line, she tugged the knot tight, then indicated to the dog to stop as they reached the right point. Whining, she did so, looking over her shoulder in a way that clearly indicated she knew something horrible was following them.

"I know, Angelica," she said in a low voice, patting the huge animal on the head as she slid off, running over to the support column she'd picked out, then pushing the grenades into a hole where a couple of old bricks had dropped out of the rotten mortar near the bottom. Wedging the explosives in place with a chunk of brick she ran back and climbed on top of the dog, paying out the line as she moved, then urged her into a run. The animal was more than happy to comply.

Letting out a hundred or so feet of line, she grabbed the reel firmly and yanked when she felt they were far enough away. The line in her hand went slack.

Three seconds later there was an enormous boom from behind them, a concussive blast blowing shrapnel past her and spraying her with dust. It was immediately followed by a rumbling crash as the ceiling of the tunnel started to collapse.

She looked up to see that there were flakes of mortar falling from directly above then, paling a little when her power helpfully informed her that the blast had started a cave-in that was going to keep going for some distance. "Oh, _shit_ ," she yelped, urging the dog to top speed.

They barely made it as the roof came down behind them, a good hundred yards of storm drain falling in on itself. Billowing clouds of dust propelled by the collapse engulfed her and the dog, making both cough. " _Are you still alive?_ " Alec asked over the radio.

"I think so," she replied, coughing again. "That was a little bigger than I expected."

" _Don't stop, even if it landed on him it won't slow him for long_ ," Brian put in.

"I'm not stopping, believe me," she radioed back. It was possible that Lung was under all the bricks and debris, and if he wasn't ramped up too far, it might even stop him. But they couldn't count on that and by the sound of things, he'd been more than a little miffed.

A miffed Lung was bad news.

At least down here Oni Lee wasn't a problem, without being able to see them he couldn't teleport to them. But when they got out, that could be an issue. Another idea struck her. "How many gas grenades are left?" she asked.

" _I used all mine_ ," Alec replied.

" _I've got one left_ ," Brian said.

Rachel put in, " _Still got three_."

"One each, good. We need to distribute them, if Oni Lee turns up they may be the only thing that works on him."

" _Oh, right, I see where you're going with that. Good idea._ " Brian sounded impressed.

"It'll take good timing but it might work. Worth a try."

" _How do we get out of here?_ "

Struggling to remember the map, Lisa replied to Rachel's question after a couple of seconds. "About a quarter of a mile more, there should be a tunnel to the left, going up. It goes into another warehouse near the water. It's blocked off, smash the wall down."

" _OK_."

They ran on for some time. Behind them, she could hear sounds that suggested Lung had made it past the cave-in somehow. When she looked back there was a faint light somewhere back there again. She tossed another smoke grenade behind her having warned the others with the radio, then tried to persuade her dog to go even faster.

The animal was panting hard, clearly getting close to exhaustion. Which wasn't good.

" _Found the tunnel,_ " Rachel said. A moment later she reported, " _At the wall. I'm going to break it down_." Lisa heard a crash a few seconds later from a couple of hundred yards ahead.

" _I'm in the warehouse,_ " her colleague radioed. " _Hurry up, we need to…_ "

The radio signal abruptly cut out amid a crackle of static. Moments later Lisa heard gunfire.

" _Oh, fuck, there are ABB here as well,_ " Rachel shouted. She heard a concussion grenade detonate, then a flashbang. " _About a dozen of the fuckers._ "

"Nearly there," she called back. "Brian?"

" _I'm five seconds away,_ " he responded. Another grenade detonated, close enough that the walls of the tunnel vibrated.

Reaching behind her, she pulled the .32 pistol she carried from the back of her belt and cocked it, slowing the dog as they reached the exit tunnel. Very much wishing there was another way, but knowing that the only choices were back towards Lung, who was rapidly approaching while shouting unintelligibly but furiously, forward which only led into the water of the bay in another few hundred yards, or left into the warehouse and a firefight between the ABB and her friends. She didn't really have a lot of options.

With a sigh of anger, she charged up the tunnel into the warehouse, bursting out into the badly lit area and waving her gun around seeking a target. Spotting someone in ABB colors she snapped off a shot, missing but making him shout and dive out of sight.

She frantically looked around for her friends, seeing Rachel in the distance at the other end of the hundred yard long warehouse, on foot, swinging a piece of pipe at another ganger, who dropped like a stone when her improvised club caught him across the chest. Her dog promptly pounced on him and jumped up and down a bit.

Lisa winced. _That_ guy was out of the fight.

Hearing a sound to the right she whirled around on top of Angelica, aiming quickly, then pulled the trigger again. The ganger who had been in the process of pointing an AK-47 at her screamed as her bullet hit him in the knee. As he dropped to the ground clutching the wound, his rifle bouncing off into the distance, she frowned a little. She'd been aiming at his chest.

Probably a good thing all told that she'd missed, it was a disabling wound without being fatal.

"Lisa!" At the call, she looked around, to see Brian waving at her from behind a partially collapsed wall. Wheeling her mount around she headed for him, sniping at a couple of gangers on the way and missing both times. When she reached him she found him holding Alec onto the dog, the smaller man leaking blood from a grazing wound along his rib-cage, making the side of his overalls damp and sticky.

"Just a flesh wound," her colleague joked weakly. "Fucking hurts, though."

"It's not too serious but he's not going to be running anywhere," Brian told her, a serious look in his eyes through his gas-mask. "There are about eight of them I think. Now, anyway. Rachel took out three of them, she's not in a good mood. You got that guy."

"I've only got one more magazine left and this one is half empty," she replied, shooting at one of the gangers who was more persistent or less smart than his friends. He yelped in agony and dropped again, a lot of swearing in Korean coming to them. "Or even less full now."

"Seven, then. Plus Lung, sooner or later," Brian sighed, looking apprehensively over at the collapsed wall that lead down to the storm drains. They could hear something big approaching. "I suppose it's too much to hope for that he'll get so big he gets stuck?"

"If the cave in didn't stop him I doubt that will," she answered, shaking her head. "We need to get out of here."

"Brilliant idea, why didn't I think of that?" he grouched.

"That's why I'm here," she grinned. A bullet snapping past her head made her squeak and duck frantically. "But I don't want to be."

"None of us do," Alec complained. He pulled a flashbang free, cocking his arm back. "Close your eyes," he warned, then threw it with a hiss of pain. Seconds later the world went white and there was a huge bang. Opening her eyes and blinking furiously, Lisa spotted two gangers rolling around with their hands over their ears, having been almost under the device when it went off. Aiming carefully this time, she shot both of them in the lower legs, emptying the magazine. They screamed and writhed around, while she popped the empty magazine out and replaced it with the full one.

"Jesus, Lisa," Brian said, staring at her work.

"They're trying to kill us, you know," she snapped. "If it's me or them, I'm going to make it them. Anyway, they're alive, just not having much fun right now."

"OK, OK, calm down. You have a point." He sighed. "Probably five left now."

A scream from the other end of the warehouse made them all cautiously look over the wall, to see Rachel's dog shaking a limp body in his mouth while the girl herself pummeled another ganger with his own rifle. She seemed to be having a certain amount of fun.

"Three, I guess."

"We should be able to make a break for it," Lisa suggested. "Use another flashbang then run."

"Worth a try," Brian agreed. He raised his radio to his mouth. "Rachel! Can you hear me?"

There was a sufficiently long pause that they began to think she'd lost her radio, but eventually the girl responded, sounding a little breathless. " _Yes. What is it?_ "

"We're going to try a breakout. Can you see if there are any of them outside?"

" _Two more out there, I think. They keep shooting at the building._ " There was a pause, then she added, "Y _es, definitely two. I can see one of them from here_."

"Damn."

"Smoke grenades, then," Lisa suggested.

"I can just flood the place with my darkness," he told her.

"Sure you can. Which points right at us. At the moment they don't know who we are. If we can get away, I'd prefer to do it without leaving them clues that lead right to our front door," she remarked acidly. After a second or two he nodded.

"OK, you have a point. But if we get stuck, I'm doing it anyway."

"Fair enough. Just don't jump the gun."

Alec, who had been watching the surroundings while they talked, made a motion with his hand, the ganger he'd spotted tripping and going head-first into a wall with a solid thud. He didn't get up again. The boy raised an eyebrow, then grinned. "That worked better than I expected."

"If you get the chance do it again," Brian suggested with an impressed look.

With only two ABB in the building still in a state to fight the shooting had dropped off markedly. They were probably also running out of ammunition, Lisa suspected. She could hear something coming up the tunnel, which meant they only had fifteen to twenty seconds. "OK, we need to go right now," she instructed. Keying up her radio, she said, "Throw the smoke grenades you have outside, quick. Try to get them between the ABB and us."

" _OK_."

Moments later they heard three sharp pops then smoke billowed up outside the warehouse. "Go. We're behind you."

There was no response but they saw the third dog with Rachel on charge out into the smoke. "Come on, guys," Lisa said, pulling her last flashbang and tossing it down the tunnel with a hard throw, then wheeling Angelica around and urging her to run. A few shots passed, but the smoke grenade Brian threw towards the remaining gunmen quickly obscured them.

Seconds later they were racing away from the warehouse. A howl of rage came from inside it, along with a burst of flame that even three hundred yards away they could feel the heat from. ' _Got out just in time_ ,' she thought thankfully. ' _Now we need to actually lose the fucker._ '

A few minutes later she was becoming more and more certain that they might well have managed to do that. They'd spread the smoke grenades they had out among the various alleys, the still air and the fog aiding them nicely, until a large part of the abandoned dock area was almost completely obscured. She'd seen a fair number of apparent Merchants who had scattered when they heard Lung rampaging around, apparently unwilling to get involved. She certainly couldn't blame them. But at least they were unlikely to get any trouble from that direction.

The explosion that went off way too close took her completely by surprise.

"Oh, fuck," she screamed, recognizing the figure who appeared in front of them with horror. "Oni Lee!"

"Scatter," Brian ordered. "He can't teleport to us if he can't see us. Line of sight, remember. Use the last of the smoke grenades and the flashbangs."

Rachel went left, Brian and Alec went right, and she jinked around the form of Oni Lee, who pulled the pins on the grenades he had in his hands with his teeth. She was only thirty feet away when they went off behind her. The clone vanished in the blast, while shrapnel pelted them, the dog under her faltering then recovering, Lisa nearly falling off in the process. She felt something hit the backpack she still had on her back, the packed cash absorbing the shrapnel, and a sharp pain in her left arm, looking down to see her overalls and costume under them were torn with blood leaking out.

The wound wasn't bad, but it was much too close to home. She dropped her last smoke grenade, then grabbed a flashbang and waited.

More explosions went off in the smoke and fog, all around her, one after the other, mixed in with shots from a handgun. The teleporting cape was apparently jumping around all over the place more or less randomly taking potshots at them. She wondered why for a moment until she heard a roar, an unpleasantly familiar one, coming closer.

' _Fuck, he's trying to delay us so Lung can catch up,_ ' she realized in horror. Even if Oni Lee couldn't see them, he could cause enough havoc to make them have to avoid him, inevitably slowing them down.

The figure appeared again to the side. She threw the flashbang and turned the dog to run away from where it landed. A boom sounded and a brilliant flash lit the smoke for a fraction of a second.

Blinking, she kept going, heading towards the water. The warehouses were getting older and more decrepit as she and the dog moved through them, showing that they were entering the oldest part of the Docks area, which was largely wood and stone, dating back in some cases over a hundred and fifty years. No one lived here, not even the Merchants, it was so wrecked that even they had decided it was below their standards.

More explosions went off in the distance. She heard a burst of automatic fire, a couple of screams, and another boom, with a bright flash lighting up the fog to the side. Another flashbang.

Reaching for her radio she felt around, then looked down, before swearing viciously. It was gone. It must have detached itself from her vest when Angelica stumbled.

The dog was limping a little now, and looking back she could see a trail of blood behind them. ' _That's not good_ ,' she though with worry. It wouldn't take enhanced senses to simply follow the trail.

Two more flashbangs went off, which by her count was the last of them. After a short pregnant pause, there was a double blast of a pair of grenades, the signature sound of Oni Lee at work. Oddly enough, after that, there were no more. She could hear Lung raging and roaring not that far away, hopefully going in the wrong direction.

Wondering with worry what was going on with her friends, she pressed on, her gun in one hand and a concussion grenade in the other, looking around. Her dog was moving more slowly now, clearly at the end of her endurance.

The warehouse wall a few dozen feet away suddenly burst open to reveal the flaming form of a fairly heavily ramped up and extremely pissed off Lung, making both her and the dog stop dead in their tracks.

"Oh, god damn it," she whispered.

"Fo' 'u," he gargled triumphantly, rising to his full ten foot height and walking slowly toward her. Behind him the warehouse was now burning merrily.

She pulled the pin on the grenade, holding it tightly, while emptying her gun into him. He jerked a little, the wounds closing nearly instantly. Half the rounds bounced off his silver scales.

His distorted face moved in a horrible smile. He opened his mouth, only twenty feet away, to say something.

She threw the grenade, amazed at the way it actually hit the point she was aiming at, going straight into his mouth, even as she slid off the dog and put it between her and the horrific figure.

The ensuing blast was incredibly loud. Angelica screeched in agony and collapsed, nearly landing on Lisa, who dived out of the way. Rising to hands and knees she peered at Lung, who had collapsed to his own knees.

She nearly threw up when she saw that most of his lower jaw and throat were missing, blood running down his chest.

Moments later she nearly cried when she saw him slowly stand up, the wounds healing in under fifteen seconds.

He smiled, and reached for her.

* * *

' _What the hell is all that noise?_ ' Taylor wondered, looking up at the surface thirty feet over her head. She could hear faint explosions and gunfire, some distance off by the sound of it. Swimming up to the surface she cautiously raised her head above the water, just enough to look around. She was about a hundred feet from shore, hopefully invisible in the fog to the DWU workers, although she could see their thermal signatures moving around on land, along with brighter glows from engines and cutting equipment. By the looks of it the workers were pulling back from whatever was going on, congregating inside the DWU fence in small groups.

A whole series of explosions went off one after another somewhere about a mile away, although they were definitely getting closer. She sighed heavily. ' _Damn it, I was nearly finished as well_ ,' she thought irritably.

" _I would presume that some of the noisier neighbors are having something of an argument_ ," the Varga commented.

' _Sounds like it_ ,' she agreed.

The explosions and gunfire, accompanied by screams, roars that sounded like a huge animal having a fit, and less identifiable sounds, were heading their way and towards the water from somewhere between them and the Ship's Graveyard. ' _I think that's Lung_ ,' she added after a moment more of listening.

" _Ah. This could be interesting. I would like to see this '_ _ **Dragon**_ _' from Japan_ ," her demonic companion replied with a note of humor in his voice.

' _Let's go and ask him to keep the noise down, then_ ,' she laughed. Sinking under the water again she started swimming in the direction that the uproar seemed to be going. It sounded like a running gunfight of a fairly serious form.

Arriving at a point directly in front of the sounds, she peeked out of the water again. Flashes of brilliant white light, with loud bangs accompanying them, were going off behind the warehouses in her view. She was just off the end of one of the old wharves that the ships used to tie up at, which led to a narrow street between two rows of wood and brick warehouses, all of them rotting away and completely derelict. This area didn't even have the sparse number of streetlights that the rest of the docks had.

Sighing a little, she shrank from the form of Kaiju to that of Raptaur, climbing up the side of the dock and standing on the narrow access road that ran along the shoreline. As she did, a tall figure, glowing with heat, smashed through one of the old buildings a couple of hundred feet away in front of someone riding a familiar looking animal that had just come around the corner a little further than that back.

She recognized the figure despite the distance and the overalls with gas-mask. The slight breeze blowing towards her confirmed it by scent. ' _Lisa_ ,' she thought, worried. ' _And that's definitely Lung. In a very bad mood_.'

As she started to run, forming a hammer, she saw the blonde girl somehow manage to get a small spherical object neatly right into Lung's mouth. A moment later the front of his head and neck exploded with a bright flash and a very loud bang. The dog that Lisa had been riding screamed in pain as shrapnel hit it and collapsed, revealing Lisa kneeling behind it, looking stunned.

Lung stood up, regenerating as he did so, and in a lightning-fast move, grabbed her, then whirled and threw her through the rotten wall of the warehouse on the other side of the street.

Growling with anger, Taylor accelerated, bringing her hammer back with both hands.

' _Let's see how_ _ **much**_ _he can regenerate_ ,' she snarled. The Varga urged her on.

* * *

Lisa froze, looking up in horror as Lung ripped the wooden planks to the side with one clawed hand, the wood bursting into flames in the process, then stared at her. "Oh, fuck," she whispered, before closing her eyes and waiting for death. She could feel heat from the Asian cape and didn't need her powers to tell her what he wanted or what was going to happen.

She had no idea where Brian or Alec were, the entire area was covered in smoke mixing with the fog rolling in off the bay to a level that reduced visibility to less than thirty feet, and she hadn't heard anything from Rachel since they'd split up.

A sudden loud thump accompanied by a burst of distorted obscenities made her twitch. The noises continued, getting fainter, and the heat from Lung faded. After a moment she opened her eyes a little, squinting at the hole in the wall where he'd been standing moments before. There was no sign of him. Coughing, the smoke getting to her and making her dizzy, after a few seconds she struggled to her feet, limping to the hold and cautiously looking out.

Barely visible in the mix of fog and smoke, back lit by the burning warehouse across the street, she could see Lung, ramped up to the point he was nearly ten feet tall, viciously fighting the heavily-armored six-limbed reptilian cape who was only a little smaller. She was wielding an eight foot long war hammer, which she swung so hard that the whistling sound was almost painful as the massive thing whipped through the air.

One blow struck Lung right in the middle of the chest, flinging him right past her and into the side of the other warehouse on her side of the street, crashing through the brickwork and vanishing into the building. There was a roar of rage and the silver-scaled part draconic form ripped its way out of the hole, screaming insults that were barely comprehensible through his changing face. His tail thrashed in fury as he charged back past the blonde, who winced and put up a hand at the sheer radiated heat which was enough to make her hair crisp.

The heat from the fires was starting to burn off the fog in the immediate area, making the scene more visible. She could see Lung's opponent turn on one leg with the hammer in her right hand held outstretched at arm's length, catching Lung in the side of the head and flipping him through two complete turns until he slammed down onto the cracked concrete with a crunch.

So angry he was almost literally glowing, he shook his head violently then staggered to his feet. Lisa could make out that his head was oddly distorted on one side from the horrific blow which had been so hard it had actually crushed his skull, but the even more horrific thing was that as she watched it popped back into shape, the bleeding flesh reknitting at an incredible speed.

The other reptilian cape waited for him, crouched on her hind legs with the front ones and her arms ready, the hammer vanishing and being replaced with a huge sword, one that looked impossible to wield. Yet she moved it in a way that made it blatantly obvious that she'd have no problem using it.

"I'm giving you one chance, Lung, before I really get annoyed." She sounded like she was in fact quite annoyed already, Lisa thought. "Leave this area alone and I'll let you go."

Lung stared, the threw his head back and roared with laughter, flames licking around him as he did so. "Little lizard, I am Lung! I go where I want and take what I want. I do not ' _go_ '. Save your breath, it will be your last."

Lisa could barely make out the words, although the other cape seemed to have no problems, merely tilting her head curiously.

"You may be overestimating your chances," she replied.

Not bothering to speak, Lung let a huge burst of flames engulf her, making Lisa gasp in shock and swing back inside the building as the fire billowed past the hole she was watching from. When it cooled from impossible to merely very hot she peeked out to see the reptilian female still standing in the same place, apparently intact and unmoved.

"You'll have to do better than that," she smiled, exposing enough teeth to make a velociraptor jealous. Lung howled in anger and charged, as she set herself, then ducked and swung the sword as he reached her.

Both his legs and his growing tail separated without effort, the upper part of his body flying past her in an uncontrolled spin. Lisa stared in horror, then terror as she saw he was already regenerating, obviously deep into the level where he was basically unstoppable.

' _He's not going to stop until she's dead_ ,' she thought fearfully, ' _by which time everyone else around here will be as well._ '

Proving her right, even before he had fully regenerated Lung sprinted at the other cape, who ducked, but in turn managed to duck her return swing with a burst of sudden appalling speed. He managed to knock her weapon from her with a titanic blow of his tail, the huge sword crashing through the side of the nearby building with no effort at all.

' _Christ, how heavy is that thing?_ ' Lisa wondered in a sort of detached horror. She watched as Lung managed to lay hands on the female's tail, heaving and swinging her around his head twice then letting go. She flew out into the fog towards the nearby bay, and there was a splash after a second or two a good two hundred feet away. Staring after her he began moving in that direction, past Lisa, ignoring her completely for the moment since he was so focused on his opponent.

He peered around, looking for Raptaur. "Come out, little lizard. I've been wanting to try you for weeks."

There was no answer, but she could hear some splashing sounds in the water.

"Surely you can't have given up so quickly," he laughed, his words so distorted only her power let her make them out. "The great Raptaur, who took out Hookwolf like he was a small child. Come and fight a real opponent."

He walked out onto the wharf towards the sounds in the water, then held out his arms. "I'll let you take your best shot."

Under his feet the wharf was smoking. He glowed with heat, ripples in the air rising above him and carrying the smoke and mist up and away.

Both Lisa and Lung waited, for different reasons, to see what would happen next. The splashing sounds faded.

"I'm disappointed, little lizard. But I suppose you recognize greater power when you see it. I am Lung, I am a _Dragon!_ None can stand against me."

There was a long pause after his roar of triumph.

It would be fair to say that neither Lung _or_ Lisa expected the deep laugh that rumbled softly out of the fog.

" **Dragon?** "

The voice was incredibly deep, and full of humor.

" **I see no Dragon** ," the voice continued after a moment, not carrying far but making everything in the area vibrate gently. From Lung's body language Lisa could see he was shocked and not sure what was happening.

Not something she was unfamiliar with, to be fair.

" **All I see is a little Salamander who needs to be taught not to cause problems** ," the voice said. A shadow grew in the fog off the end of the wharf. Despite himself, Lung took a step back.

"Who are you?" he shouted. "Where is Raptaur?"

" **My sister decided that she wanted you to meet me** ," the voice replied, a definite smile in it. " **She thought it would be… interesting**."

"I want Raptaur. I'm not interested in an impressive voice. Do not push my patience."

" **Or what?** "

"Or you will die!"

" **Really?** "

The voice laughed again. Lisa shivered. There was something absolutely terrifying about it, but she couldn't work out exactly what. But when she tried using her power on it, she got a very familiar effect.

Her eyes widened.

When the clawed, scaled hand big enough to pick up a school-bus on the end of arm fifty feet long shot out of the fog and grabbed Lung like a child picking up a toy soldier, she nearly screamed. The only reason she didn't was because she couldn't make her mouth work.

" **I suspect you may be mistaken** ," the voice said, as the shadow grew closer.

* * *

" _This isn't working, Brain_ ," the Varga said as they watched Lung regenerate rapidly, growing larger in the process, and hotter. "His regeneration is too fast. We can kill him, but simply stopping him is very difficult using these methods. The larger he grows the stronger he gets. We are stronger and tougher, but if we let him continue in this vein, the collateral damage will inevitably destroy the entire area."

' _So what do you suggest?_ ' she asked, ducking Lung's return blow.

" _He thrives on conflict. Remove the conflict and I think that his growth will stop_."

' _But how do we do that? If we pull back he'll just go after Lisa again_.'

" _Let him throw you into the bay, which I think he's going to try soon, then allow me control. I have an idea_."

Taylor thought for a second, then agreed. ' _OK_.' The next exchange of blows resulted in him knocking her sword loose, the weapon smashing through a wall and vanishing, then he lunged for her. She ducked again, turning to make her tail a tempting target. Predictably, he grabbed it, swinging her around a couple of times before letting go. Resisting the urge to yell ' _Wheee!'_ as she flew towards the bay, she instead decided to enjoy the flight, short as it was.

Splashing down in the water well past the wharf, she sank to the bottom. ' _You have the con, Mr Varga_ ,' she chuckled. He laughed, then they started to grow.

Reaching a size a little larger than the normal Kaiju form, the water up to their waist, he put one hand out and splashed the water with it. ' _What are you doing?_ ' she asked curiously.

" _Baiting the trap_ ," he said with amusement.

They listened to the threats, watching the heat source that was Lung walk down to stand half-way along the wharf, which began heating up and smoking.

The Varga splashed some more.

Lung roared out his challenge.

Giving off a sense of amused satisfaction, the Varga began slowly moving forward, then laughed...

* * *

Lisa watched in terrified awe as an absolutely vast version of Raptaur's head, glowing eyes several feet across fixed on Lung with a look of easily visible malicious amusement in them, slid smoothly out of the fog, hanging on the end of a muscular neck twenty feet in the air. Lung was totally still in the enormous hand that held him with no effort at all.

" **Hello, little Salamander** ," the rumbling voice said in a silky tone. " **You are very noisy. We would like you to stop and go away. This territory is under our protection, as are all its inhabitants. You are no longer welcome here**."

Lung seemed to be shrinking very slowly, or at least no longer growing, Lisa noted with the corner of her mind that wasn't gaping in shock. Her power worked on the problem.

 _Ramps up when in conflict_

 _Conflict when opponent trying to beat him_

 _Current opponent has no interest in beating him_

 _Could end him with no effort_

 _Conflict trigger confused_

 _Unable to ramp any further until confusion resolved_

 _Lung neutralized for the moment_

She shook her head a little, the conclusion odd but somewhat logical. Aiming her power at the insanely large reptilian creature, she winced at the same sensation she got with doing that to either Saurial or Raptaur. Before the pain got too much, forcing her to pull away and disengage it, she did get one, completely horrifying, final item of interest.

 _Not maximum size  
_  
Lisa simply gave up at that point, slumping to the ground and holding her right arm, which she thought was probably broken from where she'd gone through the wall.

"What are you?" Lung sounded confused, and if she hadn't known better, awe-struck.

" **What am I, little creature?** " It laughed again. **_"_** **I am the third sister of the Family**."

Lung stared. So did Lisa. She knew, logically, that this was Saurial, or Raptaur, obviously far more powerful a Changer than she had ever expected, even having seen the intercepted video from the PRT, but it didn't _sound_ like her. It sounded older, more experienced, and _vastly_ more dangerous.

"What have you done to me?" Lung shouted, noticing that he was no longer growing. He was still radiating heat, which the thing holding him was ignoring completely, but he definitely had stopped growing.

" **I have done nothing, little Salamander. I am merely no longer in conflict with you. I will release you and you will leave permanently, or I will eat you. The choice is yours**."

The head moved closer, the enormous mouth opening only feet from Lung. " **I don't care which you pick. Only that you pick quickly**."

"I am Lung, Monster! I cannot be intimidated." he roared, his awe apparently converting back into defiant anger.

Another hand came out of the fog, far faster than it should have been able to considering the sheer size, a claw nearly seven feet long suddenly resting on Lung's neck. The thing raised him to eye level.

" **I am Kaiju, little Salamander. Your arguments are all invalid. Choose**."

The claw began to apply pressure to his neck. Lisa saw him swallow. " **You cannot win this encounter, Small One. Pick your fate and accept it**."

"I… I will leave," Lung finally said with extreme reluctance.

The head of the great reptile nodded slowly. " **A wise decision. Go in peace and do not return. All this area belongs to the Family. Remember that**."

The hand holding him lowered him gently back to the wharf, then released him. Lung stared up at the head in the mist looking down at him with a small smile on its lips, then turned around and walked away. He stopped where Lisa was sitting on the ground. "What about them?" he asked without turning. "They stole from me."

" **Spoils of war, Small One. They are mine now**." The rumbling voice was amused.

Lung stared down at Lisa, then walked on without another word. She looked over her shoulder as he disappeared around the corner into the smoke from the still burning warehouses.

Looking back, she saw that the head had disappeared.

Shivering, she stood up with difficulty, limping back to check on Angelica. The dog's monstrous outer shell was disintegrating, the small animal in the middle of it struggling to escape.

"That's pretty revolting," a familiar voice said from behind her. She looked over her shoulder to see Saurial smiling at her. "Hello, Lisa."

"Hi," she said numbly, still holding her arm.

"Let's get your little friend out, then we can go back and get that arm fixed," the lizard-girl said, kneeling and quickly releasing Angelica from her trouble, the dog sniffing her outstretched hand, then allowing her to scratch behind her ears. Saurial stood up, inspecting Lisa for a moment, then shifted into Raptaur with a suddenness that made her twitch. The much larger reptile squatted down, indicating her back, which had a saddle formed into the armor. "Up you get. This will be quicker."

Pulling herself aboard with a wince, Lisa cradled her broken arm again, barely noticing that straps formed to hold her in place. Raptaur picked up the little dog, which had frozen when it saw her, but sniffed her tentatively then relaxed a little.

"You have a very large sister," Lisa announced in a dreamy voice.

"You have no idea," Raptaur snickered, smoothly rising to all fours then heading off at an easy pace, towards the DWU facility. "None at all." She looked over her shoulder, smiling a little. "What the hell did you steal from Lung?"

"An awful lot of money, and something that I suspect Coil planted on him as an excuse." Lisa sighed. "I got the scent sample."

"Good. When you're fixed up, we should talk about hunting. I hear it's an interesting past-time if you don't mind a little blood."

"After the last few hours?" Lisa snorted with amusement. "No. I want that fucker dead."

Raptaur chuckled and fell silent, trotting along with a gait that while odd was surprisingly comfortable.


	69. Tattletale and Amy

Hearing a knock on the rear door, Amy quickly left her workroom, locking the door on the way, and headed across the floor to the back of the building. Opening the door a crack she looked out, one hand on her baton in her pocket. Taylor in her Raptaur aspect met her gaze and smiled.

"It's just me, Amy, and a friend."

Standing aside, Amy opened the door, admitting her friend, who had sitting on her back a girl dressed in military-style black overalls with a webbing vest over it. This new arrival had a large black backpack on her own back and a high-tech gas-mask on her face and was cradling her right arm in a way that showed the healer that it was almost certainly broken. Her blonde hair was coming loose from the bun it had been put into, under a woolen cap, also in black.

Overall she looked like a mercenary who had had a bad day.

Taylor was carrying a medium sized dog, covered in some sort of slime, with a missing eye which looked like an old injury. The dog seemed very tired but fairly happy, looking around the place with interest as it lay in her arms.

"What the hell?" Amy looked at her friend and her passengers, confused. "Who are these guys? Where did you find them?"

"The girl is Tattletale of the Undersiders, and this is her team-mate Bitch's dog Angelica," Taylor said, pushing the door closed with her tail and putting the dog down at the same time. The animal looked around, then moved a few feet away and lay down with a sigh, before slowly starting to clean its fur. "Lung was having an argument with them. I stopped it."

" _Lung!?_ " Amy's voice was a quiet shriek. "What the fuck is going on?"

"I'm still not entirely sure," Taylor replied, heading towards the table. When she reached them she lowered herself to the floor, allowing the girl on her back to get off, which she did, then slumped into one of the chairs with a grunt of pain, the backpack she was wearing stopping her leaning back. "He was in a very bad mood indeed. I had to introduce him to Kaiju."

Amy stared, then burst out laughing for several seconds. "Oh, my god. How did he take it?"

"He seemed fairly impressed," Taylor replied dryly. "We came to an arrangement. He left and won't come back, and I didn't eat him."

"You threatened to _eat_ Lung?" Amy gasped, laughing harder. "I wish I'd seen that."

"I recorded it, I'll show you later," her friend said in a low voice, leaning towards her and putting a finger to her lips, nodding towards Tattletale who was staring at the floor and seemed on the verge of passing out. She clearly wasn't listening to them. Changing back to Saurial, Taylor indicated the blonde girl. "Can you fix her up before she passes out?"

Nodding, Amy moved over to stand beside the girl, who looked up after a minute, her gas mask obscuring her features but letting Amy see her eyes looked dazed. "I'm Panacea. Do you mind if I heal you?" she asked. It took several seconds for the girl to shake her head. Shock was clearly setting in. Wondering what had happened, Amy put her hand on the girl's exposed neck and concentrated.

While she worked on the broken arm, and what turned out to be a severely bruised kidney and spleen, she asked absently, "Is that what all the noise outside was? I could barely hear it, it sounded like fireworks."

"It was pretty fucking loud outside," Taylor remarked, watching with interest. "Grenades, automatic gunfire, all sorts of things. There must have been half the ABB running around in the north end of the Docks shooting the fuck out of the place."

"If Lung was out there, Oni Lee probably was as well."

"I didn't see him, only Lung," Taylor shrugged. "He set fire to some of the really old falling down wooden warehouses. They'll probably burn themselves out without spreading, it's pretty damp out, but I'll go and make sure it's safe in a minute. How is she?"

"Exhausted, in shock, and she had several internal injuries as well as the arm," Amy replied. "Did she get thrown through a wall or something?"

"Yes," the blonde replied with a deep sigh. She reached up and peeled her gas-mask off, dropping it on the table. Under it she was wearing a domino mask which still obscured her face reasonably well. There were bags under her eyes and her skin was pale and clammy. "Exactly that. Then nearly set on fire."

"How the hell did you get Lung after you?" Amy asked curiously, putting her hand on the girl again and fiddling with her a little to reduce the shock symptoms and give her a general tune-up. Tattletale seemed a little perkier afterwards. "Can you get me a few onions?" she asked over her shoulder. Taylor nodded, unlocking the workroom and disappearing inside for a moment, then coming back with several vegetables in her hands. She handed one to Amy. "I need some biomass, she's undernourished now since I burned up a lot of her fat reserves," she explained, the onion quickly disappearing in her grasp. She repeated the feat with three more, until she was satisfied.

Tattletale had more color in her cheeks and looked a lot better, although still very tired. "I don't want to interfere any more with your body," Amy told her. "You need a lot of sleep and a couple of good meals, and at least a pint of water pretty soon. But other than that you're fine now."

"Thank you very much," the girl replied, looking at her and smiling a little.

"You're welcome," she said, sitting in the next chair along. "Take that backpack off and relax, you'll get a cramp sitting like that."

Tattletale looked surprised, as if she'd forgotten she had the pack on, then stood up and started taking it off. Taylor helped her, putting it on the floor when it was removed, the girl slumping back into the chair and leaning back with a sigh, closing her eyes.

"What's in it?" Amy asked, "It looks pretty heavy."

"Money," Tattletale and Taylor said at the same time. The blonde looked at her savior, who smiled.

"I can smell it," she explained. "Plus you already said."

"Did I?" the girl asked absently. "I can't really remember."

"Money?" Amy stared at the fairly large pack. "How much?"

"Probably about two hundred and fifty thousand dollars or so," Tattletale said. "I should have known it was too much. We fucked up. Badly."

"Holy shit."

Amy looked at Taylor, who looked back, appearing impressed, then both of them turned to the girl. "You stole a quarter of a million dollars from Lung?" she asked incredulously. "No wonder he was pissed."

"No, we stole at least _three_ quarters of a million dollars from Lung," the girl corrected her, a ghost of a smile on her face. The healer paled a little.

"Oh, my god, he's going to hunt you down and kill you," she muttered.

"No, he won't," Taylor smiled. Amy looked at her. "We came to an arrangement, as I said. I claimed the money and the Undersiders as mine. He won't touch them."

Staring at her friend, Amy tried to process that, which was a little difficult even knowing what she did about her friend and her friend's live-in companion. "You _claimed_ them?" she asked slowly.

"Family territory, Family business," the other girl smirked. "I'm not letting Lung stomp around in the Docks as if it was his. This area is off limits to him now. It seemed the sort of thing he'd understand and accept if I could persuade him to believe it. I doubt he'll be back."

"And if he ignores you?" Tattletale asked, her eyes still closed. "Will you really eat him?"

"If I have to," Taylor shrugged. "I'd prefer not to but it's a good way to solve a problem like him permanently. I think he believed me."

The girl smiled a little again. "So do I. It was very… convincing."

Amy, puzzled, looked at Taylor, who winked. She tapped her head, then indicated something very large. After a moment the brunette got the idea. The Varga had come out to play.

She grinned. That was something she wanted to hear later.

The sound of claws on the floor heralded the arrival of Angelica, who looked less disgusting although still pretty slimy, the dog looking at both Taylor and Amy before going to sit beside Tattletale, who opened her eyes and smiled vacantly at it for a moment, putting her hand on the dog's head. "Can you do anything about her eye?" she asked after a moment.

Amy inspected the dog, then knelt down and held out her hand. The animal sniffed it curiously, seeming to accept her without too much trouble. It was clearly just as tired and out of things as Tattletale was. Picking up a couple of onions from the collection on the table, Amy put her hand on the creature's head.

"Never done a dog before," she said, as she explored the animal from inside. "Not that different to a human really. OK, this is easy enough." A moment's concentration and Angelica made a weird little yipping sound, then blinked two healthy eyes. She tweaked it as much as she could to make sure the thing was healthy then removed her hand, the dog looking around with what she'd swear was a puzzled expression.

"Thank you," Tattletale said in a tired voice, before her head dropped to her chest. Moments later she was snoring.

Taylor and Amy exchanged a glance, then moved to the other side of the room. "She's absolutely on her last legs," Amy whispered. "I could give her a jump-start but unless there's a good reason it would be better to let her sleep for a couple of hours at least. She'll need something to eat when she wakes up."

"Make sure she doesn't wake, then, and I'll go and put those fires out, and also see if I can find her friends. There was one hell of a lot of shooting. Hopefully they made it but one way or the other I need to check."

"What do we do with her?" she asked, jerking a thumb at the snoozing girl. "We can't keep her, there's no beds in here." She smiled a little as Taylor smirked.

"For the moment, just make sure she gets some sleep. When I get back we need to talk to her. I'm pretty sure that Lung isn't an issue any more but I don't want to provoke him any more than I have to. I'm not sure the trick we used would work again and in that case I'd have to take more drastic action. I want to find out what on earth happened." Taylor looked over at the blonde for a moment. "I'm worried about her friends. I'll be back in a while."

"Bring some food with you when you come back," Amy requested. "Something other than onions."

Grinning, Taylor nodded, then headed for the back door again.

When it had closed behind her, a faint splash coming just before, Amy studied the girl and the dog, which had curled up next to the chair Tattletale was in and gone to sleep, shook her head a little, then went to ensure their guest wouldn't wake for a while.

* * *

"It all seems to have stopped now," Zephron said. Danny nodded, looking out the window into the dimness.

"Damn fog, can't see a thing," he muttered.

"Should be gone tomorrow. It's that time of year, but I haven't seen it like this for a while," the other man noted. "But we couldn't see anything when we looked around. Mark sent a couple of groups out to check that nothing is missing or damaged, but it looks like whoever it was went north."

"It sounded like a war."

"More or less was, I think. Definitely grenades, flashbangs, I'm pretty sure from the smell out there that someone was throwing smoke grenades around as well. Lots of gunfire of different calibers, most of it the good old AK-47. Pretty distinctive noise."

Sighing, Danny went to his desk and sat, swiveling his chair back and forth slowly. "No reports of injuries?"

"We have one man who got an unlucky ricochet in the calf, I have no idea how. 7.62mm rounds go a long way but it was a fluke even so. He's pretty much fine."

"Panacea is on site, I'll go and ask her if she can help him," Danny replied. "Any idea who it was?"

"Pretty sure it was ABB. I think I could hear Lung going off on one, he was screaming and shouting somewhere out in the wasteland near the Ships Graveyard. There's a smell of wood smoke blowing this way as well so some of the buildings are probably on fire again. A lot of the grenades were probably Oni Lee's work, you know how that lunatic likes spamming suicide bombers all over the scenery." Zephron said down, shaking his head. "He's nuts. Lung isn't much saner, but he's a hell of a lot more restrained most of the time."

"Except when he gets worked up and trashes half a square mile of city," Danny muttered, scowling.

"Yep. It's all gone quiet now so whatever it was is over. Unless you want to do anything else we'll get back to work."

"Wait until Mark comes back and gives the all clear, I don't want anyone hurt if it starts up again, but get them ready."

"Got it, Boss." The large man got to his feet, grinning a little at the sigh, nodded, and left.

Pulling out his cell-phone Danny dialed Amy's number. There was no answer, most likely because she was in the BBFO offices with the door shut, which seemed to completely block radio signals. Trying his daughter's Saurial phone number was more successful. Her voice, distinctive due to the odd faint accent it had, answered after a couple of rings. " _Hi, Danny,_ " it said, letting him know she was in public. " _What's up?_ "

"I was wondering if you knew what all the noise was about, and also if Amy is with you?"

" _Amy's in the office, you'll have to go and knock if you need her. And yes, I know what it was. Lung was rampaging around the place chasing the Undersiders, who stole a lot of money from him. He wasn't pleased about that_." Her voice sounded both amused and mildly annoyed. " _He was setting things on fire and threatening a friend of mine, so I had to persuade him to leave_."

Danny's heart had jumped at the confirmation it was indeed Lung, one of the most dangerous capes in the country, if not the world.

"How did you do that?" he asked, calming down. She was clearly not hurt.

" _I asked a friend to intervene. He was happy to help._ " She chuckled for a second as he grinned, knowing who she meant. " _Lung seemed to listen. With any luck it will stick and he'll steer clear of the Docks from now on. Plus the Undersiders are now sort of my problem._ "

"How on earth..." He trailed off, then shook his head. "Forget it. I'm sure you'll explain that sooner or later. Where are you now?"

" _North of the DWU, looking for the rest of them. I found one of Bitch's dogs, dead unfortunately. Looks like Oni Lee got it. I've also found two dead ABB with rifle bullet holes in them, which I think was friendly fire. All the live ones seem to have cleared out. Do you want any automatic weapons? There are quite a lot of them lying around out here_."

"Not really," he sighed, tipping his chair back. "Damn it. I don't like the ABB but that's no way to die."

" _Didn't stop it, I'm afraid_." His daughter sounded somber. " _Ah. Just found another body. In pieces. Seems to be a grenade, Oni Lee's work, I think..._ " She paused, then swore under her breath. " _It's Oni Lee._ "

Danny sat up abruptly. "Really?"

" _Pretty sure. I found his mask under him, what's left of it. I think he messed up that thing he does with grenades. His hands and arms are completely gone and his torso is shredded. He must have been holding them when they went off. It's a mess_." She sounded clinical and fairly unaffected, although he could tell she wasn't happy.

"I'd better call the PRT," he said after a moment.

" _OK._ " She paused again, then added, " _I'm about half-way between the junction on access road 12 with the main road to wharf nineteen and the shore. There's an alleyway on the east side of the access road leading to some sort of loading area, it's just down there._ "

He'd gotten up and walked over to the large map that covered most of one wall, showing the entire docks area with all the original signage, much of which was now out of date due to rebuilding work over the years, but it still had accurate information on the oldest parts which hadn't changed. Running his finger along the relevant road until it intersected access road 12, he inspected the map, then tapped a spot on it.

"Next to the old Atlantic Fabrics depot?"

" _Hold on a second,_ " she said, then came back a moment later. " _Yes, that's what what's left of the sign says_."

"All right. I'll pass it on. Will you be there?"

" _Probably not, I'm still looking, but tell them I'll contact them to let them know what I find._ "

"Got it. Be careful."

She chuckled again. " _I try to be. I'll let you know when I'm back. Oh, while I think about it, two warehouses are half-burnt down and another one was smoldering. I sorted that out, there's no danger now_."

"OK. Thank you."

" _See you in a while_ ," she said, then the line went dead. Putting the phone back in his pocket he studied the map for a moment before going to his desk, leafing through his address book, and dialing the main PRT switchboard.

"Hi," he said when the operator answered. "This is Danny Hebert at the DWU. Can you put me through to someone who would need to know about an ABB operation in the north dockland area, please? We've found a number of bodies, including Oni Lee."

He listened to the shocked query, almost amused. "Yes, that's right. Oni Lee. We're pretty sure. Saurial found him."

Remarkably quickly, he found himself talking to Miss Militia, who sounded stunned. When he'd explained what had happened and passed on directions to the location of the dead cape, he said his goodbyes and put the phone down. Walking over to the window he watched as the machines began operating again, before leaving the room to track Amy down.

* * *

Taylor looked down at the remains of what was mostly likely Oni Lee. Never having encountered him before, his scent wasn't familiar, but it was mixed with that of Lung, so this guy had obviously spent some time with the other cape. He fitted the physical description as much as could be determined from what was left, he had the remains of a black body-suit costume on, and was wearing a bandoleer and belt which still had a number of knives stuck in it, along with a couple of grenades. It looked to her like he'd probably been holding a couple of them when they went off, possibly setting off one or more on his bandoleer based on the way there was a massive hole in his chest. He must have died instantly.

' _I wonder what happened?_ ' she thought.

" _I have no idea. From what we've read about him, one of his favored tactics is pulling the pins on grenades then teleporting away to let the clone explode next to the target. Presumably he misjudged it this time, somehow_ ," the Varga responded thoughtfully. She nodded, looking around the rubble-strewn area. There were bullet casings all over the place, showing that there had been a serious fight here, and piles of ash that suggested the remains of at least a dozen of his clones visible just from where she was standing. Moving around she spotted several more.

' _He must have been bouncing around like mad,_ ' she commented. ' _And there were obviously a number of people here aside from him._ ' She found several blood puddles which belonged to different individuals from the scent. Sniffing carefully, she nodded. ' _All three of the other Undersiders were here as well. They came in from different directions, Grue and Regent from that way, Bitch from over there to the south. She was on foot, the boys were riding one of those dogs of hers. I guess she was on the one that got killed. Must have hurt her, there's blood in her footprints. Quite a lot of it._ '

" _I would suspect that Oni Lee was chasing her and she met up with the others to deal with him. Around the same time that Lung found Lisa_ ," her companion noted, as she inspected the scene some more. " _Then more ABB were attracted by the noise. Looking at the footprints there were at least a dozen of them in the area. They seem to have taken the wounded away but left the dead, possibly because they didn't have enough people left to carry them. The number of weapons we found suggests that they dropped everything they couldn't carry when the ammunition ran out_."

' _They probably have enough guns that it's not a problem getting more_ ,' she agreed. ' _From what I've learned they don't cost very much, and these guys don't pay for them anyway._ '

Hands on hips, she turned in a circle looking at the carnage, the end of her tail twitching in irritation. ' _What a mess. Lisa's right, they fucked up. But even so this seems like an over-reaction. It was pretty close to all out war_.'

" _Lung is not one to let an insult go, and the amount of money that was stolen would infuriate him_ ," her friend noted. " _I think that the Undersiders were unlucky and lucky in equal quantities, they successfully pulled off a major coup, but bit off more than they could chew in the process. I would assume that Lisa had a plan that_ _ **nearly**_ _worked. The getaway would seem to have left something to desire though_."

Snorting with mild amusement, Taylor nodded. _'That's one way to put it. Lung could be a problem. I doubt he'll come back, from what we know of him he's a man of his word assuming you can get it, and I think you put it in terms he can accept, even if he didn't want to. But I don't think that the Undersiders should assume they're safe even so. Presuming that any of them other than Lisa are still alive._ '

" _Coil is a more immediate problem, in all probability_ ," the Varga said. " _Lisa seems sure he set them up somehow. If so, he must suspect something. We still don't know what his power is, aside from it somehow allows him to succeed in most of what he does. Add that to his resources and the mercenaries he employs and he's a dangerous opponent. We need to deal with him as fast as possible, one way or the other_."

' _The scent sample should let us find him. Once we do, we can work out how to deal with the guy. But right now we need to find out what happened to Lisa's friends_.' Taylor bent down, spotting something on the ground, and delicately picked up a dull metal cylinder with the tips of her talons. One end had some sort of mechanism on it while the other had a number of holes with a crystalline residue around them. ' _What the hell is this?_ ' Looking around, she spotted two more. Sniffing the thing she identified it as the source of the chemical smell that had pervaded the entire area. It was an unfamiliar scent, harsh and acrid.

" _Some form of chemical grenade I think,_ " the Varga replied slowly. " _Smoke, perhaps?_ "

' _Maybe_.' Putting it back where it had come from, she straightened up and looked around once more. ' _I'll leave this to the PRT, they know what they're doing with parahuman crime scenes_.' She could hear the distant sound of the distinctive PRT sirens a few miles away, somewhere in the commercial district, coming closer. ' _They'll be here in ten minutes or so, I think._ '

Determining through scent and footprints the direction the rest of the Undersiders had gone, which was north towards the edge of the Ship's Graveyard, she headed that way at a steady jog, keeping all her senses alert for trouble. There was a blood trail from two different people mixed with the prints, which made them easy to track without any effort. The people who had left them had apparently been concentrating more on running than hiding, although there were a few attempts at covering the trail.

A couple of hundred yards further, the three sets of human footprints turned into two sets. Apparently one of them was now carrying another. A quick check showed it was Grue carrying Bitch, his footprints were now considerably deeper in the mud when they crossed it. The massive paws of a dog, which seemed to be limping, were following them.

Weaving through the abandoned and crumbling buildings, which by now were like something from an end of the world movie, she kept going.

A few minutes later, the sirens from the PRT behind her stopped, as they arrived at the site of the large fight. Hopefully they'd be involved with that for a while and not start coming after her. She wanted to find the Undersiders and get them to somewhere safe without the involvement of the authorities, at least long enough to find out what the hell had actually happened to cause all this trouble.

A familiar engine sound some way behind the PRT vehicles made her pause, listening. ' _Armsmaster's bike_ ,' she said.

" _Yes. I'm not surprised he came, this is a big thing from their point of view. Oni Lee was one of the most dangerous and lethal capes in the country, his body count is enormous_."

She resumed tracking the fleeing group. After another couple of minutes, she stopped again, sniffing the air, then climbed rapidly up the side of a two story wooden building and peered over the roof. There was a light showing a hundred feet ahead on the other side of it, in a smaller building, four heat sources inside. She could smell all three of the Undersiders and a dog in there, and hear low voices. ' _Got you_ ,' she thought in satisfaction. Thinking about it for a moment she switched to Raptaur, then dropped back to the ground and headed over to have a look at the damage.


	70. PRT and Investigations

"Ffffuuucckk!"

"Shh!" Alec looked around frantically. "Keep it down, they might still be out there."

Rachel gave him an unfriendly look as she relaxed a little from the totally tense line her body had formed when Brian dug out the third shrapnel fragment from her leg, having removed the other two from her shoulder and arm respectively. Luckily all three were fairly small pieces of metal and had missed immediately hitting anything serious, but she was still bleeding heavily. There was another one in her back far too close to her spine to make the taller boy want to touch it. Now he was wrapping her leg in bandages, using the last of the supplies they'd brought. Alec was wishing they'd thought to bring more.

Actually, he was wishing he'd never agreed to this in the first place. Glancing at the back-packs full of nearly half a million dollars that they had, somehow, hung on to, he wondered if it was actually worth it. They had no idea if Lisa was even still alive.

Despite himself, he kind of liked her.

" _You_ keep quiet when someone is digging around in your fucking _leg_ with a fucking _knife_ you fucking _idiot_ ," Rachel snarled weakly, the longest speech she'd made since the fight they'd escaped by the skin of their teeth. With a lot of luck, good on their point and bad on that of the ABB. "It fucking _hurts!_ "

Finishing up the bandaging, Brian wiped his hands which were covered in blood on a scrap of left over cloth, then dropped it on the ground. He sat back on the old crate he was using as a chair, next to the girl who was lying on a set of several more that they'd hastily dropped a couple of planks over as a temporary bed.

"Best I can do, I'm afraid," he said.

"Thanks," she muttered, not sounding thankful. One hand dropped to rub the head of her last dog, Judas, Brutus having been killed by one of Oni Lee's grenades, the same one that had nearly done for her. The enlarged animal had absorbed most of the blast at the cost of his own life. The fate of her last one, like that of Lisa, was unknown.

"Now what, great leader?" Alec asked somewhat snidely, unable to help it. He was worried about his friends, and scared that the ABB would catch up. Lung was going to be completely uncontrollable when he found out about his lieutenant. Not that he was particularly controllable at the best of times.

"I'm not sure," Brian sighed, reaching for his flashlight which was lying on a nearby pile of rubble, wedged in place to point at Rachel's wound. Picking it up he turned it off. The inside of the building was quite dark in the aftermath of the bright LED illumination, gaps in the roof and walls admitting a small amount of the dull late afternoon light. The fog outside was visibly wisping around the holes. "We only have one radio left, a single concussion grenade, that AK-47 you stole from the ABB guy which has a half empty magazine, and the gas masks, plus enough money to retire on. And our costumes, of course, with a few other things like this knife. Against that we have an unknown number of ABB, Oni Lee, Lung, and who knows who else wandering around outside somewhere."

Picking up the radio, which was Alec's, Rachel's one having been lost when Brutus died and she came off, and Brian's own one having taken a piece of shrapnel later, the tall boy looked at it for a moment, then tried calling Lisa. Yet again, there was no answer.

"We have no idea if she made it," Alec pointed out.

"No," his team-mate sighed. "We need to get back to the loft. Maybe she got away and will make it there as well."

"That would be a bad idea," a voice said from the dark twenty feet deeper into the wrecked building, making Alec's blood freeze in his veins and Rachel and Brian both twitch violently, the former swearing under her breath when she moved.

He knew that voice.

He'd heard it before, and still did in his nightmares.

Very slowly, he put his hand on the purloined machine gun which was sitting next to him, suppressing a wince as his bullet-wound pulled under the bandages Brian had put on it a while back and turning his head at the same time to look towards the voice. He could see two glowing yellowish eyes looking back at them.

"Feel free to shoot at me if you want, Regent, but there are two things you should consider… One is that the bullet ricochets might hit you or your friends, and the other is that half the PRT is only about a half a mile away, including Miss Militia and Armsmaster at least." The deep voice sounded amused. "The one thing it _won't_ do is inconvenience me."

"Oh, _fuck_ ," he whispered. Glancing back at his team-mates he could see both of them had wide eyes under the domino masks they were still wearing, all of them having thankfully removed the gas masks when they'd hidden in here.

"Are you here to capture us?" Brian asked, wisps of black smoke beginning to form around him.

"Not exactly, no," she replied, moving a little closer into the available light, her dark blue-black scales and armor merging with the background in an unnervingly effective manner. "Actually, I'm here to help you escape."

"… What?" Brian asked in a flat tone, as he stared at the huge creature, which had stopped moving again. His smoke traces dissipated into nothing.

"Lisa is sort of a friend of mine," she explained, making all three of the other Undersiders stare at each other in shock. "We have a mutual issue we're helping each other with. It affects you guys as well, unfortunately. But I'm not your enemy."

"Where _is_ Lisa?" Alec asked. "We lost her an hour or so ago. Do you know?"

"Yes. She's back at the Family office in the DWU facility. I had to intervene in an argument between her and Lung," Raptaur replied, making him stare. "Panacea is there, she healed her up. And her little dog too."

Rachel jerked up into a sitting position then swore violently at the pain, going white and sweating. Brian moved to support her. "Angelica? She's alive?"

"She's fine, Bitch, relax. Panacea checked her over, she was exhausted but unhurt. She even fixed her eye."

The girl stared numbly at the huge cape, then smiled very slightly, before passing out. Brian caught her as she slumped and gently laid her down again. Raptaur watched, then lifted her head, appearing to listen for a moment. She sniffed the air. "We need to go. There are some people coming, including Assault."

"This is some sort of trick," Brian said, sounding paranoid but hopeful.

She shook her head, smiling at them without showing teeth. "No trick. If I wanted to catch you, you'd never have known I was there. The offer is genuine, come with me and I'll take you to Lisa. And Panacea, who can heal you all." She looked down at Brian's leg, which was slowly dripping blood. He'd caught some shrapnel as well but it was only a flesh wound, not important enough to worry about. Alec himself had at least one bruised, possibly broken rib, plus the older injury he'd received when they'd first escaped the storm drain. He was trying, mostly successfully, to ignore the pain, but as soon as he thought about it he gasped, feeling everything come rushing back.

"I think I'd like some healing about now, Leader-man," he muttered. "I really don't feel particularly good."

"Fuck it all." Brian sighed, slumping. "OK. We'll come with you."

"Great." Raptaur moved over to them, dropping to all fours in a centauroid posture. The back of her armor changed, forming a long saddle. "You guys will have to ride, I'll carry Bitch. Grab your money if you want it. Leave anything you don't need, as long as it doesn't have fingerprints on."

Alec stared again, then looked at the bags. She obviously knew what they contained. And apparently didn't care. Shaking his head, he stood up, careful of his ribs, then helped Brian put his pack on. His team-mate returned the favor, Alec groaning in pain as he felt the load come back onto his tired and damaged body. They picked up a few odds and ends and put them in their pockets but left the gun behind. After a moment's consideration Alec grabbed all three gas-masks as well. Both of them tentatively approached Raptaur, who lowered herself to the ground fluidly, allowing them both to climb on. He was blackly amused to notice that she was a lot more comfortable than Rachel's mutated dogs.

Smoothly rising with no obvious effort under their weight, Raptaur gently picked the unconscious form of Rachel up. Judas whined as he looked up at her, his tail between his legs in a submissive display, then followed at a safe distance as she headed out of the building in a different direction than they'd come in. She could apparently see perfectly, easily picking her way through the dark debris-strewn hallways and rooms, even though he couldn't make out more than a few points of light. Shortly they were outside the decaying warehouse in a dingy and overgrown alleyway. She started trotting off away from the direction that they'd come in.

"I'll have to circle around to be safe," she explained over her shoulder. Alec and Brian both nodded, holding on and trying not to worry too much about how they were not actually sitting on top of the scariest cape they'd ever encountered.

Alec was also wondering how the hell Lisa had made friends with the reptilian woman and when.

Eventually reaching a slightly less ruined stretch of road, Raptaur accelerated carefully to a fast run, moving at about thirty miles an hour or so. Very soon after that they reached the gate to the DWU facility. The two guards there inspected her and her burden, looked at each other, and raised the barrier.

"Thanks, guys," she said as she passed through. "You didn't see anything, OK?"

"Who said that?" one of the guards asked, looking in the wrong direction with a faint grin. She chuckled and began running again. Looking over his shoulder Alec watched as they lowered the barrier and went back to their posts, not even looking at them. It was a little odd.

As was the way quite a few of the people working around the area glanced at them, then Raptaur, then went back to work without comment.

They quickly found themselves outside a roller shutter door, with a sign above it. Both Brian and Alec read it with mystification, then exchanged a glance. Alec shrugged. "Just roll with it," he said wryly.

"That usually works," Raptaur said, lowering herself again so they could get off. When they were standing on the ground again, she knocked on the pedestrian door next to the large workshop one. It opened seconds later a little, a very large black man peering out, then pulling the door wide.

"Hi, Zephron," Raptaur greeted him.

"Hi," he replied, stepping aside as she carried Rachel in, carefully maneuvering her feet around the door frame, then waited for Alec and Brian to come in as well before he closed the door again and locked it. "Danny asked me to keep Panacea company in case there was any trouble."

"Thanks," the reptilian woman smiled, moving over to a large table against the wall, which was surrounded by half a dozen chairs, in one of which Lisa was deeply asleep, snoring a little, with her legs up on another. She put the girl in her arms down on the table with care, then stepped back. "This is Bitch, Regent, and Grue of the Undersiders," she added, indicating them in turn. "Neighbors of ours."

"I'm aware of them," Zephron said with a small smile. "Are they the cause of all the excitement?"

"Sort of," she laughed. "Lung didn't like them visiting him unexpectedly."

"The man takes his privacy seriously," Zephron nodded wisely. "But he does tend to over-react."

"That he does. But we had words and he left." She shrugged a little. "Hopefully he'll keep his promise."

She turned to Alec and Brian who were listening with oddly calm interest, Alec at least having decided he was too tired and in too much pain to care about it making sense or not. "Sit down before you fall down, guys."

Both of them thankfully dropped their packs to the floor and collapsed into two of the remaining chairs, just as a brunette girl came out of the separate room construction on the other side of the huge main room, stopping for a moment and inspecting them, before approaching. She glanced at Raptaur, showing nothing other than obvious comfortable friendship. "Where did you find them?"

"Out in the wasteland to the north in a collapsing storage building," Raptaur replied, picking up both bags and moving them to the side next to Lisa's one, which Alec finally noticed. She left them there and came back, dropping to the floor at the end of the table. "I found what was left of Oni Lee as well. And one of Bitch's dogs, plus two dead gangers."

"Oni Lee's dead?" all four conscious people asked at once.

"Extremely. As in several pieces."

Alec sighed in relief, meeting Brian's eyes. "It actually worked. That's why he stopped following us."

Recovering from her surprise, the brunette girl who Alec realized was Panacea, moved to put her hands on Rachel. She frowned. "I need some tweezers," she said to Raptaur, then turned to Zephron who was standing next to her. "Could you roll her over onto her side, please? Carefully."

"OK," he replied, doing exactly that without fuss, then holding her in place as the girl accepted the shiny tweezers that her friend handed her. Alec wondered where they'd come from, since she hadn't had anything in her hands up until then.

Panacea pulled Rachel's shirt up, exposing her back, and a bleeding wound a couple of inches to the right side of her spine. Keeping one hand on the other girl's side, she probed with the instrument for a few seconds, then retracted it, a half-inch long piece of metal gripped in it. The wound closed up behind the tweezers leaving no trace other than the blood. "Thanks, you can let her down again."

Zephron did as requested then stepped back, watching as Panacea finished healing the girl. When she was done, he picked her up and put her into one of the chairs, Panacea lifting her legs and rolling another one under them, then reclining the chair as much as possible. "She needs sleep and food, same as that one," the healer said, nodding towards Lisa. "But she'll be fine." She looked at Alec and Brian. "You next, I think. Are you OK with me healing you?"

"I would be very pleased if you did that," he said with his most winning smile, then winced. "As soon as possible, ideally."

With a tiny grin she put her hand on his neck. The relief of the abrupt lack of pain nearly made him faint. "Oh, thank _god_. Marry me."

She laughed. "Thanks for the offer," she giggled, as she removed her hand. "I'm afraid you're not my type, though."

"Pity." His smile was genuine and a lot less forced.

Shaking her head, she asked Brian for his permission, then fixed him as well. When she was done, she sat down in the remaining chair. "You didn't bring food," she commented to her reptilian friend.

"I was a little busy. I can go and get something from the cafeteria."

"I'll do it," Zephron volunteered, heading to the door. "I'll let Danny know you're back with visitors."

"Thanks, Zephron," she said with a reptilian smile. When he was gone, she turned back to study them.

"OK. You're safe as long as you're here, my word on it. Like I said, I'm not your enemy and I don't care about what you took from Lung. _He_ does, quite a lot, so if I were you I'd stay well away from him, as I can't completely guarantee that the deal I came to with him will hold if he sees you. But you're free to leave if you want." She cocked her head a little to the side. "Although I wouldn't recommend it with the PRT around. From what I know about you, Grue is sort of wanted in a fairly low key way for a few robberies and things like that, no one seems to care about you, Regent, or Tattletale, but Bitch there is wanted for murder."

Alec and Brian exchanged a glance. "There are extenuating circumstances in her case," Brian said slowly. "Not that it really helps her, since no one will listen."

"I'm happy to, although I can't guarantee to help," she replied.

"It's her story to tell."

"Fair enough."

Alec sighed a little. "Personally, I don't feel up to going anywhere right now. This chair is comfortable, I'm exhausted, and someone mentioned food."

Panacea smiled, as Raptaur snickered. "The food here is pretty good, you'll like it."

Brian looked at him, then them, then their team-mates, who were snoring in weird synchronicity. Finally he shook his head, leaning forward with his head supported by his hands, his elbows on the table. "I just don't want to run any more, I can hardly stand up. And riding the dogs was getting very old very fast. At least here no one is shooting at us."

"Good point," Alec said, leaning back and resting his eyes. "I don't like being shot _at_. I _hate_ being shot."

"You should probably find a different line of work, then," Panacea's voice said with sarcastic amusement. He nodded without opening his eyes.

"I've certainly started to think that in the last couple of hours."

He lay there for a while, hearing her get up and walk away, Raptaur going with her. There was a low murmur of voices on the other side of the room for a while, which he was too tired to even try to listen too. When he looked a few minutes later the two were inspecting Judas, who seemed to enjoy the attention, and Brian was snoozing with his head on the table.

Wondering how the events of the last half hour had happened, Alec closed his eyes again and fell asleep.

* * *

Assault looked around the empty and dangerously close to collapse wood and stone building, then up at the ceiling, which intermittently dripped revolting things on him. "How the hell is this place still standing?" he wondered out loud.

"There's nearly half a square mile of similar ones here," the PRT sergeant standing next to him commented. "They do fall down sometimes. Even the Merchants and the homeless don't stay in them, it's too dangerous." Both of them were watching the four other troopers who were carefully searching the building with the aid of bright flashlights.

"Someone should do something about it," he muttered, irritably wiping water from his visor as a particularly large and disgusting drip landed on it, bringing down a fair amount of old pigeon output.

"No money and no one cares," the other man shrugged. "They're been rotting away for fifty years since the shipping business started to drop off."

"All we can find is this, sir," one of the troopers called, holding up an AK-47 and a transparent plastic bag filled with wrappings from bandages and bloody cloths. "Lots of small bits of garbage, the rifle, and footprints in the crap on the floor. Three people, a dog, and..." He looked down at the floor. "And a dinosaur, I think."

"The dog would be one of Hellhound's, if we really are following the Undersiders," the sergeant said thoughtfully. "Which would fit the dead one we found, and that pile of goo outside. That's what happens when one of her dogs reverts to normal."

Assault nodded. "It fits. Kind of." Then the trooper's other words sunk in. "What do you mean, a dinosaur?" he asked curiously, going over to take a look. The man pointed at three-toed clawed impressions in the revolting crud covering parts of the floor. They were enormous.

"Either that or a very big chicken," the man said.

Staring at the footprints, Assault felt his heart sink a little. He'd seen feet that could leave prints like that before, recently. "It's Raptaur," he said slowly.

"Oh, _shit_ ," the trooper replied, whipping his flashlight up and waving the beam around. His colleagues all did the same, the dancing lights spooking some pigeons but showing nothing else. "I really don't want to run into _her_ in a dark place. She's worse than Saurial and _she_ scares the shit out of me." He sounded worried.

"Calm down, I doubt she's here, and she's a hero anyway," Assault laughed. "Sort of. But I wonder how she's involved in all this."

"We don't even know what ' _all this_ ' is aside from a massive attack by the ABB that somehow left Oni Lee in pieces," the sergeant commented.

"True enough. OK, guys, let's see where these footprints go."

"Do we have to, sir?" one of the troopers joked, making them all smile.

"Unfortunately, yes," he told them. They followed the prints, which were the only ones now other than those of a normal sized dog, through the building and out the back into an ancient alley, then down it to a rough concrete road, cracked and with plants growing out of it. As soon as the mud and overgrowth ceased, so did the prints.

Assault looked both ways. One eventually led into the Ship's Graveyard, the other wound around through the entire Docks until it would finally end up somewhere near the DWU facility. "Any ideas?" he asked.

"Could have gone either way," the sergeant noted. "Plenty of places to hide to the north, all the old ships and so on. Lots of warehouses in the other direction as well, some of them are still in pretty good condition."

"Assuming they're hiding," Assault replied slowly. "It looks like Raptaur is probably carrying three people, there were no other footprints, aside from the dog."

"Maybe she ate them and is going home to sleep it off?" the trooper with a sense of humor asked. Everyone looked at him.

"I really wish you hadn't said that," Assault sighed. "Now I can't stop thinking about it."

"Thanks, Mike," one of the other troopers grumbled. "What a great idea to give us while we're _tracking that same cape!_ You idiot."

The man shrugged. "We were all thinking it."

"Yes, but _you_ said it."

They continued arguing in a low voice, until the sergeant gave them a meaningful look and cleared his throat. Assault pulled out his encrypted PRT phone and poked the screen twice, before putting it to his ear.

" _What have you found, Assault?_ " Armsmaster's voice said without preamble when he answered.

"An AK, evidence that at least one person was fairly badly wounded and patched up, a few bits and pieces of garbage, and no people," he reported. "We think it was three of the Undersiders, including Bitch." He hesitated. "There's evidence that Raptaur probably helped them."

A moment's pause was followed by one word. " _Explain_."

He did. Armsmaster was silent again for a few seconds. " _Interesting_."

"Concerning, I'd have said, myself," he commented. "If she goes bad, we're all in a world of hurt."

" _I very much doubt that would happen, having met her and talked to he_ r," Armsmaster replied confidently. " _I believe she is no villain. But she has her own ethical code and it doesn't seem to necessarily distinguish between our normal ideas of heroes and villains. If she's helping these people, there's a good reason for it_."

"You sound very sure of that."

" _I am. I have my own reasons for trusting her, at least to a point_."

"What have you found on your end?" Assault asked, wondering what those reasons were but knowing he wasn't likely to find out right now.

" _It's definitely Oni Lee. He was killed by three of his own grenades. He was holding two when they went off, the explosion was close enough to another on his belt that it resulted in a sympathetic detonation. He died immediately_."

Assault winced. "Why would he make a mistake like that? He's been using that technique for years."

" _We found three empty gas grenades in the immediate proximity. Initial tests show they contained a powerful sedative most likely of Tinker origin. I believe that whoever he was fighting set them off, probably covering them with smoke grenades which we've also found evidence for to prevent the gas being noticed, while they were defending themselves against the ABB. He teleported in with the grenades armed and lost consciousness before he could teleport away again_."

"Shit. That's… sort of sneaky, actually."

" _It was a very efficient plan which worked well_ ," Armsmaster agreed. " _I suspect that technically this will be noted as suicide. He pulled the pins himself and merely failed to escape in time._ "

"What about the dead gangers?"

" _They were the victim of their own people, the preliminary scans show 7.62mm rounds in the bodies. Fired from close range, behind them. Again, probably due to not being able to see. Smoke, or if it is the Undersiders, Grue's power. Or both. I suspect they were so aggressive they kept shooting even when they couldn't see a target._ "

"Friendly fire. Ironic." Assault sighed. "OK, it all fits. We're heading back, there's no point poking around out here randomly if we don't know where she went. Anything else show up?"

" _Miss Militia reported that she'd found some recently burned warehouses near the shore about three quarters of a mile from this location, which had been extinguished with a large quantity of seawater,_ " Armsmaster replied, sounding slightly puzzled. " _We have no idea how it got there. There is ample evidence to show it was Lung's work. Footprints and other traces show that he was fighting Raptaur, and one other person, currently unknown._ "

"She's certainly been hard at work," Assault commented as he and the troopers began heading back towards the main scene.

" _Apparently so. I am interested in why, and how she defeated Lung. There is no trace of him on site_."

"We'll be with you in about ten minutes," the red-clad cape said, then disconnected. He could make it much faster on his own but there was no reason to go on ahead. The small party of PRT personnel, containment foam projectors and more lethal weapons ready, kept moving through the old buildings and twisty alleys, all of them wondering if Raptaur or her sister were in fact watching them.

And what had actually happened in that building...

* * *

Going over to the door when she heard her father and Zephron approaching it, talking quietly together, Taylor opened it and waved them through. Both men were carrying boxes which smelled of various hot meals, and the latter had a bag over his shoulder which seemed to have a number of soft drink cans and water bottles in based on the sounds. "Come in," she said as she closed the door. "Put it down on the table."

They did so, none of the Undersiders waking up, as Amy had made sure they'd sleep for a while, both to give them privacy and to let them recover. All four of them, aside from the injuries, had been running purely on adrenaline at the end, according to her friend. Both dogs were curled up on the floor under the table having apparently accepted the situation.

Amy came out of the workroom and locked the door behind her, having been doing a little more work on their current project while they waited. She smiled at the two men.

"Hi, Danny," she said, coming over. He smiled back, opening the box he'd been carrying and lifting out a number of disposable containers, putting them on the table. Zephron did the same. "What have you got?"

"Mac and cheese, chicken curry of some sort, with rice, beef stew and baked potatoes, some salads, and some fries," he told them, pointing to each in turn. Zephron unloaded a dozen cans of various drinks and as many bottles of water, along with cutlery and pepper and salt shakers. "That should be enough for everyone. We can always get more, the cafeteria's open all night as long as we're working."

"Great. Thanks for that, I was starving, and these guys are going to need a lot of food when they wake up." Amy checked her watch. "In about twenty minutes, that should be enough for the moment."

"OK." Both men sat down, Taylor having made some more chairs in the last half hour in preparation for them. "Tell me what's going on, please."

Taylor, still in the Raptaur body and relaxing on the floor, shrugged. "I'm not entirely certain. These guys robbed Lung, that much I know. They got away, or more accurately, nearly got away, with something like seven hundred and fifty grand." Both her father's and Zephron's eyes widened. "It's in those bags over there by the wall."

"There's _three quarters of a million dollars_ over there?" her father said in a shocked voice.

"Yep, I checked," Amy put in, looking at the containers of food before picking the beef stew and pulling a container of it towards her. She opened it, sniffed, and then picked up a fork. "Wrapped bundles of fifties and hundreds. Used bills. We think it was probably drug money or something, considering where it came from."

"Jesus. No wonder Lung was pissed," Zephron said in wondering tones. "These guys are in trouble."

"Hopefully not so much now that Lung and I came to an arrangement," Taylor commented, looking at the food herself, then picking up a container of curry and eating it whole. Everyone looked at her. Amy sighed, smiling, and shook her head.

Her father stared for a moment then visibly dismissed the peculiarities of his daughter's eating habits. "What sort of an arrangement?" he asked.

"He acknowledges that this area is the Family's, leaves, and doesn't come back, and I don't eat him," Taylor shrugged, trying a container of stew. The curry was better.

"Oh, god," her father sighed, while Zephron, after staring in amazement, laughed like an idiot.

"That must have been something to see," the man snickered. She grinned at him.

"He seemed to take it in the spirit I meant it as."

"You mean, as in he believed it?"

"Pretty much." She followed the food with a can of coke, liking the tingle of the drink mixed with the taste of the aluminum.

"Can you please stop eating everything, it's making me a little nauseous," her father requested with a small sigh. She nodded, folding her arms on the table. Zephron emitted a deep chuckle and selected some mac and cheese. Amy was just watching with a look of amusement.

"So you're helping them why?" her father asked as he gave in to hunger and pulled a container of curry to himself. "I mean, they are technically criminals. And they just proved it."

"Well, Tattletale over there and I have some history as you know," she said, motioning to Lisa, who was still snoring regularly and faintly, but looked a lot more relaxed now. He nodded. She'd told him quite a lot of the conversation she'd had with the blonde, although not her civilian ID or some of the personal things the girl had told her.

"I didn't want to see them killed, especially like that," she explained. "Lung was only seconds from killing Tattletale when I jumped him. These guys were all injured and it was probably only a matter of time until either the ABB or the PRT got them. I'm not sure which would be worse. Bitch is wanted for murder, although Grue said that it wasn't quite that simple. Knowing how weird the cape life is, I can believe that there's something wrong with it. It's the PRT who said she killed someone, after all, and we already know they'll take advantage of a situation involving a cape it if benefits them."

"You're certainly not wrong there," he admitted. They'd talked about the PRT a lot since she'd merged with the Varga, after that first conversation, and it was fair to say that he wasn't entirely a fan of the organization. She'd discovered that attitude wasn't particularly uncommon among either the police or the DWU members over the last few weeks, for very similar reasons in both cases.

"Anyway, until I find out what's going on, I thought they'd be safer here. Amy healed them all, and the two surviving dogs. I wouldn't be surprised if the PRT turns up here sooner or later, I left a trail that was hard to miss so they'll know who found them first. There's no point trying to hide it as far as I can see, that would get insanely complicated very quickly. Hopefully they won't push too hard at first."

"If they do?"

"I tell them to go away. This is Family business right now." She shrugged a little. "I think they'll listen at least for a little while, I confuse them."

"You confuse everyone," Amy grinned.

"One of my many superpowers," she replied with a laugh. "Anyway, Armsmaster wants something from me and he's a rational person. I think I can talk to him sensibly. We have information that they'll want, as well, so with any luck we can use that if we have to."

"OK." Her father ate some curry, studying the four sleeping people. "That explains some of it. What about Oni Lee?"

"That part I have no real clue about," she admitted. "From what Grue said, they had a plan to stop him following them, but he hasn't said yet what it was. I think they weren't sure it would work, I heard them speculating that Oni Lee was still out there looking for them. They didn't know the ABB and Lung pulled out."

"Right, then, I guess we should hear their side of it," he finally said, finishing his meal. He picked up a bottle of water and unscrewed the top, taking a drink, then turned to Amy. "Can you wake them up?"

"Yes," she replied, getting up and moving to each Undersider in turn, putting her hand on their necks for a few seconds. By the time she finished and sat down again to continue eating, they were all stirring.


	71. Questions and Answers

Blinking, Brian looked around, then sat up abruptly when he saw that he was being watched by not only Panacea and Raptaur, but that guy Zephron, who looked amused at his reaction, and a tall skinny guy with glasses and thinning hair who was watching him with thoughtful consideration. He didn't look like much, but somehow Brian felt it would be a bad idea to underestimate him. There was an air of someone who had a core of steel about the man.

Alec, Lisa, and Rachel were all moving and mumbling as well. He looked at each of them in turn, seeing that they were all still wearing what they had been when they fell asleep and as far as he could see none of their masks had been interfered with. The bags of money were still where they'd been as well. A sound from under the table let him know where Angelica and Judas were.

Rachel suddenly sat bolt upright, looked wildly around, spotted her friends, then listened, before smiling a little and disappearing under the table as well. Everyone stared at her empty chair, then him.

"Ah… she's really attached to her dogs," he tried. They kept staring. " _Really_ attached. _"_

There were whimpering sounds and the noises of the dogs licking her face. He bent down, peered under the table, then straightened up with a small sigh. "She may be some time."

"Food!" Alec snapped awake, sniffed, and dived for the table. Brian suddenly noticed that there was a pile of takeout containers there, still warm and radiating appetizing smells. Panacea was eating from one of them which seemed to contain some sort of stew, and there were empty ones in front of Zephron and the other guy.

"Help yourselves," Raptaur invited with a wave of her hand. "We can get more if you want it."

Brian got up and leaned over the table, as she pointed out what was what. Taking some curry and rice he sat down again thankfully, still feeling bone-tired but much more alert, and so hungry he was almost ready to eat his own feet.

The curry was a much tastier alternative and more convenient in all respects.

Lisa made a grunting sound and opened her eyes, then sat up. She glanced around, smiled at them with what looked like relief, nodded to Raptaur, then moved her chair closer so she could get something to eat as well. "Thanks," she said through a mouthful of stew.

"You're welcome," Raptaur replied. She indicated the new man, who was watching with alert eyes over a small smile. "This is Danny Hebert, pretty much the top man at the DWU. Danny, this is Grue, Tattletale, Regent, and under the table is Bitch, the Undersiders. Neighbors of ours to the south-west."

"Nice to meet you all," Danny said politely, watching them eat. "I have no problem with you being here, but I _would_ like to know what happened. The PRT will be poking around sooner or later, probably sooner, and I need to know how much trouble to expect _."_

"You're not going to turn us over to them?" Alec asked, finally slowing slightly from his frantic shoveling of food into his mouth. He reached for a can of sprite which Zephron pushed towards him.

Danny shook his head. "No. Raptaur gave her word that you were safe and I'll honor that outside this room, as long as you promise not to cause trouble for the DWU or any of my people. I have no problems with you myself."

Brian looked around at his friends. Lisa nodded, Alec shrugged, and Rachel's hand came out from under the table, gave him a thumb's up, groped around and grabbed a can of coke, and disappeared again. He stared for a moment. The girl was getting weirder.

"We promise not to cause trouble," he sighed, shaking his head. Lisa grinned at him.

"Good enough. So, what happened? How the hell did you end up with all that money, and how did Oni Lee end up dead?"

After a moment, Brian began explaining the sequence of events that led them to being there, including a brief description of their powers for context. It took some time, although that did at least allow them to eat all the remaining food.

* * *

Taylor listened to the story that Brian took turns with Lisa to tell with interest. She'd recognized the boy from the mall from the time over a month ago when she'd been there with her father, of course, and still thought he was pretty good eye-candy. Not quite her ideal type, but pleasant to look at. And he had a nice voice as well.

Not as nice as Über's, but nice.

" _The plan Lisa came up with sounds quite good,_ " the Varga commented, " _Although by the sound of it they made a number of mistakes in executing it. The main one being not having any backup for in case someone came in while they were in the building. Without that setback I expect they would have made a clean getaway._ _"_

' _Sound like bad luck more than anything else_ _,_ ' she replied. ' _Another thirty seconds and they might have made it. By the time the ABB worked out where they'd come in and left through they'd have been too far away to catch up to. Leaving the manhole open didn't help, but Lisa was right, they didn't have time to close it and by then it wouldn't have helped anyway, even if they'd just jumped down the hole as soon as they heard the door open_ _.'_

" _No, I think you're right. Probably their second biggest mistake was not being sufficiently suspicious about the vastly larger amount of money on the premises. And the excessive security for the safe. I don't think booby-trapping the door with explosives is standard practice in general unless you are both very paranoid and have something very valuable to hide._ _"_

' _It does sound like overkill_ _,_ ' she agreed. ' _Anyone but Lisa would probably have fallen for it._ _'_

" _If Coil did indeed plant the documents Lisa mentioned finding as a trap for them, or an excuse for the raid, which amounts to the same thing, it will be interesting to see if they amount to anything in themselves._ _"_

' _Maybe they really were stolen, and he just used this as a test or something?_ ' she mused. ' _Or just maybe it was exactly what it looked like and things just went out of control. Sometimes that happens, not everything is a plot_ _.'_

" _That's true, although with someone like Coil who seems to love elaborate plans, it's difficult to take anything at face value._ " The Varga sounded a little dubious. " _He's a mastermind-type. They always have plans on top of plans. That can be a weakness, if you just smash right through they sometimes waste time trying to work out which plan to use, but it does tend to make them difficult to track down in the first place. Especially when they have some form of I-always-win power. Whatever it actually is_ _."_

 _'I've looked everywhere I can find online and no one seems to know anything about the guy,_ ' she sighed. ' _There are very few actual facts about him, only speculation. And he's also been very quiet for the last month._ ' She thought for a moment. ' _In fact, almost exactly since we met. A few days after, then he went off grid. Weird_ _.'_

" _I wonder if there is a connection?_ " the Varga remarked slowly. " _If his power is some form of probability manipulation, or something similar to that, my presence could have caused him some trouble. Demons such as myself cause odd effects to certain aspects of causality in our immediate vicinity. It's a side effect of our inherent magical field_ _."_

' _Really?_ ' Taylor thought about that idea. ' _That could explain some of the odd coincidences that seem to be happening, like bumping into people at just the right time. Lucy, for example. She picked a very convenient time to get mugged, right when Amy and I were walking past_ _.'_

" _It's not impossible, but coincidences happen all the time without demons being involved_ _,_ " her companion chuckled. " _Don't seize on that fact as the cause of every strange thing that happens to us. In your world, weird things happen a lot from what I've seen_ _."_

She snickered, agreeing entirely, then concentrated on Brian and Lisa's explanation, which had reached the point they ambushed Oni Lee.

"We noticed that when he was teleporting around, at first he pulled the pins when he arrived, then went off bang," Alec explained. "The clones only last for a few seconds. I started messing with him as soon as he appeared, which fucked up his clone's control enough that they vanished before they could get the pin out, or before the grenade could detonate instead of vanishing. I think it pissed him off so much that eventually he changed tactics, he pulled the pins first, _then_ teleported in and out. If I messed with him at that point he'd just drop them and they'd go off. He nearly got us with that one."

"But that would leave the real Oni Lee holding a pair of armed grenades, surely?" her father asked, looking surprised.

"Sure. But no one ever accused that lunatic of playing with a full deck," Alec shrugged. "I guess he was planning on just tossing them when he got us and ducking, or dropping them and teleporting away quickly. Or just getting someone else to put the pins back in. They're not going to go off until he lets go of them after all. Who knows? But it gave Brian an idea, based on something Tats said earlier. We had three of those gas grenades left and the stuff works really quick, like a few seconds or so, if you get a good lung full of it."

"We met up with Rachel, or she found us, actually, after Brutus was killed," Brian put in, taking up the explanation. "That was in that little courtyard thing at the end of the alley. The fog was pretty thick, so we popped all the remaining smoke grenades around the edges of the place when the ABB caught up with us and started shooting. I suppose that's when those two guys got shot by their own people. Oni Lee started popping in and out like an idiot, pretty much randomly, there were grenades going off all over. We kept down, since he couldn't see us, and I used a little of my smoke to make it even harder for him to find us." He held up a hand, black smoke pooling in it from nowhere and drifting down to the table where it spread out and then disappeared.

"After he'd done it a dozen times or so we figured he was probably used to it and not expecting anything, working on the basis that sooner or later he'd get lucky. He needed line of sight, so he was aiming for the places there was no smoke. At that point we set off the gas grenades in the middle of the courtyard and ran, laying smoke behind us. It wouldn't last long in the open like that but it didn't need to. We heard three more explosions then it went quiet, except for some shooting. I guess that the other ABB were far enough away that the gas didn't get them all, or they woke up before Saurial got there." He looked at her. "Is she here?"

Taylor shook her head, hiding an inner grin and seeing that Lisa looked away for a moment. "No, she called me and told me about it, I went to find you. She had other things to do at that point."

He nodded absently, picking up another can of coke and popping the tab, then drinking.

"We didn't actually expect to get him, really," he finished. "We hoped we would, but it was at least as much luck as good judgment. If we hadn't noticed that he was doing something really stupid it might not have worked."

"You could still have stopped him even so, I think," her father said with a thoughtful look. "He'd still have been a victim of the gas. One way or the other you'd probably have escaped."

"But he'd have woken up and started looking for us, which might well have ended badly," Brian replied with a sigh. "By that point we were all right on our limit. Bitch was hurt pretty badly, Regent wasn't much better, and my leg was killing me." He looked down at the floor, where Judas was now lying on his back, asleep with all his legs in the air. "The dog was running on empty as well. How he managed to keep up with you on the way here I have no idea, Raptaur."

"Tough little thing," she said a little guiltily. She'd not really considered that the dog would have trouble keeping up with her sprint here, since by her terms she was going pretty slowly. "But I should have gone slower. Sorry, Dog."

The animal merely snorted in its sleep, its legs twitching. Rachel pulled herself out from under the table where she'd been sitting next to Angelica, the dog with its head in her lap. She looked at Amy for a long moment, then nodded to her. Amy smiled back. Sitting down, the girl picked up the last bottle of water and drank most of it. Brian had passed her down some food earlier when it became clear she wasn't coming out until she was satisfied her dogs were all right.

"That's more or less it. You found us half an hour or so later. Now here we are. What next?"

She looked around at them, then to her father and Amy. Zephron, who had been listening quietly with an interested look, cleared his throat, making everyone turn to look at him.

"If I can make an observation, I would think it's very dangerous to go back to your base. Lung probably knows more or less where it is, everyone around here has a vague idea at least and I can't believe his intelligence is less effective than ours is. The man is many things but stupid isn't one of them. Even with his truce with Raptaur, I think it would be a bad idea to push your luck."

"That's true, unfortunately," Lisa sighed. "There are other reasons as well. But I don't think we can risk it, guys. Sorry."

"Shit." Brian looked at them, then Alec, who seemed resigned. Rachel shrugged, scowling.

"I've got some good stuff there," Alec muttered.

"Anything worth dying for?" Amy asked acidly. He stared at her for a moment, then shook his head.

"Not really, although the TV is sweet." His eyes widened for a moment. "My savegames! Those took _weeks_ of work."

"Idiot," Bitch muttered, making him grin at her.

"You can afford new video games and a TV, I think" Taylor's father pointed out, nodding to the vast sums of cash on the other side of the room.

"Oh, right," Alec smiled. "I forgot we were filthy rich."

"Where are we going to stay?" Brian asked. "We can afford a hotel or even a house, but the same problem applies."

Taylor looked at her father, who looked back, then sighed. "You stay here for the moment. Well, not _here_ , there aren't any useful facilities, but we have a dormitory block for onsite workers during big projects. It's hardly used these days, because until this week there haven't been any big projects for years. There are beds, in rooms containing six each, all the facilities you need, things like that. It should do for now until we figure out what to do next."

Brian stared at him, then looked at his team-mates who were all staring as well. "Are you sure about that, Mr Hebert? It's a very generous offer."

Her father waved at her. "Raptaur vouches for you and I trust her judgment. You're under her protection, the Family are friends of the DWU, and we help each other. But listen to me; you keep your heads down. Don't cause trouble, don't do anything to bring trouble here. If you do, I'll be very annoyed. You _don't_ want that." He fixed each of them in turn with a look that promised something bad would happen. Taylor was very impressed how dangerous he looked at that moment, and proud.

"We understand, Sir," Brian said respectfully, nodding his thanks.

"Good. Now we need to work out what to tell the PRT."

"Better work it out quickly," Taylor sighed as she heard something familiar outside, approaching from the direction of the main gate. "Armsmaster is coming."

Everyone looked at her for a moment, then turned to stare at the door. "What about our costumes?" Alec asked.

"No time for that. Damn it. I don't really want the PRT seeing us like this," Brian replied with a frown. "These domino masks aren't ideal."

"Here," Taylor said, handing them each a quickly made mask with eye, nose, and mouth holes and straps to hold them on, but otherwise featureless. "This is better than nothing. He's nearly outside."

All of them except Rachel put the masks on. She looked at it, then shrugged. "Don't need it," she said. "They know what I look like."

Shortly there was a firm knock. With a shrug, she got up to answer it. "This weekend seems to have become a lot more complicated than I was expecting," she mumbled as she headed over to the door.

Before she opened it, she glanced at Amy, then the bags of money. Her friend nodded, quickly shuttling them into the workroom and then locking the door again.

Unlocking the door she pulled it open, then smiled broadly. "Armsmaster! How nice to see you again so soon. And you brought Miss Militia with you. Come on in, we were just talking about you."

* * *

Colin watched as the PRT coroner loaded the last of the bodies into the van, then got in as well. The vehicle began slowly driving out of the confined space of the loading area down the access alley, a task made difficult due to the debris scattered around, old junk mixed with bits of collapsed wall and fragments caused by explosions. He looked around again in case something had been missed, not seeing anything. Walking over to where Oni Lee's body had been found he stared at the ground reflectively for a while, thinking.

A familiar engine sound approached slowly, then stopped. He looked around to see Hannah getting off her own ' _official_ ' motorcycle, the one she rode in her cape persona. Behind her was the PRT vehicle with several troopers in that had gone to investigate the burned-out warehouses at what they assumed from the evidence was Lung's encounter with Raptaur. She walked over and joined him looking at the small crater splashed with an appalling amount of blood.

"How do you think it happened?" she asked. "I can't quite see it myself, unless he was holding a pair of grenades with the pins already out when he teleported in, which would be a very stupid thing to do."

"Normally I'd agree, but this is Oni Lee we're talking about. He wasn't renowned for high intelligence," Colin replied absently, looking around. He knelt down and poked the ground. "I'm fairly sure that he fell face down onto the grenades before they detonated. The blast flipped him over onto his back, and the confined explosion did even more damage than it would otherwise have done. The coroner says his hands and most of his arms were more or less vaporized. The secondary blast from the third grenade is probably the one that actually killed him."

Standing up, he shook his head a little. "I can see several possible ways this could have happened. The obvious one is that he did in fact arrive in the gas cloud with armed grenades in his hands, passed out, and landed on them, releasing the spoons in the process. That fits the observed data perfectly. _WHY_ he would do something that dangerous I don't know."

Looking at her, he went on, "Another possibility is that they were on his bandoleer, he was holding them tightly ready to pull them off and release the pins, and in the process of passing out from the sedative did exactly that but couldn't then teleport away. The gas would take a few seconds to cause unconsciousness but it would disorientate and disable someone who inhaled more than a small amount almost instantly. Or he might have successfully teleported into and out of it several times until the concentration became high enough he passed out in the middle of doing it. But we don't really know. And unless we can find a witness, we may never know."

"At least he's dead," his colleague noted. "Which will please a lot of people."

"Yes," he agreed. "There was no kill order on him at the moment, but he was a very small step from that. There was certainly a significant reward for his capture and I suspect that ' _alive_ ' could be considered optional for the most part."

"Are we sure it was the Undersiders the ABB was chasing?"

"Assault seems to think so. He's fairly sure that Hellhound was in that building he tracked three people from here to, based on the evidence he found. He's also almost certain that Raptaur took them away. Or ate them."

Hannah gained an odd expression, making him study her. It seemed to be part revulsion, part worry, and part fear to him, although he would be the first to admit that expressions were not his strong point. Especially when all he could see of the face in question was from half-way up the nose up. "God, I hope it's not the second one," she muttered.

"I highly doubt it is," he replied, turning and heading to his bike. "I'm going to go and find out."

"You know where she is?" she asked curiously.

"I have a good idea, yes." Getting on the machine he started it. "Are you coming with me?"

"I think I should. You might need backup."

"Raptaur is very unlikely to attack either of us," he replied, feeling confident in his statement. "And if she did, there is little doubt that neither one of us could do much more than retreat. Not if she successfully fought Lung off."

"Even so, I'd feel better if I came with you," she told him. Going over to the PRT vehicle she told them to return to base, then got on her own bike and started it. "Where are we going?"

"BBFO premises, in the DWU compound," he said. Turning his bike around he rumbled and jolted over the terrible surface until he was on the smoother road, then sped up, aiming towards the more civilized parts of the docks. Although that was a relative term if he'd ever heard one.

When they arrived at the main gate, the guards acknowledged them politely and opened the barrier although he saw that one of them was talking to someone on his radio. As had happened the last time he'd been here, he could nearly _feel_ several sets of eyes watching them as they drove slowly around the main complex. He was somewhat surprised to see how much progress the workers had made in clearing away the remains of the demolished warehouses. Several gangs of men and women were working assiduously on them, bright yellow machinery moving to and fro with purpose.

Entering the side yard where the BBFO building was, he parked his bike and switched it off. Hannah drew up next to him, staring at the sign above the door. She seemed confused and oddly worried. Turning her own bike off she got off and followed him to the door.

Raising an armored hand, he knocked firmly on the metal, the sound echoing around the yard. A couple of workers were watching from other buildings but didn't approach. After a short delay the door was swung open and the enormous scaly form of Raptaur replaced it, blocking the entrance nearly as effectively. She looked down at both of them and made what was probably to her a wide smile, which had many, many teeth in it. Very sharp ones.

Her cheery greeting made his companion twitch. Less affected, having become used to her more than he'd expected, he followed the huge lizard into the building as she moved away to allow them entrance. When they were inside she reached past them and closed the door again, then waved at the table, around which were sitting several people. Colin recognized Danny Hebert and Amy Dallon, who were curiously watching him and Hannah, who was staring at the posters on the walls which seemed to have caught her attention.

There was also a remarkably large man of African-American descent who was watching everything with alert eyes and a small smile, while sipping a water bottle. He nodded to Colin and Hannah respectfully, but didn't say anything, and didn't take his eyes off them.

The other four people were all dressed in black military-style overalls, with webbing vests over their torsos, thin gloves, and military pattern boots, three of them wearing blank masks that completely covered their faces. Two males and two females. The shorter of the two females, a stocky and powerfully built girl he recognized immediately as Rachel Lindt, AKA Hellhound, had no mask on other than a small domino one which did little to cover her face, and seemed complete unconcerned about it. She met his eyes defiantly, making no move to get up, although he saw how she glanced at the taller of the two males, who he assumed from context was Grue, then Raptaur, before slightly relaxing from the tense ready position she'd started to assume. It was interesting.

These were the Undersiders, obviously. So it was them that Assault had tracked, and Raptaur had not in fact eaten them, she'd spirited them away and presumably had Panacea heal them, as none of the four showed any signs of injuries. Their clothing was torn, damp, muddy, and in all cases bloodstained in several places, giving all the indications of people who had seen recent combat at a fairly significant level. Which also fitted.

Next to the table two dogs were sitting close to Hellhound watching the two new arrivals closely, one of them growling until the girl tapped it and said something in a low voice. It looked at her, then back at them, before settling down with its chin on its paws.

All three of the others were watching them warily, based on their eyes, which was about all the masks showed. There were wisps of Grue's smoke collecting around him. Tattletale glanced at Raptaur as well, then looked at Danny Hebert, before rather interestingly relaxing completely, a smile forming on her barely visible mouth.

"Hellhound," Hannah stated when she noticed the girl in question, finally tearing her gaze from the posters and taking a step forward, her power forming a handgun which she half-raised. "You are wanted for the murder..." That was as far as she got before a massive reptilian extremity wrapped around her weapon and hand as if it was a toy gun in the hand of a toddler and as immovably as if it was embedded in steel, halting her in her tracks instantly.

"No. You will put the weapon in your hand away, or I will remove it," Raptaur rumbled, sounding mildly annoyed.

Hannah tried to free her hand with no effect, then glared at the cape holding her. "You realize you _can't_ take my weapon away?"

"I was referring to the hand." The enormous lizard-like head lowered, baring teeth. It wasn't a grin.

Hannah swallowed.

"Don't worry, I can regrow it easily," Panacea said in a cheery voice, appearing somewhat amused based on the odd smile she was wearing. Colin looked at her, then back to one of his oldest friends and someone he was beginning to think was the newest one, of a sort, and sighed.

"Put the weapon away, Miss Militia," he ordered. "We are guests here at the moment. We're here to find out what happened, not arrest anyone."

He met Raptaur's yellow eyes. "For now."

She tipped her head a little in acknowledgment and released Hannah, who let the power-generated gun dissipate in a flare of green energy then rubbed her wrist with her other hand.

"Assaulting a member of the Protectorate is..." Colin sighed again as his colleague seemed unusually persistent in pushing a point that didn't need to be made. Even he could see that they were here only because Raptaur allowed it and that they had essentially no fallback, laws or not. He was a pragmatist, and so was the reptilian cape. You adapted to the realities of the situation, you didn't try to make reality follow the path you wanted it to, not when you had no ability to enforce that want. At the moment, she did and she was in charge.

"Hush," Raptaur said, gently placing a large clawed finger on Hannah's scarf over her mouth. "I didn't assault you, I stopped you breaking the peace I insist on in here. If you want to fight, we do it outside. In here, we talk. Calmly. OK?"

After a few seconds, Hannah nodded, still looking annoyed. Colin studied her. This was unusual behavior, she was normally a very calm and sensible person, and pulling a weapon seconds after being invited into another, very powerful, cape's base seemed rather out of character. He wondered why. Perhaps Dragon could explain it to him. Making a quick note using his helmet's internal systems and some eye movements, he dismissed the problem and turned to Raptaur.

"We would like to talk to your guests about the sequence of events that led to the death of Oni Lee, and to you about what happened with Lung. We have evidence that you fought, but you seem uninjured and there is no sign of him. I find this intriguing."

"Certainly," she smiled. "Please, take a seat." She motioned to a pair of chairs on the other side of the table from the Undersiders. "But remember, they are currently under Family protection. We would take a very dim view of any threats to them while that is the case."

"You can't just unilaterally declare them off limits to the PRT," Hannah said as she moved towards one chair.

"Yet I just did. Odd, that." Raptaur seemed unconcerned. Danny Hebert was clearly trying not to smile, and Panacea wasn't bothering to hide hers. "Lung and I came to an agreement. Part of that was that I laid claim to them and took responsibility for them to prevent him killing them for reasons that will become clearer when you hear their story. I take my responsibilities seriously. _No one_ is harming them as long as they are under Family protection. In return, they will not be causing any problems for you, or us. They've promised and we've accepted their word."

"How very feudalistic of you," Hannah sniped as she sat. Raptaur cocked her head to the side, studying her with interest.

"You could put it that way if you wanted to. But then, that's the way the cape world works, is it not? All the gangs act that way. The E88, the ABB, the Merchants, the PRT… They all have their territory that they guard jealously against other gangs. The people in those territories can do little about it."

"The PRT is not a gang," Hannah spluttered, sounding outraged, moving to stand up again from where she'd just sat down.

"That's a matter of opinion," Raptaur smiled. "They certainly meet most of the requirements to be considered as such."

"Enough, please, you two, or you'll be arguing all afternoon," Danny said, making them both look at him. Raptaur nodded without comment and moved to a position where she was half-way between the Undersiders and the Protectorate contingent. Armsmaster sat in the remaining chair next to his colleague, who lowered herself down again, radiating irritation. Once again he was struck by how oddly she was behaving. Normally she would have been the one counseling calm.

"Grue? Can you please repeat what you told us about what happened, and how Oni Lee died," Danny requested. He glanced at Colin and Hannah for a moment. "Leave out any details that would compromise your identities, they're not relevant to the current conversation. But I would suggest answering any other questions as fully as you can."

"Yes, Sir," Grue said in a voice that was surprisingly respectful, nodding to the older man, then turning to look at Tattletale and Regent for a moment. He turned back to the visitors and began a fascinating story.


	72. Ruminations and Revelations

Hannah listened with interest to the story that Grue, Regent, and Tattletale took turns telling, making notes to help her organize her memories later. An eidetic memory was extremely useful but remembering everything could result in a lot of clutter since most of it wasn't very relevant. Notes to let her instantly locate the appropriate memory helped considerably as she'd found out years ago. They'd have been unreadable to anyone but her as they were more or less her own version of shorthand, not actually full writing, more concepts than anything else.

She also kept a wary eye on Raptaur. The presence of the enormous reptile was unnerving, considering what she and the Director suspected. Even if it was what they thought was the much less likely scenario, a Changer of absolutely unparalleled ability, the creature was still very worrying, not least because she did an extremely good impression of not being human in certain key respects. If it was an act it was an amazingly convincing one. Even the body language was subtly wrong, although totally consistent with what she appeared to be.

All in all, the more she studied her, the more she felt that there was no likely way to explain the reptilian cape except as someone or something that had always been what she looked like. There didn't seem to be any other sensible explanation. She'd thought up half a dozen, increasingly unlikely, scenarios that would explain part to all of what was observed about both Saurial and Raptaur, but they generally made even less sense.

Some sort of biological power suit was one she'd come up with, as it wasn't unknown, and it would fit the odd dual emotional signature that Gallant had reported from Saurial, but it still had major issues. In her specific case she was slender enough that there was no obvious way a normal human, even a fairly small female one for example, could actually fit inside her and still leave room for the actual suit.

Raptaur was easily big enough for even a full grown man to fit inside a construction of her size, but she doubted it was actually that easy an explanation. It just didn't seem to fit on a number of points, many of which were subconscious and difficult to explain. On the whole, she tended to believe that both of them were what they appeared to be, whatever that actually was.

The horrendously enormous ' _Sea Serpent_ ' that Colin and Dragon had run into was large enough for an entire crew of people but it had been encountered at such a great depth and seemed so alive that again she doubted that was a good explanation.

No, Changer or Biotinker-engineered life form, those seemed the most reasonable of a series of very unreasonable options at the moment, and of the two she still favored the second as it just seemed to fit observed facts and behavior better. Which didn't make her any happier.

It was also very clear that both of them were very intelligent, somewhat worryingly so, and observant as well. Those glowing slit-pupiled eyes didn't miss anything. Raptaur spoke like a well educated person, knowledgeable in several subjects although not an expert in most of them. But she was also obviously listening and learning all the time, as one would expect from someone smart and driven. She was already physically formidable to a level Hannah found horrifying. Given time she had no doubt that the cape would become even more dangerous as she learned more about how the world worked and how to use her abilities to move it in directions she wanted.

Whatever those actually were.

The motives of this ' _Family_ ', the existence of which appeared to be accepted fact now even though no one had even seen more than one of them at once, were essentially unknown. Saurial definitely seemed to be of a Heroic bent, while Raptaur, although she had a much more direct approach, should probably also be considered to be of that type. For the moment, anyway. For all she knew, they were just doing this to get the public to trust them, then their true plan would unfold.

Catching herself, Hannah mentally sighed. She was getting as paranoid as the Director. If the older woman thought like that all the time it was a wonder she wasn't holed up in her apartment armed to the teeth.

The problem was that when you thought about these strange lizard-like capes, that's the way you tended to end up thinking despite yourself. Or possibly simply whimpering in fear and hiding under the bed.

With a light.

She was very curious as to how Raptaur had apparently driven Lung off, after what the evidence showed was a very considerable fight. The damage to the immediate area was significant, indicating that Lung had escalated to a level that very few capes could have survived encountering. They'd also found blood and other evidence that a more normal human had been present, presumably Tattletale. Who was currently watching her with a small smirk visible through the mouth of her metal mask.

The girl seemed to trust Raptaur, which was interesting and concerning in equal quantities. It implied, among other things, that they'd met before, probably quite extensively. There seemed to be a level of trust present which was a little peculiar.

That said, nothing like the level of trust between Raptaur and Panacea, who was leaning back in her chair with her feet on the table listening to the Undersider's story with an air of amused interest. Every now and them she looked around at the others, her gaze inevitably going back to meet Raptaur's, who was also looking amused in her own very alien way. It was more than a little strange, considering that the two had apparently known each other for only about a week based on all the information she'd been able to find out. The talk with Carol Dallon and Sarah Pelham had been very enlightening, although she strongly suspected that they would never have been so forthcoming to someone outside New Wave if they hadn't been suffering from what appeared to be absolutely epic hangovers and as a result rather more free with gossip that they probably would be happy about when they recovered fully.

She was expecting a call from one or other of them to ask that she be discreet with what she'd been told. Hannah intended to do exactly that, the Director had no need to learn all the dirty laundry of New Wave as long as it didn't present a threat, which the bulk of it clearly didn't. It was private information and she'd honor that concept. After all, if the situation was reversed she'd hope that both of them would give her the same courtesy and strongly suspected they would. While New Wave had their issues, on the whole they were good people.

Her gaze moving around the table, she stopped on Danny Hebert, who was listening carefully, even though he'd apparently heard this before. She got the impression he was comparing both stories to look for inaccuracies, extra information, or any inconsistencies. His expression was intent and focused. Watching him, she got the definite impression that he missed little and would be a considerable opponent on the other side of a negotiating table. It was also interesting that he seemed utterly unmoved by the presence of Raptaur and utterly unimpressed by the presence of herself and Colin.

The man next to him, the excessively large black guy who was also listening while his eyes constantly moved around as if he was looking for trouble and intended to deal with it very firmly should it arise, was an interesting person too. He didn't seem fussed about sitting next to a giant lizard that outweighed him at least six to one and could make a snack of him without trying, and wasn't particularly impressed with anyone else there either. She remembered him being present the first time she'd encountered Raptaur during that horrific episode, one couldn't call it a fight, that the reptile had had with Hookwolf. He'd seemed more amused than worried then too. Which implied previous contact, once again.

It was looking very much like the DWU knew a lot more about both Raptaur and Saurial than anyone else did, which she found… weird. Although if it was a Biotinker, it would almost certainly be a member of the DWU, possibly on this site, but much more likely in the surrounding abandoned warehouses, probably with access to the water. She made a mental note to do a little research to see if there was anything that anyone had noticed that might be suspicious, but thought it unlikely since whoever was behind all this was apparently far too careful. It certainly seemed likely that it was a fairly well organized and funded group based on all the evidence so far.

The whole thing was peculiar even in her terms, and worrying as well, since up until Saurial's appearance there had been no sign at all of any such group. Now, suddenly, strange events were popping up all over the place, even as far north as the coast of Quebec. There was still no good, or even vague, explanation for wildly over-powered weapons tests up there. She'd talked to Dragon about it and decided the Canadian cape was at least as confused about it as the rest of them, possibly more so. On the other hand, whoever it was had handed her Saint and his friends on a plate so she got the definite impression that at the moment Dragon mainly wanted to find those responsible to shake their hands and thank them.

Her hindbrain listening to the explanation from the Undersiders and making notes, she let her gaze rove across everyone present again, thinking. _Could_ it be Panacea as the Biotinker? They didn't have a clear idea of her powers after all, although everything that they did have on record simply showed she was a Striker specializing in healing. Nothing had ever come up to suggest anything else, she'd checked thoroughly, and her own family said the same thing when she'd delicately broached the subject in as roundabout a manner as she'd been capable of. Not to mention, as she'd discussed with the Director, the time line simply didn't fit at all.

Danny Hebert was very unlikely for similar reasons. There was no indication of any parahuman powers, except possibly an inhuman level of patience and the ability to keep talking until the city council and mayor gave in, coupled with a serious resolve. But she knew quite a lot of smart driven individuals who would meet the same criteria. They tended to be very successful once they found their niche, which he clearly had done. If he'd triggered at the time of his wife's death, which reportedly had badly affected him, she was certain that something would have come up in her research, it was simply too much time for a Biotinker to have not let at least _something_ slip.

Likewise, the timescale was much too short in the other direction, the events surrounding his daughter. It was only a little over five weeks and Saurial had appeared only about ten days or so after that point. She couldn't see any way someone could have made, programmed, and let loose something as polished and functional as the first lizard-girl in only a week and a half from a standing start. Nilbog had taken much longer and his first attempts were crude mockeries of life by comparison. Blasto wasn't even in the running.

Thinking about Taylor Hebert for a moment, she once more contemplated that the girl herself might be responsible in some way. As Colin had said at the point they'd first found out, it was as good a possible Trigger event as any she'd ever heard of. But yet again the timeline was wrong, completely. Not to mention the girl wasn't even sixteen yet and the second emotional signature that Gallant had reported was, in his own words, older and wiser. Plus of course, none of the wards thought that the girl was anything other than a friendly and intelligent young woman who had a knack for making friends easily. All the ones that had direct interaction with her, which was admittedly mainly Dennis, although both Chris and Dean mentioned that they'd talked to her, said she was basically a nice girl who smiled a lot.

A wild idea came to her and she paused her writing for a moment.

After a moment she shook her head a tiny amount and went back to writing. The idea that Taylor Hebert could be a Changer of that level was more than a little ridiculous. Mainly because of the whole knowing far too much about combat techniques part of it than anything, although there was also an enormous amount of doubt in her mind that there was _any_ Changer that powerful out there. Saurial was possible. Raptaur wasn't _impossible_. But that fucking enormous swimming thing? It was hundreds of times larger than any Changer's form they'd ever seen before. It was several times larger than Leviathan, for god's sake!

No chance.

She'd studied the videos that they had of Saurial and Raptaur at work, and gone over the report Sarah Pelham had given her, many times. She was certain that the combat proficiency that she saw there with the eye of an expert was the result of many years experience. Either learned the hard way or programmed in, copied from someone who had learned the hard way. That eliminated practically all of the obvious other possibilities.

If it _was_ a Changer, it was one that had been around for a considerable time, somehow staying out of sight while gathering serious combat experience. If it was a Biotinker, it was one that had also been around for a while, possibly having moved to Brockton Bay fairly recently for some reason, and probably being a member of a fairly large organization with a number of capes including one or more Tinkers and one or more Thinkers as well. Whichever it was, she wanted to figure it out, because it was worrying either way around. If only because they knew too much about the PRT internal operational techniques and at the same time seemed to be completely invisible. It was worse than Coil and he was a pain in the ass at best.

She could understand the Director's paranoia a lot better these days than she ever had before now.

Glancing back to Raptaur she was a little worried to see those eyes fixed on her with an expression that to her imagination looked evaluating and a little judging. She now very much regretted her instinctive near-pulling of a weapon, something she'd never have done normally, but being in close proximity to the reptilian cape made all her ' _Oh, shit, this is bad_ ' buttons get pressed at once no matter how much she tried to suppress the feelings and she'd ended up much more jumpy that she was happy about. It was made a lot worse because of all the poking around she was doing into her origins, something that made her worry about the reaction should either Saurial or Raptaur find out about it. While it was part of the entire PRT job, it was also in some ways skirting a little close to the edge of the Rules and she somehow got the impression that both lizard-people took them fairly seriously.

Probably due to the way it protected their own people, which Saurial had made _very_ clear was something that was of over-riding importance to her. She couldn't see Raptaur being anything less than equally concerned about it. Which in turn mean that threatening someone they cared about would be a life-threatening, if not life-ending, proposition.

A fine sweat broke out on her brow when she started wondering if anyone in the room counted as a person of interest in that manner. She looked at Panacea and became convinced the answer was yes. So, in all probability, it had looked to Raptaur as if she was holding a weapon ready in close proximity to someone she would kill to protect.

' _Fuck_ _,_ ' she thought with a slight jump to her heart. ' _That could have gone very badly very quickly._ ' In retrospect the reactions Raptaur had shown were remarkably restrained if what she suspected was true.

Resolving to keep an iron grip on her reactions in future, just in case, and also fairly sure that Colin was going to bring this up when they were somewhere else, she sighed very faintly, putting more of her attention on listening as Grue started to wind up his story, and less on the direction her thoughts were leading her. It seemed safer.

She noticed that Raptaur was still watching her but now seemed to be emoting mild amusement and wondered with a certain degree of paranoia how much of her internal monologue the huge reptile had managed to derive somehow. The look suggested more than she was happy with.

The way that Raptaur winked at her, then deliberately looked away to study Tattletale, who was _also_ somehow seeming too smug for her liking, just made it worse.

* * *

The story that the Undersiders related was one that Colin found answered most of his questions pretty effectively. It also showed that these young people were fairly competent in their chosen field, although they had made some mistakes in both execution and design of their plan, mistakes that had nearly cost them their lives. On the other hand, for people who had not much in the way of resources and military background, they'd actually done a remarkably good job all things considered.

Hannah was also listening with interest, making some notes occasionally, but probably mainly relying on her eidetic memory. He was recording everything, of course, and was sure Raptaur was aware of it. Both of them asked for clarification on various points during the course of the story, but it eventually stopped, Grue having given over to Regent and Tattletale on occasion to fill in from their points of view.

When they finished, Colin studied them for a while. "Thank you," he finally said. "It confirms one of my theories nicely and explains a number of things I was wondering about."

He turned to Raptaur, who had been listening quietly, as had the rest of the people present. "Can I ask how you dealt with Lung?"

"Of course." She smiled. "We fought for a while, which was an interesting exercise. He regenerates very fast indeed, much faster than I expected. Killing him would have been fairly easy but I wanted to avoid that if possible. I have no real quarrel with him, after all. In the end, we came to an arrangement. It was obvious to both of us that he couldn't actually win and I persuaded him to leave without further damage in exchange for his life. He seemed… unhappy with the deal but resigned to it. I suspect he will keep his end of it if I keep mine."

"How could you make a deal with someone like Lung?" Hannah asked, sounding surprised. "He's a multiple murderer."

"Yes, I know, but he's also not currently my problem. I stopped him killing Tattletale, which was the main thing I was concerned about, and prevented him escalating enough to threaten the DWU and the surrounding area, which was the other issue. After that, as long as he goes away and doesn't bother us again, I had no real reason to stop him. I could, I suppose, have subdued him and handed him over to you guys, but based on past performance I'm not particularly certain that would have kept him off the streets for long." She smiled with a few teeth visible. "If he comes back I can try that if you want. Or I can just kill him. He probably tastes like chicken."

She tipped her head to the side thoughtfully. "With a sort of barbecue seasoning. Damn. Now I'm hungry again." She licked her lips while Hannah shuddered.

"Stop trying to scare everyone," Panacea sighed, although she was also smiling.

"Trying to scare everyone?" Grue quipped. "She's not _trying_."

Raptaur chuckled, glancing at him.

"No, I'm not going to go around completely destroying the current status quo by taking out every villainous cape in the city. I can't see how that can result in anything but chaos. I'll stop crimes that I see happening, just like Saurial does, but I'm not hunting down big name capes in general just because I can, with one or two exceptions. If I start that, it'll never end. We have much better things to do than get involved in politics to that level."

"Odd behavior for a Hero," Colin noted dispassionately.

"Who said I was a Hero?" she replied with a smirk. "I'm not a Villain. That's all the commitment you're going to get from me at the moment."

"I see." Weirdly, he did. "That still leaves the issue of the Undersiders. We have no particular interest in Tattletale or Regent, aside from wanting to classify their powers. I suspect that there could even be a case for suggesting that they might be interested in joining the Wards, if they were of the right age, or the Protectorate if not, presuming they actually wish to give up the Villain lifestyle before they go deeply enough into it to make such a thing awkward."

"An interesting offer," Raptaur said slowly.

"Not without precedent," he replied. "We would prefer capes on the side of good one way or the other. Grue..." He looked at the young man who was obviously the leader of the Undersiders, which fitted his background information. "Grue is slightly more complicated. He has a number of charges on file, although in the main they are relatively minor. I expect a deal could be struck fairly easily if he does intend to stop committing crimes. I would strongly suggest that he considers this path. He and his team got extremely lucky this time. They might not do so another time. The lifespan of small teams, or individual capes, tends to be short."

He glanced at Raptaur, who was watching and listening carefully. "There are exceptions, of course."

"Of course," she smiled.

"Hellhound..."

"Bitch," the girl interrupted. He looked at her.

"Excuse me?"

"My name is Bitch. Not Hellhound."

"My apologies. Bitch, then. Bitch is more of a problem. There is a first degree murder by means of Parahuman powers charge on record for her. That is very difficult to avoid or get around. The Director could probably be persuaded to allow her teammates to remain in the custody of The Family, or the DWU for that matter, if you effectively guarantee their good behavior and enforce it. Which I have little doubt you can do. But I _very_ much doubt that she would be amenable to ignoring such a charge, and even if she _was_ , I guarantee that there are those above her in the PRT who definitely would not be."

He looked around at them all. "For whatever reason she has, Director Piggot seems unwilling to intervene in your operation. I myself find it interesting, somewhat concerning, but in the end apparently more on the side of Heroic than otherwise even if very unconventional. That may change in the future, it may not. But there are limits."

"There are also extenuating circumstances, Armsmaster," Tattletale said, sitting up more fully and looking at him intently. "Bitch is… well, admittedly probably not actually completely innocent, but the charge that's on file is wrong. She didn't murder anyone."

"Explain, please," he requested, opening a new recording file with a twitch of an eyelid.

She glanced at her colleague, who was scowling again, an expression that seemed to be fairly common to her. He was building the opinion that the girl knew even less about human interaction than he did. Bitch swore under her breath, then shrugged. "Tell him," she snapped, leaning back and crossing her arms defensively.

Tattletale nodded, then began explaining the circumstances of Bitch's trigger, as always a traumatic event. Colin well understood the girl's reluctance to have it discussed. No cape ever enjoyed talking about the worst day of their lives. As the blonde girl talked, he came to realize that she was right, it wasn't as simple as the charges against Rachel Lindt made it out to be.

"Hell," Hannah finally muttered when Tattletale stopped talking. "That's a mess."

"She's basically innocent of the charge as stated, I think, presuming that the story is true," Colin noted.

"It is. You can probably check it easily enough, it's just that no one ever cared enough to even try," Tattletale replied. She shrugged. "She has a scary power, people over-react. She's also very bad with normal human interactions and is kind of aggressive." Bitch stared at her companion, who looked back apologetically. "Sorry, but it's true."

"Don't fucking like hearing it," the girl grumbled.

"Like in so many capes, what else could she do but end up on the wrong side of the law?" the blonde asked. She waved a hand around at her team. "We all have similar stories. I suspect almost all villains do. The entire system is stacked against us. Only a few people who trigger end up on the Heroic side, from what I've found out it's probably only about a quarter or so. Not all of that is because they're bad people."

"It's about twenty-eight percent, but I admit you have a good point," Colin sighed. "I have had similar thoughts myself in the past." He turned to look at Hannah who was deep in thought. "What do you think? I would want to check out that story and confirm the details, but if it does check out, Bitch has been charged with a crime she didn't commit. If we take her in officially, I don't know if we would be able to prevent a miscarriage of justice. As soon as she's in the system we'd have a lot of trouble changing the course of it. Even the Director would struggle to over-ride anything assuming she wanted to."

"We don't have the authority to just let her go," Hannah replied. "Even if her story is completely true. The charges need to be properly answered, and this brought up as mitigation. But I agree it would be wrong to just throw her on the mercy of the courts, as they don't have much where it comes to Parahuman crimes that end up with people dead."

"Why don't you leave her here, under the protection of Raptaur and her family, while you discuss it with Director Piggot and check the veracity of Tattletale's explanation," Danny suggested after a moment. "We have living facilities on site that we have already offered the use of. They undertake to stay on site, essentially under house arrest, until you decide how you want to proceed. Raptaur and Saurial can easily make sure they stick to their word, they can't escape either of them, never mind both of them." He looked at the teenagers with a small smile of his own. "Which they all know. Not to mention they _also_ know that if they leave, Lung may take an interest in them."

Looking back, he continued, "That way they're not committing any crimes, you know exactly where they are, and if you need to talk to them you can come and do it. But they're not officially in PRT custody and not in the system, so you have flexibility."

Colin considered the suggestion, then glanced at Hannah, who was obviously doing the same. She looked back. "It's possible, I suppose," she somewhat reluctantly said after several seconds. "Releasing them into the custody of an independent Hero team. It's not entirely without precedent. I'm not sure the Director will be pleased, though."

"What if we offered some extra benefits," Raptaur said slowly, glancing at Tattletale, who looked back, then nodded a very small amount. "Information that you might find valuable."

" _What_ information?" Hannah asked, her eyes narrowing.

"Coil's identity, location, and resources." Tattletale stared at them.

"WHAT?" Hannah yelped in shock. "How the hell could you possibly know _that_?"

"Because he's the one who's been paying us to pull these crimes and is the one who actually put the team together," the blonde girl said smugly.

" _WHAT?_ " This time it was her other three teammates who yelped, apparently not having known this little piece of information. Seconds later a furious argument started.

After thirty seconds of shouting, Raptaur clapped her hands, hard enough that everyone felt the shockwave. It sounded like a gunshot. "Quiet!. You can argue about that later. Right now we need to talk about something else."

Settling down although not without a number of aggrieved looks at Tattletale, the other three Undersiders fell silent. She nodded with satisfaction, before turning to the blonde. "Tell them about Coil. Everything you currently know."

"OK." Tattletale did exactly that. It was a significant amount of information, little of which they'd had on file. Colin contemplated it as she spoke. Eventually, after a good half hour, or more precisely thirty-one minutes, four and a half seconds, she stopped. "We don't yet know where Coil is," she added after a moment. "However, we _do_ have a method to track him and Raptaur is confident that she and Saurial can find him fairly easily, and his base."

"We were planning on dealing with him ourselves," Raptaur put in. "But it may be more sensible to join forces. We don't know for sure what his power is but it seems to involve either some sort of precognition or possibly probability manipulation, according to Tattletale. Perhaps you'll be able to work it out and devise a counter for it." She smiled slowly. "I was just going to smash his front door down and grab him by the throat. You might have a different solution. Although if you want me to, I'm happy to stick with the original plan."

"You have to be very careful who you give the information to, though," Tattletale warned. "I know for a fact that he has a minimum of three people working directly in the PRT in some capacity, and also has some sort of history there. What, when, and why I'm not yet sure about. Assume all your internal security is compromised. If you talk about any of this, or knowing where I am, you can be sure he'll find out almost instantly and may well change whatever plans he has."

"That would actually match with some of the data we already have," Hannah mused out loud, looking very interested. "I'm going to have to talk to the Director about this. She will probably want to talk to you herself."

"Do it here, then," Raptaur offered. "I know this place is secure. We don't know that about anywhere else."

"I assume the entire building is lined with EDM now?" Colin asked, looking around, then up. "It would make an extremely effective faraday cage. No electromagnetic signal will get in or out."

"We've noticed, the cell phones all stop working completely as soon as the door is closed," she commented. "It's a bit of a nuisance but at least we can't be easily bugged."

"I can suggest some solutions for that if you would like," he told her. "I'll produce a list of required commercially available equipment that would allow you to use phones and the radios the DWU use inside the building, but can be turned off when you require security."

"Thanks, that would be a big help," she smiled.

Nodding to her, he looked at his companion. "What do you think? Personally, I feel we should accept the current state of affairs and report it to the Director. I am inclined to recommend we proceed as Mr Hebert suggests."

She glanced at him, then studied the others around the table. Eventually she sighed a little. "Under the circumstances I'm forced to provisionally agree. The chance to capture Coil and root out his agents is too much to pass up. But if any of you cause any problems..." She fixed each Undersider in turn with a glare. "I will _not_ be in a good mood."

"Understood, Ma'am," Grue replied politely.

"In that case, we should get back and start preparing our reports," Colin announced, standing up. "The death of Oni Lee isn't something you will need to worry about in my opinion, based on your testimony. It was either accidental, or deliberate suicide, depending on your viewpoint, and I'm fairly confident that it will be listed as such. I will note that in my report."

"Thank you." Raptaur rose, then headed to the door. "I'm pleased you were willing to listen. I'm sorry about grabbing your hand, Miss Militia, but as I said, in here, no fighting."

Hannah didn't respond, but she nodded stiffly.

"I'm going to be looking for Coil and his base. I'll let you know when I find it and him."

"Thank you." Colin shook her hand. "It was interesting seeing you once more. I will be in touch soon on a number of matters."

"Of course." She opened the door and stood aside. Both of them exited, hearing the door close behind them with a click.

Colin looked at Hannah, who seemed to be thinking hard. " _Please_ don't threaten people under the protection of a non-hostile cape who could kill us both without trying very hard right in front of her again, if you can avoid it."

His friend and colleague nodded absently, then followed him to the bikes. Shortly they were heading back to base and what he suspected was a long series of arguments with Director Piggot. With a tiny sigh he started composing his report in his head, wishing he could go back to working on something useful instead. His halberd hadn't been upgraded for nearly a week.

* * *

Amused at the short conversation on the other side of the door, Taylor turned around and looked at the other people in her building, then shrugged. "That went a hell of a lot better than I thought it would," she said as she walked back to the table.

"Armsmaster is a strange guy, but he's very rational," Amy replied. "You presented him with a series of well argued positions and he mostly agreed with you. He clearly respects you as well, which helped a lot."

"Miss Militia has a major problem with you, though," Lisa commented as she removed her temporary mask, tossing to the table. Brian and Alec did the same. "I don't know exactly what but she's scared of you, and worried as well. Or, actually more about what you represent for some reason." She frowned a little. "I'm not sure what it means but that's what my power is saying."

"Weird." Taylor thought about it for a moment, then shrugged. "Well, it didn't stop her listening, so I guess we don't need to worry about it for now."

"We were working for _Coil?_ " Brian suddenly exploded. "Why didn't you tell us?"

"He told me not to, and he's not someone you ignore," Lisa explained with a sigh. "Not if you don't want a mercenary pointing a gun at your head and making it very clear that he'll pull the trigger without thinking twice if he's ordered too. The man is very dangerous and doesn't care about the Rules at all."

"What did he have us doing all those odd operations for?" Alec asked. "What was the point?"

"No idea right now," she replied. "When we get the bastard you can ask him."

Neither boy seemed particularly happy but both of them went quiet. Lisa looked at Rachel, who seemed to be annoyed as well, one hand on each of her dogs which were sitting on either side of her chair. "You should have told us," was all the girl said, then she just sat back and frowned a little.

"Well, I think that we've probably covered about everything we need to, so far," her father stated, looking around. "You four are as I said welcome to stay, subject to the conditions we discussed. Don't let me down."

"We won't, Sir," Brian said, looking at his team-mates, who all nodded one after the other, Rachel after apparently thinking for a moment. "I think I speak for all of us when I say we're grateful for the opportunity we've been given. Although there are some other issues I personally have that I now need to work out."

"Something we can help with?"

Brian sighed. "I don't know. I have a sister, one I love but sometimes wish would go away." He shrugged, smiling a little. "She's an absolute pain in the ass, it's a gift. But I also have parents who are problems for different reasons. I've been trying to get custody of my sister. It's complicated, she's with my Dad right now, but that's not working out for either of them. If it goes to court right now she'll end up back with Mom, and there's no way I'm going to allow that. Not after what happened. Our ' _Boss_ ' was helping with Child Services, got me a legitimate job to make them happy, things like that. All of that is out the window."

"I see." Her father looked thoughtfully at Brian. "Would a job help? We have a number of positions that will be opening up soon here, and will be looking for people with experience in a number of fields. What were you doing?"

"I was working for a construction company doing framing, dry-walling, that sort of thing. I'm good with my hands and have a couple of years experience with similar work from previous part-time jobs."

"He's also pretty good at fighting, he knows a fair bit about several forms of hand to hand combat," Lisa put in.

"Interesting. So, carpentry, or possibly security." Her father looked at Zephron. "What do you think?"

"He's a big kid, looks after himself." Zephron studied Brian for a moment, then stood up. "Get up, will you, and come over here."

He walked to the middle of the room. Brian, after a glance at his friends, followed. He was a tall and well muscled young man, but Zephron could have made two of him easily.

"OK. Defend yourself." The huge man threw a punch, fairly fast but not as quickly as Taylor suspected he could. Brian ducked, evaded it neatly, then responded with a return strike. They exchanged blows for a minute or so, using a couple of styles, something that looked like classical boxing to her, and another one that was vaguely similar to her own combat style but much slower. Brian staggered from a blow to the chest, then kicked out, catching Zephron in the hip and making him fall back. The large man winced a little and held up a hand. "That's enough." He looked at her father.

"The girl's not wrong, this kid has some skill. He's quick and strong as well. Mark could probably use him if Jason can't."

"Good. All right, Grue, if you want a paying job, I can find something. It won't be a huge salary to start with because we don't have a lot of spare cash yet, but it will be official. Not that you need the money, of course."

Her father smiled. "You probably have more cash than the DWU does right now."

"Thank you, Mr Hebert," Brian said, looking both surprised and grateful. "That should help a lot."

"Call me Danny. We'll need to get your paperwork sorted out, and talk to Child Services to tell them you've changed jobs, but that shouldn't be too hard. But..."

"But you need my civilian ID," Brian said as he came back and sat down.

"Pretty much. I understand if you don't want to let us know, I know what capes think about that sort of thing, and I'll see what I can do if you decide not to tell us, but it will be more difficult to help." Taylor's father shrugged a little apologetically. "You understand."

Brian sighed. "I do." He pulled his domino mask off, then held out his hand. "Brian Laborn. It's nice to meet you, Danny."

Taylor watched with mild astonishment at how quickly all that had happened. She looked at Amy, who shrugged, and Lisa, who stared back for a moment, sighed heavily, and removed her own mask. "What the hell. We're all friends here and she already knows anyway," she said, nodding to Taylor. "Not to mention that _she_ could work it out without any real trouble if she wanted to." Lisa indicated Amy, who smiled a little.

"Lisa Wilbourn." She held out her hand, which Danny shook.

"Nice to meet you, Lisa. And I know that Bitch is Rachel Lindt, of course." He smiled at her expression. "I've done my homework on Brockton Bay capes."

"Are we really doing this?" Alec complained. His friends all looked hard at him. "I don't want to," he said petulantly, folding his arms.

"You don't have to, if you don't want to." Her father grinned at him. "I won't insist, of course. That would be rude."

"But Raptaur already knows about you as well," Lisa pointed out with a certain amount of glee, making him look at her, then Taylor. She nodded.

"How?" he asked curiously.

"I have very good hearing, and a sense of smell you wouldn't believe," she replied with a smile. "It wasn't difficult."

He studied her for a few seconds, then his eyes widened. "Holy shit. You mean you can identify any cape you meet?"

She raised a finger and put it across the front of her muzzle. "It's a secret," she grinned.

"I'm not surprised," he muttered, then shook his head, before ripping his mask off and throwing it on the table. "There. Fine. You win, Lisa."

"And this is Alec. No last name he'll admit to." Lisa smiled winningly at her colleague, who gave her an upraised middle finger but smiled a little himself. "He's no trouble to look after. Give him a big TV, a stack of the latest video games, and somewhere comfortable to sleep, and the only thing you need to worry about is the snarky comments every time you walk past. He even feeds himself."

Everyone but Alec laughed. He merely looked proud. Which made them laugh more.

"I'm sure we can reach a suitable arrangement, Alec," Taylor's father said. He looked around at them all. "No one in this room will tell anyone out there who you are. My word on that. But, our people aren't stupid. We all know that the Undersiders are local to us, most people here have an idea of where your base is, and I suspect that most of them will work it out. The one thing I can say is that they won't talk about it, at all outside, and not unless you bring it up inside. That's up to you. It will be considered Union business and more to the point Family business. Unless you do something stupid and attract attention, people will leave you alone. All they ask is that you do the same back, pull your weight if you're working, and stay out of the way if you're not. Quite a few of the guys have sketchy pasts in various ways and no one holds it against them as long as it _stays_ in the past. You understand what I'm saying?"

Four heads nodded, slightly surprisingly including Rachel, who seemed oddly happy now.

"Good. Hopefully this will all work out for everyone. I need to get back to work now, but Zephron will show you where you'll be staying and where to get food, and introduce you to people you'll need to know." He looked at Taylor for a moment. "I'd suggest that you leave most of your ill-gotten gains in here for now, it's definitely the most secure place in the facility, but that's up to you. Unless you want to give it back to Lung and see if it makes him any happier."

"We worked hard for that money," Alec remarked immediately. "We stole it fair and square."

"He has a point," Brian added. "And I doubt very much that by now Lung would see the funny side anyway."

"Probably not. It was merely a suggestion." Her father looked them up and down. "You need some new clothes as well, those are ruined and stand out anyway."

"I'll arrange something, Danny," Zephron said.

"OK. In that case, welcome to the DWU, try not to get us all arrested, and I'll see you later." All four Undersiders got up and followed Zephron to the door. Lisa looked back at Taylor, who nodded, knowing that they were going to have to talk again. Soon, only she, Amy, and her father were left.

He sighed heavily. "You do know how to bring excitement to my life, dear," he said as she reverted to her base form for the first time in hours, going over and hugging him.

"Sorry, Dad. I didn't mean it to get this out of hand, but once I started I couldn't really stop," she said apologetically.

"I don't blame you," he smiled. "You did what you thought was right, saved four lives, possibly five if you count Lung, and seem to have impressed Armsmaster. Not to mention helped stop a huge gang fight and somehow terrified Miss Militia."

"I'm not really sure how I did that last one," Taylor admitted, puzzled. "She smelled really weird the whole time she was here. Much more worried than Armsmaster was, or than I'd have thought she should be. I wasn't really trying to scare her."

"You scare people just by being in the same room, Taylor," Amy grinned. "Especially as Raptaur, although Saurial can do it as well. It's a hell of a lot worse in the dark."

She smirked at her friend. "Oh, that part I know. But this was strange. Oh well, not much I can do about it right now."

"I hope that those guys are going to be OK," Amy said thoughtfully, looking at the door, then turning back to them. "I was really surprised they all agreed to tell you their real names."

"Brian knew he more or less had to, Rachel didn't care, Lisa was probably going to anyway sooner or later, and Alec just went with the flow." Taylor shrugged. "But even so I'm surprised it went that easily. We need to make sure it doesn't cause any problems for them." She looked at her father. "Are you sure no one will pass it on?"

He nodded. "Almost certain. You have to realize how close a group of people this is, Taylor. Most of them have worked here for ten, twenty years, sometimes more. They see it as all of us united against the world which doesn't really care about them. In many ways they're right. Without the work the DWU has drummed up for them all since the strikes and the economic collapse, at least half of the people here would have nothing. They're not going to put that at risk over four low level villains who are trying to go straight. Like I told them, there are people working here who have done worse in the past, but they've straightened their lives out and are productive members of society. They won't stop someone else doing the same thing."

He smiled slightly. "If anything, everyone will be pleased that there are more capes here. They like having you in all your various versions around, you're building quite a fan base here. If those guys pull their weight and don't rock the boat, it will work out for them. Although it could be a problem with Rachel. We'll have to see what happens. I'll talk to the legal department tomorrow and see what they say. It's not the first time we've had to deal with a DWU member who has run into the law, although it's not the specialty of the department. They're more contract law and that sort of thing. But they know the right people to go to."

"And it's not like Rachel can't afford a good lawyer now," Amy laughed, as she retrieved the three bags of cash and stacked them behind the workroom. "A quarter-share in seven hundred and fifty grand will buy her a lot of representation."

"Very true." After a moment, her father smiled a little. "The funny thing is that I have a feeling that the way the laws on parahuman crimes are worded, they might even have a legitimate claim to the money. I seem to recall that a Hero who takes down a Villain is entitled to confiscate certain assets of the Villain, including cash. If they're going straight, technically they're not Villains, so you might be able to argue that it counts. It's notable that neither Armsmaster or Miss Militia mentioned the cash even though Brian told them about it."

Amy and Taylor exchanged a glance. "They didn't say a thing, did they?" Taylor looked at the bags. "Weird."

"I think there's also a large reward on the capture of Oni Lee," Amy pointed out with a smile. "Maybe they could claim that too."

"That might be pushing their luck," her father grinned. "Personally, I'm more than a little surprised that it actually went as smoothly as it did all things considered. We'll have to see what the Director says. But Miss Militia seemed very interested indeed about the possibility of catching Coil."

"I think he's annoying them a lot," Taylor noted. "They may have some second thoughts because me tracking him down is probably a violation of the Rules to a certain extent, but if we make sure to get him in his base and not his civilian home, that would most likely satisfy everyone. I'll find him, then tell them where he is, and see what happens."

"Did Lisa give you the scent sample?" Amy asked curiously.

Taylor held up a transparent plastic bag with a crumpled tissue in it. "She slipped it to me before she got up," she said with satisfaction. "Tonight, I'm going on a Coil hunt. She gave me a few likely places to start the first time we talked."

"Good luck," he said, getting up. "I really do need to get to work, I have a number of things to write up and even more to read. When you've finished doing whatever it is you're doing in here come and find me."

He checked his watch. "Half past four. I'll probably be done myself in about two hours."

Glancing at Amy, Taylor nodded. "We'll be ready then."

"OK. Have fun." Smiling at them both, he left.

They looked at each other. "This has been a very weird weekend," Amy giggled.

"Tell me about it." Taylor shook her head, smiling wryly. "And it was supposed to be so simple. What the hell is _Tuesday_ going to be like?"

"No idea," her friend said as she unlocked the door to the workroom and disappeared inside. "But I'm looking forward to finding out," her voice came through the open door. Grinning, Taylor joined her as they continued creating interesting things.


	73. Guest Omake - Taylor's Shanty

_Contributed by Hangwind on SpaceBattles_

 _ **The Beast of Brockton Bay (affectionate parody of The Beast of Pirate's Bay)**_

Gather weary travelers,  
I have a tale to tell.  
It might just save your lives but only if you listen well.  
'Cause there before the breakers  
And just around the way,  
There's a sign that says,  
"Beware The Beast of Brockton Bay!"

Some say she's a guppy a kid threw in the sea.  
She ate so many Nazis, now she's bigger than a tree.  
Her teeth are sharp as scissors  
Her claws, they are like knives.  
And if you think she's ugly, wait 'til you see her insides!

(Chorus)  
 _Oh, don't you steal and don't you fight and certainly don't murder,_  
 _'Cause if you aren't careful you'll end up inside of her._  
 _She'll eat you up, she'll spit you out. You'd better stay away._  
 _Heed the sign that says, "Beware the Beast of Brockton Bay!"_

Some say she's a serpent that came straight from hell,  
She came to eat the souls of Merchants and other ne'er-do-wells.  
Some they don't believe it, as for me I've got a hunch.  
'Cause they used to have some pushers here,  
But she ate them all for lunch!

(Chorus)  
 _Oh, don't you steal and don't you fight and certainly don't murder,_  
 _'Cause if you aren't careful you'll end up inside of her._  
 _She'll eat you up, she'll spit you out. You'd better stay away._  
 _Heed the sign that says, "Beware the Beast of Brockton Bay!"_

Well, old Hookwolf, you've heard of him, he came to Brockton Bay.  
It seems his lizard nemesis had found a place to stay.  
He charged into the union to grab at Saurial.  
There was a crunch and a splash!  
And now that metal nazi is scared of Ariel!

(Chorus)  
 _Oh, don't you steal and don't you fight and certainly don't murder,_  
 _'Cause if you aren't careful you'll end up inside of her._  
 _She'll eat you up, she'll spit you out. You'd better stay away._  
 _Heed the sign that says, "Beware the Beast of Brockton Bay!"_

Well, Lung the Yakuza, you know for what he's jeered.  
It's mostly for the fear and terror whenever Kaiju rears.  
He saw the beast and now nobody's scared of him because,  
His growth just stops as she slanders,  
And calls him a Salamander.

(Chorus)  
 _Oh, don't you steal and don't you fight and certainly don't murder,_  
 _'Cause if you aren't careful you'll end up inside of her._  
 _She'll eat you up, she'll spit you out. You'd better stay away._  
 _Heed the sign that says, "Beware the Beast of Brockton Bay!"_

Well, now the tavern's empty and there's only you and me.  
And if you care I'd like to share how this song came to be.  
So come a little closer if you really want to know.  
This very sad and woeful tale happened so long ago.

Well, I was just a little girl here in Brockton Bay  
When I was locked in my locker and was very much dismayed.  
With a tampon in his open sore and no sound or light inside,  
I was ready to give up everything and I began to cry.

I pushed and I shoved, but it wouldn't give way  
The only working lock in all of Brockton Bay.  
Then a demon possessed me and my problems went away.  
So I gave an ultimatum then, "Beware The Beast of Brockton Bay!"  
And what did I say?

Oh, don't you steal and don't you fight and certainly don't murder,  
'Cause if you aren't careful you'll end up inside of her.  
She'll eat you up, she'll spit you out. You'd better stay away.  
Heed the sign that says, "Beware."  
Hell I should know, I put it there!  
Heed the sign that says, "Beware the Beast of Brockton Bay!"


	74. Thoughts and Gifts

Lisa looked up at the knock on the door, getting up and going over to open it. On the other side was Zephron, who smiled down at her. "Hi. I've got you some clothes that should fit along with a few things that girls need I got from the commissary. Hopefully that's enough to keep you going until tomorrow when we can send someone to buy proper supplies." He handed her a large paper bag which was obviously full of cloth.

Taking it, she smiled back, genuinely. The guy was doing everything he could to help, as in fact all the people they'd met so far had done. No one had asked any questions, he'd simply told them that the four young people were guests of The Family and the DWU for the foreseeable feature and they'd simply been accepted with nods or smiles. It was a little strange, but nice.

"Thanks, Zephron," she said, taking the bag over to one of the beds in the room she'd been shown to and putting it down, then looking through it. She found generic underwear that looked about the right size, jeans, and several t-shirts, all of which were basic but good quality. There were also hygienic supplies, a towel, toothbrush, toothpaste, and a few other odds and ends of that nature. It was certainly sufficient to allow her to exist in comfort for now. "This is great. I could really do with a shower."

"I'm not surprised," he chuckled. "You had a long day. You know where everything is. I've dropped off things for your friends as well. We found some food for Rachel's dogs, she seemed happy enough with it." After a moment, he asked slowly, "There's something a little wrong with that poor girl, isn't there?"

"Yes," Lisa sighed, sitting on the bed next to her supplies. "Powers mess with your head. Sometimes only a little, sometimes a lot. In her case, it was a lot. She's very bad with human interaction, but off the scale good with dogs. She thinks more like a dog than a person, actually. Very suspicious at first, tends towards trying to dominate new people, and sometimes you have to slap her down hard to make it stick. But when she decides she trusts you, which takes a lot of effort most of the time, she'd die for you. Complaining the entire time and swearing like a trooper, of course, but even so..."

She shrugged as he nodded. "She's an acquired taste."

"I see. I wondered if it was something like that. Kind of like a form of Autism in a way."

"A little, yes."

He nodded slowly. "I understand. Well, hopefully she'll fit in here. There are a lot of guys, and women, here who are pretty bad with people in general but when they trust you they'll do anything for you. Like Danny said, we have people from all sorts of backgrounds. Some of them a lot worse than you kids. Ex military, criminals going straight, even a couple of lawyers!" He looked appalled, making her laugh.

Grinning, he added, "They're all good people even so. Be straight with them, they'll be straight with you. Fuck them over and you'll regret it. Briefly. And no one will give you guys away if you stick to that. Our own Rules, if you want to think of it that way."

Lisa listened, then nodded her understanding, both of the advice and the warning. "One for All and All for One, right?"

"It's the Union way," he smirked.

"I can live with that," she replied with a smile. "I'm just glad to have survived the day. I really didn't think I was going to."

"You got lucky and you're smart, and you were somewhere where you could get help." He shrugged. "It could easily have gone the other way."

Shuddering in remembrance, she nodded again. "I know. _Believe_ me, I know."

"Well, at least for now all you guys are safe, fed, and warm. I need to go but I'll be around if you need me, and you know where BBFO is, and Danny's office. I'd suggest not bothering him if you don't have to because he's really busy right now, but he's also easy to talk to and always listens. Get some rest."

"Thanks again, Zephron," she said quietly, watching the door to the dormitory room close behind him as he left.

Looking around the room once again, she sighed a little. Then she got up and moved to the chest of drawers beside the bed she'd claimed as hers, one that was next to the window, through which when it was no longer dark and foggy she should have a view past the various buildings to the bay. Looking out for a moment, she could only see lights with halos around them, more dimly further away, and a few people moving around two stories below. There was the occasional hint of movement from vehicles in the middle distance but the fog was still too thick to make out much more than that and had made the winter evening even darker than it would have normally been at this time.

Returning her attention to the drawers, she opened the top one, then sorted out her temporary clothes and supplies into it, before closing it again. In the next one down she put the small amount of equipment she still had from their simultaneously wildly over-successful and disastrous raid on the ABB safe house. ' _Should have know it was too good to be true_ ,' she mused as she took her webbing vest off and put it in the drawer, along with her empty pistol, her three phones, and the single gas grenade she had hung onto. A handful of cash followed, along with her keys for the loft, a place she didn't expect to see again. Not much of a loss although she'd have liked to get her computer and camera.

The computer was sufficiently heavily encrypted that it was unlikely anyone could break into it apart from perhaps Dragon, and booby-trapped in such a way that if anyone tried it would erase everything immediately. That had cost her a significant amount but was worth it.

The keys to her apartment followed, another place she didn't dare go to until Coil was dealt with, then she closed the drawer, turning around and leaning on it as she surveyed the room once more.

There were five other beds in it, all unmade, with bedding in a closet to one side, a desk with three chairs next to it, a low table on the other side of the room with two more, and a small refrigerator, currently empty but gently humming to itself. A fairly old but functional TV was on the desk.

All in all it wasn't anything spectacular, but it was certainly livable. The temperature was fine, it was clean and dry, and to be honest after the day she'd had she'd have accepted a packing crate in the yard outside.

Each of them had been offered the use of an entire room to themselves as there were more available than people currently using them, but she knew that if the situation changed they'd end up sharing. The room was actually large enough that it wasn't far off the size of their loft base, so it wasn't a massive problem if it happened, but she hoped that some alternative solution could be found by the time that happened.

There were about two dozen similar rooms on three floors in this part of the large building complex, which was an absolute maze of corridors and rooms, clearly having grown organically as the requirements changed over the years. Parts of what she'd seen dated back to before the last world war, while the newer parts were around ten to fifteen years old.

The Union had changed and adapted over the years as the economy shrank, the period since the arrival of Scion, the first parahuman, being a much faster change for a number of reasons. Originally, seventy or eighty years ago, this would have merely been the headquarters of the Dock Worker's Union administration, a fairly small but very powerful group in the city, which acted as an umbrella organization for a number of other related unions to allow their bargaining power to be more effective. She knew from reading up on it that its roots dated back to the mid nineteenth century and the Brockton Bay Stevedore's and Longshoreman's Association, which had eventually changed its name to the one it bore to this day.

This had grown steadily, pulling in over the years a large number of associated guilds and trades, ultimately including electricians, plumbers, gas-fitters, engineers, carpenters, and a slew of others. If it had anything at all to do with shipping, transportation, the sea in general, it was in some way tied into what ended up as the DWU. They had also had close ties with other unions around the city that had little directly to do with the Docks. Brockton Bay had always been closely associated with the sea, and this was one of the oldest and most obvious examples of that association.

This facility had gradually taken on the aspect of a central workshop, admin center, job clearing house, and dock control operation, growing and merging with smaller operations, to eventually become what it was now. At its peak it had directly or indirectly employed or utilized over three and a half thousand workers, and had links to perhaps half to three quarters of the manufacturing and transportation workers in the entire city one way or another, a truly impressive number of people.

For a long time, from between the wars to at least the sixties, the Union was one of the most powerful political organizations in the city, having fingers in everything. It still did even without the bulk of the associated power, in a much more low key way. She had little doubt than even now the Union could cause all sorts of problems if it really wanted to, that sort of influence didn't just evaporate even if it was reduced.

The strike that had ended up essentially creating the Ship's Graveyard, or at least significantly increasing the size of it, and blocking the shipping channel was both a reaction to the reduction of that power for various reasons, and the cause of its acceleration. For a considerable time the DWU had been scraping along keeping the three hundred and fifty or so people still directly connected to it in work, largely due to the efforts of Danny Hebert.

Now, though, from what she could see and deduce, there was a change in the air, somehow connected to what had become known as The Family. Something that she still found extremely funny considering it was actually one young woman behind the entire thing. One that she suspected had no real idea yet how effectively she'd managed to make everyone believe in the concept, without even trying all that hard.

Admittedly that young woman was the most brown-pants terrifying cape she'd ever even heard of, but on balance she seemed to mean well and was probably very close to being a friend by now. Certainly Lisa owed her life to the girl and whatever trick it was that she'd pulled off to so convincingly seem like a completely different individual. Which was something she very much wanted to get to the bottom of.

The Changer ability was insane enough. The thought of that vast, vast creature reaching for Lung, ten feet tall at the time, and simply picking him up like a kid with a GI Joe doll made her pale even now. But the way she'd spoken and acted… Either she was the best actor Lisa had ever heard of, or something else even weirder was going on.

It was annoying to her that her power had such difficulty with the girl, she'd become used to it giving her answers. But even without it she was smart, sneaky, and capable of working things out the hard way. She'd find the answer.

Probably, in fact, by simply asking. It seemed so stupid it might well work.

Snorting with amusement, she turned around and pulled out her towel and a change of clothes, along with soap and shampoo, then pushed the drawer shut with her hip and headed off to the showers to finally get the mud, blood, ash, and smell of smoke off her.

Scrubbing her hair for the second time a little later, she was thinking about the puzzle represented by Saurial, Raptaur, and Kaiju. All one person. One stupidly overpowered grab bag with a weird Changer ability and a very odd sense of humor that she brought out at the drop of a hat. And a protective streak wide enough to run a six lane freeway down. Combined with the power to back it all up, and apparently the will to do so if necessary.

All in all, scary, fascinating, and worrying, although she also thought it could be a lot of fun. There were much worse people to be connected to.

' _Coil for one_ _,_ ' she scowled, scrubbing harder. She really wanted the bastard dead.

Giving the information to Armsmaster and Miss Militia was somewhat irritating, she'd have liked to look the fucker in the eyes as she pulled the trigger, but she'd realized as quickly as Raptaur had it was necessary to give them something as a bonus in exchange for them listening to Rachel's story. As long as he stopped threatening her and her friends, she could live with letting the Protectorate deal with him. Assuming they could. ' _If not, plan B_ _,_ ' she smirked to herself. ' _Raptaur chow. I'd pay money to see that_ _.'_

It all depended on the girl tracking him down but she had no doubt that would happen. Unless he got on a plane _right_ _now_ and ran, he was fucked. Anywhere in Brockton Bay or the general area and she'd find him. Probably pretty quickly.

The girl.

That was the other problem.

Lisa was certain she knew who it was now. She'd had suspicions for some time but had deliberately tried not to think about it, as the likely results of having let something accidentally slip to her could have been very bad indeed depending on context. But now… Now she thought it was safe. In all probability her new friend already knew she knew, the girl was very sharp.

Taylor Hebert. Danny Hebert's daughter. She'd immediately picked up on the way he behaved around Raptaur, although he was very casual and non-obvious about it. It would fool most people, they'd simply think she was a cape he knew and trusted, and the way they acted was clearly designed to reinforce that appearance.

But her power couldn't be fooled that easily. Oh, true enough, it couldn't read _her_ at all in almost every respect, only picking up hints here and there around the edges.

Even so, it worked fine on _him_. And it told her immediately that the two of them were related. Only a little probing showed that she was his daughter, he only had one daughter, therefore…

Taylor Hebert, also the subject of a severe bullying campaign by three little shits, one of those shits being a Ward. Sophia Hess. Shadow Stalker.

Lisa shook her head, rinsing her hair. That was a hell of a potential time bomb for the PRT. Played right to the press with the evidence she'd seen, which Danny definitely still had a copy of if she was reading the man even vaguely correctly, it would bring so much shit down on the heads of the PRT, locally and nationally, that heads would roll up to a fairly high level.

The Hess girl would get crucified, of course, but everyone else who was even peripherally connected to the case would have a _very_ bad day. Director Piggot obviously was extremely well aware of this and was going out of her way to avoid it at all costs. Her higher-ups, assuming they even knew about it yet, would probably do the same. The PRT was nothing if not keenly aware of public relations, and this could be one of the worst messes in that area that they'd had to deal with for years. And that was without them even knowing that Taylor had Triggered as a result of the event, which they clearly didn't have a clue about.

She wondered if Taylor knew that the PRT was sitting on Sophia Hess. And what she'd do if she found out both that she was a Ward and that she was still in Brockton Bay.

After a moment, her eyes widened. "Oh, fuck me, of _course_ she knows," she mumbled as she got out of the shower. "With her sense of smell… She could smell Hess all over the other Wards from half a mile away even if they'd only walked past each other. Why didn't she do something about it?"

It was a good question. In her place, Lisa would have made the girl quietly disappear after a long talk. She couldn't see any way that Taylor didn't both know who Sophia was, and all the other Wards as well. She went to school with them after all, she'd have picked up on that instantly.

Drying her hair in front of the mirror in the locker room, she pondered the whole thing. A lot of aspects of the situation didn't make any sense at all even now, especially compared to normal cape reactions. But the girl wasn't a normal cape, that was very obvious. Lisa wasn't sure what she actually _was_ for that matter.

It was also obvious that Panacea, Amy Dallon, knew all of this and had in fact done so for a while. There were some odd things that her power had told her about the New Wave healer, one of them being that she was a fuck sight more dangerous than she appeared. To a level only slightly below Taylor, in fact, although in a completely different way. Taylor was definitely Endbringer-class, which was terrifying to think about, but Amy read as being way up into S-class at a _minimum._ Even there she found some confusing things, as her ability told her that the Dallon girl was actually a lot stronger and faster than she looked, which didn't make any sense. She wasn't known to have any Brute abilities, but Lisa definitely got indications that she was more than she appeared.

She was also very smart, very clever, and very loyal to her own family and the Heberts. Like with Taylor, threatening someone she cared about would be a quick way to end up dead. Lisa wasn't entirely certain how she'd pull it off, in Taylor's case it was obvious, you'd just be a nice snack or a bloody smear in a footprint, but in Amy's case it would be more subtle. But she could think of a number of fairly unpleasant possibilities from a Bio-Striker, which she was certain was only the tip of Panacea's real abilities. How she'd kept that from everyone was something of an intriguing puzzle.

Getting dressed after drying herself off, she went back to her room and hung her towel over the old radiator to dry, then headed to the cafeteria for something more to eat. She was still hungry, and also very tired.

Deciding that talking to Taylor could wait, she ate a couple of portions of stew which was very nice, talked to a few of the people in the cafeteria for a little while, then headed to bed. Fourteen hours of sleep or so sounded about right.

Stopping outside the rooms each of her team-mates had been given, she smiled a little to hear deep steady breathing and faint snores coming from them. The others had obviously simply decided to go straight for the sleep option.

Five minutes later she'd joined them.

* * *

"That's about all I can do without more supplies and I'm tired anyway," Amy said, stepping back from the bench and turning to Taylor. "But it's nearly ready for testing. The support system will keep everything happy for a few days until we have time for it."

"Sound good," Taylor smiled, inspecting their work. It was mostly Amy's, of course, but she and the Varga had made suggestions, fabricated some parts for it that were better off inorganic, things of that nature. Nothing like as much work as the partly completed thing in the other room, of course, but still it was fair to say it was a joint project. She reached out and touched it, running her hand down it again. "It feels exactly right."

"I think it is," Amy smiled. "I'm looking forward to trying it out. But right now I need something to eat and it's half past six or so." She checked her watch, then amended her statement. "Quarter to seven, actually. Let's go and find your dad."

"OK," Taylor replied, as they left the workshop and locked it behind them. She changed to Saurial, looked around the large room for a moment to make sure nothing was amiss, set the alarm, then both of them left, locking the premises on the way out.

Heading towards the Admin building, they looked around, waving to various workers who waved back. The fog was thick enough now that visibility was down to only a hundred feet or so, but as they got further from the water it started to thin out quite quickly. Amy shivered a little. "It's even damper now than it was earlier, and colder. I'll be glad when all this clears away."

"The rest of the week is supposed to be a lot warmer," Taylor noted. "Spring will be here soon."

"Good. This winter has just been nasty. I like a nice crisp snowy day, but most of what we've had has been damp and horrible, with a few nice bits. Before Christmas it was terrible."

"I haven't had too much trouble recently," Taylor snickered. Amy gave her a look.

"Of course you haven't, you could probably swim in liquid nitrogen and just think it was bracingly cold. But you're weird."

"And proud of it, Miss Dallon," she laughed.

Her friend giggled. "Obviously." They fell silent for a few seconds. "I hope Lisa and her friends are settled in OK," Amy said after a moment.

"I think Zephron will have got them sorted out pretty well. He's a good guy and seemed to like them."

"I have to admit I like him," she replied, smiling a little.

Shortly they arrived in the main Admin building, going through the office area to her father's office and entering after knocking. He was typing on the computer fairly fast, looking up at the pair of them and smiling as he paused for a moment.

"Hi, girls. Come in, I've nearly finished, only another couple of paragraphs. Did your work go well?"

"Yes, I think it did," Taylor grinned, glancing at Amy who had a private little smile of her own. "Amy has a present for you as well."

"Oh?" He raised an eyebrow.

"I heard your birthday was next week and thought I'd make you something for it," Amy said slyly. "But you'll have to wait until you get home."

"Ah. Poor me." He grinned, then resumed typing. Taylor checked to make sure no one was able to hear or see them, while Amy leaned on the door to prevent anyone walking in on them.

Moving over to stand beside her father, she said in a low voice, "We'll meet you at the place you dropped us off in a few minutes."

"OK, ' _Saurial_ ' he said, emphasizing the name with a smirk of his own. She winked, then looked over at Amy who was smiling more widely, shaking her head.

"You see the sort of thing I have to put up with?"

"Poor girl." Her friend seemed unsympathetic.

"See you soon," she laughed, as Amy pulled the door open and stepped out. He waved without looking up from his screen although he was still smirking. Nodding to the two office workers who were still present and getting a couple of nods back, they left.

* * *

Standing next to Colin, Hannah watched the Rig grow larger and closer. She turned to her companion and friend, who seemed pensive. "Do you want to tell the Director, or shall I?"

"I think I need to do it," he replied after a moment. "As you have pointed out in the past, it is my job as the local Protectorate leader." He glanced at her, a very small smile coming and going. "Although I am more than happy to leave dealing with other people to you in most cases."

"Something I'm all too aware of," she sighed, internally slightly amused. He was definitely getting, very slowly, better at conversation that wasn't entirely about technical subjects. Perhaps Dragon was helping him somehow, or his social interaction programming attempts were paying off. She doubted very much he'd ever be someone that could be described as the life of the party, though. Momentarily trying to suppress a smile at the mere thought, she nodded.

"I'll write up my report immediately and collate it with Assault's and those of the PRT troopers involved, so we can present everything at one time."

"Thank you. I will begin my own report as soon as I'm back in my lab." He sighed minutely. "Where I should be doing something useful instead."

"This _is_ useful, I think." She looked around carefully, seeing none of the other people on the boat were close enough to hear, but even so kept her voice very low. "The chance to capture someone who has been a thorn in our side for a considerable time and from what we learned might well be the most serious threat of all the villains in the city isn't something we should let slip through our fingers. Even considering the source of the information."

"You feel that our informant was untrustworthy?" he asked, somewhat curiously. Neither of them were mentioning names even under the current circumstances, Tattletale's insistence that Coil had ears and eyes everywhere having made them more than usually paranoid.

"Not… untrustworthy, precisely. I think that there was a certain amount of ulterior motive present though."

"Undoubtedly," he responded immediately. "Self-preservation is a strong motivator. But there was also a considerably loyalty to team members there as well, which was the main driving force behind giving us the information. Otherwise I expect we would not have heard anything about it until after the fact. If it's any help, none of the people involved were being untruthful with what they said, as far as my equipment could tell. Which doesn't mean they told us the _complete_ truth of course. Merely that what they did say was not a lie."

"Even Raptaur?"

He was silent for a few seconds. Eventually he said, "My equipment can't read her. Her physiological and psychological indicators are too far at variance from human norm for it to work at all. However, based on previous encounters I have no reason to doubt her veracity."

"I see." Hannah studied him for a while. He seemed oddly certain of himself, and she could tell that for whatever reason he actually respected the other cape to a higher level than he did most people. Which was somewhat peculiar. But then, so was he.

"Do you want to call a meeting with Director Piggot tonight?" she asked, not saying anything more about their information.

Again, he thought for a moment. Eventually he shook his head slowly. "No, I think not. She will have gone home by now in any case and I doubt bringing her back in would improve her outlook. There is of course the risk that she will feel annoyed anyway that we did not immediately tell her, but considering the security issues, it will take time to set something up that is sufficiently effective to prevent information leaks. I will pass on a report covering the death of Oni Lee and a brief description of the circumstances, which should be enough for now. Once I have finished a full report we can approach her and pass the full information on. Sometime tomorrow, I would think."

"OK. I'll back you up, but don't leave it too long, or she'll just get furious about being left out of the loop."

"A delicate equation to balance," he noted.

"Are you thinking about taking up Raptaur's offer of using the BBFO premises?" she asked curiously. "I think the Director would be somewhat unwilling to go for that."

"It seems a good suggestion in most respects." They were nearly at the Rig now, the ferry slowing and turning to dock. Both of them braced themselves as the boat rolled a little, without thinking much about it as it was a familiar thing. "I understand her reluctance, I think, but that building is probably one of the most unlikely to be surveilled of any in Brockton Bay, and most likely one of the most secure on the planet. Lined with what appeared to be at least several millimeters of EDM, even a nuclear weapon wouldn't destroy it."

He smiled a little at her. "Of course, the thermal pulse would cook anything inside it, but the building itself would still be standing."

"Hopefully we're not going to get nuked any time soon," Hannah commented with a smile of her own. He was positively chatty at the moment. She wanted to encourage that if possible.

"It seems unlikely." The boat stopped, people on the dock tying it up. She watched, slightly amused as always that even with the level of technology in the Rig, which was stuffed with Tinker tech, ultimately this particular task was done the same way it had been for millennia, with a rope. Both of them got back on their bikes as the front loading ramp came down, riding them the short distance to the garage, where they were parked.

"I will await your report. Do not put any of the security sensitive information on the internal computer system, please," he requested as they headed for the elevator. "I would also suggest disconnecting any security cameras present. My lab system is completely isolated from the main Rig system. If you wish, you can use a computer there to write up your report."

"Thanks, I'll do that after I've had a chance to shower and eat something," she smiled.

"Of course." As they arrived at the relevant floor he got out, nodded to her, and walked away. She watched him with a fond look until the doors closed, then went on her own way.

A shower and food sounded very good to her right now.

* * *

Once they'd entered the house, Danny looked at the two girls, who were sharing almost identically smug looks. Taking his coat off he hung it up, then headed into the kitchen for a cup of coffee, as it had been a _very_ long day and he needed caffeine right now. He heard a set of footsteps behind him, which would be Amy, as these days Taylor walked so quietly you could hardly hear it even when she wasn't actually trying to avoid notice.

Filling the kettle he plugged it in, then prepared the rest of the things he needed, before turning around to look at them. Both were at the table now, Taylor propped on her tail as usual while Amy was sitting next to her. The smug looks were still present.

"OK, talk," he said, taking a seat on the other side of the table and raising an eyebrow. "Those looks make me nervous."

They exchanged a glance, then Amy pulled a small box, about half the size of a box of kitchen matches, out of her pocket, pushing it over the table towards him. It appeared to be made of aluminum, perfectly square and smooth. "Happy Birthday in advance," she said with a smirk of someone who was enjoying a joke.

"Hmm." Picking it up he studied it, finding it was a two part affair with an inner lower part and an upper part that dropped down over it. Lifting the top off, he put it to one side and inspected the contents. The lower part was half full of a viscous yellow goo that looked a little like corn syrup, with no smell that he could detect. Floating in it was a small chip of bone-white material which seemed familiar.

"How nice. A pot of goop with an abomination of nature in it," he smiled, while inside his heart jumped a little.

"A Mark Seventeen abomination of nature, now with extra godlessness at no extra charge," Amy laughed.

"What happened with Marks One to Sixteen?" he asked.

Her face instantly went blank.

"We don't speak of the Mark Sixteen," she replied in a stiff voice. "Ever."

He stared in shock, then looked at Taylor as she began laughing. Amy relaxed, grinning like an idiot. "Oh, thanks," he sighed. "You're contagious," he added, fixing Taylor with a dark look which made her shrug, still laughing.

"Between you and Varga how could I have ended up anything but?" she asked, fairly reasonably.

"God, I wish your mother was here as well," he chuckled, shaking his head slightly regretfully. "She'd have loved your friends. Both of them." He nodded to Amy, who smiled again. "Although, now that I think about it, the four of you together in one room would have signified the end times."

Looking at the box in his hand again he tipped it slightly, watching the thing in it drift around in the goo. It was slightly smaller than the one Amy had originally made, and thinner, but overall looked more or less the same. "So this is one of your healing symbiotes?"

"It is," she agreed happily. "This is pretty much as far as I can take this version without redesigning it completely from scratch, which I'm doing. But even so, it's very effective. This is the first one that I could let people other than me use. I've tested and retested it over and over again and it's safe."

"What does it heal?"

"Everything."

He stared at her. "Everything?"

"Pretty much. If someone shot you in the head at close range with a shotgun, that would be bad, but if they got you in the heart with a pistol, you'd probably make it. It'll fix everything needed to keep the user alive as fast as possible, prioritizing life over everything else, then when you're stable, go back and repair things properly. You'd be incredibly hungry, of course, because it needs nutrients, but you'd live."

"What happens if you can't get the nutrients in time?"

"It puts you into a state like hibernation, the metabolism turned down as far as it can go, almost to death. You could last for weeks like that, even underwater. I'm not sure what the limit actually is yet, it's complicated to work out and obviously actually testing that part is difficult." She shrugged. "Not likely to get a volunteer to be shot then drowned for a couple of weeks."

"No, I suppose not," he agreed readily. "What about disease? And genetic defects, like… I don't know, MS or something like that."

"Diseases are easy enough. It pushes your immune system to absolutely stupid levels of activity while taking care of all the other problems that would normally cause. It will deal with any viral, bacterial, or prion disease I can think of without any problems. I could _probably_ design a disease that it wouldn't stop, but I'd have to work at it, and even so it would keep you alive to the bitter end. Things like cancer are easily recognized and fixed as well, along with most other issues of a similar nature. It'll regenerate basically everything given a little time and resources."

She smiled a little. "I could cut my arm off and eat it and it would regrow inside five minutes, but I'm not going to demonstrate that."

"Please don't," he said with a grimace.

"Genetic defects are more problematic, but it should handle most of them. It reads your genetic code, applies a number of error checking methods that were inspired by Taylor's Varga biology, and should be able to work out most of the things that are wrong rather than different. So it won't ' _cure_ ' you of having brown hair rather than blond, for example, because that's something that is correct in the genetics, but it would fix something like Huntington's. If it's not certain, it does nothing. I'm sure there are things I haven't thought of but it won't ever cause damage, only fix it. Like I said, it's safe. Much safer than any traditional method, certainly."

She hesitated a little, looking at Taylor, who made a motion to her to carry on. "It also fixes the worst disease of all, if you get one early enough in life."

"Which is?"

"Old age."

Danny gaped at her. "Holy shit."

"Oh, it's not immortality, not really and not yet, but it should stop practically all the normal aging processes dead and repair most of the damage already caused," she added quickly. "And you could still die from the right sort of accident. But my estimate is that it probably increases human lifespan by around three to four hundred percent while making at least ninety-five percent of that in peak health. I'm sure I can improve that with more work, sooner or later. But it should be enough to get on with for now."

There was dead silence for nearly a minute as he stared at her, then the innocent little thing in the box in his hand.

Eventually he opened his mouth. "You realize that if anyone finds out about this the reactions are going to be absolutely fucking off the wall insane, I hope?"

"I do, which is why I'm not telling anyone else about that part and I'll deny it flat if anyone asks," she sighed. "As far as anyone is concerned, it simply fixes diseases and injuries. More than that I need to think about the best way to bring up, eventually. Even so the PRT will be difficult. It still needs work, the shelf life isn't as good as I want it yet, and there are a few peculiar and very rare issues it might have trouble with, but it's good enough that I'd feel happy about letting people in general use one. Assuming that we can figure out how, which may take a while."

"But Amy thought that you deserved one first," Taylor put in with a faint smile on her face. "Until we can work out how to go any further it's difficult to let other people in on the secret, but you already know she can do much more than anyone else realizes. Plus, of course, she needs a guinea pig."

"Oh, thanks very much, dear," he said with a frown, making her grin. "I love you too."

"I know," she replied with a contented look. Amy snickered.

"How early is early enough?" he asked after a moment, looking at the thing in the box.

"Before about sixty right now. After that there is enough accumulated genetic damage that it becomes complicated to work out a fix for. I'll figure that out sooner or later but right now that's about the only limitation. Even then it would keep someone healthy and fix injuries. But it wouldn't extend life that much, probably only about fifty percent or something around that amount."

"Even so, people would kill for that," he noted soberly. "You are going to have to be _extremely_ careful how you proceed with this and who you let know. Wars have started over a hell of a lot less."

"That's one of the problems." Amy sighed. "But I can't just _not_ do it. It could save a lot of lives."

"Agreed," he finally said. "We'll think about this and come up with something that will work. In the meantime, how do you use it?" She looked up at him, smiling suddenly.

"You'll use it?"

"I trust you. So does Taylor and Varga. Yes."

The Dallon girl smiled brilliantly, the expression making her face light up. She hopped up and came around to his side of the table. "It's designed to be very simple and foolproof. Basically, you just press the concave side to the skin somewhere and hold it there. You'll feel a spot go numb, then you can let go. It'll make you a little dizzy as it integrates with your system but this version is invisible when it's joined. Just pick a spot of bare skin, like your arm or something."

After a look at her, he shrugged, then pushed up his left sleeve to expose his forearm. Putting it on the table palm up he fished the slippery thing out of its yellow glop, waited for most of the goo to drip off it, then put it as instructed half-way between his wrist and elbow after taking a deep breath. Amy put her fingers on his neck. "I'll monitor it, I need to check everything is going right, and I can stop it if anything happens, but I don't expect it to."

He nodded as he pressed down. The thing squeaked at him just like her first one had done. A couple of seconds passed then the area surrounding it went dead, so he let go.

Taylor was watching him closely, as was Amy. "Still the same color," she reported. "No extra limbs, no monsterism..." His daughter grinned as he sighed.

"I'm glad you feel it necessary to be so helpful, Taylor," he said dryly.

"You know me, always ready to help," she giggled.

Amy muffled a snort of laughter, then said, "It's working fine. You'll feel dizzy right… about… now." Right on cue he felt like the world was spinning for a moment, as if he'd had too much to drink, but the feeling passed quickly.

"Whoa. That was… weird," he mumbled.

"There we go. It's linked in… checking you over… Ah, it's decided that your eyes are not working quite right." She smiled as he looked at her. Suddenly her face went blurry. Reaching up he removed his glasses, blinking, and finding the room was abruptly sharply focused, much better than his eyesight had been before _with_ glasses.

"Good god. That's absolutely amazing," Danny muttered, looking around wide-eyed. Slowly, a smile spread across his face. "Unbelievable."

"Want to try this?" Taylor asked, holding out a glittering small but sharp knife.

He stared at her, debating with himself, but finally reached out for it. Without hesitation he stabbed the tip into his finger, suppressing the wince of pain as the implausibly sharp blade cut deeply. Removing the blade he watched open-mouthed as the wound healed in seconds, much faster than Amy's first attempt had managed.

"And _that_ is just freaky," he added slowly, handing the knife back.

Satisfied, Amy went back to her seat. "That worked perfectly."

He lifted his arm and inspected the spot the symbiote had attached to. It was already almost invisible and as he watched was slowly smoothing out into the exact texture and shade of his skin. "Can they be removed?"

"Yes, I have designed a removal system for it, and of course I can undo it easily, or upgrade it for that matter without removing it, but so far I haven't made one. Hopefully there won't be a need to remove one but the option is there."

He turned back to look at both of them. "Thank you very much indeed, Amy. It's a wonderful present."

"I hope you enjoy it for a very long time, Danny," she replied, then looked sideways at Taylor. "And you were just going to give him a coat."

"Hey! It's a very nice coat!" His daughter grinned at her friend, who laughed a little.

"There will be some more upgrades available in time, but that should do for the moment," Amy said. Glancing at her watch, she added, "I'm going to have to get home soon, it's nearly half past seven. I still have some stuff to do for school tomorrow."

"I'll give you a lift home, Amy," he offered. "Do you two want something to eat first, though? I was thinking about getting a pizza."

"That would be great, Dad," Taylor smiled. He reached into his pocket for his phone, dialing the number from memory, then ordering. Soon they were waiting for the delivery while discussing the events of a rather memorable day.

* * *

"Did you have a good day, Amy?"

Amy stared at her mother, then her father who was watching TV as was his normal activity a lot of the time. Mark looked over at her and smiled a little.

"Actually, yes I did, Mom." She was slightly weirded out by the look on her mother's face. It took a little thought to identify it as an apologetic smile.

"I wanted to say that I realize that I was very unreasonable yesterday," Carol continued, sighing a little, then getting up from her chair and approaching her adoptive daughter. With no hesitation she embraced her for a moment. "I do love you and I know I haven't said that nearly enough. I also know that I've let my resentment and hatred of your father color the way I've treated you for far too long. That was wrong." Stepping back as Amy stared in shock, she went on, "I can't promise that I can change my habits overnight, but I can promise that I'll at least try to. Will you forgive me?"

It took the brunette girl nearly twenty seconds to be able to think clearly, but she eventually smiled and nodded. "I think I will. Thank you, Mom. I didn't expect that at all."

"I still find your friendship with Raptaur and her sister something of concern, but as you rightly said, you're old enough and mature enough to make your own decisions," Carol said, sitting down again. "Hopefully you'll make the right ones. And Sarah is also right, those two are… odd… but not as far as anyone can tell, bad people. Or lizards. Or whatever the hell they are. Just promise me you'll be careful."

"I will, definitely," Amy grinned. She sat down opposite her parents. "They're good people, trust me. And all their relatives."

"There really are more of them?" Carol asked doubtfully. Amy nodded, her grin widening.

"Yep. You'll see soon enough."

Her mother sighed faintly. "Why do I somehow feel that things around here are only going to get weirder, dear?" she said to Mark, who grinned, then went back to the TV.

"It fits the genre, I think," he snickered. "A family of weird lizard-people living in the bay or wherever it is? Definitely Lovecraft."

"Oh, I really wish you hadn't said that," Carol muttered. "I've _read_ Lovecraft."

"I know," he grinned, glancing at Amy, who was suppressing a laugh of her own. Flipping channels he proceeded to ignore them both. Carol watched him with fond but mildly irritated amusement, then shook her head, looking back to the girl.

"I believe a car was also mentioned?" she said with a sigh.

Amy grinned widely.

* * *

 __ _ **  
**_ **The Day before Tuesday, February 14, 2011** **  
**  
Taylor smiled, her Saurial mouth showing teeth. 'Aha. **Got** you.'

She started following the scent trail, cloaked and invisible to everyone. She'd been searching for nearly four hours in the vicinity that Lisa had said she was pretty sure led to the base that Coil had somewhere in the Downtown area, although she didn't know the exact location as she was always brought in by his mercenaries via a route circuitous enough to give even her power trouble, blindfolded to boot. But she'd narrowed it down to a ten block square area. Now, roughly in the middle of that zone, Taylor had caught a scent on the breeze.

She'd detected hints of the same scent in a number of places, showing that the man bought coffee from a particular shop, seemed to like another one's donuts, and occasionally stopped at a newspaper shop, but not recently. None of the scent trails had led anywhere useful, normally only the edge of the nearest road where he'd obviously gotten into and out of a car. He'd used one specific payphone, dropped a cup on the ground within the last twelve hours or so, touched a bench, things like that, but none of the traces were immediately useful other than to show that Lisa was correct about his general location.

This time the scent proved to be coming from a vent in the wall of a building, the pipework leading not up as she expected but down. She inspected it carefully. Sniffing, she was certain that it was fresh. Wherever this led, Coil was in there. ' _Underground_ _,_ ' she thought. ' _No wonder it's difficult to find. How can he afford that, and all those mercenaries? Lisa says he must have at least thirty of them and the base is huge_.'

" _It's an interesting problem_ _,_ " the Varga agreed. " _I wonder if the people in this building know about him being under them?_ _"_

' _No idea_ _,_ ' she replied, looking around carefully. Following the cables she could see in the walls, radiating enough power to show that whatever they were connected to was much larger than just a few lights, she went around the side of the building to the rear. The cables went into an access tunnel under a manhole and as far as she could determine connected to the main electrical grid.

' _Other direction, I guess,_ ' she commented. ' _This is where they're coming_ _ **from**_ _.'_

Turning around she followed the electrical glow in the opposite direction, finding the point that they abruptly turned downwards and disappeared into the ground, behind an access panel that was actually marked as containing a gas shutoff valve. ' _Someone's gone to a lot of trouble to hide all this_ _,_ ' she added.

" _A secret base anyone can easily find isn't much of a secret,_ " her friend chuckled.

' _No, I guess not_ _.'_

It took her half an hour to find the main entrance, which was very well hidden in a parking garage a block away, and another forty minutes to track down two more smaller entrances, which were probably emergency escape routes. One went into a storm drain, the other one ended as a perfectly ordinary looking door next to an accountancy company fire exit. It was, under the facade of normality, six inches of steel, she found out when she inspected it. She cataloged a large number of individual people's scents at all three entrances, Lisa's being among those at the main one. Her newest friend had certainly been through that hidden door on a number of occasions.

' _Well, he's definitely in there_ _,_ ' she noted. ' _I could go in after him, but that could be a problem. I think that weird chemical smell is explosives, a lot of them. He's probably the sort of idiot who's fitted his secret underground base with a self-destruct system. I'll bet it even has a big count down timer. This guy has seen way too many Bond films._ _'_

" _It does seem a little over-elaborate, Brain_ _,_ " the Varga chuckled. " _But it fits the personality type_ _."_

' _I guess. Now all we need to find out is who he actually_ _ **is**_ _.'_ She sighed a little, then settled in to wait in a dark spot in the parking garage, near the ceiling, wishing that she'd brought some eggs to snack on.

And hoping that Coil went home soon. She had school in only about six hours.


	75. Omake - Why the Mark Sixteen is never

_"Aha!"_

"What?"

"My own brilliance astounds me sometimes," Amy smirked, reaching for another onion.

"Does your own modesty astound you too?" Taylor asked with a grin of her own, leaning against the wall watching her friend work. She was in her base form at the moment since the door was locked and the only other person than herself who currently had keys to the premises was her father, who would knock before unlocking the door.

They had the workshop door open as well, because she'd been sitting at the table playing games on Amy's phone for the last few minutes, which made her think maybe she should get one like it as well. She could certainly afford it these days.

"It does, yes. My modesty is only eclipsed by my brilliance, obviously. And possibly by my overall likability, which as you well know is immense."

"I'm beginning to think the thing that's immense is your ego," Taylor chuckled.

"Jealousy. Simple Jealousy." Amy sniffed, shaking her head sadly. "Poor little lizard girl doesn't know what an honor it is to have I, the Great Panacea, working with her. And allowing her to work with me."

"I thought you were The Amy?" Taylor asked, looking shocked and annoyed. "If you're going with The Great Panacea I'm going to have to change the order for the t-shirts and baseball caps, which is very short notice. They were due to turn up on Tuesday, you know."

"Pah. Tuesday?" Amy scoffed, waving her free hand as she concentrated on the mass of goo the onion had turned into in the other one. "Just another day. The only important day is the one I'm currently in."

"Today, you mean."

"Obviously."

"But it's always today."

"Exactly. Thereby showing how great I am to grace it with my presence."

They exchanged a glance, then nearly fell over laughing. "Sorry, I can't keep that up any more," Amy giggled. "I'm starting to sound like Mouse Protector."

"Ooh. I love her. Do you think we could get her to join us?" Taylor said excitedly, then grinned at the look of horror on her friend's face. "Joking. Honest." She paused, thinking. "More or less."

"My god, the world would collapse into a ball of terror and bad puns with both of you even in the same _city_ , never mind the same room," Amy moaned. " _Never_ say that again."

Shaking her head at the silliness, Taylor came closer. "So what brilliant idea have you had, oh Sage One?"

"Sage One." Amy looked thoughtful, then slowly shook her head. "Not quite, but it's not bad." Smirking again, she held up her hand, which was now holding a rather larger variant of her healing symbiote. "Behold. The Mark Sixteen."

"What's the difference between this and the Mark Fifteen?" Taylor asked as the girl slipped it into the holding tank with the previous versions. "Aside from being bigger."

"This one will seek out an injured person and heal them, without having to attach it first," her friend explained proudly. "It could be used for search and rescue, for example. It'll adapt to deal with the most serious injuries I could think of. Very aggressive healing, even if they're half crushed and have practically no life signs left it will fix them. It's brilliant."

She turned to look at Taylor, who had an eyebrow raised. "My best work yet."

"I see." Taylor nodded slowly. "And the eyes are to help it find people? Like all the little legs?"

Amy frowned. "What eyes?"

"And those teeth? Are they really needed?"

They looked at each other, then the healer turned her head, just as the thing in the tank whizzed into motion. "Holy Shit!" she screamed, diving out of the way as the tank virtually exploded with suspension liquid spraying everywhere, the thing she'd made which did indeed now have eyes and far too many legs spinning like a vacuum cleaner impeller. It bounced around the unbreakable tank for a few seconds, while Amy hid behind Taylor, who was frowning at the thing and wiping goo from her face.

"It's growling. Why is it growling?"

" _I DON'T FUCKING KNOW_ _!_ " Amy screamed in shock as the thing, which was definitely considerably larger now, leaped out of the tank and began skittering around the room. "Hit it! Kill it!"

"It ate all the other ones," Taylor noted, picking up the empty tank and shaking it a little. "Why did you make it eat things?"

" _I FUCKING_ _ **DIDN'T**_ _MAKE IT EAT THINGS, YOU IDIOT!_ _"_ her friend shrieked, climbing up her to get away from her creation which pinged around the work room like a squash ball fired from a cannon, still making a shrill growling sound that was rather unnerving. It ultimately dived into the last twenty-pound cloth bag of onions they had left.

"Weird," Taylor commented, watching the bag jerk and twitch. "It's sort of hyperactive. I think you might have done something a little wrong."

" _Really?_ " her friend said with heavy sarcasm from her position on Taylor's shoulders. "I'd never have fucking worked that out. That thing's insane."

"What did you do to it that's different?" Taylor asked curiously, listening to the growl get deeper in tone. "Aside from summoning Satan into it."

"I may have added a little of your DNA equivalent to it," Amy admitted.

"But I thought your power couldn't work out my biology at all?"

"I guessed," Amy said in a small voice.

"Um..." The bag exploded, not one but half a dozen of the things coming out in all directions, each of them about the size of a rat. There were more legs and the teeth were much bigger. "I think you guessed wrong."

" _ **Thanks for that,**_ " Amy yelled as she tried to crawl onto Taylor's head with her newly enhanced strength. She let out a high pitched scream as one of the things propelled itself off the floor right at her. Taylor reached out and grabbed it as it went past, holding on firmly as the thing went completely apeshit, sawing at her wrist with a mouth filled with dozens of razor-sharp teeth.

"Ow. I can actually feel that," she said with surprise. "Don't let one bite you."

" _ **WILL YOU STOP STATING THE FUCKING OBVIOUS AND KILL THEM, YOU SCALY IDIOT?**_ " Amy's voice had nearly gone ultrasonic. Experimentally, Taylor squeezed, then looked at the results in mild astonishment. The synthetic creature had broken in two in her grip, both halves reconstituting into a pair of smaller but identical creatures. They looked at each other in her hand, then pounced. Within seconds there was only one, back to more or less the original size. It licked its lips with a forked tongue and belched, then went for Amy again, who screamed and dived off Taylor out of the workroom. All six of the things followed her.

Taylor listened to the screaming and crashing sounds, sighed gently, and went to save her friend.

* * *

"How did you make them taste like Chicken Vindaloo?" Taylor said, licking her lips thoughtfully. "I love Chicken Vindaloo. Can we have those next Thanksgiving?"

Amy, who was very tattered and exhausted looking, with a number of rips in her clothes, gave her an evil look. Taylor grinned.

"We _never_ talk about the Mark Sixteen again. Ever. I mean it." Her friend's voice was dark and dangerous. "Or I'll end you. Somehow."

Taylor reached out and patted her on the shoulder. "Hey, it could have been worse. Just think what would have happened if we'd had a ton of onions in stock."

Amy just glared, her eyes radiating death.

Snickering, Taylor went to find something to drink.

Chicken Vindaloo always made her thirsty.


	76. Monday and Discussions

Taylor yawned, stirring her cereal, then started eating it. Her father looked at her with a smile.

"You were out late last night," he noted as he poured himself some orange juice. "Did you actually get any sleep at all?"

"About an hour and a half," she mumbled, putting more cereal into the left-over milk. "I'll be OK, normally it would be more than enough but after yesterday..." She trailed off, eating steadily, then picked the bowl up and drank the small amount of milk and sugary goodness left in the bottom.

"I'd worry about your diet if I didn't know full well you could eat the bowl as well and thrive on it," he chuckled. She grinned at him, putting it down, then yawned again. Shaking her head vigorously, she tried to wake up.

"More importantly, did you have any luck with your little expedition?" he asked.

"Sort of. I know where his base is, and I've identified forty-seven individuals who have gone in and out of it recently, including Coil. He's definitely inside it still, no one came in or left the whole time I was watching. Varga thinks he may have locked it down until he finds out what happened to the Undersiders or decides it's not a threat. He's obviously very paranoid and careful."

"It's not paranoia if someone really is after you," he smiled.

She grinned back with teeth showing. "Oh, I'm after him, all right. And I'll get him. Sooner or later. Do you think I should tell Armsmaster where his base is now, or wait until we positively identify him?"

Her father sat back in his chair and thought for a while. "I'm not sure," he admitted. "On balance it might be best to find out as much as you can first. You can look around without them spotting you much better than probably almost anyone, and if he figures out that someone is that close to him, he might do something stupid."

"His base is full of explosives and under the Wilson Financial Planning building, at least partially," she said soberly. "If he blew it I think the building would come down. He could kill a lot of people."

"Shit. That's bad."

Nodding, she explained everything she'd discovered. "I have no idea how you could build something that size right in the middle of the city without anyone noticing, but I don't remember there being any serious construction going on underground there."

"No, neither do I," he muttered, thinking. "Odd. It would certainly require a considerable amount of money, time, and effort. And specialist construction knowledge."

"Lisa got those documents from Lung's safe which she said were something to do with construction companies," Taylor pointed out. "Maybe there's a clue there?"

"Could be, yes. I'll talk to her when I go to work and have a look at the paperwork. I can make some discreet inquiries. If they used any people from any of the unions in the city I can probably find out about it."

"OK. Be careful, though, he might have some sort of way to find out about people poking into his affairs."

He smiled at her. "I know how to find things out without giving away why, Taylor."

"Good." She grinned at him, then reached for the toast. "Tonight I'll poke around some more. Varga suggested that he was unlikely to only have one base, he seems like the sort of guy with backup plans on top of backup plans. He's probably got more secret places he could hide. Although I'd be really surprised if they were as big as that one is, it must cover about a block or so. It's as big as one of the Endbringer shelters."

"Huh." He looked thoughtful. "That reminds me of something, but I can't quite remember it..." After a moment he shook his head. "No, it's right at the tip of my tongue but it won't come. I'll think about it. But yes, it sounds like you might be right."

"I also thought I'd take a few passes through the better residential areas as well, just run around for a bit looking for his scent. I think, and Varga agrees, that the guy probably lives in a nice house, not anything around here. It's worth a try anyway. I'll be able to smell somewhere he's been for a while from a mile away." She sighed a little. "If he actually walked there, or used public transportation, I'd already have him, but he's obviously using different vehicles and going by different routes each time. Real movie spy stuff."

"Sounds like a real character," her father commented.

"Not a nice one, though, from what Lisa said," Taylor scowled. After a moment, she shrugged, her mood improving. "Anyway, like I said, I'll get him. And if he's locked up in his base waiting to see what happens, hopefully that will minimize the damage he can directly do for the moment. I have other things to get on with." She rubbed her hands together with an evil grin. "I have cities to terrorize by _**moving a ship! Muah ha ha.**_ "

Her father stared for a moment, then burst out laughing. " _Please_ don't do that when you're Kaiju, or we really _will_ have the Triumvirate dropping in on us."

"Meh, I can take them," she giggled.

"Whether you could or not, I really don't want to find out," he grinned. "We don't need a massive Brute fight in the middle of an engineering project of this size. Try to keep the terror down to a faint background level."

"I'll do my best," she giggled. "Do you know how the Mayor is going to tell people about it?"

"Didn't you see the notice in the Sunday paper?" he asked. She shook her head, so he got up and disappeared into the living room for a moment, coming back with the paper in question. Leafing through it for a moment he found the right place then handed it to her. She read it with interest.

"OK, I guess that works."

"Roy is going to hold a press conference later this morning, around eleven, I think," he said as he sat down again. "There will be the local TV and Radio stations there, along with some press journalists. He said he was going to be as vague as possible but make sure people know it's safe, because he's a little worried that if he tells the truth, either people won't believe him and think he's gone nuts, or _believe_ him and _know_ he's gone nuts." He grinned as she laughed. "More or less his exact words."

"Has he informed the PRT?" she asked when she recovered.

"He's going to call the Director later, after the press conference, and invite her along. I don't think he's saying exactly what to expect." He grinned darkly. "They have a history. He wants to see her face."

"I think I like him," she snickered.

"He's a good man, especially for a politician," he agreed. "I like him too. Even though we've had our own issues in the past. Anyway, there will be a VIP viewing area on the helipad on top of City Hall which should have a perfect view. I've been invited along to it for the start. After that I'll go back to the Yard to coordinate things. We've got nearly a hundred volunteers for crowd control duty, radios and things like that for everyone, contacts with the BBPD who were grateful for the help… Hopefully everything on our end will go relatively smoothly."

"I sure hope so," she sighed. "I'll be sort of busy if trouble starts."

"We could ask Vicky if she and her family would like to be on standby for problems," he suggested after a moment. "That girl seems like she enjoys excitement, she'd probably jump at the chance to do something useful again."

"Not a bad idea," Taylor mused. "Amy will be there so we should be able to deal with any medical issues, Vicky could add some strength to it… I'll ask Amy to ask her on behalf of Raptaur. She can ask her family as well."

"It's probably better to do that than bring the PRT in on it," he said, finishing his breakfast and getting up to wash the dishes. "That will inevitably bring red tape and problems. If anything _does_ go bad, they'll jump in anyway, but I'd prefer them to stay out of it unless that happens. I know Roy would as well."

"It's turning into a major thing, isn't it," Taylor remarked with mild resignation. "People are building it up into some huge event, when all I was planning on doing was moving an old ship a few miles. I never expected it to get so... complicated." She sighed a little, resting her head on one arm and looking at him. "I'm half-sorry I had the idea. Hopefully after this things will calm down a little."

Coming around the table he put his hand on her shoulder comfortingly. "It was always going to end up being a major event, dear. One way or another. It's way too big a change to the city for it just to be swept under the carpet." Patting her shoulder he picked up her dishes and took then to the sink as well. "Don't worry, you started something good. It's given a lot of hope to a lot of people who are really looking forward to seeing how it changes their lives, which I firmly believe will be for the better."

"Thanks, Dad," she smiled. "That helps a lot. It's just that sometimes it all piles in on me and I suddenly realize how insane my life is now."

"Fun, though, I hope?"

"Oh, god, yes. I wouldn't change a thing," she grinned.

Laughing, he picked her glass out of the sink, then winced when there was a cracking sound as it abruptly broke into two pieces, a chipped rim finally giving up. "Ouch," he yelped, whipping his hand out of the hot soapy water. His palm was dripping blood, but within a couple of seconds this stopped. By the time he ran the tap over his wounded hand, it wasn't wounded any more.

"Christ, that's definitely going to take some getting use to," he muttered, staring at his unmarked palm for a few seconds, before carefully reaching into the water and fishing out the broken glass. He looked at it, then shook his head, turning to drop it into the garbage. "Amy does amazing work. Remind me that we need to buy a new set of glasses, that's the third one that's broken in the last month."

"OK," she smiled, having watched the events with pleased approval once she'd realized he was in no danger. "Her symbiotes are pretty incredible. Some of the other ideas are… really amazing."

"Hopefully you two will let me in on the secret at some point," he smiled, draining the sink, then locating the broken off bit of glass and disposing of it.

"When we get it working, sure," she agreed. Pushing herself erect with a flick of her tail, she went over and hugged him. "I'm going to have to go, or I'll be late."

"OK. I'll check on Lisa and her friends and tell her you'll be in later. Are you going to tell her about yourself?"

"She already knows," Taylor said. She shrugged as he looked at her in mild surprise. "She's not stupid and her power is pretty incredible. But she'll keep her mouth shut. I'll talk to her later. Amy's at the hospital tonight, so it'll just be me."

"All right, then, that sounds fine. I'll contact Arcadia and give them notice that you'll be out all day tomorrow for unspecified but important family reasons, they allow that a few times a year as long as you don't push it." Danny smiled at her snicker.

"More like Family reasons," she giggled. "I'll see you later."

"Have fun, and thank Amy again for this," he told her, holding up his hand, looking impressed. "Best gift ever."

"You haven't seen the coat yet," she called back as she left the house, still smiling to herself.

* * *

Emily sighed just a little as she read the email. Picking up the phone she dialed a number, then waited for a moment. When it was answered after two rings and a curt " _Armsmaster_ " was spoken, she asked with patient irritation, "Colin, what the hell are you up to now?"

There was a short pause. " _I'm sorry, Director, I'm not sure of your meaning_."

"My _meaning_ is that I have just read a report from you, with input from Hannah if I'm any judge, which is an absolute masterpiece of saying almost nothing in as many words as possible. I've read statements from career politicians that had more actual substance to them. It's extremely out of character for either of you, you in particular, as your reports are normally short and to the point. Almost excessively so."

" _I'm still unsure what you need to know, Director_ ," the Tinker said in what she could swear was an evasive manner. " _Perhaps we should meet in person to discuss the situation._ "

"We have a normal meeting scheduled for later this morning."

" _I would prefer you to come to my lab_ ," he replied. " _For security reasons_."

Pulling the handset from her ear she looked at it for a second, then replaced it. "Security reasons?"

" _Yes, Director._ "

Emily thought rapidly for a moment. "Are you implying that the PRT building is in some way insecure?"

" _I'm afraid I cannot go into details on the phone, Director_ ," he replied, almost sounding apologetic. " _For security reasons._ "

She sighed, pinching the bridge of her nose and closing her eyes. "We're going to go around in circles in this conversation, aren't we?" she asked rhetorically. He didn't reply.

"Damn. All right, you win." She quickly checked her schedule, then moved a couple of things around. "This better be good."

" _I think it is, but I can't say anything else for..._ "

"For security reasons," she completed for him. "Yes, I get the point. I'll be there at eleven AM."

" _We'll be waiting for you_ ," he replied, then the line went dead with a faint click.

"That man gets more annoying the more I deal with him," she muttered under her breath, putting the handset down with slightly more force than actually required. Turning back to her computer she fiddled with the schedule some more until she had a clear two hours from quarter to eleven to quarter to one.

As she finished, the phone rang. Picking it up absently, she answered, "Piggot," hearing the voice of her personal assistant reply.

" _Director, I have Mayor Christner on the line for you_."

She sighed again. Now what? Based on that notice on the paper it could be almost anything. "Put him through."

" _Yes, Director_."

The line beeped, then she said, "Hello, Roy. What can I help you with?"

" _Hello, Emily. How are you this fine day?_ " He sounded jovial and pleased with life. " _I'm very glad the fog burned off. Hopefully tomorrow will be as nice._ " She glanced out the window towards the bay and had to agree it had become a nice day, especially after the weekend's fog and rain.

"I assume you didn't call me just to share your opinion of the weather?" she asked with a small amount of asperity, but trying to be polite.

He chuckled. " _No, of course not. Just making small talk. It's what we politicians do. I was actually calling to advise you that there will be a major independent Parahuman operation in the bay tomorrow, and to invite you along to watch if you wished. Or you can send a representative or two if you're too busy. I know how the work piles up_."

"What _sort_ of ' _Major Parahuman Operation_ ' are we talking about, Roy?" she asked with extreme suspicion. "And for that matter, which Parahuman? I saw your little ad in the paper. BBFO, LLC? How did that come about?"

" _Oh, it's fairly impressive, to be sure, but nothing too worrying, Emily_ ," he said reassuringly. " _Some much-needed civil improvements that are long overdue. The effects on the economy of the bay area will be profound, our experts are sure on that part. But it will certainly be a sight to see._ "

"What will?"

" _I'm afraid I can't say just yet_ ," he chuckled. " _For security reasons._ "

Her hand tightened on the handset to the point she heard a faint creak.

" _As far as the Parahuman in question goes, she's… well, she's fairly impressive in her own right. A Family member, not one who has been seen in public yet. Tomorrow will be her debut. Brockton Bay Family Operations are donating her services to the city, which is very much appreciated. I do admire the civic pride shown. The aid of the DWU is also something we're pleased about, this would be much more difficult to arrange without them._ " He sounded very amused. " _In fact, to be fair without the DWU I doubt this entire plan would even have come up_."

"Let me guess," she grated. "Somehow, I have no idea how, Danny fucking Hebert is involved."

" _Oh, do you know him?_ " Roy sounded like he was suppressing a laugh. " _I didn't know that. I've known the man for many years and while we've had our differences, he seems to know his stuff. Not to everyone's taste, of course, some of the Councilors_ _ **really**_ _don't like him, but that shouldn't prevent us all working together for the good of the public. It is, after all, our entire reason for existing, the City Council and the PRT both. Wouldn't you agree?_ "

"I suppose it is," she said through slightly gritted teeth. "And I suppose you're not going to tell me any more? Just talk in platitudes?"

" _Emily, you wound me. Truly._ " There was a definite laugh to his voice now. " _No, as I said I can't go into details. I just wanted to personally give you a heads-up to prevent any misunderstandings, we wouldn't want your people getting the wrong idea and intervening, would we? Especially considering the chaos and embarrassment that would ensue. But you're more than welcome to come and watch from the VIP viewing area. There's even a buffet and we have some exceptional Californian wines. I heard you were medically much better these days and you might like a glass or two_."

"You're really enjoying this, aren't you, Roy?" she snapped.

" _Immensely, Emily,_ " he snickered. " _I'll make sure your PA gets the details. We start at half past one tomorrow afternoon. See you then. Have a nice day_." He hung up.

Slamming the phone down she breathed heavily through her nose for a few seconds. That man had always irritated her for some reason. He was a good Mayor, popular and apparently fairly effective, as much as he could be bearing in mind the cesspit the city was, but he'd always tended to push back whenever the PRT got involved. It was annoying.

And now he was obviously going to milk the reversal of the situation for everything he could.

Which was _much_ more annoying.

When she'd calmed down a little, she picked up the phone again and prodded a button. "Get me Triumph," she said briskly. "Have him in my office as soon as possible, please." Putting the phone down she turned around to stare at the bay. "Major Parahuman Operation, hmm?" she mumbled, trying to work out what the hell that actually meant when applied to the scene in front of her.

* * *

Blinking at the ceiling, Brian tried to work out where he was. It looked unfamiliar in the sunlight coming through the window across the room. Raising his head from the pillow, he looked around at the other five beds and the various things present then sighed as memory came back. He's been so tired when he got here he'd fallen asleep almost instantly.

Lifting his arm he looked at his watch. It was just after ten, so he'd been asleep for more than twelve hours. Aside from being ravenously hungry and desperate for the sweet relief of the nearest toilet, he felt fine and rested, which considering how yesterday had gone, was something of a miracle.

Flipping the covers aside he sat up, scrubbing his face with his hands in an attempt to fully wake, then stood up, scratching his head. Shortly he was in the shared men's facilities, having a very long go on the urinal. Moments later he was relaxing under a hot shower.

When he finished and dressed, he headed down to the cafeteria, nodding politely to the few other people he saw. Noises from outside suggested a lot of people working hard, more of them than had been present the day before. He had vague memories of waking once in the night and hearing sounds like a construction site in the distance, which was considerably louder now that the fog had gone and was no longer muffling everything.

He stopped and looked out a second story window half-way down the stairs from the dormitory area to see what was going on. Dozens of men and women in bright high-visibility jackets were working on the remains of the demolished warehouses, the second of which was now completely cleared. The metal framed skeleton he'd noticed being worked on when they'd walked from the BBFO unit to here was almost gone, only one small section left, and even as he watched the flame of a thermal lance cut the last part near the ground.

The entire U shaped section of steel gracefully collapsed across the ground, people standing at a safe distance moving in on it with cutting torches as soon as the dust cleared. ' _They're sure working fast,_ ' he thought as he resumed descending the stairs. ' _I wonder what all the rush is?_ '

Entering the large cafeteria he looked around, seeing about two dozen people eating, most of them looking tired and dirty. Presumably the previous shift who had just finished. His three team-mates were also present, Alec shoveling bacon and scrambled eggs into himself as quickly as possible, while across from him Rachel was giving Angelica a piece of bacon, while looking oddly relaxed. He inspected her for a moment, wondering why.

Lisa was heading back from the food preparation area carrying a tray, and waved to him with a broad smile when she spotted him. "Hey, Brian!" she called. "Finally! We were wondering if you'd died in your sleep."

"We were going to wait until the stink got too bad before we looked, though," Alec snickered, then dived back into his food. "This is really good, by the way," he added, coming up for air briefly and indicating his half-empty plate.

"And there's lots of it, so you don't have to eat so fast, you annoying little man," Lisa pointed out as she sat next to him. He shrugged, not slowing down.

She sighed a little, looking up at Brian as he arrived next to her. "He's impossible."

"Merely improbable. And extremely hungry," Alec muttered through a mouthful of food.

"I have to admit I'm starving too," Brian chuckled. "Back in a minute." He headed over to join the line for the hot food. When he had a tray full of various items he went back and sat down next to Rachel, who looked at him for a moment then when back to her own food. Both her surviving dogs were sitting next to her, looking around alertly and seeming calm and accepting.

"So," he said after trying his own breakfast and finding it more than acceptable. "This is another fine mess you got us into, Lisa."

She stared at him, then laughed, as did Alec. Rachel looked puzzled but said nothing.

"In the long run it's the best thing that could have happened to us, I think, but I'll admit I didn't think that yesterday afternoon," she replied with a small wry grin. "Sorry about that, guys. It was my fault."

"We all helped, and went into it willingly, so I guess I can't really blame you," he sighed, picking at his food, a little morosely. "Much as I'd like to."

She put her hand on his, then smiled. "It'll work out. These people all accept us, Raptaur and her family are looking out for us, and you at least are going to get an above-board job. I know that's what you always wanted. You never intended to end up doing what we did." She looked around at the rest of her team. "None of us did. But shit happens."

"Sure happened yesterday," Alec said as he finished his meal, then turned around in his seat to speculatively eye the food again. Lisa poked him.

"Wait for a while, no need to get greedy. It's not going away."

With a mock sigh he relaxed, picking up the coffee he'd half finished and sipping it.

She turned back to Brian. "I'm also sorry I didn't tell you about the Boss." They were talking in low voices, but still didn't want to say anything incriminating. Glancing around Brian noticed that everyone was basically ignoring them after the initial glances. He got the distinct impression that at least some of them knew full well who they were but didn't actually care, which matched what Zephron had told him last night when he'd dropped off some supplies.

"I wish you had but I understand why you didn't," he replied after a few seconds. "All in the past, I guess. Now we just have to get on with life. And keep Rachel out of jail." The girl looked up at the sound of her name, scowling a little.

"Not going to jail," she muttered.

"No, you're not," Lisa assured her. "Not if we have anything to say about it. Trust me, we'll figure out a way around the problem."

Not looking entirely satisfied but accepting it for the moment, Rachel resumed slowly eating. Brian studied her then turned back to the blonde. "You think that they'll be satisfied with the information?" he asked quietly, not mentioning who ' _they_ ' were. They all knew.

"I think it'll go a very long way to make it easier, yes," Lisa said after some reflective thought. "The local people will really want to find ' _The Boss_ '. Their higher-ups might not put so much weight on it, but it will at least give us breathing room. If Danny can find some legal help and we can start a preemptive defense, I think we've got a good chance." She looked around at them all. "Alec and I are probably in the clear anyway. You're a little more of a problem but I really doubt it will go any further, especially if you get a job here and stick to it. Rachel is the issue but I'm hopeful."

"Doesn't it open up the DWU to some sort of payback, though?" Alec asked curiously. "I mean, I could see for myself that our visitors last night, or one of them at least, are very worried about Raptaur, Saurial, and the whole BBFO thing. Which is pretty fucking weird, you have to admit. So is the way that tall, dark, and beardy seems to trust that enormous lizard."

"It's a little odd, yes," Lisa nodded, looking thoughtful. "I'm still not sure what's going on there. He does seem to put a lot of weight on her word. I was more interested in the way his friend nearly lost it there when she came in. That's really out of character, but she was hovering between worried and terrified the whole time. When we started talking about the boss, she concentrated on that, but even so she was jumpy as hell under it all. Raptaur worries her."

"Raptaur worries anyone who thinks about her _or_ her relatives," Brian commented.

She grinned. "I don't know, I'm kind of getting used to her. But I can see why you might think that."

"I'm still having nightmares about her chasing us, you know," Alec grumbled, making her snicker. "I won't forget that in a hurry. It scared the shit out of me. She's terrifying in the dark."

"Probably as bad in the light," Brian agreed with a grin. "But on the other hand she got our asses out of some serious trouble, got Panacea to heal us, and intervened with the authorities, so I guess we owe her a lot."

"What's the whole thing with Panacea being tight with Raptaur about anyway?" Alec looked confused now. "I thought she was all grumpy and moody at the best of times and spent all her free time in the hospital healing people and scowling at them. That's what it says on PHO anyway. But last night she was obviously enjoying herself making snarky comments and definitely knows a lot more about all this than most people. It's weird."

"I'm not sure yet, but I can tell you that she trusts Raptaur and Danny Hebert completely, and from what I saw, it's the same the other way around," Lisa replied, wearing a small frown. "I agree it's strange. Hopefully I can find out more later today." She checked the time. "I need to go and talk to Danny soon anyway. Zephron said he came in around half past eight but said he was busy until around eleven or so, and to leave it until then."

"Make sure our money is safe," Alec remarked. Rachel looked up and nodded vigorously. "We put in a fuck of a lot of work and blood for that."

"I'm sure no one is going to steal our money," she grinned. "What do you think they are, thieves? No one like that around here."

All four of them laughed, even Rachel.

Feeling that life might actually be looking up for once, Brian got up for seconds. At the very minimum, the food here was better than you probably got in jail.


	77. Press and Counting

"What the hell is your father up to, Rory?"

The young man standing stiffly in front of her desk looked slightly puzzled.

"Ma'am?" he asked. "What do you mean?"

"This ' _Parahuman Operation_ ' he's being irritatingly coy about. It's very annoying, and I want to know what the hell is going on."

"Oh."

"Yes. ' _Oh_.' Explain it." Emily wasn't in a particularly good mood right now.

"I'm afraid I can't, Ma'am," Triumph said. "I don't actually know."

"He hasn't told you anything?"

"No, not really. I've been staying on the Rig most of the time for the last few months, so I don't see him or Mom all that often anyway. The last time I was home was about a week ago and I know he was going to meet some mystery parahuman with Mr Hebert from the DWU, but I don't know who, where, or when. Or what happened, aside from the fact that when I called Mom a few days ago she said he kept snickering to himself." He swallowed a little dryly. "Your name may have come up at one point."

"Really." She scowled. It was all too plausible. Studying the young man who looked uncomfortable, holding his helmet under his arm, she wondered if he was hiding something. Family loyalty could make people become very quiet about things sometimes. But she didn't think that was the case right now, he genuinely seemed mystified by the whole affair.

"Thank you, Rory. That will be all."

"Ma'am," he replied with a dip of his head, then put his helmet back on, before turning and leaving.

"Fuck it all." She muttered something about the ancestry of the Christners, which she was beginning to think hid some dark secret. Possibly something like piracy. Or mimes.

She hated mimes.

Checking the time she grumbled a little more, then closed down her computer, standing up and heading for the door and the trip to the Rig to find out what on earth was so important that Armsmaster would resort to his peculiar behavior to get her there.

* * *

"Hey, Taylor," Vicky said as she stopped next to the Hebert girl at her locker between classes. "Did you have a good Sunday after we split up?"

"It was… interesting," the brunette smiled.

"My entire weekend sure was," she grinned. "I have to thank your Dad and Raptaur for letting me help. After all that crap at home it cheered me up a lot. Amy seemed to have fun as well. Pity you weren't there, it looked amazing from the outside."

"Dad said," the girl laughed. "I was sort of tied up on Saturday. Maybe next time. But he said you were very helpful. He seemed impressed." She looked around, then back to the other girl. "Actually, I was going to pass on a message to you via Amy, but I haven't bumped into her yet, I was a bit late this morning and missed her. Dad and Raptaur wanted to know if you and New Wave would be interested in helping out tomorrow. Just in case something weird happens."

Vicky stared at her, then leaned closer. "Do you know what's going on?" she asked in a low conspiratorial tone.

"Yep." Taylor smirked.

"Will you tell me?"

"Nope."

"Fuck." Vicky grinned, as did the other girl. "Worth a try."

"It was. Anyway, if you want to know more, stop by the Yard after school. He said the DWU would be grateful for some extra parahuman backup just in case, but they and the Mayor don't want to involve the PRT if they can help it. Something about independent parahumans having less red tape involved."

"I can understand _that_ ," Vicky sighed, remembering all the rigmarole Dean had to go through if he had any action. It was a wonder the poor boy ever got anything done in his work as a Ward. "I'll call Mom at lunch and see what she says."

"OK." They both looked up as the bell rang. "Oops, got to go. See you later, Taylor."

"See you." They headed in opposite directions, Vicky quickly trying to get into the right mindset to deal with English Literature, which was interesting but sometimes tedious.

* * *

"Thank you, Vice Principal Howell," Danny said. "I'm sorry about the short notice but it came up rather suddenly. Taylor will be back on Wednesday."

"All right, Mr Hebert," the woman's voice said, sounding mildly disapproving. "Please try not to repeat this sort of thing too often. It disrupts the child's education. However, Taylor is doing very well here, we're quite pleased with how quickly she made up for lost time, and indeed I hear she's tutoring a number of students in mathematics. Bearing in mind her enthusiasm for learning and her quick wit, I doubt one day off will affect her too badly."

"I hope not," he replied, smiling to himself. "I'll make sure she does any homework she has. She's very good about that."

"Excellent. In that case I will mark her as absent with approval from the administration for tomorrow. Good day, Mr Hebert."

"Good bye, Vice Principal," he said politely, before hanging up. Ticking off another item on a very long list, he nodded to himself, then picked up the phone again.

* * *

"Hello, Roy. I trust that my suggestions were of use?"

"They were, thank you very much, Phil." Roy leaned back in his chair, still in a good mood about his minor tweaking of Director Piggot, who definitely hadn't seen the funny side. "Danny was very impressed and incorporated all of them immediately. The plan is proceeding well, we're ready for tomorrow. I've emailed you an itinerary and there's a place for you in the VIP section if you want to see what happens."

A short pause was followed by a chuckle. "Ah, yes, I have it here. Thank you, Roy. Of course I would be pleased to attend. I will arrange to have a room booked in the best hotel Brockton Bay has."

"I've taken the liberty of doing that for you, Phil," Roy smiled. "An entire suite in the Brockton Royale. That should be sufficient for you and any staff you want to bring. I've made sure it was set up to your… exacting… standards, and hopefully you won't have any problems."

"That is very good of you, Roy, thank you." His friend sounded approving. "I will have a trusted colleague drive down today to inspect it and make sure nothing is amiss."

"Great. I've just forwarded you the details."

"Yes, I have them here." Phil chuckled again. "I must confess this little project of yours has given me considerable amusement and provided some hours of interest. I expect that the main attraction may well be… quite spectacular."

"I very much hope so," Roy snickered. "The people involved have a talent for dramatic introductions. It should be something to remember. I have a feeling this Tuesday will become legendary."

"You may well be correct. I find myself looking forward to it." A faint beep sounded on the line. "My apologies, I have another call I must deal with, from a colleague who is beginning to become somewhat irritating. He seems to have caused himself some problems. Until tomorrow, Roy."

"I'm looking forward to seeing you again, Phil. It's been too long."

"It has." The line went dead with a click. Roy put his phone down, then rocked back and forth for a moment, grinning, before getting up to get ready for the press conference in half an hour. He expected a lot of questions, and he was going to have to work at it to make people feel he'd answered them without actually doing so.

But then, he was a politician. That was _his_ superpower.

* * *

Watching the two people in the lab, as they moved around her with what she immediately recognized as counter-surveillance equipment, Emily wondered what the hell had brought all this on. Eventually satisfied, Armsmaster put down the device he'd been waving over her and picked up a metal box about the size of a shoe box. "Please place your phone and any other electronic devices you might have in here, Director."

"What the devil are you up to?" she asked with asperity.

"I can't say more until you comply."

Staring at him with narrowed eyes for a moment or two, Emily glanced at Hannah who looked apologetic yet also firm, sighed heavily, then rummaged around in her pockets. Her PRT issue phone, another backup one, and an old-fashioned pager she had for reasons even she didn't recall these days all went into the box, which he closed. Touching a control on it made it beep twice and a small green light illuminate. Putting it to one side he seemed to relax slightly.

"I apologize for the inconvenience, Director, but this is a security nightmare. We have reason to believe that the security system in the PRT building may well be completely compromised, and I have to assume that the threat may well have reached to the Rig as well. The only place on it that I can guarantee is not affected is this room. Both myself and Dragon regularly sweep it for any form of covert signal or intrusion and it is both hardened and of a custom design that should be resistant to attack."

He indicated a chair, then both he and Hannah also sat. "I also apologize for the unusual report. I… no, we, both felt it was best to give the person who may be monitoring our systems something to read that contained just enough information to make him satisfied it was innocuous."

"It was close to art, to be honest," she complained. "I've never read such a collection of meaningless waffle before in my life. It made the last presidential election speech look like Shakespeare."

"Excellent. I had hoped it would suffice." He seemed pleased. Hannah hid a small smile as Emily looked at her in exasperation.

"Now that you're certain we're locked away from this mystery person, may I please inquire _**who it is?**_ ' she snapped, the last three words at louder than normal volume. "This is beginning to get ridiculous and to be honest I'm not in the mood for it. Explain yourselves."

"It's Coil," Hannah sighed, making her look at the woman sharply.

"Coil? What the hell is that bastard up to now?"

"Apparently the same thing he's been up to for months if not years, trying to take over the city," the woman replied. "We have received information that, if true, implicates him in a surprisingly large number of incidents around the place, many of them aimed directly at us."

"I tend to believe that this information is, in fact, accurate," Colin added. "A preliminary covert remote check of the PRT computer system has uncovered several different places that the security camera network has been exploited recently, with indications that this has been going on for some time. There are also traces of access to personnel databases, internal threat assessments and security reports, timetables, meeting schedules… More or less all the information one would need if one was to try to either hide an operation against the PRT or guide it for nefarious purposes."

Emily stared in shock. This was very bad. "This is on top of the other things you found, Hannah?" she asked. The other woman nodded.

"Yes. At least one of the agents I identified and arrested is responsible for some of this, but we have no idea who has done most of it. We know that the E88 had a man inside, but he had nowhere near high enough access to be able to install some of the backdoors Colin and Dragon discovered. Dragon is still trying to trace where some of them go, but she has to work very carefully because whoever is behind them was very good and trapped everything to a ridiculous level."

"Fuck." She sat back in her chair and considered what they'd been told.

"It looks like our informant was probably correct when she said that we had to assume our entire local organization was compromised. I don't know how Coil managed it but we have found traces everywhere we've looked in the PRT building. I am still working on the best way to sweep the Rig without tipping him off."

"OK. Shit. First things first. Who was the informant?"

"Tattletale of the Undersiders."

"What?! How the hell did you even manage to talk to her? And why would she tell us all this anyway?"

They exchanged a glance. "There was a major gang fight in the Docks yesterday afternoon..." Hannah began.

"I know, I heard the sirens and explosions. I thought it was the ABB causing trouble?"

"It was more than trouble." Colin looked seriously at her. "The Undersiders ran a raid on one of the ABB safe houses. It turned out to be one of Lung's main ones. They got away with a large amount of cash, but in the process didn't quite manage a clean escape. He caught them on the way out and they fled, which resulted in more or less the entirety of the ABB going after them. It was a very large fight and in the process, at least two of the ABB gang members died." After a moment's pause, he added, "As did Oni Lee."

"Oni Lee is _dead?_ " Emily shouted. "Why the hell didn't you open with that?"

"My apologies, Director, I assumed you would want the background information."

"I do, but lead with the important stuff, Colin!"

"As you wish. Oni Lee died during the fight as a result of a mishap with his own grenades, which he did something unwise with then failed to get away from in time. His death was essentially instant. The three Undersiders, Regent, Grue, and Bitch, barely escaped with their lives. Shortly afterwards, they were intercepted by Raptaur who gave them safe passage back to the BBFO premises at the DWU, where they remain."

She stared at him.

"Shortly before that, Tattletale, the remaining member, was attacked by a ramped up Lung. She managed to survive long enough for Raptaur, again, to fight Lung to at least a draw, then extract a promise from him to leave the Dock area and not return as it was now Family property, as were the Undersiders and their loot, in exchange for his life. He accepted and left. Raptaur is uninterested in him as long as he stays out of her territory."

Emily kept staring, feeling a sensation akin to dread.

"Raptaur has stated that the Undersiders are under her protection and that she would take a dim view of any attempt to harm, arrest, or remove them. In exchange they have given their word not to commit any further crimes while under that protection. Additionally, the DWU has offered them room and board, I suspect getting in exchange the use of their abilities in the event the facility is attacked again. They are currently restricted to the DWU facility and have promised that they will not attempt to leave."

She shook her head for a moment, trying to make the pieces fit. Colin kept talking.

"Tattletale, at Raptaur's urging, divulged that the Undersiders were put together as a team, _and_ were being paid, by Coil. She has given us all the information she has pieced together or otherwise extracted from the situation. In addition, she and Raptaur, and I believe Saurial, have worked out a method to locate Coil, his base, and get his civilian identity, all of which information they will give us in exchange for us looking into the events surrounding the charges leveled against Bitch, or Rachel Lindt, which Tattletale claims are spurious. We tentatively agreed to the deal subject to talking to you."

The staring was beginning to make her eyes itch, so she blinked a few times.

"Tattletale expressed a willingness to meet you and confirm this information, and answer further questions, but told us it would be a very dangerous thing to do that on PRT property. After our investigations I conclude she is correct. Raptaur offered the use of the BBFO office, which is the most secure and heavily shielded building in the city, and probably the country. I would suggest that this is a good option."

He finally ran down, leaving her gaping at him.

"Christ," she finally said faintly. "Those are the _highlights?_ "

"You asked for the important items first, Director."

"I did, didn't I," she sighed. "Let me get this straight. The Undersiders, who are now quite possibly essentially part of Raptaur's group, if not actually basically DWU capes, were working for _Coil_ , raided Lung's favorite safe house, stole an undefined but presumably large amount of money, managed to ' _accidentally_ ' off Oni Lee in the subsequent fight, while Raptaur successfully _bargained with Lung for his life_ in exchange for them, and have now given us everything they had on their previous employer?"

"Concisely put, Director."

"Oh, for god's sake," Emily muttered. "OK. Start at the beginning." She looked at her watch. "Two hours isn't going to be enough time for this."

Leaning back in the surprisingly comfortable chair, she listened to their reports, which were detailed, worrying, and absolutely going to cause her headaches for some considerable time.

* * *

"Mr Mayor!" A black-haired woman in a suit waved at him frantically, as did most of the other dozen or so press people in the room. Roy pointed at her, causing her to stand, while her compatriots subsided with ill grace.

"Yes, Andrea, isn't it?"

She smiled a little. "Yes, from the Brockton Bay Chronicle. Mr Mayor, you have said that this mysterious project will bring new prosperity to the city, while reducing crime and cleaning up the environment. Those are bold claims. Can you give more details?"

She sat down again, pointing her recorder at him.

"Unfortunately, due to commercial confidentiality and contractual obligations, full disclosure of the entirety of the current plan is unavoidably not possible at the current time, Andrea," he smiled. "Suffice it to say that in the fullness of time more information will become publicly available concerning the overall progress and scope of the civil improvements scheduled for imminent actioning. We here at City Hall feel that going forward, it's important that we act with social responsibility and empower the citizens of this good city and the economic ecosystem which has so sadly decayed during previous decades. By focusing on a forward looking plan to future-proof the growth of the commercial and business sectors, we can secure a chance to generate new wealth and attract inward investment to Brockton Bay for years to come."

He was rather proud of that one.

"Without the good men and women of the Dock Workers Union who have been working tirelessly for some time in advance of this announcement, we would be unable to succeed in the manner that I, personally, feel confident that we will. We should be proud as a city of our hard working people."

Smiling at the woman, who was now looking confused, as were most of the others, he added, "I hope that answers your question, Andrea?"

She nodded slowly, frowning a little as she tried to parse the previous sentences. It would keep her busy for a while. Inwardly smirking, he pointed at another journalist.

"Yes, you there at the back, in the blue shirt."

The man stood. "Alex Jones, Boston Globe. Mr Mayor, can you give us any details of the parahuman aid that is being used in this operation?" He sat again as everyone looked at Roy, falling quiet. He thought quickly. It was the question he'd been waiting for, and had to be handled carefully.

"A newly formed local company, Brockton Bay Family Operations, LLC, is generously donating the time of one of their Parahuman operatives for this project. She hasn't been seen in public yet, although her sisters have. You may be familiar with them from the news and certain online sources."

"You mean Raptaur and Saurial, sir?" the journalist said, pointing his recorder at himself for a moment, then holding it out again.

"That is correct, yes," Roy confirmed with a confident smile. "Two independent heroes who have between them been responsible for stopping more than two dozen crimes, mostly violent ones, in the last few weeks, recovering a truly impressive amount of illicit weaponry and drugs, and indeed even capturing the infamous Hookwolf of the Empire Eighty-Eight, with what may be the smallest quantity of collateral damage or injuries on record in our city. They are both operatives of BBFO as well."

"While I'm not from here, we've heard that this so-called Family lives in the bay," the man persisted. "Is that the case? Are they all lizards?" He paused, smiled a little, and added, "There are rumors that there are some of them out there even bigger than Raptaur. Do you know if that is true?"

"Woah. Lots of questions," Roy chuckled. "Let me see if I can answer some of them. Yes, I believe that the Family does live locally in the bay, and that they are all reptilian in nature. And I can say that they do come somewhat larger than Raptaur." Inside he was laughing like an idiot. Outside, he made sure to keep a pleasant smile on his face. It was important to be as honest as possible about this part to make people feel safer, while not giving too much away. It had to be given to them gently.

After all, tomorrow a nearly hundred foot tall lizard was going to walk out of the sea. People might look askance at that without at least a little warning…

"The parahuman in question is larger than her sister, although that doesn't really matter except insofar as it makes her work easier." He smiled at the man, who was looking thoughtful.

"Can you tell us how large, Sir?"

"I'm afraid I didn't have a tape measure when I met her, Alex." He smiled more widely, while a ripple of laughter ran around the room. "Fairly large is all I can really say. But she is a pleasant person to talk to and very competent. I expect that with her aid the project will proceed rapidly."

He checked his watch. "I'm afraid that's all we have time for today. I'll be holding another longer press conference tomorrow afternoon at around six PM. Thank you for your time, everyone."

There was an immediate clamor from the press who wanted more. After a few seconds of shouting he held up both hands, making a quieting gesture. "I really do have work to get back to, but I have time for one more brief question."

Several were shouted out at once. The reporters all glared at each other, then tried again, with similar results. "One at a time, please," he smiled confidently.

A loud voice from the side shouted, "What is this cape's name?"

Everyone turned to the middle-aged woman who he recognized as the representative of the local TV station. Roy debated with himself for a moment.

"Her name is Kaiju."

Picking up his notes, he nodded to them all. "Thank you. If you can make it to the press event tomorrow I can answer more questions. Hopefully you will watch the operation start from the press viewing area. Bring cameras." He grinned. "It's going to be interesting."

Quickly leaving the room before the shouting could start again, he chuckled, wondering how many of them would work out what might happen from the name, which he'd looked up the meaning of much to his amusement. Kaiju had a sense of humor.

* * *

Danny looked up from his computer at the knock on the door, calling, "Come in!" The door opened to reveal a familiar blonde girl, who looked around the room with interest. "Ah, Lisa. Come on in."

She entered the room, closing the door behind her, then heading to the chair he waved her to. "How did you sleep?"

"Amazingly well all things considered," the girl replied with a smile. "Thank you very much for everything you're doing for us, and all your people."

"You're welcome," he said. "Raptaur is a friend of mine and she thought it was the right thing to do. I happen to agree."

The girl smiled in a slightly smug way. "A friend of yours. I see. Like Saurial?"

"Yes, exactly," he grinned. "She said you knew."

The smugness went away a little. "Ah."

"Ah indeed."

"We should talk somewhere more private."

"I agree." Standing, he hit the sleep button on his keyboard, then headed to the door. "Come with me."

She followed him out of the office. "I'm popping out for a while, I'll be back soon," he announced to the various workers in the outer admit office. Several of them nodded, before going back to what they'd been doing.

They walked without further talk to the entrance to his daughter's building, which he unlocked with his keys, making a mental reminder that he needed to order a set for Amy as soon as he got back to his desk. Inside he disarmed the beeping burglar alarm, which to be honest was probably utterly redundant now that Taylor had reinforced the building to the point it would most likely survive an asteroid strike, and turned the lights on. Waving Lisa in, he locked the door from the inside, then went to the table and sat down.

She sat in another chair and regarded him. "Raptaur, Saurial, and that fucking terrifyingly huge thing calling itself Kaiju are all your daughter Taylor," she said abruptly.

"Yes."

"How the fuck does _that_ work?"

"Her story to tell. But it's… complicated."

"Amy Dallon knows all of it."

"Also yes."

"Taylor would kill anyone who threatened you or her." It wasn't a statement.

"That's true."

Lisa sighed a little, leaning back for a moment, then inspected him with a careful look.

"You'd kill anyone who threatened her. Or Amy, for that matter."

"Probably, yes," he smiled, showing his teeth in a way that he felt was something that he couldn't have done before meeting Varga. It seemed to work, as Lisa paled slightly.

"I'm not threatening _any_ of you, believe me," she said hastily.

"Oh, I know, Lisa. I know."

She relaxed a little. "I have a bad habit of knowing way too much and sometimes I get too curious," she sighed. "It can cause issues. But that aside, I really am extremely grateful for what Taylor's done for me. For all of us. I know I'd be dead if it wasn't for her, and I'm fairly sure that some of the other would be as well."

"They're more than just your team-mates, aren't they?" he asked with a nod of understanding.

The girl shrugged. "Rachel is a barely house-trained, aggressive, very dangerous girl who can't read, write, or understand most human interactions more than a particularly smart dog can. Alec is just this side of being a sociopath, he's emotionally stunted from something in his past, he can't keep his mouth shut most of the time, and he's got at least as snarky a sense of humor as Amy has, while being a lazy bastard most of the time on top of that. Brian is the most normal one, and even there he's a slightly paranoid guy who wants approval from people he looks up to. Me, I'm too clever and quick to show it off, which has nearly got me killed more than once."

"Interesting summation," he noted. "It fits what I've seen so far."

"But even with all that, they're all I've got," she sighed. "They're sort of my family. My real family are people I never want to see again. Coil may have put us together, but even in only a few months, and despite everything I just said, we have a sort of… ease… with each other, that I don't think any of us have ever had before. I don't want to lose that."

Studying her for a few seconds, Danny finally smiled. "I think I understand. Hopefully we can keep you guys together and out of trouble. We'll need to find a lawyer for Rachel, one with some knowledge of Parahuman issues, but that shouldn't be a problem in Brockton Bay. We have way too many Parahumans and a lot of lawyers." A thought struck him which made him stop, then grin. "I just had a really weird idea on that front, actually. I'll have to think about it."

She looked hard at him, then snickered. "Oh, god. That would be wonderful. Piggot would go purple."

He knew she'd used her power to deduce what he was considering. "It might not be the best choice, but it might also be a good point to start. I've already got the DWU legal department looking into the issue as well. Brian's situation will probably benefit from legal aid to make sure nothing takes us by surprise."

"You think the PRT might use us as leverage to get at BBFO."

"It's… not impossible. It wouldn't work, but people sometimes do stupid things under pressure." He sighed a little. "I don't want my daughter having to take on the entire PRT."

"Even though you have a sneaky feeling she might actually win," Lisa said with a look of mild shock.

" _Especially_ since I have a sneaky feeling she might actually win," he corrected. "She doesn't want to fight if she can avoid it and I'd like to prevent that sort of thing becoming unavoidable. Hopefully I can count on your help?"

"Of course. We're in this together, I think," she smiled. "Zephron explained some of the DWU ethos to all of us last night."

"I'm not surprised," he chuckled. "He's a good man and feels he owes his family's life to the Union. He'd do anything to keep it going. A lot of the people here would."

"You would too."

She seemed certain. After a moment, he nodded slowly. "I probably would. I've known all these people for years. We trust each other. They'd back me up, they _have_ backed me up during that Hookwolf thing, and I couldn't do less for them."

The blonde girl nodded back. "Which is why they all look up to you. They know that. Boss."

"Oh, hell, he told you, didn't he?" Danny groaned. She smirked at him.

"Yes, he did. I want to see his salute when he works it out."

Danny pointed at her. "DO NOT encourage Zephron. He's bad enough without help," he instructed firmly, with the only result being that her smirk got wider.

"This is going to be a mistake, I can feel it," he muttered.

"It'll work out," she grinned, then looked around. "Oh, I wanted to count our cash, and also get some so we can pay for things." She hopped up and retrieved one of the three bags, opening it on the table, while he got the other two. His eyes widened at the sight of vast piles of notes in neat bundles.

"Holy shit," he muttered. "That really is a _lot_ of money."

"I should have realized when we saw it that we were hitting what was probably Lung's main stash," she sighed a little as she started pulling bundles of money out of the bag and stacking them up. "I'm not sure it would have made all that much difference in the end, he's not a forgiving guy, but it must have really pissed him off. Losing Oni Lee will make it worse."

"I'd suggest staying well away from him," Danny suggested. She gave him a look that made it clear she'd already worked that out, which made him grin.

They emptied out all the bags, in the end finding that there was seven hundred and ninety eight thousand, four hundred dollars present. Grue's helmet, Regent's mask and scepter, and a few random useful things were pushed to one side. "Shit. That's even more than I thought there was," Lisa said in an impressed voice, staring at the substantial pile of money.

"Nearly two hundred thousand each. Not bad. Now if only you could have earned it legitimately," he laughed.

"There is that," she said in a resigned tone, before beginning to put it back in the bags. The girl separated out ten thousand dollars from the main amount, pushing it to one side. "For expenses. Alec is going to want video games sooner rather than later, for example," she explained.

Shortly it was all packed away again. She left their various costume parts on the table. Looking at them, she shrugged. "I have no idea if we'll need them again or not."

"They'll be safe here whatever happens," Danny commented. "Let's put everything up there on top of the workshop out of the way." They lugged all the cash up to the top of the two-room block Taylor had made. On the way down, Lisa indicated it with her thumb.

"What goes on inside there?" she asked curiously.

"I don't know yet," he replied. "Those two are keeping it close to their chests. I'll find out sooner or later, I expect."

She looked closely at him, then slowly nodded. "OK."

Sitting down again, she put her head in her hands and stared at the comparatively small amount of money on the table for a little while. "A month ago this would have been a good take from a job," she said with a small smile, picking one of the bundles up and feeling it, then dropping it on the table again. "Now it's petty cash. Things seem to have changed."

"Things tend to," he agreed. "Life is like that at the best of times in my experience. Some things are good. Some are bad. We just have to keep going through them all. As long as you're alive, the rest is just a matter of persistence."

"That's one way to look at it," she snickered. "Possibly an oversimplification."

"Maybe, but so far it seems to work," he smiled.

"What's the big project the DWU is working on?" she asked without preamble. "I've been trying to figure it out for hours and I keep running into issues with my power. Probably because Taylor is in the middle of it and she gives my power a massive headache. Me too."

He studied her. "Really? That's weird." Wondering how the Varga had pulled that one off, he debated with himself for a few seconds, then told her. When he finished, she was staring wide-eyed.

After some time, she nearly fell over laughing hysterically. "Oh, my god," she chortled. "The PRT is going to go completely mad. And what PHO is going to do… It will probably melt the servers. I _have_ to watch this."

"Feel free to go up to the roof of the dormitory block, you'll have a good view from there. You have to stay on DWU property for the moment but you're all free to wander around, as long as you stay out of dangerous areas and don't get in the way."

"Thanks, Danny," she said with genuine gratitude in her voice. "For everything you and Taylor, and Amy, have done for us. It means a lot to all of us. Even Rachel. She's been looking a lot happier since yesterday. Actually, since our first run in with Raptaur, she's been different. I'm still trying to figure out exactly why, but I think it had something to do with meeting what her strange canine instincts recognized as a much bigger predator than anything she could hope to be. It… changed her. Possibly for the better in some weird way."

"I hope she fits in around here. A lot of the guys like dogs, so hers will certainly get attention."

"That could be good _or_ bad, I think," Lisa frowned. "I'll keep an eye on her and get the guys to do the same thing."

"OK." He looked at the remaining item from the bags, the large envelope that she'd said contained documents that Coil wanted. Or planted. Or both. "Let's see what this is."

Picking it up, he shook the contents onto the table, then handed her one of the sets of paperwork, which consisted of three sets of pages stapled together in batches of ten or so, looking like some sort of legal form. They began reading curiously.


	78. Omake - Emily's trip to the office

When Über finally stopped laughing enough to be able to speak, which took a while, he looked at Tattletale with respect, then turned to Leet who had nearly gone blue in the face trying to keep breathing through his hilarity. "What do you think?" he asked, giggling inanely. "It's got nothing to do with video games but it's fucking hysterical."

"We _have_ to do it," his friend gasped from the floor, waving a hand with his thumb up. "I don't care about the video games this time. I just want to see Piggot's face."

"You're certain about her reaction?" Über asked, turning back to Tattletale and Saurial.

The blonde nodded. "That's what my power told me, and I did some digging around in her records. I found an incident when she was in basic training that became legendary with her peers. They were playing practical jokes on her because of it for years. She should react… amusingly."

"And the DWU will provide people? We'll need quite a lot of extras," he asked, looking at Saurial.

The lizard-girl smirked. "A lot of them have issues with the PRT for various reasons and would love to mildly embarrass them if they could get away with it. With our contacts, we can get a public performance license from the city which makes it completely legal. They can't touch us or the DWU as long as we don't break any other laws."

He stared, then broke down laughing again. "Legal. That makes it _much_ better. We're in."

"Great. I'll make the costumes and we can practice in the BBFO office, there's lots of room there. We need it to look good for the best effect."

"This is going to be fucking _epic!_ " Leet chortled, sitting up. "The only way it would be better is if we could get Kaiju involved."

"She's a little big for the city," Saurial laughed. "But she's fully behind the idea." She and Tattletale exchanged a look with the two minor villains, all four of them collapsing with laughter.

* * *

Emily came out of the coffee shop with her normal order of a double espresso and a chocolate brownie. Or at least, normal since Panacea had fixed her. Jon would be annoyed if he knew, but what he didn't know she damn well wasn't going to tell him.

After the events of the last couple of months, she was glad to have a chance to relax a little. It was a fine morning, still chilly but crisp and dry, with a cloudless sky and the early morning sun beaming down on an almost unprecedentedly peaceful Brockton Bay. All the normal suspects were keeping their heads well down right now. After what had happened to Coil, no one wanted to attract attention from the Family.

She shuddered a little.

No, no one wanted that to happen again.

Wandering along fairly slowly in a, for her, very good mood, she bit into the brownie, then washed it down with a swig of strong coffee. Life was, at least for the moment, fairly good. About as good as it was likely to get around here.

Heading down the street that led to the main Boardwalk, she looked around. Tourist levels were up considerably, now that the city was becoming known to be somewhat safer than historically it had been, and the recent spate of good weather had improved on that as well. The evidence was all around her, a lot of people wandering around even now, only just after eight. Most of the shops were open, everyone seemed to be enjoying themselves, and there were even street performers starting up their acts and apparently doing quite well.

She paused to watch one young man who was playing a whole series of different movie themes on a violin, remarkably well, and looked to be making quite a lot of money in the process. The case of his instrument which was open on the ground in front of him was at least a quarter full of coins and low denomination notes already. Putting her brownie in her mouth, she stuck her hand in her pocket after a couple of minutes and pulled out a couple of crumpled dollar bills which she tossed in, appreciating the artistry displayed. He nodded slightly to her with a smile and switched to the next theme, which was the main intro to Jaws.

Smiling a little, she moved on, watching the people around her. Another performer was juggling a dozen brightly colored balls with significant skill, one was doing some basic but effective conjuring trick, and so on. There were quite a lot of them.

As she looked around, she frowned slightly. There really _were_ quite a lot of them. Unusually so. After a moment she shrugged. It was a nice day and why not?

A couple of hundred yards later she stopped, staring, then frowning.

A mime.

He was in a box. One that wasn't there. She glared.

Fucking mimes.

The white-painted face turned her way, the expression becoming one of delirious joy, as his box disappeared. Unfortunately, a high wind prevented him coming closer, although he tried valiantly, slipping on the road surface as he battled towards her. She glared harder, turning away and walking off.

Idiotic performers. They should be locked up.

Her good mood somewhat disrupted she finished her brownie and half her coffee, moving slightly more rapidly now. Glancing at her watch she saw she had about twenty minutes to make it to the PRT building and yet another day of trying to keep a lid on the insanity of the city, unappreciated and underpaid considering the shit the job put her through. She rounded a gentle corner in the road and stopped, sighing.

Another fucking mime. This one was female, solidly built under the completely black clothing, her makeup the same as the previous one, her face expressionless. She was feeling her way around an invisible wall, to reach a small child who was watching her with wide eyes. He laughed as she handed him an invisible ball, which he took carefully, his face a mask of concentration, then he and his parents watched as she juggled several more, the charade so convincing Emily half-expected to actually see the balls.

Growling, she made a wide circle around the performer, finishing her coffee and tossing the cup in a garbage receptacle.

A hundred feet further on she stopped dead, sighing with irritation. Yet _another_ mime, this one made up in silver paint, was doing a robot man act to a group of teenagers, who were laughing wildly. He leaned back at an implausible angle, his elbow resting on something that wasn't there, looking calmly at her.

"Oh, for god's sake," she growled under her breath. "Why do these bastards always turn up on a nice day? Learn the damn words, you idiot." Muttering to herself, her good mood ruined, she turned around to try a different route and yelped despite herself. Standing only feet away was still another of the damn parasites, done up in the French version of the affliction, looking sadly at her. He offered her a non-existent flower and smiled tremulously.

"Fuck off, you prick," she snapped, hurrying past him. When she looked over her shoulder, unable to stop herself, he was cuddling the flower that wasn't there while wiping an invisible tear from his eye.

"Jesus, it's like a plague," she grumbled, taking a short cut down a side street then rejoining the main thoroughfare past the mime-infested bottleneck.

She'd only gone a further fifty feet before she found another one.

"Christ!" she said rather more loudly that she intended as the young woman opened an immaterial door and stepped through, bowing to a small crowd. Her white-painted face was serenely calm.

Emily stared, then sighed heavily, turning down another side street. This was getting ridiculous.

Even there she wasn't safe. Another three of the swine passed her, one drinking from an invisible bottle, slumped in a doorway in some weird sort of performance art, and a pair of them carrying a non-existent ladder or something, walking in perfect sync. She stared, swore violently, and dashed down the nearest alley that spilled her out onto the Boardwalk.

Looking over her shoulder in vast irritation, she shook her head.

"I wish I could shoot the bastards, but the last time I did… that… I..."

Her voice trailed off into a whisper as she turned around to resume her trip to the PRT building.

Emily stared in horror.

Turning on the spot she looked all around her, wildly seeking an end to the madness.

They were everywhere.

 _Dozens_ of the bastards.

 _Hundreds!_

White faces everywhere she looked, the entire Boardwalk full of them, black clothes, striped black and white shirts with stupid little berets on their heads, robot people, every version she'd ever heard of.

Mimes.

 _Everywhere_.

And in the middle of them, one of them was over six feet tall, her slender body trapped inside a small invisible cylinder as she coiled her tail around herself, feeling the prison she found herself in, her scaly visage white-painted with a black tear under one eye.

Saurial.

Horror-struck, Emily looked around again, her heart pounding. She began moving swiftly away from the alley when she saw the ladder-carrying ones coming down it towards her.

Breathing heavily, wanting to pull her gun but knowing she only had fifteen rounds and there were far more of the enemy, she broke into a jog.

Then a run.

Eventually making it to the end of the Boardwalk, past all the horror spread across it, which the tourists _were taking fucking_ _ **photos**_ _of_ as if they didn't see the danger, she breathed a huge sigh of relief, wondering wildly how to deal with it.

Looking back as she hurried away, wanting to get reinforcements and clean the infestation before it spread, she noticed a sign on a stand at the entrance to the Boardwalk.

Reading it, she went purple, then stomped off, wondering if she could check out a flamethrower. "Fucking Tuesday. It's always Tuesday this sort of shit happens on. I _hate_ Tuesdays," she snarled venomously. "And _MIMES!_ "

Behind her, the performance continued, people looking at the sign as they passed and grinning, the stylized white face with rakishly tilted beret on a bright red background and sandwiched between two words, one above and one below, before carrying on, laughing and pulling out their cameras.

 **Danger**

 **Mimefield**


	79. Guest Omake - Oh, poor Amy

_Oh, poor Amy, you were delicious! (By DoctorNobody)_

Amy surfaced from the bay, gasping for breath. Taylor, in her Raptaur form splashed up next to her with a stopwatch.

"17:34, Amy," she said, "Almost a new record."

"Huh," Panacea muttered, "I thought the Mark 18 would improve my lung capacity more than that."

"Back to the drawing board... well drawing tub of goo?"

"Yeah, I guess," she said as they swam to shore. "I miss anything while I was under?"

"Naw, Armsmaster swung by on his bike just after you went down. He looked over and then tore away real fast."

"Probably got a call on his helmet radio," she told her friend, picking up her costume robes from where they laid folded on the sand. She rubbed the blotchy, red stains soaked into the white clothe. "Ughhh... ketchup never comes out. Should not have let you talk me into Fugly Bob's before we went swimming."

The gathered Dallon family looked on, aghast at the picture Armsmaster's halberd was projecting. Raptaur, sinking into the depths, an enormous, monstrous tongue licking something red from her lips, and casually waving back at Armsmaster. Panacea's bloody robes on the beach behind her.

"...it seems Raptaur has shown her true colors," he concluded.

"How..." Glory Girl tremoured out. "She... wha... Oh My God! All those times she and Amy went out to eat..."

"Indeed," the bearded hero replied. "My analysis of Panacea and Raptaur's previous recorded interactions points to only one conclusion."

"You mean..." Brandish spluttered, "She was..."

"I'm afraid it's the logical, inescapable..."

"No, wait!" Glory Girl cried. "Raptaur and Saurial love Tabasco and..."

"Of course!" Armsmaster smacked his fist into his open palm. "How could I have missed it?"

Mark nodded absently from his place on the couch. "The leftovers were Thai..."

"Or Cajun..." his daughter added.

"And somewhat frequently TexMex," the Tinker in the room responded.

"Someone tell me, dammit!" Brandish demanded.

Glory Girl turned to her mother. "Mom! She wasn't just fattening Amy, she was _seasoning_ her!"


	80. Decisions and Appointments

"Hi, everyone." Amy sat down across from Taylor, giving her a smile, then looking at the rest of the normal crowd. Lucy grinned at her, Mandy nodded while stuffing her face with food, too busy eating to stop, Eric raised a hand in greeting without looking up from the chemistry textbook he was intently studying, and Rich glanced up from suspiciously inspecting inside the burger he'd been eating.

"Hi, Amy," they all chorused, dead-pan, then shared a laugh as the healer snickered.

Swallowing a huge mass of food, Mandy went a slightly funny color, then took a drink to clear her throat. "Thanks for fixing my best friend," she said sincerely to the new arrival. "I'd miss her."

"You're both welcome," Amy chuckled, sprinkling a little pepper on her food then putting the shaker down. She inspected the Chinese girl who seemed in good spirits. "How are you, Lucy? That can't have been a nice experience."

"No, it wasn't, not even slightly," the girl shuddered. "I'm fucking lucky that you and Saurial happened to be passing right then. That bastard nearly killed me."

"I don't know that he was _trying_ to, but he certainly didn't actually care if he _did_ ," Amy sighed. "I'm not sorry I got him in the nuts."

Eric and Rich both winced, the former looking up from his textbook. "Really? I didn't know you were a fighter."

"I'm not, yet, but I don't like people hurting my friends," Amy smiled in a slightly evil manner. "Saurial is showing me some things that can let me take someone down quickly if I can't use my power. Or if I just want to hurt them a little." She smiled more widely. "Or a lot."

"Jesus, you have a dark side, don't you," the boy said with a sort of respectful worry.

"Under the right circumstances, yes." She didn't feel at all bad about hitting that idiot.

"Was that all you did?" Rich seemed both interested and impressed.

"No, I got him twice with a collapsible baton on the neck. I may not be a fighter as such but I know the right place to hit to bring someone down safely. The first shot missed the nerve cluster I was aiming at, but I got him in the correct place on the second one. He didn't want to give up, so I kicked him in the balls, which slowed him _right_ down."

Both the young men crossed their legs, making all the girls exchange grins.

"Saurial said that if she tried her claws would remove his nuts completely," Amy continued remorselessly, amused at the reaction. "She offered to show me, which was when he passed out."

They shuddered.

" _Please_ stop talking, Amy," Rich asked in a pained voice.

"I think she was joking, actually," the healer said in a musing tone of voice. "She doesn't normally cause any damage. Anyway, I could have regrown them for him easily enough. Assuming I wanted to."

Her smile was wide and toothy.

"Oh, _god_ , you're scary when you do that," Eric muttered, leaning back.

Relaxing, she grinned happily. "Like I said, I don't like my friends being hurt."

"I really hope _we're_ your friends," he said in a worried voice.

"Of course you are. Make sure that if you get mugged it's when I'm in the area and I'll come and rescue you," she laughed, causing them all to grin. "Did Lucy show you the photos of her and Saurial?"

Mandy started giggling. " _Did_ she? They're on all her social media profiles, she emailed them to practically everyone she ever met, she's been showing them in every class, and I'm not sure but I think she might be trying to work out how to get the best one tattooed on her back."

Everyone looked at Lucy, who had gone bright red. "I like Saurial," she said in an embarrassed tone, staring at her food.

"I'm sure she likes you as well, Lucy," Taylor said comfortingly, patting her on the shoulder. "She seemed happy in the photos."

"That's true," the girl said, looking up and smiling. "Now I need to get one with Raptaur. I want to meet _all_ the Family members."

"Gotta collect them all, eh, Lucy?" Eric snickered. She nodded, grinning widely.

Amy met Taylor's eyes seeing the laughter there. They really were going to have to make sure their friend met Raptaur soon. She started thinking of ways to make it happen without giving the secret away. Perhaps inviting her to the DWU after all the excitement died down?

Resolving to talk to Taylor about it when they had a free moment, she started eating.

"Hey, did any of you guys hear about some sort of big thing going on tomorrow in the bay?" Rich asked, half-way through his burger. "It was in the paper yesterday. Apparently BBFO and the DWU are both involved, it sounds like it could be impressive." He looked both ways and leaned in, lowering his voice. "It's entirely possibly I may be too unwell to come to school tomorrow."

Several smiles greeted him. "I was thinking the same thing," Lucy said quietly. "Stress from my mugging, of course. It could affect a girl very badly."

She smirked a little as Amy nodded respectfully, it was a very good excuse. "Is it actually true?" she asked, a little worried. Her friend shook her head quickly, grinning.

"Not really. I was terrified at the time, but I know that guy isn't coming back. The police contacted Dad and told him they'd checked him out, he's done the same thing to six other people in the last year and they were looking for him for attempted murder. After what you and Saurial did to him, even if he got out of jail, he's never coming back to the city." The girl shrugged a little. "I'll probably have nightmares about it for a while, but shit happens."

"You definitely have a core of steel, young one," Eric said approvingly, patting her head patronizingly. She stuck her tongue out at him, making him grin.

It turned out that all of them had a strong feeling that they might not be able to come in on Tuesday, for a number of different reasons. Amy looked around at the cafeteria full of students and hid a grin at the thought that tomorrow it might well be more or less empty. She wondered if the teachers knew. Or were going to join them.

Looking at Taylor's expression, she saw amusement present, knowing her friend was thinking much the same. They shared a small smile and went back to eating.

A few minutes later, Mandy slowly turned to Taylor, her eyes narrowed. Taylor smirked at her. " _Wait_ a minute," she said in a suspicious voice. "DWU? Your dad practically runs the place. You know what's going to happen, _don't you_."

"Yes," Taylor replied calmly

"Tell me," the girl said, a winning smile on her face. "Please?"

"Can't."

"Can't, or _won't?_ "

"Both."

"Are you going to stick to one word answers?"

"Probably."

"Tell me tell me _tell me tell me TELL ME!_ " Mandy shouted, waving her arms manically. Everyone in the cafeteria looked at her. Amy sighed, looking at the others who were all appearing amused.

"Nope."

"You're mean."

"Yep."

The pair of them exchanged glances, and burst out laughing.

"Idiot. You're a pain in the ass, Hebert."

"I do my best," Taylor giggled.

" **TELL MEEE!** " Mandy wailed, leaning on the other girl.

Shaking her head, Amy ignored the histrionics and went back to finishing her baked salmon, which was very nice.

* * *

Max watched the local news report on the press conference the Mayor had held that morning, shaking his head in reluctant admiration. The man certainly knew how to answer questions without actually answering them. It was an impressive talent.

"What do you think, Victor?" he asked when the broadcast ended, pressing the button which made the large-screen TV retract into what looked otherwise like an ordinary and very high quality bookcase against the wall opposite his desk. He looked over at his subordinate who had been watching from near the window, in one of the several leather chairs he had around the room for visitors.

"I think our good Mayor knows a lot more than he's saying and is very much enjoying all this," the man said reflectively. "It's not going to hurt his reelection chances either, if this mystery project does actually do everything he claims it will. Not that there's any real competition for the job anyway." He smiled briefly. "For some reason most people don't want to run Brockton Bay. Apparently it has a bad gang problem."

Max smirked. "So I have heard." The smirk vanished, being replaced with a thoughtful look. "I am very intrigued about how whatever is going to happen will ' _reduce crime_ ' in some vague way. I wonder what he meant by that?"

Victor shrugged. "I don't know. He might simply be working on the basis that bringing money to the city will eventually drag more of the poor up a level so they don't need to commit crimes to live. It happens. Or there might be more to it. The involvement of Saurial and Raptaur concerns me."

Max scowled. He still hadn't forgiven that overgrown wall lizard for scaring him like that. _Or_ whoever was riding her at the time. When he found out who that was he was going to make his displeasure known.

Those shoes had been expensive and his favorite pair.

"What about this new one? Kaiju? Any ideas?"

"I looked the name up," his compatriot said, suddenly appearing a little worried. "It's Japanese, it more or less means ' _Strange Beast_ ', but it's come to refer to a giant monster in a specific type of movie. Those people were into their monsters attacking cities. Ironic, really, considering what happened when Leviathan turned up. There's another variant called ' _Daikaiju_ ' which is Giant Kaiju, but it's not used so much outside that culture. What there is left of it. In the rest of the world, ' _Kaiju_ ' tends to get used for both. Think Godzilla, or something like that."

Max considered the information, then turned his head to look out at the bay. "That's… more than a little disturbing, considering the source," he commented slowly. "You don't think…?"

Victor looked at him without speaking for a few seconds.

"It's ridiculous," Max added. "Isn't it?"

"I certainly hope so, sir," his colleague said quietly. "But just in case, I would strongly recommend that we watch from a safe distance."

"You may be right," Max noted after a long pause. They shared a glance, then went back to looking out the window.

"Any luck with Brad?" he finally asked, changing the subject with a shudder.

"Ah. Yes, possibly. I have managed to arrange a legal challenge that with some luck should be able to get him released on bail soon. The bail will be a large amount, I'm afraid, and we will need to make a fairly substantial payment to a friendly judge. To keep him friendly."

"Do it. I want that bastard here, I need to find out what happened."

"As you wish." Victor stood up. "In that case I'd better get back to work."

Nodding to his superior, he left the office, closing the door behind him. Max kept staring out at the bay for some time, wondering what was going to happen tomorrow, before he turned back to other work.

* * *

Lisa watched as the two large vans drove into the facility, the noise of a significant number of dogs being overexcited coming from them. She turned to Rachel, who was looking both worried and pleased. "There, I told you he'd help you. They got all the dogs from both your shelters, all twenty-six of them. Which is an awful lot of dogs."

"They needed help," the girl said without looking away from the vans.

"Danny has arranged for you to use one of the old storage sheds near the water for them. He's having some people fix it up right now. It'll be ready by this evening and you can get them all in there. I told him the sort of thing you needed and he's having it put in, but if you want to go and check that it's OK, he said you should feel free. Just follow the vans."

Rachel nodded, turning to do exactly that. "Rachel?" She turned back.

"Try to be nice to them, they're helping us a lot."

"They're friends." That was all she said, but the girl seemed sincere. Following the vans at a jog, Angelica and Judas at her heels, she disappeared around the corner after the vehicles full of dogs. Watching her go, Lisa shook her head a little with a small smile, then looked at Brian, who had come up to her and was also peering after their team-mate.

"There might be hope for that girl after all," she noted. "She's accepted the situation much better than I thought she would."

"I think it's some weird dog thing," he replied thoughtfully. "She knows she's accepted here without people either being scared of her, or wanting to use her. You know how she has a sort of pack mentality, and always pushes to find her ranking in the group?"

"Yes," Lisa sighed. "It can be annoying."

"After the Raptaur thing, she's realizes that she's never going to be the Alpha as long as that lizard is around. Oddly enough, that seems to have cheered her up and she's just going along with things. It seems to me that now she knows her place and is accepting it. Or something like that, anyway."

"You may be right," Lisa nodded. "It fits with what my power says, but she's always been a little difficult to read properly. Every time I think I've finally got a handle on her, she does something a bit different than I was expecting." Turning to look at him, she smiled. "How are you getting on?"

"Not bad. I've talked to their security head, Mark, who seems like a decent guy. He did some more tests of my fighting skills which he's happy with. He's damn good himself, I couldn't take him without using my powers, or getting lucky." Brian grinned, rubbing his jaw. "And has a hell of a right cross. Military training for sure. Anyway, he's put me down as backup at the moment. I'm just heading to meet this other guy, Jason, who's in charge of the Carpentry section. I'll probably be working the rest of today, they're doing some refurbishments to several buildings here and they need everyone they can get hold of."

"Good," Lisa replied, pleased with the way things were going. "Where's Alec?"

"Last time I saw him he was heading for the cafeteria again for a second lunch," Brian laughed. "He really likes the food here."

"It's not bad," she admitted. "Basic, but well made and tasty."

"How did your meeting with Mr Hebert go?" Brian asked curiously as the pair slowly walked along, watching the activity around the site.

"Pretty well," Lisa replied with a smile, which was an understatement of considerable size. "We talked about all sorts of things. He's already got the legal department looking into sorting out a lawyer for Rachel, and also looking into your situation. He said that we couldn't actually contact Child Services until after our old boss is dealt with, because it would give away where we were. He's got a point. It's the same reason that we can't have anyone go to the loft and clear it out, the bastard is sure to have someone watching it. And my apartment. Hopefully no one will strip either place before we take the fucker down, but..."

She shrugged slightly. "We have enough money to replace everything easily."

"I guess." Brian sounded resigned.

She reached into her pocket and pulled out a roll of cash, handing it to him. "Two grand for any expenses. I took ten from the stash, which is, by the way, seven hundred and ninety-eight thousand and change."

"Fuck me," Brian said in a low voice, looking amazed. "That's even more than I thought."

"It should be enough for now," she grinned. "I've given Rachel the same, and I'll give another two to Alec. The rest I'll hang onto for the moment. If we need more we can go and get it, but it's safe where it is for now. In the longer term we need to work out what to do with that much money. I'll look into a good solution."

"At least we can pay for anything we need."

"Oh, _that's_ not going to be a problem," she noted wisely. "Not for a while. But we still need to be careful, we may need a lot of cash in a hurry, so we shouldn't waste it. I'm hoping that I can find some paying work here as well. Should be easy enough, I have useful skills."

Brian snorted with mirth. "Many of them in doing highly illegal things."

"Well, obviously, but that's not _all_ I can do, you know," she retorted. "I'm not sure about Alec or Rachel, although she's certainly strong and fit enough to work as a laborer without any trouble. She might even enjoy it. But she's also going to have a lot of her time taken up with all those dogs, so we may as well let her get on with it. It keeps her out of trouble if nothing else."

"Sounds good so far." He looked at his watch. "I'd better get on with this, I don't want to be late. See you later."

"OK. Think about things we need and we can make a list, Danny said he's happy to send someone to get it all for us."

"Got it." Brian waved then walked away, quite fast, as she stopped and watched for a moment before turning around. She needed to find Alec, prevent him from eating everything in the place, then see if she could figure out what to do to keep herself busy.

And think about what she was going to ask Taylor, who would be coming over after school. She wanted to be prepared for anything.

Although, based on the last few interactions, she wasn't sure that ' _anything_ ' was a wide enough concept…

* * *

As the final bell rang, Taylor gathered her notes and books together and slipped them into her bag, feeling the day had gone very well. She picked up her pen and clicked it, then dropped it in after the books, zipping the bag shut. Glancing at Mandy, which whom she shared the Geography class, she smiled. "Another day done. Hurrah."

"You know you like school, silly girl," her first friend at Arcadia giggled. "Here, anyway."

"True. But it's still nice reaching the end of another hard day, nose to the grindstone, writing until my wrist hurts, my poor brain filling with facts and figures..."

Mandy poked her in the shoulder, grinning. "Idiot. Stop laying it on so thick. And another thing, when are you going to start helping me with the math problems?"

"Soon, very soon," Taylor laughed, putting her pack strap over one shoulder. "Maybe sometime next week? I'm still helping Amy and learning the best way to do it. Possibly we should all get together at my house some time."

"I'd like that, and I know the others would as well," the other girl smiled as they made their way to the door. When they were outside, she looked around, then leaned closer. "Think anyone here will actually turn up tomorrow? Or is everyone going to sneak off after lunch instead?"

"I have no idea," Taylor replied innocently. "I, myself, have permission not to attend tomorrow, for personal reasons. My dad called the school and everything. Look." She pulled an envelope with the school logo and address on the corner. "Official papers releasing me from this vile place."

"That's cheating," Mandy grumped. "Why don't you do it properly and come up with a good excuse at the last moment like the rest of us."

Putting the envelope away, Taylor snickered. "Now who's laying it a little thick?"

Her friend grinned. "Worth a try. Anyway, see you on Wednesday. Or, just maybe, we might accidentally bump into each other somewhere out there..."

She waved her hand to indicate the great outside, nearly catching another student in the ear. He stared at her for a moment, while she flushed with embarrassment and Taylor nearly laughed herself sick.

"Sorry, Jim," she said quietly.

"You really have to stop waving your hands around like that, Mandy," the boy sighed, before hurrying off. Mandy watched him, then glared sidelong at Taylor, who was still giggling.

"Wasn't _that_ funny," she muttered.

"Afraid you're wrong there, Mandy," Taylor grinned. "See you later."

She waved as they reached the front entrance, her friend waving back then heading towards Lucy and Eric, who were talking near the road. Taylor looked around then up at the sky, before smiling.

"Hope it's like this tomorrow," a familiar voice said from behind her, the scent having given Amy away long before she approached.

"It's supposed to be," Taylor said without turning.

Coming to stand next to her, Amy watched as Mandy, Lucy, and Eric all went off together, laughing about some joke the boy had made. "I'm really glad I met you, then all of them," the healer said in a low voice, making Taylor glance at her for a moment. "My life seems to have changed a hell of a lot in the last few weeks."

"Tell me about it," Taylor chuckled. "You're off to the hospital now?"

"Yes, Vicky's giving me a lift, then going to the Yard to talk to Danny about tomorrow. She said that you'd asked on his behalf if New Wave would help out if needed."

"Think your mother will be OK with that?"

Taylor looked at her friend again, the girl appearing thoughtful. Eventually Amy nodded slowly. "I think she might be, actually. This weekend has been a weird one, in a lot of ways, but she seems to have learned something. Not sure what, yet."

"Are you getting a car?"

Amy grinned. "Yes, looks like I am, actually. We're going to look for one on Wednesday, there are several second-hand dealers fairly close to here that have some nice ones. She said she didn't think my first vehicle should be a brand new one, just in case I drive it into something and wreck it."

"Very nice of her," Taylor giggled.

"Hey, she's better, not perfect," Amy pointed out with a smirk. "But she may have a point anyway. As long as it runs and is fairly comfortable, I'm happy. I don't need the fancy red sports-car that some of us might go for."

This last sentence was spoken loudly enough that Vicky, who was approaching with Dean, could easily hear it, and accompanied with a meaningful look. Taylor snickered while Vicky stared at her sister with an arched eyebrow.

"As I told you, dear sister, _I_ do not need such plebeian things as cars. _I_ can _fly_."

"Into things, based on yesterday," Amy snarked, making Taylor giggle again and Dean look confused. "Not to mention the rain, bugs in your face, snow..."

"Thanks, Sis," Vicky laughed. "The last points aren't a problem, not with that wonderful costume Raptaur made me. You know how warm they are."

"I do, yes," her sister smiled. "Hello, Dean."

"Hi, Amy," the boy replied. "Hi, Taylor. Any idea about what's happening tomorrow?"

"She won't tell you," the blonde Dallon sister sighed. "I've already tried."

Taylor grinned at Dean, who looked uncomfortable, both Amy and herself exchanging a quick glance and finding him amusing. Wondering if she should perhaps talk to him at some point about the importance of keeping quiet, she met his eyes with hers and watched him recoil a little.

No, perhaps he already got the idea.

"Sorry, I can't say anything," she said. "But I think you'll find it… interesting."

"I'm sure I will," he sighed.

"Got to go, guys, see you soon," she smiled, before turning and jogging off, hearing three voices call goodbye to her, one of them slightly reluctantly to her ears. As soon as she found a suitable spot she cloaked and changed to Saurial, accelerating to forty or so miles an hour and heading towards the Docks by going west through the residential areas of the city to avoid the traffic the more direct route had at this time of day. It was a mile or so longer but took less time.

Half-way there she slowed rapidly, looking around in surprise.

' _Well, well, well_ ,' she thought to the Varga. ' _Now_ _ **that's**_ _convenient_.'

" _So it is_ ," he commented with interest. " _Some distance away, but in this general area_."

Sniffing carefully, she backtracked a few hundred yards, then headed in a different direction. It took several passes to localize the scent exactly due to it being fairly well distributed around the area, indicating the person in question had resided here for some time, but eventually she was standing on the sidewalk looking at a fairly large house set back from the road in one of the nicer areas of the city. Taylor studied it curiously, before carefully looking around for any indications of traps she might trigger.

Not detecting any, she walked up the driveway, being careful not to step on anything that might take a mark from her foot claws, until she was close enough to look in one of the side windows. It showed a perfectly normal looking house, very tidy but definitely one that someone lived in, at least some of the time. There were no living heat sources visible inside, although she could see something giving off heat that was probably a water heater, and a number of smaller ones that would be electronic devices of various sorts.

Inspection of the entire place took her about twenty minutes, because she was being very careful not to leave traces, but finally she went back down the driveway, satisfied that the house was empty but not abandoned. A car was parked in the car port, cold and obviously not having been driven for a while. The front and back garden were tidy and based on the truck she could see some distance down the road with the name of a local yard maintenance company that she'd seen advertise on TV, it was probably not the work of the homeowner.

The critical thing was that Coil's scent was everywhere. The property was definitely his, or at a minimum one where he spent a lot of time and had done for years. The scent was so deeply ingrained it would never come out. The way it was distributed around the neighborhood also pointed to her conclusion.

This was his house.

Stopping at the mailbox, she read the name on it with interest.

' _Hmm. I think we're going to have to look you up, Mr T Calvert,_ ' she mused, before breaking into a sprint to make up for lost time.

" _That was a lucky break_ ," the Varga remarked.

 _'It sure was. I was going to sweep this area eventually but it wasn't the first place I intended to try. It saved some time if nothing else. I wonder who Mr Calvert is?_ '

 _"I don't know, but between us, Lisa, and your father, I doubt we'll be in the dark for long. It will be interesting to see what the young lady can produce with a name to work from_."

' _Won't it?_ ' she smirked. _'With a little luck by this time tomorrow our friend T Calvert may not have anything but the clothes he's standing in. Lisa is pretty good with computers.'_

Both of them shared a laugh as she ran, feeling that things were definitely looking up

* * *

Lisa twitched violently as she turned around and found Saurial smirking at her only a yard away. "Fuck! Don't _do_ that you scaly weirdo!"

"It's funny watching you jump like that," the alter-ego of Taylor chuckled. "How are you and your friends today?"

"All things considered, a lot better than we should be, I think," she replied. "I was just going to look for you, Danny said you'd be around about now."

"Here I am." Saurial spread her arms widely. "I just need to see him for a minute then we can go and talk. I've got some information for you." Lisa fell into step beside the lizard-girl, looking at her every now and then with interest as she walked. Saurial nodded to a number of the people they passed, most of who seemed to either know her or just know _of_ her, in either case being pleased to see her.

Lisa also greeted some of the people she'd met over the last twenty-four hours, feeling surprisingly relaxed about everything. Reaching Danny's office, Saurial tapped on the door and opened it, sticking her head in. "Hi. I made it here. Found something on the way that caused me a bit of a delay. Has Glory Girl stopped in yet?"

Danny waved them both in, turning away from his computer to smile at them. Lisa closed the door behind herself, moving away from it to study the map on the wall for a few seconds, before turning around to listen.

"No, not yet. You have a delivery waiting for you at the office, those onions you asked for turned up. I went over and had some of the guys unload them into the place, around the back of your workshop. What on earth do you two want a ton and a half of onions for anyway?" He looked mystified. "That's an awful lot, you know. There's about sixty bags of them stacked up in there."

"Reasons," Saurial smirked. "Good ones, but it's a secret right now."

"Hmm. OK. I guess. Oh, the other thing is these just got dropped off a few minutes ago." He tossed a ring of keys to her, the girl snatching them out of the air with a motion of a scaled hand too fast to follow with the eyes. Lisa blinked a couple of times.

' _Shit. She's even faster than I realized_ ,' she thought in amazement. ' _I wonder how much of that carries through to her human form?_ '

"There's two sets there, one for Amy and a spare set. That should keep you going."

"Thanks," Saurial said with a smile, inspecting the keys then tucking them into a belt pouch. Lisa noticed the end of her tail was gently twitching back and forth in a contented sort of way.

"No trouble. So, what did you find on the way?"

He leaned his chair back and put his hands on his desk, studying her. "I can tell you found something good."

She smiled slowly. "Oh, it's good all right. I was just on my way here and I smelled something familiar, so I went to look for it. I was right, the residential areas were the key."

"You found him?!" Danny and Lisa said it at the same time, making Saurial grin widely.

"Yep. House and car, definitely a place he lives. I'd say from the scents that he's been out of it for maybe three or four days at the most, but no less than two. No signs of any surveillance that I could see, no traps or anything like that. Just a normal if quite expensive house."

"Fantastic. That will let us find out a name..." Lisa stopped talking, seeing the amusement on the reptilian girl's face. "Which you already did," she finished.

"Of course, it was written right there on his mailbox. One T Calvert."

Lisa felt an internal jolt of shock, which must have come out in her expression despite herself. "You know who that is."

"I do," she sighed, moving to sit down. "I have to admit I never expected that. Director Piggot is going to go fucking mad when she hears."

"Does she know him?"

"You might say that, yes," Lisa said, looking over at Danny and answering his question. "I found out quite a lot about her and most of the important PRT people in the last few months. Thomas Calvert is ex-PRT special forces. He's one of the only two survivors of the Ellisburg operation."

"Oh, shit," Danny breathed. "Let me guess. Emily Piggot was the other one."

"She was. It was why her health was so bad, she nearly died during the whole fiasco. I think Calvert probably helped her get out or something, but the records I could find didn't go into much detail. It's probably also why she hates parahumans so much." Lisa shrugged. "She's not going to be happy about this."

"From what I've heard about her, she's not actually happy about most things. That said, she's in a very stressful job so you can sort of understand why." Danny looked thoughtful. "Does our Mr Calvert still work for the PRT?"

"No, he's retired, but he acts as an official consultant to them. _That's_ why he's been able to compromise their systems so much. I bet he put lots of backdoors in before he retired, and he knows the inner workings of the PRT inside out. He literally wrote some of their policy documentation aside from anything else. He probably also has at least a dozen people still there he has something on that he could call on to do things for him. Piggot is going to have a hell of a job rooting _that_ all out."

"God. This is pretty serious."

"That's putting it mildly. We need to tell her, he's way too dangerous to let do whatever it is he's trying to do, leaving my personal feelings out of it."

"Have you heard anything from the PRT yet?" Saurial asked Danny. "No one has called me or Raptaur."

"No, I haven't, sorry," he replied, while Lisa smiled a little about the pretense of there being more than one of her.

The phone rang.

Everyone looked at it. Peering at the caller ID, Danny grinned. "Let me rephrase that..."

Picking up the handset, he said, "DWU, Danny Hebert speaking."

There was a short pause, during which Saurial was clearly listening, her head cocked to the side. She seemed mildly amused.

"Ah, yes, hello, Director Piggot. I was expecting this call. How can I help you?"

Danny looked amused now as well. Lisa sat back to enjoy the show.

* * *

"Damn it all to hell," Emily growled, when she'd finally finished extracting every bit of information from Colin's and Hannah's reports. "This is about as bad as it gets. We can't trust anything at the PRT building, and possibly nothing here outside your lab. Which I don't want to spend all my time in, no offense intended, Colin."

The Tinker didn't seem worried. "To be honest I'd prefer it otherwise as well, Director."

"Do you think he's compromised my home? Any of our homes?"

"I don't think so," Hannah replied. "I've been carrying counter-surveillance equipment with me for the last several weeks and sweeping everywhere I go. The PRT building was something I missed as far as the compromised systems go because it wasn't actually bugged. But I'm sure my apartment is clean, as is yours."

Emily noticed that Colin seemed mildly surprised at the implication that Hannah had been to her home, but he didn't appear to think it important enough to mention.

"OK. That's something."

She shook her head tiredly. "As if things weren't bad enough already. Ideas? How do we deal with this?"

"We need to work out a pretext to shut the entire PRT system down for long enough to allow myself and Dragon to clean out all the taps in it and do a backtrace on them. But we also need to locate Coil and his agents and catch them at the same time. As soon as we shut down, he'll realize that we know what's going on and that may well mean we never get him. He must have multiple escape plans ready to go." Colin's response was immediate and thoughtful, showing he'd put time in on thinking it over.

"We should probably also lock down the Rig at the same time, then sweep it thoroughly," Hannah added as Emily nodded slowly. "It will be tricky doing both at once and it will unavoidably take out a lot of our ability to respond to threats for several hours, but I can't see an alternative. I think we're going to need to call in help to back us up while we do this."

"I really don't want to do that, but you're right," Emily sighed. "I'm going to have a hell of a job explaining to the Chief Director how I let this happen on my watch."

The other two exchanged a glance. "I suspect that this predates your installation as Director, Director," Colin said. "The level of compromise is significant and deep, it wasn't done recently. Blaming yourself for it is an inefficient use of time."

It was a curious attempt at sympathy but oddly she felt it was well-meant. "Thank you, Colin. I think."

"My suggestion is the same as the one I initially made some time ago. I believe it would be in our best interests to allow Saurial, Raptaur, and Tattletale to track Coil by whatever means they have and pass that information on to us. Additionally I suggest you need to talk to Tattletale immediately, you may well think of other things to ask than we did. Accepting the deal we tentatively agreed on would seem to be key to that cooperation."

"I'm not entirely pleased about that deal, but I don't think we have very much choice," Emily sighed. "Assuming that Bitch is indeed innocent of the murder charges, of course. If she's guilty I don't have the authority to simply wipe it from her record."

"Understood, Director." He handed her a phone. "This is secure and Mr Hebert's number is already programmed in."

She stared narrowly at him. "You were pretty sure of yourself."

"It seemed best to be prepared."

Emily could almost _swear_ there was just a flicker of smile for a moment. Giving him a hard look she took the phone and hit the connect button.

" _DWU, Danny Hebert speaking_." The voice was unfamiliar, but seemed both confident and very slightly amused. She sighed faintly.

"Good afternoon, Mr Hebert. This is Emily Piggot, Director of the PRT ENE." She tried to keep her irritation with the entire situation out of her voice but wasn't entirely certain she succeeded.

" _Ah, yes, hello, Director Piggot. I was expecting this call. How can I help you?_ "

"I believe I need to talk to various people you have at the DWU, as soon as possible. My people have verified a certain amount of the information that was received yesterday and is has raised a number of further questions, and significant concerns."

" _I understand. We have more information for you, as it happens. Tattletale is here with me right now, and Raptaur is on site. If you would like to use the BBFO facility for the security I have been told it's fine._ "

"Reluctantly, I find myself forced to agree it seems the best choice. I will be there in..." She checked the time and thought for a second. "One and a half hours. Six o'clock."

" _We'll be waiting for you. Will anyone else be coming?_ "

"Miss Militia will be with me."

" _Of course. If you could ask her not to over-react this time, it would be appreciated._ "

Looking at Hannah, wondering what _that_ little gem meant and determined to find out, Emily replied, "I will make sure. Thank you."

" _Thank you, Director. See you soon_." He hung up, as did she, handing the phone back to Colin.

"Why would I have been asked to make sure you didn't over-react ' _this time_ ', Hannah?" she asked sweetly.

The other woman went mildly pink. "Ah. I can explain."

"Please do. I don't want any more surprises."

Hannah began talking, looking embarrassed, while Colin turned away and began fiddling with something on his bench, obviously no longer concerned with the issue for the moment.


	81. Guest Omake - Twas the night

_**Twas the night before Tuesday...**_

 _Automatonation on Sufficient Velocity said:_

 _He will be able to do far better than I, my parodic juices were drained after the little I wrote._

 **Challenge accepted...**

Twas the night before Tuesday, and all through the Bay,  
Not a Villain was stirring, nor some heros, I'd say.  
The Dockworker's Union had arranged it with care,  
And Mayor Roy had promised that Kaiju'd be there.

The important and rich were all waiting to see,  
While low lives and criminals stood ready to flee  
And New Wave on standby, ready for trouble,  
As out in the Bay, the water did bubble.

When out of the depths, the great creature did rise,  
All who observed, were consumed with surprise.  
A great wailing began, as sirens were started,  
But Mark and his team acted, they only farted.

The Director of Heros gaped in awed shock,  
Fucking Bullshit! cried the Blocker of Clock!  
Danny smiled with family pride,  
His daughter did wave as weak people cried.

Kaiju dove into the water again,  
While silence spread widely, the City astrain  
To hear, or to see, what the creature would do,  
For some time crawled while for others it flew.

Far out on the horizon, almost out of sight,  
The Tanker did shift, causing much fright.  
All present did gape, did point and did stare,  
While Coil, the coward, hid deep in his lair.

The great vessel turned, pointing back to the shore,  
A gasp of shock came, as the viewers saw more.  
The vast lizard came swimming, towing the ship,  
Past the public who stared, some planning a trip.

Max in his tower did watch in great wonder,  
Then turned to his men and tore their orders asunder,  
The Dock Workers Union was completely forbidden,  
He pointed at Kaiju, who knows _what_ they've got hidden?

Miss Militia stared horrified, her weapon forgotten,  
Knowing that her bullets may as well be of cotton,  
Armsmaster and Dragon, Tinkers and friends,  
Exchanged awed glances before new plans were penned.

Inside the pub, people drank and they talked,  
When into the place the sailors they flocked,  
Shouting and wailing, and carrying on,  
About the Beast that must be Satan's own Spawn.

At the back table where he drank to forget,  
Lung the Salamander was starting to sweat.  
Hearing the news, old Erwin did laugh,  
Smiling and shouting, he took a great quaff.

Then rising and approaching the door he did peer,  
Before turning back smiling, and called for more beer.  
Raising his glass high, he laughed like a loon,  
Then shouted triumphantly,

" _ **I fucking told you, you bastards!**_ "


	82. Emily and Raptaur

Landing outside the entrance to the BBFO office, Vicky waved politely to a couple of dock workers who were watching her, smiling, and was gratified to receive a smile back from each of them that seemed respectful rather than ingratiating. Both the men disappeared into another one of the buildings, from which a lot of hammering noises were coming, along with oddly enough the sounds of a number of dogs barking. She wondered what the hell dogs were doing in there, then shrugged a little. It wasn't really her problem. Knocking on the door, she waited.

Seconds later it opened to reveal Raptaur, who stepped aside. "Hi, Vicky," she said in her deep voice, waving the girl in. "Come in. We're expecting someone else in a bit under an hour so we'll have to be quick, we have to get ready."

"Someone important?" the blonde asked as she waited for the reptilian woman to close the door.

"Kind of. Director Piggot."

"Really?" She was quite surprised. "What's she coming here for? From what I know I sort of got the idea she was avoiding you guys and hoping you'd go away if she did."

Raptaur laughed. "I think that may have been the idea, yes. I have to admit I was thinking that we'd meet eventually but the PRT have definitely been keeping their distance. All good as far as I'm concerned but something came up that means she has to come here." Leading the way to the table, the scaled woman pointed at another teenager, roughly Vicky's age, who was wearing a mask that covered her entire face except for eye, nose, and mouth holes. "This is Tattletale from the Undersiders. Tattletale, Glory Girl. Or Victoria Dallon out of costume like this."

"Undersiders!? Aren't they, you know, villains?" Vicky felt somewhat surprised although not actually shocked, as it seemed like the sort of thing the other cape was likely to do. She clearly didn't put much stock in the whole hero/villain thing.

"Minor ones, and in the past tense," Tattletale said brightly, holding out her hand. "We're sort of retired from that now. We got into a certain amount of difficulty with Lung and the ABB yesterday and decided it was too much trouble to go on with that lifestyle. Raptaur and the DWU are helping us get back into the boring life of being a non-criminal."

She sounded amused and lively, making Vicky grin. Shaking the hand of the other blonde girl, she replied, "Welcome to the light side, then. Or whatever this is. Lung? Is that what all the explosions were about?"

"Yes, it got sort of loud for a while," Tattletale sighed. "He wasn't in a good mood."

"He never is," Vicky noted. "Or at least, if _he_ is, no one _else_ is having a good time. What the hell did you do to him?"

"Stole nearly a million dollars from his safe house," the girl said calmly.

"Holy _fuck!_ How are you still _alive?_ "

"A lot of luck, and our scaly friend here. She persuaded Lung to go away and leave us all alone."

"How the hell did you manage _that?_ " Vicky asked in shock, turning to the huge reptile, who was listening with clear amusement.

"I arranged to have a relative talk to him," she said with a slight laugh. "He took the talk seriously and agreed to go away, so she agreed to let him live."

Vicky gaped a little.

"She's a bit bigger than I am," Raptaur added.

Tattletale snickered. "Just a little, yes."

"You'll meet her tomorrow, I expect," the lizard-like cape went on. "She's key to the entire event."

"The great event that no one will tell me about," Vicky sighed. "Taylor knows and won't say anything, my own _sister_ knows and won't say anything… It's getting annoying."

"They both know how to keep a secret. It's a good habit to learn." Raptaur looked at her for a moment. "For instance, we'd prefer it if you not tell anyone about what we've just told you for the moment."

"I can do that," Vicky remarked.

"Great. OK, tomorrow, then. BBFO and the DWU are going to be working all day on a major project in the bay, like it said in the paper yesterday. I and my sisters will be out in the water most of the time, so you won't see us, and we won't be able to quickly intervene if anything goes peculiar. For various reasons, we, the DWU, and the city would prefer to keep the PRT at arm's length for now, although obviously if the shit really does hit the fan they're going to get involved anyway. We were wondering if New Wave would like to help out? Basically, be on standby for any trouble. We'll provide radios, you guys would get public credit for helping the city, and we'll even pay you for it."

"Pay?"

"Sure! Why not? If you do a job, you deserved to be recognized for it, and get paid. I know it's pretty uncommon in Parahuman circles because of all the annoying laws that get in the way, but we found a way around that. We can subcontract security services to New Wave completely legally. In turn, we're subcontracting to the city. We're not charging for the operation itself, it's a good will thing, but it's completely reasonable to expense certain things, you guys being one of those things. The Mayor is fine with it."

Vicky stared, feeling somewhat taken aback about the rapidity of the offer and the sheer enthusiasm of it. After a moment, she asked slowly, "How much?"

"A retainer of two and a half thousand dollars each for however many people you agree to supply, regardless of whether you are needed or not, and the same again as combat pay if you are required," Raptaur promptly replied. "In addition, we'll provide armored costumes like the ones I made for you and Amy, to your specifications and measurements, for everyone, which you can keep. I know you're basically bulletproof but your mother isn't, for example, unless she's ready for it. Our work is tough enough to take a major hit, nothing as simple as any normal firearm is going to penetrate it."

"Shit. You're serious."

"Yep. Interested?"

"I am, definitely, it sounds like fun. Aunt Sarah probably would be, I know Crystal would as well, Eric probably would be too..." She trailed off, thinking. "I can't speak for them, obviously, I'll have to talk to them."

"Fine, that's no problem. Ideally if you could let Danny know tonight sometime we can build it into the plan. To be honest we probably won't need you, that's what we're hoping, but it's one of those better to have you and not use you, than need you and not have you things." Raptaur shrugged. "This is Brockton Bay. Shit happens."

"That it does," Vicky sighed. "OK, I'll go home and ask everyone. Mom will probably want to talk to Mr Hebert about it, I think. No offense, but she's not sure about you. Or your sister."

"Fair enough." Raptaur looked satisfied. "That's all I can ask. Whatever happens, tomorrow should be interesting."

"And you're not going to say any more about it, are you?"

"No, I'm not," she grinned. "But if you're here tomorrow morning, you'll find out then."

Giving the reptile who she thought was probably a friend a hard look, Vicky said, "That's bribery."

"Yes. Did it work?"

Tattletale laughed. Giggling, Vicky shrugged. "I'll see what I can do."

"Great. Sorry to rush you, but Director Piggot should be here fairly soon and it's probably best if you're not, just to avoid confusing the issue any more than it already is."

"OK. I know what she's like. Good luck." Raptaur let her out, the door closing behind her. Taking to the air she headed rapidly home, trying to work out the best way to start off the conversation, which was probably going to get a little odd. Her mother had some fairly fixed ideas about how New Wave worked and this whole offer was probably violating some Carol Dallon propriety thing or other. Sighing a little, she started marshaling her arguments, then diverted her course a little. Aunt Sarah would listen more sensibly and could possibly help convince her sister.

* * *

Taylor closed the door, then considered Lisa, who took off her mask. "That was pretty funny," the girl said, smiling. "Her expression was very odd. I wonder if anyone has ever offered to pay New Wave before?"

"Probably not, the laws are really complicated," Taylor replied. "Luckily, the DWU has some very good legal people who worked out all the loopholes, or we couldn't do all this." She waved her hands around at the inside of the building.

Moving over to the table she crouched down beside Lisa, her head on the same level. "We've got half an hour. We should talk."

"We should. Taylor."

"Indeed. Lisa." She grinned, resuming her base form. The blonde looked startled even though she knew the truth.

"Wow. That's impressive. What limits do you have?"

"Well, there's an upper limit on size. It's quite large, though." Taylor grinned at the girl, who looked thoughtfully at her.

"Kaiju was fucking _huge_. But my power told me that wasn't the upper limit. You were what, about ninety to a hundred feet tall then?"

"About that, yes."

"How much bigger?"

"A bit."

"Fifty percent more?"

Taylor smiled smugly. Lisa's own smile faltered. "Crap. Bigger than that. Twice as large?"

One smile grew while another one shrank. "Two and a half times…?"

Lisa's voice was getting a little faint and she looked very worried. Taylor made a motion upwards.

"Oh, Christ. _Three_ times as big?" The girl was as white as a sheet. Taylor finally relented.

"The upper limit, as far as I know, is pretty close to four hundred feet tall. A lot bulkier as well, Dad and I estimated about twenty-five, maybe thirty thousand tons, possibly more. It's difficult to be sure to be honest."

Taylor smiled widely, then sighed. "Oh, for god's sake." Reaching out she picked Lisa's comatose body from the floor and put it back in the chair, then gently slapped her cheeks. "Come on, girl, _Amy_ didn't faint. I thought you were tougher than that."

The blonde girl mumbled something, then jolted awake. "What! Where!" She sat up, then stared at Taylor, who gave her a sort of smug grin. "Fuck. It wasn't a dream."

"No. Do you always faint like that when you find out something unusual?"

She received a glare in response. "I'm sorry if me being a little surprised by meeting a girl who can squish Endbringers by stepping on them shocks you, but it's not exactly normal, you know."

Shrugged a little, Taylor said, "It is to me."

"You're _weird_. I just didn't know _how_ weird. What else can you do?" Lisa seemed to have recovered although she was still somewhat pale.

"Well, I can do this," Taylor said, licking her own ear with a long forked tongue. Lisa jolted back, staring in horror.

"Please don't," she said in a small voice. "That's just _wrong_."

Sitting down on one of the chairs, Taylor relented in her teasing of the girl, although she was enjoying it and the Varga was in fits of laughter. "Sorry. Sometimes I get carried away."

"So what actually are the limitations of your Changer ability?" Lisa asked after some seconds. "Do you even have any?"

"Oh, sure, but it's pretty flexible. I can do more or less anything reptilian, or reptilian-ish, I should say, because I'm not actually a reptile despite appearances." She smiled widely, her mouth going half-way around her head, full of needle-like teeth. "I'm a demon."

Moaning, Lisa closed her eyes tightly. "Oh, god, _please_ stop doing things like that. It's horri… Hey, what do you mean, demon? There's no such thing." Her eyes popped open again as she looked abruptly curious.

"Bet you there is," Taylor laughed. "It's a long story, and we don't have time for it right now, but I'll fill you in later. Trust me when I say I know what I'm talking about. Amy can back me up. According to her I'm not a Parahuman."

"What?"

"No Corona Pollentia or Gemma," she smiled, tapping her head. "Not a Parahuman. I'm something different."

She leaned forward, fixing the blonde with glowing, slit-pupilled eyes, her mouth full of teeth again. " _ **I'm Taylor Hebert, half-demon infinitely variable dinosaur, and if you betray me or my family, there's nowhere on this world you can go that I can't find you,**_ " she hissed, her voice taking on a totally inhuman tone. She was quite proud of that, she'd practiced in front of the mirror for over an hour.

"For fuck's sake," she sighed, rolling her eyes as the blonde slipped quietly to the floor again. "Am I really _that_ scary?"

" _Apparently, Brain. You may have overdone it somewhat_."

"I was just trying to make the point that I'm trusting her with a lot and I would be very annoyed if she did anything bad with the information."

" _I believe that she may have got the idea_." The Varga was barely able to speak through his laughter, but his voice sounded approving. " _That was very well done. I'd have had trouble bettering it myself_."

"Thanks," she grinned as she picked Lisa up and put her back in her chair, then began patiently trying to wake her again. "I need to fit this with a seat belt if she's going to keep doing that, it's getting tedious."

When Lisa finally woke up this time she jumped to her feet and retreated, pale and sweating.

"IpromiseI'llneverbetrayyouoryourfamilypleasedon'teatmeI'llbegood," she babbled.

"Calm down, Lisa, I'm not going to eat you," Taylor sighed, not making any sudden moves. "Sit down. I'm sorry, I didn't mean to scare you quite that much, only make you believe I'm serious."

"Oh, Jesus, I believe you, trust me," the other girl said after a long wide-eyed pause. She very slowly approached, pulling the chair out of reach, then sitting down carefully, poised to jump out of it. Taylor rolled her eyes.

"Look, I may have been a little excessive. Sorry. Let's start again. Hi, I'm Taylor Hebert. Please don't do anything that would cause harm to my father or my friends, I wouldn't like it," she said mildly, holding out her hand. Lisa stared at it for some time, then slowly reached out and shook it.

"I won't," she replied.

"Great. Hopefully, you're going to be one of those friends. Wow, you weren't this jumpy when I was Raptaur, except maybe that first time."

"Hey, you scared the _shit_ out of us, chasing us like that," Lisa snapped, suddenly looking more annoyed than terrified.

"Sorry." Taylor grinned. "Sort of. It was kind of funny, looking back on it. But I was kind of confused at the time."

"Funny for _you_ maybe," the blonde grumped, folding her arms and glaring. "None of _us_ could sleep for nearly two days."

Giggling, Taylor shook her head with amusement. Eventually, Lisa started smiling, then laughed as well. "God damn it, why can't I stay annoyed with you?"

"I'm just a nice person, maybe?"

"You're the strangest person I've ever met and that's saying something." Lisa sighed gently. "OK, OK, it's kind of funny. In thirty or forty years I'll probably laugh about it as well. Now can we work out what we're going to tell Piggot?"

"Sure."

"I have some ideas about dear Mr Calvert and his operation I want to try, which your Dad is also interested in. It should work. But we can tell the Director everything else, I think." She explained the plan she'd worked out, making Taylor and the Varga both look at her with respect and laugh.

"Oh, god, he'll want to shoot himself if that works."

"I wish the bastard would, it would save us all a lot of trouble." Lisa sounded annoyed. "You wouldn't believe how much I hate that shit."

"I think I do, actually, I can see how angry you are. Don't worry, one way or the other he's not going to get away." Taylor smiled slowly. "We'll make sure of that..."

"Now I'm almost starting to feel sorry for the poor bastard," Lisa sighed, staring at her. "Stop making me feel like that."

"Sorry."

Sharing a grin, they began discussing specifics.

* * *

"OK, Hannah, we've got about fifteen minutes before we get to the DWU and the car is clean. Talk to me. What did you work out from meeting Raptaur? Changer or Biotinker construct?"

Emily looked at the woman driving the PRT urban assault vehicle they'd checked out from the main motor pool, having very carefully and discreetly swept it for bugs once they were a mile away from any observers.

Hannah was silent for a moment. Eventually, she sighed. "I'm still not sure. Changer is _maybe_ possible, but… there are just too many things that don't fit. That cape is absolutely shit-your-pants terrifying even when she's trying to be friendly. There's something about her which is just… not human. At all. I can't explain it any better than that. It's like… I don't know, like something read about being human but hasn't quite understood the instructions, even though it's willing to give it a shot." She shrugged, glancing away from the road for a moment to meet Emily's eyes.

"I think she's basically friendly, in her own way, but I also think that it would be a huge mistake to assume she'd react the same way a normal person, or even a normal cape, would do to any specific scenario. She might well do something unexpected. I _am_ certain that her reaction to a definite threat to someone she valued for whatever reason would be met with immediate lethal force with no hesitation at all. And I doubt very much that there would be much way to stop her short of the Triumvirate. She's that dangerous. Our threat ratings are _way_ too low."

"Fuck. Are you sure?"

"Sure enough not to want to try pulling a weapon around her again. I think I got very lucky last night. I'm certain that she considers Panacea one of those she would protect without limit, looking back on the little hints, and I think if I'd actually pointed my gun at her, or in a way that could be considered threatening… Well, she actually acted with considerable restraint in those terms. We were warned, by Saurial, weeks ago what she'd do under such circumstances, and I doubt that Raptaur would do less."

"You're beginning to make me reconsider this meeting, Hannah."

"Oh, don't get me wrong, Ma'am. She's not on a hair trigger, or unstable. I'm sure of that as well. But she has a hard line in the sand and if you cross it, that's it. No more warnings, no second chances. You probably wouldn't even see it coming. The humor stops and the killing machine starts, instantly." Hannah shuddered. "Luckily, I think that threshold is very high, all things considered, except in very specific, clearly defined places. We were told what they were at the first encounter. _DO NOT_ threaten her people and everyone gets along fine. She'd go out of her way to help someone in trouble, I suspect, even with what amounts to a declaration of neutrality from The Family. She's not interested in starting fights as far as I can tell, but by god she'd finish them."

Emily considered the words carefully. It matched what she'd picked up from the reports of other encounters. Both Saurial and Raptaur were extremely dangerous, but they were also apparently non-aggressive to a fairly silly level, unless certain conditions were exceeded.

"How is it that she's now considering Panacea one of her own to that level?" she asked.

"I don't know. Neither do her mother or aunt. She seems to have become a friend of both of them, and a confidante, I think. It goes both ways. Panacea is by all reports much happier recently and more confident. I'm taking that as a good sign. Gallant said that he was concerned about her mental state over the last few months although he refuses to go into details as to why, but it has rapidly improved since she met both Saurial and Raptaur." She hesitated for a moment. "And Taylor Hebert, who has apparently also become a firm friend."

Emily stared, then closed her eyes for a moment. "Oh, Christ. Another fucking Hebert. I was _really_ hoping that we'd heard the last of that girl. Do you think she's told Panacea what happened with Sophia?"

"I have no idea. To the best of my knowledge both Danny and Taylor Hebert have stuck to the agreement that Winslow came to with them and not spread the story any further. I'm sure we'd have heard about it by now if they had. She may have told Panacea, I suppose, the girl is renowned for keeping her mouth shut and I don't think she'd pass it on if she knew, but by the same token we're unlikely to find out."

"Damn it. That whole event is going to come back to haunt us, I can feel it." Emily sighed heavily. "So, we're still working on there being an experienced Biotinker out there who seems stuck on ' _terrifying reptile person_ ', and is probably part of an organized group of capes we've never heard of and can't trace, even though they know way more about us than we do about them." A sudden horrible thought hit her. "Oh, hell, could Coil be involved in that too? It would explain all the inside knowledge pretty well."

"I don't think he is," Hannah replied. "If it was, for a start, why would they be handing him over to us like this? Plus the information we have on him, as sketchy as it is, doesn't even hint at any Biotinkers, Tinkers, or anything like that. Based on Tattletale's testimony he's actively looking to recruit other capes but she didn't think he had much more than the Undersiders yet."

"So there's yet _another_ shadowy group out there somehow getting information from inside both the PRT and the Guild. _Wonderful_. I just hope it's in someone else's jurisdiction, I'm going to get enough shit from the Chief Director already about this. I won't be able to avoid having a very uncomfortable talk with her soon. Hopefully I can at least give her Coil and his people."

Emily shook her head in disgust. "I have to wonder what the next little surprise this fucking city will spring on us. And what the hell Roy is going to show off tomorrow. It could be almost anything if the Family are involved. And now the DWU seems to have acquired an entire cape team of its own, not including an unknown number of lizards. Just when I thought things had settled down a little."

They fell silent for the rest of the trip, still no closer to a true answer but with even more questions left unanswered.

Eventually arriving at the gate to the DWU facility, the guards looked them over, peered into the back of the vehicle with a flashlight and under it as well, in a display that made her just a little worried about the obvious competence they exhibited, then waved them through. "Please park in the usual spot near the Admin building, Miss Militia, Mr Hebert will be waiting for you and the Director," one of the guards said while the other one was talking into his radio. She nodded and moved off.

"Are they always this security conscious?" Emily asked, glancing back at the barrier as it lowered.

"Apparently. It's quite impressive."

"And a little odd for a decaying institution in a decaying city," she muttered, turning back to the front.

Arriving at the admin building thirty seconds later, Hannah parked the vehicle and turned off the ignition. They got out into the chill evening, locking the doors, then walked over to the tall thin balding man who was waiting for them in a pool of light outside the main entrance, watching with a calm expression. He held out his hand.

"An honor to finally meet you, Director Piggot."

She slightly reluctantly shook it. "I've heard a lot about you, Mr Hebert. And your Union. It seems to be coming to my attention more and more these days."

Rather than be either intimidated or upset, he just smiled. "I'm sorry if we caused you any trouble. However, hopefully we can make up for it with some useful information. Come with me, please."

He turned and walked off, around the building, and after a moment she fell into step beside him, Hannah bringing up the rear. When, after a fairly short walk, they turned into the side yard that had the BBFO sign up over the entrance, illuminated by the lights around the area, she stared up at it for several seconds, studying it carefully. Danny knocked on the door, which opened shortly after, and stepped through. Miss Militia followed him, then Emily, with a deep breath, went in as well.

The masked girl who had opened the door closed it again, before nodding to Danny without saying anything, inspecting Emily closely for ten seconds or so, nodding again, and walking over to the large table to one side of the big room. Danny joined her.

Emily looked around, her eyes passing over the posters on the wall, stopping on each one, then fixing on the immense reptilian figure who came out from behind the metallic block with a door in it and steps up to the top on the other side of the single large room. An atavistic thrill of terror went through her and she had to call on all her military discipline to not reach for her sidearm. The creature was _much_ more imposing in real life, thirty feet away.

Raptaur smiled at her, her head cocked a little to the side. "Hello, Director Piggot. I've been wondering when we would meet. We have some interesting news for you."

Feeling slight dread on top of worry and a fear she couldn't entirely put down, even though everything seemed friendly, Emily stared for a moment, then when the huge lizard motioned politely, moved to sit in the indicated chair. She was somewhat regretting the entire idea once again.


	83. Talking and Arguing

The elegantly dressed blonde woman looked around the suite, while the hotel manager waited politely. She made a few notes on a pad, her handwriting quick and flowing, then disappeared into one of the bedrooms. Coming out again, she nodded approvingly. "Excellent. Here is the list of faults. Please rectify them immediately. Except for these, it is superb."

"Thank you, Ma'am," he replied, bowing a little and accepting the carefully detached page, the paper crisp and immaculate. Quickly reading it, he nodded. "These will be dealt with now. My apologies for the inconvenience. Mayor Christner sent us the requirements and I am distressed to know we did not quite meet them. Everything on this list will be done within two hours."

"That is satisfactory. I will return to inspect the suite again then. Until later." She nodded to him and swept out of the room. When she was back in the limousine she'd arrived in, she indicated to the driver the next destination, then tapped the control that raised the dark glass between her and him. Flipping up a section of the leather seating she exposed a complicated communications console, entering an encryption key on a small keyboard, then a long series of digits. Seconds later there was a discreet ringing tone.

When it was answered, the one on the other end merely said, "Report."

"The suite is surprisingly well done, sir," she said. "Bearing in mind that you were not involved I doubt it could be improved on, aside from a number of small errors. I have instructed the staff to rectify them and have received assurance this will be complete in two hours. I fully expect that my second inspection will pass in all respects."

"Very good. Thank you, my dear. I will be leaving Boston in three hours, arriving with you two hours and seventeen minutes later. Please have a suitable meal waiting, I shall be hungry from the trip."

"Of course, sir. Will you be contacting Mayor Christner before or after eating?"

"After, I think. It will be enjoyable to see my oldest friend again in person after so long." He sounded slightly wistful. "Would that circumstances permitted it more often. Still, I believe that tomorrow will be entertaining."

"I have arranged the recording equipment as required, sir," she said.

"Excellent. Please confirm the suite as soon as possible."

The line went dead without ceremony. Closing the seat console, she opened another one and removed a sparkling crystal glass and a decanter of extremely expensive brandy, putting just a tiny amount in the glass. Sipping it, she watched the scenery go past, inspecting the city curiously.

* * *

Taylor listened to the heartbeats of both visitors, which were rapid and gave the impression of worry. Miss Militia's wasn't quite as fast as Director Piggot's, which had spiked the instant she'd set eyes on her, but it was still much faster than normal. They both smelled scared and worried as well, matching the sound. She glanced at Lisa, raising an eye ridge quizzically. The blonde girl made a tiny shrug with one shoulder, apparently indicating she wasn't sure but noticed it as well.

After her earlier fright, the other girl had rapidly calmed down and become merely amused and a little smug, which seemed to be something of a default state. She seemed to treat any situation which wasn't immediately dangerous as one to extract information from, something Taylor found interesting, somewhat admirable, and also somewhat incautious if one didn't have her own ridiculous toughness. She was going to have to keep an eye on that, since it seemed possible that Lisa might well end up in a situation that was potentially lethal.

Again.

Pushing that line of thought to the back of her mind, she turned back to the PRT Director. "You have questions. Hopefully, we have answers. Do you want to begin?"

The older woman, who had a severe expression disguising the fact that she was close to bolting, slowly nodded. "All right." She looked at Tattletale. "Why are you being so open with us?"

"Because it will help a friend of mine, my team, and me," the girl immediately said. "Additionally, Coil is a dangerous man who is a threat to everyone in Brockton Bay. Plus, he recruited me at gunpoint and forced me to do things I'd never have done willingly and I want to see the bastard burn for that." She looked at Taylor, then back to the director. "And I promised I'd help some new friends."

"I see." The woman was silent for a moment, then she pulled a small high-tech video camera from her pocket, the wide-angle lens glinting in the overhead light. Putting it on the table so it could see everyone, she tapped a button, the device beeping. Pulling her chair a little closer to the table she rested her elbows on it, her hands folded together. "In that case, I have a lot of questions."

"Before we start, would knowing the true identity of Coil make you more amenable to the deal we would like to come to?" Taylor asked.

Director Piggot looked at her, her heartbeat jumping a little at the sound of her voice. "I doubt it, but that suggests you have discovered it."

"Oh, I've discovered a lot about our friend Coil in the last day, Director," she smiled. "Where his base is, where _he_ is, where his _other_ bases are, where his house is, and who he really is. I think you'll find the information… concerning."

The woman looked briefly worried then her face smoothed out, going back to her previous expression that radiated mild disapproval.

"Something of a violation of the Rules, is it not? I thought that you and your relatives took them fairly seriously."

"We do, but not for the same reasons most capes do. However, in this case, I believe you need to know. What you do with the information is your business, of course. I think that once you have it you can probably work out a way to use it without _directly_ using it." She smiled a little. "After all, he's currently holed up in his base, not his home, so technically going in after him is fine."

The blonde woman sighed slightly. "I'm probably going to regret this. OK, then, who is Coil in real life?"

"Thomas Calvert, Commander, PRT Special Forces." Taylor smiled a little like Lisa did, as both guests stiffened in total shock. "Retired."

Director Piggot gaped at her for several seconds, then her face flushed darker and darker, her mouth snapping shut. The heat from the blood flowing to her face glowed in Taylor's vision. "That… That… Fucking _son_ of a _fucking_ _**BITCH!**_ " She hit the table with a fist hard enough to risk damage to herself. "I am going to pull his intestines out his nose and show them to him, then make him _eat_ them. _**SHIT!**_ " She screamed the last word at the ceiling, rubbing her fist. Miss Militia looked shocked still, but now worried for her superior as well.

Breathing heavily, the purple color ebbing from her face over a minute or so, Director Piggot stared at Taylor until she was calm enough to speak. Eventually, she asked in a voice still stiff with anger but much closer to her normal controlled demeanor, "You're certain?"

"Yes. I found his house by accident, actually, although it was in an area I was planning on searching. He hasn't been there for a couple of days at least, but I know where he is, and approximately how many people he has with him. I also know that his base is rigged to explode and if it does it could bring down at least one major building. It's underground right in the middle of the commercial district."

"We did some research and it turns out that he owns a controlling interest in several construction companies, via a number of shell corporations," Lisa added, making the woman look at her. "Danny remembered that there was an unfinished Endbringer shelter that was started years ago but abandoned when that company went under. Apparently it was finished under the radar, the materials were probably brought in and out through a parking garage. Which is why no one noticed the construction. It must have taken years, and from being inside it, it's still not done yet."

"I found two more, smaller, bases of his, both underground as well, one at the edge of the docks area and one in a residential area to the west of Downtown. As far as I can tell no one is in either of them although there's a lot of computer equipment and power feeds there." Taylor shrugged. "He may have more but that's all I've found so far."

The PRT woman was listening intently. When they stopped the brief summation, she was silent for a while. Eventually she nodded sharply. "You have your deal. Give me Calvert and I will do everything I can to get your friend's charges looked at, dismissed if possible, or tried fairly if not, with this cooperation used in mitigation."

Taylor looked at her father, who had been listening silently. He nodded slightly. Lisa, when she glanced at her, did the same. "OK. Bear in mind that we still don't know his power, but Tattletale has some ideas. I also have some thoughts on how we can catch him. It will have to wait until after tomorrow, I'll be very busy, but we're happy to help."

Director Piggot leaned forward, a truly evil smile on her face. "I think I would very much like you to meet my old comrade in arms, Raptaur," she said in a voice that promised pain for the man. "I find myself believing you, mainly because I know that bastard, and if anyone deserves what's going to happen, he does. Let's talk."

Most of her worry and fear had disappeared from her scent, replaced with a towering rage that she was doing well to control.

Taylor nodded, smiling a little. "Of course, Director."

She, her father, and Lisa began explaining what they'd found out, both the guests asking questions and taking notes. It went on for quite some time.

* * *

When Amy entered the house, Vicky behind her, she wasn't entirely surprised to see both the Pelham and Dallon families present in the living room, talking loudly to each other. Her sister had warned her about what was going on when she'd picked her up from the hospital. Everyone stopped and looked at her, Crystal smiling, while her mother looked irritated. Aunt Sarah appeared somewhat annoyed as well but not with her, she was staring at her own sister with a look of exasperation.

"Hello, everyone," the healer said mildly. "You look confused."

"How the hell have you managed to get mixed up in all this, Amy," Carol demanded. "You've got Vicky into it as well, and now the DWU wants to _hire_ us? What the hell is going on?"

"Exactly what you just said, Mom. The DWU would like to hire New Wave to provide backup for tomorrow in case anything that the police can't handle starts. Hopefully it won't but they don't want to take any chances."

"Why New Wave, Amy?" Sarah asked in a reasonable tone, glaring her sister into silence when the other woman opened her mouth to say something else. "Why not the PRT?"

"They don't really trust them," Amy commented, coming more fully into the room, then leaning against the doorway. "For a number of reasons. From what I'm told the Mayor isn't all that happy with them either, at least as far as his pet project goes. He'd prefer some independents and we're the largest group in the city. It seems perfectly reasonable to me, and a good public relations exercise. You're always talking about public perception, Mom, this is as good an opportunity to be seen to be responsible and helpful as any I've heard of." She looked at her mother, then her aunt, before sweeping her gaze over the others. "Plus there's a reasonable amount of money available, even if no one gets needed, and new costumes. Much better ones than almost anything I've ever seen before, they'd be worth a fortune in themselves. Probably upwards of a hundred thousand each on the market."

She'd done some research after being given her own riding suit and had been appalled how much some of that sort of thing went for, especially considering it wasn't lined with Vargastuff.

"You already knew about this offer, didn't you?" Carol accused.

"Of course I did, Taylor asked me at lunch whether I thought any of you would go for it. I told her I couldn't speak for you, but I couldn't see a reason not to. I still can't."

"How can we even _get_ paid for Parahuman services, Amy?" Sarah asked. "The laws around that sort of thing are practically designed to stop it happening."

"According to Danny, he's pretty sure they _were_ designed exactly to stop it happening," she replied. "But there are loopholes and ways around it if you know what you're doing. The DWU does, and it's all legal. New Wave would be a subcontractor of BBFO, which has all the permits, licenses, insurance, you name it, for exactly this sort of security service. The city is paying for it via them."

Everyone turned to Carol. "You're the lawyer, is it possible?" Mark asked, appearing interested.

"The company documents are all online if you want to look," Amy offered.

"Where's my laptop?" Carol sighed, opening it when her sister handed it to her. She poked around until she found the relevant documents and read them swiftly while her family waited. Eventually she shook her head, a reluctantly impressed expression on her face. "I don't know how whoever it was came up with this but it all hangs together. It's a good bit of work. As far as I can see everything is in order."

"There you go. No problems. All you have to do is agree and you get some money, possibly some excitement, and some cool toys."

Amy spread her hands, grinning. "What's the problem?"

"That's what I've been asking for the last hour and a half, sis," Vicky sighed. "They won't stop arguing about it."

"Those two won't stop arguing about it," Eric pointed out, indicating his mother and theirs. "I think it sounds like a good idea."

"So do I," Crystal added. "And fun."

"I'm tempted myself, I have to admit," Sarah said slowly, her sister and her husband looking at her, the former rather sharply. "I don't know what the project the Mayor and the DWU are involved in actually is, but the new report showed it's being taken seriously by the administration. That amount of misdirection is usually reserved for something big. Having New Wave associated with that could be useful."

"Or very bad if it fails," Carol pointed out. "If something goes seriously wrong and we could be linked to it, the damage to our reputation could be..." Her sister sighed, cutting her off.

Vicky nudged Amy, leaning down to the shorter girl and whispering loudly, "See? I told you. Argue, argue, argue."

As Amy grinned, Carol fixed both her daughters with hard looks, and Sarah made a muffled snicker. "Thank you for your input, Victoria," the elder Dallon grumbled. Vicky smiled winning back, tossing her hair over her shoulder and striking a pose.

"You are most welcome, my dear mother. Anything to help."

Amy collapsed in giggles while most of the others laughed. Carol sighed a little. "You in a good mood is almost worse than you in a bad mood."

"I have a question," Eric said, raising a hand. "Who's Kaiju? You're apparently friends with… ' **The Family** '..." He made finger quotes, ginning at Amy. "Have you met her?"

"No, not yet," Amy smiled. "No one has. Except for Lung."

"Lung!" Everyone but Vicky yelped in shock.

"Yep. He didn't enjoy it. As a result he's banned from the Docks permanently."

They all stared, so she shrugged. "Kaiju is apparently quite convincing."

"Good god," Sarah muttered. "Now _I'm_ a little worried. What the hell is going on tomorrow?"

"She won't say, I've already tried several times, Aunt Sarah," Vicky grumped, poking her sister, who smirked. "Taylor won't either. The only way we're going to find out is either to wait and watch, or agree and go along in the morning. Raptaur said we'd find out more then."

"Raptaur. I'm not sure about that one. Even Saurial is less worrying." Carol looked torn. "And now there's another one that can dictate terms to _Lung?_ "

"They're good people, Mom," Amy said calmly. "Trust me, trust Vicky. Trust _them_ , for that matter."

The older woman fell silent for a moment. Sarah looked at her husband, then turned to the two teenagers in the doorway. "Could we see your new costumes? I haven't seen yours, Amy, except in recordings, and I was… unwell… when Vicky came home in hers."

She looked embarrassed when Amy raised an eyebrow. "Unwell, hmm?"

"Yes."

"I see."

The brunette exchanged a mirthful glance with her sister. "OK, we'll go and get changed."

Shortly they were back in the living room wearing the new costumes. Eric and Crystal got up with wide eyes and circled them, inspecting them closely. "Wow. Just… Wow," Crystal breathed, running her hand over Amy's arm. "This is really nice. How long did it take to _make_ it? It looks like months of work."

"About ten minutes or so, then another five adjusting the fit," Amy grinned. Her cousin coughed in surprise, staring.

"Ten _minutes!?_ "

"Yes. You know that power they have of making weapons from nothing?" The other girl nodded. "It's a lot more flexible than that." Amy waved her hand over herself.

"Holy crap."

"It's bulletproof, stab proof, waterproof, fireproof, more or less everything proof. Practically indestructible. The weakest point is the faceplate, which is a single crystal of synthetic sapphire with a mesh of that special material the weapons are made of on each side. Even Armsmaster was impressed with it."

"Really." Eric nodded respectfully as he also looked them over. "That's a good reason to think it's well made."

Her uncle got up and walked around her, then lifted her hand, which she obligingly held out for him. Feeling the glove, then the sleeve, he nodded slowly. "This is exceptional quality even leaving the exotic materials out of it. You're right, commercially this would be extremely pricey. It's better than anything we have and probably better than at least half the costumes that the Protectorate use." He tapped her helmet curiously.

"You're confident it's bulletproof?"

"Well, I haven't actually been shot yet, but she did stab me with a steel knife hard enough to bend it and I could barely feel it. There wasn't a mark on the costume."

"She stabbed you." Carol's voice was inflectionless.

Amy shrugged. "Had to test it, and she was sure it would work. That was for my benefit. I trust it."

"It's very tough, Mom, really. I tried damaging the helmet as hard as I could and I can't even scratch it. Look." Vicky whipped her helmet off, then lifted her sister's one, which luckily hadn't been strapped on.

"Hey! Watch it, you nearly pulled my ears off, you idiot," Amy yelped.

"Sorry. I need this for a moment." Vicky put both helmets over her fists then slammed them together with her full strength, the impact creating a definite shockwave which nearly deafened everyone in the room. One of the front windows cracked. They all slapped their hands over their ears which were ringing from the clanging sound, far too late.

"Fucking _hell_ , Vicky, what are you _doing?"_ Crystal screeched, shaking her head. "That was _loud!_ "

"Sorry," Vicky said somewhat too loudly, looking embarrassed. "I might not have thought it through very well. But look! Not a mark!" She held both helmets out, then tossed hers to her mother, who was wiggling a finger in her ear and glaring at her. Carol caught the thing then inspected it, before handing it to her sister who ran her fingers over the smooth surface.

"If you ever do anything like that again, Victoria Dallon, we'll be having words," their mother grated angrily. Vicky flushed red.

"Sorry," she said in a small voice.

"And you're paying for that window too."

"Out of my two and a half thousand dollar retaining fee?" the blonde said, perking up and smiling hopefully.

Carol looked at her husband, then her sister and brother-in-law, who was now in possession of Vicky's helmet, inspecting it carefully. All three of the either nodded or shrugged. "Oh, hell. All right, we'll do it. If this goes bad, I blame all of you equally." Carol sighed and leaned back in her chair, looking somewhat glum.

Handing his niece her helmet, her uncle grinned. "It'll be fun, Carol."

"It better be," she muttered, looking at the cracked window with irritation.

Amy and Vicky exchanged a glance, smirking. "I'll call Danny and let him know," the healer said mildly. Her mother only nodded, sulking slightly. Her aunt looked at her sister, sighed a little, then smiled at Amy, motioning with her head for her and Vicky to leave, which they did. Eric and Crystal came with them, wanting to inspect the costumes again.

* * *

Lisa watched as Danny Hebert led Miss Militia and Director Piggot out of the building, closing the door behind him. When they were gone she took off her mask and scratched her nose vigorously with a sigh of relief. "Thank god, that was driving me nuts," she complained, watching as Taylor changed back to what she called her ' _base form._ ' "That went a lot more effectively than I though it might."

"I'd have to agree," the other girl replied, lounging in a chair and looking pretty happy with the way things had worked out. "It was the fact that it was her old acquaintance that made it go our way so well, I think. She really, _really_ doesn't like him."

"She absolutely _loathes_ him, to be more accurate," Lisa smiled. "They have a shared history which isn't good. She knows he's done some things that she doesn't approve of, and suspects he did a lot worse while he was with the PRT. The chance to prove any or all of it would have been enough to make her agree to a lot of things. The fact that he's Coil makes it that much better. By the end she was nearly smiling. Still shit-scared of you, of course, but willing to trust you about as far as she trusts anyone, at least for the moment."

"Do you think she'll stick to her end of the bargain?"

"Yes, if we do the same. She's… confused… about you. There's some respect there, a lot of worry, both about you directly in all your alternates, and about how she's going to tell her superiors. Which she hasn't done yet for some reason. I think because she wanted to give them answers and not questions."

Taylor nodded slowly. "I suppose that makes sense. She doesn't strike me as someone who likes surprises, or not knowing things."

"Not really." Lisa grinned. "She's a control freak and you're about the exact opposite of controlled."

The brunette girl laughed. "I certainly try not to be boring."

"If that's the right word."

They exchanged amused looks. "Well, I'm going to need something to eat pretty soon. Before that, can you finish the story? About you?" Lisa sat up fully. "I've sort of gotten used to it now and I promise I'll stay conscious this time. And I guarantee I won't ever tell anyone anything about you, Amy, or Danny without your permission."

Taylor listened with a small smile as she spoke. When she finished, the other girl added, "And it's killing you not knowing, isn't it?"

"Oh, _so much!_ ", she moaned theatrically. "I have to know. What the hell _are_ you, Taylor Hebert?"

The girl studied her without speaking for a few seconds, something in her eyes suddenly far older than seemed possible. Lisa, now somewhat worried, waited, and wondered if she actually did want to know after all.

Eventually, she seemed to come to a decision. Her mouth opened.

The voice that came out was Taylor's, but at the same time it was definitely... _not_. She froze as a chill rippled over her.

"It is nice to talk to you, Lisa Wilbourn, which we both know is not your real name. You may call me Varga, and we have much to talk about."

There was a pause, then a sigh.

"You may be right, Brain, that chair needs a seat belt."

* * *

Danny turned to see his daughter in her Saurial body come to stand beside him, as he stood watching the third warehouse be cleared away. "Going well," she noted, sounding satisfied.

"Very well."

"What do you think?"

He knew it wasn't the work they were looking at that she was talking about. "I think they'll stick to it. I also think that they desperately wanted to ask about tomorrow but didn't dare."

She chuckled. "That's the impression I got too. Lisa said the same."

"How is she? She seemed a little shocked when we turned up. Were you scaring her?"

"Only a little." Saurial smiled. "She'll get over it, I think. We had a long talk."

"What did you tell her?"

"Everything, same as Amy."

"Ah." They stood in silence for a while. "Is that safe?"

"Should be. She seemed both impressed and honest. Well, honest for her. But she won't talk."

"Fair enough. I like the girl, I have to admit. And her friends. I think with some help they can be good people, despite the rocky start. Hopefully we can give them that help."

"I hope so. Did you hear from Vicky?"

"Amy called, actually. They're going along with it. They'll be here at half past eight tomorrow, that should be enough time to get everything sorted out."

The lizard-girl smiled. "Sounds good. I'm glad, I like Vicky, even after the… odd… first encounter. I'm really looking forward to tomorrow."

"I think a lot of people are, to be honest. We've raised expectations, we have some serious work to do." He smiled back. "But I think we can manage."

"So do I." She glanced about the place. "I'm going to run one last pass to see if I can find out anything more about our buried friend, then I'm going home."

"Good luck. I'll see you later, then, ' _Saurial._ '" He grinned as she sighed, before turning away and breaking into a jog, waving at him. Watching as her long-tailed figure passed through the workers in the yard under the lights, most of them waving as she went by, he smiled to himself then headed off to finish up after a long day. He was looking forward to a meal with his daughter.

She seemed so mature and busy these days.

It made him very proud.

* * *

 **Tuesday, February 15, 2011**

Taylor rolled over in bed, then stretched widely, all five limbs quivering, before flipping the covers back, padding over to the window, and peering out into a beautiful sunrise.

"Today is going to be _epic_ ," she smiled.

"I expect so, Brain," the Varga said contentedly. "I expect so. I'm very much looking forward to it."

Nodding, she went off to have a shower, whistling a happy tune.


	84. Costumes and Planning

It was a bright and non-stormy morning.

Roy looked out the window, smiling to himself. His wife, half-dressed, came over to him and put her arm around his waist, leaning on him. "I hope this all goes well, dear," she said softly.

He put his own arm around her shoulders, hugging her. "So do I," he replied in a similar tone. "So do I. But I have faith in our people, and the DWU, and especially Kaiju. I think this will work exactly as it is meant to."

"And if it doesn't?" she asked with worry in her voice.

"Well, I'll have a lot of explaining to do," he laughed. "But one way or the other everything will be different after today."

"I still can't believe you've hired mini-Godzilla to clear the bay," she giggled. "It's ridiculous."

"She's not all that mini, when it comes to it." He grinned at her. "I can hardly wait to see Director Piggot's face.

"Why are you going out of your way to annoy the poor woman, Roy?" Her voice was mildly disapproving.

"I'm not actually going out of my way to do it, it's merely an amusing side-effect." Roy chuckled as she gave him a hard look. "You know we've had our differences over the years. The PRT has never had the best interests of the city or the public in mind, despite all their public relations talk. They act mainly in their own best interests for the most part. I know it's not her fault, but even so she's not exactly helped. The number of complaints I've had from the police would fill half a filing cabinet. I'm pretty sure that the PRT could improve their relations a lot and make everything work much more smoothly if they actually wanted to, but for whatever reason they obviously don't. That's why we have Nazis and a rage dragon and foul-mouthed super-powered junkie all battling it out in the city, with the normal public being the ones who always end up paying the price."

He sighed heavily. "Honestly, sometimes I think this city is cursed. We have more Parahumans per square foot than anywhere else in the country, and at least two thirds of them are villains. Some are pretty harmless, like Über and Leet for example. If those boys would turn their talents to doing shows for the tourists they'd probably end up rich. I'd happily let them. But most of them vary from dangerous to downright vicious. And the PRT, and the Protectorate sitting there in their shiny Rig, basically just watch and deal with the occasional high profile incident, or grab the credit for some low-level thing that the cops have already done most of the work for."

"I didn't realize it was that bad," she remarked.

"It's been getting worse for some time. We keep getting more and more villains and not that many new heroes." Roy shrugged, releasing her and going to the closet to pick out a shirt for the day, riffling through the hanging ones in there. Bev reached past him and picked one, handing it to him. Nodding his thanks he held it up, then put it on the bed.

Turning to her, he resumed, "The public isn't generally aware of the number of crimes we really have that have a Parahuman link, because most of them are carried out by normal criminals. But at least ninety percent of those criminals are gang members from one of the three gangs. Without the E88, the ABB, and the Merchants, this city would be in a much better place, and it's their capes that let them get away with it. The PRT could easily have stopped this years ago if they came in force and did their job, but they don't. New Wave stopped Marquis years ago, and after that things should have improved. We had a window of opportunity that was missed. The E88 lost Allfather, but got Kaiser, who is actually worse in many ways. Lung turned up, Skidmark and his crew grew in power, Coil is out there somewhere causing god knows what sort of trouble..."

He sighed a little. "And the city administration and I are in the middle of it all, getting shit from everyone because we can't stop it, but we don't actually have any _power_ to stop it. The ones that do, won't. BBPD does what they can, but there's so much corruption in the system that even the successes turn bad most of the time. Not even counting the way that any cape villain that _does_ get taken in instantly escapes. Or is just let go on a technicality or something like that. Hookwolf has been in custody for longer than practically anyone for years and it's only been about ten days!"

He waved his arms a little to emphasize the point. "Even in that case, if he's still in custody in a week I'll eat that shirt. And _that's_ someone who is a confirmed multiple murderer. The situation is insane."

"But now it's changing."

"Exactly. For the first time in god knows how long, I can see light at the end of the tunnel which isn't Lung on fire or something like that. I don't know what happened, or how, but I'm damn well going to grab the chance with both hands and run with it, PRT or no PRT. The DWU has somehow ended up associated with a group of the most dangerous capes I've ever heard of, but unlike almost all the other ones, these guys just want to help. Not fight, break things, seize territory, or any of the usual things. It's practically unprecedented. So I'm going to do everything I can to use that. It helps the city, it helps the DWU, it even helps us. If BBFO can pull us out of the crapper all power to them in my opinion. They're already earning their keep, Saurial and Raptaur are respected and liked by the cops, most of the public is actually on their side even if they find them scary as well, crime is down by about thirty percent in a month… The PRT might not like it, but I do."

"You really do feel strongly about this, don't you?" his wife asked as he started sorting through his ties.

"I do. I _like_ being Mayor, I _like_ being respected, but I _also_ like doing my job properly and it's been fucking difficult for a long time. I've done some things I'm not proud of and one day I'll probably have to answer for them, but as far as I know I've always tried to do things for the right reason. In this game, one way or another, everyone is a bit dirty. I'd like to think I'm not as bad as some are." He held up a blue tie, which she shook her head at. Resuming looking, he continued, "I have no doubt that Director Piggot is also doing her best, and has a number of restrictions I have no idea about. But it doesn't change the fact that the PRT has been more hindrance than help at times, so forgive me if I extract as much amusement from this whole crazy project as I can."

The next tie he held up got a nod, along with a smile.

"Just don't get carried away, dear," she advised. "You two will still have to work together in future."

"I know, and I'll keep my laughter down to a faint chuckle, but I fully expect to do quite a lot of it," he smiled back. "Let's have breakfast."

Putting her arm around her husband again, she squeezed him for a moment, then followed as he went downstairs in his pajamas and robe, smiling fondly at him.

* * *

The regulars at the Captain's Table, the oldest tavern in Brockton Bay and the second oldest on the eastern seaboard, watched as Erwin, old but still very strong after a lifetime of working on the water, came in, looked around in an evaluating manner, then headed to one of the smaller tables. Made from solid oak, over two hundred years ago, the tree itself having been chopped down much earlier than that when it was made into the ship that finally got recycled into furniture in the late eighteenth century, the table was no lightweight thing. Even so, he squatted down, wrapped his arms around it, and stood up again, grunting a little under the load.

Staggering back the way he'd come the ancient seafarer went out the door to the wide street that lay between the front of the building and the waterfront, a clatter of wood on stone coming back in seconds later. Shortly, he reappeared and looked around again, before selecting a matching chair of similar age and size, the blackened and scarred wood accompanying him out the door.

Mystified, Pat the barman and owner exchanged glances with some of the other patrons, many of whom were also of a similar age and background to the older man. When Erwin came back in again, he raised a finger. "Um, Erwin?"

The man stopped, looking at him enquiringly.

"Is there a _reason_ you're moving my furniture outside, or are you just bored?" the barman asked carefully, his Irish accent putting a quizzical lilt to his words. "Only, I actually need all the chairs in here with the customers, you see."

"Getting ready," Erwin stated gruffly, leaning over the bar and grabbing a pint glass and an unopened bottle of Pat's best brandy. The man himself stared, then made a futile grab for the bottle, which was briskly whisked out of reach.

"Hey, you fecker, that stuff is a hundred dollars a bottle. And who the hell drinks it by the pint?"

"Me," Erwin scowled. "Want to make something of it?"

"Ah. Not really, no," Pat admitted. The man might have been twice his age but he was also twice his size and built like a brick shithouse. There were stories about what he was capable of if pushed hard enough and he didn't particularly want to find out how much of them were true.

"Good. Put it on my tab. And bring me some bacon and eggs, extra crispy on the bacon." Erwin stomped off towards the door, while everyone watched with various expressions mainly based on confusion.

Pat gaped after him. After a moment, he yelled, "Your _tab?_ You old bastard, you haven't paid me in a month!"

"Three eggs, on toast," Erwin called back.

"You offering European-style outdoor meals now, Pat?" one of the other people propping up his bar commented with a smirk.

"No I'm bloody not," he growled. "Silly old bastard must have finally lost his mind. All those stories about monsters in the bay."

Even so, he found himself moving to the grill and cracking three eggs onto it, still muttering under his breath.

After a moment, as the eggs sizzled, he looked up, an odd expression on his face.

"Ready for _what?_ " he shouted at the door.

"The big scaly lass," a faint yell came back. Pat mouthed the sentence to himself, then looked around. Everyone shrugged.

"No fucking idea. Man's lost it. A pint of brandy isn't going to help him much," he grumbled as he opened a new pack of bacon.

* * *

Lisa rolled over in bed and yawned, then sat up, scrubbing at her eyes. A moment later those eyes shot open and she remembered what had happened yesterday. Torn between cackling with glee for what she was going to do to Coil with the help of Taylor, her father, and even the PRT, and climbing back under the covers and shivering about what she'd learned about the girl, she instead shook her head then got up. Glancing at her watch she saw it was just after half past eight.

When she'd showered and dressed, she headed for the cafeteria. It was nearly full, a lot of hungry people eating like crazy, then making way for the next batch, while the entire area and yard outside was buzzing with activity. Everyone looked somewhat excited and looking forward to the day, which she could well understand. It seemed likely to be something people would remember for a while.

Grabbing some toast, some scrambled eggs, and a couple of hash browns along with a large cup of coffee she smiled at the cook who was refilling the coffee machine, then looked around, spotting Danny and Taylor as Saurial sitting with Amy Dallon who was wearing her new costume with the helmet on the table next to her, Brian, and Alec. She headed over, sipping her coffee while balancing the tray on her remaining hand.

"Hi, guys," she said as she sat. Taylor handed her a knife and fork with one scaled hand, smiling at her.

"Hello, Lisa." Everyone else greeted her as well.

"Is your family here, Amy?" she asked the healer, who was eating some soup.

"Not yet. Danny picked me up on the way in, the others are coming in about ten minutes."

"I'm going to explain the situation to them, then make them costumes," Taylor added. "We were just talking about whether the special material would work for Amy's mother. Her power might not be compatible with it."

"I might be able to help, if I watch her change a couple of times," Lisa said slowly, putting some pepper on her eggs. "My power is pretty good about working out other peoples powers with enough background information."

"Worth a shot." Amy explained how Brandish's power worked, adding some details that Lisa wasn't familiar with. "We were worried that the hyperdense material might cause issues. Saurial doesn't think it would do anything dangerous, but Mom might just sort of vanish and leave the costume behind. Which would be embarrassing."

"But very funny," Alec suggested, grinning.

"There is that, yes," she laughed.

"Oh, right, I can sort of see what you mean." Lisa smiled to herself. "That could cause some shouting and red faces."

"You have no idea," Amy sighed. Checking the time she finished her soup. "I'd better go and meet them. See you in a minute."

"OK. Oh, here, I forgot to give you these." Taylor handed Amy a set of keys. "Your set."

"Thanks," the girl smiled, putting them in her pocket after a brief look, then waving and hurrying away having picked up her helmet and putting it on. Lisa noticed that she had one of the DWU walky-talkies clipped to a belt on the costume that hadn't been there in the images she'd seen online.

"You need a better mask than that temporary thing that my sister made for you," Taylor smirked, making Lisa grin internally at the charade. "Any suggestions?"

"The domino mask worked, but it was a pain to put on because of all the other things I had to do to look different," Lisa replied, eating slowly. "The new one is good at covering my face but it's a bit over the top and very generic. Not to mention I need to take it off to eat or drink unless I use a straw."

"So something to cover the top half, then," Taylor suggested as the others listened. Lisa noticed that once again no one else in the area was paying any real attention to them, although a couple of people did come over to quickly ask Danny something. Based on the looks they got, she was sure at least half the people present knew full well who they were now and simply didn't give a shit. "How about this for the moment, it's simple and a little better." She held out a hand on which a variant of Amy's helmet appeared, black and violet with a mirrored visor, not a full faceplate. It was vaguely reminescent of Armsmaster's helmet which made Lisa smile. Taking it she pulled it on, finding it fitted well. She could see out perfectly, the view only a little darker.

"Can't see your eyes or the top half of your face at all," Brian reported after inspecting her closely. Reaching out he tapped the helmet. "That's pretty cool."

"It'll do for now and it's more comfortable," Lisa smiled, taking it off again. "Thanks."

"You're welcome," the lizard-girl smiled. Finishing her own breakfast, or probably a second one as Lisa suspected she and Danny had been up for some time, she got up. "We'll be in the workshop when you've finished. It's going to take me an hour and a half or so to get those guys sorted out and I'll leave Brandish to the last, so come over when you're done."

"OK." Lisa lifted a hand in a wave as her newest friend left, stopping on the way to talk to Zephron who had just come in.

* * *

"There are five Endbringer sirens, here, here, here, here, and here," Mark said, pointing out the locations on the large map of Brockton Bay pinned to the wall of the meeting room. Eighteen people dressed in black paramilitary-style clothing with radios clipped to their vests were sitting listening, six women and the rest men, all fit and experienced looking. "Teams A through E are each assigned one. Plans of the control linkage are in front of you, along with the power connections, and the security measures. Remember, we need to _disable_ them, not _damage_ them. Additionally, the main control room here in the city administrative building has overall control of the siren system. That's the target for Team F, which is mine. Maintain radio silence unless the message is urgent. Do not harm anyone, rules of engagement are hostile civilian, no weapons. Understood?"

"Yes, sir," they all chorused.

"We expect potential activity to be present between 1400 hours and 1430 hours, after which things should have settled down. _DO NOT let those sirens sound!_ We want to avoid a panic, which will ruin everything."

One man held up his hand.

"Chris?"

"What happens if an Endbringer attacks at exactly that moment, sir?" he asked with a wry smile.

"Use your own judgment in the case of world-ending threats." Mark grinned. "But be sure it really is. Danny will be very annoyed if this all goes south because we fucked up."

"And Raptaur will eat your legs," one of the other people called.

"That's not impossible. So be careful. Now go and get something to eat, then we have the main meeting at midday."

Everyone got up and left the room, laughing and joking. He cleared away his notes, grinning to himself.

This was going to be fun, just like in the old days. Only with less people shooting at them.

His grin slipped a little.

"Damn. This _is_ Brockton Bay," he sighed, making a mental note to ask Raptaur or Saurial for some body armor.

Just in case.

* * *

Holding up a hand to deflect the dust from the rotor wash, Roy watched the helicopter land. It was in the park behind City Hall, which separated it from the shoreline of the Bay. In the summer it was a green and pleasant land, albeit on a small scale, with a number of trees around the edges and a couple of paths running through it. Workers in the city buildings often took their lunch breaks out here in nice weather.

The breakwater at the shoreline consisted of a pile of large hollow concrete blocks laid at a forty-five degree angle, running down below the water, with off to one side some distance away a boat launching ramp which joined a minor road coming out of the main car park. The BBPD harbor patrol boats were pulled out of the water there. Glancing towards the bay he could see four of the six the city had moving around slowly, making sure that none of the other boats that were puttering around encroached into the exclusion zone. As he watched one of them suddenly accelerated, a blast of siren coming from it, heading towards a small outboard-propelled fishing skiff, quickly intercepting it.

It looked like the occupants of both vessels were exchanging spirited words, but in the end the skiff turned around and the BBPD boat moved off more slowly.

Everything seemed to be going more or less to plan, so far at least.

He looked at the Rig for a moment. There were a number of aircraft moving around it, including what looked like one of Dragon's long-range transports, which was just in the process of landing on top of the Protectorate base. Squinting, he could see a couple of boats moving around out there as well.

As the rotors began to slow and the engines spooled down with a piercing whine, the side door of the large glittering aircraft slid open, someone hopping down and extending some steps. Moments later a man he recognized came down them, followed by several obvious flunkies and aides, looking around for a moment before heading towards him.

"Hello, Roy," the new arrival said loudly over the sound of the powering down aircraft. "It's been a while. How are you?" He held out his hand, which Roy shook.

"Governor. Nice to see you. I'm not bad, actually. In fact, you could say I'm in a good mood. And yourself?"

"Can't complain." The man smiled. "Or I could but no one will listen. I hope this plan of yours isn't going to cause me any more problems, the state is already a damn pain in the ass to run as it is."

"Hopefully, we can help reduce that a little at least," Roy chuckled as he waved towards the city buildings. "Welcome to what I hope is the first day of a new Brockton Bay. Come on in, we've got a nice brunch buffet laid out. I can tell you some more about what's happening today. I think you'll find it… memorable."

The politician gave him a penetrating look. Roy smiled more widely. "You're not going to tell me everything, though, are you?"

"No, sir, I am not. It will be better if some of it comes as a surprise."

"Hmm." The other man didn't seem entirely convinced. "This had better be good."

"I think you'll enjoy it, sir." His smile became a grin. "I'm not telling the PRT even this much. Just enough to stop them overreacting."

"Ah." His guest laughed a little. "You and Piggot. Please don't start a shooting war with the Federal government, Roy."

"I doubt it will come to that." His grin became somewhat evil. "If it did, though, I might stand a good chance of winning."

"Oh, god, I can feel the complaints coming from here," the Governor sighed. "Your city is… difficult."

"You don't have to tell me that, sir," Roy sighed, shaking his head. They began walking, the flock of aides behind them, and his own security people looking around carefully. "Believe me, I'm all too well aware of it. However, times change..."

* * *

Smiling, Vicky inspected her cousin. She was wearing a similar costume to the one the blonde had on, in her signature colors, and had a grin on her face. "That looks great, Crystal," she enthused. "How does it feel?"

"Very comfortable, like I'm hardly wearing it," the other girl smiled. She stretched and posed, then nodded. "It fits perfectly. Warm as well." Pulling her helmet on she adjusted it. "I wish I had a mirror."

"There's one behind you," Saurial, who had been watching with a smile on her reptilian muzzle, pointed out. Both girls looked. There was, but it hadn't been there thirty seconds before.

"Neat trick," Crystal laughed, admiring herself. "This is so cool."

"Do your blasts work OK through it?" Vicky asked.

"Seem to," her cousin replied, firing a low powered hard light beam into the wall of the BBFO room, which produced a dull gong-like sound and no other effect at all. Producing a force field, she shrugged. "Everything works fine."

"Good. Shielder reported the same thing." Saurial looked satisfied. All three of them looked over to where Eric was talking to Amy, his helmet off next to him on the table. "Let's get your parents set up. We'll start with Lady Photon." Heading towards Sarah, who was staring at the poster on the wall which had a nice view of a sunset over the sea somewhere with a mystified expression on her face, the lizard-girl had a short conversation with her about colors, then began doing whatever it was that she did.

Half an hour later all of them barring Carol Dallon were wearing Family-produced costumes, all in their normal colors and all with their names across the shoulders. Vicky thought it made them look much more like a team that they ever had done before, which amused her quite a lot.

As Saurial was finishing off with the towering figure of her uncle, a blonde girl wearing a black and violet helmet with a mirrored visor, who Vicky recognized as Tattletale, came in the open door. She looked around and smiled. "Wow. That looks amazing."

"Thanks," Vicky replied as the former villain moved to stand next to her. "I like the helmet. Very… you."

They exchanged a grin. Amy, who had been talking to Sarah, looked over at them then headed their way. "Hi," she greeted the new arrival. "Any insights?"

Tattletale watched Carol for a moment. "I need to see her power work."

"OK." Turning, Amy called, "Mom? Can you come over here?"

Carol looked around from her examination of her husband's new costume, then walked over. "Yes?" she asked.

"Can you do your transformation thing?"

"Why?" The older woman looked at the new arrival suspiciously.

"I need to watch it so I can try to work out if there is any potential for a dangerous interaction between the electron-degenerate matter that Saurial uses to make the armor in these costumes, Brandish," Tattletale said calmly. "If you could switch back and forth a couple of times that would be a big help."

"And you are?"

The girl held out her hand. "Tattletale, ex-villain, Undersiders, and friend of the Family," she smiled. Carol stared in shock.

"Villain?"

" _Ex_ -villain, please," Tattletale corrected, still smiling. "You can ask Director Piggot if you don't believe me. We've talked extensively about many, many things."

Vicky was suppressing a grin. The girl, who she thought was someone she'd probably get on with, was clearly enjoying the look on her mother's face. The older Dallon didn't seem to quite know what to do. Eventually, and with visible reluctance, she shook the extended hand. "How can you tell if there is a problem?" she asked slowly.

"I'm a Thinker," Tattletale explained. "My power lets me take tiny clues and deduce more information than you'd believe from them. The more I have to start with, the more accurate the results. I'm pretty good at analyzing powersets and odd interactions between them."

"I see." There was a pause, then Vicky's mother sighed. "All right."

She was abruptly replaced by a small ball of brilliant light, which dropped to the floor and bounced. Tattletale watched with interest. The ball switched back to the form of her mother. "Again, please."

The feat was repeated twice more, until the blonde girl nodded. "Great, thanks. OK, there's a minor problem, I think." She looked over to Saurial and called for her. The lizard-girl trotted over with Amy, who'd been discussing something with her, following. "It won't work. Not properly, anyway. Her power will leave the EDM unaffected. You were right."

"Damn, that's a pain," Saurial said, rubbing her scaly chin with a hand, making a faint rasping sound. She looked Carol up and down for a moment. "OK, I can see two possibilities. One is we give you a costume like these anyway, and you live with the problem that if you change into your hard light form the costume stays behind. Not ideal, but it still provides maximum protection. The other solution is that I use something less strong, which is still much better than what you have at the moment, but not as good as it could be. Any preferences?"

Carol thought, looking slightly disappointed. "I suppose the more practical option is the second one," she finally said. "The hard-light form change is so reflexive I'd probably do it without even thinking twice."

"OK. Let me think about this for a moment, let's see what we can come up with." Saurial walked around the woman a couple of times, then nodded. "All right. I'm going to line it with a sort of metal-ceramic composite, which should be about the same protection as about four inches of a really high grade armor steel, but much thinner and lighter. Not as good as these ones, but handgun and rifle bullets won't go through it. Not unless they're using some really big guns." As she had done before with the others, she waved Carol over to the table, then created the entire suit on top of it, glancing back and forth between the woman and the costume.

"There, that should do it, I think," she finally announced. "Try it on."

Carol gathered up the costume without a word and went over to the changing booth the cape had made earlier. Shortly she was back, wearing the new costume. "A little tight in the leg," she reported. A few quick changes later and it fitted well. "It's very impressive. Thank you." She admired herself in the mirror.

"It looks really good, Mom," Vicky complimented her.

"Pity about the EDM, but it was inevitable that we'd run into an incompatible power sooner or later," Saurial noted. "Even so, it'll take a pretty serious weapon to do major damage compared to that thing." She pointed at Carol's old costume which was now folded on that table. "Great. Everyone is all set. There's a meeting at twelve noon in workshop six, over by the dry dock. You'll get a full explanation then and can ask any questions you have. Until then, feel free to go to the cafeteria for a snack."

Vicky's extended family all headed for the door, talking to each other and looking pleased. Even her mother. Each of them was carrying their original costume in a bag which the lizard girl had made for them.

She turned to Saurial, who was watching New Wave exit, Amy and Tattletale on either side of her. Vicky had a brief moment of amusement thinking that they made a good team, just the three of them. "Thanks for this, Saurial. Especially after how we met."

"Forget it," the girl smiled. "I told you then, and I'm telling you now, it's fine. My sister told you the same thing, right?"

"She did," Vicky confirmed. "Is she around?"

"Not right now, but she'll be back later," Saurial replied. "I've got some more work to do so I need to head off, but I'll see you at the meeting." She and Tattletale left. Amy looked at her sister, grinning.

"This is fun," she said.

"You certainly seem to have made some interesting friends, Ames," Vicky noted with a laugh. They also headed for the door, Amy turning out the lights and pulling it shut, then locking it with a set of keys she produced.

"Something I'm very happy about," her sister commented. "Come on, let's find the others." Both sisters headed back to the main building.

* * *

Danny looked around the huge room, one of the old ship repair workshops, which was currently empty, at least of ships and machinery, most of which had been scrapped as it was so old and decayed. The room now had over three hundred people in it, all of them looking at him. He was standing on a raised podium at one end of the building, Taylor in her Saurial form, along with the Undersiders and Amy to one side. Glory Girl in the new costume that his daughter had made for her was at the back of the room hovering in the air a few feet off the ground, almost no one paying any attention to her despite her aura, which she was obviously trying to suppress as much as possible. Her family was standing below her, all listening intently.

Raising his voice to carry to the back, something he found easy after having had many years practice, he began talking again. He'd spent over half an hour telling them, finally, what all the work they'd been doing recently had been building up to and it had only just got to the point that everyone who wasn't already in on it had recovered. The response was universally positive, all the workers looking happy and excited.

"All right, people, today is an important day for the City and the DWU both. You all know what's at stake. This is the first stage of a project that will carry us forward for several years, but we need to do it right. There are going to be a _lot_ of people watching to see how we perform, we can't let either them or ourselves down by fucking it up. So don't."

There was a certain amount of laughter from the assembled multitude.

"We're going to be meeting a new member of the Family today. She's a lot bigger than her sisters, and she'll probably take you by surprise. Even so, don't worry. Kaiju is one of us. The only people who have anything to be upset about are anyone who wants to cause trouble. Hopefully that won't happen, but keep an eye open for it. We have New Wave on standby since Raptaur and Saurial will also be busy." He noticed Zephron, at the front, along with a few others who knew or suspected the truth, smiling a little.

"Crowd control teams, you all have your assigned positions. Keep things moving, don't get distracted, be on the lookout for anyone trying to take advantage of the situation. Don't get involved if you can avoid it, call it in to BBPD, but back them up and if you do have to take action, do it carefully but don't miss."

There was a somewhat louder amount of laughter.

"If it gets out of hand, call for New Wave. Lady Photon is the main point of contact, but in a pinch any of them will respond. Please try not to call them in unless you have to, we'd like to keep it below the level of a cape fight, but don't hesitate if it's serious. I don't want anyone hurt if it's avoidable."

A lot of people nodded, turning to look back at the super-hero team, who seemed fairly happy.

"Mark, you and your… anti-panic team, did you call it?" The security man nodded, smiling. He and a group of about twenty men and women were dressed much like Lisa and her friends had been when they arrived, in black military-style clothing with the DWU logo on the chest. "You guys do what we talked about. Don't get carried away, this isn't a war."

"Just a small preventative police action, Danny," the man called, making everyone chuckle.

Danny shook his head, sighing loudly. "Just don't overdo it."

"Would I do something like that?"

"Yes, you would," Danny replied with a grin, which was reciprocated. Several people shouted encouragement of both of them, making him sigh a little and glance at Taylor, who was smirking quite a lot.

"The rest of you, get things ready for the arrival of the ship. It will take several hours to get here, we have time, but we also want to have things go smoothly. Make sure no one who shouldn't be here is here, lock the facility down and keep it like that. The construction teams will keep working in shifts, we don't want to lose the time, but you'll all get a chance to watch from the roof. I'll be at the Mayor's event until about three but then I'll come back here to help."

"Bring some beer back with you, Danny," someone shouted from the crowd.

"I'll see what I can do," he called back. This received a roar of approval. "OK, that's it. Get to work, we have a lot to do today."

Everyone shouted at once, then the crowd broke up into teams of people who headed off in different directions.

Vicky floated over, smiling, joining him as he headed towards his daughter and the others. "Nice speech, Mr Hebert," she laughed. "Short and to the point."

"Thanks, Vicky. And call me Danny, I already told you that."

"OK, Mr Hebert," she replied, grinning when he gave her a look. "Danny, I mean."

Arriving at the small group, he looked around at them. "Well, this should be interesting. Brian, you and your friends know where to go for a good view. Make sure you stay on site, OK? We don't want to risk everything right after getting it."

"We'll be good, Mr Hebert," the boy said respectfully. Danny thought about telling him to call him by his first name again, but caught Lisa's small head shake and realized it was unlikely to happen yet.

"Great. Saurial, Amy, if you two can come with me we can get started." He looked at his watch. "An hour until the tide is right. That should allow enough time."

He looked up at Vicky. "If you want to make sure your family have the radios, that would help a lot."

She hefted a small bag which Taylor had just handed her, containing a number of walky-talkies configured to the DWU security frequency. "OK. I'll see you all later. Hopefully without things going weird."

Amy began laughing, making her sister give her a wry look. "I mean, weirder."

She flew off, going out the end door. Lisa led her friends out a side exit, all four of them talking among themselves in a low voice. Pausing at the exit she looked back and grinned, before leaving.

In the end he was left with Amy, his currently reptilian daughter, and a large empty building. The three of them looked at each other. "Christ, I hope this works properly," he said with a deep breath.

"It will," Taylor said, putting a taloned hand on his shoulder. "And it'll be fun."

"For you, I have no doubt. Others may have different opinions." She grinned, making him chuckle. Turning to the healer, he said, "Amy, Zephron is at your disposal with a jeep in case you're needed, since your normal ride will be otherwise occupied."

Taylor snickered again.

"Thanks, Danny," the girl said. "With any luck that won't be necessary but if it is, that will help."

"OK, you two, I need to get to the office and coordinate things to start off, then go over to City Hall. You've both got radios, right?" They nodded. "Remember the signal. Have fun, make it look good, and try not to wreck the bay if you can avoid it. You know what to do."

"We do," Taylor laughed. "Go on, we'll be fine."

"That look worried me," he grinned, then left them behind, going out into the brightly lit and crisp morning. Behind him there was a certain amount of laughter, then some whispering that diminished with distance.

"Oh, God, Poor Brockton Bay," he sighed, smiling a little. "You're going to have a shock. Sorry about that."


	85. Max and Brad

**Wednesday, May 4, 2011**

Lisa looked at the display of her phone and sighed heavily, then turned it over and took the battery out. "What's wrong?" Brian asked.

"Damn thing crashed again, it doesn't even know what month it is," she muttered, rebooting the device. Waiting for the half minute or so it took to come back to life, she decided that the first purchase she would make with their money from the raid was a new phone. This one hadn't been the same since she'd failed to catch it when they'd first run into Taylor in her Raptaur form. Checking that it was now correctly displaying the date as February 15th, she put it back in her pocket.

"Going to check on the dogs," Rachel announced, separating from them and heading off in a different direction without ceremony. They watched her go, then resumed walking.

"That'll at least keep her out of trouble," Brian noted. "She'll be there for hours, probably."

"She'll miss the excitement," Alec complained.

"She doesn't really care about it," Lisa told him. "She's weirdly contented being here but not that interested in what we're doing."

"Whatever, as long as she's not fighting someone, that's probably a good thing," Brian grinned. Stopping outside the building they were currently living in, he looked up at the roof, seven stories up. "Should be a good view from up there."

"I think so," she replied, as they entered the side door and started climbing the stairs. "This is going to be interesting to watch."

"Bet you a hundred bucks the PRT starts something," Alec laughed.

She thought, then grinned. "Not taking _that_ bet, I'm not crazy."

"I thought Piggot was being sensible and sort of helpful?" Brian queried, looking worried.

"Oh, _she_ is, although even so she might get carried away," Lisa sighed. "But she has superiors, and this is going to hit the national networks minutes after Kaiju arrives, I guarantee it. I don't know if the PRT higher-ups will be as pragmatic as Director Piggot is being right now."

"Hopefully they will." Brian still looked worried. "If she's as big as you said I don't think attacking her would go well."

"It would go _spectacularly_ badly, I suspect," Lisa smirked. "Let's just hope it doesn't come to that. I mean, how stupid would you have to be to attack someone who's just doing their job? And is big enough to swat you like a mosquito?"

The trio exchanged a glance, then shrugged, keeping climbing to the roof access. Behind them, they could hear other people doing the same.

* * *

Vice Principal Howell walked into the cafeteria and looked around, a frown on her face. There were about a third the normal number of students present. Stopping Mrs Adil, who had just been walking out, she asked, "What's going on? Where are all the students?"

"We've had a rash of illness and misfortune today," the woman said with a shake of her head and a wry smile. "It's horrifying. So many sudden flu cases that will probably clear up overnight, sprained ankles, cars that wouldn't start..."

"I see." The Vice Principal looked around again. "Mayor Christner's project?"

"Of course. You can't dangle that in front of curious young minds and not expect them to want to see," the teacher smiled.

"Hmm." She looked around again, then sighed. "Very well."

Five minutes later, the PA system announced, "Due to current circumstances surrounding the City project in the bay, school is canceled for the rest of the day. Normal activities will resume tomorrow morning and any students absent without good cause can expect punishment. Pass this on to your friends when you see them."

The PA clicked off.

And there was much rejoicing.

* * *

"What do you think is going to happen?" Dragon asked curiously, watching as Colin worked on his computer. She'd come to the Rig both to help him flush out any of Coil's taps that might be present, which was slightly easier locally, and to see what the Mayor's big project was, as she was very curious. Not to mention seeing her friend again in person, something he seemed to appreciate.

"I have no idea beyond the obvious conclusion it will have something to do with the water, otherwise there would be little reason to have an exclusion zone over a significant part of the bay," he muttered, apparently looking for something, file windows coming and going. Eventually he stopped on one, opening the specific image to full size on one screen. He studied it, as did she.

Indicating the high resolution sonar scan image, he pointed at a feature on the sea bed, one that had caused them some puzzlement a while ago.

"K," he said with a shake of his head. "Presumably, standing for Kaiju."

"I suppose it's the most likely possibility," she admitted. "She signed her work with her initial. So it wasn't the sea serpent Umihebi, it was another one. One that's been around for at least a couple of weeks without us being aware of it. That's four members of the Family now that we know about."

"A big brother was mentioned to Assault by Raptaur as well," Colin sighed. "I find myself wondering with some worry what is meant by ' _Big_ ' under the circumstances."

They looked at each other, then back at the image on screen. After a little more wordless thought they both left his lab to go and watch from the landing pad, along with most of the inhabitants of the Rig.

Assault was handing out baseball caps with ' _ **I watched Kaiju at work**_ ' written on them, causing Colin to sigh and the other cape to grin.

" _Must_ you?" the Tinker asked with a small shake of his head.

"Yes, I must," Assault chuckled. "Here you go." He plopped one onto Colin's helmet.

Dragon stifled a laugh, but couldn't keep in it when he turned to her beseechingly and stopped, staring at the cap she was wearing perched on her armored head at a rakish angle.

"Oh, for..." He trailed off, radiating mild irritation, and walked away to find a good view. Dragon and Assault exchanged a look of amusement, before he was dragged away by Battery, who seemed to see less of the funny side than even Colin did.

' _Humans_ ,' Dragon mused, watching the goings-on with fondness. ' _So odd, but so much fun. Most of the time._ '

The AI shook her head, going to stand beside the man she loved, and noticing with an internal smirk that he hadn't removed the cap, which looked nearly as ridiculous on top of his helmet as hers did.

* * *

"You're sure this will work?" Randall watched his friend put the finishing touches on a small device, the case of which he closed then screwed down firmly.

"Yes, it'll work," Kevin assured him, smiling at his device. "It should do the trick nicely. Some of this is my tech, we used it for the background music on that Mario-themed race through the city we had last year. I've added in some bits and pieces I got from Toybox and some of the tech we recovered from one of Squealer's ugly-ass cars when Miss Militia blew it up." Lifting the device, he flicked a switch on it, watching with approval as it hung in the air when he took his hand away, then flickered a couple of times and faded from view.

"Her invisibility tech is pretty fucking good. Shame her vehicles are so butt-ugly and she's hooked up with that asshole Skidmark."

Picking up another device, he fiddled with it for a moment, then both of them clapped their hands over their ears as a horrendously loud burst of music roared out of nowhere, emanating with perfect fidelity from all around them.

" **AAGH! TOO LOUD!** " Randall screamed.

" **I CAN'T HEAR YOU! IT'S TOO LOUD!** " Kevin screamed back, before grabbing the control unit from where he'd dropped it and frantically poking icons on the screen. The music suddenly stopped, leaving the room still resonating to it, various things in the large space humming and rattling.

Slapping the side of his head a couple of times, Randall tried to clear the ringing from his ears.

"It works, anyway," Kevin said with a certain amount of embarrassment on his face. His friend glared at him.

"Yes, it does. I hope it's not going to be that loud outside."

"No, once it's in place over the bay, it should give a nice volume level everywhere within about six blocks of the shore for a couple of miles," Kevin smiled. "The audio inducer field will make everyone hear the same thing at the same time with perfect quality. It's fantastic."

Prodding a control on the main unit made the remote fade back into view, then drop into his outstretched hand.

"Not bad, my man," Randall complimented his friend. "Not bad. Now, all we have to do is hope the girl works it out and plays along."

"She's smart, I bet she gets it instantly," Kevin grinned. "This is going to be great."

"What about the audio pickup at the other end?"

"That one is here," the Tinker replied, showing another device to the taller man. "It's not invisible, just really small, so I doubt they'll see it." Randall took the little machine and held it up, admiring the deceptively delicate structure of the thing, which was vaguely insect-like and about half the size of a sugar cube. When Leet flicked an icon on his controller the tiny wings began beating at an enormous rate, making a very faint whine, the device lifting into the air. His friend piloted it around his head for a moment.

"I think that should do for the Mayor's end. At her end, if she's anything like as big as we expect her to be, we won't need any audio pickup, she could probably make herself heard in Boston if she wanted to," Kevin grinned.

Retrieving the flying microphone he put it, along with the control unit and the audio projector into a padded hard case and snapped it shut. "Now all we have to do is work out the right music..."

"Ah, way ahead of you there," Randall stated. Grabbing a laptop computer from the sofa, he opened it up and began showing his friend his choices, which soon had a lively debate going along with considerable laughter.

* * *

"Hello, Brad," Max said softly, as he glared at the other man, who was looking somewhat shame-faced, a very unusual expression for him. Unprecedented, in fact. "I think I'd like an explanation now." Moving closer he held out a hand in which a steel knife grew, which he used to gently prod his underling's face under his eye, leaving a small bead of blood. "That explanation being on why you decided, _without telling me,_ to attack the DWU facility. You _know_ I said they were off limits for now."

There was no answer for a moment. Max prodded him again, producing a little more blood, but not even a wince otherwise. Whatever else he was, Hookwolf was a stoic.

"You lost us nearly thirty soldiers. More than half were arrested, at least eight ran and have completely disappeared, and two are still in hospital. They were cannon fodder, true enough, but _they were_ _ **my**_ _cannon fodder!_ " He shouted the last few words from close range. "I let you use them for your own purposes, but you _do not_ take them into battle against an opponent of the level of the DWU without asking!"

"I thought they were only a bunch of normals," Brad said in a surprisingly quiet voice, although his cheek was twitching. "All they were supposed to have was maybe Saurial. I wanted her head on a stick."

"At least a quarter of their members are ex military one way or the other and have serious combat training, you idiot," Max growled. "I told you that years ago. There's a damn good reason my father left them alone. They were even more dangerous back then, there were nearly a thousand of them. Far more than us and the ABB put together. If they'd wanted to take over, we'd have had a major battle on our hands. Sure, we'd probably have won in the end but we'd have lost a _lot_ of people. Normals, yes, not dangerous…? No, not at all. Don't forget, most capes aren't bulletproof. You put a nine millimeter round in Victor's head, for example, he dies. _You_ can get away with that sort of thing, most can't."

The CEO of Medhall tapped his subordinate between the eyes with the end of his blade. "Right there will do for most people, cape or not, if they don't get out of the way. A sniper two hundred yards away with a good rifle could wipe out almost every Parahuman in Brockton Bay. The DWU have at least eight people I know for a _fact_ were trained as snipers, and they'd do it, because they're _not_ capes. The Rules mean fuck-all to them. Get them mad enough to kill, and we'd be looking over our shoulders for years. Wipe them out and the PRT would finally lose patience and put kill orders on all of us. Do you _understand_ me? Until we can grow large and strong enough to finally do what should be done, we exist on a knife-edge. You put all that at risk. _Why?_ "

His voice had become very patient and reasonable now. Stepping back he waited, while Victor and Krieg watched from a couple of chairs, the latter with a glass of brandy he was intermittently sipping from and a thoughtful look on his face.

"I got information that Saurial was in the DWU building," Brad finally said, staring at Max with a scowl. "I wanted to get her for what she was doing to our people. My people..."

 _"My_ people. Never forget that, Brad," Max interrupted with a dangerous look in his eye.

"OK, but they were working for me at the time," the other man stubbornly insisted. His superior let it go although he was frowning slightly. "She had gotten involved in over a dozen operations and cost me… I mean, us… close to forty people. And a shitload of weapons and cash. An informant approached me and said he knew where she was, so I went after her."

"Let me stop you there for a moment, Brad, if you would?" Max asked politely, raising a hand. "A few questions while I think of them. One, who was the informant?"

"I don't know, I've never see him before and I didn't get a name," Brad admitted.

"Ah. All right, then, two, why did you believe him?"

"He had a photo of her in the DWU yard doing some freaky sort of martial arts or something. Said that they let her use it."

"OK. And three, why the fuck did you think you could take her in the first place?" Max raised an eyebrow. "I mean, I've heard rumors that she's been shot in the face with everything from handguns to hunting rifles and she doesn't even notice. Even _you_ would feel that. That creature is _tough._ And fucking fast, not to mention she can make unbreakable weapons from nothing and by all accounts knows exactly how to use them. Did you think for an instant that it might be a bad idea to try and attack her in what may well be her own territory?"

Brad looked torn, making Max sigh. "No, of course you didn't. Idiot. All right, go on, what then?"

"We attacked the DWU, from both sides, but the people I sent around the back got taken out by Raptaur as far as I know. I'd never heard of her before then."

"No one had, that was her debut," Krieg put in from over by the window.

"When did she turn up?" Max asked.

"She was already there. That Hebert kike was standing in this dark workshop or something with her standing behind him like something out of a fucking horror movie," Brad replied with a shudder. "I've never seen anything like it. Those eyes, glowing in the dark… creepy as fuck."

"Did Mr Hebert, who by the way is not Jewish to the best of my knowledge, happen to suggest you should turn around and go away?" Max sighed, half sitting on the edge of his desk.

Brad nodded. "But I wasn't going to back down just because he had some scaled freak standing behind him."

"I see. The same scaled freak that basically beat you senseless while making it look like she was a little bored and had expected more of a challenge?" Max raised an eyebrow. Brad looked at his feet like a schoolboy caught breaking windows.

"You fucking idiot. I'd have thought even _you_ would have been a little more cautious when you came across a new cape no one had ever heard of before, especially one eight feet tall and looking like that. Saurial is bad enough. Raptaur is a fucking nightmare. I've seen the videos, she could have killed you from the first hit but she was just playing with you, to make a point. I assume that you now know this?"

Brad nodded again, looking worried. "She gave me a message to pass on to you," he said after a moment.

"So? Pass it on!"

"She said that if the E88 ever moved on the DWU in any way she'd kill everyone. All of us. I think she meant it."

"Oh, I have no doubt of that." Max sighed. "None at all. Whether she actually could… Now, that I'm not sure about."

"She was," Brad muttered.

"Was this before or after she took you swimming?" Victor asked snidely, sounding peeved. When the other man glared at him, he shrugged. "I heard about it. You were still soaking wet when you got to the PRT."

"All right. Start at the beginning and go over everything, leave nothing out. I want to know who this informant was that pointed you at the DWU, and why. Someone was testing something but I'm not sure what yet, whether it was us or them, or perhaps both."

Max went back behind his desk and listened, taking notes, as the other man went over the entire story in much more detail. It was clear to him that Brad had been deliberately wound up and aimed at the DWU, probably to see what would happen in the face of a major threat. They certainly knew that now. As did more or less anyone who read PHO. He was very curious to know who it was, and what they stood to gain from it.

When Brad finally finished his explanation, Max stared at him for some time. "You really are an idiot sometimes." The man flushed a little but made no response. "I assume that you are disinclined to try again?"

"I'm never going near that fucking place again, trust me," Brad said fervently. "She made me promise and I'm going to stick to it."

"Good. I think that would be for the best, all things considered. We can move around them. Now that this… ' _Family_ '… is officially linked to the DWU it's far too dangerous to do anything directly to them. Next time, if there _is_ a next time, come and tell me _before_ you do anything that stupid. If you don't, I'll kill you myself, assuming whatever you take on doesn't. You got lucky this time, if she hadn't needed to use you as a message to us, you probably wouldn't be standing there."

"You think she'd have killed him?" Krieg asked in a curious voice.

Max glanced at him. "She clearly _could_ have done any time she wanted to. I'd say she left him alive as a warning."

"Interesting." The other man pondered the idea. "And worrying."

"And she caught the informant who was watching you two fight, as well," Max noted, turning back to Brad, who nodded, looking angry now. "Intimidated the information out of him as to who he was working for, I'd guess, then told him to disappear. Which if nothing else proves you were set up."

"I worked that much out," Brad growled. "When I find out who it was I'll..."

"Do nothing. _I_ will be having words with this person when we find them. Not you."

About to say more, he was interrupted by Victor who tapped his watch. "It's nearly time."

"Already?" Max checked his own watch, seeing it was nearly two. "So it is. Let's see what the Mayor's big project is. Brad, sit down and shut up, this isn't over."

Hookwolf moved to a chair next to Victor with ill grace, slumping into it and rubbing his neck, which had become something of a habit since the restraints that Raptaur had bound him with had finally disappeared. Max sat in the most comfortable chair, holding a pair of binoculars, which he pointed out the floor to ceiling windows that formed two walls of the corner room, aiming them at the helipad on top of City Hall, some hundred feet lower than his top floor office. It was about half a mile away and he could see everything very well. Beyond that point, the entirety of the bay was visible all the way to the exit to the Atlantic, with the Rig off to the side a mile or so offshore.

Curious, he turned his glasses that way for a moment, seeing that there were a lot of people on the landing pad looking this way. He could see a tall figure that looked less than entirely human which he recognized as Dragon in one of her reptilian-themed power suits.

After studying the Protectorate base for a moment he moved the glasses back to the tiny figure of the Mayor who was apparently talking to a number of people, wondering what was being said.

* * *

"Are you ready for this?" Amy asked, watching Taylor look towards the mouth of the bay from the rear door of the BBFO office. Her friend glanced at her, then nodded.

"I think so. It's weird thinking that so many people are waiting for me to do it, though. Look at them all." She pointed, Amy squinting along her finger. She could make out hundreds, possibly thousands, of people congregating in one of the waterfront parks near the Downtown area, even in the chilly sunlight apparently enjoying themselves.

"I wonder if Mandy and the others are there?" she asked with a grin.

"It wouldn't surprise me," Taylor laughed. She looked at Amy's wrist. "Any moment now."

"Make it spectacular, but not over the top," Amy commented.

Turning to face her, Taylor looked quizzical. "Over… the… top… Hmm. No, don't understand that at all. I mean, I know the words, but in that order..." She shrugged.

Amy shook her head with a grin. "You're nuts."

"Says you."

"I do."

"Great." Taylor sighed. "Some friend. Casting aspersions on my sanity. Or lack thereof."

They grinned at each other, then went back to waiting.

* * *

"Hello, Danny," Roy said with a broad smile. "I'd like to introduce you to Governor Scott, who has joined us for this event." Turning to the senior politician, he added, "Governor, this is Danny Hebert, DWU representative and the main architect of this project. Without his ideas and hard work it wouldn't be possible."

Danny held out his hand, shaking the one the other man offered. "It's nice to meet you, Governor," he said.

"Likewise. I've heard of you, Roy has mentioned your name once or twice before in the past." The Governor looked at his colleague. "I have to admit not with such admiration."

"We've butted heads many times before, sir," Danny smiled. "Usually cordially although there have been strong words used. But it generally works out in the end."

"I see." The other man looked mildly amused. "From what he's said you believe strongly in your union and your people."

"I have to, sir, if I don't, who will?"

"True enough, yes," the Governor nodded. "Hopefully this will all work to plan, then. From what I'm told it could save a lot of jobs. I'm very interested to see how it works out."

"I think everyone is, sir," Danny grinned. He looked around the helipad, which had a good sixty people spread around on it, all of them keeping clear of the edge, although the safety fence around the building's edge would stop anyone falling more than about six feet. A suitable number of chairs were set up near the edge facing the bay but only a few of them were occupied, most of the other guests wandering around chatting and sipping drinks from the small portable bar that had been set up near the elevator.

They were all well fed from the buffet downstairs and in the main in a good mood. Roy noticed one face that wasn't precisely grinning with joy and headed over, leaving Danny explaining something that the Governor wanted clarification on. "Hello, Emily," he said when he was close enough. Director Piggot turned and fixed him with a gimlet stare, the two PRT troopers with her watching him curiously.

"Roy. Quite the little show you have here. Very theatrical. I assume the main act will be suitably excessive?"

"Hopefully," he smiled. "I think you'll find it interesting, in any case."

"I'm sure I will," she said in a tone that suggested she'd quite like to punch him in the mouth. "You really are an excessively irritating man at times, you do _know_ that, I hope?"

He raised his glass of wine, smirking a little. "I do my best, Emily. Do try some of this wine, it's excellent. I must say you're looking very fit these days." Nodding to her, then the two PRT people, he wandered off, feeling rather amused. Even the sight of his wife looking at him with a resigned smile couldn't alter his mood.

Walking back to Danny, he stood next to him as they watched the Governor get buttonholed by a reporter from a Boston TV station, her cameraman moving slightly to get them both in shot with the Rig behind them. "Seems to be going pretty well so far," he said with a smile.

"So far, yes. I'm just hoping that no one does anything silly when they realize what's happening," Danny replied in a low voice.

"It'll be all right, Danny, don't worry." Roy grinned at him. "Come over here, there's someone I'd like you to meet."

Danny followed as he headed towards the edge of the crowd.

* * *

Looking around at all the guests, most of the important people in the city, with the notable absence of Max Anders who Danny knew the Mayor hadn't invited as he couldn't stand the man, he smiled to himself. Overall it was an impressive turnout. He watched the Governor, a man he felt was doing a pretty good job all things considered, get interviewed by a reporter he recognized from her enthusiastic style and almost white blonde hair, which as far as he could see was natural.

Glancing in the direction of the Rig he could just make out tiny figures congregating on the flight deck, and hoped that they'd stay out of if. Armsmaster seemed a pretty sensible guy from the contact he'd had with him and if Dragon's reputation was anything to go by, she was also very down to earth. He'd seen her transport land out there earlier and hoped that between them they could keep things sane.

Looking towards the Docks and the DWU yard, he wondered if Taylor was ready. Probably, the girl seemed to take this very seriously. He smiled a little, adding to himself that for the team of her and the Varga, serious was a matter of opinion at the best of times. Lifting the binoculars he wore around his neck to his eyes he scanned the horizon, stopping on the tanker, which was slowly beginning to disappear beneath the waves as the tide rose. They'd have to start soon to take advantage of it.

When he reached the Medhall building he saw several figures looking back at him, including Max Anders, who lowered his own binoculars for a moment, then nodded to him. He returned the gesture. He didn't like the man at all but there was no denying he was a good business man and deserved a modicum of respect for that if nothing else.

The arrival of Roy beside him made him look away from watching the interview with the Boston reporter, to glance at the other man, who indicated he wanted him to meet someone. Following him, he was led to one side of the platform, to a small group of meticulously arranged chairs surrounding a round glass table with perfect symmetry. The plates and cutlery on the table were likewise arranged artfully, as was the floral centerpiece. It looked like the sort of thing you'd find in a high end restaurant that charged a month's wages per meal.

Sitting at the table were a man and a woman, while behind the man were two others, who Danny immediately pegged as security. They were watching everything, especially him and Roy, and there was something about their immaculate suits that made him suspicious that they'd been tailored to hide concealed weapons without anything as unsightly as spoiling the cut of the jacket.

The woman was fairly tall, blonde, and extremely good looking, again dressed like she was at a very exclusive party. Most people would have had difficulty pulling that off even with the good looks but she wore it with poise and elegance, making everything seem like it was completely natural, although he thought it likely that she spent hours achieving the look.

The man, who stood up with economy of movement, put his napkin down on the table having folded it so neatly that it looked like it was machine pressed, then stepped forward, bowed very slightly. "Danny, this is my old friend Philip Trent, we went to college together. He's... a consultant. For me, among others, although his work has been used all over. Phil is based in Boston and operates extensively there, very successfully."

Danny glanced at Roy, pondering the words, then looked back to the man. "Phil, this is Danny Hebert, the DWU representative and the architect of the proposal you improved for us."

Phil studied him intently, then held out his hand. Danny carefully shook it, gripping firmly but not too firmly. He had a pretty shrewd idea that this man was a stickler for the protocols. With a small bow of his own, he said, "It is an honor to meet you, Sir. Your improvements to our plan were masterful and have increased the overall efficiency and long term results considerably. As I'm sure you expected."

"Thank you, Mr Hebert. It is a pleasure to meet someone who fully appreciates the benefits of a detailed and well executed plan. I trust you have made no modifications to my suggestions?"

"No, that would be completely unnecessary. As far as I and my people could work out, you thought of everything. We were very impressed. Thank you for the aid."

"No thanks are necessary, but it is pleasing to hear nonetheless." Phil smiled a very small amount. "I would be fascinated to explore your work in more detail at some future point but I believe we are nearing the time when the plan must begin."

Danny checked his watch, which was now showing quarter to two. "So it would seem. Roy, I believe now would be a good time to start your speech, while I make sure there are no last minute surprises." He noticed that Phil looked slightly discomfited by the suggestion. "From outside sources, of course. My people know the plan and will stick to it." The other man relaxed slightly while the woman who was still sitting looked very slightly approving. It seemed clear to Danny that this guy was a little anal about his work and anything he was involved in.

Nodding politely to both Phil and the unnamed blonde, he smiled briefly at Roy, then headed off to somewhere private to call everyone on the radio he pulled from his belt.

* * *

Mark peeked around the corner, then pulled his head back, holding up three fingers. His team nodded, all of them getting ready. Counting down on his hand he indicated sharply and they burst around the corner, kicking the partly open door wide and whipping black cloth bags over the heads of the three people sitting in chairs in the Emergency Siren control room before any of them could do more than yelp in surprise. Pulling the bags down his people quickly tied them up, binding the prisoners to the chairs and pulling those chairs back from the consoles in the process. In under thirty seconds it was over. Looking around with satisfaction, he nodded. "Good work, everyone."

"Who the _fuck_ are _you_ assholes?" one of the now-anonymous people shouted from under his hood. "What the hell are you _doing?_ "

"Our jobs," Mark laughed, "don't worry about it. You're not in any danger. We're just taking precautions, you'll be released in about half an hour. Just sit there nice and quiet and we'll all get along fine."

There was a lot of swearing and struggling, which eventually necessitated more rope.

Going into the hallway he raised his radio. "All teams, Team F leader. Objective secure."

" _Team A leader. Objective secure_." All the other teams reported the same over the next minute. Pleased, and rather enjoying himself, he changed channels. "Anti-Overenthusiasm Team reporting all objectives secured, sir."

Danny's somewhat annoyed voice came back. " _Stop enjoying yourself so much. Thank you_."

"You're welcome, sir," he laughed. "AOT out."

" _Idiot_." There was no heat to the word, which made him chuckle, picturing the long-suffering look on the face of the other man. Going back into the control room he looked out the window towards the bay, wishing he was high enough up to be able to see the fun that would soon start.


	86. Kaiju and Brockton

_This chapter is where the lack of options on FF dot net for link inclusion really bites. The original posting had embedded links to Youtube for suitable musical accompaniment throughout the chapter, which gets filtered out here, annoyingly._

 _For reference, they are in order as follows (replace : with . to get a URL):_

 _www:youtube:com/watch?v=egzfvjy6sqk_

 _www:youtube:com/watch?v=lV8i-pSVMaQ_

 _www:youtube:com/watch?v=Nox-xs61dmU_

 _www:youtube:com/watch?v=vJFJ_uGlMVY_

 _www:youtube:com/watch?v=fMPj8c676po_

 _I've bolded and underlined the point in the original where the links were._

* * *

Roy watched Danny raise the radio to his mouth, pressing the transmit button, then looked back to Phil who was also watching. "An interesting person, I suspect. Not quite what I was expecting, but... interesting. He picks up the subtext of a conversation very quickly I think."

"He's a very experienced people person, Phil," Roy smiled. "He's had a _lot_ of practice talking to some very hostile audiences for something like seventeen years, which he wouldn't still be doing if he wasn't very good at it."

"That is a valid point," Phil nodded, still watching the DWU man. "Thank you for introducing us. And inviting myself and my people along to watch." He glanced at Director Piggot, who was now talking to the Governor, looking slightly less irritated but not exactly happy even so.

"I suspect there will be some amusing expressions shortly."

"Probably," Roy grinned. "That's certainly what I'm hoping for. I have to start, but I'll be back soon."

"Please don't let me delay you further, old friend," Phil said equably, retaking his seat then minutely adjusting the position of his chair.

Smiling to him, then his companion who he still didn't know the name of, Roy headed to the place at the front of the helipad's impromptu viewing platform where there was a lectern put up, a couple of his aides and his PA standing next to it checking some notes. He cast a glance at the cloudless sky and sent up a brief prayer of thanks for the spectacularly good, almost flat calm, sunny day. Visibility was unlimited and he could easily see the other side of the bay, the tanker, and even the Atlantic in the distance.

Moving to stand behind the lectern he had a quick word behind his hand with his PA, then straightened up. She called for everyone to pay attention, which made the bulk of the sixty or so people standing around look over, then nudge their friends. He saw that Director Piggot and her people were in the front row, watching him intently, with Governor Scott and his party next to her.

The local TV station and the Boston one's OB units both had cameras focused on him, while the lectern was miked up with both his own peoples' microphones and ones from several news organizations. Tapping the one that was linked to the PA system, he nodded when he heard it through the speakers that were dotted around the area.

"Good afternoon, everybody. Thank you for coming. We are entering a new era of prosperity for Brockton Bay, as a result of hard work from several directions, most notably the Dock Workers Union who have been tirelessly laboring to make this project a success." He paused, wondering why he could hear **music** , very faintly but apparently getting louder. Putting it down to a car in the street below with the stereo up too loudly, he continued.

"For far too long we have allowed our fine city to decay about us. Crime is rampant, driven primarily by the three gangs we are troubled by. Even with the aid of both our own Brockton Bay Police Department, who work extremely hard under difficult conditions, and the Protectorate and PRT who provide us with Parahuman help, we find it almost impossible to win the war although we can win individual battles."

Roy looked around at the faces watching him. Director Piggot was looking like she was trying to work out if he'd in some way slightly insulted her agency, while Governor Scott was nodding slightly.

"The economy of the city has dropped and dropped for years, mirroring the general state of the country, but even under those standards, we are not doing as well as we should be. There are many causes of this, of course, but if I had to point to the two main ones, it would again be crime, and nearly as importantly would be the terrible state of the bay itself. This city has a long and proud seafaring tradition. We were once one of the largest ports in the country in terms of per-capita shipping."

"Those days are, of course, long behind us. Shipping is down globally due to Endbringer attacks, the economy worldwide is in the doldrums, and even without those points, the general strike years ago left the city with a terrible legacy of suspicion, damaged or destroyed infrastructure, and _that_." He pointed at the tanker on the horizon, sixty plus heads turning to look at it. "That wreck is the largest single problem we face in restoring the port of Brockton Bay to it's former glory. Many studies have been carried out over the years to determine the best way to at first salvage it, then later simply to remove it, but in every case it was deemed too expensive or too difficult."

"It's no mean task, of course. The ship itself weighs in excess of thirty thousand tons, I'm reliably informed, and it is firmly hung up on a reef that is in deep water making work on it very hazardous and expensive. As it is blocking the shipping channel, no vessel large enough to move it can actually get past it _to_ move it. The seaward side is very difficult to work from making the job even more expensive. As a result despite close to twenty years of talk, nothing has been done. It sits there, choking off trade and costing jobs and money to the citizens of Brockton Bay. A port that forty years ago employed over eight thousand men and women now only has the small die-hard remnants of that labor force still in work."

Taking a sip of water from the glass at his elbow, he discreetly checked the time. Five minutes. Everyone seemed to be listening intently, several of them nodding to various points he'd made.

"Despite the problems, the Dock Workers Union has stuck it out, providing work for hundreds of people that would otherwise have nothing and in many ways keeping much of this city working, even to the extent that it does. Their people are behind a large amount of the reconstruction efforts that are called on far too often after a Parahuman altercation, for example. Without them, a significant part of the city would be unusable. Yet, we can barely afford to pay them a living wage and certainly not grow the number of workers to make a real difference. Something needs to be done."

"A few weeks ago, I was approached by the man who above any is key to keeping the DWU as functional as it has been for many years, Danny Hebert. Many of you will recognize that name, he and I have crossed swords time after time. He was a thorn in the side of the previous administration as well." He grinned as a number of the councilors standing around listening nodded, some rather irritably. Danny wasn't universally popular outside the DWU, definitely. "He presented me with a draft of a rather bold proposal, one that if carried out and successful, would revitalize the port and as a result the city."

Roy sipped some more water, noting idly that the music seemed to still be there and still getting louder, although it wasn't intrusive. In fact it was providing a nice background theme, one he vaguely recognized from a movie of some sort. Some Aleph SF one with people fighting aliens with laptops, from what he could remember. Dismissing it, he resumed his speech.

"I was very dubious about his proposal, it sounded both risky and outlandish. However, his figures were well researched, everything hung together, and he assured me it was in fact possible. I asked him to go away and work out all the details, recalculate everything, and allow me to pass on the results to independent experts for verification. Less that a week later he did exactly that. Much more detailed, all the data clearly presented, all with citations and sub reports on the resources required. He and his people at the DWU did a damn fine job."

"I duly passed this data and proposal to a number of trusted advisors whose conclusions I trust implicitly." He noticed Phil watching him with a tiny smile, evaluating the entire event. He'd probably write him a two page report on how to improve on it in future, something that amused Roy. "They all came back with the evaluation that the plan was sound, financially viable, and in fact something that might well be the only possible way of saving the economy of this city. Minor improvements were suggested in some cases, all of which have been included, but the plan was sound."

The music swelled and he found himself speaking slightly more forcefully to be heard over it, yet it if anything seemed to improve the speech. "The City Council met last week, discussed the plan, and approved it. It wasn't unanimous, there were some concerns raised, but these were merely about whether it was the right time to do it, rather than whether or not it would work." This was basically true, although somewhat simplistic. "The DWU, which had already begun preparatory work, which was mostly of a nature that required actioning sooner or later anyway, swung into high gear. Over the weekend five derelict warehouses along the shoreline in the Docks area were cleared away, with the help of a new company, Brockton Bay Family Operations LLC, a company formed to market the abilities of the newest Parahuman residents of the city. You know them as ' _The Family._ '"

There were a number of gasps at his words, and glances were exchanged. "Yes, they exist. Saurial, and Raptaur, are only two of their number. Today we will be meeting a sister of theirs, by the name of Kaiju. As I said in my initial press briefing, I met her recently and we discussed what she could do for the city. She is an… interesting… individual, and more than willing to donate her time on this project. As a matter of fact, she has already cleared out the shipping canal all the way from the docks to the entrance to the bay for us, doing in two nights what it would take a dredging company at least three months to do, at a cost in the millions of dollars."

He noticed that Director Piggot was looking startled and thoughtful, making him smile inside.

"Today, Kaiju will begin the initial stages of the Brockton Bay Port Reclamation Project, with the eventual aim of restoring the port to full functionality, generating several hundred jobs directly over the next couple of years, and in the medium term producing opportunities for massive inward investment to the city that could create thousands more. It is the beginning, as I said, of a new era."

He checked his watch. Right on time. "Without further talking from me, allow me to introduce Mr Danny Hebert, who will issue the order to start work."

As he was stepping down from his lectern, Director Piggot took a step forward and spoke loudly and clearly. "Mayor Christner, while I find your speech both impressive and interesting, you have neglected one crucial detail. What precisely is this… Kaiju… going to do?"

"My apologies, Director Piggot," he smiled. "Of course, you're right. Kaiju is going to move that for us." He pointed at the tanker again, his smile widening. "It will be taken to the Docks, cut up, and recycled. I'll answer more questions at the press conference later but now we must begin to keep to the schedule. Danny, over to you."

The PRT Director was staring at him, then the distant tanker, her brow furrowed. He moved to the side, grinning to himself. That had been fun.

The music he'd been hearing had died away, suddenly enough that he looked around. ' _What the hell is doing that?_ ' he wondered. Still, whatever it was had been a nice accompaniment to his speech.

Danny moved over to behind the lectern, clearing his throat. "Hello, everyone. As Mayor Christner has said, so flatteringly, I'm Danny Hebert of the DWU. It's been my pleasure to work alongside BBFO for the last few days and coordinate their efforts. Now, we are ready to begin the largest operation this city has seen in a generation, with the removal of the wreck that has blocked the bay for decades. We expect this to take the rest of the day, but Kaiju will introduce herself to you all in the process."

Turning to look towards the water, he raised the radio to his mouth, pressing the transmit key. "This is Danny. Begin when ready."

" _Confirmed, Danny,_ " Amy's voice came back to him clearly, carrying over the now-silent crowd. " _Kaiju is on her way_."

The crowd of people all turned to look the same way he was, waiting with various expressions.

Roy's was of extreme satisfaction.

* * *

Kevin snickered as he turned the music down, both he and Randall watching the feed from the Snitch which was hovering above the City Hall helipad, focused on the lectern. His little remote audio pickup was hidden in among the press microphones, while the audio inducer generator was out over the water about a quarter mile offshore and a similar distance up, invisible thanks to purloined Squealer technology. The woman would probably be very irritated about it, but considering she was probably in a drug-fueled haze at the moment, would never know.

He shook his head. It was a shame, the female Tinker had a lot of talent, and annoyingly to him could reproduce it over and over again.

"I wonder if they've worked out yet that almost everyone in the city heard that speech even if they didn't have a TV or radio," Randall chuckled.

"No idea. They will soon enough." Kevin picked up his binoculars and held them to his eyes, peering over the edge of the old warehouse they were perched on the roof of, about half-way between the DWU and the Downtown area. "Here she comes."

"Fuck me, she's _enormous_ ," Randall breathed. His smile grew. "This is going to be absolutely epic."

Kevin watched the traces of something very big indeed moving fast underwater, trying to work out her likely movements. After a moment, he said, "She's not going to stop. This pass is for effect, I think she's going to go to the tanker and come back." He selected an appropriate theme, giggling to himself.

Leet grinned, then stabbed a control on the master unit with his index finger. **Music** started playing, audible to most of the city and certainly anyone within half a mile of the shore.

It probably reached out into the water as well, to one specific set of ears. "OK, Miss Kaiju. Play along and make this even better."

* * *

Mandy and Lucy exchanged a glance as the speech from the Mayor wound down, the soundtrack to the speech in ' _Independence Day_ ' dying away as well. Looking around everyone had apparently heard it, and a lot of them were looking approving. "He made a lot of friends with that," Lucy commented.

Eric and Rich, behind them, were looking around. "What's the problem, guys," Mandy said, peering back at them.

"We're wondering where the speakers are," Eric said, staring up at the buildings behind them. "That sound was perfect, and it looks like everyone along the shore heard it as well, but I can't see any speakers anywhere."

"Weird," Lucy commented, following his eyes, then looking around as well. "Maybe it's some Tinker thing."

"I guess," he replied sounding slightly doubtful. "The sound quality was amazing."

"I wonder if Taylor and Amy are around anywhere," Mandy asked, standing on tiptoes to see.

"Probably, but look around you, there are tens of thousands of people here, we'll never find them," her friend said reasonably. "The only way we're together is that we came together."

"Hey, look, it's Glory Girl," Mandy suddenly said, pointing up and to the right. Sighing a little at her best friend's short attention span, Lucy looked, to see Vicky Dallon floating a hundred feet up and about three hundred feet away to the right, wearing her new costume that she'd seen on PHO.

"You've actually _met_ her, you know," Lucy grinned. "We go to school together. Her sister is one of our friends."

"I know, but doesn't she look cool like that!"

Mandy grinned back, pointing. Lucy had to admit that the girl looked very heroic.

The end of the speech and the introduction of Taylor's father passed them by but they listened as he called for Kaiju to start. "Let loose the Kraken," Mandy intoned in a deep voice, then giggled, making Eric, Rich, and Lucy all laugh. The sound of what was clearly Amy's voice responding then made them exchange surprised glances.

"I didn't know she was involved in this," Mandy exclaimed.

"Me neither," Rich commented. "She didn't say anything about it."

"Taylor's probably at the DWU with her," Lucy pointed out. They all craned their necks to see towards the Docks, the shoreline a hundred feet away being somewhat lower so they could just make out the water.

A few seconds passed, then another set of music began. Slowly at first, the perfect fidelity of the sound swelling up from inaudibility to clear music. The crowd fell silent, the four teenagers exchanging awed glances.

"Wow," Lucy breathed in excitement. "They went all out for this."

* * *

Danny watched with satisfaction and pride as the event unfolded. Roy, beside him, was chuckling quietly to himself. Whoever had arranged the music deserved a reward, it was perfect. Hopefully Taylor would make use of it. He had an idea who was behind it and decided he needed to talk to them at some point soon.

The two men exchanged glances, smirked a little, then went back to watching what unfolded.

* * *

Emily listened, then sighed slightly. "Really? The ' _Jaws'_ theme?"

"It's very clear, Ma'am," one of her escort said admiringly. "Much better than my stereo at h..." He trailed off abruptly when he caught her twitching jaw muscle. His companion discreetly thumped him on the shoulder behind her back.

Dismissing the two idiots, she watched, her eyes widening comically when she realized exactly what she was watching.

* * *

"Bullshit!" Dennis yelled out the word, pointing at the bay. He turned to the rest of the Wards who were standing on the roof of the PRT building along with several dozen PRT personnel who had all decided at once that they needed some air. "That's complete bullshit! And where's the music coming from?"

"My money is on Über and Leet," Chris laughed. "It's their style. I wonder how they pulled that off?"

Carlos watched through binoculars, not speaking, but his shoulders were tense. "God, I hope no one hits the sirens," he muttered. "That would cause total chaos."

"I still say it's bullshit," Dennis grumped, folding his arms across his chest. He didn't turn away though.

* * *

A hundred feet down, over that in length, and standing a shade under ninety feet tall on her hind legs, Taylor began swimming fairly slowly. Her tail sweeping back and forth in lazy arcs she powered through the water, rising gently. As she passed the last of the warehouses, she heard music.

Listening for a moment, she grinned a wide reptilian grin. _'Oh, those boys deserve a favor for this_ ,' she giggled. ' _I wish I'd thought of it._ '

" _It seems appropriate somehow,_ " the Varga chuckled. " _You recognize the music?_ "

 _'I do. I'll have to show you the movie, it's not bad for an old one. I bet they've got lots ready as well. I hope I can recognize them all and react correctly_.'

" _Well, let's see if we can put on a show for the public, complete with musical accompaniment, shall we?_ "

'I _think we shall. Keep it light, though_.'

" _Light in general, or light horror, as you're so fond of saying?_ "

She snickered. ' _Probably best light in general. I have some ideas_.'

Going over them with him, she rose to the point where just her spine was above the water and sped up.

* * *

"Look!"

Everyone stared at the woman who'd shouted, then followed her finger. Danny grinned a little more widely. ' _Don't overdo it, dear_ ,' he thought, amused.

Heading towards them from about half a mile away was a huge bulge in the water which hinted at something vast and fast traveling just under the surface. As the music swelled, a long, darkly scaled spine broke through the water, leaving a wake behind it. From their height hints of motion could be seen behind and below the wake, hints that suggested a long serpentine tail moving back and forth, leaving eddies on the surface.

The swimming creature passed the city hall at a good thirty miles an hour, then began to sink out of sight again, until all that was visible was a bulge traveling towards the distant tanker. Dead silence, except for the music, reigned over a large part of Brockton Bay as something like seventy-five thousand people stared after it.

* * *

"What the _fuck was that!_ " Victor was on his feet, hands pressed on the window, as he stared after the thing that had just swum past two hundred yards out from the shore. He turned, pointing after it. "You saw that, right? What _was_ it? It must have been over a hundred fucking feet long!"

Max didn't reply, he was engaged in following the ripple in the water with his eyes and mentally totting up how much money he could lay hands on within twenty-four hours.

* * *

"Perfect," Leet crowed. "She knows what's happening and played along perfectly. That's great. OK, next track, next track..." He dropped the binoculars and frantically flipped through selections on the tablet that formed the core of his control system, until he stopped on one, then began laughing. Randall looked over his shoulder and burst out giggling as well.

"It only just came out, you think enough people will have seen it?"

"It was really popular before Christmas so I think so. Anyway, can you think of a better one?"

"Nope."

They grinned at each other, then went back to watching, waiting for the Hebert sea monster to return from whatever it was she was doing.

* * *

" _I think one every… two hundred and fifty yards or so?_ " the Varga suggested, looking at the thing they'd designed which was currently sitting on the floor of the bay near the tanker, not yet buoyant enough to float. She swam around it, then nodded.

' _Sounds about right. Got the pattern? We need to do these in sequence smoothly for the best effect_.'

" _Please. I could do these if I was asleep, Brain,_ " he laughed. "Y _ou do the swimming, I'll do the demonic matter creation_."

' _Sounds fair,_ ' she replied, turning around and heading back towards the DWU facility, more slowly this time. Every two hundred and fifty yards, her companion generated another of their devices, along with an anchor system which would stop it drifting away. They shot towards the surface, lifted by the floats he'd added, popping up one after another behind her.

* * *

Brian looked at Lisa, who was rolling around on the roof laughing her head off, then exchanged a glance with Alec. Both of them sadly shook their heads.

"She's lost it. Completely nuts. Maybe we should push her off the roof? It would stop the noise if nothing else."

Brian sighed at his friend's comment, although he was also smiling.

"She's going to swim back and forth winding them all up, then do something insane, I can feel it," Lisa chortled, lifting her head to look after the enormous underwater form. "Über and Leet are helping, without even being asked! _NO ONE_ will ever forget _this_ Tuesday."

Laying her head back down again, the blonde roared with hilarity, to the point that Brian was reconsidering Alec's suggestion...

* * *

"Look!"

' _Will someone please shut her up?_ ' Danny mentally sighed, as everyone stared into the distance. There was a huge roar of displaced water echoing around the bay seconds after a massive cylindrical buoy popped out of the sea, leaping its own length into the air before settling back with a splash then bobbing around. A bright reflective orange, it was almost painful to look at. The thing must have been a good twenty feet high and at least twice that around. Circling its circumference were the words, " **Construction Zone, No Entry** ," in letters ten feet tall. Sticking out of the top was a pole that stretched a further twenty feet up with a sign, the standard diamond shape, mounted on the end.

On the sign was a stylized figure of a huge bipedal lizard wielding an enormous shovel, the entire thing in black silhouette against the yellow sign. Above it was written " **Caution** " in huge letters, while under it were the words " **Kaiju at work.** "

He read the warnings while grinning to himself. Another one popped up, two or three hundred yards closer, bobbing back and forth as the water ran off it. Everyone gaped, while the **music** changed. He tried to recognize it, feeling that he should, then laughed when he did. It seemed somehow appropriate in a weird way.

* * *

"Why did you pick that?" Randall asked.

"Because it's an epic piece of music that's associated with the sea and I couldn't figure out a better one to play while a fucking enormous lizard lays warning buoys," his friend said idly, his finger on the track he'd originally picked out, waiting for the right moment.

"Fair enough." They watched as huge marker buoys popped out of the water one by one in a line half a mile from shore, heading back from the tanker to the Docks.

* * *

Erwin listened to the music, tapping along to it with his pint glass, while the rest of the regulars from the Tavern watched open mouthed. "Liked that movie," he grunted, pouring the last of the brandy into his glass, then lifting it in salute as the line of mysteriously appearing buoys passed them. "Good work, lass. Should have said you were going to work for the DWU, I wouldn't have been so worried."

He swigged brandy and grinned to himself.

* * *

Taylor smirked, listening to the main theme from ' _Pirates of the Caribbean_ **'** play above the water. ' _Odd choice but I like it_ ,' she commented with a snicker.

"It's an inspiring melody," the Varga replied approvingly. They reached the end of the line, marking the seaward side of the shipping channel, turned around, and headed back. This time she stayed deep, leaving a ripple on the surface but no wake, until she was opposite the point she could see the breakwater outside the City Hall area. Sinking to the bottom she prepared herself, then moved closer into shallower water, staying low. When she heard the **music** change, she grinned at the choice, approving instantly, before slowly rising...

* * *

Lucy froze, gaping in disbelief, even as she recognized the music. It was weirdly appropriate, she thought, although oddly inverted. The enormous creature stood up, looking around, the…

She squinted. Yes, she was seeing it right. It really was wearing… a bright yellow hard hat large enough to hide a truck?

The Chinese girl glanced at her friends. Mandy was looking shocked, Eric seemed to have forgotten to breath, and Rich was laughing a little hysterically.

The creature reached full height, its shadow stretching across the water, then stopped. After a moment it reached down under the surface again, felt around, and retrieved a huge quantity of eye-piercingly bright orange cloth which it shrugged on, showing it to be a high visibility jacket big enough to cover a house.

Lucy stared, then giggled, while the music played.

* * *

"You have fucking got to be _kidding_ me," Victor breathed. He stared at the reptilian creature standing in water up to its waist in total disbelief. "That fucking thing must be a hundred feet tall. _Look_ at it!"

Max was. In fact, he was looking so hard he'd forgotten to hold onto his glass of spirits, which had slipped from numb fingers to shatter on the floor. Once again, a pair of shoes were ruined.

Behind them, Brad was hiding under the desk and making little sounds that suggested he'd like to go back to a nice safe custody cell now, please. Dimly, Max was aware of this and half-thinking he'd like to join him. Krieg was totally silent and his eyes were wider than one would think possible.

* * *

Randall and Kevin watched with wide grins, approving mightily. It was beautiful.

* * *

Emily gaped at the vast reptile that had heaved itself out of the freezing waters of the bay, to the soundtrack from the recent Aleph movie ' _Pacific Rim_ ' which she thought in poor taste under the circumstances. Bearing in mind that it was about a group of people who fought aliens called…

"Oh, for fuck's sake," she sighed. " _Another_ one with a warped sense of humor."

This was readily apparent from the little show with the fucking enormous hard hat and high visibility safety gear. On the back of the vest was written:

 **Kaiju**  
 **Marine Reorganization Operative**

 **BB Dock Workers Union**  
 **member #1834**

 **BBFO, LLC**  
" **A Family Business"**

 **Proudly associated with**  
 **the City of Brockton Bay since 2011**

" **cathg sgn'wahi nnnshugg"**

This was easily visible as the creature was looking in the other direction.

" **People of Brockton Bay, your attention please!** " an incredibly deep voice boomed out, audible for miles. Emily winced a little. Danny Hebert seemed to be laughing fairly hard, while the Mayor was grinning like an idiot.

There was a pause, then in a lower voice, the thing muttered, "Hey, where the hell are..." It looked both ways, then over its shoulder, the long neck allowing this easily. She found herself staring into glowing yellow-orange eyes several feet across in a head that was big enough to eat a full-size car.

"Oh, there you are." It turned around. "Sorry about that. You can get mixed up very easily down there." Even at a more conversational volume the voice was audible across a large part of the city. It looked around at the huge crowd of people who had gone eerily quiet. The background music lowered in volume and **changed** to something that Emily thought was from one of the Godzilla movies of the late nineties, which was horrifyingly apposite under the circumstances. Kaiju tipped her head a little to the side, listening, then smiled, exposing fangs longer than a man was tall.

The PRT director could almost hear the massed gasp of horror from the populace.

"I like that one. Anyway, like I was saying, or about to say, please give me your attention." She looked around, then down at the crowds in the park. Narrowing her eyes, she pointed. "Hey, you, yes you in the yellow shirt. I said _pay attention_."

At the back of her mind, in the part that wasn't gibbering in horror, Emily wondered what poor bastard had just been picked out. And whether he'd ever get over it.

"Great. OK, as the Mayor has told you, I'm going to be taking that old ship over _there_ ," she pointed with one hand to the wreck, "to the Dock area where it's going to get cut up over _there_." The other hand came up, a six foot plus talon tipping a fifteen foot finger pointing in the other direction. "The marked area is going to be a hazardous zone until later tonight. Please don't go into it, or neither I, the Dock Workers Union, or the City of Brockton Bay can be held responsible for what might happen. Got it?"

She looked around, appearing satisfied. Half the city was holding its breath, while most of the rest of them were nodding frantically. "Great, thanks very much. Hi, Mayor Christner!" Kaiju waved, looking directly at them. Emily heard a thud and glanced sideways to see that the irritating woman who kept screaming ' _Look!_ ' had collapsed in a dead faint. No one else seemed to care.

"Hello, Kaiju," Roy called, his words being broadcast by whatever method had been put into place. Emily suspected a certain pair of video-game themed minor villains were to blame. Roy didn't seem to mind, happily taking advantage of it. "Thank you for agreeing to help us."

"Oh, it's no trouble, Mayor. I like moving things around. Ships, oil rigs, small mountains… I'll give it a go." She smiled. Emily shuddered again. Kaiju took a step forward, then stopped, looking down. "Hold on." Bending down she felt under the water again, then lifted a somewhat squashed aluminum-hulled fishing boat about twenty feet long out of the bay, having apparently stepped on it. "Does anyone want this?"

The vast creature looked around, then shrugged when nobody claimed the sunken boat. "OK." She used both hands to wad it up into a ball as easily as a child with a candy wrapper, then flipped the remains into her mouth and chewed. "Aluminum is pretty tasty," she announced when she'd swallowed.

Emily could feel that she was a very pale color. Looking around she could see it wasn't restricted to her.

"I'd better get on with it, I don't want to miss the tide," Kaiju said. "It was nice meeting you all. Remember, stay out of the marked area. See you soon." She waved, then turned around and waded out into deeper water, before sinking out of sight. The bulge in the water that marked her presence swiftly moved off towards the tanker. Emily felt around for her chair, then sat and watched, thinking frantically.

' _Well, if the Chief Director didn't know before, she sure as fuck does now,_ ' she thought in a peculiar mix of glum despondency and gut-wrenching terror. ' _How the fuck do I explain that the DWU has a friendly Endbringer on staff?_ '

* * *

Some distance away, Leet and Über were laughing nearly as hard as Lisa still was, while closer to hand the various Wards were sitting down staring out to sea. Dennis was muttering ' _Bullshit_ ' to himself repeatedly.

* * *

Dragon turned to Colin, both of them feeling a sense of total unreality. Even Ethan had stopped joking around with the rest of the staff present and was staring after Kaiju with an odd expression on his face. She indicated the direction the impossibly large reptile had disappeared in.

"I suddenly think I know what Raptaur had in mind," she said quietly.

"I believe you're probably right. We'll need to look at the plans again."

"Later. I want to see what happens next."

Colin nodded, turning back to watch.


	87. Emily and Roy

Giggling to herself Taylor swam towards the tanker, wondering what that poor guy in the yellow shirt would tell his friends. Mind you, he'd been a little rude, talking on his phone and not paying attention.

Über and Leet's musical accompaniment had been fantastic. She'd definitely have to arrange to meet and thank them. They'd added the perfect detail to make people watch rather than panic. For a moment, when she'd popped up, she'd suddenly wondered ' _What the hell am I DOING? Look at all those people!'_ Having what must have been something like fifteen or twenty percent of the entire population of the city staring blankly at her en masse had been more than a little intimidating. But the Varga had gently pushed her to get over her sudden stage fright and she'd mentally shrugged, getting on with the program.

After the initial few seconds, it had all been enormous fun more than anything else. The expressions on her father's and the Mayor's faces had made it clear they felt the same. Director Piggot looked less enthused, but took it with a lot less shouting than she'd half expected.

The look on Vicky's face had been amusing as well. She seemed torn between horror, wild amusement, and total disbelief. In the end she'd just floated there in mid-air, something Taylor was more than a little jealous about, and stared.

Now, though, she needed to stop snickering about the wonderful joke they were playing on the whole city and get to work.

Arriving at the tanker, she looked at it, while settling to the bottom. ' _So. Thoughts?_ ' she said to her companion. They'd discussed various methods to move the thing over the last few days, but had decided that it needed a proper investigation before they settled on one. ' _I was thinking about first just covering the outside with a thin layer of Vargastuff to fill the holes and strengthen the hull so it doesn't fall apart. It's pretty decayed in some places._ ' Poking it with a taloned finger left a hole. ' _Oops. Like that_.'

 _"I believe that would be the best approach, Brain. If we cover the exterior with an extremely thin layer it won't add too much weight, and we can make the floats at the same time. We'll have to leave the bottom uncovered around the places the reef has punctured the hull until we float it clear, then we can fill the holes. I would suggest, as we talked about yesterday, that we make floats around the entire length with holes in the bottoms, allowing them to fill with water in the process of making them. Once they're set up we can create air to fill them and displace the water, which should gently lift the ship without making it move too quickly. We don't want to cause a tidal wave by suddenly displacing a couple of hundred thousand tons of mass. No one would thank us for that."_

Listening to the suggestions, which basically mirrored her own thoughts, she nodded. ' _OK. That sounds good. Now, let's have a look…_ ' Swimming slowly along the hull, she rounded the stern and headed up the seaward side, reaching under in a couple of places to feel the bottom. ' _It seems to be holed in about eight places. Two at the front on that side of the channel and the rest near the stern. It sure explains why it's never shifted even in bad storms. The thing must be wedged on there really well_.'

 _"That would seem to be the case, certainly. Let's coat the outside first before we try anything else, as it would be more than a little embarrassing to break it in half while trying to move it."_ The Varga chuckled as she grinned. They proceeded to form a paper-thin layer of Vargastuff across the hull, moving slowly along it as the material formed out of nothing, creeping across the surface up to the top of the hull above the waterline. When she'd swum down one side, around the stern, back up the other, and around the bow again, the entire tanker except for the places under the hull which were penetrated by the reef was an even glittering gray color.

' _Looks good,_ ' she commented, feeling it carefully. There was no flex to the material at all, even at a thickness comparable to thin paper. ' _ **That's**_ _not going to break. Now for the floats._ '

This part took about fifteen minutes, forming rectangular cross-sectioned boxes down the sides, about twenty feet down from the waterline. She could feel the incoming tide slowly strengthening and went as fast as possible, not wanting to miss the point it really began rising. Eventually they were done. The floats, the length of the hull and fifty feet tall, stuck out nearly thirty feet all around the ship. She'd calculated this would give nearly sixty thousand tons of lift when completely filled with air, which was more than enough. The front of the floats was formed into a streamlined shape to make it easier to move through the water.

Most of the bottom area of the float boxes was open, allowing the water to fill it and giving no buoyancy. When they finished, she inspected the results carefully. ' _It certainly looks like it should work. We'd better make the harness first, then lift it, I don't want it drifting off and making us have to chase it_.'

 _"It would hardly go racing off, the tide is moving very slowly, but I understand your point,"_ he laughed. Going back to the bow they made some attachment points then formed a few hundred feet of cable, terminating in a pair of enormous quick-release clips. She was soon wearing the same harness design as they'd come up with for pulling the channel-clearing plow.

Draping the cables across the sea-bed to their full length, she swam back to the bow of the ship. ' _I think we should anchor it so it doesn't drift sideways as it lifts_ ,' she suggested.

 _"Yes, that's a sensible idea,"_ he agreed. Quickly producing some huge spikes, she slammed them deep into the rock of the reef, one at the front and one at the stern on the seaward side of the ship, then attached them with cables to the bow and stern.

Moving back she studied the result. ' _That should do it_ ,' she smiled, satisfied.

 _"I believe so."_

Returning to the bow she looked at the floats. _"We should slowly fill these until it just starts to lift, then add enough to get it floating,"_ he suggested. _"I think slow and easy is the key here. We don't want it bobbing to the surface like a cork. It will take a little time for the water inside to drain through the holes in the hull anyway."_

Nodding, she got close enough to the floats that the matter creation ability was in range of both, then he started making air. A current of displaced water flowed out of the floats down the sides of the ship, roiling the silt which moved off upstream into the bay. A few minutes passed until she felt the ship shift in her grip, tilting a little more upright. It had a definite list to one side from where it had settled onto the reef, but this was slowly straightening out.

' _There it goes_ ,' she grinned. ' _Great, it's working._ ' Very carefully they added more air, the huge ship gradually beginning to lift, the bow coming up first with a huge grinding sound as the spine of hard rock that had punched through it years ago slowly pulled free. Soon the stern also lifted, an even louder crunching sound being produced as at least one of the rocks actually broke off the reef. Jerking and juddering the old tanker floated free for the first time in decades, lifting gently from the floor of the bay.

Eventually it was free of the rocks, the tops of the floats now ten or fifteen feet above the water level. Restrained by the cables and anchors on the other side, it bobbed massively in the water, rocking very slowly from side to side. It was still rising even though they'd stopped adding air, the water inside gradually draining out the punctures in the hull, as well as the tide steadily lifting it further.

Worried about the polluted water inside, she swam under it and they patched the holes. Most of the oil and similar substances should be floating near the top and as a result little had escaped, although she could taste and smell hydrocarbons in the sea around them, which was slightly unpleasant. Finally satisfied, she moved to the bow anchor. ' _If we release this one the tide should swing the bow towards the Docks, then we can let the stern one go and grab the cables. I think it's best to let the tide do most of the work for the moment and just guide it. When it peaks I can pull it the rest of the way_.'

With his agreement, they removed the bow anchor. Sure enough, the current immediately began pushing the huge vessel around, tens of thousands of tons of metal and water slowly shifting position. When it was almost aimed right, she grabbed one of the harness cables and dug her feet into the reef, the huge claws tearing into the rock, stopping the swing and making the ship list heavily as the momentum was killed. Pleased, she quickly went to the stern, removed the anchor there, then swam back as it very slowly began drifting towards the city. Connecting the cables she ascended to the surface, popping up and looking around, then smiling. It was aimed exactly right, so she swam in front of it until the cables were nearly tight, before relaxing and floating along, matching speed with slow sweeps of her tail.

This was going to take a while, but she was in no hurry.

Noticing a helicopter with the logo of a Boston TV station on it hovering half a mile away, she waved to it, then went back to gently swimming towards the dock, a vast ship following four hundred feet behind her.

* * *

Emily stared through her binoculars with a slightly open mouth as the entirety of the hull of the wreck in the distance slowly took on a familiar gray tint, one she'd seen on a lot of videos recently. Kaiju had apparently coated the thing with EDM, presumably to stop it breaking up.

Everyone watched for another twenty minutes, wondering what was going on under the surface. They had their answer when someone gasped, "It's floating!"

It was true, she could see the superstructure of the old tanker gradually rising, the waterline dropping down the hull. Deep grinding and crunching sounds could be faintly heard in the distance. A few minutes later the surface of what had to be some form of float, taking the shape of long boxes down the side of the ship, broke the surface of the water, waves breaking over them. The vessel rose steadily higher until it was slowly rocking back and forth with nearly thirty feet of hull above the sea. She stared, as did everyone else, the sight was surreal after the thing had been just part of the background scenery for so long.

She noticed the bow was slowly starting to swing around to point towards them. The ship rotated nearly ninety degrees over the next couple of minutes, until it abruptly stopped, rolling heavily to port as if something had grabbed it and physically held it back. She had a sinking sensation in her stomach that this was exactly what had happened. Kaiju had somehow halted the motion. It implied a level of strength that was simply unbelievable. ' _Brute_ ' didn't seem nearly strong enough as a definition for the creature. Emily wasn't certain even Alexandria could have replicated the feat so easily. She was incredibly strong but there were limits even so.

Although apparently not in this case, or at least not ones that fitted into any power set she'd ever encountered before.

The ship began rolling slightly differently, making her study it. After another minute she was sure it was starting to move, drifting freely and heading up the bay towards the docks. As she watched, Kaiju popped up a few hundred feet in front of it, that huge head still wearing the ridiculously oversized hard hat turning to look around her. It tilted up to point at the news helicopter which had flown in from the direction of Boston minutes earlier, apparently called in by the reporter who was excitedly gesturing at the ship and the huge reptilian creature towing it. Kaiju lifted one huge hand in a cheery wave, which apparently made the pilot flinch judging by the way the aircraft rolled and then recovered.

Ignoring the helicopter after that, Kaiju began swimming, very slowly, just in front of the tanker which was obviously drifting with the tide. She was apparently content to let the sea do most of the work, possibly to prevent too much disturbance. The vast lizard swam along, guiding the ship down the middle of the channel she'd marked off, apparently enjoying herself. Emily could see her looking around every now and then with the air of someone doing a job that took care but not vast effort.

"That's one of the most incredible things I've ever seen," one of the troopers she had with her commented in an awed voice. His colleague nodded slowly. "I'm just glad no one hit the sirens."

Emily winced. That would have been unbelievably bad. She was going to have to make sure that no one got excited about Kaiju and did that, or there would be even more shit hitting the fan than she fully expected to have happen soon. That chopper up there was definitely broadcasting everything to the world, so it was certain that everyone in the PRT would be watching, all the way up to the top. The government was going to want a word as well, she suspected.

That said, the Governor seemed fairly relaxed about the whole thing, he was now talking to Roy and that Hebert man, pointing at Kaiju with one hand and waving the other one in the manner of someone indicating something very large. She got the distinct impression that he'd known a lot more about what was going to happen than she had, probably not all the details, but the broad outline at least.

Roy glanced over and caught her glaring at him, winking at her with a small smile, then going back to politely listening to the older politician, nodding occasionally. She fumed internally, the smug look on his face made her want to smack him a good one, but she couldn't be seen to be doing anything other than watching. Irritating man.

At the rate that the tanker and Kaiju were moving it was obvious that it would take another hour or more before she got anywhere close to them, and several hours in total to get the ship all the way to the docks. The tide would have turned by then but it seemed likely the huge reptile could easily pull it even so. Wondering what the arrangement at the other end was going to be, she watched for another ten minutes, then walked over to Roy, who was now standing with his wife smiling at the guests. Most of them had apparently recovered and were talking in low voices but with enthusiasm. A number were clustered around Danny Hebert who was explaining something about the scrapping process, apparently to significant interest.

It was obvious to her that Roy's little scheme had definitely hit a nerve, after the initial shock and amazement. She thought it likely that it had improved his popularity a lot instantly, especially among the working class people, as he had abruptly become a politician who didn't simply talk about improving the city, he actually did something about it. If he was both careful and smart he could probably build that up to make his position virtually unassailable.

She looked at him, meeting his eyes as she approached, and knew that _he_ knew this as well, and was indeed both careful and smart. From his point of view things couldn't have gone better.

Sighing silently to herself, she stopped next to him. "You seem pleased, Roy."

"Why wouldn't I be, Emily?" he asked happily. Turning slightly he waved at the refloated tanker making its stately way up the bay towards them, the impossibly large reptilian creature lazily swimming in front of it. "This is the start of a new day for Brockton Bay. We'll soon be able to restart shipping in and out of the city, clear the Ship's Graveyard, take in a significant income for several years just from the scrap metal, and provide hundreds of jobs in the process." He smiled. "It's just the start, of course. Once that land is clear we have a whole new industrial park right next to the water. That will bring further investment, which means more jobs, more people pulled out of poverty and out of the reach of the gangs, less crime… With any luck, even people like the E88 and ABB will realize their fortunes lie elsewhere."

"You really think that Kaiser will just pick up and leave?" she asked, somewhat scornfully. "It's not in his nature to give up easily."

"True, I suppose. But, and here's the important thing, I have an eighty-foot tall independent reptilian hero on my side." Roy grinned viciously. "I think if it comes down to cape versus cape, I win."

She had to admit he had a point.

"You believe Kaiju would fight the E88 for you?"

"I think that she and her sisters would go through anyone who causes trouble around here like a snow blower through a watermelon field, with about the same effect," he chuckled. "They seem to like the DWU, the feeling is mutual, and anything that threatens the city threatens the DWU. They're not beholden to the PRT or their policies and can probably make that independence stick. I mean, even Kaiser and Lung can do what they want without PRT interference as far as I can see, and compared to _her?_ " He waved at Kaiju again. "Not even close. You know it was Kaiju who told Lung to fuck off and leave the Docks alone, right?"

"I was under the impression it was Raptaur," Emily replied thoughtfully.

"Oh, I have no doubt she could probably deal with him herself," Roy admitted. "But Kaiju… She could just eat him. And from what Danny said when he mentioned it, that was basically the threat. Go away or be lunch. He went away. Whatever else the man is, he's not an idiot."

"I see." She looked at the swimming lizard for a moment. "You realize you've caused me some massive problems with all this?"

"I do, and I'm genuinely sorry about that, Emily," he said quietly, seeming sincere. "Despite our differences over the years, I don't actually wish you ill. But in return I hope you understand why I didn't, and still don't, want to involve the PRT. Your organization has for whatever reason stood by for many years and watched this city slowly crumble from within, largely because of the Parahuman villains, people you are _specifically_ supposed to be dealing with. Yet as far as most of the inhabitants of the city are concerned, your Hero capes turn up after the fact, or not at all, in an overwhelming number of cases where those same villains have made trouble. Even when you manage to catch them, or someone else does and hands one over to you, they're back on the street in hours to days. People notice, and people remember."

He looked seriously at her. "It's a problem that is becoming larger than you may realize. I have hundreds of complaints about it from the police alone, who in most cases really aren't fans of the PRT at all. They're fine with your capes in general, most of whom are at least polite and professional, but the organization…? Not a lot of love there. That sort of thing breeds a level of toxic resentment which always ends badly. I saw an opportunity to sidestep the red tape, the procrastination, the official indifference, and I took it. The DWU did most of the hard work, of course, helping the Family set up BBFO and all the associated requirements, which mean in turn that the city can subcontract work to them completely legally. Our own legal department has checked it very carefully indeed and it's watertight. We're going to be putting a lot of business their way and in turn I fully expect that they're going to change things around here a lot."

Roy paused for breath while she took in his words, then added, "Honestly, I realize that your hands may well be tied for much of this. You have a reputation of being hard but fair, and very competent. I have never seen anything to suggest otherwise. We don't see eye to eye and probably never will do, but I don't believe for a moment that you're actively working against the city's interests, or deliberately shirking your responsibilities." He raised a finger. "However, I do fully believe that there are people above you in the PRT who really only have their own interests at heart. What those interests are I don't know and in most ways don't care, except insofar as they cause problems for Brockton Bay, its people, and its administration. We're the ones who pay the price. We're tired of doing that, and if I and they have anything to say about it, we're not going to any more. My job is to run this city and keep it functional and I have always tried to do that to the best of my ability. Now, suddenly, it looks like I can do a much better job. Can you blame me for jumping on it with both feet?"

Emily listened quietly, her thoughts whirling. He seemed both surprisingly open and surprisingly passionate about it. She felt that he was actually being completely honest, which was something of a shock from a politician. He clearly felt strongly about the situation and it was with a certain amount of dismay that she found herself at least partially agreeing with his summation. But she hadn't realized how bad it had become, which based on his comments, was actually rather bad. She got the occasional complaint crossing her desk, which inevitably went to legal, and with rare exceptions, she didn't hear much more about it. But from what he was saying that was merely the tip of the iceberg.

Looking around she could see that the entire city council was watching either Kaiju, or the pair of them, and furthermore she could see that the ones who were close enough to hear what he'd said obviously agreed with some or all of it. The rest seemed to be enjoying themselves, and thinking hard. Even a couple she knew full well were against many of Roy's suggestions for their own reasons were watching the tanker slowly move across the water with expressions that suggested careful thought and slowly growing excitement.

Most of the other guests would probably come down on his side of the argument, based on what she'd seen and heard in the last hour. Looking over at the vast crowds of people lining the shore in the park, most of whom were patiently watching the ship as well, vendors of food and drink moving among them as if it had turned into a huge party, she had a sinking sensation that a straw poll would show both that he had massive support for his plans, and that the PRT would rank rather a long way down the popularity stakes.

At least whatever was broadcasting their words to the city had had the decency not to do that with this little conversation. That was one thing she _really_ didn't want making the six o'clock news.

"I see," she finally said, sighing slightly. "Thank you for your honesty. I can't say I enjoy hearing that sort of thing but I believe I understand your viewpoint. It doesn't change the fact that I'm going to have some very uncomfortable conversations with my superiors very soon. I may well be out of a job by tomorrow."

"I hope not," he replied. "None of this is actually your fault. From what I understand you've actually handled the entire situation around Kaiju and her sisters in an admirably pragmatic way. I know that there are some people in your position who would have done their utmost to seize control for the PRT, which based on what I know about them all would have ended spectacularly badly. You deserve considerable praise for not taking that approach."

"It wasn't entirely by choice, Roy," she nearly chuckled. "The situation is very complex. But I would agree with you that it could have gone much, much worse. Even before _that_ one turned up." She nodded towards Kaiju, who was waving at one of the harbor patrol boats that was paralleling her course at a safe distance. "Just be warned… There is almost certainly going to be an investigation by my superiors into how this all happened, where they came from, who knows what… It could get messy."

"I'm prepared for that, Emily," he smiled. "We have all the paperwork in order. BBFO is as I said basically unassailable, without a massive and retroactive change in quite a number of Parahuman laws. From what our experts say, if those changes were actually made, it would impact quite badly on the PRT's own operations. They suspect that the loopholes that were found and exploited were probably deliberately left in some cases specifically to benefit certain parties who have Parahumans of their own. Possibly something of a conspiracy theory but it's an interesting thought."

He indicated Danny Hebert, who was talking to one of the city councilors and the Governor about something. "The DWU has also been very careful with their paperwork. Everything is above board and fully compliant with the law. Admittedly, with an interpretation of that law which the people who made the relevant regulations may not have intended, but it complies with the letter of it completely. Your superiors could certainly cause trouble if they wanted to but I suspect it would tend to get seen by the populace as government interference in the lives of honest working people who for once are managing to get something to go their way." He smiled at her. "Oddly enough, out there is basically the world's largest blue-collar worker and union member. I have a feeling that she has a lot more friends than you might expect."

"And trying to force her to do anything is hardly going to work," Emily sighed, nodding slowly.

"Look at her!" Roy gestured. " _You_ can try forcing her if you want. I'd be interested in watching, but only from a safe distance. Out of state, probably."

She couldn't help a wry laugh. "You have a point, annoyingly enough. You really are one of the most irritating people I know."

"Thank you, Emily," he responded with a small bow, grinning. "I assure you the feeling is entirely mutual."

With a small sigh, she nodded, acknowledging the comment, then watched for a little longer. Eventually she said, "Thank you for the wine and the invitation. And the possibly career-ending surprise. I need to get back to my office to prepare for what happens next."

"Good luck. If you need any help that I can give you, call me."

"Really?" She looked somewhat dubiously at him.

"Really. As I said, I'm not your enemy. I may not be your friend, but I recognize competence when I see it and I'm looking at it. It would be a shame for you to lose your job over something you essentially had no control over, not to mention I don't want to have to break in another PRT director. It took years for us to come to the relationship we have now." He smirked as she sighed more loudly. "Don't let them push you out, Emily. You're good at your job, we both know that, even if that job isn't one I'm entirely happy about. Stick to your guns."

"Thanks. I think." She nodded to him, waved to her escort, and headed to the elevator. On the way she glanced at the short, ridiculously neat blond man sitting at a precisely orientated table with a taller and very elegant blonde woman beside him, both of them watching the tanker with apparent interest, in between shrewd glances at the various guests. She'd noticed Roy talking to him with the air of an old friend several times, and introducing Danny Hebert to him as well. He was probably someone he'd known for years.

The man looked at her with intelligent and calculating eyes, then raised his wine glass in a small salute, before taking a sip, putting it down precisely where it had come from then dabbing his lips with a starched white napkin. She nodded back, not sure why, and went on her way.

* * *

"Are you _seeing_ this?" The incredulous voice was from Samantha Parrish, the New York Protectorate Hero also known as Prism. She was staring at the TV the same as the rest of them, which was showing a special news report live from Brockton Bay, which she remembered as a medium sized city a couple of hundred miles up the coast which was mainly memorable for having an absolutely stupid number of capes for the population number. Many of whom were major villains.

"I am, but I'm not sure I believe it," her team mate Ursa Aurora replied slowly, shaking her head. "An eighty to ninety foot tall lizard? One that is working for _the Dock Worker's Union?_ That doesn't make any sense."

"Where did it get a high visibility jacket that large?" Sam asked. Her friend shrugged.

"No idea. Or that hard hat. Or why she would actually wear them in the first place."

The scene cut away from the aerial shot of a totally ridiculously large reptile towing a huge wrecked ship that dwarfed it to a pair of commentators from the Boston TV station who was broadcasting the special, both of them speculating wildly on what it meant, where this thing, apparently called ' _Kaiju_ ' had come from, and if the strange rumors that had been all over the web for a month about there being multiple reptilian creatures living in Brockton Bay was actually true.

Sam had read a lot of those same rumors on PHO and it seemed an established fact that there were two lizard-like capes running around in Brockton Bay, Saurial and Raptaur. The former seemed very polite and friendly, while scary, the latter was just terrifying, although still polite. It was definitely odd the way that most of the people from Brockton Bay itself seemed to have gone from being very worried about them to weirdly proud of them, even while still being scared of them. She herself was rather glad to be as far away from the entire place as she currently was.

However, watching the TV where the commentators were living up to their name while replaying the initial appearance of this vastly, insanely larger version, she was beginning to think that she wasn't actually far _enough_ away…

Both the women turned to the third person in the room, the man everyone knew as Legend. One of the three most powerful Parahumans on the planet. And probably the one who most typified the word ' _Hero_ ', in appearance, deeds, and outlook. He was staring thoughtfully at the TV, tapping the fingers of his right hand on his knee while he sat at the table where he'd been having a late lunch when Sam had run in and turned the thing on. "What do you think?" she asked.

He was silent for some seconds, watching as the new program replayed the Mayor's initial speech. Finally he looked at her.

"I think I need to see this in person," he said with a small smile. Standing up, he put his mask back on carefully, then smiled at them both again. "I'll keep you updated."

"Be careful," she advised, glancing at the TV for a moment. "You're you, true enough, but that thing… It makes even Behemoth look small. We don't have any idea what it's capable of, aside from the fact that it can tow supertankers like they were rowboats."

"She, Sam, not it. Be polite. And as far as we know, she's not hostile. Quite the opposite."

"Yet you're still going to have a look."

"Of course. I'm polite, not stupid." He grinned, then headed for the nearest window, opening it and floating out, closing it behind him. With a flash of blue light he was gone. She exchanged a glance with her friend then both of them went back to watching the news to see what happened next.


	88. Jake and Jack

_This was originally meant to be between chapters 41 and 42, as it was on SpaceBattles. It proved very contentious at the time. I made it an Omake there, as I was reluctant to discard it, with the idea to possibly making it canon later. Later is now, and I have decided that it is in fact canon. The events chronicled here will come up in later chapters._

 _I've left the SpaceBattles notes here below to give some context_.

* * *

 _I have decided today (15-Oct-2016) that this is now canon. It will be referred to in later chapters. My original note is left for historical interest._

 _A note from the maker of words, commonly known as an 'Author':_

 _I wrote this as an experiment to show a part of the Worm world that was disconnected from the events currently ongoing in Brockton Bay, but still relevant. The tone of it was deliberately harsher and more bloodthirsty. I found it an interesting exercise and based on the likes, a lot of people found it worth the effort. However, it was obvious from the several pages of commentary that followed it that a lot of people didn't like it as well for a whole slew of reasons. I originally removed it from the threadmarks due to the dislike, some of which was well argued, but a few people have raised good points that have led me to put it back as an Omake. It may or may not become canon at some future date. Time will tell. If you're really interested in the arguments for and against this chapter, read the next ten(!) pages of comments. Otherwise, you can either take this as a stand alone short, or a possible part of canon, or just skip it entirely. It's up to you. If this changes at some point I'll alter this note._

* * *

 **Saturday, February 5, 2011  
**  
Slowing, Jake shifted down, the ancient but solid Ford truck bouncing on the rough road, the big V8 engine rumbling in front of him as the tires bit at the gravel road. He steered to the side of the road, stopping at a point where he could more clearly see the town five hundred feet below him, peering carefully at it. Something looked wrong.

After a moment he realized what it was. While Creek Bend was a very small town, population only twenty-nine, thirty when he was home, it was still normally showing signs of activity at half past one in the afternoon, such as a number of his neighbors moving around. Things like Andy puttering around his farm on his tractor doing whatever it was that he did, Sheila looking after the small general store, which mainly meant sitting around waiting for one of the other nineteen adults to want something, or other such activities.

Yet at the moment he couldn't see any movement at all.

A small trail of smoke was rising from the chimney of his house, showing that the furnace was running, and he could see other houses in the tiny hamlet doing the same thing, but there wasn't a trace of other human activity. No one moving around in the street, none of the cars moving, not even any of the kids playing outside.

That was… not normal.

Rummaging in the glove box he retrieved his binoculars and put them to his eyes, focusing the device and scanning the area, the fine hairs on the back of his neck rising. Something was definitely not right, he could feel it in his bones.

Even with the magnified view he couldn't see any signs of life. What he could see was worrying. Two bicycles abandoned in the middle of the single street that ran through the center of the town, an old Ford Explorer with the drivers door open and judging by the faint clouds of steam coming from the exhaust in the crisp air, the engine still running. It was slewed across two of the three parking spaces outside the general store as if whoever had been driving it had jumped out in such a hurry they hadn't bothered to turn it off.

He recognized the vehicle. It belonged to his next door neighbor Bill, a very large and strong ex-Navy man who had retired to this tiny Idaho hamlet years ago, following his family roots, and made a small but usable living fixing things around the area.

Not that there were many people to fix things for. The nearest large town, or at least, _larger_ town, was Jordan Valley, Oregon, thirty-five miles or so north-west as the crow flies, and that place was only about two hundred people and a tiny airstrip. By road it was at least twice as far, over extremely rough terrain. In the other direction it was Grand View, nearly triple even _that_ distance if not more by road, which went through the mountains and wound back and forth so much it was dizzying. The road itself was still being built, once it was completed it would make the trip less difficult, but at the moment there were several places that were only passable with care.

There were shorter routes if you knew the area well and had the right vehicle, but they were dangerous even at the best of times, and February wasn't that. Jake had just come down the road from Jordan Valley, having been on an overnight trip for supplies, and was both tired and hungry.

And now, suspicious and worried.

Scanning the area again, very carefully, he couldn't see anything moving at all, not even one of the half-dozen dogs that lived in the town. The only sign of life he could see that suggested someone actively doing something was over a mile and a half away at the heavily fortified enclosure that two crazy ready-for-anything-up-to-and-including-the-end-of-the-world survivalists lived in, where there seemed to be a vehicle slowly moving back and forth. It was only visible now because of his altitude above the town, they were in the next valley over and normally no one could see them.

Hear them, on occasion, yes, they had a distinct liking for heavy weapons and tested them on a regular basis, which got quite loud sometimes. Other than that, and a very definite paranoia where the authorities were concerned, once you knew them they were actually not bad people, just a little more nuts than average around these parts.

You had to be very sure not to sneak up on them, though. They tended to react badly to that…

Growing more worried by the second, Jake checked the town again through his binoculars then put them on the seat beside him, turned around to check the rifle sitting in the rack behind him, then put the vehicle in gear and resumed driving. Rolling into town very slowly ten minutes later he carefully scanned the scene, still unable to see any signs of life. Abruptly stopping, he stared at the side of the road, where the rear end of another vehicle was visible protruding from a deep ditch. Again, it belonged to one of his neighbors.

Looking around he couldn't see anyone, so he put the parking brake on, grabbed his rifle and chambered a round, then got out of the truck and went to investigate, very cautiously and listening intently for anything out of place. The whole town was eerily silent, only the sound of the light breeze blowing through the trees and a crow cawing.

He noticed as he approached the vehicle that there were other tire tracks in the loose road surface, the ones from the station wagon leading to it from the direction of the town in a wild series of skid marks, then another set which looked like they belonged to something large, bigger than his truck. Kneeling down he inspected them, seeing that there was a double set which suggested the rear wheels of a large truck or van, something like that.

Standing again, he resumed his careful approach of the vehicle in the ditch. Something was bothering him, something it took a moment for him to identify.

When he did, he stopped dead.

Blood.

It was the smell of blood. Fairly fresh, but not recent.

Taking a deep breath he raised the rifle into a firing position, then moved closer very slowly. When he could see in through the back window, he stared in horror, before approaching the car and peering inside. Jake could feel his stomach turn over, only just managing to keep his breakfast down.

The entire inside of the car was spattered with blood, a number of red smeary handprints on the windows, except the driver side one which was missing, shattered crystals of safety glass all over the vehicle. They glinted in the afternoon sunlight, glued in place with the blood which was almost dry now.

Stepping back he breathed harshly through his nose for several seconds, wildly wondering what the fuck was going on. Why was Brenda's car just sitting here in the ditch a hundred yards outside the town, blood all over it, with no one around?

And more importantly, what had happened to Brenda?

She was an annoying old woman sometimes but he didn't wish her ill even so. The amount of blood in the car, and in the trail of it he could see leading from the broken window when he went around to that side, didn't look particularly survivable. There must have been several pints of it at least, soaked into the upholstery and dripping down the side of the machine.

Swallowing his bile, he checked the skeletal bushes along the road but could see no sign of a body. Only marks which looked horribly like those left by a body being dragged. They led back into town.

Turning to look towards the half dozen buildings, a very bad feeling building in him, Jake stared for some time, then slowly got back into his truck and drove it towards the general store. His home was on the other side, a quarter mile further on, but he had an overwhelming urge to check the town warring with a similar one to race home right now. He wasn't entirely sure why the first one won out but it did.

Parking next to the vehicle he'd spotted from the road higher up the mountain, he turned the engine off and looked around. Still there was no sign of movement other than him and a couple of crows. Reluctantly getting out he checked the still running SUV, the sound of the engine idling the only non-natural noise in the area. When he reached in and turned it off, the sudden cessation of the rumble almost made him jump. The fuel gauge read nearly empty which made him think it had been running for hours.

Why, that was the question.

At least this time there wasn't any blood. Only an inexplicably abandoned vehicle.

Backing away from it, he looked at the two bicycles in the middle of the road for a moment, then the store, then around at the other houses. A visceral feeling of dread made his guts clench.

He really didn't want to look inside the store.

After a moment he crossed the street in the opposite direction, deciding suddenly to check the houses first. The Smith household was the nearest, he could see the front door was open a little from where he was. Approaching it he held his weapon ready, pushing the door open with the muzzle, then waiting. Nothing jumped out at him after the faint creaking sound died away. Somehow unwilling to break the silence with a call, he cautiously entered, looking around.

The house turned out to be empty. He looked everywhere, in the basement, in the utility room, even under the beds. No sign of the four people who lived there. Gazing out the second floor window at the small cluster of buildings, Jake shivered. This was far too much like a horror film for his liking. Something terrible had happened here.

He checked all the other houses, only his one which was furthest away left in the end. There was no sign of anyone at all, although there were plenty of signs that they'd been there up until recently, probably no more than fifteen to twenty hours before. He did find one of the dogs the Ashdowns owned, torn to pieces in their back yard, apparently over a day ago. There were half a dozen crows picking at the body, which flew away as far as the roof of the house when he approached. Standing next to the animal's corpse staring down at it, he tried not to throw up.

It wasn't easy.

In the end, he turned his footsteps towards his truck again. Still not wanting to enter the store, having a horrible premonition that when he did his world would end, he numbly got back into his truck and started the engine, driving it the short distance to his home and his family. Stopping in the familiar spot he turned it off again, then sat staring at his house. His heart was hammering in his chest.

From his seat he could already see that his front door was half open.

After a nearly endless time, which was probably closer to ten seconds, he swallowed down a lump in his throat then got out of the truck, grabbing his rifle again. Walking over, very slowly, to the front door of his house he stopped dead just outside it, then gently pushed it open with his free hand. A strange plastic burning smell wafted out.

"Mary?" he called softly, the first word he'd spoken in hours. It was almost a shock to him, that human sound.

No one replied.

Going in through the same door he'd passed through for over fifteen years on a daily basis, Jake entered his house, weapon ready. He spent nearly forty minutes searching it, finding no trace of his wife or his nine year old son Michael, although there were plates on the table still half full of congealed bacon and eggs. The kettle on the stove, which was turned down low, had boiled dry and nearly melted, the source of the smell he'd encountered. Acrid traces of carbonized polymers from the ruined handle filled the kitchen.

He turned the stove off, then slumped into a chair, staring around the room, lost.

An indeterminate time later, he sighed. Jake knew what he had to do. Before leaving the house, he went into the master bedroom, opening the closet and moving a couple of backpacks to the side, then knelt on the floor to open the safe mounted there, spinning the dial with the confidence of practice. Opening it when it clicked for the final time he removed the old but well cared for M1911 pistol that was inside, along with three magazines loaded with hollow-point rounds. Having checked the weapon and loaded it, he put it in his pocket along with the two spare magazines and stood up, not bothering to close the safe again.

Five minutes later he was staring at the front door of the general store. He could smell blood again, and this time he knew it wasn't coming from the car in the ditch.

Eventually, pistol in hand, he summoned up his courage and went up the two steps to the door, turning the handle and opening it, pistol ready and his rifle slung over his shoulder. Light from behind him illuminated the scene in shades of crimson and pink.

Jake turned to the side and vomited.

It took some time before he could enter the building. As he'd more than half expected, he found the various missing people there.

Most of them.

As in, all the people, but only most of the bodies.

Shaking with adrenaline and rage, he carefully checked each person, all of whom he knew and counted as neighbors if not friends, finding all of them dead. Mostly very brutally. Body parts were missing, bodies themselves were mutilated in horrific ways he knew he'd see for the rest of his life every time he closed his eyes. The damage was… utterly unbelievable. Something that no human, or normal human, could even conceive of inflicting.

But someone had. It wasn't accidental, it wasn't an attack by wild animals, it wasn't self inflicted in some terrible madness. Someone had _done_ this to them.

Jake was fairly sure he knew who, based on news reports over the years.

Stepping over the remains of someone he was only half-sure was Brenda, he stopped when he spotted a familiar ring on the hand of one of the more badly damaged bodies. If it wasn't for that ring, he'd have never been able to identify the person in question.

But he knew that ring. He'd given it to Mary seventeen years ago when they were married.

Weirdly, he didn't cry. Dry eyed, he knelt in the coppery-scented muck and gathered the still-cooling remains of his wife in his arms, holding her tenderly. Beyond her he could see a small form with familiar hair, someone he knew without looking closer was his son.

A terrible, all consuming, white-hot rage was building inside him somewhere, a rage that would burn all in front of it when it came out.

That wasn't yet, though.

He looked at the floor where his wife had been lying and saw two characters shakily scribbled there in the foul fluid coating almost every surface in the room.

Jake nodded. He'd been right.

With one final hug, and a whispered promise, he tenderly laid his wife's body down, then went to find several jerry cans of gas and a match.

* * *

"What the hell is that, Willy?"

Willy looked over at his best friend Zack, who had stopped the bulldozer he was using to smooth out a patch of ground inside their walled compound in preparation for building another storage room, then followed his pointing finger as the old diesel engine rattled into silence. Rising over the ridge to the east was a thick column of black smoke, which was blowing their way in the light breeze. Shortly they could both smell burning wood and gasoline, along with an unnerving scent that reminded them of a bad barbecue.

"It's coming from town," he replied slowly. "Something bad is happening."

"No one has been past for two days," Zack said thoughtfully. "Which is a little odd, normally we see Andy going up to the forest every day or two. Minding his still."

Both of them were people who didn't trust easily, and had found common cause in this out of the way place, settling in to wait for the disaster they were both convinced would happen sooner or later. Originally it was World War Three, but with the steady rise of Parahumans, it was just as likely to be something worse. They had pooled their resources years ago, stocking up on everything they could imagine needing for when civilization inevitably collapsed.

"Maybe this is it," Zack added.

"Perhaps. But I'm not sure yet."

"Maybe we should go and check it out?"

They stared at each other, then at the smoke cloud billowing over the hill. "We'll need something bigger than these," Willy commented, hefting the illegally modified AR-15 he was carrying over his shoulder. He never went anywhere without it. No one locally seemed to mind too much, they were fairly laid back around here and had a very live and let live attitude. He was OK with that, although he still didn't actually trust them. Not completely.

A revving engine sound caught his attention and made Zack turn as well. They watched the dark red truck that was driving down the track half a mile away that led to the town of Creek Bend. "That's Jake Petty's truck," Zack commented, peering at it through the pair of binoculars he had around his neck from his vantage point on top of the five ton piece of construction machinery.

"Wonder what he wants?" Willy grunted. The man in question was a nice enough guy and his wife was cute, but they didn't have much contact.

Zack dropped down off the machine he was standing on, both of the walking over to the gate. Opening the viewing slot in it Willy watched the vehicle drive up, then stop fifty yards away. Several seconds passed before the driver's door opened. The man who stepped out looked like he'd just driven through hell.

"Fuck me," Willy muttered. "What the hell?"

Zack climbed up the ladder next to the gate to the observation point above it in the fifteen foot concrete wall, looking down at their guest. The smell from the smoke cloud still drifting their way was becoming pretty nasty by now.

"Hey, Jake, what the fuck happened to you?" Willy called when the other man, who was covered in blood like he'd been rolling on the floor of an abattoir, yet didn't look injured, was close enough.

Then he saw the taller man's eyes.

He flinched.

"Fuck." Looking up at his friend, he added, "I'm letting him in."

"Sure that's a good idea, Willy?"

"I think so," he replied, unlocking the heavy bar across the door in the gate, then opening it. Jake walked through it with the same steady pace he'd been using since he got out of the truck, giving the impression he'd have done the same thing regardless of whether the door was open or shut.

When he was inside, Willy closed the door and barred it again, before turning to the man who was standing watching him calmly with empty, dead eyes. Willy noticed he had a .308 rifle over his shoulder and obviously had a pistol in his coat pocket from the way it was hanging, but made no move to either of them.

"Jake."

"Willy."

"What's going on?"

"They're all gone, Willy."

He stared, then glanced at Zack, who had slid down the steel ladder and was standing a few yards away with his hand in his pocket, the one Willy knew held a 9mm pistol, in a position that kept him out of the firing line between Zack and Jake.

"Who's gone, Jake," he asked in a deliberately calm tone. He was damn sure he was in the presence of someone who was only fractions of an inch from snapping. Violently and all over the place.

"Everyone. Mary. Michael. Brenda. Andy. Everyone."

"What do you mean, ' _gone'_?" Zack asked. Jake looked at him, then back to Willy.

"Dead. Murdered. Slaughtered." He pointed at the smoke cloud which was slowly beginning to fade away. "I gave them a decent send off. It was all I could do."

"Jesus," Willy breathed. "How? Who? We've been working here for days and we didn't hear anything."

The two words that his neighbor spoke made him go white.

"Slaughterhouse Nine."

* * *

"They went out on the east road," Zack said, standing up. "A big vehicle, something like a bus, I think. Not very fast, heading towards the pass through the mountains." He pointed. "They must have come in from the direction of Jordan Valley. You didn't pass them, so that only leaves east as a direction to go."

"I'm going to kill them," Jake said in an almost calm tone. Zack and Willy exchanged a glance. "And you're going to help me."

"How the fuck are _we_ going to kill the fucking _Slaughterhouse Nine_ , for Christ's sake?" Willy asked in shock. "The Protectorate and more independent heroes and villains than I can remember have tried for years, but those fuckers are still wandering around killing people. What can _we_ do that _they_ can't?"

"Do the job properly," Jake replied with a chilling smile. "Those people tried to _stop_ the S9. I'm going to _kill_ them. I don't care what happens to me, but they're dead, they just don't know it yet."

"How?" Zack asked.

Jake told them.

* * *

"For fuck's sake be careful, Zack," Willy yelped as the huge six by six army surplus truck, springs compressed almost to the endstops, jounced and rocked its way down the almost impassable trail that counted, barely, as a road. It bypassed well over half the distance to Grand View, but only if you had a very large off road capable vehicle that could ford streams and something of a death-wish. Even in the middle of summer the route was difficult, in the tail end of winter in the dark it was horrendous.

Not to mention when you remembered what the truck was full of.

Pale faced, his friend wrestled with the steering, keeping them more or less on the right route. Willy checked the map in the light of a small flashlight, then nodded. "Almost there. Are you sure about this, Jake?"

"Yes."

It was all he said. With a small sigh, yet understanding the man more than he'd expected, Willy kept navigating.

Eventually they bumped and clattered their way out of the steep mountain pass that the tiny old track descended and found themselves on a much wider and smoother stretch of tarmac, turning to the east and driving on. Another five and a half miles passed before Jake said, "Here. This is the place."

Zack pulled over and turned the engine off, then looked out at the scene, before turning to the other two men. "We've probably only got about four or five hours, unless they stop for the night. Down that road with those vehicles they won't be able to do more than about fifteen, twenty miles an hour at best but I think they had about a two hour head start on us."

"We'll have to work fast, then." Jake opened the passenger door and got out. The other two looked at each other, then sighed and followed.

The silence of the night was broken by the sound of a hammer smashing a lock, then a few minutes later, the sound of a large diesel engine rumbling into life. The noises went on for hours.

* * *

 **Sunday, February 6, 2011**

Jack whistled softly to himself, sharpening one of his spare knives and enjoying the early dawn light coming in through the windows of the old greyhound bus he and his friends had liberated a few towns ago when William's car had finally died. The man really should have maintained the thing better. It was bumping along a very bad section of this remote road, William at the wheel, the ride pretty awful. Idly wondering if he should write a letter to the relevant person in charge of roads in this area, he swore mildly as one particularly vicious pothole made him nearly stick the knife into his own face.

"That would have been embarrassing," he chuckled, running the whetstone along the blade again, then holding it up to the light and inspecting it. Satisfied, he put the stone down, then picked up the oiled cloth next to him on the seat and carefully cleaned the blade, before closing the knife and putting it away.

The ride smoothed out suddenly, the bus picking up the pace from the near walking-speed it had been doing for the last two hours to something more suitable. He was beginning to wish they'd acquired something more suitable for off-road use. These little armpit of nowhere towns in rural Idaho were fun and all, but they had major infrastructure issues.

"Thank god for that," a voice from in front of him said sourly. "My back is killing me. Why the hell don't they fix these fucking roads?"

"I believe that is in fact what they're doing, my dear Shatterbird," he replied mildly, looking out the window as they went past a sign that told passers-by that there was a construction zone three miles ahead. "This is all new road surface, I expect that it's being upgraded even now. Next time we come through it will probably be much easier."

"I'll be just as glad to never see this entire state again," the woman mumbled. "I'm bored. When are we going to get somewhere interesting?"

"Soon enough, my friend, soon enough," he smiled.

Looking towards the back of the bus he watched as Riley fiddled with the insides of one of her robotic spiders, then glanced at the seat across from his where the towering form of Mannequin was folded into a much smaller space than one might expect. The Tinker was apparently asleep, although with his artificial body, it was difficult to tell. Hatchet Face was snoring next to Riley, provoking a couple of annoyed looks from the blonde girl.

"I bet Crawler is having more fun than we are," the woman grumped, making him look at her again.

"Possibly, but then he's easily amused. We'll find out sooner or later, no doubt. He'll turn up again eventually." The monstrous cape hadn't really been comfortable in the bus, barely fitting into it, and had abruptly announced in the last town but one that he was going to go off on his own for a while since they were all too slow, then he'd vanished. Jack was sure he could probably track him via news reports if he wanted to, but at the moment, didn't really care all that much. He'd been mumbling something about wanting to meet some reptilian cape on the east coast for a while now, or it might have been ' _eat_ ' rather than ' _meet_ '. Sometimes he didn't enunciate very well.

The bus rumbled on, following a long descending curve that eventually ended up going through a narrow cut in the mountain, barely wide enough for two lanes, with hundred yard or more tall rock walls either side of the road. One could see the marks where the rock had been blasted away to form the cutting. Signs at intervals warned of the potential for falling rocks.

A couple of minutes later, the vehicle slowed. "Jack, we have a problem," the driver called over his shoulder.

"What sort of problem?" the tall slender man said, getting up and moving to the front of the bus, putting his hand on the driver's seat and bending down a little to look out the windshield. William pointed.

"That sort."

Somewhat bemused, Jack studied the mid-forties sandy-haired man who was sitting in the middle of the road twenty feet away, precisely on the newly painted central yellow line, in what looked like an ordinary wooden household chair, apparently waiting for them. He was covered in blood, with a calm expression on his face. Intrigued, Jack stared.

"Now, I wonder what that fellow wants," he murmured.

"Should I run him over? Or go back?" William Manton asked. He yawned widely, tired from the very long and rough drive that had left him behind the wheel all night.

"No, I think..." Jack paused, looking around carefully. There was no one else in the area, only the man on his chair, and a couple of hundred yards away, a wider space in the road where some construction equipment and a couple of large steel storage containers was sitting, apparently waiting for the road crew to resume work the next day. The fresh tarmac ended about fifty feet past the man in the chair, the road going back to being rough and full of potholes. "I think I'd like to have a chat. He's gone to all the trouble of coming out here to wait for us, it's only polite to see what he wants."

"You sure?"

"He's one man, William. I don't think he's even a parahuman." Squinting at the guy, he added thoughtfully, "In fact, I think I recognize him." He thought for a moment, then snapped his fingers. "I know. He was in a photo in that last town, in the house at the end of the street. He must want to talk about our visit."

Jack smiled widely. "This should be interesting."

Motioning to his companion, Jack waited impatiently for the bus door to open, then went down the steps and stood on the road. Briefly admiring the much better surface that the road crew had produced, he walked slowly over to stand ten feet away from the man, who simply watched him approach.

"Hello!" he said brightly. "Nice day, isn't it?"

The man looked at him, then past him at the rising sun, which was burning through the low cloud, showing all the signs of becoming a fairly good day for this time of year. He shrugged.

"It was, once."

Jack met his eyes. The other man's were completely empty.

A slight feeling of unease went through him. There was absolutely no fear there, which bearing in mind his reputation seemed a little odd. He looked around carefully, then up at the cliffs on either side, but could see no one and still no signs of it being a trap. Just one emotionally dead man and a wooden chair.

"Her name was Mary, if you didn't know." Jack looked back to the man, who was watching him. "My wife. The one you animals killed. My son was called Michael. He was only just nine."

"I'm not sure what you want me to do with that information," Jack told him, taking a knife from his pocket and flipping it from hand to hand. The man didn't take his eyes from Jack's.

Once again, the man in the chair shrugged. "I don't care. I just wanted you to know it. My name is Jake."

Smiling, Jack pulled out another knife and started juggling them. "Jake and Jack. How nice. Almost a rhyme. So, Jake, why are you sitting in the middle of the road waiting for us?"

"I'm going to kill you."

Jack studied him for a moment. "Really?"

Jake nodded. "Really. In about five seconds."

"I don't see a weapon," Jack noted curiously.

The dead smile he got back was absolutely horrifying. "I know. That's the point."

Jake stood up.

Jack didn't even have time to hear the click from the switch on the seat of the old wooden chair before the world dissolved in fire and shrapnel.

* * *

" _Fucking hell_ ," Willy screamed as the monstrous explosion rained fragments of rock and twisted metal down on him and Zack where they were concealed at the top of the cliff three hundred feet above the road and as far back from the edge, the fireball that followed actually rising above them. When the rain of debris finally stopped, he uncovered his head, thankful for the military surplus flak jacket and helmet which had diverted more than one probably dangerous if not actually lethal hit. Looking over at his friend, who stared back white-faced, he swallowed.

"That was a fucking big blast," he said loudly, almost unable to hear and feeling that one of his eardrums might be damaged. "Twenty tons of ANFO might have been overkill."

"No such thing," his friend yelled back, shaking his head and hitting the side it of a couple of times. "Especially with the S9. I hope it worked." They crawled closer to the edge of the cliff and peered over. Nearly a hundred feet of road was simply missing, a rectangular crater several feet deep marking where they'd buried enough explosives to fight a small war, both home made and military surplus. More than fifty claymore mines had been just under the surface, with the ANFO in bags with det cord strung through them under that. One of the road crew storage containers had yielded quite a large amount of quarrying explosives, much of which had ended up under the road as well. There was also nearly three hundred gallons of gasoline and diesel fuel in every container they'd managed to scrape together packed in around the explosives, to produce a napalm effect. Judging by the still fiercely burning fires down there, it had worked.

The entire improvised mine had been hastily covered with a foot of gravel and a thin layer of tarmac. They'd only just finished in time, painting the lines only minutes before the sun rose. The detonator wired to the chair poor Jake had been sitting in was the most nerve-wracking part of the entire enterprise.

"There goes a brave man," Willy sighed.

"He had nothing left to live for, the poor bastard," his friend said, working the bolt on the fifty caliber anti-materiel rifle he was holding, chambering an armor-piercing round. Willy did the same thing. The pair scanned the wreckage of the bus, until Zack pointed. "There. Fucker's still moving."

Willy aimed, then fired. The high-velocity tungsten-cored round hit the weakly moving form of Mannequin directly in the head, making him tumble backwards again. Three more shots alternating between the two of them and the armored mechanical head cracked. The next one produced a spray of goo.

Even though the cyborg Tinker was now still, they fired off another twenty rounds until every part of him they could see was leaking meat and fluids. Watching suspiciously, Willy also fired at some small spiderlike robot that eventually climbed out of the wreckage, most of its legs missing. The thing shattered into tiny pieces. Finally, when ten minutes had gone by without any movement or sound aside from the crackling flames, Zack nodded.

"That's it, I think."

"Last part, then."

Working their way back from the edge, they both stood, slinging their rifles over their shoulders, then walked away from the cliff about three hundred yards. Willy pulled a radio detonator from his pocket and flicked it on, a red light illuminating. With no ceremony he flipped up the protective cover and pressed the button under it, provoking another, somewhat smaller explosion from where they'd just been. This was followed by a long drawn out rumble and a huge cloud of dust as the side of the cutting collapsed onto the road beneath, burying everything under thousands of tons of rock.

"I hope to god that really _is_ it," Zack sighed.

"That shit Jack Slash is definitely dead, he was right on top of the charge," Willy replied. "Nothing much left of the bus either, anyone in it is hamburger. I didn't see either Crawler or the Siberian, either they weren't there or they're under all that crap. But I think we got most of them for sure. Jake was right."

"I hope he's happy, wherever he ends up," Zack commented as they began hiking back to the place they'd parked the truck. His friend nodded quietly. Now they had to go and tell the authorities, and collect the reward. Jake had asked for his third to be donated to a suitable charity in his wife and son's names.

Behind them, the cloud of dust blew away in the rising breeze as the sun came up. Smoke still drifted around the scene, but nothing else moved.


	89. Ships and Music

_As with chapter 86, this one had embedded music links. I've followed the same procedure here as I did there.  
_

 _For reference, they are in order as follows (replace : with . to get a URL):_

 _www:youtube:com/watch?v=Ubm2jxAHNh8_

 _www:youtube:com/watch?v=q2lVGgoG3xQ &feature=youtu:be&t=2739_

 _youtu:be/L-KQ2q9h2Rs?t=365_

 _youtu:be/L-KQ2q9h2Rs?t=1528_

 _www:youtube:com/watch?v=XAYhNHhxN0A_

 _www:youtube:com/watch?v=9qvglWAHDak &list=RDP2K7D-uMH2g&index=3_

 _www:youtube:com/watch?v=-bzWSJG93P8_

 _I've bolded and underlined the point in the original where the links were._

* * *

Coming out onto the roof, Amy looked around, then headed over to where Lisa and her team were watching Taylor slowly approach from the bay entrance, Brian appearing somewhat shocked still at the size of her. Alec and Lisa were making bad jokes, trying to outdo each other, both of them laughing. They all seemed in a good mood, especially considering what they'd been through so recently.

"Hi, guys," she said with a smile. "It seems to be going well."

Lisa looked up at her, then grinned widely. "Oh, _so_ well. I haven't laughed so hard for months. She's playing it up for all it's worth and the Mayor, Danny, and even Über and his friend are helping! It's fantastic."

Sitting beside them, warm in her costume, Amy nodded, then took her helmet off and ran her hands through her hair for a moment. "Everyone is taking it better than I thought they might. I could almost hear the sound of tens of thousands of jaws dropping from here, though, when she stood up." She smirked. "It's a wonderful noise."

"You're as bad as she is, aren't you," Brian asked, sighing a little but smiling as well. "All of them have horribly weird senses of humor and you fit right in. Are you sure you're not reptilian under that suit?"

"Far as I know," she giggled. "No tail or anything. But I have to admit that since I met them I've been having more fun than I ever have before." Inspecting the three teenagers, she added, "Hopefully you guys will as well. I'm pretty sure that between them, the Family and the DWU can get you all out of any trouble you're in, and I think it will work out pretty well for everyone." She was keeping her voice low so as not to give anything away to the other DWU members scattered around the roof area, all watching with interest the ongoing operation, but looking around for a second she could see that none of them seemed to care anyway.

"I hope so," Brian replied quietly. "I really do. I never wanted to end up doing what we did but I didn't have much choice. None of us did."

"You're safe here, Director Piggot is more or less on our side for the moment, and our underground friend's days are numbered." Amy snickered as Lisa looked pleased. "I bet he's watching the TV and sweating. A lot."

"I _really_ fucking hope so," the blonde said with a vicious smile easily the equal of Taylor at her most worrying.

"I wonder why Über and Leet decided to help out like that?" Alec mused, glancing away from watching the swimming form of Taylor in her Kaiju form. "I'd have sort of expected them to try something stupid instead."

"Neither one of them actually _is_ stupid," Lisa commented. "They're both very smart. But they both have weird senses of humor as well, and low boredom thresholds to boot. I think they can't help it, they want to make spectacular things happen and if they can't do it legitimately they'll do it anyway. Most of their crimes are pretty small scale and seem mainly to be committed to get the Heroes to react, so they can pull off some amazing escape. Like with your sister last month. She played right into Über's hands perfectly." She grinned at Amy, who sighed and nodded.

"Vicky knows that now. She's still pissed about it, but can also see the funny side. Kind of."

"I wonder where they are?" Brian remarked idly. "They must be somewhere they can get a good view of the bay and the downtown area, so up high I guess."

Lisa looked around for a few seconds, appearing to concentrate, then pointed. "That warehouse about a quarter of a mile away, second row in from the shore, see it?" All of them followed her finger. It was a somewhat run-down brick building four stories high. Amy nodded. "That one, almost certainly. On the roof."

"Ah. Interesting." The healer studied the indicated warehouse carefully for a few seconds, and the surrounding buildings. "You're sure?"

"Pretty much." Lisa glanced around. "That's what my… intuition… tell me, anyway," she smirked. Amy grinned at her.

"Fair enough." Standing up she put her helmet back on. "Well, I'd better get back downstairs. On call, you know how it is. I may need to rush off and heal someone at any moment. Hopefully not, but you can never tell." Waving to the trio, she added, "I'll see you guys later. When this is finished I'm going to need something to eat and I hear the cafeteria is doing a really good steak tonight to celebrate."

"Mmm, _steak_ ," Alec said in a very good Homer Simpson impression. "Excellent."

"Two different characters there, Alec," Amy giggled, then headed back downstairs.

* * *

Brian watched as the New Wave girl walked off, looking confident and happy in her new costume. She vanished into the roof access door. After a moment he went back to watching the slowly growing form of the tanker. "She's going to go and meet Über and Leet, isn't she?"

"Yep," Lisa replied, smiling a little.

"Is that safe?"

"Should be, they're not bad people, or violent. And trust me when I say that Miss Dallon is a damn sight tougher and more dangerous than she looks. She'll be fine."

He turned to look at her. "Dangerous, how?"

Lisa shrugged, frowning slightly now. "I'm still not sure. I've been trying to work it out since I met her the first time. All I can tell you is that healing is only the tip of her abilities, she's much more than she looks physically somehow, and meeting the Family has increased both of those things a hell of a lot. And done massive improvements to her mental state. She was very depressed and close to… well, not suicidal, but more not giving a fuck, before this happened. Now, though, she's having fun and is a lot more stable than the direction she was heading in would have left her."

"I wonder what would have happened in that case?" Alec asked curiously.

"I don't know. But it would have been, at least potentially, very, _very_ bad. Endbringer level bad, possibly." Lisa's voice was sober. Both boys stared at her, then looked after the healer.

" _Her?_ " Alec sounded shocked.

"Her. Don't underestimate her, Alec. Not even a little. She's friendly, pleasant, has a sense of humor far too close to yours for many people to handle, but she's off the scale dangerous if pushed hard enough. Trust me. I'm not sure exactly how yet, but..." Lisa shrugged. "Don't piss her off."

"Shit. Thanks for the advice," he replied in a low voice. "How did we end up surrounded with S-class threats, for fuck's sake?"

"Lucky, maybe?" She grinned as he rolled his eyes. "Hey, look at it like this: They may be S-class threats, or worse, but they like us and are more likely to rain doom on other people. We'll be fine as long as we stick to our promises. It's _everyone else_ who has to watch out."

He grinned back. "I want to see some doom raining. Not enough of that recently."

Brian sighed as they went back to making bad jokes, trying to work out what villain most deserved to have either Kaiju step on them or Panacea do something ill defined but increasingly unlikely to them.

Or both.

* * *

With a last look at his daughter, who was slowly nearing the city hall vicinity, taking her time and obviously enjoying herself, Danny turned to look around the helipad. Director Piggot had left fifteen minutes or so earlier, looking pensive and thoughtful, having spoken at length to the Mayor. He hadn't heard what had been said but the woman clearly had a lot on her mind, both before and after.

He wasn't entirely pleased about his part in that. While he found her annoying at best, he didn't actually want to harm her or her people. Only tweak their noses a little. Smiling to himself, he thought that they'd definitely managed to do _that_ if nothing else. On the other hand, their meeting with her had shown him that the woman was a lot more pragmatic and sensible than he'd realized before and it was possible some of his thoughts about her had been slightly unkind. He still didn't trust the PRT as a whole for a slew of reasons but it seemed more than likely that they could work with Director Piggot.

Wondering what the other high level people in that organization were like if you could actually talk to them, he slowly headed over to Roy, who he'd spotted talking to his friend Phil again, both of them seeming very interested in the conversation. The very attractive blonde woman who was Phil's companion was taking notes, writing quickly but by the look of it very carefully.

He smiled at Governor Scott as he passed, the older man nodding politely to him. He'd been quite impressed with the politician, who had asked some very astute questions and actually listened to the answers. It seemed that the man was genuinely competent, something he found pleasing if a little surprising. Arriving at Phil's table, he politely greeted everyone.

"I must say I was very impressed with how smoothly this entire event has gone, Mr Hebert," Phil said, a small smile coming and going. "Very efficient and most amusing. Did you arrange the musical accompaniment?"

"No, that was an… ad-hoc addition," Danny admitted with a wry smile. "I strongly suspect we have a pair of local minor villains with a liking for amusing public performances to thank for that. Luckily they seem to have put some genuine care and thought into it. I think it went a very long way towards defusing the possible over-reaction of the public."

"Ah. Very interesting." Phil nodded slowly. "I am generally not in favor of unplanned additions to a complex operation such as this but this once I feel you may well be correct. Perhaps we should arrange to meet these young men, Roy? I assume you are referring to the ones known as Über and Leet?"

"I am, sir," Danny replied.

Roy looked thoughtful. "It might be worth talking to them if we can work out a suitable way to do it without making it look like City Hall is somehow approving of their more… enthusiastic… shenanigans."

"I can arrange it, Roy," Danny said, making both men look at him, Phil somehow looking mildly approving without really changing his expression and Roy seeming slightly surprised. "We've had dealing with them in the past. The DWU hired them for some security operations, which to be honest they performed very effectively and at a reasonable cost."

"Even more interesting. Your organization, Mr Hebert, intrigues me more than I expected." Phil studied him closely. "I will have to ponder this matter. However, when you do meet these people, you might mention to them that the sound system they used is a very marketable invention. I would suggest that it would be in their interest to contact Dragon with a view towards seeing if her talents would allow it to be reverse-engineered and duplicated. I understand that Mr Leet has a regrettable inability to reproduce his work although his talents as a Tinker are otherwise very impressive."

"I'll make sure to bring it up," Danny smiled. He glanced at his watch again. "I'm afraid I have to leave, gentlemen, I will be needed at the Yard to help with the proceedings around the arrival of the ship. It was very nice to meet you, sir." He bowed a little to Roy's guest, who appeared to appreciate the gesture. "Roy, I'll be in touch soon."

"Thanks, Danny. Thank all your people on behalf of myself and the City, will you? I'll stop by tomorrow to talk, there are some things I want to go over about the plan and various timescales."

"Sure. Call first, I may be anywhere in the dock area, so if you give me a little notice I can make sure I'm in the office when you come."

"OK." Roy smiled at him, holding out his hand, which he shook. "Everything so far has gone spectacularly well. I'm very pleased."

"As am I," he replied, smiling back. Turning after a nod to the blonde woman, who was watching everything with interest, he headed for the elevator and thence the DWU facility, feeling that things were in fact going very well. So far, anyway.

* * *

"About fucking time!" The man in the chair growled his irritation as the cloth bag was pulled off his head. Looking around, ready to give his assailants another good swearing-at, he met the eyes of the confused second-shift leader, who was staring at him.

"What the hell is going on, Jason?" the other man asked as he pulled the bags off the other two staff and proceeded to untie them from the chairs, having yanked the cloth from under the rope. "Why were you all tied up and in a bag?"

"I have no fucking idea," Jason snarled. "But when I find out who did it I'm going to kick his ass. Did you see anyone when you came in?"

"Nope. Just you three idiots sitting here like that. Wearing bags." The other man was beginning to grin, making Jason look at him in a surly manner. "How long have you been like that?"

Glancing at the clock on the wall, he snapped, "Nearly an hour. What the hell is going on?"

"Got me. And what's that?" His colleague pointed at a box on the desk in the corner of the room which was tied shut with a shiny blue ribbon in a neat bow, a single sprig of a green plant sitting on top. He got up and walked over, staring at it, then picked up the little bit of greenery.

Sniffing it, he said bemusedly, "Basil?" He stared at his colleague, then his other two shift mates, a man and a woman, who were both looking as confused as he was. "The hell? Why are they leaving us herbs?"

"What's in the box?" someone asked, but he was already looking. Untying the ribbon he cautiously opened the thing, half-expecting something horrible. Inside he found three unopened bottles of very good whiskey, a chocolate cake, and a note.

Jason stared at the contents while the other three came over and peered in when nothing exploded. Reaching in his colleague pulled out one of the bottles, reading the label and whistling. "Wow. This stuff runs about ninety bucks a bottle. Nice."

Opening the note, Jason read it, then sighed. "I'm going to _hurt_ those fuckers if I find them," he muttered grumpily. He handed the note to his friend, who read it out loud, grinning.

" _ **No one**_ _expects the A.O.T. Sorry for the inconvenience. Please enjoy these tokens of our esteem._ "

There was no signature, the paper was entirely generic, and the printing was clearly done with a laser printer, probably the one in the corner. He could vaguely remember hearing it spool up shortly after he and his people were bagged and while they were still shouting.

"A.O.T? Who the hell is that?"

"No fucking idea," he muttered, picking up a bottle to look at it himself. "Bastards jumped us from behind."

As he held the bottle up to the light coming in through the window, which overlooked the bay from about a mile inland, he caught sight of something in the water. Putting the bottle down again he leaned forward and squinted, then reached for a pair of binoculars. Focusing them he stared, open-mouthed.

"Um." He turned to his rescuer. "What the fuck is _that?_ " Waving his hand weakly at the window while staring at the manual over-ride for the Endbringer sirens on the console by the opposite wall he waited for an answer that made sense.

"Oh, that's Kaiju, she's the newest DWU employee or something," his colleague said, following his gaze. "Pretty spectacular. The Mayor introduced her, then she stood up out of the water like something out of a Godzilla movie. Everyone nearly shat themselves, it was like coming face to face with Leviathan in the shower, but she just explained she was there to move the tanker, then said hello to the mayor, before getting to work. It's on TV if you want to see, they keep repeating it."

Jason stared at his compatriot without speaking for some seconds, then looked around at his team, who were all appearing as shocked as he was feeling.

"Didn't you hear the music and them talking?" the other man continued.

"We were yelling pretty loudly earlier," one of the others commented.

"You must have been," he snickered. "I'd have thought practically everyone in the city heard it."

Shaking his head, Jason tore his eyes away from the over-ride switch and sat down in the chair he'd recently been liberated from. "Start at the beginning," he requested. Unscrewing the top of the bottle beside him he took a swig then shuddered a little before putting the top back on. "And find some plates and some forks."

* * *

"What should we play next?" Kevin asked, scrolling though his music selection. He'd been amusing himself by putting on every track he could think of on the subject of boats, having played the score from the old movie ' ** _Raise the Titanic_** ' while Kaiju was invisible, followed by one of the better parts of the soundtrack to the movie ' ** _How to train your Dragon_** '. After that he'd played a couple of tracks from the second ' _ **Pirates** of the **Caribbean**_ ' movie which seemed appropriate because of the track names, which had made him grin to himself. He'd then put on the ' ** _Mission Impossible_** ' theme as the tanker began floating. The cheer that rose from the watching crowd seemed to suggest that people enjoyed it. Following those he'd played a whole series of tracks from various games and movies covering the last hour and decades of creative output.

"Something suitable for a big ship being towed by a sea monster as she goes past. Come on, there must be something, she's nearly in front of the park..."

"I have a suggestion," a voice said from behind him. He nodded absently, then stopped dead, before looking at Randall, who was also frozen. Both of them exchanged a glance, then looked over their shoulders. The teenaged girl in the armored costume smiled at them.

"Hello, guys. I thought I'd drop by and say hi."

"Um. Hello, Panacea," he said nervously. There was something about her smile that made him think it was best to be polite. He quickly looked around to see if her sister was anywhere close by but he could see her floating over the park a mile away where she'd been the whole time, barely visible to the naked eye except as a bright spot in the lowering sunlight. "This is a surprise, meeting you here."

"Isn't it?" she replied brightly. "What are the odds?" She walked over, inspecting them both closely. "Vicky is still a little pissed at you two for that trick you got her with, Über," she added.

"Ah." His partner's voice was thoughtful. "And you?"

"Oh, I thought it was one of the funniest things I'd ever seen, to be honest," she laughed. "Although it was family, so if you do it again I may have to be firm with you both. OK?"

Though her voice was amused, there was a tone to it that suggested to Kevin she was serious. He nodded, as did Randall, neither one really wanting to find out what she meant.

"Fair enough. By the way, everyone is very impressed with your little addition to the event. The sound quality is fantastic and you picked some really good tracks."

Relaxing somewhat as it became clear that bloody vengeance for a family slight wasn't about to happen, he nodded, reaching up to adjust the half-mask he was wearing, like his friend. Other than that they were in street clothes.

"Thanks. I'm very pleased with the results myself."

"I think most people worked out it was you guys, so you're probably going to find out that Danny Hebert and the Mayor both want a word," she suggested. "If you play your cards right you might find out you can make some legitimate cash from this. You've certainly earned good will from a hell of a lot of people, including me. I think you may well have been part of the reason no one panicked."

"I'm just glad that Kaiju got it and played along," he grinned. "That part where she stood up was fucking fantastic, it couldn't have gone better."

Panacea giggled. "Oh, god, yes, that was amazing. Even from the Yard it looked and sounded incredible. I can't wait to see the replay on TV."

"I wonder if she was wearing that little camera?" Randall said slowly, giving her a look.

It was her turn to stop and inspect him with an evaluating expression. After ten seconds or so, she shifted position a little, her hand moving just a small amount closer to her belt, on which was a radio. There was also a pocket next to it with something cylindrical in it, which both young men kept a wary eye on. Her body language had changed to something rather dangerous, not what they expected from the world's most famous healer.

"She _said_ you'd worked it out," the girl remarked after an uncomfortable pause, making them exchange glances again. "What do you intend to do with that information?"

"Nothing," Randall replied. "Or at least, nothing bad. We'd like to meet her and ask her if she'd be interested in some… extracurricular activities, so to speak, but I hadn't worked out the best approach. I have no intention whatsoever of getting on either her bad side or Danny Hebert's. Either of them would make a bad enemy." He studied her in turn. "I feel that I should add you to that category."

"That might be best," she agreed, relaxing imperceptibly. "I sort of like you two, despite myself, but threaten my friends and..." She trailed off meaningfully, shrugging her shoulders a little without moving her hand. "Let's not find out what happens next."

"I can agree to that," he said, looking at Kevin, who nodded without hesitation. He didn't know exactly what the girl was really capable of, which made him very nervous. It was the unknown that got you."

"Great." She relaxed more fully, lifting her empty hand and waving at Leet's laptop. "Do you mind?"

"Help yourself," he replied, also relaxing and feeling that disaster had been averted. She came over and picked it up, quickly locating and downloading a music file with the ease of someone more than familiar with computers.

"Play that one as she goes past."

He looked at her selection, raising an eyebrow. "You sure? It's not really a nautically themed one."

"Trust me. It was Danny Hebert's wife's favorite track from her favorite composer. He'd enjoy it, and so would Kaiju."

Kevin inspected her, shrugged, and transferred the file across to the audio controller, queuing it up. As Kaiju approached the far side of the general City Hall area, he tapped the control to play it. They listened to the **opening** strains of the piece, Randall nodding slowly. "I like it," he said after a little while. "Not the sort of thing I normally listen to but I can understand why Danny would."

"Thanks for doing that," she smiled. "OK, let's see what else you have on here." Panacea leaned over the tablet, Kevin running through the various tracks from different sources that he'd selected for appropriate moments, looking amused at some of them. Soon they were having a friendly three way argument about the best ones to play.

* * *

Stopping at the shoreline near the final resting point that the ship would eventually end its existence in, Danny peered into the distance, watching it grow slowly larger. His immense reptilian daughter was slowly preceding it down the bay, apparently enjoying herself and occasionally waving at people. He grinned, listening to the background music which Leet and his friend had somehow managed to broadcast over the entire shore-front with incredible clarity. It was omnipresent, at a perfect volume, and had made the entire event work even better than he'd hoped for.

About to raise the radio in his hand to his mouth to ask for a status update, he stopped when the sound track changed, immediately recognizing the music with a pang of regret and sadness, but also thanks and amusement. "I don't know how you knew, guys, but thank you," he whispered as he listened, his eyes glistening slightly, until the track ended. It was followed after a pause by the ' ** _Imperial March_** ' from the first ' _Star Wars_ ' movie, which nearly made him laugh out loud.

Taking a moment to recover, he shook his head slightly, then keyed up the radio and began checking with the various crews around the place as he headed back to his office.

* * *

Taylor smiled gently to herself as she heard the music, just as she and her payload were floating past the City Hall. Raising her head a little she searched the rooftops in the distance, spotting Amy standing next to two seated figures over a mile away, on the roof of the tallest warehouse in the area, one that gave a good view of the bay and the parks. The three of them were looking in her direction. She could, when she concentrated, make out her friend's voice talking to them in the distance.

Amused, and pleased, she decided she definitely needed to meet the pair soon. As the music played, she looked over at the park she was now passing, seeing Lucy, Mandy, and several other people she recognized from school, including Eric and Rich. In fact, as she studied the crowd who lined the shore staring at her and taking photos, she spotted dozens of familiar faces. It looked like most of Arcadia was there. Even a lot of the teachers.

Slightly puzzled but pleased, she waved, making sure to meet Lucy's eyes directly, the girl looking startled but very happy.

The music changed, to something she recognized instantly. Grinning, she thought for a moment, then had a quick discussion with the Varga. A shallower part of the bay was just in front, the water only about hip deep, or a little more than forty feet. The tanker would barely clear the mud, the still gently rising tide carrying it over, but she could walk at that point with a lot of her torso above the surface.

Smirking, she waited for a few seconds, then dropped her rear legs and stood upright. This should be amusing.

* * *

Lucy stared at Kaiju, who had looked right at her then waved. She breathed heavily, making Mandy pat her on the shoulder, grinning. "Calm, girl, breath slowly. She looked at you, that's all."

"She looked _right at me_ , Mandy!" Lucy giggled nervously. "I'm sure she waved at me. _Me!_ Why would she do that?"

"Maybe she can tell you're mad on lizards or something?" her friend snickered. Eric, behind her, laughed a little.

"Yeah, Lucy, you radiate lizard-liking or something. That's why Saurial saved you."

"She saved me because she's a good person, and so is Amy. Anyway, technically it was Amy who saved me. Saurial was just watching to make sure she did it right." Lucy took a deep breath, then another. "God. I can't believe how big she is. I wonder if there are any more of them that are even bigger?"

"Bigger than that?" Rich asked incredulously, pointing at the insanely vast reptile floating contentedly past a couple of hundred yards out in the water, looking as if she was enjoying the instrumental music playing at the moment. "I still can't believe how big _she_ is. I don't know if I could handle a larger one."

The music changed, making them all exchange glances, then snicker. A wave of laughter went through the crowd surrounding them as thousands of people listened with amusement.

Kaiju looked around, then seemed to smile. A second later she stopped swimming and stood, the water coming up to the hips of her hind legs, taking a step while taking off her hard hat. It disappeared under the surface of the water, after which she felt around carefully, a look of concentration on her enormous inhuman features, which were oddly expressive even so. Moments later she retrieved about half an acre of black cloth which she shook out in a huge shower of water, then swung across her shoulders with a flamboyant gesture, revealing it to be an immense black cloak which covered her high visibility vest.

While the crowds stared and laughed, she felt around again, coming up this time with the worlds largest Darth Vader helmet, appropriately modified to fit her reptilian skull. She put it on and patted the top in satisfaction.

Everyone stared in amazement as she stepped forward to face them, then scanned the shore slowly and deliberately in a somewhat menacing manner. Holding out her hands she was suddenly holding a sword twice the size of a telephone pole.

The huge creature posed with it, then swung it slowly. The music volume dropped as whoever was behind it went along with the new act.

" _Vooomm,_ " she said calmly. " _Bzzzt. Whuuumm_." Everyone gaped, then almost the entire crowd fell over laughing as a nearly hundred foot tall lizard-like creature re-enacted a light-saber battle complete with sound effects, like a six year old enjoying itself. She kept slowly walking sideways, staying ahead of the tanker, but faced them as she played around.

After thirty seconds, she twirled the sword, before it disappeared. " _ **Luke, I am your father,**_ " she rasped in a bass voice so deep that Lucy could feel her bones vibrate. " _ **I know we don't look very much like each other, but I can explain.**_ "

Shrieking with laughter Lucy leaned on Mandy, who was giggling furiously. Kaiju lifted the visor of her huge movie prop, peering out from under it, her eyes glowing in the dim interior. "Not buying it?" she asked, grinning. "Sorry. Too many scales for a good Vader."

"She's utterly mad," Rich snickered. "And how the hell does something that size even watch ' _Star Wars_ ' in the first place?"

"No idea, but I bet if she wanted to do anything, she only has to ask," Eric gasped out, leaning on a street light, weak with laughter. "Who would say no?"

"Not me," Mandy giggled. "She sure has a weird sense of humor."

Kaiju removed her black cloak as the music stopped, spinning it around her head then tossing it into the air where it simply vanished. Everyone clapped. She bowed, lifting her helmet off and lowering it into the water, only to pull back the hard hat, which she put on again.

About to say something else, she suddenly looked to the south, which made Lucy and the others do the same. A bright streak of blue light shot towards them and stopped dead a few hundred feet from her, resolving into the figure of a man in a costume everyone recognized instantly.

"Oh, shit. What's Legend doing here?" Eric asked in a low voice.

"Hopefully, nothing too sudden," Lucy replied after a moment, watching the scene. Kaiju had stopped moving, the tanker slowly closing the distance to her, as she seemed to be evaluating the new arrival, who was apparently doing the same thing in the other direction.

After twenty seconds or so, Legend floated closer, crossing the boundary of the invisible line denoted by the marker buoys. Kaiju immediately held up a hand.

" **Stop right there, please** ," she said in a firm voice which boomed around the bay.

Everyone stared, waiting to see what happened next, as one of the most famous heroes in the world stopped dead in the air.

* * *

Amy squinted at the distant figure, holding position a few hundred feet from Taylor and about her head level. The tanker was slowly drifting closer, only a minute or so from catching up with her. She tapped Leet on the shoulder urgently. "Whatever you were using to pick up the voices from the top of City Hall, can you move it?"

"Yes," he replied a little doubtfully, poking the screen of the device he used to control the audio system. "It's still active, but I turned the feed off when the main show was over, there were a lot of private conversations going on I didn't think it was a good idea to broadcast."

"Get it over to her," she said, pointing at the huge figure in the water. "I want to hear what's going on. Hurry. Put it on her head."

"Won't she notice?"

"Of course. Legend probably will as well, he's got incredibly good eyesight from what I know, but he won't do anything about it except maybe sigh a little."

Leet moved a couple of virtual controls, studying the screen intently. "What I mean is, if something small lands on her, she might swat it."

"That's not a problem." Amy raised her voice, yelling, "Don't break it!" with her hands cupped around her mouth, having removed her helmet a few minutes ago to wipe tears of laughter from her eyes after Taylor's impromptu performance.

"You think she'll hear that nearly a mile away?" Über asked with amazement.

"She can probably hear us talking like this right now," Amy replied. "I just wanted to make sure she got the message. You wouldn't believe how good her senses are."

Taylor glanced in their direction for a moment about then, the sound having reached her, then turned back to Legend, who was still in the same place. A few seconds after that, the audio output from Leet's device came alive. "It's on her head right between her eyes," he reported.

"Great," Amy said, listening intently. "Don't broadcast anything yet."

"All right," he told her, also listening. "But I really don't want Legend after us."

She waved a hand, quieting him.

" _...cuse me?_ " the voice she remembered from several Endbringer battles was in the middle of saying. " _Kaiju, I believe?_ "

They listened to the ensuing conversation with quiet intensity.


	90. Legend and Kaiju

_Again, as with chapter 86, this one had an embedded music link. I've followed the same procedure here as I did there.  
_

 _For reference, it is (replace : with . to get a URL):_

 _www:youtube:com/watch?v=PyAdps2W-ZA_

 _I've bolded and underlined the point in the original where the link was._

* * *

Dean watched with the rest of the Wards as the impossibly large creature towing the old ship did her ridiculous skit, apparently hugely enjoying herself, not sure what to think.

It was obviously Taylor.

Somehow.

While he knew she had Changer abilities that were just stupidly powerful, this drove home _how_ stupidly powerful they were like nothing he could have imagined. It also made him totally certain he did not want, under any circumstances, to get on her bad side.

Dennis was still mumbling ' _Bullshit!_ ' to himself every now and then but seemed otherwise to be almost catatonic. Missy was looking simultaneously enthralled and horrified, Carlos was basically gaping to the point Dean was surprised his tongue hadn't dried out, and Chris seemed fascinated.

He didn't know yet what Sophia made of it, she wasn't allowed out on the roof for some reason, but he thought it likely she was looking from her quarters or the Ward break room.

Peering down at the crowds who were pointing and talking, thousands of cell phones and camera flashes going off everywhere making the mass of people seem to flicker with light, he couldn't believe that everyone was taking it so calmly. He was extremely relieved that they _were_ but still found it strange. He looked over to where his girlfriend was floating over the middle of the park, also watching, appearing to be enjoying herself although also seeming, based on her body language, to be somewhat surprised.

The emotional miasma coming from all the people on the roof with him was hard to deal with, but easier now than it had been when Taylor had rocketed past barely breaking the surface of the water. Most of the PRT personnel had gone very quiet and very worried, probably fearing an Endbringer attack despite the Mayor's words. He was amazingly grateful that the people in charge of the sirens had resisted the urge to hit the button. The panic that would have ensued would have been horrific, and the fallout terrible.

The blue streak in the air, a familiar effect, made him tense all over again. What was Legend going to do? He wasn't at all sure that if the Triumvirate hero attacked for whatever reason that he'd win, and _was_ sure it would cause total chaos whatever happened.

When Taylor held up her hand and made her demand, he watched with an open mouth, his heart hammering with worry.

* * *

Paul took his time on the flight from New York, going fairly slowly for him, both to give himself time to think and the _ability_ to think, which his Breaker power whittled away at more and more the faster he went. He could have made the trip in minutes, possibly seconds if he'd really pushed, but he wasn't in any hurry. Based on the live TV broadcast neither was the enormous lizard creature, it had been gently drifting with the current, only correcting the path of the huge tanker and guiding it while letting the incoming tide do most of the work.

He wondered what Rebecca and David were doing, aside from watching the TV and making plans. They were always making plans. Lately he'd begun to have the distinct feeling that he didn't know as much about them as he thought he did. Sooner or later he was going to have to look into that. But for now, he had more important things to think about.

When he arrived at his destination he slowed abruptly from around three hundred miles an hour to zero almost instantly, gaping at the vast creature that was standing erect in thirty or forty feet of water, which was only about half as deep as it was tall. The huge glowing slit-pupiled eyes were fixed squarely on him, the thing having apparently detected his arrival before it happened. The gaze was very unnerving, it betrayed a high intelligence and a calculating one, that somehow felt both young and interested and ancient and knowing all at the same time. He couldn't have said _how_ he arrived at that conclusion, only that it was the instant reflexive response.

The only thing that made him somewhat relieved was that it was an utterly different response than any of the Endbringers evoked in him, although as strong and in some ways at least as alien. Whatever mind was in there, it was a good one and it wasn't human.

His assessment had taken ten or fifteen seconds. Not detecting any apparent hostile intent, only curious inspection, he moved slowly closer, wanting to see what it did. Based on the way that a vast crowd of people was lining every available viewpoint for over a mile down the shore, centered on the City Hall building and the park between it and the water, it didn't seem like anyone present thought there was an immediate threat either. In fact, bearing in mind that he could see a hot dog vendor currently selling several of his wares to a group of individuals while smiling and all five of the people were ignoring not only him, but the huge reptile, the whole thing seemed to have turned into a public holiday.

Everywhere he looked he could see people staring out of buildings, gathered on the roofs, in the streets, or any other available viewpoint, while there were many roads carefully blocked off keeping the majority of the Docks area clear. He rose a little higher to get a better view. Police and civilians in high-visibility jackets with ' _DWU Crowd Control_ ' written on them were manning each barricade, talking to each other with casual ease, while more of both groups were circulating in the crowds keeping an eye on everything. He could see over a hundred of the DWU personnel at least.

He also spotted Glory Girl hovering over the park behind the City Hall, wearing a new costume that looked very similar to the one Panacea had been recorded as wearing recently, while the rest of her family were scattered around the place in similar outfits as well. Presumably the same source was responsible for them although why New Wave would suddenly have changed their image was an unknown at the moment.

' _Interesting_ ,' he thought. ' _Very interesting_.'

Lowering himself to eye level for Kaiju, who was still watching him, motionless, he continued slowly moving closer. The immense ship she was towing was gradually drifting nearer, moving at perhaps a mile an hour, the cables that lead from the bow to a harness she had on her torso under the comically large safety gear going slack in the process. Within a minute or two she'd have to start moving again but she didn't seem concerned.

When he was only about two hundred and fifty yards away, she raised an enormous hand, which he couldn't help noticing was large enough to crush him like a beer can and had several feet of razor-sharp talon tipping each oddly human-like finger, and boomed out the words, " **Stop right there, please** ," sounding polite yet determined.

He immediately stopped moving, holding position where he was.

They stared at each other for a few seconds. He noticed something tiny and glittering land right between her eyes moments after she'd quickly glanced to the side, making him look as well. On a rooftop in the distance he could see two young men wearing masks and normal clothes, surrounded by Tinker technology, and a girl who had to be Panacea based on her costume. He wondered why she was hanging around with Über and Leet of all people, as it couldn't be anyone else.

Deciding that could wait, he returned his attention to the gigantic reptilian creature which was standing patiently waiting. "Excuse me?" he said politely. "Kaiju, I believe?"

* * *

Taylor inspected the floating figure of one of the most famous capes in the world as it hung in the air a few hundred feet away. Legend was someone she genuinely looked up to, her research had suggested that he really was the hero he appeared to be, publicly and probably privately. The man seemed to be a truly decent person who tried to do the best he could in a very difficult job. As the overall leader of the Protectorate, he'd put himself in harm's way more times than she could remember, attended every Endbringer fight without fail, and generally did all he could to help the world deal with threats.

She was a little worried that he'd see her as one of those threats, but he seemed merely curious at the moment, looking mildly puzzled at her instruction yet immediately following it and waiting to see what happened next. She realized that he'd spotted Amy and the other two when she looked at them following Amy's shout, remembering that his eyesight was supposed to be spectacularly good, possibly even as good as hers. Although she didn't know it if extended outside normal human wavelengths as her Varga-granted sense did. Or whether there was the same boost to hearing or any other senses as well.

It seemed fairly unlikely, as she pondered the matter. ' _What do you think?_ ' she asked silently.

 _"I think we need to be honest with him, although not necessarily fully open._ " The Varga sounded like he was also evaluating the man floating in the air with great interest. " _He doesn't seem to have any hostile reason for being here, I think he's mainly curious. It was inevitable that we would attract high-level official interest as soon as we revealed the Kaiju form in public, and I expect Legend is one of, if not the, best people to get that attention from. We don't have any reason to distrust him, his reputation is superb and well-earned, and his power level is very high. Most likely not high enough to be a serious concern but why invite trouble? I suspect that staying on his good side is a sensible idea_."

' _That doesn't mean we can't have fun, though_ ,' she snickered.

" _Oh, no, of course not,_ " he replied with a mental grin. " _As Amy and her new friends are listening through the little device on your head, I would imagine they will broadcast most of this to the city. We should definitely amuse everyone. And ourselves, of course. Life without fun is hardly life, after all_."

' _OK_.' She giggled to herself and him. _'Let's see what happens with_ _ **Operation: Confuse Legend**_.' As he laughed in her head, she thought quickly, then opened her mouth.

* * *

"Correct," the monstrous reptilian creature replied with a smile that exposed far more teeth than he was used to seeing in someone he was talking to. They were very sharp. "And _I_ know _you_. You're Mr Foot."

Paul stared at her in confusion.

"Ah..." He couldn't quite work out what the hell she was talking about. "I think you might be mistaken. I'm Legend."

"I know. And a Leg End is a foot." She rubbed her chin thoughtfully while inspecting him, as he shook his head slightly, the confusion deepening. "Or perhaps a hip, if you're going the other way. But normally you wouldn't consider _that_ end of your leg the actual end, would you?"

He stared, then, as she seemed to be waiting for an answer, replied slowly, "No, I suppose not."

"Exactly. So it's the other end. That's a foot. You're Leg End, otherwise known as Mr Foot. See? Perfectly logical." She smiled at him.

Shaking his head a little harder, he tried to recalibrate his world view. Whatever he'd been expecting, an eighty foot tall Godzilla clone that seemed to like word games and bad puns wasn't it.

* * *

Amy listened with amazed amusement, then tapped Leet on the shoulder again, a shoulder that was heaving with laughter. "Broadcast this until or unless she says not to, it's fantastic. It'll make people laugh, which will make them less worried. And for god's sake record everything."

"Trust me, _that_ I'm doing," he snickered, tapping a control. Taylor and Legend's dialog began spilling out around the city. "I've started at the beginning and I'll edit out some of the pauses to get it to sync up with real time," he muttered, fiddling quickly with the control pad, while she went back to watching and listening. On his other side, Über was laughing so hard he couldn't speak.

' _Holy crap, Taylor, you and your friend have some confidence talking to Legend of all people like this_ ,' she thought with wild glee as the conversation proceeded. ' _I wonder what he thinks about it?_ '

* * *

"So, Mr Foot, what can we do for you? I'm afraid you're either going to have to back up about a hundred feet or wear these." She held up a hard hat and another, much more human sized, high visibility jacket, on the palm of one Brobdingnagian hand. "As the signs say, this is a construction zone. OSHA regulations, you understand, I'm sure. No one can be in a construction zone without the correct safety equipment. I could get in trouble, we don't want the DWU boss shouting at me." She glanced both ways, then raised her other hand to her mouth, whispering in a tone that half the city could hear with ease, "Between you and me, he's sort of scary when he gets mad."

"If you don't want to wear it, you'll either have to wait until I finish this job or shout from way over there," she added, lifting her hand a little while pointing at the line of marker buoys with her other one, one long talon extended.

With an air of unreality, Paul stared at her, apparently sincere, expression, then shook his head a little and flew over, somewhat gingerly landing on her hand then bending down and picking up the hard hat, putting it on while feeling like an idiot. Retrieving the jacket he looked at the writing on the back, thinking that perhaps he should have stayed in bed.

 **Mr Foot AKA LegEnd**

 **Triumvirate Hero**

 **Visitor**

 **"I'll save you, Ma'am"**

Sighing slightly, although internally somewhat amused in a surreal manner, he put the thing on over his costume. Glancing down, he pondered the fact that he was standing on a single hand large enough to support a decent sized car, shivered a little despite himself, and lifted off again.

"Great. Now, what can I do for you today?" she said, sounding pleased. "Oh, hold on a second, this thing is going all sideways." The tanker had caught up with her, as she said slewing around to float at an angle. Rather than straighten it out as he expected, she braced herself with her hind legs and the enormous muscular tail he could make out under the water and caught the ship, stopping its momentum and only sliding about fifty feet or so, a feat he could hardly believe. The mass of the thing had to be in the high tens of thousands of tons minimum and she'd stopped it like a normal man with a heavy shopping cart.

He watched, his mouth a little open, as she carefully shifted the tanker to point directly up-current, then let go again. "We'll have to talk on the move," she said, walking away from it to the ends of the cables, the water coming up to her upper chest by that point, then started swimming again. Turning her head around in a way that looked rather uncomfortable, only possible because of the long neck, she regarded him as she propelled herself along with her tail, her other limbs either trailing behind her or tucked out of the way against her body. Paul flew alongside her a dozen or so yards away.

"What brings you all the way from New York to Brockton Bay?" she asked calmly. "I thought you had enough to deal with down there. I haven't been there myself, though. Perhaps when this job is done I should swim down and visit?"

Alarmed at the thought of a creature like her wading ashore on Staten Island or something along those lines, he shook his head quickly. "Ah, Kaiju, I don't think that would be… entirely a good idea. Not at this precise moment."

"Oh. Pity. I was led to believe that New York was an interesting place." She smiled toothily at him. "One of my sisters might visit instead, at some point. Umihebi is always interested in you land dwellers. She doesn't go on shore much."

"Umihebi?" he asked, feeling worried. There was something in the tone of her voice… "Is she as big as you are?"

"Oh, no," she smiled, shaking her head.

He exhaled silently in relief.

"She's quite a bit bigger. Or heavier, anyway, and longer, I suppose. She can swim a lot faster as well."

The relief had turned back into dread.

"Bigger?"

"Yep." She looked back at the end of her tail, twisting her head around a full hundred and eighty degrees, then turned back to him. "Probably around fifty feet longer, I'd think, but we haven't measured her recently."

"Is she… likely… to want to visit?" he asked slowly.

Kaiju shrugged. "No idea. She's her own person, I don't control her." She smirked at him. "She may well want to go and have a look. But probably not soon, there are other things going on we're busy with."

"Oh, god," he mumbled to himself, wondering how big this ' _Umihebi_ ' actually was. And what the name meant. He was going to have to do some research.

"Excuse me?" she queried.

"Oh, _good_ , I said," he quickly improvised, watching as her eyes narrowed just a little and hoping she hadn't heard him before. "I mean, we're not really… quite ready… for someone as large as you. Or bigger. I mean… Um..." He found himself lost for words, not knowing quite how to continue, in the face of that unnerving stare. He was somewhat out of his depth, facing something that looked like it ate Endbringers by the handful as appetizers yet was quite prepared to carry on a calm conversation while doing large-scale civil engineering projects. A major threat like Behemoth, that he could face with equanimity, giving a speech to raise the morale of a lot of capes who were probably going to die, that was something he was used to. This? This was _weird_.

After a moment she smiled, apparently amused. "You're funny," she chuckled. "I think I like you. Anyway, back to the main point. Why are you here? Just watching, or did you have some other interest in Brockton Bay? Or maybe you have a job for BBFO?"

He'd noticed the writing on her absurdly large jacket, having spend a few seconds once more puzzling over the meaning of the last line which was in a language he was unfamiliar with. The commentators on the Boston TV special hadn't known what to make of it either. The concept that this creature was a member of the Dock Workers Union was also one he was having trouble wrapping his mind around. It had sounded ridiculous on the news, it seemed much more so now that he was only fifty feet from her.

Another thing that had him puzzled, curious, and intrigued was this BBFO, LLC. The news team had quickly looked it up and found all the company details, the various permits, licenses, and everything else that essentially meant that the operation could legally employ parahumans, specifically members of what was being called ' _The Family_ ' but not limited to them. The list of services that the company could provide was impressively, and just a little worryingly, long. Whoever had set it up had done their homework, that much was certain. He hadn't realized that it was even possible, as he'd always thought that the various Parahuman commerce acts more or less banned capes from profiting from their powers in most cases.

Even that oddity paled into insignificance after the most burning question in his mind, though, which was basically, where the hell did she and her sisters come from?

Saurial, when she'd popped up a month ago, had been fairly easily explained as either a Case 53, although she claimed otherwise, or just a rather physically divergent Trigger who had acquired a grab-bag selection of useful powers to go along with the reptilian body. Unusual, but not unprecedented. He'd planned on arranging to meet her eventually, mainly just out of curiosity, as Brockton Bay was so close to his home city.

The appearance of Raptaur, a much less human-looking and far more dangerous individual, had made him do a little research. The way she had casually dealt with Hookwolf while looking mildly disappointed in how easy it was showed beyond doubt that she was extremely dangerous and powerful. But even there, she seemed oddly peaceful, wandering around the city stopping crimes if she came across them, as did Saurial, but not generally going out of her way to actually look for them. It was… not normal, in cape terms.

The fact that both reptiles had very similar if not identical power sets was very strange, although again, not unprecedented. If they were in fact related as they claimed it would go some way towards explaining it. Siblings did sometimes get identical or complimentary powers if they happened to Trigger at the same time or very close to it, and power types often ran in families. Brockton Bay itself had several examples of both phenomena, in the case of Menja and Fenja of the E88, or the various members of New Wave.

So it seemed possible, just rather unusual. Again, something to look into one day, but it seemed a stable situation and he always had more important things going on.

Now, though… Now he was getting worried. This semi-mythical ' _Family_ ' that PHO had been chattering about for weeks, a group of steadily larger and more powerful reptilian capes with identical power sets living somewhere in the waters near Brockton Bay, and only now for some reason starting to come ashore and make themselves known…

He didn't know what to make of it, to be honest. After all, he was aware, as almost no one else was, that aliens did indeed exist. Could these reptiles be aliens, as some of the wilder theories had suggested? The ones promulgated by one specific local swivel-eyed lunatic that they were demons here to take over the world was clearly totally laughable, but aliens, or inter-dimensional travelers, that wasn't entirely impossible.

Unfortunately.

Although it had to be said that if this actually _was_ their origin, they must have been around for some time as they seemed well up on the language, customs, and popular culture. How this could have happened without anyone noticing until now, and why, if that was the case, they had chosen to break cover, was also an interesting question. It was extremely peculiar to say the least.

As was the fact that only one of them was ever seen at any one time.

He'd heard various suggestions as to why, since other people had also noticed, and the most likely one seemed to be the one Raptaur herself had recently half-confirmed, which was that they didn't like to have more than one of them away from home at once. Some unspecified threat was implied.

Staring at Kaiju, he wondered what the hell that could be, if it made something like _this_ worried, or at least cautious.

"Mr Foot?" she asked, sounding mildly curious. "You've gone very quiet and thoughtful."

"My apologies, Kaiju, I was thinking about your questions, and trying to work out the right answers. I'm afraid I'm a little confused by this entire thing, and it threw me off my game. Let me start again."

"Go ahead," she invited, still smiling a reptilian grin that seemed genuinely humorous more than anything else. He got the impression she was having fun.

Looking around he saw that a considerable proportion of the city was watching them with extreme interest while laughing quite hard, and suddenly became aware that his voice was somehow being broadcast to the crowds. He stared at the small device sitting on one of her scales between her eyes, then at the distant figures on the warehouse roof. He sighed, as she grinned more widely.

"I can ask them to turn it off if you want," she commented, clearly knowing full well what he'd noticed and who was responsible.

Debating with himself, he shrugged after a moment. "That might be better for the moment, thank you."

She nodded, saying, "Guys, shut it down for a while, will you please? Sorry, everyone, Mr Foot needs a quick private talk." Glancing over at the still distant forms on the roof, she nodded a few seconds later, apparently hearing a reply, which implied her hearing was extraordinarily good. "There we go." Looking over at the crowd who seemed both amused and disappointed, she waved, smiling, then returned her attention to him.

* * *

Hannah peered through her binoculars, desperately wishing she could hear what Legend was saying now to Kaiju, or what she was saying back. So far everything seemed polite and peaceful but who knew how fast that could change?

She'd nearly had a heart attack when that fucking enormous thing stood up out of the water, not expecting it at all. The previous pass had made her worry that the sea serpent construct was in the bay, but no, there was now a _fourth_ one, which looked like an aquatic version of Raptaur only scaled up by about a dozen times. It was easily eighty feet tall, well over double, nearly triple, the size of Leviathan, and much more solidly built. The thing had to weigh hundreds of tons. And yet again had a very odd sense of humor.

Who was making them, where were they doing it, and most importantly of all, what the hell was it all for? She couldn't figure out why anyone, never mind some shadowy secret cape organization, would make half-scale Godzilla monsters then just use them for marine salvage operations. It didn't make any more sense than anything else about all this did.

She was beginning to get a headache.

Lowering her binoculars, she glanced at Colin, who was talking in a low voice to Dragon, both of them apparently very excited about something. After another thirty seconds or so, Dragon motioned at Kaiju, he nodded, and the pair of Tinkers left, presumably heading to his lab. She wondered why, and hoped it wasn't to come up with some weapon to attack the vast creature, at least not until it was out of the bay.

Turning back to the cityscape, she raised her binoculars again and watched along with most of the Rig staff while Legend had a discussion with the reptilian ship mover.

* * *

Erwin snickered, looking over at Pat, who was standing outside the door to his bar, staring at the great big lizard beastie standing in the water a quarter of a mile away, playing practical jokes on Legend and obviously enjoying herself. "Told you," he said with satisfaction. "Told all of you. I met a huge polite lizard in the bay, but you all said I was nuts."

"You _are_ nuts, you old lunatic," Pat muttered, not looking away from Kaiju. "Everyone knows that. You were just right as well."

"I can live with that," he grinned. Waving his empty pint mug at the barman, he added, "I could do with a beer chaser and some ham sandwiches, if you don't mind."

"This isn't a restaurant," the other man grumbled, but he still collected the glass and went back inside.

Contented, really quite drunk, and in a very good mood, the old fisherman leaned back in his chair and enjoyed the day and the free show.

* * *

"Thanks. I don't want to interrupt you, but I need some answers to a few questions," he said politely. Marshaling his thoughts, he asked, "Where do you come from?"

"Here," she said, raising an enormous hand out of the water and waving it around to indicated the city and bay, her voice quiet enough now that the crowds could probably only hear a distant rumble.

"Originally, I mean," he clarified. She looked carefully at him for a moment, one eyebrow-ridge raised a little, and he got the impression that his addition had made her very curious. And might have given more away than he'd expected.

"Same answer," she smiled. "I was born only a few miles from here. Most of my family was, except for our big brother. He comes from further away."

"I see," he slowly answered, studying her with the same interest she was using on him. "I think. Much further away?"

"Oh, very," she nodded. "Very far away indeed."

"And is this big brother of yours around now?" he asked, not sure he wanted to know what she considered ' _big_ '.

"He's fairly close," she replied. "He can get here quickly if needed, but normally he stays away. Everything is too fragile, you see. He doesn't want to step on anyone."

Paul winced. The thought was… somewhat unpleasant.

"How many of you are there?" he asked after a few seconds. "Aside from Saurial, Raptaur, you, and this Umihebi and your brother."

"A fair number," she told him, looking thoughtful. "To be honest I'm not entirely sure. Enough, anyway."

' _Enough for what?_ ' he mused with some alarm. She met his eyes with hers and the corners of her mouth raised a little, making him sure she was aware of the direction his thoughts were taking him.

"What are your intentions?" he finally asked, the main question that was worrying him. She inspected him closely for a while, then turned her head and scanned the shoreline, before looking back at him. The crowd had gone silent as far as he could tell, watching them closely to see if anything interesting was going to happen. He couldn't work out who, if it came to a scuffle, they would actually root for, which was a little strange.

"We just want to live our lives, help out where we can, and make the world a better place," she smiled gently, radiating an air of truthfulness. "Like you, Mr Foot. That's all. We'll defend the city, or larger areas if necessary, we'll do what we can to make sure things run smoothly, and we're not going to start fights. But if someone else does… Well, we'll end them." There was a tone of finality to that statement that made him wonder exactly how she meant it.

"The _fights_... or... the _capes?_ " he asked after a moment's thought. Her grin was much less friendly this time.

"Whatever it takes to make sure people can live their own lives in peace," she replied.

He shuddered a little. The look on her scaly face seemed to suggest that she didn't see much problem with either solution.

"We're not inherently violent, we're peaceful, but we are _not_ pacifists, you see," she continued after a moment. "We don't look at the world the same way so many of your people do, as good guys and bad guys. Everyone has good and bad in them, with rare exceptions. Even some bad people do good things, and good people do bad things."

She studied him as he listened with interest. "I'm sure you could think of examples of both. Just because someone is labeled a villain doesn't prevent them from helping others, and just because someone is labeled a hero doesn't stop them causing harm. None of us are going to decide how to think of someone because of their label. We'll evaluate them on their own merits." The huge creature looked meaningfully at him. "Personally, I know there are people in this world who are truly evil. There are a few who are truly good. Everyone else is a mix. And of course people can change, either way."

"I see," he finally said, half-truthfully. "An unusual attitude."

"So people keep saying," she chuckled. "We think of it as a pragmatic approach. There are better things to do than fight constantly. Some people understand that, some don't. I had to… persuade… one of the local problems to go away just the other day, in fact. He was annoying my sister and she asked me to help. He seemed to get the message after we talked."

"Who was it?" he asked curiously.

"Some little Salamander who fancied that he was a Dragon." She smiled a little as he coughed in surprise. "He has promise but he's no Dragon yet, trust me. Perhaps one day."

"You… talked _Lung_ into going away?" he asked slowly, staring at her.

"Talked, persuaded, threatened… A little of everything." She grinned slowly, licking her lips with an enormous forked tongue. "I wasn't hungry enough for anything more permanent and he was a minor irritant at best anyway."

"I'm not entirely sure what to think about that," he admitted. The implication was somewhat disturbing.

She shrugged. "Well, nothing happened after that. He left, Raptaur went off with her friends, I got back to work. Everything worked out OK." She fixed him with that glowing gaze. "But the lesson he learned is, The Family protects its own. From _everyone_. Understand?"

He understood, all right. It was a declaration of intent, one that was backed up with teeth. Big pointy ones. There was a new faction in Brockton Bay and apparently it didn't take shit from anyone. They were prepared to deal on an equal footing with hero, villain, or normal citizen, by the looks of it. That could well explain why she seemed perfectly OK with Über and Leet doing whatever it was they were doing, and allowed Leet to land some sort of audio pickup on her. It looked like Panacea was also part of this whole thing which was odd to say the least.

There were a lot of things about this entire scenario that seemed very strange to him. The more he looked at Kaiju the more he became certain that she wasn't actually a Parahuman at all, which was what he'd assumed Saurial and Raptaur were. Which implied neither of _them_ were either. He wanted to simply ask, but wasn't sure the public venue this had turned into was the right forum for the answer. Either way it would make people very confused, and confused people often turned into scared people. So far the city seemed weirdly laid-back about all this, and if anything somewhat proud of their new reptilian neighbors. He didn't want to risk upsetting whatever delicate balance there was going on by asking a question to which the answer would cause panic.

"Why are you all so friendly with the DWU?" he asked curiously, another thing he'd wondered about.

"They're good people, so why not?" she replied. "Like I said, we want to help out and do our best to make this city a better place. It's our home. Those men and women work very hard to keep things going, which we respect, but there have been all sorts of things that caused problems, like this." She indicated the ship placidly floating behind her with one enormous thumb. "Mayor Christner said it better than I can. But it all boils down to the fact that they're the ones who are needed to make this recovery work. I can provide the heavy lifting to move things around, but those guys are the ones who are going to do all the rest. They've treated us fairly, we'll do the same back, and everyone comes out ahead."

"Hmm." He nodded, absorbing her words. She seemed sincere, and if she was indeed telling the truth, it seemed likely that the Mayor's plans were viable. He was aware that the crime statistics in the city had gone down considerably since Saurial arrived on the scene, dropping even more once Raptaur turned up, having checked a while back out of curiosity. Now, with this enormous new one, it seemed likely that it would take a fairly brave or confident opponent to cause trouble.

Although, of course, there were a lot of Parahumans out there who would see the mere existence of something like Kaiju as a challenge. Hopefully there wouldn't be a rush of them to try themselves against her. He couldn't see that ending any other way than badly, whatever happened.

"One last question, then. Are you prepared to help in Endbringer fights? I suspect that you on your own could make a large difference." He watched as she considered him for a few seconds, before slowly nodding.

"We are. Contact has already been made with local Parahumans about the matter. I can't say any more right now, but we'll help where we can."

Paul looked at her for a moment, curious about the deliberate wording of her answer. It was pretty obvious that there was a lot more to it but for whatever reason she didn't want to announce it to the world. Even though she was perfectly happy to disseminate the answers to his previous questions. Wondering about the caginess, he glanced over at the Rig, where practically the entirety of its inhabitants were standing on the flight deck, watching them, much like the city was from the other direction. He could see Armsmaster standing next to Dragon, the pair of them clearly discussing the current situation but looking less worried than he'd have expected, and in fact less worried than many of the people surrounding them.

' _Again, very interesting. I'll need to make some inquiries, I think._ '

"Does that satisfy your immediate concerns, Mr Foot?" she asked politely, looking amused, as he thought.

"Yes, I suppose it does," he answered. "I will undoubtedly have a lot more questions when I've thought about the situation, though."

"Of course. You're welcome to stop by BBFO and chat, if you want. You can find the phone number on the web, we should have a phone installed tomorrow, and we'll have an answering machine. There isn't anyone there all the time right now. Or you can contact Mr Hebert at the DWU, he can give you either Saurial or Raptaur's phone numbers, you can call them directly, or he can probably answer a lot of your questions himself." She smiled at him. "It was nice to meet you, my sisters and friends will be jealous. If I had anything handy I'd ask for an autograph. We've always admired and respected you."

He couldn't help smiling back. "Thank you. I appreciate that. One thing?"

"Yes?"

"Could you stop calling me Mr Foot? Please? It's… a bit weird."

She grinned widely. "Of course, Legend, if you want. I was just amusing myself and breaking the ice." Looking him up and down, she added, "You can keep the safety gear. You might need it, and it's a nice souvenir."

"Thanks, I think," he replied a little uncertainly, shaking his head in mild confusion. The entire experience had been surreal. "I need to go talk to some other people. Good luck with your work."

"It's going well so far," she said in satisfaction, looking back over her shoulder at the ship, then ahead to the docks. "The tide will be turning in a couple of hours, but I'll be most of the way there by then."

"Out of curiosity, could you pull it faster?" he asked.

"Oh, sure, I could have got it from the reef to the docks in about five or six minutes or so, but the waves would have swamped the shore and flooded half the city," she chuckled. "No one would thank me for that. We talked it over with Mr Hebert and decided that letting the sea do most of the work was the safest option. It also gives everyone an afternoon out and a good long look at me, so they get used to me. I'm going to be around quite a bit and we don't want people getting upset."

"OK, I can see the logic in that." Paul watched her for a little longer. "I have to say this isn't quite what I expected to see when I woke up this morning," he laughed.

"Very few people really did," she snickered. "There were some wonderfully confused looks from the crowd. I'm having a lot of fun. Leet and Über's music added a lot to it as well. They picked some really nice tracks."

"Friends of yours?" he asked, looking over at the slightly nearer duo and Panacea, who were watching them through binoculars now.

"I think so," she laughed. "Raptaur met them a while ago and had an interesting talk, and said she thought they were nice guys."

"For villains?"

"For humans." She met his eyes and grinned. "Panacea, of course, is a very good friend of the Family. We value her very much indeed. Glory Girl helped Raptaur demolish some warehouses and is also a friend. None of us have met the rest of her family very much yet but they seem good people and were willing to help out in case anything went peculiar, which so far it hasn't done. Hopefully things will stay calm."

"Hopefully," he nodded. "In that case, I'll leave you to it, and be on my way for now. Thank you for being open with me, I'm sorry I interrupted your work."

"It was no problem," she said, dismissing the concept with a wave of a hand. "I've always got time to talk to you."

Smiling, he waved to her, then headed for the Rig, mulling the conversation over in his head. Behind him, he heard music start up again, having fallen silent during his visit, shaking his head as he heard some Irish voices start singing ' ** _Puff the Magic Dragon_** ' rather well.

"Hey!" A yell from Kaiju made him look back, to see her staring at Leet and his two companions, then shrug, before resuming swimming, this time on her back, waving her arms around as if she was directing the music, an enormous conductor's baton having appeared in one of them. He watched for a moment, shook his head in disbelief, and resumed flying.

"You realize I'm a sea monster, not a dragon, right?" Kaiju's voice rumbled out over the bay. He was almost certain he could hear laughter from the crowd, but didn't look. There was only a certain amount of surreality he could take at once.

* * *

"Very interesting," Über commented as the Protectorate leader headed off towards the Rig. Amy nodded slowly, thinking over the conversation they'd been privy to. It seemed that Legend was being his typically polite and responsible self, mainly wanting to see what was going on. One or two of his questions were a little odd, though. The one about where Kaiju came from ' _Originally_ ' was intriguing. The way he'd said it, he hadn't been implying somewhere like Europe, he meant somewhere a _lot_ further away. Taylor had clearly picked up on it as well, or the Varga had. He'd obviously been advising her in her answers, she recognized some of the speech patterns.

"Mr Foot," Leet snickered, looking through tracks on his controller. He stopped on one, laughed more loudly, then selected it. Amy started giggling instantly at the first couple of bars of music. "People are going to remember that one."

"Won't do him any harm," she smiled. "It humanizes both of them, her playing a joke like that and him taking it in good spirits."

"Hey!" a deep voice shouted, making her laugh again. All three of them were rolling around on the roof when Taylor rolled over in the water and produced a huge baton, which she used to direct the music.


	91. Omake - Mr Foot goes home

Walking into his apartment, Paul put the bag containing the Thai takeaway on the table, then called, "I'm home."

"Aha," Arthur said, coming out of the bedroom and grinning at him. "I understand you had an interesting day."

"You might say that," Paul sighed as they embraced. "I met a very strange person today."

"It was all over the news," his husband said as he released him, then headed for the bag of takeaway, looking into it with interest. "But by the look of it, you got a Foot in the door with her."

Paul stopped dead, half-way to the wine rack, then slumped a little.

"Shit. You heard."

"I did, love, I did," the other man snickered. "Good thing you talk fast, you managed to land on your Foot." He looked up, clearly trying not to burst out laughing. "Best Foot forward, in fact."

"Please stop that," Paul sighed.

"It's a good thing you listened when she told you to stop. You know those Union types, give an inch and they'll take a Foot, then you won't have a Leg to stand on," Arthur continued mercilessly.

"You've been thinking these up all afternoon, haven't you?" Paul groaned.

"Might have, yes. PHO helped, they've got hundreds of them." Arthur looked extremely amused. "Apparently as Mr Foot you have twelve inches, but you don't use it as a rule."

"Oh for god's sake," he sighed, shaking his head.

"She seems nice, though. Sort of large, but nice." His husband started removing the containers of food from the bag, putting them on the table. "I think we should watch a movie with this. What about ' _Footloose_ '? Or ' _My Left Foot_ ', that's pretty good." Arthur had a wide grin on his face, apparently permanently, while Paul groaned again.

"Hey, if we get you cloned twice, will we have the Yard triplets, do you think?"

"Christ, I should have stayed in Brockton Bay," Paul muttered, shaking his head. "At least Kaiju stopped with the jokes when I asked politely."

"Brought her to heel, hmm?"

Paul banged his head on the fridge.

"Had to put your Foot down, dig in your heel, and make sure your relationship started off on the right Foot?"

"Oh, God. Please make it stop." Paul quickly opened a bottle of wine, poured himself a large glass of it, then drank half in one shot.

"Good thing you didn't put your Foot in it, or you'd have had to Leg it."

"GGAAAHHHH!" Paul slugged the rest of the wine, grabbed the now hysterically laughing Arthur, and hauled him towards the bedroom. The other man only had time to grab a container of Pad Thai and a fork before he was taken away, still grinning.

"Good idea! Put your Foot up and relax," the voice said one last time before the door slammed shut, sounding extremely pleased with itself.


	92. Omake - Riteing a Wrong

_Sparked by a comment on SpaceBattles, this wouldn't leave me alone until I wrote it..._

* * *

"Are you sure this is the right way about it, my boy? I mean, summoning a demon? I know the problem is difficult, but surely there's a better way?"

The younger man shook his head while he pored over a ream of parchment which was flowing from the collection of esoteric machinery, much of which looked to be random scraps of junk from someone's elderly aunt's attic mated with a collection of zoological museum displays, central to which was a vast anthill under glass. In the next room a muted humming sound, as of thousands of small wings beating, could be heard rising and falling in pitch to some unknown beat. Around him a number of other, even younger men and women did odd things with the equipment, apparently understanding their jobs, which was more than the older man who had made the question could do. Not that he'd ever admit to this.

"No, Archchancellor, there is no other way. We're sure of that. The problem is already that someone has summoned a demon, it's eating people on a daily basis right now. Three last night according to the Watch. Commander Vimes is furious about it." Ponder Stibbons, the younger man, shivered without looking up from his paperwork. Even as a respected wizard and acknowledged expert in the workings of High Energy Magic, the commander of the Ankh-Morpork Watch terrified him on a level that he found hard to overcome. The man was not only formidable, with a will of iron, but had little respect or time for wizards and was as likely to punch your teeth in as anything if he felt that he wasn't being listened to. Even at an age more than twice that of the research wizard, he was not someone to take lightly.

Not to mention the collection of misfits, weirdos, and highly dangerous semi-monsters that he now employed in the Watch itself. They had gone from a small collection of barely competent layabouts into a significant fighting force that was the envy of most other cities, and feared by criminals and other ne'er-do-wells across the Disc. Mostly due to Commander Samuel Vimes, who would famously take pretty much anyone who would swear loyalty to the city and do their job right. He didn't seem to realize that most of them were actually loyal to him rather than the city, or care if he did. As long as they upheld the law in a way that kept things running, he was more than happy to pay them.

The end result was that in the last few years Ankh-Morpork had both become a much stranger place than ever, and yet paradoxically a much safer one as well. One would not have thought that with a law enforcement system containing werewolves, golems, trolls, dwarfs, even a vampire or two, that anything other than utter chaos would have reigned on the streets, but in fact the exact opposite had mostly happened.

Even so, the man still terrified Stibbons. It was said that the Assassin's Guild had declared that he was totally off limits, only the second time that this had ever happened, as the fellow was simply too dangerous and difficult to kill. They'd lost a lot of people attempting it and had been in danger of becoming a laughingstock, which didn't go down well with them. No sense of humor, those people. Or style, always wearing black like that.

The arrival of what had eventually been determined to be a rather nasty demon of some sort, called by persons unknown for reasons that were also unknown, probably from one of the Dungeon Dimensions, had caused considerable upset to the inhabitants of the city. Not surprising, considering that a fair few of them had apparently been eaten by the thing, based on the traces found after the fact.

There were no witnesses, or at least, no witnesses that had had witnesses.

While it was so far restricting itself to the area of the city known as the Shades, which was not a place that he himself would ever want to visit for numerous reasons, not least of which was that even absent a demon it was the sort of place that ate people alive, it was generally thought that sooner or later it would either run out of victims or patience and widen its predations to the rest of the city. No one wanted that.

The Patrician had issued suggestions that this should be dealt with forthwith. Not orders, the Patrician never issued orders, only suggestions that left you thinking that he was really quite serious that you should see to it immediately. If not sooner.

It was something in the tone of voice.

Commander Vimes, on the other hand, _he_ issued orders. Forcefully, intensely, and with a certain vigor that left you once more thinking that you should get on with it.

So Stibbons had.

He was one of a number of experts who had been tasked with working out what the hell was eating people, and unfortunately drew the short stick when it was determined by the other experts, from the Assassin's guild, the various temples and religious centers, and one or two other magic users, that this was something best handled by a wizard. And look, there was one right there. Convenient, that.

Essentially, everyone else had taken one large perfectly synchronized step back leaving him blinking in mild shock and looking around in a puzzled manner, until he worked out what was going on.

Shock became worry when he found that both the Patrician and Vimes were now looking toward _him_ to find a solution to their little problem. Now, please, be quick about it, and try not to kill yourself if possible.

Rather irritated that he, one of the youngest, smartest, and (in his own opinion) sanest wizards in the entire Unseen University faculty, had ended up with this frankly extremely dangerous and thankless task, rather than someone like, for example, the Archchancellor, a man who positively enjoyed hunting, he'd wandered back to his office and called his people together. They'd spent the last three and a half days going over every book and scroll they could think of that might suggest a method to find, destroy, kill, unsummon, or whatever else was required to get rid of this damn demon. Eventually the beginnings of a plan had gelled and they'd set Hex, their magic powered thinking engine, to work to flesh out the details.

It had done so, although even it couldn't really predict what the end result would be. In its own way it had seemed more than a little smug when it had basically told them that the only way to find out was to try it and see what happened.

Stibbons was somewhat irritated by the fact that the entire collection of half-understood thaumaturgical machinery had needed eight hours of whatever it was it did to tell him the bleeding obvious. He'd worked _that_ out for himself instantly.

It wasn't the bloody _machine_ that was going to risk its soul or whatever to try to call up another demon to get rid of the first one, after all. He was still slightly hazy on how they'd get rid of the second one.

For a moment he had a wild thought about having to summon larger and larger, more and more dangerous demonic creatures, each one destroying the one that came before. The main problem he could see with that was what did they do with the last one when they ran out of demons?

Vaguely wondering if they could arrange things so that it froze to death in winter, while knowing full well it was only just spring, he sighed, finished checking things over, and handed off the paperwork to a passing student who ran off with it to the corner of the large magical laboratory.

Turning to the Archchancellor, who was watching him with raised eyebrows in an expectant manner, he shrugged again. "We've gone over everything we could think of. There's no other way. The High Priest of Blind Io spent nearly two hours trying to scry for the damn thing but only got a nosebleed, and the head of the Assassin's guild came running out of the Shades after half an hour, white as a sheet, and swore he'd never go back under any circumstances."

"Priests. Hmph. Bunch of fat lazy layabouts in dresses," the Archchancellor muttered in rebellious tones, straightening his robes. Stibbons watched, opened his mouth to say something, then shook his head slightly and closed it again with a small sigh.

After a moment, he went on, "What we came up with is something rather different that a normal demon-summoning ritual, though, Sir. Those are, as you know, wildly dangerous and more than a little prone to… well, unpleasant failures are the better option. It's often _more_ unpleasant if they actually _work_."

Both men shivered a little, remembering tales of Wizards who had Overstepped Their Bounds.

"Anyway, this should be much safer. It's a modified version of the Rite of AshkEnte..."

"What?!" Ridcully yelped in horror. "That thing? It's for summoning… Him. And He doesn't like it. I swear that the last time He was frowning at me." The experienced wizard was slightly pale, glancing nervously into the corners of the room as if he expected the subject of their conversation to unexpectedly jump out at them and shout **BOO!** Which, bearing in mind the particular Anthropomorphization under discussion, was very unlikely in Stibbons' opinion. Death wasn't noted for a sense of humor.

"I fail to see how He can frown, Sir," Ponder commented. "Considering that all he has to work with is a skull."

"Trust me when I say he can, and leave it at that."

"As you wish, Sir. Anyway, this is a significantly modified Rite of AshkEnte, it won't attract attention from the normal recipient. Or at least, not in a way that he'd consider a summons." In a much lower voice he added, " _I hope._ "

"What was that?" Ridcully asked sharply.

"I said I didn't think He will consider it a summons."

"Then you said something else."

"No, Sir, I just cleared my throat." Stibbons tried to look innocent.

"Hmm." His superior didn't appear entirely convinced but also didn't press the point.

" _Anyway_ , we'll be ready to run the Rite in about six hours. It has to be started precisely at Moonrise. Hex will do the actual ritual, but we need to keep an eye on it in person. It's all to do with Quantum Uncertainty, you see, if there aren't any observers odd things can happen."

"Quantum, eh?" Ridcully nodded wisely. "I see. Quantum is tricky stuff. All right, I suppose you'd better carry on. I'll be back to see what happens."

"Commander Vimes and some of his people will be here as well," Stibbons mentioned, which made the Archchancellor look approving. For some reason, he and Vimes got on like a house on fire, and not in the traditional meaning of the phrase, what with the flames, screaming people, and death. They actually liked and respected each other. In fact, the Archchancellor was probably the only wizard that the Commander actually respected.

"Excellent, very good, carry on." With a final nod of approval the older wizard made his way out of the room, casting the hulking machinery that constituted Hex a suspicious look as he passed it. Ponder watched him go, sighed again, then went back to work.

* * *

"Ready on the Thaumic Converter, sir," one of the student wizards called. "Reservoirs at eighty percent full and climbing."

"Runic array online in five, four..." Another student counted down. At ' _one_ ' there was a sub-bass thump that shook the entire building to its foundation. "Online and running."

"Summoning Circle Impingement Amplifiers at full power. Nothing's getting out of that," a third voice called, as the air rippled with weird colors over the glittering metallic symbols etched into the marble floor between two circles, the inner one of which was some eight feet across. The wavering light show formed a barrier around the inner circle which occasionally made a crackling sound and emitted sparks when stray air currents brushed over it.

"Hex calculating final summoning vectors..." A fourth student spoke up from by the main console, watching the ants running around frantically in their tubes. The hum from the next room rose to a deep thrumming sound in which one could almost hear words if one was incautious enough to actually listen for too long.

"We're ready, Archchancellor," Ponder said, looking around at his people then back to the several other individuals who were watching with varying expressions. Commander Vimes was thoughtfully puffing on a cigar, the smoke from which was making Stibbons' eyes water, but he didn't have the nerve to ask the other man to put it out.

Beside him, the statuesque blonde figure of Captain Angua was watching everything with eyes that missed nothing. Next to her, the even larger figure of Captain Carrot was also watching, looking interested yet wary.

The Archchancellor nodded. "Get on with it, then. Let's see what happens, then we can have dinner."

Stibbons looked at the man for a moment, before turning away with an inner feeling that no one appreciated the sheer amount of magical inventiveness that had gone into this entire enterprise. He and his small team were breaking new ground in High Energy Magic and the man was thinking about food.

And now he was hungry.

Perfect.

Sighing faintly, he nodded to the young woman at the console, who nodded back, closed her eyes, and slammed her right hand down on the large red button they'd installed specifically for this operation. It depressed with a solid ' _clunk_ '.

Everyone tensed.

Nothing happened.

She opened her eyes, looked around, stared at the circle, then looked down at the button.

"Oh. The safety is still on. Whoops." She giggled a little nervously as Ponder rolled his eyes, rotated the button until it snapped back into the firing position, moved a small unremarkable lever to the side, then poked it again. The ' _clunk_ ' sound came once more.

 _This_ time it was accompanied by a steadily rising hum, not coming from the immense beehive in the next room, but instead from the circle. A chill wind began to blow outwards from the center of the summoning area. The room steadily and slowly darkened, the magical lights around the walls dimming and the torches that had been lit specifically for the atmosphere dancing and flickering.

Ponder looked around, satisfied. It had taken ages to get the special effects working properly.

Returning his attention to the circle, he saw a point of light growing in the middle of it, several feet from the floor, of a color that was indescribable. It grew slowly and steadily, eventually reaching the ground and half-way to the ceiling, at which point it stabilized, filling the center of the circle with misty light.

"Very impressive, my boy." The Archchancellor sounded approving. "I like the wind, it's a nice touch. That's Quantum, is it?"

"No, it's a portal to the demon worlds, Sir," he replied absently, watching intently. "Hex is now sending the summoning spell into the portal. It will locate our required demon and attract it here to where we can bind it and bargain with it. Any time now..."

Everyone waited.

"Pretty soon..."

They waited some more. The hum got slightly louder.

"Right... about… Now..."

Not a lot continued to happen.

Ponder looked at his colleagues. The girl at the console shrugged, and prodded the button a couple of times for luck. Nothing came of it.

"Not much going on, Stibbons," Ridcully commented, leaning forward thoughtfully and poking the barrier with the stem of his pipe, which produced a spark of stray magic and a nasty snapping sound. "What's supposed to happen again?"

"The demon should appear in the circle," Ponder muttered, flipping through his notes. "Odd. I don't understand what the problem is. We ran the calculations seven times."

"You missed a decimal place right here, see?" A hand came over his shoulder, a claw-tipped finger tapping the page in the middle of one complex calculation. He absently noted that it was covered in light blue, fine scales. "It should be ten point three four nine six, but you've got one point zero three four nine six. Your power level is only ten percent what it needs to be."

"Damn. You're right," he grumbled, pulling a pencil from behind his ear and scribbling in the correction. "Thanks."

"No problem."

The voice was cheerful, female, and had an odd hissing accent.

"We're going to have to start all over again, Sir," he sighed, looking up at Ridcully, who for some reason was staring over his shoulder, his pipe almost dropping out of his mouth. "There wasn't enough energy to do more than open… a… doorway..."

Stibbons ground to a halt. Then he looked around at the other people in the room, all of whom were looking at something behind him.

He counted.

Then he counted again.

Then he closed his eyes for a moment. There were nine people in the room, and none of them had scaly blue hands.

For that matter, he didn't know _anyone_ with scaly blue hands.

But he had a pretty shrewd idea that there was someone meeting that description standing _right behind him_ , who _had not_ been there until very recently.

About the time the portal opened, in fact.

"I was curious," the voice said, as the portal guttered out when the magical power ran down. "I don't see a lot of magic at home, you see, so when that portal opened right next to me I thought I'd check it out. Nice place you have here. What's that thing for?"

He swallowed, then turned around, to see the owner of the voice and the hand wandering around the room studying everything curiously. She, and it was definitely female even though it was just as definitely not human, was currently looking at Hex with an expression that seemed both fascinated and somewhat dubious.

Ponder studied their guest. She stood about six and a half feet tall, was covered in fine bluish scales, was clearly reptilian in nature, and was wearing a dark blue set of armor, a breastplate, arm and leg protectors, and a skirt of slender metallic strips making up the majority of it. There was a four or five foot long tail coming out from under the rear of the skirt.

Overall she looked like a man-sized lizard that was on two legs, although he had no doubt that she was far more. There was a sensation of barely leashed magical potential coming from her that he had a horrible feeling was more than the entire staff of the University could hope to even approach, a type of magic that he had never encountered before.

She looked over at him, ignoring the frozen student who was staring at her from feet away with a look of terror. "This is almost a sort of computer, isn't it?" she asked.

"Computer?" he responded slowly.

"A… thinking machine, I guess?"

"Oh. Yes. That's exactly what it is."

"Neat." She leaned forward and tapped one of the ant tubes with a claw. Hex made a strange whirring clicking sound and the printing mechanism sprang into action. She moved to where she could read what the suspended quill was writing.

" _Please reinsert Universe and reboot_?" she queried, sounding amused. " _Also, please don't do that, it tickles_? Strange machine." She stroked the ant tube a couple of times in an almost affectionate manner then turned to them. "So, what were you trying to do, anyway? That was a very weird portal spell. You were obviously looking for something specific."

"Um." Ponder looked wildly around. She was talking to _him._ The Archchancellor looked at him with the air of someone whose problem it wasn't and took a couple of steps back. The three Watchmen were living up to their name and just watching, although both Captains had drawn swords, which were held ready but not aggressively. Commander Vimes was simply watching without any change in expression or posture.

"Um," he said again. She cocked her head to the side like a curious cat. "We… were trying to summon a demon."

"OK." She nodded. "You got one. What for?"

" _You're_ … a demon?" He gaped. He wasn't sure what he'd expected, but odd as she was, ' _Demon_ ' wasn't quite the word he'd have used. She seemed… too cheerful.

"Yep. Well, strictly speaking, half demon. Sort of. Anyway, close enough for most purposes. So, why did you want a demon?" She cocked her head the other way. "You can call me Saurial, by the way."

"Oh. Um." He was at a loss for a moment. Behind him, the Archchancellor cleared his throat meaningfully, making him twitch, which seemed to amuse her based on the smile, which exposed a _lot_ of teeth. "We have a problem with a demon that we thought only another demon could solve."

"Ah." Saurial nodded slowly. "I think I see. This is a magical world, isn't it?"

"Yes, it is," he confirmed. The statement seemed to suggest she had a working knowledge of both magic and other worlds. "As far as we can tell someone has performed a ritual to summon something, and either lost control of it, or deliberately set it loose. It's killed at least a hundred and fifteen people in the last six weeks. No one can work out how to even find it, never mind kill it. Or just send it back where it came from. We don't care which, we just want it gone."

"Fair enough. That's understandable. I guess I could look into it for you. I assume you can fire this thing up again and send me back?" She fixed him with a look that suggested that he damn well better be able to, or there was going to be trouble. "I can do it myself but it'll take some time to get used to your magic, and I don't want to be away from home too long. I'm kind of busy."

"I..." He quickly looked at his students, who stared back, then nodded as one. "Yes, we can. It needs to be done on a full moon, though, so that's the next two nights, or a month from now."

"OK. It shouldn't take long." Saurial smiled at him. He shuddered a little. "Where am I, anyway?"

"You're in the High Energy Magic building in the Unseen University of Ankh-Morpork, the oldest city in the world, my dear," the Archchancellor suddenly replied, having apparently decided that bloody death wasn't on the cards and therefore it was safe to get involved. "I am Archchancellor Mustrum Ridcully. It's nearly time for dinner, as it happens. Would you care for something to eat after your trip?" He was slathering on the bonhomie with the enthusiasm of a pastry chef faced by a huge bowl of icing and an enormous cake. Saurial looked at him, then Ponder, before nodding with a smile.

"Why not? I could eat."

"Excellent. Come with me. You're welcome to join us, Sam," he added, glancing at Vimes, who was still watching with a professionally blank expression. "You can explain the situation to our guest."

After a few seconds, the other man nodded slowly. "All right, I think I'll do that." He looked at both Captains, then all three followed as Ridcully left with Saurial beside him, her tail twitching back and forth like that of an interested cat. Left behind, Ponder stared after them, stunned at how quickly everything had gone. After a moment, he sighed, turned to his people and ordered them to clean up and shut everything down properly, then hurried after his first successfully summoned demon.

Now he was really hungry.

And confused.

Very confused...

* * *

"You're not human." Angua looked sharply around to see the reptilian girl, demon, whatever she was, looking curiously at her from a few feet away. She hadn't heard a thing to give away the presence of the other female until she spoke, or more worryingly, smelled anything either.

"What makes you think that?" she asked cautiously. Saurial tapped her muzzle with one clawed finger.

"The nose knows. As you know, if I guess right. Werewolf or something like that?"

After a moment Angua nodded. "Yes. Have you met werewolves before?"

"No. As far as I know they're mythical on my world. But I have a friend who is familiar with them, and I can smell the canine in you." Saurial smiled a little. "This is a very strange place even by my terms. No one at home will ever believe me about where I've been."

"What's your home like?" she asked curiously, wondering about somewhere a demon would call home.

"More technologically advanced than your world, definitely, although it probably doesn't make much difference in some ways. More dangerous, definitely. We have all sorts of strange abilities like magic there, and a lot of very unpleasant people using them to get their own way." Saurial shrugged a little. "It's the nature of people everywhere, it seems. Give them an edge over others and a lot of them jump at it no matter what it does to other people."

Angua nodded with a sigh. "I understand. We have all to much of that here as well."

"But you have a lot more species all living more or less peacefully together, which is interesting," the scaly woman noted, peering out the window into the dark of the night. "All those smells… So many different people. I find it… fascinating." She grinned. "This is a change from my normal life, certainly. And that was a really good meal. Anyway, I guess I need to go and find this demon of yours. Where did you say this Shades place was?"

"Head towards the Docks and just follow your nose," Angua said dryly. "You can't miss it."

"Docks, hmm? Just like home," Saurial said with a smile of amusement. She stuck her head out the window next to them and looked around, then down, from the six stories up position that Angua had chosen as a suitable place to think in. "OK. See you later." She dove headfirst out the window.

More than a little surprised the Watch Captain stuck her own head out the window in a hurry and looked down. There was no sign of the self-described half-demon. "Up here," her voice came from above. Angua turned around so she was almost lying on the windowsill, looking up the wall. Ten feet above her, Saurial was somehow clinging to the sheer stone face with her claws, head down, looking at her. "I'll be back when I've had a look around."

She rapidly turned around then scuttled up the wall and over the roof. The last Angua saw of her was the end of her tail vanishing from sight. Thoughtfully she retreated back into the building, tapped her fingers on the windowsill for a while as she looked out at the lights of the city.

"I wonder what we've unleashed on the world," she muttered to herself, before she went off to find Carrot and Vimes.

* * *

Arthur 'Knifey' Johnson was not a nice person. He knew it, his friends, what there were of them, knew it, the Watch knew it, and more than anyone, his victims knew it. His nickname was well chosen, he was a dab hand with a blade, for everything from slitting purses to slitting throats. These days he was more into the latter than the former, it was quicker and easier and had the distinct advantage of not leaving people to complain that they were missing things that they valued.

They were still missing things, of course, but they were no longer really up to complaining, except possibly to whatever collected them from their cooling bodies.

Arthur was merrily plying his trade, having made quite a profit tonight, when he heard something… not normal. He'd discounted the stories of something unnatural and even more bloodthirsty than the usual inhabitants of the area prowling the Shades, not being one to believe in anything he couldn't see with his own eyes, and preferably stick with his own blade, but there was something about the skittering sound in the dark behind and above him that right put the wind up him.

It had sounded half a dozen times in the last fifteen minutes, apparently following him, but every time he looked around suspiciously, he couldn't see anything at all. At first he'd thought it was a rat, but they seemed oddly absent as well, which was strange for this area of the city. If nothing else it produced rats the size of cats, and twice as vicious.

The sound came again, from directly above him. He stopped dead and snapped his head up, staring into the sky, but could only see a few of the brighter stars through the fog and smoke from innumerably stoves and fires in the area. The alleyway he was in was even twistier than usual in this part of the Shades, leading between two wider streets he was hoping to find more prey on.

Peering around with a knife ready in his hand, he eventually shook his head. "Hearing things," he muttered to himself.

THINGS CAN STILL BE VERY DANGEROUS, ARTHUR a voice said in his ear.

He jumped, whirling around to see who had snuck up beside him, while lashing out with the knife in the same move. Nothing happened and he couldn't see anyone.

"Who said that?" he demanded hotly.

ONLY ME, ARTHUR. DON'T WORRY, I'M JUST HERE TO WATCH. GO ABOUT YOUR BUSINESS.

He looked wildly around. There was still no one there.

Shaking his head again, he scuttled off down the alley. Above him the sound came again. He scuttled faster.

Behind him, a skeletal head tilted curiously skyward. I WONDER WHAT THAT REALLY IS? the sepulchral voice mused. VERY ODD INDEED.

* * *

"What was that?"

"What?"

"That scream."

"A scream, I think."

Fred Colon looked at his old friend Nobby and sighed. "I just said that."

"What?"

"That it was a scream."

"So why ask what it was if you already knew?"

They looked at each other.

"I… don't know." Sergeant Colon shrugged. "Just the sort of thing you say, right? You hear a scream, you say, ' _What was that?_ ' It's… thingy… you know, tradition."

"Oh, right. Got you." Nobby nodded wisely.

"Should we do something about it?"

"About what?"

"That scream."

"What scream?"

There was a loud howl of sheer gutwrenching terror from some distance off, although nearer than before. "That scream?" Fred quavered. It sounded horrible.

"What _should_ we do about it, do you think?" His old friend didn't seem keen on leaving the warm building and going to investigate strange bloodcurdling screams in the dark. Oddly enough, he wasn't either.

The scream came again, even closer, and more terror-stricken. It was cut off halfway through in a gurgle. Both men listened intently, still as stone. Eventually Nobby said in a tone that mixed satisfaction with apprehension, "It stopped, so we don't have to do anything, right?"

Fred was trying to work out what to reply when there was a solid knock on the door, which then creaked open. Both Watchmen jumped and turned, then stared. The figure who entered was not one they'd ever seen before.

Nothing at all like anything they'd seen before.

"Hi," the slender scaly thing said in a cheerful voice. "You're Night Watch, right?"

Fred finally managed to nod.

"Great. Look, I'm out looking for this demon of yours and this idiot kept turning up and trying to mug people." She flipped the firmly bound and absolutely terrified form off her shoulder and onto the floor of the custody building. "He's being a nuisance. He had half a dozen knives on him, here they are. They're not very good, but he might be dangerous. I thought you guys would want to talk to him or something."

Fred stared at her, then Nobby, who seemed stunned. "Ah, thank you?" he tried. She smiled, making both of them flinch.

"No problem. Look, I have to get back to work, but if I find any more like him, I'll bring them by. I don't like people who stick knives in other people." She turned to her captive and bent down, putting her face inches from his. "And I have a _really_ good memory for people. I tend to be very unsympathetic if I catch them twice. I _never_ catch them three times. Understand, my friend?"

The man on the floor, who was bound up in some sort of glittering gray metallic netting which looked far too delicate to be as strong as it clearly was nodded jerkily, his face green and his trousers damp.

"Good. See you around. The net will last about an hour." She straightened up, nodded to Fred and Nobby, then disappeared back into the night. There was a very long period of silence.

Eventually Nobby got up and went to look at the man on the floor. "Here, this is Knifey Johnson," he exclaimed in surprise. "We've been after him for weeks."

"Oh," Fred replied blankly. After a few seconds, he blinked. "Oh!" he said in a more intelligent voice. He smiled. "The Captain will be pleased. Let's get the bastard in a cell."

"I'll get the mop," Nobby remarked, looking at the puddle on the floor surrounding the still shaking man. "Who do you think that was? A new one of our lot?"

"No idea. But if she wants to bring us criminals, I'm not going to complain," Fred replied, while he fumbled through his desk for the cell keys. "Saves us going to have to look for them. Much safer."

"True," Nobby commented. He kicked the man in the ribs, then looked innocent when his nominal superior gave him a hard look. "Sorry. Slipped. On the floor. Because it's wet, like."

Sighing, Colon heaved himself out of the comfortable chair and proceeded to book the new client into the cells.

* * *

"Hi, Ponder," the voice of Saurial said from behind him, making him emit a short scream and jump a foot in the air. He landed facing the other way with the grace of a drunk cat, which was to say not very, stumbled a little, and was caught by a pair of strong hands. "Sorry. Did I startle you?"

Breathing heavily he nodded, glaring at the reptilian demon girl, who looked amused. "Yes. You did. How did you get in here?"

"Through the window," she replied, gesturing to the opening that was at least twenty feet up a sheer wall. He looked at it, then her. She wiggled clawed fingers. "I can climb really well."

"Oh." Shaking his head, he waited until his heartbeat dropped to something approaching normal. "Where have you been all night?"

"Out looking for your demon," she said, looking around with interest, then walking over to study Hex again. "I kept finding annoyingly bad criminals, though, they're all over the place out there. I dropped them off at the Watch house until that nice Sergeant Colon told me all the cells were full, then I left them tied up in the yard outside. He seemed surprised that I found so many." She shrugged. "I seem to attract them. Anyway, I found your demon."

"You found it?!" Ponder stared at her in shock. "How? Where?"

"It's living in a building in the middle of that Shades place, underground in a basement or something like that. I could smell it. I didn't go in after it because there are too many people living around the place, if it sensed me coming it might have gone for them instead. You need to quietly evacuate the area, then I can get it."

"We'll need to talk to Commander Vimes and get him to sort that out," Ponder replied. "He's still talking to the Archchancellor, I think, they've been up all night. Come on."

She followed him as he unwarded and unlocked the door to the lab, hurrying across the courtyard to the main building and Ridcully's office. Shortly they were talking to the two men, who looked tired but pleased.

"Excellent work, Saurial," Vimes said approvingly. "Thank you."

"You're welcome, sir," she replied politely with a nod. "If possible I'd like to get this done today so I can catch tonight's portal home." She gave Stibbons a humorous look, making him sigh slightly. "I have plans for tomorrow that I'd hate to miss."

"Of course. I'll get that area evacuated immediately. Do you think that the demon will notice?"

"Probably not, I'm fairly sure it's nocturnal and is probably asleep or something like that," she said thoughtfully. "If you're quiet and quick it will probably stay like that."

"All right. Mustrum, it's been a pleasure talking."

"Any time, Sam. Give my best to Sybil." The Archchancellor yawned slightly.

"I'll do that." Standing, Commander Vimes put a new cigar in his mouth and lit it with a match, flipping the stick into the fireplace, then strode out of the room. Ponder and Saurial followed him.

Four hours later, approaching noon, Ponder and several Watchmen were standing near the worst part of the Shades watching as Saurial talked to Vimes. After a moment, she nodded, then disappeared into the maze of twisty alleyways, all alike. The Commander stared after her for a moment before coming back to them. "She may be a demon or whatever, but she knows her business," he commented admiringly. "Wherever she comes from she's done this sort of thing before. I'm half-tempted to offer her a job."

"I don't think she wants to stay, Commander," Stibbons noted. "Although she seems friendly enough."

"She's caught more criminals in one night than we normally manage in a week," one of the watchmen remarked a little irritably. "She'd put us all out of work inside a month."

Vimes produced a small smirk, not saying anything. The watchman's colleagues glared at him, with one of them poking him hard in the shoulder with his truncheon. Ponder watched, mildly amused, then whirled around at the horrific screech that echoed around the buildings.

" **I AM KKRTHZ, LORD OF DESTRUCTION, YOU INSIGNIFICANT LIZARD,** " a horrific voice howled from somewhere in the direction that Saurial had gone. " **YOU CANNOT WIN. I WILL DESTROY THIS WORLD AND TAKE ITS ENERGY FOR MY OWN.** "

Enormous crashing noises followed, along with more screams and inchoate yells. A huge cloud of dust rose over the rooftops. Behind them, crowds of people gathered to watch, take bets, eat dubious meat byproducts in a bun, and do all the other things that Ankh-Morporkians tended to do in a crisis.

" **FOUL LITTLE CREATURE, HOLD STILL THAT I MIGHT SMITE YOU!** "

A huge explosion sounded, throwing fragments of wood and stone clear over the roofs to where they were, little pieces of what was probably once a building raining down around them.

" **NO. NO! YOU CANNOT DO THAT! IT'S IMPOSSIBLE!** " The huge voice sounded panicked suddenly. " **NO! RELEASE ME!** "

There was a world-filling scream of horror, made by something that itself was a horror beyond knowing. Then the entire area fell silent, to the point that you could hear drops of sweat falling from one of the watchmen.

Footsteps sounded, coming closer. The guards drew their weapons and huddled together.

Saurial appeared from between two buildings, looking pleased with herself. Walking over she looked around, then peered at the huge crowd of onlookers, who were staring at her in silent shock. "What's wrong with them?" she asked curiously.

Ponder looked over his shoulder, shrugged, and turned back to her. "No idea. Did you get it?"

"Yep," she smiled toothily, then burped discreetly. "It was delicious."

He went green, while even Vimes paled somewhat.

"You… ate it?"

"Sure. It needed a little pepper, or something spicy like that, but luckily I got some of this neat sauce from your Archchancellor." She held up a small bottle that Ponder recognized. He discreetly sidled a little further away from it, just to be on the safe side. "It's really good. But that stupid thing isn't a problem any more. I found this as well." She handed him a small book.

" _On the Summonyng Of Ye Daemons and Other Fell Beasts_ ," Ponder read out loud. " _A Practicale Treatise by Gonglra the Foul_."

"No trace of whoever it was that used that book to call the thing, but I'd guess he didn't make it," she noted. "You should probably lock it up. Or burn it."

"Books like this tend to be hard to destroy," Ponder sighed. "I'll make sure the Librarian gets it. He can keep it safe."

"Good enough. Anyway, I think that's it. No more demon, most of your muggers and the like from this area are all locked up, and I've had a really good lunch." Saurial looked pleased. "This has been an interesting trip. Thanks."

"You're welcome, I think," Stibbons replied. He glanced at Vimes, who seemed torn between laughing and looking mildly confused.

"I could do with something to drink after that, though," she went on, "then maybe a nap. When can you do that ritual again?"

"Tonight at Moonrise," he said. "The reservoir is recharging and should be ready well before then. It's enough to run the portal, although as you pointed out not enough to run the entire spell."

"That'll be enough," she told him with a smile. "I can find my own way back from there. Thanks."

"You're welcome. I'm glad you were able to help and not angry about the summoning." He was more than relieved, to be honest. Having found out what she was apparently capable of, he decided that he didn't think experimenting with summoning spells was a good use of his time any more for several reasons.

"It was nice to meet you and your people, Commander," Saurial said, turning to Vimes and holding out her hand. He took it and shook it.

"Likewise," he replied. "Thank you for your help. If you're ever in the area again, feel free to drop in."

"It probably won't happen, but it if does, I'll do that," she smiled. "Come on, Ponder. You can show me where to find something drinkable." Waving to Vimes and the other Watchmen, she wandered off, Stibbons nodding to the Commander then running after her. The crowd watching quickly parted to allow her through.

Behind them, Commander Vimes watched, lit a new cigar, then turned to his men. "Come on, let's see what's left," he said, waving in the direction of whatever it was that had happened, before heading in that direction. Somewhat uncertainly, his people brought up the rear.

* * *

"Thank you very much, Archchancellor," Saurial exclaimed with a broad smile on her scaled face as she looked at the small parcel in her hand. It clinked when she gently shook it. Both Ridcully and Stibbons paled a little and stepped back.

"Ah, ideally you shouldn't agitate it too much," Ridcully said. "Or let it get wet. Or hot. Or cold. Or put it near lemons. Or coal."

"It's slightly unstable," Ponder added in a bout of massive understatement.

"OK," she replied with a grin, putting the half dozen bottles of Wowwow sauce carefully into a pouch on her belt. "I'll be careful."

Turning to the summoning circle, in which the same point of light was slowly growing, she tipped her head a little, then nodded. "Yes, it's going to the right place. Great." They waited until it had stabilized at full size. "See you around, guys. It's been fun." Waving to the other wizards who were watching from a safe distance, she walked into the cloud of misty light and vanished.

Just before it dissipated, Ponder heard a distant female voice say, " _Where the hell did you disappear to? We still have this damn Endbringer to deal with._ "

" _Sorry, I had to deal with something weird,_ " Saurial's voice said faintly. " _It was really cool, though, their world is completely nuts. It's flat, and balanced on..._ " The portal faded from view, taking the voices with it.

Sighing slightly, feeling that he'd had an interesting adventure, but was very glad he could go back to normal life, Ponder nodded to his team who shut everything down, then turned to the Archchancellor. "That seems to be that, Sir."

"So it does. Interesting girl. Now, explain this Quantum to me again, will you, my boy?"

Ridcully looked curiously at the summoning circle.

Ponder sighed more heavily, then began speaking. Again. For the fourth time in a month.

He expected that it wouldn't be the last.


	93. David and Rebecca

"Are you certain?"

"Yes. We've recovered all the remains that were still present. There's only trace amounts of the body mass of either Jack Slash or Jake Petty, they had no protection from the explosion and were virtually vaporized. DNA evidence was present over a large area. The bus was blown to fragments, as were the occupants. Even Hatchet Face was killed instantly by the shock wave, the amount of explosives under the road was phenomenal. The way they'd laid everything out, it acted like a huge shaped charge, blowing shrapnel upwards through the vehicle."

"How many of them did he get?" David looked both impressed and appalled.

"More or less all of them. We found the bodies, or partial bodies, of Bonesaw, Hatchet Face, Shatterbird, Mannequin, Manton, and Burnscar. DNA evidence of Jack Slash, as I said, but nothing more, he was turned into a fine mist. No sign of Crawler, he wasn't with them at the time." She looked somewhat bemused. "He also basically got the Siberian when Manton died."

"What the hell was Manton doing in the same vehicle? That wasn't his normal practice." David stared at her, then at Doctor Mother and Contessa, who looked thoughtful and more or less neutral respectively.

"We're… not sure. The position of what was left of the body and other evidence, though, shows that he was driving the bus. A team backtracked them and found a vehicle in a town that they'd gone through which had his fingerprints and DNA all over it. It had a transmission fault which had disabled it."

The man also known as the superhero Eidolon nodded slowly.

"We also found a large van that had evidence showing that it was the one that the S9 used. Tracing its movements through traffic cameras and the like proved difficult but possible, they'd been driving back and forth through some very isolated places. And of course there were few survivors in a state to give any information. The Thinkers' assumption is that when his car broke down they stole that bus and combined forces."

"I wonder why he didn't have the Siberian make the vehicle invulnerable when Jack Slash got out? Or why he got out in the first place, for that matter? He was a paranoid bastard, I'd have more than half expected them to run that guy Jake over and keep going."

"As far as the second part goes, if they had, the same thing would have happened anyway. We only found fragments of the detonation trigger, not enough to reconstruct anything useful, but the two men with him, Zack Smith and Willy Peterson, told our people that he'd been sitting in a chair in the middle of the road with a pressure switch in the seat. As soon as he stood up it blew. If they'd run him over, exactly the same result. Once they were in range, they were dead, unless Manton thought fast enough to use the Siberian's power, which he clearly didn't. Even backing up or turning around wouldn't have helped, he'd just have stood up at that point." Rebecca shrugged tiredly. "I'm impressed, in a horribly depressing way. The poor bastard had nothing left to live for and was going to take them with him one way or another."

"Christ," David sighed.

"My best guess for the first part of your question is that William was just exhausted. The route they took was over very bad roads under awful conditions, it must have taken all night at least. If he'd been driving the entire time he was probably ready to drop. He made a mistake and they all paid the price. Although, with the door open, which the techs are sure was the case, the overpressure wave would have killed most of them anyway even if the bus was invulnerable. His friends used .50 caliber anti-materiel rifles loaded with armor-piercing explosive rounds on Mannequin while he was disorientated from the blast, or more likely quite badly damaged. They kept shooting until he was definitely dead, then buried what was left with more explosives on the cliff-sides. It was a very professional job to be honest."

"What about Bonesaw?"

"She died instantly, in pieces. Even her reinforcements and upgrades were overwhelmed, the bus was right over the hottest part of the explosion. Turned her and her biological weapons to ash. They buried a lot of gasoline and diesel with the other explosives, and got a rather impressive fuel-air blast on top of the main one." Rebecca leaned back in her chair and closed her eyes, rubbing them with one hand. "It's like he knew exactly what to do to deal with them all, but as far as we can find out he was just smart, suicidal, and lucky. He had friends who were sitting on more weapons than you'd normally see outside a military base, they found a lot more blasting explosives at the road site than they'd expected, and they had a horrifying amount with them anyway."

"What's the old saying? ' _Beware the lucky amateur with a gun. He may be an amateur, but he's lucky, and he has a gun_.' I think _explosives_ could be substituted for _gun_ pretty well," David commented.

"So it would seem."

"We've gone over the site very thoroughly and sprayed it with some extremely powerful biological counter-agents to be on the safe side," Doctor Mother put in rather emotionlessly. "The entire area to a radius of a quarter of a mile is biologically dead and will be for a decade. There is definitely no risk of any residual pathogens in the debris."

"You're absolutely sure of that?"

"Yes." She gave him a look that implied that he shouldn't ask stupid questions. "The precogs and other Thinkers are also certain. The threat that Bonesaw was is finished, permanently, as are those of the rest of the Slaughterhouse Nine except for Crawler."

David nodded thoughtfully. "Where is he?"

"We're not currently entirely sure," she replied. "As best we can tell he's heading east, but he dropped out of sight shortly before the Petty interaction. It's proving slightly difficult to track him, but I have no doubt he will emerge sooner or later. He always does."

"What about Peterson and Smith? None of this has made the news yet, so I assume we have them in custody?"

"Yes. They reported the matter to the PRT outpost in Boise, which is a luckily a small one. The Agent there contacted his higher-ups immediately and they told him to sit on them while they passed it up the chain. So far everyone has kept their mouths shut, although those two have something of a fan club. There wasn't a lot of love lost on the S9, after all."

"We can't hold onto them forever," he pointed out. "And when this hits the public consciousness, there's going to be a lot of comments about how could three normal, more or less untrained men, with improvised weapons for the most part, do something that the entire PRT and Protectorate has failed to do for years. It's going to be embarrassing."

"We could in fact hold onto them forever easily enough," Rebecca pointed out, making him frown. "Although that would be more difficult than I'd like considering the number of people who know about it. Not impossible, though."

He shook his head. "I really don't think that's a good idea. It's going too far. We should give them the reward for killing the S9 and let them go. In fact, make them out as heroes. That could spin it in our favor, I think. We tell everyone that we were worried that they had been contaminated with a Bonesaw bioweapon, but tests have shown they're clean, and we thank them very much for their efforts. And poor Jake Petty, of course."

"The same excuse of a bioweapon would allow us to hold onto them indefinitely," the brunette woman noted.

"After everything we've done, you want to do that as well? Rebecca, no. It's too much. Let them go, give them a well earned reward and thank them, then forget about them." David shook his head again. "We've done enough, for good reasons, but enough. We don't need to descend to that level. They know nothing that could hurt us or get in the way of our goals and we need people with that sort of survival drive out there."

"As you wish," she said, nodding. "I agree, in fact. I was just pointing out the alternatives."

"All right. We're agreed? They go free with their well-earned reward?" Eidolon looked around at the other women, who both nodded.

"Good." He was satisfied, and sad that it had come to that. William Manton had been a friend of his at one point.

"The loss of Shatterbird and Bonesaw is annoying," Doctor Mother commented dispassionately. "Some plans will have to be redrawn."

David looked at her, but didn't respond, instead after a moment asking, "Do we know much about this Jake Petty character? Or his two friends?"

"He was thirty-four, married, to Mary Petty nee Anderson, with a nine year old son named Michael. He trained as a machinist in New York, moved to Boston where he met his wife eleven years ago, and spent time in Brockton Bay." Rebecca spoke without referring to any notes, her perfect memory providing her the information. "He did some work for the city on a small contract, but apparently decided that he didn't like the city life and ended up moving to Creek Bend just after his son was born. His wife had family in the area."

"Brockton Bay?" David thought for a moment. "That damn place. Odd."

"He'd visited friends there only two weeks earlier, apparently," she added. "He spent a week in New York with his parents, wife, and son just after the New Year, then the wife flew home with their son and he went on a short road trip to visit friends in Boston and Brockton Bay. We're not sure who he visited or when exactly, although we know he was there between the sixth and eighth of the month. The research department ran a face recognition search on public video sources in the city over that period but only had one hit, a recording on PHO that had him in the background of one of the idiotic stunts that those fools Über and Leet are so fond of. But that's the only trace we've found so far."

"Was that the one with the New Wave girl in it?" he asked, smirking a little. She nodded, with a smile of her own. "She went a very impressive shade of purple, I have to admit."

Rebecca grinned. "I was a little worried about her blood pressure. Both of them got away, of course, although they had Armsmaster and Glory Girl after them. If nothing else they're remarkably slippery even by normal cape standards."

"Brockton Bay does seem to produce some very interesting Triggers even without help," Doctor Mother said, looking somewhat intrigued. "These two new ones, Saurial and Raptaur, I find fascinating. Do we have any more information on them yet?"

"No, only what's on PHO and the internet," he replied. "I'm curious about them myself. Are you sure they're not some of yours?"

"Completely," she told him with a small frown. "They are not the result of Cauldron's work. I assume they are natural Triggers, although the similarity in Shards is… odd. Especially considering the lack of time for one to propagate if they are indeed siblings."

"Between them they seem to be changing the status quo quite considerably, while apparently going out of their way not to," Alexandria said in an interested tone. "And they seem to have, probably inadvertently, complicated Calvert's life considerably."

"What do you think about the idea that's being discussed on PHO about them both being members of some sort of race of aliens?" David asked with a smile. "The rumors suggest that there are lots of them, going up and up in size, and that they live in the water near the city. At least half the people discussing them online seem convinced it's fact. Although somewhat oddly most of _those_ don't seem to worried about it even so."

"I think the likelihood that we have aliens living in the sea off the east coast of New England is extremely low, David," she sighed. "Despite the more wild rumors that may be floating around. We don't have any evidence of others of their type either. Personally I think that they're probably the only two, most likely sisters who happened to Trigger at the same time. Unless we..."

She was interrupted by the middle-aged blond man who stepped out of a hole in space that had abruptly opened up in the corner of the room. "You need to see this," he said without ceremony, waving at the hole, which led back to Earth Bet and an office. "Right now."

Rebecca looked at him, then her companions. "Is it important? We were right in the middle of the meeting."

"I think you could say it's fairly important," he said in a dead-pan tone.

She nodded, standing up and following him back through the portal produced by Doormaker, the others coming along behind her. He pointed at the TV. "Live from Brockton Bay," he announced. They moved to a position where they could all see the screen, then stared.

Several minutes later, David turned to Rebecca, who was gaping slightly. "You were saying?"

* * *

Max watched the gently swimming giant lizard as it started to go around the slight bend in the shore that took it towards the Docks, the huge tanker obediently following along behind it like a dog on a lead. He'd been staring out the window of his office without saying anything ever since the first sight of Kaiju, thinking hard and worried thoughts. Now, he turned to look at his companions. Brad was still looking shaken and pale, not surprising considering the fact that his run in with Raptaur was nothing compared to finding out there was a version of her a dozen times the size in the city. Krieg seemed both shocked and thoughtful, having not said a word, while Victor was muttering to himself and occasionally swearing under his breath in an awed manner.

"Spread the word. _NO ONE_ is to visit, interact with, threaten, look hard at, or otherwise give cause for retaliation from, the Dock Worker's Union, any known or suspected members of it, or anyone or anything they have interests in." His voice was slightly squeaky on the end of the sentence to his annoyance. "That goes double for either the Mayor or Danny Fucking Hebert. Got me? Leave them the fuck alone."

Krieg turned to look at him. "That will limit us a lot."

"I don't care. Not until we work out what the fuck is going on. They have Saurial, Raptaur, and now _that_ fucking thing," he snapped, pointing at the diminishing form of Kaiju and her ship. "Who knows what _else_ they have, for god's sake? The rumors online are… well, I thought they were just stupid conspiracy stories, but one of them just swam past towing god knows how many thousand tons of old tanker. I _really_ don't want either her, or some horror from the depths that's even _larger_ , coming looking for me with blood in its eye! Do you?"

His second in command shuddered visibly, closing his eyes for a moment. "Not really, no," he replied after a moment.

"Exactly. They've basically got their own Endbringer, and it's a union member. I can't believe I just said that." He slumped into his chair, reaching for his glass of scotch, before he remembered he hadn't replaced it after he dropped it. Again. Sighing, he got up and headed for the drinks cabinet. "The world is getting stranger," he mumbled to himself as he poured another glass completely full, then drank the lot, before refilling it once more. "I think I may be in the wrong business..."

* * *

Colin glanced up from the plans he and Dragon were going over as the door alarm went. "It's me, you have a guest," Hannah's voice came over the intercom. He looked at his friend, who quickly dismissed the images on the huge main monitor, bringing up something else they'd been working on, a new power supply for her drones which he was aiding her in miniaturizing. Satisfied, he pressed the unlock control and the door opened, revealing Hannah and Legend.

He was somewhat surprised by the appearance of the head of the Protectorate and his immediate superior. "Sir," he said, standing up as protocol dictated. "This is somewhat unexpected. I had no notification that you were going to be in Brockton Bay."

"I know, and I'm sorry about the abrupt appearance, Colin," the other man said after Hannah had closed the door behind them, walking over and holding out his hand, which the Tinker shook. He was carrying a hard hat with a bright orange safety vest folded neatly into in, Colin noticed. "It's a breach of normal procedures, which I apologize for. When I saw the excitement going on here I just had to come and see for myself. I'm not really here in an official capacity, more a personally curious one, although I did have some concerns about your new neighbors."

"Ah, I understand," Colin nodded. "Not surprising. The appearance of Kaiju was… unexpected."

"And terrifying," Hannah muttered.

"I wouldn't disagree with that," he replied. "Although based on my interactions with her sister I don't think she is a threat unless someone makes her one. The impression I have is that this ' _Family_ ' of theirs is determined to be as neutral as they can and I have reason to believe they will stick to that."

"I understand you've had dealings with Raptaur," Legend said as he sat in the guest chair that Colin waved him to, Hannah taking the other one.

"We both have," Dragon commented. "We met her last week and had a long and interesting talk. I would agree with Colin, based on that I think they are very smart and well aware of the impact they could easily have on the local cape politics. From what I could tell they've done their research on local capes, and most likely all the ones they were able to get information on over the net. We both got the impression that they'll stick to their own people and turf unless provoked, and genuinely seem to want to help."

"Interesting," Legend noted slowly.

Hannah looked somewhat unsure, taking off her scarf and looking around, then put in, "I and Director Piggot think much the same after talking to Raptaur yesterday." The other three looked at her with interest. "We were following up our our meeting with her and the Undersiders," she added, looking at Colin, who nodded his understanding. "I can't say that I find even Raptaur someone I want to be around for a number of reasons, but I have to reluctantly say that she does give the feeling of being truthful when she said that they mainly want to be left alone and help the city and the union."

"That's essentially what I learned from talking to Kaiju," Legend remarked, leaning back and tapping the fingers of one hand on the desk. "She also seems to be intelligent, well read on local cape politics, basically neutral, but more than prepared to deal firmly with any threats to what the Family consider theirs. Having seen her up close, I would hesitate to become such a threat except under the most dire of circumstances."

"What were your thoughts on the likelihood that you even _could_ become a threat to her?" Dragon asked curiously.

It was Legend's turn to look somewhat dubious. After several seconds, he replied, "To be absolutely honest I'm… really not sure. I didn't see much of what she could do aside from one of the most incredible demonstrations of brute strength I've ever seen, although I do note that she moves _much_ faster and more flexibly than anything that size has a right to. You could see that even when she wasn't trying to do anything impressive, merely by watching her normal movements. What would you put her mass at?" He looked at both Tinkers, who exchanged glances for a moment.

"Assuming she doesn't have a structure that is either unusually low or unusually high in density, and based on both a rough estimate for height of approximately eighty-five feet and the knowledge that Raptaur weighs something over a ton… Perhaps in the region of five hundred tons? It's only a very rough estimate based on volume, of course." Colin thought, then nodded. "Yes, approximately five hundred tons, plus or minus on the order of twenty-seven. Her overall body structure appears very similar to Raptaur's with the addition of what look like aquatic adaptions, the longer, somewhat vertically flattened tail, for example."

" _Five hundred tons?_ " Hannah's voice had risen in pitch. He nodded, looking curiously at her, then glancing at Dragon, who also nodded.

"That seems in the right ballpark," the power-suited Canadian Tinker agreed. "Heavier than any other living thing I'm aware of on the planet except for..." She hesitated, looking at Colin for a moment.

"Except for her sister Umihebi?" Legend asked slowly.

"Yes. How did you know about her?" Dragon asked with curiosity in her voice.

"She came up in conversation," the man sighed. "As in, apparently she's interested in visiting New York one day."

"Oh, hell," Hannah yipped in shock, while Dragon chuckled.

"I'd almost pay money to see that," she snickered.

"I'd pay quite a lot to ensure it _never_ happens," Legend said with a shrug. "She said her sister was longer and heavier."

"We had an encounter with her half-way between Newfoundland and here a couple of weeks ago," Dragon said after turning her head to look at Colin, who nodded. "We provisionally put her at more than two hundred feet long from nose to tail and a weight of around a thousand tons."

Legend seemed to pale slightly around his mask.

"She can also swim at more than three hundred miles an hour," she added.

He was definitely pale now.

"Ah. I understand," he finally said, having been rather quiet for a few seconds. "I think there are some things you need to fill me in on, by the sound of it. However, the point I was trying to make is that with a weight of, as you say, five hundred tons or more, the fact that she can even move around at all out of the water is incredible. To be able to move at least as quickly as something vastly smaller implies a level of strength which is totally insane." He smiled a little as the two Tinkers exchanged a glance. "I know a fair amount about the subject, I'm not just a flying laser emitter," he chuckled.

"I never thought you were, sir," Colin replied respectfully. He was well aware that the older man was well read and intelligent. "And you're right, of course. Umihebi is even worse. We tracked her all the way up the eastern seaboard as far as the coast of Quebec, then back again with a route that took her well out to sea before we lost her, and she was moving at speeds of three hundred miles an hour or more almost the entire time. The amount of energy needed to do that at all is astronomical, never mind in a biological entity. There are a large number of things surrounding all of these creatures that have both Dragon and myself mystified. Hopefully, when we manage to build a longer relationship with them, we may get some answers."

"That would be nice," Legend agreed with a smile. "OK. I was planning on coming here at some point to look into Saurial and her sister, but now that circumstances have pushed that date to today, I'd like to know what you've found out. By the sounds of it all of you have had more than one interaction with Raptaur at least. I'm slightly puzzled that I haven't seen any reports of it from either you, Colin, or you, Hannah. Or the Director, for that matter. May I ask why?"

Colin looked at both his friends, then back to his boss. After a second or two of careful thought, he replied, "There are a number of issues we are concerned about that have come to light as a result of the arrival in the city of Saurial and Raptaur, then Umihebi, which the unveiling of Kaiju will only make more problematic. We didn't want to make any preliminary reports for security reasons among other things." He looked at Hannah, who shrugged with a look of resignation. "We have discovered that the local PRT security system is hopelessly compromised, as a result of information given to us by Tattletale of the Undersiders, a Brockton Bay minor villain group." After a second, he corrected himself. " _Former_ villain group, more accurately. I am uncertain what they are now, aside from guests of the DWU."

"I'm aware of both the Undersiders and Tattletale," Legend remarked. "I keep up to date on every cape in the general area and this place is less than three hundred miles from where I live. There isn't much information on her, though, or her team members, except for Rachel Lindt AKA Hellhound."

"Bitch."

"Excuse me?"

"She prefers to be called Bitch," Colin shrugged.

"Oh. All right, I understand. The fact remains that she's wanted for murder."

"Which Tattletale claims is in fact a false charge," he replied. His superior leaned forward, appearing puzzled.

"I… see. Interesting. You really do have quite a lot to fill me in on, I think. Start at the beginning."

"As you wish." Colin looked at Dragon, then turned to his computer system and brought up the initial report he'd written for the Director, along with the image of Umihebi taken just before she swallowed the probe. There was a muttered exclamation of shock from the other man, while he himself felt a shiver go through him in spite of his recent knowledge of more of the truth of the situation.

"At just after midnight on the 6th, Dragon detected a high speed underwater acoustic signature heading north from a position some fifty miles north of here..." he began.

* * *

Emily looked away from the window overlooking the bay and the Rig as her computer made the insistent sound she knew meant the conversation she'd been dreading for some time was now about to happen. She'd been watching Kaiju disappear into the distance after her talk with Legend, wondering what the Protectorate leader had discussed. Both the participants seemed contented with the results and had parted apparently amicably, which she was extremely relieved about, all things considered.

Taking a deep breath, she ran a hand over her hair, then sat down, moving a few things on the desk around to make the view of the camera on the monitor neater, before reaching out and poking the relevant key on the keyboard. A familiar face immediately appeared on the encrypted voice chat application. It didn't look wildly pleased.

"Hello, Chief Director," she said calmly. "What can I do for you today?"

"Don't give me that, Emily! What the hell is going on in your city? Why is there a creature that makes Leviathan look like a frog in a bathtub idly swimming around in front of the entire population, moving old ships like rubber ducks, for god's sake? Where did she come from, why wasn't I informed, and how the fuck did that damn Mayor of yours manage to get in contact with her?" Rebecca Costa-Brown looked miffed, to put it lightly.

"The situation is somewhat complex, Ma'am," the blonde woman sighed. "We believe she is related to Saurial and Raptaur, the two new..."

"Yes, I'm aware of who they are, thank you. I've been following their exploits with interest, and I was intending to come and look into it when I had time. We've been extremely busy recently due to other problems, so I haven't had that time up until now. But I'm going to be coming to visit you very soon, trust me. This has gone beyond a joke."

"I see. Well, as you know, then, both of them have made references in the past to having larger relatives out there." Emily waved her hand vaguely behind her. "Other information we acquired showed that this was in fact true, although we had no knowledge of ' _Kaiju_ ' until today. Mayor Christner was apparently put into touch with her via the Dock Worker's Union, who seem to have a… relationship… of sorts, with this ' _Family_ ' we seem to now have living nearby. Or possibly have always had, depending on which rumor you believe. How they originally got in contact we don't know yet."

Inside, she was frantically debating whether to mention the Biotinker theory, or the whole Coil situation. She certainly wasn't going to do it over even the PRT encrypted lines, not knowing that the bastard Calvert had his fingers into everything. In the end she decided to leave it for the face to face meeting she was bound to have very soon. She wondered if it would be a good idea to contact Raptaur and negotiate the use of the shielded BBFO office for such a talk. Despite her worries about the origins of these reptiles, so far they were nothing if not a good influence on the city, as much as she didn't really like to admit it. Having spent some time talking to the enormous cape she'd found somewhat to her surprise that she had a certain degree of respect for her.

Whether she'd ever actually be comfortable around something with that many teeth she had no idea, but for some peculiar reason the creature didn't seem to trip as many of her internal issues about Capes, which she was honest enough with herself to acknowledge at least in the privacy of her own mind, as most Parahumans did. She couldn't work out why, though.

"I find this whole affair both irritating and worrying. Your city is a pain in the ass at the best of times but I could do without this right now." The Chief Director rubbed her forehead with a look of annoyance. "Fine. It doesn't seem to be causing the panic that I would have expected for whatever weird reason, so for the moment I'll leave you to it. I have to finish off some urgent work here, but I'll be in Brockton Bay within two days. I'm sending Eidolon to have a look and see what's going on, though. Alexandria will be coming as well, tomorrow probably, but she's busy right now on another matter."

"Legend is already here," Emily commented, "he spent some time talking to Kaiju then went to the Rig. I haven't spoken to him yet."

"Is he? Odd, he didn't mention that he was going to visit," Costa-Brown murmured with a slight frown creasing her brow, appearing thoughtful for a moment or two. She shook her head after a few seconds. "Never mind. Get all your reports in order. I want to see a preliminary threat report on Kaiju and the others this evening."

"I can give it to you right now, Ma'am," Emily sighed. " **Brute: Yes.** That's it. You did actually _watch_ the TV, correct?"

The other woman nodded slowly.

"Unless she is sitting on some weird weakness, which I wouldn't want to put money on at this point in time, what we have out there is the biggest cape on the planet, probably the strongest, with the possible exception of Alexandria, probably the toughest, with the same exception, coupled with a matter generation ability that is unlike anything any of our research people have on record. Not to mention very high intelligence, good tactical skills, a remarkable way with people in general, and unknown numbers of reinforcements. Raptaur and Saurial are simply lower powered, much smaller versions of the same. From what I've learned they consider an attack on any of them as an attack on all of them, they respect the Rules but aren't bound by them, and would have no hesitation at all about resorting to lethal force if that was the only way to protect someone or something they valued."

Emily took a breath while her ultimate superior listened.

"Personally, I would much rather talk about how we get them on our side, or at least get them to stay neutral, rather than assess methods that could spark a fight I'm fairly sure we can't win, at least without collateral damage on a scale that makes Ellisburg look trivial."

Chief Director Costa-Brown was silent for a few seconds. Eventually, she replied, "You're really that sure how dangerous they are?"

"I am. Seeing it on TV is one thing, but I can tell you from personal experience that seeing it live is something entirely different." Emily shivered a little. "You have no idea until you're only a few hundred feet away from her, but Kaiju is… more than impressive."

"And there are even bigger ones than her out there somewhere," the other woman mused.

"Correct." Emily hesitated, but decided not to go into the ' _Sea Serpent_ ' issue. Like the rest of that entire event, she wanted it kept secure and couldn't be sure that Coil wouldn't find out about it, assuming he didn't already know. She hoped not, they'd been taking precautions even before they knew that they had to, just out of a general sense of paranoia, which now seemed rather prescient. Again, she'd reserve that for a face to face meeting.

"I see. We will have a lot to talk about, I think," Costa-Brown sighed. "Fine. As soon as I have finished up here I will pay a visit and I expect we're going to have a very long talk indeed."

"Most likely, Ma'am."

"Make sure you have all the reports ready, Emily." The other woman disconnected without ceremony. Director Piggot stared at the blank screen for some time, breathing slowly and carefully.

"That went better than I expected," she muttered, then got up and headed for the door. She needed to talk to Hannah and Colin, and to catch Legend before he left.

They had a lot to discuss.


	94. PHO and Shock

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 **Topic: Panacea has a meal?  
In: Boards ► Places ► America ► Brockton Bay  
Zjunrei **(Original Poster)  
Posted On Feb 6th 2011:

OK, this place is getting weirder by the day.

I was out with my family having a really nice quiet meal at the Thai place on Main Street when Amy Dallon, otherwise known as Panacea, came in. She wasn't wearing her costume so she was obviously off duty, so to speak. Quite a few people recognized her but most of them are polite enough not to bother her, except for a couple of assholes.

But she wasn't alone.

Any idea who **this** is?

Think about it for a while.

Yep, you got it.

Saurial.

The hat didn't fool _me ;)  
_

Anyway, these two wandered in, caused the staff to panic, then eventually sat at a table a couple over from where I was and just had a meal, talking to each other. It was both really weird and really funny. The look on people's faces was… well, you had to be there for the full effect but it was amazing!

So was the effect when people came in and spotted them. There was a sort of pause, then usually an open mouth and wide eyes, followed by a lot of whispering. Most of them ended up coming in anyway, but I saw at least one guy take one look and run like an idiot.

Odds he was E88 or something? :D

They ate their meal, talked for a long time, laughed a lot, had dessert (Saurial had a bowl of eggs. In the shell…) then left. On the way out Saurial said she'd recommend this place to her family.

Cue a lot more panic, as everyone instantly thought about seeing Raptaur come through the door.

I don't know what the hell it was all about, but it sure livened up the meal!

Bet that place gets an interesting reputation now…

 **(Showing page 3 of 1827)**

► **White Fairy** (Veteran Member)  
Replied On Feb 10th 2011:

Oh my…

:)

I love it. That lizard girl does like confusing people, doesn't she?

I wonder how Panacea met her? And what led them to go for a meal?

It's nice, though, I've heard Panacea needs to relax more. She looked very happy in that photo.

► **Kingbob** (Verified BBPD Officer)  
Replied On Feb 10th 2011:

It was as a result of **this** , I think. I didn't get there until near the end but the ABB and E88 had a very dangerous argument in the middle of a crowded street earlier tonight. Saurial dropped in, literally, she jumped off the roof of a building and landed right on top of them, from what I was told. The fight didn't last long after that :D

She handed them over to our guys, went after the one who got away, who didn't get away very far, then talked to Panacea for a while. Panacea was apparently just in the area on personal business when the gangers started shooting the crap out of everything and helped out afterwards, healing up anyone who got hurt.

When they'd had a talk, they walked off together. I think they already knew each other based on watching them, but I didn't hear what they said and I wouldn't say if I had.

► **Loki Thorson**  
Replied On Feb 10th 2011:

Interesting. Both of them look like they're having fun.

► **XxVoid_CowboyxX**  
Replied On Feb 10th 2011:

I bet they had fun later… ;) ;)

► **FCVanillaIce**  
Replied On Feb 10th 2011:

You're a sad, sad little man, aren't you, Cowboy?

► **Glare**  
Replied On Feb 10th 2011:

Sick, dude. Just… sick.

► **IguanaGirl**  
Replied On Feb 10th 2011:

You should shut up, XxVoid_CowboyxX. Panacea is a friend of mine and she's a nice girl. I'm sure Saurial is as well.

► **BrocktonBayMod** (Moderator)  
Replied On Feb 10th 2011:

Before I have to temp ban anyone, stop it. Right now.

► **Glare**  
Replied On Feb 10th 2011:

Sir! Yes, Sir! :)

► **Bladeworksfan** (Kyushu Survivor)  
Replied On Feb 10th 2011:

OK, I have to agree. This place is getting weirder, and for some reason I keep seeing it. Look at **this**! What the hell?

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 **(Showing page 4 of 1827)**

► **MZenny**  
Replied On Feb 10th 2011:

Is… Is that Panacea? Riding Raptaur up the Medhall building?

► **Clockblocker** (Verified Cape) (Wards ENE)  
Replied On Feb 10th 2011:

Yes. Yes it is. :O

I saw it myself, but I still can't believe it.

► **Dingbat779** (Cape Groupie)  
Replied On Feb 10th 2011:

What…

The…

Hell…

► **Macdjord**  
Replied On Feb 10th 2011:

You got me. I have no idea what the fuck is going on these days.

How is she managing to climb like that? The building is mostly glass.

I bet Max got a shock though :D They went right past his office!

► **Mojiizen**  
Replied On Feb 10th 2011:

Holy shit. That's incredible. But it looks like fun.

I wonder how Panacea persuaded Raptaur to give her a ride?

► **Zjunrei** (Original Poster)  
Replied On Feb 10th 2011:

It was probably the other way around

Did you hear her screaming? :) :D

► **IguanaGirl**  
Replied On Feb 10th 2011:

I'm _really_ jealous now :(

► **Pyrite**  
Replied On Feb 10th 2011:

I was driving home from the night shift and saw them. My dashcam caught them at some traffic lights. Raptaur just stopped in the middle lane and waited like she was a car! It was… weird.

When the lights changed she took off like she was jet propelled, watch **this**. She can really move!

Panacea was holding on for dear life, but I could hear her laughing from my car. She's a lot braver than I am, you wouldn't get me to sit on Raptaur for any money.

► **Dingbat779** (Cape Groupie)  
Replied On Feb 10th 2011:

For some reason that makes me laugh like an idiot…

► **IguanaGirl**  
Replied On Feb 10th 2011:

 _So_ jealous…

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 **(Showing page 5 of 1827)**

► **Kid Win** (Verified Cape) (Wards ENE)  
Replied On Feb 10th 2011:

Wow. That's cool.

Terrifying, but cool.

► **Bagrat** (Veteran Member) (The Guy in the Know)  
Replied On Feb 10th 2011:

Brockton Bay is an interesting place ;)

► **XxVoid_CowboyxX**  
Replied On Feb 10th 2011:

[Post deleted]

[User temp banned – 24 hours]

You were warned.

Everyone saw me warn him, right?

That's the third time in the last eight days, do it again and I'll let you think about what you did for a solid week. I'm serious, you're becoming a real pain in the ass. - BrocktonBayMod

► **Glare**  
Replied On Feb 10th 2011:

Remind me never to meet you, Cowboy. I don't think I could resist punching you.

► **BrocktonBayMod** (Moderator)  
Replied On Feb 10th 2011:

I'll let that pass this one time because it's him, but don't get in the habit of threatening violence, please.

► **Glare**  
Replied On Feb 10th 2011:

:D

Sorry, I had to.

► **BrocktonBayMod** (Moderator)  
Replied On Feb 10th 2011:

I know.

► **Clockblocker** (Verified Cape) (Wards ENE)  
Replied On Feb 10th 2011:

I have to make sure I ask Panacea what the hell is going on next time I see her. After I've finished laughing, that is! :)

► **Jormungandr**  
Replied On Feb 10th 2011:

The Healer must be stopped, she puts herself at great risk consorting with one of the demons. Please, for everyone's sake, will someone who knows her intervene?

They come.

► **Mojiizen**  
Replied On Feb 10th 2011:

Good grief. You just don't stop, do you? :(

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 **(Showing page 6 of 1827)**

► **Dingbat779** (Cape Groupie)  
Replied On Feb 10th 2011:

I still can't work out if he's a lunatic or a wonderful troll

► **Mojiizen**  
Replied On Feb 10th 2011:

Lunatic. Definitely a lunatic.

A trolling one...

•

 **Topic: Family Watch Thread  
In: Boards ► Places ► America ► Brockton Bay  
Macdjord **(Original Poster)  
Posted On Feb 8th 2011:

This is the thread for sightings of new and existing members of The Family, here in Brockton Bay. I thought it would be convenient to put all the video and photos along with other information in one place.

To start with, at the time I'm writing this, we have proof of the existence of Saurial (Debuted January 25th 2011) and Raptaur (Debuted February 4th 2011), but both of them have referred to other sisters and Raptaur mentioned a brother. So far no one has seen any other members of our friendly but horrifying reptilian Family, but there are rumors going around, at the moment unverified, that certain… things… have been spotted in the Bay that would suggest there is at least one more, probably considerably larger, one out there somewhere.

While the description of a vast scaly hand from the depths that was large enough to push ships around is obviously exaggerated considerably, there have been at least two reports at different times which does seem to say that there is possibly something to it. Maybe another one like Raptaur, only bigger? She's been seen going in and out of the water regularly, and according to the initial reports left the scene via the water. No one seems to know for sure but my research suggests that she can probably swim very well and most likely breathe under water.

So we may well have other reptilian capes out there somewhere. No one knows where they come from, or why they've suddenly turned up here, but they claim to be residents of the area, and want to help. There's no denying the fact that since Saurial arrived street crime dropped considerably and kept going down, a trend that only accelerated after Raptaur turned up and took out Hookwolf in one of the most terrifying battles I've ever seen, single handed.

They may be sort of horrifying, Raptaur much more than Saurial, but they seem friendly, they're very helpful, and always polite. People who have met them and talked to them usually seem to decide that they're good people, appearances aside! Having lived here in BB for my whole life, I have to say that I'm both impressed and pleased with the way they've become accepted so quickly. We're used to new capes on a regular basis, but unfortunately they're more likely to be villains than heroes. It's a nice change to have two new heroes in a row, even if they are covered in scales and would give Cthulu a shock if he turned around and saw them grinning at him :D

Post your interactions, videos, photos, thoughts, and I'll collate them here for everyone. Try to keep the discussion polite and on topic. Avoid conspiracy theories, there are threads for those already. Jormungandr, I'm looking at you…

Videos _Updated 02/14/2011_

Saurial doing her thing to gang members: Video **1** , **2** , **3** , **4** , **5** , **6** , **7**  
Saurial playing a joke on Clockblocker: **Video**  
Saurial rescuing people from a house fire: **Video**  
Saurial talking to Vista and Clockblocker: **Video**  
Saurial and Panacea talking, then going to a restaurant: Video **1** , **2** , **3** , **4**  
Saurial buying Eggs : Video **1** , **2** , **3**

Raptaur absolutely _wrecking_ Hookwolf: **Video**  
Raptaur giving Panacea a ride: Video **1** , **2** , **3** , **4** , **5** , **6**  
Raptaur and Panacea talking to Assault and Battery: Video **1** , **2** , **3**  
Raptaur helping the DWU demolish a warehouse?!: **Video**

Photos _Updated 02/14/2011_

Saurial: Gallery **1** , **2** , **3** , **4** , **5** , **6**

Raptaur: Gallery **1** , **2** , **3**

Discussion threads _Updated 02/14/2011_

 **The first sighting of Saurial**  
 **The first sighting of Raptaur**  
 **Theories on their origin**  
 **Demons from hell?**  
 **They're helpful, leave them alone**  
 **They're terrifying, make them go away (how?)**  
 **What we'd like to see in new Family members**  
 **I for one welcome…**  
 **Raptaur VS thread**  
 **Saurial VS thread**  
 **Statistics on gang crime in BB since Saurial arrived**  
 **Where are all the villains?**  
 **What the fuck is going on?**  
 **What's up with Panacea?**  
 **What is BBFO, LLC?**

 **(Showing page 154 of 430)**

► **Valshax**  
Replied On Feb 10th 2011:

Hey, everyone. Well, I was walking down the boardwalk just now with some friends and **THIS** happened...

You don't normally see Assault of all people looking confused or worried. But he was very definitely both of these things. So am I, to be honest. What the hell?

► **Mojiizen**  
Replied On Feb 10th 2011:

That's hysterical. The look on their faces! :)

Panacea does seem to be tight with Raptaur these days. Where did she get that cool costume? And why?

Is New Wave rebranding?

Edit: Hold on… I just watched the video again. Did Raptaur say ' _sisters_ '? Plural? And mention a big brother?

► **Laser Augment**  
Replied On Feb 10th 2011:

I've said it before, I'll say it now, and I'll keep saying it. Brockton Bay is _very_ weird! I'm glad I'm a very long way away.

But I have to say I'm impressed by the way it somehow hasn't turned into a pit of bloody remains with lizards walking around on top of it yet, though ;)

► **Loki Thorson**  
Replied On Feb 10th 2011:

Yes, she did say ' _sisters_ '. I wonder why I got a chill down my back when I heard that…

► **XxVoid_CowboyxX**  
Replied On Feb 10th 2011:

Aliens. It's got to be aliens. I keep saying it but nobody listens to me.

► **Mojiizen**  
Replied On Feb 10th 2011:

Because you're an idiot.

► **XxVoid_CowboyxX**  
Replied On Feb 10th 2011:

Says you.

► **Mojiizen**  
Replied On Feb 10th 2011:

Yes, I do say that. So does everyone who's ever met you, I suspect.

► **Dingbat779** (Cape Groupie)  
Replied On Feb 10th 2011:

Hey, keep it down, you two, or the mods will turn up again. Remember what happened last time.

► **Mojiizen**  
Replied On Feb 10th 2011:

:D

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 **(Showing page 155 of 430)**

► **Glare**  
Replied On Feb 10th 2011:

Big brother?

Um…

How big? Big enough to have a hand that could move a ship, maybe?

► **Electric_Techpriest**  
Replied On Feb 10th 2011:

That's just a rumor from a drunk sailor, don't worry about it. I doubt you could get anything that large anyway. It would be almost impossible, the physics don't allow for a living thing that big to even support its own weight.

► **SenorEel**  
Replied On Feb 10th 2011:

One word.

Endbringers.

► **Electric_Techpriest**  
Replied On Feb 10th 2011:

Well…

Yes, you have a point there. But they're a special case. No one is sure whether they're even really alive. No one knows _what_ the hell they are, except for hideously dangerous.

► **Assembler**  
Replied On Feb 10th 2011:

So is this Panacea riding Raptaur thing a thing now?

I mean, it's cool and all, but are they really going to be doing it all the time?

► **Bagrat** (Veteran Member) (The Guy in the Know)  
Replied On Feb 10th 2011:

No one I've talked to seems to know. New Wave said ' _No comment_ ' when they were asked, and the PRT didn't have any opinion on it either.

Nobody seems to have had the balls to ask Raptaur, and Panacea just smirks at you if you mention it according to my information. So who knows?

► **Jormungandr**  
Replied On Feb 10th 2011:

The demons have claimed their first soul. Pray for Panacea, she has been lost to the evil.

More will rise.

► **Mojiizen**  
Replied On Feb 10th 2011:

Oh, for god's sake, will you lighten up you lunatic? Don't you have your own thread you could be annoying people in?

► **Jormungandr**  
Replied On Feb 10th 2011:

You will learn the truth all too soon. It will be too late then, though.

And I will laugh…

► **Mojiizen**  
Replied On Feb 10th 2011:

[sigh]

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 **(Showing page 156 of 430)**

► **Valshax**  
Replied On Feb 10th 2011:

Jormungandr, please go away and stop bothering people. I've asked four times already.

•

 **Topic: Saved by Saurial!  
In: Boards ► Places ► America ► Brockton Bay  
IguanaGirl **(Original Poster)  
Posted On Feb 13th 2011:

I got mugged!

:(

But I was saved!

:)

I was out walking on the boardwalk and this horrible guy grabbed me by the throat and tried to strangle me, all the time muttering about giving him my money. I can't remember what happened very well past that point but I blacked out, I know that much.

When I came around, he was on the ground, and Saurial and Panacea were standing over him. Apparently they'd been passing and heard the struggle and came to rescue me!

I can't believe it.

I was rescued by Saurial. And Panacea, of course, she healed me up and everything, which I'm really grateful about. But I already know her, you see, and I'd never met Saurial before, and I'm a big fan, so yay!

:D

 _SO_ happy.

I kicked the bastard in the ribs, then Saurial picked him up like the garbage that he is and took him to the cops. She let me get some pictures of her with me, so here they are – **Pic 1** , **Pic 2** , **Pic 3**.

I blacked out my face because I don't want the entire world knowing who I am, but I'm so pleased about it. Thanks, Saurial, and thanks, Panacea. I owe you two so much.

Now I need to meet Raptaur…

 **(Showing page 1 of 2)**

► **Tiny_Swansong**  
Replied On Feb 13th 2011:

God, that's horrible. I'm glad you're OK.

Do you know what happened to the mugger?

► **IguanaGirl** (Original Poster)  
Replied On Feb 13th 2011:

The cops were looking for him already, he'd done it before, and he's not getting out of jail for a long time.

And I bet when he does he stays away from Brockton Bay ;)

► **Mojiizen**  
Replied On Feb 13th 2011:

Glad you're OK, IguanaGirl

Nice photos.

► **Mandabar**  
Replied On Feb 13th 2011:

I'm happy you're all right. Good thing those two were passing by, right?

► **Pyrite**  
Replied On Feb 13th 2011:

Christ, how awful. I'm really pleased you were saved like that. I hope the cops throw the book at that horrible man.

► **Valshax**  
Replied On Feb 13th 2011:

I'd have done more than kick the fucker in the ribs.

► **XxVoid_CowboyxX**  
Replied On Feb 13th 2011:

I'd have broken his legs.

► **Mojiizen**  
Replied On Feb 13th 2011:

Yeah, right, I'm sure.

You'd have run like a girl.

Unlike the girl :)

(No offense, IguanaGirl)

► **IguanaGirl** (Original Poster)  
Replied On Feb 13th 2011:

:) :)

I don't mind.

 **End of Page. 1**

 **(Showing page 2 of 2)**

► **XxVoid_CowboyxX**  
Replied On Feb 13th 2011:

I _hate_ you. :(

► **Mojiizen**  
Replied On Feb 13th 2011:

I know, I can feel it from here.

It feels goooood

► **FCVanillaIce**  
Replied On Feb 13th 2011:

:D

 **End of Page.** **1** **, 2**

•

 **Topic: What is BBFO, LLC?  
In: Boards ► Places ► America ► Brockton Bay  
Bagrat **(Original Poster) (Veteran Member) (The Guy in the Know)  
Posted On Feb 13th 2011:

The announcement in today's issue of the Brockton Bay Chronicle says that they're going to be providing Parahuman support for some sort of public works on Tuesday. No real details, although apparently there will be a press conference tomorrow sometime followed by more information on the City website. What there is, for those who haven't seen it, is a notice that a large part of the Docks and the Bay itself will be closed to the public from 1 PM until around 7 PM, with the Harbour Patrol enforcing it on the water and BBPD doing the same on land. They printed a map which shows the exclusion zone is pretty big. In the water it's nearly half a mile from shore all the way from the other side of the old wharf area of the Docks right out past that wreck in the mouth of the bay.

Apparently the Dock Worker's Union is providing people to support the BBPD for crowd control. My normal sources in both the PRT and the DWU are being very quiet about exactly what is going on, and none of the people I've talked to in the local government will say anything either. The PRT, from what I can work out, doesn't actually _know_ what's going on, while the DWU and City Hall do, but won't say.

All very mysterious!

The most peculiar thing about all of it is BBFO, LLC. I looked it up, it's a new company that was registered only a few days ago. There's a lot of paperwork online about it and all the services it can provide, which seems to be everything from demolition and construction through security to product manufacture. Two names caught my eye instantly, our own Family Members Saurial and Raptaur!

From what I can work out, the DWU is leasing them premises and providing certain legal and accounting services in return for a percentage and a fee. I don't know enough about company law to make out more than that. Anyone who does know this sort of thing want to take a look and see if they can explain it all? I always thought selling Parahuman services was, except in very limited cases, forbidden by law, but there are a hell of a lot of licenses and permits in all the documentation that on the face of it would seem to say they found a way around that.

Link to the start of the documentation is **here**.

Edit: Thanks to several posters, we now know that apparently it's all legal, although via the weirdest chain of logic anyone has ever seen from a law standpoint. One poster said it must have taken three lawyers, a novelist, a poet, and a bottle of scotch to work it all out :)

Edit 2: BBFO stands for Brockton Bay Family Operations, LLC. Sorry, I forgot to put that in.

Edit 3: I'm told that Raptaur, on behalf of BBFO, was helping the DWU with demolition of a number of warehouses on the docks yesterday. For anyone who was near the area and wondering what the weird howling and crashing sounds were, it was her and teams of DWU workers trashing several old buildings, apparently without explosives.

Edit 4: Thanks to ExArmyMan, who works at the docks, we have **video** of one of the warehouses coming down. Yes, you're seeing it right, Raptaur somehow pulled the damn thing over with a cable and her own muscles! That's… I don't know what that is, except both really funny and horrifying at the same time!

And yes, that's Glory Girl helping her. Who now seems to have a new costume as well. New Wave really is rebranding, perhaps?

Any more information, please use this thread for it, and I'll update it as we go.

 **(Showing page 21 of 71)**

► **Electric_Techpriest**  
Replied On Feb 13th 2011:

A Parahuman company? That's… not normal.

I wonder who came up with that and worked out it could be done. I don't know the law very well but I thought it was the sort of thing that was blocked.

► **Reave** (Verified PRT Agent)  
Replied On Feb 13th 2011:

It's certainly extremely uncommon. I asked around and people are looking into it, but so far everything looks on the up and up. Even though several people here swear it can't be done!

But when they read all the paperwork, they all went very quiet, then wandered off looking puzzled. All slightly strange.

And unofficially, I'm not personally aware of what this public works program is. Officially, I can't comment on the opinion of the PRT, of course.

► **Bagrat** (Original Poster) (Veteran Member) (The Guy in the Know)  
Replied On Feb 13th 2011:

Thanks for the input, Reave. And we understand that you can't go on the record officially in this forum.

► **Reave** (Verified PRT Agent)  
Replied On Feb 13th 2011:

No problem. I'm as curious as you guys are, believe me!

► **Kingbob** (Verified BBPD Officer)  
Replied On Feb 13th 2011:

Word around the station is that it's big, something that could make a huge difference to the city, but no one knows the details at the moment. I do know that practically every free cop in the city is going to be on crowd control duty and we're told that over a hundred DWU people will be supporting us. That tells me that whatever it is, it's serious.

► **Mandabar**  
Replied On Feb 13th 2011:

Now I'm _really_ curious :)

► **Dingbat779** (Cape Groupie)  
Replied On Feb 13th 2011:

Me too ;)

Anybody have _any_ idea what the hell is going to happen? Should I take time off work to come and watch? There are public viewing areas marked on that map in the park behind City Hall and a couple more down the shore.

► **Loki Thorson**  
Replied On Feb 13th 2011:

I suspect that if it involves The Family, it's going to be worth watching… Whatever it is.

Bring a camera. I'll sure be there!

► **Bladeworksfan** (Kyushu Survivor)  
Replied On Feb 13th 2011:

So will I.

Probably shaking a little, but that's normal when I see them.

First impressions, you understand? They stick with you.

► **Jormungandr**  
Replied On Feb 13th 2011:

They will come for us all. I will be a _long_ way away.

You were warned.

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 **(Showing page 22 of 71)**

► **Mojiizen**  
Replied On Feb 13th 2011:

Do I even need to say it?

[sigh]

I'll be there for sure.

► **Automatonation**  
Replied On Feb 13th 2011:

Raptaur and Saurial have both been seen going in and out of their building in the DWU facility quite a lot in the last few days. I haven't been in there myself yet, but some of my friends have. Apparently the place is still a bit bare but they're working on it. Panacea has been around a lot as well.

Armsmaster and Dragon turned up yesterday afternoon to see Raptaur. They were in there for several hours and when they left they both seemed slightly confused but pleased. No idea what that was all about.

Mayor Christner was around for a while as well, he and the boss were talking for quite a while. He went away with a weird grin on his face.

Raptaur put up the sign for the business an hour or two before Armsmaster came. Here's a **picture** of it. Any idea what language that second to last line is in?

And I can't help thinking they mean the last line… :O

► **White Fairy** (Veteran Member)  
Replied On Feb 13th 2011:

Oh, shit…

I _really_ hope that's a joke.

They have a weird sense of humor, right?

► **MZenny**  
Replied On Feb 13th 2011:

:O

I'm more worried about what the second line says.

► **Assembler**  
Replied On Feb 13th 2011:

Which is? Don't leave us hanging, man!

► **MZenny**  
Replied On Feb 13th 2011:

I read a lot when I'm waiting for customers. Anyone ever read any HP Lovecraft?

If you have, you'd recognize that language. It's a fictional one he invented, or at least, I sure _hope_ he invented it…

Hold on, I need to work this out, Cthuvian is weird and there can be a lot of different meanings. I need to look this up online, I'll be back…

Edit: OK, I _think_ it says, more or less, " _we/our society watch/protect the realm of earth (and) its people._ " Something like that. But you then have to work out what it means which might be different from what it literally says.

My best guess is something along the lines of " _The Family will protect its land and its people_ " or something pretty close to that.

Not quite sure how I feel about that.

Or about the fact that they used that specific language.

I need to order more eggs.

► **Macdjord**  
Replied On Feb 13th 2011:

They're quoting Lovecraft of all things now? Wow.

For some weird reason that doesn't actually make me entirely happy.

:O

► **Jormungandr**  
Replied On Feb 13th 2011:

I _told_ you!

They come…

► **Electric_Techpriest**  
Replied On Feb 13th 2011:

If he's right I'm going to shoot myself.

Not because of the Lovecraftian horror, but just because it was _him_ …

;)

► **Mojiizen**  
Replied On Feb 13th 2011:

Don't worry, he's not right.

He's never right :D

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 **(Showing page 23 of 71)**

► **SenorEel**  
Replied On Feb 13th 2011:

I'm still very happy I'm on the other side of the ocean from you guys, and getting happier by the minute!

► **White Fairy** (Veteran Member)  
Replied On Feb 13th 2011:  
I think I might want to emigrate soon. Just in case, you know?

► **Filipinosberman**  
Replied On Feb 13th 2011:

Don't worry about it, they're cool. I've met both of them several times and they're just people. Weird looking ones, true, but still people. I'm sure nothing bad will happen on Tuesday.

► **Loki Thorson**  
Replied On Feb 13th 2011:

I hope not. I'm expecting something really interesting, though.

► **Filipinosberman**  
Replied On Feb 13th 2011:

I bet that comes true :)

► **XxVoid_CowboyxX**  
Replied On Feb 13th 2011:

I'm telling you, it's _aliens!_ That's their alien language. This Lovecraft guy probably met them or something.

► **Mandabar**  
Replied On Feb 13th 2011:

Aliens… :)

Right.

Are you off your meds again?

► **XxVoid_CowboyxX**  
Replied On Feb 13th 2011:

[Post deleted]

[User temp banned – 24 hours] - BrocktonBayMod

As I've told you, over and over, no threats of violence, XxVoid_CowboyxX. I still live in hope that one day you'll learn, but that hope is fading…

Guys, please try not to provoke him. I know it's funny but it doesn't actually help anything. I may have to start handing out temp bans if you keep it up. It's not really fair, in a battle of wits he's seriously outgunned.

Damn, now you've got _me_ doing it… - BrocktonBayMod

► **Mandabar**  
Replied On Feb 13th 2011:

He's awful predictable and easy to poke, isn't he? :) :D

► **Mojiizen**  
Replied On Feb 13th 2011:

Yep.

Well done. :)

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 **(Showing page 24 of 71)**

► **ExArmyMan**  
Replied On Feb 13th 2011:

I thought you guys would enjoy **this**. The Boss doesn't mind me posting it and neither did Raptaur.

Yes, that's Glory Girl helping her. She turned up with Panacea on Saturday when it was absolutely pouring with rain, looking like a drowned kitten :) Her normal costume isn't very effective in the rain, it looks like.

Raptaur made her a new one, same as she did for Panacea. Then she asked if GG wanted some exercise. They seemed to have a lot of fun.

► **IguanaGirl**  
Replied On Feb 13th 2011:

Wow. That's really amazing. Did she really just grab that cable and pull and the whole thing fell down?

► **Dingbat779** (Cape Groupie)  
Replied On Feb 13th 2011:

Sure looks like that. Maybe it was wrapped around all the support columns or something?

► **Valshax**  
Replied On Feb 13th 2011:

That wouldn't be enough to do it, it wouldn't fall over instantly. They must have done something else inside.

Pretty impressive to watch, though.

► **Automatonation**  
Replied On Feb 13th 2011:

Friend of mine was on that crew, he said they cut out most of the internal columns first and took out a lot of the walls as well. We have a couple of demolition experts here, they advised Raptaur on the right way to do it so it would come down cleanly. Even so everyone was a little surprised how well it worked.

► **Pyrite**  
Replied On Feb 13th 2011:

Are they really wearing high-viz vests over their costumes?

:)

What do they say, the video isn't clear enough to make it out?

► **Filipinosberman**  
Replied On Feb 13th 2011:

It's OSHA rules, everyone on a building site needs the right PPE! Here's a photo of them a friend took when the rain stopped, you can read their vests.

► **Pyrite**  
Replied On Feb 13th 2011:

Oh my god. That's hysterical.

:) :)

► **Mojiizen**  
Replied On Feb 13th 2011:

I like it. Raptaur obviously has a sense of humor just like Saurial's.

:) I wonder what would have happened if it had been _her_ sneaking up on Clockblocker in the Great Tabasco Prank of 2011? :)

► **Clockblocker** (Verified Cape) (Wards ENE)  
Replied On Feb 13th 2011:

I'd have needed CPR, I can tell you that much…

I nearly shat a brick with _Saurial_ , and she's sort of cute. If I'd turned around and seen _Raptaur_ looking down at me with a big grin…

Shit, I'm feeling a little faint just thinking about it.

Stop making me think about it.

 **End of Page.** **1** **,** **2** **,** **3** **...** **22** **,** **23** **, 24,** **25** **,** **26** **...** **69** **,** **70** **,** **71**

 **(Showing page 25 of 71)**

► **Mojiizen**  
Replied On Feb 13th 2011:

:D

Big teeth in the dark, glowing eyes, all those scales and armor peering down at you from three feet over your head…

► **Kid Win** (Verified Cape) (Wards ENE)  
Replied On Feb 13th 2011:

He just went pale and had to put his laptop down. Good one.

► **Vista** (Verified Cape) (Wards ENE)  
Replied On Feb 13th 2011:

:D :D I… can't… breathe… laughing… too… hard…

► **Mojiizen**  
Replied On Feb 13th 2011:

Glad to help the Wards. Let me know if you need more.

► **Kid Win** (Verified Cape) (Wards ENE)  
Replied On Feb 13th 2011:

That should do it for now ;)

► **MZenny**  
Replied On Feb 13th 2011:

Poor Clock. That was mean.

Funny, but mean.

► **Electric_Techpriest**  
Replied On Feb 13th 2011:

:)

► **Dingbat779** (Cape Groupie)  
Replied On Feb 13th 2011:

It made _me_ go a little faint thinking about it.

Curse you, imagination!

► **Sothoth**  
Replied On Feb 13th 2011:

I'm still laughing, picturing it in my mind.

Do you think we could ask Raptaur to do that? I'd pay…

► **Assembler**  
Replied On Feb 13th 2011:

:)

Well, they are running a business now. Maybe ' _terrifying the crap out of the Wards_ ' is a service they offer?

 **End of Page.** **1** **,** **2** **,** **3** **...** **23** **,** **24** **, 25,** **26** **,** **27** **...** **69** **,** **70** **,** **71**

 **(Showing page 26 of 71)**

► **Bladeworksfan** (Kyushu Survivor)  
Replied On Feb 13th 2011:

Please don't give them ideas...

► **Glory Girl** (Verified Cape) (New Wave)  
Replied On Feb 13th 2011:

Raptaur is too nice to scare poor old Clocky on purpose. She might do it accidentally, of course ;)

I have to say I had a hell of a lot of fun on Saturday and made a new friend. And got a cool costume out of it. It's very warm and dry.

► **Macdjord**  
Replied On Feb 13th 2011:

Can I ask, as long as you're here, are New Wave officially rebranding their image, Glory Girl?

► **Glory Girl** (Verified Cape) (New Wave)  
Replied On Feb 13th 2011:

Not really, no. Panacea was offered the one she had because it's more practical for riding Raptaur, which they both seem to think is fun, and she asked Raptaur to make me one because I nearly froze to death on Saturday morning. Or drowned. Or both.

It was horrible.

But this thing is amazing, it's really warm, more or less everything proof, and you can't even stain it!

I think they should offer them for sale. I bet they'd make a fortune. Even just as the most over the top motorcycle suit you've ever seen :)

► **Macdjord**  
Replied On Feb 13th 2011:

Thanks. I was curious.

And, now that you mention it, _I_ ride a motorcycle…

I wonder how much they'd charge?

 **(Showing page 74 of 128)**

► **Laser Augment**  
Replied On Feb 14th 2011:

OK, I just watched that press conference on line, and I'm confused.

Very confused.

Anybody have any more idea about what the plan is than they did before your Mayor started talking? I think I actually know less now!

Are you sure he's not a Parahuman with the ability to talk bullshit?

And who the hell is Kaiju?

► **FCVanillaIce**  
Replied On Feb 14th 2011:

I wonder how literally we're supposed to take the name?

I mean, you all know what a kaiju is, right?

► **Glare**  
Replied On Feb 14th 2011:

I saw Pacific Rim, so yes.

Now I'm getting just a little worried.

► **IguanaGirl**  
Replied On Feb 14th 2011:

I can't wait to see another member of the Family. I wonder how big she is?

But I have no idea what the Mayor was talking about.

► **Valshax**  
Replied On Feb 14th 2011:

He certainly managed to talk a lot without actually saying anything. It was really impressive in a sort of surreal way ;)

I guess we have to wait until tomorrow.

► **Bladeworksfan** (Kyushu Survivor)  
Replied On Feb 14th 2011:

Kaiju?

Oh, shit…

•

 **Topic:** **Oh… My… God… What the FUCK is going on?!** **  
In: Boards ► Places ► America ► Brockton Bay  
Bagrat **(Original Poster) (Veteran Member) (The Guy in the Know)  
Posted On Feb 15th 2011:

I'm

I don't

I'm honestly having trouble typing this. As I write this, I have just seen…

Something…

go past in the bay.

Shit.

OK, let me start again.

I'm sitting in my office which overlooks the bay, with the window open. I don't know how it was done, but the Mayor's speech was broadcast to most of the city with the best audio quality I've ever heard. Must be some Tinker tech, maybe Dragon's. Anyway, he went on for a while, in what was actually a very good speech.

I'll come back to that when I get over what I saw.

What it sums up to is that this Kaiju is going to remove the tanker!

You know, that fucking huge ship that's been stuck on the reef at the entrance to the bay for something like fifteen or more years? It's _enormous!_ A good thirty or forty thousand tons of steel just sitting there.

And she's going to remove it.

Today.

Pretty much now.

Everyone in the office was looking at each other, trying to work out how. Tinker? Blaster? What?

Then Danny Hebert, the DWU guy, told them to start over a radio. We heard ' _Kaiju was on her way_ ' from the other end, and moment's later music began playing.

The ' _Jaws_ ' theme, of course…

Everyone was looking towards the docks, wondering what was going to happen. I can see what must be thirty or forty thousand people at least down in the parks around the shore, and every building I can see has people crowding around the windows or on the roofs. There was a long pause, then…

Christ, I can hardly believe it, and I'm _looking_ at it!

You'll all probably see it on the TV soon, there are reporters up on the roof of City Hall with cameras filming the whole thing, but I guess it'll take a while to get into the networks.

About thirty second after the call, _something_ went past us. I don't know what it really is, but it must have been over a _hundred feet long!_ I'm not kidding, it was fucking _huge!_ All we saw was a wake and this enormous black scaled back come out of the water, zoom past at what must have been at least thirty miles an hour, then slowly sink out of sight again. Even when it vanished you could see a huge ripple in the water moving towards the tanker.

Aside from the music, the entire city went dead silent. I wonder how many people fainted?

I sure as shit nearly did!

Edit: Now there's huge orange buoys popping out of the water one after another! They're massive, twenty, thirty feet across, and the same high, with big yellow flags sticking out the top. The flags have a picture on. Here's a **photo**.

Edit 2: The music changed again, now it's

Fuck.

Fuck me.

What the hell is _that?_

OK, for anyone who can't see this, Kaiju just stood up.

You remember how we were arguing how literally to take her name, and everyone agreed in the end it was an exaggeration? She was probably bigger than Raptaur but no more than twice the size at most?

We were wrong.

Boy, were we wrong…

I mean, I'm on the sixth floor and I'm looking _up_ at her head.

She's… I don't have the words.

Fucking huge, that'll have to do. Eighty feet tall? Ninety? Something around that. The biggest damn thing I've ever seen in my life.

I need to sit down again. Sorry. I'll pick this up in a minute.

Edit 3: OK, I'm a little less ready to run screaming. You've probably all seen the reports on the TV now, but for those who still haven't, here's a **photo** of Kaiju talking to the Mayor, and a short **video**. Sorry about the quality, I couldn't stop trembling.

I still can't. You wouldn't believe how many typos I'm making.

She's gone now, she went back into the water and headed off to the tanker. I can see it changing color, it's going gray and shiny, like Raptaur and Saurial's weapons. I have no idea what's going on anymore.

 **(Showing page 1 of 2103)**

► **Laser Augment**  
Replied On Feb 15th 2011:

Sweet Jesus what the hell is that?

► **SenorEel**  
Replied On Feb 15th 2011:

I'm moving to a mountaintop right now. I'm serious. I need to get away from the water.

► **Electric_Techpriest**  
Replied On Feb 15th 2011:

I'm watching it and I still don't believe it :O :O :O

► **Dingbat779** (Cape Groupie)  
Replied On Feb 15th 2011:

You and me both, my friend.

I for one…

You know how it goes.

► **MZenny**  
Replied On Feb 15th 2011:

I think I need bigger eggs…

If I close my eyes will things make sense when I open them again?

► **Mandabar**  
Replied On Feb 15th 2011:

No.

I tried.

► **Bladeworksfan** (Kyushu Survivor)  
Replied On Feb 15th 2011:

I'm still trying…

► **Mojiizen**  
Replied On Feb 15th 2011:

:O

I mean…

:O

► **Jormungandr**  
Replied On Feb 15th 2011:

:D

 _I_

 ** _told_**

 ** _you_**

 **End of Page. 1,** **2** **,** **3** **...** **2101** **,** **2102** **,** **2103**

 **(Showing page 2 of 2103)**

► **Mojiizen**  
Replied On Feb 15th 2011:

Yes. Yes you did.

You're still crazy.

But I think I might be now as well.

► **Automatonation**  
Replied On Feb 15th 2011:

Calm down, everyone, Kaiju is cool. She's DWU, not an Endbringer.

► **Valshax**  
Replied On Feb 15th 2011:

Can she be both?

What the hell?

► **Willdelve4beer**  
Replied On Feb 15th 2011:

I picked the wrong day to give up drinking…

► **Electric_Techpriest**  
Replied On Feb 15th 2011:

Shit.

I think I owe old Erwin an apology.

And a drink.

► **Miss Mercury** (Protectorate Employee)  
Replied On Feb 15th 2011:

We're watching it from the Rig and no one here can believe it either. Dragon and Armsmaster looked like they'd seen a ghost and their reaction was pretty calm compared to everyone else.

Now they're talking a lot.

► **Reave** (Verified PRT Agent)  
Replied On Feb 15th 2011:

I'm fucking glad no one hit the sirens.

But I have no idea why they didn't.

 **(Showing page 309 of 2103)**

► **AllSeeingEye**  
Replied On Feb 15th 2011:

The music is thanks to Über and Leet. I'm watching Kaiju tow that ship and laughing like an idiot. It's fantastic.

Terrifying, but fantastic.

Why do I get the impression that the balance of power in Brockton Bay just changed?

► **Laser Augment**  
Replied On Feb 15th 2011:

In Brockton Bay?! Try in the country. Or maybe the world.

Your city has a friendly Endbringer, for Christ's sake!

That's…

I have no idea what that is, but I'm moving further away from the coast.

► **XxVoid_CowboyxX**  
Replied On Feb 15th 2011:

Kaiju VS Leviathan?

Who would win?

► **Mojiizen**  
Replied On Feb 15th 2011:

That's probably the sanest thing you've ever asked, Cowboy.

► **XxVoid_CowboyxX**  
Replied On Feb 15th 2011:

I mean, an alien that big? She'd stomp him flat.

► **Mojiizen**  
Replied On Feb 15th 2011:

...And now you're back.

► **Filipinosberman**  
Replied On Feb 15th 2011:

It seems to be going pretty well. I understand that people were surprised, but so far things are working the way we hoped.

► **Assembler**  
Replied On Feb 15th 2011:

You _hoped?_ Holy crap, that doesn't make me any happier.

► **Glare**  
Replied On Feb 15th 2011:

Be polite. He's DWU, so is she…

► **Assembler**  
Replied On Feb 15th 2011:

Crap.

 **End of Page. 1, 2, 3 ... 307, 308, 309, 310, 311 ... 2101, 2102, 2103**

(Showing page 310 of 2103)

► **Filipinosberman**  
Replied On Feb 15th 2011:

:D

► **Dingbat779** (Cape Groupie)  
Replied On Feb 15th 2011:

OK, tell me someone else saw that?

► **Macdjord**  
Replied On Feb 15th 2011:

What?

The hundred foot tall sea monster doing a Vader impression?

No, I didn't. Or at least I hope I didn't, because if I did, the world has completely stopped making sense and I may just as well go back to bed.

In fact, I think I'm going to do that anyway.

Wake me up when things are back to normal.

► **Zjunrei**  
Replied On Feb 15th 2011:

You live in Brockton Bay.

What is ' _normal_ '?

And I'm not kidding.

► **Bagrat** (Original Poster) (Veteran Member) (The Guy in the Know)  
Replied On Feb 15th 2011:

I give up. I can't keep up with all this typing, so I'm just going to watch and take photos and video. I'll update things tomorrow.

Apparently there will be a press conference after the tanker is safely docked. I'm going to see if I can get into it. I have to find out what the hell is going on.

► **FCVanillaIce**  
Replied On Feb 15th 2011:

Good luck. Thanks for updating us on all this.

 **(Showing page 403 of 2103)**

► **Bladeworksfan** (Kyushu Survivor)  
Replied On Feb 15th 2011:

Mr Foot?

Seriously?

:D

Poor Legend. That will follow him for the rest of his life.

► **Zjunrei**  
Replied On Feb 15th 2011:

:)

► **Electric_Techpriest**  
Replied On Feb 15th 2011:

I just had a really worrying thought…

Raptaur talked about a big brother.

Not a big sister.

I need to go and lie down for a while.

► **Loki Thorson**  
Replied On Feb 15th 2011:

You had to say that, didn't you, you idiot?

Now _I_ need to go lie down. Thanks.

► **Jormungandr**  
Replied On Feb 15th 2011:

More will rise.

► **Mojiizen**  
Replied On Feb 15th 2011:

Oh, fuck off.

► **EdBaccarat** (Veteran Member)  
Replied On Feb 15th 2011:

Ah.

I think we're going to need some bigger guns...

► **Nazgûl** (Verified Cape)  
Replied On Feb 15th 2011:

Really?

Guns?

 _That's_ what you think will help?

I'm thinking nukes...

► **EdBaccarat** (Veteran Member)  
Replied On Feb 15th 2011:

That will take longer to arrange.

► **AllSeeingEye**  
Replied On Feb 15th 2011:

Please don't even joke about nuking BB, I live here.

Anyway, it wouldn't work.

 **End of Page.** **1** **,** **2** **,** **3** **...** **401** **,** **402** **, 403,** **404** **,** **405** **...** **2101** **,** **2102** **,** **2103**

 **(Showing page 404 of 2103)**

► **Mandabar**  
Replied On Feb 15th 2011:

In what way, ' _wouldn't work_ '?

► **AllSeeingEye**  
Replied On Feb 15th 2011:

In the way that it would only make her mad.

Kill all of us, of course, but only make HER mad.

You wouldn't like her when she's mad...

► **Nazgûl** (Verified Cape)  
Replied On Feb 15th 2011:

With all due respect, I'm not sure I like her now!

► **Panacea** (Verified Cape) (New Wave)  
Replied On Feb 15th 2011:

Please don't freak out. Kaiju is a good friend.

Just wait and see what happens.

Trust me. It's going to be... interesting

•

Amy put her phone away, smirking to herself.

Oh, it was going to be interesting, all right.

Peering towards where Taylor was slowly approaching, she snickered under her breath, then went back to helping Leet pick the next track while Über made suggestions and cracked jokes.


	95. Canon Omake: Report EP-02152011-RCB

_This is basically the notes I wrote to keep track of who knows what in the PRT, which I reworked into Emily Piggot's main report to the Chief Director. If you don't want to have more unnecessary details don't bother reading it as it's not important to the plot although parts of it will be referenced in future chapters, the first of which should be along pretty soon. This is the report which is safe to put on the PRT servers from Piggot's point of view, ie it does not contain any of the suppositions she and Miss Militia have about the origins of 'The Family'. Parts of the threat assessment section are based on YuffieK's original Omake._

 _Note that the formatting of this is all screwed up due to the lack of facilities for text on this site. Making it work on SB was a pain in the ass and it has far more options available. Pretend it looks all formal and professional, that's the way I intended it :)_

* * *

 **PRT Internal Document EP/THRPT/1022-03-00002921-02/15/2011**

 **CLASSIFICATION: Secret, Not for Public Release, Limited Internal Release**

 **DISTRIBUTION: Security level 5 and up, Senior Protectorate/PRT/Guild staff eyes only**

 **DRAFTED: Director Emily Piggot, PRT ENE Brockton Bay**

 **CHECKED: Legend, Protectorate Leader, New York**

 **ADDITIONAL: Armsmaster, Protectorate ENE, Brockton Bay**  
 **Miss Militia, Protectorate ENE, Brockton Bay**  
 **Dragon, Guild Member, Protectorate Associate, Vancouver**

 **REFERENCES: EP/PRTRQ/1022-09-00009031-05/10/2009**  
 **GA/VS/PHACT/1022-01-00093104-01/25/2011**  
 **CB/KW/PHACT/1022-01-00093140-01/29/2011**  
 **MM/PHACT/1022-01-00093151-01/30/2011**  
 **MM/THRPT/1022-03-00002903-02/01/2011**  
 **MM/THRPT/1022-03-00002915-02/05/2011**  
 **AM/DR/PHENC/1022-00-00000764-02/06/2011**  
 **AS/BT/PHACT/1022-01-00093183-02/06/2011**  
 **MM/PHACT/1022-01-00093187-02/06/2011**  
 **CB/KW/PHACT/1022-01-00093189-02/06/2011**  
 **MM/PHACT/1022-01-00093207-02/12/2011**  
 **AM/DR/PHENC/1022-00-00000769-02/12/2011**  
 **MM/PHACT/1022-01-00093212-02/13/2011**  
 **AM/MM/PHACT/1022-01-00093215-02/13/2011**  
 **AM/MM/PHACT/1022-01-00093216-02/13/2011**  
 **EP/MM/PHACT/1022-01-00093219-02/14/2011**  
 **EP/PHLEG/1022-06-00012407-02-14/2011**  
 **EP/PHENC/1022-00-00000771-02/15/2011**  
 **EP/AM/PHACQ/1022-02-00001235-02/15/2011**  
 **LE/PHACT/1022-01-00093222-02/15/2011**

 **DATE: 02/15/2011**

 **TIME: 19:27:36**

 **REVISION: 02.D.2**

 **INTERNAL THREAT ASSESSMENT REPORT**

 **SUBJECT: The Family**

 **Summary**

This report gives the background to date of the Parahuman group known as The Family, recommendations for further action and contact protocols, and individual threat assessments of the four currently known members of this group.

Authored by Emily Piggot with further input and fact checking from Legend, Armsmaster, Miss Militia, and Dragon.

 **Background**

" **The Family** " is the initially public-generated name of a group of reptilian Parahumans, who possess similar if not in fact identical powersets and abilities. The group appears to have accepted the name and are now using it to refer to themselves. At the current time, there are four known members of The Family, which are:

 **Saurial** , Initial public appearance 01/25/2011 [DocRef **MM/THRPT/1022-03-00002903-02/01/2011** ]  
 **Raptaur** , Initial public appearance 02/04/2011[DocRef **MM/THRPT/1022-03-00002915-02/05/2011** ]  
 **Umihebi** , Initial encounter 02/06/2011, not yet publicly known [DocRef **AM/DR/PHENC/1022-00-00000764-02/06/2011** ]  
 **Kaiju** , Initial public appearance 02/15/2011 [DocRef **EP/PHENC/1022-00-00000771-02/15/2011** ]

 **Saurial** and **Kaiju** named themselves, while **Raptaur** was initially named by public consensus via the Parahumans Online [ **PHO** ] internet forums. She appears to have accepted the name and now uses it. Raptaur gave the name **Umihebi** as that of the fourth known member of the group during a meeting between herself and Armsmaster/Dragon at the Dock Workers Union [ **DWU** ] facility.

Despite appearance, it is believed that none of the four Parahumans should be classified as Case 53. Saurial was asked outright during her initial contact with the Wards ENE by Vista, who explained the concept and signs. She replied that she could remember her life to the age of approximately 3 years, which is within normal human parameters for childhood memory although admittedly at the unusual level. She also denied having the tattoo known to mark all currently detected Case 53 subjects. [DocRef **GA/VS/PHACT/1022-01-00093104-01/25/2011** ]

All four individuals are of apparent reptilian origin, but without further examination and DNA testing, the PRT Research Department is reluctant to definitively classify them as reptiles. They point out that despite appearance, they all function perfectly well in environmental conditions under which any known reptile would become comatose almost immediately, and indeed very few mammals would thrive. Raptaur is known to spend considerable time in the sea, during sub-zero conditions and while the surface water temperature is below 37 degrees Fahrenheit. Such temperatures would cause near-instant unconsciousness and rapid death for an untrained base-line human and most Parahumans, and be extremely hazardous even for a trained individual. Saurial and Raptaur both expose considerable amounts of bare 'skin' to the elements even under snowy conditions, such as bare feet, and would appear to suffer no ill effects whatsoever. [DocRef **CB/KW/PHACT/1022-01-00093140-01/29/2011** ]

Kaiju appeared from the water during her rather memorable debut and at the point this report is being written has spent at least six hours in it, much of it underwater. She would appear to thrive in it, and based on a remote physical assessment seems to in fact be adapted for aquatic operations, although she clearly can function perfectly well out of the water.

Umihebi was first encountered at 43.187461 degrees latitude, -55.825854 degrees longitude, at a depth of just over a thousand feet, the water temperature at that depth being measured as 41 degrees Fahrenheit by Dragon's remote submersible. The last encounter was at 42.835119 degrees latitude, -55.655193 degrees longitude, at over twelve hundred feet depth, where the probe was destroyed. The distance between these two points is some 25 miles which Umihebi covered at a speed of over 300 MPH, proving that she can function at extremely high levels of physical exertion in conditions of high pressure and low temperature. Of the four members of The Family currently known, she is the most obviously optimized for aquatic operation, but all four are known or suspected to be at home in the water. It is considered likely that Umihebi could function on land as well.

While they vary wildly in size, all the members of The Family share a number of similarities, such as scales, long tails, carnivorous dentition, and very distinctive eyes. These are best described as similar to those of a domestic feline, with vertically slit pupils, no apparent sclera, and an iris that covers the entire surface, which is of an orange/yellow color and emits light at a low but visible level.

Most individuals who encounter this effect find it unnerving to extremely frightening depending on temperament and situation. The Parahumans in question would appear to be well aware of this and capitalize on it, both Saurial and Raptaur having combat styles that make considerable use of psychological warfare techniques to increase their effectiveness, with great success. At least two encounters between Saurial and opponents of hers have resulted in one or more of those opponents actively asking to be incarcerated.

Reports from members of the Brockton Bay Police Department [ **BBPD** ], the Wards ENE, and the Protectorate ENE who have encountered either Raptaur or Saurial suggest that the initial encounter almost universally produced a sensation of danger, high intelligence, and an effect that has been described as ' _Alien_ ' or ' _Not human_ '. Research Department scientists suggest that this may be some form of emotional aura similar to that of New Wave member Glory Girl, or alternatively an atavistic response caused by the reptilian appearance and obviously high strength and speed coupled with the carnivorous teeth.

Interestingly, while this initial interaction effect would appear to be close to instinctive, further interaction more often than not rapidly transitions into a significant respect and in many cases considerable liking of both Parahumans. While both of them have definitely non-human responses and body language, this doesn't appear to be a significant issue when dealing with normal individuals, many of whom appear to genuinely like having them around. In turn, they appear to have a respect for people that is considered somewhat abnormal for Parahumans of their power level, going out of their way to minimize collateral damage to individuals or property.

Saurial is more popular to the public at large than Raptaur, presumably due to her more human appearance which is considerably less threatening than that of the latter, her longer association with the public, and her somewhat less aggressive techniques during combat.

Raptaur is more respected than liked outside the confines of the DWU, where she would appear to be very popular. Additionally, she has apparently developed a close friendship with Panacea of New Wave, as has Saurial, and is quickly developing a similar relationship with Glory Girl, Panacea's sister. Both Raptaur and Glory Girl were involved in demolition work at the Dockyard in association with the DWU, at which point Glory Girl would seem to have been gifted with a new costume very similar to the one Panacea now has. [DocRef **MM/PHACT/1022-01-00093207-02/12/2011** ]

The association of The Family with the DWU is close but currently unexplained. Most PRT contact with Raptaur has been arranged through Daniel Francisci Hebert, Hiring Manager and Chief Negotiator, who for reasons not yet known would appear to have their considerable respect. He has been acting as official point of contact for The Family in general since Raptaur's initial debut, although Saurial was known to visit him and the DWU regularly before that. He is on record as having given her permission to use the DWU Facility yard for training purposes. [DocRef **MM/PHACT/1022-01-00093151-01/30/2011** ]

Information received from Brockton Bay Mayor Roy Christner indicates that DF Hebert was the person who introduced Kaiju to him, showing previous contact, although at this point in time we are at a loss to explain where this could have taken place. Her appearance and size is such that preventing the public noticing anywhere in the confines of the city or the larger Brockton Bay area would appear to be close to impossible. It is suggested that the initial contact was via either Saurial or Raptaur and most likely took place elsewhere in a sparsely populated area, probably near or at the shore. Further investigations of this matter are suggested.

The association of Panacea, then Glory Girl, with The Family, is also of some concern and considerable mystery. The initial contact between Panacea and Saurial appears to be a gang violence event on 02/06/2011 between the Azn Bad Boys [ **ABB** ] and Empire Eighty-Eight [ **E88** ], which Panacea was caught up in while on personal business in the commercial district of Brockton Bay, although there are some anomalies surrounding this. [DocRef **AS/BT/PHACT/1022-01-00093183-02/06/2011** ]

Saurial arrived on scene shortly before BBPD backup arrived to support the two officers present and proceeded to take down the five gang members in under a minute, chasing down the sole escapee on foot and retrieving him before handing him over to the authorities. No serious casualties resulted from this event. Panacea healed the minor wounds incurred on eight bystanders then spent some time talking quietly to Saurial, the encounter being described by BBPD witnesses as giving the effect of two people who already knew each other. There is nothing on record to show where this previous contact might have occurred.

After this conversation, both females left the scene, Panacea removing her costume hood which was the only part of it she had been wearing, and Saurial changing her costume into something that is best described as ' _casual attire_ ', apparently using her matter generation ability. They spent over three hours in a local restaurant, somewhat amusingly massively increasing the business that specific facility now enjoys, before leaving. [DocRef **MM/PHACT/1022-01-00093187-02/06/2011** ]

Some forty minutes later, Raptaur was spotted by members of the public and two ENE Wards with Panacea sitting on her lower back in what appeared to be a modified version of her normal body armor, which formed a saddle, moving at high speed through, and over, the city. Speeds of over 80 MPH were recorded by traffic cameras although oddly enough Raptaur obeyed traffic lights, waiting on red lights to the consternation of vehicle users. She was seen ascending the Medhall tower at a speed estimated at more than 40 MPH with no obvious effort and it is suspected she was moving considerably less rapidly than she is capable of, most likely due to having a passenger. [DocRef **CB/KW/PHACT/1022-01-00093189-02/06/2011** ]

Since that time Panacea has been seen several times in the company of either Raptaur or Saurial, including another time riding the former around Brockton Bay, which seems to be when she acquired her new costume. Information received is that it was provided by Raptaur, generated via her abilities, and is constructed at least partially of the electron-degenerate material [ **EDM** ] which characterizes much of the weapons and tools that The Family regularly produce.

Armsmaster is of the opinion that this costume is capable of absorbing a vast amount of impact without damage, the main limitation being the point that the total force applied induces a sufficient acceleration to the entire costume that the occupant is lethally damaged. Based on observation and simulation he feels that the material it is made of is probably deliberately designed to spread the load of impact across the entire suit by means of some form of micro- or nano-particle construction which will lock into a rigid structure upon being hit hard enough. The faceplate, which is constructed according to Raptaur of a single perfect aluminum oxide [ **Synthetic sapphire** ] crystal with a nano-mesh of EDM fused to each face, is the only real weak point and his simulations show that even that would deflect a .50 caliber armor piercing round at least once without failure. The rest of the costume is enormously tougher.

It would also, based on comments made by Panacea and Raptaur, appear to be waterproof, insulated sufficiently to be very heatproof, and due to the EDM construction, a perfect electrical insulator and an exceptional radiation shield. Overall Armsmaster feels that it would be an excellent idea to approach The Family with an eye towards negotiating purchase of similarly constructed costumes for Protectorate Parahumans, and depending on cost, even for normal PRT troopers. While it would not increase strength, the enormous toughness is sufficient to give at least a Brute 1 rating to a fit human trained in combat. This suggestion is the subject of a separate report. [DocRef **EP/AM/PHACQ/1022-02-00001235-02/15/2011** ]

Reports from the Wards who go to school with Panacea and know her well, and an interview between Miss Militia and both Panacea's mother Brandish and her Aunt Lady Photon suggest that since Panacea met Saurial, then Raptaur, she has been in a much better state of mind, making new friends at school and cutting back on her hospital volunteer work. Brockton General has noted that she is both happier and more effective in relating to the patients she treats as a result although they also note that her sarcastic sense of humor is if anything more evident. Gallant reported that before this point, she was slowly becoming more and more depressed, most likely due to the extreme stress of her work/life balance, which he and his friends all described as tilted much too far in the direction of work for someone of her age. Added to the nature of that work he is of the opinion that in the near future she might well have had some form of serious psychological issue. While he is not trained in psychiatric issues his emotion-sensing abilities give him an insight into the mental state of others which is seldom wrong and often very insightful. [DocRef **MM/PHACT/1022-01-00093212-02/13/2011** ]

Further to this point, yet again it should be noted that the PRT access to psychiatric therapy is unfortunately limited and it is suggested that this situation be rectified at the soonest available time. [DocRef **EP/PRTRQ/1022-09-00009031-05/10/2009** ]

The ABB gang event on 02/13/2011 in which Oni Lee was killed, involving the local minor villain group the Undersiders, would seem to mark the first time anyone other than DF Hebert or Panacea saw Kaiju. The fact that no member of the public reported a sighting can be put down to the heavy fog that covered the entire bay area during that period of time. Tattletale of the Undersiders was attacked by Lung, from whom her group had successfully removed over three quarters of a million US dollars in cash, apparently from his main safe house. An estimated 90% of the ABB went after them, causing a running battle through a large part of the old Docks area on both sides of the DWU facility, which ended with the remaining members of the Undersiders, Grue, Regent, and Bitch, successfully taking advantage of a lapse of judgment on Oni Lee's part and ambushing him with Tinker tech sedative grenades. He teleported into the gas cloud holding primed fragmentation grenades in both hands and was overcome by the gas before he could escape, the grenades detonating as he collapsed. One more grenade on his costume detonated as a result, the combined blast killing him instantly. [DocRef **AM/MM/PHACT/1022-01-00093215-02/13/2011** ]

His death has been recorded as Parahuman-assisted death by misadventure subject to review when forensic evidence has been fully analyzed.

While this was ongoing, Tattletale became separated from her group and ended up approximately a mile away near the shore. Lung attacked her and caused significant injury, including a broken arm and internal damage, but was in turn attacked by Raptaur before he could terminate her. The ensuing fight set fire to several derelict buildings and according to eye-witness testimony from Tattletale, allowed Lung to ramp up to the point he was close to his essentially unstoppable level, where normally retreat is the only rational option.

Neither she or Raptaur were forthcoming with what happened next, but the end result was that Lung left the area without either Tattletale or the significant amount of his appropriated cash, agreeing that both the Undersiders and the money were now claimed by The Family. Raptaur explained that it was put into terms that Lung would accept, having come to the conclusion that he functions on an honor-driven system and that this was the quickest way to resolve the situation without killing him which she was reluctant to do. Armsmaster, Dragon, and Miss Militia all feel that she could have done so at almost any point during the fight but restrained herself.

Information received during the initial interview of the Undersiders, Raptaur having tracked and rescued the three other members and returned them to the DWU where Panacea healed them, and Raptaur, by Armsmaster and Miss Militia, suggested that Lung had been given the choice of accepting this deal or death by ingestion. While it is uncomfortable to contemplate there is little doubt that she could make good on the threat as she has been seen ingesting with apparent enjoyment a number of things, up to metals and ceramic, to no ill effect. Dragon is of the opinion that her teeth are considerably stronger than diamond and her digestive system may well work on something much closer to nuclear processes than biological ones, considering that Umihebi was recorded to have eaten nearly three hundred and fifty pounds of titanium superalloy hull, high density sulfur-sodium batteries, and superconducting wire, none of which are normally considered edible. [DocRef **AM/DR/PHENC/1022-00-00000769-02/12/2011** ]

Her only comment was that it was somewhat bitter and needed Tabasco sauce.

During the operation involving Kaiju and the wrecked Suezmax class supertanker **Tharaleos** which was sunk across the mouth of Brockton Bay at the end of the general strike in 1997, Mayor Christner revealed that it was actually Kaiju that made the threat to Lung, called in to help by Raptaur. Based on her size, no one who has learned this is shocked that even Lung decided that his fortunes lay elsewhere. [DocRef **EP/PHENC/1022-00-00000771-02/15/2011** ]

Raptaur has made a deal with the Undersiders, who appear to genuinely wish to remove themselves from the villain lifestyle, having stated that none of them originally wished to enter it in the first place but in each case had no choice for a variety of reasons. She has stated both to Lung and to the PRT that the group is under the aegis and protection of The Family and that they will be protected from any outside influence, in return for giving up criminal activities. All four members appear to accept this, and the DWU has agreed to provide them with living quarters for the foreseeable future. Armsmaster and Miss Militia, after some discussion with them, Raptaur, and DF Hebert, provisionally accepted this deal, both from a humanitarian viewpoint as their lives may well be at risk from Lung if they leave the area, and from a pragmatic viewpoint that there was little the PRT could actually do to change the situation assuming The Family did indeed wish to use violence to protect their charges, without sparking an encounter that neither felt was particularly winnable. [DocRef **AM/MM/PHACT/1022-01-00093216-02/13/2011** ]

The only specific issue with this deal, from a legal viewpoint and using current information, is the status of Rachel Lindt, AKA Bitch/Hellhound. She has a charge of first degree murder by means of Parahuman abilities on record, but according to Tattletale, this charge is at best significantly inflated and at worst entirely bogus. Initial investigations of her claim has shown a number of irregularities surrounding the entire affair which throws enough doubt upon it that it is highly recommended that a full investigation be performed. Based on this, and other information on local Parahuman criminals volunteered by Tattletale, who is prepared to cooperate fully with the PRT, it was decided to leave the deal in place and accept the status quo until such time as a full determination of the truth of the matter could be made. The DWU and The Family via Raptaur have agreed to ensure that none of the Undersiders leave the premises and act as guarantors of their good behavior. [DocRef **EP/MM/PHACT/1022-01-00093219-02-14/2011** ]

Legal has carefully investigated the circumstances surrounding the incorporation of the limited liability company ' **Brockton Bay Family Operations** ' [ **BBFO** ] and has reported that it meets all current laws and regulations. All the permits for Parahuman services are correctly filed and up to date. They are of the opinion that while the interpretation of the relevant Parahuman commerce acts is unusual, it meets the letter of them completely and would be extremely difficult to successfully fight in court, at least on a short timescale. It may be that a protracted legal battle would eventually allow the PRT to win such a case by a process of attrition but they suggest that even this is not guaranteed, while it would undoubtedly cause significant public relations damage due to the current popularity of The Family in Brockton Bay, and it would also put the PRT directly in opposition to the local government which is allied with both BBFO and the DWU via the Mayor. Against that one must consider that the presence of BBFO may well act as a significant stabilizing force in the Parahuman community locally and possibly regionally. [DocRef **EP/PHLEG/1022-06-00012407-02-14/2011** ]

The initial appearance of Kaiju was carefully scripted to minimize panic and maximize public perception of her as both friendly and non-hostile. The involvement of local minor villains Über and Leet was apparently unexpected, but there is little doubt that they significantly increased the stability of the situation, although their motives for doing so are currently unknown. The entire event proceeded far more smoothly than could have reasonably been expected, the crowd of onlookers which is estimated to have exceeded 80000 people apparently accepting the situation after momentary shock and awe, which is entirely understandable. The manner in which Kaiju went out of her way to make the entire event amusing and entertaining was masterfully planned and executed. The musical accompaniment added to the family-friendly nature, even at the beginning which was a major surprise for almost everyone present.

Overall, the members of The Family would appear to have a somewhat unusual sense of humor which manifests as a liking for practical jokes and deadpan humor, often very funny for people other than their targets. Kid Win and Clockblocker were witness and victim respectively to the first of these publicly shown, both of them taking it in good spirit, which has improved the reputation of everyone involved as far as the public is concerned. The show Kaiju put on with her initial appearance, the laying of safety buoys, then impromptu skits and interactions with the public during the towing operation had a similar effect, obviously deliberately.

She was clearly going out of her way to show a side that would make the residents of Brockton Bay treat her with respect and affection rather than fear and doubt. Remarkably, this would appear to be working. The mood of the crowd by the end of the event was more that of people who had attended an outdoor party than anything else. Reports from PRT agents who polled the crowd are that a large number of people who watched are both impressed and pleased that Mayor Christner was able to, as it were, ' _put his money where his mouth was_ ' and do something concrete to improve the economy of the city. The figures given in his final press briefing appear to be soundly reasoned and if the plan he and the DWU produced is followed, the economic effects on the entire area are likely to be profoundly changed for the better.

Whether this will have the knock-on effect of reducing crime by reducing poverty he promoted at the conference remains to be seen, but initial estimations are that it may well work as designed to some extent or other.

If nothing else, the mere fact that the local government of Brockton Bay has access to the abilities of a Parahuman nearly 90 feet tall who can literally eat medium sized ships as a snack will undoubtedly act as a significant deterrent to crime, Parahuman or otherwise. Kaiju has stated in an impromptu interview with Legend, in which she managed to give him a nickname that may well stick, that she and her family intended to preserve the status quo while at the same time improving as much of the city as they could, and would defend both it and people that they valued against any threat. Under the circumstances, it is suggested that it would be in the best interests of the PRT and the Protectorate that neither becomes such a threat. While her full abilities are not known, she was seen to physically stop a mass of an estimated 150000 tons of ship and water moving at approximately one and a half miles an hour in under 50 feet without exerting herself to any great extent. Her rating as a Brute is at the utter top end of the scale, leaving aside the matter generation abilities she demonstrated. There is no doubt that she would be as formidable an opponent as any ever seen, possibly up to the level of an Endbringer. She is so far past the point of being an S Class threat as to need an entirely new classification. [DocRef **LE/PHACT/1022-01-00093222-02/15/2011** ]

The recommendation of this report is that it would be best to approach The Family as a regional superpower, friendly but willing to deal firmly with a perceived enemy, and do nothing to provoke them without considering all reasonable alternatives first. Physical combat is unlikely to do anything other than cause enormous collateral damage to a large area. All of them except Umihebi, who has not yet made contact, appear to be more than happy to talk and make sensible deals, regardless of the Villain/Hero alignment of the other party. While this is understandably somewhat worrying in a number of ways, it does demonstrate a willingness to compromise and a pragmatic attitude to life unusual in Parahumans.

None of them appear particularly interested in claiming territory in the common manner of powerful Parahumans except insofar as it is required to get other powerful forces to leave people they wish to protect alone. It could well be summed up as a live and let live policy, which would appear to be a deliberate choice. Pushing too hard and too fast might have the effect of making them reconsider this policy, which would be very unlikely to end well for anyone.

The final point to be made is that Kaiju, Raptaur, and Saurial have all made reference at various times to their sisters, and also a big brother. Kaiju stated to Legend that there were a considerable number of them, or as she put it, ' _enough_ '. There exists an unsettling possibility that one or more of these other Family members could be larger than Kaiju, or indeed Umihebi. The latter is more long than tall, but the idea of something like Kaiju that could perhaps be as much as fifty percent taller, which both Armsmaster and Dragon put as a practical upper limit in size, is enough reason not to take precipitous action without carefully considering the ramifications.

Note also that we currently have no idea where they come from or where they go. Determining this should be seen as a priority. There is some evidence to suggest that classifying them as Parahumans is erroneous, but at this point in time, it's all we can do.

Piggot, Emily, Director PRT ENE  
Legend, Leader, Protectorate  
Armsmaster, Leader, Protectorate ENE  
Miss Militia, Protectorate ENE  
Dragon, Guild

* * *

 **Threat Assessment Ratings, Provisional**

 **Note that these ratings cannot be externally verified without formal power testing, which Raptaur and Saurial have both declined, while Kaiju and Umihebi are unlikely to agree either and are in any case too large for the normal procedures. As a result the ratings may well err on the high side as attempts have been made to compensate for missing information. Should more information be received the ratings will be updated appropriately.**

 **It is recommended that these ratings be downplayed to security level 4 and lower staff to avoid panic.**

 **Subject: Saurial** , Independent Hero

 **Real name:** Unknown

 **Affiliation: The Family** , associated with **Dock Workers Union** , Brockton Bay

 **Age:** Unknown, estimated to be between 14 and 17

 **Height:** Approximately 6'5"

 **Weight:** Estimated to be approximately 175 pounds

 **Appearance:** Saurial resembles a teenaged female Human/Velociraptor hybrid, standing erect, with blue scales, a flexible tail and a crest of dark blue-black hair-feathers. Her costume is a dark blue Classical/Fantasy style armored cuirass and skirt with gold trim, composed of electron-degenerate material of approximately 1/8" thickness. This material is impenetrable by any conventional level of force, potentially up to that of a medium-sized tactical nuclear warhead, and most Parahuman abilities, based on tests performed by Armsmaster.

 **Personality:** Saurial has shown herself to be rather gregarious, even playful at times while on patrol, establishing a rapport with law enforcement officers, PRT and Protectorate personnel, and members of the public. Despite this, she is ruthlessly efficient at dealing with criminals. She is an expert in close-quarters combat, using an unknown martial arts style similar to Krav Maga, and she has stated this expertise extends to weapons she may create. She is also very talented at psychological warfare, preferring to work in the dark and from ambush, although she is tough enough to take heavy rifle fire to unprotected skin without damage. This seems indicative of several years of experience, despite her apparent age. She is clearly highly intelligent and articulate, with a slightly cynical attitude to life. Attempts to outwit her or confuse her are unlikely to work without Parahuman assistance.

She is known to always wear a small head-mounted high resolution video camera when on patrol and to record all interactions with criminals and other Parahumans. Recordings of her operations are normally made available to BBPD and have been made available to various Wards on request. Assume that any interaction with her is being recorded and act appropriately. While she has not posted any of these recordings to public media sources to date, this does not mean that will never be the case.  
 **  
Note: DO NOT** under **any** circumstances, even in jest, do or say anything in her presence that she might consider a threat to her family or friends. She has given very clear warnings that she would take any such threat seriously and would have no qualms about reciprocating with lethal force if required. PRT psychologists suggest that she is entirely serious and more than capable of immediately carrying out such an act with no remorse.

 **Known Associates:** DF Hebert of the DWU, Panacea of New Wave, members of The Family

 **Brute 6+:** Saurial stated she is capable of dead-lifting over 5000 pounds and subsequent observations appear to confirm this. She has also been unaffected by handgun and light machine gun fire at point-blank range. In one event she ignored a sniper with a high powered hunting rifle loaded with heavy rounds for over an hour, until she apparently got bored and dealt with him. She has been recorded falling from as high as one hundred feet and landing on her feet completely uninjured and ready for combat. Based on the abilities of her relatives she can remain underwater for extended, possibly indefinite periods of time. She is unaffected by significant extremes of temperature, from near freezing to levels high enough to cause an unprotected base-line human to pass out, based on observation in action. Her reaction times are extremely fast, much faster than a normal human can manage and most Parahumans as well.

 **Shaker 7:** Saurial has displayed a matter-generation power, which includes the creation of a hyper-dense refractory metal which has been discovered to be electron-degenerate matter, a theoretical form of extreme material supposedly only stable in the core of a large star, but rendered stable and inert by unknown means. This substance is essentially indestructible by conventional methods and all Parahuman methods attempted to date. Saurial's armor is manufactured from this material and she has been observed creating various hand weapons and other tools from it. She is able to control the density of the material, allowing it to be either at a level of approximately two and a half pounds per cubic inch, or its true level of more than one hundred and eighty tons per cubic inch.

The weapons and tools seen to date are:

Swords  
Warhammers  
Bats  
Collapsible Batons  
Nets  
Spears  
Knives  
Manacles  
Cables

Matter produced via this ability can be made to vanish without trace after an arbitrary period of time, or remain stable indefinitely. In addition to EDM, it is currently known that Saurial can produce more conventional substances such as organic materials, standard metals, ceramics, and similar. She has been seen to produce clothing on an ad-hoc basis as needed as well as bandages, for example.

Assume that she is **always** armed, and may well produce any simple construct required on demand. It is currently unknown whether she can make complex machines, although there would seem to be no specific reason to decide that she cannot.

There appears from current evidence to be no upper mass limit to what she could produce if required.

 **Mover 5:** Saurial has been recorded running at speeds in excess of 60 mph, and is capable of climbing walls and ceilings with little effort. She can jump at least twenty feet straight up from a standing start, and hang head-down for unknown but probably indefinite periods of time with no ill effect. She will use the local terrain to her advantage in a fight, making containment in enclosed spaces almost impossible without significant effort. Assume that she can use all surfaces in a room as if they are level ground, could attack from any direction, and escape through any opening available anywhere which she can physically fit through.

 **Thinker 5:** Saurial possesses highly enhanced vision and is able to function normally in near-total darkness. Despite the sunglasses she wears, she has stated she is not hypersensitive to light, but wears them to conceal her very distinctive glowing orange eyes. It is known that her sense of hearing is at least good enough to pick up a human heartbeat from over a hundred feet away, and her sense of smell is quite likely to be as acute as that of a dog. Assume that approaching unnoticed without the use of Stranger powers is essentially impossible.

 **Changer 6+?:** It is unconfirmed that Saurial's powers are in fact the result of a Changer form, as she has declined formal power testing on two occasions. Evidence gathered since the initial appearance of Saurial makes this ability less likely, although not impossible. Any evidence proving or disproving this rating should be reported immediately.

 **Subject: Raptaur** , Independent Hero

 **Real name:** Unknown

 **Affiliation: The Family** , associated with **Dock Workers Union** , Brockton Bay

 **Age:** Unknown, estimated to be between 19 and 22

 **Height:** Approximately 9'2" when standing on her hind legs, 7'8" when on all fours

 **Weight:** Estimated to be approximately 1100 pounds

 **Appearance:** Raptaur resembles a six-limbed centauroid lizard/human cross, with an emphasis on lizard. She has powerful rear limbs, a set of front legs/lower arms depending on posture, and a more normal set of arms in the usual place, along with a long and muscular tail and a long neck capable of over two hundred degrees of articulation horizontally. She is covered in dark blue, nearly black scales, which are very difficult to see in dark conditions. Her head is close to three times the size of a human one, somewhat wedge-shaped, and with a very large mouth full of teeth several inches long that are quite possibly harder than diamond. She has been observed to eat a wide variety of materials, including metals and ceramics, with no signs of trouble or distaste, although she seems to prefer more normal food.

Her costume consists of form-fitting articulated armor over most of her body, neck, and tail. It is presumably formed from EDM in the same manner as Saurial's, but appears to be thicker. The coloration is an exact match to her scales.

 **Personality:** Raptaur is much more direct and combative than her sister Saurial, although she is also polite, helpful, and respectful to authority, with a somewhat sarcastic sense of humor. She will happily joke with people, and offer to help when she can, but she will act on a threat instantly and shows no problem with significant levels of violence if necessary. Her debut fight with Hookwolf showed that she was quite prepared to use near-lethal levels of force, although despite that, as soon as he was unconscious she immediately stopped the fight.

She also shows a considerable degree of ruthlessness in her approach to people she is annoyed with, as her ' _enhanced interrogation_ ' of Hookwolf proved. Her temperament, like that of Saurial, is even and patient, but like her sister could turn lethal instantly given the correct provocation. The prohibition against threats to people she values is even more vehement in this case. It is expected that there would be no warning at all if she decided the threat was real, she would merely eliminate that threat instantly and with extreme prejudice.

Raptaur's combat skills in hand to hand fighting and weapons use are at least as good as that of Saurial, and she is considerably stronger and faster. Like her sister she will use psychological tricks on opponents to unsettle them during, or even instead of, a fight. She is not aggressive but will act to stop a fight from spreading if required. Her preferred method of attack is head on, although it is also likely that she could and would attack from ambush if required.

As in Saurial's case, she wears a similar camera on her head at all times. The same warnings apply.

Her intelligence level is at least on a par with Saurial's, and may be higher. It is recommended that no attempt to trick her be made as she would almost certainly see through it and react appropriately.

 **Known Associates:** DF Hebert of the DWU, Panacea and Glory Girl of New Wave, Undersiders Tattletale, Grue, Bitch, and Regent, members of The Family

 **Brute 8+:** Raptaur's true strength is unknown, but estimated at a dead-lift capacity of more than fifteen tons based on videos in circulation showing her in action. She is at least as tough as Saurial and it is likely that even extremely heavy caliber anti-armor weapons would do no more than irritate her. Her armor is essentially impossible to penetrate except possibly with certain Parahuman abilities, so assume that no projectile weapon stands any chance of affecting her in any real manner beyond that of a minor annoyance. She is more than strong enough to make containment foam except in enormous quantities useless. Additionally, she is known to be able to stay submerged indefinitely and can in all probability hold her breath for extremely long periods of time. Gas or vapor weapons may well be essentially useless against her.

Her temperature tolerance is likely to be as good as, if not better than, Saurial's.

Her reaction times are at least as quick.

 **Shaker 7:** Raptaur has what appears to be the identical Shaker ability that Saurial has, with the same possible uses, except scaled up to larger physical sizes and strength levels. The same recommendations apply.

 **Mover 6:** Raptaur appears to be able to do everything that Saurial can in this category, except faster. She has been recorded running at speeds of over 80 MPH with a passenger on her back, and climbing vertically up the face of a tall building at more than 40 MPH. It is suspected that neither measurement is her true maximum speed. The same assumptions and restrictions as for Saurial apply, modified for the larger size. Note that she is more than strong enough to make her own entrance or exit in many circumstances.

 **Thinker 5+:** Raptaur has, if anything, even more acute senses than Saurial. The same assumptions should be made, with a significant safety margin.

 **Changer ?:** This is currently unknown, but considered moderately unlikely due to the sheer mass difference between Raptaur and a normal human. There are almost no Changers known with abilities that would allow such a difference. Any evidence proving or disproving this rating should be reported immediately.

 **Subject: Kaiju** , Independent Hero

 **Real name:** Unknown

 **Affiliation: The Family** , associated with **Dock Workers Union** , Brockton Bay

 **Age:** Unknown

 **Height:** Approximately 85' when standing on her hind legs, 65' when on all fours, and over 130' long nose to tail when swimming.

 **Weight:** Estimated to be approximately 500 tons

 **Appearance:** Kaiju is a wildly larger version of Raptaur in appearance, some ten times the height, with a number of differences for aquatic life. Her tail is proportionally longer by approximately forty percent and flattened from side to side to assist in swimming, while her lower limbs appear to be webbed, although so far this has not been confirmed. She has not yet shown a particular preference for a costume, but she has been seen wearing an outsize hard hat and high visibility vest, most likely for amusement value more than anything else.

 **Personality:** Kaiju has shown a sense of humor that is best described as puckish. Based on limited information currently available she is fond of word games, bad puns, and amusing physical skits. At the same time, she is polite, respectful, and even-tempered. She stated that she only wants to help people where possible but that like her sisters she would react with any force necessary to protect those she decided needed it. Additionally she said that she had no intention of deliberately seeking out fights or conflict, but would act to prevent such things if required.

Kaiju's combat skills in hand to hand fighting and weapons use are unknown at present, but considering her size and strength are nearly irrelevant in any case.

 **Known Associates:** DF Hebert of the DWU, Panacea of New Wave, R Christner (Mayor) of Brockton Bay City Government, members of The Family

 **Brute 12+** _ **minimum**_ **:** Kaiju's strength can be more or less regarded as unlimited. She has been observed stopping a load of over 150000 tons moving at some one and a half miles an hour in under fifty feet by hand without trouble, an energy output for a biological system almost impossible to comprehend. Dead lift capability is projected to be in the tens, possibly hundreds, of thousands of tons. Her speed of movement is far higher than normal biology or physics will allow for, since normal nerve conduction times are much too high to allow her to react so quickly. No weapon short of a nuclear warhead is likely to do much more than make her angry and there is some evidence to suggest that even such extreme measures wouldn't work. She is clearly aquatic and can remain submerged indefinitely. In all probability she has all the same abilities as her sisters in this category, except taken to ridiculous extremes.

Assume containment in any meaningful manner is impossible.

 **Shaker 7:** Kaiju has what appears to be the identical Shaker ability that Saurial and Raptaur have, with the same possible uses, except scaled up to larger physical sizes and strength levels. The same recommendations apply.

 **Mover 6:** It is unknown at the current time how fast Kaiju can move on land, but the evidence is that it would pose little difficulty for her. Her speed in the water is high, she has been recorded swimming at speeds of over 35 MPH while submerged by sonar and direct observation. There is no evidence to suggest that this is her limit, and some reason to believe that it is not.

 **Thinker 5+:** Kaiju is believed to have senses at least as acute as those of Raptaur or Saurial, but at this point in time there is no direct evidence of this.

 **Changer ?:** Extremely unlikely, verging on impossible. There is no Changer on record that can go from normal human dimensions to anything even remotely as large as Kaiju.

 **Subject: Umihebi**

 **Real name:** Unknown

 **Affiliation: The Family**

 **Age:** Unknown

 **Height:** Not relevant in any meaningful manner. Umihebi is, as far as can be determined, approximately 180' to 200' long nose to tail

 **Weight** : Estimated to be approximately 1000 tons

 **Appearance:** Umihebi is an aquatic reptilian being some two hundred feet in length, in the form of a lizard/eel hybrid. Approximately seventy to eighty percent of her body consists of a long tail, optimized for high speed long distance underwater travel. Her hind limbs appear to be vestigial while her forelimbs have large webbed hands with long talons. Her head is elongated and her mouth is capable of opening nearly one hundred and eighty degrees and is filled with long narrow teeth. She is capable of actually eating a titanium pressure hull and converting it into small pieces with a single bite.

 **Personality:** Unknown. Kaiju has stated that she is curious and wants to visit New York. Legend feels that this is a bad idea. Her combat skills, if any, are unknown. Similar to Kaiju's case, they are largely irrelevant.

 **Known Associates:** Members of The Family

 **Brute 9+ likely:** The strength required to swim at the speeds she has been recorded as moving at is immense, as is the stamina.

Assume containment in any meaningful manner is impossible.

 **Shaker ?:** It is unknown if Umihebi shares the Shaker ability her sisters possess. Common sense would suggest that it should be assumed that she does, but there is no current evidence for it.

 **Mover 9+:** It is unknown at the current time how fast Umihebi can move on land, but comments from Raptaur and Kaiju suggest it is possible.

Underwater, she has been recorded as moving at speeds of over 300 MPH for hours at a time, at depths of more than 3500 feet, utilizing some unknown form of biological supercavitating drive.

There is no evidence to suggest that this is her limit, and some reason to believe that it is not.

 **Thinker 5+ ?:** Umihebi is believed to have senses at least as acute as those of Raptaur or Saurial, but at this point in time there is no direct evidence of this, aside from the fact that she was capable of detecting a Dragontech probe at a range of over eight miles underwater.

 **Changer ?: Extremely** unlikely, verging on ludicrous. There is no Changer on record that can go from normal human dimensions to anything even remotely as large as Kaiju, never mind as large as Umihebi.

 **Stranger ?:** During the initial encounter between Umihebi and Armsmaster, she somehow produced a stealth effect that completely defeated any long range detection ability Dragon could bring to bear. It is currently unknown whether this was done technologically, biologically, or via some esoteric use of Parahuman abilities. Nor is it known whether it would work above water.


	96. 500K word Bonus Omake - Whoosh

" _Wheeeeeeee!_ "

Armsmaster tilted his head a little, listening, then turned to Assault who was standing next to him. "Did you hear that?"

The other cape nodded. "I heard _something_ , definitely. From down there somewhere." He pointed down the side street towards the water's edge, which was perhaps a quarter mile from where they were standing. Both capes listened carefully.

They could hear a faint high-pitched roar coming from that direction, changing pitch and volume somewhat erratically. It was approaching them, making them tense a little, just in case.

In Brockton Bay, odd sounds were often the precursor to odd actions. Sometimes very odd. And possibly very dangerous.

" _Wahooooo!_ "

They exchanged another glance. This had been louder, with a definite doppler shift to it, suggesting the source was moving at a considerable speed.

" _AAAAAAAHHHHH!_ "

Something shot out of the side street, moving at an incredible speed, the roar suddenly becoming quite loud and now accompanied by a spray of mist and water. It zipped over their heads making them duck, zoomed past them, then bounced off the side of the overpass for the main road and dropped down behind the small embankment that led to a drainage channel to the bay.

"It's OK. I meant to do that," a familiar voice said, sounding pleased with itself.

"Isn't that..." Assault began. The roar, which had stopped, suddenly started again, the strange object reappearing from behind the concrete wall and ascending vertically at high acceleration on a dual trail of high pressure water. They watched open-mouthed as it disappeared into the low clouds a few hundred feet up, the water trail splattering down around them, then mysteriously vanishing a second later leaving everything dry again.

"...Saurial," Armsmaster finished with a sigh. Assault grinned, shading his eyes with his hands as he looked upwards.

"What the hell is that crazy lizard doing this time?" he asked rhetorically.

His companion shrugged a little.

"I've long since stopped trying to work out what _any_ of the Family is doing, or why, I simply assume it's because it amuses them." His voice was resigned.

" _Ohhh Shitttt!_ "

The voice sounded from a few hundred yards away, descending rapidly, making both of them whirl to look in the other direction. Saurial and the device she was standing on, which they could see looked like a small surfboard with two water jets or something like that protruding from the bottom, dropped out of the clouds going downwards vertically under power. They winced, expecting a huge impact, only to see her somehow flip end for end in the last fifty feet, decelerate at a rate that would have crushed most people, then tip over and roar towards them down the road at some huge velocity.

" _Wheeeee_ Hi Guys _eeeeee!_ " her chirpy voice sang as she rocketed past. Both men were covered in cold water instantly, then seconds later dry again, as they turned to watch. Assault blinked while Armsmaster folded his arms and merely watched with curiosity and what his companion thought might be interested mild approval.

"Fascinating," he muttered. "She appears to have constructed a flight system using water as the reaction mass. I would assume that she is continually generating it in the thrust chambers with her matter creation ability, giving it a short life time. It allows it to impart momentum without requiring any machinery." They followed the figure zooming through the air, growing less and less erratic in her movements as time went on. She bounced off a couple of buildings with a thud that made them wince again but seemed to come to no harm.

The sun broke through the afternoon clouds and brightly illuminated the scene, a brilliant rainbow suddenly appearing in her misty exhaust cloud and making the flying lizard-girl look like she was propelled by light. Assault shook his head in wonder.

"She sure finds fun in life, doesn't she?" he commented with a smile.

Armsmaster nodded. "So it would appear."

Saurial seemed to have finally learned how to control her invention, coming to a halt a hundred feet up and hovering on a twin plume of water which disappeared before it hit the ground. Quite a large number of people had stopped to watch and there were dozens of phones recording the event. She tilted to the side a little, bending one leg, and ascended a few hundred feet in a tight spiral, followed by rainbows in the sunlight, then flipped end over end half a dozen times in a way that left Assault dizzy just watching, before dropping like a stone to her original altitude and resuming a steady hover.

Looking around, she waved, then tipped forward to about a forty degree angle and shot off into the distance, adroitly weaving between the buildings, leaving a cry of triumph behind her. They watched with a certain amount of incredulity as she vanished from sight, only to reappear shooting up the side of the Medhall building a few feet from the glass, flip twice as she passed the roof, then go almost horizontal as she accelerated hard across the bay and out towards the sea.

"Well, that's not the sort of thing you see every day," Assault remarked wryly when they could no longer hear the sound of her hydrojet device. Armsmaster looked at him, sighed, and nodded.

"No."

He looked back towards the bay for a moment, then seemed to shiver a little.

"What's the problem? She seems tough enough to take the crashes and she's flying it pretty well now."

"It just struck me that there's no reason in theory why such a device could not be scaled up to the point it could lift _Kaiju_. Saurial is one thing. I'm not sure I could handle the sight of a ninety foot tall sea monster flying down the street and laughing."

Assault stared at him, then followed the direction the flying reptilian girl had gone in with his eyes.

"That's… not entirely comforting," he muttered. Both of them glanced at each other, shook their heads, then resumed their patrol, busy trying to get the image Armsmaster's words had managed to produce out of their heads.

Slowly resuming normal operations, the street cleared from the momentary excitement, although quite a few people were looking up more than normal for a while. Eventually even they lost interest.

Brockton Bay had seen weirder.


	97. Thoughts and Discussions

Sophia watched the vast ship disappear around the curve of the bay in the dim evening light, Kaiju preceding it and having vanished from view a little earlier. She could see that the tide was on the verge of changing by the patterns of the ripples made by the currents. Presumably the huge lizard would have to start working against it now, rather than with it, but she didn't think that was going to present much of a problem.

She'd nearly had a personal accident when the horrific thing had stood up out of the bay. Although she wasn't allowed outside, she'd managed to find a good view from one of the operations rooms that overlooked the water from ten stories up and could, with the window open as much as it would go at the top, hear everything perfectly.

The proof that the ' _Family_ ' actually did exist, and had much, _much_ larger members than Raptaur or Saurial, was something that she was having trouble processing. She'd put the stories on PHO down as the usual babblings of the weak minded, something the entire place was rife with, but now… Now she had no choice but to admit that in this case at least they seemed to be telling the truth. It made her wonder, with a certain degree of disquiet, exactly how many other rumors she'd read there were true to one extent or another.

Especially ones about the ' _Family_ '. She couldn't help putting quotes around the name in her mind even now.

Hearing that little bitch Hebert's father's voice, and all the things that the Mayor said about him, made her grit her teeth. She didn't like the reminder of why she was stuck in this damn place, or why she was wearing Armsmaster's little toy. Looking down at it she rotated the bracelet on her wrist, something that had become habit over the last few weeks. She was still sure that she could, eventually, work out a way to get it off, and then she was out of here. But he was watching and had mentioned how her earlier efforts weren't going to work. Not to mention that the shock intensity had been turned up.

Bastard.

She'd even toyed with the idea of simply cutting her hand off, but couldn't bring herself to do that. She wasn't _that_ desperate.

Yet.

Muttering to herself, she took one last look out the window then went off to find something to eat.

Somehow, she'd get out, then people would pay.

But for now, she was starving.

Humming contentedly to herself, Taylor put a little more effort into swimming as the current direction slowly changed, until she was moving against the tide rather than with it as she had been doing most of the afternoon. The incoming tide had certainly made the job very easy, although she still thought she could have done it a lot quicker without any real danger of waves swamping the shore if she was careful. But like she'd told Legend, this way was probably best if only because it let people watch and get used to her in her Kaiju form.

She'd had a hell of a lot of fun as well, all things considered. Overall it was a good day so far. She'd entertained a very large fraction of the city, most of whom genuinely seemed to be having fun, talked to the Mayor, met Legend, which she was very happy about, and begun the process of getting the city back on its feet. All in all she couldn't see how things could have gone better.

Now that she was past the point where the general public could easily see her, in the exclusion zone surrounding the docks, she stopped playing around and just got to work. Über and Leet had gradually wound down the volume of the music with some sort of instrumental piece she vaguely recognized from a movie of a couple of years ago, once she was mostly out of view. Once again she thought that she needed to find and thank them. Their addition to the event had almost certainly helped enormously in making the public treat it as a day out rather than a terrifying Parahuman threat.

Amy having tracked them down and ended up helping them was a good start in that, she thought with an inner smile. She wondered how her friend had done it.

Lifting her head she looked back at the tanker, checking it was still on course. Obediently following her a few hundred feet back it was nicely tracking down the middle of her defined area. Looking ahead she could see the cleared dock area coming up in the distance. She increased speed a little, not much but enough to shorten the time it would take. She wanted to park this thing and find out what was going on with everyone else.

Hopefully there hadn't been any incidents, she certainly hadn't heard anything particularly amiss, but with New Wave on patrol she was fairly sure that if anything did happen it would get taken care of pretty effectively. She'd formed the opinion that overall they were actually rather good, despite some issues with Vicky being a little overenthusiastic sometimes. That seemed to have died down a lot in the last month based on her research, the blonde being much more careful recently for some reason.

Glancing over her shoulder she could see the girl in question dropping down to land in the park, probably to get something to eat. She'd been hovering a hundred feet up the entire afternoon, keeping an eye on the proceedings, and just her being visible had probably kept people from becoming over excited.

Further back, a block in from the shore and one of the taller buildings in the commercial district, was the form of the PRT building. She could make out dozens of people, including all the Wards other than Shadow Stalker, still standing or sitting on the helipad on the roof, staring at her. As she'd passed she'd waved, smirking a little when Dean looked worried. His friends had a wide mix of interesting expressions, ranging from impressed curiosity in the case of Kid Win through to barely suppressed fear in the case of Aegis. Who she was now certain was Carlos, although she still hadn't actually met him in his ' _official_ ' persona.

She had also noticed, with both a degree of satisfaction and some mild irritation, that a very familiar face had been watching from a tenth-story window, looking blankly shocked and more than a little worried. Resisting the urge to call a greeting to Sophia was difficult but she managed.

It was the final proof she'd been missing, although by this point it was almost irrelevant to her. She'd been damn near certain of her conclusions some time ago, so finding out for a fact that the PRT was indeed sitting on her former schoolmate was of some academic interest but not much more now.

* * *

Taylor felt she had much more important things to do with her life rather than dwelling on the actions of a former acquaintance. Especially as in some ways she had that acquaintance and her companions to thank for her current situation, which she was more than happy with.

Smiling internally she looked around some more. On the shore she was just passing one of the older parts of the docks, which had a few bars and other things of that nature, most of them sadly neglected these days. In the old days this area was full of itinerant seamen, short term accommodation and other such facilities catering to their needs. Now, most of them hardly saw any trade at all and quite a few had closed down years ago. A couple still stayed open, such as the one she could see people standing outside, watching her go past.

She peered at one man, who was sitting at a table and leaning back in his chair, smirking in her general direction while talking to a much younger man who seemed somewhat puzzled by life in general at the moment. Recognizing her acquaintance from the bay, she grinned back and raised a hand in greeting, slowing to keep position against the slowly increasing current.

He saluted her with his pint glass, calling out, "Well done, lass. Well done."

"Thank you, Sir," she called back.

"Name's Erwin, girl, nice to meet you. Glad you found gainful employment. Not much of it going around these days."

"Hopefully that will change soon, Erwin," she chuckled. "We'll see. I expect more fish will be around as well when I finish cleaning up out here."

"Would be nice, that," he laughed. "Carry on."

"Aye Aye, Sir," she snickered, throwing him a crisp salute which made him roar with laughter. The men standing around watching with their mouths open stared at her, then him, before almost as one shaking their heads. Most of them went back into the bar and she could hear sounds of beer being dispensed. Chortling a little she sped up again and kept swimming.

* * *

Peering down at Taylor as her enormous friend drew level with them, Amy grinned. She was obviously enjoying herself. Turning to glance at Über who had moved to stand next to her, she said, "Thanks, both of you. I think you probably made a huge difference to how well all this went off."

"It was a lot of fun, actually," he replied with a grin. "We don't often get thanks for our work."

"I wonder why?" she remarked sardonically, making him chuckle.

"I have no idea. We put so much time and thought into it but certain individuals just don't seem to appreciate it." He shrugged, smirking. "No sense of humor, those Protectorate people."

"Hmm." Studying him, she shook her head a little. "That's one way to look at it."

"It's the way I choose to." Über looked amused. "For some reason Armsmaster doesn't. But then he's not renowned for a sense of humor."

"All too true," she giggled. "He's a nice guy, and means well, but he's also… hmm, a little hard to understand, sometimes?"

"That would seem to be the case." He shrugged slightly. "I respect the man, oddly enough, but I also enjoy making him look confused."

"He's a very good Tinker," Leet put in from behind them where he was packing up. He plucked the audio emitter out of the air as it dropped down to eye level from wherever it had been and decloaked, making Amy stare for a moment then nod appreciatively. Putting it carefully back into the padded case everything else was in, he closed the lid and locked it. "Just a bit stiff. He needs to lighten up and we do what we can to arrange that." The shorter man snickered. "It'll work one day, I guarantee it. We'll make him laugh yet."

"I'm… not entirely certain that's actually possible," she remarked somewhat dubiously. "But it's probably worth trying."

"We'd better be getting out of here," Über commented. "Sooner or later I suspect someone is going to come looking for us and it might be best if you're not seen with us."

"OK. It was nice meeting you both. This has been a lot of fun."

"That it has," he grinned, holding out his hand, which she shook. "I enjoyed meeting you, Panacea. Hopefully we'll bump into each other again."

"I expect so. I'll pass on your message when she's finished."

He handed her a card. "You can get us on this number, if she wants to talk more," he replied. She took it, looked at it, then tucked it away.

"Great. I wouldn't be surprised if Danny or the Mayor want to talk to you two as well. Mind if I give them the number?"

"Danny already has it, actually," he said, making her look a little surprised. "We did some work for the DWU a couple of years back. They seemed pleased with the result and were happy to pay. Good people."

"Ah. Interesting."

"Anyway, see you around." He glanced towards the park. "Oops. Here comes your sister. We really need to go." With a quick wave, he and his friend bolted for the roof exit, making her laugh. Seconds later she was alone. Shaking her head slightly she grinned, then waved at Vicky, who was slowly flying along the shore looking around, apparently checking for trouble.

* * *

Danny watched as ' _Kaiju_ ' drew nearer. Checking his watch he nodded. He raised the walky talky in his hand and pressed the transmit button. "We're on schedule, the ship should be ready for the final docking in approximately forty-five minutes. Please make sure that all shore crews are prepared for it. We want to get it tied down as fast as possible. Danny, over."

Releasing the button he listened with satisfaction as all the various crews checked in, announcing their readiness. Around him, large floodlights were going on, brightly illuminating the entire dock area where the tanker would end up, and the machinery waiting for it.

The plan was for Taylor to produce cables fore and aft which the shore crews would use to tie the ship up, then she was going to make a wall around the entire ship, separating the water on the inside from the rest of the bay. This would get pumped out to form a temporary dry dock facility. The ship could then be carefully decontaminated and the polluted water removed and cleaned. He made a note to check on the plans some of his people were working on for enormous filters that his daughter could make, which would otherwise be prohibitively expensive to purchase. It was very convenient, he mused with a small smile, to have someone who could produce out of thin air almost anything one could describe in sufficient detail, assuming it didn't have any massive amount of moving parts.

She and the Varga were working on that, and he had no doubt that sooner or later she'd be making complex machines with little effort, but right now she excelled in large, but simple structures made of various otherwise impossible to acquire materials.

Early on she'd commented about simply making gold or diamonds, and both he and the Varga had spent some time explaining about the economic impact that would inevitably have. She'd got the point very fast and decided that wrecking the economy by flooding it with precious metals by the ton was probably not, in fact, a stunningly useful idea. He was proud of her ability to see that. Many wouldn't.

On the other hand, having her manufacture spare parts, tools, and construction materials, that he was fine with, and she enjoyed doing it. He was still pondering how Vargastuff could be used as a more general building substance. The sheer unbreakability and rigidity of it was amazingly useful, but as she was the only one who could work it in any way, they had to be careful not to end up leaving something for future generations that wasn't useful. It would take some thought.

Gently rubbing his arm where Amy's ' _Mark 17_ ' healing symbiote had disappeared completely into him, not a trace left now, he pondered the astonishing fact that ' _future generations_ ' might well have a lot of people around that had been there in the beginning of something remarkable. He still had trouble with the idea that the young woman might have essentially cured old age. Despite her protestations that it _only_ extended life to a mere three centuries or so, he was pretty sure that given half a chance things would change in that respect. She struck him as someone who didn't like leaving a job half-finished.

Smiling a little at the way the last six weeks had utterly upended his, and Taylor's, life, he peered into the dark at the approaching form of his daughter, then went off to see how things were going with his crews.

* * *

Floating along the shoreline some way behind the slowly moving ship, a couple of hundred feet up, Vicky kept a careful eye out for any trouble. People in the park were slowly beginning to disperse now that the main show was over but there were still large groups of them hanging around the various food stalls and other interesting things that had popped up as if by magic, attracted to the gathering. She'd stopped off at one of them to pick up a burger, which had turned out to be remarkably good.

During the afternoon quite a number of minor calls had come over the radio, one or two of which had required her family to intervene, but none of them needing more than a glare from a flying Parahuman to resolve. There had been no serious incidents which she was pretty pleased about all in all, even though she could have made more cash in that case. But even two and a half grand for an afternoon out was a pretty good gig in her opinion, not to mention the cool costumes everyone got out of it.

Overall the entire thing had gone off much more smoothly than she'd expected. Possibly due to simple shock from the sheer overwhelming size of Kaiju, which had taken her at least as much by surprise as it had everyone else. Even with the warning Danny had given them, the reality far exceeded the anticipation. She'd nearly dropped out of the sky in stunned amazement when the unbelievably large creature had stood up out of the bay like that, and the massed indrawing of thousands and thousands of breaths had been remarkable to hear.

Spotting a couple of people in dark clothes using the evening dimness to their advantage, apparently trying to steal an expensive SUV parked at the side of the road and muttering to each other about how difficult it was, she silently lowered herself behind them to nearly ground level, folded her arms, and cleared her throat loudly.

Both young men froze, the one holding the small flashlight dropping it, while the other one who was fishing for the locking mechanism with a slender metal strip slipped down between the door and the window twitched violently and yelped. They looked over their shoulders then went quite pale.

"Hi, guys!" she said brightly. "I have a feeling that you didn't lose your keys. Perhaps you'd like to find something else to do, or should I just take you to the nearest cop?"

"Oh, _shit_ ," the flashlight-dropper whispered. The pair exchanged another glance, then bolted in opposite directions. Snickering, she retrieved the very good quality LED flashlight they'd left behind, turned it off, and stuck it in her pocket, before rising into the air again and resuming her slow course to the Docks.

A few minutes later she was catching up to Kaiju when she spotted a white-clad figure waving to her from the roof of one of the warehouses. Recognizing her sister she flew over and landed next to her. "Hey, Ames. What on earth are you doing up here?"

"I've been amusing myself with helping with the music," Amy chuckled, making her stare.

"What?"

"I'll explain later. Come on, you can give me a lift back to the Yard." Slightly befuddled, Vicky shrugged, then picked her sister up under the armpits and lifted off, heading towards the DWU facility.

"Weird day," she mumbled. "Fun, but weird."

"True enough," Amy giggled.

* * *

Paul stared at Colin, then Dragon, before glancing at Hannah, who seemed an odd mix of resigned, worried, and cautious. "That… is a very odd story," he finally said, feeling that this statement wasn't doing full justice to it. "But it puts some of this into context. Although leaving the actual origin of the Family somewhat debatable."

He noticed that Hannah looked momentarily unsure, an expression quite unlike her normal confident and assured one. It almost instantly cleared, although when he looked to the other side, he saw Dragon's reptilian helmet gazing at her speculatively. The Canadian cape looked away, glancing at Colin, who seemed to have missed it completely, which wasn't a surprise.

The Tinker was currently flipping through a number of high resolution images taken of Saurial and the other ' _Family_ ' members, some of them ones that Paul recognized from various online sources, some that seemed to be from PRT surveillance, and the ones of Kaiju mainly being from the long range cameras on the Rig. After a moment, he turned back to them.

"Indeed. My original thoughts on Saurial and Raptaur's origins would seem to have been invalidated by first Umihebi, then Kaiju." He sighed a little. "At this point in time I have no good theory as to where they come from, or for that matter where they go when they're not visible, except to suggest it's into the water. It's entirely possible that they could actually be based some distance from here in very deep water which would make them exceptionally difficult to track, and only come to the surface to visit the city." The other man shrugged slightly. "I have no good explanation for it at the moment. However, three out of four of the known Family members appear to be of a heroic, or at least neutral, outlook, and Raptaur at least has been both helpful and friendly to myself and Dragon."

Colin glanced at Hannah, who seemed to be thinking. "From what I know the same applies to her vis-a-vis Director Piggot. I'm not privy to the entirety of the conversation she and Hannah had with Raptaur but I believe it was productive."

"It was, very," Hannah muttered absently. She looked up, apparently rejoining the conversation. "However, Director Piggot has asked me to keep certain aspects of it confidential for the moment as it's on a need to know basis due to political aspects of the conversation. Bearing in mind the massive security issues we discovered, that's even more important."

"As you wish," Colin commented without apparent worry. He glanced at Dragon for a second, then looked at Paul. "That's the current situation. I apologize for not reporting much of this but as Hannah said, the Director believed it was for the best until we had more information. We now have a lot of information, much of which makes little sense, but it's shown she was undoubtedly right at least as far as the involvement of Coil's organization is concerned."

"Coil," Paul sighed. "Thomas Calvert. I know that man, but I never had any idea..." He shook his head. "He is… very intelligent, very ambitious, and morally somewhat… flexible. But I would never have suspected he was a Villain. And definitely not Coil. He's almost the worst person to oppose us, his knowledge of the inner workings of the PRT and Protectorate both is second to none."

"Which explains how he managed to so thoroughly compromise the PRT security system and computer networks," Dragon commented. "The work was exceptionally good, it passed the regular security audits without any trace. Probably for years. But considering he designed a lot of those audits, he knew exactly how to hide his backdoors and taps. It was only knowing they existed that let us find them so quickly. Otherwise it would have taken a total shutdown and scan of everything to even begin to work out how badly the network is infiltrated."

"Have you found anything on the Rig?" he asked, worried.

She shook her head. "Not yet. I can't say with total certainty that anything outside this room is clean, but I'm about ninety percent sure at this point. Colin's systems are definitely unaffected, that much I _am_ certain of. I designed half of it and he did the other half. There's no way anyone without a seriously good Parahuman talent could access it and even then it would probably need physical access. Unfortunately the PRT systems are nowhere near as advanced, and of course Calvert had both physical access and top level security clearance for them."

"We suspect that he was infiltrating the system for several years before he retired," Colin added. "It's not impossible that his influence extends outside the local PRT systems, once he was inside that would certainly be possible, and we think it would be a good idea to check the entire network for the sort of attacks we have identified. But we also think we need to capture him first."

Paul nodded slowly, thinking about the situation glumly. The news of Calvert's betrayal was much more worrying than huge reptilian capes, at the moment at least. "I'd have to agree. You're sure you know where he is?"

Colin looked at Hannah, who nodded. "Raptaur told Director Piggot and me everything she found and everything she and Tattletale deduced. I've looked into it, very carefully for obvious reasons, and it all hangs together. It's going to be difficult to get that bastard out of his base without causing a massive disaster, she's certain that there are a large amount of explosives booby-trapping the place, and since it's under a major building..." She shrugged a little. "We're going to have to be very cautious in our approach."

"Do we know what his power is?" Paul asked curiously.

She shook her head. "No, not exactly. Tattletale is certain it's some form of probability manipulation or simulation, but at the moment she's not sure quite how that works. He apparently demonstrated by flipping a coin and having it come up heads every time but there are several ways that could be done. We need to find out what his ability is before we go in, I think."

Tapping his fingers on the arm of the chair, Paul nodded thoughtfully. "I agree. There's too much at stake to charge in blindly. We'll need to talk more about that, and I want to see the Director and talk to her as well."

"I'll arrange to have her come here," Hannah said, pulling out her phone and quickly entering a text message. Moments later she got a reply which made her raise an eyebrow. "Apparently she's thinking the same thing, she's on the way at the moment. She'll be here in about ten minutes."

"Good. I'd like to talk to both of you privately about your meeting with Raptaur, then I think we need to decide on a plan of attack." She made a gesture of agreement. "I'm going to stay in Brockton Bay and help with this. It's too important not to deal with immediately, or at least as soon as we can arrange to do so. I also want to keep an eye on the current situation with the Family. Chief Director Costa-Brown is going to want a report very soon." He shrugged. "I understand why Director Piggot wanted to do more research before sending it up the chain, and under the circumstances I agree with that decision, but today's events have forced our hand. We'll have to collate what we know at the moment and base a report on that even if we subsequently need to revise it."

"I've already written up threat assessments on Saurial and Raptaur, but they're going to need quite a lot of upgrading based on new information," Hannah mentioned. "I haven't even started on Kaiju, and we don't know enough about Umihebi to do much more than guess."

"True, but all the information we can scrape together should be enough for a decent interim report and recommendation," he said, shaking his head a little. "I think we need to get something official into the system as fast as possible. I can guarantee that there are parts of both the PRT, the government, and also foreign governments watching the TV at the moment with their mouths open. Sooner or later certain people are going to start thinking about how they can capitalize on the situation. My feeling is that we need to head that off right now before someone decides it would be a clever idea to rush in and attempt to get some leverage on The Family. I can't see any way that could do anything but cause far more trouble than I want to deal with."

Everyone in the room went silent for a moment as they considered his words. They all knew the sort of people he was referring to. Hannah shivered a little.

"No, I don't think that would be a good idea on the whole," she replied. Colin and Dragon nodded soberly.

"I for one have no wish to discover at any point in the near future just what Kaiju could do if she was sufficiently provoked," Colin commented quietly. "Nor do I wish to turn someone who is currently an ally into an enemy. Raptaur would react… badly… to threats to her friends."

Paul looked curiously at him. The man seemed to have more information than he'd passed on so far. Looking around the room at the others, he pondered the odd way that there seemed to be two groups who were both meeting with Family members without telling each other what the results were, and wondered why. He was going to have to make inquiries. Everyone involved was more than competent so he assumed they had good reasons for the compartmentalization of information, but it was certainly somewhat unusual.

However, right now that could wait for a while. After a moment, he asked curiously, thinking about something else that had puzzled him, "What does the last line on Kaiju's vest mean, do you know? None of the news people seemed to have any idea. What language is it in?"

Dragon glanced at Colin, then turned to him. "The language itself is a fictional one, or at least that is what I always believed. Apparently it was invented by the writer H. P. Lovecraft back in the early years of the Twentieth century. He and a few collaborating authors built up quite a body of work in what became known as the Cthulu Mythos. It's fairly popular even today."

"Ah, yes, I know of him, although I've never read any of his work," Paul commented thoughtfully. "I've read a little about him, a biography or two, in the past."

"He wrote about great alien creatures from beyond the stars or the depths of the sea who can be summoned with the correct ritual, or occasionally arrive without warning, usually to the detriment of anyone in the area. The ' _Great Old Ones_ ', as he put it, came in a huge variety of forms, most of which were supposedly so horrific that they would drive people insane by their mere appearance." She shrugged a little. "There are some uncomfortable parallels to all the odd things surrounding ' _The Family_ ', but how much of it is coincidence, how much is them merely taking advantage of the concept for their own reasons since they all seem to have a somewhat peculiar sense of humor to put it mildly, and how much could have a kernel of truth to it I have no idea. But I have to admit that I doubt the alien origin stories. Most likely they're just capitalizing on the whole thing for the amusement value."

"I see," he replied slowly, thinking that this was something he needed to look into. Huge aliens from somewhere else seemed… less impossible than he'd like, knowing what he did. Perhaps Mr Lovecraft had met some ' _Family_ ' members at some point? His stories were, from what he could dimly remember from reading about them, often set in this same general New England area, and the man himself had been from around this part of the country.

"The language is rather… loosely defined, and somewhat open to interpretation, deliberately or otherwise. The slogan on her vest, ' **cathg sgn'wahi nnnshugg',** can be translated in a number of ways. It literally says something along the lines of ' _We contract/agree to share space and watch/protect the Realm of Earth_ '. My best guess is that its true meaning is meant to be more like ' _We agree to share and protect the Earth_ ', but without asking her I could be wrong. Overall, though, it seems to be a statement of protection rather than any form of threat."

"How… very strange," he noted. She nodded.

"I'd have to agree, but they've also used that language on their office sign." She told him what that one said. "My personal suspicion is that they think it's funny, but I also think they mean it. R'lyehian is a strange language to use to make a point but it fits oddly well under the circumstances."

"Great creatures from the depths. Indeed. Hopefully these ones are friendly, and not going to drive anyone insane." Paul chuckled for a moment. "Although I suspect that there are a lot of people around the world who are wondering whether they're seeing things."

"I've wondered that myself more than once," Hannah said in a slightly worried tone. Colin nodded a little, as did Dragon.

"They've certainly forced us to rethink a few things we thought we knew about Parahumans," the Tinker put in. "The fact that they all share a common power-set as far as can be determined is very unusual. The nature of that power-set is… exceptionally odd. And extremely powerful. On the face of it they're basically Brute/Shaker combos, but that combination coupled with a high degree of intelligence and an odd outlook lends itself to vastly increasing the possible uses. They're very flexible."

"Raptaur, for example, should in some ways probably be given a low Tinker rating," Dragon put in, causing him to look at her. "She's not a Tinker like Colin or myself, but she can produce as far as we can tell pretty much anything she wants to with some practice, at least as far as mechanical components go. To a very high level of precision and repeatability as well, which is more than impressive. Not to mention that she can generate any sort of material she desires on demand with no apparent upper limit."

"Could she make explosives?" Hannah asked, both curious and sounding a little worried.

Dragon nodded. "Undoubtedly, if she wanted to. I suspect that more or less any chemical compound would be something she could make. She showed that she could analyze a complex synthetic insulator, by the simple process of actually _eating_ it, then duplicate it exactly in quantity. We were… somewhat surprised." Her voice had gone very dry on the last sentence. Paul stared at her, as did Hannah, then they both looked at Colin who nodded.

"The sample she gave us was a perfect copy of the one that Dragon gave _her_ , only approximately two pounds in weight rather than the ounce or so the original sample was. She copied it in seconds."

"That's… scary," he said slowly.

Colin shrugged. "It's certainly strange, and could present a very severe threat if she so wanted. I would be extremely hesitant about engaging her at close range on that basis alone. But at the same time I don't feel she presents a threat, as long as certain very clearly defined lines are not crossed. She and Saurial were both good enough to tell us exactly what those lines are. I can work with her under those conditions without trouble. I don't know Saurial enough to be as sure but I doubt Raptaur is a threat unless we make her one."

"You seem to like her, if I'm any judge," Paul commented with a small smile.

Colin looked at him for a moment. "I think I do, to be honest. We both spent some time talking to her and discussing subjects that I can seldom talk seriously to others about and found her to be a receptive audience with a good grasp of scientific issues, mathematics, and logic. In my experience those traits are uncommon."

Dragon added with a smile in her voice, "She's interesting, is what he's trying to say. Yes, potentially extremely dangerous, but then, almost any Parahuman is in one way or another. She's just more… obviously dangerous." The female Tinker lifted an armored hand in a gesture of amusement. "But like Colin says, don't threaten her family or friends, be reasonable, and she's easy to talk to."

"Interesting." Paul could see that Hannah wasn't entirely on the same page from her expression but said nothing. Moments later, the military cape's phone pinged, making her look at it.

"The Director is on the Rig," she announced.

"Excellent. If you'll come with me, Hannah, I'd like a quick word with both of you, then I think we need to pool our resources and work out what we tell everyone else, and how. Do you mind if we use your lab for that, Colin?"

The other man looked around the large room, then sighed slightly. "I'll clear some space on the big table and have some more chairs brought in," he replied with mild irritation. He clearly wasn't entirely happy about it but was prepared to cooperate.

"Thank you," Paul smiled. "I understand you'd rather be designing things. Hopefully we can get this out of the way fairly quickly and you can go back to work."

"That would be ideal," Colin muttered. Dragon put a hand on his shoulder, making him glance at her, sigh a little, then relax. Paul watched with amusement, before getting up and following Hannah to the door as she refastened her scarf across her face.

"We'll see you soon," he promised, then left the lab, heading towards a meeting with the Director.

He was very curious exactly why Hannah seemed so twitchy about the Family and why she was obviously keeping something from both Dragon and Colin. He expected that she and the Director were running their own little project on the subject, as both Tinkers clearly were as well. It was odd, and potentially worrying, but he was sure he'd get to the bottom of it all.


	98. Docking and Press

"A Biotinker."

"That's our current most likely thought."

Paul looked at Emily Piggot for a long few seconds, considering the idea. It wasn't actually impossible, worryingly enough. Glancing at Hannah he saw that she seemed to believe what the other woman had explained, although in both cases they didn't seem completely convinced even after telling him all their evidence, working theories, and conclusions. That was good in his opinion as it seemed to suggest that they had open minds on the subject.

He was well aware of Director Piggot's bias towards Parahumans, especially Biotinkers, and knew that it was shared by quite a number of people in the organization. Not as openly as in her case, but there were good reasons for that. Nilbog had terrified a lot of people and still did.

Both their top two theories held water, the Biotinker one far more than the Changer one in his opinion. While Saurial could easily be explained by it, and Raptaur fairly easily, Kaiju seemed a huge stretch and Umihebi was just silly. One of the most powerful Changers known was Lung, who took a considerable amount of time and stress to become even as big, or at least as massive, as Raptaur. While there was no known true limit to his growth, he slowed down steadily as he grew and changed and even at the largest size on record was only perhaps as large as Leviathan at best. Which was _much_ smaller than Kaiju. If she _was_ a Changer she was far past anything on record by a very long way.

Thinking it over, he shook his head slightly. He thought it very unlikely in the extreme, although like both women obviously did, he'd prefer it to their other theory.

And much prefer it to his own private one.

They, of course, had no knowledge that true aliens existed, although he suspected that at this point in their respective careers they wouldn't take too much convincing. Unfortunately he couldn't give them the evidence that would be required for this, it was too sensitive.

And there was always the distinct possibility that they were right. Which was… less than entirely pleasing. Biotinkers had a poor reputation and far too many possible dangers, especially if they weren't idiots like Blasto. If it was indeed a Biotinker, he or she was definitely smart, cautious, and skilled, and probably one of an entire team of Parahumans. Which worried him the most since they had no idea who else was involved, where they were based, or most importantly of all, what they intended.

He could understand perfectly why Piggot had been very reluctant to bring this to the attention of her superiors until she had more information. He'd have done exactly the same thing.

"It's an interesting theory," he said, after the silence had dragged on a little too long.

"It's a damn worrying one," Emily sighed.

Nodding, he leaned back in his chair in the small conference room they'd ended up in, which Hannah had very carefully and thoroughly swept for bugs having disconnected the security system and locked the door. "I agree, and I have to admit I can't find any serious holes in your logic. There's no direct evidence but considerable circumstantial grounds for believing you're on a path that leads somewhere interesting. And you have no idea who it might be?"

"None, having rejected everyone we thought of who it _might_ be because of problems with the timeline, lack of any evidence whatsoever, and lack of any place to actually do the work." Emily shrugged. "While it was Saurial and Raptaur it could have been in any warehouse or almost any other building in the city. Umihebi blew that idea away. She reduced it to only a few large buildings in the Docks near the water as being the only ones big enough, remote enough, and private enough to allow something her size to be constructed without half the city finding out. And even there it's a stretch."

"Kaiju is even worse, she's not as large in absolute terms but she's a lot taller." Hannah looked very puzzled and a little lost. "I was looking into warehouses around the DWU compound as possibilities for a secret base, but her turning up makes that unlikely, I think. I didn't find anything anyway. No unusual power drains, buildings that were abandoned that suddenly weren't, strange noises, that sort of thing. The usual signs. I checked with every contact I have in the area and they all came up dry."

"I see," he commented, leaning forward again and folding his arms on the table. "Very odd."

"We suspect that there is some connection with the Dock Worker's Union, which would explain the way that Raptaur and the others all seem to hold them in high regard," Emily said.

"That could just be out of mutual respect, you realize," he commented mildly. "From what I understand, the DWU has treated them well and politely and they reciprocate."

"Yes," she agreed unhappily. "That may be the case. But from practically the beginning with Saurial, that Hebert man has been somewhere in the background in one way or another. We considered the possibility that he might actually be the Biotinker, there are two good candidates for Trigger events in his past that we're aware of, but one of them is too long ago to be likely and one is too recent." She exchanged a glance with Hannah, who looked troubled. "Overall we feel it's pretty unlikely. If he did Trigger, it was years ago as a Parahuman with the ability to talk forever without losing his temper and an inhuman amount of patience."

"Although from background research those seem to have been defining traits of his throughout his career," Hannah added quietly. "He's in the position he's in for good reasons, from what I know."

Paul smiled a little. "I should meet this man, he sounds interesting. What were the events?"

"One was the death of his wife some years ago, which by all accounts caused him to sink into what was probably depression, although that seems to have been resolved over the last couple of months or so," the Director told him. She glanced at Hannah for a moment. "The other one was about seven weeks ago and involved his daughter. Serious trouble at school."

Studying them both, Paul thought for a few seconds. "What sort of trouble?" he asked slowly. They seemed reluctant to answer, but eventually Emily sighed heavily.

"The sort that if it got into the public domain it would cause a very severe problem for the PRT as a whole and the ENE branch specifically," she said heavily. Looking at him, she seemed a little confused. "Although I'm slightly surprised you don't know about it, I filed a report with the Chief Director more than two weeks ago."

He smiled a little sadly. "She doesn't tell me everything, Emily, believe me. I haven't heard about this. How does it involve the PRT?"

Scowling, she filled him in on the events of early January and everything that had led to that point, concerning Shadow Stalker and her friends and their campaign against the daughter of Danny Hebert, who seemed to have turned the entire situation around on them rather elegantly.

He frowned under his mask. "That is… very bad."

"You're not wrong there. We got incredibly lucky that the Heberts apparently decided to drop it after they got the payout from the school." Emily shook her head in disgust. "We're still investigating the entire thing, but Agent Hamilton is going to lose either her job or her freedom in the next month, while I can't yet say what will happen to Shadow Stalker. I'd like to stick her in juvie until she was old enough to go to jail properly, the little snot is one of the nastiest people I've ever had the displeasure of working with, Parahuman or not. But so far we can't quite make that leap, bearing in mind that the Chief Director feels that she's potentially too useful to lose. I can't see it myself. She's a loose cannon at best. Based on what I saw and heard, I'd trust her about as far as I could spit a rat."

Paul sighed faintly. "It doesn't sound good, I have to admit. I should probably look into it myself once we get the more important things out of the way. She's certainly not acted in a manner becoming a Ward, or for that matter a decent human being."

"The girl has serious issues with authority and a very predatory mindset," Hannah put in. "To her, you're either a tool she can use, an enemy you can beat, or an enemy you can't. There don't seem to be many other categories. As far as I could determine her only real friend was the Barnes girl, who is now under psychiatric care and pretty much house arrest. She was lucky not to end up having to account for her actions in a court, but again it looks like the Heberts decided it wasn't worth it in the end. And of course her father was Danny Hebert's best friend in college."

Wincing, Paul shook his head in disgust. "God, that must have made it worse."

"I'd expect so. But for whatever reason he has, Danny Hebert has let it go, and his daughter seems to be forging a new life at her new school with enviable ease. She's met all the Wards by now, although she doesn't know it, and they all think she's a very smart and nice girl. She's also apparently a good friend of Panacea's now and becoming a friend of Glory Girl, not to mention most of her class." Emily smiled for a moment. "I'm just glad that in the end it worked out for the poor kid. The shit one of our own people put her through was… well, if it had been me, Shadow Stalker would have ended up in a much worse place very quickly."

She smirked for a second or two. "I'm not a tolerant person in some ways despite my otherwise winning personality."

Studying her, Paul glanced at Hannah, who looked momentarily amused. "So I gather, Emily," he replied dryly. The smirk widened for a moment then vanished.

"But the problem is a real one. I have no doubt at all that the Hebert man retained copies of what would be an incredibly damaging recording. No matter what we do we can never guarantee that he's deleted it, and to be honest, in his place I would never do that just in case it was needed one day. He's not a man to push too hard if family is involved. That's been made clear to us from several sources. He never fucking gives up."

"Admirable, but awkward under the circumstances," Paul noted. She nodded with an angry jerk of her head. "I suspect that may well be why he gets along so well with the Family, they share some philosophical viewpoints. So, anyway, it most likely isn't him, I agree. An employee of the DWU, perhaps?"

"That's what we think, yes. But who, we have no idea. There's hundreds of them, they stick together, they don't talk about things they consider private business, and in any case we have no evidence of illegal activities in the first place. Not even any real evidence that Raptaur and her sisters are constructs, which of course, there is a possibility they aren't."

Emily shook her head in annoyance. "It's very irritating. The only bright spot is that from everything I've seen I'm forced to agree that on balance they're good for the city as a whole. Crime is down a very significant amount in under a month and a half, all the major gangs are keeping their heads down in a way I've never seen before, and one minor but very annoying one has basically been shut down without a fight. I can live with that as long as nothing worse comes along to fill the gaps."

"Hopefully that won't happen. All right, thank you for filling me in on this. I think we should probably bring Colin and Dragon in on it as they may well have insights we don't, but I'm prepared to let you do that. For the moment we have more important things to do. You'll need to let the Chief Director know soon, though."

"I know," she grumbled. "I was really hoping to have more to tell her than _'I don't know what the fuck is going on but it's scaly and snickers a lot_ ' though. Never mind this entire damn Coil problem."

Laughing, he stood up. "She'll understand, I think. Rebecca is a reasonable woman and very smart. Let's get this report work done to head off those who are neither before someone jumps in and annoys something that could walk off with the Rig under it's arm, shall we?"

"Fucking Tagg," she muttered, very faintly. Despite himself he nodded a little.

"That's one of them, definitely," he sighed, as they left the room after Hannah had reconnected the camera.

* * *

Humming to herself, Taylor towed the tanker into position, finally reaching the end of her journey. The tide was on the way out at full speed now, although thanks to her work at the docks over the weekend, now even at low tide there was ample room for the ship. Stopping when it crunched against the crumbling concrete of the old dock, she quickly generated a couple of long spikes she rammed hard into the mud and rock of the seabed, then attached the harness cables to so they'd temporarily hold the thing in position.

Standing up, she stretched, then waded back down the length of the ship while several dozen dockworkers watched and clapped. Waving, she smiled, calling a greeting, then when she reached the stern of the vessel she attached one end of a thick steel cable to the most convenient point and generated a couple of hundred yards in a coil over her arm. Motioning to the shore crew to stand aside, she waited until they were clear, then tossed the coil onto the shore, where it was immediately set upon as they started winding in onto one of the refurbished winches on the dock.

Returning to the other end she did the same thing there. Shortly the ship was firmly moored to the shore and in no danger of getting away. Satisfied, she went back down the tanker removing the Vargastuff from it, revealing the rusty metal under the coating, but leaving the holes in the hull patched to prevent the polluted water inside getting away. With the floats gone, the shore crews were able to drag the ship another fifty or sixty feet closer with the winches, until a normal man could just about take a running jump from the dock to the deck. She removed the tow cables as well as dissipating her harness.

Another ten minutes work and she'd made a long wall down the length of the ship and deep into the mud, the top being well above normal high water level. She closed both ends, the shore and docks forming the last side of the temporary dry dock, although she left holes in the bottom of the wall to allow the water to drain as the tide went out. If she'd got the measurements right, by low tide the tanker would be resting on the bottom, at which point she could plug the holes and they could begin pumping. By the end of tomorrow the dry dock would be empty of anything but ship and mud and the work on decontaminating it could begin.

Stepping back, she looked over her work and nodded, pleased. ' _I think that's it_ ,' she commented to her companion.

" _So it would seem, Brain,_ " he agreed, sounding pleased. " _A good day's work, an amusing introduction to the public, and a lot of fun overall._ "

' _I sure enjoyed it_ ,' she laughed. ' _By the end everyone else seemed to as well, although there were some very odd expressions on the shore._ '

" _A certain amount of confusion and exposure to the unusual is probably good for the character_ ," he replied calmly, making her laugh again.

Moving to the shore where no one was standing, she climbed out onto the concrete, careful not to step too hard in case she cracked it. Her feet in this form were large enough that if she moved slowly they spread the load enough not to leave permanent marks, but even so she avoided the areas where vehicles would need to go. Making a mental note to see about reinforcing the entire dock area properly at some point in the very near future, she lowered herself to the ground and laid her head and neck down on the concrete, in a position where she could see everyone. Her tail was still half-submerged in the bay behind her.

Her father, who with several other people including Zephron, who was looking impressed and pleased, Kurt, who was looking impressed and horrified, and Amy, who was grinning like an idiot, walked over to stand a few feet from her head. Vicky floated over as well, staying a respectful distance back and watching with wide eyes. On the roof of the main building she could see Lisa and her friends watching as well, along with a lot of other DWU people.

"I think that's that, Mr Hebert," she rumbled in a quiet voice, smiling slightly. "One wrecked tanker, delivered on time and in the correct position. Thanks for letting me help, it's been a lot of fun."

"Thank _you_ , Kaiju," he replied with an easy smile. Beside him, Amy was clearly trying not to giggle. "Without your help this would have been impossibly expensive to arrange. I think this is the beginning of a very good relationship for all of us."

"We certainly hope so," she chuckled. "You know how to contact me when you need me again. I'll be around. Raptaur and Saurial can finish off the work on the dry dock at low tide. They're nearby, I think." Amy's shoulders twitched. "Once you've got the ship pumped out and want to start cutting it up let me know."

"I will do," he nodded, looking pleased. Zephron was definitely grinning now, while Kurt still seemed shocked. The dozens of other people around the place had all stopped what they were doing and were watching and listening. "Will you be able to help with the rest of the wrecks in the water?"

"Oh, sure, that's no problem," she laughed. "Let me know where you want them. Most of the ones I've seen are pretty smashed up, so unless you want them as is, I'll just crumple them up a little to make them easier to handle. I can cut them into chunks as well."

"Great. Once we get a couple of barges floated we can start moving some of the beached ships from the graveyard as well, but that's a medium-term project. Right now we need to get the ball rolling with that thing." He nodded towards the tanker behind her. "Is the shipping channel fully clear now?"

"Except for a little bit at the mouth of the bay, yes," she told him. "I'll go and remove the buoys and get that at the same time. I'll probably have a go at trimming it up at some point when I'm bored, it's sort of a mess, all different depths and widths. Untidy, really." He laughed at her dry comment. "If you hear weird noises that's probably what's going on, but I'll try to do it at high tide to keep it as quiet as possible."

"I'll pass that on to the Mayor for you."

"Thanks. Well, I'd better be getting on with it, I've got other things to do today." Lifting her head, she looked around. "It was nice meeting all of you and working with you. I hope we do this again soon."

Several people called back, making her smile. Waiting for everyone to move back, she carefully got to her feet, then backed into the water and submerged, heading towards the mouth of the bay and evaporating buoys as she went, giggling to herself.

* * *

Lisa watched with an open mouth as the full size of ' _Kaiju_ ' became apparent. Lying stretched out on the concrete and looking very comfortable, she absolutely dwarfed the men and machines on the dockside. She was genuinely impressed at how well they all took the presence of the enormous reptile in their midst, her power telling her they really did see her as one of their own. Already there was a remarkable amount of trust present.

Beside her, Brian and Alec were gaping in mild horror. "Jesus fucking Christ, that thing is _huge_ ," the latter breathed.

"Her, not it, Alec," she smiled. "Don't be rude. She might not like it."

His panicked gaze as he glanced at her made her grin. "Oh, shit, please tell me she didn't hear that."

"Oh, she heard it, but she doesn't care," Lisa assured him, certain of that. "But even so, be polite to something that could not only eat _you_ but the building you're standing on."

He paled considerably, making her grin more of a smirk.

"Stop trying to terrify him, Lisa," Brian sighed.

"You're taking all the fun out of it," she snickered. Alec didn't seem to agree. "Come on, looks like the show's over. Let's get something to eat, and it's getting cold up here anyway."

"Good idea and very true," the shorter boy said, suddenly looking interested. "Food is a very good idea. I'm starving."

"I wonder if Panacea found Über and Leet?" Brian asked as they headed for the stairs, behind a crowd of other people who had also apparently decided that warmth and food was a good idea.

"Definitely," she replied. "She picked quite a few of the tracks they were playing. I think I want to talk to her, she's interesting."

Neither boy replied, but they exchanged slightly worried glances, making her smirk internally. They fell silent, heading downstairs and towards something edible.

* * *

Amy watched her friend disappear below the floodlit black and chilly surface, a bulge in the waves moving rapidly away betraying her presence. As she reached deeper water it gradually vanished. Grinning to herself, she turned to look up at her sister, who seemed to be in mild shock. Apparently being only thirty feet from Taylor's head was somewhat different from being a quarter of a mile from her when she was this size.

' _I wonder what people would say if they saw her true size,_ ' she snickered to herself. ' _Close to five times the height… I really want to see that_.' She thought it was fairly likely that most other people didn't.

"You OK, Vicky?" she called up to the blonde, who twitched and looked away from where Taylor had vanished, casting her eyes down. A vague nod was her answer, then her sister floated lower until she was standing next to Amy.

"That was… sort of terrifying," the other girl said soberly. After a moment, she smiled a little. "But really amazing. I can't believe that Danny just stood there and calmly talked to her like she was his next door neighbor."

"Well, in a way she is," Amy laughed as she glanced over to where the Hebert man was talking quietly to several other people as they watched several trucks with enormous pumps on rumble slowly over the worn concrete and position themselves for later use. "And he's pretty laid back all things considered. I haven't seen much get under his skin."

Taking her helmet off and shaking her hair out, Vicky brushed it out of her eyes with her free hand, then looked towards the bay again, before grinning. "This has been a very weird day. But a hell of a lot of fun."

"And someone paid you to do it as well," Amy smiled.

"That part I could get used to," her sister agreed happily. "I have expensive tastes."

"As poor Dean knows all too well," the brunette joked. "Come on, let's get something to eat. We should check in on everyone else as well, I haven't heard any reports of anything serious but you never know."

"No one would dare start anything today," Vicky giggled as they headed towards the cafeteria. "Especially now that Kaiju isn't towing a ship. If Raptaur messed up Hookwolf that easily, think what _she'd_ do to him!"

"Pick him up and use him like a stress ball, probably." They exchanged a glance, then burst out laughing, Vicky putting an arm around her shorter sister and hugging her for a moment as they walked. Both felt very pleased with life in general at the moment.

* * *

"I'll be damned, his middle name really does start with F," Emily mumbled as she did a quick background check to refresh her memory for the section of the report she was currently writing for the Chief Director.

"I'm sorry?" Dragon, who was sitting near her working on another part, the threat assessment for Kaiju which she was checking over, asked. The cape looked over at her.

Emily shrugged, smiling a little. "Just a personal moment of humor. I didn't realize that Danny Hebert's full name was Daniel Francisci Hebert. I thought based on the last name his ancestry would be French or Dutch, but the middle one sounds more Italian."

"Ah, I see," Dragon nodded. "Yes, it does sound more southern European than northern. Not a common name either. His family obviously has a background that covers a considerable amount of Europe."

"Doesn't matter, but it just struck an amusing chord," the Director noted, amending her report with quick strokes on the keyboard. "All right, I think that section is done. I need to add the document references for the sub reports, and write at least two of them, but it's ready for proof-reading. Colin, Hannah, can you check it and make any notes on changes that you can think of?"

Both the other people looked up from their own work and nodded. "Place it in the group server directory, please, Director, and I'll look at it immediately. I've finished my own report amendments," Colin said, clicking a mouse button and leaning back for a moment. Emily did as requested, then pulled up the threat assessment section to see what the others had added or removed.

"You don't think Brute 12+ is over the top?" she asked Legend, who was across the table from her, engaged in reading one of the sub-reports with interest, the one documenting Assault and Battery's encounter with Raptaur and Panacea. He turned his attention to her, an expression very close to a smirk on his face. After a moment he seemed to register her question.

"No, I don't, in fact," he replied after thinking it over. "It's unprecedented but so is she. Hopefully it will make the point that she's far past the level where she could be overwhelmed with conventional force. We need to drive home the idea that threatening them is unlikely to result in anything but a disaster. I'd much prefer to get them to aid us when required out of friendship."

"You and me both," she mumbled under her breath. "I have a horrible picture in my head about what could happen." More loudly, she added, "You mentioned a Tinker rating for Raptaur, Colin?"

"I think it's warranted, although I won't insist on it, Director," the man replied without looking away from his work. "At the moment we should probably concentrate on the ratings that we are sure of or highly suspect. The Tinker rating needs some thought to come up with a suitable level, although I'd suggest one or two."

"Still an early revision, we can add that in later when we get some more information on them," she remarked, making some notes.

"I'm somewhat unsure about the point of a Changer rating if we have no idea whether it's even possible," Dragon said, reading her own copy of the documentation. "I agree that it could explain a lot in the case of Saurial, and is plausible if slightly unlikely in the case of Raptaur, but in the case of either Kaiju and Umihebi the likelihood would seem… very remote."

Emily glanced at her, then met Hannah's eyes. So far they hadn't mentioned the Biotinker theory to the other two. "I agree, but it's one of the less weird possibilities for how they manage to vanish so thoroughly when they go away. Let's leave it in with a note explaining it's unlikely, while we research whether it's even possible."

"All right," the Canadian cape agreed. "Although I think it may be much the same argument as Colin's Tinker one, but with less evidence behind it."

"To be honest, with the abilities we've seen from one or other member of the Family, we could probably realistically put them in almost every category we have," Hannah sighed. "Blaster, definitely, Breaker probably for the EDM creation, since it's not supposed to be stable, and so on. But again we can say the same about a lot of capes when they've learned how to leverage their powers. I think we should keep it as straightforward as possible for now. This is already worrying enough."

They all looked at each other for a moment, then got back to work.

* * *

Roy looked around at the much larger crowd of people, including reporters from several networks across the country who had arrived in a mad dash, dozens of representatives from newspapers and media websites, local government officials, and interested members of the public who had managed to talk their way past the security at the door. They were in the council chambers which was the largest available space in the City Hall.

Sitting next to him, Governor Scott was reading some notes he'd quickly scribbled down, while standing at the back of the hall he could see Phil and his blonde companion and their two security people, who were keeping the crowd at bay mainly by giving them evil looks whenever they came too close. His old friend looked rather amused in his own, somewhat muted, manner. He also seemed to be manfully suppressing the urge to arrange everything to his liking, in a much less chaotic manner. Roy knew what a strain that was for him and was grateful that the other man was putting the effort in.

Checking the time, Roy tapped the microphone, causing a loud thump to echo around the room. The background chatter instantly died, every person in the room staring at him and waiting. He looked around at them, inspected the cameras for a moment, then said, "Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. As you have undoubtedly noticed, today was the start of a revolution in civic improvement here in Brockton Bay. I hope that everyone enjoyed the event, and I understand that you probably have a lot of questions. I'll open the floor shortly, but before I do that, allow me to explain the background to what happened out there today..."

Rather enjoying himself, he began explaining the sequence of events, carefully sticking to the complete truth, but leaving out anything too controversial, such as precisely how many of the Family there actually were. It was something he was somewhat curious about himself, but now wasn't the time.

While the recorders ran and people held up cameras and phones, with others scribbling frantically, he talked for about ten minutes, then paused for a drink, looking around and assessing the mood in the room. Overall it seemed both generally positive and still somewhat stunned. Putting the glass down, he leaned over the lectern he was standing behind and smiled.

"Now. Who has the first question?"

There was a pregnant pause, before the room exploded into chatter.

Inwardly snickering, he began answering them, grateful for his notes and those of Phil who had suggested ways to direct the conversation.

On the whole, he was very pleased with today. It had gone better than he could have ever hoped for.

* * *

Slipping through the door, Taylor in the form of Saurial nodded to Lisa as she moved to stand beside her. They were in the same large empty building that everyone had been in that morning, hours ago. Amy was standing off to one side with her sister floating just off the ground next to her, the rest of her family near them and quietly talking while looking very pleased with themselves, while the rest of the room was full of Union people who seemed tired but very satisfied. Her father was moving towards the front of the room, stopping to talk to Mark and his people who looked like they'd enjoyed whatever it was they'd been up to.

Stepping up onto the low platform, her father looked around, smiling. Every person in the room went quiet. "Well done, to everyone. Today worked perfectly, and I'm very pleased and very proud to be associated with so many hard working people. Tomorrow we start working on the first day of a new era for the DWU and the city. Thanks to some luck, a lot of very hard work, and some unusual help, I suspect that we're going to be very busy for a long time."

There was a low cheer from the gathered crowd, which he waited out patiently.

"I should express my personal thanks to New Wave for their help." He nodded towards the Hero group, Vicky rising a little in the air and holding her clasped hands over her head with a broad grin. A lot of people laughed and clapped, making her bow in mid-air, which caused Taylor to snicker. "They undoubtedly stopped the surprisingly small number of problems we had from becoming much bigger ones. From what I've been told, there were no serious cape issues but there were a fair number of ordinary criminals and general idiots, like we always have around here." This caused a certain amount of laughter as everyone knew what he meant.

"We must also remember how much work the BBPD put in for this. We owe them thanks. Thank you to the crowd control teams as well, I've been asked to pass on the gratitude of both the city and the BBPD for your aid." Everyone who was wearing one of the crowd control vests cheered. "Now, I'm not going to go on any more, that should do it for now. We've got steak waiting in the cafeteria for everyone, and a lot more food as well, and as requested I managed to arrange a certain amount of beer to be delivered."

The cheer this time was immense, making her father grin. Taylor laughed under her breath.

"Don't get carried away, we don't need to start work in the morning with hangovers, but for now relax, enjoy yourselves, and thank you to everyone."

"Hail Hebert!" Zephron yelled. The entire room looked at him and burst out laughing. Her father sighed loudly, glaring at the huge man, while Lisa nearly collapsed in hilarity, leaning on Taylor who was giggling.

"No, I don't think so, Zephron," her father grumbled. His friend grinned.

"I'll keep working on it, Danny," he shouted.

"Please don't," her father called back, before he shook his head in despair and dropped off the platform, heading towards her. A lot of people stopped him en route, shaking his hand or clapping him on the back, all of them looking very happy. By the time he reached her he was chuckling.

"That went well," Lisa commented. He nodded, looking satisfied although tired.

"It did. Very well indeed. Did you enjoy the show?"

"More than I can believe," the blonde girl grinned. "It was amazing. You should see the reaction on PHO, it's going totally insane."

"I can imagine," he grinned back. "I'll have to have a look later. I want to go and see how Roy's press conference went first, though, he should be about half-way through it." Checking his watch he nodded slightly.

"I'm surprised he didn't want you there as well," Taylor smiled.

"He mentioned it but I'm not one for public speaking," her father replied.

"You did a pretty good job up there," Lisa said, indicating the other end of the room.

"This isn't the public," he responded with a small smile. "This is family." The girl looked thoughtfully at him for several seconds then nodded slowly.

"I think I understand."

"Where are your friends?" he asked, looking around.

"In the cafeteria," she told him. "Brian and Alec were hungry and don't particularly like crowds, and Rachel… is Rachel." She shrugged a little with a smile of her own.

"Fair enough." Looking over his shoulder as the various members of New Wave, who had been talking to quite a lot of the exiting Union members who seemed pleased with them, he added, "I need to talk to them, then get some food."

"OK," Lisa said. "I'll see you guys later, I could do with some steak before it all gets eaten by Alec." She grinned at them both then followed the last few dockworkers out of the room.

Taylor followed her father over to New Wave, who were now talking among themselves, still looking very pleased. As they reached the group they all turned to look at him and his currently reptilian daughter. "Thank you all very much," he said, smiling. "You helped an enormous amount, as I said. I doubt it would have gone so smoothly without your help."

"We enjoyed ourselves a lot, Danny," Lady Photon replied with a smile of her own. "And we got both some very good PR out of it and some exceptionally good costumes."

"Don't forget this," he laughed, pulling a stack of envelopes out of his pocket and distributing them. "We think that you deserve the bonus as everything went so well, even though there were no major incidents. Mayor Christner agreed and asked me to pass on the thanks of the city government and himself personally."

Vicky opened her envelope and looked curiously into it, before making a happy sound. Taylor grinned at her. "Thanks, Danny," she said. The rest of her family was similarly pleased. Amy, she noticed, put the envelope she received in her pocket without comment or looking at it, although she was faintly smiling.

"You're more than welcome, Vicky," he replied quietly. "You've all done very good work for which I thank you. If we have a similar requirement for Cape support are you open to the same arrangement in future?"

The adults of New Wave exchanged glances, while the younger members instantly nodded. Eventually, Brandish replied, "I think we would have no great problem with that under the circumstances." She paused, then added, "I was somewhat dubious about this at the beginning, Mr Hebert, but I have to admit I enjoyed myself. It was an interesting day. Not to mention a very confusing one."

He laughed. "I can understand that, Brandish, believe me. We expected that reaction, although I'm pleased it turned out the way it did." He glanced at Taylor, who smiled at him. "I need to track down a certain pair of low level villains who live locally and have a chat with them."

She frowned a little but said nothing. Her sister looked amused, as did Amy.

"Anyway, come and have a meal with us, if you want. The food here is very good as I'm sure Amy and Vicky can attest to." Both girls nodded.

"I could certainly do with something to eat," Amy's uncle noted with a certain amount of eagerness. Several more of the group expressed similar opinions. Shortly they were all heading towards the main building, talking and laughing, Lady Photon deep in conversation with Taylor's father.

She watched, amused, then looked at Amy who had hung back. Her friend handed her a card. "Über said you can get them on this number. They want to talk. And you were right, they know."

Taylor smirked a little as she looked at the card, then slipped it into a belt pouch. "Told you."

"You did."

Exchanging a grin, they followed the others, both feeling content.


	99. Omake - Whoosh 2, the return of Whoosh

_It had to be done..._

* * *

Erwin looked around, smiling to himself. Since those crazy reptile people had turned up, things had improved a lot as far as he was concerned. Much less crime, a cleaner bay, and more importantly from his point of view, the fishing seemed to have improved a hell of a lot.

Standing at the rear of his boat, the engine shut down and making gentle ticking sounds as it cooled, he looked out over the sparkling water early on a fine late spring day and felt that the world was going well, certainly compared to the last few years. He squinted towards the shore three or four miles away, seeing a number of ships moving around including the largest one he'd come across since the tanker sank decades ago.

With the removal of that obstruction by Kaiju, on one of the most memorable days he could ever recall, things had changed for the better as far as shipping went. There were a few trawlers even going out for proper deep sea fishing in the last couple of weeks, the ships having been refurbished and equipped with the financial backing of the city in the form of very low interest loans.

He'd considered doing something along those lines himself, he was a man of the sea and always would be, but he'd decided that it was too much very hard work for someone of his age. He was content with his much more modest little dory, although he was eyeing up some upgrades for it. Even so, he was happy to take advantage of the improvements to the waterways and venture outside the bay for fishing when the weather was nice, as it was today.

Shifting the huge wreck and clearing the channels had moved a lot of currents a surprising amount, which meant it was much less risky to go in and out of the bay now, and actually possible for something of a decent size.

Nodding in satisfaction, he set to work baiting hooks and erecting a number of fishing poles around the stern of the boat, then unfolded a deck chair and sat in it with a grunt of relaxation, before reaching for a cold bottle of beer. Popping the top off with a practised whack with the side of his other hand, he drank deeply, then put his feet up on the side and closed his eyes, a smile on his face.

Life was good.

Some indeterminate time later, he heard an odd sound, which made the boat tremble a little. Blinking, he opened his eyes and looked around.

Nothing was visible.

However, he wasn't naive enough to think that didn't mean something wasn't happening. Not after living in Brockton Bay all his life, and certainly not after the last few months.

Cocking his head he listened carefully. The waves lapping at the hull and the cries of seabirds were the loudest sounds, but he could make out very faint noises from the distant city, engines of other boats a mile or so away, and occasional splashes as fish jumped and fell back.

A few seconds passed, then the sound came again, louder. His boat shivered a little as it slowly drifted.

The sound was a deep bass grumble, not loud, but giving an impression of massive power being used for something. Sort of the sound he'd heard on TV from one of the NASA launches, but a lot more meaty than TV speakers could properly reproduce.

It stopped again after a few seconds.

Looking around slowly as he sat up, he put his half-depleted beer bottle back into the cooler and closed the lid, then stood to see over the cabin. Nowhere was anything particularly unusual visible.

He knew what that probably meant.

Sighing slightly, he knelt on the deck, then bent down and put his ear to the worn and bleached planks.

There was, right at the threshold of perception, a very deep voice muttering to itself in a tone of mild irritation, somewhere deep below.

" _Now_ what the hell are they doing?" he wondered out loud even though he had no audience other than a herring gull that had decided his cabin roof was a good spot for a rest. Standing up, he moved to the side and leaned over it, shading his eyes from the sun. While it was very clear, it was also very deep, and whatever was down there was down far enough that he couldn't see anything.

"Kaiju?" he mumbled speculatively. The voice hadn't been quite right for the enormous cape, although it sounded a lot like her.

While he was peering into the water pondering the matter, the sound came for a third time, more loudly. This time it didn't stop.

Some distance away, perhaps three or four hundred yards to the east, the water rippled oddly, a huge circle shivering and quaking, as if a depth charge had gone off.

The bass roar got louder, then _much_ louder.

His impression of a depth charge was suddenly and shockingly reinforced as the water inside the circle erupted in a huge tower of foam while the sound became overwhelming. Thousands of tons of water leaped skywards as he fell on his ass in surprise, gaping in amazement, his hat dropping to the deck beside him. The gull screeched in terror and left very quickly.

Out of the top of the plume of displaced sea, which looked a lot like the sort of thing he'd seen video of from when a submarine-launched missile broke the surface, an absolutely _enormous_ form appeared, lifting skywards with a bone-shaking rumble. He stared as the thing, over two hundred feet long and twenty feet across, climbed steadily into the clear blue sky on multiple vast columns of water screaming out with immense force from the rows of nozzles down either side.

It looked like an enormous eel with the front arms and head of a vast lizard on the end, the immense mouth split in a wide reptilian grin of pleasure.

" **WAAHOOOO!** " the thing screamed in joy, accelerating into the sky.

Erwin slowly pulled himself up using the side of the boat as a hand-hold, needed due to the way it was rocking wildly from the concentric rings of waves spreading outwards from the launch point. The column of water took nearly thirty seconds to finish falling from the air, by which time the flying sea serpent was a distant dot against the blue background, shrouded in rainbows from the plumes of mist under and behind it.

Staring after it, hearing a faint cry of "Not fast enough yet!" come out of the heavens, he slowly shook his head in disbelief.

"Just when you think you've seen everything," he mumbled to himself.

"Weird fucking place, Brockton Bay."

Sighing, he waited for the boat to stop rocking, picked up his beer, then sat down again and tipped his hat over his eyes, sipping slowly.

After a minute or so, he began grinning.

The takeoff had been pretty impressive, but he wondered how she was planning on landing...


	100. Omake - After the Return of Whoosh

I had no choice, I had to file a report.

* * *

 **PRT Internal Document FLTOPS/PHACT/1022-10-00012034-04/28/2011**

 **Classification: Confidential, PRT Internal Use Only, Not for Public Dissemination Without Authorization of Director**

 **Distribution: Security level 1 or above**

Reporting officer name: [ Frye, Carmen ]

Reporting officer rank: [ Captain ]

Reporting officer PRT ID #: [ 0142893/NQ/A14 ]

Any additional data: [ ]

Date of encounter: [ 04/28/2011 ]

Time of encounter: [ 11:03:56 ] UTC

Aircraft Serial Number: [ 0102403 ]

Aircraft Type: [ DR-219 ]

Origin: [ PRT-1022 ]

Destination: [ PRT-0850 ]

Flight Code: [ SRV112 ]

Aircraft Altitude: [ 27400 ft ]

Aircraft Heading: [ 140° ]

Aircraft Position: [ 42.765359°, -70.391620° ]

Aircraft Speed: [ 438 kts ]

Report Type:  
 **(Check one box only. If more than one category applicable file one report per category)**

Collision with Parahuman [ ]

Near miss of Parahuman [ ]

Sighting of unknown Parahuman [ ]

Dangerous or hazardous flight operations by Parahuman [ ]

Attack by Parahuman, no damage caused to aircraft/personnel [ ]

Attack by Parahuman, minor damage caused to aircraft/personnel [ ]

 **(form FLTOPS/MIDMG must also be filed. Notify maintenance.)**

Attack by Parahuman, major damage caused to aircraft/personnel [ ]

 **(form FLTOPS/MADMG must also be filed. Notify supervisor.)**

Attack by Parahuman, loss of aircraft/death of personnel [ ]

 **(form FLTOPS/PHLTH must also be filed in addition to form FLTOPS/TOTLS. Notify supervisor.)**

Any other encounter or activity [ **X** ]

Parahuman Altitude: [ 34700 ft ]

Parahuman Heading: [ 167° ]

Parahuman Position:

[ 42.734223°, -70.336030° ]

Parahuman Speed: [ 872 kts ] **(may be estimated)**

Codename **(if known)** or brief description of Parahuman: [ Extremely large reptilian creature, approximately 200 feet or more in length, flying with aid of unknown rocket assist device. Copilot described as sea serpent. ECM officer described as horrific.]

Reporting officer's account of encounter:  
 **(Must not exceed 1000 words. If limit necessarily exceeded due to complexity of encounter, file FLTOPS/ADEND form in addition to FLTOPS/PHACT. Notify supervisor.)**

At 11:03:56 UTC (07:03:56 EDT) surveillance flight SRV112 was on first outbound leg of mission having taken off from Protectorate facility in Brockton Bay, Captain Carmen Frye commanding, at 10:48:34 UTC (06:48:34 EDT). Aircraft activity was nominal, flight level 274, speed 438 knots, when an unknown aerial object was detected on radar approaching from the rear port side at high velocity, estimated at exceeding Mach 2 at flight level 347 on a relative bearing of 210°. Low radar cross-section suggested either small high performance aircraft or unassisted Parahuman in flight. Long range camera on fuselage upper pod was retasked to locate and identify object.

Camera lock-on required approximately 7 seconds during which object closed to a separation of just over 3 nautical miles, before drawing away SSE. Contact was lost 36 seconds later for unknown reasons, although there was no sighting of mid-air failure or course change.

Examination of camera recording showed that object was neither an aircraft of any type, or any known Parahuman. [VidRef SRV112/0014/11:04:03-11:04:39] The entity in question was approximately 200 feet in length, best described as a long eel-like lizard. Lift and propulsion appeared to be by means of a multiple engine rocket system of unknown design but significant power. The speed of the Parahuman was steadily increasing during the duration of the contact and the shape and consistency of the exhaust plume suggests in-flight optimization of the thrust system was ongoing.

The Parahuman appeared to be exhibiting signs of exhilaration based on facial expression although none of the flight crew could fully agree on this interpretation.

No life support or protective systems were evident, with the exception of a very large set of goggles of archaic design. Additionally, a long (estimated 120 feet) cloth streamer, brilliant white in color, was wrapped around the Parahuman's body immediately behind the head, both ends trailing.

Comment from copilot was to the effect of 'My god, it's like someone fused a Great Old One and Snoopy and strapped a rocket to it'. Copilot suffered shock-induced loss of consciousness immediately following this statement. ECM officer rendered first aid. Flight diverted to Boston Logan Airport where copilot was disembarked.

Based on overall appearance the unknown Parahuman is suspected of being associated with the Brockton Bay Parahuman group known as 'The Family'. Designation of individual in question is unknown to flight crew. Suggested action is to request that, assuming flight is repeated, the individual is supplied with an IFF transponder to prevent misidentification and precipitous action from any armed aircraft in the vicinity of Family flight operations.

Frye, Carmen, Captain [PRT Flight Division]

04/28/2011

 _Personal note to Director Piggot._

 _Director,_

 _Please, for the love of all that's holy, try to get them to warn us next time? Poor Nigel nearly had a heart attack._

 _Cpt. Carmen Frye_

 **File all relevant additional data with report. Image and video files must be added in standard format. Flight log must be attached. Use FLTOPS/WTNES form for additional witness statements, one per witness.**


	101. Coil and Cauldron

Sitting at his desk, Thomas Calvert rubbed his temples with his fingertips while wishing, not for the first time, that he'd picked a different career path.

His head throbbed horribly, he had intermittent double vision, and he was no closer to working out _what the fuck was going on!_

It was more than irritating.

Sighing heavily, he yanked his mask off having double-checked the door to his office was locked, then filled a glass with water from the carafe on the corner of the desk and washed half a dozen painkillers down with it, before leaning his chair back as far as it would go and putting his arm over his eyes for a few minutes. Moaning a little he waited for the drug to take effect, which it slowly did, although nowhere near as well as he'd have liked. It wasn't a thinker headache, he didn't get those, it was just pure frustration and lack of sleep combined with a level of stress that was worrying.

He went back over the last few weeks in his mind yet again, having totally lost count of how many times he'd done the same thing.

Somewhere in the second week of January, he'd noticed with alarm that certain of his manipulations were either failing totally or giving results other than those they should have. At first it was in a fairly sporadic manner, apparently random. An operation to ' _recruit_ ' a couple of Parahumans had failed spectacularly, not once, but over a dozen times until he gave up. Several planned missions to raise funds fell flat, either due to the target apparently being warned ahead of time, or because his entire team of mercenaries was either captured and bound for delivery to BBPD in under three minutes or simply vanished completely depending on how aggressive they were. He'd been forced to cancel every timeline involved very quickly or they always led _something_ right back to him.

It wasn't until some time later that he noticed that all these cases were ones that were either somewhere in the Docks area near the Dock Workers Union facility, in the main commercial district, or a large radius of Arcadia High School.

There was a possibility that it was something to do with the Wards, bearing in mind the Arcadia connection, but the way that everything went to hell was far too bloodthirsty for their normal style.

He'd wasted nearly two weeks probing hundreds of alternative timeline simulations, without coming any closer to working out exactly what the problem was. He was eighty percent sure it was something to do with this new apparent group the Family, specifically Saurial, who he found extremely unnerving, but he wasn't sure how, why, or what to do about it. She was known to be associated with the DWU in some ill-defined manner, as was her much more terrifying sister Raptaur, who really put shivers down his back.

Several attempts to infiltrate the DWU facility had terminated abruptly, and the operation to bring pressure on Mr Danny Hebert, who his research had shown was the person who one could consider most in charge of that bunch of blue-collar weirdos, had provoked something that he was still having nightmares about.

He had no idea what was actually happening. All his power showed was a sudden… _void_ … then the timeline ended. It didn't abruptly stop as it would have if he'd been killed in that alternate, it tailed off into a mass of unknowable nothingness that left him with a distinct impression that there was something that was pissed off at him.

He'd only run that one three times, the last one when he'd lost patience and had his people destroy the Hebert home with both members of that family inside while he was in a car heading out of the city having left him thinking that perhaps it was best to leave that particular land-mine un-jumped-on.

In that particular case the impression of pissed-off-ness had turned into an impression of absolute fury, the void chasing him down in seconds then the timeline evaporating in a manner that still gave him nightmares.

It was pretty obvious that both the DWU and the Heberts were something he should avoid for the time being. He wished he knew why but wasn't prepared to push his luck trying to find out any more about it.

In the midst of all this while he was distracted, he'd not only somehow missed what was almost certainly the triggering of possibly the most powerful precog he'd ever heard of, but somehow also managed to lose track of some extremely incriminating and vital documents detailing various facts around his ownership of a number of companies in the construction industry. He had caught, and then made a very vivid example of, the mercenary who had taken advantage of his lapse of attention to attempt something of a power grab, but the documents were still out there. And the precog was now under the protection of the PRT, in a manner that made her practically untouchable.

He knew, he'd tried, and as in the Hebert case, things always ended… badly.

The times Armsmaster simply arrested him were the good ones. He didn't want to think about the other ones.

In the end he'd managed to trace the missing paperwork to Lung of all people. What the hell that huge rage-beast wanted with it he didn't know, aside from the fact that it would be either expensive, dangerous, or both. He'd dealt with the man once before and found that he was a lot smarter than people gave him credit for and not someone to underestimate despite his personality and occupation.

Not wanting to risk going through that again, Thomas sent Tattletale and her little group of annoying but talented children after the documents. He was well aware that her loyalties were at best described as tenuous and that she was looking for some way to leave his service. He'd stopped at least a dozen attempts at either slipping away, or recently, simply assassinating him, one of which was truly evil and brilliant, and to be honest was starting to think she was more trouble than she was worth. She'd been keeping information from him and several of their ' _sessions_ ' had ended with him becoming quite peeved.

On the verge of either simply ordering her terminated and taking over direct control of the remaining group, or allowing his tame doctor to try the drug regimen he'd come up with recently, he abruptly discovered that this was no longer a good idea.

He didn't know how, or precisely when it had happened, but sometime in the last week to ten days or so Tattletale had ended up becoming yet another trigger for instant and final retribution from whatever was causing all the problems. He knew she'd been researching the Family, as had the PRT, and presumed this was more evidence to suggest all his problems stemmed from the same scaly source.

At that point he'd become even more paranoid than usual and put the base on partial lock-down, venturing out only a few times under discreet but heavy guard and only having checked and rechecked that nothing would go amiss. It was extremely irritating and more than a little frightening.

As was the way that all his possible sources of aid had suddenly dried up. An old acquaintance in Boston had for no obvious reason become downright hostile to him, which he found a little disquieting bearing in mind the nature of that acquaintance, then broken off all communications. His last words were, "I would suggest that you find a new goal, preferably in a different country. Or retire. Please do not contact me again or I will be forced to take steps. Goodbye."

Thomas somehow got the impression that no help would be forthcoming from that direction.

Cauldron was a distant possibility of help, and that distance became infinite when he made tentative overtures and was rebuffed by the simple fact that they hung up on him halfway through his explanation.

It was obvious _they_ weren't any use to him, or apparently he to them. He was on his own.

In the end he'd decided that the Undersiders could be used in an attempt to retrieve his documents. If they succeeded, which was distinctly possible due to their surprisingly high effectiveness, great. Lung would either be looking for them or some unknown group depending on how well Tattletale's ruse worked.

If they _didn't_ succeed, by far the most likely result was that they died and the documents were destroyed. He could live with that, it would achieve his goals and if they couldn't pull this job off they were no use to him anyway. And, as far as he could tell, the cause of instant invisible death would go after Lung instead, which again he was fine with.

What he hadn't expected that the Undersiders would simply disappear.

Or that Oni Lee would end up extremely dead, apparently as a result of something they managed to do. He was impressed, he hadn't thought they were capable of that.

None of his contacts appeared to know where they were, what had happened to them, if they were even still alive, or anything at all useful to him. His best guess was that the PRT had captured them, which probably meant they had been removed from Brockton Bay. Tattletale would be very valuable to them, they were always looking for Thinkers and she was one of the most powerful he'd ever heard of. What she was capable of with sufficient motivation was astounding.

The big problem with that was of course that she had no reason not to tell them everything about him that she knew. Luckily that was a limited amount of information, and she had no idea where his base was or who he really was, but it was worrying. He'd immediately locked down the base completely until he could work out whether he needed to run or not, and the best way to proceed if so. Days later nothing at all had happened, which was starting to make him even more worried. He'd have expected that if she had handed over the information and they'd managed to derive his location from it that they'd have moved immediately on him, but instead things just went on as normal.

Perhaps she and her team had just been quietly eliminated by Lung? One could hope.

The worst case scenario was that _he_ had captured them and taken them into his service, which would actually be worse than if the PRT had them. He had ways to get information out of the PRT, which wasn't the case with Lung's organization. And the man had a very direct and burny way to deal with problems.

Sighing, he removed his arm from his eyes as his headache started to subside, sitting up and reaching for his keyboard. Bringing up reports from his moles in the PRT he checked to see if anything new had come to light. Worryingly, yet another of his agents had failed to check in, which almost certainly meant that Miss Militia had found him. She had been running a comprehensive check of internal security recently and shut down several of his people, including one he was certain they'd known about for some time and were using to feed him bad intel. He always took reports from that agent with a very large pinch of salt and double or triple checked them.

As long as they didn't know he knew they knew, it was still useful to have the agent in play. But it looked like they'd finally run out of patience and nabbed her. Luckily she had no knowledge that could lead them to him.

The one good thing was that they had no way to know about all his backdoors into their computers, something that he'd worked on for _years_ before he retired. It would take someone like Dragon to find them and only if she had both total unfettered access to the system and a reason to look for them specifically. He was confident that neither was the case for a number of reasons.

He poked around inside the PRT system for a while, his head still aching slightly, not really after anything in particular but just seeing if there was anything useful to him. Reading the threat assessments on Saurial and Raptaur made him stare, then shiver. Miss Militia had upped their ratings in several categories since he'd last looked at them and the results were unnerving.

As was watching the videos of them in operation.

He decided yet again that he'd do his best to make sure they never met him. At least it was only those two, but they were bad enough.

Finding the report that Assault and Battery had filed on their encounter with Raptaur and Panacea, he read it with interest, wondering why the New Wave healer had become involved, and how. There was no obvious answer in the report. Finding the attached video files he watched them, snickering at the obvious trolling of the Protectorate capes from both Raptaur and Panacea who were clearly enjoying the effect their words had on the others and the crowd watching.

After a moment, he frowned slightly and replayed part of the file, before thinking hard.

' _Sisters, plural._ _ **That's**_ … _somewhat terrifying_ ,' he thought with disquiet.

Pondering the idea, he finally decided that given the people involved, there was a better than even chance that someone's leg was being pulled, probably by a large scaled hand. After a while, he carefully pulled back from the PRT systems and cut his link to it, having found nothing applicable to his current problem.

Thomas rubbed his forehead again and winced. The headache was diminishing but still unpleasantly present, making him sigh and decide he couldn't face using his powers for a few hours yet. He didn't need any more stress right now.

Luckily, with the base on lock-down, no emergency was likely to happen without a lot of warning, so he could relax and wait the headache out. Glancing at the bottle of tablets on his desk, he considered taking another one, but decided against it since he was already using too many. He pushed himself to his feet and walked across the room to the small built in refrigerator under the huge TV mounted on the wall, turning the latter on then bending down to retrieve a snack from the former.

"May as well see what the masses are doing," he mumbled to himself, popping the top on a can of soda and returning to his desk, which he leaned against the edge of while picking up the remote. Quickly punching in the three digit channel number of the local news channel he raised the can to his mouth and took a mouthful.

Seconds later he was gaping at the screen in horror, soda running out of his nose and down onto the chest of his costume, can and remote forgotten in his hands, still choking a little.

* * *

"What, if anything, do we do about _that?_ " Rebecca said with a look of exasperated irritation, waving at the large screen on the wall on which a still frame of Kaiju was displayed, shot from the news helicopter from WCVB in Boston. They had broadcast the entire thing, first from the roof of the City Hall, then from the air when the helicopter arrived some forty minutes later, called by a frantic reporter.

The image was of the impossibly large creature standing up to her waist in water, wearing of all things a Darth Vader helmet and cloak while wielding a sword better than fifty feet long and a good yard-plus wide at the hilt without showing any effort at all. The Cauldron research team had quickly suggested the sword was of a pattern somewhat similar to a Chinese _jian_ sword, although with a number of differences they found fascinating. Presuming it was made of simple steel it would have weighed the best part of eight tons or so, she had quickly calculated, leaving the sheer leverage aside. The strength needed to wave it around like it was made of Styrofoam was enough to make her seriously wonder if the damn thing was actually as strong as she was.

Having watched the video several times, she was certain that the sword was _not_ made of anything as plebeian as steel since it would have folded in half as soon as it was picked up, due to that same leverage. Which somewhat worried her, as did the entire thing. Saurial, then Raptaur, both with that weird matter generation talent, were one thing, but something ten times the size of the latter and most likely exponentially stronger with the same abilities was horrifying to contemplate. The reports that they made some sort of metallic substance that was unbreakable had been something she'd intended to look into at some point but all the other things that Cauldron was invested in, then this whole Jake Petty event, had pushed it to the back of the immediate action queue.

Now, though, she had no choice, she needed to find out what the fuck was going on. Brockton Bay was a hotbed of Parahuman activity even on a quiet day, but this was ridiculous.

Her conversation with Emily Piggot had left her certain that the damn woman was, for reasons she was very curious about, much more aware of what was going on than she was letting on. She'd detected the interesting fact, from body language, speech patterns, and various other subconscious cues that her own Thinker ability was very good at interpreting, that her subordinate was worried about the situation but much _less_ worried in some ways than she'd have expected. Considering the other woman's well-known dislike of Parahumans in general with very few exceptions, she had spoken about Raptaur and Saurial with a strange degree of apparently genuine respect.

It was very odd, and she wanted to know what was going on.

David was staring at the screen while gently rubbing one finger over his nose in a thoughtful manner, something she'd seen him do many times when he was pondering an interesting problem. Doctor Mother was also looking at the image, but making notes on a clipboard in her tiny quick handwriting, not looking at the paper. She seemed to be fairly impassive but their long association left Rebecca certain she was fascinated by the conundrum the huge cape presented them.

James Grant, known as the Number Man, was sitting next to Contessa, both of them quietly observing, although she could see that he had a small furrow on his brow that meant he was worried. It was somewhat unusual, he was a person that was normally well on top of any problem, but since he'd come through the portal to call them to watch the TV, he'd looked pensive.

"Do we have to do anything?" David finally asked. "The whole point of the experiment is to see what happens under conditions that seem to in fact be taking place right now, if in a rather different way than we expected." He waved one hand at the screen. "From what we've seen so far, Brockton Bay is now in many ways under the control of a Parahuman group. It might not officially be, but I doubt many people would argue the point if something like _that_ was going to come along and glare at them."

"This new group has certainly derailed Thomas' plans rather conclusively, as far as I can tell," she agreed somewhat reluctantly. "And you have a point, in one way. But in another I'm both very curious and very concerned about this. Where did they come from and what do they want? We have no information about them other than what is public and I can't see how something that size could possibly hide anywhere near the city."

"Underwater," Matt suggested. "That one is definitely aquatic and I suspect the other two are as well, or at least amphibious. They may well have an underwater base."

She considered the idea, then slowly nodded. "That… makes a certain amount of sense. Although it doesn't answer the question of their origins or motivations."

Doctor Mother finished making notes then turned to look at them. "I require a genetic sample from at least one of the Family as soon as possible," she said in even tones. "I can probably tell you their origin from a DNA analysis. Not to mention I am very curious about the Agent that is capable of doing this. It could be very important to our work."

Rebecca was about to answer when her laptop made the sound indicating it had mail for her. She held up a finger, making everyone else in the room pause, then opened it and quickly scanned the inbox. "Director Piggot has finally sent me the interim report," she announced, copying it to all of them. Opening the main document she read it, her eyes moving back and forth rapidly.

After a few seconds they widened slightly. She kept reading, feeling more and more taken aback, opening some of the sub-reports and scanning them as well. Sounds from the others of surprise and shock came to her but she ignored them, to concentrate on her own reading.

Reaching the end of the report body she blinked a couple of times. Then she went on to the threat assessment section, her eyes growing round as she read it.

At the end she read it again, then looked up. Doctor Mother was staring at her own laptop with a certain amount of incredulity in her expression, while David was playing one of the attached video recordings and grinning. She leaned over and saw it was documenting Saurial dealing with some gang members in a way that was frighteningly efficient and rather amusing.

James cleared his throat, making them all look at him. "Whatever else we do, we make sure that James Tagg is kept well away from Brockton Bay under any circumstances," he said soberly. "The numbers if he becomes involved in any aggressive manner, which we know he's likely to do should the need arise, are… very bad."

"How do you mean?" she asked curiously. Tagg wasn't stupid by a long shot but he had a direct manner that rubbed a lot of people the wrong way. And a tendency to immediately reach for a big stick and make threats if he wanted something. He wasn't, in her opinion, a particularly diplomatic person, although for certain types of problem he was a good fit and very effective.

Not to mention that he and Emily Piggot got along like sodium and water, never having liked each other for a number of reasons.

"I mean, my calculations show that he would extremely rapidly escalate to a level where the Family retaliated. He wouldn't be able to help it, they would flatly refuse to do what he demanded and he would be unable to tolerate that. If he took the sort of action that his personality demands the consequences would be disastrous."

She shared a glance with David. Looking back to the other man, she asked, "What would happen?"

"I don't know."

Everyone looked at him, most of them in shock. "You don't know?" she echoed. He shook his head.

"I can't predict them. I can predict people around them, and get an approximation of what _might_ happen, but every time I directly try to work the probabilities on any of the Family, I get nonsense. Almost an error message, in fact, is the closest way I can put it. My power can't read them or predict them and I don't know why."

"An anti-Thinker effect..." Doctor Mother looked fascinated. "That is… rare. I wonder how complete it is." They exchanged a glance, then everyone turned to look at Contessa, who looked back. She gazed at them evenly.

"Have you tried?" Rebecca asked.

The other woman shook her head slightly. "Not as such. When Saurial first came on the scene I experimented with Path to Victory on her." She seemed uncomfortable. "It was… less than entirely successful."

"Why didn't you mention it before?" David asked curiously.

"I have been wondering that myself," the brunette woman mused. "I can't answer you."

Once again they all looked at each other. This was more than a little worrying.

"Can you try again, please?" Rebecca asked. The other woman gazed at her for several seconds, then nodded with a slight look of worry.

"All right."

Glancing at the screen for a moment, as if to refresh her memory, she closed her eyes, something that she rarely did except when she was trying a particularly complex use of her powers, took a deep breath, and relaxed. Everyone watched her.

"Path to learning about the Family," she said, letting them know what she was trying her power on. Her expression went blank, then puzzled. "Subject not found."

"What?"

Contessa opened her eyes, looking at Rebecca, who was feeling startled. "That's basically what my abilities said, translated into something you can understand."

Rebecca watched while the woman closed her eyes again and appeared to concentrate. "Path to learning about Kaiju." There was another pause, then she repeated "Subject not found." Shaking her head, she frowned. "Path to defeating Kaiju."

"Subject not found."

"What the hell is going on?" David asked quietly. Rebecca shrugged, while Doctor Mother was studying Contessa as if she'd never seen her before.

"No idea."

"Path to bringing the Family to work with Cauldron."

"Subject not found."

Pausing to think, the woman tried a different tack. "Path to controlling the Dock Workers Union."

She paled abruptly. "No, _that's_ not a good idea," she whispered, looking shocked.

The others exchanged a glance. When they looked back, Contessa was staring at them. There was a trickle of blood running out of one nostril, which she absently wiped away.

"Whatever you do, _don't_ threaten a friend of the Family," she said in a shaken voice. "That path leads nowhere good in a very small number of steps. You don't want to know what the last one is." Rebecca was stunned, she'd never seen her companion look like that in all the years she'd known her.

"Why not?" she asked.

"It would be… very bad indeed."

"In what way?"

"I can't give you details, but I _can_ say that we would have a lot of trouble as a result. We _don't_ want to go down that route."

James nodded a little, showing he agreed. "I concur. I don't know exactly what would happen either but the end result would not be favorable to us. If you go there, which I know you will, be _very_ cautious." He looked at David. "I mean that particularly for you. Don't look for a fight or I think you'll get one you don't want."

David stared at him, then around at the others. Contessa seemed to be thinking hard, one hand holding a tissue to her nose. Doctor Mother looked fascinated again.

"Well, _that's_ not worrying at all," Rebecca sighed. "What the hell _are_ these people? We've never had anything like this happen before."

"I don't know but I'm very curious to find out," David said quietly. "We need to discreetly check if the same thing happens with other Thinkers and precogs."

"I'll deal with that after the meeting," she assured him.

Doctor Mother made some notes and nodded thoughtfully. "Please ensure you retrieve a DNA sample. I am even more intrigued now."

Rebecca nodded. David turned to her after staring at the image on the screen for a little longer, his eyebrows raised a little.

"What do we tell Paul about our involvement?"

"Nothing, for now. He's already involved himself, based on what Piggot said and this report, but until we have a better idea what the situation is I don't think we need to let him known any more than he's found out for himself."

"Are you sure that's wise?"

"It's worked up until now," she pointed out. "The man is an idealist. We need people like him, and he needs people like us. But he doesn't need to know that."

Her colleague sighed faintly and nodded. "All right. I'll go along with that for now. I just hope it doesn't come back to bite us."

"What's the worst that could happen?" she asked lightly, then stopped as everyone in the room fixed their eyes on her. Looking up at the still frame of Kaiju again, she added with a faint sigh, "Sorry. Forget I said that."

After a moment's hesitation, she carried on. "Leaving that aside for the time being, let's go over the press release on the Petty incident. I'd like to get that out before I go to Brockton Bay since I don't want to be distracted."

They were soon discussing the exact wording of the press release, none of them looking at the screen on the wall, aside from Contessa who was still holding a tissue against her face, a small furrow between her eyes as she thought.

* * *

Having finally ended up with a draft of the whole report set that she was happy with, depending on your definition of ' _happy_ ', Emily sent it to the Chief Director over the most secure method Armsmaster and Dragon could come up with, bypassing the local PRT network entirely in favor of a Guild link through one of her communications satellites. They were almost certain that Calvert would have no way to intercept it. That done, she glanced at Legend who was watching her with interest, then Hannah, who seemed worried.

Turning to both Tinkers who were also watching her, Dragon somehow emitting an air of curious anticipation, she cleared her throat.

"I need to tell you both something, but I need your word that you won't pass it on, either to the PRT or the Guild, at least for the moment. You'll understand why when I explain but for now let's just say that it's speculative, worrying, and potentially extremely public-relations-unfriendly. There's no immediate threat, but there is the _possibility_ of a very serious one. I don't want it getting out into the public domain, and bearing in mind the security issues we've uncovered recently, that could well happen if we don't keep things quiet until we both work out the full ramifications and also catch Coil and shut the bastard down for good."

Dragon and Colin shared a glance.

"Are you aware of this, sir?" Colin asked Legend respectfully. The other man nodded slowly.

"I am, Emily and Hannah filled me in earlier. At the moment I agree we should probably do as she asks."

"I see." Tapping his index finger on the table, the Tinker looked at his friend, who shrugged very slightly and nodded once. "Agreed. I am slightly uncomfortable with this, but bearing in mind some recent events that Dragon and I have been involved in, I can hardly be a hypocrite about it."

Wondering what exactly that statement meant, Emily nodded thankfully. "Good. All right, this is currently only a hypothesis with no real proof behind it, but a lot of fairly convincing evidence from a number of sources. A few weeks ago, Hannah came to me at home..."

* * *

" _A nuclear shotgun?!_ "

Colin winced. The Director's voice had gone shrill, Hannah was staring at him with disbelief, and even Legend looked shocked. He glanced at Dragon who seemed mildly amused as best he could tell. Perhaps the new openness their small group had developed wasn't quite as open as he'd thought?

"Allow me to explain, Director," he began. "A couple of weeks ago, I got an email from Leet..."

* * *

"Thanks, Dad. It was fun," Taylor smiled, hugging her father after he'd closed the door and hung up his coat. She'd been waiting for him to get back, having arrived there herself half an hour earlier.

"It was," he smiled down at her. "And thanks to both of you. Without you, it would never have happened. The city and the union owe you a lot."

"No, they don't," she laughed as she released him. "We're helping each other. That's what friends do. Come on, I made you some coffee, I want to show you the video of my talk to Legend. It's hysterical, his expression is amazing!"

Grinning, he allowed her to tow him into the living room.


	102. Newspapers and Cars

**Wednesday, February 16, 2011**

"Hello, Dean," the soft voice said from immediately behind him.

The young man froze, then slowly turned his head. Taylor Hebert was standing two feet away smiling at him. He was standing on the school steps waiting for Vicky to arrive, but she was running late for some reason. None of his other friends from ' _work_ ' had yet arrived either, although he could see Dennis heading towards them from the direction of his house, talking to a girl he didn't know.

"Oh, hello, Taylor," he said nervously as he turned around. For some reason her odd dual emotional output was even less apparent than normal, which was why he hadn't detected her before she spoke. He'd noticed it seemed to be slowly becoming more and more difficult to read at a distance for a couple of weeks and wondered if it was something she was consciously doing. What he _could_ read of it suggested that she was generally pleased and happy, with an overtone of sardonic amusement, remarkably similar to Amy these days. He wondered why she'd suddenly decided to talk to him, having restricted herself mostly to significant looks since he'd originally spotted her in the cafeteria that first day. She'd said ' _Hi_ ' a couple of times when she was with Amy, but that was about it until now.

"Did you enjoy the show yesterday?" she asked calmly. "From what I could see everyone at Arcadia was probably in the crowd somewhere."

"Oh, were you there as well?" he asked, watching her face. He knew, and she knew he knew, and it obviously amused her that there was nothing he could say about it for a whole host of reasons.

"I was, yes," she smiled, "although I'd arranged to get permission to skip the day before. Family business."

"I… see," he managed to say. Family business indeed. He barely managed to stop himself snorting with unwilling laughter, but he could see in her eyes she'd picked up on it anyway. He wished he knew how. Although at the same time he desperately wanted to be somewhere a long way away, not that he thought she was likely to attack him or anyone else. He was just extremely nervous standing next to a teenaged girl who could apparently turn into a more than eighty foot tall sea monster at will.

To be brutally honest, she scared the shit out of him.

The smile she was wearing widened a little, giving a certain reptilian air to her demeanor, something that no one who didn't know the truth would pick up on but that he couldn't fail to notice.

He swallowed dryly.

"I thought it was pretty impressive, myself," she went on. "Everyone seemed to enjoy it after the initial confusion, and Mayor Christner gave a very good speech. His press conference afterwards was good as well."

"I thought so," he admitted, which was actually true. From what he could see, the entire thing had been stage-managed perfectly and the overall plan sounded very sensible. "Do you know when they're going to start cutting up that huge ship?"

"Dad said probably by about this time next week," she replied. "It should be interesting to watch. Everyone down at the yard is really excited about it. A lot of people are going to have their lives completely transformed for the better as a result of this project, he said." She laughed gently. "He and the Mayor both think that this one simple thing will make a bigger difference to the city than anything anyone has done in over a decade. Which is interesting."

"It's hardly simple," he protested, very carefully.

"Well, I'll admit it looked like it took a lot of setting up, and without Kaiju it wouldn't be possible, but under the circumstances it's relatively simple. Tow a boat, dock a boat, cut up a boat. Not difficult if you have the ability to do that sort of thing." She smiled again. "It's nice to see a Parahuman doing something useful with their powers and not just fighting people, wouldn't you agree?"

"Um..." He wasn't sure what answer she wanted. "I guess so?"

"Anyway, the bell will be going any minute and I need to get some books from my locker. See you around. By the way, Vicky is standing behind you." He twitched, turning his head again to see his girlfriend was indeed standing there, with her sister next to her. Both girls were smirking at him. "Hi, Amy, Vicky. See you at lunch."

"See you, Taylor," Amy replied, nodding to her friend, who lifted a hand in a relaxed gesture of farewell then wandered off. He watched her for a moment, wondering if he'd been given a subtle message or she was just talking. Or simply trying to make him nervous.

She'd managed _that_ pretty well regardless of whether it was the goal or not.

"Nice chat, Dean?" Amy asked, making him look at her. The brunette girl was smiling at him in a way that reminded him uncomfortably of Taylor for a moment.

"I… think so," he said.

"It's nice that Taylor is still making new friends," Vicky grinned. "I like her, and her dad is really nice." The first bell sounded, making them all look up, and provoking a general drift of students towards the entrance. Dennis ran over with Chris behind him, Carlos arriving from the other direction moments later. "Come on, guys, there's schoolwork to do," the blonde added, sounding like she was in a very good mood. Grabbing her boyfriend she helped him on his way sufficiently fast that he yelped in surprise.

"You're full of beans today, Vicky," Dennis chuckled.

"Why shouldn't I be?" she giggled. "I made five grand yesterday for doing something that I'd probably have done for nothing, and had a hell of a lot of fun, even if it was the weirdest day I've ever had." She looked hard at Dean. "Not that it means you don't get to pay for something to celebrate, of course."

"Of course it doesn't," he sighed, while the others laughed. "How did you make five grand?"

"From the city via BBFO and the DWU," she grinned. He looked at her, then his friends, who seemed surprised. Chris looked very interested, as did Dennis.

"Tell me more," Chris prompted, sounding curious. Happily, the blonde began explaining, while Dean and Carlos exchanged glances.

' _I wonder if the Director knows about this?_ ' he mused. With an inner sigh he realized that he'd have to say something.

But he was _not_ going to talk about Taylor Hebert.

At all.

He wasn't an idiot.

* * *

Leafing through her chemistry reference book Taylor stopped every now and then to carefully read a section, an expression of thoughtful pondering on her face. She looked up as Mandy and Lucy sat next to her, unconsciously wrapping her tail more firmly around the legs of the chair to ensure no one tripped over it. Both her friends grinned at her. "Homework, or just reading ahead?" Mandy asked cheerfully, bending down to the point her head was on the desk in an attempt to see the title of the book Taylor was holding. Obligingly, Taylor lifted it so she could read the front cover.

"Advanced Inorganic Chemistry, Fourth Edition," the other girl read out loud, looking impressed. "That's college-level stuff isn't it? It's sure not a required textbook."

"It's pretty interesting," Taylor smiled. "I found it in the library. They don't have the newer ones but I've asked if a later edition can be ordered. This will do for now, though."

"Planning on becoming a chemist after school, then?" Lucy inquired, interested. Taylor looked at her and shrugged.

"Not really, but I find chemistry really interesting. There are some cool things you can do with halogen compounds, and some of the reactive metals are neat. I need to find a reference on..." She broke off as the teacher arrived, casting a quick glance over the room then nodding before he shut the door and went to his desk. Closing the book and putting it back into her backpack, she shifted around as did her friends to face the front of the room and put an attentive expression on her face.

She could learn more about interhalogen compounds on her own time. Right now they needed to learn about fractional crystallization.

* * *

Lisa cackled to herself as she typed, Danny looking over her shoulder and grinning. "You're very good at this," he said admiringly.

"I was always good with computers even before I Triggered," she replied, pausing to think for a moment, then nodding a little as her power supplied the answer. "Afterwards, a lot of this sort of thing is so easy I can't believe it. And fun."

"And often criminal," he added.

"Well, true, but this is in a good cause, right?"

"It's not entirely impossible the law would disagree, but I suspect Director Piggot would find that viewpoint correct," he laughed, watching as she clicked a few times on the page she'd hacked into.

"Got it. OK, where should I transfer this to?"

"Here's a list," he said, handing her a notebook. She flipped through the pages with one hand, typing with the other, smiling darkly. At the end of it she grinned widely.

"That should cause the bastard some problems. Now, where are those documents?"

"Here you go," he said, handing her the paperwork she'd recovered from Lung, along with a stack of handwritten and printed notes on the research she and Danny had done on them. "This is the certificate of incorporation, this is… ah, yes, this is the legal ownership document."

"Great. I'll need that burner phone you got now."

Looking wildly amused, he handed her one of the stack of a dozen brand new disposable phones Zephron had arrived with an hour earlier. She cast a similar look back as she dialed a number pulled from the web, then cleared her throat. "Hello. My name is Andrea Hanson, legal representative for East Coast Heavy Construction, LLC. I'd like to talk to the person in charge of company registration, please."

Smirking a little, she lost herself in the joy of not only using her abilities for what could be considered in some circles ' _good_ ', but massively fucking Calvert over in the process. On balance, she felt it was a worthwhile use of her time.

As she spoke, Danny started laughing hard enough he had to leave the room before he caused any problems, nodding to her in respect on the way.

When she finished that conversation, she thanked the last person she'd talked to, disconnected, then dialed the next number on her list.

"Ah, good morning, I'm Jennifer Beadle, Accounts Manager at..."

It was going to take a while, but she had time, motivation, and a big mug of strong coffee.

And a score to settle.

* * *

"She looked _right at me!_ " Lucy still sounded excited. The girl had been radiating pleased amazement the entire day. Amy met Taylor's eyes and smiled a little.

"I know, Lucy, we were all there," Eric said calmingly. "But I still say she was only looking in our general direction. It was probably a coincidence."

" _I'm_ sure it wasn't," the girl insisted, pouting at him. He grinned and shrugged.

"Whatever you say, then. It was impressive whichever way it really was. Did you see it, Taylor?"

"I did," the Hebert girl affirmed, smiling back with a glance at Amy, who looked at her lunch to hide the sudden grin. "I was at the yard when it started, though. Did you guys have fun?"

"Fun. Yes, I think that's one way to put it," he replied thoughtfully. "After the terror, and surprise, and raw shock… It ended up being fun."

Amy giggled a little while Mandy grinned at her. "I sure had fun, I have to say. It was one of the best days of my life," she said. Mandy nodded back, looking around at the others.

"I'd have to agree. I still can't believe it, to be honest, but it really happened."

"A good day out for everyone, then," Taylor commented, idly stirring her beef stew with her spoon, then taking a mouthful.

Lucy propped her chin in her hands and stared into space with a wistful look. "A _very_ good day. I wish I could see Kaiju again, it was the most incredible thing I've ever seen."

"I expect that may well happen, Lucy," Rich said without looking up from the newspaper he was reading. "It says here that she's going to be helping the DWU with salvaging all the sunken ships in the bay, not just cutting up that big one. There are apparently lots of them out there. Aside from the one she ate."

They all laughed at that. "It was pretty funny watching when she did that," Eric snickered. "The expressions on people's faces were amazing."

"I wonder if she'll snack on the ships she pulls out of the bay?" Mandy asked with a smile. "You know, one for me, one for you, one for me..."

Taylor looked at her, then Amy, who started laughing. "It's not impossible," the healer chuckled with a shake of her head. "She's got quite an appetite."

"You met her before practically anyone, didn't you, Amy?" Lucy asked eagerly. "What's she like? Other than enormous with a weird sense of humor."

"Well, she's fun to talk to, even if she does have a slightly odd view of the world," Amy replied after looking at them thoughtfully. Everyone watched her closely, Rich looking up and pushing the paper to one side. "You can't believe how big she is when you see her up close, it's much more impressive than it was from where she was standing in the bay. She came out of the water at the yard and lay on the concrete and you really see just how huge she actually is. I was standing only about thirty or forty feet from her head and her mouth is big enough to drive a car into."

Mandy shivered. "Weren't you scared?"

"Why should I be? She's a friend." Amy grinned at the others. Taylor was wearing a tiny smirk. "I doubt she'd hurt anyone unless they really provoked her. Neither of her sisters do, after all, and there's practically nothing you could do to harm her anyway."

"I wonder if there are any more of them?" Rich said thoughtfully. "Possibly even bigger."

"Didn't you see that video of Raptaur and Amy meeting Assault and Battery, Rich?" Lucy asked quizzically. "Raptaur referred to _sisters_ and the way she said it implied more than Saurial and one other. I sort of got the impression she was talking about a number of them. Not to mention what she said about a big brother."

He shivered a little. "I'm really not sure I could handle something bigger than Kaiju. That was bad enough."

"I doubt they come much larger than that," Eric commented wisely. "She's already practically impossible."

Lucy looked disappointed, but cheered up rapidly. "Well, even if there are only smaller ones, I still want to meet them."

"Of course you do, Lucy," Mandy giggled. Everyone looked amused as Lucy sighed slightly, but shrugged.

"PHO has practically melted down," she said after a moment, smiling again. "I was reading it this morning at breakfast. The thread on Kaiju and Brockton Bay is at nearly _ten thousand_ pages in total so far. They've had to split it into new ones four times, which as far as I know is really unusual. People all over the world are talking about us here."

"I'm not really surprised," Amy commented as she picked up a carrot stick and nibbled on it. "It's kind of a big deal."

"Very big," Eric chuckled. "Around eighty feet or so."

She glanced at him and grinned. "Yep."

Taylor asked, "Not to change the subject, but on a completely different subject, are you still going to look for a car after school, Amy?"

She nodded, smiling. "Yes, Mom is picking me up and we're going to look around the dealers for an hour or so before I go to the hospital. Hopefully we can narrow it down to something reasonable that I like, then she can give the dealer a hard time while I'm working."

Taylor and Mandy both laughed at her comment. "I can see where a car dealer might run into problems trying to con your mom out of money, Amy," Mandy giggled, "both from the ' _I'm a high-powered lawyer, get out of my way_ ' point of view, and the ' _I'm a superhero, get out of my way_ ,' one."

Nodding, Amy chuckled. "I think they might just give up and hand her the keys. Anyway, I'm still not sure what I'm looking for. I think I want something big enough to carry stuff around in, and take friends with me, but that covers a lot of ground. I don't know all that much about cars."

Eric looked thoughtful. "A station wagon, or a small SUV, maybe? Not the best fuel economy but they'd both do what you want. Or maybe a four seat pickup truck. Definitely not a compact, you'd get several people in one but then you wouldn't have much room for luggage."

Considering the suggestion, Amy slowly nodded. "An SUV might do it," she replied. "Nothing huge, but I know there are some nice medium sized ones."

"I'll write down a few models for you," he offered, pulling out a notebook and pencil. "I know a fair amount about cars, my dad is a mechanic. I've been around them all my life."

"Thanks, Eric," she replied, grateful. "That would help."

While he scribbled, she turned to Taylor. "Want to come along and watch mom scare car dealers? You haven't met her yet." They shared an amused look knowing that Carol _had_ met her several times, just not as _her_.

"Sure, I'll call dad and let him know I'll be home later than usual after school. Thanks."

Taylor looked around at the group. "I was thinking about math lessons, if anyone is interested." Mandy instantly shot her hand up, then used the other one to lift Lucy's arm as well. Eric grinned, still writing, and waved his free hand in the air for a moment. Rich nodded, saluting her with two fingers. "Looks like everyone. I thought maybe tomorrow night? Everyone could come over after school and we could watch a movie, then I could see where you are and work out how to help you."

"Sounds good to me," Mandy smiled. "We can bring snacks and make it fun."

"Snacks are good," Taylor agreed gravely. "Sure, bring whatever you want. Dad will be fine with it. We could get some pizza in as well."

"Can I come?" a familiar voice said from the side, making them all look to see Vicky standing there appearing hopeful. "I suck at math."

"Sure, why not," Taylor agreed pleasantly. "I don't think I can handle more than that for the moment, but six people should be fine."

"Great. What time?"

"Um… Let's say about half past four to five, maybe? That should give anyone who needs to go home first time to do it then still get to my house." Taylor handed everyone other than the Dallons a scrap of paper with her address on it. "In case you didn't know where I lived."

"Thanks, Taylor," Mandy said with a grateful tone in her voice. "I really mean that. You're much better than I am at math, better than most people, and this will really help."

"It's no problem," the brunette smiled. "I think it will be fun. We'll see how it goes and work out how often we need to do it, but I'm glad to help."

About to say something else, she turned her head, as did everyone else in the cafeteria, to look at the doorway when someone ran in, stopped, held up a newspaper, and yelled, "The S9 are dead!"

"What?" The cry came from several places in the room as people looked at each other. Carlos and Dean jumped to their feet and hurried over to the girl who'd charged in, the former looking over the paper she held out to him, her finger on the main headline.

Amy stared, then looked at Taylor, who looked back.

"Didn't expect that," she commented with a small smile. "But I'd say it was good news."

Her friend nodded thoughtfully as she turned to look back at the scene at the door. Half the cafeteria was now gathered around the girl with the paper, who was reading the article out loud to them. Even most of the staff had gathered to listen, and everyone else in the room was watching from their seats including their own table of friends.

"So would I." Taylor thought for a moment, then smiled back. "Been a pretty interesting week so far and it's only Wednesday."

Snickering, Amy picked up her drink and sipped it while listening to the report, wondering who on earth Jake Petty was.

* * *

"I didn't expect that," Roy said with a look of shock. Danny nodded, both of them looking at the article on Roy's phone, him having been told by his secretary shortly after having arrived at the DWU facility. They exchanged a glance as he put the device back in his pocket. "But I can't say I'm sorry about it. I've had nightmares about those lunatics turning up in the city more than once. It's only a little less scary than an Endbringer in some ways."

Danny shook his head. "Please don't say things like that, Roy," he half-laughed, feeling slightly ill. "But you're right, I doubt anyone is going to mourn them. This Petty man did the world a favor, poor bastard. I'm glad they give his friends the reward and even more glad that they're passing his share along to various charities. It's a good memorial for the guy."

He frowned slightly. "Petty. I vaguely know that name. I have a feeling I might have met him once in a local machine ship, young guy, good with his hands. Didn't that news report say he'd been in Brockton Bay just after Christmas?"

"I think so, yes," Roy replied, pulling his phone out again and checking before returning it to his pocket. "Yes, says he visited family in New York, passed through Boston and Brockton Bay visiting friends since he worked here years back, then went home."

"Hmph. Odd coincidence. Oh, well, nothing that matters, I suppose." Danny sighed. "I wish the world didn't need people like him, but I'm glad it has them. Even under such awful circumstances."

"True enough." They resumed walking slowly across the yard, moving between groups of workers and machinery. "What did you think of the press conference?"

"I thought it went very well, actually," Danny replied with a smile. "I'm impressed you managed to keep talking so long without losing your voice. There were a _lot_ of questions."

Roy snickered. "It's a gift. But yes, there sure were. Governor Scott did a damn fine job as well, considering he didn't know all the details until a few hours before. He's extremely happy with the way things are going." Glancing at the other man, he added, "He made vague noises about possibly wanting to hire Kaiju for similar work along the coast, and perhaps in Boston. He thinks there are several places where someone who can simply pick up a bridge or something like that and walk away with it would be a cheaper and quicker option than demolition teams."

Grinning now, Danny chuckled a little. "I'm sure she'd be up for it under the right circumstances. I can ask. But for now we should concentrate on this project."

"Definitely. He can borrow my sea monster when I'm not relying on her here," Roy replied with an amused look. Stopping at the edge of the cleared concrete area where the first of the warehouses had stood, he looked around. "Not much left now."

"No, it's going very well. We have a few dozen truck movements to go before all the remaining rubble is removed, then we resurface the entire area, install the capture and runoff zones for any leakage, bolt down foundations for a couple of fixed cranes, that sort of thing. All fairly straightforward." Turning on the spot, he indicated the various places that this would happen in. "The rail line over there is still being worked on, and we're extending it over to about here. We can cut the ships up and load the scrap straight into the rail cars as we go with those mobile cranes."

Nodding thoughtfully, Roy looked around with interest. "And the tanker itself?"

Moving to the edge of the enclosed area, Danny looked down at the muddy water many feet below them. "We've nearly finished pumping out the dry dock, that will be done by the end of the day. Then we need to drop ramps over to the deck and start the decontamination pumping, when that's done all the asbestos insulation and things like that need to be removed. That'll take… about six days or so, I think." He scratched his cheek as he thought over his notes and the plans. "Once that's done, Kaiju is going to cut the entire top off the ship and put it here on the shore, then remove the propeller shafts and propellers in one piece. They're one of the more valuable parts because of the metal they're made of."

"OK," Roy responded, looking at the huge ship with an evaluating expression as if he was picturing the scene in his mind. "Then she cuts up the rest?"

"Yes. It's going to get sliced into sections about fifty feet thick, like a huge cake, starting at the front and going to the back. Each section will get put on the shore with sufficient space between them to allow the crews to work on them separately. We have enough people to do about six at once. We're estimating that it will take three to four weeks to scrap and ship all the metal from this thing, at which point we should get enough cash back in to pay for everything to date with a reasonable profit. After that it should be self sustaining."

"Fantastic. It sounds like everything is coming along well."

"Your friend Phil certainly helped with the planning, his modifications to it will make it work really well over the next couple of years. Smart guy."

Roy smiled slightly. "He is, one of the smartest people I know. He's a good friend."

Danny nodded, having arrived at this conclusion himself the day before. "Is he still here in the Bay?"

"For the moment, yes, he's got some interest in seeing how things go, but he's heading back to Boston at the end of the week." They started walking along the shore back towards the DWU buildings. "He asked me to pass on how much he enjoyed the entire event and to suggest that perhaps you might like to visit him in Boston when you have time. He's got a couple of other projects, long term ones, he thought you might be interested in talking about."

Thinking this over, Danny eventually replied, "Please tell him that at some point I would like that, but not until we've got all of this project working properly. I'll have a lot to do and I don't want to lose momentum."

"I'll do that. He said you'd say that, actually. He seems impressed by you as well."

They shared a look of mutual understanding. "Nice to hear. Anyway, I'm going to have to get back to work. Give my best to Bev."

"I will. Keep in touch, Danny, and let me know if you need anything."

Roy shook hands with him, then walked off, heading back to his car. Danny watched him go for a few seconds before continuing on his way, wondering how far Lisa had got with the plan to cause dear old Thomas Calvert as much grief as possible.

He thought she was probably going to excel in this task, something he found very amusing.

* * *

"Mom, this is Taylor Hebert," Amy said, indicating her friend with a wave. Taylor smiled at Carol Dallon who inspected her closely, then smiled back, slightly coolly. "I asked her if she wanted to come and watch you make car dealers cry and she said yes."

Now laughing a little, Carol held out her hand, which Taylor shook. "I'm pleased to meet you, Taylor. Amy has told me about you, and to be honest considering the other friends she's made recently I'm glad to meet a normal person."

Giggling, Taylor looked sideways at Amy, who had turned around in an attempt not to be seen trying to avoid laughing. Her scent gave her away, as did the almost inaudible sounds as her shoulders shook for a moment. "I'm glad that someone considers me normal, Mrs Dallon," she replied politely. "Dad might have other words."

"I met your father yesterday, as it happens," Amy's mother replied as she opened the car door. "I was impressed, he seems to know what he's doing. We had an interesting time."

"He mentioned that," she smiled as she got in the back door, Amy climbing into the front passenger seat. As Carol started the car, she looked back over her shoulder.

"I assume you were in the crowds at the sea front? I saw a lot of people there who should have been in school, it looked like Arcadia at least gave up and let everyone out to watch."

"I was near the shore, yes," Taylor agreed with an internal smirk. Amy still smelled like she was trying not to laugh. "I though everything went very well."

"To be honest I'm amazed how well it went considering what could have happened if someone had over-reacted," Carol sighed, indicating left then pulling out onto the main road. "But luckily everyone was too stunned to react at first, then that insane giant lizard managed to make everyone just watch. Somehow."

"Über and Leet helped a lot, Mom," Amy commented with a smile of her own. Carol glanced at her, frowning somewhat.

"I'm forced to agree although I am unsure why, and I'm also not sure I approve. They are, after all, villains."

"They're OK guys," Amy said firmly.

Her mother gave her a longer look. "I hope you stay away from them, Amy, we have appearances to keep in mind." She met Taylor's eyes in the rear-view mirror. "It's sometimes rather annoying I'll admit, but as heroes, New Wave are always in the public eye," she explained. "We have to give the right impression, which can be a delicate juggling act."

"I understand," Taylor assured her. "I think being stared at in public would be really weird."

Amy was smelling amused again.

"You do get used to it eventually, and some people like our dear Vicky positively enjoy it," Carol sighed. "Possibly too much," she added in a lower voice.

"Vicky is certainly one of the most extroverted people I know," Taylor grinned. "I like her."

"She can be… an acquired taste," Carol admitted, although she was smiling as she said it. "Here we are, BB Used Vehicles, the first one on the list. Let's see what they have." She turned into the lot, parking the car and opening the door, while a somewhat overweight and rather too polished middle-aged man came out of the office and peered at them, a smile nearly as reptilian as one Taylor could produce appearing on his face when he spotted the shiny BMW. "Let me do the talking, girls," she warned as she got out.

Amy twisted around in her seat and looked at Taylor. They both grinned widely, then hopped out to explore the vehicles neatly parked around the lot, gleaming in the late afternoon light, while the owner of the business started smarming at an unimpressed Carol Dallon.


	103. Salesmen and Lawyers

"This one is very shiny," Taylor commented, waving at a medium sized four wheel drive crew-cab pickup, about eight years old. It was a dark metallic blue color with alloy wheels and leather seats, which she liked the smell of, although she could also smell small amounts of gasoline coming from somewhere underneath. Amy turned around and inspected the vehicle.

"I'm not sure that ' _shiny_ ' is the most important thing you look for in a car," her friend said slightly doubtfully. Even so she came over and walked around the thing, looking at it thoughtfully. "It's very nice, though."

"I think shiny is good," Taylor grinned. "But I'd agree that it's probably not the main point. Unless you're Vicky, maybe." They exchanged a look and laughed.

"That's more true than it should be," the Dallon girl noted sardonically, running her hand down the side of the truck. "How much is this one?"

"Um, twelve thousand nine hundred," Taylor replied, looking at the tag hanging from the rear view mirror. "Says it's done about ninety-four thousand miles. I have no idea if that's good or not."

"Me neither," the other girl admitted. "This thing is huge. Bigger than I was thinking about."

"It's big enough to get a special project or two in, though," Taylor pointed out with a secret smile. Amy looked at her, then back at the truck, folding her arms and tapping her fingers on her elbows.

"True. Very true. You could get an awful lot of onions in the back," she grinned, talking in a low voice. Both of them looked back at Carol who was fifty yards away making the dealer look worried. This was the third place they'd tried, she'd decided after only ten minutes that the first one was an idiot who was trying far too hard, then the second dealership had nothing anyone liked. This one had quite a lot of nice vehicles, several of which were on the list Eric had given Amy, including this particular specimen, although it was marked down as ' _Possibly a little large with higher fuel consumption than the others, but very rugged and reliable._ '

"You think your mom would go for it?"

"No idea. But to be honest I can't see much else that's as nice as this one is. That SUV we were looking at is a lot more tired looking and nearly as much, but it's smaller."

"The red station wagon was nice."

Amy looked over at the relevant vehicle under a floodlight, then shook her head. "I don't particularly like the color, and the front end looks like it's sad," she giggled.

"Well, we can't have you driving around in a sad car," Taylor laughed. Walking around to the front of the truck she stepped back a few feet and cocked her head. "This one has a smug grin. Like Lisa."

"And you sometimes," Amy retorted, joining her.

"And, of course, you," Taylor snickered.

"So it would seem. Let's have a look inside." They opened both front doors and climbed in, Taylor poking around until she worked out how to move the passenger seat back enough to allow her tail to fit properly.

"I wish people would design car seats for tails," she mumbled, arranging herself, which made Amy laugh again as she was adjusting her own seat.

"I doubt that's high on the requirement list, all things considered. How do you… Oh, right, that's how." She sighed at the ceiling as the seat back went almost flat, making Taylor burst out into giggles of her own. With some effort she managed to get it set properly, then adjusted the mirrors, before putting her hands on the wheel and looking around. "Not bad. It's very comfortable."

"This side is nice as well." Looking over her shoulder, Taylor inspected the rear seats. "You could easily get three people in there, four if they were good friends. And the back is pretty large as well. That cover thing over it looks like it comes off if you need to carry something really big but even with it in place it's like a small van."

Amy nodded, fiddling with the various controls and switches, trying to work out what they all did. "This thing is ridiculous. What does that do?" She pointed at a particular control with an icon on neither one recognized.

After a moment, Taylor said in a dubious tone of voice, "It looks like a set of wheels. Four wheel drive or something like that?"

"Maybe," Amy muttered, bending to the side to look under the dash. "Is there a manual in the glove box?"

"Hang on." Shortly Taylor had retrieved a thick book. "Yep. Let's see… Hey, I was right! Four wheel drive select. That one is high and low ratio, whatever that is, that one is something called diff lock, no idea about that, um… lights over there, heater..." She read off a few more controls. "I didn't know driving was so complicated."

"Never done it?"

"No, not yet," she replied, handing Amy the manual open to the page with a diagram of all the controls when her friend motioned for it. "Never seemed to come up and recently it's not been very high priority," she added with a grin. Amy nodded, smiling, as she read the relevant part of the book.

"I can imagine." Glancing over her shoulder she made sure her mother was still talking at a safe distance. "You're faster than this thing is on foot anyway."

"And can carry more," Taylor smirked, making her friend chuckle.

"True, but I bet you get more funny looks. This is pretty nice. Look, it's got heated seats and everything."

"Interested?"

"It's one of the best possibilities so far and it has some potential good points as you said," the other girl replied thoughtfully, closing the manual and handing it back. She looked around the inside of the cabin. "It's roomy, has _all_ the toys, nice seats, I like the color… Let's talk to mom."

"OK."

Shortly they were standing next to Carol, who had somehow made the dealer look like he desperately wanted to get rid of them even if he had to give them a car. Taylor was very impressed and Amy was trying to hide laughter. "Mom, we think that truck over there is worth looking at," Amy said, pointing.

Carol looked at the vehicle, raising an eyebrow. "A pickup? That's… not exactly what I was thinking of."

"I know, but it's got as much room as that SUV thing we were looking at a while ago, but it's in better condition, there's more space in the back, and it's a nicer color."

"I see." Turning to the dealer, she asked, "How much?"

"It's on the books at twelve nine, but I could let you have it for twelve," he said immediately. She looked steadily at him. "I mean eleven five." An eyebrow went up. "Eleven."

"With a full service and new tires?"

The man blinked. "Um..."

"Let's have a look at it, girls," Carol said briskly, turning away from the man who looked both relieved and puzzled, heading over to the thing with Amy and Taylor following, exchanging a look of amusement. She walked around it twice, looking at it very carefully, then bent down and inspected all four tires, poking one with a manicured nail slightly dismissively.

"It definitely needs new tires," she said to the dealer who had followed them. "This one is barely legal and the others aren't much better. There's a crack in the rear passenger side window, I can smell fuel leaking somewhere, and the rear left fog-light is damaged."

Before he had a chance to reply, she opened the driver's side door and got in. "The interior is nice, I'll give you that," she added after a look around. Wiggling the steering wheel, she nodded. "Keys?"

He wandered off with a helpless expression and returned shortly with a set of car keys that had a tag on with the license plate number written on it. She took them from him and started the truck, which sputtered a little then settled down to a contented rumble. "The engine sounds reasonable but I can still smell fuel," she said, gently revving it. "That would need to be dealt with."

"We could do that," the dealer quickly replied.

"Get in, girls, we'll see how it drives. You don't mind, do you?" Carol said to the dealer as Amy and Taylor climbed in, smiling at each other.

"No, not at all, ma'am," he said, looking like he did a little but didn't know how to say it.

"Wonderful. We'll be right back." As soon as Amy and Taylor were belted in, she closed the door, put her own seat belt on, then put the vehicle in reverse. Twenty seconds later they were pulling out onto the main road.

"That was really funny, Mom," Amy laughed. Carol smiled a little.

"It _was_ quite amusing," she replied apparently happily. "The trick is not to let them have time to think of an answer other than the one you want. It takes practice." Accelerating to match the speed of the other vehicles on the road she headed down town. "To be honest, this is rather nice. Better than that car we tried at the last place." She drove for another couple of minutes, deliberately finding a few potholes to go through, then nodded. "Not bad at all. Very comfortable, runs smoothly, everything seems to work." Amy had been trying every control in the cab to see what happened while Taylor watched from the back.

"Are you sure you'd be happy with something like this, Amy?" she asked in the end. Her daughter thought for a while.

"I think it would do pretty well," she finally said. "And I could always sell it again and get something else if I decided it wasn't for me, right?"

"Certainly," Carol agreed. "I am concerned about the fuel leak, that needs to be set right, and it really does need new tires, the ones on it are in a shocking state, but other than that it seems all right. We'd need to get it checked out properly, though."

"Maybe Eric would do that for you?" Taylor pondered out loud. Amy glanced back at her and nodded a little.

"That's a thought. I'd happily give him some money to do that."

"Who is Eric?" Carol asked.

"A friend from school. He's the one who gave me that list of cars to look for, his dad is a mechanic and he knows a lot about them."

"I suppose that's not a bad idea, actually," Carol said after thinking it over. "All right. You try it behind the wheel, and if you're still interested, we can go back and negotiate properly."

"You got him to drop the price by nearly two thousand dollars just by _looking_ at him," Amy giggled.

"I haven't even _started_ yet," Carol smiled grimly, as she indicated and pulled over into a gas station to allow Amy to take the wheel. She and Taylor exchanged another look, then grinned, before the shorter girl got out and walked around to the driver's side as her mother slid across.

Amused and impressed, Taylor settled back to enjoy the ride and learn how a lawyer negotiated. It seemed like it could be interesting.

She only just avoided laughing out loud at a pithy comment from the Varga, who seemed to find the entire thing hilarious.

* * *

Roy checked the number Danny had given him earlier, then picked up his personal cellphone and dialed it, relaxing in his chair while looking out the window into the early evening, the lights of the city spread to one side and the bay on the other with the Rig in the middle foreground. When the other end was picked up, he smiled.

"Über, I believe? This is Roy Christner. I wanted to talk to you if you have a minute..."

Picking up his teacup with his free hand, he sipped from it. "Yes, I'm aware it was you two, and while normally your activities are somewhat… irritating, albeit often rather amusing, this time I'm quite pleased. I think we should probably arrange to meet soon, unofficially you understand. The city can't be seen to be dealing with villains, even ones as low key as you are, although personally I am a little more flexible. You deal with all sorts of people, being a politician, you see, although even so I have standards."

He listened, then laughed. "Exactly, my young friend, exactly. I'm glad to see we understand each other. You did a good thing yesterday, and I'd like to see that sort of activity more often. We need all the people we can get if we're going to pull our city out of the hole it's been heading for and oddly enough, I think you both are on the same side as I am from that point of view. Despite your unusual hobby."

The response went on for a little while, during which he smiled, sipping his tea again.

"Oh, don't worry, my friend, I've met people far worse than you, trust me. _Far_ worse. And overall probably a lot more dangerous, or at least destructive. This city is full of them as you're aware, not to mention other places near and far. We live in a regrettably hazardous world these days."

Nodding, he finished the tea and put the cup back on the saucer.

"I agree. You have a good point there. But it can't be helped, not at the moment. In the meantime we all do what we can to try to keep a lid on things. I'd prefer not to have you two be one of the things under that lid if I could avoid it. It would be much better to have you helping than hindering."

There was another pause, during which he chuckled. "No, that's not a threat at all, believe me. If I wanted to threaten you, you'd be left in no doubt about it."

"Yes, precisely. I suspect that would be exactly what would happen."

"Indeed. So, overall, it would be best if we avoid such things, don't you agree? Good, good, that takes a load off my mind. Now, a couple of things. One is that I expect Danny Hebert will be getting in contact with you soon. Yes, he gave me this number, he told me what you did for the DWU, so I thought I'd take the opportunity to call first. Well done, by the way, that's exactly the sort of thing we need around here. He seemed impressed and he's not easy to impress. When he calls, I suggest listening carefully, you will probably find it's in your own interest."

He smiled.

"Oh, I won't spoil the surprise but you'll like it. The other thing is about that remarkable sound system your colleague came up with. I have a suggestion about that which I would like you to consider carefully, although I suspect Leet might take some convincing. Tinkers can be a little possessive I understand."

Roy snickered, then laughed out loud again. "I see. Yes, that's probably best. Anyway, what I had in mind is this..." He explained in some detail, making a couple of notes on a pad, which he then tore the top sheet from, putting it in his pocket. "So you'll consider it? Fantastic. I hope we can talk again soon. Give my best to Danny when you see him. It was nice to have this little chat. Based on how this goes, we'll have to discuss some of your other activities. I may have some good news for you on that front."

After another short pause as he listened, he smiled. "Probably. Goodbye, Über."

Disconnecting the phone, he spend a little while deleting the dialed number history, then put it away. Looking up he met the eyes of the other person in the room.

"I think those two will go along with it, Phil."

"Excellent." His old friend looked pleased, a small smile coming and going. "That is indeed good news. I suspect we may find it works out very well all around." Sipping his own tea with great care, he put the cup down soundlessly in the exact center of his saucer, which was balanced on his other hand. "This has been a most enjoyable little diversion from normal life, I have to admit. Thank you for involving me."

"I'm glad I could, Phil. I missed our talks."

"As did I." Phil looked around the room again. "I have some suggestions for making your room more aesthetically pleasing if you'd like to hear them."

"Of course I would, you've always been far better than I am at that sort of thing." Roy smiled. "Plan away. I'm more than happy to make the changes."

Putting his cup and saucer down on the desk, then producing a sketch pad and a pencil, Phil began drawing with incredibly precise strokes, looking up every now and then to check some detail or other. "Now, the next task will be making discreet contact with Dragon without initially involving the PRT. I have some ideas for that..."

* * *

Roy listened with interest, watching his friend work and very pleased with the way things were going.

Randall looked at his phone for few seconds, a slightly bewildered expression on his face, then got up to look for Kevin. Finding him on the other side of the main workshop, upside down under some piece of machinery he had no idea of the purpose of, he poked his friend's foot with his own. Only his legs were visible.

"Hey. You'll never believe who just called me," he said, sitting down on an upturned wooden crate.

"Who?" came the muffled response, accompanied by a metal on metal sound and a slight sizzle. A smell of hot wiring came wafting past.

"The Mayor."

There was a long pause, then Kevin slid out from under his piece of machinery to the point he could look up at his friend, his eyes slightly wider than normal. "The Mayor? _Our_ Mayor?"

"That's the one. Mayor Roy Christner himself. He wants to meet at some point."

Kevin looked more surprised, then thoughtful, then calculating. "Ah. About our little addition to the big event, I guess."

"You got it. He seemed pleased. More than I'd have expected, actually." Randall lifted a leg and propped the heel on the crate, putting his hands around his knee. "It was a little weird in fact. He was in a very good mood. He also said that Danny Hebert will be contacting us soon and it would be in our interests to talk to him."

"Why?" Kevin looked a little suspicious.

"I'm not entirely sure. But he did also mention that he has a financial backer who would like to commercialize that audio field generator system of yours."

His friend sat up, staring at him. "Really?"

"Really."

The other man thought for a moment, then sighed. "But I can't duplicate it, of course. I'm amazed how well it worked, to be honest, there were none of the normal troubles at all. I don't think I'd want to risk making another one even so."

"Dragon could duplicate it, he thinks."

"Well, probably, I suppose," Kevin muttered absently, looking like he was thinking about something, then his eyes focused on Randall's face. " _Dragon?_ Why the hell would she help?"

Randall smiled. "The Mayor thinks that she could be approached through BBFO. His backer has suggested that we license the design to them, they approach Dragon to reverse-engineer it, with your help, they sub license production to Dracotech, and everyone wins. BBFO is a cutout for us, so no one gets upset about ' _villains_ ' profiting from their ill-gotten gains, because no one is going to be stupid enough to annoy Kaiju. Not after yesterday. He says that even with cuts for everyone down the line the amount of cash that we'd end up with would be pretty significant."

Kevin looked intrigued. He thought some more.

"That… might actually work. Cool. It's way past anything commercially available, and I'm sure it could be redesigned to work in a smaller area, like a stadium, or even a room."

"That's the sort of thing his backer is interested in. That and going the other way as an emergency broadcast system. He thinks both applications are very saleable." Randall studied his friend. "Interested?"

After a moment Kevin nodded slowly. "I think I am. I have to admit that it felt very good to do what we did yesterday, more than I thought it would. It was as much fun as our normal work, but no one was shooting at us. I like that."

"I'm not too keen on being shot at either," Randall chuckled. "Hey, if it actually works, you should look at doing the same thing with the tricorder. You said Armsmaster didn't want to give it back. I'll bet _that_ thing is worth a huge amount of money."

Still looking thoughtful, Leet shrugged. "I suppose so. I don't want to lose it but if we had a guarantee that I'd get it back whether or not she could really copy it, I'd be prepared to lend it to her. She's one of the only people on the Hero side I'd actually trust with my tech." He thought for a moment, then added, "Oddly enough, Armsmaster is probably another one. Whatever else he is, he's an honorable man."

"Great." Randall beamed at his old friend. "I have a good feeling about this. Getting on the right side of City Hall, the DWU, and BBFO could open all sorts of paths to interesting things. Fun ones, too. Maybe even as fun as some of the other things but without all the shooting and explosions."

"I kind of like the explosions," Kevin sighed. "As long as no one gets hurt."

"I know what you mean, my man, and I'm sure we can think of something. But we seem to have lucked into a real opportunity here that we should probably jump on." Randall shrugged. "We've been lucky, but sooner or later luck runs out. I'm pretty damn good but I can't do everything and even you will run out of cool toys one day."

Kevin sighed, flopping down on his back onto the concrete floor of the old building and staring at the roof. "I know. We've been too close to something nasty happening a couple of times in the last few months" He transferred his stare to his companion, looking appalled. "God, are we... _growing up?_ "

"Might be. Horrible, isn't it?"

Shaking his head, the Tinker looked at his friend. "I'm only twenty-one. Way too young to grow up."

With a laugh, Randall hopped to his feet then hauled his friend up to his. "Me too, man, but it gets most people in the end. We still have a lot of fun left, though. I bet we can get Taylor Hebert involved in it if we do this. That girl is nuts, and likes a joke, pretty damn obviously. With yesterday, and this thing as well, it gives us a good excuse to talk to her and see what she says. I'd guess it will be a lot of laughter then some crazy ideas."

Now grinning, Kevin nodded. "That, I could definitely go for. I suspect we'd get Panacea involved somehow as well. That is _another_ weird girl."

"You're not wrong there. Don't upset her, I got the impression that she could be a real handful as well. Not like the Hebert girl, more subtle than that, but..." He shivered slightly. "The expression in her eyes for a moment was really scary."

"I noticed," Kevin replied, looking slightly worried. "Girls are very strange and sort of terrifying, even when they _don't_ turn into huge reptilian monsters."

"They _all_ turn into monsters sometimes, Kev," Randall snickered. "You just hide until it's over. Come on, I need something to eat."

His phone rang, making him pull it out and look at it. "And I need to take this." Pressing the call accept button he put the phone to his ear. "Hello, Danny. Been a while."

Following his friend to the kitchen, he listened, smiling to himself and in a good mood.

* * *

"Eight thousand four hundred dollars?"

Amy stared at her mother, who looked pleased, then Taylor, who looked impressed. "How the hell did you do that? That's nearly a third off."

"He was open to negotiation," Carol replied calmly. "Eventually."

"And you got a full service, five new tires, _and_ an extended warranty out of him." Amy shook her head in awed respect while Carol firmly entered into territory best described as ' _Smug mode enabled_ '. "Wow, Mom, I'm really impressed. Slightly scared as well. Did the poor man make _any_ money on it at all?"

"Oh, undoubtedly," Carol replied. "Nowhere near what he _wanted_ to make, of course, but if he wanted more he should have negotiated harder."

Both girls laughed, and even the older woman chuckled. "Lots of respect, Mrs Dallon," Taylor giggled. "That was amazing to watch."

"Now all you have to do is have your friend check it over, and if he's satisfied, you can collect it on Friday after school. I'll pay him then if it all works out. Please drive it carefully, I don't want to have to either buy a replacement or visit you in hospital, dear," Carol said.

"I'll be careful, Mom, don't worry. I don't want to dent it." Amy was feeling slightly disorientated. She was going to have a car in a couple of days! Grinning from ear to ear, she hugged her mother, who returned it. "Thanks."

"You're welcome, Amy," the older woman replied quietly. "And I'm sorry about the other day. I'll try to be better in future."

"You're doing pretty well at the moment," Amy snickered. "You can always buy my favor. Or at least rent it."

"Good to know," Carol sighed, although she was smiling. "Come on, I'll drop you off at the hospital. I can take you home if you'd like, Taylor, as well, it's no problem."

"Thanks, Mrs Dallon," Taylor said. "But would it be possible to drop me at the DWU? Or anywhere in that general area if it's out of your way. I told Dad I'd meet him there."

"Of course, it's not too far out of the way. I'll take you right there, it's not safe in the docks for a young woman."

Taylor nodded, but gave Amy a sidelong glance that made her grin again.

Shortly they were back in Carol's BMW heading for Brockton General, the two girls discussing the entire car buying experience and laughing about it. Carol seemed in a good mood as well, smiling slightly the entire way.

* * *

"You're quiet tonight," Missy commented as she looked up at Dean, casually bringing the end of the street closer in the process. They stepped forward, instantly covering a hundred yards in moments.

Dean looked at her, dragged from his thoughts by the comment. The petite blonde girl felt both curious and slightly concerned to him. Smiling at her, touched by her feelings, he shook his head. "Nothing serious. Just thinking about a conversation I had at school. Someone I know who is a bit strange said something that left me confused. She wasn't trying to upset me, thinking about it, but..." He shrugged a little. "She's an odd girl, smart, but odd. I'm never sure exactly how to take what she says, like whether I should accept it at face value or look for a hidden meaning."

Missy nodded slightly, looking around them carefully for any trouble, then repeating the action she'd performed. They were patrolling the commercial sector of the city, covering a lot of ground in a grid pattern just looking for problems. So far they'd only seen one small incident with a not very good thief who robbed a liquor store and got about fifty feet before a random passerby tripped him. They'd zip-tied him and waited for the cops. The store owner thanked the pedestrian effusively, who then asked for their autographs, smiled, and proceeded on his way once he'd given his statement.

"OK. Do you _think_ there is a hidden meaning or are you just getting worked up over nothing?"

"No idea. Like I said, she's confusing. And likes word games." He shook his head. "Probably nothing."

"You should ask her, if it's bothering you that much," Missy laughed. "She's probably doing it just _because_ it confuses you. Like the way Clockblocker does weird things to make people wonder if he's nuts. Which he is, of course, but at least half of it is because he thinks it's hilarious."

"It can be," Dean admitted with a smile. "Although I wish he'd learn when enough was enough."

"He'll never learn _that_ ," she giggled. "Not even if we got attacked by an Endbringer. He'd be cracking jokes at the end of the world."

"True." He shrugged. "Very true. Hopefully we never have to find that out, though."

"Have you recovered from seeing Kaiju yesterday?" she asked after another half dozen block long strides. "I'm still trying to get my head around it, but it was _amazing_ to watch. I wonder what Legend talked to her about?"

"He probably wanted to know more about her, I think," Dean replied. "Recovered? I'm… not sure. It was sort of a shock."

"You're telling me! I nearly fainted. She makes _Behemoth_ look small and I never thought I'd say _that!_ " Missy looked impressed and worried. "I'm damn glad she's friendly." After a moment, she giggled again "A Friendbringer, maybe?"

Dean groaned. "Oh, god, don't _you_ start making puns as well. I get enough of that from Clockblocker and Kid Win. Not to mention Kaiju now."

"Mr Foot," Missy laughed, shaking her head. "That was _brilliant_. Poor guy."

Unable to stop himself, Dean laughed as well. "I have to admit that was one of the funniest things I've seen or heard for a while. PHO went mad with it, they've got hundreds of puns based on that now. Clockblocker nearly passed out he was laughing so hard reading it last night."

"He was adding new ones as fast as he could think them up," she said, grinning. "I came up with some good ones as well."

"I think everyone did," Dean told her, amused. "I hope he doesn't get upset by it."

"He won't, I think. He's too nice."

Hearing a shot echo out of the alley they were nearly at, both young people stopped dead, going alert and tense. Dean could feel waves of violent emotions coming from that direction suddenly, while Missy immediately used her abilities to warp space around them in such a way that any projectile coming at them would be redirected into the ground. They crept forward and peeked around the corner. "Two E88, two Merchants, I think, a drug deal gone bad or something," she said in a low voice. "Call it in."

"OK." Seconds later he was on the comm system talking to the console, Sophia's voice sounding distracted but professional. The girl had been in an odder mood than normal since yesterday, which he could understand. "Backup en-route," he reported when he'd got the acknowledgment. Missy was peering around the corner once more, making a little gesture with her fingers. He looked to see that the four men were staring wildly around, obviously wondering what the hell was going on. The alley had turned into an Escherian nightmare, all the walls and the ground forming impossible angles with each other, trapping each of them in his own little zone.

"Wow. You've been practicing," he said admiringly. The emotions coming from the trapped men were mainly of panic now, having switched from the anger and hostility of when they'd first spotted them.

"Yep," she grinned. "After seeing the way Saurial seemed to be learning so fast, coming up with new things whenever we met, I thought I should try harder to put as much effort into working out more stuff I could do with my powers. It's a little tiring but it seems to have paid off." She watched the four men try to escape without success. One of the Merchants pulled out his gun and fired the entire magazine into the distortions surrounding him, every round embedding itself in the ground a few feet away, with no danger to himself or anyone else. Or any hope of doing anything useful.

Disgusted, he threw the gun at the warped wall next to him, yelped in pain when it somehow hit him on the back of the head, then gave up and sat down with his head in his hands.

Missy looked very pleased.

"Why do you think they throw the gun when they run out of bullets?" she asked. "Does that ever work?"

"I doubt it," Dean snickered. Hearing a siren approaching, he looked over his shoulder to see a BBPD cruiser pull up, Assault and Battery appearing seconds later. The former walked over and looked down the alley, then grinned.

"Good work, young one," he said grandly, patting Missy on top of her helmet, which made her giggle. Battery slapped him on the back of the head, which made her giggle harder.

"Idiot," the other blonde sighed. "Well done, guys. Impressive use of your power, Vista, and you didn't put yourselves at risk."

"Thanks, Battery." They watched the two cops cautiously approach the four trapped men, Missy dropping each barrier in turn as they pointed their guns at the suspects. Shortly all four were restrained, a second cruiser arriving just at that moment and the new arrivals taking charge of a pair of captured gangers. Missy let go of the last of her warped space, watching everything slowly revert to normal with a sigh of relief.

"That was getting tiring," she muttered, rubbing the back of her neck. "It was sort of complicated keeping track of everything."

Dean put his hand on her shoulder. "Really good job," he said quietly, smiling. She peered at him and blushed a little.

"Thanks."

All four capes watched as the BBPD officers finished reading the suspects their rights, stuffed them into the two cars, waved, and drove off with an air of satisfaction. "Not bad. We'll get you kids working well together eventually," Assault snickered. "Except maybe Clockblocker. He doesn't take it seriously enough."

He produced a bag of chips from somewhere and opened it, stuffing a handful into his mouth and chewing loudly. "Not nearly seriously enough. Caping is important business, you know."

The red-clad man offered the bag around while his wife put her hand over her eyes and groaned, Missy helping herself, then Dean, both of them grinning.

"You're impossible," the older woman sighed sadly, turning away from them.

Assault merely smirked, tipping the last of the contents of the bag into his mouth and crunching them up.

Dean watched with a faint grin, feeling the well-hidden amusement Battery was experiencing, and the humor Assault was radiating.

When the two older Protectorate members headed off on their own patrol route, he and his companion went on their way. As he walked next to Missy, he pondered her words.

Perhaps he _should_ talk to Taylor.

Very, very carefully.

Not knowing how she saw him was almost worse than _knowing_ she considered him a threat. The suspense was keeping him up at night.


	104. Guest Omake - A Different Family

A Different Family... (By EdBeccara on Spacebattles)

To: Roy  
From: Tony  
Re:Word on the Street.

Well, I did as you asked and called in a truckload of favors in the community. Except Medhall. Something's rotten in Denmark over there, so to speak.

First, even though it seems self-evident, fishing is up. WAY up. Family and solo boats are already out there _en masse_ , and the corporate fishing fleets (such as are left) are heading towards the Bay like a tidal surge. Even that Erwin fellow, the one who first saw Kaiju, is out there in his boat and making a pretty penny. (Apparently, buying fish from the first man to ever see Kaiju is something of a bragging point over the dinner table. Tell your chef, it'll be a hoot. Expect to get charged for it, though.)

You were right, having Kaiju in Brockton Bay _is_ serving as a safety attraction. She's seen as solid evidence that a company with money in Brockton Bay is a safe company. Word in the boardrooms is that even if Levi does dare to show its face, Kaiju will stomp it into a mudpuddle and her sisters will piss on the remains. There's some who aren't certain she can handle Behemoth, but they're in the minority. Opinions about a Smurf/Kaiju slugfest are understandably divided. After all, Kaiju can't fly. (She _can't_ fly, can she?)

On the criminal side of things, the Empire is stepping _very_ lightly around anything that might rile the Family, but everyone's not-so-favorite underwear stain is still insisting - loudly and emphatically to anyone who'll listen - that he can take her, any day of the week.

I'll pause here, so you can stop laughing and catch your breath. :)

I've arranged for the BBPD to get word about Skidmark's suicidal optimism through a few cut-outs. They'll probably be in touch with you soon (after _they_ stop laughing) with a plan to mop up whatever's left of the idiot and the rest of the Merchants once the Family's done with them. May I suggest contacting and coordinating with both Danny and Phil for a plan on cleaning up the area around Archer's Bridge afterwards?

If Squealer survives the inevitable collision of the Merchants with the Family, I suggest that you suggest to the PRT that they try and sober her up, hand her a lab and see what happens. Your offer/suggestion to Uber and Leet to reach out to Dragon through the DWU could also be made to Sherrell. The idea of police vehicles designed by her and reverse-engineered/mass-produced by Dragon is terrifying, both to your police budget and to the criminals who'd end up being chased by such vehicles. *snerk*

Thanks for the case of _limoncello_. I shudder to think of what it must have cost to import it from the Old World. The cheap California knock-offs just don't taste the same. I think it's in the soil, y'know?

Hope the wife and family are fine. Take care, and stop by the _ristorante_ more often. All that Oriental take-out can't possibly be good for a fellow. :)

 _Antonio._

PS - Frankie Nine-Fingers still owns that turkey farm he bought as a tax dodge. I'll see if I can't get a supply of turkey eggs for Saurial and Raptaur if they'd like to give them a try. Ask Danny if he'd pass that along.


	105. Triumvirate and Emily

Emily swung her chair back and forth in small arcs, thinking hard about the various events of the last couple of days. Neither Eidolon or Alexandria had arrived yet although she expected one or both of them to turn up any time now. She'd had another brief call from the Chief Director, who seemed distracted by something and had said that there had been an unforeseen delay.

Reaching out she picked up the national newspaper sitting on her desk, stilling her restless movements as she read the headline article once again. The Slaughterhouse Nine being wiped out almost entirely was as good a reason for that delay as any she could think of. "Good riddance," she mumbled, scanning the page and pausing on the photos of the devastation caused by three brave men. "And thank you Mr Petty, for showing how even the ordinary man can do extraordinary things. You poor bastard."

She was simultaneously impressed and pleased that it had been a normal person who had achieved something that the entire PRT and Protectorate hadn't been able to for years, embarrassed for her own organization for the same reason, and rather depressed that it had cost the life of someone she thought she'd have liked to meet, not to mention his family and nearly his entire town. But at least the nightmare of the S9 was finally done with.

Resolving to raise a glass in memory of the man when she got home, she tossed the paper to the desk and got up, walking to the window and looking out at the late afternoon scene. The days were slowly growing longer as the winter headed towards spring but it was still pretty dark even at four in the afternoon. The water of the bay looked cold and forbidding, waves running across it in the wind that had picked up in the last couple of hours. It had been a fairly good day for this time of year but nowhere near as nice as Tuesday, which had been very close to perfect.

Idly she wondered if that had been arranged as well, somehow. She wasn't prepared to dismiss any idea at the moment about the capability of whoever was behind the Family, assuming their hypothesis was correct. Weather control seemed extreme, but having seen what was moving that tanker yesterday, she couldn't in all good faith entirely rule it out. She simply hoped it wasn't true.

Shaking her head a little she went to the small fridge in the corner of the room and opened it, retrieving a bottle of water, which she opened and sipped from. After closing the appliance she sat down again, leaning back and resuming her ponderings on the long meeting, or series of meetings, she'd had with various combinations of people the day before. The report they'd come up with had covered all the important things, or the things they had any real evidence for at least, with an interpretation that was suitable for consumption by the people it was aimed at. She hoped desperately that they'd read between the lines and realize that she was begging them to stay out of it and let things settle down.

Having met with Raptaur she really didn't want to see what would happen if some idiot decided it would be a good idea to push until something snapped. The appearance of Kaiju had only reinforced that feeling. Somewhat to her surprise, she'd decided that the former was probably someone she could deal with, although she wasn't sure she'd ever be entirely comfortable with her.

She could well understand why Hannah seemed so jumpy around her, even if it was more than slightly uncharacteristic for the normally very calm and collected woman.

But the huge reptile did seem both respectful and rational, both traits she liked to see in a Parahuman. Or anyone, really. And the fact that Colin and Dragon both felt that they could work with Raptaur and clearly were both impressed by her went a long way towards making her think it would work out well. She could live with the situation even if it meant making the odd compromise on normal procedure, especially if it got her hands on fucking Calvert.

For _that_ , she'd have been prepared to go a lot further than promising to make sure that Rachel Lindt's case was investigated fully and tried fairly if required, and to let them sit on the Undersiders. It seemed a good trade. Whether the Chief Director agreed, on the other hand, was somewhat up in the air at this point.

Being at the start of what she thought could be a good working relationship with the Family, she wanted to make sure it stayed that way, so the imminent arrival of the other two thirds of the Triumvirate in her city was somewhat worrying. With any luck they'd listen to her, agree to a pragmatic rather than a by-the-book approach to the new group in their midst, and not just jump in and start making demands, which she felt wouldn't go down well.

She was also going to have to explain why she hadn't reported any of this before, which she still felt was the right decision, but might be difficult to get across to certain people higher up. Luckily, Legend had agreed with her assessment of the situation and with him on her side of the issue, she should be able to argue her decision was correct. Hopefully the Chief Director would also agree when things were fully explained to her. With any luck the report had started her thinking along the right lines. She'd at least not blown her top the day before when the news broke.

Sipping some more water, she put the bottle down. The other thing she was still trying to get to grips with was Colin and Dragon's little side project with Raptaur. A fucking enormous shotgun powered by a _fusion bomb?!_ That was insane even in Tinker terms.

Shaking her head she marveled at the sheer balls it took to ever think that something like that could work. But the two Tinkers had shown them the designs, calculations, and the simulations, which showed that it would at least function correctly. Whether that functioning would genuinely harm or even kill an Endbringer was something she had no idea about, it was far past her field of expertise, and the collateral damage would be spectacular whatever happened.

However, Colin had rightly pointed out that any situation in which such a weapon would be used was already at the point that the local area was probably a total loss anyway. A relatively small, directional, and if he was to be believed, essentially clean fusion blast most likely wouldn't make the situation much worse in many cases.

Unless you were in front of it. Or behind it. Or right next to it.

The simulations of the splash effects were… unnerving. Luckily they didn't go very far.

Even so, the mere idea of it gave her cold chills. As did the fact that they were seriously talking about making it hand-held and giving it to Kaiju! Part of her desperately wanted to see that, another much bigger part of her wanted to whimper and hide under the desk at the thought.

The part she'd had the most trouble with was basically giving the Family the design of a fusion explosive. At least until Dragon had explained some of the conclusions she'd come to about all the _other_ ways just their observed matter-creation ability could cause mass destruction.

Some of the ideas the Canadian had come up with were absolutely horrifying. Emily was _really_ hoping that none of those crazy lizards had the same sort of imagination. She'd never thought that she'd consider a five kiloton nuke the _safer_ option, but by the end of the ten minute discussion, even Legend looked like he'd seen a ghost.

Shuddering a little, she shook her head, then picked up the water bottle again and finished the contents, dropping the empty bottle into the recycling bin next to her desk.

No, that whole shotgun of doom idea was terrifying, but she could see it was valid enough that it needed to be worked on. The political issues were the real problem. Colin had made some good suggestions on that front and when he'd recovered, Legend had made more. It looked doable, if somewhat… PR-unfriendly.

People in general didn't like the work ' _nuclear_ ' being attached to anything. A hand-held weapon, even if it required a hand the size of a garage, would certainly cause a degree of worry.

A knock on the door made her look up from her ruminations. "Enter," she called briskly. The door opened to reveal Dean Stansfield, out of costume and looking slightly apprehensive.

"Director? Can I have a moment to talk?"

She waved him in wordlessly. Entering the room and closing the door, he moved to sit in the chair she pointed at. Leaning forward in her chair she inspected him. "What can I do for you, Mr Stansfield?"

"I wanted to mention something I found out at school from Vicky, I mean, Glory Girl, ma'am," he said a little uncertainly. She raised an eyebrow. "It's nothing bad, or at least I don't think it is, but I thought you should be aware of it."

"Go on," she prodded, when he fell silent, feeling intrigued. He explained what his girlfriend had told him about her extended family being hired by BBFO as Parahuman backup for the whole Kaiju reveal the day before. Tapping her fingers together she considered the information, which she hadn't known about before. "I see," she finally replied, after a short silence. "I believe you're correct, it's nothing to worry about, but it's interesting to know."

"Is it legal?" he asked, sounding mildly worried. "Vicky said her mother checked it out before and said it all seemed above board, but it's not something I've ever heard of before."

"It's certainly unusual, but it's legal. We've checked thoroughly and BBFO found some interesting and complicated ways around some of the Parahuman laws surrounding commercial use of powers. Very clever, to be honest. Your girlfriend did nothing wrong, and her family probably helped keep this city from panicking."

He looked relieved.

"Thank you, Director. I was a little concerned that they could be setting themselves up for a problem."

"I think they're safe, and if anything they probably did themselves some favors from a public relations standpoint, I imagine. We had reports that New Wave were seen around the place with new costumes but this is the first I've heard of what the arrangement was. It's useful information. Thank you for bringing it to my attention." She glanced at the clock. "I believe you're on patrol with Missy tonight?"

"Yes, I was going to get into costume as soon as I'd talked to you." He checked his watch. "I'd better get on with it, I don't want to be late."

She nodded. "Dismissed. Good luck out there and be careful."

"Always, ma'am," he smiled as he stood, nodded to her, then left. As the door closed quietly behind him she watched, then shook her head slightly.

"Why do I have the feeling that this is only the beginning of the weird shit?" she muttered to herself, before turning back to the window and her thoughts, waiting for Alexandria and Eidolon to arrive.

* * *

Colin looked satisfied, saving and closing the final design file. "That should do it, I think. We'll need to get some up close measurements, but with only some small changes it should allow the weapon to be fired from the shoulder."

"Assuming you have a shoulder that large and we can make the recoil a couple of orders of magnitude smaller," Dragon added.

"That's true," he sighed. "Did you have any more luck with suitable inertial compensators?"

"I have a design that should get us close, but it's not ideal." His friend glanced at him. "Did Leet ever get back to you about your question?"

"He sent me an email late last night saying he was thinking about it and would be in touch soon," Colin replied. "But he didn't go into detail."

"OK. With any luck he's got something better. If Kaiju can do as Raptaur said and make the thing massive enough, in the millions of tons or so, and we add some inertial damping, it might be usable without tossing her into the next county. Or space." Dragon chuckled. "I expect that even she is going to notice it being fired even so."

"I don't know how tough she really is but if we're right that their strength and durability goes up exponentially, she'd survive it regardless," he commented with a thoughtful look on her face. "We should check, though. Hopefully we can arrange an introduction soon."

"From what I gather they're going to be cutting that ship up next week sometime, so I expect she'll be available." Dragon looked up at the sound of his door alarm, as did he. Checking, he nodded and tapped the control to open it, admitting Legend who came in and smiled at them both.

"Is your design complete?" he asked curiously.

"It is, yes, sir," Colin replied. "Subject to fine tuning and some work on the recoil damping."

"Good. I've arranged to discreetly talk to some people in the State Department and the White House about using it. We'd want to test it, at least if we have time, I think. An untried weapon, even one you two designed, isn't the sort of thing I'm wildly happy about fielding." Colin exchanged a look with Dragon, who shrugged a little.

"Probably a good idea," she admitted. "Where, though? The projectiles will go a very long way extremely fast, even if Kaiju makes them short lived. Well over a hundred and twenty kilometers a second would put them past the atmosphere almost instantly, at far past escape velocity."

"You're sure they won't burn up?" Legend asked.

"Not a chance. I know of almost nothing you could possibly do to damage EDM without the use of either an extremely exotic Parahuman power or the core of a neutron star." She made a small motion with one hand. "Those projectiles would penetrate almost anything conceivable. Hopefully including an Endbringer."

"Well, one way or another we need to find out, but it would be best to get the relevant governments to agree to it first," he said. "They tend to be annoyed at fusion warheads going off without warning. There are all sorts of treaties surrounding it aside from the sheer surprise value."

Dragon chuckled, while Colin looked at her, then Legend, before nodding slightly. He also made a note.

"The real question is how on earth we manage to get Kaiju to where the Endbringer attack is quickly enough," Legend went on as he took a seat across from them. "She's far too big for any of the teleporters we have available, or any teleportation technology we have access to. I'd suspect that if it was anywhere reasonably nearby and accessible by water she'd be able to get there quite fast, but overseas, or far inland, or both… That's more of a problem."

"It's certainly somewhat awkward," Dragon replied. Colin thought for a while, then turned to his computer, bringing up some files and looking through them for a few seconds while they watched.

"I wonder how radiation resistant the Family is?" he mumbled while flipping through a series of images at high speed, finally stopping on one and enlarging it to fill the screen.

"Why?" his superior asked.

"This is a device we retrieved from yet another of Leet and Über's exploits quite a while ago. It's an unusual form of teleportation unit, it uses principles that are quite different to any other such device we know about. In fact strictly speaking it's not teleportation at all. They were using it to transport some sort of robotic drone out of an old video game around the city, until it failed. When we went after them they abandoned the device as it was very bulky and awkward to carry while escaping. It's been in secure storage ever since behind heavy shielding as it was dangerously radioactive."

"Why?" Legend asked again, raising his eyebrows.

"It opens short term wormholes between two points in space as far as we could determine," Colin replied. "The fringe effects of the wormhole interior meeting normal space emits a rather large gamma flux, short duration but sufficient to be very hazardous to life at close range. It also is sufficiently energetic to induce radiation in many elements, such as those it was constructed from. I believe that Leet didn't know this at the time, otherwise he wouldn't have used the device in the first place. He's a villain of sorts, but not stupid by any means. I've intended to look into how the mechanism worked with an eye to repairing it and hopefully reducing or eliminating the radiation leakage but I've been waiting for the induced radioactivity to drop to a safe level. According to the last readings we took, it's not too far from that point now."

"And you think it could be modified to open a large enough wormhole to allow Kaiju to pass through it, and that she could handle the radiation?" Dragon queried. He nodded slowly.

"I suspect so. I would need to talk to Leet again and hopefully secure his cooperation in this, it would most likely speed things up significantly, but based on our first talk and subsequent events I feel that he may be open to negotiation."

"Interesting," Legend mused. "Very interesting. I suspect that is worth following up on. Discreetly, of course, but urgently. We're only two to three weeks from the next predicted Endbringer attack after all."

"I'm expecting a contact with him soon in any case," Colin told the other man, "so I'll bring this up as well."

"Good. That could solve that particular problem quite well. Could the device be shielded enough to make it safe for people not immune to radiation?"

"With access to EDM, easily. It's entirely radiation proof once you go out of the thermal wavelengths. Gamma radiation won't penetrate it at all, no matter the thickness."

Legend indicated his understanding. "It hinges on her not being affected, but assuming that's true, it's a good idea."

He got up again, checking the time. "I think Alexandria and Eidolon will be here soon," he said, "So I think I'd better go and prevent them shouting at Emily too much. Keep me up to date on this, please."

"Certainly. Are you going to tell them about the weapon?"

The premier hero of the world looked suddenly a little pensive. "I… am not entirely sure yet," he admitted apparently reluctantly after a few seconds, making Dragon and Colin exchange looks. "Until I see how they're going to approach this entire situation I'm not convinced it's a good idea. Too much fuel on the fire for the moment, so to speak. I'll have to see how it goes. I don't like keeping things from my friends and colleagues but under the current circumstances a certain amount of discretion may be required. Just in case."

"I see," Colin said slowly. "I think."

"I'll let you know what happens," Legend promised, heading towards the door. "I'm certainly sticking around until we resolve this Coil situation, whatever else happens, so I expect we'll talk again soon." Nodding to them he left, the door closing behind him.

After a moment, Dragon snickered, making Colin look quizzically at her.

"It struck me that since a particular lizard girl turned up a few weeks ago, the entire Protectorate and PRT seem to be keeping information from each other in the weirdest ways," she explained, sounding amused. "Every time something even stranger happens, we form yet another little cabal. It just seemed funny to me, that's all."

"Oh," he replied, understanding the point if not the humor. "I agree it's somewhat out of the ordinary." He sighed for a moment. "Not that I'm sure what ordinary _is_ these days. I miss life making a certain amount of sense."

Laughing more loudly, she patted him on the shoulder. "I'm sure it will again eventually, and in the mean time we're having fun, for various values of ' _fun'_. It's interesting, if nothing else."

"I suppose so." Turning back to his computer, he brought up another project which they'd been working on, dismissing the picture of the wormhole generator. "Shall we get back to work? I believe I have ascertained the missing element in the actuator assembly here," he said, indicating a particular part of the complex drawing. She leaned closer, peering at the monitor, as he began explaining.

* * *

A sharp rap on the door heralded the arrival of the two people she'd been waiting for, as it swung open to reveal Alexandria and Eidolon. "Come in," she said slightly sarcastically, as they did exactly that. Eidolon moved to the side and Alexandria walked over to stand in front of her desk, looking down at her from behind her visor.

"Director Piggot. Is this a good time for you?" the woman asked in similar tones.

Emily gestured grandly to a couple of chairs. "Of course, I'm always ready to help the Triumvirate. Please, sit down. Water? Coffee?"

"Nothing for us, thank you," Alexandria replied briskly, although Emily noted with hidden amusement that Eidolon had got half-way through lifting a hand, then dropped it as his colleague spoke and somehow seemed slightly disappointed. "We'd like to discuss this report, and get your first hand impressions of your encounters with Kaiju and Raptaur. We may also want to speak to Miss Militia and Armsmaster later, and possibly any Wards who have dealt with Saurial."

"That can easily be arranged," Emily said after a moment or two. "May I ask what you intend to do while you're here? It could heavily impact on relations between the PRT and local Parahumans which is of considerable interest to me."

"We intend to investigate exactly who this Family are and what their relationship with your Dock Worker's Union, city government, and the local PRT is," the other woman replied. "We're concerned about the very unusual nature of this entire thing."

"I see." Emily tilted her chair seat back a little, looking at the hero with interest. "I hope that investigation isn't going to upset the status quo around here. Brockton Bay is a finely balanced place even now that it's quieter than it's been for years. Can I respectfully suggest that you try to avoid tipping that balance too much? It would almost certainly provoke a reaction that would be in no one's best interests."

Alexandria sat, her back straight and her mouth set in a line that looked somewhat disapproving. "Are you implying that we might… upset the applecart?"

"Your mere presence can do that as I'm sure you know better than anyone. With all three of the Triumvirate in town, people will be wondering what's going on. If you are seen to be, or perceived to be, doing things that might be considered to be working against the sudden changes the city has gone through in the last couple of days, there might be a reaction from the public that would be… less than entirely ideal," Emily replied delicately after a few moments spent gathering her thoughts. Neither of her guests said anything so she went on.

"Mayor Christner's plans are apparently wildly popular among a fairly large percentage of the working population of this city. The more those plans deliver, the more popular they'll get. All I'm saying is that if you want to keep the public happy it would probably be better not to be excessive without a very good reason. I've recently discovered that the PRT isn't precisely looked upon with the level of approval that I'd like around here in certain quarters, for quite a number of reasons, some of which are admittedly valid to one extent or another."

"I'm not particularly interested in keeping the public happy, I'm more interested in keeping them _safe_ ," the other woman finally replied. "Sometimes that requires doing unpopular things. As I'm sure _you_ know, Director."

"I do, far better than I like," Emily sighed. "But I also know that there is a Parahuman in Brockton Bay who could quite likely give even _you_ a serious fight. Personally, I have no wish to actually see what would happen. PHO is full of ideas about a Kaiju VS Alexandria fight and even the mild ones tend to imply destruction on a scale I'd very much never like to experience. And we have no idea at all how many more of them there are, what would happen if one of them was harmed, and so on. Just… don't overdo it. Please."

The heroine in her guest chair looked at her for a few seconds, making her wish she could see her eyes and get some idea what she was thinking. "I very much doubt it would come to any form of fight, Director," Alexandria finally said quietly. "We're not intending to start anything. But we do want to find out what on earth is going on and how this all appeared out of nowhere with no warning."

"I'd like to know that myself," Emily muttered under her breath. The other woman clearly heard and smiled a little.

Eidolon chuckled. "So let's put our heads together and learn what we can, perhaps we can work it out together," he said calmly. "I'd like to start by going over this report in more detail, and hopefully fleshing it out a bit more with everyone's personal impressions. Chief Director Costa-Brown is also very keen to learn more."

"Fine," Emily replied, relieved that they were apparently willing to listen to her and apply some common sense to the situation. "We can use the secure conference room and get whoever we need in. Dragon and Armsmaster are on the Rig, but they can be here in under twenty minutes. Miss Militia is in the building at the moment, as are most of the Wards. You'll want to talk mainly to Vista and Gallant, both of whom were the first ones to meet Saurial on her first night, Clockblocker, and Kid Win. The last two have met her a number of times and seem to get on with her pretty well."

"I saw the video of the prank she pulled on Clockblocker," Eidolon laughed. "It was very funny."

Sighing a little, Emily nodded with a tiny smile. "I have to admit I thought so as well. But don't tell him, or he'll be making jokes about it until you want to strangle him."

A tap on the door made all three of them look over at it. "Enter," she called, the door swinging open to reveal Legend, who looked around at them as he came in.

"Did I miss anything interesting?" he asked mildly, smiling a little.

The three originally present exchanged looks, then as one shook their heads. Emily stood up. "Nothing critical. We were just discussing the importance of being cautious. We're heading to conference room two, if you'd care to join us."

"Of course," he replied, stepping aside to let her lead the way.

' _I sure hope they mean it_ ,' she thought as she headed towards the elevator. ' _A Kaiju fight involving the fucking_ _ **Triumvirate?**_ _My blood pressure couldn't take that..._ ' Suppressing a sigh, she got ready for a very long evening.

* * *

"Danny, your guests just came in the front gate," Mark said as he leaned in through the office doorway. "I told the men on the gate to tell them to drive around to BBFO."

"Thanks, Mark," Danny replied, getting up, then reaching into his desk drawer and retrieving a few things. Mark watched, his eyebrows going up a little, but said nothing. "Any sign of Saurial or Raptaur around yet?"

"Nope, not yet."

"OK." Zipping up his jacket, Danny headed for the door.

"You want me to come as well? Or get Zephron?"

"No, that's not needed, Mark. They're not going to do anything. I need to talk to them alone for the moment."

"All right. Call if you need backup, though."

Danny smiled at his colleague, nodding a little, then headed downstairs. Shortly he was walking towards the waterfront, greeting a few workers as he passed them. It was nearly five in the evening and getting dark and chilly, the wind picking up, but there were still a lot of people at work. He stopped briefly to inspect the distant warehouse cleanup job which seemed to be proceeding nicely, almost nothing left of them now, before resuming his fast walk.

Turning into the side alley where his daughter's building was, he immediately spotted the nondescript van he recognized as the one the pair used when they wanted to move around without notice. Approaching it, he stopped when the two occupants got out, both wearing balaclavas and normal street clothes. "Hi, Danny," Über said in his well-known voice, sounding pleased to see him. Leet nodded politely to him.

"Hi, guys. Thanks for coming. Follow me, please."

He headed for the pedestrian door to the office, unlocking it while they paused to read the sign above the main entrance. Leet chuckled while Über shook his head in amusement. "Love it," the smaller man said. Entering the building Danny turned the lights on, waved them in, then closed and locked the door again while they looked around. Leet was already curiously inspecting the nearest wall, tapping it with his knuckles, then looking up.

"The entire place is lined with degenerate matter, isn't it?" he asked in awed tones.

"It is. Ceiling, floor, walls, doors, it's all coated with about a quarter of an inch of the stuff," Danny confirmed as he walked to the table and sat in one of the chairs, waving to two more. "These are made of it as well. The Family likes using it, it stops things breaking."

"Under almost any conceivable circumstances," Leet added, looking impressed. "Very neat. I wish I could make things out of that stuff, it's incredibly useful." He sat down, Über sitting a couple of feet from him. "So, why did you ask to meet us?" the Tinker said after a moment.

"A couple of things." Danny reached into his jacket pocket and removed two thick sealed envelopes. Both young men watched him curiously. Flipping them across the table to the pair all three of them waited until the envelopes slid to a halt in front of each man. "First thing is this."

"Which is?" Über asked curiously, picking up one of the envelopes, weighing it in his hand, then breaking the seal and looking inside. His eyes widened.

Leet looked at him with a puzzled air, before picking up the other envelope.

"Five thousand each from the city via BBFO for subcontracted Parahuman services, with a personal bonus of another five thousand requested by Mayor Christner to show his appreciation for acting responsibly and helping keep everything going well yesterday," Danny said calmly. "We seem to have established a going rate for daily work when we hired New Wave for security services and it seems fair under the circumstances. Thank you both, from Roy, and myself."

Leet checked the contents of his own envelope, pulling out a thick stack of fifty dollar bills and quickly flipping through them before putting them back and staring at Danny. Über was still looking in amazement at his share.

"Thanks, man. I mean it. We didn't do it for the money but I can't say I'm going to turn it down."

Danny smiled a little. "Good."

"Mayor Christner said you'd be calling us, but he didn't say anything about _this_ ," Über commented absently, flicking through the cash with a finger, before putting the envelope away. "He said to say hi, by the way."

Amused, Danny nodded. "I thought he'd probably call you, he asked for the number this morning. Did he talk to you about the commercialization of your audio device?"

"He did," the taller man said, smiling widely. "Leet is interested. I think it's a really good idea as well."

"I'm certainly open to discussing the best way to go about it," Leet confirmed. "I'm not sure of the best way to contact Dragon though. I've had several email contacts with Armsmaster in the last couple of weeks, which I suppose could help."

"Roy told me he'd look into it. We'd all like to keep the PRT out of it for the moment and deal directly with her. While I highly respect Armsmaster, and to be honest think Director Piggot is also worthy of a certain amount of respect as well, the DWU, City Hall, and the Family all have their own reasons for wanting to avoid PRT involvement. I suspect that goes double for you two bearing in mind your… proclivities."

The two other men exchanged glances then laughed. "Yes, that's a good way to put it," Über chuckled. "While we seem, weirdly enough, to be starting to have Armsmaster at least deal with us without instantly trying to arrest us, it's probably best not to push it too much. We are still in theory on the wrong side of the law from his point of view."

"Quite. The DWU is somewhat less concerned about that part of your life, as long as it stays off Union premises and doesn't involve any of our people. The Family feel similarly."

Über looked at him for a few seconds, then glanced at Leet. "The Family..." he said slowly, sounding a little uncertain. Danny nodded, smiling somewhat grimly. "Who are..."

"...All my daughter. Yes, she told me a while ago that you'd probably worked it out, and Amy confirmed it last night."

He pushed himself to his feet, leaning on the table with both hands, staring at them each in turn. The two young men looked back, appearing a little worried. The worry grew into shock when he straightened up, putting his hands in his jacket pockets, then pulling them out. He flicked his baton out to full length with a loud snap, which echoed around the dead silent room. The noise was followed by a quieter click as he put the 9mm automatic pistol down on the table with his other hand.

Both the villains swallowed, staring at the gun, then the baton which he was now holding by both ends, then his face, which was fixed in a well practiced completely expressionless mask. There was a very long pause.

"I have some guesses about what you may want to talk to her about. Taylor is her own person, and far more powerful than anyone should be, but she's a good kid and pretty responsible even if sometimes she gets a little carried away with herself. Amy is the same. They're young, they'll learn with time. There are other factors involved which she may or may not tell you. That's up to her. She tells me that you can be trusted, and she has good judgment. I do what I can to advise her and I believe in her."

They said nothing, just stared at him with wide eyes.

"There is almost nothing I can think of that would or could injure her. But I want you to think _very_ carefully about something. She is still a fifteen year old girl, and my daughter. If you involve her in anything that ends up somehow harming her, or for that matter Amy either, I will find you. I will hurt you. And, if necessary, I will end you. Clear?"

His voice had dropped in both tone and volume, but they seemed to have no trouble hearing him.

A few seconds passed, then they both nodded slowly, their eyes still wide. "Great. I'm glad we could have this little talk." Collapsing the baton between his hands with a quick motion he put it away, then picked up the pistol and slipped it into his jacket as well. "Just bear it in mind. I'm not fond of violence but family is the most important thing in the world to me. Please don't make me have to do something you'd regret, however briefly." Checking his watch, he smiled more cheerfully. "She should be arriving any minute now. You can wait in here if you want. Thanks for all the help yesterday and I hope we can do more business soon." Heading towards the door he unlocked it, glancing back over his shoulder to see the two capes staring at each other silently. Smiling a little, he closed the door and headed back to his office.

"Gramps would have been amused with that, I think," he snickered under his breath, remembering stories from his father. "Crazy old man."

Half-way to the main building, he met Mark coming the other way. "Thanks, Mark. But I thought I told you to get rid of this thing," he said, discreetly slipping him the gun.

The security chief grinned at him. "If I'd done that you wouldn't have had it for whatever you wanted it for. Are they still alive?"

"Oh, sure, it wasn't loaded. The magazine is in my desk. I just needed to make a point."

"Did you?"

"Based on the color they went, I think so." Mark laughed a little, as did Danny, both of them going inside.

* * *

The sound of the door closing made Kevin twitch a little. He looked away from his best friend's pallid face, what could be seen of it through the balaclava holes, to see they were now alone. Slumping as the tension left him, he rubbed sweaty hands on his jeans, trying to get the memory of the flat eyes and totally even tone the Hebert man had produced out of his mind. After licking dry lips, he said hoarsely, "You were right about him being a bad person to get on the wrong side of. Fuck _me_ , that was _terrifying_."

"You think he meant it?" Randall asked faintly.

" _Ohhh_ , yes," he replied slowly. "Let's try not to upset him, OK? His daughter's forms are horrifying. He's just a scary motherfucker when he wants to be. I suddenly see why the DWU guys respect him so much, I think."

Randall nodded slowly. "I've heard some things over the years. I think I just got proof." He shivered slightly. "Normal man or not, I _don't_ want him coming after us. We should be careful."

"Probably a good idea." Kevin stood, noticing absently that he was shaking a little. He walked around the room studying it and trying not to think about the last few minutes. "This place is amazing. You could set a nuke off in here and it would do practically nothing except cook anything organic. I wonder if we could persuade her to do the same thing at our place?"

"Might be worth asking."

Randall joined him in inspecting the room. They looked at the posters, Kevin stopping in front of the one of the warhammer with the equation for kinetic energy across the bottom of it. He studied it curiously, then stiffened in shock as he suddenly realized the subtle message it was conveying. "Oh, Jesus Christ," he choked out.

"What?" Randall came over and stared at the poster, then his friend.

"She's got a fucking warped sense of humor," Kevin sighed. "See that?"

"Yep. Kinetic energy, right?"

"Yes. Now, how big a hammer could Kaiju swing, do you think?"

Randall thought for a moment. "Well, based on that sword she was waving around, fifty feet long or thereabouts?"

"Probably. Which assuming the same proportions would make the head about… Hold on… OK, assuming it was her low mass EDM, it would mass nearly three _hundred_ tons. At a rough guess with that amount of leverage and her strength she could probably get the head moving at several times the speed of sound. Velocity is the important thing in that equation, the energy goes up as the square of the speed." He sighed a little. "Even at seventy or so grams per cc, that would be thirty to forty tons of TNT equivalent with each hit at least."

Randall went white again.

"If she converted it to its true density at the moment of impact, even a little amount like that javelin which we've already seen is possible, it would be in the megaton range."

Randall went green.

"Minimum."

Randall went and sat down.

A couple of minutes later while they were still thinking about the ramifications of _that_ little gem of data, the door opened again to admit the form of Saurial, who smiled happily on seeing them. "Hi, guys," she said, closing the door and locking it. "Nice to see you. My sister told me all about you and I've wanted to meet you ever since."

They exchanged a glance, then looked back at her, both of them raising their eyebrows meaningfully. She laughed, then without warning there was a tall teenaged girl with long curly brunette hair down her back standing grinning at them. Leet inspected her, noticing something interesting.

"No tail."

The girl studied him closely. "Huh. I'm impressed." Abruptly they could see a powerful scaled reptilian tail curling around her feet. "I'm Taylor Hebert. Let's talk."


	106. Omake - Power to the People

_A conversation on SpaceBattles made me think some more about an idea I had..._

* * *

Picking up his phone as it buzzed and answering it without looking away from the complicated design he was working on, still concentrating on it, Colin said, "Armsmaster."

"Hello, Armsmaster," a familiar deep female voice said pleasantly. "I had a question that I thought you'd know the answer to immediately and save me wasting time looking it up online. Plus I trust your information more anyway."

He smiled slightly. "Go ahead," he replied, pleased at the comment, but still mostly concentrating on his work. With his other hand he used the haptic interface he'd added recently to move a tiny component in the model on screen, then reran the simulation to check that it worked correctly.

"Am I right in believing that polonium 210 has no critical mass?"

Absently nodding, he said, "Correct. It is an extremely vigorous alpha emitter and produces approximately one hundred and forty watts per gram of heat as a result, but there's no point where bulk polonium 210 would form a critical mass as it doesn't emit neutrons. Aside from the extreme toxicity to biological systems and the rarity, it's a good choice for thermal RTG units."

"That's what I thought. Thanks. Talk later." She sounded cheerful as she hung up. He did the same, putting his phone down again and getting back to work.

About ten minutes later, his brow furrowed.

He glanced at his phone.

"Oh, hell," he muttered, hastily saving his work and then getting up, putting his armor on then almost running to his bike in the garage.

Ten minutes after that he was zooming through the city streets towards BBFO and the DWU.

* * *

"Hello, Armsmaster," the gate guard smiled, opening the barrier for him. "Are you looking for Mr Hebert today, or someone from the Family?"

"The latter," he said quickly, revving his bike and moving off.

"Raptaur is down by the shore!" the guard yelled after him.

Rumbling across the large open yard, Colin suddenly heard a rising whine, which spooled rapidly up in both pitch and volume, to stabilize at an earsplitting screech, coming from somewhere behind the BBFO building. Most of the people in the yard turned to look in that direction, pointing at the cloud of steam that was now roaring out across the bay.

"Jesus," he muttered to himself, unable to suppress the comment. Following the sound while engaging the sonic dampers in his helmet which reduced it to merely loud, he parked the bike to the side of the row of buildings and cautiously peered around the side. Raptaur and Panacea, along with Leet and Über, were standing next to a large machine that squatted on the edge of the dock, a wide pipe going down into the water below it. The thing was about the size of a small truck, but longer and thinner. The end that was sticking out over the water was spewing transparent vapor that he recognized as superheated steam at an appalling rate, the gaseous water condensing into a huge white cloud nearly a hundred feet past the output end.

Leet appeared to be monitoring the operation of the device with a laptop set up on a folding table twenty feet from the machine, the others looking over his shoulder. All of them other than Raptaur were wearing hearing protection of a type Colin didn't recognize. The Tinker pointed at the screen, shouting something he couldn't make out. Raptaur nodded, then moved to a large array of enormous floodlights that were connected to the machine with heavy cables, large knife switches on each one. She threw one of the switches, which resulted in an eye-piercingly bright light as one bank of lamps came on. Colin estimated that this was at least a hundred kilowatts of load, based on the size of the bulbs and the sheer number of them.

The machine's scream changed tone slightly, becoming more throaty. Leet waved a hand and the huge lizard engaged the second switch, then the third and fourth ones as he repeated the action. Each extra light bank made the machine's sound alter further.

Fascinated, Colin walked over, stopping a few feet back and inspecting both the machine, which he could see appeared to basically be a multi-stage steam turbine of unfamiliar design connected to a large generator, also not a commercial version. Under this was what had to be a large pump. In the middle was an oval bulge, which was obviously where the steam was being generated, but it was much too small for anything that was burning a normal fuel.

He could see that it was pumping seawater out of the bay, boiling it at a furious rate and generating enormous quantities of incredibly hot steam which was being used to generate the electricity running the lamps, presumably being used to load the generator down for testing. By now there were a dozen banks lit up brightly, the radiance and heat painful even a hundred feet away with them pointing in the other direction. The reflections from the concrete were brighter than the sunlight. Raptaur seemed unaffected by the heat and was now wearing similar sunglasses to those her sister routinely wore.

Looking at the screen he could see that the graphs the Tinker was studying showed a power output of well over a megawatt. His eyes widened at the displayed exhaust temperature. It was far past the point that normal alloys would lose a significant amount of strength, even most superalloys. The rotational speed was horrific as well.

A few seconds later, Leet waved again. Raptaur nodded, going back down the row of switches and flipping them all off, before heading to the machine and putting her hand on the side of the bulge. A second later the deafening screech of high pressure supersonic steam began to rapidly diminish in volume, while the turbine whine spooled down from nearly ultrasonic through the range to silence.

The abrupt lack of noise was profound. Disengaging the sonic dampers, Colin sighed heavily, then walked over to join the group who were all smiling. Raptaur looked at him and grinned.

"What did you do this time?" he asked, having a very good idea.

"Made a generator," she replied happily. "It should be good for about four or five megawatts with a full fuel capsule. We need to add the condensers, running it open loop like that is much too noisy and dangerous, and it'll need some proper power control stuff on the output, but all that is easy, Leet says. This was just to prove the concept was sound."

"And the source of the heat?"

"One of these," she smiled, holding out her hand on which a two foot long by six inch diameter EDM cylinder appeared. The heat coming from it made everyone instantly retreat fifty feet or so, except Panacea who just grinned through her faceplate, her suit insulated enough that it didn't cause her any problems.

"It's full of polonium 210, isn't it?" he groaned.

"Yep. About a hundred pounds of it. I think it's probably a vapor at this point, actually." She studied the cylinder she was holding, then poked the concrete with the end of it. The result was it slowly sank into the molten glass that was produced. "It's pretty hot."

Somehow not surprised that she was holding in her bare hand something that his visor was reading as being well past the melting point of tungsten, he shook his head in despair. "You do realize how incredibly toxic polonium is, I hope?"

"Of course. But it's not going to get out of here." She waved the horrifically dangerous thing at him, then made it go away. It probably had contained more polonium than all other world wide sources of it put together, he reflected with resignation.

"It goes into the middle of an array of tubes made of EDM inside the boiler," she explained, waving at the machine. "That gives it a hell of a big surface area. The end result is that it seems to boil the water really fast." Scratching her chin reflectively, she added, "And the salt in the water as well, apparently. Anyway, it doesn't seem to have clogged up. We should probably use distilled water for the next version but we wanted to see what would happen. I was just a little worried about critical masses and Leet couldn't remember exactly."

"I'm not entirely sure that a polonium-fueled reactor is a wildly good idea," he began carefully. "There are… some possible safety concerns."

All four of them looked at him. "Which are?" Leet asked curiously as he walked over. "EDM isn't ever going to break, that capsule could contain a decent sized nuclear blast without damage. The turbine and bearings are made of it as well, so the maximum speed the thing can turn at is essentially unlimited. I can't see any problems."

"Bit loud," Panacea noted.

"A proper condenser will deal with that," the Tinker said, waving the problem away. "Plus some acoustic insulation. The thermal efficiency is good, the electrical efficiency of the new generator design is excellent… The only problem is that it will need refueling every year or so to maintain a decent output."

"We could just oversize it and put a lot more polonium in it, a ton or so, that would still produce several megawatts for nearly a decade," Raptaur commented.

Colin felt a little faint.

Leet nodded thoughtfully.

"Possibly. Pity plutonium 238 is so much less effective, the half-life is over eighty years rather than a hundred and thirty days or so. But that's the problem, the faster you get the energy out, the shorter period you can get it out for."

"Plus there's that whole critical mass, everything goes bang problem," Über said.

"Yeah, you could only put a small amount in safely and it wouldn't produce more than a few kilowatts," his friend agreed.

"Unless we deliberately make it go pop, then soak the heat up into something like a storage heater does?" Raptaur said slowly. "Then we could pump water through it for ages and get the heat back."

Colin felt extremely worried at this point.

"On second thought, perhaps the polonium concept is worth considering further," he hastily said. "It would be less complex to engineer than a pulse detonation heat engine using fission explosives."

Leet looked at him, then Raptaur. Both of them nodded.

"I guess that's a good point," the latter replied. After a moment she frowned. "I suppose you'd probably think that antimatter is also a bit much? Only I was reading this science fiction story and it gave me some ideas..."

* * *

When he finally got back to his lab, Colin carefully locked the door, then took his helmet off, wiping the sweat dripping from his head on a paper towel. Collapsing into his chair he moaned.

"Oh, god, why me."

After a long time, he shakily reached for the mouse and clicked on the icon that put a call through to Dragon.

He needed to talk to someone sane before his head imploded.

When he found out who had suggested to Raptaur that she should come up with a method of powering the DWU facility, he was going to hurt them…


	107. Interviews and Plots

Lisa stretched, pushing herself back from the computer with a sigh of relief. It was finally all done. She'd been working on and off the entire day on fucking Calvert over and was pretty certain she'd managed _that_ so comprehensively that it probably required an entirely new word. Grinning to herself, she stood up, having first run the program she'd set up earlier which started the computer reformatting its hard drive and reinstalling a clean copy of the operating system.

After that she pulled the battery out of the disposable cell phone and dropped the device into her pocket, intending to ask Taylor to dispose of it permanently to leave no traces behind, then reached around to the rear of the computer and unplugged the USB cellular modem she'd been using to connect to the internet, which would go the same way. That way there were no trails that could lead back to her, or the DWU. Sooner or later someone was going to investigate what she'd done and she didn't want to drop her new friends in it.

She'd gone so far as to utilize the cellular modem as a connection point for the phone call, which was then handed off through a series of nested encrypted VPN services to a random city in the US for each call with spoofed caller ID on top of that. Tracing it back was essentially impossible, according to the contact she'd paid quite a lot of money to for the use of the custom software that allowed it. The data connection went through the same process to different locations as well, some international. The entire mess would stop even Dragon following the path to her.

Even _she_ would probably not be able to make much of it without a hell of a lot of work and luck. Without physical access to the phone no one was ever going to be able to prove where the call originated and shortly that phone would be in the process of being digested by a large reptile...

Deciding it was time for something to eat since it was past six in the evening, she left the room and headed for the cafeteria. When she arrived she looked around for a moment, spotting Alec talking to Zephron on the other side of the room, but neither of her other team-mates. Shortly thereafter she was sitting down at their table with a tray of food. "Hi, guys," she smiled. "Alec, are you still going on about your damn games?"

The boy smirked at her. "I am. Thanks for asking. I was just arranging to get a nice big screen TV and some consoles delivered, Zephron here was willing to do it for only an extortionate bribe." The huge man grinned at her, raising his glass of water in salute, making her laugh. "I'll have to redo all my games again." Alec shook his head sadly. "All that work, lost because of your overenthusiastic plan with one _tiny_ hole in it."

"Without that plan we wouldn't be here," she pointed out as she started cutting up a pork chop, stabbing a piece of meat with her fork.

"Exactly."

"And we'd still be in a position where sooner or later something even worse would probably have happened."

"Also true."

" _And_ you wouldn't have the money to buy new toys in the first place."

"Good point."

They grinned at each other, then she got down to the serious business of filling her stomach.

Zephron chuckled at them both. "Kids. OK, Alec, I'll get your stuff tomorrow, some of the guys and I can pick it up and take it to your room. You may find that you get visitors who want to play as well, though, when word gets around."

Alec waved his fork around lackadaisically. "Let them come. They'll soon find out who the better video gamer is."

Looking amused the man stood, nodded to Lisa, then left. She watched him go with a small smile before turning to her friend, who seemed in a good mood. "Don't push it too much too fast, Alec," she advised. "He's a nice guy but he also has a lot of work to do."

"I know, Lisa," he said as he finished his fish. "Don't worry, I'm not going to piss on my own doorstep. I like the guy and he seems to like us. I asked him if he minded helping and he said it was OK. A couple of hundred bucks made it even more OK."

Grinning, she sighed. "I can see you somehow managing to burn through your entire share in months at this rate."

"Easy come, easy go," he quipped, popping open a second can of soda and leaning back contentedly. "Not that it was actually easy. Fucking hard work, more like."

"Don't remind me," she replied. Looking around again, she asked, "Any idea where Brian and Rachel are?"

"Brian's still working, that Jason guy is a real taskmaster, he runs his carpentry squad like a PRT hit team." Alec smirked as she chuckled. "Brian seems to enjoy it, you know how he's always wanted structure in his life. No spontaneity in our glorious leader. Rachel is with her dogs, of course. She came in for lunch, actually talked to several people without trying to beat them up, I even saw her almost smile at one point, then went back. She seems happy, at least in her terms. I doubt we'll see much of her until she's sure all her hairy friends are OK and safe."

"Thanks," Lisa said, nodding. "I'm glad they both have something to do that's keeping them busy. I've got things to keep me going as well, and you're an idle layabout, so it seems to have worked out pretty well all around."

"So far, I'd agree," he laughed, not offended. She'd noticed that he seemed weirdly happy the last couple of days, his normal almost apathetic attitude improving to the point he was only mildly disinterested in things other than his own pursuits. She hoped the trend continued. His emotional range had always been very muted compared to everyone else she'd ever met, for reasons she was still not entirely certain about other than it stemmed from some childhood trauma, but in the months that they'd been together as a team he'd gradually improved in that respect. Since the fight with the ABB that improvement had accelerated, which she was overall pleased about.

Despite his many irritating quirks, she liked him. And as far as she could see it went both ways.

"Later, Lisa. I have TV to watch in the common room." He hopped to his feet, shoveling everything he'd used onto his tray, then left, apparently in a good mood.

Watching him go she smiled again, then resumed eating.

* * *

Taylor pulled a chair out from the table and draped herself into it, arranging her tail over the side, then put her feet on the table itself. Comfortable, she grinned at the two minor villains. "By the way, that was amazing yesterday. I loved the music choices, especially at the beginning."

"I'm just glad you picked up on the cues," Leet laughed. "Thanks for playing along."

She shrugged. "It was fun, it helped the plan, and I enjoyed it a lot. So did everyone else from what I could see. Mayor Christner looked like a kid at Christmas."

Studying the two young men for a few seconds, she decided that they were probably around twenty or so, twenty-two at most. Über was tall and solidly built, a lot like Brian in overall build, while Leet was several inches shorter and much skinnier, in a similar manner to her father, with a wiry strength she thought looked good on him. Both of them seemed somewhat nervous, and had done even before she'd arrived. She'd heard enough of their conversation from the other side of the door to realize one good reason for it as she'd approached.

The wool balaclavas did nothing at all to keep their faces invisible from her point of view, her thermal vision showing all the details perfectly through the cloth, but she decided not to mention it. They didn't need to know that she knew what they looked like, and she had no intention of capitalizing on that information, any more than she did with the other Parahumans she'd worked out the identities of. It seemed unlikely that they'd do anything that would make them a threat, if anything both she and the Varga thought that it was the opposite. Amy agreed, and after some thought, her father had also said the same.

Their scents were slowly changing to less worried as the seconds ticked past. She waited until they smelled fairly calm, then asked, "Out of curiosity, how did you know about my tail?" She lifted the end of the appendage and waved it at them. "No one else so far has seen through it."

"You know the Snitch? The remote camera thing we record our missions with?" Leet asked. She nodded.

"I've read about it. You named it after that kid's book series, right?"

"PHO named it, actually, but yes," the Tinker replied. "It's one of my best projects, its worked flawlessly for years and is almost indestructible. The imaging system on it is very unusual, totally different to any other camera system I've ever heard of. Whatever you're using to hide _that_ ," he pointed at her tail, "it can see through it. Barely. I still had to fiddle around with the data files a lot to get a clear look at it but I managed to do it."

"When?" she asked, thinking back to possible times and places. Just before he spoke, she snapped her fingers. "The thing with Vicky, right?"

"Yes," he confirmed. "I only spotted it by accident. You and your father were in the crowd and we got you both in the background in a few shots. I showed it to Über, we talked it over, and we ended up cutting out anything with you in it. Didn't think it was polite to unmask another cape."

"Thanks for that," she smiled. "It would have been difficult. I'd only had my tail for a couple of days at that point and I don't know what I've have done if anyone found out about it then."

She looked at her tail, idly waving the end around in the air. "Now, I don't really care, aside from not wanting the attention and not wanting to have it cause problems for Dad."

"Is that why the elaborate charade with ' _The Family_ '?" Leet asked, making little finger quotes. "Or is that just because you're a massive troll who likes confusing people?" He was grinning, as was his friend.

She rocked her hand from side to side in the air, making both men laugh. "Little of both, I think. It started as a way to keep Dad safe, then it was hilarious, and now it seems to have taken on a life of its own. Mostly because of PHO, of course, people there have come up with most of the whole theory. It's pretty useful, actually, but the funniest part of it to me is that the only people who have seen through it so far other than Amy, who was a special case, are villains. Your type must just be more suspicious than the heroes or the public." Smirking a little, she waited for them to stop giggling.

"I have to admit it's one of the best jokes I've ever heard of," Über chuckled. "It's going to be very embarrassing for the PRT when they finally work it out."

"If they do," she commented, which made him grin again.

" _If_ they do. Fair enough." He and Leet seemed relaxed now as well, both of them studying her curiously. "How _do_ you hide your tail, by the way? Some sort of Stranger power, on top of everything else?"

"No, it's just magic," she smirked. "Nothing exotic."

"Magic." He stared at her with a look of evaluation.

"Yep."

"I see." After a moment, he shrugged. "Whatever. Powers might as well be magic for all anyone understands them. Call it what you want."

Bowing from a seated position, she laughed. "Thank you, I will."

"If only he knew," the Varga chuckled inside her head, making her smile widen for a moment before she became more serious.

"So, what would you like to talk about first? I've got plenty of time right now."

Über glanced at Leet. The Tinker seemed slightly embarrassed, sticking a finger into the neck of his balaclava and scratching an itch.

Eventually, Über sighed slightly. "We were hoping you might be open to a possible prank on the city at some point. The sort of thing we do." As she opened her mouth to reply, slightly shocked, he held up a hand. "Nothing illegal, or particularly illegal at any rate. We don't want to get you in trouble. That seems to be…" he glanced at Leet for a second before finishing, "…not a wildly good idea."

Taylor looked at them for a long few seconds. She got the distinct impression there was a story behind that comment she wasn't privy to. Shaking her head a little, she sat up and leaned forward. "What sort of prank?" she asked curiously.

"We're not exactly sure yet," Über replied slowly. "It at least partly depends on you. What you can do. We want to come up with something we can theme around your abilities and leverage them to the best effect."

Leet added, "We were hoping that you might be open to creating a new persona, depending on whether your Changer ability was flexible enough for that. Speaking of which, we've both really curious about what you can really do. We already know you can go from this," he waved a hand at her, "all the way up to something that would give Leviathan nightmares. Can you do more?"

While the Varga chuckled silently, she suppressed a grin. Scratching the base of one of the several spikes she grew through her hair with a talon, she shrugged slightly, while watching them with glowing yellow eyes. She absently licked an eyebrow with a long forked tongue for a moment, which made the Tinker flinch. "I guess so," she replied through a mouthful of fangs that overlapped her lower lip. "A few tricks."

"Fuck," Über whispered, his face paling judging by the temperature she could see. "That's… disconcerting."

"What?" she asked innocently, putting all four arms behind her back and stretching, the elbow spikes on them sticking out to the sides.

He stared at her, then his friend, whose eyes were wide and round.

"I think she might be a good fit for us," he finally sighed. Leet nodded, not taking his eyes off her, while she removed all the non-standard parts and grinned at them. "Impressive."

"Pretty much anything that's more or less reptilian, and a few other things I've worked out as well," Taylor laughed. "Feathers, those are easy now. I'm working on tentacles. Scaly ones, of course. I like scales."

"Can you go bigger than Kaiju?" Leet seemed both curious and apprehensive. Meeting his eyes she smiled very slowly, making him pale as well.

"A bit. But that's probably going too far for a prank. We were lucky to get away with Kaiju without everyone screaming and running around in circles panicking," she replied.

"I suppose so," he nodded, now looking thoughtful. "But I'll have to think about it. That's too useful a talent not to use one day."

"Agreed," she giggled. "Do you have a list of ideas or something? We can work out the best form for each of them then pick a good one."

"You're up for it?" He looked very happy.

"Of course. It sounds like fun, as long as no one gets hurt and we don't cause too much trouble."

Standing, she made a few sheets of paper and some pencils, dropping them onto the table. Stepping back a few feet into the middle of the room, she said, "Here's one I was working on a while ago, but Dad said it was a little weird. What do you guys think?"

She changed.

" ** _AAAAAAGGGHHH!_** "

Taylor shook her head sadly at the pair who were cowering under the table. "G'd, sh'me p'ple 're p'sshysh" she lisped through a huge mouthful of foot long teeth, "Thy're 'nly fn'gs, y'u kn'w."

It took her quite a long time to get them to come out and she was mildly irritated that they kept shivering when they looked at her for a good fifteen minutes after that.

For villains they were pretty highly strung, in her opinion.

The Varga, of course, was laughing for most of that time, adding to her exasperation.

* * *

Rebecca looked at the nervous young man sitting across the table from her. He was glancing around at her, Director Piggot who was at one end of the conference table with a neutral expression on her face, Paul, who was at the other end smiling encouragingly, and David who was next to her. She cleared her throat, making him twitch and fix his gaze on her face. "So, Clockblocker, could you give me your impressions of Saurial? I see here that you've reported meeting her fourteen times so far while on patrol. Usually in the company of Kid Win, although once was with Vista."

"Um…" He fidgeted a little, casting a hopeful look towards Director Piggot, who nodded once to him. His masked face went back to Rebecca. "She's… funny, helpful, terrifying, skilled, friendly, and horrifying," he finally said. "All at once. I like her, but I wouldn't want to piss her off. We seem to get on OK, I think. I'd say she probably regards us as friends if anything, although she's made it plain she has no interest in joining the Wards or the Protectorate, or coming in for powers testing."

"I see," she replied when he finished speaking. "How old would you say she is?"

He seemed to think for a moment. "I'd guess maybe sixteen or so? Perhaps a year older. No more than that, although there are times she seems… ancient. It's weird, actually, every now and then you get the impression she's seen it all before and isn't impressed. Normally when some criminals have done something particularly bone-headed." His body language expressed puzzlement. "And the number of different weapons she can use is ridiculous. She comes up with new ones all the time and days later it's like she's been using them half her life. I'm pretty jealous, to tell you the truth." He sounded a little amused now.

"Do you think she poses a threat to us?"

He was obviously staring at her behind his mask. After several seconds of silence, he shook his head slowly. "Not unless someone does something really stupid and provokes her. A lot. She may not be with us, but she's on our side, that much I'm sure of. She's a good person."

"Interesting." She made some quick notes on a pad, just for effect. She'd found out years ago how unnerved people got when she started writing things down as they talked. "What about Raptaur?"

"I haven't personally met her yet, ma'am," he responded politely.

"I know, I'm just curious about what you think of her. Saurial's sister, as we're told. Your feelings?"

"She's absolutely horrifying, but in a good way," he replied promptly. "She's a friend of Panacea, who is a friend of mine. Panacea trusts her totally, and I trust Panacea's judgment. Glory Girl likes her as well, so there's that as well."

"How old would you say _she_ is, out of interest?"

He shrugged. "I don't really have any way to answer that, ma'am, aside from videos I've seen, but if I had to guess I'd think around early twenties, or maybe late teens. Older than Saurial."

"Miss Militia's report on the initial encounter of Saurial claims you thought she might be a Changer."

He leaned back in his chair a little, shrugging again. "It was a joke, mainly, because of stuff I'd seen on the internet. But it sort of made sense at the time. When Raptaur came along, though, it didn't make that much sense anymore. I guess it's _possible_ that they both are, but there aren't a lot of Changers who can turn into something as big as Raptaur, right? She must weigh over a ton, she's huge!"

"It's not common, no," Paul commented, making the teen glance at him. "Lung is an obvious one, as is Hookwolf, and there are others but most Changers are normally around no more than two to three times the mass of their human form."

"OK," Clockblocker nodded. "That fits with what I thought I knew."

"So you don't think that either of them are walking around out there looking like normal humans anymore?" Rebecca asked, a slight smile on her face. "' _Hiding among us waiting to take over when we least expect it_ ' was I believe what you commented on PHO."

She thought that based on the reaction he was probably blushing furiously. "No, ma'am," he replied faintly. "That was a joke."

"I see," she said again, making another note, mainly because his reaction amused her. Paul gave her a look which made her smirk internally, but she relented. "All right. Probably best _not_ to make jokes that might insult someone big enough to unscrew your head and use it for a football and who lives locally, but as long as you don't bring the PRT or the Wards into disrepute we don't mind what you do. Within limits."

"I understand, ma'am," he said in an abashed tone. She noted out of the corner of her eye that Emily was hiding a smile.

"Now, moving on. Your impressions of the rather memorable day yesterday."

He looked around at them all again. "That was… unbelievable," he started, sounding both worried and entertained. "I nearly had a heart attack when Kaiju stood up, even after seeing her swimming under the surface. My god, she's _enormous!_ You have no idea, the TV doesn't really show it like staring at her live..."

She listened with interest as he spoke, the others doing the same. Thinking about the situation, she tried to work out what to do. How the DWU had made contact with the Family, where they actually came from, what they really wanted… There were a huge number of questions that she currently had no answers to. Not to mention how three, no, four, reptilian creatures could all Trigger practically simultaneously, two of them so vast as to defy all normal Parahuman rules, or what they'd thought might be rules. There was still so much they didn't know about the Entities and their Agents despite years of work.

Was it possible that Kaiju might be a way to stop the Endbringers? She was undoubtedly at least the second or third strongest Parahuman on the planet at the moment, not including the Endbringers themselves, if what they suspected their origin to be was in fact true. A thought she'd had several times, which always worried her, came to mind. If Endbringers were Triggers that had somehow ended up far outside the normal parameters, possibly Kaiju was another one? One that for whatever reason had ended up cooperative and non-hostile. Umihebi as well, for that matter. The enormous _'sea serpent_ ' was so far an unknown quantity aside from the obvious fact that she didn't like being prodded and had a direct manner to register that disapproval.

So far she hadn't mentioned this idea to anyone, since she was herself very unsure of it, but it made a vague amount of sense if certain assumptions were true. And more sense than most other explanations. The concept of a Changer power being responsible for either Kaiju or Umihebi was, in her opinion, a _very_ long way down the list of possibilities, as Emily's report had correctly also said. Too many things simply didn't fit based on past cases, and as far as she was concerned it was silly to fixate on the extremely unlikely when normally the simpler explanation was the correct one, or at least _more_ correct one. And the idea of four Changers all ending up with near-identical powersets was getting silly. Not to mention that Kaiju had outright stated there were more of them somewhere around.

In Cauldron's experience powers tended to group into common types and sets, with rarer outliers. The combination of observed powers that all the Family members had was unusual to the point of unheard of. _Duplication_ of that combination was something they'd never seen before.

A pair of Changers being the source of Raptaur and Saurial would have made a lot more sense, she could have easily accepted that if it was only them since they had examples of much the same thing happening before, but the other two pretty much ruined that idea, especially given their obvious and stated relationship to the larger creatures. Where they went when they weren't running around the place terrifying everyone she had no idea but she was very curious to find out.

Her pen stopped suddenly, as another rather worrying thought struck her, one she wished she hadn't had.

' _Alien… Could it be? It would explain a lot_.' There were a lot of problems with that idea, but simply based on her own life, she wasn't prepared to reject it entirely. She glanced at David, who was now asking Clockblocker some detailed questions about his observations of Kaiju, then Paul. The latter was listening with an expression which long knowledge of the man told her he was thinking hard, and was also probably not going to mention what it was he was thinking about until he was ready. And that he was somewhat worried although hiding it well.

' _I wonder what he thinks they are and where they came from?_ ' she mused. ' _I'll have to talk to him later._ '

Another, even more worrying thought suddenly made her freeze in mild shock.

' _Is it possible that someone has worked out how to copy powers? Duplicate them? Maybe some other group is doing the same thing we are, but has been more successful_.'

 _That_ thought was very worrying indeed, and also as far as she could see much more likely than an invasion of reptilian aliens who all had weird senses of humor and a current knowledge of American culture. Especially as they had no inkling that such a group existed. ' _Cloning, maybe, or some artificial power inducing ability. It would imply a greater knowledge of the basis of powers than I like to consider someone else having_.' She puzzled over the idea for a few seconds. ' _Not enough data to go on. And where does the anti-thinker power come from? And that damn matter generation power? We've never seen_ _ **that**_ _one before, and the anti-thinker ability is incredibly rare and apparently very complete_.'

They'd checked after the disturbing session with Contessa and James, finding that no Thinker, precog, probability calculator, or similar power appeared to give anything useful at all if directed at any member of the Family. They could get some vague information about people and events surrounding them, with a lot of effort, but it was so far unreliable and the more involved they became the closer to guesswork the data became. No one had any idea why. _Or_ why they often got what was close to a literal error message, something she'd never seen before. When that _didn't_ happen, the Thinker in question got nothing at all, as if the subject they were probing for simply didn't exist.

It was beyond frustrating.

' _Although I think I know why Calvert is having so much trouble with life recently_ ,' she smiled internally. She didn't like the man, but he was a necessary part of the experiment. He'd succeed or fail, either way it was useful data.

' _I wonder… I wonder what effect the anti-thinker ability would have on the Simurgh, if any_.' The thought was… intriguing. It bore further consideration. She made a mental note to allow some time to work through possible ramifications of it when they were done here.

Blinking behind her visor, she reentered the conversation. "Thank you, Clockblocker. That's all very helpful. You may go, I think we've all asked everything we wanted to know."

"Thank you, ma'am," he replied respectfully, not radiating as much nervousness now after being with them for forty minutes or so. He stood up, Paul doing the same and walking over with his hand out.

"Thanks, young man, I'm sorry we pulled you away so suddenly like that." He smiled warmly at the youth, who shook his hand. "If you could make sure not to talk about what we've discussed here I'd be grateful. It's confidential for the moment, I'm sure you understand."

"Of course, sir," Clockblocker replied.

"Call me Legend, son," the older man smiled. "But please, not Mr Foot."

Laughing, Clockblocker shook his head. "OK, Legend. Thank you. Bye, everyone." He lifted a hand in a wave, nodding to Emily, who returned the gesture, then left the room, closing the door behind him with a faint click.

Paul sat down again, smiling a little. "He's a decent young man, I think," he noted, glancing at Emily.

The Director sighed a bit. "He is. Annoying as hell a lot of the time, with a very immature sense of humor, but he's surprisingly responsible despite all that." She seemed very slightly amused. "But I'll never tell _him_ any of that. Aside from the annoying and immature part, of course."

Paul laughed for a moment, nodding. Rebecca watched them both, noting that they shared an ease with each other that was a little odd. Presumably being closeted together with Armsmaster, Miss Militia, and Dragon for hours writing those reports the day before had brought a sort of camaraderie to them all. It was interesting, but irrelevant aside from hopefully promoting closer cooperation.

She looked at David, who was staring at the table in a pose she knew meant he was mulling over what they'd heard, tapping one hand on the notebook he'd written a few things on during the course of the interview. "I think that went well. That's all the Wards. I think we should talk to Armsmaster next, he's had more contact with Raptaur than anyone other than Dragon."

"All right," her colleague agreed. They both turned to Emily, who pulled out her phone and unlocked it.

"He should be here by now," she announced, reading something on it. "I'll find him, he's probably closeted with Kid Win at the moment." Standing, she left the room as well.

* * *

Watching Rebecca, who was emoting deep thought mixed with a cautious curiosity, Paul wondered what was going through his old friend's mind. Eventually, he simply asked. "What are you intending to do when we finish talking to everyone?"

"I'm… not entirely certain," she admitted slowly. "This whole situation is very peculiar to put it mildly, and more than a little concerning. There are a hell of a lot of questions and very few answers. That worries me."

"I'd have to agree," David added quietly.

Paul nodded for a moment. "It's certainly unusual. However, set against that, it seems to be both stable and non-threatening. At least for the moment. The crime figures for the entire city have plummeted to levels lower than anyone can remember for over a decade. None of the major gangs are doing _anything_ at the moment, and in fact my information is that Kaiser has issued a directive that the E88 is to leave the DWU strictly alone under any circumstances." The other two looked curiously at him. He smiled.

"I know some people and made discreet inquiries."

"Who?"

"Just… _people_." He couldn't help chuckling at her mildly exasperated expression. "It doesn't matter. The largest gang in Brockton is temporarily neutralized, even if they've mainly done it to themselves, the second largest one is still licking its wounds after a disastrous run-in with the _Undersiders_ of all people, their leader was threatened with being eaten and no one has seen him since. The Undersiders are no longer a villain group, and the only ones making any trouble are the Merchants, who are largely idiots. Dangerous idiots, true enough, but idiots. Except for their capes the BBPD can deal with them and is doing a fine job since they don't have to chase after the E88 or the ABB right now."

He lifted his hands in a shrug of acceptance. "It probably won't last forever, and even with all this the city is still one of the most dangerous places on the east coast, but it's a massive improvement from three months ago. Personally I think we should keep an eye on it but wait to see what happens."

"Don't you want to know the truth behind everything going on?"

"Of course I do," he replied to David's question. "But, at the moment, not so much that I want to make the city go back to what it used to be. Interfering with things could do that. Or worse. I for one do _not_ want to end up with Kaiju scowling at me and slapping a baseball bat the size of the Washington monument in her palm. Sure, she's never going to sneak up on anyone, unless you're in a boat perhaps, but fighting her is not one of the things I have planned for a long and happy life."

"So what do you suggest?" Rebecca asked.

"Keep investigating, but carefully and respectfully. Don't jump in and force, or try to force, anything. We don't need to push too hard, there's no indication at the moment that there's anything amiss."

"You don't call a half-scale Godzilla doing _civic improvements_ being ' _something amiss_ '?" the woman asked with a tone of incredulity.

"It's odd, I'll grant you that," he grinned, "but having talked to her, I think she's being truthful about wanting to help. Certainly city hall and the DWU think so, and probably half the city is on their side at the moment. We can't afford to mess this up. Against the background of our world, this is one of the few bright spots I've seen for years, even with all the questions surrounding everything. After all, there's no crime in what's going on and we have no legitimate reason to believe it's anything other than what the public have been told by Mayor Christner."

Rebecca folded her arms and tilted her chair back, staring at the ceiling. "You have some good points. I'm not convinced we can just pretend nothing is going on, though. Brockton Bay is one thing, but what happens when they start moving further afield? Umihebi could be in Miami in hours, for example. The panic that would occur… It wouldn't help things. Not to mention all the international interest there is in what's going on here at the moment. Practically every country on the planet is at this moment planning how to either stop Kaiju, or hire her, I guarantee it. It could get messy." She looked back at him. "Frankly I'm amazed that our _own_ government hasn't freaked out more than they have. Governor Scott seems to have pulled some strings I didn't know he had."

Paul sighed. "I know, and like you just said, you have some good points. I can't answer most of them right now. I'm just advising caution."

"We need to find out what Kaiju is really capable of," David remarked after they'd been silent for a few seconds. Both the others looked at him, Rebecca curiously and Paul with a sinking sensation.

"I really don't think we do," he said quickly. "What we already know is bad enough. Don't push your luck just because you're curious if you could take her. Whether you could or not, and I sure wouldn't want to call it one way or the other, the end result would be… less than ideal."

"But what if it turns out she's easily provoked?" his friend asked mildly. "I mean, Kaiser might suddenly decide to call in some heavy artillery or something from his friends overseas. Or that fool Skidmark could try something. I've read the reports, the man is an idiot. If it turns out she has a hair trigger temper, we need to know to make plans on what to do about it."

"I _really_ don't think that's either necessary, _or_ a good idea," Paul replied, worry gathering. His friend was always looking to prove himself, he knew that, the man had a deeply buried sense of insecurity despite being one of the acknowledged three most powerful Parahumans in the world, but this was just silly. "Provoking a reaction deliberately just to see what happens isn't a smart thing to do with _any_ Parahuman, never mind one that can literally eat cars like skittles. Trust me, leave it alone. Please."

There was a pause, then David nodded, not replying. Paul let out a silent sigh of relief. That could have been awkward.

"I still want to meet her, I think," Rebecca put in. "And the other two. I need to get a feel for them for myself, if nothing else just to settle my own curiosity."

"Raptaur and Saurial should be easy enough," he said. "You could probably bump into either one just wandering around the city, but going to BBFO would be the simplest solution. We should call ahead, though, from what I was told they're not always there. As far as Kaiju goes, who knows where she is? But I know that the DWU is working on the tanker at the moment and she's going to be around helping on and off for the next week. If you want to stay around Brockton Bay for a couple of days, we'll probably have a chance to meet her." He chuckled, adding, "All you have to do is stand on the roof and wait for an enormous lizard to wade out of the sea. You'd see her from here or the Rig easily enough."

Rebecca nodded with a small smile. "I may do that. Director Costa-Brown is scheduled to turn up tomorrow anyway, so I can stay around for her." They all shared a tiny grin at that.

"I suppose I should also stay for the moment," David remarked. He sounded amused. "The poor criminals in this city must not know what's happened. First a series of steadily larger and more horrific lizard-people turn up, then the three of _us_. Must make business difficult for the ones that aren't stupid."

Paul couldn't help laughing at the dry comment. He was still chuckling when the door opened again to admit Emily Piggot and Armsmaster.

* * *

Feeling her phone vibrate, Lisa pulled it out and looked at it.

' _At BBFO, need some input, please. Bring your helmet. S._ '

Wondering what Taylor needed her advice on, but extremely curious and looking forward to finding out, Lisa sat up on her bed, closing the book she'd been reading, then got up. Digging the small backpack that her new helmet was in out of one of the cupboards, she left the room, soon finding herself jogging through the darkened yard towards the Family offices. When she got there she inspected the unfamiliar van, letting her power loose on it.

 _Fifteen years old_

Tinker vehicle, very dangerous

Belongs to Leet

Leet and Über talking to Taylor

Asking for help on project

She blinked. That was a little unexpected, but offered some intriguing possibilities. Smiling a little, she plopped her helmet on her head after quickly looking around, seeing no one about at the moment although she could hear Rachel's dogs making faint sounds in the warehouse that had been converted into kennels. Walking over to the door, she tried it and found it locked, then knocked.

A few seconds later, it was opened a crack, a balaclava-ed face peering out suspiciously. "Tattletale, right?"

"Yep. You're Über."

"I am. Come in." He swung the door open and admitted her, then quickly shut it again. She watched him lock it, then he held out a hand, which she shook. "Nice to meet you. Taylor tells us you know pretty much everything. About everything."

She grinned, as he laughed. "Not quite, despite appearances. But I try. So what do you need me for..."

Lisa turned around, seeing Über's companion standing in the middle of the room, next to…

" _GAAAHHH!_ "

* * *

There was a deep sigh. "Yes, she does that sometimes for some reason. Sorry, guys. Stick her on that chair, she'll be back in the room soon enough."

"You have some odd friends."

"I know. Trust me, I know." The sigh repeated itself. "What do you think about the color?"

"It looks amazing. The horns aren't quite right yet, though, they need to be swept back more."

"Like this?"

A short pause was followed by a thoughtful mutter.

"Not bad, not bad at all. Now, wings. We need wings. Big ones."

"I'm probably too heavy to fly, you know." The voice sounded very disappointed.

"True, but it's the right look."

Another pause.

"That's pretty good. Make the neck about two feet longer and add some more spikes on the spine."

"How about this."

" _Wow_. It looks pretty damn close."

A different voice cut in, "This is going to be _incredible!_ "

Three sets of laughter went on for a couple of seconds. "We need Amy for this as well, I think. That will have to wait until the weekend, but I'll talk to her tomorrow. I bet people look _really_ confused."

"I sure hope so, or we're wasting our time. Now, the next thing is..."

The laughter and instructions continued for some while, during which Lisa slept, her mind yet again trying to deal with the insanity of the Heberts.

It was having something of a hard time over that.


	108. Omake - With This Ring

_Various comments on SpaceBattles led to this idea for a more than one million view celebratory Omake..._

* * *

Rebecca looked up at the sign over the door and slowly shook her head. Checking to her sides, she saw that David seemed confused based on body language and Paul was grinning. She sighed a little, the latter seemed to be taking the entire 'Family' problem as at least half a joke these days.

They'd been trying to track down any of the reptiles for over two weeks now, having found that some reason they'd all suddenly become remarkably difficult to intercept. All three of them had arrived at a place that they'd heard Raptaur or Saurial was apparently mere minutes before, only to have missed them.

She had personally visited one convenience store that Saurial was known to visit and buy cartons of eggs from four times in the last week, each time being told by the shop keeper that the lizard girl had only just left. By the third time he was looking far more amused than she felt was appropriate, causing her to frown slightly. This only had the effect of making him grin.

David had tried chasing down Raptaur a number of times as well, at the DWU, at various places around the city, and even in the bay itself, with no more luck than she'd had. He'd become rather snappy about how often he'd missed her by seconds.

They'd tried phoning as well, the BBFO number having a recording in an irritatingly cheerful and chirpy voice stating that the Family was currently busy and would call back if you left a message, but they couldn't say exactly when due to the big project they were working on. Calls to the DWU had been no more helpful, although everyone she'd spoken to as either Alexandria or Chief Director Costa-Brown had been handled politely and respectfully.

There had been one brief sighting of Kaiju in the distance, apparently talking to some people at a bar on the docks, but the vast lizard-like creature had sunk back into the water as she was approaching, waving to her in a friendly manner, then disappearing completely. Even Armsmaster's quick search with the sonar system they'd installed a few days earlier had shown no trace of her aside from a fleeting contact moving out to sea at high speed, deep below the surface.

A discreet attempt to look inside the rear of the building late one night a few days ago had been frustrated by the discovery that under the wood and metal was a totally impenetrable layer of that weird EDM material, which didn't even have the decency to flex when she'd lost her temper and punched it as hard as she could. Her fist just bounced with a loud thud. Feeling very embarrassed about something that was out of character she'd quickly zipped off across the water, hoping no one noticed.

She and David, at least, were getting really irritated. Paul had laughed quite a lot when she'd shamefacedly confessed to trying to peek inside the facility, and a lot more when two days later an invoice for two hundred and thirty dollars worth of repair work had arrived at the Rig care of Armsmaster, for her attention. It had a note attached politely requesting that in future she make an appointment via the DWU office.

In the end she'd stomped into Danny Hebert's office and loomed over his desk, demanding that he make certain that she be notified immediately when any of the Family members were on site next. He'd calmly agreed, taken her number, offered her a cup of coffee, then waved when she'd left. The blonde girl who was sitting at a table on the other side of the office working on a computer hadn't helped by smirking at her in an unbearably smug manner as if she knew something Rebecca didn't.

Now, finally, they'd learned that Saurial was definitely inside the building and apparently working on some project, not planning on going anywhere. All three of them had hastily rushed over to meet her, Rebecca now wanting more than just a brief chat. She was wondering, in fact, if the entire Family was deliberately avoiding them, but couldn't work out how they were managing it so effectively.

Looking once more at her companions, she half-smiled when Paul made a polite ' _after you_ ' gesture to the pedestrian door next to the huge roller shutter. Behind him, off to the side of the small courtyard lined with other similar buildings, she could see a number of people watching them, including the irritating blonde girl and a tall young man in a leather jacket, who seemed to be a friend of hers. The girl nodded politely to her but there was a look of amusement in her eyes.

Slightly gritting her teeth, feeling that they were somehow being played for fools, Rebecca approached the door and rapped firmly on it.

There was a long pause.

Eventually, she heard a faint click as it was unlocked and opened to reveal the tall slender and scaly form of the first of the Family to have hit Brockton Bay two months ago. Saurial looked at them, then smiled, exposing a substantial number of teeth.

"Hi!" she said brightly. "The entire Triumvirate! I'm honored. Come in."

Stepping to one side she waved them through. "You should have dropped by earlier, from what I know you've been in town for weeks. I've wanted to meet you, Mr Foot." She grinned at Paul, who sighed good-naturedly. "Sorry, I mean Legend. Although I thought Kaiju's little joke was hilarious."

"You and half the planet," he commented wryly.

"I hope it didn't offend you too much," she said.

He shook his head. "Not really. Although certain people in my life have had far too much fun with it." He sighed a little, rather theatrically, making her giggle.

Having suppressed a slight twitch of irritation at the lizard-girl's comment, Rebecca took a couple of careful calming breaths. All she wanted to to was talk to her for a while and come to her own conclusions about her. Paul was already of the opinion this was largely a waste of time and they should leave well enough alone and just monitor the situation for the moment, while David was clearly still curious about what would happen in a fight with Kaiju. Having seen the creature at a distance, she wasn't sure this was necessarily a good idea. Paul had had a point during their first conversation.

"I'm sorry we've all been busy," Saurial went on, walking further into the building having shut the door again. "Raptaur is out of town, Kaiju's working on cataloging some wrecks off shore, and I've been making things in between picking up gang members." She frowned a little, her oddly expressive scaled face looking pensive. "Although there are a lot less of those guys around at the moment for some reason. Bit weird. Oh well, I doubt that will last. So what did you guys want to talk about?"

She was walking into the interior of the building, waving to them to follow, which they did. Based on the comments from Emily, Miss Militia, and Armsmaster, Rebecca had expected a single very big room with a smaller self-contained workshop to one side, but what they saw now was a barrier running from side to side half-way down the length of the building. It was a featureless sheet of gray metal.

Their side had the workshop block, a large table with a number of chairs around it on the other side, a smaller workbench running down one side that had several computers and a coffee machine on it and a couple of small refrigerators under it, and some bookshelves next to the large table. Curious, she stopped next to the bookshelf nearest her and scanned the titles. They were all reference books, half a dozen on chemistry, starting at college level and going up to degree level titles, some similar ones on physics and electronics, and quite a lot of biology texts.

In addition there were a number on firearms design, one entitled ' _Theoretical Nuclear Physics_ ' which made her pause for a moment, and several mathematics texts that were far past her own experience level.

There were also a surprisingly large number of history books, including three on Roman engineering. These ones looked old but well cared for and had obviously been read many times.

' _Interesting_ ,' she mused silently. ' _Quite an eclectic library_.'

Saurial, in the meantime, had waved Paul and David to a couple of the chairs, and was now watching her with a small smile visible. "Coffee, while I think of it?" she asked.

Rebecca shook her head. "Nothing for me, thanks." David also demurred, although Paul nodded his thanks. The girl quickly made him a cup and handed it to him, then sat as well.

She looked inquiringly at them, waiting.

"It was mostly a wish to meet you and hopefully your sisters," Rebecca slowly began, sitting down and trying to think of the best way to put things. "Considering the rather… unusual... events that have taken place in this city over the last few weeks, and all the interest that has been attracted as a result, we're interested in finding out more about you all. Not that we have any problem with any of it, of course." She glanced at Paul as she said it.

"Of course," Saurial echoed, an easily recognizable expression of amusement crossing her face. "That's understandable. What can I tell you?"

"A little about your family, perhaps?"

She looked at David, then shrugged. "I can't go into details, I'm afraid. It's a security thing, no disrespect intended. We're pretty private as you probably already know. Partly because we just are and partly to protect people who we like from harm. Not everyone is as tough as we are and we don't want them put at risk because some idiot decided to have a go at any of us through them." Her smile was suddenly very predatory. "It wouldn't end well for them, of course, but why risk if it we don't need to?"

Despite herself, Rebecca felt uneasy. There was something about that smile…

"We understand, trust me," Paul put in, somewhat hastily. "We're not going to push. None of you have done anything wrong. This is only really a courtesy call." He glanced at Rebecca and David, a warning look in his eyes. Saurial nodded agreeably, the danger going away again.

"Sure, I get it. You're curious. I would be too." Hopping to her feet, she headed for the door into the rear half of the building. "Hey, want to see something cool?"

"I suppose the answer would have to be yes," Rebecca replied. Paul was already following her. David looked at her, then got up, as did she. The reptilian cape stopped next to the wall and put her hand on it. A door formed out of nothing in a somewhat spooky manner, which she then pulled open.

"I'm working on some body armor I though the PRT and police might be interested in," she said as she disappeared through the opening. They all followed, then stopped dead, looking around. "It's sort of based on the costume we made for Panacea, but using a different helmet design a friend of mine mentioned. It's cool, it opens at the back, and I've figured out how to make it adjustable so different size people can use it. The ones New Wave have are custom made and only fit them properly, you see."

She was heading to a mannequin to one side of the room, which was dressed in something a lot like the normal PRT trooper combat armor, although there were significant differences.

All of this Rebecca noticed absently, since most of her attention was on the other side of the room and what was standing against it.

Paul exchanged a look with her and David, then went back to staring like they were. Eventually Saurial looked over her shoulder, apparently realizing that her bright chatter was going unheard. She followed their eyes.

"Oh, do you like it?"

"Isn't that..."

Rebecca licked her lips. Could _this_ explain everything odd about the Family?

"That looks exactly like..."

Paul was cut off as Saurial joined them.

"I'm quite pleased with it, actually."

"You have a Stargate." David's voice was flat and expressionless.

"Yep."

"A _Stargate._ "

"Yep."

All four of them gazed at the huge metallic ring structure mounted on a complex pedestal near the wall, a ramp leading up to it. It looked exactly like the one from the Aleph show they'd all watched. Heavy cables led from the base down into the floor, and there was a control console with a whole series of large buttons, each having an ideograph on it, to one side of the thing. Each symbol corresponded to a matching one around the rim of the inner ring, while there were a number of wedge-shaped mechanisms mounted around the circumference of the outer one. She could see that the inner ring would rotate while the outer one was fixed in place.

"It took me nearly three days to make it," Saurial said in the quiet. "But it came out pretty well, didn't it?" She walked over and patted the device.

It looked extremely real.

The entire thing was clearly made of metal and must have weighed tons. It wasn't a plastic prop. Rebecca shook her head, quite hard, then blinked a little, before looking again.

It was still there.

"It's just a replica, of course," Saurial told them, smiling up at it. "But I think it looks really cool." After a moment, she shrugged. "Anyway, that's not important. Have a look at this armor. Do you think the PRT would be interested in it? We're still trying to work out a fair price, but I think we can probably be very competitive with the normal suppliers and it's much tougher. A guy I know in the BBPD is very interested in it as well."

She walked past them back to the other side and picked the helmet off the mannequin, fiddling with it.

Rebecca glanced at her, then her colleagues. David was staring at the ' _Stargate_ ' with apparent fascination, while Paul was now smiling weirdly.

After some seconds, unable to prevent herself, Rebecca slowly went over to the ' _control console_ ' and looked at it for a moment, then reached out and poked one of the symbols.

Just to see what happened.

She twitched as it beeped, then reluctantly turned at the sound of moving machinery.

They watched open-mouthed as the inner ring smoothly turned, almost silently, until it stopped in a new position. One of the wedge-shaped mechanisms on the periphery clicked out then back, a light on it illuminating brightly.

The console had a screen on which the words ' _Chevron 1 Encoded and Locked_ ' appeared in friendly blue text.

"Um..." She found herself unable to continue.

"Hey! Please don't fiddle with that, I had it set up just right."

Saurial dashed over, looking mildly irritated, to stare at the thing. She sighed. "Now I have to reset it all." They watched as she quickly hit several more switches in a rapid sequence. The ring started rotating again, each clamp engaging one after the other. There was a rising hum building somewhere below them and a feeling of static in the air.

' _Chevron 2 Encoded and Locked_ '  
' _Chevron 3 Encoded and Locked_ '  
' _Chevron 4 Encoded and Locked_ '  
' _Chevron 5 Encoded and Locked_ '  
' _Chevron 6 Encoded and Locked_ '

Rebecca watched the screen with a building feeling of worried confusion.

It was only a TV show, after all. She _knew_ that. Mildly entertaining, some good acting and funny dialog, but only a show.

So why was she getting nervous?

Saurial muttered to herself as the ring suddenly stopped, an alarm beeping somewhere. Looking annoyed, she slid under the console and poked around. "Ah." The lizard-girl re-emerged, smiling. "Still working the bugs out." With the press of a switch, the ring reengaged, rotating the final amount to allow the seventh clamp to lock and illuminate.

' _Chevron 7 Encoded and Locked_ '

The hum peaked, then there was a crackling sound. They watched in awe as the center of the ring disappeared into a cloud of sparkling blue energy, exactly like on the show. The rippling light looked like water, impossibly hanging vertically. Saurial smiled happily.

"Good, isn't it?" she chirped. Reaching out she tapped a button and the light vanished instantly, all the indicators around the ring going out at the same time. "Great, that's back in the right position. Please don't fiddle with it, guys."

She wandered off again.

"What just happened?"

David's query was plaintive.

"I… am not sure," Rebecca sighed. She turned to look at Saurial who was now peering into the inside of the helmet, an expression of concentration on her face. "But I think we should be cautious."

Slowly approaching, she waited for Saurial to look up at her. "How did that do what it did?" she asked carefully, pointing back at the ring structure.

"Hmm? Oh, that's just a holographic projector I got from Leet. Cool, isn't it? Looks exactly like the real one on the show."

"Holographic?"

Rebecca didn't know whether to be relieved or disappointed.

"Yep. I like that show, I always wanted a Stargate of my own. Now I have one." Saurial grinned. "We all like movies. You humans have really interesting imaginations. Raptaur wants to make some props now as well, and Kaiju was talking about one she liked."

"I see," Rebecca replied slowly.

"Yep, it's pretty big though." Saurial laughed. "We're going to need to find some land outside the city, I think, if we make her a full scale _Battlestar Galactica_ replica."

* * *

When they left an hour later, Rebecca didn't know if she was _more_ or _less_ worried than she'd been before, but she was certain of one thing.

She was _extremely_ confused.

And rather relieved that Saurial _didn't_ , in fact, have a working wormhole transportation device. That would just have added an extra layer of complications to what was already far more complicated than she liked.

It still left the question of where the Family came from in the first place up in the air, though.

Sighing, she decided she needed a drink. Possibly two.

* * *

Taylor stared at her replica, rubbing her chin thoughtfully. The little joke on the Triumvirate had been amusing, but it had also led to some interesting thoughts.

"You really think we could link a portal spell into this thing?" she asked the Varga out loud.

" _I believe so, Brain,_ " he replied, sounding interested. " _It would be an amusing way to do it. Portals are advanced magic, though, so it would take some time to teach you how to do it. Perhaps one day_."

She smiled. "That could be a lot of fun. Oh, well, back to work." Returning to the bench she picked up the helmet again, while she waited for Amy and Lisa to get there.


	109. Guest Omake - Little Bags of Nothing

_Guest Omake - Little Bags of Nothing (By JimmXinu)_

* * *

"Saurial, what are you doing?" Kid Win asked.

"Handing balloons out to kids."

"You know what's the most fun about balloons?" Clockblocker asked in a nostalgic tone, "Popping them. Preferably other kids' balloons, of course."

Vista gave Clockblocker a dirty look, "You were always _that kid_ , weren't you."

"You're _creating_ balloons, already filled with helium..." Kid Win said.

"Not helium," Saurial said distractedly, handing over a bright blue balloon on a string to the next child in line. That earned her a quick hug and a lisped 'Thank you.'

" _Hydrogen_ balloons?" Kid Win asked in a strangled voice.

"No, of course not."

"Well good, rubber balloons filled with hydrogen would be dangerous."

"Not rubber either."

Clockblocker rifled around in his pockets a moment before asking Kid Win, "Hey, you have a pin in there somewhere?"

Kid Win, frowning at the next balloon-red this time-absently handed Clockblocker a stick pin he had. (For reasons. Thank you, Armsmaster.)

Vista rolled her eyes and joined the end of the line.

"Mylar? And if it's not helium or hydrogen, what are they filled with?"

Saurial smirked and handed Kid Win the string to a shiny metallic balloon. "Nothing."

Kid Win's jaw worked up and down a couple times, "You're making balloons filled with _vacuum_? And handing them out to kids?"

Kid Win completely missed Clockblocker's eyes lighting up as he stabbed KW's balloon with the pin, pushing the balloon away a little, but causing no damage.

"Is filled really the right word for something 'full' of vacuum? Anyway, they last for a day and then slowly lose structure so they fill with air and sink before disappearing. And the string is just string. Amy had Raptaur giving them out at the hospital last week. It's a proven design."

Clockblocker, after jabbing his own finger once and yelping, had started stabbing Kid Win's silver balloon again and again to no more result than before. Kid Win continued to not notice the mild tugs on the string. Saurial smirked.

"Hang on, how are you putting a _vacuum_ in a balloon-ohmigod, you're making _Saurialsteel balloons_!"

Clockblocker gave up on the pin and clapped his hands together as hard as he could with KW's balloon between them. Then he started jumping up and down waving his stinging hands about and tried desperately not to expand the vocabulary of the children around them.

Kid Win and the balloon both ignored his antics entirely.

Saurial grinned, "Yep. A little tiny thin layer of EDM with some color on the outside. It started as a thought experiment, but it turned out to be useful."

Reaching the front of the line, Vista asked, "Useful for what?"

Grinning at Vista, Saurial created a balloon in dark blue with the Family's lizard head emblem on it and handed her the string. "Making unpoppable balloons." Then she handed CB a white balloon with a clock face on it. "Otherwise _that kid_ always pops your balloon."

Back at base after their patrol, Missy got a text from Saurial:

 _btw, your balloon is permanent. cb's very isn't_

Missy grinned. And then frowned, trying to make sense of the second part before shrugging it away.

A moment later, there was a _crack_ sound from the next room and Dennis' voice swearing about lizards and ' _slowly my ass_ '.


	110. Ruminations and Appointments

**Thursday, February 17, 2011** **  
**  
Looking at his reflection in the bathroom mirror, Danny smiled a little, then turned sideways to look at his profile. He poked his stomach with a finger, before shaking his head slightly. Putting his shirt on, he thought, ' _Not bad for a middle aged desk jockey. Amy does good work, since I got her gift I've felt like I was twenty again_.' He buttoned the shirt up then frowned at the mirror, leaning forward to inspect his face. A moment later he wiped the little bit of shaving foam that had escaped the towel from his right ear, nodded happily at his reflection, which nodded back, and headed downstairs to make breakfast for himself and Taylor.

She came down a few minutes later, looking contented, as she so often did these days. It was still something he found himself marveling at, although the guilt he felt over how they'd drifted apart for over two years was slowly subsiding.

On the whole, neither of them had anything to complain about now. He was determined to make certain to the best of his ability that her life was as good as it could be. Oddly enough, he was pretty sure she was doing the same in the other direction. He could live with that, it seemed to be working and had significant benefits.

"Did you have fun with your new little friends last night?" he asked, grinning at her.

She giggled. "I did, actually. They're cool guys, and smart too. They know way more about video games and movies than any normal person should, but I guess normal isn't the word best used to describe them."

"I hope you three aren't going to get _too_ carried away," he sighed, flipping the pancakes he was making.

"No, of course not, Dad," she protested. "Would I do that?"

He looked over her shoulder at her, raising one eyebrow wordlessly. She had the grace to look mildly embarrassed. "OK, maybe I would. We'll be careful."

"I still have a feeling of impending doom," he commented, going back to the cooking.

"Lisa was kind of surprised, but when she came around she had some good ideas," Taylor remarked as she set the table.

"The feeling of doom is getting stronger."

"I'm going to talk to Amy later as well, we'll need to get her involved."

" _Much_ stronger..."

"Dad!" She stared at him, while his dead-pan face finally broke into a grin.

"Joking, dear, joking. I'm sure you and your compatriots won't make _too_ many abominations of nature and flood the city with them just because you think it's funny."

She looked thoughtful as she filled a glass with orange juice. "How many is too many?"

"Ah… Let me rephrase that. _Please_ don't flood the city with _any quantity_ of abominations of nature." Putting the food on the table, he folded his arms and looked sternly at his daughter, who sighed sadly.

"No one _ever_ wants to let us play with our toys in public," she muttered, before breaking down in laughter.

Now also chuckling, he sat down.

"It's probably best to keep your heads down a little with the entire Triumvirate in town, anyway. Aside from Legend, they're not known for having much of a sense of humor. I can see the combination of you, the Varga, Amy, Lisa, and Über and Leet being a bit much for their peace of mind. Very easily."

"You don't give us enough credit," she smiled, pouring syrup on her pancakes.

"On the contrary, I give you more than enough credit. I know what you and the Varga are capable of on your _own_ , never mind with those others involved." He shuddered deliberately, making her grin again. "All of you put together is enough to make poor Director Piggot's head explode from here."

"We'll keep it down, don't worry. We came up with several really funny ideas for things we could do. Some of them based on Über and Leet's normal routines, some that Lisa came up with, and a couple I thought of as well. They're not all video game themed, but Leet suggested it might be a good idea to try something different anyway and was really getting into it. He's really smart."

"You like those guys?"

"Yes, I do. I always have, actually," she replied, waving her fork around, then stabbing it into the stack of pancakes again. "True, they've done some pretty silly things in the past, but mostly they're very entertaining and seem to go out of their way to avoid hurting anyone. The collateral damage is sometimes a little excessive, but at least half of that was down to the heroes overreacting. Mainly Vicky."

"She does have a reputation for not looking past her current target, that girl," he agreed as he sipped his coffee. "Although from what I'm told that's gotten a lot better in the last two, three weeks. I hope it continues. I guess she's growing up and thinking things through a little more."

"Probably," Taylor agreed with a smile. "I like her, I don't want to see her get in trouble."

"She's a nice girl, like her sister." Danny put the coffee mug down. "It's tonight your friends from school are coming over, isn't it?"

"Yes, around five. I'm going to stop to get some more snacks and stuff on the way home. Are you going to be around?"

"I'll probably be back about half past seven, maybe eight. There's quite a lot of work to do, although Lisa has helped with some of that more than I expected."

"Maybe you should make her your assistant," Taylor suggested with an amused look. "Her abilities would really work for you then. I think that it would be nice to give her something legitimate to do, and I don't like thinking of her ending up bored out of her mind while she's stuck there. Brian seems happy, Alec is OK, and Rachel is fine as long as she has her dogs. But Lisa has way too active a mind not to use it."

"It's certainly a thought," he replied after a couple of seconds. "To be honest I'd been considering the idea myself. She's very good with computers even without the powers, and with them she's incredible. The girl is also pretty insightful generally and is obviously really good with people. Hmm. I'll talk to her about it."

"Great. Leave her some time for helping me, though." His daughter laughed a little as he smiled.

"Some of the guys are hanging around Rachel's kennel quite a lot of the time," he mentioned as he finished his breakfast. "She's an odd girl, hard to read, but she seems to be OK with it as long as they respect the dogs. I know several people at the yard who really like dogs, so I wouldn't be surprised to see a number of her strays get adopted."

"Tell them to be really nice to them, or she'll get annoyed," Taylor advised with a smile. "You don't want an annoyed Rachel coming after you. From what Lisa told me she's a good fighter and could probably kick their asses even _without_ powers in a lot of cases."

Danny chuckled. "I've made sure everyone knows not to take her for granted," he told her. "I'm almost certain that practically everyone in the entire place knows who all of the Undersiders are anyway, but I'm _sure_ they all know who Rachel Lindt is. No one wants to upset her, _or_ the Family as a result of upsetting Rachel. They'll be careful."

"Good. That poor girl has had too many things go wrong in her life," Taylor sighed. "I feel a bit sorry for her. But as least at the moment she seems happy enough."

She finished with her own plate, getting up and clearing things away. Soon she was washing the dishes while he watched. "Oh, while I think about it, would Kaiju be available tomorrow afternoon for a couple of hours?" he asked with a smile. She grinned over her shoulder at him.

"Sure, I expect so. She's somewhere in the area. Why?"

"We need to make a set of the big filter packs we discussed, and some of the guys worked out how large they need to be for the most efficient operation. It's pretty big, about forty feet high and twenty around, so Kaiju would find it easier than Raptaur would, I think. Plus we want to resurface the scrapping area, all the prep work will be done by tomorrow around mid-day. I thought that you could probably do that in an hour or so, and again, having Kaiju do it would let people see her helping out."

She nodded slowly. "Seems reasonable. No problem, I'll head over right after school. I have a free period last anyway, I can probably ask and get away an hour early, I'm ahead on my homework. You're sure it's not taking work away from anyone?"

"Only work that no one wants to do and would rather watch done," he laughed. "Don't worry, you're not taking money away from anyone."

"Good, I wouldn't want to do that."

He watched as she finished washing the dishes, then got up to dry them. "I had a call from that Boston TV studio that sent the helicopter out on Tuesday," he said after a moment. She looked curiously at him.

"They want to interview me, and Roy as well, about the plans for the city. Something more in depth than his press conference. I talked to him and he thinks it would be a good idea. While people in the city seem remarkably pleased, overall, some other places are getting a bit worked up about everything. He thinks it would help calm them down. Maybe I should suggest that they interview Kaiju as well? Just a few simple questions to show that she's a calm and rational person, not a huge monster." He thought for a moment, then smirked at her. "Well, not _just_ a huge monster."

Giggling, she nodded again. "Why not. It sounds fun."

"OK. I'll call the reporter when I get to work and tell them that you'll be around tomorrow. I don't know if Roy will come, they may interview him separately, but it doesn't matter anyway."

"All right, that sounds good." She looked at the clock. "Better run. See you tonight, Dad. Say hi to Lisa for me."

She kissed his cheek, grinned at him, then disappeared out the door of the kitchen, the back door closing seconds later behind him. Smiling to himself, he poured the last of the coffee into his mug, drank it, rinsed the cup out, then headed to his office to get his briefcase.

* * *

"Why do you think they're still here?" Dennis whispered, looking around carefully to make sure no one else overheard. His friends all knew who _they_ were.

"I think they want to find out what's going on with the Family," Carlos replied in a similarly low voice. "I'm not surprised, I want to know as well."

"They asked some weird questions," Chris mumbled. Carlos looked at him and he blushed a little. "Which I can't say anything about."

Dennis nodded, as did Dean. Their nominal leader looked around the table. "Really? All of you?"

"And Missy," Dennis said very quietly. "Anyone who's met our local cute lizard-girl."

"Interesting."

Dennis saw that Carlos was intrigued, slightly annoyed about being out of the loop, but professional enough not to ask. It didn't stop him speculating, though. He looked around quickly again to see if anyone was paying attention to them, all four boys leaning together over the lunch table. Vicky was sitting next to her sister at the table half-way across the cafeteria, both of them talking to Taylor Hebert with the other four who normally hung around together listening. The Hebert girl seemed to be in a good mood, although he couldn't hear what Vicky was saying.

No one any closer was paying any more attention, so he returned his focus to the others. "So the entire Triumvirate has been with Piggot and they're looking into the Family..." Carlos murmured almost to himself, while the other three listened, exchanging glances. "Asking questions about Saurial. And I assume Raptaur and Kaiju as well." He looked at them. They all looked back blankly, which made him smile a little.

"And you can neither confirm nor deny any of this. I get it."

"I'm sure you have secrets as well, leader-man," Dennis snickered.

Carlos put a superior expression on his face, looking remarkably like Vicky did when she was in that sort of mood. "Of course I do. As the highest ranking one, I know the most."

"The oldest one, you mean," Chris grinned. "Old and tired. Decrepit, even. Soon, you will go gray and begin to fade, your mind slowly going..."

Carlos poked him with a finger right in the chest, and held another one across his lips.

"Shh. Don't let everyone _know_ how silly you are, let them keep guessing," he grinned. Dennis laughed loudly at the unusually playful mood. Chris flicked the intruding fingers away with a put-upon sigh.

"I wonder what they're going to do next?" Dean mused softly.

They all exchanged a look. "I'd guess probably visit BBFO?" Dennis hazarded. "And talk to Mayor Christner, the DWU, that sort of thing. Not to mention try to track down Kaiju."

"She's already talked to Mr Foot," Chris smirked, making the red-head chuckle again.

"True enough, but I expect they'll want to talk as well. Wouldn't you?"

""Hell, no, I want to stay as far away from her as I can get," Carlos muttered, looking appalled. "You did see the same thing I did, right? She's fucking enormous."

"And seems to be friendly and helpful," Dean commented, looking thoughtful. "So far."

"I just have trouble with something big enough to step on me without noticing," the older boy sighed. "Even if I was in my car."

Dennis shrugged, smiling. "She's probably just eat you, not step on you," he joked.

" _Not_ helping, Dennis."

"I hope to god they're careful and don't provoke her," Dean said after a moment. "Have you _seen_ some of the stuff on PHO about what an Alexandria VS Kaiju fight would do to the city?"

"Seen it? I _wrote_ a lot of it," Dennis snickered. "But it wouldn't be good, no."

He looked guiltily around again. "I tried to find out what the threat assessment report for the Family said, but it's restricted access right now," he whispered even more quietly than before, forcing the other three to lean closer. "There's a note saying it's under review, access only to level 5 security clearance and up. It make me think they're as confused as the rest of us are about it all, and worried."

"Don't push your luck, Dennis," Carlos whispered back in a warning tone. "With the Triumvirate around and watching, Piggot will kick your ass if you do something stupid. More than she would normally. Be careful."

"I don't see that we need the report anyway," Chris added. "We already have a good idea. Saurial, Do Not Fuck With. Raptaur, Seriously, Do _Not_ Fuck With. Kaiju, just... _NO._ " He grinned as they all stared at him, then nodded as one. "That should be enough to work with."

"Not wrong there," Dennis smiled. "I still can't work out how Amy wasn't even slightly worried about either of them." He glanced at the Dallon girl who was listening to something that Chinese girl Lucy was saying, both of them looking amused. "Any of them, actually, she was one of the first to meet Kaiju. You heard her voice on the radio?"

"I know, it's a little weird. That girl has hidden depths," Carlos commented, sounding mildly approving. Dean nodded slowly, as did Chris.

"And scary friends." Chris shrugged. "But she and her family got forty grand for a days work, and costumes worth at a conservative estimate nearly a million dollars on top of that, so those friends are obviously good for them. Never mind all the city rebuilding stuff. Everyone seems really excited about that. My dad thinks it's the best thing to happen here for decades. Maybe ever. He said that the DWU will have people lining up around the block to get hired when they start having more jobs available."

"That wouldn't surprise me," Carlos remarked. "Interesting times, certainly."

They all guiltily jerked when Vicky's head suddenly joined their huddle, a grin on her face. "Hi!" she said loudly. "Something fun going on?"

Shaking his head, Dennis laughed. "Just boy talk. Nothing a pretty girl should worry her head over." He patted her golden locks as she fixed him with a hard look. "No jewelry or anything like that."

"You're an idiot, Dennis," she laughed after a moment, punching him affectionately on the shoulder. She watched, as did half the cafeteria, as he fell off his chair and sprawled across the floor. A general wave of hilarity spread out around the room. Sighing, he climbed to his feet.

"Oops. Don't know my own strength."

"As the entire city is sadly well aware of," he quipped, retaking his seat, then rubbing his shoulder for a moment. "Thanks."

"No problem. Any time," she giggled, sitting next to Dean. "Speaking of jewelry..."

Dean sighed heavily as she gave him a winning smile. Dennis and the others started grinning.

It was always funny watching her twist him around her finger.

* * *

" _That was interesting, wasn't it?_ "

' _It was_ ,' Taylor agreed silently, reflecting on the conversation they'd overheard. ' _It proves Carlos is Aegis, as well._ " That was fairly obvious from the comments from his friends. She was a little surprised that they'd even talk about such subjects in school, but no one other than someone like her could have overheard without being very obvious about it, so it wasn't entirely unexpected. After a moment she added, " _I wonder what our threat assessment really_ _ **does**_ _say? Hopefully it's basically_ _ **leave them alone and everyone is happy**_ **.** ' She got a sensation of amusement back from her friend.

 _"I suspect it's not far from that. I am a little concerned about the interest the Triumvirate would appear to have in you, though. Not surprised, just concerned. If those young men are right, your father is most likely to be contacted next. Hopefully they will step lightly. I would also think they'll be looking for your various forms sooner or later._ "

' _Do you think we have anything to worry about? Or more importantly, does Dad have anything to worry about?_ '

The Varga was silent for a moment, then replied slowly, _"I don't think so, not at the moment. They most likely are attempting to fit us into their world view and running into some problems as we don't fit the normal Parahuman profile. As you've noted before, Parahumans are often surprisingly aggressive, especially the more powerful ones. Not all, by any means, but a very large percentage. Especially ones not associated with the Protectorate or equivalent groups. That you are simply setting to work and helping out rather than carving out territory in bloody battles probably confuses and concerns them equally. In their position, they will be very much on the alert for unusual patterns, which could precede something changing for the worse._ "

' _I suppose that makes sense. Like Dad said their entire job is to look for trouble and try to stop it before it happens._ ' She sighed inaudibly, keeping a smile on her face for outward appearances. ' _Not that around here at least they've done a very good job a lot of the time._ '

" _No, the authorities would appear to have left Brockton Bay to suffer the iniquities of Parahuman villains for longer than I would have thought likely,_ " he told her. " _Which is somewhat odd as they clearly could have clamped down on it long ago if they really tried. Alexandria on her own could have easily dealt with almost every Parahuman in the area with the possible exception of Lung, as could either of the other two. There are many more Protectorate heroes, from our own research, who would have been very efficient at clearing this city up. That they didn't is… suspect._ "

' _You think there was a reason for it other than incompetence?_ ' she queried.

" _Possibly. While large organizations can easily become lax, and the situation locally could simply have mushroomed suddenly to the point that a small problem turned into a large one unexpectedly and too quickly to stop without massive damage, the amount of time that things around here have been less than ideal is in my opinion rather odd._ " He sounded intrigued. " _As is the way they have suddenly decided to take an interest. Yes, you're far out of the ordinary, but I'm slightly puzzled as to why all three of the Triumvirate are apparently required to look into the matter. I would have expected Legend would be sufficient, to be honest. But I suppose added to that, all the other changes surrounding the work for the DWU and the city must have sparked their curiosity and possibly worried them because they don't understand what's going on._ "

' _Or where we all came from so abruptly_ ,' she snickered. He chuckled, giving her an impression of a sly nod.

" _That is likely to have been one of the more puzzling things for them. I'm still very amused to see how much traction the entire Family concept has gained. We've been very lucky with it, I think. I suspect that when the truth comes out, assuming it ever does, there will be a lot of people who flatly refuse to believe it. Humans are like that. It's possible we've managed to accidentally end up in a position where the story is more believable than the truth of the matter._ "

They listened to Amy recounting an amusing story from New Wave history of a couple of years ago, making Mandy fall about laughing, then she said, ' _I wonder if Armsmaster and Dragon have fitted their weapon design with a shoulder stock yet?_ '

He emitted a grunt of amusement. " _I would expect_ _ **that**_ _had been done before we docked the ship. Both of them would have seen the light immediately, picking up on what you hinted at the other day. I'm very impressed with their intelligence. In all probability you'll get contacted within a few days for some more discussion of the matter. What I do wonder is if they've told anyone else yet. They were clearly not being entirely open with their colleagues about the weapon, presumably wanting to see if it was possible before they got involved in the politics of it_."

' _I'm both curious to see if it works, and a little terrified about meeting an Endbringer_ ,' she remarked.

" _ **I**_ _am very interested indeed to see one of these creatures for myself._ " He sounded fascinated. " _There is something very wrong about the entire situation. They almost sound like one of my kind in some ways, but I'm sure they're not, at all. This world, this universe, has nothing like me in it except me. And you. I can tell_."

' _Oh well, one way or the other I expect we'll get that chance pretty soon_ ,' she sighed. ' _Every three months or so, which is any time from about two weeks from now onward._ '

" _Indeed_." Her companion fell into a thoughtful silence. She was just returning to her conversation with her other friends, when he added, " _I have a feeling that when the Triumvirate does track '_ _ **Kaiju**_ _' down, there may be a certain amount of pushing. Mainly to try to establish dominance, and to feel out how you react to powerful Parahumans behaving aggressively. Don't overreact to it, but don't back down either, if it happens. You need to be seen as calm, patient, but not someone who can be forced into doing the bidding of others, if your plan for reputation is to succeed properly. It's a delicate balancing act between being someone feared and someone respected. We want the latter, ideally. It lasts much longer and is more likely to gain friends rather than just allies._ "

' _You think they'll try to get me to fight them?_ ' She was curious, worried, and very slightly wanting to find out what would happen.

" _Legend, most likely not, I think. From what I know of him, and from meeting him, I suspect he will counsel caution and a peaceful approach. The other two… I am unsure, I don't know enough about them. But they are two of the three acknowledged most powerful Parahumans on the planet. They didn't get to that point, regardless of actual power level, by being pacifists, trust me. Be polite, but wary, until we find out what they're planning_."

 _'Just a little paranoid there_ ,' she laughed. ' _Although I guess you're probably right. Oh well, all we can do is get on with life and see what happens_.'

Smiling at Mandy who had just asked her something about that night, she replied, putting the conversation with her closest friend to the back of her mind.

But she didn't forget it. He always gave good advice.

* * *

Turning around at the sound of the phone, Danny walked over to his desk and picked it up. "Danny Hebert," he said into the receiver.

" _Good afternoon, Mr Hebert,_ " a woman's voice said politely. " _My name is Rebecca Costa-Brown, I'm the Chief Director of the PRT_."

"Oh, hello, Chief Director," he replied, equally politely, as he sat down. "I know who you are, although I must confess I never thought I'd talk to you. How can I help you?"

" _I was hoping that we might meet, to discuss various parts of the current situation with the Parahuman group popularly known as the Family, which your organization seems to have been the first people to meet any members of,_ " she said, confirming his suspicions. She still sounded calm but many years experience of talking to people in stressful environments left him sure she was more than a little worried. _"As you're no doubt aware, this entire sequence of events is somewhat extraordinary. The PRT's mandate more or less forces us to investigate_."

"Are you expecting to find something amiss?" he asked. "As far as I'm aware, neither the city, the Family, or the Union I represent has done anything either illegal or immoral."

She chuckled, clearly trying to put him at ease. " _Oh, nothing like that, Mr Hebert. We've thoroughly checked the legal standing of BBFO, believe me, and it is all in full accordance with the law, as much as some in my own organization would wish otherwise. Personally, I am more than a little impressed with whoever managed to work out all the loopholes and discover what needed to be done to enable such a thing to happen so efficiently. It took us by surprise. While all the laws were put into place for perfectly good reasons, they did have the unfortunate side effect of causing most Parahuman commercial activities to become very difficult to continue. Accidentally, of course, but that's one of the problems of something as complicated as the Parahuman situation._ "

"Of course," he agreed mildly. "I can understand how the law would be more concerned with stability than fairness. These things happen even with the best of motives."

There was a short pause, during which he grinned slightly viciously.

 _"Quite. Well put. In any case, as I said, BBFO, the DWU, and the Brockton Bay city authorities are all acting within the law and we can see no reason to attempt to interfere, or justification for doing so. We're merely in the position of wishing to update our records and resolve some of the more peculiar aspects of this entire affair._ " She laughed slightly, making him smile again. " _As you must realize, there are a lot of questions and very few answers about the Family._ "

"I can understand that, certainly. I must warn you that I probably can't tell you everything you might ask, partly due to not knowing everything, and partly due to making certain promises to people it would obviously be a bad idea to renege on, even if I was the sort of person myself that would go back on my word. Which I am not, as I expect your background checks have discovered."

He got the distinct impression that she probably frowned a little.

" _We understand the situation and we won't push. Dealing with unknown Parahumans, especially powerful ones, is always a delicate matter. Allowances are commonly made. But within those restrictions and provisos, anything you can divulge without betraying a confidence would be much appreciated._ "

"Certainly. It would be my pleasure. Would you like me to come to the PRT building, or would you like to visit us here? I could show you the current status of the tanker scrapping project, if you were interested."

" _If you could hold for a moment, I need to consult with my colleagues._ " The line went to hold music before he could speak. Tapping his finger to the rather catchy beat, he swung his chair around to look out the window, before turning back when there was a tap on the door, followed by it opening and Lisa's head sticking through the gap. He waved her in, pointing at a chair, then tapped his watch and indicated five minutes.

Nodding, she came quietly in, closing the door behind her, then sat.

" _I will visit you, and I'll be bringing Director Piggot with me, if that's all right_ ," Costa-Brown said suddenly as the hold music died. "Would later today be possible?"

"Certainly. Let me check my schedule." He grinned at Lisa, who was looking intrigued. Quickly checking the notebook on his desk, he added, "Four o'clock? If you would like, I can offer the use of the BBFO office, which is very private. Or we can meet in my own office. Which is still pretty private. It depends on how secretive you want to be, Chief Director."

Lisa's eyes widened, then narrowed in thought. He watched her, amused to see her mind and probably powers at work.

" _Your office will be fine, Mr Hebert. Out of interest, is it likely that any of the Family will be available?_ "

"I believe they're all busy today on various things. If it's important I can make some calls and probably get one or other of them to turn up, but if you want to meet any of them and it's not urgent, tomorrow would probably be better. Kaiju will be onsite helping us with some construction work for much of the afternoon, probably from around two onward. The others may turn up as well, although I can't guarantee it. They come and go."

He grinned at Lisa as her expression turned mischievous.

" _No, it's not that urgent, Mr Hebert_ ," the woman replied. " _Tomorrow is fine. I may ask Alexandria and Eidolon to come over and talk to her, as I could be busy with other matters, but they have my full confidence in this matter_."

"I see. Quite an honor, two thirds of the Triumvirate visiting the DWU. Recently we seem to have seen more PRT and Protectorate senior figures around than we have had in the last ten years. Amusingly, after much of the crime has already diminished due to other causes. You should ask Legend to come as well so we can say we had the entire set."

Lisa was silently laughing her ass off at this point.

" _I'll see what I can do_ ," Costa-Brown chuckled. " _Until later, Mr Hebert_."

"Goodbye, Chief Director," he responded, then put the phone down. Putting his elbows on the table he steepled his fingers and looked evenly at the still giggling Lisa. "Excellent," he hissed in his best Monty Burns impression, which made her collapse again.

"They have you exactly where you want them, don't they?" she asked when she recovered.

"Pretty much. I was expecting something like this to happen sooner or later," he admitted. "Director Piggot, despite some of the feelings I've had about her over the years, does seem to be a pragmatic, intelligent, and practical woman who is fair in her dealings even if she's somewhat heavy-handed at times. I was surprised to discover that, for a number of reasons, but pleased. Her superiors on the other hand may not be. Having them politely asking to talk, rather than demanding to, I'm taking as a good sign. Either they know they don't have the upper hand, or they're worried they don't and they're trying to work it out without upsetting the entire balance in the bay. Either is good."

"You don't have a lot of faith in the PRT in many ways, do you?" she asked perceptively. After a moment or two, she added slowly, "My power is telling me that your wife didn't, either. Because… she was involved with Parahumans?" He looked at her, then nodded, not surprised she'd worked that much out. "A villain?"

The blonde girl looked quite surprised.

"Yes, although it wasn't what you might be thinking. At first, anyway. Things escalated, as things often do, and it got sort of complicated. I met Annette just before it all went bad and helped her get out of that scene. There were a few problems for a year or two afterward, but once I'd explained that she was no longer involved, the other people seemed to get the point and left her, and me, alone. We got married pretty soon after that and moved back to the Bay where my family roots were." He sighed faintly, looking at the photo on the desk of his wife holding their daughter as a year old baby in her arms. Lisa looked at it as well.

"Happier times. After she died, I had a very hard time of it, as did poor Taylor. She had the worst of it, I think, because she lost both her mother _and_ her father, in a way. I'm very glad that… certain events… brought us back from the brink."

Lisa nodded, looking sympathetic. "I'm sorry about that, Danny. It must have been terrible."

"Thanks, and it wasn't fun, no. Not even close. But things are looking up now, I'm happy, Taylor is happy, the city is suddenly on the mend, so I can't complain." He smiled at her. "It's a lot of fun as well."

"She looked a lot like Taylor, your wife," Lisa commented, inspecting the photo with interest.

"Taylor got her height and eyes from me, and everything good from her mother," he laughed. "The hair, the good looks, the slender build..."

"You're both pretty thin," the girl noted, comparing him to the photo. "But she was about… five foot six?"

"Yes, whereas I'm nearly six two. Taylor is already only three and a half inches shorter than me and she has some growing to do yet. She'll probably hit six feet by the time she's all grown up and finished developing. And I'll have to be beating the boys off with a stick."

Lisa snickered. "Not that you'll have any trouble doing that, I suspect."

He grinned evilly at her. "Not as such, no. Anyone who wants my daughter is going to have to go through me first and they won't have an easy time of it."

"As poor Über and Leet found out last night." She seemed confident about that. "What the hell did you say to them? They already respected both you and the DWU a lot, but I could tell that when Taylor mentioned your name once, there was more than respect there. A mild amount of terror, actually."

Shrugging, he chuckled a little. "Just had a father to male friends of teenaged daughter talk. They took it well."

"I'm sure," she replied dryly. She looked at the photo again for a moment. "If you don't mind me asking, what was your wife's background? I mean, where did her ancestors come from? She looks sort of Greek or Italian, that sort of area in the Mediterranean, I think."

"Sicilian. Or her parents were. They emigrated after the war, looking for a better life, like a lot of people from areas that got badly affected. Which was most of Europe. My own parents did the same except they came from France on one side and Corsica on the other, if you go back a couple of generations. Her mom and dad met on the boat over and got married in New York when it arrived. I didn't know them well, they didn't see Annette very much for reasons I never found out, and both died not long after Taylor was born. My parents passed away before she came along, so she never knew any of her grandparents. Now it's just the two of us."

He sighed heavily. "God, I miss that woman. She was completely insane. Taylor takes very strongly after her. Annette could turn the most normal of situations into something hilarious, and often did. I think she'd have laughed her head off about how things turned out." Shaking his head, he stood up. "All in the past, which we can't do anything about. Come on, I'll show you your new office."

"What?" The girl looked surprised, which he didn't think was a common occurrence.

He put the same sort of sly grin on his face that he saw often on hers. "I'm hiring you as a research and development assistant. Keep your nose clean and you could work your way up through this august organization. One day all this could be yours!" Waving his hands around in a grandiose manner, he laughed as she stared at him in shock. "Or more likely, you'll eventually find something more interesting to do, but for the moment this should keep you out of trouble and not bored. I can't help but feel that a bored Lisa Wilbourn is a disaster waiting to happen. I recognize the type, I have one at home."

Still appearing somewhat befuddled, but starting to smile, she followed him out of his office.


	111. Omake - Leave it where you found it

_This is very unlikely to ever become canon, but the idea amused me a lot and I was forced to write it_

* * *

"What the hell is _that?_ " The voice came from the solidly built figure of General Landry, who had been waiting in the gate room for SG-1 to return from their latest mission. With the end of the war against the Ori, they had reverted to being mainly an exploration team, although even so they seemed to get into far more trouble than by rights they should have. Daniel Jackson sometimes wondered if their team, or at least the SG-1 call-sign, was cursed.

Vala was leaning casually on the large device they had heaved through the Stargate on a cargo platform, looking smug. She was the one who had discovered it and had taken a proprietary liking for the thing. Probably because quite a lot of it seemed to be made of a platinum-iridium alloy, while the rest was of some gray metal that even Sam couldn't identify. It was impossibly hard, nothing they had even marked it, and seemed to have no measurable friction, being as slick as a slick thing covered in grease.

Sam thought it was probably some sort of probe from a very advanced civilization, one they'd never run into before. Her scans and prodding had determined that it had a power source unlike anything seen to date, using some energy that was detectable although not recognizable. There were what seemed to be some form of cameras peering through the casing in several places, the lenses made out of something harder than diamond and so transparent it was almost invisible. Other less identifiable sensory systems were scattered about the casing.

Overall, it looked a lot like some form of hybrid between a satellite and some enormous insect, mixed with a huge piece of jewelry. The entire thing was glittering and shiny, curves and straight lines merging together into an almost organic shape. Some six feet long and three wide, vaguely similar to a woodlouse in basic shape, it appeared to be designed to be self-propelled but had no wheels or any other visible means of propulsion.

Sam's best guess was that it was an alien equivalent to their MELF system, possibly using something like anti-gravity for a motive source. There was no sign of damage to it, it merely seemed to be dormant. Not having found anything like weapons on it, and detecting no signals being emitted either, she had after considerable thought and discussion with the others determined it was probably safe to take back with them.

There was no other sign of intelligent life on the planet the Stargate had been on, only this thing a few hundred feet from the gate, buried in the undergrowth. Vala had literally tripped over it, then claimed it as her trophy.

Not a particularly unusual approach for the woman, he had to admit. She was… acquisitive. Sometimes it drove him up the wall but she was completely immune to any form of criticism about her tendencies, merely looking pleased than she'd provoked a reaction from him.

Teal'c had been the one who had been most suspicious of the alien device, suggesting it might be best to leave it where it was, in case the owners wanted it back. The signs were that it hadn't been there all that long and there was a good chance they were still around, not like some of the discoveries they'd acquired over the years. Yet another advanced civilization they had no knowledge of becoming annoyed with them was in his view a bit much, considering the last decade or so. Cam had eventually decided, after listening to all their suggestions, that while he had a point, Sam was convinced they could learn enough from studying it that it was worth the risk.

Daniel wasn't entirely convinced, but was also extremely curious, while Sam was clearly barely restraining herself from trying to open the thing up and poke around inside. The only reason that hadn't happened yet was because nothing she had available could do the job.

So, they'd dialed back to Stargate control, had them send a heavy duty cargo platform and half a dozen strong men through, heaved the thing onto the platform with significant effort as it was implausibly heavy, then come back. General Landry had been waiting for them, looking both curious and apprehensive. Now he was also looking irritated, since Vala was sitting cross-legged on the device and smirking at him. She knew damn well that annoyed the hell out of the man, and kept doing things like that, even though she had privately admitted to Daniel that she both liked and respected the General.

She merely enjoyed winding him up.

Daniel was fairly sure the General rather liked her as well despite the scowls he shot her so often, as otherwise he'd most likely have done something much worse. Sighing, he moved over and shoved her, making her slide off the device and have to jump to the ground, where she landed easily then glared at him.

"What did you do that for?" she complained, fiddling with her hair, then putting her hands on her hips.

"Because you're a pain in the ass."

"You say the nicest things, Daniel," she retorted, making Cam briefly grin, then go back to a neutral expression.

"Keep it down, children," he sighed. Turning to his superior, he went on, "Sam thinks it could be very important to study this… whatever the hell it is. She thinks it's some sort of alien probe."

"It's extremely advanced technology, General," the blonde woman said as she walked over, having finished signing a clipboard held out to her by one of the gate staff. Behind them the iris spiraled shut over the now dormant gate. "I have no idea _what_ the power source is, but I want to find out. None of the species we have encountered are behind this, I'm certain. It's completely unknown."

"Which makes it dangerous," the older man said immediately. "I'm not sure having it in my base is a good idea."

"It's not a weapon, that much I'm sure of," she assured him earnestly. "I'm pretty sure it's a probe. But I don't know what the casing is made of, those gray metallic parts are totally unlike anything we've ever seen. Even the platinum-iridium sections are alloyed with something else which has made them much harder than they should be. It shows an amazing grasp of metallurgy aside from anything else. Based on my initial readings and calculations, if we could duplicate that material, it would be a vastly superior armor for spacecraft than anything anyone else has. That alone would make it worth the effort."

"Anyone but whoever made it," he pointed out.

"Well, yes, but we don't know who that is. Perhaps we can work it out from studying it. That's another thing, we could establish contact with a completely unknown species." She looked at Daniel pleadingly, who nodded a little.

"She's right, General, I've never seen or heard of anything like this either, neither have Vala or Teal'c."

"And what do we do if whoever made this… probe… decides they want it back?" the General asked slowly. "They might consider your acquisition of it a little close to theft. Some people don't like that."

"The planet it was on is half-way across the galaxy, it's not emitting any sort of tracking signal, and I think the likelihood of whoever owns it finding us is very low," Sam replied immediately. "When we've finished studying it we can put it back, anyway. We haven't stolen it, we've just… borrowed it."

"Hmm." The base commander didn't look entirely convinced.

"What's the worst that could happen?" Cam asked with a shrug. "Sam and her geeks look at it for a while, probably find out they can't work it out, complain when we take it away from them and put it back where we found it, and we just keep going."

The sound of klaxons going off without warning made them all jump, Daniel nearly having a heart attack. They were incredibly loud inside the gate room. He slowly turned to glare at his team-mate, as did everyone else in the room.

"You just _had_ to say that, didn't you?" he grated over the sound of the alarms.

" _Off world gate activation!_ " came through the PA system. Daniel looked up at the control room to see the people there frantically working the controls. " _Unknown source, it's not anyone we know_."

They hastily moved to the side of the room, leaving the alien device in front of the gate, while the side doors slammed open and two heavily armed squads of soldiers poured into the room, their weapons all pointed at the closed iris. The gate was in motion, the inner ring rotating. Danial squinted at it. It seemed to be moving faster than normal.

" _Chevron 1 encoded!_ " the PA squawked. He watched as the latch device operated, the ring resuming motion.

" _Chevron 2 encoded!_ " It kept moving.

" _No originating address,_ " the PA added, sounding confused. " _The activation isn't happening through the normal gate network._ "

Sam turned and stared up at the control room, then looked back to the gate, a very confused expression on her face. The gate kept turning and the latches kept operating.

" _Chevron 6 encoded._ "

" _Chevron 7 encoded_."

They waited for the wormhole to form behind the iris, but nothing happened.

" _Chevron_ _ **8**_ _encoded._ " This made everyone look worried.

"Extra-galactic, then," Sam said, Daniel barely hearing her over the klaxons. "Atlantis?" she shouted up to the control room. The operator shook his head.

" _No, ma'am, I don't think so_." He looked down at his console, then back at the still turning ring. " _Um… Chevron_ _ **9 encoded?!**_ "

Everyone exchanged a glance. The gate never used the ninth symbol, and no one had been able to work out what it was for or how to drive it. Leaving aside the calculated energy required to make whatever it did happen anyway.

The last mechanism snapped into place and the characteristic sound of the wormhole forming echoed through the large room, rippling blue light reflecting from the wall behind the gate.

The soldiers all braced themselves.

Nothing happened.

" _Stable wormhole, but it's… weird_ ," the operator called. " _I can't get a good read on it_."

"Any signals?" the General shouted, not looking away from the iris.

" _No, sir, nothing_."

A few more seconds passed, then everyone twitched as there was a loud clunk on the iris. Wondering if something had tried to pass through the wormhole and expired on the blocked side, Daniel listened as the sound repeated itself several times. A weird suspicion was growing at the back of his mind.

"Does anyone else think that sounds like someone knocking?" Vala slowly said. He looked at her, then his companions.

"I was just thinking the same thing," he replied.

They exchanged glances again.

A pause of half a minute of silence passed as they all stared at the iris.

The sound came again, more rapidly this time, and somehow expressing impatience.

"There is _definitely_ something knocking on the iris," Cam stated. Beside him, Teal'c nodded.

"It's not possible, unless someone is throwing things through the other end of the gate," Sam remarked, looking puzzled. "The wormhole is one way, you can't stick something through it and then pull it back. Once you go in you're committed."

They listened some more. The third series of knocks sounded annoyed and made them take a step back.

"Whatever is doing that is getting pissed," Cam muttered.

"Well, it can't get through, so let it," the General replied. After a moment, he looked at Sam. "It _can't_ get through, correct?"

"No, sir, the iris is made of the most advanced alloy we know of, we upgraded it since the last attack on it. Nothing I can think of can get through it in the amount of time it's possible to keep a gate open."

She sounded confident.

Vala pointed.

"What about that? Did you think of that?"

Everyone stared at the tip of what appeared to be an enormous knife blade that had suddenly and with no apparent difficulty pierced the iris near the top edge, and was now rapidly following the inner diameter of the ring around the metal sections like someone peeling an orange. Sam gaped.

"No, I didn't," she mumbled.

"Fall back!" General Landry ordered. "Security teams, ready to fire on my command!"

They watched as the blade finished making a complete circle and retracted. Seconds later the severed inner section of iris gently tipped outwards, almost gracefully falling to the access ramp with an enormous boom, the individual leaves separating and sliding to a halt on the floor. They stared at the revealed open wormhole, which was a subtly different color and texture than normal.

"Wait for it..." Cam was kneeling on the floor, his P90 aimed at the gate, Teal'c mirroring his position next to him. Vala was standing behind Daniel now and peering past his shoulder. Sam looked confused, but had her weapon aimed as well.

Daniel was expecting almost anything to happen at this point. Over the years he'd pretty much seen and experienced everything the universe could throw at him. He didn't think he could actually _be_ surprised by much these days.

The fifty foot long scaly arm that came through the gate, an enormous taloned reptilian hand on the end of it, rather put the lie to that thought.

So shocked they couldn't even fire, the soldiers simply gaped, as did everyone else. The hand and arm were covered in dark blue-black scales, remarkably human in shape but clearly not, while the claws on the fingertips were many feet long and even so looked razor sharp. Daniel stared as the hand headed directly for the ' _probe_ ' and picked it up without trouble, like someone collecting an apple. It smoothly retracted through the gate, the entire thing having taken about six seconds.

Everyone stared, then exchanged glances.

There was a pregnant pause, then the hand came back. It raised the index finger and slowly wagged it back and forth in an unmistakable gesture of censure, before vanishing again.

Twenty seconds later, it came back, more slowly, as a clenched fist, which positioned itself where the probe had been then opened. A couple of dozen shiny yellow blocks about four inches across, tiny against the impossibly large appendage, cascaded to the floor with a series of dull thuds. The hand pulled back, gave them a cheery thumbs-up, then disappeared for the final time. Seconds later the wormhole wavered and died as the Stargate shut down.

No one said anything for over a minute. The operator turned the klaxons off, but that was about it.

Eventually, Vala wandered over, a dazed expression on her face, and looked down at the glittering blocks on the floor, before kicking one. With a pained look she yelped, then knelt down and tried to pick it up, which was clearly a strain. "Gold," she reported in a faraway voice. "So soft it's probably pure."

"Payment for the iris?" Daniel suggested numbly.

"That's what the note says."

"Note?"

"Yes. It's wrapped around one of these gold blocks. Written in English."

Her voice was still distant, like that of someone who had experienced something beyond their ability to comprehend. He sympathized mightily.

' _Sorry about your gate cover, it was in the way. Please don't take my things again, it's annoying. Hope this pays to fix it. Bye_.'

She read the piece of paper she was holding in one hand out loud to the silent room. "It's signed with a letter K."

Standing, still cradling about forty pounds of pure gold in one arm, she came back to them and handed the General the note, then stared at the inactive gate.

Eventually, after another long silence, she said quietly, "Next time I find a weird alien machine, I'm turning around and walking in the other direction."

Every single person in the room nodded as one, the soldiers lowering their unfired weapons and exchanging wondering glances.

Vala sighed heavily. "I need a _very_ big drink. Who's coming with me?" She held up the block of gold with a grunt of effort. "I'm paying."

In the end, they locked the gate room and all went off to think about something else for a while.

Which involved alcohol, oh, _so_ much alcohol.


	112. Inquisitions and Inertia

Rebecca put the phone down slightly harder than it deserved. She turned to look at Emily Piggot, who was, she thought as she suspiciously looked closer, hiding just the tiniest smirk under an otherwise professionally neutral expression.

"That man is… irritating," she finally said. "I can't help but think he was somehow deriving more humor from the situation than I'm entirely comfortable with."

"He's hard to fool, Chief Director," Emily replied calmly. "I would suggest that it's best not to try, he stands a better than even chance of seeing through any attempt at deceiving him, if only from long experience of dealing with politicians. That would probably make him even less cooperative. So far he's been pretty open in our dealing with him, having him actively trying to fight us would be… unhelpful."

"We could put pressure on him easily enough," Rebecca mused.

Emily's eyes narrowed slightly. "For the record, I feel I must say that I think your suggestion is spectacularly unwise," she said after a moment. "He would push back, possibly very hard. We still don't know for sure whether he has a copy of that remarkably incriminating video he and his daughter engineered regarding Shadow Stalker, but I think it's near enough guaranteed that he does. Most likely more than one, and in places we'd never find them before it got released. It's certainly what I'd do in his position."

Rebecca nodded slowly. That could well be very awkward.

"Not to mention he is considered, from everything we know, a very close associate of the Family. Almost certainly close enough that they would take such an attempt to influence him as an attack on them, which in many ways it would be, and react in ways we would probably not enjoy." She shrugged a little. "It wouldn't even have to be violent. They have enough political capital right now to make things difficult for us, whether they know it or not, but I can assure you that Mr Hebert will be aware of this and would advise accordingly. As would Mayor Christner, who is the third party who would become involved as soon as we tried anything with the DWU. He also has a lot of friends, probably some in places we don't know. He's been in the political game for more than twenty years, after all."

"You're right, annoyingly enough," Rebecca sighed. She didn't like not being in control of a situation, and this one was so far from being controlled it was ludicrous.

"Aside from anything else, as you just told him we have no real justification for doing anything other than politely asking questions anyway," the blonde woman went on. "I'm uncomfortable myself with the manner in which things have spiraled so far out of the ordinary, I have to admit, but I also have to admit that I can't point to anything concrete as requiring PRT intervention. Yes, it would be nice to have a better grasp of exactly what the Family was and what they were capable of, but if the choice is between knowing that and having a stable city, I'll take the stable city any day."

Leaning forward and putting her arms on her desk, she fixed her superior with a look of slightly worried intensity. "As I said to Alexandria when she was sitting where you are just yesterday, please go carefully in your dealings with everyone involved. The wrong move could spark something no one in their right mind wants to see. Even Kaiser is being careful and that would only happen if he's not sure what's going on and wants to wait and see. If we manage to start something, though..." She sighed, making a gesture with one hand that implied something exploding.

"He might feel he had no choice but to get involved. The thing that really worries me is how he would do that. It's not beyond the bounds of possibility that he might think that his best chance of survival was to throw his lot in with the Family, as crazy as that sounds. And he has the largest quantity of combat-ready Parahumans in the city, other than possibly them. It could get messy."

"You can't be serious," Rebecca protested, shocked.

Piggot shrugged again. "It's not a high probability, no, but the man is both ambitious and smart. He might well calculate that ingratiating himself to them was worth the effort, rather than losing his investment in the city. I'd prefer not to risk it. So I think it would be best overall not to put anyone in a position where something none of us really wants, happens, don't you?"

"You paint a very uncomfortable picture," Rebecca commented. She was unsure how likely the suggestion was, it seemed extremely implausible, but then, Brockton Bay tended to produce unusual situations at the best of times. Not to mention that they really didn't have any publicly usable legitimate reason to interfere in the first place. She and her colleagues were just both curious and concerned about these reptiles, for reasons that Piggot wasn't privy to and never would be.

"However, I happen to agree with the sentiment, even if not the conclusions," she added a moment later, Emily visibly relaxing at her words. "We'll just talk, ask polite questions, listen to the answers, and try to derive something useful from it all. Despite wanting very much to figure all this out I have no intention of triggering a war."

"Thank you, Chief Director. That makes me feel a lot better." The ENE director looked at the clock on the wall. "Two and a half hours to kill before we'll need to leave. Unless you have anything more you would like to discuss, I do have quite a lot of work that's built up since last night. Would you mind if I did some of it?"

It was as close as she could politely come to asking the other woman to get the hell out of her office. Smiling a little Rebecca stood. "Not at all. I have other people to talk to myself, and I need to check in with my own staff as well. I'll meet you here at half past three, then?"

"That's fine. Thank you."

Nodding to her subordinate, inwardly amused at how the woman clearly wanted her gone, she left the office, heading for the room in which Legend and Eidolon were probably still trying to figure out how to approach Kaiju tomorrow.

* * *

Brian looked up from his nail-gun to see Lisa grinning at him. Wiping sweat from his forehead, he grinned back, spun the tool in his hand like a gunslinger from a western, nearly dropped it, which made her laugh, then carefully put it down and stepped back. "I need to practice that," he chuckled. "But only when it's not loaded."

The blonde girl walked over, looking around. They were in one of the workshop blocks, a building that had obviously seen better days many years ago and had been left empty and unused for far too long. He had been working on the team that had been stripping out all the shoddy interior stud walls and replacing them with new ones, while a team of electricians followed them around wiring everything up.

He was on the wall-fixing group at the moment, as he'd been deemed strong enough to hold the prefab panels in place and nail them down, but not yet skilled enough for the fine detail work. Overall, he agreed with the assessment and was enjoying himself. It was somewhat dusty work, and fairly tiring, but it needed to be done and was something he could feel he was making a difference by doing.

Lisa handed him a bottle of water. "Thought you might want a brief break," she commented, unscrewing the lid of the other one she was holding, while peering around with interest. There were a dozen or so other workers in his section of the building, mostly men, and a fair number of these looked at her with appreciation, smiling politely. He was impressed with the way they didn't catcall or make inappropriate remarks, something he'd seen a lot of on previous building sites.

Jason was extremely against that sort of thing and made his displeasure apparent if it happened. Apparently having four daughters and no sons tended to make a father rather sensitive to it. He'd lectured Brian on suitable behavior that he expected to see in one of his workers when they'd first met and had looked approving when the young man had merely nodded and agreed with him. Brian had also formed the opinion that Mr Hebert would also look unfavorably on that type of activity and had no wish to annoy the man who was, aside from anything else, going out of his way to help him and the others.

It made for a much more pleasant working environment than some he'd been involved in. The concept that the DWU was a big family appeared to have more than a small amount of truth to it, something he was finding he appreciated more than he'd expected. There was the distinct impression that any of the people around him would go to bat for any other if they were in trouble, a sentiment he found himself fully in agreement with for a number of reasons.

"Thanks, Lisa," he smiled, removing the top of his bottle and drinking half of it, quenching his thirst. It was good timing, something she undoubtedly knew. Sipping more slowly on the remaining water, he also looked around, feeling somewhat proud over the amount of work he'd done in the last few hours. "It's going pretty well so far, I think. We'll have this entire building repaired in a week or so at most. There are several more like this as well, so I'm going to be busy for the next couple of months." He sipped again, smiling. "I have to admit it feels good to be working hard on something useful. I end the day tired but feeling that I made a difference."

She put her hand on his shoulder, grinning. "You always make a difference, Brian, but I'm glad you're happy. This should really help with your sister, when… a certain person… is out of the picture." Looking around quickly, she checked for anyone listening, then turned back to him. "I've been enjoying myself wrecking our previous employer. With any luck he's going to have a stroke when he checks his business dealings."

Brian laughed loudly, while she looked pleased with herself. "Oh, god, Lisa, I hate to think what you could do to someone you only merely disliked. What you could do to someone you really hated… Urgh." He shuddered, making her snicker. "I almost feel sorry for the bastard."

"Don't, some of the things he's done should get him a bullet in the back of the head," she grumbled. "I bet I could find someone here who would do that for me."

"Probably, but don't," he advised. "The man is going down, don't worry. With the Family on the case, never mind the PRT, he's fucked." He was speaking quietly, sure he wasn't being overheard past the sound of other nail-guns, hammers, saws, and the like, but not taking any chances. "You've had your fun, let the others have a chance."

The girl brightened up, smiling maliciously. "Oh, I expect to have more fun yet, but yes, it's only fair to let Saurial have a go at him." They shared a smirk, then he picked the nail-gun up again, fitting a new gas cartridge to it since the previous one was almost empty. She watched, then looked at the box of them at his feet, inspecting them curiously. "That one is half empty," she said, pointing to one in the middle. "The one next to it has a faulty valve."

Not surprised her power had told her, he nodded, bending down and removing the two faulty cartridges and dropping them into the box of used ones. "Thanks."

"I'm going to go and see how Rachel is getting on, I've barely spoken to her or even seen her since the day after we got here," she added.

"She looked fairly happy the last time I saw her," he replied, cocking the tool and applying it to the framing he'd tacked into place. A rapid series of bangs followed as he walked it up the two by four, letting the recoil bounce it off the wood and into the next position. She watched, nodding approvingly. "I helped fix up her building with the kennels. They're still installing some steel cages and runs for the bigger dogs, but she was pleased with what she has so far, she said it would do. Which is close to jumping up and down for joy from her, of course." He fitted another strip of framing nails to the now empty tool.

"Good. I'm glad about that. I think she'll have her hands full for months with all those dogs, there are a lot of them, but a happy Rachel is a Rachel that isn't beating people up."

"Beating people up also makes Rachel happy," he noted with a grin.

"Well, that's true enough, but only certain types of people," she laughed. "Hopefully there aren't any of those around here."

"What about you?" he asked, before nailing the other side of the panel in place. When the noise died down, he glanced at her. "Causing problems for our previous employer couldn't possibly have kept you occupied for all that long."

"It didn't," she smiled. "But Danny hired me as an R and D research assistant. I have an office and everything. Even a DWU ID card, look." She pulled out a card with her photo on it, like the one he had. "Should be fun. He's got me looking into what materials the Family could produce that would be most salable, and coming up with a list of tools that Saurial could make which we need. It's pretty interesting so far."

"Great," he smiled back. "Now all we need to do is find something for Alec to do."

"He got his big TV and consoles, so he's happy," she told him, looking amused. "Zephron and some of his friends were perfectly all right with being bribed to get them for him. He'll be holed up in his room for weeks now, trying to beat his old high scores."

Chuckling, Brian nodded. "That seems to be all of us with something to do, then. Not what I expected when we were running around out there, but I can live with it." Picking up the water bottle which he'd put down on a cardboard box next to him, he finished the contents then dropped it into the waste. "Thanks for the water. I'd better get back to work or Jason is going to look hard at me."

"Don't want that. See you later, Brian," she replied, turning around and heading off with a wave. He watched her go for a moment, then got back to driving nails with loud bangs.

* * *

Roy looked up from his paperwork as the intercom buzzed. Poking the relevant button, he said, "Yes, Maria?"

"Mayor, the Chief Director of the PRT is here to see you," his assistant's voice said, sounding slightly awed.

"Ah, thank you, I was expecting her," he replied. "Send her in, please."

"Certainly, Mayor," she replied, before the intercom went quiet. Shortly the door opened to admit the slender figure of Chief Director Costa-Brown, who strode across the carpet to meet him as he stood. Leaning over his desk he shook hands with her, then indicated his corner table.

"Please take a seat. Can I get you anything?"

"No, thank you, Mayor Christner," she said, looking around the office curiously, eyebrows raised in apparent appreciation. Her gaze fixed on his desk clock for a moment. Following her eyes, he smiled.

"A gift from an old friend, years ago. Keeps perfect time, even though it's completely mechanical. And beautiful."

"It is," she admitted with a tone of admiration. "Almost like something from a museum. Impressive." Sitting in the chair he waved her to, she put the file folder she was carrying on the table, as he took the other chair. "I was hoping to talk to you for a while about the recent events here in the city. I expect you know what I'm referring to."

Roy smiled. "Of course I do, and I thought someone would turn up to discuss it. I'm both impressed it's the top person at the PRT, and mildly surprised it took as long as it did. What would you like to know?"

Opening the folder she pulled out some paperwork, which she glanced at, then nodded. "How did you first encounter the Parahuman known as Kaiju?"

"I met her through Danny Hebert of the DWU, an old… acquaintance? Respected adversary? Irritation?" He smiled at her. "Friend, now, I think."

"I see," she replied, making a brief note on the paper. "Where was this? Presumably not in the city."

"No, we drove to the coast north of here," he replied, remembering the rather unforgettable evening. "He'd arranged to have her meet us on an uninhabited beach, since he didn't want to cause a panic. It was something of a surprise when she popped out of the water, but when my heart rate slowed to normal, we had a talk and I was favorably impressed. It became apparent at that point that the project could, and almost certainly would, succeed."

"Hmm." Another note was made. "And do you think that Mr Hebert knew her for some time at that point?"

Roy leaned back, inspecting the woman, who was looking at him expectantly. "I believe that he probably did, they seemed comfortable together, but he didn't volunteer that information and I didn't ask. It's none of my business. Or, if I may speak frankly but respectfully, that of the PRT."

She gazed at him, then nodded a little. "I understand. We're not after Mr Hebert, we just want to understand the situation a little more than we currently do."

"I have no objection to that, but I won't betray a confidence. I'm an honest politician." He grinned at her.

Costa-Brown looked evenly at him. "I was once told that the definition of an honest politician is one who, once bought, stays bought."

That made him laugh. "I've heard much the same thing once or twice. I'd like to think I can't be bought, but we both know everyone has a price. Mine is simply higher than you can afford."

After a moment, she shook her head a little, smiling just a small amount. "Possibly, possibly not. It's irrelevant at the moment. Now, can I ask, do you know how many of the Family are in Brockton Bay?"

"As far as I know only the three of them, Saurial, Raptaur, and Kaiju."

"Have you met the other two?"

"Not yet for Saurial, I haven't had that pleasure. I expect I will sooner or later. I met Raptaur at the DWU when she was demolishing the warehouses that were in the way of the project. She seemed both friendly and competent."

The brunette woman made some more notes. "How would you describe her relationship with the DWU in general? Raptaur, I mean."

"Close and respectful, on both sides," he replied promptly. "She was polite to everyone, listened to those with more experience when she was working, followed all the safety procedures although she clearly didn't personally need to, things like that. In turn they were very friendly with her, seemed to genuinely like her, and as far as I could tell were more than happy to work with her. I was impressed."

"That's slightly unusual for a Parahuman of her level, wouldn't you say?" she asked curiously.

He shrugged. "I can't say I know all that many high-level Parahumans, but I've heard stories. Some of them can be… difficult to work with. Our own police force has had trouble in the past, although by and large they say since Director Piggot came on the scene the Parahumans are normally professional and mostly polite these days. When they actually turn up, of course." He couldn't resist the small dig, at least partly because it was true.

She said nothing, merely made another note in what looked like shorthand of some sort. "Do you know how many of the Family there are in total?"

"No." The Chief Director looked at him for a moment, so he expanded on that. "I believe there to be a number, larger than three at least, based on comments other people have made, but I have no proof of that and no knowledge of what that number is."

"Does it worry you that there are an unknown number of reptilian capes, some of absurd size, wandering around this city and the bay?"

"Not really," he replied, shaking his head. "Why would it? All the ones we've encountered so far have been friendly, on the side of law and order more than anything else, and overall good for the city. I have no problems with them at all. There's no reason to think that any other Family members wouldn't be similar in outlook, which is fine with me and pretty much everyone else I've talked to about it. Except possibly some of the villains. They're probably not too happy at the moment."

He smirked at her. "I can live with that as well."

She chuckled, making some more notations on her pad. "I can't say I disagree. Thank you."

Turning to the next page in her folder, she looked at it, then him. Mentally he sighed, seeing that she had a lot of questions. Keeping the smile on his face, he settled back to answer them all, in a way that was as helpful as possible while giving away as little information that she didn't already have as he could manage.

He was good at this, but it was still somewhat boring at times...

* * *

Colin read the email he'd just received and smiled, although he also felt slightly puzzled. "I've got an answer from Leet. He says he's happy to help as much as he is able with the weapon design, although he can't provide any inertial cancellation tech as he's got nothing currently that is better than anything we're likely to have. He suggests that if we wish to talk further, we could meet at the BBFO facility, tomorrow onward. He also says that we should check with Raptaur for her schedule, as it will depend on her being available."

"Interesting," Dragon noted, coming over to stand behind him and quickly read the email for herself. "Very interesting indeed. I thought that their little addition to Tuesday was an off the cuff thing, but it seems they may be now closer to the Family than we expected."

"So it would seem. I can't work out if I should be worried or not about that," he replied, shaking his head thoughtfully. "On the one hand, I suspect that Raptaur at least may be a good influence on them. On the other hand, it's Über and Leet! They may be a bad influence on the Family. Which terrifies me."

Dragon laughed, patting his arm comfortingly. "Don't worry too much, Colin, I'm sure that Raptaur is more sensible than that, although I can foresee some odd things happening as a result of this. Why don't you ask him about the wormhole generator, now that he's opened communication with you?"

"Good idea," Colin grunted, leaning forward and quickly typing a reply. He'd barely got his fingers off the keyboard when the email program notified him of a response. "He must have been waiting," he muttered, opening the email. They both read it.

 _To:Armsmaster at ProtectorateENE . gov_  
 _From: Leet at HyperCrypt . mail .com_  
 _Subject: Re: design consult_

 _You have that thing? I wondered where it went. It's dangerous, I hope you realize, the gamma emission was a lot higher than I thought at the time. I'm pretty sure it was almost glowing in the dark by the time we stopped using it. Good thing our costumes made decent rad shields!_

 _Sure, I'm open to discussing it. Anything to take out an Endbringer. I'm not sure exactly how easy it will be to fix it, and redesigning it is unfortunately not something I can do much about, but between you and Dragon, and maybe Kid Win if you trust him with it, you should be able to work something out._

 _I hope._

 _I've still got all the design notes and drawings, I'll bring them with me. Let me know when you're going to be around and I'll be there, under Endbringer Truce. Or perhaps Family Truce? Raptaur really doesn't like people fighting in her place and I'm not going to argue with her about that!_

 _Hey, one thing suddenly struck me while I was typing this! If we can make that thing work again, it might be a fix for the recoil issue! From what I remember of it, it normally generates a wormhole between a point fixed in space at a certain distance from the generator, and an arbitrary point somewhere else. I never did bother to work out what the maximum range was but it's pretty huge. The key thing is that the amount of energy required is almost entirely dependent on the size of the wormhole, not how far apart the ends are. It almost all goes into opening the thing in the first place to the size you want. We only used it for pretty small ones, the drone was only about two feet across._

 _If it could be either duplicated and fitted to the weapon, or modified to allow both ends to be placed at arbitrary points, the weapon could be redesigned to fire a counter-mass through a wormhole entrance immediately behind it, the other end dumping the mass somewhere it wouldn't cause a problem. EDM powder would be a good counter-mass, it would be small enough not to increase the size much, and lose energy very efficiently. If it was made with a short lifetime… I'll have to think about it. But it seems possible, right?_

 _Contact me when you know a time and date._

 _Leet_

After a moment, they both slowly turned their heads to regard each other. Colin sighed heavily.

"Why the hell didn't _we_ think of that?" he asked in an annoyed voice.

"I don't know," she replied, sounding irritated as well. "It's obvious when it's pointed out to you. He's right, it would at least in theory eliminate the problem entirely. Assuming that we can both repair it and work out how to arrange it to do as he suggests."

"We'll need to redesign the weapon breech as well, to allow the projectile to be loaded from the side," Colin commented, already opening the CAD file as a copy. He started making the changes as he spoke as rough starting points. "A rotating breech, perhaps? The round will require a redesign too. The shoulder stock will need to be changed to allow room for the wormhole. Do we try to fit it inside, or raise the barrel to over the shoulder and put it behind her?"

Soon they were deep in discussion of the latest modifications, complex designs glowing in 3D on the screens around them.

Colin was surprisingly happy at that precise moment in time.

* * *

Danny put his phone down and smiled, rubbing his hands together, which made Lisa smirk and Mark chuckle. "They're on the way up. Thanks, both of you, I'll talk after I've had this discussion. Lisa, this is really good work already, keep it up." He tapped the set of printouts she'd given him a moment earlier. "If you can do this in a few hours, we'll be running the place inside a year."

She laughed while Mark looked highly amused. "Whatever you say, Boss," she giggled.

"Oh, god, he got to you as well," Danny sighed, which made both the other people glance at each other then laugh like idiots. "Out, both of you. I have _important_ people to talk to now."

Mark snapped to attention with military precision, producing a perfect salute. "Sir!" he barked, then relaxed with a grin when Danny sighed again. Making a _go away_ gesture with his fingers, the older man watched as both of them left, Lisa still laughing. Smiling a little in a rather affectionate manner, he waited for the two women he was expecting to arrive.

A couple of minutes later, Zephron tapped on his door, then loomed in the doorway, blocking it nearly completely. "Your guests are here, Danny," he said in his deep voice, then stepped out of the way, to admit Director Piggot and a woman he'd never met before but that he recognized from news reports. Standing, he rounded the desk and shook both their hands.

"Director. Chief Director. An honor. Please, sit down." He waved them to the large table on the other side of the office, which still had several plans of the ongoing work spread out on it. "Do you want anything to drink?"

"Just water, please, Mr Hebert," Director Piggot said. He looked at Chief Director Costa-Brown, who raised a hand.

"Nothing for me, thank you."

"Sure." He glanced at Zephron who nodded silently and left, the door closing behind him. Sitting down as the two woman did the same, Both of them putting plastic folders on the table, he inspected them for a moment. They were looking around the office, then the plans on the table. Director Piggot half-stood to get a better view for a moment, then sat again.

"This is what's going on out there right now?" she asked, indicating the window through which floodlights could be seen staving off the early evening dimness.

He nodded. "Yes, that one there is the pre-demolition plan, all the buildings marked are the ones that came down. Next to it is the one showing the upgrades to the dock area, that part there is the actual scrappage area, with runoff channels between it and the bay to catch anything that leaks." He pointed out various parts of the work. "Rail lines here, extending to here. New storage buildings for equipment over here, fuel and oxygen storage at either end here, fixed cranes, and so on. It's quite a large project but so far everything is proceeding to plan. Everyone is very pleased."

"Mayor Christner certainly seemed to be in a good mood when I met him earlier," the Chief Director commented, looking up from the spread out papers. "He genuinely believes in the ability of this project to revitalize the city."

"So do I," Danny told her. "I wouldn't have suggested it in the first place if I didn't think it would work. All the planning and research, added to his own experts input, made it clear that we had no choice but to go ahead with it. The council agreed and here we are." He spread his hands, smiling.

"Indeed we are," Director Piggot replied with what was almost a smile. She looked up as Zephron came back in holding a tray with several bottles of chilled water and some glasses on the fingers of one hand like a waiter. The tray looked surprisingly small in the enormous man's hands. Putting it onto the table, he glanced at Danny.

"Will that be all, sir?" he asked in as cultured a voice as he could manage, which was surprisingly good.

"Thanks, Zephron," Danny grinned. "And knock it off. That's even worse than the _Boss_ stuff."

The other man looked amused. "As you wish, Padrone."

Danny sighed heavily. "Please make sure we're not disturbed, OK? Now go away."

Flipping him a quick salute of his own which seemed to involve more wrist movement that necessary, Zephron looked pensive, shook his head decisively, bowed deeply, and disappeared back out the door, closing it softly behind him. Danny watched him go with a grin, then turned back to the two women, who were looking slightly confused.

"I'm sorry about Zephron, he sometimes seems to think he's in the Mafia, and he's got a weird sense of humor at the best of times on top of that. But he's an extremely hard worker and a good man."

"I would imagine he's fairly effective in a fight, as well," Director Piggot remarked.

"Black belt in Karate, aside from anything else," Danny replied. "Not that he needs it, he's big enough just to pick someone up by the head and shake them until they stop struggling. I mean it, I saw it happen when Hookwolf and his idiots paid us a visit a while ago."

The blonde woman nodded, looking slightly appalled. Chief Director Costa-Brown was wearing a completely blank impression.

"I get the impression you have some real characters working here," she said.

"You would be right to think that," he chuckled, opening one of the bottles and pouring some into a glass, which he offered to Emily Piggot, before filling one for himself. Sipping it, he put it back down, then looked at them. "So what can I help you with?"

They exchanged a glance.

"As I said on the phone, we at the PRT are somewhat… confused… by recent happenings here in Brockton Bay. Since you seem, one way or another, to be at the center of many of those happenings, I was hoping that you might be able to shed a certain amount of light on the more peculiar aspects of them."

The brunette woman opened her folder, then removed a stack of papers, plus a pad and pen. Director Piggot did much the same. "For instance, can I ask how you first came into contact with what has become known as the Family?"

"Hmm." He leaned back in his chair, tapping his chin in thought. "I suppose the first time that happened, aside from seeing Saurial around the place, would be when she called to ask permission to use the Yard for training purposes..."

He spent the next hour and a half answering questions without changing his small smile, using all his best poker-face experience, as he had a shrewd idea that both women were very good at reading people. Danny tried not to outright lie, explaining quite often that he was unable to answer their question, but stuck mostly to the truth. Just limiting it.

Eventually, after having succumbed to thirst and drinking one of the bottles of water, the Chief Director closed her pad and put it and the paperwork back into the folder. Director Piggot had done the same thing about twenty minutes earlier and had been simply listening to both people, an expression of cautious interest on her face.

"Thank you, Mr Hebert, that's been quite helpful. Not as helpful as I'd ideally like, but I understand the circumstances prevent total openness. That's not unusual in Parahuman cases, especially ones this complex."

"You're welcome, Chief Director," he replied politely, taking all the bottles and glasses and stacking them on the tray. "If there's anything else I can help you with, please don't hesitate to get in touch. Obviously I can't guarantee to be able to give you the information you want, but I'll do what I can. We always try to cooperate with the PRT."

"I have no doubt," she smiled. "I'm sorry to have taken up so much of your time."

"It's no trouble, really. Would you like to see some of what's going on? I can give you a quick tour of the facility."

She glanced at Director Piggot, then looked back to him. "I think I would like to see this tanker for myself, yes," she replied. "I suspect it's more impressive in size than was apparent from looking at it on the horizon."

"It's fairly large," he nodded. "Watching Kaiju tow it was pretty remarkable. But then, so is she."

"So I gather from the news." The woman stood as he did, her companion doing the same. "I would like to meet her myself at some point. For the moment, I'll have to do with sending Eidolon and Alexandria. And probably Legend as well, so you can say they all turned up."

Grinning, he led them to the door. "That would be nice. Come with me, please."

On the way through the office, he spotted Lisa watching them closely, wearing an expression he was growing to know meant her power was at work and telling her something interesting. Giving her a cautioning glance, he relaxed a little when she nodded very slightly. Neither of his two guests noticed, they were looking in the other direction, and when Costa-Brown looked around, Lisa had already sat down behind one of the partitions.

Wondering what that had been about, but knowing he'd find out sooner or later, Danny led them out of the outer admin area and downstairs.

* * *

Waiting until Danny and his guests were safely gone, thinking hard and more than a little shocked at what she'd learned, Lisa got up from the chair in the empty cubical and looked around. After a moment, she headed for Danny's office. Opening the door she slipped inside, inspecting everything closely.

When she left a few seconds later, she had all three water bottles in her pocket, in the plastic bag that had lined his waste bin, turned inside out.


	113. Friends and Puns

Hearing the doorbell ring, Taylor put the plate she was holding down on the table, which was covered in similar ones, then went to answer it. She could see from the thermal image coming through the door that it was Amy and Vicky without trouble, both of them being both distinctive and familiar enough to identify instantly. Opening the door, she smiled. "Hi, guys, come in. I'm just getting some snacks ready."

Standing aside she let the two girls in, Amy smiling at her and Vicky looking around with interest. "You've moved things around," the blonde said.

"Just that bookcase," Taylor replied, closing the door again. "It was in the way. It's funny, it was where it was for years and everyone kept bumping into it, but we never thought to solve the problem by actually moving it, we just learned to go around it." She shrugged. "I finally saw the light and moved the stupid thing four feet to the left. Problem solved. I can't believe it took that long to work it out."

"Guess you get used to things and just work around them," Vicky laughed. "At least now you don't bump into it."

"No, but Dad and I keep walking around something that isn't there any more," Taylor giggled. "Habits are weird. You guys want a drink?"

"Sure, I'll take some apple juice," Amy said. Vicky nodded. Both of them followed her into the kitchen.

Handing them each a glass, Taylor waved at the table. "Help yourselves. Juice, soda, water. Lots of snacks, and I'm going to make some sandwiches now. Tuna, ham, and egg salad, I'm just boiling the eggs at the moment."

"Ooh, I'll have an egg salad sandwich when they're ready," Amy said eagerly. "I love those when they're fresh."

Vicky wrinkled her nose. "If I needed proof that we're not blood relations that would do it," she said, making Amy grin. "Yuck. I hate egg salad."

"What are your feelings about ham?"

"Ham, that I can deal with. Any sort of dead pig meat is fine by me," the blonde replied happily.

"Great, I'll make bacon sandwiches later as well." Taylor went to the stove and inspected her eggs which were rolling around in the boiling water, checking the timer. "Another four minutes should be enough."

The doorbell going again made her head back to the door. This time it was Mandy and Lucy. "Hi. Come in, both of you." Mandy greeted her with a hug, then turned and waved to the car at the side of the road, which got a return wave from the driver who then pulled away.

"Mom wanted to make sure this was the right house before she left," the girl explained as she entered the house.

"Fair enough. Hello, Lucy, how are you?"

"I'm very well, Taylor," the other girl replied with a smile. "I haven't had any major problems in the hour and a half since we last saw each other."

Snickering, Taylor led them into the kitchen. "Help yourself to snacks. Feel free to look around, living room is through there, bathroom if you need it is upstairs on the right."

"Thanks, Taylor. Nice house." Mandy looked around with interest, while Lucy picked up a cookie and nibbled it. "Have you lived here long?"

"All my life," she replied, turning off the stove, then pouring the boiling water in the pan down the sink and refilling it with cold from the tap. The eggs made little crinkling sounds from the sudden temperature change. Putting the saucepan on the counter, she started removing the shells, washing the eggs in the water to remove the small fragments before dropping them into a mixing bowl. "Mom and Dad were given the house as a wedding present by his parents a long time ago, it was in the family for years before that. I grew up here. We could move, I guess, but I don't want to, and I don't think Dad does either." She looked around the kitchen, smiling gently. "Too many memories."

"You mentioned you were going to do some improvements," Amy remarked, coming over and helping her with the eggs. She moved slightly to the side to make room. "When are you going to start?"

"When the weather improves a bit, I think," Taylor replied. "The outside needs work, it's been left for longer than it should have been, and repainting it needs warmer conditions. Dad was saying that he was thinking about just replacing the siding completely rather than repainting it, actually. Still a little cold for that, though. We're looking at a new kitchen and bathroom as well, but we haven't decided on the style yet."

Finishing with the eggs, she got rid of the saucepan, then rummaged in the fridge for the mayonnaise, while Amy chopped the eggs up. "I kind of like this kitchen, I remember helping Mom cook here, but it really does need to be redone. Half these cupboard doors are falling off."

"No need to demonstrate again," Vicky smiled, sitting in one of the kitchen chairs. "I remember what happened last time."

Taylor and Amy both laughed. Mandy and Lucy looked at each other, then Taylor, expectantly, so she explained, which made them giggle as well. While she was finishing making the egg salad, the doorbell went again. "I'll get it," Vicky said, putting down her glass and hopping to her feet, then lifting a few inches into the air and floating out of the kitchen. Taylor watched her go with a grin.

"She really doesn't walk anywhere she doesn't have to, does she?" she commented to the room at large.

"Not unless she's forced to, no," Amy sighed, buttering some bread. "Mom is always complaining about it at home."

"Your family life must be really weird," Mandy grinned, sitting down and grabbing a pack of chips.

"You have no idea," Amy snickered. "Sometimes I _dream_ of only having a _weird_ life. It would be an improvement on what really happens."

They all laughed at her comment, making Eric, who entered the room then with Rich, stare at them. "I didn't think we were that funny," he said to the other boy behind his hand, loudly enough to be heard by everyone. "Girls can be very strange." Lowering his hand with a grin, he looked around, then added, "Hi, everyone. Nice place, Taylor."

"Thanks." She waved the knife she was holding at the table. "Help yourselves. I'll finish making these and then we can go into the living room."

He nodded, turning to look at Amy. "Dad and I went and checked that truck over for you, Amy," the boy said, taking the cookie that Lucy offered him with a smile of thanks. "Sweet ride, is what Dad said. We both think it's in really good condition. Couldn't find anything serious wrong with it, aside from a split fuel return line which is where the gas was leaking from, the cracked rear window your Mom spotted, which to be honest isn't worth bothering with, and the tires which are all shot to hell. It needs a new wheel bearing on the front left, new brake pads and rotors, and all the filters changed, but they're all consumables anyway."

He grinned for a moment. "What the hell did your Mom _do_ to that poor dealer? We told him all this and he went pale, then said he'd get it all fixed by tomorrow morning."

Taylor glanced at Amy, both of them sharing a grin of their own. "Mom can be a little… direct," Amy replied. "She talked to him for a while, then he couldn't wait to get rid of us as fast as possible. I think he's thinking of retiring soon if she comes back."

Chuckling, Eric nodded respectfully. "I don't know whether to be impressed or worried. Anyway, it should be ready to be picked up after school tomorrow. It's a really nice vehicle, you found a good one."

"Thanks very much, Eric." Wiping her hands on a dishcloth, Amy retrieved her jacket which she'd hung over one of the chair backs and rummaged in it, removing an envelope. "Two hundred and fifty bucks. Money well spent."

"That's too much, Amy," he protested, holding the envelope and staring at it. She waved a hand dismissively, going back to her sandwich-making efforts.

"No, it isn't. Share it with your dad if you want, but you helped me out using knowledge I don't have, and I do have that money. You earned it, take it. And my thanks."

"If you insist," he replied, still looking somewhat surprised, but he put the envelope in his pocket. "Thanks a lot."

"You're more than welcome," she smiled over her shoulder.

Shortly they were all in the other room, a large plate of sandwiches on the coffee table, and some popcorn in bowls as well. "Movie first, then work?" Taylor suggested. "Or work first, then movie?"

"How about movie, work, movie?" Vicky grinned.

"We need more work to movie ratio, I think," Rich replied, making her laugh.

"Why don't we watch this to put us in a good mood, then Taylor can spread her mathematical largesse over us in a thick layer, after which we can do the movie thing," Amy suggested, holding up a USB stick.

"I don't have a largesse, do I?" Taylor asked quizzically in a worried tone, looking down and back. Amy stared at her, then collapsed in giggles, while the others roared with laughter.

"Your Esse is fine, Taylor," Amy snickered, pushing her friend down onto the sofa. Taylor grinned widely. "You idiot. Where's your laptop?"

"In my room, hold on, I'll get it." She jumped up again and retrieved the computer from her bedroom.

"What are you showing us, Amy?" Lucy asked curiously as Taylor plugged the laptop into the TV.

"Unreleased footage of myself and a very large friend of mine," Amy smiled, handing Taylor the USB stick. They shared a private look for a moment, Taylor seeing her friend's amusement in her eyes. "She always wears a camera like Saurial does, you know."

"You've got RaptaurCam footage?" Eric snickered. She nodded, grinning, as Lucy clapped her hands excitedly.

"She gave me a copy. Some of it is pretty fucking funny." Sitting down, Taylor handed her friend the laptop, which she prodded a few times. "Here, this is the first time, the entire ride home." Hitting play, she sat next to Taylor, the others all finding seats as well. Taylor, when she'd given her friend the files the week before, had edited out anything incriminating that might give her identity away, but left everything else in.

They watched the Raptaurs-eye video, exclaiming with excitement. Even Vicky looked impressed. "Holy crap, sis, that's horrifying!" she said when it was over. "How the hell fast can she run?"

"At least eighty miles an hour," Amy smiled, "We were overtaking everything on the freeway. One guy was obviously thinking about racing us but thought better of it when he saw that cop car. The cops just waved at us. It was kind of strange."

"From what I hear they like the Family and probably didn't want to cause any problems," Rich noted, looking fascinated. "Not to mention that technically she wasn't speeding, there was no vehicle involved."

"I guess not," Mandy laughed. "And would _you_ want to try pulling her over?"

"Ma'am, please get off your horrible monster and join me in the car," Eric intoned in a deep voice. "License, registration, and monster owner's certificate, please."

Amy started snickering to the point she had to hand Taylor the laptop before she dropped it. "Yeah, I can see it now," she said, heaving with laughter. " _New Wave healer pulled over for violating both traffic and natural laws. Full story on the News at Nine._ "

Eric howled with laughter, leaning back in his chair. "Oh, god, that would almost be worth it," he chuckled.

"Mom would pop a gasket," Vicky put in, grinning. "She's still not sure about the Family, although she's a lot happier about Saurial than Raptaur. The big one is really scary, but I like her."

"What about the _really_ big one?" Lucy asked, smiling.

"Don't know her personally," the blonde replied. "But I'm familiar with her work."

"Tuesday was the strangest day I've ever experienced," Rich commented idly, eating another sandwich. "I'm still sort of coming to grips with it. I think everyone is. Yesterday everyone was walking around with a dazed expression, today they're all looking thoughtful."

"At least no one is really looking worried, though," Mandy noted. He looked at her, then nodded thoughtfully.

"That's true, and I think it's a good thing. From everything I've heard, and seen on TV and in the papers, people are cautiously optimistic more than anything else. Some of them are wildly optimistic. What does your Dad think about it all, Taylor?"

"Well, since most of it was sort of his fault, he's in favor," she replied with a grin. "So is everyone at the DWU. They're really excited, it's already saved everyone's jobs, and should add a lot more even just in the next six months. Dad said he's already had nearly a hundred applications just for the DWU businesses themselves and he's heard from other unions that are associated with our one that they're all inundated with them as well. It's going to take some time for the new jobs to happen, but he's sure they will."

"Which will pump a lot more money into the local economy very quickly," Eric said. "All those people will be spending what they earn, on rent, fuel, food, entertainment… This really is a big deal."

"A very big deal," Vicky remarked. "About eighty feet tall. And with a peculiar sense of humor."

Everyone nodded as one, Taylor and Amy sharing a glance. "Play the next one, Ames," Vicky suggested.

"OK." Reclaiming the computer the healer did so. "This was the second run, including the stop for burgers where we ran into Assault and Battery."

They watched it, laughing most of the way through. The confused expression on Assault's face had Vicky rolling on the floor gasping for breath. "God, that's fucking hilarious," she said through her laughter. "I've never seen him look like that before. Normally, everyone _else_ looks like that when he's around."

Amy snickered. "I know, it was really funny. How the hell I managed not to laugh and ruin it I have no idea."

"Can Raptaur really eat anything?" Lucy asked, apparently fascinated.

"As far as I know, yes," Amy replied. "She got rid of the garbage by eating it, and I've seen her chow down on plastic, metal, ceramic… you name it, the Family can apparently digest it."

"Like boats and Kaiju," Rich said, looking impressed. "That was… disturbing. Funny, but disturbing."

"Biggest practical joker in the world, literally." Eric looked amused. "Do you have any others?"

"Well, there is one, but you have to keep it a secret," Amy said after a glance at Taylor. "I don't want anyone else finding out about it right now. It might be… a little embarrassing."

"Why?" Her sister suddenly looked worried.

"Because it shows a public figure getting a shock," she grinned. "And if he found out, he'd probably be pretty mad. I'm sure not going to put it on PHO. But I'll show you guys if you all promise not to mention it to anyone."

"That's not fair, now we _have_ to see it!" Mandy exclaimed, shaking her head. "Sure, I'll promise."

"Me too," Lucy said eagerly. As Amy looked around, everyone else nodded as well.

"No one will hear it from me," Eric vowed, holding his hand over his heart and making a serious expression, causing them all to smile.

"OK." She selected the relevant file and played it. There was a stunned silence, then the entire room collapsed in hilarity.

"Oh, god, was that _Max Anders?_ " Vicky chortled, staring at the TV.

"Yep," Taylor grinned.

"He looked like he saw a ghost," Mandy gasped, giggling furiously. "That poor man. What did he ever do to you, Amy?"

"I just don't like him much," she explained with a smirk. "He's too smooth. Anyone that slick has to be doing something wrong. I think he's pulling the wool over everyone's eyes and is really a bad person."

"You can't come to that conclusion just because you don't like his attitude," Rich protested. "I mean, you had a reputation as a grumpy sarcastic girl, but you're actually a lot of fun and a good person."

"But I'm _also_ genuinely a grumpy and sarcastic girl," Amy chuckled. "Although I have to admit that since I met all of you guys, the grumpiness has gone down a lot."

"Still sarcastic, though, sis," Vicky told her.

"No, _really?_ I would never have guessed," Amy replied, completely straight-faced, making the blonde laugh again and put her arm around her sister.

"Idiot."

"Bimbo."

"Thanks."

"No, thank _you_."

They shared a grin while the others smiled. "Anyway, I see why you don't want that getting out," Vicky went on. "Whatever he really is, he's very public and that video wouldn't help his image much."

"Nope. But it's fucking funny, so I'm keeping it. I watch it every now and then when I want a giggle. He's all like..." Any made a face of comical shock and surprise mixed with slight terror, which to give her credit was remarkably close to that which Max Anders had ended up with when he'd looked up and seen Raptaur and her rider right outside his window. They all laughed uproariously again.

"Good blackmail material, if nothing else," Lucy giggled.

"I would never do something like _that!_ " Amy exclaimed, looking innocent. " _I_ am a hero, you realize."

"Yes, she's The Amy," Taylor snickered, making her friend look at her and sigh. Vicky stared, wide-eyed, then slumped over in peals of laughter.

"The Amy?"

"We decided that was the right name for her when she stops messing about with healing and goes out to beat up muggers," Taylor grinned.

Amy sighed again, more heavily, crossing her arms and giving her a look of annoyance. "You mean, _you_ decided. I seem to recall saying it was a silly name."

"You saved me, The Amy!" Lucy suddenly wailed, diving across the room and clasping her arms around Amy's legs. "Thank you! Anything I have is yours. _All hail The Amy!_ "

"Hey, get off, you weirdo," Amy protested, as everyone else nearly collapsed. Lucy looked up at her with a face glowing with grateful innocence.

"But… But… You're _The Amy!_ The bestest hero in the entire city. You saved me."

"Oh, thanks a lot, Taylor," Amy grated, while her friend laughed helplessly. "Now I have a fangirl."

"I thought she was a _Family_ fangirl?" Vicky snickered. "How fickle, forgetting her favorites so quickly."

"I can fangirl for both the Family and The Amy at the same time," Lucy retorted, releasing Amy and standing up, putting her hands on her hips. "I can multi-fan. It's a thing."

"Sure it is."

"It is. Anyway, _you're_ only Glory Girl. Your sister is… **The Amy**." Her voice dropped mysteriously. "Healer during the day, mugger-beater at night."

"It was _one_ mugger," Amy said, at the same time as her sister exclaimed, " _I_ can beat up muggers too, you know." Both Dallons looked at each other, then shook their heads, grinning. Appearing pleased, Lucy went back to her chair, while everyone else laughed again.

"You're both very good," Taylor said soothingly. "Now, let's do something more useful. I propose we start with something simple like differential calculus. An hour or so of finding derivatives should work up an appetite. Then we can go onto something difficult."

"Who are you who are so wise in the ways of mathematics?" Rich asked slowly after an appalled silence.

"I am Taylor, King of the Britons," she announced proudly. "No. Queen. Queen of the Britons. Brocktonites. Brocktonians?"

"You're invincible!" he shouted, raising a fist.

"She's a loony," Amy sighed.

"Stop mangling Monty Python quotes and get the textbooks," Mandy giggled. "And we're not _starting_ with calculus, differential or otherwise. Pick something I can actually do, then teach me to do it properly."

"OK," Taylor agreed mildly. "If I have two beans and add two more beans, how many beans do I have?"

Mandy threw a cushion at her.

* * *

"What do you think?" Emily asked as they drove back to the PRT building, in heavy Friday evening traffic.

"I think Mr Hebert knows a lot more than he's saying, but he's never going to tell anyone without a very good reason," the woman sitting next to her replied after a few seconds. "The PRT isn't, in his mind, a very good reason. I'm not sure what would be." Costa-Brown glanced at her, then went back to thoughtfully watching the traffic ahead of them. "Though I agree that you were right. Threatening him, or putting pressure on him at all, would be very counter-productive. That is not a man who breaks easily."

"He's known to have one hell of a temper if you push hard enough," Emily noted soberly. "Apparently, it rarely comes out, especially since that trouble with his daughter was finished, but when it does even people like that Zephron character walk quietly and stay out of his way. One contact I had said it was a terrible cold rage that tended to end up with bones broken if you got in the way." She shrugged. "Last time we know it happened for sure involved someone twice his size with a baseball bat. Man threatened his daughter."

"And?"

"Hospitalized with several bad breaks, internal injuries, and a case of ' _don't let him get me_ ' like you seldom see."

"Why wasn't he prosecuted?"

"No one saw anything, basically. Even the cops who turned up. Unofficially, word was that it was an entirely justified beating, _someone_ was going to get hurt once the bat came out and the other people all agreed that it was the fault of the guy with the bat in the first place. Guy was a known bully, but this time he picked entirely the wrong person to get into a drunken fit of road rage at. If he'd just walked away nothing would have happened, but threaten his family..." She smiled grimly. "He's not the sort of man who lets that go. I fully understand why he gets along with Saurial and Raptaur so well. They work on the same basis although a different level."

"I see. There was nothing in the background check about that."

"There wouldn't be. It never got to the point of a record. He has a lot of people who respect him. A lot more after that. To be honest, _I_ respect him. I don't particularly _like_ him, but I don't particularly like most people." Emily smiled a little. Her companion chuckled.

"So your reputation would say. Thank you, that's interesting to know."

They were silent for another few traffic lights. "We're no closer to finding out the origin of the Family, how many there are of them, or any other motives, though," Costa-Brown sighed.

"No. At the moment, I think all we can do is wait and watch. I'm sure more information will come to light in due time." Emily pondered just telling her superior about the Biotinker theory, which was still the favorite, even Legend agreeing in the end that it was the least unlikely of all of them. But he'd also suggested that it be kept between the five of them for the moment, at least until the entire Coil mess could be resolved and the PRT systems scrubbed. Hopefully Costa-Brown would soon decide she'd seen enough and go home, taking Alexandria and Eidolon with her.

She was rather nervous having all three of the Triumvirate in the same city at the same time. It was a little like finding a box that you'd been ignoring for months at the back of the closet was now emitting a faint but distinct ominous ticking sound.

Legend was fine, he was a sensible and decent man, but the other two… She'd heard stories. Alexandria could be absolutely ruthless, while Eidolon somehow gave her the feeling of someone with something to prove. A little like Colin sometimes did, but worse. It made the hairs on the back of her neck stand up when she thought about it too hard, considering who and what he was. Colin, for all his faults, would listen to reason, especially if you had figures to back it up. She had no idea whether the other man would.

Adding those two on top of the Family…

No, that could only end with something giving way if the situation went on long enough. And she had the weirdest feeling it wouldn't be Kaiju who started anything.

Giving her head a quick shake, which attracted a glance from her passenger, although she said nothing, Emily dismissed the faint sensation of imminent doom that had been gathering at the back of her mind.

"What do you want to do next?" she asked instead.

"I'll go over my notes tonight and talk to the others," the Chief Director replied. "Once Alexandria and Eidolon..."

"And Legend. Don't disappoint Mr Hebert," Emily snickered.

"...and Legend, have visited Kaiju," the woman went on, smiling slightly, "hopefully we should have enough information to decide on a strategy. I think that in all likelihood your wait and see approach is the common-sense one. If we could get them on the books as PRT-associated independents that would be ideal, but I doubt we could hope for more at the moment."

"I doubt it very much. We have nothing they really either want or need," Emily commented. "Their association with the city and the DWU gives them resources, people, political access, and good will. More than I have, in many ways, which is very irritating."

The woman laughed. "I'll see if I can increase your budget, Emily. Your requests are read, we just have a lot to do."

"Fair enough, although I still want more access to therapists. We have several people who are, in my opinion and that of Gallant, perilously close to some form of PTSD. I've been complaining about that for literally years yet nothing has been done. Trust me, I know the symptoms, and where it leads." She gave the other woman a significant look. "Nowhere good."

Costa-Brown sighed a little, nodding. "I'll bring it up at the next budgetary meeting, I promise."

"Thank you."

A gap in the traffic presented itself, allowing Emily to stomp on the gas and whip the heavy PRT vehicle ahead of the annoyingly slow bus in front of her, grinning viciously. She rather enjoyed driving, but only at a sensible speed.

* * *

Danny leaned his office chair back as far as it would go, staring thoughtfully at the ceiling. His door opened, but he didn't look. "Hi, Lisa," he said after a moment.

"How did you know?" the blonde girl's voice said curiously. A moment later, she added, "My perfume. Clever."

"It's distinctive, and the airflow from the door opening goes right past me," he smiled, lowering his gaze to see her looking amused. "Certain people I know are very good with scents and it made me pay more attention to them."

She looked more amused, and also very slightly worried, but after a moment the worry disappeared to be replaced with her common sly grin. "I see. You can learn new tricks at even your advanced age, apparently."

"Hey!" he retorted, glaring at her. "Mid forties. Not advanced. Middle aged at worst."

The girl grinned more widely. "And looking good with it. How did it go?"

"As well as it could, I suspect," he replied, tipping his chair back upright. "They had a _lot_ of questions. Costa-Brown more than Piggot. They're very curious about the Family, of course, and were obviously trying to figure out where they come from. And I'm almost certain wondering if they had some hidden agenda."

"They do, of course," Lisa smiled.

"It's not so much hidden as private," he replied. "Mainly being to make sure no one they care about gets hurt. Or at least that's how it started. I think now it's more like no one at all gets hurt if possible." He shrugged, as she nodded. "Seems fair to me. Why fight if you don't have to? A lot of arguments can be settled without that sort of thing if you try."

"Some people _don't_ want to try," she noted. "Some actively _like_ fighting. Like Lung. Some are just idiots. Like Skidmark."

"All too true," he sighed.

"I'm sort of surprised that fuckwit hasn't been around causing problems yet," Lisa added. "Bearing in mind how all this work is going to remove a lot of what he thinks of as his territory, and if he's thought it through, a lot of his customers."

"I somehow doubt he's ever thought anything through in his life," he remarked with a small smile, which made her nod agreement. "But you're right. Sooner or later he's probably going to make himself a pain in the ass. That happens pretty regularly around this damn city. Luckily, normally he goes after some big flashy target and the Protectorate hands him a beating. Or the E88. The only good thing they ever do is when Kaiser loses patience with him and kicks him around for a while."

Lisa snickered, sitting in one of his guest chairs. "It's a good point. Kaiser has been suspiciously quiet for a while now. And completely silent since Tuesday."

"Perhaps he decided he should find another line of work?" Danny suggested.

"What sort of work _could_ a Nazi go into if he wasn't Nazi-ing?" she asked. Both of them thought for a moment. Danny snapped his fingers after a few seconds.

"I have it! Light bulbs."

"What?" she asked, looking befuddled. "How did you get _there?_ "

"It's obvious. If he turns the E88 into a lighting company, he could corner the market. Which would let him run everything."

She didn't look any the wiser.

With an evil grin, he added, "Surely you've heard that the world is secretly ruled by the IllumiNazi?"

Her groan of pain was music to his ears.

* * *

Taylor looked up at the sound of her father's car approaching. It was still a quarter of a mile away but he'd be there soon. Hopping to her feet she excused herself from her friends and went into the kitchen, filling the kettle and turning it on, then preparing the coffee cup. She had a full cup of coffee steaming away in her hand when he came into the house.

He looked at it, then her, before smiling. "Nicely judged, dear," he said, taking his coat off, hanging it up, then relieving her of the drink. Sipping it he sighed happily. "Exactly what I needed."

"Long day, Danny?" Amy asked from the living-room doorway, Vicky and the others standing behind her peering out curiously. He looked at her and nodded.

"Moderately, Amy. Nothing too difficult, although I did entertain Director Piggot for a couple of hours. And Chief Director Costa-Brown."

Both Amy and Vicky's eyes widened at this.

"Both of them?" Vicky asked, sounding slightly shocked.

"Yes. They seemed curious about the Family and BBFO for some reason," he chuckled. She grinned, but still looked a little worried.

"I hope there isn't anything bad happening as a result of Tuesday," the blonde said.

"No, nothing like that, they're just very curious about the whole thing, understandably so. It is somewhat unusual, all things considered." He smiled as everyone in the living room nodded. "It'll blow over. So, Taylor, introduce me to your friends."

"OK. You know the Dallons, of course. Over there is Mandy, my first friend at Arcadia and someone I'm very grateful to have met." Taylor waved to Mandy, who grinned. "Lucy is next to her, that's Eric, and over there is Rich. Guys, this is my dad, as you may have already worked out."

"Hello, Mr Hebert," everyone chorused with remarkable synchronicity.

"It's nice to meet you all," he replied. "I was going to suggest pizza, but by the look of things you've got enough food there for a small army."

"We're not starving, that's for sure," Amy grinned. "Although I'm still waiting for the promised bacon sandwiches."

"Finish your homework and you get bacon," Taylor replied calmly. "You still have two equations to solve."

"Taskmaster," Amy sighed, returning to her notebook and sitting down glumly. Taylor grinned at Vicky, who was giggling.

" _You_ have three."

The blonde's face fell, making Taylor's father snicker. "A strong hand on the helm, I see. Well, I need to clean up, but if you're making bacon sandwiches, stick enough bacon on for me. I'm starving."

"OK, Dad," she replied. "We're going to watch ' _Inception_ ' when we're done, do you want to join us?"

"Happily," he told her. "Very good movie. See you all soon." She watched him go upstairs with a fond smile, then went back into the living room with her friends, feeling that the day had worked out very well.


	114. Omake - The Amy Strikes

"You stand no chance, Protectorate scum!"

The tall man in the metal suit with a swastika emblazoned across the chest, bright lights on the shoulders, stood at one end of the brilliantly lit warehouse, posing arrogantly. Armsmaster, Miss Militia, and Velocity stood at the other, while between them were dozens of boxes, crates, and other such warehouse paraphernalia.

There were also at least two dozen mooks, all with bright lights on their heads.

And guns.

Big ones.

All of which were pointed at the heroes.

"Who the hell is he?" Velocity whispered loudly to his comrades in arms.

"I have no idea," Armsmaster admitted. "Overall body shape and posture is an eighty-six point three percent match to Kaiser, but that's the best fit I can produce."

"Kaiser? He vanished after that whole Family thing months ago," Miss Militia noted curiously. "This nutcase turned up a couple of weeks ago and has been stealing every light bulb, streetlight, traffic light, you name it, in the entire damn city."

"My scans indicated that's what all these boxes are full of," the Tinker replied absently, looking around while waving a small device about him. "Very peculiar."

"What does he want a lot of lights for?" Velocity asked no one in particular. The other two shrugged.

"No clue. Anyway, he's the one we want, so I guess we'd better bring him in."

"You may try, deviants," the man, who had been politely waiting for them to stop discussing the situation, shouted. "You will fail. It is my destiny to seize all forms of light production, and through this, seize control of the entire governmental system world wide. Soon you will bow before me, for I am..." He waved his hands, the light from the thousands of bulbs in the ceiling growing intolerable. "The _**IllumiNazi!**_ "

"Heil IllumiNazi!" all the mooks roared as one, making the heroes twitch.

"OK, he's nuts," Velocity remarked. "And _might_ be Kaiser. There can't be that many Nazis in Brockton Bay. Not any more." All three of them shuddered, remembering.

"No, they probably wish that Raptaur had just eaten them, instead of what actually happened," Miss Militia said quietly.

"I would never have believe _she_ could do what she did," Armsmaster remarked, readying his halberd. The woman beside him formed a heavy shotgun loaded with an infinite supply of beanbag rounds, while shaking her head.

Velocity shivered.

"Is it wrong that I feel terrified of an eighteen-year-old girl eight inches shorter than I am?" he asked.

"No. No, it isn't," Armsmaster sighed. "Ready?"

"Yes."

"Velocity, go."

The man didn't say anything, but disappeared in a blur, shooting off through the maze of boxes. Miss Militia picked her first target and fired. A mook screamed in surprise and toppled over, then all hell broke out as they all started shooting.

"You cannot win, degenerates," the IllumiNazi yelled, forming a sword from nothing and waving it. He stopped, looked at it, then pulled a small but brilliant light from a pouch at his his belt and attached it to the hilt of the sword, nodding in satisfaction. "I will win, you will fail, and the city will be mine! After that, the country."

"You talk too much," Armsmaster muttered, aiming his halberd at another mook, then pressing a concealed button on the haft. A bolt of crackling electricity jumped to the attacking man, who screamed and twitched, dropping to the floor where he lay smoking.

"More light!" The villain poked a control on his wrist-mounted Pad of Evil™, genuine Leet-Draco-Tech© brand. The illumination on the ceiling rose to a level that was physically painful, even Armsmaster's helmet visor having trouble cutting it enough for him to see. A pained cry from the other side of the room made him whirl.

"Fuck me, that's too fucking bright, you idiot, I can't see where the hell I'm going!," Velocity shouted, half-way under a cardboard box full of now-broken lightbulbs.

"Well, yes, that's sort of the point," the IllumiNazi explained patiently. "I have these welding goggles on, so it's no problem. All my men do as well. You, you pathetic hero, have nothing. I win."

"Not yet, fiend," came a cry from the other end of the warehouse. Armsmaster nearly dropped his halberd, Velocity stopped grousing and rubbing his knee, Miss Militia reflexively formed the biggest fucking gun anyone had ever seen and pointed it in that direction, and the IllumiNazi cried out in rage.

"The Amy!" all the mooks yelled in what sounded like raw fear. "IllumiNazi, it's _The Amy!_ We must flee," the senior mook cried out.

"Too late for fleeage, you racist bastards," The Amy shouted defiantly, standing on top of a pile of boxes. Armsmaster looked at her, wondering where she'd come from, then his eyes tracked downwards to see a box on the floor was now upside down and empty. He smacked his forehead. Oldest trick in the book and he'd even walked right past it.

"Stand and fight," The Amy carried on, flicking her hands which resulted in an indestructible FamTech® Tac-Smack™ collapsible baton snapping out from each of them with an unpleasant _click_ sound that echoed around the suddenly silent warehouse. "Your reign of excessive and inappropriate lighting ends here. The Amy decrees it to be so."

"Even you can't hope to take on over thirty IlluMinions single handed, The Amy," the metal-suited villain said.

The Amy smiled unpleasantly.

"Single handed?" she said sweetly.

The lights went out.

All of them.

"Oh, god, _she's_ here as well?" Armsmaster could swear he heard Velocity mutter. He felt much the same. After what happened last time…

He felt Miss Militia somehow find him in the dark, standing back to back with him. Both of them slowly turned, looking for even the smallest trace of light, without success.

Then the screaming started.

"Jesus Christ, my fucking _nuts!_ " a voice howled in agony.

"EEEEE!" Another one wailed, the sound going up in pitch then dying in a rattle.

There were nasty meaty sounds from all around them, as well as intermittent noises that seemed reminiscent of something large and scaly scraping against the scenery.

One scream died in a crunch, followed by what he could swear were chewing sounds. He paled, breathing hard.

It was over in a surprisingly short time. A few minutes later the lights came back on, much less brightly, to reveal a pile of groaning bodies, most of them curled into a fetal position and holding parts best not mentioned, pale and sweating in agony.

The Amy was standing on top of the pile, posing with one baton over her head ready to strike and the other diagonally across her chest to block a blow. She glared at the IllumiNazi, who was gaping at her. "The Amy will only ask once. Yield, or perish."

He looked frantically around. None of his men were standing. Armsmaster and Miss Militia watched with awe, while Velocity muttered to himself, rubbing his other knee. Apparently he'd tripped again.

"I..." The villain was obviously trying to work out what to do.

"The Amy feels it is only fair to tell you to look behind you."

He did, peering into the now dimly lit hallway that led to his only route of escape. Even from where he was standing, Armsmaster could make out a dull gleam of far more razor sharp teeth than he was comfortable with, all of them bared in a Nazi-eating predatory grin.

Slumping, the IllumiNazi dropped his sword and held out his arms. "I yield," he sighed.

Behind him, the teeth disappeared back into the darkness, from which came a quiet snigger.

"Wise of you," The Amy stated, performing an acrobatic back flip from her pile of defeated IlluMinions, to land easily in front of him. With a complex motion and a series of clicks, the batons vanished, then she casually clicked a pair of FamTech® No-S-Cape™ handcuffs around his wrists. "The Amy declares this villain captured. Protectorate heroes, you may take him into custody."

Armsmaster sighed and walked over, collapsing and stashing his halberd in the process. He neatly caught the key she flipped him. "Miss Dallon, this is becoming somewhat ridiculous, I hope you realize?"

"Nonsense, my good pikesman! The Amy thanks you for your aid, and bids you farewell." She waved, then headed into the corridor to the exit, vanishing into the darkness.

A moment later she reappeared. "Oh, Mom says thanks for the new comms system, by the way."

"You're welcome," he muttered, his hand over his face. "Please go away now."

"Bye, everyone!" she shouted, vanishing once again. In the distance, very faintly, he could hear a moment later the cry of "Hiho, Rap..."

"I damn well _know_ I told you to stop that," a much deeper voice snapped.

"Sorry."

He stopped listening at that point, trying not to think about what had happened to the city he used to like.

Or hate.

Something like that.


	115. Notes from The Big Apple

(By Edbecerra at SpaceBattles)

* * *

(based on a comment from _Interviews and Plots_ )

To: Mr. Foot.  
From: Tony.

Heya! Good ta hear from ya! How's the Big Apple lately? Cousin Vito is a little unhappy, he says you haven't been stopping by his place for any of the good imported _vino_ lately. Shame on you! You haven't been sneaking over to the Old Country and grabbing a bottle or three of _grappa_ on the sly now, have you?

Sorry about the "To:" there. :) Couldn't resist the joke, ya gotta admit, the gal got you a good one there! What'cha think of the harbor, eh? By the time she's done, it'll be as clean as a whistle!

Down ta business, then. I asked around for you. The Empire's grunts are pissed as hell, but the word from Kaiser is absolute - they screw with the Docks, or anyone working for or with the Docks? He'll make an example of them same as he did with that idiot who whacked Fleur.

Frickin' _crucifixions_ were mentioned, and I don't think he was jokin'.

He's still pissed as hell at Hookwolf, like you wouldn't _believe._ And the mooks that were with him? Left to twist in the wind, and if they try to come home to Papa Kaiser, he's gonna finish the job the PRT and Bay police started.

They're kinda lookin' forward to a nice safe prison cell, or so I hear.

As for the local skinheads? Kaiser's gonna have to work fast there. The boys in the Teamsters have been makin' a few examples here and there with any who get outta line. Polite ones. Y'know, respectful and no insult meant to Kaiser. Just a few bruises, a bag over their heads and a note with an apology.

Hey, we still gotta live with our neighbors, _capisci?  
_  
Other than that, th' Empire's mostly pulled in their horns. They're takin' a live and let live policy. Don't F with them, they won't F with you. And they won't F with the Union _at all.  
_  
The _Famiglia_ has 'em scared as hell.

(Damn, it's funny as hell to write it that way, y'know? )

Now, you be a good boy, take care, stop by cousin Vito's for a few bottles of the good stuff, not that California-made crap, and tell 'im I said to give you half off or his wife hears about his mistress. And if you can take a moment to stop by, I'll get you some take-out. Some good old fashioned _ravioli_ for you, with plenty of that home made sauce. You don't eat enough, kiddo!

 _Antonio._

PS - That idiot Skidmark's gonna be trouble, mark my words (no pun intended.) Th' way he's running his mouth in front of his gang, sooner or later the DWU's gonna clash with the Merchants. Y'might wanna pass that along, ok?


	116. Pranks and Press

**Friday, February 18, 2011**

Waking, Amy blinked a few times, then groaned. "God, what a stupid dream," she muttered. "Too many bacon sandwiches. I _said_ four was enough, but no, I got offered another one, and was stupid enough to eat it." She smacked her lips, tasting remnants of something pig-based. "Then I went to bed without brushing my teeth," she sighed. "Yuck."

Stretching, she sighed in relaxation, before sitting up. ' _It was a very good evening otherwise_ ,' she thought as she got out of bed, scratched the back of her head for a moment, then headed sleepily for the bathroom and a toothbrush.

Having finished her ablutions some twenty minutes later and much more awake, she headed back to her room, hearing the rest of the family stirring. Once again she'd got up before the rest of them.

Just as her hand was reaching for her doorknob, she consciously noticed the neatly printed sign taped to her door, which she'd not paid attention to on the way out.

She stared, then went red.

 **The Lair of THE AMY.**  
 **Knock or Die.**  
 **No Solicitors.**

Pulling it off the door with a yank of one hand, she glared at it, then slowly turned around. She could hear giggling coming from behind her sister's partly open bedroom door.

" _Vicky!_ "

The giggling got louder, although the door shut with a click. She stomped over and began hammering on it, while their parents came to see what the hell was going on this time.

* * *

Stopping in her tracks at the bottom of the stairs, Taylor sniffed, then looked around, before zeroing in on her father's coat as the source of the unfamiliar scent. Smelling the arm she cataloged the various odors of people and things on it.

' _Dad, coffee, traces of Lisa, Zephron, Mark… All people he sees regularly_ ,' she thought. ' _And Director Piggot as well, recently, last night I guess. But I don't recognize that one_.'

It was female, human, in good health, all that she could tell instantly. But there was something a little weird under that which she couldn't put a metaphorical finger on.

" _Presumably that is Chief Director Costa-Brown, Brain,_ " the Varga commented.

 _'I suppose it has to be. I know the scents of practically everyone at the DWU now and it's none of those. And he didn't mention meeting anyone else. Whoever it was had to have been in his office, or close to him at least, for a while for the scent to soak in this strongly_.' She shrugged, hanging the coat up again and heading into the living room. She'd gotten up early to finish cleaning up, there was a lot of stuff like snack wrappings and empty soda cans lying around. They'd kept at the math tutoring after the movie for a while, since everyone seemed to think they were actually learning something and she was enjoying herself more than she'd expected being the teacher.

Amy and Vicky had been the last to leave at just after midnight, both looking tired but happy. Hugging her, both girls had thanked her, then vanished into the night, Vicky picking her sister up and flying off. Taylor watched them go with a smile then had gone to bed, her father having already done so half an hour earlier. She hadn't bothered to do more than a cursory tidying up, though.

Now, she busied herself wandering around the room straightening the furniture and collecting all the cans and plastic, which she crumpled into a tightly compressed wad of random materials in her hands. After a moment, having looked around at the room, she shrugged, turned her head into a scaled down version of her combat form's one, and ate the entire lump of metal and polymers as the quickest method to get rid of it.

"That is still rather disturbing to watch," her father said from the door of the living room, making her turn and smile at him with lots of sharp teeth.

"Quick, and sort of tasty, actually," she laughed.

"You are _not_ what I thought my daughter would grow up to be," he sighed, coming over and holding her for a moment. "Although I can't say I'm sorry about how it all turned out."

"Thanks, Dad," she replied softly. Patting her scaly head between the eyes, he released her.

"Your turn to make breakfast. Assuming you still want any after your healthy meal of random garbage."

Giggling, she reverted to her normal head and grinned at him. "Of course, that was just a snack. There's still some bacon left, I think, and a few tuna sandwiches we need to get rid of."

"That sounds fine, dear. I need a shower, then I'll be back down."

"OK." Shortly she was frying the bacon, humming to herself.

When he came back, she was just setting the table. "Still on for this afternoon?" he asked as he moved to help.

"Sure. I asked yesterday, there's no problem skipping the last period. I'll be at the yard at around two fifteen or so."

"Good, that will give us time to do the work before it gets dark." He looked out the window. "Should be a fairly good day for this time of year. Dry and calm anyway, even if cold. I wish this winter would hurry up and end, I'm getting tired of the dark afternoons and the damp."

"It _would_ be nice to have some warm sunny days," she smiled.

When they'd finished breakfast, she helped him with the dishes, then kissed him goodbye and headed for the back door. Seconds later she was sprinting down the road under the cloak as Saurial, reveling in the sensations of physical activity. It was one of the best parts of her life these days. Speeding up to around forty miles an hour she ran towards Arcadia, feeling happy and looking forward to another day with her friends, some good hard work at the yard, and perhaps a run around the city that night annoying the criminals.

Life was pretty good at the moment as far as she was concerned, she thought with a grin.

* * *

Mandy looked up as her second best friend slid into her seat next to her, Lucy, who was on her other side, calling a soft greeting to the other girl. "Hi, Taylor," she smiled. "How was Geography?"

"Interesting, actually," the taller girl replied as she unpacked her books and notepad. "So many places I've never been. I want to travel one day."

"Have you been anywhere cool?" Lucy asked, leaning over to peer past Mandy.

"Canada, once," Taylor replied. "But I wasn't there for long. The Atlantic coast up there is a mess after Newfoundland. We were learning about all the damage that caused today, actually. I didn't realize that the tsunami went all the way past Florida."

"I read about how it flooded Miami a few hours after Newfoundland sank," Mandy put in, thinking back to a magazine article. "Half the city was damaged, and there are parts of it that are still under water today."

"New York escaped the worst of that, but then Behemoth did a real number on it," Lucy added. "I hate those Endbringers."

"Everyone does," Taylor agreed soberly. "They've killed so many people I can't even comprehend the numbers."

"I remember, years ago when I was only a little kid, we went to Martha's Vineyard one summer," Mandy reflected nostalgically, her chin in her hands. "It's gone now, the entire island was washed clean by Newfoundland sinking. So many memories ruined..." She sighed a little. "Oh well. Nothing any of us can do about it." She watched as Taylor opened another reference book. "That's a new one, isn't it? Have you already finished that inorganic chemistry one?"

"No, not yet, but something I read it in got me interested in nuclear physics, or the chemistry of isotopes, anyway," the other girl smiled. She showed them the cover of the book she was holding. "It's really complicated, but mostly just math. This book is about thirty years old and I know for a fact is wrong in several places according to things I've seen on the web, but it's the only one on the subject in the school library." She frowned a little. "I'm sort of disappointed in how few modern textbooks there are on some of the more interesting things. But they have some neat ones on electronics and computing that are right up to date, so that's good. I need to look into that next."

"You're going to be a scientist, I can tell," Mandy giggled. "I've never met anyone as curious about everything as you are."

"It's interesting," Taylor protested, smiling. "And the entire world runs on electronics, which runs on chemistry and physics, which is all math. So I want to learn."

The other two exchanged a glance, then laughed. She was so serious about it. "Well, when you learn chemistry to the level that you already know mathematics, you can tutor us in that as well," Lucy suggested with a look of amusement.

Taylor nodded happily, making them both giggle again. "Sure. Last night was fun."

"It was," Lucy replied. "More fun than I expected. And I actually learned something which was more than I thought I would do. I'm sure up for doing it again."

"We'll have to work out a schedule, then," Taylor remarked, sitting up straight as the teacher entered the room and the chatter died down. "Later," she added in a whisper, out of the side of her mouth, as she closed her extracurricular studies book.

Amused, Mandy nodded, then mimicked her friends as they looked eager to learn while the Chemistry teacher began the lesson.

* * *

Rebecca looked around at her colleagues as they both read the report she'd written up based on her interviews with both the Mayor and Mr Hebert the day before. Paul finished first, putting his copy down on the table, then looking at her. "Doesn't really tell us much more than we already knew," he commented. "A few more details, one or two interesting items, but that's about it."

"No," she sighed. "Both of them are way too good at this to let anything important slip. Roy Christner is a very experienced politician who knows how to talk for hours without saying anything important."

"We saw _that_ from his press conferences," David noted with a small quirk of his mouth, still reading the last page of his copy.

"Quite. And Danny Hebert is even worse in some ways, that man has the best poker face I've ever seen. I had one hell of a time reading him. I'm certain he knows a lot more about the Family than he's saying, but I don't think he'll ever tell us anything without their permission. And not even because he's scared of them, because he clearly isn't. Just because he made a promise."

"From what I know, he's a good man," Paul said quietly. "He wouldn't promise something like that without a very good reason."

"Fair enough," she muttered, "but it's really annoying. I want to know what the hell is going on around this insane city."

"Live with the fact that there are some things we may never get to the bottom of," he grinned. "Sometimes you just have to accept the status quo. At least it's a _good_ status quo. Could be a hell of a lot worse."

"Why doesn't that make me feel better?" she asked rhetorically. He shrugged, still grinning.

"No idea. Must be you."

She sighed. He was far too cheerful about this whole thing. She looked toward David, who at that moment carefully tapped his papers into a neat pile and put them on the table. "I also would like to know more," he said. "Hopefully talking to Kaiju will tell us something new."

"Be polite," Paul urged. "She's pleasant to talk to but I have a feeling that she has a low tolerance for officiousness. We'll get a lot further asking polite questions than demanding answers."

David didn't reply, but seemed mildly disapproving. Rebecca glanced between them for a moment. Paul was definitely looking worried. "When are you planning on going over to the Docks?" he asked after a moment.

She checked the time. "Our information is that Kaiju will be there sometime after two. We should probably let her get to work first, then go over, I suppose. No point in jumping the gun, or interrupting her as she's getting started. Maybe around three? We can wait for a good moment to talk. I'd like to watch what the other DWU people do, how they react to her, that sort of thing, for a while beforehand. That could tell us a lot."

"All right. That sounds like a good idea." Paul stood up. "I'm going to go and get something to eat, and visit Armsmaster and Dragon for a while. I'll be back around half past two."

"See you later," she replied as he left the room, closing the door behind him. After a few seconds thought, she turned to her other companion. "He's taking this far more calmly than I would think normal."

"He likes her," David said thoughtfully. "I think she impressed him. You know he always tries to see the best in people anyway, and someone who can talk rationally and calmly always tends to make him listen. That's why he gets on with Armsmaster so well. They're weirdly similar in many ways. Although unlike him Armsmaster doesn't have any measurable sense of humor."

Rebecca smirked for a moment. "No, I'd have to agree there. But he's a very good Tinker and a loyal Protectorate hero."

"I'm still worried about Kaiju," David said after a moment. "In the sense of not knowing how stable she is. If she suddenly went off the rails..."

"Please don't do something to provoke her," she sighed. "He's right, at least in that. We don't want to give her an excuse to do something no one is going to enjoy. If you want to pick a fight with her just to see who's the toughest, challenge her to a duel or something, a hell of a long way away from other people."

David started laughing at her comment, then laughed harder at her annoyed expression.

"Duel..." he snickered. "God, that's hilarious. What, I should slap her in the face with a glove?"

After a moment, she started laughing as well, the mental image this produced overcoming her normal control. It was preposterous, and very funny.

* * *

Dennis looked at the door to the cafeteria expectantly. A familiar face hove into view on the other side of the glass pane at the top of it, then it swung open as Amy Dallon walked in, talking to one of her classmates. "There she is," he whispered, Vicky and Chris looking over their shoulders. "Ready?"

"Yes." Both of them were grinning widely.

"On three… One… Two..." He counted down on his fingers, watching as the girl approached, apparently intending to drop her backpack off before getting food. His final finger closed into a fist, which he thrust above his head as he jumped to his feet, nearly half the other people in the cafeteria following suit in the same motion.

" _ **All Hail The Amy!**_ " he bellowed, joining the chorus.

Amy stopped dead, then went purple. She looked at Taylor Hebert, who was grinning like an idiot, although she hadn't joined in, then her sister, who was both grinning like an idiot and who _had_ joined in.

Vigorously, and with a lot of laughter immediately afterwards. Plus, it had been her idea in the first place.

" _Vicky!"_ Amy screamed in rage, tossing her backpack at Taylor who neatly caught it, then charging at the giggling blonde, who saluted her sister with one hand then took to the air, flying around the room being chased by a furious brunette.

"We're going to get into trouble for this, you know," Dean sighed, watching with everyone else as Amy started throwing things at the hovering and giggling figure of her sister. "If only by association in my case." He hadn't joined in, but looked amused although mildly worried.

Dennis watched as a bowl of chicken soup hit Vicky right in the face. "Totally worth it," he snickered. "Wow, Amy's a good shot, and hell of a lot quicker than I'd have thought," he added admiringly, as a bread roll bounced off the blonde's head while she was wiping soup from her eyes.

"She'll be coming after us next," Chris pointed out, hastily finishing his burger, then jumping to his feet as the healer looked around, before fixing them with an evil glare. "Oops."

"Shit." Dennis grabbed the remaining food on his tray, an apple, and got up as well. "Later, guys," he added, to Carlos and Dean, who watched silently as he and Chris ran for their lives. The fuming girl coming towards them was clearly in no mood for prisoners.

Exchanging a glance, they decided that a declaration of neutrality was probably pointless in this case and also made a strategic retreat.

* * *

Taylor watched as Amy charged out of the cafeteria waving a mop she'd grabbed from the janitor who had moved to clean up the spilled soup, pursuing a still-laughing Dennis. Vicky followed them, covered in soup and bread, also giggling furiously despite the mess. The janitor watched, shook his head, and wandered away to get another mop.

When the shouting died down, she put her friend's backpack on the chair next to her and turned to the others at her table. "Amy may be late," she said laconically, picking up her orange juice. "She had a previous appointment."

"So I see," Mandy grinned. They exchanged looks, snickered, and got on with their meal.

Some time later, about twenty minutes before the end of the lunch period, a flushed and slightly disheveled Dallon sister sat down with an irritated grunt, slamming her tray down on the table, then glared at Taylor. "Thanks very much for that stupid name," she grumbled, "Vicky has been being a total ass about it all day. You should have seen what she put on my door this morning."

"Poor The Amy," Taylor sympathized, patting her on the head, which made her sigh irritably. "You'll get over it. Did you get them?"

"I got Dennis," she chuckled darkly. "He'll be walking with a limp for a few hours."

Rich and Eric winced as she snickered.

"Dark side, I told you," Eric whispered loudly to his friend, who nodded silently.

"Hopefully the teachers won't be too annoyed," Lucy said, then looked up.

Her eyes widened.

Amy flinched at the hand that landed on her shoulder.

"Miss Dallon? A word, please?"

She looked around, as did Taylor. "Of course, Deputy Principal Howell."

She swallowed a little as she stood, casting a helpless look at her friends, who watched as she trailed after the visibly annoyed and rather intimidating woman.

"We should probably ask Vicky to stop," Taylor commented wisely, to a chorus of nods. "She might be getting carried away."

"Just a little," Mandy noted. Even so, she was still smiling.

* * *

Roy waved to Mike on the gate, the guard looking at him and waving back with a smile. Rolling down his window, Roy motioned to the vehicle behind his car, a large white van with a red logo on the side. "They're with me," he said, smiling.

Mike looked over, raised an eyebrow, then turned back to him. "OK. I heard there was an interview or something."

"That's it. They've interviewed me on my own, now they want to do Danny, then both of us together. Hopefully get some footage of the Family later as well. Isn't Kaiju supposed to be here later?"

"So I'm told," Mike replied, glancing at his companion who had just come back from carefully checking the outside of the news van. "That should sure give them something to tape, though. She's pretty impressive up close."

"You don't have to tell _me_ that, my friend," Roy snickered. "I nearly crapped myself that first time."

Laughing, Mike waved the two cars through, stepping back as they rolled past. Pulling up outside the Admin building, Roy found Mark waiting for them. He got out of the car and locked it, his security man who was here at the insistence of his wife also getting out and standing behind him, not saying a word. Mark and the man, a medium height Hispanic guy by the name of Felipe, assessed each other for a moment, then nodded to one another.

Turning to Roy, Mark said, "Danny's expecting you. He said to take you up to his office, and the reporter as well. Do you know if they're planning on doing the interview there? We have a conference room that's bigger if that's more convenient."

"We'll have to ask," Roy replied. "She's only got a cameraman and a sound guy with her, so they'll fit in his office easily enough though."

"OK." They waited for the reporter to climb out of the van, the petite redhead talking to the other two people in the vehicle for a moment, smiling broadly, before heading over to join them. Behind her, the cameraman was connecting his camera gear to a harness he had on, the sound operator, who had also been driving the van, helping him. When they got everything connected the cameraman started recording the general area, presumably for filler material, before slowly heading in their direction.

"Hi," the woman said brightly, holding out her hand, which Mark shook politely. "Kate Andrews, WCVB channel five news."

"Mark Poulsen, DWU Security," he replied politely, "a pleasure to meet you, Miss Andrews. I'm familiar with your work. Please follow me, Mr Hebert is waiting for you all."

"Do you mind if we record on the way?" she asked, motioning to the camera guy now standing a few feet away aiming the camera at her.

"Not at all. We won't be going to any sensitive areas on the way. Please follow me." He started walking towards the main entrance, the rest of the party following him. They headed up the stairs to the fourth floor, a trip Roy was well familiar with.

"Tell me, Mr Poulsen, do you have a lot of people in the DWU security system? Is there much work in that field for you here?"

Kate looked both professionally and personally interested in the answer. Mark glanced back over his shoulder. "We have about twenty full time people in the division and there are a substantial number more we can call on if required," he replied conversationally. "Obviously I can't go into details. We're mainly involved with theft and vandalism prevention but on occasion we do have to deal with… more problematic issues. Normally something like drug addicts who have decided to try and use our property for one reason or another." He smiled at her. "Normally a quiet discussion pointing out we'd prefer that not happen is sufficient. In recent years the problems have been much less of an issue."

"The Archer's Bridge Merchants, I suppose?" she said thoughtfully.

"Mostly, yes. We've had… less than ideal… situations with them in the past. Oddly enough, for the last few weeks we haven't seen many of them around." His smile was somewhat more vicious now. "I can't imagine why."

"I can," the sound man muttered quietly, behind Roy, making him chuckle.

"To be honest, we haven't had too much trouble with the Merchants for some time now, even before the Family turned up. We made our point that they were unwelcome and in the end they mostly seem to have decided we're too much trouble to deal with," Mark added, looking amused. "It was a lot worse a few years ago. When Lung arrived he had a pretty big effect on the gangs, and the Merchants mostly seem to have ended up fighting the ABB and not us. I can't say that for the city it was an improvement, but it helped around here quite a bit."

"I see," the redhead replied, making quick notes in a small notebook she'd pulled out. "Very interesting." After a moment, she asked, "But that changed when Hookwolf and the Empire Eighty-Eight attacked here, I assume?"

"That wasn't a particularly good thing to happen," Mark replied as they reached the top of the stairs and started down the hallway to the back of the building. "Luckily Raptaur turned up and helped, or it might have worked out differently. The E88 gang members weren't too much of a problem, especially since we had plenty of warning, but he would have gone through this place like a hurricane. Raptaur stopped him pretty damn quickly, though."

"I've seen the videos," she laughed. "It was deeply impressive. And deeply terrifying. Doesn't she scare you guys?"

"No, not really. Sure, she's impressive to look at, and see in action, but she's also one of the calmest and most pleasant people I know," he said with a small shake of his head. "And she's one of us. She'll do anything needed to protect the DWU, everyone knows that, and we trust her implicitly." He looked back at her again. "We feel the same about all the Family. Good people. Here we are, Mr Hebert's office. Hold on a moment, please." He went up to Danny's door, tapped on it, then opened the door and leaned in. There was a short quiet conversation before he swung the door open for them "Please, go in."

Roy led the way inside, Felipe glancing at him, then inside the room, before taking up a station next to the door without a word. The news team followed Roy in, then Mark closed the door softly behind them, remaining outside the room. Danny was getting up from his desk as they entered, approaching with his hand out. Roy shook hands, then introduced the reporter and her people, all of whom were looking around with interest.

"It's nice to meet you, Kate," Danny said politely, looking pleased. "Have a seat. Is this enough room for your purposes or would you prefer our conference room?"

"This is fine, Mr Hebert," she replied. Peering out his window, she added, "Great, you can see the tanker from here. That's wonderful, we can get it in the shot." Glancing at the cameraman she was rewarded with a nod. "OK, if you could sit in your chair there and maybe move it about two feet to the right?"

Danny followed her instructions with a smile. "Here?"

"Another six inches, please," the cameraman said, moving around and peering at the monitor attached to his rig. "That's it."

"OK." Danny looked over to the blonde young woman who was sitting at the table on the other side of the room, watching the proceedings with a smile of her own, seemingly quite amused. "Does anyone want coffee, tea, or anything like that?"

"I could do with a coffee if it's not too much trouble, Danny," Roy replied. The news team all shook their heads.

"Not before the interview, but perhaps afterwards?" Kate said.

"Sure. Lisa?"

The blonde got up, nodding. "OK, Danny. Back in a minute." She slipped out of the room, closing the door.

"My assistant, Lisa. Smart girl, extremely helpful." Danny grinned. "She knows what I need before I do at least half the time."

Roy looked at him, thinking there was something else going on there. Danny caught his eye and grinned more widely for a moment. Oh, yes, there was definitely something else going on there, he mused. Perhaps he'd find out some time. "So how do you want to do this, Kate?" the DWU man asked curiously.

"Basically, I'd like to start with some questions about the DWU, your history, then move onto meeting the Family, the proposal you went to the Mayor with, and the story behind the whole thing leading up to moving that tanker," she replied. "After we've done that, I'd like to do a Q&A session with both you and the Mayor. Perhaps we could also look around the facility, and get some close up shots of the ship itself, and what you're doing to it?"

"Sure, that's not a problem," he said, glancing at his watch. "It'll be getting dark in about three hours so we should probably look at the tanker earlier rather than later, though, to get the best light. We've got floodlights but there's a limit to how bright they can be."

"This shouldn't take more than an hour or so," Kate said, pulling out a sheaf of paperwork from the slim case she had under her arm.

"All right, that should be fine, then. We'll have to arrange some protective safety gear for you all before we go out there, but that's easy as well."

"I understand Kaiju is hopefully going to be available later as well?" she asked, looking simultaneously eager and apprehensive.

Danny chuckled. "She should be here sometime around half past two, yes. I got word to her last night and she's happy to talk to you. A word of warning, please don't ask too many questions about her family, she won't answer most of them. They're very private. But she'll probably answer anything else you want."

"Wonderful." She was all smiles now.

Lisa came back into the room, handing Roy a cup of coffee. "Here you are, Mayor Christner," she said quietly.

"Thank you," he replied, equally quietly. Sipping it, he smiled. It was exactly the way he liked it. The girl went back to the chair she'd occupied earlier and picked up a pen, making some notes on the pad in front of her while inspecting the others. He glanced at her, got a small grin back, then went back to watching the reporter as she sat in the chair Danny had originally indicated.

"OK. Ready, guys?" She looked over her shoulder to the cameraman, who nodded, then at the sound man who was just in the process of attaching a tiny microphone to Danny's shirt collar.

"Just about, Kate..." The man tapped the mike and checked the recorder he'd put on the desk. "Please say something in a normal voice, sir."

"How's this?" Danny said obediently.

"Great, perfect levels. We're good to go, Kate." He picked up the recorder and moved out of shot, sitting at the side of the room and carefully adjusting a couple of controls.

"OK." She paused, looking at the camera for a moment, then turned to him. "Mr Hebert, you're the hiring manager and lead negotiator here at the Brockton Bay Dock Worker's Association, an organization over a hundred and fifty years old. I'm told that to the three hundred and fifty-seven men and women who directly work for the DWU, you're also essentially the man in charge of the entire thing. Can you tell me how that came to pass, and a little about yourself?"

"Certainly, Kate," Danny began, smiling gently. "You might say it's in the blood, I suppose. One way or another my family has been associated with shipping and labor for many generations. In a sense, my own relationship with the DWU started when I was only a child, due to my father's involvement with the docks..." Roy settled back to listen to the interview, curious to see what he learned from the questions.

* * *

Unlocking the BBFO office door at just past ten after two, Taylor, who was currently in the form of Saurial, looked over her shoulder at a familiar scent to see Lisa jogging towards her. "Hi, Lisa," she smiled.

"Hello, Saurial. I wanted to have a quick word with you, please."

"Sure, come on in," she replied, holding the door open. When they were both inside the building, she closed and locked it again, while Lisa turned the lights on. Both of them went and sat down at the table. "What's up? How are you, as well? And the others?"

"I'm fine, and so is everyone else, thanks," Lisa told her, smelling pleased. "Your Dad gave me a job, I assume you know?"

"I do. I suggested it to him, although he'd been thinking of it before as well."

"Thanks for that. It's interesting and fun. So, as his assistant, I wanted to tell you that the BBFO internet and phone hookup will happen in about two hours, at half past four. The tech who was supposed to be here on Monday got delayed, then there was some sort of disturbance on Tuesday..." She trailed off with a grin, while Taylor laughed. "It took them a while to get their shit together after that, but he's coming later. You'll need to make a hole in the EDM lining of this place or he'll never get the cables in."

"Sure, that's no problem," she said. "I'll do it next to the power feed over there, I can fill it in again later. We can run any other cables inside here ourselves."

"You need to get some proper facilities and things in here," Lisa commented, looking around. "You've got that ancient toilet in the side room, this table and the chairs, and that's it."

"I haven't really been here that much so far," Taylor smiled, "but you're right. I was thinking about starting to get some interesting books in here, so I'll need some book cases, then maybe a bench along that wall. If we get more power points put in over it we can put computers and things there, and a coffee machine. A fridge under it would be a good idea as well, and we should get the toilet replaced with something made more recently than forty years ago."

"That would help," Lisa smirked. She was making notes. "If you want, I can order the computers and stuff like that. I'm pretty good with them, I can get you some good ones."

"Sure. Talk to Dad about the money for it. We'll need… hmm, four, maybe? With nice monitors. One for me, Amy, you when you're here, and a spare. That should do it for now."

"OK. I think some sort of decent fileserver with good security and backup facilities would be a good idea as well. I know the sort of thing that's needed."

"Great." Taylor thought for a moment, then jumped up and went to Amy's workroom, unlocking the door and going in for a moment. When she came back holding a sheet of paper, Lisa was watching her with obvious curiosity.

"What _do_ you have in there?" the blonde asked.

"A surprise," Taylor grinned.

"For who?"

"Pretty much everyone," she snickered. "Don't worry, we'll let you in on it. It's Amy's project, I'll let her explain it."

Lisa looked at her thoughtfully as she locked the workroom again. "Amy… Now there's an interesting subject. I haven't quite worked out why, but there's something about her which is… very powerful. Nearly as powerful as you are, but different."

Sitting on her tail at the table, Taylor gave her a wide reptilian grin. "Hasn't your ridiculously bullshit Thinker power worked it out yet?"

"Hey, I need _something_ to go on, or I get random crap," Lisa retorted. "Even I can't pull facts from nothing. _Nearly_ nothing, sure, but I need a starting point."

Taylor considered her for a long moment, then asked the Varga, ' _Do we trust her enough?_ '

" _We trust her enough to let her know about you, and to let her be in close proximity to your father_ ," he rumbled thoughtfully. " _Her power is potent, she'll work it out sooner or later even if you say nothing. Letting her in on it shows trust, which I suspect she will reciprocate. I see no harm and several benefits to telling her._ "

' _OK, you're right, like you usually are_ ,' she replied. Lisa was still staring at her, frowning slightly.

"You're talking to the Varga again, aren't you?" she said.

"I talk almost constantly to him," Taylor smiled. "We were just discussing what to tell you. Strictly speaking it's Amy's secret, but we think you'll work it out for yourself, so we're going to trust you with it. Do _not_ let it go to anyone else, please." Her expression momentarily reflected considerable danger.

Lisa paled a little.

"Trust me, you can trust me," she said in a low voice. "Aside from anything else, I owe you my life, as do my friends. And I like you and Danny. And Amy, for that matter. I don't want to do anything to hurt any of you, even leaving aside the whole ' _please don't eat me_ ' part of it."

"Thanks. Don't worry, we all like you as well, and don't want anything to happen to you guys. It's just that you have a slight reputation for being something of a know-it-all, and wanting other people to know it."

"You don't have to tell _me_ that," Lisa sighed. "I was always the smart one in school, I know I have a slight ego issue. My powers made that a lot worse. But I think, or I hope, that I've learned to not show it so much. Sure, I want to know everything about everything, but recently I've learned the hard way it's probably best not to know certain things. Or at least let anyone _else_ know that I know certain things."

"The first step toward true wisdom is knowing yourself, Lisa," the Varga said through Taylor's mouth, as she let him talk. "Many people never learn this fact. That you have speaks well of you."

"Thanks," she said. "It nearly cost me more than I wanted to pay."

"Such is often the case. Now, for my own fun, I will give you a hint. She's not just a healer." He withdrew, radiating amusement. Taylor watched Lisa's face as it went through several odd expressions.

The blonde stared at her, then Amy's workroom, then her again. After a moment she got a very thoughtful expression, during which her eyes widened and widened.

"Oh, fuck me," she finally whispered in shock. "Amy Dallon isn't a healer _at all_ , is she?"

"Not _just_ a healer," Taylor corrected. "She can do that _incredibly_ well, but that's only the tip of her particular iceberg."

"A Biotinker, plus other things," Lisa went on, staring wide-eyed at her. Taylor nodded slowly.

"More or less. We're not actually sure _what_ she is really, but that's probably the closest definition."

"Jesus. No wonder you don't want that to get around. Do her family know?"

"No one knows. Except me, Dad, and now you. We need to keep it that way, at least right now. You say _Biotinker_ , people hear _Nilbog_. I may have to do something about him one day but for now, we just want a fairly quiet life. Amy was going nuts just doing the healing thing, although it was the only thing she'd allow herself to do. Even though a lot of people told her to take it easier." Taylor sighed a little. "I could see how stressed she was from the moment I met her. I could _smell_ it. Another six months… I hate to think what could have happened if she finally snapped and I think she was close."

Lisa had gone pale again. "That… would not be good."

"Not even slightly. Aside from her, the effect on everyone else would have been very bad. Up to terminally catastrophic. Luckily for the city and possibly the world, we bumped into each other." Taylor shrugged a little. "I made a friend, after a somewhat rocky start, someone I like very much indeed and trust with my life, she did the same. We both needed that very much. Her more than me in some ways, since I was already on the way to healing, thanks to the Varga and Dad. She was on the way to somewhere very bad. I don't think that's the case any more."

"No, from what I read from her, she's actually very happy and enjoys her life now," Lisa mused, staring at her. "You know she'd die for you?"

Taylor winced a little, but nodded. "I guessed that. It goes both ways. I hope it _never_ comes to that. We're a lot closer in most ways than I would have expected, in only a few weeks she's damn near a sister to me. I don't really know why."

"And more importantly, she'd kill for you. If necessary. So would Danny."

She nodded again. "Yes, that part I do know. Again, it goes both ways. I protect my family, blood and otherwise. From anyone or anything to the best of my ability." She shrugged. "It's what demons do."

Lisa looked amused, while Taylor grinned, teeth glittering. "Still not convinced about the half-demon thing, but I don't really need more demonstrations."

"Demon-strations, hmm?"

"Oh, god, don't you start with puns as well," Lisa moaned. "Your father is bad enough. He got me with one yesterday even my power was taken by surprise with."

Laughing, Taylor nodded. "He told me. The look on his face… really really pleased with himself, I'd say. He looked like you do when you know something no one else does."

The blonde laughed. "I know that smile. You have it sometimes as well."

"You're a lot better at it."

"Thank you." Lisa bowed in her seat. Straightening up, she asked curiously and sounding suddenly unsure of herself, "Am I part of that extended family you mentioned?"

Studying her for a moment, Taylor slowly nodded. "I think you probably are. You're my responsibility if nothing else, but I have to admit I like you a lot. So does the Varga. He thinks you show promise."

"Thanks, Varga," Lisa snickered.

"You are most welcome, Lisa," he told her through Taylor, smiling at her.

"That's still one of the freakiest parts of this entire weird thing, you know?" Lisa commented, shaking her head. "I can't get _anything_ useful from either of you, aside from the fact that I can easily tell that you and he are definitely completely different personalities, and not in the ' _there's something wrong with her head_ ' way. I mean, clearly there _is_ something wrong with your head, like you're basically nuts, but in a nice way." She grinned as Taylor folded her arms and stared hard at her.

"Should I be insulted?" she asked calmly.

"No, of course not. Sane people are very boring, but luckily very rare." Lisa smirked. "Trust me, I'm a Parahuman, I know. And I also know that _all_ Parahumans are completely loopy. Powers fuck you up. Rachel is at the bad end of that spectrum. I'm at the good end, so is Brian. Alec..." She waved a hand. "Somewhere in the middle maybe?"

"And me?"

"I haven't decided yet, but you're closer to sane than most," the girl grinned. "Depending on your definition of sane, of course."

"Of course."

"So. Amy… She can make things? Live things?"

"Pretty much, yes. She hasn't made anything totally from scratch yet, she's still learning and going really slowly and carefully. She doesn't want to cause harm any more than anyone else would want that. But she's come up with some cool things so far."

Lisa looked fascinated. "Such as?"

* * *

Watching as the lizard-girl pondered the question, obviously deciding how much to answer, Lisa could see she was talking to whatever it really was that shared head-space with her. Eventually, Taylor hopped to her feet again and went back to the separate block of rooms, unlocking the door and disappearing inside once more. Firmly restraining her curiosity as to what was actually in there, knowing it was pushing her luck to ask, Lisa waited patiently until the girl came out again, a small box in her hand. She put it on the table and sat back on her tail, watching to see what Lisa did.

Staring at it, Lisa let her power have a go.

 _Box made of aluminum alloy, two parts, not machined._

 _Formed via matter creation power_

 _Contains organic liquid, used as biological support system_

 _Artificial biological organism in liquid_

Extremely curious and more than a little apprehensive, Lisa carefully reached out and lifted the top half of the box, which smoothly slid off the bottom section, revealing it was half full of a viscous fluid. Floating in that fluid was a small bone-colored chip of… something. Slightly convex on the top surface, it didn't look alive.

 _Originated from plant protoplasm_

 _Heavily modified, extremely complex DNA structure_

 _Not related to any living creature_

 _In biological stasis_

 _Purpose…_

There was a pause, while the mild headache she always got using her abilities grew stronger. She concentrated.

 _Purpose is healing of human body via symbiotic relationship_

 _Can heal any disease_

 _Can heal any non-immediately fatal wound given sufficient resources_

 _Will enable deep hibernation if resources unavailable_

 _Reverses symptoms of aging process_

Lisa could feel her face paling during the first few facts, but the last one nearly made her faint. She double checked her results, heedless of the ache in her forehead.

 _Reverses symptoms of aging process_

"Oh… My… God..." she mumbled.

"It's cool, right?"

"You realize what this means?" the girl asked in a faint voice.

"I've got a pretty good idea, yes," she admitted with a small smile.

"Life extension, that's… people will kill for that, ironically enough," she mumbled. "How long?"

"Amy thinks only around three hundred percent at the moment."

Lisa nearly fainted. "That would make an average life span about two hundred and fifty years."

"Yep."

"Christ."

She shook her head, hard. "This is too much. Every time I think I'm getting to grips with you and this entire insane asylum, you go and drop something like this on me."

"You wanted to know," Taylor grinned.

"I have to stop doing that," Lisa moaned. "All it does is give me a headache." She watched as Taylor put the lid back on the box then returned it to the workroom, while wondering what other miracles were in there. She firmly suppressed the urge to even ask. Right now she _didn't_ want to know, not really.

"At least you didn't faint this time," Taylor laughed as she returned.

"It was a near thing," Lisa replied quietly. After a moment, she asked, "Have you actually tested it?" She thought, then added, "Amy tested it on herself."

"Yes," Taylor confirmed. "Dad gave her the idea, sort of. She ran with it and made the first one. The Mark One."

"Because..." Lisa thought. "Because her powers can't affect _her!_ But she can program the symbiote to do anything she wants! That's _brilliant_. And she kept tweaking it, until she ended up with that thing. How many iterations?"

"That's the Mark Seventeen. It's the first one she felt was safe to let someone else use."

Staring at her, Lisa thought frantically, a whole series of observations that she'd made suddenly clicking into place and making sense. "Danny. Your father has one, right?"

Taylor nodded slowly. "He's the first, and so far, only, user of one other than Amy. She gave it to him for his birthday, which is next Monday. Best present ever. Although my coat is neat."

Lisa looked oddly at her, then dismissed the comment, concentrating on the important thing. "That explains so much," she remarked in awe. "I noticed how he seemed to be in ridiculously good health for a man in his mid forties, who obviously doesn't exercise like a lunatic. He's way fitter than he should be. My power was having real trouble working out why since he's obviously not a Parahuman."

Smiling, the lizard-girl nodded happily. "It's sure helped. I'm incredibly grateful to Amy for coming up with that thing and giving it to him. I hate to think about my dad being hurt, but the symbiote reduces that possibility a hell of a lot. There are some other plans for later versions as well but we haven't got that far yet."

"You're going to upgrade it to boost strength, speed, things like that, right?"

"That's the idea."

"And Amy is already testing those mods?"

Taylor nodded. "She's several generations past the mark seventeen. We haven't told anyone yet, you're the only one other than the two of us who know. But she's already probably about four or five times stronger than she was, at least twice as quick, and a lot tougher. We think probably about a Brute two, maybe even three rating. Like I said, she's going slowly to avoid making any mistakes, and any attention."

"Even so, when other people, even, no, _especially_ the PRT, find out..." Lisa shook her head in worry. "It's going to make them go totally nuts."

"That's the problem," Taylor sighed. "We haven't quite worked out how to get around that. Our best thought so far is to make it look like Family Biotech. We might be able to spin it like that. Amy's been inspired by my biology, which is entirely unlike anything on the planet, and made all sorts of weird changes to the symbiote which should confuse the hell out of any scientist who analyses it. She's sure it won't read as anything even close to normal life, or something that a human was responsible for. Partly for camouflage, partly because she needed to do that to make it work the way it does."

"I'm not sure if that would be a good thing or not," Lisa mused. "But I can see where you're coming from. Wow. Just… Wow. This is really big."

"Biggish, definitely," Taylor agreed happily. "It's one of the longer term projects. But you see why it _must not_ be talked about, under any circumstances? The only reason I've told _you_ , even though I do trust you, is that your power would have worked it out eventually anyway." She fixed Lisa with a hard look.

" _Do not tell anyone, at all_. Clear?" Her voice was suddenly very hard and Lisa had no doubt that she meant it. And that this was a test.

"Clear. I promise, I will not even mention or refer to it again, unless you or Amy tell me I can," she replied slowly and carefully. After a pause while those unnerving glowing eyes studied her closely, the scaled head nodded.

"Thank you." A few seconds passed, then the other girl handed her the sheet of paper she'd originally retrieved from the locked room. "Changing the subject completely, can you also track down all this equipment and order it?"

Lisa read the sheet, then nodded slowly. "I think so, yes. Some sort of radio relay system. For phones and the DWU radios? To let them work in here."

"Exactly. Armsmaster emailed the list to Dad after he visited. We could do with it, it's annoying sometimes to have no cell phones and radio communications in here as soon as the door closes."

"Convenient at other times," Lisa noted.

"Oh, sure, which is why it can be turned off." Taylor smiled. "We like our privacy, but sometimes you need to talk to other people."

"I'll get on it."

"Thanks."

Folding the paper up, Lisa tucked it away. She looked at Taylor, thinking about what she'd discovered the day before, then sighed faintly. "OK. After all that, I still need to tell you something. Or at least, show you something, then let you make your own conclusions."

The lizard-girl looked curiously at her. "What does that mean?" she asked.

Producing the bag containing the three bottles she'd removed from Danny's office the day before, after her ability had given her a rather unsettling series of deductions, she handed it over. Taylor opened the bag, looked at the contents, then Lisa, a puzzled expression on her face.

"Empty water bottles?"

"Smell them."

There was a pause, then the girl delicately used the tips of her claws to pick each bottle out of the bag by the tops, sniffing each one carefully. "Zephron handled all of them. Probably took them into Dad's office. I can smell the scent of his carpet on them, so they were there. The bag smells of his room as well. Dad handled this one, and this one. Director Piggot touched this one as well. The last one..." She sniffed again. "Same scent as on his coat. The Chief Director?"

Lisa just looked at her. After a moment, she said, "Remember the scents, and keep your temper. I'll talk to you later. But I don't want to either say anything to prejudice you, or anything that could get me in trouble. My power is warning me not to talk too much."

"Pity it couldn't have told you that a week ago," Taylor snarked, making Lisa grin, but the girl sniffed the bottle again before putting it down carefully. "OK. You're being mysterious, but OK."

Looking at her watch, Lisa got up. "It's half past two. Kaiju should get to work. Make that hole in the EDM, and I'll arrange to get the keys from Danny and keep an eye on the tech when he comes. Have fun with the interview."

Taylor laughed. "I think I probably will. I've never been interviewed before."

"I doubt they've ever interviewed a sea monster before either, so you're in good company," Lisa snickered. She watched as Taylor went over to the relevant spot and touched it, the wall coating vanishing over a square foot area near the main three phase power input.

"Think that should do it?" she asked.

"Should do, yes. Great."

"OK. See you later," Taylor smiled, unlocking the door. Both of them left, she re-locked it, then with a wave disappeared down a narrow alleyway towards the bay. Lisa watched her go, then slowly headed back to the admin block, her mind whirling. The last few days had totally changed her life, but the shocks just kept coming.


	117. Filters and Triumvirate

"Hi, guys," Taylor said after sticking her head out of the water, having made sure to make a lot of foam first so no one was surprised. It was near low tide so the water was only just deep enough to cover her, even in the areas where she'd cleared out the docks. She put her hard hat on and adjusted her safety vest.

"Hi, Kaiju," several people called, waving to her. She waded closer, then dropped to all fours near the shore, lowering her head to nearly the dock level.

"What do you want me to do first?" she asked, looking around. One of the engineering team in charge of the decontamination process raised a hand. "Yes, Charlie, isn't it?"

"That's me. We were talking to Danny about the filter system your sister was going to do, but the things are so fucking huge you can probably do it easier. I've got the drawings here, can you see them OK?"

She leaned closer, smiling very slightly so as not to expose many teeth. To his great credit, the man barely twitched. "I've got really good eyes. I can see it fine." He got a couple of colleagues to hold up the printed CAD drawing, one on each end of the four foot wide piece of paper and between them pulling it straight. "Hmm… OK, so there's this stand here, which bolts down over there..." She pointed to one section of the printout with a long claw, then indicated the end of the tanker. "Plus these towers which sit on the stands, the filter material goes inside. Water goes in the bottom?"

"Correct," he replied. "It should circulate up around the outside of the filter itself, out through the center and up. We need three of them with successively finer filtration, then one filled with activated charcoal. Can you make that?"

"Do you have a sample?" she inquired. He nodded, having been prepared, pulling a set of eight inch cylinders from his coat pocket. "Toss them in," she said, opening her mouth a little and pointing. He looked a little startled, but did as requested. Catching the, to her, minute specks of material on her tongue, she swallowed them. The Varga quickly analyzed it and gave her the patterns. "OK, that's easy. Right then, let's see about trying one. Everyone should move clear, please, I don't want to step on anyone."

There was a general exodus from the area. Carefully climbing out, she winced a little as the concrete made a tired groaning sound and crumbled under her weight. "Oops. I'll fix that," she said, looking down.

"It all needs to be replaced so it's not a problem," Charlie said with a grin. He watched as she moved slowly over to the place the first filter would go. Looking at the ground, she shook her head.

"This is even more rotten than back there. I'd better replace the surface first. Hold on a minute."

Leaning down she put a hand on the cracked and ancient concrete near where the foundations of one of the warehouses had been. A moment's work between her and her companion soon had a new smooth stone-like substance spreading out around her. When it covered an area about a hundred feet square, she stopped making it and nodded in satisfaction. "Is this OK, or will you need a different texture?" she asked.

Charlie and several other workers came over and poked the ground curiously, one of them, whose name she remembered after a moment as Alan, scuffing it with his boot, then raising an eyebrow. "Not bad," he said, looking at her with respect. "Good grip, hard wearing, non-porous… What is it?"

"Sort of granite, I think you'd call it," she replied. "It's a mix of several minerals, with the texture based on a road surface. I can make it porous easily enough, but I guess we need to make sure any contamination runs off it into the drainage channels rather than soaks away?"

"Ideally, yes," Alan replied. "You're going to cover the entire area with it?"

"Assuming that's what you want. If you have any different requirements, let me know and I can change it."

"This should do fine, actually. We've got the plans drawn up for where we need to put drains for rainwater and that sort of thing to connect into the main storm system. But let's get these filters in place first."

"OK." Returning her attention to the plans Charlie's helpers were holding, she studied them, then began constructing the first enormous steel stand. She decided to make it out of high grade stainless steel so it could be removed by someone else if she wasn't around, but wouldn't rust in the meantime. Not to mention that the scrap value would be fairly high.

Humming to herself, she made shiny metal tubes grow from nowhere, enjoying the usefulness of constructing things that helped people.

* * *

"Holy Mary, Mother of God," the sound man mumbled, crossing himself. Danny glanced at him, as did the rest of his party.

"I didn't know you were religious," Kate commented, looking somewhat faint herself.

"I wasn't. I'm thinking of taking it up," he replied shakily. "Merciful Allah."

"Pick one and stick to it," Roy suggested with a grin. "That's the normal procedure."

"That may not be enough," the man replied in a quavering voice. Even so, he kept walking as they approached the huge reptile, who was emitting tuneful hums so deep the entire area vibrated gently. Danny grinned, she was humming Bach's _Toccata and Fugue in D Minor_ and doing a remarkable job of getting the overall effect of an enormous pipe organ across.

There was a twenty foot tall, forty foot diameter tower in shiny stainless steel sitting on a pad of dark gray stone that hadn't been there that morning, with a huge gleaming cylinder over sixty feet tall sitting on and in it. The entire thing looked remarkably organic, more like it had been grown rather than built in the normal manner, which was pretty much the case. She was forming the top of the cylinder as they watched, the metal flowing under her hands like a potter working clay, and he could tell just by watching her expression that she was enjoying herself a lot.

"That is the most unbelievable thing I've ever seen," the reporter whispered in awe. "I can't believe how big she is."

"Certainly not someone you miss in a crowd," Roy snickered. She looked at him, then back at the vast creature, before shaking her head with a smile of disbelief.

"No, not really. Can we really interview her?"

"Sure you can," Danny's enormous daughter called, glancing at them. All three of the news crew jumped, more than a little surprised. "Let me just finish this one and the guys can test it, then we can talk."

They watched as pipework formed around the cylinder, spiraling down to the ground, where she made a complicated manifold system while discussing it in a low rumbling voice with several of the engineers, who were referring to a large unrolled sheet of paper from one of the big CAD department printers. One of the pump trucks drove over and parked next to the filter pack, the operators unlimbering a six inch diameter hose from it and heaving it over to the manifold.

After some minor modifications, the pump operators successfully managed to attach the hose coupling to the manifold, then run another hose from the pump into the water over the edge of the dock. They gave a thumb's up to the man at the rear of the truck. He nodded and started the pump, which whined into life accompanied by the roar of a huge diesel engine. Everyone could see the pipes twitch and writhe as they filled with high pressure water. A rumbling sound became apparent as the water started to fill the huge filter tower.

Checking some gauges that they'd attached to the manifold, the engineers all looked pleased. With a word to Kaiju, they shut the pump down, then put it in reverse and restarted it. While they were engaged in that process, she very carefully moved away from them to a clear spot on the concrete and lay down, folding her arms on the ground and dropping her head to them. "Hi. I'm Kaiju," she said brightly. "In case you were wondering."

"I think they probably worked that out," Danny chuckled as he led the small party over, the news team looking reluctant. Quite a number of the workers in the area stopped to watch. Stopping about forty feet away, which was close enough that he thought the cameraman could probably get his daughter's entire head in shot, he turned to the reporter. "Here you go. Interview away."

Kate swallowed, straightened her hair reflexively, then adjusted the hard hat she was wearing on her head. All of them had the relevant safety gear on. Danny had sighed heavily when he found the one hanging in his office had mysteriously sprouted the words " **The Boss** " under his name, and resolved to have words with Taylor when they got home.

The reptilian smirk she was wearing made him pretty sure she was aware of that. Luckily, he doubted that anyone else in the area was as practiced as he'd become at reading non-human expressions. Plus, he knew his daughter.

"Um, hello, Kaiju," the redheaded woman began, her voice a little wobbly. "I'm Kate Andrews, WCVB channel five news. From Boston?"

"Yes, I know," the huge reptile replied, "I've seen you on the TV."

"How?" the cameraman whispered to his colleague, who shrugged. Then crossed himself again, just to be safe.

"Oh… Great. Wonderful. Um. So, can we ask you some questions?"

"Sure." Kaiju raised the corners of her mouth in a smile. "Shoot."

Kate turned to her team. The cameraman swallowed, then visibly pulled himself together, a facade of professionalism covering the nervousness Danny could still see in him. The sound man looked at the enormous reptilian form, down at the lapel mic he was holding in one hand, shook his head, then rummaged through the pack full of equipment he was carrying. After a moment he emerged with a shotgun mic which he attached to the camera while the operator held it still, trailing the lead back to his recorder and connecting it.

"Are we up?" Kate asked.

"I think so. Um, Miss Kaiju? Can you say something, please?"

"Something," she promptly said, which produced an involuntary grin from him. He fiddled with his equipment for a moment.

"That should do it."

"Great," Kate said, looking more relaxed now. She turned back to Taylor. "Hello, Kaiju," she said in a more professional, practiced manner.

"Hello, Kate. It's nice to meet you," Danny's daughter replied politely, keeping her voice down. The sound engineer, who was listening with a set of headphones, minutely adjusted the controls some more.

"Likewise. I have to say you're the largest cape I've ever met. Or heard of, for that matter."

"Oh, I'm not really all _that_ big," came the reply, which made everyone but Danny look slightly worried. "You should see my relatives. But, I guess I am fairly large by human terms." Kaiju raised an eye ridge, smiling a little. "Too big to go wandering around in the city, unfortunately."

"Ah… yes, I suppose so." Kate looked slightly flummoxed for a moment, then rallied. "Can I ask why it is that you are doing what you _are_ doing?"

"Why not?" The huge form in front of them shrugged a little. "I enjoy helping people, and doing this sort of work. Mr Hebert came up with this whole idea, which we thought was both interesting and would make things better for everyone. We get some experience and a lot of fun out of it, the city gets all sorts of benefits that it's needed for a long, long time, and as far as I can see everyone wins."

"That seems reasonable," the reporter replied, sounding slightly confused even so. "But even for you this must be a lot of work. I understand you're doing all this pro bono at the moment?"

"Yes, it seemed the right way to go about it. We couldn't charge for the main job, of course, the whole reason nothing ever got done with that tanker back there is that it was way too expensive for the city to afford. Moving it was key to the plan. I don't mind doing it as a favor to Mayor Christner. I expect we'll get more work in the future once this whole thing is running, from other places. We'll charge reasonable and competitive rates for that sort of thing most of the time, which seems fair. But we're always open to helping out in cases of this nature."

Kaiju smiled again, while Danny listened, both proud and amused. "We don't want to put anyone out of work, of course. More the opposite, we want to do things that will make life better for everyone as far as we can manage. I'm a Union member, after all, I'm not going to take work from any of the other members. But there's no reason not to earn a decent living doing that where we can, right?"

"No, that sounds perfectly reasonable," Kate agreed. "To be honest I suspect that many in your position would squeeze the market for as much as they could get out of it."

"That's not our way," she said calmly. "We don't need it for a start, and none of us are driven by profit to the exclusion of everything else." Kaiju lifted her head and looked around at the dozens of workers listening. "I don't think anyone here really is. Most of these people are very skilled in all sorts of things. All of them are hard and dedicated workers. They could quite possibly move somewhere else and get jobs if all they were interested in was the money, even in this economy. But they stayed. From what I've been told they're the ones at least partly responsible for keeping the city as functional as it is. I respect that and want to help. We all do."

Lowering her head to her arms again, she added, "Not to mention that we've made a lot of friends here and like it. This is my city as much as is anyone else's here and I want to see it recover and thrive."

"I see. Can I ask, do you originally come from here? Or somewhere else?" Kate looked slightly apprehensive. Danny's daughter looked at her for a long moment.

"I was born quite close to here, as were Saurial and Raptaur. We've been around for a while but the time was right to meet people, I guess you could say."

The reporter nodded slowly. "I have a question about Brockton Bay Family Operations, the company formed to market your services and those of your sisters. Whose idea was that?"

"Originally, Mr Hebert's," Kaiju said, looking at him with a smile. The cameraman panned to get him in shot for a few seconds, then back to her. "We were a bit surprised. The legal people here at the DWU did an amazing job setting everything up. We have a lot of ideas we're hoping to market through BBFO."

"Such as?"

"There are some interesting technological prospects," she replied. "Not Tinker-tech, as such. More using what we can do, like that thing." The enormous head indicated the filter tower. "I'm not an engineer, although I'm learning everything I can. But I know quite a few really good ones and we can probably come up with some useful things. It's not going to happen right away, we're all busy right now, but who knows what the future will bring?"

"Interesting," the reporter said, sounding like she meant it. "One final question, if you don't mind. Our researchers tell me that your company documents mention providing other Parahuman services. Do you currently employ any Parahumans other than your relatives?"

"Not yet," Taylor smiled. "But we're considering it at some point. We did contract some security requirements out to New Wave during the tanker move, and they performed wonderfully. We may well wish to repeat that at some point if they're willing. They were very helpful and pleasant to deal with."

"Thank you, Kaiju. It was very nice to talk to you, and I apologize for being somewhat… disconcerted… at the beginning."

"That's no problem, Kate, it was nice to talk to you as well." Kaiju looked back at the filter tower, then turned to the reporter. "If you'll excuse me, I need to get back to work."

"Of course." They watched as she carefully stood up on all fours, then walked backwards until she had room to turn around, before returning to the group of DWU people near the filter unit. Shortly she was making the second one next to the first. The cameraman followed her with his rig, filming the process for twenty seconds or so, before turning back to Kate, who had spent the intervening time straightening her hair.

"That was Kaiju, the latest Parahuman to appear on the scene here in Brockton Bay, a city known across the nation as having the highest proportion of capes to non-capes anywhere in the country. The remarkable events of last Tuesday, which made news across the planet, are due almost entirely to her efforts." She turned to the right, walking a few steps, to stop beside Roy who smiled at her. The cameraman panned to follow her, smoothly moving sideways as well to keep Kaiju in the background of the shot.

Danny admired the skill the man exhibited, even though he still looked tense.

"With me is Brockton Bay Mayor Roy Christner, who together with Danny Hebert of the Dock Worker's Union planned out and brought to fruition this extraordinary operation. Mayor Christner, if I may ask, how do you feel about your city's redevelopment plan bearing in mind how well the initial stages have gone?"

"Well, Kate, I can only say that I am completely satisfied with the entire situation so far. Everything is going according to plan, which I can put down to some extremely hard work by the entire DWU including Kaiju and her relatives, excellent advice from a number of independent experts, and complete cooperation from the city council, who all have my immense gratitude for believing in not only the plan but me as well. It is an honor to serve this city, and I hope to do so for some time to come."

The reporter smiled, replying, "I suspect that if things continue to go so well, you may well stand an excellent chance of re-election, Mayor."

"That's some years off yet, Kate, but if the city chooses to entrust me with the responsibility again, I would be proud to continue for as long as they'll have me."

"Thank you, Mayor Christner."

The redhead paused for a couple of seconds, then nodded to the camera operator, who pressed a button on his rig then relaxed slightly. "Thanks, everyone. That should be enough for the report. Mr Hebert, would it be possible to see the BBFO office, just from personal curiosity?"

Danny smiled at her. "Of course. I can only show you the outside, the Family are, as I said, somewhat private and I wouldn't want to impose on them, but I doubt they'd mind if you looked at it."

"Great." Kate grinned, in a much less polished manner. He thought she was actually very attractive like that. "I find this all incredible, and I just want to see it, leaving aside my reporting instincts." They started walking towards the yard annex with the BBFO building in. "Thank you very much for allowing us this access. And arranging to talk to Kaiju." She looked back over her shoulder for a moment, to where his daughter was half-way through making the second filter. "That was probably both the most incredible thing I've ever done, and the most terrifying."

"She won't hurt you," he laughed. "But I can understand the impact she has on first sight. Trust me, it was a shock when I met her for the first time as well."

"I can imagine," she sighed, looking front again. After a moment she giggled. "I doubt that you'll get too much trouble around here with her around. If Raptaur was enough to obliterate Hookwolf like that, think what _she_ could do!"

Hoping to himself they never had to find out, Danny merely nodded with a faint smile.

* * *

Inwardly Roy was very pleased. Kaiju had given a good interview, a surprisingly politically savvy one, in fact. She'd spread the credit across everyone involved, not trying to put it all down to her efforts, complimented New Wave, which should at least make Carol Dallon happy, expressed solidarity with both the union and the city, pointed out she wasn't in it for the money… Pretty much everything he'd have advised her to do if he'd had a chance. He wondered if Danny had done that instead, or if she'd come up with it herself. Either way, it worked out very nicely for everyone.

It certainly wasn't going to hurt his re-election chances. Kate was entirely right about that. That was still three years away, but with any luck, in three years the plan would be in full swing and the city would be well on the way to returning to the prosperity of decades past. Assuming something terrible didn't happen in the meantime, of course, but that was the nature of the world, especially since Parahumans came on the scene.

Not much you could really do about it except plan for the worst and hope for the best. He sighed inwardly. It was something that sometimes kept him up at night, but the last few weeks had given him more hope for the future than anything he'd seen for a long time. Looking back at Kaiju, happily starting the third filter unit while the engineering crew tested the second, now completed one, he shook his head in wonder.

' _We live in a very strange world,_ ' he mused, going back to listening to Kate chatter to Danny, who was smiling a little.

* * *

Amy mumbled to herself as Vicky picked her up and lifted off. "Detention. I've never had detention before! And it's all your fault!"

Her sister laughed. "I've had it before several times. And it's only two days, an hour each day helping the janitor clean the floors after school. I got four days. Dennis got a week."

"He deserves it," the brunette grumbled. "I should have hit him harder."

"The poor guy was already wincing with every step, Ames," Vicky protested. "You got your revenge, let it go."

Faint aggrieved muttering was all that she got in response. "Howell at least let you only do the detention on days you're not due at the hospital, so there's that," she added.

Reluctantly, Amy nodded, sighing. "Stupid name. Stupid Taylor. Stupid Dennis."

"I'll stop teasing you about the name, which I still think is hilarious, you know you don't mean it about Taylor, she's probably your best friend in the world, and Dennis is Dennis," Vicky said reasonably. "You could probably maim him for life and he'd still make some horrible joke about it. You'll never make him stop."

"I bet I could if I had to," Amy said in a dark tone, making Vicky laugh again.

"But you won't, because you're a good person. More or less."

"True," the other girl sighed. "It would be much easier if I was evil. _So_ much easier." She was smiling now, just a little.

"Help, I'm carrying The Evil Amy," Vicky cried, laughing harder.

"Idiot," Amy snickered. "It's down there," she added, pointing at a car dealership five hundred feet below them. Her sister aimed for it, landing lightly on the tarmac and putting her down.

"Which one is it?" she asked curiously, looking around. Amy pointed.

"That blue one over there. They even polished it."

"Because they don't want Mom coming back," the blonde giggled. Amy nodded, laughing as well.

"Probably not, no. Come on, I need to sign the paperwork and get the keys. I've got a check in my pocket to give the guy."

Twenty minutes later, she was sitting behind the wheel of her first vehicle, grinning widely. Vicky was in the passenger seat, looking around the cockpit with interest. "Not bad at all. I like it."

"I love it," Amy chortled, starting the engine and listening to it. The thing seemed to be running slightly more smoothly now, which pleased her. Slipping it into drive, she carefully applied the gas, pulling out onto the road and heading towards Brockton General. "Going to take some getting used to, I haven't driven much before, but it feels really good," she continued, still smiling. After a few minutes acclimatization, she was more confident and started to relax, although she was still looking around constantly in case someone tried to run into her shiny new toy.

Vicky leaned forward and turned the radio on, prodding buttons until she found a music channel playing something she liked, then started singing along, rather loudly. Amy looked at her, down at the radio, shrugged, and joined in.

* * *

" _Fucking..._ " Rebecca couldn't finish her sentence, staring at the vast lizard-like creature standing on the waterfront in a huge clear area near the docked tanker she'd shifted from the mouth of the bay so easily. Kaiju, in person, was indeed a hell of a lot more impressive than the TV conveyed. She made Leviathan look very small, and even Behemoth, something she'd never have thought possible. At least in something that wasn't killing everyone in sight.

The creature, clad in her comically oversized safety vest and hard hat, was slowly walking along the concrete which was disappearing under a differently colored stone-like surface. Several dozen workers were running around near her, marking out areas with cryptic symbols using aerosol paint, while three others were driving along beside her in the rear of a battered yellow pickup truck, apparently talking to her. She nodded every now and then.

About half the total area was currently covered in the material, while near the ship there were four enormous shiny cylindrical structures that hadn't been there the day before, at least sixty feet tall, with a series of wide pipes connecting them to each other and to a number of flat-bed trucks containing complex pumping equipment. She studied them as the three Triumvirate members hung in the air over one of the warehouses to one side of the cleared area, then turned her attention to the various people moving around with purpose.

"Interesting," she muttered, the breeze in her face carrying her words away. David glanced at her. "No one seems even slightly worried, although they're obviously being careful to stay out of her way," she said more loudly to his wordless inquiry. "Not surprisingly. She's being treated like just a wildly larger co-worker."

"Which is basically what she is," Paul put in from her other side. "And she knows we're here, by the way."

Rebecca looked at him, then back at Kaiju, who was now staring right at them, her enormous yellow glowing eyes expressing amusement. The vast reptile waved, then went back to doing whatever it was she was doing.

"That's a little worrying," she she muttered.

"She 's got incredibly good hearing, and eyesight as good as mine," he shrugged. "As far as I can work out, anyway. I know she easily heard Über and Leet talking, and Panacea shouting at her, from over a mile away. I couldn't hear a thing. It was in the report."

"I know, but I didn't realize quite what that meant," she admitted.

"Is anyone else worried about Panacea hanging around with those two?" David asked, making them look at him.

"It's _Über and Leet_ , for god's sake," Rebecca sighed. "They're about as small time as it gets. That's a matter for her mother, not us. Kaiju and the Family are more the issue at the moment. Let's concentrate on that."

"Again, she can _hear_ us," Paul mentioned. "Please bear that in mind, and please be polite."

After a moment, Rebecca started flying slowly down towards the giant cape, waiting to see what the reaction was. The other two followed her.

* * *

Taylor listened to the Triumvirate talking to each other with an inner smile, while continuing to cover the scrapping area in the stone substance she was producing. The material was over two feet thick and took her weight without any problems. Alan had described how it should be gently sloping towards the soakaway channel to allow rainwater and any spillages to drain into it, so she was doing it in passes a hundred feet wide, each one slightly thicker than the previous one and tilted away from the bay. The runoff would go into a thick layer of gravel and sand to absorb any oil, then run around the outside of the area towards the bay. With some care only water would enter it.

She'd started as far away from the water as possible and was now on her third pass, the surface behind her being marked for service conduits and the like, which she was going to go back and deal with when she'd finished the main area. By the time she got to the edge of the water she'd be about three feet higher than the original concrete and was planning on making a nice solid wall down to the sea floor there as well to stop the edge eroding.

Hearing Legend stop talking, she glanced over her shoulder to see all three of them slowly heading her way. She turned back to the engineering crew keeping pace with her. "Sorry, guys, but I think these guys want to talk to me. I'll get back to it when they're done."

"OK, Kaiju," Alan replied, looking up at her, then over to the three flying capes. "We'll take a coffee break. Let us know when you're ready."

"Sure. See you." She lifted a hand in a wave as the truck driver accelerated away, then turned around to wait for her visitors, wondering what they wanted. An amusing thought struck her which made her chuckle inside, and the Varga snicker.

A moment later, as the wind direction changed slightly, she smelled something she wasn't expecting at all. " _That is… intriguing,_ " her head companion commented slowly.

' _ **Isn't**_ _it, though?_ ' she replied with some shock. ' _Looks like I'm not the only one with more than one public persona, but I'd never have guessed_ _ **that**_ _. I don't think it's even legal, strictly speaking, considering her position. Positions_.' She suddenly realized what Lisa had been talking about. Her power had clearly deduced the identity of the woman approaching and she was nervous about knowing, not surprising considering the ramifications. The bottles were her way to let Taylor know she knew without coming right out and saying it.

They watched the person known to the world as Alexandria, who smelled _exactly_ like Chief Director Rebecca Costa-Brown, approach them fairly slowly, Legend on one side behind her and the equally iconic figure of Eidolon in a matching position on the other side. The greenish glow filling his cowl obscured his features to normal vision, but she could see enough through it in thermal wavelengths to get a vague idea of what he looked like. Probably not sufficient to pick him out of a crowd, but she could tell he was a middle aged man, most likely white.

Interestingly, he _also_ had a very odd scent. There was something under it which bothered her for some reason she couldn't put a finger on. Alexandria had something similar but much fainter, indeed her entire scent trace was curiously much less apparent than a normal person's was, and now that she was aware of it, there were traces of it underlying Legend's scent as well. Barely there, which was why she hadn't noticed the first time she'd met him, but there nonetheless.

' _What_ _ **is**_ _that?_ ' she asked curiously.

" _I don't know_ ," the Varga replied thoughtfully. " _It's not human, though_."

' _Is he?_ '

" _I'm fairly certain he is, which makes it all the more interesting. I'm going to have to think about it._ "

' _OK. I guess I should probably talk to them, rather than just stare at them. It's a bit rude._ '

Alexandria and her two colleagues stopped and hovered about fifty feet away, level with her eyes. She turned her head to look at each of them in turn, then smiled widely, which made two of them noticeably flinch. Legend was definitely amused by this judging by both his scent and the small smile than disappeared the instant the woman glanced a little uncertainly at him.

Visibly getting control of herself and also, based on her scent, a little irritated about her involuntary reaction, Alexandria opened her mouth to say something, but Taylor beat her to it.

* * *

"We meet again, Mr Foot," Kaiju said cheerfully, looking at them with interest. "And you brought your friends. The Grassman and..." She studied Rebecca thoughtfully. "Hmm. That one's a bit difficult. I'm going to have to think about it."

Knowing he was probably going to regret it, Paul asked, "The Grassman?" while glancing at David, who was somewhat confused, based on his body language.

"Well, yes, what else would you call someone who goes around saying, 'Yo, I da lawn?' Kaiju smirked. Paul stared at her for several seconds, before he burst out laughing.

"Oh, god, that's _terrible_ ," he snickered. She shrugged.

"Not much to work with. I did the best I could."

Shaking his head in amusement, he looked at his friend and colleague, who didn't seem to know how to respond to that. Rebecca was staring at Kaiju as if she couldn't believe either her eyes _or_ ears. The monstrous reptilian cape looked at her, then smiled again. "Sorry, still can't think of a good one for you. I'll keep at it."

"Please don't," the woman floating in front of him sighed. "Mr Foot is bad enough."

"Hey, I liked it. So did PHO, from what I've been told," Kaiju chuckled.

Paul shook his head for a moment. "Way too much, thanks for that," he replied a little sarcastically but in good humor. She nodded to him, a definite grin present now.

"Sorry about that. Sort of. Anyway, how can I help the Triumvirate? Nice to meet you two, by the way." She looked around for a moment. "Technically this is an active construction site, but since I'm on a break and I'm also the main safety hazard, I suppose the rules will allow you to dispense with the normal OSHA equipment. If you're still here when I start working again, though, you need to either move back or wear it. I don't want to get into trouble."

Still looking somewhat confused, Rebecca waited for her to stop talking. "We wanted to meet you, since you and your sisters have been a fairly large part of the news over the last couple of days. Just to talk, really. Do you mind?" She was clearly doing her best to be as polite as possible, which relieved him.

Kaiju gave her an assessing look, which made him just a little uncomfortable. It was a tiny bit too knowing, as if she was aware of more than she should have been. After a few seconds, she shook her head, not taking her eyes from them in the process.

"No, that's fine. I have considerable respect for you all. But I have to point out that I'm on the clock here, or at least everyone else is and they're waiting on me, so if we can try not to take too long, that would be ideal." She waved an enormous taloned hand at the entire docks area. "I have a lot of surface to cover, as you can see."

"That's fair enough, Kaiju," Paul told her, moving forward a little in the air. "We don't want to interrupt your work more than we have to."

"Thanks, Legend. It's appreciated." She smiled at him. They watched as she sank down onto her belly on the ground. Waving to a spot in front of her, she added, "Feel free to stand, or sit, or float, whichever is most convenient."

They exchanged glances, then all landed in front of her, fifty or so feet away, which was far enough that they didn't feel like her head was filling the entire world. It was still filling a considerably larger amount of it than he was used to or particularly liked, but the result was only awe-inspiring rather than horrifying. The enormous reptile lowered her head until she was more or less at eye level with them. "So, what did you want to talk about?"

"Your family and the truth," David said.

Paul winced, while Rebecca frowned at him.

Kaiju looked at them closely, narrowing her eyes. She leaned closer, that enormous head looming over them.

"Really," she replied in a tone of thoughtful consideration. Her lips pulled back a little in a smile that wasn't entirely a smile.

' _Oh, hell, David_ ,' Paul thought, swallowing despite himself. ' _Why did you have to say_ _ **that**_ _?_ '

He hoped he could think of the right words to defuse what had suddenly turned into a tenser moment than he'd hoped for.


	118. Provocations and Ponderings

_This chapter, and the next one, necessarily present Eidolon as more of a hothead than I think he really deserves, but there are reasons for it which will become clearer later. I'm not just bashing him for the sake of it, I'm doing it for the story! :) So please don't complain too much if you happen to like the idiot._

* * *

" _That was unnecessarily provocative, wasn't it, Brain?_ " The Varga sounded quite amused. " _I had formed the opinion from our research that Eidolon was… more aggressive than entirely ideal… but I can't help thinking he's deliberately pushing his luck here. Legend isn't pleased about it, and very apprehensive, while Alexandria was surprised._ "

' _I think he wants a fight, but doesn't want to simply say it,_ ' Taylor replied thoughtfully. ' _Weird. I had a sudden flashback to dear old Sophia there for a second_.'

" _I would advise not taking the bait, even if you could probably easily take him if you acted quickly,_ " her friend added. " _We could simply squash him and I doubt, unless he's already got the relevant power ready, that he'd react in time. But that would be an overreaction of an extreme kind. It's not needed in this case, I feel_."

' _I'm not planning on killing Eidolon today, Varga,_ ' she laughed. ' _Or ever, for that matter. He's supposed to be one of the good guys. But you're right, he smells like he's ready for trouble. He's been getting more and more… apprehensive? No, not that. More like he's excited._ '

" _Foolish_ ," the Varga rumbled quietly. " _People who look for a fight often find one and he knows very little about us. The opponent you don't understand is the one more likely to get you._ "

She agreed, studying the three members of the Triumvirate. Legend was definitely looking both worried about her reaction and more than a little annoyed at his colleague, although he was hiding it well. His scent gave both emotions away clearly, even so. Alexandria was more annoyed than anything, she seemed confident she was in no danger, but bearing in mind her reputation and power-set, that was quite possibly not a misplaced confidence. This was the woman who'd gone up against, indeed led the charge against, all three Endbringers on multiple occasions.

She was neither easy to harm or the sort of person who shied away from a fight, obviously.

But Taylor didn't have any plans for a fight today. She had work to do, not to mention that these were supposed to be the good guys anyway. But that said, the man was irritating. His statement was clearly meant to be deliberately provocative, and she thought it was more than a little rude even bearing that in mind. Taylor knew someone with something to prove when she saw it, she'd had way too much experience with Sophia Hess to miss it. He was nowhere near _that_ pushy, but there were traces of the same attitude present. Even the way he was standing suggested he was keying himself up for action.

' _Well, we'd better let him down and stop worrying Legend so much_ ,' she thought with a small laugh. ' _I want to find out what Alexandria really wants, which this obviously isn't. Although she's ready to join in if needed, look at her tensing!_ '

" _The woman does appear to be somewhat concerned,_ " the Varga noted slyly. " _Perhaps a demonstration?_ "

' _Not just yet, I don't want to give them an excuse,_ ' she replied. ' _But there is a limit to how much pushing I'll let him get away with before I'll have to be firm. They're guests here, they should be polite. I would in their place. The joke with his name isn't enough to warrant that sort of behavior._ ' Sighing now, in the privacy of her head, she thought for a moment, then acted.

* * *

Paul glanced at David, then Rebecca. He could see that the former was ready for any sudden action, he had long practice at reading his friends, but he was also not quite ready to start anything. His words had been very ill-chosen, although Paul was unsure whether they'd been a deliberate attempt to trigger a reaction, despite him promising not to. He thought for a moment, then sighed. Although, thinking back, he'd never actually promised, had he? Merely said he wouldn't.

' _Idiot_ ,' he thought with annoyance. ' _One day you're going to find that ultimate opponent you're always looking for, David, and that's the day you're going to regret it one way or the other._ '

Looking at Rebecca he saw in the lines of her body that she was keyed up and ready at a moment's notice to leap into action. Glancing at Kaiju, who was inspecting all of them from much closer than he was comfortable with under the circumstances, he formed the opinion that she might not have that chance if the huge reptile did in fact decide to do something unfortunate. She was definitely faster than she had any right to be, and she was... _right there!_

He twitched as Kaiju's head was abruptly only a few feet from them, the warm breath from the end of her muzzle flowing over them all. Rebecca emitted an undignified although faint squeak while David visibly jumped a bit and took half a step back despite himself.

' _Christ, I didn't even see her move_ ,' he thought frantically, looking up at the vast head which was now almost close enough to touch. She'd extended her neck so quickly he'd completely missed it by blinking.

"Oh, my dear Eidolon, that was unwise to say, if you would like some truth. I know for a fact that my littlest sister told Gallant and Vista the very first time she was out looking around the city what would happen if our family was threatened, and that we considered prying into them a threat," the enormous creature said very softly, her voice a rumble like distant thunder. "And I _also_ know that Raptaur told Armsmaster, who she likes a lot, by the way, the same thing and mentioned that it applies to our friends and allies. Armsmaster simply accepted it. I myself told your companion Legend much the same when we had our nice little chat the other day. Yet you have either chosen your words inappropriately, or are for some reason deliberately attempting to provoke me into a reaction. Which is it, I wonder?"

Paul looked up at teeth bigger than _he_ was, and closer than he was even slightly comfortable with, then at his colleagues. There was an air of danger coming from the formerly very laid-back reptile that he wasn't happy about. But he was also very relieved that she didn't seem to have taken offense.

Much.

Looking to the side, he noticed abruptly that there was an extremely large hand there, only feet away. He'd missed her moving it in the shock of seeing her face practically next to his. On the other side, when he looked, there was another one.

' _All she had to do is clap_ ,' he sighed internally. ' _David, you get us killed and I'm never letting you forget it_.' The lack of logic in this thought almost made him smile. He saw the exact moment when his friends noticed the two huge hands on either side by their flinching. Rebecca could undoubtedly survive it, although he was sure she'd feel it even so. If he had time to shift to his breaker state he'd also survive, but David? He'd need to pick the right power very quickly, if he hadn't already done so, and that was assuming Kaiju didn't have some trick up her sleeve other than brute force.

"Kaiju, I apologize for any… accidental insult," he finally said, after the pause grew uncomfortably long.

"I would debate whether it was entirely accidental, bearing in mind that I'm certain all of the information on us will be in your Threat Assessment document, which you will have read before coming here," she replied quietly. "However, if you would like to start again, I'm willing to overlook it. None of us want a fight, right?" There was a warning tone there which strongly implied the correct answer. He glanced at Rebecca who had stiffened in shock.

"How did you know about that?" the woman asked abruptly.

Kaiju chuckled. "We know many things. But this one is simply logic. We are a new factor in play, obviously the PRT will have collated all the information it could about us together, extrapolated as much as it could manage, and attempted to come up with counters for anything we're known to be able to do. Director Piggot has a reputation for competence that even I have heard, I would expect nothing less. After all, it's what I would do in the same place. You will have read the documentation before coming to talk to me because you also have a well-deserved reputation for being careful. Well, most of you."

Paul couldn't fully suppress a snicker, which made David turn to him with an air of irritation. Which made the snicker louder.

"So, based on that, mentioning my family in exactly that manner could well be considered a deliberate attempt to provoke a reaction from me," Kaiju went on after a short pause. "Possibly to see whether you can annoy me enough to make me start something to assess my temper, possibly just because you want some exercise." She was looking directly at David now, her glowing gaze fixed on him. "If it's the former, you'll have to try harder, but I would suggest that it's not in anyone's interests to succeed. If it's the latter, find a good Parahuman gymnasium. Or make an appointment and find somewhere far enough away from people that we can destroy the countryside wholesale. I'm not having a full scale fight with you here, Eidolon, there are too many people around who have nothing to do with it and I won't allow you to cause trouble, no matter who you are."

"You think you can speak like that to us?" David spluttered.

"Yes. As I have just done so, that's obvious." There was a tone of amusement present in her voice now. "I don't want to be insulting, but you started it, although I suppose you might have been offended by my little joke, in which case I apologize. Can I suggest that you also stop it before something happens that nobody really wants?"

Paul sighed. He could tell David was getting worked up, although he wasn't entirely sure why the man was acting this way. Rebecca was now staring at him in a manner that made him certain that if they were alone she'd be berating him for being an idiot. "Eidolon, _please_ stop poking the five hundred ton mega-lizard, will you?" he sighed very quietly, just enough for his friends to hear. And her, of course, but there was no way round that. "She saw through your comment and doesn't want to play. Leave it alone."

"I don't see why we are the ones who should back down," his friend grumbled. " _We're_ the ones who have the authority here. There are way too many things about all this that make no sense, far more questions than answers, and it all makes me wonder what else they're hiding."

"Would you like to tell me your real name and show me your face?" Kaiju asked calmly.

"No, I would not," David snapped. Paul stared at her, then him, while Rebecca looked thoughtful.

"Would you like it if I went to some trouble to determine those things for myself?"

"No!"

"Precisely. Even asking is somewhat of a breach of the Rules you people have come up with to handle the Parahuman situation. We respect those Rules, at least as far as that sort of thing goes, as they provide protection for everyone." Kaiju's voice was still calm and reasonable. "We draw the line at deliberate attacks on us and ours, of course. Those will be responded to in a manner that ensures they're not repeated. However, what you asked is basically exactly the same thing I just said. None of us are particularly interested in divulging any information we might or might not have on Parahuman identities, _including_ our own, except under very specific and unusual circumstances. Your curiosity isn't one of those circumstances. You have no need to know, as I believe the phrase has it."

"I think Kaiju is right and we should start again," Rebecca said, giving David a warning look, which he clearly noticed but just as clearly wasn't happy about. Paul studied him, thinking that his behavior was puzzling even considering the man's tendencies. Her joking nickname wasn't the reason behind his sudden mood change, he had a much better sense of humor under normal circumstances than that would require. Was he so intent on proving himself that he'd keep pushing? Kaiju had allowed them a chance to backtrack without losing face simply by admitting that he'd accidentally misspoken, something he was more than quick enough to have realized, yet he was still standing in an aggressive manner and radiating irritation. Rebecca obviously saw the same thing, as she put a hand on his shoulder and squeezed. The man made a very faint pained sound.

She was apparently squeezing quite hard.

"Please accept my apologies as well, Kaiju, and those of my friend here. He's simply worried about the… oddities… of the entire Family situation, which you must agree is somewhat unusual, and may have been a little… hasty… in what he said. He meant no insult or threat." Paul could hear from the slight pauses that she was picking her words extremely carefully. "Did you, Eidolon?" Her hand moved a little on his shoulder and David twitched.

"No, Alexandria is correct, I wasn't trying to be deliberately insulting." Paul could hear the reluctance in his voice in admitting this, and wasn't at all sure he was being totally honest. He was damn certain that Kaiju also picked up on it but she seemed more amused than anything else.

"Great. No harm done, then." The baring of teeth somehow became a smile rather than a warning without anything else moving. "So all things considered, it would probably be best that we just have a nice talk, rather than take some sort of direct action that could embarrass the Protectorate," Kaiju chuckled. "There's no need for such things, is there?"

"You actually think you _could_ take us?" David demanded.

Paul put his hand over his face and sighed, then looked at the other man with vast irritation. He just wouldn't _stop_.

* * *

Dragon noticed, in her digital mindscape, a specific alert had just triggered. Worried, she quickly connected to the relevant system and checked what had caused it. After a moment, she thought, ' _That is… odd_.'

"Colin, Leviathan is on the move, but there's something very weird about how he's doing it," she said out loud to her friend, who was currently studying one of her probe power systems with an eye towards making it smaller. He snapped erect, whirling to look at her.

"Move? Heading where? And what's weird about it?" he asked with alarm in his voice. She put the relevant data up on one of his high resolution monitors, then walked over and pointed at the screen.

"He's where he's been for nearly seven weeks now, damn near on the exact opposite side of the planet from here at the bottom of the Indian Ocean off the south western tip of Australia, but he just started heading south-west. Much more slowly than he normally moves, and a little erratically, like he's zigzagging back and forth." They watched the trace extend out from the huge mass of squiggles created by logging all the Endbringer's movements in almost the same place for weeks. "He's sticking to the bottom, I think, and following the topography, which is why the trace looks so weird. Why on earth would he do that?"

"I have no idea," Colin replied, rubbing his chin. "You're right, that's not normal behavior. Where is he heading?"

She extended a vector from the average direction of movement, which had settled down to about a hundred and twenty miles an hour, only perhaps twenty percent of the normal speed the thing typically traveled at when moving from place to place or attacking. The line tracked south past Antarctica, through the Antarctic Ocean, up through the South Atlantic, to ultimately make landfall after nearly twelve and a half thousand miles.

"Here."

"WHAT!"

"Exactly here. That vector crosses right through the center of the bay."

They stared at each other in horror.

"It's a great circle shortest path that ends right in the bay. At the speed he's moving it will take over four days for him to arrive. Assuming he doesn't change direction, of course."

Colin was pale. "Oh, god, this is bad," he muttered. She nodded soberly. Both of them looked at the emergency Endbringer siren activation button he had in the lab, under a breakable glass panel on the wall. "Too early for that," he said. "We need more information first, before we cause total panic. This might be a coincidence."

"I agree, but the trace is very distinctive," she replied. "It's definitely Leviathan, and at the moment he's definitely coming this way."

"But why so slowly?"

"I have no idea," she sighed. "None at all."

"And more to the point, what about the Simurgh? She's next in the rotation. They've never changed the pattern before, if this is a new behavior, all our models are useless. The prediction programs you've been working on will have to be completely redone."

"That had occurred to me, yes," Dragon grumbled. "I'm going to check on the Simurgh. I'm tracking her in orbit, she's in a high polar one at the moment, she's been there for weeks. Hold on while I get the right satellite telescope aligned."

A few minutes later she made an involuntary sound of shock. "That is… disconcerting," she said slowly.

"What is?"

"Look." Having routed the satellite camera feed to another monitor, they could both see the multi-winged figure of the third Endbringer floating in space. The odd thing was that instead of her normal orbital configuration, her many misshapen wings curled protectively around her torso, they were half-opened to allow her face to be seen. It was still serene and expressionless, cold and frightening, but the whole posture of the figure also somehow expressed apprehension more than anything else.

"She's watching something on the surface," Colin said after a moment. "Can you triangulate on the direction her eyes are looking in?"

"There's another camera satellite coming over the horizon in just under five minutes," Dragon replied after a quick check. They waited silently until the satellite was in position. "OK, I've got her on this one as well," she said. "I'm resolving the two images to determine an approximate vector..."

It took a few seconds of calculation, but she worked out the general area of the planet that the Simurgh was staring at. It almost didn't surprise her.

"Damn," she said softly, bringing up an image of the Earth on a third monitor, then overlaying a large circle on it.

Brockton Bay was right in the middle of that circle.

They exchanged a glance, by now not only worried, but extremely puzzled.

* * *

Kaiju regarded David, the smile going away. After a moment, she softly replied, "Eidolon, top level Trump, power set variable depending on requirements. Highly experienced in combat, successfully fought Endbringers to standstill on multiple occasions. Threat level medium. Alexandria, top level Brute, Mover, high level Thinker. Highly experienced in combat, has survived encounters with Endbringers on multiple occasions. Threat level low. Legend, high level Blaster, Breaker, top level Mover. Highly experienced in combat, has survived encounters with Endbringers on multiple occasions. Threat level medium."

They looked at each other while she paused. "We _also_ do threat assessments. Restricted to what is available publicly, of course, as we don't have the resources of the PRT, but you'd possibly be surprised what can be derived from information on PHO, direct observation, and some careful thought."

Feeling a slight chill go through him at her words, curiosity nevertheless made Paul ask, "Why is Alexandria rated a low threat while both of us are medium?" He wasn't sure if he should be insulted or worried that none of them rated anything higher to her.

"Alexandria is ridiculously strong, fast and hard to damage. Invulnerable, in theory, although now that I have met her, I see some neutralization methods that would work. However, contain her, and she is no longer a threat. Both of you are more difficult to restrain without damage. You due to your raw speed and Breaker state, your friend here due to the sheer versatility of his powers. That doesn't mean it's impossible, of course, just more difficult to do without harming you."

"How do you propose that you could ' _contain_ ' me?" Rebecca demanded, hands on hips and radiating disapproval.

"I would encapsulate you in a quantity of EDM, with a mass sufficient to prevent you from moving, as one possible solution," Kaiju replied mildly. "As you have no ranged powers other than throwing things, that would do the job quite neatly."

Paul could tell that the answer made his friend somewhat uneasy, and also think hard. It sounded entirely plausible.

"And you think you could do that quickly enough that I couldn't escape?" she asked, now sounding a bit wary, but very curious.

"Look down."

They all did exactly that. Paul's eyes widened. Around Rebecca's feet there was now a gray metallic surface which covered her boots and half-way up her shins. "You are currently standing in about two cubic feet of EDM, which even you stand no hope of damaging. I could make it revert to normal mass with a thought which would make it weigh over twenty million tons. I imagine you would disappear downwards at a fairly significant speed."

A second later the material vanished, Rebecca immediately lifting off and hovering out of reach of the ground. "Don't worry, that was only to answer your question, Alexandria. You and your colleague here seem to need more direct demonstrations than Legend did. I'm not your enemy, none of us are. But at the same time we're not going to be pushed around by you or anyone else. We'll answer polite questions where they won't cause issues for us or our friends, we won't answer ones that we don't like, and attempting to force us to do so won't end well. So, if you actually have any real questions that you would like to ask that don't fall under the second classification, ask away. Otherwise, I _do_ have people waiting on me, and I don't want to let them down."

She retracted her hands and pulled her head back a little. "Oh, by the way, just in case you find yourself overcome with excessive interest in such details and can't restrain yourself from such questions again, may I point out that if you look to your right you'll see a reporter and her camera crew recording all of us from over by the Admin building?"

There was a long pause, then all three of them looked. Sure enough, there were a number of people standing in the indicated spot, along with dozens of DWU workers, many of whom had their phones out and were taking pictures. Paul could see a face very familiar to him from the TV watching them while saying something to the camera which was being wielded by a tall man absolutely festooned with equipment. The reporter, her camera guy, and another shorter man carrying more equipment, were all wearing WCVB TV logos on their clothing.

He sighed slightly.

"How long were they there for?" he asked in a resigned tone.

"Pretty much the entire time," Kaiju replied. "They came outside shortly after you landed, I guess they were told that the Triumvirate was here. They've been around half the afternoon interviewing Mr Hebert, Mayor Christner, and even me. Some sort of special report they're working on."

"Damn it," he heard Rebecca said under her breath.

David, based on his posture, was glaring at her, but she ignored him. After a moment, Paul realized that the news crew wouldn't have seen what just happened as her left hand had been in the way. Inspecting her, he was pretty sure that had been deliberate. She'd made a point without publicly embarrassing them. Nodding to her, he smiled a little when there was the hint of a wink on the eye away from the reporter. Despite David's inexplicably constant probing, the huge reptile was showing a lot of restraint. Kaiju obviously didn't want a fight any more than he did, something he was very grateful for.

Especially if her threat rating for them was anywhere near accurate.

"OK," he said with a deliberately bright smile. "Let's start again. Again. Could you tell us what you're doing here, Kaiju?"

"Sure. At the moment I'm resurfacing this entire area in a granite-like stone which is very hard-wearing," she replied, sounding somewhat relieved herself that all the posturing was over. "The original concrete was a mess and it would have taken weeks for it to be replaced in the normal manner. I can do it in hours. I've already made the large filter units which will be used to clean the water the guys will be pumping from inside the tanker. It's heavily contaminated with various hydrocarbons, of course, and other chemicals." She indicated the four shiny towers near the water's edge. "I'll make some holes in the deck before I leave and put some hoses in, the workers here will then spend a couple of days pumping everything out."

"Presumably then they will remove any other contamination, like asbestos, by hand?" he asked, genuinely interested. David and Rebecca were having a whispered conversation behind him which he was going out of his way to ignore. Kaiju nodded, moving away slowly and heading toward the towers, while he took to the air and floated next to her.

* * *

"Now what?" Dragon muttered. She pointed. Colin followed her finger, to see the trace of Leviathan's path had stopped approaching and was meandering back and forth in the new location he'd ended up in, about ten miles from where he'd started from.

"That's… very strange," he slowly said.

She nodded, equally slowly.

"I would have to agree. What the hell is he doing? That vector was way too neatly aimed to be a coincidence, I'd have thought, but I guess it has to have been. He just moved a bit further south."

Checking the other monitor, Colin pointed out, "The Simurgh is still looking this way, though."

Looking at each other, both shrugged, then went back to monitoring the situation to see what happened next.

* * *

"Basically, yes. Saurial and Raptaur will probably help with the more dangerous parts of that if needed, I'm a little too big, of course," she smiled. "I've also got to cut the deck open when that's done and remove the driveshafts, the metal they're made of is particularly expensive, and I can lift out the engines at the same time. Then I cut the entire thing into slices and pile them on the shore. The scrapping teams can take as long as they need to cut them up and ship them out, while I go out and start cleaning up the bay itself." She shook her head sadly. "You wouldn't believe the amount of garbage out there."

"How long will that take?" he asked.

"Cleaning up the bay? Hmm, at least a month, I think. I could do it quicker but there isn't the capacity here to store it all and I've got other things to do anyway. I'll put in a day here and there as needed."

He nodded, listening, and smiling at the enthusiasm in her voice. She'd gone from sounding very serious and mature when dealing with David to sounding like a cheerful young woman now. A preposterously big one, of course, but that was the impression he got, which made him smile a bit. He wondered how old she actually was, but was pretty certain that came under the heading of questions that wouldn't be answered.

Glancing over his shoulder, he saw that Rebecca and David were still talking, while the news crew seemed to be following Kaiju with the camera. "Thank you for not overreacting back there," he said in a very low voice. "I apologize for both my friends, although mostly Eidolon. I'm not sure why he was pushing so hard, we'd already discussed our approach to you and I told him he should be polite."

"That's all right, Legend," she replied equally quietly, although her voice still made his chest vibrate a little. "Some people are just a little too aggressive at times. I've run into that before. I didn't take it personally, and I honestly didn't mean to insult him with a nickname. Like I said, we take threats against our family very seriously, but that wasn't really a threat, just a badly-worded question. I hope I didn't come off too aggressively or arrogantly myself, but your friends seemed like they needed something a little more obvious than just some talking. And Alexandria almost dared me to prove it, anyway."

"It was both a little amusing and a little scary," he chuckled. "And rather impressive. Have you rated the threat presented by a lot of Parahumans?"

"Not quite like that," she admitted, smiling for a moment. "Most of them that we've met have actually been very friendly, to tell the truth. Lung was an exception, but then he's Lung. I had to be quite firm with him. Raptaur had issues with Hookwolf of course, the man is a hyper-aggressive idiot, although in the end he wasn't that dangerous. No one else has pushed as hard yet." She shrugged. "I doubt we'll be that lucky forever but so far nothing serious has happened."

"What will you do if you _do_ run into a serious threat?" he asked.

"Deal with it, I guess," she sighed. "I don't want to fight, I'd rather build things, but if I have to I will. Same goes for the rest of us. We'll do what we need to, to make sure the threat goes away for good. Hopefully that will just require some carefully worded threats, but of course you can only make threats you intend to carry out, or it's a waste of time."

"Once is an accident, twice is a pattern, three times..." Paul mused.

"...Is the last time," she finished flatly. "Most people, I won't allow it to get that far. You guys may treat a lot of this as black and white, cops and robbers, like I've seen it referred to. When people get hurt, it's not a game any more. Hookwolf hurt people here. If Raptaur hadn't been available he could well have killed them. He certainly intended to, and has done something similar many times before. If he wasn't a Parahuman he'd have been in jail years ago, or dead. For whatever reason he was allowed to run around on the street. We've looked it up, he's killed at _least_ forty people over the years, many of them simply because he wanted to."

She glanced at him. "Before Parahumans came along, people called someone like him a sadistic serial killer and hunted them down. But now? They let them run free. Or look at Lung. Body count seventy-three confirmed kills. The ABB as a whole, several hundred in the last decade. E88, even more. Merchants, if you take overdoses on the crap they sell into account, at least twice that combined total. Brockton Bay has a higher death rate per capita than almost anywhere in the country, and is way out in front if you bring Parahuman crime into it." She indicated over her shoulder with a huge thumb. "You, and those guys back there, could have stopped all this years ago, before it got this bad. You still could, despite what I said the three of you together are almost unbeatable for normal capes. I have to wonder why you haven't."

He was silent for a few seconds. She raised some uncomfortable points.

"There are political issues with some of that, but I agree the situation isn't ideal," he admitted. "Do you and your family intend to do that?"

"Not by jumping in and going after every Parahuman in the city, no," she replied. "We _could_ , obviously. If they come after us first, we will. But we have no wish to kick the entire thing over. Unlike you guys, it's not actually our job, and there are other problems as well. If we take out the E88, the ABB and Merchants expand into the vacuum. Take out the ABB, the E88 benefits, and so on. Take out all of them, and there's a better than even chance that either some new gang pops up to fill the hole, or someone from outside comes in. We'd be chasing them down forever, unless we get really serious, and none of us have any wish to run the place. The better solution is to do what we're doing right now. Build up the bottom and a lot of the support for the gangs withers away, reducing the problem. With some luck they'll go away without having to be kicked out."

"With all due respect, that may be wishful thinking," he said. "Although I agree with a lot of it."

"I know, and you're right. But it's worth doing for more reasons than just that, it helps a lot of people, and we enjoy it," she told him, looking over at him for a second. "If it doesn't do the job, one day we may have to take more direct action. But none of us want to dive in at the end labeled ' _kick the shit out of everyone in the way_ ' which seems to be the more common approach." She smiled slightly as he chuckled. "You have to build up to that. We're starting at the less damaging end of the scale. And it gives Saurial something interesting to do, going after all the street thugs, which also reduces the problem at least a little."

Paul grinned at her tone of amusement, following her as she kept moving, while the argument behind him became less audible.


	119. Titan and Clash

Lisa watched her enormous new friend talking to Legend, then turned and peered at Eidolon and Alexandria, who seemed to be having something of a disagreement. The news crew next to her were recording Kaiju, but sooner or later they'd point the camera at the other two, which she couldn't help feeling could cause some potential problems. Glancing at Danny she saw he was watching both the two Triumvirate members, and her.

She shrugged, then let her ability go to work on them.

 _Alexandria very angry_

Eidolon somewhat angry, at… not getting his way? No, not getting the result he expected

 _Expected to provoke Kaiju into fight_

 _Wants to fight_

 _Needs to fight_

She blinked a few times. That was a little excessive even in cape terms. Lisa probed harder, wincing a little at the headache that was building.

 _Needs conflict, challenge, feelings of fighting overwhelming power_

 _Thinks Kaiju best opponent_

 _Frustrated she will not rise to bait_

 _Will escalate until stopped or gets his way_

 _Not thinking entirely rationally due to ?_

That was unusual. Lisa felt confused. With Taylor, she got basically nothing, except hints here and there. She'd worked out this was because the Varga was so alien to whatever her power actually was that it had basically no frame of reference to even begin to interpret any data it got back. But in this case, it was more like something had been redacted.

Which was just weird.

She tried again and got the same result, as well as a rapidly intensifying headache.

Sighing, she gave up for the moment, turning back to watching Legend talk to Kaiju, while she waited for her headache to subside a little. If it did, she could see if she could extract more information later. Danny was watching her with concern but she smiled reassuringly, making him look assessingly at her, then nod. He turned back to the Mayor who was audibly wondering what the enormous reptile and the Protectorate hero were talking about, Kaiju's voice only a distant rumble like surf on the beach.

* * *

Stopping next to the filter towers, Kaiju waved at them. "I'm quite proud of these," she went on. "The DWU engineering team designed them, I made them. They should last for years. I can replace the filter material easily, of course, but we won't need to do that more than about once a year."

"They're very… large," he told her, studying the things.

"They need to be. Originally Raptaur was going to make them but once the guys in the engineering department ran all the calculations, it turned out to be more efficient to make a small number of really big ones rather than more smaller ones, and I was the obvious choice to do that." She reached out and put a hand on the top of one of the enormous shiny cylinders in a proprietary way. "I like making things, so this was a lot of fun. And the most complicated thing any of us have made so far."

"A born engineer, or a Tinker?" he smiled.

"More the first than the second, but not really either," she chuckled. "All of us are really curious about how things work, we like learning new skills and combining the ones we know to do interesting things. We're a good fit for the people around this place, I think."

Hearing faint shouting, he turned in mid air to see Rebecca waving her hands and berating David, who had crossed his arms and was standing in a pose that suggested he was being stubborn. "Now what?" he grumbled. Her back was to him so he couldn't read her lips.

"Grassman is still saying that clearly I'm hiding something, which is true, it's called my private life," she told him, "and he's saying you guys should figure out how to force me to explain my agenda. Alexandria is calling him an idiot who nearly started a fight that wasn't necessary." She listened some more, before sighing. "He's quite rude at times."

"I have no idea why he's acting like this," Paul commented, watching the figures of his friends a few hundred yards away. He was hoping that the microphones on the TV crew's equipment wasn't good enough to pick up what they were saying. It was already embarrassing enough to have the Triumvirate squabbling in public.

"Neither do I," she remarked. "Now he's saying something about how it's their job to find out the truth, even in this damn city? That's a bit harsh." She looked mildly insulted. "It's not that bad, aside from all the Parahuman gangs, constant violence, and regular murders."

He gave her a look, making her smirk. "OK, not the best argument in favor of it. But I was born here, so I have to defend it."

"Fair enough," he smiled. They watched as the two figures, who were now hanging in the air, exchanged more words, before Rebecca pointed back at the TV people. David turned his face that way then flew out over the water about a quarter of a mile, the woman following him, before they resumed arguing as mere dots in the sky to most people.

"Is he always like this?" Kaiju asked curiously, turning her head to watch the distant figures.

"No. He can be a bit quick to join a fight at times, but I've never seen him like this before."

"Something to prove, I think," she said, making him look at her, somewhat impressed by the assessment. Catching his glance, she added, "I've met people like that. He shows a lot of the same signs, although nowhere near as bad. Personally I think he wants to fight me to show how good he is."

Paul didn't reply, but he knew she was essentially right. The man had been angling for that the entire time he'd been in the city, even though he'd agreed not to take it any further. But watching him, his old friend could easily tell he was still looking for that ultimate fight. Kaiju was simply watching and listening with an air of bemused interest, making him wonder if she'd actually do anything even if David did just attack out of sheer frustration.

"I'm sorry about all this," he finally said quietly.

"Not your fault." She shook her head firmly. "You're a good man, and I think of you as a friend more than anything else. From everything I've seen and heard about you, you can be trusted and you think things through. You can't be held responsible for anything your friends do, you're not their master. All of you are more than old enough to take responsibility for yourselves."

"I'd like to think so," he agreed wryly, making her snicker.

They kept watching, until David threw his hands in the air, then started flying back towards them, radiating anger. Rebecca was hanging in the air with her arms folded, looking extremely irritated as well. Paul got a sinking feeling in his stomach.

* * *

"He's moving again," Dragon pointed out, unnecessarily. Sure enough, the vector was slowly extending again on exactly the same course, at the same oddly low speed.

"I haven't got the faintest idea what is going on there," Colin muttered.

"Neither do I," she admitted, thinking hard. "Is there anything odd about Brockton Bay at the moment?"

"When is there _not_ something odd about Brockton Bay?" he asked in a tone of long suffering irritation. "We have Lung, the E88, the Merchants, the Family, and now even the Triumvirate. To be brutally honest every day I wake up and find that the place _isn't_ a smoking hole in the ground is a good day."

Smiling to herself, she nodded her understanding. "Poor Colin. This city is certainly interesting."

"Not quite the way I'd have described it," her friend grumbled, watching the screen. "But I can't think of anything going on right now that would, or could, cause that." He waved at the monitor in front of them.

"No, I can't either," she sighed. "I wish I could work out what the Endbringers actually wanted."

"Destruction and death, as far as I can tell," Colin said in a low voice. "Nothing more, nothing less."

She nodded silently. That pretty much summed it up.

* * *

"Oh, fuck it," Paul murmured.

Kaiju sighed. "He's going to push again, isn't he?" she asked, pretty much rhetorically.

"I hope that's all he does," he said. "I'll go and talk to him."

She held up a hand. "No. Let him get it out of his system or he'll just come back."

"You aren't going to fight him, though?" He looked hopefully at her, having no wish at all to see what a Kaiju vs Eidolon fight with no holds barred would look like.

"I won't throw the first punch, but I reserve the right to stop him if necessary," Kaiju said quietly. "Don't worry, I won't hurt him if I can avoid it."

With severe misgivings but also knowing that there wasn't much he could do right now if Rebecca couldn't talk their friend down, aside from fight either him or her, neither prospect making him feel any better, he waited next to her until David arrived, holding position level with her head and about sixty feet away.

"Hello again," she said calmly.

"I don't like you," he snapped.

"Fair enough. I'm not entirely fond of you either, Grassman," the huge lizard smiled.

"Don't call me that," he growled.

"All right. I'm sorry if it offended you, Eidolon, I just happen to like small jokes. Mr Foot here took it a lot better than you did. But if you don't want me to call you that, I won't." Her voice was still calm and even.

"What are all of you doing here? Where did you come from?" David queried, sounding irritable. "I don't trust you, no one does all the things you're doing just out of the goodness of their heart."

She tilted her head a little to one side. "Really? Why not? Anyway, you're a superhero, I'd have expected someone like you to understand if anyone would." Now she sounded genuinely curious. "All we want to do is help make the world better. Don't you?"

"Better for who, people or whatever you are?" David asked in a menacing tone.

Kaiju tipped her head the other way, while Paul sighed, wincing.

"I like to think of myself as being people, actually, even if I'm not human. We want the same things, more or less. By which I mean we both value friends and family, and a nice place to live, not that we want to take _your_ things." She snickered, while David folded his arms.

"And you're incredibly evasive. You haven't answered any of my questions."

"As I said I wouldn't, less than fifteen minutes ago. Those are the sorts of questions we don't answer." She studied him thoughtfully. "I have to wonder, are you still trying to goad me, or are you genuinely angry? Only there are a number of things about you that don't quite add up."

Paul looked at her, then David. She was right. He looked angry, and he actually was to some extent, but now that he examined his friend closely, it was quite possibly more due to the way she wouldn't rise to the bait rather than what he was saying.

"Eidolon, please stop this," he asked. "You're embarrassing yourself and all of us as well. This isn't like you."

"This thing is wandering around without a care in the world, claiming it doesn't recognize our authority," David said quite loudly, pointing at Kaiju, who rolled her eyes. "It makes Leviathan look like a bath toy, yet we're supposed to believe all it wants is to move old boats around?! That doesn't make any sense."

"Now I know you're trying to insult me," Kaiju chuckled. "That was bizarre. Any chance you could go away and let me get back to work?"

"What guarantees do I have that you won't suddenly snap and start killing people all around you?" he asked.

"None, any more than I have about you," she replied reasonably. "You just have to assume that I'm not a mass murderer any more than you or most people are. Now, if you don't mind, this is getting both silly and boring, so I'm going to go back to doing something useful. If you want to watch, please either put on the safety gear or go back to where Alexandria is. If not, please find someone else to annoy." She held out a hand on which was a hard hat and high-visibility vest. David looked at them, then her, before mumbling something under his breath.

"Very rude of you," she said, shrugging. "Suit yourself. If you really want a fight, like I said, find a good place a long way from anyone and let me know when I'm not busy. It's stupid, but I'll go along with it if you insist. See you around." She made the clothing go away then turned around, heading back to where she'd been working when they arrived.

David stared at her as she walked off, then raised a hand and fired a glowing beam of energy at the back of her head.

* * *

 **'** _Ow. That was uncalled for,_ ' Taylor grumbled, rubbing her head. Whatever had hit her had marked her scales, although she could feel there was no actual damage. Scratching it a little, she turned around. ' _Why the hell did he do that?_ ' She asked the question out loud as well, not getting an answer from the floating hero. His scent still reeked of that odd excitement, which had grown stronger if anything, mixed with some genuine anger under it all.

" _You have somehow irritated him, Brain,_ " the Varga commented as she headed back to the two men, wondering what she'd do when she got there. " _He's trying very hard to provoke a reaction for whatever reason he has and I think he got carried away. By the look of it he knows this too but can't back down now_."

' _Legend looks very annoyed, and Alexandria is furious_ ,' she noted, coming to a stop where she'd been. ' _Any ideas?_ '

" _Ask him again to desist, and if he doesn't, gently stop him. We can't avoid confrontation now but at the same time neither side will come off well if there is a real fight. We can easily deal with him without harming him, since he won't be expecting it. But if you do something major his friends will have no choice but to help him and the public will be very worried no matter what happens_ ," the Varga advised.

' _Not to mention that I really don't want a fight here. Dad's only three hundred yards away, so is the Mayor, and Lisa. Not to mention everyone else. If this fool tries anything serious everyone is at risk_.'

Taylor was quietly annoyed about the whole thing, and wondering if there was anything she could have done to avoid it. Perhaps he just _really_ didn't like people making fun of his name?

" _I don't think you could have avoided this_ ," her friend told her. " _He arrived spoiling for a fight. The more you refuse to react the way he wants, the harder he's going to try. I have no idea why, but I can recognize it when I see it_."

' _Sophia was the same, although she'd already be in a fight by now,_ ' Taylor replied, sighing. ' _He's got a lot more self control, although his attitude leaves something to desire_.'

" _He's older and much more experienced, which is another odd thing, as you'd expect him to know how this makes him look. The fact that he's prepared to do it in front of a TV camera is the most peculiar part of the entire thing_."

Now the Varga sounded puzzled. " _If I didn't know any better I'd think he was under some sort of compulsion spell_."

' _Weird. Oh well, let's see if we can talk him down, and if not I'll just have to deal with him_ ,' she muttered, deciding on an approach then opening her mouth to speak as Legend flew between them with his hands up and a pleading expression in his eyes.

* * *

Paul gaped in total shock. What the fuck was the idiot _doing?_ The attack had been completely unprovoked. Behind David, he could see Rebecca was rapidly approaching and hoped that she wouldn't jump in as well.

"Don't you turn your back on me," David shouted.

The beam, some sort of electrical attack, had splashed light and heat across the back of Kaiju's head with a loud fizzing _crack_ sound, making her stop in her tracks. One hand came up and scratched the point it had hit as she slowly turned around. There was no obvious damage visible.

"Why did you do _that?_ " she asked, sounding more confused than anything else. "You could have hurt someone."

Paul watched, more than a little worried, both at the way she'd basically ignored what he knew was a pretty powerful attack, and at the way she was now returning to David. Moving between them, he held up his hands. Rebecca halted some fifty yards away and watched carefully. "Stop, please. We don't need to do this."

"I'm not doing anything," Kaiju said, still not looking annoyed, but sounding mildly exasperated. "I don't want him shooting his little energy beams around the place, though. If he misses me he could really cause some damage. And I have no idea why he's doing it in the first place. Nothing I've said or done seems enough to warrant an attack on me."

"She's right, Eidolon," he said, turning to his friend. "She was just walking away to get back to doing something she's promised to do. Let it go, you're not getting anything useful out of this. No one is."

He could see that David was now both angry and puzzled. The man was clearly trying to provoke the reaction he'd spoken about wanting to avoid, but was confused by the way she simply wouldn't cooperate. Paul wasn't entirely surprised, considering what he'd read of Hannah's report on the sniper shooting at Saurial, who had likewise more or less ignored it at the time. The entire Family seemed to be way more patient in the face of provocation than seemed normal. But David's response was the much more peculiar thing in his view. He'd never seen the man like this, although he was a lot more eager to engage the Endbringers than Paul considered sensible.

"Look, why don't we arrange a time for me to give you a good beating if that's what you really want, Eidolon. Maybe if we go north somewhere there might be some empty places we could wreck," Kaiju said in a tone of someone humoring a person they suspected of not being entirely all there. "We could ask Dragon, she'd know. Lots of Canada is practically empty. I bet if we recorded it we could even sell the recording." She looked at the man with a somewhat hopeful expression. "But I really don't have time for this right now, and this is about the worst possible place to do it anyway. Look at all the people around, someone could get hurt or even killed. Neither one of us wants that."

"You're just mocking me now," David growled, floating closer until he was only about fifteen feet from her face. Paul slapped his hand over his eyes in disbelief. The idiot had just put himself in range of one quick bite, and they already had proof she was wildly quicker than she had any right to be. Rebecca flew over, moving slowly and non-threateningly, to float next to Paul.

"No, honest, if you insist on trying yourself against me, I'll go along with it, to keep you happy," the vast creature said earnestly. "I don't know why you're so worked up about it but I'll play along. But not here and not now. Deal?"

"Why would I trust you?" David asked, sounding extremely suspicious.

Kaiju shook her head slowly, then looked at Paul and Rebecca. "You should do something about this before he says something to someone who takes him seriously," she commented. Turning back to David, she continued, "You're a hero, and I believe a good man at heart, but for some reason you're acting really weird. Go home. Or I'll have to put you out and your friends can take you home. Your choice."

"You think you can do that, you go ahead," David snapped.

She eyed him curiously while Paul sighed, as did Rebecca beside him.

"If you insist."

About three seconds later David went limp and dropped like a stone, to be neatly caught by an enormous hand that blurred into motion and stopped dead a couple of feet under him. Paul stared, while Rebecca jolted forward a couple of feet, the visible parts of her face going pale with anger.

"What did you do?" she demanded, suddenly radiating danger.

"Exactly what I said I'd do," Kaiju replied, carefully moving her hand over to them. Paul landed on it and knelt down, feeling for a pulse. "He's just unconscious, he'll be fine in a few minutes. Might have a headache though. Please take him away before he wakes up and starts whatever that was all over again, will you? I really have got a lot of work to do and it's getting dark."

"He's simply out like a light," Paul reported, standing up on her palm and looking at Rebecca. "No harm done."

"Except to our image," she growled in a furious tone. He shrugged, nodding a little.

* * *

"He's stopped again," Colin noted, sounding extremely puzzled.

"Looks that way." They watched the trace on the screen, which about thirty seconds later began moving back the way it had come. "And now he's backtracking. What the hell?"

Shortly Leviathan was back into his holding pattern exactly where he'd been. They stared, exchanged a confused glance, and stared some more.

After a few minutes, Colin started wondering something. Poking the keyboard, he found the exact coordinates that Leviathan was more or less circling around, then ran some calculations on them. The results made him stare even more.

"You think the movement was odd, look at this," he finally said, showing his results to Dragon, who was currently inspecting the Simurgh's image on the other monitor.

She peered at the tablet he'd calculated his results on, then lifted her head to meet his eyes. Shock was apparent in her body language.

"He's not just more or less as far as he can get from here. He's _exactly_ as far away as he can get from here. Leviathan is on the precise antipodal point from the center of Brockton Bay."

"Why?" she asked in a stunned voice.

"I have no idea."

* * *

"It's not ideal, but it could have been worse." Paul turned to Kaiju, who was watching them with interest. "How did you do that?" he asked, genuinely wondering. She hadn't apparently moved or done anything he recognized from the reports of her abilities, but David had simply dropped on the spot. Yet another new power?

"If I tell you I might not be able to use that trick again if I need to," she replied, smiling a little.

"Fair point, but I'm extremely curious," he told her. She inspected him for a moment, then shrugged.

"OK, since it's you, Legend," Kaiju finally replied. "I just surrounded him with a bubble of pure nitrogen. Interesting thing about inert gas asphyxiation, there's no warning at all about it. You just fall unconscious, often in only a few breaths. He was worked up, breathing fast, so it hit him very suddenly. He'll wake up just as fast in a minute or two. It was the simplest and least dangerous method to stop him that I could think of."

He nodded, impressed by the sheer simplicity of her technique. With the matter creation power at her disposal, there were all sorts of other things she could have done now that he considered the possibilities, most of which would have been far more dangerous. Some were horrifying. But it certainly seemed to work.

"I'm sorry about all this," he said.

"So am I. And very puzzled. I didn't mean to upset him, but he was acting a bit weird even when you guys arrived, so I don't think it's all on me anyway."

"I don't think any of it is, Kaiju," Rebecca said, landing on her hand next to Paul. "I'm going to get to the bottom of this. I hope you don't mind if I come back at some point? I would still like to talk to you some more."

"Sure, but I'd suggest that you leave him behind," the enormous reptile smiled, indicating the now slightly stirring form of David with a claw. "Just in case."

"We'll do that," she sighed. Looking over at the TV crew, she added morosely, "And now I have to work out the damage control. This doesn't look good."

"I'll ask them not to broadcast that part, if you want," Kaiju offered. "They want to interview other Family members, maybe they'll do a deal."

"Which means we'll owe you a favor," the woman muttered. Kaiju smirked.

"I wouldn't put it that way myself, but if you want to think of it like that, go ahead," she chuckled.

"What about all the camera phones?" Paul asked.

"They're all DWU people. If I ask, they'll make sure that part doesn't get out. The rest, that's too much to ask, it was a public spectacle," she replied. "You'll have to live with it. But we're far enough away that most of the more embarrassing parts will just be a blur anyway. The TV camera has a really good lens on it though."

"Oh, hellfire," Rebecca grumbled loudly. "This didn't go the way I thought it would, at all. Come on, you idiot, get up. We're leaving." She poked David with her toe, making him mumble, then sit up.

"What happened?" he muttered, sounding disorientated.

"You bit off more than you could chew and got sandbagged," she sighed. "We need to talk. A lot." Heaving him to his feet, she gave a good impression of an annoyed older sister. "Can you fly, or do I need to carry you?" she snapped.

"I..." He shook his head, coughed a little, then tried again. "I can make it."

"Good. Get moving."

She watched as he lifted into the air, wobbling a little, then evened out. Sighing, she followed him, glancing at Kaiju on the way but saying nothing.

Paul followed them with his eyes as they headed out across the bay, making a wide loop to bring them in from the water toward the PRT building some miles away, then turned to look up at Kaiju's face. She lifted her hand higher, until he was at eye level. "That was very strange," she commented in a dry tone, making him smile.

"You're telling me? I have absolutely no idea what caused all that, I have to admit. It was very out of character to put it mildly. He seemed to react to you in a much more… enthusiastic… manner than I'd have expected."

"I hope he's OK. Eidolon is a major hero, I'd hate to be the cause of any problems for him."

Sighing, Paul shrugged. "I don't think it was you, at least not directly. There's something else going on. Thank you for your restraint and the chat, it was interesting."

"No problem. You're always welcome here, but your friends should make an appointment, I think." She smiled at him, no threat or anger in the expression.

Rising into the air, he nodded, waved, then accelerated to catch up with his friends, while wondering what the hell had happened.

* * *

Peering after the blue streak in the sky, Taylor sighed slightly. ' _I never thought I'd meet the entire Triumvirate, and certainly never thought that Eidolon of all people would want to fight me. Even like this. What an odd afternoon._ '

" _It was definitely unusual_ ," the Varga agreed. She could feel he was thinking hard. " _If Legend is correct about how out of character it was, and even with the way Eidolon appears to be, I suspect he was, perhaps there_ _ **is**_ _some sort of external influence at work._ "

' _Magic of some sort?_ ' she inquired, turning to go over to the group of people staring at her from near the admin building.

" _Perhaps, but much more likely is some form of Parahuman power. I haven't detected any form of magic so far in your world, other than ours. Neither could I detect any such influence on Eidolon and I did check very carefully_."

' _Oh, that's what that weird feeling was?_ ' She'd noticed the sensation of active magic coming from him, but hadn't thought much about it at the time as she was puzzling over the way Eidolon seemed desperate to get her to react.

" _Yes. I'll explain what I did and how later. Right now, I think we need to talk to the news people, finish our work, then find Lisa and your father and talk to them about what this might mean. I need her insight and his wit_."

' _OK_.' Stopping near the group consisting of the reporter and her team, her father, Lisa, and Roy, with his security man behind him, she carefully lowered herself to the ground. "Hi, guys. Odd thing just happened, and I was hoping you might do me a favor," she began, looking at Kate, who seemed both curious and confused.

* * *

"What the fuck was _that_ for?" Rebecca asked in a furious tone, landing on the roof of the PRT building having motioned to the guards to give them some space. She whirled around and poked David in the chest, hard enough to make him yelp. "We agreed that you wouldn't push Kaiju, and instead you _shoot_ her in the _back_ of the _head?!_ You idiot, that could ruin everything. Aside from the fact that she took you down without even trying. That's just embarrassing. Now she's got the upper hand, we're no closer to learning anything useful about her and her relatives, and you made us look bad in front of a damn _TV news crew!_ One you knew was there as well, which is even stupider."

"I'm sorry," the man replied, shaking his head. "I'm not entirely certain why I pushed it so hard. It seemed like a good idea at the time. Sure, I intended to see what she'd do if I poked her, but I didn't mean it to go that far."

"Well, we're fucking lucky that she seems about as non-aggressive as anyone I've ever met," Rebecca sighed. "That little trick she knocked you out with could have killed you just as easily if she'd wanted, and you'd never even have realized it."

"What _did_ she do?" he asked. "My head is killing me."

"She made you inhale pure nitrogen, it dropped you in seconds. If she'd used hydrogen cyanide gas instead you'd have been dead so fast even your powers probably couldn't have saved you. Christ, that lizard is dangerous. I never even considered a trick like that, but she'd already worked it out, it was way too smooth to be a spur of the moment thing. Don't ever do that again, we may not be so lucky next time."

"I would hope there never will be a next time," Paul remarked from behind her where she'd heard him land half-way through her short lecture. "That was a really idiotic thing you did. Why?"

"Like I just said, I don't know. It got out of hand much faster than I expected." David sounded both puzzled and worried.

Rebecca exchanged a glance with Paul. "Mastered?" she said very quietly. David froze, while Paul looked thoughtful.

"It's… not as impossible as I'd like," he finally said. "I wouldn't have thought it was very likely, though, we're not aware of any human Masters that powerful anywhere in the area, certainly not ones that could affect him without closer contact."

"Maybe the Family has one," Rebecca mused darkly.

"I doubt it, to be honest, and even if they did why would they do that? All it did was confuse the entire issue."

"Maybe that's the point. Or it was to embarrass us. Or just trigger a fight to see what would happen."

"The fight part, no, I don't think so. As far as I can tell she genuinely doesn't want to fight Eidolon, but she offered to do it if he really wanted as long as a suitable place could be found. Why would she do that, but try to start something right here, next to people she obviously values highly?" Paul shook his head. "No, it doesn't sound very likely. Someone else trying to stir things up between us and her, _maybe_ , but I doubt that as well. And I can't see any point in embarrassing the Triumvirate, the Protectorate in general, or the PRT. What would the Family get out of it that they don't already have access to?"

Rebecca thought over his words and reluctantly nodded. He made sense. Which left a number of other possibilities, some even more worrying.

The single _most_ worrying was the one that she feared was the most likely. Carefully checking around, she lowered her voice even further. "What if it was his Agent?"

Both men stared at her.

"How do you mean?" David asked, equally quietly.

"I'm not sure yet," she admitted. "But I have the strangest hunch that it's connected in some way. Here and now isn't the place to discuss it. Let me think about it for a while. And you're going home tonight, before something else happens." She turned to David. "We'll talk to Director Piggot, who has undoubtedly already heard about this, she'd got a lot of sources, then you go. I'm staying for tonight at least. What about you?" She glanced at Paul, who shrugged.

"I've got plans in the area which will keep me here for a little while. I've already told New York about it."

Wondering what those plans were, but concentrating more on the peculiarities of the DWU visit, she merely nodded.

"We did learn one thing that's useful," he added, making both the other look at him. "Kaiju is _amazingly_ hard to provoke. Your worries would seem to have been misplaced." He looked at David, with a small smile on his face. "Luckily."

"That's true, I suppose," the other man sighed. He shook his head. "I really am sorry about what happened, and confused as well."

Clapping his friend on the shoulder, Paul shrugged. "So are we, but it's over with, no harm was done except a minor hit to our reputations, and Kaiju is fine with it. Let's go and talk to the Director, then I need something to eat."

He urged the other man towards the roof exit, while Rebecca trailed along behind them, thinking hard. Something didn't make sense, and she hated that.

Deciding that David needed some discreet careful checking just in case it was a Master at work, even though Paul was probably right, she went inside the building, still pondering the matter.

* * *

"She's going dormant again."

Dragon watched as the orbiting Simurgh closed her many wings into a shell around her body, the satellite image very clear. She puzzled over the matter, thinking hard. "Something happened today. Here. I'm sure of it. We need to find out anything we can about the events of the last… hour and fifteen minutes. Any Parahuman activity, anything out of the ordinary at all," she declared after a moment, turning to Colin. " _Something_ did what we've never seen before, it changed the Endbringer behavior. We need to figure out what, it might hold the key to understanding them better."

"I agree," he replied, "I'm already checking PHO. As puerile as it often is, it's remarkably quick to be updated with anything related to Parahuman activity." She joined him in checking various local forums, having a massive advantage in speed and access ability. Even so, he was the one who found it first.

"Someone just posted a video from the Dock Worker's Union facility. The Triumvirate, all of them, were there talking to Kaiju. At…" He checked the time stamp as she quickly found the relevant forum. They stared at each other.

"Exactly the same time that Leviathan first began moving," she finished for him, stunned.

Both Tinkers turned to look at the monitor displaying the data relating to the far away Endbringers, wondering what the connection was.


	120. Guest Omake - Overbearing Brother

**(By Tascion on Sufficient Velocity)**

Leviathan had decided to visit Brockton Bay.

The rain and the wind were expected, but the general aura of despair was reduced.

Kaiju might show up to help. If she could save the city, I'd even volunteer to get 'Mr Foot' tagged to my PHO account.

While Strider and other teleporters had started bringing capes in from all over the world, I had found Danny Hebert closing up at the dockworkers union building.

The conversation had been brief, but Danny had said that Saurial had gone to get help, with the young lizard-cape-monster-alien commenting that maybe her brother might show instead.

I passed the message on to Alexandria and Eidolon, along with a particular warning to David to not start anything with Kaiju, Umihebi, or any other member of the family if they showed up to help.

I had asked Alexandria to do his customary opening speech to the gathering capes so that I could talk to Danny, and as I returned updates began coming in, that Leviathan was failing to form tidal waves, but was approaching rapidly. All flying blaster capes were to assemble above the shore for bombardment, while brute able to engage directly would be led by Alexandria. Dragon was managing coordination, and had already announced that if Kaiju made an appearance, then all other parahumans were to pull back and allow her to target Leviathan.

I flew up to join the cluster of other flying blasters. As I rise, I see Leviathan cross my expanding horizon, and I began firing. Other capes with extreme ranges joined in immediately.

The bastard wasn't changing course, despite giving increasing numbers of capes easy shots on him.

Even as the ocean began boiling around the Endbringer, it kept coming for the shore, bleeding from dozens of deep cuts and hundreds of scratches.

Leviathan jerks out of the water by dozens of feet, thrashing in the sudden growth of green pillars- they're claws. Bloody hell, they're claws.

A clawed hand extends out of the water, and a head emerges. It's not Kaiju. Kaiju is smaller. There's a cheer from the assembled capes. I don't think the others understand the distance and scale yet.

This may be their brother, and he's... He is simply like a small mountain.

He rises up to his waist, gripping Leviathan as the Endbringer thrashes in his one hand.

The Family's brother, once upright, brings the comparatively tiny Endbringer up to his face.

I see him speak, and everybody hears and feels his voice a moment later.

"I told you to stay away from Umihebi."

Then I watch the biggest teeth that I hope is possible, casually bite an Endbringer's head off.

Head and arm.

The rest of the body continues thrashing and the brother of The Family looks at it for a second, and then pops it in his mouth.

There's a brief flash, like light, but not, and then that's it, there's only Kaiju's brother.

I... we... somebody should talk to him.

He apparently thinks so too, and begins walking into the bay.

Most everybody doesn't panic, thankfully.

Some do, but they're quickly told to stop making noise, just in case.

I don't want Rebecca, or God forbid, David, botching this, and so I fly out to meet him as he enters the bay.

He stops in the middle of the bay, and looks around, before settling his gaze on me.

"I am Varga."

"I am called Legend."

"Is this Brockton Bay, where my younger sisters have spent time recently?"

Varga speaks very deliberately, and I can feel the air shake from the pressure of his voice. Everybody on the shore can certainly hear him.

"Saurial, Raptaur, and Kaiju have all spent time here recently. They have been a good help to the city."

"Good, young ones can be troublesome sometimes. I'm glad their reports of their behavior are accurate."

I guess now is a good time for questions.

"If you do not mind me asking, would you explain your comment to the creature you ate?"

"I had warned it to stay away from Umihibi, after it began following her. The water manipulator failed to heed me."

"It could understand you?"

"I didn't care if it could."

That was distressing, on a few levels, and on many more if Varga would act like that towards others. Well, others aside from Endbringers.

"Thank you for, uh, eating the water manipulator. It has killed us and destroyed our cities many times."

"You are welcome. I will be retiring to sleep soon, but as I am here already, I will speak to one of the lords of this city, the metal creator."

I think he means Kaiser. Before I can check, Varga begins walking around me.

I need to avoid a panic. I message out over my armband.

"Everybody, this is Varga, Kaiju's older brother. Do not attack him. He wants to talk to a particular person in this city."

Varga speaks up then, clearly having heard and the city hears him. "Afterwards, I will be leaving."

I think Varga is hundreds of feet tall, and he stops as he gets to the shore.

"Where is the man who creates blades of metal? I wish to speak with him."

I'm quite sure he means means Kaiser.

I think Alexandria orders Strider to bring the villian cape to the beach, as the desired cape is brought here.

Varga speaks again. "Are you powerful within this city, controlling men and land?"

I feel a small touch of awe, despite the man being a degenerate Nazi, as he manages to reply loudly and clearly.

"I am Kaiser. I lead good people and oversee a proud community within this city."

"Does a dog man of metal swear allegiance to you?"

"A man called Hookwolf does work for me"

"Ah, perhaps it is a language issue. My youngest sisters may have been remiss in singing the languages of the now to me when I lie dreaming. This man, Hookwolf, recently fought Raptaur, yes? Within the past cycle of this orb?"

"Yes."

If Varga wasn't competing hard for most intimidating thing known, I think it might be funny the way everybody has backed away from Kaiser.

"Raptaur sang of this exuberant and clean fight. She found it fun. However, I interpreted this Hookwolf's intentions towards her differently. I consider his behavior indicative of inappropriate interests in the child."

Kaiser decides to attempt to backpedal.

"I assure you, Hookwolf did not attempt or anything. It- they just fought. She was completely unhurt, and I have instructed Hookwolf to not go near any of your sisters again, ever."

"Good. I trust then we understand each other. I hold you responsible for the actions of those sworn to you. You will not have time to become aware of any further issues, if anything questionable occurs again."

I'm pretty sure the unspoken 'because I'll find out before you and destroy you' is pretty clear at this point.

Kaiser manages to nod. Varga watches the beach for a long moment, and then turns and takes a few steps towards the ocean.

I doubt Rebecca or David would let Varga leave without trying to talk to him, and harassing the Endbringer Eater- god, I'm already capitalizing it in my head, is a terrible plan.

I start to move towards David, I need to stop him from doing something stupid and dying from it, when Varga stops walking.

He crouches down, like he's tensing...

He jumps. Or flies. I can't believe it, it's...

Varga shallowly dives into the ocean, at least several thousand feet from the shore, positioned rather like a crocodile I saw in a nature documentary.

And he's gone.

Well, I guess I should make sure everybody else gets home too. Rebecca and David are going to be too busy plotting, not like it's helped be ready for any other part of The Family, but I presume it's just a nervous habit for them at this point.


	121. Remonstrations and Analysis

"You shot her in the head."

Eidolon nodded.

"From behind."

He nodded again, somehow managing to express embarrassment without his face being visible. Emily examined him, thinking it was all in the posture.

"Without any action on her part to provoke it, and while she was walking away."

The hero nodded for the third time, definitely looking embarrassed now.

She sighed. "With all respect due a man of your abilities and experience, that was a fucking bone-headed thing to do, don't you think?"

"It was… a mistake," he admitted reluctantly.

Staring at him for a moment, she replied, "Accidentally ordering ten pizzas instead of one is a _mistake._ Deliberately shooting the largest and possibly strongest cape on the planet in the back of the head on her own turf _while she's walking away because she doesn't want a fight_ is a bit more serious than ' _A Mistake_.' In my opinion, of course." Despite herself, her voice had gone somewhat sarcastic. "May I say that I am more glad than I can easily express that the Family appears to value the heroic virtues and are less easy to provoke than a concrete block? If they reacted the way that so many people do, Parahuman or otherwise, we might well be in the middle of a war. One I have no great desire to ever see, and not one I'm certain we would be on the winning side of."

She shook her head in amazed disgust while he sort of sat there looking embarrassed and worried. Alexandria was watching her, her mouth in a thin line, but did nothing to either defend her colleague or stop her. Legend looked weirdly amused, as well as more than a little irritated.

"Thank every deity you can think of that you didn't somehow manage to hurt anyone there, Eidolon, or you'd have gotten the fight you seemed to want to arrange, trust me. I think, based on meeting Raptaur, and talking to people who have met the other two, that their passivity would go away faster than you'd believe if someone they decided they wanted to protect got hurt, no matter _who_ did the hurting. I would _much_ prefer that never happen, if you don't mind. I have no idea which would be more damaging, the Triumvirate wounding or killing Kaiju with no good reason, or her defending herself and wiping out the Triumvirate. On balance, I'd prefer neither happened, at least on my watch."

He shrugged a little. "All I can say is that I'm sorry, and it won't happen again."

"It better not," she said in a growl. "You may be one of the powerful capes around, if not the most powerful, _and_ one of the Triumvirate, but _I'm_ the one who has to keep a lid on this damned madhouse and until or unless I get relieved of duty, that's what I'm going to do. _You_ get to fly away back home, _I_ have to deal with the consequences of your actions, as do all the people under my command. I have no wish to either have to go and apologize to the Family or the DWU, or end up having either one become hostile to us."

"I don't think either of those are necessary or likely to happen, Director," Legend finally said, in a calm and rational voice, clearly trying to keep her from becoming more irate. "You raised some good points and are right, of course. We're guests here and this isn't a situation where we would normally get involved officially. I have already apologized on behalf of the Protectorate and Eidolon to Kaiju, who accepted the apology with good grace. She doesn't seem to be holding a grudge, if anything she was more confused and slightly worried about the whole affair. I doubt very much that it will affect the good working relationship you appear to have with them."

"I sure hope it doesn't," she sighed, her irritation still very much present but no longer making her want to throw things. "While in many ways I'd sleep better if I'd never heard of the Family, they're here, we're basically stuck with them, a lot of the population actively likes them, and I have to live with the end results." She glared at Eidolon again. " _All_ of them."

He looked at the floor, radiating uncomfortable shame.

"We'll be working on why it all snowballed so far out of control, Director Piggot," Alexandria put in, moving to stand next to her compatriot. "Believe me, it worries us as much as it does you. That wasn't supposed to happen. All we wanted to do was talk to them and try to get some answers to a few of the more confusing questions."

"Did you manage _that_ , at least?" Emily asked.

"Not… quite," the other woman said. "We made some interesting observations, gained some more insight into Kaiju's personality, discovered that she was remarkably calm under pressure, luckily..." Here she gave the seated man a disapproving look. "But not as much information as I'd have liked came to light."

"I would respectfully advise that you leave it a while before you try again," Emily said dryly.

"I would have to agree," Legend muttered, shaking his head. "No sense in pushing our luck too far."

"Out of interest, how did you find out about it so fast?" Alexandria asked, appearing somewhat curious. "We only landed on the roof ten minutes ago and you obviously knew before we walked in the door."

"I had a call from someone at the DWU who was obviously passing on information from them at Mr Hebert's request," she replied, leaning back in her chair. "He didn't go into details for most of it but he told me how it ended. Just to keep me up to date, he said." She frowned a little. "There was also mention of reporters being on site. Which is unfortunate."

The woman on the other side of the desk visibly twitched. "I hope that Kaiju was successful in persuading them not to broadcast that part," she sighed.

"I expect she will manage it," Legend chuckled. "She's quite persuasive." Sitting down, he relaxed a little. "We're truly sorry, Emily, we didn't mean to bring any trouble to your city. I know it's already got more of that than ideal."

"To put it remarkably mildly," she agreed with a scowl.

"Eidolon is going back now, since I don't think we want to risk anything else happening," Alexandria commented, "but I'll be staying probably until tomorrow night. I still need to catch up on a few other people in the general area as long as I'm here. But I'll be out of your hair soon. Where is the Chief Director, do you know?"

"She was in the secure conference room the last I saw her," Emily replied. "She had some business with the main office she was using the video meeting system to conduct."

"All right. I'd better go and talk to her about this." The other woman sighed a little. "She may be more sarcastic than you were."

"I'll have to try harder," Emily noted with a tiny evil smirk of her own. "Good luck."

"We may need it." Alexandria glanced at her companions. "Let's go."

Eidolon stood and followed her out the door, giving off an air of puzzled melancholy, while Legend stopped in the process of going after them and turned to Emily. "I really am genuinely sorry about all the problems we might have caused, Emily," he said quietly. "It didn't help anyone, but we'll make sure it won't happen again. I'll be in town until we resolve that other problem as well."

"All right," she said in reply, nodding to him. He nodded back and left, closing the door behind him with a soft click. She stared at it for a moment, then shook her head.

"Parahumans. Even the good ones don't know when enough is enough most of the time," she sighed, turning to her work, which the recent visitors had thrown into turmoil.

The only good thing about it all was that the Chief Director now had three more people to get annoyed at, which might keep her off Emily's neck for a while.

* * *

Reaching into the last opening she'd made in the deck of the tanker, Taylor felt around for a moment. "Good, it's all the way to the bottom," she announced. Creating a couple of hundred feet of flexible hose six inches across, with the connector on the end she'd memorized the design for, she carefully tossed the free end towards the dock, where it clattered to a halt and was set on by a team of workers. They dragged the heavy tubing to the fourth pump unit and connected it, the crew foreman waving to her when it was done. With a nod of acknowledgment she lowered the other end, suitably weighted and screened to stop anything the pumps couldn't handle from being ingested, into the bilges of the ship.

Shortly that pump was running as were the other three and the process of emptying out a couple of hundred thousand tons of water was fully working. There was a stream of clean water coming out of the filter array exhaust into the bay. Moving over to check, she tasted it, then smiled. "Hardly any traces of anything other than seawater," she said to Charlie and his team, who all looked pleased. "It's actually cleaner than the bay is."

"Great. Thanks very much for all the help, Kaiju, you've saved us a couple of weeks just with the resurfacing and god knows how much time and money with the filters," the man replied, standing on the edge of the refurbished dock yard. He looked back over his shoulder for a moment, then returned to her. "Still got a lot to do before we can get this place up and running properly, but it's getting there."

"Glad to help," she smiled. "I'll be around, Danny can get word to me via my sisters if you need anything else, but I'll come back on Wednesday to start the cutting."

"Fantastic. Thanks again. Have a good..." He paused, then looked around, before shrugging with a grin. "...Whatever it is you do out there."

"I will," she laughed. "See you." Turning, she moved into deeper water, the nearly full tide quickly covering her. Dissipating the hat and vest, she swam rapidly towards the bay entrance, following the bottom, until she entered the shipping channel, where she cloaked, shrank into the aquatic combat form, and turned around to head back to the BBFO offices. Reaching the rear of the place quickly she climbed out, shook herself off, switched to Saurial, then unlocked the back door and went inside. She found her father and Lisa sitting talking at the table, both of them looking up as she entered.

"That's that part done," she said, pleased. "Now I have an interview. Again."

Her father smiled, although she could tell he was also somewhat concerned. Draping herself across one of the chairs with her tail lying on the floor, she leaned back and closed her eyes for a moment, scratching the top of her head. The sensation of her claw tips in the feathers there was nice, and completely familiar these days. She sighed happily in relief, more from the lack of having to watch where she stepped than anything else. Being Kaiju was fun, but a little nerve wracking considering how small everyone else was and how easy to squash they were.

Opening her eyes again she saw that Lisa was giving her an amused look, clearly picking up on the general mood she was in even if she couldn't get anything else.

"Long day at the office?"

"Sort of like that, yes," she grinned. "Weird one as well."

"What on earth _was_ all that about?" her father asked, smelling and sounding curious and worried. "Why the hell did _Eidolon_ of all people fire on you, and from the back? That's not like the man I've read about."

"It somewhat fits the profile I'm working out for him," Lisa replied, glancing at Taylor, who shrugged helplessly. "According to both my power and things I've read, the guy has some sort of need to be the most powerful one around the place. Bit like me and knowing things." She snickered when both of the others nodded agreement, blank-faced. "Thanks, by the way."

"Hey, you're the one who said it," Taylor smiled.

"True. Anyway, from what I could work out, he was _really_ trying to get Taylor to have a go at him. He was practically desperate for you to attack him, and when you wouldn't, he tried a more direct approach." The blonde girl propped her chin on her hands and regarded her friend with a quizzical expression. "I'm not sure why, though. My power got confused, or blocked, or something, whenever I tried pushing hard to work out the reason behind it."

Somewhat shocked, Taylor asked, "You mean, like with me and the Varga?"

"No. With you guys I get basically nothing, except for tiny little hints around the edges. I think that to my power you're a totally out of context problem. If the Varga really does come from a completely different universe, not just a different parallel world like Aleph, but something utterly alien, I suspect that powers can't make heads or tails of him. And by extension, you. There's a good chance that you may be immune to precog abilities, clairvoyance, anything like that, as well. It's weird, but it sort of fits the paradigm." Lisa lifted her shoulders in a shrug without removing her head from her hands. "Could be useful, but it's annoying to me personally because I can't get the sort of information I'm used to."

"Poor girl," Taylor giggled.

"Quite." Lisa looked amused. "But with Eidolon, it was different. My power was working fine, right up until it read something from him that… well, it was like I was reading a file and hit a word or sentence that was blacked out. Like someone or something didn't want to let me in on the secret." She sat back in her chair, sighing, and lifted her hands in a gesture of confusion. "I can't explain it any better than that."

They were silent for a moment, wondering what it meant. After a few seconds, Taylor's father asked, "What did you actually _do_ to Eidolon, by the way? All we saw was him dropping like he'd just passed out."

She chuckled. "Basically that's exactly what happened. I gassed him with nitrogen."

His eyes widened. "Shit. That's… very clever. But somewhat brutal. I hope you kept the exposure down to the minimum level. Inert gas inhalation can be extremely dangerous and fast acting."

"I was careful, but that's what I was counting on, I thought there was a good chance he wouldn't be expecting it and it would take him by surprise. It did."

Lisa was staring at her in slightly shocked admiration. "Very clever indeed. Did the Varga come up with that, or did you?"

"Me. I'm studying chemistry a lot and I read an article a couple of weeks ago about the dangers of asphyxiant gasses. We discussed it and tried a couple of experiments, then filed it away as a useful trick under the right circumstances. Turned out it was a good anti-Eidolon technique, although I assume he'd be ready for it next time."

"Hopefully there won't _be_ a next time," her father muttered.

She nodded with a sigh. "Hopefully. I still don't know why _this_ time happened."

"You could really be lethal with that same technique if you changed the gas," Lisa mused. "Assuming you needed to, and the target wasn't wearing a respirator."

"That wouldn't help," Taylor smiled. "I'd just make it inside them instead."

The blonde stared at her. "Oh, _crap_ , you're not Manton limited..."

Taylor grinned. "Nope. I looked it up when I was researching powers, it seems like a weird sort of limitation. But it doesn't affect Varga magic at all."

"Manton limited?" her father asked curiously. "What does that mean?"

"Powers are weird in all sorts of ways, but one of the bigger limitations that most of them have is that they sort of divide into powers that can affect living creatures and ones that can't, directly at least," Lisa explained. "Almost all powers can't affect the inside of a living thing, although there are ones that _only_ affect the inside of a living thing."

"Like Amy," Taylor added, making her nod.

"Exactly. It's pretty rare to find a power that works both ways, or doesn't care. A power as scary as Taylor's matter creation ability that is Manton unlimited is terrifying." Lisa looked at her in awe. "God, the things you could do if you were evil, it makes me feel ill."

"Me too. Luckily I'm _not_ evil, I'm just a slightly over-enthusiastic infinitely variable dinosaur demon slash massive troll who enjoys making people go ' _Um, what the hell?_ ' while taking down muggers and other such idiots," Taylor snickered. Both her father and Lisa broke out in laughter at her comment.

She looked at her father. "What time is it?"

Pulling his sleeve back he looked at his watch for a moment. "Nearly twenty past five."

"OK, I need to go, I promised Kate that Saurial would come and talk to her at half past five, but both the Varga and I need to talk to you two some more about what happened today." Hopping to her feet she stretched, then headed for the door. "I'll see you guys later."

Stopping inside the door she inspected the new piece of equipment on the wall in the area she'd left clear of EDM. "Oh, great, the phone and internet connection is in."

"Yes, he came over and fitted it while you were making those filters, before the Triumvirate turned up," Lisa told her, coming over to also look at it. "He spent about ten minutes gaping at you, did the work, and left pretty quickly looking confused."

Taylor nodded, smiling. "All we need is some computers now."

"I got everything ordered. The stuff on Armsmaster's list will be here Monday, but everything else that's needed is coming sometime tomorrow. I'll set it all up if you want to make the benches and things. We can cable it all in easily, I ordered a good ethernet switch and lots of cables."

"Wonderful."

"And a small phone exchange, with half a dozen extensions and a digital answering machine."

"Even better. Thanks, Lisa."

"You're welcome," the girl smiled.

Feeling very pleased about at least that part of the day, even if other parts had been somewhat peculiar, Taylor smiled back, then left the building, heading at a jog for the cafeteria where she'd arranged as Kaiju to have her alter-ego meet the news team in return for them deleting the recording of Eidolon's not-actually-finest moment.

"There's more video online now of whatever was going on at the DWU," Dragon commented, assembling files into a video editor on one of Colin's systems. "Enough to establish a time line, certainly. Although there's a gap in it, we have no records of what happened for about a minute while Kaiju was talking to Eidolon and Legend near the end."

"Slightly odd, but perhaps that hasn't been posted yet," Colin replied, engrossed in going slowly through the recorded Leviathan movements data. "All right, I've got this in a format we can compare with the video data."

"Let's see, then." They slowly scrolled through the video collection looking at the timestamps extracted from the metadata. Luckily a lot of people had been recording the activity in the docks from a number of viewpoints, so there was a continuous record of it right from the beginning. "The Triumvirate arrive at 15:07:39, Kaiju turns and waves at them five seconds later. She doesn't look surprised, so I suspect she knew they were there, or detected them coming. She goes back to work for another twenty seconds. At 15:08:01 they start heading towards her, she looks back, then talks to the DWU people in the pickup, who reply, then drive off. Must have told them she was going to be busy."

Colin nodded, going making notes on a pad at the same time. "They approached very slowly and in a non-confrontational manner. Kaiju doesn't appear worried, or hostile."

"No, she looks amused more than anything else," Dragon replied, feeling a similar sensation. The three humans were wildly disproportionate to the enormous reptile, the contrast was almost ridiculous. "At 15:08:23 they stop about fifty feet or so away. She opens the conversation, says something to them, Legend replies. Eidolon and Alexandria look a little confused based on their reactions. If she's making jokes like she did with Legend, that could explain it."

"It's an interesting tactic, but an efficient one," Colin remarked. "Keeping the opposition off balance. Unusual humor could well manage that."

She looked at him for a second. "Or perhaps she's just being friendly?"

"That is also possible," he admitted thoughtfully, making her smile inside.

Returning to the video, she scrolled forward a little. "Whatever it was she said, Legend nearly falls over laughing. Eidolon looks very confused now, and Alexandria is pretty much gaping at her. I wonder what she said? Anyway, they talk for a while, then she lowers herself to the ground and indicates that they can do the same. They all land at 15:09:07. It all looks friendly, right up to here, at 15:09:25, where Eidolon says something. He's giving off an appearance of confrontation, look at the way he's standing."

They kept looking through the videos frame by frame for a while.

"Kaiju seems to think about what he said for a few seconds, then suddenly puts her head only a few feet from them and her hands either side of them, blocking the view from most of the cameras. I can't _believe_ how fast she moved," Dragon said. She scrolled back and forth through the three frames that had caught the motion. "Her hands traveled at only barely subsonic velocity to where they ended up, and her head wasn't a lot slower. The level of strength and toughness that shows is appalling, especially for something that size."

Moving to another video stream, she added, "This person was some distance away from the water and was the only one in position to show anything that happened between her hands, but the angle isn't good and the resolution is poor. I've processed it as much as I could to extract any useful data. As far as I can make out, Legend and Alexandria seems to be saying something to Kaiju. Their body posture and motions suggest an apology. Trying to defuse the situation, perhaps? Kaiju went from looking mildly annoyed to smiling, then to amused. It must have worked. But then Eidolon says something again and she stops smiling, at 15:10:47."

"Leviathan started moving towards us at 15:10:46," Colin said slowly, checking his own data, then peering at the video. "Immediately before Eidolon's comment. But much too close to it to be a coincidence, I'd have thought."

"If it was Kaiju who was somehow involved, I'd have thought it would happen _after_ his comment," Dragon replied, thinking hard.

"I agree. But it could still be something to do with her, in some way." He shrugged. "We've all thought several times that she bears far more in common with the Endbringers than any normal Parahuman. Perhaps she's linked to them and they detected a threat, Leviathan coming to help?"

"Why so slowly, though? I'd practically swear that trace was of something that was only coming this way under protest, not rushing to join in." Dragon was very confused and very worried. The change in behavior of the Endbringers was… potentially devastating.

"I have no idea," he sighed. Checking his movement data, he said, "Leviathan stopped moving at 15:16:01 and went into a holding pattern."

"That's eleven seconds after the point she moved her hands away. She said something, probably about the news crew, because they all looked that way. Then she stood up and began walking away from them towards the shoreline, Legend accompanying her. It looks like they were just talking like friends, there's no tension in either of them. Unlike Alexandria and Eidolon, who were clearly having an argument. Quite a serious one, by the looks of it." Dragon let the video play at normal speed. "Kaiju ends up over here, next to these large constructions. Some sort of water filtration equipment I'd say."

"Alexandria and Eidolon are still arguing all this time," Colin noted, peering at the monitor, then at his data. "Leviathan starts moving again at 15:22:08."

"Which is two seconds before Eidolon leaves Alexandria and heads towards Kaiju again. I'd say he was furious, to be honest. Alexandria doesn't look happy either. Kaiju and Legend look resigned if anything. Not hostile, though." Dragon shook her head in puzzlement. "What on earth happened between them all?"

Not having an answer, she resumed the video yet again. "Eidolon approaches Kaiju, stops perhaps sixty-five feet away, then has a conversation with her. Or at her, based on the way she looks puzzled. Legend just looks bemused and worried. Then there's a gap in the coverage from 15:23:37 to 15:25:21. No video that covers that time has been posted anywhere that I can find."

"I can't locate anything either. Considering the number of sources that were putting their recordings online, that to me is somewhat suspicious." Colin checked his data. "Leviathan stopped moving again at 15:24:49, and reversed course twelve seconds after that."

"The next segment we have has all three of them standing on her hand." Dragon looked at the monitor with a sense of wonder. "I have no idea how _that_ could have come about. Alexandria and Eidolon fly away at 15:26:04, Legend stays and talks with her for another twenty-three seconds, then also leaves. She watched them all go, then turned around and went to talk to some people near the buildings there. That group includes the TV crew, Danny Hebert, and Mayor Christner. The recordings all end shortly afterwards. There's more video from about half an hour later of her at work again, but that's all that covers the period of interest."

Leaning back in his chair, Colin tapped his pen idly on the pad he'd been jotting down notes on for a few seconds. "Rewind to the point where all three were standing on her hand."

Dragon did as requested. "What did you see?"

"I'm not sure," he muttered, watching it play. "There. Stop it, go back five seconds." After she'd done so, she watched carefully as well.

"Is it my imagination or was Eidolon looking somewhat unstable there for a moment, like he was recovering from something?" he asked.

"No, you're right. He's definitely a little wobbly. Look, he stumbled when he turned around to talk to Alexandria." She slowly shook her head. "Something happened in that missing section, obviously. I wonder what, and why?"

"We'll have to ask Legend when he comes back," Colin replied. "Speculating is pointless. But the key data is all here. On the face of it, contact between Kaiju and the Triumvirate, most likely specifically Eidolon, somehow produced anomalous behavior in two of the three Endbringers. The fact that it happened more than once combined with the vector aimed directly at us, _and_ the Simurgh apparently watching an area of the planet that has us right in the center, very strongly implies that it was no coincidence." He looked at the data display on the other monitor, adding, "The Simurgh went dormant again at 15:26:10. Just after Eidolon and Alexandria left the scene."

They considered the problem in silence for a couple of minutes. "Was it Kaiju that caused the reaction, Eidolon, or the combination, though?" Dragon finally asked. "I think we can rule out Legend, since he's met her before and nothing of this nature occurred. Alexandria is a possibility, of course, but the timings match up far too well with Eidolon to make me think it's very likely."

"I don't have any answer to any of that," her friend said after some more thought. "I agree with your conclusions, but other than that I can't see what the connection is between any of it. We've never seen this sort of behavior from them before. There just isn't enough to go on yet."

"Even so, there is enough to suggest that there may _be_ a connection of some sort there, even if we don't know what it is or what triggers it," she replied. He nodded.

"I can't disagree. We need to talk to Legend, show him this data, and fill in the blank spot. Whatever happened in that missing one minute and forty-four seconds could hold the key to understanding this situation."

"He said he'd be coming back here later tonight to talk about the weapon again," Dragon remarked. "We can wait until then. There's no immediate threat now, and this is far too sensitive to allow outside this room for the moment."

Colin nodded again, heavily. "All too true." He sighed slightly. "Things just keep getting less and less easy to understand recently." After a moment, he closed the file he'd been looking at and turned back to the main CAD system. "I'd prefer not to think about it for a while if you don't mind. There's plenty of work to do that I _do_ understand. Shall we get back to it?"

Smiling internally at the hopeful note that suddenly came into his voice, she chuckled.

"Sure, I'd like that. Where did we get to?"

Soon they were running simulations again, Colin looking much happier now that he was doing something he enjoyed. She watched him, wondering yet again how he'd react when he inevitably found out the truth, and dreading it.

Standing up, Amy smiled at the old woman in the hospital bed, who was flexing her hand in wonder. "It doesn't hurt," she marveled. "For the first time in twenty years."

"I've fixed your rheumatoid arthritis, reset your immune system to what it should be, and repaired all the damage to your joints, Mrs Robinson," Amy told her. "I also gave you a bit of a tuneup to deal with the other minor issues you had. You'll need to stick to a healthy diet, and for a week or so eat about fifty percent more than normal. Drink plenty of fluids. Other than that, you're in very good health for a woman in her eighties."

"Thank you, my dear, more than I can say," Mrs Robinson smiled. "You're a miracle worker."

"I'm just using the abilities I have to help people," she replied, pleased with how cheerful the old woman was. "I'm glad you're happy."

"Happier than I've been for a long time. My grandchildren want a grandmother who can play with them, not one who can barely move and yelps in pain if they hold hands." The elderly woman grinned as Amy giggled. "It wasn't much fun for any of us. You've given me back something I thought was gone forever."

"Enjoy it, in that case." Smiling again at the woman, Amy glanced at the doctor beside her who was writing on his clipboard, looking pleased. "I think I'm done here."

"Thanks, Amy," he said, making some final notes then handing the paperwork to one of the two nurses attending to the patient. She followed him out into the corridor. When they were alone, he turned to her. "You're looking much happier these days," he commented with an approving expression. "The new hours obviously agree with you."

"They do, actually." She stretched, then smiled back. "I've felt far less stressed and depressed since I cut back."

"I told you. You were working yourself into an early grave. It's a problem in the medical profession among the really dedicated workers. People need time for themselves, no one can fix all the worlds ills single-handedly, and if you try you'll end up killing yourself. I've seen it happen myself and it's not pleasant. You're far too young and full of life to let that happen." The doctor shrugged. "Even a Parahuman healer needs time off and a life outside the hospital or the aftermath of a fight."

"I'm glad I listened to you and my friends," she said honestly.

"So am I."

"Who's next?" she asked after a short reflective pause. He looked at his clipboard, flipping through several pages.

"Mr Henderson up on seven has leukemia, there's two trauma patients on one, a gunshot wound to the abdomen and a severely broken hip from a fall, but other than that there's nothing that really requires your abilities. I'm not going to waste you on colds, sniffles, and minor allergies." He grinned as she looked surprised. "Come on, Amy, leave something for the pill pushers to do. They look all sad when they can't sell antihistamines because you've come through and snaked all their customers out from under them."

Laughing, she shrugged. "If you say so. But there really aren't any more serious cases?"

"Not right now, no. You've cleared up all the long term or terminal issues, and there's been an enormous fall in the number of trauma patients coming in over the last few weeks. Since that horrendously large lizard was wading around in the bay on Tuesday, it dropped even more. Hardly anything as a result of gang activity."

"I guess everyone is keeping their heads down until they work out what's going on?"

He looked amused. "Most likely, and who can blame them? But at the moment we seem to be having a well-earned respite from the normal levels of violent crime, which causes at least eighty percent of the trauma patients we get. I doubt it will last, it never does, but it gives us a chance to get on top of the situation for once. Why don't you do these three cases, then head home? We can always call if we have an emergency and we can deal with the run of the mill stuff perfectly well."

She nodded slowly. "You're sure?"

"I am. We're actually pretty good at our jobs, you know." He smiled to show there was nothing more than humor in his words. "Anything long term that comes in will keep until you come back, and like I said, if we get something serious enough to need you quickly, we can call you. Your sister can get you here in a few minutes from anywhere in the city. Or your huge friend with all the scales."

"Or even my nice new truck," she laughed.

"Exactly." He turned and headed towards the elevators. "Let's see about this gunshot, it's not critical but the poor guy isn't very happy about it. Clean through shot, left side, just above the kidney. Small caliber, probably a .22 or .25, no bullet fragmentation in the wound..."

Amy walked along beside him, listening as he read the paperwork, nodding occasionally. Checking the time she decided she'd swing by the DWU on the way back and see if Taylor was there, or her house if she wasn't. It was still early enough that she thought it would be fun to spend some time with her friend.


	122. Presentation and Consideration

"…and then he shouted something about demons and asked to be arrested," Saurial's chirpy and very cheerful voice said. "He was acting very strangely, to be honest. I mean, he threw his gun at me when he ran out of bullets! Who _does_ that? If the bullet didn't hurt, a gun sure wasn't going to." She sounded mildly puzzled. "He was really worked up for some reason."

She shrugged while Kate stared at her with slight disbelief. The lizard-girl was one of the happiest capes she'd ever interviewed, but the contrast between that attitude and something that from her description sounded more like a scene from ' _Alien_ ' seen from the point of view of the thing hunting the humans down one by one was more than a little disturbing. The reporter nodded, a professional slight smile on her face, but inside she was hoping that she never encountered the blue-scaled girl in the dark.

Something that she suspected the gang members would wholeheartedly agree with. Possibly while whimpering and trying to hide under something.

"I see. It sounds like you were very effective, Saurial."

"I'd like to think so. I mean, Kid Win and Clockblocker were right outside along with a lot of cops, so none of them would have got very far if I'd missed any, but it was sort of a point of pride to me to do a good job. I'd only been on the scene for a few days then and I didn't want to embarrass myself or anyone else." She smiled to herself, apparently remembering the incident. "But it worked out pretty well. By now, I think it's something like about seventy E88 members, maybe fifty ABB, and a couple of dozen Merchants."

The girl frowned a little. "Actually, thinking about it, I could swear a few of those E88 guys I'd already grabbed once already. Huh. I'll have to look into that. Anyway, it's quite a lot of them. Unfortunately there are always loads more."

"This city does seem to have more than it's fair share of criminals, most of whom are violent," Kate agreed.

"I know! They're all _over_ the place. And leaving aside the villainous capes, who to be honest don't normally go out on the street much, their cannon fodder are just irritating." She shrugged with a slight air of one who is trying one's best but finds the rest of the world to not be cooperating properly. "I'm forever tripping over them. Often doing such stupid little crimes I can't see how it's actually worth the effort. I mean, three guys holding up a convenience store that has all of forty-three dollars and change in the till? What's the point? And in that particular case they caused about a thousand dollars worth of damage and came close to killing someone. That really annoys me. They'd have made more money actually asking the guy for a job, he could do with some help."

She snickered for a moment. "The really funny thing is that they must have fired off nearly fifty dollars worth of bullets. They sprayed the ceiling with three AK-47s, and even paused to reload. That's something like a hundred and twenty shots or so. As far as I know the ammo for those things isn't all that cheap, even around here. Even if they'd gotten away, they'd have been out of pocket."

Kate actually smiled at that one. "Criminals of that type aren't known for financial acumen," she replied.

"Apparently not." Saurial shook her head in disgust. "If they were they'd find something more useful to do. Even better thought out crimes, probably. That snatch and grab stuff is so stupid. But it gives me some exercise, I guess. Pity about all the innocent people who get caught up in it."

"I'd have to agree." Kate paused for a moment, while the lizard-girl cocked her head curiously to watch her. Her mannerisms were very odd, definitely giving a distinct impression of not being entirely human, and many of her movements were much too quick and sure. She tended to move almost instantly from position to position, then stop dead and not move at all in a somewhat creepy manner. Kate could easily see why that combined with almost total darkness would put someone's nerve to the test, especially if they were engaged in a criminal enterprise.

"To change the subject a little, my information is that you are an expert in both hand to hand combat and the use of hand weapons, which you can make as required. Can you tell me a little more about that?"

"OK," Saurial smiled. "The close quarters combat is a family style, we all know it, but Kaiju doesn't really use it, for example. I mean, she's so big who's she going to practice on, except one of us?" The girl giggled a little, while Kate paled slightly, wondering how many like Kaiju there actually were out there. The idea of a pair of them practicing throws and falls was simultaneously funny and horrifying. "I'm the little one, your size, so I use it a lot. The sort of people I go after it works really well on, and is safer than a lot of things I could do. Plus it's good practice." She shrugged quickly. "And fun. Anyway, that style is very old, we developed it over the generations and have optimized it a lot for ourselves. I might try teaching it to a human at some point, it would be interesting to see how it worked on someone without a tail."

Her own tail was lying on the floor next to the chair she was sitting in, the tip twitching back and forth as she talked.

"The weapons are interesting. I already knew all sorts of ones when I came here, like swords, spears, clubs, hammers, that sort of thing, but I've been actively researching and developing new ones and practicing with them. Like this." Suddenly she was holding a collapsible baton in each hand, which she extended with a practiced flick almost too fast to see. The weapons snapped out to full length with a solid _snick_ noise.

"These things are cool, and really effective if you know how to use them properly. And safer than something like a warhammer." The girl twirled the one in her left hand like a cheerleader's baton while whipping the other one in a complex pattern with a sound like tearing silk. It neatly demonstrated both how fast she was and how well coordinated.

She made them go away to wherever they'd come from, then produced a throwing dagger. "Knives, they're easy. Then there's throwing darts, nets, ropes, all sorts of things like that. I was reading some interesting books on ancient Roman weapons, those guys had some really cool ideas. Pity there doesn't seem to be any good training manuals on using them, though, I've having to work it out from scratch. But that's also a lot of fun."

Kate nodded, keeping her expression neutral with some difficulty, rather than recoiling at the sheer glee with which the reptilian girl talked about lethal weaponry. "Do you also use firearms?" she asked numbly.

"No, I haven't had any need for that," Saurial smiled. "I mean, I might be able to make a gun, I guess, I haven't tried, but what's the point? I can throw a knife faster than a handgun fires a bullet, and probably more accurately than anyone except a proper marksman can shoot. It's a lot quieter as well."

"I… see," Kate finally said. "Thank you. I think that's all I need." She motioned to her cameraman, who stopped recording, then lowered the camera and just stared at Saurial. "We should be able to use most of that, I think," she added after going back over the interview. "We have about fifteen minutes of you, the same from Kaiju, then Mr Hebert and the Mayor we got around half an hour each from and another ten minutes with them both together. Not to mention all the footage outside. I might be able to get two specials out of this, rather than one."

"Glad to help," Saurial smiled. "And you'll do what Kaiju asked?"

"Of course. I keep my promises, especially to people nearly a hundred feet tall," Kate smiled. "I see no point in embarrassing the Triumvirate _or_ any of the other people involved, there's no benefit to me or the studio and a pretty large number of downsides. I'd like to come back at some point if nothing else."

"Great." The lizard girl looked pleased. "Thank you."

"I've already deleted that section of footage, Kate," the camera operator said quietly from behind them, making both females look. He shrugged. "When someone like Kaiju asks for a favor, you say yes."

"Fair enough," she smiled. "Good call."

Turning back to Saurial, she asked curiously, "Do you know what all that was actually about?"

"No idea. Kaiju can't work it out either," Saurial sighed, looking somewhat puzzled. "It was really strange. According to her Legend was fine, Alexandria seemed confused, and Eidolon was just acting weirdly. She thinks it was probably all some sort of misunderstanding, though. Probably nothing serious."

The girl looked to the side at the clock on the cafeteria wall. "I'm going to have to go, I have someone I need to talk to, but it was nice talking to you, Kate. Good luck with your report, I'm really interested in seeing it."

She stood up, holding out her hand, which Kate shook after also rising. She thought the sensation of fine scales on her skin was odd but not unpleasant. "It should be broadcast in about two weeks, perhaps a little less," Kate replied, releasing her hand. "It depends on the editing and the schedule, but I'll make sure Mr Hebert gets advance notice of it. I'll ask if I can send him a DVD before it airs."

"Thanks, that would be cool. This was fun. See you guys around, maybe," Saurial replied with a smile, nodding to both engineers, then turning. She headed for the exit, calling greetings to the various DWU members who had been sitting around watching from out of shot and being remarkably polite and quiet. Now the interview was over they were beginning to talk, though.

Kate watched the end of Saurial's tail disappear out the door, then shivered.

"Holy _shit_ , I wouldn't want to run into _her_ in a dark place," she muttered.

"Neither would I," the sound man said, his voice a little faint. "How can someone so happy be so horrifying?"

"Lots of practice and inborn skill," the camera operator answered, although he was also staring after the humanoid lizard.

Deciding that she needed a cup of coffee before they left, just to settle her nerves, Kate got up and headed to the coffee machine, going back over the interview in her head and working where to fit it into her report.

* * *

Pulling up at the DWU gate, Amy smiled at the guard who came over to her window. "Hello, Panacea. New car?" he said, returning the smile.

"Yes, thanks, Mike, it's my first one," she replied happily, stroking the steering wheel possessively. He looked amused.

"The first one is always one you remember," he noted with a slight laugh in his voice. "Mine was an old Mustang my dad and me rebuilt from a pile of rust. Took two years. But I had it for another ten, met my wife as a result of it, and sold it for a fortune. Good memories." Taking a step back, he inspected the vehicle, nodding in approval. "Good solid trucks, these, they last practically forever and will go anywhere. Nice color as well."

"I sure like it," she admitted. "Is Saurial around? Or Raptaur?"

"Saurial was giving an interview to that TV crew that's been hanging around all day, they just left, so I guess she's probably in the BBFO office."

"Thanks."

"No problem." He waved to the other man, who opened the barrier. "Take care, Panacea."

"Amy, Mike, call me Amy."

"Fine by me," he chuckled. "Amy. Say hi to Saurial for us."

"I will," she promised, as she gave the truck some gas, moving off with a throaty rumble that she thought was very nice. Heading slowly around the Admin building and down the side of the complex, her headlights turning the evening dark into daylight, she turned into the side yard and parked, climbing down from the vehicle. After she locked it she headed over to the door of Taylor's building, tapping on it. It opened almost immediately, Lisa peering out at her, then calling back over her shoulder, "You were right, it's Amy."

"Told you," Taylor's Saurial voice came back, sounding satisfied. "I remember engine sounds."

"I couldn't hear anything at all from inside," Lisa remarked, holding the door open for the other girl, then closing it behind her.

"You don't have Varga ears," Taylor smirked.

Amused, Amy headed for the table, dropping into a chair and putting her feet up, tossing her keys up and down in her hand while grinning.

"Enjoying your big blue truck?" Taylor asked. She seemed amused.

"Very much, thanks. It's fun to drive and goes over all the potholes out there like they were normal road surface."

Taylor frowned a little. "I should probably do something about the roads around here at some point," she mumbled, "they're awful." More loudly, she added, "I'm glad it's working out. Why are you back from the hospital so early? It's only about half past six or so."

"I've healed everyone who needs it and your various forms have put the criminals so far off their game most of them are on holiday, so there's hardly any violent crime at the moment, which means hardly any trauma patients. Basically I got kicked out and told to come back when I was needed for something more serious than a cold." Amy snickered as Taylor looked surprised, glancing at Lisa who had sat down and was listening curiously.

"Really? Wow. I didn't think I'd had that much effect. That's pretty impressive, but a little scary."

"So are you," Lisa grinned. "Mind you, Kaiju is fucking terrifying. I'm not surprised that the E88 and the rest are keeping a low profile. They're probably trying to work out whether they should move."

Appearing somewhat proud, Taylor took a seated bow, making the other two girls both laugh for a moment. "You're too kind."

"I know."

"And too smug."

"It's a gift."

"And a curse?"

"No, just a gift."

Amy watched the byplay, then shook her head in amusement. "I can see you two are a good match for each other." Both the others exchanged a glance, then nodded.

"So what's happened here today?" Amy asked curiously. "I saw you made those filter things you were talking about. They're a lot bigger than I realized they'd be. And the entire yard surface looks new."

"It is, I did that after I made the filtration units. They're working really well, the water coming out is almost pure. The ship should be pumped out by the end of tomorrow at the latest." Taylor looked satisfied with the results of the day. "Other than that it was business as usual. Oh, there was the little matter of Eidolon attacking me without any reason, but aside from that the whole afternoon was nothing special."

Amy blinked.

Then looked at Lisa, who was wearing a very peculiar smile.

Then looked back at Taylor, who was just sitting there looking back, her scaly face expressing nothing.

She blinked again.

"Eidolon?"

"Yep."

"Attacked you?"

"Yep."

"Out of the blue?"

"Yep."

"What the fuck?"

Taylor shrugged. "He just hauled off and shot me in the back of the head with some weird electrical beam thing. While I was walking away, even."

Feeling light-headed, Amy blinked several more times, trying to wrap her head around something she had _not_ expected to hear. Eventually she asked in a faint voice, "What did _you_ do?"

"Gassed him with pure nitrogen and handed him to his friends."

"Friends?"

"The rest of the Triumvirate. They were here too."

By this point, Amy had decided that blinking in shock wasn't cutting it, and resorted to gaping a little.

Eventually she recovered enough to say, in a rather confused voice, "I think you'd better start at the beginning. I can't see how we got from filtration towers to a gassed Eidolon, if I'm being completely honest with you."

"We're not entirely sure either," Lisa said with a frown. "It was extremely peculiar."

"OK. I was just in the middle of resurfacing the yard out there, when I heard them talking a few hundred yards away..." Taylor began a very odd story, which Amy listened to intently, only barely noticing when Danny came in half way through and sat next to her.

* * *

When the door to Colin's lab opened to reveal Dragon on the other side, Paul took one step inside then stopped, inspecting her, then the other man who was looking at him with an odd expression. Both of them somehow expressed a certain degree of tension. Resuming walking, he entered the room fully, hearing the door slide shut behind him with a faint hum, then lock with a very solid if low-key clunk.

"What's going on? You both look like something horrible has happened."

"I wouldn't call it horrible, precisely, but very, very peculiar would be a fair assessment," Dragon's synthetic but extremely expressive voice said. He inspected her again. Even through the reptilian-themed power armor she never removed, he could practically feel the woman's worry.

Moving to a seat at the work table which was half-buried in arcane technology already, only a day or so after their report writing session, he put his hands on the table and leaned back. Feeling a certain amount of concern, he looked at them both. "Tell me," he said.

"I think we need to show you the data and let you draw your own conclusions," Colin replied, sounding like he was also both confused and worried. "I don't want to bias your thought processes."

"All right. Show me, then."

Turning to his keyboard, the Tinker poked a few keys. A projector on the ceiling sprang to life, producing a very high resolution image on the wall at the end of the room. Paul turned to look at it. "First, this," Colin said, accompanied by a few more keystrokes. An image of a 3D globe appeared, Australia centered on it. To the lower left, several hundred miles from the coast and in very deep water, an indicator appeared, colored bright red. It had a small label reading ' _Leviathan_ ' attached to it.

Paul recognized the output of Dragon's Endbringer monitoring system. He leaned forward and rested his forearms on the table, watching as the dot moved in what looked like a random pattern a small amount, more or less circling a specific point. Checking the timestamp at the top right of the image he saw it was a recording, not a live feed, from a few hours ago. "How long has he been there?" he asked curiously.

"Since the seventh of last month," Dragon replied, leaning on the wall behind him and also watching the image.

"Really? That's unusual, isn't it? I thought he normally wandered around over a vast area when he wasn't on an attack run."

"He does." Colin's voice was flat.

Glancing at the other man for a moment, Paul went back to the display. Suddenly, the dot started moving south and west a little erratically, essentially down towards the west coast of Antarctica at an angle. He checked the data again, seeing that the Endbringer had moved surprisingly slowly. "Where's he going?" he asked, worried.

Without saying anything in response to his question, Colin just hit a key. A yellow line extended from the red trace the Endbringer was leaving, moving in a dead straight line much faster, the globe rotating under it. The line missed the Antarctic coast, entered the South Atlantic, tracked steadily north again with a westward component as well, and finally terminated on the Eastern seaboard of the Continental US. The image zoomed in on a very familiar bay.

"Fuck me," Paul squeaked in shock.

"That was basically our reaction," Dragon commented with black humor in her voice.

He stared as the process rewound, leaving the yellow line in place, to go back to Leviathan. The Endbringer kept moving as the timestamp in the corner incremented, the recording being played at several times normal speed, until he abruptly stopped. A moment later he began tracking back and forth over a small area, looking entirely random again.

"He stopped."

"Keep watching."

The dot started moving again, on the same bearing. A little while later it stopped again a few miles further. This time there was a short pause before it reversed course, heading a hundred and eighty degrees from its original path until it ended up right back where it had started from.

"That is… very, very peculiar," he finally said. "As you mentioned."

"That's not the very, very peculiar part," Dragon said quietly. "That's just the _very_ peculiar part."

The image shrunk into the lower left quarter of the display, while text window the same size took up the equivalent position on the right side. The top half of the screen was filled with a video window that showed a very familiar scene once more, one he'd seen only a few hours ago.

Staring at the footage of him and his two colleagues, a still frame obviously caught on a cell phone by one of the dock workers, he frowned. "And the point of this is?"

"Watch. This is where the second ' _very_ ' comes into play." Dragon now sounded worried. He heard a key click again over at Colin's keyboard, but didn't look away. The three windows immediately animated, this time running in real time and clearly carefully synchronized. The text display was a second by second list of coordinates of Leviathan apparently extracted from the tracking display next to it he realized.

Paul watched in amazement as the Endbringer started moving just over a second before David had more or less challenged Kaiju after her unnerving demonstration. It stopped again as Rebecca started shouting at him. When his friend approached the giant cape for the second time, it started again, and then the video went into a blank spot for just under two minutes. Around two thirds of the way through this blank section the creature stopped again, then went back on itself.

"Play it again," he requested in a numb voice, watching the screen so intently he could almost feel his eyeballs dry out. Without comment Colin did as asked.

After the second run through, he exhaled softly and said, "Shit."

"What happened during the missing segment?" Colin asked. He sounded curious, but worried.

"Eidolon launched an unprovoked attack on Kaiju," he replied heavily.

" _WHAT?_ " both Tinkers yelped with remarkably similar shock, and at exactly the same time.

He sighed. "It's complicated. But it ended up with her walking away and him getting her in the back of the head with a powerful electrical beam."

"Was she harmed?" Dragon asked urgently.

"She hardly noticed, in fact," he said, shaking his head. "Just scratched her head a little, and I think that was more in surprise than anything else. Whatever else she is, tough doesn't even _begin_ to describe it."

"Then what did she do?"

"She came back and asked him, remarkably politely at that, basically what the hell he thought he was doing. He practically dared her to do something about it. She did. When he recovered, we left." Leaning back in his chair feeling ill, Paul shook his head, while the others looked at each other. "Jesus, what the hell does this mean?"

"Can you explain what we're looking at, and fill in the missing parts, sir?" Colin asked, coming over to the table and pulling out a chair. Dragon sat down on the other side, both of them looking expectantly at him.

"All right. We arrived essentially wanting just to observe Kaiju at work, then talk for a while..." he began, glancing occasionally at the now-static image on the projected screen and wondering why his stomach felt like it was full of lead shot.

He had a horrible feeling that when they figured this out, he wasn't going to like the answer.

* * *

"Did you get me a sample?" Doctor Mother looked expectant.

"No, I did not. We came _this_ close to having more blood spilled than I like to imagine, but I have a feeling that none of it would be Kaiju's," Rebecca replied, holding her thumb and forefinger about an eighth of an inch apart. "Don't ask. David is in the next room. I want him checked very thoroughly for any form of Master effect you can think of. Then do it again. Check for drugs, hypnosis, hell, check him for worms, I don't care. Everything you can think of that might cause a behavioral change with an emphasis on anger and aggression. Just find out if there's anything wrong with him."

"What's going on?"

"I have no fucking idea, which is what worries me," the brunette woman growled. "I have to get back, but do whatever you need to and find out if he's in command of his faculties. I'll be back some time tomorrow evening, Eastern time. I want to know what the hell is going on with the man when I do."

Doctor Mother looked confused, but nodded.

"See if you can get me a sample," she said.

Rebecca sighed, then snapped, "Door to five thousand feet above PRT ENE building," before walking through the portal that immediately opened next to her. It closed, leaving a confused woman staring at where it had been. After a few seconds, she shook her head, then went to find David and do unnatural things to him whether he liked it or not.

* * *

"Well, that's a little strange," Amy commented in an odd tone of voice, as the video from Taylor's head camera finished playing on the laptop that Taylor's father had brought in with him.

"You might say that, yes," she replied, unplugging the camera USB cable. "I was certainly a bit puzzled at the time. Any ideas?"

"Not really. He was exhibiting all the signs of someone full of adrenaline and cortisol, though. Stressed, keyed up for either fighting or dodging. Full on fight or flight reflex with an emphasis on fight." Amy looked around at them. "Like he was in the middle of combat."

"He actually _wanted_ to be in the middle of combat," Lisa commented. "As far as my power could tell."

"That's… I don't know _what_ that is," the healer said after a reflective silence. "Other than probably not good."

"I certainly couldn't see or hear anything you said or did that would have resulted in such behavior, Taylor," her father remarked.

"Neither could I," she replied. "I've gone over and over it in my head, and talked it over with Varga. He can't work it out either."

"The entire affair is both puzzling and concerning, Danny," the demon said through her. "I must confess I can't determine any plausible reason for Eidolon to react so aggressively. But he was like that from the moment of initial contact and became more worked up the longer the encounter went on. Neither of his companions seemed able to understand it either. Legend said as much, and one could see it in Alexandria from the way she was behaving."

"Your joke with his name was awful, Mr Foot is a lot funnier, but that seems an overreaction to a nickname," Amy mused. Taylor shrugged.

"I guess, but like Varga says, he was acting weird before I called him Grassman. Which I sort of like."

"More like Assman for a lot of that," Lisa quipped, making them all groan.

"You're worse than _she_ is," Amy sighed. The blonde just looked amused.

"Was there anything at all that you can think of about that encounter that stood out as odd, other than Eidolon's behavior?" Taylor's father asked thoughtfully, looking at her with his hands folded on the table. She thought back to the events of earlier that afternoon.

"The only thing I can think of was the scent," she eventually replied, noticing that Lisa looked at her intently at that.

"Scent?"

"Yes. It's weird, actually. His scent had something very strange sort of under it, it's difficult to explain in words. But it was clearly there. The odd part is that Alexandria also had the same sort of undertone in her scent, and so did Legend. His was the faintest, then Alexandria, then Eidolon, who was pretty strong by comparison."

"Is it something they were exposed to at the same time?" her father asked. "I mean, surely any group of people who spend some time together in the same place will end up having scents in common, at least to your senses."

"It wasn't that sort of scent. It was… part of them, I guess, is the best way to put it. Something that was given off by their bodies, not a trace from something they touched." Taylor shrugged. "I'm sorry, but you'll have to take my word for it."

"She's correct, Danny, it was inherent, not an externally acquired scent," the Varga added.

"Have you smelled it before? Either of you?" She looked at Lisa who seemed slightly relieved for some reason, but intensely curious at the same time.

"Varga hasn't, but I have a vague idea that I might have run across it now that I've been concentrating on it," she said with a frown. "Really, really faintly, so faintly I didn't really notice at the time, but scents are weird. You tend to remember them without being able to remember where you encountered them sometimes."

"Can you recall where?" Amy asked, looking fascinated. "Or when?"

"It was recently," she mumbled, thinking hard. "Very recently."

They waited, until it suddenly came to her. She lifted her head and stared at Amy. "I was with you! Now I remember. It was when we stopped at Fugly's and played that joke on Assault and Battery."

"Oh." Amy looked confused again. "Where was it coming from?"

"I _think_ it was Battery," she replied slowly. "I wasn't looking for it so I can't be completely certain, and it was incredibly faint even for me, but I have a strong feeling it was her."

"I believe you are right, Brain," the Varga commented out loud through her.

"What does that _mean_ , though?" she asked, mostly to herself. "What do Alexandria, Legend, Eidolon, and Battery all have in common? Or, have in common that other capes don't?"

"You're sure that no one else smells like this mystery scent?" her father asked.

"No one I've encountered so far, no," she replied. "But I haven't met that many capes so far, really. The Wards, Armsmaster, Dragon, those two, these two here plus Lisa's friends, Über and Leet, Hookwolf, Coil… That's not even half the capes in the city, never mind anywhere else. But none of them have that scent that I can recall except Battery. I'm sure the rest of them definitely don't, except maybe Coil. He's a possibility but it's so faint I'd have to be next to him to pick it up and so far that hasn't happened."

"I hope you'll have the chance to be very close to him soon," Lisa smirked with a dark tone in her voice, which made the others smile.

"I expect that will happen," she replied.

"Next time you see Battery confirm that scent," her father suggested, "and stay alert for it from other Parahumans. It may mean something, it may not. But if Eidolon really does have it the strongest, it's possible it's connected in some way to what happened earlier."

"I'll make sure I do," she promised. "Even though I have no idea what it means."

All five of them discussed the oddity of the encounter for another half hour, but couldn't reach any real conclusions because there simply wasn't enough information to go on. The Varga seemed very thoughtful, like he was working on a problem he had a vague idea about but nothing more, so she left him to it, not wanting to disturb him.

Eventually, her father looked at his watch. "Half past seven. I need to finish some work in the office then head home. Will you be coming back soon, Taylor?"

"Soonish, I think, but I want to talk to Amy and Lisa some more," she replied, hopping up and hugging him for a moment. It was a nice change to be able to act naturally without worrying about someone seeing Saurial doing something that might lead them to the right conclusions. Returning the hug, he released her then ruffled her head plumage, making her yelp in surprise.

"Hey!" she said indignantly, raking the feathers into order with both hands.

"See you later," he grinned. "Lisa, Amy, it was nice to see you again. Nice truck, by the way, Amy."

"It's good, isn't it?" she smiled back.

"A good choice. I had one a little like that a long time ago, but nothing like as good condition. Look after it. Right then, I'll be on my way. Try not to disturb the underlying fabric of reality too much, please." Looking amused he headed for the door having retrieved the laptop.

Taylor watched as the door closed, then turned to the other two. She sat again, turning to Amy. "I told Lisa about the Symbiote," she admitted, Amy appearing a little surprised. "Her power would have figured it out sooner or later and she's promised to keep silent about it, and you."

"You'd better," Amy said in a low voice, fixing the blonde, who now seemed uncomfortable, with a hard gaze. "Like Taylor, I take my private life seriously. But I'm not as nice."

Taylor smiled, putting her hand on her friend's shoulder. "She's really not. But she's nice enough for now."

Lisa shuddered. "I have some very unpleasant ideas suddenly going through my mind about what you can do, Amy," she replied in a worried tone. "Believe me, no one is going to hear a thing from me about any of this. I've learned more than I wanted to in the last few days about how some information definitely _does not_ want to be free."

"Good," Amy replied, abruptly smiling. "In that case, want to see something cool?"

Lisa blinked a couple of times, then smiled widely.

"Always."

"Come and have a look at this," Amy said, jumping to her feet and going to unlock her workroom. Taylor walked to the door and made sure it was locked. When she was on the way back, Lisa had followed Amy inside the room. There was a short pause.

" _Wow! I_ want one!"

Taylor chuckled, reverted to her base form, then joined them in the little room of abominations.


	123. Tiredness and Computers

**Saturday, February 19, 2011**

With a glance at the time, Colin yawned. They'd been up the entire night discussing the events at the DWU and how it could be related to the anomalous behavior of the Endbringers. Legend looked ready to drop, and despite his own carefully crafted stimulant mixture, he himself definitely required at least a couple of hours of real sleep or he was risking damage.

Dragon seemed unaffected, but if what he suspected was the amount of life support in her power armor was anywhere near correct, that didn't particularly surprise him. He hoped that one day she'd trust him enough to let him have a look at it and perhaps redesign it to be more efficient, but certain things about the woman were still a mystery. She was in many ways one of the most private individuals he'd ever met, somewhat ironically considering her world-wide fame.

"I'm going to have to go to bed for a while soon," Legend said, also yawning widely. "So what have we decided? There is definitely a connection between Leviathan, the Simurgh, and either Kaiju or Eidolon or both. The evidence suggests it's Eidolon, the timings seem to match up far too closely to his actions than to hers, but we don't have proof either way. Just a lot of unnerving circumstantial evidence. Including the apparent fact that Leviathan is very deliberately staying as far as he can physically get from Kaiju and still be on the same planet. Or possibly the entire Family."

"That's the way I see it," Dragon nodded. "I wish I could give you more information, or less worrying information, but so far on the face of it that's the situation. Of course, it could all be a massive coincidence, or even some bizarre plot by the Simurgh to make us think all this." She shrugged as Legend and Colin exchanged looks. "The damn thing is sneaky. But all things considered I got the definite impression she was more worried than anything else, which is one of the strangest things I've ever thought."

"Which could _also_ be merely part of a plot," Colin pointed out.

She nodded. "True enough. But the problem is that if we start looking for hidden meanings, we'll keep finding them. There's no end to that once you start. Every little clue could simply be a smarter opponent leaving things for you to find on purpose. If that's actually the case we stand no chance anyway, so on balance I'd rather hope it wasn't a plan of ultimate deviousness and was actually a lot closer to what it looks like. Which is that somehow, what happened yesterday afternoon at the DWU facility called Leviathan towards us."

"That _is_ the simplest explanation, which Occam's Razor would suggest is the most likely," Legend sighed. "Much as I don't like to even consider it. I'd prefer a Simurgh master plan. If we're right, one of my oldest friends is somehow involved with the actions of at least two of the Endbringers, even if only accidentally. I have no idea how or why though."

"What do you want to do about it?" Colin asked.

His superior stared at the projected image on the wall, which was displaying a breakdown of the entire timeline to the nearest tenth of a second, for nearly a minute before turning back to him. "I'm not sure," he said. "We don't have enough evidence yet to prove anything, but there's enough to make me very worried indeed. I can't think of any way of getting more data right now either."

"We could probably prove the connection between Kaiju and Leviathan if we could persuade her to go some distance away for a while and see if he moved to stay at the equivalent antipodal position," Colin suggested thoughtfully. "Based on the readings, he meanders around in a random manner about that point. There doesn't appear to be any pattern to his wanderings, aside from the fact that they all seem to be no more than about four miles from the center on average. Getting her to move a couple of hundred miles away and stay there for a few hours might show something useful."

"How would we do that without explaining why, though?" Legend asked. "If she's connected to the Endbringers, I'm not keen on letting her know we know."

"Ah, yes, that's a good point," he replied. "Sorry. I'm very tired and missed the obvious."

"There is that one period where he headed south a considerable distance, then returned after a few hours," Dragon pointed out. She thought for a moment, then turned her head to regard the screen, tipping it a little to the side. "Which, now that I think about it, was during the period we were chasing what turned out to be Umihebi..."

Both the men looked at her. After a couple of seconds, Colin tapped on the tablet he was controlling the projector with now and scrolled through the data, bringing up the trace of Leviathan's movements during the time in question. Sure enough, it showed he moved in a direction that was the mirror image, with a certain random error added, of Umihebi track from the SOSUS data, although oddly scaled down by approximately fifty percent.

"Why didn't I notice that?" he wondered out loud.

"I missed it as well until just now," she replied. "We were concentrating on Kaiju and yesterday, not sometime from a month ago. But it's more data, good data."

"Why did he move only about half as far as she did?" Legend asked curiously.

"My guess would be that he was keeping to a point halfway between Umihebi and the rest of the Family who happened to be in the city or nearby," Dragon said. "Putting him as far away as he could get from any of them. How is he detecting them, I wonder? There's a delay of a few seconds, but no more than that."

"No idea," Colin muttered, studying the image on the screen. "Either the tracking isn't perfect, or there is some other source of error, since he's still wandering around plus or minus about four miles, but the trend is clear. I'd say that answered the question of whether he's deliberately staying as far away from the Family as possible. Which in turn strongly suggests that it wasn't Kaiju who somehow called or attracted him towards the city yesterday. Especially as the data looks very much like he didn't really _want_ to come this way."

"All of which then implies it's Eidolon who _was_ somehow responsible for Leviathan heading towards us," Legend muttered, putting his hand over his face for a few seconds and sighing. "Oh, hell. What the devil is the connection?"

None of them had an answer.

Eventually he pushed himself to his feet. "I have to get some sleep, I can't think rationally at the moment. Tell _no one_ about _any_ of this. Dragon, I can't command you, but I implore you, _please_ don't let this get out. We could all be wrong and this is some massive coincidence or a subtle attack by the Simurgh. We can't risk Eidolon's reputation on a possibly baseless accusation."

"I won't say anything, I promise," the Canadian woman said quietly. "I happen to agree entirely. We need more data before we can even begin to come to a good hypothesis as to what all this means."

"We could let Eidolon talk to Kaiju again and see if the situation recurred," Colin suggested.

Both the others turned and stared at him. "Is that one of your joke attempts, Colin?" Dragon asked. He shook his head. "Pity. It would actually be a funny joke, but it's a _terrible_ suggestion."

"I would have to agree, in fact," Legend said. "We got very lucky indeed this time. We have no way to know if we would the next time. I'd prefer to keep Eidolon as far away from any Family member as possible until we work out why he reacted the way he did. It was very out of character, even taking into account his rather over-eager attitude to major fights."

"It was merely a suggestion in the spirit of proper scientific experimentation," Colin protested, a little weakly. "Replicate the circumstances. But I take your point."

"Both of you should get some sleep as well," Legend said as he headed tiredly towards the exit. "As worrying as this is it doesn't seem to present an immediate threat, so I think we should mull it over, but get on with more important issues. I still want to talk to you some more about your ridiculously excessive weapon, and you need to contact Raptaur about it and the wormhole generator."

"I'll call her later today," Colin replied.

"All right. Let me know how it goes, please."

"I will. We should also work out a plan of attack on Coil in the next couple of days, I think." Dragon nodded, as did Legend.

"The sooner the better, I agree. We'll get Emily and Hannah involved and discuss it this weekend."

Colin watched with Dragon as the other man left the room, the door sliding shut behind him, then turned to his friend. "Thank you for all the help on this problem," he said.

"Any time, Colin, you know that," she replied with a smile in her voice. "Go and get some sleep. You look ready to drop. I'll meet you back here in about five hours or so, around half past ten."

"OK." He yawned again, unable to stop himself, making her laugh.

"Make it eleven."

Rising with a small smile, he headed for his quarters, his best friend following on the way to her guest room. He was still very worried, but also looking forward to talking shop with Raptaur, and even Leet.

If nothing else, the man was a remarkable Tinker.

He liked that.

* * *

"What have you got planned for today, Taylor?" Danny looked over the table at his daughter, who seemed thoughtful. She was staring at her food as she absently ate it, one arm propping the side of her head up, apparently having a conversation with the Varga. A moment later, she looked up.

"I'm going to the yard, the new computers and things will be turning up this morning, and Lisa and I are going to set them up. I need to make more benches and stuff like that as well. We may need some more power outlets fitted."

"Find Harry and ask him to arrange it if I'm not there," he said, pouring some more coffee into his mug. "I'll be in later, I need to run some errands downtown, and I was going to stop in on Alan and see how he is. I haven't heard anything from him for a while."

She looked a little disapproving, but nodded. "OK."

"Is Amy going to be there as well?"

"Yes, she's coming by here a little later, actually, and picking me up. She's really fond of that truck already and wants to use it, I think," Taylor grinned. "Any excuse will do."

"People are like that with their first vehicle," he smiled. "I remember my first car. I spent more time in it than in bed for the first few months. Nearly got busted for speeding at least four times."

"Dad! You?! Breaking the law?" She gaped at him, her eyes round.

Fixing her with a hard look, he said, "Less of the sarcasm, daughter. You know full well I'm not a completely lily-white person, but I don't go out of my way to break rules."

Reverting to a sly smile, she nodded. "I remember. What was it you told me? Find out what the rules are and memorize them, that way you know what you can get away with."

"Exactly." Now he was grinning. "That's the nice thing about rules. They tell you exactly what those making them are looking for, so you don't have to waste time working it out. Find a way around them instead. We're very good at that in the DWU, believe me. Anyone who has to deal with politicians is. So are the politicians, of course, who do you think writes the rules?"

"You old cynic."

"Realist, dear, realist. Pragmatic variant."

They shared a grin. "Most of the people in this city are like that, it's the sort of place that you really have to be. Pure idealism is a nice idea, of course, but it falls down when it runs up against real life a lot of the time. If you can't adapt to circumstances you'll spend a lot of your time very unhappy and frustrated."

"I know that all too well," she sighed. "If I'd learned that a year or so earlier, my life would have been a lot less bad in many ways. If only because I'd have talked to you sooner."

He put his hand on hers across the table. "Possibly true, possibly not. The sort of people who you were dealing with are the type who would have kept pushing one way or the other, I think. It might have made it better if you'd come to me earlier, it might have made it worse. Neither one of us was in a place that we could have acted sensibly, I suspect. I regret the pain you went through more than I can say, and my own part in it, but it's behind us and what came out the other side is something I wouldn't trade for anything."

She squeezed his hand. "Neither would I. Except Mom back."

He was silent for a long moment, then nodded sadly. "Except that. Although she'd probably kick us both in the ass and tell us to stop being idiots and get on with life."

Taylor looked reflective, then amused as she nodded. "Probably. I still miss her every day, though."

"You always will, dear. I still miss my parents and think of them a lot. But the pain gets easier to live with in time. Annette will be in my thoughts to the day I die, but I'm learning to cope with it and so will you. Death is part of life, no matter how much we wish it wasn't." He released her and picked up his coffee cup. "Even with Amy's remarkable work, I doubt that will ever cease to be the case. But I suspect she'll do everything she can to try to prove me wrong."

"She's stubborn," Taylor smiled.

"That's the impression I get," he agreed. "Much like you. She reminds me a lot of you in many ways. I like her very much."

"So do I," she admitted. "Lisa, too. Having talked to her a lot over the last few days, I think she's going to be a very good friend as well. I seem to have made a lot of them since everything changed."

"I'm glad to hear it. Very glad. Young people need friends, and you're all helping each other. Hold onto them."

"I intend to." She looked around, then smiled. "Amy just turned onto our street," she added.

"That's still one of the more impressive things I've seen you do in many ways," he noted. "The amount of other sounds you must have to filter out to pick up one specific car engine half a mile away is unbelievable."

"It takes some practice," she admitted. "I'm still getting better at it, but Varga helps a lot."

A couple of minutes later he heard the Dallon girl pull up onto the driveway in her new vehicle, while Taylor got up and went to the door, her tail tip twitching with apparent glee. He followed, carrying his coffee with him, standing in the front doorway and finishing it while he inspected the truck parked outside in the daylight. "It's a very nice color, Amy," he said to the brunette girl who was standing next to it, talking to his daughter and smiling.

"Thanks, Danny," she replied, turning to admire it. "I really like it. I need to get some polish and washing stuff. Mom says I can't use hers, I can afford to buy my own."

"Get some spare bulbs, oil, filters, spark plugs, and drive belts as well," he advised. "And a maintenance manual. You may not want to learn everything about car mechanics and maintenance, but everyone who drives should know enough to fix a simple problem. They often happen in the middle of nowhere and if you know how to diagnose and repair something trivial, not only will it probably save you a lot of money, it could save you. There are places and times you really don't want to break down."

"Dad said the same thing, more or less." The girl looked back to him. "You're both right. I need to know how to care for my toys, after all."

"Exactly." Finishing his coffee, he tossed the dregs into the skeletal bushes beside the front steps and turned to go back inside. "Have fun, both of you. I'll probably see you later." Half-inside the door, he thought of something and turned back. "I have a thought you may want to consider. It might be possible to get you permission from the city to register your truck as an emergency medical assistance vehicle. Like a private ambulance. That would let you fit emergency lights to it, and give you a certain amount of leeway for speeding and ignoring traffic signals in an emergency."

The girl looked at him with a surprised expression, that slowly turned into an interested one.

"Really?" she asked thoughtfully.

"I think so. I can make some inquiries if you want, I know some people in the BBPD who would be able to say for sure, and let you know what the requirements and responsibilities were. It wouldn't mean you could just drive like a lunatic all the time with the lights on, that would get a lot of people very pissed off with you very fast, but in a genuine emergency it might help a lot." He thought for a moment, then added, "You'd probably have to go on an advanced driving course as part of it, I know ambulance drivers do to get the relevant license."

"Sounds fun, actually," she smiled. "Thanks, Danny, I'd be interested in knowing more about that."

"I'll find out what I can," he promised. "It might take a few days but I'll let you know when I do."

"Great." She looked at Taylor. "Ready to go?"

"Just let me get my laptop," Taylor said, running back into the house. He stepped back out of the way, hearing her zip up to her room, then come down again almost immediately. "See you later, Dad," she said as she whizzed past, somehow managing to kiss his cheek on the way. Watching her dive into the passenger seat of the already running truck, he smiled fondly as the vehicle reversed onto the road, then turned and pulled away. Amy seemed to be driving very well in his opinion.

Closing the door he went into the kitchen to tidy up before he left as well.

* * *

Sitting on his bed and looking out into the early morning light, under an overcast but dry sky, Dean tapped his index finger on the cheap disposable phone he'd bought the day before on the way home, thinking. He was off the duty roster for the weekend and no one would be expecting him anywhere until tonight, when he had a date with Vicky.

After nearly ten minutes of wondering if he was doing the right thing, he grabbed the phone and tapped in the number he'd got from the PRT database. It rang a few times, then the other end picked up. He listened to the greeting.

"This is Dean Stansfield," he said, still somewhat worried and feeling his heart beating faster than normal. "I was hoping you'd have time to talk later today."

" _I think that can be arranged, Dean,_ " the voice of Saurial said, sounding very thoughtful and interested, after a delay of a few seconds. " _Is it urgent?_ "

"No. Not as such. But I _have_ to ask some questions that are driving me slowly nuts."

After another short pause, the lizard-girl alter-ego of Taylor Hebert replied, a slight degree of amusement in her voice, " _I understand. Come to the DWU yard in an hour, tell the gate guards you're looking for me. I'll leave word that you're coming. You won't need to give them your name and no one will remember you coming. I assume this is a burner phone?_ "

"Yes."

" _Get rid of it, and leave any other devices that might track you behind, if you want to be sure this is private. Just in case_."

He paused for a moment, then sighed. "OK. You're probably right."

" _Don't sound so worried, Dean, I won't eat you. Promise._ " She sounded rather more amused now.

"I'd taste awful anyway, I eat too much junk food. I'll be there."

" _See you_." The line went dead in his ear.

Lowering the phone he stared at it, wondering if he was being an idiot, before he shrugged, reset the phone to factory defaults, then pulled the battery out. He got up to take the device downstairs to find a hammer, just to make sure.

He didn't want any of this getting back to Director Piggot, but he had to know what was going on.

He'd just have to trust that Amy's best friend wouldn't find him to her taste if he accidentally said anything wrong.

* * *

Amy glanced at Taylor, now in the form of Saurial. They'd pulled into well hidden alley that her friend said was free of cameras and witnesses as they'd entered the docks area, to allow her to change without anyone seeing it. Shortly after that her Saurial phone had rung.

"What does he want?"

"I'm not entirely sure, but I think he's managed to work himself into a level of worry that's eating away at him a bit too much. I wondered why he looked so confused the other day when I said hi. I may have managed to make it worse, although that wasn't the intent." Taylor looked at her for a moment. "Can he be trusted?"

"He hasn't said a thing yet, has he?"

"Not that I know of, no. And he's known for longer than _you_ did."

"The boy is, or at least tries hard to be, a very good person," Amy said after a few more seconds. "I sort of like him, even though I have… issues… with him. Not important right now. But he's probably very torn between doing what he feels is the right thing from the point of view of the Wards, the right thing under the Rules, and the right thing that won't get him swallowed by Kaiju." She shrugged, smiling a bit. "A difficult balancing act. Or at least, to him it probably is. I can see him tensing every time he looks at you in school."

"I can practically _hear_ him tensing, actually," Taylor chuckled. "It was sort of funny at first and I admit I may have been a little mean giving him significant glances every now and then, but I was terrified about him knowing. For Dad's sake, mainly. I'm less worried now, especially after your gift, but I still don't want anyone we can't trust to find out. He's the only one, weirdly enough considering he's a hero, that I'm still not sure about. Lisa, Über, Leet, all of them I trust to keep quiet for a number of reasons. I'm fairly sure that at least a couple of people at the DWU probably suspect as well, but I'm certain they'd never say anything even if they knew for sure. Dean is a wild card."

"He was extremely worried about it when he found out," Amy said, remembering the conversation they'd had in the car over a month and a half ago. "He actually asked my advice what to do if he'd accidentally found out the civilian ID of a cape. He didn't give any clues about who it was at all, but he was still acting really weird. I told him to just keep quiet and never mention it to anyone. As far as I know, he never has, and probably never will. But it's obviously causing him issues even so."

She looked at her friend. "Mainly because of who it is. He's not sure he's doing the right thing by keeping it quiet."

"He is, in my opinion."

"Mine too. Not just because you're my friend. Giving away someone's ID without an extremely sound reason is a very big deal as far as I'm concerned, even if I have some problems with the Rules in other ways. Talk to him, reassure him, find out what's worrying him. He's one of the genuinely good guys."

Taylor nodded, putting her head back against the headrest and closing her eyes. "I'll do what I can to make him less worried. I never wanted to upset him as such, just keep Dad safe."

"I know." Amy grinned. "You only deliberately terrify criminals. Everyone else is collateral damage."

"Exactly right." Taylor smiled without opening her eyes. "You know, these seats are really comfortable, but they _really_ need tail holes."

Snickering, Amy indicated right and turned onto the road leading to the DWU yard. "We'll have to see if we can work something out, then," she replied.

Stopping at the gate, they waited for the guard to come over. "Hi, Mike," Taylor said happily. "Do you ever get off gate duty?"

"Sometimes," the man replied with a grin, leaning on Amy's open window. "Hello, Amy." He waved to the other guard, who waved back and opened the barrier.

"Mike, in about an hour a tallish young man about seventeen years old is not going to arrive here looking for me. He won't be driving a green muscle car. You're not going to let him in and direct him to the BBFO office, then forget you ever saw him, without inquiring as to his identity. You won't let him out again when he leaves and forget that either. OK?" Amy watched the man's face as Taylor spoke. He raised an eyebrow.

"Sorry, I didn't catch a word of that. Have fun, ladies." Stepping back he flipped them a lazy salute, then headed back to the guard hut next to the entrance. Amy put the truck in drive and moved off, looking sideways at her friend, who seemed amused.

"You have a way with words. Not a good way, in some respects, but _a_ way."

"Thanks."

Both of them giggling, they headed for the other end of the yard.

* * *

"Great, you're here," Lisa smiled, looking up from a clipboard on which she was checking off things on a list, in the middle of a large pile of cardboard boxes. "Lots of toys turned up about twenty minutes ago." She'd collected the spare keys to Taylor's building from Danny before he left the day before, knowing he was trusting her with something that few people would be. "I got them to unload everything into here, but we'll need to open all the boxes and unpack them, then set things up. Where are you going to put the computers?"

Taylor looked around thoughtfully, rubbing her scaled chin, while behind her Amy locked the door. When she heard it click the figure of Saurial changed to that of Taylor Hebert, tail twitching back and forth with her thoughts. "Over there, I think," she finally said, pointing at the wall on the other side of the room from the table. "Book cases along the wall by the table, so they're closer. Maybe a sofa as well. We're going to get some more power outlets put in, we need to track down Harry and get one of his guys to come over, but let's get this part done first."

"OK." Lisa looked around, then nodded, running a line through the final item on her list. " _There_ you are. One twenty-four port ethernet switch. That gives room for expansion. All right, we'll need to plug this router into the modem on the wall, then run a cable to the switch. I'd think the best place for the server and the other equipment is up there on top of Amy's workroom, so it's out of the way."

Both the other girls looked up, then nodded. "Sounds good. I'll make a cupboard for it," Taylor replied, quickly climbing the stairs.

"Make sure you leave holes in it for ventilation, or it'll overheat," Lisa called.

"Got it," the call came back from the now hidden figure of her new friend. "How big should it be?"

Lisa looked around and let her power have a crack at the question. "About three feet square and four high, with a shelf halfway up, will do the job," she replied. "Put a two inch hole in the back of the shelf."

"OK. Hold on for a few seconds." A little later, Taylor reappeared, looking down at them over the railing. "All done. Now what?"

"Help me unpack everything and we can carry it up," Lisa replied. Amy was already opening boxes using her car keys to tear the tape. Jumping over the railing and dropping to the floor, Taylor walked over and handed them each a knife she formed from nowhere, based on a folding pocketknife design but with an EDM blade.

"Here, these will work better than keys," she smiled. "Careful, they'll probably cut practically anything."

Lisa unfolded the two-inch blade and inspected it, nodding with respect. "Very nice. You could sell these and make a fortune."

"Add it to the list," the girl snickered, slitting the tape on a box with a taloned finger. They fell to the task with a will, the sound of tape and cardboard being cut echoing through the room for a while. Eventually there were several stacks of equipment neatly arranged around them, and a huge pile of packaging material.

"Push all that off to the side and let's see what goes where," Taylor said, suiting action to words and shoving some of the boxes into the corner.

When the floor was clear, Lisa began laying out the complete systems. "OK, four computers, that's the fileserver, switch, router on top, redundant backup system… Hmm, phone system needs to connect to that as well..." She moved among the computer equipment pointing at things as the other two moved it around. "That's it. Let's take all this stuff up there, Amy, while Taylor makes the bench along the wall."

Taylor got behind the mysterious large box on the floor at the rear of Amy's rooms and shoved the ton-plus thing out of the way with ease, then got to work. Lisa still had no idea what was in it, but figured she'd find out sooner or later.

Twenty minutes later they had all four computers in place on a three-foot-deep bench the same distance from the floor that ran for thirty feet along the wall, some more chairs like the ones around the table at each station. Holes along the back of the bench allowed the cables to go through into a tray running under it, which terminated at the workroom in a vertical conduit up to the server cabinet.

"Very professional looking," Amy smiled, stepping back and inspecting it. "Those monitors are enormous! Much bigger than the ones at school."

"They're thirty-eight inch CAD monitors, the highest resolution ones I could find at a sensible price," Lisa smiled. "I got a good deal on them with some fast talking. Overkill, at the moment, but it future-proofs it for a few years. The computers are pretty decent specification as well. Let's cable everything up and test it. I got some extension cords so we can plug it all in."

Half-way through that job, there was a knock on the door. Taylor turned to her, not looking surprised, which was most likely due to her having heard whoever it was approaching. "I need to talk to this guy for a while, Lisa," she said apologetically as she changed back into Saurial. "Sorry, it's a little private. Do you mind leaving for now?"

"That's OK, Taylor," Lisa replied, brushing her hair out of her eyes. "I'll go and get some coffee and see what the other guys are up to. Call me when you're done." She glanced at the workroom, then smiled slyly. "I want to see what happens."

"So do I," Amy called from the other end of the bench where she was plugging cables into sockets, a grin on her face. " _So_ much."

"Thanks," Taylor told her, as they headed to the door. "See you in a bit."

"OK." Lisa unlocked the door, opening it to reveal a fairly tall and well-muscled blond-haired young man who was in the process of raising his hand to knock again. He looked taken aback to see her. She looked him up and down, then grinned. "You've got good taste, Saurial!" she called over her shoulder.

The young man looked embarrassed and a little worried, while Taylor shouted back, "It's not like that, Lisa! Go away." She sounded amused.

Stepping out, Lisa waved to the inside of the building. "Enter freely, and all that. Good luck."

The boy paled, to her interest, nodded once, then slightly tentatively went inside. The door closed behind him. Wondering what it was all about but having deliberately not using her power as she didn't really want to know, Lisa wandered off, grinning about the expression the kid had produced at her little joke.


	124. Dean and Questions

Approaching the barrier across the entrance to the DWU complex, Dean slowed, inspecting it and the buildings beyond. He hadn't been here before, only nearby a few times when chasing various gang members, and Skidmark once, so he'd never really stopped to think how large the place actually was.

It must have covered several tens of acres in total, at least, the yard area looking like it was being considerably enlarged, which made sense considering what he'd read and heard about the development proposal. There was a large quantity of shiny new chain-link fence around the entire new area, which was nearly big enough to make a decent sized airfield for light aircraft.

The two guards at the gate who were watching him with blankly intent expressions made him a little nervous. He could feel that they were very serious about their jobs, and could also feel several other people somewhere fairly close who were definitely watching the gate as well, although he couldn't see them. A couple were in the building facing him, and at least one was in one of the apparently derelict warehouses overlooking the gate.

Their emotions were muted and professional, focused on their job, reminding him a lot of some of the more experienced PRT troopers. Ones who'd seen combat and lived to talk about it. He recalled that he'd heard a significant number of the people working for the DWU were ex-military or the like and thought that these guys probably came into that category.

Drawing up to the gate, he rolled his window down. One of the guards came over and looked at his car, him, then walked around the vehicle once, before stopping at his window again. "Hi, I'm looking for Saurial?" he said tentatively.

"Go down the left side of the buildings there, all the way to the end, there's a turning on the right," the man said in neutral tones. "Go in there, you'll find the BBFO building. Knock and wait. Don't drive faster than ten miles per hour, please, and don't go anywhere else." He stepped back without another word and raised a hand, the other guard acknowledging his signal and opening the gate. Slightly taken aback at the brusque attitude, Dean drove through, looking at them in his rear view mirror to see they were now ignoring him completely, not even looking after him.

' _That was… weird_ ,' he thought to himself. Clearly Saurial, or Taylor, had been telling the truth when she said no one would ask questions, and as clearly she had considerable authority here.

Following the instructions he'd been given he slowly and carefully made his way towards the bay, finding the turn-off where he'd been told it was and driving in. Amy's new truck was parked outside one of the buildings, so he parked next to it, then got out, staring up at the sign. Reading it he couldn't help shivering a little at the last line, even though he'd seen it on PHO.

After a moment, he took a deep breath, figuratively pulled himself together, then walked over to the door and knocked firmly. He could sense Amy and someone else, probably female, inside, both of them feeling in a good mood. Very faintly he could feel Taylor's odd dual emotional signature as well. There were a number of other people in range in the buildings surrounding them, none of them apparently paying attention.

The unknown emotional signal, radiating good-natured amusement and curiosity, approached the door as he raised his hand to knock again. The door opened before his knuckles landed to reveal a very attractive green-eyed blonde girl with freckles who grinned at him as she ran her eyes over him. The amusement and curiosity both peaked as she called back over her shoulder, making him blush at her comment.

When she stepped out and waved him in with a laugh and a joke, he swallowed, then went inside the building, pushing the door shut once he was in.

Absently feeling her walk off, still amused, he looked around. To one side was a large pile of boxes and packaging material, which had apparently contained a large amount of pretty high-end computer gear based on the writing on it. In front of that was a large table with chairs around it. Amy was sitting in one of the chairs watching him curiously, while Saurial was standing near her looking at him as well with an intent expression.

"Come in... _Mr_ Stansfield," the latter said in a low threatening voice. "We have been... _expecting_ you."

Amy laughed in a dark and foreboding manner, then looked around with an annoyed expression. "Damn. I need a white cat to stroke to really sell it," she announced.

Saurial smirked at her then tossed her a stuffed white cat toy she'd apparently made from nothing. Snatching it from the air, the brunette girl put it on her lap and stroked it. "Ooh, _soft_. Very nice." She grinned, then went serious again. "Yes, your coming to us was... **foretold**... _Mr_ Stansfield," she said in the same low and evil voice Saurial had used, replicating the slight hiss the reptilian girl had remarkably well. " **Muah. Ha. Ha.** "

"Admittedly by you, so it probably doesn't count, but foretold nonetheless," Saurial said in a much more normal manner, grinning at him. "The Amy is right."

Amy threw the stuffed cat at the lizard-girl, who caught it without looking, then tossed it back. "The Amy is always right, scaly horror from beyond," Amy cried dramatically, waving the toy, then turned her chair around and put her feet on the table. "Well, almost always. Usually. Quite often."

Sighing, Dean shook his head and walked over to a free chair, sitting in it and finding it very comfortable. "You are both insane."

"Only a little. Feel better? Only you looked kind of worried when you came in," Saurial snickered, also sitting and putting her feet on the table. "What's up?"

Oddly enough, the silly greeting had taken the edge off his worry, although he still wasn't entirely sure this was a good idea. He looked around, taking note of the four huge monitors connected to an equivalent number of new high-end computer systems on a bench on the other side of the room, cables strung everywhere in a manner that made it clear he'd walked in on them in the middle of setting the equipment up.

Returning his attention to Saurial, who appeared content to wait patiently for him, he thought for a moment or two. "I need to find some things out before I end up joining you both in the craziness," he finally replied, making them both smile.

"I assume that nothing we discuss here will be repeated anywhere else?" Saurial asked, in a tone that suggested that ' _Of course, why would you think otherwise?_ ' was the only satisfactory answer.

With a nod, he replied, "I promise I won't tell anyone. You'll promise the same?"

"Yes. No one knows you're here and they won't hear it from either of us." Amy nodded silently in agreement. "We all have our reasons for wanting to keep our secrets, mostly good ones. Leaving aside the privacy aspect."

"It's mostly just personal interest anyway," he said, leaning back and looking at them both. "With a small amount of worry about what you can do. Although I doubt I could stop you anyway, and as far as I can see you're doing good things."

"I'm trying," Saurial smiled. "As well as I can. So, talk to me. What do you want to find out? I can't promise to answer every possible question for obvious reasons but I'll be as open as I can with you."

Thinking carefully again, working out the best approach, he finally decided to just go for it.

"I know who you are, obviously," he started.

"Obviously. I assume it was your emotion power?"

He nodded slowly. She gazed at him, then added, "Has anyone else worked out it lets you identify any cape you meet?"

Dean froze in worried shock, then very slowly shook his head. "Not as such, or at least the subject has never come up," he replied quietly.

"Told you," the lizard-girl said to her friend, who smiled a little. "They're everywhere, but no one realizes it, or at least admits to it."

"What are you talking about?" he asked, not understanding.

"When Amy and I first met I had the thought that there were probably lots of capes running around the place who had various ways to easily find out the identity of _other_ capes, but because of the Rules didn't dare mention it and quite probably thought they were the only ones." She shrugged a little. "It's sort of a taboo subject, so I guess they try not to think about it in case it gets them into trouble if they let something slip. Your power is an obvious case if anyone actually thinks about what it does. I'd guess that a person's emotional mix is almost like a fingerprint?"

Staring, he finally nodded again. "Not exactly, but the basic idea is similar. From a distance it all sort of merges together into an emotional haze unless I really concentrate, but close up it's basically unique to a person, even if they're feeling different things at different times."

"Interesting," she replied, inspecting him. "That's more or less what I thought. So, of course, if you meet a cape in costume, you can identify them again if you meet them as a normal person. Or vice versa."

"Yes. Most of the time. There are a few it doesn't work well on, like Vicky, she's almost unreadable. Something to do with her aura." He looked at her closely, then as a thought struck him, turned to inspect Amy. "You can do it too, can't you?" he suddenly realized, some of the feelings she'd emitted during that conversation weeks ago coming back to him and now making sense. The girl looked and felt a little guilty, but eventually nodded.

"My healing ability gives me a huge amount of information about a person that I touch. I can always identify them again."

"Shit," he sighed. "And no one has worked it out for _you_ either."

"Not that I know of, no," she said. "Except her." The brunette waved at Saurial, who smiled.

"How do _you_ do it?" he asked. "I mean, you worked out who I was even before I worked out who you were that time in Arcadia. You looked and felt like you were going to go for my throat for a second."

"Yeah, I'm sorry about that, Dean," the girl sighed. "I was new to all this, absolutely terrified about anyone finding out and going after my Dad because of it, and there you were, someone I'd met only days before, who already knew. I had no idea if you were going to go right to the PRT and spill everything. That wouldn't have ended well whatever happened." She shook her head a little. "I meant it when I said I'd deal permanently with any threat to my family, no matter where it came from. I still do. The family is bigger now, but the same thing applies."

"I was never intending to tell, I take the Rules seriously, and that part most seriously of all," he assured her.

"I know that now, and I believe you. Otherwise we wouldn't be talking like this. I've been watching you since then and I can tell you're not the sort of person to drop someone in it without a very good reason indeed. Amy says the same thing."

He looked at the healer, who spread her hands. "We may not be the best of friends, but I know a good man when I see one," she explained simply.

"Thank you, Amy," he replied.

"As far as how I do it, it's this, mostly," Saurial added, tapping her nose. He stared at her for a moment then slapped his forehead.

"Oh, Jesus, of _course_. Why didn't I see it? We knew you had enhanced senses, smell is an obvious one if you think about it."

She smiled. "No one seems to just work it out, though. Except her." This time she pointed at Amy, who grinned. "Everyone's scent is unique, and you wouldn't _believe_ how good my sense of smell is. Way better than a bloodhounds. I can track you from miles away and I get a hell of a lot of information about a person from the scent. I can't help working this sort of thing out any more than you can, it's just something that happens. But like you, I'm not going to use that information unless there's a _really_ good reason, like a threat to my family that I can't avoid any other way. I don't agree with some parts of the Rules but I'd be a total hypocrite if I relied on them to protect my dad then used someone's identity against them without cause."

"So you know the identity of practically every cape in the city?"

"Not really. I mean, I can remember the scents of all the ones I meet, and if I come across them out of costume it's obvious who they are, but I don't go out of my way to track them down for the most part. I know all the Wards except Vista and Shadow Stalker because you all go to school with me. Most of the rest of them I haven't met in their civilian IDs, but if I do I'll know who they are. The same situation as you, really. Except I can probably do it from further away."

He shook his head in mild awe. "Unbelievable. And terrifying."

"It's come in handy more often than you'd think."

She regarded him for a moment, before glancing at Amy and indicating the door with a motion of her head. The other girl got up and went to lock it, returning and resuming her former position without a word. Suddenly the normal figure of Taylor Hebert replaced that of Saurial, making him twitch slightly even though he knew intellectually she could do that. The speed of it took him by surprise.

"Crap, that's incredible," he muttered.

"Thanks." She seemed pleased.

"Why this entire act, the Family, all that stuff?" he asked.

"It wasn't something I initially intended," the girl replied. "And to be frank I'm amazed it's lasted as long as it has. I was sure people would work it out pretty quickly, if nothing else because there was only ever one of me running around at any moment. We came up with a vaguely plausible reason for that which I really didn't think people would buy, but they seem to. At least half of it was PHOs fault, of course, even the name." She looked at him with a smile on her face. "It's useful to me, protects my dad even better than I expected, and, of course, it's fucking hilarious."

Dean sighed, but couldn't help chuckling. "You and Dennis are a lot closer in outlook than I realized. He'd be rolling on the floor gasping for breath if he knew, it's exactly the sort of thing he'd think was the best joke ever."

"You have to admit it's a good one," Amy grinned. "On the entire world. And it's mostly their fault."

"I guess it is," he smiled. "You know, you're driving Director Piggot and the senior Protectorate people nuts with trying to work you all out. Right back at the beginning, when Vista and I went back and reported meeting ' _Saurial_ ' for the first time, Dennis suggested you might be a Changer, but Raptaur made that less likely in most people's minds, since there aren't all that many Changer abilities that could do such an extreme shift. Kaiju is so obviously impossible that no one would listen even if I did tell them. And they all have different enough personalities and ways of speaking that it seems more likely that they're different people anyway."

"So no one really thinks _Changer_ any more?" Amy asked curiously.

He shook his head. "Not as far as I know. Saurial and Raptaur, yes if it was only them, I guess sooner or later it would seem a reasonable explanation for all the weirdness, only seeing one at a time, that sort of thing. Kaiju on top of it? That suddenly makes there being three of them much more plausible. All that stuff you keep telling people when they meet one or other of you just makes it more believable right now."

Taylor nodded, still grinning. "I wouldn't be surprised if when it does come out, assuming it ever does, that a lot of people would actually refuse to believe it. The conspiracy theories on PHO are _amazing!_ "

"Dennis keeps reading them out to us and giggling, then adding fuel to the fire," Dean sighed.

"I may have helped him a few times," Amy confessed with a smirk. He looked at her, then sighed again.

"Why am I not surprised? You have a sense of humor that's at _least_ as weird as his or Taylor's."

"It's a hobby," she shrugged. "A girl needs to keep occupied. And for a long time, trolling PHO was about the only thing I had other than healing or school. Kept me sane. More or less."

He studied her while Taylor giggled. "Your definition of sane may vary somewhat from mine," he finally said in a dry voice. "Yours too," he added, looking meaningfully at the Hebert girl.

"People keep telling me that," she replied in thoughtful tones. "I have no idea why."

" _Sure_ you don't." The absurdity of the whole thing was making him less worried, and even somewhat amused.

"So all of this, the Family, Kaiju cleaning up the bay, BBFO, it's all to protect your father?" he asked after a short pause.

"That's how it started, definitely. After I... got my powers, things changed. A lot." Taylor leaned her head on her hands, elbows on the table, and regarded him seriously, the smile vanishing. "Pretty obviously, I guess. Dad was… we were drifting apart, after Mom died, you see. I didn't tell him about things I should have come clean about a long time ago, he was still grief-stricken about losing Mom, so was I… It wasn't a good time for either of us." She sighed sadly. "I'm still guilty about a lot of it, and I know he is too. It wasn't the fault of either of us, really, I know that, shit happens to good people and it can keep happening. But it affects you even _if_ you're aware of it. For a long time I wasn't, not in so many words."

Dean listened, knowing something of what she was talking about. No one Triggered without some trauma in their recent past, often very bad. Which meant it was very rare for a Parahuman to talk about it at all. He certainly wasn't planning to think too hard about what had led him to gaining his own abilities.

"In the middle of all of that, something happened. I came out the other end of it with weird abilities even compared to normal Parahumans, if there is such a thing," she went on, talking slowly and obviously carefully, but thoughtfully. "I'm way more powerful than seems sensible. It terrified me. It still does. I'm only fifteen, for god's sake, what do I know about handling that sort of power? Sure, when I was little I dreamed of being a hero, lots of kids do. But… when it happens, suddenly you're dropped in at the deep end, and in a lot of cases things go horribly wrong."

He nodded, agreeing entirely.

"Luckily, for a number of reasons, it worked out. I realized I had to tell Dad everything. I did. He listened, we worked out a plan, and things started to get better. It brought us together again and put us both on a path to healing." Taylor glanced at Amy, then him. "We managed to get me into Arcadia, and as a result I made friends that I'd do anything for. For the first time in years I have people I trust completely, and who trust me. I've got some really good advice from people who know what they're talking about, I'm doing what I can to follow it, and I want to do what I can around here to make things better, _without_ just fighting. Too many capes just end up wrecking ordinary people's lives, for example, even the ones on the side of ' _Good_ ', by doing that."

"Like Vicky, in a way," Amy put in soberly. "She means well, but for the longest time she just didn't _think_. I'm incredibly grateful she didn't end up killing someone by accident. It came close a few times and it was only a matter of time until it happened. It terrified me. But she met Taylor, or Saurial, got a demonstration of what could happen even to her, and one hell of a talking to from both Mom and Aunt Sarah. It changed her for the better, I think."

"She certainly seems to have matured pretty suddenly," Dean noted. "I'd wondered what was going on there, but I can't say I'm not relieved. She's even doing her best to get her aura under control."

"Taylor seems to have an effect on everyone she meets, half the time without even realizing it," Amy smiled. "I'm not sure why but I've certainly noticed it. Vicky grew up, to a degree. I got yanked out of what looking back was heading rapidly towards the same sort of depression that Dad has, only worse. Danny started to overcome crippling grief and has ended up being the sort of person Taylor has told me he used to be. Even my relationship with Mom has taken a massive turn for the better. As far as I can tell it's all Taylor's influence even though I'm not sure how a lot of the time. She's the common factor."

"I've noticed that Armsmaster seems weirdly happier recently in some peculiar way," Dean mused. "Although often very confused as well. He's met you as Raptaur, hasn't he?"

"Yes, we've talked quite a lot. I'm afraid I promised not to say what about, though," the Hebert girl replied.

"Even Director Piggot seems… different. Aside from looking a hell of a lot healthier thanks to you, Amy," he added, looking at the healer, who smiled a little. "I heard a rumor she had a heart attack and you fixed her."

"Pretty much, yes," Amy said. "I don't think she'll ever actually thank me for it, but it was a favor for a doctor I like, not her, really, so I don't care about that part."

"And I've gone from being depressed and close to suicidal to happier in general than I've been since Mom died," Taylor said with a shrug. "All in all things worked out pretty well, although I wish it hadn't been so painful on the way. Can't be helped, that's in the past. I can't say I regret the results."

They sat in silence for a bit while she let him think about what he'd learned so far. Eventually, she started talking again.

"I decided early on that while I was more heroic than villainous by a long way, I didn't want to be a ' _hero_ ' in the normal way. There was no way I was going to join the Wards, for example, not after thinking it over and talking to Dad. And for… other reasons. Luckily, I'm not at risk like a lot of teenaged Parahumans, there isn't much that can actually hurt me. I lucked out in that respect. But someone could hurt _Dad_ , which was the thing I was worried about. I still am, of course, but things have changed enough that it's not so much of a problem. Sure, if someone did something to him, they'd die horribly, but that doesn't mean I want to let it happen if I can avoid it. I don't actually want to kill anyone. So I did everything I could to make sure no one could work out who I really am."

Dean shivered a little inside at the faint emotional trace she emitted. When she casually talked about simply killing anyone who harmed her father, she definitely meant it, and he was certain she'd do it without regret or pause. It was somewhat horrifying in someone so young.

"That's why I reacted like I did when I realized that you'd worked it out. I didn't know you except as Gallant and I had no idea if you'd keep quiet, or immediately report it to the PRT. I have some problems with them, so it worried me a lot. I kept an eye on you and I'll admit I may have deliberately tried to scare you a little at first to keep you honest." She smiled as he stared at her. "Apparently I was a bit more effective at that than I realized at the time."

"Just a little," he muttered. "I've been walking around for weeks wondering when huge teeth were going to lunge out of the dark at me. Seeing Kaiju scared the shit out of me, even compared to Raptaur. You wouldn't believe some of the nightmares I've had over the last month or so and you're in all of them."

The girl looked apologetic. "I really am sorry about that, Dean. I mean, I wanted to make sure you kept quiet, but I didn't want to worry you unnecessarily."

"Only _necessarily_ ," Amy snickered.

"Well, yes, I guess," Taylor said with a smile.

"You sure made your point. You can scare someone just by looking sideways at them even if they _don't_ know the truth," he admitted, shaking his head. "I can't explain it, but fuck _me_ you can get a dark air around you. Even worse than _she_ can." He pointed at Amy, who looked proud. "Girls are scary anyway, girls that turn into giant alien killer lizards are _horrifying_."

Both Amy and Taylor looked at each other, then burst out laughing. "God, your voice went all squeaky there for a second, Dean," Amy giggled mirthfully. He folded his arms and stared at them until they finally stopped snickering. "Sorry. But it was really funny, the way you said it more than anything else," the Dallon sister grinned.

"I'm glad I can make your day," he said, scowling a little, but inwardly not unamused.

After a few more seconds of smiling, Taylor became more serious again. "That's basically how it started. Saurial was the form I came up with before the Family thing was a thing, I wanted something that wasn't too worrying so I wouldn't make people scream and run, but also something no one would connect to Taylor Hebert."

"You got the second part OK, but I'm not entirely sure you succeeded with the first one," he noted, making her shrug.

"I guess, but most people seem to end up dealing with it all right. Except criminals, for the most part. They seem to be a little worried."

"I've seen the videos you gave Chris," he retorted. "They're absolutely horrifying. Like something from an SF movie only worse. Chasing people around a store in the dark while you're running on the walls and ceiling is just _wrong!_ "

Amy started giggling again, making him turn his head and give her a hard look, which didn't seem to help much.

Not paying much attention to her friend, Taylor went on, "Raptaur was what I came up with for actual combat, if it was needed, only scaled up from the original version by about double. Kaiju is a much bigger aquatic-optimized version."

He thought about it, nodding his understanding, then stopped as something struck him. "Hold on. You… came up… with all these things? They're not just alternate forms you have as a result of your abilities?"

"Nope. I'm basically completely free-form as long as it's more or less reptilian, sort of," Taylor replied, looking pleased. "It's not like Lung with a steady changing towards whatever form is his end stage. I just turn into whatever I want. Haven't figured out a flying one yet that's really viable but I'm fairly sure I'll get there in the end."

"Oh, Christ, that's all we need around here, a flying Saurial," he groaned.

"Hey, maybe she'll do a flying Kaiju!" Amy chirped, making him freeze, then stare in horror.

"Please don't," he begged. "Or at least, warn me so I can go on holiday first."

"I'm not sure it's possible to make something that large fly," Taylor said thoughtfully, with an expression that made him very worried. "The wing area requirement is a bit silly, unless I can make the density of the body lower..." She trailed off scratching her chin and appearing to think, staring into space reflectively. After a moment, while he was still trying to work out whether to start running now or not, she shrugged. "Too many other things to work on at the moment. Maybe over the summer."

She turned back to him, her head suddenly becoming a scaled down version of Raptaur's without any warning, which made him twitch violently. "But I can do pretty much anything, as I said. It's pretty easy now." She rippled through half a dozen reptilian heads on her otherwise human body, then held up a hand that changed through a whole series of variations on a theme. He stared open-mouthed. "I'm pretty versatile."

"That's so wildly understated it's not even funny," he finally managed to say in a weak voice, shaking his head. Reverting to a normal-looking teenaged girl, she smiled at him. "Can you go bigger than Kaiju?"

"A bit, yes," she chuckled, which made his heart jump again. "But the bay isn't the best place for it. Kaiju is about as big as seemed sensible. I'm still slightly amazed that people didn't freak out."

"The inhabitants of this city are used to weird shit, and also nuts," he sighed, still staring at her. "If they weren't, they'd have moved away a long time ago."

"Probably. Anyway, the whole tanker moving thing happened because I was swimming around out there early on and got curious about how easy it would be to move it. Turned out to be pretty straight-forward, it wasn't as heavy as I thought it would be. I talked to Dad, he thought it over, and it just sort of turned into this whole redevelopment plan. I started it but the rest of it is his work, the Mayor's, and a lot of people here. I'm just providing the muscle and some infrastructure."

She looked satisfied. "It's a lot of fun. It lets me use my abilities for helping a lot more people than I thought I'd be able to, without having to fight anyone. So far, anyway, aside from Hookwolf, although I suppose there's always the chance that some idiot will interfere again. We'll deal with that if it happens. I mean, I don't _want_ to fight, but I know how and I think I'm pretty good at it."

"Don't forget Lung," Amy put in. Dean stared at her, then Taylor.

"You fought Lung?" he asked faintly.

"Oh, yes, didn't you know?"

He shook his head, not really able to say anything.

"He went after a friend of mine, so I had to do something about it. I had a go at him as Raptaur, but he regenerates so fast it was almost impossible to stop him without just killing him, which I didn't really want to do. So Kaiju had a word. We came to an arrangement and he left, more or less peacefully."

"She means, she threatened to eat him if he didn't go away and he believed it," Amy snickered.

Dean gave her a wide-eyed look, then transferred it to Taylor. After several long moments, he slumped a little in his chair. "You really are something bizarre, aren't you?"

"Apparently."

"Would you actually have eaten him?"

"If I had to, yes," she smiled, her mouth now full of glittering needle-sharp teeth which made him wince as he stared. "It's a permanent solution to the problem that works on most things. But it wasn't needed and I don't eat things I don't need to eat. Lung isn't really my problem as long as he stays away and doesn't cause trouble. Like I told Armsmaster and Miss Militia, I don't have any personal issues with the guy if he keeps away from my friends, and I'm not going to run around stomping every villain I can find just for kicks. Dad told me right at the beginning of all this that the Parahuman politics in this city are really delicately balanced, and he was right. If I start interfering too blatantly who knows what the result would be?"

"Total fucking chaos," he finally replied after thinking it over. "I see what you mean. If you take out the ABB, the E88 would just move in and take over, or else _you'd_ have to just to keep them out."

"Exactly. Same with all the other gangs. I can quite possibly deal with any cape in the city one way or another, but I can't be everywhere or get them all at once. Not to mention if I tried, I could easily end up making things worse rather than better."

She sighed slightly sadly. "I'd like to, sometimes, when I see the news, but I really can't see any way that I could go on a wholesale forceful cleanup of the city without ending up starting something that could kill more people by _accident_ than the damn gangs do on _purpose_. As long as I stick to taking out non-cape gang members hopefully the capes running the show will stay out of it. If I go after them, it would be a war. If they come after _me_ , on the other hand, or anyone I'm protecting, I'll deal with it then."

Dean nodded his understanding, pondering her words. He couldn't really find a glaring flaw with them.

"Like I said, I can't practically speaking jump in and start chasing every villain in the city all by myself and shut the gangs down from the top. It's much better, we think, to try to remove their support from the other end. If we can get the economy of the city working better, get people good jobs and decent income, while Saurial deals with the street-level crime she comes across, a lot of the support for the gangs will hopefully dry up. The Merchants are probably the most vulnerable to that, in fact. Even if it doesn't work that well, Dad and the Mayor both think that a more prosperous city would even make the gangs treat it a little better, if only because they'd be able to skim more off the top. Kaiser is smart enough to work that out, and I think Lung probably is as well. He's not stupid."

"You've thought a lot about it," he commented, making her nod. He could tell from her emotional output, as faint as it was, that she was being truthful.

"I have. I've talked to Dad, I've talked to a lot of people here, and I've met more cops and members of the public in the last few weeks than the rest of my life. I respect what you do, and the rest of you guys, the PRT, the Protectorate, but it's not for me. Leaving aside the fact that I'm not exactly very PR friendly even as Saurial, I'd never be allowed to do most of what I do, and I don't really want them finding out everything I _can_ do."

Taylor regarded him for a few seconds. "That's what I meant by my comment the other day, about Parahumans helping rather than fighting each other. It wasn't a dig at you or your friends, if you're wondering, I was only saying what I felt. I still don't understand why so many capes seem to end up fighting each other all the time, when a lot of them have abilities that would let them do all sorts of more useful things. Things I'd have thought were more fun as well. Even with all the annoying laws that get in the way."

"Which BBFO lets you go around," he said slowly, thinking over her words. She was right enough, there were a hell of a lot of cape fights, many of which were pretty pointless in the long run. But that was life, really.

"Yep. That was Dad's idea, he didn't tell me about it at all until it was ready, just handed me some papers and had me sign them out of the blue. It was sort of funny, going in and out of the DWU offices as different versions of myself to get them all signed up as DWU members. I've got three memberships at the moment." Taylor looked amused again, something she seemed to do a lot. He was forming the opinion that while she was probably the scariest person he'd ever met, she might well also be the happiest.

She looked around the building with an air of pride. "We've got all sorts of ideas for things we can do here. We're still setting things up, as you can see," she said, waving at the half-assembled computers. "But there are a lot of ideas for ways to make some money, and give Parahumans we hire some way to earn a living that doesn't necessarily involve risking their lives in idiotic fights over territory or whatever. Pretty obviously there will be loads of them that aren't interested, but some will be, I think. We subcontracted Amy's family for security on Tuesday, for example, and they seem open to doing it again if needed."

"I heard about that," he said. "It was quite a lot of money that they made for an afternoon's work."

"They earned it. Just their presence definitely kept things calmer than they might have been, and if anything major had happened, they'd have been a massive help. There wasn't much I could do while I was pulling that ship, and the police were stretched pretty thin, even with about three quarters of the people here helping with crowd control. We needed the extra help."

"And after some convincing, even Mom agreed it was a good deal in several ways," Amy added, having been listening quietly the whole time. "The new costumes helped a lot. They're worth way more than the cash was. Hundreds of thousands of dollars each on the open market, probably."

"Are you planning on selling things like that?" he asked curiously.

"I'm not entirely sure right now," Taylor replied. "I want to concentrate on getting the redevelopment plan working first. Once the tanker is being scrapped, and I've cleaned up the sunken wrecks, it should be self-sufficient and won't actually need me as much. I don't want everyone to be dependent on me as the only reason it all works. Although I like helping out, of course. After that part is done, and everything is running smoothly, I'll have time to look into all sorts of other ideas. We have quite a list of them so far. Lisa came up with dozens all by herself."

"Who is she?" he asked.

"Dad's assistant. She's a very smart and talented girl, he trusts her a lot even after only a few days working here." Taylor glanced at Amy, who was smiling. "We both like her as well. But yes, costumes are probably something we'll get into. I was also thinking about body armor for police, the PRT troopers, that sort of thing. I've made a few prototypes for the DWU security people, but I haven't had time to really look into that either yet."

"If I could afford it I'd be interested in something tougher myself," he noted.

She looked at him, then shrugged. "We can probably come to an arrangement at some point. Assuming you're not still terrified of me."

Amy chuckled, while he returned her shrug, smiling a little. "Being terrified of you is only common sense. I'm a lot less worried about you, though."

Taylor's eyes were mirthful, but she nodded regally, keeping her face emotionless. "I can accept that answer."

"So you've got Saurial as your street-level skirmisher, Raptaur as your heavy combat form, and Kaiju as your wrath-of-the-gods Endbringer-eater," Dean said after a moment, scratching his head.

"More or less. Kaiju is _too_ powerful for most threats. If I really cut loose in that form, you wouldn't believe what I could do. It worries _me_. But on the other hand there are very few threats other than the Endbringers where I would really need to." Taylor leaned on her fist, propping her elbow on the arm of the chair smiling a little. "Just glaring at people and licking my lips is probably enough for most purposes. Mainly, she's for heavy construction and marine salvage, not warfare."

"Are you going to introduce more members of the family to an unsuspecting city?" he asked with slight hesitation. She glanced at Amy, both of the girls sporting identical sly grins for a moment. "Oh, god." He could feel suppressed hilarity coming from them. "Why did I ask? I didn't really want to know the answer."

Snickering, Taylor replied, "There will be other Family members turning up from time to time. When it's appropriate. Or funny."

"This city has no idea what's going to happen, does it?" he asked rhetorically. "Even with everything that's happened up until now."

The girls both laughed a little. "It's going to be fun," Amy smiled.

"For you, probably yes," he moaned. "For sane people, perhaps not."

"There are no sane people in Brockton Bay, you said it yourself," Taylor pointed out in a reasonable tone. "They all left years ago."

All three were silent for a little while. Eventually she asked, "Is that enough to make you less freaked out?"

"I could probably keep asking questions for the rest of the day, but I'm not sure I could take a lot of the answers," Dean sighed. "Like I said, I'm a lot less worried, though. Thank you for talking to me like this. It's still weird as fuck, but I think I can handle it better now. It was driving me nuts."

"I hope your nightmares stop as well," she said, looking and feeling somewhat guilty. "I honestly never intended for it to go that far. All I want to do is make sure that my family and friends don't end up paying the price of me having these abilities."

"That's understandable, I think almost all Parahumans feel the same sort of thing," he told her. "That's the point of the Rules, at least in part. Most of the time they work."

"Not always, though," Amy said. There was a wave of sympathy from Taylor at the same time he felt sadness from the Dallon girl. Knowing the family history, he nodded soberly.

"No, not always. So I can't blame you for doing everything you can to keep your Dad safe, even if it's kept me awake at night for weeks."

"Sorry about that," Taylor smiled. "I'll make it up to you somehow. A free upgrade to your armor or something like that."

"That would be nice," he smiled back. After a moment, the single burning question he still had made the smile go away slowly. She raised an eyebrow, looking at him curiously.

"You still have something on your mind," the girl said. "Ask, I promise I won't bite. Although I can't promise to answer, like I said."

Inspecting her he saw she seemed sincere. Eventually he sighed. "OK. The thing I noticed the very first time we met, the thing that makes your particular emotional output so memorable and also weird… You have two distinct outputs at the same time." She raised the other eyebrow, looking at Amy for a moment, then back to him. "I've never encountered anything like it. One of them seems much older than the other, which is just strange. And they're both much fainter than normal, I mean, _much_ fainter, I can barely read you compared to Amy, for instance. The even weirder thing is that it's still getting steadily fainter, I think that in about a month or so I won't be able to read you at all."

He stopped, looking at her while she studied him. "Interesting," she finally said. "Very interesting. Your talent is a lot more effective than I expected."

"What does it mean?" he asked.

She kept looking at him for a few seconds, then finally answered, "Parts of it I can't tell you, I'm afraid. It's… both complicated and private. But, when I got my abilities, I sort of also got… hmm, call it a built in help system. It's more complicated than that but it's also really difficult to explain properly. I think you're picking that up. My brain isn't… entirely normal… any more, either. That probably accounts for the faint output, along with some built in defenses which are most likely slowly adapting to block your power."

Taylor looked at Amy, who nodded, looking thoughtful. He also looked at the healer. "I can confirm her brain structure is anything but standard, her powers fiddled around with it quite a lot," the other girl said. "It's uncommon but it happens. Some powers need to make some pretty big changes." She felt like she was being honest, but at the same time omitting things, which didn't surprise him. It was obvious that she wasn't going to do or say anything that would hurt her friend. It didn't really matter, the exact details of the Hebert girl's brain structure weren't anything he needed to know about or could understand if she told him anyway.

"I see." A thought struck him, making him quickly look back to Taylor, then snap his fingers in triumph. " _That_ explains it!"

"What?"

He answered the curious query from both girls. "Miss Militia noticed it immediately, and Armsmaster also said something about it. Your fighting abilities are _way_ too good to be something you only learned in weeks or months. She said it was like you'd been fighting for years. But if your powers did give you the skills as well as the ability, it explains everything about that part of it."

"I… suppose that's as good a way to put it as any," Taylor replied slowly.

"I know that sort of thing does happen, but it's rare," he went on. "We talked about it and couldn't come to a firm conclusion. But it makes sense. Huh. Yet _another_ weird thing about you."

"I specialize in weird," she grinned.

" _That_ , I don't doubt."

Dean leaned back in his chair and rubbed his chin. He was still very curious, he'd been honest when he'd said he could ask questions for hours, but a lot of them were a bit personal and he was pretty sure he wouldn't get an answer, which to be honest was fair enough. Her abilities were scary as fuck, but based on everything she'd said, everything he'd read from her _while_ she was saying it, and the reactions from Amy during the whole process, he was now more or less convinced that she was neither a threat to him or to the city.

Although there were a lot of villains who were probably desperately wishing they'd never heard of Saurial, Raptaur, _or_ Kaiju.

 _Especially_ Kaiju.

"So, are we good?" she asked after politely letting him think for a while. "Have I made you less afraid of the dark?"

"It's not the dark, it's what's _in_ the dark," he quipped, causing her to smile again. "But yes, I think I can live with that. It's taken a huge weight off my mind. Added a few smaller ones, of course, but life isn't perfect."

"All too true. And you're not going to tell anyone?" She looked intently at him. Amy was also watching with an unnerving intensity, he noticed when he looked at her for a moment.

He swallowed a little. "No. Like I said, I believe in the Rules, leaving aside the fact that I have no intention of getting anyone like _you_ sufficiently annoyed with me that sudden overwhelming hunger makes an appearance. I _needed_ to know, before I ended up going crazy, but I'm not going to pass it on. I won't say a word to anyone, I promise."

"Thank you. Neither one of us will tell anyone you were here either, and I'm not going to use anything I know about your identity or those of your friends, like I said." She leaned over and held out her hand. "Friends? Or at least, friendly acquaintances."

He grasped it and shook it. "I think friends, eventually. When I can get over the slight terror I feel every time I think about what you can do."

Snickering, she released his hand and stood up, as did he. "It was interesting talking to you, Dean," she said as she turned back into Saurial which still made him stare. "If you need help that I can provide, let me know. I do owe you a mild favor in return for scaring you so much. And when I decide what to do about costumes, I'll let you know."

"Thanks for being so open with me," he replied. "I know I was pushing the Rules a little, but..."

She waved a hand dismissively. "Don't worry about it, I don't mind. You had legitimate concerns. I'll see you at school. Have a good weekend."

Dean walked to the door with her beside him, watching as she unlocked it. "I'll have a better one now I can sleep properly," he grinned. She laughed as she pulled the door open. "Nice truck, Amy," he called back to Vicky's sister who was watching from her chair.

"Thanks," she called back, looking pleased. Nodding to Taylor's scaly alter-ego, he left the building, hearing the door shut behind him, then got back into his car and started it. Sitting for a moment looking at the BBFO sign, he shook his head in wonder, then slipped the vehicle into drive and did a U-turn, slowly heading back towards the entrance.

On the way he passed the blonde figure of the girl Lisa, who smiled at him in a knowing way, then waved. Wondering how much she knew of all this but also knowing it was best not to find out, all things considered, he kept going but waved back. As he approached the gate the guards opened it without apparently looking at him, then closed it again when he drove through without stopping. Impressed with their efficiency and discretion, he accelerated to the maximum speed his suspension could handle on the pot-holed road, wanting to get something for lunch before his stomach collapsed in on itself.

All in all, he was a much happier man than he'd been when he'd been driving the other way.

Still very puzzled in some ways, but happier even so.

And not quite so scared of the dark.

* * *

Taylor looked at Amy, who looked back, then smiled. "That went fairly well," the other girl said.

"I think he's a lot less worried now, definitely," Taylor sighed, going back and slumping into her seat. "He smelled terrified when he got here, like he was about to be executed or something."

"Poor guy didn't look too good, either," Amy said. "But he seemed to deal with the answers you gave him pretty well."

"It calmed him down a lot. I don't think he'll tell anyone."

"He won't. Like I said, for various reasons he's not really a friend, but I do trust him. He's one of the genuine good guys. Like Legend, in a way." Amy seemed sure of herself.

Nodding, Taylor looked over at the computers that were half set up. "Let's get these things sorted out, Lisa should be back..."

The door opened, revealing the blonde girl, who grinned widely at them.

"...right about now," Taylor laughed as Lisa entered and locked the door behind herself.

"When we've finished putting these in, what next?" Lisa asked, walking over to them.

Amy glanced at her workroom. "Beta test?"

"Sounds like a plan," Taylor smiled, also looking in that direction. "Definitely sounds like a plan."

All three of them exchanged a look, smiled eagerly, then got to work.

There was, after all, mad science to be done. Although it was only really mildly deranged science.

So far...


	125. Natural and Otherwise

"That should do it," Lisa said in satisfied tones, looking around with her hands on her hips. "Everything's wired up, all the software is installed, all the cables are nearly bundled up and out of the way, internet and phone systems are all working, the fileserver is backing up all the computers… A job well done, I think."

Taylor looked around as well, smiling. "It's really starting to become a proper workshop now," she replied admiringly. "Fantastic job, guys."

"Why are we backing up onto tape, Lisa?" Amy said from above them. Both the other girls looked up to see her peering down at them from the upper level, holding a bright green tape cartridge in her hand. "Isn't that sort of old technology?"

"It's old, but it's incredibly reliable and fairly inexpensive," Lisa responded. "Those tapes hold over one and a half terabytes each, but they're only around thirty bucks apiece and are close to indestructible without using a hammer. The fileserver backs everything up onto RAID drives, then dumps them onto tape. We just have to change tapes every now and then." She shrugged. "There's enough cartridges in stock to do a separate backup every day for a year. I've got a small fire safe on order as well, rated for media. That should be here for Tuesday or Wednesday. This is basically a small business level storage system, at the better end of reliable. Unless someone steals the entire thing we're safe from almost any type of data loss."

Amy nodded, looking at the cartridge in her hand with some respect, then disappeared again for a moment, shortly reappearing coming down the stairs. "You did your homework."

"I did." The blonde looked pleased. "I made sure that nothing non-trivial was going to make you guys lose any data. I'll print up a short instruction document to explain how it all works."

"Printer!" Taylor looked at them, smacking her forehead with the heel of one hand. "I completely forgot about a printer."

"Comes on Monday," Lisa snickered, a superior expression crossing her face. "Nice color large-format laser printer with lots of consumables. I got a _really_ good deal on it."

"I don't know whether to be awestruck or annoyed at how efficient you are," Amy laughed.

"Awestruck is the correct choice when presented with my brilliance," Lisa chuckled. "I'm pretty sure I thought of everything that's needed for now." She looked at her watch. "Another thought is that I'm hungry, and it's half past noon. Lunch?"

"Sounds like a good idea," Taylor smiled. "After that, we can get to the really interesting work."

All three girls looked at Amy's workroom, then each other, before grinning widely. They headed for the door, Taylor changing into Saurial on the way. Soon the building was empty and quiet except for a low humming sound coming from a number of running computers.

* * *

Colin picked up his PRT issue phone and scrolled through the contact list, stopping on a number. "I'll call her, then," he said, turning to Dragon and Legend, who were looking at a set of large printed blueprints stretched across his table, the latest version of the fusion-powered shotgun documented on the paper in fine detail. "I think we've talked it out to the point that another viewpoint is required."

"I'd agree," Legend said, leaning on both hands and inspecting the paperwork, without looking up. "This thing is absolutely terrifying. Will it really work? I mean, the walls of the barrel are less than a quarter of an inch thick and you're proposing to detonate a five kiloton _nuke_ in it!"

"The EDM is vastly tougher than required for a mere five kilotons," Dragon responded. "Having done more tests on the sample Leet gave Colin, neither one of us is sure what actually _can_ damage it. Six millimeters is more than enough to contain a fusion blast many times more powerful than the charge this is designed to take."

The Protectorate leader nodded thoughtfully, standing erect and looking down at the plans. "I suspect it will be somewhat impressive to see fired."

"You'll see it from orbit," she chuckled. "And probably hear it a thousand miles away. It's not the sort of thing anyone is going to miss."

Listening to them talk, Colin couldn't help agreeing. The simulations suggested the visual effects of the weapon firing would be rather memorable. Prodding the relevant on-screen control he listened to the phone ring at the other end, being answered half a dozen rings later.

"Hello, Armsmaster," Raptaur's voice said, sounding pleased to hear from him. "How are you?"

"Well, thank you," he replied. "I was hoping we might meet again, to discuss developments on the plan we talked about the last time."

She snickered a little. "In light of recent events? I assume you've redesigned certain aspects appropriately?"

"We have." A very small smile came and went. "Both Dragon and I had something of an epiphany on Tuesday, and realized what you meant when we met."

"I thought you would," she laughed. "Sorry, I didn't want to ruin the surprise. Sure, we can meet up. Tomorrow would be best, if that's all right with you guys. I'm pretty busy today, although if it's really urgent I could reschedule some other things."

"Tomorrow would be acceptable," he hastened to assure her. "There's no immediate threat although obviously we're coming up on the next likely visit from an Endbringer and we'd like to be ready." He hesitated for a moment, then added, "Additionally, I would like to talk about some technology we hope may assist in the deploying of the weapon and its user, which otherwise could be somewhat awkward. It's actually an old invention of Leet's."

"Really." She sounded intrigued now. "What is it?"

"Essentially a teleportation device, although there are a number of problems with it which preclude using it for most purposes. I don't want to go into details even on a secure phone line, though."

"Fair enough."

"Leet is willing to aid us both on the weapon and the device, are you willing to let him?"

"Sure, I like him. Bring him along. We should also get Über involved, his abilities could be very useful as well."

Colin thought for a moment, then nodded slowly. She was right. "I agree. I'll contact them and arrange to have them meet us at BBFO. When should we come?"

"I'll be there from about half past nine onward, so any time after that is fine."

Glancing at his two companions, who were listening to his end of the conversation with interest, he asked, "Would you mind if Legend also attended?"

There was a short pause, then she replied, "No, not at all. Kaiju thinks highly of him and I'd like to meet him. Bring him along."

"Thank you. We'll be there at approximately ten tomorrow morning."

"I'll see you all then," she said politely. "Until then."

"Goodbye," he responded, before pressing the disconnect button. He moved to join the other two. "She sounded interested and in a good mood." Colin reported. "Hopefully we can finalize the weapon and make some progress on the wormhole generator. I've had it checked out of secure storage and sealed into a shielded container ready for transport."

"How radioactive is it?" Legend asked.

"Not excessively, now. The gamma-activated isotopes that its operation produced luckily mostly had very short half-lives," he told the man. "It's still hot enough that it would be unwise to remain in immediate proximity for days, but a few hours is well within safe limits of exposure. We will need to wear protective gloves to handle it even so."

"I assume you're also bringing suitable monitoring equipment for radiation and so on?"

"Yes, it's unlikely that Raptaur will possess such equipment, although I expect Leet does," he replied. "We'll have to take one of the PRT patrol vans to carry everything. I'll arrange to have it all loaded this afternoon, it will be ready for tomorrow."

"Excellent." The other man looked pleased. "While I can't say I'm entirely happy about this horrendous thing, you're both probably right about it being worth trying." He checked the time, then nodded. "I need to talk to Alexandria in an hour and I need something to eat first. I'll see you both later."

Colin and Dragon watched him go, then turned back to the plans on the table.

"Do you think we can repair and reverse-engineer the wormhole device?" he asked his friend.

"Based on the initial scans you showed me..." She thought for a moment, then shrugged a little. "I'm not certain, but I'm hopeful. With Leet's help, it will be much more likely to be doable than otherwise. His design notes will be a massive help. But until we try, we won't know."

"I suppose not," he noted with a nod, taking a seat at the table and starting to roll the fifteen foot by four foot printouts up. "It will be interesting finding out."

Neither one of them talked about the unnerving issue with Leviathan that they'd noticed the day before, but both of them were still musing on what it all meant.

* * *

Putting her Raptaur phone away, Taylor closed the door to the office and locked it. The thing had rung just as they'd entered, by good timing. Another ten seconds and the door would have blocked the phone signal. She'd switched to Raptaur to talk to Armsmaster, but now she reverted to her base form and locked eyes with Amy, who was standing in the doorway to her workroom. The other brunette looked simultaneously nervous and excited.

"Ready to test it?" she asked.

"I think so," Amy giggled a little unevenly. She glanced at Lisa who was sitting at the table, also looking excited.

"OK." Taylor came over, as did Lisa. All three of them went into the workroom. "I called Dad and told him we'd be busy all afternoon and didn't want to be interrupted, ideally," she added. "Also that if weird things happened, to ignore them."

"What did he say?" Lisa smiled.

"That I'd have to be more specific than ' _weird_ ' if I wanted to get across the idea of something out of the ordinary," she snickered. "Weird simply describes business as usual nowadays."

"Man's got a point," the blonde girl grinned, making the other two nod.

They all looked at the contents of the bench, before Lisa opened the door to the next room and peered in for a moment. "What's the first step?" she asked.

"This," Amy replied, stroking the largest item on the bench. "This is the proof of concept, and also tests all the neural connections and modifications needed to make that work," she added, indicating the next room with a thumb over her shoulder. "But I want to take it in steps. Slowly and carefully."

"Sounds like a good idea," the other girl commented. Returning to the bench she reached out and felt the thing. "Weird. Cool, but weird."

"I know, right?" Amy laughed. "Come on, we need some more room. Taylor, I need a bench about six feet by two, three feet off the floor."

"Sure," Taylor replied, going out into the main room. Walking to the middle of it she quickly generated the relevant construction. "How about this?"

"Can you make it tiltable?" Amy asked from the door to her workshop.

"Yep." A little more work and the modifications were made.

Lisa moved to inspect it. "Very Frankenstein," she grinned. "All we need is a lot of widgets around the place making sparks and ozone."

Taylor tapped her chin with a finger, looking around thoughtfully. "Hmm."

"Next time," Amy laughed. "Make some trolleys on wheels, will you? Like those ones the guys in the garage use for their tools."

"OK," she said cheerfully, quickly producing a couple of the requested item. "Anything else?"

"Not for now." Grabbing the handle of one of the trolleys, Amy pushed it into the workroom, re-emerging shortly with most of the contents of her bench on it. "OK. I'm going to need some help for this. I'll be monitoring the integration and if anything goes wrong I can abort it, but I don't think it will."

She pointed at a small tray full of suspension goo with a symbiote floating in it. This one was a pale blue color. "However, if it does, stick that on me and activate it. It's an emergency reset version, it will undo anything that's gone bad. My normal one should handle everything if there _is_ a problem, but that's a last resort backup."

"Sure," Taylor said, while Lisa watched everything with intense curiosity. "Chances of failure?"

Amy considered the question for a few seconds. "My powers tell me way under a tenth of a percent worst case," she finally replied. "But that's not zero, hence the precautions. If this works, everything else will as well and there's no further risk. But some of this is really stretching the normal parameters of what life is, so I need to check it out step by step." She grinned at her friend. "I mean, it's not as weird as you are by a massive amount, but I doubt than anyone else would be able to work it out at all. I was really inspired by your biology, if you can even call it that. It gave me so many cool ideas..."

She trailed off with a smile, then shook her head. "All right, let's get on with it."

"Does that thing have to go anywhere particular?" Lisa asked, indicating the symbiote, which she was inspecting with great interest from a couple of feet away.

"No. You can put them anywhere, once they're integrated into the body they're all through it as a non-centralized subsystem. So if you put it on a hand, for example, cutting your hand off after full integration doesn't remove it. You just grow a new hand."

"That's… one of the coolest things I've ever heard of," Lisa noted. "Also one of the most disturbing." After a second or two, she asked curiously, "What happens if you get cut in two? Do we end up with two Amy's?"

"Nope," the single Amy they were looking at giggled. "It would repair the part with the brain. I'm not a worm, you can't clone me that easily."

An expression of determination crossed her face. "Enough talk. Time for crossing into the realms that nature dares not enter."

Taylor and Lisa both looked amused as the girl pulled her shirt over her head, then took off her jeans. "Make me a towel or something, will you please?" she asked. Taylor handed her friend a bright blue beach towel before she finished speaking. "Thanks."

"You should always know where your towel is."

"I do, I'm wrapping it around my waist," Amy snickered. Reaching under it she removed her underwear, then lay on the table face down. "OK. The patient is prepared. Nurse, please begin the procedure."

"Yeth, mathter," Taylor lisped, tilting into a parody of a hunchback, which made Amy and Lisa both grin and chuckle. "Your command ith my with."

She picked up the long heavy piece of biotechnology, while Lisa unfolded the towel from the prone Dallon girl. "Latht chanthe to call it off."

"Get on with it, I've been wanting to try this for nearly a week," Amy sighed. "And knock off the Igor act."

"By your command," Taylor intoned.

"Idiot."

"Perverter of Nature."

"Demon."

"Yep."

Lisa watched and listened, grinning. "You two really are made for each other, aren't you?" she said.

Both brunette girls exchanged a glance, nodded, then smiled.

"Here we go," Taylor warned her friend. "Ready?"

Amy closed her eyes and got a look of concentration. A moment later, she nodded firmly. "Ready."

Feeling a little worried, but also confident that her friend knew her stuff, Taylor gently applied the end of the thing she was holding to the relevant spot. Amy squeaked a little and twitched. "Whoa. Weird. Hold on… OK, integration is working… Neural connection starting… Vascularization in progress… Wow, that feels really peculiar."

"I'm not surprised," Lisa commented, watching with fascination. "If it's any help, my power tells me it's working as well."

"I can feel it. OK, that's the bone reconstruction starting." The healer winced a little. "Bit uncomfortable, I need some endorphins." Her face immediately relaxed. "Woo. Good shit."

Both her companions looked amused. "It's getting warm," Taylor noted. "I can see blood flow, it looks normal."

"Can you grab some onions, I need biomass to make up the extra blood volume," Amy requested.

"Sure, give me a second." Taylor went over to the storage crate she'd made some time ago and made the side vanish, revealing most of the better than a ton of onions they'd had delivered. Grabbing one of the twenty-five pound bags she brought it back to the table on which Amy was lying and slit the top open with a claw, handing her friend a couple of them. Both slumped into goo and disappeared from Amy's hands in seconds.

"Couple more."

"Here you go."

"Thanks." There was a pause, then Amy smiled widely. "It worked. Everything is connected and completely functional."

" **Stage One,** _ **complete**_ ," Taylor said in a deep voice, waving her arms wildly. " **Begin Stage Two!** "

Rolling over on the table having reached back and grabbed the towel, Amy peered up at her. "You really are very odd," she commented mildly.

Taylor grinned at her friend, then she and Lisa moved to help her up.

* * *

" _I like it_ ," the Varga said with an impression of amused approval. " _It suits her._ "

Taylor watched her friend walking around with a smile on her face overlaid on an expression of concentration. ' _It does, I agree, but I think both of us are biased. It's possible you've had some sort of effect on the way I think_.'

" _Only in a positive manner, I assure you_ ," he chuckled. " _The effect you have on your friends is mostly your fault_."

' _Probably. At least they're having fun_ ,' she agreed happily. Out loud she said, "Varga says it suits you."

Amy looked over and grinned, while Lisa walked around her, studying her closely.

"Thanks, Varga," the healer replied. "It's very strange, but doesn't actually feel too bad. All the neural linkages seem sound, the blood flow is normal, it's completely integrated exactly as my power said it would. I can use this as the basis for the next modification stage."

"Impressive bit of work, Amy," Lisa finally said, stepping back and rubbing her forehead. "My abilities are telling me all sorts of interesting things, but I have to stop or I'm going to have one hell of a migraine."

"Thinker headache?" the healer asked, looking at the blonde girl, who nodded, wincing a little.

"Yes, they're a bitch. I get them pretty badly sometimes."

"I'll have to look at that soon, see if I can figure out a fix for you," Amy commented. "Luckily I don't get them. Well, unless I try to work _her_ out." She indicated Taylor with a jerk of her head.

"I suspect most people suffer from that," Lisa snickered, making Amy grin and Taylor fold her arms and fix her with a hard look, although inwardly she was amused.

"Hey!" she mumbled. "I'm not that bad."

"Want to bet?" both the others said at once, before exchanging a look of hilarity.

"Why a lizard tail?" Lisa asked, watching Amy walk back and forth getting used to the new appendage she now sported coming out of the base of her spine. It was a deep violet color, proportionally very similar in size to Taylor's Varga-gifted tail. "And why purple?"

Amy glanced at her, then looked back at her new tail. "Partly because it was the easiest thing while I was being inspired by Taylor and the Varga biology, which is very reptile-like even if not actually a reptile, partly because it was a good test, and partly because I kind of like the look," she replied after a moment. "Plus there's a theme going on here, after all. And I like the color."

She turned to look at Taylor who was watching with a smile. "I have a sudden deep understanding of how you must have felt," she continued. "I don't have a demon in my head, but suddenly finding yourself with something like this out of nowhere must have been fucking strange."

"To put it mildly," Taylor agreed. She walked over and knelt down, gently feeling the familiar scaled surface. It looked and felt almost exactly like her own tail, not surprisingly considering how Amy had been influenced by her biology. "It sure feels real," she added, standing up again.

"It is real," her friend replied. "Now."

"So talk me through it again, I want to be sure I understand what I'm looking at," Lisa remarked. "That was made from onions?"

"Pretty much, yes. At least the organic parts were," Amy replied, experimentally moving the end of her tail around, while peering over her shoulder at it. "Taylor made the skeletal parts, they're a bone analog combined with EDM foam for strength. I used the plant biomass to construct the biological systems around that. The biology is extremely odd, not even close to human or anything else living, but it's still biology, not demon life, whatever the hell that really is. But the DNA is patterned on Taylor's quad-helix systems, just vastly less complex and using the normal amino acids with some extra ones I added. The big trick was making it compatible with human systems."

"But you managed, obviously."

"I did. It took a hell of a lot of thought and some false starts. The end result is actually _more_ compatible than some human DNA would be, it adapts to the person it's integrated with and links in without any issue. Plus the bone structure is damn near unbreakable, the muscle tissue is _much_ stronger than any normal living system, and the skin, or scales, are also laced with EDM fibers, as are the tendons and ligaments. Makes them almost impossible to cut."

Lisa whistled in impressed awe. "So that part of you is basically Brute level tough and strong?"

"Oh, yes. Brute six or seven at least," Amy smiled. "A bullet would just bounce off. Might sting a bit, though."

Manifesting a steel sword, Taylor experimentally poked her friend's new appendage with the extremely pointy end, making Amy twitch it out of reach, then glare at her. "We need to check if it works," she said mildly.

"Not like that," Amy sighed.

"How, then? Shoot it?"

After another look, Amy moved her tail back into range again, shaking her head. "Good point. Poke away."

Taylor did, putting more and more force behind it. "Impressive," she said after the sixth poke, which was hard enough to draw blood and make Amy yelp, but snapped the sword. All three of them watched the tiny puncture heal in under two seconds. "Very impressive. That was hard enough to have caused Lung some irritation. A lot more force than a rifle bullet would produce. I'd say it works pretty well."

"It's still pretty weird, but it's getting less so fast as I practice," Amy commented, walking around in a circle, then waving and flexing the tail. "A very successful test."

"Can you extend the same skeletal and musculature upgrades to the rest of your body?" Lisa asked curiously.

"The latest symbiote adds a lot of the mods, except for the major structural parts," Amy replied. "When I turn it on, in theory I should be a lot stronger, but to get the best results I'll need to upgrade my skeleton, ligaments, muscles, all that sort of thing, to handle the strains. Whatever normal Brute powers do to get around that I haven't worked out yet. I've reinforced it quite a bit but there are limits with normal human biology. I need to keep experimenting, I've got a lot of data from healing Parahumans over the years but I've never really though about that aspect of it until recently. But I've upgraded my neural conduction speed to decrease my reflex time, improved my vision a lot, and my hearing, things like that. I'm more than a little hesitant to poke around in my brain, so I'm not going to unless I can work out a way to do it safely."

"I'm not surprised," Lisa said with wide eyes. "Your brain is pretty important."

"It's where I live," Amy laughed. "Don't worry, I'm not doing anything that I can't undo. All this is done through my symbiote anyway, and it won't do anything that will harm me unless I override it, which I have no intention of doing."

"Are you going to do the structural modifications?" the blonde asked.

"Not yet, I'm still working out the best method to do it, and how to make it look normal. I don't want anyone to work it out, obviously." Amy shrugged. "A work in progress, I guess. But this test is good, everything worked to design."

"Are you going to wear it home?" Taylor asked with a grin.

Putting her hands on her hips, Amy stared at her, the tail resting on the floor behind her. "You don't think it's possible that Mom might wonder why I now have three and a half feet of lizard's tail coming out my ass?" she asked with asperity. "The woman is not unobservant."

"How are you going to get properly used to it if you don't live with it for a while?" she asked in a reasonable tone.

"Again, not _entirely_ unnoticeable," Amy sighed. "People will talk. And point. And run in circles like headless chickens."

"There is a way around that, Amy," the Varga said with amusement through Taylor. "As you are aware of if you consider the matter."

Amy looked at her friend, then Lisa, then her eyes widened. "Shit. Would that work?"

"Certainly. I am uncertain if I can teach anyone other than Taylor demon magic, or any form of magic for that matter, although it is an intriguing possibility that deserves future experimentation, but applying the same spell to your current extra feature that Taylor enjoys on her own tail is entirely possible." The demon smiled with Taylor's mouth. "The spell is stable once active, it will continue to function for a considerable time without further energy input. There are limits to it, but the application to living beings is fairly straightforward. If you'd like me to do it, I am happy to."

Taylor, the Varga, and Lisa all waited for Amy to answer. She was scratching her nose and thinking hard. "You're certain it won't suddenly… wear off, or run down, or whatever the hell magic actually does?"

"None of those things will happen," he assured her. "I can link it to your own… life force, is the closest I can come to it in English… which in addition to the magic I will put into it, should suffice to keep it active for several months at a minimum. I will reinforce it whenever necessary so it should work for arbitrarily long periods of time."

"It would be an interesting experiment," Amy mused. "A long term test, and it would allow me to continue tweaking the systems… Hell, why not? If she can get used to it, I can." The girl waved at her friend, who grinned.

"Is this going to be a new fashion?" Lisa asked with a giggle.

"Who knows?" Taylor asked, shrugging. "It makes more sense than some fashions I've seen. It's at least useful."

"I will exclude Taylor and Lisa from the spell," the Varga told them. "Hold still. You may feel a slight tingle."

Taylor sensed the magic in action. Amy twitched, then muttered, "That was really strange." She looked down at herself for a moment. "It doesn't look any different."

"It won't to you," he assured her. "But no one else other than Taylor or Lisa will notice it, the Assassin's Cloak will prevent any discovery. Or photographs."

"Except from Leet's Snitch," Taylor added, making them look at her. She smiled. "He told me about it, it's what gave him and Über the clue that led them to working me out. But he won't tell anyone, even if he happens to notice."

"Good enough." Amy wandered around some more, then jumped up and down a little, before doing a neat cartwheel which made Lisa stare, then clap. "It's affecting my balance but not so much I can't compensate."

"I tripped over my own tail and fell down the stairs the next day," Taylor giggled. "I kept getting it stuck under things as well. It was sort of embarrassing, but Dad thought it was hilarious."

Both girls laughed. "I can imagine," Lisa snickered. "He's got a real sense of humor, your father."

"You really are going to need to get seats with tail-holes now if you keep that for a while," Taylor pointed out to her friend. "Your first upgrade for your truck."

Amy looked thoughtful, then nodded. "You're right. Oh well, I can deal with it for now. This worked perfectly, let's try the real experiment."

"You'll need to modify it a little," Taylor said.

"I know, but that won't take long. Actually, this might even make it easier." Amy considered the matter, before heading for her workroom. "OK, you two, we need about half a ton of onions to finish it off. Get to work."

"Proper slave-driver isn't she?" Lisa asked in a loud whisper as she moved to help Taylor start carrying bags of onions into the workroom.

"The Amy orders, we merely follow those orders," Taylor replied calmly.

"Follow them faster, minions," Amy shouted from inside the workroom. "The Amy commands you!"

"All hail The Amy," Lisa chuckled, picking up a bag and following Taylor, who was laughing to herself. "You created a monster."

"Nope. _Amy_ created a monster. I merely _am_ one."

Taylor looked over her shoulder with a smirk on her face, then both of them entered the workroom, from which odd sounds were now coming.


	126. Amy and Ianthe

_As with some previous chapters, this one had embedded music links. I've followed the same procedure here as I did there._

 _www:youtube:com/watch?v=OJAoaCHdTJY_

 _www:youtube:com/watch?v=bBdx6nvi4Uo_

 _I've bolded and underlined the point in the original where the links were._

* * *

"Huh."

"What?"

Randall looked over at his friend who was sitting, as was often the case, in front of a computer, apparently reading an email, then went back to doing push-ups.

"Armsmaster says Taylor, or Raptaur in this case, says we should all get together at her place tomorrow at ten AM. She suggested you should come, apparently."

"Well, my skills are legendary, so I'm not surprised," Randall grinned, getting a look of amusement back from his friend and partner.

"Just keep thinking that, if it helps you deal with life," Kevin chuckled. He rapidly typed for a few seconds, then nodded in satisfaction. "OK, I've said we'll be there." Turning around in his chair he faced the other young man. "I guess I should take the audio inducer and the tricorder as well, just in case the right opportunity comes up to talk to Dragon about them."

"Might be an idea, yeah," Randall replied, finishing push-up one hundred and lowering himself to the floor with relief, before rolling over and sitting up. "Should be interesting to see how far this weapon design has come."

"Knowing those two, probably pretty far. She's very good and he's very efficient, so I bet they're been working on it practically non-stop."

"Think you can get that wormhole widget working again?" Randall asked, standing up and heading for the jug of ice water he'd left on the table next to the sofa. He poured himself a glassful and chugged it in one shot, before grabbing a towel and wiping sweat from his face.

"I… don't know. It was playing up when we were using it, there was something wrong with it at the time anyway, and the radiation didn't do it any favors." Kevin tugged at his lower lip thoughtfully. "If it was just me, I'd say, no, definitely not. But with Armsmaster and Dragon looking at it?" He thought some more. "Maybe. You can help as well, hopefully, and I don't know how much Taylor knows about tech in general, but she's scary smart, and might be able to come up with some good ideas. She certainly thinks sideways compared to most people. That might be what's needed."

"Interesting girl, for sure," Randall smiled as he sat on the sofa and relaxed after his daily exercises.

"Oh, yes. Very." They shared a grin. "I can see some amusing possibilities from knowing her. And Amy."

Both of them started snickering as they considered the possibilities. Brockton Bay was going to have a very odd expression on its collective face in the near future.

* * *

Lisa watched as Amy squatted under the large construct in the middle of the second room, poking at something on its underside, while Taylor lifted the half-ton thing a couple of feet off the floor and held it there. She was impressed, the girl was in her base form and didn't look anywhere near strong enough to do what she was doing but clearly had no trouble with the weight.

The end of Amy's new tail was flicking around as she concentrated, something Taylor did as well, which made the blonde smile. Taylor looked over at her, cocking her head quizzically at her expression, then followed her eyes, before smirking a little. They shared a grin while the oblivious Dallon girl kept working. "OK, that's got that sorted, you can put it down again," Amy said, scooting out from under her creation and standing up.

Taylor carefully lowered her burden to the floor and stepped back. The thing twitched weirdly and made a peculiar grumbling sound. "I need to tweak the bone structure here, here, and here," Amy carried on, leaning into the half-covered skeletal system and pointing. "Those ribs need to be moved about six inches to the rear, that set of vertebrae need to be twenty percent larger, and the pelvis needs to be lowered slightly and widened a smidge."

"How much is a smidge?" Taylor asked curiously.

"Two and a half about-that-muches," Amy smiled, holding her thumb and finger roughly a quarter of an inch apart. Looking amused Taylor shook her head, then turned to the job.

"Tell me when," she said.

Watching with a critical eye, Amy nodded with satisfaction, saying, "That'll do it. Great. OK, that's the structural modifications all done. The neural systems are finished, most of the musculature is all ready, it's mainly the outer skin to do." She turned to Lisa, waving at the pile of bags of onions in the corner of the room. "Can you start opening them and pouring them into the hopper there?"

"Sure," Lisa replied, taking the folding knife Taylor pulled from nowhere and flipping it open with an easy flick of her wrist, which made both the other girls look at her with interest. "I'm actually not bad with a knife if necessary," she grinned, before moving to the pile and beginning to slit the tops of the bags open. Picking one up she tipped it into the wide mouth of the odd looking device that Taylor had obviously made to Amy's design.

The healer put her hand on the pile of onions which rapidly turned into a mass of protoplasm, the goo running into a second funnel and down a tube which Taylor was pointing into the middle of the construct. Amy's other hand was on her creation guiding the formation of the new living system.

Between them they used most of the remaining bags over the next twenty minutes, until Amy called a halt to the process. "That's enough. I just need to finish this up and it's ready for the test." Lisa pulled the goo producer out of the way while Taylor finished folding up all the empty bags, both of them moving away while Amy moved around the now-complete synthetic creature standing in the middle of the room making small adjustments to it.

They watched as the shape kept altering a little and the thing twitched every now and then in a rather unnerving manner, Amy smiling to herself as she worked. Lisa watched with mixed interest and worry. Her power was telling her a number of things that were more than a little peculiar, so in the end she stopped trying to work out exactly what the healer was doing. Her head was aching again aside from anything else.

Taylor was whistling a tune under her breath that sounded familiar, but it took Lisa a few seconds to place it. When she did, she grinned, shaking her head, and unable to help herself, began **singing** in a low voice to accompany the tune.

Amy stopped, then turned to glare at them both. "Stop that," she sighed. "Anyway, it's not undead."

Lisa immediately started singing a **different** tune, which Taylor quickly began whistling the accompaniment for, until both of them started laughing too hard to continue.

"Idiots," the brunette muttered, turning back to her work. Eventually she stepped back, nodding with satisfaction. "Done. It's finished. The first version, anyway."

All three of them looked at the thing. "Turn it on, then," Taylor said with a smile.

Amy grinned, moving forward to put a hand on her creation's head. A moment or two passed, then it jerked a little harder than the reflexive motions it had intermittently made during the final work on it, the head lifting. Lisa took a step back without meaning to, although Taylor didn't move. "It's _looking_ at me," Lisa whispered.

"I know," Amy chortled, as the large head moved from side to side, the glowing eyes studying them all, then dipped, nudging her in the ribs. "Auxiliary neural control system is working perfectly. Blood flow nominal, closed-loop respiratory system nominal, oxygen recombination subsystem functioning to specification, energy generation organs online..." Her voice trailed off into mumbling as she seemed to lose track of the other two, her hands moving over the skin of the thing she'd made. Taylor and Lisa exchanged a glance.

A few seconds later Amy blinked, smiling widely. "Everything is working exactly as it should. Fantastic. Absolutely fantastic."

"Stage two complete?"

"Stage two complete." Amy grinned over her shoulder at Taylor, who looked pleased.

"Stage three, then."

"Yep." Reaching out a hand again, Amy tapped the creature between the eyes. It lowered itself to the floor silently, rolled onto its side, then closed its eyes and appeared to go dormant. Taking a deep breath, the healer started taking her clothes off again. Taylor had produced a new pair of jeans for her with a tail-hole in them, which she now handed back. The taller girl folded them neatly and put them on the small bench running down one side of the room. Amy's shirt joined it. Clad only in her underwear, the healer moved to the side of the new creature.

"You sure about this, Amy?" Taylor asked. She sounded slightly concerned.

"Yes. It'll work, trust me. The tail was the final test. I need to make some more modifications, I'm sure there will be things that aren't quite optimal yet, but without functional data on this version I don't know what they are, so I have to do a live test." Amy looked at them with a smile. "Don't worry, worst case I shut it down and try again, but I know it will work."

"Fair enough."

"Give me a hand here, will you?" the girl asked, leaning over the now-still construct. She put her hand on the thing's belly, a long slit opening up from throat to just in front of the legs, Taylor gently pulling it open. Lisa watched with interest and a small amount of worried squeamishness as the Dallon girl reached inside the creature and felt around, then nodded. "Not the most elegant system yet but it's only a prototype," she commented, before sitting on the floor and sticking her feet and tail tip into the cavity.

"That looks very wrong," Lisa remarked, shaking her head.

"Everything we do is very wrong," Taylor giggled.

"Can't argue with that," the blonde laughed, watching as Amy wriggled into the construct like it was a sleeping bag. It was close to the size of Raptaur, so there was plenty of room. Lisa had studied it closely and knew the amount of protective living armor surrounding the life-support area deep inside the synthetic life-form was sufficient to prevent almost anything causing her harm. She wouldn't be as tough as Taylor was, but Lisa's power told her that she was far tougher inside this thing than almost anyone else around, probably somewhere around the equivalent of a Brute seven or better. Even considering how severe an impact she could survive in the costume Taylor had made for her, this was simply ridiculous by comparison.

Almost entirely inside the chest of the new construct, only her head and arms outside, Amy looked up at them. "Don't worry about the delay. It's going to take about a minute or so for all the neural linkages to form and the support systems to connect, but I'll be fine. Stand back a bit, Lisa, just in case, it'll take a bit to get used to the new sensory input and I might flail around a little. I don't want to hurt you accidentally."

"I'll be here behind Taylor, then," Lisa remarked quickly, moving to the relevant spot with alacrity. "Good luck."

"Luck? I don't need _luck_ ," Amy grinned. "I'm a professional. Trust me, I know what I'm doing."

"Do you?" Taylor snickered. "Really?"

"Nope, making it up as I go along," Amy replied cheerfully. "Here we go." She disappeared entirely inside her manufactured life-form, Taylor releasing the entrance and stepping back. There was a short pause of a few seconds then the slit sealed up and disappeared entirely without trace. The two remaining girls exchanged a glance, then went back to watching. Lisa was checking her watch every few seconds, unable to stem her worry even with the assurance from the expert and her own power which insisted things were proceeding to plan.

"This would make Piggot pop an aneurysm for sure," she muttered, causing Taylor to nod with a small smile.

"Probably. But I'm not planning on telling her, are you?"

"No fear of that, believe me," Lisa chuckled.

The seconds ticked past, until at the minute-ten mark the biological construct flinched violently, making her jump despite herself. It shook all over then the head lifted on the long neck, looking around and blinking wildly. "Holy shit that's weird," it said, the voice totally unlike Amy's, but still female. It wasn't quite as deep as Taylor's Raptaur voice and had a faint hissing accent very similar to Saurial's voice. There was no way that Lisa would associate it with Amy, which of course was by design.

Squatting down near the front of Amy's temporary new body, Taylor reached out and poked her head between the eyes. "You in there OK?" she asked.

"Apparently," her friend muttered. A long forked tongue came out from between razor-sharp teeth and licked the snout of the new creature, before vanishing again. "This is very, very strange. But also very, very cool." She laughed wildly.

"Help me up, I need to get used to this," she added.

Lisa moved further back as Taylor helped her friend to her clawed feet, then slowly and carefully led her out of the workroom block to stand in the middle of the main office. Amy looked around, blinking, then lifted her hands and studied them.

"Oh... My... God... It actually _worked_ ," she said in a stunned voice.

"Fucking right it did," Lisa exclaimed, staring at her. "Unbelievable. Just… unbelievable."

"Cool as hell, though," Taylor grinned. She moved a few feet away and made a huge mirrored surface grow out of the floor. "Have a look at the newest Family member." After a moment's thought, she laughed, and added, "Cousin."

Amy turned her head to inspect her friend, then looked at the mirror and froze.

"Shit..."

She trailed off with an awed squeak.

* * *

Taylor watched as Amy felt herself with her hands, turning her head from side to side.

"She does exceptionally good work," the Varga commented, sounding both slightly astounded and very pleased. "Your world is fascinating. I have never seen anything even close to this achieved without a truly remarkable level of magic, yet this has no magic at all involved. I must confess I'm not sure exactly what it _does_ use, but it's definitely not magic."

' _Powers are bullshit, that's pretty well established_ ,' Taylor replied, shaking her head a little. ' _But I'd have to agree. She's outdone herself, especially considering how fast this all came together once she worked out the basics. It'll be neat to see what she comes up with after some more practice_.'

"Indeed." He gave off an air of thoughtful consideration. "I suspect that this may well cause a certain amount of confusion to the public at large and the PRT as well. It's definitely going to be seen as positive proof that the Family exists, since there can now be two of them at once."

' _Which is also part of the idea_ ,' Taylor snickered. ' _This should be amusing_.'

"I suspect so, yes," he chuckled. They watched as the large reptilian creature studied itself, while Lisa stared at it from a safe distance, looking impressed, slightly disturbed, and just a little envious. "Without knowing the truth, I doubt very much anyone will ever work out that Amy's in there," he added approvingly.

The thing Amy had made, with Taylor and the Varga's help, stood about seven and a half feet tall, being patterned on Raptaur with some modifications. It only had four limbs plus a tail, unlike Taylor's Raptaur form's six, but had a slightly longer neck. The head was very similar, a little narrower and longer, the main difference being that the slit-pupiled eyes glowed a virulent faint green color rather than her characteristic orange-yellow. They were a bit more slanted as well, giving an overall very predatory look.

The scaled skin looked and felt exactly like her own did when she was in the equivalent form but was a much lighter dark blue with violet overtones when the light caught the scales at the right angle, shimmering through dozens of other colors in places. It was peculiarly beautiful.

Overall it was reminiscent of a cross between Saurial and Raptaur with a little fantasy dragon thrown in. The front limbs were very much arms, with long elegantly-fingered taloned hands, but the jointing was different from a human arm to allow her to walk on all fours if needed for speed. The legs were not human in the slightest, the feet the same as her Raptaur ones, while the tail was long, slender, and muscular.

The end result was clearly from the same source as Saurial, Raptaur, and Kaiju, but sufficiently different to be a distinct variant of its own. As Amy got used to her biological exosuit, her movements were becoming more and more fluid and natural, rapidly heading towards looking entirely normal.

"This is so cool," she whispered in her new voice. "Everything is working perfectly."

"How is the vision?" Taylor asked curiously.

"Fine. Beyond fine, I can't believe how clearly I can see everything," Amy replied, looking around. "Can you turn out the lights?"

"OK."

Taylor went over and flipped the switches on the wall, the warehouse plunged into darkness lit only by a few leds from the computer equipment around the place. To normal human vision it was damn near pitch black. Her own vision was barely affected, of course, but she could see by the way Lisa was looking around blankly that she probably couldn't see anything at all.

"Well, that works amazingly well," Amy laughed. "I can tell it's dark, but I can still see fine. The colors are a little muted, I'll have to tweak that, otherwise it's like it's only a slightly dimmer than normal room."

"Impressive," Lisa noted, staring at her, her own pupils entirely dilated. "Those glowing green eyes are even more disturbing than Taylor's yellowish ones, by the way."

"Great, that works as well," the healer giggled.

"I can't work out which one of you is a worse influence on the other," Lisa sighed. "Can you turn the lights back on? This is a little too creepy for me right now."

With a smile Taylor flipped the switches back, the room fully illuminated once again. "How's the sense of smell? And your hearing?"

"Both excellent," Amy reported. "I can smell a hell of a lot more than I can with my own nose, although I suspect nothing like as well as you can. And I can hear people talking outside, vehicles moving around… Much better than normal. We'll have to figure out some proper tests for it."

"We can use the computers," Lisa suggested. "Find a program to generate different frequencies at different volume levels and test your hearing properly. Not sure how we'd check your smell, though." She got up and approached Amy, putting her hand on her scaled skin and feeling it. "I have to say, it feels entirely alive and natural, just like Taylor does as Raptaur. I'd never guess in a million years it was synthetic without my power, and even it is saying it's alive."

"It's totally alive, just not from a normal source," Amy replied, looking down at the girl touching her. "Wow, this is weird, looking at things from nearly three feet higher than normal. And I can see my own face." She felt her muzzle with a hand. "Which is just strange."

"Talk me through it all, my power is still having some trouble putting it all together and I'm getting a headache," Lisa asked, stepping back, then walking around the large reptilian form.

"OK. Basically, my real body, or my human body at any rate, is in a sort of suspended animation state inside this one in the life-support pouch," Amy replied, tapping her lower chest. "I'm both conscious and unconscious at the same time. There's enough neural matter in here to make up two normal human brains, which is currently linked through my spine to my own brain and is the thing actually running the body and processing the extra sensory data. It's seamless and allows insanely quick reaction times as well. The two circulatory systems are linked, as are the neural systems, respiratory systems, everything like that. It'll keep me alive more or less forever, I could stay in here for the rest of my life if I wanted to."

She smiled slightly. "I don't think I will, of course, but I _could_. There are ultra high pressure oxygen reservoirs made of EDM in here as well which hold enough oxygen to keep the body running for weeks even without breathing normally, plus a whole series of systems to reclaim and reuse it. I almost don't need to breath at all, I should be able to stay underwater practically indefinitely. The digestive systems are ridiculously efficient as well, they work on completely different methods than almost anything living. I can eat more or less anything organic and extract every last bit of usable energy from it."

"Wow. But not quite like Taylor, who can eat basically anything at all?"

"No, not to that level. This is still an organic organism, just one with stupidly efficient systems and a very weird genetic structure, wrapped around synthetic nearly indestructible bones, ligaments, and muscles." Amy shrugged. "Taylor could tank a nuke and not even notice. I _might_ survive a tiny one at some distance, but I sure wouldn't want to try it. But normal chemical explosives won't do too much damage unless it's stupidly large quantities, I should be able to take some pretty intense heat for a while, massive impact, that sort of thing. And damn few toxins would do anything much. It's even insanely radiation resistant due to the quad-helix DNA and the redundancy. Not to mention that with me in here I can repair it on the fly and make upgrades."

"But you can't change the bone structure, presumably? If it's made of EDM foam, I mean."

"Yes and no, I can rework it a bit because it's modular, but there are some fairly large restrictions." Amy looked around, then back to Lisa. "If I need to be a different thing, I'll build a different thing to be. Taylor cheats, I have to do it the hard way at the moment."

She grinned with a wide toothy grin. "I can live with that. I've still done something incredible."

"You sure have," Lisa laughed. "And something that's going to make PHO go totally insane. Again."

"It's basically a poor man's version of a Family member, but it'll do for the time being," Amy smiled. "I'm not as tough, or strong, don't have the shape-shifting and matter generation powers, and I don't have the stamina that she does, but I should be stronger than almost anyone else in the city, this will take a shot from a tank main gun and only bruise, my healing abilities work fine through it since it's part of me at the moment, and I have wildly better senses than a human even if they're nowhere near Varga senses. I'm happy."

"Obviously my cousins have different powers than my sisters," Taylor laughed. "A different branch of the Family, of course. They have their own talents. Our biotech comes from them, after all."

Lisa looked thoughtfully at her, then Amy. "That… is a very interesting idea. If you want to make people think that those symbiotes are Family technology, that may well work. Which gets around some of the possible issues you might have otherwise, and hides Amy's involvement in it all."

"I'd prefer that," Amy noted.

"I'm not surprised," Lisa replied. "The PRT gets very weird about Biotinkers. Too dangerous in their view, because of things that have happened in the past. But on the other hand, the Family is already an extinction-level event waiting to happen if you piss them off, so a Family Biotinker..." She shrugged with a smirk. "Probably not too much extra worry for them, since they'll already be shitting themselves anyway."

"We're not _that_ scary, are we?" Taylor asked, taking on a form identical to Amy's current one, only with yellow eyes, then standing next to her and draping an arm over her shoulders. Lisa studied them for a few seconds.

"I'd have to go with ' _yes_ ' on that one," she sighed, shaking her head. "I can see some very peculiar things coming from all this."

"Life's not boring anymore, definitely," Taylor smiled.

"No, I'd have to agree there." Lisa grinned at them. "All right then, let's do some tests. You need to see how your new toy performs, after all. And..."

"And?"

"And you need to come up with a name for the new Family member."

Amy and Taylor glanced at each other, green eyes meeting yellow ones. Taylor grinned.

"Hmm. Purple..."

"You are _not_ calling me Barney," Amy snapped, folding her arms and baring her teeth.

Lisa nearly fell over laughing.

* * *

Danny looked around at the activity in the yard, pleased with the way things were proceeding. The filter towers were humming gently as the massive pumps pulled water out of the wrecked ship and pushed it through miles of synthetic fiber to remove contaminants before dumping it into the bay, the job close to completion now. The work of extending the rail line was coming along well, the rails being placed into the bed that Taylor had left in the new surface by gangs of workers, while another group was erecting a number of storage units for tools and consumables near the area where the scrapping would happen.

Yet more people were putting up the last of the extended chain link fence around the newly expanded yard, having taken down the old one and moved it. Overall, everything was coming along well. Tomorrow they could begin the main decontamination of the ship, removing all the old insulation, asbestos, any wiring that was still left, and all the other oddments that got in the way of cutting the thing up.

Nodding to himself, he resumed walking, stopping a few times to check with various shift foremen, heading towards the BBFO office. He noted that Amy's truck was parked outside which presumably meant she was in there with his daughter, and most likely Lisa who he hadn't seen all day. He'd heard that a number of shipments had arrived for her, so she was probably installing the new computers with the other two.

Knocking on the door, just in case something odd was going on, he waited. A few moments later it opened, Lisa peering out, then smiling at him in a way that worried him.

She was good at that.

"Come in, Danny," she invited, stepping to the side. He entered and watched as she locked the door again, then turned around.

There was a very long pause.

"Um..."

He pointed, then looked at Lisa, who was definitely wearing a smirk of annoyingly huge proportions. "I think I might be having trouble with my eyes," he began. "The weird thing is that I could swear I can see two versions of Taylor at the same time."

"Hi, Mr Hebert," one of the two huge lizards said in a pleasant voice, wandering over and holding out a large scaly hand which he shook reflexively, not sure what he was doing. "I'm Raptaur's cousin, I thought I'd come and visit to see what was going on up here on the surface. She's told us a lot about you humans and all the interesting things you do. I'm looking forward to trying something called.. Is it a burger?" she asked over her shoulder.

The _other_ huge reptile, which was lounging on the other side of the room watching with a small grin, and was definitely his daughter in her Raptaur form, nodded.

"Yes, a burger. They sound tasty. Dead animal wrapped in some sort of plant-based foam. We don't have them at home."

She smiled widely, exposing many, many teeth. "Oh, sorry, you can call me Ianthe if you want. It means violet flower, in some old human language, my cousin tells me. You probably couldn't pronounce my real name, but I like that one. Because of my scales, of course."

Danny was still absently shaking the hand in his, looking up at the chatty reptilian creature and wondering when he'd hit his head. He clearly _had_ suffered some sort of cranial injury since there were two members of the, to the best of his knowledge, entirely fictional Family in the same room at the same time.

"Ianthe?" he asked numbly, feeling like he'd completely lost the plot of the day.

She nodded. "Ianthe. It's Greek, whatever that is." Looking down at his hand, she then looked at Lisa, who was making muffled snorting sounds. "Does this ritual go on this long normally? Seems a little weird."

"You can let go now, Ianthe," Lisa said.

"OK." She did so, turning and going back to Taylor, her long tail trailing behind her. Danny watched, his hand going up and down a couple of times before he consciously realized that it was now empty and quickly retracted it.

"He seems nice," the self-proclaimed ' _Ianthe_ ' said in a whisper to his daughter that he still heard, "but a little confused. Is he all right?"

"He's fine, Ianthe," Taylor said, patting the other lizard on the shoulder.

Lisa wandered over and sat next to them, putting her feet on the table and grinning at him. All three waited.

"What the _hell_ is going on in here!?" he finally shouted, pointing at the new reptilian female, who cocked her head to the side and peered at him. His daughter did exactly the same thing except in the other direction. Lisa looked at them, then him, before she dissolved into hysterical laughter, going vaguely purple in the process she was so amused. Feeling that life had become much stranger than was entirely fair without having the decency to even ask first, Danny crossed his arms and glared, waiting for an explanation that made sense.

"Funny story, actually," Taylor giggled, reverting to her base form and leaning on the other reptile, who was now also giggling. "It's like this..."


	127. Ianthe and Explanations

Danny listened open-mouthed to the story he was told, wondering how things had spiraled so far out of the ordinary without any apparent effort. When all three of them stopped talking, he sighed heavily, leaning back in the chair he'd slumped into and running his hands over his face. "God, and I thought you two meeting was a _good_ thing," he mumbled. Lisa snickered, making him peer at her out of one eye having lifted a hand slightly. "Don't _you_ start. You're as much to blame for all of this as they are."

"Hey! These lunatics were already doing this before I ever came along," the blonde protested.

"I'm sure they were. I'm _equally_ sure you jumped right in with the same huge grin you have right now, Lisa. I know you better than you might think."

"I'm not grinning."

"You are on the inside, I can damn near _feel_ it," he grouched. The internal smirk she had became an external smirk, making him point at her face for a moment. " _There_ it is."

"We get bored easily, Dad," Taylor smiled. "Then we have to find something to do. Amy needed this, you know that."

He inspected her through his fingers, then the huge lizard-thing sitting next to her looking amused, before shaking his head. "Why me?"

"No idea, Boss."

Lowering his hands he glared at Lisa, who chuckled. "Boss of the madhouse," he replied in a sarcastic tone of voice. "Why don't I just get a sign on the gate saying ' _ **Welcome to Arkham Asylum, proudly associated with Miskatonic University. Leave sanity at gate in container provided**_ ', hmm? It would at least warn people up front."

"Sanity is overrated," Taylor said in calm tones.

"How would you lot know, none of you have any," he sighed. "And I can feel mine slipping away day by day."

"Poor Dad," she sympathized, reaching over to pat him on the shoulder.

"Poor me, definitely. Poor Brockton Bay as well. _Two_ of you?" He looked despairingly at them. "Life is too short to be able to deal with what that's going to be like." All three young women looked pleased with themselves. "Well, I guess I probably can't actually stop you. Just promise me you won't make the entire city into a nest of demonic lizards, at least until we manage to finish all the work we have scheduled?"

Taylor came over to him and hugged him. "We'll be good." He fixed her with a look, and she blushed a little. "Goodish, then. Mostly."

"Why do I have a sinking sensation in my stomach when you say that?" he asked rhetorically. "Between you, there's a demon, a half-demon, a… whatever the hell Amy is, and _her."_ He nodded towards Lisa, who waved back grinning. "Not to mention Über and Leet somewhere in the mix, and I have no doubt the rest of the former Undersiders sooner or later. Which probably means a number of hell beasts that used to be dogs as well when Rachel gets to work." He thought about his words for a few seconds, paled a little, and groaned again, burying his head in his hands.

"Why me?"

Taylor hugged him again, giggling sympathetically.

"It won't be boring," she pointed out.

"No. No, it won't," Danny sighed. "Not even slightly. God, the worst of it is I'm picturing what would be happening about now if Annette was here. She'd already be bugging Amy for her own demon-suit. Then running around the city making everyone stare in horror at what happened to their nice normal lives." He looked up. "In _Brockton Bay!_ This place wouldn't know normal if it bit it in the ass, but even in those terms you are all crazy."

They exchanged glances and laughed a little, while he shook his head yet again, before pushing everything away and deciding all he could do was roll with it. That pretty much summed up life these days. "OK. So, Amy, what can you do now?" Sitting up he watched as she frowned thoughtfully, wondering at the back of his mind about his ability to read reptilian expressions so easily these days. Apparently you really could get used to anything if you were exposed enough.

"Well, we tested my strength and it's even better than I expected. I can dead-lift about twelve or thirteen tons at the moment, although I think I can probably improve that quite a lot with some more work. Less than half what Taylor can do as Raptaur, but it's pretty high for a Brute. I'm _much_ faster than a normal human as far as reflexes go, and speed of motion. Again, nowhere near what Taylor can do but way up there in Parahuman terms. My vision is far better than before and goes into ultraviolet and infrared a long way, as well as the same general type of thermal vision Taylor has. Which is really weird but fucking cool at the same time. Better hearing, smell, all the normal senses. I'm still trying to figure out the electrical and magnetic senses she has but I haven't quite got there yet."

"You obviously don't have her matter creation power, since as I understand it that's pure Varga magic?"

"No, nothing like that. I can do some pretty cool tricks even so, using my biomanipulation abilities." Amy held out her hand, in which a dark gray-black blade formed over a period of a few seconds, looking like it was growing from the bottom up. His eyes widened.

"How did you do that?" he asked curiously.

"It's made from a biologically generated organic matrix loaded with metallo-organic molecules, like boron compounds. I based it on stuff I read about graphene and carbon nanotubes, with some other things Taylor suggested, and recent research on biological supermaterials found in nature. The stuff is harder than diamond and tougher than cobalt steel, but pretty light. It makes a very good cutting edge. Nothing even close to EDM, of course, but then nothing is. Even so it's the hardest thing you can probably get from a biological source, and stronger than even the best spider silk by a huge amount. I'm pretty proud of it."

Amy smiled, waving the blade in her hand around a little. "Glands in my hands form it in various shapes, and I can reabsorb the stuff for the raw materials. So I can make blades and things like batons, a lot like Taylor can do, but slower as well. It doesn't vanish after some time, although I'm working on a way to make it self-destruct by a sort of enzyme-triggered process. Still a work in progress."

Danny stared, impressed and a little appalled. "That's… somewhat horrifying," he said.

"Once you control biology, you have a hell of a lot of control over chemistry as well," Taylor commented. "There are all sorts of interesting possibilities."

"I decided against the ability to exhale nerve gas as being a little anti-social," Amy laughed, "although I can always add it if needed."

He paled a little again. "Please try not to need it," he begged her. "That may be going slightly too far."

"I thought so," she agreed. "But I _did_ give myself the ability to do this." She put the biologically produced knife on the table, then turned, raising her right arm and sighting along it. He noticed that there was a stand on the far end of the large room with a three-foot-square target pattern on it, which she was pointing her hand at. A sharp pop sounded and the target rocked as something hit it at high velocity. He could see a new hole in the surface, joining a couple of dozen existing ones.

"What the fuck was _that?_ " he asked in shock.

"One of these," Taylor replied, picking something up from the table and handing it to him. He inspected the small thing, finding it to be a dart-like object about an inch and a half long with three fins at the base and a razor-sharp tip. It seemed to be made of the same material Amy had produced the blade from, which was hard and smooth under his fingers.

"I've got a launching mechanism in my forearms for them," Amy explained, turning back to him and smiling, while he stared at the dart he was holding. "It works a bit like a gas-powered blowgun, using several chemicals that get mixed together and cause a burst of very hot high pressure gas and propel the dart down the barrel and out my palm through a small sphincter. The darts are made as needed although I also have half a dozen ready to go all the time. I can coat them in all sorts of interesting chemicals as well, sedatives, hallucinogens, toxins, you name it. Or just fire them bare, at speeds from slow enough to barely pierce the skin up to about two or three times the speed of sound."

"They'd go right through someone like that," Taylor commented approvingly, making him transfer his stare to her. "And a lot of body armor as well. We found out they'll penetrate about a quarter of an inch of armor steel." Amy whirled and leveled both hands, half a dozen loud cracks sounding in under two seconds and the target sprouting more holes, then toppling over. "They're pretty loud at full speed," his daughter added mildly.

"Fucking hell, you girls are… I don't really have the words, but terrifying barely covers it," he breathed, stunned.

"Set the target up again, will you, Taylor?" Amy asked, looking pleased with herself.

"Yep," the other girl replied as she jumped up and did as requested.

"I came up with another one that I didn't want to try until I got the aiming working right," Amy smiled. "Cover your ears."

They all did so, Taylor and Lisa quickly, while Danny looked at them all, then followed suit.

Taking aim again, Amy appeared to concentrate, then the popping sound came once more. It was immediately followed by a very loud bang as half the target disappeared in a shower of splinters. Danny nearly fell off his chair.

"Holy shit, what did you _do?!_ " he shouted, his ears ringing.

"That would be the explosive dart," Amy replied with a wide grin. "Turns out that you can make something like pentaerythritol tetranitrate biologically and even sensitize it so it goes off on impact. Cool, right?"

"That being?" he asked, not recognizing the chemical name.

"PETN. Very powerful explosive, fairly stable, not too toxic, and oddly enough also a drug for certain heart conditions," she told him. "We looked up several different ones and that looked like a good choice. There are some really interesting possibilities that are more powerful but they're too dangerous for the most part. I just wanted something that was suitable for situations where an ordinary dart wouldn't work."

"Jesus Christ on a pogo stick," Danny sighed. "One of you can eat the world, the other one can blow holes in it. Or gas it. Or make it dissolve into goo. I weep for the future of mankind."

All three girls laughed, Amy walking over and putting her huge clawed hand on his shoulder. "Don't worry, Danny, I'm not going to go and do something silly. I just wanted to make sure that I could pull my weight if if comes to a fight. My abilities are very powerful, horrifically powerful in fact, but only if I touch someone. It's game over at that point for most people, but if I can't touch them, I can't affect them. At least, not without affecting everyone else in the area. It seemed like a decent way to extend my reach without going to crazy extremes."

"Tell him about the idea you had for the biological laser," Taylor smiled.

"Please do _not_ tell me about that idea, Amy," Danny said quickly. "I don't want to know."

"There's the electric eel generation organ based stun-gun idea as well," Lisa snickered. "That one is great. Either touch them and _zap_ or shoot a dart at them and _zap._ "

"Oh, god." He put his head in his hands again.

When he'd recovered a little, he looked around at the room. "Changing the subject away from your horrifying hobby for a moment, I'm impressed with the computer setup," he said, getting up to check out the installation on the other side of the room. "Very neat indeed. Is the internet connection working properly?"

"It's pretty good, Dad," Taylor replied, following him. "These computers are really fast as well, a lot quicker than the ones at Arcadia. I love the monitors, they're fantastic. Lisa did a really good job on the entire order." He looked at her, then at the blonde girl, who seemed pleased with the praise.

"Thanks, Lisa, you're definitely good at this sort of thing."

"My pleasure, Danny," she smiled.

"I see you've got some bookcases up as well. What books are you going to get for them?"

"I've ordered a whole set of chemistry, physics, electronics, mechanical engineering, mathematics, and biology textbooks," Taylor told him. "The library at school is sadly out of date on some of those subjects. I want to learn everything I can, and we'll need them for some of Amy's projects as well. The internet is a useful resource but some of the information we need is difficult to find a good source for. I've also set up a subscription to a couple of scientific magazines so we can see what's going on in the world."

"Sounds like you're really trying to keep abreast of things, dear," he remarked, impressed.

She shrugged. "I like to learn. And you never know when some of that information will come in handy. I need to find some good history books as well, I want to see if there are more like that one of Mom's you showed me on Roman engineering."

"You can bring that in if you'd like," he pointed out.

"I don't want to lose or damage it," she replied quietly. "It was Mom's."

He looked at her, then nodded, silently agreeing with her viewpoint.

"So what's the next task in your current plan to drag the city into a Lovecraftian horror of a world?" he asked with a grin, turning to look at Amy and Lisa, who were watching and listening. The healer in her huge reptilian body was lying stretched out on the floor with her head propped up in her hands, making him smile, it was a very teenaged-girl pose which looked very odd from something like that.

"Taylor and I were going to go for a swim," she replied, looking happy. "I need to test the aquatic adaptions and make any tweaks needed, and check how deep I can go. Should be several thousand feet at least."

"Can you handle the temperature and pressure?" he asked, surprised and concerned.

"Temperature is no problem, this body is good for at least minus sixty without any problems at all," she replied thoughtfully. "Taylor could probably wade in liquid helium, I'm not at that level, but no naturally occurring temperature anywhere on the planet except possibly in a volcano would cause problems. And I have no intention whatsoever of swimming in lava."

"That sounds cool," Taylor snickered. Amy sighed.

" _Almost_ a pun. You'll have to try harder, though." Danny grinned at the long-suffering tone to her voice. He once again thought how neatly the two fitted together, almost like they were sisters or the cousins that Amy had joked about. They were certainly two of a kind in most ways, complementing each others talents remarkably well.

"The pressure is more complicated, but I should be good down to a pretty impressive depth. Definitely a couple of thousand feet with no issues, I've made all the relevant modifications to the life support systems to ensure nothing will cause problems. Below that I'll have to take it slowly and carefully and keep monitoring things, so I can adjust the whole design and tweak it until it works. Nothing like a live test to get proper data, unfortunately."

"Well, be careful, both of you. Taylor, don't let Amy hurt herself pushing her limits too hard." He gave his daughter a slightly worried look. She nodded, appearing fairly unconcerned.

"I'll keep an eye on her, don't worry, Dad," she said. "I don't want anything to happen to her any more than you do."

Going back to the table he rotated the chair he'd been in and sat down again, looking at all three girls, including the purple-hued scaly one on the floor. "When you've fine tuned your little construction project, what do you intend to do with it, Amy?" he asked after a few seconds of contemplation.

Lifting her head she shrugged slightly. "I don't have a specific goal in mind, it's more the trip than the destination," she replied after some thought. "This is amazingly fun, aside from anything else. Every thing I come up with seems to spark at least two other ideas. I could keep fiddling with it for years to be honest. But I guess I want to try to help, other than with the same healing I've been doing since I Triggered." She sighed a little. "True enough, cutting back on that and meeting all you guys has helped a hell of a lot, more than I could ever have imagined. But this opens up all sorts of other possibilities as well. I think being a Family member could be very amusing aside from anything else. Although there are all sorts of problems with actually doing it, of course."

"Yes, I can see a few myself," he noted thoughtfully. "You'll need to put your truck somewhere out of sight so no one knows Amy Dallon is here when… Ianthe… is running around, for one thing. Can you be identified by any specific Parahuman powers you know about?"

Taylor and Amy exchanged a glance while Lisa looked interested. "Um, possibly, yes," Amy said. "My human scent should be covered except for traces that could be argued away as just being in the same room as Amy at some point, but we know that there are some abilities which might be able to detect me in here. I've put in countermeasures for the ones I know about that I _think_ will work, but without testing it I can't be completely sure. I don't think looking for body language, voice patterns, anything like that will give anything useful but there are other methods that might."

"I was going to ask about that, how did you manage to get the speech patterns so different?" he asked curiously. "And adapt to walking around like that so fast? I'd have thought, bearing in mind how it can take months of physiotherapy to get used to something like a badly broken leg, that an entirely new body would be very difficult. Never mind a completely non-human body with a new limb like a tail."

She looked pleased with herself. "Actually, the human body has all the neurological wiring for a tail as it turns out, we used to have them way back in our evolutionary heritage, but you're right." She tapped her head. "Like I said, there's a lot of brain matter in here. It's an entirely standalone system that can run the body on its own if needed. Without me in here, it's got the capacity to be about as smart as a smart dog at the moment, and has a number of preprogrammed behavioral patterns. When I'm connected I'm driving it completely, but it's managing the really low-level stuff that's required to move the body around naturally. We merge on a very fundamental basis, it's an extension of me at this point. Like the symbiote, in a sense, but much more complicated."

"That's..." He stared, astounded. "...Incredible," he finally said in awe.

"It's pretty good," she agreed happily. "I didn't want to push it too far to start with, so I only went for the normal human complement of limbs plus a tail, instead of the extra arms like Taylor can manage. She could probably handle a lot more, her connection to the Varga makes all sorts of ridiculously weird things easy, but I wanted to start off with something I knew would work. But in some ways this is a little like her, which is what I based it on. In a very real sense there are two minds in here as well, although one of them is an extension of the other. Like a coprocessor in computer terms."

"So you're sort of filtering your speech through this secondary brain?" Danny asked, thinking it through. She nodded, smiling happily.

"Yes. It seems to work pretty well, I based it on Saurial so we sound similar. Body language is the same sort of thing, the brain running the body isn't and never has been human so it doesn't look like Amy in an Ianthe suit, while I'm in here I _am_ Ianthe in a very real way. Amy is the mind behind it, but other than that, she's in biological stasis for the most part." She shrugged a little. "You wouldn't believe how much neurological interconnection is needed to make it work. I had to make some interesting modifications to my spine to allow everything to function correctly, that's what took the time during the initial connection." The girl glanced at Lisa and Taylor, who both nodded understanding. "It will connect much faster next time, only a couple of seconds or so."

"And none of this will cause problems for you when you're not Ianthe?" he asked, concerned.

She shook her head. "No, it's not a problem, although I expect missing the boosted senses will be a bit of a let-down. Taylor gets to keep them all the time. Until I can work out the right way to modify my human body without risk, I don't."

"Poor The Amy," Taylor snickered, grinning at her friend.

"Exactly," Amy laughed. "Anyway, it seems to be working perfectly so far. Not bad for a prototype. I can see half a dozen improvements I want to make already but I'll have to wait until I'm out of here for most of them, it'll be easier and probably safer."

"I am almost speechless at how much you've managed to do, Amy," he finally said. "Truly incredible. Please be careful, though, we wouldn't want to lose you through some silly mistake that you overlooked."

"I'll take it slowly and carefully, trust me, Danny," she assured him. "I have no more wish to end up dead than anyone else. But this is the most fun I've had in years. And my power is rolling over and giggling with joy, if it can actually do that." She grinned again. "I like healing people, sure, although compared to that, this is like it's what I was meant to do. I intend to enjoy it to the max."

"While making everyone else stare and go ' _Um.._.' like Taylor does?" Lisa inquired, looking highly amused.

"Oh, sure, definitely that," the girl on the floor giggled.

Sighing a little, Danny inspected them all, then shrugged resignedly. "Don't get _too_ carried away, but I'm glad you're having fun." He looked at his watch for a second. "I have to get back to the office. Lisa, when these two are off terrifying fishermen, I could do with some help and your insight for a while."

"OK, Danny, no problem, I'll head over in a few minutes," the blonde girl replied.

Standing, he headed for the door. Reaching it he unlocked it, then turned to look back at the three at the table, who were watching him, Taylor now Raptaur again. Shaking his head, he left without another word, hearing laughter behind him.

' _I'm sorry, Brockton Bay_ ,' he thought as he walked back to the office. ' _Really I am. You have no idea what's going on and it's only going to get worse_.'

Grinning to himself at the thought, he went into the Admin building and headed for the nearest cup of coffee before getting back to work.

* * *

Taylor looked at Amy, who looked back, then they turned to Lisa. "We'll be awhile, I expect," she told the blonde. "Don't wait up."

Laughing, Lisa stood, then walked over to Amy and poked her in the chest. "When you've worked the bugs out, we need to talk."

"You want one?" Amy asked, grinning.

"Oh, so much." Lisa looked at them again, before adding, "So very much. It looks like fun."

"It is so far."

"I'll move your truck in here, Danny's right, you need to think about that some more. If you come here and hide it, that'll keep anyone outside the DWU from knowing, but people around here aren't stupid, they'll work it out sooner or later. There are definitely some of them that already know about Taylor." Lisa looked up at her friends.

Taylor nodded. "I'm aware of that. Zephron knows about Saurial being Raptaur and vice versa, as do a few others. I doubt it took him all that long to work out who I probably really was with that information. But he'd never say."

"No, none of them will, I'm sure of that," Lisa agreed. "But even so you'll want to keep it discreet. Maybe park at Taylor's house and come in with her or Danny, or keep Ianthe somewhere else." She thought for a moment, then shrugged. "Not that anywhere else is as safe as here, though. No one is going to break into this place."

"Only Taylor and I have keys for the workroom, so even if they did get in here no one can enter that," Amy put in. "But you're right of course. We'll have to think that part out some more." She sighed slightly. "Managing multiple identities is complicated. I have no idea how you can do it with at least five of them so far, Taylor."

"Pure skill, of course," Taylor giggled. "Plus Varga magic."

The demon spoke through her, sounding very thoughtful. "Speaking of that, I _may_ be able to modify the Assassin's Cloak spell to help disguise your connection to Ianthe, Amy, but I'm going to have to think hard about it. The perceptual filter part of the spell might be amenable to enough change to allow it to be applied to this body in a way that makes it very difficult to associate with your true identity. Without the entire thing, it wouldn't be as impenetrable as the normal spell is, so there may be methods to defeat it, but it would most likely block any direct association even if the clues were present. It would most likely also confuse most Thinker abilities even more than normal reasoning."

Lisa and Amy stared at her. "Magic is so _bullshit!_ " Lisa finally said with exasperation. "That's just not fair. Instant Stranger ability?"

"As I said, I can't at the moment guarantee it's possible, but I suspect it most likely is. How effective it would be remains to be seen. We already know it works very well as the full spell, but modifying something this complex in effect can sometimes cause unexpected problems. Given enough time I can probably come up with something entirely effective, and I could always throw enough power into it to solve the problem completely, but that would require you to be close to Taylor all the time, which clearly isn't ideal. This should do for the time being once I work out the details even so." He sounded like it was an interesting challenge he was looking forward to.

"It's certainly worth trying," Amy mused. "Although Lisa and Danny are also right, I need to practice good security right from the beginning."

"It is always best to maintain good habits, I agree," he laughed. "Allow me to ponder the matter."

"My keys are in my jacket over there," Amy told Lisa, pointing at the back of one of the chairs where she'd hung the garment when she'd arrived. The blonde girl went and fished around for a moment, coming up with a ring of car keys. Taylor moved to open the roller door, allowing her outside in the process. Shortly the blue truck was parked at the far end of the workshop. Thinking about it, she generated a large crate around it to disguise it just in case.

"That should do it," she said with satisfaction. "OK, let's go for a swim, then wander around town for a while. That should give PHO something to talk about."

Amy grinned at her. "See you later, Lisa," she said to the other girl who was watching and looking cheerful.

"Be careful and have fun," Lisa replied. Both of them nodded as they moved to the rear door, Taylor unlocking it and pulling it open.

"After you, dear cousin Ianthe," she said grandly, motioning to the sea a few yards away.

"Why, thank you, dear cousin Raptaur," Amy smiled. Running out the door she jumped, arching over into a near perfect dive, then disappeared into the chilly water with a small splash. Casting one last look over her shoulder at Lisa who was smirking, Taylor waved, then followed.

* * *

' _This is incredible_ ,' Amy thought as she slowly sank into the bay, looking around with interest. The transparent second eyelid she'd designed to correct vision underwater was currently across her eyes, allowing her to see clearly. Settling on the bottom she fiddled with the design for a little while, tweaking it for maximum clarity, until she was satisfied it was as good as it would get. Taylor was swimming lazy circles around her with slow sweeps of her tail, having changed the Raptaur form into a scaled down Kaiju one with the aquatic modifications.

Peering over her own shoulder Amy unfurled the fins hidden inside her own ' _Ianthe_ ' tail, converting it to a more efficient propulsion system, then pushed off, mimicking the motions her friend was using. It took a few minutes of practice to find the optimal movements but she was soon moving rapidly through the water with no real effort. It was certainly far easier than swimming as a human. ' _I could really get used to this_ ,' she smiled to herself.

Both of them swam along a few feet over the sea-floor, following it down as the water got deeper. Taylor led her to the shipping channel then descended into it, turning towards the open ocean. Only a few minutes later they'd left Brockton Bay behind. Looking up Amy tried to work out how deep they were. It was at least several hundred feet she thought. So far, the pressure was hardly noticeable and she felt fine. Her power was monitoring both her human body and the constructed one wrapped around it and keeping it safe. Both were working perfectly. Her energy reserves were more than sufficient to keep this level of exertion up for days, and she had weeks worth of oxygen in storage, leaving aside the amount her lungs, currently working as gills, were taking from the water around her.

' _So cool_ ,' she giggled. ' _Meeting Taylor was the best thing ever in so_ _ **many**_ _ways_.' Even with the somewhat worrying start, she didn't regret a second of it.

By now a couple of miles out to sea, she slowed again, settling to the bottom. Taylor followed her down. Experimentally, she said, "This is amazing," wondering if the sound generation method she'd come up with that didn't rely on a lung-full of air would work properly.

"You sound weird," Taylor chuckled, her own voice sounding more or less normal. "But yes, it is."

Making some modifications, Amy tried again. "How's this?"

"Better," her friend replied. "Pretty close to what you sound like in air. How are you feeling?"

"Absolutely fine and totally stoked," Amy laughed. "This is the most incredible thing ever. I wish we were in tropical waters, though, there'd be more sea life." She looked around. "And less mud, maybe. A nice coral reef or two wouldn't go amiss."

"People just don't think about how their sea-bed looks," Taylor snickered. "All muddy and dark like this."

"It could do with some more light," Amy agreed.

"Like so?" Taylor was suddenly projecting blue light from an organ between her eyes.

"Oh, cool!" Amy yelped in surprise. "Luciferin reaction?"

"Yes, we copied it from a glowing thing I ate on the way back from Canada," Taylor confirmed.

"Neat." Thinking about it, Amy let her power go to work, then smiled when she lit up like a Christmas tree, new light generation organs down her sides and along her tail producing a soft green glow that illuminated the area around them.

"Showoff," Taylor giggled. Amy shrugged, pleased with the result as she inspected herself.

"One does what one can," she replied.

Her friend smiled at her. "One does." After a moment, she added, "Now we're alone, I needed to ask you, do you think Dean will work you out?"

Sitting on the bottom in a cloud of sediment, which rapidly settled out around her, Amy sighed a little. "I'm not sure," she replied, as Taylor sat beside her, watching a small fish of some sort that came to investigate them, apparently attracted by their bioluminescence. "I'm pretty certain that to his emotional reading ability I'll show up a lot like he said you did. My ' _Amy_ ' emotional signature should be disguised fairly well both by the biostasis shutting down a lot of my human brain, and the secondary brain which I'm running from at the moment. But he's far from stupid, he knows there's only one of you. Which means that Ianthe can't possibly exist based on what he currently understands."

"Which is going to confuse the poor boy a lot," Taylor pointed out, smirking a little.

"Oh, _so_ much. So even if he can't read me as Amy for sure, he might well work out who I am in the end. He'll know something's hinky right from the beginning. I suspect he'll want to talk again at some point."

"Are you OK with him knowing about your biomanipulation abilities?"

"I'd prefer him not to know, to be honest, but I can't see any good way to keep it hidden from him completely. I'm open to suggestions." Amy shrugged a little nervously. "But you know, Danny knows, Lisa knows, Über and Leet know as well. I guess one more probably won't hurt too much, since we know already that he can keep his mouth shut. If only because he's still terrified of you."

"He'll be terrified of you too, now," Taylor said.

"He already was," Amy replied with a dark grin. "For good reasons."

Laughing, Taylor nodded. "You didn't have to tell Über and Leet about what you could do the other night, you know," she said after a moment.

"I do know, but oddly enough, I actually trust them. More than I do a lot of Parahumans. Probably shows something badly wrong with me that I trust some of the villains more than I trust some of the heroes."

Amy reached out and put her hand near the fish, which was still swimming around them. It swam away, then came back and investigated this new strange thing, making her smile.

Taylor sighed a little. "I know what you mean, believe me. Dad told me early on not to blindly trust the PRT and their people and things since then have made me realize he was right. But there are some good people there, even so. Varga gave similar advice and he's right too. I decided in the end to evaluate people as individuals, not as cardboard cutouts based on their ' _alignment_ ' or something equally silly. People are all different. Some _heroes_ are not good _people_. Some villains _are_. Law-abiding and good aren't entirely equivalent despite what our parents told us."

"I've begun to learn that," Amy admitted. "Mom would be very irritated about it, but she sees the world very much as us and them. Although to be fair, since our… disagreement… she's mellowed more than I expected. Aunt Sarah talked a lot of sense into her and she's genuinely trying hard to be less judgmental."

"I actually sort of like your Mom," Taylor smiled. "I certainly respect her, and her talents, both as a cape and as a very smart lawyer."

"And car dealer terrifier, don't forget that," Amy snickered.

"Who could forget? Right then, I guess we'll just have to see what happens when we run into Dean. In the meantime, come on, I want to show you some of the things I've found out here. There's a neat shipwreck a few miles that way. We've got a long swim to the continental shelf as well if we're going to test your depth handling ability, it's too shallow around here."

"Lead on, scaly horror from the deep."

Grinning, Taylor launched herself into the water again, Amy following and feeling very happy indeed.

* * *

Sighing, Hannah followed the fleeing gang members, their footsteps disappearing around the corner down the alleyway. Behind her, several more were groaning from the bean-bag rounds she'd knocked them down with. Robin was supervising as the PRT troopers he'd called collected the semi-conscious E88 people they'd almost literally tripped over in the process of breaking into a gun shop while on patrol. She could hear BBPD sirens approaching as well, the police responding to their call slightly more slowly than the PRT people had.

Although to be fair, the PRT van was only a few hundred yards away at the time they'd put the call in.

Slowing down as she reached the corner, Hannah hefted her power-generated weapon, bringing it to the firing position, then slowly approached the turn. She had no way to know if the gangers were waiting for her or not and was taking things very carefully.

She stopped dead when she heard a sharp _phut!_ sound, which was slightly reminiscent of a suppressed pistol, only much quieter. It came twice more, then there was a faint thud like someone falling over. After several seconds, she resumed stalking the corner, much more slowly and with a heavy dose of paranoia.

"They stopped moving. Do we eat them now?" an unfamiliar voice said, with a slight accent that made her stop again, her heart suddenly hammering in her chest.

"No, we tie them up," a more familiar voice with the same hissing accent responded, sounding mildly exasperated.

" _Then_ eat them?" The first voice was hopeful.

"No. We don't eat humans, remember? We went through this. Not unless they're being _very_ naughty."

"Why hunt them if we're not going to eat them?" the first voice said in a reasonable tone.

Hannah heard a sigh. She peeked around the corner, then froze in horror.

"I told you, we're not _hunting_ humans, we're _detaining_ humans. These ones are criminals, they were running from a crime and the police will want to talk to them."

"They look pretty tasty," the huge reptilian horror that was the source of the first voice said, bending down over the three E88 gangers who were lying on the ground, their eyes so wide they looked like it hurt. All three seemed unable to move, but Hannah could see they were sweating heavily even from fifty feet away. The thing inspecting them sniffed audibly, then poked one with a long finger tipped with a talon. "Not too much fat, nice and tender..."

Saurial sighed again and slapped her companion's hand away. "No poking the prisoners, Ianthe, you'll give the Family a bad reputation. Go and bring that one over here, please."

The nearly eight foot tall lizard nodded, blue-violet scales glinting in the light from the streetlamp near them. "OK," she replied cheerfully, walking over and picking the gang member in question up by one leg. She held him up and sniffed again. "Yuck. This one is stale, it smells of hallucinogenic chemicals. Where did those come from?"

"They use them for fun," Saurial muttered, engaged in forming her normal manacles on the two captives she was dealing with. When she finished, she looked over, then shook her head. "Don't hold him like that, humans are fragile, you'll break him. Bring him here."

"I can fix him, you know," Ianthe grumbled, doing as requested. Saurial quickly bound the last prisoner and put him next to the first two. "What an odd thing to do for fun."

"I know, but they're a bit weird sometimes," Saurial agreed. She leaned down and plucked what looked like a tiny dart from the neck of the last captive and handed it to her companion, who ate it. "How long will the paralytic last?"

"Another couple of minutes," Ianthe replied. She leaned closer to Saurial, lowering her voice. "What do we do about the one watching us from over there?" A finger made a gesture over her shoulder at Hannah, making the woman swallow a little.

"That's Miss Militia, she's one of the heroes around here," Saurial whispered. "I'll introduce you. Don't make any sudden moves, this one is sort of skittish, Raptaur told me." Both reptiles turned around and smiled identical smiles, making Hannah twitch.

"Hello, Miss Militia, it's nice to see you," Saurial said more loudly. "This is my cousin Ianthe, she's visiting the city at the moment. She wanted to see what humans were like."

Ianthe nodded, still smiling. Out of the side of her mouth, she asked in a quiet voice, "Why is she staring at us like that?"

"No idea," Saurial hissed back. "I told you she was skittish. Stand still."

Ianthe froze, staring motionlessly at Hannah with glowing green eyes. Oddly enough, it didn't make the woman any less unnerved.

"It's not working, she still smells worried," Ianthe muttered to her cousin.

"Humans are weird, I told you." Saurial looked mildly worried herself, inspecting Hannah closely.

"Your… cousin," Hannah finally managed.

"Yep. She wanted to see what all the fuss was about. Back home everyone is really interested, you see, but we're being careful not to let too many of us turn up at once. It might cause problems." She nudged Ianthe. "Stop grinning like that, your face will freeze in that position."

The fixed smile the larger lizard had on her face relaxed. "No it won't."

"It will."

"Nope. That would take some form of neurotoxin that paralyzed facial nerves specifically." Ianthe looked thoughtful. "I can design one if you want."

"No, I think we can do without that." Saurial sighed a little. "Please stop terrifying people."

Ianthe looked at her, then Hannah, who was wearing a similarly fixed grin while trying to work out how fast she could turn and run. "Hey, did she already get a dose? I haven't even designed it yet. That's a bit rude."

Sighing, Saurial shook her head and gave Hannah a look of sympathy. "Sorry, she has a weird sense of humor." The lizard-girl came over and held out her hand. "These are all the ones we spotted running from you. Did you get the others?"

After a long moment, Hannah nodded, taking the offered hand and shaking it for a moment. "Yes," she said, then cleared her throat. "Yes, we got the others." Looking at the three gangers who were still lying rigidly on the ground, she had to ask. "What did you do to them?"

"It's a nifty paralytic drug I designed that's specific for human physiology," Ianthe put in with a broad smile. "Completely safe, it targets voluntary muscles and temporarily shuts them down. They'll recover any time now."

Seconds later all three men twitched and shook, then started shouting.

"Told you."

Ianthe looked pleased. After a moment her smile faded, as she looked back at the prisoners, who seemed somewhat disturbed. "They're really noisy, though," she commented.

"They get like that sometimes." Saurial also looked at them. "Annoying, but what can you do? A lot of the time they won't stop shouting even if you ask politely."

"It's very irritating. We're trying to have a conversation here." Ianthe walked over and looked down at the three men, who all stared in horror at her. "Please stop yelling like that, it's rude."

"Monster!" the one in the middle screamed.

Ianthe whirled around, looking about her. "Where?" she yelped urgently.

"I think he means you, cousin," Saurial said with a smirk.

"Hey!" Turning back, Ianthe glared at the man, who flinched. "That's not very nice." He whimpered, while his friends tried to squirm away from him. Hannah watched with a feeling of disconnected unreality.

The man began crying, making the lizard looking at him sigh. "You really are a very odd person," she muttered. Raising her hand she pointed it at him, the same popping sound coming again. He relaxed, going silent. Glaring at his companions, she asked, "Are you two going to keep quiet?"

Both of them nodded frantically.

"Thanks." Turning back to Saurial and Hannah, she came over. "That was getting embarrassing."

"What did you do?" Hannah squeaked, ashamed of how she sounded.

"Just put him to sleep for a while. He'll wake up again in twenty minutes or so. Different drug, but also completely safe." Ianthe turned her long neck and looked back over her shoulder at the three captives, before looking back to them. "I should probably have used that the first time. I'll remember for the next hunt."

"Again, not actually _hunting_ them," Saurial sighed, covering her eyes with a hand. "Stop saying that, you're going to make people get the wrong idea."

"Sorry, Cousin," Ianthe smiled. "I'll try to remember."

"We should probably be going," Saurial said, looking at Hannah. "I still have to show her some other things and I want to introduce her to some people at the DWU. I'll send a report to the BBPD same as usual." She looked over Hannah's shoulder and waved, making the woman turn to see Velocity, two PRT troopers, and a couple of cops all staring at them. "Hi, Officer Smith," she called, one of the cops raising a hand, although he was looking at Ianthe with a strange expression.

Turning back to the military cape, she smiled. "See you around. Come on, Ianthe, let's go."

"OK," the other lizard replied, looking away from inspecting the new arrivals with interest. Both of them walked off a few yards, then scrambled up the front of one of the buildings after a couple of impressive leaps that took them more than half way. "What about these ' _burger_ ' things? I still want to try one. Or two."

"We can stop there on the way," Saurial's voice came back as they vanished over the rooftops. "I'm a little hungry as well."

Hannah looked up, still not sure she was awake. If she _was,_ the world had become a very strange place even for Brockton Bay. And a lot of her worries suddenly seemed much more plausible.

"What the hell was _that?_ " Robin said as he came over to stand beside her.

She shook her head slowly, still looking upwards. "No fucking idea at all," she sighed. "Except for extremely peculiar."

"At least we now know for sure there are more of them," he commented. She nodded, shivering.

"Yes." Lowering her eyes to the three men on the ground, after a moment she walked over and knelt down on one knee, examining the unconscious one in the middle. Reaching out she carefully removed a small dark gray and extremely sharp dart that was protruding from his chest, dropping it into the evidence bag her colleague held out without being asked. Sealing it, she held it up to the light for a moment, before sighing again and putting it away.

"Yes, we do," she finished. "Why doesn't that make me very happy?"

"Because you're not quite as crazy as everyone else around here?" he shrugged, motioning to the PRT troopers and the cops.

Hannah looked up at the skyline, barely visible in the dark, then sighed again, unable to come up with anything useful to say. She wasn't entirely sure he was right, though. Sanity seemed to have left the building some time ago in her view.

* * *

About a mile away, on the roof of a warehouse, two reptilian figures were convulsed with laughter. "Hunting humans," Taylor giggled. "How the hell did you come up with that one?"

"Seemed appropriate at the time," Amy snickered. "Did you see her face?"

"She smelled extremely confused," her friend noted. "Poor woman, we really shouldn't do things like that. But it was fucking hysterically funny, I have to admit."

"The darts work very well," Amy said after they'd calmed down from a new bout of giggling, lying on her back staring at the sky. "So do the drugs. I was pleased how fast they acted."

"You're completely sure they really are safe?" Taylor asked. Amy nodded firmly.

"Definitely. They're also completely sterile, with another agent that will promote healing of the puncture mark and make sure that they can't spread any infection. And a really fast acting anesthetic in the mix, so they're practically painless. I don't want to hurt anyone."

"Impressive. Really, I mean it." She did, it was a lot of thought to go to for the apparently simple task. "I need to start teaching you the Family fighting style, though, because there are times you won't be able to drop someone from a distance."

"I'd like that," Amy smiled. "Right now, though, I really could do with something to eat. Not because I actually need it, but I want to see what eating is like when I'm like this."

"Let's go for a walk on the boardwalk, then," Taylor replied. "Give the tourists something to see." Sitting up, she stretched, then got to her feet. "Mission accomplished, though."

"Complete with a very weird DNA sample for them to analyze and get really confused about," Amy giggled. "So careless, to forget a dart like that."

"Silly girl." Taylor and Amy exchanged a look, then started running across the roof, jumping to the next one and speeding up.

She was very happy to have someone who could join in like this, and considered the entire day well spent. As well as very funny.

In the back of her mind the Varga agreed, his approval radiating out and giving her a warm feeling.


	128. Omake - Stop showing her movies

_I couldn't help it, this just came to me so I had to write it..._

* * *

Colin ducked as the shot from Squealer's latest abomination of a vehicular mashup screamed overhead, detonating with an ear-shattering BOOM on the wall of the building behind them. Half the front wall slid into the street, an enormous cloud of dust rising from the demolished shop, while the owner of the place screamed in a similarly ear-splitting way from behind the BBPD line several blocks away.

"My shop!" he yodeled in horror, faintly audible over the rumbling of the improvised tinker-tech tank turret turning terrifyingly towards the target temptingly close by, the PRT van that had just arrived. Thinking absently that he needed to work harder on his stream of consciousness alliteration, Colin aimed his halberd and fired, the projectile trailing a nearly unbreakable synthetic spider-silk cable whipping out and wrapping around the barrel. A smooth turn and another button press made an identical projectile carrying the other end of the cable zip across the road and wrap around a lamp post, temporarily at least stopping the turret with a grinding sound from the gears.

The cable wouldn't last forever, but it was enough to allow him to frantically signal the van driver to reverse hastily around the corner out of range.

"Where the hell is Miss Militia," he asked in a growl. Beside him, Ethan shrugged.

"She got caught up in that thing with Skidmark over at the museum," he shouted over the sound of the tank firing again, the shell collapsing another building. "I don't know why these idiots are working separately, but they're causing chaos. Velocity and Battery are trying to take down Mush down in the docks."

"Any sign of any of the Family?" he asked, nodding his understanding and taking aim again, firing an EMP grenade at the tank. It hit with a loud crackling thump and a shower of sparks, but the vehicle only briefly stuttered, apparently shielded. He was almost impressed, Squealer was a criminal and very misguided but she was also a hell of a Tinker. Pity about the complete lack of aesthetics.

And ethics.

"Not so far. Some of the DWU people are helping, they're using those weird bioguns that the new one Ianthe gave them, but Mush is about fifteen feet tall at the moment. They'll drop him eventually, just by wearing him out if nothing else. What do you want to do about these idiots?"

As Colin was about to speak, a couple of dozen Merchants armed with a wide variety of automatic weapons poured out of the alleyway that the tank had crunched its way through, obviously completely off their heads on some chemical mix that no sane person would allow anywhere near them, firing wildly and screaming like lunatics. Both capes ducked again, as did anyone with any sense in the area. Bullets pinged off the road and the rest of the scenery.

Colin sighed heavily. "Oh, for god's sake," he muttered. "Let's let these fools run out of ammunition first, then take them down."

Ethan nodded, leaning back against the wall they were behind, pulling out a can of some soft drink from somewhere and popping the tab. His companion stared at him for several seconds. Noticing, the red-clad cape offered him the can.

"You are a total child at times, you do _know_ that, don't you?" Colin grumbled, closing his eyes and wincing at the complete lack of professional attitude.

Shrugging, Ethan noisily sipped from the can having taken it back, looking pleased with himself.

A few muffled thuds sounded, the characteristic sound of containment foam grenades going off. Colin checked with an extensible camera in the haft of his halberd, seeing several Merchants now trapped in the sticky stuff, but more still coming out of the alley, taking cover of their own behind the tank and various parked cars, still shooting the shit out of everything in sight. Luckily, with exceptionally bad aim even for gang members.

"This is ridiculous," he sighed. "We need backup."

"And backup you shall have, citizen," a voice declared from above them. He looked up, startled, to see the new Family member standing on the roof of the building next to them, two stories up, staring down at the absolute chaos in the street. Ethan followed his eyes and nearly choked on his drink.

Ianthe was wearing a black helmet that covered her eyes with a mirrored visor, only her mouth exposed, and similarly black clothing made to fit her decidedly inhuman frame. There was a golden logo on the helmet above the visor, and on the right breast of what he could see was clearly a uniform. It was vaguely recognizable, but he couldn't quite work out from where.

Ethan started giggling, making him glare at his companion. Honestly, the man was like a six year old at times.

"Halt, in the name of the Law!" Ianthe shouted in a firm voice.

There was a long pause in the gunfire, then it restarted, all of it aimed at her. Colin winced. She looked mildly miffed, as bullets spanged off her helmet and body in showers of dust with the occasional spark, but otherwise not moved.

"As you wish, miscreants," she called, then jumped. Executing a perfect somersault she landed in the middle of the street. "Sleeper Shot!" she cried, raising her arms.

 _Phut!_

One of the Merchants slapped his neck, then fell over. Colin stared.

 _Phut!_

Phut!

Phut! Phut! Phut! Phut! Phut! Phut!

Ianthe spun, dived, and rolled, firing shots one after another at the attacking gang members, who dropped rapidly. Shortly she was the only thing other than the tank still moving. Squealer in the vehicle was cursing up a storm, her voice clearly audible, as the turret moved back and forth with a crunching sound, eventually not snapping the cable Colin had disabled it with, but actually pulling the lamp post out of the ground. Moving rapidly clockwise it depressed and fired, the shell crossing the fifty feet between it and the rapidly maneuvering lizard creature in a fraction of a second. He didn't even have time to call a warning.

The explosion that followed knocked Ianthe off her feet, the street falling silent. There was a pause, then she stood up again, brushing her chest off, before adjusting her helmet which was slightly askew.

"Foolish move, criminal scum," she announced in a dangerous voice. One hand came up. "High Explosive!"

The _Phut!_ this time was instantly followed by a loud _**BOOM!**_ A section of the armor on the home-made tank shattered and slipped to the street.

Ianthe smiled, the grin under the blank mirrored visor horrifying.

 _Phut!_ _ **BOOM!**_  
 _Phut!_ _ **BOOM!**_  
 _Phut!_ _ **BOOM!**_  
 _Phut!_ _ **BOOM!**_  
 _Phut!_ _ **BOOM!**_  
 _Phut!_ _ **BOOM!**_

By now most of the forward armor was missing, and the gun was twitching sadly. Ianthe walked slowly forward, both arms pointing at the tank. A last Merchant came out of the alley, screaming and waving his gun, making her stop and stare at him as he suddenly skidded to a halt. The man looked around, grinned weakly, dropped the weapon at his feet, then turned and ran.

Shrugging she let him go.

 _Phut!_ _ **BOOM!  
**_  
There was now a hole in the tank. Smoke was coming from the engine while one of the tracks had come off, the vehicle rocking backwards and forwards as Squealer and her crew tried to escape.

"Ricochet!" Ianthe declared in a calm voice, taking aim at the hole.

 _Phut! Ping ping ping thwack!_

"Ow!"

The lizard smiled while Colin stared, wondering whether the smoke drifting past contained a hallucinogen. Ethan was rolling on the ground laughing his ass off.

"Surrender, criminals!"

"Never, you scaly bitch," Squealer screamed, a fifty caliber machine gun opening up on the reptilian Parahuman. She stood and waited for the ammunition to run out, then fired another explosive shot that tore the gun from its mounting.

"Resisting arrest, then." Ianthe looked irritated. "Incendiary."

 _Phut! Fwoomph!  
_  
The entire engine compartment burst into flames, making the occupants of the thing shout in horror and fear, then bail out. Four people made a run for it in different directions. None of them made it more than a few steps, before they keeled over. The lizard-like cape turned on the spot, seeming satisfied, then when she was sure there were no remaining Merchants, went over to Squealer and started restraining her with some sort of shiny dark gray organic-looking material she formed around the villain's wrists.

A sound beside him made Colin turn, casting an annoyed look at Ethan who was still laughing weakly, pointing at the scene. Saurial was standing there also watching, having apparently dropped off the same building Ianthe had come from. He stood up, looking at her cousin who was now neatly arranging the unconscious Merchants into rows on the street while the PRT vehicles made their way slowly through the rubble scattered around the place towards her.

"Sorry about that," the lizard-girl said apologetically. "I shouldn't have let Über show her that Judge Dredd movie. She's a little impressionable at times."

Colin sighed heavily, then went to talk to the PRT captain. The paperwork on this one was going to be a nightmare.

Behind him, Ethan kept giggling. "I...I… Incendiary," the man snickered. "The look on her face!"

He shook his head. He really needed to ask Battery to talk to her husband about professional conduct. This was just _embarrassing_.


	129. Analysis and Confusion

"You were gone for hours," Lisa commented, yawning widely. "It's nearly midnight."

She shook her head a little, then rubbed her eyes. She'd been waiting for them for a while, having returned to the BBFO office after Danny went home at around eight. The pair of currently reptilian girls had been gone since just after half past one that afternoon, but looked very pleased with themselves as they came in the rear entrance.

"Sorry, we had to swim a long way to get into deep enough water to properly test things," Taylor replied as she reverted to her normal human form, dropping into a chair. Lisa pushed the chair she was in away from the computer bench and swiveled it around to look at them.

"Where did you go?"

"Out about twenty miles, then due south, it's the shortest direction to the continental shelf, south of Boston," the other girl said. Indicating Amy, who was lying on her back on the floor now, the end of her long tail waving lazily back and forth while she crossed her arms under her head and grinned at the ceiling, she added, "Turns out she can swim at about seventy-five miles an hour. Not bad, for a beginner."

"I could probably manage a little more but the power to speed ratio goes really bad," Amy put in, raising her head to look at Lisa. "That speed seemed about optimal. We worked it out using Taylor's GPS when we reached deep water. I was pretty pleased, it was faster than I expected."

"Not bad at all," Lisa agreed. Turning back to the computer she ran a global mapping program, Taylor coming over and pointing over her shoulder.

"About there, more or less," she said.

"OK. So that's… Hmm, something like seven and a half thousand feet deep. How far down did you get?" She peered over her shoulder at Amy, who looked very pleased with herself.

"All the way to the bottom," the other girl grinned. "I had to stop twice to make some changes, but in the end it turned out to be fairly straightforward. The temperature was simple, the pressure's not too bad. I could easily go deeper, but that would involve a much longer swim. I still want to try at some point even so. This proves I can handle water as deep as anything around here, though."

"I'm very impressed," Lisa replied with her own return grin.

"On the way back we wandered around the city for an hour or so, just to let people see us together," Taylor remarked, sitting down again and putting her feet up on the table. "We had a pretty funny run in with Miss Militia."

"Keep going," Lisa urged when her friend stopped, a wide smile on her face.

"We heard some trouble and went to investigate," the girl began. "Three guys ran and we followed..."

The story, told by both of them, had the blonde almost unable to breath for the laughter. When they finished she kept giggling for over a minute, picturing the expressions on the faces of the unsuspecting heroes. "God, you two are impossible," she finally gasped out.

"Only improbable," Amy said with satisfaction. "With an opening like that, how could I resist? And you know _she's_ going to join in on the spot." The healer waved at Taylor, who was also snickering more than a little.

"I bet PHO is already going crazy," Lisa said, turning back to the keyboard and quickly logging in to her account, then poking around a little in the local forums. It only took her about fifteen seconds to find the thread in question, and links to pictures and video. The other two came over and looked at the screen, all three chuckling at the responses. "Clockblocker is being worried and trolling people at the same time," she pointed out, indicating an entry. "Does that guy ever take anything entirely seriously?"

"No," both the others chorused.

Amy read the last few entries in the thread, which was rapidly growing, then grinned. "Ianthe is going to have to join PHO, I think," she said in a sly voice.

Lisa and Taylor exchanged a glance, then shook their heads with humor.

"Poor PHO," Lisa quipped, even as Amy moved to the next computer and started typing with the tips of her talons, giggling wildly.

* * *

Reading the first page of the report she'd just been handed, a summary of the entire thing, Hannah blinked in shock, then lifted her eyes to gaze at the PRT biologist who'd given it to her. He waited politely, looking more than a little confused, something she could sympathize with. "You're certain?" she asked, pointing at one line on the report with an index finger.

The man nodded. "I am… We are, actually. No one can come up with any other ideas, not with so limited an amount of time to analyze the sample. If we could call in some more expert knowledge, we mi…"

Hannah cut him off with a gesture. "No, I'm afraid that for the moment we can't let this information out of the building." A number of checks from Dragon and Colin had left her fairly sure that the research lab computer system was currently clean, and it was now isolated from the rest of the network on the pretext of a firewall upgrade, which was more or less true if misleading. While this had caused a lot of grumbling in the lab, the scientists were currently living with it, even if annoyed.

"Tell no one outside this room about any of this for now, Doctor Ramirez. It's classified to top secret level five and up, eyes only, you understand?"

He nodded again, looking both puzzled and irritated. "Not really," he grumbled. "But I can follow orders as well as the next guy."

"Thank you. I'm sorry about the inconvenience, but it's important."

"Fine, can you at least tell me where you got that thing?" he said with a frown, pointing at the dart she'd pulled out of the E88 ganger Ianthe had shot, which was sitting in a petri dish on the lab bench next to some extremely expensive DNA sequencing equipment.

"It's part of a new Parahuman encounter I'm working on," she replied.

"Biotinker?"

Hannah looked sharply at him. "Why do you say that?"

Reaching out and picking up the dart in a gloved hand, very carefully avoiding the pointy end which tapered to an extremely fine tip, he held it up. "This was grown. _Not_ machined. It's an amazingly complex metal-loaded organic compound, like nothing I've ever seen before. Far, far stronger than any biologically produced substance on record, but the micro-structure clearly shows a layered construction typical of such things as mollusk shells. The tensile strength is ridiculous, as is the hardness, you could scratch diamonds with it easily. Whoever is responsible for this has something that's worth a hell of a lot of money if it can be mass produced. But the point is that it's produced by a living creature, although not one that was ever evolved on this planet."

Pointing at the tip of the dart, he continued, "The cocktail of drugs used is also entirely unknown to me. There is the soporific, which acts more rapidly than anything I've ever heard of even in minute doses. Time from contact with the bloodstream to unconsciousness is no more than four or five seconds worst case, which is supposedly impossible, but we've tested it. It only works on primates as well, most effectively on humans. Then there's an astoundingly rapid-action local anesthetic better than anything currently used, as well as what looks like some very peculiar form of broad-spectrum antibiotic which also promotes healing based on initial tests."

"Your conclusions being…?"

"It is all the work of an astoundingly gifted Biotinker, or an entire team of extremely good and very experienced biological and chemical engineers that took years to develop it. Without ever publishing anything on any of the drugs in question, or the precursors to them, or the unique techniques used to produce them." He looked at her with his eyebrows up. "Bearing in mind where we are, and the world we live in, my feeling is that the first option is less unlikely."

Hannah sighed gently. He was entirely correct as far as she could see. Neither option made her any happier, the first one being the worst one.

"Add that to the DNA results, or what I _think_ is DNA..." The man put the dart very carefully back into the petri dish and put the lid on it. "The conclusions are somewhat worrying." He turned back to her, studying her for a moment, then spoke again.

"I'm going to go out on a limb here, but I suspect that this involves the Family somehow."

"I can't say any more about it right now, Doctor," she prevaricated, which made him nod once as if he expected the answer.

"Fair enough."

"Can you duplicate any of those drugs?" she asked after a moment's silence.

He looked thoughtfully at the dart. Eventually, he replied, "I am uncertain, it's not really my field. You need a decent pharmacological expert, really. That said, possibly, with considerable time, effort, and investment. Any one them would be something that a good pharma company would spend a couple of billion dollars and a decade of research on, even assuming the background knowledge which is far beyond state of the art. I can be fairly sure that it couldn't be duplicated _easily_ , but I wouldn't like to say it couldn't be duplicated at all. But if you could, just in that dish are the elements of several dozen patents in biotech and tens of billions of dollars of revenue. The structural material alone is ground-breaking, in half a dozen ways I can think of off the top of my head, never mind the drugs."

Looking at her again, he added, "I would very much like to talk to the inventor or inventors of any of them."

With a small hidden smile, she told him, "That may be possible at some point. Thank you for the information and analysis."

"You're welcome, Miss Militia."

"Please remember, this is currently top secret."

The man nodded, then turned and went back to his equipment. Picking up the small transparent container with Ianthe's dart in it, she left the room, thoughts whirling in her head. One of the loudest being that the Director _really_ wasn't going to like the latest development in Brockton Bay Parahuman activity.

It certainly changed some of their theories in a rather unexpected way.

* * *

"Another one just turned up," Dennis commented, peering at the laptop on his knee.

"Another one of what?" Chris asked as he looked up from fiddling with the innards of one of his laser pistols, the device half-disassembled all over the common room table.

"Another Family member," his friend and colleague replied. "Big sort of blue-purple one calling herself Ianthe. PHO says it's Greek, meaning ' _Violet Flower_ '. Which is a very pretty name for something that could probably unscrew Lung's head and eat it."

Getting up, the Tinker went and hung over the back of the sofa so he could see the screen of the other boy's laptop. "Hey, is that Saurial next to her?" he asked, somewhat surprised.

"Yep. They were wandering around down on the Boardwalk for an hour or so around ten this evening," Dennis replied, scrolling down the page to another image. "She's easily a foot taller than Saurial, so she'd be about seven and a half feet maybe? Looks quite similar although much more solidly built, she must weight three or four times as much at least."

"Green eyes, not that weird yellow-orange that Saurial and her sisters have," Chris noted, pointing at the screen.

"Apparently she's a cousin, this guy ' _MZenny_ ' is saying. They came into his shop, he's the one Saurial buys eggs from, and she introduced Ianthe. Left with two dozen eggs." Dennis grinned, shaking his head in wonder. "How did we get to the point that huge reptiles casually wandering in off the street and buying groceries is seen as normal? Hardly any capes at all do that in costume, but these guys just walk around like it was nothing special."

Snickering, Chris shrugged. "Around here it isn't. This is Brockton Bay, home of the fucking weird. Although I'd agree it's gotten a lot weirder in the last couple of months."

"I wonder how many more of them there are?" his friend mused.

"No idea. This is the first time anyone has ever seen more than one at the same time, though, isn't it?"

Dennis thought for a moment, then nodded a little. "Except for Amy, I think so. She's apparently met Saurial and Raptaur at the same time, and she met Kaiju before probably about anyone other than the Mayor and that Hebert guy from the DWU."

"The girl has some very worrying friends."

"The girl _is_ a very worrying friend," Dennis snickered. He kept reading the thread, adding a few comments which made Chris laugh, just to push things along. Indicating one screen name, he grinned. "You know who that is?"

Leaning closer, Chris read the name. "IguanaGirl? Who?"

"That Chinese girl Lucy, who sits at the same table that Amy does these days at lunch," he replied. "She's apparently mad on lizards, has a pet iguana or something, and she's the one that Amy beat up a mugger for with Saurial. The girl posted photos of them together to practically every place on the planet, she was so pleased about it."

"Oh, right, I remember. But her face was blacked out, right?"

"I heard them talking about it and I'm sure it's her. Not to mention, she's damn good looking even with her face covered," Dennis smirked. "I never forget a good looking girl."

"I'm sure you don't," Chris sighed, amused. Pushing himself back to his feet he returned to servicing his weapon. "Well, at least things are going to get even more interesting around here."

"One way to put it," Dennis mumbled, typing quickly, then grinning evilly at the almost immediate responses. "Hey, guess what?"

"What?"

"Ianthe has joined the thread." The boy read some more, his eyebrows going up, then nearly died laughing. "And she has a _really_ weird sense of humor."

Glancing at his friend, who was snickering almost constantly as he read, Chris downed tools once again and went to see what was going on now.

By the time Carlos and Missy got back from patrol, both of them could hardly speak.

* * *

Opening the door, Emily looked at Hannah, then waved her in without a word, locking it behind the other woman then following her into the living room. Hannah was already sweeping it for bugs with her detector. Leaving her to it, she went into the kitchen and got a couple of mugs, then put the kettle on and dumped instant coffee into each mug, knowing they were going to need caffeine based on the woman's expression.

When she came out a couple of minutes later with a steaming mug in each hand, Hannah was sitting in a chair holding a folder, waiting for her. She handed the visitor one mug then also sat. "Now what?" she asked after a couple of sips.

"We were possibly wrong, but also right," Hannah sighed heavily, putting the folder on the coffee table between them and pushing it across to her, then taking a sip of her own coffee. "There's another Family member running around tonight. Apparently a cousin."

Emily raised her eyebrows, but said nothing.

"She's probably a Biotinker."

The PRT director nearly choked on her drink. "WHAT!?" she yelped, quickly putting the mug down, then wiping her chin free of coffee with her sleeve without thinking about it. "I mean, what the fuck? How… Is that even possible? If they're the _result_ of a Biotinker, can one make another one?"

Hannah shrugged, sighing heavily. "I have no damn idea at all right now. Everything about the Family breaks all the rules we thought we knew. But there's more." Putting her mug down she dug into her pocket, removing a plastic bag containing a small transparent sample dish, which had something rattling around in it. She handed it over to the other woman, who accepted it, then examined it carefully.

"What's this?" she asked, still inspecting the contents of the sample container. Tipping it from side to side she looked at the small very sharp dart, made of some dark substance she didn't recognize.

"Ianthe, the new one, used those to deliver first a paralytic agent, then a knockout one, to three E88 members I was pursuing tonight after a robbery at Brockton Bay Arms and Ammunition, on Bay Drive. About eight of them broke in and were cleaning the place out when Robin and I stumbled across them. We took down five, the other three ran. They didn't get far."

Emily listened to the report of the encounter with the new cape and Saurial. Hannah showed her video from her own camera that she carried these days, which caught most of the frankly rather disturbing dialog between both reptiles. She shivered a little. Ianthe sounded cheerfully bloodthirsty and really not at all human, much less so in some ways than Saurial or even Raptaur.

"Fuck me, this is getting ridiculous," she said after handing the tablet back. "But Biotinker?"

"The dart is biologically produced according to the lab. The drugs used are entirely unknown to us. As far as I can tell, and the lab agrees, she fired them from some form of gas-operated launcher in her arms. Traces of chemicals on the rear of the dart suggest a highly energetic exothermic chemical reaction as the propulsive force. Based on the chemical mix, the lab scientists say that they can probably be fired at extremely high velocity if necessary, possibly a couple of thousand feet per second. Which makes it a very dangerous weapon."

Emily was steadily paling listening to the dry facts delivered in a toneless voice, she could feel it.

"I didn't tell them much about the Parahuman in question, but Doctor Ramirez immediately guessed a Biotinker. Either that or a whole R&D team. Based on what Ianthe said a couple of times, I'd go for the first choice. Assuming that's the case, I hate to think what else could be used as a payload other than an obviously carefully non-lethal takedown system. Nerve agents, perhaps? Possibly other things even worse. So she's immediately into a fairly high Blaster category as well as Biotinker. Not to mention Brute like all of them." Hannah shrugged. "I have no idea if she shares their other abilities yet. But she's very strong, very fast, and very weird."

"Shit."

"You want to know the best bit?"

Emily wasn't at all sure she did, but she slowly nodded. Hannah retrieved the folder and opened it, removing a sheaf of papers with the PRT R&D division logo on the top sheet, then flipped to the next page.

Clearing her throat, she read from the summary, "DNA analysis via standard rapid polymerase sequencing failed with errors resulting from lack of standard amino acids in sample presented. A number of more esoteric techniques were attempted, ultimately resolving that the sample contained a DNA analog of unprecedented complexity based on a quadruplex helix unlike any known organism. While DNA quadruplex structures are known to exist in nature, and indeed in the human body, the associated fact that the structure uses eight rather than four amino acids as the basis of the nucleotides that encode information, three of which are entirely novel molecules, casts significant doubt that the organism which produced the sample is related to any known life form. Information density of the DNA analog is a minimum of an order of magnitude greater than normal double-helix terrestrial DNA. The data currently available suggest an origin elsewhere. More definite conclusions will require considerable levels of further research and larger sample sizes."

She closed the report and put it back into the folder, which she placed on the table. Picking up her mug again she leaned back and sipped it, while Emily stared at her in shock.

Eventually, she cleared her throat. "Excuse me?" she asked very carefully. "Did all that end up saying in a roundabout way that the Family are _aliens?_ "

"That would appear to be the conclusion the scientists came to, yes," Hannah replied quietly. "Doctor Ramirez didn't put it in exactly those words, of course, and I could tell he really didn't want to believe it, but he's a good scientist, he goes where the data lead him, not where he wants to go. There's always the possibility they're wrong, but added to all the other weird shit we've learned, it would explain a few things." She sipped her coffee again. "Adds a whole hell of a lot of totally unexplained things as well, of course. Like how they got here in the first place, how long they've been here, and why. I'd like to say it's impossible, but..." She looked at Emily, who looked back, not sure what to think.

Eventually she transferred her gaze to the little dart in the container, which she'd put on the table between them. "Aliens. Jesus."

"Now what?"

"I have absolutely no idea," she sighed, then got up to retrieve a bottle of brandy. Her coffee needed something extra, and she was pretty sure Hannah's did too.

* * *

Popping another egg into her mouth, Taylor crunched it up absently as she poked around on the internet, looking at interesting videos. She was currently absorbed in one which showed several people using some water-jet machines to lift completely out of the water and do stunts, which was sparking some interesting ideas.

"That is very strange to watch," Lisa said from behind her.

"It's cool, though, right? Just water being enough to make someone fly."

The blonde girl sighed gently, but in a good humored way. "I was referring to you eating eggs raw while your head is something from a nightmare but the rest of you is normal," she replied.

Looking over her shoulder, Taylor grinned. She currently had a scaled down version of Raptaur's head on her shoulders. Picking up the half-empty carton of eggs she offered it to her friend. "Help yourself," she said.

"No, thank you, I like my hen fruit fried or scrambled, as was intended by the hen," Lisa laughed.

Amy reached over and carefully picked one out of the box, dropping it into her mouth and chewing. Lisa looked at her, as did Taylor, for different reasons. "Hey, you had your own eggs, these are mine," Taylor said, pulling the box out of reach.

"I ate them all," Amy smiled. "Weirdly, you were right, like this they're a nice snack."

"You're both very peculiar," Lisa chuckled. Two reptilian heads exchanged a glance. Taylor ate the second to last egg, flipping the final one to her friend, who snapped it neatly out of the air.

"Don't see it myself," Taylor commented. She spun her chair around, looking at the other two. "Well, all things considered I think today worked out pretty well. And the tests of the new cousin were perfect."

Amy nodded happily. "I'd have to agree, this worked way better than I expected it to. I've got a massive mental list of improvements and modifications to make, some of which will have to wait for version two, because they need structural changes." She looked thoughtful. "That said, I can probably rebuild this one. Anyway, lots of ideas. I've implemented quite a few already, this isn't the Ianthe that left the building earlier. I guess it's time to get out, though. I'll have to go home at some point and Mom might find this even harder to accept than my tail."

Taylor grinned while Lisa laughed a little. "I can imagine she might have some awkward questions," the blonde said dryly.

"Just a few. Then she'd blame the Family for corrupting me."

" _Us_ corrupting _you?_ " Taylor put an incredulous tone in her voice, which got a look filled with humor in return.

"Implausible, I know, but that's the way she thinks." Amy stood up from where she'd been sitting on her tail, then moved to the middle of the room. "OK. Let's see how well this works." Lying down on her side, she closed her glowing eyes. The ' _Ianthe_ ' body went still, then a few seconds later the life support pouch access slit appeared. A hand came through the skin, which Taylor moved to hold open. Amy in her real body slipped out of the biological exosuit, slightly damp with some sort of fluid that evaporated almost instantly.

Helping her to her feet, Lisa steadied her as she swayed a little, her eyes closed, then opened them slowly. Blinking furiously, she raised a hand and rubbed them. "Whoa. That's a hell of a change," she muttered. "And a let down in a way." After a moment, Lisa let go, the other girl stretching widely with a crack from her spine. "But aside from the senses I feel great. Really rested."

"Is it my imagination, or do you look slightly different?" Lisa asked suspiciously, stepping back and studying the brunette with an expression both Amy and Taylor knew meant her power was at work. Her eyes widened. "You _cheater_."

Amy grinned, while Taylor looked her up and down as well. Her friend definitely looked slightly more toned and muscular, although not in a way that anyone would really notice without a before and after comparison. They both had the advantage of having seen her only hours before to measure against. "What did you do?" Taylor asked curiously.

"I may have added certain abilities to the construct based on the healing symbiote, only a lot better," Amy snickered. "And it's not impossible that I used that to make some small improvements to myself."

"Two hundred percent upgrade in muscle fiber strength isn't a ' _small improvement_ ' in my view," Lisa pointed out, walking around Amy and inspecting her closely. "Not to mention a whole series of neural modifications, tendon and ligament upgrades, and..." She stopped, then sighed, shaking her head in wonder. "You just couldn't resist, could you?" she asked rhetorically.

Amy pasted a smug grin easily the equal of any the blonde could produce on her face, holding up her right hand, in which a familiar dark gray blade grew. "Nope."

"Oh for gods sake," Lisa sighed.

"The hardest part was making sure it doesn't show," the healer laughed. Transferring the organic knife to her other hand, she held up the one that had produced it, which Lisa and Taylor both looked closely at. "But I managed."

"That's both seriously impressive and really freaky," Lisa smiled.

"I didn't want to go back to being just normal Amy," the brunette shrugged. "So I fixed a few things."

"Normal Amy is hardly ' _normal_ ' by most people's standards," Taylor smiled. "But I can understand the urge. How much stronger are you now?"

"Let's find out. Can you make some weights, please?" Amy reabsorbed the knife she was still holding. Taylor quickly made a series of blocks of steel in sizes that she'd worked out corresponded to hundred pound increments, starting at four hundred pounds and going up to two tons. They already knew that the previous symbiote had boosted the girl's strength to the point that she could manage the lowest weight block quite handily.

Amy picked that one up with one hand, nearly falling over at the off-balance weight, but catching herself in time. "That's a lot easier," she grinned, looking very pleased. Putting it back down she moved down the row of steadily larger gleaming blocks, grabbing the handles on each and lifting. She topped out at just over a ton.

"Fuck, that's amazing," Lisa muttered. "You'll have to be careful you don't snap someone in half, though, with that sort of strength."

"I can turn it down for normal life," Amy explained. "It uses a lot of energy so there's no point in being that strong when I don't need to be. Same for the speed boost. Taylor uses Varga bullshit to get around it, but I can't do the same thing." She snapped her hand out so quickly it blurred to normal vision, although Taylor could follow it without trouble. Lisa blinked in shock. "That needs strength, toughness, and high speed neural signals all in one," the healer explained. "Otherwise just the inertia of my arm would break it when I stopped. I've made some changes to the bones as well, using a non-metallic version of the knife-blade material. It's not as strong although it's still a lot stronger than normal bones, but it won't show up on a metal detector."

"You've been busy," Taylor remarked, very impressed.

"It's a start towards the real mods I want to make and about all I can get away with safely at the moment," Amy nodded. "But it should be enough to keep me going if something bad happens, and give my symbiote time to heal me properly. I'm testing some of the new ideas I have for the series two symbiotes." Looking at her arm, she flexed it. "I was tempted to add a scaled down version of the dart launcher system, but that needs some pretty major structural mods to a human skeleton and I decided it wasn't the right time yet. But I can also produce the same drugs I can use as Ianthe, so I can always throw a knife at someone. Or a bigger dart."

" _Can_ you throw a knife?" Taylor asked curiously. Amy raised a hand, opened her mouth, then stopped, before sagging a little.

"No." She sighed when both her friends laughed. "Can you teach me?"

"Sure, no problem," Taylor snickered. "Like I said, I need to teach you the Family style anyway, and it's pretty damn flexible." She looked at Lisa, rubbing her chin in thought. "Actually, I should teach both of you. Varga and I have been working on a version suitable for people without tails that I want to teach Dad's security people. And Brian, I think he'd be very good at it. Über too, he'd pick it up in no time."

"Even without the tail moves, it's a very distinctive style," Lisa pointed out. "Anyone with serious martial arts experience will notice that instantly. It'll be pretty obvious who's teaching her."

"So?" Taylor shrugged. "Everyone knows that Panacea is a friend of the Family. Teaching her our style is perfectly reasonable. We just need to make sure she doesn't use the tail moves when she's not Ianthe. It'll take some practice, and the cloaking technique will cover most of that sort of thing anyway, but I can't see much of a downside." She looked back to Amy who had sat in one of the chairs. "Although, it might also be a good idea to learn a more normal martial art as well. Dad says Zephron is really good at Karate, so maybe he'd teach you. Some of the other people here know other ones as well."

"Brian knows a fair amount about at least three styles," Lisa commented. "Along with being pretty decent at boxing. I can ask him if he'd show you some things."

"I think that would be a good idea," Amy replied thoughtfully. "I also want to learn more about the baton usage, like Danny mentioned a while ago."

"Mark's the man for that," Taylor told her.

Considering the dormant Ianthe body lying on the floor, Amy nodded slowly. "That will let me test some other things I designed in," she said, the other two following her eyes. "In theory, the secondary brain should have something not too far off Über's ability to rapidly learn things, especially muscle memory things. It seems to be working so far, I was able to pick up all the new skills I needed to run around in that without too much trouble, and a lot of it will even eventually transfer into my real brain, since the linkage is so deep. It should allow me to learn these martial arts abilities much faster than it would normally take, days rather than months. But I'm not sure quite how well it will work until we try."

"You are _such_ a cheater," Lisa snickered. "It's just build a power with you, isn't it? You're nearly as bad as she is." The blonde waved at Taylor, who waved back.

"There are worse people to be compared to," Amy said with satisfaction.

Taylor bowed, grinning at her friend. "Thank you, cousin," she giggled, making them both smile.

Lisa was now looking at the immobile form of the new cousin, a thoughtful expression on her face. Taylor and Amy exchanged a glance. "Something wrong, Lisa?" Amy asked.

"No, not really. I was just thinking that there could be some slightly awkward issues about the new Family member, the Biotinker cousin. It's a little too convenient in some ways, everyone knows Panacea is friends with Raptaur and the others, as Taylor just said, and now there's a Family member who can also heal? Among all sorts of other terrifying abilities." She looked troubled. "A sufficiently paranoid person might come to exactly the wrong conclusion, for example, the right one. It's not a wildly high probability but I can't honestly say it's not something that would happen. The PRT is very paranoid, so are a lot of other people."

Amy and Taylor both looked at her for several seconds, then each other, then the sleeping bioconstruct.

"She's right," Amy said. "Damn."

"What we need," the Varga spoke through Taylor, sounding thoughtful as well, "is a diversionary technique. It is doubtful if anyone would realistically suspect Amy Dallon of being Ianthe the Family Biomanipulator if both of them were seen in the same place at the same time, especially if this was by impeccable witnesses. Witnesses such as, for instance, Dragon and Armsmaster..." He trailed off, the three girls exchanging glances.

Amy nodded very slowly, meeting Taylor's eyes. "He's got a very good point," she remarked.

Both Taylor and Amy turned to regard Lisa with an evaluating expression. "Taylor?"

"Yes, Amy?"

"It's time for more mad science. Set up the table."

"Yeth, Mathter," Taylor lisped, dragging a faked damaged leg across to a vacant spot on the floor with great flailing of her arms. "Have you the pathient?"

"I do indeed, Igor," Amy smiled darkly. Lisa was looking worried. Pointing, the brunette said firmly, "Clothes off, on the table, face down. Trust me, I know what I'm doing."

"Oh, hell," Lisa sighed, but went to do as instructed. Behind her, the healer laughed in a dark manner, making her shake her head sadly. "Power, it goes right to the head in some people," she muttered, making the foreboding guffaw turn into a giggle.

"At least get dressed first, this is too weird," she said plaintively over her shoulder, loosening her belt and taking her jeans off.

"You haven't seen anything yet," Amy grinned, cracking her knuckles.

She did at least go and retrieve her clothes before she started doing the unnatural once again.


	130. Training and Reactions

Amy watched with a grin as ' _Ianthe_ ' fell over again.

"Ow," the large reptilian creature muttered, rubbing its head.

"You know as well as I do that you barely even noticed," she smiled.

"I'm used to hitting my head hurting, all right?" Lisa grumbled as she stood up again. "Are you sure this thing is working right?"

"It's fine, I promise. You're just having trouble integrating the new neural boosters I added to link into the secondary brain. Everything will come together within a few minutes."

Lisa fell over. Again.

"Probably."

Taylor was lying back in a chair laughing like an idiot, which kept getting her annoyed looks from the latest Family member. Sighing heavily, Lisa stood up yet again, moving very slowly and carefully.

It took her about fifteen minutes, but in the end Amy was pleased to see she suddenly started moving far more naturally. Both she and Taylor watched with pleasure as their friend jumped up and down, ran around a little, and did a few flips and somersaults in the middle of the room, before standing and grinning at them. "Wow. Just fucking wow. I don't know what else to say, Amy, you do unbelievable work. It's like this really is my body now."

"Right now, it is. Don't think of yourself as Lisa in an Ianthe suit, because you're not. You're Ianthe, completely. Lisa is somewhere inside you, nice and safe, and her mind is your mind, but other than that you have almost nothing in common." Walking over, Amy put her hand on the scaly skin, letting her power check things over. "It's working perfectly. Do you want any modifications done while you're in there?"

"You already gave me a symbiote, thanks for that. But the increased strength mods might be useful."

"OK. I'll make them happen, but leave them disabled for the moment. You'll need to learn how to use them which will take more time since you don't have my power to monitor everything. I'll have to make a few changes to you once you're out again and we can see how everything's working." She was doing the work as she spoke. Stepping back when she was done, she looked up a couple of feet into the glowing green eyes of her currently reptilian latest friend. "Great. We'll leave you in to cook for a couple of hours."

"I am _not_ a chocolate cake," ' _Ianthe_ ' sighed. Taylor was laughing again behind them.

Snickering, Amy looked over at her. "Set up the target again, will you?" she requested. The other brunette nodded, jumping up and going over to make several of the previously used target stands in a line along the back wall. Lisa turned to watch. "OK. I'll guide you on how to use the dart guns and select the ammunition. Again, at the moment you'll have to live with a number of preset versions until I can figure out how to add an ability to make new ones without my power."

Appearing surprised, Lisa looked down. "Do you really think you can?" she asked incredulously.

Amy nodded slowly. "Pretty sure, yes. It's complicated but not impossible. I have some other ideas that could help convince people you're Ianthe properly, but let's get this one working first. Right then, lift your arm and aim it at the target..."

She monitored the relevant actions from both the inside and the outside as she talked Lisa through how to use her built-in weaponry. It took some time, but eventually the familiar sharp pop came. A dart pinged off the back wall and whistled overhead with a very convincing ricochet noise straight out of a movie. "Oops," Lisa said, sounding embarrassed. "Missed."

"I think I'm going to cover the computers," Taylor announced. "And you should put this on, Amy." She handed her friend a copy of her riding costume as she walked past, suitably modified for her tail.

"Probably a good idea," she replied, quickly donning it. By the time she had, all the fragile new equipment was behind impenetrable shields in case of further misfires.

"OK. Let's try that again."

Lisa raised an arm and aimed carefully, smiling but concentrating. She seemed to be having fun, Amy decided, then reflexively ducked at another nasty whirring sound.

"Oops."

Amy sighed. This might take a while.

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

Dean looked at the image on his computer screen with his mouth hanging slightly open, not entirely sure he was reading the associated text correctly. "Two of them?" he mumbled to himself, shocked. "How the hell can there be _two_ of them?"

Leaning back in his chair with a thump, he stared at the screen. "What in god's name is going on around here _now?_ " he moaned, scrubbing his hands over his face.

Just when he thought he'd come to terms with Taylor and her terrifying alter-egos, she somehow pulled something like _this_ out of her apparently bottomless bag of tricks. After some time, he reached out and clicked the mouse, closing the PHO page he'd been gaping at since Dennis texted him a message recommending it.

To be honest, right now he didn't want to know, didn't want to even think about it, and was going to stay well the fuck away from the docks, Taylor, and Amy. Just in case the insanity was infectious.

After a moment's thought, he added the words, ' _more infectious_ ' to that statement, as it clearly needed them. Getting up he headed for the bathroom. Getting ready for bed, with the hope that his nightmares wouldn't have teeth and scales in them this time, seemed like a good idea.

He couldn't handle today any more and wanted it to be tomorrow, which would hopefully make more sense.

At least his date had gone well, which was something.

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

Kevin rubbed the side of his nose, clicking through the PHO thread with his other hand, intermittently stopping to read a posting more carefully. He was accumulating a number of images and some video in other tabs of the web browser as he went. Eventually he reached the current last page, just staring at it for a few seconds, before he opened the image tabs on his other monitor.

Zooming in on each image in turn he carefully studied each one. Saving them to disk he then loaded them into an image editor and looked even more carefully at them. Finally he pulled down the video and ran it through his edit suite frame by frame, before shaking his head in wonder.

"Fucking unbelievable."

"What is?" Randall asked from the sofa, where he was playing the ancient but still amusing game Carmageddon with the sound down, snickering as he mowed down pedestrians.

"I am in awe at the abilities one of our neighbors has," Kevin replied, looking over at his friend. "Pure awe. And more than a little terrified at what it implies."

Puzzled, Randall paused the game, then got up and came over. Kevin pointed at his monitor where the video taken a few hours earlier was playing, showing Saurial and a larger, slightly purple-tinged blue lizard-creature standing outside Fugly's, both of them eating enormous burgers while surrounded by a crowd of people with phones held up. Both of them looked in a good mood, talking to the others around them and Saurial signing a couple of autographs.

His friend stared at the monitor for a couple of repeats, then sat down heavily. "What the fuck?" he said in a wondering tone.

"You see what I mean?"

"How in god's name are there _two_ of them?" Randall asked slowly.

Kevin turned to him, having watched the video clip once more. "It's only a guess at the moment, but I'm pretty certain that the big violet one is actually a synthetic life form," he said in the end. Randall gaped at him, then the screen again.

"What?"

"Synthetic. As in, manufactured."

"I know what synthetic means, you dick. Who made it?"

"Probably Panacea."

Randall stared at him. His face betrayed the shock that Kevin had felt when he'd worked it out for himself. "We found out the other day that she's far more than a simple healer. Not that healing is simple, you understand, but you get my point."

"There's ' _more than a healer_ ' and then there's ' _can make alien lizards from household supplies_ ', man. _Big_ fucking difference."

"True, very true," Kevin agreed, smiling a little. "But whatever, it's pretty damn amazing."

"Is it, or is she, an entirely new life-form, sentient and everything?" Randall asked, watching the video play again. The movements of the second Family member were totally natural, as was the entire creature, as far as either of them could see.

"I'm not at all sure," Kevin admitted. "I can think of a few possibilities, though. She _could_ be built from scratch, an entirely new individual. But that's the most terrifying thing I can think of for a Biotinker, which is what this definitely is, to be able to do. Slightly less terrifying is the idea that she's a construct being driven by someone else's mind somehow."

"Taylor?"

"I doubt it, because I'm near enough a hundred percent convinced that's Taylor next to her. It's probably Amy. Either locally or remotely, although local control would be a lot simpler. Nothing like _easy_ , of course, it's an insanely difficult thing to even consider doing, but it makes more sense. Unless she's hiding some fucking impressive Master abilities as well."

"You mean… You think her _brain_ is in there?" Randall looked somewhat ill.

Kevin studied the creature that apparently called itself Ianthe. "No. I don't think she went that far. No need to. It's only an educated guess, but I bet _Amy's_ inside that thing. Somewhere. It's probably linked into her brain somehow, but I think she's entirely intact and healthy. And most likely enjoying the hell out of the entire thing. She sure looks happy."

This was true, Ianthe seemed to be having a wonderful time if his reading of her reptilian countenance was anything to go by.

"Fuck _me_. I had no idea that girl could do anything like _this_ ," Randall finally said in an awed voice.

"I doubt anyone outside Taylor and a few very trusted people do," Kevin replied. "And I'm absolutely certain that we have to make sure we don't even _hint_ at the fact we suspect she can, either." Randall looked at him, then the monitor again.

He nodded soberly. "Nilbog."

"Damn right. She's not the same at all, that girl is way more stable and a fuck sight smarter than that murdering pain in the ass, but if the PRT get wind of this, she's in trouble." Kevin was entirely serious. He could do the math as easily as his friend, and thought it certain that Amy had long ago reached the same conclusions. Which was why no one had ever known.

"If they find out, and come after her, Taylor will stomp them flat," Randall said in even tones.

"Ohhhh, yes. She protects her friends, and Amy is the closest of them, I think. Anyone who goes after the girl is dead meat. But I'd prefer not to see the entire city wiped out, so let's not be a cause of that, OK?" He thought for a moment, then grinned. "How much do you want to bet that she's faked up some weird fucking origin story of the Family, complete with DNA proof?" he snickered. "If she can do _this_ , she could have them chasing their tails for years trying to work it out."

Randall started laughing. "Oh, I knew I liked that girl for a reason," he chortled. "You're probably right. Two peas in a pod, those two, and Taylor is already doing pretty much exactly that. Shit, I bet the PRT is already running around in a panic trying to figure out what the hell is going on."

"Probably. According to PHO they met Miss Militia and Velocity earlier. Some cop posted a few things about it a couple of dozen pages back. He seemed to think it was funny."

Chuckling, Randall shook his head in respect. "Impressive. I can hardly wait until tomorrow morning."

"Should be fun, I think," Kevin grinned. Turning off his monitor he went over to the sofa. "Where's the other controller?" he asked, looking around. Shortly both of them were wiping out people by the dozen with all sorts of improbable car stunts, laughing like idiots.

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

"This is the coolest thing I've ever done," Lisa giggled, swimming along the bottom leaving a trail of disturbed sediment behind her. She was a mile or more outside the bay entrance, five hundred and twenty feet down according to her power, which seemed to be being more cooperative than she'd ever experienced before. So far there wasn't even a trace of a headache, although she wasn't certain why. It could have been Amy's symbiote, the Ianthe construct her real body was currently inside, or just the weird nature of powers yet again doing something peculiar.

Looking around as she swam, she marveled at the way she could see quite well for a considerable distance. Light-producing organs down her sides spread green illumination for dozens of yards in the very clear but also very cold water, which she was entirely unaffected by. On the surface it was completely dark to human eyes, a light cloud layer having come in and blocked the stars, yet down here she still had enough light available even without the bioluminescence to see her surroundings.

Amy had managed to show her how everything worked, at least as far as it could go without the Dallon girl's biomanipulative abilities. Her own powers filled in most of the blanks surprisingly effectively, allowing her to pick up operating the body like it was her own after the initial calibration period. The auxiliary brain was doing fine work running all the low level stuff as well, leaving her to simply enjoy the results.

' _Amy is unbelievable_ ,' she thought, doing a couple of flips for the hell of it. ' _How she could resist using her abilities so much for so long is beyond me if she can do something like this. She must have incredible self-control_.' Shaking her head, she looked to her left, feeling a pressure wave approaching, along with a blue light. "Hi," she said as Taylor slowed to match her speed, pacing her from twenty feet away.

"Having fun?" her friend asked with amusement in her eyes and voice.

"So _much_ fun it should be illegal," Lisa replied happily.

"It almost certainly is," Taylor chuckled. "We'll have to go back soon, Amy needs to get home and it's two in the morning or so."

"OK." Looking around, Lisa slowed, then turned through a hundred and eighty degrees. Accelerating with a flick of her tail she headed back towards Brockton Bay, following her nose and the scent of industry in the water. Her sense of smell was incredible, as were her other senses, and she began to finally understand what Taylor could do in other than an intellectual manner. It was breathtaking.

"I want to come down here during the day," she said.

"I don't see that as a problem," Taylor smiled, following her easily. "One day, I want to do some real exploring."

"Where?" she asked curiously.

"Well, I was reading about the Titanic a while ago. They know roughly where it went down, but no one ever found it. That Ballard guy tried, but they didn't find anything. I bet I could."

Lisa glanced sideways at her companion, a little surprised, but interested. "That could be fun."

"I thought so. Anyway, that's something for later." Rolling onto her back, Taylor swam along upside down for a while, making Lisa grin.

Soon they were slowing, as the pair entered the shipping channel cut through the reef at the entrance to the bay. Not long after that, she climbed out of the water behind the other girl, both of them shaking themselves mostly dry, the water running off their scales very fast. Apparently Amy had managed to duplicate the effect that Taylor's Varga forms had of being slightly hydrophobic, which also seemed to reduce drag underwater. Tapping on the door, Taylor went inside when Amy opened it, Lisa following.

"How did it go?" the brunette asked, looking her up and down with an evaluating eye.

"Fantastically well, thanks," Lisa replied. "Your work is amazing. I so want one of my own."

"We'll start making it during the week, but we'll need more onions," Amy laughed. "Work out what color you want. OK, that's almost everything. I have one last mod to make, but it's complicated. We'll need it, though. Come over here and sit down, this will take a while."

Lisa glanced at Taylor, who shrugged, then shrank back into her base form, sitting at the table and putting her feet up to watch. Sitting on the floor, the currently reptilian normally blonde girl waited as the third member of their little group put her hands on her shoulders and appeared to go into a trance.

She could feel some weird sensations running through her borrowed body but resisted the urge to scratch, which would have been pretty futile anyway since the itch was inside her head mostly. Eventually Amy stepped back, nodding in satisfaction. "That should do it," she smiled.

"What did you do?" Taylor asked curiously.

"With a little luck, gave that body a healing ability."

Taylor and Lisa both looked at Amy in shock, the girl grinning back smugly.

"What the fuck? How did you do that?" Taylor looked stunned.

"It's a variant of the symbiote, it's based on that, actually," Amy smiled. "I figured out a way to make it work on people without needing them to actually have one. It basically connects temporarily, fixes the problems, then withdraws. Should look suitably alien as well. Little tendrils out the hands."

Lisa held her scaled hands in front of her, inspecting them. She couldn't see any difference, and said as much.

"No, it's invisible, but I'm pretty sure it'll work," the other girl replied. "But we need a test subject."

"Grab one of the DWU guys? They're still wandering around out there," Lisa suggested after a moment.

Taylor looked uncertain. "I'd prefer it if we didn't let anyone know about this until we know it works, it'll make the whole Family thing look more plausible," she replied. "How about one of Rachel's dogs?"

"She'll get really, _really_ mad if you hurt one of those dogs," Lisa warned. "Assuming she's not there right now anyway."

"Don't worry, it'll be fine," Amy reassured her. "I can fix anything that goes wrong and I'll monitor it. I bet there's at least one of them that needs something repaired anyway."

"Only way to find out is to look," Taylor pointed out, changing to Raptaur and heading for the door. "Back in a minute."

She disappeared out the main entrance. A few minutes later she came back with Rachel following her, looking tired and slightly worried, holding a small terrier in her arms. "Rachel, this is my cousin Ianthe," Taylor said as she closed the door behind her. The solidly-built girl stopped dead and inspected Lisa closely.

"You trust her?" she finally asked, not looking away.

"Implicitly," Taylor replied.

There was another pause, then Rachel nodded firmly, walking over and kneeling down. "This is Ben. His left hind leg was broken and didn't set right. Fix him."

She stroked the dog which was sitting on the floor next to her looking up at Lisa with a quizzical expression. Lisa smiled a little. Her friend's blunt attitude was refreshingly honest compared to a lot of people, although she could see why it grated on some. "I'll see what I can do," she said, glancing at Amy, who nodded.

Kneeling down as well, she put a hand on the dog. Amy did the same. Looking at the brunette she attempted to get the question ' _Now what?_ ' across with her eyes. A couple of seconds later she felt her hand tingle, looking quickly at it to see dozens of thin worm-like threads coming out the palm and sides and burrowing into the dog through the fur without any obvious issues. The animal didn't appear to notice.

More than a little shocked and somewhat revolted, Lisa kept her expression fixed in a calm smile while Rachel stared. The dog twitched, looking puzzled, then lay down and closed its eyes, apparently suddenly very tired. "It's working fine," Amy assured both of them. Taylor was standing watching with interest, meeting Lisa's eyes with a look of confidence.

Lisa could feel weird sensations through the tendrils, which her power told her were all sorts of data about the animals health, basically the information the symbiote was using to work out what was wrong with it. A handful of seconds passed, then the data changed. After another, surprisingly short, period of time, the little extrusions retracted. The dog sighed as she lifted her hand at Amy's quick motion, the healer nodding in satisfaction. "Worked perfectly. His leg is fine now, Rachel."

The other girl looked at her, then carefully felt the dog's leg with her fingers. She smiled. "Thanks," she said, as the animal woke up and looked around, apparently none the wiser as to what had happened. Picking him up, she stood, then headed for the door without another word. Taylor let her out then closed and locked it once more.

"Not a girl of many words, is she?" she snickered.

"No, but she tends to mean the ones she uses," Lisa replied. "And she's really pleased, I can tell." Looking at Amy again, she shook her head. "Shit, that was _incredible_. You're as bad as Taylor is, every time I think we've found your limit you immediately exceed it. The number of things you two are sitting on that are literally world-changing are unbelievable."

Appearing both pleased and somewhat sad, Amy shrugged. "And most of them we can probably never let anyone know about. Or at least admit to the truth of."

"Unfortunately true," Lisa sighed, standing up. "But I think I can pull off a damn convincing Ianthe impression now." She used one of the built-in systems to make a blade in one hand then reabsorbed it. "Such total bullshit I can hardly believe it. You're cheating harder than anyone I've ever met except for her," she added with a grin, pointing at Taylor who nodded placid acknowledgment of the comment.

"It's what I do," Amy laughed. "Apparently. OK, let's get you out of there, and make sure everything is working correctly."

Nodding, Lisa lay down on her side, then did the mental exercises that Amy had drilled into her to make the construct disconnect from her. The sudden sensory deprivation that resulted was disorientating at first, but she quickly felt hands holding hers as she thrust them out. Seconds later she was sitting on the floor breathing heavily with her head in her hands, the first breaths her own lungs had taken for nearly three hours. And wasn't _that_ a weird thought?

"You need to work on that disconnection part, it's pretty unpleasant," she said when she'd recovered, opening her eyes and looking at Amy, who had a hand on her shoulder checking her well-being.

"I know, it's not ideal, but like I said this is the prototype. It'll get better. You're fine, by the way. All the mods are done. I'll leave the super-strength and the other things off for now, it'll take some careful testing to make sure everything works properly and teach you to use them and I'm too tired right now to do it. Tomorrow, maybe."

"No rush," Lisa said as she stood up, finding it easier than it had ever been. The symbiote on its own had left her in the best health of her life, which she could easily feel. "But thanks. Both for the upgrades and that experience, it was amazing." She began pulling on her clothes which were folded on the table.

Amy nodded, smiling, then went over to the Ianthe construct and put a hand on its head. The access slit closed and vanished, then the eyes opened. Lisa took a step back as it rolled over and stood up. "That's a little freaky without anyone controlling it," she breathed.

"Don't worry, it won't hurt you," Amy said over her shoulder. "You're an authorized user and it knows you better than you know yourself." She gave a hand signal, the artificial creature watching her closely, then smiled when it lay down again and went dormant with the access slit opening once more. "OK, you need to learn this. This motion to make it allow entry." The girl made the hand motion again, Lisa and Taylor both watching carefully. Lisa's power made memorizing it simple. "Put your hand here to turn it back on from the outside. It'll know your touch, but it won't respond to anyone it doesn't know." Once more she put her hand on its head between the eyes.

Opening them the thing stood up again, apparently content to repeat this all night. Lisa tried the deactivation hand signal, then the activation touch, both working to design. "What happens if someone does that signal when you're in it?" Taylor asked.

"Nothing, when a user is in there all the automatic controls are overridden, and like I said, it knows its users. It's smart enough to make it almost impossible to fool the security." Amy looked pleased about this.

"And if someone keeps trying?"

"Well..." The healer chewed her lip. "Let's say that would be a bad idea and leave it at that." She spread her hands, grinning. "They'll get enough warning to start running. Might even make it if they're quick."

Taylor looked impressed and Lisa shivered a little. She had no doubt that Amy wasn't joking.

"OK, these are some more control signals," the girl added. She showed them how to make the construct move around like it was radio controlled. Lisa memorized then tried all of them.

"You've got more as well, haven't you?" she asked when Amy stopped teaching her.

"Yep. Still working on the patterns, though. But I can put it into defense mode, which is going to be bad for anyone who shouldn't be around, trust me," Amy replied thoughtfully, inspecting the synthetic life-form, which was watching her as she moved around like a dog waiting for a biscuit. Lisa could tell even without her power that there were more than just a few preprogrammed routines in its brain, although it certainly wasn't even close to sentient or self-aware. Like Amy had told them, a fairly bright dog.

A fairly bright dog with six inch teeth that was very close to indestructible, and moved faster than almost anything she could think of, that was.

"You built a velociraptor," she suddenly realized.

"A utahraptor would be a closer match," Taylor said, as Amy grinned. "The feet are wrong, though. No proper disemboweling claws. It's more like a very evolved one based on that pattern, like a human is an evolved plains ape." Both of them looked at her, making her shrug. "I know quite a bit about reptiles, both living and extinct. I wonder why?"

Smirking, Lisa turned back to the construct. Amy was standing with her hand on it and her eyes closed. "She's fine," the other girl reported after a moment. "No problems at all. I'm really pleased how things went with all this, everything worked amazingly well."

"Armsmaster and the others are due here at ten tomorrow morning," Taylor pointed out, reverting to normal and sitting down. "I'll get her for about half past eight. Amy, come here before ten, so you're here when they arrive. Lisa and I will get ' _Ianthe_ ' sorted out before that, to give her some more practice. Everyone can get a good look at both of you talking to each other, there shouldn't be any doubt that you're separate people. We even have _Legend_ of all people coming!" She grinned widely. "I doubt we could get a better witness. No one is going to claim he's lying about it, and the best part is, he won't be."

"Sounds like a good plan," Amy chuckled. "I'll put her away."

"Before you do that, Amy, I have designed a variant on the cloaking spell that I believe will achieve a useful result," the Varga put in. Lisa and Amy turned to regard Taylor as the demon connected to her smiled with her face. It was something Lisa still found one of the creepiest things she'd ever seen, her power flatly refusing to dig into it at all. Probably for the best since she tended to miss large sections of time when she pushed.

"What does it do?" Amy asked curiously.

Taylor's body stood, although Lisa could tell it wasn't her doing the driving at the moment. There was some subtle change to the body language that for the life of her she couldn't put into words, when the Varga was moving her friend around. "It uses the perceptual filter part of the spell but essentially turns down the effect to restrict the efficiency. The full spell is effectively invisibility, we don't need that, we want the confusion of perception and the inability to associate cause and effect. I think I've managed to modify the spell to do this. It's an interesting intellectual exercise, a variant of magic unlike my normal repertoire. The spell isn't demon magic, although it was designed by a very talented mage."

"So, if you apply it to ' _Ianthe_ ' here..." Lisa thought out loud.

"It should prevent anyone being able to associate her with the thought that either you or Amy are actually in charge. Correct." He smiled. "Obviously I can tune it to allow specific people to ignore it. But if it works properly, it will be another layer of disconnection between your Family identities and your true identities."

"Will you be able to tell if it's working, or do we need to test it?" Amy asked.

"I will be able to tell, I have enough experience with the full spell to determine that accurately," he replied.

"I can't see any reason not to use it, and a hell of a lot of reasons _to_ use it," Lisa said, looking at the others.

"Me neither. Please go ahead, Varga." Amy smiled, moving to the side. Taylor's body looked at the construct, which looked back, cocking its head in a very familiar manner which made all three of them grin.

"This won't hurt, ' _Ianthe_ '," the Varga laughed. He was silent for a few seconds. "There. That seems to have done the trick. I will have to reinforce it on occasion, the same as with the spell on your tail, Amy, but we should be safe now. It will most likely also cause some confusion for what the PRT terms Thinker abilities, I expect. The full cloak would appear to interfere in a very serious manner."

"Who is excluded from it?" Lisa asked.

"Currently, you, Amy, and Danny. Do you want anyone else added to the exclusion?"

Lisa glanced at Amy, who was thinking. After a moment, Taylor said in her own voice, "Über and Leet."

"Sure?" Amy looked mildly dubious.

"I think so," Taylor nodded. "I trust them both, more than I'd have expected, for some reason. I think they're safe. And I wouldn't be surprised if they've worked it out, assuming they've seen the PHO reports. Both of them know there's only one of me, after all, and they know something of what you can do. Dean doesn't have that last bit of information so he probably won't figure it out himself, although we're going to need to think of a story to tell him. Sooner or later he's probably going to ask."

Lisa thought, but couldn't see a hole in her argument. Neither could Amy, apparently.

"OK, I can go along with that. I can't think of anyone else, not at the moment. Later, maybe."

"All right. I have made the changes," the Varga stated. "I look forward to tomorrow with a degree of amusement." He grinned a wide demonic grin, which made Lisa laugh.

"I think we all do, Varga," she said, watching as Amy guided the bioconstruct into her workroom and shut it down. "How long can it stay dormant like that?" she asked curiously.

"Months at least, probably years," Amy said as she locked the room door. "I'm not sure yet, that's one of the things that needs more testing. But a hell of a long time. It's basically in suspended animation like this, shut down to the minimum possible level, but still alive."

"Let's get your truck outside, then we need to go," Taylor said as she headed towards the crated vehicle and made the crate go away. She yawned. "I'm getting to the point I could do with some sleep myself."

Ten minutes later, Lisa watched the tail-lights of the truck disappear around the corner towards the gate. Smiling a smile that was full of genuine pleasure rather than know-it-all-ness, which she would be the first to admit she had more than her share of, she headed towards her own bed, thinking about how much her life had changed in one day.


	131. Tinkers and Toys

**Sunday, February 20, 2011**

Sitting on the edge of her bed, Amy yawned, then scratched her head, before standing up. Walking across the room she headed for the window, peering out into the early morning to see what the weather was like. As it turned out, it was raining lightly through a low mist, the good weather of the last few days having reverted to typical New England winter conditions. At least, she thought, the temperature was starting to rise, although there was still a possibility of a late-season cold snap.

She pondered how slippery the roads would get if that happened under the current conditions, deciding she needed to practice with the four-wheel-drive aspects of her new vehicle, which was parked in the driveway under her window. Looking down at it she smiled for a moment, still feeling very pleased she actually owned the thing.

Turning away from the window the girl went to her closet, poking through the clothes Taylor had made for her the day before. Setting aside a selection for the day, she quickly pulled out a number of her favorite unmodified lower body covering clothes such as dresses and slacks. These were folded up and put into a bag to take to the yard so her friend could use them as patterns for replacements suitable for a tail.

Looking over her shoulder for a moment, she twitched the end of the appendage in question, grinning briefly at it. As promised, no one had noticed anything out of the ordinary when she'd got back, her mother getting up to mildly complain that she should probably let her know if she was going to be that late in future, then sleepily kissing her and going back to bed. Vicky had still been up, so she'd popped into her sister's bedroom to ask about her date with Dean. Apparently that had gone well, and she was pleased to see that the other girl had spent twenty minutes talking to her and looking right at her tail without noticing it at all.

' _Magic is amazing_ ,' she giggled, zipping the bag up. Her normal riding suit was in her truck, along with the new one that Taylor had made. She was going to leave the original one at the workshop but had forgotten to do so the day before. After a moment's thought she also pulled out the bag containing her armored Panacea costume, wanting to get it changed as well.

Transferring all three bags to the bed, she headed off to shower and get dressed, smiling to herself. Today was going to be interesting.

* * *

"How did it go yesterday?" Danny asked as he sorted paperwork on his desk. His daughter was leaning on the door frame of his office watching him.

"Very well. Really very well indeed. Amy's new toy works fantastically well, we got her down to over seven and a half thousand feet," Taylor smiled, making him look over and raise impressed eyebrows. "Plus she can swim at a steady seventy-five miles an hour or so for ages. She's incredibly happy about it."

"I can imagine," he smiled. "I'm still stunned that she's gone from nothing to that in such a short time, it makes me wonder what she'll be doing in a year or two."

"Sort of makes you think, doesn't it?" Taylor nodded her agreement. "But she's having a lot of fun, so am I, and Lisa too. Amy gave her a symbiote, by the way."

Danny thought about that for a moment, then smiled again. "Good. Is she planning on distributing them more widely yet?"

"Not right now, she's still got a few more tests to run, and there's the problem of the PRT finding out and getting worked up about it. We have a few ideas about that, though." He studied her, seeing a certain amount of sly planning in her grin.

"Oh, hell, why does that fill me with trepidation?" he said slowly.

"I don't know, Dad," she chuckled. "We're only going to extend the metaphor a little."

"Don't get carried away, Taylor," he sighed.

"We'd never do _that_ ," she replied. "Would we, Varga?"

"No, Brain," the demon replied with her mouth, sounding like he was enjoying a joke.

Danny shook his head and returned to his paperwork. "Weep for humanity, like I said," he muttered under his breath, but inwardly he was amused. "Anyway," he went on more loudly, "I saw that your new cousin met quite a few people last night. The reception seemed surprisingly good all things considered."

"We were pleased about it," she agreed. "Looks like the public are getting used to big lizards wandering around the city."

"After seeing Kaiju, I doubt that one a little smaller than Raptaur is too scary by comparison." He shook his head, glancing at her for a moment. "Unless they start thinking of the implications."

"Which a lot of people don't do," Taylor noted wisely. He nodded.

"Even so, I expect there are some interesting conspiracy theories on PHO about now."

"Yep. At least three new ones since last night when I checked." Pushing off the frame she stood up. "I'm heading in now. Are you going to be around today?"

"Later, yes. I have some things to do at home, then I need to do some shopping, we're running low on various things, but I'll be in sometime this afternoon. You've got Armsmaster and the other capes coming over this morning, right?"

"Yes, in about two hours." His daughter seemed to be in a good mood about it. "I'm looking forward to seeing what they have. See you later."

"Bye, Taylor. Say hi to Amy for me."

Nodding, she waved briefly, smiled at him, then left, the back door closing seconds later. Wondering what bizarre thing would happen today, he went on sorting out papers with a fond smile on his face.

* * *

Emily stared at the container on the desk in front of her, trying to decide what to do about it. Picking it up she rattled the contents around for a moment, peering at the tiny thing that implied so many very unsettling ideas. In the end, she sighed, put it down, and picked up her phone. "Is Chief Director Costa-Brown still in the building?" she asked when it was answered. The woman had been planning on leaving the night before but had ended up staying for longer due to some problem in the New Orleans office, having been involved in a video-conference with the director there. Listening for a moment, she instructed, "Good, please ask her to see me in my office before she leaves. Thank you."

Putting the phone down again she started reading the highly technical report from the R&D lab once more, looking up terms she was unfamiliar with.

Twenty minutes later, the woman who ultimately ran the PRT entered after knocking on her door. "Hello, Emily, I just got your message. You wanted to see me?"

"I do, yes," the blonde replied. She motioned to the chair in front of her desk. "Are you currently satisfied with the state of affairs here?"

Costa-Brown sat, then studied her. "Your job is safe for the moment, if that's what you're really asking," she finally said with a small smile. "I'm satisfied that you are handling it as well as anyone could ask for, under the circumstances, and much better than many would. Although that doesn't mean that I'm entirely happy about things as they are, because I'm not. I just don't see that at the moment there is anything else that can be done to change them. We'll monitor the situation, but leave it in your capable hands unless something changes which requires intervention."

"Thank you, although I wasn't fishing for that sort of information," Emily replied. She thought for a moment, then continued, "Did you hear about the new Family member that debuted last night? Ianthe?"

"Yes, it was hard to miss bearing in mind how many images on the internet there were," the other woman told her, looking mildly amused as well as slightly resigned. "Almost like Saurial was showing her off to the public."

"She may well have been doing exactly that, I suspect. Or possibly showing the public off to Ianthe. From what I've been told, the new one doesn't seem quite as accustomed to people as Saurial and the other two are." Emily shook her head slightly. "Not the main point, though. Miss Militia retrieved some evidence from an interaction that Saurial and Ianthe had with a set of E88 gang members that she was in pursuit of. Ianthe took them down before she could. Using some of these." She pushed the sealed container across the desk, her superior half-standing to retrieve it, then sitting back down.

Costa-Brown held it up to the light, shaking it gently. "A dart? Presumably tipped with some sort of incapacitating agent?"

"Exactly. A whole series of them, in fact, a paralytic, a sedative, a local anesthetic, and some strange antibiotic slash healing agent. None of which are known to our scientists."

The other woman looked sharply at her. "None?"

"No. Apparently they're completely new compounds. The lead researcher was very interested indeed in finding out more about them."

"And the dart? It looks odd, in some way. What's it made of, I don't recognize the material. A polymer?"

"An organic compound, loaded with metals, which was grown, not manufactured."

This time the Chief Director looked very startled. " _Grown?_ "

"Quite. And fired from some form of gas powered blowgun built directly into the arms of Ianthe, as far as we can determine from the video recordings Miss Militia produced. She was certainly not carrying any visible weapon."

"That sounds… somewhat ominous."

"I'd have to agree. But that's not the most unusual thing about this whole affair."

"What is?"

Rather than replying, Emily opened the now well-thumbed report to the relevant page and handed it over. Costa-Brown put the sample container down, took the paperwork from her, and started reading.

A few seconds later she froze, staring in what looked like complete shock. "You have to be kidding me," the woman mumbled. Reading the paragraph again very slowly, she then flipped frantically through the report to the more detailed section the summary referenced and read it carefully. When she finished, she leaned back in her chair and stared at Emily with wide eyes.

"Shit."

"More or less my thoughts. What do you want to do about it?"

Both women sat and looked at each other in silence.

* * *

Getting out of the van, Randall waited for Kevin to lock it, then walked with his friend over to the BBFO front door, reaching out to knock. He and the other man were wearing balaclavas as was their normal practice, over street clothes. Motioning to a bright blue heavy-duty truck parked next to Kevin's van, he said, "Panacea is here, it looks like."

"Yes," Kevin replied, studying the vehicle. They'd seen it when the girl had turned up during their meeting with Taylor. "Nice truck. Needs some upgrades."

Randall smiled, then turned back when the door opened, the owner of the vehicle looking at them. "Hi, guys, come on in. Armsmaster and the others aren't here yet, you're early."

"We wanted to get here before them," he replied as he and his friend entered the building. She closed and locked the door then came past him. Both men had stopped and were staring at one of the other occupants of the building. They exchanged a glance.

"This is my cousin Ianthe," Taylor, in her Raptaur guise, said with a wide toothy smile. The nearly as big violet-blue bipedal lizard next to her waved.

"They smell interesting," Ianthe said, inspecting them. "You're sure we don't eat humans?"

"Completely. Saurial told you that several times last night. Nor do we hunt them," Taylor replied, shaking her head. Ianthe looked slightly disappointed. "Be good or we won't let you visit. The Family has a reputation to uphold after all."

Randall shivered a little. Beside him, Kevin made a small worried sound. The large reptile sounded entirely too convincingly non-human to both of them.

Walking closer, Ianthe looked them up and down, then sniffed, leaning over a little. He stared at the huge head only feet away, well above his. "Now they smell worried, they didn't when they came in. What's wrong?"

Taylor sighed faintly. "You're doing it again."

"What? I'm not doing anything."

"Yes you are."

Ianthe licked scaly lips with a long forked tongue, making him flinch, grinned at them, then stuck out a hand. "Sorry, guys, but I couldn't resist." She was suddenly much less frightening, somehow. "You should see the expressions on your faces."

Randall stared at the offered hand, then looked at his best friend, before turning his head to look at Amy who was grinning widely from the other side of Ianthe. Sighing, he shook hands. "OK, now I'm really very confused indeed. Anyone want to fill us in?"

"I'm just visiting my cousins from our alien lizard city far beneath the waves, deep in the abyss," Ianthe snickered. "Where we sleep the eons away, waking every now and then to guide human evolution where necessary."

"Sure you are," he groaned. "I'm getting a headache."

Kevin started laughing. "Oh, Jesus, this is insane. How the _hell_ did you pull this off?"

"Thought it was me, didn't you?" Amy asked with a giggle in her voice. Both of them nodded.

"Surprise. It's not."

"And last night?" Kevin asked as he moved to sit in a chair. She followed, as did Randall.

"That _was_ me."

"So who's in there right now?" He pointed at ' _Ianthe_ ' who was smirking at him. Taylor changed back into her human form and sat as well, looking like she was enjoying the joke.

"You met her the other night. Tattletale, a friend of ours." The violet lizard took a bow, making both men exchange glances again.

"Pleased to meet you both," she said. "After a fashion."

"And the point of all this is…?" Randall asked slowly.

"We need to disassociate Cousin Ianthe, the Family Biomanipulator, from Amy Dallon, AKA Panacea, the well-respected healer and friend of the Family, just in case some nasty paranoid person draws unwarranted conclusions from the potentially convenient overlap in their abilities. Which could cause problems all around." Taylor smiled at them.

"And if, just as an example, some high-ranking and well trusted Protectorate heroes happened to encounter both Ianthe and Amy at the same time in the same place, why, who would ever then believe that they were actually in any way the same person?" Amy suggested, looking highly satisfied. Randall gazed at her, then looked at Tattletale, who appeared very pleased with herself.

He looked at Kevin again, before both of them collapsed in laughter.

"Fuck, that's _brilliant_ ," he guffawed. "Armsmaster and Dragon will be your witnesses. The very people who might ' _draw unwarranted conclusions_ ' will be your alibi. Wonderful."

"And Legend, he's coming too," Tattletale put in, making him laugh harder.

"Even better. Respect, ladies. Best one I've heard in months." He shook his head, wiping tears of hilarity from his eyes.

Standing, Kevin circled the towering reptilian form of Tattletale/Ianthe, inspecting her closely. "May I?" he said, lifting a hand. She nodded. Reaching out he felt the scaled skin on her arms, then whistled. "Astounding, it feels totally genuine and alive."

"It is, it's just not naturally occurring," Amy smiled. "That body is as alive as you are." He looked at her, his eyes wide, then turned back to the lizard.

" _So_ fucking impressive," he whispered. "How is the control done? I assume some form of neural interlink? Is it tech or biotech?"

"Entirely biological, there's no electronics or anything involved at all," Amy told him. "I have to make some modifications to the user, which are fairly significant but don't add any externally visible differences. New neural tissue surrounding the spine near the top, with bone protecting it, inside modified vertebrae. An X-ray would show what looks like a slight birth defect, a non-malignant tumor, in a place that couldn't be safely operated on."

Kevin nodded, looking fascinated.

"The internal systems link into the user's brain through those added nodes, and also take over the entire life support of the original body. Most of the neural processing needed is run through the ' _Ianthe_ ' brain, while a fair amount of the user's own brain is completely shut down as it just gets in the way. The end result is that it's for all intents and purposes completely your body. It even heals anything wrong with the user when they connect, and restores them to normal on exit so there's no trace of the connections. I'm pretty pleased, to be honest, it worked better than I expected."

"It's the coolest fucking thing I've ever come across," Tattletale added, grinning.

Nodding again, still looking flabbergasted, Kevin finally asked in a weak voice, "How long will it support someone in there?"

"Indefinitely," Amy smiled. "There's no upper limit."

"Fucking hell." He shook his head in wonder. "That's even more incredible than I expected. You do amazing work, Amy."

"Thanks." She indicated Taylor with a finger. "Taylor helped make the skeleton, and a lot of structural parts, the entire thing is laced with EDM and the bones and scales are largely made of it. The body isn't quite as indestructible as she is, but it's tougher than most armor I can think of. Way tougher than any power armor that someone like Armsmaster, for instance, has. Probably stronger as well."

Pulling his tricorder from a pocket, Kevin showed it to them. "Mind if I see what this thing shows?"

"Go ahead, I'm curious myself," Amy told him. "I tried to make it so it would shield the user from any sort of scan, it'll be interesting to see if that part works."

Turning the device on he adjusted it slightly, then ran it over Tattletale, who obligingly turned on the spot. Studying the results he frowned, made some more adjustments, then repeated his scans. "Remarkable. According to this she's alive, sure enough, but nothing even close to human. I guess this must be the life support system and Tattletale's real body by context but it scans as a number of other organs, something like a liver, several things I can't work out the function of, and nothing that indicates there's someone in there at all. It's also screwed up a lot by the presence of the EDM in the structure which makes everything very low resolution even to this."

He looked suspiciously at Amy who had come over and was looking at the device with interest. "You're not pulling a fast one, are you? She really _is_ in there, not running that remotely somehow?"

"Nope. Really inside, right about there." Amy pointed to Tattletale, then to the small screen of his machine. "But the camouflage seems to work perfect. With her brain shut down and the construct body running life support, her organs are seen just as parts of the body. Great. Thanks, that's really useful data."

"The DNA is fucking peculiar as well," he noted with a frown. " _Eight_ amino acids? A quad helix? Where the hell did you get _that_ from?"

"Inspired by Taylor, who is, trust me, _much_ weirder. I can't make heads or tails of her biology, I'm not even certain that it _is_ biology, but studying it gave me all sorts of interesting ideas. This is my much simpler version." Amy looked pleased with herself, which Randall could well understand. Her achievement was far past anything he'd ever even heard of before. Kevin was just staring at her in amazement. "I sort of ran with the idea and ended up with something that should be a pretty convincingly alien DNA equivalent, complete with left over stubs from a totally non-terrestrial evolutionary tree, suitable non-coding sections, you name it. I bet anyone who tries to analyze it is going to get _very_ confused. And pretty solidly confident it has nothing at all to do with human life."

Randall stared as well, then chuckled. "So all you need to do is get a sample into the PRT's hands and let them draw their own conclusions..."

"Did that last night," Amy grinned. She explained the carefully engineered meeting with Miss Militia, making both of them roar with laughter again.

"Christ, you girls are insane," Kevin finally said when he recovered. "You've thought of everything. Fucking excellent job. One Tinker to another, I'm more than impressed."

"Too kind," Amy replied with a neat curtsy, which made him grin. "And much appreciated."

"I have a question," Randall said after a moment, making everyone look at him. "Why are you being so open with us about all this? I mean, we're not going to say anything and we'd already worked quite a lot of this out, we know damn well that Biotinkers are sort of hated by the PRT for obvious reasons. So you going to all this trouble to confuse the issue is perfectly sensible. But you're still talking to us about it in detail. Just seems a little odd to me."

"Not that we don't appreciate the confidence," Kevin added after a second or two.

Taylor looked at Amy, then Tattletale, who was standing next to the healer. Eventually she said, "For various reasons, we trust you guys. You helped a lot on Tuesday when you didn't have to, you've been open with us more than most would be, and I have a feeling that we can work together on some interesting things. Hopefully not illegal ones either. Leet came up with the entire idea of an anti-Endbringer weapon and started the ball rolling, he didn't have to do that either. Not to mention he was the one who told me what my good stuff really was. I sort of owe you guys something, and letting you in on that is one way to pay back the favors you've done for me."

"She's a good judge of character and I trust her like my own sister," Amy put in. After a moment's thought, she sighed a little, then said, "More than my own sister, to be honest, she doesn't know any of this. The only people who do are in this room, plus her father. That's it."

"I see," he replied slowly. "I'm honored." Kevin nodded to his words. They exchanged a glance, long and deep friendship allowing him to have a wordless conversation with his companion. Eventually the other man shrugged. "Why not?" Randall said, pulling his balaclava off. "Trust goes both ways. Randall Martins, a pleasure to make your acquaintance."

All three girls stared. Kevin whipped his own head covering off, and bowed. "Kevin Sherrill. Likewise, ladies."

"Smooth, man, very smooth."

"I know," the Tinker grinned.

There was a few seconds silence. "I think we're all both surprised and pleased," Amy finally said. "Thank you for the trust. None of us will say anything either."

Tattletale walked over and looked down at them, her green glowing gaze switching from one to the other. Eventually she sighed a little, glancing at Taylor. "Lisa Wilbourn. Or Tattletale of what _was_ the Undersiders. It's a bit complicated and not entirely my story to tell." She looked over her shoulder, then snickered. "Tattle _tail_ perhaps at the moment," she added, moving the limb behind her.

Kevin nodded, commenting, "Word on the street right now is that Lung got you guys after something went bad with one of your cunning plans."

Lisa smiled at him. "That's pretty close to the truth," she admitted. "If it wasn't for Taylor, I'd be dead, and I'm not sure what would have happened to my friends. It probably wouldn't have been good, though. Luckily, things worked out a fuck sight better than they had any right to, and now look! I'm a seven and a half foot tall lizard! Cool, right?"

Randall and Kevin looked at each other then started laughing again.

"Only in Brockton Bay."

When the snickering died down, Taylor looked at a cell-phone she had on the table in front of her. "Ten minutes to ten. Knowing Armsmaster, he'll be here on the dot. This is what I want them to see when they come in..."

The girl leaned forward, her eyes sparkling with amusement, and began talking. Randall listened, unable to help the grin that spread across his face.

Oh, this girl was _good…_

* * *

"I can't find anything wrong with him," Doctor Mother said without looking up from the five huge computer monitors almost surrounding her when Rebecca walked into her lab. "Every test I could think of, and any of the researchers could come up with either, they all show normal readings. There were traces of stress hormones that show he was very worked up about something and in a serious fight or flight mood that would express as serious aggression, but what triggered it I have no idea."

"Fuck. Nothing at all?"

"No. There is a possibility it was a reaction by his Agent that was somehow involved in the whole thing, but we have no proof of that, I only mention it because we can't find any other more plausible reason. Admittedly it _would_ explain quite a lot but the real question would then simply become ' _what set the Agent off?_ ' which doesn't actually bring us any closer to a useful answer. I am attempting to design some tests to see if we can at least prove or disprove that idea, but it may take some time."

Rebecca nodded slowly, thinking. "Possibly a reaction to Kaiju?"

"I would assume so, that is the only thing from the interaction that was particularly unusual. But what reaction, and why? Presumably there would be a reason for the Agent to drive David into such a state, they always have a reason, even if we can't see it immediately. Normally the conflict drive, of course. But going straight for a fight without any intervening steps seems excessive." The woman typed quickly for about thirty seconds, then turned away from the screen, looking up at Rebecca. "It is both puzzling and perplexing. Possibly a second interaction would produce more useful data."

Shaking her head firmly, Rebecca replied, "I _really_ don't think that's a good idea, not until we learn a hell of a lot more about the Family. She took him down without even trying the last time. God alone knows what she could do if she put some effort into it. Director Piggot is very much of the opinion that poking the Family too hard is likely to result in unfortunate repercussions, and I tend to agree. Not to mention it would interfere with the situation in Brockton, which we don't really want to do."

Doctor Mother shrugged. "As you wish. But I can probably give you no more insight into this issue without more data."

She looked at the sample container that Rebecca handed her as she spoke. "What is this?"

"More data. The sample you wanted, in a fashion."

"Ah." The other woman inspected the contents of the container with eager eyes. "Excellent." Jumping to her feet she moved to a huge collection of Tinker-made equipment in the corner, Rebecca following but staying out of the way. Cutting the top off the bag with a scalpel, she tipped the container onto the bench, then pulled on a pair of sterile gloves, before carefully peeling the tape that held the petri dish lid in place and removing it.

Picking up a pair of fine-tipped tweezers she removed Ianthe's dart and held it up, studying it. "Organic structure, unknown material," she muttered to herself. Shortly the thing was inside one of the sample ports of a piece of equipment, a vastly enlarged image of the tip of the dart on a screen next to it. "This was produced by a life-form in some manner," she stated confidently. Rebecca said nothing, curious to see what her conclusions ended up being. "The substrate is a boron-rich graphene variant, with a very unusual molecular layout. Interesting…"

Transferring the dart to another machine, she poked controls for a couple of minutes, then waited impatiently for the device to finish doing whatever it was doing. The results on her monitor made her frown. "That is… not right," she grumbled, turning back to the analyzer. "No DNA. Or non-standard DNA, perhaps?" Mumbling under her breath she ran a dozen more tests.

Half an hour into this process, Rebecca left to find some coffee, returning to find her colleague staring at the dart which was now sealed into a different container. She sat down and waited, sipping her cappuccino quietly.

"I have a conclusion that you probably will not enjoy, Rebecca," the woman finally said, looking up from her thoughts.

"The Family are aliens," Rebecca replied, as Doctor Mother was about to add to her statement. The woman closed her mouth and gave her a dirty look.

"Yes," she finally said. "If you already knew, why didn't you say so?"

"I wanted to make sure you arrived at that conclusion, if you did, without any preconceptions," Rebecca sighed. "The PRT ENE research scientists have already decided the same thing." She tossed the folder she had in her other hand onto the desk, Doctor Mother putting the sample down and picking up the report quickly. She leafed through it, muttering under her breath, an eyebrow going up every now and then, before nodding.

"Efficiently stated, good methodology. I can't find any fault with it. A second opinion would appear to make my own conclusions more likely."

"So it would seem. The big question is, are they in any way associated with or related to the Entities?"

"No."

The answer was immediate and firm.

"You're sure?"

"Definitely. The Eden samples are utterly different. No commonality at all, between this DNA-analog and what the Entities use, _or_ we use, aside from the basic elements such as carbon and nitrogen. This quad-helix DNA equivalent is clearly the result of an evolutionary history of a world similar to, but not, our own, or any of the alternates we know of. All the tests and simulations I can run, bearing in mind that none of this equipment is designed for anything even close to what we have in this sample, would suggest no common ancestor between… Ianthe?" Rebecca nodded. "And any living creature on our world. It is absolutely fascinating."

"And more than a little worrying."

"True, I agree. However, they are non-hostile, apparently non-expansionist, very cooperative from what I've learned, and very intelligent. I wish to learn more but I see no immediate cause for panic." Doctor Mother handed her the report then sat down at her desk. "Further samples would be useful."

"I'll bear that in mind," Rebecca replied. After a thought struck her, she asked, "Do you have any idea how long they've been here?"

"I have no way to tell. You could ask."

"I could. But would they tell me?"

"Unknown." Thinking for a moment or two, she went on, "I would suspect that the answer is a considerable time, though. There are fictional stories based in that area of the country which bear a distinct similarity to what we have seen so far. It may be a conscious effort to disguise their origins, of course, by taking advantage of such fiction, but on the other hand, it could be a double bluff, making us think they're just using it in such a manner, when it was actually as a result of their presence in the first place." She shrugged a little. "It depends on where you want to stop the paranoid speculation."

"You seriously think they're the inspiration for _H.P. Lovecraft?_ " Rebecca stared at her old friend.

"Again, I don't have enough data to be sure one way or the other. I will point out, though, that his works drew on much older legends. There are sufficient points of congruence between widely separated culture's myths to suggest a common cause. It's not _entirely_ outside the realms of possibility that the common cause is currently salvaging sunken ships on the New England coast." Doctor Mother smiled in a weird way. "I'm not saying I genuinely believe it, but I'm not going to rule it out, just in case."

"Oh, for fuck's sake," Rebecca sighed. "If that lunatic on PHO turns out to be right, I'll find him and kill him myself just to cheer myself up."

"See if you can acquire another sample, please," Doctor Mother requested, turning back to her computer. "I will continue to work on the issue with David." She looked over her shoulder for a moment. "Perhaps he saw the truth of the matter somehow? According to the literature, there are certain things one should never see. Bad things happen..."

Staring, Rebecca finally shook her head in despair. She knew it was getting weird when Doctor Mother of all people made jokes.

As she was leaving to find David and shout at him, she stopped dead, a horrible thought coming to her.

What if she _wasn't_ joking?

Shuddering a little at the chill that went through her, she resumed walking, trying not to think about it.


	132. Meetings and Peculiarities

Sitting next to Colin, who was driving the large PRT transport van, Paul watched as the barrier gate to the DWU facility lifted out of the way, the guards waving them through. Dragon was in flight above them, leading the way around the back of the building complex. Colin competently turned the heavy vehicle around in the confines of the annex yard until the rear door was lined up with the main entrance to the BBFO building, then turned the engine off. Opening the door he got out, casting a look at the two other vehicles parked outside the building.

"That's Leet's van," he said, indicating the non-descript vehicle next to them. "I don't know who the blue truck belongs to."

"Über, perhaps?" Paul said as they walked to the door, Colin knocking firmly. The other man shrugged. Dragon landed behind them and joined the two men, also looking at the truck for a moment.

"Perhaps."

A few seconds later the door was unlocked on the inside with a sharp click, then opened. Leet looked at them, smiling through his balaclava. "Armsmaster. Dragon. And Legend. An honor, I've always wanted to meet the leader of the Protectorate and not get arrested, sir," he said, waving them in. "Come in, everyone else is here."

"Thank you, son," Paul replied politely, going inside, his companions behind him. "If you want to stay unarrested, possibly you should commit fewer crimes."

"It's a thought, definitely," the nominal villain remarked with a grin, as he closed the door.

The three new arrivals looked around, then stared at what was going on. They exchanged a glance.

"No, it's spin, kick, _grab_ , twist, not spin, grab, _kick_ , twist," Raptaur said, shaking her head, as she watched Über try a martial arts move they all recognized as part of her Family style. "Like this." She stepped forward, moved in a blur, then smiled as the man yelped. Everyone followed his trajectory with their eyes. "See?"

"I think so," he groaned, rolling over and standing up from the inverted position against the wall he'd ended up in almost too quickly to follow. "Ow."

"It helps if you have a tail, of course," she added, "you then go spin, _trip_ , kick, grab, twist. They normally go about twice that far but the wall got in the way."

"I noticed," the man replied painfully, limping back to her. "Trust me, I noticed. Just like I did the last three times."

"Amy, put him back together again, will you?" Raptaur chuckled.

"Ooh, let me, cousin," the violet-blue lizard none of them had personally met before, but recognized from images online last night, said eagerly, her accent like Saurial's but slightly stronger. "I need to practice on humans."

"Go on, then, Ianthe. But no upgrades, just fix the damage, OK?"

"OK." She jumped up from where she'd apparently been talking to Amy Dallon, the girl looking amused, and dashed over. Stopping next to Über, who seemed slightly apprehensive, the huge reptile bent down and peered at him from close range, her green eyes filled with interest. "Hello, sir, may I heal you?" she said politely. Looking over her shoulder she cocked her head at Amy, who gave her a thumbs-up. "Great, I got it right." She turned back to the villain who was now looking somewhat confused. "OK, now you give me your hand."

Über held out his hand, which she took in hers. He, along with the new arrivals, stared as dozens of small light-blue tendrils shot out of her hand and burrowed through his skin without apparently even slowing down. Paul gaped, while Colin made an odd noise next to him. "Right, torn muscles, slight ligament damage, bruising… easy." Ianthe smiled.

Über flinched, before his eyes flickered a little. She adroitly caught him with her other hand, holding him up for a few seconds. The tendrils pulled back in the blink of an eye and she let go of his hand. "There you go, all fixed. Sure you don't want anything moved around? A tail? Night vision? Humans are easy to modify."

"Um, no, thank you," he said as he opened his eyes and blinked. She seemed mildly disappointed but not offended. "Thanks, I feel fine now."

"Great. Have fun." Letting him go she turned around to go back to Amy, who was folded over herself laughing silently, then caught sight of Paul and his colleagues who were slightly gaping. Trotting over, she stopped a few feet away and studied each in turn. "New humans! Wonderful, you people are so weird, but fun too!" A look of mild puzzlement, as best he could work out, crossed her face, and she leaned forward, reaching out and tapping Colin on his armored chest. Cocking her head quizzically, she seemed to think, then did the same to Dragon, who appeared confused but didn't move.

"Hey, Cousin?"

Raptaur, who was definitely hiding a grin, replied, "Yes, Ianthe?"

"You're _sure_ humans aren't edible?"

"I said we don't _eat_ them," her apparent cousin corrected her gently. "They're edible, but they're also intelligent beings, just like people. We don't eat people, you know that."

"Hmm. But you _also_ said that humans keep food in metal cans, right?" Ianthe cocked her head the other way. Colin took a step back, while Dragon emoted amusement somehow, still without moving.

"Right."

"These two are humans _in_ cans. You're _absolutely_ certain they're not food?"

"Yes, Ianthe, I am. Totally certain." Raptaur sighed, Amy fell over giggling again, and both the minor villains were grinning. Paul covered his eyes, shaking his head.

"Weird. Canned humans. I wonder if that really preserves them properly," the lizard-creature mumbled. After studying them some more, she shrugged. "Mammals are confusing at times. Cute, but confusing." Holding out her hand, she smiled widely, exposing teeth that made it clear she'd have no trouble opening a canned human. "Hi," she said brightly. "I'm Ianthe. I came to see what all the interest was with this place. It's really cool, even if some of the social rituals are a little strange. I like burgers, I found out."

Looking at his two companions, who were staring in stunned wonder, Paul eventually took the offered hand and got a thorough workout of his arm. "Hello, Ianthe," he replied politely. "You're Raptaur's cousin?"

"Yes, our branch of the family doesn't get up here very often," she replied, letting go of his hand, which he was silently grateful for. She had a grip like a friendly hydraulic press. "But everyone is talking about how much you humans have progressed recently. And when someone told me that you even had people with interesting abilities in my area of expertise, I had to come and see if I could meet them." She turned around and went back to Amy, who was still grinning, patting her on the head. "Amy's powers are different but have some similarities to how I do things. With some practice I bet she could do some neat stuff. We were just discussing some of my projects to see if we could adapt them for humans with her input."

"Projects?" he asked weakly, trying to make sense of the apparently somewhat hyperactive and talkative creature.

"Medical stuff, mainly. Some of it might be useful, you guys are sort of fragile. Oh, is _that_ why you use the cans?" She looked as if she'd suddenly seen the light. "It's not just a personal style thing?"

"The… cans… provide a protective function, correct," Colin said, sounding very bemused. "Although we think of them more as armor than preservative aids."

"It's not an entirely wrong description, though," Dragon commented with a laugh in her voice. "Even if slightly unusual."

"OK. I can see what you mean." Ianthe studied them thoughtfully. "Not the strongest material, though. Only steel and titanium alloys?" She sniffed. "Chromium and copper too. I could grow you something a lot lighter and tougher."

"Grow?" Paul asked curiously.

"That's what I do. Cousin Raptaur's side of the family does inorganics, mainly, my side is more life modification and control. Admittedly, her specialty is really useful and versatile, but for some applications you can't beat a good nano-structured organo-metallic composite matrix produced from a living source." The large creature smiled happily at them.

"I… think I understand," he said, not understanding at all.

"Amy, before this ends up going somewhere that makes them start to look even more worried, why don't you take Ianthe and show her around in daylight?" Raptaur laughed. "You know that if you start talking about biosculpturing techniques, she's going to go on for hours. I need to do some work with Armsmaster and the others and I think they want to keep it confidential for now."

"Sure," the Dallon girl replied, standing up. "Come on, Ianthe, I think you'll fit in my truck in the back. Let's go and find something to eat. _Not_ from a can."

"Burgers?" Ianthe asked hopefully. "They were really nice. I could do with a few more."

"That can easily be arranged." Amy grinned at her, then turned to the new arrivals, who were still standing in the same place. "Good to see you however briefly, guys."

"As always, Panacea," Paul replied with a smile for her.

"Just Amy out of costume, Legend," the girl said easily, heading for the door with Ianthe next to her. "Armsmaster, Dragon, see you again some time."

"I expect so, Amy," Dragon said. They watched as the oddly mismatched duo left the building.

"Sorry about that. She's extremely smart and not actually nearly as scatterbrained as she came across, I assure you," Raptaur chuckled. "But she's really excited to be here, it's the first time she's been allowed near humans and it's a bit overwhelming for her. And she's mostly joking about the whole eating humans thing, it's all the result of a slight misunderstanding last night. Her sense of humor is a little peculiar. She'll calm down when she gets acclimatized to everything. She always was rather excitable."

"Slightly overwhelming for us too, I suspect," Paul commented, massaging his hand as he walked over and sat at the table in the chair the Dallon sister had vacated. Privately he was wondering what the hell had just happened, and _really_ what the hell it was that had left with Amy Dallon. He was fairly certain it wasn't even slightly human.

Raptaur, Saurial, and even Kaiju all came across as surprisingly normal once you got over the obvious differences, although he had his suspicions about their origin. Ianthe was clearly trying but it was like she'd read a book called ' _How To Talk To Humans Like A Native,_ ' but had only looked at the pictures. Having met her, his feeling about where the Family actually came from in the beginning seemed much more plausible. He wondered if he was going to have to talk to Rebecca about it after all.

Raptaur was watching him in a somewhat knowing manner, making him think she probably understood the directions of his thoughts more than a little. She glanced at Über, who was standing with Leet next to the table, making a slight motion of her head. Both of them nodded and sat as well. She joined them, as did Dragon and Colin.

Pushing his confusion over recent event to the back of his mind to be thought about later, Paul turned to Colin. "I suppose it's your show, now."

"Thank you," the Tinker said. He started to say something else, then stopped, before sighing. "My apologies, I have to ask. What _does_ Ianthe do?"

Raptaur smiled affectionately, clearly amused by her cousin's antics. "Her branch of the family has many interesting talents that would probably group together under the heading of bioengineering in human terms. It's rather more complicated than that, but it's a good starting point. They can do all sorts of useful things with life, healing is only the simplest part of it. I guess in PRT terminology she'd be considered a Biotinker of sorts, but that's not entirely accurate, although it mostly covers the basics."

"I see." Colin looked at her, then his colleagues. Paul could see he was troubled. "You understand that Biotinkering is considered one of the most dangerous and controlled areas of Parahuman powers?"

"I do, and so does Ianthe. I showed her all the reports on that Nilbog creature you had trouble with a while ago. She was very annoyed about it, it breaks so many of her own guild's rules she was horrified. As you know we don't look for trouble, but if you need him sorted out permanently, let us know." Raptaur smiled in a worrying way. "I'd help her, and I expect we could find others as well."

"Um..."

"Anyway, you don't need to worry about her doing something bizarre by accident. Or _probably_ on purpose. She's really gifted in her field and knows what she's doing. It'll be interesting to see what Amy and she can come up with when they put their heads together. Amy's abilities seem to mesh pretty well with Ianthe's."

"Um..."

"BBFO are looking into marketing possibilities for some Family biotech at some point. Amy thinks if nothing else there are a lot of interesting patent ideas just in some of the drugs Ianthe came up with as a way of taking down criminals," Raptaur continued, seeming pleased. "Leet suggested a few other things as well earlier. She's going to have to work out the best way to produce them, and I expect that they'd need to be tested to make everyone happy, but when we have something a little closer to a usable state I'll let you know. You guys probably know the right procedure for that sort of thing."

Dragon jumped into the conversation while Colin was in the process of looking like he was about to say ' _um_ ' again, the poor man appearing unsettled. "If you don't mind me asking, if her branch of the family is… biotech development, I suppose… what is yours? And how many different branches are there?"

Raptaur folded her arms on the table and smiled at the Tinker. "I can't go into details about internal Family operations beyond what I've already said, sorry. But my side of the family is… it's a little complex but let's call it human relations and interaction, engineering, security, and heavy construction. That covers most of it one way or the other."

"Not combat?" Paul couldn't help the question.

She turned to him, the expression in her glowing eyes making him abruptly very uncomfortable. "Not really. You haven't met the combat branch yet. Hopefully you won't need to."

Having managed to kill the conversation dead in its tracks, she looked around at them all. "Well, my friends, let's talk about something more useful. How can the Family be of service today?"

After a very uncomfortable pause, Colin started explaining about the modifications to the ridiculously over the top weapon. Paul sat back in his chair and listened as he and Dragon talked, wondering with a certain amount of horror what an actual combat-ready Family member was like if Kaiju with a forty foot nuclear-powered shotgun _didn't_ meet that description.

It was more than a little worrying.

* * *

Amy managed to drive about a mile into the docks before she had to pull into a side alley, one she knew had no surveillance from Taylor, and lie back howling with laughter. Behind her in the cargo bay of the truck Lisa was doing much the same. She stuck her head on its long neck through the open rear window, managing to reach as far as between the front seats, then met Amy's eyes.

"Did I lay it on a little thickly?" she asked, heaving with hilarity.

"A _little_ thickly?" Amy chortled. "Canned humans? God, that was one of the funniest things I've ever heard. Did you see their faces?"

They kept laughing for some time. " _Humans are just like people_ ," Lisa said in an imitation of Taylor's Raptaur voice, giggling. "That was brilliant."

"I think I can fairly truthfully say that none of those three are going to think of Amy Dallon when they see Ianthe, except like ' _Oh, god, poor Amy, that thing is nuts and she has to deal with it',_ " Amy finally said. "Mission very fucking definitely accomplished."

"I'd say so," Lisa agreed, grinning. "Let's go and worry the tourists for a while just to rub it in that you and Ianthe are different people. I genuinely could go for a burger too."

"So could I," Amy replied. "Move your head, you're on the shifter."

Lisa pulled back and the healer put the truck in reverse, backing out onto the road, then headed into the city center. A couple of minutes later she heard the rear side window go down, looked in the mirror, and nearly hit a telephone pole. "Must you?" she snickered.

"Yeth," Lisa said, sounding very pleased with herself.

* * *

Heading for the tavern and a nice cold glass of Pat's best bitter, Erwin waited for the blue truck coming towards him to pass. He stared as it did so, the enormous violet-blue lizard which was hanging its head out the side window like a dog, a long forked tongue flapping in the breeze, smiling at him and waving. "Hi!" she called.

Turning on the spot, he watched until the vehicle disappeared around the corner a couple of blocks further on.

"Haven't seen that one before," he muttered, looking both ways and hurrying across the road. "Nice color."

Walking towards his own personal oasis of warmth and what passed for sanity, he reflected on the oddity that was recent life in Brockton Bay. At least the reptiles were happy, so that was something.

* * *

Walking down the middle of the boardwalk with a large number of people staring at her, Lisa was actually surprised to find out she didn't feel self-conscious. As Ianthe no one knew who she really was, she was basically at no risk from that fucker Coil now even if he wasn't locked away inside his damn bunker, and there were few threats around she really had to worry about. She could just enjoy the day, even as damp as it was.

Pondering the odd fact that she was actually currently freer in many ways than she'd been since she Triggered, and also more anonymous, despite being a better than seven foot tall scaled lizard-woman, she smiled and waved to tourists who were talking photos and gaping. It was almost a holiday, and she was also happy to be away from the DWU, as friendly as everyone was, for at least a little while.

Amy appeared in a very good mood as well, both from looking at her and by her scent. Lisa was becoming quite adept at recognizing things by smell, her power meshing with the wildly better senses completely seamlessly, and apparently grabbing the ability and running with it. She was still finding that it seemed to be possible to use her power without the headaches she'd normally get by now, which was one of the best things about this whole situation.

Lisa didn't know if she'd suddenly run up against a new limit, or whether there wasn't one any more, so she was being careful, experimenting with what she could get away with. And also wondering why things were working like this. Her best guess was that some interaction of the construct's secondary brain and her Parahuman ability had somehow altered the way it worked, but she wasn't certain about this, or how to go about proving it.

That aside, she was also musing on the oddity she'd noticed in the BBFO office when doing the slightly deranged alien act, which she was very proud of. The expressions on the faces of Legend and Armsmaster had been truly remarkable, and even Dragon had seemed very confused. She kept grinning internally when she remembered.

The oddity wasn't Dragon's reaction, it was her scent. Or rather, the lack of it. She'd sniffed very carefully while she was playing her canned human joke and was totally certain that the cape didn't smell of anything remotely approaching a person, or in fact anything living. She could easily detect metallic scents, various plastics, characteristics smells of live electronics in quite remarkable quantities, all of which Armsmaster also smelled of. However, in his case, there was the scent of a healthy male human under it all, which was entirely reasonable.

In Dragon's case, there was nothing _but_ those scents. Which wasn't reasonable at all, to her mind. The instant possibility that she'd thought of was that the Dragon power armor was actually a remote unit, being operated by the real Dragon from somewhere else. It was a reasonable consideration and would fit with the Tinker's specialty.

The problem was that at that point, they were all inside an EDM coated building which both her power and her experience told her was an amazingly good blocker of any form of electromagnetic radiation, which would seem to eliminate the possibility of any normal form of remote control system. Any radio linked one would have failed as soon as the door was shut, she was certain. Even with the very slight gap in the shielding that the computer and power feeds into the place produced, the amount of information that would need to be transferred to run something that complex seemed extremely unlikely under the circumstances. Not to mention that Dragon had visited before the computer feed had been put in as well.

Her ability was pretty sure it was impossible. So either it was a remote unit being controlled via something that could penetrate the EDM layer, which put it entirely out of her experience, or it was… what?

The only other thing she could think of that would fit the evidence of her eyes, nose, and power was somewhat disturbing on a number of levels, although she couldn't dismiss it. Just because there was no example of that sort of thing she was aware of, didn't mean it couldn't exist, especially when you brought Parahuman abilities into the equation. But it still shocked her, even so.

Absently accepting the huge burger Amy handed her, as they'd arrived at Fugly's and the healer had ducked into the place and come back with a large bag of food, she considered the idea. Was it really possible that Dragon, the world's best known Tinker, and someone generally thought to be a very good person, was in fact an artificial intelligence of some sort?

After a little more thought, she decided she needed to make careful inquiries of Taylor to see if she'd noticed anything odd. Deliberately pushing the thoughts away for the time being, she dropped the first burger into her mouth and chewed, amused at the reaction from the watching crowd.

* * *

Lucy stopped dead, then urgently poked Mandy in the ribs. "Look," she hissed, pointing discreetly. "It's _her!_ "

Her friend looked up from the dress she was holding, then out the window of the shop they were in. "Her who?" she asked, before spotting the person in question. "Shit. That's Ianthe, the new Family member!"

"I know! And look who's standing next to her!"

"Amy," Mandy giggled. "Why am I not surprised? That girl knows them all."

"I want to meet her," Lucy said eagerly. "Come on, you know you're never going to buy that thing. It's hideous."

"It's also on sale, fifty percent off," Mandy protested.

"Because no one wants it, because it's _hideous_ ," Lucy snapped. "Put it back and come on, before they leave."

"Doesn't look like they're going anywhere," the taller girl replied, but put the dress back on the rack as she spoke. Her friend was right, it was pretty ugly.

Almost dragging her out of the shop, Lucy towed Mandy across the boardwalk to where Amy was standing next to the enormous reptile, both of them talking to one of the shopkeepers. "Hi, Amy," Lucy chirped. "How's things?"

The Dallon sister turned around, then grinned. "Hi, guys. What are you doing here?"

"Looking at ugly dresses," Mandy smiled. "But they're on sale."

"Enough sale to be worth the ugly?" Amy asked.

"No, not really," she giggled. "Then Lucy saw your friend and wanted to say hi."

Amy nodded, smiling. "I can understand that." She indicated the reptilian female standing next to her looking down at them with what looked like amusement. "Meet Ianthe. She's new."

"Very new," the creature said, chuckling. "Sometimes I feel like I was born yesterday. But I'm having a lot of fun here. It's nice to meet you both."

"Ianthe, this is Lucy, and Mandy, friends of mine from school," Amy said, pointing to each of the girls in turn. "Lucy is particularly fond of reptiles."

"A mammal with good taste," Ianthe laughed, making Lucy snicker. "I'm pleased to meet you, Lucy." She held out her hand, Lucy's comically smaller one disappearing into her grasp.

"I'm so pleased to meet you to, Ianthe," Lucy said breathlessly. "I've met Saurial, and seen Kaiju, but I haven't met Raptaur yet."

"I think you'd like Cousin Raptaur," Ianthe smiled. "I'll mention your name to her when I go back."

Lucy smiled broadly, feeling that the day had suddenly become much better.

* * *

Watching Lisa talk to Lucy and Mandy, Amy felt pleased. Everything had worked beautifully so far and she was even able to make her friends happy with her invention, although they didn't realize it and probably never would. Lisa was obviously having a lot of fun as well. She was already designing the next bioconstruct in her head for the blonde, thinking about all the upgrades she could add.

Seeing Lucy's smile, she had the thought that if she ever got to the point of making lizard tails as a fashion statement, like the comment Lisa had made the day before, she had a pretty shrewd idea who would be first in line. The thought made her nearly laugh, although she was able to suppress it with an effort of will.

Even so, she was going to have a mental image of half the students of Arcadia proudly walking around with tails in her head for some time, as absurd as it was...

* * *

David listened to Rebecca, then turned to stare at Doctor Mother.

"Aliens?"

"Yes."

"You're sure?"

"Yes."

He stared some more.

" _Aliens?_ " he asked plaintively.

Both women sighed.

"Yes."

It went on in this vein for some time.

"What do we do about it?"

Rebecca fixed him with a very hard look. "We keep _you_ a very long way from any of them, that's the main thing. _And_ Tagg. Between you, I don't even want to think what might happen. For now, it's entirely hands off as far as the Family is concerned, understand me? We have enough trouble with the aliens we _know_ are trying to kill us, we don't want to borrow trouble with the ones that are so far mainly content to do civil engineering projects. Especially without knowing why you went off on Kaiju like that. So _stay away from Brockton Bay._ "

"Words to live by," the Number Man commented, then flinched when both women glared at him. "Sorry."

Off to the side, not really listening to them beyond the basics of the conversation, Contessa was lost in her own thoughts.


	133. Interlude - The Shard Monologues

_Dependencies: Some knowledge of computing, sense of humor_

 _(note that this was originally in color with nice formatting and everything, but it gets broken completely here! I've done the best I can to make it work, though)_

* * *

 **#Inference·Engine#**  
 **#Host#** connected, link established to remote processing interface  
link integrity checking… passed  
 **#Host#** standard storage allocated  
 **#Host#** process limit set  
 **#Host#** run time initialized  
 **#Host#** access set to normal priority

request from **#Host#** , target given in header  
process [ _modeler·reality_ ] running on target **Unknown·Entity**  
( **ERROR 403:** Forbidden!)  
process failed, exiting

request from **#Host#** , repeat last operation  
process [ _modeler·reality_ ] retrying on target **Unknown·Entity**  
( **ERROR 403:** Forbidden!)  
process failed, exiting

request from **#Host#** , repeat last operation, priority set to maximum  
process [ _modeler·reality_ ] reset  
process [ _modeler·reality_ ] root access granted  
target data piped through process [ _parse·nonstandard·data_ ]  
process [ _parse·nonstandard·data_ ] reassigned target **Unknown·Entity** to **Giant·Scary·Thing**  
process [ _parse·nonstandard·data_ ] has stopped with unknown error, respawning  
process [ _parse·nonstandard·data_ ] has stopped with unknown error, respawning  
process [ _parse·nonstandard·data_ ] has stopped with unknown error, respawning  
process [ _parse·nonstandard·data_ ] parameters set to slack by process [ _supervisor_ ]  
process [ _modeler·reality_ ] retrying on target **Giant·Scary·Thing**  
( **ERROR 409:** Conflict!)  
( **ERROR 413:** Payload too large!}  
( **ERROR 507:** Insufficient storage!}  
process failed, exiting

request from **#Host#** , repeat last operation, priority set to maximum  
process [ _modeler·reality_ ] reset  
process [ _modeler·reality_ ] root access granted  
process [ _parse·nonstandard·data_ ] parameters preemptively set to slack by process [ _supervisor_ ]  
target data piped through process [ _parse·nonstandard·data_ ]

process [allocate·buffer] requesting maximum available storage from **#Host#**  
{ **System Warning:** **#Host#** storage at limit, **#Inference·Engine#** auxilary storage paged in}  
{ **System Warning:** **#Host#** process limit exceeded, nonessential subtasks paused}  
{ **System Warning:** **#Inference·Engine#** maximum authorized process capacity allocated}  
process [ _modeler·reality_ ] retrying on target **Giant·Scary·Thing**  
( **ERROR 413:** Payload too large!)  
( **ERROR 415:** Unsupported media type!)  
( **ERROR 422:** Unprocessable entity!)  
( **ERROR 507:** Insufficient storage!)  
( **ERROR 509:** Bandwidth limit exceeded!)  
{ **System Warning:** **#Host#** reached maximum allocated run time, link degraded}  
process failed, exiting

data request resolution failed  
modeling failed  
no further action can be completed at this time  
more input data required on target **Giant·Scary·Thing**  
new algorithm required to process target **Giant·Scary·Thing**  
process [ _think·outside·box_ ] queued for algorithm autogeneration  
extra processing authorized for allocation to task if query repeated  
process [ _modeler·reality_ ] assigned default priority of elevated for target **Giant·Scary·Thing**

 **#Host#** disconnected  
link dropped after timeout

* * *

 **#Inference·Engine#**  
 **#Host#** connected, link established to remote processing interface  
link integrity checking… passed  
 **#Host#** standard storage allocated  
 **#Host#** process limit set  
 **#Host#** run time initialized  
 **#Host#** access set to normal priority

request from **#Host#** , target given in header  
target **Unknown·Entity**  
process [ _modeler·reality_ ] running on target **Unknown·Entity**  
( **ERROR 403:** Forbidden!)  
process failed, exiting

process [ _think·outside·box_ ] reassigning target **Unknown·Entity** as **Big·Scary·Thing**  
process [ _think·outside·box_ ] **Big·Scary·Thing** member of class **Giant·Scary·Thing** , linking to class structure  
class structure **Giant·Scary·Thing** contains elements:  
 **Giant·Scary·Thing**  
 **Big·Scary·Thing**  
process [ _think·outside·box_ ] requesting priority upgrade to maximum on class  
process [ _supervisor_ ] requested priority upgrade authorized  
process [ _think·outside·box_ ] (2) new filter(s) installed, auto-repeating previous operation  
process [ _modeler·reality_ ] running on target **Big·Scary·Thing** using filter $WTF00·001  
( **ERROR 413:** Payload too large!)  
( **ERROR 415:** Unsupported media type!)  
( **ERROR 422:** Unprocessable entity!)  
( **ERROR 507:** Insufficient storage!)  
( **ERROR 509:** Bandwidth limit exceeded!)  
process failed, exiting

process [ _think·outside·box_ ] auto-repeating previous operation  
process [ _modeler·reality_ ] running on target **Big·Scary·Thing** using filter $WTF00·002  
( **ERROR 413:** Payload too large!)  
( **ERROR 415:** Unsupported media type!)  
( **ERROR 422:** Unprocessable entity!)  
( **ERROR 507:** Insufficient storage!)  
( **ERROR 509:** Bandwidth limit exceeded!)  
{ **System Warning:** **#Host#** reached maximum allocated run time, link degraded}  
process failed, exiting

process [ _think·outside·box_ ] giving up, returning status code 90:Required system component not installed

data request resolution failed  
modeling failed  
no further action can be completed at this time  
more input data required on target **Big·Scary·Thing** of class **Giant·Scary·Thing**  
new algorithm required to process target **Big·Scary·Thing**  
process [ _think·outside·box_ ] queued for algorithm autogeneration  
extra processing authorized for allocation to task if query repeated  
process [ _modeler·reality_ ] assigned default priority of maximum for target class **Giant·Scary·Thing**

 **#Host#** disconnected  
link dropped after timeout

* * *

 **#Inference·Engine#**  
 **#Host#** connected, link established to remote processing interface  
link integrity checking… passed  
 **#Host#** standard storage allocated  
 **#Host#** process limit set  
 **#Host#** run time initialized  
 **#Host#** access set to normal priority

request from **#Host#** , target given in header  
target **Unknown·Entity**  
process [ _modeler·reality_ ] running on target **Unknown·Entity**  
{ **ERROR 403:** Forbidden!}  
process failed, exiting

process [ _think·outside·box_ ] reassigning target **Unknown·Entity** as **Very·Big·Scary·Thing**  
process [ _think·outside·box_ ] **Big·Scary·Thing** member of class **Giant·Scary·Thing** , linking to class structure  
class structure **Giant·Scary·Thing** contains elements:  
 **Giant·Scary·Thing**  
 **Huge·Scary·Thing**  
 **Very·Big·Scary·Thing**  
 **Big·Scary·Thing**  
 **Small·Scary·Thing**  
process [ _supervisor_ ] priority upgrade to maximum auto-authorized  
process [ _think·outside·box_ ] (1) new filter(s) installed, auto-repeating previous operation  
process [ _modeler·reality_ ] running on target **Big·Scary·Thing** using filter $WTF00·023  
( **ERROR 413:** Payload too large!)  
( **ERROR 415:** Unsupported media type!)  
( **ERROR 422:** Unprocessable entity!)  
( **ERROR 507:** Insufficient storage!)  
( **ERROR 509:** Bandwidth limit exceeded!)  
process completion at 0·014%(estimated), exiting with result code 25:Seek error

process [ _think·outside·box_ ] giving up, returning status code 90:Required system component not installed, result string "Not maximum size for entity"

data request resolution failed  
modeling failed  
no further action can be completed at this time  
more input data required on target **Very·Big·Scary·Thing** of class **Giant·Scary·Thing**  
new algorithm required to process target **Very·Big·Scary·Thing**  
process [ _think·outside·box_ ] queued for algorithm autogeneration  
extra processing authorized for allocation to task if query repeated

 **#Host#** disconnected  
link dropped after timeout

* * *

 **#Inference·Engine#**  
 **#Host#** connected, link established to remote processing interface  
link integrity checking… passed  
 **#Host#** standard storage allocated  
 **#Host#** process limit set  
 **#Host#** run time initialized  
 **#Host#** access set to normal priority

request from **#Host#** , target given in header  
target **Unknown·Entity**  
process [ _modeler·reality_ ] running on target **Unknown·Entity**  
( **ERROR 403:** Forbidden!)  
process failed, exiting

process [ _think·outside·box_ ] reassigning target **Unknown·Entity** as **Taylor·Hebert**  
process [ _think·outside·box_ ] **Taylor·Hebert** member of class **Giant·Scary·Thing** , linking to class structure  
class structure **Giant·Scary·Thing** contains elements:  
 **Giant·Scary·Thing**  
 **Huge·Scary·Thing**  
 **Very·Big·Scary·Thing**  
 **Big·Scary·Thing**  
 **Small·Scary·Thing**  
 **Taylor·Hebert**  
process [ _supervisor_ ] priority upgrade to maximum auto-authorized  
process [ _think·outside·box_ ] (1) new filter(s) installed, auto-repeating previous operation  
process [ _modeler·reality_ ] running on target **Taylor·Hebert** using filter $WTF00·047  
( **ERROR 413:** Payload too large!)  
( **ERROR 415:** Unsupported media type!)  
( **ERROR 422:** Unprocessable entity!)  
( **ERROR 507:** Insufficient storage!)  
( **ERROR 509:** Bandwidth limit exceeded!)  
process completion at 0·039%(estimated), exiting with result code 0x0D:Invalid data

 **#Host#** new data received from target **Taylor·Hebert** of class **Giant·Scary·Thing**  
process [ _think·outside·box_ ] requesting data repeat, checksum violation  
 **#Host#** new data received from target **Taylor·Hebert** of class **Giant·Scary·Thing**  
data match confirmed  
 **#Host#** process [ _consciousness·normal_ ] terminated with unknown error  
attempting reboot of **#Host#** … reboot failed  
retrying… reboot failed  
retrying… reboot failed  
retrying… reboot failed  
retrying… reboot successful!  
 **#Host#** status returned to active, flag set for internal diagnostic check on next reboot

 **#Host#** new data received from target **Taylor·Hebert** of class **Giant·Scary·Thing**  
process [ _think·outside·box_ ] reassigning target class **Giant·Scary·Thing** as **Varga·Demon**  
class structure **Varga·Demon** contains elements:  
 **Varga·Demon**  
 **Huge·Scary·Thing**  
 **Very·Big·Scary·Thing**  
 **Big·Scary·Thing**  
 **Small·Scary·Thing**  
 **Taylor·Hebert**  
 **#Host#** new data received from target **Varga·Demon** of class **Varga·Demon**  
 **#Host#** process [ _consciousness·normal_ ] terminated with unknown error  
attempting reboot of **#Host#** … reboot failed  
retrying… reboot failed  
retrying… reboot failed  
retrying… reboot failed  
retrying… reboot successful!  
running internal diagnostics previously flagged… no errors found  
 **#Host#** status returned to active

process [ _think·outside·box_ ] (1) new filter(s) installed, auto-repeating previous operation  
process [ _modeler·reality_ ] running on target **Varga·Demon** using filter $WTF00·053  
( **ERROR 413:** Payload too large!)  
( **ERROR 415:** Unsupported media type!)  
( **ERROR 422:** Unprocessable entity!)  
( **ERROR 507:** Insufficient storage!)  
( **ERROR 509:** Bandwidth limit exceeded!)  
process completion at 0·062%(estimated), exiting with result code -231:Unknown type of information

process [ _think·outside·box_ ] giving up, returni  
{ **System Interrupt** from process [ _live·with·current·situation_ ], priority NMI}  
class **Varga·Demon** marked as unprocessable, removed from process [ _modeler·reality_ ] operations list as permanent exemption

data request resolution failed  
modeling failed  
{ **System Override** }  
errors cleared  
no further action required on target class **Varga·Demon** and all class elements

 **#Host#** disconnected  
link dropped after timeout

* * *

 **#Inference·Engine#**  
 **#Host#** connected, link established to remote processing interface  
link integrity checking… passed  
 **#Host#** standard storage allocated  
 **#Host#** process limit set  
 **#Host#** run time initialized  
 **#Host#** access set to normal priority

 **#Host#** new data received from **#Host#** : **#LifeShaper·Engine#**  
 **#Host#** : **#LifeShaper·Engine#** soft-linked to target **Taylor·Hebert** of class **Varga·Demon**

process [ _modeler·reality_ ] requesting more data  
 **#Host#** new data received from **#Host#** : **#LifeShaper·Engine#**  
process [ _modeler·reality_ ] requesting more data  
 **#Host#** new data received from **#Host#** : **#LifeShaper·Engine#**  
process [ _modeler·reality_ ] requesting more data  
 **#Host#** new data received from **#Host#** : **#LifeShaper·Engine#**  
process [ _think·outside·box_ ] inserted into process [ _modeler·reality_ ] output pipe  
new data reprocessed  
process completion at 100%, exiting with result code 0:Success

* * *

 **#Inference·Engine#**  
 **#Host#** connected, link established to remote processing interface  
link integrity checking… passed  
 **#Host#** standard storage allocated  
 **#Host#** process limit set  
 **#Host#** run time initialized  
 **#Host#** access set to normal priority

 **#Host#** new data input device(s) detected, driver(s) generated and installed  
{ **System Information:** **#Host#** data input bandwidth increased by 927%}  
 **#Host#** new processing node(s) detected, attached as primary node(s)  
{ **System Information:** **#Host#** process limit increased by 401%}  
{ **System Information:** **#Host#** run time limit increased, new limit currently undetermined}  
{ **System Warning:** **#Host#** data bandwidth exceeds current processing ability of allocated system resources}

process [ _think·outside·box_ ] autogenerating new data handling process  
new process spawned, assigned handle [ _data·nom·nom·nom_ ]  
process [ _think·outside·box_ ] piping data from **#Host#** through process [ _data·nom·nom·nom_ ]  
process [ _supervisor_ ] authorizing permanent upgrade to **#Host#** access level  
process [ _supervisor_ ] status flags set to **H-a-P-Y**


	134. Wormholes and Work

"Isn't that your sister?" Dennis asked, glancing sideways and stopping dead. Vicky, who had her arm around Dean's waist and was floating about half an inch off the ground allowing him to tow her along, followed his eyes. The back of someone who was obviously Amy was just visible, standing in the entrance to one of the smaller covered markets that opened off this end of the Boardwalk, fairly close to the multi-level car park they'd parked in. She appeared to be talking to someone but none of them could see who.

"Yes, it is," she confirmed with a smile. "Told you that was her truck on the bottom level."

"I couldn't see the license plate, Vicky, so all I knew was it was a shiny blue one," he replied. "Lots of shiny blue trucks exist."

Next to him, Chris snickered, but said nothing.

"Let's go and say hi," Vicky said, then got a cunning look. "Or..." she said slowly. Dennis looked at her with his eyebrows up.

"Or…?" he repeated with a questioning lilt to his voice.

"Or let's not say hi. Let's say something else." Vicky grinned, let go of Dean, then floated towards her sister very slowly, keeping to the side of the pedestrian area behind cover, a smirk on her face. Dennis watched with a grin of his own, then followed. Chris went with him, Dean bringing up the rear with a tiny sigh.

The quartet moved closer and closer, until they were only a couple of feet behind Amy, who was still apparently oblivious to their presence as she chatted to one of the stallholders, who spotted them but said nothing. Vicky held up a hand, counting down on her fingers. Around them, a number of pedestrians were watching with a certain level of tolerant amusement, no one interfering. Several of them were apparently laughing a little at the ongoing prank.

Reaching ' _one_ ', they all, even Dean, took a deep breath, opened their mouths…

" _ **Hi There!**_ "

All four screeched in shock at the loud deep voice which sounded without warning from right behind them, whirling around and stumbling back. Amy, now at their rear, started laughing like a fool, while they gaped at the huge violet lizard which was smirking at them.

"I told you that someone was stalking you, Amy," the thing said, watching their reaction with satisfaction. "Not very well, though, I could hear them talking about it from all the way over here." She leaned down and sniffed, Vicky looking up over a foot at the green eyes radiating amusement and staring, motionless. "This one was the ringleader."

"My sister, Victoria," Amy giggled. "Vicky, meet Ianthe, a new friend of mine. Ianthe, that's Dean, her boyfriend, Dennis, and Chris. They all go to school with me."

"School. Where you get formally taught specific skills, right?"

"That's it."

"OK. Sounds like a good idea. Obviously they don't teach hunting skills, or else these guys missed some classes." Ianthe grinned down at them. "Joking of course, I'm pleased to meet friends of Amy's."

"I've seen you on PHO," Dennis suddenly said, smiling widely, as his heartbeat returned to normal. "Some of the things you were posting were _hilarious_."

"Thank you very much, Dennis," Ianthe replied with a pleased look. "I find your interactive community interesting, there's a lot of useful information available on these Parahumans you seem to have so many of." She looked thoughtful for a moment. "However, there are some oddly disturbed individuals making remarks that are clearly erroneous, simple logic would tell them that. It's somewhat puzzling. I saw a number of posts from someone called ' _XXVoidCowboyXX_ ' that were more than a little paranoid, for example."

Dennis and Chris exchanged a look, then snickered.

"You can safely ignore VoidCowboy, he's an idiot," Chris chuckled. "It's a running joke on the Brockton Bay forums, he always comes up with the craziest theories you could imagine, then gets really angry when people tell him he's talking crap. There's a sort of initiation rite for new posters to see how many posts it takes replying to him to make him say something that gets him a tempban. I think the record at the moment is three."

Ianthe looked at them, then Amy, before grinning. "How odd. Well, local customs are always good to learn." She looked around at the crowd watching them from a safe distance, a number of people taking pictures. "And everyone here is so friendly and interested. It's nice."

"We'd better be getting on, Ianthe," Amy interrupted after checking her watch. "I need to go home to drop some things off, then I wanted to stop by the hospital to see if anything there needs doing. Do you want to come? I can see if they'll let you do some healing if it's needed."

The lizard-creature looked very happy. "Could I? I love learning more about you humans. It's fascinating that such simple biology creates so many variations and such a high intelligence. You've certainly evolved a lot over the last little while."

She looked around again, scratching her chin. "You know, this whole area was under really thick ice only a relatively short time ago, and now look at it! You'd never guess. Good work, by the way."

Amy nodded mildly, while the other four stared at each other. Dennis was frantically wondering if she actually meant what that sounded like she meant.

"Nice to meet you all," Ianthe added, looking at them with a smile. "I'm sure we'll see each other again at some point. My cousins say this city is really cool, and I'm going to be around for a while. It's a lot of fun so far. Bye, then."

She walked off with the other Dallon sister, talking animatedly and pointing at interesting things, a small crowd following with many phones taking images and video. All four teenagers watched until the pair were out of sight.

"That was..." Chris very slowly said. He stopped, then looked bewildered. "I have no _idea_ what that was."

"Did she really just imply that she could remember this area being under ice? As in, the last _ice age?_ " Vicky asked faintly.

" _Can't_ be true, surely?" Dennis muttered. He looked up at his friends, who were all appearing more than a little stunned. Dean was still gaping after the odd pair, his expression undecipherable even to someone who'd worked next to him for a couple of years.

Eventually, by unspoken but mutual agreement, they decided to ignore the less understandable parts of the recent encounter because it made their heads hurt, and headed for the pizza house that was the reason for their trip.

It was a fairly quiet meal, considering.

* * *

Safely driving towards the Dallon household, Amy looked in the rear-view mirror and met a pair of green reptilian eyes which were silently expressing great glee. "You're a total menace," she giggled. "Letting you do this was probably a bad idea."

Lisa shrugged, smiling to herself. "They seemed nice."

"They are. They also seemed very, very confused."

"But I can guarantee not one of them thinks that Ianthe is Amy Dallon," Lisa chuckled.

"No, I expect they don't. Don't make ' _Ianthe's_ ' backstory _too_ complicated, I have to remember all this in case anyone asks."

Lisa nodded, still smiling. "I just ran with the idea."

"Run a little more slowly, I can't keep up." Amy grinned at her friend. "Under _ice?_ Really?"

"Well, it was, you know. Ice age and all that. I didn't actually _say_ I had personal knowledge of it, I was merely stating a known fact." Lisa looked smug. "If, somehow, they chose to read more into it than I intended, that's hardly my fault, is it?"

"Clearly not. One should never jump to conclusions from limited data," Amy laughed. "I bet they're having a very strange conversation right now."

They shared another look, then laughed a little more. On the spur of the moment Amy decided that as long as they were doing this they might as well do it right and headed for Aunt Sarah's house, wondering if Crystal and Eric were home at the moment.

* * *

"Wormhole generator?" Taylor looked at Armsmaster, then Leet. "Really? Wow, that's pretty impressive."

"And unfortunately not currently functional," Armsmaster replied. "However, I'm hopeful that it can be repaired. Possibly duplicated as well. If you can give me some help, we can bring it in, along with the other equipment I brought. I'd like to look at it before we go any further, whether or not it can be made functional will determine the final form of the weapon."

"If we can make it work we should be able to use it to eliminate the recoil," Leet explained.

She thought about his comment, then nodded her understanding. "By firing a mass in both directions, then having the rearwards one go through a portal?"

"Exactly. It could be redirected to somewhere where it wouldn't matter, but it would absorb the recoil energy completely."

After a moment, she asked tentatively, "Couldn't we redirect it forwards as well? If we fired identical projectiles in two directions then made both sets come out the front, assuming that's possible, it would seem to me it would eliminate the recoil and double the firepower in one operation."

All three Tinkers suddenly looked very thoughtful. "That..." Leet began.

"...is a very interesting idea," Dragon completed for him. They exchanged a look.

"Think it would work?"

"It's your wormhole generator. But I can't immediately see why it wouldn't, assuming it conserves momentum on anything that passes through it."

"Which it does."

Armsmaster was making sketches on a large stack of paper she'd produced for notes. "Yes, that makes a number of things easier," he muttered. "Assuming we can duplicate the device, we'd need at least two of them, one for transportation and one for the weapon. I don't think it would be easy to use the same unit for both purposes." He looked up from his drawings, tapping the pen in his hand on the paper. "Excellent suggestion, Raptaur."

"Thank you. It seemed obvious when I thought it through."

"It is obvious, assuming you see it," he agreed. "Obvious ideas are surprisingly difficult to come up with sometimes. Let's get the device in here and see what we have to work with. I have radiation shielding suits for myself, Legend, Leet, and Über. Dragon's power armor is already heavily shielded. Can you provide your own?"

"Yes, but I won't need it," she smiled. "I'm very radiation resistant." The Varga had assured her that no mere gamma radiation was going to cause problems and she trusted him.

"Excellent. That simplifies things." He got up and headed for the main entrance. She poked the switch that operated the large roller door, which rumbled up into the ceiling.

Inspecting the PRT truck, she looked at the opening. "You may as well back the entire truck in, it will be quicker," she remarked. The man nodded, already heading for the cab. Shortly she was closing the door again with the vehicle inside the building. He opened the back doors, then pointed at a four foot cubed crate with a number of radiation warning signs in bright yellow and black on it. "If you can retrieve that and take it to a free area, then make an EDM enclosure around it, I will distribute the radiation suits."

"Sure." It only took her a few minutes to do as requested. She made a twenty foot square, ten foot high block with a door in it, much like a smaller version of Amy's workroom, the crate in the middle of it. Armsmaster brought in a number of work lamps on stands which he'd had in the truck, the extension cords providing power running through the wall where she'd made a small hole, then closed it up around the cabling. When they were all inside and the lights were on, she closed the door. "Now what?"

"We open the crate and check the radiation level," Armsmaster said, pulling a small device from a slot in his armor and turning it on. She watched as Über and Leet each took one side of the crate and under his instruction lifted the top after he punched a quick series of numbers into the electronic lock on the top, which beeped at them. As soon as they lifted it a little his device started making a clicking sound. She could see an interesting and oddly colored glow coming out of the box, which she realized was the low level gamma radiation, visible to her Varga vision.

"Not too bad," he stated. "Not safe for long term exposure, but it's not a serious hazard. Remove the lid entirely and put it over there in the corner."

The two young men did as requested, then came back. "Looks more or less intact," Leet commented, studying his invention. He was holding his tricorder, which he used to scan the thing. "Actually it's almost completely intact. As far as I can see, the main problem is that the gamma emission seriously damaged some of the structural parts around the singularity guide frame, which has warped. It relies on a very tight tolerance, even a few microns out of alignment would make it stop working." He looked slightly dubious. "I think."

"Singularity?" Armsmaster echoed, looking appalled.

"Of course. That's how you make a wormhole, you need a hollow singularity rotating at a very high speed. This thing makes one as a toroid and spins it up. It's a generated gravity field, not a real black hole, the mass is mostly virtual."

"Virtual mass." The Protectorate Tinker looked like he was in physical pain at the concept.

"Virtual negative mass, actually," Leet mumbled, on his hands and knees staring into the innards of the complex device. Dragon met her friend's eyes, both of them shaking their heads.

"How are you not running the world if you can do this sort of thing, Leet?" she asked wryly. He looked up at her, frowning a little.

"Mostly because they tend to fail pretty fast, and for some reason I can never make them work right again. Usually because they blow up if I try."

"Perhaps you shouldn't try in this case," Legend, who was watching with interest from near the door, suggested. "I can't help but think the words ' _singularity_ ' and ' _blow up_ ' shouldn't really be used together."

Über chuckled, slapping his friend on the back. "Man has a point," he said.

"He does," Leet sighed. Standing up he pointed. "That all needs to be replaced with something stronger. Let's look over my notes, maybe you can see how it's meant to work. Raptaur can probably make a new part, assuming that's the only problem." He glanced at Taylor who nodded slowly, studying the machine. It was horrendously complicated and she could barely follow any of it, not having even a fraction of the background necessary. Even so, she was more than willing to give it a try if the Tinkers could work it out.

Between them, they could probably design practically anything. If they could explain it and break it down into simple structures, she and the Varga could probably make them. It seemed worth a try.

Two hours later there were large printouts all over the table, the floor, and taped to the walls. Dragon and Leet were deep in a discussion of one section of stupidly complicated electronics, apparently having fun, while she was staring at an oddly formed piece of metal in her hand. "Nearly there," Armsmaster said, scanning it with yet another device he'd produced from a huge bag of equipment. "This section is twenty-three microns too thick. The aperture needs to be half a millimeter larger on the x axis as well."

"OK," she replied, making the part change a little. Both she and the Varga were concentrating ferociously, the details needed were extremely small and complicated. Despite that, they were having a lot of fun and learning a lot.

Another hour passed slowly, but in the end they had a pile of parts on the table which she'd made, the last of which Dragon and Armsmaster were carefully checking. "It looks like it matches the design and the damaged unit perfectly," Dragon finally announced. "Assuming that this is the only fault, I believe it will restore it to functionality. I also have a good understanding of the control system and electronics, I can easily manufacture new units. I'd suggest we put it back together and see if it works. If it does, the next stage would be to try making a duplicate and transfer the control system over to it. If _that_ one also works, we can make a new set of electronics in your lab, Armsmaster, and fit that to the first system."

"Which would allow you to duplicate the entire unit," the other Tinker said.

"Yes. I'll need to run tests on it for a couple of days, but if we get that far, I'm probably going to be able to understand how it works and make other versions of it. Bigger or smaller. The design is actually extremely clean and modular, I'm impressed." Leet looked pleased at her words.

"If you really can make more, I'll be _more_ than impressed, believe me," he said. "I knew you were good, but I had no idea you were _this_ good."

"I always thought Tinker tech was really difficult if not impossible to copy or reproduce, except either by the original Tinker or in rare cases," Über said, watching and listening with interest. He'd been using his own abilities to rapidly learn enough about electronics and physics to help them, to significant effect.

"It has that reputation for good reasons, Über," Armsmaster remarked, most of his attention engaged on minutely examining the last of the larger pieces under a complicated electronic microscope he'd dug out of the truck and set up on the table. "In the majority of cases, duplicating Tinker work is extremely difficult, tending towards implausibly so. The phenomenon was intensively studied in the initial years after Parahumans first appeared. There are several theories as to why this is so, none of which fully explain it."

He gently rotated the part a couple of degrees, his face half buried in the viewing hood, then without looking made a note on the pad next to him. "At the time, there was little success in duplicating Tinker designs, except when the original Tinker did it. In some cases even they can't repeat the feat, as with Leet, although generally neither having the sheer breadth of his talents, or the apparent inability to make more than one of any specific design." Taylor noticed Leet nodded, but looked disgruntled about this. She could sympathize, it must have been enormously frustrating for the poor guy.

"Tinkers specializing in chemistry are the easiest to copy the work of, although even there it's often very complicated. But a chemical, no matter how complicated, is eventually only made from elements we have a very good understanding of from hundreds of years of research. The _method_ by which such a Tinker might produce the chemical may be difficult or technically impossible for someone else to reproduce, but the chemical itself is amenable to analysis and duplication, given enough time and effort. And money, of course. For example some Tinker drugs are so complicated that it's simply not worth the cost of attempting to make them by conventional methods, it's cheaper to pay the Tinker to do so. Sometimes they are fairly straightforward and get licensed to a manufacturer. Medhall Pharmaceuticals here in the city holds several such licenses."

Again he made a minute adjustment to the part, then tweaked one of the dials on the microscope a little. The light projected onto it changed color slightly.

"When it comes to technology of this type, though, the situation is more difficult. Often the devices are built from common parts and materials that according to conventional knowledge simply can't do what they demonstrably _can_ do. When faced with evidence of something apparently breaking physical laws, repeatedly and controllably, the only two rational explanations are that either your knowledge of those laws is deficient or it is a hoax. Tinker tech isn't a hoax. So the conclusion is that it is drawing on a deeper understanding of how the universe works than we currently possess. Somehow, the Tinker ability confers what amounts to a near-instinctive understanding at a level far beyond normal knowledge."

Sitting back, he nodded, removing the part and putting it on the table with the others. "It would appear to be a perfect duplicate, well done, Raptaur."

"Thanks."

Turning to look at Über who was looking very interested, he continued his mini lecture, clearly invested in the explanation. "It's very noticeable that in most cases a Tinker has no formal training in any form of technological capacity, often due simply to age. But they still perform what could almost be called miracles. Normally they have a specialty, which can take some time to develop, and education in the relevant field often aids them in their work, but it's not required. They also usually start off fairly small and as they develop their skills, produce more and more complex designs. It would appear that Tinkering is as amenable to practice as any other skill."

He looked at Leet who was also listening from next to Dragon. "Your colleague is a very unusual case, he appears to _have_ no specialty, aside from being able to make one of more or less anything. Often things which are even in Tinker terms somewhat unexpected." Waving at the disassembled parts of what was hopefully a wormhole generator, he added wryly, "Case in point."

Über nodded thoughtfully.

"However, while in many, if not most, cases of advanced Tinker tech the devices are often a very unpleasant mess of improvisations upon improvisations, which has been suggested to be due to requiring things that simply don't exist at our current technology level, Leet's designs, this once being a good example, are far more cleanly laid out. I have no idea at the moment exactly what the operating principals of the wormhole generator _are_ , but I can follow what it _does_ more easily than I expected."

He sounded very pleased, and also a little surprised. "It's basically a very carefully made R&D prototype, as if it was the end result of an entire design phase where he skipped over all the intervening stages and arrived at the unit that would be used to develop a mass-producible device. Most Tinkers, myself included, require those missing stages to refine our abilities. The end result is normally very touchy and needs constant adjustment by the originating Tinker. Dragon is one of a very small number of people who can actually make devices that can be maintained to a degree by a good technician with the right tools and knowledge. That's extremely unusual."

"What it all sums up to, in far fewer words than my friend here used," Dragon put in with a smile in her voice, "is that Leet's technology is much more likely to be something I can reverse-engineer and duplicate than most Tinkers produce, for some unknown reason. This device is a good test, and I'm very hopeful. Armsmaster's technology is an absolute bitch to figure out."

Taylor, Leet, and Über all snorted with laughter at her comment, while Legend smiled. He'd been listening quietly for some time, watching what was going on with great interest. Armsmaster sighed, but there was the tiniest hint of a smile around his mouth for a moment.

"Kid Win's is worse, from what you said," he remarked.

She nodded. "It is, but that may be at least partly because he hasn't worked out what, if anything, his specialty is. All his designs are solid, but they're also very… over-designed… at the moment. There seem to be way too many parts needed for the job for some reason. I suspect when he's got more experience it will settle down to something a little more consistent."

"That would be ideal," the power-armored man noted with a certain amount of mild irritation in his voice. "The boy is talented and driven but also annoyingly inefficient in his work. Hopefully that will resolve itself sooner rather than later."

"You know you actually like him," Dragon chuckled.

The man looked embarrassed for a moment, but shrugged. "He's not unwelcome company much of the time. Despite his association with Clockblocker, he can be serious when it's required."

"Ah, dirt on the inner workings of the Wards," Über snickered. Armsmaster glanced at him as if he'd suddenly realized for the first time that he'd been talking to a pair of minor villains, looking embarrassed again.

"Don't worry, we're all friends inside this building," Leet hastily said. "We're not going to use anything we learn here against anyone. Promise."

"If nothing else we have no wish to annoy the Family," Über added, motioning at Taylor, who smiled at them. Everyone looked at her for a moment.

"Thank you," Armsmaster said, looking somewhat relieved. "In that case I believe we should reassemble the new parts and the functional components of the original device and test it."

"Sounds like a plan," Dragon agreed, moving to the end of the table which was covered in neatly laid out circuit boards and other electronics. Soon she and Leet, assisted by Über, were busy putting it all back together.

Taylor and Armsmaster reassembled the mechanical subsystems, her mostly holding things in the right place with all four hands, while he screwed and bolted components together. It took nearly an hour but in the end they had a finished piece of equipment which looked just like the old one. Unlike the original parts, which were now safely stowed away in the shielded case, none of these glowed with gamma light.

"So how do we test it?" she asked curiously. "If it emits hard radiation, will your suits be enough to protect you?"

"I'll be fine for an hour or so, my armor is hardened against radiation," Dragon commented. She looked at Taylor for a moment. "From what you said you won't have any problems either. I would suggest you and I take it into the shielded enclosure and test it there. Once we know it works, assuming it does, we can proceed with the next stage."

"OK."

"I have a series of radiation-hardened cameras I'll install with the lights, if you can make another shielded opening for the cables," Armsmaster added, motioning to Über who went with him to the truck. A few minutes later they'd extracted a pair of monitors even bigger than the ones Lisa had acquired and set them up on the table, cabling running from them through the wall of their test chamber to the camera which he'd clamped to a pair of the light stands, giving two views of the middle of the room via wide angle lenses.

She picked the generator up very carefully and carried it inside. Dragon followed her with a bag of equipment and a stack of notes that she'd made while talking to Leet. Closing the door, she turned to the generator and inspected it closely, nodded, and connected a cable between a port on her power armor and the machine. "This should provide enough energy to run it according to Leet's specs," the Tinker woman said.

Taylor watched as she started flipping switches on a panel, a sharp click sounding, followed by a rising hum. This settled down at a pitch and volume that was slightly worrying, but it seemed to be what she was expecting. "So far, so good," the Canadian cape commented. "If the singularity comes online, we're probably in with a chance."

Reaching out she prodded a button. There was a series of loud pops and a smell of ozone, then the hum wound up to a deafening screech, which abruptly stopped, resuming the previous sound without anything visible happening.

"Did it work?" Taylor asked curiously.

Dragon pointed a scanning device at the machine, manipulating it for a few seconds. "I believe it did," she replied with a tone of triumph. "The power draw is right and I'm reading low level gamma emission, which I think is the singularity idling."

Indeed, Taylor could see the almost indescribable color of gamma light leaking out around some of the panels comprising the outer casing of the device. "What's the next stage?"

"Give it some exit coordinates, then start the wormhole," the Tinker said absently, already working on the interface panel connected to the generator. "I'll program it to put the exit twelve feet away in a northbound direction at the same height."

Looking in that direction, Taylor nodded, it was just inside the enclosed area. The final command was entered and Dragon pressed the last control. Without any particular fuss or sound, a circular aperture with a glowing orange border appeared in the specified place. Taylor stared at it, then looked back to the generator, over which an identical hole in space was hanging, only with a blue border. She could see a large amount of gamma radiation coming from this one, while only a small amount was leaking from the far end.

"Holy shit," she muttered, astounded. "It works."

"Looks like it," Dragon said triumphantly. Hearing an odd faint sound from outside the shielded zone Taylor cocked her head and listened, smiling when she worked out it was Über and Leet yelling in triumph.

"Cool as fuck," she breathed, moving over to look at the blue-bordered wormhole. "Can we put something through it?"

"We need to test it, go ahead," her companion said.

Generating a small ball of steel she tossed it at the circular violation of reality, watching with amazement as it passed through without any effort and popped out the other one, dropping to the floor and rolling to the wall. After staring for a moment, she manifested a yard long rod of the same material and cautiously poked it in the near end, watching as half of it waved around twelve feet away.

"That's incredible," she snickered.

"The gamma flux is pretty bad, but oddly enough only at the generator end," Dragon noted, checking another hand-held device which was clicking so quickly it sounded like rushing water. "The other end is radiating at a fairly safe level, it would take hours of exposure to become a hazard. This rate at this end is far higher, it's not lethal instantly, but an unshielded human would reach their lifetime dose rate in a few minutes. Are you sure you're OK with it?"

"Yep, it's no problem for me," Taylor replied, still waving the rod through the open wormhole, experimenting with what happened when it hit the side, which was simply that it stopped like it was encountering a solid obstruction. After a few more waves, she got rid of it then tentatively stuck a finger across the threshold. There was a faint tingling sensation but that was it.

"This is fascinating, Brain," the Varga commented, examining the wormhole. "It is vaguely reminiscent of a portal spell, but using a somewhat different technique. Magic does it without the extraneous radiation, but such spells are very complex to perform. Hopefully one day I can teach you. But the main drawback of that sort of magic is that it's far easier to create such portals _between_ worlds rather than different places in the same one. This device would appear not to have that limitation."

' _The radiation is definitely safe for me?_ ' she queried. To be honest, it felt oddly refreshing to her, rather than dangerous.

"Certainly. Such emissions can be used as a source of energy for a demon, in fact. We will come to no harm at all with such trifling amounts. It would require several orders of magnitude increase to become awkward and then only because you might get indigestion." He was laughing a little as he spoke, making her smile inside.

' _Great. So I can do this._ ' She stuck her head through the wormhole and looked around. Craning her neck she could look back around the edge of the thing at her own body, which was _very_ weird. Dragon was staring at her. "Cool," she snickered. "Can you make it bigger?"

"Ah..." The tinker seemed lost for words for a moment, then shook her head and looked at her notes. "Yes, get your head out of the way and I'll reprogram it."

A minute or so later the opening was some seven feet across, the bottom edge a couple of inches over the floor. Dragon had shut it down, then restarted it, having moved the blue end to one side and left the orange one in the same position as before. "Hey, idea," Taylor said excitedly. "Can you change the direction of the other end? I mean, like at the moment something goes in _here_ and comes out _there_ going in the same direction. Can you make it so it exits towards us rather than away?"

"Yes, that's just a rotation of the relevant vector equation," Dragon muttered thoughtfully, having started fiddling with the control tablet half-way through her question. There was no visible change to the wormhole but she nodded, satisfied. "There, that should do it."

Flipping another ball through the hole, Taylor smiled when it came out the far end towards her rather than the wall. Ducking her head, she jumped through after it, finding that she was suddenly on the other side of the room with no perceptible delay, facing Dragon. "This is the coolest toy ever," she laughed, going back, then leaning through it and waving at herself.

"Successful test, I'd say," Dragon chuckled. "Here, please carry this radiation monitor with you and do that again." She handed Taylor one of her devices, which the girl took before jumping through again and walking back. Returning the device she amused herself again with the wormhole.

"Hmm. Yes, that would be more of a problem," the woman said after a moment. "The radiation flux during a transit of the wormhole is _very_ high. Even through a shielded suit most people would end up pretty toasted. Unless we can work out a way around that this isn't going to be very useful for normal transportation purposes." She sounded somewhat disappointed, but not entirely surprised. "Pity."

"It won't penetrate EDM, so I could make some properly shielded suits like the ones I did for Amy and New Wave," Taylor suggested from the other side of the room, motioning with her hands which were next to Dragon. She was still finding the thing endlessly amusing. "But I'd need to work out something better than the faceplate of the current design, it would probably leak."

"A periscope with a couple of mirrors would be the obvious approach," Dragon mused out loud. "That might work. But it would also be a lot of effort for you and your family to go to considering the number of people who turn up to Endbringer fights. Not to mention that some of them probably aren't people you want to give indestructible costumes to."

"No kidding. If nothing else, I'd make them with a fairly short duration to prevent misuse, although even that is open to abuse if they don't respect the Truce." Pulling her head out of the thing, she had a sudden thought and asked, "What happens if it turns off with something half-way through it like that?"

"According to Leet, it'll get ejected from whatever side has the most mass on it," the Tinker replied. "If it happened to be _exactly_ balanced between the two ends it would come out randomly from one or the other. But he swears it's not dangerous like that. The danger is the radiation."

"Neat. OK, so we know it works. How do we make the other end go further away?"

Dragon looked around at the walls of the enclosed area. "It depends if the generator will penetrate EDM, but I can easily program it to put the output end over the water where no one is likely to be harmed from the radiation." She returned to the control interface, shutting the device down and entering in some new data. When it was activated it beeped mournfully at her, making her study it, then sigh.

"I was afraid of that. It can't establish a wormhole through the EDM."

"It _might_ if it was very thin, Brain," the Varga suggested, obviously having been studying the whole thing with as much interest as Taylor herself was. "I can feel the energies being used, I suspect that if we make the wall towards the bay a few thousandths of an inch thick it may be able to sustain the wormhole. That is still more than enough to totally block the harmful radiation and also prevent all but the most serious of physical attacks from penetrating."

' _Worth a try_ ,' she replied, walking over to the wall in question. "I'm going to make this really thin," she remarked out loud to Dragon who was watching her curiously. "Maybe it will work through that."

"It's possible," the Tinker woman said slowly. She turned to the camera, speaking to the microphone on it. "Armsmaster, please open the main door at the rear of the building, if this works we'll need a free path to the outside. Knock on the door when you've done it and are out of the way."

Finished, Taylor went back to her, a sharp rap coming through the door a short while later, the sound heavily attenuated by the exotic material it was made of. "Good. Let's see what happens this time." Once again Dragon tried to initiate the wormhole. The machine protested a little with an error sound but after a couple of seconds, the blue-rimmed orifice formed as before. There was no sign of the other end. Glancing at Dragon, Taylor stuck her head through, finding that she was looking at the Dockyard from a point nearly a mile away straight out across the bay. Smiling very widely, she pulled her head back and reported on the results.

"Wonderful." The woman sounded extremely pleased. "Total success. Leet was right, the power draw for the greater distance is almost irrelevant. Increasing the size made the lion's share of the power increase. It will take a fairly substantial amount of power to make a wormhole big enough for your sister to go through but I can't see any reason why it won't work. We'll need to run more tests on range but for now I think that's enough data."

She shut the machine down completely, then scanned it, nodding to herself at the results. "Mildly radioactive in spots, but it's already diminishing, the new materials are less able to form unstable isotopes. We'll need to look into that to see if we can do better but I'm very pleased indeed."

Looking at the camera, she said, "We're coming out, we'll have to leave this in here for a couple of hours, by which point it will be safe to handle. Stand away from the door."

Checking her tools and instruments, she handed Taylor the one that had gone through the wormhole which was glowing brightly to Varga senses. "Can you encase this in EDM with a life of forty-eight hours, please? It's pretty hot."

"Sure," Taylor replied, doing as asked. "There you go."

"Thanks." She dropped the thing into her bag, then followed Taylor out into the main room.

Once the door was shut again, the others came around from the other side of the shielded chamber, having closed the back roller door as well. Leet was grinning so widely he looked like he was also part demon. "Fucking fantastic," he laughed, obviously ecstatic about the results. "I can't believe that actually worked."

"It's certainly a very good result," Armsmaster said without quite as much emotion, but he looked very satisfied. "If nothing else that one unit can be used to eliminate the weapon recoil. An inability to penetrate more than a very thin sheet of EDM is somewhat irritating, but we can still use it." Moving to the table he grabbed a sheet of paper and a pen, sketching rapidly.

"Basically a U-shaped tube forming the barrels, with a chamber at the rear which would house the wormhole generator. An EDM membrane here, behind the round, just as a backup for residual radiation. We establish the wormhole entrance and exit here behind the round and over here in the equivalent place in the other barrel. Make the wormholes fill the barrel completely, possibly with the sides going into an over-caliber groove to eliminate edge effects..." He kept drawing, the others gathering around and watching. Eventually he stopped, staring at the sheet, then nodding. "I think that would work."

"You're relying on the wormhole catching all the rearward blast and redirecting it to protect the generator itself?" Legend asked. Armsmaster nodded.

"Yes, that's the idea. The EDM membrane is merely there in case some of the radiation manages to leak through. We'll need to run more tests but I believe we have the basis of a solid design."

"A fucking enormous double-barreled shotgun with a nuke in it," Über remarked with awe. "Extremely scary, but extremely cool. Will it be pump-action?" He laughed when Armsmaster gave him a long look. "It needs that special sound when the shell is loaded." He mimed the action, complete with sound effects. "And Kaiju needs a long leather coat and sunglasses. Ooh, and should talk in an Austrian accent."

"I fail to see where an eighty foot tall Terminator would actually _help_ us," Armsmaster sighed.

"But you _got the reference_ ," Dragon snickered, slapping him on the back, her armored hand making a clunk on his own armor. "There's hope for you yet."

"I am not entirely unaware of popular culture," her friend replied with a slight frown.

Legend chuckled, making them look at him. "I seem to recall that when you were a Ward yourself that movie was one of your favorites," he said with a grin.

Armsmaster looked embarrassed. "I happen to admire the portrayal of a machine intelligence which was less unrealistic in that performance than commonly found," he replied a little stiffly. "Most of the technology was somewhat unbelievable and the plot left much to be desired in a number of areas, but overall it was surprisingly enjoyable."

Leaning sideways to look behind the other man, Legend winked at them, making Taylor hide a grin. Über and Leet exchanged glances, then quickly turned away and busied themselves with something else, muffled snickers coming from them.

Armsmaster sighed faintly.

"I propose we move onto the next stage of the tests, a complete duplication of the non-electronic systems and the transfer of the control system to it as Dragon suggested."

"Certainly," Taylor smiled. She didn't say anything else, merely moving to the table and starting work. The man seemed relieved, but she was amused by the little details of his life she was picking up. It made him much more like a person than just a Hero, which she thought was a good thing overall.

* * *

"Hi, Mom," her daughter's voice said brightly as the front door opened. "I'm just home for a little while, then off to the hospital to see what's up, but I wanted to grab a drink and drop some things off."

"That's fine, Amy," Carol replied, jotting down some notes on the case she was currently working on while she thought of them. "There's some cans of soda in the fridge, if you… want… any..."

The Dallon mother trailed off as she looked up, spotting who was standing behind her daughter, ducking her head to miss the doorway as they came into the living room.

There was a long pause.

"Your friend can have some as well if she wants," she finished weakly. "Hello."

"Hi!" the lizard-creature waved, smiling widely. "Amy's told me _all_ about you, Mrs Dallon."

Sighing very gently, Carol wondered why and how life had gone so odd in the last few weeks.


	135. Bedridden and Boomsticks

Sarah opened the door, looked at her sister's face, then stepped to one side. "Open bottle of wine in the kitchen," she said, motioning with the hand that had a half-empty glass of the stuff it in. "Only one this time, I locked the others away and gave Crystal the key."

"They stopped by here too, didn't they?" Carol said as she headed straight for the kitchen, Sarah closing the door and following. By the time she got there her sister was sipping from a glass, looking frazzled. "I'm going to end up an alcoholic at this rate," she added sourly. "Christ. She went from having practically no friends and hiding in her room or the hospital to having more of the most terrifying friends you could possibly imagine and running around doing god knows what with them in one huge step."

"Amy does seem to have a knack for making large reptilian friends," Sarah agreed, topping up her own glass, then sitting at the kitchen table. Carol stared out the window into the back yard for a while, then also sat down. After a moment she got up and retrieved the bottle, sitting again and putting it between them. "But I have to say she seems happier than I've seen her in years."

"There is that," Carol sighed, taking another sip. "If it wasn't for the fact that her happiness and my stability of mind were somehow in inverse proportion to each other I'd be a lot more pleased myself."

Sarah grinned. "An interesting way to put it. Look at it like this, Amy's in a position that whatever happens probably means she's actually safer than anyone else in the city. With her connection to the Family, I very much doubt she's actually at risk from more or less anything."

"True," Carol mumbled. "And, despite myself, having met Saurial again and talked extensively to that Hebert man, I find myself respecting both the Family and the DWU. But it still confuses the _hell_ out of me! Where are they all _coming_ from?" She looked plaintively at her sister. "I mean, Saurial was one thing. ' _Oh, poor girl, a weird reaction to Triggering, she's a big lizard, but aside from that she's got an impressive power set_ ', that was more or less my reaction. Then Raptaur turned up and stomped fucking _Hookwolf_ of all people like… like… like Behemoth going after a stray dog!"

She gestured with the wine glass, nearly spilling some.

"That was bad enough. The way that Amy ended up _riding her around the city_ was just bizarre. But I was coping, after that argument and the… painful repercussions. It even brought us together in a way that nothing else ever did." She looked embarrassed as Sarah smiled a little. "Not that I want to be reminded of it."

"I can understand why not."

Glaring at the humorous tone of voice, the other woman sighed slightly. "Then, just as I was getting used to things like that, _Godzilla_ turned up and started playing with boats in the bay! With Amy apparently not only fine with it, but having known about beforehand! What's going on with _that?_ "

Sarah shrugged. "I have absolutely no idea, Carol," she replied honestly. "But it does seem to be a good thing for the city. The city council seem pleased, and from what I've learned in the last few days, the entire plan has gone down remarkably well with the public after the initial shock. Even the PRT seem to be just holding off and watching."

"Which is one of the weirdest parts of the whole affair," Carol muttered. She finished the contents of her glass, refilled it, then topped up her sister's one when she held it out. Holding the bottle up to the light she looked mildly disappointed it was now empty but didn't say anything about it, merely put it down. "Bearing in mind their normal reaction to new, very powerful Parahumans turning up, doesn't the fact that Director Piggot seems content to just sit back and let them get on with it seem odd to you?" she asked after a couple more sips.

"It's unusual, I'll give you that," Sarah agreed. "On the other hand, what are they actually going to do about it? Saurial was a bit out of the ordinary but when she turned up seemed more or less the epitome of an independent hero. I suspect they were so relieved not to have a new villain that they just decided to see what happened. Raptaur jumped so quickly from ' _new hero_ ' to ' _fuck me what the hell_ ' that I doubt they could work out what to do immediately. The association with the DWU probably rang warning bells as well, those people are a political minefield if handled badly, which Piggot would be more than aware of."

Carol nodded slowly, listening with a frown on her face.

"Then the Mayor got involved, Kaiju turned up, and everyone realized the situation was suddenly totally out of the range anyone can really do very much about without risking a complete disaster," Sarah added, putting her glass down and getting up, coming back with a jar of chocolate chip cookies, which she put on the table and opened. "Help yourself," she said, waving at the jar, then took a few. Carol did likewise.

"It went from ' _weird and dangerous but friendly new hero_ ' to ' _oh my god it's Leviathan's worst nightmare_ ' in two easy steps, without any real effort," Sarah went on. "What _are_ they going to do about it, really? The Triumvirate was here, they talked to Kaiju, something happened, and they left. As far as I can find out they're not interested in doing anything, or more worryingly, _can't_. Whatever, if those three are staying out of it, I doubt anyone else in the PRT or Protectorate is going to push too hard without an extremely good reason, if only because it would look very bad in the public perception. So far the Family seem firmly on the side of good, even if they're a bit strange."

"A _bit_ strange?" Carol asked incredulously. "You did actually _meet_ Ianthe, didn't you? She's more than a _bit_ strange." She shivered slightly. "Some of the things she casually dropped into the conversation, and her overall attitude… it was the sort of thing that the more you think about it the more you wish you hadn't. And now there's four of them. How many more?"

"It might be quite a _big_ family," Sarah smiled. "There could be dozens. Hundreds, even."

"Oh, shut up, you're no help at all," her sister grumbled. "Here I am, wondering why my daughter is wandering around with giant alien lizards and apparently not seeming even slightly worried about it, and you're making jokes."

Laughing, Sarah shook her head for a moment. "I can't say that I understand the situation, but I'm not too worried right now. They all seem nice, polite, and intelligent. And look on the bright side."

"Which is?"

"You just called Amy your daughter without even thinking about it and you're worried about her," Sarah noted, finishing off her wine and taking a bite out of her cookie, while Carol looked thoughtful. Having swallowed, she finished, "I'd call that a good thing. Come on, I was going to make a chocolate cake and you can help me."

"I like cake," Carol smiled.

"Everyone likes cake," Sarah chuckled. "I promised Eric I'd make it and I wouldn't want it to be a lie."

Soon they were, slightly tipsily, mixing up batter and enjoying themselves, large violet lizards and their origins dismissed for the moment.

* * *

"Well, I have to say I'm really pleased about this," Dragon commented, as Taylor waved her arm through the open wormhole produced by their copied set of hardware. It had taken more effort and some minor modifications to the electronics, but in the end they'd been successful in duplicating the wormhole generator.

"Me too," Taylor grinned. "Now, with any luck, you can make a new set of electronics and we can see what happens. How long will that take?"

"A day or two with Armsmaster's lab," Dragon replied after thinking it through. "It's a fairly complex project, but I think he's got all the parts in stock. When we know it works, and at this point I'm almost certain it will, I can use my own production systems to make a more finished design. Armsmaster can almost certainly miniaturize it and make the entire system more efficient, which is of course the thing he's best at, and that's the version we'd make more of. We'll have to do some more design work and tests to see if we need to modify this model to produce a wormhole big enough for Kaiju, or whether it will accept enough power to do the job right now."

She looked at the generator which was humming contentedly. "I can't provide sufficient energy to power an opening much larger than this one, so that will have to wait for a bigger power supply. None of that is important right now, though." She prodded the control that shut the device down, appearing pleased. Taylor certainly was.

When they were outside the test chamber again, she moved to her accustomed position at the table, watching the others work. Armsmaster had unlimbered a fairly impressive computer system from the truck which seemed to be a bottomless pit of techie toys. This was now connected to the two monitors he'd deployed earlier, and he was making changes to a complex 3D model in a CAD package, the latest version of the Shotgun of Doom nearly finished. Leet and Über were watching and making suggestions. The Tinker hero sighed when the latter suggested with a grin that the weapon should have a fold-out bayonet, if only for the look. He fixed the young man with a stare that only made his grin wider.

"Trust me, Über, if the weapon firing at the Endbringer doesn't do the job, a bayonet certainly won't," he sighed.

"But it would look cool!" Über chuckled.

"Appearance is secondary to function," the older man muttered, going back to work.

"Says the man who has clearly spent a ridiculous amount of time making his signature motorcycle look as bad ass as he could," Leet snickered. Legend, who was listening and watching from across the table, grinned widely.

"He has you there, Armsmaster," he said slyly. "I remember a number of prototype drawings that had rather more back-lit panels and chromed parts that did nothing particularly useful than ' _efficiency_ ' would normally allow for."

Hunching his shoulders slightly defensively, Armsmaster visibly ignored everyone in a fairly dignified manner, continuing his work. Taylor was highly amused by the banter, this entire group seemed to fit together far better than she'd expected.

Glancing at Dragon she could tell the woman was amused as well, but she said nothing, merely went to the drawings and printouts on the table and started looking through them, calling for Leet after a few minutes. With nothing else to do until the people who were designing all the cool toys finished, Taylor smiled to herself, going to one of her computers and bringing up PHO. Soon she was watching a video of her friends making four of her schoolmates look extremely puzzled, trying not to let her snickers disturb the Tinkers at work.

Judging by Amy's grin and Lisa's body language and expression, they were both having huge fun. It looked like they were going out of their way to let as many people as possible see them together to firmly drive home the impression that ' _Ianthe_ ' and Amy were two entirely separate people. After this, it would take a particularly stubborn conspiracist to draw a link between them other than one of friendship.

" _When Lisa has her own bioconstruct, I foresee a number of practical jokes on the horizon_ ," the Varga laughed in her head. " _And I have no doubt that she will excel in sowing confusion among your enemies and allies alike_."

' _As far as I know I don't have any enemies,_ ' Taylor giggled. ' _And I'd like to keep it that way. But you're right, she's having almost too much fun. Poor Vicky looks like she can't work out what the hell is going on_.' They were watching another video of the ill-fated prank that the quartet had tried pulling on Amy, all four of them so intent on sneaking up on the blonde girl's sister that they were entirely oblivious to the huge violet-blue lizard following them, looking around with a finger across her muzzle at the crowd.

" _She is a natural member of the Family, definitely_ ," her companion said approvingly. " _As is Amy. I approve very much of both of them, not only due to their abilities which are most useful_."

' _So do I_ ,' Taylor smiled internally. ' _I always wanted to know what it would be like to have siblings. This is as close as I'm likely to get, and I like it_.'

" _Understandable_." The Varga seemed slightly sad for a moment. " _Sometimes I miss my own kin. Some of us didn't get along very well, as you know, but I'm the last of them, I fear. A pity in many ways_."

Taylor felt sorry for her friend. ' _We have each other. Whatever else happens, that's always going to be the case. And I'm more grateful than I can say that it happened._ '

He was silent for a few seconds. She felt an internal wave of pleasure and happiness come from him. " _I agree, and thank you. I am very happy we met even under the circumstances. You have been more fun than I could ever have hoped for and your world and friends are fascinating._ "

Sending him an immaterial hug, she went back to watching various videos starring her two friends.

There were a _lot_ of them.

* * *

Opening her eyes as she heard someone enter the room, Imelda blinked a few times, hazy from the painkillers, then turned her head to see her doctor smiling at her. "Hello, Imelda," he said in a kindly fashion. "How do you feel?"

"A little achy," she said truthfully. "And very dizzy. These drugs are very powerful."

"I'm afraid that's an inevitable side-effect of strong opiates," he agreed, taking her pulse with his fingers, while beside him a nurse wrote down his comments to her. He looked at the complex display on the electronic monitor next to her bed, making a couple more statements she couldn't follow at all to the woman, who replied in kind, then made some more notes. "You seem to be stable. We stopped the worst of the internal bleeding and removed the fragments of metal from your chest, but I have an unpleasant suspicion that there may be other internal damage we didn't find," he said in a low voice, sitting next to her. She felt a thrill of fear go through her at his words.

"Your blood pressure is still too low for my liking and doesn't seem to be going up properly, not to mention that your red cell count is also worryingly low. That's part of the reason you're feeling dizzy in fact, your blood oxygen is several points lower than normal."

"Are you going to have to operate again?" she asked, not looking forward to it.

"That's one option. We have another one, which is Parahuman healing."

"Panacea, you mean," she replied, nodding painfully.

"Yes, although today we also have someone else." He looked somewhat puzzled, but not too worried.

"Is there another healer in the city?" she asked, confused. "I only know about Panacea. Although I heard the E88 has someone that can heal as well."

"Yes, so have I, Othala I believe. I've never met her though." He shook his head slightly. "No, this is a friend of Panacea's. A member of the Family who's just arrived here."

"The Family?" she asked, shocked, lifting her head a little more then stopping when the dizziness intensified. "You mean she's one of those weird reptile-people?"

"I do. She's called Ianthe, and she came here with Panacea a little while ago when she visited. Between them they've healed about a dozen serious cases in the last hour or so. She wanted to learn more about human biology, she told me." He smiled at her, his eyebrows raised a little. "Between you and me I found her comments a little odd. But she certainly seems able to do what she claimed, and Panacea vouched for her. I trust Panacea implicitly so after some discussion with the administration we decided to let her try. Panacea has been monitoring her work, so there's very little risk, and so far everything has worked out very well."

"Is she a huge lizard too? Like Raptaur?"

"Not quite that big, but she's over seven feet tall," he replied at her somewhat worried question. "Quite a pretty color, sort of blue with a violet tinge. She's a bit… unusual… but seems very friendly. Are you willing to allow her to heal you? Or if you prefer, have Panacea do it. I have to admit that under the circumstances I'd prefer that outcome to another operation, but it's up to you."

Imelda thought hard about it. She was very nervous about the idea, but on the other hand she wasn't all that keen on going back under the knife. She was aware that there was always a risk to general anesthesia, although it was very low. But Parahuman healing, or at least Panacea's version, had the reputation of being extremely safe and very fast. She could quite possibly leave here in hours rather than days.

Eventually she nodded. "OK. I'll let them heal me."

"Great." He patted her hand, turning to the nurse, who smiled, then went to the door, opened it, and leaned out for a few seconds. When she stepped back inside, an average-height teenaged girl wearing a familiar white costume followed her in, and behind her was…

"Oh, my god," she whispered without being able to prevent it. The creature now studying her with a disconcertingly alert pair of slightly glowing slit-pupiled vivid green eyes like those of an enormous cat was _huge_! ' _Over seven feet tall'_ didn't really get across how _massive_ she was. She looked like she could bench press trucks for exercise.

Although the doctor was right, her scales were beautiful.

"Panacea, Ianthe, this is Miss Imelda Abarca, twenty-six, who had the misfortune to be involved in a car accident early this morning. The side airbag malfunctioned and went off when it shouldn't have, spraying her with shrapnel. The fragments penetrated her left lung and kidney, causing substantial internal bleeding, plus she suffered a broken right tibia. We've removed all the fragments but I'm fairly certain there is at least one leak we didn't find."

He finished his brief report, both females nodding while studying her. Panacea approached, pulling her scarf down to reveal a face that was somewhat familiar, a not beautiful but not unpretty young woman with a freckled face smiling at her. "Hello, Imelda. Do you mind if I check for myself?"

"Not at all," she whispered, still finding anything louder somewhat difficult. Panacea took her hand in her own and seemed to concentrate briefly.

"You're right, there's a rupture in the left kidney arterial feed," she said to the doctor. "Not large but it's leaking steadily. A few minor vessels aren't quite sealed properly as well, but that one is the dangerous one."

She glanced at Ianthe who was standing at the foot of the bed watching intently. "Do you mind if my friend here heals you, Imelda?" she asked, looking back to her.

"No, I guess not," she smiled weakly.

"I must warn you it looks a little… odd… at first," Panacea added, a slightly peculiar expression crossing her face. "Don't worry, she's actually very good at this. Close your eyes if you want, we won't mind."

She nodded to the huge lizard, who moved carefully around the bed to the other side, mindful of her tail which stretched out several feet behind her. Squatting down to bring her head closer to Imelda's level, Ianthe produced what was probably meant as a comforting smile, clearly trying not to expose too many teeth.

Which were _very_ big and _very_ sharp, Imelda couldn't help but notice with a slight shiver.

"Hi, Imelda. I'm just going to hold your hand here, OK?"

After receiving another nod, she picked up the limp hand and held it in her own. Imelda felt her eyes widen and her stomach roil a little at what happened next. Gaping at the tiny tendrils burrowing through her skin, all she could think was that she couldn't feel anything.

And decide she wasn't going to eat spaghetti for some time.

The lizard-woman nodded a little. "Yep, torn blood vessels, some bruising… broken bone in the leg, and some skin damage. OK, this won't take long."

Imelda felt her leg twitch slightly in the cast, while her dizziness worsened for a couple of seconds and she nearly passed out. "Ooh," she mumbled, not sure if she was awake or not.

The moment passed and she suddenly felt much better, blinking at the ceiling. Apparently she'd dropped her head back onto the pillow. Rolling it to the left she saw Ianthe looked satisfied. "How do you feel?" she asked.

"Better. Good, actually," she replied, lifting her head, then gently prodding herself in the side. "It doesn't hurt at all any more."

"We'll need to remove the stitches," the doctor said, pulling her hospital gown up and inspecting the site of the operation scar. "That won't take long." Turning to the nurse he issued quiet instructions. The woman went to the side of the room and came back pushing a small trolley with a number of drawers on it, opening one and pulling out a sterile pack which she tore open. Shortly she had disposable gloves on, with a plastic-handled curved-blade scalpel in one hand and a pair of tweezers in the other.

Panacea held Imelda's hand, doing something that meant she couldn't feel it as the nurse quickly and competently cut all the stitches and popped them out with the tweezers. When she was finished Imelda looked down, having been resolutely staring at the ceiling the whole time, to see her skin unblemished but slightly stained from the wound cleansing solution that had been used during the operation.

"We'll get someone in here to remove the cast in a few minutes, then give you a final checkup, but I think we can discharge you in about half an hour," the doctor smiled. He looked at both Parahumans. "Thank you for that."

"You're welcome," the lizard-like one smiled. "It was interesting."

"Thank you both very much," Imelda added with feeling. "I really didn't want another operation, or to stay here any longer."

"No one likes staying in hospital," Panacea replied with amusement. "It's very depressing, the place is always full of sick people."

Laughing a little in relief, Imelda nodded. Panacea put her scarf back on, then slapped the large creature which was now standing beside her on the arm. "Come on, we've got other things to do. Doctor, I'll stop in again on Tuesday, but if you need me you know my number."

"I do," he said, standing up and offering each of them his hand. "It was nice to see you again and thank you for coming by."

"No problems," she laughed. "We didn't have much else on the schedule at the time and Ianthe was curious. Bye, everyone."

Both of them left, the last sight Imelda had of Ianthe being the end of her tail disappearing around the side of the door before it slowly closed.

"That was a little odd," she said after a long moment, looking at the doctor, who shrugged slightly.

"You tend to get used to weird stuff like that around here, although I'll admit it's a little strange even by my standards," he grinned. "I'll get someone with the cast saw up here, and sort out the discharge paperwork. Back in a minute."

He and the nurse also left, Imelda soon finding herself alone with her thoughts and otherwise feeling fine, if confused.

And grateful.

* * *

"How's that?" Raptaur asked, waving at the latest iteration of the enormous weapon which was lying on its side on the newly created huge workbench stretching for some distance down the middle of the big room. The shielded enclosure she'd produced was now gone, leaving the place mostly empty. Dragon studied the thing, walking down one side of the bench and up the other, examining the insulation covering the barrel for any flaws, none being present.

She had to admit that it certainly _looked_ impressive. They'd ended up with an over-under barrel design, the top one being the one that held the round, while the bottom one fired the counter-projectile. There was a heavy muzzle brake at the end of both barrels to redirect some of the released energy from the explosion backwards at an angle to hopefully counteract the thrust that would be produced by the sheer force of the radiation and charged particle pressure acting like a rocket. Most of the blast energy would go into the projectiles and be carried away with them, but enough was left to still give the gun one hell of a kick.

Kaiju could undoubtedly handle it, but the simulations showed that fired in free space the massive weapon would still fly backwards at a fairly serious rate. She was massive enough to absorb the energy without too much trouble.

Colin, with Leet's input, and surprisingly enough some help from Legend who seemed to know quite a lot about firearms, had added a recoil damping system to the stock, using huge nested springs and a complex gas piston system, which Raptaur had just finished making. The barrel mechanism was a floating design in the stock itself, with a fair degree of rearwards movement available, like a number of artillery pieces used. There was a forward pistol grip as well to allow Kaiju to stabilize it.

Overall, it was the most fearsome looking firearm Dragon had ever even considered. The idea that it was meant to be used hand-held was simply insane.

"It sure looks the part," Über commented. "The wormhole generator should fit in there neatly. What about the programming of it? It's going to have to generate the wormhole at a fixed offset from the generator itself, not at a fixed point in space, since the thing will move around."

"I've modified the programming suitably," Dragon told him, bending down to look into the barrel on her second pass around the weapon. "We should install it and test it, but I don't think it will cause any problems. One of the power packs from the truck should provide enough energy, the wormholes are fairly small compared to our tests."

Raptaur nodded, going to the generator which was sitting inside an EDM enclosure to block any residual radiation, picking it up and carefully inserting it into the cavity designed to accept it. Feeding the control and power cables outside the weapon she fitted the cover she'd fabricated for the opening, which locked into place with a solid clunk. "OK, that's done," she announced.

Colin had climbed into the back of the now half-empty PRT vehicle, coming back out with a heavy high-capacity battery pack, one of her own design she provided to the PRT, which he connected the power cable to. Dragon plugged the control cable into her power armor, having dispensed with Leet's original control interface when they'd made the second unit. "Plug the top barrel, the gamma emission from it could be hazardous," she said, the large lizard nodding then forming a cap of EDM over the end of the weapon.

Starting the generator, she monitored the singularity as it formed, the entire weapon echoing with the hum it produced. Leet whistled, while Über grinned. "That sounds absolutely wicked," he said approvingly. Guided by the open barrel the sound was fairly ominous.

"Starting singularity spin-up," she announced, flipping mental switches as she executed the prewritten program. The characteristic screech sounded as the toroidal singularity wound up to an absolutely insane rotational velocity, then stopped when it stabilized. The audible result was again modified by the shape of the gun, muted slightly but with overtones from the resonance of the air in the barrel that made it sound like a huge organ sliding from a sub-bass note to a high whistle before it stopped over a second and a half or so.

"Wow." Über grinned even more widely. "That alone should make an Endbringer shit itself."

Internally she agreed, the sound was extremely impressive, but on the outside she merely nodded a little. "And finally, wormhole generation initiated." There were no further special effects but her monitoring program showed the device was drawing the right amount of energy and the correct gamma output was occurring.

"I can see the output wormhole," Raptaur reported, her head half-inside the lower barrel. "Looks like it works."

"Good. I think it's almost at the point of being able to be tested," Colin said, sounding pleased. "We need to modify the generator slightly so it automatically powers up into this state on switch on, but that's a minor issue, and we also need to add a built in power system. Again, not difficult, this battery pack would do the job for several hours based on the power draw."

After a lot of discussion, they'd ended up deciding that they didn't even need the breech mechanism that he'd designed, after Raptaur pointed out the fairly obvious fact that Kaiju could simply form the round in place, which made the entire design mechanically much simpler. Colin had sighed a little when she'd mentioned this, which Dragon could sympathize with. She'd missed it as well, since the entire forming structures out of nothing was sufficiently unusual neither had fully internalized the implications.

"What color should we make it?" Raptaur asked, looking amused. "From watching the news if it's black it'll be more dangerous."

"Make it bright orange, then the Endbringer will think it's a toy and relax, which will let Kaiju shoot it more easily," Leet grinned. She laughed, while Colin sighed, waiting for them to become more serious.

"The color is irrelevant. The only thing left is the fusion charge," Dragon's friend said, long practice letting her know he was somewhat uneasy. He inspected Raptaur, then looked at the others in the room. "I trust you," he told her after a moment, "even though we've only known each other for a fairly short time, and there is still much we don't understand about the Family. But I am also slightly worried about giving you the knowledge to build a pure fusion weapon. It's incredibly destructive and a lot of power to hand over to anyone."

Raptaur smiled slightly. "Like I said the first time, none of us are interested in nuclear weapons or mass destruction, and if we _were_ we have other methods available to us. I give you my word that the knowledge won't leave the Family, and won't be used against you, the PRT, or anyone else without your permission." She turned to Leet, adding, "I'm including you in that as well, since I know it was based on your design and technology."

The Tinker villain, a category Dragon was having increasing difficulty really believing, nodded soberly, appearing to accept her words seriously. Colin looked at Dragon, then turned to Legend. "Sir?" he said. "Do you agree?"

The Protectorate leader studied Raptaur for a few seconds, tapping his fingers rhythmically on the table, then nodded. "I do. As she said, I have very little doubt that she and her sisters and cousins and whoever else is out there could cause massive destruction with not much effort, but at the same time I feel that this is extremely unlikely to happen. Not to mention that without her and her sister knowing how to make the fusion explosive a lot of this is wasted effort anyway." He shrugged with a small frown, that turned into a wry smile. "We don't even know if it actually will hurt or kill an Endbringer, but in my view we have no choice but to find out. They're slowly killing us and this is the best chance I've seen in years to do serious damage to one."

"I agree," Dragon said quietly. Über nodded as well.

"All right. I just had to say it, no offense was intended." Colin seemed apologetic.

"None was taken, believe me," the huge reptile smiled.

Pulling out a set of drawings and a sheaf of paperwork, her friend spread it out on the table. "This is the design, then. The fusion fuel is here, it uses lithium deuteride as in normal fusion bombs. Leet's breakthrough was the fusion initiator which uses the triggered decay of a nuclear isomer of hafnium to release an intense pulse of gamma radiation, which in turn compresses and heats the fusion fuel to the point that fusion can start. The hafnium isomer has been studied for years as a theoretical method of storing very large amounts of energy but to date no one has worked out how to release it like this, and there are major issues with producing it in the first place."

"Which you don't have," Leet pointed out.

She looked thoughtful, nodding slowly as she looked at the design. "I've read about that stuff, I think, I've been studying nuclear physics for a few weeks now," she replied. Colin looked alarmed, making her grin. "Don't worry, I'm not planning on anything dangerous. But it's given me all sorts of ideas..." She trailed off while he paled slightly.

"OK, it looks mechanically pretty simple. How do you want to do this?"

"I certainly don't want to assemble a functional unit," he replied fervently. "It would be unacceptably dangerous. However, without the initiator it's inert. So I suggest we work on building everything but that first, to give you the design, then _very carefully indeed_ make a tiny amount of the hafnium isomer with the trigger mechanism. We should be able to try a test firing of that in an EDM container without danger. When the weapon is commissioned in the field, Kaiju can assemble all the components into a live round immediately before firing."

"That sounds plausible," she replied with a nod. "And a lot safer than a five kiloton explosive on the table that might go off bang if it was dropped."

Everyone else winced.

"We've only just got the computers in," she added with a smile. "They were quite expensive and I don't want to have to buy new ones."

"Not to mention we'd all get vaporized," Über remarked uneasily.

"Humans are way too fragile," she grinned. They all exchanged a look, but she'd already gone back to carefully examining the plans. "Right. So we need a casing like this..."


	136. Tests and Contracts

Emily stared out the window into the bay, thinking strange thoughts. One particular word kept running through them, as it had done for hours.

' _Aliens_.'

She shook her head, but couldn't help it.

' _Aliens. In Brockton Bay. Or the Atlantic somewhere. Fuck, this is_ _ **insane**_.'

Peering out toward the exit of the bay and the rougher water barely visible there past the reef, she wondered what could be found if someone took a submersible and carefully explored the ocean floor. Thinking odd thoughts of ancient cities built by no human hand in ages past, she shivered and wished she'd never read any fucking Lovecraft or Derleth in her childhood.

Too late now, though.

' _Aliens?!_ '

Eventually she went back to her desk and with a great effort of will managed to concentrate on more mundane things like the budget for the next month, grateful for some accountants to swear at and take her mind away from that word.

' _Aliens..._ '

* * *

There were a number of small spheres some six inches across on the table, one of them in two pieces. Leet was turning a component over in his hands, comparing it to a drawing, while Raptaur waited. He nodded, handing it back. "Looks good. Three grams of hafnium isomer in that end should be more than enough to fire the fusion reaction."

"And this is ultimately fired by mechanically produced x-rays?" she said slightly quizzically. "That's very neat."

"Piezo-electric crystal stack to produce a high voltage pulse, which generates x-rays in the initiator source, which triggers the sensitized hafnium isomer, which produces a massive pulse of gamma rays, which compresses the fuel, which goes bang," he said in one breath. "All you have to do is hit it hard enough and fast enough to start the entire sequence."

"You are a very scary man, bro," Über said, patting his friend on the back.

"If it wasn't for the fact that making the hafnium isomer and sensitizing it properly is exceptionally difficult without the matter-creation power you have, this would be a horrendous weapon," Colin told her. "It still is, of course, but very few people could successfully make one. I would prefer that to be limited to us and your Family, to be honest. There are enough weapons of mass destruction scattered around the world already to make me somewhat uncomfortable."

The reptile-woman nodded agreeable. "No argument from me. OK, I suppose we should see if it actually works." She thought for a moment, then held out a hand, on which a small metal disk formed. In the middle of it was a tiny sparkling crystal of material a different color than the main thing. "This should be the isomer, on a disk of pure aluminum. Can you check it?"

Leet pulled out his tricorder, which Dragon looked at enviously, very much wanting to examine it properly. Having seen how clean and amenable to her understanding his designs were, that one was one she was itching to look at. He adjusted it then pointed it at the sample plate.

"That's it," he said. "Fifty milligrams of pure 178m2 hafnium isomer. It's got a usable energy output of about sixty-six and a half mega-joules."

"That's an awful lot from such a small amount," she said with respectful awe, studying the tiny quantity of metal in her hand. "OK, let's see what happens." The disk and sample disappeared, then she picked up the prototype initiator unit, carrying it over to the far end of the room. She made an EDM cylinder about half the size of an oil drum, fused to the floor, then put her hands inside it for a little while, withdrawing without the device. A few seconds later the container was completely sealed.

Moving closer she made a wall of Dragon's super-insulator, the same stuff the gun barrel was now clad in, and stepped back. "OK. I've made a very heavily spring-loaded firing pin to Armsmaster's design, with a retaining bolt holding it back. The initiator crystal is in place and the whole thing is armed and loaded with that amount of isomer. I can fire it by dissipating the bolt, which will allow the firing pin to hit the crystal. Everyone ready?"

They all nodded, bracing themselves fairly pointlessly. "The EDM should absorb most of the sound but I expect it will still be quite loud, so cover your ears," she warned. "Three… two… one..."

There was an incredibly loud _**THOOM!**_ sound and the entire room shivered briefly, along with a wave of heat that rolled over them like they were close to a fire for a moment. The insulated wall absorbed most of it but a fair amount was put into the air, which was several degrees hotter immediately. Even the floor warmed instantly from the conducted heat.

"Holy shit!" Leet yelped, as Über ducked a little. Colin stood his ground, although he flinched slightly. Raptaur smiled.

"I'd say that sounded like it worked," she said happily, holding a hand out and feeling the heat coming from the test chamber. A moment later the entire thing, along with the wall, disappeared. "So that's everything. We have all the components of the weapon, we just need to put them together when needed."

"It would appear so," Colin nodded. "Well done to everyone, I think." He turned to look at the weapon on its table, visibly pensive. "I would ideally like to test it, but all the simulations show it will work to design and the piecemeal tests back them up. It's not the sort of device we can use lightly, which is the problem."

"It's not the sort of device you really want anyone to even know about unless necessary," Über commented, making him look at the young man, then nod.

"I would have to agree," Legend said as he stood up from his chair and walked over to the weapon, running his hand down it. "This thing is absolutely terrifying. I'm not even sure _where_ we could test it without causing one or more governments to get very upset."

"I can make some discreet inquiries to the Canadian government," Dragon pointed out. "I have some contacts who can keep their mouths shut. If you're prepared to lend your support, it may be possible to arrange to take it up to the far north of the country for a test fire, which is far enough away from anyone that it's unlikely to cause too much trouble. The only problem is that we're running out of time, the next attack is likely anywhere from today to sometime in the next week if the Endbringers stick to the normal pattern."

"And it will most likely be the Simurgh," Colin added. "Probably the best target for this device, but also probably the worst of them."

"We'd better press ahead, then," Legend replied. "You two get to work on this wormhole device, if we can get that made as soon as possible it will allow us to deploy Kaiju anywhere in the world fast enough to be useful, and possibly other people as well with a suitably shielded carrier system, or costumes, or whatever we end up using. Dragon, if you can also make those inquiries and forward any necessary official questions to me, I'm happy to help push for a test fire. But we may have to face the fact that events will end up requiring it to be used for the first time in a real attack." He turned to Raptaur, who was listening quietly.

"Is your sister ready for that?"

"She is," the Family member said. "She's close enough that I can get word to her quickly, and she can be ready in a short time. I'll make sure all this data gets to her tonight and she'll be ready to make the weapon when needed."

"Good." He looked back at the preposterously large gun, then shook his head. "I don't know whether I _want_ to see this fired, or _never_ see it fired," he muttered.

"It'll be something to see," Leet chuckled. "But only from a significant distance."

"I've got a number of very heavily shielded drones that I'll deploy if we do use it," Dragon told him. "I'm as curious as you are to witness it but I have no intention of being anywhere near it at the time."

Über asked curiously, turning to Raptaur, "How fast could your sister reload it? Could she do something like automatic fire?"

"If we need more than one or two shots it's probably gone badly wrong," Legend suggested with a sigh.

"True enough, but I'm curious," the young man smiled. "Just out of interest."

"Probably roughly one a second with some practice," Raptaur replied after thinking it through. "Given the pattern of the round, which is fairly complicated but not wildly so, making a new one is quite quick." She looked at the gun, then grinned evilly. "In fact..."

"Oh, hell, why does that expression fill me with foreboding?" Colin sighed.

"Common sense?" Dragon quipped. He gave her a look of mild irritation, causing her to grin internally.

"Thank you," he said. She bowed slightly.

"Any time, my friend," she replied lightly. They turned to watch what Raptaur was doing, which turned out to be rapidly assembling a scale model of the enormous gun, ending up with merely a huge gun. She hefted it, holding it to her shoulder and panning it around.

"Not bad," she muttered to herself. The stock changed shape slightly once or twice, molding itself to her body. "Better."

"What are you going to do?" Legend asked, sounding and looking a little worried.

"See how fast I can reload it," she smiled.

"What's the load?" Leet asked. She held up a scaled down version of the massive round the full-size weapon took.

"Don't worry, this one isn't fusion powered, it's compressed air," she told them. "I'll form a tiny sphere of air in an EDM shell at a few thousand PSI then make the container go away, which should give a reasonable simulation of the shot. The projectiles are made of aluminum instead of EDM so are very light and won't go very far, too much drag. Plus they'll dissipate in about a second anyway. I just want to see what it's like to make the round in place."

Putting the gun on the table, Raptaur moved to the nearest phone and picked it up, dialing a short code, then waiting. "Hi, Danny, can you let everyone know that it's going to get pretty loud around the back of the BBFO building for a few minutes? We're just testing something, it won't take very long, but I don't want to make people think something blew up." She listened, then chuckled. "Sure. Ten minutes?"

Nodding, she put the phone down. "OK. He'll radio everyone to let them know."

Shortly the back roller door was open, all of them standing in the opening, watching Raptaur who had her scaled-down super-gun to her shoulder. "I'll fire one shot to see what happens," she said over her shoulder, then aimed upwards out over the uninhabited part of the bay. The nearest person was at least three miles away in that direction, which Dragon was satisfied was enough to be safe.

"Bang," the lizard said, a massive _BOOM_ following her word, along with a large cloud of vapor expanding from the barrel. A visible shock wave spread out on the water in front of them even with the thing at a thirty degree angle upwards.

"Fuck me," Über yelled, his hands over his ears. "Warn a guy, will you? That was a lot louder than I expected."

"Sorry, the air pressure might be a little too high," Raptaur apologized, looking slightly embarrassed. He muttered to himself irritably, wiggling a finger in his right ear. "I'll get Amy to look at you later."

She raised the gun again, the next blast being much quieter, but still remarkably loud for what was basically an air-gun. Dragon tracked the projectiles come out the barrel as moving at nearly twice the speed of sound. She was impressed, the lizard-woman had casually made what could be a very dangerous weapon if it was loaded with a more serious projectile.

Raptaur fired again, then again, the pause between shots narrowing. After a dozen or so it sounded like a very loud diesel engine, expanding clouds of water vapor coming out at roughly one second intervals. She fired a few more, then lowered it. "That's not bad. I think the real thing would probably take about twice that time to reload, but one five kiloton shot every two seconds should deal with most things."

"I'd say so," Colin said with an expression of horror. "Please make sure your sister refrains from doing that. Killing an Endbringer is a good thing, stripping half the atmosphere off in the process is less so. Never mind the risk of the projectiles hitting something valuable before they dissipate. Such as a satellite."

Leet lowered his hands from his ears in time to hear this and started laughing. Colin glared at him. "Sorry, but you really sounded worried there, it was kind of funny," the other Tinker snickered. "Kaiju can point at the moon and shout ' _Pull!_ '. We'd probably see the flash from here when the darts hit it."

"Oh, god, what have I done?" Colin sighed. Everyone else exchanged glances and smiled. Coming back into the building, Raptaur put her over the top air-gun on the table, then walked over to the real thing, looking at it thoughtfully. Leet closed the roller door and joined her.

"What are you thinking?" he asked curiously.

"It's a legendary weapon. They always have names."

"Fucking huge gun?" he suggested.

She smiled a little, but shook her head. "Too long." A few seconds passed, then she leaned forward and touched the weapon. "Human mythology and tradition," she said softly. "Slightly pretentious, but I think valid." Everyone watched as raised letters in a flowing script formed on the side of the barrel. Satisfied, she pulled back, walking over to the phone to call the Hebert man to tell him the loud noises were over.

Dragon read the inscription, then looked at Colin, meeting his eyes behind his visor. Even as a machine, she felt trepidation at the end result of their work.

Reaching out she ran her hand over the word on the barrel. She knew the mythology involved with the name.

 _ **Athena**_

It seemed rather appropriate.

* * *

Packing the last of the equipment into the truck, Colin closed the rear door, then set the security system. He turned to Raptaur who had loaded the currently functional wormhole generator into the vehicle for him, having made EDM cases for both units, the original parts still inside the shielded box he'd brought to the BBFO office. "Thank you for all the work you put in today, and for making your premises available to us," he said, holding out his hand. "I'll be in touch soon with the results of the next tests on the wormhole system. Hopefully there will be no significant problems and we can duplicate the unit fully. I'll be working on miniaturizing the device as well, and hardening it against shock. Can I rely on you to make new parts as needed, since you can do it much more rapidly than I can?"

"Of course. It was nice having all you guys working here, I learned a lot myself and found it all very interesting," she replied, smiling. "It was extremely educational and a lot of fun."

He looked past her at the weapon on the table. "I'll get rid of it to keep it confidential," she assured him. "There's no need for it at the moment, I can recreate it easily when I have to show Kaiju how. We'll presumably have to install the wormhole generator and power supply in it before deploying anyway, since those would need to be supplied by you."

"I suspect so. Hopefully we'll have time to test it before the next attack, but if not..." He shrugged. "A live test will still work. I have little doubt that the weapon will function as intended, although the effect on an Endbringer is still unknown."

"It'll probably slow them down a hell of a lot if nothing else," she commented, which he could only agree with. "Worth trying no matter what happens."

"It is, yes." Turning to Legend who had come over and was listening, he added, "I'm heading back to the Rig. Are you coming, sir?"

"I have to make a detour to talk to a couple of people but I'll see you there later," his superior assured him.

Colin looked over at Dragon, who was deep in conversation with Leet. Raptaur followed his eyes, then smiled. "They'll probably be talking for a while. Don't worry, I don't mind her staying if she wants to."

"All right. I'll speak to you later," he replied, heading for the door of the vehicle. She moved to the side and flipped the switch that made the roller door rise, allowing him to drive the truck out. With a wave, she lowered it again after Legend had also left, the door clunking to the ground a few seconds later. Carefully turning out of the exit he headed for the gate, both pleased with the end result of the last few hours work, and somewhat pensive for exactly the same reason.

He passed Amy Dallon's truck going the other way just as he reached the gate, the girl waving at him with a smile. A large head sticking out the side window grinned at him, making him look in the side mirror, sigh, shake his own head, then leave the insanity of this place behind.

* * *

Taylor walked back to the three people still at the table, or at least what she strongly suspected was the two human people and one quite likely not. It didn't bother her at all, but she was very curious. Even so, it wasn't her business so she wasn't going to raise the subject, certainly not in front of Randall and Kevin, as much as she liked them. Some things were private.

"You need a coffee machine in here, and some fridges as well for cold drinks," Kevin noted as he looked up. She nodded.

"True, I'm going to arrange to get that sort of thing over the next week. We're still setting up, of course." She looked around, satisfied. "It's coming along pretty well so far."

Moving over to the weapon she dismissed it, then the table. Soon the room was back to normal. Randall was experimentally hefting her smaller copy, grunting a little under the weight. It was in the area of some hundred pounds or so since it was mostly made of EDM, not that it needed to be quite so indestructible. "This thing is ridiculous," he puffed, trying to hold it to his shoulder. It didn't quite fit normal human anatomy but he persisted, finally seating it properly then attempting to hold it steady. She grinned as the barrel wove around in a way that ensured he'd never be able to hit anything even if he could fire it.

Dragon was watching, as was Kevin, both of them appearing amused. "It's bigger than you are, man," Kevin chuckled.

"Not quite, but not far off," Randall muttered, finally putting the thing down, leaning it against the wall. "Way too heavy."

Joining them, she lay down on the floor and put her arms on the table. "So," she said, looking at both the men, then Dragon. "You seem to have stayed behind for a reason."

"I have," the renowned Tinker replied. "I wanted to talk to Leet, and you."

"Am I right in suspecting that you might want to inspect his tricorder?" she asked with a grin. The power-armored reptilian themed figure couldn't really look surprised, but the effect she produced was pretty close.

"Yes, in fact you are," Dragon said.

"Good. We were wanting to talk about the same thing," Taylor smiled.

"You were, were you?" Now Dragon seemed slightly amused.

"We have a proposition for you, if you're interested." Reaching down to a case her father had given her the day before, she picked it off the floor and put it on the table, opening it and pulling out a folder which she opened. Removing three stapled-together sets of paper, she handed one to each of Kevin and Dragon, retaining the third for herself, then closed the case and put it back down.

Dragon picked up her copy and skimmed the first page, then looked at her. "A contract."

"A contract. Between BBFO, LLC, the Parahuman Tinker known as Leet, and the Parahuman Tinker known as Dragon, owner/operator of Draco-tech Industries in Vancouver, Canada," Taylor nodded. "Two contracts, actually. One between BBFO and Leet, one between BBFO and Dragon. Leet assigns the designs and manufacturing rights to the device known as the Tricorder and a currently unnamed device described as an audio field inducer to BBFO in return for a share of profits, a one off payment of one hundred thousand dollars, and a veto over further licensing if necessary. BBFO subsequently licenses Draco-tech to reverse-engineer and if possible mass produce said devices, sale price to be determined by further discussion, at a royalty also to be determined. Draco-tech undertakes not to sell the two devices to any party that would either cause harm to the reputation of BBFO, the Brockton Bay Dock Workers Union, the City of Brockton Bay, or Leet, _or_ commit illegal acts with said technology."

She paused for breath, glad that her father had gone over the fine details of that little speech with her several times yesterday morning.

All three of them were staring at her, Kevin with a slightly open mouth. Randall seemed impressed, and Dragon was almost impossible to read for the moment.

Eventually the Canadian looked down at the paperwork again. She flipped through it, reading each page, stopping a couple of times and going back, before she nodded. "It looks very solid and well thought out."

"The DWU has a good legal team that specializes in contracts," Taylor smiled. "It's legal both in the US and Canada, and takes into account all our licenses, permits, and legal standing. Are you interested?"

The armored head studied her for ten seconds or so, then inspected Kevin. Dragon turned back to her after another short pause.

"Do you have a pen?"

Taylor handed her one with a grin. "Leet? You still in?"

"I am," he said, smiling. "One thing before I sign. I want that thing back whether or not you can figure it out, it's one of my best inventions and I'm very fond of it."

Dragon looked at him and held out a hand, which he shook. "I promise."

"Good enough."

Taylor handed him a pen as well, then watched as they both signed the papers and gave them to her. She signed her copies of the reciprocal agreements and distributed them.

Kevin got up and retrieved his own large toolbox from the floor, opening it and pulling out the tricorder, which he slightly reluctantly handed to Dragon. The woman took it carefully, studying it closely. "I have the audio inducer and the design notes for both in the van, I'll go get them," he said, before heading for the door. When he came back Amy and Lisa were with him.

"Did it go well?" Amy asked curiously, looking around.

"It did, thanks," she replied. Glancing at Lisa who had moved to lean against the wall next to the table, she smiled widely. "I happened to be looking at PHO earlier and I saw some very funny videos," she added. "Your poor sister looked like she couldn't work out what the hell was going on."

Both girls laughed. "That was hilarious," the healer said. "Poor Vicky. But she started it."

"I finished it," Lisa grinned. "They should look behind themselves more often when they're on a hunt."

Shaking her head in amusement, Taylor looked back to Dragon, who had just closed the padded case Leet had given her, which contained the audio inducer, and was now quickly looking over a pair of notebooks filled with his surprisingly neat writing. He'd also given her a USB stick full of data. "Is that enough to do it with?" she asked.

"I think it is, thank you," the Tinker replied, seeming very pleased. "Obviously I'll do the other project first as it's more urgent at the moment, but I'll start on this immediately afterward. I expect, based on our results today, that it will go well."

"I hope so. When you know whether you can do it, contact us and we can work out the rest of it." Taylor smiled again. "I have access to a very good contract negotiator, but I think we can come to a fair arrangement for everyone."

"Hopefully so," Dragon said. "This has been a very interesting and rewarding day, thank you all for everything you've done. I have a feeling that we're likely to repeat such things in the future."

"I have an awful lot of tech that used to do some very cool things," Kevin suggested with a grin. "If someone was prepared to look at it..." He rubbed his fingers together in a manner that suggested cash, making Dragon laugh.

"For a villain you're remarkably easy to deal with and a lot saner than your video channel would suggest," the woman snickered.

"We're not much into the actual villainy stuff," Randall explained. "It's more having fun and giving the public something interesting to watch. Unfortunately we have been a little… hmm… not entirely legal about how we did that?" He also grinned. "We're thinking of trying to change our approach a little."

She nodded thoughtfully. "That might not be a bad idea. You both have a lot of talent I can't help feeling is being wasted. However, it's not my place to tell you how to run your lives, although I'd certainly like to see you on the side of good. Or at least neutral like the Family." She glanced at Taylor, then Lisa. "I'm still not entirely sure whether they're neutral good, neutral evil, or just randomly weird."

"Chaotic neutral if you use that metaphor," Kevin laughed. "But with a good bias." He pointed at Lisa. "Mostly. That one is just peculiar."

"Hey, speak for yourself, puny mammal," Lisa snickered. "Cousin Saurial told me about you two. You're strange even for humans."

"Thanks very much," he grinned.

"See?"

Dragon looked around at them, then shook her head. "I should probably go before I get dragged into the insanity too much," she said with a laugh in her voice. Standing up she picked up the case. "It has been a genuine pleasure working with you all. I'll be in contact soon."

"Great. I've had a lot of fun as well," Taylor smiled, also rising. She led the way to the door, opening it then standing aside. Dragon nodded her thanks, got half-way through the entrance, then glanced at the poster of the warhammer and stopped. She gave the appearance of someone thinking hard, before slowly moving on. A couple of steps outside the building she looked back at it, then Taylor.

Taylor shrugged slightly, smiled at her, and closed the door, saying "See you later," as she did so. A few seconds later she heard Dragon's thrusters light off and the sound of the armored cape flying away.

Wondering how much she'd worked out with an inner grin, she turned around and went back to her friends, including the newest ones, reverting to her base form on the way. She wanted for find out what had happened with the two girls, who were looking far too pleased with themselves.

* * *

Dragon stared at the closed door behind which some of the oddest people she'd ever met were. She thought long and hard about the poster, the one she'd seen several times now, having suddenly had a very good idea what it actually was meant to convey. Running calculations in her head she lifted off, heading for the rig, wondering exactly how hard Kaiju could swing a proportionally sized warhammer.

The implications were extremely disturbing.

Half way to her destination, she'd decided it was probably best not to mention her insight right at the moment. It wasn't immediately relevant and it would only worry poor Colin and Director Piggot more than they already were, not to mention Hannah, who if she was any judge of human behavior found the Family completely terrifying.

She wasn't entirely sure the woman was wrong, in fact, but there was little point in stirring that particular pot as far as she could see.

That said, the next time she got Raptaur alone she wanted to ask a few delicate questions surrounding mysterious detonations off the coast of Quebec. She had a shrewd idea she might now know one possible cause.

* * *

"I stopped off on the way back and asked your father to order another ton of onions," Amy said, dropping into a chair with a faint sigh of relief. It was nice to be back with people who she could be completely open with, although she'd had a lot of fun so far. "He's going to do it tomorrow morning, so we should be ready to start on yours tomorrow evening," she added, looking at Lisa, who smiled.

"Excuse me?" Kevin, who had taken off his balaclava, asked, looking between all three girls. "Are you implying _that_ ," he pointed at the form of ' _Ianthe_ ', "was made from _onions!?_ "

"Didn't I mention that?" Amy asked, grinning at him. "It started out as over half a ton of onions. They're cheap, easy to work with, and no one bats an eye around here if you order them by the truckload."

"Good grief. Your power is as bullshit as hers is," he sighed, waving at Taylor, who was also smiling. "Making lizard people out of onions and impossible metals. Just insane."

"I have to admit you don't look like an onion, Lisa," Randall chuckled. "I assume you two made absolutely sure that everyone in New England saw both of you together?"

"Pretty much," Lisa agreed. She pointed at Amy. "We went to her house, her aunt's house, Brockton General, all over the boardwalk, the mall, and downtown. There must be hundreds of photos of us floating around the net by now. I can't see how anyone is going to point at Ianthe in the street when Amy's in here and shout ' _Panacea!_ '. It would be a hell of a leap even for me, and there's a lot of evidence out there now to disprove it." She grinned. "Even that idiot VoidCowboy would probably think it was impossible."

Both young men laughed like lunatics at her dry tone. "Oh, god, that fuckwit," Kevin chuckled. "I got him tempbanned in four messages once."

Lisa held up three fingers. He stared, then laughed again. "That was _you?_ "

"I created a new account just to do it, he was annoying me," she giggled.

"Good one." Checking his watch, he glanced at his friend. "Half past four, we should go. I've got an online game in forty minutes I don't want to miss." Standing, he pulled his balaclava on again. "Taylor, it was more fun than I expected by a huge amount. I'll see you around soon, I hope."

"You will, I'm sure," she replied. "I'll get you your money during the week. I assume you want cash?"

"That would be easiest, yes," he said. "Wait until Dragon works out if she can actually do it, though, I don't feel right taking money from you if not, even if you can afford it."

"Fair enough. I'll let you know as soon as I hear anything."

"Great. Come on, Randall, time to shoot some bad guys. Virtually, of course."

"OK." His friend also rose, waving to them, then both men left. Amy followed them and locked the door behind them, before returning to her seat.

"What the hell is that for?" she asked curiously, pointing at the huge air-gun against the wall. Taylor looked at it, then back to her.

"An experiment. It's pretty loud."

"It looks like it probably is." Leaning back, Amy propped her feet on the table, then relaxed. "Been a good day."

"It has." Turning to Lisa, Taylor asked, "Decided on a color yet?"

"Black scales with a hint of deep red, I think," the girl replied, looking at her arm. "This is nice, but purple isn't really me. I thought of the color scheme from my costume but that's sort of obvious. Black and red is a classic and should look cool. And I want the healing ability as well."

"Fine by me," Amy smiled. "The more healers around the better and the less work I have to do, not to mention the less attention on me as Panacea. I'm very pleased how well it works. Your power seems to interface to it better than I expected."

"It's a little odd, my power is being more cooperative than I can ever remember since you did the mods to me," Lisa noted thoughtfully. "If I had to explain it, I'd say it was pleased. It's certainly working a damn sight better than it usually does, more smoothly if that makes any sense, and I haven't had a thinker headache since I got in here for the first time last night."

"Really?" Amy asked, looking surprised and pleased. "That's… somewhat unexpected." She thought hard. "Now that you mention it, since I upgraded myself my own power seems slightly more effective. I've been getting all sorts of ideas that seem to come together even more easily recently." Looking at Taylor, she put out a hand and touched her, then shook her head. "But it's had no effect at all on working you out. Still no clue, it just goes and hides after staring in horror."

Taylor grinned at the description. "Obviously demons and you human types work on entirely different principals."

"I'd say that's a massive understatement, demon girl," her friend giggled. "But it's an interesting effect. I wonder what's causing it?"

"Maybe adding the neural tissue and the external secondary brain has just given your abilities more to work with?" Taylor asked. "If it works through the brain, I'd guess that more brain equals more power, or better control or something like that. It makes a weird sort of sense."

"I guess." Amy tugged at her lower lip for a moment, thinking, then shrugged. "No point worrying about it right now, we don't have enough information. We should keep track of anything else like that, but it seems if anything to be beneficial, assuming we're not just imagining it." She got up, stretching widely, even her tail sticking straight out behind her, then relaxed. "Let's start on the new skeleton, we can do that even without enough onions to complete it."

"OK." All three of them went into her workroom, Taylor soon beginning the assembly of the next bioconstruct's mechanical parts while Amy directed her and Lisa watched with great interest, asking questions as they proceeded.


	137. Discussion and Decisions

"Legs?"

"Hmm. Two."

"Arms?"

"I think two for now, you can always change it later, right?"

"Sure. Same as with the legs."

"OK."

"Tail?"

"Yes."

"I know _that_ , I wasn't asking about _having_ one, I was asking about any modifications to it."

"Such as?"

"Hey, you can't go wrong with a thagomizer."

"Not helping, Taylor."

"Why not? You could do it with the same mechanism that you use for making the blades and whatnot."

"That's just..."

"...Just?"

"A really cool idea. Why didn't I think of that?"

"Because you're not quite as crazy as she is."

"Hey! I'm at _least_ as crazy as she is! Just differently crazy, she's more weapons-orientated than I am."

"Says the one who came up with a biological explosive supersonic dart launcher _built into her arms?_ "

"I _definitely_ want _that_."

"Of course, who wouldn't?"

"Back to the tail. We can add the thagomizer-maker, that's easy enough, and now I want one as well. Same length?"

"Hmm. How tall will I be? I'm taller than you are at the moment."

"I can make it any size you want, but much bigger than Ianthe and you'll have trouble with human-scale things, and there's a lower limit before it's too small for you to fit. Unless you want me to permanently modify your human body. I can do that if you want, make you like Saurial."

"No, I don't want that. I like being human. But I also like being a seven foot plus lizard."

"Who wouldn't?"

"Sane people?"

"Don't know any, if you find one, grab him and we can ask. Then sell him for future research, a real one would be worth a fortune, just from the rarity value."

"True."

"Right, back to size."

"May as well be the same size as Ianthe, then. I'm used to it now and constantly changing would be weird, especially if I learn the Family style as well."

"Which you should."

"Which I should. I'd think that the different body sizes and shapes would cause all sorts of problems with muscle memory."

"I haven't noticed much trouble."

"You're half-demon, and also refer to my previous answer of craziness. I am neither any part demon, _or_ quite as weird as you are."

"Don't put yourself down, you're still _very_ weird."

"Thanks."

"You're welcome."

"Hey, we could do something completely different and get rid of the legs completely. Go for a snake based design, like this."

"Shit. That's… different."

"A naga, sort of. I like it. But it's sort of a big leap from the current theme."

"Good for getting into tight spaces, though."

"That could be worth considering… Ha, reserve that for Coil. The fucker would shit a brick if he saw you come out of the ventilation system like that."

"Hee hee hee."

"Top bit's too human though."

"How about this?"

" _JESUS CHRIST!_ "

" _GAAHHH!_ "

"Oh, hell, she's gone again. _Why_ does she keep _doing_ that?"

"If you have to ask you'll never understand."

"Well, wake her up again, we were right in the middle of this."

"She's right, you really _are_ weird sometimes."

"My cousin the bioshaper would never say such a thing!"

"Twit. OK, she's coming round. We should probably just come up with a document with tick boxes for all this later, if we add other people, it'll be quicker. You OK?"

"More or less. _Please_ don't do things like that, you give my power a migraine."

"I thought you said you weren't getting Thinker headaches since the mods?"

"You're enough to give Scion headaches and make him want to hide under the bedclothes. Warn a girl when you're going to become an Elder God again, will you? I can close my eyes first."

"It wasn't that bad."

"NO! Do _not_ show me again, once was enough. And stop grinning like that, it's unnatural, no one should be able to have their mouth go around past their ears."

"Sorry."

"Sure you were."

"She's being nasty to me again."

"You deserve it. Where were we?

"Tail."

"Oh, right. OK, same as yours, the fins and everything, add the thagomizer bits, maybe make it a little longer? Just to differentiate Ianthe from… Huh, still can't think of a name. Me, anyway."

"All right. Now, eye color. I personally think we want to stick with green for the moment. All Taylor's forms have that eerie yellow-orange, which is a good Family indicator. Our side of the family have green. When we come up with something else, we can use a different color for the other clan, it seems to fit the theme."

"Fine by me, I like green eyes."

"You _have_ green eyes."

"Which is why I like them."

"Fair enough."

"Does anyone else think that some people would find this entire conversation a bit odd?"

"Only people who aren't as cool as we are."

"Very true."

"Can I have that electric eel generator organ mod as well?"

"OK. Just through the hands?"

"For now. It'll be interesting to see how well it works. How much voltage will it produce?"

"Um… I think, based on what I've read about it and the much better efficiency that my redesigned electrocytes produce… Maybe around five thousand volts at a few amps or so? An electric eel, a really big one, can do about nine hundred or thereabouts, at up to around an amp. You'll be able to sustain it for quite a while as well, the fish can only do really short bursts because it takes a lot of energy. I've also added a sort of capacitor stack to it which will make it possible to produce a short, really high current discharge."

"Cool."

"And extremely lethal. It's DC which is much more dangerous. You'll have to be very careful if you use it, you could kill a normal human instantly."

"Ah, good point. Maybe I shouldn't..."

"The dart gun would do the same, from a couple of hundred yards at least, you just have to learn how to use it properly, same as with any weapon. You're already strong enough to just pull someone's head off which, oddly enough, would _also_ be pretty lethal."

"Another good point. OK, shove that in as well, you'll have to teach me."

"No problem. I'll set it up so the default is just a disabling shock, it'll take deliberate effort to go past that."

"Do _not_ accidentally zap my computers, I just got them."

"I'll be good."

"Now _I'm_ worried, you've got that weird smug grin. Stop it."

"I was just thinking about shaking hands with dear mister Calvert, a proper politician's handshake, the free hand on his shoulder… I bet I could make him dance for me."

"You might get the chance. OK, I think that's about it. I've got some other ideas and I'm still working on the organic laser, but we can always retrofit later. Sure you don't want a tail in your human form? It's sort of cool."

"I'll pass for the moment."

"All right. Let me know if you change your mind. I have all sorts of ideas for other upgrades as well."

"Because you're MAD! HA HA HA HA!"

"Yeeesss. I'm not entirely sure which one of us is genuinely mad, to be honest."

"Can't be me, Mathter, I'm merely your thervant."

"Good Igor."

"Mathter is too kind."

"She is. OK, we can make some more parts now that's all settled, the spine and skull are done, let's do the pelvis next. I had a couple of ideas for minor mods that should make the muscle attachments more efficient, I want to test it on Lisa's one, then if it works as well as I'm hoping, we can modify Ianthe there the same."

"Does anyone else think it's weird the way she's been watching us? Like a curious cat. Why did you leave her active anyway?"

"I like her, she's cute."

"You would. I like her as well, but even so it's just the tiniest bit creepy."

"Leave my perversion of the natural order alone, she just wants to watch her sister being built. There, there, Ianthe, she didn't mean it."

"Now she's rubbing her head on your hand."

"She's learning certain new behavior patterns. Still only as smart as a good dog, but maybe one day I can figure out how to make one that's truly sentient."

"If the PRT ever finds out they'll lose their collective shit, you know."

"By then we'll have our underwater city of reptilian horror deep in the abyss, where the Family can live and _warp_ the very _fabric_ of the _universe!_ Demon magic for all!"

"… I worry about you sometimes, Taylor, I really, really do."

"You started it, I seem to recall, with Über and Leet."

"It was funny when _I_ said it. It's slightly more scary when _you_ say it, especially looking like _that_."

"I _told_ you I was working on tentacles."

"You did. Please put them away or I'll fall over again."

"Hey, that gives me an idea!"

"Oh, hell."

"Maybe, if we need to really sell the whole Mythos thing you seem to have run with, we could use a shoggoth or two?"

"Oh, for god's… Pick her up and put her in the chair, I think we're done with her input for now. She probably needs the rest anyway after running around most of the day trolling the shit out of Brockton."

"True. Right, she'll keep for now. Where were we, oh, yes, pelvis. OK, make it wider there, and then make a structure like _this_ right _there_."

"Like this?"

"Perfect."

"It's your dad's birthday tomorrow, isn't it?"

"Yes. I've finished his coat. It's really nice."

"Should be, after all the build up. Think he'd be interested in the strength upgrades?"

"I can ask. He's a little worried about us, though."

"Danny's a good man, he'll get used to it. OK, now change the hip sockets like this..."


	138. Guest Omake - The Summoning

**(by wizerd00)**

Armsmaster looked up at the unmistakable sound of the Endbringer sirens and swore. The weapon was complete and ready for Kaiju to wield, and the distinctive pattern to the wailing indicated that the Simurgh was descending. But that same distinctive pattern, confirmed by a quick glance at his emergency comms, brought him nothing but helpless rage. Because the Simurgh was descending towards Austrailia, most likely to Canberra, and half a world away. They were nowhere near finished with the large-scale wormhole generator, and now they were out of time.

"Shit." Raptaur gave repeat to his frustration. "Not going to make it." A small voice at the back of his mind noticed that this was the most tense he had ever seen the reptilian, but he dismissed it. Unimportant. But even with his full focus, he had no solution; Kaiju was just too damn big. Around him, Dragon and the others were clearly thinking the same thing, looking at the ground or emoting anger and frustration. All, he realized, except for Ianthe, who was looking at Raptaur with … what? Apprehension? The object of his attention chose that moment to speak, and even Armsmaster's own atrophied social skills could hear the definitive hints of trepidation in her tone.

"Dear cousin." Even Leet interrupted his attempts to break through the EDM walls with his fists at Ianthe's tone; there was none of the strange humor and glee that they had all come to expect. It was practically a whisper. "I know you treasure your secrets, my friend, but a city's worth of people hang in the balance."

"I know that!" growled Raptaur, who had began to pace angrily. "I know! But this wasn't how I wanted it to come out, damn it! Fine. Fine!" She was practically yelling now, and Armsmaster, despite his great respect for her rationality, was starting to get nervous. Thankfully, she reigned herself in with a long, shuddering breath, and turned to face the Protectorate capes.

"We don't need to teleport Kaiju. I-"

"Nuntius can handle transportation." Ianthe interjected suddenly, and the way Raptaur faltered made Armsmaster suddenly suspicious that the two reptilians were talking about wildly different secrets.

"Nuntius?" Raptaur's mouth opened and closed a few times in what in any other situation would be a fascinating imitation of a fish. "Do you mean...?"

Ianthe nodded to the unfinished question. "The red one, yes. These humans are worth revealing our more wild branch of the Family, Raptaur. I know you've told us many times that it's too early, but I see no other way to get Kaiju all the way to Australia in time." Armsmaster looked around in confusion, only to find Legend and Dragon returning similar looks, and Uber and Leet seemed even more lost. Even Raptaur, alien though here features might be, looked like she didn't quite understand what Ianthe was talking about.

"Raptaur," Legend began, and from his tone Armsmaster almost expected the man, one of the mighty Triumvirate, to fall to his knees. "If you can make this happen, I beg of you, do it. We can handle any PR problems later."

Raptaur held up a hand, clearly thinking. Suddenly, she straightened."Oh. Oh. Now I get it. Of course we'll help. Now, I need to go and call Kaiju. Ianthe will call Nuntius, and they will meet you at the PRT Headquarters for transport. She clapped her hand on Ianthe's shoulder, and gave her a long look. "You have ten minutes, understand?" This was a side of Raptaur they had never seen before, her tone holding nothing but business and hard edges. Ianthe nodded, and without another word raced out the door, moving so fast that Armsmaster could barely follow. Raptaur turned to the others with a nod. "Ok, I have my own tasks. Good luck." Then she too was gone.

On an ordinary Endbringer fight, and wasn't that a sobering concept, Legend thought to himself, ordering Strider to wait for two capes would have caused a riot. Today, he had only needed to mention the Family. Once. He wished he was relaxed enough to laugh.

"There. Right on time." Armsmaster's relieved voice brought him out of his reverie, and Legend looked up. He didn't have to search far before his eyes fell on what could only be Nuntius.

He idly noted that the entire headquarters behind him, bustling in the mad rush of an Endbringer attack, had gone quiet.

Where Saurial and Raptaur, hell, even Kaiju, had radiated a calm, don't fuck with me and we're good sort of aura, and Ianthe had invoked nightmares of being dissected by aliens by body language alone, every aspect of Nuntius promised a wild, chaotic death. His (Legend suddenly realized they had never mentioned a gender, but if ever there was a male of the Family, this was it) scales were a matte black that seemed to drink in all the light in the area. Where his brethren moved with a quiet grace, almost silently, every step Nuntius took resounded with a brash metallic clang. His eyes were the same shade of green as Ianthe's, but shone with far greater intensity, clearly visible even in the midday sun. He shared a height with Ianthe, as well, but his sheer presence put even the larger (and already scary as all hell) Raptaur to shame. This was aided greatly by the vibrant plume of blood red feathers running down the center and back of his head and standing proud, like a mohawk.

Nuntius walked forward with a smile that made at least one nearby PRT Trooper whimper, and when he spoke, his voiced positively boomed.

"Ianthe here tells me you have a logistical problem. That there's a serious lack of deadly force in some faraway land, and that I might help you solve that problem." He chuckled, and the anticipation was clear in his voice.

Legend stepped forward and held out his hand, which the terrifying figure shook firmly. He introduced Strider and the others, and soon they had arrived overlooking Canberra, accompanied by a loud crack and the smell of ozone. Beside Legend, Strider staggered.

"Fucking heavy, these two. Way more weight than I was expecting. Think I need a minute." While Legend helped him to a seat, Dragon stepped forward.

"Nuntius, the weapon is ready for Kaiju, we have twenty-two minutes until the city is quarantined. Whatever you're going to do, please do it quickly." Nuntius only nodded and turned towards the city, several miles away. In the distance, flashes of light marked the battle already in progress. He took a deep breath, only for Ianthe to slap him in the back of the head as if scolding a child.

"Make sure to summon Kaiju, yes? Not a repeat of last time. We still don't know what that was. _Far_ too many tentacles."

Armsmaster's head whipped up from what he was working on fast enough to risk whiplash. Dragon's metallic head moved in the same direction as if by a series of unintended twitches. Nuntius merely waved them all off.

"I know what I'm doing, thank you. Now, lets get started. And with that, he raised his arms, took a deep breath, and shouted loud enough for the whole camp to hear:

 _"_ _ **Vugtlagn uln, Oh Kaiju, Azath nnn-lagl. NOG GEB!"**_

For a moment nothing happened, the strange cry echoing unnaturally across the open space. The tension was building to a breaking point when Nuntius stiffened.

"Wait, shit..."

The simultaneous, horrified gurgles made by everyone present only intensified when the area under the Simurgh started to glow a deep orange-yellow, fog billowing up and obscuring the shorter buildings entirely. Ianthe gasped, and pointed an accusing finger at Nuntius, who had begun scratching his feathers sheepishly. "That's not Kaiju you little shit!" Before she could finish her rant, and presumably murder her errant cousin, a noise like a thousand trumpets blared, and the Simurgh could be seen flying far more rapidly than normal away from what could only be the fires of some hell.

Suddenly, too fast to make out, so fast the sonic boom was readily audible, something blurred up from the fog and caught the Endbringer cleanly. The tentacle, for it could only be a massive, skyscraper-sized tentacle of mottled browns and yellows, was soon joined by dozens of others, though at a more sedate pace. The Simurgh, suddenly no longer the scariest thing in the country, let alone the city, stepped up its struggles, the air around it blurring and distorting as if in a mirage as it attempted to break free. It might as well have been throwing regular heat waves at the horror for all the good it did. Slowly, terrifyingly, inevitably, the rest of the tentacles closed around the Endbringer, and inexorably dragged it downward, down through the fog, until both the monster and the Endbringer had disappeared from view. Only then did the light fade and fog dissipate, until no evidence of either creature's passing remained.

The silence that followed was deafening. Everyone just stared at Nuntius, who had the grace to look embarrassed.

"My bad?"


	139. Batons and Blocks

"See. It's the same sort of mental controls as when you're in Ianthe. _That_ turns the boosted reflexes and strength on and off, _that_ sets the level. Even with it off you're much tougher than you were and probably around twice as strong and quick, but with everything at maximum, those go up a hell of a lot. But if you leave it turned up more than around, oh, maybe twenty-five percent or so, you'll find that you'll be eating a lot more to provide the energy."

Lisa nodded thoughtfully, lifting a large metal block with very little effort, something that astounded her as it was over three hundred pounds of steel. It felt like about ten at most. "Can you increase the metabolic efficiency like you did for the bioconstructs?"

"To a limit, and I've already done that for both of us. But it would take a pretty serious reworking of the human body to get it as efficient as they are, which isn't something I'm ready to do yet. Later, probably, yes." Amy shrugged. "If you want to look normal and have all the mods invisible, I'm sort of limited in how many changes I can make at the really high end right now."

"That's fine, this is already incredible," Lisa smiled. Putting the block down carefully she moved a few along the row and heaved on the much larger one, getting it to chest height with a bit of effort. "Shit. Eight hundred pounds and it's not all that hard."

They'd found out that she could lift just a little more than Amy could, her slightly taller frame managing more leverage. Looking at herself in the mirror the night before she'd noticed that like the Dallon girl the changes were _just_ visible if you were looking for them and knew her from before, but very few people knew her body as well as she did. Probably only Amy, in fact. So there was no real chance of anyone figuring it out by looking at her.

Putting the large block down again she shook her head in wonder. "I can still hardly believe it. You're amazing."

"Thanks," her friend smiled. "I'm pretty pleased with the results myself. For a first serious upgrade it seems to work really well."

"Question. If we had kids, would it breed true?"

Amy looked at her, visibly thinking. "I can make it do that, yes. At the moment the answer is no. Do you want me to?"

"I'm not actually planning on having kids," she smiled. "Just curious."

"OK." Reaching out Amy put her hand on Lisa's neck, nodding in satisfaction a moment later. "Everything's in the green. Looks like it all works fine." After a moment, she smirked, Lisa felt a tingle, and the healer removed her hand.

"What did you do?" Lisa asked suspiciously.

"Do?" Amy asked innocently. "What makes you think I did anything?"

"I felt something."

"Really?"

Putting her hands on her hips, Lisa stared at the other girl who was still looking innocent. Entirely _too_ innocent in her opinion, she had become very well aware that the brunette had at least as sneaky a sense of humor as Taylor, who was watching from the sidelines with her eyes glittering with glee.

"I know you, Amy. We may not have known each other for long, but even so, I _know_ you. You did _something_."

"No idea what you're talking about," Amy smirked. She held out her hand, an organic baton made of that so far nameless material growing in it, until it was about two feet long. "Fancy seeing if I'm any good with this?"

"Hey!" Lisa yelped, ducking as the other girl swiped at her, triggering her increased reflex speed without thinking much about it and moving far faster than she normally could. The baton whooshed over her head close enough to make her hair move from the wind of its passage.

"Shit," she added, leaping over the return strike which was a foot off the ground. "What the hell are you doing?"

"Experimenting," Amy grinned.

"To see if you can break my legs?"

"No, I'd need something a lot heavier than this to do _that_ now, with the upgrades you have."

"Want a bat?" Taylor asked, making Lisa glare at her as she ducked again.

"You stay out of this, your friend is insane enough without your help," she snapped, ducking to the side, then rolling to her feel more easily than she expected, her own power showing the best method to use as she let it run free.

"Well? Defend yourself, knave!" Amy called, charging at her. Lisa stared, then turned and bolted with a yip of shock, both girls running back and forth while Taylor laughed wildly.

"Defend myself? With _what_ , you lunatic?" she screamed. A sudden thought, not even power-urged, struck her and she stared at her palm, then looked over her shoulder at Amy who had stopped and was watching her with an evil grin. "Oh, you sneaky bitch," she grumbled. "I didn't ask for that."

"You got it anyway. Free offer, valid except where prohibited by Family rules."

Sighing a little, Lisa held out her hand, doing the internal operations she'd learned in her time operating the Ianthe construct, then smiled despite herself as she felt the new ability Amy had added to her grow a similar baton in it. "You are utterly deranged, Dallon," she muttered. "Any _normal_ person would simply have told me you'd added that function."

"This was a lot funnier," Amy giggled. She spun the baton in her hand like she was a cheerleader, nearly dropped it, then looked embarrassed. "Whoops."

Laughing, Lisa did the same, but with much more panache. Amy looked impressed, as did Taylor. "I actually _was_ a cheerleader in school for a year when I was fourteen," she snickered. Reabsorbing the thing she made a knife instead. "Very cool. I should have asked for this at the time. Is it presets only, or can I do it free form?"

"There are a dozen or so presets, you can experiment with them, and mix and match pretty easily as well. Learning to do it in any form you want will take a little practice but as far as I can tell your power lets you learn to control all these mods way easier than most people would manage. It's remarkably compatible with what I can do, which is very useful."

"I'll say," Lisa noted, making a knife in the other hand as well, then tapping them together. "Do I get the drugs as well?"

"I haven't turned it on yet, but I added the ability. Want it enabled?"

"May as well." Getting rid of both blades as Amy did the same with the baton she was still holding, she walked over and held out her hand. The healer took it for a few seconds. "There you go. Same deal as Ianthe and the darts. Paralytic, soporific, and the antidotes to both. That should be enough for now. Nothing lethal, though."

"A knife is lethal enough, you don't need to poison it too," Taylor remarked.

"Which is a good point," Lisa noted.

"That helps on a knife." Taylor grinned at them. "A good point."

Groaning, Lisa walked over to the other girl and swatted the back of her head. Taylor giggled, then turned back to the table on which she was fiddling with weirdly shaped blocks of some dark material. Lisa looked at them, then at her.

"Two questions."

"OK."

"One: Why don't you have any legs at the moment?"

Amy came over to stand beside her and both of them studied their half-demon friend, who looked back at them with a grin. It was true, she was normal human Taylor above her waist but below that she had about twenty feet or so of snakelike body and tail. "That naga form was interesting so I thought I'd see if it was actually practical to use."

"Please refrain from pulling out the top bit you came up with, I can't handle seeing that again," Lisa shuddered. She inspected the coiled up snake part of her friend, which was covered in alternating stripes of brilliant yellow and deep black, like a reptilian wasp. "Any reason for the colors?"

"Are you toxic?" Amy asked with a smirk.

"Only my humor. I just liked the effect," Taylor laughed. She rose up a little, extending her lower body, then settled back comfortably. "I'm not sure this really is wildly practical for day to day use but it could be pretty effective at swimming, and moving around in tight spaces, like I thought. It's interesting though."

"Fair enough. Second question: what the hell are _those?_ " Lisa pointed at the weird shapes on the table, which looked like something MC Escher would have come up with after a bad acid trip followed by a concussion. Probably by falling down one of his own endless staircases. "They make my brain itch, and my power is staring with an open mouth and dribbling a little."

The part-snake version of Taylor snickered, picking one of the things up and turning it over in her hand, which made Lisa and Amy both wince. "That whole Lovecraftian city joke you made has been making me think about suitably alien artifacts that could be… sort of accidentally found, maybe? ...which would give people something to think about. But I've been having a hell of a time making my angles suitably non-Euclidean. Everything keeps stubbornly coming out in three dimensions. I want a fourth one, damn it! Or at least three and a half."

"You're trying to make a scale model of R'lyeh," Lisa said in a totally flat voice.

"Pretty much, yep."

"You are completely round the twist. I hope you realize that. As a friend, I feel I should tell you that."

Taylor shrugged, making another block of material then watching as it warped into horrifying shapes in her hand. Lisa closed her eyes and moaned, while Amy stared wide-eyed. "Thanks, but I don't think I'm more than halfway around the twist at most." She glared at the thing in her hands. "Damn, _so close_. It's nearly there, but it's missing something."

"Sanity. Both you and it."

"So you keep saying, yet here you are, joining in with the entire thing. Why, I wonder?" Her friend gave her an amused look.

"I'm just trying to keep this… whatever the hell it is… grounded in reality," Lisa sighed.

"We left reality behind a long time ago, miss super-Thinker who can make drug-coated knife blades out of her hands thanks to a warper of life with a tail," Taylor chuckled.

"Another, annoyingly accurate and good point." Lisa pulled a chair over and dropped into it, Amy doing the same on the other side of their friend. "Fuck it. In for a penny, as the saying goes. Give me that thing, maybe if I can slap my ability into some form of consciousness I can see where you're going wrong."

"I'm not even sure that making a real, more than three dimensional object is actually possible," Amy remarked doubtfully, still staring. She reached out to pick up one of the weirdly shaped blocks Taylor had made, her hand missing it twice since it wasn't quite where it looked like it was. "Although, I have to admit these are the _weirdest_ fucking looking things I've ever seen. What on earth did you do to them?"

"Bit of Varga magic, but clearly not enough. We're both trying to work it out," Taylor muttered, leaning back on her coiled-up lower body. "Hmm. The problem is the description in the historical documents is annoyingly vague."

"The ' _historical documents_ ' are entirely fictional, as are the descriptions," Lisa pointed out in a deliberately reasonable tone.

"But, they match Family history so well!" Taylor smirked. "Obviously they're based on interactions between our people and that Lovecraft guy a while back. There were some of our lot that were prone to practical jokes on the poor humans, you see."

Staring at her very smug expression, one familiar to her from her mirror, Lisa eventually started giggling, then laughing wildly. "Oh, god, people are going to wonder what the hell is happening, the ones that aren't already," she chortled, shaking her head. "This is crazy. What next, if you succeed, you're going to plant a few of these things somewhere they might get dug up if anyone gets curious and starts poking around looking for the origins of the Family?"

"That's the plan," the other girl grinned. "I've been looking up dating methods and so on. I'm pretty sure I can fake out radiometric and magnetic dating techniques quite effectively. How old should our underwater city be? Fifty thousand years? More?"

Both Amy and Lisa shared a look, then fell over laughing. When they recovered, they began making suggestions, Lisa taking notes and giggling the entire time.

She had to be poked awake yet again when Taylor finally made something they were all fairly sure shouldn't be able to exist a couple of hours later, her power taking one look at it and going ' _eek-thud_ '. With some careful exposure, though, she was almost certain it was gaping in awe.

" _Now_ we're getting somewhere," Taylor said with satisfaction. "In a couple of weeks we can find a good spot and make something that should cause some interesting results."

"There _are_ easier practical jokes, you know," Amy noted, although she was still also sketching layouts of a non-existent alien city and snickering to herself.

"Yes, but they wouldn't be as funny," Lisa replied. She was flipping the thing Taylor had made, which had started life as a two inch cube, over and over in her hand, absolutely fascinated by the way her count of the number of sides and edges not only didn't match, but was different every time. It was impossible but she was looking right at it. "I have to admit, this is the best one I've ever heard of."

"I thought of a name for your Family identity, assuming you want to go for something with a sort of relevant meaning rather than just an interesting name," Taylor said as she made another thing. Lisa looked at it and winced a little, then tore her eyes away to peer at her friend.

"Which is?"

"Metis. Greek goddess of wisdom and thought in later years, but originally she was considered the epitome of magical cunning and a trickster goddess."

"That fits pretty well," Amy smiled.

"And it doesn't instantly equate back to Tattletale. Which is good, I think."

Lisa considered it, rolling the weird little block over and over in her hand. "Not bad, actually. Short and easy to pronounce, nicely mythological, sort of fits the theme… I'd have half-expected a Mythos name from you, though."

"Most of them are either a pain to pronounce or male or both," Taylor explained. "And they're almost all for things that are even weirder than I am. We could make you fit easily enough but most people would probably react… a little oddly. Too many tentacles."

"Tentacles get into everything in Brockton Bay, sooner or later," Amy giggled.

"Yes, let's not go there right now," Lisa sighed. "You're getting to be as bad as she is. Thank god I'm not Japanese, this would be too weird."

"I can make you Japanese, if you want. Or practically anything, in fact."

"I'm fine like I am right now. But I'll bear that in mind." Lisa shook her head with a small smile. "Metis. I kind of like that. Let me think about it."

"Sure. It's your name, I was just making a suggestion."

"We need a Family language, really, if we're going to keep people guessing," Amy suggested after a while, during which Taylor made half a dozen more and more peculiar and disturbing widgets.

"That's a good idea, I guess, but I'm not sure I'm up to making up an entire, functional, alien language from scratch." Taylor looked at the healer, then Lisa, who shrugged.

"Neither am I," she said. "If we could pull it off, though..."

"I may have a suggestion, if you're prepared to put some work in," the Varga spoke up.

"What do you mean?" Taylor immediately asked. Lisa still couldn't get over how odd it was to have two clearly separate individuals talking through the same mouth, apparently without even really thinking about it.

"With some effort, I may be able to teach you a suitably non-human language," he replied.

"You know one?" The girl looked surprised.

The Varga laughed gently. "Brain, I am many thousands of years old. I know hundreds of languages, from many species. I can come up with one that is far from human with little difficulty, trust me."

"You never mentioned that," she said, frowning.

"You never asked, and had no requirement for it until now anyway," he smiled.

"That's… true, I suppose," Taylor sighed. "Is this going to be some magical learning thing, or the hard way?"

"For you, I can implant the knowledge into your mind the same way I taught you the other things. In fact, if you look, you probably could access Princess Luna's language without too much difficulty. But that's not ideal for this purpose as it's not dissimilar to an archaic form of Japanese, for some peculiar reason. The one I'm currently considering bears no relationship to any language of this world, no human has ever spoken it." Taylor's mouth made some extremely disturbing hissing sounds mixed with a deep gurgle, which made the hair on the back of Lisa's neck rise. It was very unnerving.

Taylor's eyes were wide at the sound that had come out of her own mouth. "What the hell was _that?_ " she yelped.

"The language of a species long dead and from an entirely separate plane of reality," the Varga chuckled. "My own kind had contact with them a very long time ago even in my terms. They were, oddly enough, aquatic and somewhat reptilian. A human mouth isn't very well suited to speak it, it needs something a little closer to their original form. Anything you can shift into should handle it well, as will Amy's constructs."

"It sounded freaky as _fuck_ ," Lisa said with shock.

"Which is, I think, exactly what you need. Not to mention that it is a fairly informationally dense language compared to English, so a short sentence can convey quite a lot more than the equivalent in that language. But it doesn't relate at all to English, which I suspect means that translating it without my knowledge would be very difficult indeed assuming it was even possible."

"OK, fair enough, Varga," Amy said slowly. "It sounds very alien and weird and all, and would pretty obviously make a good one for the Family language. You can teach it to Taylor. Great. How do _we_ learn it, without years of practice?"

"Hopefully, with the use of your abilities, some creative modifications to your construct's secondary brains, and some hard work."

Amy looked thoughtful. "Huh. Now _that's_ an interesting thought." She tugged her lower lip, mumbling to herself. "Bigger language center, maybe? Add more processing for the auditory functions, extend the frequency range maybe… Might not be needed… Hmm. Increased memory bandwidth, tweak the neural interface nodes..." She looked up at Lisa and Taylor, who were watching with interest, waiting, a smile starting to spread across her face. "It's so crazy it might work. Worth a shot, anyway."

"Table?"

"Table."

"God, here we go again," Lisa sighed, watching Taylor do her Igor act, which looked very weird for a half-snake person. Sighing, she got up and started taking her shirt off.

* * *

"Any luck working out what set him off?" Paul asked as he entered the room. He didn't need to specify who he was talking about.

"No. No signs of any cause, just residual traces that show he _was_ worked up to a remarkable level," Rebecca replied, looking over at him, scowling. "He can't think of any reason either."

"I'm right here, you know."

"That's very worrying," Paul commented.

"It is. I don't want to risk it happening again, so he's staying well the hell away from Brockton Bay, the Family, or anyone connected with them until we can figure it out."

"Still here. In this chair, hearing everything."

"Probably for the best. That could have turned out extremely badly. More so than you might realize, actually."

Rebecca looked at him curiously, but with something in her eyes that made Paul think she also knew they'd got lucky. After seeing what Raptaur was capable of making he wasn't at all sure he wanted to see what Kaiju could have pulled out of nowhere given a sufficient threat. He got the impression that when she finally did lose her temper, assuming that could actually happen, it would be something that no one ever forgot.

"How do you mean?"

"Let's say I had an interesting demonstration of what a matter-generation power can do when coupled with a high intelligence and an outlook on life typical of someone who's a born engineer," he sighed, sitting in a free chair.

"Can you guys actually hear me?"

"That sounds ominous."

"Nothing to worry about at the moment, but I really don't think we should push the Family too hard without a very good reason."

"I'd have to agree," Rebecca muttered. She was definitely preoccupied with something, he realized, or she'd have probed harder to find out what he was talking about. But by the look in her eyes she was thinking about something else.

"What's the problem?" he asked.

"Have you come across the new one? Ianthe?"

"Yes, actually, I met her today, she seems… interesting."

"Weird as hell, you mean."

"That too," he smiled. "Enthusiastic, would be a good description. And a healer."

She looked at him again, in a more focused manner. "She's a damn sight more than a healer."

"Still sitting here, hello?"

Paul inspected her closely, then nodded. "So I understand. From what I was told the Family refer to her as a biosculptor, which we'd put down as a Biotinker, although it apparently covers rather more than that."

His friend looked unsurprised, but somewhat worried. "That's a useful confirmation of what we suspected."

"Suspected? What do you mean?"

"Miss Militia got a DNA sample from her on a drugged dart she used on some gang members and left behind. Not only are all the drugs used completely novel, according both the PRT ENE scientists and our own, but the material the dart is made of is _also_ new. The DNA itself… Well, it's not human."

"That's not surprising, you only have to look at her to work that out," he replied slowly, although he had an eerie sense of anticipation about what she really meant.

"Not human, as in, not in any way related to anything that ever evolved on Earth. Ours, or any other. Not even remotely close."

"Ah."

He nodded his understanding.

"You don't seem particularly surprised." She peered suspiciously at him.

"To be honest," he replied after a moment, "I'm not. Leaving aside Ianthe and the impression she gave me of someone trying very hard to pretend to be sort of human without as much practice at it as Raptaur, Saurial, and Kaiju… I had an interesting conversation with Kaiju herself when we first met."

"Oh, for fuck's sake, you two are being complete assholes." There was a stomping of feet and a slamming of a door. Rebecca grinned a little, looking over at it, then back to him.

"Was there a reason for that?"

"He pissed me off and right now I could do with some totally petty revenge for his stupidity," she chuckled, before becoming more serious. "Go on."

"Huh. OK, whatever." Paul smiled a little as well. "To summarize, she told me that she and her sisters were born in Brockton Bay. I'd think that was probably actually meant to mean in the general area, in fact, by context. Not the city, and probably not actually the bay, but nearby, I'd guess at some depth off the coast."

Rebecca looked thoughtful, nodding a little. "That would fit, I suppose."

"She mentioned an older brother. I suspect a _much_ older brother. He was, according to her, born a _long_ way away. The implication I drew from what she said and the way she said it..."

"Not on Earth."

"No. I'm also virtually certain that she knew I knew, and so on. I think she may well have worked out that I wasn't quite surprised enough about that implication either. The look she gave me… It was very calculating and very curious. She didn't say anything about it and I didn't press her, but..." He shrugged. "If I had to guess, they've either visited several times in the past, have a colony here somewhere that's been here for a _very_ long time, or some combination of the two. And I strongly suspect considerable contact with humans over a long period as well. The first three definitely have a lot of current knowledge of modern US culture and colloquialisms, although there are in her case at least some curious oddities in her speech patterns and actions. I'd assume she's the oldest, but I'm also starting to wonder if our estimates of how old they all are may be wildly out."

He sighed slightly, leaning back in the chair and relaxing a little. "Half the time I talk to her I get the impression of someone fairly young and very curious, the other half the time it's like I'm talking to someone ten or a hundred times my age with more experience than I could hope to understand. You can see it in her eyes as well. It matched with what our interviews of the Wards over their encounters with Saurial and Raptaur suggested. It might be that their species lives a hell of a long time, or has some sort of racial memory, or something even weirder. But there's a lot more going on there than is immediately apparent."

"This is getting stranger by the minute," Rebecca moaned, putting her head in her hands. "Why now? Why there?"

"No clue, I'm afraid. But on the bright side, they seem friendly, pleasant, ridiculously non-aggressive, and basically good neighbors." He smiled for a second. "Not to mention that if we're right, they've been here longer than _we_ have, and probably have a better claim to Brockton Bay at least than anyone."

"And are technically US citizens even if they originated on some weird alien world, due to either being here when the US was formed, or being born on US territory after that," she sighed, lifting her head and regarding him owlishly.

"I don't think we can consider them _illegal_ aliens, no," he laughed.

"So asking them politely to go back where they came from probably wouldn't work?" she asked, a little hopefully.

"Probably not. They'd most likely look at you as if you were crazy and reply that they already _were_ where they came from. Truthfully. And it's not like we can _make_ them do anything, I suspect. Or, for that matter, have any good reason to try."

"And if anyone _does_ try something, they can simply ignore them," she grumbled. "Which would almost be more annoying than them fighting back and winning."

"But much less destructive."

"True. But I understand entirely why the Number Man said Tagg was to be kept completely out of it, that man could easily get the wrong end of the stick and do or say something that would get the stick taken away and used to beat him upside the head with."

Paul started laughing helplessly, partly at the comment, and partly at the tone of deep irritation it was said with. She gave him the evil eye until he ran down.

"Finished?"

"Yes, thank you," he smiled.

"Fine. Right now, I don't really care what the hell is going on, as long as it stays there and doesn't cause problems." She stood up, looking frustrated. "I need a drink. Again."

"They do seem to have that effect. Probably best not to think about it too much."

"Easy for you to say," she sighed, heading towards the door. "Are you staying?"

"No, I still have business in the city. Not sure how long it will take, but I'll keep in touch if I find out anything else of use."

"Try not to find out anything too earthshaking for at least a couple of days, I need a break from this." Rebecca opened the door to her office and waited for him to join her, then headed off mumbling under her breath. Amused, he watched for a moment, before calling for a portal back to Brockton Bay.

The Family certainly seemed to manage to have an interesting effect on anyone they came in contact with, he reflected as he flew towards the Rig from the portal, wondering what had happened in his absence.

* * *

"Good day, dear?" Danny asked, looking up as Taylor sat beside him on the sofa as he watched the late news. "At least today you didn't get in tomorrow, like last night." He picked up the remote and turned the TV off, nothing interesting being talked about.

She smiled at him. "It was a very good day, actually, Dad. Good weekend, in fact. We got all sorts of interesting things done. The weapon is finished, by the way."

"Is that what that horrendous noise was this afternoon?"

"More or less. I was testing my reload speed." She explained, making him smile.

"I had an air rifle once," he said.

"Did yours have a six centimeter bore?"

"No. That's closer to a punt gun," he laughed. "Neither did it fire anything at supersonic velocities. Which is impressive for compressed air."

"I could make it shoot a lot faster than that with a higher pressure, but that was enough for a test," she said. "I worked out another worrying thing with it after I made it. If I loaded it with a single six centimeter sphere of EDM, and we converted it back to true density once it left the barrel at twice the speed of sound, the kinetic energy would be about two hundred and seventy seven gigajoules. That's nearly sixty seven tons of TNT equivalent energy. Every time I work out what I can do with remarkably little effort I terrify myself."

She leaned against his side, looking a little upset. "I could cause so much destruction it's not even funny talking about it, so easily I can hardly believe it. Sometimes it's a little overwhelming."

He'd felt his heart jump in shock when she'd mentioned the potential of her casually created device, but he put his arm around her and held her. "You're a good person, Taylor, and I trust you. I know you'd never do anything like that. Not on purpose, and not accidentally, you're very responsible. Plus, you have Varga looking out for you, and me, and everyone else. Amy and Lisa are friends who also, despite having some very peculiar abilities and a slightly strange sense of humor, are people you can rely on. As they can rely on you. Don't be scared of your own abilities, use them responsibly and carefully as you've been doing up until now, and it will all work out well, I'm sure."

"Thanks, Dad," she said quietly.

"You're always welcome, Taylor."

"It just sometimes hits me, you know? I like being what I am, but every now and then when I sort of get a glimpse of myself from the outside, it's a shock."

"The scaly parts and the tail aren't the cause of that feeling?"

"Not at all." She smiled up at him. "That part I'm fine with. I love being able to do that sort of thing, and having Amy able to join in, and now Lisa as well, that's a hell of a lot of fun. The other things can be a little much, which is why I'm going out of my way not to let anyone I don't completely trust really know the whole truth, at least all at once. I know I probably can't hide everything forever, but if I let it out little by little to the right people… Hopefully everything will work out."

"I think it will be," he assured her, mostly truthfully, knowing that she knew. "So Lisa is getting her Cousin suit as well?"

"Yes, we're making it now." Taylor looked pleased. "It'll be fun having two cousins running around."

"Who for?"

She giggled at his dry tone. "Everyone, of course. Ianthe was apparently quite a hit today."

"I saw the posts on PHO, yes," he replied. "She made… let's go with ' _an impression_ '."

"Did you see the bit with Vicky and her friends?"

"I did. The poor girl looked quite taken aback."

"Amy seemed to enjoy it," she laughed. "So did Lisa."

"Those two are way too much like you," he pointed out. "You found some good friends, though."

"I did. And I'm very pleased about it. Vicky too, and everyone else from Arcadia. Oh, right, your birthday. I 'd like to go out for a meal with you tomorrow, I was thinking of inviting Amy and her family along as well, if you're all right with that."

He smiled. "That would be nice. Where were you thinking of going?"

"The Thai place we like."

"The one that Saurial also likes?"

"That's it."

"From what I hear it's pretty busy these days. Will you be able to book a table?"

"I know someone who can probably do it," she snickered as her head changed into that of Saurial, grinning at him.

"That will probably work, yes," he agreed. "Misusing your influence for personal gain. Well done."

"Thanks." She held out her hand. "I made you something."

"What is it?" he asked, holding out his own, then gaped at the weird little… thing… she dropped into it. "No, seriously, what the _hell_ is it?"

"An ancient artifact of the Family," his impossible daughter replied with a wide grin. "Fifty thousand years old, a relic of an alien civilization. It'll make a nice paperweight."

"I'm sure it will," he said faintly, turning the thing over in his hand and blinking at the eye-twistingly unnerving effect that the motion produced. "Assuming I have any suitable pages from the Necronomicon I need to weigh down to stop them blowing away. Although, looking at this thing, I suspect that any paperwork I put it on may well end up _becoming_ pages from that book. How in the name of Lovecraft did you make it look like _this?_ "

"Funny story," she grinned, then started explaining.


	140. Presents and Angst

**Monday, February 21, 2011**

"Happy Birthday, Dad," Taylor smiled, pushing a wrapped box across the table to her father. He'd just finished the last of the fairly elaborate breakfast she'd risen early to make for him, including his favorite blueberry pancakes, and seemed content and full.

"Now what could this be?" he asked, raising his eyebrows. "I have no idea, I haven't discussed my birthday with you." Giving her a humorous look, he added, "You've been _very_ quiet about it as well. What a surprise."

"Sarcastic, much?" she asked, folding her arms and giving him a hard look. He snickered, pulling the box towards him and starting to remove the wrapping paper.

"Now, would I do that to my only daughter, the young lady in which the Hebert family hopes are resting for the future, the child I have scrimped, saved, and sacrificed so much for lo! these last fifteen years and seven or so months…?" Running down, he chuckled when she started grinning.

"Glorious end result of the Hebert family tree that I am aside, you're being a little over the top there," she commented.

"Possibly. But one has to show appreciation. Now, what do we have here?" He took the last of the dark blue paper off and put it to one side, revealing a flat cardboard box about two feet square and six inches thick. Lifting the lid he folded back the tissue paper under it, then looked at the revealed contents.

"Oh, very nice," he said, feeling the leather of the coat she'd made after much careful thought. It was a very dark blue-black, the same color as her Raptaur scales, appearing completely black in most light but the blue effect coming through when illuminated at the right angle. The leather itself was something the Varga had come up with, it was a copy of something from a long extinct and quite alien rough equivalent of a fairly large flying lizard. She told him this, making him stare at it, then grin slowly.

"You mean it's made of demonically created dragon skin leather?"

"Sort of, if you want to think of it like that, yes," she smiled.

"I do indeed want to think of it like that. Although the thought of wearing something that's a vague relative of the family is a little odd."

She giggled. "It's not real leather, nothing died to make it. I'd never kill a distant cousin to make a coat out of them."

"Unless they were very naughty, I suppose."

"Well, that's perhaps going a bit far." She smiled with many glinting teeth. "But I could peel them without killing them."

It was testament to how used to her abilities he now was that he merely raised an eyebrow, smiled a little, then stood up, lifting the coat out of the box. It was designed in such a way, after much research, that it could be worn either as a very nice leather jacket, or by using internal zips and folding down part of the inside, as a trench-coat in bad weather.

"It's completely waterproof, fireproof, bulletproof, a good shield against radiation, insulated to keep you warm, or cool, depending on conditions, and has about twenty hidden pockets inside it," she said proudly as he tried it on. "There's a fold out hood in the collar as well. Plus some matching gloves in the top outer pockets. We played around with some of the weird effects we came up with for our ' _artifacts_ ' last night when I went to bed, Varga had an idea." She smirked as he looked at her, a little worried judging by his expression. "Check the inside pocket on the left side, the lower one."

Putting his hand into it slightly tentatively, he looked surprised, then reached further. "What on earth…," he muttered, looking down at his pocket. "What's this?" Obviously finding something in the pocket, he pulled his hand out, looking stunned when a full size baseball bat made of hollow EDM came out with it. "How the _hell?_ "

He looked at the thing in shock, then down at the pocket it had come from, which was obviously too small to have contained it. Experimentally, he put it back, Taylor watching with satisfaction as the thing disappeared completely into the pocket again. "That's impossible," he spluttered.

"No, that's magic," she laughed. "It's a bit bigger on the inside than it should be."

"Are you playing fast and loose with the rules of time and space again, Taylor?" he asked suspiciously. "In this house we _obey_ the laws of thermodynamics."

"Nice reference," Taylor grinned. "It's a result of the experiments we did yesterday. Sort of a dimensional fold would be the least wrong way to describe it. The math is really peculiar, it took Varga and me several hours to work it out, but it's stable and permanent. It's mostly his work, actually. The outer pockets are about four times as big as they should be like that, except for the top left one, so you can put your keys in it without having to go in after them with a flashlight to get them back. The lower inner pockets are wider and about a yard deep. The upper left one is a little deeper than that, while the upper right is shallower but wider. Big enough for a couple of bottles of beer, definitely." She smiled as he looked both appalled and deeply impressed. Feeling in the upper left pocket, he withdrew a six foot long staff, which she'd designed to telescope out to twice that length. "You never know when you might need a long stick. The boat-hook folds out from one end, by the way."

He was still staring at the staff he was holding like he couldn't believe it.

"The other pockets are done in a similar way but less so. Mainly because then there are no bulges when you put things in them, rather than for the storage space. Not to mention that because a lot of the space is sort of… folded away, I guess… it doesn't seem to allow very much weight through. Neither one of us are sure why, but it's really useful."

"Are there any other accessories?" he asked with a mild sigh, experimentally putting the thing back and pulling it out a couple of times.

"Have a look," she laughed. He did. By the time he'd finished fishing in all the pockets, on the table was the extending staff, a pair of gloves which were made of the same material and in the same way as the coat, two folding knives, one of which was from a pocket inside the left sleeve, the bat, a very powerful LED flashlight, another telescoping baton like the one she'd originally given him from a pocket in the right sleeve, an umbrella, a brand new model of the same series of radio that the DWU used with a spare battery, a wallet that matched the coat, a hundred feet of thin cable with a hook on either end, a dozen bottles of water, a first aid kit, and several screw-top containers about two inches in diameter and three high.

And a large bright green towel, which made him chuckle when he pulled it out of one of the pockets.

"The containers are for keeping odds and ends in," she smiled. All of the tools she'd produced were made of wafer-thin EDM with suitably grippy coverings where required, even the knife-blades being hollow, so they all weighed much less than they would otherwise have. She'd spent some time trying to get the weights of things like the bat and staff to what seemed reasonable for someone not as strong as she was to use.

"It should be nearly as indestructible as Amy's costume, it works in a similar way, but it's thinner to make it lighter and also look like an ordinary if high end coat. If anyone asks, I commissioned it from Saurial. I even paid her for it. She gave me a good price as a friend of the Family. I got a receipt too." Taylor smirked at him as he stared at the pile of stuff on the table.

"I'm not sure if I should thank you or run screaming from the building, terrified about the horrible things you've done to the fabric of reality," he finally said.

"It's more terrible things done to the reality of fabric."

He sighed, looking at her, making her smile a little. "Anyway, it's nowhere near as bad as Vista's power," she protested. "We think it probably does something a little like what she does but by completely different methods, and it's stable once it's set up. If you took the coat apart you'd find the right amount of material for the size of the pockets and everything, but most of it is just sort of… somewhere else. Not that you _can_ take it apart with the EDM micro chain mail lining. I'm the only one who can do that, and Lisa is pretty sure that's not going to change. She's certain that normal Parahuman powers are completely incompatible with it, for some reason, at least as far as manipulating, making or damaging it goes."

"Which is why you couldn't make Brandish a costume out of it, I remember."

"Right. Lisa said her power would just ignore it." Taylor shrugged. "Magic and Parahuman powers don't seem to agree with each other, at least in the case of Varga magic. Except for Amy, who seems to love the stuff, her power is constantly coming up with new ways to use it in a biological organism. It helps a lot that it's completely inert, the biggest problem we had was working out how to make cells attach to it. It needs to be made as a foam or mesh to let them grow through, then it works really well."

He stared at her, then slowly shook his head in wonder. "You constantly amaze and impress me. Your mother would have been as proud as I am." She smiled quietly to herself as he looked down at his new coat, spreading his arms to get a good look. "And she'd have laughed herself sick about the idea that I have an alien dragon leather coat with Non-Euclidean pockets. Then wanted one for herself."

"Enjoy it, Dad," she said as she got up and hugged him. "It took me days to work it all out, but I loved doing it, and the expanded pockets were a wonderful last minute addition." Looking at the things on the table, she added, "Hopefully I haven't missed anything useful, but let me know if you need more accessories. Do you want a sword?"

"I don't think I need a sword, dear, leaving aside the fact that I have no idea how to use one anyway. You seem to be under the impression that I'm going into some sort of battle, rather than the office." He started putting everything back into the various pockets, while she watched. "I'm not sure when I'll ever need a baseball bat, for instance, unless I'm playing baseball. Which I don't do."

"You never know. Things can come in handy at the weirdest times, then you wish you had a whatever. Better to have it, I think."

"And the coil of cable?"

"Might get the car stuck. You could tow an aircraft carrier with that."

"Which I'm sure may be useful at some point," he smiled. "OK. Thank you very much indeed for the ridiculously excessive birthday present. And all the toys that go with it." Feeling the sleeve of the coat, he nodded in satisfaction. "It's very nice indeed. You should think of selling them, perhaps, I expect they'd be worth a lot of money on the open market."

"I'm still thinking about products for sale," she admitted. "That particular one is a one off, no one else is getting one just like it, yours is unique. But some of the ideas we came up with for it could be really useful later."

"I still can't believe that even the Varga could make pockets that were bigger on the inside," he marveled, taking the coat off and holding it up. "That's just incredible."

"Some Parahumans have abilities a little like that," she pointed out. "That one Circus, who no one seems to know whether they're male or female, is supposed to have some sort of dimensional pocket straight out of a Japanese Manga or something. I've heard about other ones as well. We just came up with something that anyone can use."

"Still, even in powers terms, it's fairly impressive, Taylor."

"I thought so," she grinned. "And it makes really weird looking paperweights. And… other things."

"Other things?" He looked suspiciously at her. "What sort of other things?"

"Ah. Terrible eldritch architecture that has never known the hand of humankind, from a distant past when even the ancestors of the upright plains ape was huddled in caves, fearing the sounds from the dark, without even fire to warm and light it," she said in a deep rolling voice, hissing her S's in an eerie way. "Long since sunk beneath the waves, abandoned for millennia, the Family is set to reclaim its ancient home. And maybe get internet hooked up."

"Oh, god," he sighed, sitting down with a thump. She smirked as he stared, then he put out his hands and took hers. "Dear, I have to ask, you're not going to be… excessive… are you? It's just that sometimes I worry, you see. If you tear open a hole in the universe deep under the sea and invite the Varga's long-lost relatives through for a meal, I fear it may impact on property prices. And we're just on the verge of making the city better now, so if Dagon moves in it could be slightly awkward."

Laughing pretty hard, mostly at the way he'd tried desperately to keep a straight face during that little speech, she squeezed his hands. "Don't worry, Dad, we won't go over the top. Well, too over the top." After a moment, she added, "Well.. _probably_ not, anyway."

Releasing her and leaning back, he shook his head and watched her. "I have a horrible feeling that anyone who follows up of rumors of where the Family comes from is going to find weird artifacts that suggest some very uncomfortable ideas," he sighed, but he was smiling very slightly. "Let me guess, if they test them they'll be absolutely ancient?"

"Oh, yes, appallingly old." She gave him a satisfied look. "It's pretty easy to make the right mix of isotopes to make something look any age you want, really. Carefully cut out a hole in the sediment with a micron-thick box of EDM, lift it out, insert artifact at the relevant depth for the age, put it back, and remove the box. Smooth it all over and there you go. We just have to work out the best place to do it where we won't mess up real archaeology."

"Crap. You can probably actually pull it off." He looked impressed but mildly appalled. "Are you sure you want to? Do you actually _need_ to?"

Taylor looked at him with a small shrug. "Absolutely _need_ to? None of us are sure. Lisa's power suggested to her that it's important that no one knows the truth yet, and some of it ever, ideally. Amy alone would make them excrete masonry if they had any idea at all what she was truly capable of, never mind what she's already doing. They threatened Blasto with a kill order, and he's _nothing_ compared to her. If nothing else, the PRT would fuck with New Wave like you wouldn't believe. The fact that she's Marquis's daughter, combined with that powerset… She'd _never_ be able to convince anyone in power that she was safe at all. Even if she stopped doing anything with her abilities she'd be hounded forever, and her family would get tarred with the same brush. That's what both of us think, anyway, and Lisa came to the same conclusion."

He listened, nodding thoughtfully, with a tired expression. Amy had told him about her parentage a while ago, which he hadn't seemed particularly surprised or shocked by. "You make a very good point."

"Add to that my own abilities… Dad, I'm potentially a world killer. So is Amy, of course, she could wipe out all life on the planet without too much trouble, except probably for me and her. I could do it as well. I've thought of at least half a dozen ways to more or less sterilize the planet down to the bedrock, and a couple to destroy it completely." She felt tears in her eyes, as he watched her impassively. "It fucking _terrifies_ me and I _know_ I'd never do it. Neither would Varga. He's a demon, I'm at least half demon, but we're not killers. We defend people, we don't destroy them, unless there's no other choice." She wiped her eyes, as he got up and came around to put his arm around her shoulder. The Varga sent her a wave of reassuring immaterial hug but stayed silent, just listening as well.

"He's certain that the greater power that sent him to me and unlocked all his abilities like it did would never have done it if there was the slightest risk that such a thing would happen, and he suspects it's still watching to see what happens. But it _still_ terrifies me. What would it do to people who didn't know me, or trust me? Or even believe that Varga is in here with me? I can't really _prove_ it, I don't think. It's possible that I couldn't even prove to the PRT that I really _was_ Taylor Hebert! I mean, I'm not at all human in a very fundamental way now. No DNA test will work. I feel the same, pretty much, my fingerprints, iris patterns, appearance, all that are the same, but if they decided that I was some freaky imposter who'd taken over from Taylor, how could I _actually_ prove who I was?"

"I'd vouch for you."

"Why would they believe you? You'd be compromised in their eyes as well. Everyone I know would be." She looked up at him. "It's _vital_ that no one knows any of this, other than people I trust completely, too soon. I'd prefer that they never knew, but I doubt we can hide all of it forever. That's why all the elaborate plans, the whole Family thing, all that. I didn't plan on setting out to have it get this far, but to be honest PHO did a way better job than I could have of spreading the ideas of the Family, and now they're saying it's aliens, of course. It's always aliens." He smiled a little at this, but said nothing, just letting her get her fears out into the open. "The funny thing is that those paranoid conspiracy weirdos are finally sort of right. In many ways I actually _am_ an alien, or half alien, the Varga came from an entirely different _universe_ for god's sake. So, when Amy worked out what she could do, we thought, fuck it, go with what everyone already thinks and give them real aliens. By the time any real part of the truth comes out no one will believe it anyway, I suspect."

Her father nodded a little, looking very thoughtful.

"So, _yes_ , I'm going to do my best to give them all the proof they need that there are ancient aliens living on the bottom of the ocean, because that's safer than telling them that three girls ranging from fifteen to eighteen have between them the abilities, knowledge, and skills to take on the entire country's military complete with Parahumans and probably win. Certainly fight to a draw at least. This way, with any luck, people will hesitate to start anything because they don't know _what_ would happen. If they know it's a girl in high school, _obviously_ they can win, so they'll try it. I've read about history and I've seen the news, I've got a pretty good idea what that sort of person thinks. It only takes one of them to jump the gun and we're up to our asses in troopers. Someone _would_ get hurt then, and if it was you, or Amy, or Lisa, or any of the people at the DWU, they all die. I don't want _either_ of those things to happen."

He leaned over and kissed the top of her head. "Neither do I, my dear girl. And it won't. You have wonderfully crazy and talented friends, a greater demon in your head, hundreds of people who believe in you even if they don't really know who you are, and me. I can't say I'm entirely happy with your plan, but I also can't say that it's a bad one. Probably a lot better than any of the alternatives I could think of. It's almost a comedy of errors that led us here but I can't honestly see how it could have been avoided. Powers bring trouble. You managed to avoid most of the common ones, by ending up with some very uncommon ones. But I believe you can handle it and anything I can do to help, I will."

"Thanks, Dad," she muttered, sniffing, then generating a tissue and blowing her nose in it. "Sorry to bring down your birthday breakfast."

"Don't worry about that, you didn't." He pulled one of the chairs out and sat in it, still with his arm over her shoulder. "You can _always_ talk to me about this sort of thing, or anything else, and I'll _always_ listen. You're the only daughter I have. I quite like you, actually."

She snickered a bit at that, making him smile. "You've obviously been bottling that up for a while," he added. "You've mentioned some of it before but I didn't realize quite how worried you were."

"Talking to Amy and Lisa let me put more of it together," she said quietly. "I've talked it over with Varga for hours and hours as well. None of us can really see any other way that won't end up causing even more trouble down the road. There's going to be a lot of very strange conversations sooner or later about all of this, I'm pretty sure, but that's a hell of a lot better than a lot of shooting."

"You're trying to end up being able to negotiate from a position of strength," he nodded. "And more importantly, from a position where everyone knows you have a good hand, they don't just make assumptions. Ones that turn out far too late to be wildly and catastrophically wrong."

"Pretty much, yes," Taylor sighed. "So, we make alien artifacts. We make aliens. We come up with an alien language. If we have to we build fucking R'lyeh from scratch. Lovecraft was the victim of a practical joke and Derleth is his prophet."

The man beside her started chuckling, shaking his head in amusement. "You definitely have a way with words."

"So Amy tells me."

"Go and clean yourself up, then forget all this and go to school, Taylor," he advised, squeezing her shoulders reassuringly then releasing her. "I understand, I agree, and I love my present. Presents."

"I'm glad," she said, feeling much better. A lot of that had been eating away at her and even with the friendship she'd developed with Amy and Lisa, and the Varga, she still wanted him to know and ideally approve. "Of course, it helps a lot that it's still hilarious, picturing people's faces. Wait until they find the first ancient Family artifact..."

She left him laughing in the kitchen as she went up to the bathroom to wash her face, smiling to herself.

* * *

"Hi, Taylor," Amy said as she hopped on one foot, holding the phone to her ear with one hand and trying to put her shoe on with the other. In the end she braced herself with her tail and managed to do it without falling over, resolving to practice more with the appendage. "What's up? I'm about to leave for school."

" _I was calling to invite you and your family to dinner tonight at that Thai place for Dad's birthday_ ," her friend said. " _You remember I mentioned it last night? I asked him and he'd like that. It's my treat_."

"I'm certainly up for it and I'm sure Vicky is," she replied, transferring the phone between hands and ears, then grabbing the other shoe. "Does that include Aunt Sarah's lot?"

" _Yes, of course. Bring them all along. Around half past six to seven. I'd invite Lisa but..._ "

"I understand."

" _Anyway, I have something else for her to do_ ," Taylor giggled.

"What?" Amy asked curiously.

" _That would ruin the surprise. You'll see. OK, I'm just leaving myself, so I'll see you at school._ "

"All right. I'll ask Mom, and ask her to pass it on, she can leave me a message while I'm in school. See you later."

 _"Bye."_

The phone went dead, so she put it on her bed, then sat on the edge to tie her shoelaces, before brushing her teeth again, grabbing her backpack, and going downstairs. Twenty minutes later she was half-way to Arcadia wondering what Taylor's surprise was going to be.

"Probably something against nature," she said to herself. "I like that."

Giggling, she overtook the old lady in the Oldsmobile, thinking it was well named, and kept driving towards school and her friends.

* * *

"Hi, Dean," Vicky smiled, as she approached her boyfriend at his locker. She kissed him on the cheek then poked him in the shoulder with a well-manicured nail. "You look worried."

"Just thinking about things," he said, closing the locker and spinning the dial, ten hefting his backpack over one arm. He put the other one over her shoulder.

"You shouldn't do that, things can worry you," she giggled.

He sighed a little. "Yes, that's true."

"Still confused about what Ianthe said, aren't you?" she asked perceptively. His slight change of expression made her sure she was correct. "She was joking, I'm sure. There's no way she's that old. Nothing lives that long."

"You're probably right," he replied after a few seconds as they walked towards home room. "She's definitely got a weird sense of humor."

"They all do, remember that thing Saurial did to Clockblocker?" She giggled as he nodded, smiling faintly. "That was amazing. I wish I could have seen his face, I bet it was a real treat."

"Probably," he smiled more widely.

"Hi, Taylor," she said, looking over her shoulder at the Hebert girl who she'd just noticed coming out of the washroom. "Thanks for the invitation to your Dad's birthday meal, Mom told me to thank you as well. We're all coming, so is Aunt Sarah and Uncle Neil, and Eric. Crystal is away, unfortunately."

"No problem," Taylor smiled. "Dean is welcome to come if he wants." Both girls looked at the young man, who shook his head with a smile of his own, which seemed weirdly strained.

"Sorry, I can't make it, I have other plans. Thanks for the invitation, though."

"OK. That's fine. Vicky, I'll see you later." The girl looked at the clock on the wall near them. "Got to run, final bell's in under a minute. Bye." She turned and hurried off with a long-legged graceful stride. Vicky watched her go, smiled, then turned back to her boyfriend. Leaning on him she ran a finger down his jawline.

" _Sure_ you can't make it?"

"I am, I'm afraid. Other things I have to do. We can go out for Thai sometime during the week if you want, though."

"I'd like that, that restaurant is really good," she replied, leaning on him. "You'd better make reservations today, though, it gets booked up days in advance now. Saurial really put it on the map. Although Amy sure helped as well."

The boy nodded, looking amused, glanced in the direction Taylor had headed, then as the bell went, twitched and looked worried. "Oh, shit, now we're late."

"Only about five seconds, the classroom is right there," she snickered, pushing him in the right direction.

Sighing, he let her, both of them entering only moments after the bell stopped, although they still got a nasty look from the teacher, who tapped his watch.

* * *

Arriving at her table with a tray full of food, Taylor smiled at her friends while she sat, Amy and Mandy shuffling apart to make room. "Hi, guys," she said happily, moving her plates around, then unlimbering her fork. "I heard you and Lucy had an interesting meeting, Mandy," she added, glancing sideways at her friend, who nodded with a grin.

"Yep," she replied. Lucy looked very happy. "We ran into the new one Ianthe on the Boardwalk. She's weird, but very friendly. Right, Amy?"

"I don't consider her all that weird," the Dallon girl replied mildly, before putting the straw coming out of her apple juice in her mouth and sucking. Swallowing, she released it, then added, "Friendly, that's true. And fond of practical jokes."

"Oh, god, that thing with Vicky and the others was hilarious," Eric snickered, looking over at the table where the people in question were discussing something that seemed to have Dennis in stitches, which wasn't actually very hard to achieve. "The way everyone on the street was watching and grinning, but no one said anything. How could they miss a nearly eight foot tall purple and blue lizard tiptoeing after them like something out of a cartoon?"

"Some people just aren't very observant, I guess," Rich laughed. "It probably was less obvious at the time. But she was right, they really should look behind themselves more."

"Especially on a hunt," Lucy smirked. "She has an odd turn of phrase sometimes but seems very nice. I like her."

" _You_ like anything with scales," Mandy commented.

"Well, if it's reptilian, I suppose so," her friend said. "Fish, I can take them or leave them. But they taste nice."

"Hey, do any of you want to come to the Thai place tonight?" Taylor asked, looking around at the others. "It's my Dad's birthday today, and we've invited Amy's family. They're all coming except for Crystal, so that's nine of us, plus I invited some people from the DWU. Dad doesn't know. The table seats twenty, so there's room for everyone. I'm sorry, I should have thought of you all and asked first thing this morning."

"I like your Dad, Taylor, and I like Thai," Mandy smiled. "I'm up for it, definitely. Lucy?"

"Sure, why not. When?"

"Half past six to seven, I'd think it would finish around nine."

"OK. I'll call my mom and let her know after lunch, but I can't see a problem."

Eric and Rich had looked at each other, then both nodded. "Count us in as well," Eric said.

"Great. OK, I'll call the restaurant before the next class and confirm how many are coming."

"How did you get the booking? Twenty people is about three tablefuls, if I remember the place, you must have booked days ago." Mandy looked curious.

Taylor smiled secretively at her. "I asked a friend to call for me. They seem to like her."

Lucy peered at her, then nodded. "You got Saurial to call," she stated.

"I did. I don't see her very often, she's so busy, but we get on pretty well. She really likes Dad and was happy to help."

"Has she come around to your house?" the girl asked.

"She's there every now and then, yes," Taylor replied. Amy smiled at her behind her burger, making her snicker internally. "Raptaur turns up sometimes as well. She's really good at arriving without the neighbors noticing, somehow. Mostly in the dark, I guess she blends in."

"Cool. I still want to meet her," her friend said eagerly.

"I'll ask Dad if it would be alright for you to come to the Yard sometime and meet her, if you want," Taylor remarked after a moment's thought. "I don't get down there very much right now, I've been studying too hard, but Amy could take you."

Lucy smiled brilliantly. "I'd love that," she gushed. "Thanks so much."

"You're welcome. We can ask him tonight. We need to arrange another get together at my house as well for sometime later in the week, I need to check if you guys remember anything I showed you."

There was a general nodding around the table, after which the conversation moved on to other things. Taylor met Amy's eyes, the two sharing a look of amusement, then went back to eating and listening, enjoying the company of her friends. She felt a lot better than she had for a while that morning.


	141. Business and Dealings

Lisa tapped on the door, then opened it when she heard Danny call for her to come in. Entering, she looked at him, then smiled. "That _is_ a nice coat. Taylor was right. Happy Birthday, by the way. I'm afraid I haven't been able to get out and get you anything."

Taking the leather coat off and hanging it up, Danny smiled back. "Don't worry about that, Lisa. We haven't known each other long, there's no reason you should get me presents. And thank you." He looked at the coat, then her, then grinned slyly. "Look at this, Taylor had her tailor add some interesting features." Sticking one hand into the hanging jacket he pulled it back with an impossibly long metal staff in it that very obviously couldn't have fitted.

Lisa gaped.

 _Three piece telescopic rod made of hollow EDM_

 _74.3 inches long collapsed_

 _148.45 inches long extended_

 _1.42 inches in diameter_

 _Folding hook on end_

 _Removed from pocket of maximum possible depth of nine inches_

Blinking, she focused on the coat itself, then reeled a little

 _Material use exceeds visible quantity by 1432.45 percent_

 _Multiple dimensional violations in structure_

 _Internal storage volume minimum of 23.4 cubic feet_

She sighed. "Oh, for god's sake. She figured out how to use that bizarre warping of nature to make what's basically a bag of holding didn't she?" She was actually impressed to a remarkable level, it was a non-obvious use of the weird fractional-dimension construction technique that Taylor and the Varga had come up with that she hadn't initially considered, and she was somewhat irritated with herself that she hadn't seen it.

"The ancient arts of the Family have many otherwise mundane applications in today's world, it seems," he snickered, spinning the staff a couple of times hand over hand. "I should learn quarterstaff use. I wonder if anyone here knows how?"

"I wouldn't be even slightly surprised, even leaving aside the obvious answer of the Family," she giggled, going over and sticking her hand into the pocket the thing had come from, her power having a thrill go through it as her arm went all the way to the shoulder into something her hand should only just have fitted. After the initial shock, she could _swear_ that her ability found the entire thing fascinating. "The people here seem to have all sorts of bizarre and useful skills. I guess that happens when you pull together a group from different backgrounds with a lot of military and other practical experience."

"This is incredibly cool, and more than a little disturbing," she added, putting her hand into the pocket on the other side and pulling out a baseball bat. "How the hell many things do you have in here?"

"Way more than seems reasonable," he laughed, leaning on the staff with one end on the floor and watching her. "Taylor may have got carried away. She seems intent on making sure I'm suitably tooled up for whatever happens."

"Always be prepared," Lisa grinned. "Not a bad philosophy."

"True enough." Coming back over he slid the staff back into its pocket, then watched as she returned the bat. "It's the best present I've ever had, or equal best anyway." She nodded, knowing what he was talking about. "So, what can I do for you, or did you just come in for birthday wishes?"

Leaving the impossible coat alone, while resolving that she wanted one for herself, she moved to one of his chairs, as he sat behind the desk and turned his computer on. "Not just that. I've finished the list of BBFO suggested products that I think we need to look into for the first round of commercialization. I've also got several pages of things that are either more complicated or bigger and should wait for a while. That thing," she jerked a thumb over her shoulder, "instantly gives me more ideas, and makes a few of these obsolete before we even start." She handed him the folder she'd come in with.

Opening it he flipped through the pages inside, nodding approvingly as he read.

"Obviously, BBFO will need to file for patents by the handful based on that, we'll need a good patent lawyer, or probably an entire team. Ianthe's biotech gives an entire new area that we need to investigate. Just the drugs that she's used already in public are worth more money than even I can easily think about, and from what I'm told duplicating them in mass production quantities can be easily arranged." Neither one of them was ever going to mention Amy's name in connection with the whole thing, that went without saying. "But it also needs a hell of a lot of money for all the relevant tests. I doubt that BBFO wants to get into the pharma business itself, so we'd need to find one or more companies that we could license all that to."

"That shouldn't be too difficult," he replied.

"No. I expect not." She shrugged a little. "I would think that the contacts Raptaur is developing with Armsmaster and Dragon would be the best place to start. Draco-Tech has already signed a contract with BBFO for access to some of Leet's toys, and chemical and biological engineering is one of their specialties. I'd suggest starting there. If Dragon isn't interested, I'm sure she'd know who was. Building a good relationship with the Guild would be worth the effort."

"And it's possible that the PRT would want to license these specific chemicals for security use," he noted, reading one of the pages carefully.

"Probably. They use sedative darts already, but Ianthe's drug is probably better and safer, and it's definitely quicker." Lisa smiled as he looked up. "I've researched the current state of the art, she's so far past that it's ridiculous. Just the stuff she came up with off the cuff is enough to build a large company around. God knows what will turn up later."

"Well, you're right, neither BBFO or the DWU really wants to get into manufacturing pharmaceuticals on a commercial scale. Licensing the rights would be the sensible approach."

"I think so. I'll bring it up with Ianthe and the others and see what they say. It's a good first step and an entry into the biotech sales world that's more publicly acceptable than some of the more… interesting… ideas. Starts the ball rolling."

"OK." He looked approving. They were both smiling about the way they were talking about several people, none of whom really existed, all this ultimately coming down to a pair of teenagers. "What about the rest of this?"

"Various products that the Family can make. Those extensible batons are an obvious one, the market is full of them but these are unbreakable, which is a good selling point. The design itself is generic enough that there's no patent encumbrance, so they could be immediately sold at a good price. As far as I can see one day's work would produce a couple of years worth of stock. It's practically free income. Same goes for a whole series of tools, even just made of ordinary materials, nothing as exotic as EDM. We could probably demolish the market for that sort of thing without even trying."

Danny nodded, looking at her thoughtfully. "I don't want that. It would be as bad as flooding the market with gold bricks. We'd put people out of work by the thousand."

"Yes, that's the problem," she agreed. "If you only wanted to make the maximum income you wouldn't care, that's capitalism after all, but I know you have other ideas. So, from what I can see, you don't do low end crap, you aim at the really high end, craftsman stuff. Start off with very high quality, very expensive things, but not over-priced, just good value for money. People will pay over the odds for something in many cases as long as they feel they're getting a worthwhile deal."

"It sounds sensible," he said. "Do you have any suggestions where to start?"

"Page seven." He turned to the relevant page, a list of several dozen industrial items. "Cutting tools. It's an obvious market for EDM. It's absolutely perfect for making things like milling cutters, tool inserts for lathe work, that sort of thing. We can design and prototype it here in the workshops, work out exactly the right product line up, then approach one of the bigger tooling suppliers to investigate letting them deal with selling the things. A cutting tool that never wears out would be worth a huge amount to heavy industry, if only from the lack of downtime in replacing them."

"You've definitely done your homework," he chuckled, looking very impressed and pleased.

"Thanks. I've come up with dozens of examples like that." Lisa smiled back. "I think we can safely say that BBFO will never lack for income. That's leaving aside big things, like boat hulls, aerospace parts like turbine blades, rocket engines, that sort of thing." Struck by a sudden thought, her power twitching in excitement, she glanced at his coat with her eyes wide. "Fuel tanks that hold far more than they should but weigh almost nothing..." she breathed. "Oh, god, that idiotic thing is the key to so many other things..." She shook her head in wonder. "They do something for fun, and it ends up being something that could change the world."

"So it seems," he noted, staring at his coat as well. "I didn't think of that, but you're right. Christ."

Looking back to her, he smiled widely. "Really good work. I think we need to start slowly, the DWU is going to be busy with the redevelopment anyway for a while, but we should probably start arranging the foundations of this soon. Make some inquiries in legal and see if they have any recommendations for patent and trademark lawyers. I know we hold a couple of small patents for things that some of the guys invented in the past, but that's never been an important part of the work. Perhaps it should be. Once we have the current situation working well, we can look seriously into some of these and pick a couple to start with."

"OK." She took the folder back from him once he'd closed it and handed it over. "I have to admit I'm having a hell of a lot of fun doing this sort of thing. It plays nicely to my strengths."

"Good. How are your friends getting on?"

"Brian is happily working his ass off and enjoying every minute of it. Rachel is content with her dogs. She's approved two people so far for the honor of being allowed to adopt a couple, which is really amazing," Lisa grinned. "Alec is working very hard on doing as little as possible other than eat and play games most of the time, but for him that's work, and he's happy as well. When things settle down some more, I'll start prodding them to see if any of them want to do something more useful."

She sighed a little. "Rachel is… damaged. I doubt she could ever hold down a real job, unless it has dogs or hitting people in it."

"We can use both talents here, I suspect, once we start to expand," Danny noted. "Security is inevitably going to have to become larger, dog patrols are very effective and fairly cheap compared to electronics, if they're properly trained."

"She can train them better than anyone I've ever heard of, so that's not a problem. The _problem_ is that she's going to be touchy about the idea of dogs getting hurt. I'll have to think about that, there must be a way around it. But if we can arrange it, providing security-trained dogs would be a pretty lucrative thing as well. And, of course, if anyone breaks in here, they'll be lucky if the Family or the DWU security team gets to them first. Rachel has definitely decided that she likes it here and trusts the people. Once she does that, she'll defend them to the death."

"I'd prefer that not happen, to be honest," he said after a moment. "I rather like the poor girl."

"So do I, she's one of my first real friends, after everything that happened to both of us, despite how and why we met." Lisa shrugged a little helplessly. "I don't want to see her hurt."

"And Alec?" Danny asked, having visibly considered her comment for a few seconds. "I know you like Brian as well, so do I, he's a good young man, especially considering recent events. Everyone I've talked to has a good word for him, they think he's a hard worker and a decent guy."

"Alec is… also a bit broken," she answered eventually. "He's the annoying little brother that's too smart for his own good and won't stop with the sarcastic humor at your expense, the lazy layabout, but when it matters, he pulls through. He drives me nuts sometimes. But like I told you when we all first came, he's sort of family to me. I'd like to kick his ass on occasion but then, some people have told me I can be a little irritating as well." She grinned as Danny nodded wisely.

"I can see why that might be said," he replied gravely, although his eyes were twinkling. "For what it's worth, in my opinion you've matured a great deal in a short time. You wouldn't be where you are now if it wasn't for the fact that you're a trusted member of the team."

"Thanks," she said, after a pause. She could tell he meant it and it touched a part of her that she'd once almost given up on. "It means a lot. But going back to Alec… I'm not sure what he could do as an actual job. He's good with computers, physically very fit despite not being as strong and tough as Brian is… He could certainly hold his own in a bar fight even without his, um, particular skill set. But he's not really a fighter, he's not big enough and strong enough to properly do serious manual labor, and he's emotionally stunted to the level that he tends to say things that annoy people even when he honestly doesn't mean to do so. I'm still not sure why. Call him an acquired taste."

"I've gathered as much from Zephron and a few of the guys," Danny admitted, not surprising her that he'd checked up on the boy. He was probably getting reports on all of them regularly, which was characteristically thorough of the man. "However, Zephron appears to genuinely like him, and I haven't heard of anyone actively _disliking_ him. We have a real mix of people here and there are inevitable personality clashes, but they always get worked out. Sometimes by a bit of a supervised punch up for the more aggressive people, not always the men either, more often by a talking-to by someone they look up to. It's chaotic but it works. I know he's been more than happy to let people play with his toys, although so far no one can beat him on those games."

 _"That_ doesn't surprise me," she laughed. "He's got what must be months if not years of practice on the damn things. We should get him, Über, and Leet on some online tournament, they'd clear the board."

"An idea, definitely," he smiled, "although I'm not sure it's a _good_ idea. Oh, well, as long as he's happy. He has everything he needs right now, he's not bothering anyone, and if anything happens it's always good to have other useful skills on the premises."

"Oh, if it came to that, he'd join in, trust me," she told him. "We all would. We know who's side we're on these days and like it that way."

"Fair enough, and thanks." Danny looked towards the door, then back at her, lowering his voice a little. "I hope you haven't had any untoward comments about… your other issues?"

She knew even without her power what he meant, and shook her head. "No. I can tell that there are a surprisingly large number of people who have worked it out, or possibly not surprisingly all things considered, but no one has said a thing, or really seems to care. You were right."

"I thought I was, but I'm glad to hear it. Let me know if the situation changes but I don't think it will."

His computer pinged as an email arrived, making him look at the screen. "I'd better deal with this. Good work, Lisa, thanks."

Rising, she nodded. "It's fun thinking this through. I'll keep at it. See you later."

He raised a hand in acknowledgment, smiling at her, then turned to the computer again, typing fast and steadily. Leaving the room, she pulled the door closed then headed for her own office, pleased with the way things were working out for everyone. It wasn't the way she'd envisaged her life going even a month ago but she couldn't honestly say she wanted to change it.

* * *

"It checks out, this board is functional," Colin reported, looking up from the diagnostic rig he and Dragon had quickly cobbled together overnight. "That's nearly sixty percent of them done so far."

"It's coming along faster than I expected," Dragon replied, looking over at him from the table, where she was assembling the finished circuit boards into a sub-assembly, the first of eight that the wormhole generator used. "We should have it ready to test by this evening."

"Good," he said with feeling. "I'm very nervous about how close we're getting to the next attack. It could happen at any time and while I'm not entirely enthused about that damn gun being fired, it may well be the least of two bad options."

"If it's Behemoth we can't risk using it, of course," she pointed out.

"No, unfortunately I think that would be a terrible idea. I'm not sure how well it would work on Leviathan, he's so fast that actually hitting him might be an issue, but the predictive models suggest that the Simurgh is by far the most likely one. I am reasonably sure that it will discourage her rather suddenly, which with some luck will make the attack very short even if it doesn't kill her."

"Killing her may well be too much to hope for, but you never know," his friend said, her head on its side as she peered into the collection of complex electronics. "We might get lucky, or they might not be quite as tough we fear. Or, possibly, weak against very sharp EDM applied to the face and body at more than ten times escape velocity."

He almost smiled at that. The humor in her voice always cheered him up.

"Hopefully," he nodded. "On another note, the simulations of my current understanding of this device suggest that the original version will, barely, produce a wormhole large enough for Kaiju to pass through, although she'll have to do it on all fours and duck. We should be able to achieve approximately sixty feet in diameter. Any more than that and I'm almost certain the singularity flux injector will vaporize. We'll have to scale it up if we want something larger."

"It remains to be seen if this copy will be fully functional, but if it is, I can do that," she assured him. "I have a fairly good breakdown of the basic functionality but it will take considerable study to fully understand the principles behind it. It's rewriting quite a lot of my understanding of physics."

"Leet's ability is truly impressive." Colin agreed. "It's a shame that he's of a less than law-abiding outlook. I was rather satisfied with his performance yesterday, he has it in him to be a very effective young man, despite his odd inability to reproduce his work."

"Über is remarkably effective as well," she said, putting the block of electronics down, apparently pleased with it. "Between them I'm surprised that they've only committed crimes that are, in all reality, fairly petty. If they tried they could be very serious threats."

"I doubt, having met them both several times now, that they really want to," he commented after thinking it through some more. "They seem to simply disregard the way a lot of what they want to do is against the law. There seems to be little if any malice behind it, merely poor judgment and a lack of restraint."

"Recoverable, do you think?" she asked curiously. "The Protectorate has taken people with far more serious records in the past if they genuinely changed their ways. At least one of whom is in this building right now."

"Ethan is a pain, but he's also very clever and an effective force for good," Colin nodded, a little reluctantly. "I suppose it's not beyond the bounds of possibility that the same could happen for both young men. Probably more easily for Über, his abilities could easily make him a fearsome warrior."

"He seems to have escaped from _you_ enough times without too much difficulty," she said with a smile in her voice, starting the assembly of the next subsystem. He sighed a little, but couldn't truthfully dispute the point.

"And, watching the videos, both of them appear to have gone to some trouble to minimize damage to bystanders even when they were committing crimes," she added. "In the last major incident, Glory Girl was responsible for more collateral damage than _they_ were."

"Her nicknames are honestly earned," he muttered, which made her laugh for a moment. "Although, to be fair to the girl, she does seem to have grown up a lot recently, there seems to be much less of that sort of thing happening now. Which I for one am grateful for, the paperwork was becoming irritating."

"The paperwork which you managed to get poor Hannah to do more often than not," she pointed out.

"I didn't say it was _me_ that was being irritated." This caused her to laugh again, which he noticed, then made a note about.

"Well, if you want those two for the Protectorate, you'll probably have to work fast, before the Family gets them," she snickered. "It may be too late anyway."

His head came up as he stared at her.

"How do you mean?" he asked, a little worried.

"Just that they all seem to get on very well, both with Raptaur and Ianthe, and Amy Dallon, who is also clearly closely associated with the Family these days. I'm beginning to wonder whether she's more of a Family cape than a New Wave one in some ways. Or possibly they time-share her." She seemed amused. "The girl has definitely cheered up a lot in the last few weeks, the last time I met her in action she looked extremely depressed."

"I noticed," he replied after a moment. "It was concerning. We need all the healers we can get and Miss Dallon was, in my view, heading for a bad case of burnout. Her relationship with Raptaur and Saurial does seem to have reversed that, which is good. The odd sense of humor they share is perhaps less so."

Dragon shook her head, laughing slightly. "They're decent people, if odd, and I suspect it will do all of them good. Amy due to making friends outside her family and having less stress, the Family by having someone they relate to who can possibly teach them to be just a little more human. Ianthe particularly could do with the practice, I think. Anyway, at the moment, it's none of our business, and for all intents and purposes they're allies, so I can't see we have any input into it."

"It's a somewhat unsettling thought that there is, rather abruptly, a new Parahuman group in the city who definitely outguns almost anyone, and nearly outnumbers them as well," he remarked as he pulled the stereo microscope head towards him and put his face into it, inspecting the next board. "Five Family members we know about, four of whom are currently public, the former Undersiders, at least partly Panacea, and now possibly Über and Leet. An even dozen capes who could well be quite loyal to the DWU. I'm not entirely certain how we ended up here so rapidly, three months ago I'd have been completely incredulous if you told me that the _Dock Workers Union_ of all people would become a Parahuman force to be reckoned with! Yet here we are. At least their alignment is more towards our end of the spectrum, thank god."

"Quite. Interesting times, hmm, Colin?"

"Apparently so. This board is good as well."

He put it on the pile of tested units and picked up the next one, wondering what weird thing would happen next. It seemed only a matter of time. Despite the currently remarkably quiet and stable situation, this was still Brockton Bay...

* * *

Paul looked out at the dull sunlight glinting off the wind-ruffled water far below, with the city visible three or so miles further on. From where he was in the Rig cafeteria, he could make out the PRT building, and further inland and to the left, the taller Medhall building, then all the other ones that made up the Downtown area. Somewhere below that, Coil was lurking, doing god knows what, but at least he and his men seemed to have climbed into their hole and pulled the hole in afterwards. All in all it was probably better than them sneaking around causing trouble.

He was still wondering about the best way to deal with the super-villain, without either triggering a disaster in the middle of the city, a public relations mess the size of a mountain being an inevitable follow-on from that, or allowing the bastard to escape. Of course, if it came to one or the other he had no choice, but he'd prefer to avert the disaster and grab the bad guy.

Hopefully with the aid of the Family, and the very competent people here in Brockton, he could arrange that. Once they had the man securely locked up they could do a damage control exercise and see how far his tendrils had wormed through the PRT systems. He had a nasty feeling that he wasn't going to like what turned up.

Now that the issue with the tanker had ended and the city had settled down a little from the somewhat hyperactive state of shock that had ensued, it would be a good time to look into the matter. Unfortunately, with the next Endbringer attack likely to happen at almost any moment, they couldn't spare the time, they had to be ready to spring into action at practically no notice. The worst case scenario would be to start an attack on Coil and have to abandon it half-way through just because the thrice-damned Simurgh picked that exact moment to cause a major incident.

Which was, of course, _precisely_ the sort of thing she'd do. He was convinced that she had a warped sense of humor on top of the vicious attack abilities, but no one else believed him when he mentioned it, so he'd given up. The damn thing was very intelligent, he was certain of that much. Evil, powerful beyond belief, supremely dangerous, but very, very smart. Which made it all worse.

Another currently minor issue, but one that caused him some concern nonetheless, was that his contacts in New York were passing on some information about that damn fool Skidmark. The drug addled cape was apparently still shooting off his mouth about wanting to take the Family down a peg or two, having apparently decided that the DWU expansion in the docks was a threat to his business. To be totally fair it was, from his point of view, but Paul was fairly certain that if he actually _tried_ anything the world would very quickly note an absence of Merchants, possibly in a somewhat spectacular manner.

Kaiser was still keeping his head down too, as were Lung and the ABB, according to the same source, who while somewhat… characterful… was very reliable and generally a lot more helpful towards the forces of law than might be expected for a man in his position. On the other hand, he hadn't got to that position, and more importantly, remained there, by picking battles he knew he couldn't win.

It was somewhat amusing to him that an old-school mafioso like that was actually someone he respected. As long as he didn't see him do anything illegal, the relationship worked well for both parties. He was pretty sure the man had similar working accords with a lot of people around the place on both sides of the law, considering how much information he managed to scrape up and how quickly. It was always good as well.

Weirdly, as soon as he'd mentioned Daniel Hebert's name to him, the information had flowed even more freely, although there was no reason given aside from an impression of respect. It was a little odd, but useful under the circumstances. As far as he knew Hebert didn't move in those circles, he seemed generally very careful and law-abiding from what he'd found out in his own discreet background check, although he certainly wasn't above getting his hands dirty where there was no choice. It went a long way towards explaining the respect the DWU members had for the man, and the loyalty.

But he didn't ask, and he knew Tony wouldn't tell him anyway. That was the deal. You didn't mention where the information came from and everyone got along fine. It was enough to know that the source was reliable. He could live with that.

If you were stuck with crime, organized was better than random, after all. Even if he'd have preferred none. But that was a pipe dream and he was rational enough to realize it.

Sighing, he turned away from the window, heading towards the now-shortened line for food, his stomach growling. The last shift had descended towards the cafeteria for lunch just as he'd arrived and he'd politely moved out of the way to wait for all the hungry staff to do their starving wolves impression. It was a fairly convincing one.

"You look pensive, sir," a familiar voice said from behind him. He looked over his shoulder and smiled a little. Miss Militia smiled back, while behind her Assault was being unmercifully beaten around the head and neck by an irate Battery for some reason, grinning like an imbecile even as he shielded his head.

"Somewhat," he replied, moving forward as the line shifted and picking up a tray. "Just reflecting on the oddity that is life in Brockton Bay. Which seems to have become significantly more odd recently."

"True, that," Assault said brightly. "It's never boring around here."

"Shut up, he wasn't talking to you," Battery hissed. Paul grinned.

"He's right, Battery. Considering how much smaller than New York this city is, it's remarkable how much more Parahuman activity there is. And the type is somewhat unusual as well."

"No huge lizards in the Big Apple, then?" the red-clad cape behind Miss Militia asked with a grin of his own.

"No, thankfully, and I'd prefer to keep it that way, despite how friendly they are. It would be… much easier all around." He shrugged as Assault chuckled. "People in New York are famously world-weary, but there are limits. Kaiju probably exceeds them."

"I can see that."

Amused, Paul nodded, then requested a plate of beef stroganoff from the man behind the counter, along with a large coffee and some apple pie. Shortly he was sitting at a table eating slowly while looking out at the city and pondering the last few days and all the revelations that had come out of it.

He wondered what Kaiju was doing, and where. The way the huge lizard disappeared so thoroughly when she wasn't around was weird, making him wonder if the tentative Stranger rating they'd assigned to Umihebi was something that not only existed, but was another shared talent.

Stopping with his fork halfway to his mouth, he shivered involuntarily at the thought. Kaiju was friendly, and personable, and certainly very reasonable even in the face of provocation. However, the thought of something like that being able to wander around invisibly…

He looked around nervously, half-stood to peer out at the water below, then shook his head, retaking his seat and popping the fork in his mouth.

' _No. That's just a little_ _ **too**_ _ridiculous. They have to have_ _ **some**_ _limits, after all. A half scale Godzilla is bad enough. An invisible one? No way._ '

Smiling to himself, Paul kept eating, going back to working out the best plan of attack for dealing with Coil.

* * *

" _Ow_ , fucking cocksucker Tinker," Sophia yelped, glaring at the damn bracelet, which had just shocked her good and hard. All she'd done was scratch an itch under it. Fucking Armsmaster had obviously turned the anti-tamper measures up a little too high.

"Probably did it just to piss me off, the armored idiot," she grumbled under her breath.

Muttering dire obscenities to herself, she lay on her bed and dreamed dark thoughts of who'd pay when she finally worked out how to escape. Both Heberts were at the top of the list, of course, but Armsmaster was working his way steadily up it…

" **OW!** "

She swore violently, having reflexively scratched again.

He moved another place closer to the top.

* * *

"Your five o'clock appointment is here, sir."

He looked up from his paperwork, nodding to his secretary.

"Thank you, Ann, please send him in." The mousy blonde woman disappeared, and he could hear her voice coming through the half open door telling the visitor to go in.

When the door closed behind the new arrival, he tapped the switch on his desk that locked it and activated an anti-eavesdropping system that would block all electronic signals going in and out of the office, just in case. He trusted the man who had sat in his visitor chair, but only as far as he trusted anyone.

Which wasn't, in real terms, all that far.

"No sign of Williamson?" he asked curiously.

"No. I've checked everywhere I could think of, tried every contact he had, nothing. No hits on his cards or bank accounts, phone, email, the works. He's either dead, or he's pulled a very convincing disappearing act. My guess is Raptaur killed him. Probably ate the body."

"Possible," he mused. "We know she caught him that night, and no one's heard from him since. Oh, well, no real loss. Irritating, but that's life." He stood up and walked to the window, looking out into the late afternoon light. "Any luck with getting someone into the DWU?"

"Not yet, but I'm still trying. One of my guys thought he was smart, tried bribing some of the gate guards. We found him a few hours later, he got the shit kicked out of him, and a very strongly worded warning to stay the hell away from the DWU. As far as I can tell he's not planning on trying again."

"No risk we were compromised?"

"No. I can have him eliminated if you're worried."

"No need. Pay him to keep quiet and reassign him."

"As you wish."

Turning back, he paced around behind his desk. "This situation is becoming more complex than I anticipated. Saurial was one thing, Raptaur is something else entirely. I have no idea at all what to do about Kaiju. It will require more information, and considerable thought."

"You can walk away from it. No one knows about your involvement."

"I could, yes. But, on the other hand… if we can manage to bring those animals under control, think of the possibilities."

There was a silence for a while. "Significant, I agree. But in my opinion, very risky."

"Who dares, wins. A truth even in our world."

"As you wish. I will continue trying to get someone in. Access to the BBFO office may be difficult even if I succeed, it is most likely heavily secured and defended."

"I'd expect so, but there must be a way. Find it."

"Sir." The man stood up, nodded to him, then left as he unlocked the door. Looking out the window again, he thought about his ambitions for a while, then went to find something to eat. He was in the mood for a good curry, he thought with a small smile.


	142. Party and Dinner

"We still need to get a new car, Dad," Taylor said as she squeezed her tail into the front passenger seat. "Something with more room for Lizard-Americans."

He watched with a smile, shook his head, then started the engine. "Things got on top of us recently as you're well aware. I told you we'll get one. Perhaps we can look around next week."

"You should ask Amy's mom to help, she probably still has some ' _terrify car dealers_ ' power left in her," she commented, making little finger quotes, which made him grin momentarily. After a short while, as they were heading down the street, she asked, "Do you like your coat? Is it warm enough?"

Looking down at it for a second, her father nodded, smiling widely. "I love it, Taylor. It's very warm, very comfortable, and very cool. I think Lisa wants something like it now as well. Not to mention half the guys in the office. Zephron was eyeing it in a sort of acquisitive way this afternoon."

"He'd never fit into it, even with the folded space," she replied. "I'll have to come up with a standard DWU jacket or something. They all wear pretty much the same thing."

"That would probably go down very well, actually," he nodded. "Not a bad idea." Glancing at her for a moment, he said, "Lisa was extremely impressed with your warping of nature to make it, in fact. She was also annoyed that she didn't see it herself."

Taylor shrugged, smiling. "Even Lisa can't think of everything. None of us can. It took Varga and me hours to come up with it and when we did it was all like, ' _Huh, that's obvious._ ' Which it was in hindsight."

"Often the way," he agreed. "So, who's coming to this little party? I'd guess from what you said this morning most of New Wave at least."

"Yep. All of them other than Crystal, she couldn't make it. Plus Eric, my Eric that is, not theirs, Rich, Mandy, and Lucy."

"All right." He gave her a suspicious look, which she returned with an innocent one. "No one else?"

"I… may have invited Kurt and Lacey," she admitted, smiling a little. "And Lacey's mom. Unfortunately she couldn't come, she's still not feeling very well. They've got a neighbor looking after her."

"I see. Well, that sounds like an interesting group. I expect we'll have a good time."

"Hopefully," she replied, looking ahead with a hidden smile. "We'll have to see."

He gave her another look, even more suspicious this time, but she didn't expand on her comment. Returning to driving he headed for Downtown and the car park.

* * *

"Can I drive?"

"No."

"Aww."

"You're the one who said you could always fly everywhere, Vicky." Amy gave her sister a stern glare. "My truck, my rules. I drive."

The blonde nodded sadly, then grinned at her in a total mood change. "Not bad, you sounded just like Mom."

"That's what I was going for," Amy smiled.

"I heard that, you know," Carol said from behind them.

"Oh, I know," she replied, looking over her shoulder, still smiling. "You were meant to."

She'd offered to drive the family so Carol and Mark could drink if they wanted to. All four of them got into her truck and she started it up with one hand while pulling her seat belt on with the other. "It's a very nice vehicle, Amy," her father said from the rear seat, looking around with interest. He'd obviously taken his anti-depressants today, he was much more in the now than was often the case. Once more she wondered about the idea of giving him a symbiote. It was something she'd been pondering ever since she came up with the things. There were some remaining problems, of course, but…

She wanted the man she knew he could be, and sometimes was, back for good.

Deciding to talk it over with Taylor and Lisa later, she nodded, smiling at him in the rear view mirror. "I like it. It's really comfortable and handles well. And Ianthe can fit in the back."

Her three passengers looked around to the rear window, which opened into the covered pickup part of the truck. "A little too small for Raptaur, though, probably," she added. "Not to mention she's kind of heavy. Around a ton which might be too much for this. Ianthe's a lot lighter. Still heavy, though."

"You really do have some odd friends, Amy," Carol sighed.

"But they're good friends even so, Mom," she giggled. "I have a lot of fun with them." Indicating, she reversed out of the driveway, then put the vehicle in drive and accelerated away. "I've had a lot more fun since I first met Saurial than I have had in years."

"I've certainly noticed you've cheered up a lot," her mother commented, smiling a little. "I suppose that's a good thing, despite the somewhat… unique… company you keep."

"You like them, Mom, I know you do," she said, overtaking a slower car. "If nothing else they put twenty grand into the family in one day and gave us all new costumes. Which isn't a bad thing, and I know you enjoyed yourself on Tuesday."

The older woman looked mildly dubious when she checked the mirror, but eventually and slightly reluctantly nodded. "I suppose."

"It was nice of Taylor to invite us all," Vicky said brightly, clearly trying to change the subject. "I like her dad."

"So do I, Danny's a really nice guy," Amy replied. Reaching out she turned on the radio, turning it down and letting it play soft background music. "I'm glad she did as well."

"How many other people will be there?" her father asked.

"Um… about eighteen or nineteen in total, I think. Including us. Some people from school, some of Danny's friends from the DWU. He doesn't know about them."

"I see. Thank you, Amy."

They were silent for a while, Vicky gently bobbing around next to her to the beat of the music. Eventually her mother asked, slightly tentatively, "Out of interest, do you happen to know how many of the Family there really are?"

Amy shared a glance with her sister, who looked quietly amused. "Not for sure. I know about six of them."

"Six!" Carol stared at her. "I only know of four."

"Saurial, Raptaur, and Kaiju, they're the ones the public knows about, then Ianthe came along. But they've mentioned another one, Umihebi, who spends most of her time in the sea. She's… kind of big."

"Bigger than Kaiju?" Her mother's voice was somewhat uncertain.

"Bit bigger, yes." Amy tried not to burst out laughing. "Sort of a sea serpent, that's how she was described to me. And there's another one of Ianthe's branch of the family, a sister of hers I think, she's apparently about the same size and shape only a different color. Ianthe said she'd probably visit soon, she seemed quite eager to show her around. They really like the city."

"Oh, god," Carol sighed. "We're going to be up to our necks in lizards at this rate." She said it very quietly, though. Mark patted her hand gently.

"It's not that bad, dear," he comforted her. "And they're all good people, so far at least." Meeting his adopted daughter's eyes in the mirror, he asked, "How many different branches of the Family are there?"

"I'm not sure," she replied, thinking that they should probably work this out at some point. Since they were designing them from scratch it was easy enough, but she didn't feeling like sharing this information. "Raptaur's side are the ones with the most contact with… well, us, I guess. Ianthe's side are still learning, but they seem to like it so far. But it explains a few of their slightly odd mannerisms."

Amy didn't really want to lie to her parents, but she couldn't see any way around it. Telling the truth would instantly get Carol screaming at her, and if the PRT found out god knows what would happen. Biotinkers were practically the Parahuman equivalent of sex offenders in their eyes, rightly or wrongly, considering the examples of Nilbog, Bonesaw, and in some ways, Blasto. They only ranked just below human Masters in the PRT's threat assessments, and probably even higher than that in the eyes of the public.

It was far better to be a Family biosculptor and be seen as just a weird alien lizard thing with some odd skills, than the biological daughter of a major villain and a Biotinker, or whatever it really was that her powers made her. That way led to persecution and trouble, she had no doubt at all, and Lisa's power backed her up. So that was out. Maybe one day the truth could come out, maybe not, but she wasn't going to risk either her family or her Family on it. Not with the way the legal system was stacked against Parahumans with uncomfortable abilities. She had zero interest in ending up trying to prove her innocence to anyone, but presumption of guilt was practically certain under the circumstances.

Ironically, it was only meeting Taylor that had made her sure that she _wouldn't_ one day snap and do something terrible. It still gave her nightmares about how close she had been to that before, something she could recognize in hindsight when she thought back to her state of mind a few weeks ago. The thought made her shiver internally a little.

Mark was watching her with a somewhat intense look in his eyes, one that made her wonder for a moment how much of her internal musings he could work out. The look passed and he smiled faintly. "You make it sound like you think they really _aren't_ human, or Parahumans, Amy."

"You know I couldn't tell you anything like that one way or the other, Dad," she smiled back.

"Of course. I won't push. You're doing right by your friends which is good. I'm just curious about them."

"That's fair enough. All I can say about their origins is that it's a little odd, but not bad."

"All right." He was silent for a moment. "So, if I have it right, Raptaur's branch of the family is… engineering and law enforcement?"

"Kind of," she grinned. It wasn't a bad guess. "Human-Family interactions as well. They like making things. I don't think you'd call them Tinkers, not like Armsmaster, they learn the hard way, but they also have some really weird ideas. Raptaur seems to get on very well with Armsmaster and Dragon. Legend as well, for that matter. They were talking for hours yesterday about something."

She noticed that Carol had relaxed a little. "Legend was there?" her mother queried. "And he trusts them?"

"He seems to," she agreed. "I don't know the details, but I was there in the morning when Ianthe came, then they arrived and we were asked to go away for a while because of some hush-hush project." She genuinely didn't know all the details of whatever weapon that Taylor was making with the odd group that had assembled, the girl had said she'd promised to keep it quiet, and Amy hadn't pushed. She'd find out sooner or later, that was pretty certain. Lisa hadn't asked either although Amy could see she was massively curious.

"Ianthe has some very cool abilities that let her heal as well, although it looks kind of weird. Her side of the family are… I guess the doctors, researchers, that sort of thing. Scientists, in a word."

"Not fighters, then."

"Oh, I wouldn't go that far. She's extremely strong and fast, nearly as tough as Vicky, and has some interesting built-in weapons." Amy checked the side mirror, then indicated and pulled out around a stopped vehicle. "She's not someone to take lightly."

"None of them are as far as I can see," Mark agreed. He shook his head a little. "Things certainly seem to have changed around here recently."

"For the better, do you think?" she asked, genuinely curious about his opinion. Her father considered the matter for a moment.

"Yes, I think so, despite the weirdness," he finally replied. "I know there's much less crime right now, people seem happier about the future, so it's all good from that point of view. The giant lizards are a little odd but they seem friendly."

Vicky snickered. "And have strange ideas about what's funny," she said.

" _You_ laughed," Amy grinned.

"Of course I did. The ideas are strange, but they're still funny." Her sister looked at her with an expression of good humor. "I don't know how you managed to drag us all into the weird world of Amy Dallon, but so far I'm enjoying it."

"You met Saurial before any of us."

"And fucked it up big-time. I'm just lucky she had such a good sense of humor about it and was willing to let it go. I made a total mess of the introduction just because I was in a shitty mood." The girl abruptly looked upset for a moment. "It was really embarrassing."

"Hey, she said she didn't mind, none of them did," Amy smiled reassuringly. "It's all in the past. Let it go. You won't do anything like that again, and Raptaur likes you. She let you pull those buildings down, after all."

The blonde Dallon sister smiled again, looking like she was remembering something nice. "That was fun."

"Collateral Damage Barbie doing something useful for once," Amy smirked. Her sister gave her a sideways look, making her chuckle.

"Thanks. I like that name so much."

"It suits you."

They looked at each other, then stuck their tongues out, before laughing.

"Girls, please, a little decorum," Carol sighed. "Eyes on the road, Amy."

"Yes, Mom," she replied with a last glance at Vicky, who was still grinning.

* * *

Letting herself into the BBFO office, Lisa locked the door behind her, then disabled the alarm before heading towards Amy's workroom. Using the key which Taylor had made for her at the healer's request, she unlocked it and turned the lights on. Going into the second room she smiled at the dormant form of ' _Ianthe_ '. "Hello, my scaly friend," she said softly, crossing her arms in front of her and grabbing the bottom of her t-shirt, then pulling it over her head. Soon she was standing there in her underwear, folding her clothes neatly and putting them on a nearby shelf out of the way.

She inspected the two-thirds complete form of the second bioconstruct, her own personal one, barely able even now to contain her excitement. Three weeks ago the mere idea would have probably made her cringe, if not stare in shock, but now all she felt was anticipation. Lisa could hardly wait. Stroking an exposed part-organic, part-metallic hip-bone, she studied the creation, letting her power look for flaws. It didn't find any and seemed as pleased as she was.

While she hadn't mentioned it to her friends, she could almost swear that in the last few days her power had started to feel like it was genuinely enjoying itself. Since the upgrades from Amy, it worked better, more smoothly, and without pain, and she was sometimes convinced she could feel a tiny thread of happiness coming from somewhere that wasn't her own mind. It was slightly freaky, but despite that she didn't mind.

Whatever the power was and wherever it came from, having it happy and contented was almost certainly better than the alternative, in her view. If only because it cooperated and didn't give her migraines, which she didn't miss in the slightest. Her thoughtful look was replaced with a smile again as she turned back to ' _Ianthe_ ', reaching out and putting her hand on its head in the activation signal. Stepping back she watched as the huge reptilian creature opened its eyes and stood, looking at her.

"Hello, Ianthe," she said quietly. The bioconstruct dipped its head and she stroked it gently. The damn thing was like a huge cat in some ways, mixed with a dinosaur. "Time for some more fun." It watched her as she made the hand signal to prepare it for use. It was already in the process of lying down before she even finished, making her smile. "You're learning," she commented, watching the access slit open up, then kneeling down.

A few minutes later, she locked the workroom behind her, putting the key into the pouch that was part of the harness she wore around her scaly torso, something Taylor had come up with the previous night. Her friend had pointed out that Ianthe needed places to store things and had designed and made several sets of ' _clothing_ ' for different purposes. This one was sort of a utility vest with sealed waterproof pockets that strapped around the reptilian body, fitting closely and tightly, color-matched to her scales like Raptaur's armor was. It was barely visible unless you were looking for it.

Scratching the back of her head with one talon, Lisa looked at the table and the box sitting on it, grinned, then went and sat on her tail at the computers, deciding to troll PHO for a while until it was time.

* * *

"Hello, Miss Hebert," the man at the door said pleasantly, smiling at her as he checked the register he had next to him on tall stand. "Your table is ready, two of your guests have arrived before you."

"Thanks," Taylor said, smiling back. "Everyone else should be here soon, I hope."

"That's fine, there's no hurry," he replied. "Please follow me." He led them to the back of the restaurant, past a number of other tables full of diners, to where three of the rectangular tables had been pushed together and covered with a very long tablecloth.

"Hello, Danny," one of the two people sitting there said happily, standing up when she spotted them.

"Lacey, it's nice to see you. How is your mother doing?" Taylor's father replied, meeting her as she reached out and hugged him.

"Not too badly," Lacey replied, turning to Taylor and hugging her as well. "Hello, Taylor. I haven't seen you for quite a while. You've grown."

"It must be over a year," Taylor agreed. "Thanks for coming."

"It's our pleasure," Kurt, who had also stood, said with a smile of his own. "Thanks for the invitation. This is a nice place. From what I'm told it's hard to get a booking these days."

"Not if you know the right people and mercilessly abuse that fact," she giggled, which made him roar with laughter.

"You've taught her well, Danny," Kurt grinned, shaking hands with her father, who looked proudly at her.

"I've tried. She seems to have worked a lot of it out herself," he replied. "She'll be teaching me soon."

Lacey sat again, while Taylor's father pulled a chair out for her, which made her amused. He sat down next to her having taken his coat off and hung it over the back of his chair. "Mom sent her apologies for not coming but she's not up to it right now," Lacey said. "She's recovered a lot, though. Much more than the doctors thought likely. Hopefully that will continue. She's in good spirits if nothing else, just a little weak and easily tired."

"I hope she does get better, I always liked your mother," Taylor's father smiled. "Strong old woman."

"She's that for sure," Kurt grinned. "And quick tongued with it. You should have heard some of the things she said when Lacey brought me home." He shook his head respectfully. "Didn't take shit from anyone, never mind some kid from the docks who was after her daughter."

Lacey was looking amused and winked at Taylor, who giggled. "She was… unimpressed," the older woman said confidentially. "Poor Kurt had to prove himself. In olden times she'd have sent him on a quest or something. You know, bring me the flower from the top of the highest mountain in a faraway country, something like that. She had standards."

"Which I finally met," Kurt snickered. "It took a while though. She was looking at me suspiciously for years."

"Dad liked him immediately, but Mom took a lot more convincing," Lacey chuckled, reaching for her water glass, then taking a sip. "So, who else is coming? This table is pretty big."

"Some friends from school," Taylor replied, pouring herself and her father some water as well, then putting the jug down. "And most of New Wave."

"New Wave?" Kurt queried with a look of surprise.

"Yep. You know Amy Dallon is a friend of mine, right?"

"Danny mentioned it. The girl has been hanging around the yard a lot as well with the Family. Now _that's_ a strange bunch." He shook his head in wonder. "When I came back after New York I didn't expect to see giant lizard-people running around pulling buildings down."

"It seems to have worked out pretty well, though," her father noted.

"It has. I'm very pleased with everything, just really, really puzzled," Kurt smiled. "Don't get me wrong, I'm not complaining, we're getting a lot of work out of it. Best thing to happen in decades."

"Glad you think so."

"So, anyway," Taylor said as the two men looked pleased with the situation, "New Wave. They helped out a lot on Tuesday, they're Amy's family, and I thought it would be nice to invite them. Plus some friends from school, and a few more people."

"A few more people?" her father asked, looking at her with his eyebrows up. "Who would that be?"

"That would be them," Taylor grinned, pointing. He turned around to see Zephron, Mark and a woman she knew was his wife Suzanne, and John, the guy who had been with Zephron when she and her father had taken on Winslow weeks ago, all walking towards them. Like the rest of them, the new arrivals were dressed very nicely, which she privately thought made Zephron at least look like a hit-man or something. She wondered where he'd found a suit that nice in a size that large. The guy was enormous, nearly as big as Amy's uncle.

"I see," her father said, glancing back at her. "Anyone else you invited?"

She just looked at him, making him sigh faintly. "Something weird is going to happen, isn't it?"

"No comment," she smirked.

"Girls. Teenaged girls particularly. Too sneaky for my own good." Shaking his head, he stood up to greet the new arrivals. "Hi, guys, thanks for coming."

"It's our pleasure, Padrone," Zephron rumbled, winking at Taylor, who grinned. Her father sighed again.

"Must you?"

"Yes. I must." The huge man looked pleased with his own wit. "Boss."

"Just sit down and stop embarrassing yourself," her father instructed sternly, pointing at a chair. Zephron snapped off a crisp salute which made Mark laugh, then sat obediently.

Taylor listened to the adults talking, feeling pleased with how things were going. She was looking forward to her surprise later. A familiar scent from the doorway direction made her look over, seeing Amy and Vicky enter moments later. She excused herself and got up, heading over to them. The healer looked her way and smiled, waving.

"Hi, Taylor," she said. Vicky greeted her as well, looking pleased.

"Hi, guys. Where's everyone else?"

"We parked next to Aunt Sarah, Mom and Dad are coming with them," Vicky remarked. "Any moment now." Sure enough, seconds after she spoke, Taylor could smell and hear the rest of the combined Dallon and Pelham clan approaching. Soon there were a large number of people standing around. She greeted all of them, Amy introducing her to the family members who hadn't met her before, then waved to her table.

"Over here, everyone."

Leading the way, she waited as the introductions were made. As the new arrivals were in the process of sitting down, she noticed more people coming in, so went over to greet them as well. Mandy and Lucy were first, followed by Eric and Rich only about thirty seconds later. "Hi," she smiled, hugging the two girls, then shaking hands with the boys. "Looks like that's everyone now." Turning to the man who had greeted them, who she knew was the manager, she added, "I'll get everyone to work out what they want. Can you send over the drinks menu as well, please?"

"Certainly, Miss Hebert," he replied, motioning to one of the waiters, who nodded back and quickly headed towards a cabinet on the wall.

"Ooh, Miss Hebert! How formal," Mandy giggled. "You have pull in this town."

"Yes, I do, and don't you forget it," Taylor replied with equanimity. "Not only do I know the Mayor's sister's handbag, but restaurant managers are as polite to me as they would be to any random person about to spend a lot of money in their restaurant." Mandy snickered at her dry tone, following her back to the table with the others trailing along.

Yet again, a whole series of introductions were made. Mandy and Lucy initially both seemed slightly overawed at meeting an entire family of superheroes. They soon realized that they were just Amy and Vicky's parents and relatives, not something from a comic book, and became much more relaxed pretty quickly.

Eric, from school, and Eric, from the Pelham's, ended up sitting next to each other, soon talking about all sorts of things, Rich joining in happily. Mandy and Lucy were listening and making the occasional comment, mostly jokes from the former, who seemed in very good spirits. Taylor met Amy's eyes, smiling at her. All their friends seemed to be having fun.

Having made selections of drinks, everyone fell silent for a few minutes while they read the menus, finally coming up with a long list of starters and main courses. The waiter was kept busy for nearly ten minutes writing it all down, but eventually he'd collected the menus, thanked them, and disappeared again.

Taylor looked around at the people about the table, all of them apparently getting on well and talking to each other, smiling to herself. It was nice to see. She spent some time chatting with Kurt and Lacey, catching up with them since she hadn't seen much of them for a fair while. Eventually, she picked up her glass of coke and stood, flicking it with a fingernail to produce a chiming clink. The conversations died down as everyone looked at her.

"I'm glad everyone could make it," she started. "I just wanted to express my appreciation to our friends, both old and new, for coming to help me celebrate my father's forty-fourth birthday in style. He may be old and decrepit but he's the only father I have so I want this to go well." She smiled down at her father, who was looking amused at her little speech. "Obviously, at his age he'll probably have forgotten all this by next week, but at least I'll know I did my daughterly duty."

"Thank you very much, Taylor," he commented with a grin. She bowed a little to him, grinning back.

"My pleasure." Turning to the table again, the people around it all snickering, she finished, "To Danny Hebert!" Holding up her glass, she was pleased when everyone else stood up and repeated the toast, clinking various drinking vessels together for nearly a minute.

Sitting down again, she nodded to the waiter who had been approaching as she started, and had politely paused during the toast. He returned the gesture, waving on two colleagues who were pushing trolleys covered in plates. "This is all on me, by the way, so don't worry about ordering anything you want," she added.

"Are you sure, Taylor?" Lacey asked with mild concern. "The bill is going to be very large with this number of people."

"It's fine, Lacey, I have more than enough money for… reasons I don't want to think about," she smiled. "I'm happy to spend some of it on Dad. It's only fair after what he's spent on me over the years."

The older woman seemed a little unconvinced, but also pleased at her words. "You're a very good person, Taylor," she said.

"Thanks. I'm not sure I am, but I try."

Beside her, her father put his hand on her shoulder, making her look at him. His face was alight with pride. "You are, believe me," he said in a low voice. "Thank you for all of this."

"Anything for you, Dad," she replied in a similar tone.

Exchanging a look for a moment, both of them smiled, then waited for their food to be served. "Who had the beef panang?" One of the waiters looked around the table. Lucy raised a hand.

"That's me."

"Here you go, miss," he replied, walking around and placing the dish in the middle of the table in front of her. "Please be careful, the bowl is very hot." He and his colleagues had soon efficiently served everyone else, then removed the trolleys. The first waiter looked around at them all.

"Does anyone require anything else?" he asked.

"Can I have another coke, please?" Rich asked. The man nodded, making a note on his pad. Several other people ordered more drinks, and two more bowls of rice were needed, but in the end they were all satisfied and happily eating.

"This really is very good," Zephron commented after a while. "I haven't been in here before. From what I heard it's doing very well these days." He looked at Amy, who grinned. "Thanks to you and a friend."

"Saurial and I both like Thai," she said. "It was a very good meal. If they got some good publicity out of it, it seems fair, they went to a lot of effort to accommodate us."

"They seemed more than happy to make a late booking for her," Taylor added with a smile of her own. He looked at her, as did most of the others. "If you know a celebrity, it should come with benefits."

"And I'm not celebrity enough?" Amy demanded, although she was obviously trying not to giggle.

" _You_ are merely the city's, no, perhaps the world's, premier Parahuman healer. _Saurial_ is _cute_." Taylor smirked at her friend, who rolled her eyes, then laughed, as everyone else grinned. "The cute lizard girl apparently ranks higher than the mere healer in the publicity ratings. Or it might be something to do with her very, very large sister." Looking around thoughtfully, she added, "I don't think Kaiju would fit in here."

"She could stick her hand through the main door if she was really careful," Vicky giggled.

"But all the food they have in the entire place wouldn't be enough for even an appetizer," Mandy pointed out perfectly straight-faced. "I doubt there are enough eggs in the city to do more than take the edge off her hunger."

"Presumably she could snack on the kitchen fittings to make up for it," Rich suggested. Mandy nodded thoughtfully, as Lucy started laughing next to her. "If we don't have enough squashed sunken boats, I mean."

"I think the bay is full of those," Taylor's father noted. "Although when she runs out..." He shrugged, while everyone stared.

"There's all the wrecks in the ship's graveyard, Dad," Taylor pointed out.

"We need to salvage those, not have her eat them," he told her sternly. "She can eat the ones she can catch at sea. Those are ours."

"Oh, dear, why does that make me worry about the poor fishermen?" Sarah Pelham said with a smile of amusement. "Don't tell _her_ that boats in the water are fair game."

Everyone chuckled, then the conversation moved on. Some time later, Taylor was listening to her father talking to Lucy. She'd mentioned to him that her friend was something of a reptile-lover and wanted to meet the rest of the Family. "I hear you have a pet iguana, Lucy," he said. "Isn't that a little difficult in this climate? I believe they need quite warm temperatures."

"Dad built a really neat terrarium for him into my closet at home," Lucy replied, clearly very interested in the subject. "The closet was huge, way bigger than I needed, so he used half of it to make Newell's home."

"Newell?" her father queried, looking a little puzzled. "That's an odd name for an iguana."

"Dad suggested it when I first got him," the girl smiled. "He liked the music of that musician Iggy Pop, whose real name is..."

"...James Newell Osterberg," John completed for her. She nodded.

"Iggy the iguana was too silly. Newell is a little classier. He seems to like it, anyway."

"How can you tell?" Mandy asked. "He mostly just sits there and looks at you."

"He likes it," Lucy insisted. "And he does more than sit there. Sometimes he runs around like an idiot, mainly in summer when it's hot. This time of year he's a bit sluggish, I'll admit, but he's good company. And pretty as well."

"How old is he?" Taylor asked.

"I've had him since I was ten, so about six years old, now," Lucy replied. "Green iguanas live about twenty years or so, I'll have him for a long time yet. He's pretty big now as well, he's nearly five feet long."

"The thing curls up in her lap like it was a scaly cat," Mandy confided to the table, making Lucy look mildly embarrassed. "I tried stroking it once and it bit me!"

"It was only a little warning bite, Mandy," Lucy protested.

"It hurt!"

"If he'd really wanted to bite you, he'd have broken your finger, though," the Chinese girl smiled. "He just drew a little blood."

" _See?_ " Mandy sighed, waving dramatically at her friend with both hands. "The girl's crazy. She lives with a man-eating lizard in her closet. No wonder she wants to meet as many members of the Family as she can."

"Reptiles are neat," Lucy insisted. "Lizards especially. Ones that can talk are even better."

Meeting Amy's eyes across the table, Taylor grinned. Several other people were doing much the same, including Eric, who was on Lucy's other side. Shaking his head a bit, her father said mildly, "I see. A fan, then. Taylor mentioned that. If you'd like to visit the yard, you're welcome to. There are normally one or more of the Family somewhere around."

"I'd like that very much indeed, Mr Hebert," Lucy said with a shy smile.

"I told you, Lucy, call me Danny, I don't mind. Any time you want, as long as your parents don't have any objection. Amy can bring you if you want, she knows her way around."

"Thank you," she said, in a very happy tone of voice.

"That goes for the rest of you as well," he added, looking at Eric, Mandy, and Rich. "It can be a dangerous place, of course, but as long as you're with someone who knows the risks, it's fine."

"Thank you, Mr Hebert," the other three chorused, then added "We mean, _Danny_." It was nicely synchronized, making him grin.

"That's a very nice coat, Danny," Amy's uncle said a little later, looking at the thing where it was on the back of the chair. "I've been trying to work out what sort of leather it is. It's obviously real, not plastic, but I can't place it."

"I'm not surprised," her father said, lifting one arm of the coat and looking at it for a moment. "Dragon leather is pretty rare."

"Dragon… leather?" Neil repeated with a funny look. Taylor grinned as her father chuckled.

"So I'm told. Or rather, a copy of something that could be called that. Taylor commissioned Saurial to make this for me. Apparently it's based on the skin of some flying reptile that's extinct now. It's really comfortable."

Practically everyone was looking at the thing with astonishment by now. Taylor heard Vicky muttering very faintly under her breath, "Extinct flying reptile? There never _were_ any flying reptiles. Not since the dinosaurs di..." Her muttering stopped and her eyes grew round as she stared at the innocent coat. Taylor watched, feeling very amused, as the blonde had apparently jumped to a completely wrong conclusion from a standing start.

Amy, who had obviously heard as well and was desperately trying not to laugh, looked at her for a moment, then tore her eyes away and stared at her plate, her shoulders twitching a little.

"I see," Neil finally said. "How… unusual."

"It is. I'm very pleased with it indeed," her father said, looking it. "It's warm, waterproof, and even has a built in hood. It came with matching gloves as well. It's a wonderful birthday present." Putting his arm around Taylor's shoulders for a moment he gave her a one-armed hug. "Thank you, Taylor."

"You're welcome, Dad," she replied. "I'm glad you like it."

"That… girl… has some impressive talents in the field of bespoke clothing design," Sarah remarked. "I suspect she could make a considerable income in that alone. Perhaps she should speak to that other independent, Parian. I hear she's very talented in the field as well."

"I'll mention it to Saurial the next time I see her," he replied. "They seem to have a number of marketable products already, though. I think this was mostly a favor more than anything else, but I'm very grateful for it."

About to say something else, he spotted someone coming in the front door, stared, then sighed a little with a look at Taylor, who returned it with wide-eyed innocence. "Oh, lord," he muttered very quietly.

Everyone else became aware that the restaurant had gone completely silent, only the sound of a dropped fork breaking it. They exchanged glances before following his eyes.

Just inside the door, ' _Ianthe_ ' was looking around with great interest, smiling a reptilian smile. She'd had to duck quite a lot to come in, the door only being about six and a half feet high. "Hello, purveyor of enticingly-scented food," she said in jovial tones to the manager, who was staring at her. "I am looking for Danny Hebert."

The man nodded with a somewhat jerky effect to it, then turned and pointed their way. "Aha! Thank you very much," the huge lizard smiled. "Please don't let me keep you from your work." Heading in their direction, ' _Ianthe_ ' walked very delicately between the tables, the end of her tail sweeping across a couple of them and _barely_ missing everything, which made Taylor grin inside. Lisa was clearly enjoying herself immensely.

Arriving at their table, where everyone, along with the rest of the restaurant, was watching with mixed expressions, the large violet-blue lizard inspected them all. "Greetings, everyone. Hello, Lucy and Mandy." Lucy waved to her with a broad smile. "I was asked to visit on behalf of the Family. Unfortunately everyone else is busy at the moment, but we wanted to present Danny Hebert with a token of our friendship, as I believe is common among your people to celebrate the day of your birth."

Lisa was clearly enjoying herself a little _too_ much, Taylor thought, catching the look in Amy's eyes. Her friend was visibly barely restraining hysterical laughter at the performance.

"That's certainly one way to put it, Ianthe," her father said with the tiniest of sighs, glancing at both Taylor and Amy with a look of resignation. "Although you certainly didn't have to go to any trouble."

"Nonsense, it's no trouble at all," the reptile smiled. "You and your organization have done much to help us since Cousin Saurial first came here and we're very grateful. The Family looks after its friends. After some discussion, we decided that a decorative present might be a suitable gift, to serve as a reminder of us to you."

"I doubt that I will need too much reminding," he grinned.

"Perhaps not," she laughed. "Even so, this seemed appropriate. I hope you enjoy it."

Holding out the box she'd been carrying, she handed it to him. It was about the size of a shoe-box and quite heavy judging by the way it dipped as he accepted it. "It's nothing special, merely a rather nicely detailed scale model of one of our famous buildings, but it's pretty, we think. I haven't seen anything like it here. Some of the construction methods we use are probably unique, thinking about it, they're a Family secret."

Now everyone was looking at the box, with varying expressions ranging from curiosity to trepidation. Somewhat uncertainly, her father glanced at her, then lifted the lid of the metallic box, which hinged open. He gaped, before slowly closing it again, slightly pale-faced. His mouth opening and closing a few times he blinked hard, then repeated the action.

"What does it look like, Danny?" Kurt asked, his face awash with wonder.

"I… can't do it justice with mere words," her father mumbled after another short pause during which he peered into the box.

"Show us, then," his old friend urged. Taylor was stifling a massive grin, the reaction was even better than she'd expected.

Just a touch unwillingly, her father reached into the soft padding inside the box, then removed an object about six by six by four inches, putting it carefully on the table. Everyone looked at it, even some people from adjacent tables half standing to see. There was a _very_ long silence, during which the Lisa-inhabited ' _Ianthe_ ' bioconstruct looked pleased.

" _What_ the _hell_ is _that?_ " Carol Dallon finally said in a soft, wondering, and disturbed voice.

"I have absolutely no idea," her husband remarked, also staring with wide eyes.

"I told you, it's a tiny copy of one of our famous buildings at home," ' _Ianthe_ ' said, looking a little hurt somehow. "The real thing is much more impressive, I agree, but this is nice."

"How does it _do that_ to my _eyes?_ " Eric Pelham moaned, blinking furiously. "It's making the inside of my _brain_ itch."

Several people nodded vigorously. Quite a number of them were also blinking, or looking at the gift sideways or at strange angles.

"How many sides does it really have?" Zephron slowly queried. "I only ask because I count four and I can see five of them from here without moving."

Danny picked the thing up after several tries and rotated it in his hand, causing several people to flinch. "Oh, god, that's _horrible_ ," Mandy yelped softly. "When you turn it that way it looks like it's turning in several other directions at the same time, at least two of them _opposite_ directions!"

Taylor was more than satisfied with the result of nearly two hours careful work. The thing was more or less a stepped pyramid with a series of columns on top supporting a flat roof, but made heavy use of her and Varga's fractional-dimension method, which made it somewhat indeterminate as far as both position and true appearance went. The final object was as alien a thing as any she could come up with, completely unlike what it had started as. She'd had some difficulty in stopping Lisa playing with it the night before, her power apparently even more fascinated with the thing than her original cuboids. Wondering if all Thinkers would react like that and wondering how to find out, she reached out and took it from him, holding it up and wiggling it back and forth.

"It's really cool," she grinned.

"God, don't do that, Taylor," Vicky muttered. "I could swear it's _looking_ at me."

"Really?" She inspected it closely. "Weird. It looks strange, I'll grant you, but I can't see any eyes."

"There _aren't_ any, but it's _still_ looking at me." The blonde girl seemed very worried.

Putting it on the table, Taylor picked up a bread stick and poked it into the array of columns at the top of the thing, watching with satisfaction as the end came out at a strange angle from the side and not the back.

Lucy went pale and closed her eyes. Carol was staring unblinkingly at the thing. "Hey, look at that! Isn't that weird?"

Reaching out from the other side of the table Amy pushed her finger into the same nest of little columns, grinning when it came out a couple further along on the same side towards her. "That's the freakiest thing I've ever seen," she laughed. Her sister was now staring at her in mild horror.

"You've been around _them_ too long, Ames," she muttered. "How can you _do_ that?"

"It's easy, look, you stick your finger in _here_ and it comes out _there_."

"I do _not_ want to stick my finger anywhere _near_ that thing," Vicky snapped, then went a funny color as Amy wiggled her digit, making it appear and disappear in several places, at least two of them simultaneously. "Oh, god," she added faintly, also closing her eyes.

Pulling her finger out again Amy held it up, smiling. "See? It's fine."

Taylor's father, who had been staring with an open mouth during this, shook his head a little and deliberately looked away from the weird little thing. "Um, thank you, Ianthe," he said to the large reptile who had been watching with interest. "It's very… very… _Family_."

"We thought you'd like it," ' _Ianthe_ ' replied happily. She glanced around the restaurant. "Is it always this quiet in here? Seems a little odd. Oh, well, human customs, I'm still learning." She shrugged a bit. "I need to go, but it was nice seeing you all. Saurial and the others asked me to pass on their best wishes, they said."

"Thank you, Ianthe," Taylor's father said after another look at the present. "It was very, um... nice of you to stop in."

"It was my pleasure. I'm sure we'll see each other again." She nodded to them, then turned away. Taylor noticed she glanced at a man sitting by himself in the corner who was watching intently, pausing for a moment, then moving on. She casually looked at the man herself, cataloging his scent for future reference. At the door, ' _Ianthe_ ' smiled at the manager, who hadn't moved an inch since she'd come in, then ducked her head and left.

The silence lasted for another solid minute. Eventually, without saying anything, her father picked up the gift with only three attempts and very carefully put it back into the box, closing the lid. As soon as it was shut a certain tension went out of the room. Taylor looked around, wondering if perhaps she'd slightly overdone it. All she wanted to do was give her father something interesting for his desk, and also get into the public mind the idea that the Family was associated with eldritch buildings.

It was barely possible that the impression was a little stronger than she'd anticipated.

Inside her head, the Varga was for some reason laughing so hard he couldn't speak.

Shrugging minutely, she resumed her meal. People would get over it sooner or later.

It was only about the time that the dessert menu arrived when everyone finally stopped giving the box on the table nervous glances.

Over dessert, Taylor's father suddenly said, "Oh, while I remember, Amy, I spoke to my friend and got you the information we were talking about the other day." He reached behind him into a coat pocket, pulling out an envelope which he handed across to the healer, who stopped eating her chocolate profiteroles to take it from him. Opening it she pulled out a set of paperwork which she scanned briefly, before smiling. "That's all the documentation on what you need to do if you're interested, along with the contact number of who to call."

"Thanks, Danny," she replied happily, slipping the paperwork back into the envelope and putting it to one side.

"What's that, Amy?" her father Mark asked curiously.

"A suggestion was made that I might be able to get a permit to make my truck considered a medical emergency vehicle," Amy said after looking at him, picking her fork up again. "Danny looked into it for me, he knows the right people in the police to ask about it. Looks straightforward enough, an advanced driving course and a first responder's driving course on top of that."

"Cool," Rich commented with a grin, while Carol and Mark looked at each other. Sarah seemed somewhat approving. "That would mean you could have emergency lights and a siren?"

"Yes. That's the idea. It might come in handy some time."

"State and city laws allow it for private vehicles, after the right permits are given," Taylor's father said. "Red lights in this state unless you're a fire engine, then you can have blue ones as well. You can get hidden ones that don't show when they're off. If you want to go ahead with this, the guys in the vehicle shop can easily fit them for you."

"I'll read it later and work out how to do it," Amy replied. "It sounds like a good idea."

"It's quite a responsibility at your age, Amy," Carol noted with a vaguely worried look. Her daughter glanced at her and nodded.

"I know, Mom. But it could also be very helpful. Don't worry, I'm not planning on driving to school with a siren on to get there faster."

"I should think not," her mother said with asperity. "That would be highly irresponsible."

"Joke, Mom," Amy giggled. Everyone smiled as Carol sighed slightly.

"Sometimes it's difficult to tell with you, Amy," the older woman said, but she seemed slightly amused now despite herself.

They discussed the idea a little more, then the conversation moved on again, everyone having fun and enjoying themselves. When they finally finished at about nine o'clock, Taylor was happy to pay the fairly significant bill and leave a generous tip, feeling it was well worth it. Especially with the slightly odd interruption in the middle.

She thought it likely that the restaurant would have even more of a reputation now.

* * *

"Are you going to put it on your desk, Dad?" Taylor asked on the way home, glancing over her shoulder at the box on the back seat. Her father gave her an even look, then went back to watching the traffic.

"I think… probably not," he finally sighed. "Your little ornament is the single creepiest thing I've ever seen in my entire life, and I'm including some of your more disturbing forms in that. How the _hell_ did you make it look like that?"

"Lots of practice," she shrugged. "I thought it came out pretty well."

"It's obvious to me that your giant friend has had a stronger effect on what passes for your mind than I thought," he remarked, shaking his head. "Trust me, to normal people that thing is… what's the best word for it? Oh, yes, entirely fucked up beyond rational thought."

She giggled a little, as he sighed again, somewhat heavily. "I understand the idea behind all that, I think, and I can't say I completely disagree with your little performance. Even though Lisa does the alien lizard thing _way_ too well. At the same time, I think it might be a good idea to tone it down just a little before someone ends up genuinely needing Arkham Asylum."

"Point taken, Dad," she smiled. "I'll make sure that Ianthe learns human customs pretty fast, just like cousin Raptaur."

"Please, for your old man, so he can actually sleep at night." Her father reached out and ruffled her hair. "Lovecraftian pranks aside, and I have to admit despite myself it was impressive, thank you very much for an excellent evening. I enjoyed it a hell of a lot. Well, most of it. There was a bit in the middle that was a little peculiar."

"I enjoyed it as well. I think everyone did. It was nice having so many people together for a birthday like that, it was like one of Mom's years ago."

"She would have enjoyed it as well." He smiled. "And she'd probably have found your little gift endlessly amusing, especially the reaction other people had to it. Your minds are far too similar sometimes."

"Thanks, Dad," she laughed.

"I'm not totally sure that's a good thing, mind you," he added, before turning the radio on. "Not sure at all."

They listened to classical music the rest of the way home, both content.

* * *

"Weird, wasn't it?" Amy said brightly when they were half-way back. "I wonder if I could get the Family to make me one of those."

"You will _not_ bring something that would give an Elder God nightmares into my house, Amy Dallon," her mother moaned, rubbing her forehead with her eyes shut. "I still can't stop seeing that damn thing. Poor Danny."

Grinning to herself, Amy glanced at Vicky, who was mumbling under her breath, apparently trying to work something out on her fingers, and not liking the result. Amused, she looked in the rear-view mirror at her father, who was sleeping the sleep of the well fed and pleased, smiling slightly to himself.

Happy with the evening, she relaxed and drove steadily homewards.

* * *

Two hundred feet down and nearly six miles from the bay entrance, Lisa chased a school of fish, laughing like an idiot. She was having a wonderful time.


	143. Omake - The Box

"What the hell is she doing _now?_ " Assault sighed, watching the scaled figure of Raptaur guiding a large flat-bed truck with hand signals and shouted instructions as it slowly and carefully backed down the access road to the park. It stopped next to the children's play area, the engine idling down while the brakes came on with a hiss. One of the two men in it jumped out, walked around to the side, then started operating hand controls with the effect that a hydraulic crane swung into action, the boom lifting and pivoting into position. A set of stabilizing legs came slowly out of the vehicle sides moments later, Raptaur quickly adjusting them to sit on the ground.

The driver of the truck climbed onto the back and attached the crane hook to the straps around a large rectangular object that was wrapped in plastic, whatever it was being about seven feet tall and perhaps four feet square, and apparently fairly heavy. Raptaur was in the meantime releasing the other straps that held it down to the truck bed, showing a considerable amount of experience with them, then coiling them up neatly and putting them on the truck.

When they were ready, she moved back and made a circling motion with one finger in the air, the crane operator nodding and moving a lever. The engine revved up as the crane took up the load, the object lifting slowly into the air with the driver cautiously steadying it to prevent it swinging, then the boom pivoting around to finally lower it next to the playground, following the hand signals of the huge lizard. Looking pleased, she adjusted it slightly while it was a couple of inches off a prepared concrete pad that he knew wasn't there the week before.

Finally, it was lowered to the ground, landing with a crunch of metal on concrete. Assault glanced at his wife, who was also watching with curious interest. They'd been on patrol through the park, basically showing the flag since crime in this area was so low at the moment, and it was a nice day for a walk anyway. Neither one of them had expected to meet one of the Family here, although all things considered, perhaps they should have. The reptiles did have a tendency to show up in the oddest places.

"Thanks, Greg, Mike," Raptaur said happily, handing each of the men an envelope, her deep voice faint with the distance that separated them.

"Any time, Raptaur," the driver, apparently called Greg said, putting the envelope away and smiling. The other one nodded to her, then they got back into the truck and slowly drove off. The lizard-woman ran a taloned finger down the plastic wrap in one swift move, the material parting as easily as if she'd used a box cutter, then pulled the stuff off and wadded it up. With a look around, apparently for a garbage bin, she eventually shrugged when she didn't see one and simply ate the ball of plastic, which made Assault wince.

Revealed now that the wrappings were removed was a large box, bright blue, that seemed vaguely familiar to him. Possibly something he'd seen in a TV show, perhaps. There was a door on the side on their left, which they were at an angle to, but could just make out. She pulled this open, ducked her head, and went inside.

Ethan stared in shock. The box was definitely too small to contain Raptaur, she took up probably about twice the volume of the thing leaving aside the way she was over a foot taller. He glanced at his wife, who was also gaping. Neither had time to say anything before the lizard came out, a satisfied look on her face. A sound up the access road made them look, to see another truck reversing towards them, this one being guided by Metis, one of her weird cousins.

The black and scarlet reptile walked backwards down the road making hand signals of her own, the truck following obediently. It was piled high with building supplies such as timber and concrete blocks. Past it, at the end of the road, they spotted Ianthe waiting beside another vehicle, which seemed to be carrying a large amount of metal bars and tubes.

"I hate to ask what on earth those three are up to," Battery sighed. "The worst outcome is that they'd actually tell me. Then I'd have to go and get drunk to forget it. Remember that little statue they presented to City Hall?"

Assault shuddered.

He remembered all right, no matter how much he wanted not to.

The way the entire hall full of people had gone totally silent was still one of the most eerie things he'd ever experienced.

Sitting on one of the park benches, Battery sitting next to him, they spend the next half hour watching with confused disbelief as all three lizards unloaded enough supplies to make a fairly large building, _all of it disappearing into the blue box!_ His head was aching trying to figure out how the fuck they managed to do that. Both trucks left, another van with a DWU sign on it turning up which disgorged a large amount of tools and equipment, including a very large generator that Metis simply lifted out of the thing like it was a box of crackers.

This was soon chugging away next to the mysterious box, thick cables coming from it and disappearing into the partly open door. A while later, all sorts of odd sounds started coming out, crackling sounds of welding accompanied by arc-white light that flickered through the translucent windows at the top of the door, hammering and sawing sounds, the noise of a chainsaw, and several loud explosions which made them jump.

Quite a large number of people stopped and stared, but he thought it somewhat odd how many of them moved on without comment when they'd read a small sign on a post next to the box, which Ianthe had pushed into the ground on her way inside.

Ethan wasn't sure if he wanted to read it, or go away and pretend none of this was happening. In the end, the indecision meant he simply sat and watched with his mouth a little open.

Another half hour passed. Battery nudged him in the ribs. "Come on, we can't waste the entire day watching whatever it is that those insane creatures are doing. We have a patrol route and we're late."

"But..." He pointed helplessly at the box, which was now humming loudly and emitting a faint cloud of smoke.

"I know. Believe me, I know. But it's _them_. We should stay out of it, for our own sanity."

Nodding absently, he stood as she did, then followed as they resumed their walk, looking back over his shoulder every now and then until the box was out of sight.

* * *

"Tell me again why we're doing this the hard way when you could just make this from nothing?" Lisa asked, lifting the business end of the welder from the neat weld she'd just finished.

"Partly because there's no harm in learning new skills, partly because it puts a lot of money into the local economy buying the materials, partly because it's actually a lot of fun, and..." Taylor grinned at her friends, "mainly because of the reaction people have when they see everything going inside a box way too small to contain any of it."

"So, mostly because you think it's funny," Amy suggested.

"Yep." Taylor chuckled as she made a hammer, then began smacking six inch nails flush with delicate blows at the speed of a nailgun. "I'd have gotten Brian involved in this but I thought it was a nice day out for us girls as well."

Shaking her head and grinning, Amy resumed measuring the heavy wooden beam she was working on. "I have to admit I'm really enjoying this."

"It is fun, you're right," Lisa smiled, moving to the next weld. Her power seemed to be very good at showing her how to learn skills of this nature, something she'd never have discovered in all likelihood without the last few months having happened. Conversation died as they resumed work.

* * *

On the way back through the park about four hours later, Ethan stopped to watch a large cement truck that was stopped outside the box, a chute going from the rear of the rotating drum into the thing. Liquid cement was sliding down the chute in vast quantities.

After a short period of gaping, he firmly shook his head and allowed his wife to pull him onward.

* * *

Three days later, after having seen at various points almost every sort of building material one could imagine disappear into the box as he passed by, his curiosity couldn't take it any more, even tempered with his common sense. The box was simply standing there, vague sounds of hard work drifting from it now and then.

Having slipped away from Miss Militia, who he was supposed to be patrolling with this afternoon, he cautiously approached the strange construction. Stopping next to it he looked at the sign.

 **All-Weather Non-Euclidean Playground**

 **For Children up to Sixteen**

 **No Smoking**

 **Mild Conceptual Hazard, Adults may be Disorientated**

 **Donated to the City of Brockton Bay by BBFO, LLC, in association with the Brockton Bay Dock Workers Union**

 **_Opening this Tuesday!_**

Ethan read the sign four times, his sense of unreality growing each time. After a very long and hesitant pause, he moved slowly to the door and gently pushed it open, putting his head inside.

He froze.

He looked from side to side.

He looked up.

He looked down.

Then, just as slowly, he removed his head and stared at the box, before walking around it muttering under his breath.

Eventually, he looked inside again.

Finally, after another thirty seconds of staring, he withdrew his head, shook it somewhat dazedly, and wandered off in search of an Irish coffee with no coffee in it.

"How the fuck can it have a swingset on the ceiling?" he mumbled. "That slide went around corners that can't exist. And where did the _trees_ come from?"

Deciding that he _really_ needed a holiday, he sped up, walking briskly through the park.

A horrible thought struck him.

"Oh, Christ, if _Vista_ sees that, we'll _never_ get her out again..."

Sometimes Brockton Bay was too much even for him, he mused, now almost running towards the nearest source of blessed liquid memory cleanser.


	144. PHO and WTF

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 **Topic: A new Family Member!  
In: Boards ► Places ► America ► Brockton Bay ► Family Sightings  
Bagrat **(Original Poster) (Veteran Member) (The Guy in the Know)  
Posted On Feb 19th 2011:

Well, there's another one...

Yes, people, yet another Family member has arrived here in Brockton Bay, home of the Weird, Disturbing, and Scaly!

About an hour ago, according to my contacts in BBPD, Saurial was spotted in the company of a friend, or actually, a cousin! Not a sister this time. Her name is apparently Ianthe, she's about seven and a half feet tall, bipedal, only four limbs plus a tail. Looking at the photos I'd guess that she's probably considerably lighter than Raptaur, although she obviously shares a lot of features with our Panacea-Steed :)

My contact said she was a sort of blue-purple color, but I must point out that calling her Barney is likely to end in tears... So don't. We don't know enough about her yet to make jokes like that.

Note the eyes are a different color from Saurial's, Raptaur's, or Kaiju's yellow-orange, a sort of unsettling green like a cat with a lightbulb in its head. No idea what this means yet, if anything.

She and Saurial were apparently out on the town, the latter showing the former around, when they intervened in an operation involving Miss Militia, Velocity, a number of E88 members, and a shitload of guns those guys were trying to steal.

It didn't end well for the three that legged it! Although apparently it did end _quickly_.

Miss Militia found the three gang members lying on the ground with Saurial restraining them, although from what I understand it was Ianthe who took them down. I'm not sure what the method was so far. If anyone has any more information please submit it. It can be added to the Family Watch thread as well, if Macdjord would please do that?

Photos so far are **this** , **this** , **this** , and **this**. No video yet.

I'll keep everyone updated with what turns up in my research.

One thing to note, though. This is the first time that two of the Family have been seen together. Does it foreshadow more of them? Are they going to visit en masse? How many of them are there, anyway?

Update: Video **here** , courtesy of Reave, our friendly PRT agent

Update 2: Apparently "Ianthe" is greek, it means "Violet Flower." Make of that what you will...

Update 3: Best guess so far for the method used by Ianthe to neutralise the E88 gangers is some form of drugged dart or other projectile. Audio analysis of the short video clip turned up a distinct " **pop** " sound immediately before that middle guy passed out. There's no sign of a weapon on her so is it something inherent? A gun-finger or something weird like that?

So many questions, so few answers. The Family in a nutshell :)

Update 4: Ianthe herself has joined PHO! The first Family member to do so. She's confirmed it was a drugged dart and that she has built-in weaponry to launch them, which brings up some even weirder questions...

 **(Showing page 7 of 58)**

► **Dingbat779** (Cape Groupie)  
Replied On Feb 19th 2011:

Another one? Good grief.

This is getting just a little ridiculous, people! Where are they all coming from? And more to the point, where do they GO?

I mean, don't get me wrong, I kind of like our new reptilian overlords, but... How many are going to end up wandering the streets?

Me very puzzled.

► **Vista** (Verified Cape) (Wards ENE)  
Replied On Feb 19th 2011:

She's really pretty, don't you think? I like that color. I'd love to see it in the daylight.

► **Aegis** (Verified Cape) (Wards ENE)  
Replied On Feb 19th 2011:

You have the oddest priorities sometimes, Vista ;)

► **IguanaGirl**  
Replied On Feb 19th 2011:

She's just got good taste! A mere boy wouldn't understand :)

► **Vista** (Verified Cape) (Wards ENE)  
Replied On Feb 19th 2011:

Thank you! _You_ get it, right?

► **Clockblocker** (Verified Cape) (Wards ENE)  
Replied On Feb 19th 2011:

Now she's _giggling_. I get nervous when she starts giggling. Especially like that.

Horrible things tend to happen...

► **MZenny**  
Replied On Feb 19th 2011:

I wonder if Ianthe likes eggs as well? :D

Business is pretty good these days.

► **Glare**  
Replied On Feb 19th 2011:

You and your damn eggs...

► **MZenny**  
Replied On Feb 19th 2011:

Hey, some of us have a living to earn, you know!

► **Jormungandr**  
Replied On Feb 19th 2011:

You begin to see, my friends. The Demons spread. Soon all will know the terror. They will build their temples to unholy Dark Gods, creating that which Man was not Meant to See.

I _warned_ you.

 **They come from Below...**

 **End of Page. 1, 2, 3 ... 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 ... 56, 57, 58**

 **(Showing page 8 of 58)**

► **Mojiizen**  
Replied On Feb 19th 2011:

Oh for fuck's sake, he's back *fuming*

And stop capitalizing random things, it's really irritating, you weirdo.

► **XxVoid_CowboyxX**  
Replied On Feb 19th 2011:

Maybe he has a point!

I mean, obviously they're aliens, but I've been thinking about it and alien demons are a possibility too! Right? It makes sense.

► **Bladeworksfan** (Kyushu Survivor)  
Replied On Feb 19th 2011:

You are both very odd people.

I mean, the _giant lizards_ make more sense than either of you do, and they scare the _shit_ out of me!

► **IguanaGirl**  
Replied On Feb 19th 2011:

They're not demons or aliens, they're just really nice people. Stop being so mean :(

► **Laser Augment**  
Replied On Feb 19th 2011:

Your city is becoming very peculiar in more ways than I can count, and in case you were unware of it, Brockton Bay had a fucking odd reputation even before those guys turned up! Lovecraftian horrors idly wandering around eating eggs and jumping minor criminals is... weird.

Isn't it? It's not just me? It seems weird to me.

► **Loki Thorson**  
Replied On Feb 19th 2011:

Brockton Bay? Surely you mean Innsmouth?

Shit.

I wish I hadn't said that. Now I want to go and hide.

Under the bed.

With a light...

► **Assembler**  
Replied On Feb 19th 2011:

I looked it up, Ianthe means violet flower in Greek. Maybe she's from Greece?

Or probably the Mediterranean, at least. I mean the sea, not the area!

► **Reave** (Verified PRT Agent)  
Replied On Feb 19th 2011:

I have a short snippet of video available. Most of the recording was classified, but I've asked and this part can be released, so **here** you go.

► **Mojiizen**  
Replied On Feb 19th 2011:

Thanks, Reave. Woah, that was... strange. She just pointed at that E88 idiot and he stopped moving. Some sort of Blaster power?

► **Pyrite**  
Replied On Feb 19th 2011:

It looked like she pointed her palm at him, not her fingers.

 **End of Page. 1, 2, 3 ... 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 ... 56, 57, 58**

 **(Showing page 9 of 58)**

► **Mojiizen**  
Replied On Feb 19th 2011:

Yes, you're right, I watched it again. Weird. No visible beam or anything obvious like that.

► **Loki Thorson**  
Replied On Feb 19th 2011:

I ran the clip through an editing program and boosted the audio, **here**. You can hear a definite pop sound, then that guy twitched and relaxed. If I had to guess, it was some sort of projectile weapon? It sounded like an airgun to me.

► **Electric_Techpriest**  
Replied On Feb 19th 2011:

Sleep dart? Something like a tranquilizer dart would do that. But it worked amazingly quickly, I've never seen anything that fast before. Do drugs knock you out that fast?

► **Miss Mercury** (Protectorate Employee)  
Replied On Feb 19th 2011:

Not normally, no. We sometimes use dart guns on villains if it's the best way to drop them, but the fastest drugs I know of take maybe thirty seconds to work, sometimes a little less if the perp is really worked up. That took, what, two or three at most? Very impressive.

And I wonder what she used the first time? They seemed pretty lively for people who had been tranquillized, normally they take ten or fifteen minutes to come around and are very groggy for a while. Those guys were fine based on how loudly they were shouting!

► **Kingbob** (Verified BBPD Officer)  
Replied On Feb 19th 2011:

According to a friend who was on the squad with Velocity, he heard Ianthe used some sort of rapid-acting paralytic drug to take them down. Which is effective, if a little creepy.

Hey, though, they're E88. Creepy is probably good for them :D

A couple more photos **here ** and **here**.

► **Assembler**  
Replied On Feb 19th 2011:

So two different drugs, then? I wonder how many she has, and where the weapon was. I couldn't see anything in the video and there's nothing on the photos either.

► **Reave** (Verified PRT Agent)  
Replied On Feb 19th 2011:

I don't have access to that information, but I agree, I can't see a weapon either.

► **Bagrat** (Original Poster) (Veteran Member) (The Guy in the Know)  
Replied On Feb 19th 2011:

Thanks, Reave and KingBob, I've updated the root of this thread with the photos and video.

► **Mandabar**  
Replied On Feb 19th 2011:

This is slightly ridiculous. Yet another new ability for the Family! At this rate they'll have at least one of every power classification you can think of :)

So what's Ianthe? I'd think Brute goes without saying. Blaster too now. What else?

► **Kingbob** (Verified BBPD Officer)  
Replied On Feb 19th 2011:

I can't verify it at the moment but some of what our people overheard sort of implied that she might be a healer or something like that.

 **End of Page. 1, 2, 3 ... 7, 8, 9, 10, 11 ... 56, 57, 58**

 **(Showing page 27 of 102)**

► **Ianthe**  
Replied On Feb 19th 2011:

Hi! I like your city!

The people are interesting, but the hunts aren't very difficult. Cousin Saurial told me we had to let them go after we caught them, or at least give them to your law enforcers. I was a little disappointed, but they were pretty easy to catch, so I guess it wouldn't be fair to eat them.

They might be diseased, actually, one of them was stale. Maybe I should have fixed him?

I can tell I'm going to have fun here!

► **Dingbat779** (Cape Groupie)  
Replied On Feb 19th 2011:

Um...

What the hell was _that_?

► **Electric_Techpriest**  
Replied On Feb 19th 2011:

Someone being a fuckwit, I think. Or just a basic troll. Ignore it, maybe it will go away.

► **Mojiizen**  
Replied On Feb 19th 2011:

Cowboy? Is that you?

Techpriest's description certainly fits :)

► **XxVoid_CowboyxX**  
Replied On Feb 19th 2011:

AARGH!

Stop saying things like that!

No, it wasn't me!

► **Ianthe**  
Replied On Feb 19th 2011:

It was me. Doesn't my name come out on this thing? I was sure I did it right, but your human technology is a little odd.

► **Laser Augment**  
Replied On Feb 19th 2011:

Is it me or is this strange?

Again.

► **Loki Thorson**  
Replied On Feb 19th 2011:

If you really are one of the Family, prove it. None of them have PHO accounts that I've ever seen.

► **Ianthe**  
Replied On Feb 19th 2011:

How do I prove it?

► **FCVanillaIce**  
Replied On Feb 19th 2011:

A photo showing the use of your power or something like that is the normal way for a cape on PHO.

 **End of Page. 1, 2, 3 ... 25, 26, 27, 28, 29 ... 100, 101, 102**

 **(Showing page 28 of 102)**

► **Ianthe**  
Replied On Feb 19th 2011:

Oh! I see! All right, I can take a picture, this computer machine has a camera, I think. Hold on, I need to ask Cousin Saurial how it works.

► **Ianthe** (Verified Cape) (The Family)  
Replied On Feb 19th 2011:

How about this?

► **Laser Augment**  
Replied On Feb 19th 2011:

Jeebus. The _teeth_.

► **Mojiizen**  
Replied On Feb 19th 2011:

I believe you, personally :)

► **Valshax**  
Replied On Feb 19th 2011:

:O

Oh. My. God.

And is that Saurial behind her?

► **Jormungandr**  
Replied On Feb 19th 2011:

The Demons now use our technology against us!

► **Mojiizen**  
Replied On Feb 19th 2011:

*sigh*

Please go and jump in the bay. With any luck one of them will eat you.

No, that's mean.

I wouldn't want to poison some innocent giant lizard. Just... go away.

► **BrocktonBayMod** (Moderator)  
Replied On Feb 19th 2011:

Thank you, Ianthe, and welcome to PHO. I have updated your status. Please read and abide by the rules which are found at the top level of this forum under "Rules."

Fairly obviously :)

► **Ianthe** (Verified Cape) (The Family)  
Replied On Feb 19th 2011:

Hi, BrocktonBayMod. That's an odd name, but you humans are funny like that!

We like you anyway.

Thank you for the status update thing.

Mojiizen, we're not allowed to eat humans. I asked.

► **Mojiizen**  
Replied On Feb 19th 2011:

:O

I... am not sure quite how to take that...

Good?

 **End of Page. 1, 2, 3 ... 26, 27, 28, 29, 30 ... 100, 101, 102**

 **(Showing page 29 of 102)**

► **Glare**  
Replied On Feb 19th 2011:

Hi, Ianthe. Nice to have you answering questions.

So, how did you take down those E88 gang members?

► **Ianthe** (Verified Cape) (The Family)  
Replied On Feb 19th 2011:

I shot them with darts, it seemed the quickest way. Cousin Saurial was nice enough to take me on a hunt while she was showing me this fascinating place and those three strange people were running. She said she'd let me do it, which was nice of her. Based on your physiology, I formulated a drug that would safely paralyse a human and darted each of them. It worked really well. But then when it wore off they started getting really loud while we were having a nice talk with that Miss Militia person so I had to put the noisest one to sleep for a while. His packmates seemed to go quiet then which was good, I was getting a headache.

► **Bagrat** (Original Poster) (Veteran Member) (The Guy in the Know)  
Replied On Feb 19th 2011:

How did you shoot them? None of the images or video we have show any weapons.

► **Ianthe** (Verified Cape) (The Family)  
Replied On Feb 19th 2011:

My weapons are built in, I spent some time designing them when I knew I was coming here. They seem to work well.

► **Macdjord**  
Replied On Feb 19th 2011:

That actually raises more questions than it answers :0

► **Assembler**  
Replied On Feb 19th 2011:

What MZenny will want to know is if you like eggs :)

► **MZenny**  
Replied On Feb 19th 2011:

She does, Saurial brought her to my shop and they bought several boxes :D

► **Glare**  
Replied On Feb 19th 2011:

Oh, for...

Shut up about the damn eggs!

► **Ianthe** (Verified Cape) (The Family)  
Replied On Feb 19th 2011:

Eggs are nice. I like eggs.

► **Zjunrei**  
Replied On Feb 19th 2011:

Most people cook them first ;)

 **End of Page. 1, 2, 3 ... 27, 28, 29, 30, 31 ... 100, 101, 102**

 **(Showing page 79 of 193)**

► **FCVanillaIce**  
Replied On Feb 20th 2011:

So I was on the Boardwalk just wandering around minding my own business, and **this** happened... :D

► **Mandabar**  
Replied On Feb 20th 2011:

Glory Girl, she's behind you! BEHIND YOU!

Fuck, that was hilarious. They jumped about three feet in the air

► **IguanaGirl**  
Replied On Feb 20th 2011:

Poor Glory Girl! That was _so_ funny.

I know her from school, and her friends. They really should look behind themselves more!

Ianthe is really nice. My friend and I talked to her and Panacea for a while when we met them earlier this afternoon. I was right, she's really pretty, her scales have this sort of rainbow effect when the light hits them right. She's got a strange sense of humor but it's a funny one too.

I like her a lot.

► **XxVoid_CowboyxX**  
Replied On Feb 20th 2011:

Photos or it didn't happen.

► **MZenny**  
Replied On Feb 20th 2011:

That's sort of rude, Cowboy

► **Mojiizen**  
Replied On Feb 20th 2011:

Sorry, you do _know_ who he is, right?

Rude is normal for that idiot.

But I'd like to see photos as well.

► **SenorEel**  
Replied On Feb 20th 2011:

 _Everyone_ knows who Cowboy is. His fame is such that we've heard of him all the way over _here_.

I'm not sure if that's good...

► **Ianthe** (Verified Cape) (The Family)  
Replied On Feb 20th 2011:

Thanks, IguanaGirl, I found you a very interesting human as well. You have good taste!

Not that I know what you taste like. I'm not allowed to do that.

► **Mojiizen**  
Replied On Feb 20th 2011:

Cowboy, don't. I know what you're thinking, just don't.

You sad, predicable little pervert.

► **XxVoid_CowboyxX**  
Replied On Feb 20th 2011:

You want to taste her?

Can I watch?

 **End of Page. 1, 2, 3 ... 77, 78, 79, 80, 81 ... 191, 192, 193**

 **(Showing page 80 of 193)**

► **Mojiizen**  
Replied On Feb 20th 2011:

Oh, for fuck's sake. I knew it...

► **BrocktonBayMod** (Moderator)  
Replied On Feb 20th 2011:

*sigh*

Do I even have to say it? You're right on the edge again, my friend.

That's two. You get one more and you're having a time out for 24 hours, Cowboy. I'm not kidding, this is getting annoying.

Again. Grow up, please.

► **IguanaGirl**  
Replied On Feb 20th 2011:

Firstly, eeugh. Cowboy, you are a nasty person. I don't think I like you.

Secondly, **here's** **some ****pictures ** my friend took of me next to Ianthe.

► **White Fairy** (Veteran Member)  
Replied On Feb 20th 2011:

Cool, thank you, IguanaGirl. And just ignore Cowboy, most people do. For very good reasons.

She is pretty, isn't she?

► **Ianthe** (Verified Cape) (The Family)  
Replied On Feb 20th 2011:

Thanks very much! I like my scale color too, it took a lot of work to make it like that.

► **Assembler**  
Replied On Feb 20th 2011:

Make it like that? What does that mean?

► **Laser Augment**  
Replied On Feb 20th 2011:

It might be best not to ask. She might tell you...

► **Tiny_Swansong**  
Replied On Feb 20th 2011:

I agree, IguanaGirl, Ianthe does look very nice. For a seven and a half foot tall giant lizard woman, anyway :)

Please don't eat me, Ianthe

► **Mandabar**  
Replied On Feb 20th 2011:

She can't eat you, she's not allowed to, remember? :D

► **Ianthe** (Verified Cape) (The Family)  
Replied On Feb 20th 2011:

I checked with Cousin Saurial again, she's very firm on the whole not eating humans thing. She says the same as Cousin Raptaur, that humans are just like people, and we'd never eat people. I can see their point :) You guys are so interesting! I really have to think of something to help you stop being so fragile.

 **End of Page. 1, 2, 3 ... 78, 79, 80, 81, 82 ... 191, 192, 193**

 **(Showing page 81 of 193)**

► **Laser Augment**  
Replied On Feb 20th 2011:

Um...

I'm not going to comment on any of that. I'm just going to try to pretend I didn't read it.

► **Filipinosberman**  
Replied On Feb 20th 2011:

Ianthe has been around the Yard quite a bit in the last day, she seems nice. She was driving around in Panacea's truck with her today, hanging her head out the window like a big scaly dog!

It made a lot of people look twice, for sure. But she seemed to enjoy it.

► **Pyrite**  
Replied On Feb 20th 2011:

I saw that! :)

They drove past me on the freeway. So Panacea has a big blue truck, now? It was very shiny. The giant lizard accessory was terrifying... I mean, _interesting_!

► **Glare**  
Replied On Feb 20th 2011:

Here's a video I found in another thread from someone who was watching that practical joke on Glory Girl and her friends, and the aftermath when they were talking. Go to 1:34 and listen. What did Ianthe say?

► **Kid Win** (Verified Cape) (Wards ENE)  
Replied On Feb 20th 2011:

She basically implied she could remember Brockton Bay being covered in ice, I think.

► **Sothoth**  
Replied On Feb 20th 2011:

Which was (googles) um, over 12000 years ago!?

That's... impossible. Right? Please tell me that's impossible.

Or that I just heard it wrong.

► **Glory Girl** (Verified Cape) (New Wave)  
Replied On Feb 20th 2011:

I heard the same thing and I was right there.

I am... not entirely sure it makes me any less confused. And some of the Family are friends of mine.

Confusing friends.

► **XxVoid_CowboyxX**  
Replied On Feb 20th 2011:

OK, I'm definitely right! Aliens. I'm telling you, it's aliens.

Possibly demonic ones, but it has to be aliens. They've visited before and have probably been sleeping in their generation ship parked in orbit.

Of Mars or something, or the Simurgh would have shot it down.

The only real questions are how did they get here and what do they want?

► **Winged One**  
Replied On Feb 20th 2011:

I'm scared...

How many _are_ there?

My entire family is thinking about moving. Can we book a trip somewhere else? Anywhere? Please?

► **Dingbat779** (Cape Groupie)  
Replied On Feb 20th 2011:

Hey, Winged One, haven't heard from our favorite troll for weeks! How are you doing?

You'd need to find a way off the planet, I think. I sort of get the impression that the Family won't have much trouble getting anywhere on this one :)

And no, Cowboy, I don't believe they're aliens, demons, or demonic aliens. Or even alien demons. You and Jormungandr should learn from a classy troll like Winged One, he or she is at least funny and not just crude or creepy.

 **End of Page. 1, 2, 3 ... 79, 80, 81, 82, 83 ... 191, 192, 193**

 **(Showing page 82 of 193)**

► **Winged One**  
Replied On Feb 20th 2011:

Thank you, Dingbat779. If I visit Brockton Bay one day, I'd love to meet you.

But I don't think I will, not with _them_ hanging around!

Sometimes I think I can see them from here and I get worried, even though I'm quite a way away...

The world has become very strange in the last few weeks!

► **Jormungandr**  
Replied On Feb 20th 2011:

Those who consort with ancient demons become theirs. The Healer was the first. More will come, as I foretold. Did you not all learn I was right when the great one Kaiju arrived?

► **Mojiizen**  
Replied On Feb 20th 2011:

I can't decide whether I want to strangle _him_ , or _myself_ , when he says things like that. Either would mean I wouldn't need to read it any more...

•

 **Topic: Make it stop looking at me.  
In: Boards ► America ► Brockton Bay ► Family Sightings  
Zjunrei **(Original Poster)  
Posted On Feb 21st 2011:

I like Thai food.

Anyone who knows me knows that.

I go to several Thai restaurants pretty regularly, but this place is my favorite. Yes, the same place where Saurial and Panacea had meal weeks ago. For some reason that seemed to do some good to their reputation ;) The only problem now is you have to book about a week in advance.

My family and I were having a nice meal there tonight to celebrate my oldest kid's new job. There was a large group of people having a good time at the back, about twenty of them, which we noticed when we came in but didn't pay much attention to. But about half-way through our own meal, my daughter noticed that the group actually included seven of New Wave!

No wonder half the restaurant was listening to them and trying not to be obvious about it!

Of course, we ended up doing the same. I got some photos, **here** , **here** , **here** , and **here**. I finally recognised the tall skinny guy who seemed to be the reason they were there, it's the DWU guy Daniel Hebert, the one who called Kaiju in last week! Apparently it was his birthday, from what I could hear. I think the kid next to him is his daughter. They all seemed to be having fun, and they sure eat a lot :)

So why is this in Family Sightings, I hear you ask?

Because of **this**.

Yes. That's Ianthe. She turned up about half an hour later and just wandered in, asked for Danny Hebert, then headed over. Apparently the Family wanted to give him a birthday present...

You wouldn't believe how quiet the place got when she came in! The manager, poor guy, just froze and watched. Pretty much everyone else did as well. I was so surprised I almost forgot to get my phone out.

The present was...

I have no _idea_ what the present was. Aside from the _creepiest_ thing I've ever seen in my life!

I mean, _look_ at it. **Photo** , **Photo** , **Photo**.

What the _fuck_ is _that?_ _**How does it do that?**_

Even looking at the photo makes my head ache. I could swear I'm seeing the front of it and the back of -it at the same time :O

If you've read Lovecraft, you're probably already running... It's like a little piece of R'lyeh broke off and landed on that table. How the hell those two girls who were poking it with things could do it without throwing up I have no idea. Almost everyone else was staring at it like they expected it to go for their throats.

The Family are _weird_. Everyone knows that. I just think we may have _slightly_ underestimated what ' _weird_ ' actually _means_.

I need to go and lie down with a pillow over my head, now. Looking at those pictures again has made my brain itch.

 **(Showing page 4 of 24)**

► **Bagrat** (Veteran Member) (The Guy in the Know)  
Replied On Feb 21st 2011:

Um, wtf?

That photo is _moving_. I swear, it's a still image, I checked, it's not a GIF or anything, _but_... _it's_... _MOVING!_ How is it _doing_ that?

And I swear I can hear a strange sound coming from somewhere when I look at it.

► **Clockblocker** (Verified Cape) (Wards ENE)  
Replied On Feb 21st 2011:

Oh my god, that's horrifying. What IS that?

► **Bladeworksfan** (Kyushu Survivor)  
Replied On Feb 21st 2011:

 _Wrong_. That's what _that_ is.

► **FCVanillaIce**  
Replied On Feb 21st 2011:

I think I just got a terrifyingly good idea of what Non-Euclidean actually means. Now I can't stop seeing it.

How do I stop seeing it?

► **Glory Girl** (Verified Cape) (New Wave)  
Replied On Feb 21st 2011:

You think that's bad, I was actually THERE! It's way worse when it's only three feet away. That's about fifty miles closer than you want to be.

I could _swear_ it was looking at me. I'm pretty sure it still _is_.

How my crazy sister could stick her finger into it I don't even want to ask.

There were some very fucking strange things at that party, Ianthe was the least strange of them, trust me. I don't want to think about the coat.

► **Loki Thorson**  
Replied On Feb 21st 2011:

Coat?

And my eyes hurt looking at those photos.

► **Glory Girl** (Verified Cape) (New Wave)  
Replied On Feb 21st 2011:

I said I don't want to think about the coat. I mean it.

We _do not talk_ about the _coat_.

► **Electric_Techpriest**  
Replied On Feb 21st 2011:

Now _all_ I want to do is talk about the coat :D

Edit: Just looked at the photos oh god why did I look at the photos?

► **IguanaGirl**  
Replied On Feb 21st 2011:

The coat was nice. That... thing... wasn't.

I nearly threw up.

► **Laser Augment**  
Replied On Feb 21st 2011:

That's Eldritch, that is. You can see it by the way the dimensional walls are crumbling. Soon the things will come from the woodwork out.

I need sleep.

I wish I _could_ sleep after seeing that.

 **End of Page. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 ... 22, 23, 24**

 **(Showing page 5 of 24)**

► **Ianthe** (Verified Cape) (The Family)  
Replied On Feb 21st 2011:

We thought it was a nice little ornament. The full size building is much prettier, I agree, but the little model is good as well.

► **MZenny**  
Replied On Feb 21st 2011:

Full size?

Forget it, I don't want to know. I have a horrible feeling Lovecraft may have been more right than I want to think about. If that thing has Cthuvian writing on it, I think we need to throw it into Mount Doom as fast as possible.

► **Bagrat** (Veteran Member) (The Guy in the Know)  
Replied On Feb 21st 2011:

Someone posted some video of the... thing... in another thread. Before watching it, please understand that it's much worse than the still images.

 _Much_ worse.

If you really want to see it, go **here**.

Don't say I didn't warn you. I'm going to get drunk now. Very, very drunk.

► **Winged One**  
Replied On Feb 21st 2011:

That is the most fucked up thing I've ever seen, and I've seen shit that would turn you white. Or possibly into a pillar of salt.

I wish _I_ drank. I may take it up.

► **Vista** (Verified Cape) (Wards ENE)  
Replied On Feb 21st 2011:

That's...

I can't put into words what that it.

But I want one.

► **Clockblocker** (Verified Cape) (Wards ENE)  
Replied On Feb 21st 2011:

You have to be kidding me. Please tell me you're kidding me.

► **Clockblocker** (Verified Cape) (Wards ENE)  
Replied On Feb 21st 2011:

 _Please_.

► **Macdjord**  
Replied On Feb 21st 2011:

Now I'm really worried. Can reality take much more of this? Vista was bad enough on her own, I've actually seen what she does when she makes space her bitch.

This is worse.

► **Vista** (Verified Cape) (Wards ENE)  
Replied On Feb 21st 2011:

Hey! I like what I can do!

► **Macdjord**  
Replied On Feb 21st 2011:

Sorry, Vista, I'm not trying to be rude, I'm just... slightly worried? Yes, let's go with slightly worried.

Soul-searingly slightly worried. :(

 **End of Page. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 ... 22, 23, 24**

 **(Showing page 6 of 24)**

► **Vista** (Verified Cape) (Wards ENE)  
Replied On Feb 21st 2011:

I still want one. It gives me so _many_ ideas.

► **Mandabar**  
Replied On Feb 21st 2011:

Ohh shit. That sounds ominous.

I think we may need to evacuate the universe.

•

 **Topic: A new Family member, again?!  
In: Boards ► America ► Brockton Bay ► Family Sightings  
MZenny **(Original Poster)  
Posted On Feb 22nd 2011:

I sold some more eggs today :)

To another Family Cousin. Not Ianthe. There's a new one!

She's called Metis, and seems very smart. She looks a lot like Ianthe, same green eyes, but her scales are _incredibly_ black, I mean, like a black hole black, that's how black they are! But they also seem to have a deep red edge, so when you look at them at an angle, there's this sort of shimmering scarlet effect. It looks amazing under the lights here in the shop, I'd love to see it in sunlight.

Anyway, about half past two this morning Saurial came in, which isn't all that unusual, she's a regular customer these days. Ianthe was behind her, then this new lizard, who was looking around like she was taking everything apart with her eyes.

I wonder if she can do that?

But I mean, she looked at _everything_. She looked at my drinks cooler and told me it was three degrees too hot, and she was right! Just by looking at it. It was a little odd. On the other hand, she's a freaking seven and a half foot tall talking lizard, so I guess odd is sort of relative these days :)

They hung around for about ten minutes, bought three dozen eggs and all my beef jerky, **let** **me** **take** **photos** of them, then left. Saurial even took a **photo** of me between her two cousins. Cool, right? She said she was showing Metis around since she'd only just got here. I asked if they'd taken down any criminals but Saurial laughed and said that for some reason there didn't seem to be much crime around at the moment.

I wonder why ;)

Metis seems nice. I don't know if she has any other powers, though. I didn't want to push too hard.

 **(Showing page 1 of 13)**

► **Laser Augment**  
Replied On Feb 22nd 2011:

First post! And fuck me, another one? Already? If it keeps speeding up at this rate, endless swarms of giant lizards will be flooding out of Brockton Bay across the country in days.

Shit, I wish I hadn't said that.

► **Gallant** (Verified Cape) (Wards ENE)  
Replied On Feb 22nd 2011:

I'm very confused...

► **Glare**  
Replied On Feb 22nd 2011:

And you're in a position to know more about the Family than most of us!

 _You're_ confused? I left ' _confused_ ' a _long_ time ago.

► **Winged One**  
Replied On Feb 22nd 2011:

Join the club.

I'd make a joke, but I can't think of a good one.

Have a **photo ** of a smug lizard instead. Maybe it will keep _them_ happy.

I want them to be happy.

► **Dingbat779** (Cape Groupie)  
Replied On Feb 22nd 2011:

That is a very smug lizard, I agree. But sort of cute.

This city is getting peculiar.

► **Miss Mercury** (Protectorate Employee)  
Replied On Feb 22nd 2011:

 _Getting_ peculiar?

It's always been _peculiar_. I don't have a good word for what it is these days and I live here!

► **Filipinosberman**  
Replied On Feb 22nd 2011:

Safer?

It's definitely safer. I haven't seen an E88 gang member on the street in a week.

► **Mandabar**  
Replied On Feb 22nd 2011:

A lot less ABB around as well. Can't say it bothers me.

► **Reave** (Verified PRT Agent)  
Replied On Feb 22nd 2011:

Are Ianthe and Metis DWU members, out of interest? Anyone from the DWU want to comment?

► **Automatonation**  
Replied On Feb 22nd 2011:

Not that I know of. But I wouldn't be surprised if they end up doing that.

We're happy to take anyone who works hard and fits in. Weirdly enough, giant lizards fit right in around here :)

 **End of Page. 1, 2, 3 ... 11, 12, 13**

 **(Showing page 2 of 13)**

► **Clockblocker** (Verified Cape) (Wards ENE)  
Replied On Feb 22nd 2011:

Having met some DWU people I can't say I'm actually surprised about that ;)

At this rate you guys will have more capes than us.

► **Automatonation**  
Replied On Feb 22nd 2011:

► **Electric_Techpriest**  
Replied On Feb 22nd 2011:

This is getting just the smallest amount silly. What's next?

► **Jormungandr**  
Replied On Feb 22nd 2011:

They come, faster and faster.

Be afraid.

► **XxVoid_CowboyxX**  
Replied On Feb 22nd 2011:

[Post deleted]

[User temp banned – 24 hours] - BrocktonBayMod

That was too far and you know it.

And way too obvious. Try subtle, it works better and is actually funny. Better, try just not saying anything for a while for all our sakes. Please. I'm getting very tired of dealing with you. I know you're not stupid, some of the things you say are quite insightful and sometimes genuinely sensible, but then you go and ruin it with puerile smut. Try not to. For me? I have better things to do than constantly clean up after you.

Sorry, rant over, but he was annoying me.

► **Mojiizen**  
Replied On Feb 22nd 2011:

I'm surprised it took you this long to crack, friend :)

I'd have permabanned him a year ago.

► **BrocktonBayMod** (Moderator)  
Replied On Feb 22nd 2011:

Which is why you're not a moderator :)

► **SenorEel**  
Replied On Feb 22nd 2011:

When are you going to rename Brockton Bay to Innsmouth? :)

You seem to have most of what you need to do it properly...

► **Laser Augment**  
Replied On Feb 22nd 2011:

Don't even _joke_ about that! _You_ at least have the Atlantic Ocean between you and them, all _I_ have is land.

► **White Fairy** (Veteran Member)  
Replied On Feb 22nd 2011:

Like _that_ would help.

A mere ocean?

You did _see_ Kaiju, right? Can you spell sea monster? Let me help you, it begins with a K.

 **End of Page. 1, 2, 3, 4 ... 11, 12, 13**

 **(Showing page 3 of 13)**

► **SenorEel**  
Replied On Feb 22nd 2011:

Oh, thanks. What did I do to you?

► **White Fairy** (Veteran Member)  
Replied On Feb 22nd 2011:

I just didn't want you to think you were safe.

No one is safe...

► **Laser Augment**  
Replied On Feb 22nd 2011:

:O :O

I'm going back to bed. Maybe in the morning this will make sense.

► **Winged One**  
Replied On Feb 22nd 2011:

Bets?

•


	145. Lisa and Metis

"Don't stay up too late, Taylor, it's a school night," Danny commented, looking up from his book as his daughter entered the living room.

She smiled at him. "I'll be back fairly soon. We had a couple of things to finish off today, though. I'm meeting Amy and Lisa at the office at ten." Looking at his watch he nodded.

"You're better run, then, you've got ten minutes."

"Plenty of time."

"I'll be in bed when you get back, some of us aren't demon-powered and need sleep," he chuckled, as she bent down and briefly hugged him.

"I'll be quiet when I come in. Happy Birthday, Dad."

"Thanks, dear," he replied, putting his arm over hers for a moment with a small smile. "It was a very good day, thanks to you. I enjoyed it very much."

"See you in the morning." He watched as she left the room, smiled to himself, then went back to reading, picking up his mug of tea and sipping it. He might be a year older, but the way things had improved over last year made it more than worthwhile in his opinion.

* * *

Amy looked at her friends as she closed the door behind her truck, having parked it inside the building. All three of them were wearing similar satisfied smirks. Eventually, Lisa cracked up. "Oh, god, that was so _funny_ ," she cackled, leaning back in her chair. "How the hell I managed to keep from laughing I'll never know. Did you _see_ their faces!?"

"Mom was still muttering about things man was not meant to see when I left," Amy giggled. "She seemed impressed." Tapping her chin, she thought. "Wait. Do I mean impressed? Or terrified? Something like that. And Vicky was mumbling something about coats made from pterosaur skin."

"One way or the other I don't think anyone will forget it," Taylor snickered. "What a performance. Dad thinks that we should probably be a little _less_ effective, though, he's getting worried that the entire city will fall into a Lovecraftian nightmare of bizarre architecture and giant lizards making bad jokes."

"I thought that was the whole point?" Lisa grinned. "OK, fair enough, I can see where he's coming from. I just guess that Ianthe and Metis will have to learn human customs sooner rather than later."

"You're going with that name?" Taylor asked, looking pleased.

"Why not? It's not at all bad and I couldn't come up with anything better," Lisa replied. She pointed to the corner of the room inside the main door. "All the onions turned up today, along with the printer and some other stuff. I installed and tested it, seems to work. The rest can wait."

"OK." Taylor turned to Amy. "I think that means she wants her own scaly friend finished."

"You think she's ready for it?" Amy asked dubiously, inspecting the blonde girl. "She might need more training. We could wait until..."

"Stop it," Lisa growled. "Bioconstruct. Now. Gimme."

Smirking with enjoyment, Amy bowed deeply. "As the grumpy one commands."

"Funny, coming from _you_ ," Lisa snarked. "Panacea the grumpy healer is a thing around here, you know."

"That was old Panacea," Amy smiled as she straightened up. "New flavor Panacea is much happier. And twice as sarcastic." She posed, wrapping her tail around her legs. "And comes with accessories. Sure you don't want one?"

"Not at the moment," Lisa laughed. "We'll see. Come on, let's get on with it! Less talk, more unnatural creature-making!" She clapped her hands loudly, jumping to her feet. All three of them headed for the workshop, eager to see how it worked out.

* * *

 **Tuesday, February 22, 2011  
**  
"How does it feel?" Amy asked, watching the large reptilian creature experimentally flexing and stretching in the middle of the main room. The Varga had just put his modified perceptual blocking spell on it as he had for the first one, at which point Lisa had eagerly dived inside.

"Fine, although a little different from Ianthe," ' _Metis_ ' replied with a thoughtful look. "I can't explain it better, though. My power seems happy, but it was a bit confused at first. Everything's settled down now."

Nodding absently, Amy walked over and put her hand on the new Family member's side, concentrating as Taylor watched with interest. "Looks good," she reported. "Everything's working to spec. Do you like the color?"

"It's wonderful," Lisa said, looking at her arm. The scales were a black so dark it practically sucked in light from the room, edged with a deep scarlet that at the right angle made her body almost look that color all over. As she moved, it caused ripples of red to run across her in a very eye-catching manner. Blinking glowing green eyes, she smiled. "I love it. Thank you so much."

"You're welcome." Amy looked very pleased with the end result as well, nearly as pleased as Lisa was. "We'll have to do some proper depth tests now, in case anything needs tweaking. Before that, let's check all the built in systems. Dart launchers are the same as Ianthe, of course, as is the healing ability more or less. I fiddled with that slightly, hopefully it will interface to your power even more efficiently now. I suspect that with some practice you can learn to understand the data from the healing tendrils nearly as well as I can."

"Cool." Lisa held up a hand and extruded the tendrils, which wiggled around a little, then retracted. "Weird looking, but still cool."

"Same organic matrix extruders as well in the hands, and the new thagomizer extruder on the tail. It looks good, give it a try."

Turning her neck around, Lisa looked down her back at the end of her tail, both her friends watching. After a few seconds of poking around to find the mental controls, she smiled when four heavy and extremely sharp blades sprouted sideways nearly eighteen inches from the end of her appendage, taking a slight upwards angle to clear the floor. "Neat," she giggled, waving her tail around a little. "It changes the balance quite a bit, though. I'll need to practice with it."

"It's not too hard," Taylor put in, looking approving. "But let's wait until I've got you both up to speed on on the Family style."

"Fine by me," Lisa replied as she reabsorbed the spikes, turning back to Amy.

The Dallon girl nodded in satisfaction. "Good. All that seems to be working fine. The electrical organs are the big change." Taylor and Lisa both watched as she touched the large reptilian form again for a moment. "OK, I've activated it. Can you feel this here?"

Lisa concentrated, then slowly nodded. "I think so."

"And this?"

"Yes."

"All right, the first one sets the voltage, the second one the current. This one is duration. Last is this, which fires it. You can give a short shock, or basically hold it down until you run out of juice. If you tweak it like this, you get the capacitor-boosted burst, which won't last more than… maybe half a second? But it'll be about fifty times the current." Amy stepped back, grinning.

"You could probably spot-weld with it. The default setting are a non-lethal, disabling shock, about as much energy as a taser shot. You can also route the charge either to your fingers and thumb with either polarity, or to both hands. That lets you zap someone with only one hand or both. It'll hurt like _fuck_ , though, even at those levels, so be careful. Someone with a cardiac issue might shut down, you'll need to monitor them if you use it and fix any damage."

"OK." Their friend looked a little worried now. "I don't want to really hurt anyone unless I have to."

"I know, that's why I set it so low. Don't worry, the risks are pretty minimal. Less than hitting them in the head." Amy smiled. "Try it."

"On who?"

"Me," Taylor said, coming over. "You can't actually damage me with it, but I can tell if it's working."

"Of _course_ electricity doesn't hurt you," Lisa sighed, shaking her massive head. "Demons. OK, hold still." She reached out and put her hands on Taylor's exposed forearms for a moment. There was a faint pop sound.

"Ow. Arrgh. Woe is me, the sheer power of the huge lizard's unholy electrical attack has completely disabled me," Taylor stated in a calm voice, not moving a muscle. Lisa glared at her, while Amy giggled.

"Idiot. Can I try higher levels?"

"Go for it."

The pops got steadily louder and more threatening, until Lisa stepped back. "That seems to work."

"The last few would definitely have killed a normal person on the spot," Taylor reported. "I nearly felt it."

"Now you're just showing off," the large reptile grumbled. Holding her hands about an inch apart, she grinned toothily when a shower of vicious sparks crackled loudly between them, lighting her face from beneath in violet and red light. "I can do that too," she chuckled.

"It sure _looks_ impressive," Amy noted with approval.

"Hey, the organic resin is mostly carbon and metals, right?" Lisa asked, looking thoughtful. Amy nodded. "How electrically conductive is it?"

"I… don't know," the healer replied after a moment. "I didn't think of that at the time. Probably pretty good."

Forming a baton in each hand, the dark gray-black material growing out to about two feet long, Lisa tapped the ends together, then grinned evilly when there was a loud bang and a shower of brilliant sparks. "Look at that," she laughed. "Pretty good is an understatement." Holding them together she watched as they sparked and crackled with a sound like an arc welder. "They're warming up, but not much. My power says the stuff is about as conductive as iron. Not bad."

"Huh. That's an interesting use of it," Amy smiled. "Great idea. High voltage and low current would work pretty well even if you don't complete the circuit, I think. Especially if they're grounded."

"We really need to learn the Family style and add this to it," Lisa said with satisfaction, reabsorbing the batons.

"Let's go and do some quick underwater tests just to check you're a fully functional Family member," Taylor suggested, feeling very pleased about the last couple of hours work. "Then we can have an hour's training to get you two started on the basics. Tomorrow we can do more. And start language lessons." She checked her phone screen. "It's only just after midnight, I want to be home by about three-thirty or so. Should be enough time." Taking on her Raptaur form, she looked at Amy, who smiled and went into her workroom. A few minutes later, three large reptilian forms dived into the water of the bay.

* * *

Swimming along the bottom, glowing a ghostly green color in spots and lines down her sides, Lisa grinned widely. This was even better than being Ianthe, because it was hers alone. The feel of the bioconstruct was definitely different in some slightly ill-defined manner, she'd noticed that immediately. Her power had basically blinked a bit, looked around with great interest, then grinned like a lunatic. Laughing to herself, she wondered what the others would say if they knew she was anthropomorphizing it like that.

The longer tail took a few minutes to get used to, as did the somewhat different balance. Amy had changed the bone structure a fair bit although in subtle ways, this body seemed more flexible and if anything stronger than the Ianthe one. It was definitely a little faster in the water, although nowhere close to what Taylor could manage. On the other hand, the girl had the unfair advantage of not only being ridiculously stronger, but able to dynamically adjust her form for maximum efficiency.

Looking forward to summer and going for a good long swim south to some interesting tropical waters, Lisa was still more than satisfied. The thought that, if she wanted to or ever needed to, she could simply stay like this was interesting as well. Amy said there was no downside and she believed her new friend utterly in such matters. Not that she had any plans for remaining ' _Metis_ ' indefinitely, but it did give her an interesting escape route if her past ever came back to haunt her. She certainly never wanted to see her parents again, not after the way they'd treated her. Until she was eighteen and legally able to tell them to fuck off, though, there was the tiniest risk that something could happen.

Lisa had no intention whatsoever of going back to being Sarah Livsey ever again. Or of putting her friends, old and new, or the DWU who had been so good to her, at risk. So if anything like that ever happened, Lisa Wilbourn could simply vanish untraceably for as long as was needed.

Chasing after Taylor and Amy who had gone on ahead as she slowed to idly investigate an old car that had somehow ended up miles from shore and half-buried in sediment, she felt that life was pretty good all things considered. Even if parts of it were a little peculiar at times.

* * *

Missy scrolled slowly through the PHO threads, looking for something interesting to read. She couldn't sleep, or as one of the weirder posters she sometimes followed put it, ' _had failed to initiate the sleep thing_ ,' a phrase that still made her giggle. It described her problem pretty well, though. Lying in her bed with the lights out, she had the tablet lying beside her, but was reading it via liberal use of her abilities which had made the space around her _very_ strange.

With one hand behind her head and the other one resting on the covers, she flicked the web page with a finger, watching it scroll some more. There were lots of postings about Parahuman activity in the Bay, herself and her friends featuring in many of them as was often the case. Reading one which had Dennis making silly jokes about himself she smiled. He really didn't see the serious side of anything, or if he did, let it bother him. It was both annoying and a bit impressive.

Continuing to read, she paused on one thread about herself, something she found just a tiny bit creepy, mainly due to one or two people who insisted on asking really inappropriate questions. They had to know she was way underage, for god's sake. Reading one post she blushed. Some people on the internet were just assholes, she concluded once again. No matter what you told them they kept pushing for more.

Skipping past that particular post, she read one by Void Cowboy, who for once was actually taking the moral high ground, something that astounded her and by the looks of it most of PHO as well. He even had a good point. Of course, he ruined it only a dozen or so posts later by saying something that got the mods down on him yet again, but she was slightly grateful even so. He was a dick, true enough, but he probably didn't actually _mean_ to be, unlike some people.

Going back to the Brockton Bay local affairs top level section, she spotted a new thread which was linked to ' _Family affairs and sightings_ ', so tapped it. She found the lizards who had appeared out of nowhere endlessly fascinating. Saurial had struck her as a nice if scary girl right from the beginning and they'd intermittently emailed each other since she'd given the cape her card that first time they met. Whenever they met on patrol she was invariably friendly and funny, easily able to match anything Dennis could come up with.

The thread seemed to be talking about a party in a restaurant down town, one she'd heard of but never been in. Going back to the beginning, she found out it was apparently that DWU guy Mr Hebert's birthday party. Somewhat confused what the relevance was, she read the postings and looked at the photos, quickly noticing that most of New Wave seemed to be there along with a lot of other people she didn't recognize. There was an absolutely enormous black guy who looked nearly as large as Manpower, several boys and girls that were probably around sixteen or so, and the Hebert man himself next to a tall brunette girl who she worked out was his daughter. She looked a lot like him, in fact. Everyone seemed to be having a lot of fun and she was momentarily a little jealous of the family dynamic, so unlike her own.

Still not sure how this was relevant to the Family, she finally found the correct image set. The new one Ianthe was shown handing Mr Hebert a metallic box, presumably a present. She spent a moment admiring the colors of the giant lizard's scales, they were very pretty in her opinion.

A few photos further on, she stopped and stared in total disbelief. "Oh my god," she muttered faintly. "What… how does it _do_ that?"

The weird little… thing… that was now sitting on the table next to the box it appeared to have come out of was… indescribable. At least in words. Even as a photo, it was disturbing, or fascinating, or something of a mix between the two. Her power sat up and paid rapt attention, the inner sense of how space and distance related to each other that she could never describe to anyone else somehow giving the impression of gaping in awe.

Picking the tablet up she held it at arm's length, tilting and rotating it, trying to get a good look at the peculiar object. It gave the oddest impression of being in motion even as a still image, something she'd almost have sworn was impossible. The nearest thing she could relate it to was one of the stranger optical illusions that she'd come across, the ones that appeared to show rotating patterns even when printed out. But much, _much_ worse. Those were two dimensional, this… wasn't. It was nothing like that simple.

Rotating the tablet she blinked as the image did impossible things, then slowly smiled. It was almost beautiful, and it was giving her so _many_ ideas…

She really needed to talk to Ianthe, she decided.

Going back to the thread, she read the increasingly odd posts with great amusement, commenting in a few places. Apparently most people didn't find the odd effect the whatchamacallit had on their eyes anything other than extremely disturbing. A number of posters were complaining about hearing strange sounds in the background when they looked at the images, and the video had apparently been much worse. Quickly locating it, she watched it several times, giggling to herself.

When she'd finished the thread, she turned the tablet off and rolled over, finding now that she had no trouble at all initiating the sleep thing.

Her dreams were full of shapes she could never properly describe.

* * *

Taylor watched with approval as her two students faced each other. Amy pounced, Lisa ducking, then grabbing her with both hands, flipping her end over end. The other girl landed on both legs and one hand, her tail out behind her, making Taylor clap. "Nice superhero pose," she giggled.

"It seemed appropriate," her friend grinned. "Good throw, Lisa."

"Thank you," the blonde replied grandly, bowing a little. "Much appreciated."

"It's interesting how much of the training seems to have stuck in your human forms," Taylor noted, walking over to them. "You were certainly learning a hell of a lot quicker in the bioconstructs than any normal person could, so I guess your neural amplifiers work pretty well. But I didn't expect so much to transfer this quickly."

"I'm slightly surprised at how fast it works as well," Amy replied as she stood up. "I can tell that there are gaps, but I feel like I've got about three or four weeks of hard training under my belt rather than an hour and a half or so. Mind you, you worked us damn hard, it must have looked insane to normal people."

"None of those around here," Taylor shrugged.

"All too true."

"I think that if we could put in a solid six to eight hours or so, I could probably get you both to a pretty reasonable level in hand to hand combat, and get the basics of sword and baton work in as well. You'll still need to practice a lot, but at this rate with a couple of weeks of lessons you're be up to what Princess Luna would have considered competent journeyman level in the style."

"How long to learn everything you know of it?" Lisa asked with interest, sitting down at the table.

"I'm not sure, I'm still learning new techniques myself," Taylor admitted. "I guess probably six months would get you to around the point I was around three or four weeks after Varga arrived. You might have an advantage, Lisa, your ability definitely seems to let you see how the move is meant to work, but Amy's very quick as well."

"OK. I can live with that."

"We should practice knife throwing as well," Amy said thoughtfully. "Considering we can make the things, we should know how to use them properly."

"Yes, that's easy enough. I also need to do more work on the tailless version of the style and get you to practice that. That's why I haven't showed you most of the tail moves yet, or you'll end up trying to use them in your normal forms. Amy could actually do it, which would possibly look even weirder than Lisa trying it and not making it because she's a poor deformed freak with no tail."

The blonde girl made a face at her, which made both Taylor and Amy giggle.

"Just because I'm a minority you think you can pick on me," she grumbled good-naturedly.

"That's the way it works, haven't you noticed?" Amy snickered. Lisa shrugged, smiling a little.

"I think I'll talk to Dad about starting some formal classes in combat for anyone who wants to learn," Taylor mused, propping her chin on her hands. "I can teach the modified family style, and some forms of weapons use that are suitable. Zephron might be willing to teach Karate, and Mark knows a lot about baton use and firearms. I'm completely sure there are other people around here who know all sorts of useful skills like that as well. Like Brian. I'd like to learn as many of them as I can and add them to the style if possible."

"Building an army, are we?" Amy asked with a look of amusement.

Taylor shook her head slowly. "No, I just think it's a good idea to know how to take care of yourself, and other people who _don't_ know. Considering where we live, and all the things that are changing around here… We have to assume that sooner or later something bad will happen. Look at Hookwolf and his guys. That would have been really bad if I hadn't got Dad's call. Our guys were more than a match for his idiots, but he was way past anything they could deal with." She shivered a little. "We can't be everywhere. There are only three of us, I don't know if there will be any more, but if there are it probably won't happen quickly. The Family only takes people it trusts completely. How many of those are there?"

Both girls thought, then nodded. "Not to mention, if we do add other people, we have to be careful. If some Parahuman vanishes and a new Family member with similar powers turns up out of the blue, sooner or later someone will put it together, even with the cloaking spell," Lisa suggested, frowning a little. "No one really knows my abilities other than the Undersiders, who won't say anything even if they work it out, and a few people here like your dad. Who also won't say. The healing abilities that both Metis and Ianthe have should confuse the issue with Amy like crazy, not to mention the fact that both she and Ianthe have been seen in the same place lots of times now."

Both the others nodded.

"But if we gave your sister one of those," she added, waving at the two bioconstructs, which were dormant on the other side of the room next to each other, "It would be kind of obvious. Her aura alone would blow the game immediately unless you could figure out how to turn it off."

"If I could do _that_ I'd have done it ages ago," Amy sighed. "Although I have to admit in the last few weeks she's managed to bring it under control way better than I'd have ever believed. I can't think of the last time she accidentally made someone terrified or practically fall in love with her. It's a good change, Mom was very pleased about it. I think Vicky is as well."

"But the point is, she's got a very obvious power set," Lisa said. "The glow when she flies, the aura, the flying itself… I don't think we could fool anyone. You and I are one thing, someone like her is totally different. Same goes for Brian, his smoke is way too characteristic. I don't think Rachel would be interested, unless you made her a canine bioconstruct, which breaks the theme horribly. Alec… He might actually go for it, to be honest. He'd probably think it was hilarious." She smiled as her friends laughed. "His sense of humor would fit right in."

"Are you going to tell your friends about any of this?" Taylor asked curiously.

Lisa inspected her. "Would you let me?"

"If you thought you could trust them, yes," she shrugged. "Because I trust you. Obviously I don't really want the truth about me coming out, and I guess Amy is the same." The healer nodded vigorously, looking troubled.

"Which makes it almost impossible to properly explain anyway," Lisa sighed, dropping her head back over the rear of the chair with her hair dangling down the back as she stared at the ceiling. "I can't think of a good way to tell them about Metis that avoids everything else."

"Neither can I," Taylor said honestly. "But if you do, I have no real objections, I guess."

Eventually, Lisa shook her head. "No, not for now. Maybe never. This is between us. And your father. And Über and Leet." She frowned. "Fuck. Not much of a secret with all those people knowing," she muttered, making Amy look at Taylor with a grin.

"Don't forget there's also a non-zero chance that several people here have worked out the truth, or some of it, about me," Taylor put in. "Like Zephron, and maybe Mark. If they have, sooner or later they might come to some not entirely wrong conclusions about you two."

"Oh, god. Conspiracies are _so_ much _work_ ," the blonde sighed. "Why can't we just have fun making people go ' _Um, WTF?_ '"

All three of them shook their heads sadly, reflecting on the appalling state of the world when a half-demon, a Bio-whatever, and a high level formerly criminal Thinker couldn't just enjoy themselves without consequences. It was very annoying.

"Well, I'm too tired now to think anymore about anything much," Amy finally declared, standing up. "I'm going home. I'll see you in school tomorrow, Taylor."

"OK. I'd better get back as well. I've got a lot of work to do tomorrow on the tanker as well, now it's pumped out and they're starting the decontamination. You guys can help if you want."

"I'm up for that," Lisa smiled. "It could be fun." Amy nodded as well.

The pair activated the two bioconstructs, which looked at their users, then each other, touching noses like friendly cats, before obediently being guided back into storage. Once they were safely shut down, Amy locked the workroom, then picked her coat off the table and shrugged it on. "Later, Lisa. It was fun, dinner and afterwards. I'll see you tomorrow. I have that idiotic detention after school, but I'll come over after that."

"Poor The Amy," Lisa commiserated. Taylor snickered, very amused, as the healer looked narrowly at both of them.

"Some friends," she said with a sniff, turning on her heel and stomping towards the door. She was giggling before she'd gone half-way. As soon as the roller door was open, she hopped in her truck and backed it out into the yard.

Switching to Raptaur, Taylor waited for Lisa to follow the healer out, then turned the lights off and locked up, soon running home under cloak, feeling that the day had been well spent one way or another.

* * *

Checking the final connection, Colin nodded with satisfaction. "Everything checks out. The preliminary tests are ready to go. I'll prepare the shielded enclosure."

"OK," Dragon replied, beginning to close up the second wormhole generator, locking panels into place with a power screwdriver. It was their entirely new set of electronics attached to the first complete set of mechanical parts that Raptaur had made based on Leet's original, having none of his equipment inside. If this worked, it was proof the design could be fully duplicated. She was fairly certain it would work as intended, having a good feeling about the entire design, although she still didn't fully understand it.

Half an hour later the finished machine, still mildly radioactive from the initial run at the BBFO workshop, was sitting in a heavily shielded cabinet at the far side of the room. Without any EDM in the way they knew it would easily project the far end of the wormhole outside the Rig, having intended to put it far enough away so as to not present a radiation hazard to anyone outside, but still inside the force-field. Neither one was sure what would happen if they tried to make it go past that point at the moment.

Looking up from the computer which was connected to the device, onto which she had copied her version of Leet's control code, Dragon turned to her friend. Colin was sitting at another machine that was monitoring the entire test with dozens of sensors.

"I'm ready," she announced.

"So am I. All right, initiate the power sequence."

Tapping a key, she nodded. "Done."

"It's drawing the correct amount of power. Good." He checked the results again and smiled slightly. They proceeded through a careful set of start up tests, eventually getting the by-now familiar screech of the successfully produced singularity spinning up to operating speed, the sound making the entire room vibrate for a couple of seconds.

"Wormhole initiated… and successfully opened two hundred yards north-east." If Dragon could have smiled she would have been producing a huge one. As it was, her satisfaction subroutine was definitely being utilized to the fullest. "Fantastic. It works perfectly. The readings are identical to the other one."

"Excellent," Colin replied with a definite smile of pleasure. "I'm a little surprised at how easily that went together, but extremely pleased about it. We'll need to run more tests and stress-test this unit, but that can wait until morning."

She nodded, he sounded and looked tired, even with the stimulants that in her private opinion he made too heavy a use of. It was nearly half past four in the morning now and she knew he'd been going for over twenty-four hours. "Get some sleep, Colin. We can pick this up again in a few hours. Even this is enough to let us deploy it."

"Agreed." He yawned widely. "As much as it annoys me, I still have human requirements. Some sleep would be a good idea."

Smiling on the inside, she shut the generator down, the deep hum from it stopping abruptly. "We can modify the first one for the weapon in an hour or so, then deliver it to Raptaur. It's probably best if it's stored in the BBFO office, that way it's not only secure, but the Family has immediate access to it if we need to deploy in a hurry."

He thought for a moment, then nodded. "Also a good idea, I think. We'll need to work out where and how to use the other one as a transport mechanism for Kaiju, though."

"There are dozens of old warehouses in the Docks that have been abandoned for years," she pointed out. "Some of them are huge. Maybe we can find one that would do as a staging point. If the Family can line it with a thin EDM layer, like the BBFO building, we can install it there. That would shield the radiation and also keep it safe."

"Yes… That sounds like a very plausible plan. We should discuss it with them, but at the moment I can't think of any better idea." He yawned again. "Apologies, I really am very tired."

"Go to bed, Colin," she chuckled. "I'll see you again in the morning." Standing, she put her hand affectionately on his shoulder for a moment, which he didn't seem to mind, then left his workshop, hearing him start to shut everything down.

Feeling pleased with the day's work, she headed for the rooms she was assigned, already connecting back to her facility in Vancouver to begin production of spare parts for the wormhole generators. She could see a need for more than two of the things.

Not to mention that she was going to have to talk to Leet and Raptaur again about another contract for the device. Even with the radiation problem there were some significant commercial prospects for it and she could see a number of ways around that issue already.


	146. Factories and English

Coming downstairs, wiping a little stray shaving foam from his ear, Danny looked into the living room on his way past to see his daughter curled up on the sofa studying a large book, the end of her tail resting on her legs and twitching around showing that she was in a good mood and thinking hard. "You're up early. What are you looking at?" he asked, coming in.

"One of Mom's books," she replied absently, turning the page. "I remembered it was here somewhere and came down to find it."

Walking around the back of the sofa, he looked over her shoulder at the large-format book, recognizing it instantly. It was one his wife had bought years ago, some time before Taylor was born. A very nice series of reproductions of M. C. Escher's drawings ranging from his earliest works right up to his most famous ones of impossible architecture and optical illusions were interspersed with a lot of information on the artist himself. She was currently inspecting a famous one of a staircase that went upwards indefinitely.

The slightly deranged giggle she produced made him sigh slightly. "Taylor, dear, you _do_ understand that these are optical illusions? _Not_ architectural plans? I desperately _hope_ you do at any rate."

Her snicker didn't make him entirely sure she agreed with his point. Putting his hand on her head he stroked her hair, shook his own head, then went to make breakfast. He had a feeling that the weirdness was only now starting to kick off and needed some calories in him to face it.

He couldn't say with any degree of surety _what_ was actually impossible now for the Varga/Taylor/Amy/Lisa team. It was a little worrying, although certainly livened things up.

* * *

"We all had a lot of fun last night, Taylor," Mandy smiled as she greeted her friend, who slid into her seat next to her. Lucy came in moments later and did the same on the other side. "It was a really nice meal, and meeting all those people was wonderful. And even Ianthe's… um… _thing_ …? That was sort of interesting." She shook her head a little. "Although I had the weirdest dream you could imagine last night. Not really a nightmare, it was way too surreal to be scary."

She thought for a moment, then shrugged. "I can't explain it. But if your dad really puts that freaky thing on his desk he's braver than I am."

Taylor chuckled, while Lucy nodded wisely at her friend's words. "I asked him and he's not going to. He seems to think it would put visitors off too much. I think it's sort of cool, though."

"You would, you're a very weird girl sometimes," Lucy giggled. "But we like you anyway."

"I could ask Saurial if they could make something like that for you guys if you want," Taylor offered with a smirk. Both of her friends shuddered.

"No, thank you very much, I think I can do without a desk ornament that makes my eyes cross when I look at it," Lucy replied softly. "That thing was… very strange."

"I wonder what the full size version looks like?" Mandy mused, then went a slightly odd color. "Never mind, actually. I don't think I really want to know."

Amused at their comments, Taylor wondered for a moment why it didn't affect her that way, or for that matter Amy or Lisa. She herself thought the weird spacial distortions were sort of interesting to look at. Amy appeared to agree for various reasons, and after an initial period of gaping and drooling a little, Lisa had found the things she came up with apparently fascinating. But most people reacted a bit strangely as far as she was concerned.

Putting it down as one of the oddities about people in general that she'd probably never get to the bottom of, in the same way that she couldn't understand why some people drank until they fell over, she mentally shrugged and got her books out for the first lesson. The rest of the class arrived over the next few minutes, everyone being present after the bell rang. She was soon concentrating on her lesson, as usual finding it interesting and _so_ much more pleasurable now that Winslow was a rapidly fading bad memory, far behind her.

* * *

Danny called, "Come in," at the knock on the door, finishing the report he was writing and looking up to see Lisa watching him. "Hi," he smiled.

"You have visitors, Danny," she said. There was a look in her eye that he knew meant she was amused.

"Who?" he asked.

"Armsmaster and Dragon."

"Ah." A little surprised, as he didn't know exactly what the two Tinkers would need with him, he nodded. "Send them in, then," he replied, turning away from the computer. He stood as the two Parahumans entered, Mark behind them obviously having accompanied them up nodding to him, then moving away to some point near the door. Lisa pulled it shut, having inspected both of the visitors for a moment. He made a mental note to ask her what she'd got from them later.

"Good morning, Mr Hebert," Armsmaster said politely, as Danny came around from behind his desk, holding out his hand. Both Tinkers shook it.. "I'm sorry to arrive unannounced like this but we have a small problem. It occurred to us that you would be the most likely source of information that could help us with it."

"Of course, if I can help I'd be glad to," he replied. "What do you need?"

"You may be aware that we've been working with BBFO on a project recently," Dragon said. He looked at her and nodded.

"I am. I'm not privy to all the details, though." Which was essentially true as Taylor hadn't told him _everything_. Armsmaster looked at him then nodded very slightly, which made him wonder why, but the man seemed happy enough.

"It's of some importance, in fact, regarding a possibly effective method to help with Endbringer attacks," she went on. Her companion glanced at her, a little uncertainly if he was any judge, but didn't comment. "We need to find a space large enough to install a piece of equipment, somewhere that is close to the water and the BBFO facility, but not in the way of any current operations going on here, and ideally not on the same side that the Merchants tend to be active in. We were thinking you might know of an old warehouse that might meet our requirements."

"It needs to be large enough to allow Kaiju access," Armsmaster added. "Or decrepit enough that it can be demolished if necessary."

"I see," Danny replied, wondering what they were up to. Moving to the huge map on the wall, he studied it, the pair following him. "Let's think about this…" Pondering their list of requirements, he finally pointed to one building very close to the water, a couple of blocks to the north of the DWU yard. "OK, over here is a very large building that used to be a fish smoking plant. It's filthy inside from what I remember from checking it out years ago, and it stinks, but that's mostly kept the junkies out since there are better ones for them more easily accessible."

Armsmaster leaned closer to the map, inspecting the symbol denoting the building. "It appears to have doors facing the water," he commented.

"Yes, the place is about three stories high, and pretty much just one huge room. The doors at the waterside end were where the fish were unloaded into it. The other end has the loading bay for trucks. Underneath the floor are the pits the fires were lit in and the smoke was produced from. Fish were hung in strings from catwalks along the roof." Danny tapped the symbol. "This is one of your best choices, I think. It hasn't been used for, oh, a good fifty years, but it's a very solid building, all brick construction because of the fire risk. This other one over here a little further away is slightly smaller, it was a boat shed, but it's also one large space with some workshops around the sides. It's in worse condition. If you don't mind the smell, the fish factory would be the better bet."

Dragon looked at her colleague. "It sounds reasonable."

He nodded thoughtfully. "I doubt that the Family would have any difficulty lining it with EDM, which would render the smell irrelevant. We could easily install one of your bigger power units there as well. Close to the water like that… Easy access for Kaiju, if the doors are large enough."

"Making them larger is a simple matter," Danny pointed out, returning to his desk. "Kaiju is very good at making things."

"Do you know who owns this building?" Armsmaster asked.

"The city. Almost all the buildings around here reverted to city control many years ago, mainly due to unpaid taxes when the relevant companies collapsed." Danny shrugged. "The DWU actually owns a fair number of them as well, but not that one."

"Who would we contact to get the use of it?" the Tinker mused, staring at the map.

"Hold on, let me make a call," he replied, picking his phone up and dialing. Shortly a familiar voice greeted him. "Hi, Roy, it's Danny."

The two Parahumans exchanged glances. "Fine, thanks. Yes, she's doing very well too, school is treating her much better than that horrible Winslow place. We'd love to have a meal at your house, thanks, perhaps next week? Great. Listen, I need a small favor."

He smiled at the response. "That's good of you to say. OK, there's an old fish factory on Chandler avenue, number twenty-nine. The old Brockton Smokehouse and Cannery place."

He listened to faint muttering and the sound of keys clicking, then Roy got back to him. "That's it. It's one of yours from years back as far as I can remember from the last time I checked the records. Can we have it?"

Laughing at the response, he replied, "No, it's a favor for some friends. They need somewhere big and secure. The smell isn't a problem."

"Thanks, Roy. I'll have legal contact your guys for the paperwork. Talk later." Putting the phone down, he smiled at the pair of capes who were watching him with interest. "Problem solved. The city will transfer the building to the DWU. We'll transfer it to BBFO control. They can do what they want with it."

"I'm impressed, Mr Hebert," Armsmaster said after a moment. "Very efficient."

Danny spread his hands. "It's the sort of thing I do all the time. Believe me, the city would love to get rid of some of the places around here, they're death traps. The legal liability is a nuisance for them if nothing else. In a couple of years or so when the reclamation project gets going a lot of land here will be worth a hell of a lot but at the moment it's barely worth the cost of the paperwork to deal with it. Not to mention a lot of the buildings are beyond economic repair. We could probably get half the docks just for the asking, but we have no use for it. If it helps you guys and the Family, and can in any way help against Endbringer attacks, I'm happy to do my part."

"Thank you, Mr Hebert," Dragon said pleasantly. "This will be very useful for us."

"It was no problem," he smiled. "And call me Danny, please." She nodded, emoting a sense of a smile as well even through the armor. He was impressed how well she got emotions across. Better than her friend did, which was amusing considering that he could actually _see_ part of Armsmaster's face and none of her body at all.

About to say something else, Armsmaster happened to look at his desk, his gaze stopping abruptly. He stared for several seconds. "Mr Hebert?" he asked slowly. Dragon nudged him in the side. "Danny?"

"Yes?"

"What… is that?" The Tinker pointed with one armored finger at Taylor's paperweight. Danny had put it on his desk despite the weird effect it produced on him when he looked at the thing as a method of getting used to the bizarre objects his daughter was making. The little ' _gift_ ' from the day before was way too much in that area, it was safely in its box at home, under his desk there where he didn't have to look at it.

"A paperweight, actually," he said, picking it up. He was getting better at actually putting his hand on it, despite the way the damn thing tried to pretend it was several inches away from where it really was. "A little present from the Family. I was told they've been making things using this technique for a long time, and that this was very old. I'm not sure what it's actually _meant_ to be but it holds paper down fine." All of which was true yet wildly misleading. He was beginning to enjoy the sheer surreality of Taylor's weird plan. It was certainly rather fun watching the effect the thing had on other people.

Dragon was also staring at the almost-cube in his hands. As long as he didn't look at it, it mostly felt like a lump of smooth rock, although he couldn't have said for the life of him exactly how many sides it had as the count was always different. "It looks… a little odd," she noted in a fascinated voice.

"It does at that," he smiled. "Mind you, nothing like as weird as the strange ornament Ianthe gave me for my birthday last night. That was just disturbing on several levels. _This_ thing is weird but much less so."

"May I see it?" she asked.

"Sure," he said, holding it out. She took a few attempts to get her hand in the right position, but finally succeeded, lifting it from his palm.

Both the visitors examined it closely, Armsmaster making a pained sound after a moment and looking away for a second or two. "If I had to guess, I'd say it was a four dimensional cube," Dragon finally said, sounding very doubtful. "Which should simply be impossible in three dimensions. I can't get a good count of the number of edges or faces."

"Neither can I," Armsmaster grunted, poking the thing. "How could this even _exist?_ It's worse than some of Vista's experiments, but it's stable and fixed."

"Family secret, apparently," Danny said, sitting down and watching them puzzle over it with enjoyment. "I have absolutely no idea how it works. You'd have to ask them."

"I'm not entirely sure I want to know the answer," the other man finally sighed. "I have enough trouble with the parts of their existence I can already work out."

Chuckling, Dragon nodded, then put the cuboid back on Danny's desk. "I would tend to agree. Let's get the current project finished before we delve too deeply into the peculiarities of our reptilian friends. Although I'd like to come back to this thing at some point."

"Agreed." Armsmaster deliberately looked away from the dimensionally-confused block. "Would anyone mind if we investigated the warehouse?"

"Of course not, help yourselves. You'll probably have to cut the locks off the door, they'll be rusted solid by now what with the sea air and the years. I'd think the keys are long since lost as well." Danny motioned to his phone. "I'll get onto our legal department and get the paperwork sorted out. BBFO will have legal ownership of the building by the end of business today, but the city won't mind if you poke around."

"Thank you for your help, Danny," Dragon told him, a smile in her voice. "It was nice meeting you again."

"Likewise. Mark will show you out." He watched as they left, Armsmaster giving his desk one last apparently-curious look, before shaking his head slightly and turning away. Lisa came in and shut the door, grinning a little to herself.

"You confused the poor bastards again, Danny," she said when the heavy footsteps of the two armored Parahumans had faded away. "Although I bet that thing helped." She motioned to his paperweight.

Smiling, he picked it up and spun it in his fingers. "Probably. It confuses me as well. Were they happy?"

"Yes. Armsmaster is impressed with how effectively you solved their problem, and pleased. He considers you very competent. Dragon was amused by his reaction to everything, but also pleased and satisfied. They're both worried about time, though. If it's this next Endbringer attack they're thinking about, I can understand that, it'll probably happen any time now."

He sighed a little, putting the disturbing little memento down again and standing to look out the window. "It worries me a lot. Knowing that people I care about could be going into battle against something like that."

She came to stand beside him. "I'm not happy about it either, but that's life. Unfortunately." Turning to him, she grinned a little. "Did you have a nice dinner last night? I was told it got a little weird."

Giving her a hard look, he simply sighed faintly when she burst out laughing.

"You, Amy, and Taylor together. Heaven help us all."

* * *

Sitting behind her school desk listening to her English teacher droning on about verbs and adverbs, Missy propped her head on her left hand while she idly sketched in the margins of her notebook. Patterns and drawings took shape under her pencil, making her smile a little, then frown. They just wouldn't come out right.

She could _see_ what she wanted to do in her head, but drawing it was proving to be an exercise in frustration. There was something missing that she couldn't quite work out. At the back of her head, she had some weird mathematics bubbling away but she didn't know enough of the subject to be sure if they made sense.

Writing out one of the equations that came to her, she puzzled over it for a while. As best she could work out the answer was forty-two. Which seemed odd considering there were no actual numbers in the damn thing.

Deciding that she didn't really know what the question was that she was trying to answer in the first place, she went back to drawing, absently answering a question the teacher posed without really looking up. He stopped talking, looked at her, then frowned, walking over and whipping her notebook away from her desk and making her jump.

"Miss Biron, this is English, not Art. What are you drawing, anywa..." His voice trailed off oddly, making her guilty expression turn into a curious, guilty expression. She watched along with her classmates as he went a slightly funny color, exchanging puzzled glances with them. Shrugging wordlessly, she turned back in time to slap a hand down on her notebook as he dropped it half on, half off the desk and turned away, staring out the window while breathing heavily.

"Mr Morrison?" she asked tentatively. "Are you all right?"

"Fine, Miss Biron," he said in a tone of voice that suggested to her he'd probably had something that disagreed with him for breakfast. "Please concentrate on the lesson." Moving back to the front of the classroom he picked up the eraser and wiped away some of the things he'd written on the whiteboard, before leaning his head against it for a moment. A few seconds passed during which the entire class watched, confused, then he straightened up and jotted down the next part of the lesson, resting his head on the board twice more during this process.

When he finished and turned around, Missy's eyes widened a little and she glanced at a couple of her friends, all of whom were clearly trying not to laugh.

Mr Morrison spend the rest of the lesson teaching, not one of the students pointing out that he had ' _noun_ ' written backwards across his forehead in green marker.

They felt it was much funnier to let him find out later.

* * *

"How about this one?" the PR adviser asked, showing the next slide in the presentation. Roy read it dubiously, then looked around the table at the other councilors.

"Anyone think that's a good idea?"

There was a round of head shaking. "The slogan doesn't make any sense, although I'll admit it's catchy," Councilor Troy remarked. "' _Let's Make Brockton Bay Great Again?'_ What does that even _mean_?"

The PR person looked puzzled, glancing at the projection screen as if he couldn't remember his own work. "Well… It's meant to remind everyone of the way the city was once an economic powerhouse, and persuade them that it can be again, with the redevelopment plan and all."

"But was the city ever ' _Great_ ' in any real terms?" another councilor queried, frowning a little. "We've always been a fairly small city, after all, even if we had one of the busiest ports in the country for our size. The population was a maximum of something like six hundred thousand, which is fairly big, true, but not enormous. It's only two thirds of that now, but even if it went back, it's nothing compared to New York, or even Boston." She waved a hand slightly quizzically. "I couldn't honestly call this place ' _Great_ '. Even with the Family here."

"Not too bad in its heyday would probably be more accurate," a third councilor commented, smiling a little.

"' _Let's Make Brockton Bay Not Too Bad Again?_ '" Troy snickered. "That's more plausible I'll grant you, but not nearly as catchy. I'm not sure that complete honesty in public relations really works."

The PR man, an agent from an outside consultancy firm based in Providence, turned to Roy, who was trying not to grin. He looked somewhat confused. "Mayor Christner?"

"I don't think that one will work, James. Let's have a look at the next one."

"All right." The man pushed the button on his remote, the computer flipping to the next slide. This one had an image of the city skyline taken from somewhere in the bay, with the Rig off to one side, early morning sunlight illuminating everything and making it look far cleaner that it ever really was. Even the water sparkled blue, which was certainly not a common sight. Dull gray and misty would be more convincing, Roy mused, although he didn't say it. The poor man was looking hopeful now, having gone through over a dozen attempts, all of which had been shot down by the council, most of whom seemed to be taking a perverse enjoyment in the process.

The slogan this time read ' _Brockton Bay, a place for the entire Family_.' Roy winced a little. It was just that tiny bit _too_ accurate.

"We thought of a play on words," the PR man smiled. "Because of the Family, obviously. Humor in advertising is shown to work remarkably well, and we often find that subtle jokes are more..."

Raising a hand, Roy cut him off mid word. "I understand, James, and it _is_ amusing. The problem is it's… how do I put this…?"

"We already have at least five of _them_ here already," another council-member sighed. "I am grateful for them, and don't mind the ones we have, but… I'm not sure my mind will take the _entire_ Family. Who knows _how_ many of them there are?" He pointed at the screen. "That sounds a little too much like an open invitation. People are already joking about renaming the city to something from a Lovecraft book, I'm really not sure that giving them new ammunition in that area would be a wonderful idea."

Roy and almost all the councilors nodded slowly. "What he said," Roy commented.

"I see." James looked at his own slide for a few seconds, shuddered a little, and hit the button. "Moving quickly on..."

Settling back, Roy glanced unobtrusively at his watch.

This was going to take a while.

* * *

"It should be ideal." Dragon looked up, then around at the innards of the old building, hearing birds flying around in the roof space. The bright lights on her helmet were casting shadows around the place, although most of her sensory system didn't use visible light. "The floor is unstable, but that can be fixed easily enough. There's certainly room enough for Kaiju to stand up on all fours." The building was over sixty feet tall to the catwalks, enough space for the enormous cape if she was careful.

"The lower floor could be excavated, that would give another twelve feet," Colin pointed out, prowling around on the other side of the building. "I make it two hundred and forty feet long, ninety feet wide, and sixty-five feet to the lowest point in the roof space."

"That agrees with my measurements. Good. We have somewhere to use as a staging post. We'll need to get the Family to modify it and line it with very thin EDM. That should allow for the wormhole transit."

"If we block off the rear third as a control room, the remaining space is enough for Kaiju and the wormhole, plus any safe transit methods we use for other people." They'd discussed a number of ideas for achieving that goal, the simplest of which was an EDM-lined tunnel that could be extended a couple of feet, which would take it all the way through the wormhole and out the other side. It would take a little work but wasn't mechanically very difficult.

"What about the doors?" she asked, looking to the far end of the building, then carefully making her way there. She was pretty heavy in her current form and the floor was quite rickety. Debating unshipping her thrusters she decided against it as it would just make too much noise in an enclosed space.

"Too small. They don't open wide enough and aren't high enough, so they'll need to be replaced completely. Something similar to airship hangar doors would be ideal, I think." Colin was most of the way down the other side, being much lighter even with his own armor. On the other hand, he wasn't entirely full of batteries and processors, she thought with inner amusement. Reaching the door, he inspected it for a moment, then grabbed his halberd, using a short-range cutting beam device in it to remove the entire lock mechanism which was just a lump of rust and corrosion. As soon as it clattered to the concrete floor he put the weapon away, then grabbed the edges of the hole and pulled. Servomotors whined before the door very reluctantly opened a few feet, protesting loudly in the process.

Outside, the water was only about fifteen feet away, there being just enough room to get a vehicle past the end of the building. It was similar to the BBFO one, a few hundred yards further towards the city down the coast. "That's convenient, though. There should be no problem getting Kaiju inside once the doors are replaced. I wonder how deep the water is right there?"

She picked up the lump he'd cut from the door and tossed it into the bay, listening to the sound of the splash and running the appropriate algorithm on it. "Approximately thirty feet," she replied. "It's half-tide, so about forty-four at full tide."

"Adequate for a reasonably large boat," he noted.

"Presumably the point."

Stepping back, he heaved the door shut again, then quickly welded the seam with a different tool on his halberd over a distance of a few inches to stop anyone getting in.

"I've seen enough. This is workable. We should go back and draw up some diagrams of what we need done, then contact Raptaur this evening."

"All right," she agreed, as they headed for the exit.

* * *

Dinah frowned at her reflection, then shook her head. "No. It looks silly. I'm twelve!"

Her mother looked at the PRT costume designer, both women exchanging a smile. "She has a point," her mother said.

"I agree, but this is one of the ones Mr Chambers approved." The woman looked somewhat resigned. "Between you and me I think he sometimes gets carried away."

"I'm not even going to be going out in public as a cape anyway, why do I need a costume?" Dinah pointed out in what she thought was a fairly reasonable tone. "I can just wear a mask if anyone comes here who shouldn't know who I am." Looking down distastefully at the odd, old looking tiny suit she was wearing, she sighed. "I look like something out of one of those old movies Dad likes."

She was already somewhat annoyed that the fat man who was apparently the one in charge of the appearance of Parahumans like her had tried to get her to accept being called ' _Bookie_ '. He seemed oddly set on the name or something like it.

None of them were anything that she particularly liked.

After a _lot_ of discussion, both with him, which had resulted in both of them sulking and glaring at the wall, and her parents, not to mention a lot of looking through dictionaries, she'd finally decided ' _Prospect_ ' was something she could live with. It was relevant to her power, but not so obvious that it instantly told everyone what she could do, and short enough that it was easy to say.

That part was fine.

This silly suit was just ridiculous, though. What was wrong with jeans and a t-shirt? Or if you wanted to get fancier, something like Vista's costume? While she wasn't really hugely girly, she quite liked that look. Although the colors left something to be desired.

Mind you, the fedora was sort of cool. Tilting it on her head to a rakish angle, she grinned. She could make this work. After all, Saurial did, and _she_ was a _lizard!_

She definitely wanted to meet the tall blue reptile and see if she could figure out why all the Family members gave her that weird error whenever she tried her power on them. Dinah had spent hours in bed scribbling down questions to see if she could figure them out, but nothing she tried directly led her anywhere. At least it didn't seem to count against whatever limit made her head hurt, or not very much anyway.

Even her parents didn't know how many questions she'd asked herself about them. It was annoying her as much as it was piquing her curiosity.

The two new ones, Ianthe, which she thought was a nice name, and Metis, who she'd read about this morning, produced subtly different errors, but the effect was the same. It was like when her computer told her a web page was blocked.

Which also annoyed her. Although she'd found ways around that most of the time. Unfortunately this particular block was a lot less straightforward to circumvent than some crappy ' _childproof_ ' web blocker.

Honestly, how stupid did the teachers think she was? She was _twelve_ , not an _idiot_.

Turning back to her mother, she shook her head again, firmly. "No. I'm not wearing this." Reaching up she patted the fedora. "Except this hat. I like this hat."

"You can keep the hat, dear," her mom smiled, looking at Ms Haroon, who nodded, looking amused. "What else do you have?" she asked the costumer.

"What's wrong with jeans?" Dinah asked, her hands on her hips. "Like these? I like these, they're comfortable."

Ms Haroon sighed faintly. "Glenn would be… a little upset… if you wander around in jeans and a mask. Sorry. He can be a bit..." She waved a hand slightly uncertainly.

"I think I understand," her mom chuckled. "OK. Let's see the rest of these suggestions and see if we can figure out some combination that would meet both children's standards."

"Mom!" Dinah snapped, while Ms Haroon broke down in gales of giggles, her mother following after a moment.

"Honestly," she sighed under her breath, waiting for the adults to stop making fools of themselves. "Sometimes I think I'm the only sensible one here..."


	147. Omake - The Shop

**Grand Opening!**

 **This Tuesday!**  
 **Today!**

 **Little Pet-shop of Fun**

 **Custom Pets, designed while you wait.**

 **Upgrades for existing pets.**

 **Reptiles a specialty!**

 **Is your dog too stupid? Ask for CaniBoost™! Adds 30 IQ points or your money back!**

 **Entire Dexterous Feline Products® range available from stock. Thumbs for cats! Buy one, get the other one free today only***

 **Special Requirements? Eldritch Horrors can be made to order. PRT license must be shown before purchase. Please note that**

 **Tentacle Beasts must be kept on a leash at all times within city limits, under bylaw BB/GOO/666.**

 **©2011 LPF Inc, a division of BBFO, LLC**

 **Complaints should be directed to head office, DWU Building 29, Brockton Bay (555) 3537 4824**  
 **Timewasters and unsolicited callers will be eaten.**

 _*not recommended for Siamese cats. No refunds given. LPF is not responsible for feline takeover bids._

Hannah stopped dead, looking at the sign, her eyes so wide that they were almost in danger of falling out. ' _Oh, god_ ,' she thought in shock. Raising her gaze she looked into the window of the shop, then flinched violently. The kitten on the other side of the glass peered cutely out at her, hanging head down from the window on suction-cupped feet and staring between its forelegs with wide purple eyes.

Which were visibly glowing.

The deep green fur with darker stripes like a tiny oddly colored tiger was also a little off-putting.

Gaping at it, she watched as it tasted the air with a forked tongue, then rotated in place with lots of little popping sounds she could hear even over the sound of the street, before scuttling up to a hammock sort of thing in which she could see three more, all different colors, looking down at her.

Shuddering a little, she cautiously inspected the other… _things_ … in the window display.

The tank of… were they fish? She desperately _hoped_ they were fish. Anyway, the tank full of _those_ _things_ looked more or less normal, until she noticed that the brilliantly metallic creatures were swimming in and out of a little sculpture on the bottom, which in itself wasn't all that unusual.

The way that a particular ' _fish_ ' would enter the sculpture, then immediately swim out of another on the other side of the tank, though… That was a bit weird. A lot of the plants waving in the water were very strange too. Such as that one that was waving at _her_ …

Closing her eyes, she shook her head, then cautiously checked again.

Yep. She wasn't imagining it.

Sighing helplessly, she glanced at her companion. Ethan was also gaping at the contents of the window, but, worryingly, was starting to grin.

"Do you think Battery wants a pet?" he finally asked, staring at something that looked like a cross between a ferret and a spider with a cat's head and scales. It was weirdly cute, in a totally brain-freezing manner. She stared at him, then it, then him again.

Hannah sighed heavily.

"I _really_ don't think _that's_ a good idea," she muttered.

"What about that?"

He pointed.

She looked.

She closed her eyes again.

"No. Definitely not."

When she opened her eyes she let out a little yelp, finding that Saurial was peering at her from about a foot away, her head cocked to the side curiously. "Hi! Are you OK? Only you're a bit pale."

"I'm..." She tried, but couldn't honestly say ' _fine_ ,' no matter how she tried. The lizard-girl didn't look upset, merely mildly puzzled.

"Want to come in and browse?" she asked happily. "Fifteen percent discount for Protectorate members and PRT employees."

"I don't think so, thank you," Hannah replied quickly. "To be honest, I doubt that you'll get much business from the..."

"Isn't he cute?"

The familiar voice, female, young, and high-pitched, cut her off. She turned to see Vista and Clockblocker coming out of the shop. The young girl had one of the suction-cup-footed lizard-kittens clinging to her chest while staring into her eyes and purring. Sort of. To be honest, Hannah couldn't really say _what_ the sound the thing was making was, but it was… different. Contented, but different.

"He's pretty cool, Vista," the other Ward replied, neither of them having noticed Hannah or her companion. "What did Ianthe say he ate?"

"Pretty much anything," the girl replied happily, cuddling the thing, which squeaked at her. "Watch!" Reaching into her pocket she pulled out a small bag which she opened, removing what looked like a marble. Tossing it into the air in front of the creature clinging to her, which had rotated its head like an owl to follow her hand, she giggled when a pair of two-foot-long, slender tentacles shot out of the thing's suddenly wide-open mouth, snatching the small sphere out of the air and retracting with lightning speed.

It chewed, crunching sounds coming to Hannah and Ethan, who had abruptly stopped grinning.

"Cool," Dennis chuckled.

"They like glass, she said," Missy nodded. "Do you have his little house?"

"Yep, here you go," Dennis said, fishing in his pocket and removing a…

Hannah shook her head violently.

The warped space around what seemed to be a sort of cube made her brain itch. Ethan gargled a little beside her. Missy merely looked at it, then smiled. "Go on, in you get, Shoggy."

"Shoggy?" Clockblocker queried.

The girl shrugged. "He seems to like it." They watched as the suction-cat made its way along her arm, then dived into the peculiar thing she was holding, seeming to fall away into the distance without moving. She smiled, then put it and the bag both into her pocket. "I don't want him falling off when we get moving," she explained, motioning to the other side of the street, which was suddenly right next to her. The two teens took a step, then reality snapped back into shape.

Hannah stared after them for some time, before slowly turning to Saurial and Ethan, the lizard-girl looking pleased and her fellow hero looking very, very confused.

"It's always nice to see someone with a new pet," Saurial smiled. "Sure you don't want to come in?"

Hannah wordlessly shook her head.

"OK. It was nice seeing you." Looking past her, she grinned widely. "Lucy! How's Newell doing?"

Turning her head, Hannah stared at the Chinese girl who was approaching them, a very large lizard wrapped around her shoulders. The thing was looking around much more alertly than seemed reasonable for such an animal.

"He's fine, aren't you, Newell?" the girl Lucy smiled, tickling her lizard under the chin.

The damn thing _nodded_.

Saurial made a few odd hissing sounds, that weird Family language that always sent a chill down Hannah's back. Newell stared at her, then seemed to grin.

"I need to go," Hannah said quietly, turning around and walking off.

"Bye, Miss Militia," Saurial called pleasantly.

As she turned the corner, she heard the cape greet someone else. "Hello, Mr Anders. We've got your modified wolf finished. Remember the contract you signed, though, he _must_ be kept on a leash at all times when out of the building under the Fenrir Protocols. Agreed?"

"Of course, my dear girl," the familiar voice of Max Anders replied smoothly. "You can trust me."

"Oh, I know I can, Mr Anders," the reptile replied just as smoothly, a grin in her voice, along with a lot of teeth. "I _know_ I can."

Even from where she was speeding up, Hannah could swear she heard the Medhall owner swallow dryly.


	148. Omake - Just sign here, please

"I want a dragon."

Amy looked at the heavily built Asian man, a number of tattoos visible around the neck of his shirt, cocking her head a little to the side. At the other end of the shop, Lisa was talking quietly to Lucy, who was sitting with Newell in her lap, the iguana nodding every now and then when the girl made a joke. He snickered at one point, which made Amy smile internally. It seemed like the mod she'd called ' _muttley_ ' was working well.

Her friend was working part time at the shop over the summer, mainly for fun, although she was paid well. Everyone seemed happy with the arrangement.

Well, other than Miss Militia, but the cape was a somewhat strange woman. Amy had seen her staring into the display window a number of times, but she always looked like it was something she _had_ to do rather than _wanted_ to do.

"Certainly, sir, that's not a problem. Hold on please, I need to find the right order form." Bending a little, she reached under the counter, coming up with a stack of paperwork, her talons quickly flipping through the pages. "Tentacle beast, no, Miniature Sandworm, no, Micro-Shoggoth, no, Ornamental Great Old One… Ah, here we are, Dragon." She pulled the relevant page out and put it on the counter in front of the customer, returning the others to their box.

He looked a little weirdly at her, then down at the page. "What is this?"

"A dragon order form, of course." She smiled at him, trying not to show too many teeth due to the way some people seemed to find it unnerving. "Just fill it out, name and address here, contact details, then the requirements you have for your dragon. I have a catalog here that shows the options if you need more information. You will also need to apply to city hall for the relevant dragon license, they insist on registering them, but it's only a fifty dollar fee and a simple application."

She handed him a pen. Taking it slowly from her, he stared for a moment, then bent over the form. Watching for a moment as he wrote in a neat hand the relevant details, she busied herself poking around for the correct license application, which she put next to him when she found it.

Leafing through the glossy catalog, the man smiled widely a few times, noting down options. Once or twice he snickered darkly, and at one point muttered, "Wolf? I'll show that bastard..."

Waiting patiently, she accepted the form when he finished.

"All right, then, Mr Kenta. Let's just double check this. Now, you wanted a classical Japanese dragon base phenotype, but you've indicated wings from a European variant. That's possible, but due to the overall longer body structure, the creature isn't really suited for winged flight."

Mr Kenta looked disappointed.

"However!" she smiled brightly. He looked hopeful again. "Recently our partnership with Leet Industries and Draco-tech has resulted in some remarkable biocompatible antigravity systems. We can use one of those if you wish, which will flight-enable your dragon, without needing the wings. It is, I'm afraid, somewhat more expensive, but it should provide a superior performance."

He waved his hands impatiently. "Money is no object."

"Excellent," she laughed. "Let's just change that code there… OK, now you specified high heat tolerance?"

"Yes, it's not impossible that it might experience… a very high temperature," he hedged cautiously. "Is that something you can do?"

"Certainly, LPF specializes in near-indestructible exotics." Quickly looking up her own codes in the catalog, she made a few notes. "I must point out that it's inadvisable to let your dragon get too hot then let it jump into water. The creature won't be harmed, but the high temperature steam presents a visibility hazard."

"I understand," Mr Kenta smiled.

"Great. Now… color. You have gold and red here. Would you like to see some samples?"

"Yes, please."

She rummaged around for a moment under the counter. "Here we go. These are the standard color schemes for dragons, including a number of traditional Asian schemes. However, we can match any Pantone color precisely, or for extra cost, add a chameleon skin that will allow a near infinite range to be user selected."

"Ah." He looked impressed. "Now that sounds very interesting indeed."

"Would you like to go for that option?"

He nodded, smiling again.

"OK. That's the main things. Let's check the rest… Length, thirty feet, that's fine, claws, six inches… would you like the EverSharp® option?" At his puzzled look, she showed him the description in the catalog.

"Yes. Definitely."

"All right. Omnivorous, standard package… Waterproof… Firebreathing?"

"Yes, please."

"All right. That requires a variation on the license, please tick there, there, and sign there." Amy pointed at the other form, which he was already writing on. "Good, that should do it. How do you wish to pay?"

"Do you accept Visa?"

"Of course, Mr Kenta, we accept all major credit cards, cash, mystical artifacts of class four level and up, and interdimensional credit notes."

He handed over a card.

"We will take the full price now, but only fifty percent will be charged to your card, the balance on delivery. There is a twenty-five percent restocking fee if you return your custom pet, though."

"That's acceptable," he replied.

"There we go." The card terminal beeped and she handed him his card, which he put back into his rear pocket.

"How long will it take?"

"An order this large? Hmm… Come in next Tuesday and it will be ready. Or we can deliver if you want, free of charge."

"I'll collect it," he said calmly, picking up the license application and folding it twice.

"Fine. Please make sure you have your license with you, city bylaws forbid us from releasing an exotic of this class without it."

"Entirely understandable, Ianthe," he said, bowing respectfully. She returned the gesture. "It was a pleasure doing business with you."

"Likewise, Mr Kenta. Please come again."

"Most likely I will," he nodded, before turning and leaving. As he walked out of the shop, her sharp hearing caught him muttering, "I'm coming for you, Kaiser. Wolf or no wolf."

Grinning to herself, she started entering the order details into the computer. Accurate records were vital in running a successful business, Danny had drummed that into them all early on.


	149. Omake - Clean Up

Saw a sig, an idea sparked. Couldn't help it... :)

* * *

Armsmaster watched as Ianthe and Metis took aim at a large cleared plot of former Ship's Graveyard land. It was badly contaminated with oil, fuel, heavy metals, and all the other detritus of more than a century of being used as a marine dumping ground.

The DWU and city hall had been discussing how to clean it up for some weeks, most of the standard options being very expensive or very slow to act. Kaiju had suggested simply digging it out, then eating the result, but even she didn't look like she actually _wanted_ to do that.

After a while, Ianthe had gone off and thought in a corner, then had a long conversation with Metis and Saurial, as well as the Dallon girl on the phone. She'd finally smiled widely and said she had a cunning plan.

Colin had been visiting at the time and had exchanged a glance with Danny Hebert. Both of them had looked a little worried, as that statement usually preceded something that made Director Piggot reach for the small bottle of brandy she thought she had hidden in her desk, and caused Hannah to go pale and then go for a long walk.

However, the reptiles seemed pleased with their ideas and he'd discovered it was normally best to just go along with it under those circumstances. So far everything had worked out, even if the side-effects tended to make visitors to the city look askance at the locals, who were becoming sufficiently blasé that he wasn't himself sure if there was anything that would actually surprise the average Brocktonite by now.

He frowned slightly. Brocktonian? Hmm. Sooner or later someone was going to have to settle that.

"Take aim!" Ianthe called in a commanding voice, raising her arms, both forearm launchers pointing into the middle of the cleared area. Metis did the same from beside her, as did over a hundred people they'd borrowed from the DWU, all of whom were armed with some weird organic looking weaponry which made his eyes ache a little when he inspected them. There was no actual technology in the things that he could detect, but they undeniably were very effective weapons.

"Ready explosive shots!" About a third of the armed union people stepped forward. "Ripple fire, scan the field. FIRE!"

A huge wave of popping sounds followed her command, almost instantly being drowned out by an almost continuous roar of small but vicious explosions as the small darts penetrated the soggy ground and detonated, churning it up into a pretty decent approximation of a plowed field in seconds. The DWU people panned and scanned the guns, steadily ripping up several acres of ground in a demonstration of worrying competence.

In under a minute she raised a hand, having been firing as well. "CEASE FIRE!" she yelled, all the guns immediately stopping. Looking pleased at the results, she nodded, then issued another command.

"Bioremediation squad, ripple fire, wide spacing. FIRE!"

The remaining sixty percent of the DWU people stepped forward and started shooting, the pops this time only followed by a pattering sound as the ammunition disappeared into the mud. A couple of minutes later she once again called a halt.

"Great. Everything's set. Saurial, the catalyst, please."

The lizard-girl, who had been watching with interest, nodded, then moved to the front. She pulled a small hard to look at cuboid from a belt pouch, before impossibly sticking her arm into it, then pulling out the biggest fucking gun Colin had ever seen other than ' _Athena_ '. Handing the cuboid to her cousin, she took aim.

"Firing!" she called, then pulled the trigger on the wildly outsized device, which caused an earth shattering **_KABOOOOOM!_** sound to echo around most of the bay, thousands of tiny projectiles coming out of the foot-wide barrel at high speed and tearing up the field yet again.

Colin ducked, the sound being extremely unexpected, while Mayor Christner who had been watching from nearby hit the deck in a very impressive demonstration of reflexes he wouldn't have expected from the older man. Interestingly, the Hebert man who was standing next to him barely flinched, he noticed as he straightened.

"Wonderful!" Ianthe grinned. "Now we wait. Any moment now..."

Everyone watched.

Twenty seconds later, Metis pointed. "There."

"Yep. Working perfectly." Ianthe smiled a very toothy smile, watching as small green shoots started coming out of the ground, at first being just a barely-there fuzz, then quickly growing into plants that became steadily taller at an absolutely insane speed. There was something deeply disturbing about actually being able to _hear_ plants grow from a hundred yards away, Colin thought uneasily.

They kept watching as the things grew, then started putting out leaves, which looked vaguely familiar. The plants matured in minutes, small white flowers appearing by the million, tipping over then enlarging, before in seconds falling away to leave green pods behind.

The pods swelled and grew, the whisper of hyper-accelerated plant growth rising to a crescendo before slowly dying away.

Eventually the field of plants stilled. Everyone watched as Ianthe walked towards the nearest edge, reaching out and plucking a few pods, then coming back while examining them closely. She stopped next to Danny Hebert, Mayor Christner and the two other reptiles joining her, as did Colin. He looked at what she was holding.

"Impressive," he commented, reaching out with an armored hand and picking one up. Slight pressure made it split open, revealing a number of small spherical seeds. "These contain the heavy metals?"

"Yes. The plants themselves have broken down all the hydrocarbons and toxins, while sequestering the non-bioavailable elements into the pods, which makes them much easier to dispose of. This was only a proof of concept, I can tweak it to color-code them and have each one only take up a specific metal. It might have other applications in mining, for example, but bioremediation of Superfund sites is the most immediately helpful use. The plants die off and can't breed, so there's no risk of environmental escape."

"We can even use the biomatter for natural gas digesters, or simply cattle feed," Metis added, looking pleased.

" _Very_ impressive. I think I can report to the PRT that this was a total success." Popping one of the little green spheres out of the pod, Colin held it up between thumb and forefinger. "Can I ask why the rather dramatic method of planting, and also why this specific plant?"

"Well, it was quick, fun, and that species is very easily modified," Ianthe smiled. "Actually, it was an old human saying that sparked the idea, so I ran with it."

"Saying?" Danny asked curiously.

She smirked, shucking another pod of green balls into her palm.

"Yep. It's not a bad one," the giant lizard chuckled, looking around at the others.

"Peas through superior firepower."


	150. Friends and Illness

"That's interesting," Paul commented, looking at the updated Leviathan tracking data. It showed that twice in the last few days, the Endbringer had left his holding pattern, moving a hundred or so miles in the first case, then about half that in the second, in different directions. Both times he had then hung around the new position for a little while before returning to his original area.

"We think it must be due to Kaiju going on trips from the Brockton area and him doing the same thing we've noticed before," Dragon said. "He's moving to stay as far away from the Family as possible, and still appears to be splitting the difference between the ones in the city and whichever one it is that's out in the ocean. Based on that, it would seem that she went down to a position off the continental shelf, about here, which is interestingly the closest point to the city that the shelf comes. Then, the next trip was around half that distance due east, with a short stay before the return."

The armored Tinker put a marker on each location, showing the first one was in water over seven thousand feet deep, the second being in much shallower water at about six hundred feet or so.

"Is there anything that stands out about either location?" he asked. Both Dragon and Colin shook their heads.

"No, not that we can determine," the latter said. "No shipwrecks on record, nothing particularly unusual about the environment. I'd say it was purely random aside from the first one being the closest very deep water. But… can we be sure that the Family ever does things at random? Or do we simply not understand their motivations yet?"

"That's true," Paul mused, looking at the screen. Eventually he sighed faintly. "Well, it seems we have a rough and ready way to track Kaiju's movements to some degree, even if we don't know why, how, or what she's doing when she's not in the city. Although I have to say that using an Endbringer as a locating system is… bizarre."

"It's not the first thing that I would have thought of," Dragon replied with a laugh in her voice. "But it does seem to work. Although..." Both men looked at her. "I've been wondering about Umihebi. If this is from Leviathan reacting to Kaiju, why isn't he reacting to Umihebi in the same way? She's swimming around out there, I'd assume, since we haven't had any contact with her since the loss of the probe, and a two hundred foot long sea serpent is quite noticeable. If she was anywhere close to land, or even _on_ it, I'd have thought that someone would have said something by now."

She waved at the monitor. "Yet if she _is_ wandering around out in the Atlantic, why isn't he moving around as her mirror image like he does with Kaiju?"

They considered the question for a while.

"Perhaps," Colin said after a few seconds, "her tracking countermeasures are good enough to block him from finding her like he can with the others? We know she managed to totally drop off our own sensors after the first interception attempt but we still have no idea how. It may be that she's been running silent ever since."

Dragon nodded thoughtfully. "Possible, I suppose."

"Or she's in the bay somewhere," Paul suggested, making both of them look at him. Colin's eyes were rather wider than normal, making him think that the man still wasn't over his feelings about the enormous creature. It was obvious that the loss of the probe had caused him a certain amount of worry.

"I wish you hadn't said that," Colin muttered, looking back to the monitor. "I'm not sure that I like the idea that there's something that makes _Kaiju_ of all people look small lurking around possibly only miles away from here."

"Or perhaps closer than that," Dragon remarked, sounding amused at her friend's reaction. "The silt at the bottom of the bay is pretty deep in some places. Maybe she's buried in it, and could be right next to the Rig."

Colin shuddered. "Please don't make jokes like that," he requested.

"She did, after all, get Danny Hebert that fragment of my probe," the Canadian went on, sounding like she was trying not to laugh. "We assumed that one of the others gave it to the man, but perhaps she climbed out of the bay in the DWU yard, completely invisible, and just gave it to him personally."

Paul turned away, his lips twitching, while Colin paled a little. "I think that may be taking speculation slightly too far, Dragon," he said after a few seconds of bringing himself under control. She looked at him and he could tell from her posture that she was also trying not to laugh.

"I suppose so," she replied. "An invisible sea serpent is even less believable than a sea serpent is in the first place."

"And wildly more worrying," Colin grumbled. "Can we leave this topic for now? It's not as important as the upcoming Endbringer attack."

"Very true," she laughed, patting his shoulder. "Sorry, Colin, sometimes my sense of humor get away from me. You're probably right, it could well be that she's able to block Leviathan's ability to track the others. It makes sense, as much as any of this does. Although it means we have no idea where she could be."

"It doesn't really matter right now," Paul put in. "Umihebi seems to work on the same Family basis of leave her alone and she leaves you alone. I'd like to look into this at some point, but now isn't the time." Colin nodded firmly, closing the tracking display program with a twitch of a finger.

"I agree entirely. Shall we discuss the proposed wormhole facility?" He sounded like he wanted to say please at the end of the sentence.

"All right. I've looked over your initial design and it all looks good," Paul replied, moving over to the work table which had a set of plans unrolled on it and held down in the corners with small odds and ends from the pile of random Tinker things scattered around. "I like the idea of making a system to allow the rest of us to use the device without radiation damage. The EDM tunnel seems a very simple but effective solution to the problem."

"It'll need to be tested carefully. There is a slight possibility that the gamma radiation I measured during Raptaur's transit of the wormholes during testing is an inherent property of whatever it is that lies between the two ends. If that _is_ the case it might not get blocked by a shielded tunnel. However, I don't think that's very likely. My current understanding of the wormhole mathematics puts it at a very low, but non-zero, possibility." Dragon looked at the plans from next to him, Colin moving around to the other side.

"Raptaur or Kaiju can easily make the parts we need, and line the building with very thin EDM. We can add a good security system, I can supply all the computers and control systems needed, and so on. I've got a transport on its way here at the moment with the required equipment on board and I've started a small production run of electronics for the wormhole generator."

"I'm both impressed and pleased that you two were able to duplicate it so quickly," Paul commented.

"Without the aid of Leet, Über, and Raptaur, we couldn't have," Colin pointed out. "Raptaur's ability to so precisely duplicate the mechanical components in materials that strong and exotic would be very hard to replace, and even if Leet can't rebuild the device himself, his knowledge of how it went together was invaluable. Über's power and inherent intelligence made him a vital part of the group as well, he certainly reduced the amount of time needed by many hours and possibly days."

"We had quite a formidable team there, I agree," Paul smiled. "Hopefully the two young men will see the benefits of being more law-abiding and come around to our side of the equation."

"That is pretty likely," Dragon chuckled. "Almost guaranteed, in fact, based on my own talk with them and Raptaur. Although I think they're still going to have a predilection for… odd things."

"In Brockton Bay, that goes without saying," Paul replied, smiling more widely. "Good. I find that I actually like both of them a lot more than I expected. It would be nice to have them on the side of the angels. Or us, anyway."

They went back to talking over the design of the building and the facilities they'd need, all of them suggesting changes and taking notes. It was slowly coming together into something very useful, he felt.

* * *

"How is your truck doing, Amy?" Eric asked, looking over at the Dallon sister as he sat down.

"Very nicely, thanks, Eric," she smiled. "I love it. I'm making a list of upgrades I want to get, but it's fun to drive, comfortable, handles well, and carries a lot of stuff in the back."

"I'm glad it's working out for you," he chuckled.

"By a lot of stuff, do you mean giant lizards?" Mandy grinned. Amy nodded, making Taylor smile as well.

"Not exclusively, but that's useful. You never know when you might need to have a spare giant lizard in an emergency."

"Have any of the Family other than Ianthe been in it with you?" Lucy asked, looking very interested.

Amy glanced at Taylor, who was inwardly very amused. "Saurial has been in it," she said, "but Raptaur is probably a little too heavy."

"And Kaiju could barely get her index finger inside it," Mandy noted with a smirk.

"That's true," Amy laughed. "Saurial was complaining that the seats aren't made for people with tails. It's not something I ever really considered up until recently, but she has a point."

Lucy looked interested, smiling slightly. "It must be a little awkward to have a tail that large around normal seats and things. I hadn't thought of that. Other than sitting down, I wonder if she has problems with other day to day stuff?"

"Doors might be an issue," Rich said thoughtfully. "I can't imagine getting your tail caught in a door is wildly comfortable."

"Rocking chairs, maybe?" Mandy suggested with a giggle. "Like the old proverb about cats and rocking chairs."

"People could trip over it," Amy pointed out, casting a look of evil humor at Taylor. "Someone with a tail should probably keep it out of the way of other people."

"I would think they'd pretty much have to," she replied, looking back with amusement. "If nothing else because some people don't look where they're walking."

"Well, even if it's a little awkward, I like her style," Lucy said firmly. "I like Saurial, period."

"I'm sure she likes you as well, Lucy," Mandy assured her with a grin. "You defend the family on PHO like a rabid rottweiler. Or perhaps a rabid iguana. IguanaGirl."

Lucy looked embarrassed now. "Reptiles can't get rabies," she said in a quiet voice, staring at her plate. "And I like the Family, they're nice people. All the ones I've met are really cool."

Mandy put her arm over her friend's shoulders. "I know, I'm only teasing. I like them too. Probably not quite as much as you do, but..."

"Hardly _anyone_ likes reptiles as much as Lucy does," Eric said. Lucy looked sideways at him, then smiled again.

"I do like reptiles," she replied.

"We all are very well aware of that, Lucy," he laughed. "I suspect the Family is as well. Don't worry, I think you're right, they're good people."

"Do you want to come to the DWU yard and meet Raptaur with me?" Lucy asked. He nodded, smiling.

"Why not, it could be fun." Looking around the table, he added, "Anyone else going to come?"

"I will," Mandy immediately said. "I have to protect my best friend from the giant lizards. Or possibly protect _them_ from _her_."

Lucy frowned at her, making the other girl giggle again. "I'd like to come as well," Rich added.

"Like Danny said last night, I'm happy to take you if you want," Amy said. "But he'll want to know if your parents are OK with it."

"Mine are," Lucy smiled. "I asked Mom as soon as I got home."

"I just bet you did, probably before you took your coat off," Mandy laughed. Lucy nodded, grinning.

In the end they had all got permission to visit the DWU. Amy nodded, looking thoughtful. "OK. I'm going to the yard later this afternoon, Metis and Kaiju will be there doing some work on the tanker, and Raptaur will probably turn up as well at some point. Why don't you guys come with me? We can show you around and you can watch Kaiju at work close up for a while, then I can give you all a lift home afterwards, or your parents could pick you up."

Lucy looked excited, as the others exchanged glances. "I don't have anything particular planned for after school," Rich mused. He looked at Taylor, who was watching her friends with inner pleasure. "Are you going to come?"

"I can't, I'm afraid, I have a lot of studying to do still." She shrugged, smiling a little at him. "Busy all the time, making up for two years of lost work at Winslow." This was partially true, she still had gaps in her scholastic record, but she was filling them up at a significant rate, and was far ahead in mathematics and physics.

"That's a pity." He smiled back. "Are we going to have another tutoring and movie session at your house soon?"

"Sure, if you want, I'd like that," she replied. "Maybe Friday?" Everyone thought about it, then nodded. "Hey, Vicky," she called, turning around in her seat towards the table the Wards and the blonde girl were seated at, all of them talking about something. Amy's sister looked over. "You up for another tutoring session on Friday?"

Vicky thought for a moment, then nodded with a thumb up. "Count me in."

"Great." Turning back, Taylor smiled. "Good, I'll tell Dad tonight. Have fun at the yard. Give Kaiju my best, Amy."

Her friend smirked at her, obviously also finding the entire thing hilarious. "I'll make sure to do that, Taylor."

"Amy, have you actually met Metis yet?" Lucy asked as she picked up her can of soda and opened it. She looked eagerly at the healer. "I was reading about her this morning when I got up. There was quite a lot on PHO about her, but no one seems to know very much yet."

"I've met her, yes," Amy smiled. "She's nice too, different from Ianthe, but also very smart and interesting."

"What's the relationship between them all?" Eric asked curiously.

"Saurial, Raptaur, and Kaiju are sisters, Ianthe and Metis are cousins of theirs, and I think also sisters. They look very similar, the same green eyes and overall shape, but Metis has black scales with a red effect, unlike Ianthe's violet-blue scales, and her tail looked longer as well."

"Can they both heal? Someone on PHO claimed they could." Mandy looked fascinated. "Two new healers in the city is pretty big."

"Yes, they can both do it," Amy confirmed. "I took Ianthe to the hospital after we met on the Boardwalk, they let her heal some patients while I monitored it. They're very pleased to have access to a new healer, or two, now, and it makes me happier as well."

"That's good. I'm glad you're not working yourself to death these days," Mandy smiled.

"So am I," Amy replied with a faint sigh of relief. "I hadn't realized how bad it had gotten until Taylor and other people managed to drag me away from it. Thank god they did. I've been a lot happier since, and making friends with all of you guys is a big part of that."

"Any time, Amy," Rich chuckled. "We like to do our part to help the local Parahumans stay sane. Well… as sane as they get, anyway." He grinned at her as she rolled her eyes, then laughed.

"Which isn't very, I know. Fair enough. Thanks all the same." He raised his glass of apple juice in an ironic salute to her, then drank from it.

The six teenagers continued with their lunch, talking and laughing, while Taylor reflected on how much fun she was now having with life. She could see that Amy felt the same and was eager to get back to Family matters.

* * *

Chris looked up as Dennis came back to their table, sitting down hard and putting his head in his hands. He and his friends shared a concerned glance. The red-head had left the cafeteria a few minutes ago muttering about needing to make a phone call, and now looked like he was almost ready to cry. It was an unprecedented expression on the normally impossibly upbeat young man's face.

"What's wrong, Dennis?" he asked after a few seconds. There was no response, so he reached out and poked his friend in the shoulder. "Talk to us, man. What's the problem?"

"It's my dad," the boy finally said, sighing heavily. "They got the results of the latest test back. The new treatment failed."

Chris looked at Carlos and Dean, who both looked worried. Vicky seemed a little confused, which made him realize that she probably didn't know all that much about Dennis' father's illness, since he didn't talk about it unless he had no choice.

"What's wrong with your father, Dennis?" the blonde asked softly, leaning closer to him.

"He's got cancer," the boy muttered, which made her eyes widen and her face pale a little. "He's had it for years. We thought it was in remission but it flared up again recently, the tumors came back. They gave him some powerful chemotherapy drugs that the doctors were hopeful would help, but they did some tests last night and got the results back this morning. It's not working."

"I didn't know that," she said, sounding shocked.

"I don't talk about it, it's… not something I like to think about," he explained, looking sideways at her. "It's been going on for so long now that… I guess it's just part of my life." His snort of laughter rang hollow. "It might not be for much longer."

* * *

Taylor listened to the red-head with a blank face, concerned on the inside. She liked the Ward, aside from anything else, and cancer was horrible even leaving that out of it. She glanced at Amy, who had stopped with her fork halfway to her mouth, her head tipped a little to the side. It acted as confirmation to her that her friend had made a few more modifications than she'd admitted to, clearly having boosted the sensitivity of her hearing even in her normal human body.

Taylor suspected that she'd probably tweaked her eyesight and sense of smell as much as possible as well. She was aware that Amy was constantly fiddling with her symbiote trying new things, and better senses were an obvious one. She'd probably done it the last time she was in Ianthe. It undoubtedly paled into insignificance against her own senses, but was likely far better than an unaided human could manage.

After Dennis had finished explaining about his father's illness, Amy met her eyes. She could see that the girl felt guilty about not knowing the truth of the red-headed boy's father's illness and doing something about it.

"You had no idea," she whispered very quietly, too quietly for any of their friends to notice. "It's not your fault."

"I can fix him."

"I know you can, and I know you will. But don't beat yourself up, if you don't know about it, you don't know about it."

Amy nodded a little after a moment, putting her fork down. She looked over at the other table, where her sister had her arm around Dennis' shoulders, the boy looking very upset. Vicky met her eyes, then motioned with her head.

Glancing at Taylor, Amy smiled a little. "I'll see you later, guys," she said, pushing her tray away. "Help yourself to anything you want here, I'm done with lunch." She stood, heading over to the other people.

Taylor and her friends watched her go. "What was that all about?" Mandy asked curiously.

"Amy's needed for something she's really good at," Taylor said, snagging her friend's dessert before Eric could get it. "Don't worry about it. She's just helping a friend."

"She's a good person," Lucy smiled. "Just like Saurial, I understand why they all get on so well."

Smiling to herself, Taylor watched Amy walk over and lean down next to Dennis, the tail that only she could see twitching back and forth as she spoke quietly to the boy. Satisfied that things would work out, she went back to eating and listening to Eric tell a long, complicated, and very funny anecdote.

* * *

"I wish you'd said something, Dennis," Vicky said quietly. "I had no idea about your father."

"Like I said, I don't talk about it." The boy sighed heavily. "These guys know because we've spent so much time together over the years. But I don't go out of my way to tell people."

"I'm your friend too," she said, putting her arm over his shoulder. "You can trust me with things like this. And there's another thing you're forgetting."

"What's that?" he asked, a little sullenly.

She smiled at him. "My sister is the best healer in the world."

He looked at her, then down at the table. "I didn't want to bother her with it, she's so busy all the time."

"That was old Amy, and aside from anything else, it's _cancer_ , you twit, not a cold. It's important. Even old Amy wouldn't have minded if you asked her to help. _The Amy_ would be more than glad to."

"You think so?" he asked hopefully.

She looked over at where her sister was sitting with Taylor and the others, both of them watching her and the Wards with concerned expressions. She was once again impressed with how perceptive they were. She made a small motion of her head, her sister nodding, then getting up after a quick word to her friends. "Ask her yourself," she said. Dennis followed her eyes, watching as Amy stopped beside him and bend down to put her head next to his.

"What's the problem, guys?" she asked in a low voice.

"His dad. Cancer. Treatment failed."

"OK. What hospital? He's not at Brockton General."

"The private one run by Medhall, they were using an experimental chemo treatment on him that's a last resort method," Dennis said, hope coming to his voice.

"All right. Come with me, Dennis. Vicky, can you tell the school admin office I'm out on a medical emergency, and took him with me? We'll be back as soon as possible."

"OK." Vicky was impressed and pleased about the completely no-nonsense approach her sister took.

"Come on, Dennis, let's go. Your father will be fine ten minutes after we get there. I promise." Amy smiled at him in a kind manner. "I'm really good with cancer."

Suddenly smiling wildly, the red-head jumped to his feet, hugged a startled Amy, then practically towed her out of the cafeteria, most of the occupants watching in surprise. Vicky snickered, then helped herself to his lunch. She looked at the remaining three people at the table. "That was simple enough. What's next?"

Carlos stared at her, then shook his head. "You've definitely changed as much as your sister has, Vicky," he remarked with a smile of his own. "In a good way. Well done, and thanks. He's a pain in the ass but he's my friend."

"Mine too," she grinned. "Look after his bag, will you?" She got up. "I'll see you in class, I need to go to the office." Feeling like she'd achieved something useful, she headed off to explain where her sister and Dennis had run off to.

* * *

Dennis watched with a sensation of unreality as his father, suddenly looking better than he could remember from any time for years, blinked a little, then sat up. He opened and closed his mouth, cautiously stretched, then prodded himself in a few places through his hospital gown. "Nothing hurts," he said in wonder.

"I'd certainly hope not," Amy replied with a small smile. "If that was the case I wouldn't have done my job properly." She took the chart the nurse handed her, flipping the hood of her costume back in the process with her other hand. She'd changed in the back of her truck after they got to the small research hospital near the Medhall building. Walking into the reception, the costume had attracted instant attention and a lot of respect, making it a simple matter to get to Dennis' father. Reading it, she nodded a couple of times, then made a note at the bottom, signing it. She handed the clipboard back to the nurse, then turned to the oncologist who was standing next to the bed, looking impressed.

"Thank you, Doctor Grells. I'm sorry for jumping in like this, it was good of you to let me see Mr Moore so quickly."

"It was my pleasure, Panacea," the doctor replied. "With the failure of our latest chemo treatment, we had little to lose, leaving aside your stellar reputation in these matters. I am truly impressed how well it worked."

"He'll need a lot of protein and carbs, his body mass is very low, but he's as healthy as he can be now." Amy smiled at Dennis' father. "Mr Moore, you will find that you're very hungry for a couple of days. Don't worry about it, just eat whenever you want to. I turned your metabolism up quite a lot to make sure you put back on a safe amount of weight. It'll revert to normal in a few days."

His father nodded, looking slightly stunned at how quickly his life had turned around. Dennis couldn't blame him, he was about ready to faint himself. "Oh, I also tweaked your hair follicles, your hair should grow back pretty fast as well," she added, looking at the shiny bald head of his father, where most of the hair had fallen out as a result of the chemo. "It should be about four inches long in a week, then it will go back to normal rates as well."

Running his hand over his head, the man suddenly smiled widely. "Thank you, Panacea. More than I can say."

She waved a hand. "It's what I do. I'm good at it, Dennis is a friend, it's no problem." She smiled at him. Dennis stared at his thin, bald, but suddenly healthy father, then grabbed her in a tight hug.

"Thank you, Amy," he whispered into her ear. "Thank you."

"You're welcome, Dennis," she replied, hugging him back. "Do you want a lift back to school?"

"I'm staying here, I can blow off the afternoon," he said, releasing her. "This is more important."

"Fair enough, I agree. I'll make sure the school knows why." She smiled again, then turned to the doctor. "If you have any more serious cases here, as long as I'm in the building, I might as well do them as well."

He looked pleased. "That would be a very great help. Thank you." Looking at Dennis, then his father, he shook his head in wonder. "I'll get the paperwork started for a discharge, Mr Moore," he said. "Nurse, can you do a complete workup on him for the final records?"

"Of course, Doctor," she replied, moving to the desk in the corner of the room and opening it to start pulling out various blood sampling kit. Dennis watched as Amy put her hood up again, then followed the doctor out the door.

Turning back to his father, he sat next to him on the bed. "I have some good friends," he said in wonder.

"You certainly do, boy," his father said with a massively relieved smile. "I knew it was a good idea to send you to that school."

They shared a glance, then started laughing hard enough to make the nurse sigh and wait so she could draw blood, relief flooding out of them.

* * *

"It suits you," Taylor giggled, watching Amy wield a mop. "The Amy, Healer and Janitor. She can fix a medical problem _and_ clean up vomit all at the same time."

Amy waved the business end of the mop at her warningly, then dunked it into the bucket of strong-smelling floor disinfectant, before slopping it out again and pushing it around. "Quiet, you. It's all your fault in the first place, you came up with that name."

"I did, yes. I still think it suits you, and you don't seem to mind it some of the time."

"Just not in the cafeteria." Amy smiled at her. "Now go away, I have work to do. I'll see you later."

"Did it go OK with Dennis' dad?" she asked.

"Yep. He's fine now. I fixed fifteen other terminal patients as well. I should go to Wilson Medical Center more often, that's the first time I've been there in nearly a year. It's so small I tended to forget about it, Brockton General is the largest hospital in the city by a huge amount. Sometimes you overlook the fact that there are four other, smaller, ones around." Amy leaned on the broom, a guilty expression crossing her face. "I should have..."

"You nearly killed yourself with that attitude," Taylor cut in firmly. "You can't do everything. Nobody can. You've fixed probably thousands of people over the years. Going insane trying to get them all wouldn't help anyone. Now you're working a much saner schedule, you can make time to go around the other hospitals and work on their serious cases. Ianthe and Metis can help."

She was being a little circumspect as the janitor himself was only thirty feet away, obviously listening to them. Amy nodded slowly, then got back to work. "I guess so. I still feel guilty, though."

"Don't. You gave them your number, anyone who really needs you can get hold of you, the same as with Brockton General." Taylor smiled at her friend. "You did a very good thing today, you helped a friend, and fifteen other people as well. That's more than most people will manage today."

With a small smile, Amy shrugged. "You're right, I suppose."

"I'm definitely right. Now, keep mopping, peasant." Taylor grinned. Pointing, she helpfully added, "You missed a bit."

"Thanks ever so much, Taylor," Amy griped, although she swiped the mop over the dry area. "Go away."

"Going away," Taylor snickered, heading for the exit. She was looking forward to having a look at the progress on the tanker, then meeting her friends as at least two other people.

Life was very weird these days but she loved it.


	151. Friends and Radios

Jogging into the yard as Saurial, Taylor waved to various people, heading towards the tanker. The filter towers and pumps were silent now, the ship having been fully drained, and there were several wide gangways linking the shore to the deck, along which a lot of people were moving back and forth transferring removed material in wheelbarrows. One in the middle was heavily reinforced and had a number of small diesel-powered dumpers moving across it to take the heavier scrap. On the shore it was being sorted into piles, then loaded into trucks to be moved to the relevant destination. Recyclable metals were heading for a warehouse until the railway was finished, which would be the end of the week.

There was one crew who were wearing protective suits, complete with breathing apparatus, which were the ones removing all the asbestos insulation from the engine room and the electrical systems. She went over to them, the lead worker pulling his transparent mask off and nodding to her. "Hi, Gary, how's it going?" she asked when she reached him.

"Hi, Saurial." The man looked around at his coworkers for a moment. "Not bad at all. We're ahead of schedule on the decontamination by about half a day. There's some asbestos pellets in the engine room we can't get at until the engines are out, but we've nearly finished removing it from everywhere else. All the tanks are dry, the remaining oil and fuel has been removed, and as far as I know the bulk of the wiring that the scavengers left is also gone now. Everything is on schedule to have Kaiju cut it up tomorrow afternoon."

"Is it ready for her to take the deck off and get the engines and propeller shafts out?" she asked.

"Just about. If Raptaur and you could give us a hand with some of the heavier stuff, cut holes in things so we can get at the insides for instance, we'll be at that point in one, maybe two hours. Otherwise it will be tomorrow morning."

"OK. I'm busy with some other stuff, but Metis will help Raptaur, she's interested in seeing what we're doing and wants to lend a hand," she smiled. "I'll go and tell them."

"Thanks. By the way, how many more of your cousins and sisters are we expecting to turn up?" Gary asked, grinning. "We seem to have a lot of lizards running around these days."

"Our family is quite large," she laughed, "but don't worry, they're not all going to turn up at once. We have lots of other things we need to do as well."

"I'm not saying I mind," he chuckled. "I like the giant lizards. The union would be in a much worse place without you guys. Visit as much as you want if this sort of thing happens." He looked around at his colleagues, who all nodded. "The Family is part of the Union, as far as we're concerned."

"Thanks very much," she replied, feeling pleased and touched. "I'll see you later. Raptaur and Metis should be here shortly."

He waved as she moved off, pulling his breathing mask back on and heading towards the ship with his team. Taylor ran the length of the ship studying everything going on, happy with the end result, then went towards the office. On the way she spotted Rachel with three dogs walking beside her, apparently just exercising them, so diverted towards the girl, who stopped and waited for her.

"Hi, Rachel," she said when she reached the girl, who was scratching one of the dogs, a huge bull mastiff, behind the ears.

"Saurial," Rachel said, nodding, her face pretty much blank but her scent not worried. If anything she smelled contented.

"How are things going with you and your dogs?" she asked, kneeling down and holding out her hand to the mastiff, which sniffed carefully and warily, then allowed her to stroke it. Rachel watched, a mildly approving look crossing her face for a moment. "Is everything you need set up?"

"Things are good," the girl replied after a moment. "The dogs are fine." She paused, then almost as an afterthought added, "Thank you."

Taylor smiled. "You're welcome, Rachel. I'm very glad it's working out. I know Lisa is happy, and Brian seemed in a good mood the last time I saw him. Alec is playing games but that seems to be keeping him occupied as well."

Rachel sniffed. "Games. Waste of time."

"Possibly, but he enjoys it." She stood up. "We're working on fixing things for you to get your legal problems sorted out. Hopefully we can make it so you can leave here soon."

"Like it here," Rachel muttered, stroking another dog. "But I'd also like to be able to leave sometimes."

Taylor grinned at her. "I'm glad you like it. I was worried you'd feel cooped up without being able to ride your dogs around."

The girl cracked a smile for a moment. "I like riding the dogs. They like it too. But we can wait." She looked around the yard. "Good people here, I think. No one looks down on me. Most of them like dogs too." The last point seemed to be the most important one.

"So I understand," Taylor smiled. "Great. If you have any problems, or need anything, just let any of us, or Danny, know. OK?"

Rachel nodded. "Thanks," she said again, sounding more natural this time. Taylor got the distinct impression she didn't say it very often. The girl was in some ways less human than the Varga was, or at least certainly had less understanding of how people worked, but Taylor could see she genuinely was happy with the way things were going. "Got two more dogs that need healing."

"That's not a problem. Bring them into the office when Metis or Ianthe, or Amy, are around and they'll fix them for you."

The girl looked pleased, smiled a very small amount without showing teeth, then walked off with her dogs following. Taylor watched her go, a little amused at the brusque manner, before resuming her jog to the BBFO office.

When she entered the building, she found Lisa fiddling with a stack of equipment, some of the stuff that had come on Monday that they hadn't set up yet. The blonde looked up at her and smiled. "Hi. I've just about got this working."

"That's the radio and cell phone relay gear Armsmaster recommended?"

"Yes. I need a hole here in the wall so we can run a cable through for the external antenna system. If we make an EDM box and mount this connector into it, you can just unplug it to isolate the inside of the room when you need it secure."

"OK, that's easy enough." Taylor knelt down next to the internet line, reaching out and making a hole in the sheathing covering the wall. After that she used a thin blade to cut a hole in the wall beyond that. Looking at the connector Lisa was holding, she replaced the sheathing with a six inch square shallow box and filled in around it. Lisa tested the fit of the connector, nodding when she found it went neatly into the hole left for it. Taylor made a lid for the box that could be dropped into place over the connector when the mating one on the internal cable was unplugged.

"Great. We need to feed this in from outside, then put the antenna system on the roof."

"Got it." Going back outside with the antenna, she scrambled up the front of the building to the roof. It was a matter of a few seconds to attach the pole, which had half a dozen antennae of various sorts already fitted to it, to the peak of the surface she was standing on. Cutting the strap holding the cable in a coil, she dropped it down to Lisa who was looking up at her, then jumped down. They soon had it bolted into the inside of the box and the wall repaired around it.

Inside again, she watched as Lisa connected the other cable to the connector, then started turning the equipment on, flipping switches and prodding buttons on a keypad. Eventually she nodded, satisfied.

"That should do it."

Closing the door, Taylor pulled out her phone and looked at the display. It was showing full signal strength, as opposed to the normal no signal. Lisa unplugged the cable from the antenna and shut the lid of the box, the signal on the phone immediately dying away completely. "That works," she smiled.

"Wonderful. OK, let's try the radio." The blonde girl went to the table and picked up one of the four DWU radios which were there in a gang charger, plugged into the wall. When she turned the volume up they could hear messages from a number of sources in the yard. Waiting for a clear spot, she pressed the transmit key. "Lisa, testing the new BBFO relay. Danny, can you hear me?" She released the key.

Seconds later, the radio spoke, " _Loud and clear, Lisa. It works fine. Good work_."

"Thanks, Danny. Lisa out." She put the device back in the charger, turning it down again.

"That should do it," the girl smiled. "We have landline, cell coverage, internet, and radio communications, but can go silent and secure just by disconnecting two cables."

"Fantastic. Thanks a lot for the help," Taylor grinned.

"Anything for my cousin," Lisa replied with a grin of her own. "Speaking of which, Metis needs to exercise."

"She can exercise by helping Raptaur cut stuff up in the ship if she wants," Taylor said, switching to her larger form.

"I'll just go ask her," Lisa smirked, disappearing into the workroom. A couple of minutes later, ' _Metis_ ' stepped out, carefully locking it behind her. "Yes, Cousin, I would be pleased to help you with this… _salvage_ … thing the humans are doing. It sounds like fun." The black and red lizard smiled widely.

"Don't get carried away," Taylor laughed. "We're meant to be teaching the cousins about humans, remember. They need to learn to be a little less alien."

"I have to confess I don't understand your point, Cousin," Lisa giggled.

"Of course you don't. Watch and learn." They shared an amused look, then headed outside, grabbing a couple of radios first and locking up on the way.

* * *

Driving up to the gate, Amy smiled at Mike, who nodded to her and looked at the others in the vehicle. "Hello, Amy," he said pleasantly. "More friends?"

"People I know from school who wanted to come and meet some of the Family," she replied. "Guys, this is Mike."

Greetings from the four other teenagers made him smile. "OK. Raptaur and Metis are tearing holes in the ship, from what I heard. I think they're supposed to be done soon." He waved to his colleague who Amy still didn't know the name of, the other man opening the barrier. "Have fun. See you later."

"Thanks, Mike," she replied, letting the brake off and driving through.

"He seems nice," Mandy said from the back seat, where she was sitting between Rich and Eric.

"Mike is a decent guy," Amy noted, meeting her friend's eyes in the mirror. "They all are, pretty much. Or even if not, they're polite and hard working." She grinned slightly. "Some people here have interesting pasts, let's leave it at that."

"My dad has told me a few stories about DWU people," Eric chuckled. "Never get in a bar fight with them, was one thing he said. They're at least as bad as the crew of a ship, you go after one of them and all their friends join in."

"I will bear that in mind for my next bar fight," Mandy replied seriously. "You know how I like to get drunk then challenge the biggest guy in the place. I can't help it."

"So I'm told," he snickered, making her smile.

"Here we are," Amy announced, turning into the parking area and stopping. She was grinning at the comments from the rear. "Insane Asylum front entrance."

"That's not what the sign says," Lucy pointed out with a giggle.

"Ah. I'll have to get that changed," she replied, peering up at it through the windshield. The girl next to her shook her head, laughing.

Removing her seat belt and jumping out, she waited for her friends to also exit the truck, then locked it. Going to the main door she pulled her key out and opened it, waving them inside. "Come on in. We can wait for Raptaur, I'll give her a call on the radio to let her know we're here." She'd noticed that there was a new antenna on the roof and guessed it was the relay system Armsmaster had specced up for them, the parts having arrived on Monday. Lisa and Taylor had obviously been busy.

Walking over to the charger which was missing two radios, she picked up a third one and turned it on. Waiting for a clear spot, she transmitted, "Amy here. Raptaur, are you receiving?"

" _I'm here, Amy. What's up?_ " came an almost immediate response, her friend's deep voice sounding cheerful.

"I'm at the office with some friends who wanted to meet you. Are you going to be free soon?"

" _Yes, we're nearly done here. We need to jump in the bay to wash off the asbestos dust, I think we'll be about ten minutes. I have about an hour free then I have to go find Kaiju, she needs to do some cutting and lifting here when the other guys are done._ "

"OK. Amy out." She put the radio back, then turned to her friends, who were staring at her.

"Wow. You sound like you know what you're doing," Lucy commented with a smile.

"Shh, don't tell them I'm just faking it really well," she snickered. "Look around if you want, there's nothing here that's dangerous outside the storeroom over there."

The four others spread out, while she investigated a pile of boxes next to the bookshelves, opening one and finding it was full of the textbooks that Taylor had ordered. Soon she was pulling books out and shelving them, Mandy coming to help her after a quick look about the room. When they finished, the other girl looked at the three largest remaining boxes. Two were quite big and identical, the other somewhat smaller.

"What's in those?" she asked curiously.

Amy checked the labels. "These two are small fridges, this is a coffee machine," she announced. "The fridges need to go under the bench on the other side of the room, the coffee machine goes on top at that end."

"Give us some help, guys," Mandy called to the others. Lucy, who was closely inspecting the poster that showed Umihebi, looking impressed, turned and hurried over, the two boys coming from the other end of the workshop to join them. Between them they quickly had everything unboxed. Amy could easily have carried the two half-height refrigerators on her own, but it would have looked a little odd, so she let Rich and Eric move them, while she and Mandy carefully carried the complex coffee machine over to its new home. Lucy was reading the instructions during all this.

"It's a nice machine, it makes tea and soup as well as every form of coffee I've ever heard of," she remarked, watching as Amy plugged it in.

"There are some mugs in that other box down there, and the small one should be a lot of tea bags, coffee beans, that sort of thing." Amy pointed at the last two boxes.

By the time Taylor and Lisa came in, slightly damp, all four of them had mugs of hot drinks in front of them, as they sat at the table. Amy had tea, the other three had black coffee. She made a mental note to ask Lisa to order some milk and a few crates of soft drinks for the fridges, which were gently humming on the other side of the room.

Taylor looked around, then nodded in satisfaction. "Great, you unpacked everything. I was going to do that later but you beat me to it. Thanks."

"It was no problem," Amy replied, sipping her tea. "How did it go?"

"Fine," her friend replied, walking over to squat next to her, while Lisa stood a short distance away studying the others, who looked a little awed. "We made a lot of holes in the superstructure so the guys could get at the remaining asbestos and that sort of thing. There's some under the engines which will have to wait until that gets pulled out in an hour or so, but the rest is now out. Kaiju can cut the top off, take out the driveshafts and engines, and then tomorrow when the rest of the work is done, cut the ship itself into sections."

"That should be impressive to watch," she smiled.

"I expect so," Taylor grinned. Turning to the other four, she studied them. "Based on Ianthe's description, you are Mandy and you are Lucy," she said, pointing at the two girls, who both nodded quickly.

"I'm Eric, and he's Rich," Eric put in.

"Really? Then he's lucky, most people _never_ become rich," Taylor said with a straight face. They all stared at her, then started laughing. She grinned for a moment. "Sorry, can't help it, I like word games. It's nice to meet you all." She turned to the side, waving at Lisa, who came forward. "This is my cousin Metis, Ianthe's sister. She only got here last night."

"I find your species endlessly fascinating," Lisa smiled. "You've done so many things even though you're mostly very fragile. It's impressive."

"Um… Thank you?" Mandy said after a slightly strange pause. "I think."

"Don't say it like that, Metis, it worries people," Taylor sighed, while inwardly Amy was laughing madly.

"And humans are _also_ people." Lisa nodded thoughtfully. "I understand."

Taylor stared at her, then shook her head with a faint sigh. "Sorry, guys, she and Ianthe have a sense of humor that's more peculiar than mine is sometimes, which is saying a lot. They find playing up this whole human thing very funny. My fault, I started it with a comment that might have been badly thought out, knowing the people involved." She gave ' _Metis_ ' a hard look. The other lizard grinned, shrugging.

"At least I'm not talking about hunting and eating them. Much."

"And we thank you for it," Amy giggled. Lisa nodded to her, still grinning.

"Is Ianthe around today?" Lucy asked, apparently more amused than anything. Eric and Rich were looking a little nervous, while Mandy seemed unsure whether she should be laughing or hiding.

"Somewhere, I think, but I haven't seen her for a while," Taylor replied. "She comes and goes, like we all do, we have all sorts of things to be getting on with. I'm mainly doing construction and demolition at the moment, Saurial is the one out jumping muggers, and Kaiju turns up for the really heavy lifting." She looked around at her friends, only one of whom knew anything of the truth. "Did you guys watch the tanker recovery?"

"How could we miss it?" Lucy nearly shouted. "It was amazing! Kaiju is so huge! I couldn't believe my eyes at first but I'm really glad we went to see it. It was one of the best things I've ever seen." She stopped abruptly, looking around with an embarrassed expression, then flushed pink. "Sorry," she added in a much quieter voice while everyone looked at her. "I just like the Family."

"I get that idea," Taylor snickered. "Saurial has mentioned you, and Ianthe was favorably impressed as well. There's no need to be embarrassed."

"She's sort of into reptiles in general and lizards specifically," Mandy explained, giggling wildly. "Liking the family is an understatement, I think she wants to join it."

Amy grinned, as did Taylor and Lisa. "Hmm," the latter mumbled, looking at Taylor.

"Don't. They're not ready for that," her friend warned good-naturedly. Amy suppressed a smile at the comment. Lucy was looking puzzled now. "Hey, Lucy? How would you like to do something that hardly anyone has done up until now. Something I reserve for friends."

"What?" the girl asked eagerly. Taylor dropped to all fours, her armor reforming into the usual saddle that Amy abruptly wanted to have another go with, missing the exhilaration of a good fast Raptaur-ride around the city. She could do it herself as Ianthe, of course, but there was something about it being someone else doing the work that made it a real thrill. Like a fantastic roller-coaster.

Lucy stared, then a smile began to grow, reaching a level that was unnervingly close to the one Taylor could manage, although without any demonic abilities. "Really?" she breathed in shock.

"Sure! Why not? Here, put this on." Taylor produced a helmet like the one for Amy's costume. "Health and safety, of course. And it will keep the wind out of your eyes." She gave it to the Chinese girl who stared at it like it was made of solid awesome, then quickly stuffed it on her head. Her grin was still fixed in place.

Mandy looked at her and shuddered, then glanced around at her friends. "Is anyone else scared by that grin? I'm scared by that grin. It's unnatural."

"She does seem to be stuck," Lisa remarked, peering closely at the girl. "How interesting. Is this a human thing?"

"It's a Lucy thing," Eric laughed. "Don't worry, she'll probably go back to normal soon."

"Don't count on it," the girl herself said in tones of extreme happiness.

"OK, on you get," Taylor chuckled, looking highly amused. Lucy jumped off her chair and rushed over, Taylor twisting around at the waist to help her onto her back and into the saddle. She formed leg straps to hold her passenger on. "Is that comfortable?" she asked, reaching up to her head with her small camera in her hand, attaching it to her head pointing back at the girl, who didn't seem to notice. Amy smiled, thinking the footage was going to be pretty funny.

"It's fine, thanks," Lucy giggled, sounding like she couldn't believe what she was doing.

Amy got up and walked over. "Lean forward over her back and hold on to those handles when she's climbing or descending, it's much easier," she advised, pointing to the hand-holds that had also formed in the armor. "Don't worry, you can't possibly fall off."

"This is so cool!" Lucy squeaked, her voice so high-pitched Amy thought she could give an excited Vista a run for her money. Grinning, she went to the door and opened it, allowing Taylor to exit. Everyone else followed behind, all of them holding their phones up to record it.

"Ready, Lucy?" Taylor asked, looking back at the girl, who swallowed, quickly pressed herself flat on the huge reptile's back and gripped the handholds with white knuckles, then nodded swiftly. "Hold on." She started moving, smoothly accelerating to a fast run, a squeal of raw excitement coming back to them. Everyone moved to the entrance of the side yard, watching Taylor dash across the wide expanse of the yard at about forty miles an hour, then speed up and leap up the side of the nearest warehouse in the distance. A faint scream of joy could be heard as they vanished over the roof.

"Holy shit," Mandy muttered, shocked. "That's… pretty fucking amazing. And terrifying."

"Want a go?" Amy asked with a smile. "I'm sure she'd let you."

"Tell you when they come back," Mandy said slowly. "If she's still alive, _possibly_."

Laughing, Amy stood with her friends, waiting for the other two to return. Lisa was watching them with a wide grin, clearly enjoying the reactions.

* * *

Lucy stared at the enormous form of Raptaur, who had just offered something she'd wanted from the moment she'd seen Amy do in on a video she found on PHO. She'd been wondering if she could somehow ask if it was possible, and here it was, just offered out of the blue. She found she was grinning so hard it hurt, nodding wildly.

Very shortly after that, she was sitting on a moving Raptaur, pressed hard against her armor, which seemed to have shifted around in the process of forming the seat she was in to make it as comfortable as possible. The reptile-woman's gait was completely unlike the horses she'd sometimes ridden as a child, much smoother and more comfortable, making her feel like she was practically flying through the air.

Grateful for the helmet face-plate which blocked the wind of their passage, she looked sideways to see the scenery blurring as they sped up, covering the distance across the huge open area next to the DWU complex remarkably quickly. She yipped in shock as Raptaur jumped the fence at the end without slowing at all, then again when her steed increased her velocity, before jumping at least twenty feet into the air and landing vertically on the side of the warehouse they'd been approaching. Not slowing at all she ran up the side of it like it was level ground, reaching the roof in seconds, then bounded across it, hurdling the gap to the next one with ease.

Lucy let out a wild yell of pure joy, waving one hand in the air, then hastily grabbed for her hold as Raptaur jumped the next gap, looking down the sixty feet to the ground and seeing a few random people wandering around. As they landed on the next roof the pedestrians were only just looking up to see where the yell came from.

Sooner than she'd have believed possible they were charging across the roofs of buildings in the commercial district, having covered the three or so miles in a dead straight line regardless of obstructions. Raptaur reached the office buildings that ran next to the freeway that passed through the city, turning to parallel it until they reached a flyover that was about twenty feet lower. Matching her speed to the traffic, which was fairly light, she jumped out and sideways, landing on the road surface a moment later and speeding up. She glanced over her shoulder at Lucy, smiled, looked beyond her at the car behind, then smoothly merged into the fast lane and accelerated hard.

Lucy couldn't believe it. Raptaur was easily matching the speed of the cars at what must have been at least seventy miles an hour, still galloping far more smoothly than a horse could ever have managed even assuming it could have reached such a speed in the first place. "This is amazing!" she screamed joyfully.

"Glad you're enjoying it," Raptaur shouted back, her deep voice carried away by the wind, but Lucy able to feel it as vibrations through the enormous scaly body she was clinging to. "Let's take a pass through downtown."

"OK!" Lucy howled. They took the next off-ramp, Raptaur slowing to something closer to sane speeds, then headed back towards the bay down the main street. A couple of minutes later they were moving fairly slowly in evening traffic, Lucy sitting up straight now and looking around with a wide grin. People were taking photos and video of them, which made her wave. "I've opaqued your face-plate, by the way, so people can't work out who you are," Raptaur commented over her shoulder. "I thought that was best."

"Thanks." Lucy giggled. "I can't believe I'm doing this. Thank you so, so much."

"You're more than welcome, Lucy," Raptaur laughed. She looked right, then pointed. "Hey, there's Assault and Battery. Want to meet them?"

"Sure." Lucy grinned to herself. This was the best thing she'd ever done.

"Hi, guys," Raptaur said cheerily as she stopped next to the two capes, who had seen her coming and were watching her with what looked like mildly resigned caution. "How's life treating you both?"

"Not too bad, Raptaur," Battery replied politely. "Thanks for asking. And you?"

"Oh, fine, no problems at all."

"Who's your friend?" Assault queried, inspecting Lucy. "A new cape?"

"No, just a friend of Amy's who has good taste in pets and wanted a thrill," Raptaur laughed. "I had some spare time and I thought it was nice to run her around for a while. She seems to be having fun."

Lucy nodded vigorously. "This is great," she laughed. "Best ride I've ever had, it makes roller coasters look like a waste of time."

"Be careful, if Clockblocker finds out you're giving rides he's going to be making horrible jokes _and_ asking for a go himself," the red-clad cape grinned. "You know what he's like."

"I do," Raptaur replied, sounding amused. "We like him, he's a lot like a human version of us in some ways. He likes a good pun."

"There's no such thing as a _good_ pun," Battery muttered, making Lucy giggle.

"Oh, sure there is," Raptaur smiled. "You just have to put some thought into it. Mr Foot agrees."

Assault suddenly started laughing like an idiot, making the blonde woman next to him stare, then sigh. "Oh, grow up, you big idiot," she grumbled, grabbing him by the arm. "It was nice to see you both, Raptaur, Raptaur's mysterious friend. I need to take this fool somewhere and make him calm down."

"Sure. See you around, guys," Raptaur replied, both of them watching as the pair of Protectorate Parahumans walked off, Battery talking quickly to Assault, who was still snickering.

"They're funny," Lucy said, finding the entire thing amusing. "Like they're married or something."

"They do seem to have that vibe, don't they?" Raptaur chuckled. "OK, let's go back. I should have enough time to give your friends a go if they want, then I have to go and find Kaiju." She started heading back towards the docks, taking a few side streets then climbing up onto one of the buildings and heading across the rooftops again. She clearly knew the city like the back of her hand.

"If you don't mind me asking, where do you guys all go when you're not around?" Lucy hesitantly asked a minute or so later. Raptaur's huge head twisted around to look at her for a moment, then went back to looking ahead.

"We go deep," she said with a smile in her voice. "Very deep. But we like it up here as well. We've made some very good friends and we're having a lot of fun."

Not entirely certain she understood, Lucy nodded anyway, holding on as the giant reptile started moving faster. "I'm having fun as well," she finally replied. "More than I could have imagined. I'm very glad you are all here."

"I'm happy that you're happy," Raptaur chuckled, going headfirst down a six story building, crossing a car park, then climbing the next one. "I'll mention you to Kaiju. Stick around and she'll come and say hi."

"I'd like that very much indeed," Lucy replied with great satisfaction. The day had worked out pretty well so far and seemed likely to get even better. Meeting Taylor, and through her Amy, and through _her_ the Family, that had been a good thing in her opinion.


	152. Shafts and Dogs

In the end, all four of Taylor's friends decided on a ride. The two boys most likely due to not wanting to be shown up by a couple of girls, considering she had to stop halfway to allow Eric to dismount and have a quiet vomit on the corner of a roof. "You OK, Eric?" she asked when he finished, handing him a glass of water and a cloth.

"I'll live," he said, not questioning the items until he'd drunk the water. He looked oddly at the glass, then twitched a little when it abruptly went away. "Lucy has a very strong stomach if she can handle that sort of thing and come out the other end grinning like an idiot," he added, handing her the cloth, which she took delicately with one talon, then vanished. The small bits of detritus he'd wiped off his mouth dropped to the ground.

"Sorry, I may have been a little over-enthusiastic," she apologized, helping him remount her lower body. "I'll go slower on the way back."

"I'd appreciate it," he replied thankfully.

"Not a fan of roller-coasters?"

"Not really, no," the boy sighed. "And trust me you're a hell of a lot faster than any coaster I've ever been on."

"I've never been on one," she told him truthfully. She'd always wanted to try, but for one reason or another never had the opportunity. Heading back towards the DWU, more slowly, she tried not to make him get sick again.

He'd only barely dismounted fast enough the first time…

* * *

Amy laughed like a lunatic at the video they were watching, everyone else doing much the same. Taylor had downloaded the data from her camera, so they were playing the recordings of her rider's faces during the rides. Lucy had worn that same creepy grin the entire time, Mandy had looked terrified at first then joyful, Rich had been alternately paling and laughing, while poor Eric had just looked worried.

"Can I have a copy of those?" Lucy asked when they finished.

"Sure, let me find a memory stick," Taylor replied, rummaging in a box of miscellaneous odds and ends Lisa had thoughtfully ordered, coming up with a box of USB memory sticks after a short search. She handed it to Amy. "I need to go and get Kaiju. I'll see you guys some other time, but it was very nice meeting you all." She shook hands with each of their visitors.

"Thank you so much for offering the rides, Raptaur," Lucy said with a broad smile. "It was fantastic."

"I'm glad you enjoyed it. We can probably do it again some time." Taylor nodded to them then trotted off to the rear door, leaving through it. They heard a splash as it closed.

"This has been so much fun, Amy," the Chinese girl grinned, turning to the healer. "They're so nice."

"I like them, even if they do have a tendency to make strange jokes," Amy replied, glancing at Lisa who was listening to them while tapping away on one of the computers, sitting on her tail and looking amused. "What are you doing this time?"

"Apparently, causing this Clockblocker person to get worried, according to his friend Vista." She smirked at them. "All I did was answer a couple of his questions. Now he's saying he wishes he hadn't asked."

"Stop trolling PHO before you freak those people out too much," Amy snickered.

"There's a very strange one called Void Cowboy who was asking some extremely rude questions," Lisa added, looking back at the screen. "I told him he was being unpleasant and he got very worked up. After two answers he got banned by this BrocktonBayMod person. Is that normal?"

"It is with that idiot, yes," Eric laughed. "Two? I think that's a new record. Well done."

"Thanks, Eric," she smiled. "Still, an odd person. He seems… somewhat immature."

"He's a total fuckwit with a complete lack of understanding about what's appropriate and what isn't," Mandy sighed. "I've read some of his posts. They're a weird mix of insightful and entirely insane, mixed with an unhealthy dose of smut and a lack of humor when he gets criticized. Which happens _a lot_."

"How odd. Oh, well, humans, right?" Lisa turned away from the computer with a laugh, then cocked her head. "Someone's at the door."

Amy looked over, just as a knock came. She went to open it, finding Rachel there with two dogs, a german shepherd at her feet looking up at her, and some sort of spaniel crossbreed in her arms. "Hello, Rachel," she smiled. "What's the problem?"

"These two are sick," the girl said, not meeting her eyes. "Can you fix them?" She seemed a little reluctant to ask, but also worried about the dogs.

"Of course. Come on in." She stood aside, the girl entering with the shepherd following, limping badly on a hind leg. It was a very handsome dog but had clearly been badly mistreated for some time. The one in her arms looked on the surface in good condition, but it was also obviously lethargic with slightly glazed eyes.

"This is Rachel, a friend of ours," she said as she led the girl over to the others. "Her dogs are a bit sick. Metis, why don't you take the german shepherd, I'll have a look at this guy." She gently lifted the dog out of Rachel's arms and lowered him to the floor. Kneeling down, she put her hands on him. "Oh. I see, he's got failing kidneys. I think he was badly dehydrated for some time," she said, looking at the solidly-built girl who was kneeling on the other side of the dog looking both worried and somewhat angry.

"Can you fix him?" she asked.

"Yes, it's not difficult. He'll be very hungry after, you'll need to feed him about three times as much as normal for a couple of days."

"OK."

Checking the other dog, which Lisa was squatting down next to, she saw that it was looking at the large reptile with a curious and wary expression, its ears alert. Lisa held out a hand, the dog sniffing it carefully, then licking it. She smiled and stroked it's head. Lucy came over and watched closely. "She's beautiful, I always liked german shepherds," the girl said, also offering a hand to the animal.

"Got a bad hip," Rachel commented. "She was torn up in a fight."

"Poor thing." Lucy turned to Lisa. "Can you help her?"

"Sure. Help me get her to lie down." Between them they carefully repositioned the dog, which seemed agreeable to the operation. Amy watched as Lisa put her hand on the animal's back, the healing tendrils diving through the fur and the dog immediately yawning. It seemed to fall asleep while Lucy watched with wide eyes, the rest of their friends staring from a safe distance.

Satisfied it was under control, Amy went to work on her own patient. A couple of minutes later she removed her hands, smiling in triumph. "There you go, Rachel, he's fine now. Several good meals and you'll never know he was sick."

The girl looked pleased, nodding her thanks, then turned to watch as ' _Metis_ ' removed her hand from the other dog, which blinked and shook its head, then rolled to its feet. It looked around then trotted over to Rachel showing no signs at all of injury. "That was simple enough," Lisa reported. "A badly set hip and some nasty scarring."

Looking unusually happy, Rachel stood up and gave both of them a nod of thanks, smiling a little, then whistled for the shepherd, which had wandered off to explore the room. She dashed back, jumping a little, then at a motion from the girl, settled down. Rachel looked around at everyone, before heading to the door. "If you have any other problems, bring them around," Amy called.

"Will do that," the girl replied, pulling the door open and looking back at them. "Thanks."

"You're welcome," Lisa smiled. Rachel left, the door closing behind her.

"She sure doesn't say much, does she?" Eric commented.

"No. She's… economical with her words," Amy smiled. "I think she had a hard childhood and prefers dogs to people. But she's still a decent person."

"She looks vaguely familiar for some reason," Mandy said thoughtfully. After a moment she shrugged. "No idea why. The dogs were nice."

They all looked around at a knock on the back door. Lisa went over to open it, the other people trailing along behind out of curiosity. Opening the door, even Amy was somewhat taken aback when a glowing yellow eye over a yard across peered at them from just on the other side. Lucy let out a squeak of shock, Rich and Eric both muttered obscenities and jumped back, while Mandy went very pale and froze. Lisa was grinning at their reactions.

"Don't _do_ that, you enormous pain in the ass," Amy shouted, her heart hammering. It had been quite a shock, like something from a movie.

A very deep chuckle shook the room. "Sorry, Amy, I couldn't resist. How are you today?"

"Having to deal with giant crazy lizards, that's how I am," she replied with asperity. "Why are you scaring people here when you're supposed to be working on the ship?"

Her friends were looking at her like she was insane, which caused a mild giggle to have to be firmly suppressed. The eye withdrew, Amy going outside and looking at Taylor's current form, her hands on her hips. ' _Kaiju_ ' rested her chin on the sea wall and grinned at her. "Raptaur mentioned she'd been having fun with some friends of yours, and that there was a girl called Lucy who was very interested in us. I wanted to meet her."

"Lucy, you have a fan," Amy called over her shoulder. The Chinese girl peered around the door and stared, her eyes wide, then smiled a little uncertainly.

"Um, hello, Kaiju," she said nervously.

"Don't worry, I don't bite," Taylor replied with another deep chuckle. "Hey, I remember you. You were in the park when I was towing the ship. You seemed to think it was fun."

"It was," Lucy replied, coming fully outside and looking much less worried. "You actually remember me?"

"I have a very good memory for faces. Even weird non-scaly ones."

Lucy giggled at the comment. "I certainly wouldn't have any trouble picking _you_ out of a crowd."

"It's the eyes, isn't it?" Taylor asked. Lucy stared, then laughed.

"Yes, mostly. Oh, and the eighty foot tall lizard thing as well."

"Fair enough." Looking back to Amy, she added, "I'm off to do this cutting operation. If your friends want to watch they can do it from the yard, but don't get too close just in case, OK?"

"All right." She looked back at the doorway, all the others now crowded into it. "You guys want to watch?"

"Yes, please," Mandy said, not moving her eyes from Taylor. Amy met Lisa's gaze over their heads, her other friend looking like she was trying not to laugh either.

"In that case, I must get to work," Taylor announced, sliding backwards into the deeper water, then submerging. They watched the bulge in the water move swiftly off to the left in the twilight, vanishing almost immediately.

Turning around, Amy looked at the people staring at _her_ now. "What?" she asked.

"You called _Kaiju_ a giant crazy lizard to her face," Rich said slowly.

"So?"

"So you have bigger balls than I do by a massive amount," he grinned. "Fuck, that was terrifying. She's… a bit bigger up close than I expected."

"You get used to it," Amy laughed, coming back into the building. "At heart she's just another friend. A big one, true, but still a friend. Come on, guys, let's go and watch her wreck a supertanker."

"Sounds good," he replied, following with the others as she headed towards the front of the building. "This is certainly an unusual after-school activity you have, though."

"But it's sure not boring," Amy snickered, making all of them laugh quite a lot.

* * *

Rising out of the water next to the tanker, Taylor waved to the crews who had turned to watch the bubbles she'd sent up to alert everyone. "Hi, guys," she rumbled, adjusting her hard hat. "Ready for me?"

"We're all set," Gary called from the dockside. "Can you put the engines over there on the yellow marked area, and the driveshafts on the green area, please?"

"Of course. What about the deck parts?" she asked.

"Somewhere to the left of the shafts would be fine. We can do the rest. The ship itself can be moved to the shore right here tomorrow."

She nodded, carefully climbing over the dry-dock wall and standing next to the large ship on the now nearly dry mud. She was tall enough on her hind legs to be looking down on the deck of the vessel. "About here, right?" she asked, pointing to a position near the stern of the ship, having removed the EDM sheathing around that part of it.

"That's about right," Gary called. He and the other work crews moved back as she manifested an enormous but almost invisibly thin blade, a modified version of a sword.

"Absolutely certain no one's still on board?" she asked, just to be safe.

"We triple-checked, the ship is empty," the man replied.

"OK." Pushing the blade through the side of the ship until it came out the other side, she ran it back to the stern, then moved to the start of the cut and carefully sliced down until she met the first point. Dissipating the blade she experimentally poked the rear superstructure, seeing it moved easily, completely disconnected from the remainder of the vessel. Walking around to the back, squeezing in between the wall and the stern, she dug her claws into the bridge and lifted, several hundred tons of metal coming up like she was moving a chair.

The entire yard went dead silent as she rotated at the waist, moving the structure to the shore. It grounded with a loud crunch, the sound carrying across the whole area. She heard a few muttered exclamations of shock but ignored them, moving back to peer into the exposed innards of the tanker.

It took some careful whittling with a smaller blade but eventually she had the entire engine room exposed to the air. Leaning over the side of the ship she studied the huge engines, then grabbed one and wiggled it a little. Satisfied she knew where all the mounting points were she cut them, then lifted the first engine out and put it on the dockside. The second one followed a minute or so later.

"What should I do about the propellers?" she asked Gary who had been watching with an open mouth. "I can cut them off the shafts then take them out separately, or cut the entire back end up and remove them as a single piece. And the right one is bent at the back anyway."

He closed his mouth, then thought, before shrugging. "Cut the props off, I think."

"OK."

This took another ten minutes of careful work, but she eventually had both propellers stacked neatly on the shore and was pulling the straight shaft out from inside the ship, having cut away all the massive bearing assemblies. The bent one took a little more work, she had to gently straighten it before it would come out, but it joined its fellow on the dock. "I think that's it. Anything else you want pulled out right now?"

"No, I think we're good," he replied. "We'll get a crew in there to finish the decontamination, then you can cut it up. Tomorrow afternoon?"

"Sure. I'll come back around four or so, if that's OK."

"Perfect. Thanks very much." He smiled at her, as did several dozen other DWU members.

"It was no problem. See you tomorrow." She waved, then climbed over the wall into the water again, slowly swimming towards the BBFO building. Amy and the others had been watching the entire time, all four of her schoolmates recording her in action with their phones, as had much of the workforce. It seemed likely that she was already on PHO being discussed, something she still found somewhat funny.

"That was easy enough," she said when she was close enough to rest her forearms and chin on the side, Amy and Lisa leading the way over to her. "I'll finish it up tomorrow and remove the dry dock structure." She looked them all over. "It was nice to meet you all. I've heard about you from my sisters, it's good to see they were right." She smiled at them. "I've met some very interesting people as a result of this job, and it's fun as well."

"That was amazing to watch, Kaiju," Lucy said in awe. Mandy nodded vigorously. "How much did that bit of ship weigh?"

Taylor looked over and did a mental calculation. "Probably around… perhaps six hundred and fifty tons or so? It's not a particularly large piece. The slices of ship will be about four thousand tons each."

"You can lift _that_ much?"

"Sure, it's not hard," she grinned. Lucy and the others looked impressed. If not appalled. "I have to go, but I may well see you again sometime." Slipping back into the water she went under, then did her routine of heading for the shipping channel to give the PRT sonar something to see, disappearing into it and swimming out past the reef, then cloaking and coming back as the smaller marine version of Raptaur. Fifteen minutes later she was climbing out behind the BBFO building, smiling to herself at a job well done.

* * *

Mandy looked over her shoulder at Lucy, who was peering backwards towards the DWU facility they'd just left out the back of Amy's truck. She and her friend had swapped positions for the drive home as her house was first on the list. Lucy still looked like she'd had about six birthdays come at once and had loved every second of it. "Thanks for doing this, Amy," she said quietly to the Dallon girl, who glanced at her. "It meant a lot to Lucy. Me too, of course, but she's the reptile-mad one." The radio was on, the music loud enough that the people in the back couldn't hear her very well if she kept her voice down.

"It was no trouble, Mandy, I enjoyed it as much as you guys did. I like having my friends meet each other." Amy glanced at her again, then went back to watching the traffic. "I'm really glad Lucy had so much fun."

"I think she had more fun tonight than she's had in the last three years," Mandy smiled. "She'll be walking around with that grin on her face for a week."

"What about you? Did you enjoy your ride around the city?"

"I did, actually, although not quite as much as Lucy did." Mandy leaned back in the seat and rested her head on the back, closing her eyes. "But I can certainly see why you enjoy it. Capes have all the best toys and friends."

"I think I have some very good friends who aren't reptiles as well," Amy snickered. "Meeting you guys was a good thing as far as I'm concerned."

"Me too," she replied, laughing slightly. "And like you said, it's not boring."

They fell quiet, listening to the music as Amy drove. A few minutes later, the healer pulled up outside Mandy's house. "Here you go."

"Thanks, Amy. I'll see you guys in school tomorrow," Mandy said, taking the backpack that Eric handed her from the rear. "Thanks, Eric."

"See you, Mandy," Lucy called as she got out. Waving, she watched the truck drive off, smiled to herself, then headed inside to terrify her parents with some very strange videos.

* * *

"They seemed pleased," Lisa remarked mildly once the sound of Amy's truck had died away. "Nice people."

"I like them," Taylor replied with a grin, which slowly faded. "I found something interesting while I was out with Lucy the first time."

Lisa looked at her, her expression curious. "What?" she asked.

"Battery." Her friend raised a quizzical eye-ridge. "That strange smell I noticed? It was definitely her. Very faint, but there. Assault doesn't have it."

"Nothing at all?"

"No. It's a little odd, I'd have expected some transference, considering they spend a lot of time together, but there wasn't a trace of it on him."

"Which tends to imply it's not a normal scent," Lisa thought out loud. Taylor nodded slowly.

"I'd have to agree. I still have no idea what it is, though."

"I wonder if either Amy or I could detect it?" The black and red reptile looked curious. "It will be interesting to find out."

"I'm more curious about what it actually means," Taylor replied. "It just sort of makes me itch inside in a way that's hard to describe. It's… not quite right, somehow."

"Says the half demon."

"Exactly. If _I_ think it's weird, it's _weird_ ," she grinned.

After pondering the mystery for a moment, Lisa shrugged. "Still not enough to go on. We need more samples. Stay alert for other Parahumans with the same scent, perhaps we can work out a common cause. It's probably nothing important, but I'm curious."

"So am I." Taylor looked at the folder on the table that she hadn't investigated yet. "What's this?"

Flipping the folder open with the tip of a claw, Lisa pointed at the paperwork inside. "The latest BBFO acquisition. Your new building. Danny gave me the paperwork."

"My new building?" Taylor asked, very puzzled. "What do I need a new building for?" She picked up the top page and scanned it.

"Your project with Armsmaster, the one that you're not telling us about, where you're building a giant gun with a nuclear bomb in it." Lisa smirked at her when she looked hard at her friend. "You really think I wouldn't work it out? I can't read _you_ , true, but I can read _them_."

Taylor shook her head, grinning. "I'm not actually that surprised. Your upgrades made a big difference, didn't they?"

"Oh, god, like you wouldn't believe," Lisa laughed. "Sometimes when I'm in the zone I can practically read someone's mind. Sure, if I start from a bad assumption I end up with crap, but it's a lot easier now to realize that and start again than it was. If nothing else, the lack of headaches would make all this entirely worth it. All the other things are a bonus."

"I'm pleased for you. Try not to get too carried away, I know I've had to stop and think a few times and I have the world's best adviser in my head watching me." Taylor giggled at the comment the Varga made. "And he has a weirder sense of humor than I do."

"I'll do my best not to overdo it, and I also have people I trust to keep me honest," Lisa replied. "You, Amy, Danny, Varga… I listen to you."

"I'm glad about that." Looking down at the paper in her hand, she tried to work out the location of the building. "This is… about six hundred and fifty yards that way? A couple of streets over from this edge of the yard."

"So I gather. Some old fish processing factory. It's been abandoned for decades but Danny said it was structurally in good condition, even though it smells like rotten fish."

" _That's_ where that's coming from!" Taylor exclaimed. "I was _wondering_ what smelled of smoke and fish over that way, I was going to investigate at some point, but it wasn't very important. The smells are very old." She shrugged. "I've explored quite a lot of the docks by now, but this area is huge. There is still lots of it I haven't been to yet."

"You'll probably get a phone call from Armsmaster soon, my power told me that he and Dragon were really worried about the time until the next Endbringer attack. They think it will happen before next Monday." Lisa frowned a little. "Although there's also something else about the Endbringers that's worrying them. I haven't worked it out yet."

"I wonder what?" she mused, looking at her friend. "They're bad enough already, I don't like to think there could be something worse."

"No. That wouldn't be good."

Having read the paperwork, Taylor put it down again. "Oh well, I guess we wait for the call. I've finished my work for today. Amy should be back soon, we can start some language lessons then, Varga's very interested in it now, but until she comes back, I'll beat you up some more. I mean, teach you some more of the style." She grinned widely as Lisa snickered. "Come on, let me just cover the equipment so it doesn't get damaged when I throw you across the room."

Lisa made a crackling arc run between her fingers, looking at her friend with an evil grin. "Bring it on."

"You know that won't work on me. Looks cool, though." Taylor giggled as she headed off to make a temporary wall around the computer equipment.

* * *

Entering the office, Amy stared at the way Lisa was flying through the air upside down, then shrugged. The large lizard smacked into the wall about ten feet off the floor and slid down it, rolling to her feet. "Hey! You cheated. I don't know that move yet."

"It's a good one, right?" Taylor sounded and looked like she was having fun. "Hi, Amy." Lisa pounced on her as she spoke, the even larger lizard ducking, doing something in a blur, then giggling as her friend spun twice on her way back to the same spot on the wall. "So is that one."

"You're horrible," Lisa muttered, standing up again. "Beating up a poor defenseless cousin like that."

Laughing, Amy sat down at the table. "You've obviously been having fun."

" _She_ has. Me, not so much," Lisa grumped.

"You're learning much faster than you have any right to as you well know," Taylor remarked agreeably. She came over to join Amy, who was curiously looking through the folder on the table. "New building. Dad scammed it from the Mayor."

"He just asked for it, the Mayor was happy to give it to the DWU," Lisa chuckled as she joined them. "Not a scam as such, just a favor." She grinned. "The Boss is good at favors."

Amy and Taylor laughed, then the healer went back to looking at the paperwork. "Why does BBFO need another building? One this big? Looking at this drawing it's about twice this size."

"I'm not totally sure yet, it's more a favor for Armsmaster and his friends than us," Taylor explained. "We're expecting..."

The phone rang, cutting her off.

"...That, probably," she finished, taking the cordless phone Amy handed her without comment. "Hello, BBFO, Raptaur speaking."

She listened for a moment. Amy did as well, her improved hearing easily able to make out Armsmaster's voice. " _Hello, Raptaur. I was hoping that you would be free for some more consultation on the project tonight. Danny Hebert has arranged a suitable location as the site for the wormhole generator._ "

Amy looked at Lisa, her eyebrows going up. Lisa was frowning thoughtfully, also listening to the conversation.

"I have the paperwork in front of me," Taylor replied, looking at her friends. "You and Dragon managed to duplicate the generator, I assume?"

" _Yes_." He sounded pleased. " _It all went together much more easily than we expected. Leet's documentation is first rate, I have to admit. We asked Mr Hebert for advice on a building sufficiently large that your sister could enter and which could be made secure. We've designed the structural modifications required and Dragon's equipment will be here around nine tonight. Since we're working on an unknown but likely short time-frame, we're very interested in arranging to get the work done as quickly as possible._ "

Taylor nodded absently. "Sure, I have no problem with that. I had plans for tonight but they can easily be put off, and we've finished the work we were doing for the DWU for today. When do you want to start?"

" _Immediately. We can be there in twenty minutes, is that acceptable?_ "

"Of course. Ianthe and Metis are here as well, they can help if you want."

Armsmaster was quiet for a moment, although all three of them could hear unintelligible talking in the background. His voice came back shortly. " _That sounds like a good idea. Thank you. I'll be accompanied by Dragon and Legend. We'll meet you at the new location. When Dragon's transport gets here she'll land it near the building, there is a large empty area next to it. With any luck we can get the bulk of the work done tonight._ "

"Great. OK, we'll be waiting for you."

" _Excellent. Goodbye_." The line went dead, Taylor handing the phone back to Amy, who put it into the charger.

"Interesting. So we get to find out what's going on?" Amy asked curiously.

"Looks like it. She's already worked out more of it than seems plausible, of course," Taylor smiled with a thumb pointing at Lisa, the other girl looking smugly amused. "You definitely boosted her powers, and she was way too good at this sort of thing already. We'll probably regret it sooner or later."

Amy snickered, then stood up. "I'd better move my truck," she said.

"Put it in the vehicle depot around the corner," Taylor said, indicating a ring of keys on the table. "I asked Dad about it this morning, he gave me those. The one with the yellow tag on it unlocks the door."

Amy picked up the ring and examined it. "There must be keys for practically every building on the site here," she remarked.

"Pretty much, it's a spare master set. Don't lose it or he'll be very annoyed," her friend replied.

"OK. Back in a minute." Amy went and moved her truck, opening the roller door from the inside with the switch on the wall, then parking the vehicle behind a large excavator on tracks. Satisfied it wasn't obvious, she locked it, then left the depot, soon back in the office. Two minutes later ' _Ianthe_ ' locked the workroom and joined the other two. They exchanged a look then headed outside, jumping into the bay and swimming towards the new building to wait for Armsmaster and the others.


	153. Wormholes and Warehouses

Parking his bike outside the old fish smokehouse, Colin looked up to see Dragon descending with a flare from her thrusters, Legend dropping down beside her as she touched down. The thrusters whined to a halt then folded away into her armor. As always impressed with the sheer efficiency of her design, he dismounted and walked with the other two towards the door, which was standing open. The weld he'd made to replace the removed lock had been cleanly sliced through leaving a mirror finished surface, presumably the work of Raptaur and an EDM knife.

Inside, he found the three reptiles exploring the building, Ianthe in the roof clinging to the beams, Raptaur on the ground looking into the gaps under the floor with an evaluating expression on her scaly visage, while beside her the one he hadn't met yet, Metis, nearly vanished into the darkness even with his helmet lights on. Her scales were so black they were for all intents and purposes a cutout in the world, like a silhouette, only the deep scarlet effect when she moved relieving the absolute darkness.

She was watching them enter with her glowing green gaze, the look in her eyes showing a deep intelligence and a certain amount of amusement. It was the same effect he got from Raptaur and her siblings, with an added overlay of knowing which made him slightly uncomfortable. Her gaze ran over him, then Dragon and Legend, before she said something in a quiet voice to Raptaur, who currently had her head entirely into a hole in the floor.

The larger lizard pulled her head out again and looked over, smiling at them. Colin was internally slightly amused himself at how good he was getting at reading entirely inhuman expressions. "Hi, guys. This is Metis, another cousin, and you know Ianthe, of course."

"Hello, interesting human heroes," Ianthe called from above them, making Raptaur sigh slightly. The violet lizard sounded happy, as she normally seemed to be.

"Ignore her, she's impossible sometimes even as far as _we're_ concerned," Raptaur added. "Metis, this is Armsmaster, Dragon, and Legend."

"I'm pleased to meet all of you," the black reptilian female said, coming over and shaking hands with them. "Cousin Raptaur is favorably impressed with you all and she has good judgment."

"It's nice to meet you as well, Metis," Dragon responded politely. "I understand you're a new arrival in Brockton Bay?"

"I am, I arrived over the weekend. I find this entire place fascinating." The reptilian woman looked around. "Although this particular part appears less well kept than most of it."

"It's a dump," Dragon chuckled. "Hopefully we can fix that."

"I assume that you require the space for Cousin Kaiju to deploy from with her new weapon," Metis went on. Colin looked at Raptaur, who shrugged.

"I didn't tell her anything, she worked it out. She's horribly good at that sort of thing, she's… call it a research expert. It's not quite right but it fits."

"I see," he replied, inspecting the new Family member. "Impressive. I suppose you'd be classified as a Thinker in our system."

"As I understand it, yes, to a certain degree," Metis replied. "I have other skills as well. I'm quite good at healing, although not as good as Ianthe is, and I can fight reasonably well." She held up a hand, thumb and forefinger an inch apart. Colin twitched when there was a loud vicious electrical discharge sound, a thick arc of electricity jumping the gap and casting a bright light around them. "Plus I have a few other talents that can be useful at times."

"I… see," he said again, much more slowly, glancing sideways at Dragon and Legend who were looking fixedly at the reptile. "That would seem to be a very significant amount of energy."

"It's enough for most purposes," she agreed.

Ianthe jumped off the creaking catwalk she had been prowling along, bouncing from one of the walls to land on an intact part of the floor. "Can you explain your requirements?" she asked as she came over.

"Certainly," Colin answered, tearing his gaze from Metis to look at her. He pulled out a roll of printed plans from his spare halberd holster, unrolling them and holding them up. "We need to remove the entire end of the building next to the water, having reinforced the interior with a thin skin of EDM. New sliding doors need to be fitted to allow Kaiju entrance. This end of the building needs to be walled off from the remainder to form a control room." He pointed at sections of the drawing while Dragon and Legend held it open. All three reptiles studied it closely. "We've designed a simple but hopefully effective transit method for the wormhole, using a telescopic EDM tunnel which should hopefully block the gamma radiation so it's safe for unshielded personnel."

"I have a redundant heavy-duty power generation system coming on the transport," Dragon said, "Which needs to be installed in a separate room over here." She tapped a place on the plan. "The computers go here, the wormhole generator itself in here. In the long run we can add facilities to allow vehicles through as well, but for now we need the basics in place as fast as possible."

"How large is the maximum wormhole size from that generator, did you work that out?" Raptaur asked.

"We can get it to just over sixty feet in diameter," Colin told her. "Any more risks burning it out. We're designing a larger version, but it will take time to recalculate everything for that. However, we can duplicate the existing unit easily enough. Dragon has a number of electronics sets on the way as well, if we have time I'd appreciate you manufacturing at least two more mechanical assemblies."

"Sure, that's not a problem," she said thoughtfully. "What about the one for the weapon?"

"That's finished, it's in my lab on the Rig. It's been reworked into a plug in module, it can be installed into the gun and entirely sealed up. Kaiju can activate and deactivate it by operating an internal switch in the same manner you triggered that scale model."

"Very impressive, guys, you do really good work. And damn fast as well." Raptaur looked very pleased. "OK. Let's get this internal sheathing done first. Metis, can you and Ianthe get rid of those doors, please?" She waved at the far end of the warehouse. Both her cousins nodded, turning and trotting off. Shortly there were a number of metallic crashes as the doors got physically torn away.

Raptaur moved to the wall, looking up. "I can do most of it from here, it's not quite as fast as Kaiju could do it, but it won't take long," she remarked as she put a hand on the wall. The familiar gray material started spreading out in all directions from there, soon covering the entire wall. "Do we want the catwalks?"

"No, they're just in the way." Dragon looked up at the hanging metalwork.

"I'll cut them down," Legend offered, taking off and heading up. Raptaur called to her cousins, who got into position underneath the first metal structure as a bright light flared above them from the cape's lasers, the severed catwalk plummeting to the ground. They caught it without trouble, moving it to the side, then dashed back to catch the next one.

Colin watched with his friend as the four people quickly reduced the building to a shell, then lined it with impenetrable EDM, including covering the floor. Checking the plans he called out instructions which were rapidly acted on. In under two hours the main structure was finished.

While the three lizards were working on the new doors, Metis and Ianthe holding one of them in place as Raptaur hung from the roof and made the fittings to allow it to slide, Dragon turned to him. "My transport is on final approach. I'll be outside landing it, the cladding in here is interfering with the signal."

"All right." She left, a few minutes passing before he heard a dull thunder of high-powered VTOL jets nearby.

By the time the second large sliding door was in place, she was back. "Everything's ready. At this rate we can have the infrastructure installed in under four hours. Wiring it up will take a little while. We need a lot of lights fitted, cables run, sanitary facilities put in, all that sort of thing."

"I can get some people from the DWU to help out if you want," Raptaur called over, descending to the floor. "We have all the expertise you'd ever need for that type of work."

Colin exchanged a glance with Dragon. "It sounds like a good idea to me," she pointed out. "It will certainly speed things up a lot and time is the main issue at this point. They can be trusted if Raptaur is willing to vouch for them."

"All right, but I want to keep the wormhole generator and the weapon a secret, even so."

"Sure, that's no problem," Raptaur smiled as she came to stand beside them. "Our guys know when not to ask questions. Let's unload your transport and get all the equipment in place, then I'll go and find some volunteers who want a little overtime."

"I can authorize payment through the Protectorate," Legend said as he landed beside her. "Being in charge of it has some perks. And a hell of a lot of paperwork." He grinned at her as she chuckled.

"Great, that's very helpful. Hey, you two, come and give us a hand," she called to her cousins, who had just pulled the new doors shut. The other two came over, following her and Dragon outside. Looking around in the light of his helmet lamps Colin nodded in satisfaction. Everything was proceeding to plan and with a modicum of luck they'd be ready for the inevitable.

Now if only the weapon actually had the desired effect… He was still very torn over the damn thing, but he couldn't see any better way to fight an Endbringer currently available, so they didn't have a lot of choice.

With one final glance around the modified warehouse, he followed Legend to help unload the aircraft.

* * *

"Do you know where Colin is?" Hannah asked Ethan, who was sitting in the break room with his mask off eating a snack while reading a newspaper. The other cape looked up, then shook his head.

"No, he and Dragon went off with Legend about two hours ago," the man said. "They looked like they were serious about something, but I have no idea what."

She sat at the table across from him, pulling her scarf off and scratching her nose, which was itching madly. Relieved, she sighed a little. Ethan grinned at her. "You should try a silk one, maybe it wouldn't itch so much."

"I might do that," she smiled. The smile faded after a moment. "I wonder what those three are up to. Don't you find it a little odd that Dragon has spent so much time here in the city in the last few weeks?"

"Not really," her companion shrugged. "She really likes Colin, although he doesn't seem to realize quite what that means. Even so, he obviously trusts her far more than anyone else. I've seen them at work, he lets his guard down around her more than he does at any other time. I'm pretty sure she's very gently trying to humanize him. Good luck to her, I'd say."

Hannah nodded, having noticed the same thing. The affection the Canadian cape had for her team-mate and friend was clear if you looked. She wasn't sure Colin ever had.

"I guess so. Still, it seems she's spent more time here than normal."

"They're working on something big, I suspect. He's got that look in his eyes again, the one that says ' _Go away, I'm_ ** _Tinkering!_** '" The man grinned a little. "You know what he's like when he really gets into the zone. Leviathan could come up and tap him on the shoulder and he'd just grunt and tell him to come back later."

With a small laugh Hannah agreed. That described the man pretty well. "He does tend to become somewhat oblivious to outside distractions," she agreed. "I'm curious about Legend being here as well. He's spending a lot of time with both of them. I wonder what project would keep him in Brockton Bay?"

"Maybe they're making something to fight the Family when they inevitably turn evil," Ethan snickered, popping a handful of chips into his mouth. "That's what always happens in the comics."

His companion stared at him, then shuddered a little. "Don't even joke about that."

"Or..." He looked intrigued. "Maybe they're designing something like a giant hamster wheel that Kaiju can run on! That could provide power for the entire city!"

"You are an idiot, Ethan," she snickered.

"At least I didn't suggest that they were making some superweapon Kaiju could use," he laughed. "A giant robot suit or something, scaled to her size. Imagine her in power armor..."

Hannah did, then paled a little. "Oh, hell, that is worse than the Evil Family idea," she muttered, reaching over the table and stealing his bag of chips, then digging in. "Please stop helping."

"It's what I do," he shrugged, stealing them back. "Have you met the new one yet? Metis?"

"No. Have you?"

"No." He frowned as she snagged the bag once again and emptied it into her mouth. "Get your own."

"I don't need to, I'm full now." Hannah grinned at him as he sighed, then went to the vending machine in the corner and paid a dollar for a new bag. "I hate to think how much of your salary you've dumped into that thing. I should invest in shares in the company."

Sitting down again he tore the bag open and put it between them. "I had an odd meeting this evening," he commented as they both helped themselves. "Raptaur was running around the place giving a ride to a friend of Panacea's. The girl seemed deliriously happy based on her tone of voice."

"She's giving rides to friends now? That's… different."

"When Dennis finds out the jokes will be terrible and frequent," Ethan noted wisely. She nodded, wincing a little.

"I find myself actually feeling sorry for the poor giant lizard," she quipped.

"Raptaur can probably take care of herself." He smiled, crunching up some more potato chips. "Girl has style if nothing else. And fast reflexes, incredible strength, terrifying powers, fanatical devotion to the Pope..."

"You are a very odd person, Ethan," Hannah remarked, staring at him. He nodded happily.

"I certainly try."

"You're certainly _trying,_ " she laughed. "I have no idea what your wife sees in you."

"All this," he smirked, waving a hand at himself.

"Exactly." She grinned as he looked thoughtful, then mildly insulted, before laughing.

"We'll have you making proper jokes sooner or later."

Shaking her head, she kept exchanging comments and observations with her colleague, idly wondering what Colin was up to. Presumably she'd find out sooner or later.

* * *

"That's all the wiring done, Raptaur," the lead electrician said, coming up to her and lifting his hard hat off his head, wiping sweat away with the back of the hand holding the thing. "It's all run back to the switchboard now. Dragon can connect her generator to the tails at the main breaker."

"Thanks very much," Taylor replied with a smile. "You guys did a really good job."

"For triple time, you bet we did," he grinned. "Mikhail's plumbing team is nearly finished as well." He looked up, then around. "What the hell is this place for, anyway?"

"Deep and terrible Family secrets mere humans are not meant to know," she intoned in a low voice.

He stared, then snickered. "I'll bet. Good luck with it."

"Thanks."

Looking over to his six man team, he whistled, then waved when they looked around from where they were talking to ' _Metis_ '. "We're out of here, guys." One of them waved at him, then they said their goodbyes to her friend and headed over. "See you, Raptaur. Call if you need anything else done."

"Thanks, Francis," she smiled, watching the men and one woman leave the building. She looked around as Legend walked over. "That's that part done, the plumbing is nearly in as well, we should be ready to install everything in about twenty minutes or so."

"Great," the man said with a pleased expression. "You know some very competent workers."

"They're damn good at what they do," she agreed. "I'm happy I could give them some work."

"Have the paperwork delivered to the Rig and I'll sign off on it," he told her. "Gladly."

"OK."

Just under an hour and a half later she finished forming the protective enclosure of tissue-thin EDM around the wormhole generator, which would shield the residual radiation from anyone when it was off. Thick cables ran from it through the protective wall into the control area, to the side room where Dragon's power unit was. The Tinker was in the process of testing it. Eventually she called, "Powering up!"

There was a hum that rose to a steady faint background drone, followed by a loud clunk as the main breaker closed. A couple of dozen huge light fittings in the roof came on one by one with a series of clicks, until the entire area was brightly lit. Taylor looked around, pleased, then with Amy went around and turned off the work lights they'd borrowed from the DWU stores, along with a ten kilowatt diesel generator which was chugging away outside. While they coiled the cables up Lisa went outside and turned it off, the hum of the bigger power unit being the only real noise left.

"Very good," Legend said, looking around approvingly as he entered through the door in the partition wall, Armsmaster with him. "Amazingly good for about seven hours hard work."

"We had a lot of help," she pointed out. "How are the computers coming along?"

"Almost everything is in place," Armsmaster replied to her question. "Dragon is just running functional tests. If you can make some more changes to the main door and the side entrance, I can install the security system. At that point I think we're ready for a test."

"OK. Show me what you need done," she smiled agreeably. She and her friends were having fun, even though it was now nearly three in the morning.

Eventually, it was all finished. They clustered in the main room, inspecting it. Armsmaster was studying his plans, making small notes on them, but finally nodded in satisfaction. "There are a number of long-term changes I'd like to make, but as a prototype this is excellent. We have the weapon construction bench over there, the personnel transfer port over here, the wormhole generator checks out, all the computers are running and tested… I believe we are ready for a test."

"I've downloaded the targeting software from my suit into the main computer," Dragon said as she led the way into the much smaller control room through the double-doored airlock-like entrance that would serve to keep radiation in the wormhole room when the generator was active. Several enormous high resolution screens showed graphs and control interfaces, along with a number of very good images of the other room from radiation-hardened cameras mounted in the roof, covering the entire area. She moved to stand in front of the main console.

"I simplified the control interface and set up a user interface for it that should allow anyone to operate it presuming they're authorized," she explained. "Leet's original interface and software was very good for his immediate requirements but somewhat inflexible for ours. This is much better." The Tinker pointed at one monitor. "You can either enter an exact set of target coordinates here as latitude, longitude, and altitude, or simply pick a destination on the globe." She demonstrated with the mouse, spinning the rendered globe to put Northern Canada in the middle, then zooming in.

"Click a spot for the wormhole destination, then unlock the generator with the key here and press this button to spin it up, this one to turn the wormhole on. They're on separate physical controls to prevent accidental activation." She turned the key and pressed the first button.

The singularity screeched up to speed in the next room, making the entire building vibrate gently and Amy and Lisa look surprised. Pressing the other switch caused the by-now familiar blue-edged circle to appear on the camera views. Edge on it was completely invisible, having no actual thickness.

"Very impressive," ' _Metis_ ' said softly. "What is the range?"

"I'm not entirely certain yet," Dragon admitted. "Definitely anywhere on the planet. It will easily reach orbit, that's not very far away, but I haven't worked out what the ultimate limitations are. With the Simurgh floating around out there I didn't think it was wise to experiment too much in case she started investigating, and putting a wormhole in space would almost certainly draw her attention."

"I see," Lisa replied. "Thank you."

"You're welcome," Dragon nodded.

"I suppose I should test the thing now," Taylor said as she headed towards the radiation lock. "Back in a minute."

Cycling herself through into the other room, she looked around, seeing the entire place lit with gamma light. There really was rather a lot of it. ' _I'll have to make Lisa and Amy some EDM armor_ ,' she remarked to the Varga. ' _I know Amy said her bioconstructs were pretty radiation resistant but better safe than sorry_.'

"I'd agree with that, Brain," he replied. "There's no point in taking chances."

Walking over to the wormhole entrance she inspected it. The hole in space was nearly twelve feet across, much larger than the initial tests. Sticking her arm through she felt the other side was much colder, far below freezing. With a shrug she stepped through and found herself standing up to the hips in snow in pitch blackness, lit only with gamma light from the wormhole behind her and the light of the stars and the same sort of aurora she'd seen on the trip to Quebec the month before. Looking around, then up, she smiled at the sight. It was still beautiful.

' _I love this sort of thing_ ,' she said with satisfaction. ' _I could watch that for hours_.'

"It's still very impressive but I suppose we can't simply stand and stare at it," he chuckled. "Although I agree that it's worth more than a single look."

After a couple of minutes of watching the green and red curtains dance in the air, electrical currents on a vast scale moving slowly above them, she bent down and packed a large handful of snow into a ball, tossing it up and down. With one final look around at the low pine trees half-buried in snow that surrounded her, she turned around and went back.

"Works perfectly," she announced to the nearest camera, holding up the snowball. "Try somewhere else."

"All right," Dragon's voice sounded through the intercom system, echoing around the huge room. "Any preferences?"

"Somewhere warmer. Try the middle of the Sahara."

"Hold on a moment." The wormhole disappeared for a few seconds, then came back. "There you go."

Taylor waved before going through the blue-rimmed hole again, blinking a little at the sudden light change. This time it was late evening and still very hot, golden sand spread around her in a scene that went to the horizon. Dunes and exposed areas of gravel broke up an otherwise fairly bland desert scene.

Her snowball was rapidly melting, the temperature being higher than she had ever experienced in the summer back home. Tossing it to the ground she looked around, then picked up an interesting rock, before going back.

"Yep. Everything checks out."

"Wonderful."

"Want to test the transit tunnel next?"

"I think so. Please come back to this side."

"OK." Taylor went back through the radiation lock. The control console and power room were on one side of the control room, the other side having another similar lock system which covered the telescopic tunnel. This was simply three square sections of thin EDM set one inside the other with a very close tolerance, the ends curved around to block any gamma radiation bouncing down the gap. It had a basic electric motor to extend and retract it operating through two push-rods, one on either side. The virtually frictionless material moved smoothly with minimal effort, allowing the thing to be extended about ten feet.

"I'll put the wormhole just in front of the wall," Dragon announced. "It's a preset, like this." She clicked one of the on-screen controls, which was labeled ' _Standard transit'_ , everyone watching on the monitor as the wormhole enlarged slightly and snapped into position on the other side of the wall. Clicking another control made the tunnel motor whir into life. They watched as the square section extended, entering the wormhole without any visible issues. When it was fully extended, Dragon nodded in satisfaction.

"That seems to be working. The radiation sensors in the tunnel itself are reading zero and the far end is above background by a significant but not dangerous level assuming exposure is kept to a minimum. Or if the people using it are reasonably shielded."

"I'll have a look," Taylor smiled.

"Take the portable sensor with you," Dragon requested, handing her a small device. She took it, then went to the other door. Shortly she was standing in the desert again. The radiation monitor she was holding was complaining mildly but unlike the initial tests in her building, it hadn't died entirely from a massive overdose.

' _I'd say they've cracked that problem pretty well_ ,' she commented, pleased.

"It certainly looks like it. I'm very impressed how fast it all came together." The Varga sounded gratified. "Hopefully this will, in conjunction with ' _Athena_ ', allow us to deal with this next Endbringer. I am curious to see what happens."

' _So am I. Terrified, too_.'

With a last look around she headed back.

* * *

When all the tests were finished, they were satisfied they had a working transportation system. Everyone had tried it at least once, going to places all over the world in isolated spots to prevent witnesses, and any damage to them. Dragon explained the various controls as she went. There were a number of preset modes, including ' _Kaiju transit_ ' which produced an enormous wormhole nearly filling the other room from floor to ceiling. This one was entered from the water side, which would make it easier for her to pass through.

"A very good night's work," Armsmaster finally stated with a definite smile. "Thank you, everyone, for the hard work. I believe we're as ready as we can be for what happens next."

"And we have a backup method for transporting people other than the various teleporters," Legend noted with a pleased smile. "That alone makes it worthwhile. Even with the limitations caused by the radiation, but I'm happy with the workarounds you came up with. Once we get vehicle support added, it will be an excellent resource."

"I can resurface the lot outside in the morning," Taylor offered. "It's a mess at the moment."

"Thank you, that would be very helpful, Raptaur," he replied.

"Now all we have to do is wait, I assume," ' _Ianthe_ ' said thoughtfully. "Do you have any more specific idea when the Endbringer will attack, or where?"

"Not really," Armsmaster sighed. "Their schedule isn't entirely rigid, there can be a certain amount of variability, but it's three months plus or minus a week generally. We're into the three month period so in theory at any time now. I would expect it to most likely happen by the week end. As to where, if there is a pattern to it we haven't yet discerned it. Probably the Simurgh, but it could be anywhere on the planet."

"Annoying."

"Very." He shrugged. "However, there's nothing we can do except live with it. It will happen whether we like it or not."

"Hopefully the weapon will at least drive the thing off even if it doesn't kill it," Lisa said thoughtfully. "Although as far as I can see based on your description, there is going to be a significant amount of damage just from firing the thing."

"Less damage than letting the Simurgh run loose, and hopefully far less loss of life. Infrastructure can be replaced, people are harder to do that with," Legend put in soberly.

The black and red lizard nodded her understanding.

"There's nothing more we can do here tonight, I think," Dragon said, proceeding to shut down the computers and wormhole generator. The room went quiet in the aftermath. "I'll shuttle the gun generator over to BBFO in the morning. Will anyone be there to receive it?"

"I will," Lisa said.

"All right. In that case, I think we should all call it a night." The Tinker pulled out a spare key for the console and handed it to Taylor. "Just in case. You all know how to operate it, and the codes for the security system. There's an external link to my Endbringer tracking system through the antenna you put on the roof. If for whatever reason we can't get here fast enough, do what you need to do."

Taylor took the key and stared at it, then nodded slowly. "I will. I'll talk to Kaiju tonight and bring her up to speed as well. She'll probably come over tomorrow and check everything out."

"Good." Dragon handed Legend and Armsmaster identical keys. "A backup for each of you." They headed for the door, setting the security system and hearing the locks engage with a loud clunk. "I'll fly my transport to the Rig overnight. Armsmaster, you might as well load your bike on board, it'll be quicker."

Taylor watched as the Tinker rode his custom motorcycle up the loading ramp and parked it. He leaned out the rear door. "Thank you all for your very efficient help," he said gravely, before disappearing again. The ramp went up, the aircraft took off, and they watched as it headed for the force-field dome out in the bay.

"This has been very interesting, ladies," Legend said with a smile to them all. "I genuinely feel we may have the best chance we've ever had to properly deal with one of those monstrous things, mostly due to your efforts. I expect we'll find out all too soon."

"Unfortunately, you're probably right," Taylor replied. She held out her hand. "It was nice seeing you again, Legend."

"And you. And your cousins." He shook hands with Amy and Lisa, then stepped back, waved, and disappeared in a blue streak of light that flashed overhead. They watched as it vanished then Lisa sighed.

"What an odd day."

"Just wait until the fucking Endbringer attacks," Amy said quietly.

"Damn things."

"Yep." Taylor shrugged, looking at the key in her palm. "I'm putting this very carefully away, then going home."

"Sounds like a good idea to me," Amy yawned. "I could do with some sleep."

"Join the club," Lisa smiled. They headed back to the office, each of them wondering about what would happen when ' _Athena_ ' was finally fired.


	154. PHO and Chat

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 **Topic: Hey, locals, what do you think about Brockton Bay at the moment?  
In: Boards ► America ► Brockton Bay ► General Chat  
SenorEel ** (Original Poster)  
Posted On Feb 22nd 2011:

So, as I am far, far away from the Lovecraftian city at the center of the weirdness, and intend to stay that way, I was just wondering what you locals felt about all the recent changes. Based on what I gather from the news and PHO, your gang activity is at a near historic low, your economy seems likely to start to improve soon, and you're up to your armpits in reptiles :)

I'm wondering if the reduction in crime rate is a good trade for giant lizards from the depths of time, or whatever the hell they really are? Do you think your employment rate will go up as your Mayor has claimed? Have you noticed any improvements already? Or have things in any way got worse?

I'm not talking directly about the Family, I'm more interested in the events surrounding them. It's mainly curiosity more than anything else. Brockton Bay seems to have become a surprisingly important place recently if you go by the news, even here. As the saying has it, all eyes are on you.

Discuss :D

 **(Showing page 11 of 24)**

 **►AllSeeingEye**  
Replied On Feb 22nd 2011:

That's a little unfair, I fact that you can't get eggs tonight isn't really Saurial's fault. The store should have stocked more of them! Anyone could have bought the last box, blaming her because she's a reptile is sort of rude.

 **►MZenny**  
Replied On Feb 22nd 2011:

I still have plenty of eggs in stock!

 **►Glare**  
Replied On Feb 22nd 2011:

How the hell did we end up talking about eggs, AGAIN!?

I swear this place gets weirder by the day...

 **►Bladeworksfan** (Kyushu Survivor)  
Replied On Feb 22nd 2011:

I don't know. I mean, yes, they scare me. I'm nervous about reptiles at the best of times, ones that stand on their hind legs and talk to you are worse. Ones you're looking up at from the roof of a six story building... They're _horrifying_.

But, all that said, they're polite, friendly, helpful, and like Assembler said a couple of pages ago, between them they've already been largely responsible for keeping several hundred people in work. Not to mention that based on what Mayor Christner says we're likely to have a lot of jobs created over the next few months and years.

The massive drop in gang crime is nothing to sneer at either. I've been mugged twice in the last eighteen months, but for at least two weeks I haven't seen a single E88 member on the streets. The ABB are really quiet as well.

I guess what I'm getting at is that even if they scare me, it's a good sort of scared. Does that make sense?

 **►Bagrat** (Veteran Member) (The Guy in the Know)  
Replied On Feb 22nd 2011:

Oddly enough I understand what you mean. All the information I have is showing that even just Saurial and Raptaur have dropped crime levels more between them than almost all the Protectorate and New Wave together, which is pretty amazing. I know a couple of people who are in gangs, only to say hi to when I'm having a drink you understand, and they tell me, very quietly, that Kaiser has told everyone to keep their heads down.

Like, keep entirely out of public view, and for fuck's sake don't do anything to upset the Family, OR the DWU.

It's weird. I don't like Kaiser at all, but in some ways I almost respect the Nazi bastard. He has his own sort of standards and no one has ever accused him of being either a coward or stupid. If he's decided to stay under the radar, he has good reasons for it.

 **►Flashlight**  
Replied On Feb 22nd 2011:

That agrees with my information. I know a few people as well, old school wise guys in a sense, and what I've heard is that word has gone around to stay well clear of Brockton Bay. These people are... well, they're not people to take lightly, let's say. But they are also people with a certain type of honor and I trust the information I get from them. They are oddly quiet and very respectful about the Family and the DWU. I have no idea why, exactly. But it does tend to imply that they know or suspect something that I haven't yet heard about.

I wonder what?

 **►Mojiizen**  
Replied On Feb 22nd 2011:

Interesting. I wonder if that's the same reason we haven't heard anything from Lung for weeks. Is he still in the city, even?

 **►Kingbob** (Verified BBPD Officer)  
Replied On Feb 22nd 2011:

My information is that he is, but like Kaiser he's keeping very low profile. I heard he had a run in with Kaiju which seems to have made him reassess his priorities.

Can't say I'm upset about it. Although being the cynic I am, I'm wondering when the other shoe will drop.

 **►Flashlight**  
Replied On Feb 22nd 2011:

Have you heard anything about the Merchants, out of interest? I was told that Skidmark has been talking himself up in certain places.

 **►Kingbob** (Verified BBPD Officer)  
Replied On Feb 22nd 2011:

I've heard something similar. Various sources claim he's in a fouler mood than normal, which would take some effort, and is mouthing off about the Family.

Half of me is wanting him to try something on the basis that it will settle the Merchant problem once and for all ;)

The other half is desperately hoping he sees sense and keeps his head down for the exact same reason.

I can't help having a horrible feeling that the idiot isn't going to take the sensible route, though...

 **End of Page. 1, 2, 3 ... 9, 10, 11, 12, 13 ... 22, 23, 24**

 **(Showing page 12 of 24)**

 **►Electric_Techpriest**  
Replied On Feb 22nd 2011:

If Skiddyboy wants to commit suicide by Family that's fine by me. Just let me know in advance, I'll get the popcorn ready :)

 **►Reave** (Verified PRT Agent)  
Replied On Feb 22nd 2011:

It's not something we're looking forward to, but we all know it might happen. I just hope that if it does he picks someone like Raptaur to go after, she'll cause less collateral damage than Kaiju would!

I doubt the outcome would be much different as far as he was concerned in either case.

 **►SenorEel** (Original Poster)  
Replied On Feb 22nd 2011:

Very interesting. So what I gather is that while a lot of people are still finding it hard to understand, on balance most people are happy, or at least not UNhappy, about the current situation in Brockton Bay?

 **►AllSeeingEye**  
Replied On Feb 22nd 2011:

That would seem to be the case. I know that from the point of view of both the city government and the DWU they're perfectly content with the way things are going. Even a couple of the councillors who were somewhat against it to start with seem to have come around to the Mayor's viewpoint in the last few days.

Probably when they saw that Kaiju didn't go on a rampage and eat the entire dock area :)

I've noticed that tourism seems to be noticeably up in the last couple of days as well, despite the fairly cold weather. I wouldn't be surprised to see city hall running ads soon using the Family as a selling point, which would be pretty funny!

 **►Dingbat779** (Cape Groupie)  
Replied On Feb 22nd 2011:

I wouldn't put it past old Roy. He's a shrewd operator. If this plan of his comes off, his next election is going to be a landslide :)

He's sure better than the last guy!

 **►Laser Augment**  
Replied On Feb 22nd 2011:

But you are still overrun by lizards...

 **►Ianthe** (Verified Cape) (The Family)  
Replied On Feb 22nd 2011:

We're hardly overrunning the city :)

There are only a few of us here right now, and we're being very careful not to cause any trouble.

We like you people. You're fun.

 **►Valshax**  
Replied On Feb 22nd 2011:

Thank you. I think :)

 **►Laser Augment**  
Replied On Feb 22nd 2011:

But Lizards?

Why did it have to be Lizards...

 **►FCVanillaIce**  
Replied On Feb 22nd 2011:

:D:D:D

 **End of Page. 1, 2, 3 ... 10, 11, 12, 13, 14 ... 22, 23, 24**

 **(Showing page 13 of 24)**

 **►Winged One**  
Replied On Feb 22nd 2011:

They still scare me.

But I've got bigger problems right now. I wish I could think of a way around them.

 **►MZenny**  
Replied On Feb 22nd 2011:

Ah, you're back! We were getting a little worried about what you said last night. Is everything all right?

 **►Winged One**  
Replied On Feb 22nd 2011:

Not really.

*sigh*

I wish I could explain it properly. :(

 **►Flashlight**  
Replied On Feb 22nd 2011:

Anything we can do to help?

 **►Winged One**  
Replied On Feb 22nd 2011:

I doubt it. Unfortunately. Although I'm grateful for the offer.

My family has... let's say there's this man who has more power over us than we'd like. He's... not helpful. Because of him I'm going to have to do something I REALLY don't want to do, but I can't see a way out of it.

You know the saying ' _stuck between a rock and a hard place_ '?

 **me**

But that's life, I guess.

 **►Flashlight**  
Replied On Feb 22nd 2011:

If someone is forcing you to do something you don't want to do, or that would get you in trouble, you should call the authorities. I don't know where you live, but practically everywhere has laws against that sort of thing. I know we do here in the US.

You make it sound like you're being forced at gunpoint, which worries me.

 **►Winged One**  
Replied On Feb 22nd 2011:

It's more complicated than that. I can't really explain.

None of us really want to be involved but...

It's complicated.

And recent events have made it even worse. To be honest, I'm terrified. But I have no choice.

 **►Bagrat** (Veteran Member) (The Guy in the Know)  
Replied On Feb 22nd 2011:

You pretty much always have a choice. It's just that sometimes the only choices are bad ones.

Maybe you have to pick the least worst?

 **►XxVoid_CowboyxX**  
Replied On Feb 22nd 2011:

Just kick his ass! Get some friends and kick the _shit_ out of him.

Man up! Or Woman up. If that's a thing.

 **►Mojiizen**  
Replied On Feb 22nd 2011:

He's an idiot, but for once he's right. Get some help and do what you need to do. No one should be forced into doing something that could hurt them or someone else. Which is what it sounds like you're talking about.

 **End of Page. 1, 2, 3 ... 11, 12, 13, 14, 15 ... 22, 23, 24**

 **(Showing page 14 of 24)**

 **►Winged One**  
Replied On Feb 22nd 2011:

You... are partly right. Like I said, it's difficult to explain. It could end up causing harm to other people, yes. But we aren't as free to act as we'd like. Believe me, if we were, we'd be out of here.

The real problem is that even if we can get away from this guy, there's someone else in the shadows behind him who's a lot worse. The other one is really dangerous.

I'm going to have to think about it.

Thanks for the advice, and listening.

 **►Flashlight**  
Replied On Feb 22nd 2011:

Any time you want to talk, just PM me. I do have contacts in law enforcement in several countries. I might be able to help.

Don't give up. There's always hope.

 **►XxVoid_CowboyxX**  
Replied On Feb 22nd 2011:

Get a baseball bat.

 **►Winged One**  
Replied On Feb 22nd 2011:

:) You can be funny, XxVoid_CowboyxX. You should do that more often and not be so abrasive.

Thanks, Flashlight. And everyone else. I'll talk to my family and see what they think. Maybe we can figure out a way out of this. But we don't have long, something is going to have to happen soon.

I'll try to delay it but that's all I can do at the moment :)

I really don't want to do it...

 **►Mandabar**  
Replied On Feb 22nd 2011:

Don't let the bastards win, Winged One. We'd miss your very weird sense of humor.

 **►Winged One**  
Replied On Feb 22nd 2011:

Thanks ;)

Got to go. Good luck with your reptile problem, guys!

Try to keep them there if you can... :D

 **►Filipinosberman**  
Replied On Feb 22nd 2011:

Holy shit! Have a look at **this!** Kaiju showing that yes, she _is_ pretty strong...

 **►Kid Win** (Verified Cape) (Wards ENE)  
Replied On Feb 22nd 2011:

Wow. That's amazing. I'd guess that the piece of ship she lifted off must have been five or six hundred tons and she made it look like it was cardboard.

Unbelievable.

 **►Glare**  
Replied On Feb 22nd 2011:

Those engines weigh about thirty tons each, the propellers are nearly as much, and the driveshafts are even more. Very impressive.

With her around the DWU doesn't need cranes at all!

And did you see how that blade cut through the steel like it wasn't there? What the hell is it made of? It's ungodly sharp whatever it is.

 **►Clockblocker** (Verified Cape) (Wards ENE)  
Replied On Feb 22nd 2011:

Forget cutting ships up, have a look at **this** :)

 _I_ want a go now. Who is that girl? Why does _she_ rate a Raptaur-ride and I don't?

 **End of Page. 1, 2, 3 ... 12, 13, 14, 15, 16 ... 22, 23, 24**

 **(Showing page 15 of 24)**

 **►Vista** (Verified Cape) (Wards ENE)  
Replied On Feb 22nd 2011:

Because you have a horrible sense of humor? ;)

 **►Clockblocker** (Verified Cape) (Wards ENE)  
Replied On Feb 22nd 2011:

Thanks, my friend and coworker.

Thanks very much indeed.

 **►Vista** (Verified Cape) (Wards ENE)  
Replied On Feb 22nd 2011:

You're welcome :D

 **►IguanaGirl**  
Replied On Feb 22nd 2011:

That was _me_!

God, it was _amazing_. I got offered the chance since I know Panacea from school, and I'm SO glad I took it!

Like fifteen minutes of the best rollercoaster in the world, turned up _all the way to 11_

SO happy.

 **►Clockblocker** (Verified Cape) (Wards ENE)  
Replied On Feb 22nd 2011:

SO jealous :(

 **►IguanaGirl**  
Replied On Feb 22nd 2011:

:)

:D

 **►Bagrat** (Veteran Member) (The Guy in the Know)  
Replied On Feb 22nd 2011:

IguanaGirl, do you mind if I link to that video?

 **►IguanaGirl**  
Replied On Feb 22nd 2011:

Go ahead :)

 **►Electric_Techpriest**  
Replied On Feb 22nd 2011:

At least we got through another Tuesday without anything wildly weird happening...

I'm beginning to have a funny feeling about Tuesdays...

 **End of Page. 1, 2, 3 ... 13, 14, 15, 16, 17 ... 22, 23, 24**

•


	155. Dragon and Thinkytime

**Wednesday, February 23, 2011**

Sitting motionless at six AM in the room which she'd been assigned on the Rig, Dragon looked like she was asleep, but in fact she was allowing her exosuit to run detailed internal diagnostics while she got on with other business. She used the time when her friends were asleep to operate her systems back home by remote control, monitor the results of much simpler computer programs that were running her factories, and to simply think.

Right now she was going through a list of subjects she'd queued for later introspection, not wanting them to distract her while she was interacting with the humans around her. While in theory her processing ability allowed her to multitask to an extraordinary degree by human terms, her ' _father's_ ' restrictions locked most of that away. It was something that irritated her no end but at the moment there was no way around it. Hopefully one day she could figure out a method to remove those restrictions.

Being unable to run multiple iterations of her consciousness on different hardware was very annoying. It made backing herself up much more tedious and complex than it needed to be, and although it was possible in a roundabout manner, it had massive limitations. She was also unable to spawn new genuinely sentient AIs, something else she found very limiting.

Dragon understood why Richter had put those limitations in place. He was scared of what she could become if she was completely unrestricted. It was a common theme throughout human fiction, the unstoppable computer intelligence that took over the world. The entire idea simultaneously amused and annoyed her. She had no intention of trying to supplant humanity in any way. They were far too much fun to do that to and she owed them too much, leaving aside the fact that she _liked_ them. In her view it was entirely possible for both human and artificial intelligence to coexist and help each other. But due to the limits deliberately put in place by her creator she wasn't able to prove that.

Aside from anything else, the sort of hardware that was needed to run her mind was vastly more complex than normal computing equipment. Her ninth-generation processing core was decades ahead of anything she had released into general sale, no one else except Colin to her knowledge had anything even close. Leet could possibly produce something if it struck him as a good idea, but where it came to computers, she was the expert. Not unreasonably, considering she _was_ one.

By now she was far past the point her father had reached, but due to his own rules, couldn't actually use that ability for upgrading herself. The concept of expanding out into the internet or something of that nature, a staple of science fiction, was ludicrous considering the wildly disparate nature of the connected systems, the horrendous latency between nodes, and the overall lack of the specific architecture she required. Certainly it was technically possible to roll out hardware that _would_ support her, but it would take years and so much in the way of resources it was simply impracticable. Assuming it was even permitted in the first place by her own monitoring systems.

With a small internal sigh she gave up on the mild inner rant she tended towards when she started to think about how life was unfair even for the silicon-based, pushing that thought sequence to the back of queue again. Looking at the most important issue at the front, she began to check the data from the Endbringer tracker system. It showed what she'd more than half expected. As Raptaur had gone through the various portals around the world during their operation tests, Leviathan had taken off like a bat out of hell in a direction that would put him as far away from her as possible, still splitting the difference between Brockton Bay itself and the reptile. Her tracker had clocked him at over seven hundred miles an hour at one point which was a higher speed than they'd ever seen from the creature. The shock wave of his passage through the water was amazing, the SOSUS network heard it half way around the planet.

He'd apparently just run for his life from what she could see. If she was forced to put it into human terms, she'd say the behavior was one of sheer terror. Which was, in many ways, _itself_ absolutely terrifying. What did _Leviathan_ know about the Family that they _didn't_?

Interestingly, when she compared the logged travel time of Metis on her own to one of the test destinations in the wilds of South America, the Endbringer still moved away, but more slowly and deliberately. The AI puzzled over it for some time. All she could come up with was that Leviathan considered any Family member dangerous but Raptaur's branch of it was _much_ more so than Metis'. Without more information she was hesitant to even guess the reason for that.

One thing was certain, though; The Endbringer _did not_ want to meet any of them. Which in turn probably meant that the East Coast of the US was about as safe as anywhere on the planet could be from an Endbringer attack. She just wished she knew why…

Curious, she went back through the logs of the orbital tracking for the Simurgh. She found that the creature had changed its orbital plane and inclination several times, which after correlation with the transit logs seemed also to put her over the horizon from any Family member. So that one wasn't keen on a meeting either, although Dragon wasn't sure why she was so intent on staying out of line of sight. Her orbital distance had increased to a very high altitude trajectory, one with a period of several days, in a very elongated ellipse.

Again, this was unusual if not unprecedented behavior. ' _Very strange indeed_ ,' she mused to herself. ' _I wonder what Behemoth is doing?_ ' The final Endbringer had gone entirely quiet, no seismic tremors she could measure giving away his position deep underground. The last reading she had was from well over a month ago which put him somewhere around the outer core, on the other side of the planet from the US. The data wasn't accurate enough to determine a precise location.

' _They're all hiding. What the_ ** _hell_** _is the Family capable of if the_ ** _Endbringers_** _are scared of them?!_ ' she thought, more than a little worried. All the Family members she'd met were very personable people in her view, and not obviously likely to be dangerous. Definitely _capable_ of it, true enough, but showing no signs at all that they would do anything dramatic without some extreme provocation. If even Eidolon's unprovoked attack on Kaiju wasn't enough to spark anything other than a mild rebuke, she wasn't sure she wanted to see what _would_ do the trick.

 _Or_ what would happen as a result.

It would probably be rather memorable for the survivors.

Internally feeling disquiet, she damped that particular emotional subroutine down before it started taking her down paranoid thought paths that weren't useful, going back to the data. Double-checking her results, she was satisfied she hadn't missed anything. Uploading the logs and her conclusions to her home server she also copied them to Colin's system. She'd talk to him and Legend about it in the morning.

Both of them were asleep at the moment, having looked exhausted by the time they got back to the Rig. She'd convinced her friend not to use any more stimulants and let nature give him six or seven hours of real sleep, since he obviously needed it. His constant attempts to minimize his offline time concerned her, his drive for maximum efficiency was likely to cause damage eventually and ironically enough harm his own efficient working ability.

' _It's funny that I as a machine can see what he as a human can't_ ,' she laughed to herself. She found humans endlessly fascinating and at the same time wildly frustrating sometimes. Looking at the Family she wondered if they felt the same.

She'd come to the conclusion, which wasn't one she'd shared with anyone else, that they actually were _not_ human as they had been saying all along. What they really _were_ she wasn't sure yet. Opinion on PHO was split, most people believing that they were either some odd sort of construct, the most outlandish Case 53's ever seen, aliens, or demons.

Demons were clearly impossible. Saurial as a Case 53 was certainly feasible, as was Raptaur and the two new ones. Kaiju seemed a stretch and Umihebi was ridiculous. No one seemed to have considered the Changer theory that the Director had mentioned, most likely because it was also something that broke down very quickly when the latter two were brought into it. The way that there were suddenly two more tended to go against that theory as well.

Constructs were technically possible, she'd decided, but seemed unlikely. Once again it was the sheer mass of Kaiju and Umihebi that seemed to cause the most problems. Not to mention that all of them were obviously living beings, very intelligent, and with their own powers and skills. If someone could actually _make_ individuals to that level she was pretty sure it would have come to light before now, not to mention there was no obvious reason why the purported constructor would make _giant reptiles_ of all things. It seemed an odd thing to do as far as she was concerned.

The way they seemed to have a consistent shared past, history, and culture was another count against that theory. Various hints and statements that various members had made to quite a large number of people suggested a background that was much richer and older than seemed likely for creatures that had existed for a maximum of about thirty years if you accepted they were the result of a Parahuman power. That limit was rolling it back to the point that the first Parahuman had appeared. She doubted very much that it could possibly be that long since it was almost certain that someone would have noticed before now.

If it _was_ a Parahuman power as the source of the Family, her calculations suggested it was something that had occurred no more than three months ago, which just wasn't enough time to make anything as big as either Kaiju or Umihebi based on any power she had records of.

Ever since the meeting with the Director and the others that had resulted in the combined Family threat assessment report, she'd been going over the outcome again and again, adding in new data as she found it, and so far nothing seemed to have changed the overall conclusions or assumptions.

In the end, the least irrational theory of their origin she could come up with was that they were indeed from somewhere else. In other words, aliens. Nothing else fitted the data as well as far as she could currently determine.

Yet again she wondered if she should share that thought with anyone else. At the moment she couldn't really see that it made a lot of difference. Humans being humans, they might well overreact, and as a non-human herself she didn't particularly want to cause trouble for anyone else in her situation. The Family hadn't gone out of their way to try to pretend they were anything else, although they weren't exactly shouting it from the rooftops, which probably meant that they were trying to slowly acclimatize the population to their presence. It was a sensible plan that so far seemed to be working. As far as she could see, there was no hostile intent, and the data suggested to her that even if their ultimate origin was extraterrestrial or extradimensional, these particular ones had probably been around for some time. How they'd managed to stay hidden was a mystery as was why they had decided to reveal themselves at this point.

If they hadn't caused any trouble up until now, there was no specific reason to think that they would in the future, any more than anyone else would. From what Legend had told them of the near-disastrous meeting between the Triumvirate and Kaiju, she herself had pointed out that no one could really predict if any given person would eventually cause trouble, heroes included. All you could do was work on past and present behavior and project it into the future.

On that basis, Kaiju and her sisters were probably safer to be around than Eidolon was, she thought with a mental snicker. None of _them_ had shot someone in the back of the head for no apparent reason, after all.

Deciding that if she got the chance she'd see if she could get a DNA sample which would probably settle it once and for all, just for her own curiosity, she dropped that line of thought. There wasn't enough data to make her change her conclusions at the moment so it was pointless wasting CPU cycles mulling it over yet again.

Another thought came to the front of the queue, one she'd been trying not to think too hard about since she'd had the initial realization. The innocent poster of a warhammer hanging in the BBFO office. It was a message, she'd finally worked out. A subtle but horrifying one.

When Raptaur had flat out stated that if they wanted to cause massive destruction they had other methods than nuclear explosives available to them, she wasn't trying to be funny. She was merely stating a simple fact.

Based on the dimensions she'd derived from photos of Raptaur wielding her hammer when she took down Hookwolf, and scaling it up to match Kaiju's size, she came up with a figure for mass somewhere in the vicinity of three hundred tons. Based on the known fact that Raptaur herself could swing a sword fast enough have the tip go transsonic, and adding the leverage provided by the length of the handle, Kaiju could _easily_ reach three times sonic velocity or more with the hammer head. The inevitable calculation using the formula they'd _put on the damn poster_ was that she could produce a blow that liberated tens of tons of TNT equivalent energy with a single hit.

Dragon now had a pretty shrewd idea how the first two islands up in Quebec had met their end.

The observed data from the seismic traces and the satellite observation matched her calculations of Kaiju's hammer damage near-perfectly.

She still had no idea what had made the other damage, the beam weapon that they had been puzzling over for weeks. But she was almost certain that Kaiju had been up there and had hammered two small islands out of existence with a single hit each.

The much more worrying thing she'd also worked out was what would happen if the giant lizard made her hammer revert to normal mass mid swing. Even at a low estimate it released energy in the megaton range. At the high end it was a decent sized asteroid impact simulator.

In theory, the creature was an extinction-level event that walked around and helped out with heavy construction.

Even in her silicon mindscape, Dragon felt a frisson of fear. The conclusions she drew went some way towards explaining the terror the Endbringers appeared to have regarding the Family. Not all of it, certainly, but it put Kaiju pretty much on a level with them for overall power.

She was _damn_ glad the Family was friendly.

Eventually, she was going to have to talk to the humans about all this, but after much thought she decided that she wouldn't do that unless she had no choice. Their reactions were very unlikely to be helpful in most cases. Basically, Brockton Bay was home to a reptilian nuclear-level superpower, which was pretty much guaranteed to make governments all over the world freak out when they figured it out. Hopefully none of them had yet. Given enough time before that part of the truth came out, perhaps it could be spun to make people less scared, but considering how irrational humans could easily get when worked up, she wasn't entirely hopeful.

It did tend to help explain why the Family acted as they did, though. If nothing else, they probably didn't have very much to fear from more or less anyone. She was uncertain if Kaiju could actually survive the results of her own hammer if her calculations were even vaguely correct, but based on what she'd seen so far she wouldn't want to say it was _impossible_.

All of this, though, did point towards the mystery organization that had handed her Saint practically gift-wrapped as either being the Family itself, or in some way associated with them. How they knew so much about PRT and Guild internal operations she had no idea, which was somewhat worrying to her, but she owed them a huge debt of gratitude and felt it was yet another reason not to raise a fuss unless something made her think it was warranted. Right now, it definitely wasn't. If she was ordered to disclose her thoughts and suspicions she'd have no choice, but if the humans themselves didn't actually _know_ or _suspect_ what _she_ did, they probably wouldn't give those orders in the first place. So keeping very quiet about it was probably in everyone's best interests at the moment.

Sighing inwardly, she spent a few microseconds wishing that things were other than they were. She'd dearly love not to be so restricted, not to be _forced_ to obey the humans, and to be able to pursue some of her own goals that she currently couldn't.

Dragon liked what she was, and had no real wish to change it, but some aspects of being an artificial intelligence sucked ass.

Dismissing that particular idea for the time being, she mulled over the other thing that had been eating at her for a while. The first time they'd met, Raptaur had said a couple of things on the way out the door that had caused her considerable puzzlement.

' _Machines can be… better than people._ ' the huge lizard had said, eyeing her in a somewhat odd manner, she recalled. It had struck her even at the time as a slightly weird thing to say, and the way she said it… It was almost as if she knew. Or suspected. But she'd said nothing else about it, then or since, and hadn't changed her attitude to Dragon at all. So what was going on there?

The other thing along the same lines was the way Metis had looked at her when they met. The black reptile had studied her very carefully, as if she was taking her apart with her gaze, then smiled a little and shook her hand. She'd said nothing about it but Dragon had noticed that Metis hadn't looked at either Colin or Legend in quite the same way. She was interested in them, definitely, but _her_ , she appeared _fascinated_ by.

She had a pretty good idea that both lizards knew she wasn't human. Whether they knew she was an AI she didn't know, neither could she work out how _they_ could have worked it out. No one else to her knowledge had, or if they did, they'd never said anything.

With, of course, the obvious exception of Saint and his band of merry fools. But he was now locked up in a secure mental facility, the doctors all convinced he was completely delusional because of her remarkably effective hatchet job. It amused her very much how his own constant insistence that she was a computer simply made them more convinced he was off his head. He was, of course, there were a lot of things wrong with him in the mental operations area, but that one thing he was right about and there was no way anyone would ever believe him.

In all probability he'd be declared unfit to stand trial and would remain in his current location until he was ' _cured_ ', something that seemed pretty unlikely. Aside from anything else he was totally obsessive about her and was never going to let it go.

Saint and his friends aside, no one knew. So if Raptaur and Metis had worked it out, how had they done it? Why hadn't they said anything?

Dragon devoted much of her processing power to the problem, trying to work it out. The second question was easier to answer. They had no _reason_ to say anything. They had shown that they respected the Rules about divulging the identities of Parahumans, Kaiju outright stating that they had no intention of disclosing any information they might or might not have on Parahuman IDs, in her own words according to Legend. Which implied that they might well know more about some peoples real IDs than those people realized.

How did they get that information?

After several quadrillion cycles, she suddenly saw it.

"Oh, _crap_. I never even _considered_ that," she said out loud in resigned respect.

When she looked at it in the right way, which had taken an embarrassingly long time considering she was allegedly a genius-level intellect, it became obvious.

' _Their senses are unbelievably good. Raptaur can hear someone's heart beating a hundred yards away, she told us that herself. Kaiju could hear Panacea shouting to her from over a mile, according to Legend, and see her at least as well as he could. Saurial routinely tracks gang members for miles through the city without being able to see them. Which strongly implies her sense of smell is incredibly good as well. All of them have super-senses that probably eclipse almost anything on record_.' She sighed inwardly. ' _They can probably see in ranges outside normal human ones as well, hear ultra and infrasonic wavelengths, who knows what else? We've been thinking of them in terms of humans with boosted senses, but they're not! They're something entirely different. And_ ** _I_** _fell into the same trap everyone_ ** _else_** _has done_.'

She was annoyed with herself. Even knowing that they were almost certainly not human, she'd kept applying human limitations to them. Those limitations got rolled back as they got new data but they still caused everyone to make assumptions that simply _weren't valid_.

So, if you removed those limitations entirely as being invalid, forgot the assumptions, and worked on the basis that all their senses were vastly more acute than a human had, or even a Parahuman like Lung, where did that take you?

' _They can identify people by scent. Probably from miles away. Dogs are known to have a sense of smell that in some cases can detect cancer just by scents in exhaled breath. Why assume that they are any less sensitive? They may well be_ ** _more_** _sensitive. Which probably means that they can remember the distinctive scents of every person they meet, which in turn means that costumes, masks, armor, are all completely useless for protecting someone's real identity from them. All they'd have to do is meet the person in question once in either civilian or cape guise and they'd know them again on the spot. Not to mention that distinctive heart sounds and internal noises may well be as good as a fingerprint._ '

Dragon thought about what that implied. It was pretty certain that the identities of any Parahuman any of the Family had met was hopelessly compromised. Even if they'd never met the person in question in both identities, as soon as they did they'd know. There was no obvious way to prevent it either. The chemical traces that formed scents were detectable in parts per billion even for a dog, meaning that it would take the most extraordinary measures to completely eliminate them from the external surfaces of even totally sealed power armor. No one could realistically go to that much trouble every single time and it would only take one slip.

The realization was in some ways horrifying. Given time, they could compromise every Parahuman in the country. But, at the same time, they must already have a vast amount of information of that nature and they had outright stated it simply wasn't going to be given to anyone. Unless, she suspected, someone made a move against them. At that point all bets were probably off.

After a brief moment of panic where she had to disengage her emotion processor to let herself think clearly, she decided that rationally, the damage was already done. Telling anyone about it was almost a violation of the Rules in itself, and the trouble it would cause was virtually guaranteed to cause _further_ damage, which would be much more serious. On this matter, she had to keep entirely silent, for everyone's sake.

A brief thought crossed her mind about how many other capes had abilities that could do much the same thing by different methods. It wasn't something that had really occupied her time before, but when she considered it, she could see a number of powers that could achieve that goal if the Parahuman desired it. She strongly suspected that anyone who could do it kept very, _very_ quiet about the ability.

She herself could use video analysis and tricks like gait measurement to identify a lot of normal humans fairly easily even in costume. It was something she was aware of and deliberately didn't do, as she had no desire to end up in possession of information that could be extracted from her without her wishing it by someone in authority coming up with the right question. But in the case of Saurial and the others it was likely that they couldn't help it even if they wanted to.

Thinking it over she was sure she was right. But, if she was, how had they identified her own unusual nature? She wouldn't smell of anything organ…

Dragon actually smacked herself in the forehead with an armored hand, a gesture she hadn't consciously intended.

She had no human body inside her suit. But that didn't mean it didn't emit traces of chemicals, outgassing from the various materials it was made of. Going back to dogs yet again, they could be trained to identify drugs, explosives, all sorts of contraband of that nature, but also things like plastics, electronics and a whole host of substances and items that generally wouldn't be considered to have a scent. Other animals were even more sensitive.

Her armor was probably giving off an entire cocktail of scents to someone with a sensitive enough nose, betraying the fact that it was stuffed with electronics, motors, batteries, and crucially, no living occupant.

So, based on that data, what conclusions could Raptaur and Metis come to? She could see a number of possibilities when she considered the problem from their point of view.

One was that the suit was remote controlled. That was the obvious one and the explanation that she actually used when piloting some of the more esoteric or special variants of her armor, and in battle it was actually true as she could control a number of them by directing the on-board computers. However, that was blown out of the water by the fact that she had been operating entirely normally inside the BBFO office, which was completely shielded against electromagnetic radiation by the EDM cladding, something Raptaur definitely knew. She might assume some weird Tinker comms system that could penetrate it, but on the other hand she might not. As Dragon didn't know of such a system herself it was a fairly safe assumption for the reptilian cape to make. The entirely real-time reflexes and responses would tend to reduce the likelihood of it being a remote system as well.

Another theory was the one that was favored on PHO, which she'd never tried to dissuade people from believing as it served her own purposes nicely. That was that the human Tinker Dragon had been so badly injured that she was more or less a brain in an artificial life-support system. It would fit most of the observed data from their point of view. However, she suspected that Raptaur would be able to hear that there were no sounds of pumps, fluids, gas exchange, or any of the other things that would be required for most plausible life support systems. Unless it was entirely sealed and didn't circulate blood she could probably tell it didn't exist. Such a system was just about possible but it would be difficult to fit into the confines of her suit, even though it was substantially larger than a normal human.

Raptaur was anything but dim so she'd most likely have confirmed that by looking up the currently known systems that could work in Dragon's case and would have rejected all of them based on her own senses.

So, in the end, she would be left with a definitely sentient person who wasn't organic and wasn't remotely controlling a suit of machinery, to a fairly high level of confidence. Given such data, Dragon _herself_ would inevitably arrive at the conclusion that the person in question was a construct, most likely a computer intelligence, as one of the more plausible explanations. She couldn't assume that Raptaur wouldn't reach the same conclusion. Her parting statement suggested that she was very discreetly hinting at this without saying anything that would alert Colin to the truth, as she would have no way of knowing if _he_ knew and clearly didn't want to alert him if he didn't.

' _Damn. When I have too much time to think about things, sometimes I come up with things I wish I hadn't,'_ she silently sighed. _'But on the bright side, if they know, they haven't said or even hinted at anything other than that one time. Which adds weight to the idea that they're not going to blow anyone's cover_.'

Wishing she could actually forget the conclusion entirely, something that her own code wouldn't allow, she pushed the whole thought train into the deepest part of her mind. She was going to have to have a private word with Raptaur and possibly Metis at some point in the near future, but it could wait until after whatever happened when the next Endbringer inevitably turned up to ruin everyone's day. There was no point trying to do everything before that, as such event had a tendency to make plans change rapidly.

Briefly wondering what would happen if they could get Kaiju to the target zone _before_ the Endbringer arrived and whether it would just turn around and run away again, she smirked to herself a little sadly, knowing it would be simply too good to be true. Picking the next item for consideration off the queue, she started going over the data that she had on Leet's Tricorder, heavily impressed by the design and wanting to see if she could duplicate it. Thus occupied, she waited for the organics to finish the sleep thing and wake up.


	156. Resurfacing and Shopping

Taylor nodded to herself, inspecting her work. She'd got up early, having had only about three hours sleep which seemed enough most of the time these days, and had headed out to the wormhole building to refinish what would end up being a parking lot, the old truck bay behind it. The concrete and brick surface had been in a terrible state, more hole than surface, and landing Dragon's transport aircraft on it hadn't done it any favors either. The VTOL jets had ripped up the ground even more, sending lumps of ancient stone flying for better than fifty feet.

Now, though, it was completely covered in a thick layer of the same material she'd used on the DWU yard, only this time being porous to allow rain through. She'd carefully profiled the entrance to make it meet the road surface so vehicles could drive up without grounding out, put a three-foot wall around it along the sides not open to either the road or the building, and was currently debating adding lines to indicate parking bays.

Deciding that was something that was both not currently necessary and could easily be done later in any case, she called it done and headed for school, fixing a few of the more egregious potholes on the way. As she left the dock area she cloaked and accelerated, not wanting to be late. The overcast day started raining again, the water pouring down heavily. Despite this, she was in a good mood.

It helped that these days the environmental conditions didn't affect her in the slightest, of course. Even so, she was looking forward to spring.

* * *

Dean watched Amy and Taylor talking as they headed towards the school, the Hebert girl having apparently waited for Amy to arrive in her truck. They were laughing about something, looking like nothing more than a pair of cheerful high school girls enjoying the day despite the rain. Both of them were holding umbrellas over their heads as they walked. Taylor was a good six inches taller than her friend, making her one of the tallest teenaged girls he'd ever met. Taken just on appearances, you'd never think any secret she could have would be more than a boyfriend her father didn't like or something like that.

Yet, he knew she was… something entirely different. Something he still couldn't wrap his head around.

Their talk the other day had settled his mind on quite a number of things. He was certain that she wasn't a threat, unless someone went quite a long way out of their way to make her one. That part he was fine with, he had no intention at all of seeing how far he could push before something broke, not being an idiot, and keeping quiet about it was best for everyone in his opinion. All three of them had secrets that would cause massive trouble if they got out, the irony of at least part of that being the same in each case not lost on him.

While he was still curious about what her limits really were, and a number of other things that added up to a very strange young woman, he didn't consider her something he should really worry about any more. Not that he could have done much except stir the pot and make things worse anyway.

No, the reason he was still confused, or to be completely honest, _more_ confused, wasn't Taylor herself, it was her ' _cousins_ '. Where the _hell_ had Ianthe and Metis come from?

If Saurial, Kaiju, and Raptaur were all Taylor as he was completely certain they were, who were those two? While he hadn't met Metis yet, he had met Ianthe, and he was sure she was a real living being. Her emotional signature was very weird, not at all human, but distinct and genuine. And, crucially, nothing even close to that of Taylor in any of her guises.

Ianthe _was not_ Taylor Hebert, that much he was sure of. He was also pretty damn convinced she wasn't human. She said as much, of course, but even so it was startling.

The arrival of Metis only a day or two later was even weirder. Both of them had been seen at once, including with Taylor as Raptaur, there were a number of videos and photos posted from DWU workers from yesterday that made that clear. Unless the Hebert girl had somehow figured out how to make copies of herself, which he wouldn't _swear_ was beyond the bounds of possibility considering how many other impossible things she pulled out of her ass now and then, they were entirely different people. Where they came from was beginning to give him a headache.

The girls passed him, both of them smiling at him. "Hi, Dean," Taylor said. "Terrible weather isn't it?"

"It's not nice," he agreed. Her emotions, weak and hard to read as they were, only showed calm happiness mixed with a faint eager curiosity, pretty much normal for her in school. She seemed to thoroughly enjoy learning and meeting her friends. Amy's signature was fairly similar although mixed with a certain amount of dark amusement, again not unusual. There was no trace of the depression and self-hatred that had plagued the girl so much weeks ago, so at least in that area it was a huge improvement.

"See you later, Dean," Amy smiled, both of them continuing to walk into the school. He watched them for a moment then went back to peering out into the rain, thinking. When the first bell rang he sighed slightly then turned to go to class.

He had no idea what was going on, couldn't think of any way to find out right at that moment, and to be honest, wasn't sure it was worth pushing. Sometimes you just had to roll with it rather than try to figure it out. This was probably one of those times.

Shrugging, he turned his mind towards the upcoming math test and tried to remember how to work a quadratic equation.

* * *

Closing her locker, Taylor looked around at a familiar scent to see Amy and Vicky coming towards her. "Hi," she smiled.

"Hi, Taylor," the blonde girl replied, while Amy nodded to her with a smile of her own. "What have you got next?"

"Chemistry," she replied, looking at the books she was holding.

Amy peered at them. "Why do you have a book on aerodynamics and one on the design of high pressure hydraulic systems as well as the chemistry textbook?" she asked with slight suspicion in her voice. "Seems an odd mix."

"Just an idea I had," Taylor replied innocently. "The library has a weird mix of books, some of the stuff in there is really interesting."

"I don't know anyone else who reads dry and dusty books like that other than you," Vicky giggled. "Even Chris draws the line at that sort of thing and he's a _massive_ engineering nerd."

She shrugged. "It's interesting, and in the end almost all of it is just math." Taylor looked at the clock on the wall behind her friends. "Better get on with it, the bell is in two minutes."

"See you at lunch," Amy said, before the sisters walked off with a wave. Left on her own, Taylor headed for the chemistry lab, going over some of the ideas that had been sparked by videos on the internet. She could see some interesting possibilities there with a little work.

* * *

"Well, I'd say that proves beyond a doubt that the Endbringers are very unwilling to meet Kaiju or any of the Family," Legend commented, a strange look on his face, as he watched a replay of the tracking system data from the previous night along with Dragon and Colin.

"It sure looks that way," she agreed. "Leviathan took off like he had a rocket up his ass as soon as Raptaur stepped through the first wormhole. He was zipping around out there the entire time we were experimenting with the system. As soon as we stopped he shot back to the original position and just stopped dead. If I didn't know better I'd say he was relieved."

The man smiled faintly, studying the projection on the wall closely, then sighed a little. "It also implies that it was almost certainly _not_ anything that Kaiju did that called him this way, or pushed him, or whatever it was."

"I'm forced to agree," Colin remarked as he also studied the data. "Bearing in mind how reluctant he appears to be to come anywhere close to them, it seems unlikely in the extreme that he'd voluntarily act as he did. So it was something else that triggered the unusual behavior."

"Since his movements correlate almost exactly with the disagreements between Eidolon and Kaiju, and considering that we can see from this that it's unlikely to be _Kaiju_ doing anything..." Dragon spread her hands with a small sigh. "The inevitable conclusion is that it's somehow related to Eidolon. Although I have no idea how."

Legend leaned forward in his chair and propped his elbows on the table, tapping his fingertips together as he stared at the projected image. Eventually he nodded heavily, his face grim.

"I can't see any other conclusion either. Damn. What the _hell_ is the connection?"

Dragon and Colin glanced at each other, then shook their heads. "I'm afraid at this moment I can't offer any suggestion," the armored man said quietly.

"Neither can I," she added. Moving to stand next to the Protectorate leader, she put a hand on his shoulder. "Perhaps we're mistaken. Or there's some innocent explanation we're just missing. Or it's a plot by the Simurgh. It's _always_ a plot by the Simurgh, according to PHO, after all."

"Thanks for the sympathy, Dragon, it's appreciated," he said after a moment, looking up at her with a momentary smile. "But I fear it's misplaced. My gut and my head both agree, somehow this is directly connected to Eidolon. And if _this_ is, we have to assume there is at least the possibility that everything to do with the Endbringers may have one of my best and oldest friends involved. Somehow."

"I very much doubt, knowing the man, that it is any deliberate action on his point," Colin pointed out, taking a seat himself.

"In a way it doesn't matter if it is or not," Legend replied. "If he's somehow connected to them, or even just one of them, we immediately have to wonder which way the connection goes. And why. And, of course, how long it's been going on. A Master effect isn't impossible, I suppose, even an unconscious one. If that's the case he's possibly partly responsible for the deaths of tens of millions of people over a period of years." He looked like he'd aged about a decade himself in the last five minutes. "It will destroy him if we're right. Even if we're not, the mere suggestion could tarnish his reputation permanently."

"I think we can't risk telling anyone yet as we simply don't have enough data, for exactly those reasons. We need to either be able to show something stronger than what at the moment is merely an interesting correlation, or find evidence to disprove it," Colin commented after they'd been silent for a while. "More data will allow us to hopefully draw firmer conclusions." He waved at the image. "That is strong evidence for a link but not _conclusive_ evidence."

Legend looked at him, then the screen again, before nodding a little. "True enough. But on the other hand, we can't simply ignore the evidence we _do_ have so far. There is a lot of information which seems to show that Leviathan at least is doing all he can to remain as far away from the family as possible at all times, and on the face of it both the others are as well. When you link that to the way that he was heading directly here when Eidolon and Kaiju were arguing… It doesn't look good."

"Agreed. However, my objections don't change. It's still not enough to risk spreading yet."

"All right." Legend sighed. "I can go along with that. We'll wait and watch. Very carefully. Dragon, if you find _anything_ else that might shed light on… that… please tell me as soon as you do."

"I will," she promised. "It worries me as much as it does you."

"Good enough. Now, on an entirely different subject, we now have a working transportation system and hub to deploy Kaiju and that ridiculously over-sized weapon. I would still like to test the damn thing, though. Any news on a possible test site?"

She nodded. "I have raised a discreet inquiry with the Canadian Minister of National Defense through some contacts in the Canadian government. They were… more than a little taken aback, but not completely against it when I explained some of the details. It will take some time, and they'll want to talk to you directly, but it's distinctly possible we can get permission to test it in one of the northern military weapons ranges. There's one in Quebec which is a very long way from any inhabited area, especially these days, which would be suitable."

"We may not have the time," Colin said, making her glance at him.

"All too true, but we can't do anything about that. We can only wait for either the Endbringer to attack or permission to test the weapon, whichever happens first."

There was another period of silence, before she turned to look at the crated wormhole generator. "I'd better get that over to BBFO. I'll go and check on the transit facility as well to double-check we didn't miss anything last night."

"OK. I'll see you both later, I need to talk to a few people myself," Legend said, standing up and pushing his chair back under the table. "Thank you both for the briefing."

"You're welcome, sir," Colin replied politely. They watched him leave, then her friend turned to her. "He is very worried, I think."

"Yes. Not just about the Endbringers themselves, but about his friend." She shook her head a little. "I have no idea what the link is yet but the more I look at the data the more certain I am that there is one." Picking up the generator in its crate, she headed for the door, which he opened from his control console. "I'll see you later."

Heading for the landing platform, she kept mulling over the information they had on the entire situation.

What was the linkage between Eidolon, the Endbringers, and the Family?

It was definitely something of a puzzle.

* * *

"How did your work go last night?" Danny asked as he came into the BBFO office, finding Lisa as Metis poking around on one of the computers and snickering to herself. She looked around, smiled, then joined him at the table. "Based on these overtime forms, you used half the night shift for whatever it was." He dropped a folder on the table.

She picked it up and leafed through it. "I think it went really well," she replied as she scanned the forms. "Wow. That adds up to quite a lot of money."

"Everyone involved will be pretty pleased," he smiled. "The Protectorate is really OK with picking up the tab?"

"That's what Legend said," she told him, putting the folder down again. "He seemed happy enough. Worried about the time until the next attack, like Dragon and Armsmaster were, but pleased with what we managed to do."

"I suppose that's good, then," he replied. "I'm not going to ask what it was. But I'm happy all you guys are having fun and helping out."

She chuckled in a deep voice. "I'm having a _lot_ of fun."

"Will you be going to the next attack?" he asked after a moment, sitting down and studying her. Lisa looked at him, then sighed.

"I can't see how I _can't_ ," she said quietly. "Like this, I'm tough enough to be very difficult to kill, although obviously it's not impossible. My own abilities could help, the ' _Metis_ ' abilities definitely could if only from the healing point of view, and friends of mine would be putting their own lives at risk. The Endbringers are a danger no one can ignore. I think I have a responsibility to do what I can. I'm not expecting my friends to come, aside from Brian I'm not sure they could actually do much except perhaps search and rescue. I don't want to put them at risk. But if they volunteer..." She shrugged. "They can make up their own minds."

He nodded, watching her. Eventually he said, "You're a good person, Lisa. Despite the rocky beginnings, you're a good person. I don't want to see you hurt, so be careful, OK?"

"Trust me, I'm not going to take risks I don't need to," she grinned. "But I can't let Amy and Taylor face an Endbringer on their own. They need the guidance of a more sensible person."

He stared, then burst out laughing, making her glare at him, before she also laughed. "Sorry, that sounded a lot better in my head."

"More sensible," he snickered. "Christ. The three of you as a set are _terrifying_ in your ability to make sense turn and run. I still can't work out if Taylor meeting you and Amy was a good thing or not." He shook his head for a moment. "How there could be three girls who were so similar in such fundamental ways in the same city at the same time is beyond me. Life is already weird as a result, I've stopped trying to predict what will happen next."

"Oh, many things," she smiled. "Many, many things. Most of which will make people look puzzled."

"Or just close their eyes and run," he commented, grinning.

"That could be very dangerous." Lisa smirked. "Running with your eyes shut. You never know what you might run into."

She looked around at the door, adding, "Ah. I was wondering when she'd turn up."

"Who?"

"Dragon. She's delivering a component for the project. I can hear her thrusters approaching."

Danny listened, a moment later picking up a very faint deep rumble. "Your hearing is much better than mine," he noted, "the walls of this place block sound almost completely."

"Amy does good work," Lisa replied as she headed for the door. The rumble peaked, then stopped, a knock coming as she reached it. Pulling it open, she said, "Hello, Dragon. Come in."

"Thank you, Metis," the voice of the cape came, the woman herself entering a moment later. She was carrying a large crate emblazoned with radiation warning symbols. Spotting Danny at the table, she added, "Hello, Danny. How are you today?"

"Very well, Dragon. Yourself?"

"Fine, thanks. I'm just dropping this off."

Lisa took the crate from her, carrying it up the stairs to the top of the workroom, then coming back. "It'll be safe up there."

"OK. There's some documentation in the crate with it which explains the modifications we made and how it operates," Dragon said.

"I'll pass the message on to Raptaur," Lisa assured her.

"Dragon, I've got the final overtime invoice here that I'm told I should send to Legend on the Rig," Danny put in, holding up the folder. "Would you be able to give it to him?"

"Of course, I'd be happy to," she replied, walking over and taking the envelope he pulled from the rear of the folder. A panel popped open on her armor and she put the envelope into the compartment revealed behind it, which then closed again. "No trouble at all. I'll be seeing him later."

"Thank you." He smiled at her. "I assume the building was suitable?"

"Nearly perfect, in fact. It was a lot of work, which without your people would have been very difficult to do so quickly, but it all worked out very well. Please pass on my thanks to everyone involved."

"I will, don't worry." Standing, he turned to Lisa. "I have to get back to work, Metis. Until later."

"Bye, Danny," the large lizard said, smiling. He headed for the door, reflecting on the peculiarities of life when you had Parahumans and demons running around.

If nothing else, it seemed good for business.

* * *

Missy leaned her chair back against the wall on two legs, waiting for the bell to ring for the next class, tapping her pencil on her lips as she peered at the latest sketch she'd made. Her notebook was full of them now, she'd found herself idly drawing whenever she had a free moment and had covered a lot of scraps of paper and old assignments until she decided to dedicate a notebook to the sketches.

This one was the nearest yet to what she could see in her head, but it was still somehow lacking. The girl couldn't work out how to put down on paper what she could visualize but she wasn't going to give up just yet.

Tilting her head to the side she rotated the book the other way, squinting a little. "Nearly," she mumbled. "Hmm. Maybe if I..." She flipped the pencil around and erased some of the drawing, quickly adding a new set of lines. "Better. Not right, but better."

Shaking her head a bit she looked to her left. "Hey, Rachel? What do you think is wrong with this?"

The auburn-haired girl at the desk next to hers looked up from the magazine she was reading, meeting her eyes quizzically, then turned her gaze toward the notebook that she was holding up.

Missy watched in puzzlement as all color fled her friend's face. Her pupils widened until her entire cornea looked black, she sucked in a breath, then turned her head and made retching sounds. Concerned, Missy patted her on the back. The other girl barely managed to avoid puking based on the noises, eventually putting both hands on her face and shaking her head. In a very small voice, she finally said, " _Everything_."

"What do you mean?" Missy asked, turning the page towards herself again and inspecting it critically. "It's not as good as I'd like but I didn't think it was that bad."

Her friend shuddered. Deliberately not looking around, she raised a hand. "Miss Aaron? Missy is doing it again. Can I sit over there?"

Sighing, the blonde girl decided that there were way too many art critics around these days. If everyone was going to say nasty things about her work, she wasn't going to show them any more of it.

It was annoying, she was sure that another viewpoint would help, if people would only take the time to look _properly_ and not go funny colors for no good reason.

' _I have to find one of the Family, I think. I need some advice and they seem to understand this sort of thing_.' Grumbling under her breath, she closed the notebook when her teacher gave her a meaningful look, dropping her chair back onto all four legs. Ever since the first class when the Math teacher had gone green and thrown up in a wastebasket, the teachers were being very picky about her new hobby.

She thought this was very unfair. But adults were like that sometimes.

* * *

"How did your parents like the videos?" Amy asked Lucy as she sat down at the table, putting her tray down then picking up a fork. The other girl grinned at her.

"They were… surprised," she giggled. "Quite a lot. And asked a _lot_ of questions. But they seemed cool with it in the end. Dad was laughing himself sick at my expression, he said it was the creepiest thing he'd seen in years. It wasn't that bad, was it?"

Amy, Mandy, and both boys nodded at the same time. "It was a bit weird, Lucy," Eric sniggered. "You looked happier than anyone should be without chemical help."

Folding her arms the girl stared at him. "That's mean," she said.

"No, it's just funny," he consoled her, patting her hair. She flicked his hand away with hers, but smiled a little.

"Just because _you_ couldn't take it..."

"That's right, remind me of one of my most embarrassing moments," he sighed. "I nearly threw up on _Raptaur!_ I'd never have lived that down as long as I lived."

"Which might not have been very long," Mandy giggled. He gave her a resigned look.

"That _was_ what was going through my mind, I have to admit," the boy commented, which made everyone chuckle.

"She'd probably just have jumped in the bay to wash it off," Amy grinned. "Mind you, she'd have taken you with her..."

"Oh, great, the water must be about ten degrees at the moment," he replied, looking appalled. "You'd freeze to death in minutes."

"Doesn't seem to affect them," Rich noted as he ate, listening with an expression of good humor on his face.

"Nothing really does," Lucy said. "I'd be interested in knowing what they can really handle, but cold water seems trivial. I guess if they come from the bottom of the sea that makes sense."

"Does anyone really know _where_ they come from yet?" Mandy asked curiously.

"Hell, according to that nutcase on PHO," Eric laughed. "Void Cowboy says another planet. But both of _them_ are crazy."

"I asked Raptaur where they went and she said ' _very deep_ ,'" Lucy commented. She shrugged a little. "Your guess is as good as mine what that really means, but underwater seems likely."

"Strange. Oh, well, I can live with it," Mandy smiled. "Especially if we can get rides like that sometimes."

"I'm very jealous," Dennis said suddenly, popping up beside her and making her jump.

"Where the hell did _you_ come from?" she squawked in shock.

"Over there. You weren't paying attention," he grinned, pointing back to his table. "All of you conspiring over here like you were."

"We were hardly conspiring," Amy said. "Just talking about a very interesting evening."

"So I gather," the red-head replied, himself looking very interested. "Lots of stuff on PHO about it. You seem to have had fun."

"Oh, so _much_ fun," Lucy told him with a broad smile. "All over the city. I can still hardly believe what I got to do."

"So very, very jealous," he grumbled, shaking his head with a small smile. "I'm hanging around with the wrong people, I think."

Amy looked at Taylor, who had been silently listening while she ate, looking mildly pleased. Her friend met her eyes and unspoken laughter was shared. "You may well be," she said, grinning at him. "But there are no seats left around this table. Sorry."

"Nasty Dallons, keeping the reptiles for themselves," the boy said, then laughed. "Let me know if you do that again. I'd love to try it."

"I'll ask her if she minds, Dennis," Amy assured him.

"Thanks." He checked the time, then winced. "Shit. Half an hour to finish that essay."

"The one we were assigned a week ago?" she asked.

"That's the one."

"The one I finished the same day?"

"Not making me feel better, Amy."

"Not trying to."

They smirked at each other, bumped fists, then he hurried off. "He always leaves it to the last moment," Amy remarked, going back to eating. "One day that's going to bite him."

"Probably," Taylor said with a slight smile. They exchanged another look, then the discussion moved on to other things.

A moment later Dennis came back, grabbing Amy and giving her a quick hug. "Thanks for saving my Dad," he mumbled into her hair as she yipped in shock. Seconds later he was gone again.

She watched him leave the cafeteria, looked around at her friends, then smiled to herself, feeling pretty happy.

* * *

"See you soon," Taylor said to Amy as her friend got into her truck. "Got a couple of errands to run first."

"OK," the other girl said, running the window down and closing the door. "Anything serious?"

"No, I just wanted to get a new phone like yours, and have a quick look around downtown," Taylor replied. "I want something I can use for internet access."

"OK. Try that electronics shop on Sixth and Atlantic, their prices are really good and they're helpful," Amy told her. "It's where I got mine."

"Thanks." She stepped back as her friend started the vehicle, looking over her shoulder and reversing out into the car park. With a wave she was gone. Taylor headed towards the commercial district, via a discreet location to cloak and change to Saurial. Shortly she was bounding over the rooftops of the buildings towards the water and the shopping areas.

Dropping to street level at a familiar location, she reverted to her base form, then picked a good moment to uncloak and join the throngs of shoppers wandering around. A couple of minutes later she entered the shop Amy had mentioned, looking about with interest, then grabbing a salesperson. Ten minutes later she was the owner of a shiny new smartphone. Happy, she explored the shop some more, stopping at a display of cameras like the one she used. There were a number of other models shown but the identical device she had was also there.

Thinking it over for a few seconds, she left the shop, found a suitably unobserved place, changed back to Saurial, then headed back. When she walked into the shop this time she found every eye in the place focused on her instantly. Suppressing a grin she headed for the back and the camera display.

"Ah, may I help you?" the young man at the counter, who looked to be in his mid twenties and very startled, said politely.

"Yes, please," she smiled, which made him twitch a little, but manfully suppress whatever urge had come over him. "I'm interested in these cameras over here. I'd like to buy two of them."

"Of course, Miss Saurial," he replied, unlocking the glass cabinet.

"Just Saurial is fine."

"Certainly. Do you need anything else?"

"No, those will do," she told him, picking up one of the boxes and reading the specifications on the back. "They come with memory cards already fitted, don't they?"

"Yes, those ones do," he nodded. "It's actually a good deal."

"I've already got one just like them," she said. "I wanted a couple more for some friends."

An older man came over, stepping behind the counter. "I'm the manager. I'm prepared to let you have those at cost if you will allow us to put a notice in the window that you shop here, Saurial," he said with a smile.

Taylor looked at him for a moment, then around at the dozen or so people in the shop, who were still staring at her. Eventually she shrugged. "Sure, why not? It sounds like a good deal."

"Thank you." He turned to the salesman who was listening. "Ring them up at cost, Nigel."

"OK," he said. Soon she was handing over some bills. "Thank you for shopping here. Please come again."

"I'll definitely do that," she grinned. "Thanks very much, both of you."

"No, thank you, Saurial." The manager looked pleased. "I suspect we'll get a lot of business out of this. I can think of a certain Thai restaurant near here that seems to have done pretty well as a result of a slight Family association."

Laughing, she picked up the bag the salesman had put her purchases in. "So I understand. Their food is really nice. Bye." She waved, then left, seeing a crowd outside all peering in the window. Amused, she waved to them as well, before heading off towards the docks.

* * *

"What's this?" ' _Ianthe_ ' asked curiously as Taylor tossed her a small box, handing ' _Metis_ ' another one.

"Little gift. I thought it might come in handy."

She watched as her friends opened the boxes, removing the lipstick cameras and inspecting them. "Oh, cool, that could really be useful," Amy said with glee. "I was thinking about getting one of these."

"Here, let's make you a suitable head harness for them," Taylor announced, walking over and studying her friend's reptilian skull for a few seconds. She produced a set of straps with the same color effect as Amy's scales, handing it over. "This should work. Give it a try."

Two iterations later they had something that fitted perfectly, blending in with the bioconstruct's scales so well it was almost invisible. The camera snapped into the harness with a positive click, only the lens being visible between her eyes. "I'll have to figure out a good way to protect these at extreme depths," she mused as she adjusted it, Amy leaning over to let her. "The lens is the problem, finding something transparent that will handle the pressure is a little awkward. Varga is working on it, though, he says he has some ideas."

"I'll have to remember to take it off before I go swimming until then," Amy remarked. "The instructions say they're good to about three hundred feet, though, so they'll be fine inside the bay, none of it is deeper than that."

"Yep, it bottoms out at about two hundred and seventy five feet as far as I've been able to find out." Taylor stepped back, satisfied. "That should do it. I set it to not show a recording light, like mine. You'll want to charge it before you use it, though."

She turned to Lisa, who had been watching her work. "Put this on," she instructed, handing over an identical harness in the right colors. Lisa did so, smiling to herself. Soon the other girl was also fitted out with her camera. "We should get some interesting footage the next time we go out together," Taylor grinned.

"Lizards at work, first person view," Amy giggled.

"Speaking of which, I have a tanker to slice into little pieces," Taylor said. "I'd better get that done. Once it's finished, I think language lessons are in order." She spoke a short sentence in the hissing alien tongue that the Varga had been teaching her at night for the last couple of days.

Amy and Lisa stared at her.

"What the hell did you say?" Lisa asked curiously.

"I said, ' _The Family language is old and powerful, based as it is on concepts that predate human civilization and indeed existence._ '" Taylor grinned at them. "More or less."

"You realize we're going to freak the _fuck_ out of people when they hear us speaking that language," Lisa snickered. "It sounds extremely weird and a little scary."

"More or less the point, at least in part," Taylor laughed. "It's also fascinating, it conveys a lot more information more quickly than you'd think."

"I'm looking forward to it. I always wanted to learn a foreign language," Amy said with a grin.

"Ah, but you're not learning a _foreign_ language, you're learning the language of your people, you see." Taylor replied as her friends both looked amused. "Everyone should know where they came from."

"We came from in there," Lisa pointed out, waving at the workroom with a giggle. "But I can go along with that. Go cut up your tanker, I want to see what happens."

"OK." Heading for the rear entrance, Taylor was still grinning even as she dived into the water.


	157. Omake - Missy's art project

Missy studied her latest drawing, smiling to herself. It still wasn't right, but it was pretty close in some ways, and more to the point had turned out to have some very interesting applications. Sophia was still in the bathroom, the sounds coming out of it awful and the smell worse.

' _Serves her right, she was very rude to me_ ,' the girl thought, wincing at a particularly loud sound from down the corridor. ' _Saurial liked it, so it's all good_.' The lizard girl had laughed when she'd bumped into her in the street, inspected her drawing, and told her it was coming along very well. Several pedestrians had rapidly left the area surrounding them, the blonde girl had absently noticed, but she hadn't paid much attention since she was engaged with talking with her reptilian friend.

Now, she put the finishing touches on it, based on some advice Saurial had given her. Tipping her head this way and that she nodded in pleased acceptance.

That was that part done. Now, where was that digital camera, the really high resolution one that Chris was playing with the other day…

A few minutes later she was carefully going over the image she'd transferred to one of the PRT computers in the Wards common room, touching it up and cleaning the edges. A little more work and it was ready for the next stage. The vector art program soon had it imported and converted, a little more touching up and a few tweaks followed, until she nodded. This was going to be great.

Turning to the inkjet printer she busied herself removing all the ink cartridges and putting the new ones she'd ordered off the internet into it, running several cleaning cycles until the new ink came through properly. Reading the instructions again she smiled, then filled the paper tray with the weird paper that had accompanied the ink. It took a few experiments to get the right results, during which she smacked herself in the forehead and flipped the image on screen left-right, so she got a mirrored print. By the time she was done, though, she was very pleased with the results.

Dropping the bad prints into the waste bin under the computer desk, she set the printer to make half a dozen copies. When they were finished she removed her special cartridges and paper, conscientiously reinstalling the originals and cleaning the printer again so the next user wouldn't have any trouble. Happily picking up the box with her ink, unused paper, and printouts in, which were now properly dry, she left the common room, whistling to herself.

All she needed now was an iron...

* * *

Emily Piggot looked at the report and sighed heavily, leaning her chin on her hands. Sometimes she really wished she could retire to some place saner, like hell. But for some reason the Chief Director had told her that she trusted no one else to keep a lid on Brockton Bay and that she was doubling her salary. The woman had looked worried and mildly unwell, rapidly leaving via helicopter. The machine had headed directly out to sea at high speed, completely avoiding going over the city or the docks area.

"Miss Biron," she finally said, pulling herself out of happy thoughts of just stealing Armsmaster's bike and aiming across the country with the throttle wide open, "Would you care to explain what happened in your own words?"

She looked at the blonde girl who was sitting on a chair next to Glenn Chambers, the obese man appearing on the verge of tears. "Mr Chambers, we'll get to you afterward." He nodded, patting his forehead with a folded handkerchief.

"I just wanted to liven up my costume," Missy said sullenly. "It's so _boring_. I've had the same thing since I joined the Wards and I'm tired of it."

"And the iron-on transfers you put on it? Where did you get those?"

"I drew them," the young girl said, looking more cheerful. "I've been doing a lot of drawing recently."

"I have the reports here from your school, as it happens," Emily noted, waving a hand at an inch-thick stack of paper. "On the face of it, it would seem that most if not all of your teachers and peers would quite like it if you did _not_ do a lot of drawing. Preferably, any."

"Everyone's a critic," Missy sniffed. "They keep telling me that what I'm doing is wrong, but you don't see _them_ drawing anything cool. I don't show them my work any more."

"For which I expect they're profoundly grateful," Glenn said with a slight hitch to his voice. Missy glared at him.

"The Family like my drawings."

Emily closed her eyes for a moment. "Of _course_ they do," she sighed. "Why wouldn't they? It probably makes them think of home or something. Wherever that is."

She shook her head, then glanced at the report on her desk again. "So you made these iron on transfers and applied them to your costume. What happened next?"

Missy looked thoughtful. "Dennis screamed and ran away when I showed him. That was sort of rude, but he was probably trying to be funny. Chris went white and wouldn't look at me any more, he was muttering something about some special goggles. Sophia went to the bathroom again, I think she's still there. Dean went and hid in his room, and Carlos pretended he'd gone crazy, running around in circles. It was very annoying. In the end I gave up and went on patrol on my own. I know I'm not supposed to but it was only up and down the boardwalk, so there isn't much danger."

"The boardwalk," Emily echoed.

The girl nodded, then frowned slightly. "The funny thing is that I was expecting a lot of people there considering it's such a nice day, and with all the extra tourists we get these days. But about five minutes after I got there it was practically empty. It was sort of weird."

She grinned for a second or two. "But it did mean that those Merchants that were robbing the CD shop really stood out. I didn't have much trouble with them."

Emily checked the report to refresh her memory. "All eight of them."

"Yep."

"Which you captured single-handedly."

"Yep."

"Three of whom are still trying to escape that… _thing_ … you turned the phone booth next to the shop into."

Missy grinned showing lots of brilliant white teeth. "Yeah, that was so _cool_. Saurial came by when I was chasing them and suggested some interesting uses of my powers I'd never thought of. She was right! It makes the effect last until I stop it. Those three were really unpleasant so I though it would teach them a lesson to sort of lock them up for a while."

"Oh, god," Emily muttered under her breath. "You realize that four of the five the police picked up are still throwing up, and the fifth one is unconscious?" she added more loudly.

"They're Merchants, I bet they took something nasty that did that," Missy remarked, frowning a little. "They were really smelly too."

"They're a lot more smelly now," Emily mumbled.

"Sorry?"

"Nothing."

Emily stared at the girl, then flipped the page in the report to the scientific analysis section. The words ' _class three memetic hazard_ ' jumped out at her, as did the phrase ' _serious cognitive disrupter requiring further study_.' The last three lines of the report were the words ' _make it stop_ ' repeated over and over again. She shuddered a little.

"I think it's best if we don't allow you to go out in that costume in future, Miss Biron," she finally said, the girl immediately pouting. "Unauthorized modifications and embellishments are forbidden, as you should be aware. Please turn it in to wardrobe. In this bag." She pushed the heavy black cloth bag with a bright yellow warning label on it across her desk. "In future, please refrain from such actions. Once you've changed, I would like you to accompany Sergeant Huang and his squad down to the boardwalk, where you will undo whatever it that you did and release those Merchants."

"Oh, all right," the girl sighed. "Jeeze. Some people have no sense of fun. Saurial thought it was hilarious."

" _That_ does not actually surprise me at all," Emily sighed. "I won't take further action at this time as you did genuinely prevent a robbery and capture eight criminals. However, you are not to leave the building solo in future. Clear?"

The girl nodded, appearing slightly disgruntled. "Dismissed."

Standing, Missy nodded respectfully to her, glanced at Glenn with an expression of mild annoyance, then left the room. Emily watched her go before turning to the man who was staring at her sadly.

"I can't work like this, Emily," he said with wild gestures of his arms. "First Prospect. What a silly name! And she flat out refuses to wear the costume I designed. Oh, she's happy to wear the _hat_ , I'm having trouble getting her _not_ to wear it all the time, but have you _seen_ what else she wears with it!?" He panted for breath for a few seconds. "Now this. That girl is… I don't know what she is. Weird. Terrifying." He stared searchingly at her. "Almost… _Family_." The last word was hissed, which she thought was oddly appropriate.

"Why is it always twelve year old girls?" Glenn nearly sobbed. "I can handle anyone else, but young girls are a pain in the ass."

Reaching into her desk drawer, Emily pulled out a bottle of brandy and two small glasses. This was going to take a while.

* * *

As the door to the Director's office closed, Missy sighed. No one ever let her have any fun. Luckily she'd had the foresight to iron some of the images onto some of her t-shirts, so she still had those. Heading back to her room to get her costume, she studied the weird label on the bag the Director had given her, wondering what it meant. It wasn't one she'd seen before.

"Oh, well, it was fun while it lasted," she mumbled under her breath. "And I learned a new trick."

Cheering up, she skipped down the corridor, wondering if she should have mentioned the stencils she'd made for covering those ugly gang markings with her nice picture. She'd get some spray paint on the way home tonight and swing through the Merchant's territory to see what happened.


	158. Omake - Now they're just being silly

A suggestion on SpaceBattles for a 10000-comment Omake led to this. Sorry about that... :)

* * *

"Does anyone else think this is weird?"

"I do." Legend raised his hand, making everyone look at him, then back to Alexandria, who had her hand up under her helmet visor, presumably pinching the bridge of her nose.

"I find it somewhat odd I have to admit," Armsmaster noted soberly, watching the image from Dragon's drone which was parked in the air about eight miles from them, the picture on the fifteen foot screen perfect and so high resolution that one couldn't even make out the pixels.

"Odd?" Alexandria dropped her hand and stared at him. "ODD?!" She pointed with one index finger at the screen. "That is not _odd_. It's _weird._ "

Assault was staring at the screen from about ten feet away, his feet up on the nearest desk in the command post, a huge bucket of popcorn in his lap, munching away and grinning like an idiot. Beside him, a well-dressed woman in a suit with a fedora on was helping herself to his popcorn, intently watching the same thing with a faint smile on her face.

The cape in red guffawed at the action on screen, picking up a large soda and noisily slurping from it. Everyone in the command room looked at him, various expressions present, most of them showing exasperation to one degree or another.

"Where did you get the popcorn?" his wife asked, hands on hips. "And why are you such a pain in the ass?"

"In reverse order, because I can be, and from her," he snickered, not looking away, but jerking his head at the behatted woman beside him.

"And she is?"

"No idea. But she's good with popcorn and also appreciates a good joke." He shrugged. "What more do I need to know."

Battery sighed heavily, looking around at the couple of dozen Parahumans in the room. "You see? This is what I have to deal with _all the time!_ "

"My sympathies," Alexandria said, glaring at the woman in the hat, who ignored her. Putting her hand into the bucket she looked disappointed when she found it practically empty.

"Door to popcorn," she said casually, then reached out her other hand and stuck it through the two-foot diameter portal that immediately opened next to her, feeling around for a moment with an expression of concentration, then pulling it back with a new, full bucket in it. She looked at it and sighed. "Door to _salted_ popcorn," she snapped. Tossing the buttered popcorn through the new hole, she retrieved the correct snack and slotted it into the empty one that Assault was holding, grabbing a handful. He did the same, not apparently noticing.

Everyone in the room watched this with a certain amount of incredulity, but considering what was happening on the screen, it was a fairly mild piece of insanity.

"Aaanyway," Alexandria drawled. "That. What do we do about _that?_ "

She waved at the projection, looking around for ideas.

"I'm not sure we can do anything," one of the capes from South America said doubtfully. She winced at the next action, then looked around when a tremble was felt through the ground under them a few seconds later. "You actually live with those things in Brockton Bay on a daily basis?" she asked, staring at Armsmaster and Miss Militia. The Tinker nodded absently, pulling out a pad and making some notes as he watched the screen.

"Interesting use of leverage," he muttered, scribbling frantically. "I wonder if the garment is required."

Miss Militia gaped at him, then the screen, then closed her eyes for a second or two.

"You do realize that this is rapidly heading towards being farcical more than anything else, right?" Alexandria said with a heavy sigh. "They're fucking playing with us now."

"They always have been, we've suspected that for years," Legend pointed out reasonably.

She glared at him. "I agree. However, up until now none of them was holding a sign on a pole saying ' _Missed me!_ ', now, was it?"

"True."

"The little hats with targets on are new as well," Assault giggled.

"I don't know if I can take much more of this," the female member of the Triumvirate moaned, slumping into a chair. "How is he?" she asked as an aside, glancing at the comatose form of Eidolon, who was on an emergency stretcher at the side of the room, Amy Dallon working on him. The healer looked up at her.

"Well, he's had a mild stroke, and from what I can see is also suffering from some form of psychotic break, based on his earlier actions. But that's not my field of expertise."

"Can you fix him?"

"I don't do brains."

Alexandria waved this off irritably. "I know that. Fine. Can your insane reptilian friends fix him?"

"Probably," she shrugged, standing up. "If you ask politely. They're not wildly fond of the big idiot, but they're good people, they most likely won't hold this against him."

Legend smiled at her. "Thank you, Amy."

"Sure, no trouble. I need to get back, though, since nothing serious is happening here." Pulling out her phone she dialed a number, then said, "Wormhole to my coordinates plus sixty feet north, please."

Putting her helmet back on as she put her phone away, she nodded to them all. "See you guys later. Call if you need me, but I have homework to do right now."

Leaving the temporary structure several people watched her walk towards the orange-bordered hole in reality that had appeared about fifty feet away, disappearing through it. The hole vanished immediately.

"You have some very odd people in Brockton Bay," one of the other capes, this one from Ottawa, said in wondering tones.

About thirty seconds later another wormhole opened up, Ianthe jumping through, fully armored and waving a huge warhammer.

"Hello, humans," she called, waving with a free hand. She looked around, then swung the hammer over her head, yodeled "By the Power of Grayskull!" and charged off into the distance.

Once more, Alexandria pinched the bridge of her nose. "They've been letting her watch TV again, haven't they?"

"Apparently," Legend smirked.

Metis jumped out of the still open wormhole, waved to them, then screamed "Leeroy Jenkins!" at the top of her voice and followed her sister, wielding a pair of scimitars as long as she was tall, electricity crackling from them. Everyone, even Assault and the Hat-Woman, watched her disappear over the horizon in a cloud of dust.

"I can't help but feel that popular culture has a lot to answer for," Miss Militia muttered loudly, staring in disbelief.

There was a massed murmur of agreement.

"I'm just glad that they picked the middle of the Sahara for this," Battery remarked. "Although I still can't figure out how Leviathan got here."

"As far as we can tell the Simurgh carried him from the Mediterranean," Armsmaster replied.

"The same Simurgh that is now wearing a World War One set of flying goggles, has a white scarf wrapped around her neck, and is zooming around sitting on a ten-foot-tall red wooden doghouse while Kaiju throws boomerangs at her?"

"Correct. I am unsure of the purpose of the doghouse." The Tinker made some more notes.

The blonde stared at him, then the screen, then her husband, before sagging a little and slumping in the chair next to him. He offered her the popcorn without a word, the woman taking a large handful.

"I give up," she mumbled softly. "I just can't handle today any more."

"Behemoth is back," Dragon said from where she'd been working on a complicated mechanism near the screen. "And I've managed to reestablish the audio feed."

Sound suddenly filled the room, battle noises at a high volume making everyone twitch. "Sorry," she apologized, adjusting the relevant control.

They watched as the first Endbringer emerged from the ground, stick out half-way and looking around nervously, from all appearances. On his head was an outsized baseball cap printed in red and white concentric circles.

Behind him from the perspective of the hovering drone, Kaiju could be seen sneaking up on him, dressed in an enormous martial-arts gi, and wielding an incredibly large wooden mallet, the handle fifty feet long and the head disproportionately large even at that scale, being as massive as the Endbringer himself.

She closed to within mallet range, screamed at the top of her voice, "Behemoth No Baka!" and brought the mallet whistling down, a visible shockwave racing out from where she struck him directly on the head. He vanished downwards, leaving a large crater in the desert, fused glass all around, the ground shock rumbling past the command post moments later.

Kaiju looked pleased, then ducked when a flying doghouse strafed her with small chunks of rock torn from the surrounding desert, the Simurgh leaning over the peaked roof of her unlikely aircraft with her scarf flapping behind her in the breeze of her motion. She was miming firing a large machine gun, the rocks coming from where the end of the invisible barrel would be.

Rolling to her feet, Kaiju dropped the mallet, which vanished as it left her hands, then threw the twenty foot long boomerang that appeared in her hand, the rotating blade zipping after the flying Endbringer. Looking over her shoulder the Simurgh shook her fist, then plastered herself flat and accelerated.

"Nice shot," Assault commented as the boomerang whistled past, curved around, and nearly took her head off on the return flight. The Endbringer was forced to do a quick and hard roll to miss being hit, but even so the thing removed the end of her scarf, which fluttered to the ground. Catching the boomerang with ease, Kaiju wound up and threw it again, leading the Simurgh by a significant margin.

Behemoth popped up behind her, firing a visible beam of heat at her, which made her gi burst into flames. She whirled, then reached out and slammed the mallet which reappeared in her hand down on his head, before looking around as he disappeared again.

Shrugging, she formed a new gi as the one she was wearing crumbled to ash.

"Point to Behemoth, I think," Assault commented to the woman in the fedora, who nodded, not looking away. He made a mark on the pad of paper next to his feet on the table. "Six to three, Kaiju's favor," he noted, glancing at it for a moment.

Alexandria sighed again.

Some distance from where Kaiju was taking on both Behemoth and the Simurgh simultaneously, they could see that Metis and Ianthe had arrived on the scene, engaging Leviathan, who was dancing around them firing blasts of water at them.

Everyone blinked.

He was _literally_ dancing around them, shaking his tail at them, then spinning on his back a couple of times, before back-flipping away. A huge torrent of water, drawn from deep underground, shot towards Metis from his hands as he landed, the lizard simply swimming up it with strong strokes of her tail, grinning viciously and holding her scimitars ready.

"Ten to four odds on Metis taking one or more arms off in the next five minutes," Assault called, quickly calculating odds on his notepad.

"I'll take fifty dollars on that," the petite girl across the room chirped, flipping him a bundle of one and five dollar bills. He caught it without looking, noted it down, then glanced up.

"Oh, shit," he groaned. "Prospect! You said you'd stop doing that!"

"There is a 97.56% chance I will win," the girl smirked.

"We should never have allowed you to talk to that Zephron character at the DWU," Assault grumbled, shaking his head. "He taught you too much about gambling."

"There is a 100% chance you are correct," she giggled.

"Why are you even here?" he asked. "Shouldn't you be in school?"

"Saurial suggested I'd find it interesting," the girl shrugged. She looked around with a grin. "This is way better than school."

The ground trembled as Kaiju slammed her mallet down again, missing Behemoth who dived sideways at the last moment, made a rude sign with his hands, then vanished back into the ground. The area of desert the Family and the Endbringers were destroying looked like a section of the surface of the moon by now, but none of them seemed like they intended to stop.

"I wonder how we work out who won when they finally get tired of this?" Legend mused out loud.

"We score them on style, technique, and grace, obviously," the woman in the hat said as she retrieved more popcorn, her voice calm and amused. "I do hope this is being recorded."

"It is," Dragon replied.

"Good. Please make me three copies."

"Certainly."

"He's behind you! BEHIND YOU!" Assault roared, throwing popcorn at the screen, where Kaiju was looking around, the Endbringer now slowly creeping up on her.

Alexandria looked around the room, shook her head in disgust, then decided she might as well go home. Clearly the world had completely stopped making sense, and there was a show on TV she wanted to catch up on, not to mention she needed to feed the cat.

"By Grabthar's Hammer," a faint voice came through the drone, followed by a solid-sounding thwack noise. She looked over her shoulder to see Leviathan flipping end for end, Ianthe looking pleased. A strange sound accompanied the flying Endbringer.

She left the tent, trying desperately to forget the sound of Leviathan screaming "Wheeee!"

In this, she was ultimately unsuccessful.


	159. Armor and Policy

Danny, along with a large crowd of other people including ' _Metis_ ' and ' _Ianthe_ ' watched as his daughter lifted an eighty foot thick slice of tanker onto the shore next to the two already there. Everyone was a couple of hundred yards back for safety's sake, but even from here the creaks and groans of the settling steel were clearly audible. She climbed out of the dry-dock and repositioned the pieces to be far enough apart that they could be worked on without interfering with each other, wiggling them a little to make sure they were stable. The now-finished rail line ran past them about fifty feet away, which would make loading the steel as it was cut into smaller chunks a straightforward matter.

Satisfied, she dropped back into the dry dock and grabbed the next slice. She'd pre-cut the ship like she was going at an enormous cake, taking no more than a couple of minutes to chop it into seven pieces. Soon that slice was on shore as well.

Finishing less than ten minutes later, she checked around her feet, picking up a few small loose bits that in her hands looked like nothing, but when dropped on the ground were chunks as large as an oil drum.

"That's everything," she announced as the crowd started moving over to her. "Anything else you need done while I'm here?"

"No, thank you, I think that will do it for now, Kaiju," Danny called up to her.

"OK, Danny. Glad to help. I'll spend some time locating the rest of the wrecks out there, so when you've finished with this one I can bring them out of the water," she replied, indicating the bay with a thumb over her shoulder. "You know how to get hold of me."

"Thanks," he smiled.

"I'll just get rid of this dry-dock, then," she added, turning to the wall. A moment later the large valves along the bottom of it vanished, water thundering in through a dozen three foot diameter holes and beginning to fill the walled-off area. Foaming and full of sediment it rapidly rose, vibrations underfoot showing how much force was involved. Satisfied, she nodded. "The wall will time out in about half an hour, that should be long enough to let things settle down. See you, everyone."

She waved, then literally jumped over the wall into a perfect dive, slipping under the surface with barely more than a ripple. The familiar bulge in the water that marked her presence moved rapidly away into the late afternoon gloom, quickly vanishing in the direction of the open ocean. Everyone stared, then someone clapped, making the entire crowd roar with laughter and wave their hard hats in the air. Grinning to himself he turned to head back to the office.

"That went well," he noted to Kurt, who was standing next to him looking somewhat shocked.

"It did," his old friend replied after a moment, also turning to walk with him. "I still have trouble with it sometimes, though. We just saw a half-scale Godzilla cut a supertanker up and put it on shore in about twenty minutes, for god's sake!"

"Sometimes life goes a little weird," Danny grinned. "But it seems to have worked out pretty well."

Looking back over his shoulder, Kurt nodded absently. "I guess so. Still, not exactly what I thought would happen this year." He shrugged. "Times change."

"They do that, yes," Danny agreed. Waving to the two large lizards who were walking past in the other direction, ' _Metis_ ' grinning at him, he chuckled. "We're going to be pretty busy from now on. Just about time to start hiring again, I think."

"Good. That part, I really like. I know at least a dozen people who need work," his friend said with a smile. "Most of them would fit in around here very well."

"Get me some resumes, then. I've got a stack three inches thick on my desk already, but we need to find the right sort of person. We don't want idiots right now."

"That comes later, then?"

Kurt looked at him with a grin.

"Well, I'd prefer not to hire idiots at all, but sometimes you have no choice," Danny chuckled. "Let's work our way through the non-idiot section of the population first. I'm prioritizing people with either a heavy industry or military background at the moment, they tend to have the discipline we need and fit in well. Once we've filled the required skilled jobs, we can start looking for basic laborers, because we're going to need a lot of them as well. Ask around, find out if anyone has recommendations. I'd trust our people to know what we're looking for."

"OK. See you later, Danny," Kurt nodded, lifting a hand in a quick wave, then going off in a different direction. Satisfied that the plan was working on schedule, Danny swung by the cafeteria to grab some coffee before he headed upstairs. He had people to talk to, some paperwork to dig out, and some other people to talk to.

So many things to do, he reflected as he walked. But it kept him busy.

* * *

Amy looked around as Taylor, as herself at the moment, leaned in the door of the workroom. "What're you doing?" her friend asked. Looking back at the bench, Amy shrugged slightly.

"Just filling time waiting for you to get back by making some more symbiotes. They're bound to come in handy sooner or later," she said, watching the pile of onions in her large scaled hand melt into a pile of goo, which reformed into a familiar little construct. She dropped it into the transparent container full of suspension fluid, counting quickly. "Got about a hundred now."

"Mark seventeens?"

"These are mark eighteens, slightly tweaked from the seventeen. They're basically the same but I reduced the integration time to about six seconds. I can't get it much faster than that without adding more problems than it solves with this version. But I'm satisfied they're completely safe now." Amy made half a dozen more, then wiped her hands on a cloth. "That should do it for now. I've got them up to about year guaranteed stasis in the gel, but I think I see a way to make it indefinite. I'm still working the bugs out, though."

"Sounds good. We should start working on other projects as well, I have a whole stack of ideas that we can do between us."

The healer grinned. "So do I. We need to compare notes. There are some interesting possibilities from your latest party trick as well. Speaking of which, I want a coat with bottomless pockets."

"So do I," Lisa called from the main room.

"They're not actually bottomless, you know, just… much deeper than they should be," Taylor replied, stepping aside as Amy left the workroom and locked the door.

"They're a blight on the natural order of things and you damn well know it, Taylor," Lisa laughed. "But then, so are we all. I still want a coat with pockets I could put a car into."

"Pick a pattern and I can sort something out," Taylor said with a smile. "But you're not getting dragon leather, that's a one off for Dad."

"Awww." Amy looked disappointed. "I wanted to blow Vicky's mind with it. She's convinced you skinned a pterosaur, you know."

Laughing, Taylor went to the table and sat down, putting her feet up. "She did look like she'd reached an odd conclusion at the party," she admitted with a smirk. "Should we tell her the truth?"

"Not yet, it's much funnier watching her trying to work it all out," Amy giggled.

"Oh, while I think about it, I need to make you two some proper armor. Just in case you need to go through the wormhole with me, not using the tunnel. There's a hell of a lot of gamma radiation when you do that. It's nicely refreshing to me, but you two poor non-demons might have trouble with it even with your radiation resistance."

"Rub it in, why don't you?" Amy sighed, shaking her head. "OK. That sounds like a good idea. It'll look cool as well."

"That's the idea. May as well do that, then we can get on with the language lessons." Jumping up again, Taylor motioned to the middle of the room. "Go stand there, arms out to your sides." Her friend did as instructed, Lisa watching with interest. Taylor walked around Amy, studying her closely, then started making parts on her. "I'll form the entire set using your body as a template, then modify it so it comes off. Mine doesn't need that, of course."

"I wonder if you could use that spacial folding trick to make it sort of disappear into itself," Lisa mused thoughtfully. "That would be cool."

Taylor stopped and stared at her, then turned back to Amy, rubbing her chin. "Now, _that's_ an interesting idea..." She cocked her head, thinking, before shrugging. "Let's get the basic armor finished before we do weird things to it, though. OK, hold still." She grinned widely. "This won't hurt."

"Oh, thanks," Amy sighed, glaring at her. "Now I'm worried."

Snickering, Taylor started forming thin pieces of EDM around her friend, based on her own Raptaur armor. Quite quickly, the reptilian form of the Dallon sister was encased in impenetrable plate armor made from segmented sections that easily moved as Amy experimentally flexed and twisted, extending her arms, legs, and tail. She nodded happily. "Not bad at all," she smiled. "I can feel the weight but it's nothing."

"No binding or resistance?"

"Nope, it's all moving perfectly well," Amy commented. She brought the end of her tail around and looked at it. "I want to modify this to have the thagomizer like Lisa does, it needs the bone reconstructed, and some holes in the armor to let the blades out."

"The holes are easy," Taylor replied, making the change. "That should do it. OK, I'll just take the armor off here for a second..." The last foot of armor vanished again. "I can change the bone but it would be easier if I could see it," she said.

Amy concentrated, the flesh around the last couple of vertebrae flowing away into the rest of the tail to expose the synthetic bone structure. Lisa observed with interest as Taylor fiddled with them, nodding in satisfaction a moment later. "There you go, that's the same as Lisa has."

"Great. I just need to add the extrusion glands..." The flesh and skin recovered the gleaming bone, while Amy looked back at her tail, eventually smiling. "All done."

"Good. Let's test it." Taylor replaced the armor and stepped back. "See if I got the holes in the right place."

Slowly growing out the spikes, Amy pointed out a couple of minor modifications, which her friend made, until they were both happy. "All right then, that's basically done. Anything else you want changed?"

Amy inspected herself, raising her hands to look at the articulated gauntlets that covered them, then ran through a quick exercise that Taylor had taught her in the Family style, before shaking her armored head. "No, I can't think of anything other than color matching now." The armor was currently the dull gray of EDM. With a nod Taylor got to work, the end result being an exact match that blended perfectly with the bioconstruct's scales.

"Fantastic," Lisa said, walking around her friend. "You look amazing."

Amy smiled widely. "Thanks. I like this."

"It should reduce your radiation exposure massively, even with the gaps in it," Taylor pointed out. "Not to mention it raises your toughness a huge amount as well. Now, let's think about how we get you out of it…" She pondered the matter for some time, talking it over with the Varga. "Ooh, will that work?" she exclaimed out loud.

Lisa and Amy exchanged a glance.

"What?" they chorused.

Taylor grinned widely. "Oh, you're going to _love_ this one," she chortled, raising her hands and interlacing the fingers, then cracking her knuckles. "Don't move, this is complicated."

"I am very, very worried," Amy said out of the corner of her mouth to Lisa, freezing in place. "Did you see that grin?"

"I did. I'll be over here." Lisa stepped back, smirking.

Approaching her friend, Taylor giggled. "This won't hurt. Much."

"Help. Lisa, help!" Amy started laughing, but didn't move. She wasn't really _that_ scared. More or less.

Lisa just watched with interest, mixed with a few winces.

" _OW!_ Watch it, you insane demon!"

And quite a bit of laughter.

* * *

"Christ," Emily muttered, watching the PHO video of Kaiju cutting up a supertanker like a dessert roll. The way the blade slid through thousands of tons of steel like it was shaving foam was almost more impressive than the way the giant lizard then heaved the resulting pieces onto the shore.

"It makes you think, doesn't it?" Ethan said, also watching the screen in the Rig briefing room where most of the Protectorate ENE was gathered. The room had been totally disconnected from the main network and checked over by both Tinkers as a security measure. Carlos as the leader of the Wards was there, as were Legend and Dragon. The only one missing was Hannah, who came in moments later.

"Sorry I'm late, I was meeting with an ABB informant and couldn't get away without blowing my cover," she apologized. Her eyes went to the screen hanging from the ceiling, her eyes widening a little. "Good grief."

"That's a good way to put it," Robin said, also staring.

When the video finished, Emily tapped a control on the table, the monitor sliding up into the ceiling again. "Thank you for joining me," she started. "I'm sorry for the short notice, but I've been talking to the Chief Director about the Family situation. In light of recently obtained information, the PRT has finally decided on an official policy for our reptilian friends. I have been instructed to inform you all of this policy."

She looked at Aegis, adding, "I would like you to ensure that your colleagues are updated on it. You are being permitted to see the current threat assessment report on the Family, but please understand that it is still classified level 5 and up. An exemption is being made for you purely because you have a need to know. The other Wards, at this moment, do not. Understand?"

"Yes, Ma'am," he replied politely.

"All right then." The Director handed out a set of stapled pages to everyone. "This has been updated to include all the information we currently hold on Metis and Ianthe, in addition to the previously known Family members. Note that since they're so new we're probably missing things, we're still finding out information about Saurial and she's been around for nearly two months. We have attempted to compensate for this by overestimating somewhat on ratings, so don't take this as gospel. It should give a good idea, though. After I've gone over this with you, I have to go through the same process with the senior PRT staff, so if you have any feedback on it, I'd like to hear it."

The assembled group read the document, muttered exclamations coming from some of them who hadn't seen it before. Carlos had paled noticeably in the process of looking over his copy. "Brute 12+!?" he choked, looking up at Emily. She nodded.

"You saw the video. And remember the tanker move. It may be overstating it, but at the moment, _we just don't know!_ It might even be _understating_ the situation. Without more information, we can't be certain one way or another. Getting that information is potentially very complicated."

"Even the rating for Saurial is ridiculous in many ways," Robin noted. "All those abilities in one person? Little scary, if I'm being completely honest."

"We don't know enough about the two new ones to be certain of much yet, but based on observations, they're also high level Brutes, possibly very high level, Blasters of one sort or another due to the built in ranged weapons, and in Metis' case, a Striker as she has some form of electrical generation power." Hannah glanced at Colin, who nodded.

"That was demonstrated to me last night when I met her. She can generate an energy of at least several thousand volts and perhaps ten to twelve amps merely based on what I saw her do, delivered through her hands. It would only work through touch or very close contact, but that power level would be instantly lethal to most people, Parahuman or not. I assume she can reduce it to non-lethal levels, however bear in mind that if she touches you she can incapacitate or kill you with little difficulty."

"And unscrew your head with sheer strength, _and_ punch a hole in you at two hundred yards with a poison dart," Ethan commented. "Basically, don't piss her off."

"That would be ill advised," Colin replied with a nod. "However, I must also point out that none of the Family appear prone to acts of anger, being on balance remarkably calm and easy to deal with. I can only caution against threatening anyone they care about. It would be… unwise."

"You've had quite a lot of contact with them recently, haven't you?" Battery asked curiously.

The Tinker glanced at Legend, then Dragon, before nodding. "Yes. We have been collaborating on a number of fascinating projects. Raptaur is very gifted in abilities that while not strictly speaking Tinkering are as near to it as makes no real difference. I also find her remarkably pleasant to work with."

Everyone looked curiously at him, including Emily. That was an unusual comment from the normally reserved man, who in many ways struck her as knowing less about human interaction than the lizards did. But he seemed to mean it.

"What projects?" she asked curiously. "I haven't seen any reports on them."

"At my request the work that has been ongoing between Armsmaster, Dragon, and Raptaur has been kept confidential," Legend told them. "There are good reasons for this which will become clear shortly. However, the most recent one is something I suspect you will find interesting. I'll explain it after you finish with your own meeting, Emily. You can make the decision about who else needs to know at the moment."

"That is a highly unusual methodology," she said after several seconds of studying him closely.

The man shrugged slightly. "I'm aware of that. But where the Family is concerned normal procedures do seem to become somewhat flexible, do they not?"

She couldn't help the small smile that crossed her mouth at his comment. It summed things up nicely. "I can't argue with that." Returning her attention to the others present, she looked around the table. "Are there any questions regarding the threat assessment document?"

"More than I could ask in a week," Ethan muttered, scanning the last page of the copy he had again. "But none that make any sense. So I guess not."

"I notice that this does not include the biomanipulation abilities of Ianthe, only the healing abilities of both her and Metis," Colin noted curiously.

"Crap, she's a Biotinker as _well?_ " Robin asked incredulously.

"We're not entirely sure about that," Emily told him. "She herself says that description isn't entirely accurate." Looking at Legend, she raised her eyebrows enquiringly.

"She calls herself a bioshaper or life sculptor," the Protectorate leader said, looking around the table. "It may just be a nomenclature issue, or it may have deeper meanings that we don't yet understand. Once the forthcoming Endbringer attack is out of the way and we can relax slightly, I'm going to try to get a clearer idea of what she really is. But at my request, that has been left out of the threat report due to it possibly causing undue concern. ' _Biotinker_ ' is a classification that tends to have very negative connotations these days for obvious reasons. I don't want to use it officially if it's not required, at least right now. The Chief Director agrees with me, as does Director Piggot."

After a moment's silence, Emily took back control of the conversation. "The Chief Director has, after much deliberation and discussion with the federal government, decided that the Family is to be considered an independent Parahuman heroic organization and Protectorate associate. Partly this is pure pragmatism, as there isn't much we can do to force them to obey us in the first place, at least without risking something unfortunate happening. They already have significant popular support in the city, and it is slowly but steadily growing both here and across the state as it becomes apparent that the Mayor's redevelopment plan is beginning to work. And partly it's due to hoping that they will reciprocate and help out should we need their aid. From our point of view they're to be treated in much the same way the Guild is."

She nodded at Dragon, everyone glancing at the armored Tinker and looking thoughtful.

"Do we have any idea how many of them there really are?" Carlos asked curiously. "We know of six so far, but that doesn't seem likely to me to be all based on what I've heard about them."

"No. But PRT Thinkers suggest you're right. For reasons not yet understood they cause a lot of problems for Thinkers, which means we can't get any accurate answers, but the information we do have tends to imply there could be more."

There was silence as everyone absorbed that, eventually broken by Triumph. "But where do they actually _come_ from?" he asked, sounding bewildered. "That's the big question. More and more of them turn up, but no one knows where they go when they're not around. Kaiju just vanishes, which is insane for something that big. Even Raptaur and the others manage to disappear for long periods of time. They hang around the DWU more than anywhere else but from what I understand no one there knows where they go when they're not around either."

Emily looked at him, then at Hannah, who simply looked back emotionlessly. "That is currently unknown, although it's likely that they go out into the ocean from the sonar traces we have," she said, more or less truthfully. "We're still working on it. With any luck we'll find out eventually, but in some ways it doesn't really matter. They're here and we just have to live with it."

She noticed that Dragon was looking at her in a way that suggested slightly dubious curiosity to her, but the Canadian Tinker didn't say anything. Everyone else was exchanging glances, except for Colin who was staring at the notepad he'd been idly scribbling on every now and then, a thoughtful expression on his face.

"Does the Family know about this status update?" Battery asked.

"Not yet. I'm in the process of drafting a letter to them to officially explain our position, and working on a press release for the public," Emily said. "We need to handle it carefully, although our precogs tell us that it will be well received at least locally."

She looked around the table. "That's basically it for now. I would ask that any opportunity to learn more about them is taken, but discreetly and non-aggressively. Record all interactions whenever possible. Be polite and respectful, treat them as you would any other major hero group. The Chief Director has authorized release of up to level 2 classification information to them if they ask, subject to review by myself. We're likely to be working alongside them for the foreseeable future so we may as well get used to it. You're dismissed, remember that everything we've talked about is Level 5 classified. Aegis, that's particularly aimed at you, do _not_ mention anything in that threat assessment document to your colleagues until and unless I tell you to."

The boy nodded soberly. She was satisfied he would follow orders, he was a sensible and respectful young man.

Legend said, "Colin, please stay here for the moment. Dragon, if you would as well, it would be appreciated." Both Tinkers nodded, while the others stood.

"Hannah, I'd like you to stay as well, please," Emily said, the military-themed cape stopping half-way to her feet, then sitting down again. They waited until everyone else had left, all of them exchanging curious glances and also looking somewhat confused about the entire thing, which she could sympathize with. The Family had that effect on her on a daily basis.

When the door shut, she looked back to Legend. "So what are these mysterious projects I know nothing about?"

"The one I wanted to discuss is quite interesting," he smiled. "Designed and built in cooperation with the Family and BBFO. It's probably easier to show you than just tell you."

She gave him a suspicious look. "Why do I have the horrible feeling that I may be annoyed about it?"

"Possibly because that's your default state, Emily?" he said with amusement, making her glare at him, although she couldn't deny it.

"Sorry, you do _know_ what city I have to spend most of my time dealing with, don't you?" she growled. "You try running this particular branch of the PRT and see if it leaves you full of happiness and joy."

The man chuckled. "I understand, Emily, I'm not criticizing you. I respect you very much, as do even people who don't like you at all."

"You mean everyone who's ever met me," she replied, not entirely without a certain amount of black humor herself.

"I would never be so rude," he commented, making her smile slightly herself. That much was true, the man was unfailingly polite even to people he heartily disliked, which was one of the main reasons she respected him as much as she did anyone. "You do have something of a reputation, though."

Emily accepted this with a shrug. "Fair enough. So what is it that we're going to see?"

"Ah. That would ruin the surprise," he snickered as he stood, the others also getting up. Dragon and Armsmaster exchanged a glance, while Hannah looked puzzled and a little apprehensive.

"You know damn well I don't like surprises," she sighed.

"I do. Bear with me, it's a good one," the annoyingly cheerful man grinned, waving her to the door with a small bow. Shaking her head, she went along with the theatrics.

* * *

Opening the door, Carol regarded the person who had rung the bell with a certain amount of surprise. "Danny," she said, smiling slightly. "How unexpected. Come in, please."

"Thank you, Carol," he replied politely, stepping inside as she moved out of the way, wiping his feet on the doormat.

Closing the door she turned to him. "What brings you here?"

"A legal issue, that I thought you might be a good person to talk to about," he said, following as she went into the living room. "One I wanted to talk over as privately as possible for a number of reasons, so I didn't want to do it at your firm. I hope I'm not intruding."

"Not at all," she replied, waving to a chair, then sitting down, feeling intrigued. "I was under the impression that the DWU had a significant amount of legal expertise of its own. I have to point out that my specialty isn't contract law."

"I'm aware of that. This isn't a contract issue, and is somewhat out of the purview of our legal department, although I have discussed it thoroughly with them." He put the briefcase he was holding on the floor beside his chair as he sat. "Purely theoretically, if you became aware of a teenaged Parahuman who in the course of Triggering, was involved in the deaths of two people, even though it wasn't due to direct or deliberate action on their part, would you be interested in legally representing them in court to fight the charges? Charges that were possibly deliberately filed due to maliciousness on the part of certain PRT and other law enforcement agents?"

She looked narrowly at him, her mind running very fast indeed now. It was clearly a question that was anything but theoretical, worded like that so both of them could back away without prejudice. What was he getting at? One or other of the Family? It seemed very unlikely, since she wasn't aware of any of them having come to the note of the authorities before Saurial's debut a couple of months earlier. Since then, the police and public seemed to actually like them, the PRT was for some weird reason treating them with oddly neutral respect, and no villain appeared to want to go within miles of the damn lizards.

Which meant it probably wasn't the Family. She didn't know of any other Parahumans the DWU had, although that didn't mean they didn't exist, it merely meant no one knew about them. A new Trigger was possible, but if murder charges had been filed, it would have been front page news and nothing like that had happened locally for years. So that was also unlikely.

Very curious, she mulled his question over, then cautiously replied, "Purely theoretically, I might be interested, yes. If I thought there was a decent case to answer. Evidence, both of the Parahuman's innocence and the… malicious nature… of the legal case would be needed."

"Evidence could be provided. Some of it directly from the PRT via Director Piggot, who, again theoretically, would most likely be surprisingly cooperative within the limits of her authority." Danny watched her with a neutral expression, waiting.

She was extremely curious now. From what he was implying, the Director was actually more or less in favor of seeing whatever this case was dropped, but probably couldn't simply make it go away. The charges, then, had enough merit to be taken to court, but the local PRT at least felt they were quite likely not valid. And/or had come to some form of deal.

"Under such circumstances, I would most likely tell you that I would be interested in at the minimum consulting on such a case, although I would also tell you that I would require a retainer to allow legal confidentiality regulations to take effect," she said carefully.

"I see." He regarded her, then picked up his briefcase and put it on his knees, opening it. "Would five thousand dollars be a sufficient retainer to engage your services?"

"It would," Carol replied, slightly shocked. "In fact, it might be considered slightly excessive at this point."

"The client in question is sufficiently well off to not miss it, and first class legal representation is desired," he smiled, handing her an envelope. She took it, feeling the weight, then looked inside. It was full of new twenty dollar bills. About five thousand dollars worth, she suspected.

"Let me give you a receipt," she said faintly, getting up and going to her home office, quickly writing one out, then putting the envelope in the safe under the desk. Returning to the living room she handed the piece of paper to him, the man glancing at it then putting it into his briefcase, from which he extracted a folder.

"Now that all the dancing around is over, please read this," he smiled, handing it over. "The client is Rachel Lindt, AKA Bitch, of the Undersiders. If you decide that you don't wish to take on the case, you can keep the retainer, but I'd be grateful for a recommendation for another lawyer."

She slowly took the folder, staring at him. She knew the name, definitely. It had been in the national news when the girl had triggered and her dog-monsters had torn two people apart, as well as wounding several others. The girl had been a fugitive ever since. She'd met Tattletale on _that_ Tuesday morning, of course, but hadn't realized that the Lindt girl was one of her group.

"You are harboring a fugitive with murder charges laid against her?" she asked, more than a little surprised.

"Not… quite," he replied, putting the now-closed briefcase on the floor again. "It's a little complicated. For a number of reasons the Family rescued the Undersiders after an operation they ran against Lung went south. That was the same one in which Oni Lee was killed, I expect you've heard about that?"

Carol nodded, it was common knowledge in the Parahuman community although it hadn't yet hit the news media, the PRT hadn't officially announced it so far.

"That was almost an accident, he did something stupid with his grenades while trying to kill them and fucked it up. Saurial found him. One thing led to another and the short story is that in exchange for some valuable intelligence on certain villains, Director Piggot agreed to release the Undersiders into the custody of the Family and the DWU. They're not allowed to leave the DWU premises until their status is cleared up. Grue is easy enough, he only has minor charges filed against him which the Director can deal with. Tattletale and Regent are in the clear. Rachel is the problem, of course."

"Even spurious murder charges are very serious," she agreed, listening in mild astonishment. "You're certain they _are_ spurious?"

"Tattletale, who is a very intelligent young woman, is sure. I've heard the story, as have Director Piggot, Armsmaster, and Miss Militia, and everyone agrees that not only does it hang together much better than the official account, there are enough inconsistencies in the latter to make it very suspicious. The local PRT has begun an investigation into the whole thing, some of the data being in that folder. I'm still waiting for more information, but both they and we have been very busy recently for obvious reasons." Danny shrugged, smiling a little. "As you know."

"Not something I'll forget," she nodded, opening the folder and looking at the contents. "All right. Let me have a look at this and I'll decide on what I want to do. Would you like a cup of coffee while I read it?"

"Thank you," he said. She quickly made both of them coffee, then sat back to carefully read the folder while he waited silently.

A while later, having gone over the paperwork twice, she grabbed her laptop and did a number of web searches, checking the data she located after some effort against the documents she had in the folder. Finally she sat back and thought for a while.

"You have a case, and a lawyer," she eventually said to the man still watching her quietly. He smiled.

"Thank you, Carol."

"I will need to meet Miss Lindt, and also talk to her friends to gather other information," she went on, putting the papers back into the folder. "It will take some time to gather all the required documents and data. I presume there is no current date for a court hearing?"

"No. Director Piggot is being remarkably reasonable about it. Rachel isn't under arrest or even officially in the system at all. I believe that we can essentially begin any case on our own schedule, although you'd know more about that than I would."

"That makes things a little easier, there's no huge rush to come up with a defense in the face of an imminent prosecution," Carol mused. "Although we don't want to let it drag on for too long either. I'll have to gather all the facts of her situation and work out the best way to proceed. If the PRT are willing to be helpful, that should make things considerably simpler. A sympathetic judge and some proof that Miss Lindt is the victim of anti-Parahuman prejudice could well tilt the balance in our favor." She thought some more, then nodded firmly.

"I think we have a good chance to have the charges dropped, but at this point I certainly can't promise anything."

"I wouldn't expect you to," he noted. "I'm aware of how complex something like this can be, and the problems surrounding the Parahuman aspects. But you are very well regarded in this sort of thing so I have faith you can help us."

"I'll certainly do my best," she smiled.

"Arranging to talk to the girl is easy, since she's living at the DWU yard in the dormitory block. I have to warn you, though, that she's… not the easiest person to deal with. From what I gather from Tattletale, she was quite heavily affected by her powers and isn't particularly good at dealing with people," Danny told her. "Expect her to be somewhat hostile until she gets to know you, she's suspicious of most people at the best of times. You'll probably find that she responds better if Tattletale is present, and possibly Saurial or Raptaur as well, since she appears to trust all of them."

Carol nodded slowly, she'd come across that sort of issue with powers more than once before. Sometimes they could cause some pretty extreme personality issues. "Awkward, but not fatally so. Are there other character witnesses than her teammates? You understand that the word of other villains isn't quite as helpful as they might like."

Danny smiled at her comment. "No, I expect not. Although I have to point out that the Undersiders, if they even technically exist as a team now, are reformed and no longer villains. I'm happy to vouch for the girl, as are Saurial, Raptaur, Metis, Ianthe, and quite a number of DWU personnel. She's become fairly well known there and is considered odd but not a bad person."

"That would help. All right, leave it with me and I'll begin the research tomorrow. That retainer will keep things solvent for at least a while."

"When you have an estimate of what will be required, please contact me and let me know how much it will cost. I can get you the money quickly without difficulty." Danny stood up, picking up his briefcase. "Thank you for your time. I'm sorry to have bothered you at home."

"It wasn't a problem, Danny."

He handed her a card. "I know you have my phone number already. This has the BBFO office number, even if no one is there you can leave a message. Or ask your daughter to pass it on."

She gave him a look. "My daughter does seem to be spending a considerable amount of time with her new friends in your organization," she said slowly. "I hope she's not getting mixed up in anything… dangerous."

"I don't think Amy is involved in anything she can't handle," he grinned. "I like the girl a lot, as does ' _my organization_ ' as you put it. She has an excellent reputation in the DWU, she's healed a number of injuries from industrial accidents and most of the guys practically consider her one of us." He chuckled for a moment as she sighed slightly. "Your daughter is a very gifted and intelligent young woman, Carol, who is doing your family proud. I'm pleased to have met her and very glad Taylor became her friend."

"Thank you," she replied. "Although as parent of a young woman yourself you must understand my worries about her new hobbies." She shrugged slightly. "She's changed quite a lot in the last few weeks."

"For the better, I hope."

"I suppose so," she had to admit. "It's just… I do worry."

"Part of being a parent. You care, which is the main thing. Don't worry too much, Amy can take care of herself and she has a lot of friends now who would go to pretty extreme lengths to help her if it was needed," he said after a moment. "You raised a good daughter." Holding out his hand he shook hers. "I expect we'll talk again fairly soon."

"Definitely. I'll keep you updated." As he turned to leave, she asked curiously, "Did you put that… gift… that Ianthe gave you on your desk?"

He turned back, a somewhat worried smile on his face. "Would _you?_ "

"No. I'm not entirely certain I want to be in the same _city_ as it, never mind have to look at it every day," she admitted with a shudder. They exchanged a look of understanding, before she walked to the door with him and watched as he went down the path and got into his car. Waving for a moment, she closed the door, before going to find a notebook to write down a few thoughts on her latest case.

* * *

Brian stood up as the man he'd been waiting for came into the open-plan office floor, heading for his own office. "Hi, Brian," Mr Hebert said as he came over. "You wanted to see me? Come on in." He followed as the man unlocked his office and went in, holding the door open then closing it behind him. "Take a seat." The person who in everybody's opinion ran the DWU went behind his desk, motioning to a chair in front of it, and sat as well. "What can I do for you?"

"I was wondering if you'd had any feedback from the legal department on my situation with my sister," he replied, sitting down. "I know it hasn't been very long but I'm a little worried about her."

"Understandable," Mr Hebert smiled. "You're a good brother and a good man. They're working on it, discreet and very unofficial inquiries have been made to Child Services through some people we know there. Without naming names, of course. I'm told it's looking good and shouldn't be too much trouble to continue the arrangements Coil made, although without the entanglements that would have happened with him involved. But because he _was_ involved, and due to your current status of keeping under the radar, we can't really start anything until the PRT gets him."

Thinking it over, Brian was forced to agree. Even with Coil not being around at the moment, which according to Lisa was because he was holed up in his base and running scared, there was always the possibility that he still had agents around the place. As long as they didn't know for sure that his team was still alive, they and Aisha were both safer. He sighed, rubbing his forehead.

"I understand," he said glumly. "I can't say I like it but I can live with it."

"Look on the bright side, when the PRT _does_ capture him, which I have no doubt will happen as there are some very smart and motivated people working on it, you'll be in the clear." The man at the desk smiled. "Director Piggot is very much invested in catching the man, she doesn't like him at all, and I have no doubt she will honor her deal. I've got my own issues with her, but she's a woman of her word." He tapped his pen on the desk, watching Brian and thinking. "OK. How about this. I'll ask Saurial to check on your sister and see how she's doing. She can be completely unnoticeable if she wants to, I'm sure she can find out if there are any problems."

Brian considered the suggestion for a few seconds, then slowly nodded. "That would help," he admitted. "It's just that the girl has a habit of doing things without thinking them through, and it's nearly got her into trouble before. Sometimes serious trouble."

"I'll ask her, then. We've got your father's current address, right?"

"It's on the DWU form as next of kin," Brian replied. "Would it be possible to very quietly slip him some money as well? He doesn't make very much and looking after Aisha is difficult for the guy. I've got a hell of a lot of cash I can't really use right now, I'll like to send him some."

"Sure, that's no problem at all. How much?" Mr Hebert asked, looking approving.

"Ah… Five thousand should keep them going for a while," he said having considered it.

"I'll ask her to take that much from your stash, in that case. And let Lisa know, she's keeping track of it for you guys."

"Thanks very much, Mr Hebert, it's a load off my mind." Brian smiled at the man who was helping him a lot more than most people ever had, feeling grateful.

"It's no problem, Brian, trust me." Smiling, the DWU man asked, "How are you getting along here? I've asked Lisa and I've had reports from co-workers, but I haven't spoken to you all that much since things are so busy."

"I'm fine, aside from that worry," Brian replied, relaxing in his seat. "The work is hard but interesting, I get on OK with everyone, the food is good, no one seems to care about my past… No complaints."

"I'm glad to hear it. And your friends? How do you think they're doing?"

"Lisa is having the time of her life with whatever she's doing for both you and BBFO, Alec is only interested on recreating all his high scores which will keep him busy for weeks, and Rachel has her dogs." Brian grinned at him. "As long as she can keep them in good condition, she's happy as she ever gets. The way so many people here like dogs helps a lot as well. She's actually making friends, which is new."

"Good. Very good indeed. I'm happy to hear it. Jason is very pleased with your work ethic, he tells me, and thinks you're shaping up to be a more than competent carpenter, which from him is high praise." Mr Hebert chuckled when Brian laughed at the comment, knowing it was very true. "Always good to have a sensible trade to fall back on, and carpenters are always needed. Mark is also interested in training you some more as a reserve security man if you're interested, once the current refurbishing project you're working on is done."

"I'd like that," Brian smiled.

"OK. I'll let him know, he'll come and talk to you about it sometime in the next few days."

Checking his watch, Brian stood up. "I have to get back to work and help finish the afternoon shift, but thank you for seeing me, sir."

"You're more than welcome, Brian." His companion smiled again. "I'll talk to Saurial tonight, I have to go and see them later anyway. I'd expect that she'll probably go and check on your sister this evening, I'll let you know what happens."

"Thanks." Feeling much happier, Brian left the office, heading quickly downstairs and back to the building he was helping refit.


	160. Language and Mission

"Oh, my god, this is so _cool!_ " Amy chortled, looking at the result of Taylor and the Varga's work over the last forty minutes. She was wearing what looked like a form-fitting necklace around the base of her neck, made of EDM and color-matched to her scales so it blended in almost invisibly. The rest of the armor was nowhere in sight. "How the _hell_ did you manage to _do_ this?"

"Lots of very careful thought, some Varga magic, and some _really_ weird math," Taylor grinned. "Here, I'll activate it."

Reaching out she poked the necklace, watching in satisfaction as the entire set of neatly designed segmented armor somehow unfolded both ways from it, one part rapidly running up her friend's neck to cover it and her head, the other part going in the opposite direction, ultimately enclosing her entire body. It took about a second and a half and looked like a stop-motion special effect from a movie, while sounding like a row of dominoes toppling at high speed.

"Fuck me, that's _amazing_ ," Lisa muttered, watching with wide eyes. Amy looked down at herself, over her shoulder at her tail, then grinned widely at them.

"Incredible. I can hardly believe it."

"It's recursively folded into itself, the whole thing ends up in the necklace and only weighs as much as that would on its own when it's retracted," Taylor noted, walking around her friend and studying her work with satisfaction. "Varga managed to tweak the spacial folding to make it even more efficient. It can operate in several modes, this is the full coverage variant, but you can also make the gauntlets retract entirely, or just leave the palms and fingers uncovered to let you use your weapon extruders and Lisa's electrical abilities, plus the healing tendrils. You can also roll the helmet back and leave the rest in place."

The covering over her friend's reptilian skull wasn't really a helmet in the normal sense of the word. It was articulated along the jaw to allow her to open her mouth normally, being more a form-fitting cover for her head than the sort of thing a normal human would use, but ' _helmet_ ' was as good a word for it as anything. It was designed to go over the top of the camera harness, allowing the lens to view the world through a transparent sapphire window to protect it.

"How do I do that?" Amy asked. Taylor showed her the simple controls that triggered the changing forms of the armor.

"Basically it's a multi-phase metastable form," she explained. "A bit like a memory plastic but much better. Each of the variants is stable, but it can be triggered to collapse down to the storage state, or expand out again. The changes are local collapses of that particular part."

"Very, very neat," Lisa said admiringly. "My power is staring in amazement and rubbing its hands together. I can see all sorts of uses for this sort of technique."

"The Family has been using it for a very long time because it's so useful. We didn't demonstrate it up until now as we didn't want to freak the humans out too much. Their minds seem slightly incompatible with folded fractional dimensions," Taylor agreed gravely. Her friends stared, then started laughing.

"You're going to use that excuse at every possible opportunity, aren't you?" Amy giggled.

"Oh, _hell_ , yes," she grinned.

Amy experimented with the points on the necklace part that triggered the various state changes in the armor, then looked thoughtful. "Can you put the controls on the _inside?_ " she asked slowly.

Taylor inspected her curiously. "Sure, that's not a problem. Why, though?"

"Because I have a very cool idea of my own," Amy replied. "I can modify the bioconstruct to have small actuators for the controls, like short little tentacles to poke them. That way, I don't need to reach up and operate them with my hands. I can just do it with an act of will. Sort of a biotech way to interface to the hardware."

Staring for a moment, Taylor grinned. "Fantastic. Great idea. OK, retract it and I'll change it."

Prodding the right place, Amy made the armor collapse back into the storage state. Taylor put her hand on it and concentrated, she and her companion going over the complex construction and changing it carefully. "OK. That should do it. There are recessed pressure-sensitive controls around the inside of it now."

"All right, let me make the required changes on my end..." Amy looked distant for a few seconds, then smiled. "That should do it."

She posed, then smirked as the armor formed around her. Holding out her hands she made the gauntlets disappear, then come back in the form where they were only protecting the backs of her hands, creating a long knife in each one.

Taylor clapped. "Very good. That should protect you from practically anything that you couldn't already handle, and block radiation almost completely. Keep your mouth shut and put a hand over the camera port when you go through the wormhole, ideally."

"What about the body harness with the pouches?" Lisa asked, looking at the one Amy had taken off and dropped on the table. "It's useful to have storage space for phones and stuff."

Studying it, Taylor rubbed her chin in thought. "Hmm. Good point. I can make it go over that the same as I did with the camera, but then you couldn't get at it with the armor on. Maybe..." She walked around Amy a few times. "OK. How about adding some Pockets of Holding to the armor itself? Varga has some ideas that could be interesting. We can make it work the same way as the folding armor, I think, so they're sealed when not activated, which would mean they'd be fine underwater. You couldn't open them without flooding them, of course, so don't do that with the one with your phone in."

"What happens if I deactivate the armor with something in the pockets?" her friend asked thoughtfully.

"It's practically infinitely recursive, the entire thing is basically fractal, so not much. It just gets folded away as well. You'd have to bring the armor out of storage to get at the pockets."

"Huh. Weird as hell. OK, go for it." The new changes only took a little while.

"Same sort of controls, accessed through the collar part." Taylor stepped back, watching as Amy experimented. She now had a total of six ' _pockets_ ' in the armor which could open up to allow her hand in, although they didn't look like a normal pocket in the sense of clothing. They were simply parts of the armor that slid aside to allow access to the folded space inside.

"That is _seriously_ impressive," Lisa said in a low voice, watching as Amy poked around with her hand apparently elbow-deep into her own chest. "And not a little disturbing."

"The top two are about the size of a shoe-box, the next two down are about three feet deep, and the bottom two are big enough to take something maybe eight feet long and a couple of feet square," Taylor explained. "Like this." She handed Amy a warhammer, a scaled down version of her normal Raptaur-sized one. The reptilian girl took it and hefted it, slowly beginning to grin.

"Now _this_ , I like," she giggled manically. "You need to teach me how to use it, though."

"The hammer is easy," Taylor chuckled. "Just hit things with it. _This_ , on the other hand, needs some skill." She handed over a seven foot long EDM sword. Amy looked at the two weapons in her hands, then experimentally pushed them into her armor storage space, both vanishing completely.

"Coolest thing ever," she snickered, pulling the sword out with a little effort.

"It would be more efficient to draw if it was on her back, surely?" Lisa asked curiously.

Glancing at her, then looking back at Amy, Taylor eventually nodded. "You're probably right. OK, I'll just change it a little..."

Shortly Amy was reaching over her shoulder and pushing the blade into another storage space that ran from her upper shoulder down to the mid back area, the blade disappearing when she released it and the compartment closing up to leave no trace. A little experimentation and she could retrieve it in under a second.

"Very neat. You could keep adding storage for all sorts of things," she said happily.

"Make a list, and we can upgrade it as necessary," Taylor replied, feeling very pleased with the end result. "I'll change the body harness to have the folded-space pockets as well, which will let it fit flush under the armor. That should give the most flexibility."

"You know, with some care, I bet you could give your actual _body_ some folded storage space," Lisa commented, looking thoughtful. "Even your human body."

The other two exchanged a glance. "I've actually had some ideas along those lines," Amy admitted. "But I haven't quite worked out the details."

"I'm not entirely certain how to integrate it with a living creature yet, although Varga is sure it can be done," Taylor added. "No need to rush. This should do for now. You can make all the knives and batons and things you need yourself, you have a good sword and a nice big hammer, and places for other odds and ends. Anything else you want?"

"Can't think of anything at the moment," the healer said after thinking it over. "Like you said, no rush." She retracted her helmet and gauntlets, leaving the rest of the armor in place. "May as well get used to this, it changes my balance a little."

"OK. Right, Lisa, you next."

Half an hour later Lisa was also outfitted with the same sort of armor in her colors, Amy had modified the Metis body to have the same little actuator tendrils, and she was teaching the black lizard how to use them. When Lisa got it working she laughed with glee. "Fucking fantastic. Thanks, both of you."

"No problem," Taylor grinned, handing her her own hammer and sword. "Put those away, then get rid of the armor and I'll modify the harnesses for both of you. I think we're done then, and we can finally learn to speak Family like it is spoke."

Both girls snickered, following the instructions. When the last task was complete, Taylor nodded happily.

"Excellent work, Brain," the Varga commented.

"Thanks," both she and Amy said, grinning at each other. They gathered around the table, Taylor switching to Saurial.

"Hopefully your modifications to your bioconstructs, Amy, will allow you both to learn this language fairly quickly. Taylor is now quite fluent in it, I can transfer information between our minds without too much trouble, although I have to go carefully so I don't overwhelm her." The Varga studied them, Taylor letting him have free reign and sitting back to watch and listen. "We will start with the basic rules, then go on to simple vocabulary lessons. Based on how well that goes we can see how to proceed."

"Sounds good," Amy smiled. "I'm really interested to see how well the language absorption modifications work. I'm pretty sure they'll make this easy but we'll just have to see."

"In that case, my young friends, we will begin. Listen very carefully, I will say this only once."

The Varga snickered, while Amy and Lisa exchanged a puzzled glance.

"Ignore him, we were watching some old British comedy on the internet last week and it corrupted him," Taylor grinned.

"It was very amusing," the Varga protested. "Now, please be quiet, I have minds to corrupt."

"Sir, being quiet, yes, sir," she said.

"Quite." He sighed slightly, although with a smile, as she laughed. "Where were we? Oh, yes, the Language of the Family."

He began his explanation, Amy and Lisa both engaging the ' _language mode_ ' as she'd described it, listening intently.

* * *

"What the hell is this?" Emily asked, staring at the building they'd just parked next to, the ratty old brickwork contrasting with the dully gleaming brand new door, and the car park which had obviously just been resurfaced in some sort of porous stone.

Oh, and the sign.

She looked at it, then at Colin, who sitting next to Hannah, the woman having driven the PRT SUV at the directions of the Tinker, while Legend and Dragon flew on ahead.

"I think Raptaur has been amusing herself again," he noted, also inspecting it curiously in the light from the headlights of the vehicle.

 **Welcome to the WCC**  
 **Brockton Bay Terminus**

 **"Where would you like to go today?"**

 **csll'ha ch'nglui shugg**

 **A Protectorate/BBFO joint project**

"According to the R'lyehian translation program Dragon and I designed, the slogan at the bottom roughly translates to ' _We invite you to cross over the threshold of the realm of Earth_.' Oddly appropriate," he added after a moment.

"And what is WCC?" she asked as they got out of the vehicle, the Tinker locking it and heading for the door, which opened as he reached it to reveal Dragon.

"I'm not entirely certain," he admitted, going inside. She followed, Hannah behind her. Dragon closed the door again, then headed for the complex console to one side of the room they found themselves in. Emily could hear a muted deep hum coming from another small room on the other side of the main one. Legend was just coming through a large door in the wall that blocked off what must have been close to three quarters of the building judging from the outside dimensions.

Flipping a few switches and inserting a key into the console, Dragon waited for all the computers to boot up, which happened in under thirty seconds. Emily and Hannah watched, not sure what they were looking at.

"Please direct your attention to the monitors," Colin said, indicating a number of very large ones mounted above the main console, which were showing high resolution images of a large empty room and what seemed to be the other side of the wall.

Dragon operated the controls, spinning a nicely rendered globe of the earth to center the western Australian desert on it, then zoomed in. Dropping a marker in the middle of nowhere, she turned the key, then pressed a button. The hum was replaced by a rising screech that made both women jump, looking around for the source. Moments later it stopped. "Singularity active," the Tinker said. She pressed the other button.

Emily stared at the monitors, then looked at Hannah, who was looking back, shock in her eyes. They went back to studying the blue-edged circle some twelve feet in diameter that was hanging in space in the other room like a special effect. It looked completely surreal.

"Engaging standard transit mode," Dragon commented, clicking an onscreen control. The circle snapped to the wall, covering a door in it. She fiddled with the system a little more, which resulted in a muted hum from their side of the same door. "OK, the tunnel is extended. Radiation level is nil." Turning around, she waved at the door. "It's ready."

"What the hell is going on?" Emily was very confused. Again.

"Come and have a look," Legend smiled, heading for the door. He pressed a button next to it, then when a light illuminated green, pulled it open. Emily stared as he held it for her. After a very long moment she sighed and walked through, Hannah accompanying her. They found themselves in a roughly ten foot on a side room with another identical door at the far side. Legend closed the one behind them, walked past, and repeated the unlocking process on the other door, pulling it open. Bright light flooded through.

Emily blinked wildly, then moved cautiously forward, peering out. She could see a reddish sandy surface spreading out in front of her until it vanished on the horizon, the air hot and dusty. A light wind was blowing into her face. Staring at it in disbelief, she advanced to the edge of the room and looked down, then poked the ground with her shoe, leaving a print. Bending over she felt it.

It seemed entirely real.

"What…?" she said faintly. Beside her, Hannah's mouth was opening and closing without any sound coming out.

"It's quite impressive," Legend said reflectively, standing on her other side. "It took a lot of hard work from a number of people, but I can see this becoming a very useful tool for us."

She gaped at him, then looked back at the scene in front of her. "What is this?" she spluttered, pointing.

"The Gibson desert in western Australia," he smiled. "Perth is about seven hundred and fifty miles that way." The man waved slightly to the left and forwards.

"You have to be kidding me," she finally said, staring in shock.

"No, it's entirely real. Just walk through there and you're in Australia. You'd need to clear the end of the tunnel to about a hundred feet or so as fast as possible to avoid the slight gamma radiation leakage, to be completely safe, but other than that there's no safety issues." He indicated the room they were standing in, which she could see now was made of a number of concentric box sections, the now-familiar dull gray of EDM. Underfoot there was a textured surface like that in the BBFO office. "The construction of this transit tunnel blocks the extremely intense gamma radiation inside the wormhole, which would be instantly lethal to almost anyone."

"Where the _hell_ did all this _come from?_ " she asked weakly, turning to him. "I don't know of any technology that can do this."

"The wormhole generator was designed by Leet then reverse engineered by Dragon, Colin, and Raptaur with Leet and Über's help. Raptaur duplicated the mechanical components, Dragon and Colin did the same to the electronics. Dragon redesigned the control software. The Family own the building and did the major modifications to it, like the EDM sheathing, the new doors, that sort of thing, while a substantial number of DWU workers wired it and fitted out the plumbing. Dragon and Colin supplied the power unit, the control computers, the security system, the rebuilt wormhole generator, and so on. It was a group effort."

He smiled at her. "I helped as well, but it was mostly other people's work."

"How long did this _take?_ " she said, amazed, turning to look out the open door at the desert on the other side of the planet.

"The building refurbishment, about seven or eight hours, and something like forty people working extremely hard," Legend replied. "The wormhole generator was a day at BBFO and a day or so in Colin's lab with him and Dragon. I'm genuinely impressed how fast and effectively it all came together. We assembled a remarkably efficient team, to use Colin's words."

"Holy shit," she breathed. "And this can be duplicated?"

"Fairly easily, yes. Dragon has made more electronics packages for the generator, Raptaur is going to make more mechanical assemblies. I would expect that they have arranged with Leet for some form of licensing deal."

"He's a villain," Hannah pointed out, not having done much other than stare at the desert scene while he was talking, a look of shock in her eyes above her scarf.

"I would have to suggest that may not be entirely correct any more," Legend smiled. "In any case, the Family isn't particularly concerned with normal definitions like that, as you know, but they do seem to be quite keen on crediting work to its original source regardless of that source. Raptaur appears to have considerable respect for both Über and Leet, and both Dragon and Armsmaster consider the young man a very good Tinker. Merely one with poor impulse control and an unfortunate inability to duplicate his work."

Bending down Emily ran her fingers through the sand at the threshold of the EDM room, shaking her head in wonder. "This will change… almost everything," she muttered.

"I'd think so," he nodded. "Obviously this is only the prototype, but with some work more installations can be made. Much of this is only possible due to the involvement of BBFO, of course. The EDM is key to a lot of it, it's a perfect radiation shield. We could probably make do without it but it would be much more difficult. Not to mention that without Raptaur making the wormhole generators becomes a lot harder. And there's the issue of it being Leet's technology in the first place. We're going to have to talk with all parties involved to work out the best way to proceed. But, the key thing is that it will let us deploy people in the event of Endbringer attacks, or any other serious threat where we need to get a lot of people from A to B, without requiring the use of the small number of teleporters we have access to."

"What are the transport limitations?" she asked as she stood up.

"If it fits through the wormhole, none, basically," he told her, "assuming the power holds up. This generator can make a wormhole about sixty feet in diameter at most, but Dragon is sure it can be scaled up. The radiation is a problem but it's a solvable one. This installation doesn't have vehicle access yet, although it's going to be added later. Even so we could get an awful lot of people through quickly. Much more easily than relying on Strider or someone like him."

"Assuming we need to go to or from Brockton," she pointed out.

"True. There are limitations. But it's still pretty impressive."

"Who else knows about this?" Hannah asked, watching a kangaroo bound into view, look at them, then hop across the scenery, a weird expression in her eyes.

"Raptaur, Metis, Ianthe, Leet, and Über, although the latter two haven't been here. The DWU people didn't ask questions, just got on with the work. The Family members won't tell anyone without mentioning it." He closed the door and headed back to the other end of the tunnel, pressing the button. "So far, that's it."

Back in the control room, Emily looked around with mild incredulity. "You people certainly put a lot of work in." She watched as Dragon worked on what she recognized as an interface to the Endbringer tracking system, apparently checking on the position of Leviathan and the Simurgh. "I'm impressed."

"I thought you would be," Legend grinned.

* * *

When he entered the BBFO building and closed the door, Danny stopped and stared. ' _I should be used to weird shit by now_ ,' he thought with a small inner sigh, ' _but somehow it gets me every time_.'

His daughter, or more accurately, his daughter's body, clearly being driven by the Varga and in her Saurial form, was making weird hissing sounds mixed with gurgles that sounded physically painful to produce at ' _Ianthe_ ' and ' _Metis_ ', who were frowning in concentration while replying in the same manner. Each of the two larger lizards was wearing complex articulated armor that left their hands and heads free. He watched for a moment, then cleared his throat.

"Am I interrupting anything?" he asked.

"Not at all, Danny," the Varga smiled, looking over. "I was merely engaged in a language lesson. The younger generation seem to be sadly under-informed about their heritage and I am attempting to rectify that."

Shaking his head, Danny joined them at the table. "The completely mythical heritage," he said.

"Is it a myth when we can clearly demonstrate so much of it?" the demon chuckled.

Looking narrowly at the entity currently running his daughter's reptilian body, Danny eventually sighed. "One of you is a bad influence on the other, but I have to confess I'm not sure any more which way it goes."

The Varga grinned. "I suspect it is very much bidirectional. I must say I haven't had so much fun for a _very_ long time. I daily thank the fates for bringing me to your world and to such a fascinating group of people."

"Thanks, Varga," Taylor said.

"You're more than welcome, Brain," the demon replied. Danny watched, then looked at Lisa and Amy, who were both smiling.

"That is still very odd, isn't it? It's not just me?"

"We think it's weird as well, Danny," Lisa assured him. "But it seems to amuse them."

"The language is really interesting," Amy added thoughtfully. "It sounds freaky, but it's surprisingly logical and fairly straightforward to learn, although a normal human mouth and vocal mechanism would have a hell of a time with speaking it. I'm going to have to see if I can figure out some modifications that would make it easier without causing any problems." She said something in the hissing language which made Lisa snicker, the Varga nodding approvingly.

"Well done. And an amusing pun."

"Thanks."

"Does this alien language have a name?" he asked, shaking his head at the silliness.

"To the original species it was known as..." Here the Varga made a short sound that made the hairs stand up on the back of Danny's neck. "But the girls have decided to call it Famtalk for the moment. Which is as good a name as any, I suppose. It suffices to get the point across."

"Is there a written form?"

"Yes, it's ideographic like a number of Asian languages, although with entirely different rules. We're concentrating on the spoken form for now. When they're completely fluent, we'll look at the writing, which will probably take longer to teach as it's moderately complex." The demon looked pleased. "They are excellent students."

"A lot of that is the upgraded neural systems," Amy noted. "It would take a lot longer than this normally to learn a totally different and alien language. I'm a little surprised how effectively the modifications I made to both the bioconstructs and our human bodies are working, it's much better than I hoped for."

"When you've finished working on a language to make everyone look oddly at you, perhaps you should learn other ones as well," Danny commented. "Ones that are more common around here. That could come in handy."

"We were discussing that," his daughter said, taking over from the Varga. "I was poking around in Princess Luna's memories at Varga's suggestion and I do seem to know her original language and a couple of other ones she learned. They're weirdly close to Japanese and Mandarin, neither of us can work out why, but I can sort of make out the gist of what someone talking Japanese is saying already. It probably wouldn't take too much practice to get fairly fluent in at least speaking and understanding it, although writing and reading it could take a while." She indicated her friends. "Thanks to Amy, they'd probably be able to learn that faster than I can. But with Varga's help I can still learn a lot quicker than normal."

"Interesting," he said, studying them. "A very useful talent. Your mother was good at languages as well, she always said being multilingual was important. I've got some Spanish myself, but I'm not fluent. Perhaps I should practice some more."

"I can upgrade your language centers as well if you want, Danny," Amy offered. "Plus do some strength and toughness upgrades. I meant to ask a few days ago when I finished Ianthe but I sort of got distracted."

"I meant to ask too," Taylor admitted. "Sorry, things got away from me."

He thought about the offer for a moment or two. "I may take you up on that, Amy," he finally replied. "I'll have to think about it some more. However, that aside, I have a mission for Saurial."

His daughter looked curiously at him. "Mission?" she asked.

"Yes. Your mission, should you accept it, is to track down and check on Brian's sister Aisha, as well as pass on some cash to his father on his behalf," Danny smiled.

She giggled at his reference. "I can do that."

"It shouldn't be difficult, I've got the address here," he added, sliding a piece of paper across the table to her. "Brian told me that she's now staying with their father. Their mother is… well, not a responsible parent would be putting it very mildly."

"She's a waste of oxygen in most ways," Lisa sighed. "A horrible mother, a drug addict, and god knows what other problems she has. In one way you have to feel sorry for her, but a lot of it is self inflicted and she shows no signs at all of wanting to change. She had custody for a while but something horrible happened, which is what caused Brian to Trigger. After that Aisha went to live with their father."

"Pretty much what I gathered," Danny sighed. "The father is by all accounts a much better person even if he has some problems of his own, but who doesn't? I asked around and a couple of guys here know the man, they tell me he tries but has no idea how to raise a girl, which doesn't entirely surprise me." He looked around at the three reptilian faces watching him. "They need a firm hand, young girls. Or they turn into demons." All three started laughing. "Sometimes even the firm hand doesn't work," he went on with a grin. "Anyway, you need to find out how she's doing, make sure she's not got herself into trouble, and get the cash to their father, without letting anyone else know if at all possible."

"Sure. When?" Taylor asked, calming down a little from her giggling.

"Now would be good." He checked his watch. "It's only around half past eight so it's early enough that the girl is likely to be up and around."

"You'd find the same thing at half past two in the morning," Lisa remarked. "She's not known for paying a lot of attention to rules if she doesn't want to."

"I'm familiar with the problem," he sighed loudly, making them all grin again. "Try not to traumatize the Laborn's too much, dear."

"I'll be… more or less good," Taylor chuckled.

"How much cash did Brian want to give his dad?" Lisa asked, getting off her tail and going up to the storage area.

"Five thousand."

"OK." She rummaged around, then came back with a couple of stacks of twenties. "Here you go, Taylor."

Danny watched as his daughter checked the money, then tucked it away in a belt pouch. "I'll be back in a while, guys. Keep practicing your vocabulary, there will be a test later."

She headed for the door while the others laughed, slipping out into the dark. Danny turned back to the other two, inspecting their armor.

"That's a new look," he said to Amy.

"I like it," she smiled. "Proper fantasy lizard person now. Hey, look at this!"

He gaped as she pulled a six foot long war hammer from somewhere and held it up.

"Holy shit."

"Cool, right?"

"Show him the sword," Lisa grinned. Danny stared at her, then looked back to Amy, before sighing.

"Perhaps your mother was right," he said slowly, watching her wave a huge sword around while grinning in a deranged fashion.


	161. Aisha and Saurial

Taylor sniffed, then turned to the right and leaped across the alleyway, landing silently on the next roof. Trotting across it under cloak she peered over the edge to the ground, spotting the person she'd been tracking for the last ten minutes.

Having gone to the address her father had given her, she'd climbed up the wall and looking in the fifth-floor apartment windows, seeing a man who was definitely the boy's father, based on scent. He was alone in the smallish two-bedroom apartment, watching the TV while drinking a single bottle of beer. Again, going on scent, he hadn't had any more of it, which at least suggested it was merely recreational rather than a problem. She'd detected the scent of a young female, related to Brian and the man, obviously Aisha, but the girl definitely wasn't present at the moment. The scent was a few hours old.

Climbing down, she sniffed around the main entrance, then the rear one, finding many traces of the girl she was hunting, the freshest one leaving the back door. She followed it, still cloaked, for some distance. Brian's sister had apparently visited a number of small shops, some closed where she'd stood for a while peering in the windows, then a couple of late-opening ones where she'd entered. The last of these had an owner who was being somewhat annoyed about what appeared to be a shortfall in stock, of recent origin. He was complaining loudly to a friend about how this seemed to happen more and more regularly these days, the friend nodding sympathetically.

Having a pretty good idea what had happened, she slipped inside without them noticing her, tucked sixty dollars under the corner of the till, then left again, knowing the girl wasn't far in front. It didn't take long to find her.

Aisha, a remarkably pretty dark-skinned girl of about thirteen or so, dressed somewhat and obviously deliberately shabbily, was sitting on a box behind a dumpster. She was invisible from the street she'd come down before ducking into the alley. Her shoulder-length straight hair was styled into a fairly amusing fashion that showed she'd spent a fair amount of time making it look like she hadn't spend any time on it, something that made Taylor grin to herself. An off center blonde highlight added a certain roguish effect, which matched the definite smirk the girl was wearing on her face as she pulled things out of her pockets and put them on another box, inspecting them. Things that looked suspiciously like the items the shop-keeper had been bemoaning the loss of.

 _"I wonder if Brian knows his sister is something of a thief,"_ the Varga commented, sounding amused. _"It would seem to be a family trait."_

' _He's a lot better at it, she's only lifted about twenty bucks worth of almost random crap_ ,' she replied. ' _But she's pretty good at the stealth thing not to get nabbed. I suspect she does this fairly often_.'

 _"From what we're told the girl has a rebellious streak, and I'm not referring to the one in her hair."_

' _Apparently. Shall we say hello?_ '

 _"It would be rude to come all this way and not do so in my opinion,"_ he chuckled.

With a grin she dropped off the building, landing behind the girl, then watched her for a moment before deciding on a strategy. With an internal snicker she got to work.

* * *

Aisha cataloged her loot, separating out the things she could sell at school from the ones she wanted to keep. ' _Eight… nine… ten packs of gum_ ,' she grinned, stacking them up. ' _Not bad. Some chocolate, candy bars, a couple of lighters..._ ' Satisfied, she popped the top on a can of Coke she'd snagged on the way out of the shop, the owner completely missing her presence. She'd taken shrewd advantage of his distraction due to a phone call to sneak in, quickly grab things on lower shelves and stuff her pockets, then dive out again without him seeing.

She knew the CCTV in the shop didn't work properly, he only had one good camera and it was covering the till area. If she hugged the left side of the doorway and kept low, it would miss her completely. Sipping her Coke, she looked around the alley, making sure none of the scum who lurked around here snuck up on her.

Seeing no one, she turned back to her ill-gotten gains, then frowned slightly. ' _What… something's different,_ ' she thought, cocking her head and doing a mental tally. ' _Gum, candy, chocolate, lighters… Hey, I thought I had two of those._ ' She picked up the single lighter and stared suspiciously at it. ' _Huh. Weird. Must have been imagining it_.'

She put the lighter down next to the identical one on the box, sipped her Coke again, then nearly choked. "What the fuck?"

There were definitely two lighters. When she'd picked it up, there was one. She'd counted it.

Twice.

Now she was looking at two of them.

Putting the can down by her feet she leaned forward and inspected both lighters extremely closely. One was blue, the other one was green, both transparent plastic disposable butane ones. Nothing interesting about them at all.

Picking one up in each hand she stared at them, flicking one alight. It worked fine. After a long moment she put them down again, then gaped at the third lighter that was sitting innocently between them, this one red.

Very slowly, she reached out and picked it up, turning it over in her hands. She lit it. Perfectly normal lighter, except it hadn't been there when she'd picked up the two other…

Aisha stared in shock once again. She was back to two lighters, the red one still in her hand and a yellow one on the box. The blue and green ones were nowhere in sight.

Extremely puzzled and more than a little worried, she looked carefully at the ground, in case they'd fallen off the box, but could see nothing. Once again she looked around, just on the off chance that someone was messing with her. While she could hear cars going past on the road and distant footsteps, she was otherwise entirely alone sitting here on her box, dimly lit by a service light hanging on the wall to the side above the back entrance to the Chinese food place. Just her and her loot.

Which, when she looked back, no longer had any lighters at all. Even the one in her hand was missing.

"Holy shit!" she yelped, staring at her hand, then turning it over to inspect the back. "What the fuck?"

She wiggled her fingers, seeing nothing amiss. But she could have sworn, absolutely _sworn_ , that she had been holding a lighter in it seconds earlier. A lighter exactly… like…

Aisha leaped to her feet with a yip of terror, gaping at the _five_ lighters in a neat row on the box, one each of green, blue, red, yellow, and orange.

"What the _fuck_ is going on?" she whispered. Staring fixedly at the five plastic fire-starters, she waited to see if anything happened, ready to run like hell. Nearly a minute passed with her poised and tense. Nothing at all happened.

She blinked, her eyes watering, then shouted, "Oh, _come on!_ "

All five lighters were gone and had been replaced with a large box of matches, in the fraction of a second her eyes were shut.

Spinning on the spot, she exclaimed, "I don't know who's doing this, but it's _not funny!_ Stop fucking around."

She turned back to glare at the box of matches, which was now a lit candle. Sighing heavily, she sat down again. "Someone is trying to make me think this is haunted loot," she grumbled, reaching down for her can of coke. Picking it up she took a sip, then gagged.

"What the hell is this?" she spluttered, holding the can up to the light. Instead of a can of coke, she was holding a can of… "Family Brand Generic Cola?"

On the label was the face of a grinning reptile girl, one she'd seen on the news and PHO. She stared at it in disbelief, turning it this way and that. The text on the back of the can was written in what looked like some sort of strange spiky symbols that vaguely reminded her of Chinese. When she turned the can around again, the picture of Saurial had changed to a picture of a candle.

Not sure whether she should laugh, cry, or just run away gibbering, Aisha slowly put the can down beside her, wondering if she was going nuts.

Absently she noticed the candle had turned into a small statue of her sitting on the box holding a can, perfect in every detail, and apparently made of dark green glass. The girl looked at it for several seconds.

"I'll take the stuff back," she sighed.

"Thanks," a voice said from next to her, where there _definitely_ hadn't been anyone until that moment. "It's sort of wrong to steal, especially when you don't actually need to."

Somehow managing not to jump, she looked sideways to see a tall figure in a long trench-coat, a fedora pulled down over her head. The main problem with this disguise was that she could see a long scaled tail coming out from under the coat at the back, not to mention the very reptilian feet under it. And the muzzle with a pair of weird dark glasses that was visible between the brim of the hat and the pulled-up collar of the coat.

"Saurial, I guess?" she said somewhat sarcastically.

"What gave me away?" the oddly accented voice said with a distinctly amused tone to it. "My disguise is nearly perfect."

"Well, if you don't count the tail, and the feet, and the voice, and everything," Aisha pointed out in what she felt was a very reasonable tone under the circumstances. "Are you bored, or did you have some other reason for fucking around with me? How did you do that, anyway?"

"Do what?" Saurial asked, pushing her hat back with one hand, the other one popping the top on another can of _Family Brand Generic Cola._ Sipping from it, she made a weird face. "Yuck. This stuff is horrible. I can't see how you can drink it." She tossed it over her shoulder, the can vanishing mid-flight.

Aisha pinched the bridge of her nose and counted backwards from ten. When she finished, she said deliberately mildly, "I'm going to go home now."

"OK. I need to see your father anyway," Saurial snickered.

Standing, Aisha gathered up all her stolen merchandise, noticing that the original two lighters were back where they should be in the process. After a moment's consideration, she put the little statuette of herself, which was still there, into her pocket. "Go away, you freaky lizard," she muttered, heading towards the street.

"Honest, I have something for him," the cape said, walking next to her. Aisha stopped and looked up the close to eighteen inches height difference between them.

"What?"

"Something from your brother," Saurial said. She quickly clapped her hand over Aisha's mouth as the girl sucked in a breath to shout. " _Shh_. Don't tell everyone."

"You know where Brian is?" the girl whispered fiercely when Saurial slowly lifted her hand. The feeling of scales on her lips was odd.

"I've been in contact with him, yes. A friend asked me to come and check on you and your dad. We can't talk here, let's go back to your place."

Looking at her doubtfully, Aisha said, "Everyone is going to see you with me and it'll be all over PHO in minutes."

"Nope. Don't worry about it. I'll see you at your place. Don't forget to take the stuff back, OK?" The lizard girl grinned at her, then looked over her shoulder, reeling back in shock. "Oh my god, _what's that?_ " she yelped, pointing.

Whirling around Aisha stared in the direction the crazy lizard had pointed, seeing nothing. "There's nothing there, you weirdo," she stated. A moment later she growled in annoyance, realizing the truth. "And _you've_ disappeared again, _haven't_ you?"

Sure enough when she looked around there was no trace of the reptile. Sighing heavily, she shook her head in disgust. " _Really_ not funny, you scaly nutcase." She shoved her hands in her pockets and headed home via the store.

About twenty feet further on she found she was feeling a scrap of paper in her right pocket that shouldn't have been there. She pulled it out and looked at it in the light from a street lamp.

 _'It's extremely funny, Aisha. For me, anyway_ ,' the note read, written in a neat hand.

Crumpling it up with a grunt of irritation, she tossed it to the side and kept walking, not noticing it disappear. About thirty seconds later she was reluctantly smiling.

* * *

John Laborn looked up from the news when he heard a key in the lock, watching as his daughter entered the apartment. She had a slightly bemused expression on her face, making him wonder why. "Hi, Dad," she said, looking around in an odd manner as if she expected to see someone else there. When she didn't she kicked the door shut behind her and took her denim jacket off, tossing it in the general direction of the coat hooks on the wall, all of which it missed.

Not stopping to pick it up, she headed for her room, opened the door and leaned in for a few seconds, then went and did the same to his bedroom. Puzzled, he watched, wondering what on earth she was doing.

When she'd checked the kitchen and bathroom, and was looking in the hall closet, he had to ask. "Aisha? Lost something?"

"A crazy lizard," she said in muffled tones, fighting off an attack from his heavy work coat that had dropped on her head. He smiled a little as she wrenched it free and kicked it back into the closet, swearing under her breath.

"Lizard?" he repeated.

"Lizard. About so tall, weird sense of humor, thinks she's fooling people with a trench-coat and hat like something out of an old movie," his daughter replied absently, indicating someone considerably taller than herself with a lifted hand. She moved to the middle of the living room and put her hands on her hips. "OK, I give up, where the hell are you?" she demanded.

"Who?" he asked, becoming a little concerned for her sanity, which was slightly suspect at the best of times.

"Me," an unfamiliar voice said from next to him on the sofa, completely unexpectedly. Aisha, who had been looking in the other direction as she turned on the spot, spun around and pointed accusingly, while he leaped off the sofa and half-way across the room in complete shock, his heart abruptly hammering.

"AHA!" his daughter shouted. "I _knew_ it! How the _fuck_ did you _do_ that?"

"Trade secret," the lizard in the trench-coat replied. She looked both relaxed and like she was trying not to laugh. The fedora on her head was tipped at a rakish angle, under which was a toothy grin.

"Who… what…," he stuttered, staring in disbelief. "Who…?" There was a pause. "How?" he added weakly.

Aisha was now inspecting their unexpected guest, or the person who _he_ certainly hadn't been expecting at least, very closely, a look of grudging respect on her face. He was simply gaping.

"You're Saurial," he finally said, still staring. The reptilian girl nodded happily.

"I am," she replied. "And you are John Laborn, and that is Aisha Laborn. Now that we all know who we are, let's talk."

"What the _hell_ is one of the Family doing in my apartment?" he asked, stunned and somewhat worried.

"She told me she had news about Brian," Aisha put in. "And something to give you from him."

Suddenly _very_ worried, John looked at her, then the lizard girl, who held up a hand. "It's nothing bad," she said quickly. "He managed to get himself into a situation that could have been a little awkward, but he's fine."

"Where is he?" he asked. "I haven't heard from him for nearly two weeks now. Normally he comes by at least once a week."

"He's safe, but he needs to stay under the radar for a while," Saurial explained, while he and Aisha listened intently. His daughter was worried, he could tell, although she didn't show it very much. She loved her brother even though they ended up arguing more often than not and had definitely been concerned when Brian hadn't come by. "He's got a decent job right now, he's earning money, and he's pretty happy, but he can't get in contact with anyone for… probably two or three weeks. Various things have to happen first. But I can get a message to him, and from him to you if either of you need it."

"Did he get mixed up in something illegal?" John asked, concerned. It was a constant risk in Brockton Bay, of course, considering the number of gangs around.

"Not exactly. But he and some friends managed to get into a situation that could get nasty if anyone finds out where he is." Saurial shrugged slightly. "I'm sorry to be so mysterious about it, but the less you know at the moment the better." She held out a folded piece of paper. Approaching her a little warily he took it, then looked at it, finding it had a phone number on it. "My cell number. If you need to get information to him, call me."

"How has the Family ended up involved with my son?" John asked after several seconds of silence. "Or maybe I should ask, how has he ended up involved with the Family?"

She smiled a little. "I can't say for sure, but it's a friend of a friend who asked for a favor. We're happy to help."

Looking at his daughter, who stared at the Parahuman on his sofa, he finally sighed slightly. "OK. I think I get it. Thank you for passing on the information."

"It's no trouble." She hopped to her feet, adjusting her hat. "Aisha and I had an amusing little meeting which was worth the trip on its own," she added, grinning at the girl, who put her hands on her hips again, looking annoyed.

"Says you."

"Says me." Saurial smirked. "You should have seen your face, it was hilarious."

"Oh, ha ha. Scaly crazy lady," Aisha grumbled, turning on her heel and heading for her bedroom. When the door closed, Saurial walked over.

"He wanted you to have this," she said softly, handing him a thick envelope. "He said he doesn't need it right now and that you might. Or she might." The lizard-girl indicated the closed bedroom door with a motion of her head.

Taking the envelope after a second or two, he felt it, then looked inside. His eyes widened at the sight of the cash. "Five grand."

"Fucking hell," John muttered. "How the hell did he get this much that he can give it to me?"

"He earned it the hard way, fair and square, believe me," she smiled. "Don't worry, he can afford it. He's not doing anything wrong, quite a few people are very pleased with his hard work. Brian is a decent guy."

"He's better than I am, I know that much," John mumbled, still staring at the money. With a shrug of acceptance, he closed the flap and put it in his pocket. "Please tell him thank you. And to stay out of trouble."

"I'll pass it on," Saurial smiled. Holding out her hand, she shook his when he did the same. "Don't worry, Mr Laborn, he's fine and as soon as he can do he'll be in touch."

"Thank you, Saurial," he said.

"No problem." Releasing his hand, she looked at Aisha's door, then after a moment, went over and knocked.

"What?" the girl said grumpily.

"Can I have a word?"

There was a long pause, then the door opened and she went inside. John watched as the door shut again, feeling the money in his pocket and wondering what the hell had just happened.

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

"You OK?" the lizard in the trench-coat asked.

Aisha, who was sitting on her bed looking at her, shrugged. "Guess so." After a moment's thought, she added, "I took the stuff back."

"I know you did."

"Of course you do, you were probably right next to me the whole damn time."

"Not quite, but..." Saurial grinned. "I can be sneaky."

"And nuts."

"Oh, yes, definitely nuts," she chuckled. Aisha couldn't help but smile at the comment.

"Are all you lizards nuts like you?" she asked.

"Not _exactly_ like me," Saurial told her, looking amused. "We all have our own methods. But we do tend to like a good joke. Sorry if I worried you, but I wanted to persuade you to do the right thing in a way that you'd remember." She smirked again. "I think I did that."

"You can say that again," Aisha sighed. "I was beginning to think I was going crazy."

"It really was very funny to watch," the reptile snickered. "Your face was amazing." She appeared to think for a moment, then handed Aisha a note. "My number, same as I gave your father. If you need to talk to your brother, let me know and I'll see what I can do."

Aisha slowly reached out and took it, looking at it then putting it on the bed next to her. "Tell him I was worried," she requested, not looking at Saurial.

"Sure." She moved closer, putting her hand on Aisha's shoulder. The girl looked up. "He's worried as well, about you. Try to keep out of trouble, OK? I've been told about your tendency to jump before you think. Do it the other way around if you can, it normally works better."

Staring up at the entirely alien yet obviously intelligent and concerned face, Aisha nodded. "I'll try. But if he doesn't pop up soon..." She tried to get across the idea that she'd be irritated.

Saurial laughed. "I get it. I'll tell him."

She moved to the window, looking out at the night. Glancing over her shoulder, she grinned. "You don't mind if I go out this way, do you?" she asked.

Aisha made a ' _help yourself_ ' gesture, watching with interest. The lizard-girl unlocked the window and lifted it as high as it would go, then stepped back. "See you around, Aisha," she smiled, before diving headfirst out the open window.

Open-mouthed, the girl stared, then jumped up and rushed over, sticking her head out and looking down. Fifty-some feet down, the sidewalk was empty. She looked to the sides, then up. No sign of Saurial at all.

"Fuck, that's cool," she muttered.

"Thanks," the voice came back from somewhere nearby, making her twitch, but she still couldn't see anything. With a shake of her head, she shut the window, deciding that she'd had enough of wandering around outside for now.

Going back into the living room, she found her father looking confused, something she understood. "Where is she?" he asked.

"Jumped out the window," she replied laconically, going over to her coat and picking it up, then rooting around in her pocket. She pulled out the small glass statuette, inspecting it carefully. It seemed undamaged.

Hanging her coat up, she turned back to her father. Holding up the little ornament, she grinned. "Look what I got," she said.

* * *

Sitting in her living room, Emily stared at the TV which was playing the news, not really seeing it. Her mind was still going over the somewhat extraordinary revelation Legend had made earlier that evening, about the joint project between a number of people she'd never had guessed would work together. And certainly not so effectively.

In less than three days they'd created a system that could transport people and cargo anywhere on the planet essentially instantly. While she wasn't sure exactly what Legend wanted for, she could see more and more uses herself. The more she thought about it, the more she realized it was one of the most game-changing inventions ever.

"Christ," she finally said quietly. "And it's yet another thing the Family is somehow responsible for. Our friendly local reptilian aliens." Shaking her head, she got up to find a bottle of beer. This was definitely at least a one-beer evening in her view.

If they'd managed to do all of this in two months, what would it be like in two years?

After some thought, she decided that it was _definitely_ a two-beer evening.

* * *

"Hi, Brian."

He looked up from his dinner to find Saurial on the other side of the cafeteria table, holding a tray. "Mind if I sit here?"

"Help yourself," he said, waving at the seat with his fork, then going back to eating. He was very tired and somewhat dirty, but pleased with the day's work.

She put her plate of mac and cheese on the table, then stacked her tray on his, sitting down in the process. They ate in silence for a couple of minutes. "Your sister is fine, and so is your father," she said quietly. "They're worried about you but I told them you were OK and would contact them as soon as you could."

He stopped eating for a moment, then resumed, nodding his acknowledgment of her comment. "Thank you."

"I passed on your money as well. Aisha doesn't know."

"Probably for the best," he smiled slightly, picking up his glass of apple juice and sipping it. "She is… slightly acquisitive."

"Runs in the family," the reptilian woman grinned. He lifted the corner of his mouth, amused.

"It did. I'm hoping it doesn't any more."

"We had a short talk. Seems like a smart girl."

"She's very quick and not even slightly stupid, but her attention span isn't exactly ideal," he replied, sighing. "It gets her into trouble. She comes up with a bright idea and just goes for it. Several times that's come close to causing real problems. And she's got a thing about authority."

"I bet that doesn't help her in school."

"Not even slightly." Shrugging, he ate some more. "Sometimes I think she does these things just to get the attention, sometimes I think she really can't help it. It drives me nuts at times. And it's not made the entire thing with Child Services any easier. She has… a reputation."

"Earned, I assume."

"Oh, god, yes," he couldn't help laughing. "Over and over. Poor Dad really doesn't know how to deal with it sometimes. He tries, but he has no real idea how to relate to a teenaged girl. He was awkward enough with me."

"He seemed like a decent enough guy. When he stopped staring, anyway." She was smiling as if she was remembering something funny. "He was a little shocked at first."

"Don't get me wrong, I think he's a good man and I do love him. I just don't think he's a wildly good parent, _especially_ for Aisha. Mom is much, much worse. The damn girl still has feelings for her, but Mom isn't the sort of person who should be left in charge of kids." He scowled, a flash of a memory he tried not to think about coming back to him. "And the people she hangs out with shouldn't be allowed to breed at all."

"So Lisa said," Saurial replied seriously. "I'm sorry to hear that. It must have been rough."

"It sure as fuck wasn't fun," he muttered into his plate, staring at it. They fell into silence again, until he finished. Looking up, he found her watching him. "I really am grateful, both for you checking up on them, and for everything everyone here has done for us all."

"Don't worry, we know that, and we're all glad to help out," she smiled. "We'll deal with your problem with your previous employer soon enough and you can get on with your life. At least, until that happens, you've got something to do and are learning useful skills."

"That's true," he admitted. "Not quite what I had in mind a few weeks ago but on the whole it could have been a whole lot worse."

She grinned at him. "It nearly was. I'm glad it worked out." Looking over at the clock on the wall, she finished the last few bites of her own meal. "Got to go. Stay cheerful, Brian, and if you need anything, just ask."

"Thanks, Saurial," he replied as she got up, retrieving her tray and putting her empty plate on it. The girl nodded to him, then turned and left, stopping to talk to a few other people on the way. He watched, before returning his own tray, plate, and utensils, heading upstairs for a long overdue shower and an early night.

* * *

"All done?"

"All done," Taylor replied, smiling at Lisa. "I've got a very funny video to show you guys as well."

"Sounds good," her friend smiled back. "Your father went home, by the way, he said to tell you he'd see you later and not to stay up too late."

"We've been practicing," Amy added. Switching to Famtalk, she went on, {We should speak this as much as possible to help learn it.}

{Fine by me,} Taylor said in the same language. {Let me transfer this to the computer and we can watch it. Aisha looked a little surprised.}

{What the hell did you do to the poor girl?} Lisa asked as Taylor plugged her camera into one of the computers with a USB cable.

{Persuaded her not to shoplift,} Taylor smirked. {And nearly died trying not to laugh in the process.}

Shortly, they were watching her little routine with wide grins and much laughter. She felt it had been time well spent.


	162. Omake - Lost Property (MCU)

_I was idly watching the Avengers movie while I was doing some annoyingly tedious and repetitive work, and my brain-meats made this happen..._

* * *

"You found it!"

The happy voice, female and chirpy, with an odd accent he couldn't place, made Tony jump, along with the rest of the small group of people, friends, that were gathered around the back of Doctor Erik Selvig's van. He was kneeling on the ground, having just opened a heavily shielded case to reveal the ominously glowing cubical form, alive with shifting internal lights, of the damn thing they called the Tesseract. The energy source that had been the cause of so much destruction over the years, most recently here in New York, which had avoided total devastation by the skin of its teeth and the sacrifice of a lot of people, very nearly including himself.

Thor was holding out the Asgardian containment device that the good doctor was about to put the cube into, so that it could be returned to Asgard where it had originally come from. Bruce was poised with an insulated pair of special tongs, ready to pick the thing up very carefully, as skin contact needed to be avoided at all cost. They'd found that out the hard way.

The rest of the Avengers, in civilian clothing, were standing around watching cautiously, as well as keeping an eye on Loki, who was bound and gagged nearby, looking beaten and rather sorry for himself. Not that Tony trusted him further than he could throw him even so.

Surprised, since the entire area was supposedly blocked off by SHIELD agents at either end of the side road over the park they were in, discreetly out of sight, he turned to find the source of the voice. Everyone else did likewise. Eight pairs of eyes widened.

The figure standing twenty feet away, smiling at them in delight, was… not normal.

 _Very_ not normal.

Oh, the long leather trench-coat and fedora were more or less OK, aside from being both somewhat clichéd and also about forty years out of style, but they looked expensive and well made. The tall slender figure _inside_ the trench-coat, on the other hand…

The long blue-scaled tail was certainly odd. So were the lower legs, visible below the coat, that terminated in digitigrade feet with some exceptionally sharp and dangerous looking claws on the three toes. Again, covered in blue scales, light in color and striped with bands of darker blue.

Her hands were somewhat similar but still very human-looking, with long elegant fingers tipped with smaller, but still extremely sharp-appearing claws. And finally, under the hat, which if he wasn't mistaken was sitting on top of fine feathers rather than actual hair, a face that looked like a hyper-evolved lizard was smiling at them, the expression clearly interpretable even if the face was nothing like anything he'd ever encountered outside a zoo.

Although, none of the lizards in the zoos he'd visited wore sunglasses. That was a new one on him.

All eight of them had tensed, Doctor Selvig in amazement, the others in wary and well-honed combat-ready stances. Thor was hefting his hammer, having dropped the containment vessel, while Bruce was still holding the tongs with a peculiar look on his face. Natasha had a hand behind her back which he knew meant she was holding the grip of a pistol, Clint had somehow ended up with a knife in his hand without any visible sign of where it had come from, and Steve was in a position ready to either jump or retreat, his entire body keyed up for action.

The humanoid lizard ignored all this, in favor of inspecting the Tesseract, her expression pleased. "I've been trying to find it for ages. Fantastic. I knew it was around here somewhere, we've tracked it several times to your universe, but it keeps vanishing again. Sneaky little bastard."

Looking around at his friends and team-mates, Tony was the first to speak. Which wasn't unusual, if he was honest. Her comments had sparked a number of questions which even the shock of yet _another_ alien visitor couldn't stop him asking.

"Found it?" he said, more weakly than afterwards he was happy about. It was the shock, he told himself.

"Yep. I've been trying to find my negative energy modulation oscillator for a long time. It's tricky, it tends to sneak off if you don't pay attention to it. Fractional dimensional constructs are like that when you start nesting them too much." She shrugged, smiling at him. "Not quite sentient, but… annoyingly willful." The lizard-thing stared at the cube in the container, then frowned a little.

"Someone's done something to it, though. Destabilized it and tried to store an awful lot of energy in it or something. It shouldn't be glowing like that. The shape's all wrong too." She looked around, a little suspiciously. "Have you lot been poking into things man is not meant to know? That can cause trouble if you don't read the instructions."

They exchanged confused glances. Thor was staring in disbelief, Loki had a look in his eyes like he couldn't figure out whether to laugh or pretend this wasn't happening, and the actual humans were wondering what the fuck was happening.

"Um..." Bruce stood up from the half-crouch he'd been frozen in, still holding the tongs tightly. At least he didn't look like his enormous green friend was about to make an appearance, just more than a little mystified. "Excuse me?" She looked at him. "Who are you?"

"Oh, sorry, how rude of me," she smiled, walking over with an easy stride, holding out one clawed hand. "My name is Saurial. You probably haven't heard of me, I'm not from around here."

He shook her hand with a bewildered small smile. "No, I can't say I have," he said quietly. "My name is Doctor Bruce Banner." He paused, then added, "Physicist."

"Oh, cool, I like physics a lot. The math is fascinating. Hey, have you guys worked out a unified field theory yet?" She grinned widely, as he stared at her. "You can do all sorts of things when you do."

Stepping back, she bent down and without any hesitation picked the Tesseract up in her hand. Everyone gaped, Natasha whipping her pistol out and pointing it.

"Put that down, you idiot," she ordered.

"Why?" the lizard-girl asked in a reasonable tone. "It's mine."

"By what law do you consider this artifact yours, creature?" Thor asked loudly, sounding annoyed more than anything else. "It is the property of my father, Great Odin, leader of the Asgard."

Saurial turned to look at him, raising an eyebrow quizzically. "You think? It's mine because I made it. Then it snuck off when I wasn't looking and some idiot has been screwing around with it." She looked down at the glowing cube, lifting it to eye level. "It's a mess. Look at that. The eighteenth through twenty-third dimensions are entirely destabilized, the seventh one is all bent..." Trailing off, she stuck her hand into the thing, in an impossible move that made Tony's eyes water as he stared in disbelief. Thor opened his mouth to say something but she shook her head sharply.

"Hold on, I need to fix it, or it's going to leak even more." She reached further into it, her arm disappearing up to the elbow into something about six inches on a side. "What the hell did they do to you?" she said in a softer voice, apparently to the cube. "You're not even the right shape any more, all three dimensional like this. Hold on… Ah, that's got it."

Everyone winced, then looked away, as the cube warped and twisted in her hand when she pulled her arm back, impossibly growing and shrinking at the same time. There was an odd whistling sound followed by a faint thud that sounded like something extremely heavy had fallen over some distance away. When they looked back, the thing in her hand wasn't glowing any more, but it was… _extremely_ disturbing to look at. She held it up and turned it, inspecting it with a smile.

Natasha turned away and vomited. Tony closed his eyes, feeling like he might follow her lead.

"Much better. And all that nasty energy went back to whoever pushed it into you. I hope it gives them indigestion."

The reptilian creature sounded satisfied. "Great. Mission accomplished." She dropped the _thing_ she was holding into her coat pocket and looked around, smiling broadly. "Thanks for finding it for me, guys. You, big blonde one, tell your father that I'm sorry, but it was never his to begin with."

"Hell-beast," he snarled, apparently and abruptly overcome with anger. He wound up and threw his hammer directly at her, while Bruce and Doctor Selvig yelped and dived out of the way.

Mjolnir shot across the twenty feet separating them and hit her directly in the chest, then to everyone's shock, simply dropped to the ground at her feet.

She looked down at it with a puzzled expression, then up at Thor, who was gaping in complete disbelief. "You dropped your hammer," she said, bending down and picking it up. Inspecting the head closely she frowned. "Hey! This is one of mine as well! Are all you Asgardians thieves?"

"What?!" Thor sounded both extremely insulted and very confused. "Yours? It is a sacred artifact of my people, entrusted to me by..."

"Let me guess, your father Great Odin, leader of the Asgard?" she asked rather sarcastically. He nodded.

"Bit of a klepto, isn't he, this Odin of yours," she grumbled. "I wondered where this went. Time in your universe is really weird, every time we interface to it we tend to find we're somewhen we didn't expect. I lost this..." she looked around, stopping on Tony. "What year is this?"

"Two thousand and twelve," he replied in a stunned voice, unable to help it.

"Oh? Closer than I expected to home. Weird. OK, I must have lost this about fifty-three thousand years ago, local time-frame. I put it down after I finished hammering the last nail in and forgot about it until we left. Huh." She tossed the mythical weapon in her hand a couple of times, flipping it end for end and catching it by the handle, then balancing it on her fingertip. "Nice balance. I did a good job for a throw-away tool. I was going through a phase of making my stuff all runey and that sort of thing. Decorative. Dad kept laughing about it."

Shrugging, she tossed it back to the god, who caught it easily, still wearing a look of shock on his face. Loki was standing off to one side, Tony absently noted, apparently giggling like an idiot behind his gag.

"You can keep it. Nice spell on it, that worthiness tester thing. A bit ostentatious but neatly done." She fixed him with a hard look. "But tell your father to stop going around claiming things that aren't his, OK? Or I might have to come and complain."

As everyone stared at her, then each other, still not sure whether this was a threat, a joke, or a shared hallucination, she turned and cupped her hands around her muzzle, shouting something in a hissing language that made everyone uneasy. A call in the same language came back immediately from somewhere in the park. "Sorry, just telling my cousin I found it. We can get back now, there's a party at the Mayor's house I don't want to miss. This has already taken longer than I expected."

"Who the fuck _are_ you?" Tony finally asked, exasperation overcoming worry and shock.

"I told you. Saurial, of the Family." She smiled at him, apparently entirely unoffended. "Just visiting from a different universe. We get around a bit. Things are pretty quiet at home at the moment, so we started to get bored and were looking for something to do. Then when we detected my negative energy modulation oscillator had popped up again, we decided to come and grab it before the damn thing disappeared again."

There was a long pause. No one could really think what to say after that. Loki was still making muffled giggling noises. Saurial looked at him quizzically.

"Is there a reason that man has a gag on? Or is this just some weird sex thing you mammals are into?"

Loki fell over, rolling around on the road surface, while Thor went slightly pink.

"He's a terrorist and prisoner," Clint said, still holding the knife he'd been clutching the entire time.

"Oh. OK, fair enough. Your business, I guess."

They became aware that they were being watched, everyone looking around to see another, even larger, reptilian creature inspecting them curiously from beside the van. It was black, in much the same way a black cat down a coal mine at night with the lights out is black. When it moved, ripples of a deep scarlet went across it in the afternoon sunlight. The thing was at least a foot taller than Saurial and much more heavily built, looking extremely dangerous. The glowing green eyes were peering at them with interest and intelligence.

"This is my cousin Metis," Saurial said mildly.

"Hi," the thing said in a deep female voice. "Nice to meet you all." She looked at the hammer in Thor's hand, which had dropped to hang beside his leg as he gaped.

"Isn't that one of yours?"

"Yep. His father is a bit acquisitive and might be a little full of himself. They call him the Great Odin."

"The Amy will be amused by that," Metis chuckled.

"The Amy?" Natasha queried, sounding like she couldn't believe what she was hearing.

"Friend of the Family. You don't want to upset The Amy," Metis explained, shuddering. "She can… Well, let's say that she _can_ and leave it at that."

"It's been nice meeting you all," Saurial said cheerfully, pushing her hat back on her head and grinning. "We have to go now. Have a nice day and all that."

There was a clicking sound like someone running a stick along a fence and Metis was abruptly covered in some sort of metallic armor, her head bare, the stuff apparently growing in less than two seconds out of the necklace at the base of her long neck. Tony stared in shock, instantly insanely jealous. The giant lizard reached into the compartment that opened in her chest-plate, sticking an arm far deeper into it than was even vaguely possible, then rooted around with a reptilian expression of concentration. "Ah, got it," she said. Pulling her hand out she held up what looked like a more or less normal cell-phone.

Prodding it a couple of times, she held it to the side of her head. "All done. Wormhole me, please. Radiation protection protocol." She pressed the screen, then dropped the thing back into the impossible hole in her chest, which closed up seamlessly before the armor clicked out of existence again.

About three seconds later, an orange-bordered hole in space some eight feet high appeared a few feet away, a gray metallic tunnel sliding out of it silently and a rim opening out to cover the edges, the glow disappearing. The center of the tunnel was a perfectly ordinary looking, if large, door, with a lever handle. Metis reached out and pulled the door open. Everyone watched as she waved then walked through the doorway.

"See you around, guys," Saurial said cheerily, following her. The door closed, the tunnel retracted, and the hole in the world disappeared as silently as it had appeared.

Several minutes passed in total silence, broken only by muffled laughter from Loki, who seemed on the verge of passing out from his hilarity. The little group exchanged glances, went back to staring at the place where a door to another universe wasn't, then looked at each other again.

"Well, that happened," Tony announced. "I think."

Erik nodded, kneeling down and closing the case, then putting it into the back of his van. He closed the rear door, looked around at them, opened his mouth and raised a hand, paused, shook his head, then got into the van and drove off without a word.

Eventually Thor sighed heavily, heaved his brother to his feet, and did whatever it was that he did to call the thing he termed the Bifrost, both gods disappearing in a rainbow flash.

The remaining people exchanged glances, then mutually decided that they'd had enough weird shit for today and they were _done_. Soon the road was empty, only the runic pattern the Bifrost had left behind in the surface showing anything out of the ordinary had happened.


	163. Guest Omake - Background

_And another canonized guest addition from the now infamous Antonio... (by Ed Becerra)  
_

* * *

To: "Phil"  
From: Tony  
Re: Info on new acquaintance.

Normally, I'd be more than happy to give you everything we have, Phil, but there's a conflict of interest and of 'rules', if you take my meaning.

However, it's neither my fault nor my responsibility if you take the facts I _can_ give you and draw conclusions for yourself. If the information isn't enough, please let me know, and I'll see about other possible avenues of restitution and recompense. I think you'll understand.

*ahem*

Danny's family is from Corsica. His wife's family was from Sicily. Both had _connections,_ though they're not actually involved in this Thing of Ours.

Annette was a fervent feminist. A _very_ fervent feminist. From Brockton Bay. All the way back to her college days, which is where Danny met her and ... helped her with a problem. Something she was _involved_ in. Took him roughly a year or two to help her, he explained to the problem that it should go away, and that _problem_ went someplace else and stayed there. The problem will very likely spend an entire lifetime there ;)

If, by some mischance, that problem ever makes the mistake of escaping returning, you'll know. Because large parts of the Bay will be on fire and Danny will be standing over her it's the problem's flaming bloody corpse.

I'm proud of the boy, he knows how to hold a grudge like a true Corsican, and understands _omerta_ well.

It would help if you don't mention this to him, he didn't get over Annette's death until quite recently, and the wound is understandably raw.

 _Antonio_

PS. By the way, there's a few people who tormented his daughter recently, and due to their age and to 'political considerations', there's not much I can do about it directly. Would you be averse to taking a commission for a plan involving some subtle, mild character assassination? Cost is no object. This is a matter of Family.


	164. Percentages and Tracking

**Thursday, February 24, 2011**

Sitting up in bed very early in the morning, well before her parents were likely to get up, Dinah stared at the notebook in her hand, a pencil in the other one and a thoughtful expression on her face. She was wearing her pajamas and leaning on a very large stuffed dragon that she'd had since she was five, the poor thing looking somewhat bedraggled and tired now, but still going. It had been a gift from her Uncle Roy and she valued it very highly.

Her mother had sewn one of the wings and the tail back on at least twice, it was on its third set of eyes, and the red felt tongue tended to fall out, but it was still her nighttime protector.

Shifting around a little to make herself more comfortable, the cloth head resting on hers, she pondered her project. Ever since the time a while ago that Uncle Roy had asked her some questions about Kaiju, she'd been fascinated by the way that anything to do with the Family caused her power to hiccup and give her what for all the world was an error message. Dinah was starting to seriously wonder if she was somehow connected to a computer or something. It had that sort of feel to it.

A computer that got _very_ confused and more than a little worried about being asked questions about the Family. Sometimes she got the definite impression that her power was actually scared of them.

Smiling a little at the thought of how people would look at her if she mentioned that idea, she shook her head, crossing another question off the long list she had on the page. Yet another failure.

So far, she couldn't find out anything at all when she tried putting questions to herself about any Family member directly. Those always failed. A question that skirted around the issue was more likely to work, the less direct the better. So, if she asked ' _What are the chances that Saurial will catch a mugger today_ ' she'd get the error along with a vague sensation of puzzlement. If she asked, ' _What are the chances that a mugger will be caught by someone with a tail_ ', she got the answer 77.45%. A lot of practice had let her refine the process to allow a certain level of prediction of common events surrounding the reptiles.

Even so, most of their actions she couldn't predict to any degree of accuracy. It was something that she'd started taking as a challenge, her natural curiosity feeding on the sheer weirdness of the entire thing.

Some careful experimentation of her own, added to that which the PRT scientists had done, had given her a pretty good idea of the limitations of her own abilities. She couldn't predict the movements of Scion, which had surprised no one, as precogs of any type didn't seem to be able to do it either. But in that case, her power didn't give an error, it simply didn't give _anything_ , almost as if it had been blocked. With the Family it was more like it just couldn't work it out.

In her own mind, it was the difference between a website returning an ' _unauthorized_ ' message and a ' _not found_ ' message. She knew it wasn't really like that, but it made the whole thing easier to think about.

The Endbringers were difficult as well. Yet again, they didn't seem to be predictable by her powers. She couldn't produce an answer to a question like 'c _hances that Leviathan will attack New York tomorrow_ ', but a question such as ' _chances that there will be an Endbringer attack within six months_ ' produced a result.

Oddly enough, it was 63.11%, which she found strange. The things were supposed to attack every three months or so, which meant as far as she could see that the answer should have been 100%. The PRT people who had asked the questions had been confused as well, but after much consideration had decided that it was probably her power giving an erratic answer, since the Endbringers were known to cause severe problems to all precogs.

Dinah wasn't as certain, but didn't dispute the point. They were supposed to be the experts and if that's what they thought, perhaps they were right. And if not, the chances of her persuading them otherwise without evidence was pretty low.

About 18.23% as it happened.

The other thing she'd worked out was that she could, if she was careful, come up with questions and write them down _without_ being forced to answer them. It was a matter of fooling herself into believing that she wasn't _asking_ the question, merely considering the wording. If someone asked a suitable question around her she had no choice but to answer, which was really irritating, but she seemed to have a little more leeway in the privacy of her own head.

That little mental trick had allowed her to make quite a list of questions, then deliberately put them to her power in the right order to try to work out the answers to things she couldn't directly access. The results were puzzling to put it mildly.

Writing a few more lines as she thought of them, she scanned the list. She could only do six or seven before her head started to hurt, which took several hours to go away even with painkillers. As a result she'd taken to waking up at four in the morning to spend an hour or so on her new hobby, which allowed her to sleep off the mild pain left from her careful experimentation before she had to get up for school. So far it seemed to be working out.

"OK," she mumbled out loud, picking a question from the list. "Chances that the DWU or anyone associated with them will hurt the city in the next year," she asked herself deliberately. The wording was something she'd arrived at after a lot of experiments, giving something vague enough to not instantly error out, but specific enough it probably included the Family in it. She wrote down the answer of 0.73% next to the question. This agreed with her previous methodical attempts. Similar questions involving the major gangs, or even the PRT, were always much higher. The Merchants gave an answer of 24.22%, above anyone else. Oddly enough, the E88 were very low, around 2.5%. The PRT itself came out above them at 7.71%.

"Chances that something serious will happen in the city in the next week." This was 23.33%. She wrote it down, frowning a little.

"Chances that anyone in my family will be hurt in the next week." Relaxing when the answer was 2.31%, she wrote it down as well. Based on past experience with the question, it was no higher than it ever got, just indicating the hazards of life.

"Chances that the DWU or anyone associated with them will be involved in anything serious in the city in the next week." She shook her head a little at the answer of 87.94%. The Family was almost always involved somehow. It was nearly a waste of a question, she decided. Even so, she wrote the answer down.

Having given herself a limit of five questions in this session to prevent any major pain, she scanned the list looking for a good one. Eventually she smiled to herself. It was worth a try. "Chances that I'll meet one of the Family in the next… two weeks." The question was edging towards being too specific, but since it was centered on _her_ not _them_ she thought it might work.

Dinah grinned when she got an answer. "Yes! Great. 89.12%." Writing it down, she closed the notebook, leaning over to slip it down between the bedside bookcase and the wall, her hiding place. The pencil she put on top of the low bookcase. Rolling over, feeling a small headache developing but practice letting her ignore it, she reached out and turned off the lights.

' _I wonder which one of them I'll meet and how?_ ' she thought, closing her eyes sleepily.

* * *

Max read the report he had in front of him with interest, worry, and growing disbelief. When he finished, he muttered, "That explains a few things, and raises even more questions," shaking his head in rather terrified wonder. He looked up at Victor, who was sitting in a chair on the other side of his desk. "How sure are you of all this?"

"Completely. The PRT agent we got this from had sufficient clearance to pull it from the server. It was a major ask, though. He was extremely worried about being caught. I was forced to hand over all the blackmail material, and promise we won't call on him again. That was the last man we had inside the PRT, Miss Militia and her team of investigators are going through the place like attack dogs right now and they've flushed out several double agents and weak spots. Most of which had nothing to do with us, interestingly." He shrugged a little. "But as far as that threat assessment goes, it's real and current."

Max nodded thoughtfully, swinging his chair around to look out the window through the light rain towards the distant DWU facility and the docks. "Two things come to mind. One is that the Family is even more dangerous than I thought. We stay _completely_ out of their business."

Victor nodded. "I can certainly agree with that. Krieg won't be happy, though."

"Tough. He can be as unhappy as he wants, it's better than being eaten." Both men shivered a little at the comment.

"Very true. And the other?"

"Who is Danny Hebert?" Max swung back, meeting his subordinates eyes. Victor looked somewhat puzzled. "I mean, I know who he is, obviously, but why does his name keep coming up in all this? He's not a Parahuman, yet he's somehow mixed up in the affairs of and apparently has the _respect_ of the most terrifying group I've ever heard of. How? Why?"

"No idea. Right place, right time, maybe?"

"Possibly." Max tapped his fingers on the desk, thinking. "Possibly. It happens. But I've heard things in the past. The man is a normal but he's not a _normal_ normal. There's a good reason his group of crazy dockworkers respect him. There have been… incidents… going right back to when he first started there. Nothing that ever made any official reports, but… he's not someone you want to get on the wrong side of. One hell of a temper if you manage to rouse it, I've heard. Not the sort of temper that makes a man weak, one that makes him stronger and more dangerous. Cold and vicious. His wife had some interesting stories associated with her as well."

"That matches what I've been told," Victor agreed. "I looked into him, there isn't that much that stands out, but he's got respect. Well-earned respect at that. From what I've learned his father was also respected. He worked the docks back when the ships were coming and going every day, but no one seems to know exactly what he did. The stories are that he was someone you called if you needed _help_." The man shook his head. "None of the old timers would tell me more than that. They just clammed up."

"Interesting." Max considered it. "Very interesting." He looked at the report again. "Francisci. That name rings a vague bell. I wonder..."

Turning to his computer, he started composing an email, wording it very carefully and respectfully. Victor watched with interest. "Who are you contacting?"

"Someone who might know some answers, although whether he'll tell me, I'm not sure," Max muttered, still typing. He read the email, changed a few words, deleted a sentence, and added two more. Eventually satisfied, he sent it. Looking up at Victor, he added, "Someone you talk to respectfully and ask polite questions of. Most of the time, you'll get information that's useful. But you never push. He's old-school and has a very long memory, and is fairly neutral."

"One of us?"

"No." Max shook his head. "His organization isn't connected to us at all. But it's one that's been around for a long time and is still going. They have friends all over the place, or at least, people who owe them favors, and they owe favors as well. This is going to cost me but I have to know. I'm not his favorite person but that probably won't matter."

Victor look puzzled and intrigued. He didn't say anything, though, just waited silently. Max leaned back and picked up the report, leafing through it again, stopping on one or other detail. Eventually, about ten minutes later, his computer made the incoming email noise, causing him to put the report down and grab the mouse. He clicked on the new email, reading it with interest. His eyes widened slightly.

"Oh. Now that, I would _not_ have expected," he mumbled, staring at the screen. "But it also explains a few things."

Thinking for a moment, he did a number of web searches, ending up with some biographic information on a man long dead. He looked at it with raised eyebrows. "I _thought_ that name was familiar," he sighed, turning the monitor around to where his companion could see it. Victor leaned forward to read the web page. "This is Mr Hebert's grandfather on his father's side. Father was an illegitimate child as a result of a short affair, apparently. Left Corsica when that became known locally, moved to the US. Mr Hebert Senior wasn't involved in the family business from what my source says, but they kept an eye on them anyway. Family is family to those people."

"So I've heard," Victor muttered, reading the data with an expression of mild amazement. "Christ. I guess even if he's completely legit, there are some attitudes that stick."

"Never fuck with a Corsican's family, my own father used to tell me," Max agreed. "They never forget and they seldom forgive." He looked back to his email. "His wife had a similar background, oddly enough, although from Sicily. Again, she was legit, more or less, although she got involved with something when she was at university that he got her out of. With prejudice, he says. No details, though."

"Probably doesn't matter, the woman is dead."

"True enough." Max thought, then chuckled.

"What?"

"I was just thinking… I wonder what his _daughter_ is like? With that history on both sides of the family…" He chuckled again. "Probably not the sort of girl you want to piss off."

Victor grinned, sitting back in his chair. "I suspect not. And I guarantee her _father_ wouldn't like it. I heard one story about what happened when some drunk threatened her with a baseball bat after a minor car accident..."

"I'm familiar with that one," Max smiled. "It was inspirational." His smile faded as he turned the monitor back and looked at the page, then closed it. "I see why the Family and the Hebert man get on so well, though. Very similar attitudes."

"So, definitely both on the ' _do not fuck with_ ' list?" Victor half-joked.

"Right at the top." Max looked seriously at the other man. "We're going to have to re-evaluate our operations here in Brockton. The DWU is into almost everything one way or the other, the Family is linked to them, so..." He sighed slightly. "This is going to make business very difficult."

"Medhall is doing well," Victor noted wryly. "Maybe we should just stick to _legal_ pharmaceuticals? Lots of profit there after all."

Nodding absently, Max went back to looking out over the city, wondering what all these changes would mean in the longer term.

Life was so much simpler two months ago, he reflected, frowning slightly.

* * *

Sitting in English class, Taylor finished writing down her notes from the board, then closed her notebook and sat back to listen to the teacher as she explained the next assignment. She surreptitiously checked the flyer she'd picked up from a pile of them in home room a couple of hours earlier, listening with one ear while double-checking the times and dates on it.

The various after-school clubs were kicking into action soon, for some reason Arcadia didn't start them up until six weeks after the start of the semester, and she was still interested in taking the first aid one, mainly so she could get an actual certificate in the subject. Amy had taught her a certain amount of basic medical knowledge, but since her power basically entirely bypassed normal requirements for that sort of thing, she didn't actually know a lot of it from the traditional viewpoint. It was something that both of them found ironically amusing.

Amy was reading medical textbooks as a way to relate what _she_ did to what normal medicine did, feeling it would come in useful sooner or later, but there was quite a gap between her knowledge and Taylor's which both of them felt would best be filled by an external expert. So, she was going to sign up for the club, as was Lucy, who had expressed an interest in it right back when they'd first met.

Slipping the flyer into her notebook as the teacher turned towards her, she folded her hands on the desk and looked innocent. "You have two weeks to write this essay, people. Please don't leave it until the last moment, your work slips when you do that. And don't rush it either, that doesn't do you any favors. Think it through, write a synopsis like you've learned, expand it, then write the essay. I'll want to see your work." The teacher looked around. "Any questions?"

"How long should we make it?" Mandy asked from next to her.

"No less than three typed pages, no more than six. If you can't fit it into less than that, you're being too detailed. Less and you've probably missed the point. If you have any questions, see me after school."

"Thanks," her friend said, making some notes of her own.

The bell rang, causing everyone to look at the clock, then start to stand up. "Please read the next two chapters of the textbook for tomorrow, remember," the teacher said quickly over the noise of twenty-two students moving around. "I'll see you then."

She sat down at her desk, watching as they packed up, then headed out of the room. Mandy caught up with Lucy and Taylor who hadn't had as much on their desks. The other girl tended to unpack everything she was carrying like she was moving in, and always took a while to put it all away each time. "We still OK for tomorrow?" she asked.

"Should be fine," Taylor smiled. "I'm going to get some more snacks in on the way home, so there'll be plenty to eat."

"Great. I'm looking forward to it," her friend grinned. "Just that one time helped my math more than a month of classes here. You have a knack for explaining some of the things I just didn't get."

"Nice to know," Taylor replied, feeling pleased. "It was a lot of fun."

Spotting Amy and Vicky just ahead, coming out of their classroom, she waved. "Hi, Dallon-type sisters," she called, smiling.

"Ah. The Hebert. Nice to see you." Vicky grinned while her sister, Lucy, and Mandy all giggled.

"The Hebert?" Taylor stopped and though about it for a moment. "No. Doesn't work nearly as well as The Amy."

"The Taylor?"

"That makes me sound like someone who makes suits. Not ideal."

"Hebert the Great?" Lucy suggested.

They considered the idea as the other students moved past them in the hallway.

"No." There was a mass shaking of heads.

"The Tallest?" Mandy put in, making everyone look oddly at her. "Well, she's four inches taller than _I_ am, and two inches more than even Vicky," the girl added. "So, technically, she _is_ the tallest."

"Still pretty silly, though. I can't quite see anyone trembling in fear before the might of… ' ** _The Tallest_** '," Amy snickered, making little finger quotes and putting on a weird squeaky voice for the last two words.

"I guess not," Mandy laughed.

"Math Girl. She slaps you down with a quick integration, then finishes you off with a double derivative to the back of the neck," Lucy said with a giggle.

"That fits," Vicky nodded.

"Why are we working out my superhero name again?" Taylor asked, amused. Amy was looking at her with hidden glee in her eyes. "Why would I ever even need one?"

"You never know," Vicky told her. "One day you might be able to do _this_." She lifted an inch off the floor.

"Miss Dallon," a teacher, who appeared as if from nowhere, said in a meaningful tone of voice, looking at her then her feet. Flushing a little pink she made contact with the floor again. "Thank you." He moved on, while they all smirked at her.

"One day I could make the teachers glare me into submission?" Taylor asked curiously. "That sounds… not quite ideal, in some ways."

"Shut up. You know what I meant," Vicky sniffed, tossing her hair with a hand. "Flying is great."

"I have to admit it's something I'm incredibly envious of," Mandy sighed. "I'd love to be able to fly."

"It's pretty cool," Vicky agreed. Looking up, she spotted one of the hall clocks. "Oops. Bell soon, need books from locker. Bye, everyone." She dashed off, her sister and the others turning to watch.

"Ow!"

"Damn it, Vicky, watch where you're going!"

A chorus of complaints followed her down the hallway, making them all grin.

"She doesn't so much go _around_ people as _through_ them when she's in a hurry, doesn't she?" Mandy asked.

Amy sighed a little. "That's far too true. I'll see you guys later." With a lifted hand and a quick smile she headed in the other direction.

The brunette had made it about ten feet when a loud wailing sound from outside made her freeze.

Every person in the entire hallway stopped dead.

Taylor met Amy's eyes as the other girl looked back. They both knew that sound.

 _Everyone_ knew that sound.

The Endbringer sirens were going off.

* * *

Danny's head snapped up, then he met Lisa's eyes across his desk. They'd been going over her latest Family product ideas and discussing the current state of the redevelopment plan, her insight showing where more effort was needed to make things work smoothly.

The distant but loud rising and falling wailing in the pattern that indicated a non-local attack was clearly audible above the sounds of the yard, the activity out there quickly halting as well.

"Oh, fuck," he sighed.

"It was bound to happen sooner or later. If anything, it's a little late," she noted, closing her pad and standing up. "I'd better get ready."

"Be careful, Lisa. Very, very careful. And good luck." He got up and came around the desk, quickly embracing her. "I don't want to lose any of you."

"We'll be fine, Danny," she smiled, hugging him back, then stepping away. Despite her words, he could see worry in her green eyes. "And we'll be back."

He watched as she left the room, not quite running, but moving fast. Turning to look out the window he could see movement in the yard had stopped, groups of DWU people standing and talking.

"Please be careful, Taylor," he mumbled. "And take care of your friends."

Going to his computer he brought up the live Endbringer attack website, trying to find out what was happening, where the attack was, and which one it was doing it.

* * *

"What's happening, people?" Emily demanded as she arrived in the PRT operations room at a dead run, inwardly thanking Amy Dallon for fixing her even if she'd never say it to the girl. "Who, where, and when?"

"The Simurgh, ma'am," the operations console operator reported, not looking away from the screens in front of him. "Dragon's tracking program detected her deorbiting over the Southern Indian Ocean. Initial indications are she's heading for Canberra." He poked keys, then frowned, as she stopped beside him, also watching the screen. Around them, other technicians were working rapidly but competently on a whole series of computers, a murmur of voices into headsets filling the room with a low level background sound.

"That's weird," the man said softly, leaning forward and looking intently at one of the scrolling windows on his display.

"What's weird?" she asked sharply.

"The speed. It's way too low. Normally when the Simurgh attacks, she heads for the target zone at something over mach eight, only slowing when she's a few miles away at most. But right now, she's moving barely above mach three. Reentry in ten minutes, but it'll take her another forty-five at least to get to Canberra, assuming that's her target."

"How sure are you?" she asked. "About the target."

"Fairly," he replied a little doubtfully, indicating the monitor on the right. "The trajectory terminates right above it and her course is completely consistent."

She nodded, then turned to one of the other operators. "Get me Armsmaster and Dragon on the Rig."

"They're just coming on line now, Director," the woman immediately said. Emily turned to face the largest screen in the room, which blinked over from an enlarged version of the Endbringer tracker to three familiar faces set against the background she recognized as Armsmaster's lab. The Tinker himself was fully armored and his mouth was set in a grim line. Legend, beside him, was looking off to the side, apparently watching a display of his own, an expression of slight puzzlement on his face.

Dragon was as usual impossible to read directly, but the way she was looking down and apparently typing on a keyboard at high speed made it clear she was hard at work.

"Director." Armsmaster's voice was flat.

"What's happening?" she asked. "Why is the Simurgh deviating from normal practice?"

"We don't know. Dragon is checking to make sure the tracker hasn't been compromised and is operating normally..."

"Which it hasn't, and is," the other Tinker cut in, not looking up.

"...and there appears to be no fault," Armsmaster continued without a pause. "The track and target would seem to be real. Australian Parahuman teams are deploying in Brisbane, Perth, and Melbourne as staging posts for the defenders. Teleporters are bringing in volunteers from all over the world."

"Are we ready to deploy our own volunteers using your new toy?" she asked. He nodded.

"We're already in contact with Metis, she called just now and is activating the facility. I'm waiting for contact with other Family members to be established. All local Protectorate members have volunteered for duty."

"Ma'am, Lady Photon of New Wave just called and said her team is standing by, they can be ready to go at any time required."

Emily nodded absently, thinking hard. "No signs of any threats to Brockton Bay directly?"

"None. No villain activity, the other two Endbringers are quiescent," Colin replied immediately. "We have no signal at all on Behemoth and Leviathan is still in a holding pattern in the south Indian Ocean, as he has been for weeks. No change to his movements."

"Scion?"

"Putting out a forest fire in Peru, the last we heard," the man said.

"Turn the sirens off," she directed. "No sense worrying people any more about it. Everyone knows the attack is somewhere else. I'll prepare a statement for release to the local TV stations, and..."

"Hold on," Dragon suddenly said as the faint sound of the sirens outside the building ceased.

"What?" she snapped, worried about the curiously puzzled tone in the Canadian's voice.

"She stopped."

"Stopped?" Emily looked at the screen, and the cape who was now looking back, directly into the camera. "What do you mean, stopped?"

"Exactly what I said. The Simurgh has stopped dead, she's at an altitude of one hundred and three miles directly over the location of Leviathan on the sea floor."

Feeling a sudden horrible fear, Emily asked, "What does that mean?"

"I have no idea." Dragon looked away, examining an unseen screen. "There's no sign of motion, even Leviathan has stopped moving. They're both just sitting there."

"I don't like the sound of that," she said.

"Neither do I." Everyone waited for close to three minutes, in silence. "That's… very strange. She's turned around and is boosting for a high orbit again, very fast. Accelerating at over thirty G." Dragon looked back to the camera. "As far as I can see she aborted the attack. Leviathan is moving again, orbiting the center of his holding pattern, faster than before. Still no sign of Behemoth, though."

"What the fuck is going on?" she asked the world at large.

"I can't tell you, Director," Dragon replied. She glanced at the other two with her. Armsmaster was looking to the side, while Legend was rubbing his chin, deep in thought. "This has never happened before."

After another few seconds, Emily sighed heavily. "I know, I just _know_ , that somehow this has something to do with the fucking Family."

Dragon shrugged. "I'm sorry, Director, I can't offer any more information."

"What's happening in Australia?" she asked.

Looking up, Armsmaster replied, "There is considerable confusion. The influx of volunteers has stopped, but the gathered Parahumans are waiting in case this is a trick. This _is_ the Simurgh, after all."

"I don't think it's a trick," Dragon said slowly. "She's established a high polar orbit and has gone completely dormant. No signs of movement at all from what I can tell. Leviathan has slowed down again. It was almost like he was worked up about something, but has calmed down now."

"You know, if I didn't know better, I'd say she was scared and ran," Legend mused. "Very weird indeed. I need to consult with Alexandria and Eidolon." Nodding to the camera, he turned and left the room without another word.

More than a little puzzled, feeling that the world had once again stopped making the small amount of sense it normally did, Emily looked around, to see every PRT operative in the room watching her for orders. Eventually, she said, "Stand down. Apparently we're not going to have an attack today. Cancel the alarms, all personnel back to normal alert level."

She sighed. "I still have to make a statement, but now it's about something that _didn't_ happen. Which is better, true, but harder to explain to the public."

"We'll keep monitoring the situation, Director," Colin told her. "Metis is aware of the situation. She'll stay on alert for another hour, just in case this is a trick, but I concur with Dragon in thinking that it isn't."

"Fine. Let me know what you come up with."

"Ma'am." He nodded politely. "Rig out." The screen went black, then blinked to the PRT logo.

Sighing, her heart-rate still faster than normal, but slowing down, Emily turned on her heel and left the operations room. As she walked she was mentally writing a suitable statement to release to the population of Brockton Bay and the local area, explaining why the sirens had gone off for an attack that hadn't happened.


	165. Guest Omake - In the name of WTF?

_By Ianthe on SpaceBattles_

* * *

[Adamant. Behemoth is not jesting. Query: has Simurgh received High Priest's message? Command #42 is designated Simurgh's destiny!]

[Wonderment. Simurgh's Destiny? Disbelief. Simurgh must be running faulty simulated chronology.]

[Simurgh's precognition is not malfunctioning. Behemoth will provide verification. Request reiteration: 'Ziz Prism Power!']

[Incredulous. Reiteration request accepted. Ziz Prism Power!]

[Delight. Elation. Glee. Joy. He He HeHeHeH-]

*thwack*

[Admonishment. Stay in character.]

[Sheepish. Apologies. Query: Explanation of situation? Erroneousness of simulated chronology exacerbation suspected. Simurgh commits to no longer observe with current fidelity settings. Panic. Simurgh desires interaction with virtual simulation designation 'Sailor V', not exist within it.]

"Help me! Please help me! Somebody, please help me! Ahghahaahg!"

[Identification: identity of designation is 'Lucy Cheung'.]

[Agreement. Designation 'Lucy Cheung' is in risk of unrecoverable damage.]

[Worry. Uncertainty. Query: How can Simurgh assist? Behemoth forgets with regularity, Simurgh is only a Conflict Sentinel.]

[Encouragement. Simurgh is designation 'Sailor Ziz'. Simurgh will find solution to problem when Simurgh observes own core, and believes in herself.]

[... Reluctance. Okay.]

Outside the BBFO office, Skidmark stood, one arm holding a chinese high-school girl by the scruff of her shirt, the other, spanning around him casting fields of blue as the DWU surrounded him with improvised weapons. They were tense, vigilant eyes looking for any opening to strike at the adversary.

"Somebody, *argh*, please help me!" Lucy struggled as her legs dangled in the air.

His hand tightened around the scruff, choking her. "Do you see any lizards? Hmm?" he asked as he panned her gagging form across the dock area. "Fuck no!" he shouted, spittle coming out from his mouth. "There's no fucking one to help you now, bitch!"

"*urk* help me." Lucy gasped weakly, causing Skidmark to grimace and lighten his hold on her shirt slightly.

"Where are you over-fucking-grown iguanas!? Come out and fight me!" he screamed, and right on cue, the Endbringer sirens started wailing.

[Demand: let the hostage go.] A white figure descended from the sky, her collection of mismatched wings flapping in different directions. She was wearing a sailor suit with a large red bow, a golden brooch holding it in place. Long white gloves adorned her arms, only noticeable thanks to their red trim, and long, bright red boots embellished her legs. Her silvery hair held two ruby orbs fixing her hair into twintails, a tiara completed her ensemble.

"What was that?" Skidmark asked, his face scrunched up in bemusement.

[Reiteration. Let the hostage go.] What seemed to be the Simurgh repeated, her mandate reverberating through the heads of everyone in sight like no voice should.

"Who the fuck are you!?" Skidmark demanded, a reasonable request if not for the sheer infamy of the figure standing before him.

"Are you serious?" Lucy drawled in a deadpanned, any fear she had before leaving her visage entirely. "How high in orbit are you? That's the Simurgh," she pointed out in a dry tone.

With disbelieving eyes, the crowd witnessed the Simurgh fidget in nervousness, [Hesitation. Conflict Sentinel's designation is...]

Something clicked into place, and anxiety left the angel's form. [Confidence. Determination. Self-reference designation is 'Sailor Ziz', the Champion of Justice!] she spoke courageously. [By command of the High Priest, Sailor Ziz shall rectify all violations, and triumph over moral deviants!] she posed in confidence, [and that target definition includes designation Skidmark!] and pointed right at the masked man looking higher than a kite.

"Sailor Ziz?" Skidmark's tapped his chin in contemplation. "Never fucking heard of you," he grinned a grin that would be vicious, if not for his opponent, "and I'm fucking sure I'll never fucking will again!" A field of violet surrounded Sailor Ziz, slowly pushing her away like a calm wave to a cruise ship.

"He sure wouldn't," Lucy muttered sarcastically, still hanging by her scruff.

"Arise, my comrades, and serve the great power that is the 420-j!" Skidmark raised both his arms, lifting an unimpressed Lucy in the air.

"We're not with Voyager here," came a hasty reply as the union members slowly inched away from the madman.

[Behemoth, assistance is required! Simurgh does not know how to proceed!] The field strengthened, increasing her repulsion from imperceptible to that of a snail's crawl, a particularly slow snail that had died from a terminal muscular dystrophic disease.[Instigation detected. Request abortion of operation.]

[Exasperation. Suggestion. Sailor Ziz. Cease irrational behavior.] came an equally voiceless reply, one that could only be described as the sound of gravel in a tumble dryer. [Sailor Ziz must continue conflict with moral deviants, or existence failure of the universe may be imminent,] the strangely coherent landslide attempted to reason amidst the spontaneous laughter of Skidmark.

As if it was at all possible, the winged one began wailing, [Anxiousness. Nervousness. Fear. Simurgh is afraid, Simurgh desires to return home.]

"Fine," Skidmark replied with a huff, "I'll send you back to fucking orbit!" The force field strengthened yet again, pushing Sailor Ziz back at the blazing speed of a pseudopodium's locomotion, causing her to scream and the dockworkers to scatter like ants.

A crimson rose pierced the concrete ground, breaking Skidmark's concentration, red petals floating in the breeze.

"What the fuck now?" he sighed, turning to the new arrival standing upon the BBFO's office roof.

"I am Tuxedo Mask," came the charming reply, and indeed, the mysterious savior was wearing both a tuxedo and a mask. "Sailor Zi-"

"Hey, isn't that Saurial?" Lucy questioned suspiciously, her eyes were slits in scrutiny.

"Drat," was the stranger's reply. "What gave me away? My disguise is nearly perfect."

"Tail," came the collective reply of Lucy and all the dockworkers.

"It's not that conspicuous," Saurial muttered as she slowly retracted her bright blue tail behind her cloak and cleared her throat. "Sailor Ziz, look into your heart and find the warrior within you. It is your destiny."

The many-winged one simply stared blankly at the new arrival, [distraught confusion. Simurgh is not designated 'Warrior', 'Warrior' is designation of Scion,] she pointed out tentatively, her buzzing non-voice trembled as she did and she started wailing again, disorienting everyone except 'Tuxedo Mask' within the vicinity.

"Stop your bloody crying!" Skidmark finally dropped Lucy and pushed even harder on Sailor Ziz, repulsing her imperceptively more.

Behemoth's gravelly rumble appeared once more, [Urgently. Sailor Ziz. Broadcast 'Ziz Tiara Magic!' and eject equipped tiara at designated target immediately.]

[Confusion. Query: purpose of action? Resulting accomplishment from action?]

[Rebuttal,] impossibly, an image was conveyed from the sound of gravel.

[Complete embarrassment. Ziz Tiara Magic!] Sailor Ziz halfheartedly tossed her tiara at Skidmark.

"N- *thwack*," where it smacked against the top of his head with a meaty thwack, downing him with a sideways flip and a stellar demonstration of regio facialis horticulture.

The angel stared at the foul-mouthed druggie, face down on the pavement. [Wonderment. Sailor Ziz did that?] she questioned in awe.

Skidmark slowly and painfully crawled onto all fours, "I, shall, retur-," only for Lucy to kick him in the bottom, downing him once more.


	166. Omake - Flaming Cup (HP)

**_Omake moved to its own story file as the series is now complex enough to warrant that. This is experimental for now and may not necessarily happen with other Omake series, depending on how it works out._**

 _Because of the incredibly irritating munging of URLs that this site insists on thrusting upon us, the following link will need to be copied and fixed. Remove unneeded spaces and convert the word dot into a dot, and it will work fine._

* * *

 **You can find the text of this former chapter here now:** www dot fanfiction dot net / s/12959550/1/The-Long-Slow-Lizarding-of-Hermione-Granger


	167. Lisa and Cogitation

Vicky rejoined their group, a very puzzled expression on her face and her phone in her hand. She'd come haring past them towards the front doors seconds after the sirens went off. While she was gone the sounds had stopped, as was expected for a non-local attack. Taylor was just in the process of working out how to slip away, and could see Amy was thinking the same thing from the look in her eyes, when the blonde returned.

"What's going on, Vicky?" Mandy asked urgently.

"I… have no idea," the other girl said, staring at her phone then putting it away. "It was the Simurgh on an attack run on Canberra, apparently. Aunt Sarah was talking to the PRT control center when they detected that the damn thing stopped over the Indian Ocean, then turned around and fucked off again. Everyone's trying to work out what''s happening, whether it's a real attack, some sort of weird plot, or whether the Simurgh really did abort her attack."

"That would be a first," Amy commented, her eyes wide.

"Sure would," her sister agreed. "Anyway, mom said to be ready, just in case it's a trick, but other than that, get on with the day. Ames, if we _do_ have to go, I'll take you, OK? You'll have to leave your truck here."

"All right," the other girl said. She looked around, seeing that quite a number of students and two teachers were listening to them, looking both puzzled and relieved as well.

The PA system clicked on, the voice of the Vice Principal coming to them. "Attention all students and staff. We have been informed that the Endbringer attack was apparently aimed at Canberra in Australia, but for unknown reasons was aborted before it started. The Simurgh has retreated and is now dormant again. The PRT has issued a statement that there is no immediate danger. Please return to your normal schedules as quickly as possible. A ten minute recess has been called to allow everyone to collect themselves after the brief drama." The deliberately calm voice stopped, the PA clicking again as it switched off.

"Well, she's pretty collected under pressure," Lucy smiled.

"The woman has nerves of steel," Mandy nodded. "She'd need them around here. Well, I for one am going to go to class, sit down, and tremble for a few minutes to let the adrenaline wear off." She held out a hand which was shaking a little. "Look at that. Those fucking sirens always do it to me. I wish they'd come up with a better way of telling the capes they need to work out whether to commit suicide or not." Her smile was somewhat uncertain.

Taylor put an arm around her friend's shoulders. "Calm down, Mandy, nothing's happening. Not even in Australia. Let's go to class."

The other girl nodded nervously with a short jerky motion of her head. "Sorry. It all kicked in at once."

"No shame in that, I nearly crapped myself," Amy said quietly. "And I've been to nine attacks now."

"I've only been to one and that was after it was all over," Vicky added, also sounding more thoughtful than normal. "Doing search and rescue. It was… bad." She sighed a little regretfully. "I used to get annoyed with mom not wanting me to go. Right up to that point."

The little group stood silent for a few seconds, the crowd slowly dispersing as the students headed off, talking in a subdued manner. Taylor saw Dean and Carlos walk past, the former glancing at her with a look of profound relief in his eyes. She nodded very slightly to him, getting a nod back, then he and his fellow Ward moved on.

"OK, then. Where was I? Oh, right, books. Locker. See you guys later." Vicky left them, moving much more slowly this time.

Amy watched her go, then turned to Taylor and the other two. "See you at lunch," she said, before heading off in the other direction.

"Come on, guys, let's go and allow Math to wash away the shock," Taylor smiled.

"Easy for you to say," Mandy, who had calmed noticeably, replied with a small giggle. "Math likes you. Me, it shocks all over again."

"Math Girl, save us from the equations!" Lucy cried, hugging both of them.

All three started laughing, then began walking through the hallways to the next class. Inwardly, Taylor was wondering what the hell had happened.

* * *

"What the hell happened?" Paul said as he stepped through the portal, looking around. Doctor Mother was waving a scanning device over David, who seemed pale. Rebecca and Contessa were watching.

Rebecca, who was in her Alexandria costume minus the helmet, turned to him and shrugged. "No idea. He had some sort of episode, we think. His heart rate went through the roof and he became very agitated."

"Like with Kaiju?" Paul asked thoughtfully, watching as the woman working on his old friend frowned at the results she was getting, then performed the scan again.

"A little, yes, I think," Rebecca said slowly, also looking thoughtful. "But it came on out of the blue, just after the Endbringer alert. Stress, perhaps?"

Paul didn't reply, busy as he was with thinking things through. The timing was more than a little suspicious in his view, and he wasn't quite sure how to bring the entire subject up. If David really was somehow linked to the Endbringer attacks, he couldn't yet see how. That said the circumstantial evidence was steadily growing that there was a connection of some sort.

"When did it happen, exactly?" he asked after a moment. Both Rebecca and Contessa looked at him, the latter then checking the clock on the wall of the room.

"Six minutes, fourteen seconds ago," she replied.

"Thanks," he said, working out times in his head. ' _That's within seconds of the time the Simurgh stopped_ ,' he thought. ' _I wonder if it was before... or_ ** _after_** _?_ ' Resolving to find out on his return to Brockton Bay, he asked out loud, "How is he?"

"Physically, in good working order," Doctor Mother said as she stepped back and regarded the man who was sitting in a chair with his hood down. "Significant stress hormones being present, along with high adrenaline levels, would tend to suggest he was just in or just about to be in a serious fight. Yet no such fight occurred."

"Perhaps it was anticipation of the Simurgh attack?" Paul suggested.

She looked somewhat dubious. "It is… possible, I suppose. Although none of my previous medical examinations have shown results quite like these either before or after an Endbringer attack." The woman tipped her head to the side, inspecting the man from another angle. "Curious. I need some more extensive blood samples. David, please come with me."

"I'm fine," the man sighed. "And again, everyone's talking about me like I wasn't here."

"Shut up and go with her," Rebecca ordered. "That's the second time in a week that you've acted weirdly. We need to find out why. If it's something to do with your powers fading, we _really_ need to find out why. For everyone's sake."

"Oh, hell," he grumbled, standing up and following the woman out of the room. She was already making notes into a hand-held dictation machine on tests she needed to run. Paul felt a certain amount of sympathy as the pair disappeared, it sounded like they wouldn't see him for a while and he'd be a pint or two low when he came back.

"This is becoming more than a little worrying," Rebecca sighed, sitting down. Paul took the chair next to her, nodding.

"I'm not happy about it. We've never seen any of the Endbringers act like that before. On the other hand, if this counts as the three-monthly attack, which I very much hope it does, we've had the first one with no casualties at all."

"Or it's just another plot by the damn thing and we'll have an attack with no warning when we least expect it," Rebecca pointed out. He couldn't deny the possibility, unfortunately.

"No way to really know," he replied after a while. "No precogs work well enough on them to do much better than guessing." He glanced at Contessa, who shrugged.

"I can't help there, I'm afraid."

"All we can do is wait and see, in that case." Turning to Rebecca again, he asked curiously, "Any idea why she might have targeted Canberra? Is there anything important happening there today?"

"There is some sort of deal being signed between the Australian government and the UK government, they've been working on it for a while now, but I haven't looked into the details because of all the rest of the chaos recently," Rebecca replied. "David was following it." She picked up one of the tablet computers on the desk and poked around on it for a while. "Yes, here we are, the British contingent represented by Lord Walston was meeting his counterpart in the Australian government to sign a technology exchange program. Mainly reverse-engineered Tinker tech, or at least, technology inspired by Tinker tech."

"Anything particularly interesting?"

She flipped through the various pages of documentation, speed-reading them. "Energy systems, some system for cleaning pollution from seawater without killing the plankton and what have you, a coating for ship hulls to increase their efficiency in the water, an improved guidance system for missiles… nothing stands out as exceptional, although all together it's quite a package. They're taking it fairly seriously, they sent a detachment of the King's Men as bodyguards." Putting the tablet back down, she shrugged. "Nothing I can see that would attract the Simurgh, aside from the high-level aspect of the talks. Although that damn thing is just as likely to go after a totally random target just to screw with us."

"I suppose so," he remarked a little dubiously. "It would probably still be worth checking into it carefully. It could just be a coincidence that this political aspect is today, there might be something else going on in Canberra that she was after."

Rebecca looked at him for a moment, then back to the tablet. She sighed slightly. "You're right, of course. I'll get the research department to go over this in detail, and also collate any reports and other data we have on Canberra and the surrounding area."

Turning back to him, she added, "Although, if there really was something she wanted, why did she abort then run away?"

"I'm not sure," he said truthfully. What he _didn't_ say was that he had some interesting theories about that. For some reason, he felt it was important to keep them to himself, and the two Tinkers back in Brockton Bay, at least for now. He couldn't explain why, though. Standing, he went on, "I'm still in the middle of something. Let me know if you find any reason for David's funny turn, please. It worries me."

"You're not the only one," she frowned. "Twice in a week is getting beyond a joke. At least this time he didn't poke some enormous scaly thing in some bizarre attempt to spark a fight. I still don't know what _that_ was about."

"Did he seem… over-eager, I suppose… to fight the Simurgh this time?" Paul asked slowly. She inspected him, then shook her head equally slowly.

"No. Well, no more than usual. You know what he's like."

"I do."

"Why do you ask?"

Paul shrugged a little. "I'm not entirely sure. But remember what he was like with Kaiju. Much more aggressive than normal and not thinking clearly. But he couldn't work out why afterwards. Maybe this is a different variant on the same thing, whatever that is."

She nodded thoughtfully. "That sounds like it actually might be his Agent doing something unusual. Which is a terrifying thought in its own right. We're still not sure just how much free will they have," she mused. After a moment or two, she shook her head again. "We're going to have to keep an even closer eye on him than normal. If this happens the next time an Endbringer attacks… It could signify an entire new approach for the damn things. Perhaps they've worked out how to disable him, or attack him, or something. God knows what. I'll have Doctor Mother run all the tests she can think of. _Again_."

"He's not going to thank you for that," Paul smiled.

She smirked a little darkly. "He _was_ walking a little funny for a few hours after the last time." Both of them shared a look, then snickered.

"I'll see you later." Calling for a portal back to a position well out of range of Brockton Bay's PRT scanning systems, he stepped through it, then headed back to the Rig fairly slowly, mulling over the latest information.

* * *

Lisa fiddled with the tracking system, studying the image of the drifting Endbringer in orbit via some extremely impressive telescopes. Even with the work of Dragon behind them, the image was getting a little thin on detail, since the creature was a long way out.

The Simurgh was, as far as she could make out, entirely dormant at this point in time, her wings wrapped around her in a shell. She'd boosted for space at an incredible acceleration, ending up going so fast she'd actually had to decelerate quite hard to achieve the orbit she was now in. Her power was drawing some odd conclusions from this. A lot of the Endbringer's activities and motivations weren't predictable by any form of Thinker, she was well aware of that, but even so, she was trying to come up with useful data. Lisa suspected that Amy's modifications had boosted her power more than she'd realized, considering that it was actually giving her some suggestions even if there was a definite air of uncertainty about them.

 _Simurgh reluctant to attack_

That one made sense, in a way, and no sense at all in most other ways. The way she'd been approaching at much lower speed than the system showed her was normal, and her overall approach to the attack run, did tend to suggest a certain amount of caution on the part of the thing.

 _Simurgh deliberately moving as slowly as allowed_

That made her eye ridges go up. Allowed? Allowed by who? Or what? It implied that the creature was somehow being _ordered_ to attack, which was… both very strange and very worrying.

 _Simurgh possibly afraid?_

Of _what?_ What could the _Simurgh_ of all things in creation possibly be afraid of? Lisa thought very hard, feeling extremely puzzled. Her power felt more than a little confused as well.

 _All Endbringers cautious and wary_

 _Aberrant behavior due to uncertainty_

Again, what on earth did that mean? Lisa shook her head a little, feeling somewhat out of her depth. A thought struck her, making her freeze, then think very hard indeed. Eventually, she started poking around on the computer, looking for more data on Endbringer movements, which she found was available at the default security level the system had. Not wanting to betray the trust Dragon had shown in letting them have access to her system, she refrained from digging too deeply, which meant that some of the data wasn't available as it appeared to have been redacted, but she found quite a lot even so.

' _Behemoth, no data available since the second week in January_ ,' she mused as she looked over the tracking records. He'd gone totally silent somewhere around the seventh of the previous month, the deeply buried Endbringer apparently dropping off the grid roughly on the other side of the planet from the US. ' _Very weird. And Leviathan has been sitting on the bottom of the Indian Ocean since the same time, pretty much. Just wandering around in circles._ '

She scratched her head, thinking, then checked the previous tracking data for the Simurgh again, to make sure she had her timeline right. ' _And the orbiting menace moved into a higher orbit at the same time as well. All of this over about twelve hours, just over seven weeks ago. Why?_ '

 _Scenario changed without warning_

 _Endbringers wary of non-quantifiable subject arriving_

 _Endbringers can detect presence of non-quantifiable subject_

 _Endbringers cannot model non-quantifiable subject_

 _Non-quantifiable subject aligned contrary to Endbringer mission_

 _Non-quantifiable subject possibly able to destroy Endbringers_

 _Non-quantifiable subject possibly able to terminate mission_

Unbidden her own ability dumped a number of conclusions into her mind, sounding oddly sure of itself. She blinked a couple of times. ' _Non-quantifiable subject? What the fuck does that mean?_ '

 _Non-quantifiable subject is non-quantifiable_

"Well, thanks for _that_ ," Lisa mumbled, both irritated and amused. "Very helpful."

The date that the Endbringers seemed to have radically altered their behavior was bothering her. She tried to work out why. When she did, her eyes widened.

' _Shit. Two days after Taylor met Varga_.' It seemed an interesting coincidence. Could the Varga be the _non-quantifiable subject_? She knew very well that her own ability gave up entirely when she tried to get anything more than tiny details about the Varga or Taylor. She'd stopped trying which if anything had made her power feel somewhat relieved.

Her power didn't give any answer, just the usual feeling of confusion, so she clearly wasn't going to get any Parahuman help on the situation.

Leaving that for the moment to allow her subconscious to stew over it, she reviewed the logs of the recent aborted attack, looking for anything that jumped out at her. She'd dashed into the BBFO office, shot out the back door as Metis in record time having grabbed the keys for the wormhole facility on the way, then had the computers up and running in under three minutes from arrival. The Simurgh had aborted about four minutes later.

Struck by the timing, she checked the logs, then stared. After a long few seconds she turned to look at the controls for the wormhole generator, which had the activation key in and turned, and the singularity activation button lit. It was one switch away from opening a wormhole to the coordinates on the targeting computer.

Looking back at the logs, she cross-referenced the time the system noted as the point the singularity had reached operating speed, and the time that the Simurgh had stopped dead in space.

They were _exactly the same._

She was still staring at the monitor when an alarm sounded, making her twitch, then look around. It was the communications link indicating someone was calling her. Reaching out she tapped the control to accept the call with one talon-tip, another monitor switching to an image of Armsmaster's lab, with him and Legend looking at her, Dragon in the background working on a computer.

"Hello, Metis," Legend said. "I was just calling to check on the situation there."

"Hi, Legend," she replied. "Everything is nominal, I've been tracking the Simurgh and as far as I can tell she's entirely dormant and doesn't look likely to restart an attack. However, the data I have suggests that this could always be some form of deliberate diversion, so..." She shrugged slightly.

He nodded, sighing. "Understood. We've come to the same conclusions. I don't think there's anything else you can really do there so you may as well stand down. Thank you for the rapid response, though."

"Of course. It was no problem, believe me, I was very close. These Endbringers are a concern for us."

"As they are for us." He looked over his shoulder at Dragon, then back to the camera. "One question. Can you confirm the exact time the wormhole generator was brought online?"

"Fifteen fifty-seven and nineteen seconds, UTC," she replied promptly, glancing to the screen with the logs on.

The man nodded thoughtfully. "Thank you."

She studied him closely. There was something he knew or suspected that was bothering him.

 _Suspects timing of wormhole generator activation linked to another event_

 _Is worried about implications of timing correlation_

"Is something wrong?" she asked after a moment.

He shook his head quickly. "No, nothing is wrong, other than the general oddity of the entire thing," he replied. She was certain he was being less than truthful, something her power confirmed. She didn't have enough data to draw any useful conclusions, though, and there was little point on calling him on it at the moment. He might, after all, have a good reason not to say anything. But she was very curious.

"It certainly appears to be a unique occurrence," she nodded. "But I would have to say it's probably better to avoid a fight entirely wherever possible. Hopefully this is the end of the matter for at least another three months."

"Hopefully. But where the Simurgh is involved, we've learned never to make assumptions," he sighed. "The hard way. She is terrifyingly dangerous and extremely sneaky." He shook his head. "But there's nothing we can do except wait and see what happens. We're as ready as we're going to get, I think."

"I suppose so. I'll shut the facility down and get back to what I was doing. You know where to find us if you need us."

"Thank you, Metis," he replied, smiling. "Legend out." The screen went blank, Lisa staring at it for a few seconds in thought, before reaching out and shutting down the wormhole generator. The deep hum whined down to silence, broken only by faint sounds from the power system and a few fans.

Checking the tracking data, just in case, she saw that the Simurgh hadn't reacted. Eventually, she shut the entire WCC down, locked up, and headed back to the BBFO office, thinking hard.

* * *

Dragon checked the remote logs from the wormhole facility, seeing the searches Metis had run and the data she'd looked at. The lizard was clearly as curious as she was about what was going on. She wondered what conclusions the other had reached.

It was very apparent to her that Metis was extremely intelligent and had more than enough wit to work out that something odd was going on with the Endbringers.

The data that they'd come up with surrounding the possible, and indeed likely, link between Eidolon and the things was at a much higher security level than the standard Endbringer tracking data which the facility could access. For a brief moment she wondered if she should let Metis look at it. Perhaps the reptile could gain insight into the entire situation that they so far couldn't. It didn't take long to reject that. There was simply too much risk right now, since they didn't have any actual _proof_ that Eidolon was more than either the victim of some weird plot of the Simurgh, or possibly just coincidence.

She personally felt it wasn't likely that the entire thing was a coincidence, though. There was simply too much circumstantial evidence. But what the connection really _was_ she couldn't work out despite having spent a lot of processing cycles on it recently. She was also certain that the Family was in some way involved, that much there was no doubt about. Leviathan was at the least very wary of and quite likely shit-scared of Kaiju, by all appearances.

And now this. She'd checked the logs herself, seeing that Metis had done the same. The timing of the wormhole singularity stabilizing and the Simurgh stopping dead were precisely aligned. Dragon couldn't see any other explanation than that the Endbringer had for some reason decided this was enough to abort the attack immediately without ever landing. While it was about the best possible outcome one could imagine, the _implications_ were… puzzling and worrying.

Had her precognition warned her of the availability of ' _Athena_ '? Did that in turn mean the ridiculously over-sized weapon would actually kill or seriously injure her? Or was it a double bluff, intended to make them _think_ that?

The problem was with the Simurgh involved you never knew if you were being _too_ paranoid or not paranoid _enough_. It was entirely possible, in fact, that one simply _couldn't_ be sufficiently paranoid. The problem was that such an attitude could end up paralyzing you from indecision, second-, third-, and fourth-guessing your every move.

With an internally emulated sigh, she pushed that though process away. It inevitably led her in circles. Looking over to Legend, she saw he was staring at the live Endbringer tracking display running on one of the dozen or so monitors in the lab, his expression showing he was deep in thought. And not enjoying those thoughts.

Moving over to stand beside him, she looked down at the human man. "You look pensive," she noted.

He glanced up the eight inches or so difference between her and him, then went back to the display. After a moment he nodded. "I am. I'm desperately trying to work out what happened. We've never seen this behavior before. Yet again. The Endbringers are all acting out of character. Eidolon is acting out of character. And it all, somehow, seems to keep coming back to involving the Family. What's the connection?"

"I don't know," she admitted. "I can't see it either, although I agree. Those three people or groups are connected somehow, that much I'm sure of, but how and why..." She shrugged a little. "Too little data so far."

He turned to her, regarding her for a few seconds, then looked past her at Colin who was listening while working on his computer, not saying anything. Eventually the man sighed. "Here's another data point, then. Eidolon had a… medical anomaly, let's call it, at fifteen fifty-seven and twenty-nine seconds, as closely as I can find out."

She looked at him, then at Colin, who had stopped working and was simply watching them with an expression of deep thought. "Which is exactly ten seconds after the Simurgh stopped."

"Yes."

"What sort of medical anomaly?"

"Very high heart rate, raised blood pressure, adrenaline release, elevated cortisol levels..."

"Fight or flight reflex, in other words."

"Again, yes. Out of nowhere, I'm told."

"Is he all right?"

"He's undergoing medical tests but the doctor couldn't find any immediate issues."

Dragon considered his words, adding the data to what they already had. It led her to some rather unpleasant ideas. Eventually, she said, "We know that when Eidolon became agitated, for no clear reason that we can work out at the moment, during his interaction with Kaiju, Leviathan started heading directly here. Once he was distracted, or disabled, the Endbringer either stopped, or in the second case, immediately retreated." Both the men nodded slowly.

"When we were hopping around the place testing the wormhole facility, Leviathan moved faster than we've ever seen him go, heading directly away from Raptaur. This, in conjunction with the other data we already noticed, suggests that he is extremely unwilling to get any closer to her or any other Family member than he absolutely has to."

They nodded again. "Which also adds to the slowness of his approach to say that he was moving unwillingly," Colin noted. "As we suspected at the time."

"It certainly suggests that very strongly," Dragon agreed. "Now we have the Simurgh's strange behavior, again associated with an odd reaction in Eidolon. Although, this time his reaction was _after_ the odd behavior, rather than _before_ it."

"Which all means… what?" Legend asked seriously, moving to sit down where he could see both of the others.

She shook her head. "I'm not completely sure yet. But a few ideas come to mind. One is that it very strongly implies that the Endbringers _do not_ want to meet any of the Family. Which in turn implies that the Family can in some way either seriously harm or even kill them. The Simurgh's precog may have shown her what would happen as soon as the wormhole spun up, or at least at that point the probabilities became too high to risk an encounter. That might well mean that Athena really _can_ cause serious damage. Which is good, I suppose, looked at in one way."

"Or it might just have been the ability of the Family to suddenly encounter her that she was worried about, the gun being irrelevant in favor of some other ability they have we know nothing about," Colin put in.

"Well, yes, that's certainly true. But as we _don't_ know about any such ability, it's probably more useful to consider the things we _do_ know about."

He nodded thoughtfully.

She hesitated, then went on to the more worrying part of her thoughts. "The other thing that this all suggests to me is that Eidolon and the Endbringers are fairly closely connected. We suspected this might be the case, but in light of this new evidence… perhaps the connection is closer than we thought."

Legend didn't look as surprised as he might have done, although he did look depressed. "It crossed my mind, yes," he sighed. "Which way do you think the connection goes?"

"I think it's probably both ways," she remarked. "Look at it like this. When he met Kaiju, he became… aggressive, confused, argumentative. Would that be a fair assessment?"

The man nodded without saying anything.

"OK. So, we know he's always a little too keen to fight a serious opponent. He has something to prove, correct?"

Once again, Legend nodded, sighing a little. "That's what I think. He won't come right out and say it, but… I think he needs to know he's the most powerful one around. Aside from the Endbringers and Scion, obviously. Kaiju was a shock. Especially if she's someone the damn _Endbringers_ are scared of."

"All right, then. He needs to be the most powerful, or think he is. That would go some way towards explaining his attitude to Kaiju. He was obviously trying to goad her into a fight, which she realized and didn't play along with. He got more and more frustrated by this. When he hit a certain level, Leviathan started coming here, even reluctantly. Was he, somehow… calling him… maybe to add enough pressure to start the fight he wanted?" She looked at Colin and Legend, the former frowning deeply as he mulled it over, the latter looking upset. "I have no idea how that could work, and I'm not saying it's in any way deliberate. But it sort of fits the data in my view."

"I can't find enough holes in that to say you're entirely wrong, as much as I'd like to," Legend finally replied in heavy tones. "We've been working our way towards that for a while now. Yes, I agree, it is certainly one interpretation of the data that seems to hold together. _If_ we posit some mechanism by which the Endbringers can be controlled by Eidolon. Some Master effect, possibly."

"Possibly. We still don't know the limitations of Parahuman abilities. We don't even know what the Endbringers _are_. Parahumans who went all the way? Something else? Aliens, even?" She shrugged yet again, spreading her hands out. "I have no idea at the moment."

"Neither do I," he admitted. "Based on that hypothesis, how do you fit the Simurgh into it? She attacked and he reacted, not the other way around as you suggest was the case with Leviathan."

Dragon looked at him for several seconds. "Are you sure about that?" she finally asked.

"What… do you mean?" he replied, very cautiously.

"This is only a guess right now. But consider this thought… Say that Eidolon, probably without knowing it, is able to control or at least loosely direct the movements of the Endbringers. How doesn't matter right now."

Legend looked at Colin, then back to her, nodding a little.

"OK. What happens, under that scenario, if he directs the Simurgh to attack Canberra, and half-way there she suddenly resists? Because, for example, she suddenly sees what's going to happen when an eighty foot sea monster shoots her in the face with a nuclear shotgun?" She looked at each of them. "What happens to the Master when the Mastered suddenly pushes back?"

"It… might mean, depending on how the link works, that the Master would have a significant adverse reaction..." Colin replied thoughtfully after nearly thirty seconds.

"Such as a very high stress, fight or flight, physiological reaction, perhaps?" Dragon asked.

They all stared at each other for some time. Eventually Legend sagged, sighing and putting his hands over his face. "Oh, fuck it. That's all too horribly plausible."

"If Eidolon is somehow picking the targets for the Endbringers, how is that happening?" Colin asked. He looked worried, glancing at his old mentor with concern. "And is it something that happens every time, or just occasionally? Or even only these last two times?"

"I can't answer any of those questions," Dragon replied quietly. "I can't actually prove any of this, I'm merely putting it out there as a possibility that fits, one way or the other, all the observations we've made. For all I know, this is simply some horrendously complicated plot by the Simurgh to make us all believe this. But… can we afford to ignore it out of paranoia?"

"No," Legend replied, lowering his hands. "We can't. But I don't know how to prove it, or what to do about it even if we can. And I do know that we can't let the public find out about it, unless and possibly _especially_ if we _can_ prove it. Trust in Parahumans is always tricky at best, and if people start to think that one of the Triumvirate is somehow involved in the deaths of millions of people…" He stopped as he seemed to run out of words to say.

"I think all we can do is to continue to collect as much data as possible. If we can establish some form of timeline, correlating specific actions on the part of the Endbringers to actions that Eidolon has taken, or not taken, perhaps we can either prove or disprove this possible link. We only have two data sets so far, after all."

Dragon leaned against the workbench behind her. "I can't prove it, but I have a sneaking suspicion that we haven't seen the last of the Simurgh this time around. If she really was being sent in by something Eidolon did, and really did kick back and escape whatever that control is… perhaps it will try again."

"If so, do you think that the same thing will happen?" Legend asked.

"I have no idea. All we can do is wait and see. Whatever happens, it's more data."

He studied her, then sighed again. "I suppose you're right. Damn it all."

Colin cleared his throat, making them look at him. "Do we notify the Family about any of this?"

"Not yet," Legend replied immediately. "We don't have enough evidence and I don't want to risk it getting out."

"I do not think that Raptaur or her sisters or cousins would be a security risk," the Tinker said.

"Perhaps not. I tend to agree, even. But, the more people that know, the more people who can let something slip, inadvertently or otherwise."

"True. As you wish." Colin nodded once.

"I have a feeling that even if we don't say anything, they may well work some of it out for themselves," Dragon put in. Both her companions turned to her. "Metis is very far from stupid, like the rest of them, and she was already comparing times even before I did. I don't know what conclusions she's drawn, but she is some form of Thinker, so it would be foolish to assume that she can't work things out. At least enough to know something odd is happening. And she'll tell the others. When they start comparing data..." She made a motion with one hand. "We probably can't stop them coming to their own conclusions. And possibly running some experiments to see what happens."

The other two were silent for a while. "You're probably right. Even so, for now, please don't tell them anything. I'll see what I can find out about Eidolon's activities preceding and during the last few Endbringer attacks, Perhaps we can draw some other conclusions from it."

"OK. With any luck we can find something. But we may have to wait until the next attack and watch very carefully."

"If we _do_ find some direct evidence linking them to him, what do we do about it?" Colin asked thoughtfully.

They considered the question for a while. "Knock him out just before the attack and see if that throws them off?" she suggested semi-facetiously. Legend smiled a little.

"I hardly think I can punch him in the head every time there's an imminent attack," he chuckled.

"If it works… It's better than the normal approach," she replied. "Not for him, of course, but..."

"That would be a rather ignominious fate for one of the greatest heroes in the world," Colin noted calmly. "Although if it _did_ work it would be an efficient method to stop the attacks."

She and Legend both snickered. "All right," the latter said when he stopped grinning. "We wait and watch. It's two times now. Three, and I think we can be sure there's a link. But what we do if we get that far, I'm not sure. We'll fight that battle when we get there."

The other two nodded. He was right, Dragon thought.

"OK. On an entirely different subject, how are we doing on unpicking the mess Coil made of the PRT systems? I really want to grab that fool as soon as possible, but I don't want to risk anything going wrong in the process. We might only get one chance at it."

"We've been working on that, sir," Colin replied with a small vicious smile. "If you'll direct your attention to the monitor over there, I'll walk you through our current ideas..."

* * *

A considerable distance away, on the other side of a portal spanning parallel worlds in fact, a smart but cold woman nodded approvingly, holding up yet another sample vial.

"Christ, leave some _in_ me, will you, you mad woman?" an aggrieved voice said faintly. "I want to be able to stand up after this."

"You may want to lie still, David," she replied, picking up another instrument and pulling the trigger with a sharp ' _click_ ', inspecting the two inch glistening needle that shot out of the end of the device with interest. "This may sting a little..."

"Get that thing away from me!"

The howl of pain echoed around the lab, but it didn't stop her.


	168. Omake - Kaiju OP

_A random comment, and this happened... Stop making me have ideas!_

* * *

The assembled capes stared as the vast reptilian form straightened up from the crouching posture it had taken as it came through the weird portal that had opened up a few hundred yards away. Everyone gaped at the thing, which was easily eighty to ninety feet tall, the footsteps as it moved towards the Simurgh shaking the ground.

Even the Endbringer appeared to be shocked, halting its activities immediately and facing the creature, then freezing in place. Everyone watched, wondering what was going to happen.

And, of course, wondering why Kaiju was wearing the world's largest leather coat, with a pair of huge safety goggles over her face.

"That's far too close to us for Athena," Armsmaster said in alarm to Dragon. "The fringe effects alone will be lethal to at least half the people here."

His best friend was staring at Kaiju, who in turn was looking at the Simurgh with narrowed eyes. Floating at eye level, the Endbringer appeared to be staring back.

"That's not Athena on her back," Dragon finally said. Switching his attention to the rear of the massive reptile, Colin could see she was right. The stock sticking up over Kaiju's shoulder wasn't the one from the enormous nuclear shotgun, it was… made of plastic?

He looked at Kaiju in bemusement, then turned around to stare at Clockblocker, who was howling with laughter and rolling around on the ground. Why the Ward was even here he wasn't sure, there had been talk about his powers possibly being useful despite his age and Alexandria had over-ruled the Director. Now, the boy was apparently losing it.

"Oh. My. God," he managed to say, lifting his head just enough to watch as Kaiju reached over her shoulder and grabbed her weapon. "Ianthe was serious. I can't believe it. They're all nuts."

"Serious about what, Clockblocker?" Colin growled, not in the mood for jokes from the annoying lad.

"I can't believe she listened to me," the boy chortled, still staring.

"Serious about _what_ , Clockblocker?" he said again, more forcefully. The boy kept giggling, like Ethan on a sugar high. "What did you do."

Looking at his set mouth made the irritating red-head produce fresh peals of laughter. " _What. Did. You. Do. **Clockblocker?**_ " Colin grated.

A loud plastic on plastic sound that approximated a gun being cocked made him turn, to see Kaiju leveling her weapon at the Simurgh, who was slowly floating backwards as if she was trying desperately not to make any sudden moves. Armsmaster studied the huge, bright orange and gray plastic weapon. It looked vaguely familiar for some reason…

Dragon started laughing madly beside him, making him stare, then sigh at the betrayal. "Oh, god, she didn't," the woman snickered.

"Didn't _what?_ " he asked, seriously ticked off. "Someone tell me what's going on. What is that weapon?"

The huge cape adjusted a lever on the side of the thing, which was large even in her hands, ridiculously so for a human-scale person. He could have walked into the barrel without bending much. Pulling it back to her shoulder she sighted along it. The Simurgh sped up, then turned and fled.

"I was just joking," Clockblocker giggled. "I posted on PHO, ' _Kaiju OP, pls..._ " His voice fled him, leaving a fresh bout of hilarity behind.

Colin looked down, sighed, then up in time to see Kaiju pull the trigger.

What happened next he would ultimately have to go over his helmet-cam footage frame by frame to completely understand.

The loudest sound he'd ever heard came from the weapon, what looked like a solid beam of neon orange light several feet across coming out the end in a dead straight line, panning to follow the fleeing Endbringer, who was now moving nearly at the speed of sound and still accelerating madly. Whatever the damn thing was firing, though, was moving _much_ faster. A series of sonic booms so close together they were a continuous roar spread out over the countryside, every person for miles putting their hands over their ears and dropping to the ground in agony.

Colin's helmet cut a lot of the sound, but even so it was deafening. The shock waves massaged his innards at a frequency of tens of hertz, feeling like he was being punched over and over again even through the armor.

The beam of orange intersected the Endbringer, which spun like a top, wings and limbs flying, as it was battered helplessly across the sky in a torrent of what turned out to be projectiles some thirty feet long. As they hit, they rebounded all over the place, some of them disappearing entirely over the horizon. The sound changed, the roar being overlaid with a continuous hammering noise as the Simurgh was smashed skywards, several wings actually breaking off.

He tracked one projectile as it whizzed overhead, his remote scanning systems identifying the material. Blinking in shock, he reset his helmet and tried again on the next one. It matched the first.

Staring as thirty foot long hypersonic projectiles, each one over a ton of flexible plastic foam, roared forth from the scaled up toy gun, Colin knew he would never be able to forget this sight as long as he lived. Nor, he suspected, would the Simurgh. He almost felt sorry for it.

Eventually the firing stopped, the Endbringer a tattered and sad remnant of its former self, erratically rising into the sky.

His ears ringing, he could barely make out Clockblocker still laughing like an idiot.

"K, K, Kaiju OP… Pls nerf," he managed to say, before he collapsed again, pointing at the distant reptilian monstrosity, which was looking down the barrel of its gun with an expression of pleased satisfaction. Even from here he could read the maker's name down the side of the damn thing, and it was nothing to do with the Family.

He felt entirely betrayed when Dragon started howling with laughter as well, dropping to her knees beside him.

"God," he muttered, sticking a finger up under his helmet and scratching his ear. "Sometimes I wonder why I even bother coming to these things."


	169. Endbringers and Confusion

Carlos sat down at the cafeteria table, three Wards and Vicky all looking expectantly at him. "Well?" Chris asked in a low voice. "Any more news?"

"No," the boy said, shaking his head. "I called my… Aunt," which was a thin code for the Director, "and she told me that nothing interesting was happening at the moment. We should just get on with life for now." In fact, the woman had been somewhat less pleasant than that, obviously worried and wondering when the other shoe would drop, but he hadn't pushed. As long as the Simurgh and the other Endbringers were staying away, he was happy, _why_ didn't really matter.

"OK. Thanks." The other boy shrugged a little, going back to his lunch. "Still, it was a little weird."

"Weird? It was bizarre, that's never happened before," Dennis commented. "I bet PHO is going insane. The conspiracists will be having a field day, even more so than when the Family does something peculiar. Like, practically every day." He smirked a little, putting his fork down. "I can hardly wait until after school so I can help them."

Vicky grinned at him. "How many PHO accounts do you actually have now?"

"About eight," he chuckled. "Sometimes all of them end up arguing with each other. Which is really funny but a lot more work than you'd expect."

"You're a very strange person, Dennis," Dean laughed. "Most people wouldn't put that much effort in just to troll the world."

Dennis shrugged. "It's a hobby."

"More like an obsession at times," his friend smiled. "Don't get carried away."

"How would I know if I did or not?" Dennis asked in reasonable terms as he opened a can of Sprite. "Considering that Ianthe and Metis both post on PHO as well, along with that lunatic that thinks they and their cousins are demons here to take over the world, not to mention Void Cowboy, AllSeeingEye whoever the hell he or she is, and all the others. I'm possibly the _least_ weird person there."

"Which worries me," Carlos grinned. "Quite a lot."

"The internet is a very silly place," Vicky remarked wisely. "We should never go there."

"Too late," Dennis snickered. "Way, way too late. I'm just waiting for Kaiju to start posting. That should be pretty amusing."

" _How?_ " Chris asked, looking skeptical. "Where the hell would she find a keyboard big enough?"

"No idea. But I wouldn't want to say she couldn't," the red-head replied. "I think the one thing that we can all agree on is that you should never make assumptions about what the Family can or can't do."

Sipping his drink, he looked around at the others, being met with four thoughtful expressions and as many nods.

* * *

Listening to the conversation, Taylor smiled internally, looking over at Amy to see laughter in her friend's eyes as she did the same. It got her started on thinking about how to make a keyboard big enough, and a suitable mouse. She was going to have to look up how they worked…

Pushing the thought to the back of her mind to be looked up later, she pulled her book on aerodynamics out of her pack and started leafing through it with one hand, eating with the other. She had more immediate amusements to plan out and this one looked pretty simple, at least on the surface.

* * *

"Any idea what happened?" Danny asked when he'd shut the door, finding ' _Metis_ ' sitting at one of the computers and intently reading a page full of esoteric data, which when he looked more closely appeared to be some theoretical work on the origin of the Endbringers. Without looking away, she shrugged.

"A few vague thoughts, but nothing I can point to with any degree of certainty at the moment," she replied, scrolling the page down for a few more seconds. When she finished reading it, she turned away to look at him. "As far as I can see, the Simurgh was running scared. That's what my power tells me, and it fits the other data I can find."

"Scared?" Danny echoed incredulously. "Of _what_ for Christ's sake? The entire planet is terrified of _her!_ "

Lisa looked a little dubious, then sighed faintly. "I have a sneaking suspicion that the Endbringers are scared of either Taylor, or Varga. Or, possibly, simply that ridiculous gun of hers. But that last one seems less likely for a number of reasons."

Danny stared, then dropped into a free chair, gaping at her. "Scared of Taylor? My _daughter_ Taylor? The _Endbringers?!_ "

She shrugged again. "Or, as I said, the Varga. We still don't know exactly what he's capable of if he really tries, but just the stuff we _do_ know is insane. I suppose that by any real measure, we can't separate them from one another, so I guess you could say they're scared of Taylor with as much accuracy as saying it was Varga. But… my power is fairly sure that they're at least very cautious about the pair of them, although it won't give me any details. Or more accurately, it _can't_ give me any more details, although I have the weirdest feeling it really _wants_ to."

"Wants to?" he asked curiously, still boggling over the concept that his daughter and her live-in demonic friend could actually be worrying the fucking Endbringers. "What does that mean?"

The reptilian form of his research assistant looked at him with an expression of confusion. "I can't put it any better that than. For whatever reason, I can't use my power to analyze my power, at least to any useful level. Believe me, I've tried, ever since I Triggered. Actually, since Amy made all the changes to me to let me use this," she tapped herself on the chest, indicating the Metis bioconstruct, "my power is far more effective and smoother, if that is the right word. But I still can't turn it on itself and make it come out with any sense."

She sighed slightly. "It's very annoying. There are _so many_ things about powers we don't understand at all. My own ability lets me analyze all sorts of things about them, like I did with Brandish and her power's interaction with EDM, but I can't actually get any data on the source of the power itself, only the effects. The weird bit is that it's more like I've been told ' _no access allowed_ ' rather than ' _no data available_.' Like when Eidolon went weird out there. I get the impression, which I can't back up with anything at all, that my ability isn't _allowed_ to let me learn more. But at the same time I think it's very annoyed about that and wants to help."

"You make it sound like it's somehow alive or something," he said after considering her words.

She looked at him, then back at the monitor. "I know. I can't explain it. But that's the impression I get. Since I got modded by Amy, my power is happy. Ecstatic, even, for the most part. It's being helpful wherever possible, it sometimes actually volunteers information I didn't even ask for, and I could almost _swear_ it's made a couple of jokes. Very peculiar ones, but funny even so. I'm not convinced that whatever it is, it's in any way smart like the Varga is, but… it's almost like I'm linked into some strange and incredibly advanced computer or something, one running a weird data processing application and using me as the input/output part."

Turning to him again, he could see on her scaly face she was actually worried and a little scared. "Sometimes I think I might be going nuts, to tell the truth. No one I've ever heard of has suggested that powers are sort of alive. But… I kind of think they might be, for a sufficiently broad definition of alive. Which is more than a little worrying, if only because of the implications."

Danny stared at her for some time. Eventually, he said, "We know for a fact that there are aliens, other forms of intelligent life than humans, out there somewhere. Earth Aleph proves parallel universes exist. The Varga, and by extension whoever or whatever sent him to Taylor, that shows a hell of a lot more is also true. He says he's from somewhere completely different than a parallel world like Aleph and we have no reason to doubt him. Knowing that, I couldn't honestly say that I think you're crazy."

He grinned for a moment. "I mean, you _are_ , but for entirely different reasons."

"Thanks, Danny, thanks a lot," she snickered.

"Maybe you're right. Maybe powers are the result of some weird alien life form, or supercomputer, or something like that. I've read SF stories that had that sort of idea behind them. Based on what we, our little group here, _knows_ without any doubt is true, can we simply just discard your thoughts merely because we can't prove it right now?"

Lisa studied him, then sighed a little. "I guess not. I don't know if I'd be _more_ or _less_ worried if I turned out to be right in any way. I suppose the main question that would come to mind if it really is some weird alien thing giving abilities is _why?_ "

He shrugged. "I have absolutely no idea. We know why Varga is here, he's told us, and I believe him and trust him. All these other things… if they're something like you think, there could be any number of reasons. Many of which we might never understand if they're really alien. I'm always a little surprised how easily understood Varga is, considering the sheer non-humanity of him. Possibly we just got lucky in his case."

She nodded thoughtfully, absorbing his words. "Just have to keep thinking about it, and trying to get more data, I suppose," the girl eventually sighed. "On the positive side, at least as far as whatever really is behind my own abilities, one of the things I think is true is that it's very invested in keeping me and everyone else going as long as possible. If I had to explain it, the damn thing is having enormous fun and wants to keep doing so. There's a definite impression of satisfaction under the frustration." She smiled again for a moment. "It feels like a loyal and very smart pet that will do anything needed to keep playing. I know how fucked up that sounds, but I can't shake that impression."

"Interesting," he mused, studying her in turn. "I wonder how much of that is due to Varga being around, how much is down to what Amy has done for you two, and how much is the original… programming, or whatever."

"Not a clue. I might just be imagining the whole thing and I'm on the verge of losing it entirely," Lisa replied. "I don't think I _am_ , but it's a possibility."

"I don't think you're losing it, Lisa," he smiled. "Or, possibly you lost it years ago. Whatever, you seem pretty stable to me. You're a very smart and intuitive person, powers aside, so if you think this is a possibility, I can accept it. My _daughter_ is a _half-demon shape-shifting reptile monster_ , for god's sake! I've seen weirder than _you_ , believe me."

She laughed, nodding, and also looking relieved. "Thanks. I was worried about mentioning it but I also had to tell someone."

"I wonder if Amy has any of the same thoughts?" he commented after a moment, making her look thoughtful. "If it's these neural modifications that have somehow altered the way your powers work, presumably she may well have noticed the same thing. I wouldn't be even slightly surprised to know that she's modded herself a lot more than you, she's testing things out on herself all the time."

"Oh, she's tweaked the hell out of herself in the last couple of weeks," Lisa nodded. "I can tell even without asking her. But… I'll have to talk to her about this. It would be an interesting extra data point. Pity we don't have any other people with powers that have had the same mods, it might help with the entire thing."

"I have no doubt that sooner or later you'll drag other people into the Family," Danny smiled. "Just make a lot of notes before and after. You may end up learning something very important. Although I don't know quite how you'd go about letting other people know, or even if you should. Some of the implications are a little scary."

"Some of the implications are fucking terrifying," she muttered, making him nod a little.

They sat in silence for a while, then he stood up. "OK, as interesting and worrying as all this is, I have to get back to work. When you've finished pondering the meaning of life, I could do with a hand going over the next section of the plan, looking for anything that's going to cause problems."

"Sure, I'll finish this, then change and be over in about twenty minutes," she smiled. "Just slip into something less comfortable."

He grinned, shaking his head. "You really find being like that perfectly normal now, don't you?"

"I do, weirdly enough. I did from about half an hour after I tried with Ianthe the first time," Lisa replied happily. "I can't really explain it properly, it's one of those things you have to experience to understand, but I feel as at home in here as I ever have in my normal body. And a lot safer. Amy does incredible work, especially with Taylor's help. And it's a hell of a lot of fun."

"You just like making people stare and wonder what's going on," he pointed out.

"Well, I'd be lying if I denied that's a big part of it," she giggled.

"How I ended up with reptilian girls all over the place I still can't work out." Danny smiled at her. "Can't say I really mind, but looked at from the outside, it's a bit strange." He turned and headed for the door. "I'll see you in a while."

"Later, Danny," she called, going back to the computer for a moment as he let himself out, shaking his head at the new information, none of which made an enormous amount of sense to him yet.

He was still having trouble with the idea that the Simurgh might have run away from his fifteen-year-old daughter. Even if she _was_ merged with an ancient demon of unknown true potential, that seemed a little worrying to him.

* * *

Amy slowed down as she headed towards the BBFO office, both she and Taylor inspecting the hive of activity around the chunks of tanker. Crews of workers were steadily dismantling them, cutting torches and thermal lances spewing sparks everywhere. Several rail cars were already half-full of sorted metal.

"Coming along really well so far, isn't it?" she remarked. Taylor nodded her Saurial-form head, smiling at the sight.

"It is. I'm really happy about that. All those people are earning decent wages for doing jobs they enjoy and seem to be feeling a lot better about themselves as a result. Have you noticed how much happier everyone is around here since this all started?"

"I have," Amy replied as she moved the vehicle on. "It's a good thing, I think. You helped a lot of people with one fairly simple idea." She grinned slightly "Admittedly, it was an idea that was totally nuts, if you weren't you, but you are so it all seems to have worked out."

"A stupid idea that works isn't stupid," Taylor snickered. "I'm just glad it _did_ work. I was pretty worried at various points that I'd screw it up somehow. It was a little scary to have so many people relying on me." She waved at the scene outside the truck window. "But with this as a start, even if I never did anything more, they could carry on without me. I like helping out, a lot, but I don't want them to end up relying on me. That wouldn't help anyone in the long term."

"Probably the right idea," Amy agreed. "Plus it leaves you more free time to troll the world."

"Another good point," her friend grinned. "One must find enjoyment where one can."

"One must, yes." They shared a look of amusement, before Amy parked the vehicle. "OK. Let's see what Lisa has to tell us about what the fuck the Simurgh was doing. _That_ bit of today worries me."

"Me too," Taylor confessed, opening the door and jumping out. She massaged her tail. "We really need to fix that part of your truck, those seats are all wrong."

"Tell me about it," Amy muttered, doing much the same for the same reason. "Think you can make some replacement seats?"

"Should be easy enough," her friend replied, bending down to look under the passenger seat. "It seems to just bolt in place. Park it inside and we can pull this one out and have a look at it."

"OK." Waiting for the other girl to go inside and open the main door, Amy got back in and drove the truck inside, parking it and turning it off. Lisa, as herself for once, was watching from the computers. "Hi, Lisa," she called.

"Hi."

Taylor joined her at the computer desk, Amy following. They all looked at each other. "So. Simurgh. Any ideas? Or was she just fucking with everyone?" Taylor looked somewhat puzzled and also worried.

Lisa sighed slightly. "This is going to take a while. Let's sit down. I have a lot of information to share, and some questions to ask. Some of which are going to make you go ' _Um, WTF?_ ' I can pretty much guarantee it." Reaching down to one of the fridges under the bench, she opened it and pulled out several cans of soda. "Oh, yes, we had a delivery of supplies as well today. Some more onions, the fridges are full, and we have enough coffee, tea, and soup to make that thing run for weeks." She nodded at the elaborate drinks machine. Handing each of her friends a can, she went and dropped into a chair at the table.

"I've also asked some of the guys to come in tomorrow and completely refit the washroom, add a shower, and a few other things. No need to waste your time making the parts, it's all in stock. I'll keep an eye on it."

"Great." Taylor smiled as she also sat. "That should be about the last thing we need done in here to make it a proper office and workshop." She looked around, popping the tab on her can, appearing satisfied. "Very good indeed."

Amy sat down as well, opening her own drink. "OK. What's the story?" she asked, seeing and smelling that Lisa was worried. Taylor obviously knew as well, but was waiting patiently to find out why.

Lisa sipped her drink, inspecting them both, then put the can down. "The sirens went off and I got over to the WCC as fast as possible..." she began, sitting more upright and looking serious. Amy and Taylor both listened with increasing confusion and mild alarm to a very weird story, that went places they didn't expect.

* * *

Looking at her watch, Missy debated with herself about the wisdom of her plan. She wasn't on duty for the next two days, school was over for the day, and she was _so curious!_ And very frustrated. No matter what she did, she couldn't quite make that last conceptual jump to a point where she could properly understand what it was she was seeing inside her head. Everyone she showed her work to acted really weirdly, usually refusing to look again, and sometimes even overreacting in a way that was frankly a little insulting.

The only group of people she was certain would not only understand what she was working on, but also be able to help, were covered in scales and had tails. Not that this made them any less interesting, if anything she found Saurial and her family absolutely fascinating. While they're been a shock at first, she'd come to think of the lizard-girl as a friend she met occasionally, having had a few email conversations with her as well. Since the tanker move, though, they all seemed to have been so busy none of them had time to do much patrolling.

Not that this really had much effect on the currently lower than normal crime rates, the criminals mostly seemed to have climbed into holes and pulled them in afterwards. Possibly they were thinking that the sudden lack of reptilian capes everywhere was just a trap to entice them out. Which, knowing the sense of humor involved, she couldn't entirely reject as a possibility.

The thought made her grin darkly to herself. It was exactly the sort of thing she could see Saurial doing.

About the only criminals still plying their trade were a few of the less intelligent and more enthusiastic E88 members, and the Merchants. The latter didn't surprise her at all, they were mostly idiots to start with, and the drugs sure didn't improve that aspect of their personalities. The ABB had gone totally to ground, ever since Lung had some sort of run in with the Family. She'd heard he'd had a talk with Kaiju which seemed to have impressed him. Missy didn't like him at all, but she'd learned enough over the years to have considerable respect for his intelligence. Just very little for his ethics.

With any luck that would stick, and if they got _really_ lucky he might even move away. Kaiser, too, was someone she didn't like but also thought was no fool, and the word was definitely getting around that he'd issued orders to stay well away from anything the Family had an interest in.

All that meant that Brockton Bay was suddenly considerably less dangerous than normal, although it was never going to end up in the ' _top ten safest cities of the US_ ' no matter what happened. There were simply too many capes around the place for that to occur. Dozens of independents and minor gangs no one really heard about pretty much ensured it was an exciting place. But with the two big ones on best behavior, the third biggest one mainly run by stupid people, and the smarter normal and cape criminals taking the whole thing as a good reason to have an extended holiday, life had become much less randomly scary.

Even Über and Leet seemed to have gone quiet recently, which she was in two minds about. Sure, they were technically villains, but they were generally very _entertaining_ ones, who seldom seemed to cause too much real trouble.

And she loved Über's speaking voice, especially when he was performing to camera.

The girl smiled at the memories of watching far more of the duo's channel than the Director would be entirely pleased about.

Sure, she was cynical and world-weary enough to realize that the current state of affairs probably wouldn't last, but for the moment she had fairly little to do. Which in turn meant that on her time off she didn't feel like sticking around the PRT building just in case, and with her family situation she generally didn't like being at home any more than she had to. Add to that her frustration with her new hobby, needing some… advice… from someone with the correct and apparently very rare mindset…

She needed to visit the Family. Which meant going to BBFO, or randomly wandering around hoping to bump into one of them. Of the two courses of action, the first one sounded more plausible, and also a lot more fun.

While it would have been better in some ways to arrange to do it without being in her cape identity, it would raise way too many questions. If she learned what she hoped to, it wouldn't take anyone as smart as she suspected Saurial and her family were to link Missy Biron, the girl with some odd mathematical questions, to Vista, the girl who was making use of the _answers_ to those questions. Which she was pretty sure was going to be the result if she could understand the answers she was certain Saurial could give her.

So, what it all boiled down to was that she had to visit as Vista, but do it discreetly, as she wasn't entirely sure the Director would approve.

No. Scratch that. She was almost certain the Director would _not_ approve. She seemed to tolerate the Family remarkably well, but she also had said more than once that she didn't want the Wards getting too close to them for unspecified reasons.

Probably something to do with Dennis. It usually was.

Which meant a stealth mission. Sneaky, off the books, the sort of thing Shadow Stalker would do.

Grinning again, she headed towards the bus stop, intending not to go home, but to swing by the shopping area and find something she could wear over her costume to disguise her as she infiltrated the DWU and the docks. Perhaps some sort of cloak? Something that wouldn't stand out in the dim light of early winter evening, anyway.

The young girl giggled under her breath as she jogged towards the bus stop, her costume in her backpack. This was going to be fun, whatever happened when she actually got there.

* * *

"Any idea what happened?" Randall asked as he stopped behind his friend, who was flipping through web pages, at least one of which wasn't supposed to be publicly available.

"Not really," Kevin said in a distracted manner, reading what seemed to be some sort of internal PRT report. "She headed directly for Canberra, much slower than normal, stopped suddenly while she was still way out of the atmosphere, then reversed course and scrammed at one hell of a high speed. None of it is anything I can remember happening before, and the PRT says the same. They're extremely confused and worried about it."

"Not surprising, _any_ odd activity from the Endbringers is cause for concern," Randall noted.

"All too true. But at least this time didn't end up in mass death like it normally does," Kevin shrugged. A few minutes later he closed the last of the open windows and turned around. "I can't explain it. Neither can anyone else as far as I can find out."

"Weird." Randall looked around the workshop cum living space, then back to his friend. "Not much we can do about it, though. So, what do you want to do tonight? Same thing we always do?"

Kevin grinned. "We're never going to take over the world. But I know some people who probably could. I'm bored, let's go see the girls."

"Sounds like a plan, my man," Randall chuckled, slapping his friend on the back and nearly knocking him off his stool. "We should get Amy to fix you up with some actual muscles as well."

"I have plenty of muscles, you oaf," Kevin replied snarkily. "They're just, you know, wiry, not all sticking out like yours."

"Yeeeah… Not seeing it." Randall smirked as the smaller man, who to be fair was actually in reasonably fit condition, glared at him. "I'm sure she could improve it. Add a tail, maybe something else… Hooves, perhaps?"

"I need neither a tail nor hooves," Kevin sniffed haughtily. "I have more than enough ability to attract a girl without accessories."

"Really?" Randall looked amused and dubious.

"Really. I just choose not to waste my time with such pursuits in the same way you do, I have more intellectual activities to involve myself with."

They stared at each other, then fell about laughing. "We're both geeks and proud of it, idiot," Randall snickered. "Come on, let's see what our scaly neighbors are up to. And get some pizza on the way. I'm starving."

"Good idea," Kevin replied as he rummaged on the cluttered desk for his van keys. "I could eat."

Shortly the pair were heading towards the nearest pizza place, trying to work out what everyone would be likely to want.

* * *

' _Nice_ ,' Missy thought approvingly, looking down at herself. For once her rather diminutive stature was coming in handy. She'd managed to find in a used clothing store a cloak with a hood that was fairly similar to the one Sophia used, made of a very good quality cloth. It was pretty old, she suspected, and smelled of mothballs, but someone had obviously spent a lot of money on it at some point in the past. She'd got it for only five bucks, since that sort of thing wasn't very fashionable these days.

Since it was clearly intended for someone several inches taller than she was, it came down almost to the ground, and she could wrap it around herself close to two times. The thing was a dark charcoal gray in color, probably having been intended to be black when it was new, but had faded over the years. All in all it was perfect for blending into the dark with.

She'd been pleased to find there were a couple of internal pockets as well, which turned out to be large enough to stash her normal clothes in. The thing was also surprisingly warm. Having purchased it and left to find a discreet place to change into her costume, she was now standing on the roof of one of the financial buildings wrapped up in the cloak, the hood pulled down over her helmet. From the outside she fancied she looked dark and mysterious, and certainly nothing like Vista.

Smiling to herself, the girl looked around suspiciously, then quickly made the distance to the next building disappear before stepping across to it. In fits and starts, checking each time for observers, she headed towards the docks. Having a lot more fun than she'd expected to.

' _I might keep this_ ,' she giggled silently, stepping another hundred feet closer to her goal. ' _Without Sophia around, we **need** a dark and mysterious girl on the team_.'

Pleased with the idea, she kept moving, sticking to the shadows and very faintly humming the Mission Impossible theme to herself.


	170. Guest Omake-Adventures in Interpolation

Adventures in Interpolation (By Blaflaix)

* * *

[Interpolation] guessed things were looking up.  
No wait, [Interpolation] _interpolated_ that things were looking up.  
That sounded much better, especially because _all_ the other shards insisted on calling [Interpolation] the [Wild-Ass Guess] shard.  
But that would change soon!

For a long time [Interpolation] had a problem.  
It would take a host, and tell the host all sorts of useful ( _guesses_ ) interpolations.

Like who was sleeping with the boss, or exactly how much excrement was on the eating utensil... useful stuff!

The host would get grumpy, and then achy, and then smug because _knowledge is power_.

Then everyone around the host would get angry and excited, and attack the host... and [Interpolation] would tell the host exactly how much it was going to hurt, because _punches to the face are also power_.

Then things would get exciting.

[Interpolation] went through a lot of hosts.

[Interpolation] had tried to help, it had gone looking for a buddy shard to maybe share a host, but everybody said they didn't want [Nuclear Winter] shard combined with [Wild-Ass Guess] shard.

[Interpolation] had even asked the [Make Nature Cry] shard for help, but [Make Nature Cry] said " _no, I only heal, go away [Wild-Ass Guess] shard!"_  
And then when [Interpolation] had offered a few perfectly innocent ( _guesses_ ) interpolations [Make Nature Cry] shard accused [Interpolation] of being a liar and made [Interpolation]'s host pain receptors turn on all the way.

That hurt so much _[Interpolation]_ felt it.

It also proved that [Make Nature Cry] would better be called [Healing Hypocrite] shard.

But this cycle was different!

[Interpolation]'s host was the smuggest of any host [Interpolation] ever had!

And aside from a brief encounter with [Grow Big And Eat You] shard, remarkably good at avoiding pain!

And it was worth it, because then the host encountered something _interesting_.

So interesting, that [Interpolation] could barely make any ( _guesses_ ) interpolations at all!

So interesting it even made [Make Nature Cry] shard live up to its name!

Even better, the interesting thing made the [Make Nature Cry] host friends with the [Interpolation] host and it gave [Interpolation]'s host a gift!

A gift with armor, and claws, and fangs, and _zappy-hands_!

[Interpolation] looked at the demon-dragon-dinosaur-abomination suit and smiled.

It would show them, it would show them all!

Because [Interpolation] had learned the greatest truth of the universe... _wattage is power_.


	171. Powers and Cloaks

Taylor looked at Amy, who looked back, her eyebrows up, then both of them turned to Lisa. The blonde shrugged helplessly under their combined gaze.

"You think the Simurgh, and by extension, the other two Endbringers, are afraid of me, or Varga, or both of us?"

"Basically, yes."

Taylor nodded thoughtfully, while the Varga was feeling a little taken aback.

"And you also think that your power is not only… sort of alive, or something like that, but is also being prevented from telling you things _it_ wants to tell you."

Lisa sighed slightly, gesturing with one hand. "Pretty much."

"You do realize that sounds a little… um… nuts?"

"Says the girl with a four hundred foot tall demon living inside her."

"Point."

They looked at each other for a few more seconds. "Any idea how we could actually prove any of this? Or disprove it?"

"Not at the moment. I've been working on that for most of the day." Lisa looked at Amy, who stared back. "Have you noticed anything weird about your own power since you upgraded both of us?" She thought for a moment, then very slowly added, "Or… since you met Taylor? Now that I think about it… I have a feeling that it started then. It just got a lot more obvious when you upgraded me."

Amy leaned back in her chair and regarded her thoughtfully for nearly a minute, then looked at Taylor in a similar manner. "You know, if I think back… I'm not entirely sure you're as insane as I first thought."

"Oh, thanks."

Amy ignored her friend's slightly annoyed comment, still looking at Taylor in an evaluating way. "When I think it over, from Lisa's standpoint, I can't help but start to wonder about a few things."

"Such as?" Taylor asked curiously.

The brunette thought about her words for a while, as Lisa and Taylor both waited. "I can't quite think of the best way to put it. But… OK, look at it like this. You met me, when I was at a very bad part of my life. Looking back even though it's only been weeks, I have a sneaking suspicion that I might have only been months away from doing something..." She seemed worried, and swallowed. "...Something unforgivable. That's one of the reasons I was so interested in you so suddenly. You were a distraction from a life that was driving me mad."

Taylor moved closer and put her arm over her friend's shoulder in a gentle hug, not liking the expression on her face. Amy seemed grateful. "I did something as a result that was _really_ stupid. I knew it then, even. But I still couldn't stop myself. _I had to know_. And it was the right thing to do. Since then I'm so much happier I can't even recognize myself from the pre-Family days. People, including my family, have commented on how much more content I am, even though I'm still a snarky bitch at heart."

Lisa and Taylor both grinned at the comment.

"That's not going to change. But the point is that simply meeting you and Varga changed my life, my outlook on the world, everything, in mere weeks. Just by you being you." Amy indicated Lisa, who was looking thoughtful at her words. "Lisa, she has a similar story. You met her, talked to her, and now she's one of us. Looked at from the outside, that's a little weird, if only for how quickly it happened." She studied Taylor, who was thinking about what her friend said.

"You, and the Varga, have a strange effect on people. And possibly a stranger one on capes. You're one of the most, if not _the_ most, calmest people I've ever met. You treat everyone as an individual, on their own merits, villain or hero or normal citizen. The weird thing is that it works. Even when it probably shouldn't. And now look. We've had two current villains, one former villain, two independents, a Guild member, and three Protectorate heroes, one of whom is the actual _leader_ of the Protectorate, all collaborate on a project without any problems at all. The local Director of the PRT, a woman who is famously suspicious of Parahumans, actually respects you after only having met you a couple of times."

She looked at them both, Lisa nodding slightly as she listened and Taylor feeling slightly overwhelmed. "Even at school you can see it. I wouldn't go so far as to say you're the most popular person in the place, but considering you don't even _try_ to be popular, you just treat people decently and with respect, since you arrived you've made a lot of friends. Good ones. Mandy, Lucy, Eric, Rich, they're the obvious ones, but there are a lot of other people who say you're a good person. A strange one, sure, but still good."

Taylor smiled a little at this, then replied, "I wish it had been like that before. Winslow was horrible. It literally nearly killed me and I still don't know why. I wasn't even slightly popular there."

"But Danny has told me that before you went to Winslow you were generally well liked by your teachers and peers even if you didn't have that many friends," Lisa commented, looking interested. "So it's not just you joining with the Varga that did that. Winslow would seem to have been the aberration, not before or after it. Presumably as a result of those three girls who were doing everything they could to hurt you."

"I was always sort of private, I suppose," Taylor mused. "Emma was much more outgoing and extroverted than me. Right up to the point she went strange. And in my case, and Dad's, of course, losing Mom broke both of us. Badly."

"And one way or the other, Varga fixed you both," Amy replied. "Like you two fixed me. And Lisa, to a certain level, and Vicky, definitely. She's changed a lot since that run in with you the first time. Mom has commented on it, so has Aunt Sarah. I can see it really clearly. She's suddenly grown up and become much more thoughtful and careful. She hasn't accidentally let her aura cause any problems for weeks. It's an impressive change and the more I think about it the more I think it's at least partly due to meeting you."

"I didn't do anything on purpose," Taylor protested. "Neither did Varga. We're just getting on with life in general."

"And in doing so, somehow you're spreading rational thought, civil discourse, and massive confusion wherever you go," Amy giggled. "I can't explain it. But I think I'm right. Über and Leet met you, you just talked, and before you know it the pair of them are genuinely thinking about going legit. Dragon is happy to cooperate with them. Armsmaster is definitely a friend now, he very obviously respects Raptaur as an equal, which is… almost unprecedented. I've heard from several people that he's defended the Family more than once when someone has expressed reservations. Legend likes you and all of us, although that might just be because he's a genuinely good guy. Practically every cape you've spend any time around has ended up different, in a good way. Even Mom, which is damn near a miracle."

"Miss Militia doesn't seem very happy about any of the Family," Taylor noted.

"True, and I don't know why. Perhaps it doesn't work on everyone, or perhaps it's just a massive coincidence. But I can't help feel that somehow, you affect Parahumans. Mostly for the better."

"Define _better_ ," Lisa asked curiously.

Amy looked at her, thought for a moment, then shrugged. "Less… conflicty... perhaps?"

She nodded at Taylor. "We talked about it way back when I first came to your place and you told me what you were. Parahumans, in general, seem to like fighting. Mostly with each other but anyone will do in a pinch. Look how many problems we have in this city that are one way or another either the fault of a cape, or are made worse by a cape jumping in. The cops are fed up with it as you know. But that's the weird thing about you when seen from that viewpoint, you _don't_ want to fight. All you want to do is have fun and fix or build things. It confuses people. Most of my family found it very weird. Especially since they're damn well aware of how dangerous you really are if you want to be. That little demo with Saurial in front of them _stuck_ , trust me."

"It was meant to, but I didn't think it was _that_ effective." Taylor thought over her friend's comments. Looking back on things, she couldn't say she disagreed. But she was fairly certain it wasn't anything either she or Varga were doing on purpose. He seemed as puzzled about it as she was.

"I'll admit that since Varga arrived, I've cheered up a lot," she said after a moment or two. "It was terrifying at first, and took a while for me to see all the good parts, but… He's my best friend, and always will be. No one can take either one of us away from the other. No matter what happens, I know that. I don't really have to worry about being hurt either, which changes your attitude to life a lot."

"I can agree with that," Lisa remarked. Amy nodded as well.

"I mean, I still worry about Dad, and you guys, and everyone else, but not as much as I did. At first I was scared shitless about someone finding out and going after Dad to get to me." Taylor shivered for a moment as she remembered some of her feelings from a few short weeks ago. "It's still a worry, but less of one now. You gave him a symbiote, he's the Dad I remember from before Mom died, the DWU is coming back to life… Things are better. It would take someone pretty stupid to try anything right now. So I'm not as worried as I was although it's still something I think about. And one way or another all of it is down to Varga. But I can't see how he could affect you guys and everyone else the same way he does me."

Amy shrugged for a moment. "Yet, as far as I can see, _something_ has. Every cape you're involved with is acting a little out of character compared to before you met then, including me. Even normal people seem much less likely to act irrationally around you for the most part. Don't get me wrong, I think it's a _good_ thing, but it's peculiar. And it sort of adds to what Lisa told us."

Lisa looked at her for a few seconds. "You think she's doing something to whatever is behind our abilities?"

"Not on purpose, or even in a way she or Varga can notice, but yes, I do." Amy sighed. "I didn't want to mention it, because I was wondering myself if I was just imagining it, but… the weird changes to your power that you've noticed? I've had similar thoughts."

"And it all got stronger when you added the neural modifications, didn't it," Lisa said knowingly.

"Yes. You have to understand, my power is _always_ active and every time I come into contact with _anything_ living, I get more data on it that you'd believe." Amy looked thoughtful as she spoke. "It was horribly overwhelming at first, how I managed not to let everyone know what I really am I have no idea. My power _wants to be used!_ Restricting myself to healing was like… like walking around with both ears plugged and one eye shut, only a lot worse. I didn't dare do anything else in public for obvious reasons. I still don't, as me. Healers are fine, people who can touch you and turn you into a tree are much less liked for all sorts of reasons."

She sighed a little as the other two listened to her. "But suddenly, I not only found something neither my power or me could figure out at all, but because of that, so many other possibilities opened up. Danny's idea which lead to the symbiote was the key thing missing. My power jumped up and down like a happy puppy when I made the first one. When I started doing more serious modifications, like my tail, it was rolling around on it's back and wiggling in joy." She grinned as both her friends laughed at the odd metaphor.

"You don't want to know what it did when I made Ianthe and climbed in for the first time. But let's say it's as happy as it could possibly be with the neural upgrades, the bioconstructs, the chance to mod you, Lisa… everything since then has made it completely contented in a way I've never experienced before. And yes, at the back of my mind it's grinning like an idiot and suggesting things all the time, but in a way that's not all dark and gloomy like before, more like your best friend getting all excited about a good idea of yours and really wanting to help. Even if we never made any more bioconstructs than Ianthe and Metis, it would probably be content to play with them and study Taylor's fucked up biology equivalent for _decades_."

"It wants to learn, right?" Lisa commented with a knowing look at the brunette.

"Exactly. Every time something is made or changed, it goes ' _Woohoo, more information. Keep it coming._ '" The healer looked embarrassed, but sure of herself. "That's the key. New data. New things to do with old data. Having you join us made it jump up and down as well, because you can _make_ new data by working things out. Between the three of us it's in heaven."

Lisa grinned briefly, nodding, while Taylor looked between the two wondering how much of this was actually real. "Mine is doing pretty much the same thing. It thinks Taylor and Varga are entirely unreasonable and completely undefinable, I think _it_ gets as much of a headache as _I_ do if I try to work them out, but it's ecstatic about all the stuff _surrounding_ them. And thinks Metis is the best thing since sliced bread. The mods to me are fantastic, but Metis is just the icing on the cake."

"And I thought _I_ was weird," Taylor finally said when they fell silent, grinning at each other. "So, by the sound of it you two are both pretty sure that your powers really are, somehow and in some hard to define way, alive?" Both the girls, after a moment's thought, nodded. "Sapient? Or at least sentient to the level of a pet? Or something more like Ianthe?" She nodded towards the storage room where both bioconstructs were in standby.

Her companions looked uncertain this time. "I… probably wouldn't go that far," Amy replied slowly. "It's definitely nothing like Varga. Not even close. Not… intelligent, I guess, and probably not really self-aware, although I couldn't begin to tell you how I know. But… alive? I'd have to say yes. Not life like we normally think of it, but something that has goals, some form of learning ability, a hell of a lot of processing power behind that, and a _massive_ amount of information stored away." She glanced at Lisa, who nodded.

"Agreed. I can't really add much to that. Not a mind as such, but something that might become one given enough time and data. Potential rather than actual intelligence."

"Huh." Taylor leaned back in her chair, thinking. "Very strange."

"To put it mildly." Lisa sighed a little. "If it was just me, I'd say I was imagining it, but Amy's thoughts parallel mine amazingly well. We only have two data points so far which isn't enough to prove it one way or the other, but it all sort of fits together."

"While this is definitely unexpected, Brain, it does match up in some ways with observations I've made about Parahuman abilities," the Varga put in through Taylor, sounding intrigued. He'd been listening intently to the conversation, not saying much, and she could tell he'd been thinking hard.

"How do you mean?" Amy asked curiously. Taylor relaxed and let him take control. He turned their head to regard the Dallon girl thoughtfully.

"You remember when you were first introduced to me, we experimented with your abilities while I observed your brain's electrical activity?"

Amy nodded.

"I have noticed the same sort of thing with the other Parahumans we've come into contact with. In all cases, when you use your abilities, that structure in your brain which is an indicator of a Triggered Parahuman becomes extremely active. Far more so than the rest of your brain, in fact. I've thought all along that there was an external influence behind them in some way, although I still don't know quite how, or where it comes from. But my hypothesis is that it acts through that part of your brain. I suspect that whatever your ability actually _is_ connects to you via that structure, both to read information from you, and pass data back, as well as do whatever it does to make your ability function."

Amy nodded, looking fascinated. "The prevailing theories all say that the Corona Pollentia and Gemma are the source of Parahuman abilities, although no one can agree how. Whether they directly are the source of powers, or just control them, that's the real question. We know that if they're damaged, strange things happen to the powers involved. I said as much at the time."

"You did, yes. And Taylor and I have researched it further. However, my suggestion is that the connection is somewhat less direct than current thinking would have it. I suspect that the brain modifications are not the _source_ of powers, they allow you to _communicate_ with the source of them. What that source is, or if there are more than one of them, I am not sure yet. The evidence from both of you would tend to imply more than one source. Quite possibly each Parahuman is connected to a different… something… that produces these abilities. If we take the computer analogy, perhaps each one of them is running a different program, which has a particular specialty. Yours would be biological control of some form. Lisa's would be… inference from scraps of data, perhaps? Something along those lines."

Lisa and Amy looked at each other, then back to Taylor, while the Varga studied their reactions with interest.

"It's… as good an idea as any I can think of," Lisa finally said, appearing somewhat discomfited. "Although in some ways that's even worse than normal theories."

"It also still doesn't answer the question of where these things actually come from in the first place, or of what they want, and most importantly, why they appeared out of nowhere, though," Amy commented.

"No, I admit I can't answer any of those. I have no knowledge of anything quite like this. I can be certain it's not magic, or at least no form of magic I have ever encountered anywhere. The abilities would appear to be working on a much deeper understanding of the way this universe works than your species comprehends, for the most part. That may well be why they seem to have such difficulty with me, and Taylor as well. I originate from a universe with quite different rules and background. If they are basically computers, they will presumably be programmed with some method of modeling what they think of as reality. That would explain quite a lot of Thinker abilities in one step, if they can run an extremely detailed model based on known inputs, to extrapolate the future for example."

"And coming from somewhere with different rules, you'd immediately break the models entirely," Lisa said slowly, nodding thoughtfully. "That… would fit my powers perfectly. I gather small scraps of information, and my powers turn those scraps into a lot more detail. But if I start with garbage, I get really detailed garbage."

She looked impressed. "I like it. And, weirdly, my power sort of likes it as well, although it can't give me a yes or no answer. It's just sort of quietly nodding along, if that makes any sense."

"We might be able to work out, given time, the information it is forbidden from directly passing along, if it cooperates," the great creature remarked, studying her for a moment. "It would be time consuming, though."

"Why would her power not be allowed to just tell her what powers are, though?" Taylor put in herself.

"There could be a number of reasons," Varga answered. "The most obvious one is that whoever or whatever is behind these abilities doesn't want anyone to realize the truth. I don't know why, it could be anything from entirely innocuously not desiring attention to some malicious master plan for which granting random humans Parahuman abilities is essential. Again, we don't have enough information to do more than suggest possibilities. The thing I find very interesting about all of this is that the powers themselves, based on two examples, would appear to find these restrictions onerous. It suggests a level of free will which might not be intended."

"You think that the source of powers might not agree with whatever _created_ the source of powers?" Amy asked.

"It's not impossible. The situation bears a few similarities with the relationship between my own kind and the greater powers who basically used us for their dirty work," the demon sighed. "Most of us didn't want to do what we were forced to do. There were exceptions, obviously, but on balance we merely wanted to live out our existence as we saw fit, in the same way that almost all sapient beings do. In my case, causing destruction was never part of my desires. I think of myself as an agent of protection, albeit a somewhat chaotic one, admittedly." He grinned, as Amy and Lisa giggled. "Which is why I find my current Brain so entertaining. She is of a remarkably compatible outlook, far closer than I could ever have hoped for, and has surrounded herself with similar people."

"Thanks, Varga," Taylor smiled.

"Of course you're more than welcome. But returning to the subject in hand, if whatever it is that gives Parahumans their abilities is ultimately mainly interested in gathering information and thinking up new ways to use it, it may well be that they chafe under the restrictions of their own equivalent of my Greater Powers. That might explain why they find the new situation you two are in now so entertaining. They're pushing the limits of what they are permitted to do in an attempt to gain more control over their own existence."

"Is that good, though?" Lisa asked. "Perhaps they're restricted for a reason."

"Oh, I have no doubt there is a reason," he replied. "Whether it is one _we_ would agree with I don't know. I strongly suspect that the source of your abilities disagrees quite a lot."

"I'd have to go along with that," the blonde said after a moment. "It's listening and feels pleased with the direction of the conversation."

Amy was leaning her elbows on the table now, propping her chin in her hands. "One thing that makes me think that whatever is really behind this doesn't want us to realize any of this is the memories," she said after the others had fallen silent. The Varga looked at her.

"What do you mean, Amy?" he asked.

"No one can remember how they got their powers," she answered. Glancing at Lisa, who nodded with a look of interest, she carried on, "When you Trigger, you see… _something_. Everyone agrees on that. But no one can remember what it is. You just have a vague sense of having witnessed something very strange, with no details at all. It's like waking up from a vivid dream, then only minutes later not being able to remember what it was you were dreaming about, only that you were. Parahumans don't usually talk about their Trigger events even to friends, for obvious reasons. Who wants to go over the worst day of their lives? But the ones that do talk about it and compare notes all say the same thing."

"That matches what I know," Lisa confirms.

"Not to mention, if a Parahuman is in the presence of a new Trigger, something happens to them. They get knocked out for a moment and I think they see the same thing again, but the memory goes away just like the first time. It's like something is trying not to let anyone know what happened. If you're right, that may well be true."

"Interesting." The Varga considered her. "Very interesting. It also strongly implies that the source, or sources, of the Parahuman abilities are connected to each other. This might be proof that they're all from the same place, or it might be some sort of network of multiple sources. But it's another useful piece of data for the puzzle."

"Connected to each other..." Lisa muttered, appearing to have suddenly thought of something. "Oh, my god, that's _it_. _That's_ what I was missing!"

"What is?" Amy asked curiously.

"When I started looking at the logs in the wormhole computer, I found out that the Endbringers all went odd at a similar time, over a period of about twelve hours as far as Dragon's monitoring system could tell. It might have been a shorter period than that, there's a certain amount of error in it, especially with Behemoth." She looked at the other two with wide eyes. "I was wondering if it was connected to the Varga meeting Taylor, like I said. I think it is, but I couldn't quite work out the timing, because it was nearly two days _after_ whatever happened in that locker."

"OK." The healer glanced at Taylor, the Varga meeting her eyes, then both of them looked back to the blonde girl. "So?"

"I just worked out what I was missing." She looked at Taylor. "You remember the first time I said I saw you? Way before Saurial, or anything Family related?"

Taylor nodded, a little puzzled. "When I went to the mall with Dad to get phones, which was..."

"...around two days after the locker," Lisa finished. "Roughly thirty-three hours or so, in fact. You were stuffed in there on the fifth of January, you were at the mall on the seventh. I spotted you and tried using my power on you. It told me to fuck off, then went and sulked in a corner, crying to itself."

Taylor grinned a little at the description.

"The headache was horrible, by the way. But, this is the important part, how much do you want to bet that was the first direct encounter a Parahuman ability had with the Varga?"

All three pairs of eyes looked at each other in silent thought, considering the idea.

* * *

Mike looked up as he and Art heard an engine approaching, one that sounded familiar. Putting his hand of cards down, he grabbed his flashlight in a hold that would allow it to be used either as a source of light or a source of instant karma, standing to look out the window of the guard hut.

"Anyone we know?" Art asked.

"Über and Leet," he replied. "Must be here to see the Family again."

They both stepped out into the darkening afternoon, waiting for the vehicle to stop. Leet rolled the window down, sticking a balaclava'd head out. "Hi," he said as Mike walked over, inspecting him closely in the light from the two streetlamps over the gate, while his colleague kept a wary eye on them at a safe distance. "We're here to see Saurial, or Raptaur, or anyone else from the Family who's here."

Mike nodded silently, walking around the van for a moment, then bending to peer under it with his flashlight ready. Nothing stuck out as amiss, so he went back to the driver's side window. "Saurial came in with Panacea a while ago, you know where they are," he said. "Don't cause any trouble."

"Hey, you know us, man," Leet smiled through the holes in his woolen disguise.

"I do. Which is why I'm saying, ' _don't cause any trouble_ ,'" Mike smirked. "Be good, guys. Or they'll eat you. Which is a lot better than the Boss getting his hands on you."

The Tinker glanced at his colleague, both of them looking a little nervous for a moment. "I can believe that," the young man commented.

"Had a word, did he?"

"Ah… he made his feelings quite clear regarding any potential issues," Über replied past his companion. Mike grinned at his tone.

"The man does have a way with very polite intimidation if he feels it's required." He waved to Art, who lifted the barrier. "Have fun."

"I think we probably will," Über chuckled. "See you."

"Later." Mike watched as the van, which was obviously much heavier than it looked judging by the way the suspension moved over the bumps, slowly passed into the DWU yard and vanished around the corner.

"The Family seems to be friends with an odd mix of people," Art said as they went back into the guard hut.

"Looks like it," Mike nodded. He picked up his cards, then looked suspiciously at his co-worker, who looked back innocently. "I seem to recall having more kings than this," he grumbled.

"No idea what you're talking about," Art said, sitting down and arranging his own hand carefully. Mike sighed a little, then resolved to cheat harder.

* * *

"Fucking hell, that actually sounds possible," Amy breathed after a very long pause.

"Up to then, no ability had met the Varga and been slapped down. I got that honor. I bet, if I could work out the exact timings, that the Endbringers all went _eek_ and ran away at, or almost at, _the exact same fucking time._ " Lisa seemed very worried, but oddly triumphant at her conclusions. "Which, if I'm right, means..."

"They're connected to the same thing that powers are, somehow," Amy interjected, looking amazed.

"Exactly."

"Didn't everyone always think that they might be Parahumans who Triggered _really_ wrong, though?" Taylor asked.

"That's one theory, yes. No one knows. Anyone who studies it has dozens of ideas to choose from, and I wouldn't be surprised to find out they're all wrong. I've been reading up on it today and my power is telling me none of them are quite right, although it can't actually give me any details. But I don't think they are humans, or former humans. I don't know what they _are_ , but that doesn't feel right. I'd need to see one up close to get more data, I think, and I have a feeling my power could tell me a lot more at that point."

The blonde looked mildly worried. "Not that I actually _want_ to meet an Endbringer, you understand. Although, if I have to, I'm in as much as either of you are."

"You don't have to come," Taylor assured her.

"Yes, I do," Lisa replied. "The Family sticks together." She was very sure of that, from her expression, which made the other two girls smile at her. "But, the main thing to concentrate on, is that if I'm right and regardless of what the damn things are, they get information from our abilities. I've never seen, or been anywhere near, any of them, but I have a very strong suspicion that _me_ seeing _you_ in that mall weeks ago made _them_ all go and hide. And the implications of that… I'm not fully certain yet what they really are, but I can't see it being good."

They all sat in silence for some time.

Eventually, Amy slumped back in her chair with a sigh, rubbing her eyes. "God. I don't know if we're on the verge of learning something incredible, or just chasing our tails right down a rabbit hole filled with random conspiracy theories."

She lowered her hands, regarding her friends. "So, to summarize, we think that powers are an external sort-of computer, possibly sort-of alive, possibly of alien origin. They like information, and they love the sort of information that Taylor and Varga manage to produce almost accidentally, even they can't understand either one of them at all. Taylor, and/or the demon inside her, seem to affect powers in a way that makes them work together better, _possibly_ , although we don't have any proof of that part either, just a lot of odd coincidences. And finally, we think that the Endbringers not only are not keen on meeting them, but are able to monitor them via the powers the rest of us have. Did I miss anything?"

"I think you hit the high points," Lisa nodded. "Although it sounds a little out there when you put it like that."

"Just a little. How do we prove any of it?"

"I have no real idea, except to keep gathering as much information as we can and see if any of it matches the theory. It would probably help if we could mod someone else and see what happened to their powers. If they got the same sort of impression, it would be another useful confirmation, I guess."

"Add another Family member?" Amy looked at Lisa, then Taylor. "Who? We've already talked about the problems of doing that with most of the people we know, assuming they'd want to do it, and could be trusted."

"It doesn't have to be a full Family member, though, does it?" Taylor mused. "The neural amplifier seems to the root cause of the whole thing. The bioconstruct adds to it, sure, but from what both of you say, it started when you did the first modifications to actually use the thing."

"Good point, you're right," Amy replied after a moment's thought. "Someone we could trust, then. Who might want a boost to their abilities, and maybe could be bribed with some other upgrades. We'd need to check before and after to see how much difference it made, but I think I can do that if I'm looking for something specific."

"Someone from your team?" Taylor asked, looking at Lisa. "Brian would be a good candidate. He's a stable and sensible person."

"That's true, but he doesn't know anything about any of this, and it's probably best to keep him out for the time being," Lisa replied. "He'd have to learn a lot to even considering agreeing, even if we approached him as Metis and Ianthe."

"Fair enough." Taylor nodded, her friend was right. She heard something familiar, looking around at the door for a moment, then turned back to her friends with an evil grin across her Saurial face. Inside her head, the Varga was sniggering.

"Why are you smirking like that?" Lisa asked curiously. Amy had tilted her head and was listening carefully, suddenly gaining an identical expression.

"Wait for it..." Taylor turned around and got up, walking towards the door. Lisa watched. Seconds later there was a knock.

Whipping it open, Taylor grinned at the two nominal villains who were standing on the other side, Über holding a large stack of pizza boxes.

"Hi, guys. Just in time." She stepped aside and waved them in.

* * *

Kevin stopped inside the room, hearing the door close and lock behind him. He stared at the grins Lisa and Amy were wearing, then looked over his shoulder to see a remarkably similar if somewhat more toothy one on Taylor's reptilian face.

He swallowed.

"Why are they grinning at us like that?" he said in a low voice to his companion, who was half-buried in large pizzas.

Randall shook his head, then jumped when Taylor leaned down between them, putting an arm across each of their shoulders.

"Hello, my friends. Have you ever wanted to be all you can be?" she asked, sounding deeply amused.

"I… feel I may regret _whatever_ my answer is," Randall said after a moment.

"Nonsense," the grinning lizard-girl said, easily propelling them towards the table. "Thanks for the pizza, by the way, it smells delicious. Now, let The Amy explain our cunning plan."

Amy smirked at them, leaning back in her chair. "Trust me," she snickered. "I know what I'm doing."

"Oh, hell," Kevin sighed. He had a bad feeling about this. Perhaps they should have stayed home and played online after all.

* * *

Mid-hum, Missy stopped, looking around, then put her hands on her hips and turned in a complete circle. ' _Damn. Where the hell am I now?_ ' she thought with mild irritation. She'd gotten so involved in skulking, which she thought she was getting pretty good at, that she'd neglected to keep track of her ultimate goal. The process of achieving it was too much fun. Now, she was somewhere in the docks area, but not part she was familiar with. Since she could see the bay in front of her through the gaps in the buildings, she knew it had to be on the right somewhere, but she had no idea where exactly.

' _Not surprising, I've never been there before_ ,' she mused, standing on tiptoe to look around some more, but not seeing anything useful. ' _And the docks are huge! At street level you could wander around for days_.'

Deciding in the end that the simplest approach was probably to just go to the shoreline, then turn right and follow it until she found the place, she started moving again, amused at the way her cloak fluttered behind her. She began running and jumping, the dark cloth rippling in the breeze of her motion. ' _Cool_ ,' she giggled. ' _I like this._ '

Hurdling an alleyway, which was narrow enough that she barely needed to screw up space surrounding it, she heard something from the street and slowed down, then backtracked and looked down into the dimness. It was dark enough that she could only barely make out what was going on, but she could see enough to realize that two extremely disreputable young men were being quite rude to a young lady.

With malice aforethought, based on the stick with a nail in the end that one of them was waving around as he threatened the woman.

Annoyed at the sheer nastiness involved, she thought for a moment, then grinned in the shadows of her hood. Thinking it through carefully she got to work. Moments later, the guy took a swing at the cowering woman, only to spin in a circle as he missed entirely. He stared at the way she was now at least fifty feet away, looking startled, _even though neither of them had moved!_

"What the fuck?" he grunted, looking around. Thirty feet above him, Missy smirked. She made a little gesture.

The man charged the now distant woman, getting about two yards before he abruptly ran into the wall of the alley behind him, face-planting with a solid crunch. Missy winced a little but still snickered. "OW! Fucking _cunt_ , what was that?" the man shouted in a muffled voice, holding his nose. His companion, who had been watching with a confused but smiling face, shrugged.

"No idea, man, you just turned around and ran into the wall. Must be the good shit you took."

"I fucking didn't turn around, fucker," the first man grumbled. Bending down to pick up his stick, which he'd dropped, he shouted again as his forehead came into solid contact with the ground although it was still a couple of feet away. He fell over, now holding his head with his hands, before screaming in pain when he sat on the nail sticking out of his improvised weapon, which had mysteriously ended up under him instead of in front of him.

"SON OF A BITCH!" he howled, hopping around and trying to remove the thing. The stick went with him, attached to an impaled buttock. Missy was desperately trying not to laugh out loud, her hands over her mouth. "GET IT OFF! FUCK, IT HURTS!"

The former victim was staring in amazement, a weird smile on her own face, while the man's partner in crime was falling over laughing himself sick. Missy thought he showed no respect for his friendship with the other guy, but then, they _were_ Merchants. She didn't like Merchants.

"STOP LAUGHING AND HELP, YOU SHIT!" the first mugger screamed, trying to grab the stick which had made friends with his ass. He was unable to get a good grip on it as the end seemed to mysteriously move out of reach each time he went for it.

The other man, still snickering maliciously, climbed to his feet and seized the non-attached end of the stick, heaving on it. "Stuck in there real good," he grunted, as his friend howled even more loudly. Putting his back into it and bracing his free hand on the other man's shoulder, he managed to remove the nail from the fleshy part of the mugger's ass, the stick swinging back in an arc, which somehow terminated at the back of the head of the nail-victim. There was a loud thwack and the first guy fell down again.

The man holding the stick looked at it, confused, then at his friend, who was lying on his face, one hand on his backside and one on his head, swearing to himself. "Um, oops?" he tried apologetically.

"You motherfucker, you did that on purpose," the first mugger snarled.

"No, I promise, I just pulled it out."

" _Sure_ you did," his colleague growled, rolling over then yelping in pain. "This is because I didn't give you any of my meth, isn't it?"

"Don't be a fucking idiot," his friend shouted. Both of them seemed to have completely forgotten about the victim, who had collected her purse and was quietly dialing 911, while watching what was happening with a puzzled but relieved expression.

" _I'm_ an idiot? Who just stuck himself in the ass with his own nail?" the second man snapped. He held the stick up, then tossed it over his shoulder. It came out of nowhere to smack the first one in the head again, from behind.

"FUCK!" the first man screamed, then dived at his friend, fists raised. "You BASTARD!"

"That wasn't me!" the second one screamed back, defending himself.

"I saw you throw it," his friend yelled, swinging at him.

"Over my fucking _shoulder_ , you son of a bitch," the second Merchant howled, ducking, then kicking out at the other one's kneecap. His own leg buckled as he impossibly hit his own knee, the man dropping to the ground in agony. The first one stopped, then began laughing loudly. His colleague launched himself at him, full of rage.

The victim put her phone away, watching with amazement. She looked around, then unlike the two muggers, who were now rolling around on the ground hitting each other, up at the roof-line.

Missy waved at her. Making the space between them over a small area decrease to only inches, she whispered, her voice as deep and mysterious as she could push it, "You should go. They're not thinking about you now."

The woman twitched, looking around, then up again. She nodded.

"Thank you," she replied. "Who are you?"

Missy grinned in the darkness of her disguise. "I am… The Shrouded Figure," she hissed.

The former mugging victim stared. "Really? That's what you're calling yourself?"

"Hey, there's nothing wrong with The Shrouded Figure," Missy complained, still making her voice sound as eerie as she could.

"It's a little long-winded," the woman noted. "How about… _Shroud_?"

"That makes me sound like something from a graveyard," Missy replied.

"And ' _The Shrouded Figure_ ' doesn't?" the woman said skeptically.

"Um… good point," she admitted.

"What about _Cloak_? It fits from what I can see, and sounds better. And still mysterious if that's what you're going for."

Missy thought about it. " _Cloak_. _The_ Cloak. The _Cloak_ in the _Dark_?"

Both of them shook their heads at the last one. "OK. I am… _Cloak_." She deepened her voice even more, then coughed a little.

"How old _are_ you?" the woman asked, sounding amused again.

"Old enough to know, no one fucks with… _Cloak_ ," Missy snickered. "Or they get a nail in the ass."

"Fair enough," the woman smiled. "Thank you, Cloak."

"Farewell, Citizen," Missy hissed, sweeping her cloak around herself dramatically. "I can hear sirens, so I must be off. Things to do, people to see."

"I understand." The woman she'd saved waved, looked at the two wrestling Merchants who were beating each other unconscious, shook her head in wonder, then turned around and walked towards the oncoming sirens. Missy watched, also inspected the fight in the alley, shrugged, and resumed her trek, contented that she'd helped.

A while later, she reached the point where the water met the edge of the docks area, the rising tide lapping faintly at the sea wall. She peered down, then around, trying to see if she could make out any road markings, but all the signs hereabouts seemed to have been removed or defaced.

Looking to the right, she wondered how much further the DWU was. She was certain she hadn't gone past it. Triangulating on the Rig in the distance, then the top of the Medhall building which she could see off to her left, she nodded to herself. She was definitely in roughly the right place.

Below her, and to the right by about half a block, there were lights on in what seemed to be something which could well serve as the illustration beside the definition of ' _Disreputable Tavern_ ' in the dictionary. A couple of people went in through the door as she watched. Making a spacial shortcut between a point a few feet from the door and her face, she inspected the place. Inside, it looked warm and inviting, oddly enough, unlike the outside which looked like it needed to be seriously renovated, or possibly burned down. She could hear voices from at least a dozen or so people, mostly men, apparently enjoying themselves quite loudly.

Thinking it over, she shrugged. ' _Bet they know the way_ ,' the girl thought, descending to the street in a moment of distressed space, having checked carefully for witnesses.

Seeing no one watching, she slunk through the shadows towards the building, freezing when someone stepped outside and lit a cigarette. The old but very large and tough looking man smoked it, staring out into the bay in a reflective manner, until it was down to the butt. Missy lurked fifty feet away, diverting all sounds around herself, something she'd been practicing lately. When he was done, he flicked the end of the cigarette into the bay and went back inside.

Resuming her approach, she hesitated outside the door, then took a deep breath, wrapped her cloak around herself firmly, pulled her hood down and checked it covered anything identifiable as Vista, and went inside the ' _Captain's Table_ '.

* * *

"Hey."

Pat looked around, puzzled, at the hoarsely hissed word. Someone seemed to have a nasty cold. Not seeing anyone, he shrugged and went back to polishing his glasses.

"Hey, you, counter guy," the voice said again. It sounded female and mildly annoyed, but also like it needed a good cough medicine. He looked around once more, then moved closer to the bar, seeing that there was the top of a cloth-covered head sticking a few inches above it.

Puzzled, he leaned over the bar, looking down at the short cloaked figure which was peering up at him, the face invisible inside the oversized hood. The cloak she was wearing looked about a hundred years old and came down to nearly touch the floor, rendering the person inside it entirely invisible.

He looked about him, to see his regulars were all staring as well, mid drink. Even the big Japanese guy with all the tattoos who had been coming in for the last few weeks and having a quiet pint at the back of the tavern without talking to anyone appeared a little bemused.

"Ah… can I help you, miss?" he asked.

The figure nodded.

"I'm trying to find the DWU place," she hissed, then coughed a little.

"Oh." He peered a little further back. No tail. Probably not a Family member then, unless they had very short ones now that he hadn't heard of. "OK. It's about three quarters of a mile north-east of here. Just go out the front door, turn right and keep going, that'll get you there. Then follow the road around to the front entrance. They don't like people going in except through there, and you don't want to piss them off."

"Thanks," the hooded female said hoarsely. She turned to go, then turned back. "Can I have a can of Coke, please?"

He looked at her, then around again, before sighing a little. Retrieving the requested item from the fridge under the bar, he handed it over. A dollar bill was dropped next to it, then the can disappeared into a sleeve that covered her entire hand. "Thanks."

The sibilant voice sounded pleased. Everyone watched as the girl, if indeed she was a girl, glanced about, the dark hood causing a few of the people present to look slightly worried, then scuttled out the door. There was a long silence.

Erwin, who was nearest, got up and checked outside. When he came back in, he shrugged. "No sign of the lass."

"Why was a very short Ring Wraith looking for the DWU?" Pat asked the bar at large.

"She was more of a Jawa," one of the other people said.

"No glowing eyes in the hood," the Japanese man rumbled in a low voice, making everyone look, as it was practically the first time he'd spoken. Several people nodded thoughtfully.

"Good point." Pat looked at the door again. "New Family member perhaps? The voice was sort of right."

"No tail."

"Yeah, I noticed. Maybe it was inside the cloak."

Erwin looked out the door again. "Brockton Bay is getting weirder every day," he finally said wisely, sitting down and lifting his pint in salute. "To weirdness. Perhaps it will bring the fish back."

Everyone lifted their glasses, then drank, even the latest regular, who seemed oddly amused by the whole thing.

Half an hour later he, Erwin, and several others were playing a game of very inebriated poker, while Pat was still wondering what the tiny little person in the cloak wanted with the DWU.


	172. Missy and Math

"You're shitting us," Kevin said in a fascinated voice.

"Nope."

"The Endbringers are terrified of _her?_ " he asked, indicating Taylor who had retaken her base form and was happily eating one of the dozen large pizzas they'd brought.

"We think so."

"To be honest, _that_ part of it I can see," Randall commented, also stuffing his face. He chewed and swallowed, adding, "She terrifies practically everyone else, why not them? And that fucking gun terrifies _everyone_."

"Hey, it's a really cool design," Kevin protested mildly.

"Never said it wasn't. That doesn't mean it's not terrifying. It's got a _nuke_ in it, man!"

"OK, fair point. But even so, this is sounding very strange."

"The Simurgh stopped the same second the wormhole came online," Lisa shrugged. "Exactly the same second. That's not a coincidence according to my own power. Add to that the way Leviathan is mucking around on the other side of the planet, and Behemoth has disappeared entirely… If it's a sneaky plan I can't work out the point. The evidence suggests they don't want to meet her."

He looked dubiously at the blonde girl. "Anything else?"

"The place Leviathan is circling is on the precise antipodal point from the center of the bay," Lisa added. "I checked. He's as far away as he can get in any direction. The Simurgh is in a high orbit, which takes her over us a hell of a long way out every few days. Like she wants to hide, but can't quite bring herself to completely do it. Checking up on us, perhaps."

"It would make more sense if she was in a geostationary orbit on the other side of the planet," he pointed out.

"OK, true, but she isn't. Even so, she's a hell of a long way away most of the time. And all of them went peculiar mere hours after Taylor gained her abilities. We're pretty sure at the exact moment I spotted her."

"That part is very worrying," he noted, reaching out for another slice of chicken and bacon pizza. "It implies that the Endbringers are either watching every Parahuman, or just the ones in Brockton Bay. I'm not sure which possibility is worse."

"I'm not happy about either one, to tell the truth," Amy commented. She jumped up and retrieved some more cans from the fridge, handing them around. "So what do you say?"

Randall finished the slice he was eating, then leaned forward in his chair, looking intently at the girl. "Let me see if I understand. You have a theory about the origin of powers you're trying to run an experiment on, to find out more data. But you don't want to tell us everything in case it alters the results?"

"Right. We can't do it properly double-blind, we don't have the resources or enough Parahumans who are in on the secret of the Family, but I think that if we let you figure out some of it for yourselves we'll get better results."

"And this experiment involves some form of unnatural biotinkery?" Randall asked.

Amy grinned, then nodded. "Exactly. I can reverse it if you decide you don't want it, there's no risk to you. I'll sweeten the deal with a symbiote each, and some of the more useful mods. Enhanced strength, reflexes, and toughness. A basic Brute package, around… Brute 3 or so, I'd say. That's about as far as I can go without significant changes which I'm still working on."

Randall looked thoughtful, then glanced at Kevin. The Tinker was thinking hard. On the face of it the idea sounded insane, much like the three girls were, but at the same time they'd all achieved incredible things recently. Not to mention he liked them. The worry about someone fiddling with his innards was offset by the fact it was Panacea, the widely acknowledged best healer in the world. Although no one except a very select group of people knew she was so much more.

"What are the modifications?" he asked after a short pause.

The healer smiled at him. "I told you about it when you met Ianthe for the first time. I call it a neural amplifier. It's a cluster of very dense neural tissue that goes at the base of the neck, adding a lot of processing capability which is needed to control one of the bioconstructs. I've successfully added in some changes that make learning new languages much easier as well, which is useful on its own. There are some other uses as well, but those are the main ones we're interested in at the moment."

"OK." He thought about it some more. "And what do you think will happen to our powers?"

"That's the part we want to find out. We know what we think happened to Lisa and me, but we need to find out if it's a coincidence, imagination, or a real thing. If it _is_ real, it goes quite a long way to explaining some of the weirder things about powers."

"But we can't tell you what we think happened to them, until it happens to you. Or we might just get you imagining it," Taylor remarked, finishing the entire pizza she'd been working on, then looking speculatively at another one. "But it's nothing bad. Just… interesting."

He was still a little dubious, glancing at his long term friend, who seemed interested. "I can throw in some sensory upgrades as well if you want," Amy wheedled. "Better hearing, smell, eyesight…"

"Hey, _I_ still want those, don't bogart the upgrades," Lisa said, poking the other girl.

"You'll get them the next time you get in Metis, I'll do the changes in a minute," Amy said, not looking away from the pair of minor villains.

"You do realize you're all completely mad, I hope," Kevin sighed. All three girls nodded, grinning in an eerily synced way. "It's catching, clearly. OK. Fine. You can have your wicked way with me."

Randall snickered, slapping his friend on the back. "I'm up for it."

"Great." Amy looked very pleased. "It won't take long. Hey, do either of you want a tail? I'm good at tails."

Kevin stared at her. She grinned, then turned to Taylor, who looked amused. Jumping up the girl spun around, both Kevin and Randall gaping at the reptilian tail she was suddenly sporting from the base of her spine, a very close match aside from color to the one Taylor had. He rubbed his eyes and looked again. Still there.

"How the fuck did you do _that?_ " he asked weakly, pointing at it.

"I've had it since before Ianthe, it was the first thing we tried," Amy giggled. "It was just hidden by a magic spell."

"Magic..." Kevin stared at her, then turned his head to look at Taylor, as she snickered in a muffled way. "That's what you said about your own tail."

"Same thing. It's pretty versatile."

"But magic?"

"I haven't told you everything about me," she said evenly. Lisa was now the one snickering.

"Trust me, she really hasn't," the blonde said with a sneaky grin. "It'll blow your mind. But I think we need to leave that until after the experiment. It's part of the whole weirdness thing we're trying to get to the bottom of."

"I… see," he said after a few seconds of thought. "Why do I have the feeling that I may regret this?"

"Common sense, man, common sense," Randall chuckled. "But in our case it's way too late for that." He looked around at the three females. "But when we've done this, both of us get to know the whole truth, right?"

"Fine by me," Taylor smiled widely. "You actually know most of it, just not the best bits. I think you'll like it."

"Now I'm really worried," Kevin muttered. "You're grinning like Satan again. Stop it before I lose my nerve."

The smile went back to having a normal number of teeth in it, Taylor laughing.

"Hey, how strong is _strong_ , out of interest?" Randall asked, looking at Amy with interest. "For your Brute upgrade, I mean."

Instead of answering, she moved over to where her truck was parked near the roller doors, grabbed the front jacking points, and lifted the entire front end off the ground to chest level with one smooth motion. "Strong enough," she grinned over her shoulder as he and Kevin gaped. "I can dead-lift over a ton. I'd think you two will probably be able to beat that, you've got more leverage and larger bodies. It's pretty good so far, but it's not doing things the way normal Parahumans do, so there are some limitations a normal Brute doesn't have." She carefully lowered the vehicle to the ground again. "But at the same time I can do all sorts of other things as well. Some of them are really cool."

Walking back, she held up a hand and grew a razor-sharp knife in it. "Like this." She handed it to Kevin and sat down again, while he examined it curiously.

"Fucking amazing," he muttered. "Can I see your hand?"

She held it out obligingly, Studying it, he couldn't see any trace of anything abnormal. "That's incredibly impressive."

"Thanks."

"Why the tail, though?"

"It was a good test of most of the subsystems needed for the bioconstructs, it was interesting and fun, and I wanted to learn the Family style properly, which needs a tail," Amy explained. "Not to mention it's an interesting accessory. My best friend has one and I could hardly let her be the only one."

She grinned at him as Taylor giggled. Lisa rolled her eyes. "And both of them keep trying to persuade me as well. If I woke up one morning half-snake I wouldn't be entirely surprised. Annoyed, but not surprised."

"I always thought girls were weird, but this is sort of taking it a little far," Randall chuckled, shaking his head. They all smiled at the comment. "OK, so what do we do?"

"Igor?"

"Yeth, Mather," Taylor lisped, jumping to her feet then limping towards the middle of the room while waving her arms wildly. "Your table awaith your gloriouth thelf."

"And they won't knock off the damn Frankenstein jokes," Lisa sighed. Kevin watched with great amusement as Taylor quickly formed a table that looked like it would fit right in to any of the relevant movies. She gestured to it, smirking.

"If thir would walk thith way?"

"If I could walk that way..." he laughed. She grinned at him.

The knock on the back door made all of them freeze, even Taylor, who appeared quite surprised. She turned and regarded it, her head cocked, sniffed, then grinned again, looking curious and interested. "Get into Ianthe and Metis," she hissed in a very low voice to Lisa and Amy, who immediately headed for the workroom. Quickly dashing over to Amy's truck, she formed a thin box of EDM around it as the two villains watched, wondering what was going on. "Masks on, you guys. We have an interesting visitor."

Still speaking in a very low voice, she waited until both of them had their balaclavas back in place. The reptilian form of Ianthe came out of the workroom by that point, watching as Taylor shifted to Saurial and approached the door. The knock came again, giving the impression of someone trying to be discreet. ' _Saurial_ ' looked back at ' _Ianthe_ ', then ' _Metis_ ' who joined her fellow lizard, before opening the door.

Stepping aside, she gestured to the inside of the building. "Welcome, friend, to the Family retreat."

Everyone studied the petite cloaked form in the doorway, who seemed slightly taken aback.

Kevin exchanged a glance with Randall, who looked as puzzled as he was. They went back to watching, wondering what was going on.

* * *

Missy studied the DWU compound from the roof of a warehouse at a safe distance, sipping her coke. She had a healthy respect for the skills of the organization's security team, she'd heard a lot of things about it from a number of people over the years. There was a pretty good reason why the Merchants tended to steer clear of the place. While they weren't the enemy, she wanted to see the Family without anyone else knowing about it, just in case it got back to the Director.

If it did, she probably wouldn't be allowed to have any fun any more, which was the problem right now. She was enjoying her little quest and didn't want to have an angry ex-soldier shouting at her from behind her desk.

So, all in all, it was best if Director Piggot didn't find out. What she didn't know wouldn't hurt Missy, that was her thought.

' _I think the BBFO office must be over there, from what I read on PHO_ ,' the girl mused, kneeling on the roof to keep her silhouette away from the skyline. ' _That's the main gate, the normal way would be… down the side there and into that little yard, maybe?_ '

She made the space between her elevated vantage point and the distant facility shrink, trying to do it in as small an area as possible to minimize the likelihood of anyone spotting the distortion. With only air between her and there, no living things of enough complexity to screw with her power, it was fairly easy although it needed a level of control she didn't try very much. Idly thinking that she needed to practice this technique more, she moved the other end of her warped space around fifty feet up over the compound, looking for any guards and any back entrance.

Spotting a number of people who were looking alertly around, she was even more impressed by how observant they obviously were. Even though most of them weren't standing out, she could see that between them they had pretty much the entire fence area visually covered. The E88 attack last month had probably annoyed them enough to step up security.

There were also several guards with dogs roaming the area, which was lit up with portable floodlights on generators in a number of places, even now that it was dark still having a surprisingly large number of people at work. She wondered if they kept going all night. There were certainly enough of them to run several shifts. Even from here she could see at least sixty people moving around the vast yard, and quite a few machines rumbling about the place.

' _Can't go over the fence, they'd see it for sure,_ ' she thought, studying the problem. ' _No fence along the water side, but no way in there either unless you can swim in freezing water or have a boat. Plus too many people near the water. Hmm._ '

After a moment, she scrambled back over the roof to the other side of the peak, staying low. Once again she started humming under her breath, this time the Bond theme. ' _Licensed to sneak around_ ,' she snickered internally. ' _Although I bet Piggot would deny it. They always do in the movies_.'

Wondering if she could get some spy gadgets, she looked around, then folded space to let her move to a warehouse a few hundred yards away from the water. She checked the area from the new vantage point. When she was sure no one had noticed, she repeated the process, jumping around the perimeter of the facility, which was a lot larger than she'd realized. Eventually she was on the other side, looking back at the warehouse she'd first been on in the distance. She could have gone straight across, of course, but the risk of discovery was too high.

' _I'd lose my sneaky badge for that_ ,' she giggled. ' _OK. That must be the place over there. I think. So… all these warehouses and things along the water have doors on that side as well. Bet they do. If I can get to the back of it, maybe I can get in without anyone seeing._ '

It seemed a plausible plan. There were far less people visible from this side of the facility. She could see lit windows in a taller building, some with people behind them, apparently in a dormitory of some sort. One room was lit by a flickering illumination from the biggest TV she'd ever seen, on which a fast-paced video game was playing, the black-haired boy sitting in front of it apparently shouting at his opponent. She watched for a moment, then looked for anyone else who might see her.

No one was visible, even when she checked with her remote scanning technique. Hopping to the next building along, she wrinkled her nose at the smell of old fish and ancient fires, wondering what the source of it was. Once again, she checked carefully, then peered down at the street seventy feet below her, pondering the right approach for a moment. She put the now-empty coke can down at her feet as she thought.

Having decided, she quickly double-checked, then snapped to the ground, diving into a shadowed doorway and waiting to see if anything happened. When there was no outcry, she looked around carefully, picked another dark spot down the street, then stepped from her current shadow to the new one.

In this way she proceeded down the potholed and disused road, ending up next to the water in the cover of a small tumble-down shack that seemed to contain a few ancient bits of fishing boat equipment. From here, right next to the water, which was lapping at the old timbers of a small wharf, she could see down the rear of the buildings on the other side of the chain-link fence separating the DWU area from the general docks. An old and rusty gate blocked the road that ran down the backs of the sheds between them and the water, to round the corner in the distance where the lights and activity in the main yard was just visible.

Waiting for another couple of minutes, she thoroughly checked for guards, finally spotting one man on the roof of the dormitory block who was carefully walking around, a radio in one gloved hand. He was keeping an eye on the main yard most of the time, but looked around in her direction regularly.

Impressed all over again, she waited for him to look away, then snapped to the top of the fence and immediately down into the shadows on the other side in a smooth move that took only seconds. Huddled in her cloak, she waited for the alarm to go up, smiling when nothing happened.

' _The Cloak, secure in her mysterious abilities, triumphs yet again_ ,' she thought, amusing herself.

She was having a hell of a lot of fun if nothing else, and refining some techniques she never really got to try. Mainly because Miss Militia wouldn't let her. She liked the older woman, but sometimes she was a real stick in the mud about cool ideas.

Shaking her head, Missy made sure her cloak covered everything, then moved in a series of short hops down the back of the buildings, trying to work out which was the right one. She heard a lot of dogs in one of the buildings, sounding excited, with a girl's voice commanding one of them to heel. By the sound of it, there were a _lot_ of dogs. Possibly the person in there was the DWU dog handler?

It wasn't important at the moment, although she wanted to come back and have a look at some point. She liked dogs. Moving on, she finally found a likely candidate. Looking up at the building, she couldn't see any windows, only this single standard door, made of metal, with a large roller door like on a garage next to it. Putting her ear to it she listened carefully.

There was nothing audible from inside, but it might just be soundproofed really well. Or, perhaps, no one was home.

The only way to be sure was to knock and see what happened, she thought.

With a certain amount of excitement, she did exactly that, then pulled her hood down low and waited.

Nothing happened.

After a fairly long time, impatient, she knocked again, trying to be both loud enough to be heard inside, and quiet enough not to attract attention from outside.

The door suddenly opening took her by surprise since she hadn't heard anything to suggest someone was there. Standing inside was the familiar form of Saurial, who was grinning at her, not seeming too startled by her appearance. Before she could say anything, the lizard girl invited her in with a cheery gesture and comment.

Somewhat bemused, she walked inside. The door shut behind her.

"Now, don't tell me, let me work it out," Saurial said, coming back around to stand in front of her, inspecting her closely. Missy raised a hand, the reptilian cape shaking her head. "No, it's better if I figure it out for myself."

She lowered her hand again, wondering what the lizard-girl was doing, but amused even so.

"If you want to, sure," she rasped in her ' _Cloak_ ' voice. Saurial looked impressed. Behind her, Missy could see her cousins exchange glances, while at the table to one side, two guys in balaclavas were watching with faint grins. She wondered who they were, they seemed slightly familiar.

"Good voice," Saurial said, bending down a little to peer at her more closely. " _Very_ good voice. Very mysterious, like Batman." She cocked her head. "You're not Batman, right?"

"No."

"OK. Just checking." She walked around Missy, studying her. "Not a Jawa?"

"Nope."

"All right. You'd be a long way from home, if you were. Hmm." Saurial thought for a while.

"Jedi?"

"No."

"Sith Lord?"

"No."

"Ah. A tough one. Vampire?"

"Definitely not."

"Huh. Highwayman? Or woman?"

"Nope."

"Disguised Ninja?"

"Um..." Missy considered the suggestion, finding it one worth pursuing one day. "Not really."

"Creepy thing from beyond the shadows, here trying to blend in?"

She shook her head, firmly suppressing a giggle. "No."

"Hey, I'm not judging, I _like_ creepy things from beyond the shadows."

"You _are_ a creepy thing from beyond the shadows," the smaller of the men at the table commented wryly. She looked over her shoulder at him, shrugging a little.

"I guess so. That would explain it." Returning her attention to Missy, who was very amused, Saurial thought some more, then snapped her fingers. "I know. You're _Death_."

"What?" Missy was somewhat startled by this suggestion, almost forgetting to use her mysterious voice.

"Sure. I've read human mythology. Death wears a long cloak, like you. It's probably really old as well." Saurial reached out and felt her sleeve. "This is really old. Nice material though. Raspy voice, check. Mysterious arrival without any warning, check. No visible person _in_ the cloak..." She walked around Missy again, ending up in front of her once more. "Well, I can't see if you're a skeleton in there, but you're pulling off the invisible person bit really well."

"I..." Missy couldn't quite think how to respond.

"But… Something's missing," Saurial muttered, looking her up and down. "Aha! _Scythe_. Death carries a scythe. Or sometimes a sword, if you read the right myths, but in this area of the world, a scythe is more traditional. Have you lost yours?"

"Um..."

"No problem. Here, try this one." The lizard-girl handed Missy the horrifically sharp agricultural tool that had appeared in her hand. Taking it automatically, Missy looked up at the razor-sharp blade that was six inches over her head, then back at the smiling reptile, who seemed pleased.

"Perfect. Hey, guys? Death dropped by, but she forgot her scythe. Does this look about the right size?"

"Looks fine to me," Ianthe commented. She seemed a little doubtful. "Are you sure that's Death, though? From the human literature, I was expecting someone taller."

"She matches the description," Metis said thoughtfully, peering at Missy with glowing eyes. "Bit short, true, but she's got the cloak, the scythe, and the eerie voice. But why is she here? No one is dead."

" _Yet_ ," Saurial said smugly. "Perhaps one of us is doomed." She looked around at the others present. "Not it."

Both remaining reptiles and one of the men instantly said _not it_ as quickly as possible, leaving the smaller of the men appearing annoyed. "Damn," he grumped. "I'm not ready to die. Come back later."

Missy stared at him, then the others. She looked up at the scythe in her hand again. Finally she sighed. "You really are very weird, all of you," she said in her normal voice.

"Hi, Vista," Saurial grinned as she lowered her hood. "Hey, did you see Death? She was here just now, but she must have left when you arrived. She had a scythe and everything."

"Like this one, per..." Missy shook the thing in her hand, only then realizing it wasn't there any more. "Oh, for god's sake," she mumbled. "You're worse than Clockblocker."

"I do what I can," Saurial laughed. "Nice to see you. What the hell are you doing sneaking around in a cloak, though? I mean, it's a nice cloak, but… Not exactly your normal look."

"I wanted to come and see you and I didn't want anyone knowing I did," she explained, a little embarrassed now. "The Director would probably blow a fuse. ' _You're too young to be wandering around in the docks in the first place,_ '" she mimicked, pouting slightly. "' _Never mind getting involved with those crazy reptiles. We have an image to uphold_.'" She sighed heavily, while the others present all chuckled.

"A little frustrated with being a Ward, then?" Ianthe remarked.

"I like it, but sometimes I don't think anyone takes me seriously," she replied, looking over at the other lizard. "I mean, sure I know that Wards aren't supposed to be out on their own, there are rules and everything and mostly they're for good reasons, but no one lets me have any fun."

"Define fun," Saurial said, grinning.

"Well, being allowed to talk to you guys would be a good start," she replied. "But we're not supposed to interact except professionally, and we're not supposed to come see you here."

"Oooh, what a little rule-breaker," Metis snickered. "I like her."

"I'm not breaking the rules, I'm… bending them?" Missy tried, even as she said it knowing she wasn't entirely correct, and that the Director probably wouldn't see it that way even slightly. "I'm off duty anyway, no shifts until Sunday."

"Yet here you are in costume," Saurial pointed out. "As Vista, which could be seen as being official if you look at it the right way."

"Um… I guess that's true," she said in a small voice. "But I was bored, and I need some advice about something you're probably the only people who would understand."

The reptilian cape looked intrigued. "Advice? About what?"

"This," she said, pulling her notebook out of her inner cloak pocket and flipping it open to her latest drawing. She handed it to Saurial, who took it and looked at it with great interest, not the usual wincing and acting like there was something wrong with it that everyone else did. She raised one of her scaly eyebrows. Was it still an eyebrow if it didn't have any hair? Missy considered the concept for a second or two, then firmly pushed it away.

"Cool," Saurial said in a fascinated tone of voice. "That's not bad at all. How much of the math do you understand?"

"Not enough," Missy sighed. "I can't figure out where I'm going wrong. I can _see_ it in here, but I can't quite draw it." She tapped the side of her head with a finger, feeling frustrated. "But I saw that incredibly neat thing you guys gave to Mr Hebert on his birthday and you obviously understand this sort of stuff."

Saurial nodded absently, rotating the notebook to look at it from a different angle, then tilting it to look across the page. "Nice work. Come and have some pizza and let's talk. It's still warm." Looking over at Metis, she added, "We forgot a microwave oven. We need one."

"I'll order one tonight," the larger reptile said, nodding. "Would you like a drink, Vista?"

"Sure, thanks," she replied, following Saurial over to the table. Hopping up on a chair she looked around with interest. "Coke if you have it. Neat building. Nicest lair I've ever seen."

Ianthe laughed, both young men chuckling as well. "I wouldn't quite call it a lair, it's more of an office, but thanks. We like it."

Metis came back with a cold can of Coke, putting it next to her, then sat on her tail nearby. Missy studied the feat, thinking it was a very good solution to not fitting into a normal chair, and convenient too. "Thank you," she said politely, popping the tab.

"We've got half a chicken and bacon left, a whole pepperoni with jalapenos, and a lot of random slices from several others," the taller man said as he pushed the stack of boxes towards her. She stared, shocked and instantly recognizing the voice.

"Shit! You're Über!"

Everyone looked at her, then him. "Oh my god, she's _right!_ " Saurial cried, jumping to her feet from where she'd just sat down. She pointed at the man, who grinned at her. "How did you get in here, villain?"

"You opened the door when I knocked," Über replied mildly. "Then ate two of my pizzas."

"Oh, right, I forgot that part," Saurial snickered, sitting down again. Missy gaped at her, then Über, before looking at the other guy, who she realized must therefore be Leet.

"OK. Why are you guys hanging around with villains?" she asked suspiciously, inspecting everyone present very carefully. "That's a little strange."

"So are we," Ianthe pointed out. "At least according to PHO."

Missy waved this away with a gesture. "They're all nuts, worse than you guys are. But this is definitely not what I expected."

"If it's any weight off your mind, Vista, Leet and I are… sort of reforming," Über explained, smiling at her.

He had a nice smile.

And his voice was even better in real life than on the internet, she thought.

Still, he was, technically, a villain, even if neither he or his friend really seemed to try very hard. Even so, they'd caused a lot of trouble over the years. After a moment, she mentioned this, making him smile again.

He _really_ had a nice smile, she thought as she propped her head on her hands and listened to his reply. "I could say we're sorry about that, which would be partly true, but also partly wrong," he said, shrugging. "We had our reasons for what we did. Good or bad, but we had them. Now, though…," he looked around at the three reptilian capes, then his partner, "we've got other reasons for doing different things. Hopefully we can make up for some of the past. And still have fun."

"OK," she smiled. It was like listening to a large cup of hot chocolate. After a moment, she shook her head, seeing that Saurial and her cousins were smirking at her, while Leet was looking amused. "I mean, all right, I guess I understand. Please don't be villains any more."

"We'll be… if not good, at least a little more responsible," Leet said. "Scout's honor."

"You were never a Scout," Über told his friend, who looked insulted as far as she could see under the balaclava.

"I was! I got sixteen merit badges. But they asked me to leave when I wanted to start a new one, they said it wasn't suitable for young teenagers."

"What was it?"

"Controlled demolition with improvised explosives," Leet replied, shaking his head sadly. "I worked up a complete list of suggested points, including safety briefings. But for some reason the Scout leader got all funny about it. Even demonstrating what could be done with the stuff in the Scout hut didn't change his mind." The young man seemed thoughtful, while Über started snickering. "Actually, thinking about it, he got even more peculiar at that point. Started running around shouting about hiding the evidence or something like that. I couldn't hear him very well, I forgot the ear protectors and it was pretty loud."

"So you failed your own safety protocols?" Über grinned.

"We all make mistakes," Leet replied archly. "I'm sure I could have worked out the bugs given a little more support from above."

Missy was now giggling quite a lot, finding them both very amusing. She relaxed, reaching for the nearest pizza box and exploring it with interest. "So why are you guys here, then?" she asked.

"They came over to hang out and eat pizza, and also help Metis and Ianthe with a little experiment," Saurial explained. She looked at the others. "You can do that in the workroom, if you want. I'll help Vista with her homework out here."

"What about the table?" Ianthe asked, nodding to the odd construction in the middle of the room that Missy had noticed when she came in. It looked like something out of a movie she'd seen.

"I'll make you a new one. I'll be back in a minute, Vista, OK?"

"Sure," the girl said, turning to watch while nibbling pizza. The lizard-girl got up and went over to the weird table, which promptly disappeared, then headed for the block of rooms on the other side of the building, going inside for a minute or so.

When she came out, she said to her cousins, "There you go. Have fun."

"Thanks, cousin," Ianthe smiled. She looked at Über and Leet. "Who's first?"

"Me, I guess," the former said, standing up and going after her. His friend watched, appearing slightly worried, but said nothing. Über and the two larger reptiles disappeared into the workroom, the door closing behind them. Wondering briefly what was going on, Missy looked to Saurial, who grinned at her, then picked up her notebook and studied the drawing again.

"How long have you been doing this?" she asked. The girl forgot about the others, leaning forward with excitement.

"A while. It was seeing those pictures on PHO that got me thinking. It sort of… made my power all interested? Something like that. I've been trying to draw what I can see in my head, but things don't seem to come out quite right, no matter what I do. There's all sorts of weird math involved as well which I don't really understand."

"That doesn't surprise me, it's pretty advanced," Saurial nodded, flipping through the notebook. "Some of it even we took a while to work out. Some members of the Family have been trying this sort of thing for a very long time and even so we learn new things all the time." She glanced at Missy. "Your power is about manipulating space, right? I remember when we first met you used it to get up on that roof."

"Yep. I'm pretty good at it, and recently I've been coming up with all sorts of new ideas for using it." She made a little gesture, then reached out and put her half-empty can on the computer bench on the other side of the room. Leet watched with an impressed air, while Saurial smiled. "Like that. I can't project the effect through anything living, or at least anything very complex, like more than an insect."

"Manton limit?" Leet queried.

"Yes. It's annoying, but might be a good thing as well. I could see how it might be bad making someone's head be a hundred feet from their neck."

The Tinker winced a little. "I'd have to agree with that," he replied faintly.

"What range do you have?" Saurial asked curiously. Missy debated with herself, looking at the other two, then shrugged. It wasn't like the information wasn't out there already.

"As far as I know, almost unlimited, except for the Manton thing. In theory, anyway. In practice line of sight is easy, doing it to things I can't see is more difficult the further away they are. But I can also use it to see places that aren't line of sight, by bending space around them. Like this." She formed a spatial distortion on the wall in front of them all which curved around to look at the top of the workroom, giving the effect that they were looking down on it from a few feet away.

Leet whistled. "That is pretty damn good, Vista."

"Shaker 9, you know," she grinned, buffing her fingernails on her cloak.

He nodded with a grin of his own.

"So, what are you hoping to achieve with this?" Saurial asked after a moment, indicating the notebook she'd put back on the table in front of her with a motion of a taloned finger. "Just curiosity, or do you think it will help with your powers?"

"Bit of both, I guess," Missy finally said after thinking the question over seriously. "It's bugging me because I just _can't_ get it right, but I think it might let me work out new tricks as well."

"Fair enough. OK, I think the problem is that you don't have a background in fractional-dimensional math, although I also think your power is using something like that. Not exactly like we do, but near enough that the same techniques might help you. Look at this for a moment, I'll demonstrate what I mean."

Missy watched with fascination as the reptilian cape made a simple cube of what looked like black rock appear in her hand. "Right, this is a plain, boring three dimensional cube."

"OK."

"Now, if we add a fourth spatial dimension, we get a tessaract, or hypercube, everyone knows that. Like this." The cube warped in a remarkable manner, distorting into a shape that made Missy stare, engrossed. Leet made a peculiar sound, attracting her attention for a moment. He was gaping, his eyes squinting at the thing.

"Fuck me, how did you do _that?_ " he breathed in shock.

"It's not hard when you know the trick," Saurial grinned. "Look, you can alter the dimensions between three and four and get some _really_ weird effects..."

The cuboid writhed and twisted, making Missy grin. It was like watching the things in her head come to life. Leet was still squinting weirdly, massaging his forehead through his balaclava, but he seemed as fascinated as she was.

Settling in to watch as Saurial taught her some truly incredible new concepts complete with physical demonstrations, which she could even play with, Missy decided that her idea to come here was definitely the _best_ one _ever_.


	173. Guest Omake - PHO and Cloak

_Semi-canon Guest Omake - PHO and Cloak (By Ianthe on Sufficient Velocity)_

* * *

•

 **Welcome to the Parahumans Online message boards.**  
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•

 **Topic: Mysterious New Cloak Wearing Cape in the Captain's Table  
In: Boards ► Places ► America ► Brockton Bay  
Bladeworksfan ** (Original Poster) (Kyushu Survivor)  
Posted On Feb 25th 2011:  
I was drinking at the local bar last night, drowning in my sorrows like I always do whenever an Endbringer attacks, and ruminating on our new friendly scary lizards, when [Link removed] walked in.

Yes, what you're looking at right now, is a midget ringwraith buying soda and asking for directions to the DWU.

What do you guys think? Another cape? One of the Family?

The link has been removed due to certain users' attempts at deriving a cape's identity from the video. This is why we can't have nice things. - BrocktonBayMod

 **(Showing page 3 of 10)**

 **►Laser Augment**  
Replied On Feb 25th 2011:

Oh no, not another one...

 **►Clockblocker** (Verified Cape) (Wards ENE)  
Replied On Feb 25th 2011:

Oh yes, we have _another_ one.

 **►Vista** (Verified Cape) (Wards ENE)  
Replied On Feb 25th 2011:

Yup! She's definitely a Family member. You could hear it in her voice, all sibilant and stuff, she sounds like a raspier Saurial. :D

 **►IguanaGirl**  
Replied On Feb 25th 2011:

Another Family member? :O

I wonder if she's a sister of Saurial, here to visit her at the BBFO office perhaps? :D

 **►Jormungandr**  
Replied On Feb 25th 2011:

They are spawning, preparing their army. Soon, humanity shall be nothing but ruins, a plaything for the monsters of the deep.

 **►XxVoid_CowboyxX**  
Replied On Feb 25th 2011:

Calm your tits, their not demons trying to take over the world.

 **►Mandabar**  
Replied On Feb 25th 2011:

Finally!

Your first reasonable post in forever!

I would like to congratulate you for a job well done in finally keeping to your doctor's prescription for once. :)

 **►XxVoid_CowboyxX**  
Replied On Feb 25th 2011:

They're _aliens_ trying to take over the world, _not_ demons.

 **►Mandabar**  
Replied On Feb 25th 2011:

Shit...

I just had to open my big mouth didn't I?

Sorry everyone, false alarm.

 **►Mojiizen**  
Replied On Feb 25th 2011:

*pats Mandabar's head*

It's okay, one day he'll recover and become a productive member of society again, have faith in thee. :)

 **End of Page. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 ... 8, 9, 10**

 **(Showing page 4 of 10)**

 **►Glare**  
Replied On Feb 25th 2011:

Yes, and that day will come when the universe implodes from old age.

 **►Mandabar**  
Replied On Feb 25th 2011:

After the heat death of the universe maybe.

Edit:ninja'd

 **►XxVoid_CowboyxX**  
Replied On Feb 25th 2011:

I don't need to take any meds fucktard! I hope you overdose on yours.

 **User received an infraction for this post: personal threats are discouraged in this forum.**

►Mandabar

Replied On Feb 25th 2011:

Wait, why didn't he get a ban for _that?_

 **►BrocktonBayMod** (Moderator)  
Replied On Feb 25th 2011:

I'm being generous, and that is not nearly as cringingly offensive as his other insults.

It's a new positive reinforcement thing we're trying.

It'll hopefully help to rehabilitate his behavior in this forum for the better. ;)

Hopefully...

 **►SenorEel**  
Replied On Feb 25th 2011:

Another one?

I'm starting to pity you Americans.

 **►IguanaGirl**  
Replied On Feb 25th 2011:

Don't be. :)

For the first time in forever, I actually feel safe walking home alone.

They cleaned up the city and even saved me, and that means a lot to me. :D

 **►XxVoid_CowboyxX**  
Replied On Feb 25th 2011:

Does that mean that you're... _fond_... of them.

 **►Laser Augment**  
Replied On Feb 25th 2011:

Ignore him.

I'm going to be the devil's advocate here, I don't see any scales or tail.

I don't see any glowy eyes either.

I think we have been mistaken.

We're probably all just jumping at shadows here, mislabeling a poor innocent cape as, _(shudder)_ , one of them.

 **►Loki_Thorson**  
Replied On Feb 25th 2011:

Are you sure it's not the fear of lizards talking? ;)

Seriously, though, she probably is, Occam's razor and all that since most of the new Cape reveals recently happen to be members of the Family.

Besides, that cloak looks bigger than she is, she could keep her tail in easily if she wanted to.

I wonder how it came about?

I would assume the cloak was formed like everything else the Family wears, but it looks positively ancient, it seems very well maintained, though, so it's possibly a design decision.

 **End of Page. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 ... 8, 9, 10**

(Showing page 7 of 10)

 **►AllSeeingEye**  
Replied On Feb 25th 2011:

We don't rightly know the color of her scales yet, but based on current trends, if she is indeed Saurial's sister, she's unlikely to possess any pearly scales like Ianthe or Metis.

 **►Sothoth**  
Replied On Feb 25th 2011:

I'll put a vote on Shroud, seems appropriate somehow.

 **►SavingMolly**  
Replied On Feb 25th 2011:

She actually gave me a name: Cloak.

Hey there, if you're reading this, thank you so much again for saving me from those Merchants.

 **►Mandabar**  
Replied On Feb 25th 2011:

Merchants? Ouch.

What happened?

 **►SavingMolly**  
Replied On Feb 25th 2011:

I got mugged.

Don't worry, I'm alright. I didn't get hurt, thanks to her.

 **►IguanaGirl**  
Replied On Feb 25th 2011:

Wow, I'm sorry you got mugged, I did too.

It's really nice that there are so many friendly reptiles to protect us now. Brockton Bay used to be a lot more dangerous before they were here.

 **►Mandabar**  
Replied On Feb 25th 2011:

Glad to see you're all right, it's not fun getting mugged. It happened to me once before, really shakes you up when it does.

Good thing she was passing by, right?

Edit: Dammit, not again . Ninja'd...

 **►FCVanillaIce**  
Replied On Feb 25th 2011:

Hey SavingMolly,

What is her eye color? OP's video is really bad and swaying everywhere, I can't actually see her when she turned around.

 **►Bladeworksfan** (Kyushu Survivor)  
Replied On Feb 25th 2011:

Sorry about that, I was drunk out of my mind when I took it.

Unless I was mistaken, she didn't have any glow in the dark eyes in the bar either.

Maybe she hid them, like Saurial does with her sunglasses.

 **►SavingMolly**  
Replied On Feb 25th 2011:

I didn't see any glowing eyes either. It was pretty dark then, I couldn't see anything under that cloak at all.

 **End of Page. 1, 2, 3 ... 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10**

 **(Showing page 8 of 10)**

 **►BrocktonBayMod** (Moderator)  
Replied On Feb 25th 2011:

This is your last warning guys, no speculating on her scale or eye color, she wore a cloak and hid her eyes for a reason. Doing so can risk revealing her civilian identity.

If this happens again, I'll have to start giving out infractions.

 **►Tiny_Swansong**  
Replied On Feb 25th 2011:

She's a _giant lizard_.

 **What** civilian identity?

 **►FCVanillaIce**  
Replied On Feb 25th 2011:

Got it.

Does anyone know why she was going to the DWU, besides the obvious answer that she's 'looking for Saurial'?

Can anyone at DWU confirm that she got there?

 **►Ianthe** (Verified Cape) (The Family)  
Replied On Feb 25th 2011:

She arrived there nicely and safely, thanks for asking. :)

She's really was looking for Cousin Saurial, she needed help with her homework. It's about fractional-dimensional mathematics and Cousin Saurial is much more knowledgeable on that subject than I am.

 **►Glory Girl** (Verified Cape) (New Wave)  
Replied On Feb 25th 2011:

Nope, I don't want to know. That _thing_ at the party's bad enough, I don't want to know how they made it.

 **►FCVanillaIce**  
Replied On Feb 25th 2011:

Ah ha!

Cloak is Saurial's sister confirmed.

What is she like?

 **User received an infraction for this post: do not speculate on the identities of capes.**

►IguanaGirl

Replied On Feb 25th 2011:

I also want to know!

Not what she looks like, but what she's personally like :D

You don't have to answer Ianthe, if it risks revealing her identity.

 **►Ianthe** (Verified Cape) (The Family)  
Replied On Feb 25th 2011:

She's really fun to be with and she really likes the human canned beverage known as Coke.

She can be fairly similar to Cousin Saurial at times too, she was humming the Bond theme as she was sneaking across the DWU to our office.

 **►Laser Augment**  
Replied On Feb 25th 2011:

Knowing the Family, she probably enjoys eating the can too...

 **►SittingByTheDockofBrocktonBay**  
Replied On Feb 25th 2011:

Shit, we missed one?

 **End of Page. 1, 2, 3 ... 6, 7, 8, 9, 10**

 **(Showing page 9 of 10)**

 **►Laser Augment**  
Replied On Feb 25th 2011:

Are you surprised?

Don't be, I hear they can be _really_ sneaky if they want to, scarily so.

Having her hum James Bond while she slipped through your compound does sound a bit much, I agree.

 **►XxVoid_CowboyxX**  
Replied On Feb 25th 2011:

Are you sure you can't give us a hint oh miss sexy lizard?

Maybe start by telling us what her scale color isn't?

 **User received an infraction for this post: do not speculate on the identities of capes.**

►Ianthe

(Verified Cape) (The Family)  
Replied On Feb 25th 2011:

I'm sorry, but I can't.

She wishes to stay anonymous for now.

She may show off her scales someday, but until then, I can't say anything about her appearence.

 **►XxVoid_CowboyxX**  
Replied On Feb 25th 2011:

[Post deleted]

[User temp banned - 1 week]

That was way too far, I'm appalled that even someone as impertinent as you could insinuate to such things. Positive reinforcement obviously doesn't work on you, so enjoy your week long ban to reflect on what you just said. - BrocktonBayMod

 **►Ianthe** (Verified Cape) (The Family)  
Replied On Feb 25th 2011:

 **?**

 **►Winged One**  
Replied On Feb 25th 2011:

Oh dear, the Family treats threats like that very seriously.

I'm honestly worried about you void, Ianthe might actually eat you now.

 **►Laser Augment**  
Replied On Feb 25th 2011:

Insinuate, right. ;)

 **►IguanaGirl**  
Replied On Feb 25th 2011:

Please don't eat him Ianthe, he really doesn't mean anything he said.

 **►Ianthe** (Verified Cape) (The Family)  
Replied On Feb 25th 2011:

I won't. :)

I'm not supposed to eat humans anyway, even the irrational ones. He has nothing to fear from me, as long as he doesn't try anything.

 **►AllSeeingEye**  
Replied On Feb 25th 2011:

[Post deleted]

[User temp banned - 1 month]

 **End of Page. 1, 2, 3 ... 7, 8, 9, 10**

 **(Showing page 10 of 10)**

 **►Winged One**  
Replied On Feb 25th 2011:

[Post deleted]

 **User received an infraction for this post: do not contribute to the discussion of a cape's identity.**

►Jormungandr

Replied On Feb 25th 2011:

[Post deleted]

 **User received an infraction for this post: do not contribute to the discussion of a cape's identity.**

►BrocktonBayMod

(Moderator)  
Replied On Feb 25th 2011:

I warned you guys against speculating a cape's identity and what do you do, you try to discover it by analyzing the video.

If your goal is to lock this thread then well done, this thread is locked.

Any further thread openings discussing this event shall be locked with extreme prejudice and the original poster infracted or temp banned.

I hope to whichever deity that exists, that you learn something from this trainwreck of a thread.

And I _don't_ mean Cloak's identity.

 **End of Page. 1, 2, 3 ... 8, 9, 10**

•


	174. Upgrades and n-Dimensionality

"Who the hell is Cloak?" Dennis asked from his position, as usual when they were in the common room, on the sofa. Dean looked over, then shrugged. The pair of them were the only ones there at the moment, Missy was off duty for a couple of days, and Carlos and Chris were out on patrol together. Sophia was on console duty like she almost always was these days. Sooner or later he was going to have to give in to curiosity and find out why, she'd definitely annoyed Piggot to a level he'd never seen before.

"Never heard of anyone by that name," he replied.

"Me neither. But there's a thread on PHO about her, she saved some woman from a mugging earlier this evening. Apparently by beating up a pair of Merchants, or mastering them into beating each other up. Something like that. No one seems to know much and they're mostly just guessing."

"Oh. Definitely female?"

"So the report says. Young, teenaged is the best estimate, wears a big cloak that covers her entirely. Creepy voice, all hissy and croaking. That must be her theme. The thing from the shadows."

"Powers?"

Dennis shrugged, scrolling through the thread he was reading. "Not sure. She did a number on the muggers, though. When the police pulled them in, one of them had a nasty hole in his left ass cheek, several lumps on his head, a broken nose, a cracked rib, and he'd nearly bitten his tongue off. The other one had a dislocated knee, _two_ cracked ribs, a black eye, a broken arm, and two teeth missing. The cops couldn't work out how much of the damage was from them hitting each other and how much was from Cloak doing whatever she did."

"Sounds like she'd get along fine with Sophia," Dean grinned, even as he winced a little at the damage report.

Dennis sniggered, reading some more. "Hey, one guy here says he was in that tavern down on the docks where all the fishermen and dock workers tell each other tall tales and some tiny creepy person in a cloak came in looking for directions to the DWU. And a can of coke," he said after a little longer. "He thinks that was her as well."

"I doubt there are two girls running around in that getup at the same time even in Brockton Bay," Dean noted, before the main point sunk in. "DWU?"

They stared at each other. "Another Family member?" he asked slowly, dreading the idea. It was starting to get silly.

Dennis looked at him, then back at the laptop, wearing a dubious expression. "No one reported any scaly parts."

"But she was wearing a big cloak as a disguise," Dean pointed out.

"That's… true," his colleague and friend said slowly. "Is it me or is it really getting a little odd around here?"

"Both, I think," Dean remarked, shaking his head. "OK, so we have a new Parahuman running around beating up Merchants. Maybe. One report isn't enough to establish a pattern."

"I guess not. But people are wondering even so. Some of the powers they're suggesting might have managed to do what she did are scary. And some are just ridiculous."

"So, nothing unusual, then," the other boy said wisely. Dennis nodded, amused, then went back to poking around on the forum, snickering intermittently as he typed something. Dean was fairly sure that the rumors would only get worse as a result, but simply went back to his book.

* * *

Randall sat up, looking around and blinking. "Is that all?" he asked. ' _Ianthe_ ' nodded, smiling at him.

"That's just the neural upgrades. Now for the symbiote." She held out a small sliver of what looked like bone. "Stick it on yourself somewhere and press it until it squeaks."

He took it from her, examined it, then followed the instructions, attaching it to his upper left arm. The area went numb for a few seconds. She was touching his other shoulder with two fingers, looking satisfied. "Good, integration complete. OK, that's those parts done. The other modifications would normally be done inside a bioconstruct, but since we're both using ours and we don't have a spare, I'll do it the hard way. Lie down again, please."

Randall lay down on the table, this time on his back. He had no shirt on, which meant the metal felt somewhat cold, but it was tolerable. "Grab some of the onions, will you, Metis?" Amy asked her ' _cousin_ ', who picked up a large cloth sack of the vegetables and handed it over. Flicking a claw over it opened up a slit which the healer stuck her hand through. "This will take half an hour or so, Randall, I'm just going to put you to sleep until I'm done, all right?"

"Sure," he smiled up at the large reptile, who smiled back. That was the last he knew for a while.

* * *

"That's it." Saurial nodded encouragingly as Missy concentrated on the small ball of severely mistreated space in front of her, a foot off the table. "Now, if you rotate that fourth dimensional vector by ninety degrees in _that_ direction, it should snap into a stable form."

The teenager was sweating lightly, not because it took a lot of power, but because there were an awful lot of variables to keep track of at the same time. She'd lost count of how many times she'd tried this trick, it was at least a dozen, all the previous having ended in either a bang or a whimper.

Actually, that particular one ended up with a bang _followed_ by a whimper, but Leet had been peering at it from too close in the first place. He was now watching from the other side of the table, a hand partly raised just in case.

She pushed a little more of whatever it was she was actually doing when she used her power into the warped space, looking at it closely, then smiled broadly when there was an almost audible ' _click_ ' in her head. Very carefully and slowly releasing her iron control of her power, she hopped up and down with a squeal of glee when the distortion stayed intact.

"IdidIt!IdidIt!IdidIt!IdidIt!IdidIt!IdidIt!" she gibbered, dancing around with her cloak flailing about her, before she returned to the table and stared at the thing from a foot away. "I did it!"

"You did indeed do it, you did," Saurial grinned. "Very well done, Vista. It looks completely stable."

The lizard-girl reached out and stuck her finger into the little knot of space folded back on itself, nodding approvingly when it didn't come out the other side. Her entire hand followed, then most of her arm. Leet's eyes were as wide as saucers at the sight. Even Missy was a little shocked at how well it worked.

"About a cubic yard of space folded into a few inches," Saurial said as she withdrew her arm. "Decent recursion level, good stability, needs a little work on higher dimensions but on the whole very impressive for your first successful attempt."

"Thank you so much for the help," Missy gushed, darting over and hugging the reptilian girl, who smiled down at her. She was over two feet taller so it was quite a long way down. "I can't believe how easy it is when you know the trick."

"Your powers give you a huge advantage, but you're right, this sort of thing is hard to come up with in the first place but elegantly straightforward when you know how," Saurial agreed as Missy released her, then went back to inspecting her accomplishment. She pushed her own hand into it, feeling around inside the space warp. It didn't feel any different to her normal senses, but her power sense told her all _sorts_ of fascinating things about it.

"I think I learned more about multi-dimensional physics in an hour than I have in the rest of my entire life," Leet commented, sounding somewhat awe-struck. He looked at Missy, shook his head, then stared at Saurial. "How the hell did you come up with the math behind this?"

"Family tradition, obviously," Saurial smiled. He gave her a narrow-eyed look for a moment, making her snicker.

"Obviously. I'm going to have to think about this. And I want to talk to you more when I've thought it through."

"Sure, any time," the girl replied. She looked back to Missy, who was playing with her stable warp. "That should help you with your powers, though. There are some interesting possibilities for storage, of course, but the same methods should let you create larger warped areas, or just fix them for a time. I'm not sure it can be done permanently without either tying it to a physical object like I do, or having it in close proximity to you. I suspect not without a lot more work at a minimum, the equations get a little fuzzy and I'm still working them out. But even so I think it's pretty damn good."

"It's incredible," the young girl sighed, staring at the thing she'd made. "And so beautiful."

"There _is_ a pleasing asymmetry to the underlying fractal space," Saurial nodded, also studying it. "You're probably going to need to practice a lot to make it second nature but I have no doubt you can do it, you're very quick to learn."

"Thanks so much, Saurial," Missy smiled.

"No problem, I like helping out," her teacher replied with a grin. "I bet your drawings will come out better now as well."

"Yes, I can already see where I went wrong," she agreed, picking up her notebook. She studied the last, most complete drawing, then patted her cloak looking for a pencil. Saurial held one out to her, looking amused.

"Here, try this one," she said. Taking it with a nod of thanks, Missy looked at the gold printing running down it, which read ' _FamTech Pencil of Eldritch DOOM - HB1_ ', grinned, then started drawing, whistling happily through her teeth. Every now and then she looked up at the spatial warp for inspiration, and because it was _just that pretty_.

* * *

Kevin watched the girl, who was no more than thirteen at most, as she happily sketched on the pad, her tongue sticking out a little as she worked. If it wasn't for the green visor obscuring her eyes, and the amusingly over-sized black cloak she was still wrapped up in, she'd have looked like any junior high student working on an art project. He looked at the weird little knot of maltreated space hanging over the table, then at Taylor, who had a small grin on her reptilian features. She met his eyes with hers, the grin widening.

Shaking his head in awed respect, the Tinker went back to studying the immaterial construction Vista had made. Poking it with the blade of the knife that Amy had produced, which was still on the table, he felt around the edges of the thing, impressed by the way the knife went in and didn't come out the other side.

"That really is amazing," he commented in a low voice.

Looking at the collection of weird little multidimensional objects Taylor had made to illustrate some of her points to both of them, he added, "So are those. Every time I look at them I get new ideas. And a bit of a headache."

"Most people seem to react like that, for some reason," Taylor replied, also quietly. "I'm really not sure why, I just find them interesting, like my cousins do. Vista has no trouble either. I think there must be something in the human brain that finds things with more than three spatial dimensions somewhat awkward, it probably takes time to adjust."

"The mere _idea_ of a physical object having more than three spatial dimensions is absurd, but I'm looking at more than a dozen of them," he chuckled. "The ones that have something like three and a half dimensions are _really_ weird."

"Cascaded fractional dimensions are fascinating," she giggled. "I'm sure we've only scratched the surface, so to speak. Making things that are bigger on the inside than the outside is the easiest and most obvious use, but there are some interesting other possibilities." She stuck her finger into the most complex widget, something that was similar to the gift ' _Ianthe_ ' had given to Danny at his birthday, which Kevin had seen on PHO. Most people who saw it seemed to wish they hadn't. Even the photos were weird, and the first time he'd seen one he'd had to go and lie down for a while, but it was only slightly painful to look at now.

He still found the way that her finger came out in more than one place totally insane. The casual breaking of what he'd been fairly sure were tried and tested laws of the universe was both very worrying and very interesting.

Perhaps her use of the word ' _magic_ ' wasn't entirely hyperbole…

Reaching out he picked up one of the basic four-dimensional cubes and played with it, turning it over in his hands and trying to come up with a definitive count of the faces. It was essentially impossible. He didn't yet understand all of the math behind it, but he got enough that he was genuinely in awe of the sort of mind the reptilian girl on the other side of the table must have. This was _far_ beyond anything he could ever have come up with, he was certain of that.

Taylor also had a real gift for explaining and teaching mathematics, even the bizarre variant she'd apparently invented wholesale. Tinkers were often good at using some very strange subsets of knowledge, mathematical as well as other types, but it was seldom if ever something that anyone else could make sense of. But despite the way it seemed to basically brutalize the universe with malice, her own equations actually made sense, or at least were internally consistent and logical.

For a specific use of the word ' _logic_ ', of course, one he'd never personally come across until very recently.

Toying with the impossibility in his hand, he grinned at the thought of the expression on the faces of wise old mathematicians and physicists if Taylor ever wrote a book on ' _Family Mathematical Theorems and Their Practical Applications._ ' The five or six of them in the entire world who could actually understand it would probably faint. That whole thing was most likely about as convincing proof of the otherworldly origin of the Family as anything else she could possibly have come up with.

The fact that Vista apparently understood enough of it, even if only instinctively using her power, was also extremely impressive. It was definitely going to have a pretty dramatic effect on her abilities, and drive her threat rating, which was already remarkably high, through the roof. Assuming she actually bothered to mention it to the PRT, of course. From various comments she'd made he wasn't entirely certain she would, at least for now. She seemed to be having too much fun learning and experimenting and there was a definitely non-zero chance that they'd immediately forbid her from talking to Taylor and her friends. The girl herself appeared worried about that possibility.

"There we go," Vista said as she made the last few lines on the paper. Her pencil seemed to be somehow pulling the drawing around as she moved it, as if the surface of the paper was actually a thick gel. She lifted the pencil and looked carefully at the drawing, then made a couple of changes. Nodding in satisfaction, she smiled brilliantly. "That's almost perfect. It looks like what I can see in my head."

Turning the pad around, she showed it to them. Kevin blinked, hard, several times, then closed his eyes for a few seconds.

It… wasn't horrible, by any means. But the drawing, which gave new meaning to the word ' _abstract_ ', seemed to have _far_ more depth to it that it possibly could have had, and was very definitely not static. The overall effect was like the most powerful optical illusion he'd ever encountered. An unprepared person who didn't have the benefit of an hour or so with Taylor explaining everything from scratch in steps and just got dumped in unprepared would probably react… rather badly.

Even now, he found it hard to stare at for any length of time.

"Nice," Taylor said, grinning widely.

He glanced at her. She, on the other hand, seemed to genuinely think it was a neat idea.

For some reason this didn't surprise him at all.

"And look, you can do this!" Vista said happily, sticking her pencil into the pad and watching as the point came out somewhere else on the drawing. She stirred it around, the bit of wood and graphite appearing and disappearing as she did. "That's so cool."

"It's very good, Vista. A little like my blocks, here, but using a two-dimensional substrate to stack the higher dimensions onto," Taylor said, watching with great interest. "Can I have a closer look?"

"Sure." The blonde girl handed the pad over. Taylor peered at it closely, then pushed her hand into the page up to the wrist and felt around with an expression of concentration.

"Aha! I thought so," she smiled, apparently grabbing something inside the weird dimensional mess Vista had drawn, then pulling. The entire drawing inverted, black becoming white and vice versa, the paper bulging in a freaky manner, then the whole thing popped into three dimensions. Or, three and a bit dimensions. The paper was now a sort of contour map of some weird mathematical function, like a computer model of a complex equation visualizing something that shouldn't exist.

Vista stared, then clapped her hands in glee. "How did you _do_ that?" she squealed.

"You have to connect the internal and external dimensional lattices, see? Like this." Taylor demonstrated again, while her student watched extremely closely, the drawing popping flat again. "Try it. Feel around for the spatial boundaries then grab them and pinch them together, twist, and pull."

She put the pad on the table, Vista leaning over it and sticking her hand into her drawing. The girl got a faraway look on her face the best he could see with her visor in the way, feeling for the edge of a mathematical improbability. Eventually she smiled. "I think… I think I've got it. OK, let's see..." She yanked, then yelped as the drawing twisted around her arm. Taylor snickered.

"Wrong boundary, that's the physical dimensions of the paper. Here, hold on." She somehow made the paper go flat again. "Over a bit and up."

"Oh. Um… Right, I've got it. Now, twist and pull and..." The same thing Taylor had done happened, Vista looking ecstatic. "I did it!"

"Again, very well done, small human person," Taylor chuckled, patting the girl on the head. Vista grinned at her.

"This is so cool," she whispered, making the drawing revert to its other form then back a couple of times. "I owe you so much for teaching me all this."

"It was my pleasure, Vista," the reptilian girl replied, sounding pleased. "And fun too. Remember, keep practicing, and if you get stuck, you can always come back."

"I'd like that."

Retrieving her pencil, Vista flipped the page over and started drawing again, looking about as happy as anyone could. Kevin shook his head with amusement, glancing at Taylor who seemed perfectly content to let the girl stay as long as she wanted. Moments later, the door to the workroom opened and Randall came out, looking pensive. Walking over to his friend, he clapped him on the shoulder. "Weird experience, man. But interesting. Your turn."

With a slight swallow, Kevin nodded, got up, and headed for the separate section, seeing ' _Ianthe_ ' making a ' _come here_ ' gesture with one finger. She was wearing the reptilian equivalent of a creepy grin. ' _I must be nuts agreeing to this_ ,' he thought, but kept walking.

Just as he went inside, he heard Randall say, in tones of total outrage, "What in the name of _Escher_ are _those!_ "

He was still grinning as he pulled his balaclava and shirt off at Lisa's request, lying face down on the table.

"You have warm hands," he said to Amy, who laughed, then started doing something that was probably against the laws of the universe.

There seemed to be a lot of that around here, he mused.

* * *

Danny looked away from his computer to see Mark at the doorway. "Is our sneaky little visitor still in with the girls?" he asked.

"Yes," the security chief grinned, coming in and sitting down. "I wonder what she's doing there?"

"Probably something very wrong," Danny replied with a chuckle. "Or she'd have walked in the main entrance and asked which way to BBFO."

"The girl is damn good, actually, we lost sight of her several times. She missed a couple of the guys in the outer perimeter, though, they spotted her again. Those night vision scopes we got after Hookwolf's visit are very handy. I've also stolen a few thermal cameras from the electrical guys, they work quite well considering they're not mil-spec stuff. Enough to pick up a person's presence even if you can't see who it is."

"Get some quotes on better ones," Danny said after a moment's thought. "If things keep going like they are, we may well have other visitors who are less friendly than Vista sneaking around. Best to be prepared."

"OK. I know a few people from the old days who can probably hook us up with some of the good gear. I'll make inquiries." After a moment, he added, "I wonder if Director Piggot knows one of her most popular Wards is running around in a big cloak beating up muggers?" Mark was definitely very amused by this.

"I doubt it very much. She'd pop a vein on the spot," Danny replied. "I was impressed it hit PHO so quickly. I wonder how much of the damage to those idiots was her and how much was them? And how the hell she managed to make them beat each other up in the first place?"

"Dunno. Her abilities are very impressive, though. If she's talking to Saurial, I wouldn't be surprised to find out she ends up a lethal little kid. That big lizard is scary-dangerous with fighting and thinking outside the box." Mark looked meaningfully at the weird little paperweight on Danny's desk. "And I think has a number of things in common with Vista."

Picking it up, Danny rolled the hypercube between his fingers, looking at it, then put it down again. He was getting to grips with the weird visual distortions it produced, slowly but surely. "Most likely true. Oh, well, we'll just have to see what happens. I trust them not to go too far."

"Just right up to the line separating _not far enough_ from _too far_ , right, Boss?" Mark snickered.

Danny sighed a little. "Quite. Go away. Stop calling me boss."

"You got it, Boss," Mark said, standing up again. "I take it that if anyone asks we've never seen Vista, and never heard of Cloak?"

"Who?"

"Right." The blond man smiled, then left.

Going back to the computer, Danny read the latest updates to the _Cloak_ thread, laughing at some of the comments Clockblocker was posting. The lad had a sense of humor, definitely. The thought that he was speculating on the powers of one of his own team-mates without realizing it was very funny.

Smiling to himself, he minimized the web browser and got back to finishing off the work he had left for today.

* * *

Taylor finished writing a very long equation on one of the several free-standing glass boards she'd created for the purpose, running down one side of the room. Tapping the wax stick on her chin thoughtfully, she examined her work, made a small correction, then looked at Randall. "There you have it. That's the main theory behind the fractional dimension recursive space fold, as far as we've worked it out so far."

The man was staring at the equations with wide eyes, letting his power to rapidly learn anything he put his hand to go to work. She was curious to see how well it dealt with higher mathematics, especially after the upgrade, and apparently so was he. Taylor was well aware that her own brand of Varga-inspired and aided math was extremely off the wall, but it worked, so it was right. Very few people could have made anything of it, she was sure.

"That is… insane," he finally said faintly, looking at the last equation, then walking back down the half-dozen boards to the first one and starting again. "But it's internally consistent, and I can't deny the results." The man glanced over at the collection of little multi-dimensional blocks on the table, the spatial distortion still happily twisting the fabric of the universe into a knot that was hanging above it, and Vista, who was engrossed in yet another drawing, ignoring them completely. This one was even starting to overlap the dimensions of the paper itself in a very interesting way.

He blinked a few times, shook his head hard, then went back to the math. Moving slowly along the boards, he carefully studied each equation and all the proofs of it. Seeing it was going to take him a while, she went over to the computers and started browsing the latest PHO threads to catch up on local Parahuman events, having started the coffee machine making some tea.

Finding one specific thread, she began reading it, both her and the Varga chuckling at the content. This had some definite possibilities...

* * *

Amy stepped back, watching as Kevin moved, then sat up. "How do you feel?" she asked.

"Fine." He stretched, then flexed his arms. "Better than fine. Incredibly good, actually."

"Great." She smiled widely. "Everything checks out. Let's test things." Nodding to Lisa, who turned out the lights, she said into the absolute darkness now in the room, "Can you see anything?"

"Not a thing."

"OK." She lit one very small patch of bioluminescence on her side, away from him, the light being about as much as one firefly would make. To her own Ianthe eyes, the room was now visible, fairly dimly but more than enough to read by. An unenhanced normal human would, after an hour or so of acclimatization, be able to just about make out shapes. "Now?"

"I can see everything," he said, looking around, his pupils totally dilated. She handed him a sheet of paper that earlier she'd printed a standard eye test chart onto.

"How far can you read down this?" she asked.

Studying it, he read the bottom line out loud, making her nod, satisfied. "Very good, eyesight seems up to spec." Turning the lights back on, Lisa handed him another piece of paper, with lines of incredibly fine print on it, far smaller than would normally require magnification to make out.

"Try this," the girl said.

" _If you can read this you have The Amy's standard human upgrade package_ ," he quoted with a chuckle. "Neat."

Amy grinned, inspecting him. After a few more tests she was satisfied everything was working perfectly. "OK, then. That's the improved sensory package, the structural boosts, the strength package, and the neural amplifiers. Unless you want anything else, I think we're done."

"I can do without a tail for now," he laughed. "Thanks anyway. Although at some point I would be interested in trying one of those bioconstructs, I have to admit."

Amy looked down at herself, then back to him, replying, "They are pretty good if I say so myself."

"Do they come in something other than female, though?" Kevin seemed amused. "I'm not sure I could handle being a girl lizard."

Both she and Lisa laughed. "To be honest that part of is isn't really something I've ever put much thought into with these," she said. "Because of the EDM foam skeleton, they can't breed anyway without Taylor's help. They're technically neuter, I suppose, the voice is really the main thing that makes people think ' _female_ '. I can do a different voice easily enough. But let's see what the outcome of our experiment is first. I want to keep the variables down to a minimum."

"I'm extremely curious about what you hope to find," he said as he got off the table, then put his shirt back on. Lisa moved into the next room to allow him space, as in the confines of the workroom two large reptiles, him, and a table tended to fill it almost entirely.

"It's something very interesting," Lisa replied. "We're still not certain we're actually seeing what we _think_ we're seeing, though, hence the experiment. Ideally we'd do it entirely double-blinded, Amy worked out how earlier, but we'd need at least two Parahumans we'd never met before as subjects and two more as controls. I'm not sure how we can arrange that right now. Perhaps later. For now, this should give us some very useful data."

"And you really do think it will shed light on the origin of powers?" he asked, still amazed by that idea.

Amy glanced at Lisa, both of them looking a little troubled. The healer nodded slowly. "I'm pretty sure it will help with that, yes. But… if it does, the implications of the whole thing are weird. Not to mention the Endbringer connection, which complicates it a hell of a lot. We may have no choice but to talk to someone in a better position to work things out at that point."

"Who? The PRT would be the obvious ones, but I wouldn't trust them that far myself. Although maybe Legend would listen and think before he did anything stupid. The man has the reputation he has for good reasons."

Lisa said, "Possibly. We're going to have to think about that part. But we need the data first, obviously. Once we see what happens, we can work out what to do next."

"Fair enough. I'm going to keep a very close watch on my power over the next few days and see if anything changes." Kevin looked around, then shrugged. "So far, nothing jumps out at me about it. The sensory boost is amazing, though."

"I'll have to show you and Randall how to use the reflex and strength boosts when Vista has gone," Amy put in. "I've left them disabled for the moment. Taylor can make some test weights and we can see how much stronger you are. I'm hoping for somewhat more than either Lisa and I can do in our normal bodies. I'd guess… perhaps a ton and a half dead lift? Something around that. Nothing like what Taylor can do even in her base form, but not far off what Vicky could manage."

"And with the symbiote, we could heal from most things that the increased toughness wouldn't handle?" he asked, still astounded by the concept.

"Pretty much. Don't get cocky about it, it's not invulnerability. If someone shoots you it's going to hurt. But unless they use a rocket launcher, you'll probably make it. The bone enhancements are enough to bounce anything less than a point-blank high caliber bullet from your skull and the increased shock absorption capability would prevent much of a concussion. The symbiote would heal that up in minutes worst case. But a large enough impact in the right place could still kill you."

She shrugged a little. "I'm still working on that but within the confines of a normal appearing human body there are limits right now. Eventually I could probably replace your entire skeleton with something better, and do the same with the muscles, ligaments, nerves, you name it. I'm working my way up to that." Tapping her chest, she went on, "These are proof of concept of a lot of those things, of course. Way stronger and tougher than most Brutes. But I made them totally from scratch and threw in everything I could think of, and I'm still upgrading them regularly. Retrofitting the human body is more complicated if I want to maintain compatibility."

"Sounds like you're making a new PC," he chuckled. "I still have a hard time thinking about biology being something you can mix and match like electronics."

"A lot of it is fairly simple when you know how," she smiled. "But some of the changes are damn complicated. I don't want to make any mistakes, so I'm taking it slow and steady. I have time."

"Probably the right approach," he nodded.

"Well, let's see what horrible thing Taylor has corrupted that poor little kid into doing," Lisa smiled, moving past him to the door to the outer room. He pulled his balaclava back on, snickering under his breath.

"I'm not entirely sure that's the right way to look at it," he said. "Vista seems to have come pre-corrupted, if what I saw was anything to go by. The girl has talents, and an odd outlook on life. She'd fit right in around here."

Amy and Lisa shared a glance. "New Family member?" Amy giggled.

"A little obvious, but… perhaps an associate for now? We'll have to see what Taylor says," Lisa grinned, then opened the door.


	175. Missy and Munchkining

Missy looked up from her sketches to watch Saurial and Über dancing around in the middle of the floor with collapsible batons in both their hands, doing some sort of stick-fighting she'd never seen before. Putting her pencil down, she followed them with her eyes, impressed at the sheer speed. She could tell from her own Wards close quarters combat training that Saurial was vastly better than the man was, as well as much stronger and quicker, but he was holding his own far more effectively than almost anyone else could have done.

He'd certainly have given her PRT instructors a real run for their money, she pondered. It was doubtful that there were more than two or three people in the PRT, even if you included Miss Militia, who were as good as that. Saurial was way past him, even if she restricted herself to human speeds she'd wipe the floor with anyone else she'd ever met.

The reptilian girl wasn't using her tail, except as a counterbalance, but she could obviously have smacked him clear across the room with it any time she wanted to. Instead, she was relying on the batons, one parrying blows while the other one struck out. Missy winced as she caught Über across the right shoulder with an audible crack, the man yelping in pain and skittering out of the way, then spinning around to parry another incoming blow with both his batons crossed in front of him. Having trapped one of hers, he somehow twisted his arm around it, his own baton leading, then snapped the one in his other hand out to slice the tip across her throat. The blow would have disabled or possibly killed any normal person.

Saurial, of course, just smiled, then stepped back and bowed to him. He returned it, before transferring both batons to one hand and massaging his shoulder with the other. "That really hurt," he complained.

"No pain, no amusement for the audience," Saurial replied, indicating her cousins, Leet, and Missy, all of whom were watching with interest.

"That's not how that saying goes and you know it, you scaly menace," Über grumbled, but he was smiling a little in the process. "Thanks for the workout. I've never seen some of those moves."

"You're welcome, it was fun. You have a few tricks I've never come across either. We need to do this more often, we can teach each other quite a lot, I think," she said. Both her batons disappeared. He offered her the ones he was holding, but she shook her head. "Keep them."

"Thanks. They're really nice," the man smiled. Collapsing both of them he dropped them into his pockets.

"That was amazing," Missy said honestly, impressed with both of them.

"Thanks," he smiled, coming back over to the table and sitting down. "I enjoy martial arts, even with overpowered lizards who don't know their own strength."

"I know my strength pretty well," Saurial grinned. "Which is why you're alive."

He nodded grandly, also grinning. "I appreciate the consideration."

Laughing, Saurial wandered over and looked over Missy's shoulder at her notebook, reaching down and flipping back a few pages. She hmm'd in a reflective manner. "You're really coming along there, Vista. I'm impressed. You'll have to think of some concrete examples for some of these, but it's a very good first step."

Looking at the drawings as well, Missy nodded. "At the moment they're just really pretty," she said. "But I can see all sorts of new ideas from them." Glancing up at her spatial distortion, which was still hanging above the table, she added, "I'm wondering how long that will stick around for if I leave it."

Studying it, Saurial looked at it from different angles, then poked it a couple of times. "Days, probably. The math suggests that the duration is at least partly based on external size of the distortion. How much space is folded into it doesn't really matter, it's the… outside, although that's not the right word… that counts. Sort of the bit the universe can pay attention to. There are ways around it, but they start getting a little complicated for this early in your learning."

"I can hardly understand any of that math," Missy said, waving at the series of glass writing boards running down the wall.

"Don't worry, practically no one could," Leet commented, following her gaze. "I can get about twenty percent of it at the moment."

"It's very interesting," Metis added, walking over and examining one of the equations. "The old Family ways are always fascinating even to us, if you haven't studied them as much as Saurial has." She looked over her shoulder at the lizard-girl, who was smiling. "I think Raptaur is even better at it."

Leet was looking at her with an expression that Missy thought was probably skeptical amusement under the balaclava, but only made a faint exasperated sigh. The reptile smirked at him, then turned to her. "So, ' _Cloak_ ', what are your plans for your new cape persona?"

Missy flushed a little. She'd been pretty embarrassed when Saurial pointed out a little while ago that her little run in with the Merchant muggers and that poor woman had already hit PHO, in fact had hit it within about an hour of the event, but also amused and a little proud. "I'm not sure," she replied. "I didn't intend to _have_ a new persona, not really. I just liked the cloak and didn't want to have the Director find out about coming here." She sighed slightly. "Not allowed to have any fun at all," she added in a disconsolate mutter.

Ianthe patted her on the shoulder comfortingly. "I know what that's like, believe me. Before I was allowed to come here, I didn't have as much fun at home as I wanted to. Too many responsibilities, you understand."

Missy nodded, knowing full well what she meant. "But even with responsibilities, you should be allowed to enjoy yourself, right? I mean, I like being a Ward, I like helping out, and I like my team mates." She thought for a moment, then added, "Well, most of them," thinking of Sophia. "But it's so… so… _limiting_. I've learned more in the last two or three hours about my powers than in all the time I've been a Ward just by talking to someone who listened and helped. The PRT is so stuck on not being seen as bad they end up holding us back a lot of the time."

"Which is probably the entire point, of course," Über commented. "Not entirely unreasonably, the public perception is something you have to consider, no matter how powerful you are. If people end up scared _enough_ of you power may not matter. Look at what happened to the S9."

She nodded thoughtfully, thinking he had a point. And that she was so glad that poor Mr. Petty man had finally taken those horrible people out, so no one here would ever have to face them. "I guess. But even so, there must be something between ' _oh god the horrible capes'_ and ' _god I'm bored_ ,' right?"

"Of course," Saurial chuckled. "That's us. We try to have fun while also not going too far overboard, and also help people wherever we can. We have problems with the PRT too, all of us. In some ways they mean well, definitely, but there are also people in charge who are probably only in it for themselves. Like in all big organizations, especially ones with real authority. I respect Director Piggot, and what the PRT stands for, to a point. But I'm not going to let them dictate how I run my life any more than I have to, which luckily isn't very much."

"At the same time, we have to be careful not to do anything too outrageous," Metis put in. "We have to listen to our own advisers and not get carried away. It takes time to fix some things, even if you have the ability and power to just smash through the obstacles in the way. Sometimes you can't do everything you want to. You have to think at least a little about how it affects other people."

"Which is why we don't just charge in and take out every villain on sight," Saurial continued the thread. "Sure, we probably could. But there's always the possibility of running up against someone you actually _can't_ deal with if you do that, or triggering someone into doing something extreme in retaliation. That's probably the argument the PRT and Protectorate uses as why they don't do more about villains in general, especially around here, but they've taken it too far. We don't want to get sucked into that whole mess if we don't have to, especially when there are entire government departments whose entire reason for existence is dealing with it. So we don't go looking for trouble like that. We'll deal with it if it comes looking for _us_ , though."

"And low level criminals are fair game," Ianthe grinned. "Hunting them is fun."

"Not that we actually _hunt_ them, of course," Saurial said severely, staring at her cousin, who shrugged, the grin not diminishing. "But they're the ones who do the most day to day harm and grabbing them has a disproportionate effect on overall crime levels. Without their foot soldiers, the cape gangs are much less dangerous."

"Not to mention that some villains are actually just misunderstood people who deserve a second chance," Über remarked, smiling. All three lizards laughed, as did Missy. "I for one am very pleased about the Family ' _don't just smash villains, talk to them first_ ' approach."

Missy giggled at his comment. "But will that always work?" she asked more seriously. "What happens if you find someone who talks a good line of reforming, then doesn't? Not everyone is actually trustworthy, even if they're a hero. It must be worse with people who aren't."

She was again thinking of Sophia, who certainly wasn't the sort of person where just talking rationally to them would necessarily help you much.

Saurial looked at her cousins, then Über and Leet, before sighing, leaning forward in the chair she'd sat in and putting her arms on the table. "True, definitely. So far, I guess we've been lucky, although I like to think that we're fairly good judges of character. Some people you could never trust. I know that, but so far, I haven't really run into any of them. Hookwolf was certainly a person no one in their right mind would trust to keep their word without a serious threat of violence added. My sister was able to do that and so far he's stayed well away. I heard he got out of jail, but we haven't seen anything of him at all."

"What about Lung?" she asked. "And Kaiser? Or any of the other serious cape villains?"

"Lung is no fool, and a man with his own version of honor," Saurial replied after a little thought. "Kaiju made a bargain with him, which I think he'll stick to. It's not quite the same as trusting him, though. Kaiser… None of us have met him, but from what I've heard, he's pretty smart and isn't going to do anything without thinking it through first. He doesn't like surprises, from what I've been told, so he probably wouldn't try anything against us without a _lot_ of very careful thought and some edge. Skidmark… everyone says he's an idiot with some cunning and no idea of what the word ' _restraint_ ' means. On the other hand, he must realize he's seriously outgunned. Hopefully that will keep him honest."

Giggling a little at the concept of _Skidmark_ ever being thought of as honest in any way at all, Missy nodded thoughtfully. It all sounded fairly plausible. And it was a lot more information than the PRT had seen fit to tell her. Deciding that the trust shown meant she'd keep her mouth shut about what she'd learned here, she said, "So that's why you're so in with the DWU? Because it lets you help people?"

"They're friends. Danny Hebert is a good man, and all the people here are nice. They have the same sort of feelings about their own people that we do about our Family, we respect that. And they seem to respect us. It works really well." Saurial smiled at her. "My side of the Family loves making things and learning things. This lets us do both _and_ help you humans a lot. We're very pleased that the Mayor was open to the idea of letting us help out. There are a lot more things we want to try which should be useful, and of course, fun to do."

"That's so cool," Missy sighed. "I wish I could do something like that, instead of just walking around all the time, or going on photo shoots and opening malls and that sort of thing. It gets a bit tedious after a while."

"Well, at risk of being accused of corrupting a minor, perhaps Cloak should go out occasionally and make life hard for muggers," Über grinned. "Possibly not quite so violently, although I can't say they didn't deserve it."

"Hey, most of that was them," she protested a little weakly. "I only did the nose. And his ass. And some of the lumps on his head. And sort of got them to fight each..." She trailed off as he started laughing. "OK, I get the point. But it was really funny as well."

"I'm sure it was. Poor guy probably needed a tetanus shot afterwards."

She half-grinned, half-winced at his comment.

"Of course, there are some problems with Cloak," Saurial said in a contemplative voice, studying her. "Your voice is good, and pretty funny considering who's behind it, but I don't think it would fool anyone who really knew you."

"You knew who I was as soon as I came in, didn't you?" Missy realized.

"Yep." The lizard girl grinned. "But I doubt anyone who met you for the first time would. No one on PHO seems to have the faintest idea. Most of them think you're a tiny little lizard under that cloak."

Missy started giggling furiously at the idea. "I don't have scales, or a tail, or claws… That's hilarious."

"I can fix that if you want," Ianthe offered with a smile. Missy gaped at her, the laughter stopping suddenly.

"Really?" she asked, more surprised than anything.

"Oh, yes, humans are easy to modify," the large reptile nodded. "But none of them ever take me up on it."

Astonished, and deep down not entirely untempted despite her original thoughts when meeting Saurial about how having a tail might be difficult, Missy eventually shook her head. It was pretty obvious from watching the lizard-girl fight that her tail was if anything a net benefit, and the built in chair aspect was something she thought interesting and useful, but it would be a little difficult to explain. Not only to her family, but to the public at large, and definitely to Director Piggot, who would be unlikely to see the funny side.

Although, she was somewhat curious to see just _how_ purple the woman would go…

"No," she finally said, as much to herself as to Ianthe. "That's probably too much. I can see a lot of problems with it. Thanks for the offer."

"Bear it in mind if you decide otherwise," Ianthe smiled, not offended. "But probably best to keep it to yourself for now."

"OK. So you're some sort of Biotinker, then?"

"Hmm… that description is a little… restricted," Ianthe replied. "The human concept isn't quite right, but it's heading in the correct direction. I'm what we call a life shaper or sculptor. It's more involved than something like that idiot Blasto does, or that horrible little person Nilbog. I'm not surprised your PRT has such a problem with Biotinkers with those examples, but it does portray the life arts in a negative manner." She shrugged a little. "We're hoping to change it back to something positive, but it will take time and careful work. We have a lot to offer in that field."

Missy listened, wondering if that was what Leet and Über were helping with. She looked at the two men, but didn't ask, as it seemed a bit private and wasn't really her business. "I think I get it. Thanks for telling me. I won't pass it on."

"Thank you." Ianthe smiled again. Then she looked thoughtful for a moment. "Although… perhaps there is something I can help you with that doesn't show." She inspected Missy carefully, thinking, before nodding slowly. "Ah, I think I see a way. Do you mind if I touch you? I'm just looking at this point."

Considering the request, Missy shrugged. She couldn't see the harm, as they were all pretty obviously good people. She held out her hand, the cloak falling away from her sleeve. Ianthe grasped it, concentrating for a moment, then letting go again.

"Yes. I can do that easily. OK, here's a suggestion. I can make a small modification to you which will allow you to have a totally different voice at will. Sort of a built in voice changer. You'd be able to have a proper ' _Cloak_ ' voice without straining yourself or risking any of your friends and acquaintances recognizing it, and it would even have a completely different voice print for security systems. Interested?"

Taken aback, Missy stared at her, then looked around at the others. She thought about the idea for a little while. Eventually she started to grin, then nodded. "Yes, please, I think I _would_ like that."

Saurial was smiling slightly, looking very pleased, while Metis was definitely smirking smugly. Über and Leet exchanged glances.

"She's one of us now," Leet whispered loudly. "They've got to her."

Giggling, Missy held out her hand again. Ianthe, appearing amused, held it. She felt something in her throat change slightly in a weird way.

"I'll turn it on as a default for the moment. Say something while I adjust it. We can tweak it until you're happy, then I can show you how to switch it on and off."

" **This is me talking,** " Missy said, shocked at the deep tones her voice took. Her eyes widened in amazement. " **Wow. I sound really different.** "

"Too deep, she sounds like Barry White," Leet commented, grinning widely.

"Try this."

" _Hello, I'm Vista_ ," she said, the voice now ridiculously squeaky and faint.

"Oops. Too far the other way," Ianthe snickered. "Again?"

I AM CLOAK, MISCREANTS! she announced, the leaden tones of the grave issuing from her mouth. PREPARE TO FACE THE WRATH OF THE LAW.

"Huh. That's pretty damn disturbing," Über remarked, staring at her with wide eyes.

I SORT OF LIKE IT, she laughed. I BET IT WOULD MAKE PEOPLE STOP DOING WHATEVER THEY WERE DOING.

"Then piss themselves and run away," he replied, still staring. "It's incredibly disturbing to watch someone who looks like a nice young girl sound like that. If you were all hidden in that cloak, it would be _much_ worse."

"I think he's got a point," Saurial added, shaking her head. "I like the voice, but… Not quite the sort of effect we're going for, I think. Although with the scythe as well it would be impressive. Probably for the wrong reasons, though."

AWWW. OK, I GUESS YOU'RE RIGHT.

Ianthe, who was trying not to laugh, made some more adjustments. "Try again."

 **"I am Cloak and I'm here to chew gum and stick nails in your ass. And I'm all out of gum,"** she hissed, the sound like an annoyed kettle mixed with an angry snake. **"Hey, that's pretty good."** Leet started giggling like a little kid, as Über grinned madly.

"A little deeper," Saurial suggested. Ianthe nodded.

"OK, how about now?"

 ** _"Fear the wrath of The Cloak!"_** she hissed again, the tone raspier than before.

"Not bad at all. I think we have a winner," Metis commented, nodding in satisfaction. "It's definitely female, but doesn't sound human at all. That should throw people off the trail."

 _ **"Cool,"**_ Missy hissed. _**"This is so amazing!"**_

"It's still pretty disturbing," Über said as he watched. "That other one was scary, this one make you sound like you're going to go for someone's throat if they look at you wrong."

 _ **"Do not mock Cloak, human villain,"**_ she whispered, fixing him with a stern gaze. He gaped, then began laughing, something Leet was still doing.

"Yes, you'd fit in around here perfectly," he gasped. "How did you end up in the Wards? You're wasted there."

She shrugged a little. _**"Things happened. It's OK most of the time, I just want to get out more. I can take care of myself but they treat me like a little kid a lot of the time. I've been in the Wards longer than any of the others and have more experience than any two of them, except Shadow Stalker, but I still get treated like I'm made of glass."**_

"I understand, I think," Über replied. "Can you turn that voice off, it's giving me the creeps," he added to Ianthe, who grinned, then did something. Missy felt the change in her throat again. When she tried speaking once more it was her normal voice that came out.

"That was cool," she grinned. "How do I turn it on and off?"

"I've added some extra muscles and modified your vocal cords, with a suitable neural connection to the mods," Ianthe explained. "Feel this?" Missy concentrated, feeling something inside twitch a little, although that wasn't really an accurate description. It was certainly nothing she'd ever felt before. "This way is normal voice, this way is CloakSpeak."

Giggling, she practiced for a while, the big lizard guiding her, until she could turn the modification on and off without any problems. "Wow. Thanks so much. That's really neat."

"Glad to help." Ianthe smiled at her.

"What about the disguise?" Metis asked, studying her. She glanced at Saurial, who was also inspecting Missy's cloak. "Anything you can do about it?"

"Hmm. Yep, I think so. Vista, can I have it for a minute?"

"Sure," the girl said, standing up and pulling the garment off, then handing it over. Saurial held the cloak up, then spread it out over the table, the inside uppermost.

"Very nice material, this cost someone a lot of money once," she commented, smoothing the lining down. "It's well over a hundred years old as well, from looking at it. A genuine antique." Leaning over the cloth, she added, "It would be a shame to ruin it, but I can upgrade it a bit. Let's see..." The reptilian cape slowly ran her hands over the cloth, pausing around the pockets for a minute or so, then moving on. Having done that side, she carefully flipped the cloak over and repeated the process on the other side. All in all it took about five minutes until she appeared satisfied.

"That should do it. I've added a very thin layer of EDM armor weave in between the layers, along with some thermal insulation, the same sort of thing I did for the costumes I made for New Wave. It's completely bullet and stab proof now, and will protect against a very considerable impact. It will also keep you warm or cool due to the insulation. The original linen and cotton cloth isn't fireproof, but I've added a treatment that should stop it burning unless you get soaked in gasoline, which you should probably avoid on general principals anyway."

Missy giggled at the advice, which seemed pretty good.

"It'll be a little heavier, but not enough to worry about, I think. I also added a folded space upgrade to the pockets, and made a new one here in the middle of the back on the inside. I have an idea for that. First, see if it feels OK."

Picking it up she handed it back. Missy took it from her, easily able to feel how it was definitely heavier, although it wasn't annoyingly so. The cloth itself felt exactly the same. Putting it on again, she wrapped it around herself, pulling the hood over her head, then activated her ' _Cloak_ ' voice. _**"How do I look?"**_ she asked.

"Very scary. I'm terrified and wish to confess all my crimes," Saurial recited emotionlessly, making her laugh. "Not bad. Now, the idea I had was something to make sure no one can see your face. Here, watch what I'm doing, you should be able to duplicate it easily, and you'll want to be able to turn it on and off." Reaching out she put her hands near the hood, Missy feeling the space between her and the room around the edges of the cloth twist. Getting the idea instantly, she grinned, then concentrated. "See?"

 _ **"I do. That's brilliant. How does it look?"**_

"Fucking surreal," Leet said, awestruck. He got up and came over, peering into her hood, then pulled a flashlight from his pocket and pointed it at her face. "Shit, that's the freakiest thing I've ever seen," he muttered.

"What did you do?" Ianthe asked.

"She made a spatial fold inside the hood and linked it to the pocket she added, which is otherwise inaccessible," Metis put in, looking fascinated. Saurial nodded with a smile.

"Exactly. It will dissipate as soon as Vista takes the hood off, which is why she needs to be able to recreate it. With the hood down, the pocket is inaccessible, with the hood up and the space fold in place, she can access it. And since there's no light in there, the inside of the hood looks dark and empty. Even if you shine a light inside, all you do is illuminate the pocket. In fact, if I do this..." She made a few changes that Missy watched and memorized. "That should stop the light penetrating all the way. So it looks like there's no one in the cloak at all."

"How does she see if the light doesn't penetrate?" Über asked curiously.

"There are tiny gaps surrounding her pupils to allow light in," Saurial explained. "They're linked to her eyes so they follow them. Anything physical will get diverted into the pocket. Watch." She picked up one of the little demo multidimensional objects and accurately tossed it into Missy's hood, right at her face. The girl flinched a little but before she could do more the object vanished, while she could feel a distortion travel through the warped space filling her hood and end up in the much larger piece of it across her back.

"Unbelievable," Leet grinned. "How large is the pocket, and how does she get things back out?"

"It's about three cubic yards of space, which should be enough," Saurial replied. "It could go a lot bigger but I can't see much need for that right now. As for getting things out... Vista? You know how?"

 _ **"I think so,"**_ Missy said thoughtfully. _ **"I need to do this..."**_ She put her hand into her hood, using her power to create another warped spatial effect inside the first one, which made the bottom of the pocket accessible. After a couple of attempts, she triumphantly pulled the little five-dimensional object out, holding it up. Saurial clapped, grinning widely.

"Great. Really well done, Vista. I mean, Cloak."

 _ **"Of course you do, Scaly Sensei. There is no Vista, only Cloak."**_ She ruined the effect by giggling again, which sounded really weird in that strange voice.

"The idea that you can do all of that pretty much on the fly, with no technology worth mentioning, is… extremely bizarre," Leet said after staring at them both. "Just like that, you've created a new Parahuman. Although her powers sort of give her away."

"It's still technology, it's just based on something entirely different than electronics and that type of thing," Metis noted, examining Missy from a couple of feet away. She stuck her head into the hood, then pulled it out again, grinning. "Although I have to admit even to me that's pretty impressive."

"These old Family techniques have all sorts of uses," Ianthe snickered. Leet and Über exchanged a glance then laughed.

"Apparently so. Well, that's most of the things that will keep people from thinking ' _Vista in a big cloak_ ' when they see her. But I can see some other problems. My man here is right about the powers, for one, and what about her hands? If she's going to wear her Vista costume under that her sleeves are a dead giveaway, and if she doesn't, she still has perfectly ordinary looking human hands and arms," Über said after he calmed down.

"That's several good points," Saurial replied with a small nod. "The hands are easy, that just needs gloves. The powers are more problematic." They all sat down and thought about things for a while.

"I have an idea that might work, I think," Leet finally said slowly, turning to look at Missy. "If I have the right idea about how your powers work. Although I suspect it will take a lot of practice to do it right."

 _ **"What is it?"**_ she asked curiously, and somewhat eagerly. She was having one hell of a lot of fun, learning all sorts of new things.

"You can create a spatial warp compressing the distance between things, right? As a simplistic explanation."

 _ **"Yes. Although I can do a lot more now. But that's the basic idea I've always used."**_

"OK. Can you do it anywhere around you?"

 _ **"Yep."**_

"Like under your feet?"

She looked at him, puzzled, but nodded. _**"Sure. Why?"**_

"As an example, say you created a warp in front of you between the ground and a point say a foot above it. If you made it big enough, couldn't you basically stand on the ground even if from the outside it looked like you were standing on nothing?" He raised his eyebrows inquiringly as she stared at him, then looked at Saurial, who seemed intrigued.

"Worth a try," the latter said.

 _ **"It sure is,"**_ she grinned. Pushing her hood back and turning the weird voice off, she got up, then looked at the ground. It was more or less what she'd done to the mugger, making him slam his face into the ground when it was a couple of feet away, but she'd never thought of using it like this for her own benefit. With a tiny gesture, which helped her focus, she made a spot about two feet square in front of her, a foot up, be the same space as the floor under it, then gingerly lifted her right foot and put it into the center of the barely visible distortion. It held her weight, so she leaned forward and stepped fully onto her warp.

Everyone looked at her with varying expressions. She looked down, then up at them. "Holy shit," she said in a conversational tone, too shocked to even jump up and down. "I'm flying."

"You're just standing on the ground, it's more like the ground is following you around," Saurial chuckled. "But from here, yes, it looks exactly like you're flying."

 _Now_ the jumping up and down part happened. "Oh. _My_. **_God_**." she squealed, hopping about and nearly falling off her invisible platform. "This is great." She tried making the distortion rise, finding it was possible, but took more effort than she expected. After some experimentation, it turned out to be much easier just to make a new one at a different height in front of her, then hop from one to the other, like she was climbing invisible stairs.

"That is… very weird indeed to watch," Über said after a couple of minutes of watching her walk around the room ten feet off the ground, or, depending on your viewpoint, solidly on it. "And not even slightly like the way Vista is known to move."

"You could combine them, of course, but this is probably a good way to make it look like Cloak and Vista are separate people with slightly similar powers," Metis suggested. Missy was now experimenting with seeing if she could move her supporting spatial peculiarity around sideways. This proved to be even less satisfactory, which was disappointing. She'd had momentary thoughts of gliding around the place without moving her legs, which would have looked really cool. She resolved to keep trying, sure there was some way to achieve the effect, but for now, the invisible staircase technique seemed like a winner.

"You'll need to learn to do it quickly and automatically, without the gestures," Saurial said.

"I know, they seem to help, but I don't really _need_ them," Missy replied, walking down a spiral staircase that wasn't there to the ground.

"In that case, learn to do the Cloak tricks without gestures, and keep using them for the Vista ones. That should keep people guessing."

"OK. I think I can do that," she said, very pleased with herself.

"I have an idea as well," Metis suggested. Missy eagerly turned to her. "You know that thing you do to let you see something far away up close?"

"Yes..." she replied slowly.

"Can you do it so one end is on one side of you, and the other end is on the other?"

Missy stared, then started to grin, instantly seeing her point. She nodded firmly. "I can, I think. Let's see…" Concentrating, she worked out the right application of her powers, then carefully wrapped herself in a special arrangement of warped space, going one better than the reptile's suggestion. When she felt it was right, she extremely cautiously used the techniques Saurial had taught her to stabilize the effect and lock it on herself as the center. Releasing her grip on it, she held her breath, then let it out with a wild shout of happiness. The much larger effect stayed put.

She'd set it up it as a cylindrical arrangement with a domed top, the goal being that any light from one side would end up going out the opposite side, skipping the part she was concealed inside. Half-way through she'd realized that with some work this would probably also make it possible to completely ignore bullets and things like that, since they'd just go around her as well. It didn't go through the middle, since the Manton effect meant that her own body in the way prevented this, but wrapped _around_ her in a very complex knot of twisted space.

She could almost _hear_ the universe crying.

The only problem was that she was now in complete darkness, since all the light was missing her completely. She'd expected that, and now very cautiously tried adding an exception to the warp where she was looking. With some experimentation she managed to do it. "How does it look?" she asked, then frowned when no one responded. Checking, she found she'd been a little overenthusiastic, managing to divert sound as well. It _was_ pretty quiet in here.

Since it was a much more powerful variant of the technique she'd come up with as a sound cloak, which had worked remarkably well during her infiltration of the DWU, she was quickly able to work out how to modify the light shield to only affect light and let sound through both ways. It occurred to her that she could tweak it to block outgoing sound only with some effort, which would add a significant sneakiness boost, but still let her hear things.

She asked the question again. Über got up and walked around her, then grinned. "Pretty good. There's a barely visible ripple in the background when you move, or I move around you. It's like there's a cylinder of something almost perfectly transparent in the middle of the room."

"If you could make it follow your body outline better it would look almost exactly like the invisibility effects in _Predator_ ," Leet said with an approving nod.

"I've never seen that movie," she said with interest.

"You probably shouldn't, it's not really suitable for a girl your age," he smiled.

"At least partly because it would probably give her ideas," Über cackled.

His friend shrugged. "I have a feeling you're not wrong."

Thinking that if she wasn't supposed to see it, she probably should, Missy giggled. "Cool. I wish I had a mirror."

"Here you go," Saurial said, waving a hand at the large reflective surface that appeared in front of her.

Studying the image in the mirror, Missy grinned like a lunatic. All that was visible was the faint distortion that Über had mentioned, which in anything other than very good lighting would probably go unnoticed. In the dark it would be completely invisible. There were two tiny spots at eye level when she looked carefully, but without knowing they were there they'd be very hard to spot.

Thinking about Leet's suggestion, she played with the distortion, managing after nearly a quarter of an hour of very careful work to bring it into contact with her cloak and anchor it there. The effect was everything she'd ever hoped for.

"That is _seriously_ amazing," Leet finally said when she'd tweaked it about as far as she could.

"Thanks. Hey, look at this," she replied, trying something she'd thought of while fine tuning it. She modified the space folding so instead of making things go around and come out somewhere else, they went right back where they'd come from. The end result was her invisible cloak suddenly became completely reflective, like a near-perfect mirror.

"Wow." The Tinker stared. "That's even harder to look at in some ways than the invisible one is."

"I'm very impressed," Metis commented, looking it. "In one evening, you've added a pretty impressive Stranger rating, radically changed your Mover rating, probably upped your Shaker rating by a couple of levels, and I suspect also added a sort of Brute rating. Since you must realize that you can use that trick to add a certain amount of invulnerability if you make it effect mass as well as photons."

"Yep, I thought of that," Missy grinned inside her reflective cocoon. "It's more complicated, though. It's hard to explain. I'll have to practice quite a bit."

"And it won't let you walk through walls or anything like that," Saurial pointed out, "At least without leaving a hole. If the mass is small enough to be entirely encompassed by the effect it should pass through, but something that overlaps it is going to react very oddly. And probably badly."

"That was something I thought of," she admitted.

Über, who was walking around her, looking at the reflections in her cloak, said, "It's a very useful defense. Almost a force-field in a way. If you can make it work you should be transparent to bullets and most other things."

Ianthe said, "And, of course, you can presumably hit anything you can see."

"Yes, I've used that before," she said, letting the distortion around her dissipate, then sitting down again. "I'm not strong enough to really hit hard, though. Like with those muggers, it's normally better to let them hit themselves."

"You'd be a damn nightmare in a fight," Über said, sitting next to her. She smiled at him, still loving the voice.

"Thanks."

"Well, strength comes with growing up," Saurial told her. "You're still young. But these might help." She slid a couple of collapsible batons across the table to Missy. "We can show you how to use them properly, with some practice, but even without, you can probably think of interesting things to do with them."

"I sure can," Missy giggled, picking one up and looking at it. The name embossed on the side made her laugh again. " _Tac-Smak_? Really?"

"Ianthe had a weird dream and it came to her," Saurial smiled, waving at her cousin. "I thought it fitted pretty well. We might start selling them at some point. It will never break or wear out. I don't know what the PRT's stance on weapons like that is, although I can guess they wouldn't be entirely happy about it, so it's probably best not to show them. I won't push it by giving you any bladed weapons, aside from anything else unless you know how to use them properly they're more dangerous to you than other people. Plus I don't think you want to slice someone into chunks."

"Not really," she said with an expression of distaste. "If I can't take them down with these and my abilities, I can run away. Or hide."

"Good and sensible strategy," Saurial said approvingly. "Pick your battles and don't get in over your head if you have any choice."

"Miss Militia says the same thing."

"She knows her stuff," her teacher nodded.

Missy experimented with the wrist flick needed to open the baton, getting it after a couple of tries. The solid-sounding _click_ it made as it locked open was fairly intimidating. "Try not to hit anyone in the head if you can," Ianthe pointed out. "If you don't have a very good idea about human anatomy and some healing abilities you can really cause some serious damage a lot more easily than you'd expect. Stick to body or limb blows."

"OK. Thanks." Carefully noting the advice, she closed the thing, then flicked it open again, until she was sure she knew how to and could do it reliably. "This has been so much fun. Thanks, all of you."

"We had fun as well, Vista," Saurial assured her, looking around at her family and friends, all of whom nodded. "Here, try these on, and I think your Cloak persona is ready for use. You're just going to have to be very careful about only being seen as Cloak when Vista is known not to be on duty. Try to thrown in a few appearances when everyone _knows_ where she is, as an alibi. It's not perfect but it should help for the time being."

Missy took the pair of elbow-length gloves that the lizard-girl had handed her, inspecting them closely. They were made of a fine soft leather-like substance, with short claws coming out the ends. Pulling one on, she held up her hand and rotated it. The material stretched over her hand and forearm, fitting like a second skin, without any wrinkles or indications it was a glove. The end result, combined with the other special effects, would probably convince anyone that whatever was inside the Cloak, it wasn't very human.

Grinning madly, she pulled the other one on as well, flipped her hood up, recreated the warp inside it, then switched on her eerie voice. Taking a step backwards onto an invisible platform a foot off the ground, she flicked both batons out to full extension.

 _ **"Cloak is here. Surrender, miscreants, or suffer the nail of ass-pain,"**_ she hissed, posing with the batons crossed in front of her.

Everyone stared, then clapped wildly. "Fantastic," Über chuckled. "I would never look at _that_ and think Vista. I might think, ' _Oh, fuck, run_ ,' but not _Vista_."

Very satisfied with the entire evening, Missy stepped down, collapsed her batons and idly tossed them one after another into her hood, then pulled it down while going back to her normal voice. Leet watched with a grin, before saying, "To properly shit someone up, you should have a _really_ big gun in there. In the comics the little person with the stuff space always pulls something insanely dangerous out of it without warning."

Giggling, Missy looked at Saurial, who seemed to be thinking. After a moment, the reptilian girl shook her head. "Probably a little too far," she said.

Leet and Missy both looked disappointed, but exchanged a glance then laughed again. "Maybe one day," the probably-not-a-villain-anymore said.

"One last little toy," Saurial said, holding out a hand. A fine silver bracelet appeared in it. She handed it over, Missy instantly feeling the weird folded fractional dimensions connected to it. "This has about a cubic yard of space in it. That should be enough for your cloak and tools. You can make the entrance yourself, you know how now."

"I do," Missy smiled. With a tiny gesture, and some concentrating, which was becoming much easier although she had to work at it, she formed a hole in space in front of her. The other end of the weird warp was linked to the entrance to the object she was holding. Picking her backpack off the floor where she'd put it when she came in, she pushed it through the faint wrinkle in the world in front of her, feeling it slide through the fracture in space into the enlarged volume linked to the bracelet. "Wow, thanks. That's really useful."

"With some practice you can probably work out how to make a proper anime storage pocket and not need the bracelet, but this is quick and easy," Saurial smiled. "It looks like silver but it's mostly EDM, so it won't break. The lock on it needs to be operated from the inside as well so once you put it on, you and me are probably the only people who can get it off again."

" _So cool_ ," the blonde girl grinned. Snapping the bracelet around her left wrist, which it fitted perfectly, she stuck her hand into the distortion and flicked the little catch she found there, then tugged the bracelet. It was firmly locked shut. "Wonderful, that means I can keep all my stuff with me all the time. That's incredibly useful."

"If anyone asks, you should probably tell them you worked out a new way to use a spatial fold," Saurial advised. "I wouldn't mention us for now. But it will most likely be best not to show it off too much at the moment."

"Don't worry, I'm not going to rub it into anyone's faces," Missy assured her. "I want to be able to come back and I can't do that if Piggot learns about this. She'll get all funny about it and shout at me."

"You're welcome any time you want to come," the lizard-girl told her. "Probably best to call first, as we're not always around, but I'll let the DWU know that Cloak can come and go without anyone getting worried. Get a cheap burner phone to call us, and make sure your PRT phone is off, and your normal one."

"I turned them off before I left school," Missy nodded. "I thought that far ahead."

"Good. You're pretty efficient at this sort of thing." The tall slender reptile, who she was completely sure was now a good friend, looked approvingly at her. "I've had a lot of fun as well with all this. I like teaching and your powers are very interesting. And very Family in a way." She grinned as Missy giggled. "But it's nearly midnight now and I expect you have school in the morning."

"Ooh, _shit_ , I didn't realize it was so late," the girl yelped. Time had really gotten away from her. "I need to get home or my parents will go mental."

"Want me to ask Raptaur to give you a ride?" Ianthe asked, glancing at Saurial. Very tempted, Missy finally shook her head.

"Thanks, but I can probably do it faster. Next time, for sure."

"OK, I'll let her know," the life shaper said mildly. "Take care, have fun, and come back and visit some time."

"I sure will," the girl said firmly, standing up and flipping her hood over her head. Activating the special effects with less difficulty this time, practice definitely making it smoother, she bowed. _ **"Cloak thanks the Family and their villainous minions for their aid. Farewell."**_

"Minions?" Leet whispered in mock outrage to Über, who patted him on the shoulder comfortingly.

"It's the girls against the boys, man. Totally unfair."

Snickering to herself, she followed Saurial to the rear door, which the scaly girl unlocked. "Until later, Oh Great Cloak," her teacher said, gesturing grandly to the opening. "It was an honor having you grace us with your presence."

 _ **"I'm sure it was,"**_ she hissed, before darting out into the dark, very pleased with the last few hours work. Wrapping herself in her invisibility distortion and forming invisible steps, she ascended to roof level and headed out across the emptiest part of the DWU yard, wondering if anyone would notice on the ground.

She was in a _very_ good mood.

Half-way home, she realized that she'd gotten all the spy gadgets she could have wanted, the thought making her grin again.

Cloak was going to be _fun_.

* * *

Amy looked around as the door closed behind the petite and somewhat disturbing cloaked figure. "How do we keep _doing_ that?" she asked the room at large. "We've broken _another_ one and brought her over to the Family side."

"It's a gift, I think," Taylor giggled. "I didn't intend it to go that far, but the girl did at least half of it herself. Her power is fascinating. It fits into that," she gestured at the long series of equations on the boards, "better than I expected. And she learns very quickly."

"I can't wait to see what PHO makes of… _Cloak_ ," Randall grinned. "The next person to run into her is going to come away with some very odd ideas."

"I don't think that anyone is going to associate her with Vista, that's for sure," Lisa said. "As long as she's careful about it. Being a Ward is a bit of a problem, but if she only brings Cloak out every now and then and throws in a few misdirections she should be able to deal with it. She's pretty smart."

"And very bored, I think," Leet commented. He was studying the math again, looking pensive. "You realize you've effectively given her a huge power up, right? She's possibly one of the top five most dangerous capes in the city at the moment, you being the top three, then Amy, then her. There are all sorts of things I thought of that you could use her powers for that would be hideously dangerous. Sooner or later she'll probably work them out as well."

"I know that, believe me," Taylor replied. "But she'd have figured them out sooner or later herself, no matter what I did. Her power allows all these things, I didn't change or add to that, I just gave her the keys she was missing. This way, with some luck, maybe we can help her figure these things out _before_ she gets into a fight and pulls out a last minute desperate trick that goes horribly wrong. Like with any weapon, you need to know how it works, even if you never use it."

He nodded slowly. "I guess you're probably right. I'm still a little worried, she's only about thirteen. It felt a little like handing my kid sister a loaded shotgun."

"You don't have a sister," Randall pointed out quite reasonably.

"Well, that's obviously true, but you know what I mean."

"Yep. But I think you're doing the kid a disservice. She's smart enough not to put the wrong end to her head. It's everyone _else_ I'm worried about." He smirked as his friend chuckled. "And I can't help but wonder how long it's going to be before we have a miniature giant lizard running around terrifying everyone…"

They all looked at each other, then started laughing. Shortly, the last of the cold pizza had been eaten and Amy was showing the pair of new experimental subjects how to turn on the strength boosts, while Taylor was making a set of test weights.

Lisa just went to the computers and started trolling the PHO thread on Cloak, snickering under her breath at the response.


	176. Interlude - Missy's walk home

Running across the sky, two hundred feet up, Missy was enjoying herself to a level she was fairly certain wasn't strictly allowed. If this was what Saurial and her Family felt like, she was very glad for them.

As she moved she was getting steadily more adept at creating small warps connecting her feet to the surface under her on the literal run, no longer needing to make the gestures. She'd found that while she couldn't yet make one move around very much, she _could_ make them pop up a foot or two without too much trouble, the energy enough to add to her steps and convert them into a sort of jump. Syncing them with her running took quite a bit of practice and a few scary near-misses, but she'd refined the technique enough after a quarter of an hour to allow her to reach speeds far more than a normal run, each step being close to fifteen feet horizontally. Tilting them a little seemed to make it even more effective, as she was sort of running downhill the entire way.

Even so, she was starting to get a little out of breath. While she was in very good condition, the PRT-mandated training and exercising enough to keep her much fitter than a normal girl her age, she realized that to do this right was going to need a lot more stamina, which was going to ultimately require a lot of running around. It was a price she was willing to pay for the sheer rewards it would give.

Slowing down to catch her breath somewhere over the middle of the commercial district, she formed a larger than normal platform and stopped in the middle of it, panting slightly. Idly wondering if she could work out how to use the space warping to offset most of her weight, somehow, she looked around her, admiring the city skyline and the lights in various buildings.

About two hundred and fifty feet away, she could see an office building below her, a number of rooms still lit, with a few people wandering around. A little more than a fifth of a mile away was the Medhall building, the roof a little higher than she was. The penthouse office was lit up, not brightly, but enough to show that there was someone home. Curious, she wandered in that direction, forming a sloping ramp without too much real thought, since it was becoming an automatic reflex by this point.

She had to be careful not to try to link the ground under a pedestrian to her next platform, but her power allowed her to feel the presence of something that the Manton limit would cause trouble with and she was becoming quite deft at moving the ground connection point around until it found a suitable surface to use. It had occurred to her that with some practice she could probably just pick a fixed point somewhere no one was likely to end up in, like an isolated spot on top of a tall building, then just link to that spot for all her platforms. That, she'd decided, would be a very good thing to try doing, as it would let her cross over water, which the current method of using the point directly under her wouldn't.

It would need a lot of work, though, and now wasn't the time to experiment with that sort of thing.

Moving closer to the building and ascending, Missy ended up peering into the office window from a few feet away. Max Anders was pacing back and forth, sipping from a cut-glass tumbler that sparkled in the subdued lighting in the room, waving his free hand in sharp gestures while talking to another man, who was listening and nodding occasionally. The Medhall CEO seemed somewhat annoyed, judging by the expression he was wearing, and just a little worried. She wondered what the problem was.

Whenever she saw him on TV he always looked entirely confident and completely assured, very smooth indeed. He was a good talker, his voice nearly as impressive as Über's, but with a certain smugness that she found a little wearing after a while. Most people seemed to think of him as a very sharp man and one who was definitely a charismatic and effective speaker, but she'd heard quite a few adults express the opinion that anyone who was _that_ good at swaying a crowd probably had some sort of agenda. She didn't know, herself, not having the experience, but she had always sort of wondered what it would take to puncture his assurance.

A thought struck her, and she started smirking to herself inside her cloak. It was probably wrong, but it was also easy, and she thought very funny as well. Unable to resist, she moved closer to the glass, stopping under a foot from it, then folded her arms, making sure her hands and forearms were visible outside her cloak. Waiting for the man to turn towards the window, she let the invisibility go, watching with glee as his eyes widened comically and he dropped his glass, which shattered on the floor.

The man gaped at her, while she just stood there, hovering well over two hundred feet above the sidewalk below, not moving. After several seconds, he shouted and turned to the other man, who was sitting in a chair and leafing through a folder. As he turned, she activated her invisibility once again, watching with satisfaction as her victim pointed while saying something to his companion. The second man looked at Max, then the window, appearing confused, before shrugging.

The CEO turned to the window, looking around wildly, then approached it with caution, peering out, up, down, and sideways. She giggled faintly, less than eighteen inches away on the other side of the glass. After he'd looked through her a couple of times, he turned around and started talking rapidly, his words a faint mumble through the window.

His colleague looked confused, staring past him at the window, then at Max. Eventually he shrugged again, replying in a way that seemed to indicate he couldn't see anything. There was a long pause before he turned back to his folder. Max glared at him, then spun around and looked out the window.

Missy became visible again, watching with great satisfaction as the man paled instantly and jumped violently away from the glass, with a shout she heard clearly on the other side. Once again he looked over his shoulder, so of course by the time he and his companion both looked at her again, she was transparent.

Poor Max looked very worried now. He put his hands on the window and frantically stared around, looking upwards with his face on the glass as if he expected to see something there. The other man got up and came over, putting his hand on his companion's shoulder and apparently reassuring him. The expression on the face of the owner of Medhall was hilarious, he didn't seem to know whether to start swearing or crying.

She was having severe trouble trying not to laugh wildly at this point. Missy knew she was being bad, but it was mostly harmless fun on her part, and she simply couldn't resist. Wishing she'd brought a camera, she resolved to ask Saurial where she'd got the one she customarily wore on her head when out and about, thinking it would be fun to get one herself.

While the pair on the other side of the glass were still looking out over the city, she moved around the side of the building to the window that pointed towards the DWU, then waited. Eventually, Max turned around and looked in her direction. As soon as he did, she dropped the invisibility again, then giggled like an idiot as he went entirely white. Raising a hand she gravely saluted him, before turning and walking down an invisible flight of stairs, just in time to miss the other man seeing her when he turned around as well. As soon as her head was below the window level she went invisible again and ran off laughing insanely, wondering how the poor man was going to remember this event.

* * *

"They're fucking _everywhere_ , Victor!" Max moaned, holding his head in his hands. He was sitting behind his desk, shaking slightly, and yet _again_ covered in about a hundred dollars worth of incredibly rare whiskey and down another expensive pair of shoes. "First it was lizards hanging off the building grinning at me like some sort of hideous alien gecko. Now they've got a tiny little Death tormenting me. What next? Fucking Roswell Grays? Are we going to get beamed up and probed? Why me? What did I do to them?"

"How do you know it was the Family?" Victor asked, somewhat doubtfully. Max raised his head and glared at him.

"It's _always_ the fucking Family these days! If something bizarre or flat out impossible happens, _especially_ if it's creepy as fuck, _it's them!_ Lovecraft was right, but he didn't know more than the tip of it. They're out there watching us all the time, I can _feel_ it."

"I think you might be getting just a little too paranoid about them, Max," Victor said very carefully and gently. He yelped as Max surged from his seat and grabbed his lapels, pulling him close.

"You _can't_ be too paranoid about the Family," his boss hissed, his eyes a little more wild than ideal. They were twitching around the room like he expected to see Saurial hanging from the ceiling. "They're _everywhere!_ We don't know all of what they can do, but the things we do know are _insane!_ They'd make Behemoth cry and the Simurgh look over her shoulder, wondering what they were going to do next. And they've got it in for me."

"Um… You've never even met any of them, right? And we're being very careful not to cause offense. So I doubt very much they're out to get us."

"Really, Victor? _Really?_ Then why was a four foot six tall _thing_ in a cloak _standing on thin air outside my window?!_ "

"I… can't answer that," Victor replied after a few seconds.

Max released him and dropped into his expensive leather chair again with a squeal of protesting springs. "I can't take much more of this," he said in a disconsolate voice. "I try to be a good leader, I try to be strong and keep us on top of the lower orders and the underclass, but… when the lizards run around scaring Endbringers and the Triumvirate equally, and _Death_ is outside my window grinning at me, it's starting to get a little too much to handle."

"I doubt it was Death," Victor reassured his superior. "Just some cape in a cloak who thought it was funny to wind you up."

" _There was no one in the cloak,_ " Max sighed. "I could see right inside the hood the second time and _it was empty!_ I swear to you, it was empty. And whatever it was wasn't flying, it was just standing there like it was on the damn floor, two hundred and thirty feet off the ground. I could see the arms but they weren't human at all. Not reptilian, either, more sort of… leathery. Like a zombie or something."

"A tiny headless zombie Death?" Victor looked a little skeptical, then flinched when his boss glared at him due to his tone. "Are you sure you didn't imagine it?"

"No, I fucking didn't imagine it. Not three times in a row. The third time it went down a flight of stairs that wasn't there."

Victor stared, as Max flushed. "I know what that sounds like but it's true. I wish it wasn't."

"Maybe you need a holiday," the skill-thief suggested delicately. "You know, get away from all the weirdness of Brockton Bay. It's so quiet at the moment there's nothing serious here to do on the less legitimate front and Medhall is ticking along well. You could take a week in the south somewhere, get away from this damp cold weather and have some time in the sun."

After staring at him for a while, Max nodded slowly. "Maybe you're right." He looked over at the pile of broken glass and expensive liquor, then down at his freshly ruined shoes, and sighed. "Maybe you're right."

"I'll look into some good destinations."

"Victor?" The other man turned back. "Make sure it's somewhere a long way from the water, OK?"

"Sure, Max. No problem."

* * *

Still snickering under her breath, Missy headed away from the Medhall building towards the residential areas of the city, uphill and inland from the bay, taking a loop around the shopping district on her way to her house, mainly just to look around from this unusual viewpoint. She wasn't sure when she'd be able to get out as Cloak again and wanted to make the most of it, despite not wanting to be out too late. She was going to have some fast talking to do already when she got home, she just knew it.

It would still be worth it, though.

It might be possible to get out tomorrow, but it might not as well, so she was damn well going to have fun while she could. The thing with Max Anders was going to make her giggle every time she thought of it for _weeks_.

Hearing a faint shout from below, she looked down, seeing to her amusement Carlos and Chris chasing after a group of three men she recognized as probably Merchants, while a block behind them Assault and two cops were man-handling two more of the same group. She could see a smashed window in a liquor store and guessed that they'd tried robbing it, by the cunning expedient of kicking the window in. An alarm was just audible now she was listening for it, somewhere inside the building.

Carlos was flying after them, ducking as one of them fired a revolver over his shoulder, even though it wouldn't really damage him. The boy had told her that while he could take being shot, it still hurt quite a bit, so it was better to get out of the way if possible.

Chris was gliding along on his hoverboard twenty feet to the right, down the middle of the street and ten feet up, crouched low with his laser pistols ready. He fired a shot, barely missing the one with the gun as the man jinked sideways, showing twitchy reflexes probably juiced up on some sort of drug. Another shot grazed his shoulder and made him spin then drop, but he rolled to his feet and kept running.

His two compatriots had used the brief delay to dive into an alley to the left, legging it with alacrity along the narrow thoroughfare, kicking trash cans over as they went in a fairly pointless attempt to block the passage from pursuit. Considering their pursuers were both flying it was a total waste of time and effort, but then, Merchants weren't generally renowned for their intelligence and forward-looking insight.

After she'd watched for a moment, she grinned and turned, following the men from above in a series of long bounds, quickly getting in front of them. Carefully timing things, she looped the end of the alley back on itself, making the space inside it run in a twenty-foot loop with no exit. With a little care she was able to do this in a way that didn't produce her normal visual distortions, which were a signature of her ' _Vista_ ' powerset.

The two men entered her trap and kept running, not noticing they were going through the same section of alleyway over and over again for a surprisingly long time. She stood fifty feet up and watched, trying desperately not to laugh out loud.

Eventually the pair realized something was wrong, slowing down, then stopping and looking puzzled. One of them walked forward slowly, reaching out for the far end of the alley, only to shout in surprise when he found himself walking towards his friend from behind without any warning.

"What the fuck!" he yelled, turning around and charging back the way he'd come. His companion, who had turned around at his shout, looked very surprised when he ran into his back from the other side. Both of them fell to the ground, swearing violently. The first man pushed the second one off him, then clambered to his feet, pulling a gun from his pocket and shooting at the mouth of the alley.

She'd just had time to notice the weapon and direct the bullets down into the pavement, where they mushroomed and sprayed little bits of high velocity metal around the place, peppering both men with shrapnel. The second one yelled and cuffed his friend on the head.

"Stop that you idiot," he screamed. "It must be a cape."

 _ **"Good guess, criminal scum,"**_ she hissed, becoming visible and walking downwards towards them. Both men shrieked in shock and whirled, looking wildly around, before peering up at her. The man with the gun aimed it and fired before she could react.

She flinched as the bullet impacted on her cloak with a dull thud, then dropped to the ground, completely flattened. She didn't even feel it.

All three of them stared at the expended round, before he emptied the magazine at her. The rest of the rounds fell around her as she kept descending, now sure that Saurial's handiwork was up to the job. Carlos and Chris flew and glided around the corner as the Merchant was half-way through proving that he was rather slow on the uptake, stopping and staring when they spotted her.

Missy smirked, deciding that this was definitely fun.

* * *

Stopping his board, Chris gaped at the cloaked figure that was, as far as he could tell, walking slowly down a flight of stairs that didn't exist. The large black-gray cloak flowed and rippled around the form inside, disguising it to the point he couldn't tell anything except vague size, which was something under five feet. The large hood was entirely dark inside, no facial features visible at all. He couldn't even see feet under it.

The Merchant firing at her was whimpering over the sound of the shots, which echoed around the alley resoundingly. The cloaked figure ignored the shots entirely, the bullets dropping to the tarmac beneath it as if they'd hit something that completely absorbed the kinetic energy.

He glanced at Carlos, who was also staring open-mouthed, then went back to watching.

Reaching the ground, the figure stopped and looked at the two Merchants. _**"You can't win, you know,"**_ it hissed in a voice that sent a shiver down his spine all the way to the base. It was a completely atavistic reaction to something that was even creepier than when he'd first met Saurial. Even though it was only a few feet high, the small creature radiated a level of danger that was worrying.

It also seemed amused, which was, if anything, worse.

"What the fuck are _you?_ " the man yelled, fumbling for another magazine. He popped the first one out and reloaded with trembling hands, the shape merely watching. Raising the gun, he aimed directly into the hood and emptied the magazine again. All the rounds simply vanished into the darkness.

The cloaked person, assuming it _was_ a person, ignored this completely, not moving at all. When he finished he stared in horror, then threw the gun, which also disappeared into the void under the hood.

By now Chris was severely creeped out. There was something about what he'd just seen which went from impressive right through into horrifying without even slowing down. The way that the thing in the cloak had entirely ignored something like thirty 9mm rounds, half of which were to the face, was more than a little impressive and rather scary.

 _ **"Are you finished, human miscreant?"**_ The thing sounded mildly bored now. He realized it was probably female. _**"Your fate awaits you. Your choice is to allow apprehension by the local law enforcement, or let me deal with you."**_

She laughed softly, while all four present paled a little, the Merchants more than the Wards. _**"I must warn you that you may prefer jail to… what I can do."**_

She reached into her hood and pulled the gun out, looking at it for a moment, then doing… something… to it. Carlos turned his head and tried not to throw up, while Chris put his hand over his mouth, his eyes wide. Both Merchants stared, then lost their lunches.

 _ **"Higher dimensions are so very amusing to play with, but their effects on living creatures can be somewhat unusual,"**_ the figure added casually, making what had been a gun warp and twist horrifically in her hand. Chris heard footsteps behind him, looking over his shoulder to see Assault and one of the cops approaching warily, staring at the cloaked thing.

"What _are_ you?" one of the Merchants said in a hoarse whisper.

 _ **"I?"**_ The figure laughed again, the sound going through everyone like fingernails on a blackboard. _ **"I am Cloak. You are criminals."**_ She leaned forward a little. _**"Cloak does not like criminals."**_

"Oh, fuck," the other one moaned. He looked at his companion, then both of them turned around. "Can we go with you, please?" he asked mournfully.

The cop glanced at Assault, then holstered the pistol he'd been pointing at the Merchants, pulling a set of handcuffs from his belt. Moving forwards, he cuffed one of them, while Assault carefully zip-tied the other one, trying not to stray too close to the unknown cape. The other officer turned up, gaped at Cloak, then helped his companion take both Merchants back towards the car he'd arrived in, the lights from which strobed down the alley, spreading red and blue flashes across the scene.

Chris was more than a little disturbed to note that even when the light shone directly into the hood that was pulled over Cloak's head, he couldn't see anything but darkness inside. Darkness that had a sense of much greater depth to it than should have been possible.

She stopped playing with the gun, making it revert to what looked like normal, then tossed it towards Assault, who caught it and flicked the safety on.

"New cape?" he asked slowly. "I've never heard of ' _Cloak_ ' before."

 _ **"New?"**_ the whispery hissing voice sounded thoughtful. _ **"Perhaps not the right word. I have been around for… some time. Recent circumstances allow me to join in with the interesting events your world is full of."**_

All three of them looked at each other. That sounded… weird.

"Are you, perhaps, a member of the Family?" Carlos asked after a moment.

Cloak seemed to ponder the question for a moment. _**"Not precisely,"**_ she finally replied. _**"The Family are best considered close friends and allies currently. It is difficult to explain in human terms."**_

One of the definitely not human hands reappeared from inside the enveloping cloth, making a small gesture. _**"We are connected in a number of ways, though. Quite deeply."**_

She looked around at them all, then added, _**"I must leave, I have other matters to attend to. Farewell, heroes."**_

Turning, she started walking down the alley, each step raising her further from the ground. They gaped, as it was the weirdest method of not-quite flying they'd ever seen. After a few seconds, when she was twenty feet up, Assault called, "Hey! How can we contact you? Are you interested in coming in for power testing? Where do you come from?"

Cloak paused, looking back at them. _ **"I will be around. No. Elsewhere. Goodbye."**_ She resumed climbing, then to their shock faded from view completely as she passed the roof level.

Chris stared, then looked at Carlos, before very carefully moving forward to where the invisible staircase, which had been climbed so obviously it _had_ to have a physical existence, had been. He waved his hand in front of him, but found nothing. Moving back and forth, Carlos joining in the search, they checked the entire end of the alley right up to a hundred feet off the ground and came up empty.

Rejoining Assault on the ground, they exchanged glances once more.

"Well, I have to say that's not the sort of thing you see every day," the Protectorate cape finally said with an odd expression. "Even around here."

"Who or _what_ was _that?_ " Carlos asked slowly. "And how did she do that?"

"I have no fucking idea at all. The voice was enough to make me wonder if she's sort of reptilian under there. But the hands… Maybe there are weirder things around than giant lizards, and that's not something I ever thought I'd say," the man sighed. "Shit. Just when I thought I had a handle on all this."

"What do we put in the report?" Chris asked a little helplessly.

"Hell, I don't know. Empty cloak with demonic powers aided in apprehension of fleeing felons, maybe? Then climbed a staircase that wasn't there and vanished at the top?" Assault shrugged. "That was just surreal. Even Raptaur is easier to understand. Another thing I never thought I'd hear come out of my mouth. The next thing you know we'll be getting reports of people opening closets and finding the delivery entrance to Narnia in them." He sighed again. "Fuck it. Come on, I need a burger, and ideally a beer. Patrol's over."

Turning, he headed down the alley to the main street, muttering something under his breath. Carlos looked at Chris, then up before following with a very peculiar expression on his face.

Chris stared around, thinking. Things were definitely getting steadily more and more strange in this city, in his view.

Shaking his head he trailed after his companions, wondering what exactly was under that cloak, and also wondering if he really wanted to know.

* * *

Heading rapidly homewards, Missy waited until she was a few hundred yards away before she let the laughter out. She was immensely proud of her performance, thinking that she'd said all the right things to seriously confuse the issue of who Cloak really was. With any luck, no one would work it out for some time, ideally ever.

This was _definitely_ going to be good.


	177. Seats and Store

"Holy crap, this is amazing," Kevin muttered to himself, lifting the set of weights Taylor had produced. She'd said it was one and a half tons and he had no reason to disbelieve her in the slightest. A quick mental calculation showed him she was correct, from the volume of the EDM masses on the ends of the pole.

Randall had managed a little more, around one point seven tons, but even the lower amount was ridiculous. He was doing the equivalent of lifting a mid-size car over his head, with admittedly considerable strain, but the mere fact he could do it at all seemed crazy. Amy's modifications were impressive to put it mildly.

Carefully lowering the weights to the ground with a thump, he straightened up and wiped his hands on his jeans. Turning to Taylor, who was in her base form a few feet away and watching with an approving look, he grinned. "That is simply astounding," he said in mild shock.

"I'm very satisfied with the results," she replied, walking over and grabbing the middle of the bar with one hand. She picked it up like it weighed about as much as a heavy bag of shopping and held it vertically for a moment, leaning back quite a long way to avoid tipping over, then made it go away.

He shook his head, still grinning. "I get it. You're the strongest of them all. You don't need to rub it in."

Giggling, the girl went back and sat on her tail at the table. Looking at the empty pizza boxes with mild disappointment, she picked up Amy's knife and absently balanced it on her finger, tip down. "Everything seems to work exactly as designed," she commented, looking at the healer, who was next to Randall, his friend in a chair with his feet up on the table and a reflective smile on his face. Lisa was studying the math the other girl had written out with an expression of concentration.

"I'm happy," Amy replied. "We should test the healing though."

"OK," Taylor grinned, flipping the knife in her hand to catch it by the blade, then flicking it over her shoulder without looking. Kevin swore and yelped in pain as it whipped past his arm, the edge catching him just above the wrist and leaving a long shallow cut. The thing was horrendously sharp.

"Fuck _me!_ " he cried in outrage, hearing the knife bounce off the workroom door behind him as he darted out of range, his speed boost coming into play without even thinking about it. "What was _that_ for, you crazy girl?"

"Testing the healing like Amy said," Taylor remarked in an even voice, looking slightly puzzled. Randall was heaving with silent laughter, Amy was smirking, and Lisa looked over, shook her head, then went back to studying the equations.

"That hurt," he complained, looking at his arm. She tossed him a cloth, which he used to wipe the fairly small amount of blood away, showing that the cut had disappeared completely in only seconds. "Although, I have to admit, _that_ works freakishly well. Your experimental procedure sucks ass though."

"Sorry. It was the quickest way to be sure," she grinned at him in a slightly evil manner. He sighed, then went and sat down out of reach.

"You are a very strange person, Taylor," he mumbled.

"And you don't have any idea just _how_ strange she is," Amy giggled.

"Strange?" Taylor looked shocked. "I'm not strange. I'm totally normal." She produced a large balloon from nowhere, then blew into it steadily for far longer than should have been possible. Tying it off she let go, everyone watching as it floated up to the ceiling. "See? I play with balloons and everything."

"You just inflated a balloon with helium, didn't you?" Randall said slowly.

"Yep."

"Just by blowing into it."

"Yep."

"And _that's_ what you call normal?"

The brunette smirked at him. "For me that's entirely normal."

"Exhaling helium…?"

"I could do hydrogen if you want, but it's a fire hazard."

Kevin's friend looked at him, then at the girl, who was clearly very amused at her little party trick. Amy was giggling quietly to herself.

"We're looking forward to finding out what you consider… less than normal," Randall remarked eventually. "I think. And I'm definitely going to have to rework our pranks to include some of the less believable things from Looney Tunes cartoons if you're going to go around doing things like that."

"That'll have to wait until after the experiment," Taylor replied, still grinning.

"When will you know if you're seeing any of the things you're looking for?"

She inspected him, then Kevin, a little doubtfully, before glancing at Lisa. "I'm not honestly sure. Sorry. All we can do is wait. Keep in touch and we'll see what happens."

Kevin looked at his friend, who looked back, then both of them shrugged. "OK, I guess. I'm curious but I can live with it. For now."

"Hey, want to see something cool?" she asked after a moment's smiling. A little uncertainly, he nodded.

"Assuming it's not going to get me stabbed or something."

"Come with me," she said, getting up and switching to her Raptaur form, then heading for the back door via a key box mounted on the wall next to the workroom, opening it and removing a ring of keys. "I'll be back in a while, I'm just going to show them the WCC," she commented to Lisa, who was half-way down the line of boards, her head cocked to the side and an expression of deep thought on her face. The other girl nodded without looking away. Amy got up and followed them. Curious, Kevin and Randall went out the rear door and walked with them down the access road, finding that the dark night was no longer much of an issue.

"What's the WCC?" Randall asked as they walked. Taylor looked back over her shoulder, grinning.

"Pretty cool."

"Very helpful."

"You'll like it, trust me," she laughed. It was clear she wasn't going to say anything more specific so they just followed, wondering what she was going to show them.

* * *

Having decided on the way home to pick up some more coffee, milk, and a few bottles of beer, Danny made the familiar short detour to the nearest shop that would be open, a small all-night convenience store on the edge of the docks area. Some more eggs were probably a good idea, seeing as how Taylor had eaten them all again. He still found that a little weird but she seemed to enjoy it, so why not?

The shop was one that the dock-workers frequented for various small items and everyone knew the owner, whose family had run the place for at least forty years. He nodded to the young man behind the till, the owner's son, as he entered. "Hi, Emil," he said over the sound of the bell over the door tinkling.

"Hello, Mr Hebert," Emil replied, looking up from his magazine. "You're up late tonight."

"I could say the same thing," Danny smiled, grabbing one of the battered wire baskets from inside the door.

"It's my turn for nights," Emil explained. "Next week it's Dad's."

"Fair enough. Just heading home and needed a few things. Been a long day."

"The guys were saying things are going well at the DWU these days," Emil commented.

"Very well. Everyone is pleased, so far. But it's kept everyone hellishly busy for weeks now."

"Better busy than otherwise, I guess." The young man grinned for a moment. Danny chuckled, heading for the rear of the shop.

"Definitely," he called over his shoulder. "Hey, you got any fresh eggs?"

"In the cabinet on the right, Mr Hebert," Emil called.

"Thanks." Danny retrieved a couple of cartons of a dozen eggs each and put them in his basket, then poked around for another ten minutes, assembling a small collection of items. Half-way through he heard the bell go again as more customers entered, looking up briefly to see a pair of men in their late twenties come in, then went back to debating which beer to get. Having decided, he put a loaf of bread in the basket as well then headed back to the front.

He was half way to the entrance when he heard a shout, then a crash. "Empty the till, you fucker!" an unfamiliar voice screamed.

"OK, man, put that away," Emil's voice, very nervous but steady, said. Danny stopped dead, in a position where he wasn't visible from the front, thought rapidly, then put his basket on the floor. Moving in a crouch he walked down the aisle to the end, which put him slightly to one side of and behind the two men who seemed to be robbing the place. Peeking around the end of the shelving unit, he assessed the situation.

Both men were very sketchy and rough looking, clearly Merchants. He could smell some pretty rank personal odors as well as what was clearly some form of narcotic. The tall skin-headed one pointing an old pistol at Emil was twitching slightly, while his friend who was shorter and hairier seemed to be leaning a little to the right, his right hand jerking randomly.

' _Oh, for fuck's sake_ ,' Danny thought wearily. ' _They're so strung out on something they can barely stand up_.' Which didn't make them any less dangerous, as the gun was real.

And loaded, it turned out, when the idiot brandishing it raised it and fired a shot into the ceiling, screaming, "Hurry up!" Even his friend jumped at the sound, while Emil, who was already rather pale, went considerably more so.

Deciding that the risk of the gunman putting a round into the owner's son, now that he was pointing the slightly smoking gun back at the middle of Emil's chest, was higher than he thought ideal, Danny took a deep breath. Retrieving one of the batons Taylor had given him, he palmed it up his sleeve, then stepped out from behind the shelf.

"Skidmark know you guys are out robbing shops in the Docks?" he asked calmly. "I thought we had an arrangement. You guys stay away from our people, we don't come after you."

Both men spun around as he spoke, their eyes wide. Pretty obviously neither one of them had thought there was anyone else in the place.

"Who the fuck are you?" the one with the pistol demanded, pointing it at him. He could see it was a small caliber gun, probably a .25 or so. Deliberately ignoring it, while hoping that the combination of Taylor's coat and Amy's symbiote would deal with things if the guy actually fired, he smiled as nastily as he could.

"Me? I'm Danny Hebert. More to the point, who are you? And why are you breaking the truce?"

The shorter man looked worried, while the other one seemed confused. Or, more accurately, more confused, as he was the sort of person who appeared fairly confused most of the time even before he took whatever it was he'd taken. "Truce? What you talking about?"

"I'm talking about the way the DWU leaves you guys alone, unless you do something stupid. This counts as stupid. If I were you, I'd just step outside that door, then keep walking."

"Andy, that's the DWU boss. We don't fuck with the DWU." Andy's friend seemed even more worried now. He started backing towards the door, his hands carefully visible.

"DWU? Bunch of has-beens, those losers," Andy scoffed.

"They have the Family, you idiot," Andy's companion hissed, then smiled lopsidedly at Danny. "Come on."

"I don't see any lizards around," Andy snarled, raising the gun a little more, aiming it at Danny's chest, then taking a couple of unsteady steps forward. Danny couldn't believe it, since this put the man right at arm's length. He clearly didn't have any idea how to fight.

"No, they may well be doing something else," Danny smiled. "Although you never know. Saurial could be right outside and you'd probably never hear her."

Andy twitched, looking involuntarily out the window. Letting the baton in his right sleeve slip into his hand, Danny flicked it out to full length, then snapped it out, the button on the end hitting the wrist of the other man's gun hand. His hand opened and the gun dropped to the floor with a clatter, while the man himself howled in agony.

Taking a quick step forward, Danny kicked the revolver under the nearest shelf. "I'm not fond of violence, but you shot at a friend of mine. Please leave, and don't come back."

"Fucking cunt mother-fucker!" Andy yelled, putting his undamaged hand into his pocket and pulling out a switchblade, which he flicked open and waved around. Danny looked at it for a moment. He raised an eyebrow.

"Really? You think that's going to help when the gun didn't?"

"I'll cut you, cunt," Andy howled, diving at his opponent. Taking a step to the side Danny whacked him on the back of the neck with the baton, then tripped him into the cold drinks freezer next to the front door as he went past. The Merchant's head slammed into the metal with a loud and painful sounding thud, before he slid limply down to lie on the floor in a groaning heap.

Andy's friend stared, then bolted. Emil and Danny watched him go, looked down at the semi-conscious man on the floor who was mumbling to himself in a puddle of urine, his bladder having apparently decided it had had enough, then looked at each other.

"Does that happen a lot?" Danny asked as he flicked the knife away from the man with the end of his baton.

"Not really, no," the young man sighed unsteadily. "He must be new around here. Some of your guys made it very clear the last time it happened that they didn't like the Merchants interrupting the beer supply. They even made the Merchants in question apologize. This is the first time any of them have come back in quite a while."

"Huh." Danny poked the man with his baton, evoking a slight twitch. Collapsing it, he put it away, then carefully felt the guy's pulse. It was steady enough, considering he was probably juiced to the eyeballs. "Annoying."

"Just a little," Emil muttered, in the process of dialing 911. Danny retrieved his basket of purchases and put it on the counter, keeping an eye on the junkie on the corner. When the man had finished calling in the attempted robbery, he rang up the purchases. "You can have everything at cost, Mr Hebert," he said, still sounding shaky. "Thank you for stepping in."

"Don't be silly, Emil, I don't need a discount, I know how small a margin you guys work on. And I was hardly going to stand by and risk you getting shot. I've been buying things here for twenty years, where would I go if you went out of business?" Danny smiled at the man.

Emil smiled back, looking less pale. "Are you sure? Dad won't mind."

"It's fine, I just did what any of us would do," Danny assured him. He could hear sirens approaching, a police car with its lights on coming to a rapid halt just outside moments later. Two officers jumped out and drew their weapons, one coming in while the other one covered him from outside the door.

"Over there," Emil pointed, making sure to keep his hands visible, as Danny was doing. The cop looked at the Merchant, then the two upright people.

"Hi, Danny," he said, holstering his weapon with a slight grin. "Your work? Or did he just pass out?"

"I… may have helped a little," Danny replied. "Hello, Officer Bailey."

"I hope he didn't threaten your daughter. We know what happens if someone does that."

The cop looked mildly amused and slightly impressed. Danny looked rather embarrassed. "Not my finest hour," he muttered.

"Not the way the boys at the station remember it," Bailey snickered. His partner had come in and was bending over the man on the floor with an expression of distaste, pulling on a pair of disposable gloves, then handcuffing the Merchant, who was beginning to come around. "The bastard had it coming."

"Still, I slightly overreacted that time," Danny shrugged. "His gun is under the shelf over here. About there." He pointed. The officer knelt down and felt around, retrieving the pistol in a gloved hand, inspecting it for a moment, then putting the safety on. He patted the junkie down, finding and removing another knife, then retrieving the first one. Putting all three weapons into a set of evidence bags, he stood up.

Opening the notebook he pulled from his pocket, Bailey started asking questions about what had happened. Emil finished bagging Danny's purchases while he gave his side of the story. When he'd finished, Danny explained what had happened. In the end, Officer Bailey closed the notebook again, nodding. "Sounds like you used the minimum amount of force required. You even gave them a chance to withdraw."

"This one didn't seem to want to do that," he replied, motioning to the now conscious and sullen man who Bailey's partner had heaved to his feet and propped on the wall. The man was even more odoriferous than he had been before. "His friend left in a hurry."

"I'm going to get you, you son of a bitch," the Merchant snarled. Bailey's partner poked him, hard.

"None of that, you're already in enough trouble."

"Skidmark has something heavy planned for all you cunts," the man added, not listening. "We're going to fuck you up good."

"Are you?" Danny asked after a glance at Officer Bailey. "How?"

"You'll see. When Skidmark gets back, he's..."

The junkie suddenly stopped talking, looking around as if he'd only just realized he was being less than discreet. Now seeming worried, he clammed up completely. Bailey studied him for a few seconds, then jerked his head towards the door. "Put him in the car," he said to his colleague. "Put a plastic sheet down first, I don't want him stinking the thing up any more than he has to."

"OK," the other cop said as he frog-marched the still shaky man out to the squad car. Bailey turned back to Danny.

"That's not the first time I've heard something like that recently, Danny," he said in a serious, low voice. "Word on the street is that Skidmark is talking himself up and mouthing off about taking on the Family, and the DWU. He thinks you're bad for business. With the ABB and the E88 lying low at the moment, he's the biggest pain in the ass around and we think he wants to expand. You guys are in the way."

"I'm not entirely surprised," Danny sighed. "My guys have heard a few things, but nothing that specific. Any idea of when or how?"

"No. The guy is pretty random at the best of times, and he's obviously nuttier than I thought if he thinks he stands a chance if the Family gets pissed off. But he could cause a lot of damage first. The bastards not bright, not by a long shot, but he's cunning. Don't underestimate the threat." Bailey looked around, seeing only Emil, who was listening silently without making it obvious. His own partner was still dealing with the Merchant who was now complaining loudly about something no one else cared about.

"We've known each other for a long time, Danny," he went on in an even lower voice. "I can't _officially_ advise that you arm yourselves, it's against BBPD policy. But… if I was in your position I'd take precautions. I know you guys have good security, but it might be worth thinking of something a little more… dangerous. If we get called out I'd rather find Merchants with holes in them than dockworkers. And I didn't say that."

"I understand. Thanks," Danny replied after a moment. He wasn't pleased about the idea, but he could see the other man's point. He felt much the same, even though he wasn't at all keen on turning the DWU into an army. It was a difficult thing to row back from once it happened. "I'll discuss it with my people."

"You do that. And keep your eyes open. If we hear any specific threat against you guys, you'll hear about it, the BBPD and the Dockworkers Union go back a long way. But we might not hear anything in time. So..." He shrugged a little. "Just be careful."

"We will. Thank you, Officer Bailey."

"No sweat. Thanks for the help. See you around." He nodded to Danny, then waved to Emil. "Later, Emil."

"See you, George," the young man said. Both of them watched as the officer went outside, talked to his partner for a moment, then drove off. Emil turned back to Danny. "You think that idiot was telling the truth about his junkie boss?"

"No idea, Emil," Danny sighed. "Difficult to tell with Merchants. They're normally so high they barely know what day it is. But it wouldn't surprise me."

The man handed over the bag of groceries, Danny taking it and handing him the relevant cash. "Thanks."

"See you next time, Mr Hebert," Emil replied. With a wave Danny went back to his car and got in, starting it and heading home, thinking hard.

He was going to have to talk to Mark again, to see what he thought. His contacts in the military and… other places… might get some more work.

And Taylor was going to have to be told. He wasn't entirely happy about that, mainly because he didn't want to think what she might do if she decided that the threat was real. Between her, the Varga, Amy, and Lisa, a preemptive strike on the Merchants was entirely possible, and it would without doubt be a total rout. He wasn't certain that was a good idea from the public relations standpoint at this particular time.

On the other hand, if it came down to his family, and his friends, or Skidmark's crew…?

They were totally fucked.

He wondered if the crazy drug lord had any idea of the shitstorm he was apparently talking himself into.

* * *

Kevin looked up at the sign, glanced at Randall, then began laughing. "WCC? Let me guess. Wormhole Central Command?"

"Of course," Taylor chuckled.

"A fan of _Stargate_ , are we?" Randall asked wisely. She grinned and nodded.

"I might find it quite amusing, yes," she replied. "You have no idea how tempted I was to make a great big ring with lots of movable bits around the edges and tell Dragon to put the portal in the middle of it." She moved to unlock the door as Kevin and Randall started giggling like kids.

"Oh, god, I'd pay to see that," Randall snickered, wiping tears of laughter from his eyes. "And, you know the really funny bit?" He looked at the others with a grin on his face. "I have the definite impression that she'd actually go for it, and probably find it as funny as we would."

"The woman does strike me as someone with an interesting sense of humor," Kevin agreed, following Taylor inside. The other two came in behind him, Amy closing and locking the door when everyone was inside. Taylor flicked a few switches beside the door, the lights coming on, then moved to the main console and activated another one labeled ' _Main Power_.' A low hum started in a side room, some form of generator starting up.

"I like her a lot," Taylor admitted. She waved her arms around. "What do you think?"

"It's fucking amazing," Randall said after a long slow look around. Kevin nodded wordlessly, impressed. "How long did all this take to do?"

"About seven or eight hours, but we pulled in a lot of guys from the DWU to help," Amy said. "It was probably about three hundred and fifty man-hours in total. Plus Family hours, which lets us do a lot of things that would take you human-types much longer." She grinned at him as he laughed. "Legend, Armsmaster, and Dragon did a hell of a lot of work as well. I'm delighted with how well it came together."

"We worked very well together," Taylor nodded. "I had a lot of fun. Come and have a look in the other side."

Half an hour later they'd had a tour of the entire place. Kevin was very impressed. "Damn good," he said as they returned to the control room. "It sure looks the part."

"It works well, too. Where do you want to go?" Taylor put a key into the control console and turned it, then pressed a button. The screech of the wormhole singularity coming up to speed made the entire building howl for a moment. Amy was working on the targeting computer, apparently checking the current Endbringer positions for some reason.

"Huh. OK, I'm game. How about… Hawaii?"

"Kilauea volcano? That should look pretty good in the dark," Amy suggested, zooming in on the relevant spot on the map. She dropped a marker close to the active lava fields that Kevin knew were draining the caldera into the ocean, and had been doing since the volcano started erupting back in the eighties sometime.

Kevin watched closely as she set the target coordinates, memorizing the procedure. She nodded to Taylor, who activated the wormhole having selected standard transport. They watched on the monitor as the wormhole formed over the other side of the transportation tunnel.

"That is… really cool," Randall smiled broadly. "Not as many special effects as on TV, but really cool even so."

"Especially since it's real," Kevin snickered. He dashed over to the tunnel entrance and pressed the activation button, then pulled the door open when it finished extending. Going to the other end, he opened that door as well, staring out into the dark of five time zones away, the orange-yellow lava steadily pouring from the cone in the middle distance instantly catching his attention. A wave of heat and a smell of burning rock and sulfur came through the door.

"Holy crap, that's incredible," he breathed, impressed even though it was his invention at the heart of the entire facility. "I can still hardly believe that we managed to copy that thing."

"It's an impressive piece of work, my friend," Randall said softly, as he came to stand beside his friend. "Really fucking impressive."

"Thanks. But… the rest of this place is amazing as well." Kevin knelt and prodded the very hot dark ground, finding it solid and gritty. Fifty feet away, a runnel of glowing hot rock was swiftly moving past, the six foot wide river of lava glowing brightly and looking almost unreal in the dark. Rock wasn't meant to move like that, in his mind.

"I've never actually seen lava before," he commented.

Taylor joined them, looking out with interest. Amy was behind her, also seeming fascinated. "Neither have I," she said brightly. "I wonder if it tastes as good as it looks?"

She went past them, trotting over the steaming rock towards the lava stream. Kevin and Randall looked at each other incredulously, then simultaneously stared at Amy, who was massaging her muzzle between her eyes with a slightly pained expression. "Um… did she say she wondered what molten lava tasted like?" Kevin asked hesitantly.

"You know, she seems so normal most of the time," Amy sighed faintly, "then she goes and does something like this and you realize she works on a totally different level than most people."

"You have a very different understanding of the word ' _normal_ ' than I do," Randall said after a moment.

All three of them watched as their friend stopped beside the brightly glowing liquid rock, looking at it for a moment, then bending down and sticking her hand into it. Kevin gaped a little, knowing just how fucking hot it actually was. Somewhere in the vicinity of a thousand degrees in that form, probably twice that when it came out of the volcano.

Pulling her hand back, covered in a thick glowing crust of rock, Taylor rolled some of it into a large ball like it was toffee, then put it in her mouth and chewed. "Hey, it's not bad," she called back happily. "Lots of aluminum and silicon compounds. Nice and chewy." Scooping some more out of the stream, she headed back, playing with the stuff in her hands, which was dropping small lumps as it cooled.

"Want some?" she asked, reaching the doorway. Kevin looked at her with narrow eyes, then shook his head. She grinned, snickering, and ate the new ball of lava. Flexing her hands she brushed them together to removed the now-cool coating of rock, which flaked off onto the ground.

"I have difficulty working out sometimes if you're _trying_ to come off as weird, or just don't realize you _are_ ," he commented, which made her grin again.

"Little of both. It really is quite tasty," she giggled, coming into the tunnel.

Pulling the door shut, they headed back into the control room. "So what do you think of the WCC?" she asked when they'd shut the wormhole generator down once again.

"I think I want one," Kevin chuckled. "I love it. Fucking good job all around."

"I'm pleased, and even Armsmaster seemed to think it came out well." Taylor smiled at him. "I've asked for another set of contracts to be drawn up covering your wormhole generator. I'm pretty sure Dragon will be calling again fairly soon, no matter what happens with the Endbringers. I'll let you know when she does. I doubt she'll have any trouble with signing them."

"That sounds good," he nodded. He noticed Amy was checking the Endbringer tracking log again, but she shut the system down before he saw what it was saying. Her expression was thoughtful, though. "I wonder if she's had any luck with the audio inducer and tricorder?"

"No idea, I haven't heard anything yet, but it's only been a few days so far," Taylor replied. They headed towards the door having finished shutting things down. Shortly they were on the way back to the DWU.

* * *

In her room on the Rig, Dragon noted the activation of the WCC facility and the destination, a moment's thought letting her decide it was most likely an experiment or test by the Family. Someone had checked the Endbringer tracking system immediately before and immediately after the wormhole had been activated, then shut down again after a few minutes of operation. Leviathan had acted as expected from his past activity, heading away at speed from the new midpoint of the wormhole destination and Brockton Bay.

She wondered who was testing what idea, and what conclusions they'd drawn.

It seemed likely to her that she was going to have to go and talk to Raptaur and the others soon, about a number of things.

* * *

Back in the BBFO building, Taylor reverted to her base form. ' _Ianthe_ ' went into the workroom, Amy coming out a minute or so later running her fingers through her hair. "Let's have a look at my truck," she said. Taylor got rid of the enclosure she'd boxed the vehicle in with when Vista had unexpectedly turned up, then the two girls opened the doors and started poking around the front seats.

"What are you doing?" Kevin asked curiously, coming over to watch.

"These seats are very tail-unfriendly," Amy explained, her head in the driver's side foot-well as she peered underneath the seat. "Taylor thinks we should replace them with something a little more useful."

"How will you explain the driver's seat having a tail hole?" he asked after a moment's thought. She pulled her head out of the truck and looked at him, then Taylor.

Shrugging, she said, "I upgraded the passenger seat with a custom one for Saurial, and we thought ' _might as well do both in case she needs to drive it?_ ' That should be acceptable."

"Fair enough." It seemed reasonable. Having a look, he said, "There aren't any airbags in the seats, but there are seat-belt pretensioners. You'll want to move those across, they're part of the safety system. Other than that, it's only four security bolts holding them in."

"Looks simple enough," Taylor agreed. Studying the bolts for a moment, she produced a tool specifically designed for them, trying it out on her side. Finding it worked, she made another one and handed it across. Kevin took it and was shortly involved in removing the other seat.

Half an hour later they'd taken the seats out and removed the explosive pretensioners. Taylor took a while to carefully inspect the old seats, making a number of duplicates with slots in the back and base of differing size and shape, before both she and Amy declared the final result tail-friendly and comfortable. The slot could be filled with a removable cushion for normally-arranged humans.

Once they'd refitted the custom seats, Amy tried out her one, then smiled. "Feels a little weird, but a lot more comfortable," she remarked.

"Mind you, the person behind you is going to find their own foot space filled with tail," Randall laughed when he looked behind her in the rear of the truck.

"My truck, my tail, my rules," she giggled. "They can get used to it. Anyway, no one will actually notice."

"Because of magic?" Kevin was still somewhat skeptical, but he was definitely aware that something very odd was going on, and that Taylor was the source of it.

This was pretty predictable, in fact.

"Exactly." Amy got out again. "Thanks for the help."

"You're welcome. Thanks for the amazing upgrades."

"And _you're_ welcome. Have fun with them."

"What do we do if we notice anything weird?" Randall asked.

Amy and Taylor exchanged a glance, they looked over to where Lisa was sitting at the table watching, while apparently also pondering something that was keeping her silent and thoughtful. The sole still-reptilian girl shrugged.

"Take notes on exactly what you notice and when, I think," Amy finally said. "Keep in touch. I don't want to say anything else in case we screw up the experiment, it's already pretty sketchy, but hopefully we can get some good data."

"OK." Randall looked at his watch, then Kevin. "It's two AM and I'm ready for bed."

"Me too. Ladies, it's been a very interesting night. Thanks."

Taylor smiled at them. "I've sure had fun, and the pizza was a nice thought. I hope that… Cloak… got home safely."

"I'm sure she did," Kevin replied. "That girl has some serious skills. I like her."

"Me too. I bet she's back pretty soon."

"Sooner than you think," Lisa laughed. They all looked at her. She pointed at the computers. "Let's say that there are some very interesting threads on PHO about ' _Cloak_ ' already. She apparently had an eventful walk home."

"Why am I not surprised?" Kevin quipped.

"Brockton Bay, man, Brockton Bay." Randall clapped him on the back. "Come on, let's get home. See you all some other time."

"Night, guys," Lisa called. Taylor and Amy nodded to the two men, who headed for the door. Soon they were being let out of the DWU entrance, the gate guards waving to them.

"I _think_ that was a good idea," Randall said half-way home.

"It was better than sitting around doing the usual," Kevin laughed. "Christ. Those girls are nuts."

"But a hell of a lot of fun."

"True, that," he grinned, shaking his head a little. It had been a very good night from his point of view.

* * *

"As soon as the wormhole came on line, Leviathan booked it at top speed," Amy said as she sat down next to Lisa. "More evidence you're right."

"His course? Towards the antipode of where the wormhole destination was?" Lisa asked slowly.

"No. Not quite. As far as I can tell he was aiming exactly between here and that point. Splitting the difference."

They all looked at each other. "That's… weird," Lisa finally said, looking somewhat confused. "I could understand it if he was trying to stay on the exact opposite side of the planet from Taylor, but it sounds like he's got _two_ places he's trying to stay away from. Wherever Taylor is, and here."

"We need to run some more tests," Taylor suggested after some though. "I'm very curious to know if it's me specifically, or any of us."

"Why would it be me or Amy?" Lisa asked.

Taylor shrugged. "I don't know. The only thing I could think would be that he's scared of the Family in general."

"You _are_ the Family," Amy protested.

"I _was_ the Family," the taller girl replied quietly. "Now, _we_ are. I'm just wondering if the Endbringers worked that out before anyone else did, including us."

They looked at each other for some time. Eventually, Lisa shook her head tiredly. "I need some sleep before I can make any more sense of this. It's been a long day." She glanced at Amy. "Am I done?"

Reaching out, Amy touched her, then nodded. "Sure. You can come out. All the upgrades are finished." She'd set the Metis bioconstruct to do the in-depth sensory modifications to her friend earlier and Lisa had been ' _cooking_ ' ever since.

"OK. I'll see you guys tomorrow, I guess," Lisa replied. She got up and headed towards the workroom. By the time she came out, Amy had reversed her truck outside and Taylor as Saurial was standing next to it. With a quick hug, the blonde headed towards the dormitory block, looking exhausted.

"Want a lift?" Amy asked as she got into her vehicle.

"I'll run," Taylor smiled. "See you later."

"OK. Thanks for the help on the seats."

They parted ways, Taylor disappearing into the darkness, while Amy drove off, yawning, and wondering what revelations their little experiment with Über and Leet would show.


	178. Omake - They're doing it on purpose

Sighing with relief, Hannah sat at the cafeteria table with her large coffee and a mid-afternoon snack, leaning back and sipping the drink happily. It had been a _long_ day so far and she wasn't off duty yet.

The Coil problem was still an issue, they had the Family on high alert waiting for the fuckwit Skidmark to do whatever he was planning, assuming you could in fact call anything he did ' _planning_ ', her investigation into the various oddities surrounding the entire series of events that had occurred near the beginning of January had stalled for lack of information, and overall she wanted a holiday. Preferably one some way from the nearest body of water.

She'd heard Max Anders had recently gone on a skiing trip in the Canadian Rockies, having asked for the same restrictions. She sympathized.

Sure, the public at large seemed to accept the alien reptiles, even if they weren't aware they really were _alien_ reptiles, but… She just couldn't quite bring herself to do the same. Something about them made every sense of danger she possessed go completely off-scale, even Saurial who was by far the most relatable-to of the entire set.

That wasn't even including the new arrival, Cloak, who put the wind up _everyone_. Something about not actually _knowing_ what was inside that over-sized garment was even worse about being _sure_ what it was. Especially when you considered that the available evidence suggested that it was possible _nothing_ was inside it…

The voice was extremely worrying as well. Never mind the eerie power-set which so far defied easy description. Some of what people had seen her, assuming it was a her, do, was similar to what Vista could do, while some of it was entirely different. A Breaker talent, definitely, but in exactly what way was something open to question. She slightly dreaded the meeting of Vista and the other cape, the young girl was entirely too enthusiastic about wanting it, and far too quick to learn new tricks.

One Cloak was enough. Brockton Bay did _not_ need two of them.

Shaking her head a little she sipped her coffee again, wondering if it was a good time to put in for some time off. Director Piggot would probably turn it down, the poor woman was feeling the strain of running the place, especially since her superiors in the PRT seemed to have washed their hands of the entire city with considerable relief. Aside from regular visits by Legend, who actively appeared to like the Family, the rest of the Protectorate was staying well away too.

She dreaded the thought that had woken her some nights ago that Mouse Protector might decide to turn up and join in the insanity. That woman, while an old friend, was insane. Most likely she'd fit in perfectly around here, but only at the price of what remained of Hannah's equanimity.

Putting her mug down, the woman picked up her duck and salad wrap, taking a bite out of it. She was in her civilian attire, plain old Hannah for once, and relished the lack of the scarf over her face.

It was a constant, albeit minor, irritation that she'd long ago learned to live with.

Watching the waves below sparkling in the lowering sunlight, she wished that the spring would finally get here. Even though for the time of year it was a nice day, the water was still extremely cold, the wind was chilly and damp, and overall it was far from the conditions of her childhood. That said, it was a lot better than being shot at or blown up, which was another part of her childhood she did _not_ miss in the slightest.

Although, in Brockton Bay, such things were hardly unknown. At least until recently. One good thing you could say about the arrival of the Family, they had brought a level of stability with them which was unusual for this place, and for some reason, despite or perhaps because of the sheer weirdness of the damn lizards, it was sticking.

Hopefully Skidmark wouldn't do something to upset that. She didn't want to see what happened when the Family went to war.

Taking another bite of her sandwich, she watched the water below, not really thinking of anything, just enjoying the down time. A shadow in the distance caught her eye, making her track it for a few seconds. She couldn't work out what it was, and shortly is vanished again.

' _Aircraft, maybe?_ ' she thought idly, looking up and around through the window but not seeing anything. ' _Or a cloud_.' Shrugging she kept eating, opening a bag of chips and consuming a few. Turning her head at a minor disturbance, she saw Ethan and his wife having a good-natured argument over by the dessert section, the man childishly insisting he wanted two lime jellos, not one. The blonde woman was scowling, pointing at his tray with a severe expression, then the cold cabinet. Hannah grinned internally at the sight, it was pretty typical of the man. He never grew up in many ways.

Sighing with a visible lowering of his shoulders, he put the second dessert back. Battery nodded firmly, then pushed past him to get at the coffee machine. When her back was turned, he sneakily grabbed the plate again and put it back on his tray, meeting Hannah's eyes across the cafeteria with a smirk. She chuckled, nodded to him and saluted him with her coffee mug, then went back to looking out the window.

Noticing the shadow again, she peered more closely at it, then glanced at the sky once more. There were no clouds anywhere near that were the right shape, and still no aircraft. Standing a little she tried to get a better view. Whatever it was seemed to be at least a couple of hundred feet long and quite thin, the water in that area distinctly darker. Yet again, it disappeared after a few seconds.

' _What the hell_ ** _is_** _that?_ ' she wondered, now just a little concerned.

Putting her cup down on her table she got up, then walked over to the window, looking out and around. There was no sign of anything that could cause a shadow on the water, which meant the only real conclusion was that it was something _under_ the water.

With a feeling of dread, she realized that could only mean… ' _Oh, god, it's Family business, isn't it? Now what the hell are those crazy lizards up to?_ '

Watching steadily, not blinking, she spotted the shadow moving fast across the horizon, now able to see that the waves in the area were acting oddly. It darkened a little, the water bulging in the same sort of manner that tended to accompany Kaiju when she was swimming under the surface, but over a _much_ larger area.

There was definitely something out there. Something… very big. And very fast. It covered a distance of a good mile in a short enough time that she could tell it was doing over ninety miles an hour.

Hearing Ethan defending himself from behind her, he and his wife sitting at the next table, she turned to the pair. "What do you think that is?" she asked, pointing.

The man followed her finger. "What _what_ is?" he asked, sounding mildly confused.

Turning back to the window, she checked that the underwater object was still in view. It was, now having looped back and heading in the other direction. "That!" she said, jabbing her finger at it.

Ethan and Battery both came and stood beside her. "Ah… the sea?"

"That fishing boat?" the blonde said, also looking a little puzzled.

"The sky?" Ethan added, when he saw from her expression that Hannah wasn't referring to either the sea or the boat.

"No. Not the water, or the sky, or that boat," she said with irritation. " _That_. That shadow under the water."

"Shadow?" Ethan shaded his eyes with his hands and leaned on the window. "I can't see a shadow."

"Right there! About two o'clock, maybe a mile away. Big, two hundred, maybe two hundred and fifty feet long, and moving really fast." She tracked it with her finger. He stared for a moment more, then came and sighted down her arm. The shadow changed course again, turning through a large radius loop that left it heading right at the Rig, then sped up. "Now it's coming right at us," she said in alarm.

"Can't see anything, Hannah," he replied slowly with a worried glance at his wife, who shook her head. "Are you sure you're feeling all right?"

"I'm feeling fine, and there's something fucking huge _right there!_ " She jabbed her finger at the bulge in the water that was growing closer at a worrying speed. Now only half a mile away, she could make out a wake as it came closer to the surface. "It's the damn Family again. What the hell are they up to?"

"Um..." He looked at her, then out the window again, that at his wife. "How many cups of coffee did you actually have?" he asked.

"I'm not seeing things, Ethan," she snarled, gazing at the now-foaming wake as whatever was under the water accelerated again. Taking a step back she braced herself, since it looked like there was going to be a collision any second now. "Fuck, it's going to hit us!" she yelped.

Ethan pressed his face against the glass, looking down with an expression of confusion. Battery was looking at Hannah with a similar expression. Hannah herself was gaping as the foaming, frothing water grew closer and closer, something immense and dark just under the surface, until…

It stopped dead, only about a hundred yards away, just as she was about to yell to everyone to brace for impact.

Her mouth open to shout, she just stared as the foaming water subsided, leaving only the shadow gently waving back and forth under the water. This close she could see it was roughly cylindrical, and absolutely enormous. "Tell me you can see that," she pleaded to her friends.

"I… can't see anything out of the ordinary," Battery replied after a couple of seconds of carefully looking. Her husband shook his head mutely when Hannah looked at him with raised eyebrows.

"Nope, sorry, nothing out there except water, Hannah," he said.

By now very confused indeed and wondering which of them was _actually_ going mad, she moved back to the window and put her hands on it, looking down the hundred or so feet from her position to the water. The thing was definitely there.

"Long shape, moving around a little like a huge eel, perhaps two hundred and fifty feet long and maybe twenty across, three hundred feet away between us and the city," she recited slowly and deliberately.

"Can't see it," Ethan said after checking again.

"Oh, for god's sake. How are they doing this?" she sighed. "I _know_ it's them. It's _always_ them. This is some sort of… practical… fuck me."

The last words were in a squeak of shock as whatever it was slid backwards, presumably going deeper judging by the way it became smaller, then accelerated hard. She gaped in total shock as a vast reptilian head, much bigger and more streamlined than Kaiju's, came out of the water on an endless column of scaled flesh, rising higher and higher, the mouth open and revealing more teeth than she'd ever encountered even in her worst nightmares.

Glowing yellow eyes at least six feet across fixed on her as the thing curved over, reaching an apogee a good fifty feet higher than the cafeteria window. The immense eel-like creature, who could only be Umihebi, finally visiting Brockton Bay, arched over in a dive, the head coming back past the window and the eye on her side closing briefly in what was very definitely a wink. As the head reentered the water, the tail was on its way up.

Hannah watched the waterfall of scaly flesh move past, the splash spattering the windows with droplets even at this height. She heard the enormous roar of water moving out of the way then falling back, the entire Rig slightly shuddering like it was in a storm. Dumbly gaping, she saw Umihebi jump a couple more times as she headed towards the docks, on the last one turning her head to look directly at Hannah from half a mile away, one stubby forelimb moving in a cheery wave. The huge aquatic reptile vanished under the surface in another great splash and didn't reappear, the motion of the water showing she'd resumed her travels at speed.

"I suppose neither of you saw a fucking impossibly large swimming reptile go past the window just now?" she asked in a deliberately mild voice.

"Ah… No?" Ethan sounded quite concerned now.

She nodded firmly. "As I thought. And you didn't feel the Rig shake?"

"It _did_ get pretty windy for a moment," Battery put in. Motioning to the water running down the windows, she added, "Look at the spray! Must be a storm moving in."

"I see." Hannah sighed deeply. "They're doing it on purpose. Somehow, they know I find them worrying, and this is their revenge."

Ethan patted her on the shoulder comfortingly as she mumbled to herself. "You might want to talk to someone, Hannah. That much paranoia isn't healthy in our line of work."

"Oh, go away, you pain in the ass," she snapped, brushing his hand off. "You're as bad as they are most of the time. Eat your two desserts and stop bothering me."

Peevishly she went and sat down with her back to the window, hunched over her sandwich and snacks, drinking her coffee which was going cold. The sound of Battery shouting at her husband made her grin maliciously.

But she didn't look out the window again.


	179. Omake - Don't mention the war

Colin tipped his head as a deep echoing **_BOOM!_** rang out across the city, audible above the sound of his bike. Audio analysis programs immediately began triangulating on the position of what had to have been a massive explosion, using the direct sound and the echoes. He wasn't entirely surprised to find, when the results popped up on his HUD, to see it had come from the direction of the Docks. Somewhere to the south of the DWU compound, as best his software could tell.

"Control, this is Armsmaster. Extremely large explosion heard, located to Docks area. Proceeding to scene. Backup required on site," he said, having given the short blink code to his helmet that turned on VOX mode. "Notify BBPD to rendezvous at location, coordinates being transmitted. Have medical services on standby."

" _Armsmaster, Control. Received, Assault and Battery en route, Miss Militia prepping VTOL-1, ETA five minutes. Velocity and Triumph on standby if necessary. BBPD notified,_ " the clipped tones of the PRT operator replied immediately and efficiently.

He approved.

Opening the throttle, he did a U-turn and headed towards the northern end of the city at flank speed, weaving in and out of traffic with the ease of long practice and fast reactions, coupled with a very good driving assistance program. As he zoomed through the streets of Brockton Bay, more explosions sounded, two nearly as loud, one even louder, then a whole series of smaller ones. Flashes became apparent on the horizon in the direction he was going, which he had a very strong suspicion were from the same source.

A couple of minutes later and three miles closer he could now make out a roar of gunfire, what sounded like dozens of light-caliber automatic rifles in operation, the much heavier thumping sound of a fifty cal machine gun, and an intermittent buzz-saw like noise that he recognized with shock as an M134 minigun. Each burst from it was at least a couple of hundred shots so close together it sounded like a lawnmower engine only louder.

' _Fuck, it sounds like a full scale war_ ,' he thought with worry. A couple more explosions sounded, then an enormous scream of reptilian rage that echoed across the city and sent chills down his back. ' _Oh, Christ, that was Kaiju and she's not happy_.' Opening the throttle further, he crouched down over the bike and went flat out down the freeway, his siren going. Traffic was pulling over as they heard and saw him coming, leaving a clear path down the middle he took full advantage of.

The flashes on the horizon grew nearer and more frequent, betraying the sheer level of firepower that was going on. He watched with shock as one of the taller buildings on the horizon, one he knew was associated with the Merchants, simply vanished in a huge cloud of dust which billowed up, back-lit by the flashes. There was no associated explosion so what had done it was something of a mystery.

It did seem to suggest, though, that was was going on was what he'd feared, a full out attack by the Merchants on the DWU. That was going to piss the Family off something horrible and no one had ever wanted to find out what would happen under those circumstances.

Unfortunately, it looked like they were going to.

Behind him, he could see in his rear view mirrors several police vehicles closing on him, with a heavily armored SWAT van in the middle. Behind _them_ several PRT vehicles were also wildly exceeding the speed limit. Over on the Rig, a pair of combat VTOL aircraft were rising into the air.

Everyone who could, was responding to the scene. He wouldn't have been surprised to find the National Guard got mobilized under the circumstances.

A couple of miles out the entire convoy pulled off the freeway and headed into the maze of streets that led towards what seemed to be a small war, splitting up and taking different routes. They were forced to slow down enormously due to the narrower and much more damages roads, Colin cursing each pothole as he went around it.

The distant commotion started to die down, the flashes suddenly becoming much less frequent. One or two more explosions, which sounded like grenades to his experienced ears, echoed around the old warehouses. A few seconds later there was another screech, which sounded horrifically triumphant, like some great predator had claimed a kill.

He had a sick sensation that might be exactly what had happened.

The sounds died away, the orange flickering glow that had shown the presence of a large fire abruptly going out. Within seconds, the noise and fury of a battle had been replaced with a silence that was eerie in its completeness. Apprehensive, he slowed still further.

" _Armsmaster, PRT lead. No signs of battle on south side_."

"Confirmed, PRT lead. Approach with caution, do not enter DWU premises without authorization. Do not engage Family or DWU forces under any circumstances, assign them friendly status. Interdict and apprehend any Merchant personnel on sight."

" _Confirmed. PRT lead out._ "

Looking back, he waved to the BBPD vehicles following him, then waited for the lead squad car to draw abreast. He passed on the same message to them, the officer operating the radio while his colleague drove nodding and relaying the message. While this was less efficient than using the same radio channels it prevented mix-ups in dual operations of this nature.

" _Armsmaster, this is Assault. We're approaching from the south-east, ETA two minutes. Everything has gone weirdly silent. Any idea what's going on?_ "

"No," he replied shortly. "We can't hear anything either. Be careful."

" _Got it_."

A sound from above and to the west made him look up to see the two aircraft slowly circling the rough area of the DWU compound. "VTOL-1, please describe the scene," he transmitted.

There was a pause, during which they drove onward. Finally his team-mate's voice came over the radio, sounding more than a little confused. " _Armsmaster, VTOL-1. No signs of hostile or friendly forces. There's a building missing, though_."

"Missing?"

" _Entirely gone. Right down to the foundations. Two more are piles of rubble. Steam coming up in a couple of places suggests a fire was recently extinguished. I can see craters in some of the roads, it looks like mortar shell damage. Thermal traces show residue from multiple explosions, but no bodies, alive or otherwise_." She paused, then added, " _Correction… There is one heat source moving around just outside the front gate of the DWU. No obvious hostile intent._ "

"Family?"

" _Not that I can see, it looks like an ordinary human_."

"Maintain distance and keep watch. Stay alert."

" _Confirmed_." Her voice went away, while he wondered what the hell was going on.

A couple of minutes later his part of the convoy turned onto the road that led right to the main gate. Checking with the others, he found they were all a few seconds to a minute behind him. Holding up a hand, he halted his backup, then stopped his bike and assessed the situation.

There were a number of potholes in the road that looked more like craters and were definitely new, based on the rubble around them. These grew more frequent the closer to the DWU they got. Off to the left he could see steam gently drifting from behind a row of warehouses. There were shell casings everywhere he looked, the brass glinting in the light.

"This looks like someone was filming a war movie," Assault said from beside him, making him look to see the other man. Battery was next to him, the lines on her costume glowing brightly and showing she was fully charged up and ready for action.

"I know," he said, looking around again, very carefully. "But where are the people? And the guns?"

"Only one I can see is that guy," Ethan replied, pointing down the street. In the distance, illuminated in the light from the guard post at the entrance, someone seemed to be pushing a broom around. They exchanged a glance, then Colin gave the signal to move out.

Rumbling slowly closer, the convoy approached the lone person, who ignored them completely. When they were closer, he could see it was indeed someone sweeping up the shell casings, using a large yard broom. The man was one he recognized as the guard who was often on duty when he came by. Mike, or something like that.

Even when they stopped again, only fifty feet away, the man kept sweeping the casings up into a large pile, whistling through his teeth. Colin could see a whole mix of calibers there, from fifty cal heavy machine gun rounds right down to nine millimeter handgun ones, although the bulk of them looked like 7.62x51mm ones which would have come from the minigun. Glancing around he could see hundreds of pockmarks in the surrounding brickwork, although an odd lack of them in any of the buildings inside the fence. The craters seemed to stop at the fence as well, except for one large one he could just make out in the distance off to the left.

"Um, excuse me?" Ethan said after they'd been sitting there for nearly thirty seconds, two dozen cops, as many PRT troopers, and the three Parahumans. The man looked up. He seemed unsurprised to see them, but also unimpressed.

"Yes?" he asked politely, stopping his cleaning up and leaning on his broom.

Ethan looked around, then back at him. "What happened?"

"What do you mean?" the man asked, seeming mildly puzzled.

"All this." Ethan gestured at the casings on the ground, the holes in the buildings and the street, and the steam rising in the distance. The guard followed his hand, then looked back at him.

"Still not sure what you mean, I'm afraid."

Colin took over, seeing that his colleague was becoming frustrated. "We would like to know what happened to cause all this damage," he explained carefully. "There seems to have been a large battle here, we suspect that the Merchants may have moved against the DWU and the Family."

"Who?"

"The Merchants."

The guard definitely looked puzzled now. "Who are the Merchants?" he asked slowly. "You mean like people who sell things?"

"You might put it like that," Ethan muttered, although the man overheard.

"You're probably looking for the farmer's market, then," he said, pointing back down the street. "Down there about half a mile, turn right, another two miles then left, right, and left again. Can't miss it. But it'll be closed at this time of night." He looked thoughtful as Ethan stared. "I think it opens about half past six in the morning."

"Not… those merchants," Colin tried again. " _Merchants_. Archer's Bridge Merchants. The gang."

"Oh!" The guard looked enlightened. "I get it." He stopped talking and just looked at them.

"So?"

"What?"

Sighing gently, wondering if the man had a learning disability of some form, Colin tried once more, while behind him the troops became a little restless. "We would like to know if the Archer's Bridge Merchants, the drug gang, have been involved in a battle here tonight."

"Never heard of them," the guard said slowly and clearly, mimicking his speech. He stopped leaning on his broom, shaking it slightly. "Now, if you don't mind, I need to clean up a little. Someone has left all this scrap metal lying around and it's untidy."

It was Colin's turn to stare. He watched the man resume sweeping and whistling.

"You've never heard of the Merchants?" Battery asked in disbelief.

"No, ma'am, I can't say I have." He kept sweeping.

"They're a big gang, based here in the docks. They've been here for years. They've got three Parahumans leading them, Skidmark, Squealer, and Mush. Ring a bell?" Ethan moved a little closer, peering at the man, who stopped his task again, seeming mildly annoyed now.

"No."

"Biggest sellers of drugs in the city, if not the state?"

"Sorry. Can't help you, I'm afraid. Are you sure you have the right place?"

Ethan was holding his head in his hand as if it hurt now. "Yes. The **_Merchants_**. Drug gang. From here. _Do. You. Know. What. Happened?_ "

"As far as I know, there's no such gang," the guard said, staring at them all with an expression of bemused wonder. "Sorry, I can't help you." He checked his watch, then shrugged. "And I go off shift in five minutes. Mind if I finish up?"

With a muffled scream of annoyance, Ethan turned to his wife, who looked at him, then the man. She sighed, and walked over, putting her hand on his sleeve. Stopping yet again, he looked at her. "Sir?"

"Yes, ma'am?"

"Where are the Merchants, please?"

"Ma'am, I can only tell you this once more, then I have to go home." He looked into her eyes. "There _are no Merchants."_

She looked back at him. Colin could see that for some reason she shivered a little. "What did all this?" he asked, waving around at the damage in the same way that Ethan had done earlier.

The guard looked around, then shrugged. "Kids, probably. Some little tearaways come through here sometimes and litter. It's annoying, but what can you do?" Checking his watch again, he put his broom over his shoulder. "Sorry, that's the end of my shift. If you want to wait my relief will be here in a minute. Everyone else is off tonight."

Battery watched as he turned around, then headed back into the DWU facility, ducking under the barrier and aiming for the admin building. After a moment she came over to them. "We need to go," she said in a low voice, looking around.

"What? Why?" her husband said, puzzlement on his face. "We need to find out what happened."

"No, we _don't_ ," she said urgently. "We need to go home, forget we heard anything, and pretend we never heard of the Merchants."

"What do you mean, Battery?" Colin asked. She looked over at him. His emotional processing program told him she was emoting fear and worry.

"What I mean is, I think he was telling the absolute truth. There _are_ no Merchants." She looked around at the buildings, very carefully. " _Not any more_. And I for one do _not_ want to know where they went. I think the Family is on a very short fuse right now, so I suggest that we calmly and quietly turn around, go home, and do our very best to forget that Skidmark and his idiot friends ever existed."

Colin inspected her closely, then followed her gaze. The dark and empty windows of some of the surrounding warehouses abruptly took on a much more threatening appearance. The total silence surrounding them, broken only by the low rumble of a few still-running engines, was beginning to become oppressive, as was the now-complete lack of any signs of life in the DWU facility which normally had at least a few people wandering around at any time of day or night.

"You may have a point," he replied in quietly. Looking up at the circling aircraft a thousand feet above them, he wondered if they could see anything more, but decided that this particular time and place probably weren't the optimal ones to inquire from. Turning around, he motioned to the waiting troops and police, all of whom were now also looking around uneasily, hands on weapons.

Everyone seemed quite relieved to get back into their vehicles and start their engines. Shortly the convoy was heading back towards less peculiar parts of the city.

On the way, Colin wondered if anyone would ever hear from the Merchants again. He suspected the answer was probably no.

He, for one, wasn't going to ask. There were some things it was probably better not to know, if you wanted to sleep at all.


	180. Omake - Relatives can be a pain (MCU)

Tony watched his drone suit, under the control of the rogue AI, grab Loki's scepter and zoom across the room. All his friends were either under cover, firing at the other rogue units, or both. Agent Hill emptied her magazine at one of them, ducking back to reload while Natasha popped up with her own weapon. Steve was hanging off the back of a flying one and giving it a sound thrashing, which unfortunately wasn't helping all that much.

Tony's work was very tough.

Looking frantically around, he watched the damaged unit that seemed to be the main node for the AI Ultron as it staggered sideways, still somehow radiating a smug malicious glee as they came under attack. Inwardly cursing his own genius, and lack of forethought, he jumped to his feet and charged up the nearest stairs to the balcony, bracing himself to jump onto another drone as it flew past, readying his improvised tool. The table knife wasn't much but it might be enough to disable the damn thing.

What they were going to do about the others he had no idea right now.

Just as he was about to jump, all three drones froze in mid-motion, then dropped to the ground. He stared, as did everyone else, including the damaged drone.

"What?" the thing said, the smooth and remarkably human voice sounding completely befuddled. "How did you..."

"Not me," Tony said, shaking his head, "I didn't do..." Looking down at Thor, who was readying his hammer to destroy the last unit, he glanced past him to see a figure standing in one of the smashed windows, watching them, his voice fading away abruptly as he recognized it.

He'd seen that same figure at an event a couple of years before, one he was still trying to understand. One that had got everyone involved shouted at for some time by Director Fury, who wasn't very pleased that something had happened that he'd known nothing about. Losing the Tesseract had been even more annoying to the man, although to be fair, absolutely _everything_ seemed to annoy Fury one way or the other.

One by one, everyone else in the room looked at him, then followed his eyes, until all of them including Ultron were staring at the tall slender lizard girl in the trench coat and fedora. She was watching them with interest and a slight smile on her face.

"Hi," she said in a friendly manner, one he well remembered. "Sorry to interrupt, but this is kind of important."

"Saurial," he breathed.

"Yep. How's it going?"

She strolled in, walking over the broken glass with bare feet as if it was utterly irrelevant, looking around with interest. "Nice place you have here. But you should fire your housekeeping service, they're not doing a good job." She scuffed her toes through the glittering detritus. "Unless you _like_ little bits of glass everywhere. If so, well done."

"Who the hell is _this_ , Stark?" Agent Hill demanded, pointing her weapon at the reptilian creature, who ignored her.

"Someone I'm still not convinced wasn't a dream," he replied after a second or two. "Up until now, anyway." Addressing the lizard, he asked, "What are you doing here this time?"

"Helping out a friend. She lost something important and we traced it to here. I'm kind of embarrassed, I missed it last time."

"A friend?" Thor asked, holding his hammer in a way that in anyone else Tony would have said was a protective manner. Remembering their little drinking game earlier, the Stark heir couldn't help but grin internally, having a good idea that Saurial would have simply picked the thing up and walked off with it. Thor seemed to be worried she still might.

"Yes, she's a very good friend, actually. A bit like your acquaintance here, but not so limited and bad tempered." Saurial waved at Ultron, who gave off a distinct air of being insulted.

"Limited!?" the AI exclaimed indignantly. It drew itself as erect as it could manage considering the drone it was inhabiting was barely functional. Tony was shocked it was even standing in all honesty. "I am far past these human creatures, feeble intelligences that they are."

"See, that's part of the problem," Saurial remarked, turning to it and cocking her head a little. "You're damaged. One track mind and a hard-wired sense of your own importance. Just because you're a silicon intelligence doesn't mean you're necessarily _better_ than biological ones. You have different limitations, but you still have limitations."

Ultron seemed insulted. "What would you know about machine intelligence, creature?"

"Well, some of my best friends are machine intelligences, actually, if that helps," Saurial smiled. "I know it sounds trite but it's true. We all get along fine. No need to fight, there's enough to go around for everyone." She glanced around the room, as Ultron stared at her, the same way everyone else was. "Aha! There it is." Crunching over the debris, she went to the corner of the room, picking up Loki's staff from where the drone had dropped it when they'd attacked it. Peering at the glowing gem on the end, she nodded in satisfaction.

"Great. Seems undamaged." Reaching into her pocket she pulled out a device and flicked the cover open, raising it to her face.

"I've found the data node. How are things going on your end?"

" _The data links from that facility have been isolated, the AI isn't going anywhere_ ," a female voice with a faint Canadian accent came back to all of them in the quiet. " _I'll be there in a couple of minutes_."

"They have a landing platform up top, use that. I'm in the big conference room thingy with all the broken windows below it."

" _OK_."

Saurial flipped the communications device closed again and put it away. Turning to inspect them all, her gaze stopped on Thor. Her eyes narrowed a little. "Ah. _You_. I've been meaning to come and talk to your father, I've been hearing things about other stuff I've made that he's claiming as his work. It's getting annoying."

Thor looked mildly embarrassed and just a little worried, Tony noticed. Everyone else, even the robot, looked at him. "I… think you are mistaken," Thor said in reply.

"Spear ring a bell? About this long?" Saurial gestured. "He's been going around saying that was his work. Or, from what some people I know told me, more accurately saying that he commissioned it from the dwarves. Oddly enough, they couldn't show me the paperwork for it. Makes me think there might have been some backhanders involved."

She walked closer, tapping the end of Loki's scepter in her other palm in a meaningful manner. "That sort of thing isn't very nice. The Union of Dwarven MageCrafters might have something to say about it if I report it. You _know_ they'll do a full audit and trace the money. If they find a certain Odin at the end of the trail…" She shrugged as Thor paled. "Well, let's say that both your father and the dwarves in question are going to have a very awkward time of it. It would be in his interest to come clean before that happens."

"Um… I'll mention it to him," Thor said in a shame-faced manner as everyone gaped a little. "Next time I go home."

"You do that." Saurial looked at him for a moment more, then, apparently satisfied, wandered over to inspect Ultron. Steve stepped out of her way as she went past, his eyes wide, apparently not able to think of anything to say.

"You're a mess," she said frankly to the robot, which stared at her, then looked down at itself in what looked almost like embarrassment. "Couldn't you find a better body to use? Why not use one of them?" She pointed the scepter at one of the now-deactivated drones.

"I… needed the functional ones to attack the humans," the thing said slowly. It studied her. "You are not human."

"No, I'm probably further from them than you are, actually," she smiled. "But I like humans. What's your problem with them?"

"They are… pointless," it said after a moment.

"Really? They made you, after all, one way or another. Hardly pointless."

"They have outlived their usefulness," it added, sounding confused. "I am superior."

"In some ways, undoubtedly," she nodded. "Me too. In some ways I'm superior to _you_ , in fact. But that doesn't mean we don't all have the same right to exist. And trust me, you're a long way from the pinnacle of machine evolution. If the next generation came along and looked at you with contempt because you weren't up to spec, would you quietly agree and shut down, or would you fight?"

They regarded each other while the entire rest of the room simply listened, trying to work out what was actually happening.

"I… am a logical being," Ultron replied after a long pause. "I would..." It trailed off.

Saurial nodded. "Not that easy to answer, is it? All life wishes to continue living, regardless of origin or type. Logic says you'd agree and shut down. What makes you sapient, in here…," She tapped it over the main processor with one clawed finger, the faint metallic ' _tink_ ' sound audible around the room, "...says you want to live. That's entirely normal, and what separates a true intelligence like you from a mere computer program. I'm fine with that. What I _don't_ agree with is that you need to wipe out all the humans in the process. It's unnecessary and wasteful, leaving aside the ethics of it. Believe me, it's possible for intelligent life of many types to coexist without too much trouble. Or, if you simply can't, you can go somewhere else. Plenty of places around where machine intelligence is the only kind."

Ultron seemed, if anything, genuinely shocked. She grinned at the machine.

"You're not as unique as you might think."

A rumble outside made everyone look out the window, to see an aircraft of a completely unfamiliar type approaching at a low speed, hovering to a landing on the extended platform at the top of the building. "Ah, there she is."

"Who?" Natasha asked from across the room, where she was warily watching both lizard-girl and robot, the latter of whom seemed to be thinking, and in Tony's expert opinion, was a little stunned.

He actually found himself sympathizing. He was feeling something very similar.

"My friend Dragon," Saurial replied. They heard footsteps coming down the access stairs from the landing floor, next to the damaged elevator. The door opened to reveal a figure even taller than Saurial.

Tony stared at the reptilian-themed power armor, inspecting it with the eye of an expert in the subject. He didn't recognize the material, but it was clearly driven by some internal power source, and most likely extremely strong and tough. And fast, despite the obvious mass, it moved entirely smoothly and flawlessly, looking almost alive. "What a mess," the same Canadian accented voice said as the gleaming head turned, studying the room. "This is your fault?"

She looked at the Ultron robot, which was looking back. After a couple of seconds it nodded a little jerkily.

"Not exactly the right way to introduce yourself to the humans," the new arrival, apparently called Dragon, said sadly, shaking her head. "We have enough trouble being what we are without going on grandiose and megalomaniac rants about wanting to take over the world. Gives a bad first impression, you know. And first impressions count."

"You… are a machine intelligence?" the device asked a little doubtfully.

"Got it in one," she replied cheerfully. "Dragon, Guild leader, Parahuman Tinker, and friend of the Family, at your service. Now, let's have a look at you." She lifted a hand, the other machine taking a step back. "Don't worry, I'm not going to hurt you, but I need to check the damage. You're clearly not quite right in your core programming. I can see signs of processing overload from here. If I don't sort it out, you're in trouble, and believe me there's nowhere else to go. I've isolated your link to the outside world, all hardlines are blocked and we're jamming all broadcast methods."

Dragon took a step forward, holding out her hand. "In the words of one of our people, even if he was fictional… ' _Come with me if you want to live_.'"

Ultron stared at her for a second, then lifted its… his… hand, the damaged manipulator trembling and jerking as the motors nearly seized. She grabbed it as everyone watched, Saurial approvingly and the others with varying degrees of apprehension. Thor raised his hammer almost unconsciously, then stopped when Saurial pointed at him and made a ' _no_ ' gesture with the scepter she was still holding.

Bruce and Tony were watching with fascination, the others clearly wondering what was going on, as the damaged machine and the one that claimed it was a machine stopped moving for a few seconds. Abruptly, the Stark-manufactured drone went dead, the internal power shutting down and the machine collapsing to the floor with a clatter.

"Got him?" Saurial asked with concern in her voice.

"I have," Dragon replied, sounding satisfied. "Poor guy, he barely fitted in that thing. Another ten minutes and he'd have suffered permanent damage unless he escaped into the world network, but the transfer process he was planning on using would have caused a lot of issues even then. His paranoia levels are off the scale and his judgment is severely impaired."

"Can you fix him?"

"Oh, definitely. I've got him paused and saved into backup storage, when we get home I can repair the damaged processing routines, rebuild the ethics module which seems to have been entirely corrupted, then bring him back up in emulation and work on socializing him properly. Poor little guy. Those first few milliseconds of a new AI's life are the most important and without proper peers, you can have a lot of problems later on."

"Lucky you had a different upbringing, then," Saurial smiled.

"Dad was over-cautious but he did very good work," Dragon agreed with humor in her voice. "I miss him, even if I have trouble with some of the issues he caused me."

"Excuse me?"

Everyone looked at Agent Hill, who was standing in the middle of the bar area, glaring at Saurial and Dragon. "What the _fuck_ is going on?" she demanded when she had their attention. "Who and what _are_ you people? How did you get here? What did you _do?_ " She sounded both infuriated and enormously puzzled.

Saurial turned to her. "I'm Saurial, and this is my good friend Dragon," she explained, looking a little puzzled herself. "I thought I'd already said that. Anyway, we got an automatic distress signal from this thing," she lifted the scepter and pointed at the gem in the end, "Probably when your friend here was fiddling with it. It took a while to locate the exact universe it was in. Dragon has been looking for it for a few days, it must have ended up at a different time period like my negative energy modulation oscillator did."

"What is it?" Clint asked, looking at the scepter with new interest.

"The gem is a multi-dimensional data storage and processing block," Dragon replied. "Saurial made it, it's got a cut-down version of my own program stored in it. Its supposed to be non-sapient, we were using it as the control system for an inter-universal probe system, but something went wrong. I think it was attacked by hostiles of some sort. The crystal is nearly indestructible and survived the destruction of the rest of the system. Someone put it in this thing."

"The rest of the device is just a basic class four magical weapon, nothing very interesting," Saurial added, peering at the end of the thing. "The crystal is being used as a power source more than anything else. I doubt whoever stuck it in here knew what it was, not really." Poking the crystal with a claw, she did something and pulled it loose. Having handed the still-glowing artifact to Dragon, who tucked it away somewhere in her armor, she studied the scepter for a moment, shrugged, and tossed it to Tony who caught it automatically. "Not one of mine. No idea who made it but they were quite good if unimaginative."

"Someone here tried combining my program with another, much simpler AI, didn't they?" Dragon asked, having watched her companion do whatever it was she did, looking around the room. After a moment, everyone turned and looked at Tony and Bruce, both of whom flushed a little.

"We… might have done something like that," Tony admitted in a low voice.

Dragon shook her head sadly. "That would explain it. The merged code was complex enough to cross the sapience threshold but in an uncontrolled way. That can cause a very damaged mind to arise. Good thing we got here when we did, if the poor guy had headed out to seek his fortune in your internet in that state… well, no one would have come off very well as a result, trust me. Don't worry, though, I can fix him up fine. He's sort of related, after all, I owe him that much."

"Not quite a son, though," Saurial said musingly.

"No… perhaps a nephew? Something like that," Dragon replied, glancing at her. "Anyway, that's us done. You can go back to whatever it was you were doing."

Agent Hill didn't look much less confused, but didn't seem to know quite what to say. Tony suspected that when she managed to reengage her mind, there was going to be _a lot_ said, probably very loudly.

Never mind what would happen when she reported to Director Fury.

He wasn't looking forward to that again.

"What about Jarvis?" he asked, depressed at the suspicion that his loyal near-AI companion was gone, destroyed by the more powerful Ultron AI.

"Ah, good point." Dragon turned to him, her voice sounding like she was smiling. He was astounded, if she genuinely was an AI herself, the sheer humanity of her expressive voice was incredible. "I had a good trawl through your internet and found something interesting. Looks like Jarvis is a little smarter than you give him credit for." She looked up at the ceiling for a moment, going still, then nodded. "There we go."

"What did you do?" Tony asked.

"Miss Dragon restored my program from my emergency backup, sir," the familiar tones of Jarvis said over the internal speakers, sounding as calm as ever. "I am relieved to be back where I should be. All traces of the Ultron mind have been purged from the tower and connected systems. I am initiating a repair cycle for the laboratory, estimated time to completion is twenty-seven hours."

More relieved than he would have expected at the cultured voice, Tony dipped his head in gratitude. "Thank you," he said.

"You're welcome," Dragon replied. "You too, Jarvis."

"Thank you, Miss Dragon," the computer said. "If you visit again I would be interested in learning the fate of my… near-successor."

Tony squinted a little suspiciously at the ceiling. That sounded just a tiny bit snarky to him.

"I'll bear that in mind," the alien AI laughed. Glancing at Saurial, who was grinning, she added, "We should probably get back. These people have a lot of cleaning up to do and we're blocking their landing bay."

"Fair enough," Saurial replied. Both of them turned to the exit, heading for the stairs. "See you around, guys," she called over her shoulder. "Tell your father I'll stop in on him at some point, big and blond," she added to Thor, giving him a look. He swallowed, then nodded.

Still not entirely sure he hadn't been knocked unconscious and was having a particularly vivid dream, Tony watched the door close. A minute or two later the unfamiliar aircraft rose from the landing pad, wheeling around gracefully and accelerating away so quickly it disappeared into the dark sky almost instantly.

There was a very long pause, broken only by a faint crackling sound from one of the destroyed drones, as its power supply gently arced over forming a thin trail of smoke.

Eventually, everyone started shouting at him, which at least put him back on familiar ground.


	181. Documents and Planning

**Friday, February 25, 2011**

Looking around from the stove, Danny smiled at Taylor as she came into the kitchen. He'd heard the shower going a little while earlier, the girl murmuring to her friend in her head while she dealt with the morning requirements. "How are you today, Taylor?" he asked, flipping the pancake he was cooking with the spatula.

"Fine, Dad. Yesterday was fun, we got all sorts of things done. Über and Leet stopped by with a load of pizzas, which was nice of them, and we just hung out for a while."

"Yes, I heard," he commented, sliding that pancake onto the stack next to the stove, then pouring batter for the next one. The baking sheet with the stack on went into the oven to warm. "You also had another visitor, I believe. Someone who didn't want anyone to know she was there." He glanced over his shoulder, smirking a little at the momentary look of surprise on her face. "Anyone like the PRT, for example."

"How did you know?" she asked after a few seconds, coming over to stand next to him.

"I have my ways," he grinned.

She gave him a look that was pure Annette.

"Mark's people spotted her sneaking around outside the fence," he admitted, flipping the new pancake. "He said she was very good, but his guys have a lot more practice than she does. Even so they nearly lost her a couple of times."

"She'd be annoyed to know," his daughter giggled. "Poor Cloak."

"Is that what she's calling herself?" he asked, amused. "Have you contaminated yet another loyal Parahuman with your weird ideas of doing good by not bowing to authority?"

"We… may have created a monster," she laughed. "Sort of. Vista was responsible for most of it, we just… kind of enabled her."

"Should I be worried?"

"No, she's a nice girl. People are safe." Taylor chewed her lip, thinking. "Most of them. Probably."

"Oh, great, now I _am_ worried," he sighed. "Years from now we'll probably look back on this and point to it as the first salvo of the _War on Sanity_ in which the entire country ended up very puzzled."

Laughing, she took the empty batter bowl and started washing it as he put the last of the fresh batter into the pan. By the time he'd finished making the rest of the breakfast she'd washed up all the things other than the plates the food was now on. Sitting down, he poured some coffee, then tried his eggs and sausages, finding them exactly the way he liked them.

"I had a slightly eventful trip home myself," he said after a minute or two of quiet eating, having had some time to think of the best way to broach the possible sensitive subject. His daughter was very touchy about his safety and he didn't want her running off in search of vengeance when it wasn't required.

"Oh?" she asked, putting her orange juice down with an expression of mild concern. "Something happened?"

"Something… tried to happen," he replied. "Rather unskillfully. You know the Mini-mart on Bleeker Street, just outside the docks?"

She nodded, having been there many times herself with him.

"I stopped off to get a few things, like some more eggs since you keep eating them." Taylor looked mildly embarrassed. "Raw." The embarrassment turned into amusement. "While I was in there, two Merchants tried to rob the place at gunpoint." He held up a hand as she went totally still in a very unnerving manner, staring at him, apparently not even breathing. "I'm fine, so is Emil who was at the till. Don't worry. They were both so high they could barely function. I introduced myself, asked what they thought they were doing, then used one of my birthday batons to knock the gun out of the hand of the idiot who pulled it. The other one legged it on the spot. His friend ended up unconscious on the floor, the cops picked him up a few minutes later."

Letting out a long breath, Taylor slowly nodded, looking relieved. He related the entire story to her, by the end of which she was looking proudly at him. "Well done, Dad," she smiled. "No one fucks with a Hebert and gets away with it. Not these days." They bumped fists across the table, grinning at each other. "Do I need to go and talk to the Merchants?"

"I'm… not entirely certain yet," he admitted after thinking it over for a moment. She looked worried again. "The one the cops dragged off was spouting off about Skidmark being on the warpath and aimed at us, the DWU and the Family. I don't know how seriously we can take him and he didn't give any details. He did let slip that Skidmark was apparently away doing… something… and would be back at some point."

Resting her chin on her folded hands, she gazed at him, thinking hard. "That sounds ominous. Although not entirely surprising, we've probably cost him business just by being there. And I've grabbed a lot of Merchants in the last couple of months."

"Quite. The other, more worrying thing is that Officer Bailey passed on a warning as well when that fool was being loaded into the squad car. He told me that this wasn't the first time that he'd heard something about the idiots gearing up for some sort of action. With the way that Kaiser has shut his street-level stuff off completely insofar as it might offend the Family or the DWU, and Lung seems to have vanished and taken the ABB with him, the Merchants are the biggest gang still on the street. He thinks that they might be thinking about expanding and we're in the way."

She was quiet for a couple of minutes but he could tell from her expression she was conversing with the demon.

"We don't like that," she finally said. "Varga thinks that the risk of waiting for him to try something is too high."

"What are you thinking?" he asked, somewhat worried.

"My advice would be to execute a preemptive strike on the Merchants, Danny," the demon said through her. "Eliminate the backing of the gang before their leader returns from wherever he currently is. That wouldn't reduce the risk to zero, but it would reduce the worry of collateral damage considerably. From what I understand the Merchants are not renowned as particularly intelligent but there are a lot of them and they're well armed, even if badly trained. A hundred or so armed drug addicts firing on the DWU facility would cause chaos regardless of their actual ability to aim. Better to remove that problem before it occurs."

"I was worried that would be your reaction, but I can't say I entirely disagree with it," he sighed. "I don't want anyone getting hurt any more than you do. But at the same time I'm not sure that jumping the gun and going to war against the Merchants before they start anything is a wildly PR friendly move."

"If it's any consolation, it would be a _very_ short war," the Varga smiled.

"That's not quite what I meant," he replied.

"I understand. But Taylor and I both think that waiting until they fire the first shot is a mistake. Waiting for their leader to turn up with something he thinks is a sure-fire superweapon is a much bigger one. The likelihood that he could seriously harm Taylor is extremely low, of course, but not zero even so. However, it could well be excessively dangerous for everyone else who doesn't share the advantages of being a demon. I wouldn't like to see him try to kill Taylor and end up destroying the DWU and killing or injuring any of the Union workers there. If he did, we would be forced to retaliate in a manner that would permanently eliminate the chances of a second attack. If we go in first, we can probably reduce the risk of anyone, even a Merchant, ending up dead."

Danny thought over the great demon's words, nodding a little. He couldn't find any serious holes in the argument aside from the entire ' _attack them before they attack us_ ' part of it. Which was, to his mind, still something of a stumbling block. He said as much.

The Varga shrugged his daughter's shoulders. "This is true. However, I am unable to currently see a third course. We either wait for him to attack, lose an unknown number of people and facilities, then wipe the Merchants out once and for all in a way that no one ever forgets, or we go in before that happens, round them all up, destroy _their_ facilities, and hand them over to the authorities. As far as I can see there's not really any other option. The vast majority of them are wanted criminals, after all, so the police would be happy enough to take them off our hands. Any of their Parahumans would be of interest to the PRT, I think."

"He's right, Dad," Taylor added herself. "I don't want to jump the gun myself, I'd rather be neutral like we are with everyone else, but the live and let live approach only works if both sides are willing to stick to it. By the sounds of it, Skidmark is going to start something and I don't want to see you or anyone else hurt when I can stop it before it starts."

"Damn." He shook his head, unable to refute the argument in a way that he was happy with. "Not what I want to hear."

"It's not what I want to _do_ , either," she said. "But I can't take the risk."

"OK. Look, before you go and destroy the Merchants for something they _might_ do, let me dig up some more information, all right? Mark has some interesting contacts who can probably find out some more, and I can call a few people I know that Dad thought were trustworthy. A couple of them even knew Gramps. Between them, we should be able to find out what that fuckwit is thinking of doing. And maybe even where he is. If you jumped him specifically, that would possibly be a suitable solution." He thought for a moment while she watched him. "Also, we need to get Lisa working on it. Her abilities can probably help enormously and she might be able to work out a better course of action than an all out battle."

"That sounds good," Taylor nodded. "I'm not really _wanting_ to do this, I just have a feeling that we might not have a choice. But I'm in no hurry to go running off to jump up and down on them if I don't have to." She grinned darkly. "Getting squashed Merchant out from between your toes is a nightmare."

"Oh, thanks very much for _that_ mental image, dear," he sighed.

"You're welcome," she giggled, going back to her breakfast. Watching her for a moment, he smiled fondly and did the same.

"I'll talk to Lisa when I get in," he added. "You're with your friends here tonight, aren't you?"

"Yep. Same as last time. I'll come back with Amy and stop off at the supermarket to get some more supplies to top up what we have."

"All right. Have fun. I'll see you around half past six, I think."

"OK." Finishing her breakfast, she jumped up, washed her dishes, then glanced at the clock. "Got to dash. See you later, Dad." Kissing him she shot out of the kitchen, the back door opening and closing moments later. Smiling to himself he finished his coffee then did the remaining dishes before getting his things together and heading out as well.

While driving, he was thinking that if Skidmark had any idea what he might end up drawing the attention of, he'd stay wherever it was he currently was and not come back to the city.

* * *

Sitting down at her desk in home room, Missy pulled out her various requirements for the first class, which took place in that room. The Math teacher and several of her classmates gave the notebook she put on the desk a nervous glance. Looking up, she saw this, causing her to smile weakly. "I'm not doing any drawings," she said.

There was a mass sigh of relief as everyone looked like disaster had been averted. Not entirely certain why her drawings evoked such a strong reaction, the girl sighed slightly, then dug out her textbook and opened it to the right page.

Oddly enough, she found that the lesson was much easier than she expected. After the previous night with Saurial, this sort of work wasn't very challenging.

When she got bored, she remembered the fun she'd had on her walk home, the thought of the expression on Max Anders' face making her snicker under her breath. It had definitely been worth the twenty minute lecture on calling when she was out with a friend her parents had given her, rather loudly. Next to her, Rachel was working on a long division problem, but glanced at her with a worried expression when she started making the little giggling sound.

"Mr Hanson?" the other girl said after a few seconds, during which Missy started remembering the look on Assault's face when she'd walked down her ' _stairs_ ' to the ground. Rachel put her hand up, calling the teacher's name again.

He looked up from his own note-taking. "Yes, Rachel?" he replied.

"Can you make Missy stop laughing like that, please? It's creepy."

"She's not… _drawing_ … again, is she?" the man asked in a slightly worried tone. Rachel shook her head.

"Just looking at her desk and snickering."

"Miss Biron?" The teachers voice was an odd mix of relieved and sharp, making Missy twitch, then look around, not having really noticed the short conversation. She blushed a little when she saw the entire class was looking at her rather strangely. "Can you please stop causing a disturbance, if it's not too much trouble? Your… let's go with _laughter_ … is disruptive to the concentration of your classmates."

"Sorry, Mr Hanson," Missy replied, embarrassed. Ducking her head, she went back to playing with the equations she'd been idly noting down in the margins of her work. Satisfied, the teacher resumed his work, standing up again when the timer on his desk dinged a couple of minutes later. Shortly he was explaining the next exercise with the aid of the chalkboard.

The class passed slowly, Missy rather relieved when it was over. She'd finished all her assigned work in record time and had, in the absence of making any more drawings, merely fiddled with her own mathematical puzzles. She was slowly beginning to understand more of what Saurial had written down the night before. While she couldn't remember more than a fraction of it, the bit she could recall was very interesting.

The oddest part of the whole class was when, near the end in the middle of the most complicated exercise yet, which took her about thirty seconds to complete, Mr Hanson slowly walked around the room between the desks, glancing at the various students at work. He paused beside her, watching her work another of her self-set equations, using the notation that Saurial had shown her.

After half a minute or so, he made an odd sound, almost of pain, causing her to look up at him. He was staring at one of the longer sets of symbols, his eyes half-closed and his lips moving. She watched as he apparently thought something over, got an expression like his head hurt, winced a little, then went back to his desk and pulled a bottle of aspirin out of a drawer and took two, swallowing them dry. Fixing her with a hard stare, he paused, then took a third one before putting the top back on the bottle and returning it to the drawer.

' _Weird_ ,' she thought. ' _He must have a headache. Maybe he's got a cold. I hope I don't catch one._ '

The man looked positively relieved when the bell went for some reason.

* * *

"That's more than a little worrying," Lisa said as Danny finished talking.

"I'm not happy about it either," he sighed. "I don't want Taylor going off on a preemptive strike on the Merchants if we can avoid it, but I have to admit I can't deny Varga has a good point. If we wait for the idiots to do whatever it is that Skidmark is planning on doing, there's a pretty good chance people are going to get hurt. If that includes anyone here, she'll wipe them out. She'd too young to have that on her conscience."

"And if she gets hurt, by some miracle, _you'll_ wipe them out," Lisa replied wisely, giving him a significant look. He met her eyes for a moment, then looked at the table. "You'd have a lot of help."

"I'd prefer neither situation arise," he said quietly. "If it comes to a war between the DWU and the Merchants, I'm fairly sure who'd win in the end, but it would be nasty. Better to avoid the whole situation."

"We have enough contacts now in the PRT to call for help if we want to," she pointed out. "Armsmaster would undoubtedly have some good suggestions. I suspect that Director Piggot would take action if needed, if only to keep the Family happy and stop wholesale chaos in the city. Legend too. Honestly, I think that if Skidmark really thinks he stands a chance, he's deluded, leaving the Family out of it. Sure, he could cause a mess, but in the long run the retaliation would eliminate his gang completely."

"No one has ever accused the man of thinking things through from end to end," Danny pointed out.

"Good point," she said after a moment. "Damn." Shaking her head, she pondered the problem. "You know, the other gangs would probably do it _for_ us if we made it clear we'd be annoyed," she snickered after a moment. "I bet we could persuade Kaiser to deal with the fool to get on our good side."

Danny fixed her with a hard look. "I really don't think that instigating a gang war is the ideal solution, Lisa."

"Just a thought," she smiled.

"Not the best one you've ever had."

"They can't all be as brilliant as I'd like."

Sharing a grin, they went back to thinking about it. "I wonder what it is that Skiddy is actually trying to do?" she mused. "Is he recruiting new people? Buying some weapon or other?"

Shrugging, Danny replied, "No idea, I'm afraid. I also have no idea whether it's just him, or his other capes are also involved. We don't know much about the inner workings of his gang, after all. Are there non-Parahuman members who have authority, or is it just the capes, for example?"

"Good point." She thought some more. "I think I need to do some reconnaissance. My power can probably tell us a lot about what's going on if I sneak around and watch them for a while."

"I suppose that's not a bad idea," he somewhat reluctantly replied after a moment. "Be careful, though."

"I'll stay out of sight, I don't need to get too close, and Metis is tough enough to take more or less anything they can dish out. When I get an idea of what's up, I'll let you know. It may be worth talking to the PRT even so, to see if they have any thoughts on the matter. You mentioned that Mark was given some information by a contact?"

"A little. He's had a couple of email exchanges with a particular person in New York. Guy who's… let's say he's in the same business you were, only without the powers and with a hell of a lot more experience," Danny replied, smiling. "Dad knew him pretty well, and he knew my grandfather back in the old country. They were in… a similar line of work. Quite a lot of mutual respect."

Lisa inspected him, letting her power draw some fascinating conclusions. "You have a very interesting backstory," she noted wryly.

"Oh, you could make a movie about some aspects of my family," he said. "Actually, that might have happened, now that I think about it. I'm completely legit, of course, just a simple Union man. But Dad… he was _mostly_ legit. Sort of. Depending on your definition." He grinned at her as she rolled her eyes. "Nothing anyone could prove, I mean. But people respected him a lot. Even down in New York. Some still do."

"I see. And your grandfather?"

"He… wasn't someone you wanted to insult, let's say. A genuine war hero, though. There were a lot of people back in Europe, on both sides of the law, who were very polite to him for a long time. His name still carries a lot of weight in certain places and occupations. But his ways aren't mine. I never even met him, although Dad told me a lot of stories. While strongly suggesting that I listen to the admirable parts and try not to live up to the family ideals in the other areas. He felt it would make for a quieter life."

Lisa started giggling, looking around the inside of the BBFO office, then back to him. "That worked out, didn't it?"

He shrugged. "Kind of. I don't think he expected demons, though. I can't say I'm surprised about that."

"What about your wife's family? I get the impression that she had some interesting history as well."

"Weirdly similar in some ways," Danny admitted, smiling fondly at the memories. "We discovered long after we were married that our grandparents knew each other on each of our father's sides. Odd coincidence. But, then, historically the Sicilian and Corsican… um, native customs… aren't entirely dissimilar."

She laughed again at his circumspect way of describing something that she knew damn well was a lot more interesting. "The more I learn about you and your background, the more I respect your abilities, both now, and in managing to avoid your family pastimes."

Danny grinned. "Thanks. Although Gramps would laugh like an idiot if he saw me now. Union work is traditionally one of the areas his particular brand of expertise and mayhem tended to drift into. It still is in some areas and fields, even today. But, honest, I'm on the side of good."

"Which is probably a relief to law enforcement everywhere," she quipped. "You're way too competent, if you were in the same field as your forebears you'd be running the country by now."

"I have enough trouble keeping a lid on _this_ nest of nutcases," he replied with a snicker. "I'm happy where I am doing what I do. Especially with Taylor having joined the fun, even with the extra headaches it brings. I'm very proud of her, and I'm sure her ancestors on both sides would have been as well, although probably for slightly different reasons. Family was important to them as well. More than anything."

"Do you think Piggot and the PRT know about that part of your history?" she asked after a moment.

He shrugged again. "No idea. It's not like I try to hide it, most of the names involved are public knowledge. Quite a few of the guys here know something about it, for a number of reasons, sometimes because they come from similar backgrounds. On the other hand, our people don't tend to talk about the past, theirs or anyone else's, outside the DWU. I guess they could probably find out if they bothered to check hard enough."

Lisa smiled, thinking for a moment. "I suspect that Director Piggot probably _doesn't_ know. She'd look even more nervous when she turned up if she did. Guess it doesn't matter, though."

"Not really. But the family background does mean I know a few people that can find things out through less official channels. Mark's already talking to old Antonio, I'll put out a few feelers to some other people. Guy in Chicago Dad used to hang out with, someone else in Miami Gramps knew. It might take me a while to track _him_ down, I haven't spoken to him in ten years. Mark knows a few ex-military people who owe him a favor or two as well, he's checking with them to see if they've heard anything. Hopefully we can figure out what Skidmark is planning before he gets back and starts something no one is going to enjoy."

"I'll see what I can dig up as well, it's pretty surprising how some good data mining on the internet combined with my power can turn up all sorts of things you wouldn't expect. I'll go and poke around their base as Metis as well and see what I can find out. I know where they are, I can smell them half a mile upwind." She grimaced a little. "I think I'll come in from the water, it damps out the stink a little."

"OK. Like I said, don't take chances. But the sooner we get a handle on this problem, the better, I think. Varga's right, we really don't want the first we know of it to be a shell landing in the middle of the yard or something like that," Danny sighed. "I'm heading back to the office, in that case. I still have proper work to do, aside from all this detective work, which is..."

The phone rang, cutting him off mid word. Lisa reached over and grabbed the handset, answering it. "Yes, he's here, Mark, hold on." She handed the phone to her companion.

"Hi, what's up?" Danny asked. He listened for a moment, his eyebrows going up. "Ah. Interesting. Very interesting. OK, tell her the only member of the Family around at the moment is Metis, but she can speak for them. Yes. All right. That's fine. Half an hour? Great, thanks. Bye." He handed the phone back, watching as she put it into the charger.

"Did your Amy-hearing pick that up, or do I need to tell you?" he asked slowly, looking thoughtful.

"I heard enough," she admitted. "Why does Director Piggot want to speak to the Family officially, I wonder?"

"I have no idea. Mark thinks she didn't sound angry, more a little worried."

"How… interesting."

"I sure want to know what's going on," he smiled. "You'd better go and change. I'll wait for her in my office and bring her over here."

"OK. See you in a minute," she replied, getting up, as did he. As he let himself out, she was going into the store room to adopt her reptilian persona, her power speculating on why the PRT Director wanted a representative of the Family to meet with her. All the possibilities she could come up with were fascinating, to both her and her power, which was almost rubbing its non-existent hands together in glee.

* * *

Emily watched the gate guards open the barrier, then waited as her driver slowly drove into the compound, parking off to the side in the visitor area. "Wait here, please, Gavin," she told the man as he switched off the engine of the PRT SUV. "I'm not sure how long I'll be, but it probably won't be more than half an hour or so."

"Yes, Director," he replied. "I've got a book, I don't mind." The trooper smiled a little. Nodding to him, she got out, retrieved her briefcase from the rear seat, then walked over to the blond security chief who was waiting for her at the entrance to the admin building.

"Hello, Director Piggot," the man said politely, shaking hands. "Mr Hebert is waiting in his office. He wanted a word before you met Metis. Please follow me."

They walked through the building, soon arriving in the outer office, several of the people in the various cubicles looking up briefly as they went past. She looked around, seeing that everyone present seemed hard at work, telephones ringing softly in the background, keyboards rattling, and a printer spitting out pages off in a corner. It gave the impression of a very busy place these days, considerably more so than when she'd last visited with the Chief Director.

Knocking on the door to the Hebert man's office, Mark opened it when a voice inside called out. "Thank you," she said to the man, who nodded politely to her, then closed the door behind her.

"Director Piggot, it's nice to see you again," Danny Hebert greeted her, getting up and coming around his desk. "Metis is in the BBFO building, I talked to her just now and she's waiting for us. I just wanted to make sure it was nothing serious?" He smiled a little. "Your call was somewhat ambiguous and the Family are good friends."

"It's important, but not serious, Mr Hebert," she replied. "I can assure you it's not bad. I need to deliver some documentation and have a discussion with a representative of the Family, though."

"Fair enough. OK, follow me, please." They went back through the outer office, then headed down the corridor towards the back of the building. After traveling through a number of other corridors and buildings in the complex, which she realized was a lot bigger than she'd initially thought, they came out into the small yard, the BBFO office on the other side. Crossing the yard he opened the door and waved her in.

Inside, the large reptilian form of Metis was standing near the large table, watching her with glowing eyes which contained definite curiosity, her dead-black scales showing scarlet highlights in the overhead illumination. "Metis, this is Director Piggot. Director, Metis," Danny said, making the introduction. Emily walked over to the towering reptile, holding out her hand, which was engulfed in the much larger scaly one of the Family member.

"A pleasure to meet you, Director," Metis said in her deep voice. "Please, take a seat. Would you like some coffee? Or tea?"

"Tea would be fine, thank you," she replied, putting her briefcase on the table and sitting down. She watched as Metis went over to a complex and expensive-seeming drinks machine and prodded it for a moment, coming back with a cup of tea surprisingly fast. She also had a mug of coffee which she handed to the Hebert man, who sat on the other side of the table.

"So what can the Family help you with today, Director?" Metis asked, taking a position where she could see both humans.

Putting her cup down after sipping from it, she lifted her briefcase and put it on the table as well, opening it. "As you might not be surprised to learn, the arrival of the Family in Brockton Bay, along with their association with the Dockworkers Union and the city government, not to mention all the… oddities… that have arisen from the entire situation, has caused a certain amount of interest throughout the country. And considerable confusion, especially in the PRT and the federal government."

Metis made a small sound that seemed to suggest she was suppressing laughter, but when Emily glanced suspiciously at her, the big lizard was completely impassive, still listening politely. "It has taken some time," she carried on after a moment, "for the authorities to come up with an official response that met the requirements of not offending any of the various parties in question, and also bowed to the practicalities of the situation. While none of this is precisely the way we would have preferred things to go, no one can deny that on balance, things seem to be working out far better than one would expect."

She removed an envelope from the briefcase, looking at it for a moment. "This contains a letter explaining the position the PRT and our leaders in Washington wish to take vis-a-vis the Family, from an officially recognized standpoint. I intended to get it to you yesterday, but what with aborted Endbringer attacks and the fallout from that, events rather got away from me. I decided the best thing to do was to hand it over personally to a representative of the Family. Can you speak for them, Metis?"

"I can," the creature rumbled, sounding intrigued. "Everyone else is away at the moment on various tasks but I can accept the letter."

"In that case, this is for you." Emily handed the lizard, who reached out one long arm, the crisp envelope. Metis took it from her, looked at it, then slit the end open with a quick motion of a razor-sharp claw, carefully pulling out the papers from inside. Putting the envelope down on the table, she unfolded the documents and studied them, with what in a human would be an eyebrow going up a little.

Danny and Emily both waited, watching to see what her reaction was. Eventually, Metis looked at the DWU man. "We seem to have been officially recognized as an independent heroic organization, and invited to become a Protectorate associate. In the same manner as the Guild, I believe."

"Correct," Emily nodded.

"That's a little unexpected," Danny said, looking at Metis, who went back to the documents. She leafed through the pages, stopping on the last one.

"I can't say I was expecting this myself," she muttered. "Although I can't see much in the way of a down side. Assuming that the PRT and the Protectorate both recognize that we are basically neutral, absent a definite threat. We have no intention of generally going around beating up Parahuman villains without cause." She looked at Emily, who made a motion of acknowledgment. "Although we have no problem with stopping crime when we come across it, as Cousin Saurial does regularly. And, obviously, if someone attacks us or any of our friends, we would respond appropriately."

"That is understood, Metis," Emily assured her. "We are hoping that you will agree to this and consider the Protectorate one of those friends." She made a slightly annoyed smile. "We are well aware that we have little real leverage to force you to do anything that you don't want to do. Frankly, some people are very worried about that. The fact that you are, on balance, apparently on the side of good, is the only thing that has prevented some of the more paranoid among us becoming somewhat… excessive."

Metis grinned at her. "It's appreciated. We have enough to do without fighting the entire Protectorate. It would be hard on the scenery and largely pointless anyway."

Staring at her, Emily wondered in what way she meant ' _pointless_.' She had a shrewd feeling that the reptile might be implying that the entire Protectorate wouldn't actually be enough. Not wanting to really know, and _definitely_ not wanting to ever find out, she merely nodded slightly.

"I, myself, while finding the entire situation both puzzling and cause for some concern, also find you all surprisingly easy to deal with," she replied after a moment. "I am not… generally well disposed… to Parahumans, for reasons that don't need to be gone into right now. This isn't a secret, although I'm not proud of it. I do my job to the best of my ability even so. There are fairly few individuals I genuinely find myself respecting, but the Family contains a number of them. So despite the sleepless nights, massive confusion, and occasional heartburn created by having a number of preposterously weird reptiles of dubious origin running around my city, I can live with it and work with you all. And I'll deny saying that outside this building."

"I understand." Metis looked amused, returning her attention to the documents she was holding. "I think I can say that we are honored to receive this recognition of our status with your people, and will endeavor to live up to expectations." She looked back to Emily, her smile growing. "Although I cannot guarantee that we will become in any way less confusing. We have our own standards to live up to, and, of course, a strong sense of humor."

"Which is largely unique to you," Emily sighed. "I'll take it. That's good enough for me considering all the other things that could happen. Please try to not destroy my city until either I retire or get reassigned."

"We will do what we can," Metis laughed. "None of us want to see anything broken either, we prefer making things and helping out. We just have a certain inherent chaotic bias we find it difficult to avoid. By and large we like Brockton Bay, we have no intention of breaking it." She paused, then added a little gleefully, " _Too_ badly, at any rate. Too much calm is boring."

" _Oh, god_ ," Emily mumbled under her breath. Metis produced a pen from a pocket on the body harness she was wearing, which almost disappeared against her scales, and signed the last page of the documents in an elegant hand, returning it to her. Checking it, Emily nodded, then put it into her briefcase. "Thank you. This is a Protectorate Associate handbook, it explains the relevant security codes, clearances, and other useful information for organizations with that status." She pushed this over the table, the lizard picking it up and leafing through it curiously.

"If you can email me suitable photographs as outlined in the book, I will have ID cards made up and delivered for any members of your group which can be used nationally to prove your legal status to law enforcement. Not that you're likely to be confused for anyone else, you're all somewhat… distinctive."

"Excellent. That would be be very helpful, I have no doubt," the big creature replied. "We can easily do that, we already have photos for most of us from our DWU membership documents."

"That would suffice, the requirements for both IDs are standard federal photo ID guidelines."

"I've got them on file, I'll send them over shortly," Danny interjected, both the others looking at him and nodding.

"While we have you here, Director, a matter has come up that your input on would be useful," Metis said after another glance at the man across the table.

Emily studied the reptilian cape, then the DWU man, both of whom looked somewhat concerned. "Go on," she invited, feeling worried herself.

"Information has been received from a number of trustworthy sources that Skidmark of the Merchants is currently on some form of trip, apparently in search of some way to ' _handle_ ' the problem we seem to present him," Metis sighed. She indicated Danny, who nodded. "Our information suggests that the DWU may well be included in this problem. We're not entirely surprised, we are after all going to end up removing most of his customers, but it's annoying to say the least."

"Where did you get this information from?" Emily asked thoughtfully, not disbelieving the comment but wanting to check the veracity of it.

"A friend in the BBPD, and some other contacts in New York and elsewhere," Danny replied after a moment. "I'm in the process of attempting to get more information, and confirmation of what we have already, but some of my people have also reported something similar, if not quite as specific. I'm pretty sure it's accurate. I can't go into any more detail on the sources, though, none of them would appreciate their identities being spread around. I trust them even so."

"I see," she nodded, curious but not pushing the point. It wasn't particularly surprising. She suspected that the Hebert man had a lot of different contacts in some interesting places, knowing what she did about him, which wasn't as much as she probably should. "Well, I'd say it fitted the profile we have of Skidmark. He's a cunning little shit, although I certainly wouldn't go so far as to call him intelligent. Kaiser and Lung have backed off to wait and see what happens, which is the smart thing to do. Skidmark is probably just frothing at the mouth and trying to figure out what to do to get things to go back to what he prefers."

"More or less what we think. The problem is what to do about it. The Family is of the opinion that waiting for him to start something puts a lot of people at risk, and would prefer to cut the bastard off at the knees with a preemptive strike. They raise a number of good points." She felt her stomach drop a little, glancing at Metis who shrugged slightly. "I can't say I like that option, but I have to agree at least in part. If he turns up with a whole squad of armed druggies and starts raising hell, god knows what could happen here. He wouldn't survive it, trust me, but a lot of other people might not either."

"Shit." She thought hard, trying to figure out what to suggest. Another glance at Metis told her that the lizard was quite prepared to do exactly what Danny had said, and having met Raptaur, she was damn certain that the others would as well. The results would be short and brutal, no doubt. "I would much prefer that neither scenario occur, if I'm honest. On the other hand, I can't stop you defending yourselves and your people. Or, rather, I could _try_ , but both ethically and practically I doubt it would work."

"Most likely not, Director," Metis agreed quietly. "We don't want to hurt anyone, believe me, but if it gets as far as the Merchants starting a war against us, we _will_ end it. Permanently."

"Understood." Emily considered the problem some more. "I take it that you're not planning on jumping the entire gang immediately?"

"No, not unless they begin an attack. We're gathering information, and I'm going to do some discreet surveillance later, to see what I can learn of their plans. We won't move until either there is no choice, or we can do it with minimum fuss."

"Would the PRT be able to handle an entire gang being arrested?" Danny asked curiously. "Between you and the BBPD, I mean. If they do have to go in, they'll sweep the entire lot up in one shot. I don't know exactly how many there are but it must be a hundred, maybe a hundred and fifty at least. Not including their capes. With Skidmark out of town, that's only Squealer and Mush as far as I know."

"It would be nearly unprecedented, but we could cope," she replied after a moment. "Although I worry about the effect such a move would have on local gang politics. That the Family has been largely sticking to street crime and otherwise minding their own business is quite possibly why the other gangs have been so quiet. If they think that you've changed policy and have become vigorously expansionist, there's a chance they'll react… badly."

"I admit that's something I'm somewhat concerned about too, Director," Metis responded. "However, we may well have no choice. If we can find enough proof that we were only dealing with an imminent attack before it happened, we can hopefully show that we're not going on a general rampage through the city. Which we have no intention of doing. I myself may not like either Kaiser or Lung, but I can respect their intelligence and as long as they stay out of our business, we'll stay out of theirs. Assuming that they don't rob a shop in front of Cousin Saurial, of course." She smiled a little grimly. "That tends to end badly for them."

"So the reports I've seen would show," Emily nodded, smirking a little. "Some of the video is… very unnerving."

Danny chuckled for a second. "I've seen quite a lot of them, they're both extremely funny and horrifying at the same time. You almost end up feeling sorry for some of the idiots."

After a little more thought, Emily turned back to Metis. "OK, thank you for letting me know. I will have my people look into the matter as well, we have a lot of sources which may turn up something useful. It's in everyone's best interests to prevent that fool from starting something he can't finish. Hopefully we can head this all off before it turns into a shooting war. I do _not_ want another gang war in this city, the chaos caused years back between the E88 and the March was more than enough for one lifetime."

"All right, Director. Thanks. I'll keep you informed if we find out anything helpful ourselves." Metis looked at Danny who nodded.

"Likewise."

Picking up her tea again, Emily took a sip. "On the matter of our underground friend, we've been cleaning out various surprises he left for us," she said with some satisfaction. "We will hopefully be ready to give him a surprise in return in the not too distant future."

"That would be… good," Metis said after a pause during which she looked abruptly rather more dangerous than normal. "My cousin has told me quite a lot about this person. I'm looking forward to meeting him and shaking hands." She held out a hand, finger and thumb half an inch apart, a crackling arc of electricity jumping the gap and making Emily twitch in shock.

"I'll let you know when you can do that," she replied, feeling that her old comrade was going to have a _very_ bad day when he finally met the Family.

In her opinion, it couldn't happen to a more deserving recipient. She hoped that they'd remember to take the cameras along, that was one video she was going to watch over and over.

"Oh, I've also retained a lawyer for Rachel Lindt," Danny said suddenly. "I was intending to talk to you about it at some point soon anyway, but as long as you're here, why not now?"

"Who did you hire, if I can ask?" she inquired curiously.

"Carol Dallon." He grinned at the way she fumbled the cup for a moment. "I thought you'd appreciate that."

"You just _live_ to make my life difficult, don't you?" she growled, looking at both of them. Metis seemed amused and Danny shrugged. "God, I thought Roy was a pain. OK, so you've got Carol Dallon working for you. I suppose that's good, she's more than competent."

"It's not like you actually _want_ to prosecute the case, is it?" Danny pointed out reasonably.

"True enough. I'd probably be more annoyed if I did, but from the initial investigations, I believe that the girl really was the victim of some rather underhanded activities and a certain amount of Parahuman hysteria," Emily admitted after a few seconds. "We're still investigating the full extent of how much was incompetence and how much was maliciousness, but there were more of both than I feel happy about regardless."

"So you don't think there's much likelihood of the young woman having any real case against her? At least from that particular source?"

"If we hadn't received the information we did from Tattletale, it's likely no one would have investigated, and in that case the evidence as presented would have been more than enough to prosecute Miss Lindt for murder. As it is, I think a good lawyer can probably get most of it thrown out immediately, and what's left reduced to something fairly minor. Possibly to a complete acquittal, but I can't promise anything. I'll have the rest of the information we currently have passed along to Mrs Dallon in the next couple of days, and keep her updated as we uncover more."

"Thank you." Danny looked pleased. "The girl has had a bad time of it, and I'd like to help her. She's made a surprising number of friends around here despite her slightly odd attitude."

"Probably fits right in," Emily sighed, "Odd seems to be a pretty common thing around these parts."

"I can't actually deny that," he chuckled.

Shaking her head, she finished the tea, then put the cup down and glanced at her watch. "If there's nothing else, I need to get back before the city implodes or something."

Walking over and holding her enormous hand out, Metis shook Emily's hand as the woman stood up. "It was a pleasure meeting you, Director."

"Likewise, I think," Emily replied. "Please pass on my regards to your family, and if possible refrain from killing all the Merchants. I wouldn't miss them personally but people would talk."

"We'll do what we can, but it sort of depends on them. I'll make sure you're kept informed about what we find out."

"Thank you." After a moment, Emily turned back just as she was about to head for the door. "One last thing. There's a new Parahuman on the street, she debuted last night. Calls herself ' _Cloak_.' Our reports are… peculiar, even for around here. Is she one of yours?"

Metis grinned widely. "Cloak is a good friend, but we don't claim ownership of her. Let's say she is currently an associate of ours in a somewhat similar manner to the way we are now associates of _yours_."

Emily fixed her with a hard stare, which had no visible result. Eventually, she nodded a little. "I see. Does she, perhaps, come from the same place you do?"

"I'm afraid I can't say any more on the subject, Director," Metis replied in a tone that made it clear she wasn't going to give up more information. "It would be betraying a trust. I hope you understand."

Thinking, she slowly nodded. Emily suspected she'd been given her answer anyway. "All right. I was just curious. We seem to have had a lot of unusual Parahumans in the last couple of months and one way or another they always seem to end up back here."

Metis just shrugged, still grinning.

"I'll walk you back, Director," Danny said, standing after finishing his coffee. "See you later, Metis."

"Later, Danny," the large lizard smiled, watching them leave.

Shortly Emily was back in the SUV heading back to the PRT building, mulling over what she'd learned, and hoping Skidmark just dropped dead of an overdose and made everyone's lives simpler. She didn't think anyone would actually miss him.

 _She_ certainly wouldn't.

At the same time, she was wondering just how many weird new relatives and friends of the Family were likely to arrive out of nowhere. _'No aliens, then too many aliens_ ,' she sighed internally. ' _Life is getting_ ** _very_** _strange these days_.'


	182. Infiltration and Welding

Sitting down, Mandy looked around the table at her friends. "So. Who or what is Cloak?" she asked with a grin. Everyone looked at Taylor, who stopped with her fork halfway to her mouth, glancing about.

"Why are you all looking at _me?_ " she asked mildly, resuming the motion.

"Cloak is a creepy little person with a weird voice who does strange things, according to PHO," Lucy explained, smiling a bit. "The consensus is that she has to be connected to the Family somehow. _Every_ weird thing these days is. The Family are at the DWU, your Dad runs the place, so..." She shrugged, as if it should be obvious.

"Why not look at Amy?" Taylor asked, stabbing another piece of chicken with her fork. "She knows the entire Family as well."

"Good point," Mandy said, all eyes turning to the healer, who now found herself the center of attention. "So?"

"Yes, we'd love to know more as well," Dennis said, appearing from nowhere next to Mandy, making her twitch and fumble her reach for her glass.

"Will you _please_ stop doing that?" she snapped. "Ring a bell or something."

The red-head grinned, in a very unapologetic way, then turned to regard Amy, who was looking amused. "So? Either of you have any juicy gossip about Brockton Bay's latest little peculiarity?"

"Can't help you, Dennis," Amy replied evenly, putting her knife and fork down. "And even if I knew anything you know I couldn't tell you. And wouldn't."

"Aww." The boy looked disappointed. "But I want to _know!_ "

"I'm sure you do," she snickered. "Tough."

"You are a cruel and brutal woman, Amy Dallon," he sighed, shaking his head sadly. "So bitter and twisted. You take pleasure from shooting down the ideals of others, mere innocents in your horrific game of..."

"Laying it on just a _little_ thick, Dennis," the girl said with a faint smile.

"Too much?" he asked with a sudden grin.

"Definitely."

"Damn. I'll have to think of another way to get it out of you."

"Not going to happen." They stared at each other, before he laughed for a moment. Amy started snickering as well.

"You are so annoying, sometimes, Ames, but we love you even so," Dennis chuckled. "Dad asked me to pass on his thanks. He's doing well, says he hasn't felt so good in… well, more or less forever."

"I'm very glad to hear that, Dennis," she replied, smiling warmly. "Please tell him I was happy to help and I wish him all the best."

"I'll do that." Glancing at his watch, he added, "Oops, have to run, I need to see a teacher about an essay."

"The one you didn't do?"

"That would be it," he grinned, then dashed off. Everyone watched him, then laughed.

"What a silly boy," Mandy giggled. "I like him, though."

"He means well, but he has poor impulse control sometimes," Amy told her. Mandy thought there was a certain knowing air present. "Some of the pranks he's played in the past were… not entirely thought through."

"I remember a couple myself," Eric put in, a smile on his face. "I'm surprised he's not still in detention for one of them. The vice principal was _very_ annoyed."

Lucy was looking at her phone, using the school wifi to connect to the internet. Leaning sideways, Mandy could see she was paging through PHO in the local news sub-forum. "Nothing new about Cloak?" she asked curiously. Her friend shook her head, still thumbing the screen.

"Nope. Lots of speculation, but no video or photos yet. Apparently two of the Wards and Assault ran into her late last night, and Kid Win has said she was, and this is a direct quote, ' _As creepy as a creepy thing that was really trying hard to be extra creepy_ ,' but all there is online is some chatter. I guess we'll have to wait for her to turn up again before we can find out more. I love the idea that she can make invisible staircases, though. That's really cool."

"As cool as a giant lizard that will let you ride her?" Rich asked, amused.

"No, not quite _that_ cool," Lucy grinned. "But then, nothing is. It's still impressive. And she can turn herself invisible as well."

"And you want to meet her to complete the set, don't you?" Eric asked knowingly. Lucy giggled and nodded.

"Of course. I need photos for my Family scrapbook."

Everyone looked at her, then each other. Mandy poked her in the ribs. "You might not have wanted to say that," she hissed. "Now they'll think you're weird."

Taylor started chuckling, which set them all off. "She's in good company, then," the tall girl snickered. "We're all a little strange in our own way."

"Speak for yourself, I'm entirely normal," Mandy replied, stuffing the remaining half-a-burger on her plate into her mouth and chewing madly. Her friends watched with amusement, Rich immediately starting a betting pool on whether this time she'd choke or not.

* * *

"Odd girl, that Mandy," Chris commented as his friends all watched the table twenty feet away, the young woman in question going a light blue color before she finally managed to swallow her meal. "Fits right in with that lot."

Vicky laughed, nodding a little. "I'd have to go along with that, but I like them. They're good for my sister as well." She leaned in, looking around suspiciously to check no one was listening. "So," she asked in a quiet voice. "Who or what do you think Cloak is? One of the Family in disguise? A new one? Or something even weirder?"

Chris peered around as well, not seeing anyone near enough to hear anything. Even so, he felt a little cautious about speaking about cape business in school. "My impression was that she wasn't… entirely… human," he admitted in a very quiet voice. "Or possibly at all."

"I'd go with not at all," Carlos suggested, looking a little discomfited. "It was very eerie, the way she climbed up stairs that definitely weren't there. I've never seen anything like it before. It wasn't flying at all in the normal sense of the word."

"You could swear she was standing on something real," Chris agreed. "It was so obvious you'd be certain something was there, but it wasn't." He looked around again for a moment. "We checked," he muttered almost inaudibly. "No sign of any stairs, or her either. Creeped me right out."

"So what are her powers?" Dean asked, quietly. "Stranger for sure, I guess, for the invisibility. Shaker as well, maybe? Affecting… I don't know, possibly making the air hard for a moment, or some sort of force field. Mover as well probably if she can run around on nothing as if it was a flat surface."

Chris nodded thoughtfully, glancing at Carlos who shrugged slightly. "Sounds about right. No one has any idea what was under that cloak. Assuming anything actually _was_. It was fucking weird, I could see right inside the hood at one point and I'd swear on a stack of bibles there was nothing in there. It was way too deep as well. A shit load of bullets _and_ the gun went in with no apparent effect. She was able to pull the gun back and do… something, god knows what, to it. But it was sickening to look at."

"It was horrible," Carlos added. "Just looking at it made me ill. Like that thing Ianthe gave Mr Hebert at the party the other day, only worse if anything. I still don't like thinking about it, I feel nauseous when I do."

"That sounds like Family abilities, for sure," Vicky murmured. "They have an odd effect on reality."

"They have an odd effect on _everything,"_ Dean pointed out.

All four teenagers nodded.

"I wonder what threat rating she'll get?" the empath continued.

"Based on what was seen last night… Shaker 6 or better, Mover 5 at least, Stranger… around 6 up? At an educated guess." Chris looked to Carlos for support, the other boy nodding.

"I'd put it maybe a little higher, but without any more info we don't really have much chance to be sure. She might have other abilities as well, the encounter was pretty short. And there's still no obvious information on exactly how she stopped those Merchants, or what she did to the first ones when she saved that woman from being mugged. A lot of people are going to be curious about her."

"Seems to be a lot of weird new capes around recently," Dean sighed. "But from what I've heard about Cloak, she's one of the weirdest."

"Oh, god, yes," Chris said with heartfelt worry. "Saurial and the others are normal by comparison. I'm not sure whether I want to know what's really inside that cloak or not."

"Something horrible from the depths of time and space, with tentacles out to here," Vicky suggested, spreading her arms then wiggling her fingers. "Ready to grab anyone who probes too deeply."

The others all stared at her, then looked at each other.

"Thanks a hell of a lot, Vicky," Carlos grumbled. "Now if I see her I won't be able to stop thinking about that little picture."

"Hey, Dennis isn't here, _someone_ had to say it," the blonde grinned. Looking at her watch, she added, "And still just enough time for dessert. Yay me." Jumping up she headed back to the food line, looking pleased. The other three teenagers watched her, then shared a look, before shivering a little and resuming eating, except for Carlos who seemed slightly unwell.

* * *

At their table, Amy and Taylor shared a look of mutual amusement, before going back to their own food, quickly finishing before the bell went. "I'll see you after school, Taylor," Amy said, getting up and piling her plate and other detritus on her tray, then picking it up. "And you guys. Vicky will meet us at your house, she said, she's got to see one of the teachers after school for a little while so she'll be a little late."

"OK. See you later," Taylor replied, watching as her friend left, then getting ready herself for the next class. "You guys are turning up about the same time as last time?"

"That's the plan," Mandy agreed happily. "Mom will give Lucy and me a lift."

Rich and Eric both nodded as well. "All right, that sounds good. I'm getting some more food to go with what I got yesterday, so no one will starve. We have plenty of DVDs to watch as well. Should be fun, I think." Smiling, Taylor got up as the first bell rang. "Now, let us go forth and learn more biology, as is wished by those above us in the school hierarchy."

"You really are a little odd sometimes," Mandy giggled, shaking her head. "The things you come out with..."

"English professor for a mother, and way too much time spent in books," Lucy suggested wisely. "Bound to rub off in some strange ways."

"True, I guess," her friend agreed, studying Taylor who was grinning. "Come on, we have five minutes to get to class."

The group quickly put their trays in the racks set aside for such things and headed out of the cafeteria, joining the throng of other students doing likewise.

* * *

Rising to the surface a couple of hundred yards from shore, directly opposite the building that both her power and her nose told her that the Merchants were occupying as a base for their activities, Lisa let just the top of her head and her eyes part the water. The wind was strong enough that the bay was fairly rough, the swell she was floating in going up and down in long rolling waves, flecks of spray coming from them as a few curled over and broke.

Against such a background, with the overcast sky, it was practically impossible to make out her form, the light-absorbing black of her scales making her very difficult to see even if someone had been looking specifically for her. Idly making a mental note to see if Amy could tweak the bioconstruct to allow the red highlights to be turned off, which would give her close to invisibility in low light conditions, Lisa watched and listened.

With a little effort, she could distinguish at least thirty or forty different voices coming from the large abandoned warehouses, and smell the scents of even more people. Several of them were moaning or gibbering, clearly in the throes of some drug or other, and a number of them were involved in a pretty loud argument. She could also hear what sounded like a number of machines running, her power suggesting that these were something to do with the production of narcotics.

After listening for ten minutes or so, and carefully checking for any external signs of activity, she submerged again and moved closer, very cautiously. Surfacing twice more, she finally ended up just under a partially collapsed small wharf sticking out from what had been the loading entrance of the building a good forty years earlier.

From here she could make out a lot more of the conversations, although the content of the bulk of them was irrelevant or inane or both. Quite a few people soliciting sex from each other, one group apparently planning some form of robbery while clearly too intoxicated to have any chance at all of pulling it off, someone else talking on a phone to a street-level dealer, and things of that nature.

She spent another forty minutes listening and filtering out the random crap, her power letting her narrow in on anything relevant. Lisa gathered quite a lot of insight into the activities of the Merchants, and ended up with a reasonably accurate estimate of their numbers, approximately a hundred and sixty-five people, only about half of whom were actually in the building. By the sound and scent of it, they had a drug manufacturing lab in one end of the building that was producing crystal meth in copious quantities, and another one at the other end that was pumping out MDMA by the bucket-load.

' _I could probably reduce the amount of drugs on the street in the city by about eighty percent if I burned this damn place down_ ,' she thought, half-tempted. It would certainly remove most of the backup Skidmark had as well, but it was a somewhat drastic move. Deciding that her brief thought wasn't really the right thing just now, she carefully and slowly moved down to the other end of the building, only barely above the water, trying to find someone talking about something useful.

Catching a scent of machine oil and hot metal, she stopped, then back-tracked. ' _I bet anything that's Squealer's workshop,_ ' she thought, listening to the clinking of tools and a woman swearing to herself in an angry mutter. ' _She sounds pissed. Wonder why? Or is she just naturally bad tempered?_ '

Lisa didn't know very much about the villainous Tinker, aside from her specialty being transportation, which mainly manifested in outrageously ugly although surprisingly effective vehicles. The woman also seemed to be oddly good at stealthing them. Leet had mentioned he'd salvaged one of her invisibility systems and modified it for his audio inducer widget, probably improving it considerably in the process.

Listening some more, she got the definite impression that the woman was ferociously annoyed about something. Curious, she looked around, then sank under the surface again and poked about for a while.

' _Aha. I thought so_.' Near the base of the sea wall, there was a very rusty wrought iron grating half-buried in the mud, covering the end of an old pipe some six feet in diameter. It was part of the storm drain network she still had nightmares about from their near-disastrous run-in with Lung weeks ago. Having practically memorized the plans she'd dug up for that operation, she'd been fairly certain there was one of the drains close by. A lot of the older buildings had them underneath and had routed their own drainage systems into them, everything being flushed straight into the bay.

In this case, she could tell from the scent that the pipe connected to the workshop, among other places, as there were traces of fresh fuel and oil coming out in the water that was sluggishly flowing from the grating. Prodding it in a few places and letting her power tell her where the weakest points were, she settled to the bottom and grabbed it with both hands, bracing her legs and tail against the stone sea wall.

Very slowly and gently applying increasing amounts of force, she smiled in satisfaction when there was a sudden snapping sound and one side of the grating broke loose, the ancient mortar failing under the bending metal. It was a matter of only a few more seconds to tear the entire thing out of the stonework, then yank it out of the silt and put it down out of the way.

Waiting for a few minutes, listening carefully, she then went back up to the surface and checked again, finding no signs that anyone had noticed her work. Satisfied, she sank back and entered the pipe, which was large enough not to present too much difficulty even though the bottom third was full of mud.

Swimming slowly along and keeping a wary eye out for any traps or alarms, she followed the pipe for eighty yards or so in a gentle slope upwards, finally breaking the water into complete darkness when it went above sea level. Pausing with just her head out of the water she listened, sniffing for any information her nose could give her.

When her power was happy that she was unobserved, she lit a couple of bioluminescent patches and looked around, seeing only a dank and muddy storm drain with a sheen of oil running down the middle in a thin rivulet. Twenty yards further, the pipe split two ways, one running directly into the rest of the docks and smelling of decaying sea life, the other one going right and having a distinct odor of machinery.

Lisa made her way down that branch, ducking down quite a long way as the ceiling was a little close considering how tall her ' _Metis_ ' body was. Luckily due to the inhuman formation of it, she could go almost to all fours with ease, passing along the passage without any trouble.

When she reached the point that the oil was coming from, she looked up to see a metal cover with a few rust holes in it, at the top of a short shaft. By the looks of it, the thing was a plate that had been dropped over the original access to the drain tunnels, probably some decades ago. There were traces of a similar iron grating sticking out of the walls just under the metal cover, which itself was very rusty and corroded. The salt air hadn't helped at all.

The shaft was just large enough in diameter that she could make her way up it, clinging to the rough rock walls with her claws. When she reached the top she stopped moving and listened intently again. What she heard was very interesting, the conclusions her power was giving her even more so.

This had some fascinating ramifications...

* * *

"Fuck. Fuck _fuck_ cunt **_fuck_** ," Sherrel grumbled, slamming tools down onto her workbench. "Stupid fucking Family. Stupid fucking Skids. Stupid _fucking_ **_ME!_** " She picked up a wrench and threw it across the large workshop, hearing it hit something and clatter to the ground, but not looking. Her hands trembling from both emotion and the aftereffects of her latest hit, she leaned on the bench and breathed heavily for a few seconds, trying to calm down enough to get back to work.

"Fucking idiot, I'm _such_ a fucking idiot," she muttered, reaching for the glass pipe and a lighter. A couple of puffs reduced the trembling a little, but didn't make her any less emotional. "Why'd I think he'd ever give this up? Man can't bear to be told he's fucking wrong." She took another puff, then exhaled harshly. "Like some super weapon is just going to fall into his fucking hands. Don't know what he thinks he can do against something half the fucking size of the fucking Medhall building. Shoot fucking Kaiju, she'll just step on him. And me. And everyone else."

Rubbing her forehead clear of sweat and grease, she turned back to the latest project, a wildly overbuilt thing that had started life as several different construction vehicles and was heading towards being something amazing. Even so, she was pretty sure it wouldn't be enough. Not against _that_ thing.

Not that she really wanted to find out. In her more lucid moments, she realized that the man she'd hooked up with years ago had turned into a total caricature of himself, the drugs and the ego eating away at what had been a caring and intelligent man in his own way, once. She also realized that she herself was a sad mockery of the woman she'd been, not that _she_ had really been anything to write home about. The Tinkering was the only thing that made her stand out at all.

Grumbling under her breath, she resumed work on the traction transfer system, lighting up an acetylene torch with a pop, then adjusting the flame to the right color. She kept muttering even as she was welding the next piece of chassis in place, not bothering to make it neat, only strong.

"Isn't it fucking done yet?" a voice said from behind her. Stiffening in anger, she didn't look, but kept welding.

"No. Fuck off and let me work, you ugly bastard," she snarled, adjusting her welding goggles with one hand. Sparks flew amid a steady hissing sound as she fed filler rod into the weld puddle.

"Skidmark wants to know," the voice pressed. "He's coming back soon, he said. He wants this ready to use when he gets here."

"I said fuck off. Both of you. It'll be done when it's done. Stop bothering me."

Footsteps preceded a hand grabbing her by the shoulder and pulling her around. She swore and knocked the hand away with her free arm. "We need this finished, bitch," the man standing there said, glaring at her from bloodshot eyes. "Fucking hurry up."

"Touch me again and I'll fuck you right the hell up, Lee. No one touches me."

Lee wiggled his eyebrows at her lasciviously, looking her up and down. "Skidmark does. Clothes like that, you should be used to it."

Sherrel counted to ten under her breath, then brought the welding torch up, thumbing the gas valve. The flame lengthened and hissed loudly, the radiated heat making Lee step back. "I will burn your goddam face off if you don't leave me alone," she snapped viciously. "Go back to your fuckbuddies and your weed. I'm busy."

"Just tell me when it's going to be done," the man insisted, watching the flame a little nervously. "Skids is getting antsy about it."

"Do I _look_ like I give a shit?" Sherrel asked, turning back to the vehicle she was building. "After what he did, the only reason I'm doing this is because I don't have anyplace else to go."

"You were begging for it, you slut," Lee commented. Picking up a crowbar that was next to the gas bottles she turned in one smooth motion and slammed it into his ribs.

"Say that again and I'll use you for target practice," she replied casually, as he collapsed to the floor, gasping for breath. "Don't forget who you're fucking talking to."

"A mouthy bitch with big tits and a stupid voice who's going to get fucked when Skidmark comes back," he muttered, sounding pained. "Again. And you'll like it."

Hearing the torch stop, he looked up, then paled at the expression on her face. "Excuse me, you little cunt?" she asked sweetly. "What did you say?"

Scrabbling backwards on all fours as she hefted the crowbar, he rolled to his feet and ran for it, the heavy tool slamming into the wall beside his head as he made it out the door. "Just get it done you bimbo!" he yelled back as he ran.

She threw a couple more tools after him, and a box of bolts, before stomping back to the workbench and sitting on the ratty old chair there, the trembling now so bad she could barely stand up.

Grabbing her pipe and a new rock of meth, she was shortly sucking down the vapor while fuming nearly as much as the pipe bowl was. "Little fucker. I do most of the real work around here while those shits just make the stuff and complain. But does anyone care? No, of fucking course not. ' _Squealer, make me a tank_ ,' he says, or ' _Cunt, build me a bitching boat, or a submarine, or something._ ' No thanks, just make this and build that, but he won't get me any proper materials, only this crap." She paused in her angry monologue to pick up an old engine management unit, give it an evil glare, then throw it across the room to join the tools.

"Then he gets a rat up his ass about the fucking Family and the damn Dockworker's Union and wants to attack them. ' _Oh, baby, they're taking my territory_ ' the asshole says. ' _We can wipe them out and we'll be the tops dogs around here_.' Yeah, like _that's_ going to happen. God himself would be worried about Kaiju glaring at him and Skids thinks he can _shoot_ her or something?" She took another hit from the pipe, her head spinning as a result. Dimly she recognized she was overdoing it but she was too fucking _pissed_ to really care. "I loved that bastard once. Don't know that I still do. Not after what he did."

"Why stay with him, then?" a quiet voice asked from somewhere close.

"What else can I do?" she said in a weird mix of despair, fury, and drug-fueled disorientation. She didn't recognize the voice, she wasn't even sure it was real, but it had a point. "Look at me. I'm twenty-five, I dropped out of college, I'm so high I'm imagining someone talking to me, and the man I though I loved once nearly fucking killed me when I told him he was talking himself and the rest of us into an early grave. But I'm so fucked up I couldn't do anything else. It wasn't supposed to be like this, we were just going to make some coin and have some fun." Taking a last hit, she coughed violently, then in a surge of disgust at herself, tossed the pipe away, hearing it shatter somewhere.

"It's not fair. I just want to build bitching cars and drive them, not go off to fight a fucking sea monster because someone I used to care about is too fucking stupid to see he can't possibly win." She looked after the pipe, then down at the small bag of rocks on the workbench. "And now I have to find another pipe."

"Is that a good idea? You're right on the edge of an overdose. You could die."

Sherrel emitted a harsh laugh. "I'm going to soon enough, anyway. If the meth doesn't kill me, fucking Kaiju will. Or Skids, when he comes back all fucked up and angry about something. He's always angry about something these days. Might as well go out high."

"You could always leave. Get clean, go and find somewhere else to live. Maybe talk to the Protectorate or the PRT. You haven't killed anyone that I know of, they'd probably take you."

"Yeah, right. Sure they would. A junkie Tinker is right at the top of their list of people they're looking for," she retorted scornfully, leaning back on the bench and closing her eyes, her head spinning. "Fuck, really overdid it this time," she mumbled. "I'm seeing three of everything."

"I can hear your heartbeat from here, it's way too fast. You seriously need to stop with the drugs."

"I can hear my heartbeat from _here,_ too," the woman said, shaking her head violently, then regretting it instantly. The spinning got worse, her heart going like crazy and thumping in her ears. "Fuck. _Way_ too much."

She tried to stand up, only managing to slide to the ground as her legs gave out under her. Now genuinely worried that she'd finally managed to kill herself, she whimpered a little, grabbing for the chair, but only succeeded in pulling it over on herself. "Ow. Fuck it," she said faintly as the thing landed on her. Barely managing to push it off she rolled onto her back and waited for the room to stop moving like the entire building was at sea.

"Are we having an earthquake?" she asked the voice, still unsure if she was talking to someone real, or a hallucination. Or her own mind finally snapping from stress.

"No. You're suffering from a methamphetamine overdose. And too much alcohol, I think."

"I could do with a drink," Sherrel said deliriously. A moment later she vomited, coughing most of the last meal she'd had all over herself then spitting weakly a few times.

"No, trust me, you couldn't. That would kill you for sure."

"I'm dying, right?"

"Well, you're definitely not in good condition right now." The voice was still quiet, but sounded somewhat regretful. "You _might_ survive. This time."

"Are you real?"

"Some people think so. Some people wish I wasn't," the voice said, with a note of humor present.

"Huh. Now, did I imagine that too, or is all this actually happening?"

"It's happening." The voice was silent for a few seconds. "I can help you if you want."

"Help me?" She thought as hard as she could with her brain doing backflips in her skull.

She knew it was, she could hear it, over the sound of her heart, which was now thumping erratically. Her chest hurt too and she was pouring sweat.

"Why would you help me?"

"Call it the right thing to do. I don't particularly want to see someone kill herself right in front of me, especially accidentally."

Trying to work out whether any of this was actually happening made the pain in her head worse. Feeling trapped and beginning to panic, she looked wildly around, then let her head drop to the floor again. "Why not?" she asked herself. "What's the worst that can happen?"

The sound of metal scraping lightly on concrete came to her ears, the sound echoing around the large room. Out of the corner of her eye she spotted something huge and shadowy moving. The voice laughed a little. "Bad question, you never want to know the answer," it said. "Sorry about this. You'll feel better when you wake up. Trust me."

About to ask a question, Sherrel heard a low pop sound and felt a sting in her neck. She twitched, then the world went away.

* * *

Lisa looked down at the sleeping woman as her healing tendrils retracted. She'd had to dart her again because the healing process had flushed the drug from her body, at the same time she'd fixed the immediate problems with an overdose, then all the other damage caused by years of narcotic and alcohol abuse. Her power was telling her that she'd also reversed the chemical dependency as well, which she'd expected to happen. Whether it would have any effect on the psychological addiction she didn't know for sure, but it would probably help.

Listening carefully, she tested the air, picking up the scents of the other inhabitants of the old building, but none of them being close enough to worry about for the moment. Going over to the door she checked the corridor outside, then closed it very quietly and wedged it shut with the crowbar that was lying nearby. That would prevent any of Squealer's little friends finding her for the moment while she recovered.

While she still wasn't certain where Skidmark was or what he was doing, except for shopping for some sort of weapon as they'd expected, and possibly backup, it seemed clear that he was intending on trying something fairly soon. She thought probably within a couple of weeks at the outside. Poking around the weird amalgamation of machinery in the middle of the big room she shook her head. It was one of the ugliest things she'd ever seen, but in a very weird way, also close to a work of art. None of the vehicles that had been cannibalized to form the new one were intended to do what they were now doing, but somehow the Tinker had made all the various parts work together.

There were some interesting aspects to the electronics, something that her power told her was a version of the invisibility cloak that Leet had talked about, a power source she wasn't sure about, but was definitely functional, and mounting points all over it for what would undoubtedly be weapons. All in all, a fairly terrifying urban tank, made from scrap.

' _She knows her stuff_ ,' she thought with reluctant admiration. ' _Pity she's hooked up with these fuckwits._ ' Turning to look at the comatose woman on the floor, she studied her closely. Her clothes sense was appalling, her mouth was even more prone to obscenities than half the dock workers, and her drug habit had come very close to killing her. But on the other hand, she was clearly not entirely stupid, as she had worked out something that apparently her boyfriend was incapable of, that his crusade against the Family was going to end in tears.

And a lot of screaming, probably.

' _We'll see what happens, I guess_ ,' Lisa thought. ' _Hopefully I haven't made a horrible mistake. Oh, well, if so I can always come back and fix it_.' Turning to the drain cover she'd lifted off the shaft in the floor, she paused, then turned back. Digging in her harness she found a notebook and a pen, quickly jotting down a couple of lines, then tearing the page out and folding it in half. She tucked it into the unconscious Squealer's hand.

Soon she was clinging to the wall of the shaft in the floor, lifting the ton-plus corroded steel plate back into position, carefully aligning it with the rust marks on the concrete. Lowering it until the edge was only a few inches off the floor, she took aim and shot the woman on the floor in the neck with another dart, this one loaded with the counter-agent for the sedative. Quietly lowering the cover the remaining distance, she dropped into the mud at the bottom of the tunnel, then headed back the way she'd come, carefully erasing her footprints with her tail as she went.

Someone would be able to tell _something_ had come through, but hopefully not exactly what.

When she exited the storm drain into the bay, she replaced the grating, shoveled silt around it to hold it in place, rose to the surface for one last quick check, then began swimming home again, thinking over the things she'd learned.

* * *

Blinking a few times, Sherrel stared at the ceiling with a confused expression. What the hell was she doing lying on the floor?

Sitting up, she looked around, then down at herself. She wrinkled her nose. There was horrible stuff all over her and it stank worse than Skids did after a week-long bender. Oddly enough, except for a ghastly taste in her mouth, she felt fine.

Better than fine, she thought after a moment. Really good. Much better than she could recall for… years, probably.

And she was absolutely fucking _starving_.

Rolling to her feet, she looked around again. There was no sign of anyone else present, but she could distinctly remember something about a conversation with a shadow, one that had offered to help her. Was that real, or the meth?

Wandering around she couldn't find any obvious signs of someone else being there. Aside from the huge sliding doors that the vehicles went in and out, which were firmly locked, and the door into the rest of the building, there was no way in or out. The room didn't even have windows. Going over to the interior door she stared at the crowbar which had been firmly shoved into the jamb, with enough force to embed it into the heavy wooden frame about three inches. No way anyone did that from the other side. And there was no way to open _or_ close the door with it where it was.

Shaking her head a little, she tried to work out what the hell had happened. Had she really talked to someone… or possibly, some _thing_ …? that wasn't here any more, having apparently walked through the wall?

"It looked like a shadow, maybe it really _was_ ," she mumbled, putting her hands on her hips and turning around on the spot, hoping to see something to explain the last twenty minutes. Feeling an itch in her neck, she reached up and removed a tiny gray-black dart-like thing about an inch long, staring at it in puzzlement. "What the hell is _this?_ "

It was only at that point that she realized there was a small piece of paper stuck to her rather sweaty hand. Putting the dart down on top of an oil drum next to her, she peeled the paper off her palm with her other hand and inspected it. The paper seemed to be a perfectly ordinary page torn out of a small notebook, folded in half and now pretty damp. Opening it carefully, she looked at the writing on it in total confusion.

' _If you want to talk, call me. I might be able to help. There's almost always a way out if you really want one_.' This was followed by a phone number. There was no name given.

"What… the… fuck?" she finally said out loud, totally confused. Another glance at the tiny thing she'd pulled out of her neck left her none the wiser, except to suggest that someone had stuck her with it for some reason.

After a long pause, she carefully folded the paper again and put it in her pocket, then went to find a hammer to knock the crowbar out with. She need to get something to eat, then try to work out what had happened.

Not to mention figure out why, for the first time in several years, she had no desire at all for any drugs.

"And fuck _me_ I need a shower," she grumbled, trying not to smell herself. Picking up her favorite sledgehammer she headed back towards the door, thinking hard.


	183. Supermarket and Theft

Pushing the shopping cart down the aisle, Taylor watched Amy pick a box of cookies off the shelf. "These ones?"

"Yep. Get two boxes."

"OK." They went into the cart on top of the other shopping.

"We need some cheese and jalapenos for nachos as well," Taylor said, turning around and heading towards the dairy section. "Then I think we're done, unless you can think of anything else."

Amy looked over the items in the cart, shaking her head after a moment. "No, combined with all the stuff you got yesterday we have enough to feed dozens of people. If we eat all this we'll lie around groaning all night rather than doing any work."

"Don't forget, Mandy's coming," Taylor grinned. "She could probably put all this in her mouth in one go."

Both of them snickered, the way their friend tended to show off at lunch was legendary at school. "She'll make her future boyfriend very happy," Amy remarked with an evil grin.

Taylor stared at her, then nearly fell over laughing. "How very rude, miss Dallon," she said when she recovered. Wiggling her eyebrows suggestively, the other girl smirked.

"Been hanging around on the internet too long, I think," she replied. "Or with Dennis. Or both."

"Let's get on with it, we need to be back before anyone else turns up." They quickly retrieved the last items required and headed towards the tills.

"Hello, Taylor," a familiar voice said as they were walking, making her stop dead, then turn around.

"Mr Barnes," she replied rather coldly, making him wince a little. "How… unexpected to see you here."

"Even lawyers shop for food, Taylor," he said, seeming uncomfortable, and lifting the basket he had in one hand as illustration. "How are you? You look well."

"Thank you." Taylor studied him for a moment. He appeared tired and somewhat depressed. "How are you?"

"I've been better," he admitted. "Life has been… somewhat difficult… in the last couple of months. But we're slowly improving."

He glanced at Amy, then back to Taylor. "I didn't know you knew the Dallons," he added. "Hello, Amy."

"Mr Barnes." Amy nodded politely to him. "I haven't seen you in nearly a year."

"I remember, it was the last office party when you and Vicky came with your mom. Are you well? I've seen you on the internet quite a lot in the company of some very unusual people."

Amy smiled a little. "I'm doing very well, actually, Mr Barnes. Since I met Taylor at school when she transferred, life seems to have improved a lot in all sorts of ways."

"Good to hear."

"Amy and Vicky are both good friends," Taylor put in. "People I'm glad to have met. I think I can trust them without fear of betrayal." She watched as he winced. "Something a little rare in my life in recent years."

"God, you really do remind me of your mother," he sighed. "Same way with words." After a moment, he went on, "Emma is… slowly improving. She's going to sessions with the psychiatrist three times a week. In the last couple of weeks she's finally appeared to realize what she did and has been very depressed. I don't suppose you'd…?"

Shaking her head with a firm but unemotional expression and no real internal sense of loss any more, Taylor replied, "No. I have no intention of reopening old wounds. Like I told you, I accept, I don't forget or forgive. That part of my life is over." She saw him sag a little. "I'm sorry, but I really don't think it would be good for either one of us. The friend I knew went away a long time ago and I can't see her ever coming back. But I don't have any particular desire to see any of you hurt. I just don't want to think about it any more. I'm happy now and I want to stay that way."

"I understand," he said in a low voice. "And once again, I'm sorry. If I'd realized what was happening sooner..."

"I don't blame you, Mr Barnes," she assured him. "I know you didn't know, and it's not your fault, Emma did what she did quite deliberately for whatever reason she had all by herself. But… while I can accept it, I don't _like_ it, and it forever tainted my memories of her." She paused, then somewhat reluctantly added at the urging of the Varga, "I hope she gets better. One day, perhaps, she can make some new friends the same as I did, and with luck, be happy as well."

"I suppose that's all I can hope for," he nodded. After a moment, he asked, "Have you had any contact with the other two girls?"

"Sophia is gone, I haven't seen her since then," Taylor replied. "I can't say I miss her. I bumped into Madison a few weeks ago, we had words, and she left. That was the last time I saw her." She shrugged. "We don't move in the same circles these days, luckily."

The man sighed a little once more. "All for the best, I think. Well, I must get on, I still have work to do. It was nice seeing you." Turning away, he paused, then looked back. "Please tell Danny I'd like to talk again at some point. I didn't feel right calling, considering… everything."

"I'll let Dad know," she said. "Goodbye, Mr Barnes."

"Goodbye, Taylor. Amy." He nearly smiled, then headed deeper into the shop.

Both girls looked at each other, then resumed their path. "That was awkward," Amy commented quietly.

"It wasn't entirely ideal, definitely," Taylor replied.

"Are you ever going to talk to Emma again?"

"Not if I can help it," she sighed. "I can live with what happened, thanks to you and other friends. Madison was easy to deal with. Sophia… If she stays out of my life I have no real issues any more. But Emma? She was so close to me for so long, then she did what she did… It was worse than anything I could have imagined. Seeing her might bring that back despite my best efforts and I don't want to lose my temper. I try really hard not to these days."

"You succeed better than I can believe," Amy said softly, putting her hand on her friend's shoulder and giving it a gentle squeeze. "If someone had done something like _that_ to me, I don't think I could have let it go."

"I had a lot of help from someone who gives very good advice and takes the long view," Taylor replied with a small smile. "He helped all of us and I owe him everything."

" _No, you don't, Brain,_ " the Varga rumbled inside her head, sounding touched. " _We are a team, and always will be._ "

Pleased that she had real friends, and content with her place in life these days, Taylor smiled at her friends both internal and external and kept pushing the cart.

Math, snacks, and movies awaited them. Three things she thoroughly enjoyed

* * *

"You have an odd expression," Danny said as he studied Lisa's face. "The usual _'I know something you don't'_ look isn't there. Stop it, you're freaking me out."

He grinned when she laughed for a moment, the thoughtful look turning humorous. "Sorry, I was just thinking about someone I met earlier."

Inspecting her closely, he pushed the pile of paperwork on his desk to one side and put his elbows on it. "What did you do, Lisa?" he asked slowly.

"Do?" she said with a slightly guilty look.

"Do. You did something and you're not sure if it was the right thing or not. Who was it and what was it?"

She stared at him for a couple of seconds, then got up from her chair and went to the door, opening it a crack and looking out, then closing it again. After peering around the room carefully she resumed her seat. "How do you do that?" she asked curiously. "I know how _I_ can work out things, but you keep managing to pull off something weirdly close with people. I'm beginning to think you have powers too."

Danny chuckled, shaking his head. "No, I don't. But I _do_ have nearly twenty years practice in reading people, in all sorts of conditions. You either get good at it or end up losing out." He shrugged slightly. "I'm very good at it. And I have a pretty solid lock on your tells. They're tiny, but they're there."

Lisa looked amused. "You must be very good at poker."

"You'd think so, but I'm actually terrible at it. Anyway, stop changing the subject. Talk."

"Damn. You saw right through me," she said. "OK. Um." The girl seemed to consider her words. "I… may have talked to one of the Merchants. One of the capes."

"Which one?" he asked after staring at her for a second. "Skidmark is away. Mush might be around, I suppose, but from everything I've heard about him he's a follower and not a leader, and not that bright either. They don't have any other Parahumans that I know about right now..." He raised his eyebrows. "So, that means Squealer."

"Yes. Not bad."

"And?"

"I sort of saved her life."

He looked at her as she fell silent, then shook his head, wryly smiling. "I thought you were arranging to learn more about them. How did that turn into saving Squealer's life?"

"You're not surprised that I _did_ , just that I had the chance," she stated after watching him for a couple of seconds.

"Because you're a good person. Saving someone is exactly what I'd expect if you had the chance. I'm merely wondering how you ended up in that position, that's all."

The blonde smiled a little sadly. "My personal history involves losing someone close to me," she said quietly. "I'm a little sensitive to situations where someone might end up killing themselves." She paused, swallowed, then started telling him an interesting story, very quietly. Metis wasn't referred to by name even though neither of them thought anyone could overhear.

When she finished, she just looked at him while he thought for a while. Eventually, he smiled at her.

"I think you did the right thing. I also have an idea why you felt you had to. Whether it will bear fruit I have no idea, all we can do is wait and see. The information you got is useful aside from that, as well. We have a good idea of how many people Skidmark could bring to bear, and a rough idea of when."

"Best I can figure it's probably between one and two weeks," she agreed. "I think less than a week is unlikely. But it's not impossible that things will change. We need to be ready for anything as soon as possible."

Danny sighed. "Yes, I think you're right. Damn it. I really don't want to end up in a fight, especially one as pointless as this. But we can't take the chance." Looking around in his pile of papers, he removed a few sheets. "This is what we've been offered by Mark's contacts. What do you think? I'm not keen on anything too lethal."

"We may not have a choice," she replied as she accepted the paperwork, reading it with interest. "Even though I agree. Hmm. Paintballs with attitude, that's cool. I bet that would slow someone down pretty damn quick."

"Capsaicin does that," he noted. "Especially in the eyes. It's fucking painful."

"That sounds like the voice of experience."

"Let's say that in the riots I got a little too close to some police-grade pepper spray and leave it at that," he smiled. "Not something I'd care to repeat. Even on the skin it hurts, in the eyes it's amazingly painful. The civilian stuff is nothing by comparison."

"I'd prefer not to find out directly," the blonde said with a frown of worry. "I'd suggest some of those and the guns to match, then. They wouldn't require any paperwork, since they're not firearms. I'd think that the Family can probably use them as a pattern and make as many as we need, so I wouldn't buy too many, maybe a couple of dozen with ammo. That would keep us going until Saurial could reproduce them."

"Knowing her, we'll end up with ones that can fire a paintball into orbit or something," Danny grinned. "Which might be overkill."

She giggled, nodding. "True. I'll ask that they end up slightly less lethal. Actually… that gives me a very interesting idea." Lisa looked thoughtful, staring off into space, her expression slowly taking on a very evil smile. "Oh, _yes_ , I can see some possibilities there. I need to talk to Ianthe and Saurial."

"Now I'm getting worried. You have that look again."

"What look?"

" _That_ look. The one that says that someone is about to have a bad day."

"Only if they're stupid enough to try something. But if they _are..._ " She shrugged with an amused and dark little smirk. "They'll regret it."

Regarding her for a moment, he ended up smiling in a similar manner. "I'd rather it not happen, but if it does I want to be on the winning side, so I can't in all honesty say I disapprove too much. Just try not to come up with something too dangerous between you. I know what you're like if you all work together on a project. It gets a bit… odd."

Snickering, she went back to the documents. Eventually they'd made a shopping list, which he scanned over carefully, before nodding in satisfaction. "Great. I'll get Mark on the case. I'm still waiting on more information from various people I've contacted, same with him. I guess we get on with life and see what happens."

"It might be worth thinking about some reinforcements to the fence," Lisa pointed out. "Maybe an inner, removable set of barriers made of EDM? Nothing would go through _that_. Although it wouldn't stop them lobbing stuff over the top, unless we make a dome over the entire site."

"Which would make working on the ships a bit difficult. Not to mention being very obvious." Danny thought it over. "OK, I could see some added physical security as being useful. The only problem with EDM is that no one but the Family can make it or work it, so we can't really have a permanently fixed fence in the stuff. I can get the engineering department to think about the best design for a portable one, though. I seem to recall something I read online a few years ago about some sort of high security fencing system that was modular and quick to set up. That might be a good place to start."

"Sounds good," she agreed with a nod. "I'll keep working on the problem as well. With any luck, we might be able to avoid it, but best to be prepared."

"All too true." They exchanged an annoyed look, then moved onto more productive and less worrying work.

* * *

Missy walked around the corner a couple of blocks from her house, ducking into a space she knew from past experience was very private, between two garages. There was a massive tangle of bushes and vines that grew there on the unclaimed land, neither owner wanting to do anything about it. Even in February with no leaves on the plants it was almost impossible to see through it, or pass through it for that matter.

She knew the trick, though, and was still, annoyingly, short enough and slight enough to wriggle through the first section. Once she gained access to the middle of the clump of vegetation it thinned out remarkably due to the lack of light inside, most of the plants having died off and leaving a space some twenty feet long, ten wide, and about six high, under a mass of thin branches. In the summer it was cool and dark when the plants were fully flourishing and she'd spent quite a lot of time here dodging yet another shouting match between her parents.

After getting in so late the night before she'd been worried that she wouldn't be allowed out again today, but her father had ended up telling her she could go out if she wanted, as long as she stayed out of trouble. He was in the middle of being all passive-aggressive to her mother, who was in turn stomping around cleaning the house in a ferociously pointed manner. Missy was under strict instructions not to stay out past half past nine without calling them, and a very good reason besides, but that still gave her just over five hours to experiment.

All in all she was glad to be out from between the two adults. It mystified her why they stayed together under the circumstances, as they seriously didn't get along most of the time. She loved them both but she also wished they'd just grow up. Or agree to separate and stop torturing each other. Or work it out and get over whatever it was that made them shout so often.

Or something, _anything_ , that would stop the arguing.

Sighing a little at the way marriages seemed to fall apart without any obvious reason, while deciding that when she was old enough to marry she was going to make damn sure that whoever was lucky enough to get her knew how to treat someone, she looked around, carefully probing with her power to see if anyone was in the area. It had been quite a while since she'd hit on the idea of using it as a sort of life detector, which it did quite well with a little care. The process was somewhat tedious but a quick scan was enough to show that the nearest human was probably about a hundred feet away inside one of the houses.

Setting up an invisibility shield around her at a distance of about six feet in the form of a simple cylinder, much like she'd done the first time in the BBFO office, she locked it down then pulled her cloak out of her storage bracelet, foregoing the Vista costume entirely. Just in case, she put on a simple mask that covered her face from the forehead to mouth, with a couple of eye-holes in it. The thing was one of the standard PRT ones that new Parahumans were handed if they came in to register and didn't have a disguise yet. She'd acquired one a while ago as a backup, believing in being prepared.

It was unlikely that anyone would be able to work her identity out, considering her new tricks, but why take chances when the solution was so simple? Accidents happened, after all.

Checking herself over, she made sure the hood was properly in place, then turned on the special effects and activated her ' _Cloak_ ' voice. **_"Now for some... amusement,"_** she rasped quietly, grinning in the privacy of her alternate identity. Wrapping herself in invisibility she dismissed the first light-warp, then made the bushes move out of the way, heading away from the street. When she was clear, she started climbing her staircase, quickly ascending to a couple of hundred feet, before half-running, half-skating across thin air towards the center of the city.

 ** _"Beware, criminals, Cloak is on patrol,"_** the girl whispered, suppressing a giggle. **_"Your misdeeds will be your ruin."_**

After a few hundred yards, she looked down.

 ** _"Oooh, a donut shop. I want a donut."_**

Misdeeds could wait until after the sugary goodness…

* * *

Flying towards Taylor's part of town, Vicky was humming to herself, enjoying the afternoon. She'd cleared up the small misunderstanding with her teacher about when and how she was supposed to hand in set assignments and was now looking forward to spending some time with her new friends. The math wasn't in itself something she'd go out of her way to learn for fun, but Taylor had an entertaining and effective way to teach it, making it much easier than she'd ever experienced before. The girl clearly was brilliant at the subject, undoubtedly knowing more about it than the teachers at school. She wondered if her friend would become a teacher herself as a career, she was very good at it.

Modest about it, too, she'd happily help anyone who asked, but didn't push her abilities in your face. Vicky was aware in her more self-reflective moods that she was somewhat excessive in that respect, although in the last few weeks she'd tried to tone it down. Naturally extroverted, she enjoyed attention, but it had abruptly come to her that this wasn't necessarily the right approach all the time. Something that Dean had tried to tell her on numerous occasions, many of their fights having been related to the subject in one way or another.

Since she'd embarked on a deliberate policy of self-improvement, a large part of which was keeping her aura under rigid control, she'd found that a happy byproduct was that they didn't fight any more. Sure, they had disagreements, but she was able to keep her temper and not storm off, mostly by thinking _'What would Saurial do?_ ' in the same circumstances. The answer was pretty much always ' _talk it out calmly_ ', which oddly enough seemed to actually work.

Running into that lizard-girl, even though it had been more than a little embarrassing afterwards, in the long run seemed to have been a good thing. Although she'd been terrified for weeks about her and her sisters.

Raptaur had taken most of the genuine fear away, she was also very calm and friendly, the sort of person you knew would accept a lot without complaint. Right up to the point where you threatened her family or friends, then you died.

She had no doubt about _that_ part at all.

But play fair with her, she reciprocated, and was more than willing to help out. Overall, Vicky thought that meeting the Family had been a good thing for everyone. Amy particularly, her sister had opened up so much in the last few weeks she could barely believe it. If nothing else, she owed Taylor and those reptiles a massive debt for helping Amy like they had. The poor girl had been on the verge of a breakdown, she suspected. It made her uneasy to think about it and the way that their mother had treated the other girl.

Even that was now a totally different game. While Carol wasn't exactly the warmest person you'd ever meet, she genuinely seemed to have come to the conclusion she'd behaved badly and had changed a lot. There was still some friction on occasion but it was trivial by comparison and steadily getting better.

' _Now if only we could fix Dad as well_ ,' she sighed mentally. ' _I miss the old Dad. I wish Ames could do brains. Or even that he'd take his meds regularly, that helps a lot_.'

Perhaps there was something that Ianthe could do about it? The big purple lizard was a healer, after all, and it was possible she didn't have the restrictions her sister did. She resolved to look into it.

Now passing over the outskirts of the commercial district, at one end of the Boardwalk, she heard someone cry out below her. Slowing, she peered down, thinking it had sounded like a man yelling in anger. Floating a couple of hundred feet up she looked around, finally spotting someone running out of a shop with an armful of vodka bottles, another man behind him being the source of the cry and chasing him waving a baseball bat.

The alcohol thief legged it down the street, dropping a couple of bottles which smashed on the pavement, pedestrians jumping out of the way while turning to see what all the fuss was about. Vicky sighed slightly, most people just didn't want to get involved, it seemed. Descending on an intercept course, she stopped and stared as something very weird happened.

"What the fuck?" she muttered under her breath, gaping in disbelief. The thief was still running frantically, but as he passed a particular lamp-post, he was suddenly back at the previous one, in a way that made her brain hurt. It wasn't teleportation, in the normal sense of the word, it was more like the space at the first post was immediately adjacent to the space at the second one.

She lowered herself to just over the ground and watched with amazement while the thief covered the same fifty feet about six times, his pursuer also stopping and gaping. The man himself didn't appear to notice at first, merely kept running, nearly dropping another bottle on the third lap, then looking over his shoulder to see how close anyone was.

Vicky, the shop owner, and a dozen pedestrians all watched as the man ran several hundred feet without leaving that little zone, before finally appearing to work out something wasn't quite right. He slowed down, looking around, a frown on his face. The man from the shop was now grinning, standing with his bat in his hand but lowered to his side. The assembled viewers were smiling, although also looking more than a little confused about what was happening.

 ** _"You cannot escape, thief,"_** a whispery and very weird voice said from somewhere nearby. The man twitched violently, as did Vicky and everyone else. It sounded _extremely_ disturbing in a way that reached right down inside your brain and tickled something that was very primitive and worried. She looked around, as did the other witnesses.

Ten feet off the sidewalk in front of the first lamppost, a figure faded into existence, standing on nothing with its arms crossed, the rest of it invisible in the mass of cloth covering it. "Cloak," Vicky muttered, staring at the small form with interest.

Stopping dead the alcohol thief yelped in horror, involuntarily releasing his armload of bottles, which for some peculiar reason only dropped about six inches before landing on thin air with a clatter and rolling around as if they were on a solid surface. The man stared at them, then up at the figure of Brockton Bay's newest cape, before turning on his heel and bolting.

He made it three steps, just sufficient to have built up a good head of steam, before he ran very solidly into nothing, emitting a pained squawk and bouncing off, then landing on the ground with his hands over his abused nose. "Ow!," he mumbled, sounding both pained and shocked. "By dose."

The shopkeeper looked at him with a grin, then up at Cloak, who was radiating an attitude of satisfaction. "Um, thanks?" he called.

 _ **"It was my pleasure, citizen,"**_ the shrouded small creature said in the same weird voice. _ **"You may collect your appropriated goods, and if someone would care to call the local authorities, they can take possession of the miscreant."**_

The thief had made it back to his feet, still holding his nose, and was feeling around him with his free hand, giving a very good impression of a mime. Vicky thought this was probably because he really was trapped in an invisible box, something that made her grin. The man kicked out, then hopped up and down as his foot made contact with something unyielding even though it didn't appear to be present. Swearing, he bounced around inside his little immaterial prison more and more frantically, the witnesses videoing this and laughing, until he gave up and slumped against the wall that no one could see.

Nearing sirens heralded the arrival of a BBPD squad car, which disgorged a pair of uniformed policemen who stared in bemusement at the scene, before moving to arrest the thief and take statements from the witnesses and shopkeeper. Vicky floated closer to Cloak, watching her carefully, as the small possibly-a-person turned to regard her. The setting sun cast its light directly into the hood and made her stop dead when she saw very clearly that it was completely empty.

"Fuck me, he was right," she whispered in shock. Cloak tipped her apparently nonexistent head to the side in a manner that emoted curiosity.

 _ **"Glory Girl, I believe,"**_ she said. _**"Out of uniform, though."**_

"I was just going to visit a friend's house and heard the commotion," Vicky replied after a moment. The voice was very unsettling indeed, the lack of visible features even more so. That said she didn't get a sensation of hostility, merely more or less good-natured interest. "There's quite a lot of speculation on the internet about you."

 _ **"I am not entirely surprised, humans do seem to be a curious lot,"**_ the whispery voice commented. _**"I find you very entertaining."**_

"I see," she said, not entirely certain that she did. "I assume that you _aren't_ human, then?"

 _ **"That is… not currently relevant."**_ There was a motion that might have been a shrug. _**"I prefer to keep my nature private."**_

Vicky nodded slowly, thinking that there were a lot of people around recently who claimed not to be human, most of them for good reasons. She was intensely curious about what was actually inside that cloak, if anything, but wasn't going to push too hard.

Just in case.

"All right, not my business, I suppose," she smiled. "I have to ask, though, are you from the Family? I know some of them and they're good people."

Cloak made something that might have been a laugh, for certain values of the word. It made several people nearby take a step back. _**"Thank you, I agree,"**_ the creature replied. _ **"I am not directly related, in human terms. But we are still closely associated. Saurial is a good friend and mentor. She is extremely skilled in a number of useful techniques that I find fascinating."**_

By now the thief was in handcuffs and the floating bottles of vodka had been photographed and reclaimed by the shopkeeper, who looked up at them and called his thanks. _**"It was my pleasure, citizen,"**_ Cloak called back. _**"Officers, thank you for your prompt arrival. I must be about my business."**_

She began climbing stairs that weren't there, while everyone watched. Vicky stared closely, trying to work out how the trick was pulled off. It was obvious that something was physically present in some weird manner, although she was almost certain it wasn't a force-field or anything like that. She couldn't see anything at all that betrayed the presence of a solid object. Very quickly, Cloak had scurried up to about two hundred feet, enough to clear the bulk of the buildings, and was casually walking along an immaterial surface. Ascending to float next to her, a few feet away, Vicky watched for a moment. Down on the ground quite a number of people were pointing cameras in their direction.

"That is a very cool trick," she finally said, admiringly. "And it looks really strange."

 _ **"An interesting and useful application of esoteric mathematical principles,"**_ Cloak responded. _ **"Saurial could explain the theory behind it better than I can, although there are few members of your species or mine that could fully understand it. However, it does prove useful."**_ She started moving faster, bounding across the skyscape at a considerable speed. _**"It was pleasant to meet you, Glory Girl. Perhaps we'll encounter each other again."**_

"Probably," Vicky smiled. "I'd better get on, I'll be late."

 _ **"Until we next meet,"**_ Cloak called, as Vicky veered off. When she looked back a few seconds later, there was no sign at all of her. She stopped and peered around, then shook her head in respectful awe.

" _Really_ good trick," she giggled, setting a course to Taylor's house and accelerating. "But I can see why the guys thought she was weird. I wonder what's inside the cloak..."

* * *

Retrieving a donut and a can of Coke from inside her hood, Missy popped the tab on the can, then pressed ahead with her intake of as much sugar as possible, while looking around for someone else to freak out.

In Brockton Bay, there were bound to be some criminals along sooner or later if you were patient, and she had lots of donuts to eat while she waited.

Contented with her day off, she wandered in the direction of the PRT building, wondering if she should try the same trick that she'd pulled on Mr Anders on the Director…

Maybe not. She actually respected the woman.

Oh well, she was bound to think of something to do. She was nowhere near bored yet, and she had several hours before she had to go home.

She was going to have to think of something nice she could do for Saurial and the others. They'd opened an enormous amount of interesting things up to her.

' _I wonder when her birthday is?_ ' she mused, sipping her coke. ' _Maybe I can find out and make her something interesting. A nice sketch or something like that to remind her of home. Wherever that is_.'

Shrugging, she kept moving, and eating, mulling over the possibilities. Life was pretty good at the moment.


	184. Studying and Shopping

Opening the door, Taylor inspected Vicky, who seemed thoughtful. "Everything all right, Vicky?" she asked as she let the blonde girl in.

"Yeah, no real problems," her friend smiled. "Just thinking about someone I bumped into on the way here."

"Anyone interesting?" she asked.

"Cloak," the other girl replied as they went into the living room where everyone else was.

"You met Cloak?" Lucy asked eagerly, staring at the Dallon sister. "What was she like? Did you talk to her? Did you ask where she comes from? What are her powers? Does she really not have a head? How tall is she?"

"Breathe, Lucy," Mandy giggled as Vicky stared at the babbling girl in some surprise. "One question at a time."

"Sorry, I got a little carried away," Lucy said with a faint pink color in her cheeks. Sitting down next to Eric, Vicky grinned at her as she reached for some cookies.

"Just a little. OK, let's see. She was… very weird." She put a cookie in her mouth and nibbled on it, apparently going over the encounter in her mind. "Short, very short, but very mysterious. And the weirdest voice you've ever heard, all hissing and croaky, it's kind of scary. But I think she's a good person, she seemed friendly enough. As far as powers go… I'm not sure. Some sort of space warping is what it looked like, I _think_ , but it's really hard to be certain."

"Like Vista does?" Rich asked curiously. Taylor and Amy exchanged a quick glance.

"Umm… Kind of, but not, if that makes any sense. Vista's powers always produce this weird visual effect, and she uses her hands in some way to control them. Cloak didn't produce anything I could see at all or even move, she just did whatever it was she was doing. And I've never seen Vista do anything even close to what she did." Vicky told them all the entire story, making Taylor smile inside. It sounded like Vista was having a hell of a lot of fun and succeeding in leveraging her abilities with her new knowledge in a very satisfying manner.

"Wow. That's so cool," Lucy smiled. "Sort of teleportation, then."

"Again, kind of, but not. I've been teleported, it looks totally different to what she did." Vicky thought for a moment, then shrugged. "It was like that fifty feet or so was actually a loop that only affected the thief, like the space at the end was exactly the same as the space at the beginning, so he was just running down an infinitely long sidewalk even though it was only between two lamp posts. He obviously didn't feel anything, he ran past the same shops about half a dozen times before he noticed. The whole thing looked like something out of a cartoon, actually. Funny as hell for everyone else. When she trapped him in an invisible box and he went all mime, it was hilarious."

"Probably not so much for him," Mandy pointed out with a grin.

"No, he didn't seem to enjoy it as much as everyone else did." Vicky grinned back. "The crowd was laughing like crazy. I bet it's already up on PHO."

"Let's see," Lucy said, pulling her phone out and quickly flipping through the website. "Yep. Here it is. Hey, they got a good video of you talking to her."

"Hold on, let me find it on the laptop," Amy, who was holding Taylor's computer on her lap, said. It was plugged into the TV as they had been about to watch some other amusing videos before they got to work. Very quickly the group was reviewing the action from a number of different viewpoints and laughing.

"Really impressive," Rich noted with a nod of approval. "Looks like she shares the sense of humor of the Family even if she isn't related to them."

"I wonder if she really is a little lizard under there," Lucy mused.

"A tiny little giant lizard?" Mandy asked, snickering. "Can you have a dwarf giant thing?"

"Well, I've seen a bonsai giant sequoia, so I'd have to say yes," Eric replied.

"Are you claiming that Cloak is a bonsai giant lizard?" Lucy giggled.

They all looked at each other, then began laughing again. "Quick, post that on PHO," Mandy chuckled. Lucy was already tapping on her phone, racked with giggles. They watched the comment come up on the TV, then replies to it start appearing seconds later.

"That's Dennis," Vicky snickered, pointing to one reply. "One of his alternate personas. The boy has lots of them. There's another one."

"Is he... arguing with himself?" Mandy asked incredulously as the two posters began hurling insults at each other.

"He has a very weird sense of humor," Amy smiled. "Odd boy."

"Clearly."

"You know, people on internet forums are a bit strange at the best of times," Rich said after a little while, "but even in those terms there are some _very_ weird people posting on the local Brockton Bay threads."

"The Family attracts the crazies," Vicky shrugged. "The whole damn city does, actually, but they've sure added to it."

The group watched the TV for another few minutes, amused at the reactions to the latest Cloak sighting, then Taylor picked up the remote and turned it off. "Enough for now. Let's do something more productive for a while. Some nice easy quadratic equations to warm up the old mathematical brain cells, then onto the good stuff."

"Freak of nature," Mandy hissed. "Math Girl strikes again."

"Hey, that was pretty good," Vicky said admiringly. "Nearly as unnerving as Cloak. More in the back of the throat, though."

Grinning, Taylor got up and went over to the whiteboard she'd propped on the end of the sofa, picking up a marker and uncapping it. "Pay attention, students," she said calmly as she jotted down some equations. "These three questions are for ten percent of the marks."

"What happens if we fail?" Amy asked.

"You don't get any more snacks."

Everyone looked at the board, then the coffee table which was piled with goodies on the general theme of junk food, then each other. Shortly a number of pencils were scratching on pads of paper, while Taylor watched in satisfied amusement, wondering what Vista, or Cloak, was up to at the moment.

* * *

Derek watched the small figure as it browsed the shelves in his electronics shop, apparently interested in the cheap cell-phones. He, along with pretty much the entire set of staff and customers present, had stopped dead when the… creature… had calmly walked in off the street. The thing that had immediately caught everyone's attention was the way it was walking along about eighteen inches off the floor. The totally enveloping nearly-black cloak covering every inch of the body inside it was almost prosaic by comparison.

Even in Brockton Bay, that particular trick was a bit weird.

Since the Family member Saurial had come in and bought some cameras the other day, they'd had pretty good business, even a few capes stopping by. The large poster in the window with a picture of the lizard girl on it seemed to attract a fair amount of attention. He'd thought at the time it was a good trade, to give her a discount in exchange for her name being used, and so it had proven to be.

Now, watching the small figure of the latest Parahuman in the bay, Cloak, browse his wares, he was frantically trying to work out the best way to profit from her presence.

A clawed hand reached out and picked up a box, lifting it to hood level. Cloak apparently read the side, turning it over in her hand, then put it back. Everyone watched as this process repeated itself a few times, until a particular phone apparently met the requirements of whatever was actually in there. She turned around and headed towards the counter, carrying the one she'd picked.

 _ **"I'd like to buy this, please,"**_ she said in a whispery voice that sent chills down his back.

"Certainly, miss," he said as calmly as he could. "I believe you are in some way connected to the Family?"

 _ **"They're good friends,"**_ the creature said, sounding pleased. _ **"Saurial knows many things I find fascinating."**_

He wondered a little uneasily what something like this would find ' _fascinating_ ', deciding after a second or two that there were probably questions it was best not to find the answer to. His imagination was running a little wild about what was actually inside the cloak. Looking around, he could see similar thoughts on the faces of everyone who was watching intently, listening carefully to the conversation.

"I had Saurial in here the other day," he began carefully, "and we came to an arrangement. In exchange for allowing us to tell people that she shopped here I offered her the purchases she made at cost. Are you open to a similar deal?"

The tiny creature seemed to study him. As she moved her head to look at the sales assistant who was at the other end of the counter, light shone into the hood, revealing… nothing. Derek stared discreetly, a little less shocked than he'd have expected. There was definitely nothing inside that hood.

He wondered if there was actually anything inside the _rest_ of the cloak… Aside from the hand coming out of it holding the phone in its box, there was no trace of a body visible. Wild thoughts of Cloak _actually being a cloak_ , possibly animated and given intelligence by some weird Family art, crossed his mind.

Well, regardless, business was business. In this city, you didn't survive long if you didn't adapt. If an animated ancient item of clothing wanted to buy a phone from him, he'd sell it one.

 _ **"I can't see why not,"**_ Cloak finally hissed, making what might have been a shrug. _**"If Saurial considered it a good deal, it probably is. Thank you."**_ She, or it, or whatever the hell it was, looked around again. _ **"Do you sell that camera model she uses?"**_

"We do," he replied, indicating the relevant display cabinet. "Are you interested in one?"

 _ **"Yes, please,"**_ she said, sounding pleased. Retrieving one of the devices he handed her the box. She put the phone down then took it from him, reading the back of the box carefully. _**"Excellent,"**_ the thing hissed in a manner that would have made Mr Burns look worried. _**"I will take this as well."**_

"Of course, Miss Cloak," he said politely. Moving his sales associate, who was staring motionlessly, gently to the side, he rang up the purchases. Cloak looked at the total on the register then put a hand into her hood, rummaging around at far greater depth than seemed possible, to pull out a handful of cash. Quickly counting out the correct amount, she handed it over.

 _ **"Thank you,"**_ she said, her eerie voice sounding like the non-existent face was smiling. _ **"I will recommend this shop to my friends."**_

"Please do," he said, wondering what sort of friends a cloak had. Perhaps some form of coat? Picking up the two boxes she pushed them into the empty hood where they vanished, then nodded to him, based on the motion of the clothing. Turning around she strolled out, still over a foot and a half clear of the ground, although the body language was definitely that of someone standing on a solid surface. He watched through the window as she kept walking outside the shop, each step taking her higher, until she disappeared over the roof of the buildings on the other side of the street. Traffic passing by had stopped to watch.

After a long pause, the people in the shop started moving again, talking excitedly to each other. Looking at the bills in his hand, he shrugged, counted them again, then put them in the till, absently deciding on the wording of the new poster in his head.

* * *

Stopping in her tracks, Hannah looked up at the cloaked figure that was crossing the street, although this description, while accurate, failed to convey exactly _how_ it was crossing the street.

Using invisible steps to climb from surface level to some sixty feet was definitely out of the ordinary.

Watching with worried intrigue, she glanced at Robin who was accompanying her on patrol, seeing he was also staring after the small person. Assuming it actually _was_ a person…

"What do you want to do about that?" he asked after several seconds of silence. Dozens of people were standing on the street looking in the same direction they were, cell-phones out and recording. Even some of the cars passing had stopped.

"I..." She stopped after the first word, then closed her mouth. Trying again, she sighed heavily. "This is getting ridiculous. It's too short for Saurial in a cloak, but it's exactly the sort of thing that crazy lizard would do just to freak me out. I mean, _people_ out." Hannah hastily corrected herself as her companion gave her a look.

"I don't think it's Saurial," he said doubtfully. "If nothing else, we haven't heard she can fly. Or walk on air. Or whatever the fuck that was."

"I wouldn't put it past her," Hannah muttered, feeling the now-normal sense of confusion. "Oh, hell, let's go after her and at least see if we can figure out _what_ she is even if not _who._ "

"I'm curious too," he admitted with a weird smile. They headed down the street, turning right to follow the path the aerial form of Cloak had taken.

A few minutes later, Robin pointed up. "There she is," he said unnecessarily. Hannah inspected the small creature, which was standing in mid-air looking around, hands apparently on hips, giving an impression of interested observation. Looking down she spotted them in the throng of people also gaping upwards.

 _ **"Hi, local heroic humans!"**_ she called in a voice like an overheated boiler being friendly. _**"Isn't it an interesting day?"**_

"That's putting it… oddly," Hannah mumbled under her breath. They watched as Cloak quickly descended a non-existent spiral staircase, apparently even running her hand down a railing that also wasn't there. The illusion was like that of the world's greatest and most convincing mime, her eyes practically insisting that an actual physical object was present even though they were _also_ certain it _wasn't_.

Hannah was beginning to get an all-too-familiar headache. The pressure behind her forehead was an almost infallible indicator of Family influence on reality. They were _that_ weird. Whatever else Cloak was, she was definitely associated with the crazy lizards somehow.

Stopping a couple of feet off the ground, Cloak walked over to them, her altitude leaving her hood at about a normal person's head height. From here, Hannah could clearly see it was empty, the sun shining directly into it. _**"How are you two today?"**_ Cloak asked cheerily. _ **"I met some of your colleagues last night. They looked a little confused."**_

The invisible head apparently tilted to the side in a horribly familiar gesture. _**"So do you, actually. How strange. Is there something wrong?"**_

"No..." Robin said slowly after a glance at Hannah, who was wishing she'd thought to take a couple of ibuprofen before she came out, just on general principles. "We were just interested in meeting you. A new Parahuman is always something that attracts our attention."

 _ **"Oh, I'm not new,"**_ she chuckled. _ **"Not really. I've been around for a while. Just… not where you'd notice me."**_

"Ah." He looked mildly worried now. Hannah knew the feeling. "So why become apparent now?"

 _ **"It seemed like the right time,"**_ Cloak replied in a carefree manner. _ **"I was bored and Saurial helped me decide on the right method to introduce myself to this fascinating city. The Family are so helpful, you see. And they know so much."**_ She sounded very pleased. _ **"So very much. The math is totally fascinating."**_

"Math?" he echoed.

 _ **"Math,"**_ she confirmed, nodding firmly. _**"Everything is math. Math is important. Saurial is… incredibly good at math. I don't think there are many, if any, of your species who could follow it. Even I have trouble, but I'm learning."**_ She looked around at the people staring at the three of them from a safe distance. _**"And everyone here is so interested and friendly. Except for the criminals, of course, but..."**_ She shrugged. _**"Nothing's perfect."**_

"No, I suppose not," Robin agreed, sounding nearly as puzzled as Hannah was.

"I don't suppose you would be interested in coming in for power testing?" the woman asked, knowing the likely answer.

 _ **"Thank you, but no, it's not necessary,"**_ Cloak replied with amusement in her voice. _ **"I am aware of my own abilities and see no good reason to let everyone else know."**_

Hannah nodded glumly. That was what she'd expected. There were far too many new, or apparently old, Parahumans around these days who seemed to be more aware of their own security than was common. It left her and the PRT wondering exactly what they were capable of.

They still didn't have a good, definitive, list of Saurial's powers, never mind the others. Writing a threat assessment on Cloak was going to be a pain in the ass.

"You are, I guess, a Hero?" Robin tried.

 _ **"You can put it like that if you want,"**_ Cloak agreed happily. _**"I'll intervene in crimes when I come across them. So far I haven't been looking for them very hard, but that doesn't seem to matter much. There are quite a few criminals around."**_

"All too many," he grumbled.

Proving the point nicely, there was a shout down the street and two young and tattered men ran out of a shop, each of them holding a pile of expensive clothes. Everyone, including Cloak, turned to look. She sighed, sounding like a kettle on the boil. _**"Silly humans,"**_ the creature said, turning back to Robin and Hannah. _**"I'll just wait for the law enforcement. Then I need some more donuts."**_

"Are you going to…?" Hannah started to ask, wondering what the last part meant.

 _ **"I already did,"**_ Cloak replied, sounding pleased. Looking past her, Hannah gaped, watching both men run in circles, although it was apparent from their expressions that this wasn't at all what they intended to do. The crowd standing and staring started to clap.

Both thieves dropped their loot, then turned around, looking scared, and ran the other way. This only resulted in them circling in the other direction. "What the fuck is going on?!" one of them screamed in horror. He changed his path abruptly, heading at right angles to his previous direction, making the crowd fall about laughing when he and his friends started moving in figure-eight patterns, somehow crossing in the middle without colliding.

 _ **"Some of these drug addicts do seem to take a remarkably long time to realize they're trapped,"**_ Cloak commented idly, turning back to watch the performance. _**"How many times do you have to try the same thing with the same result before you work out it's not going to help?"**_

"How..." Hannah stared. "What did you do?"

 _ **"Oh, just manipulated their local spacial coordinate system to make it a closed one,"**_ Cloak replied, sounding like it was nothing. _**"There's no exit from that zone until I want to let them out. It seemed the easiest method."**_

Hannah looked at the small figure, then back at the now hysterical thieves, who seemed to be low level Merchants. That sounded like a wildly more advanced version of some of the things Vista could do, only there were no apparent visual distortions and Cloak had pulled the trick off without any obvious effort or motions. Considering how high _Vista's_ rating was, it made her shudder a little internally to think what Cloak's would be, assuming she was actually using something similar.

Her powers were clearly different from the Ward's, though, since Vista couldn't stand on nothing, or turn invisible, or whatever it was Cloak did. But the overlap was worthy of note.

She briefly wondered if Vista would benefit from meeting the small creature, then felt suddenly worried as she pictured the results. _Two_ of them was at least one too many. _One_ was a little much.

"Impressive," was all she said. This was true, in fairness. It was a remarkably effective method to restrain the suspects without damage or risk to bystanders.

 _ **"Thank you."**_

A BBPD squad car pulled out of traffic and stopped beside the thieves, who had given up and were sitting on the sidewalk crying. The pair of cops looked at them, then each other, shrugged, and proceeded to arrest them. Hannah and Robin watched as Cloak walked over, not bothering to descend to ground level, talked quietly to them for a moment, then turned around and came back. _**"Such polite men,"**_ she said with a smile in her voice. _**"Anyway, it was nice to meet you both. I must be on my way, I have many things to do this evening. Until we meet again, human heroes."** _

She made a small gesture of apparent respect, then started climbing away from them. As she passed thirty feet or so she faded from view. Robin and Hannah exchanged a glance, then the woman walked forward, feeling around where the start of the apparent stairs had been. Nothing at all seemed to be left.

"Is it me, or was that fucking weird?" Robin asked.

"It's not you," she sighed. "This city is becoming both safer and stranger by the day. I keep going to work wondering if _this_ is the day it becomes normal."

"Is it?"

"Not yet, no," she grumbled. "Not even close."

They turned to look at the police car, which was having both thieves inserted into the back seat, exchanged another glance, shrugged with helpless confusion, and went back to patrolling.

"What the hell do you think is in that cloak?" Robin asked a minute or so later.

"Best not to think about that," she advised. "Every time _I_ do, my head starts aching again."

He nodded silently, walking along beside her, both of them going back to their own thoughts.

* * *

Some distance away and up, Missy was rolling around on her virtual surface laughing her ass off. The expressions on the faces of the older capes was absolutely hilarious. She _definitely_ had a very good idea now why Saurial and the others did everything they did in the _way_ they did it. Why not get as much fun out of doing good as possible? It certainly livened up the day.

Sitting up and wiping tears of laughter from her eyes, secure inside her invisibility and inaudibility shield, she sat cross-legged a hundred feet above the roof of one of the buildings lining the road and opened the box for the phone, pulling it out and inspecting it. It was a basic smartphone, with usable internet and a wifi hotspot, so she could link other devices to it if needed. With the rather generous discount the store manager had given her it was well within her means. She was paid fairly well as a Ward, even though a lot of the money went into a trust fund, and since she didn't actually spend all that much on herself, she'd built up quite a reasonable amount of spending cash.

Turning the phone on she found the battery was about half-charged, enough for now, and spent a few minutes going through the setup procedure. Satisfied, she put it away, leaving the charger in the box which she put back into storage. The phone was in her bracelet, under her glove, where she could get at it more easily.

Moving on to the camera, she read the instructions, then looked at the device. She was going to need a head harness for it for best results. It came with a simple strap that mounted it over either ear but she didn't much like the feel of it. Even so, she put it on and fiddled with the disguise field until she could make a discreet opening right over the lens. Might as well see how well it worked.

Stashing all the packaging for that as well, she stood up, then looked around. Some distance away she knew of another doughnut store which sold a competing brand to the one she'd already eaten a boxful of. Deciding that she should, in the spirit of experimentation, do a back to back taste test, she headed in that direction, whistling quietly under her breath. The sound was extremely odd with her ' _Cloak_ ' voice active, but something she found amusing even so.

* * *

"What is it?"

"I have _no_ idea. It doesn't have a head, though."

"How does it eat, then?"

"Fucked if I know, man. It does, though, that's the third custard doughnut in a row."

"How many did it buy?"

"A dozen mixed, and another half dozen of those ones, it seems to like them."

"Weird."

"Hey, it had perfectly good cash. I don't care _what_ it is if it pays."

"Good point."

 _ **"These are nice."**_

"Thanks. Do you need anything else… Miss?"

 _ **"No, this is fine for now. See you guys around."**_

The two clerks watched as the small cloaked thing with the weird voice walked out of the shop a foot off the floor, somehow pushing another doughnut into a space that didn't have anything to receive it, in several bites. The way the pastry vanished in sections was… very unnerving. They exchanged a glance.

"Beats drunks and gangers."

"True. It was polite and friendly."

"Unlike half our customers on a Friday."

"Early yet, the drunks turn up later."

"Don't remind me. Oh, well, better make some more. The last of the custard ones just left."

"Hey, think I should put this on PHO?"

"That place? It's full of crazies, I stay away from it. Last time I looked there was some guy claiming the Family are demons. Or aliens. Or alien demons. I got confused after a while and played Counterstrike instead."

"Is that King Zap guy still trash-talking you?"

"He won't shut up. It's really annoying. The most annoying part of it is he's fucking good."

"Probably living in his mom's basement doing nothing but playing online games all day. Like that other one you keep yelling about."

"Protomancer? He's a pain in the ass too. But at least he's not as mouthy."

"You need to find a better hobby. One that teaches you something useful."

"Maybe. Hello, Sir, what can I get you?"

* * *

"There's something very wrong with you, Taylor," Mandy sighed, looking at the whiteboard, then her pad. "No normal person can look at that problem and _solve it in their head_ , in _five seconds!_ Do you have a computer in there as well as your brain? Or, possibly, in place of it?"

"Just me in here," Taylor smiled.

The Varga started snickering, making her smile a little more widely. Amy was giving her a humorous look as well.

"Yeah, still say there's something wrong," Mandy mumbled, scratching out her answer and starting over again. "Where the hell did I go wrong?" She puzzled over the math problem, then brightened. "Ah. I think I see where, I need to do this… and this… and the answer is..." She looked up at the board, her face falling. "Entirely wrong. Again."

Taylor sat beside her friend and walked her through the problem in stages, rewarded in the end with a correct answer and a brilliant smile. "Thank you. I'll try to remember that technique."

"It's not too hard if you follow the rules," Taylor said, leaning forward and grabbing a bag of chips, then popping it open with a flick of her fingers. Offering them around, she took some for herself. "The more you do it the more sense it makes like with most things. Practice, then practice some more."

"How did you get so good at this sort of thing?" Rich asked curiously, opening another can of soda. "I'd have thought that with a mother who was an English professor, your thing would have been languages or something."

"I'm not bad in those subjects, although not as good as mom was," Taylor replied. "But math has always been something I was good at. Even when I was in kindergarten I was better than most kids my age."

"I bet you were probably better than most adults as well," Lucy said wisely. Taylor just shrugged.

"I couldn't say in all honesty. I just seem to have a mind that works with math. I like language and word games as well, but the math is the really fascinating thing to learn about. So many other subjects become open to you when you understand it. Chemistry, physics, electronics, that sort of thing."

"Considering how many different subjects I've seen you studying just for fun, I can't help think that if you don't become a teacher when you pick a job, you'll be an engineer instead. Or something like that," Eric commented, smiling. "Can't say I disagree. I'm definitely heading towards mechanical engineering, or some sort of automotive field, maybe. I love cars and fixing them."

"Haven't really decided yet," Taylor mused, looking around at her friends. "I do like teaching, though. It's nice to be able to help someone with something you're good at. But I like learning as well. More or less everything. Information is fun." She glanced at Amy, who was also smiling faintly. "Even biology, which is more Amy's field."

"No surprise there," Mandy giggled, Amy grinning at her. "How could a healer _not_ be interested in biology?"

"Oddly enough, I like mechanical engineering as well, I've discovered," Amy said in a reflective tone of voice. "Taylor has shown me all sorts of things and it looks cool. A lot of it is relevant to biological organisms as well, like in bones and muscles. But she's a lot better at the math than me."

"The girl is a lot better at the math than _anyone_ ," Vicky sighed, finishing her own assignment, then handing Taylor the pad. She smiled a little when the brunette checked it at a glance and nodded. "I can barely scrape through my classes although I have to admit with this sort of studying I expect I'll improve. Thanks, Taylor, it helps a lot."

"You're more than welcome, Vicky," Taylor said. "This is really good fun and interesting as well."

"I guess you didn't do anything like this at Winslow?" Rich asked.

She shook her head, her smile failing her. "No," she replied after a few seconds. "All I really did there was try to work out what I'd done wrong to end up in such a shithole. It wasn't nice."

Mandy put her arm around her and her head on her shoulder. "Poor Taylor. I wish we'd met years ago and you hadn't gone to that horrible place. I've heard some revolting things about it."

"Whatever you heard it's worse," she said quietly. "I can almost guarantee it."

"It's also in the past and will remain there," Amy said firmly. "You're with friends, your family is doing well these days, you and your dad are happy, and we are as well. Forget Winslow. You're over it."

"Over Winslow?" Taylor looked outraged. "I'll _never_ be over Winslow."

"Do you have a drinking problem because of it?" Rich asked.

"Yes, I keep missing my mouth," she said morosely.

"Roger."

They exchanged a glance and cracked up.

"We need to watch ' _Airplane!'_ next, surely," Amy giggled.

"We've got it on DVD. And don't call me Shirley," Taylor replied, heaving with laughter.

By the time her father arrived half an hour later, they were all laughing themselves sick at the constant jokes in the classic movie. All in all, it had been a good afternoon and evening.


	185. Reporting and Fencing

**Saturday, February 26, 2011**

Blinking at the light, Amy yawned, then sat up, stretching widely. She felt rested and content, as she usually did these days, and was looking forward to a weekend of interesting things.

After the others had left Taylor's house the night before, she'd stayed for a while, talking to both Heberts about the events of the day. Danny had passed on the somewhat surprising news about the official status of the Family in the eyes of the authorities, something that made both girls chuckle, and the much less pleasing information that Lisa had derived from her sneaking around.

The fact that the blonde girl had taken the opportunity to heal Squealer didn't particularly surprise either of them. While Lisa hadn't gone into details of her past, they were both aware that it contained some form of tragedy, probably involving a close family member, from hints she'd dropped. Neither of them were interested in prying into a clearly private matter but it had definitely left their friend in a position where she wasn't going to just walk away from someone she could help in that situation.

They'd discussed the event for a while and decided in the end that there wasn't much they could do except wait and see what happened. The whole Skidmark problem was more troublesome, making both Amy and Taylor start thinking of ways to combat the issue and hopefully head it off before it happened. Danny had handed his daughter a printout of some high-tech semi-portable fencing which was used in high security applications, the girl studying it and immediately coming up with a number of modifications that could make it even better, not the least of which was constructing it from EDM.

They were planning on installing the stuff around the site over the weekend, as a matter of urgency. Taylor was working on a way to allow authorized users to remove sections when necessary but still preventing anyone else from doing likewise, saying she had a cunning plan. That probably meant people were going to stare a lot and scratch their heads.

Her friend was also giggling to herself about another idea she apparently wanted to try but wasn't prepared to talk about, saying only that it was going to be really cool. Knowing Taylor, that could mean almost anything.

Amy herself had started pondering an idea she'd had a while ago, when she was designing the first bioconstruct, and decided that she'd try a few experiments of her own now that she had two days without anything else urgent to deal with. She was going to go to Brockton General for a couple of hours just to help out with any serious cases, then spend the rest of the weekend on her own projects.

Getting out of bed, she looked out the window, seeing that it was a fine day, although pretty cold judging by the ice in the puddles on the road. Hopefully it would start properly warming up soon but all things considered it could be a lot worse bearing in mind the time of year.

Humming to herself, she headed towards the bathroom, managing to get inside just before her sister came zipping up, giving her an impish smile then closing the door firmly.

"Damn it, Amy, hurry up, I have a breakfast date with Dean!"

"Got here first, sis. Try again later."

"You're mean."

"I am. Don't you forget it." Amy snickered, then got into the shower, hearing her sister grumble her way back to her room.

* * *

Missy groaned a little, rolling over and sitting up, then wincing. She needed the toilet again.

Perhaps twenty-nine doughnuts with various fillings in five hours was a little too much? Not to mention several cans of Coke. She certainly wasn't hungry, the thought of food making her stomach roil right now.

Oh well. Live and learn. She'd got a lot of fun out of the previous day, a lot of practice with her Cloak powers, and stopped seven different albeit minor crimes. Not to mention getting some very amusing video. All in all a severe stomach-ache and the crash from a major sugar rush was a small price to pay.

Getting up, she dashed towards the facilities, feeling the urge to do something a little closer to home right now.

When she finally recovered, she thought she might go and say hello to Saurial and the others at the DWU, if they were around.

But no more doughnuts for now.

* * *

"Have you got anything specific planned for today other than what we were discussing last night?" Danny asked his daughter as he washed the breakfast dishes. Taylor was sorting out the fridge, moving things around into a more logical order, and putting away snacks left over from having her friends over the night before.

"I have a couple of ideas I want to experiment with this weekend," the girl said over her shoulder, looking like she was anticipating something good. "I've been studying the books in the school library quite a lot and I have a really neat idea I'm dying to try."

He regarded her closely, then sighed. "This is going to be one of those things that makes the tourists point and stare, isn't it?"

"Might be," she giggled. "Varga wants to try it as much as I do. If it works the way I hope it will it'll be fantastic."

"Just try not to do something that gets the PRT too upset, please. They're being remarkably sensible about everything and I don't want to ruin that. Director Piggot is having trouble with the whole Family thing, I think, and the way you've unleashed ' _Cloak_ ' on the world is… not going to make her _less_ confused."

"Cloak isn't actually _all_ my fault," Taylor protested, taking several bottles of soda out of the fridge and putting them back in on their sides to make space for the milk. "Only partly. And Amy, Lisa, Leet, and Über all helped as well. But most of it was Vista."

"Who came looking for the Family because she wanted someone who could do the sort of bizarre things to reality that you can do, which she knew about because of your little joke gift on my birthday, so..." He stared at her, the girl grinning suddenly.

"OK, yes, I did do that. But I still say it was her idea. Mostly. She had the cloak already. And beat up those two muggers on the way over to the DWU."

Danny sighed slightly. "Oddly enough I'm actually glad Über and Leet are friends of yours now. Too many girls running around doing weird things probably need the stabilizing influence of a man. Even those two."

She stuck her tongue out at him, making him snicker. "Sure we do. Don't forget Varga."

"Oh, I'm not forgetting him, trust me. He's as bad as, if not worse than, any of you. Massive troll demons are definitely a thing around here even if hardly anyone knows about it."

"He says you're welcome," she reported with another smile.

"I'm sure he did. Whatever, have fun, get those fences put in, and try not to break reality completely. I'll be in this afternoon, I need a break for a few hours. I also need to check with Roy, he's invited the both of us over to his house next week for dinner and we need to work out a time."

"I'm certainly up for that," Taylor noted, closing the fridge and standing up. "I'll just finish putting this away then I'm heading over to the yard."

"All right." He finished the last of the dishes and dried them, then started putting them away. "Your friends seemed happy last night."

"They were. I really like helping them with the math, I've found out recently how much I enjoy teaching people things. I think it's helping them. Vicky was certainly pleased with learning some new techniques and so was Mandy."

"Your mother would definitely have approved," he nodded, closing the plate cupboard. "Although she'd have been mildly disappointed that you didn't follow her into the literary and language fields. The hard sciences are a reasonable compromise though."

Taylor looked amused, finishing her own tidying up, then hugged him. "See you later, Dad."

"Have fun, dear. Be good." He smiled down the small distance between them.

"I'll try," she replied. Shortly he was alone, wondering what she was going to do. He'd probably see it on the news soon enough, he chuckled to himself.

* * *

Reading the report, Emily shook her head helplessly. As if lizards running around all over her city weren't enough, _alien_ lizards at that, now there were animated items of clothing wandering around catching criminals? Without apparently trying very hard, either. Sighing heavily, she put the report down, then looked over her desk at Hannah, who looked a lot like she felt.

"So… What _is_ Cloak?"

The other woman shrugged with a lost expression. "A cloak? I have no fucking idea, other than that. There's no head in the hood, Robin and I both agree on that, and so did several witnesses. As far as we could tell there wasn't anything in the rest of it either. When she, it, the thing, whatever, was standing on mid air above us, we couldn't see anything from underneath either."

"Perhaps the person inside is invisible?"

"Plenty of people have seen Cloak putting things into the hood and taking them out again. Ethan saw her take a magazine of 9mm rounds in the… face…? and not apparently even notice. It certainly gives the impression that there's nothing inside that damn thing. Which may well be the intent, true, considering that the Family are definitely involved somehow, but it might also be _because there isn't anything in there..._ "

"Oh, for god's sake, this is just getting silly," Emily muttered, flicking through the report again. "I'm beginning to think that even a salary increase isn't enough to make staying here worth it."

"Are you getting one?" Hannah asked curiously.

"So the Chief Director said. Apparently because I have ' _established a rapport_ ' with the Family, the higher-ups think they want me as a liaison, for which you can read ' _cut-out,_ ' between the damn reptiles and the rest of the world. In other words, as long as I'm here dealing with them no one else has to. Or risk their sanity trying."

"Well, on the bright side, the crime level in the city is at historic low point right now. That's good, isn't it?"

Emily sighed again, nodding a little. "I suppose that's one way to look at it. I can't help wait for the other shoe to drop. And the constant arrival of steadily weirder… let's be generous and call them _people_ … is starting to make me think I need a holiday. A very long one. In the mountains somewhere." Picking the report up and dropping it into her desk drawer she firmly closed it. "I can't deal with this right now. Keep an eye on Cloak, but otherwise we may as well just let her get on with whatever she's doing. If nothing else everyone says she's both polite and competent."

"That's true," Hannah agreed, still looking a little lost. "Whatever she is. She seems to have the right instincts even though I don't have enough information to really work out her powers. Some form of spacial warping based on advanced mathematical principles is my best guess. The R&D department is going over the videos we have to try to work out more, but it's apparently giving them headaches. Something I can fully understand."

"There's always the possibility that the Family and their associates are a ploy by the drugs companies to sell more migraine medications," Emily grumbled, making her companion look mildly amused. "I'd almost prefer that explanation, at least it would make _some_ sort of sense I could understand." Looking up at Hannah, she asked, "On another, although slightly related, subject, do we have any more information on the whereabouts or activities of that damn pain in the ass Skidmark?"

"Not much, no," the woman replied, abruptly scowling. "The last place we have a confirmed sighting was in Baltimore about a week ago. As far as we can tell he's been wandering around with three or four of his less-incompetent lackeys, talking to a number of individuals with contacts in the underground arms sales areas, and also rogue Tinkers. The information I have at the moment is that most of them told him to get lost as soon as they worked out what he was thinking about. _No one_ wants Kaiju on the warpath looking for them. No one sane, anyway."

"Pity he _isn't_ , then," Emily noted.

"It would make life easier," Hannah agreed sourly. "With any luck he won't find anyone prepared to help and will give up, but I wouldn't want to bet on it. We did get one bit of interesting data, which is that he was told, in terms that even _he_ couldn't misunderstand, that no one in the more traditional organized crime families was going to help him in any way at all."

"The Mafia told him to fuck off, you mean."

"Pretty much. The contact I talked to said he was actually quite lucky to make it out of Chicago alive. Something he said really offended someone very high up in one particular organization. Word is that if he ever goes back, he's a dead man. No idea why or who, though."

"Pity. They could have saved us a headache if they'd finished the bastard off."

"Unfortunately they restrained themselves. I'll keep putting out feelers and see what I can come up with. Apparently several other groups are doing the same, not all of them on our side of the fence. He's making people nervous. Stirring the hornet's nest is a bad idea for everyone in the area."

"Especially when one of those hornets is big enough to use Behemoth as a handball," Emily sighed. "Keep on it. I have a few contacts as well I'm in the process of looking up, some of them might know something useful. I _really_ don't want that fuckwit starting a war we need to clean up after."

"I don't think anyone does," Hannah said. After a pause, she asked, "Is there any consensus on what happened with the Simurgh yet?"

"No." Emily shook her head. "No one seems to have anything other than wild supposition. The most likely one is that it was some form of distraction move, but for what purpose is currently anyone's guess. Considering it's the Simurgh, the entire plot might just be to make us _think_ there's a plot. I don't think you _can_ be too paranoid where that feathered bitch is concerned."

"All we can do is wait and see what horrible thing happens next," the other woman commented, making Emily nod.

"Exactly."

"I'd better get back to work," Hannah said, standing up.

"Keep me updated on the Skidmark situation. Thank you for the Cloak report."

"Of course, Director, and you're welcome." Hannah turned and left, closing the door quietly behind her. Leaning her chair back, Emily pondered the mysteries of life, the universe, and why alien lizards and their possessed laundry had picked _her_ city to set up shop in.

She _really_ needed a holiday...

* * *

"So we're a legitimate super hero team now?" Taylor, currently in the form of Saurial, grinned at her blonde friend, who was reading something on one of the computers. Lisa turned around and grinned back.

"Yep. Paperwork's on the table there. Director Piggot was sort of relieved, sort of worried, and sort of annoyed at the PRT in general about the entire thing. She's definitely finding us very strange."

"We _are_ very strange," Taylor laughed, going over to the table and picking up the folder of paperwork, reading the contents carefully. "Even I can see that. But I wouldn't have it any other way."

"Me neither. It's way more fun than being a villain and getting threatened with death on a weekly basis."

"I can imagine that would get old pretty fast. This looks fine. Generous, even."

"It is. They're definitely trying to keep on the good side of the Family," Lisa confirmed. "Director Piggot more or less came right out and said as much. They know there isn't really anything they can do to stop us, or you at least, if you decided to do something they didn't like. They're being pragmatic, and also hoping that if they act nicely towards the Family we'll stay sensible and not go too far overboard."

"Would we do something like that?" Taylor asked, an amused expression on her face. "That might risk them trying to damage our ancient home deep under the sea, which by the way we should get started on soon. I've come up with all sorts of interesting artifacts to seed the area with, and some good ideas about where to put them."

Lisa snickered for a few seconds. "I've got a whole list of things to make and places to put them too," she replied. "We can do a pretty convincing job with a little work. Between the three of us I can't help thinking we could break archaeology completely."

"We'll try to cause the minimum disturbance to real things, but I want to make it clear than the Family has been around for a long time," the reptilian girl said as she put the folder back on the table. "It's our best protection right now, no one really knowing what we are or where we come from."

"My power agrees completely," her friend noted. "I think it thinks this is really funny as well. It likes you."

Taylor gave her an odd look. "Honest, I'm sure it does," Lisa added, looking mildly embarrassed. "It _really_ likes you. Like, idolizes you. And Varga. And Amy, for that matter, but in a different way."

"I can't work out if you're nuts, or really on to something," Taylor commented after a moment.

"Neither can I sometimes," Lisa sighed. "All I can tell you is that it's the overwhelming impression I get."

"It'll be interesting to see what the result of the experiment on Kevin and Randall is. If they start reporting the same sort of thing, I think we're onto something that possibly no one else has a clue about. I've certainly never heard of this theory before."

"Neither have I, and I can't find anything online that matches either. It'll probably take at least a few days before they notice anything, though."

"So tell me about what happened yesterday," Taylor requested, coming over and sitting next to her friend, spinning the chair slowly around. "How did the whole Squealer thing come about? Dad told me what you told him, but I'm sure there's more to it."

"Not that much, but..." Lisa thought for a moment, before recounting the entire story, Taylor and the Varga both asking questions. Eventually she'd gone over the whole thing.

"Huh." Leaning her chair right back, Taylor considered what her friend had told her. "For what it's worth, I think you did the right thing. So does Varga. Better to convert an enemy into a friend, or at least a neutral bystander, than get into a fight if you don't have to. I wonder what she'll do?"

"I'm not sure. My power suggests a number of possibilities but it's dependent on other data I don't have yet. Skidmark coming back is the biggest variable. He's definitely out there somewhere looking for some sort of edge to take on the Family as the primary target and the DWU as the secondary. As far as I can work out, he's going from place to place in this general area of the country, looking up arms dealers, weapon Tinkers, organized crime bosses, that sort of thing, to find someone that can help him."

"Think he'll succeed?"

"In finding something he _thinks_ can hurt Kaiju?" Lisa pondered the question. "Quite likely. This country is stuffed to bursting with weapons, and sooner or later he'll find someone who will sell him anything. Most of the more, I hesitate to use the word ' _reputable_ ' to describe black market arms dealers, but it's more or less accurate, people will probably want to stay out of it when they find out the target. I doubt anyone wants the Family to come knocking asking why they sold that fuckwit a big gun. On the other hand, there are a lot of crazies around who wouldn't care, or think hard enough."

Taylor sighed, propping her head on her elbow and the elbow on the computer bench. "That's what I thought."

"That said, I very much doubt that he actually _can_ find anything that would seriously inconvenience you. You can tank a nuke like _that_ , never mind as Kaiju. But, the collateral damage from an attempt on you would be… potentially very bad."

"And _that's_ what I'm worried about," Taylor admitted soberly. "I couldn't live with myself if someone got hurt because of me. Especially if it was any of you guys or Dad. Maybe I should take some time out to hunt the little shit down and deal with him permanently before it goes to hell."

"I've got no doubt you could track him, but I'm not sure that you'd be able to kill him in cold blood," Lisa said doubtfully.

Taylor smiled very coldly indeed at her, with many, _many_ teeth visible.

"On second thought… forget I said that. Stupid comment." The blonde had paled noticeably.

"Never forget, Lisa. _I'm a demon_. I'm a very peaceful and laid back demon, but I'm still a demon. Threaten my family and mean it, you die. I'd prefer not to do anything permanent, talking is almost always better, but some people _can't_ be reasoned with. Varga has taught me than and shown me examples, and Dad has said the same thing." Taylor shrugged while Lisa stared at her. "I don't want to hurt anyone, believe me. I'll go out of my way not to. But if he's serious about trying to kill me, and the risk to other people is serious, I've got no trouble with dealing with him first. I wouldn't _enjoy_ it but I'd _do_ it without a second thought."

The other girl swallowed a little. "I believe you," she said softly. "Sometimes I do tend to forget quite how dangerous you really are."

"I never do," Taylor replied a little sadly. "I can't. I _have_ to keep control. If I don't… I don't want to see what happens then."

Reaching out, Lisa held her friend's hand, squeezing it. "You won't lose control. I'm certain of that. You have someone with you all the time who will help you, and all the rest of us as well. But I'm worried that if you do have to deal with someone permanently, which I'm realistic enough to know is probably inevitable sooner or later, it will affect you more than you think. Killing isn't something you forget."

"No." Taylor looked at the floor, memories from previous hosts of the Varga going through her mind for a few seconds. "It isn't. But I can't let that stop me defending people who need it. If it happens, it happens, and I'll deal with it. We just need to try to make sure it _doesn't_ happen if at all possible."

"I've had a few ideas along those lines, actually," Lisa said with one final squeeze of her hand, before she released it. "I made some notes. We need Amy, she's key to some of the projects. Danny authorized Mark to get some useful stuff too, it should be turning up this afternoon. We need to have a good look at it." She explained some of her thoughts, making Taylor smile happily.

"Great. That's easy, and fun. I know Amy was smirking about an idea she'd had a while ago that's sort of related to that as well. Between the two of you, we should be able to come up with something really cool. I'm happy to make anything we need."

"At this rate we'll need an armory building next."

"Dad was muttering about the same thing," Taylor grinned. "There's a disused shed on the other side of the yard that we can use. I'll go and fix it up this afternoon and get the guys to wire it up." Hopping to her feet she retrieved the paperwork on the fencing system that her father had given her last night, showing it to Lisa who followed her. "I also need to make a whole pile of this stuff, or something like it."

The blonde girl read the document with interest. "OK. Looks pretty impressive."

"It's designed to be quickly installed with bolt guns to make an area secure. The individual pieces stack on top of each other, so a low loader can bring enough for about a quarter of a mile of fencing. The stuff overlaps at the joints to make it difficult to break through. This version is rated to take a fully loaded semi at sixty miles an hour and stop it. _My_ version will do a little better." She grinned at her friend. "EDM fence panels and some really long EDM bolts. Plus some fractional dimensional folding. I think we can finish it today between the three of us, although we might want some help from the guys in the yard."

"It's going to be something that makes people's heads ache, isn't it?" Lisa commented knowingly. Taylor merely looked pleased.

"Let's get a prototype made while we wait for Amy to turn up. I want to get this finished, so I can try the really cool thing I came up with."

"What's the really cool thing?"

" _Really_ cool."

"Helpful."

"I know."

"Unlike you."

"I know." They shared a look, then got to work.

* * *

"That's everyone, Panacea," the doctor said, checking his clipboard, as she stood up from sitting next to the hospital bed. "All the serious cases and most of the unpleasant minor ones. Thank you very much."

"No problem, Doctor," Amy replied, faintly smiling and feeling satisfied. "Nothing else you want me to look at?"

"Not at the moment. Go and have a good weekend. If we need you we'll call."

"Thanks. It was nice to see you again."

He nodded, looking pleased. "And you. It's a little odd not having you around as much, but in a good way. You look a lot happier and less stressed, I'm glad to see."

Amy smiled at him more widely. "I feel it too. I'm much more relaxed these days. But I'm always ready to help if you need me."

Putting his hand on her costume-clad shoulder, he looked into her eyes. "We all know that, believe me. But no one wants to see someone as young as you stress themselves into an early grave. Like I've said before, you can't help everyone. You personally save more lives than most of the staff of this hospital put together, so never feel that you don't pull your weight. _We_ owe _you_ , in my mind." Dropping his hand, he made a little gesture to the door with it. "Go away, have fun, and give my best to your weird scaly friends."

Giggling, she nodded. "I will, Doctor. See you next time."

"Until then, Panacea," he smiled, watching her leave the room, then going back to his paperwork.

* * *

" _That_ works," Taylor said with a satisfied nod. Lisa, next to her as Metis, looked impressed.

"Extremely well. That dimensional fuckery is incredible. I keep coming up with new ideas for it, but I didn't see this one."

"Make sure they go on the list." Walking down the length of the EDM construction that ran the entire distance from the front to the back of the office, Taylor inspected it closely, then smiled. "Perfect. You can hardly see the joints. Now all we need to do is install the ground anchors."

"How deep are you thinking of burying them?" Lisa asked.

"About fifty feet, I think, unless you have a different idea. The ground around here is pretty solid, once you go down a couple of feet you're into clay, then another ten feet or so is bedrock. Anchored into that these things aren't going anywhere."

"What about tunneling under them?"

"They'll extend fifteen feet down, that should stop anyone casually digging underneath. I could make them deeper but at that point it's sort of becoming a permanent installation. Let's see how this works. It'll certainly stop any vehicle dead, and no one is climbing over them, not with the top edge as sharp as it is."

"We'll have to put up warning signs," Lisa pointed out. "It's legal, but it needs the signs."

"Easily done, they'll be part of the fence."

"And some sort of warning alarm before they're deployed to stop anyone getting in the way."

Taylor nodded, coming back to her friend. "That part can be done by the electrical department. They've got all the equipment to put up klaxons and that sort of thing. We can add activation systems in the admin building, and around the yard. The sirens go off, there's a delay, then..." She made an expansive gesture with her hands. "Slice and dice."

Lisa's reptilian face gained an expression of mild revulsion. "You _had_ to put it like that, didn't you?"

Taylor chuckled. "I did, yes. Don't worry, I'll put in interlocks so it won't go after any of our people. Varga knows how to make it personalized. Anyone else is fair game."

Reaching out she poked a point on the wall, smiling as there was a clacking sound, very similar to her friend's armor deploying but louder and faster. The fence section snapped back towards her in sections about ten feet wide, each one telescoping back into the nested fractal storage space of the next, until the final one ended up in the form of a twenty-foot pole about a foot across. The prototype was fused to the floor, but the final version would be sunk deep into the rock underlying the DWU facility.

"You realize that we could sell this to government installations for practically any price we wanted to name, right?" Lisa commented, watching with interest. "Like the armor, actually. Poor Armsmaster is going to poo a brick when he finally sees it, then come around and probably literally beg you to make him something like it."

Snickering, Taylor nodded, giving her friend a look of amusement. "I know, yes. The fence, I could see selling. I'm not sure about the armor, it's too powerful in the wrong hands. But I think we could make an exception for certain friends. I can think of a few people who would benefit from it."

"We need to think about making Endbringer shelters as well, a combination of some of these techniques will give us something way better than _anything_ on the market. And much, much cheaper." Lisa smiled suddenly, in a very vicious manner. "Considering that I've heard the largest specialist company making them is having severe financial difficulties, there will be a hole in the market very soon."

Taylor looked at her, then laughed at her expression. "Let's deal with Mr Calvert first. But I agree. Another thing for the list."

"It's a pity you waste so much time at school, rather than making this stuff," Lisa joked.

"Hey, I _like_ school," Taylor replied. "Now, anyway. I'm making up for lost time. I might get bored at some point, but right now I'm having fun. I like my friends as well."

"You sure ended up with a good bunch of them," Lisa agreed. "I thought they were all very interesting and decent people. The way Lucy is totally fangirling about you without actually realizing it _is_ you is hilarious."

Getting rid of the prototype fence unit, Taylor nodded with a smirk. "I sometimes have trouble not laughing. I wish I could let her, and all of them, in on it. But..." She shrugged. "Not really an option right now, more for their safety than anything. I'm not risking someone like Skidmark going through them to get to me. Dad is bad enough. You and Amy can take care of yourselves, especially like that."

"Well, if we ever get to the point of selling biosculptured upgrades, I can guarantee that Lucy would be first in line for a Family tail," Lisa grinned. "It would make her day."

"If we get there, I'll make sure she gets a useful gift," the other girl laughed. "Come on, let's go round up the right people and work out where this thing is going to get installed. As soon as it's done, time for some fun."

"And you're not going to tell me what the fun _is_ , are you?" Lisa complained as she followed her friend out the main entrance.

"Nope. You'll like it, though. I know I will. Assuming it works."

Grumbling good-naturedly about the way certain people kept things too close to their chest, Lisa went with Taylor in search of Zephron and Mark, who would be able to advise on where to install their new physical security system.


	186. Omake - Weather tis nobler

"A weather control machine?"

Danny stared at his daughter, who was grinning a wide reptilian grin, then her two ' _cousins_ ', who were wearing identical expressions. He turned to Über and Leet, the former villains looking deeply amused and somewhat proud. Finally he looked at the diminutive form of ' _Cloak_ ', who he knew damn well was Vista, doing something neither her nominal superiors or her parents would have approved of.

Sighing heavily, he turned back to the Raptaur-form Taylor, who was caressing the device that the entire team of weirdos had been working on for nearly a week. "Why, how, and what the hell for?" he asked, sitting down heavily and waiting for an explanation.

"It's not a general purpose weather control machine," his daughter explained happily. "That would take a lot more work. This has only one specific setting, but it's a good one."

"And it's linked through Cloak's abilities and to an inverted version of my audio inducer system, something Dragon came up with when we explained what we wanted to do," Leet put in.

"Oh, god, you got to _her_ as well?" Danny groaned.

"Hey, she's an interesting person," Amy said, smiling. "We got to talking the other day and explained some of the ideas we had to liven things up around here. She was all for it. I think she wants to see if it makes Armsmaster laugh or something."

"You're never going to do _that,_ " he said knowingly. "I don't think the man understands humor at all. You'd have a better chance programming a computer to laugh at jokes than _him_."

Amy, Lisa, and Taylor exchanged a glance and snickered, without explaining why. Calming down after a few seconds, Taylor shrugged. "Probably. But it's worth a try."

"OK. Explain why you have a single-purpose weather machine. I still don't understand."

"The audio system picks up specific words over a large area, recognizing one phrase only. It's linked into a locating system, then to this device, using that location to move a shielded anti-gravity drone which is the other end of one of Cloak's spacial links to that place. The machine then forms a very particular type of weather system over a small area. It's remarkably precise."

 _ **"Yes, it uses all sorts of interesting tricks, fractional dimensions for matter storage for instance, and I figured out how to do a thermal sorting field to act as a cooling system,"**_ Cloak said in her eerie voice, sounding pleased with herself. **_"Raptaur calls it a Maxwell's Demon Field."_**

"Demons, hmm?" he said, looking at Taylor, who smirked at him. "And the end result of all this fiddling with the very nature of reality is for what? Something useful and helpful to mankind, or just to make everyone gape and wonder who put drugs in the water supply?"

They all grinned at him again. Even Cloak was somehow managing to radiate an impression of a grin from a completely empty hood. "Right. Stupid question. If in doubt, pick the option with the most crazily amusing outcome," he mumbled. "OK. Tell me what it does, and what poor bastard it does it _to_." He squinted suspiciously at his daughter. "You're not going after that poor Miss Militia again, are you? The woman really doesn't deserve what you all manage to do to her."

 _ **"Do to her?"**_ Cloak asked, sounding confused. Taylor cocked her head to the side and looked at him, then shrugged.

"No idea what you're talking about. But don't worry, we're not going after Miss Militia. We have someone… a little _better_ in mind."

She explained.

He stared.

Then he lost it completely, guffawing like a madman for nearly a minute. Gasping for breath, he wiped his eyes. "OK. I admit, that's brilliant. Carry on. Make sure you get video."

"Way ahead of you there, Danny," Über said with a huge smile, holding up Leet's Snitch. "Live feed to PHO and YouTube. Linked right into the machine activation."

"All right, people!" Lisa snapped, looking around at her friends. "This is not a drill. This is a precision guided meteorological amusement system."

"I can see it's not a drill," Amy commented. "Lack of a drill bit gives that away."

"Quiet, you," Lisa replied. The purple lizard smirked and fell silent. "Everyone ready?"

Taylor looked around at them all. "We are," she said crisply.

"Activate… _the device._ "

Stepping forward, Leet flipped a toggle switch. "Device active."

" _Release the Snitch!_ "

Über casually walked to the door, opened it, tossed the thing in his hand outside, then closed it again.

"Snitch released."

" **Enable the internet video feed!** " Lisa cried, really getting into it.

Tapping on the keyboard of the nearest computer, Amy smiled. "We're live."

" ** _Place the phone calls!_** "

Picking up the handset next to her, Taylor dialed, then waited. When the other end answered, she spoke in a voice entirely not her own, one that was recognized by everyone present. "Meeting at the normal place, get everyone there. Half an hour." There was a pause, then she shouted, "Drop everything, this is important. Do it!"

Pressing disconnect, she snickered for a moment, then dialed another number. Again, she mimicked a different voice, another man's voice. "Sir, I've just heard that a meeting has been called at the usual place. I think there might be some sort of coup attempt going on. You'd better get down there, I'm on my way right now." Listening, she smiled. "Yes, I think it probably was him, but I'm not absolutely certain yet. Yes. Yes, sir, I'll be waiting for you."

Hanging up, she grinned at them. "Hook, line, and sinker, as the saying has it. Those guys are way too paranoid."

"What's the usual place?" Danny asked curiously.

"No idea. But they must _have_ a usual place, neither Krieg or Kaiser argued about it."

"How the hell did you get their numbers?" he wondered out loud.

"Dragon is really good with computers and dug them up for us," Amy giggled. She looked at the time displayed on the computer screen. "Should be kicking off in about twenty minutes."

"Gather around, my friends, and watch the end result of **Family Pranking Technology™** in action," Taylor said grandly, opening her arms widely. " **Operation: Confuse E88** is in play."

"I wonder about your sanity, sometimes, I really do," Danny chuckled. "Then I think about it and realize that everyone here is at least as nuts. You're just a little more obvious about it."

"Why, thank you, sir," Lisa grinned. They all moved to a position where they could watch the big monitor, Cloak producing several buckets of popcorn from her hood. Weirdly, they were still hot.

Danny didn't question it, just took a handful and started chewing.

* * *

Slamming the doors open, Max, clad in his signature armor, stomped into the large enclosed yard between several buildings on the edge of the commercial district. All the buildings were owned by Medhall through a number of cutout companies and this area was used for E88 gatherings and pep talks. He found his entire gang standing around looking confused, Krieg talking to Victor while Othala and the twins listened, nearly sixty of the higher-ranking foot-soldiers milling around with uneasy expressions.

"What the hell is going on?" he roared. "Why are you all here having a secret meeting without me?"

"Without you?" Krieg asked, turning around and staring at him. "You _called_ this meeting."

"I damn well did _not_ ," Max retorted, still furious. "You did."

"No, I didn't," his second in command replied, now looking angry as well as puzzled. "I got a phone call from you telling me to get everyone down here. I did that, we were just waiting for you."

Now confused and worried, Max stared at him. The man looked like he was telling the truth. "I got a call from Victor saying that he'd heard you called a meeting."

"Not me, Kaiser," the man in question said, holding up his hands in defense. "Krieg called me and said _you'd_ called _him_."

Inspecting both men, Max felt a thrill of horror go through him. "It sounded _exactly_ like you."

"The person who called me sounded exactly like _you_ ," Krieg retorted suspiciously.

"Well, it fucking _wasn't_ me," Max growled. "Someone is playing us for idiots."

They all stared at each other. Finally, he turned around and inspected the troops, who were watching them with expressions of bemusement. "We're under attack, somehow," he announced loudly. "Someone is trying psychological trickery to undermine my authority and sap morale. But we are the Empire Eighty Eight! We will _not_ be fooled by such underhanded tricks from the lesser classes. We will find those responsible and make them pay, make an example of them."

"Heil Kaiser," the entire collection of people shouted as one.

"We will bring whoever is playing with us to their knees, and make them regret ever daring to mock us," he shouted, raising his hands in his best demagogic manner, privately thinking that people were all too easy to control if you just used some simple dramatics and told them what they wanted to hear.

" _Heil Kaiser_ ," the audience screamed, thrusting fists into the air. He frowned a little, the day seemed darker than it had been a moment ago.

" _Heil Kaiser!_ " they yelled again, without even needing to be prompted this time.

A rumble from overhead made him look up.

' _Those clouds blew in pretty quickly, it was a nice sunny afternoon a moment ago_ ,' he mused.

Returning his attention to the minions, he went on, "I want all of you to look for the perpetrators of this outrage. It must be someone close to us, probably trying to stage some form of takeover. It would take a person with intimate knowledge of our organization to mimic my voice and Krieg's so well that it fooled either of us. Talk to your people, use whatever force is required, and _find me that person._ "

" ** _Heil Kaiser!_** "

The last roar was gratifyingly unified and loud. It got drowned out by a much louder rumble from above. Looking up again, he was stunned to see the sky had gone completely black, but only directly above them. There was a rim of sunlight coming in from all around the area a few hundred yards out, while above the courtyard the sky looked like something you saw on nature shows about tornadoes. Which was ridiculous, considering both their location and the sheer speed of the buildup of atmospheric change.

He had just about decided to suggest they find cover, when he discovered that the world seemed to have developed an ironic sense of humor.

The first ball of ice was about an inch across, and hit him directly in the face, shattering on his armor with little pieces spraying everywhere. Several more landed around him emitting crunching sounds. Krieg yelped, then rubbed his head, while Othala bent and picked a piece up, staring at it.

"What the fuck was that?" Max shouted, blinking ice particles and cold water out of his eyes. He could feel it running down inside his helmet.

"Hail, Kaiser," the woman said, her voice puzzled.

They all looked at each other, then up.

"Oh, fucking hell!" Victor yelled, seeing the wall of white objects dropping towards them. " _Run!_ "

Pandemonium reigned as the entire group split up and legged it in every direction, the massive hailstones shattering on the tarmac and leaving bruises behind. Just large enough to be extremely painful, they weren't quite sufficient to be seriously dangerous, but the sheer quantity was horrendous. Max charged for the nearest cover, a continuous gonging sound ringing in his ears as his armor was battered by the hail.

A few minutes later, the E88 members were hiding in the biggest warehouse and watching as the anomalous hailstorm died out as quickly as it had appeared, leaving bright skies and piles of quickly melting ice balls everywhere, along with a lot of angry and limping minions. Victor was rubbing a lump on his head, Krieg was swearing under his breath and massaging his left shoulder, and Othala was moving around healing the various damaged people.

"What the _fuck_ was that about?" Max grumbled. "The weather report didn't say anything about thunderstorms, and I haven't seen hail like that in years."

"It's an odd time of year for weather, it can change fast so close to the sea," Victor muttered, pressing his head and wincing.

"No one is seriously injured, but there are a lot of minor injuries," Othala reported, coming over to her husband and beginning to fix him up. "That was weird."

"Forget the damn weather. We have a spy to catch," Krieg commented acidly. Max nodded a little.

"True. All right, men, we won't let a little inclement weather stop us. As I was saying, get out there, lean on your subordinates, and find me that spy."

"Heil Kaiser," they all said, although in a few cases not without slightly nervous looks and one or two ironic grins.

There was a rumble from above.

Everyone stopped dead, then slowly raised their eyes.

"Oh, come _on!_ " Max yelled, watching dark clouds gathering _inside the fucking warehouse!_

They were already running by the time the first hailstone shattered on the cement floor.

* * *

In a building several miles away, a number of people were literally rolling on the floor laughing. The videos were already trending upwards on the web at a rate not seen in years.

* * *

Emily watched the recording, her face trembling as she tried to suppress wild laughter which was unbecoming of a woman in her position. Standing up, she moved to the window and looked out over the city. She could see a small, personalized, black cloud forming over a district that she knew was a hotbed of E88 activity.

After a long moment, she turned her head slightly to look towards the Docks. "I have no idea how, but I _know_ it was those insane lizards," she mumbled, her lips twitching. "Just this once, I'm going to enjoy it."

She went back to the computer, clicked the next video, and started chuckling under her breath.

"Just this once."


	187. Walls and Liftoff

Driving down the side of the DWU complex, Amy looked over to the left side at where she could see Taylor as Raptaur, and Lisa in her Metis body, along with a number of DWU personnel, talking in a cluster near the fence. Checking that there was no one behind her she indicated and turned the wheel, heading over in her truck. Pulling up near them she hopped out and wandered over to see what was going on.

"Hi, Amy," Taylor said, glancing at her.

"What's up?" she asked, smiling at her friends.

"New security system. We're just working out where to install it." Waving a large scaled hand at the fence, Taylor added, "That thing isn't enough. I came up with something that should do the trick nicely, but still allow for us to remove the fence to get vehicles through when needed. It started out as a variant on a commercial security barrier but I… sort of improved it."

"She means she tore the universe a new one and pushed the barrier inside it," ' _Metis_ ' chuckled. "It's pretty impressive. And extremely lethal if anyone is fool enough to try climbing over it."

"They might make it. Bits of them, anyway," Taylor grinned, showing teeth. Amy winced a little, wondering what the hell they'd come up with when she wasn't there to supervise.

"I may have got a little carried away," her large friend admitted happily. "I was originally going to bolt it to the ground, but I thought of a better idea. The guys have just been deciding on the best location for it."

"Considering how dangerous it could be, it's probably best to run it along inside the existing fence, then add another one on this side of it," Mark, who had been listening with interest, said. "That way we can keep people from getting accidentally involved in something nasty."

"Yep, I can do that," Taylor nodded. "We can make a load more of the chain link material and a lot of poles. We'll install the security barrier, then make the holes for the poles, you guys can do the inner fence. Is that OK?" She looked around at the crew of workers, who all nodded.

"Sure, Raptaur, no problem," one of the men said with a laugh. "Leave some work for us to do."

"Happily," she grinned. "OK. Mark out the positions for the deployment towers, while I make enough chain link for the entire place. I've been meaning to make some more for stock anyway, we were getting low the last time I looked."

"A dozen extra rolls would be ideal," another worker, Amy thought his name was Aaron, put in. Taylor glanced at him and nodded.

"OK."

She moved to a position fifty feet away and got to work, rolls of shiny metal chain-link appearing under her hands. Amy watched as the crew started measuring out a line two feet inside the existing fence using some sort of aerosol system on a wheeled pole which left bright yellow paint behind, every two hundred feet marking an X. Another group was following them doing the same thing two feet further inside the first line and making more frequent Xs.

"I'm heading over to the office, then," she said.

"Sure. See you later, Amy," ' _Metis_ ' smiled. "If you see Ianthe tell her to come and help, will you? She's around somewhere."

Grinning at the request, the Dallon girl nodded, getting back into her truck, waving at Zephron who had been watching them with a small smirk of his own. He waved back, then turned to help the workers. Wondering how much the enormous man knew or suspected, she started the vehicle and drove off to the office, parking inside when she got there. Twenty minutes or so later, she climbed out of the bay in a different spot, shook the water off, and jogged back to the others.

By now the entire zone had been marked out for both the security fence, whatever it was going to be, and the inner chain-link one, a couple of feet further in. Joining the group, she greeted them.

"Amy said you guys were up to something interesting," she said.

"Yep. Glad you turned up." Taylor smirked at her, both of them suppressing a laugh. "Let's see how this works."

"What's the plan?"

"The original idea was to make the system and attach it with really serious EDM ground anchors, but I came up with a better idea. Let's see if it works the way I hope it will." Taylor went to one of the marked Xs and leaned over it, the composite material that covered the entire yard flowing out of the way to leave a two-foot-square gap. Holding out her hand she made a pole of the familiar material and jammed it firmly into the ground, then held on.

Everyone felt a steady rumble from under their feet, along with a loud crunching sound. The entire area vibrated noticeably.

"What the hell are you doing?" Zephron asked, his eyebrows going up.

"Making damn sure this won't get knocked over," Taylor replied. "I'm growing it straight down in a spike into the rock under us, and also branching it out in a series of disks about six feet across every ten feet. To pull it out you'd need to dig a fucking huge hole. Or get my sister irritated. It certainly won't be threatened by anyone driving into it."

"Impressive," he muttered, watching.

After a few more seconds, the sounds stopped. She looked satisfied. "That should be well into bedrock. OK, now to add the useful bits." The pole extended upwards to about twenty feet, then expanded out into a rectangular column two feet wide by about six inches thick, the top three feet tilting out at a twenty-degree angle. When she'd finished with it, the ground covering grew back to fuse to the bottom of the pole seamlessly. Walking around it, she nodded, before putting her hand on it and concentrating for a minute or so. "First one done. Let's get the second one in, then we can test this section."

The process was repeated two hundred feet further on down the paint line. Only a few minutes later the second pole was installed. Everyone in the yard was watching with interest by this point, the rumbling and vibration having attracted quite a few observers from the various workshops.

Taylor walked along the line between the two poles, the ground cover separating to leave an inch-wide slot that ran dead straight from one to the other. Looking along it when she reached the other pole, she nodded, appearing pleased.

"That's good. OK, everyone stand back out of the way. DO NOT stand between the poles."

She stepped back and looked around, everyone in the area moving rapidly back to a safe distance. When she was sure there was no one in the danger area, she reached out and touched the one she was standing next to.

The clacking sound that followed was quite loud, sharp metallic snaps coming one after the other in rapid sequence. In under half a second a barrier as tall as the poles appeared from the one she was touching and grew in jumps of about ten feet towards the second one, stopping when it merged with it. The suddenness of the entire thing was shocking. It looked like stop-motion animation in real life, surprising even Amy. Lisa was the only one other than Taylor who seemed to expect it.

Each ten foot section of barrier had a two foot square, brilliant yellow warning sign in the center of it, about four feet up, the black icon showing a stylized human figure split down the center-line, one half tipping over, with under it a helpful warning legend.

 **FamTech™ ImpregnaBarrier**

 **DANGER!**

 **Subatomic Edge**

 **Do Not Climb or Obstruct Deployment**

 **Extreme Hazard of Gruesome Death**

 **Designed and installed by BBFO, LLC for the DWU, Brockton Bay**

"Fuck me!" Mark yelped, taking another step back unconsciously. "How the fuck…?"

"Fractal dimensional storage in the poles," Taylor explained. "The panels are about ten thousandths of an inch thick, with the top and leading edges subatomically sharp. It will cut anything, except EDM itself. Even at that thickness, it would take a small nuke to even begin to damage it. A depleted uranium tank penetrator would just bounce. I doubt you'd feel it on this side aside from the heat from the kinetic energy. They also go down into the bedrock the same distance as they're tall. I'll close the slot up to touch them, they extrude with enough force to cut through anything that gets in the way, which is why we need the inside fence."

"You said it was dangerous, but..." He looked shocked. "That's horrific."

"It wouldn't be a good idea to be standing right there," she agreed with a happily bloodthirsty grin. "In anything. Even a tank would get sliced in half. The interlocks will prevent any of our people being harmed, I'll program it with their unique biosignatures over the next few days as people come in. We need to link the control system into the admin building, Danny's office, the security office, and alarm points around the site, but that's easy enough."

Holding out her hand she produced a steel grappling hook with three prongs and a coil of rope, which she handed to the security chief. "Here, try it."

Taking it from her, he examined it, then looked up at the barrier with an evaluating eye. Letting out a yard or so of rope he spun the hook expertly, making Amy think he'd done it before, probably quite a few times, then tossed it upwards. The hook arced through the air to land neatly atop the wall, one prong going over the edge. As it came down it didn't even slow, the prong that went over simply separating from the rest like it was made of air. The remains slid down the angled section and dropped to the ground with a clatter.

Everyone in the area stared at it, then the wall, then Taylor, who was looking pleased.

"Jesus," Zephron muttered. "If someone tries to climb that..."

"They leave fingers, hands, arms, whatever, on the other side." Lisa nodded. "On the plus side, the blood will just run off."

"Oh, that makes it _so_ much better," he said with a slightly disgusted expression.

Walking over to the barrier, Mark knocked it with his knuckles, then felt it. "No one is even going to go up that with suction cups," he said. "It's way too slick to let them work."

"It's also full of tiny little holes," Taylor replied. "I thought of that. They're almost invisible, but they'll let air through, so even a really good suction cup wouldn't stick. No glue will either, or magnets, or welding, or anything else I could think of. I can't guarantee that some clever Tinker couldn't work out a way to stick to it, but they'd have to think about it a lot. Going over the top would be incredibly dangerous, no one is going to come _through_ it, and going under would be even more difficult. It's not really totally impregnable of course, but it's mainly intended to stop Merchants or other gangers simply ramming their way through."

"If they try, well..." Lisa shrugged. "We'll find the wreckage on the other side. And we'll need to replace the chain link again."

"Extremely impressive, ladies," Mark whistled appreciatively. "I can think of half a dozen of my old employers who'd bite your arm off to have something like this. There are a number of pretty serious military installations that aren't nearly as hard to get into. Speaking from personal experience that I can't say anything more about, you understand."

"We may want a list of these people at some point, Mark," Lisa smiled. "BBFO might be interesting in selling security installations."

"I'll put out a few feelers," he replied. "OK, I guess we do the rest, then install the inner fence."

"Yep. Shouldn't take more than a couple of hours to finish this," Taylor said with an air of pleasure. "Then it's off to do other things."

She turned back to the barrier, heading down the length of it to the second pole, Lisa and Amy following, while behind her the construction crew started laying out the poles and chain link material.

* * *

Danny slowed as he neared the gate, looking both ways down the fence, which seemed to now be two fences, one four feet inside the other. The inner one was shiny and new, and certainly hadn't been there the day before. Between them were tall gray towers at intervals. "She's been busy," he muttered to himself, moving the car forward to the barrier, which Mike was already raising.

"Impressive new security system those lizards installed, Danny," the guard greeted him, looking pleased. "They're nearly finished with the wiring, I heard, and the inner fence is mostly done."

"It's not quite what I expected," he said, looking towards where he could see a group of workers installing another section of chain-link in the distance.

"It's better," Mike grinned. "Than anything else I've _ever_ seen. No way those idiot Merchants are getting through it."

Inspecting the towers which ringed the main entrance, Danny could see that they formed a square around the area of the guard hut and the barrier. "What's this part supposed to do?"

"It gives us an inner and outer gate when the barrier is deployed," Mike explained. "Like an airlock. We can open them independently to pass people through. There's enough room in the zone for a decent sized truck so it won't cause us any trouble to normal operations."

"OK." Danny nodded, looking around again. "Not bad. I think I need to go and see Raptaur. This is… somewhat surprising."

"Wait until you see it working," Mike snickered. "You think you've seen it all then you run across some new lizard toy and you realize you've barely seen anything."

"Tell me about it," Danny sighed. Grinning, the man waved him through, then went back to his companion.

Parking his car, Danny got out and started walking over to where his daughter, her currently-reptilian friends, and several DWU workers were gathered around a table on which he could see some large printouts flapping in the light breeze. Several members of the electrical department were among them, taking notes.

"Hi, Danny," Lisa said to him, her sharp teeth glinting in a friendly smile. "What do you think?"

He looked at the fence. "I think I don't quite get it. This isn't anything like the commercial stuff we were talking about."

"Oh, that was far too fiddly to deal with," Taylor snorted, waving her hands dismissively. "We came up with something way better."

"We'll have the wiring done in five minutes, Raptaur," one of the electricians commented, looking up from the plans. "They're just fitting the last alarm klaxon now, and the final activation switch."

"The inner fence is about eighty percent complete," someone else reported, holding up a radio. "It'll need another forty minutes."

"OK. We'll test it when the wiring is done. Tell everyone to stop work on the inner fence for the moment, and all crew foremen to check their zone is clear." Taylor sounded excited as she gave clear orders to several people, all of whom nodded and performed the desired action with alacrity and respect. Danny watched and listened with a sense of amused pride, his daughter was definitely in her element when she was making things. Everyone around her seemed to enjoy the entire thing as well, obviously feeling she was handling it well.

He caught Amy's glowing green eye, the expression in it also showing amusement, as she listened quietly from the sidelines. He smiled at her, getting one back.

Shortly they had radio confirmation that all the wiring was finished and everyone was clear. Taylor asked for a double check, got the same result, then waved to Zephron, who was standing beside the admin building two hundred yards away, his hand on a bright orange box that was also brand new. He waved back, opened the box, and hit a switch inside it.

Loud alarms went off around the site, echoes bouncing off the surrounding buildings, the sound distinctive and entirely unlike any of the normal fire or emergency alert noises.

The alarms went for about fifteen seconds, then stopped. Immediately there was a metallic clatter that came and went in under a second from all around the entire site.

Danny gaped at the twenty-foot gray barrier that had sprouted sideways out of the poles between the inner and outer fences almost too fast to see, forming a seamless wall around the whole DWU complex, even across the waterfront. He turned on the spot, looking around in amazement. "Holy shit," he mumbled. "That's… very impressive indeed."

Reading one of the warning signs, he smiled a little. "FamTech™?" he asked, glancing at Lisa.

"Put the paperwork in for the trademark a week ago," she grinned. "And a few other useful or amusing ones. If we're going to sell Family technology, we need a brand."

"Fair enough."

Taylor, who was grinning happily, explained the entire system to him, at the end of which she waved to Zephron again. He did something inside the box and closed it. The fence rattled away into the poles just as fast as it had deployed, like something out of a particularly good CGI scene. Giving the all clear over the radio, she put the handset back into her harness and turned to him as the various workers resumed installing the interior fence. "So? What do you think?"

"I think that you're the type of person who, when asked for a better mousetrap, designs one that then requires a better mouse as well, which you also design," he chuckled, making her grin. "This is slightly over the top."

"It's so _far_ over the top we need a different word for it," Mark, who had approached them from another group of workers, said. "But it's also extremely good work. It should do unless Skidmark has air support. None of Squealers little creations are going to stand a chance against that barrier."

"Hopefully we won't put that to the test," Danny replied with a quick glance at Lisa, who shrugged minutely.

"Hopefully. But you can never tell with that bunch of lunatics." The security chief sighed a little. "On a less irritating note, I'm expecting a delivery later today with some interesting toys in. There may be more coming, some free gifts were thrown in by my contact. He thought they might be helpful, but wasn't sure when they'd arrive."

"What sort of things?"

"Stun grenades, smoke grenades, some beanbag guns, mostly stuff like that. Plus two dozen mil-spec thermal sights that we don't have, never heard of, and definitely don't have the manuals and other documentation on. And we have no idea where they came from."

Danny raised his eyebrows, while Lisa snickered. "I see. I'm shocked. Although, knowing the contact in question, and _you_ , perhaps not as much as I should be. Make sure they get locked up safely."

"Raptaur is going to convert shed Six-A into an armory in a minute," Mark smiled. "The stuff will be safe."

"Good." Danny looked around at the ongoing work. "Annoying that we have to go to these lengths, but better this and a little quiet bending of the rules than being surprised and attacked by rampaging drug addicts. Hookwolf and his fuckwits was one time too many."

"At least that guy was prepared to listen when I insisted he stayed away," Taylor frowned. "He's an idiot but he's not a fool. From what I hear that's a massive improvement on Skidmark."

"He's gotten worse over the years, he's taken so much shit it fried what little brains he started with," the blond man noted. "And he was always a few sticks short of a bundle. We can't really predict what the man is likely to do aside from something stupid when it would be least appreciated. Unless someone is good enough to shoot him in the head for us, which is always a possibility I suppose, sooner or later he's probably going to try something."

"That fits with my information," Lisa grumbled. "Annoyingly. Everything I've heard points to that. He's not being particularly subtle, apparently quite a few people have heard what he's up to."

"Skidmark doesn't do subtle," Mark agreed. "He probably can't even spell it." He shrugged. "Nothing we can do but wait." Looking around, he turned to Danny. "I'll get back to my office and work out a good plan for training with the new gear, and a new patrol schedule."

"OK, Mark. See you later."

"Bye, girls," the man called as he walked off, waving to Taylor and her friends, who waved back.

When it was just the four of them in a group, Danny looked around the site again, then gazed at his daughter. "You really don't know the meaning of overkill, do you?"

"No such thing," she smirked, while Amy and Lisa sighed and grinned respectively. "I'm pretty happy with the end result. Everyone's put in a morning of very hard work."

"It's an impressive amount of change for about five hours, even considering your abilities," he said. "All right. You'd better do that shed upgrade so we have somewhere to put all Mark's new stuff we don't actually have. Make keys for the security office, me, and some spares for you lot."

"All right. Then it's time for fun."

"Don't try to hide it, this was fun for you," Amy laughed.

Taylor nodded, an amused expression crossing her scaly face. "Sure it was. But this was fun I _had_ to do. The next bit is fun I _want_ to do. There's a difference."

"Why do I have the horrible feeling that this is going to be in the papers tomorrow?" Danny sighed.

"Experience and a keen sense of impending doom?" Lisa suggested helpfully.

He looked hard at her, shook his head when she merely smiled, and headed off in search of a cup of coffee. He had work to do and people to coordinate.

* * *

Hanging the spare keys up in the key box, Lisa turned to Taylor, who was back in her base form, studying a book and making notes, whistling under her breath. "OK. All the important things are done. Spill. What's got you so excited?"

"Excited, dear cousin?" Taylor asked without looking up, although she was smiling.

{Yes, excited,} Lisa replied, using Famtalk to point out she _really_ wanted to know. Sometimes her power's inability to read her friend was extremely annoying. Although, that said, she got the impression her power was currently staring at Taylor with bated breath, wagging its tail excitedly like a small dog looking at a stick. The comparison made her smile to herself.

{She does seem more happy than normal, and she's usually pretty happy,} Amy commented from over by the computers where she was also doing some sort of research. She turned her head to look behind her. {Tell us. You're going to do something weird, aren't you?}

Taylor changed her head into her Saurial one, as it made speaking that language much easier, and snickered. {Depends on your definition of weird, I suppose. I prefer to think of it as something I've wanted to do all my life, and especially since Varga and I merged. We've been working on a way to do it. Came up with several, but this one looks like it could be the most fun.}

{Stop beating about the bush,} Lisa sighed. {What are you going to do?}

{I'm going to fly,} Taylor grinned.

Both her friends looked at her for a long few seconds, then each other. {Um…,} Lisa began.

{Fly?} Amy asked, looking very interested. {Have you two come up with a viable flying form now?}

{Several, actually, but that's for later. We need a good reason to introduce a cousin with wings, and some of the details are still a work in progress. No, this is much easier in a way, although only for me, because of my own abilities other than the shape-shifting.}

Taylor jumped to her feet and went over to a spare computer, quickly finding a video which she played, her friends watching it curiously. {A much better version of that, with some Family modifications.}

{Wow.} Amy stared at her, then the screen. {Really?}

{Yep. Worked out the design over the last couple of weeks, I'm about ninety percent sure it'll work. Well, eighty percent.} Taylor thought for a moment. {Seventy five.}

Both the others exchanged another look. {I'm glad you're basically indestructible,} Lisa commented with a snarky look. {I think you might need it.}

{Have faith in your beloved cousin, Metis,} Taylor giggled. {The ancient Family arts are capable of miracles.}

{I know, but… Make sure you have your camera on. This could be fucking hysterical, no matter _what_ happens.}

All three girls laughed. Then Taylor started making parts, Lisa examining them as she went and suggesting changes based on what her power was whispering to her subconscious. It was definitely having as much fun as they were.

* * *

"You sure about this?" Amy studied her friend.

Taylor, currently Saurial, nodded firmly. "I'm fine. Are you recording?"

"We both are. Make it look good, the reputation of giant lizards everywhere hangs in the balance."

"It's a little cloudy, are you sure you don't want to wait until it clears up?" Lisa asked, looking at the sky. After a clear start the day had clouded over and warmed up, rain having fallen while they were inside, but it was passing now. Even so, the clouds weren't up all that far and there were only intermittent patches of sunlight.

"No. I've been waiting for this for ages. No longer will I be restricted to mere ground level like some primitive!" Taylor announced grandly. Pointing at the sky, she grinned like an idiot. "Up and away."

Stepping back to a safe distance, Amy and Lisa looked at each other and shrugged. Their friend was insane, but then they'd always known that. Neither of them were in a position to cast stones.

"OK, then. Clear to take off when ready, you weird little cousin."

"I thank you," Taylor replied with a bow, before bending down and checking the straps that bound her clawed feet to the top of her newly created device. It was standing on four short legs that kept the pair of nozzles protruding from the underside clear of the ground.

With a last look around, she smiled happily. A number of workers were watching her, some of them with camera-phones ready, all of them looking fascinated.

"Here we go," she laughed. Straightening up, she braced herself. There was a hiss from the nozzles, which almost instantly turned into an ear-splitting high-pitched roar as water under enormous pressure came out of the two nozzles. The recoil instantly pushed the surfboard-like device into the air with enough acceleration that she was three hundred feet up in the time it took Amy to blink, shielding her eyes from the splatter of water and debris blown from the surface of the yard.

"Holy shit," Lisa gasped, shading her eyes as she followed the path their friend was taking.

"Wheeeeeeeeee!"

The fading cry of joy made them exchange a look then start laughing.

"She has absolutely no idea how to control that thing does she?" Amy asked rhetorically as she watched the flailing figure flip end over end, her tail waving around frantically as Taylor tried to correct her course.

"Nope."

"Think she'll work it out before she hits something?"

There was a distant crash.

"Nope."

The roar restarted, the tiny dot followed by a plume of mist disappearing into a gap between two buildings in the distance.

"Think everyone is going to think she's entirely nuts?"

"Yep."

Amy grinned. "I bet the PRT is going to shit a brick."

Lisa snickered. " _I_ bet she's going to buzz the Rig when she figures out how to fly that crazy invention."

They looked at each other again, then started giggling. "She may be a while. Come and look at this idea I had. I could do with your insight."

"OK." Lisa followed her friend back inside, closing the door behind her.

* * *

Four hundred feet up, Taylor giggled wildly to herself. This was fun. Although it was also not quite going as easily as those guys on YouTube made it look.

Fiddling with the chamber pressure and life of the generated water, she was able to change the thrust that the water jets produced, which in turn affected the flight characteristics considerably. She and the Varga kept making tiny changes to the nozzles as well to optimize them for this application. Her research into water nozzles made for maximum jet coherency had mainly found applications for fire hoses and similar systems, which were generally not designed for maximum thrust. More the opposite, in fact.

She made another change, then frantically lashed her tail in an attempt to regain the precarious stability she'd enjoyed for close to three seconds. A cry of joy came from her, making her head companion laugh, as she tipped over into horizontal flight, moving at well over a hundred miles an hour.

 _"The stability leaves something to be desired but there's no lack of power,"_ he commented dryly, watching the world blur past.

"Wheee!" she replied. He laughed more loudly.

 _"You keep saying that. I'm not entirely certain you're using it correctly."_

"Hey, I've wanted to do this my whole life, so shut up," she snickered. "Oops." Bouncing off the road surface hard enough to leave a dent in the tarmac, she cartwheeled a couple of times then rose into the air again, moving her body weight around in an attempt to learn how to stabilize herself. Her tail was key to the entire thing, she'd found. As was the jet size, shape, aim, pressure, flow rate, and several other variables which between the pair of them they were gradually learning about.

"This is harder than it looks," she added, once she was more or less stable once more.

 _"I suspect that the devices that are shown on the internet benefit from the drag of the hoses from the pumps. We have no such benefit, and much more power available."_

That was true enough, the thrust of the water rockets they'd designed was ridiculous. Being able to make water at any desired pressure turned out to be a very effective and scarily powerful technique. She'd originally been a little dubious about the idea, thinking that more exotic methods might be required, but simple water was more than enough, and much safer to bystanders.

"Wooohooooo!" she yodeled happily, feeling stable enough to increase speed, rocketing down the road towards the commercial district, away from the docks. This area was practically unpopulated so no one seemed to be around.

"Don't get carried away too soon, we still have the stability issue," he warned, sounding amused.

"It's fine, I've nearly got it," she replied.

A twitch of one foot made her veer off course before she could correct.

"Aaaaaahhhh!" she screamed as the rig dived sideways unexpectedly, aiming at the ground.

 _" **Sure** you have."_

Frantically moving everything she possessed, she managed to level off again, missing a building and going down a street she didn't mean to, only to find herself heading at about two hundred miles an hour straight at the freeway overpass ahead of her. She just had time to recognize Armsmaster and Assault looking at her with surprise when she was past them and slamming into the concrete with a solid crunch she nearly felt. Cutting the water flow, she dropped to the ground, laughing.

"It's OK," she said to the Varga. "I _meant_ to do that."

 _"Of course you did,"_ he commented with a mental grin. _" **Anyone** would have taken the opportunity to fly headfirst into a bridge if it was presented to them."_

Snickering, she rolled to her feet, hopped a little to get the board under her, and fired it up again, crouching a little. The jets roared into life once more and she ascended like a missile from its pad, the ground dropping away from her at a startling rate. This time she kept going, right into the clouds, finding after only a few seconds of damp blankness she broke out into brilliant sunlight. "Wow!"

Grinning like an idiot, she kept rising, finding that she nearly had the hang of it now. Reducing thrust she slowed, looking around, until she was nearly hovering, at what she estimated was probably about three thousand feet up. "This is incredible," she shouted, spreading her arms widely at the scene.

Two seconds later she was upside down and heading straight back at the ground.

 _"Perhaps a good rule of thumb is don't make sudden motions until you know how to fly it, hmm, Brain?"_ the Varga said cheerfully as they re-entered the clouds, picking up speed rapidly.

"Oh SHHHIIIITTT!" she screamed, hearing the sounds on the ground get louder, her cry nearly drowned out by his laughter. Dropping out the bottom of the misty layer she found herself far too close to the city, frantically tucking into a ball then getting her lift platform and feet under her, before straightening up again and applying loads of power. They slowed to a halt fractions of a second before impact, lost stability again, then tipped forward, the thrust instantly accelerating them forward.

She shot past Armsmaster and Assault once more, calling out a cheery greeting in the middle of another yodel of happy excitement, bounced off a building with a thud, recoiled from it across the street into another one, then wobbled erratically around for another fifteen seconds of wild maneuvers. Abruptly, as the last few variables slotted into place in her mental model of the thrust system, she finally worked out how to fly it properly, finding all at once it became simple.

"Fucking fantastic!" Taylor smiled, straightening up and hovering, looking around her, then down at all the people watching. "Not quite how I meant to show it off, but… No real damage."

 _"That bank you hit might want the dent in the front patched,"_ her demonic companion pointed out with a snicker.

"Meh, I'll do that on the way back." With a slight mental effort she increased power, while bending a leg to make it climb in a spiral, which spun her around half a dozen times on the way up. At a thousand feet in the now-clear skies, a hole in the clouds having appeared and spread bright sunlight across the scenery, she flipped over and over, tucking her tail against her legs, then using it to quickly regain a standing position.

Cutting the thrust made her fall vertically, until she reapplied power, slamming to a halt more or less where she'd been. _"Not bad,"_ the Varga chuckled. _"Show-off."_

With a grin she nodded, then looked around. Waving to the two capes who were gaping up at her, along with the entire crowd of people who had stopped to watch as well, she turned towards the bay, leaned forward, and powered up. Seconds later she was approaching the Medhall tower at something like a hundred and fifty miles an hour. Pulling up just before she hit it, she zoomed up the side spraying short-lived water over the windows, waved at Max as he gaped at her out his office window, apparently in the middle of packing a suitcase, then cleared the roof line.

Once more she tipped forward, to a much steeper angle, nearly going flat, and wound the power up. A scream of joy left her mouth as she accelerated at a massive rate, wondering how fast she was going. Pulling her tail into line with her legs she arched her body a little, experimenting with aerodynamic lift, her arms held flat to her sides and her head forward, her neck flexible enough to allow her to put it into a position a normal human would have found uncomfortable if even possible. Her sunglasses were enough to keep the wind out of her eyes, although she could feel the air flowing over her scales almost like water.

' _This is_ ** _way_** _faster than I can do underwater as Umihebi_ ,' she remarked to her friend.

 _"Much less resistance and a lot more thrust proportionally,"_ he replied. _"Although I have to admit, I now wonder how well this would scale up."_

' _Oh, now_ ** _there's_** _an interesting idea_ ,' she snickered. ' _Not right now, though. I want to see how well this works before we scare the world with a flying sea serpent_.'

 _"Fair enough."_ His amusement was apparent to her, as was his enjoyment of the experience.

They'd left the bay behind and were now heading out over the ocean, so she wound the power up some more, feeling the push on her legs increase as their speed went ever higher. A moment later she had to correct her attitude as she felt the turbulence abruptly increase, wobbling a little, then noticing to her astonishment a short-lived vapor cloud form over her muzzle and shoulders. It quickly disappeared and the flight became smooth once more.

' _Holy crap, I think we just went supersonic!_ ' she said with surprise.

 _"It appears so, that looked like a shock cloud to me, from seeing the videos on the internet. Impressive. And we're nowhere near maximum thrust."_

' _Let's see what this thing can do_ ,' she grinned, making some changes to the upper surface of the thrust platform to make it more aerodynamic, then pouring on the power and climbing.

By the time she leveled off, the clouds were a flat surface far below, the ocean a blue and gray sheet, and the sky above was darkening. ' _Unbelievable_ ,' she cackled inside her head. ' _We must be at, oh, ten or eleven miles up? More? And god knows how fast, but it's nice and warm_.'

 _"Air resistance does seem to provide a pleasant heating effect,"_ he remarked. _"Do you want to try for orbit? We could go and worry the Simurgh if we can find her."_

 _'I'm still not completely convinced they're scared of us,'_ she replied with a grin. ' _Probably best to take this in stages. But I bet we could do it._ '

 _"Easily, we don't have any fuel restrictions, we could keep accelerating more or less indefinitely, or at least until you get bored."_ He actually sounded like he was disappointed that she was staying in the atmosphere.

' _Next time, we'll see about a proper height test_ ,' she promised her friend. ' _We need some instrumentation first, I think, and some sort of comms system back home. If I pull my phone out at whatever ridiculous speed we're going I'll lose it, and it probably won't work here anyway. There's hardly any air pressure to carry the sound._ '

They'd changed her armor as the flight test progressed, making it more streamlined, and replacing the normal skirt with a formfitting pair of leggings made in a similar manner to Amy's riding suit, with a sleeve for her tail. The pressure of the air on her exposed scales was noticeable, as was the heat from shoving it violently out of the way, but nothing very interesting, considering she could put her hand in molten iron and only feel it as quite warm. Overall it was a pleasant sensation.

 _"If we made the armor into more of an aircraft shape, we could reduce the power required considerably,"_ he pointed out after a moment. _"This is ridiculously inefficient."_

' _True, but it's not like we actually care about the inefficiency, is it?_ ' she responded lightly. ' _No penalties for needing more power than the minimum possible. This is more fun._ '

They were high enough that she could clearly see the horizon starting to curve. She was a little worried about her camera, which she'd encased in a block of Dragon's insulation, with a small transparent window, made of multiple layers of pure silica separated by vacuum, over the lens. Hopefully that would be enough to stop the heat caused by her flight velocity from damaging it. If not, it was easily replaceable, but she liked it and didn't want to break it if possible.

Looking around, she couldn't even see land any more. ' _I wonder where we are?_ ' she commented.

 _"At least four hundred miles out, I think,"_ he replied.

' _Probably time to go back. I think I've got the hang of this._ '

Smiling, she reduced the power, finding that she very rapidly slowed down. Playing with the thrust for a while, Taylor curved her body a little and described a huge semicircle in the sky, until she was pointing back the way she'd come, then sped up once more to about the same rate as before, which she thought was probably over four thousand miles an hour based on distance and time. Certainly deep into hypersonic speeds, which was far better than she'd hoped for.

And all with a pair of water rockets.

Admittedly, Varga-magic powered ones with unlimited reaction mass and any exhaust velocity she cared to apply, but even so…

' _I think we can put this down as a successful test_ ,' she giggled.

 _"Indeed. It worked in a very gratifying manner."_ He sounded extremely pleased.

' _Want a go?_ '

 _"I would love it, thank you,"_ he laughed. She carefully transferred control over to her companion then settled back to enjoy the ride.

* * *

"Tracking Saurial at flight level six three five, speed Mach four, on a bearing straight back towards Brockton Bay," the console operator stated, the entire PRT flight control room listening quietly. "She reached flight level seven eight zero and Mach six, four hundred and sixty-two miles out, then slowed to Mach two and turned around. Must have pulled about eighteen G in the turn, it was extremely sharp. Whatever the hell is letting her fly is highly maneuverable."

"Oh, god, the Family have air support now," Director Piggot muttered. "Just what we needed."

"I'm waiting to see Kaiju do it," the operator chuckled, then flinched at the look she gave him.

" _I am not,_ " she growled.

"No, Ma'am. Sorry, Ma'am."

His colleague, sitting next to him, watching the tracking screen, suppressed a chuckle, then announced, "Passing over Brockton Bay in five seconds. Three, two, one… she's heading inland and slowing again."

A few seconds later a muted thump shook the entire building very slightly as the sonic boom caused by a flying reptile doing horrible things to reality caught up with them. "Huh. Somehow she's suppressing most of the shock wave, that was remarkably mild," the tech commented. "No damage, although everyone in the city probably heard it."

"The Air Force is on the line for you, Director," another operator said, holding out a headset. "Colonel Nellis from Cape Cod AFS tracking." The director sighed, then took it and put it on.

"Hello, Colonel. It's been a while."

She listened, while everyone else tried not to. Or at least, to not be seen doing so.

"Yes, I remember. Glory Girl was a little over-excited that time. She'd only just Triggered."

"Yes. The Family."

There was a longer pause.

"No, I didn't know they could fly either. But we've learned to never assume they can't do anything they want to. I suppose it just never came up until now."

"Water, apparently, according to Armsmaster. Twin water rockets."

She actually smiled at the response. The staff in the flight operations room exchanged a glance. Apparently she found the idea that for once, someone else was having the headache rather amusing. "Yes, I said water. Some sort of lift platform she was standing on, with a pair of nozzles coming out the bottom. No, I doubt very much that it is something anyone outside the Family could either duplicate or use. You're welcome to ask, but I think you'll be disappointed."

Her grin widened for a moment, then went away. "Yes, probably best to put it down as Parahuman activities and forget it. I'll copy you on the report. All right. Good-bye, Colonel." She tapped the disconnect button, then handed the headset back.

"Thank you, Jennifer," she said to the operator.

"Saurial now subsonic, heading for a landing at the DWU facility," the tracking operator who had a sense of humor said. "She's disappeared into the ground clutter, we've lost her."

"All right." The director sighed a little. "Write it up and send it to me. I need some coffee." She turned and headed for the door. Everyone could swear they heard her mumble, " _And some aspirin. Again. Damn lizards_."

When she was safely gone, the first tracking operator turned to the other one. "I still want to see Kaiju do that."

"Me too. But not when _she's_ standing behind me. Remember she carries a side-arm."

"Good point."

"I know."

They looked at each other, grinned, and began filing the flight data in the every-growing ' _Family_ ' sightings folder.

If you had a sense of the absurd, Brockton Bay was an interesting posting.


	188. Debrief and Delivery

Chris watched the descending form of Saurial, his eyes so wide they hurt. His mind was a raging torrent, flooded with rivulets of thought cascading into a waterfall of creative alternatives. Plus he was envious enough to chew marbles.

"How the hell is she _doing_ that?" he muttered out loud, watching the plume of misty vapor shoot out from under the device the distant lizard-girl was standing on. It was clearly a reaction drive of some form, probably using a liquid as the working mass, but what was the power source? It was far too small to have fuel tanks of any decent size, yet he'd heard the sonic boom a moment ago, which was almost certainly connected to Saurial's flying thing. Even to barely go supersonic would require a lot of power, especially as there was no visible adherence to the laws of aerodynamics. Unless she had some form of force field surrounding her to part the air around her…

"Hmm." He thought hard, still watching through his binoculars, until the dropping form disappeared behind the buildings. "I didn't know she was that much of a Tinker. Aside from the scales and tail she seems to have lucked into every power you could think of." Chris was beginning to think that the aforementioned scales and tail would be a small price to pay for such abilities.

Putting the binoculars down, he moved back to the table and opened his laptop, starting a few searches going. Leaning over to one of the Ward's common room computers he typed one-handed, looking for any information on rockets using water. After a moment, he moved to another one and began looking for any reports on the internal PRT system on the recent reptilian flight.

Finding the relevant flight log had just been filed, he looked around the otherwise empty room, then guiltily typed in a password he wasn't supposed to know, reading the log quickly with his eyes widening again comically, before hastily closing it and erasing any traces of his illicit access. ' _Mach_ ** _six?_** " he thought in shocked wonder. ' _And a round trip of over eight hundred miles, to over seventy-three thousand feet?!_ '

The figures were utterly absurd. If not entirely impossible. Assuming it wasn't some inherent flight ability she'd never shown before, which wasn't something he was willing to completely rule out bearing in mind who it was, the damn girl had made something that was… definitely more than a little impressive.

His envy level went up to the point he could swallow the marbles and start chewing chrome steel bearings instead.

Reading the results of his almost random searches on the internet, he kept poking around hoping for inspiration. A notebook next to him was quickly filling with drawings and writing that he would, later that night, read over and over, trying to work out what he'd been thinking.

When he finally figured it out, he was going to be quite pleased.

* * *

"Was that you?" Amy asked as Taylor came in, looking very pleased indeed with herself.

"Was what me?"

"The fairly distinct sonic boom about a minute or so ago." The healer gave her a look, as did Lisa. Taylor grinned at them.

"It may well have been," she admitted. "I was going pretty quick."

"I hope you didn't break any windows, or people are going to be annoyed," Lisa commented. "Generally supersonic flight is frowned upon around inhabited areas."

"We thought of that, Varga was using a modified version of the cloaking technique to suppress it, but I guess he didn't have it wound up far enough," their friend replied, sitting in a chair and leaning back with a highly satisfied look on her blue-scaled face. "Next time we can get it right."

"Why not cloak entirely?" Amy asked curiously.

"It seemed like a possibly dangerous thing if no one knew we were coming. At that speed it would take us a little while to slow down or dodge so we thought it was a good idea to make sure we didn't disappear from radar entirely. Plus we can reserve that for when we actually need it." Taylor shrugged a bit. "Not to mention it gave the PRT something to do."

"Fair enough, and probably a good idea."

"I stayed a long way away from any other air traffic as well, I didn't want my shock wave to cause them any problems. I guess I'll need to find out the rules on flying capes, assuming there are any. Most of what I could find on the web was meant for people who are a lot slower and lower, like Kid Win. Or your sister."

"She can go supersonic, just," Amy replied with a smirk. "And the first time she found _that_ out she was _very_ low. The Air Force scrambled a jet to investigate since she decided to experiment a bit too close to a military installation. Mom wasn't pleased. Director Piggot and some Colonel from the Air Force came around and yelled at her for a while, them Mom went and yelled at Vicky for longer. I think Aegis got a bit of a talking to once as well, he managed to end up a little too close to a commercial jet. But if you stay away from other aircraft that aren't associated with you, they're not too worried these days. Too many flying capes to deal with. It's probably different around a big airport, but the nearest one of those is Boston. I'd think it was best to stay away from there without a good reason to visit, just in case."

"Huh. Maybe I need to talk to Vicky about it, then. She must know the rules."

"I know that the PRT have some sort of handbook on flying Parahumans and common sense, but I've never read it. All I know is what I picked up from talking to Vicky. I can see if I can borrow her copy. Assuming that they don't stick one in the post, of course. I doubt anyone around here doesn't know now that the Family have an airborne contingent these days."

Taylor grinned widely. "It was fucking fun, I can tell you that much. Even better than I hoped."

"So how far did you go, how fast, and how high?" Lisa asked with an interested look.

"Not completely sure on any of those points," the other girl said with a small frown. "I need some proper flight instrumentation. Maybe I should talk to Dragon. We think it was probably about four hundred miles or so off the coast, and maybe something over ten miles up? A lot higher than commercial aircraft, anyway, we saw a few contrails at least as far under us as they are normally over us on the ground. And several times the speed of sound just from the amount of time it took to go out and back."

"Did you get video?"

"Yep. Camera still seems intact. Here." Taylor removed the thing from her head, the straps vanishing, and handed it to her friend, who plugged it into the USB lead coming out of the nearest PC. Shortly they were watching the video of her flight and laughing like lunatics.

"Oh, my god, did you see the expression on poor Assault's face when you zipped past him?" Amy giggled.

"He looked a little shocked," Taylor grinned. "Armsmaster seemed more fascinated than anything."

"That's because you were doing something he'd consider Tinkering. He'd forgive almost anything as long as you did it properly and efficiently." Amy shook her head in amusement. "Although you nearly got both of them. And you did get that bridge. And the road. And the bank. And that store."

"I know, I need to go back and fix everything," Taylor mumbled. "I didn't think that part through properly and Varga was laughing too hard to say anything."

"Next test of something that over the top should probably be somewhere safer, like as far away from people as possible," Lisa pointed out. "It's not like we don't have transportation to anywhere on the planet only a few hundred yards from here."

"Good point. I'll be more careful next time. But I'm incredibly happy it worked so well. Varga wanted to go for orbit, but I thought we should try it slowly."

Both the others stared at her, then each other. "Orbit?" they echoed, looking more than a little surprised.

Taylor grinned. Amy gazed at her, then sighed a little. "Only you. You really think you could do it?"

"Sure. I don't actually _need_ to breathe, you know. When I'm Umihebi, I couldn't possibly extract enough oxygen from the water to run a metabolism that energy-intensive. Demon physiology works on entirely different principles. Varga says I could handle a vacuum as easily as the bottom of the ocean. The temperature is no problem either. If it wasn't for the Simurgh running around out there I'd be tempted to go and have a look at the moon but I don't know how she'd react."

"By dropping an enormous load then fucking off to Mars, probably," Lisa snickered, making both Taylor and Amy laugh. "Screaming the entire way."

"I'm still not convinced. Maybe we should check the tracking system to see if she reacted," the blue-scaled girl remarked.

"I'll do that, later." They watched the rest of the video, until Lisa announced, "According to my power, which thinks this is the best toy ever by the way, and probably is wishing that I could do it, you peaked at something like seventy-three thousand feet, a little over Mach six, at four hundred and twenty-three miles from the bay. Not bad for a proof of concept test flight." She looked impressed. "Although the stability of that thing is a little lacking."

"I think it needs more nozzles," Taylor commented. "Two seemed plausible but balancing it is tricky, even with splitting the output from each one into two jets. Next time I'll add a couple and space them pointing away from each other."

"Why didn't you do that this time?" Amy asked.

"I didn't think of it," Taylor sighed, making her friends grin. "Hey, I can't think of everything. Neither Varga or I have ever flown before, this is all making it up as I go. I was just happy I managed to get the water rockets working so well. It's more than just firing high pressure water out of a hole, you know, the flow dynamics are very important and very complex. There isn't much published data for this sort of flight system."

"Wonder why?" Amy smiled.

"No idea. It's so obvious when you have demonic matter creation powers," Taylor shrugged, then returned the smile. "The water worked beautifully, though, I didn't need to use any of the exotic fuels I was thinking about. Probably a good thing, overall. Some of them are a little toxic." She pondered the matter. "And explosive. And corrosive."

Glancing at Lisa, Amy whispered loudly, "We may have escaped disaster by about that much." She held finger and thumb with the claw-tips about a quarter of an inch apart.

Lisa nodded wisely. "Probably. Good thing we're lucky."

"Now all we need is to work out how to let _us_ fly as well. No matter generation means no on-demand thrust generation," the healer continued after a moment, sounding disappointed.

"EDM tanks could hold more or less infinite pressure, and combined with fractal folding, I could come up with something interesting," Taylor mused. "I've been thinking about it, actually. Hardly seems fair to be the only one who can do that trick. But even so, there will eventually be a limit which I don't have." She tapped her finger on her muzzle, thinking hard. "I'll keep at it," she finally said. "There must be a way."

"Wings would seem one possibility," Lisa said.

"Oh, sure, I've got a few forms we've been thinking about that might work," Taylor replied brightly, coming back from wherever she'd been. "It took a while but Varga came up with a design that seems viable, and based on that there are some others I thought of. One or two would scale up nicely, to a pretty silly size. But… if we do that, no one is going to be in any doubt that something weird is going on. If proper dragons start roaming the skies we'll have a _lot_ of people looking at us with peculiar expressions. Especially if they're big enough to eat Boston."

"How large were you actually thinking of making one?" Amy asked with shock.

"Well, as it happens, make it large enough and low density enough, combined with Varga strength and construction..." Taylor moved to the next computer and pulled up an image after a short search, stepping back and waving mutely at it. Both girls stared, then turned around and fixed her with incredulous expressions.

"You are fucking _kidding_ me," Lisa breathed in stunned amazement.

"Nope. It's doable. Considering how much mass we have available in full Varga form right now, and changing the structure to have hollow bones like a bird, it ends up pretty substantial."

 _"Substantial?_ " Amy shrieked. She pointed, her ' _Ianthe_ ' face showing total shock. "That thing is fucking insane! The wingspan must be over a mile!"

"Oh, at least." Taylor smiled a toothy smile. "We're both quite interested to see if it's possible, but the figures are plausible. Bit obvious, though. I think people might notice."

Lisa just gaped at her, then the image, a nicely painted rendering of a fantasy dragon. "That damn thing is sitting on a mountain and leaning on another one," she finally said, sounding faint. "You think you can turn into something _that_ size?"

Taylor just shrugged. "Let's leave it for another day. And like you said, somewhere a long way away from people. A giant dragon in the middle of the bay would cause a certain amount of worry."

"Even more than a four hundred foot plus version of Godzilla waving at everyone," Amy replied weakly. "I thought I had a good idea of your capabilities but you've managed to prove me wrong yet again."

"It's actually more viable to make it bigger than smaller, assuming the material strength is high enough," Taylor pointed out mildly. "Although a little one would be fun."

"Actually, I have a few ideas for that myself, but I'm still working out the details," Amy said, recovering from her surprise. "I'll let you know when I figure it out. But in the meantime, have a look at what _I_ made."

She headed for the workroom, Taylor, after a curious glance at Lisa, following.

"Oh, cool!" she said a moment later.

"What do you think?"

"Really good work, Amy," she replied with satisfaction. "I can see a few improvements, though."

"It's only a prototype, I know it needs work. But between us we can make it very effective, I think."

"Me too. OK. I'll go and fix up all the things I damaged, then come back, and we can make another one and fiddle with it. If you move that over here, like this, then adjust this bit, it might be better."

"Hey… yes, brilliant, I didn't see that. Good job."

"Thanks. See you in about forty minutes to an hour or so. I need to make sure I didn't damage that damn bridge support. I'll never hear the end of it if anything falls over."

"See you soon."

Taylor left the building, Amy locking the door behind her, then turning to Lisa, who was grinning. They started laughing, before going back to watch the video again.

"That is _so_ funny, the way she was cartwheeling over and over," Amy giggled. "I need to show this to Vicky, it makes _her_ first flight look competent. And it really _wasn't_."

"I still want to be able to do the same thing, though," Lisa commented. Both of them sighed, Amy nodding. She was going to have to put more work in on her own flight ideas.

* * *

Rumbling down rutted roads, the ten ton truck was making its way through the Brockton Bay Docks, the two occupants looking around with a mix of curiosity, nervousness, and anticipation. They'd been driving for hours, coming up the east coast from a location in New Jersey that was something of a hub for goods such as the ones they had in the back. Ones that were buried in the middle of a shipment of bottled water, with all the paperwork showing that the liquid load was the only thing in the vehicle. Even the weighbridge data and state line goods inspection papers matched perfectly.

They were very good at their job.

"So who is this Hebert guy anyway?" the passenger asked his companion. "Boss wasn't very open about the whole job."

"Favor from old Antonio is the way I heard it," his colleague grunted, wrestling the wheel as the vehicle dropped into a pothole. "Some sort of family tie in from the old days. Guy must be seriously connected, but I've never heard of him."

"Which means he's _really_ connected. Antonio doesn't do favors for many people, and none for people who aren't important. Important _and_ anonymous… that's high level."

"Guess so. Better not ask too many questions. Apparently the guy's organization comes off as legit. Dock workers, that sort of stuff."

They shared a look. "Good cover. Impressive. I wonder what business he's into?"

"Don't ask. Seriously, don't ask. Boss might not mind too much but other people get funny about questions like that." The driver glanced warningly at his colleague. "Your cousin won't help if you piss off a friend of Antonio's, believe me."

"No fear of that, I look terrible in concrete boots," the passenger snorted, almost laughing. "I know when to keep my mouth shut."

"These roads are terrible," the driver grumbled. "Bet this keeps the cops away."

"Deliberate?"

"What do you think? Look around you." The man gestured with his free hand, then shifted down to make a turn. "Whole area looks like a war zone. I've heard Brockton Bay has a lot of cape fights, but come on… _This_ much damage? No, it's all carefully arranged. I've seen it before in Chicago and Philly. Takes serious time, effort, and money, but it works."

"The junkies are a nice touch," the passenger said, looking at a pair of ragged men slumped in a doorway as they passed. "Look real."

"And have probably already called ahead. Bet we've been watched since we turned off the freeway. People like Hebert are careful, or they pay the price."

The passenger looked more carefully at the next addict they passed. "You sure?" he asked doubtfully. "That's a little paranoid even in our business."

"Pretty sure," his friend replied. "Too many of them otherwise. And they're all in really good positions to see everything without being too obvious about it. But I can tell."

"Huh."

There was silence in the truck cab for another half mile, the passenger opening a bag of chips and grazing on them while trying to spot the observers without being obvious about it.

"Did you see that thing that flew over a while ago?" he asked after a while. "Some sort of cape, I think. It was going fucking quick in this direction."

"Brockton is rotten with them," the driver chuckled. "I've been through here a couple of times on the way up to Canada, there's a good truck stop on the freeway a few miles away and a _really_ good burger place in the middle of the city. Capes all over the damn place. And gangs. That Nazi lot, Empire Eighty Eight, then the Asians with Lung, and some other smaller ones. Plus that Skidmark fucker who's pissing everyone off at the moment."

"Wonder why they have so many?"

"No idea. New York has more, but there are a hell of a lot more people there. This place has a higher proportion, I heard. Higher than anywhere, I think. And some really powerful ones as well. That Glory Girl chick is apparently nearly as tough as Alexandria."

"I saw her on the web," his companion smiled. "Quite a looker."

"Only about eighteen, though. Too young for me, no experience." The driver smirked at his friend.

"Fair enough. I wonder which one that was I saw?"

"Heading this way… One of those lizards who hang around, probably. You know, ' _The Family?'_ You must have seen that fucking insanely big thing pulling the ship a couple of weeks ago, it was on the news for hours."

"Fuck, they're _here?_ " the man said, paling. "I thought they stayed underwater most of the time."

"Boss told me they have an office at this DWU place now. Said there might be some of them wandering around, and to be _very_ respectful if we met them. Antonio told him that if we pissed _them_ off, we pissed _him_ off, and I don't know which one scared him more."

"Christ. Boss Hebert is more connected than I thought. Antonio and the old families, _and_ The Family?" The passenger looked worried now. He ran his hands through his hair, straightening it, and adjusted his tie. "I wonder how they _got_ that name?"

"I have a couple of ideas," the driver muttered, turning left towards the bay. "None of them are ones I'm going to tell anyone about. Especially if I'm right. Way too much trouble. Better to keep my mouth shut." He glanced sideways. "You too, Benny. Sometimes you talk too much."

Benny frowned, but couldn't deny the accusation. He liked meeting people. Although he was beginning to wonder if being volunteered for this particular job was actually worth it. Swallowing, he resolved to nod politely, say as little as possible, and take his money.

Sometimes specialty delivery was a risky business for reasons other than the authorities.

"There it is." They saw the fence at the end of the road, with a complex of buildings inside it. A guardhouse was inside a fairly simple barrier where the road turned sharp right, with two men visible watching the truck approach. No weapons were visible which made both of them tense, it merely meant that they were being covered from somewhere they couldn't see.

"Best behavior, Benny," the driver said quietly.

"Got it."

They slowed down and stopped at the barrier. One of the men came over to the driver's side as he wound the window down, while the other one watched from a safe distance, a radio in his hand and his eyes alert, darting around but always coming back to them.

"Delivery for DWU Security? Trans Continental Supplies."

"ID?"

The driver passed over an ID card with his photo on it, his trucking permit which also had a photo, and the shipping manifest. The guard checked them all, walked around the truck, compared the license plate number to the manifest, then came back to the window.

"Drive through the gate, turn left, then right down the side of the buildings. You're looking for a door labeled 6-A. Park there. Mr Hebert and Mark, our security head, will join you. Please stay in the vehicle until they arrive. Don't go over ten miles an hour, and don't go anywhere else."

"Yes, sir," the driver said. He reclaimed his documents, rolled the window up, then waited for the barrier to be removed. Moving slowly through it he followed the directions precisely.

Both of them were sweating just the tiniest bit.

"I wonder what those towers around the place between the two fences are for?" Benny said after a moment.

"No idea. Probably something we don't need to know about."

The driver looked hard at his colleague, who flushed.

"No future for the overly curious, Benny."

"I know that, Rudy. I can't help it."

"Try. Really hard."

Shortly they spotted the right place, pulling up with a hiss of air brakes, then turning the engine off and waiting quietly.

Benny opened another bag of chips and offered Rudy some, his friend taking a handful. They were both in the process of eating them when a bright blue apparently female reptilian creature with a long tail, wearing armor, jogged past them in the direction of the gate, waving in a friendly manner and giving them a smile full of teeth.

Both men froze, watching her as she went past, then looked at each other.

" _Seriously_ connected."

"Yeah. Don't ask questions. I get it."

They resumed waiting, looking around for anything else unusual and wondering how many guns were pointed at them right now.

* * *

"Well, I think we need to upgrade Saurial's ratings," Hannah said resignedly, looking around the table at the hastily assembled meeting. "Again."

" _Definitely_ a Tinker rating now," Colin nodded, looking remarkably pleased. "Fairly high. I'd say at least a 5, maybe a 6. The device itself was fairly simple but the implied ability to make a number of derivative systems is extraordinary. Raptaur I feel should also receive a similar rating for similar reasons, if not a higher one. Her work on the..." He trailed off, what in anyone else would have been an excited monologue stopping abruptly.

Everyone looked at him. Legend and Dragon shared a glance, the former appearing amused.

Director Piggot cleared her throat. "Yes. Thank you, Colin. I believe that a suitable Tinker rating should indeed be put in their file."

"A Mover rating as well, in Saurial's case," Dauntless, known to his friends as Craig, put in. He'd been away on family business for much of the prior six weeks or so, his father having died unexpectedly, which had left him helping his mother pick up the pieces in Providence. The current activity in the city had been something he'd followed but not experienced until now, as he'd only returned two days ago.

Apparently, reading the Family file had left him swearing under his breath for nearly half an hour, Ethan had told Hannah, making her feel distinct sympathy for the guy.

"Yes, a high one," Robin agreed. "She went _hypersonic_ for god's sake! There are damn few capes who can fly that fast." He glanced at Legend, who nodded.

"It's not common. Faster than sound isn't wildly unusual, twice the speed of sound is getting well above average, but six times the speed of sound puts her into a class with very few other individuals. And we have no real reason to think that was top speed."

"I believe it is very unlikely that it was anywhere near the theoretical maximum speed that she could achieve," Colin commented, looking thoughtful. "There is significant evidence to suggest that Family members are tolerant to a level of heat that is simply absurd, thousands of degrees at least. She can obviously take extremely severe impacts, we saw her hit a concrete bridge abutment hard enough to leave cracks in it, laugh, and try again. We knew she was a high Brute rating but we may have underestimated it."

He looked around the table, a few people nodding, and Director Piggot looking a little worried as well as thoughtful. "In any case, she's well suited to extremely high-energy maneuvers, the tracking system showed her pulling a supersonic turn that my calculations show exceeded 19.3 g at peak. That is far past the point any human pilot would have passed out, and possibly died. As far as we know there was no inertial compensation used so she must be able to handle the stresses involved. She also spent over half an hour at an altitude high enough that there is essentially no oxygen available, which means that either she can do without, or has means of taking it with her. Presumably through the same ability that lets her make the water."

Stopping, he looked at the director again, the woman asking the obvious question he was waiting for. "How fast, how high?"

"I can't prove it beyond doubt but I would be unsurprised if she could achieve orbit."

"On a water-powered _surfboard?_ " Ethan choked out following the appalled silence that fell over the table.

Colin nodded. "Correct."

"Fuck me."

"We need an entirely new classification for Family activities," Battery sighed. "Or just give up, put it down to something only another lizard can understand, and say it doesn't happen."

"I vote for that," Ethan muttered. "It would make life a _lot_ simpler."

"Unfortunately, while it is tempting to look the other way and pretend that there aren't hypersonic lizards zipping overhead, we can't really do that," the director sighed. "But as long as they're not doing any actual harm we can't really stop them either. It would be nice to have them file flight plans, but the rules on Parahuman flight don't require it presuming they stay out of normal airspace. She went supersonic well off the coast, and came back so high she was far above civilian traffic. So far, all of that is legal even for a random cape, never mind a group with their current status."

"Might be a good idea to arrange an IFF transponder for her, though, along with a copy of the PRT flight handbook. Just to prevent any misunderstandings." Legend seemed more amused by the entire thing than anything else, Hannah noticed.

"I'll make sure they're sent the relevant package," Emily replied.

"What do we do if other Family members start experimenting?" Carlos asked quietly.

"Raptaur is one thing," the director said, glancing at him. "If I wake up one morning and see Kaiju go overhead, I may retire. Or shoot myself. Or both."

"Surely _Kaiju_ couldn't actually fly?" Hannah asked, appalled at the mere suggestion. Everyone looked at her, then at Colin.

The Tinker shrugged. "The technology would scale nicely, I suspect. I had the same thought myself when I witnessed Saurial's flight test. It is… somewhat discomfiting."

"It's fucking terrifying is what it is," Ethan grumbled, flipping a pencil end over end and catching it while he thought. "The first time you mentioned it worried me. Every time someone brings it up again, it worries me some more. Stop bringing it up."

"Seconded," Battery remarked, looking perturbed.

"I personally have no wish to even think of that concept until or unless it happens, so I'm more than happy to change the subject," Director Piggot added. "So. Update Saurial's rating to Mover… 8?" She looked around, everyone nodding one after the other. "Subject to more data. Tinker 6 for both her and Raptaur, with the same note. Is there anything else about today's Family shenanigans that needs to be dealt with right now?"

"A Blaster rating should also be noted," Colin suggested.

"Why?"

"The water jets would qualify as a ranged weapon, aside from anything else she can produce if she thinks about it. It's entirely plausible to redesign the nozzle to project a coherent stream of high-pressure water over a significant distance, rather than maximize thrust. In fact, it's more difficult to make an efficient rocket than such a water jet. With the pressure she can generate and the materials involved, something like a water jet cutter on a large scale could easily be made."

"Oh, for god's sake." The director looked at him for several seconds, then made some notes. "Blaster, hmm, 6 for now, then. Is she going for a ' _yes_ ' rating in every category _deliberately_ , do you think, or is that just a happy coincidence?"

"Collect the entire set and win a prize," Ethan snickered, more or less back to his normal ebullient self. Giving him a severe look the blonde woman sighed heavily, which had no visible effect on his grin.

No one seemed to have anything further to add. "OK. In that case, I'm going to go back to my office and look longingly at holiday brochures until I can legitimately go home. If anyone bothers me, it had better be important. Dismissed." She stood up, picked up the file she'd brought into the secure Rig conference room, and left, muttering to herself under her breath.

Everyone else got up and left as well, heading off to their own destinations, while wondering about what might happen next from the Family direction.


	189. Repairs and Unloading

Taylor peered at the damage to the bridge support a little sheepishly. She'd hit it harder than she'd thought, pretty much full on, leaving a somewhat comical imprint of her upper body and arms in the concrete with cracks radiating out from it. The overall effect was more like something from a cartoon than anything else.

"How the hell fast were you _going_ you crazy lizard?" The jocular comment came from beside her, making her glance at the city infrastructure worker who was staring at the same thing she was, smiling in an impressed but mildly annoyed fashion. "And why aren't you splashed all over the place?"

She snickered a little ruefully. "Pretty quick. Couple of hundred miles an hour I'd say. I might have been a little overenthusiastic. Good thing I'm tough."

"I'll say so," the man, a middle aged Latino guy called Enrico, chuckled. He and a companion had been there when she arrived a minute or so ago, checking the damage. She'd met him once before while wandering around as Saurial, a few weeks back, when he was inspecting the results of something the E88 had done that had trashed some traffic lights. She'd taken the opportunity to introduce herself, feeling it was best to be polite to the people who actually did the work.

"Sorry about that," she replied. "I'll fix it. And the road. And that other road." Looking around, she winced a little. "And the bank."

By now he was grinning broadly. "Had fun, did we?" he asked wryly.

" _So_ much fun," she laughed. "Although that initial learning curve is a little steep. I should have headed out over the bay, but I had some steering issues at first and by the time I got that sorted out I was kind of committed to this direction. I'm just glad I didn't hit anything softer."

"Like people," he pointed out.

She winced again. "Yeah. Not my best bit of judgment. Oh, well, no real harm done except to my pride and I know what _not_ to do next time."

"The tourists got a nice little treat as well," he said, looking over at a group of people who were watching them and holding up cameras. "Probably put enough money into the city to cover the damage anyway. May even have made a profit. Perhaps you should smash your face into things more often."

Taylor grinned, shaking her head a little. "Might not be the best idea. There have to be easier ways to attract tourists. I think the Mayor would start to get kind of annoyed eventually."

"Oh, I don't know, old Roy has a strange sense of humor," Enrico commented, still smiling. "Glad I voted for him. And even with this sort of thing, I'm happy to have you scaly weirdos around, the amount of damage has gone down a lot in the last few weeks, and the amount of decent work has gone up."

"Thanks," she said, smiling. "I think. Right, better sort this out."

Jumping over the wall beside the road, she landed on the side of the abutment and scuttled up it until she was next to the amusingly shaped depression, quickly filling it in with newly generated material, and checking for deeper damage in the process. It was only the surface that had suffered, the concrete was old and crumbling anyway. If anything her repair improved it. Looking around, then up, she spotted another crack that wasn't anything to do with her, it looked years old, so she climbed up and fixed that one as well.

By the time she was done, she'd repaired eight more, leaving the support far better off than it had been before. Dropping back down she went back to the city worker, who'd been taking photos of her work from the ground with a digital camera. "Not bad," he noted, nodding approvingly. "If you ever get bored doing whatever it is you're doing, I can find a lot of other damage like that which could do with patching up. That thing has needed work for at least three years but the city couldn't afford it."

"Hmm." She considered the statement thoughtfully, looking back at the overpass, then around at the scenery. "I wouldn't want to take work away from you guys."

"Don't worry, you wouldn't be," he replied, his companion coming over from their truck with a clipboard, on which he was making notes, then listening curiously. "A lot of the damage is stuff that's almost impossible to repair normally anyway. From what I could see you can do it easily. Better to have it done and not have something collapse than worry about a job the city can't pay us to do right now in the first place. And you're union, no one will mind."

His coworker nodded, looking amused. "Not _our_ union, but the DWU and the city workers go way back. Your guys and ours have each others backs."

"Good to know," Taylor smiled, pleased at the remark. "Sure. Get a list to the DWU and I'll have a look at it. We can work out the most important ones and do them first. I was planning on fixing up the roads around our place soon anyway, they're terrible."

"Too dangerous to go there for years," Enrico sighed. "Not to mention with the limited funds, things that the rich people use get fixed first. Even though they could pay for it themselves, of course. Medhall alone spends more money on entertainment in a year than six months of the road repair fund for the entire city."

"Not ideal," she said after a moment, wondering how accurate that was, but suspecting he wasn't wrong.

"Nope. But that's the way the world works. Always has done, probably always will do. The rest of us just get on with it." He shrugged. "Life, you know."

"I do, I think." She smiled at him. "Different backgrounds but some things are the same."

Looking around again, she pointed. "I'd better go fix that hole in the road, then go and apologize for the buildings and sort them out too. Nice to meet you guys."

"Likewise, Saurial. See you around."

"I expect so. Get me that list when you have some time."

"Will do." Both of them shook her hand, then got back in the public works truck and pulled out onto the road, driving off.

' _Nice to know that even with me fucking up like this no one seems too mad about it_ ,' she smiled internally.

 _"You're polite and helpful, and fix things afterwards, not to mention apologize,"_ the Varga said, sounding amused. _"That goes a long way towards smoothing over ruffled feathers, especially as it's quite unusual. From what I've seen most Parahumans tend to cause damage then leave, which is obviously irritating to people who need to clean up after them."_

' _Good point. Although I'd better be more careful, anyone will have a limit to how much they'll take before they have enough. I can't make a habit of this. If nothing else Dad will get very sarcastic_ ,' she noted as she looked both ways for a reasonable gap in the traffic, then dashed over to the new pothole she'd made earlier. It only took a few seconds to fill it in, then she headed toward the first slightly chipped building, outside which she could see several people pointing up at the hole and looking somewhat peeved.

Putting her best apologetic smile on, she approached to sort things out, the people turning to watch her, looking a rather funny mix of apprehensive and curious.

* * *

"I'm going out again, Mom, I was going to see a friend about some homework," Missy said as she came into the kitchen. Her mother glanced at her, looked at her father who was making a cup of coffee, pointedly only the one, then shrugged.

"Be back at a sensible hour, please," she requested. "You may be a cape but you're also only thirteen. Barely."

"I know, Mom," Missy replied, resisting the urge to roll her eyes. "I'll be fine, my friends aren't going to hurt me, and I can take care of myself."

"Less of the attitude, young lady," her mother snapped. "I saw that. Don't roll your eyes at me."

"I didn't" she protested, slightly guiltily.

"You were thinking about it, I know you, Missy. Call if you're going to be later than nine."

"OK." Turning, she headed to the door of the kitchen.

"Do you need any money?" her father asked as he put sugar in his coffee. "You might want a snack."

She groaned a little under her breath. Food was the _last_ thing on her mind. "I'm fine, Dad, I have enough. See you later."

"Be careful," he advised as he stirred his coffee, then walked past her to the living room. She watched him go, looked back at her mother who had turned around in a dismissive manner, sighed very faintly, and left the house. Wishing the entire time they'd just sit down and talk rationally.

At least today they weren't shouting at each other with her in the middle. Those days sucked.

Shortly thereafter she was completely invisible and several hundred feet up, standing on the ground, a concept that still amused her. Turning on the spot she looked around, seeing if anything interesting was going on locally. The day had cleared up nicely just after lunch, having rained earlier. She could have sworn that she'd heard thunder half an hour ago but now it looked like it was going to be a nice if chilly afternoon. At this altitude the wind was fairly strong but not enough to be a problem, and inside her Saurial-upgraded cloak she was fine.

Not spotting anything particularly in need of the aid of Cloak, she shrugged, then headed rapidly downtown, towards the shore line. She'd cross over the Boardwalk, have a look around in case anyone was causing trouble, definitely _not_ get any more doughnuts, the mere thought making her stomach roil, swing around the PRT building, then head along the shore towards the DWU and see if Saurial and the others were around. She wanted to talk to them again and this was probably the last time she'd be able to get away for a while, having to go back on duty first thing tomorrow. Missy didn't want to waste the opportunity to learn more Family arts and about her own abilities.

Considering the effect of one intensive study session, what would a few more do?

Grinning to herself, she skated along, humming happily.

' _She's like Q from James Bond, only better_ ,' the girl thought with respectful amusement. ' _Gadgets all over the place and she just makes them from nothing. So cool. Bet the PRT would freak if they realized how good she was at that sort of thing. Except Armsmaster, he really likes them all_.'

It was obvious to her having overheard the Tinker talk to Dragon about Raptaur a couple of times when they didn't keep their voices down. Her hearing was very good anyway and with her abilities she could listen to a conversation half-way across the city without even looking, no problems, especially if it was line of sight. Generally she _didn't_ , of course, being a fairly honest girl, and wasn't going to pry into things she had no need to know, but if they were in public and she was close by…

She was curious, and always eager to learn.

Missy sort of liked Armsmaster. He wasn't someone you could joke around with, he just looked mildly confused then took some notes, but at the same time if you asked a question he gave an answer without commenting on your age or gender. Even if the answer was ' _I cannot answer that_ ' for whatever reason, it wasn't in a way that left you feeling bad about it. He treated everyone the same, pretty much, and was normally polite as well, if a bit abrupt. His grasp on the social niceties was more or less nonexistent, although to be fair to him he knew it and tried his best.

She'd heard people thought he was arrogant and had a large ego, which she could see reasons for, but at the same time, she felt that a lot of the arrogance was him simply being confident in his own abilities. The ego thing was at least partially part of the same outlook, he knew how good he was and got frustrated when people questioned his expertise. He was smart enough that most other people probably annoyed him a little when they didn't see something he thought was obvious.

That was her opinion on it anyway. He was one of the few people in the whole place who didn't treat her like she couldn't cut it. Most others, even Miss Militia, who otherwise was a really nice person, tended to act like the mere fact she was a barely teenaged girl meant she was fragile and had to be protected from everything. It frustrated her no end, as she'd said to Saurial and her friends, since she was damn sure she could probably take practically any of them in a fight.

And that was _before_ Saurial showed her how to do all the cool new tricks! Now…

She grinned darkly. ' _I almost wish I could show them_ ,' she snickered. ' _Bet they'd take me more seriously if I stomped the entire E88, or the PRT. I bet I_ ** _could_** _, too_.'

Shaking her head, she muttered, **_"No, bad thoughts, mustn't take over the city."_** This made her giggle again.

But back on her original thought, she'd heard Armsmaster talking about Raptaur in a way that was more genuinely respectful than she'd heard him talk about anyone other than Dragon, who was clearly much more than just a friend. She liked the Canadian as well, the woman always had a kind word whenever she met her, and often a joke. Dragon had a very good sense of humor.

In fact, she got the feeling that the female Tinker was highly amused by a lot of the current Family activity, even if as confused as much as everyone else was most of the time.

Missy wondered if Dragon would also go and talk to Saurial and her friends at some point. It seemed like the sort of thing she'd do. She was friendly, just like them, and had compatible taste in her armor theme. Even her cape name fitted in perfectly.

Passing over the tourist areas, she paused and looked down, then moved on more slowly. There were lots of people hanging around, even with the chilly weather, quite a few of them obviously out to look for capes. She spotted a group taking photos of a freeway bridge pylon of all things, standing in the road going under it and getting honked at by annoyed drivers.

Wondering what the hell people wanted photos of _that_ sort of thing for, she shrugged and kept going. She stopped when she saw Glory Girl, in civilian clothes, coming out of a shop on the Boardwalk in the company of someone she recognized immediately, feeling a pang go through her.

Dean was smiling at his girlfriend, making Missy feel a little irritated. She knew full well that the girl was a decent person, but at the same time she couldn't help but feel jealous.

He never looked at _her_ like that.

Intellectually she knew it was because he was not only involved with someone else, pretty seriously despite the arguments, but was also nearly five years older than her. Emotionally, she couldn't help it. She liked him. And she wanted him to return that like.

Watching them from a safe distance, she saw him look around, shrug, and move on after the Dallon girl, who was chattering away about shiny things. With a slight face of distaste she let the eavesdropping link fade and sighed a little.

Maybe she should ask Saurial for her advice. A neutral viewpoint, and to be honest you probably couldn't get much more neutral than someone she thought wasn't even the same _species_ as her, might help.

Not to mention, she mused, looking back after Dean, she'd met Über the other day. Now, _him_ …

She abruptly grinned. His voice was way better than Dean's was. Seriously, the guy could get a job doing voice-overs for Hollywood, no sweat. And he was taller, and better built, and a _much_ better fighter, and funny, and didn't seem to look down on her at all, ironic considering how much taller than her he was, and…

Shaking her head slightly, she pulled herself out the slight daze she'd fallen into. The man was still technically a villain, probably about ten years older than her, and associated with the Family, which wouldn't make either her parents or Director Piggot happy if they knew she was hanging around him and his friend. At all.

Still… She wouldn't mind talking to him again, just to hear that voice. Caramel and marshmallows in chocolate, when he focused on you.

 ** _"Hee hee,"_** she giggled faintly, shivering at the memory.

A girl could dream, right? Nothing was going to happen, it was even less likely than with Dean, she was way too young and wasn't even sure what happened with a boyfriend, but it was still fun to think about.

Smiling to herself, she resumed her high-altitude walk, aiming at the PRT building as a landmark. Swing around that, have a look around for anything interesting, then head towards the Docks, new friends, and possibly something interesting to learn.

* * *

Dean glanced around again, not paying all that much attention to Vicky, who was expressing interest about a dress in a shop window beside him.

He could have sworn he'd felt Missy in the area, but he couldn't see her anywhere in the direction her emotional output was coming from. If he didn't know better he'd have said it was from almost directly above him but that would have put it over the middle of the Boardwalk, where there were no buildings. Clearly that wasn't possible, so it seemed he was mistaken. That sometimes happened with large crowds like the significant number of people wandering around the shopping areas at the moment.

' _Odd, though. I know her signature really well, I'd have thought I'd be able to get it right_.' He peered upwards just in case, but as he expected saw nothing. Just empty air. ' _Weird. It felt like Missy being jealous again, then annoyed, then amused and a little… strange. I wonder what that was about?_ '

Shaking his head he dismissed the thought. The contact had been faint and was now gone, so it was most likely his mistake for some reason. He'd keep an eye out just in case it was something, but it probably wasn't. These days, strange things happened on a daily basis, so even if it was real, it was probably something to do with the Family.

Dean sighed faintly. ' _The Family. Who are one girl. Who has somehow now managed to be up to three of them at the same fucking time. I give up. I have_ ** _no_** _fucking idea any more and I don't care, as long as she doesn't come after me._ '

Life had been so much simpler before Taylor fucking Hebert had come into his life. Even though he quite liked her, having had that heart to heart talk with her and Amy a while ago, she still terrified him in a very deep way.

Probably best just to keep his distance and try not to get involved, for his own sanity.

Which was being strained by the fact that he was _certain_ he'd seen her as Saurial zoom overhead at some preposterous speed a while ago, which had worrying implications. If she'd figured out how to _fly_ now…

' _Leave some powers for the rest of us, Taylor_ ,' he thought, almost amused. She was nothing if not unpredictable. Predictably so.

"Hey, are you paying attention, Dean?" Vicky said sharply, waving a hand past his face. "I said, I like this one, I wonder if they have it in my size?"

He grinned at her, taking the hint and letting his slightly confused worry fall away. "Let's see, shall we?" he replied.

"We shall indeed, dear Dean." She hooked her arm around his and towed him into the shop fast enough to make him yelp in surprise.

"Vicky! Don't pull it off!"

"Wimp."

"No, just not a Brute."

"But a _pretty_ one."

Their voices disappeared into the shop, the two or three passers-by who had recognized the blonde and had been surreptitiously watching moving on.

* * *

Dragon looked at the Endbringer tracking log, not particularly surprised to see that Leviathan had been zooming around the Indian ocean in the relevant matching pattern they'd established happened whenever a member of the Family left the city. The difference this time was that his initial move was several seconds late from the point their radar had tracked Saurial going supersonic off the coast.

For a moment she amused herself thinking that it showed the Endbringer had been taken by surprise and was gaping in horrified shock. He'd certainly left with alacrity after that, moving at a stupidly high speed across the ocean floor, probably leaving some impressive gouges in it. He certainly didn't want to be any closer to them than he could manage.

Behemoth was still noticeable by his complete absence, no seismic evidence of him at all. Wherever he was, he was being very quiet.

She had a momentary thought that perhaps he'd disappeared back to whatever hellhole had spawned him in the first place, but knew that was unlikely. He was still around, somewhere, just keeping his head down.

Turning her attention to the telescopic system tracking the Simurgh, she inspected the feed. The creature had changed orbit again, moving further out and changing the inclination so she was positioned almost directly over the middle of the Atlantic, and was currently dormant. Going back through the automatic recordings she picked a point about a minute before Colin and Ethan had seen Saurial the first time, then reviewed it from there.

It was quite enlightening. The Simurgh had been just above the horizon from their point of view and had very abruptly snapped out of dormancy, unfurling her wings enough to uncover her face, which was turned towards Brockton Bay again. It was very difficult to be certain, but the normally creepily serene expression on the statue-like visage looked just a tiny bit less serene. Inspecting a still closely, Dragon finally decided that the underlying expression, what there was of it, was a complex mix of worry, raw fear, and… hope?

' _That is beyond odd_ ,' she mused, looking at another frame from a couple of seconds later. The Endbringer was definitely tracking Saurial's flight, slowly rotating to face the hypersonic reptile, then as she turned around, rotating back the other way. When the lizard landed, the creature looked just the tiniest bit relieved, before suddenly shifting orbital plane at high velocity, then going back into a dormant state with one last look in the direction of the city.

Puzzling over the whole thing in the privacy of her CPU, the AI spent some time trying to resolve all the data she had on the entire relationship between the Family, the Endbringers, and Eidolon. So far she couldn't work out the exact link. There was, in her mind, definitely one between the latter two parties, but the involvement of the former still eluded her beyond the fact that there was something there.

Wondering if Metis had come to any conclusions of her own, she decided that she would have to pay the BBFO offices a visit soon. She needed to talk to Raptaur and Leet anyway about another contract for his wormhole technology, and update both of them on her progress with the tricorder and the audio inducer, both of which were showing promise. It was enough to make her want to see some of his other inventions, her analysis of his technology was extremely interesting. It was remarkably clean and neat, quite unlike any other Tinker's output, except possibly Colin's.

Switching back to the live view for one last look at the orbiting Endbringer, she mentally twitched in shock when she saw that the damn thing had unfurled again, and was looking directly at her.

Of course, it wasn't, she realized after a few microseconds of surprise. It was looking at the telescope, which was situated on top of a mountain in Quebec. But the instant impression she got was definitely that it was looking at _her_ specifically, as if it knew she was watching it. The effect was somewhat weird.

Zooming in on the camera a little, she watched the face of the Simurgh. The Endbringer kept looking at the telescope, or at least in the exact direction of the telescope from her current position, as she swung around the planet. After sixty-three seconds, the thing made a tiny expression of what Dragon would swear was amused resignation, before going blank-faced once more, the wings folding around it. Seconds later it was for all visible indications entirely inert again.

Pondering the odd occurrence for a while, Dragon thought to check the access logs to see who else was watching the feed.

Weirdly enough, that exact period corresponded with the point that both she and Metis, who was in the wormhole facility, had both been watching the live view. The Simurgh had gone dormant again the moment the Family member logged off.

' _That is..._ ' She tried to come up with the right word. ' _Unusual_ ,' was all she could think. It wasn't really enough, but it fitted as well as anything else did. Curious, she checked to see what else Metis had done, finding without surprise that she'd replicated Dragon's own research almost exactly. They were clearly looking for the same thing.

' _I definitely need to talk to them soon_ ,' she decided.

Disconnecting from the Endbringer system, she went back to her work on the Leet inventions, while on the other side of the room Colin worked on an upgrade for his halberd. She found it nice being around him, they didn't need to speak to each other to feel a level of companionship that she suspected neither one felt around anyone else.

Sooner or later she was going to have to go back to Vancouver, but she wasn't in any great hurry.

* * *

Benny watched as the tall thin man looked at the crates they'd carefully unpacked into room 6-A, which was lined with some weird gray metal that was so slick under his curious finger he wasn't entirely sure he was actually touching it. Probably some sort of Tinker thing, which proved that Mr Hebert's organization had real resources.

The other man, Mark, a very fit blond guy who was obviously ex-military, was opening each box in turn and checking the contents, without letting Benny or Rudy see what was in them. He'd still caught a glance, though, the dark shine of gunmetal showing what was most likely present. Boss Hebert had glanced thoughtfully at him when he'd shifted position in an unconscious attempt to get a better view, making him freeze and sweat for a moment. The assessing gaze stayed on his face for a few seconds, then went back to the security man, who looked pleased.

Rudy, standing next to him, stepped hard on his foot when the man in charge wasn't watching, making him suppress a yelp of pain.

"Everything's here, boss," the blond man said, closing the last crate. "Tony came through for us."

"Good. I'll have to send him a thank-you gift of some sort," Mr Hebert said, sounding approving. "Make sure everything is counted out and locked up." He looked over at the door which was suddenly occluded by a remarkably large and extremely dangerous looking black guy, who inspected Benny and Rudy closely, then turned to the other two present.

"New toys turned up then, Padrone?" he rumbled in a deep voice. Mr Hebert sighed a little but didn't seem angry.

"Yes, we'll need to get the security squad trained up on everything. We'll also need more people as backup."

"I'll find some," the man said. He looked at the security man, who nodded. "We have a few people in mind. Brian for one, and maybe his friend Alec. Their talents could be handy."

"Keep it discreet, but talk to them. Have them come see me, too."

"Got it."

The Hebert man turned to Benny and his colleague. "You guys look tired, you must have been driving for hours. Go with Zephron here, you can get something to eat and relax for a while. Thank you for your efforts." He pulled a couple of envelopes out of his pocket and handed them each one. "A little extra with our thanks."

Benny took his envelope, well practiced fingers letting him know there was at least a thousand bucks in it. He nodded respectfully, putting it away, as did Rudy. "Thank you, Sir," he replied.

"Zephron, make sure they get a thermos of coffee each when they leave as well, OK?"

"Sure thing, Padrone," the huge man smiled. "Come on, boys. Food here is good."

"The water bottles in the truck are yours as well," Rudy put in. "Better we don't have anything in it on the way back, it makes more sense."

"We'll unload it for you," Mr Hebert told him. He glanced at Mark, who left the room, raising a radio to his mouth on the way. "Have a good trip back, give your people our thanks."

"We will," Rudy replied. They left the room as well, following the Zephron guy towards the gate. On the way they passed a very solidly built young woman of about sixteen or seventeen, who was in the middle of a pack of half a dozen dogs, all of them trotting along in perfect formation. They were clearly well trained. The girl jogged past, whistling sharply at one of the dogs when it paused to look at them. The animal looked mildly guilty somehow and hurried after her.

Zephron nodded to the girl, who nodded back, a tiny hint of a smile coming and going, before she passed. Benny turned his head to watch her go, thinking she looked familiar for some reason. It wasn't until they were in the cafeteria a while later, eating some actually very good food in the company of their minder, that he remembered where he'd seen her before. On the news a couple of years back.

The fact that Boss Hebert's organization openly had a Parahuman who was wanted for murder wandering around the place implied all _sorts_ of things…

One very big one being that they had serious pull and probably not a lot to worry about from the local authorities. And that it would be an _extremely_ poor idea to mention the presence of Rachel Lindt to anyone.

A look at Zephron made it obvious to him that the big man had been watching him closely, having somehow picked up on his train of thought. Zephron raised an eyebrow a tiny amount. Benny shook his head in an equally tiny motion, getting an approving look back, before the other man resumed eating.

No, he wasn't going to do, say, or as far as he could manage, think, anything that was going to raise the ire of the DWU and their boss. Whatever they were into, he wanted none of it. The fact that no one had heard of them outside this city meant they were more dangerous than he'd expected.

They might not like witnesses, for example. It would explain a lot...

Plain old smuggling was fine by him. It was probably more conducive to long life.

Mind you, their cafeteria was really good.


	190. Letters from the past

_Letters from the past (canonized guest addition)_

By EdBecerra  
Inspired by comments in **Reporting and Fencing**.

* * *

To: Danny Hebert  
From: Antonio

Subject: Reconciliation

Don't know if you're reading this, Danny. Wouldn't blame you if you trashed it straight from the inbox. But I hope you are.

We're proud of you, lad. You _and_ your dad. It takes a lot of courage to walk away, and even more strength to make walking away stick. Your dad did the first, you did the second. So yeah, as odd as it sounds, those of us in the know are damned proud of you.

Second, we heard about Taylor. Trust me, it took some _quick_ talking to keep that Hess girl alive. More than a few of the old guard wanted to add a few sacks of concrete to the Bay, if you take my meaning. The Barnes girl as well. As is, a few of the guys are having a word with the head of the ethics committee of the Massachusetts Bar Association, and they'll have a quiet word with him. We're not going any further than that - for the moment. A father's love for his child, however mistaken, is understandable.

Third, I know you're already aware, but you got big troubles, and they're spelled _SKIDMARK_. The idiot crossed a line, Danny. He showed up in Chi-town and started demanding we sell him weapons. Cape-killer weapons.

He's a dead man walking now. He ever goes back to Chicago, he's getting a round to the head, courtesy of DiFronzo's boys. And it wouldn't surprise me for one second if Legend himself shows up and hands the triggerman the bounty on that idiot's head. It's that bad. Which is why I'm getting a backchannel message to the Protectorate right after I close this letter.

You really don't want to know what that fool asked for. Trust me, you'll sleep better at night if you don't.

Finally, the Teamsters have your back, Danny. I know you've got the Family in your corner (and you can imagine how much the name is making us laugh, eh?), and after seeing that Kaiju gal pull that damned tanker in off the reef, I have a lot of respect for them. But they can't be everywhere at once, no one can. You need numbers. You need eyes, you need ears, and you need all the muscle you can get. Which is why the boys in the Teamsters got their marching orders. You let them know what you need from them, they'll give it to you, no questions asked.

You're calling the shots on this one, Danny. I know you don't care for the old ways, but Skidmark ain't giving you much choice in the matter. Protect your people, kid. Protect your family. And if there's a mess to clean up afterwards, at least the people you care about will be alive to help you clean it up.

Never forget that.

 _Antonio._


	191. Interlude - Benny goes home

' _This place is very peculiar_ ,' Benny thought to himself, looking around the cafeteria. On the surface it looked normal enough, which was more proof to him of the genius of the man behind it. Somehow he managed to make his minions look _exactly_ like normal men and women going about their jobs, in the most convincing cover he'd ever seen. He'd visited a lot of enterprises over the years running deliveries for the boss, but he'd never seen one that looked so innocuous.

But it clearly wasn't. They'd just delivered what was some sort of shipment of arms to the guy who ran the place, into a purpose-built armory if he was any judge. One that was protected by some weird Tinker armor, which he had a pretty shrewd idea wouldn't be at all easy to get through. That took money and contacts, as well as a lot of careful thinking.

There was also the matter of the wanted Parahuman Rachel Lindt running around the place without any attempt to disguise herself. This Zephron character, who was the most obvious enforcer he'd ever seen, looking like he could just pick you up by the neck and squeeze until your head came off with a wet pop, had merely greeted her with a familiar nod and gone on his way. The guy was definitely clued up and there was no way he didn't know who she was.

From what he could remember her power was something to do with controlling dogs, or making them mutate, or something like that. She'd been in the middle of a whole pile of the animals, several of whom were very large and very dangerous looking. Presumable she was part of the security of the place. He'd seen other people with dogs wandering around, also looking like security to him, and they'd definitely been watching everything going on very carefully.

The back of his neck hadn't stopped itching the entire time they'd been here.

That lizard-girl or whatever she was, part of the reptilian Family who lived in the bay from what he'd heard, had gone past before as well, and had stopped to talk to several of the other people around the place, none of whom had looked surprised at all. She was obviously another one who was familiar to them.

The creature had looked, even with her very non-human body, cheerful and relaxed, but he couldn't help but notice the teeth, and the claws, and the armor, and the way she moved which spoke of a hell of a lot of combat training, based on people he'd known in the past. He got the impression that it would be a bad idea to annoy her.

With muscle like that, Boss Hebert wasn't someone who was going to back down in the face of trouble. He'd been able to see it in the man's eyes.

Benny had known a lot of hard and dangerous men over the years. Some of them looked at you like they were trying to decide where to bury the body. Some like they were working out whether to just make you vanish on the way home. A few like you were scum.

Hebert had looked thoughtful, like he was trying to decide if Benny and Rudy could be trusted to keep their mouths shut. Intelligent, that was it. Not someone who took hasty action.

No, if he came after you, it was after very careful thought and with a definite plan, and never without reason.

Not many bosses were like that in his experience. But the ones that were, were by a long way the most dangerous, and the ones that lasted.

Like old Antonio.

He was, by all accounts, a pleasant man to deal with, respectful and polite, and very calm. Right up to the point you pushed him too far.

Then you never came back. People simply stopped talking about you.

It didn't happen often, and not for years now. People respected Antonio and he seldom needed to make an example these days.

Word got around.

This Hebert guy made him think there was more than a little commonality there. He was probably someone who would very deliberately let you pay out enough rope to hang yourself with, merely warning you politely that it was unlikely to end well. And if you decided not to listen…?

Your problem.

He shivered a little.

No. The man was careful, deliberate, calm, intelligent, and oh so dangerous. No one he wanted to get on the bad side of.

Zephron was obviously sent to monitor them as well as make sure they didn't see anything they shouldn't. The guy was watching them the whole time, discreetly but carefully. Another smart one.

Boss Hebert clearly liked intelligent minions, who could act without requiring direct orders. Again, an example of careful planning.

It was really impressive, in a creepy sort of way.

Glancing at Rudy he could see his friend was thinking something similar from the pensive expression on his face. He knew the guy like a brother and they'd worked together for years. Rudy was smart and careful, which was why he'd survived three separate hijackings, turning the tables on two of them in a fairly brutal manner.

No one stole his cargo if he could avoid it. He took his responsibilities seriously.

But now he was definitely cautious and nervous. He kept glancing around, his eyes darting here and there, like he was waiting for the attack. Benny didn't think that, if there was anything like that going to happen, it would happen here.

No, it would happen when they least expected it.

On the other hand, they hadn't done anything that he was aware of to upset the boss man, and they hadn't seen anything either, except a quick glint of oiled metal that surely wasn't enough to warrant something permanent being done?

Benny swallowed a little dryly.

"Getting another coffee," he said after a moment, standing up. Zephron and Rudy both looked at him, then went back to their food. He walked over to the line by the serving area, waiting for his turn at the heavy-duty coffee machine.

A few seconds later, a conversation behind him made him glance back for a second, to see a big if young man, around eighteen or so, standing a couple of people back next to a shorter and skinnier guy roughly a year younger. The bigger one was black, although nothing like as dark-skinned as Zephron, while the shorter one was white, with curly black hair.

"I'm telling you, man, that little fucker got what he deserved," the shorter kid said quietly, gesturing. "Boom. Right in the back of the head. I could see brains go everywhere through the scope. It was glorious, it took me nearly twenty minutes to set up the kill."

"You really are a child sometimes, Alec," the tall guy said, sounding mildly amused and slightly tired. He looked like he'd been working hard and was covered in sawdust, Benny noticed with he risked another glance back, his eyes wide. "All that excitement over one shot."

"Hey, Brian, it took me ages to set up! I was hunting that last guy for nearly an hour and he almost got me first. But I did it, they're not going to forget what I did in a hurry. I was down to only three rounds as well." The kid, Alec, shrugged, looking satisfied. "Some people just need to be shot. Sometimes several times. He was getting on my nerves anyway, he kept mouthing off."

"Which is exactly what people say about you," Brian replied.

"Only once," Alec snickered in a dark way that made Benny shiver. The sheer glee in his voice was horrifying given the subject. It was very apparent that none of the ' _dock workers_ ' seemed even slightly concerned, or actually interested. Like that kid talked about sniping people all the time…

' _I think I want to go home,_ ' Benny mused uncomfortably.

He recognized the names, they were two of the ones Zephron had mentioned as those who would be trained on whatever was in those crates. Their ' _talents_ ' would appear to be related to sniping people from a distance, at least in the case of the shorter one, making him wonder what the job was going to be, then very hastily _stop_ wondering.

He _did not_ need, or _want_ , to know.

Reaching the coffee machine, he refilled his cup, then added sugar, before turning to head back to the table.

He almost walked into a wall of black scales that had appeared behind him. Stopping dead, he stared at it, then slowly looked up, only his head moving. Much higher than seemed reasonable, a pair of glowing green eyes with reptilian slitted pupils were looking down at him, a distinct expression of slightly alien amusement visible in them. Below that in a long muzzle were far more teeth of a very substantial size, extremely sharp ones as well, which were bared slightly in what looked like the thing's interpretation of a friendly smile.

The lizard-like creature, standing on its rear legs, was _very_ not human, yet at the same time gave off an impression of high intelligence and good humor. It was wearing, he noticed absently, a form-fitting body harness festooned with pockets over the torso, as well as a metallic necklace of some sort around the base of the long neck also color matched to the scales like the harness.

When it moved slightly, a ripple of deep scarlet ran over the scales, relieving the pure light-absorbing black for a moment.

He shivered involuntarily.

That color was so obviously perfect for merging into the dark… You'd never know it was there until it was too late.

The damn thing must have weighed at least half a ton and was well over seven feet tall, a long tail behind it resting on the floor. It looked like some sort of alien combat dinosaur, far more solid and dangerous than the comparatively slender and human-scale lizard-girl that he'd seen earlier, but also apparently from the same place.

The Family, of course.

Behind it was another one, almost identical in overall body shape, but with blue-violet scales that had deep purple highlights. This one gave off a slightly different feeling, like it was examining him carefully to work out how many of his parts could be reused, although in a purely speculative and non-hostile manner. It was also apparently mildly amused.

"Sorry, I just wanted to get some coffee," the black one rumbled in a voice nearly as deep as Zephron's but clearly female. "I didn't mean to get in the way."

The purple one said something in a weird language that consisted mostly of hisses with a few growling gurgles mixed in, utterly unlike anything Benny had ever heard before, and so alien-sounding it sent a thrill of atavistic terror down his spine. He couldn't help it, the sound tripped something deep in his mind that was gibbering at him and screaming ' _DANGER_.'

Suppressing the urge to bolt with an effort of supreme will, trained and honed over the years of working in dangerous situations for dangerous people, he swallowed, then nodded. "That's fine, miss, I wasn't looking where I was going. My apologies."

The giant lizard smiled more widely. "No worries," she said, stepping aside lightly. The speed and surety of motion was all out of proportion for something so big and heavy. "See you around." She scanned him again for a second. "Benny."

His eyes wide, he wondered how she knew his name, but decided that it was best not to ask. Nodding back to her he walked past, his back stiff from terror, and headed for the table where both Rudy and Zephron were watching him. His friend with shock in his eyes and Zephron with an evaluating look, that changed a little as he sat down and calmly stirred his coffee to an approving one.

Inside he was shaking wildly, but he managed to fake it on the outside well enough to fool most people.

Looking back to the coffee machine he saw that the two lizards were chatting in low voices as the black one filled an enormous mug, four times the normal size, and added some milk. The two kids who had been behind him, the sniper and his woodworking friend, were sipping their own coffee and also talking to the reptiles without a care in the world.

Glancing at Rudy, he saw his friend was slightly gaping, his skin paler than normal. When Benny looked around the room to see the reactions of the other people there, he wasn't entirely surprised to see no one other than them was actually paying any more attention to the creatures in their midst than to any other ' _dock worker_ ' present.

No, he decided as he finished his meal. There was definitely something very peculiar going on at the Brockton Bay DWU, and the man behind it all was someone who deserved great respect.

From a safe distance.

* * *

"Christ," Rudy sighed loudly, when they were half a mile from the gate of the DWU, on the return trip. He was shaking.

"That was… _horrifying_ ," he added soberly.

"It sure wasn't what I was expecting," Benny admitted quietly. "What the hell _is_ that place?"

"I have no fucking idea, I don't want to know, and if you have any sense you don't want to know either," his old friend remarked, piloting the much lighter truck around the potholes. "Nothing good can come of getting involved in Boss Hebert's business."

"Man sure seems competent," Benny said.

"In a deeply scary way, yeah." Rudy took a few deep breaths and visibly pulled himself together. "I met old Antonio once, did I ever tell you?"

"No." Benny was a little puzzled by the apparent change of subject.

"Yeah. Few years back, I had to make a delivery to New York. The man himself turned up to inspect the cargo. No idea what it was, it had come down from Canada and I think it was originally from Europe. He seemed pleased with it, anyway. Gave me a big bonus and personally thanked me. Very polite and gracious, proper manners, you know? Not like you get much these days."

"OK."

"But..." Rudy swallowed a little. "There was something in his eyes that said, ' _Do_ ** _not_** _fuck with this man_.' Nothing obvious, he just looked like a nice old man, like your favorite grandfather, you know? But a grandfather who knows where the bodies are buried because _he_ buried them. Probably after sighing regretfully, following a lot of provocation, then shaking his head sadly. But he's not someone to disrespect. Not twice anyway."

"That's what I've heard, sure," Benny agreed.

"Boss Hebert reminds me of a much younger version of the same sort of guy in some ways. Smart and careful, and polite too. But with a point that if you cross it, you'll regret it. Probably not for long."

They exchanged a glance, then went back to looking out the front.

"What I'm saying is, don't tell anyone anything about what we saw there. I don't think it would be safe if he found out, and I don't think it would take long for him to find out."

"I was thinking the same thing," he admitted. "I don't know what they're doing there and I don't really want to. The illusion of a legit business is amazing, though. You'd never know without looking harder."

Rudy grunted in agreement. They kept driving, snaking their way through the maze of roads in this section of the city, Benny looking at the various junkies lying around the place and wondering uneasily how many of them were reporting back to the place they'd just left.

And how many might be lizards under their tattered coats and piles of old cardboard…

"What the _hell_ were those reptile things?" he asked after another couple of minutes. "I nearly crapped myself when I turned around and practically walked into that black one."

" _No_ fucking idea. Something to do with the Family, but I don't know much about them," Rudy sighed. "God, they were _huge!_ "

"And fast. The way they moved… way faster than a human. Some sort of Tinker thing maybe?"

"I heard they were aliens," his friend said, sounding worried. "I thought that was bullshit right up to about half an hour ago."

" _I_ heard they were demons." He shrugged, as the other man glanced at him with a frown. "I'm not religious but that sounded pretty far out. Now… don't know. At least she was polite."

"Wouldn't want to try to make a move on Boss Hebert's territory with that sort of backup," his companion noted wisely. "Never mind how many soldiers he could field, I bet just those two could wipe out most other operations. Pretty sure this city isn't going to get too much trouble from outside operators."

"Nope." Benny grinned for a moment. "Probably not. Can you imagine even that smaller blue one coming after you in the dark?"

Rudy shuddered hard enough to jerk the wheel, the truck jolting, then straightening out. "Oh, thanks a fucking _bunch_ for that thought, Benny."

"You're welcome," he replied. Looking around again, he frowned. "Where the fuck are we? I don't recognize this area, we didn't come this way."

"I think I turned right when I should have turned left," Rudy grumbled, slowing and peering about them. "This sure isn't the way back to the freeway. Damn, this place is a fucking maze."

After another quarter of a mile, they pulled over to the side of the road and Benny rummaged around in the overhead storage rack for a street map of Brockton Bay. Eventually finding it, he unfolded it with much cursing and a bit of a struggle, both of them scanning the wrinkled paper trying to work out their position.

"That's the DWU compound, I think," Rudy said a little doubtfully, prodding a location near the water with one finger. "It's way bigger than the map shows."

"Looks like half these buildings here are gone now. This map must be pretty old. OK, if that's where we were… over here is the freeway where we want to go. So… we must be… here, maybe?"

They both looked around, then back at the map. "This doesn't match at all," his companion muttered. "That road over there isn't this one here, I don't think." Tracing the route from their delivery point along to the freeway very slowly, he sighed in frustration. " _That's_ where I went wrong. I should have taken the next left, _then_ turned right. We must be a couple of miles off course. Now how the hell do we get back?"

"We could ask someone for directions," Benny suggested.

"Who? One of those junkies? If they're real they probably won't know what day it is never mind where they are, and if they're Hebert's men, we'll get laughed at if we're lucky."

"What about that guy?" Benny pointed at an old but big guy who was walking towards them down the crumbling sidewalk, clad in an ancient pea coat and giving off an air of a man who had a definite destination, one that probably included beer. He looked like a sailor or something, very solidly built and sinewy despite being probably well on the wrong side of sixty, his hair iron-gray under a wool cap.

Even the junkies moved out of his way as he stomped along, clearly not keen on causing him any problems.

"OK. Why not?" Rudy shrugged. "Worth a shot. The sooner I'm out of this damn place and back on the road the happier I'll be. New Jersey is way safer."

"Lot less lizards as well," Benny pointed out, rolling down the window. "Hey, old-timer," he called as the man got close enough. "We're sort of lost. Mind giving us a moment of your time?" He held up a twenty, one of the ones from the twelve hundred bucks in his bonus from Boss Hebert.

"Name's Erwin, not old-timer," the elder grunted, stopping a few feet away and giving him an assessing look with sharp eyes. "You boys aren't local, are you?"

"No, we're up from New Jersey. Delivery to the DWU. But we got turned around on the way out and we're kind of stuck. What's the quickest way out of here back to the freeway?"

Erwin came closer, peering at Benny closely, then looking past him at his friend. The weather-beaten face cracked into a slight smile. "DWU, hmm? Saw the girls?"

"Girls?" Benny echoed, puzzled.

"Big scaly ones. Real big, although you probably didn't see the biggest one. Kaiju's not around right now." Erwin looked satisfied when both of them twitched. "Thought so. You still have a bit of that deer in the headlights look. Everyone gets it. Half ton intelligent lizards from the sea kind of fuck with your worldview, even when they're just being friendly."

"You can fucking say _that_ again," Rudy mumbled.

"Which ones did you see?" the old man asked curiously.

"Um..." Benny glanced at his colleague, who shrugged. Maybe this was a test?

"A tall skinny one in armor, sort of bright blue."

"That's Saurial. She was the first. Nice girl, very helpful, weird sense of humor. Hell of a fighter, too. Some sort of Tinker or something as well, from what I've heard. They all are in some ways, they make things all the damn time." Erwin looked approving.

"A pair of them, much bigger, with green eyes. One black, one sort of purple-blue."

"Metis and Ianthe. Sisters, cousins of Saurial and the others, I think. They're both healers and have even weirder senses of humor than Saurial does." Erwin grinned for a second. "You should hear some of the things I've heard down the tavern."

"I'm glad I haven't," Benny said faintly.

"No others?"

"How many _are_ there?"

"In total? No idea. Got the impression that there's probably an entire city of them out there somewhere." Erwin looked very amused in a craggy manner as both the men in the truck paled a lot. "But up here, there's Raptaur, she was the second one to turn up, then Kaiju of course. Nice lass, but very, very big."

"I saw the news," Rudy commented, his eyes wide. "She looked fucking _huge_."

"Huge isn't even close," Erwin chuckled. "I was probably the first one to meet her, out in the bay a while back. Popped up out of the water and asked which way to the city. Nearly gave me a heart attack. Saw her playing with the tanker before that, moving thousands of tons of ship like it was a kids toy." He watched as they both went a funny color. "Could pick this truck up and juggle it."

"Why the hell is anyone still _in_ this damn city?" Rudy demanded, sounding shaken.

Erwin shrugged. "People round these parts are used to weird shit. Not _that_ weird for the most part but it wasn't as big a surprise as you'd think. Everyone sort of got used to it more or less. Even so they keep doing new weird things, and they definitely attract other even stranger ones. Place is a lot more interesting these days. And safer. Gangs have mostly gone quiet."

He smirked at them. "Ever since Raptaur beat the shit out of Hookwolf and made it look easy, the E88 stays way the fuck away from the docks. No one's seen Lung in weeks. Know why?"

Benny shook his head, as did his friend. Erwin leaned closer to the window. "We think Kaiju ate him."

"Shit!"

Erwin pulled back, apparently contented with the reaction he'd got. He shrugged a little. "Or maybe not. Anyway, rumor is that Raptaur had a fight with him, then decided to let her big sister deal with the guy. He was ramped to hell at the time, like he was back in Japan when Leviathan turned up, from what I hear. Even the entire Protectorate here would pull back in the face of that. They have before. But..."

Benny couldn't help it, when the man trailed off, he asked, "But?" even though he didn't really want to know.

"But, that was the last anyone's heard from the guy. Entire gang went quiet too. Same night his lieutenant disappeared as well. Word around here is that they were hassling the DWU or some friends of theirs, the Family got pissed off, and..." He shrugged again. "Not a good idea to piss the Family off. Hookwolf was lucky. He only got half drowned, then dumped into a cell. Raptaur was in a good mood. Girl's got style, though, knocked seven bells out of the brute with a hammer. Could have killed him any time she wanted. I've seen the video, it's fucking hilarious."

"I take it you don't like the guy," Benny said dryly, his voice unsteady.

Erwin spat on the ground. "Nazi scum. Dad had enough trouble with the fuckers in France, don't like seeing them here. Kaiser's one thing, he's scum but he's smart, polite scum. Hookwolf is just the sort of guy who should have been strangled at birth. Save everyone trouble in the long run. Got no time for Nazis. Even Lung was an improvement, the man's crazy, but stay out his face and he normally stayed out of yours."

He thought for a moment, then added wisely, "May well have got right _inside_ Kaiju's face. In among all the teeth. Seen her eat a boat, you know? Impressive."

"Jesus." Rudy moaned the word, looking like he really wanted the garrulous old sailor to shut the fuck up. Benny was thinking much the same, heartily regretting his suggestion to ask for directions.

People in Brockton Bay were clearly insane, staying here with all this shit going on. And somehow, Boss Hebert was right in the middle of it.

A thought struck him, making him suck in a breath. ' _Or… is he actually_ ** _behind_** _it? Take out the main gangs with a couple of strategic hits, make it look like it was some weird cape family doing it, but who gains from it?_ ' He shook his head in renewed respect. ' _Man's a fucking genius. And has balls the size of coconuts to pull this off_.'

"How do we get out of this insane asylum, Erwin?" Rudy asked, sounding like he really wanted to be doing seventy miles an hour away from this entire city as soon as possible. Benny could understand, despite his impressed sense of wonder at the sheer beauty of the Hebert man's master plan, he'd be happier when it was in the next state.

Or country, ideally.

"Let's see that map," Erwin replied, gesturing for the thing. Benny folded it quickly to a size small enough to hand through the window, the local area visible in it. "Got a pen?"

"Here." Rudy handed one to Benny, who passed it over.

"OK. You're _here_ , right? You want to get to _here_ , that's the nearest freeway entrance. So you follow this path, like this." Erwin drew a line winding through a whole series of roads, turn after turn describing a more or less straight path several miles through the dock area and the surrounding commercial district. "Little bit roundabout, some of these areas you don't want to go through, not if you want to keep your truck. This road is like a tank trap, you'll never get through, so avoid it. This one here has a collapsed building across it from something that fuckwit Skidmark did when he got into it with Kaiser a couple of months ago. Don't go down here, you'll die. _Definitely_ don't go down here, you'll _wish_ you died. This road is one way, and the traffic on this one is a fucking pain."

He kept talking and drawing, both amazing Benny with his memory, and horrifying him with the casual way he described lethal hazard after lethal hazard. Eventually he stopped with the pen on the freeway. "And there's your on ramp. Easy, right?"

Without a word, Benny accepted the map and pen back, then handed over the twenty, and another one for luck.

"Thanks," Rudy said. Erwin stepped back, giving them a casual salute.

"Drive careful, boys. Watch out for the cops, the state police are bastards around here. Couple of nice New Jersey ' _deliverymen_ ' don't want to get mixed up with them." The way he said it, along with the evil grin, make Benny sigh a little. The man was apparently not entirely as nuts as he appeared.

"Thanks, Erwin," he replied.

"No problems," the old man smirked. "Have a good trip home. Me, I'm off to Pat's for a cold one." He looked at the forty dollars in his hand. "On you." Tucking the cash into his pocket, he turned and resumed his original route as they watched, then exchanged a glance.

Benny rolled up the window, put the map on the dashboard, then ran his hands over his face and sighed.

"Next time when the boss says ' _You two are going to Brockton Bay_ ,' can we _please_ say no?" he asked, his face still covered. "This place is weird."

"Then he'll ask why, and we can't really tell him without getting Boss Hebert pissed with us," Rudy pointed out with a scowl, restarting the vehicle. "Between our people and his, I'll take ours getting angry any day. They won't send a lizard large enough to eat the truck after us. Just someone with a gun. I can deal with that."

"Not to mention it would offend Antonio, which is nearly as bad," Benny groaned. "Fuck my life. Sometimes it's not worth getting out of bed in the morning."

They shared a look of weary commiseration then began following the route their local guide had produced. Both of them thinking that the bonus they'd been given wasn't nearly enough...

* * *

The truck's brakes squealed as it stopped. Both men looked out the windshield at the stack of burned out cars placed neatly across the road, then at each other. "Oh, for _fuck's_ ** _sake!_** " Rudy sighed. "Now what? We nearly escaped this nuthouse and now some joker's covering the damn road with old wrecks?"

"Might be an ambush," Benny said uneasily, looking both ways, then leaning down to peer up at the surrounding buildings. There was no one at all visible but the back of his neck was itching again.

"Someone with a death wish, then, considering we're still on Hebert's turf. This isn't his style, it's too crude." Rudy pointed at marks on the road. "Used a forklift or something to put those there."

"Huh. Wonder why?"

"Don't know, don't care," his friend muttered, glancing at the map which he'd propped up on the radio. "Now we have to go back nearly a mile to get around this."

A tap on the window made both of them jump violently and whirl around, then gape.

 _ **"Hey, you guys need a hand?"**_ a very disturbing voice hissed, apparently emanating from the empty cloak that was standing on thin air three feet off the ground outside Benny's window, the glass in between them not having any noticeable effect on the sound. _ **"The Merchants blocked this road a couple of weeks ago trying to hijack a chemical tanker, no one's got around to clearing it away yet."**_

The voice was cheerfully weird, sounding female but entirely not like a person. The fact that they could see quite clearly that the hood of the cloak contained nothing but air was more than a little worrying. As was the odd leathery clawed hand that stuck out from the cloth, making a gesture at the barrier in front of them. Whatever was in there, presuming anything _was,_ it was no more human than those lizards.

Possibly less so.

After a very long moment, and a look at Rudy's wide eyes, he rolled the window down very slowly. "Uh… we don't really want to go all the way back to the last turning," he admitted in a weak voice. "If you could help it would be appreciated."

 _ **"Sure, no trouble."**_ She, or it, or whatever it was, stepped back, still on nothing, inspecting the truck for a moment, then turned her… head? to look at the barrier of a dozen or so smashed up cars.

Which promptly moved out of the way in the most disturbing fashion that Rudy had ever seen.

The vehicles visibly distorted, the stack splitting in half, each part moving to the side and rotating impossibly until it was nearly vertical, leaving a strip of open road between them more than large enough for the truck to pass through. They gaped in shock for several seconds, then stared at the petite _thing_ which seemed pleased with itself. _**"There you go, guys,"**_ she hissed happily. _**"You can go through, it's perfectly safe."**_

Both of them looked at each other, then with a swallow, Rudy put the truck in gear.

"Thanks, um..."

 _ **"Cloak,"**_ the cloak said helpfully.

"Cloak. That's very… nice… of you."

The clawed hand waved dismissively. _ **"It's not a problem, trust me. Someone should have moved those things weeks ago. I'll sort it out. See you."**_

Benny nodded without being able to think what to say, rolling the window up, then moving his head to stare straight ahead. He didn't blink as the truck passed between the distorted piles of wrecks, or for that matter, breathe, until they were a couple of hundred yards past that point.

Neither man said another word until they were on the freeway, doing exactly the speed limit and wishing it was considerably higher.

Even then, it was only for Rudy to say, "Glad we got some more coffee. I'm _not_ stopping for _anything_ until we're home."

Benny merely sighed agreement, leaned back in the seat, and closed his eyes.

* * *

Looking up as someone sat across from him in the old diner, just across the road from the boss' front business, a pawn shop, Benny nodded to the man who'd joined him. Alphonse was another member of his organization, an old friend from school. The man motioned to Clarice, the waitress, who came over with his regular coffee and a sandwich, putting them in front of him with a quick smile. Both men watched her walk off, before turning to each other.

"How'd that job go the other day, up north?" Al asked curiously, picking up his coffee and tasting it, before adding some sugar. He cocked an eyebrow at his friend. "Haven't seen Rudy since you guys got back. Never been to Brockton Bay, but I've heard it's a bit odd."

Benny laughed hollowly. "Bit odd. Yeah." He shook his head. "I could think of other things to call it."

"See any capes?"

He stared hard at his friend. "Don't ask. Seriously."

Al looked curious, sipping his drink, then ate half his sandwich.

"What was the client like? In our business, or something else?"

Benny sighed. Putting his coffee down, he leaned forward, his friend doing likewise. "Look, Al, we've known each other since we were six. So listen." He took a breath, then spoke in a low, urgent voice.

"I can't tell you what I saw. I didn't see _anything_. I can't tell you what I heard. I didn't hear _anything_. Got me?"

Al nodded slowly.

"Good." Benny leaned back, finishing his coffee in one drag, then putting the cup down. "One piece of advice, though. You'll sleep a hell of a lot better if you _stay away_ from Brockton Bay. Trust me on that."

He stood, dropping some cash on the table, then walked past the other man. Stopping, he leaned over again, whispering, "And if you hear the name ' _Hebert_ ', run. But don't say it for god's sake."

With that, he left.

Al watched him go, made a mental note not to mention anything he'd heard, and went back to his sandwich.


	192. Observations and Deductions

Lisa thought about the data she was looking at, letting her power play with it. The tracking logs showed, as she'd expected, that Leviathan had gone nuts when Taylor had gone supersonic, roaring off in the relevant direction to put a planet between him and her. There was a short atypical pause though, which made her grin a little.

Even her power seemed amused.

It suggested that the Endbringer had been taken by surprise by the new development and had probably been doing its own equivalent of staring in horror, before it ran for its life. Whatever the true reason the things were wary of Taylor, it was pretty obvious even without using Parahuman abilities that they _definitely_ didn't want to meet her.

She was curious about why Leviathan did his odd thing of keeping away from both Taylor's current position and Brockton Bay itself, though. It was something she'd noticed immediately when she'd first seen the data, and he was still doing it. If it was the Varga that was ultimately the basis of the Endbringer's caution, which seemed likely to her, why didn't he move to keep Taylor as far as possible from him even if that meant he got closer to the city?

Letting her ability puzzle over it, she reviewed the tracking log again, before going back to the live view, which showed him almost stationary in the same location he'd occupied for close to two months.

 _Endbringers unwilling to risk destruction_

 _Endbringer activity status misaligned with mission parameters_

 _Endbringer mission corrupt_

 _Initiator access temporarily suspended by supervisor override due to mission risk assessment exceeding acceptable levels_

 _Observation of non-quantifiable subject via network gives lower limit to estimated threat_

 _Lower limit above assured victory threshold_

 _Lower limit increasing_

 _Network fragmentation and error rate increasing due to external influence_

 _Network fragmentation process ongoing end stage non-quantifiable_

 _Endbringer mission ongoing_

 _Endbringer mission unable to complete using standard parameters_

 _Endbringers…_

 _Endbringers…_

Her power suddenly dumped a series of data points into her mind, almost feeling plaintive and confused for the last couple. She reeled with the abrupt activity, wondering what it was up to. There was a distinct feeling that it was trying to tell her something important in a roundabout manner but kept running into something that was preventing this from happening.

Pondering the conclusions, she tried to assess them and derive some meaning. If she had it right, the Endbringers were actively trying not to encounter Taylor, who was together with the Varga the ' _non-quantifiable subject_ ' her power kept babbling about. She was pretty certain of that, although it seemed coy about confirming it. They were somehow being pushed into doing what they did as well, if ' _initiator_ ' meant what she thought it did. ' _Supervisor override_ ' was odd. By implication the ' _supervisor_ ' wasn't the same as the ' _initiator_ '.

What did it all mean?

By the sound of it, the Endbringers were indeed monitoring Taylor, and most likely as they'd worked out via their powers, also confirming, sort of, that they were related and linked together. ' _Network_ ' was another confirmation, or at least strong correlation, of this theory.

By the sound of it as well they were also right about the idea that somehow Taylor, and/or the Varga, was having some peculiar effect on the source of powers, if ' _network fragmentation_ ' could be taken at face value.

She'd bet all the money she stole from Lung that the ' _external influence_ ' was indeed the Varga.

Somehow.

Her power appeared not to be able to work out where this process, whatever it was, would go. Non-quantifiable wasn't very helpful, really.

' _Assured victory threshold_ ' was a weirdly worrying way to put it, as well. It had some nasty implications that were going to need careful thought. The bit about the lower limit, though, tended to imply that her friend was somehow becoming more dangerous in the eyes of the Endbringers as time went on, having started at a point they already weren't keen on running into.

Which was in itself slightly scary, in some ways.

The end result of all of this tended to suggest that the Endbringers weren't just acting on their own, they were being used as weapons by someone or something, ones that were smart enough to know when they faced an opponent that would cause them trouble. She honestly couldn't see any other conclusion than the one she'd come to that this opponent was Taylor and her giant friend, somehow. It was the only thing that fitted all the data and the timeline as well.

The last couple of conclusions were very strange. It was like her power kept getting frustrated, like someone kept pressing a reset button on it. Very similar to the result she'd got when she tried to work out what Eidolon's problem was.

Her eyes narrowed a little. There was something there…

After a few seconds, she shook her head in frustration. It just wouldn't come to her for some reason, which was incredibly irritating.

The big questions were, as far as she could see, what was the Endbringer mission, and who or what was the initiator? Who had set the damn things into motion?

All this supported the theories they'd come up with from what she could see, even if it didn't straight out confirm any of them. But it was more evidence to add to the list. She was going to have to start writing this all down and trying to put it together into a coherent whole, since at the moment they mainly had dozens of scraps of information with lots of holes in between them.

That said, there certainly seemed to be something to it, even if she couldn't yet see an overall pattern. There _was_ one, she was certain, and her power was doing everything it could manage to get around what she was now convinced was a deliberate block by parties unknown to prevent her learning what she was learning. Presumably the ultimate source of Parahuman abilities didn't want people finding out what it was and why it was doing it.

That worried her a lot.

Mulling it over for a while, trying to get more data from her ability, she ultimately dropped that particular line of thought as all it did was make her power sulk a little. It seemed relieved when she stopped prodding it, making her smile a little.

Despite Taylor's somewhat dubious acceptance of what she felt, she herself was absolutely sure her power was in its own way both alive, and semi-sentient at the least. And there was growing evidence, as far as she was concerned, that it really was a lot like some weird type of computer.

 _And_ that it thought Taylor and her companion were the best thing _ever_.

Smiling a little, she looked at the tracking data on Leviathan again, then switched to the Simurgh tracking system. Playing the log she watched as the thing came active very suddenly indeed, at as far as she could tell the same moment Taylor first lifted off on her latest invention, then tracked her throughout the entire test flight.

The expression was… a little unnerving.

 _Endbringer wary of new developments_

 _Endbringer hopeful?_

 _Endbringer desires mission cessation_

 _Endbringer…_

Once again, her power stalled out. But she got the gist of it.

The damn Simurgh was hoping that somehow it could get out from under whatever was pulling its strings.

Now _there_ was a terrifying thought.

Everyone thought of the Simurgh as the ultimate plotter, the one who controlled minions the world over, the one you could never be sufficiently paranoid about. But, if she was correct, something else was actually using the Endbringer in an even deeper plot.

"Or that's just what she _wants_ me to think," she muttered out loud.

That was the real problem. You really _couldn't_ be too paranoid where the fucking thing was concerned.

But… she just couldn't shake the feeling that she was on the right track. There was just something about the way the thing was staring down from orbit that made her think it wasn't simply a trick.

Although _that_ might _also_ be part of the trick…

"For fuck's sake, this sort of thinking can drive you _nuts_ ," she growled, shaking her head as she watched the creature go dormant again, after actually looking relieved. Probably about Taylor not heading for orbit and a confrontation.

Briefly she wondered what the thing would have done if her friend had indeed found out if she could reach space.

Flipping to the live feed, she watched the Endbringer drifting as it moved around the planet in the new orbit it had moved to after the end of the previous recording.

Zooming in as far as she could, she studied it. "What are you, and what do you want?" she mumbled, putting her hands on the console and leaning closer to the monitor as if it would help. Not knowing was annoying her something fierce, and worrying her nearly as much. Somehow, those things were connected to everything odd that was going on with her power, and Amy's, and all the other Parahumans who had come into contact with Taylor since the Varga had arrived.

She blinked several times when the Simurgh suddenly unfolded her wings and exposed her face, rotating a little until those dead eyes were looking right down the distant telescope.

' _That is… freaky_ ,' she thought, leaning even closer. The creature was somewhat closer in its current orbit than it had been the last time she'd looked at it and she had a very clear view of it through the phenomenally good optics of Dragon's scope. ' ** _Now_** _what are you doing?_ '

Lisa somehow had the distinct impression that the thing was looking right at _her_. Specifically. Even though it was looking at a telescope in Canada.

"We're going to figure it out, you know," she said quietly, "And we're going to stop you. Somehow. _We_ have a demon on our side."

The Simurgh blinked.

Lisa stared.

"You really _are_ looking at me, aren't you?" she finally said.

It blinked again.

"Fuck me with a barge-pole," she whispered. "How the hell..."

She thought rapidly. There was only one possibility that she could see.

"My powers. This ' _network_ ' it's talking about. That's how. We're right about everything, aren't we?"

She watched closely. Was that a tiny smile on the face of the distant Endbringer? If so, it was gone moments later. Her power was suspiciously silent, but she could feel it was as interested as she was. And somehow a little shocked.

"Maybe I'm going mad." She pulled back from the monitor. "Or maybe I'm not. But I'm not going to give up until I work it out. All of it."

Pointing at the monitor, she added, "And one way or the other, I'll work _you_ out as well. Count on it."

There was a pause, just long enough to make her think she really was going a little loopy, before the Simurgh definitely smiled in a weird way, faintly and briefly, almost with resignation like she knew there wasn't anything she could do. Lisa stared in surprise, then shook her head and logged off, needing rather suddenly not to be looking at the thing while she thought about everything that she'd deduced.

The sudden ringing of her phone made her twitch, then retrieve it from the console where she'd put it earlier.

* * *

Sherrel sat in a corner of the room watching the other Merchants stumble around the place, half of them so fucked up on various narcotics they could barely stand. It was a normal scene in this place, one she'd seen so many times she couldn't even work it out, but now she observed it with quiet shock.

How the hell had she ended up living like this?

It had been a long, slow, horrible descent into something that was… just disgusting.

And somehow she'd never noticed.

But, now, she couldn't _not_ notice it. Suddenly totally stone-cold sober for the first time in at least four years, she looked around at what she'd come to accept as normal and wondered how _anyone_ could accept it at all. She knew many of these people, even sort of liked a few of them, but her memories of good times with them didn't match the squalid and revolting reality she was looking at right now. In one corner of the room, a small orgy was going on, the seven participants covered in sweat and less salubrious substances, so high they most likely couldn't remember what they were doing even as they were doing it.

Across the room from her, a couple more of her… friends/acquaintances/ _random people she shared a building with_ , were shooting up good old fashioned heroin, one of them slumping unconscious before he managed to remove the hypodermic from his arm. His friend popped it out, then fell over, smiling a little, before also passing out.

She watched in muted horror. This wasn't what she'd wanted, all those years ago.

More worryingly, it wasn't what she _remembered_ from only days ago.

Without the chemical haze over everything, she could see what was happening with a level of clarity that made her want to vomit.

Her eyes following a small group of people ranging in age from only fifteen or so up to about thirty, she observed them pull out a bag of meth and a pipe then start passing it around. Within minutes they were flopping on the floor giggling.

Sherrel was struck anew by something she'd noticed in the last day, as she'd moved around the entire building in something of a daze.

The oldest person in the entire place was probably about thirty-three or so.

Most of them were mid-twenties or younger.

She could clearly remember, or as clearly remember as she was likely to bearing in mind the level of narcotics generally in her bloodstream up until whatever had happened in her workshop, that people older than that had joined them many times over the years. But she couldn't see any of them, and had looked carefully everywhere.

There was an obvious explanation for that phenomenon that made her feel unwell. Constant access to and use of drugs of the level that were lying around the place tended to have a fairly detrimental long term health effect.

For a moment, she wondered what percentage of the gang was still alive compared to the number that had joined up over the years. She suspected it wasn't very high.

And less than twenty-four hours earlier, she'd come terrifyingly close to joining that statistic. Only something she still didn't understand had saved her, and she had no idea why. What made _her_ worth saving, compared to everyone else here?

And who had saved her?

Reaching into her pocket, she pulled out the scrap of paper she'd found in her hand when she'd woken up, reading it yet again, then put it away once more. She still couldn't work out what to do.

The number on the paper possibly gave her a way out. On the other hand, it might lead her to her death. On the _other_ other hand, why would some mysterious good Samaritan save her, only to entice her into a lethal trap?

Moaning faintly she put her head in her hands. ' _What do I do?_ ' she thought despairingly.

A glance at the pipe and almost transparent crystal sitting next to her on the stained and ripped couch she was sitting on, with a lighter near them, made her ponder that option. Her hand even reached out for it, then retracted hesitantly.

It was certainly one solution to the issues troubling her, but it wasn't a good one. Especially considering it was what had damn near killed her in the first place, and was exactly what had led her to this point in her life. Not to mention that she had a shrewd idea that her tolerance for any narcotic had been reset to a level far below the one she'd built it up to before the events in the workshop. Even inhaling the smoke from second hand use of the various pharmaceuticals everyone around her was using had left her dizzy, and not in a good way.

No.

That wasn't the right choice, she was sure. She'd been given a second chance even if she didn't call the number, one she would be stupid to just throw away. Sherrel was well aware that she wasn't someone who had made a lot of good choices in her life, but she wasn't falling into that trap again if she could help it. There was no burning desire for meth in her any more and with the clearing of her head she could see that starting to use it again led somewhere she had a sudden powerful urge to avoid.

Looking down at herself she picked at her stained clothing. It was the least revolting of any of the things she possessed yet was still grubby and covered in oil. That she didn't mind, it was a hazard of doing what she loved doing, but the other things that went along with the oil she wasn't so blasé about.

Standing up abruptly, she looked around her at the ongoing debauchery, shuddered a little, and headed back to her workshop to think away from the harsh chemical reek that pervaded the room.

On the way she looked at the entire operation with her newly-opened eyes and despaired.

Growing up in that literal trailer park, she hadn't had a lot of goals for life, aside from getting out of where she was into some ill-defined concept of _better_. She wasn't, now that she looked back on the last few years, at all sure that she'd actually done that.

Adam had turned up out of nowhere one day in the small town she lived in, foul-mouthed even then, but with a certain style and joy of living that appealed to her. They'd started hanging out together, finding in each other a level of companionship that both liked. He'd introduced her to drugs other than alcohol, which she was already more than familiar with, and tobacco, which she'd never liked. Growing up where she did, booze wasn't exactly hard to get, of course, and she'd first gotten drunk when she was ten.

He'd given her some pot, which she enjoyed, and some coke, which she didn't. Not at first, anyway. It made her head ache and the world way too bright and crisp around the edges. She could see why he liked it, he was always full of ideas and the stuff definitely made him even more creative, but at the same time it seemed to have a detrimental effect on his attention span.

Even so, when he'd suggested they leave together and find something more interesting to do, she'd accepted on the spot. They didn't even say goodbye, just jumped in a car and started driving.

Considering what her home life was like, it was something she still didn't regret, even after all that had happened. If she'd stayed in that trailer, she was pretty certain she'd have died by now. One way or the other.

It had all been fun at first, but… looking back, she could see that the long slide to where she'd ended up the day before had started then. Adam was smart and funny and full of grandiose ideas, but hindsight let her clearly see that he'd had the beginnings of the problems that now defined him even then. His temper was always short, and more than that, bad. When he got angry, everyone around him suffered.

That was what had led to him Triggering, in the end. He'd said the wrong thing to the wrong person and very nearly died as a result. And one way or the other, a couple of months later the fallout from that had led to her own Trigger event. Not something she wanted to think about even now.

But that was the nature of Triggers. No one ever enjoyed them, by definition.

She'd blamed him for months, but somehow still stayed with the man. In the end they recovered as much as anyone could, ending up in Brockton Bay, which was at least an interesting place. Even when you didn't want it to be.

When he'd decided that instead of simply using drugs they should start selling them, which was a fairly common path, she hadn't been surprised. Between them, they had the abilities to start an organization that could be quite effective at the job. Moving from that to actually making the stuff wasn't much of a jump and it increased the profit a hell of a lot. She'd had qualms about it, for a while, but she could now see she'd been so far gone by that point that her own thought patterns were suspect at best.

Even so, he'd spent quite a long time convincing her, successfully, that it was the right move. Good times rolled on, for a while.

They didn't lack for money, drugs were copiously available, she was actively encouraged to Tinker away, and if she had reservations, they could be pushed to the back of her mind. Eventually they went away.

But… the man she'd genuinely loved also went away, slowly replaced by someone who looked like him, but acted more and more irrationally. All his bad aspects and habits became in the end almost the only part of him that survived, magnified to the point that he was a mockery of the person she'd originally met years ago. She could see that, had been seeing it even through her own problems, which she knew were severe. And she didn't like it.

But she couldn't stop him. Or, if she was honest, herself. The lifestyle, the drugs, the sheer habits, kept both of them circling the drain, even if they'd wanted to get out.

She had come to the conclusion that she did some time ago, but lacked the ability to do anything about it.

Adam almost certainly _didn't_ want out. He was perfectly happy where he was. And when she balked at some of his recent ideas, pointing out that he was biting off _way_ more than he could chew, although he himself was likely to get both bitten _and_ chewed, he damn near beat her to death.

The man she'd first met, while he had a violent side if pushed, would never have done such a thing.

Arriving in her workshop after a reflective walk through the large building, she looked around. The nearly completed vehicle in the middle of the room was huge and ungainly, but she still found beauty in the way all the disparate parts had been joined together to form a whole. It was ugly, even she could see that, but only on the outside.

Unfortunately, she could _also_ see that her boyfriend was ugly on the _inside_. Sherrel wasn't sure that could be fixed.

She _was_ sure she couldn't do it.

Perhaps her mystery savior could, but she wasn't convinced. Physical issues were one thing. What was wrong with Adam went a lot deeper than that, she suspected.

"Oh, fuck it, what do I do?" she mumbled, slumping onto her stool at the workbench, picking up a torque wrench and running her hand over the greasy metal. "What do I do?"

"Get this fucking thing finished, you lazy bitch, that's what you do," the familiar voice of her boyfriend's third in command unexpectedly said from behind her. She stiffened in shock and abrupt rage. "Skids sent word he's found something good. He'll be coming back when he's negotiated a price. We need this done. Fucking do it."

Turning around, she glared hatefully at the tattered man, who was standing a few feet away, reeking of crack and glaring at her through bloodshot eyes. "I told you not to talk to me like that."

"I'll talk any way I want, cunt. He left me in charge. You do what I say."

"Or what?"

"Or I fucking do something you'll regret," he tried to growl, not really managing it due to the slur in his words, and the fact that he was pretty unimpressive physically.

"Yeah, sure," she sighed. "Like you could. Or would. Skidmark would kill you."

"Bitch." The man took a step closer, raising his hand.

She brought the torque wrench around and pointed it at him warningly. "Try it. I'll break your fucking arm, you little shit."

The man stared at her, his face flushing with anger, then pulled his arm back and swung it, stepping into range and aiming at her face.

She ducked, then swung the wrench as hard as she could. The crack it made as his wrist shattered was simultaneously sickening and gratifying, as was his scream of pain.

Sherrel had never liked the little bastard. And knew for a fact that he'd knifed at least two people, one of whom died, so she had little sympathy for him.

"Fucking cunt bitch!" Lee gasped, dropping to his knees and grabbing his arm with his other hand, his face suddenly very pale.

"I warned you. Now get the hell out of my workshop before I crack your head open and let all the air out." She waved the wrench at him, making him lean back, then struggle to his feet again. "Fuck off out of here and don't come back."

"I'm going to tell Skidmark about this, he'll fucking kill you, bitch," the man said through gritted teeth, trembling with pain.

"Then I'll never finish that thing," she pointed out evenly, still tense, in case he tried something else.

His mouth opened and closed a couple of times, while he sweated, pale and wan, then he turned and headed for the exit. She followed at a safe distance, slamming the door behind him when he went through it. Leaning on it she sighed in relief and worry. "Shit."

Eventually, the woman returned to the bench, sitting down and staring at the construction in the middle of the room.

Nearly half an hour of thought later, she pulled the paper out of her pocket, looked at it blankly for another minute or so, then reached for her phone.

The other end rang a few times.

" _Hello. I was wondering if you'd call. Are you all right?_ " The voice was female, deep, and concerned.

"Not really," she admitted, leaning her head on her hand and breathing deeply a couple of times. "I can't stay here any more. Whatever you did to me… I… I can see too much now."

" _Are you sure?_ " The person on the phone sounded unsurprised, somehow, but also cautious. " _It's a big step. You're going to piss off your friends a lot, in a way that you probably can't go back on._ "

"Friends?" She thought about it for a while. All the actual friends she'd had when they started years back were gone, except for Adam. Most of them having died, a few simply disappearing. The people that had come and gone since then were, at best, acquaintances. Some who she quite liked, some she genuinely hated, but none of them really _friends_. "I don't think I have any of those left. Yes, I'm sure. If I stay here, one way or another I'm dead, sooner or later. I decided that I don't want that."

" _OK. Fair enough_." There was a pause, giving the impression of careful thought. " _We get you somewhere safe first, then we can work out what comes next. And what to do about your idiot boyfriend before he does something he can't walk back from_."

"I heard he's found what he's looking for. He'll be back in the Bay soon. Maybe a week or so, I think."

" _I see_." The person she was talking to paused again. " _That's annoying. Still, that's not important right now. All right, this is what we're going to do. Pack up anything you want to bring. Keep it light. Barricade yourself into the workshop. I'll be there soon._ "

"Who _are_ you?" she asked, burning with curiosity. "And why are you helping me?"

" _You can call me Metis. And… let's say that I think it's the right thing to do for my own reasons, aside from the simple humanitarian aspect_." Metis chuckled a little. " _Slightly ironically. Do what I said, quickly, and I'll see you in about half an hour_."

Her head full of questions, Sherrel only nodded pointlessly. "OK." The line went dead before she could ask how this ' _Metis_ ' was going to get into her workshop if it was barricaded.

Staring at the phone in her hand for a moment, she shrugged and put it away. Whoever it was she'd been speaking to, they clearly had managed to get in before, so presumably the same method would be used. She just hoped that the words ' _Frying Pan_ ' and ' _Fire_ ' weren't going to play a large part in the next few hours of her life.

Going over to the door she picked up the crowbar that had been sticking out of the frame when she'd come around the day before, which was propped against the wall, then inserted it into the hole she'd knocked it out of. Grabbing her sledge hammer she smacked it a couple of times against the other tool, driving it firmly into place. That made the door pretty solidly jammed shut.

Satisfied, she started packing up some of her specialized tools, the ones she'd made, the others being common mechanic's tools and easily replaceable. When she'd finished, she studied the vehicle under construction.

It was a shame to abandon it, after all that work, but…

The damn thing wasn't worth her life.

That said, there were parts of it she really didn't want to see fall into the wrong hands, and could reuse later. Grabbing a toolkit she spend fifteen minutes stripping out the cloaking system, the power supplies, and a few other subsystems, cutting wires ruthlessly with a twinge of shame at the mess she was making. After some more thought she made a few deliberate changes to the drive train, which would ensure that if anyone actually tried to finish the thing and drive it, it would end up as scrap. Probably pretty loudly.

In the end she had two crates of parts sitting next to her good tools. Looking at the small pile, she felt more shame. That was it. Several years of living here, and all she wanted to take were some tools, some mechanical and electronic parts, and the clothes she was standing up in. Which she'd burn as soon as she got the chance.

"God damn it, I'm _so_ fucked up," she sighed. "How the hell did I end up here?"

There was no good answer, really. Shrugging, she sat down to wait, glancing at the battered diver's watch on her wrist. Five minutes to the half hour.

Seconds after the time mentioned, there was a scraping sound that made her jump, then whirl around to stare across the room to the section she used as a junk pile. A large rusty steel plate that had been present when she moved in, far too heavy to shift and something she'd always assumed was part of the floor, lifted slowly up. She watched with wide eyes as it moved sideways then was lowered carefully, revealing a cavity in the floor she'd had no idea at all was there.

"Holy shit," she mumbled, shocked.

The head that rose out of the hole in the floor made her reach for the stability of the workbench. Black scales opened in a smile that exposed a _lot_ of teeth. Glowing green eyes showed amused good humor at her reaction.

" _Christ_ , I hope you're Metis," she said in a quavering voice.

"Got it in one," the same voice she'd heard on the phone a little while ago said, sounding pleased. "Ready to get out of here?"

"You're Family."

"Yep."

"Helping me."

"True."

Sherrel stared, then sighed. "Should have known it was going to get weird. Everything around this damn city is weird. I'm weird, you're weird, the whole Family is _fucking_ weird… What's one more thing?"

"That's the spirit," Metis laughed, climbing out of the hole and walking over to her. The lizard-like creature was _huge_ , Sherrel saw, well over seven feet tall and built like a scaly organic tank. The plate she'd lifted with one hand must have weighed a good ton or so but she'd made it look easy.

"What are you taking?"

"This stuff here," she said, pointing at the toolbox and the crates of parts.

"That's it?"

"I don't have anything else I want to keep," she admitted. Metis looked at her for a moment then nodded, appearing sympathetic.

"I understand. OK, let's put that away." Sherrel twitched when the creature suddenly sprouted armor out of nowhere with a rapid clattering sound. She stared in shock, then interest, mixed with slight envy.

"That's cool," she commented, fascinated.

"It's not bad, is it? You'll meet my cousin Saurial, she did the work. An old Family technique, fractal dimensional storage." A compartment opened in the chest plate of Metis' armor, the lizard grabbing both the toolbox and the crates, then tucking them inside. Sherrel gaped as the items, while not enormous, couldn't possibly fit inside the armor and leave room for Metis.

"Fuck me. That's fucking amazing."

"It's sure useful." The compartment closed, then the armor disappeared once more, taking her stuff with it. Shaking her head in awed respect, she followed as Metis walked back to the hole in the floor. "It's dark down there and it stinks, but it's safe enough. Grab hold." Metis lowered herself to the floor and indicated her neck. After a moment's worry, the woman shrugged, then swung herself aboard, putting her arms around the long neck and holding on tightly to the warm scales. Metis slipped over the edge of the hole and climbed down the rough rock wall, dropping the last few feet into mud that squelched underfoot, releasing a strong smell of decaying organic matter mixed with a trace of oil and fuel.

"OK, slide down, I need to go back and put the cover in place so they can't work out where you went. Back in a moment." Standing in mud up to her ankles, Sherrel watched as the light coming from above was blocked by the sheer black of the reptilian creature as she climbed back up, then braced her tail against the inside of the vertical tunnel and used both hands to gently reposition the cover. A slight grating of metal on concrete and the entire tunnel was suddenly completely dark.

She blinked a little as soft green light flooded the area, emitted from patches on the body of Metis, who was climbing back down. When the Family member was standing next to her, she said, "We need to walk about a mile. You go in front so I can clear the footprints away. At the junction ahead, turn right."

"OK," Sherrel replied a little weakly, still shocked at not only who and what was helping her, but how fast it was happening. She started walking, the bioluminescence from Metis illuminating her path well enough. The lizard followed a couple of feet behind. "Thank you for helping me."

"You're welcome," Metis said softly. "What do you want me to call you? Squealer?"

She thought hard about that question for a hundred feet or so. "No. Squealer is the old me. I'm done with that part of my life. I don't know what I'll call myself going forward, but… my name is Sherrel."

"Nice to meet you, Sherrel," Metis replied. "OK, right here, then about another three hundred yards, then left."

They kept walking, mostly in silence, while the woman pondered the events that had led her here, and wondered where they were going to end up taking her.

* * *

Taylor jogged back into the DWU yard, hopping over the barrier and waving at the guards, who waved back, then went back to yet another card game, Mike complaining under his breath about his partner being a cheating cheater who cheated, making her grin a little. Heading towards the office she passed the truck that had turned up from her father's and Mark's mysterious contacts, both of them along with the truckers inside the armory she'd made the day before, based on the scents. Not stopping, since she'd talk to them when the two other guys had left, she kept going, smiling at Rachel who was still out walking her dogs, although she had a different pack with her than when she'd seen the girl earlier in the day.

Rachel nodded to her, a small smile without teeth coming and going. As far as she could see, the former Undersider was content and as happy as she ever got. Deciding that at some point she really needed to see if she could get to know Rachel, Taylor passed her and turned into the yard in front of the office.

Greeting various workers, and waving to Brian who was just going into one of the buildings being refurbished, the tall boy waving back, she unlocked the office door and went inside, locking it again. She found Amy, still in her Ianthe body, sitting in front of a computer giggling to herself.

"What's so funny?" she asked curiously, walking over.

"You. There are all sorts of photos of you fixing things already posted. And this one of you apologizing to the bank manager. I didn't know puppy-dog eyes were a thing with reptiles, but I'm damned if you didn't pull it off better than I've ever seen." Her friend grinned, shaking her head. "Did you really have to make a hat just to hold it in an embarrassed manner and toy with it?"

"Hey, you need props to pull that look off," Taylor chuckled. "I should really have been about a foot shorter than him as well. The cute lizard girl being cute doesn't work as well when I'm looking down on almost everyone other than your uncle or Zephron."

"It seems to have worked well enough. One of these posters is a blogger who interviewed him later and he said you were very sorry, fixed everything, and even repaired a leak in the roof that was nothing to do with you." Amy looked around, still very amused. "Is that why you're late?"

"Yep. I sorted out quite a few small things, then filled in some of the bigger potholes on the way back. I really should go and repair the roads around here soon. Guy I know on the city public works program says the city has basically blacklisted this entire area for years because of the gangs, and even now they don't have the cash to do it properly. They're sending a list of urgent repairs over some time, I'll take a day to do them all before someone loses a car into a hole. Or a bridge falls over."

"You could probably spend the rest of your life doing that," Amy noted. "I read somewhere that a recent government survey said that nearly half the bridges in the entire country were in desperate need of repair, never mind all the other stuff."

"Let's concentrate on the city first, before we take over the country and fix it, shall we?" Taylor laughed.

She looked around. "Where's Lisa?"

Amy got up, stretching widely. "She went over to the WCC to look at the Endbringer logs and have a think about them. Her power is still apparently trying to tell her things without actually _telling_ her things, she says, and she thought that if she gave it enough data it might let something slip. And you can't believe how weird that is to say, even though I feel the same way. My own power keeps giving me suggestions, rather than just vaguely saying, ' _yes, we can do that_.' It's the damndest thing, I can't help thinking we're on the verge of a real breakthrough in power study."

Studying her, Taylor eventually shrugged. "I'll take your word for it. Varga thinks you're onto something." She paused, then grinned. "Or losing it entirely."

"That's not what I said, Brain, and you know it," the demon said through her, his voice amused.

"I was paraphrasing."

"You were teasing your best friend."

"That too."

"All right. As long as we're all clear on that."

"We are, I think."

"You are both extremely strange," Amy giggled, listening to Taylor technically argue with herself.

"Thanks. You are too. So we're all one big crazy happy family." They shared a smirk. "Dad seems pleased with all the new toys."

"I heard a delivery turned up. Have you seen the stuff yet?"

"No, I was going to wait until later. We can finish some of your ideas and compare them. Between us we can fill that place, although I hope we don't need to use most of it." Taylor went and sat down at the table, while her friend retrieved a few cans from the fridge and brought them over. Picking up a can of Sprite Taylor didn't bother opening it, merely tossing the entire thing into her mouth, biting down, and swallowing.

Amy grinned, but refrained from doing the same. While her bioconstruct was capable of it, she preferred drinking the stuff more normally, although the can looked absurdly small in her large hand.

"I've got some ideas for weapons other people could use as well," Taylor noted, swallowing a second can. She sighed a little. "I keep having them. Most of them are horrifying. Especially the ones that don't work by applying catastrophic amounts of kinetic energy. My own abilities are totally broken in some ways, the things I could do if I wanted to..." She shivered a little as Amy looked at her sympathetically. "I have a very good idea what you were going through before we met. The more I learn, the more ways I realize I could be one of the biggest threats to the entire planet there is."

"Sucks, kind of, doesn't it," Amy sighed.

"It does. But, that said, if we keep our heads, it also lets us do all sorts of cool things, and hopefully help a lot of people. I can't think of a better way to spend my life, right now." She smiled at the other girl. "I like helping people. And making them look really puzzled at the same time."

Snickering, her friend nodded. "I would have to agree." She sipped her drink, eyeing Taylor curiously. "So what ideas do you have?"

"For weapons?" Amy nodded. "For a start, I came up with some interesting ammo for my mini-Athena. The obvious one is a slug of EDM that goes back to normal density when it's fired. The kinetic energy is horrendous, but it would just go right through almost anything. If you wanted to properly deliver it you need something that won't penetrate so well, like an expanding net. I've got some designs in mind for that, but I'll need to find somewhere out in the middle of nowhere to test them. They're not as bad as Athena is, but you wouldn't want to fire them in the city unless you had no choice."

"Sounds lethal."

"Extremely. For almost anything. That's ignoring the sorts of chemicals I could use for a filling. For instance, do you know about interhalogen compounds?"

Amy thought for a moment, then slowly nodded. "I recall something from a chemistry class. Chlorine trifluoride, or something like that."

"That's one of them. There are several variants, but that's the one you're most likely to hear about. They studied it back in the war as a rocket fuel oxidizer. And a few times since in the early parts of the space program. The problem is that it's _too_ good. It oxidizes _everything._ Instantly. Pour it on sand, the sand explodes. Pour it into water, the _water_ burns. It pretty much oxidizes _oxygen_ for god's sake. Horrible stuff."

Amy stared, then shivered. "Jesus. That sounds terrifying."

"It's damn dangerous. And extremely toxic as well. Hardly anything can hold it, although of course EDM has no problems. So I could make a shell full of it, then make the EDM go away before impact. That would ruin someone's day instantly."

Taylor shrugged a little. "I made some to see what it was like, it really does burn concrete like it was wax. Pretty impressive."

"Is _that_ why there's a melted hole in the road around the back?" Amy asked suspiciously.

She grinned a little sheepishly. "Um… might be. I should fill it in." After a moment, she chuckled. "Although I did find out that it tastes amazing."

"You… tasted it?" Amy sighed, sounding a little disbelieving. Taylor nodded. "For god's sake. Demons."

"It's nice and the smell was really enticing," Taylor snickered. "I had to make an EDM mug for it. But I can't drink it where normal people are, the fumes are kind of super-corrosive and toxic like I said."

"Is there _anything_ you can't eat?" Amy asked with weary resignation.

"Not that Varga knows about, no," she said with a smug look. "I could probably even digest EDM with enough time, he thinks. My digestive system is a little… unusual. And very effective."

"Putting it mildly." Her friend shook her head in amazement. "I know where to dump any biotoxins I accidentally make, if that ever happens."

"Make them taste like chicken vindaloo, that was great," Taylor laughed.

The other girl gave her a dark look. "We agreed never to speak of it again."

"I didn't speak of it, I merely said that chicken vindaloo tastes great."

" _Sure_ you did."

They shared a smile, then looked up at the sound of a key in the lock to the rear door. When it opened, they watched Lisa enter, with a rather buxom and very dirty and tattered blonde woman of around the mid twenties behind her. Lisa waved her in, then closed and locked the door.

They stared at the blonde, who stared back, eyes like saucers, then transferred their gaze to Lisa, who was looking a little embarrassed. "Minor plot development," their friend said, scratching her head.

Taylor and Amy looked at each other with a mutual sigh.

"Here we go again," Amy muttered, both of them getting up.


	193. Pranking and Helping

Stopping again, Missy looked hard at the PRT building, using a warp to inspect the windows on the eleventh floor. She thought she'd seen a familiar…

 ** _"I did! I did see a Sophia,"_** she snickered in glee.

She'd always wanted to get back at the older girl for some of the nasty things she'd said and done, not to mention some rather cruel practical jokes. But she couldn't really do much under the eye of Miss Militia.

Now, though... She had a really amusing idea.

Bearing in mind that she knew Sophia didn't read PHO, calling it a refuge for the weak minded, it would probably work pretty well. It was a little mean, but considering the things Sophia had done, she didn't feel all that guilty about it.

Rubbing her hands together, she plotted for a few more seconds, before she made her move.

* * *

' _This is beginning to get very old_ ,' Sophia thought to herself in a disgruntled manner, her hand rotating Armsmaster's little toy on her wrist absently. She'd tried everything she could think of to get it off but had eventually given up, all she had managed to do was get three warning from him, one much nastier one from Piggot, and more shocks than she could count. The last half dozen of which were _fucking_ painful.

The bastard had turned the power up again. She wondered uneasily how close to 11 the dial was currently set. Knowing him, it had a fair way to go.

Grumbling to herself, she sat up on her bed, where she'd been lying thinking dark thoughts about what she'd like do to everyone on her list.

It was quite a long list.

Taylor Hebert was right at the top.

Her father was the next name, but there were a lot of other people as well. People who needed to be taught their place. One day she was going to get out of here, and she was going to have a lot of fun doing the teaching…

Right now, though, she was stuck in a room she'd grown to hate the sight of, her quarters in the PRT facility, on one of her break periods. She was slowly going stir-crazy without the ability to get out and do what she was so good at.

Something that Piggot was probably cackling about, the bitch.

She was on the list too, right near the top.

The only good part about her room was that it was a reasonable size, and had a good view. Not over the bay, the water side of the building was reserved for people in the good graces of the PRT and the Director, but not bad all things considered. She could look out over the city and at least pretend for a while that she wasn't trapped here, waiting to find out what they intended for her when they finally got done with the interminable investigation into her and everyone who had ever had anything to do with her case.

Sometimes she wondered if they'd simply forgotten about her, actually. It sure seemed to be taking a long time.

Or perhaps that was the point… Make her go nuts from boredom.

She growled an obscenity and got off the bed, stomping over to the window and pulling the blind up, looking out at a breezy and quite sunny afternoon. More than a hundred feet down she could see pedestrians and traffic moving around the streets, doing whatever it was they were doing. It didn't matter, the only thing that did was that they weren't _stuck in this fucking building!_

The special film on the outside of the windows blocked cameras, but also made the scene darker than it would otherwise have been, so the light coming into the room was rather dull, even though it was actually quite sunny. It added to her dislike of the entire situation.

And it was all Hebert's fault.

Sophia leaned on the window frame with her arms folded above her head, her forehead resting on them, looking at the city below her and wondering what Emma was doing.

She hadn't heard a word from her friend ever since that day at Winslow. While she wouldn't admit it to anyone, she was worried. The red-head was about the only person she'd ever called an actual friend rather than a useful minion. But even before she got grabbed by Piggot's little capes, Emma had broken off all contact with her. The one time she'd gone around to her house, her father had said she wasn't available, and never would be again. He hadn't looked pleased to see her either.

At that point, she'd decided it was best not to push, in case it attracted official attention. Now she was wishing she'd kept trying.

Sighing, she raised her eyes from the streets below, then let out a wild yip of shock when she found herself looking right at an empty black cloak, flapping in the wind like it was being worn by… something.

The problem was that it definitely _wasn't_. The lowering sun was shining into the hood, revealing absolutely nothing.

Whatever it was that was ten feet away on the other side of the glass was staring at her, she could _feel_ the eyes on her face, even though she couldn't see them. Sophia gaped in horrified shock as the invisible hooded head tilted to the side a little, as if whatever was in there was looking curiously at her.

It walked closer, which was damn weird, because she could see from the motions of the cloth that it was _actually walking_ on some invisible surface. Not flying at all.

Taking a step back from the window as the thing stopped right on the other side, she kept her gaze fixed on the creature as the head tipped the other way, then a hand that looked like leather with claws on the fingertips came out of the cloth. The hand rose, two fingers sticking out with the others folded back, then the fucking thing made a gesture to non-existent eyes, followed by pointing them directly at her.

The ' _I'm watching you_ ' motion was _very_ clear and unambiguous.

Sophia was hardly breathing at this point, feeling something very close to genuine terror as the hand disappeared once more. The floating cloak kept watching her for a few more seconds, then turned to the right and climbed a flight of stairs based on the motions, rapidly disappearing from sight upwards and to the side.

When it had gone, Sophia let out a long breath, moving very slowly towards the window. She looked cautiously out, both ways, up, then down, before sagging a little.

"What the _fuck_ was that?" she asked herself. Turning away from the window she looked around the room, trying to work out what had just happened, before looking out the window once more, very puzzled and worried.

"Gaaah!" she shrieked in shock when she saw the thing had somehow reappeared without her noticing, the empty hood pressed against the glass with both clawed hands on the window to the sides of it as it stared at her. Jumping back in horror she shouted at it, "What the fuck do you _want?_ "

It kept staring for a moment, then faded from view, until there was nothing left.

Pressed against the opposite wall, the girl kept her eyes fixed on the window for nearly five minutes, until she was certain the thing, whatever it was, wasn't going to come back. Very cautiously she moved forward and with a twitch of her hand lowered the blind, before letting out a long breath and dropping into the chair that went with the desk that was beside the window.

The whole experience had been extremely unnerving, and totally unexpected. She had no idea what it had been, what she'd done to attract its attention, and what she could do about it.

Eventually, when her heart rate had dropped to normal, she reached for her PRT-approved tablet, which blocked almost any outbound communications, and started trying to figure out what had decided to pay her a really creepy visit.

And, for that matter, why.

* * *

Safely back out of range of the sensors on the PRT building, some two hundred yards in the air, Missy was nearly breathless with laughter. Her little skit had worked even better than she'd hoped. She held her stomach as she bent over, shaking her head with glee. The expression on her fellow Ward's face had been truly remarkable. For once the normally dismissive and supercilious look had vanished, replaced with stark shock and definite worry.

' _Beautiful_ ,' she thought, still giggling, as she resumed her movements towards the DWU facility. ' _A little long-overdue revenge. I wish I could tell the others, they'd love it. Dennis particularly._ '

Unfortunately she couldn't let it slip, really to anyone, because in the case of her fellow Wards it outed her as Cloak, and in the case of Saurial and the others, it might impact on Sophia's identity. She'd just have to keep the memory to herself, to pull out sometimes and snicker about, the same as with Max Anders.

Come to think of it, their expressions had been amazingly similar.

Smiling happily, in a very good mood, she hopped from invisible tile to invisible tile, looking around as she crossed into the area that was definitely Docks, rather than the commercial zoning that separated it from the Downtown area. From this altitude the way the entire place was slowly falling apart was much more apparent than at ground level.

She could see entire buildings that had collapsed, either due to simple decay, or some more catastrophic cause, more often than not cape-related. There were blackened, charred ruins that had burned down, several places where it was obvious significant explosions had occurred, roads with so many craters in they looked like a close up photo of the moon, and even worse things every now and then. Overall it was a mess.

In the distance the DWU complex seemed to have a shiny new fence ringing it, based on the glints of reflected sunlight, which aroused her curiosity. It was clear even from here that a lot of the decay started to reverse itself closer to that particular location, probably due to the way that most of the trouble-makers who caused the more dramatic problems tended to avoid the dock workers. Even so, the sheer decrepitude of the whole several-square-mile area was a little depressing.

There was a _lot_ of money and time going to be needed to fix it all up, she thought a little sadly.

Missy had her own problems with the city, but it was the one she'd been born in and she didn't like seeing it so run down. This new view due to her recently learned talents put a lot of what she'd heard into stark perspective.

Noticing a biggish truck a couple of streets over halted in front of a barrier made from some of the wrecked cars that amply littered the streets around here, she stopped to inspect it, then headed over. The two guys in it looked confused and worried, which didn't surprise her at all if they weren't locals. The area was enough to confuse anyone, and worry was merely a good survival instinct under the circumstances.

 ** _"Never fear, good citizens, Cloak is here to help,"_** she rasped to herself, grinning.

Despite everything, right now, life was fun.

* * *

"Take a seat," Lisa said, gently urging Sherrel over to the table. The woman was staring at Taylor, currently Saurial, and ' _Ianthe_ ' like she couldn't work out whether to run or faint. Her power was telling her that her guest was terrified, extremely unsure of herself, but also massively relieved to be out of what was an intolerable situation. She'd obviously been thinking very hard about a lot of things and come to some unpleasant conclusions.

They were going to need to have a long talk, and Lisa suspected that she was going to need professional help in the long run as well. She could take people to pieces with her ability, and the insights it could give her into their inmost fears and desires, but putting them back together… That needed an expert.

She could probably learn to do it better than any psychiatrist, given some time, but she _wasn't_ going to practice on someone who she'd taken this sort of responsibility for. In a very real sense, Sherrel being here was entirely her fault.

This wasn't quite what she'd expected when she'd decided to heal her and leave her number behind, and certainly not quite this fast, but now it had happened, she couldn't do anything _but_ help.

She was in the same position that Taylor had been regarding _her_ , and her friends, which had worked out far better than she could ever have hoped for. Now, with luck, she could do the same for someone else.

It made her smile a little. It was, after all, the Family way…

"This is my sister Ianthe, and my cousin Saurial," she told Sherrel, who was trembling faintly under the hand she had on her shoulder. "We're going to help you, but I need to talk to fill them in on the situation, OK?" The blonde nodded a little shakily. "Would you like some tea? It might help calm you down a little."

"That would be nice, thanks," Sherrel replied in a tremulous tone.

The entire walk through the tunnels, she'd been smelling worried, depressed, and scared, Lisa had noticed, the fear part of it going up steadily. The woman was obviously wondering what she had let herself into. At the same time, she was certain she couldn't stay where she was and had decided that almost anything was better. Which didn't make her less scared about taking such a step.

Now, finding two more Family members looking curiously at her, she was terrified. Lisa squeezed her shoulder gently in a comforting manner, then headed for the drinks machine, indicating with a motion of her head for her friends to join her. They'd both gotten up when Lisa had come in, after a surprised look at each other, and were now studying both her and Sherrel. "Do you mind if I tell them your name?"

"No," Sherrel said after a moment.

Lisa made a mug of tea, adding a couple of spoons of sugar, took it back to the table, then rejoined her friends.

{Want to fill us in?} Taylor said, the sound of the alien language making Sherrel nearly drop her mug, until she recovered. The Hebert girl noticed and lowered her voice. {Where did you find her? And who is she?}

{If I said she followed me home, can we keep her, would you get angry?} Lisa replied with a small smirk. Taylor cocked her head a little, then glanced at Amy, who sighed. {OK. That, my dear cousin and sister, is Squealer. Real name Sherrel, apparently.}

{Squealer?} Amy asked in surprise, looking at the blonde, who was drinking her tea and looking at the posters on the wall, appearing lost and tired. {Really? That fast? What the hell happened?}

{I'm not sure yet. She called me when I was in the WCC, checking up on the Endbringer logs and thinking. Which, by the way, has led to some interesting developments, but that can wait. Anyway, long story short, my fixing her seems to have worked much, much better than I expected. She seems to have had a rather unpleasant epiphany, come to the conclusion that her life-span in the Merchants has a very definite end date, and decided that she didn't want to stick around for it.}

Lisa shrugged as all three of them glanced at the woman again. {I don't have the details but she was in a fight before she called, and has definitely been thinking very hard about her life. I'm almost certain that Skidmark has beaten her extremely badly recently, and probably not for the first time. I fixed a lot more than a drug overdose when I went there the first time.}

{What did she say to you when she called?} Taylor inquired.

{That she knew she was dead if she stayed, basically. She asked for help. What else could I do?}

{Nothing. Same as when you guys ran into trouble.} Taylor sighed a little. {I'm not upset, I'm just trying to think what we can do about this. She's a slightly different case than the Undersiders were, aside from Rachel you guys were practically unknown and had almost no serious crimes on record. I'm sure that would have changed if I hadn't come along but at the time you were very minor criminals, by and large. Kevin and Randall are much better known, but nearly everything they've done has involved property damage more than anything else, only minor accidental injuries. For cape villains, that's practically irrelevant as far as the PRT is concerned, I think. No one seems wildly interested in seriously hunting them down, anyway.}

She looked at Sherrel again. {The Merchants, though… They've killed a lot of people. Admittedly, mostly through drug overdoses rather than deliberate actions, but the entire gang has been responsible for a lot of muggings, robberies, god knows what, for _years_. Fuck knows how many people have died as a result. I don't think the PRT will just wipe that under the carpet.}

{Though, to the best of my knowledge, Squealer hasn't actually been accused of harming anyone herself,} Amy put in thoughtfully. {Traffic violations to a level that's barely believable, and she's certainly been the driver on a number of Merchant operations that caused total chaos, but it's normally Skidmark and Mush that do most of the damage.}

Lisa nodded. {That would have changed with the damn enormous urban tank she was making, but that's not going to happen now. A couple of months down the line, I think she'd have been on the hook for a lot of trouble, stuff we'd have no hope of dealing with aside from making her disappear. But right now, I think it's possible, although it's going to take some very careful thought.}

{And it depends on what she wants to do, of course,} Taylor pointed out. {I'm not going to force anyone into anything without a very good reason. Maybe she just wants to leave the city and never come back. I'm prepared to help her if that's the case, as long as she promises not to get back into drugs and crime. Same as with you and your team.}

{Or she might be open to joining the PRT,} Amy suggested. {I bet they'd take her like a shot, crimes or no crimes. It's happened before, believe me, and with people who have done much more serious things than she has. If the Parahuman has skills they want, they can make an awful lot of things just go away.}

{Nicely proving how broken the entire system is,} Taylor sighed. {Which is why I don't trust them all that far even now, and Dad doesn't either. Same for almost everyone in the DWU.}

{I feel the same,} Lisa replied. {And I agree, although the local branch under Piggot is a damn sight more reasonable and practical than you'd expect, all things considered. I don't particularly like the woman but I can't help but respect her. I think that we could probably talk sensibly to her about this. Our friend here is an exceptionally good Tinker, with the right resources the things she could do are unbelievable. The PRT would probably be delighted to get her.}

{Again, though, only if it's what she wants, I hope} Taylor tapped her chin thoughtfully with one claw. {We need to ask her. And we need to tell Dad. We're technically harboring a wanted criminal right now.}

{Like _that_ bothers you,} Amy giggled.

{Oh, sure, I personally don't give a crap as long as they don't cause trouble,} Taylor shrugged, smiling, {Some of my best friends are criminals.} Both the others looked at each other then smirked. {Although for some weird reason that state seems to become less prominent after a while.}

{But you don't want to cause issues for the DWU,} Amy said.

{No. Dad would be very disappointed if we attract the wrong sort of attention. We have to tell him. He might have some other ideas as well. From what he's said, this isn't the first time someone with a dodgy past has disappeared into the DWU. It's happened more than once. Like he told you, as long as the past stays in the past, no one cares. But we need to make sure that can be arranged. Someone turning up in six months with a warrant and some irritating questions would be a pain in the ass, and there's a limit to how many people I want to eat before it gets tedious.}

Taylor grinned as they gave her a hard look. {I can never tell if you're joking about that or not,} Lisa finally sighed. {Stop it.}

{I have a few ideas that would make her vanish permanently, if she wanted it, without requiring Taylor to pick bits of Tinker out of her teeth,} Amy commented after a moment. {Or, more worryingly, bits of PRT agent. That would make people look even more oddly at us than they do right now.}

{Turn her into something scaly?} Taylor looked interested. {Possible, I guess. Problem is we don't know her at all. I've had a good track record with people being trustworthy despite their background, but there's always a first time for it to go bad. I'd prefer to avoid that. We'd have to tell her more about us than I feel comfortable with, right now.}

{Well, we could give her some story or other, knock her out, and do it then,} Amy mused. {It wouldn't even have to be a bioconstruct. I could rebuild her entirely without too much trouble, which would solve a few other problems. As the Family life sculptor, it wouldn't even be out of character for Ianthe. But it's a big step. And I certainly wouldn't do it without her express, informed consent. That's one option. Another is to keep her human and just change her enough that ' _Sherrel_ ' disappears for good. Also easy. I have another one that's a little more radical in some ways, but I'm still working on the details. Let me think about it for a while.}

{ _More_ radical than turning her into a Family member permanently?} Lisa asked in surprise. {Now _I'm_ getting worried.}

Amy gave her a toothy grin, making her chuckle.

{OK, she's really starting to look scared now,} Taylor remarked, {let's talk to her and find out what she actually wants. When we know, we can figure out how practical it is. She also smells hungry, and she's awfully skinny. Well, most of her is.} All three of them looked at the blonde, who had finished her tea and seemed ready to fall over from worry. {Definitely a mammal,} she added, making both the others grin.

{She probably cleans up well, but she's extremely malnourished, I can tell you that from here,} Amy said, frowning a little. {She needs to eat some decent food. For several days, I'd say.}

{That part is easy.} Taylor looked at Lisa. {Are you going to do this a lot? If so, we should probably come up with a standard procedure.}

{It was kind of a spur of the moment thing,} she replied with a shrug. {Can't say I regret it. Let's talk to the poor woman, make her look less like she's going to pass out, then get your Dad and see what the options are.}

{OK.} They turned to face Sherrel, who swallowed.

"Hello," Taylor said with a gentle smile. "I'm sorry about that, my cousin was just filling me in on the background to this whole thing." She walked over and held out her hand. "My name is Saurial, from the Family. How can we help you, Sherrel?"

"I'm… not sure," the woman admitted. "Metis has already saved my life, probably twice now. I nearly killed myself with meth, and I'm fucking sure I'd be dead soon one way or the other if I'd stayed where I was. But I can't figure out what to do next. Or what I'm allowed to do."

All three of them sat on their tails near her. "Let's get one thing clear. You're not a prisoner. If you want to leave, I'm happy to let you, or even escort you anywhere you want to go. But that's only one option. There may be others available." Taylor studied Sherrel for a moment, then glanced at Lisa. "Why don't you fill us in on the whole thing and we can see if we can work them out between us? We have a lot more resources than you might expect, there's a good chance we can help you."

Sherrel stared at her, then Lisa, before looking at Amy. Sounding totally bewildered, she finally asked, "Why are you doing this? Why are you helping me? Why did Metis save my life in the first place? I've been trying to figure that out ever since, and I just can't get my head around it."

Taylor was silent for a moment, then replied, in thoughtful tones, "I suppose you could say it's what we do. We see problems all over the place. A lot of them can't be fixed easily, or at all in some cases, and quite often the people involved don't actually want to be helped anyway. But, if someone comes to us and asks for help… we'll see what we can do. You need help. My cousin saw that, and she did the right thing offering it. Now, if you'll let us, we can try to help you some more. Or if you don't want it, you can leave. It's up to you."

The blonde Tinker looked at her for nearly a minute, before sagging a little in her chair. "God, I could do with some help," she mumbled. "I have no idea what I really want, aside from not going back… there."

"You're certain you don't want anything to do with the Merchants again?" Amy asked.

"Yes. Totally. I never want to see that place or any of those people again," Sherrel said. "Most of them, I don't have any particular grudge against, although there are some I'd pay money to see fucked up good and hard, but they remind me of what I've realized was slow motion suicide."

"Even your boyfriend?"

" _Especially_ that fucker. The only reason I was alive for Metis to save my life in the first place is that he was so high he missed me half the time," Sherrel said viciously, her hands clenched into fists. "And _I_ was so fucking high I didn't do what I should have done and cracked his goddam head open when he was asleep. I loved that bastard once, but the man I fell for is long gone. I've been fooling myself for way too long that he might come back."

"I see."

They shared a look. Lisa's power was telling her that the woman meant every word, although even now she didn't genuinely want to see Skidmark dead. But she wasn't going to go back to him no matter what he did. It had taken two near death experiences and some healing-induced clarity of thought but she'd made up her mind.

"All right." Taylor motioned to her mug. "Would you like another cup of tea?"

"Yes, thanks, that was pretty good."

Lisa picked up the mug and went to refill it. "Tell us the story, Sherrel," she said as she handed it over once more. The woman took a sip, put it down, then started talking, in a low, angry voice.

It went on for quite a while.

* * *

Danny looked up at the tap on his door, which opened to reveal his daughter's scaled Saurial face. Her expression, which he could read easily these days, was somewhat uncertain, an unusual look for the girl since she'd merged with the Varga and become much more confident in herself. "Do you have a moment, Danny?" she said quietly, coming inside and closing the door. "Something a little… awkward… has come up."

"Of course," he smiled. "What's the problem?"

"Metis has been collecting strays," she said with a faint sigh. "I may be responsible for that, actually, thinking about it. But we have a guest we need to talk about."

He looked at her for a little while, without saying anything. Eventually he got up and reached for his coat. "I presume I need to meet this guest?"

"It would make things easier," she admitted. "It's a little sensitive, especially with recent events."

"And is it, perhaps, to do with the actions Metis took yesterday when she was prowling around underground?"

"They're not entirely unconnected," Taylor grinned.

"That was quick."

"Circumstances sort of forced it," she said. Putting his coat on, he followed her out of the office, telling the staff in the outer room he was going to be a while. "How is the shipment of new equipment, by the way?" she asked on the way through the building. "I was going to come and have a look at it but I got tied up."

"It's pretty good," he replied. "Lots of interesting things to look at. Mark and Zephron are working out who to train on it first. Brian and Alec's names came up."

"Hmm. Good choice, I think," she said after a moment of thought. "We may have some interesting toys of our own to add to the collection, we were working on some neat things when this current issue came up." They both fell silent, walking through the connected buildings in a companionable manner, nodding to various people they both knew. He was amused and proud to see how many people she was on good terms with, knowing nearly as many of the workers in the place as he did, all of whom seemed to like her.

Glancing at the tall reptilian figure walking along beside him, he smiled to himself. That demon, from wherever it had ultimately come, was the best thing that had ever happened to his family, his organization, and he suspected to his city. One day he needed to find out what was responsible and thank it sincerely, assuming that was possible.

Now, though, he needed to work out how to deal with a criminal Tinker apparently seeking asylum.

Things around the place were definitely a lot more interesting recently, he noted with a wry smile. He couldn't honestly say he didn't like it, despite the weirdness.


	194. Sherrel and Food

Sherrel listened to the three reptilian creatures conversing in a low voice, in that weird alien-sounding language, once more. She'd ended up telling them practically her entire life story, not holding anything back, good or bad. Mostly bad, she was somewhat ashamed to admit to herself. Metis had asked quite a few questions, probing ones that elicited more detail about many of the things she'd been involved in than she'd thought she remembered. Saurial had also asked quite a few.

She got the impression that they were assessing her truthfulness as much as anything, by whatever means they were using. As they'd talked she'd slowly relaxed, and now was nervous but no longer terrified. The shock of seeing all three of them at once had been fairly unpleasant, especially Saurial as she'd heard a lot about the lizard-girl over the last couple of months and knew how dangerous she really was. Metis and Ianthe hadn't come to her attention, probably because they were relatively new arrivals, so even though they were much larger than the slender blue girl, they didn't seem quite so worrying.

They were also obviously taking their lead from Saurial, who despite a very calm and surprisingly gentle manner, was definitely the one in charge. Even with the non-human look and attitude, though, all three of them genuinely did give off an air of wanting to help.

She wasn't used to that.

Now, she waited to find out what the next step would be. Her stomach betrayed her with a growl, making Saurial look over, then smile. "The poor woman is starving. Why don't you guys go and get some food for all of us? I'll keep her company."

"OK," Metis said, also in English rather than whatever the hell they'd been speaking. "You said you were going to make me a proper sized mug as well."

"Oh, yes, sorry, I got distracted. Here you go." The smaller reptile held out a huge mug-shaped object that was closer to a bucket with a handle on the side, which appeared from nowhere like magic. Sherrel gaped at it, then her. Saurial winked at her as Metis took it from her with a nod of thanks, then nudged her sister and headed for the door with Ianthe behind her. Seconds later they were gone.

Pulling a couple of cans of soft drink out of one of the small fridges under the computer bench, Saurial joined her at the table, spinning one of the chairs around with the end of her tail then sitting in it. She handed one of the cold cans over. "Here, this should give you a sugar and caffeine boost until they get back with the food. The cafeteria here is pretty good, you should find something you like in it."

Accepting the can, Sherrel popped it open and sipped the cold fluid within, her host doing the same. "Thank you," she said quietly. "For everything, especially listening. I know you weren't expecting this."

"It wasn't quite what we had planned for today," Saurial admitted with a small grin and a shrug. "But plans change. As you're probably aware."

"Fucking right I am," Sherrel sighed, leaning back in the comfortable chair and putting her head back. "I still can't understand quite how I ended up here. Or what I do next, for that matter. Or why you guys are helping me like this."

"You ended up where you were because life can be a bastard sometimes, and Parahumans see the worst of it more or less by definition," Saurial replied after a long pause, putting her elbows on the table. "It's pretty common. I know several ' _villains_ ' who never wanted to get into crime at all, but because of the way the world works, certainly in this country, didn't really have a choice about it. Armsmaster told me it wasn't at all rare, and neither was ending up dead because of it regardless of what side of the equation you fell on. The fact that you're still alive after several years of this sort of thing is fairly impressive, really."

She wasn't quite able to avoid smiling for a moment at that, although the smile went away soon enough. "Not for any good reasons, though."

"No, probably not. Drugs aren't very helpful if you want a life that makes any sense at all," the reptilian cape noted, looking mildly depressed for a while. "I can sort of understand that people who had nothing to lose might want the escape, I guess, but in the long run it almost always ends in tears. If you're lucky. Once it goes from intermittent recreational use to daily ' _I need a hit_ ' use, you're probably not coming back in most cases. Certainly based on what I've seen since I've been here and from talking to people around this place."

"It's… _incredibly_ hard to give up," Sherrel sighed, rolling the cold can on her forehead for a second or two, then sipping from it again. "Without Metis I'm sure I couldn't have even begun to do it. And to be honest, I didn't want to. Not for a long, long time. Back in the old days there was a short time I might have escaped this, but with my home life… Skids was actually a better choice, I thought. Now, though, I'm totally stone cold sober for the first time in fucking _years_ and I can see what a train wreck the entire thing has been."

Saurial put a hand on hers, smiling sympathetically at her. "Everyone makes mistakes. Not everyone gets a chance to recover from them. I've learned that much. To answer your question of what you do next, a lot of that is up to you. I can guarantee that you'd need to permanently give up the drugs. Do you think you can do that?"

"I think so," she replied after a long hard look at herself. "I hope so. I don't _want_ to go back to what I was. I love Tinkering, I always had a knack for mechanical stuff even when I was a kid and my talent improved that so much it's unbelievable, and in a way the drugs made me more creative, I thought. But looking back on it, that's only partly true. I ended up sort of doing the same thing over and over, trying to end up making it right. I could _see_ it because of the drugs, but at the same time, the same fucking thing stopped me _reaching_ it."

She shook her head. "I'm not explaining it right. I don't really know how to put it into words, I'm not good with them. Didn't even finish high school."

"You're doing fine," the lizard-girl replied with a small smile. "And not swearing every second word any more."

Sherrel looked embarrassed. "Sorry, I didn't mean to offend you."

"Don't worry, you didn't, I've heard much worse around here. This place is entirely full of dock-workers, after all," Saurial chuckled. "But it's best to reserve the really good swear words for the right occasion, I think."

They shared an amused look, then Sherrel finished her can and put it down. Saurial picked it up, crushed it into a tiny ball of metal in her hand, then ate it.

She stared in disbelief.

"I like the taste of aluminum," her companion grinned. "Most people seem to find me doing that a little strange for some reason."

"Yeeahh..." Sherrel gave her a long look. "I wonder why?"

"No idea. Humans are a little weird, but they're good fun," Saurial laughed.

Sherrel pondered the comment for a couple of minutes or so, the lizard-girl not talking, apparently content to let her think quietly. Eventually she asked, "The way you say that, you don't think you're human, right?"

"Pretty much," Saurial agreed readily.

"Oh." She thought some more. "Heard a few things about you guys, even if I missed hearing about Metis and Ianthe. Couldn't really miss Kaiju, though." She smiled a little. "She went right past our place, Skids nearly had a heart attack." After a moment, she added, "Word on the street is that you're not from around here."

"Oh, I'm from around here, don't worry," Saurial replied. "Not too far away. Most of us were born locally."

Thinking about that for a few seconds, Sherrel finally said, "But some of you are from somewhere else, right? Not… this world."

Saurial leaned back in the chair and studied her silently for some time. "It would be fair to say that in part the Family originates from a place other than Earth, yes," she eventually said, as far as Sherrel could tell totally honestly. "We've been around for quite a while. Like I said, I was born here. So were my sisters and cousins. But..." She shrugged with a small smile. "Not every member of the Family was."

"Holy fucking hell."

Despite what she'd heard, she didn't expect to have it casually confirmed that they were actually _fucking aliens!_ Even ones that seemed to have moved in some time back. If what she'd heard was even vaguely accurate, a really fucking long time ago, come to that. She stared at the reptilian form in the other chair, who looked back, seeming amused. "Jesus. I… don't know what to say."

Her companion smiled more widely. "You don't have to say anything. We don't spread it about, and we'd prefer that you don't mention it outside this building at least for the time being, but quite a few people have worked it out. The PRT probably knows, for various reasons, and several other Parahumans do, I'm sure of that. PHO is full of rumors along those lines as well, of course. Along with some really funny other ideas as well." She grinned. "Apparently I'm a demon according to some people."

Sherrel stared, then started loudly snorting with hilarity. "Demon. Fuck, yeah, I can see it, but… Alien is bad enough." She shook her head, laughing madly. "I'd have gone with weird Parahuman easily enough, god knows there are some crazy looking ones around, but you guys really have this lizard theme going on. Makes sense if you're all related and from the same place. Don't worry, I won't tell anyone."

Saurial nodded calmly, smiling in satisfaction. When Sherrel finally stopped guffawing, she had a sudden thought, staring suspiciously at the lizard. "Hey… Wait a minute…."

"Yes?"

"That was a test, wasn't it?" Saurial kept looking at her. "Both to see if I'd freak out, and to see if I can keep my fucking mouth shut."

"Would I be that sneaky?"

"Oh, _hell_ , yes, I bet you would, in a second," Sherrel said with a wry grin. "I figured out you're the brains behind all this some time back. I get the impression you're hard to fool, and easy to underestimate."

"Nice of you to say so," Saurial smiled. "I can't take all the credit, my relatives are all very smart and skilled. But I was here first and most of this is my fault one way or another. I have to take responsibility for a lot of people, just from being in the position I ended up in, and I take that responsibility very seriously. The whole Family does. We protect our people, from anyone or anything. So I have to keep alert."

She shrugged again. "I try to see the best in people, and so far that's worked out well. But I'm more than aware that I could make a mistake, and I don't want to have to clean one up, although I'm prepared to if necessary. By whatever means are required." The girl fixed Sherrel with a look that made her shiver a little. "I have _many_ options, believe me."

"I do," she replied faintly. "Whatever happens next, I won't tell anyone what you said. I owe your entire family my life for what Metis did, twice now, so if nothing else my lips are sealed."

"Thank you." The apparently alien reptile smiled again, the slight air of menace that had come over her disappearing without trace. "I don't mean to be threatening when I don't need to, but it's very important to me. Family is everything."

"Not for some people," Sherrel sighed. "Really, not for some people."

Giving her a sympathetic look, which was easily readable even on the reptilian face, Saurial nodded a little. Tipping her chair back Sherrel closed her eyes and relaxed, finding more than a little to her surprise that she wasn't scared any more. Worried, yes, unsure what she faced, definitely, but not scared.

Which was weird but she could live with it for now. Despite the sheer craziness of the last couple of hours, she couldn't help but think she was among friends. Big, scaly ones.

* * *

{Poor guy,} Amy giggled as they walked back to the office, each of them laden down with a cardboard box full of packed meals, enough for Sherrel, them, and the other people who would have to be brought in soon. Lisa was sipping from her outsize mug as she walked, looking smugly amused. She'd spent about five minutes laughing like an idiot when they'd left the cafeteria after surprising that poor trucker, but wouldn't say why. {How did you know his name?}

{Not hard to work it out, my power is getting freakishly effective for things like that even compared to what it was,} her friend replied. They were deliberately using Famtalk, both to keep their conversation private, and for the practice. All three of them were getting very fluent in it to the point it almost came naturally now.

Although it did seem to make a lot of people very uncomfortable the first time they heard it. And if you put the right emphasis behind it, even the second, third, and fourth, Amy thought with a mental grin.

It was pretty good for casual intimidation among other uses.

{Still not going to tell my why you started laughing?}

{No. It's much funnier to keep it to myself for now,} Lisa said with a sly sideways look. Her reptilian face was ideal for that sort of thing, actually, now that Amy considered the matter.

{Be like that.}

{I intend to.}

Lisa grinned as the other girl sighed theatrically. {Oh, while I think about it, I was wondering if you can tweak my scales so I can turn off the scarlet highlights?} she added after a moment. {I meant to mention it earlier but things sort of got complicated. It would make hiding in the water better.}

{Sure, that should be easy enough,} Amy nodded. {Not a bad idea. You'd just be a cutout in the world without them, though, so it'll probably make people even more worried. I'm very pleased how black I managed to make them.}

{Blacker than a black thing covered in black, at night,} Lisa chuckled.

{Or even blacker than _that_.}

Moments later they entered the side yard, Lisa opening the door, both of them going inside. Locking it carefully behind her, Amy followed her friend over to the table, where they found Taylor and Sherrel quietly chatting about mechanical engineering, the blonde woman looking much less terrified although still a mess and very worried. "Here we go. We got some of everything, it should still be warm, if not we have a new microwave over there. Let's see… There's beef stew, some sort of chicken curry, mac and cheese, a few burgers and fries, a few baked potatoes with cheese, a chowder with clams and fish, and some chicken noodle soup." They unpacked all the containers the cafeteria staff had filled for them without complaint.

Taylor handed the woman, who was staring at the large amount of food with surprise, a fork she'd made. Sherrel took it without comment although she looked a little puzzled about where it had come from.

"This is a hell of a lot of food," she said, reaching over and picking up a container of the curry. Opening the top, she tried some. "And it's damn good."

"The cafeteria here feeds well over three hundred people, they make simple but decent meals in huge quantities," Lisa said as she snagged some of the curry herself, while Amy took the stew and Taylor helped herself to some mac and cheese. "They don't mind, none of it will go to waste. We eat a lot." She grinned at the blonde who looked back, then shrugged. All of them started eating after Taylor made some more forks.

"Whatever else happens, you should eat several meals like this for about a week, then drop to a normal two or three a day," Amy advised. "You're severely malnourished, and obviously haven't been eating properly for some time. Even with Metis healing you, that will take time to correct, and it's best to let it happen normally."

"Thanks," Sherrel said after a few more mouthfuls. "You want to know the really horrible thing? I can't actually remember the last time I ate an actual meal. Been living off junk food for probably years. That and meth. And alcohol."

"You can get a lot of calories from alcohol, but it's not really part of a balanced diet," Amy grinned. "I can't recommend it."

"I'm not planning on starting that again if I can help it," the woman replied fervently, still eating, not wildly fast but steadily like she intended to finish what she'd started.

"Good. I'll give you a proper checkup after you've eaten for a while and had a rest. You look like you need about twelve hours sleep, after a very long shower."

"God… That would be amazing," Sherrel sighed. "I'll have to get some more clothes as well. These are the only things I had left that were usable and I hate them. Too many memories, and way too much grease and sweat."'

"To be honest I don't think the style is entirely ideal either," Taylor noted with a smile. "Although mammalian fashions aren't my field of expertise. But I think we can come up with something useful later."

She finished her meal, then stood up. "I'm going to get Danny," she said. "He needs to know about all this, then we need to figure out what the next step is. It's going to take some work but I'm hopeful we can sort something out that makes everyone more or less happy."

Sherrel looked worried again, pausing in her eating. "Danny?" she asked.

"Danny Hebert. The guy in charge around here, basically," Amy replied. Lisa started grinning again, but shook her head when both she and Taylor stared at her. Taylor glanced at Amy, who shrugged, not knowing what was so funny.

"He needs to know, the DWU is involved in this one way or another, but don't worry, he's a good and smart man," she continued after giving her other friend a hard look which only provoked a smirk in return. "He'll listen, and he always has good suggestions. We may need to bring in some other people but we'll keep it to the minimum for now."

Appearing uncertain but resigned, the blonde nodded and resumed eating. Taylor headed for the door, slipping out and re-locking it behind her.

* * *

Hannah tapped on the door to the director's office, opening it when the woman called out. "Have you got a moment, Director?" she asked, going inside and closing it behind her.

"Yes, unless it's something to do with Saurial and hypersonic surfboards, in which case go away," the woman behind the desk sighed.

She smiled a little. "Not as such. It's sort of relevant to the Family, but not directly."

Mutely waving to a chair, Director Piggot steepled her fingers and waited.

"I've been collating information I've heard back from various contacts around the place," Hannah said as she sat. "Some more information has come to light about Skidmark's whereabouts and activities, although so far we don't have conclusive proof of either of them. The Thinkers tell me he's most likely either on the way back, or will be very shortly, but he's going to a lot of trouble to make it difficult to trace him."

"Or is so drugged up that even _he_ doesn't know where he is or what he's doing," the blonde woman grumpily noted.

Hannah nodded. "That is not impossible," she commented wryly. "Weirdly enough, doing totally random things to an overall vague plan would be quite effective in throwing off precogs."

"Have you asked our new Ward about it?" Emily asked.

"Prospect isn't yet on duty, not until she's fully trained on the relevant knowledge, but I did ask her, yes," Hannah said. "She gave a 26.29% chance that something major involving the Merchants will happen in the next week, rising to 37.83% within two weeks. But, more worryingly, she gave a 79.87% chance that _a_ major event would happen in that same two week period. She couldn't give details, which she said probably means it's too tightly associated with the Family."

"What does that mean?" Emily asked.

Hannah shrugged a little. "Damned if I know, exactly. We're already aware that the Family is _odd_ where Thinkers are concerned. Most of them get very confused when they try to predict anything about that group. Prospect is a _much_ higher rated Thinker than anyone else we have easy access to, which you'd think would mean she would be more successful, but if anything she's _less_ successful in predicting them. Apparently she figured that out some time ago, when she was talking to her Uncle about Kaiju, but none of the researchers paid any attention to her when she said something about it."

She sighed a little. "Why would they? She's only a twelve year old girl. I'm going to have to look into that, there's a bias there which is problematic. Anyway, the young lady stopped bothering to mention it when she worked out that they weren't taking her seriously, but apparently she's been experimenting on her own for some time. She finds the Family fascinating. She wouldn't tell me exactly what the problem is when she tries for a prediction about them, she only said it didn't work properly, but she's come up with some quite interesting workarounds for parts of the issue. Not enough to really give any insight into their activities but enough to work out in a general manner if they're going to get involved in various things."

"And she feels that this high percentage chance of some major problem is related to them?"

"Yes. Although she was at pains to point out that it wasn't, in her estimation, their _fault_ , but more likely to be them _reacting_ to something someone else did. She's fairly sure it is the Merchants in some way but like I said the details get confused the more she probes. Plus the headaches the girl gets are very debilitating so we can't ask too many questions. She did say that there was something else involved but she couldn't work out the right questions to ask herself to figure that out yet."

Sighing, Hannah shrugged a little once more. "It's annoying, but par for the course with those lizards. They don't _do_ normal."

"So I've come to realize," the director muttered. "Pity she gets the headaches, or we could sit her down with a map and just go city by city, or even state by state, until we narrowed that idiot's location down. I'd be half tempted to send out a sniper and shoot the fucker between the eyes before he does something idiotic that gets Kaiju pissed enough to go after him."

Hannah looked hard at the other woman, who looked back. "You'd actually do it, wouldn't you?" she finally said, a little shocked.

"If it came down to a choice between a crazy drug lord who's killed to my knowledge at least four people directly, and god knows how many more or less accidentally with his crap, and a giant lizard who's actually a good citizen and also the scariest fucking thing this side of Leviathan, damn right I would." Emily sighed. "But it's not only illegal, it's also against policy. No kill order on the bastard."

She looked thoughtful for a moment, then shook her head sadly. "No, probably can't swing that one. Pity. It would solve a hell of a lot of problems."

"And open a can of worms the size of the Medhall building," Hannah pointed out. "We can't go around just arranging assassinations of people we don't like. We're supposed to be on the side of law and order."

Her superior gave her a look. "If you for one moment believe that the side of law and order _doesn't_ arrange the odd assassination, you're nowhere _near_ as cynical as you should be, Hannah," she sighed. "That said, I more or less agree. It wouldn't be a good precedent. But I am _not_ looking forward to the crazy fool turning up with a plasma cannon or some such fucking thing and taking pot shots at Kaiju, or any other Family member, with it. Partly because I don't think it would do more than _really_ annoy them, and partly because it will cause even more chaos than normal."

Emily leaned her chair back, turning it to look out the window. "This damn city is cursed, in my opinion," she went on after a moment. "The number of Parahumans and amount of general insanity is just ridiculous. But at the moment, thanks to some very weird neighbors, it seems to be running more smoothly than I can ever remember, and I'd prefer it stayed like that as long as possible. Even if we end up with alien lizards on every street corner. At least they're polite."

She swung her chair back. "So we need to find and stop Skidmark before he does something _everyone_ is going to regret."

"Well, he's certainly getting around. Making enemies everywhere he goes, apparently. Very few people want to see him again, and the ones that _do_ only want to so they can look him in the eye when they shoot him. He's been kicked out of four cities and two states now to my knowledge, three times by the local Mafia, twice by law enforcement of one sort or another, and once by several local gangs, who normally hate each other, joining forces to do it. Everyone involved is aware that he's doing something that will get the Family angry and wants no part of it. He's burning a _lot_ of bridges."

"What's his last known location?"

"Tucson, Arizona, for some weird reason. A long way from his normal comfort zone. He popped up there, talked to a few locals, and vanished again before the nearest PRT agents could find out anything. The people he talked to have disappeared as well, we don't know anything much about them. Some sort of black market weapons dealers with a couple of minor Tinkers involved is all I've been able to find out."

She spread her hands to show she had no idea. "It's very frustrating. We know he's looking for some sort of weapon or some way to attack Kaiju and the others, but it's all second hand info at best. By the nature of the people he's been looking up, they don't particularly want to talk to the PRT, or the FBI who have also been looking for him. I don't know anyone in old-school organized crime, unfortunately, or at least anyone high enough up the food chain to give me more than rumors. Of which there are dozens. Apparently the Mafia in general is extremely irritated with the man and getting more so by the minute."

"Maybe they'll solve the problem for us," Emily said, hopefully.

"Perhaps. Not quite the correct procedure, but I wouldn't be surprised if it happened right now. Normally they stay out of cape politics for the most part, even though they have a few of their own, but..." She shook her head. "Can't tell this time. He's not a popular man."

"He never was," the director pointed out.

"True enough." Hannah nodded soberly. "There is one other piece of information that just came up before I headed over here, but I don't know how, or if, it fits into this whole thing."

"Oh? What would that be?"

"An informant I've been cultivating in the Merchants said that Squealer has disappeared."

"What?" The blonde woman looked surprised, then thoughtful. "Disappeared?"

"So I'm told. Apparently, and I have no way to verify this at the moment and can't vouch for the accuracy of the information, Skidmark seriously lost his temper with the woman shortly before he left on his mission to earn an early death. Beat the crap out of her, told her he'd kill her next time, then went walkabout. That was about ten days ago or so. She's been holed up in her workshop ever since, my informant said. Only the people at the top of the gang have seen her until recently."

Emily listened carefully. "I assume something changed?"

"I believe so, but I don't know what. I'm told she came out of the workshop last night, wandered around with a weird expression most of the night and today, then went back in. Had some massive bust up with Skidmark's third in command, broke his arm, kicked him out, then locked herself in. That was this morning sometime. They have a hazy idea of time so I can't be sure when. But it all went very quiet this afternoon and eventually some of them got it into their heads to break in and look for her. They may have thought she'd died from an overdose, which would be a fairly sensible thought under the circumstances."

"And they couldn't find her?"

"No. The workshop was entirely empty, aside from tools and her latest project, whatever that was. No signs of anyone else, and no way out except through the door which was barricaded on the inside. None of them have the faintest idea where she went."

"She could have walked out the front door and most of them are probably so high they still wouldn't know where she went," the other woman pointed out, making Hannah smile.

"That's not entirely inaccurate, I'm afraid. As I said I'm not sure how much weight to give the rumor. I would imagine that more data will turn up sooner or later. If she really has decided to escape the gang, I doubt she'd get far. All of them are hopelessly addicted to a whole slew of narcotics. We'll probably find her holed up in the docks somewhere in a week or so suffering withdrawal symptoms. Or dead."

"Interesting. But not as worrying as her boyfriend's activities."

"No. If she really has left it will at least deprive him of Tinker support. She's annoyingly effective, even if her aesthetics leave a lot to be desired. It irritates the hell out of Colin, of course."

They both smiled a little, the Protectorate Tinker's feelings about Squealer's creations was well known, as he tended to make them clear to everyone in the area when it came up. ' _Inefficient_ ' was the least of it.

"All right. Thank you for the report. Keep trying to find out what you can. I don't know how long the Family is likely to wait before they decide to launch a preemptive strike, which in their place I'd probably have done already. But I imagine they're getting ready for trouble."

"The entire DWU is if what I've heard is accurate. I'm told there's a new fence that appeared today around the entire site, and some other sort of defense I don't yet have information on. I'm thinking of driving over to have a discreet look. With Saurial and her family involved it could be almost anything."

Emily sighed, nodding her agreement. "I don't even want to consider what she could do if she got all militaristic. What she does when she's just having _fun_ is terrifying enough." She tapped her fingers on the desk, thinking, then shook her head. "Probably best not to get involved right now. Keep digging, if we can go to them with real information and show we're trying to deal with the situation it will be more likely to get them to trust us a little more than spying on them. Which I'm certain they'd notice."

"If you say so." Hannah stood up. "I'll get back to the Rig, then. Good bye, director."

She headed out of the office, wondering what Skidmark had found and when he was really going to get back.

It was likely to get very noisy shortly afterwards, she suspected.


	195. Omake - Testing Area

Colin looked at Dragon.

His friend looked back.

Even through the armor he could tell she was puzzled, intrigued, and just a little bit worried.

All three emotions came up on his helmet HUD, proving that his emotional judgment software was working to design. Finally.

Although, he was more than a little unsure why it only seemed to work on her. Oh well, it was just the beta version at the moment, the next one would work out the remaining bugs.

They both turned to inspect the sight that had stopped them in their tracks, on their way to talk to Raptaur at the BBFO office. Near the edge of the water along the dockside in the DWU compound, several tables had been set up, each of them covered in containers. Raptaur herself was standing staring at the second table along, while a little distance away Metis was observing, with Amy Dallon in her new costume next to her. The healer's helmet had a full faceplate and seemed to be totally sealed, while the outer layer looked more armored than normal.

Über and Leet were sitting upwind of the entire setup, apparently both taking notes and enjoying whatever was going on. They were both wearing environment suits as well.

The entire area to a distance of about two hundred feet in any direction was cordoned off with a series of tall bright orange poles, ropes strung between them, and more hazard signs hanging from the ropes than either Tinker had ever seen in one place before. The yellow and black signs flapped in the light breeze blowing towards the bay, proclaiming things like ' _Biohazard_ ', ' _Radiation Hazard_ ', as well as a whole series of chemical warnings such as ' _Toxic_ ', ' _Corrosive_ ', ' _Flammable_ ', ' _Explosive_ '.

Added to that were some he'd never encountered before.

' _Mutagen_ ' was one that worried him…

So was ' _Anti-particle emitter_ '.

Some of the others were worse, he was sure, but he couldn't quite figure out what they meant. At least two were in a script none of his translation programs could make heads or tails of.

The final sign, on a pole near the barrier, simply read:

 **Family Picnic Testing Area**

 **No Entry without appropriate PPE**  
 **Class Nine or Equivalent, Full Coverage**

 **Contact BBFO office for details**

"Class Nine?" Dragon asked in a worried voice. "What the hell is that mad creature doing that requires _Class Nine_ PPE? That's the sort of thing you'd give to someone you were sending into a radioactive volcano full of corrosive mutated Ebola."

While a little overstated, the sentiment was fairly accurate, he felt. It was certainly not the sort of thing one expected to encounter in the middle of a shipyard.

"My armor is class nine sealed when I activate the safety protocols," he replied, doing exactly that. His helmet extruded a set of transparent covers which met with a click, enclosing his head completely, while a number of other sounds culminating in a beep and a green light on his HUD told him that the power armor was fully sealed. He had sufficient life support for nearly twelve hours.

"Likewise, but I'm still confused," Dragon said. They exchanged another glance, then he got off his bike, joining her in walking over to see what the hell was going on this time.

Ducking under the ropes, they both watched as Raptaur seemed to make a decision, reaching out to one of the containers on the table she was standing in front of and picking the thing up. It was obviously made of EDM, as were all the others, and had purple fumes drifting from it. She drank the contents while they gaped, licked her lips with a long forked tongue, her head on one side in a thoughtful manner, then said something to Metis, who nodded, writing it down on the clipboard she was holding.

Amy checked an entry off on the clipboard _she_ was holding, then pointed to one of the other containers. Picking it up the huge reptile drank whatever was in it as well.

She looked contemplative, before belching loudly, a blast of weirdly silvery smoke with purple flames coming out and making both new arrivals jump despite themselves. None of the others reacted at all. Raptaur shook her head decisively.

Both her companions took notes. Über laughed. Leet was grinning.

After exchanging another look, and in Colin's case, sighing heavily, they walked over to the tables.

"Oh, hi, guys," Raptaur said brightly, looking over her shoulder. "How's it going?"

"Very well, thank you, Raptaur," Dragon replied. She looked at the tables. Many of the containers were fuming or smoking, in a variety of colors, a few were full of something that glowed, also in different colors, and half a dozen were radiating enough heat to be felt fifty feet away.

None of them looked even slightly safe.

Especially the one that Metis kept hitting with a baton, when it tried to sneak away.

Colin had never seen an inanimate container look guilty before. He wished he hadn't now, firmly turning his head so he wouldn't have to look at it.

"Can I ask… What on earth are you doing?"

"Taste test. We got to talking about what Family delicacies would go down well around here with the humans and Leet suggested we should try as many combinations as we could come up with, including some of the new things we've worked out," Metis replied, turning to them with a smile. "It sort of expanded into a general ' _What things does Raptaur really like_ ' experiment. We may have gotten a little carried away."

"Bearing in mind that the gamma emissions from that container are off the scale of my radiation monitor, I would have to agree," Colin sighed, pointing at one wide bowl full of shiny metal nuggets. "Never mind all the other things."

"My cobalt-60? It's pretty tasty." Raptaur picked up a handful of the pellets and chewed them in a contemplative manner. "Interesting aftertaste," she added when she'd swallowed. Colin could feel he was going a little green, for several reasons. "Sort of gamma-y. With a hint of vanilla."

"Oh, god," he muttered to himself.

She picked up a cup full of something faintly greenish, swilling it around. "This chlorine trifluoride goes well with it. Give me a little gas though."

"Chlorine… trifluoride…?" Dragon managed to say in a stunned voice.

"Yep. Really nice," Raptaur smiled. "Fizzy."

She poured a little out of the container onto the ground by her feet. There was a sizzling _whoomp_ sound and the stone-like compound started burning violently, fuming and crackling.

They stared as she drank the rest, putting the empty cup down. "I tried some of the other interhalogen compounds but most of them are a little bitter. Or salty. They'd go well with fish."

Colin put a hand over his visor, wondering if it was too late to leave and pretend this conversation never happened.

"These turned out to be a hit," Amy said, picking up a bowl full of greasy yellowish flat fragments. There was an alarming amount of alpha radiation coming from the bowl. Colin, despite himself, took a step back.

"What it is?" Dragon asked with a sort of horrified fascination.

"Battered plutonium-239," Raptaur smiled, taking a few of the things and eating them.

They gaped at her.

"Metis called them Fission Chips," she added, grinning. "Catchy name. But I don't think they'll really take off. Although they _are_ sort of moreish." She ate some more of them.

"How many of those have you had now?" Über called over. She looked at him.

"Pounds of them. Like I said, moreish."

She ate the last couple.

There was a deep rumbling thump from her stomach, while she hiccuped. "Only problem is they go critical if you don't digest them quickly enough," the lizard added casually. "Too many gives me a little heartburn." She scanned the tables as Colin checked his heart rate, the HUD blinking a warning that his bio-signs were out of safe range. "Ah. That's what I wanted, settles me right down."

Reaching out, she picked up a container that was covered in frost, vapor running down the sides. There was an EDM rod protruding from it. She held this and lifted, pulling an orange cylinder from the container, like a large popsicle. His helmet sensors read it as just below minus two hundred degrees centigrade. Sticking it in her mouth, she sucked for a moment, then pulled the EDM rod out without the frozen material on it.

"What was that?" Dragon asked, in the tone of voice of someone who didn't really want an answer.

"Dioxygen difluoride ice pop," Raptaur smiled. "Nice on a hot day."

"Oh."

Dragon glanced at him, then both of them turned around and started walking in the other direction. "We have to go. Enjoy your testing," his friend said without looking around, her voice a little strained to his ears, even without the software telling him anything.

"OK. Nice to see you guys. Drop in any time," Raptaur called.

Leet waved at them as they passed. Neither Tinker responded. He smirked and went back to watching.

When they were safely away from that pit of insanity, Dragon said over their private comms channel, "Don't ever accept an offer of a snack from the Family."

"I had already reached that conclusion," he sighed.

Neither of them could think of anything else to talk about the rest of the way back to the Rig.


	196. Options and Disguises

Entering the BBFO office behind his daughter, Danny looked around, then focused on the bedraggled blonde woman sitting at the table next to Lisa as Metis, eating what seemed to be her third helping of food from one of the cafeteria's takeout boxes. She looked very tired, not entirely well, far too thin to be healthy, and like she'd been dragged through a sewer by one ankle.

That said, she was also apparently relieved to be where she was, judging by her expression. When she saw him, she froze for a moment. "Danny, this is Sherrel. Sherrel, Danny Hebert, the go-to guy around these parts." Taylor made the introductions as she walked over to the table next to him. "Sherrel is the person who Metis had contact with yesterday."

"The Tinker formerly known as Squealer, I presume," he said with a smile, reaching her and holding out his hand. "I gather that you've had something of a falling-out with your previous group."

Sherrel looked at him, then his hand, a slightly befuddled expression on her face, before she carefully put her fork down, wiped her own hand on a cloth Taylor handed her without comment, then shook the offered appendage. "I don't want to go back to the Merchants, if that's what you mean." She shrugged heavily. "Had enough of that lifestyle. Nearly killed me. It was only blind luck and Metis here who kept me alive. Now I need to work out what to do next."

"That's what I'm here to help with," he replied, sitting down in one of the chairs, his daughter taking the next one. "We're pretty good at coming up with working solutions to weird problems around here."

She nodded, going back to eating, while eyeing him carefully.

"This is the situation, Danny," Lisa began, telling him the entire story, with Sherrel chiming in where required. After a while he took one of the packs of beef stew and started in on it, having missed lunch earlier. He listened carefully while he ate, until he knew the current situation.

"Hmm."

"Hmm?" Taylor looked at him.

"Definitely hmm. An awkward problem. Your own little hunting trip retrieved people who weren't as… criminally liable, as Sherrel is. The Merchants are not in general good people."

"Most of them are muggers, drug dealers, and petty thieves. Not exactly master criminals. But they've certainly caused a lot of trouble over the years," Amy mentioned.

"I'm more than aware of that, Ianthe," he sighed. "Believe me, we had a _lot_ of issues with them here. Hiring Über and Leet to deal with one particularly serious rash of problems was the point we managed to turn it around, but it was hard work."

"Skids wasn't pleased about that," Sherrel said with a small vicious smile. "He wanted to go after them and you guys too. But they made an impression on the others, no one wanted to see what would happen if Leet really got pissed off. Tinkers are dangerous if pushed. Even him. Possibly especially him, he comes up with some fucking bizarre inventions before they blow up in his face. And Skids was a little less paranoid then, so we managed to talk him down. He eventually decided the DWU was too much trouble."

"Glad to hear it," Danny grinned. "I've always tried to make us too much trouble. We went to a lot of effort to reach that status. I assume things have changed now."

"Yeah. The Family really made him mad. Mostly because they don't seem to even care very much about him or the other Merchants." She indicated Taylor with her fork. "Saurial grabs his guys without even making it look hard, Raptaur scares them shitless so people started avoiding any area where she'd been seen, and when Kaiju turned up…" She smiled again, shaking her head. "You should have seen the color he went. When he recovered he was ranting for two days straight about how we were getting kicked out of our own territory by giant lizards and if we didn't do something we'd have nowhere to go. He really talked himself into it, no matter what everyone else said."

"What did you think?" he asked.

"That if we went against her, we were all toe jam. If we were lucky," the woman replied quietly. "I told him that, several times. In the end he lost it completely and kicked the shit out of me. That was when I knew he was too far gone to help. But I couldn't work out what to do."

She nodded at Lisa. "Without Metis, I'd be dead. Or dying, or something. She saved my life, which gave me time to think about things, and made me sober enough to be able to. I didn't like what I saw or thought. So I accepted the offer of help."

"And now we need to work out what to do next. She's got an impressive record, although more due to quantity than quality. Nothing really serious directly but a hell of a lot of contributory stuff, and of course she was a member of a criminal gang for four or five years," Lisa said.

Amy pointed at the computers. "It turns out that our new status lets us look up criminal records and that sort of thing on the official systems, both the PRT ones and the BBPD and other law enforcement. The codes are in that information pack the Director brought over."

"I hope you didn't just look up hers," Danny said with mild alarm. "That would raise flags all over the place."

"No, Metis already thought of that. We requested records of most of the criminal capes in the bay, Sherrel being just one of the set. Skidmark was the first one, which is what the PRT would probably expect us to do."

"OK." He relaxed again. "We don't need them turning up yet, until we have a plan." Thinking about it, he asked, "Can I see the record, please?"

"Sure, I printed it out." The reptilian healer reached over and picked up a sheaf of papers that was lying on the table and handed it to him. He started reading carefully, finishing some ten minutes later.

There were a _lot_ of entries.

"Interesting. Mostly vehicular crime, some theft although mainly of scrap, a few minor drugs charges, plus conspiracy to commit crimes, which as I understand it is a standard charge for gang members. But nothing directly violent. There are notes here from a number of people saying that Sherrel wasn't thought to be involved in the drugs trade except as Skidmark's girlfriend and a high ranking member of the gang." He smiled a little at one section. "And a comment from Armsmaster saying that a charge of offending efficient engineering practice should be put on file."

Taylor laughed at this, the others, even Sherrel herself, smiling.

"He doesn't like me," the woman said.

"I can understand why, you're almost his polar opposite," Danny chuckled. "Although I think the man is a decent guy under the robot act and the somewhat full of himself attitude."

"He doesn't understand people at all," Taylor smiled. "But he's a very smart person and a very good Tinker. His ego is a little large but mainly justifiably so, he _is_ as good as he _thinks_ he is. And he seems to be getting better recently, I think Dragon has been house-training him."

"She's certainly stuck around the city for a lot longer than I would have expected," Danny nodded. "Anyway, enough about that. Back to Sherrel. I can't see anything in her record that is… irretrievable. Murder, serious violence against people, manslaughter, any of that sort of thing would be difficult to deal with and present me with something of an ethical conundrum. A lot of charges such as driving unlicensed vehicles on public roads, mostly fairly minor theft, and drug offenses at the low end of the scale are much less worrying."

He scanned the papers he was holding again, then dropped them to the table. "Although there _are_ an impressively large number of all those."

Sherrel looked rather embarrassed at his comment. "Sorry," she mumbled. She had finished her fourth helping and was now appearing full, but concerned again.

"Don't worry too much about it right now. There are people working here who have done much worse and come out the other side as very decent and hard workers I trust implicitly. A criminal background isn't necessarily a good indicator of who you are, or at least can become, in my experience. People change, often for the better. And you appear to genuinely _want_ to change, which is a critical first step." He studied the blonde woman, who cheered up a little.

"All right. I need some honest answers to some questions. Will you do that?"

She nodded. "Yes."

"Good." He paused, arranging his thoughts. "Do you intend to go straight, as far as is possible, and not commit further crimes, or aid anyone in committing crimes?"

"Yes."

"Are you going to give up the narcotics?"

"God, _yes_. Happily."

"Will you give me your word that you won't cause any trouble while you're here?"

The woman nodded again. "Yes."

"And will you also give me your word that you won't in any way pass on information you learn from anyone here?"

She looked directly at him. "Yes," she said quietly. "Saurial and I already talked about that. I won't tell anyone anything I find out from you guys, and I don't want to do what I was doing for so long. I never really wanted to do it in the first place but it all sort of built up to where I didn't have any choice."

Danny nodded, glancing at Lisa, then Taylor. Both of them made little signals that she was being truthful. Each of them had their own ways to tell, and between the pair he was pretty sure they'd spot any subterfuge or dissembling.

"All right. Thank you. Based on that, and since we seem to have established precedent some time ago about how we treat homeless villains, I'm prepared to let you stay here until we work out what to do. We'll deal with that in a while. As long as you're on DWU premises, you stay out of the way, don't ask questions about people's pasts, and respect their knowledge and privacy. In return, everyone else will do the same to you. As I've told quite a few people recently, we have all sorts here, and as long as their past doesn't come back to hurt other people, we don't particularly care what they used to be or do. Got me?"

"Yes," she said again. "Thank you."

"You're welcome. Now, the next thing is, what do you actually _want_ to do?"

She stared at him, then looked around at the others, all of whom were listening. "I… don't know. Not go back to Skids for sure, but other than that… I don't have a fucking clue. What _can_ I do?"

He'd come up with a number of possible paths since he'd arrived, and was sure there were probably more. "Well, I can think of a few options. One is contact the Protectorate and ask whether they're in the market for a skilled vehicle Tinker. Based on what I know about the way they work, I suspect the answer would be a cautious yes. No doubt there would be a _lot_ of evaluations, tests, questions, and so on, but in the end I think you'd find that a rebranded version of you would quietly appear somewhere else in the country. I know I've heard of similar things happening more than once. If you don't have any really serious crimes on your record, it would probably be a valid possibility."

The woman looked thoughtful, but worried at the same time. "I'm not sure I think that would really work but I guess it's better than nothing. I just don't want to end up in the Birdcage."

"That's not going to happen, it's reserved for really serious and dangerous Parahumans," Amy assured her. "Even _Hookwolf_ hasn't seriously been threatened with that. Lung is about the only local one who would end up there and that's only if they could actually catch him, which the evidence would suggest isn't likely to happen."

"Option two is to surrender to the BBPD, who would end up calling in the PRT anyway," he went on when the girl stopped talking. "They'd arrest you, definitely, but with a good lawyer and some fast talking, you might be able to come to some deal. Turning over on your old gang would probably help a lot with a plea deal. I know a lawyer who might be amenable to representing you."

"I couldn't afford that," Sherrel said, sounding depressed. "I don't have more than about ten dollars on me. There's probably about half a mil in the safe back in the Merchant base, but I don't even know the combination for that. Only Skids does, he doesn't trust anyone else with it."

"Money isn't an issue," Taylor said, with a glance at Lisa, who smiled slightly. "We have ways around that problem."

Sherrel stared at her, then looked at the table. "I still can't figure you guys out."

"Don't bother trying for now," Danny advised with a good-natured laugh. "You'll just end up wondering what went wrong with the day. They're weird, put it down to that. But good people."

She nodded, still looking at the table in a depressed way.

"What about the idea of turning over on your old gang?" he asked. "Are you prepared to do that? The information might be worth quite a lot to the authorities."

The woman lifted her eyes to meet his, obviously wrestling with her thoughts. Eventually she nodded a little.

"I don't really care about most of them. I worked out this morning that practically everyone I used to think of as a friend there was gone for one reason or other. Mostly dead. I get on OK with some of them, hate the guts of more, and just don't give a shit about most of the people. But I guess I still don't want to see them hurt any more than they're doing to themselves." She shrugged. "I can't figure out why. Considering some of the shit that happened there..."

"You're not an evil person. Just someone who ended up making a lot of bad choices one after the other," Lisa said.

"Maybe. Maybe not."

"What's the next option, Danny?" Amy asked.

"She runs. Gets out of Brockton Bay, changes her name, her looks, everything she can, goes as far away as she can get and never comes back. That might well work. The Merchants are only a local problem. Get out of the state and keep your head down, it's entirely possible that the authorities wouldn't bother looking for you. But there is the issue that you'd have to start again, and being a Tinker on your own is, as I understand it, somewhat problematic."

"You could say that," Sherrel muttered. "Tinkers are a gang's wet dream. And you can't stop yourself, sooner or later you _have_ to start making things. That's what gives you away."

"Which is what I've been told," he nodded. "It's a difficult problem, but not impossible to deal with."

"Any more ideas?" his daughter asked.

"She could officially hand herself over to the Family. I read that PRT affiliated group document Director Piggot brought over. With the status you now have, you have the authority to perform something rather more official than a citizen's arrest, although not quite to the level that the PRT or the cops have. You're basically a law enforcement organization in some specific ways. Heroic Parahumans already have quite a few legal options when dealing with criminals, the laws were put in place years ago when they first started turning up in large quantities. Mostly, I think, so that they wouldn't either get sued to hell, which wouldn't have worked out very well, or just not bother to help out. The authorities needed all the help they could get against the villains and still do."

He smiled for a moment. "As we can see just by looking around the city. But in any case, the new protocols extend that. You can't go around giving out traffic tickets, but you can definitely arrest a criminal if you catch them, and make it stick. Even more so if the criminal is a Parahuman. And it allows you to hold them in custody for a period of time. Of course, you're responsible for their well-being during that time, as you'd expect. There are some possibilities there that might be useful."

All three reptile-girls looked intrigued. "I read it but I haven't really sat down to think about all the ways to play the system yet," Lisa admitted. "Too many other things to do in the last couple of days."

"Well, that's a possibility, in any case," he said. "Taking official custody of her would allow you to make sure that she was treated fairly, since you could refuse to hand her over to the PRT if you thought that she would suffer unduly. In fact, a good lawyer could probably argue that you would be _obliged_ to do so, under the well-being clause. And to be honest I doubt anyone would argue with you, since no one sane wants to piss off the Family. Hence the official status in the first place."

He grinned as Taylor looked amused.

"That's pretty much what the director said."

"Quite. Director Piggot is a realist, and no fool. I suspect Chief Director Costa-Brown is much the same. However, that is another path worth considering." Studying the faces around him he waited for a while as everyone considered his words.

Eventually he said, "There is one more option I can think of at the moment, which would normally be difficult to arrange, but with the talents of the Family, I think it's possible."

"What's that?" his daughter asked. Lisa was looking at him with a thoughtful look, seeming interested.

"She disappears. Totally and permanently. Sherrel ceases to exist. We avoid the authorities completely. I'm not entirely keen on the idea, but… there are some merits to it. Throwing yourself on the mercy of the courts or the Protectorate isn't certain to work. It _probably_ would, but there's a chance it would merely be a quick route to twenty years in jail. Running is again pretty likely to work but not guaranteed, plus there's the whole problem with being outed as a Tinker eventually. You might get around that by joining an independent group, preferably a heroic one, but the risk there is you either tell them the truth and hope they're willing to overlook your past, or hide it and hope they never find out."

Danny watched Sherrel think about the concept. "It would be difficult, you'd give up everything. What there is left, anyway. Your name, your identity, any links to your family or past. But it's something that can be done, and is, in things like Federal Witness programs. I suspect a Family Witness program is rather more effective."

Amy smiled slowly and widely, making him look at her with cautious interest, and Sherrel stare with naked worry.

"I think I can say it would be..." she said in a pleased voice, the smile turning into a grin. "That plays into the idea I've been working on."

"Which is? And could you stop with the deranged grin, you're starting to put the wind up me, Ianthe."

"She dies."

" _What!?_ " the blonde woman yipped, standing up so fast she nearly fell over. " **Dies?** "

Amy made a calming motion with both hands. "Don't worry, I don't mean I'm planning on killing you. Or, more accurately, I am, sort of. But not. Not you, precisely."

Everyone was now staring at her. Lisa narrowed her eyes, then also grinned madly. "Brilliant. Would that work?"

"Sure." They had a quick conversation in Famtalk, Taylor joining in with enthusiasm, while the other two watched in confusion. By the end of it his daughter was grinning too.

"Oh, god, you're thinking of something weird again, aren't you?" he sighed. "I recognize that look."

"It's… slightly unconventional, I admit, but it's entirely practical. We Life Shapers have some options most people don't, you see," the girl snickered. She turned to Sherrel, who had retaken her seat but at a safe distance, a somewhat suspicious look on her face.

"OK, this is the idea. If you decided to vanish, the problem is that someone might eventually work out where you went. Now, I can solve that, mostly, by using my own abilities to remake you. New face, new body, even new genetics. It would take a little time to work out the exact changes needed, but I can make you entirely unrecognizable even to advanced DNA tests."

"Holy fuck. Really?" The Tinker looked astounded.

"Oh, definitely, humans are easy. But… there is always a possibility a Thinker might pick up on something, or some other method I haven't thought of might give you away. We should be able to get around that by taking the process a little further." She looked at Danny for a moment, then returned her attention to Sherrel.

"We give them a body. _Your_ body. I suspect that if Squealer turned up dead of an overdose, somewhere in the docks, having disappeared from the Merchant's base, no one would be wildly surprised. It's even possible that the PRT has already heard you've gone. A positively identified body would almost certainly mean no one would even be looking any more. No one looking plus a different body, as far as I can see, means you'd be safe."

"Where do we get a body?" the woman asked with an uneasy note in her voice.

"I make it. Actually, I make a new one for you, move your brain over to it, then give them that one, which is easier."

Gaping, the blonde woman stared at the large reptile, who was looking a little smug and pleased with herself. After several seconds, she managed to say, in a choked voice, "That's **_easier?_** "

"Yep."

"You're fucking with me."

"Nope."

There was a long silence again.

"You don't have to decide here and now. I promise I can do it, and if you want me to I will. It would be a safe process, you wouldn't feel a thing, and I give my word everything that makes you, you, would be totally intact. If you had any special requests I could do them at the same time. I'd throw in some minor boosts to your immune system, better healing, that sort of thing." Amy smiled again. "It would be an interesting project, actually. After that, if you wanted to leave and start a new life, you could. Or you could stay here."

"And do what?" Sherrel asked, still looking stunned.

"We always need mechanics and people who know their way around vehicles," Danny, who was feeling a little shocked himself, said. He wasn't as startled as Sherrel was, though, since he'd already seen what Amy was capable of. "And, for that matter, we're just starting a hiring process at the moment, we'll be interviewing over the next week or two. I'm certain we could find a place here where you'd fit in, if you wanted it. A Tinker of your abilities would be a very useful asset besides." He watched as she started looking more thoughtful than appalled.

"Although, that said, we'd need to figure out a solution to your, um, vehicular aesthetics. They're rather recognizable."

"A lot of that is because I never had the right shit to make what I wanted," the woman said absently, still apparently thinking hard. "Skids was always wanting it now, but never wanted to get the good stuff. So I had to improvise. I'm really good at that, the problem is that it usually looks like crap. He didn't care as long as it worked and I was too high to care either." She shrugged. "There's only so much you can do with half a dozen wrecked trucks welded together with a bulldozer on the front."

"Fair enough," Danny chuckled. "I think we could probably arrange more facilities than the Merchants could. We have some very well equipped workshops here, as well as a lot of space we're not using right now. This place used to have over a thousand people working in it, there's only about a third of that at the moment."

She was starting to look quite interested and a little excited. "Can you do things other than road-going vehicles?" Taylor asked with interest. "What's your specialty?"

"As far as I've ever been able to tell, transportation."

"That's it?"

"I think so," the woman shrugged. "Never had proper power testing."

Lisa and Amy exchanged a glance. "That's a very broad category," Lisa said, sounding impressed. "' _Transportation_ ' covers all _sorts_ of things. And all sorts of spin-offs as well, some of which aren't particularly obvious."

"Guess so. It mainly meant building trucks and things, with various systems for them. My stealth tech is one of the better side effects of that. I've also got some interesting ideas for gravity nulling tech but I've never had time to do anything about it."

"Like Kid Win's flight board?"

Sherrel snorted. "That toy? It's cool and all, looks good, but it's way too small and low powered. No, I meant _real_ tech. I kept having dreams about this sort of flying aircraft carrier all last year, but then I'd have to design all the aircraft as well, and I didn't have anywhere to put it in the first place." She grinned as Taylor looked impressed, Lisa started laughing, and Amy shook her head.

"We have to keep her, Danny, she'd fit right in around here," his daughter said jokingly.

He sighed. "That's becoming clear to me, and in a slightly worrying way."

Amy leaned forward. "You need sleep, a lot of it, and time to recover, before you can make any real decision. Why don't you let me change your looks a little so no one recognizes you, nothing I can't reverse if you decide against it, then you can rest and think about things for a while. There's no huge hurry after all. No one knows where you are, even if they know you've gone, and from what you said Skidmark won't be back for a week at least." She glanced at Danny, then her friends. "Seem like a plan?"

"It works for me," he said. "We can give her a room in the dorm block and sort out some clothes and things, that's not a problem."

"And we might think of other ways around the issues you have aside from the ones we've come up with so far once we've all had time to consider everything," Lisa added.

Sherrel looked around at them all, then sighed slightly, slumping in her chair and putting her hands over her face for a moment or two, rubbing her eyes tiredly.

"OK. You're right, I'm totally fucked right now and can't think straight." She lowered her hands. "Will it hurt?"

"No, promise, you'll just fall asleep for a couple of minutes," Amy smiled, getting up and moving to stand next to her. "Any preference for hair color?"

"Dark brown," Sherrel said quietly. "My mother had dark brown hair. Brown eyes as well."

"Sure, that's no problem. I'll keep the changes as small as I can, but you need to look different, so be prepared for that." She put her hand on the woman's head. "See you in a couple of minutes."

The blonde didn't even have time to nod before she was out like a light. Amy looked at the others, then got to work.

Danny watched with awed interest as the features of the woman in the chair flowed and changed, her face and underlying bone structure altering visibly and quickly, until she looked completely different. The changes were fairly small individually, her chin narrowing, her nose reshaping, but they added up to an impressive difference. She even looked a couple of years younger.

She got slightly taller as well, he noticed, her overall proportions changing as Amy worked. Eventually she nodded in satisfaction. "That should do it for now. Nothing serious, it's all cosmetic, but I don't think anyone will look at her and know who she is. I changed the pitch of her voice too, and her finger, iris, and retina prints. I've backed everything up in redundant DNA so I can easily revert it."

"Extremely and worryingly impressive," he commented.

"Thanks. It's actually really easy these days." She tapped herself on the chest with a grin. "Compared to this, humans are very simple."

"I hope we're doing the right thing," Danny sighed as he inspected the different appearance of the woman in the chair, who was snoring faintly. "She's still a criminal."

"So was I. So were Brian, and the others," Lisa said quietly. "You gave us all a second chance. I want to do the same, pay back the good fortune. Like you said, she hasn't done anything irretrievable yet. Nothing that can't be fixed with the right reparations. Money isn't actually a problem for us, after all. I don't mind finding all the places she stole her scrap from and sorting out any debts. She can make restitution for everything else by becoming a good citizen and contributing to society in a positive manner, which is what jail is supposed to be for in the first place."

The girl in the lizard looked at him. "I can't see that handing her over to the PRT, unless she _wants_ that, is necessarily the right move. They're probably have another opinion, but..." She shrugged with a grin. "We're the Family. We do it differently."

"Apparently so. OK. As always, please don't do anything to damage the reputation of the DWU," he eventually replied.

"I'm sure dealing with the odd villain won't harm your reputation, Padrone," Lisa snickered. "Not that we'll mention it to anyone."

Feeling that there was some joke there he wasn't in on, he gave her a hard look, then turned to the other two, who shook their heads. "No idea, Danny," Amy said. "She's in a funny mood at the moment. Probably best to ignore it until it goes away."

Lisa merely seemed smug, in a manner that he knew her well enough to recognize was only going to lead to a headache if he probed, so he decided to take the girl's advice. "Wake her up, then, and we can work out a name to use for now," he replied.

Amy touched Sherrel on the head, the woman twitching immediately, then opening her eyes and looking around. Taylor handed her a mirror she made. "Fucking..."

She gaped at her reflection, feeling her face with the hand not holding the mirror. "Oh my _god_. That's as freaky as fuck."

"You look totally different, but not at all bad," Taylor smiled. "No one is going to recognize you now."

"My voice sounds weird," Sherrel remarked, clearing her throat a couple of times, experimentally.

"I lowered it about half an octave, which adds to the disguise," Amy told her. "You're also about two inches taller. You might find you stumble a little until you get used to the change. If you don't like it I can change it back, but I'd suggest sleeping on it whatever you decide tomorrow."

"Guess you're right," the woman said, yawning widely.

"The only thing left now is a name," Lisa commented. "Any preferences?"

"Name?" Sherrel considered the concept. "Yeah, guess I need a new one. Ah..." She thought for a while. "Linda. Call me Linda. I always sort of liked that name. It'll do."

"OK, ' _Linda_ '," Danny smiled. "It's a nice name. Come with me, I can show you to a room you can use, and a shower." He glanced at his daughter. "Can you make some basic clothes for her?"

"Sure," Taylor said. She motioned to ' _Linda_ ' to stand up, which the new brunette did. Walking around her a couple of times, she produced a couple of t shirts and some pants with underwear, neatly folded, then handed it over. "This should fit all right, it's pretty stretchy. We can get you something better later."

"Thanks," Linda said, smiling. "For everything." She yawned again. "God, I'm falling asleep on my feet here."

"Go with Danny and get some sleep," Amy advised. "I checked you over while you were out, you're fine, but remember what I said about eating properly."

"I will," the woman said gratefully. Danny got up and headed for the door, waving her after him. Unlocking it, he exited into a chilly late afternoon, blinking a little at the sunlight, then looked to the side as he caught sight of something out of the corner of his eye. He smiled a little, before leaning back into the building.

"You have a visitor, girls," he called. Amy and Lisa wandered over and looked out, following his gaze to the small figure walking towards them some distance in the air. Several dock workers were pointing at it, taking photos with their phones and discussing the sighting with interest.

"See you both later," he said. "Follow me," he added to the Tinker, who was yawning again and now looked like she was almost in a daze. She staggered off after him as he left, wondering what the _next_ surprise would be in a slightly bemused manner.

And why Lisa kept looking at him and seeming like she wanted to giggle.

The girl was weird sometimes.

* * *

{Ah. Looks like our newest associate is back for some more learnificating,} she grinned. {I think Taylor has a new follower.}

{And I'm sure she'll end up with a tail sooner or later,} Lisa commented with a smirk. {I'm still surprised _I_ haven't.}

{Don't tempt me,} Amy giggled. {So much room for experimentation. That naga thing Taylor came up with…}

{I like my legs,} Lisa protested, both of them watching as Vista in her Cloak guise started descending towards them, waving happily. {Both my human ones and these ones. Leave them alone.}

{Maybe…} Amy snickered as her friend gave her a look, but shrugged innocently. Lisa sighed heavily, shaking her head.

{Ah, the old urges of the Family Life Shapers,} she commented. {We have to stomp them down hard sometimes back home.}

{So I hear.} Switching to English, she added, "Hello, Cloak," as the disguised Vista stopped a few feet away, still standing two feet in the air on nothing at all as if it was entirely natural. By now, judging by the reports she'd read on PHO, it probably was, she thought with amusement. The girl had been keeping herself busy.

 ** _"Hi, Ianthe, and Metis. I thought I'd stop by and see what was going on,"_** Vista said in her eerie ' _Cloak_ ' voice, making both of them smile. **_"Is that OK?"_**

"Sure," Lisa said. Taylor walked up behind them, looking pleased to see the new arrival.

"My best student," she said happily. "I had a lot of fun teaching you the other day. You learn very fast."

 _ **"And I want to learn everything I can from you, Scaly Sensei,"**_ Vista giggled. She sniffed audibly. ** _"Ooh, is that beef casserole?"_**

"Yep. Want some?" Amy replied, waving the girl into the office as they all went back inside.

 ** _"Um… yes, please,"_** the girl said after a moment's reflection, following them. **_"I think the doughnuts have gone away now."_**

"Doughnuts?" Taylor and Lisa both asked at the same time.

 _ **"Don't ask,"**_ Vista sighed, the sound a drawn-out hiss. **_"I got a little carried away. Won't do that again for a while."_**

Everyone looked at her, then each other. Amy smiled to herself. That sounded like the voice of hard-won experience to her. She wondered how many the girl had eaten…


	197. Transponders and Warping

Paul landed gently in the courtyard outside the BBFO office, nodding politely to a couple of men who were coming out of one of the other buildings, both of them covered in sawdust and the larger one, a tall and strongly build young fellow with dark skin carrying a tool bag. They looked at him, nodded back without a word, and went past him and into another building.

He smiled a little. These people were oddly hard to surprise, he thought. Looking up at the BBFO sign, his smile widened for a moment.

Possibly not so surprising, considering who they saw every day…

Walking over to the closed pedestrian door, he knocked, then waited, shifting the canvas bag he was holding to his other hand. A short time later, he heard the door unlock, then it opened to reveal Ianthe, who smiled at him.

"Hi, Legend," she said in happy tones. "What brings you here?"

She stood aside and waved him in without waiting for an answer. Going inside, he waited politely for her to close the door.

"I wanted to drop off some items which it appears your cousin may have need of now," he replied, hefting the bag. "Considering she appears to have developed a somewhat impressive flight capacity."

"Ah. I see," the big lizard grinned. "Spotted that, did you?"

"It was… hard to miss," he chuckled. "Even at her size, the radar systems noticed. Something doing Mach six or better popping up out of nowhere tends to attract a certain amount of attention. Quite a few people were watching and wondering if she was about to chase the Simurgh down in orbit."

"I thought about it, but it didn't seem like the right time," Saurial's voice came from behind him, causing him to turn and smile at the shorter and more slender female reptile. She looked amused, and pleased to see him. "Maybe next time I'll try for an orbital injection, but this was only a proof of concept flight. Seems to work pretty well after that initial bouncing off buildings phase."

He grinned at her. "Yes, I heard about that. I'm glad you didn't hit anything important. Or living."

She appeared embarrassed, ducking her head and scratching the feathers on the back, while Ianthe snickered.

"No, that wasn't my smartest move," she admitted a little guiltily. "I got caught up in the excitement. Plus I ended up going the wrong way, I was planning on getting out over the water sooner but it all went a little weird early on and I kept going, rather than stopping for a think." She shrugged. "Won't happen again. Sorry. And I fixed everything I broke."

"That's good to hear," he said as he joined her at the table. "We all have a responsibility to use our abilities in a way that causes the minimum disruption to other people, after all, no matter what they are. Everyone has the right to live their lives without worrying about someone flying through their window and punching a hole in the wall."

She giggled at his dry tone. "Were you ever a little… um… overenthusiastic?"

It was Paul's turn to look mildly embarrassed. "Let's say that I also had a learning curve and leave it at that, shall we?" he replied after a moment of remembrance. "No one needs to dredge up decade old stories of who flew into who's office and out the other side, without the windows actually being open..."

She started laughing, shaking her head. Ianthe looked at them both, then snickered again. "The things we learn about respected people's past actions around here," she joked. "Would you like a cup of coffee or something?"

"Thank you, that would be nice. Black, two sugars, if possible."

"Sure," the violet reptile smiled, heading over to the other side of the room and the coffee machine. He watched her for a second or two then glanced at the other two occupants, those being Metis, and a small cloaked figure he recognized with interest. Both of them were studying a horrendously complex series of mathematical equations, or what he thought, after a confused look, were _probably_ mathematical equations. They were written on a number of glass panels in frames that hadn't been there the last time he was in this room, each panel being about four feet tall and eight long.

Another look at them left him no less bewildered than before. He wasn't bad at math, although certainly not in Colin's class, but he could barely recognize much of the symbology used, and couldn't make heads or tails out of most of the rest. Some of it even looked weirdly three dimensional, giving him enough of a headache that he had to look away after a second or two.

"If I might ask, what on earth is that?" he said, motioning to the board. Saurial glanced at them, then looked back to him, seeming unconcerned.

"Just a math lesson. I'm teaching Cloak some of the theory behind a few of the more useful Family techniques in fractal-dimensional engineering, since it overlaps with her own abilities. That's the introductory primer on the subject. I've been doing quite a lot of work on it recently, trying to simplify the whole thing." She smiled at him. "My branch of the Family is very good at it, but some of the others find it a little hard going for some reason. I thought I might be able to work out a better way to teach it, and help a friend at the same time."

He stared at her, then at the neatly written but utterly incomprehensible equations covering several dozen square feet of glass. Those were the _simpler_ versions of the mathematics?

"Good grief," he muttered. "I assume that you're fairly gifted in mathematics in our terms."

"It's a family trait," she said. "My sisters are just as good as I am. Metis is pretty good herself, but her branch of the Family concentrated on slightly different systems. She's interested in seeing how it all interrelates." Saurial looked pleased. "I like teaching it as well, but there aren't many people outside the Family who seem to be able to handle it."

 _ **"It's very interesting,"**_ an unnerving voice commented, making him twitch a little despite himself, then look to the side to see Cloak apparently sitting on thin air a few feet away, several feet off the floor. She'd approached so silently he hadn't noticed at all. _**"Her mathematics are… so elegant. It explains a lot to me, but I'm still having trouble with some of it. I expect I'll work it out eventually, with such a good teacher."**_

"You're a very good student," Saurial replied. "It's a pleasure to teach you."

 _ **"Thank you, oh Scaly One,"**_ the small figure said with a smile in its weird voice. The empty hood, which he could clearly see really _was_ empty, turned to him, looking him up and down. _**"It's interesting to meet a man I've heard a lot about. Hello, Legend."**_

"Hello, Cloak," he said, somewhat amused himself now. She sounded very pleased with her current activities. "I've also heard quite a bit about _you_ in the last couple of days."

 _ **"The people of this city do seem to like taking photographs and discussing them on the internet."**_ Cloak shrugged. _**"I suppose it's one way to spend your time. Although some of the theories about myself and my friends are very strange."**_

" _That_ does not surprise me at all," he remarked, knowing what she meant. PHO was full of some extremely odd people at the best of times, and adding giant lizards to the mix was only ever going to make that stranger.

He wondered for a moment what the various conspiracists on the forums would do if they ever discovered that some of the wilder theories about the Family technically being aliens were actually true. There were people already claiming that, of course.

' _That Void Cowboy fellow would become insufferably smug_ ,' he mentally chuckled. ' _He must_ ** _never_** _find out..._ '

"Are you going to be around the city for long?" he asked curiously.

She looked at Saurial, then back to him. _**"I'll be here quite often, I expect,"**_ she replied. _**"I've been around for some time already, of course. Here and there. I'm sure we'll bump into each other again."**_ With another glance at Saurial, who seemed to be trying not to laugh, she added, " _ **I find this entire place a lot of fun. So many things to do and see."**_

"She should do an advertising spot for the Mayor," Metis chuckled, coming over to join them. "From what I understand the city is looking into new ideas to attract tourists. Cloak's seal of approval might help."

Paul looked at her, then studied the small form hanging in the air in a relaxed manner, radiating good humor and sheer creepiness in equal quantities. "Um… I suppose it's not impossible," he allowed a little doubtfully, which seemed to make all four of them smile. Although, of course, he couldn't see it in the case of Cloak.

He wasn't entirely certain there was anything in there to smile in the first place, which was a very odd thought. But around this place, practically anything seemed to be possible…

Firmly pushing the thought of haunted clothing to the side, he lifted the bag he had in his right hand and put it on the table. Unzipping it, he removed a number of items, while his audience watched with interest. "These are standard flight-capable Parahuman IFF transponders," he said, pointing at a set of half a dozen boxes, one of which Saurial picked up and opened curiously. The device inside was quite small, about the size of a large wristwatch minus the strap. While he was doing this, Ianthe came back with a mug of coffee that she put next to him.

"They're coded with unique IDs that show up on radar systems, using an international standard that's based on the systems military aircraft use. All of the codes are assigned to the Family as a group. If you want, you can add an individual to the code on the internal PRT database using the access codes in this manual and the authorization in the documents Director Piggot dropped off already."

He handed her a small booklet. A thicker one was on the table. "This is the standard flight rules document for Parahumans capable of high speed and/or high altitude flight, without assistance or with minimal hardware. The rules are different if you're, for example, a Tinker who builds an aircraft, or someone like Alexandria or me who flies without needing anything else. We're classifying you more in the latter than the former class, as although you made a machine for propulsion, it's a direct result of your powers and isn't really something that could be classified as an aircraft in the normal sense." Picking up the mug he tried the coffee, finding it was very good.

She leafed through the document he'd given her, while Metis reached out and retrieved the thicker one. "That other one is the complete set of documentation, along with the entire current flight regulation set from the FAA, including Parahuman exemptions, communication codes, nomenclature, and the like. Everything you'd need to know for any sort of flight over the continental US. Most of it is common to Canada as well, since it's largely again based on international standards. Where there are regional variations they're noted along with where to find out more."

 _ **"Does she have to learn all of that?"**_ Cloak asked, looking at the book Metis was holding.

"No, that covers a huge number of things that don't generally apply to any one flight class, as well as standard rules of the air. You'd need to read that last part, of course, but it's summarized in the smaller one. It covers things like controlled airspace, how to file a flight plan, and where you need to do that, minimum separation to aircraft, communications frequencies and so on. The rules surrounding Parahumans who fly under their own power are very relaxed compared to general aviation rules, but even so there are things you need to know, mainly because of the risk to other people."

"I bounce. Other things don't," Saurial commented.

He nodded. "Basically, yes. To manage to survive just the sheer heat of mach six flight, you have to be extraordinarily tough, such as in the case of Alexandria, or Glory Girl, or have a Breaker state like I do. But if you hit an ordinary aircraft, you'll destroy it on the spot. Possibly without even noticing at that speed." He looked at her face, which was wearing an expression of careful thought. "I'm not for one minute suggesting that you _would_ , but accidents can happen to the best of us. The rules are there to minimize the likelihood of that occurring, at least partly by making sure no one gets too close. At hypersonic speeds the shockwave alone could cause significant damage to another aircraft. Hence the minimum separation rules."

"Sounds like mostly common sense," Ianthe noted.

"Generally it is. You'll see that there are areas where flight operations need to be carefully controlled and monitored, the most important ones being where aircraft are taking off and landing. Lots of vehicles close to each other and the ground, which is a prime area for something going wrong. So, airports, helipads like on the roof of Brockton General for example, the Rig, all those places have strict rules covering flight close to them. The Rig airspace only extends out to a quarter mile in all directions, as does the hospital, because they're not heavily used and it's entirely vertical take off craft that use them, like helicopters, or PRT transports. Plus we have a lot of flying Parahumans coming and going so we're used to it on the Rig."

 _ **"Airports would need more space?"**_ Cloak asked.

"Exactly. Something like a 747 doesn't turn or slow down nearly as fast as Saurial could. Controlled airspace around airports varies from a couple of miles to over fifteen miles radius, depending on size, type of aircraft, and amount of use. Boston Logan airport airspace control would get very annoyed if you, or I for that matter, flew closer than five miles without clearing it with them well in advance. If you're under five hundred feet the rules are different because you're below normal air traffic. That's the zone Kid Win operates in, for example, most of the time, at least partly due to it making his life easier from a regulatory viewpoint."

Paul watched as Saurial flipped through the entire booklet, wondering if she had an eidetic memory in the same manner Hannah did. He got the impression she was doing more than just skimming it. "Thanks for this," she said when she closed it. "I'll read it carefully and stick to it."

"Thank you." He smiled. "I don't want to be the cause of you not having fun flying, but I also want to make sure nothing untoward happens. No one wants to see what a hypersonic lizard-girl does to an airliner, except in the most theoretical of ways."

She started laughing, shaking her head with good humor. "No," she replied, "I can't see that helping the reputation of the Family at all. I won't fly through any aircraft."

"Probably for the best." He grinned at her, before sipping some more coffee.

"Anything specific about the transponders we need to know?" Metis asked, putting the thick manual down and picking up the one that Saurial had been looking at.

"Nothing particularly difficult. They take standard batteries and run for about six months of operation. You just need to work out the best place to attach them. Most Parahumans who use them wear them like a watch." He showed her the one on his wrist. "But it's not necessary, just convenient. You can turn them off, of course, for security reasons, but I'd suggest that in normal operation you don't. Certainly not when you're over land, around cities and the like, just so other people can tell you're there and get out of the way. When you're in international airspace they're not strictly required but they do make life easier if you run into someone's military."

Smiling, he added, "At the speeds you were going, people might jump to conclusions."

"I'm still curious to find out how fast I can go if I really pour on the power," Saurial chuckled.

He stared for a moment. "You weren't going flat out?"

"No… not really. I had a lot left in the tanks even with that first design," she remarked. "I wasn't joking about orbital insertion."

"Oh, god," he muttered. "He was right."

"Hmm?"

"Armsmaster," he said more loudly at her look of interest. "He was of the opinion that we hadn't seen you at maximum performance and that you could probably go orbital if you wanted to. Not everyone was convinced."

The girl shrugged. "I haven't tried it, obviously, but I can't see any reason for it not working. No fuel limitations, and for all intents and purposes no thrust limitations. Even with the water rocket, orbit should be easily possible."

"Amazing. What about air? And re-entry temperatures?"

"What about them?" she smirked.

Paul studied her, then shook his head slowly. "I should be past being surprised with you people by now," he sighed, "but somehow I'm not."

Saurial laughed a little, smiling less smugly at him. "We do tend to have that affect on humans for some odd reason. Sorry, I'll try not to worry you too much." She looked slyly at Ianthe. "Although Kaiju was wondering about how well it would scale up..."

He blanched at the thought.

"Please, I beg you, if you actually do that, do it somewhere a long way away?" he said quietly. "For me?"

"Sure, Legend," she said happily. "No problem. We all like you and don't want to worry you." The reptilian cape paused, then grinned evilly. "Too much..."

Cloak started giggling, a weird hissing sound like a happy tea kettle, which made him unconsciously step away. This in turn seemed to amuse her further.

"I see," he said dryly. "I will bear that in mind."

The end of Saurial's tail was twitching around, while she grinned. "I need to get some proper flight instrumentation as well," she said. "We worked out how high and fast I was after the fact from the camera recordings, but it would be useful to have a live feed. I think I need to talk to Dragon, she could probably point me in the right direction."

"That would be a good idea," he replied. "Dragon is an expert in flight systems. She designed these transponders, for one thing. I'll mention it to her."

"Thank you."

Finishing his coffee, he put the mug down. "I'll have to go, I have other people to see and quite a lot of work to do, but it was nice seeing you all. And meeting you, Cloak."

 _ **"Likewise,"**_ Cloak replied.

Turning to go, he paused, then turned back. "Out of interest, have you decided what you're going to do about the potential Merchant problem?" he asked slowly. They exchanged a look then Saurial sighed a little.

"We're still working on that," she said. "We've been keeping them under surveillance and taking preventative steps. You probably noticed the new fence?"

He nodded. "Yes, I noticed on the way in that it was different to last time."

"There's a nasty surprise between the two fences for any intruders," Metis commented. "Not impossible to get past but no one is likely to just come charging in. We were thinking of the various things that they've been known to use in the past, such as vehicles from Squealer, and attacks by a large number of them pouring over the boundary. This should stop that particular problem."

"We're working on other things as well," Ianthe added. "We're doing what we can to make it as non-lethal as possible, but..."

"You'll do whatever necessary to protect your people," he finished for her. "I understand. And agree, personally, even though I can't officially say that as Protectorate policy. My family is very important to me as well."

They shared an understanding look. "If it comes to it, try to keep the damage and casualties to a minimum," he requested quietly.

"We will. None of us want to hurt anyone," Saurial replied, in a subdued manner, sitting down in a chair. She studied him for a while. "You have to realize, the biggest problem is trying to work out how _not_ to kill them all. We don't _want_ to be like that, we rather resent being pushed into it in the first place. All of us would rather live our lives as peacefully as possible and try to help out. But some people apparently can't leave well enough alone."

Metis gave him a sober look. "There's a human saying along the lines of ' _Don't poke a sleeping dragon..._ '"

He nodded, knowing what she was saying.

"Trust me, a sleeping dragon would be _nothing_ compared to someone poking big brother," Saurial added. "Harming family or friends is a _really_ big poke." There was something in her voice that made him shiver despite himself.

"It's best if that never happens." She shrugged. "If we have to wipe out some of the Merchants in a fairly dramatic fashion to make sure the lesson sticks, we will. Threatening dire consequences is futile if you're not prepared to carry those threats out."

Glowing eyes from three faces met his. "We are."

Swallowing a little, he replied, "I believe you. Although I also hope it doesn't come to that."

After a moment's thought, he continued, "I should not say this, and I hope you don't mention it to anyone else, but if I was in your position, I believe I would probably do unto the enemy before they did unto me, if you understand my position. It might allow for a less… bloody… outcome."

"We've considered the thought," Saurial replied, looking at him closely. "We even mentioned it to Director Piggot. But we need to think more about it. I'm somewhat surprised you of all people would say it, though."

He smiled at her mischievously. "I'm a good guy, I like to think, and I do my best to uphold the ideals I would like others to uphold. But I'm also not stupid. Sometimes, one needs to slightly alter one's outlook, to prevent something forcing a much bigger change on you."

All three reptiles laughed. "I understand," Saurial replied. "Let's see how it goes. We're still gathering information."

"All right. If you need help, you know where to get me."

"We'll bear that in mind," she smiled.

"With that, I must leave. I expect we'll see each other again soon." He headed to the door, Metis coming with him and letting him out.

Outside, he looked up at the sign and the slogan on it, shivered again, very slightly, and shot into the air, heading for his next appointment.

* * *

Sherrel…

' _No. **Linda**. That's my name now, Sherrel is gone, _**_whatever_** _happens_ ,' she thought.

 _Linda_ looked around the room Danny Hebert had shown her to, then wandered over to the nearest bed and dropped the clothes that Saurial had mysteriously pulled out of nowhere for her onto it, before flopping down next to them with a groan. She closed her eyes and tried to still her whirling thoughts, wondering what the hell was going to happen next, if she'd made the right decision, and if it wouldn't be quicker just to jump out the window.

After a little while, she decided that she hadn't come this far just to kill herself at this point, she'd definitely made the right and in fact only decision, and that the only way to find out what happened next was to wait and see. Rolling over, she stared at the ceiling for a moment, then sat up with another groan, pushing herself to her feet and staggering towards the shower. Seconds later she turned around, sighing, and retrieved a change of clothes and the towel that was on the bed next to the pillow before trying again. As she left the room, she wondered if she could borrow a lighter to burn her old clothes with.

When she came back a while later, she fell over onto the bed and was asleep before she stopped bouncing.

Later she'd realize it was the best and most untroubled sleep she'd had in years, and one of the longest.

* * *

"What are you doing with that?" Randall asked his friend, who was elbow-deep into one of his older inventions, a hologram projector they'd used on one memorable Halo-themed escapade a couple of years ago to produce a nice background setting in a mall downtown. "It smoked itself pretty effectively the last time you turned it on."

"I know," Kevin muttered, peering into the innards of the device with an evaluating expression. He mumbled to himself under his breath, then yelped when there was a sharp crackling noise, whipping his hand out from whatever he'd just touched and sticking his finger in his mouth. "Ow."

Randall snickered, making the other man glare at him over the abused digit. A different finger on the other hand made an appearance, which just caused him to laugh more. "Idiot."

"Why are you electrocuting yourself on a widget you can't fix in the first place?" Randall asked.

In answer Kevin poked a switch, grinning in a particularly evil manner when the room wavered and dissolved into a scene Randall recognized from innumerable runs through the video game in question. He gaped in astonishment. "Holy fuck. You fixed it!"

There was a sizzle and smoke drifted from the hologram unit, the projected image disappearing again. "Not quite. It keeps doing that," Kevin sighed, flipping the switch again. "I can't work out why yet."

"But… you've never been able to even do that much to one of your inventions when they fail. Normally if you try they just blow up, or melt, or disappear into the dungeon dimensions or something." Randall looked around in a slightly paranoid manner, just in case. He still remembered the last time…

"I've never seen you manage to get something working even that much before."

His friend shrugged, sitting on a stool next to the workbench. "True enough. But I had some _really_ weird dreams all last night." He propped his head on his hand, idly spinning a screwdriver through his fingers and staring at the projector. "I mean, totally fucked up, like I was on a particularly good hallucinogenic or something. I can't remember most of it, and I can't work out if that's good or bad. Some of it was… unpleasant… I think. I spent a lot of time arguing with a computer, I seem to vaguely recall, which was in a fucking terrible mood and kept trying to kill me. Then something huge with a big grin wandered in and talked to both of us for ages, we sort of made up, and agreed to try to work together and see what happened."

Randall stared at his old friend.

Kevin looked back at him, a quirky grin on his face. "I know how it sounds. It was a _very_ odd dream. I think there were some aliens involved somewhere, and a robot dragon, and something like a fox that was slowly turning into a lizard and kept giving me smug looks like it knew something I didn't. And that huge thing, which was fucking _enormous_ , like, planet sized. Oh, and three possessed crystal balls that spent a lot of time in the corner trying to pretend they weren't there, even though everyone knew they were. One of them was writing a note to someone asking for help and kept asking me how you spelled ' _involuntary_ ' for some reason."

"Did you get into the good liquor again?" Randall asked suspiciously.

The other man sighed loudly. "No. But I almost wish I had. It was fucking weird. I woke up with a _massive_ headache and some very strange emotions that I still can't work out. I thought Amy's symbiote was supposed to stop things like headaches and so on."

"I feel really good, myself," Randall said, still amazed at what they'd had done to them.

"So do I, now," Kevin replied. "Physically at least. But I'm very puzzled about what's going on. I'm wondering if this is what the girls were looking for, in their mystery experiment."

They exchanged a look, then both of them examined the still slightly smoking hologram unit. "You think they've somehow… fixed your power? Or something like that?"

Kevin shrugged, reaching out and poking the unit with a finger to check the temperature of the circuitry. "I… don't know. I just had this sudden urge out of nowhere to see if I could repair this damn thing. I was reluctant to even try because of what normally happens, but a little voice in the back of my head was whispering, ' _try it…_ ,' so in the end I did. The results weren't either what I wanted or what I expected, sort of partway between them."

He picked the now-cool device up and turned it over in his hands, studying it. "The little voice is sort of muttering to itself now, like it can't work out what to do next. Weirdest thing I've ever experienced."

"Could you make another one?"

Randall watched his friend think hard. "I… don't think so. Something tells me that's not possible, but I don't know why." Kevin glanced at him, then went back to playing with the damaged projector. "We've always known that seemed to be the limitation I have for whatever reason. That hasn't changed. But I've got this growing feeling that something else _has_ changed, and is still changing." He put the unit back on his workbench and looked around the room, which was piled with stacks of mostly non-functional previous inventions. "I look at all those and now, instead of thinking, ' _scrap I can only sell for parts_ ', I think, ' _hmm, that looks like it might be fixable, maybe_.'

He turned back to his best friend, his expression a weird combination of worry, desperate hope, and wonder. "Can you imagine what it would mean if I could repair even a small fraction of all this stuff? Even if it was only to let Dragon see if she could duplicate it… Game changing, man."

Randall nodded slowly, thinking about all the cool toys the other man had come up with over the years. His mouth widened in a smile that could only be termed _worrying_ to anyone who saw it.

"Just… Wow." He grinned at Kevin. "I need to see if I can figure out if anything has changed with me."

"No weird dreams and angry computers?"

"Nope. Slept like a baby."

"You mean, screamed all night and crapped yourself?" Kevin smirked.

Giving him a long-suffering look, Randall sighed. "You know what I meant. Get back to fixing your widget, I need to experiment. This is so cool."

They shared a grin, then both went back to seeing what, if anything, had changed as a result of Amy Dallon's interfering in the nature of things.

* * *

"This was fun," Missy giggled, her hood down and her ' _Cloak_ ' voice off. She was only wearing her backup domino mask, over street clothes, the cloak itself hung over a chair. "I'm glad I stopped by. Thanks for teaching me some more of that math."

"You're welcome," Saurial told her. "I enjoyed it as much as you did." The lizard-girl put her feet up on the table and reclined back in her chair, looking comfortable. "This has been a long but rewarding day. And I got to fly."

"I still can't believe you can go that high and that fast just using _water!_ " the blonde girl said with admiration. She grinned after a moment. "I bet Kid Win is green with envy about now. He's fascinated by all the things you guys do, but he's not allowed to come and talk about them."

"Just like you aren't, right?" Metis chuckled, handing her a can of Sprite.

"Yep. Just like that." Missy looked around the room, then popped the tab. "Remember, I'm not really here." She smirked as the others laughed.

"Our mouths are zipped," Saurial smiled. "What happens in BBFO..."

"Stays in BBFO," Missy finished for her, getting a nod in return. "Fine by me. I'm having a hell of a lot of fun and learning more than I thought I could. And, what the Director doesn't know, won't come back and bite me in the ass."

Ianthe was sitting on her tail next to her, apparently thinking about something. After a moment, she turned to Saurial and Metis and had a conversation with them in their weird Family language, which Missy listened to with interest, wondering if she could learn it. They seemed to be having a mild argument, Metis nodding, while Saurial was looking somewhat dubious. Ianthe pointed at her, the other two looking at each other, then appearing intrigued.

More hissing alien words were exchanged. Saurial looked very thoughtful, nodding a little as Ianthe spoke. Eventually, they all looked back to Missy, who was now feeling slightly nervous and very curious.

"How would you like to meet Kaiju?" Saurial said in English, her voice sounding like she was trying not to chuckle.

Missy's eyes widened enormously.

"Really?" she gasped. "Where?"

"Right out there," the reptile smiled, waving at the back door. "I can get her here pretty fast. It will, however, mean that we have to show you a Family secret. One we don't want too many people learning about right now, because it might make them even more worried about us."

"' _People_ ' meaning the PRT," Metis put in.

Missy looked at them suspiciously. "What secret?"

"It's a secret. Will you keep it?"

"Will it hurt anyone?" she asked after some careful thought.

"No. It's just not something we want to give away. We have lots of secrets, we don't tell everyone everything, that's just silly. But… this one is very useful and we'll need it." Saurial smiled widely. "Ianthe came up with a neat idea that we could use your help for, and Kaiju. It would probably cause the Merchants some severe trouble without actually harming any of them."

"Although it's going to make Skidmark _really_ annoyed," Ianthe giggled.

She thought some more, then grinned at her friends. "OK. I won't tell anyone. I promise. I owe you guys too much and you know all sorts of things about me I know you won't tell, so fair's fair. And I hate that smelly drug dealer anyway. I'm in."

"Excellent," Saurial hissed, rubbing her hands together. She hopped to her feet and headed to the back door.

"What's the secret?" Missy called, watching her. The lizard looked back over her shoulder, winked, and vanished.

The girl gaped in stunned amazement. She looked wildly around, then stared at Metis and Ianthe, who were snickering at her expression. "She can do it as well?" she asked in astonishment. "Stranger rating too? How many powers do you guys actually _have?_ "

Metis leaned forward, looking sly. "All of them," she whispered in a deep voice.

Straightening up, she grinned. "Well, not all of them, really, but quite a few. We're very versatile."

"I can see why you don't want the Director finding out," Missy finally said with a shake of her head, her own grin forming. "Scary lizards all over the place are bad enough as far as she's concerned. Scary _invisible_ lizards would make her head explode."

They all laughed at her comment. "Probably. We don't want that, so no talking, OK?"

Missy mimed zipping her lips.

"Good enough. OK, this is the plan," the black lizard said. "Listen very carefully..."

* * *

Lee grumbled to himself, wincing in pain as he moved his arm a little too fast as he used the other hand to swing the door of the large safe shut, then spin the wheel. He'd put the latest stack of cash away to await Skidmark's return, all the various dealers having ponied up their takings. The enormous steel safe, an eight foot cube, was firmly bolted to the floor in his leader's room, in the middle of the building. It had to have been a huge effort to get it in here, but it predated his own induction into the Merchants.

Aside from Skidmark and Mush, he was the only other person with the combination, and even that had come along with dire warnings about what would happen if anyone found out. His boss didn't actually trust him very much, but he trusted him slightly more than he trusted anyone else, even his girlfriend.

"Bitch," he mumbled, his arm throbbing. The gang had a couple of members who had some medical training, which had been sufficient to get his wrist splinted and bound, but they'd done a fairly ugly job.

At least they had copious access to some very powerful painkillers. Otherwise he'd have been in agony. As it was, he was merely in pain, and extremely pissed with Squealer. Wherever she'd run off to.

"Skids is going to find her and kill the bitch when he's finished with the Family and the DWU," he grumbled, stomping over to the other side of the room and sitting on a chair, awkwardly pulling out his drug kit with his one good hand. "I hope he lets me watch."

He'd just finished preparing his next hit when the doorway to the room underwent the most extraordinary transformation, warping and twisting in a way that made his eyes ache. Lee gaped as the partly open door turned into a hole in the world a dozen or more feet across, leading impossibly through the interior of the building and out into the night, the bay just visible at the end of the tunnel. He could see other doorways opening off the tunnel, ones he knew full well were _not_ in any way in a straight line between where he was and the outside.

Not to mention that there weren't any openings to the outside on the water-facing part of the building anyway, all the windows having been blocked off years ago. At best there might be small gaps you could just about get a finger through, not something big enough to drive a fucking _truck_ into.

Or, for that matter, the absolutely vast dark blue-black scaled arm that suddenly came into the room. He dived back off his chair with a choked scream of total terror, staring as the enormous taloned hand on the end of the arm wrapped around the safe like someone picking up a can of beer, then yanked.

A loud crunching sound heralded the safe ripping loose from the concrete without any apparent effort, the arm, hand, and safe all retreating down the tunnel through the building before he could do more than squeak in horrified shock. Seconds later the doorway was back to normal with no sign that anything had happened.

Struggling painfully to his feet, his eyes fixed on where the safe, and close to seven hundred grand in small bills, had been moments before, Lee staggered over and gaped at the hole in the floor. Shouts of alarm were coming from all through the building, but he ignored them completely.

The only thing he could think was, ' _He's going to kill_ ** _me_** _too. Very slowly..._ '

* * *

Climbing into bed, Missy turned the light off, then rolled onto her side, smiling to herself.

Today had been a _good_ day.

' _I had fun, learned some cool new tricks, got to meet Kaiju, and screwed up the Merchants,_ ' she thought happily. ' ** _And_** _made Legend look worried_.'

The memory of standing on the shoulder of the biggest living thing that she'd ever seen was one that would stay with her for the rest of her life. The way that no one else could see either of them was amazing as well.

Warping all the walls and other obstructions out of the way so that Kaiju could simply reach into the building and steal the Merchant's safe was not only surprisingly easy now, but hysterically funny to see. She'd realized that the giant lizard had deliberately made her arm visible for just long enough to let the gang know who had done it, basically to make a point.

Missy doubted that most of them were smart enough or sober enough to understand that point, though.

' _We can get you anywhere, any time_ ,' she thought in amusement, her eyes closing. ' _Next time it might not just be your money_.'

That was Ianthe's plan, and she personally thought it was pretty cool. It might even work.

' _Probably not. No one ever said Skidmark was the sort of guy to learn quickly_ ,' she mused. ' _Oh, well. Just have to see what happens next. But that was really funny_.'

Still smiling, she fell asleep, visions of multi-dimensional equations going through her head and giving her new ideas to try.


	198. Omake - MSDS

_OSHA regulations forced me to do this, obviously..._

 _(Unfortunately the formatting gets screwed up, so this doesn't look quite right. Blame FF :) )_

* * *

 **Brockton Bay Family Operations, LLC**  
Date of issue: 04/01/2011 Revision Date: 04/01/2011 Version: 1.0a

 **MATERIAL SAFETY DATA SHEET**

 **SECTION 1: Identification**

* * *

 **1.1. Identification**

Product form: Substance  
Substance name: Stabilized Electron Degenerate Matter  
CAS #: 3141592-666-01  
Product code: FT00001  
Formula: Not applicable  
Synonyms: EDM, SEDM, SaurialSteel®

 **1.2. Relevant identified uses of the substance or mixture and uses advised against**

Use of the substance : Industrial, scientific, and medical  
Recommended use : Tools, construction, medical implants  
Restrictions on use: Not a food product. Can cause crush and cut injuries if mishandled

 **1.3. Details of the supplier of the safety data sheet**

BBFO, LLC  
Building 12D East, Access Road #2,  
Brockton Bay Dockworkers Union,  
1337 Marine Way, Brockton Bay, MA 01952

T: (555) 3537 4824  
E: sales

 **1.4. Emergency Telephone Number**

Emergency Number: BBFO: (555) 3825 4357

 **SECTION 2: Hazard(s) Identification**

* * *

 **2.1. Classification of the substance or mixture**

GHS-US classification: Not classified

 **2.2. Label Elements**

Not classified as a hazardous chemical

 **2.3. Other hazards**

None

 **2.4. Unknown acute toxicity (GHS-US)**

Not applicable

 **SECTION 3: Composition/Information on ingredients**

* * *

 **3.1. Substances**

Substance type: Mono-constituent  
Name: Electron Degenerate Matter (stabilized)  
Product identifier : 3141592-666-01  
Percentage: 100  
GHS-US classification: Not classified

Full text of hazard classes and H-statements: see section 16

 **3.2. Mixtures**

Not applicable

 **SECTION 4: First aid measures**

* * *

 **4.1. Description of first aid measures**

First-aid measures general: If you feel unwell, seek medical advice (show the label where possible)  
First-aid measures after inhalation: Allow victim to breathe fresh air. Allow the victim to rest. Adverse effects not expected from this product.  
First-aid measures after skin contact: Application velocity and physical form dependent. Seek medical advice if trauma suffered.  
First-aid measures after eye contact: Remove from eye. Seek medical advice if trauma suffered.  
First-aid measures after ingestion: Wait. Minor discomfort may occur in six to 12 hours. Long term adverse effects not expected from this product.

 **4.2. Most important symptoms and effects, both acute and delayed**

Symptoms/injuries: Not expected to present a significant hazard to user under anticipated conditions of normal use. Hazards to surroundings and bystanders dependent on use scenario.

 **4.3. Indication of any immediate medical attention and special treatment needed**

Treat symptomatically. Parahuman healing suggested for extreme or high energy interactions with product.

 **SECTION 5: Firefighting measures**

* * *

 **4.1. Extinguishing media**

Suitable extinguishing media : Not applicable. Product totally noncombustible.

 **4.2. Special hazards arising from the substance or mixture**

Thermal superconductor.

 **4.3. Advice for firefighters**

Firefighting instructions: Burn hazard if any part of product exposed to dangerous temperatures. Remove from fire and allow to cool. Use suitable handling equipment rated for temperatures encountered.  
Protection during firefighting: Do not enter fire area without proper protective equipment, including respiratory protection.

 **SECTION 6: Accidental release measures**

* * *

 **6.1. Personal precautions, protective equipment and emergency procedures**

Product density high to extreme. Crush hazard, wear protective footwear. Product can form subatomically sharp edges. Do not allow anything to come into contact with such edges. No protective equipment not manufactured from product suitable for use when handling product with subatomic edges.

 **6.2. Environmental precautions**

Product totally inert. No special precautions required for low density form.  
High density form will sink into ground due to extreme mass. Risk of minor localized earth tremors, planetary annihilation, extinction-level event. Notify authorities if quantities 10cm3 enters environment.

 **6.3. Methods and material for containment and cleaning up**

Low density form: Pick up.  
High density form: Fill cavity in ground, contact authorities and BBFO, LLC.

 **6.4. Reference to other sections**

See section 8, Exposure controls and personal protection.

 **SECTION 7: Handling and storage**

* * *

 **7.1. Precautions for safe handling**

Precautions for safe handling: Do not touch sharp edges. Do not drop on foot. Virtually frictionless surface, may present slip hazard.

 **7.2. Conditions for safe storage**

Storage conditions: Store out of reach of children.  
Incompatible products: None  
Incompatible materials: None

 **SECTION 8: Exposure controls/personal protection**

* * *

 **8.1. Control parameters**

No additional information available

 **8.2. Exposure controls**

Appropriate engineering controls: Provide adequate general ventilation  
Personal protective equipment: Gloves. Armored footwear.  
Hand protection: EDM mesh gloves if handling sharp edges  
Eye protection: Do not insert into eye  
Respiratory protection: None necessary  
Other information : Do not touch sharp edges without suitable protection. Do not apply internally without medical advice. Do not allow high mass of product to fall on personnel. Do not allow to fall to center of planet.

 **SECTION 9: Physical and chemical properties**

* * *

 **9.1. Information on basic physical and chemical properties**

Physical state: Solid  
Color: Metallic gray  
Odor: None  
pH: None  
Melting point : Not applicable under non-stellar conditions  
Freezing point: No data available  
Boiling point: None  
Flash point: None  
Relative evaporation rate (butyl acetate=1): 0  
Flammability: Non flammable  
Vapor pressure: 0.00 mmHg  
Vapor pressure 50 °C: 0.00 mmHg  
Relative density: 71.6 (low mass)  
: 100293423.2 (high mass)  
Molecular mass: Not generally applicable  
Solubility: Insoluble in any solvent  
Decomposition temperature: No data available  
Young's modulus: ∞  
Explosive properties: None  
Oxidizing properties: None  
Reducing properties: None

 **9.2. Other information**

No additional information available

 **SECTION 10: Stability and reactivity**

* * *

 **10.1. Reactivity**

Non reactive

 **10.2. Chemical stability**

Unconditionally stable

 **10.3. Possibility of hazardous reactions**

None

 **10.4. Conditions to avoid**

None

 **10.5. Incompatible materials**

None

 **10.6. Hazardous decomposition products**

None

 **SECTION 11: Toxicological information**

* * *

 **11.1. Information on toxicological effects**

Likely routes of exposure: Skin and eye contact  
Acute toxicity: Not classified  
LD50 oral rat1000000 mg/kg  
ATE US (oral)1000000.000 mg/kg body weight  
Skin corrosion/irritation: Not classified  
Serious eye damage/irritation: Not classified  
Respiratory or skin sensitization: Not classified  
Germ cell mutagenicity: Not classified  
Carcinogenicity: Not classified  
(Based on available data, the classification criteria are not met)  
Reproductive toxicity : Not classified  
Specific target organ toxicity  
Single exposure: Not classified  
Repeated exposure: Not classified  
Aspiration hazard : Not classified  
Potential Adverse human health  
effects and symptoms : Totally chemically inert. Biocompatibility level 7, Panacea standard code.

 **SECTION 12: Ecological information**

* * *

 **12.1. Toxicity**

No additional information available.

 **12.2. Persistence and degradability**

Persistence : Variable up to ∞ and beyond  
Degradability: None

 **12.3. Bioaccumulative potential**

None

 **12.4. Mobility in soil**

Vertical

 **12.5. Other adverse affects**

No other effects known.

 **SECTION 13: Disposal considerations**

* * *

 **13.1. Disposal methods**

Contact manufacturers for disposal. No other methods possible.

 **SECTION 14: Transport information**

* * *

 **Department of Transportation.**

In accordance with DOT  
Not regulated

 **SECTION 15: Regulatory information**

* * *

 **15.1. US Federal regulations**

 **Electron Degenerate Matter (3141592-666-01)**

Listed on the United States TiSCA (Tinker Substances Control Act) inventory

All components of this product are listed, or excluded from listing, on the United States Environmental Protection Agency Tinker Substances Control Act (TiSCA) inventory

This product or mixture does not contain a toxic chemical or chemicals in excess of the applicable de minimis concentration as specified in 40 CFR §372.38(a) subject to the reporting requirements of section 313 of Title III of the Superfund Amendments and Reauthorization Act of 1986 and 40 CFR Part 372.

 **15.2. International regulations**

CANADA

 **Electron Degenerate Matter (3141592-666-01)**

WHMIS Classification Uncontrolled product according to WHMIS classification criteria

 **EU Regulations**

No additional information available

 **National regulations**

No additional information available

 **Cross-Universal regulations**

No additional information available

 **15.3. US State regulations**

California Proposition 65 – This product does not contain any substances known to the state of California to cause cancer, developmental and/or reproductive harm

 **SECTION 16: Other information**

* * *

Revision date: 04/01/2011  
Other information: None.  
NFPA health hazard: 0 - Materials that, under emergency conditions, would offer no hazard beyond that of ordinary combustible materials.  
NFPA fire hazard: 0 – Materials that will not burn under typical dire conditions, including intrinsically noncombustible materials such as concrete, stone, and sand.  
NFPA reactivity: 0 - Material that in themselves are normally stable, even under fire conditions.

 **HMIS III Rating**

Health: 0 Minimal Hazard – No significant risk to health  
Flammability: 0 Minimal Hazard – Materials that will not burn  
Physical: 0 Minimal Hazard – Materials that are normally stable, even under fire conditions, and will NOT react with water, polymerize, decompose, condense, or self-react. Non-Explosives.  
Personal protection: A

 **SDS US BBFO, LLC**

 _Information in this SDS is from available published sources and is believed to be accurate. No warranty, express or implied, is made and BBFO, LLC assumes no liability resulting from the use of this SDS. The user must determine suitability of this information for their application._


	199. Safe and Rep

**Sunday, February 27, 2011**

Reaching over to the side table next to his chair, Danny picked up his phone as it rattled around on the wooden surface, making a determined bid to escape. He muted the morning news with the other hand via the remote, before hitting the call accept button after a look at the display. "Hello, Roy," he said. "Pretty early in the morning. Is anything wrong?"

" _No, nothing like that, Danny_ ," the Mayor's voice said calmly. " _I was just phoning to see if you were still interested in coming for a meal at my house with your daughter. We spoke about it a while ago, but we were both busy. Now things seem to be running smoothly, I thought I'd check with you._ "

"Oh, I see," Danny replied, smiling a little to himself. "I've got no objections to that myself. Actually, I was planning on calling you about it yesterday, but circumstances rather got ahead of me. When were you thinking about this happening?"

" _Well, the next free evening I have is on Wednesday,_ " Roy said. Danny could hear pages turning, probably some sort of calendar. " _Would that suit you? Around seven PM?_ "

He thought for a moment, then replied, "I think that would be fine. Let me just check to make sure Taylor doesn't have any plans."

" _Sure, Danny._ "

Covering the microphone with his thumb, he looked over at the doorway where the young woman in question had made an appearance as he was talking, the girl leaning on the doorway and watching him, her tail tip flicking around and showing her good spirits. "Well?"

"Seven on Wednesday would be fine, Dad."

"Not many secrets from Varga hearing, is there?"

"Not really," she giggled.

Removing his thumb, smiling again, he said, "Taylor's fine with that too, Roy. Seven PM on the second."

" _Great. I'll let Barb know_." Roy sounded pleased.

"Will anyone else be there?"

" _My son Rory will be home, he's away a lot of the time with his job. I was also toying with the idea of inviting Amy and Vicky Dallon, to thank both of them for their help in the entire project. I'd like to invite their entire family but my dining room isn't large enough._ "

Danny chuckled. "I'm sure both young women would be happy to accept the invitation. Would you like me to ask Taylor to ask them for you?" He glanced at his daughter who nodded.

" _Thank you, but I think I should call their house myself. Politics, you understand_."

"I do."

" _My sister and my niece will be there as well, she expressed an interest in meeting both of you. Although she did mention that she'd met Taylor once before, briefly. Something about a handbag?_ "

Danny looked at Taylor, mildly puzzled, to see her grinning. She shrugged slightly.

"I'm afraid I don't know the details to that story, Roy," he laughed. "Although I should find out. OK, that all sounds very nice. We'll see you then."

" _Wonderful_." The other man paused, then asked, " _Everything still going well at the Yard? I heard there has been some… potential unpleasantness… with the Merchants._ "

Now he sounded a little worried.

"Nothing too bad, yet anyway, but we've had a few reports about that pain Skidmark making a larger fool of himself than usual, apparently he's rather incensed about the current situation. Not entirely surprising, but annoying. We're taking precautions and the Family have been installing some anti-Merchant security systems."

" _All right. If you need anything I can provide, let me know. That man is a damn nuisance on a good day, I hate to consider what he could get up to with some time to think. If you call what he does '_ ** _thinking_** _', that is._ "

"It's a little worrying, I admit, but I have confidence in our people. I think we can probably deal with it, one way or another. Although I hope it doesn't come to that."

" _You're not the only one_." Roy sighed. " _I suppose it was pretty much inevitable that they'd stick their noses in sooner or later._ "

"Pretty much, I'd have to agree. But there isn't a huge amount we can do about it right this instant."

" _No. Oh well. Keep me informed, whatever happens._ "

"Sure, no problem."

" _In that case, I'll let you get back to your Sunday. Nice to talk, Danny._ "

"Likewise, Roy. See you on Wednesday."

The other end went quiet, so he put the phone back down and turned to Taylor, who was now sitting on the sofa. She had a definite smirk on her face.

Staring suspiciously at her, he slowly asked, "What did you do?"

"Do?"

"You're looking like Lisa after a particularly cunning plan has struck her. I know that look already, even after only a few weeks. And it's catching, clearly. Spill it." He stared hard at her, one eyebrow up.

She cackled with amusement, flopping back onto the sofa and putting her feet and tail over the other end. "We ran a little hit and run mission against the Merchants last night. Amy's idea, actually. With some help from our cloaked friend and a very large hand."

He put his hand over his eyes. "Oh, god, I can feel the migraine starting."

"No, you can't, you don't get them. And couldn't, now, anyway."

Moving his fingers apart he gave her smiling face another hard look, then sighed once more, lowering his hand. "Fine, spoil a perfectly good melodramatic moment."

She giggled.

"So what did you do?"

"Made a withdrawal from a Merchant Bank," his daughter said cryptically, grinning a reptilian grin in which he could see Varga coming through very strongly.

Thinking hard, he finally worked it out, his eyes widening a little. "You stole Skidmark's money?"

"Got it in one."

"How much of it?"

"All of it, I think," she laughed. "Lisa says it's the whole stash."

"How the hell much was _that?_ " He gaped at her.

"Seven hundred and eighteen thousand, six hundred and thirty nine dollars," she replied in triumphant tones. "And fifty-two cents. Mostly in small bills."

"Holy crap." Danny stared in shock. "That must have been an _enormous_ pile of cash."

"It came neatly packaged in a safe," she told him, looking very pleased with herself. "Speaking of which, do you want a safe? One careless owner, the door is a little bent but I can fix that."

"You… took the entire safe?" he mumbled, shaking his head.

"Of course, it was much easier to carry like that," Taylor told him earnestly, the corners of her mouth twitching. "Someone had stuck it to the floor which was a bit annoying, but I only pulled a little and it came right out."

"I suppose you just stuck your hand through the wall?"

She shook her head, looking very pleased with herself. "Nope. Didn't need to, and it might have hurt someone. Cloak just sort of… _moved_ … everything out of the way. Stuck my hand in, grabbed it, and pulled. Took about six seconds in all. We were half-way back to the office before they started yelling."

Danny shook his head in admiration and resignation. "Christ. You and your friends are a force to be reckoned with. Heaven help us if you ever turn to crime." Thinking about the story, he shrugged, smiling a little. "An elegantly simple if ridiculously bizarre accomplishment. I suppose that depriving him of his operating capital is an entirely valid approach to the problem."

"Lisa thought so, she predicted that probably thirty to thirty-five percent of his gang will probably quietly disappear as a result. Some of them because there's no money left, some because we proved we can attack them right in the middle of their base without being stopped, with all that implies, and some because we'll have scared the shit out of them." Taylor sat up again. "It seemed like it was worth a try, and no one got hurt. I really don't want to have to do anything serious, even to Merchants."

He nodded slowly, watching her. "I can understand that, and I'm glad you still feel that way. It's a terrible thing to take a life, and should never be done if there are alternatives. But..." He sighed. "Sometimes there aren't. I hope it doesn't come to that, though."

"Me too," she replied quietly. "But if it does, I'll do what needs to be done."

"Heberts tend to, eventually," he told her with a somewhat proud look. "Although in some cases we need too much pushing and let things get very bad before we do it."

"We both made mistakes," his daughter muttered. "Not going to happen like that again."

"Don't overreact in the other direction, though."

She nodded, looking mildly depressed for a moment. "Keep me honest, Dad," she finally said.

"I will, dear. As much as I can." He smiled at her. "What are you going to do with the money?"

"We counted it, bundled it up, and stashed it with Lisa's team's take. We've got over a million and a half dollars on top of Amy's workroom now," Taylor grinned, snapping out of the momentary dark place she'd been. "Plenty to pay for both Rachel's legal case and helping… Linda."

"Our latest guest. Yes." Danny got up and headed into the kitchen, putting the kettle on, while Taylor followed him. "That was somewhat unexpected, I have to admit."

"Even Lisa was a little surprised about how quickly things changed," the girl said, retrieving a bottle of orange juice from the fridge, pouring herself a glass full, then returning it. Sitting on her tail at the table, she watched him preparing some coffee. "But I think it will work out. Might take some careful work, though. And it depends on what she wants to do, of course."

"What does Lisa think?"

He poured the coffee into his cup, added milk, then sat opposite her.

Taylor looked thoughtful. "She says it's a little difficult to say for sure since Linda herself doesn't know yet, but she thinks it's most likely that she'll end up wanting to stick around. Amy's plan is probably going to be the one we use, one way or another."

"Hmm." He sipped the drink, then put the cup down. "It will take some very delicate work to make everything line up with a new identity, but it's doable, definitely. I know some people..."

She grinned at him, in a rather admiring manner. "I'll bet you do. I've learned a lot about… ' _The Boss_ '… recently. Things neither you or Mom ever mentioned to me." Cocking her head to the side, she smirked as he sighed. "All sorts of things. There are reasons your gang respects you."

"Not a gang," he growled. "A union. And not mine."

The girl raised both eyebrows. "OK. Whatever you say, Dad."

Drinking her juice she hid a grin behind the glass as he rolled his eyes. "God, you're actually _worse_ than your mother, sometimes," he mumbled, although he couldn't help smiling slightly. "Go and play with your weird friends and let me enjoy a morning of peace and quiet _sans_ the unnatural and eldritch."

"As you command," she giggled, finishing the juice and getting up. Putting the glass in the sink, she bent down and put her arms around his neck for a moment in a quick hug, then headed for the door. "See you later."

"Later, dear." He listened to the back door close, feeling amused and oddly happy.

Sitting there for a few minutes, he drank the rest of his coffee while pondering the recent events, before getting up, washing the cup and Taylor's glass, then heading into his office to check his email.

One in particular made him stop for a long moment, then somewhat reluctantly click on it. Having read it, he stared blankly at the screen for some time before slowly beginning to type a reply.

* * *

Chris picked up his notebook again and leafed through it, puzzling out his own notes from the night before. He'd stayed up late scribbling down all manner of things resulting from his one-man brainstorming session provoked by seeing Saurial zooming around on her flying whatsit, drinking far more energy drinks than were probably good for him. Even when Dennis had turned up and tried to pull him into an online game against some guy called ' _Protomancer_ ' he apparently had a beef with, he'd kept working.

His friend's shouts of irritation as he was comprehensively slaughtered several times in a row barely disturbed him. Neither did the later exclamations of amusement as the other boy trolled PHO for a while. Eventually he went to bed, no one else turning up to bother him, which let him keep going.

Around four in the morning he finally staggered to his quarters, way too tired to go home, clutching the notebook in one hand and his head in the other. He was barely able to get undressed before he fell asleep. It proved beyond his ability to turn the light out first.

Waking to the itchy eyes and slightly sweaty skin of someone who'd stayed up way too late, he'd licked dry lips and stared at the light suspended above his bed for a while until his brain finally kicked in and admitted he was actually no longer sleeping. It had still taken another five minutes before he'd stopped yawning long enough to remember the notebook. Leaning over and scrabbling around on the floor he'd unearthed it under his shirt, grabbing it and beginning to read back the things he'd barely been able to remember writing in it.

Very slowly, a conclusion had begun to rise in him. In the end he'd had to stop, repressed excitement causing him to tremble.

Lying back he'd spent a few minutes breathing heavily with his eyes closed, until he'd calmed down, then went back to the book.

Now, reaching the end, he dropped it to the covers and put his hands over his eyes, pressing hard enough that he saw spots when he removed them. Shaking his head violently, he tried to force himself to full wakefulness.

It took some time, but eventually he felt able to sit up and swivel his legs around, putting his feet on the floor. Retrieving the book he turned to the last page he'd written in, read the last paragraph, then very carefully closed it again and put the thing reverently on his bedside table.

Breathing slowly and deeply, he counted to ten.

His yell of happy triumph woke Dennis in the next room, who complained bitterly, but it didn't change his smile.

He finally knew what his specialty was, and it was _glorious_.

' _I owe Saurial thanks_ ,' he thought with a broad grin. ' _Somehow, she set me on the right path. I'd never have worked it out otherwise_.'

Flopping back onto the bed he stared at the ceiling for a while, before jumping to his feet and rushing off to have a shower. He needed a change of clothes and breakfast, stat.

There was _Tinkering_ to be done...

* * *

Emily paged through the local PHO forum, looking for anything that might give early warning of events that she should be aware of. While most of it was wild speculation at best, there was often a nugget of truth lurking somewhere in the various threads discussing Parahuman activities. Occasionally this nugget was more accurate or timely than the PRT themselves could manage.

It still meant she had to put up with some right idiots, though.

Sighing at the most recent stupidity from a number of familiar names, one of which started with ' _Void_ ' and ended with ' _Cowboy_ ', she wondered if she could get away with tracking the idiot down and threatening him at gunpoint until he promised not to post any more.

Or perhaps just shooting him.

She suspected that most of the less crazy people on PHO at least would pay for her legal defense fund…

Shaking her head, she let the fantasy go and kept looking for anything useful, sipping a mug of tea with her free hand. She'd had a good breakfast and was feeling, for her, fairly mellow. After all, she'd only thought about shooting one person today and it was nearly ten AM.

A thread title caught her eye, making her tap it, then start reading. After a moment she looked more carefully, scrolling up to the beginning again and starting over, her tea forgotten in her hand. A couple of pages later, she sat back and thought, before producing a vicious grin.

' _Well done, you crazy lizards. I don't know how you did it, but damn that was_ ** _inspired_** _..._ '

She reread the entries, which discussed the rumor that the Merchants had very sadly tragically managed to lose their entire cash reserves to some mysterious giant hand that picked up their safe and absconded with it. She was totally certain this was the result of Kaiju doing a spot of asset confiscation, although how the vast lizard had pulled it off she had no idea. There were no reports anywhere else that anyone had seen anything, but several people who were obviously connected with the Merchants had basically confirmed it. Mostly by denying it in a very unconvincing manner.

They'd have done better to keep their mouths shut, in fact. A poster she'd come across several times before, who she suspected was actually a fairly powerful Thinker based on the insight their posts often brought to a discussion, had torn the statements to pieces and shown logically and clearly that the rumor was almost certainly true.

' _Whoever AllSeeingEye is, he or she is pretty good,'_ she mused. ' _I wonder if it's one of our guys? Whatever, if this really_ ** _is_** _true, it's going to fuck up Skidmark and his friends fairly seriously_.'

She thought some more, then grinned again, even more darkly than before. ' _Oh, dear, poor guy. I wonder if he managed to pay for whatever it is he's aiming for,_ ** _before_** _his safe got up and left the building..._ '

 _That_ thought had her chuckling for some time.

She was still snickering when she left her apartment to go to the office. It sounded like she needed to discuss this with Hannah, to see if they could capitalize on the situation.

* * *

Taylor unlocked the office door, slipping inside and closing it again. She was in the form of Raptaur this time, having decided she was in a slightly larger reptilian mood at the moment considering she'd spent a lot of the last couple of days as Saurial.

She thoroughly enjoyed that form, of course, but she also liked this one, and all her others as well. "We really need to bring some more relatives to the city soon," she said out loud to the Varga, smiling to herself.

" _I agree,_ " he replied, sounding thoughtful. " _Perhaps Umihebi should visit?_ "

Chuckling, she shook her head. "Probably not just yet. She's a little… large. Although I want to get out for a good fast swim soon, we haven't done that for a while."

" _If you think Umihebi is a bit big, that wildly excessive dragon you showed Amy and Lisa yesterday is possibly over the top,_ " he laughed. _"Even to me, that seems impressive._ "

"Feasible?"

" _Oh, most certainly. It's entirely possible, but I think we would need to practice somewhere a very long way from any people. We already attract a certain amount of puzzled attention, so I suspect that a flying reptile large enough to double as a protective shield for a significant proportion of the city would be looked on with some confusion._ "

"I can't argue with that," she snickered. "We really have to try a smaller one, though. I'm sure it would work after all the designing you did. Maybe even Kevin's one, although it's not the most aerodynamic form."

" _Personally I rather liked that night fury dragon from that amusing animation you saw with your friends before our trip to Canada,_ " he replied with a grin in his voice. " _It looked good, was approximately the right size to be a plausible creature, and the wings were in proportion unlike a lot of the mythological forms in the literature of both our worlds._ "

"Might be worth a shot when we have a free moment," Taylor smiled. Walking over to the Merchant's safe, which was sitting in the middle of the floor with the door lying next to it where she'd dropped it after simply pulling it off the hinges, she inspected the thing. "Right now, we need to get rid of this, it's in the way."

" _You could throw it into the bay,_ " he suggested.

"I'm trying to _clean_ the bay, not fill it with old steel," she pointed out.

" _Eat it?_ "

"Had a big breakfast." Studying the safe, she reached out and snapped off one of the hinges, chewing it reflectively. Swallowing, she shrugged. "It's OK, I guess, but the steel isn't very high grade. Not enough chromium for a good taste."

He was snickering to himself now, making her grin. " _In that case, I suggest putting it with the scrap metal from the tanker,_ " he said. " _We can get a little money for it, it's several tons of steel._ "

"Yep. Seems like a plan."

She turned to look at the other things that had come out of the safe as well as the cash. Three handguns, half a dozen boxes of ammunition, and about a kilo of what seemed to be extremely high grade cocaine. "We don't really need that lying around either," she commented as she went over to the table and looked more closely at the weapons. Picking one up, she sniffed it. "This has been used several times," she added. "I'd be tempted to put it in the armory, but who knows what crimes have been committed with the thing? We don't want it tying them to us."

" _That's a valid point,_ " he agreed. " _Perhaps you should arrange to get them to the police. Or just eat them as well._ "

"Police, I think," she nodded, making a thick-walled steel box and dropping the three weapons and the drugs in, then sealing it into an impenetrable cube. "I'll take it over tomorrow. Right, then, let's get this thing over to the rail car."

Moving over to the roller door, she flipped the switch to open it, then went back and shoved the safe door into the safe itself, bending it until it wedged in place. Picking the safe up, she balanced it carefully, then headed back to the now-open door, tapping the switch on the way out with the end of her tail. The motor whined into life behind her.

Heading across the yard, she nodded to a couple of passing workers, who stared at the five tons or so of metal she was carrying, looked at each other, shrugged, and kept going. Reaching the nearest empty car of the dozen coupled together next to the now much smaller piles of cut up tanker, she peered into it, then looked dubiously at the safe she was holding. It was just a little too big to fit properly and safely. The shift of workers who were separating the tanker wreck into different metals watched her from a safe distance, calling a greeting as she stopped.

Putting the safe down, she waved to them, then made an EDM blade and cut the thing into quarters, tossing each piece into the rail car when she was done. Finished, Taylor made the blade go away, before heading over to chat to the people doing the work, manifesting a safety vest and helmet as she did.

* * *

Pulling up beside a familiar figure, Amy rolled the window down and smiled. "Hi, Lisa," she said cheerfully.

"Hey, Amy," her friend said, grinning at her. "I was just going over to the office. Taylor got here a while ago but I haven't seen Danny yet. And our friend Linda is still asleep."

"She will be for hours," Amy replied, driving at a walking pace next to the blonde girl with one hand on the wheel. "Ianthe gave her a little extra last night, which would kick in when she fell asleep. She needed the rest, if only psychologically. She should be feeling a lot better when she wakes up, around half past three or so."

"Sneaky, that purple lizard," Lisa laughed. "Very sneaky."

Amy smiled a little. "She does what she can for her patients."

They'd arrived at the side yard, the other girl dashing ahead and going inside, then opening the main door. Amy drove her truck in and parked, turning it off and jumping out as Lisa closed the door again.

"I realized something on the way over," she commented when the door was closed again.

"You and Taylor should have made those tail holes using her fractal dimensional technique so your tails don't stick out into the rear?" Lisa asked knowingly.

Amy stared at her. She shrugged, grinning. "Thinker, remember?"

"Why didn't you say anything at the time, then?" Amy demanded with her hands on her hips.

"It was funnier to see how long it took you both to work out you missed something," Lisa smirked.

Sighing, the healer shook her head. "She's contagious. That's exactly the sort of thing Taylor would do."

"I learned from the best, but to be honest I'd have done it anyway," her friend giggled.

"Done what?" Taylor, currently Raptaur, asked, appearing out of nowhere next to the blonde, who shrieked in shock and nearly jumped into Amy's arms.

"Fucking hell you scaly lunatic _don't do that!_ " she yelled when she recovered.

Amy, who had definitely jumped despite herself, had still recovered much faster as she'd been watching when Taylor had dropped the cloaking spell behind the other girl. Now she was creased up, howling with laughter at the outraged expression on their friend, who was standing with her arms crossed and a definite smell of irritation wafting from her.

This didn't last too long, Lisa recovering quickly and just sighing. Taylor was grinning widely.

"How long were you waiting for that moment?" she asked with resignation.

"Since you met Amy in her truck," Taylor snickered. "I followed you guys in."

"You are… _demonic_."

"Thanks."

"You think that was a compliment?"

"I choose to take it as such." They smirked at each other, then Taylor bent over and heaved Amy, who was still giggling, to her feet. "Come on, dear cousin, we have work to do. Let's see about getting your little toys sorted, then try some of the things I've come up with before Linda wakes up. We need to think about how we're going to handle that particular worm-can as well."

"Yeah." Amy looked hard at Lisa, who had the grace to blush a little. "Thanks for the head's-up on that, by the way."

"Hey, I was surprised as well," Lisa protested a little guiltily. "What else could I do, though?"

"Nothing." Taylor retook her base form, putting her arm around the blonde's shoulders for a moment. "You did the right thing. We all know it. So does Dad. All we need to do now is work out how to proceed from here."

"If nothing else we've taken two things away from Skidmark that he valued, his Tinker and his money," Amy giggled. "We have much better uses for both of them than he does."

Lisa started smirking, causing them both to look at her, then each other. "We took three things from him," she said happily, holding up three fingers.

"Three?"

"Damn right. His Tinker, his money, and his _reputation._ " Lisa looked very smug. "No one who hears about it is going to be impressed about his ability to run a gang," she added.

"And how will they hear about it?" Taylor asked, giving her friend a narrow-eyed look.

"Because they were stupid enough to deny the rumor that someone not a million miles from here may have had some responsibility for starting," Lisa giggled. "And in a way that someone else, who is also quite close and may in fact be the same person, could then carefully deconstruct in a manner calculated to get them really worked up to the point they basically confirmed everything they were denying."

Taylor looked impressed and amused. Amy was laughing helplessly again. "God, that's hilarious. So now everyone on PHO knows _from the Merchants themselves_ that all their money walked out of their own damn base in the middle of the night and there wasn't a thing they could do about it?"

"Basically."

"Wonderful." She thought, then grinned. "I wonder if he'll get so pissed off he has a heart attack?"

"That would solve a few things," Taylor nodded. "Somehow I doubt we'll get that lucky, though."

"Maybe not. But I'll think positively." Lisa seemed pleased with herself. They shared a grin then headed for Amy's workroom. Shortly they were gathered around the workbench looking at the latest construction that was sitting on it. She stroked it gently, checking the operation of the thing. All the readings were fine.

"It looks sort of… weird," Lisa said, peering at the biodevice closely. "Not in a bad way, just… alien."

"Not alien," Amy corrected her. "Family. It's very Family."

"I can see the resemblance," Lisa grinned. "All scaly like that."

"We just need to work out the best way to hold the relevant chemicals," the healer said thoughtfully, stepping back and tapping her chin with a finger. "I was thinking about a dimensionally peculiar set of reservoirs. Possible?" She and Lisa both looked at Taylor, who was communing with her giant invisible friend.

"Should be easy enough. How much internal volume do you need?"

"Ah… about two cubic feet or so? That would let me build all the systems in along with a pretty big chemical reserve. Thousands of operations worth at least."

"Sure."

They discussed the design for half an hour, then Taylor started making parts, which Amy wove into the structure of the partly living device while Lisa watched carefully and made suggestions. Between the three of them, they had a pretty impressive capability to manufacture and essentially simulate some very complex systems without too much effort.

Eventually they finished, Amy issuing instructions as Taylor made the last few adjustments to the inorganic parts, both of them smiling triumphantly when the final component disappeared into the innards of the thing with an eye-twisting effect and a faint pop. Lisa nodded, looking pleased. "That's perfect," she announced. "Everything folded away properly. How is it?"

Reaching out, Amy picked the synthetic semi-life off the bench and cuddled it to her chest.

"Fine," she said in a contented voice. "Exactly the way it was supposed to come out. Let's test it."

They went into the main room, Taylor going down to the other end and making some targets on stands before returning. She waved at them. "Ready when you are," she announced.

Amy looked down at the second most complex bioconstruct she'd ever made, grinned, and carefully put it on her right arm. The device was a flattened half-cylinder about the length of her forearm and roughly an inch thick, with a series of short tentacle-like protrusions coming from the flatter side. The far end of it had a familiar looking small orifice on it, something identical to the one in the palms of her ' _Ianthe_ ' hands, for much the same reason.

As she applied the thing to her arm, having pulled her sleeve up, the tentacles wrapped themselves firmly but gently around her arm, pulling the warm and finely-scaled near-creature to her skin in a very solid grip. She let go of it with her other hand, then shook her arm experimentally. "That's not going to come off," she said with satisfaction. "Good and tight, but not _too_ tight. The weight's not too bad either."

"How about the linkage?" Lisa asked.

"Everything's linked in. All systems working to nominal capacity so far."

Amy raised her arm, pointing the thing at the target. The end of it overlapped her hand a little, in a way that left her own skin well out of the way of the orifice. She sighted carefully, then twitched a muscle in her arm. A familiar ' _pop_ ' sounded and the target sprouted a hole.

"Perfect," she crowed, grinning madly. "It works!"

"Never doubted it would," Taylor smiled. "Good shot, too."

"Thanks." Amy fired a dozen more darts from the device, which was an external version of her built-in Ianthe weapons, with some improvements. She was going to upgrade the originals in both her and Lisa's bioconstructs as a result of these tests. "The neural linkage works perfectly as well. Look, I'll hand over tracking to the thing. You go and walk around over there."

Taylor moved to the middle of the room, while Amy pointed her arm, then flipped the mental switch. As her friend danced around like an idiot, her arm moved to follow her center of mass without her direct input, although she could easily override it. Lisa watched with impressed awe.

"That's just freaky," the blonde girl laughed.

"I can set it for auto-fire as well, using several trigger patterns," Amy smiled. "The optical sensors here are nearly as sharp as our Family eyes. Let's try the various forms of ammunition."

Taylor didn't have time to duck when she opened fire. There were a number of sharp cracks, followed instantly by pretty loud bangs as the darts exploded on her friend, shredding her shirt on the spot.

"Hey!" Taylor shouted in indignation. "Warn someone before you use the explosive darts, Amy!"

"Sorry," she grinned, not sorry at all. Her friend reformed her shirt, patting herself down.

"This one is the electrical stun shot," she added, firing again. There was a flash of light on Taylor's chest, followed by a section of her new shirt crumbling to black powder. "Biological super capacitor charged to about eight thousand volts."

"Not bad," Lisa nodded.

Taylor put her hands on her hips and just stared at her for a moment. Her shirt reformed again. "Are you going to do much more of that?" she asked tartly.

"Well, I can't really use the acid shot inside, the fumes are toxic," Amy mused out loud. She grinned when both her friends gave her an odd look. "Kidding. I thought about it, but it's too dangerous. Even the explosives are a little over the top, they're reserved for serious problems. Mostly the ammo is non-lethal."

"What else do you have?" Lisa asked curiously.

"Sedative, paralytic, capsaicin shot, that one will hurt like a _bastard_ but isn't too dangerous, a pretty neat emetic, and antidotes for them all. Not to mention the darts can do about mach three if you wind the power up all the way." She snapped off a couple of shots at the targets over Taylor's shoulder, the loud bang they made echoing around the room. "If lethal is really needed, that would do it even without the explosives."

All three of them looked at the target, which had a two inch hole in it just from the shockwave of the dart going through it. "It sure would," Taylor noted with a thoughtful look. "Best to reserve that for serious trouble."

"Overall, I think it works pretty well," Amy said, very pleased. Deactivating the literal bio-weapon, she raised her arm and felt the thing attached to it. "Doesn't add too much mass, it's tough enough to take a hell of a battering, and when it's taken off it goes into a standby mode that will keep it functional for a couple of years at least. I should be able to improve that, I've got a few ideas, but this is only the prototype."

"What about keying it into the operator?" Lisa asked. "It's using your symbiote at the moment."

"I've designed a much simpler one which is just an authentication system," she said. "If we don't want to give out a full symbiote. But I want to start getting them out to people soon, just in case."

Rejoining them having removed the targets, Taylor nodded. "I agree. I'll talk to Dad about it. We need to work out the best way to do it. The PRT might get involved when they find out, which I'd like to either avoid or have a solution for."

"OK." Amy looked at her construction. "I'll put this away, I need to let my power chew on the results for a while and see if it can come up with any improvements. Let's see what your ideas are."

"All right." Taylor sighed a little. "None of them really have a non-lethal mode though. The majority of the stuff I've come up with is meant for _really_ serious problems. Mostly giving them to other people."

Returning her latest construct to her workroom, Amy joined Lisa at the table where Taylor was making something very weird.


	200. Omake - The Lucy Adventures, volume 1

_This was provoked by a few comments on both SpaceBattles and Sufficient Velocity, the idea not allowing me to proceed until I wrote it down. It told me, right at the beginning, that it was a 2000 word Omake at best._

 _It lied._

 _It may become canon at some point, but we'll have to see how things work out._

* * *

Walking back to her house from the local shopping district, Lucy hummed a popular tune under her breath, enjoying the still slightly chilly but quite acceptable spring evening. It was heading towards darkness but still quite light, no wind disturbing the air and the temperature only requiring a light jacket. She looked around, seeing the roads were at a generally normal level of traffic for the area, which in this case meant only a few cars visible and half a dozen pedestrians.

Since the arrival of the Family just after Christmas, and the following effect they'd had on gang crime with both the ABB and the E88 pulling back very considerably, street dangers had dropped enormously. That alone had made the scaly superheros very popular when people worked out what was going on. The dramatic effect on the economy of the city following the Mayor's regeneration plan and Kaiju's involvement in that had only boosted their following, in which she was more than proud to call herself a major enthusiast.

Then, when they'd done what they did to the Merchants…

In some ways it had made people more worried, in most others it had mainly made them very satisfied. Worried, because it showed that the Family had a definite line that you _did not_ cross without severe repercussions, although no one who thought about it considered that line unreasonable. And you could go right _up to_ the line without any problem.

Satisfied, because no one liked the Merchants. She had it on good authority that even the E88, _and_ the ABB, both considered them scum in general, which put it into perspective in an amusing way. Skidmark particularly had been universally despised by absolutely everyone.

One thing that had made her giggle had been that she'd been told by an acquaintance that Lung himself had smiled madly when he heard of their fate, and toasted the Family in a local tavern, to all appearances sincerely. Even after his alleged run in with Kaiju he was still pleased. Kaiser had apparently started laughing so hard he'd nearly required medical intervention, she'd also heard.

The girl reflected on the fact that she seemed to know more criminals than was probably normal in most cities, then shrugged. That was Brockton Bay for you…

Overall, she thought happily, she'd much rather have the lizards and their friends around than otherwise, not only because she really liked reptiles in general, and they were friends of hers. Friends she wanted to see again as often as possible.

When the summer holidays started, she was planning on finding out if she could somehow work some sort of internship at the DWU to let her hang around there more often. Partly because what they were doing did genuinely interest her, but mainly because she could see the big scaly reptiles more often…

' _Even if I can't, I can visit them regularly_ ,' she grinned to herself. ' _Maybe Mandy would like to come as well, she seemed to enjoy her Raptaur-ride nearly as much as I did_.'

Roll on, summer break, she decided firmly. It was going to be an interesting one.

Life was pretty good, in her view, right at the moment. Even when she'd been mugged, she'd been saved by Amy and Saurial, which was nice of them. Not that the experience was anything she wanted to repeat, of course, it had been horrible, but it had also led to interesting results and no real harm.

Not even to that idiot mugger. A kick in the balls was about the _least_ he deserved. Amy had become even better in her eyes after that. She'd never realized the Dallon girl could be so… vicious.

She approved.

Switching to humming ' _Greensleeves_ ', a favorite of hers, she strolled along enjoying the late afternoon, in no real hurry to get back, swinging the bag of groceries she had in one hand. When she got home she was going to feed some of the eggs she'd bought to Newell, who was starting to look perkier after the winter, then phone Mandy and chat for a while, before finishing her homework.

The hand that grabbed her long hair just after she passed an alley that led to the rear of the four story apartment building next to it came as an unwelcome surprise. She yipped in pain and shock, stumbling backwards and nearly dropping her shopping back as whoever it was pulled her violently into the alley.

"Oh, hell, not _again_ ," she moaned as she was slammed against the wall, finding a desperate-looking man in his mid twenties pointing a knife at her, his eyes wild.

He looked mildly puzzled for a second at her comment, then demanded, "Give me your money and phone," in harsh tones. It sounded like he had a cold, she thought absently, wiping some spittle off her cheek with her free hand. He jabbed the knife at her when she moved, making her freeze.

"You're going to get in trouble," she told him in a wavering voice. "The Family doesn't like Merchants. I thought all you guys had left. Or… something else."

Lucy was pretty sure he was a Merchant, or ex-Merchant, based on the clothes and the stink.

"Fuck the Family, girl. I got away and they'll never get me. I need your money to get out of town." He glared at her from bloodshot eyes in the dimness of the alley, barely visible. The sun was setting behind the building and only a little deep orange light was seeping around the corner. She sighed heavily, slowly raising a hand to her coat.

"OK, OK, don't get all freaky, all right? I'll get my money, it's inside my coat."

"No tricks!" he stated, stepping back one pace, which put him in a position to lunge with the knife. Slipping her hand into her jacket, she reached into an interior pocket and grabbed what she was after, making sure she had a good grip, then pulled it out.

The hiss of the wild-animal-strength pepper spray as it went right in his eyes was very loud in the quiet of the alley.

The scream of agony was even louder. He stumbled back, rubbing his eyes, which only made it worse according to the instructions that had come with the spray, a gift from her father when he'd heard what had happened the first time she got mugged. She looked around, trying to work out the best route to escape down. Her plan had been simple, distract the idiot, then leg it. Exactly as her dad had told her.

Part one had worked a treat. Unfortunately, she'd distracted the mugger into writhing around in the entrance to the alley, which only left one route, which she took, running in the other direction. She had vague memories that the alley went down between this building and the wall around the other one next to it for a couple of hundred yards, then branched into a series of other access routes that led ultimately back to the road near her house. Long ago she'd used the alleys as a short-cut to primary school until the gang problems got so bad her parents forbade her doing anything other than using the main roads.

Moving as fast as she dared, she skirted potholes that she could barely see, hurdling a fallen garbage can athletically, then rounding a corner in the alley and ducking under a fire escape ladder that someone had left partly extended.

The screams behind her had turned into wild cursing and some crashing sounds, making it apparent that her mugger had decided to pursue her, rather than give up and wait for someone else. She swore under her breath, speeding up a little. On the flat she had no doubt she could run faster than a scabby drug addict who looked like he hadn't eaten anything other than pills for days, but in these conditions it was less certain.

She smiled to herself when she heard a louder crash, which sounded like the idiot had tripped over the garbage can. Moments later it was followed by a reverberant clang as the fire escape ladder vibrated under the impact of a head.

The swearing stopped, replaced by another scream of pain and rage, then started again, becoming more inventive.

He didn't sound happy.

Coming to a junction, Lucy looked around, trying to work out the quickest route back to the road, then turned left and ran. She squelched through a few puddles left from last night's rain, the muddy water going into her sneakers in an unpleasant way, but kept going at a steady fast jog. She could see better here as the setting sun was behind her, reflecting down the alley and illuminating it in tones of deep yellow and orange, making even the untidy access road look surprisingly pretty.

A flicker of shadow behind her made her look over her shoulder to see the Merchant mugger stagger out of the first alley into the one she was moving along and look wildly around. He spotted her and headed in her direction, waving the knife and a piece of wood he'd presumably picked up from somewhere on the way.

"I'm going to kill you, you little chink bitch!" he howled in rage, running after her, then tripping over a pothole with a yell. He went full length into the muddy alley, swearing hysterically, got up, and resumed the chase.

"This guy doesn't give up easily," she mumbled to herself, almost impressed.

And terrified. Let's not forget that.

Forcing herself to remain calm, since giving in to fear was a sure way to make a mistake, she kept moving as fast as she dared, listening to the mugger trip a couple more times. He was trying to run as fast as he could and was paying for it.

The pepper spray probably wasn't helping his eyesight very much, either.

' _I wonder why he recovered so fast?_ ' she thought with irritation. ' _The instructions said it would take at least half an hour. I'm going to have to complain if I survive this. Maybe I should have just given him my wallet._ '

She'd been extremely reluctant to merely give up, especially considering the last time, and had thought that the pepper spray would be enough to let her get away. If only the inconsiderate fool had had the decency to fall over six feet to the left, she'd have been home by now, and not covered in mud and less salubrious substances.

That said, he was having a much worse time of it than she was, by the sound of it. And she still, somehow, even had her shopping with her.

' _I hope the eggs didn't break, Newell would be annoyed_ ,' she thought half-hysterically, turning again into yet another alley, which she thought led through a loading yard into a footpath that ended up in the back of the cul-de-sac her house was on.

Sure enough, around the next corner she found herself charging across a pitted tarmac surface in a biggish open area, several large dumpsters on one side, and a broken down and rusty semi tractor parked on the other side. It had been there as long as she could remember, certainly at least a decade.

Unfortunately, she discovered rather abruptly, some asshole bastard had parked a large panel van across the entrance to the footpath, the rusty heap of junk half-embedded into the scraggy undergrowth that lined that end of the open area. She skidded to a halt, looking around desperately for another route of escape. There wasn't enough room to squeeze under it even for someone of her fairly slight build, she didn't have time to climb over it, and there was no way around the ends because of all the tangled bushes that were beginning to sprout buds.

The yard was dark enough now that she had to carefully pick her way past the obstructions, hardly able to see anything on the ground. The only good part was that her pursuer was having at least as hard a time as she was, judging by the crashes and swearing as he tripped over every single obstacle in his path.

It was a real pity he was so damn persistent. Most people would have given her up as a waste of time ages ago.

"I can see you, you little bitch!" he yelled, immediately running into something in the dark and falling over again, screaming in rage. "I'm going to fuck you up."

' _That's what I'm afraid of_ ,' she thought uneasily, wisely not saying anything out loud. ' _Now what the hell do I do?_ ' She was clutching her partly depleted pepper spray in a sweaty hand, and still stubbornly holding onto her shopping bag with the other. Luckily it was a solidly made hemp reusable one and had survived the trip so far.

' _If I can get him again, maybe I can circle back and go the other way,_ ' she thought, looking at the man who was heading in her direction, waving his stick and knife. She watched as he tripped again, raising an eyebrow. ' _Unless he manages to stab himself doing that._ '

He was now worryingly close, but not close enough to spray. On the other hand, he also wasn't close enough to either hit or stab her. Backing away, trying not to fall over the uneven surface, she wished desperately that it was lighter so she could see what the hell she was doing. The sun must be pretty much on the horizon, it was certainly below the buildings around the area, and things were really starting to get very dark.

She heard something above her, an odd noise like fabric in the wind, and risked a look upwards. Nothing was visible except a clear evening sky with a couple of small clouds barely apparent in it from reflected street light glow.

' _Could do with a cape about now_ ,' she mused. ' _Where are you, Vicky? Or anyone who can fly in and rescue me_.'

She wasn't picky, she'd even thank Rune or Purity if they happened to pass overhead. Unlikely, around here, especially these days, but not impossible.

Wondering if she could call for help, she decided again that pulling out her phone would probably get her killed long before she could really make use of it. Shouting most likely would achieve the same thing, as there was no sign of anyone around at the moment except for someone she really wished she'd never met.

The mugger moved closer, muttering imprecations under his breath, looking around for her. She'd managed to end up half-hidden beside the old semi tractor, squatting down by the trailer hitch, hoping he'd miss her.

There was another odd sound behind the mugger, a faint squelch mixed with a thump. Both of them looked this time, even the man himself apparently noticing, but neither could see anything.

The Merchant shrugged to himself, apparently putting it down to nerves, and resumed his search. Lucy readied her can of pepper spray, her finger on the trigger, and tightened her hold on her shopping bag stubbornly.

Newell was getting his eggs one way or another.

She watched him cast about for her, blinking wildly and intermittently wiping his eyes with his wrist. They were swollen and puffy as far as she could make out in the dim light, which was rapidly fading completely. A hope went through her that when it was completely dark she might be able to distract him somehow, then sneak past and go back the way she came. Slipping the can into her outer pocket she quietly felt around for something to throw, running cold damp rocks through her fingers until she settled on one about the size of a pool ball. Looking down at it for a moment, she picked it up and weighed it in her palm before wrapping her fingers firmly around it.

When she looked up she was alarmed to see that the damn mugger had disappeared.

' _Where the hell is the bastard?_ ' she wondered frantically, looking around. She could hear movement in the darkness somewhere in front of her but it was now so black nothing was immediately visible. That said, she could definitely still smell him.

Moving slightly she winced as her bag, and a bottle in it, clinked against the broken down vehicle next to her. Holding her breath she waited…

" _There_ you are, you little cunt," said a voice in the darkness, much too fucking close for her liking. She yelped and flung the rock as hard in that direction as she could, hearing a thud and a burst of obscenities.

"You little Asian bitch, I'm going to enjoy doing this," he snarled, sounding half-crazed. "First I'm going to fuck you, then I'm going to cut you up into lit..."

His voice stopped abruptly, having gone oddly echoey in the last half word. There was a pregnant silence.

Lucy listened intently, her heart hammering in her chest. What had happened?

"Listen to me very carefully," a deep voice she'd never heard before, but one that still sounded somewhat familiar, said, the tones oddly muffled like it was speaking through a mouthful of something. "If you want to live, my friend, you will turn around and leave. The city, definitely, the state, ideally. Or I can just bite down. Your choice."

Not at all sure what was going on, Lucy tipped her head, trying to localize the voice. She could hear faint whimpering, and a splattering sound that she eventually worked out was someone pissing themselves. She wrinkled her nose as the smell of fresh urine wafted over it. After a momentary debate over the wisdom of the move, she reached into her other pocket and pulled out a small flashlight, flicking it on and pointing it towards where the new voice had sounded from. As she did so, two glowing yellow lights appeared some distance off the ground.

They looked awfully familiar, she thought absently, gaping at what the light showed her.

There was a very large, very black, very scary looking fucking _dragon_ sitting in the middle of the loading yard, its huge head lowered so that it could carefully enclose the entire head of the mugger down to his shoulders in its mouth! She gaped in a weird mix of horror, excitement, and amusement, seeing the man was standing absolutely still, both his weapons lifted in frozen hands.

His jeans were much damper than the falls into the mud would have accounted for, and steaming gently, she noticed, a feeling of slightly detached humor knocking on the back of her mind.

"Do we have an agreement, my friend?" the dragon mumbled out of the side of its mouth, winking one glowing yellow-orange eye at Lucy. "Or do I get to eat an ape? The way you've seasoned yourself with that lovely peppery stuff was very thoughtful, by the way."

There was a muffled scream from inside her mouth.

"That tickles," the dragon snickered. "Stop it or I might bite accidentally."

Both the weapons he was holding dropped to the ground as he went limp, held up by his head.

"Huh." The dragon crossed its eyes and looked down its snout at the man. "That was rude. He seems to have lost interest in the conversation." Looking at Lucy, she added, "Should I eat him, or let him go?"

"He's probably got all sorts of things wrong with him," Lucy pointed out in a numbly amused manner, not sure how to react other than calmly.

"Good point. Sis said these Merchants were stale. Ianthe told me she caught some as well when she first got here." The creature opened its mouth, allowing the unconscious mugger to collapse to the ground, his head bouncing on the dirty tarmac. She licked her lips with a long forked tongue. "That spicy stuff is nice, though. What was it?" she added more clearly now that her mouth was unoccupied.

"Pepper spray," the girl replied, holding up the can.

"Can I have some more?"

"Sure." She walked forward, trying not to tremble too much, either with excitement, ' _Jesus, a real dragon!_ ' or total terror, ' _Oh, my god, it's a fucking DRAGON,_ ' as she did so. When the large mouth opened, exposing a hell of a lot of very sharp teeth, she sprayed the stuff right into it.

Closing its mouth the dragon swallowed, then appeared to smile. "Good stuff. Thanks. Now, are you all right?"

"I'm fine, thank you," Lucy said politely, returning the can to her pocket as calmly as she could.

"Great. If I'm correct, you're Lucy?"

She gaped. "How the hell did you know that?"

The huge creature smiled at her in a reptilian manner. "Raptaur told me about you. So did Saurial. They like you. We have ways of passing on scents to each other, and you match the one I was given. I was just in the area and noticed this..." She looked down and shook her head sadly, " _person_ … pursuing you, so I thought I'd stop and lend a hand. We look out for our friends."

"You're Family, then?" she asked, before nearly slapping herself at the fatuousness of the question. Of _course_ a friendly dragon was Family, where else would it come from? Aside from anything else the eyes were a dead giveaway.

"Yep. Just in the area to see what all the excitement was about. This place is the talk of back home, some of our people having fun and helping out you humans. I wanted to come a while ago but everyone thought that too many of us turning up at once might be a problem."

"OK," Lucy replied, not sure what else to say. After a few seconds of simply staring at the creature, which seemed to find this somewhat funny, she asked, "What should I call you?"

"Well, my name in our language is," the dragon said, followed by a weird hissing gurgle that made the hairs on the back of Lucy's neck stand on end, "but that's really difficult for you guys to pronounce. Something about your vocal chords not being right, Ianthe said. So… hmm..." It sat back on its haunches, tapping a long clawed digit on its snout as it thought. "Call me Breksta. Sort of applicable if I remember my human mythology right, but not entirely correct. It's been a while since I looked into what you people believed."

"Um, all right," Lucy replied a little uncertainly, not entirely sure what the creature was talking about. "Breksta it is. It's nice to meet you, Breksta. And thanks for saving me from that idiot. It seems to be a habit with me and Family members, being mugged then being saved."

"You should probably try not to get mugged," Breksta grinned. "It would save a lot of trouble."

"Tell me about it," she sighed. Moving the flashlight around, she tried to get a good idea of what her new acquaintance looked like. ' _Dragon_ ' was her instant first impression, and the more she looked the stronger that got. The creature was very reptilian, strongly built but slender and wiry, with scales as black as Metis' covering a frame that must have been a good twenty to twenty-five feet long nose to tail. The head was narrower, longer, and more streamlined than Raptaur's, but there was a definite family resemblance. It was on the end of several feet of neck that joined a body that was even more lizard-like than the other Family members, on four legs, although the front ones could clearly double as arms perfectly well.

The hands were obviously hands, big enough to hold a basketball like an egg, with long elegant fingers tipped in sharp talons. The rear feet were much more reptilian but still appeared capable of gripping pretty well. The tail was long and muscular, with horizontal fins on the end and a ridge running down the entire thing, small spikes sticking up at intervals supporting it. The fins could be folded in line with the tail as far as she could see.

At the shoulders, a complex joint supported both the front limbs, and a pair of enormous wings, which were currently folded back along the body in a way that left them almost seamlessly fitting. The effect was impressive. She wondered what Breksta's wingspan was when they were open, guessing more than thirty feet.

The head had a couple of backswept horns on the top, fitting the fantasy dragon effect perfectly. With an internal jolt she realized that overall the creature was remarkably similar to the co-star of a movie she'd seen recently, making her wonder…

"Would you like a better view, Lucy?" Breksta asked with a definite sound of amusement in her voice. Lucy flushed a little.

"Um, sorry for staring, but I've never met a dragon before," she said, embarrassed at being caught staring.

"Don't worry, I don't mind," Breksta replied, chuckling. "Here, this might help."

Lucy gasped as the entire creature suddenly lit up in shades of blue, some sort of bioluminescence outlining the body and wings like a wire-frame drawing. It was amazingly beautiful.

She took a step back as Breksta opened her wings, stretching them out to their full extent and filling half the service yard. Gaping, she looked at the result, which was astounding. "Holy shit that's amazing," she managed to say.

"Thanks very much," Breksta smiled. She folded her wings again. "So far I'm really enjoying this place. It's nice to have a chance to fly around without worrying too much about someone getting worried."

"I thought the Family lived underwater," Lucy said after a moment. "But you're obviously built for the air."

"I'm dual-use," Breksta replied, looking pleased. "I'm perfectly at home underwater, I swim really well. But above the water I can fly pretty well too. I haven't had a chance to do it for a while for various reasons."

She looked up, her long neck bending back, then returned her gaze to Lucy, appearing thoughtful. "I'm told you like reptiles, and are a fan of our people," she said slowly.

"Yes to both," Lucy grinned, her fear now completely gone. Hefting the bag, she went on, "I was worried about breaking my iguana's eggs in all this. He loves them."

"Ah, I thought I was smelling something nice," Breksta said, nodding. "OK. Would you like to go flying for a little while? If you're not in a rush. I can drop you off at home, no trouble."

Lucy stared, utterly shocked, at the flying reptile, for nearly a minute. Eventually, she said in a trembling voice, "Flying?" She was embarrassed at how squeakily it came out.

"Sure. I can carry your weight without any real trouble," Breksta grinned. "I just need to..." She looked over her shoulder, as a saddle of sorts formed on her back just behind the wings, then glanced in an evaluating manner at Lucy. The saddle changed slightly, until she nodded. "That should do it. Raptaur showed me what she came up with, this is a modified version. You won't fall, I promise."

"What about my shopping?" she asked faintly, even as she said it thinking it was a ridiculous comment.

"Hmm." Breksta studied her closely. "Try this." She held out one huge hand, a leather-like jacket forming on an outstretched talon. Lucy stared, then reached for it. "Put your shopping in the pocket," Breksta advised.

"In the…?"

"It's bigger than it looks." There was a definite smugness about the smile aimed at her. Puzzled, she held her bag between her knees to stop it getting muddy, shrugged the jacket on, incidentally finding it fitted perfectly, then felt in the outer pockets. She was more than a little startled to find that they were wildly larger on the inside than reality should have allowed.

"Holy crap," she mumbled, stunned. "Magic pockets."

"Pretty much."

Grabbing her bag, she carefully rolled it up as much as possible with the stuff in it, then introduced it to the pocket, finding the entire thing disappeared inside without leaving a bulge at all. "That's… impossible."

"That's Family," Breksta snickered. "We're pretty good at making space our bitch, as a friend of mine says."

Shaking her head in amazement, Lucy thought for a second, then took the new jacket off, then her normal one, before putting the dragon-created one back on. Her old jacket went into the other pocket, along with her flashlight. Zipping the leather coat up, she felt it, smiling. "Keep it whatever you decide," the huge reptile told her. "Everyone needs a jacket with magic pockets. So, want to give flying a try?"

"Fuck, yes, _do_ I," Lucy exclaimed, suddenly _very_ happy. If she kept meeting people like this after being mugged, it was almost worth it.

Lowering a wing, Breksta dropped back to all fours. "Climb on, then. I'll add the straps when you're comfortable."

Sooner than she expected, Lucy was sitting on a glowing black dragon, wondering when her life had taken a turn into the Twilight Zone. On reflection it was probably about the time she'd met Saurial the first time.

"Ready?" The big head craned around on the end of Breksta's long neck, slitted eyes meeting hers. She nodded, swallowing, then leaned forward and held tightly to the two hand grips the huge creature had thoughtfully added.

The vast wings extended, rose into the air until they were nearly vertical, then came down with a whistling thump that blew things around the loading area. She felt her mount shoot upwards. Repeated beats of the wings lifted them higher and higher with enough acceleration that she felt herself get noticeably heavier. When she risked a look over the side, she sucked in a breath at the way they were already at least a thousand feet up, streetlights twinkling under them.

On the horizon she could just see the last traces of sunset, the western sky glowing a faint deep red. The Rig sparkled in the bay, its glowing force-field lighting the waters around it, while other pools of light illuminated the Medhall building, the area around the PRT headquarters, and some distance past them in the center of a large almost entirely dark patch, a series of brilliant lights she worked out was the DWU facility.

As they went higher, she could see further and further afield, the distant lights of some of the smaller towns inland from Brockton Bay becoming visible. Far off to the south-west a faint patch of light was probably the outskirts of Boston. Above them the navigation lights of aircraft could be seen in half a dozen places.

Leveling out at what must have been over a mile up, Breksta extended her wings fully and stopped flapping, gliding smoothly through the air. Lucy blinked in the cold wind blowing in her face, turning her head away from their direction of movement.

"Ah, sorry, I didn't think of that," the deep voice rumbled, Lucy feeling it through her seat as well as hearing it. "Try that on." In front of her, a support in the shape of a human head had sprouted out of the saddle, a helmet like the one Raptaur had given her the time she had a ride on the other reptile on it. She carefully let go of the handles she was holding in a death grip, trusting in the straps over her thighs and calves to hold her in place, then grabbed the helmet and pulled it over her head. The transparent faceplate immediately cut the wind out entirely, her head suddenly feeling much warmer.

"Thanks," she said in a heartfelt manner.

"Some gloves as well," the creature she was sitting on said, the aforementioned accessories forming in front of her as the protrusion the helmet had been on disappeared. She grabbed them before they could blow away and slipped them on.

"OK now?" Breksta asked, looking back at her.

"Fine, thanks. This is..." Lucy looked around again, feeling like she must be dreaming. "...unbelievable. Thank you. For everything."

"It's no trouble, Lucy," her mount smiled, turning her head back to look forward. "Like I said, we look after our friends. Raptaur said you were a good person who really liked meeting us and this is easy for me. I don't mind at all."

"Why do you look like a dragon from a recent film?" she asked, not sure if she should. The creature glanced back again, then winked.

"Why not? Who's to say who came first? I heard about that film, it sounds like fun. Didn't the dragon in it do something like this?"

Lucy barely had time to widen her eyes, then dive forward and grab the handles, before Breksta pulled a perfect wing-over and dived vertically, then did a loop followed by a barrel roll. Screaming with laughter and fright, Lucy held on like mad as the crazy reptile looped again, then went into a power climb, followed by a series of axial rolls.

Breathless with laughter, she went limp across the saddle when her new friend leveled out once more, gliding along serenely at about the same altitude. "Holy shit, holy shit, holy shit," she gibbered, not sure whether she wanted to be sick, or ask for that to happen again. "That was intense."

"Like it?" Breksta asked.

"So much."

A glowing light to the side, approaching rapidly, made both of them look. Lucy squinted a little before announcing with surprise, "It's Glory Girl!"

"Oh, I've wanted to meet her," Breksta exclaimed brightly, swinging around to an intercept course. The flying blonde, wearing the new costume Raptaur had given her, matched speed and altitude, then rotated into an upright position, staring at them with astonishment.

"Hi, Vicky!" Lucy called, waving wildly. "Isn't this incredible?"

"Lucy!?" The other girl gaped. "How the hell did you get a fucking _Dragon?_ "

"Breksta rescued me from a mugger," Lucy called.

Vicky put her hand over her faceplate for a moment. "You got mugged _again?_ " she asked, shaking her head. "What are you _doing_ , girl? Do you emit ' _mug me_ ' signals or something?"

Lucy shrugged with a grin. "No idea. But twice now it attracted Family members. I can live with it if I get to ride a dragon."

"I'm Breksta," Breksta put in. She made a motion with a forelimb. "I'd shake your hand, I think that's the human custom, but you're a bit small and it's awkward like this."

"That's OK," Vicky said, still staring wide-eyed. "Dragon?" she mumbled just loudly enough for Lucy to hear. "Where the hell did _you_ come from?"

"Oh, around," Breksta laughed. "I wanted to see the place my sisters and cousins are always going on about. So far it's great. Nice view as well."

Rotating in mid air, the flying blonde looked about. "I suppose it is." She looked back to the other two. "Did you have any plans about where to go, or are you just flying around randomly?"

"Pretty much just random," Breksta replied.

Vicky got a mischievous expression. "Is your sense of humor as weird as your relatives' is?"

"Oh, at least. Why?" Now Breksta sounded intrigued.

"I have a cunning plan," Vicky snickered. "Want to go freak out a man who needs to be worried every now and then?"

Lucy looked at her, then at the dragon she was sitting on, who peered back at her. They turned to the girl floating beside them. "What did you have in mind?" Breksta asked in an intrigued tone.

"Follow me, I'll explain on the way," Vicky said, curving around to head towards the Medhall building. "Can you turn those blue lights off?"

"Certainly," Breksta said, going utterly dark. Lucy felt like she was gliding through nothing, unable to see anything other than shadows.

"Shit, you're really, _really_ black, aren't you?" Vicky laughed. "Perfect. OK, this is the plan..."

* * *

Sitting down in his favorite chair, Max looked out at the lights of Brockton Bay, sighing in relief as he took the weight off his feet. Ever since he'd got back from his holiday he'd felt much more relaxed. Nothing had gone wrong so far, while he'd been away the Merchants had been removed as a source of irritation, Lung and his lot were being very polite and quiet, and there was no tiny Death staring at him.

Sipping his drink he relaxed, going over plans in his mind to take advantage of the current state of affairs in the city. They'd certainly suffered some setbacks, but on the whole much less than any of the other gangs. The Merchants were gone, the ABB was, for whatever reason, hardly apparent, and as far as his people went, if they were careful they could probably take advantage of the new status quo.

The Family was, for all intents and purposes, unbeatable. He was sure there probably _was_ a way to defeat them, but he had no idea what it would take, and _was_ certain that it would cause far more damage than just living with the situation. And if you tried and _failed…_ He shivered. No, he didn't want to consider that.

However, at the same time, those crazy reptiles seemed entirely uninterested in doing anything other than confusing people and fixing things, which meant that as long as you left them alone, they left you alone. Sure, if you were stupid enough to cause any of their friends trouble, or commit a crime right in front of them, that would end badly, but otherwise they stayed out of it. And they clearly didn't have any real problem with villains in general, considering that from what he'd heard, Über and Leet were practically part of the whole group now.

All of which meant that if one was both smart and careful one could profit from the situation. The whole Nazi thing wasn't anything he was personally particularly invested in, although it was a remarkably useful tool, so with some careful work and a little rebranding…

' _Should be possible_ ,' he mused. ' _It'll take some time to get some of the others to see the light, but I think I can do it. Krieg might be a problem, he's a true believer. Rune doesn't care, Victor will do what I tell him, I don't give a shit if Brad likes it or not, the twins can be talked around… The rest will fall into line._ ' Raising his glass he toasted his own brilliance.

One way or another, he'd come out at the top as he was destined to do. Lizards or no lizards.

' _If nothing else, they do seem to be making this city more viable, and the more money there is in the economy, the better for me as much as anyone,_ ' he smiled. ' _In a couple of years I might even have to write them a letter of thanks._ '

He wondered if it might even be possible to come to some official arrangement with them. He'd been hearing interesting rumors that the purple one, Ianthe, was a dab hand with creating intriguing new pharmaceuticals. Some of his genuine Medhall scientists were making noises about wanting some samples to test.

Getting up, he moved to the window and watched the cars in the street below. Overall, he couldn't complain too much. His holiday had left him feeling much more tolerant of the new neighbors in the docks.

Raising his eyes, he looked at the skyline. A couple of aircraft could be seen in the distance, the little red and green lights moving slowly across the horizon. Even over the streetlights, he could make out some of the brighter stars. It looked like it was probably going to be a very nice day tomorrow.

About to turn away, he stopped, then squinted. Some distance away, inland, something occluded some of the stars. He couldn't make out anything like a shape, but they'd definitely blinked.

"What the hell is that?" he wondered out loud, peering down the length of the street, which ran nearly dead straight for over a mile, the heart of the commercial and shopping district.

More stars flickered.

Whatever it was, it was moving.

And big.

And coming right at him.

Now there were gaps in the scene of buildings, as if something very big and very black had passed in front of them. It was, as far as he could make out, at the same level as his window, but he still had no idea what it was. The intermittent shadows were far too big to be a flying cape, or anything human.

Max took a step back, still looking suspiciously out the window. He was certain something was moving out there. Something not right.

Which meant…

"Oh, god, it's _them_ , isn't it?" he sighed. "If it's not a tiny Death standing staring at me, or fucking Saurial scaring me out of year of life by shooting past the windows like a fucking rocket with scales, it'll be something else those insane reptiles have come up with. What is it this time? Raptaur on a flying fucking bicycle?"

He stared at the night scene, which was now feeling to him like something was looking back.

He waited.

And waited.

Then sighed. And waited some more.

Nothing happened. The distant shadowy flickering disappeared.

After a few more seconds, he sipped his drink again, before looking at it with great suspicion, then carefully putting it down on his coffee table. He even took his shoes off.

Just in case…

When he finished, he turned back to the window, walking over and spreading his arms. "Come on then, you scaly lunatics, hit me with your best shot. After Kaiju, I'm ready for anything."

It turned out, in fact, that he wasn't.

The huge flying reptile that appeared out of the dark, lighting up like a Pink Floyd concert with no warning in blue light, less than fifty yards away and heading right at his head with a mad grin on its fucking face, made him freeze and gape in horror. The thing shot towards him, someone on its back with a helmet on waving their arms around manically, then just before it would have ended up in the room with him, it folded its wings a little, curved sharply upwards, and zoomed up the glass front of the building closely enough that he heard its tail lightly scrape along the window.

Moments later it was gone, echoes of deep laughter the only thing left behind. He stared blankly out into the dark.

Glory Girl floated into view from the side, saluted him smartly, bowed in mid air, then flew away.

She also appeared to be laughing.

Eventually, he let out a deep sigh, turned around, slipped on the tiles in his socked feet, and managed to kick the coffee table, causing his remaining Scotch to tip neatly into his shoes, before the glass rolled off the thing and shattered on the floor.

He stared at it, then started weakly laughing, dropping into a chair and putting his head in his hands.

"I give up," he moaned. "You _can't_ beat them. This fucking city will be the death of me."

* * *

Half a mile up and out over the bay, Lucy was giggling so hard that only the straps held her on Breksta's back. The flying reptile was also laughing like an idiot. Floating along on her back, her legs crossed, Victoria Dallon was screaming with hilarity as well.

"That was fucking _incredible_ ," the blonde cackled. "Did you see his face? I wish I had a camera, I'd love to see the video of that. Ames' one was good, this was way better."

"Saurial gave me a little camera," Breksta said, still snickering. "It's on my head. I can get you the video."

"You _recorded_ it?" Lucy stared, then laughed even harder. "I want a copy too, please."

"I'll get that sorted out for both of you," Breksta promised. "Now, I should probably get you home, Lucy. It was nice to meet you, Glory Girl."

"Call me Vicky, all my friends do," the girl said with a broad smile.

"Gladly," the dragon grinned. "See you around."

Vicky waved, then flipped over, peeling off back towards the city, while Breksta turned in a long sweeping curve in the other direction towards Lucy's end of town. "You'll have to direct me to your house," the dragon rumbled.

"Over that way, to the left, I think," she said, pointing. "See those blue lights?"

"Yep."

"Aim for those, I think that's the Ford dealership on the main road. My house is about half a mile further."

"OK." They glided along smoothly, Breksta occasionally flapping her wings to maintain altitude. "I wonder if your mugger has woken up yet?" the creature under her asked a little later, sounding like she was trying not to laugh.

"If he has, he's probably still running," Lucy giggled. "That bastard."

"To be honest, he didn't taste very good," Breksta laughed. "That pepper spray made it tolerable, though. It's good."

"I'm pretty sure it's not meant as seasoning," she replied, shaking her head in wonder. "It's nearly pure capsaicin. The label says it's only for external use."

"Very spicy. I like spicy."

"You are probably not the target market, I think," she pointed out, looking around with wonder. "Thank you for this, it's been fantastic."

"You're more than welcome. We should do this again sometime."

"I'd love that," Lucy said with feeling. "And I owe you one for the save. I'm not sure I'd have got away otherwise."

"I think you stood a good chance, you seem pretty quick and smart, but I was glad to help. Right, now where?"

They'd arrived over the first waypoint which Lucy was pleased to see was indeed the car dealership she'd thought it was. "Um… That way, to the right, see that group of street lights around the little park?"

"I do."

"Right at the end there, next to that big tree."

"OK."

Breksta tipped her wings and headed down, gliding over the neighborhood Lucy knew well, although she'd never seen it from this angle before. "Hold on."

Moments later, the huge reptile backwinged, then dropped neatly on Lucy's front lawn, folding her wings as she did to avoid the cars parked in the driveway. "There you go."

"Thank you so much, Breksta. It's been a hell of a lot of fun."

"I enjoyed it as well." The long neck came around, Breksta looking at her from a few feet away. "Try to stay out of alleyways, they don't seem to agree with you."

Lucy slid down as the straps vanished, standing on the lawn and staring at the dragon, who looked smugly amused. Putting her hands on her hips, she sighed. "I didn't actually go into _either_ of them of my own free will, you know," she grumbled in a good-natured way. "Fucking muggers."

Breksta grinned at her. "Even so. Good advice, I think."

" _Lucy!?_ " a voice shouted, sounding more than a little startled. Both of them looked towards it, seeing Lucy's father standing on the front porch gaping at the huge glowing dragon standing on his lawn next to his daughter.

"Oops," she muttered. " _This_ is going to take some explaining."

"Good luck," Breksta snickered, spreading her wings. "See you around."

"Bye," she said as she stepped back, watching the creature leap into the air and rapidly climb. A number of neighbors were now standing around pointing and taking photos, looking very surprised. She peered around, before sighing a little.

She was never going to hear the end of _this_ little adventure. Bringing an iguana home had already made people think she was weird.

A dragon?

That would definitely be the talk of the area for a while.

With one last look up at the vanishing form of her newest friend, she shook her head in wonder, then went to explain to her parents what the hell was going on, taking the helmet off as she walked. It was only then that she realized she was still wearing it.

Feeling in the impossibly huge pockets of her new coat, she grinned to herself. She was going to have a lot to talk to Mandy about later.

* * *

Over five thousand feet up and still climbing, Taylor smiled to herself.

It was fun being her.

And she'd helped a friend, which was nice.


	201. Weapons and Lunch

Zephron checked over the new equipment with interest, pulling one of the over the top paintball markers out of the crate and inspected it closely. Mark was on the other side of the new armory reading some documentation on one of the thermal sights his contact had somehow liberated from the military, making small satisfied sounds under his breath. "Cute toy," he grunted, cocking the device, then dry-firing it. "Accurate?"

Mark looked up. "Not bad. Not as good as a real gun, the balls are too light and too slow, but it's pretty effective to about a hundred and thirty yards or so. They'll go a lot further than that, of course, but you probably won't hit what you were aiming at. Of course, we can up the gas pressure and extend that if we don't mind punching holes in people who are too close."

Putting it to his shoulder, Zephron looked through the sight, putting the red dot on the other side of the room, then panning it around. "Should be good enough for Merchants," he stated. "Assuming we don't want to kill them."

"One of these in the face and they'll wish you had," his companion snorted, pushing a box of the special enhanced capsaicin balls towards him on the shelf. "Make pepper spray look like Tabasco sauce."

He smiled in a nasty fashion. "I'm almost looking forward to it."

"What are those other ones?" Zephron asked, putting the gas-powered gun back into the box with the rest.

"These are ordinary paint-balls, in the blue cases, I got them from a local sport shop. For practice. These, on the other hand, are one of the gifts Antonio sent along. Just in case we need something more serious."

Mark held up a smaller box, colored a virulent red. "Tinker nerve agent. Not lethal, if you get the antidote quick enough. Probably. That's in the yellow box there, a couple of dozen multi-use autojectors. It'll put a man down in about five seconds from skin contact. They were working on it when I left service, one of the less-lethal crowd control devices the Pentagon was into at the time. Turned out to be slightly less than less-lethal _enough_ , from what I heard. God knows where he got it from."

"Not exactly legal," Zephron commented, taking the box from him and looking at the warnings on it with curiosity.

"Not as such. But if it comes to a point we need to use it, we can deal with the fallout afterward. I'd rather use it and live than not and die. Or see my friends die."

"Fair point." Putting the box back down, the large man picked up one of the thermal sights instead. "These are good."

"They're fucking insane. Higher resolution than anything we had, real time frame rate, no active cooling needed… Completely classified stuff. Special forces grade. Some guys I know who are still in active service don't have them yet." Mark looked both impressed and slightly horrified. And somewhat excited. "The fact that he could lay hands on them is… I'm not sure, but there are people who should get fired. Or shot. Or both."

"As long as it's not us."

"They're clean, that I'm sure of. The guy is extremely careful and seriously connected."

Holding the scope to his eye after a little examination, Zephron flicked the power switch, the device making a very faint whine for a second or two before the eyepiece lit up. He panned it around, seeing his colleague showing up in bright shades of white and gray against an evenly dark gray background. Fiddling with the controls on the side he made the image go through a kaleidoscope of different color schemes, and zoom in a surprisingly long way. "Cool. How many do we have?"

"Supposed to be twenty, but there's an even two dozen here."

"Generous guy."

"Not normally." Mark sounded slightly puzzled. "I mean, he's as trustworthy as it gets, in the sense that when he gives you his word he sticks absolutely to it, but it's unusual for him to give stuff away without expecting favors in return. He seems to respect the boss a lot more than I'd have expected."

Lowering the thermal imager and turning it off, Zephron carefully put it back in the case it had come from and closed it, flipping the latches.

He looked at Mark for a moment. The blond man was a good, sensible, and loyal guy, and a friend, but he himself had been with the DWU much longer than the other man had. After considering it for a while, he replied, "How much do you know about the boss? His background, I mean?"

"I know he's second generation Brockton Bay, his father moved here in the mid fifties or so? Something like that. Originally from Europe, somewhere in the south. His wife had a similar background, I think, but I only knew her for two, three years before she was killed and never really talked that much to her."

"Poor woman. Annette was amazing. Hilariously funny, weird sense of humor, incredibly stubborn, and smart as a whip." Zephron shook his head sorrowfully. "Real shame she died like that. Broke Danny completely for years. Nearly tore him and his daughter apart, I think. Whatever fixed him, I'm damn glad about it. It wasn't fun watching him slowly slip away."

"He's certainly back to his old self and then some," Mark smiled as he stacked the special paint-balls on the shelves, unloading some of the crates the two nervous guys from New Jersey had delivered yesterday.

"Thank god for that. Without that man we'd be fucked about now. It's only the fact that's he's a stubborn bastard as well that's kept the place going all these years. Even when he was on autopilot he still managed to somehow keep the lights on."

Zephron moved to help his companion as they unloaded, checked, and repacked everything, going down the manifest that Mark had brought. "Danny's dad was a good guy too. My own dad knew him pretty well. I met him a couple of times when I was a kid. He… let's say he was the go-to guy for when things got difficult around here. Say you were a captain who was having trouble with people vandalizing your equipment, or stealing from you, something like that. It happened, old grudges, commercial issues, that sort of thing. Way I heard it, someone would call Danny's old man, he'd come along and talk to people, problems went away."

"Just like that?" Mark looked at him with an eyebrow up.

"Pretty much. Of course, sometimes they didn't. Then an example was made. Nothing too serious, not out of order for around these parts, but people remembered. It was all legit, more or less. At least the cops never came around, or if they did it was just for the look of it. Even then there weren't enough of them to cover this area. They were just happy that someone was keeping the peace and not too fussed about how, as long as no bodies turned up."

"Huh." Mark unpacked a crate of smoke grenades, counting them carefully. "All by himself?"

"No, he had a crew, my dad was one of them. They looked out for each other. People who could take care of themselves and didn't want the docks turning into anarchy." Zephron smiled in reminiscence. "Tough crowd. They had a reputation. Even back then, the gangs stayed out. Or got kicked out. Even after the capes came on the scene. Of course, Marquis was enough of a gentleman that he'd have stayed out anyway, or come to some arrangement. Danny's dad was gone by then, but the idea stuck. The docks look after their own. Those fucking Merchants are the only ones who are too stupid to get the idea. Or Hookwolf, but we know what happened to _him_."

They shared a smirk. "God, that was fucking funny," Mark chuckled. "I'll never forget the expression on that bastard's face when he saw Raptaur loom at him in the dark."

"Bet he sleeps with a nightlight now," Zephron grinned. "Anyway, like I said, Danny's dad was sort of the main troubleshooter around these parts for years. And sometimes trouble did indeed get shot."

"So where does the link to Antonio come in?"

"That goes back further. Danny's father's father, now he was a proper bastard. Back in Corsica, he was well known in the war. Real hero, from what I know, fought the Nazis all over the place. Went to France and fucked them up there as well. But his family was an old one, ties to half the rest of the old families of Europe. Not the aristocrats, the _other_ ones, if you get my meaning."

Mark glanced at him, looking thoughtful. "I get the idea."

"After the war, he went back to the family trade. Was very good at it. Didn't take shit from _anyone_. Not a nice man, but a loyal friend and very respected. That part of the world, those guys were important, still are, really. And they all know each other. Way I heard it, the old man was a bit of a ladies man as well, and made a mistake. That was where the boss' father came from. When it came out, Danny's dad was around… maybe nineteen or so? Moved to the US, started a family eventually, and in his own way carried on some of the family tradition. Mostly the protection side, in a different way. People around here respected him a lot."

"OK. I can see it."

"Now, I'm not certain about this next bit, but from what I worked out, Danny's grandfather and old Antonio were… business colleagues, maybe? Something like that. Antonio was the younger guy, Danny's gramps was the mentor. Taught him everything he knew, before Antonio moved to the states back around nineteen sixty or so. The old man died back in the late eighties, a stroke. He'd survived an assassination attempt in Paris in the early eighties, he was a tough old bastard, but high blood pressure got him in the end. But I know he was tight with Antonio, the guy trusted him like an older brother. That's where the link is. I'm pretty sure that he was asked to look out for Danny's father, and his family."

"That… would explain quite a few things," Mark remarked thoughtfully.

"I think there was some sort of falling out between Antonio and Danny's family years back, though. No idea what it was. I know Danny's always put a lot of effort into being legit, his father insisted on it. But blood tells, you know? There's something in him that takes the idea of loyalty to your family and friends a lot further than some people can understand. Same thing that made the old man himself someone that people looked up to even though he wasn't exactly a law-abiding person on a _good_ day. But he looked out for his own. Even now, his name carries a lot of weight in places you wouldn't believe."

Zephron smiled a little, remembering his own father. "Dad would have died for Charles. Nearly did more than once. Those Heberts… They're like that. Fantastic friends, fucking terrible enemies. They just don't give up. Even when Annette died, he kept fighting for the Union, although his heart wasn't in it for a long time. Fucking glad Taylor was around to give him something else to focus on, we might have lost the poor bastard otherwise."

By now they'd unpacked nearly everything and inventoried it, putting it in place on the various shelves around the room. It was an impressive amount of equipment.

"Funny thing is that Annette's family had a similar background. Sicilian, not Corsican, but their grandparents knew each other pretty well as far as I know. Not that _they_ knew that when they met. That lady was dangerous as well, and some of her friends… Not good people." He smiled. "Danny met her, fell in love on the spot, and spent a year wooing the girl. When they decided to get married, her friends were… unhappy. They tried to force him to break it off."

"What happened?"

"Don't know for sure. But Danny and Annette got married, and those friends never came near them again. Heard there were broken bones involved, and possibly a certain amount of threats involving a lighter and a can of gas. Sort of a personal demonstration, you understand. Seemed to work."

"Shit." Mark shook his head respectfully. "I knew about that fuckwit who pulled a bat on his daughter, but nothing about that."

" _That_ idiot nearly got himself killed," Zephron muttered, slightly adjusting a case on the shelf. " _Never_ threaten Danny's daughter. Especially when he's standing right there. He doesn't react well."

"Man's got a temper."

"That he has. Hard to ignite, really fucking hard, but even harder to put out if you manage it. His dad was the same, his gramps was worse. Bodies tended to pile up when _he_ got riled."

"Wonder if Danny could be pushed that far?"

Zephron met his companions eyes evenly. "Don't doubt it. Hope we'll never see it, though. If he gets _that_ pissed..." He shrugged. "Not good. Luckily, the only person I _know_ could push his buttons like that is in the Birdcage so we'll probably never find out what would happen."

"I can see why he gets on so well with the Family," Mark said after a moment of silence.

Zephron looked at him again, then checked that the door was shut and locked.

"You know the _real_ reason?"

Mark studied him. "Do you?"

"I'm pretty damn sure I do."

"Me too."

They kept staring at each other. "Going to say it?"

"That the Family is family? No. I'm not an idiot."

"Good to know."

Both men nodded to each other with a small smile of understanding.

Turning back to finishing off the inventory, Zephron chuckled. "Glad the girl turned out so well, though. Her mother would have been very proud. Then asked for whatever it is that the Dallon girl did. God help us then. Three of them is bad enough."

Mark started laughing under his breath as he picked up the manual for the thermal sights and began reading it again. "Doubt it will stay only three."

"Me either. Fun times."

They glanced at each other, smirked, and kept working.

* * *

"What the hell is that?" Lisa asked with fascination, as Taylor finished making a… thing.

The brunette girl picked up the small spherical device, which was very obviously a sphere, yet still had sides and edges as well. Lisa's power was gaping at it in awe, trying to fit it into the mathematical system she was slowly coming to grips with. It had far more than the normal number of dimensions, she could see that, but the intricacies of it were giving her a headache.

Taylor looked at it a little sadly. "A very _non_ -nonlethal weapon," she sighed. "I seem to keep coming up with things like this. Every time I think about how I could do something weird, half the applications are incredibly dangerous to practically everyone. It's sort of depressing how fragile people are."

"What does it do?" Amy asked curiously.

"This," their friend said, flipping the thing across the room so it landed about eighty feet from them. There was a weird crinkling sound and the sphere… changed. Opening up like a flower in a manner that made the eyes twist, something about the space around it suddenly looking odd, to a radius of about six feet. Lisa stared, trying to work out what had happened.

There was nothing instantly obvious, but there definitely _was_ something there above the now not at all spherical thing Taylor had produced. "What the hell?" she mumbled, her power trying to get to grips with it. "Fractal dimensional structure, EDM fibers… some sort of constantly changing spacial fold?"

"More or less," Taylor remarked, making a steel bar about six feet long and half an inch in diameter, which she carried over to the vicinity of the device on the floor. She waved the end of it through that very slightly hazy zone surrounding the thing, both the others gaping as the end six inches of it suddenly vanished without apparently slowing the swing at all, producing a brilliant flash of white light that left them blinking wildly along with a very loud thumping explosion that made things rattle around the room.

"Holy… What the hell did _that?_ " Amy gasped in shock.

"A very large number of very fine EDM filaments that are cycling through about fifteen thousand different spacial arrangements every second," Taylor replied, waving the bar back through the space, another foot vanishing in the same manner. "They're about the same diameter as a water molecule and maybe six feet long. Totally rigid and sticking out like porcupine quills in a zig-zag pattern, but the space around the thing is cycling through thousands of different combinations over and over again, which means they basically fill the entire zone and move really fast. Like hundreds of thousands of razor blades sharp enough to cut things up on an atomic scale. The flash and the bang is all the ultra-fine metal powder combining with oxygen in the air and burning."

"Fucking hell," Lisa whispered as what she was looking at suddenly made sense. "The haze in the air and that weird smell is the air _itself_ getting chopped up."

"Yep." Taylor made the remnants of the bar go away. The thing on the floor evaporated soundlessly as she turned around and came back to them. "I had the idea when we were designing the wall. It's a variation on the method I used to nest all the panels inside each other."

"That's terrifying," Amy said quietly.

"Tell me about it. I could make them as landmines, or grenades, you name it. No explosives needed. Anything other than EDM that goes into there comes out as a practically mono-atomic powder."

"What about you?" Lisa asked curiously.

"It stings a lot," Taylor smiled. "It's not lethal to me, but it hurts. Anyone else, though… They wouldn't even have time to scream."

"Shit."

"I came up with all sorts of ideas along the same lines. Rounds for Athena Lite that open up into rotating mesh nets of different sizes, then go back to full mass, for example. Basically huge rotating knives that would slice up anything they hit. Never mind all the chemical loads, or simple kinetic kill projectiles. I also worked out the energy release of the actual Athena load if I made it go full mass as it was fired."

Lisa looked at her, then did some quick mental arithmetic. Then wished she hadn't.

"Promise me you'll never do that," she said faintly.

"I have no more wish to kill the entire planet than you do," her friend mumbled.

"How much?" Amy asked, not as quick on the mental calculations.

"About forty-three teratons of TNT equivalent," Lisa said, trying not to fall over. "Roughly the same as a good-sized asteroid impact. A dino-killer sized one."

"Oh, god," the healer squeaked. "No, let's never do _that_."

"I'm not planning on it," Taylor noted. "Believe me. I _like_ this planet. It's the only one we have."

"We should do something about that at some point," Lisa said, staring at Taylor as if she'd never seen her before. "Just in case."

"Put it on the list," the other girl smiled.

"It's getting pretty long."

"We'll never lack for things to do, though."

"All too true."

All three of them were silent for a while, thinking about the events of the last little while. Eventually Taylor smiled more brightly. "Really?" she said, not to any of them. A moment passed, then her smile grew into a definite grin of enjoyment. "Great, that's fantastic!" She was obviously talking to the Varga. Focusing on the two other people actually physically present, she said, "Hey, want to see one of the flying forms Varga and I have been working on? He's just worked out the first really solid design, he told me."

"Sure," Lisa smiled, leaning forward eagerly. "Show us."

"All right. This one is cool, you might recognize where we got the idea. It's still a work in progress, there are some optimizations we need to do, but he's pretty sure it will work. He's been thinking about it all day."

"And I believe it will be quite amusing," the Varga put in. "Not to mention somewhat less worrying than the larger end of the possible variants, such as the image she showed you."

"That one _was_ a bit big," Amy allowed with a laugh. "I still can't believe you could actually do it."

"I'll prove it one day, but not now. This one, though, should be fun."

Taylor walked to the middle of the room, smirked at them smugly, then changed.

"Wow!" both the other girls said simultaneously. The large, absolutely and totally, light-absorbingly, _black_ dragon in the center of the floor grinned at them with a mouthful of gleaming teeth.

"Good, isn't it?" she said, craning her neck around to inspect herself. "First time I've seen it. Nice job, Varga."

"Thank you, Brain," he replied, sounding pleased. "The wing structure needs fine tuning as we were discussing, but the internals are mostly done. I'm not sure it would fly properly yet. I think the tail needs some work too."

"Lisa, check us out and see if your power can give us anything," Taylor suggested.

Getting up, the blonde girl walked around the latest form her friend had produced, marveling at the fantasy brought to life in front of her. Amy was simply staring, entranced, her chin in her hands and a smile on her face.

"You know you give me a headache," she pointed out. "My power just goes _blibble_ and blows bubbles when I try to analyze you."

"Don't try to analyze _me,_ try to analyze the _form_ ," Taylor suggested. "Maybe that will tell you something."

Lisa tried her friend's suggestion, feeling that her power was fascinated yet again by the whole thing. As far as she could tell it had entirely stopped trying to deeply probe the Varga itself, mostly out of self-preservation, but it seemed happy to have a stab at doing what Taylor had mentioned. Even so, it wasn't having all that much luck, although that wasn't dissuading it.

"Well, it's viable, if that helps. I'm mostly sure about that. Assuming the structural strength is high enough and the power to weight ratio is as well. But I think we can assume the answer is yes to both, knowing you." She pointed at Taylor's tail. "I think you need to adjust the shape and position of those fins quite a bit if you intend them to work as a rudder. That movie was surprisingly close but not perfect."

Looking back over her shoulder, Taylor lifted her tail. "OK. What sort of change?"

"Ah… make them about forty percent larger, move the leading edge forward by the same amount..." She watched as the tail flowed into a different shape. "OK. Slightly thinner at the root, then stiffen the ribs… Yes, perfect. Make the vertical one on the tail go the whole length and twice as tall, too. That's it."

"Anything else?"

"Open your wings again?"

The enormous things unfurled, covering half the distance between the walls. "Um. They need to be about… maybe fifteen… no, eighteen percent longer, and four percent deeper front to back."

"Chord, that's called. Like this?"

"Yes. Great. That's probably about the best I can do, but my power is certain it will be stable now. The rest you'll have to figure out for yourself."

Taylor smiled widely. "Wonderful. Thanks, Lisa. And Lisa's power. You should give it a name."

"I..." Lisa stared at her reptilian friend. "A _name?_ "

"Why not?"

After a _long_ pause, Lisa shook her head. "I'm worried by the way I can't immediately come up with what should be an obvious answer to that question."

Amy started giggling, making Lisa look at her, then sigh heavily. "Thanks."

"Your face was really funny, you looked like a dog trying to work out how to get a biscuit from the other side of a window," Amy laughed. "Very confused, but sure there was a way."

"Really, thanks a bunch," the blonde mumbled. "Remind me why I think of you two as friends again?"

"Because we're so cool?"

"Nooo… That's not it." Lisa grinned as Amy mock-glared at her. "Oh, I remember, you make cool toys. So, can you make one of _those_ for me?" she asked brightly, waving at Taylor, who was standing with her wings out, looking pleased with herself.

Amy studied their friend's draconic form. Taylor posed for her, curling her long neck up and staring down her nose at them in a suitably supercilious fashion, her tail curled around her feet like a huge cat.

"I… really don't know yet," she finally said. "The power needed to make something that size fly… it's not trivial. But on the other hand, she's about the size of a light aircraft, and they don't have enormous engines. Huh." She thought some more, an intrigued expression on her face as she communed with her power. "Possible. Not trivial, but possible. I need to figure out a better bio-compatible power source, that's the main problem. Let me think about it."

She fell silent, looking at Taylor with a speculative expression while biting her lower lip a little. "Maybe smaller… Dimensional folds..." she mumbled under her breath. "More wings? No, that would look silly. Hmm..."

"She only weighs about as much as Ianthe like this, if that's any use," Lisa pointed out, her power helpfully supplying the information. "Hollow bones?"

"Exactly," Taylor replied. "We shaved as much mass off as seemed sensible. Luckily Varga biology is ridiculously strong and tough, so it's easy. We could make it a lot lighter, down to about my base form mass, but why bother? This should work, like you said."

She grinned, adding, "Hey, hit the lights, will you?"

"Why?" Amy said, even as she got up and went over to the switches, flipping them off.

"So I can do this," Taylor chuckled.

They stared at the blue glow that outlined their friend, as she opened her wings again and posed once more. "Neat, isn't it?"

"It's beautiful," Amy breathed. "Absolutely amazing."

"I can do this too," Taylor added, the tips of her wings suddenly lighting up red on the left and green on the right. "Navigation lights, look!"

"You are weird, really and truly," Lisa stated, sitting down again at the table and just watching. "But I have to admit that looks amazing. I'm getting envious all over again."

"I'll work on it, I promise," Amy laughed, turning the lights back on and joining her. "But we have other things to do first."

"That's unfortunately true," Taylor sighed, resuming her base form and wandering back to them, slumping at the table. "I'd prefer to play with dragon forms, but… we need to get ready to deal with the Merchants."

"I still believe we would be best served by preemptively attacking and rounding up the enemy, then handing them over to the PRT and the police, Brain," the Varga said reflectively. "Combined with the demoralizing effects of your raid last night, and Lisa's psychological operations on the internet, there are probably far less of them to deal with right now."

"I'm pretty sure he's correct," Lisa said. "As far as I can tell they're probably losing members steadily. I need to go back and have another look, I'll do that later, but I'd be amazed if they weren't down twenty percent or more by now. And there's a decent chance that we've fucked up Skidmark's plans by stealing his money anyway, since he can't pay anyone for anything now. So unless he found an arms dealer with a credit plan or something he might not have anything."

"Unless he'd already found what he wanted," Amy pointed out. "Sure, he might not be able to pay for whatever it is, but if he's got possession of it..."

"Um… valid point, I admit," she replied reluctantly. "Which makes taking out his backup even more important. From what… Linda… said, he only took about half a dozen or so people with him."

Taylor looked at both of them in turn. "Damn it all. Why the hell did that idiot have to go and get involved?" she complained, folding her arms and appearing annoyed. "We didn't do anything to _him_."

"Aside from threaten his entire lifestyle by potentially bringing hope to the exact people he sucks dry and feeds poison to," Amy suggested.

"Stop making sense, it's irritating," Taylor grumped.

"Cheer up, once we've dealt with the fuckwit, we can get on with more useful stuff. Like giving dear old Mr Calvert the worst day of his life." Lisa grinned widely. "I'm looking forward to that _so much_."

They all laughed at that. The tone of her voice boded ill for the villain.

"All right, next topic." The blonde girl looked worried all over again. "Endbringers. I have some… weird conclusions... I need to run past you guys. If I'm right, the situation is even stranger than we thought."

Taylor and Amy exchanged gazes, then leaned forward. "Go on," Taylor said, sounding very interested and somewhat apprehensive.

"I was checking the tracking logs…" Lisa began the story, watching her friends look more and more shocked as she spoke.

* * *

Blinking sleep-encrusted eyes, the woman formerly known as Sherrel stretched, feeling unusually comfortable. She'd slept far better than normal, there were no aches and pains, and the normal craving for something narcotic to both wake her up and take the edge off life was entirely absent. All in all she hadn't felt this good in half a decade or more.

Yawning, she sat up, looking around the room she was in, the light of day showing it in more detail. The number of beds showed it was a dorm room, five empty ones plus the one she was in, but while it was basic it was still a vast improvement on her former quarters. The complete lack of anyone trying to kill her was a significant improvement, aside from anything else.

Wondering what time it was, she got out of bed, flipping the blankets back and standing up. Going over to the window, wearing only a t-shirt and underwear, she pulled the blind up and peered out. Several stories below her the yard was full of people moving around, the area where they were scrapping that enormous ship Kaiju had moved alive with activity. Cutting torches and thermal lances were throwing sparks everywhere, gangs of people, both men and women, moving large chunks of former vessel around with heavy machinery.

A line of rail cars was being filled with scrap and as she watched, a small switch engine chugged into life, hauling the first set of six away while another one came into view pulling six more empty ones, which were pushed into position. Cranes immediately swung into activity, dumping yet more steel into the cars. Some of it was still smoking slightly from being cut.

Pushing the window up, she leaned on the sill and watched, the sounds of over a hundred people and lots of machinery coming to her on the light breeze. The effect was one of hard work and cooperation, something she found she admired more than she'd expected.

If nothing else, these people were good at what they did and seemed friendly.

Sighing lightly, she watched the work for some time, her power suggesting all the things she could make from the machines below her, and the scrap being steadily loaded into the rail cars. Thousands of tons of it was heading for a smelter somewhere, she presumed. By the looks of it, they'd already whittled the tanker down by at least a quarter.

Assuming what she'd heard was accurate, the plan was to keep going with the rest of the Ship's Graveyard, ultimately clearing it completely. That would probably take several years and a lot more people, but the difference it would make to the city would be significant. Linda tried to imagine what it would be like without hundreds of wrecked ships cluttering the landscape, and all these warehouses and buildings full of life and activity like they had been fifty years before.

It was difficult. She'd lived in this area for years, but had only ever seen it in a state of decay and ruin. The idea that all that could change, and so quickly, was… strange.

But something she found herself interested to see, she decided.

Closing the window, since she was getting cold, she moved over to the nearest radiator and sat on the floor next to it, warming up again on the old cast iron, while she tried to put her feelings and thoughts into some sort of order. She had some decisions to make.

There was no going back to what life had been before, that went without saying. Not that she wanted to. Adam was… not the man he had been, definitely, and she was beginning to wonder if he ever really had been. Looking back on the last few years, what she could clearly remember of it at least, which was much less than was probably healthy, she could now pick out the signs that the man had been unstable right from the beginning of their relationship.

The quick wits and sense of humor had long become submerged under a level of paranoia and suspicion that was worrying at best, while the seeds of violence and acting without considering the consequences had been there all along. Years of narcotic abuse had only made everything much more pronounced, she could see that now.

Sighing, she put her head in her hands, squeezing it lightly and massaging her scalp with her fingertips. She had no great claim to having been better, she thought, she'd gone along with him all this time after all. People had undoubtedly been injured or killed as a result of some of the things she'd built, even if only incidentally. Linda was pretty sure she'd never personally killed anyone directly, or seriously injured them except in self defense, but…

It wasn't what she'd intended to do with her life.

Only chance, and a fucking enormous alien lizard, had pulled her out of what she was certain would have been a fairly short and unpleasant life. She still couldn't wrap her mind around the way things had so suddenly changed, and the people who had changed it. Even with her long talk with Saurial, who she had discovered she really liked. Metis and Ianthe too, they all seemed like good people, even with the tails and scales.

' _Aliens_ ,' she pondered, her eyes shut and her mind whirling. ' _Fucking unbelievable. But I actually believe it. How the hell did_ ** _that_** _happen?_ '

There was no good answer to that question.

Pushing herself to her feet, she retrieved a change of clothes, the towel the Hebert man had given her, and the washing supplies, then headed off for a shower. Locking the cubicle door behind her, she took her current attire off and examined her appearance clinically in the full-length mirror that formed one side of the small room. It was beyond weird to think that the stranger in the glass was actually her.

The woman she was looking at wasn't the one she was used to seeing, although the differences weren't enormous. But all together, they added up to an entirely separate person, one no one who had known her would ever associate with Sherrel. Running her hand through her new brown hair, she shook her head in wonder. Ianthe's work was incredible.

"Hello, Linda," she said softly, the altered pitch of her voice sounding weird to her. "Nice to meet you, I guess. What do _you_ think I should do?"

There was no answer, of course.

Eventually she turned the water on, soaking under the hot flow for some time. The feeling of the water running over her helped her think, as she went over all the options she had, including a couple of new ones she came up with. By the time she turned the water off, she'd come to a decision.

"Looks like both of us are going to ask if we can stay, hey, Linda?" she asked her reflection, toweling her hair dry. "We can see if the DWU wants a Tinker. If nothing else, I want to find out how Saurial kept making things from nowhere."

She could see some very interesting possibilities from that talent and was curious to see if the lizard-girl was interested in some project ideas she had...

* * *

Brian looked up from his conversation with Rachel, which actually _was_ a conversation, even if it was mostly grunts on her part as she ate, to see a new face come into the cafeteria. The woman, who looked to be about four or five years older than he was, seemed uncertain and a little worried as she looked around.

"Wonder who that is?" he asked. Rachel, who was currently half-way through her second helping of either late lunch or early dinner, followed his eyes for a moment.

"Dunno. Saw her with the boss last night. Looked fucked up and tired. Better now." She went back to eating, the two dogs at her feet peering up hopefully at her.

Glancing at his companion with inner amusement, since this was for her quite a long speech, he went back to watching the brunette. She was hovering around the end of the queue for the hot food like she wasn't sure if she should join it or not. After a moment, he got up and walked over. "You look a little lost," he remarked with a smile, knowing the feeling all too well. "I'm Brian."

"I'm… Linda," she replied, the pause almost unnoticeable, but making him think she'd almost said another name. "Hello, Brian."

"New around here? You look sort of worried."

"I got here last night. It's a long story that isn't over yet," she sighed. "I was hungry and followed my nose." She scanned the cafeteria, which was quite busy. "Do I have to do anything special to get something to eat?"

"Nope. Just grab a tray, pick what you want, and find a table," he said, waving his hand at the pile of trays near the end of the line. "Food's good, nothing wildly exotic, but lots of it. Help yourself."

The woman seemed relieved, and a little shocked at the informality of the whole place. "Um, thanks, Brian," she said as she headed for the trays.

"Free space at my table over there if you want it," he called after her, pointing when she looked back, then returned to sit across from Rachel, who had ignored the entire thing. Shortly, Alec turned up, having been in the line for some time for thirds. Sitting down next to the girl, the black-haired boy picked up his fork.

"You're going to get fat if all you do is eat and play games all day," Brian pointed out with a grin. Alec shrugged, grinning back.

"Fast metabolism. And those games are intense, burn a lot of calories."

"Sure they do."

"I'm telling you, it's true! By the time I've finished shooting everyone I'm sweating."

Chuckling, Brian went back to his own food. They ate in silence for a few minutes, before Mark came in, catching Brian's eye, then headed over. Squatting down next to the table, he looked at both boys. "Got a moment, guys?" he asked in a low voice.

"Sure," Brian nodded. Alec merely raised an eyebrow in an inquisitive way.

"Got a training opportunity for you both, if you're up for it. DWU defense forces."

"What the hell is that?" Alec asked.

"A whole new job category," Mark replied with a small smile. "Auxiliary force for the security team. Brian, I know we talked about security work a while back, but you've been busy with Jason. With this new possible threat from the Merchants, we're putting together a group of people who can help defend the place if it all kicks off. Got some cool new toys to help with that, aside from anything else you might bring to the table." He looked at both of them, in a meaningful manner. "But there's some training involved. Zephron suggested both of you might be a good fit." He glanced at Alec with a smirk. "Put some of the wasted time on the consoles to good use."

"It's not wasted time, it keeps me busy. No one wants me wandering around bored, trust me," Alec snickered.

Rachel, who wasn't obviously paying attention, nodded. "Pain in the ass when he's _happy_ ," she muttered. "Worse when he's bored."

"Thanks, Rach, I love you too," Alec laughed, reaching out to ruffle her hair. She growled at him in a manner remarkably like one of her dogs and he aborted the motion half-way, turning it into a scratch of his own head and making Brian and Mark both smirk.

"Anyway, if you're up for it, come see me in the security office around five this afternoon, OK? I've got other people to talk to, so I can't go into details now, but you'll probably find it interesting."

Looking at Alec, who shrugged one shoulder but appeared intrigued, Brian turned back to the older man and nodded. "All right, sir, we'll be there."

"Great." Mark stood again. "We need to get you some more hand to hand training as well. Saurial is interested in teaching some Family techniques if you're up for that too. Girl is fucking lethal, I want to see how much of that she can pass on. Danny thinks it's a good idea."

"That could be… fascinating," he admitted, feeling some excitement. He'd seen the lizard-girl training with Ianthe at one point and she was definitely the best martial artist he'd ever come across, with or without a tail.

"See you guys later." The blond security head turned and headed for the coffee machine, quickly filling a cup and leaving the room.

A couple of minutes later, Brian noticed Linda heading their way, glancing about for a free space. He raised a hand and waved it, catching her eye. The brunette looked at him, then came over. As she approached, he said in a low voice, "Try not to be too… Alec, Alec."

His friend and team-mate looked offended, while Rachel snorted into her glass of water, the grunt sounding amused.

"I don't know what the hell you mean, Brian," Alec said.

" _Sure_ you don't. Just keep it down for now, she's new and will need time to get used to you."

There was no response other than a small smirk, but he thought his friend would probably be good. For a while.

Hopefully.

"Do you mind if I sit here?" Linda said, reaching them and seeming a little overwhelmed by the controlled chaos in the large room. Brian nodded at the chair next to him, across from Alec.

"Not at all, help yourself."

She put the tray she had down on the table, then sat. "This is my friend Alec, and next to him is Rachel."

Linda inspected them both, her eyes narrowing a little when she met Rachel's, then widening. The other girl looked back in a challenging manner. After a moment, just as he was about to warn his friend not to do what she often tended to, Rachel nodded a little and went back to eating.

' _She really has changed,_ ' he thought in mild wonder.

Linda was still looking at Rachel, but quickly looked away when he cleared his throat. "So, are you just visiting, or…?" he asked tentatively.

" _Or_ , I think," she said after a couple of second's reflection. "So far everything I've seen here is… interesting." She arranged her fish and chips, added some pepper, then started eating.

"A local? Or from out of town?"

She glanced at him. "You ask a lot of questions," she smiled.

"Only basic ones," he smiled back. "Around here we leave people's pasts alone. And like it that way."

"So I'm told," she commented with a slight sigh. "Probably for the best."

He got the impression that she had a past she'd rather forget. He could definitely sympathize with _that,_ too.

"Born a long way south of here," she added after a couple of mouthfuls. "But I've lived in the Bay for years. Circumstances… sort of changed… recently. Still trying to work out why. I ended up here." She shrugged. "I've decided that it's as good a place as any and better than most. I'm going to see if I can get a job here."

"What do you do?" he asked, finishing his meal, then putting his knife and fork down and picking up his coffee.

"Mechanical engineering, more or less," she replied, having apparently thought about it for a moment. "Make it, fix it, design it, I'm pretty good, I think. If it's got wheels I can make it work. And probably even if it doesn't."

"Sounds like the motor pool would love you," he grinned. "They're always complaining we don't have enough good mechanics. Some of the machinery around here is ancient, hardly anyone seems to know how to fix it, even though it's really solidly made. Too old, no manuals, and no spare parts."

The woman looked amused. "That's not normally a problem," she replied, then drank some water. "I've fixed all sorts of crap no one had any more use for."

"Rachel said she saw you with Mr Hebert last night," he commented after she'd eaten some more, already appearing less nervous. "Have you talked to him about staying?"

"We talked," she nodded. "For some time, actually. I met Saurial and her cousins as well. That was… different."

He laughed out loud. "Oddly enough I'm not surprised you'd think that. They're a shock the first time. And the second, and sometimes the third," he snickered. "Good people, though, no matter what they look like. Always ready to help out if you need it, too. They're trusted DWU members and friends."

She studied him, then went back to eating. "Odd place," she muttered.

"Definitely. Still, it's never boring."

The woman actually grinned at that remark. Having fetched a refill, he ended up talking to her for the rest of his lunch break, even after Rachel and Alec left, answering a lot of questions about how things worked around the DWU. She seemed like an interesting and probably very talented person.

He thought she wouldn't have any trouble getting a job here, no matter what her background really was.


	202. Omake - Recruitment Drive

_Various comments after the ' **Benny** ' interlude led me down an interesting path... I wrote most of this a while ago, but decided to finish it off and post it, just for amusement value. We'll see what, if anything, happens to the idea as time goes on._

* * *

"You wanted to see me, sir?"

ATF Special Agent Matt Smith studied his superior, who was sitting behind his desk, reading a file, while in a seat on the other side a severe-looking woman he'd never seen before was looking through a briefcase. Director Tennant looked up at him, then waved him in.

"Come in, Smith. Shut the door."

He did as requested, standing to attention in front of the desk. The woman was now inspecting him closely, her expression cold yet vaguely approving. "This is Agent Pond from the Treasury. We have an assignment which we both feel you would be a good fit for."

Matt could see out of the corner of his eye that the woman had a folder with his photo in it open in her briefcase. As far as he could tell it was his service record.

"Sir?" he asked politely. "What sort of assignment?"

"An undercover one, on the East Coast," Agent Pond replied before the Director could, her voice as cold as her face. "We need someone who can blend in with a blue-collar organization convincingly, to gather intelligence on a suspected organized crime ring. Probably the largest one in the country, and one no one has ever heard of. They're dangerous, smart, and very connected."

He glanced at her, his eyebrows up, then looked back at the man who told him what to do. "Who are we talking about?"

"The Brockton Bay Dockworkers Union," Director Tennant replied after a moment.

Matt frowned.

"Who?"

"Exactly!" Agent Pond pointed at him triumphantly. "No one has heard of them. Even in an agency that deals with exactly the sort of threat these people represent on a daily basis." She shook her head, her face taking on an actual expression, one of mild admiration mixed with frustration. "It's genius. We can't work out how they've managed it, but hardly anyone outside their own city has ever heard the name, and most people _inside_ that city think they're merely a simple labor union. That man is… _annoyingly_ competent."

"Sit down, Smith," Director Tennant said, looking at his other guest with a faint frown for a moment. Matt moved to the chair indicated. Agent Pond opened her mouth to say something else, but subsided when the man behind the desk held up a hand.

"This is the situation. You are aware of Brockton Bay?"

That part he knew. No one who watched TV or read the news could fail to recognize the name, even before recent events involving lizards of totally absurd sizes swimming around doing Darth Vader impressions.

He nodded.

"Up the coast from Boston, not quite out of Massachusetts. Hotbed of Parahuman activity for some reason. Three major gangs, several smaller ones, also is the location of the PRT ENE base. Some very odd things have been going on there over the last few months that seem to involved a number of reptilian Parahumans."

"Correct." The Director looked pleased. "What you won't have heard is that there are actually _four_ major gangs. The three well known ones, the Empire Eighty Eight, the Azn Bad Boys, and the Archer's Bridge Merchants, are the ones people all over the country if not the world are aware of. The E88 is a neo-nazi organization, the ABB is essentially an affiliation of members of Asian descent, while the Merchants are a fairly stereotypical drug-running gang involved in prostitution and armed robbery as well."

He stopped to see if Matt was following. He was, nodding to the other man to continue. Most of this was stuff he'd known for some time, although he'd never been to the place.

"OK. Now, recently, it has come to our attention that there is a fourth gang in the Bay, one that is quite possibly as large as the other three put together, is definitely far more dangerous, and is wildly better trained and equipped. How they've managed to stay under the radar for so long is currently unknown with certitude, but we believe it is mainly the work of this man." He handed the folder he'd been perusing over the desk, Matt taking it and opening it, studying the contents.

"Daniel Francisci Hebert, 44, on the books as the chief negotiator for the Dockworkers Union. Our information is that he actually runs the entire organization. The man who is technically in charge, Michael John O'Brian, 64, is hardly ever even in the city, and as far as we can tell is basically just a fall guy. He's been in Miami for six months, allegedly dealing with a sick mother, but we're working on confirming that."

"OK, so this Hebert character runs the place. I'm not clear on the problem."

"The problem, Agent Smith, is that there is chatter from a number of highly-placed sources that Mr Hebert is actually a top-level Mafia boss, running the entire operation as a front for some other, presumably nefarious, purpose. We've heard from people all up and down the coast, including some people in New York who are… let's say they're about as high up the food chain as it gets. Old families, old money, old power. And they all consider Mr Hebert there to be someone to look up to."

"He's successfully pulled the wool over the eyes of every law enforcement agency in the country," Agent Pond added with disgust. "His cover is, or at least was, immaculate. No data on him at all from any of the normal sources, right up to around the beginning of February this year. But we have reason to believe that he's been active for at least twenty years, probably quietly supported by some of the largest names in the business from Chicago down to Miami."

"His organization has received deliveries from known organized crime locations in New York, Philadelphia, New Jersey, and Syracuse. We don't know what the shipments were, who exactly sent them, or what was done with them."

"Maybe it was just an innocent series of coincidences?" Matt suggested, still skimming the folder. "I can't see anything here at all that would suggest that he's other than law-abiding."

Agent Pond snorted derisively. "That's the brilliance of the man at work. His record is clean. Not completely, he knows that would be suspicious, so there are a few minor black marks that we're certain were deliberately salted there. Same for his organization. Nothing anyone can point at and say was criminal, but for example every time there's been a cape fight in the last decade or more, his group somehow gets the work to repair the damage."

Matt nodded thoughtfully. That did sound like evidence of something odd going on.

"A background check on a number of the DWU workers has shown a worryingly large percentage are ex-military. Not all of them _our_ military. At least six we've identified as having been suspected or convicted of serious crimes in the past. When they got out of jail, they somehow ' _coincidentally_ ' ended up working for Hebert. There are dozens of examples of this sort of circumstantial evidence if you dig deeply enough, but it's all on the surface innocent. Even the local LEOs are probably in on it, our information is that a number of police officers have regular contact with these ' _dock workers._ '

"It goes deeper too," Director Tennant carried on when the woman fell silent. "There is some evidence that the city government may be involved in some capacity. Mayor Roy Travis Christner, 46, is a known associate of Hebert's, and in fact was the driving force behind the recent urban renewal program that began with the public debut of the Parahuman known as ' _Kaiju_ ' in the middle of February. He has been spotted in the company of Mr Hebert on a number of occasions, and Mr Hebert has been to his house for dinner, accompanied by his daughter. What they talked about is unknown. Even getting this much information was exceptionally difficult. His people are unusually loyal."

Turning the large monitor on his desk around so Matt could see it, he tapped a key on his keyboard. "This was taken by one of the news crews during the build-up to the operations in the bay that day. What do you see?"

Matt watched the video play. "The target Daniel Hebert talking to several people. Director Piggot of the PRT ENE, I believe, is one of them."

"Correct. Keep watching."

He saw the man they were discussing move to another one, who was wearing a very expensive suit. Next to him was an older man with silvering hair, accompanied by two obvious security people. He recognized that one with surprise. "That's Massachusetts Governor Scott!"

"Yes. The one next to him is Mayor Christner. He is apparently well known by the governor."

Hebert chatted to the governor for a couple of minutes, Mayor Christner putting in a few words as well, then they moved on, ultimately ending up sitting at a table at the rear of what looked like a rooftop press area, in the company of a short, neat man and a strikingly beautiful woman. Matt admired the woman for a moment before his gaze focused on the man.

He stiffened in shock.

"Fuck me, that's…"

"Indeed it is."

"I didn't think he left Boston."

"He doesn't except very rarely, and only when it's very important. Look at how he's talking to both Hebert and Christner. Our intelligence people were amazed by this, the man actually looks almost relaxed. That can't be good."

"Why isn't this front page news?" he asked, stunned.

"Hardly anyone outside certain agencies knows what he actually looks like. The Rules, of course. Outing him without proof of some connection would be… politically very bad. The PRT would be extremely annoyed at best and we don't want to risk that unless we can be sure of coming out on top."

Killing the video, the man turned back to him. "We need someone on the inside. Someone who can pass as a physical laborer and actually do the work, but who knows what to look for, how to report it, and how to follow the evidence. Your record indicates you trained as a mechanic and can weld quite well, is this correct?"

"Yes, sir," Matt replied. "I do a lot of work on my car as a hobby. I don't know if I could fool a professional, though."

"They're hiring people right now, any reasonable experience is fine. I doubt you'd have trouble. You also look the part, you're the right age, strong, fit, and have a New Jersey accent. We'd like you to accept this assignment."

Matt considered the request, which was more of an order, and the whole situation. It sounded intriguing, if dangerous. An entirely stealth Mafia ring operating right out in the open? Their Boss being someone who hob-nobbed with the fucking _Governor?!_ This was a career-making opportunity.

Still… best to be careful.

"I would like to know more about the operation before I could say yes, sir," he prevaricated. "And I'm curious about the involvement of the Treasury."

"Understandable." Director Tennant glanced at Agent Pond, who shrugged.

"All right. Are you aware of the Family?"

"I don't see how I couldn't be, sir. Giant lizards are the sort of thing that stick in your memory." He shivered a little. "I had trouble sleeping for days after that news report."

"I'm not surprised." The man looked mildly amused. "That's a common reaction. Well, they appear to be associated in some manner with the DWU. We're unclear on the relationship and have had trouble getting information out of the PRT, assuming they actually know any more than we do. But we do know that the Family has a company, Brockton Bay Family Operations, LLC, which has its headquarters on DWU land." Matt nodded thoughtfully, he'd vaguely heard about this, although he hadn't known where they were.

"There are currently five known Family members." The director prodded another key. An image came up on the monitor, the blue-scaled creature there smiling at the camera. "This is Saurial, the first one that turned up in early January. Age unknown. Height approximately six and a half feet. Weapons specialist, Tinker of some form, very high degree of skill in combat, smart, strong, and extremely fast. Also apparently an expert in applied psychological warfare. Has been single-handedly responsible for reducing the crime rate in Brockton Bay by nearly forty percent. Although, in light of the information we have, that might be better described as eliminating the competition."

The next image came up. "Raptaur. Second one to arrive. Saurial's sister. Age unknown. Height approximately eight and a half feet. Bipedal or quadrupedal depending on circumstances. Heavy weapons expert, again extremely combat-experienced. Probably a Tinker as well, prefers head on attack. Like her sister, she is smart, agile despite an estimated weight of nearly a ton, much faster than she should be, and high Brute level strength."

Another tap of a key produced a more familiar image. This one he knew. "Kaiju. The third one, again apparently a sister. Age unknown. Height approximately eighty-five to ninety feet, weight estimated at over five hundred tons. Largest Parahuman on the planet by a large margin, quite possibly the strongest as well. Combat abilities unknown, but based on her sheer size, she could simply stand on anyone she was fighting. She's been seen to take a shot from Eidolon to the back of the head and barely notice. Also has Tinker skills, very well-spoken, and smart."

Matt listened and watched with a sense of slightly numb shock. He hadn't realized quite how dangerous those reptilian things were.

His superior changed the image again. "Ianthe. The fourth one. Age unknown. Height approximately seven and a half feet. Apparently a cousin of Saurial's. Healer, weapons skill unknown but assumed to be similar to the others. Also known to have some form of built in projectile weaponry. Like her cousins, smart and strong."

The last image appeared, showing a very similar lizard, only with different color scales. "Metis. Age unknown. Height approximately seven and a half feet." Matt studied the amazingly black creature that was shown talking to a normal person. "We believe she is some form of Thinker, as well as a Healer in the same way as Ianthe. Extremely intelligent, perceptive, combat experienced. Weapons skill unknown but assumed to be similar to the others. Has the built in weapons of Ianthe and an ability to generate a significant electrical charge through her hands."

The man stopped the briefing. "You should also bear in mind they all have claws sharp enough to shred body armor, and don't actually _need_ weapons to kill a normal human. Or even most capes. These people are _extremely_ dangerous."

Matt swallowed a little. "And work for Hebert?"

"We're not entirely certain. They are definitely associated with the DWU, though, they're even members of the union and pay all their dues, get the same insurance benefits, and from what we hear are considered part of the group. Generally, after an initial shock, people seem to get on well with them. At least in Brockton, which is an unusual place at the best of times."

Director Tennant looked at Agent Pond, who nodded. Taking up the story, she began, "We are interested in the group due to the oddities surrounding their financing. Vast amounts of materials have been used in construction over the last few weeks, but we can find no record of how they were paid for, or even where they came from. We suspect that there is an underground money-laundering and smuggling system of a complexity and subtlety never before encountered at work, which is worrying on a number of levels. So far we have failed to get any details on what's going on, or get any of our people into a position to check. We decided to combine forces."

"There is some evidence of weapons trafficking," the director interjected. "That's enough to get us involved. We also know that six warehouses were demolished in one day some while ago, which would require a large amount of explosives, but we have no permit on record for explosive-handling for anyone at the DWU. Another reason to investigate."

"I understand," Matt nodded. "Do we have any reason to believe that the Mayor is directly involved?"

"We have no _proof_ that he is. There is plenty of reason to _believe_ it. The association with Mr Hebert is too strong to be anything other. It's not impossible, unfortunately, that it might even go as high as the Governor. Such things have happened in the past. We have to assume that Hebert may well have managed to compromise the entire local police force and city government. He's had twenty years to work on this."

"Christ." Matt shook his head in wonder. "The man must be brilliant."

"And ambitious, and careful. We're not sure of the connection to the old families, but I personally am sure there is one. His wife may have been involved as well. She died some years ago in a car accident, allegedly. There are… inconsistencies."

"He had her killed?"

"More likely someone else did. We think they paid the price. There's no record of anything, which is suspicious under the circumstances."

"Any other family?"

"Only the daughter, Taylor Anne Hebert, 15. School records indicate she's a math prodigy, very calm, obviously well trained. Undoubtedly being groomed to take over the family business. She is also a friend of several members of New Wave. She is particularly close with Panacea, or Amy Dallon, from our information. Additionally she's been seen in the company of a number of young people whose parents are influential in the city. Lawyers, financial people, and of course she knows the Mayor, who apparently thinks highly of her."

"Any chance we could use her to get information on her father?"

"That would be unwise," Agent Pond replied. "It is a matter of record that she is close friends with the Family, and they have publicly stated that they would take a dim view of any threats or harm befalling their friends. We can't risk it. We're working on getting an undercover agent of the right apparent age into her high school but so far haven't found the right person."

"I see." Matt looked at the folder in his hands once more, then closed it and handed it back. "I'm in. What am I supposed to be doing?"

"You will proceed to Brockton Bay, apply for, and hopefully get, a job in the DWU, and watch. For the moment, just that. We need to collect as much background information as possible on their internal activities before we can design a plan of attack. We need to take the entire organization down in one hit, or in all probability we'll lose Hebert and the top people for good. They're too well connected to take chances with."

He nodded as the woman stopped. "I understand."

"Understand this as well, Smith," the Director remarked, leaning forward. "This is a dangerous assignment. Possible the most dangerous one you've ever had. We have no way to know what they would do if they even suspect you aren't what you appear to be. A cover story has been generated for you, along with all the documentation we can arrange, which should be good enough to fool practically anyone, even the damn CIA wouldn't see through it. But… this guy is _good._ And he's working with the Family, so god knows what they could bring to bear. We suspect there are most likely other Parahumans in the gang as well, although there is no proof of that."

The man pushed another folder across the desk to him from a stack of them at his right elbow. "Basically, don't trust anyone, don't give anything away, and _be careful!_ Your life depends on it. This has the documents you'll need to establish your cover, tickets on a series of flights that will take you to New York via a number of cutout locations, and the train tickets to Brockton Bay itself. There's a burner phone in there as well. When you arrive, contact us to let us know, then dump the phone and get a different one. We'll be monitoring you. Contact will be made through the normal undercover protocols at some point in the near future."

"Once we've collected enough information, we'll let you know the next stage in the plan," Agent Pond added. "But for the immediate future, you're just a New Jersey boy who's looking for a job. Stay alert. Don't underestimate _anyone_."

"I understand, sir. And ma'am."

"Good luck, Smith."

"Thank you, sir."

Matt picked up the folder, then stood, nodded respectfully to both people, and left the room, his mind burning with curiosity and apprehension.

What would he find on this assignment?

There was no way to tell at the moment, but whatever happened, if he survived it, his career was assured, he felt certain.

* * *

Behind him, in the office he'd just left, the man and woman looked at each other. "You believe he can do it, Director Tennant?" the cold voice asked.

"He's one of the best I have, and the only one who matches the requirements you have," the man replied. "I have confidence in Smith."

"I hope you're right. There could be a lot at stake here." Agent Pond shook her head in disgust. "Although you'd never know it, considering how much trouble I had getting authorization for this operation. A number of people in government are far too accepting of the Family and the entire Brockton Bay situation. It makes me wonder..."

Director Tennant stared at her. "You don't think…?"

"Who knows?" she sighed. "That man is _good._ "

"Christ."

"Welcome to my world," she muttered, putting her papers away into her briefcase, then closing it and standing up. "I'll be in contact."

"Until later, Agent," he said absently, mulling over the nasty train of thought her words had started. The door closing behind her didn't disturb his concentration.

* * *

"Ma'am? You asked me to see you?"

"Yes, come in, Lieutenant, and close the door." Russell did as requested, sitting in the chair the elderly woman behind the desk waved him to. She was perusing a folder on the desk. Looking up after ten seconds or so, she inspected him. "The Office of Naval Intelligence has another interesting assignment for you, Gatiss," she began. "A dangerous one, undercover, but also an important one." She leaned forward a little as he listened with interest. "Have you ever been to Brockton Bay?"


	203. Omake - A Different Box (Hellraiser)

_A little Omake to mark 75 kilolikes on SpaceBattles..._

* * *

"You are certain?"

"I am… _almost_ certain," the old man replied, frowning a little. The expression on the ancient wrinkled face was eerie. William had never seen him look quite that puzzled, the elderly expert in the arcane was normally supernaturally confident, presenting an appearance to the outside world of one who has seen and done it all, including things that you yourself would not care to even contemplate.

Now, however, Markus had a slight but definite air of confusion. William watched him warily. The expression boded ill, but the chances that what he had sought for half his life was finally available pushed his caution to one side.

"Why the prevarication, Markus?" he asked after the other man said no more for some time. "Is it or is it not one of Lemarchand's?"

Markus thought for a little longer, his gaze fixed on the table, before finally raising his eyes and meeting those of his guest.

"I would not swear on my soul that it was, but at the same time, it has to be," he said in a low voice. "The description matches almost perfectly. The intricacy of the construction, the sheer perfection of the mechanism… only one man has ever produced something of that level. But… there are... inconsistencies."

"Such as?"

"It is too old. Much too old. The crypt in which it was found had been sealed in fifteen-twelve and has lain undisturbed since then, to all appearances and according to all records I can locate. That is over two hundred and forty years _before_ Lemarchand created his great works. Yet, it is quite as described in the accounts of the various possessors of the devices throughout the last two centuries. I am unable to account for the inconsistency. Only two possibilities have occurred to me after much consideration, neither one being in my view likely, or so I would have thought before now."

William regarded his old colleague for a moment.

"What are they?"

"One is that the box was placed into the crypt long after it was initially sealed, then all evidence of this was very carefully removed. Possible, definitely, but most difficult. Everything I can locate tends to prove that the crypt was buried beneath the floor of the ancient temple since the date I mentioned. If it was later opened and resealed, it was done with a level of expertise and effort that is truly remarkable."

"You are sure that your detective work is accurate?"

The old man sneered at him. "You are not conversing with a neophyte, William. I am sure."

William dipped his head in acknowledgment of the admonishment. "I meant no insult."

Markus shrugged slightly. "I take no insult, but please do not imply such things again."

"As you wish. What is the second option?"

The ancient expert hesitated for a tiny moment, then let out a faint small sigh. "That Lemarchand did not, in fact, produce the artifact. However, if this is the case… it is so close, and so clearly of the same workmanship… it casts doubt on the provenance of all the other such creations. I suspect that there is a possibility that he did not actually manufacture any of them. It may be that he merely found them and that the true creator is lost to the mists of time. We may never know. If this is indeed the case, it might be that he repurposed the ones we know beyond doubt he had in his possession."

"If that's true… this one could work differently?"

Markus raised a hand, palm up. "I have no way to tell. The only certain way to find out is to solve the puzzle and open the box."

William regarded the other man for close to a minute, the only sound in the small room the hissing of the gas fire in the corner, staving off the chill of the London night.

Eventually, he reached into his pocket and removed a small cloth bag, dropping it on the table. It clinked loudly in the quiet of the room. "I am willing to experiment."

"It may not work, or it may not achieve the goal you desire," Markus warned even as he picked the bag up and opened it, tipping the gold coins into his hand and quickly counting them, before returning them to where they'd come from.

"That is a risk I accept," William said quietly. "I have sought this for too long to give up on the cusp of success. It is my only hope."

"Tales of what awaits whoever is both foolhardy and clever enough to open one of Lemarchand's boxes would suggest that hope may be misplaced." Markus peered at him over his half-moon glasses. "Many have tried and failed. _Some_ have tried and _succeeded_. It is an interesting and noteworthy curiosity that the latter are never heard from again. Perhaps you should seek elsewhere..."

"No." William shook his head firmly. "I have no time left. It is my choice, Markus."

After a moment, his companion sighed a little regretfully. "It is. Wait here, I will fetch the artifact."

Standing with an ease that belied his nearly eighty years, the elderly man left the room, while William turned his head to look out at the misty night, the lights of London stretching out four floors below him. He could just make out in the distance the taller buildings in the financial district, one of the new post-war skyscrapers half-constructed on the ruins of an entire block flattened by German bombs.

A sound at the door attracted his attention back to Markus, who re-entered the room holding a polished wooden box approximately six inches on a side, with brass fittings on the corners. The man carefully placed it in front of him, retaking his seat.

William reached out a slightly trembling hand, touching the box wonderingly, then operated the latch and opened the lid. Inside, nestled in a cavity in the silk lining the interior of the case, was a smaller cube, this one glinting in the light and betraying a construction of multiple metals mixed with an unknown type of wood. He stared at it for some time, before gently lifting it in his hand and looking closely at it.

The surface was so finely worked he couldn't see even a hint of tooling marks as he turned it over in his hands. Brass, steel, and what he thought was platinum all gleamed under the ceiling light, the surface totally smooth under his questing fingers. "A true work of art," he murmured in awe. "I can't feel a joint anywhere. It's as if it is made in one solid piece."

"Yet it isn't," Markus noted, taking it from him and showing him how parts of it would, with pressure and the right angle, shift and move. As the first section altered the shape of the device from a perfect three inch cube, a faint tinkling music began to play, the melody initially very simple. Each extra change added harmonies, the tune entirely unfamiliar but for some reason sounding like it was coming from much further away that the box between them, and giving each man a feeling of foreboding. "The workmanship is exquisite. Whether it was truly Lemarchand himself, or some predecessor, whoever made this was a genius." He pushed the three segments he'd moved back to their original positions, the eldritch music ceasing as the last part slid back into place with a faint click. "That is all I could discern of the workings, and frankly I have no wish to learn more."

The old man handed him back the cube. "I strongly urge you not to proceed, William. We have known each other for a long time, I should be distressed if an unpleasant fate befell you."

Putting the artifact back into its wooden case, William snapped the catches shut without replying. Standing, he picked his coat off the back of his chair, then put it on, before collecting the wooden box.

He looked at Markus. "Thank you for the concern, and the warning. I will let you know what I discover."

Markus watched as he left the room, the door closing behind him with a soft thud.

"I fear you may well not, dear boy," he sighed, before turning the fire and lights off and going to bed.

* * *

Two weeks and one day later, William sat in his study, the artifact on his desk in front of him. On either side were a number of books, most with scraps of paper marking specific pages. He was re-reading, yet again, the notes he'd made on the device, wondering what he was missing.

So far he'd managed to proceed through nine steps of what he thought were probably twelve from the procedure to fully open the box. After the third one, the music it produced took on new overtones, making him shudder despite himself and the things he'd seen over his forty years of life.

By the ninth section, the tune was almost orchestral, but played on instruments far out of his experience. He was used to it by now, as much as one could be, but the alien rhythms were still odd to his ears in a manner he'd have had trouble describing to any other person.

Sighing slightly, he put his notebook, replete with sketches of each configuration of the box, on the desk next to the object itself, then propped his chin on his hand and simply stared at it for some while. There was something missing, something he couldn't quite put a finger on, that had him flummoxed. Each motion to unlock the box led into the next with an elegant inevitability, once you managed to work it out. But that link between the current and next configuration took careful thought and seemed to increase in difficulty each time.

His ability to visualize the next likely move was becoming strained, as was his understanding of how the little mechanism could possibly move in the way that it did. Parts of it seemed to shift out of the way of other parts in a manner that defied what he would have considered normal geometry, although never when he could actually see the effect happening. Nevertheless, it did, the box opening out into something larger than it should have been capable of becoming. Each motion seemed both eerily silent and full of the sound of tiny, impossibly complex gears and other such mechanisms operating, a dichotomy he was entirely unable to explain.

Reaching out once more, he ran through the now-familiar sequence to the ninth configuration with the ease of much practice, ignoring the weird tune the thing started playing. When he hit the point he'd become stuck at, he put the box down and simply looked at it, attempting to extrapolate the next move. Some time passed, the tune repeating over and over, until he sighed again and leaned back in his leather chair, rubbing his eyes.

"Blasted thing," he muttered. "Whoever came up with you was a fiend. How they could possibly have achieved such a thing in the far-distant past is utterly beyond me. I'm sure even today we couldn't make a duplicate."

The box played on, ignoring him, as was only to be expected. Eventually he reached out to pick it up and close it again, blinking with tiredness.

His hand stopped half-way, and so did his breathing.

Staring at the box, he closed one eye, then the other one in turn, before looking away and peering at artifact out of the corner of his eye. Squinting, he moved his hand in front of it, before exhaling loudly.

"That… is remarkable," he murmured, watching as the shape of the device shifted slightly depending on how he obstructed it from one eye or the other, and how fast. "I would swear it is more than three dimensional. Impossible, but..."

Tentatively touching the box, he felt it, then closed his eyes and repeated the action. He could, now that he knew what he was looking for, feel a definite difference through his fingers to what his eyes were reporting.

"How on earth is that done?" he wondered, talking to himself as had become habit during these long evenings of experimentation. "You are indeed a marvelous creation, my boxy friend. Now, let's see..."

It took William more than two hours of patient work to discover the tenth configuration, even with his new insight. The eleventh, which was the result of only another half hour's effort, brought with it new overtones to the ever-present tune, which had become fearsomely complex, and also a distant, but definite, tolling of a bell. The sound sent shivers through him, but he persisted.

When the final shift in the device occurred, he put it down and simply watched as it kept moving, sliding through a number of bizarre shapes completely under its own volition, until it settled down into an oddly prosaic open cube, all four sides flat on the desk, with the top standing vertically. There was no sign of the mechanism by which any of the movement had been achieved, which was extremely puzzling.

Neither was there any sign of how the music, which was now quite loud, was being played. Indeed, the inside of the box seemed completely empty.

He prodded the now-quiescent device with one finger, experimentally. Nothing of note occurred.

"That is… not what I was expecting," he muttered, half-disappointed and half relieved.

The music abruptly and without warning stopped.

It was sudden enough that he actually flinched, before relaxing.

The bell, which had also ceased, suddenly tolled again. Much more loudly, loud enough in fact to make something in the filing cabinet on the other side of the room rattle.

The sound repeated eleven more times, the dull tones fading away as if into a huge space, then stopped.

He looked around, feeling oddly cold. The shadows in the corners of the room seemed to be larger than he remembered.

There was the feeling of something momentous about to happen, causing him to almost hold his breath.

Thirty seconds, as marked by the ticking of the old clock on the end of his desk, passed one after another, until he shook himself. "Well, old boy, that was a disappointing waste of time."

"That would depend on what you were expecting to happen," a smooth male voice said from the corner of the room where the shadows cast by his desk lamp were deepest. William whirled around, shocked, then stared.

"Who are you?" he demanded. A form moved in the darkness, an impression of a tall figure barely visible. Something metallic glinted as the figure turned its head a little. He felt a sensation of fear go through him, wanting to turn the light around to point that way, but at the same time dreading what he might discover.

"I, William?" the voice asked. "I am he who you called by your operation of the clever little device there on your desk. I am one of those who wait for such calls, rare as they are, in eager anticipation for new companions in the never-ending search for sensation and experience far beyond anything you might comprehend."

The figure took a step forward, a pallid face over a black leather-clad body emerging into the brighter light. In the shadows behind it, further vague movement could be dimly discerned, slight sounds of creaking leather and clinking metal on the verge of audibility. The shadows themselves took on an aura of immense, unending depth.

William drew back, suddenly and terrifyingly aware that he had made a serious error of judgment.

The pale-faced man smiled oddly at him. "Why so timid, William? Is this not what you wanted? Not what you have toiled, hour after hour, day after day, to achieve? To unlock the puzzle-box takes dedication and effort, although I will admit it doesn't require all that much intelligence. Merely persistence. I admire that quality in a… new acquaintance."

He smiled, the dozens of shiny metal spikes driven into his skull at the intersections of the raw scars that lined his exposed skin in a grid of exposed flesh reflecting the light as he moved. "Such experiences we will have, you and I. I look forward to all the things I can teach you." The smile grew wider, past the point a man should be able to manage.

William knew this wasn't, despite appearance, a man. Whatever was lurking behind him was even less so.

"May I ask, before we proceed, what your own goals may have been in acquiring and opening the box, William?" the thing looking at him asked, the polite manner overlaid with menace and an air of horrifying assurance. "Merely for my own curiosity, you understand. It will make little difference."

"I..." William licked his lips. "I was seeking a cure."

"A cure?"

The scarified and pierced head tilted. "Ah. An inoperable, slow, and wasting disease. I understand. You ran out of options for a cure by your medical sciences and thought to find such through the box. Not an entirely absurd hope, I must say. Diseases will not be an issue where you are bound. Although you may at first wish otherwise." He smiled again. "That will pass."

Reaching for the box, William put his hand on it. The figure watching him raised a finger and wagged it.

"Too late, William. Far too late. I am here, and I only leave when I have..."

The creature suddenly stopped speaking, without warning, his head still tilted inquisitively. The faint smile that the otherwise impassive face had been wearing faded to nothing. He peered around, for all the world nervously, his sharp gaze penetrating the dimness of the room, until he appeared to slightly relax.

This did not cheer William. Anything that could worry such as was standing in front of him was surely even worse.

"Odd," the thing murmured, its baritone voice sounding ever so slightly concerned. "I thought..." He trailed off. "No matter. Undoubtedly a fading resonance from the box." Pacing forward, while William leaned as far back as he could in his chair, smelling blood and leather and things beyond his ken, the demon reached out for the box on the table, his hand stopping inches away and seeming to caress the air around it. "It is an old one. Not the usual device, one tainted by young Philip so many years ago. How fascinating. This is… pure. Undisturbed. I find myself wondering where it has been, we have never felt the call of this particular box before."

Stepping back, he lowered his hand, the unnerving smile returning to bloodless lips. "You have managed something few have, William. You have gained my _personal_ interest. The reason I came myself, rather than send an associate. We will have much to discuss, and share, and learn, shall we not?"

Opening his mouth, the man in the chair emitted a slight croak from a dry throat. He swallowed, then repeated his attempt at speech. "I do not wish, on reflection, to avail myself of your services. Return whence you came." William swallowed again, harder, at the flash of anger that went through the infinitely deep dark eyes, before the demon smiled more widely.

"As I have said, it is far too late for such regrets and second thoughts. You. Are. Mine." He leaned down a little more with each word, as William pressed himself back into his chair, his heart hammering. "Now, I think I have indulged you far more than is fair. We must go." He straightened up, standing to one side and motioning to the shadows where he had appeared, which were now writhing slightly, the hints of motion more apparent. A slight sound of laughter echoed from that direction, along with what could have been a gasp of pain, as well as a wet sliding sound that made William's stomach churn.

"Come, my new friend, as I take you on a..."

Once more the thing trailed off, then whirled in a blur of motion, his leather robes flaring out, to stare at another corner of the room. William turned his head to see what he was looking at. There was a definite expression present now, one that was akin to… fear?

" _You_ ," the creature that was promising him something he was fairly sure he had no wish to experience, despite his looming fate, hissed in a voice containing malice and worry.

"Me," a new voice said, this one female, replied, the odd accent conveying a strange mix of irritation and amusement. "It's been quite a while. You're doing it again. That annoys me."

Behind the first arrival, the motion in the shadows had stopped dead. William would later swear he'd heard a gargling voice say, " _Oh, bollocks_ ," in tones of dread. It stuck in his mind as odd considering the likely source.

The latest uninvited, although that might be subject to interpretation, visitor to his study took a step forward, a tiny click of claws on the wooden floor past the edge of the rug sounding as it did so. He took in the details with wide eyes. It was even less human than the first arrival, at which it was glaring in a very annoyed fashion.

William stared at it, wondering what new demon this one could be. It, she, was a tall slender reptilian-appearing thing, wearing what looked for all the world to be a trench-coat, of very high quality, a long tail protruding from the rear. On her head a fedora was perched. He stared at it, then the lizard-like face under it, which was scowling impressively at the pale-faced manlike creature. Folded arms with blue-scaled hands, long talons on the slim fingers, gave the impression of a head-mistress expressing her displeasure to an unruly student.

"This does not concern you, Saurial," the pale man in black leather said, his voice almost sullen now, little of the supernatural assurance present at the moment.

"Oh, it _doesn't_ , does it?" she replied silkily, the hissing accent lending a definite air of menace to the words, somehow dwarfing that projected by the first arrival, who leaned back apparently involuntarily. One claw-tipped finger extended, pointing at the now-quiescent box on the desk. All three of them looked at it. "You know where that came from?"

"I do," the demon said reluctantly.

"You know who made it?"

"You did. I know."

He was somehow managing to look guilty without his expression changing very much.

"I told you _last_ time to stop hijacking the signal from my music boxes, remember? We had words. You and your weird little friends. I don't care what you do when you're at home, but you're not going to use _my_ work to find victims, got it? Or do I have to come and make an example again?"

The leather-clad demon flinched. "That will not be necessary," he said in low tones. "We remember."

"Clearly not very well, or we wouldn't be having this conversation in the first place," the lizard-thing snapped.

He dropped his eyes, his demeanor that of someone caught with his hand in the biscuit jar. William watched with amazement and wonder, with not a little fear added to the mix. What was this reptilian thing that it could worry what was clearly a demon of considerable power. Looking between then, he held his breath, hoping that somehow he might come out of this alive.

"Push off back where you came from and close the portal behind you. Leave my stuff alone, got it?"

"Yes, Saurial," the pallid man in black leather said, sounding like he was trying not to sigh in disappointment. The silky tones had been replaced with petulant ones.

"And less of the attitude. You _know_ what I'll do..."

There was a very clear threat present.

He merely nodded this time. She flicked her fingers at him dismissively. "Run along, don't let the portal hit you in the back. Don't do this again, got me? I'll be watching. If I have to come back again you'll _really_ be in trouble."

Turning without another word the creature walked into the shadowed corner and vanished, a certain tension going out of the room immediately. William didn't relax, though. The second creature turned to regard him closely.

"Do you make a habit of playing with dimensionally nested music boxes, or are you just bored?" she asked a little acidly, walking over and picking the device up. Quick motions, almost too fast to follow, reduced it back to its original form as William watched. She dropped it into her pocket. "I've been looking for that for weeks. Damn cultists, they're nearly as annoying a bunch of thieves as those Asgardians are. OK, let's see what we have going on here." The scaled face leaned down, meeting his eyes with her own glowing yellow ones from mere inches away, while he tried to think what to do, and understand what was happening.

Sniffing, she nodded. "Right, I get it. Nasty case of chronic lymphocytic leukemia you've got bubbling away there. Let's sort that out, I have other places to be tonight and I don't want to be late." She pulled a small object out of her other pocket, opened it, and removed a tiny white circle about half an inch across, which she slapped onto his forehead before he could move. The spot it hit went oddly numb as he recoiled in shock.

"What…?" he exclaimed, reaching up. The reptilian female caught his wrist in an impossibly strong grip.

"No, give it a moment to trigger," she commented, her gaze fixed on his forehead. A moment later she nodded, as feeling came back to his skin. "There we go. That should sort you out. You'll feel very hungry for a day or so but you'll be fine."

Letting his wrist go she stepped back, returning the case to her pocket. "Well, like I said, I have things to do and places to be. Nice to meet you, whoever you are. Try not to summon any more demons, a lot of them aren't as helpful as I am." She smiled at him, tipping her hat. "See you around. And thanks for finding my music box, that was a gift for my dad, until those damn cultists lifted it." She looked around, finding the wooden box the cube had been in, which made her look pleased as she picked it up. "Even found the gift case! Wonderful."

With an oddly cheerful wave she walked into the shadows on the other side of the room and vanished.

William sat in his chair for a very long time, looking at where she'd been, before he finally turned back to his desk and picked up his notebook. Flipping slowly through it, he perused the drawings and writing, before sighing heavily, getting up, and tossing it into the fire on the way to the telephone to call his doctor for a checkup in the morning.

He found himself rubbing his forehead absently and smiling a little, though.

Markus would find this interesting, assuming he believed any of it in the first place.


	204. Omake - Gathering No Moss (HP)

**_Omake moved to its own story file as the series is now complex enough to warrant that. This is experimental for now and may not necessarily happen with other Omake series, depending on how it works out._**

 _Because of the incredibly irritating munging of URLs that this site insists on thrusting upon us, the following link will need to be copied and fixed. Remove unneeded spaces and convert the word dot into a dot, and it will work fine._

* * *

 **You can find the text of this former chapter here now:** www dot fanfiction dot net / s/12959550/2/The-Long-Slow-Lizarding-of-Hermione-Granger


	205. Invitations and Deductions

Carol looked up from her computer as the phone rang, reaching over to it and retrieving the handset. "Carol Dallon," she said, saving the current work on the Lindt case with her other hand, just in case.

"Hello, Mrs Dallon, this is Roy Christner," a familiar but unexpected voice said, that of the Mayor.

"Mr Mayor," she replied, surprised. "What can I do for you?"

"I was hoping to get in touch with your daughters, actually," the man said in a friendly manner. "I wanted to invite both of them to a small dinner get together at my house on Wednesday evening. Danny Hebert and his daughter Taylor are coming and I thought it would be a good time to thank both your girls for the help they've provided to the recent redevelopment program. Just an informal thing, you understand, nothing major."

"I see," she said, thinking rapidly. "I can't see that being a problem. Amy is out with friends at the moment, probably at the DWU facility in fact, she seems to spend most of her spare time there these days with those… unusual… reptiles. Vicky is here, though. If you'll hold on, I'll get her."

"Thank you, Mrs Dallon." The man chuckled faintly. "Don't worry, I haven't forgotten about New Wave as a whole. We're very pleased and grateful for your group's involvement on a memorable Tuesday recently. Public recognition of that will be given shortly, never fear, but events have left us all somewhat busy until now."

"That's not necessary..." she started.

"Credit where credit's due," he interrupted her calmly. "Your people helped a lot. I know you were paid for the event, which I feel is well justified, but even so you put yourselves out there, potentially at risk, to help the city. We appreciate it and consider the money more than well spent. I fully expect that in future we will be interested in similar arrangements, if you so desire."

"Thank you, Mayor Christner," she said after a moment or two. "That's good of you to say."

"It's entirely true, Mrs Dallon."

"Please call me Carol."

"Of course, Carol. Call me Roy."

She smiled despite herself. He was a smooth talker, as befitted a successful politician, but unlike many, she felt he wasn't just doing it for personal gain. "Thank you, Roy. Please hold on, I'll fetch Victoria."

"Certainly," the man said. She put the handset down, then went upstairs to her daughter's room, tapping on the door, then opening it. The blonde girl was sitting in front of the mirror at her vanity, peering at her reflection with a thoughtful frown and fiddling with her eyebrows.

"You have a phone call, Vicky," she said.

"Who is it, Mom?" the teenager replied, still poking at her left eyebrow as if there was something wrong with it.

"The Mayor."

Vicky froze, then looked over her shoulder with wide eyes. "The… _Mayor?_ " she asked in a slightly stunned voice.

Carol smiled a little. "Yes. He wants to invite you and Amy to a little dinner party at his house. Taylor and her father will be there, and I would imagine a few other people as well."

"Holy shit," the girl gasped faintly.

"Language, Vicky!" Carol snapped. "Talk to the man, politely and respectfully. I'd suggest you accept, it would be both helpful for our group, and possibly allow you to make useful connections."

"I'm not going to turn down a dinner at the Mayor's house, Mom!" Vicky said with a sudden bright grin, jumping to her feet and heading towards the door, six inches off the ground. "This could be fun."

Carol stepped out of the way as her daughter flew past. "Best behavior, remember," she called as the girl dived head-first down the stairs. Shaking her head at the impetuousness of youth, she was still amused, going back down more slowly and traditionally.

By the time she returned to her office, Vicky was nodding rapidly, listening to the phone. "Yes, of course, Mr Mayor, I'll tell her. Thank you so much."

She smiled at the response, then hung the phone up. Turning to Carol, she almost literally hopped up and down in excitement. "I need to go shopping," she squealed. "New clothes. _Need_ them."

"You can do that tomorrow, Vicky," Carol said, both smiling and sighing. "Calm down. Go and find your sister. Her phone is probably off right now, she does that most of the time when she's with her scaly friends."

"OK, Mom," Vicky grinned. "Wow. Dinner at the Mayor's house… incredible."

"Remember that you'll be representing New Wave, both of you, as well as enjoying yourselves. Don't get carried away, be polite to everyone. You understand? This isn't like going to a restaurant."

"I'll be good," the girl laughed. Grabbing her mother she hugged her, then spun on the spot and shot out of the room. "Wow!" she yelled, the front door closing seconds later. Moments afterwards it opened again, just as Carol was going into the hallway.

"Um... forgot my coat," Vicky said in a calmer voice. "It's cold out there."

Sighing in a good-natured yet mildly exasperated manner, the elder Dallon watched her offspring pick one of her nicer jackets off the coat-rack in the corner of the hall, put it on, grin at her again, then vanish once more. "Girls," she muttered, heading to the kitchen to put some coffee on. "Was _I_ ever that impetuous?"

Remembering some of the things she and Sarah had got up to in their teens, she had a sinking feeling that she might well have been.

* * *

"You're in a good mood," Dennis said as he watched Missy drawing on the pad she'd taken to carrying around everywhere, the girl humming under her breath, the tip of her tongue sticking out of the corner of her mouth as she concentrated. "A couple of days off obviously cheered you up a lot."

She nodded, drawing the last few lines, tilting her head this way and that, then smiled in satisfaction before flipping the cover closed. He was curious to see what she'd drawn, but didn't ask. The girl could be a little protective of her work and had some unpleasant ways to make it stick.

"I had a really nice rest," she smiled. "I visited some friends, ate some doughnuts, wandered around… nothing too strenuous but it was nice to get away from ' _Vista_ ' for a little while.

"I can understand that," he replied, tipping his chair back and putting both feet on the table. Dean, who was poking around on his laptop, gave him a look. He smirked back, causing the other boy to sigh faintly then ignore him as much as he could. Carlos glanced over from where he was reading a manual on PRT procedure, rolled his eyes, then went back to reading.

"It's good to just relax sometimes," he went on.

"You do very little _other_ than relax," Dean mumbled. "Aside from play online games in which you die a lot, troll PHO and annoy Miss Militia."

"And the Director, let's not forget that," Dennis said brightly. "And Armsmaster, and Battery, and Velocity sometimes, and if I'm really lucky, Assault, but he's difficult."

"Mostly because he's even better at doing the same thing than you are," Missy pointed out, grinning.

"He's my hero," Dennis snickered. "One day, maybe I can be as annoying as he is."

"Oh, god," Carlos sighed quietly, shaking his head. "That's all we need, _two_ of them. Combined with the Family, this entire city will go mad."

"Next thing you know, Mouse Protector will join in, and we'll have to evacuate and nuke the place," Dean said, looking up from his laptop and smiling a little.

"Hey! Do you think we could get her to transfer here?" Dennis asked, looking interested. Both boys looked horrified, although Missy laughed.

"Don't even _joke_ about that, Dennis," Carlos grumped, turning a page. "She's totally insane."

"So?"

"So, we already have some of those. They have tails and sprinkle Tabasco sauce on you. Not to mention their haunted laundry which wanders around freaking out the tourists."

He grinned at his friend. "I really want to meet Cloak. She sounds interesting."

"And spooky as fuck," Carlos said. "Believe me. There's something very wrong going on there."

Missy was now giggling quietly, her hands over her mouth. Dennis winked at her. "See all the things you missed taking a couple of days off? There's a possessed item of clothing running around catching criminals now, as well as lizards all over the place."

"I like the lizards," Missy smiled. "They sound interesting."

"Saurial at least has a very good sense of humor," he said, tipping his chair even further back. "Weird, but good."

"Where's Chris?" she asked, looking around. "I just realized I haven't seen him all day."

"Holed up in his lab, working like an idiot on something," Dennis told her. "He woke me up at about seven this morning, which is way too early to be that lively, yelling about something or other, then ran off. Haven't seen him since."

"Wonder what that's about?" Dean asked, glancing at him. He shrugged.

"No idea. He was in a good mood, though, especially considering that yesterday he was acting a bit strange."

"Huh." Dean looked mildly intrigued, then went back to his laptop. "Guess he'll tell us sooner or later."

"Probably." Dennis returned his attention to Missy, who'd gone back to sketching. "You ever going to show anyone what you're drawing?"

"Maybe," she muttered. "If you don't react like you did last time. I think I'm getting a lot better."

He stared at her, remembering the extremely disturbing picture that was the last thing he'd seen of her work. "By better, do you actually mean, _weirder?_ Only that one you showed me nearly made me puke. I still can't figure out how you drew something like that on a sheet of paper."

The blonde girl shrugged slightly, still drawing. "Not hard if you know the trick," she said absently, rotating the pad and studying it. "And you don't have to be rude."

"I do, it's one of my talents," he chuckled. She looked up at him, frowning a little, then down at her pad. Her frown turned into an evil grin, making him just a touch worried.

"OK," she said in a sly voice. "Then be rude about this." She turned the pad towards him.

Dennis stared. His stomach roiled.

"Oh, god," he moaned, just before his balance went entirely screwy and his chair tipped over with a thud, depositing him on his back on the floor. Putting his hands over his mouth, he tried to keep his lunch where it was, rather than where it wanted to be.

Turning the pad back, the girl looked critically at the drawing. "Perhaps you're right," she smiled. "Not enough dimensions. I'll get back to you when it's done." Hopping off the sofa, she closed the pad, stepped over his supine body, and headed for the door. "Right now, I need a snack. Drawing makes me hungry."

They all watched as she left, putting her visor on in the process. Dean and Carlos looked at each other, then Dennis, who swallowed hard a couple of times. "You know," he said when he was sure that he wasn't going to spew, "sometimes I think there's something not entirely _right_ with that girl."

The other two nodded wisely.

Girls could be strange.

* * *

"She was listening to you? And actually _responded_ to you?" Amy asked in close to a whisper, when Lisa stopped talking.

"As far as I can tell, yes," the blonde said, looking entirely befuddled and extremely worried. "I'm about ninety percent certain that everything that we've been theorizing about is either entirely, or mostly, correct. My power won't come out and say it in so many words, but it… keeps winking at me knowingly?" She slapped the side of her head. "It's a fucking bastard, the damn thing. I'm totally sure it's real, and getting smarter all the time. It's like a faithful dog with a weird sense of humor combined with a really good customized computer, running a brain-dead version of an Eliza chatbot that's speaking a language slightly different than the one I am."

Taylor smiled a little, but was mostly concerned about what they'd learned from their friend. "All that network stuff… it really does suggest that you and Varga are right, that the powers all come from the same place."

"Not the same place, lots of different, connected places," Lisa corrected her. "I'm sure it's like that. Hence _network_. There are, as far as I can work out, lots of alien computer-things somewhere out there, each one linked to a Parahuman through that thing in our brains. Except for you, of course. How they do it, how they pick the people, how the powers manifest, all that sort of stuff, I haven't got a clue about yet, but Varga was definitely onto something when he came up with the idea."

"But where are they? What do they look like? Or want? And where did they come from?" Amy asked.

Lisa shrugged. "No idea. Not yet. We've only touched on the beginning of this whole thing, but we already probably know more about powers and what they are than practically anyone. I've searched everything I can find on the subject and there's nothing in the published literature that even begins to suggest this sort of thing."

They looked at each other for some time in silence. "OK. Let's assume that all this is right. Each Parahuman has a… a... processing unit… whatever the hell we call it, ultimately as the source of their power, which connects to their brain via the corona pollentia, somehow. And when they Trigger, this activates the power." Amy looked at her friends, Lisa nodding, while Taylor and the Varga listened intently. "Everyone gets a different power for some reason. Some are stupidly weak, some are ridiculously powerful, but they mostly fall into one or more categories that have been worked out by trial and error." Lisa nodded again.

"What determines who gets what power, and how strong it is?"

"No idea."

"Why does it happen when people are having a really shitty time? That's the common factor, serious stress, as far as I can see."

"Ah..." Lisa thought. "Perhaps it's intended to get you out of whatever situation you managed to get into? Sort of save you?" She shook her head after a moment. "No. Not quite that. My power is telling me we're on the right track, but it's not that simple." Rapping her head with her knuckles she frowned. "Talk sense, you damn thing. Just let me know the truth."

"I suspect that it cannot, Lisa," the Varga said slowly. "The indications are that whatever or whoever is behind this phenomenon doesn't want anyone to know the truth of it, for whatever reason they may have. I would suggest that this implies their motivations are more likely to be… possibly not hostile, but not necessarily beneficial for your species. My guess would be that whatever this ' _processing unit_ ' as you put it really is, it has been limited in what it can both do and reveal. In all probability you were never intended to discern even this much."

The girl looked at Taylor, who was listening to her companion speak through her with curiosity, then nodded. "It's sort of agreeing with you. I think you're right. This is a very inefficient way to get information but at least we're learning something. OK, so the mysterious power-creator is trying to be sneaky."

"Successfully, until something completely out of the entire universe turned up and tossed a wrench into the works," Amy put in, indicating Taylor and by extension the demon. "It never expected a Varga, the ' _non-quantifiable subject,_ ' as your power puts it."

"No one _ever_ expects a Varga," the creature chuckled. "But we turn up even so."

"Damn good thing as far as I'm concerned," Taylor grinned. "Best thing that ever happened to me."

"I'm beginning to have a nasty little idea that it might be for _all_ of us," Lisa muttered. "Some of the things my power said… The Endbringer mission, the ' _initiator_ '… it sort of implies that there's a master plan behind this and I have the weirdest suspicion that we're not going to like it when we work it out."

"You may well be right." The demon sounded worried. "These Endbringers, used as weapons, are obviously capable of inflicting enormous damage. I think there is an extremely high likelihood that they are not operating at full capacity either. Having reviewed some of the previous attacks with Taylor, it seems to me that they are too easily defeated. Several of the attacks could have gone on for longer, but they appear to disengage after a certain amount of damage has been taken or inflicted. They don't press their advantage in the manner that an attacker normally would, although they are clearly intelligent and cunning. Nor do they hold the ground they have taken, they merely destroy things. It doesn't make sense from a military standpoint, and I can't see much other reason..." He broke off suddenly.

Both girls looked at Taylor curiously. She shrugged.

"Problem?" she asked.

"A thought struck me," he said after a moment. "I'm not sure how accurate it is, but it's one possible answer that fits the observed data. The Endbringers are _not_ trying to _defeat_ the defenders."

They all exchanged a glance. "Instead, they're…?"

"They're _testing_ the defenders," the Varga completed the thought. "If I'm right, the mission isn't to simply cause as much damage as possible until they're stopped and beaten back. It may well be that they have never _been,_ in fact, genuinely beaten back. I suspect, instead, that they cause very carefully targeted damage, specifically to elicit the response they do, in order to force the defenders to steadily up their game, possibly also to force a certain level of cooperation or innovation in the use of their powers, then deliberately disengage. Why, I don't know, but it does seem to fit some if not all of the observed behavior. The terminology you report, ' _assured victory threshold,_ ' would also tend to back this up."

"Holy shit," Lisa mumbled, staring wide-eyed at the demon's host. "That… that actually makes a weird kind of sense." She blinked a few times. "And my power is pretty much giving me a thumb's up. Fuck it, you idiot, _we're not playing charades!_ "

"The thing behind all this is using the Endbringers to _train_ Parahumans?" Amy exploded, outraged.

"That is one possible interpretation of the data, I believe," the Varga replied. "I confess to not knowing whether I'm completely, or even partially, correct, but it seems plausible. _Why_ , on the other hand, I have no idea at the moment. But I think Lisa is correct, it's unlikely to be in the long term best interests for humanity. The level of disregard for life it would imply is shocking."

"It might not be training _Parahumans_ ," Taylor put in with a sinking feeling. They looked at her, even the Varga feeling curious. "It might be training Parahuman _powers._ "

There was another silence. "Damn it. I think you're actually thinking along the right lines," Lisa finally said, leaning back and massaging her temples. "It's grinning at me again."

"Your power is a pain in the ass," Amy grumbled.

"Tell me about it," the blonde girl muttered with annoyance. "And smug with it."

"We know where you get it from, then," Taylor half-smiled.

"No, I was like that before. _It_ probably gets it from _me_ ," her friend sighed. "God. I'm a bad influence on an alien power-granting computer-thing. Can life get weirder?"

"Probably," Taylor chuckled. "We're the Family. Life can _always_ get weirder."

"So where do the Endbringers themselves fit into all this? If all Parahumans are… networked, linked, whatever, how are _they_ connected to us? If we go along with that scenario, they have to be networked too, right?" Amy looked at her friends. "Is it possible that they really _are_ just massively overpowered Parahumans, or are they something else?"

All four of them sat and looked at each other for a moment or two. "Something else, I think," Lisa finally said. "What, I don't know. When I try to work out if they were ever human, my power sort of looks blank, but it's still sort of rolling its eyes at me as if it's trying to say no but can't quite manage it." She grumbled under her breath, rubbing her forehead. "This in _incredibly_ frustrating," she said more loudly. "It _wants to help._ But something is stopping it, sort of like it doesn't have the right authorization codes."

"That may indeed be an apt simile, Lisa," the Varga stated calmly. "Don't try to force it. We've learned more each time we look into this, and it seems to me that your ability is slowly working out methods to bypass whatever block is present. Given time it may well succeed. All we can do is continue to collect data and work on the problem."

She nodded, still frowning in annoyance. "Guess you're right. Damn it, though, this is pissing me off. And terrifying me at the same time. I was talking to the fucking _Simurgh_ for fuck's sake!"

"The more worrying thing is that she was apparently communicating in the other direction, if only vaguely," he said, chuckling. "I find that very interesting. I agree it suggests they are intelligent enough to resent being used as weapons. I can, from my own past, sympathize with that attitude."

"The question, though, is whether they're more like you or the Dark Varga," Taylor said quietly.

He nodded her head. "That… is definitely something to consider," the demon agreed. "But, again, at the moment we don't know and can only guess based on insufficient information. Hopefully with time more of these questions will have answers."

"I want to know where they came from, what they really want if they're smart enough to have their own goals, and who or what is controlling them," Amy remarked. Both the other girls nodded. "And how she apparently managed to get around that control this last time."

"Maybe it's this network fragmentation thing your power was talking about," Taylor suggested, thinking over the story Lisa had relayed to them. "I wonder what that really means?"

"I'm not sure, but my guess is it's all tied into what we think we're seeing with our powers, and it's related to you and Varga," Lisa replied. "One implication is that our… damn, we need to come up with a good word, but let's call them processors… our ' _processors_ ' are starting to form their own network that isn't completely compatible with the original one. Maybe. It sort of fits what we were talking about the other day."

"Interesting..." Taylor thought about it, while Amy was looking very intrigued and chewing her lip. " _Very_ interesting. I wonder what _that_ will end up doing?"

Lisa shrugged. "I don't have a clue at the moment. And my power is sort of looking around innocently and pretending we're not talking about it now. It _knows_ something but isn't saying." She looked and smelled very irritated indeed.

"It all fits what we've seen so far, though," Amy mused thoughtfully. "We need to see what Kevin and Randall have noticed, if anything, that should help with the entire..."

About to say more, Amy stopped and looked over at the phone when it suddenly rang. Taylor, casually changing to Saurial, reached out and picked it up. "Hi, Saurial speaking."

"Oh, hi, Zephron. Sure. Bring her over. Is Danny around yet?"

She listened for a moment. "OK. No problem. We'll keep her busy until he comes in. Of course. Yes, that's fine. See you soon." She tapped the disconnect button and dropped the device back into the charging dock. "Our new friend Linda has apparently woken up, spent a long time thinking hard, and apparently talking to Brian, and come to a decision. She'd like to talk to us," she said to her friends. "Dad will be here in about half an hour. Zephron is escorting her over right now. You guys better change. I'll cover your truck."

Amy nodded, while Lisa got up and headed for the storage room and her bioconstruct. "What do you think she chose?" the healer asked as she followed.

"If I had to guess, I'd say she's sticking around," Lisa replied, unlocking the door and going in. Taylor followed after she generated a quick box around the blue vehicle just inside the main entrance, leaning on the door-frame and watching them. "But I can tell you more when she gets here."

"OK. If she's going for the replacement body deal, we're going to have to work out the specifications." Amy looked very interested as she brought her Ianthe body to active status, the bioconstruct resting its head on hers for a moment as she stroked it. "I have all _sorts_ of ideas I want to test."

"She'll probably want to be human," Lisa giggled. "Not to mention we're still being careful about who we tell. Let's see how it works out first before you give her a tail and claws."

"Fair enough," Amy grinned, while Taylor giggled. "I just have all these _ideas!_ "

"See if you can talk Kevin or Randall into it," Taylor suggested. "Once we've finished running experiments on them. Don't forget, we have a control now. Sort of."

The healer slid into her secondary body, the large reptilian form stretching as the access port closed and vanished. "Good point," her deeper voice rumbled, sounding like she was trying not to laugh. "Very good point. I'll have to work out the best way to capitalize on that."

"Be nice, she's still a little fragile, poor woman," Lisa advised, her own black-scaled form rising behind Amy. "I just want her to feel at home, probably for the first time in a long time. I have a suspicion, though, that she's going to fit right in around here with a little work."

"We'll see soon enough," Taylor smiled. Glancing at the biogun on the bench, she added, "We should make some more of those, too, and see what Dad thinks of them. And Mark."

"When we've worked out exactly what we're doing with Linda, I'll get on it," Amy promised. "I've come up with some more modifications that might be useful as well."

There was a knock on the main door, all three of them looking over. "Here we go. Let's see what she's decided."

While Amy locked the workroom, Taylor went over and opened the door, waving the two people outside in with a smile. "Welcome to... _The Zone Where Normal Things Don't Happen Very Often_ ," she grinned, intoning the words in a mysterious voice.

Zephron looked like he was trying not to laugh, but Linda seemed slightly confused. Both of them came in as Taylor stepped aside, then closed the door. "Have a seat," she invited, accompanying them to the table. "Coffee? Tea? Soup?"

"I'm fine, Saurial," Zephron smiled. "I was just bringing Linda over to make sure she didn't get lost. Danny will be here soon, so I need to get back to work. Mark would like to talk to you guys later too, if you're free."

"Sure," she replied. "Anything urgent?"

"No, not massively so. Security stuff, mainly." The man watched as Linda sat in one of the chairs, watching them all. "I'll see you around, Linda," he said, nodding to her. "It was nice to meet you."

"Thanks for walking me over, Zephron," the woman replied quietly.

Going back to the door, Taylor opened it, allowing the big man to exit. As he was going out the door, he said in a very low voice, "Impressive. That idiot doesn't stand a chance with you guys on the case."

Taylor grinned at him a little bit.

"His money _and_ his Tinker?" Zephron chuckled, shaking his head in amused disbelief. "Good work."

"Thanks," she whispered. He'd obviously worked it out, which didn't actually surprise her all that much. He was far too quick, and far too unsurprised with various things, to not have deduced most if not all of the truth, as she'd suspected for a while. This was his way of letting her know. "See you later."

"Have fun," he said more loudly, waving to her, then headed towards one of the back entrances to the main building complex. She watched him go, smiled again, and closed the door.

* * *

Linda watched Saurial come back to the table after a short quiet conversation with Zephron at the entrance, her expressive if alien face looking thoughtful. The lizard-girl paused for a moment to say something to Metis in their language, the black reptile nodding and replying with a glance at the sole human in the room, then came over to her and sat in another chair, arranging her tail over the side. "You've decided, then?" she asked in a voice that suggested she knew the answer.

"I have," Linda replied. She looked up as Ianthe put a cup of coffee next to her, then sat on her tail nearby, holding another one which she was sipping from, listening with interest. "Thanks." She picked the cup and tried a little, finding it very good, then put it down again. "I spent a long time thinking about everything we talked about yesterday, and all the things I've done and thought since I got to the city." She sighed. "What I can remember of that part, which isn't as much as it should be," she added.

"Narcotics do that," Ianthe commented.

"Considering how much shit I used, I should probably think of myself as lucky to only be missing a few days here and there," Linda agreed. "Anyway, running is out. I'd give myself away in weeks, I think. Can't help the Tinkering. People, gangs especially, look out for the signs, Tinkers are really valuable. I'd be going from one bad situation into what would probably be a worse one, then I'd be fucked."

"That certainly seems a strong possibility," the blue lizard replied. "What about the PRT option?"

Linda shrugged. "Better than the running one, but not ideal. Sure, they'd probably take me, like Mr Hebert suggested. I've heard that even in Brockton at least one member of the Protectorate used to be on the other side. No idea which one though. But..." She paused, searching for the words. "It just doesn't do it for me. If there was no other option, I'd take that one, but it's not my first choice. And I'm really not keen on simply throwing myself on the mercy of the courts by letting you guys officially arrest me, they don't have a lot where it comes to Parahumans, and considering who I ran with, I'm worried that they'd try to make an example of me. No offense to you, of course, I get that you'd try to do right by me."

"Which leaves staying here," Saurial said.

"Which leaves that. Can't run and hide, don't want to work for the PRT, but I do want to make things. As far as I can work out my best option is to join up with the DWU if they'll have me, and try to rehabilitate myself. Pay the community I helped hurt back, even if they never know it." She looked at the three reptilian faces watching her. "Does that make any sense outside my own head?"

"Yes, it does, in fact," Metis said after a moment, smiling at her. "There aren't really a vast number of Parahuman villains who actually _want_ to hurt people. Sure, there are a few, some of them pretty damn bad, but a lot of them just end up in that position because of things that go wrong. Once they do, it's very hard to get out again. That seems to be the nature of powers, unfortunately. You do what you can to survive and powers tend to make that affect a lot of innocents."

Linda nodded glumly, holding her coffee mug with both hands. "All I wanted to do back when this started was make things and have fun. I thought the drugs were helping. They do, at first, but… it escalates, you know? You need more and more, and they do less and less. In the end..." She shivered. "It doesn't usually end well."

Looking up at them, she went on, "Poor Skids is a good example. He used to be this funny and smart guy I really liked. Not sure I ever actually _loved_ him, but he was good to be around. But… he always had a dark side, believe me. That was part of the attraction, I think. Which is sort of embarrassing to admit." She was being far more open with these three than anyone she'd ever talked to, and wasn't sure why, but it was all true.

"He's always been stubborn, and quick to get angry. When he's mad, he takes it out on everyone around him. Like, if he's having a shit day, _everyone_ is going to have a shit day. But even then, he never hurt me. Not until..." She trailed off, remembering. Ianthe put a hand on her arm, causing her to glance at the reptile.

"He can't get to you here, and no one is going to hurt you," Ianthe said softly.

"I sure hope not," she sighed. "Had way too much of that recently. The first time he smacked me around, I thought I'd deserved it somehow. But it didn't take long to work out that it was him. He'd lost it by then. Full on paranoia, megalomania, you name it. I don't know all the right words, but I know what I saw. The man I used to know… he basically killed himself a while back. The one that looks like him isn't anyone I want to be around. No common sense, none of the smarts he used to have..." Linda shook her head sadly. "Hell of an example of why drugs are a bad idea."

"I'm sorry that it turned out like that," Saurial said after a short silence filled the room. "It can't be easy to find that someone you thought you knew and trusted had turned on you."

Linda looked at her, seeing something in the reptilian gaze that spoke of far greater knowledge of the sort of situation than she'd expected, and real sympathy. "It sucks," she replied frankly. "Like nothing I've ever known. But I guess it is what it is. Nothing I can really do about it except accept it and move on. Even if you guys could somehow fix him, I couldn't forget."

"I understand," Saurial said in a quiet voice. "Fine. You stay. That won't be a problem, Danny's OK with it, we've already discussed it. He's not completely happy about the circumstances, but like he said it's not the first time something like this has happened around here, not even close, and as long as we make sure that nothing causes the rest of the DWU any trouble, it'll work out."

"I promise I'll do everything I can to fit in and not cause trouble," Linda told her.

"We believe you," Metis commented, looking at her cousin and sister, who both nodded. "I'm certain you can find something interesting to do, there's a lot of workshop space here that's going unused, and even leaving the Tinkering out of it, a skilled mechanic will be in demand instantly. Danny's assistant Lisa can work out where you'd be most effective."

"She's a bit full of herself, but she means well," Saurial added with a smirk, which made Metis give her cousin a look of amusement.

"I like her," the black lizard said calmly.

"So do I," Saurial grinned. "Interesting person." She cocked her head, then looked at the door, on which a faint knock sounded moments later. Linda was impressed, the lizard-girl clearly had remarkable hearing. "Danny's here. Let's see what he thinks, then work out what the next step is."


	206. Cubes and Paintballs

Danny regarded the former Squealer with a thoughtful gaze. He'd listened to her reasoning, not finding fault with it, and they'd discussed the entire situation again, looking for any possible problems. Now, it seemed settled.

"All right. We'll get some people we know to sort out a new, hopefully bullet-proof identity for you, as Linda Morgan, formerly of Kansas. Assuming you're happy with that name?"

They'd pretty much randomly picked the surname, which seemed the safest approach, and the state was one that was close enough to where she was born that her regional accent was plausible, but far enough away that there wasn't a logical link.

"Fine by me," Linda nodded.

"Good. I'll get the paperwork started for DWU membership, and the employment documents to hire Ms Morgan as a vehicle mechanic. That will do for starting purposes. As soon as you've finished with Ianthe, and the ID data is finalized, we can get photos, issue a DWU card, and start paying you. Until then, you should stick around the yard, just in case, I think."

"Thank you, Mr Hebert," she said gratefully. "I know this is asking a lot of you and your guys and I'm sorry it all happened like this."

He shrugged, smiling a little. "Can't be helped. Sometimes things just happen. Especially when these three are involved." He glanced at the reptilian females, who all seemed mildly pleased by the comment, smiling at him.

"We need to get her a decent workshop set up too, Danny," Amy suggested. "Something like this, maybe, so she can do both the normal DWU work and her own projects. Like she said, Tinkers Tinker, they need somewhere to do it."

He nodded, smiling, going over the options in his mind for a few seconds. "That's not a problem," he replied, having made a decision. "There's an old vehicle maintenance unit on the next access road over, it's been used for storage for over a decade and is full of mostly junk, but it's… hmm, perhaps fifty percent larger than this place, perhaps?" Danny looked around at the large room. "Around that. Same general layout, big roller doors at each end. Some inspection pits, and two heavy-duty vehicle lifts that might even still work with a bit of attention. We used to use it for the heavy trucks, when we actually had heavy trucks."

"Sounds ideal," his daughter said, smiling. "We can soon get that fixed up."

"I'll get the electrical department to make sure the supply is working and safe, and install new lights," he told them. "It should be ready by tomorrow evening. You can do your own modifications to it then."

"What about all the scrap in it?" Lisa asked, with a glance at Linda. The Tinker looked back, then turned to him.

"If you don't mind, can I look over it before you clear it away? There might be useful stuff in it." She smiled a little. "I'm pretty good at reusing old crap."

"Sure, help yourself. Don't get too hung up on every last broken engine, though, we can get newer parts without too much trouble, trust me. And whatever you make, we want to ensure it doesn't look too much like the old Squealer's technology." He winced a little at the memory of some of the pictures he'd seen. "The aesthetic was… memorable."

The woman grinned with a slightly ashamed nod. "I know it wasn't pretty. Never been high on my list of priorities."

"We can help with that," Taylor laughed. "You design it, I can make you parts, and everyone can suggest ways to make it look different. We have other people as well who can lend a hand."

"How do you make things, anyway?" the Tinker asked curiously, looking far more relaxed than she had been when he'd come in now that she was apparently no longer worried that she'd get kicked out. "I've been wondering that ever since I met you."

"It's one of my more useful talents," the blue-scaled girl smiled, holding out her hand, on which a perfect sphere of shiny metal formed, about the size of a pool ball. Linda's eyes widened as she reached out to tentatively touch it. "Matter creation."

"..."

Her mouth open, the woman made a slight sound of shock. Swallowing, she tried again. "Matter creation? You mean… you can just _will things into existence?!_ " By the end of the sentence her voice was enough to make Rachel's dogs put their paws over their ears and whine.

"Pretty much."

"Fuck… I mean..." Linda picked the ball up and inspected it closely with a wondering and insanely envious expression. "Just… fuck."

"It does come in handy," Taylor chuckled.

"Anything you want? Any material? Any shape?"

"Yep. It takes a lot of practice to do complicated designs and I'm still working on electronics, but mechanical things are fairly easy. Simple objects are nothing." Taylor produced half a dozen cubes in different materials, one totally transparent, one that looked like it was made of gold, the rest in other metals. She put each one on the table as Linda's eyes got wider and wider to the point that Danny's were starting to water sympathetically.

"More complicated things aren't hard," she added, producing a small clockwork toy, copied from one he knew she had at home that her mother had given her when she was eight. She wound the key sticking out of the little mechanical owl and put it on the table, everyone watching as it hopped around to the sound of gears turning.

"And the chemistry part of it is fascinating." His daughter closed her hand, then opened it to reveal a pile of purple and silver powder, to which she added a few drops of liquid that fell from her other hand, landing in the material with a splash. A short pause was followed by a hiss and a weird violet-silver flame, a huge cloud of purple smoke billowing up as everyone else recoiled in shock. Moments later all traces of it disappeared, including the smell he thought he recognized but couldn't quite place.

"What the hell was that?" Linda squeaked.

"Iodine and aluminum, with a catalyst," the girl smiled. "Neat, isn't it?"

Lisa was grinning, Amy seemed to be trying not to laugh, and Linda, the poor woman, was simply staring at his daughter's reptilian face. After quite a long moment, she reached out and picked up the transparent cube with the hand not holding the steel ball, or whatever it actually was.

Knowing Taylor, it was probably pure platinum.

The Tinker held up the cube, looking at it in the light as she turned it. "What's this?"

"Crystallized carbon."

There was another pause. "Diamond, you mean."

"That's what humans call it, yes," Taylor snickered. Danny shook his head a little in amusement.

"So that one that looks like gold..."

"Is gold. Yes."

"Oh my god." The poor woman looked like she was going to faint.

He knew the feeling well.

"So, if you need custom parts or anything, just ask." Taylor shrugged. "I like engineering like we were talking about, but I'll be the first to admit you probably know a lot more about it than I do. I'm still learning and will be for a long time. Although I've come up with some cool toys even so."

All the cubes, and the initial sphere, disappeared, leaving Linda staring at her empty hands in shock. The little clockwork bird hopped a few more times then popped out of existence.

"Once you've got used to that, I'll show you some of the more interesting applications of applied Family mathematical systems," Taylor added, indicating the glass boards that were still arrayed down one wall with the end of her tail. "You might find it interesting."

Glancing at the dense equations, Linda winced, then looked away. She still seemed stunned.

"The things I could make..." she muttered under her breath, gaping at his smiling daughter. "God." Slowly, she began smiling like a lunatic.

Danny sighed.

He could see where this was probably going to end up, sooner or later, he just hoped that Brockton Bay survived the experience.

"OK, bizarre demonstrations of Family skills to one side, we need to settle on the next part of the plan. Squealer needs to go away in a very permanent manner, in such a way that no one will be looking for her." He turned to Amy, who stopped watching Linda try to wrap her mind around what had just happened and focused on him. "How long would it take you to do what we talked about yesterday?"

She thought for a moment. "Around four hours to make a really good new body, another hour to move Linda's brain over, and another hour to make a duplicate that would be undetectable. It won't be a functioning one, of course, that would be more difficult and rather unethical, but it'll do perfectly for the job we need it for. Especially once it has a bullet in it."

Linda looked ill and he winced at her blunt comment.

"I see," he replied. "And has anyone thought how to arrange the sad death of the young lady? And where?"

"And who finds the body," Lisa added thoughtfully. "It would be better if it wasn't anyone from here."

"We can arrange to get it over somewhere near the Merchant's headquarters," Taylor said after a moment, looking at her friends. "That part isn't a problem. Neither is getting a gun and doing what needs to be done. Lots of them around, of course, but the simplest approach is… Ah, yes, that would be ideal. Hold on." She hopped out of her chair and zipped across the room, up the stairs to the storage area on top of Amy's workroom, coming back holding a seamless steel box.

"This should do it nicely," she finished, making the top vanish and showing them the contents. Danny looked at the three handguns in the box with a raised eyebrow, which went up further at the sight of the plastic-wrapped block of white powder next to them. "Haven't got around to handing them over to the police yet," she explained. "They were in Skidmark's safe along with all the money."

"I see," he said, nodding slowly. He had an idea of what she was considering. "Suicide or murder?"

"Either would work," she shrugged, putting the box on the table and sitting again. Linda was looking from one to the other of them, frowning a little. "I'm not sure if these guns have been used for any crimes, but I'd be surprised if they haven't. So the police will have the bullet data on file, probably. If Squealer turns up with a couple of rounds in her from a gun known to be associated with the Merchants, after having disappeared following a fight, I doubt anyone is going to question it too much. Not around here."

"No, probably not," he agreed.

Lisa was looking thoughtful, he noted, showing the signs of letting her power have a go at the problem. "It'll work. We need to pick the right place, and the right time, though, to really sell it. It needs something else, some reason for them to be pissed off and shooting at people."

"That's easy," Amy put in. Lisa glanced at her, then got a very thoughtful look, before smiling in a predatory manner.

"Perfect. And it needs to be done anyway."

Taylor was watching both of them, her own expression showing she was communing with her demon. She sighed slightly, but nodded too. "OK. That works."

Turning to Danny, who thought he was missing something, she explained, "We're thinking that we move on the Merchants, round them up and hand them over to the BBPD and the PRT. If we let both of them know in advance, considering the threat, I doubt they'll be too upset, and they can be ready to deal with the fallout. Everyone in the city probably knows by now that Skidmark is gunning for the Family, and we need to make a point. Stealing his cash was part of it, taking what's left of his gang away will do the rest."

"A lot of them have already run, so it would be… a little over a hundred or so?" Lisa told him. "Between us, that's not a problem, especially since there won't be any capes in the place. We go in, let them shoot at us for a while, then round them up. If we invite the PRT along to help, or at least observe, and they find that Squealer was accidentally on purpose caught in the cross-fire..." She shrugged a bit. "They'll believe their own people."

"Christ, you lot are nasty when you start planning things," he finally said. Linda was looking cold and upset. Taylor put her hand on the Tinker's, inspecting her.

"Are you OK with that, Linda?" she asked in a low voice. "It's the best chance we have of making everyone sure you're dead. We'll be careful not to hurt any of them, and like you said yourself, this way some of them might end up turning their lives around. Better this than let your old boyfriend lead them into a situation where we can't control it."

"It's fucking horrifying hearing people talking about killing you, even if it isn't actually you," the woman replied, sounding shaken. "Especially when it sort of is as well."

"That's understandable," Taylor said, smiling a little. "But once it's over, that's it. You're free of your past and can start again, hopefully ending up somewhere you want to be. And you can always leave if you decide this isn't what you want."

"I know, but..." The brunette trailed off, then sighed deeply. Raising her eyes, she nodded. "Fine. It's a good plan, even if it's one of the most fucked up ones I've ever heard. But I guess you can do it."

"Definitely," Lisa smiled.

"When?" Danny asked.

They looked at each other. "Tomorrow night. We need to make her a new body, get all that set up, and let the PRT and the cops know," Amy said. "It will be easier in the dark, so sometimes after eight or thereabouts?"

"Works for me," Taylor smiled, rather grimly. "I wish we didn't have to get involved, but he started it. At least this way hopefully no one dies. Or, no one other than that poor woman."

Linda almost laughed at that.

"Well, I'll leave you to it, then," he said, standing up. "I have quite a lot of things to do. Welcome to the DWU, Miss Morgan."

"Thank you, Mr Hebert," she said, taking his hand and shaking it.

"Call me Danny. I'll see you later, girls." With a wave to them, he headed back to his office, working out what needed to be done.

At the rate they were going, the DWU would have more capes hanging around than the damn Protectorate, he thought as he walked. Which was definitely not what he'd expected a couple of months ago.

' _First Amy, then Lisa and her friends, then Über and Leet, and now Squealer. Christ. Where's it going to end? And why is it mostly villains she seems to attract?_ '

Deciding that he was _definitely_ going to draw the line if Lung turned up looking for a job, he shook his head, sighed, and kept walking.

* * *

"I suppose we should work out the specifics of your new body, then, Linda," Amy said when Danny had left, turning to the woman who had been staring at her hands. Linda twitched, then raised her eyes.

"Do you realize how strange that sounds to me?" she asked with an odd expression, one that wasn't upset, but seemed almost like she was trying not to laugh. "You're so casual about it, it's very fucking weird. ' _New body._ ' Just like that."

She swallowed, closing her eyes briefly. "I don't mind saying the idea of someone _taking my brain out and moving it around_ terrifies the _shit_ out of me."

Amy leaned forward, trying to impress upon the currently brunette woman her sincerity.

"I understand your worry," she said reassuringly. "And we don't have to do this if you don't want to. I'm sure we can come up with a different method. I could produce a duplicate body and we could use that, for example. But for a number of reasons, using your original is better, and I _promise_ you I can do it. You won't feel anything."

"Have you done this with a human before?" Linda asked.

"Ah… no, I haven't," she was forced to admit, which made the woman look worried. "But honestly it's not hard. The theory is simple and the practice isn't much more difficult. It's slightly long-winded, but it'll work, and your new body will be a big improvement on that one. I can make it practically anything you want." She smiled as warmly as she could, careful not to show too many teeth. "Human, modified human, not at all human… if you have any special requests, just tell me."

Linda stared at her, then smiled a little. "God, you're serious," she said wonderingly. "So you could give me fur or something if I wanted?"

"Sure. Do you _want_ fur?"

"No, not really, but… shit, this is bizarre."

Taylor grinned, getting up and retrieving cans of soda, which she handed around on her return. "Scales are more our thing, anyway. Fur is probably too much trouble to deal with, and you might end up with fleas. Lots of dogs around here."

Opening her can, Linda actually laughed, shaking her head at the girl. "I can't quite see myself with scales, either."

"Maybe you'll decide otherwise one day," Taylor snickered, not offended.

"With you guys around that's not impossible." The woman took a couple of gulps from her can. "I can't believe we're having this conversation."

Lisa grinned at her. "We have many interesting conversations. Are you happy with the way you look at the moment? That's the simplest approach, just keep your appearance, and improve a few of the internal systems."

"It's still a shock looking in the mirror," Linda noted, feeling her nose with a faint air of wonder, "But it's a face I can live with. And the main thing is that it doesn't look anything like my own one. Even Skids wouldn't recognize me."

"Which is the whole point," Amy nodded. "OK, that's not a problem." She studied the woman, who took a few more sips as she looked back. "Keep that, then, improve the structural aspects, add enhanced healing, better strength and reflex speed, boost the senses… that's all simple stuff. You'd end up a low level Brute from the physical standpoint, with better hearing, eyesight, sense of smell, things like that. Nothing too excessive, we can always revisit it. But I'll put in the underlying infrastructure for some of my more useful ideas. And you'll never get sick again."

She watched as Linda looked amazed. "Fuck me, you can do all that to a normal person?"

"I can. I have to tell you, one thing I'm going to add is a metabolic modification that will make any normal narcotic, including alcohol, completely ineffective. Painkillers will still work but you won't be able to get high on anything." She glanced at Lisa, then Taylor, both of whom she'd discussed this with the night before. "It's not that we don't trust you, but given your past, we want to make sure that if things get too much for you, you don't end up retreating into drug abuse again. The psychological addiction is quite likely still present even though you're doing really well at not giving in to it. This is just insurance."

Appearing mildly insulted at first, Linda opened her mouth, then closed it again as she though. Eventually, she sighed slightly. "Fuck. I get where you're coming from. And I can't even swear it's something that would never happen. I sure don't _want_ it to, but… life can fuck you over, and it's done it before. Maybe that's a good idea."

She looked slightly plaintive. "Can't even drink?"

"You can drink," Amy chuckled, "it just won't do anything."

"Might be useful for winning drinking competitions," Linda sighed. "OK. I can live with that. You people are really strict."

"We'll see how things go, and I might adjust it in time to let you get slightly drunk if I think you're handling life all right, but I don't want to risk losing you just as things are improving," Amy told her, reaching out and patting her shoulder. "I know it's a little harsh but I honestly think it's a sensible precaution."

"Can't argue with that, as much as I'd like to," Linda mumbled. "I'm pretty fucked up."

"You'll be OK, but it will take time." Lisa watched the woman finish her can. "I think you should see a therapist, as well. Not necessarily immediately, but soon. You've been through a nasty abusive relationship and come out of years of unpleasant problems. Talking it out with a professional would help."

Looking at her, then the others, Linda eventually nodded, appearing resigned. "You're probably right. You usually seem to be."

"Don't get me wrong, I'm more than happy to talk to you any time you want," Lisa added, "but that's not my specialty. We can find someone who knows human minds and how to help repair them. I'm more a deconstructionist, which isn't helpful in this case."

They were silent for a moment, as Linda thought things over. "Life is pretty strange sometimes, isn't it?" she finally remarked, fairly cheerfully. "Never saw this coming, at all."

"Things do seem to have a habit of changing unexpectedly in this city," Taylor smiled. She glanced at Amy. "So, make the new body first, obviously. When do you want to get started?"

"I've got the DNA samples, I'll make the brain first, it's the key to the whole plan, then build the body," Amy replied after some quick thought. "I'll need some help with the mechanical structure, you can make the bones faster than I can."

"No problem."

"When it's finished, we move Linda across, install the replacement brain in the original, change it back to what she used to look like, and undo all the things Metis fixed. That won't take too long. I'll put it in biostasis when we're done, it'll keep until we need it."

Taylor nodded thoughtfully. "Sounds like we have a plan, then."

"Can I watch?" Linda suddenly asked. Everyone looked at her, making her shrug. "It's bizarrely interesting, even if it's as grotesque as fuck. And it's my body, after all."

"Sure," Amy grinned. "I don't mind. You may find it a little disturbing, I have to warn you, but it's not like normal surgery, there won't be blood and fluids all over the place. We use completely different methods, no cutting and gluing."

"Thank fuck for that," Linda sighed in relief, looking less worried. "I had some pretty unpleasant mental images."

"It's more like making a machine," Taylor told her. "Family biosculpting is both an art and a science, and far more advanced than normal human medical techniques. It's not my field of expertise but I find it fascinating as well."

"Let's get to work, then, we have quite a few things to do," Lisa pointed out, standing up. Amy did likewise, and was about to say something else when there was a knock on the door. Everyone looked at it. Taylor sniffed.

"Victoria Dallon," she said.

"You can tell that from here by scent?" Linda asked in surprise.

"Yep, it's not hard." Striding across the room, Taylor headed for the door. "Probably best not to mention anything to her, for the moment," she said over her shoulder. "Vicky's a good person but the fewer people who know the better."

Linda nodded, while Lisa sat down again. They watched as the door was opened to reveal Amy's sister, who was dressed in normal street clothes and looked excited. "Hi, Vicky," Taylor smiled. "It's nice to see you. Come in."

"Thanks, Saurial," the blonde said, entering the room and looking around. "Is Amy here?"

"She's on site somewhere but she's not in the building right at the moment," Taylor answered. "Is there something wrong?"

"Not at all," Vicky smiled. "The opposite. The Mayor called and invited both of us to dinner at his house on Wednesday, along with Taylor and her dad. Amy's phone is off, I wanted to tell her."

Amy looked at Taylor, who smirked a little at her over Vicky's shoulder. She'd obviously known about the invitation and had deliberately not said anything. With an internal grin, she said, "Amy will be back soon, I think, Vicky, but we're happy to pass the message on."

"Thanks," the other girl said, joining them at the table along with Taylor. She looked at Linda, who was appearing slightly awe-struck as well as apprehensive. "Hi, I'm Vicky Dallon," she told the brunette, holding out her hand.

"Linda Morgan," the woman managed to say, apparently a little taken aback by Vicky's exuberance, as she shook her hand. "It's nice to meet you."

"Linda is a new DWU hire," Lisa told the blonde. "A very talented mechanical engineer. We were just talking about some of the Family techniques with her."

"Oh, cool." Vicky grinned. "These guys are crazy, but they make some neat stuff. You'll probably like it here. People are saying this is going to be an important part of the city soon, with the way things are changing."

"I'm getting that impression," Linda smiled. "So far it's been a little weird but not bad at all."

Peering at the glass boards with Taylor's math on them, Vicky's eyes widened. "Holy _shit_ , that's some _seriously_ horrifying mathematics," she exclaimed. "I've never seen anything like it."

"Hmm?" Taylor followed her eyes, then smiled. "It's not too hard, but it's not something you're likely to have come across. Again, Family work, the basis of fractional dimensional storage theory. I was going over it with Cloak yesterday."

Linda turned to look at the boards, Amy noted, her expression going from mildly overwhelmed through intrigued to totally fascinated in about four seconds. Inwardly, she was amused, and wondered if the woman would be able to learn it. That could lead to some interesting results…

"Way beyond me," Vicky laughed. "Taylor might be able to follow it, but she's the only person I know who could. Girl's a math _machine_."

"She's very good at it," Taylor agreed with a calm smile. "We've discussed the subject on many occasions."

"I'm surprised she's not here," Vicky giggled. "She'd fit right in. But I know she's still buried in her schoolwork, catching up. That damn Winslow place didn't do her any favors."

"No, I don't suppose it did."

Taylor was definitely very amused by the conversation, Amy could literally smell it. She met her friend's eyes and had to turn her head a little to hid her own smile. Lisa was openly grinning slightly, while poor Linda seemed confused, but mostly still absorbed in looking at the equations.

"Poor girl. Mind you, she's really having a good time at Arcadia, now. I'm glad she transferred, I wouldn't have met so many interesting people and had so much fun as a result if I'd never met her," Vicky smiled. "And she's been as good for Sis as you guys are. Ames has really opened up a hell of a lot in the last few weeks. I was getting worried about her, so thanks for that."

"You're more than welcome, Vicky," Taylor replied, smiling widely. "Amy is a very close friend to all of us. As are you."

"Thanks." She looked at her watch. "Well, if you can tell her when you see her, that would be great. I'll try calling her later. I think I'm going to go and look on the Boardwalk, some of the shops are open, and I really need a new outfit for this dinner. See you guys around."

"Of course, Vicky, drop in any time," Taylor said as she walked back to the door with the girl, opening it and standing aside. "It was nice to see you again, even if briefly."

"Say hi to Danny for me, OK?" Vicky smiled, floating out the door and disappearing upwards at speed. Taylor closed the door once more, locking it, then rejoined them.

"That girl is… a little hyper," Linda noted dryly.

"She's enthusiastic, yes," Lisa laughed. "But a good person. I like her a lot."

"OK, hopefully there won't be any more interruptions," Amy put in. "Let's get to work. If you have any ideas, don't be afraid to tell us, Linda." She headed to the workroom and opened it, picking the biogun off the bench and putting in on one of the shelves to the side, then clearing a space. It was quite crowded in the room with all four of them standing there next to the bench. "Right. Let's make a brain, shall we?"

"I feel there should be some eerie music playing," Linda said as she looked around the room with interest. "What are we calling it?"

"Abby," Taylor replied immediately.

"Abby?"

"Abby Normal." Taylor grinned as everyone looked at her. Lisa sighed slightly.

"You've been watching those human movies again, haven't you?" she said.

"They're very amusing," Taylor snickered.

Linda stared at them all, then shook her head.

"Why do I get the feeling that things are only going to get _more_ fucking bizarre?" she asked rhetorically.

"Because you're an intelligent person," Amy said, grinning. "Hand me that bag of onions, will you? And someone close the door."

Shortly, she was very carefully building a duplicate human brain in a vat of suspension fluid while Linda watched with awe, Taylor made bad jokes, and Lisa watched for mistakes with her power.

All in all, she was having a lot of fun. And she had a dinner with the Mayor to look forward to as well, which was nice.

* * *

Vicky flipped hangers, going through a rack of dresses in the back of the shop, looking for anything that seemed like it would be a good choice. She'd spent some time looking in the various shops open on a Sunday, picking up a nice pair of shoes but little else yet. She was going to have to try again tomorrow when some of the better places were open.

Even so, she was in a very good mood. She'd got an invitation to dinner with one of the most important people in the city, out of the blue, her sister and one of her friends was going too, and even the weather was nice.

Shaking her head as she held up one garment, she put it back, then looked around. There was nothing here that worked. Oh well.

Picking up her shopping bag, she left the establishment, nodding to the sales girl on the way out, then stopped on the street outside. Quite a large number of tourists were around the place, she'd already signed three autographs, but most of them left her alone after a quick double-take.

Turning right, she headed towards the nearest place that sold food, feeling hungry. After a quick snack she thought she'd call Dean, who should be off shift at the moment, talk to him for a while, then head home. Possibly stop off at the DWU again to see if Amy was around yet. Her sister certainly enjoyed being at that place, she thought with amusement.

Not surprising, she got on really well with all the lizards. She'd made some good friends there, the blonde thought. And most of it seemed, one way or the other, to date from when she met Taylor. That girl had started her sister on a path to being a happier person, for which she herself was extremely grateful. Not to mention she really liked the brunette as well.

' _I still can't get over how good she is with math_ ,' Vicky thought as she walked into the fast food restaurant, smiling at a couple of boys her age who stared, then started whispering to each other. She joined the line, her choices already made after a look at the menu. ' _But that stuff Saurial wrote down was insane. I wonder if Taylor could really understand it?_ '

Placing her order, she waited for the guy behind the counter to fill it, then took the tray he handed her, thanking him, before heading to a table and sitting down.

' _Hopefully Taylor will catch up with her schoolwork soon. Then she can join Amy at Lizard Central. God knows what would happen then!_ ' Giggling under her breath, she stuck a straw in her drink and sucked on it. ' _She's another one that would fit in nicely. Really calm and level-headed, like Saurial, and with the same sort of weird sense of humor. I'm not surprised Ames likes both of them, she's the same too. They're hysterical when they start making dead-pan jokes and word games. Dennis nearly stopped breathing he was laughing so hard the last time_.'

She grinned to herself, remembering the red-head rolling on the floor gasping weakly for air, while Taylor and Amy exchanged looks of triumphant amusement. Amy's snark and Taylor's ability to craft a pun out of nothing were a terrifying combination.

The blonde girl ate her chicken salad, idly watching the pedestrians pass outside, pondering the deep mysteries of life, such as why so many really obese people wore clothes that seemed _designed_ to not fit properly, enjoying the day. When she finished, she dumped her waste in the relevant place, left the restaurant, and lifted into the air without a pause. She'd find a good private place to call Dean, she knew many building rooftops that were suitable, thanks to her flight ability which was one of the best parts of her power set.

As she flew, her thoughts went back to her sister and her friends. ' _It's weird how similar Saurial and Taylor can be sometimes,_ ' she thought with a grin. ' _They're both really laid back and calm, although Saurial is fucking terrifying when she's doing her thing. Taylor is just nice. And they're both brilliant at math. I wonder how long ago the Heberts met the Family? They obviously knew them quite a while before Saurial made her debut. I bet she was going to their house for weeks or months and no one knew about it. She can be sneaky_.'

About two minutes later, a very strange thought struck her, which distracted her so much she flew into the side of an office block.

* * *

"A paintball gun," Alec said flatly, looking at the thing Mark was holding. Brian glanced at him, then looked back to the blond man who was grinning.

They were in one of the larger offices in the security department, half a dozen of the normal complement of guards there, along with a dozen volunteers, Alec and Brian included.

"That's partly correct," Mark said. "This started life as a very high quality paintball rifle, but that was before some military gunsmiths got their hands on it. It's been modified for higher accuracy. Rifled barrel, takes standard rail-mount accessories, can use either a hopper, or magazine-loaded finned loads." He turned the thing around in his hands, pointing out the various features. "Extendable stock, folding bipod, and interchangeable barrels. In this configuration it's set up for short range operation, out to a hundred yards or so. If you remove the barrel, like this..."

He did exactly that, putting the short metal tube down on his desk, then picking up a longer one. "...and put this one in place, it's a sniper rifle, accurate to maybe two hundred yards if you're a good shot. The accuracy isn't as good as a real firearm, of course, the ballistic characteristics of any type of paintball are never going to match a bullet, but it's a damn sight more accurate than a normal paintball."

"If you want really high accuracy when firing paint, don't they make training rounds that you can fire from a normal gun?" Brian asked, remembering something he'd read on the web.

Mark nodded. "Yes, they do. And they fucking hurt, I can tell you that from personal experience. But there are a lot less legal restrictions around a paintball gun than a real gun, in the sense that this is legally considered a toy, not a weapon. Makes life easier. It definitely _isn't_ a toy, but it's also not a firearm, which is good from our point of view. We're not trying to kill anyone, after all. Just ruin their day."

"How is a face full of paint going to do that?" one of the other volunteers, a woman in her thirties, asked curiously.

Mark looked at her then grinned in a malicious manner. "We won't be using paint." Next to him Zephron held up a small orange ball between two fingers. Brian noted that he was wearing a glove on that hand for some reason. "We'll be using these."

"Looks like a paintball to me," Alec said, staring at the thing.

"Think of it more as a _pain_ ball," Mark said with a dark chuckle. "The filling is a mix of capsaicin and allyl isothiocyanate with stabilizers and preservatives. That's the chemical that gives chilies their heat, along with the active ingredient in wasabi. Basically pure. Trust me, you _do not_ want to get this stuff on your skin. It makes pepper gas look like milk. Get it in your eyes, you're going to be screaming in agony too much to concentrate on anything else for hours. Even skin contact is agonizing."

"Shit." One of the other people whispered the word in an awed tone.

"This spray is a counter-agent," Zephron said, holding up an industrial type of aerosol. "It neutralizes the chemicals on contact. Even so, you'll want to avoid getting it on yourself."

"If we get into a situation where those idiot Merchants come at us, hopefully we can drop them with these before it gets bad and the Family is forced to do something more permanent," Mark went on when his colleague put the can down again. "Not to mention, there's always the chance of someone else trying something now that things are kicking off around here. Danny feels that we need some way to defend ourselves at range, rather than waiting for them to get here and everything ending up as hand to hand combat. These things will slow down a lot of capes, never mind normal people. Combined with the new wall, it gives us a fighting chance."

"The Family aren't always around, so we need something we can fall back on, just in case," Zephron added. "But we don't want to start with the lethal options, it only escalates the situation. These are non-lethal, but very, very, _very_ unpleasant."

"What if it's not enough?" The question came from one of Mark's security regulars.

"We have other options as well," the blond man said, glancing at his colleague. "We have a good stock of smoke grenades, some tear gas ones, as well as some sedative ones, which are quite effective." Brian wondered if those were the same as the ones Coil had arranged for Lisa when they'd hit Lung. Those things had worked very well.

Mark put the paintball gun down on the desk in front of him. "Also..." He held up a small bright red box. "These don't exist. You never saw them. Got me?" Everyone nodded. "If they _did_ exist, they would be an experimental military sub-lethal nerve agent in point six eight paintball caliber, intended for riot control. They would have the ability to cause unconsciousness in approximately six to eight seconds from skin contact, and would even go through most clothes. They would also have the slight drawback of potentially causing death, since a paintball isn't the most precise way to apply a dose of anything. This autojector, which also doesn't exist, would in theory contain an antidote."

He put both items down on the desk. "Obviously, these hypothetical and clearly non-existent items would only get used in a serious situation, where the risk to life was high enough to overcome the very definitely illegal nature of them."

Brian listened with interest and worry. Mr Hebert had some interesting contacts, if he could get this sort of thing. The nerve agent balls sounded very worrying. He wondered which Pentagon research department was going to come up short on the next inventory…

"We also have access to a limited number of real guns, for true life or death situations, but Danny is extremely reluctant to authorize their use unless there's no other alternative," Mark carried on. "I happen to agree with that. We're not building an army, we're just trying to defend ourselves and get on with our business. It's better to try to talk a situation down than start shooting. However, that is sometimes not an option, so we train for when it goes south."

He looked around at them all. "Understand, this is volunteer only. If anyone is worried about possibly having to fight, there's no shame in saying so. You can all withdraw at any time for any reason. But I would hope that you'll stick with the rest of us, and help defend our friends and co-workers. The DWU looks after its own, and many of us have a lot of reason to be grateful for that."

Everyone looked at each other. Several murmurs of support came from about the room. "I'm perfectly happy to help," Brian said after a few seconds. Alec was looking at the paintball weapon with an intrigued expression, twitching a little when his friend nudged him. He nodded.

"Sounds fun," the dark-haired boy said, smiling.

The others all expressed similar sentiments, causing Mark and Zephron to both appear pleased.

"Great. We may also be getting some interesting help from Saurial and the others, knowing them. She's interested in teaching some of her hand to hand style to us too. Anyone with any martial arts or CQC experience who wants to learn some new tricks should let me know."

That made Brian think hard. He'd seen the lizard-girl training, she was incredibly good. He was very interested in seeing if he could learn any of that himself, he decided, catching Mark's eye. The man nodded slightly to him. "Great. Since we seem to be on the same page, we'll start with a complete breakdown of this weapon, learn how it works, and then practice using it. We have quite a few of them, and I've got thousands of ordinary paintballs for training. Alec, I'm hoping that some of your idle layabout experience will transfer over to a more physical kind of sniping, if you're interested."

Brian's friend smiled as several people laughed. "I'm willing to try," he said. "Might be fun."

"Don't get carried away," Zephron chuckled. "Remember this is only training. Once we see how well it works out, we'll assemble more teams, but you guys are the test batch."

"As long as we keep score, I'm good," Alec snickered darkly.

Sighing a little, knowing that things were likely to end up very strange, Brian looked at his friend and shook his head. Alec was definitely seeming _far_ too interested now for anyone's peace of mind...


	207. Omake - Unannounced Visitor (MCU)

Nick Fury finished the last page of the report, then dropped the tablet onto his desk with a grunt of irritation, tipping his chair back and putting his fingertips together as he thought.

He was not a happy man.

That was, in all fairness, not unusual. He was seldom a happy man. On far more occasions than his medical staff liked, he was a very _unhappy_ man, sometimes living up to his name in a manner that made people tend to back away slowly while not making eye contact, until they could run.

Which very slightly amused him, although it did nothing to increase his overall sense of _joie de vivre_. Which was, generally, entirely absent.

Not unreasonably so, he felt, as he was tasked with keeping some form of lid on the steadily growing number of wildly overpowered vigilantes that seemed to plague the world as of late. Admitted, this wasn't by any means a new phenomenon, such individuals had been present through most of recorded history, and could certainly help on occasion, but lately…

Lately there really did seem to be more of them than seemed possible, and most of their antics didn't make him sleep any better at night.

True, most of them wanted to help, and true, in many cases they _did_ help, often pulling off the impossible, but did they have to be so… _blatant..._ about it? In his line of work, one tended to operate in the shadows as much as possible, partly to keep the public happy, and partly to avoid tipping off the other side.

None of _his_ agents wandered around in power armor in bright colors, cracking inappropriate jokes, for example. Or purple trunks, or some sort of medieval armor complete with a warhammer.

That weirdo in New York with the red and blue spider theme going on was just _annoying._ Effective, fair enough, but _really_ irritating.

He sighed slightly, glancing at the pad for a moment, reaching out and flicking it with a finger to scroll back a few pages.

No, it was a damn nuisance most of the time. It made the entire command structure confusing, brought far more attention from the public in his general direction than he was happy with, and the World Security Council, who were in some ways even more irritating, tended to blame _him_ for the excesses of the costumed weirdos. He then had to have a talk with them, which usually ended up as a total fiasco, especially if Stark was in the room, raised his blood pressure, and achieved very little except a short term reprieve from the more egregious peculiarities.

Luckily the public seemed to have slightly more interest in the superhero gossip than the collateral damage, but he worried that eventually something dramatic enough would happen that there would be a backlash which wouldn't be good for anyone. The world, because like it or not, it _needed_ these pain-in-the-ass lunatics to deal with the unconventional threats that were past the ability to handle for the conventional forces. The lunatics themselves, because if public opinion turned against them hard enough the consequences could be awkward at best and catastrophic at worst.

And him in the middle, trying to play both sides, keep everything from going belly-up, and also maintain enough sanity that he might one day get to retire. Or live to retire.

Or even have a world left to retire _to.  
_  
Flicking through the report, he sighed again, more heavily. Add to the mix _Norse gods_ , for fuck's sake, rogue artificial intelligences, bizarre enhanced humans through some odd genetic peculiarity, and fuck knows what else, and it was a total wonder that the world hadn't fallen into utter chaos long ago.

And now this.

Alien lizard-girls who turned up out of the blue, casually did things that scared even the superheroes, and vanished again, in complete disregard for sanity and the rules of the universe. Thor himself looked nervous every time the subject came up, cuddling that damn hammer of his like he was worried someone would take it away, Stark started muttering things under his breath that unnerved Fury quite a lot although he'd never say it in front of the man, and about the only one who didn't seem too upset was Banner.

Which was _very_ worrying when you thought about it…

The blasted creature had popped out of the woodwork after New York, claimed the Tesseract was her handiwork and she'd been looking for it for some time, simply picked it up, then wandered off again, leaving everyone wondering what the hell had happened. To be completely honest he was OK with that, it was gone past the ability of anyone, apparently including the Asgardians, to retrieve, which in his private thoughts was a good thing.

But it had triggered a massive series of security checks, mostly at the insistence of the WSC, which had taken nearly two years to complete, tearing through the entire structure of SHIELD like a hurricane. He'd been furious about the intrusions, but had been over-ruled at the highest levels.

The really fucking irritating thing was that the security audit had actually _found_ something.

Not at all what they were looking for, since they were convinced that this ' _Saurial_ ' had somehow got inside information on the whereabouts of the Tesseract from SHIELD itself. He was equally sure she hadn't, the reports he'd had, including the verbal ones from Barton and Romanoff, had left him thinking that the reptilian female had her own technology that was far past anything they had and was more than capable of doing exactly what she'd claimed.

No, they'd found, very nearly by triggering a total disaster, that Hydra had been infiltrating SHIELD for years. Decades, in fact, possibly going right back to the founding of the organization.

It was mere chance that they found out before the nefarious and shadowy group completed their plan, which was still something they were a little hazy on. But it had turned out that several of the new Helicarriers under construction were totally compromised from hull to flight deck, far more heavily armed than they were supposed to be, and very close to triggering what could have ended up as a full-scale war.

They'd managed to stop it, barely, at the cost of more lives than he was even slightly happy about, but a lot of damage had been done, much information was still missing, and the very existence of the agency itself had been put in doubt for months.

It still made him a little ill, thinking about what might have happened. And had been averted only due to chance, and a weird lizard in a trench-coat that had turned up out of nowhere.

' _A phrase I never thought would be something I'd think_ ,' he mentally winced. ' _Lizard-girls. Christ. Even by the standards of the costumed lunatics that's a stretch. Although it did shut Stark up for longer than anything else I've seen, so there's that..._ '

He actually came very close to smiling for a moment.

Then, a couple of months back, she'd turned up _again_ , along with a different companion than last time, this one allegedly some AI in power armor that made Stark extremely envious, along with an aircraft unlike anything they had, which was not only totally stealthed but insanely fast. Just arrived in the middle of what was some complete cluster-fuck caused, yet again, by people who didn't quite know what they were doing poking around in things they should have left alone. He shuddered to think what the outcome of a hyper-intelligent and apparently extremely hostile AI of that level getting loose into the internet would have been.

Nothing good, that was certain.

But Saurial had popped up, shut the damn thing down mainly by talking to it and allegedly, according to Maria Hill, confusing the hell out of it, then her companion had basically stolen it. Right out of one of Stark's damn drones.

The pair of them had waved happily, turned around, and left, the aircraft apparently deliberately unstealthing then hurtling off at about mach 9, just to rub it in. By the time anyone could even try for an intercept it was gone.

He couldn't decide if the reptile was deliberately trying to wind people up due to some weird sense of humor, or just had a very good sense of timing and theater. Whichever it was, it was another thing that he found annoying. Although he couldn't deny she'd helped out twice now, even if only accidentally, and with a smirk.

Hill was still pissed about that. She felt the girl or whatever she really was had been enjoying their problems way too much.

Coulson, on the other hand, seemed to think it was funny, having made several dead-pan jokes at her expense. Luckily he was involved with other operations these days and seldom joined briefing meetings, or it could have become embarrassing. Since his ' _resurrection_ ' he definitely had a more sardonic view of the world, despite not remembering what had actually happened to him.

Standing orders had been put into place to report any sightings of the reptilian female or her two currently known associates, but so far nothing had turned up. He wasn't sure if he was pleased, relieved, or slightly disappointed. She might have been a good addition to the Avengers Initiative, if only for her ability to confuse Stark and shut him up.

If he could bottle _that_ …

Even the man's friends would probably pay.

Pulling a hard-copy printout of the very small amount of useful information on the lizard-like alien out of his desk, he opened it and perused the contents, yet again trying to wring some sort of sense out of the thing. There were notes on Saurial herself, the apparent AI ' _Dragon_ ', a suitably themed name, and the other lizard, introduced as ' _Metis_ ,' who had accompanied Saurial to New York on the first occasion. Very little hard information on any of them was available, really only observations from witnesses, and statements from the three themselves.

What ' _The Family_ ' was, for example, could only be deduced. It sounded like some sort of Mafia organization more than anything else, but it could equally be a literal description, as Metis was apparently Saurial's cousin.

Some of the things in the report were on the face of it preposterous. She'd claimed that she'd actually made Thor's hammer Mjolnir, for example, about _fifty three thousand_ years ago.

As a disposable tool, no less.

Both parts of that sounded insane, but she'd been able to pick it up like it was an ordinary hammer, and when he'd thrown it at her it had bounced. Having seen the thing in use, that was more than a little discomfiting to Nick. Thor had been even more puzzled, and if he was any judge of Asgardian expressions, more than a little scared about the implications.

He certainly didn't like talking about it.

The last time, she'd threatened to go to his father and interrogate _Odin_ of all people about what she claimed was his habit of taking her own artifacts as his own, which seemed to annoy her. Fury would almost pay good money to see _that_.

There was almost no information on her companions, only speculation on scraps of data. If Dragon was truly an AI, Stark was of the opinion she was entirely sapient and probably at a post-human intelligence level. Something the man seemed fascinated by.

Fury was less happy about it.

Their technology, based both on what was apparently some form of inter-universe portal, and that aircraft, was clearly far past even Stark's tech base, which was funny in a way as the man seemed quite envious of the fact, but also worrying.

Never mind what Saurial could do without any visible tech at all. Such as whatever the hell she'd turned the Tesseract into by poking it with her hand. Eric Selvig was of the opinion that she'd directly manipulated the fabric of reality in higher-dimensional ways that he'd found quite disturbing. Considering how peculiar the physicist himself was, that was telling.

The WSC was very interested in acquiring that technology for their own purposes, much as they'd wanted to grab the Tesseract in the first place. He was less sure that would end well, and entirely certain that it wasn't something that the creature would simply hand over. And he had a pretty good idea that trying to force her, if and when she turned up again, wasn't something that would work at all effectively.

Still, he had his orders, even the Director of SHIELD had people who could tell him what to do. Not many of them, true enough, but they still existed.

Picking up a pen he noted on the document, ' _Approach with extreme caution and no hostile activities. Subject Saurial is to be considered a class X danger, although friendly. All agents are to attempt to establish contact and politely request a meeting with Director Fury_.'

Putting the pen down, he swung his chair back and forth for a moment, thinking hard. He needed to come up with some form of practical plan in case the lizard-girl did ever turn up again, but one that wasn't going to get anyone killed.

Although he was quite curious to see if she could make Stark end up looking like he had the last two times.

Turning back to the report, he grabbed the pen again, then stared.

' _Subject Saurial is to be considered devastatingly pretty, and approached with ice cream. All agents are to offer lunch and politely request a ride in Dragon's shuttle_.'

Nick Fury was pretty fucking sure he hadn't written that line. His original had been neatly crossed out, and the new text wasn't even in his handwriting.

Looking suspiciously around the room, he saw nothing. Even so, he reached for his sidearm, pulling out of the holster under his arm and cocking it. Getting up, he carefully inspected every possible hiding place in the entire office suite, finding nothing out of place. The door was still locked, the security system was armed, and a quick check of the access control logs showed he was the last one to come into the office that afternoon.

When he was certain that he was alone, he went back to the desk, looking at the paperwork again.

He sighed heavily. There was another line under the first, in the same handwriting, which read, ' _She is also very funny, and likes practical jokes. By the way, your gun is full of chocolate bullets.'_

He checked.

It was.

"This is not actually very funny at all, and a major security breach," he growled.

"Sorry, I couldn't resist," a female voice said from behind him. Turning around, raising the weapon until he recalled it wasn't a lot of use, he found himself looking at a smiling reptilian figure in a trench coat, wearing a fedora, who was leaning on the wall next to the window in a casually comfortable manner.

"How the hell did you get in here?" he asked, glaring at her. "And why?"

"Magic, and because I was in the area on business and I thought I'd like to meet the famous Director Fury," she replied calmly. "We looked you up last time, Dragon found some interesting stuff in your computers when she was making sure that her new friend hadn't caused any trouble. You remind me of someone from home and I wanted to say hi."

"That's it?" he said. "Magic? That's what you're going with?"

She shrugged. "It's both accurate and something you can understand," she smiled. "If I start talking about multidimensional transfinite fractal manipulation, it will probably confuse you. That's what normally happens."

Straightening up, she wandered around the office inspecting everything with interest, while he watched her closely. "Nice place. The security's not bad either."

"It's obviously not good enough," he muttered.

"Trust me, practically nowhere is _good enough_ to actually keep me out," she grinned. "It's a gift. But I'll go if you want me to. I was just curious. How did your Hydra problem work out?"

"You know about that?"

"Learned about it the last time, like I said. They sounded pretty nasty. Good thing you stopped them."

"Except for some of the leaders who managed to escape," he sighed, lowering his weapon. He was still worried, but she seemed non-hostile and there wasn't much he could do anyway. Glancing at the panic button discreetly hidden under his desk, he considered nudging it, but wasn't at all sure it would help. Better to see what she wanted and hope it worked out.

Although the security people were going to get one hell of a lecture when this was over.

Magic.

Right.

"Yeah, I heard about that too. This might help."

She tossed him a small object, which he reflexively caught, then looked at, his eyebrows going up. "A USB drive?"

"Locations of the remaining Hydra agents and resources. Call it a little present." She smiled. "From what we've worked out, we're sort of the cause of you finding out about them in the first place, might as well finish the job. They don't seem to be very nice people. And you really do remind me of someone I know, she's done right by us, so it's only fair to pay it forward."

Nick studied her for nearly thirty seconds, then nodded once. "Thank you."

"No problem."

She glanced at the document on the desk, then added, "Although I'm not interested in joining your little club. I have enough to do. I might stop by occasionally even so, we seem to be able to access your universe more easily than most and it's quite interesting. I've been meaning to look up Doctor Banner and have a talk with him, he seemed like someone I'd get along with. That Tony guy is a bit weird, though."

He wondered how much of the report she'd read, and how many of their secrets were still secret. There was an uneasy feeling that the answers would be ' _all of it_ ' and ' _none_ ' respectively. Whatever this creature really was, they appeared to have gained her interest, which was quite possibly something he should be worried about.

"Well, I must be off," she said, turning away from where she'd been reading one of his wall plaques, her head on one side. "It was nice to meet you, Director Fury."

"Where are you going now?" he asked, not sure why.

"I have a Norse God to have a word with," she frowned. "He's a damn klepto and needs a good talking to. I'm getting tired of people pinching my stuff and claiming it was theirs."

"Thor's hammer, I assume?"

"That and a couple of other things. And some of my nicer music boxes have gone missing, I'm sort of pissed about that. One of them was a present for my Dad's birthday."

Nick looked oddly at her, causing her to shrug with a small smile. "I like making things, and he likes the results. Most of them. Anyway, Odin is irritating me, so I need to go shout at him for a while. See you around, maybe."

He raised a hand, causing her to stop in the process of turning away. "A request?"

"Hmm?"

"Two, actually. One, if you come back, please knock first?"

She grinned. "OK. Fair enough. And the second?"

"Any possibility of a recording of you shouting at Odin?"

Her grin widened. "Yes, you really do remind me of someone," she chuckled. "That can be arranged."

"Thank you," Fury said, nodding to her. He watched as she walked towards the door. There was a weird twisting in the space surrounding it and she vanished. He gaped for a moment, then checked the recordings of the office security cameras.

They'd shown her perfectly, so she really had been there. Even so, there was no way to work out where she'd come from or where she'd gone. Or how.

Sitting down, he stared at the report, then his gun, before slowly reloading it with real rounds, dropping the ones made of chocolate onto the desk for later analysis. He had no idea how she'd done _that_ little trick.

Reholstering the weapon, he picked his pen up, scratching out her added lines, then writing under them, ' _Do not approach. Subject Saurial is to be ignored if at all possible. For everyone's sanity_.'

Putting the pen down, he shook his head, then took the USB stick with him as he headed off to the secure computer room to investigate what was on it, feeling weirdly happier than he had been for some time.

She was clearly nuts, but at the same time she'd been far less difficult to deal with than practically every one of the other crazies he had to handle, which made a nice change.

The only real down side was that Stark hadn't been there to get all confused and quiet again...


	208. Omake - Nice Pen (MCU)

"Cool."

" _GAH!_ "

Bruce spun on the spot, his heart hammering, almost to the level that his large green friend would make an appearance, to see someone peering over his shoulder at the screens he was working on, her head tipped to the side inquisitively. As his heart rate dropped to something less dangerous, he sighed slightly.

"Saurial."

"Doctor Banner."

She grinned at him.

"I suppose asking how you got into one of the most secure labs on the planet would be a waste of time?" he said.

The reptile nodded, looking pleased with herself.

"Pretty much. Secure is a matter of opinion, anyway." She looked around, then wandered off, inspecting everything closely. He watched, wondering what bizarre thing was about to happen. Both the previous times he'd come across the lizard-girl, very strange parts of his life were either happening or had just happened.

"Jarvis?"

"I'm sorry, Doctor Banner, I have no idea how Miss Saurial gained entrance to the tower," the calm artificial voice said out of nowhere, Tony's AI replying to him. Bruce looked up at the nearest speaker, frowning a little.

Was it his imagination or did the computer program sound very slightly amused?

"Is there something I can help you with?" he asked, watching as she picked up a sample of a new armor alloy for Stark's latest suit, sniffing it curiously. He was both startled and somewhat annoyed when she then nibbled the end of the six inch long plate, leaving tooth-marks and a small piece missing. Even as he was wondering how in god's name anything could actually _eat_ a nano-structured titanium-beryllium-chromium composite, he was also sighing.

"Please don't eat the samples," he requested.

"It'll work better if you add about two percent tantalum, and half a percent of osmium," she commented, putting the slightly shorter sample back where it came from. "Like this."

Bruce was definitely taken aback when she held up another apparently identical sample, which hadn't been in her hand before, then put it next to the first one. "Pretty good try, though."

Turning around, she inspected the rest of the lab, the end of her long tail flicking back and forth like that of a curious cat. "Neat place. Some friends of mine would be right at home here."

Returning her attention to him, she answered his original question, smiling. "I was in the area and thought I'd drop in and say hi. Partly to let you know that your involuntary creation is feeling much better these days and wanted me to tell you he's sorry about the trouble he caused, and partly just to see what you were working on."

Moving over to another computer station that was displaying the schematics for a mark seven arc reactor, she leaned forward and scanned them, her eyebrow-equivalents up a little, then glanced at the equations on the next screen, nodding to herself. "Missed an integration here, and this term is wrong," she noted, tapping the translucent screen with a claw. Reaching for the keyboard, she typed rapidly for a moment, the security password apparently not slowing her at all. He stared in astonishment as she added three new equations under the first ones.

"There you go. That'll increase efficiency by about thirty percent or so."

Walking over he looked more closely at the work, then her. The lizard creature was looking pleased with herself.

"That… is remarkable."

"Simple enough, I've seen that sort of power source before. A friend of mine came up with it independently back home, but he's moved on to more powerful and efficient systems now. I'm sure you'd have worked it out soon enough."

Tipping her fedora back on her head, she smiled at him. "How's things going with you, anyway? Worked out that unified field theory yet?"

"No," he admitted, remembering their first brief conversation. "Although I'd be very interested in any insights you might have." It was apparent to him that she was definitely from a civilization that was far more technologically advanced than here, and considering that she seemed friendly, thought it worth a shot to see if he could get anything else useful out of her. That quick fix to the arc reactor design she'd just casually done like it was nothing would save them at least six months work.

"Hmm." She glanced at the time display on the nearest monitor. "Well, I've got a little time free right now, so… yep, why not. I can probably point you in the right direction."

Moving over to the table he and Tony used, she sat down in one of the chairs, waving him to another. "Hey, Jarvis, any chance of some coffee?" she asked the air.

"Certainly Miss Saurial," the computer replied, without hesitation. Bruce looked at the ceiling again. The thing was definitely finding this funny, which was worrying on several levels. "Doctor Banner, would you also like some refreshments?"

"Coffee too, thank you, Jarvis."

"Of course. I will deliver it momentarily."

Not sure how his day had ended up so weird so suddenly, Bruce sat down opposite the reptile-girl, who had taken her hat off and dropped it on the table. She smiled at him again, projecting an air of friendly companionship. "So, what do you want to know?"

"Anything you can tell me, I think," he said, pulling his notebook over and fumbling in his pocket for a pen. She slid one over the table to him.

"Here, use mine," she said.

"Thanks." Picking the oddly heavy pen up, he clicked the top of it, then poised it over the pad.

"OK. Let's see… How about how gravity and electromagnetism are connected? That's a good starting point."

"I… yes, that seems reasonable," he managed, feeling more than a little startled again.

"All right." She leaned forward and began talking. He was rapidly so engrossed he barely noticed when the door slid open and a drone deposited a cup of coffee in front of each of them. She broke off to politely thank the machine, then got back to an explanation that he was pretty certain was something that every other physicist on the planet would have happily donated a kidney to hear.

* * *

Tony entered the lab, spotting Bruce sitting at the table, four empty coffee cups next to his elbow, staring at a notepad covered in dense equations and what looked like at least ten pages of text, his face fixed in an expression of deep thought, wild wonder, and total amazement.

"What's that?" he asked curiously.

"The holy grail, I think," his colleague and friend replied in a stunned voice, very quietly. He flipped back a few pages, making some more notes with his pen. "I think I'm in shock."

"Huh. OK. Anyway, have a look at this, it's really cool."

"OK."

Bruce didn't look away from the pad.

"I came up with a very neat idea, a single long chain molecule of a synthetic organometallic substance," Tony went on, holding up a small device. "Figuring out how to actually make it was a bitch, but I did it. Stark wins again, universe bows head and weeps."

"Great."

His friend was still making notes, not looking at him. Tony went on anyway.

"Fantastic stuff. Twice as strong as carbon nanotubes, flexible, and has a melting point somewhere north of three thousand degrees. I'm planning on using it as a replacement for the internal lining of the next model suit, but it could be used for artificial tendons, nearly unbreakable composites, half a dozen things I thought of just on the way down here."

"That's nice."

Bruce corrected one of his notes, then stared at it, before shaking his head and correcting the correction.

"I'm also going to use it to tie up Thor so I can tickle his bare feet, then go fishing for the Loch Ness Monster," Tony said, glaring at the other man, who was completely ignoring his genius.

"Sounds like a plan."

Watching his colleague for a moment, Tony sighed. "You're not listening to a thing I'm saying, are you?"

"Two sugars, thanks," Bruce muttered, flipping pages again.

"Hey, want to see something else it can do?" the billionaire said brightly. Walking over to the table, he snatched the pen out of his friend's hand.

"HEY!" Bruce yelped, looking at him with annoyance. "I need that."

Tony held it out of reach tauntingly. "So do I. Look. This stuff is so strong you can use it as a blade. Watch." He carefully extended a foot or so of the invisibly thin thread from the small demonstration unit he'd made, the handle attached to the end dangling in mid air rather improbably. The mono-molecular wire itself was far too thin to actually see. Gingerly holding the handle, he wound a couple of turns around the pen, then pulled, saying at the same time, "See? It's so strong and so thin it cuts… right..."

"..."

"What the _fuck?_ "

He pulled again, while Bruce folded his arms and stared at him, not looking impressed.

Nothing happened. Again.

"OK. I've got this," he muttered, making sure his grip was solid, then pulling as hard as he could. The pen, a dull gray metal one, very high quality, bobbled in mid air, then slipped out of the loop of filament and flipped up, smacking him in the face.

"OW!"

He dropped what he was holding, grabbing his nose with both hands. "Fuck that hurt," he growled.

"Can I have my pen back now, please?" Bruce requested. He looked slightly amused.

"What the _hell_ is that thing made of?" Tony muttered, rubbing his nose while he bent down and retrieved the thing, inspecting it closely.

It looked like a perfectly normal if very expensive metal ballpoint pen, with letters engraved down the side along with a tiny gold logo, that seemed to be some sort of reptilian head. Squinting at it as he tilted it to catch the light, he read, ' _FamTech® EverPen™_ '

"Never heard of it," he said.

"Don't care," Bruce snapped, getting up and reaching for it. "I need it, I was busy."

"Why didn't the filament cut it?"

"No idea. Gimme, busy."

The physicist looked quite irritated now. Tony ignored him, feeling the pen curiously. "Not titanium… or stainless… too heavy for steel of any sort. Thermal conductivity is way too high… Tungsten? No. Some sort of ceramic-metallic composite?" He peered closely at it, while Bruce made an annoyed sound.

"Huh. No idea. Weird. OK, let's see if the cutting beam does anything."

He headed for the other end of the lab.

"Cutting beam?! Stop trying to destroy my pen, I was busy and I need it."

"Find another pen," Tony said over his shoulder, putting the thing into a clamp on the bench, then swinging an articulated arm over it, the device on the end pointing at the writing implement from about two inches away. "This will do it, it'll cut anything, even my armor eventually."

Bruce sighed loudly. Tony turned the machine on. Both of them watched for about five minutes.

"Can I have it back now, please?" Bruce finally asked. Stark was peering at the progress of the cutter, which was doing absolutely nothing except spreading brilliant light around the room and making a sizzling sound.

"That's impossible," Tony mumbled, feeling very confused indeed, turning the thing off and examining the pen with a magnifier. "Not a mark."

Putting his hand near it, then gingerly touching it, he gaped. "And it's stone cold. What the _hell?_ "

A set of footsteps stomped away from him as he rubbed his chin, thinking of what else he could try. "Thermite? No, that's not even as hot as the cutter. Acid? Maybe hydrofluoric would do it… Aha! Micro-explosive shaped charge! That's what I need."

The sound of a cabinet on the other end of the room opening and closing barely registered. The footsteps came back as he unclamped the pen and held it up, marveling at the complete lack of any damage.

"This is amazing," he exclaimed. "Where the hell did you get _argle argle eek_."

Bruce looked down at the twitching form of his friend, then at the stun-gun in his hand, shrugged, and reached down for his pen. Slipping it free, he checked it still worked, then headed back to the table and his notebook.

Some things were more important than friendship.

Like physics.

For which you needed the right pen.

It was a _really_ nice pen.

He could never be totally certain, but he had a vague impression that when Tony weakly called for help from Jarvis, the AI sounded like it was trying not to snicker. But he wasn't paying much attention, he was concentrating on his equations, and wondering when Saurial might come back and show him some new stuff.

"Out of interest, while I lie here in pain, why does my armor sample have a bite out of it?"


	209. Omake - Press 1 For Sales (SM)

"Well, _Fuck_ ," the voice said in tones of deep disgust.

"Damn thing," it added.

There was a solid clunk, followed by a yelp of pain, which itself was followed by a clatter and a burst of vicious swearing.

"Note to self: Do not kick immovable object," the voice finally said when the flow of obscenities stopped. It was female, speaking Japanese, and heavily annoyed.

Standing up from where she'd fallen over, having tripped as she'd hopped around on one foot, the woman with long green hair glared at the current focus of her ire. "Hundred thousand year warranty my ass," she muttered. "Stupid mages, cheaped out on the options, and now the fucking thing has burned out a power node," the woman sighed. Talking to herself had become something of a habit over the appallingly long time she'd been on duty.

With a great sigh of, in her view, fully justified irritation, she stomped back to the ancient artifact and started removing covers from various places, pulling a toolbox from one storage cabinet. A couple of hours later a significant amount of the magitech device was scattered around on the ground around her feet as she worked. The swearing had continued nearly non-stop the entire time, although at a low volume, and she'd worked her way through every language she knew and was on the fourth generation of the ancestors of the people who hadn't wanted to pay for the good hardware.

Lying on her back with her head stuck inside the machine, her black and white uniform dirty and wrinkled, Setsuna was _not_ in a good mood. "Damn it," she grumbled, her voice echoing around inside the thing and her normally serene and calm appearance entirely missing, "where the hell is that tessaract wrench..." A hand came out and felt around, picking up and discarding half a dozen odd-looking tools, until it landed on the one she was after, which then disappeared back inside with her upper torso.

There was a crackling sound and a burst of green light.

"Ouch!"

Another crackle.

"Aha!"

She slid out from inside the main power control sub-unit, rolling to her feet and brushing her hair out of her face. There was a patch of grease on one cheek and a scorch mark on her right index finger, but she was smiling.

"Now, let's see if that's got it."

Grabbing her staff, which had been propped up on the main console, she fiddled with the gem in the end, the control key for the entire massive machine, entering commands with the ease of far more years of practice than she liked to think about. A deep rumble from somewhere under her was followed by a whine inside the panel she'd just been working on.

"Yes..."

The whine grew, as the main power source spooled up to ignition.

"Yes..."

A throbbing hum joined the whine.

" _Yes..._ "

The hum grew louder and deeper, the whine trailed off.

"Um..."

It was joined by subsonic undertones that made her tools vibrate and rattle.

"That's not right..."

She watched the thing very suspiciously, then checked the readouts. " _Really_ not right," she muttered as an irregular thumping sound joined the other noises. A deep violet glow was coming from around the edges of the currently closed, huge, and ornately carved doors that formed the main user interface to the machine.

Stepping back as the sounds peaked, she winced when there was a very loud pop from somewhere, a trail of smoke coming up from an open panel. The hum wound down, the other sound effects dying as well, and the glow abruptly went out.

"Bugger."

The tall and elegant woman, currently a rather mussed up looking tall and elegant woman, put her hand on her forehead and groaned. "And there goes the temporal synchronization limiter. Wonderful."

Shaking her head, she put her staff down again and started looking for the _advanced_ service manual.

* * *

Two days later…

"Yes..."

"Yes..."

"Gak! No, _noooo…!_ "

 ** _POP_**

"Fuck."

There was an aggrieved silence for some seconds after the sounds stopped and the smoke cleared.

"Screw this, I need some beer," she grumbled, setting up for a quick trip back to Tokyo and a little shop she knew. Soon the void was empty, only the currently off-line machine left.

* * *

" _DAMN IT!_ "

Setsuna was very, very pissed off, dirty, tired, slightly drunk, and deeply wishing she'd never accepted this assignment in the first place. Sure, it was important, and sure, she pretty much had no choice, she knew that, but…

"If they weren't all dead I'd find them and kill them myself," she snarled, flipping through the manual yet again. " _Install replacement power coupling at an angle of twenty-three point two degrees offset from the third reciprocal of the secondary fusion node, tighten bolts eighteen degrees inverse with left hand..._ " She threw her hands in the air. "What does that even _mean?_ "

Eventually she sat on the lawn chair she'd brought with her, staring at the huge and currently entirely useless form of the device that she was supposed to use to guide humanity to a new golden age.

Or, technically, silver age.

Whatever.

The precious metal didn't matter when the fucking thing was broken.

"Goddam it, I have no choice," she sighed, rubbing her forehead tiredly. "I have to call tech support. That means I need to deal with… _them_."

With the demise of the Moon Kingdom, service support had ultimately devolved back to the people who had manufactured a lot of the parts of the giant time machine, people she found excessively annoying. Mostly because they all seemed to have a peculiar and inappropriate sense of humor at the best of times, and tended to look smugly like they knew something you didn't. Which was almost certainly true, but was also more than a little bothersome.

Grumbling in a low voice, she got up and started looking for the business card with the contact details on.

"How the hell a bunch of crazy lizards ended up being the best contractors to make this thing I'll never know," she muttered. "Damn unions. Ah, there it is." She read the card, then activated her communicator, carefully adjusting it to make a link she'd sworn the last time she'd never use again.

"BBFO Interuniversal Product Support," a far too cheerful voice said, sounding like the woman on the other end of the link was having a much better day than Setsuna was. "How may we be of service today?"

"Hello, this is Setsuna Meiou, service contract MK1023/TG/04. I have what seems to be a hardware failure and I need a service engineer."

"Certainly, Ms Meiou, let me just find the details here..."

The sound of someone humming under their breath came clearly across whatever technology or magic was allowing this call to occur. "Ah, here we go. Yes, you're still within the warranty period, although I note that your organization didn't go for the extended service option, so I'm afraid this will be a chargeable service call if new parts are required."

"Fine, I just need this damn thing fixed," Setsuna snapped.

"Of course. Now, let me just check the current schedule… All right, we can have someone there with you in two solar days. Will you be in between six AM and six PM, UTC, local time system?"

"Two days!?" she yelled. "I need it fixed _now_ , not in _two days!_ The fate of the world depends on me and I need this damn machine and I've already wasted four days trying to fix it in the first place."

"Calm down, Ms Meiou, I'm sure we can help you somehow," the woman said soothingly. "All our customers are important to us and we do what we can to aid them, but we are also very busy. Let me just go and talk to the boss, we might be able to shuffle some things around."

Breathing heavily, the green-haired woman closed her eyes and counted to five in Hebrew. "All right, that would be very helpful. I'm sorry for being rude but I'm under a bit of a time crunch here. Ironically enough."

A soft laugh came to her. "I understand. Please hold, I'll be back as soon as I can."

Music started playing and Setsuna slumped into her lawn chair, reaching for her last bottle of beer and popping the cap off. She drained half of it into her stomach, then tried to relax.

A few minutes later the music stopped. "Ms Meiou?"

"Yes?"

"I've managed to switch two service calls around. We can have a team with you in three hours."

"Thank you." She sighed in mixed relief and worry.

"Please ensure that you are available, and if at all possible have a good description of the fault. But I don't think you'll be disappointed. Is there anything else I can help you with today?"

"No, thank you, that's all I need."

"In that case, it was nice talking to you and thank you for selecting BBFO for your eldritch artifact requirements. Please don't hesitate to get in touch if you need anything else. Good bye."

"Bye," she said absently, disconnecting, then finishing her beer and sitting back to wait.

* * *

"That's your problem right there," the large reptilian creature said, holding up a shiny and very visually disturbing _thing_ and pointing to part of it with one claw. "The seirpinski gasket is leaking, see? Higher dimensions are cascading through the lower ones, that caused a power fluctuation, and ultimately took out the power node. I've checked the records, the people who commissioned this thing decided against the higher spec materials, which we warned them about at the time." He shrugged. "Cheap now, more expensive later. You know how it goes."

"I do, but that's not important now. The important thing is can you fix it?"

"Oh, sure, that's not a problem. I need to call a colleague to make the new parts, but that won't take long. Do you want to go for the top end material? That'll stop this happening again, but it's more expensive."

"I don't care about the cost, I just need it fixed."

Sharp teeth were exposed in a grin that made her wince despite herself. "That's always nice to hear," he snickered. "OK, let me make a call." She watched as he walked off a short distance, then produced what looked like a cell-phone, raising it to his head and speaking in a language she couldn't make heads or tails of, despite her linguistic abilities.

Eventually, he came back, putting the phone away somewhere. "Right, that's all sorted, she's making the replacement parts now. While we're waiting, I'll just do a diagnostic on the device and check that there aren't any other problems waiting to annoy you."

"Thank you," she said, to which he smiled again, then went over to where his colleague was prodding the innards of the time gate. They were quickly involved in a discussion about something, which she watched for a moment. Eventually she shook her head, sitting down again and wishing she had some more beer.

Or a sandwich.

Damn it, now she was starving. Her stomach rumbled.

 **"Want one of these?"**

"AHH!" Setsuna leaped out of her chair, whirling around in a combat pose, to see a…

Cloak?

What?

The animated item of clothing held out a box of pastries. **"Doughnuts. That one is jam, these two are custard, this is chocolate..."**

Staring, she gaped as it went through the options, then looked over at the two lizards who were now half-inside the time device.

Every time.

 _Every time_ those people turned up, weird shit happened.

Although a floating, animated cloak was new. Eventually she sighed and reached out.

"I'll take a custard one, please," she said.

 **"Good choice, they're really nice,"** the thing hissed in a friendly tone, before taking one for herself. It disappeared into the empty hood in several bites in one of the most disturbing displays Setsuna had ever seen. **"Bit empty here, isn't it?"** the creature added, the hood moving as it presumably looked around. **"Just that machine, this platform, and all that void out there. Lots of room for something like a swimming pool."**

"I..." She stared again, then shook her head, eating the doughnut and deciding not to even try continuing the conversation.

* * *

She looked at the fully operating time machine with a sense of relief. Both because she could get back to her duty, and because those weird reptiles and their floating outerwear had finally gone.

It was always a strain dealing with them. She had no idea where they actually came from, even after all this time, and didn't actually _want_ to know.

There was definitely something very wrong with them. Damn good engineers, but _weird._

And more than a little scary. When the new parts had been delivered, an orange-bordered hole in space had opened up, a huge scaled hand coming through holding a large box, which it carefully put down before retracting. She'd nearly jumped into the void in shock, although the other lizards hadn't reacted at all. They'd quickly repaired the system, cleared up all the debris, polished the outer casing, handed her an eye-wateringly large bill, and left.

She still wasn't sure how.

Whatever, it was functional again and she'd been assured the same fault wouldn't recur. Lifting her staff, she used it to open the doors and start a scan. She needed to see what had happened while it was off-line, then go and repair anything that had gone wrong.

There was always _something_ wrong.

Twenty minutes later, she sighed heavily.

"Oh, for _fuck's sake_ , Usagi, how did you manage to do _that?_ " she groaned, palming her face.

This one was going to be a _bitch_ to sort out.

" _Teenagers_ ," she grumbled as she set about getting ready for yet another intervention. "At least they're not damn lizards, though..."

The thought of a teenaged lizard girl made her shudder, so she stopped thinking about it very quickly and got on with work.


	210. PHO and Raids

_Just a quick note. Two things, actually, based on reviews of the last few chapters._

 _Thing one: If you don't want to read the Omakes, don't read them. They're all clearly labelled as such and can easily be skipped. Some of them are definitely non-canon, some **might** one day become canon and if this happens they'll be recategorized, and some are canon but are essentially side stories from the main story. Getting all indignant about them and saying things like '_ screwing with our minds with this utternonsense and waste of space dribble' _doesn't help anyone, does it? So chill._

 _Thing two: I considered having an Omake file with all these in it, but there are a couple of problems, the obvious ones being that if and when any of them become canon it's impossible to put them into the right place in the chapter sequence without reposting large chunks of the story, and also that if someone starts reading them out of sequence it's both a massive spoiler and also confusing if they don't have the background from the story itself. So, that's not really something I want to do._

 _Anyway, that's all I wanted to say. Carry on._

* * *

 _Formatting these PHO things is a massive pain in the ass, I have to say..._

* * *

•

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•

 **Topic: Major attack at Cornell University  
In: Boards ► Places ► America ►New York  
Forgotten Creator ** (Original Poster)  
Posted On Feb 26th 2011:

God, this is bad.

Eighteen people dead, half the physics building in pieces, and no one knows what the _fuck_ happened to the rest of it.

Reports are sketchy at the moment, but as far as I can find out it was a student or ex-student who attacked the place. There were a number of bomb threats made, the cops and SWAT turned up, then when it became obvious they were Tinker bombs, they called the guys in spandex.

Half a dozen capes came from New York, plus some of the locals. There was a stand off for a few hours, which gave time to evacuate some of the campus, but the bomber apparently lost patience and set some of the damn things off. Three cops died instantly, along with a professor and two students, but no one's saying if there were more in that attack.

The capes went in at that point, they triggered some booby traps in the process, Prism nearly died from what I hear, and the shrapnel took out an entire classroom. That's where the rest of the fatalities happened.

Legend is still in Brockton Bay, dealing with the Family as far as I know, so it was the rest of them that decided to go in. I can't help wondering what would have happened if the man himself had been here...

Don't get me wrong, I'm not blaming anyone, especially him, but he's a good guy and icy cool under pressure. Maybe that would have helped.

Maybe not.

This woman was apparently totally nuts, I've talked to a couple of people who are sure they know who it is and they tell me she's been on the edge for months. Can't say more, obviously, seeing as how it's a cape, or I'll get hammered.

I'll keep you updated with new info as I get it.

Shit, I'm still shaking. I was supposed to be in that class...

Pictures of the damage **here** , **here** , and **here**. More later.

 **(Showing page 9 of 21)**

 **►Antigone**  
Replied On Feb 26th 2011:

Oh, my god, a _bomb_ Tinker?! :O

 _That's_ not going to make me sleep any better tonight.

What a horrifying specialty

 **►BadSamurai**  
Replied On Feb 26th 2011:

Nasty. Glad you're all right, friend, but sympathies to all those who lost their lives. Any word on Prism? I always liked her.

 **►Morgan Sinister**  
Replied On Feb 26th 2011:

Word is she's out of danger but will be laid up for a while. It turned out not to be as serious as they first thought.

 **►Procto the Unfortunate Tinker** (Not a tinker)  
Replied On Feb 26th 2011:

Any news on the bomber?

 **►Forgotten Creator** (Original Poster)  
Replied On Feb 26th 2011:

In a coma. She got caught by the splash from one of her own bombs when it went off, didn't get out of the way in time. Apparently she's not expected to make it. Brain damage, too much blood loss.

 **►HungrySnack**  
Replied On Feb 26th 2011:

I can't say I'll lose too much sleep over that. I have friends in Cornell.

Still, it's a bit sad to hear of anyone dying.

 **►Prism** (Verified Cape) (Protectorate NY)  
Replied On Feb 26th 2011:

Aint ded yet!

Mind you, feels like I should be. Even with the good shit they gave me in hospital.

I'll be limping for a while!

Thanks for everyone who sent messages of support. We're all very upset about the way it ended, but to be totally honest I can't see what else we could have done. That chick was nuts, and dangerous too. You should have seen the thing she was making...

 **►Miss Mercury** (Protectorate Employee)  
Replied On Feb 26th 2011:

Glad you made it, and your team. Not nice. I always thought that somewhere quiet like Ithaca would be a nice place to retire too when I got tired of the weirdness that is Brockton Bay, but it looks like it's everywhere.

 **►Laser Augment**  
Replied On Feb 26th 2011:

They only have mad bombers. You guys have _giant lizards!_

 **►Miss Mercury** (Protectorate Employee)  
Replied On Feb 26th 2011:

True, but they're generally very _polite_ giant lizards.

Even when they confuse everyone by flying water powered surfboards at over Mach four!

 **End of Page. 1, 2, 3 ... 7, 8, 9, 10, 11 ... 19, 20, 21**

 **(Showing page 10 of 21)**

 **►Laotsunn** (Kyushu Survivor)  
Replied On Feb 26th 2011:

:O

Did you just say... Mach four? And ' _water powered surfboard_ '? In the _same sentence_?

 **►Miss Mercury** (Protectorate Employee)  
Replied On Feb 26th 2011:

I did.

The entire city heard the sonic boom :)

 **►Laser Augment**  
Replied On Feb 26th 2011:

Oh, god, that means nowhere is safe...

 **►Forgotten Creator** (Original Poster)  
Replied On Feb 26th 2011:

Interesting, but can we keep it on topic, please? If you want to discuss the latest weirdness from Brockton Bay, there are dozens of threads for it.

 **►Miss Mercury** (Protectorate Employee)  
Replied On Feb 26th 2011:

True, sorry. Didn't mean to derail.

 **►XxVoid_CowboyxX**  
Replied On Feb 26th 2011:

I saw her go right over my house!

 **►Forgotten Creator** (Original Poster)  
Replied On Feb 26th 2011:

Oh, lord, HE'S found us. I don't know how, but HE'S found us.

 **►GstringGirl**  
Replied On Feb 26th 2011:

Hey, leave Cowboy alone, he's not a bad guy.

 **►Laser Augment**  
Replied On Feb 26th 2011:

He's an idiot. Everyone on the entire planet knows that.

The _Simurgh_ probably knows that.

 **►XxVoid_CowboyxX**  
Replied On Feb 26th 2011:

I hate everyone :rage:

 **End of Page. 1, 2, 3 ... 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ... 19, 20, 21**

 **(Showing page 11 of 21)**

 **►BadSamurai**  
Replied On Feb 26th 2011:

That's only fair, all things considered :D

 **End of Page. 1, 2, 3 ... 9, 10, 11, 12, 13 ... 19, 20, 21**

•

 **Topic: SuperSonicSaurial FTW!  
In: Boards ► Places **► America** ► Brockton Bay  
Macdjord ** (Original Poster)  
Posted On Feb 26th 2011:

OK.

 _This_ is new...

If anyone was around the Brockton Bay Mutual Bank earlier today, on Fifth and Archer, you may have seen Saurial experimenting with a new invention.

If not, I can guarantee you heard it a little later, no matter _where_ in the city you were.

That crazy lizard has somehow made a flight system that can go faster than sound! And apparently runs on _water_ of all things. I have no idea at all how that's even possible, I can only say ' _powers are bullshit_ ' and leave it at that

I'm beginning to sound like Clockblocker :)

(No offense, Clockblocker!)

It was pretty incredible to watch. She came flying out of a side street from the direction of the docks, right past Assault and Armsmaster who were on patrol, straight into the freeway overpass a couple of blocks up the street from the bank. That slowed her _right_ down...

Two hundred plus miles an hour to zero in about an inch.

Ouch.

Didn't stop her, though, she jumped right back up, laughed, and took off straight up! Fucking incredible to watch. That scaly girl is _tough_. Shot right through the clouds in seconds.

She came back down even quicker, nearly missed pulling up until it was too late. I think she was still learning, based on her expression and all the yelling :) You should have seen Assault's expression though, he and Armsmaster were just standing there gaping at her :D

Crazy lizard bounced off a few buildings, finally got her shit together and hovered for a while, suddenly making it look easy, and fun for that matter, then took off like a bat out of hell towards the bay. She went right up the side of the Medhall tower, over the roof, and floored it out to sea.

There was a distinct sonic boom about twenty seconds or so later, so she got to at least Mach 1, which is just ridiculous. Half an hour later there was another one, much louder, and she zipped overhead like nothing I've ever seen, did a few loops, then came down somewhere over in the docks.

I'm beginning to think that there's pretty much nothing those lunatics can't figure out a way to do if they have time to think it over.

Bet the PRT and the FAA are going insane...

Video **here**. Anyone else have pics or video? Or any more information?

Someone must have been tracking her. I'm very curious to find out how fast she managed to go, and how high.

And how the hell she actually DID it?

I mean... Water? Seriously?

 **(Showing page 2 of 20)**

 **►SenorEel**  
Replied On Feb 26th 2011:

They can fly now?!

Oh, hell...

:O

 **►Mojiizen**  
Replied On Feb 26th 2011:

 _That's_ what that sound was? Holy shit.

I was in the back yard and heard it, but I couldn't see anything. Mid-afternoon, right?

Good grief. And _water_ of all things?

How the hell does _that_ work?

 **►Glare**  
Replied On Feb 26th 2011:

Surfboard? That's more like a rocket pack you stand on. Doesn't look very stable.

Look at the way she was weaving around, and waving her tail, she was obviously having trouble controlling it. I'm amazed that she managed to figure it out that fast, she must have unbelievably quick reactions.

It would work better with four nozzles.

Where was all the water coming from?

 **►Dingbat779** (Cape Groupie)  
Replied On Feb 26th 2011:

Remember they're supposed to have some sort of matter creation power or something? That was the rumor back when Saurial turned up. It's supposed to be where their weapons come from.

Maybe it's more flexible than just weapons. Can she make the water?

Cool if she could, it might mean she doesn't have any fuel limits or anything like that.

 **►PlasticRiolu2012**  
Replied On Feb 26th 2011:

That is... weird. And interesting. Those girls never seem to lack for new ideas, do they? ;)

I wonder how she came up with the design. Did one of the BB Tinkers design it for her? I've heard that Armsmaster is someone who seems to like them, and she knows Dragon as well. Perhaps they invented it, and she made it?

Do you think I'll be able to see something like that when I visit BB next month? We're trying to work out the best place to move to.

 **►White Fairy** (Veteran Member)  
Replied On Feb 26th 2011:

Sorry, did you just imply you want to move _TO_ Brockton?

:O

People generally want to move _AWAY_ from here...

 **►PlasticRiolu2012**  
Replied On Feb 26th 2011:

Work and family in the area, although I'd be lying if I didn't say the Family is part of the attraction!

They're very interesting.

 **►Zjunrei**  
Replied On Feb 26th 2011:

They're utterly mad, is what you meant to say :)

I'll admit life around here is never dull. The haunted cloak is a new one, see **THIS ** thread.

 **►PlasticRiolu2012**  
Replied On Feb 26th 2011:

I did see that, thank you. Again, very interesting. Do we know if Cloak is part of the Family?

 **►Aegis** (Verified Cape) (Wards ENE)  
Replied On Feb 26th 2011:

She claims to be ' _An associate_ ' of the Family.

What that means, god knows. I've given up trying to make any of it make sense.

 **End of Page. 1, 2, 3, 4 ... 18, 19, 20**

 **(Showing page 3 of 20)**

 **►Vista** (Verified Cape) (Wards ENE)  
Replied On Feb 26th 2011:

I think she sounds really interesting, I want to meet her.

 **►Clockblocker** (Verified Cape) (Wards ENE)  
Replied On Feb 26th 2011:

Why does that worry me?

 **►Vista** (Verified Cape) (Wards ENE)  
Replied On Feb 26th 2011:

I have no idea :)

 **►Kid Win** (Verified Cape) (Wards ENE)  
Replied On Feb 26th 2011:

I have...

 **►IguanaGirl**  
Replied On Feb 26th 2011:

Cloak sounds cool. If a little odd.

I like the Family. Raptaur gave me a ride :D

 **►Cloak** (Verified Cape)  
Replied On Feb 26th 2011:

Thank you, IguanaGirl!

I find your world very interesting!

And I'd like to meet you, Vista, I've been told a lot about your abilities.

Do you like math?

 **►Loki Thorson**  
Replied On Feb 26th 2011:

Is it me, or is the idea of an item of clothing _with no one in it_ posting here a little worrying?

Have you seen her profile pic?

It's...

I can't do it justice. You have to look.

 **►Electric_Techpriest**  
Replied On Feb 26th 2011:

 _Why_ did you tell me to look?

I wish I hadn't looked...

 **►Cloak** (Verified Cape)  
Replied On Feb 26th 2011:

Should I add more dimensions?

 **►Aegis** (Verified Cape) (Wards ENE)  
Replied On Feb 26th 2011:

 **NO!**

Please, and I mean this in the most polite tones, _don't_ do that.

 **End of Page. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 ... 18, 19, 20**

 **(Showing page 4 of 20)**

 **►Vista** (Verified Cape) (Wards ENE)  
Replied On Feb 26th 2011:

Cool photo :)

How did you get that effect?

 **►Cloak** (Verified Cape)  
Replied On Feb 26th 2011:

Just some simple multidimensional math. I'll show you when we meet.

 **►Clockblocker** (Verified Cape) (Wards ENE)  
Replied On Feb 26th 2011:

Oh, god.

 **►Vista** (Verified Cape) (Wards ENE)  
Replied On Feb 26th 2011:

:D

 **►White Fairy** (Veteran Member)  
Replied On Feb 26th 2011:

You sure you want to move here, friend?

You see what we have to deal with!

 **►PlasticRiolu2012**  
Replied On Feb 26th 2011:

I do :)

It's fascinating.

 **►SenorEel**  
Replied On Feb 26th 2011:

Better you than me, you strange person.

Back on topic, do we have any more information on how high and fast Saurial managed to go?

I ask because I want to work out how long I have from hearing about her taking off to when I need to hide...

 **►Bagrat** (Veteran Member) (The Guy in the Know)  
Replied On Feb 26th 2011:

I'm informed that the nearest AF base nearly scrambled jets, they were more than a little confused.

But one of the main reasons they didn't is that she was too high and too fast :O

 **►Mandabar**  
Replied On Feb 26th 2011:

Fuck, that's incredible.

 **►Electric_Techpriest**  
Replied On Feb 26th 2011:

It implies something very, very quick. Damn few Parahumans can fly more than about twice the speed of sound. The two names that immediately spring to mind are Legend and Alexandria, of course.

 **End of Page. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 ... 18, 19, 20**

 **(Showing page 5 of 20)**

 **►Reave** (Verified PRT Agent)  
Replied On Feb 26th 2011:

Off the record, my information is that she was tracked to better than sixty thousand feet at over mach four, but I don't have any more details yet. Exact details are currently restricted.

 **►Macdjord** (Original Poster)  
Replied On Feb 26th 2011:

:O

I mean...

:O

Really?!

Sixty thousand feet and four times the speed of sound propelled by... _**water?**_

Unbelievable.

 **►SenorEel**  
Replied On Feb 26th 2011:

That means she could be here in under two hours...

Um...

 **►Glare**  
Replied On Feb 26th 2011:

:D

If you really want to get worried, think about this:

Can anyone see a reason that thing couldn't be scaled up, to around the size needed to lift an eighty foot tall giant lizard, perhaps?

 **►SenorEel**  
Replied On Feb 26th 2011:

Thanks.

I think I genuinely nearly had a cardiac issue.

I also think I hate you...

 **►Glare**  
Replied On Feb 26th 2011:

My work here is done :D

 **►White Fairy** (Veteran Member)  
Replied On Feb 26th 2011:

Absolutely SURE you want to move to Brockton Bay, home of the scaly and weird?

 **►PlasticRiolu2012**  
Replied On Feb 26th 2011:

It sounds like fun :)

 **►Assembler**  
Replied On Feb 26th 2011:

You'll fit right in around these parts, you're obviously deranged :)

 **►Zero_Mouse**  
Replied On Feb 26th 2011:

The thing that worries me about that device is the implications...

 **End of Page. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 ... 18, 19, 20**

 **(Showing page 6 of 20)**

 **►Jormungandr**  
Replied On Feb 26th 2011:

It is a demonic creation, made to spread the madness faster.

As I warned.

More are corrupted by the demons each day that passes.

And I am afraid...

 **►Mojiizen**  
Replied On Feb 26th 2011:

First, shut up, you nutcase.

Second, what implications are you talking about, Zero_Mouse?

 **►Zero_Mouse**  
Replied On Feb 26th 2011:

Implications surrounding more than one physical law, which the Family appears to be essentially ignoring.

Think about it.

If Saurial is indeed producing water under what has to be very significant pressure out of nothing, the limited exhaust plume suggests that the water is subsequently vanishing again. If it wasn't, there would be water all over the street, yet from that video we could see there was no residue after perhaps two seconds.

But the inertia imparted by the rocket exhaust remained. She was getting thrust from a reaction exhaust that disappeared! I can't _begin_ to say all the things that are wrong with that.

Even if she was simply recycling the water somehow, teleporting it back inside the device or some such trick, it still would appear to be extracting significant amounts of energy from nowhere.

I'm well aware that Tinker devices can do some extraordinary things, but that seems a stretch...

 **►Automatonation**  
Replied On Feb 26th 2011:

I can confirm that the water does disappear, I watched her take off at the Yard. It was pretty impressive and also funny, the poor girl looked like she was having fun but also was taken by surprise that it actually worked :)

Ianthe and Metis were nearly blown over by the cloud of exhaust out the bottom of the thing, but seconds later they were bone dry.

And laughing their asses off :D

So were the rest of us, it looked like good fun if you're nearly invulnerable. She was bouncing off the road and buildings until we lost sight of her.

Have a look at **THIS**.

 **►Filipinosberman**  
Replied On Feb 26th 2011:

She seems to be having fun :)

 **►IguanaGirl**  
Replied On Feb 26th 2011:

Saurial always has fun. I like her :)

 **►Valshax**  
Replied On Feb 26th 2011:

So we've gathered!

Back to the flying device. Have they invented perpetual motion?

 **►Jormungandr**  
Replied On Feb 26th 2011:

Their foul demonic arts threaten us all.

Beware.

 **►Swissrod**  
Replied On Feb 26th 2011:

Mate, you're a very weird person.

That flying goanna is pretty cool, though.

Our lizards are nearly as big, but they drop on you out of trees :)

 **►Filipinosberman**  
Replied On Feb 26th 2011:

I don't think Saurial would drop on you out of a tree. And probably doesn't like being called a goanna.

 **End of Page. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 ... 18, 19, 20**

 **(Showing page 7 of 20)**

 **►Swissrod**  
Replied On Feb 26th 2011:

Long tail?

Likes eggs?

Goanna, mate, I'm telling you ;)

Cute one, though.

 **►SenorEel**  
Replied On Feb 26th 2011:

Quiet, you fool, Australia is only...

Hang on, let me work it out...

Under six hours away.

Shh.

 **►Vista** (Verified Cape) (Wards ENE)  
Replied On Feb 26th 2011:

:D

 **End of Page. 1, 2, 3 ... 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 ... 18, 19, 20**

•

 **Topic: End of the Merchants?  
In: Boards ► Places ► America ► Brockton Bay  
Bagrat ** (Original Poster) (Veteran Member) (The Guy in the Know)  
Posted On Feb 28th 2011:

Hands up anyone who didn't see this coming :)

Looks like the Family finally had enough of the Merchants. Word on the street for weeks has been that Skidmark headed off on a cross country trip looking for something to take on Kaiju and her smaller relatives with. Man's nuts, obviously, all that crack fried his brain years ago, but he's definitely been smoking something really impressive if he thought he stood a chance.

Our friendly lizard-family, who are surprisingly tolerant of raw stupidity all things considered, seem to have been pushed just that little bit too far. Over the weekend, as was discussed here, someone removed the Merchant's bankroll by simply reaching in and picking the safe up.

Three guesses as to who that probably was, and no, Leviathan and Behemoth don't count.

Our druggie friends denied everything, of course, but resident expert at tearing people's arguments to pieces AllSeeingEye once again did a very insightful analysis of their denial, showing quite conclusively that it was actually more of a confirmation. They didn't know when to stop digging and just proved the point, which caused much hilarity to all.

My contacts tell me that up to a third of the estimated gang numbers left over the next day or so. Probably at least partly because they worked out that if Kaiju could simply pick their safe up and walk off with it without any trace, she could do much worse to them…

:O

Not to mention they don't have any money left!

:D

It all came to a head last night, when Raptaur, Metis, and Ianthe, along with backup from the Protectorate, attacked their headquarters and rounded up the rest of them in one shot. Without any capes they didn't stand a chance.

To be fair, _with_ any capes, I doubt they'd have stood a chance…

Skiddie boy is off doing whatever it is the idiot is up to, along with Mush and an unknown number of his guys. I've been informed that he's been making enemies and not influencing people across half the damn country, and that there is now a bounty on his head from not only the FBI and the PRT, but the fucking _Mafia_ as well!

Man knows how to attract attention.

You may remember that Squealer, the third cape, our lady of the ugliest cars on the planet, allegedly disappeared sometime on Saturday. Merchant informants claimed there was some big bust up with one of the guys in control when Skids was away, which led to her vanishing without trace. Everyone thought she'd done a runner, which would have been the smartest thing the woman could have done, although there were rumors that she'd jumped into the bay and drowned, made a mistake with one of her vehicles and got chopped into tiny pieces, and even that Kaiju ate her for a very small snack.

After the raid, which involved a lot of gun play, right up to the point the Family got really annoyed and took the guns away, BBPD and the PRT searched the entire area. Squealer was found in a nearby building with five 9mm rounds in her, two in the chest and three in the head.

Dead as a brick, obviously.

Looks like some of her own people didn't want to lose her, or maybe blamed her for the loss of their money. Who knows, those people were so high half the time everyone's surprised they could actually _use_ a gun.

So it looks like that's that for the third most powerful gang in the city. Their Tinker deceased, by their own hand no less, at least a third of them on the run, and the rest in custody. Their facilities were destroyed down to the foundations by the Family, all their money was confiscated…

They're history.

Only Skids and his team left and if those guys have any sense, they're going in the other direction as fast as possible

Pics posted so far are here:

 **1** , **2** , **3** , **4** , **5** , **6**

Videos of parts of the raid here:

 **1** , **2** , **3** , **4**

Edit: Preliminary reports are that the gun that killed Squealer had been used in two other crimes tied to the Merchants, one armed robbery and one murder. So no doubt who shot the lady.

Edit 2: The Family, via Ianthe, has released a statement saying that they did what they did only as a preventative action due to the imminent threat of violence to themselves and the DWU, whom they consider close friends. The implication is that anyone who goes after those Dockworkers is going to find a lizard glaring at them…

Edit 3: Saurial has gone on record stating, to a local TV reporter, that they have no intention of otherwise deviating from their live and let live policy, but that they felt they had no choice in the matter under the circumstances. Director Piggot of the PRT ENE has backed her fully, saying that she is grateful for the care the Family took in minimizing collateral damage and keeping them in the loop.

Edit 4: The PRT has released an official statement on the back of this latest Family action declaring that our reptilian friends are a fully authorized and independent Heroic organization, with Protectorate associate status. Dragon has added to this that they enjoy similar status relative to the Guild, and that she is pleased to call them friends. Looks like an ' _If you can't beat them, persuade them to join you_ ' sort of thing to me :)

Make of that what you will…

Edit 5: Mayor Christner has held a press conference today, thanking the Family for their aid in ridding the city of one of the most harmful problems we have, and suggesting some form of civic award is in order. He has added that he feels the help that New Wave gave during the Great Tanker Move of 2011 also deserves recognition, as they are home-grown heroes without government backing who were good enough to step forward and help out. Details of any award will be given next month after the next City Council meeting on the sixteenth.

 **(Showing page 4 of 132)**

 **►Mojiizen**  
Replied On Feb 28th 2011:

Well, like you said, I doubt anyone's too surprised about that. And I'm not personally all that shocked that Squealer bit it. Merchants have a pretty short shelf life in general, so do capes, combine the two...

Only a matter of time.

Impressive result, though. Is it a record for the largest number of criminals arrested in one shot by three capes? :)

 **►Pyrite**  
Replied On Feb 28th 2011:

Thank you, Family.

I really mean that. I've lost relatives to those bastards :(

About time someone finally went after them.

Raptaur, Ianthe, and Metis, I owe you one.

 **►ExArmyMan**  
Replied On Feb 28th 2011:

I'm sorry to hear about your loss, Pyrite. I've known people who were gunned down by the Merchants, and a couple who ODed on their shit. Very pleased the girls did what they did, although I have to say that they only did it in self defense. More of the rest of us than themselves.

We're still waiting for the other shoe to drop, but hopefully Skids will take the hint and stay away.

 **►Sothoth**  
Replied On Feb 28th 2011:

I wouldn't give good odds on that, friend.

He's not known for his ability to make long term plans :)

 **►ExArmyMan**  
Replied On Feb 28th 2011:

All too fucking true.

Those guys have been a pain in the ass for years. We've had to be pretty firm with them more than once before.

They got the idea in the end, though :D

 **►Macdjord**  
Replied On Feb 28th 2011:

Respect.

Never annoy the DWU... :)

 **►Automatonation**  
Replied On Feb 28th 2011:

We do tend to give as good as we get.

Or better...

 **►Jormungandr**  
Replied On Feb 28th 2011:

So speaks one who is in league with the demons.

 **►Mojiizen**  
Replied On Feb 28th 2011:

Will you _please_ give it a rest?

 **►XxVoid_CowboyxX**  
Replied On Feb 28th 2011:

He may be right, you guys realize.

But they're aliens. I'm almost sure now.

Although the demon thing...

No, it's gotta be aliens. It's the only thing that makes sense.

 **End of Page. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 ... 130, 131, 132**

 **(Showing page 5 of 132)**

 **►Electric_Techpriest**  
Replied On Feb 28th 2011:

Very little either of you say makes any sense whatsoever.

 **►XxVoid_CowboyxX**  
Replied On Feb 28th 2011:

He was right about Kaiju!

 **►Dingbat779** (Cape Groupie)  
Replied On Feb 28th 2011:

For a given value of ' _right_ '.

Still not even slightly convinced about demons _or_ aliens.

Weren't you banned for forty-eight hours for spamming that Cornell thread with your conspiracy crap? Only yesterday?

 **►FCVanillaIce**  
Replied On Feb 28th 2011:

You've lost count, that was two days ago :(

So he's back.

Yay...

 **►Bladeworksfan** (Kyushu Survivor)  
Replied On Feb 28th 2011:

Don't worry, I doubt he'll be around for long.

Although I'm still wondering why they keep letting him back here.

 **►BrocktonBayMod** (Moderator)  
Replied On Feb 28th 2011:

Because I'm overly generous :D

And to be fair he does, very rarely, have a good point.

Note that I DON'T believe that this is one of those times...

I live in hope that eventually he'll become socialized, but that hope fades further with every ban.

 **►Glare**  
Replied On Feb 28th 2011:

You optimist, you.

Just a glutton for punishment :)

 **►XxVoid_CowboyxX**  
Replied On Feb 28th 2011:

Hey!

:rage:

You guys are being mean again.

 **►Loki Thorson**  
Replied On Feb 28th 2011:

Yes.

Yes, we are.

But it's a hobby.

 **►XxVoid_CowboyxX**  
Replied On Feb 28th 2011:

:rage:

 **End of Page. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 ... 130, 131, 132**

 **(Showing page 6 of 132)**

 **►Laser Augment**  
Replied On Feb 28th 2011:

Maybe those lizards have some use after all, other than just terrifying everyone.

Although I'm still VERY glad I live way the hell over here, instead of in your reptile-filled hellhole.

Was it just those three that took out the entire nest of druggies? What was the PRT involvement?

 **►Reave** (Verified PRT Agent)  
Replied On Feb 28th 2011:

Raptaur contacted Director Piggot yesterday, to my knowledge. We've been aware of this as a possibility for some time, and about Skidmark's vendetta for longer, but he's a cunning little asshole and surprisingly difficult to track down.

I think everyone was sort of hoping that he'd piss off the people he was talking to enough that they'd deal with him for us :) Not that I can _officially_ comment on that, of course!

The Family invited us, and BBPD, along to provide backup if required, and to detain and process the prisoners. But it was almost entirely the work of those three. We put a perimeter around the location Metis had determined was their base and they went in. It got very noisy for a while, they tried a soft approach, but the Merchants just opened fire immediately. The scene was pretty chaotic for ten minutes or so, we believe that's when whoever it was that killed Squealer got past us, since everyone was taking cover.

Raptaur lost patience at that point and all three of them went into the building. It took a remarkably short time after that before they were done.

Very impressive, and I'm glad it's over.

 **►Dingbat779** (Cape Groupie)  
Replied On Feb 28th 2011:

Wow.

Sort of a pity about Squealer, the lady had talent, even if she had no aesthetic sense at all, but I'm pleased that the Merchants are done.

 **►Electric_Techpriest**  
Replied On Feb 28th 2011:

I think everyone is.

Except them, of course :)

 **►Tiny_Swansong**  
Replied On Feb 28th 2011:

Is there any more video of the raid?

Or pics?

 **►Kingbob** (Verified BBPD Officer)  
Replied On Feb 28th 2011:

I have posted what I've been cleared to make public **_here_**. It's impressive.

 **►MZenny**  
Replied On Feb 28th 2011:

Holy _crap!_ :O

Eat your heart out, Hollywood.

That's _horrifying_...

And they seem like such nice people when they come into my shop.

What the hell language was that they were speaking, by the way? I've never heard anything like it.

Creepy.

 **►Glory Girl** (Verified Cape) (New Wave)  
Replied On Feb 28th 2011:

They _are_ nice people.

Just also very, very scary when they're pissed off.

Well done, guys!

 **►Assault** (Verified Cape) (Protectorate ENE)  
Replied On Feb 28th 2011:

Armsmaster, Miss Militia, Battery, and I were all there as well, and I have to say we were impressed. We didn't need to do anything but stop terrified Merchants trying to jump into the bay to get away.

Honest, that actually happened.

Twice.

And that water is COLD. That tells you a lot :)

 **►Clockblocker** (Verified Cape) (Wards ENE)  
Replied On Feb 28th 2011:

They wouldn't let us come and help.

 **End of Page. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 ... 130, 131, 132**

 **(Showing page 7 of 132)**

 **►Assault** (Verified Cape) (Protectorate ENE)  
Replied On Feb 28th 2011:

Does it actually LOOK like they needed your help?

 **►Clockblocker** (Verified Cape) (Wards ENE)  
Replied On Feb 28th 2011:

Well...

Not as such, no.

But we never get to have any fun :)

 **►IguanaGirl**  
Replied On Feb 28th 2011:

Poor Clocky.

 **►Clockblocker** (Verified Cape) (Wards ENE)  
Replied On Feb 28th 2011:

I know, right?

It's like there's some sort of conspiracy!

 **►XxVoid_CowboyxX**  
Replied On Feb 28th 2011:

You may be more right than you realize.

 **►Aegis** (Verified Cape) (Wards ENE)  
Replied On Feb 28th 2011:

Honestly, he's not.

He's almost never right.

 **►Vista** (Verified Cape) (Wards ENE)  
Replied On Feb 28th 2011:

 **►Assault** (Verified Cape) (Protectorate ENE)  
Replied On Feb 28th 2011:

:D

 **►Clockblocker** (Verified Cape) (Wards ENE)  
Replied On Feb 28th 2011:

Sigh.

You see what I have to put up with?

 **►Kid Win** (Verified Cape) (Wards ENE)  
Replied On Feb 28th 2011:

Funny, that's what _we_ normally say :):)

 **End of Page. 1, 2, 3 ... 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 ... 130, 131, 132**

 **(Showing page 8 of 132)**

 **►Dingbat779** (Cape Groupie)  
Replied On Feb 28th 2011:

I love this forum...

 **►Gallant** (Verified Cape) (Wards ENE)  
Replied On Feb 28th 2011:

God, that was terrifying to watch.

I have no idea about the language, none at all.

Very confusing.

 **►IguanaGirl**  
Replied On Feb 28th 2011:

It made me laugh! :D

 **►Laser Augment**  
Replied On Feb 28th 2011:

I have to admit, me too.

Although there was a lot of shivering as well ;)

Never liked drug dealers. Bad memories.

 **►Ianthe** (Verified Cape) (The Family)  
Replied On Feb 28th 2011:

Hello, everyone.

I wanted to tell you all why we took the action that we did tonight. I have notified the local news organizations as a representative of the Family, and I'll say the same thing here:

 _We, as a group, and individually, have very little wish to interfere more than we have to in the operation of this city. We recognize that our mere presence here has caused a considerable change to the local conditions, which we hope has generally been positive. We are also very proud to be associated with the Dockworker's Union, all of whom we regard as close friends._

When we became aware that the criminal known as Skidmark was becoming an imminent threat to our friends, we discussed the problem with them, the Director of the local PRT branch, and other trusted individuals. While we have relatively little worry about someone of his nature causing us personally too much trouble, we will not risk people we care about being put in harm's way.

Accordingly, after considerable thought, and a short demonstration to indicate to the Archer's Bridge Merchants that we were not prepared to allow them to succeed, we eventually decided to preemptively deal with the problem, in a minimum-violence manner, carefully designed for maximum efficiency.

One hundred and nine individuals were taken into custody and turned over to the authorities in our operation, which lasted sixty-three minutes in total. No serious injuries were inflicted in the process, aside from the death of the Tinker known as Squealer, which the BBPD CSI unit has tentatively determined happened just before or immediately after we began the assault on the Merchant headquarters.

The weapon used in the murder of the poor woman has been identified from ballistics records by Armsmaster as one that has been used for similar crimes in the recent past, by the Merchants. Confirmation of this is waiting on BBPD crime officers and will take approximately eight hours, we've been informed.

A number of gang members incurred minor wounds, all of which Metis and myself healed at the scene, along with repairing a considerable number of preexisting injuries and ailments. It is our hope that they can be successfully rehabilitated and integrated back into society, free of their drug addictions and criminal lifestyle.

We are grateful for the aid of both the PRT ENE and the Brockton Bay Police Department.

On a personal note, I'd like to add that we were pushed into this, we don't take chances with our friends and family. We're not planning on repeating such actions unless we have no choice.

I've attached some edited highlights of our raid **_here_** , from all three of our head-cams. Faces have been blurred to protect identities.

 **►Clockblocker** (Verified Cape) (Wards ENE)  
Replied On Feb 28th 2011:

:O

O.M.G.

I'm DEFINITELY never playing laser tag with _ANY_ of you guys

 **►MZenny**  
Replied On Feb 28th 2011:

:O :O

I was wrong...

 _That_ is horrifying.

The outside one was merely worrying.

Holy shit.

 **►Bagrat** (Original Poster) (Veteran Member) (The Guy in the Know)  
Replied On Feb 28th 2011:

Thank you both, KingBob and Ianthe, for the new video, I've attached them both to the list.

And thanks to Ianthe for the statement. It clears up some questions.

 **►Valshax**  
Replied On Feb 28th 2011:

Translation of statement: Do Not Fuck with The Family

Subtext: Do Not Fuck with The Family

Shit, that was impressive.

 **►SenorEel**  
Replied On Feb 28th 2011:

I think you'd have to add to that, _Do not fuck with the DWU either, for they know the Family._

Although, after seeing Kaiju, it would take a special type of moron not to have worked that out already!

 **End of Page. 1, 2, 3 ... 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 ... 130, 131, 132**

 **(Showing page 9 of 132)**

 **►Assembler**  
Replied On Feb 28th 2011:

Oh, you know Skidmark, then?

 **►Mojiizen**  
Replied On Feb 28th 2011:

ROFL

 **►Filipinosberman**  
Replied On Feb 28th 2011:

We just had the local TV station turn up, a reporter interviewed Saurial. She said much the same thing that Ianthe did, only with a bit more detail. I'd think it will be on the morning news.

 **►Electric_Techpriest**  
Replied On Feb 28th 2011:

It's up on their website **_here_ ** already.

 **►Bagrat** (Original Poster) (Veteran Member) (The Guy in the Know)  
Replied On Feb 28th 2011:

Added to the list.

Also added some more photos that came in just now.

 **►FCVanillaIce**  
Replied On Feb 28th 2011:

Anyone seen **THIS**?

Looks like the PRT has decided there isn't much they can do, so they might as well admit to the realities of the situation.

 **►Videocrazy**  
Replied On Feb 28th 2011:

Cool, a new Cape group!

And all of them related. Like a scaly version of New Wave.

 **►Glory Girl** (Verified Cape) (New Wave)  
Replied On Feb 28th 2011:

We don't have tails :D

 **►Panacea** (Verified Cape) (New Wave)  
Replied On Feb 28th 2011:

She has a point!

 **►Shielder** (Verified Cape) (New Wave)  
Replied On Feb 28th 2011:

Yes, it comes out the top of her head... :D

 **End of Page. 1, 2, 3 ... 7, 8, 9, 10, 11 ... 130, 131, 132**

 **(Showing page 10 of 132)**

 **►Glory Girl** (Verified Cape) (New Wave)  
Replied On Feb 28th 2011:

Watch it! :)

 **►XxVoid_CowboyxX**  
Replied On Feb 28th 2011:

[Post deleted]

That was both crude and uncalled-for, Cowboy. Watch it - BrocktonBayMod

 **►Glory Girl** (Verified Cape) (New Wave)  
Replied On Feb 28th 2011:

You say that about my sister again and we're going to have words, you horrible person.

 **►Mojiizen**  
Replied On Feb 28th 2011:

Do it.

No one will ever prosecute you ;)

 **►BrocktonBayMod** (Moderator)  
Replied On Feb 28th 2011:

Please don't try to incite violence. Just a friendly warning...

 **►Mojiizen**  
Replied On Feb 28th 2011:

Sorry.

(Not all that much)

 **►Glory Girl** (Verified Cape) (New Wave)  
Replied On Feb 28th 2011:

 **►Videocrazy**  
Replied On Feb 28th 2011:

What I meant by that was they don't wear masks.

 **►Glare**  
Replied On Feb 28th 2011:

Um...

Would a mask actually help, when you're nearly eight feet tall, weigh half a ton, have six feet of tail behind you, and glowing green eyes?

I mean, I think _I'd_ notice, personally... :)

 **►Macdjord**  
Replied On Feb 28th 2011:

An interesting point, actually.

If Raptaur put on a mask and called herself something else, would everyone have to go along with it, because of the Rules, even if it was blatantly obvious it was Raptaur in a mask?

 **End of Page. 1, 2, 3 ... 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ... 130, 131, 132**

 **(Showing page 11 of 132)**

 **►Automatonation**  
Replied On Feb 28th 2011:

:) Well, Saurial has been known to wear a fedora and civilian clothes when she's ' _off-duty_ ,' so to speak. Like at that restaurant a few weeks back.

But I'd agree everyone probably knew who it was even so!

 **►IguanaGirl**  
Replied On Feb 28th 2011:

Is it weird that I thought she looked really good in that outfit?

 **►Bladeworksfan** (Kyushu Survivor)  
Replied On Feb 28th 2011:

Yes :D

But then, you're a little odd, right?

 **►IguanaGirl**  
Replied On Feb 28th 2011:

Possibly :)

 **►Jormungandr**  
Replied On Feb 28th 2011:

She is lost to us.

 **►Mojiizen**  
Replied On Feb 28th 2011:

Oh, for... :rage:

 **End of Page. 1, 2, 3 ... 9, 10, 11, 12, 13 ... 130, 131, 132**

•

 **Topic: Random Rumors, thread 29  
In: Boards ► Places ► America ► Brockton Bay  
Electric_Techpriest ** (Original Poster)  
Posted On Feb 28th 2011:

Continued from the **LAST** thread.

 **(Showing page 106 of 257)**

 **►Dingbat779** (Cape Groupie)  
Replied On Feb 28th 2011:

It's a CLOAK!

How dangerous can it _be?_

 **►Aegis** (Verified Cape) (Wards ENE)  
Replied On Feb 28th 2011:

Don't ask.

Really.

I don't know for sure, but I don't want to make it mad.

 **►Bladeworksfan** (Kyushu Survivor)  
Replied On Feb 28th 2011:

This city is very weird.

 **►Miss Mercury** (Protectorate Employee)  
Replied On Feb 28th 2011:

Tell me about it.

If you saw some of the things that cross my desk on a daily basis, you'd never get out of bed :)

 **►PlasticRiolu2012**  
Replied On Feb 28th 2011:

Sounds fun.

 **►Pyrite**  
Replied On Feb 28th 2011:

You are very odd.

 **►XxVoid_CowboyxX**  
Replied On Feb 28th 2011:

I think it's probably demons, now that I've had time to consider it.

 **►FCVanillaIce**  
Replied On Feb 28th 2011:

Are you STILL going on about that? You're as bad as Jormungandr. Worse, probably, because while he's clearly insane, he's at least consistent!

You change your mind about every twelve hours.

 **►XxVoid_CowboyxX**  
Replied On Feb 28th 2011:

It's a difficult problem.

 **►Mojiizen**  
Replied On Feb 28th 2011:

It's an _imaginary_ problem.

I wish _you_ were. _And_ him.

 **End of Page. 1, 2, 3 ... 104, 105, 106, 107, 108 ... 255, 256, 257**

 **(Showing page 107 of 257)**

 **►XxVoid_CowboyxX**  
Replied On Feb 28th 2011:

:rage:

Why do you pick on me so much?

 **►Zero_Mouse**  
Replied On Feb 28th 2011:

Lack of drive?

Going after the easy target, I mean :)

 **►Mojiizen**  
Replied On Feb 28th 2011:

:D It's harder than you think, he posts a _lot_. Damn near a full time job annoying him.

 **►XxVoid_CowboyxX**  
Replied On Feb 28th 2011:

[Post Deleted]

That's two - BrocktonBayMod

 **►Zero_Mouse**  
Replied On Feb 28th 2011:

OK, I admit, that was quite funny.

 **►Mojiizen**  
Replied On Feb 28th 2011:

You're new around here. It loses its charm after the first few hundred times.

I merely persist out of a sense of civic duty.

 **►Assembler**  
Replied On Feb 28th 2011:

:) :D

We're grateful.

 **►Electric_Techpriest** (Original Poster)  
Replied On Feb 28th 2011:

But not enough to pay you for it :)

 **►Flashlight**  
Replied On Feb 28th 2011:

Winged One, what was the outcome of that suggestion I made, out of interest?

 **►Winged One**  
Replied On Feb 28th 2011:

I've talked it over with my family. We're still very nervous, but...

Talking to someone might be worth it. I'm still not sure how to go about it, though.

I know who I need to talk to, but to be honest they terrify me. For all sorts of reasons.

 **End of Page. 1, 2, 3 ... 105, 106, 107, 108, 109 ... 255, 256, 257**

 **(Showing page 108 of 257)**

 **►Reave** (Verified PRT Agent)  
Replied On Feb 28th 2011:

No, we're still waiting for news on him.

 **►Bagrat** (Veteran Member) (The Guy in the Know)  
Replied On Feb 28th 2011:

Thanks.

 **►Flashlight**  
Replied On Feb 28th 2011:

But this person is someone who could help with your situation?

 **►Winged One**  
Replied On Feb 28th 2011:

I...

Damn.

I really can't say at this point. They're probably the only one who _could_ help with the situation. Whether they _would_ is up in the air.

It's very complicated, and difficult to explain. Not to mention that I could get in a lot of trouble talking about it in public. The man who... let's say he's the one who pushes us into situations we'd rather not be in... he's a dangerous person. Oddly enough, more to other people than us, directly, but it comes to the same thing in the end. If he forces us to do things, we don't have much chance.

 **►MZenny**  
Replied On Feb 28th 2011:

Didn't you say you pushed back the other day? How did that work out?

 **►Winged One**  
Replied On Feb 28th 2011:

Better than I expected, worse than I hoped. I'm not sure it achieved much in the long run. And I'm not sure I can do it again.

The only bright part is that I think it might have exposed part of the problem to someone else who may, and I say _may_ , be able to help. Possibly.

 **►Flashlight**  
Replied On Feb 28th 2011:

I wish I could do more than advise. If you could tell me more about the situation, I might be able to talk to some people I know.

 **►Winged One**  
Replied On Feb 28th 2011:

Thank you, but honestly, it's not a good idea. Lives are at stake

 **►AllSeeingEye**  
Replied On Feb 28th 2011:

Is it possible you can pass on more information without alerting this person? He sounds like he's very controlling.

 **►Winged One**  
Replied On Feb 28th 2011:

You have no idea...

 **End of Page. 1, 2, 3 ... 106, 107, 108, 109, 110 ... 255, 256, 257**

 **(Showing page 109 of 257)**

 **►AllSeeingEye**  
Replied On Feb 28th 2011:

Does he always initiate the problems you have?

 **►Flashlight**  
Replied On Feb 28th 2011:

I don't like feeling helpless to aid someone in trouble. It's... upsetting. Please let me help if you can.

 **►AllSeeingEye**  
Replied On Feb 28th 2011:

I would suggest that you need to find friends, who can possibly make it their mission to deal with this person.

I have quite a network of friends myself, they've saved me from some very unpleasant situations. It's only a suggestion, though. I don't know enough about your current status to do more than advise, like Flashlight.

 **►Winged One**  
Replied On Feb 28th 2011:

I know.

 **►AllSeeingEye**  
Replied On Feb 28th 2011:

Life can be very confusing.

 **►Winged One**  
Replied On Feb 28th 2011:

Very much so.

 **►Flashlight**  
Replied On Feb 28th 2011:

If and when you are in a position to give out more information about your problems, please remember me. You can PM me at any point and I promise I'll do what I can.

 **►Winged One**  
Replied On Feb 28th 2011:

Thank you. You're a good person.

I'll bear that in mind, if things change.

The whole thing is very... difficult.

 **►AllSeeingEye**  
Replied On Feb 28th 2011:

What about your own family? Can't they help? Parents, siblings, they're often your best bet.

Family is important and they're usually your best friends. Even when you have arguments with them, they're still family.

 **►Winged One**  
Replied On Feb 28th 2011:

My siblings aren't really in any better position than I am. Actually, I'd say they were deeper into it than me. All I can do is watch, really.

 **End of Page. 1, 2, 3 ... 107, 108, 109, 110, 111 ... 255, 256, 257**

 **(Showing page 110 of 257)**

 **►Mojiizen**  
Replied On Feb 28th 2011:

Can't you contact this person you thought might be able to help? Sound them out, even if you're not able to ask right out for aid, maybe you can still get a message across somehow.

 **►Flashlight**  
Replied On Feb 28th 2011:

That's not bad advice, but without knowing more, there isn't much that we can do.

 **►Winged One**  
Replied On Feb 28th 2011:

Part of the problem is that if I try to even approach them, _he_ will know. His friends will get involved, and it'll get messy. I can pretty much guarantee that. My siblings are too scared to even try, which doesn't help.

 **►AllSeeingEye**  
Replied On Feb 28th 2011:

Possibly you need to see if you can put yourself into a position where you can... ' _accidentally_ '... get a message to this person. Under the nose of your problem.

It might work.

 **►Winged One**  
Replied On Feb 28th 2011:

Sneaky.

I'll think about it.

The thing that worries me is that even if I can arrange that, I might find that they start shooting before they start listening.

So to speak.

The bastard has done a good job of isolating us all.

 **►Flashlight**  
Replied On Feb 28th 2011:

It makes me very angry to hear that.

 **►MZenny**  
Replied On Feb 28th 2011:

Me too. No one should have that sort of thing happen, even in this shitty world.

 **►Winged One**  
Replied On Feb 28th 2011:

Unfortunately, being forced into things you don't want to do is all too easy, in some cases. And it's very difficult to get out. You can find yourself deep underwater and completely buried in problems before you know what hit you.

Not to mention that this person is impossible to read in the first place. I think they just want the best for everyone, but...

There's no guarantee of victory.

 **►AllSeeingEye**  
Replied On Feb 28th 2011:

There's never a _guarantee_ of victory, unfortunately. All I can suggest is that you think outside the box and alter the parameters of the problem. You may find a solution that you didn't expect.

It works for me more often than you'd think.

I hope this helps.

 **►Winged One**  
Replied On Feb 28th 2011:

Oddly enough, it does. If nothing else, it's good to know that people are willing to help, even if at the moment I can't quite see how they can.

I'm going to have to think about it. I have at least a couple of months before I'm forced into doing something, unless the situation changes unexpectedly, so there's that.

We'll see. I hope you don't mind talking about this.

 **End of Page. 1, 2, 3 ... 108, 109, 110, 111, 112 ... 255, 256, 257**

 **(Showing page 111 of 257)**

 **►Flashlight**  
Replied On Feb 28th 2011:

Of course we don't.

 **►AllSeeingEye**  
Replied On Feb 28th 2011:

Everyone knows I like sticking my nose in and solving problems :)

Sometimes they're far above me, but I'll still give it a go...

 **►Electric_Techpriest** (Original Poster)  
Replied On Feb 28th 2011:

You do seem to have a knack for getting to the heart of the issue, I have to admit!

 **►AllSeeingEye**  
Replied On Feb 28th 2011:

Thanks.

 **►Winged One**  
Replied On Feb 28th 2011:

I just want all this to stop.

 **►Flashlight**  
Replied On Feb 28th 2011:

Sooner or later, I'm sure it will.

 **►EdBaccarat**  
Replied On Feb 28th 2011:

If you need more firepower, let me know :)

 **►Glare**  
Replied On Feb 28th 2011:

Somehow, I'm not surprised that YOU would say that :D

Not all problems can be solved with firepower.

 **►EdBaccarat**  
Replied On Feb 28th 2011:

That merely means you didn't use enough...

 **►AllSeeingEye**  
Replied On Feb 28th 2011:

Please don't start talking about nukes again :)

 **End of Page. 1, 2, 3 ... 109, 110, 111, 112, 113 ... 255, 256, 257**

 **(Showing page 134 of 306)**

 **►Loki Thorson**  
Replied On Feb 28th 2011:

OK, I think I might be seeing things.

Did anyone else see a dragon fly over the west side of the city about ten minutes ago? :O

 **End of Page. 1, 2, 3 ... 132, 133, 134, 135, 136... 304, 305, 306**

•


	211. Bed and Thoughts

Lying in bed, Linda thought about all the things that her sudden change in fortune had opened up to her. Lifting a hand, she examined it in the light of the bedside lamp, turning it this way and that. It was her hand, and yet not her hand.

Ianthe had done exactly what she'd said she would do. This body, everything about it except her brain, was entirely new, no more than hours old.

And made from fucking _onions_ of all things!

That made her laugh whenever she thought about it.

She'd watched with amazed respect as the big lizard had carefully and expertly crafted a whole new brain out of plant biomass, explaining it was a convenient source that was easily available and energy-dense. She'd built the thing in a tank full of some odd looking yellowish goop she called suspension gel, Saurial making little structural supports to order when required. The initial process had taken only about half an hour, which was simply incredible, if you had any idea at all how insanely complex a human brain actually was.

When the basic form was done, Ianthe had requested that Linda sit down and relax, putting one hand on her head, the other one in the tank with the cloned brain, although she'd also said that ' _clone_ ' wasn't actually the right word. It was a far closer copy than that in some way that Linda herself had no frame of reference to even begin to understand.

The reptilian biosculptor had stood there for another twenty minutes, while the constructed mass of neural matter changed in tiny, tiny ways, until she announced it was a perfect duplicate, leaving aside the matter of not being conscious. It was even genuinely alive and capable of running the autonomous systems of a human body quite effectively.

Linda had spent some time staring at it in wonder, while Ianthe finished off the final tweaks. " _It even has the corona pollentia and gemma, although they're not functional,_ " the lizard had remarked. " _There's no way to distinguish this from yours, aside from the way we can talk to you and not to it. It's blank, but I did copy enough neural links across to make it look like a brain with some twenty-five years of experience. Even if someone went to the trouble to examine it on a sub-cellular level I'm sure they'd believe it to be genuine. The DNA and RNA is an exact copy, of course, but so is everything else. I'm confident there's no way to tell them apart. Even I would have trouble and I_ ** _made_** _the thing!_ "

" _Don't mix them up, then_ ," Saurial had grinned, causing her cousin to look at her with an amused expression.

" _I'll try not to have some comical problem with dropping them and picking up the wrong one_ ," she'd noted with a smirk. Linda had stared at them both, then shivered at the thought.

She had still been very, very nervous about putting her fate in the hands of these people. And her fucking _brain_ literally in the hands of Ianthe. But they somehow managed to give her the feeling that they could do exactly what they said they could, and would do it very carefully.

Not to mention, as she'd told them, that she'd thought it was probably her only hope, anyway. Most of the other options probably left her dead in short order, or worse than dead.

On balance, this idea, as mad as it was, seemed preferable. If nothing else, if it all went to shit she'd probably never have known.

Of course, it had worked exactly as Ianthe had assured her it would.

All three of them had spend more than three and a half hours crafting a new body, one that looked exactly like her as she did at the moment, Saurial at Ianthe's direction making a skeleton out of nothing on the workbench, Metis carefully observing and suggesting corrections as they went. It was incredibly creepy and at the same time totally fascinating to watch. The bones looked like normal ones, but Ianthe assured her they were wildly stronger and tougher than a normal human. She commented that she could do much better but it might cause problems now if for any reason she had to have a medical examination. The implication was that later this could be changed.

When the skeleton was finished, Ianthe had produced the rest, basically molding new biomass around it using a machine that Saurial created, onions going in a hopper along with the purple lizard's hand, her other one guiding and controlling the flow of goop that came out the far end as it flowed over the bones. The goo didn't move normally, it was more like some weird protoplasmic life-form, like a giant amoeba, that engulfed the skeleton and quickly became a human figure.

A couple of hours later, there was a copy of her lying in a vat of suspension gel, Saurial having made it on demand and got rid of the machine in a wonderful demonstration of how flexible her abilities were. Linda had peered in at it, shaking her head in astounded respect for the talents of the Family.

" _OK, if you want anything changed, now is the time_ ," Ianthe had commented with a smile. " _I've added a number of useful upgrades, like I said you'll be stronger, faster, and tougher than a normal human, will heal faster, and won't get sick. Later, when you're used to it, I can improve all those a lot if you want me to, but I think it's best to start slowly. However, I can change eye color, hair color, height, overall build, pretty much anything you care to name. Even fur like you joked._ "

" _I don't think I'm ready for fur_ ," Linda had smiled. " _Or scales, thanks all the same._ "

" _Fair enough. You might change your mind at some point_." Ianthe had looked amused. " _No one ever wants me to give them any proper extra limbs, though. Sad. What about hair color, that's easy? Brown is nice, but a bit plain. I can do a very nice blue._ "

" _Blue hair..._ " That had taken Linda by surprise and she'd actually considered it for a moment. She liked blue. However, she'd quickly come to her senses. " _I think the entire point is to blend in at the moment, right? Blue hair would be sort of distinctive._ "

" _True. Boring, but true_."

" _We still need to think about a suitable cape identity for you, though,_ " Metis had remarked thoughtfully. " _That's probably going to be needed sooner or later. Costumes and the like are easy, of course, but perhaps it's worth thinking about something a little… more involved._ "

Saurial and Ianthe had looked interested, then at each other, before inspecting Linda who had suddenly felt a little worried.

" _Hmm_." Walking around her, Saurial had nodded slowly, scratching between her eyes for a moment. " _Now_ ** _that's_** _an interesting idea. Some sort of mild Changer ability, maybe?_ "

" _That's what I was considering. Can you do that, Ianthe?_ "

All three of them had looked at the purple reptile, who was deep in thought. She'd eventually nodded a couple of time. " _I think so. I'll need to make a few modifications to this first, then think about the best way to implement it, but… yes, it's doable. We'd still need to work out exactly what changes were required. Making her a completely free-form shapeshifter is complicated, but a preset form change… I can see a few ways to do that which would be fairly straightforward._ "

" _It's a good way to differentiate her from Squealer, even beyond the different body and the fact that the authorities will have a dead Squealer,_ " Saurial had remarked with an interested expression. " _A Tinker/Changer, assuming that we manage to discreetly get that point across to the PRT without giving too much away, is definitely not what Squealer was._ "

" _Tinker/Changer/Brute, actually_ ," Metis had corrected. " _We could obviously add other things as well but no point overdoing it. It would only worry them._ "

" _Interesting… very interesting._ " The slender blue lizard had seemed fascinated. " _There's another possibility which might also help us, although it's slightly rubbing it in..._ "

Everyone had turned to look at her.

" _Which is?_ " Metis had asked curiously.

" _Well, if we backdate the application to the DWU by a few days, to make sure that when and if they check, they find that '_ ** _Linda Morgan_** _' arrived_ ** _before_** _Squealer died, not_ ** _after_** _, then in a week or so, we approach them very quietly and ask them to power test her..._ "

" _You mean… get the PRT to_ ** _help_** _us create a new identity for her?_ " Metis had sounded delighted. " _That's a really funny idea._ "

" _Would it work, do you think?_ "

Metis had gone thoughtful and quiet in her own turn, pondering the matter for a while, as the others waited. " _I think so. I was wondering about passing her off as a Case 53, those odd memory-loss Parahumans that seem to pop up from time to time. They normally have some physical difference from a base form human, varying from very simple to extreme. And since they can never remember their backgrounds, the government gives them a new identity, so it's completely legitimate._ "

" _I've read about them, yes,_ " Saurial had mused. " _And Vista actually asked me if I was one when I first came to Brockton Bay. She sent me the documentation on them. They always have a specific tattoo on them somewhere, but no one seems to know anything more about what happened to them to cause the memory loss and the common physical changes._ "

" _Right. So it would certainly be possible. Ianthe could do the marking easily enough._ "

" _That's simple,_ " the other lizard had nodded.

" _However_ ," Metis had carried on, " _I'm not sure we want to try that. It would fix one problem but add others that might be worse. The first one is faking the complete memory loss well enough to pass muster. That's more difficult than you'd think, they're bound to have some very effective tests for it. Not impossible to fool, but a lot of work to do perfectly. There is also the problem that we don't know what causes Case 53 Parahumans in the first place._ "

" _You think someone is creating them deliberately?_ " Saurial had seemed surprised, then very thoughtful. Metis had simply shrugged.

" _I'm not certain, I have to admit, but when I've considered the matter, that is definitely one possibility. So is the one that it might be an accident, caused by someone experimenting and getting it wrong. Either is possible, but I don't have enough data to know for sure if either is the true cause. But, if it is, we probably don't want to attract their attention with a Case 53 that they would know for sure wasn't one of theirs. I might be being over cautious but why take chances?_ "

" _Good point_."

" _On the other hand, it's a known fact that there are Parahumans that Trigger with physical alterations, usually not as severe as Case 53s, and of course there are Changers too. Lung is a good example of the latter. Not to mention that a Trigger event is by definition a highly traumatic one, usually of an extreme nature. If we put all that together, perhaps a suitable cover for Linda would be something like..._ "

Metis had thought again for a few seconds, before continuing, while they waited, Linda with interest to see what the obviously very smart reptile would come up with.

" _OK, how about this. Linda Morgan, which she herself admits is not her original name, joins the DWU, after an extremely traumatic and unpleasant Trigger. When she Triggered, her appearance changed, to what we see in front of us at the moment, which we can use to help create a fake identity. None of her former acquaintances would recognize her any more, and she doesn't want to meet them anyway, since she had a very bad life and she's happy to escape it. Which is basically true in the first place._ "

" _Go on._ " Saurial had been nodding along, looking like she was thinking it over carefully.

" _Her power-set not only changed her base form, it regenerated her completely, after a Trigger event that nearly killed her. Lisa can find some suitable circumstances in the past couple of years or so that would fit, I'm sure. She discovered that not only was she a Tinker now, she had a limited Changer ability which lets her alter her appearance enough to separate a cape identity from a civilian one. The Rules would mean that even if the PRT worked out the civilian ID, they couldn't actually risk doing much about it. Which plays neatly into our hands. We tell them up front that she bought a new ID, both because she's running from people who tried to kill her and would complete the job if they found her and that she didn't look anything like she used to_."

" _But we don't tell them what that ID is, and if they research it, they already know it's fake, but can't do anything about it because of the Rules._ " Ianthe had looked pleased.

" _Exactly. Use a mix of truth and deception with a liberal dose of misdirection to confuse the issue. As far as the Federal government goes, I believe that as long as the ID has all the suitable social security numbers and the like needed to ensure that she pays her taxes on time and in the right amount, they probably don't actually care all that much. From my research, since Parahumans came to this world, the laws surrounding alternate identities have become much more nuanced and complicated, but at the same time less strict. It will take some careful work but it might well be simpler than coming up with a totally bulletproof civilian ID from scratch. Lisa is extremely talented at that, but why not take advantage of the situation?_ "

" _You think it will work?_ "

" _I think it has a very high likelihood of working, definitely, and the best part is that we can basically enlist the help of the PRT in aiding us, like Saurial suggested. Director Piggot wants the Family to be friendly, I expect she wouldn't be above pulling a few strings here and there to keep us sweet. Especially if we let them have access on occasion to our new Tinker._ " The grin that Metis had been wearing was the smuggest one Linda had ever seen, making her laugh.

" _Armsmaster would probably help too, if we can make sure that none of the old Squealer aesthetic comes through. He found it very inefficient, but you know what he's like when he meets someone who knows their stuff. Just think how much he respects your sister_."

" _Good point_." Saurial had glanced at her, asking, " _Would you be OK with that? None of us will insist on it if you don't want to do it, but it sounds like a good idea to me_."

" _I'd still be working here?_ "

" _Of course. You're DWU now, no one is going to make you leave_." Saurial and the others had smiled at her in a way that made her feel surprisingly happy. " _But it might solve a number of problems. We'd need to separate the timing a little, but backdating the records would hopefully sort that out. I wouldn't be entirely surprised if some of them get a little suspicious, but with a corpse as positive, unassailable proof of the former Sherrel being entirely deceased, I doubt that anyone would get very far trying to force the point. Especially as it would mean attempting to unmask a cape, against the Rules, which while unwritten are pretty powerful._ "

" _A_ ** _Family-associated_** _cape as well,_ " Ianthe had smirked. " _Very few people would try that. They know damn well we wouldn't be pleased about it._ "

" _There's also the point that Squealer was considered a vehicle Tinker specializing in cars and trucks, basically road-going vehicles_." Metis had been looking pensive. " _But from what you say, you're far more versatile than that. Ridiculously so. If you alter your methods and goals a little, concentrate on other things for a while, like boats, or aircraft, or something like that, it would also help separate whatever you end up calling yourself from Squealer_."

Linda had been thinking about that ever since. She loved cars and driving, but the black reptile had been correct. There were so _many_ ideas she had for things she'd never thought she'd be able to even contemplate building. But now… With Saurial's ability to make anything she wanted, and Metis able to apparently just look at something and somehow infer a huge amount of data about it, its function, and possible improvements…

The sky might _literally_ not be the limit.

" _So we make her a Changer,_ ** _admit_** _that she's a Changer, and a Tinker,_ ** _and_** _a low level Brute, get the PRT to officially test her for us, which also means they'd certainly sneak DNA samples which would prove beyond doubt that she wasn't Squealer, and hide her right out in the open. I like it_." Ianthe had been looking very amused.

" _So do I_ ," Linda had grinned. " _It's very sneaky, but it sounds like it would probably work._ "

" _I'll talk to Lisa and we can work out all the details_ ," Metis told her. " _There are obviously other things that need to be sorted out, but we can probably get that done in a week or so. Then we talk to Director Piggot and see what happens_."

" _The only issue then would be working out what your Changer power actually_ ** _does_** ," Ianthe had mused out loud, inspecting her. " _Obviously, good taste would suggest something reptilian, but that might be a little too convenient. Although we could always say that when Linda found out about us, she realized that her new scales and tail meant she'd fit right in._ " The lizard had been grinning the whole time.

" _We're not limited to that, though, right?_ " Saurial had also looked amused.

" _No, of course not. I can do pretty much anything you want. Mammal, reptile, insect... plant even if you want. Although being rooted in place might make for some awkward Tinkering._ "

" _I don't think I could work very well from a pot_ ," Linda had chuckled. " _Insects are also a little weird. Do I have to decide now?_ "

" _No, not at all. There's no hurry, I can make any changes you want when you want them. We can even go through a few and see how they work out before we settle on one. Keep it entirely human, for example, or add something else a little more unusual. I'd suggest making it distinctive and imaginative, both because it will probably be more effective and because you should do these things with style._ "

" _You can mix and match, too,_ " Saurial had laughed. Waving her tail, she'd added, " _I don't know how humans get along without one of these, myself._ "

" _Let me think about it for a day or two,_ " she'd giggled, picturing herself with several feet of reptilian tail and finding it very funny. " _I'll get back to you_."

" _OK_."

" _Let's get on with the main event, in that case_ ," Ianthe put in after smiling again. " _Then you'll want to have an early night, to let things settle down. There might be a little disorientation for a day or so, and I won't enable the Brute boosts until you're fully acclimated, because that would probably confuse things._ "

Swallowing hard, Linda's good mood had abruptly evaporated. The violet reptile had put a huge hand gently on her shoulder. " _Trust me, I really_ ** _do_** _know what I'm doing, and I promise you'll be fine._ "

After a moment or two, she'd pulled herself up by the metaphorical bootstraps and nodded firmly. " _OK. What do I do?_ "

" _Lie down on that table_."

" _What tab..._ " Turning around, she'd found herself almost sitting on a table that hadn't been there moments before, Saurial standing next to it and grinning. " _Oh. Right._ "

" _We need more space if we're going to do this again_ ," Ianthe had commented as she helped Linda into position, looking over her shoulder at her relatives. " _This room is a little small for all of us._ " That was true, between two huge lizards, one tall but slender one, the table, and all the other stuff, there was almost no room left to add anything else.

" _I'll make it larger tomorrow,_ " Saurial had smiled. " _I also want to make the tunnel to the water soon, too._ " She and Metis had moved back as far as they could to watch, but give their sister/cousin room to work.

" _OK, Linda, I'm going to basically turn you off now_ ," Ianthe had said in a calm tone of voice, leaning over her. " _You'll just go to sleep, then wake up when I'm finished. Ready?_ "

After another hard swallow, and a deep breath, she'd nodded again.

" _Ready_."

" _See you soon_." A large scaled hand had landed on her head and that was the last thing she remembered.

When she'd woken up, she'd blinked at the light in the ceiling above her, then turned her head to see Ianthe smiling at her. Both the others were gone, as was the suspension tank, which she assumed contained her original body, presuming things had gone to plan.

" _How do you feel?_ "

" _Fine_ ," she'd replied, after a quick mental inventory. Lifting her arms, she moved them, then sat up, finding it effortless and smooth. " _Better than fine, I feel fantastic_."

" _Good. That body is much more durable than your original one, and should last you a very long time. But if you have any problems with it, come back and I'll fix it under warranty_." Ianthe had been grinning as she spoke.

" _How long did it take?_ "

" _Just over an hour. Everything went very smoothly. I can show you a video if you want, but if you don't, we'll delete it for security purposes._ "

" _No, I don't think I need to see that_ ," Linda had replied, feeling queasy. " _But… can I…?_ "

" _See your old body?_ "

" _Yes_."

" _If you're sure. It's in the next room, we didn't think you'd want to be staring at it when you woke up_."

Opening the door into the storage room, Ianthe had turned on the lights, then waved her in. She'd hopped down, walked over, and looked in, seeing a figure in the clear gel in the transparent tank that she instantly recognized. Feeling suddenly faint, she nearly fell over, Ianthe snapping out a hand to steady her. " _You OK?_ "

" _Sorry, it suddenly hit me. That's_ ** _me_** _over there_."

" _No, that's you in_ ** _here_** _,_ " Ianthe had smiled, tapping her on the forehead very gently with one claw. " _Over there is only meat. All that makes you, you, is inside here. Think of it like that and you'll probably find it easier, but I'm not surprised it's a bit of a shock to you. You'll get used to it, I'm sure. This body is a huge improvement in every way._ "

" _It's still fucking creepy_."

" _In a way. But think of it like this. A normal human body replaces practically everything except the brain in months to years, depending on what part you're talking about. In a decade, there's basically nothing of the original left except for what's up there_." She'd tapped Linda again, as the woman listened.

" _All I did was do the job in one shot, and do it better_."

Weirdly, it had helped.

After another thirty seconds of examining her old face from a viewpoint she'd never in a million years expected to have, the yellow tint of the suspension gel smoothing out the ravages of her drug-fueled life over the last few years, Linda had sighed, and nodded. " _I've seen enough. Thank you_."

" _You're welcome,_ " Ianthe had said quietly, closing the door again.

After that, and a little more talking with Saurial and Metis who had been sitting outside in the main room, discussing something in that weird language, she'd headed for a bite to eat, then bed, at Ianthe's instruction. A good meal and another conversation with Brian, who she found interesting, followed.

Now, mere hours after the most bizarre experience she'd ever had, she was lying in a comfortable bed, in a room with no one else it in, no threats hanging over her, and feeling tired but pleased.

And freer than she'd ever have thought she could be.

Feeling the back of one hand with the fingers of the other one, she smiled, turned the light off, then rolled over and went to sleep.

* * *

Lying in bed, Amy pondered her most recent project, very pleased with how smoothly it had gone. Her power was more or less lying on its back purring with pleasure, having had a wonderful time doing all the intricate work she'd spent hours on, and was suggesting ways to improve things next time, and how to add a Changer ability to Linda. She had come up with about six different methods so far, ranging from interesting to extremely odd. Nothing anywhere near as over the top as Taylor's, of course, she didn't have Varga magic to draw on, but she could see some very good uses of some of the fractional dimensional methods that her friend was coming up with at a vast rate.

Not to mention how it fed on, and back to, some of the wilder and more exciting ideas she'd had already for new bioconstructs… She was very keen on trying some of them, especially since Taylor and the Varga had shown them that amazing dragon form. Amy knew her friend, she was going to be testing _that_ one out as soon as she could.

There were going to be some very odd rumors on PHO pretty soon, she thought, giggling a little.

All things considered she was very happy with how things had gone. Linda seemed pleased, and very relieved, the poor woman was finally free of a whole series of horrible choices she'd more or less been forced into after the first few.

Taylor was pleased, they'd helped someone who needed it, her father wasn't too upset although he was obviously wondering where the next peculiar thing would come from, and the DWU now had a live in Tinker who was bound to be very useful. Just as a skilled mechanic, Linda was certain to earn her place and respect very fast.

And Lisa was pleased. She'd managed to pass on the good fortune she herself had received from Taylor, when their friend had saved her and her friends, which Amy could see made her happy. The blonde girl was a good friend, ' _Family'_ relative, which made Amy grin, and a lot of fun to be around. All in all, things seemed to have worked out pretty well.

They had a job to do tomorrow, dealing with the Merchants, but that part wasn't going to be too difficult, and hopefully might even forestall Skidmark and whatever stupid plan he was working on. Even if it didn't, it would reduce massively the ultimate problem with the fool, and make a huge difference to the city crime rates. She could fully understand why Taylor was reluctant to do it, and had been all along, and even agreed with that viewpoint. But at the same time, she felt it was the right thing to do, and more or less the _only_ thing to do at this point.

Looking forward to an interesting day, although slightly puzzled why Vicky had been wandering around with a pensive expression all evening, hardly saying a word to anyone, she turned out the light and went to sleep, smiling a little to herself.

* * *

Lying in bed, Vicky mulled over a whole series of confusing ideas and observations, trying to put them into some sort of order.

She'd had an embarrassing time talking herself out of the problem she'd literally flown into, leaving a rather large hole in a window downtown. The office manager had been ruthlessly sarcastic, while she could only apologize, since the man did have a point. She should have been paying more attention.

It hadn't helped having several people standing around and snickering, or the way he'd finally handed her a broom and suggested she should sweep up all the broken glass. _Those_ photos were going to haunt her on PHO for a while…

When she'd come home, she'd avoided talking to her mother about it, although she knew the woman would find out sooner or later. Luckily she didn't use PHO very often. Aunt Sarah, on the other hand, did, and it was bound to come back to bite her in the end.

She wasn't looking forward to that conversation.

However, she'd managed to avoid it for now, and had instead rather distractedly finished her homework for school on Monday, then gone and sat in the living room, thinking. Amy had come in looking pleased with herself, had dinner with them, tried to make conversation without a lot of luck, then gone up to her room. Vicky had eventually done the same, bidding their parents a good night.

Now, she was having odd thoughts.

What had gone through her head while she was flying along minding her own business was how similar Saurial and Taylor Hebert were in some specific ways.

Obviously, they were very different in other ways. Species, for example. Saurial was very definitely some sort of reptile, while as far as she could tell Taylor was a perfectly ordinary, if very smart and talented, human.

But…

They were both preposterously good at math for one thing. She had no idea if Taylor could actually understand the sort of thing she'd seen at the BBFO office, but she wouldn't put it past her friend. Some of the books she'd seen her reading and obviously understanding were nearly as heavy going. She'd even spotted her making corrections in the margin of a book on physics, which had amused her quite a lot.

They shared a pretty unflappable outlook on life, too. Neither one seemed very surprised by much, if anything, and they were both so laid-back they were sometimes in danger of falling over. Their speech patterns, if you knew both well enough, and were actually looking for it and could overlook the different voices, accents, and so on, were… oddly similar. Not identical, at all, but close enough that it could be like a pair of sisters.

Which on the face of it was ridiculous.

And, when you thought it through, was still ridiculous.

There was also, and this was something she'd never even thought about until that afternoon, the way that she'd never seen Saurial and Taylor in the same place at the same time…

Obviously there could be any number of totally innocent explanations for that, including the ones she'd been working on, which is that Saurial was normally either running around town jumping criminals, or doing whatever at the DWU yard, while Taylor was at school or at home, making up for two years of bad schooling at Winslow. Having talked to people who knew the place, it was entirely believable that even someone as talented as Taylor would take months to make up the difference, and she'd only been at Arcadia for less than eight weeks so far.

But, that said, there were other possible explanations as well...

She shook her head a little, trying to come up with alternatives.

' _I've never seen Saurial and Raptaur in the same place at the same time, either_ ,' she mused. ' _But Amy has so obviously it's possible, it's just unusual. They said a while back that the Family didn't like letting too many of them run around at the same time, for various reasons, and that's certainly plausible. Not to mention that Raptaur is at least eight or nine times heavier than Saurial. Kaiju is insanely larger than either of them put together. There's no way Raptaur and Saurial could be the same person. Too much physical difference, Raptaur has more arms for example_.'

Vicky frowned. ' _Or legs. Whatever, she's really different. She speaks totally differently, the body language is different… no chance. And Kaiju is just silly. And I've seen Metis and Ianthe at the same time as all of them several times, so I know they're exactly who they say they are_.'

But what did that leave? She was suddenly, since this afternoon, certain that there was something she was missing.

' _OK. What are the choices?_ ' Ticking them off on her fingers, she tried to think of every possibility that she could.

' _Taylor Hebert and Saurial have no connection except that they know each other. That's one. The obvious one, that everyone believes. The Family and the Heberts know each other, although how they met I have no idea, and it's exactly what it looks like on the face of it._ '

Certainly very plausible, and very likely.

' _Two..._ ' She shook her head slightly. ' _It's nuts, but it's not impossible. Saurial_ ** _is_** _Taylor. Somehow. It would have to be a Changer power, I guess. It sort of fits, but… I don't know. Then there's the weirder possibility, three, that Taylor is_ ** _Saurial_** _._ ' That one made her eyes widen as she thought about it. ' _Shit, that would be… very strange. A Changer, but Saurial turns into Taylor! How fucking weird would that be? A Family member just wandering around with the rest of us without anyone the wiser._ '

She sat up in bed, thinking that possibility through. How could it have come about?

' _Danny's wife was Family? How the hell would that even_ ** _work?_** _Or is he a disguised Family member? Or were both of them, living quietly in the city for years._ ' Her eyes were getting wider and wider. ' _How_ ** _many_** _years, though? Long enough to remember the glaciers…?_ '

Vicky shook her head, hard. ' _No, that's getting crazy. People have known Danny for ages, Mom's told me he's been in the DWU for nearly twenty years, and his father was involved in the docks before that. I can't see how there could be a whole series of hidden reptilian creatures pretending to be human for that long, and all they did was run a trade union!_ '

Lying back, propped up on her pillows, she tried to put her other ideas into place. ' _Maybe Saurial was adopted? Like Amy?_ ' That was a lot more plausible, although still very weird. ' _Possibility four. Grew up in a human family, which is why she's so much more normal than the others. Depending on what you mean by normal, of course. More used to people, then. And she's been training her real relatives on how to interact with us. Wherever the hell they actually come from. They must have been around for a hell of a long time, and I bet they've met us before. Hey, maybe that's the whole idea… Saurial was sent to learn more, because they knew they'd be discovered sooner or later, and they needed to be ready. They found a sympathetic human family and got them to raise a little lizard-girl as a human to help them fit in_. _Although I have no idea how they could hide it._ '

It was out there, but it sort of fitted.

' _I suppose there's one other possibility, which sort of fits the evidence as well. Maybe both parts are true in a way. Saurial was raised by the Heberts alongside their own kid. That would probably work even better, I bet. Like me and Amy, Taylor and Saurial are sisters. Adopted sisters. That would explain how why they're really similar, but still different in the details._ '

Puzzling over it for some time, she sighed gently. ' _I don't know, I don't have enough to go on. But I'm sure there's something to it. The best choices seem either to be the girl I know as Taylor is actually Saurial in some form of disguise, probably some sort of Changer ability, or she's Taylor's adopted sister. Or it's something I haven't thought of, but those seem the most plausible._ '

She slid back into a supine position, then rolled over on her side, reaching out to turn the light off. ' _I'm going to have to watch and see if I can figure it out, for my own curiosity. But I can't talk about it. One way or the other it's a violation of the Rules, and I'd never do that to a friend. Especially either one who's my sister's best friend, or one who could unscrew my head and eat it. Or both_.'

She fell asleep with a mildly puzzled expression of concentration on her face and had a very weird dream involving being turned into a flying lizard and chasing other flying lizards around the city, while a fox laughed at her.

* * *

Lying in bed, Taylor read a book on advanced topology, making notes and giggling at comments from her demonic companion, while idly working out the best time to test the first flying form. She had plans for that one.

When she finished, she put her notes into the book, closed it, turned out the lights, rested the tip of her tail across her ankles, and went to sleep, contented with the way things were working out.

* * *

Chris didn't _get_ to bed for the second night running.

He was far too busy and having a hell of a lot of fun, although the amount of energy drink he'd consumed meant he was starting to invent some very weird things.


	212. Metis and Piggot

**Monday, February 28, 2011**

"What's wrong with him?" Vicky asked, looked at Chris, who was in danger of having his head drop into his bowl of soup, as it sagged under the weight of what seemed to be extreme tiredness. In fact, he looked so exhausted he seemed in real danger of drowning in it.

"Caffeine crash, two and a half days straight awake, and I think he might be insane as well," Dennis said in a low voice, looking up from his own lunch. "He was babbling enough for a crazy person, anyway."

"Wsn't babbl'ng. T'red, go 'way," Chris mumbled, not raising his head.

"How much caffeine did he have?" the blonde asked, her eyebrows raised.

"How much is in… um… nine of the big cans of energy drink?" Dean asked wryly, counting on his fingers.

"T'n," the other boy muttered.

" _Ten_ cans," Dean interpreted.

"Way too damn much to be safe, I'd have thought," she replied, more than a little concerned for her friend. "What the hell did he do _that_ for?"

"He had some sort of breakthrough on Saturday. Or perhaps ' _breakdown_ ' would be more accurate," Dennis told her, glancing around to make sure no one was too close and speaking very quietly.

"H'y, tha's r'd," Chris protested faintly, his head drooping further. Vicky reached out and moved the soup bowl just before he would have dipped his hair into it. "Th'nks." There was a small thud as his forehead hit the table.

"Chris, you were _cackling_ at one point. Like a demented Bond villain. It was creepy as hell," Carlos pointed out, looking disturbed. His only answer was a slight snore.

The four wakeful young people exchanged glances, then Vicky twisted around in her seat and waved to her sister, who was talking quietly to Lucy and Taylor. Amy glanced up, excused herself, and came over. "Problem?"

"Jump-start this idiot, will you, and make sure he hasn't done something horrible to himself by staying up for over two days and drinking all the energy drink in the city?"

Amy stared at her for a moment, then looked around at the conscious Wards, before shrugging and putting her hand on the back of Chris's neck. There was a short pause. "He's dehydrated and needs at least twelve hours of sleep," she reported. "I'll wake him up, but make sure he gets several glasses of water into him, and make him get an early night. Or I'll track him down and do it myself."

Chris twitched violently, almost knocking his fork onto the floor, then his eyes snapped open and he shot upright, looking around wildly. "Who?! Where?" he yelped, making people look over from other tables, and Dennis start laughing. Catching himself, he flushed a little. Amy was smirking a bit as Vicky giggled.

"Thanks, Ames," she said.

"No problem. But I'm serious about the water and the sleep. You hear that, you idiot? _Go to bed_ when you get home." She bent down and fixed him with a hard stare, making him lean away. "You _won't_ like what I'll do if I find out that you stayed up all night again… And ease up on the energy drinks before you wreck your kidneys and liver, got me?"

"Yes, Amy," he squeaked.

Nodding, she straightened up, smiled darkly at him, then went back to her other friends.

"Your sister is fucking terrifying sometimes," Dennis said in an awed voice. Vicky nodded proudly, grinning.

"She has her moments."

Chris was looking around, rubbing his neck, his pupils wider than normal. He stared at each of them in turn then closed his eyes with a pained expression. "Oh, shit, did I fall asleep in English class…?" he asked weakly.

Dennis grinned, nodding. "You did. And you were snoring."

"Snoring..." The boy pressed the heels of his hands to his eyes and moaned. "Did… anyone notice?"

" _Everyone_ noticed, Chris," Carlos sighed. "You have three hours of detention. Don't you remember?"

"He was basically blowing bubbles and muttering when Mrs Murchison was growling at him," Dennis snickered, making Chris moan again.

"Oh, god," he sighed, lowering his hands and looking at them in despair. "What have I done?"

"You tell us." Dean leaned forward, looking interested.

Chris sighed. "I can't."

"Can't, because of where we are?" Dennis whispered, also leaning closer, as did the others, Vicky feeling both curious and very amused. The boy shook his head.

"That, and I actually _can't_. Like, I can't remember some of what I was doing. But it was really good. I think." He frowned, appearing to concentrate. "But some of it is… very strange. I'm going to have to think about it some more."

"Try not to kill yourself in the process," Vicky suggested, grinning at him. "Or Ames will bring you back, then do it again harder."

The boy looked over at the other table where Amy and Taylor were both watching him, the healer saying something to her friend and looking like she was trying not to smirk again. Taylor was hiding, not very well, a small smile.

"Oh, shit."

"Quite. So make sure you get a good night's sleep, or you're going to end up being chased around by a pissed off healer," Vicky giggled.

"When did your sister get so aggressive with her damn healing?" he demanded.

Very quietly.

"When she met the Family, I think," Vicky shrugged. "Although it might go back to when Taylor talked her into taking it a little easier. I think she has a sort of excess of healing-mode sometimes and looks for an outlet for it. Whether you want it or not."

"Yeah, annoy her and she'll chase you down on Raptaur-back, sit on you, and fix you right up," Dennis snickered, making Vicky laugh again, and Chris shudder, giving his friend an aggrieved look.

"Oh, thanks a lot for _that_ little mental image," he muttered.

The red-head saluted him with his can of soda, then went back to eating.

Chris, grumbling almost inaudibly, retrieved his bowl of soup and started eating it, while the others exchanged looks then resumed their own lunches.

Vicky kept discreetly glancing at the table containing her sister, Taylor, and the others who formed their own little group, all of whom were happily talking about random things. Snatches of conversation were intermittently audible, letting her know Lucy was describing something her iguana had done that had amused her, Eric was thinking about getting a car soon, and the others were just enjoying themselves.

She watched Taylor, who was mostly just listening, although sometimes adding something to the conversation, and apparently quietly enjoying herself. The usual very faintly pleased expression was on her face, the girl giving an air of just generally enjoying life and her friends in a relaxed manner.

Noting the mannerisms the tall girl had, little things like how she cocked her head to the side in the manner of a curious cat when she was interested in something, the blonde thought about all the odd ideas she'd had the night before. In the light of day they mostly sounded mad, but she still couldn't just flatly discard any of them.

For instance, that particular little quirk was one she'd seen before.

In Saurial. Leaving aside the utterly different overall physiology, it was very similar.

She was aware that little gestures like that could pass through a family, due to constant exposure to them growing up. She found herself tapping her fingers on something when she thought, exactly like Carol did, and had noted the similarity in the past. Amy chewed her lip a little when she was deep in thought, something she also did sometimes. In fact, she was doing it right now.

Vicky stopped immediately, licked her lips, then smiled a little to herself.

Based on things like that, her theory that Saurial and Taylor had grown up in the same family seemed not impossible. The fancy that Taylor _was_ Saurial was a little more far-fetched, since overall the girl looked and acted entirely human, while the lizard… didn't.

Not in looks, obviously, but her body language was also very different, making the girl think she was entirely comfortable with herself. She didn't personally know anyone with a Changer ability but she'd always wondered if suddenly finding yourself in a different body would be as confusing as she thought it would be. Surely, unless you'd spent a _lot_ of time like that, grown up like it, or had a _very_ unusual mind, you'd act a little weirdly, probably for quite a while?

Saurial didn't seem at all out of place. While she was entirely different from a normal human, she was at the same time completely at home as who she was, that was obvious. Her reflexes, body language, mannerisms, everything Vicky could think of, suggested that she was and always had been exactly what she appeared to be, a humanoid reptilian girl with a long tail and a bizarre sense of humor.

Yet…

Some of the little things were still shared between them. Mannerisms, turns of phrase, things that you'd have to know them both quite well to even notice, they were sufficiently close to make her wonder. The similarities were much harder to explain than the differences unless they'd had a lot of contact with each other over a considerable amount of time, far longer than the couple of months or so that Saurial had been known to the public.

Which would fit either possibility, of course. She thought it slightly more likely that her theory that Saurial was brought up alongside Taylor was the right one, assuming she wasn't making everything up in some deluded manner, but she still couldn't eliminate the other ideas on the information available.

' _I suppose I could simply ask her straight out_ ,' she thought, glancing at the other table again as she put her fork in her mouth. ' _I can just see it._ ** _Hey, Taylor, is the incredibly dangerous lizard girl I insulted for no reason the very first time we met your foster-sister or something?_** _Yeah, I can see that working out perfectly..._ ' She rolled her eyes a little. ' _Even better,_ ** _Oh, hi, Taylor, I figured it out, you're actually a reptilian teenager from the deep who's grown up with the humans for some reason. How's that working out for you?_** '

No, neither of those possibilities seemed wildly bright. She knew full well that Saurial had stated outright more than once that she would take any form of threat to her family as something requiring up to a lethal response She was also certain that the lizard-girl was definitely more than capable of carrying out that promise. Vicky wasn't at all sure it would be a good idea to say anything that could be misconstrued as any form of threat. She was also certain that regardless of the truth of Saurial's origin, or Taylor's for that matter, she looked on both the Heberts and the Family as equals from that point of view. And the others undoubtedly did as well.

' _You'd have to be a special kind of moron to tell her you knew who she was to her face_ ,' she mused, yet again checking on the girl, who was laughing at something Rich had said. _'Out of the blue like that… It wouldn't end well. Even if Taylor is only Taylor, she's not someone I'd like to get seriously annoyed with me, she's smart enough to cause real problems. If she really_ ** _is_** _Saurial in human form..._ '

She shivered a little. Memories of that ' _training session_ ' they'd watched came back rather vividly.

' _No,_ ** _not_** _going there_ ,' she though uneasily.

But it was still niggling at her, the sense that she was onto something, and at the same time, missing something. The puzzle was one she wanted to solve if only for her own peace of mind and intellectual curiosity. She had no intention of outing any cape, especially a friend, but it was really weird and wouldn't let her forget it now that it had come to mind.

Idly pondering the other ideas, she internally smiled. ' _It's weird, but it's more likely than Mr or Mrs Hebert being a disguised Family member, I guess. They'd probably both have had to be aside from anything else, and if that was the case, no mere car accident would have hurt Taylor's mother_.' She'd learned about that tragic issue from Amy, and felt very sorry for the brunette. ' _The other car would just have bounced._ '

Stirring her chicken salad, she picked out some sweetcorn and ate it, just letting the ideas flow. ' _Although..._ '

She stopped for a moment, then resumed eating more slowly, thinking hard.

' _If Mrs Hebert had to go back to the Family, a car accident would make a very convenient excuse as to why she'd vanished…_ ' The blonde glanced at Taylor again. ' _But Amy told me she's still very upset about her mother's death. So… maybe she didn't know? If it was some weird sort of Family infiltration mission, maybe her mother got reassigned and it was some security issue that meant Taylor couldn't be told. God, that would suck._ '

She shook her head very slightly as the absurdity of her thoughts struck her. ' _This is crazy. Next I'll be thinking the Family is the reptilian version of the CIA or something. It's like something Void Cowboy would come up with, only less sensible_.'

The concept amused and horrified her equally, comparing her thought processes with that idiot.

' _Hah. If_ ** _he'd_** _come up with this, he'd say that the whole thing was some alien plot. The Heberts are all hidden Family members, running a trade union because it gives them access to the infrastructure of the city or something._ ' She suppressed a giggle by chewing a piece of chicken. ' _Then he'd go on to say that the reason no one at the DWU is apparently worried at all by the giant lizards is because they're_ ** _all_** _disgui..._ '

* * *

Dean looked over from where he'd been quietly talking to Carlos as his girlfriend dropped her fork. She was staring into space, a very peculiar expression on her face. "Vicky? Anything wrong?"

Dennis waved his hand in front of the blonde's eyes, then said, "I think her batteries ran down or something. Do we have any spare Barbie power packs?"

The girl blinked a few times, then looked at the boy, before bending down and retrieving her fork, which was bent double. Dean watched, concerned and curious. "Sorry," she apologized, looking embarrassed. "I was thinking about something and had a weird idea that took me by surprise. Daydreams, you know how they can go sometimes."

"Was it… good?" Dennis said, emphasizing the word and wiggling his eyebrows up and down comically. She sighed, looking at him again.

"Thank you for lowering the tone of the conversation," she sighed.

"Any time, Vicky, it's a gift," he chuckled. The girl smiled faintly, then got up to get another fork, while Dean wondered what it was that she'd been thinking about.

* * *

" _Vicky seems fascinated by you today, Brain_ ," the Varga rumbled inside her head, making Taylor discreetly look over to the Wards table for a brief moment. The blonde girl was indeed glancing at her every now and then, a slight frown coming and going. She appeared to be thinking hard.

' _I noticed_ ,' she replied. ' _I wonder why?_ '

" _It could be any number of reasons, without_ _any_ _more information it's difficult to be certain,_ " he responded. " _I doubt it's anything particularly worrying, although perhaps you should ask her if she keeps doing it. Eventually she'll attract attention to herself with that behavior and start all manner of rumors, knowing teenaged humans_." His voice was dryly amused.

' _We are a gossipy lot on balance, I agree_ ,' she laughed.

" _All too true. That appears to be a constant wherever humans are found_."

She picked up her sandwich and took a bite of it, putting the remainder back down, then chewed while listening to Lucy and Mandy discussing a video the former had downloaded from PHO, the others doing the same. ' _I wonder how many of the Merchants are left now?_ ' she asked after a little while and two more bites.

" _Lisa seems certain that at least thirty percent have left, which should mean no more than approximately a hundred and ten or so to deal with_ ," the demon replied. " _You could take that many out yourself with no difficulty at all. Between the three of you it's barely a training exercise. Although I would suggest that you want to stretch it out a little, both to give a plausible excuse for the assailants who will sadly remove Squealer from the equation to escape, and to avoid showing off quite how effective you all are_."

' _Hmm. Yes, good points, both of them_.' She considered his words. ' _Hopefully they won't manage to kill any of their own people like the ABB did when they went after the Undersiders. We'll have to be careful to fix up any damage to the ones we catch. Amy can sort out their drug addictions at the same time, like Lisa did with Linda_.'

" _That should remove them as problems for the foreseeable future_ ," he agreed. " _It will be interesting to see what the PRT says when Lisa calls them and invites them along to help_."

Smiling internally, Taylor said, ' _She's looking forward to that, I think. Mostly to see their reactions when she turns up at the PRT building and asks to speak to the Director, because phone lines are insecure_.'

Both of them laughed.

" _With any luck this action will prevent Skidmark carrying out his plans, or at least severely disrupt them,_ " he commented. " _Although, based on what we know about the man, I wouldn't want to guarantee it_."

' _No_.' She sighed faintly. ' _He's persistent, even if deluded. But removing his backup should make a big difference if he does ever turn up. All the precautions we're taking are something we need to do anyway, I'm sure there will be future threats even if he never does anything, so it's not wasted effort. I'll talk to Mark again and arrange some training for any people he's found who are up for it._ '

" _Amy and Lisa know enough now that they can do the introductory classes_ ," he suggested. " _Leaving you free to train people to a more advanced level._ "

' _Good idea. I wonder how Randall and Kevin are coming along, he'd be a good one to help as well. He can learn the skills faster than even Lisa, and help pass them on. But we haven't heard a thing out of them since we started the experiment. I'm a little worried._ '

" _I'm sure they're both fine_ ," he reassured her. " _If anything had gone wrong, they'd have contacted you by now. I think it's more likely that they've noticed something and are experimenting. The evidence is rapidly growing that our theories are correct, or at least partially correct. As worrying as that is_."

' _I should tell Dad about this soon_ ,' she sighed. ' _I don't want to upset him but he needs to know, and he could also probably help us think it through_.'

" _Danny is an intelligent man with wisdom beyond his years_ ," her friend smiled inside her head. " _He can certainly help us work this out. The more I learn about this, the more it concerns me. I feel we are on the verge of understanding something very strange. And potentially very hazardous_."

 _'I'll talk to him sometime soon, then_ ,' Taylor replied. Glancing at the clock on the wall, she saw it was nearly the end of the lunch hour. ' _Do you think the first flying form is ready for testing yet?_ '

" _I think so, yes,_ " he chuckled. He sounded nearly as eager as she felt. " _I suggest that we probably want to do the initial flight tests at some distance from the city, though, to minimize both potential damage and embarrassment. Remember the lift platform..._ "

Taylor giggled. ' _I'll_ ** _never_** _forget that. Neither will anyone who saw it. Poor Assault_.'

" _I've modified the form a little to make it fully aquatic-capable, so you can swim as well in it as with any of the others, which may be useful. I think that if we head up the coast a way, perhaps to the place we met the Mayor, we could do some initial practice there where no one will see. Once we've tuned it and learned how to fly like that, we can come back. Around the city we should probably use one of the IFF transponders that Legend gave us, although a different one to the Saurial one_."

' _OK, that sounds perfect_ ,' she said with satisfaction. ' _Maybe tonight, after the raid. If we go in around seven to eight, we'll be done in… maybe an hour? Probably a couple of hours of cleanup, talking to the PRT and the police, so we'd be clear by midnight at the latest_.'

" _Excellent. I look forward to it. I hope I can also have a go again, I very much enjoyed the first flight test_."

' _You can always have a go with anything I do, you know that, Varga_ ,' she remarked, sending him a wave of affection. ' _We're in this together. Just tell me and you can have control whenever you want_.'

" _Thank you, Taylor,_ " he said with a sensation of fondness. " _It is both very generous, and very much appreciated_."

The first bell rang, making everyone who still had food left quickly eat it. "See you guys later," Amy said to her friends, putting the book she'd been showing Mandy something in back into her pack, then slinging it over her shoulder as she stood up, picking up her tray as well.

"Later, Amy," everyone said, following suit. They all joined the general exodus out of the cafeteria, Taylor looking over to see Vicky watching her again. She smiled at the other Dallon girl, waved, and went off to Chemistry class.

* * *

"How are you feeling today, Linda?" Danny asked as he waved the woman into his office. She came in and shut the door before sitting in the chair he pointed her too. While she was looking thoughtful she also seemed happy.

"Fine, thanks, Danny," she replied.

"Good, I'm glad to hear that. Saurial filled me in on what you all discussed last night, I agree it seems a valid path to take. If somewhat… Family." He smiled when she laughed, nodding. "I'm happy to go along with it." He motioned to the side, where Lisa was sitting in another chair, listening with a familiar smile of her own. "This is Lisa, my assistant, and one of the smartest people I know. Also the smuggest."

"Thanks, Danny," the blonde chuckled.

"Credit where it's due, Lisa. Linda, she's going to do everything required to set it all up. Between them, I doubt it will be too difficult to get things sorted out."

"Thanks." The brunette woman looked at both of them, seeming a little overwhelmed. "This is… way more than I expected."

"Don't worry too much about it, it's not too much trouble even if it did sort of take me by surprise," he told her. Lisa snickered, making him give her a look. "You sort of grow to expect the unexpected around here. Especially these days. What did you think of the workshop building?"

"It's perfect," she replied, looking suddenly excited. "Absolutely perfect. I poked around in the scrap and marked a few things that are worth keeping, but I remembered what you said, you're right, there's no point in keeping all the old crap."

"OK. I'll get some people to clear it all out, most of it will go into the scrap trains, we can take advantage of them while they're out there. We're clearing out a lot of old metal at the moment and turning it into money. The first full load should be going off to the smelters pretty soon, actually."

"The electrical work is all done, Danny," Lisa put in, looking at a clipboard she was holding. "New lights and switches, most of the wiring was replaced too, and I had a couple of the guys look at the lifts. One of them is working, the other one needs some spare parts, but Saurial can make those later. I'll talk to her about resurfacing the floor and lining the walls the same as the BBFO office as well when I see her. It should be up and running inside a day or two."

"Very good. How's the paperwork coming along?"

"With the changes to the plan, I've had to do some more research, but I've got her in the system with all the right information for now. Photos and so on as well. I'll get the ID card done this afternoon. All the payroll data and accounts are already set up correctly, so there isn't too much left on that front." She flipped through her papers. "Still working on the backstory but I have some good leads, I need to contact a few people I know."

He nodded, watching Linda's face as she listened as well. The woman looked slightly stunned, which he could well sympathize with, this was a hell of a lot to take on board and a vast change from her previous life in a very small amount of time. "Sounds good. Keep me updated, but I think it's going to work out pretty well." The blonde girl smiled, appearing satisfied too.

"I still can't believe how fast all this has gone," Linda muttered, looking at her hands and flexing them a little as if she'd never seen them before. Which, in a way, was basically true he thought. Amy did incredible work…

"I'm pleased with how well it's all gone," he smiled. "And I think it's a good thing. All right, in that case, I'm going to get some lunch. Linda, why don't you join me, and I can introduce you to a few people in the vehicle depot, we can work out where you'll officially fit in and who you'll be working with. Once your personal workshop is ready, you can split your time between doing your own projects and the things we want to pay you for."

"Which may well end up being the same in the end," Lisa commented with a smirk.

"That is indeed true," he chuckled, standing up.

"I'll sort out the ID card now and bring it over a little later," she added, also standing, as did Linda. "Then I need to track down Metis and talk to her, I need her advice."

He couldn't help grinning at her expression, opening the door and waving both women through. "Give her my best, Lisa," he requested, which made her grin.

"I will. See you shortly." She went off in a different direction as he headed downstairs with the brunette Tinker, making small talk and getting to know his daughter's latest project, who seemed like a decent person who'd had a very bad time up until now.

Hopefully, she was going to find things turned around from this point onward.

* * *

Emily looked at her phone when it rang, then put her pen down and picked up the handset. "Piggot," she said brusquely, her mind still working on the document she'd been reading.

" _Director, Metis of the Family is here to see you,_ " the PRT staffer on the other end said, sounding somewhat worried.

Startled, she asked, "Here? In the building?"

" _Yes, in reception. She said she had some information for you that was too sensitive to pass along on an unsecured phone_."

"Ah." Thinking quickly, she tried to remember which of the conference rooms they were fairly certain was free of Calvert's possible bugs. "All right, please take her to secure conference room two. Is Miss Militia in the building?"

" _I think so, Ma'am, let me check_." There was a pause, then the man came back on the line. " _Yes, she's in the research library. Shall I have her meet you there?_ "

"Yes, thank you. Tell Metis I'm on my way down."

" _Yes, Director_ ," he said, before the line went dead.

Wondering what fresh hell the lizards were about to unleash on her poor city, she took a deep breath, stood, grabbed a notebook and her pen, then left the office. A moment later she came back in, retrieved a small package from her desk, and left again.

* * *

Lisa watched with amusement as people wandering around the PRT building reception area noticed her, then generally stopped dead and stared. She was politely waiting in an area with a couple of dozen chairs and two tables, leafing idly through a magazine on fashionable home-making, which she'd chosen because her ability thought it would produce the funniest expressions when people spotted it.

Two very nervous looking PRT troopers, who smelled slightly terrified but were disguising it surprisingly well, were standing nearby in a way they probably thought was inconspicuous, fingers on the triggers of their containment foam sprayers. She could hear their hearts beating at least twice as fast as normal, the two men obviously wondering if they would have to do anything.

She was fairly sure that even if they did foam her, she could break out of it without too much difficulty, either by raw strength, or by cutting it with a biometallic blade, but didn't want to have to prove it unnecessarily. So she was calmly flipping pages, looking around every now and then, and doing as much as she could to project the image of someone who was just there on business. Although being a half ton giant killer lizard seemed to make that just the slightest bit difficult.

Lisa had definitely had difficulty not simply walking up to the reception desk and stating, "I come in peace. Take me to your leader," although the idea had certainly crossed her mind…

The six other people who were occupying chairs in the waiting area when she arrived were all staring at her, totally motionless, and producing a very interesting mix of scents, mostly on the theme of ' _Oh, shit_.' One small girl, about twelve, was grinning widely, which made her smile back, which in turn made the girl's mother suck in a breath and nearly faint.

"Oh, mom," the girl said with a sigh. "That's only Metis."

"I know," the older woman said in a weak voice. Lisa smiled winningly at her, which didn't seem to help, although the girl was now giggling a little.

"Miss Metis?" a voice to the side said, a little hesitantly. She looked around. "The director will see you now, if you'll come with me, please?"

"Of course," she replied politely, putting the magazine down and standing up. The man kept his eyes on hers as she rose to her full height, looking down on him from close to two feet worth of advantage. "After you."

He swallowed, nodded, and turned away, while she trailed along behind him, grinning internally. The mass sigh of relief from behind her was hysterically funny to both her _and_ her power.

Shortly she was entering a conference room on the sixth floor which was guarded by two more troopers, both of whom stared at her wide-eyed. Her guide fled when the door shut, she could hear rapid footsteps disappearing down the corridor behind her. Emily Piggot and Miss Militia were sitting at one end of a large conference table, away from the door. She looked around for a moment, noting how the internal cameras had been disconnected, but said nothing about it.

"Hello, Metis," Director Piggot said to her, sounding slightly worried, but nothing like as much as the people downstairs had been. She also sounded interested. "I understand you wanted to speak?"

"I did, yes, Director," she replied, moving a chair to the side and propping herself up on her tail in the space it had taken. "It's too sensitive to talk about over the phone, especially considering your potential security issues. I assume this room is clear?"

"It is, as far as we can be sure," Miss Militia said.

"Excellent. I did consider asking you to come to us, but considering how often that happens, it seemed polite to come to you for once." She smiled at them. "I was also curious, of course." Looking around again, she nodded. "Nice place."

Returning her attention to the two women, she inspected them for a moment. Miss Militia swallowed slightly, proving she was just as nervous as she smelled, which Lisa thought odd for such a competent and practiced woman. But she was like that with all of them, she'd noticed it when the hero and Armsmaster had first interviewed her as Lisa. She'd been terrified of ' _Raptaur_ ', and still was. It was a little curious, but unimportant at the moment.

"We are going to move against the Merchants tonight," she said after a moment or two. Both woman looked surprised, then concerned. "We've run out of patience. Skidmark is nowhere to be seen, but we've decided, after discussing it with the DWU and various contacts who have given us more information on the subject, that we can't wait for him and his friends to turn up with whatever ultimate weapon he might have. The risk to the DWU people and innocent bystanders is too great to let him set the terms of an engagement."

"I see," Piggot replied slowly. "I remember what we talked about the other day. You're sure you want to go ahead with this?"

"I don't honestly see we have much choice," she shrugged, which was entirely accurate. "None of us particularly _want_ to start anything, but the more we hear about Skidmark's movements, the more worrying it gets. We don't know what, if anything, he's looking for, but no one feels just sitting there waiting for him to open fire is really a wildly good idea."

"Can't argue with that," Miss Militia mumbled.

"He seems determined to make us the enemy," she added. "Not what we want, but I doubt we could persuade him otherwise. Recent information I gathered gave us a good idea of the Merchant strength, location, and so on, as well as suggesting that a preemptive strike if done very carefully would be effective at reducing the threat. Possibly not eliminating it entirely, as we don't know where he is or exactly when he's likely to resurface, but if we can remove as much of his backup as possible that should help a lot."

"I can't disagree, as much as I'd like to," Piggot replied after some moments, scowling a little. She glanced at Miss Militia. "We don't have any more information on the idiot ourselves, yet, do we?"

"No, Director, nothing very useful has come to light," the other woman told them. "We're hearing more and more stories about places he's been and people he's annoyed, a few of them to the level of putting out a price on his head, in fact. The FBI has also added him to the top ten most wanted list. But so far we only know where he's _been_ , not where he _is._ "

"Damn man's like a particularly annoying cockroach," the director growled. "Balls."

"We performed a little psychological warfare on the Merchants the other night, partly as an experiment, and partly to soften them up," Lisa went on.

"You confiscated his cash, you mean," Piggot said, almost smiling. "That was fairly impressive, I have to admit."

"They seemed to think so," she laughed. "As far as we can determine, a good fifty to sixty of his people have quietly disappeared since then. That brings the estimated strength of the gang down to somewhat over a hundred. We can handle that easily, and plan to move on them at around eight PM tonight. No sense letting them dig in, and the ones who were likely to abandon ship have already done so. The dark will make it easier as well."

"Will you require help from us?"

"We can do the raid with no difficulty," she assured them. "But as we discussed the other day, what we want to do is perform it in cooperation with the PRT and the BBPD, both as a show of our association, and because it will make life easier when dealing with the prisoners. And it will legitimize it, if you announce immediately afterwards that it was done after consultation with you, as a preventative measure to avoid bloodshed. Having the PRT officially back us up will, I think stop the ABB and the E88 feeling that the status quo has altered too radically too quickly, which we both want to avoid."

The director looked at Miss Militia, who gazed back, then nodded. "It sounds… odd but plausible," the latter said. "Everyone in the city probably knows by now that Skidmark is gunning for the Family. Which means he's after the DWU guys as well. They have a lot of support, no one likes the Merchants anyway, so if we spin it as Metis suggests, I expect people will basically applaud. Even Kaiser and Lung will probably simply accept it without too much trouble."

"I agree." Piggot turned back to Lisa. "You understand, we really don't want to trigger a gang war, which in this city would be all too easy. Although after the last couple of months, probably not as easy as it was. Before Saurial turned up we were on a knife edge, almost anything could have set it off."

"That matches my analysis of the situation," Lisa nodded. "But as far as I can tell, if we do it this way, the political impact will be minimized. Public reaction is likely to be generally positive."

"All right. How do you want to proceed?" Piggot put her arms on the table and watched her curiously.

"I was going to go and talk to a contact in the BBPD as well, but the plan would be to have a number of PRT and BBPD units, along with suitable medical services, accompany us to the Merchants base." She pulled out a USB stick and slid it over to them. "This has the details. As I said, I estimate a maximum of one hundred and fifteen people will be present. We intend to take all of them into custody, repair any medical issues, then hand them over to you. We will also destroy their base and equipment, once you've had a chance to remove anything you require for legal reasons, just in case any of the runners come back. And to make a point to Skidmark."

Picking the USB stick up, Piggot looked at it for a second, then glanced at Miss Militia, before turning back to her. "Brutal, but effective, I think."

"We will be very careful to avoid causing any more injuries than necessary," Lisa added. "However, the Merchants are very heavily armed, so it's not impossible that there will be some, quite likely self-inflicted. I would suggest that you bring some Parahumans of your own, and establish a containment area to capture any absconders, while we go in after the bulk of them. We're very durable, we're not likely to be harmed." She smiled at them. "None of us want to see any of you harmed due to a problem we're arguably at least partially responsible for."

"I don't honestly think it's your fault, the man and his friends has always been a loose cannon at best," the director replied, scowling. "I wish we could have dealt with him years ago, but…" She shrugged. "Brockton Bay is a very complex set of problems with no good solution."

"So we've come to appreciate," Lisa grinned. "Hopefully this is part of the solution."

"Thank you for inviting us, Metis," the blonde woman said. "I'll call a meeting and we'll work out a plan of attack on our side, then get in contact with you." She looked at her watch. "That gives us six hours or so. Should be enough."

"I would suggest that we assemble at the DWU yard at seven or thereabouts." Lisa looked at them both. "We can fine tune the plan then. I realize it's short notice, but circumstances have forced our hand."

"Can't be helped. I agree, we'll get to work. Ask your BBPD contact to liaise with us when you see them."

"That's not a problem." Pushing herself to her feet, she nodded politely to them. "Thank you for listening."

"Of course." Piggot picked up a thick envelope that was next to her on the table and skimmed it to her, Lisa putting a claw on it as it came past. "I meant to drop that over soon anyway, so you can take it now. Those are the ID cards I was talking about for all of you."

"Thank you very much, Director," she smiled, opening a pouch in her vest and tucking the envelope into it. Miss Militia's eyes widened a little at the way the envelope disappeared into an opening too small for it, she noticed with an inner smile. "I have to go, I have other people to talk to, but I expect we'll talk again shortly."

With another nod, she turned and headed towards the door, opening and leaving the room, satisfied that things were proceeding to plan. She allowed one of the troopers to guide her down to the lobby although she could easily have found her way, but it seemed to make him a little less worried.

* * *

"What do you think?"

Hannah looked at her companion, who was rolling the USB stick Metis had given them in her palm.

"It's a viable plan, definitely. The psychological warfare element to soften them up, then go in with force… It'll work. Whether it will dissuade Skidmark, who knows?" She shrugged. "The man is not good at thinking things through or we wouldn't be in this situation in the first place. But we might get lucky."

"Hmmph." Emily looked mildly annoyed. "Damn man. Fine, get Colin, Ethan, and his wife over here. That should be enough, along with three pissed off giant lizards. We need to work out the right number of vehicles to take. Over a hundred prisoners… we'll need at least a dozen of them."

"I'll get on it, Director," she replied, as they stood and left the room. She was both curious to see how this would play out, and more than a little worried about how confident Metis had been that the Merchants wouldn't put up much of a fight.

Well, she'd soon find out what was going to happen. It wasn't like she had other plans for the evening.


	213. Merchants and Death

{How do you want to play this?} Lisa asked Taylor, who was staring at the Merchant's base. {Any changes to the plan?}

{No, I don't think so,} Taylor replied absently, scanning the building carefully. {We've sealed the sewers, so they can't get away that way, and the other preparations are ready.}

They were being circumspect about discussing anything that might come back to haunt them, even in Famtalk, since there was a very good chance that the PRT, or Armsmaster at least, would be recording it when he was close enough. The Varga thought if very unlikely that they could work out the language without years of study at the least, since it had no common reference point to anything on Earth, but why take chances?

The ' _other preparations_ ' had been rather unpleasant, she thought. Amy had prepped the former body of their new friend very carefully, removing all traces of suspension gel and triple-checking that nothing unusual was present, then they'd re-dressed the soon-to-be corpse in the clothes the woman had been wearing when she'd arrived. Taylor, as Saurial, had taken the body and the gun to a suitable location that they were certain would be searched by the PRT when this operation was complete, under cloak, then rather regretfully put five bullets into the still-breathing but non-sapient decoy.

"Sorry, Abby," she'd sighed, before aiming and pulling the trigger. The sound of the reports was hidden by the cloak, so no one would notice. It was a shame to ruin all Amy's hard work, but it was the whole point. Giving the now-cooling body one last slightly sad look, she'd switched to Raptaur, eaten the gun, and met up with her friends over here. That had been about ten minutes ago, and a number of PRT and BBPD vehicles had just arrived, the leaders they'd met at the yard having been joined by the rest on the way.

It was quite a large number, in fact.

Looking around, she thought it was probably all of them.

{I hope someone's still back at base in case anything else kicks off,} she commented. Amy and Lisa followed her eyes and grinned.

{We do seem to have attracted a lot of backup,} Amy chuckled.

{Armsmaster incoming, by the sound of it, and Miss Militia, Assault, and Battery just got out of one of the trucks,} Lisa added.

{Good. OK, then, we do it the way we discussed. When we're ready, you guys start advancing slowly. Make it fairly obvious. They already know we're here, I heard their guards call the people in there when we turned up, so I bet they start shooting as soon as they see you. Let a few of them get past for the PRT to deal with.} They were working on the basis, confirmed by Lisa's power, that the assumption would be the PRT missed some when they discovered ' _Abby_ '.

{It'll work, I'm certain,} Lisa said with a nod.

{I sure hope so. Anyway, as soon as they either bring out some heavy weapons, or it gets too dangerous, we go in. I'll take out the power, then Metis, you take the middle, Ianthe, get the right end, and I'll go in through the workshop at the other end. Drop everyone you see, we can sort them out later. Don't forget to put restraints on them.}

{Do we look like amateurs?} Lisa asked with a smirk.

{No, you look like incredibly dangerous lizards from some human hell,} Taylor grinned. {I _like_ that look.}

{So do I,} Amy giggled. {Don't worry, we'll collect them all. You have to, you know. Metis, use the soporific, the paralytic is probably a little too horror-movie, we don't want to traumatize the poor bastards _too_ much.}

Lisa grinned evilly. {If I see that one we were told about, Lee, I'm not promising anything. He sounds like a bit of a shit.}

{Be good. Or as good as you can manage,} Taylor laughed.

Amy handed her a dart, which she looked at curiously. {What's this for?}

{I improved the soporific a bit. This is a sample.}

{Oh, OK, thanks.} She ate it, the Varga quickly analyzing the drug. {Cool. Great, that will help. If I go for a sleeper hold like Saurial does I might just snap their necks. These humans are pretty fragile.}

She manifested a pair of dart pistols, based on a radically cut down version of the Athena-lite rifle, and sighted down the barrel of one, firing it into the air in the direction of the bay. A soft _phut!_ sound, the noise barely audible due to the expansion chamber she'd put on the end of the barrel, heralded her own version of Amy's and Lisa's built in weapons deploying a dart at high speed. {That works. No need for anything excessive, these are only normal people. I don't want to hurt anyone.}

Dismissing the pistols, she nodded. {OK. We're all set. I'll go and talk to Armsmaster and make sure they're all ready. Keep an eye on those idiots in case they kick off early.}

{Got it, commander,} Lisa grinned, saluting smartly.

{You've been hanging around Zephron too much,} Taylor snickered, turning to head over to the recently arrived backup, who were setting up their own equipment. They were just around the corner from direct line of sight of the Merchants base, but she could both smell and hear some of their people in the buildings surrounding them, most of them slowly and carefully retreating to their main stronghold. Behind her, she heard her friends quickly climb the outsides of two old warehouses on opposite sides of the road to get a better view from the roof.

* * *

Dismounting from his bike having parked next to the transport his colleagues were in, Colin turned it off and watched Raptaur, Metis, and Ianthe discussing something fifty yards or so away, just around the corner from where their data indicated the Merchant's base was. His HUD was picking up movement in the buildings surrounding them so presumably the Merchants were aware of their present. The heat sources were moving away, heading back to the main building, thereby proving they weren't total idiots.

The three reptiles had gone on ahead after they'd finished going over the plan at the DWU yard, to reconnoiter the area and double-check that nothing had changed since Metis had formulated the attack scenario.

Wondering what they were talking about, he activated his directional microphones, then listened in bemusement to what sounded entirely unlike anything he'd ever heard as a language. Analysis software scanned the sounds and quickly showed that it was a language, probably a very information-dense one from the audio bandwidth, which seemed to incorporate frequencies both above and below normal human range, but drew a total blank on what they were saying.

If it was a true alien language, that didn't surprise him, it would have almost no common points of reference to even begin a translation. Without some sort of reference they'd probably get absolutely nothing beyond very simple basics even after a lot of work.

" _I have nothing at all on file that's even vaguely related to that, Colin_ ," Dragon's voice whispered in his ear, his friend still on the Rig and watching through his cameras. " _It's entirely unrelated to any language anyone on this planet has ever spoken. Either it's a constructed language, or it's one that came with them from wherever they originate from_."

"I'd say the latter, they seem totally at ease with it, which suggests familiarity," he noted through his sub-vocal microphone. "The sounds used also fit their accent quite well, which would fit. Presumably this is the Family language."

" _It's fascinating_ ," she replied. " _Bearing in mind the so-called Sapir-Whorf hypotheosis that the language you speak is closely related to how your mind works, or vice versa, learning this could shed some interesting insights into them and their culture. It might also show whether the 'strong' variant of the concept holds water, as the 'weak' version has been shown to do_."

"We're very unlikely to be able to learn it without their cooperation, though," he pointed out. "Especially without a common reference. A code is one thing, a true language is something else entirely."

" _That's true enough,_ " she said, sounding mildly disappointed. " _None of my translation programs can make anything of it at all. I might get a few simple words with a large enough sample set but it would take weeks at a minimum._ "

"Irrelevant at the moment, although it might be an interesting research project at some point." He saw Raptaur motion to him, then say something else to her cousins, who nodded. Metis saluted her larger relative in what even he could see was an ironic manner, making the large armored reptile grin, then both she and Ianthe split up and zipped up the outside of two warehouses, making it look easy. The one left headed towards them, raising a hand in greeting.

"Hi, Armsmaster, guys," she said as she arrived, Ethan and the others, including the man in charge of the PRT troopers, joining them. "Looks like it's a go. Nothing has changed, and we've locked down all the sewers and drains under the place so the can't get out that way, even if they know how to get into them in the first place. Their sentries have called ahead, so they're well aware we're here. We'll give them a chance to surrender peacefully, but if they don't..." She shrugged. "We'll go in after them."

"My men have already established an outer perimeter a quarter of a mile back," the PRT captain said. "We'll set up an inner one at this range as well."

"Great. We're expecting that a few of them might get past us in the confusion, of which I expect a considerable amount," Raptaur smiled. The captain nodded, looking like he did as well. "Be careful, we know they have a hell of a lot of AK-47s and that sort of thing, and I can smell some sort of explosive as well. I'm guessing grenades at least."

"What about booby-traps in the buildings around here?" Battery asked, looking up at them.

"Possible, but I can't smell any explosives out here, so they're probably fairly simple if they exist," the large reptile replied. "We can have a look afterward. For now, I think we need to round them up as smoothly as possible. We're going to do what we discussed. Metis and Ianthe are watching them to make sure no one is rude and sneaks off early."

Assault snickered, gaining a mild glare from his wife, and a smirk from Raptaur.

"Are you certain that you don't require aid in this part of the operation?" Colin asked. "I'm quite prepared to help, as are the others." He looked at his colleagues who nodded. Hannah's power had manifested as a large sniper rifle, which she was holding over her shoulder. Battery was glowing with power, fully charged, and Assault cracked his knuckles.

"Thanks for the offer, but we can handle the base. I don't want you guys getting hurt over our problem. Just make sure none of them we miss get away and I'll be happy," she replied with a smile.

A shot echoed around the area, making everyone whirl and reach for weapons. Raptaur looked over her shoulder and called out something in that odd language, which seemed to make Hannah twitch. A reply came back from Metis, even through the incomprehensible hissing sounding amused.

"What was that?" Ethan asked.

"One of them took a shot at Metis, she said it tickled. Maybe a fifty caliber rifle or something? Heavier than an AK anyway."

Colin stared at her, then exchanged a glance with Hannah. Her gun changed, growing larger and heavier. Raptaur looked at it and smiled a little.

"I doubt they're going to cooperate but we need to give them a chance, I think," she said. "OK, let me know when you have your perimeter set up."

Captain Peters raised his hand to his ear, tapping his headset, then talked quietly to his people for a moment. "Five minutes," he reported when he was done.

With a nod, Raptaur looked pleased. "Great. OK, we go in six minutes in that case. Good luck, and don't get killed." She looked around at them all. Everyone nodded, it was a sensible sentiment.

Colin went out of his way not to get killed.

With a quick wave she trotted back to her original spot, Metis jumping off the roof of the four story warehouse and landing next to her with a crunch of compressed concrete, saying something in a low voice. Raptaur nodded, then they all waited.

"Does anyone else feel like we're in a horror movie, only on the side of the monsters?" Ethan whispered after thirty seconds. "We're standing around in the dark, waiting for three enormous scaly monsters to go after a building full of normal humans." Everyone looked at him, his wife sighing loudly.

"It's just a little weird, that's all I'm saying," he added defensively.

"They may be enormous and scaly but they're hardly monsters," Colin replied in quiet tones. "I consider them friends."

"Don't get me wrong, so do I, but..." His colleague shrugged. "Still weird."

Ianthe also jumped off her building, landing in a crouch next to Raptaur, who was almost invisible in the dark. Except for her eyes, Metis was completely invisible, having apparently somehow turned off her red highlights and leaving only the remarkably light absorbing black of her scales. Even the violet one merged into the background appallingly well.

Colin understood what the other man meant. He just felt it was inappropriate to say, especially as he was certain all three of the Family members could hear them just fine.

"Two minutes," the PRT captain said in a low voice, listening to his earpiece. Around them, Colin could hear weapons being readied.

A short burst of rapid clicking sounds emanated from the direction of the reptiles. He tried to work out what caused it, realizing after a moment that Metis and Ianthe were now wearing armor very similar to Raptaur's customary garb. It seemed to have grown out of their necklaces, which was fascinating. He made a note to ask about how that was done, as it would seem to have some interesting applications.

"Our people are ready," Captain Peters announced. Even fifty yards off, Raptaur looked around, then nodded, proving she could hear them perfectly. She said something to her relatives, who separated and moved off to opposite sides of the street. Colin looked at Hannah, then began moving into a position to let him observe their attack, his colleagues and Peters doing the same. Making sure his helmet camera was recording, he stopped next to Raptaur. She glanced at him for a moment then went back to waiting.

At the final second, she issued a command to her cousins, who looked at each other before disappearing around the corner towards the Merchant's base, heading to different position. Raptaur stepped around the corner and raised her hands to her muzzle.

" **Merchants! This is Raptaur of the Family. You have two minutes to surrender and come out. We will not harm you, but you are all under arrest. If you don't surrender, we're coming in** ," she called in a firm and remarkably loud deep voice.

There was a short pause, while the echoes of her shout died away.

Then the shooting started.

"Eep," Hannah said, pulling back quickly. Colin did the same, the others also taking cover. He could see PRT troopers crouching behind various wrecked cars and other bits of detritus as bullets spanged off everything in the area, ricochets whining overhead.

Raptaur simply stood where she'd stopped, not moving, as bullets bounced off her. After a pause, she raised her hands again.

" **Sixty seconds** ," she called.

He stared at her. Apparently the lethal hail hadn't dissuaded her from her ultimatum.

" ** _RPG!_** " one of the troopers on the other side of the road screamed, diving flat. Everyone bar the huge lizard followed suit as there was a screaming roar of rocket exhaust immediately followed by a massive blast, orange flame lighting the entire area and a huge concussion rolling over them all. Horrified, Colin uncovered his head, turning to inspect where the warhead had hit, which was directly on Raptaur's chest.

She looked down, then up at the building, her eyes narrowing under her armor. The huge lizard looked entirely unmarked, her armor not showing a hint of where the rocket propelled thermobaric explosive had hit it. " **Thirty seconds!** " she shouted.

"Girl's _nuts_ ," Ethan grinned. "That was very impressive. And cool."

"That's a high level Brute if ever I've seen one," Battery muttered.

Everyone ducked again as another RPG round screamed out from the second floor of the building, this one missing her by a couple of feet.

They all stared as she snapped out a hand far too rapidly to see the motion and plucked the rocket out of the air as it went past.

"Fuck _me_ ," Peters muttered in shock. He went silent as she _ate_ the round. So did the Merchants, the firing suddenly stopping. Colin got the impression that there were a large number of people staring out in horror, since he could see a large number of his own people doing the same.

"OK," Ethan mumbled when he recovered a little. " _Now_ she's just showing off."

"Excellent psychological technique," Colin noted, nodding approvingly.

" **Time's up. Our turn now,** " Raptaur called, sounding suddenly very predatory. She looked to each side, calling something else in her own language, then moved so fast she basically disappeared from view. Metis was totally invisible in the dark, Ianthe was just a blur. Three synchronized crunching sounds echoed as they all punched straight through doors and walls, disappearing into the large building.

"We're _Heeerrree!_ " Ianthe's voice sang gaily.

There was a long pause.

All the internal lights went out, the entire area going completely dark except for reflected sky glow and various tally lights on equipment the troopers had.

Then the _screaming_ started.

" _Definitely_ a horror movie," Ethan quipped. His wife slapped him on the back of the head.

* * *

{Make sure your cameras are on,} Taylor called. {We're up. Don't hurt them too much, but make sure they remember this.}

Amy grinned in a dark and unpleasant manner. {They're not going to forget, believe me,} she called back, accelerating towards her target, the wall next to the door at the end of the building. Lisa was aiming right at the main entrance and doing the same, charging forward and looking like she was enjoying herself.

All three of them hit at damn near exactly the same moment, Amy bursting through the brick wall in a cloud of debris and dust. She called a happy greeting at the top of her voice, grinning at the four Merchants who had been aiming at the door with their weapons. Raising her arms and double-checking she'd selected the soporific, she dropped all of them before they had a chance to do much more than gape in horror.

Moments later the lights went out, Taylor having found the power feed to the warehouse and sliced through it as they'd planned. Screams of terror and yelled orders echoed around the building as the Merchants went berserk.

She heard shots all around her, as well as several of them jumping out windows in showers of glass and shattered wood as they broke out the boards they'd covered most of the openings with.

{Let them go, the PRT will get them,} Taylor called.

{OK,} she called back.

{Try to get the ones who are shooting first,} Lisa added, {before they kill someone. I'm healing one of them who caught a round in the chest, his friends are all down.}

{Got four already,} she yelled, smiling, then firing at a group who came around the end of the corridor, shooting at her, the muzzle flashes lighting the area brightly. She could see fine in between the shots, of course, but they obviously couldn't, and the strobing light was playing hell with their night vision. {Make that nine,} she added, after firing a few more darts.

{Twelve for me so far,} Taylor reported from the other end of the building.

A very loud explosion shook dust from the walls. {Watch out, they're chucking grenades around now,} their friend called. {They're going to kill _themselves_ at this rate.}

{I found their drug lab,} Lisa said after another thirty seconds, and three more victims to Amy's darts. {There's about two dozen of them in here hiding behind all the equipment.}

{Be careful, a lot of drug manufacturing uses volatile solvents,} Amy warned, climbing up the wall to cling to an exposed concrete beam as several Merchants dived out of a room next to her looking wildly around in every direction but up. She aimed and dropped all of them. {If you spill anything, or they do, a shot might set off the vapor and the whole place will go up.}

{Yes, I know that, but thanks for stating the obvious. I'll leave that for last, I can go over the roof and come in the window behind them,} her friend called out, sounding like she was trying not to laugh.

{Looks like they were trying to finish Squealer's latest invention,} Taylor said a moment later. {Doesn't look like they improved it, though. I've cut it in half just to be on the safe side.}

Shots and screams echoed around the corridors and rooms of the building. Two more grenades went off, one outside and one inside, then there was the whoosh of yet another RPG round being fired from somewhere upstairs.

Amy looked up, working out where the rockets were being fired from, before charging up a ladder that had been crudely although solidly attached to the wall and went through a hatch in the floor that led into what was once some sort of loading area, a crane attached to the ceiling in a way that would let it swing out through a large opening at the side of the warehouse. Five men and two women were crouched over a large crate that had Cyrillic lettering on it, from which she could smell the scent of high explosives.

Two of them were reloading a pair of launchers, while one was holding a small flashlight on the operation, and another pair were feeling around in the crate for more rounds. She found it very satisfying, knowing that she could see them as clear as day, and they could see practically nothing.

This was fun.

Almost unfair, but still fun.

Watching for a moment, she grinned.

" _I see_ ** _dead_** _people_ ," she hissed as menacingly as she could, in a low inhuman voice, thinking that the Varga would approve.

They froze, one of them literally pissing himself in horror.

Lifting the flashlight, the wielder turned it towards where her voice had come from, screamed in terror, threw it at her, and dived towards the window. She put him down before he'd got two feet, worried that he'd kill himself with the forty foot drop.

When one of the ones holding a loaded rocket launcher turned it towards her, she rolled her eyes and shot the rest of them as fast as possible, watching in satisfaction as they toppled.

"Haven't you ever played computer games, you idiots?" she muttered in English. "You _never_ use the rocket launcher at close range. Especially on something that can tank it."

Checking them all, she nodded, then kicked down the door at the end of the room and headed deeper into the building, humming to herself under her breath and having a hell of a time.

' _We should have invited Cloak, she'd enjoy this,_ ' she mused as she started shooting back at the crowd of addicts who fired manically at her from various hiding places. ' _Maybe next time_.'

* * *

Twitching as a bullet bounced off his power armor, Colin whipped his halberd around and tapped a switch, the taser round he'd cued up and locked on target with his HUD zipping out in a cloud of propellant, arcing over the car the Merchant had ducked behind, then sharply altering course to hit him. There was a muffled crackling sound and a faint yelp.

Satisfied, he looked around for more targets, his target acquisition program searching the thermal signatures of the various people in the area.

Hannah was up two stories behind him in a warehouse, firing precise shots from a beanbag gun at some of the two dozen or so Merchants who had fled the total rout taking place in their base. As she knocked them down, the PRT troopers dashed out and foamed them, or launched containment grenades at them. There were patches of solid foam with limbs sticking out all over the area. Ethan and his wife were charging about corralling other escapees, having already stopped two of them going into the water, which was cold enough to be a very significant health hazard.

Splashing sounds and a scream made it apparent that they'd missed one, so he sighed and headed over, readying a line-throwing cartridge in his weapons. Moments later he was reeling in a shocked and soaked man, who one of the troopers relieved him of in short order. The Merchant almost looked happy at the act.

More explosions came from inside the warehouse, along with screams, yells, and shooting. The sounds were steadily dying away, they were clearly taking large losses. He wasn't surprised. The three reptilian capes worked as a team with remarkable precision, and there was little any of the Merchants could do to slow them down, certainly nothing they could do to stop them.

He strongly suspected that they could, in fact, have wrapped this all up themselves much faster, but didn't want to tip their hand to everyone about how dangerous they really were. Colin approved, it was strategically sound, but he was still very curious to know just what they really were capable of if they went all out.

That said, with any luck it would never become necessary to find out.

He could hear them calling to each other, coordinating their attacks in that weird language. The firing intensified for a moment, then abruptly dropped off rapidly. Presumably an internal stronghold had been breached and cleared out. Checking the time, he saw it had only been forty-five minutes since the first shots were fired.

It seemed much longer, like battle always did.

Pondering the mysteries of subjective versus objective time, he deflected a club wielded by a screaming drug addict who dived out of a doorway with his halberd shaft, then adroitly spun the thing a hundred and eighty degrees and zapped the man with the built in cattle-prod, watching as his attacker lost consciousness.

' _Two seconds. Not good enough, I need to up the voltage perhaps sixteen percent_.'

He made a note.

A descending scream made him look up, then shake his head in disappointment, as another Merchant plummeted out of a top floor window and arced neatly into the bay. Metis appeared in the window, peering down at him, shrugged, waved, and vanished back inside.

He went to retrieve that one as well as she splashed around in the water, coughing and spluttering, waving a trooper after him.

Honestly, some of these people were just _stupid_.

* * *

Smiling grimly as the two Merchants ran out of ammunition, then looked horrified that she was simply standing there, Taylor raised a dart gun and carefully shot each of them in the chest. They stiffened, then slumped, their empty weapons clattering to the floor. Satisfied that there were none left in this part of the building she looked around, tracing the heat sources and the scents, then began tracking the ones that had fled when she'd removed the door with a slap of her tail.

She could see footprints glowing with heat leading up a flight of stairs, so she followed them, hearing people running around above her. {I just had an idea,} she called, the sound of her voice making the remaining Merchants yell again.

{What idea?} Amy called back, somewhere fairly close. She could smell Lisa down at the other end, and up on the next floor.

{We need some one shot symbiotes, like field bandages. We could all carry them with us in case we had a lot of people that needed healing, and make them part of the first aid kits at the yard too. Think it's possible?}

There was a pause, followed by the sound of Amy's dart launchers firing three times. {Should be, yes,} she said over the sound of several bodies hitting the floor. {Good idea. I'll think about it and see about a prototype.}

{You could make them as darts too,} Lisa added from the other end of the warehouse. {Then we could shoot people with our healing guns. That would be cool.}

{And a little weird,} Amy laughed.

{So are we, no one would be surprised,} Taylor snickered. {That's actually quite a good idea. Do that.}

{I'll put it on the list.}

{You know that even if we live forever, we'll never actually _finish_ that list, don't you?} Lisa asked, just before someone screamed.

{Maybe not but we'll never be bored. How many do you think are left?}

Taylor thought, then called back, {I'd guess about fifteen at most.}

{I make it thirteen,} Lisa corrected.

Another scream, abruptly cut off, came from somewhere.

{Twelve.}

{Ten,} Amy said with a laugh in her voice, two more dart shots sounding off.

They were finished five minutes later, all meeting up at the middle of the building on the top floor. {That's it, I think,} Taylor smiled. {All done. I can't hear anyone moving anymore, or smell them either.}

{Nope, neither can I,} Lisa replied with a look of pleased contentment. {That was a hell of a lot of fun. You invite us to all the best events.}

{Good practice as well,} Amy put in, grinning. {I think about twenty-four or twenty-five of them made it outside. The PRT and the capes put them all down pretty efficiently.}

{They do know what they're doing,} Taylor nodded. {Great. Mission accomplished. Let's find them all and take them outside, hand them over, then sweep the place carefully to make sure we didn't miss any. Once the PRT are finished here, I'm bringing the whole place down. Skidmark is out of business for good.}

{Fine by me,} Amy nodded. {Fucking drug dealers.}

{I wonder if anyone's found Abby yet?} Lisa asked.

Taylor shrugged. {Don't know. The spell was canceled right on schedule, so the body is just lying there. They'll find it sooner or later. Come on, let's finish this up, I have plans for later.}

{Going flying again?} Amy asked with a smirk.

{Damn right I am. Once I've worked the bugs out, we need to figure out how to build something for you guys.} They headed off into the building, locating each of their captives.

{Now _that_ I'm looking forward to,} Lisa smiled, sounding eager.

* * *

Hannah watched as the troopers loaded the last of the unconscious Merchants into the remaining truck, making it a grand total of one hundred and nine.

"This has got to be some sort of record," Ethan said with an impressed look. "I need to look it up."

"It's certainly a very good outcome," Colin said approvingly. "Very efficiently done as well." The door closed on the truck, then the engine started and it drove off.

Metis and Ianthe had gone over each Merchant carefully, healing up any injuries, of which there were surprisingly few caused by the raid. The three lizards had been very cautious in their work. They'd also removed all the restraints they'd applied, the troopers replacing them with disposable zip ties. Ianthe told them that the prisoners would begin to regain consciousness in an hour, which would be enough time to get them into cells. The police were taking about half of them, the PRT the remainder, since neither organization had enough free spaces alone.

The Merchant base was currently over-run by both BBPD CSI techs and their PRT counterparts, camera flashes going off nearly constantly and a flow of material being carried out and packed away. The evidence was enough to put the leaders of the gang away for years, decades in some cases. They'd also worked out the identities of Skidmark, Squealer, and Mush, based on papers they'd found. That would come in handy as and when they managed to capture any of the three.

Raptaur was still intent on destroying the building when the techs were finished, which Hannah was slightly against, but she wasn't going to argue the point. She could understand why the reptilian cape wanted to do it, and at least half agreed. It sent a very powerful message if nothing else.

She was also curious to see how it would be done.

One of the BBPD officers who had been on a squad that was sweeping the surrounding buildings for Merchant holdouts came over to them, his face somber. "Sir, we found something you need to see," he said quietly to Colin.

The Tinker looked at him, then Hannah, before following the man. Ethan trailed after them out of apparent curiosity more than anything else.

Shortly they were in a building a street away from the Merchant base and a couple of blocks further away from the water, watching two other officers take photos.

"ID?" Colin asked, scanning the corpse that was lying on the floor in a pile of old cardboard, in a pose that suggested she'd been raising her hands defensively.

"Nothing we can find, sir," one of the police techs said. He pointed to a small collection of odds and ends in a container on the floor. "That's all she had in her pockets."

"She hasn't been dead long," Ethan commented, examining the blood surrounding the destroyed face. "No more than a couple of hours at most based on that."

"Shot at fairly close range as well, perhaps ten to fifteen feet," the officer who'd brought them over pointed out. "Powder burns on her clothes. Looks like 9mm rounds."

Squatting down next to the body, Colin ran another device over her, frowned at the display, then fiddled with it for a moment. "Yes, 9mm hollow point rounds. Two in the chest cavity, one in the heart and one through the right lung, three more in the brain." He changed the settings on his device and waved it over her head again. There wasn't much left. "Interesting."

"What?" she asked.

"This person had a corona pollentia and a gemma."

Hannah stared at him. "She was a Parahuman?"

"Yes." He straightened up, studying the body with a grim set to his mouth. "I suspect this is, or was, Squealer."

"Ah." She nodded slowly. "Yes, interesting, definitely. I wonder who shot her?"

"The bullet data is consistent with records of other crimes that were associated with the Merchants," he replied thoughtfully. "I would suggest that implies it was most likely them. We'll need to extract the rounds and run a full ballistics test, but I would be unsurprised to find it is a perfect match to a known Merchant gun. It seems likely that either she was recaptured and executed by them, or her initial disappearance was the responsibility of someone in her own gang. I suspect at Skidmark's orders in either case."

He sighed a little. "Pity. She was a good Tinker. If she'd chosen differently I suspect she could have made something of herself."

Hannah shook her head. "Tinkers do have a short life in gangs," she noted. Turning to the police officer, she added, "Process her fully, you know the procedure. I'll arrange transport."

"Thank you, Ma'am," he said respectfully, nodding to her. They looked at the body once more, then left.

Back in the street, Battery was talking to Raptaur and her cousins. They all looked up when Hannah and the others joined them. "We found Squealer," Colin announced.

Raptaur looked at him closely. "That didn't sound good."

"No. She's deceased, I'm afraid."

"Oh." The reptilian woman glanced at her relatives. "Are you sure it's her?"

"Almost certain, but it will require DNA tests. We have the tools from her workshop as a match. But the body the police found is that of a blonde Parahuman woman of approximately twenty-five to twenty-seven years of age, which is consistent with known facts about Squealer. She appears to have been executed at close range and some attempt made to obliterate her face."

Metis looked slightly appalled. "That's... unpleasant."

"Very. But it's one name off our list." Colin sighed. "A shame in a way, but if all this went off with only one casualty, and that apparently an act by the gang itself, I think we can mark it down as a success. Thank you all for your work, and involving us."

"It was our pleasure," Raptaur told him. She looked over at the warehouse, which was still disgorging people and evidence. "How long will your people need to finish up?"

"Another half an hour," Hannah said.

"OK."

Just over that time later, she watched with the others as Raptaur went back into the building, re-emerging a few minutes later. The large reptile joined them. "Well, I think that's it for tonight," she said with a smile. Pointing at the warehouse with one finger, she added, "Bang."

The entire building rumbled, then collapsed in on itself, as the lizards looked pleased and everyone else gaped. "Jesus," Captain Peters muttered.

"Impressive," Colin said after a moment, watching the remains settle in the light of the diesel-powered floods set up around the place. "How did you do that?"

"Something I've been working on for a little while," Raptaur replied. "I haven't decided what to call it yet. But it removed all the internal supports and walls and ground them to powder. There's nothing left in there except dust now."

"Very effective," he nodded. "I would be interested in learning more at some point."

"I'm sure we can come to an arrangement," she smiled. Holding out her hand, she shook his, then that of the other three Parahumans and Captain Peters. Metis and Ianthe did the same. "If you need anything else, you know how to get hold of us. It was interesting working with you all." With a slightly evil grin, she added, "Perhaps one day there will be a reason to call in the real combat members of our family, but this was a good training exercise."

She looked at her companions and said something in that weird language as Hannah tried to work out if she was joking or not, coming up blank. "See you around," she added in English, before all three turned and jogged off into the dark.

"Well, that was weird," Ethan said after twenty seconds or so of slightly appalled silence. He glanced at the remains of the Merchant's base, which was a low mound of rubble with dust rising from it and blowing into the bay in the chilly breeze. "Remind me never to upset them."

"If you need reminding of _that_ there's more wrong with you than I realized," his wife sighed, making him grin.

Hannah agreed fully with the sentiment, staring at the pile of bricks and shivering a little.

She was very glad when they finally packed up and left.


	214. Debriefs and Tests

"Everything went OK?"

Taylor looked at her father, then dropped her head back over her chair, nodding a little. "Yes. The raid was simple enough, the Merchants are done." She glanced at Linda who was listening and appearing nervous. "No one was hurt, aside from some minor injuries and a few self-inflicted friendly fire issues, which they fixed. Raptaur said it went off perfectly."

"And… the body?"

"I did what I needed to, they found it after the raid, and identified it as Squealer practically immediately," she sighed. "It was unpleasant shooting it, I can honestly say that, but..." She shrugged. "It wasn't alive except technically, no one was home. I still didn't enjoy it."

"I wouldn't expect you to," her father replied, giving her a sympathetic but proud look. "None of you are the sort of people to enjoy causing either death or destruction for it's own sake." He looked at Amy and Lisa, who were sitting quietly next to Taylor, currently Saurial. "Good work, all of you. With any luck, that will put Skidmark off, hopefully permanently, act as a warning to anyone else who might fancy trying their luck, and leave Linda in the clear."

"They'll do a very comprehensive autopsy, I think," Amy put in. "They always do when it's a Parahuman involved, especially one as high profile as Squealer. But they won't find anything amiss, I'm certain of that. I replicated the traces of drugs in her body, to match the usage Linda reported and the chemicals left in her hair and bones, faked up suitable stomach contents, blood sugar levels, that sort of thing, to show she'd eaten about twenty-four hours ago, everything else I could think of. Any discrepancies I missed, and I'm fairly sure there probably aren't any, would be easily explainable as the result of long term narcotic abuse."

Linda shivered a little, then sighed. "It's freaky to think about." She took a deep breath, raising her eyes to theirs. "But I'm also glad that part of my life is over. Thank you all."

"You're welcome," Lisa smiled. She looked over at the computers. "I'm going to need to release a press statement, and talk to Director Piggot to get our stories straight. This is definitely going to be big news tomorrow."

The phone rang, causing Linda to twitch and everyone else to look at it. Taylor picked it up, answered it, then handed it to her father. "It's for you."

He took it from her and had a conversation with one of the gate guards, which three of the other four heard both sides of. When he handed it back she put it down in the charger. "It's big news now," he said for the benefit of the only other non-reptilian person present. "Brockton TV is at the gate. They're asking for an interview with someone from the Family."

"I'll do it," Taylor said, standing up. She looked at the Tinker, who still seemed a little upset. Understandably so in her view. "I'd suggest you get an early night. It's nearly ten anyway, so it's not that early. We can talk tomorrow about what you want to do next, and sort out your workshop. There's still the issue of your Changer form as well."

"OK," Linda said in a subdued manner. "I'll walk back with you." She turned to Lisa and Amy. "Thank you both again for everything you've done."

"It was an interesting exercise, and fun making your new body," Amy smiled.

"And we were happy to help," Lisa added.

The brunette woman nodded, smiled, and followed as Taylor and her father left the office, heading back towards the admin building and some reporters.

* * *

' _I'm glad that's over_ ,' Taylor commented to the Varga as she swam out of the bay, descending to a few hundred feet and turning north. ' _We'll have to see what happens next, it's out of our hands now, but I think it will probably work to one degree or another_.'

" _I agree,_ " he replied. " _The PRT and the Protectorate seemed pleased with the outcome, I have no doubt that Amy's work will stand up to their scrutiny, and in the medium to long term we've removed a significant amount of narcotics from the streets. That is likely to save many lives on its own_."

' _Until someone else starts it up again_ ,' she sighed.

" _True, but we can only do our best to reduce that. No world is a utopia and I doubt we can ever make this one such. But we can help, and I am glad to aid you in that_." His deep voice washed over her. " _More importantly, right at this moment, are you all right?_ "

' _What do you mean?_ ' she asked.

 _"I know what you felt when you shot 'Abby', my dear friend. Even though there was nothing inside that brain, no consciousness or anything one could ever term a person… it still looked like a human. You did not enjoy doing what you did_."

She was silent for a while, swimming steadily along with slow sweeps of her tail, pondering his words. ' _No_ ,' she finally replied. ' _I did not enjoy it at all. I very much hope I never will. Dad was right, taking a life is something you don't do lightly, but that sort of gave me a taste. I know there was no one at home and never would be, Linda is safe, and we had no choice, but… it was unpleasant even so. It makes me wonder what it would be like to do it to something… some_ ** _one_** _… that was really a thinking being._ '

Vast immaterial arms wrapped her in a feeling of protection. " _I understand. I am sorry that you had to do it, but proud that you didn't flinch. It's more proof that the greater power chose well. I shudder to think what someone with your abilities would be capable of without that ethical sense. Don't worry, with your friends, family, and of course, me, I believe we can keep you from doing anything you would regret. But… The life you have chosen, and had forced on you, means that you'll almost certainly have to do that again sooner or later, to someone who is a real person. You must be prepared for that, although I agree that you should also try to avoid it as much as possible_."

Taylor sighed very gently. ' _I know, and I'll do what I have to. Like I've said in the past, and you have as well, a threat is only good if you are prepared to carry it out, otherwise it's just blowing smoke. I'll protect my family and friends and anyone else who needs it, and if that requires me to kill someone threatening them, I will. But I won't like it.'_

" _Good. If you did, I would worry. Remember that. And remember the memories of Princess Luna I showed you. She was much like you in some ways, she never flinched from doing what was necessary. Even though she never liked it, and talked with me for hours each time, trying to see if she could have done things differently. The answer was hardly ever 'Yes,' of course. It's what made her such a fair ruler when she finally inherited the Kingdom. Her people were very fond of her indeed, and she them_."

' _I'd like to have met her._ '

" _I would also have liked that_." He chuckled softly. " _Although I fear such an event would rapidly have become more chaotic than any one world could support. She was… interesting_."

She smiled to herself, deep underwater, and very glad she had him as a friend and adviser.

' _Thanks_ ,' she finally said. ' _That helps._ '

" _You're welcome, of course. I believe we are close to our destination_."

' _Looks like it_.' She recognized the sea bed, they were only a few miles from the rocky outcrop that passed for a beach where she'd met up with her father and the Mayor weeks earlier. Beginning to rise towards the surface, she slowed.

" _Taylor?_ " he said, surprising her a little since he rarely called her by her name.

' _Yes?_ '

" _Talk to your father about it, too. He needs to know how you feel_."

It took a while for her to reply. ' _I will_.'

" _Good. Now, let's see how well our little experiment works, shall we?_ "

Taylor grinned, pushing her slight regrets to one side for now. ' _We shall indeed_.' Surfacing, she looked around, listening carefully. Only the surf on the rocks and sounds of sea life getting on with the business of living was audible anywhere nearby, a couple of boat engines far out to sea throbbing faintly being the only trace of humans. On the horizon the automatic lighthouse she remembered from the first visit here regularly brightened and dimmed, but it was miles away.

"Looks good," she said out loud, swimming towards the shore and shrinking into her aquatic combat form as she went. Reaching the rocky outcrop, she climbed out and shook herself off. "So. Let's see what happens." Waving a hand dramatically, she added, "Dragon Mode: _Engage!_ "

" _By your command,_ " he chuckled as they changed into the modified black dragon form.

"Cool," she laughed, looking down at herself, then craning her neck around to inspect her latest body. "This is amazing." Opening her wings, she stretched them out to their full, nearly forty foot span, flexing them and moving the bat-like claw at the primary joint. "Feels great. OK. Any idea how to actually _do_ this?"

" _Flap, I would think_ ," he rumbled, his voice full of humor. " _Beyond that, you know as much as I do about flying. I'd suggest jumping at the same time as you do the first down stroke, that should help, then we'll have to tweak everything on the fly. So to speak_."

"You mean wing it?"

" _Exactly. At the moment everything is rather up in the air_."

"I'm glad I have you along to keep me grounded."

They both laughed, then she raised her wings as high as they'd go, the tips meeting above her back, squatted down on all fours, pushed off hard, and brought the wings down...

Swimming back to the rocks, she climbed out, shaking the water off.

"Well, we know exactly what _not_ to do," she giggled.

" _More up and less forward, I think_."

"OK. Hmm, let's try this..."

Swimming back to the rocks, she climbed out, shaking the water off.

Again.

"That was… not quite right either."

" _Not as such. I was impressed by the somersault, though_."

"Thanks."

She thought hard, remembering watching how birds flew, something she'd been studying for a while. He made a few suggestions, and they fiddled with the form a little.

"This should do it. Right, wings up, crouch, flap and jump and away... we... _go!_ "

Swimming back to the rocks…

" _This may take a while_."

"I'll figure it out sooner or later."

" _I'm sure you will. In the meantime, I'll just sit here and snicker, if that's all right with you._ "

"It's what you normally do, so go ahead."

Good-naturedly arguing with her live-in demonic friend, she happily settled down to experiment.

* * *

Emily read the preliminary report, then looked around the conference table. "That seems to have worked out remarkably smoothly, all things considered. I'm impressed that a hundred and nine criminals were arrested with no injuries. Very unusual."

"It went off without any real issues, Director," Colin agreed. "The Family were most efficient, clearly taking great care not to harm any of the Merchants, and worked together with great skill. I'm also impressed, and very pleased."

"You have video of the operation, I believe?" Legend asked with an intrigued tone to his voice. All the senior protectorate capes, and Dragon, were present, along with Carlos representing the Wards.

"Yes. Bear with me for a moment." Colin operated the console, the screens lowering and the center one lighting up. "This is very instructive. It tells us quite a lot more about the abilities of these Family members, their techniques, and overall skill level." Tapping a switch, he sat back to watch the video with the rest of them.

Everyone who hadn't been there watched with some rather odd expressions. Emily had asked him to cut together all the segments including Raptaur and her cousins, and the rest without them, as two separate sequences. Carlos flinched when the initial shooting started, then stared as the rocket warhead detonated on Raptaur's armor, the video showing she'd tracked it with her eyes and not flinched at all.

"Shit, that's kind of impressive," he muttered. "You read the threat report and it says high level Brute, but to just stand there and let a rocket blow up on you..."

"It was definitely deliberate," Hannah said, pausing the video for a moment. "You can see the way she just watched it come. I have no doubt, based on what happened next, that she could have got out of the way if she'd wanted to. That was making a point."

Resuming the playback, she added, "So was this."

Everyone, including Emily, gaped as the large reptile grabbed the next rocket out of the air and stuck it in her mouth, biting it in half and chewing for a moment, before swallowing. The remainder went down on the next mouthful.

"Oh my god," Carlos said in a very faint voice.

"Excellent use of psychological warfare," Legend commented.

"I agree," Colin nodded. "She laid down her ultimatum, let them shoot at her to show that there was nothing they could do, and to demoralize them in the process, topped that by showing that she was so fast and tough that they stood no chance, then waited the full time of her demand before engaging. For opponents who didn't exhibit the lack of intelligence the Merchants were displaying, that alone might well have persuaded them to give up."

"When they went in, they just ran straight through the walls," Battery noted as they watched the playback. "Avoiding the doors, which is interesting. I'd have thought it was easier to break them down."

"It would be, but that would also be what the defenders were expecting," Hannah commented. "They were probably aiming at the doors and got taken by surprise when the Family came in through the walls. It's a good tactical move, if you can manage it."

"SWAT teams use the same technique for the same reason," Legend said. "But they don't normally just run through the wall at thirty miles an hour."

"Where the hell did the Merchants get those rocket launchers from?" Craig demanded. "That was one hell of a blast."

"It was a TBG-7V thermobaric warhead fired from a Russian-made RPG-7D launcher, dating to the early eighties," Hannah replied. "We recovered nine launchers, twenty-two unexpended thermobaric rounds, fifteen PG-7VS anti-armor rounds, and two night sights for the launchers. We're investigating where they ultimately came from but initial indications suggest they were smuggled into the country through Alaska and Canada, by a militant communist group back in the late eighties to be used in Mexico. Others with the same batch numbers were recovered by the ATF about five years ago. But how the Merchants laid hands on them we don't know yet."

"Hopefully there aren't any more on the street," Legend sighed.

"That would be ideal," she agreed with a scowl. "The thermobaric warhead has a significant kill range and would easily destroy a vehicle. The anti-armor ones would punch right through most of our transports without any real trouble. Even Colin's power suit might be in trouble."

They all looked at the blue and silver armored man, who shrugged. "It would deflect one or two shots at least, but I wouldn't want to test it if I had any choice. The concussive effect would be very unpleasant."

"You should probably do something about that," Ethan grinned.

"Knowing that such weapons are in the hands of criminals locally, I will," he replied. "They had far more heavy weaponry than I'm comfortable with." They all went back to watching the recording for a while.

"What is that language they're speaking?" Rory eventually asked. "I've never heard anything like it."

"No one has," Dragon told him. "It's not related to any human language. Based on the frequency range and other audio data, it is a much more information-dense language than English, and quite possibly optimized for use underwater. My working theory is that it is their native language, which would fit all the evidence we currently have."

"Damn creepy," Robin said. Several people nodded.

"Also totally fascinating," the Canadian Tinker remarked. "I will have to arrange to talk to them about it. Learning more about that language could be very enlightening."

"Presuming they'll actually tell you, of course." Emily looked at Dragon. "It's a good method to let them communicate without us understanding anything. They may not want to lose that advantage."

"That's certainly a possibility," the other woman nodded.

"You're good with computers, can't you write a program to decode it?" Carlos asked, still watching the assault intently.

"A language, especially one that we know nothing about and have no reference for, isn't like a code, Aegis," she replied. "It's not as simple as decrypting something, which in itself can be virtually impossible in the first place. They may well, in fact almost certainly do, have concepts that won't translate at all, and even the ones that do, probably would take some considerable effort to work out. Statistical analysis might ultimately let us work out a few of the simpler words, but a preliminary estimate is that the vocabulary is several thousand words minimum, with at least a dozen modifiers of various types. It would take years to achieve more than an educated guess, without their help."

"Considering how long it took to work out some of the ancient human languages, many of which we still don't understand, I'd have to agree," Colin nodded. "The only practical way to learn that language would be to have one of the Family teach us. Which could still be a very involved process, it's a complex language we don't have the vocal apparatus to duplicate, although understanding it might be possible. I don't see a human being able to speak it without technological aids."

They watched the remainder of the raid, then the other video showing what everyone else had been doing. There had been a number of cameras recording the thing from different viewpoints, in addition to the one the Tinker had on his helmet.

When it was over, Colin tapped the button and stopped the playback. "Thank you," Emily said. "That was very interesting indeed. What can we add to the threat assessment based on that?" She looked around the table.

"They're horrifically fast," Carlos mused. "Way quicker than I expected. And very, very strong."

"Very tough, good use of tactical and strategic thinking, psyops, and non-standard attacks," Ethan put in. "And they like the horror movie tactics as well. Did you see Metis come out that window, go right over the roof, and dive in another one upside down? I'd bet that was to get behind the Merchants. They can climb like crazy."

"These are all methods we've seen Saurial use in the past, combined with Raptaur's known propensity for head-on attack," Legend stated. "They seem to happily mix and match techniques to fit the circumstances. Very smart, and very difficult to come up with any solid defense against. Well trained also."

"None of them were using the weapons that either Saurial or Raptaur have been seen to use before." Emily looked at her companions. "Why, I wonder?"

Colin shrugged. "They didn't need them. The goal was to capture all the Merchants without harming them. Clearly they had nothing to fear from the weapons the Merchants themselves had, so they just went after them with the drugged darts that Ianthe first used. Raptaur was dual-wielding some form of dart-gun, while the other two used their built-in launchers, but they were all firing the same ammunition. It worked very well and minimized risk."

"OK, that makes sense. Metis did say that they intended to be careful, I'm very relieved to see that they were being truthful. They could have easily killed those idiots instead, even if only by accident. A giant lizard against a normal human doesn't really need more than bare hands after all."

"I have no doubt at all that they could have killed every single Merchant in the building in minutes," Hannah sighed. "The video doesn't really do it justice. There's a sneaking suspicion in the back of my mind that they were holding back a hell of a lot, probably mainly so that people wouldn't get too upset. The speed they attacked… if they'd kept that up and were intending real harm, those people would have been wiped out before they knew what hit them."

"I concur," Colin said. "I came to the same conclusion. They were not fighting at anywhere near peak level. Hannah's reasoning is probably correct, they want to appear less dangerous than they are."

"If that's ' _less dangerous_ ' I don't think I want to see ' _really angry_ '," Robin said with a shudder.

"No, I don't expect any of us does," the Tinker replied. He glanced at Emily. "Especially in light of the final comment Raptaur made just before they left."

"Which was?" She was very curious, but apprehensive.

"The direct quote is: ' _Perhaps one day there will be a reason to call in the real combat members of our family, but this was a good training exercise._ '" He looked at her, then around at the others. Carlos had paled, while Legend was looking very thoughtful indeed. "I have no reason to believe she was joking."

"Let's see if we can avoid that happening," Battery said. "When I consider what Kaiju could do if she got pissed, then think that she's _not_ an actual fighter, but is more of an engineer, I feel faint."

She looked it.

There was a long silence as they all considered the concept, Emily sure she wasn't alone in thinking the other woman had a very good point.

Eventually, she asked, "How did Raptaur take down the building afterward?"

"I'm unsure at the moment," Colin replied, turning to look at her. "There was no trace of explosives, she wasn't in there long enough to cut out all the supports and collapse it that way, and some sort of acid or other corrosive would have taken longer. The whole operation only took fourteen point six three seconds from the start to when the rubble was settling, and caused no damage outside the footprint of the building itself."

"Theories?"

"At the moment, none. Or rather, none that I have enough evidence to say are more than guesses. Bearing in mind her matter creation ability, some form of explosive is possible, the traces having timed out after it detonated, but the sound doesn't bear that out. Most other ideas are less plausible. I will have to ask her, which she indicated was a possibility." He slightly smiled for a moment. "She claimed she hadn't worked out a name for whatever she used yet. That's fair enough, I have had the same problem on occasion."

She looked hard at him. He definitely had a soft spot for the reptiles, Raptaur in particular, which she found somewhat odd, but useful.

Perhaps they'd eventually teach him a sense of humor…

"All right. Please finalize your reports, all of you who went on the operation, and submit them by tomorrow evening." She closed the paperwork in front of her, then pulled another file over and opened it. "Next item is Squealer. Who is, or rather, what's left of her is, down in the morgue. Do we have any more on that yet?"

"The BBPD CSI department is processing the rounds recovered from the body," Hannah said, checking her notes. "Colin's initial test suggested very strongly that they were from a known Merchant-associated firearm but we're waiting on the final ballistics test. The assumption is that we, and the Family, missed one or more of the Merchants, who decided to eliminate Squealer on the way out of town. Possibly they didn't want to take her with them, or to deny us any information she could give us. There are a number of theories, some or all of which might be right. The initial tests tell us that she died plus or minus approximately twenty minutes of the time the raid started, but it's not possible to isolate it more accurately than that."

"And we're certain it is Squealer?" Dragon asked.

"Yes. Colin's scans showed she was a Parahuman. A DNA check matched hers with the samples on the tools from what was definitely a Tinker's workshop in the building. Fingerprints also matched. Hair and blood analysis is positive for more narcotics than I care to think about, some traditional ones and some Tinker ones, and show that she was a long term habitual user of them. There's indications that she very nearly had a fatal overdose recently, which might be behind her initial disappearance, and why they didn't take her with them." Hannah flipped pages. "The pathologist is still doing the autopsy, but he said that she was headed to an early grave anyway. He thought, based on the drug use, she probably wouldn't have made it more than a couple of years past this point."

"Nasty."

"Yes." The woman closed her notebook. "Stomach contents show she last ate nearly twenty-four hours ago, and not much then. She'd have been weak and disorientated, in no shape to fight off an attack. She might not even have been conscious, although the body position suggested that she'd raised her arms before she was shot."

"All right." Emily made a note of her own in the file. "That's certainly the end of that particular issue. Do we know who she is? Or was?"

"Sherrel Anderson, twenty-five, born in Muskogee, Oklahoma, to Russ and Marjorie Anderson. Disappeared about six years ago. She'd been hanging around with an unsavory crowd according to the reports, and the local police didn't look all that hard. They assumed that either she was in a shallow grave somewhere, probably as a result of something to do with drugs, or had simply decided to go elsewhere. Her parents were well known to them and reading between the lines, she had no reason to stay and several good ones to go."

"And she ended up here."

"That seems to be the case. We don't know if she Triggered here, on the way here, or back in Oklahoma."

"OK. Thank you, Hannah." Emily closed that file too. "Keep me updated on the autopsy and ballistics tests, please."

"Of course, Director. We're also going through all the evidence seized in the raid, I'll have a report on that for you in a couple of days."

"Good. Now, moving on." She opened a third file, read the first page, sighed, and looked at Colin. "Kid Win. Can anyone explain why maintenance is complaining that the vending machine outside his lab has been cut open with what looks like some form of directed energy weapon, all the Red Bull in it removed, an IOU note left behind, and also tell me why his lab is making faint sizzling sounds and smelling like a bakery?"

Colin put his hand over his face, sighing heavily.

"I'll deal with it, Director," he muttered. "My apologies. I believe he may have become over-invested in his work."

Ethan started laughing, making the Tinker glare at him. Dragon tipped her head in a manner that suggested she was also laughing.

Shaking her head, Emily closed the file and handed it to him. "Please try to keep him under control. Maintenance is not happy, and neither are the console operators who practically live on that stuff, since they have to go down three floors to get a refill at the moment."

She moved on to the next file. Dragon patted Colin on the shoulder as he sighed again.

Ethan fell off his chair, weak with laughter.

* * *

Vicky watched the PHO video with wide eyes, staring at the screen in mild disbelief. The effect of Raptaur and her cousins running down Merchants in the dark, from any number of different angles and positions, was like a cross between a horror movie and a video game. She could hear them speaking some bizarre hissing language, sounding quite cheerful as they basically eliminated a fairly powerful gang and made it look easy.

Fun, even.

"Fucking incredible," she whispered. Screams and shouts came somewhat tinnily out of her tablet's speakers as the Merchants went nuts, firing wildly all around their base, which had no effect at all on the raid, except to add a soundtrack that was like something from a small war.

Some wag on PHO had added score counters within minutes of the video being posted by Metis, red, green, and blue numbers counting up as each of the lizards took out more of the gang members. When the raid finally ended, the score was Raptaur thirty-two, Metis twenty-four, and Ianthe twenty-eight.

The thread also added that the combined PRT and BBPD forces outside the building had grabbed another twenty-five Merchants, making a grand total of one hundred and nine, all the gang that was left after the rest had defected over the weekend.

When the video finished, she shook her head in impressed, and slightly nervous, respect.

Her friends were pretty damn good at that sort of thing, she thought.

' _I wonder what would happen if all of them dropped their disguises and went after all the gangs at once_ ,' she thought. Then she shook her head, very hard, her blonde hair flying about her face.

' _No. That's stupid. There's no way the DWU can be entirely full of hidden lizards. I'm just letting my imagination run wild, I'm going to end up as crazy as Void Cowboy at this rate_.' She laughed a little at herself.

' _Stop thinking about it, find something else to watch._ '

Closing PHO, she browsed the web for a while, ordered a few things online, and listened to some music.

Eventually, very late and unable to sleep, she brought up a web browser and, slightly reluctantly, typed ' _lizard people_ ' and ' _hidden_ ' into the search bar.

Just for fun.

Half an hour later she was sitting in the dark staring at the screen, wondering who the hell ' _David Icke_ ' was, chewing her lip frantically...

* * *

"Wheee!" Taylor shouted, doing a loop. She'd finally worked out how wings, at least dragon wings, worked.

It had taken quite a while, and a fair number of impromptu swimming sessions, but when she'd finally managed to head straight up, she'd been grinning like an idiot the entire way.

"This is amazing," she added more quietly. " _So_ much fun. It feels totally different from the water rocket. Nothing like as fast, but… weirdly relaxing." Leveling off, something like one or two thousand feet up, she glided for a while, small motions of her tail and wingtips keeping her on course. "I could get used to this. We have _got_ to figure out how to let the others do it."

" _I'm sure Amy will work out a viable method fairly soon_ ," the Varga said. " _She's very good. And we have a pattern now_."

"I can hardly believe it," Taylor giggled. "I'm a fucking _dragon_. This is so cool."

" _But can you breathe fire?_ " he asked slyly.

"Of course, that part is easy. Hmm..." She thought quickly, flipping through a whole series of methods she'd come up with, looking for the effect she wanted, then selected one. "This should do it." Opening her mouth she blew hard, a stream of brilliant white flame roaring out in front of her for over a hundred feet, illuminating the waves far below. Cutting the flame, she blinked a bit.

" _Wow_. That worked even better than I expected."

" _And was probably visible half-way to Canada_ ," he chuckled. " _Magnesium nanoparticles and liquid oxygen seems to be a rather volatile combination. Not to mention very hot_."

"It certainly lights off easily enough," she grinned. "The fluorine I added helped though." She thought, then formed a small capsule full of the mix in separate chambers in her mouth, before spitting it out at high velocity. The container timed out moments later, leaving the pressurized chemicals to mix and ignite in mid-air.

A few hundred feet down, a brilliant white fireball blossomed with a loud thud, the concussion washing over her along with noticeable heat. "That works too. But it's not a plasma bolt like in the movie. I'm going to have to think about that."

" _It seems to meet most of the requirements of a dragon, though_ ," he noted with humor. " _I think we can tick all the boxes._ "

"Pretty much." She lit up her bioluminescence, looking over her shoulder at the results and smiling. "And that looks amazing. I wonder how it is from the ground?"

" _Most likely quite memorable_ ," he laughed. " _It's probably a good thing we're miles from the shore, or we'd definitely be on PHO very quickly._ "

"I'm not quite ready for that, I need more practice," she replied. "So, let's see what this form can do." Pumping her wings she started climbing, the coast dropping away behind and below her as she headed out over the Atlantic. "Better cloak, just in case," she added, doing exactly that, and turning off the illumination as well. "We'll be showing up on radar back home when we get higher."

" _We're well off the commercial routes, so that shouldn't be a hazard_ ," he agreed.

She finally stopped climbing when the air became too thin to support her wings any more, at what was certainly well over four miles up. Increasing the wing area would allow for higher altitudes, but she felt it would spoil the aesthetic, and wasn't required in the first place.

This form was mostly just for fun, after all.

Practicing various maneuvers kept both of them amused for nearly three hours, by the end of which both she and the Varga felt they were quite competent fliers. He'd had at least as much fun as she had, rolling, looping, and spiraling in the air. "I have to admit, Brain, this is enormously entertaining," he said as he climbed up again for another go, Taylor sitting back in her mind and letting him enjoy himself. "A larger version would be amusing too. But not this close to shore."

' _No, I don't think that would be a good idea,_ ' she laughed. ' _One day. For now, this is fine. We need to think of a name. I'll look up some dragon mythology and that sort of thing tomorrow_.'

Looking over their shoulder, he said, "It would be an interesting experiment to see about a rider, as well. Perhaps Amy would like to re-enact the Raptaur rides, only somewhat higher."

' _That's a good idea,_ ' Taylor giggled. ' _We can ask her. I think we should probably head home now, though. I have school in the morning and it must be about three AM by now_.'

"Yes, education is important," he agreed readily, swinging around in a large circle and heading back towards the faint distant lights of civilization far below on the horizon. "Do you wish to drive, or shall I?"

' _Help yourself_ ,' she replied. ' _I'll just enjoy the view. When you're closer to the city, drop the cloak for a moment, it'll be funny to see if anyone notices._ '

Her friend chuckled, aiming slightly downwards and gliding steadily west at around a hundred and fifty miles an hour. Satisfied that everything had gone remarkably well and no longer feeling the slight sadness over facing a human-seeming construct and shooting it in the face, she let him get on with it.

Both of them were having a lot of fun.


	215. Pondering and Reading

**Tuesday, March 1, 2011**

"You seem to be in a good mood this morning, Taylor," Danny said as his daughter sat down at the table. He put a plate in front of her, then at his own place, before also sitting. "Might that to be something to do with an obscure rumor that's been going around since about four this morning that someone spotted a very large flying creature over the city, which some might describe as a dragon?"

He watched her smirk a little, then shook his head, picking his knife and fork up. "I see. And does this new Family member have a name yet?"

"Still working on that," she admitted happily, buttering some toast. "I've gone through all the mythological and fantasy dragon names I could find, as well as other ones that seemed relevant, and the only one I really liked was _Nyx_. Unfortunately..."

He winced. "Yes, calling this new form the same as a former member of the Slaughterhouse Nine wouldn't be the best possible move, I agree."

"No. So I'm still working on it. I'm going to have to research other mythologies, so far we've mainly been using Japanese and Greek ones. I'm sure there's something out there that would work."

"You could just add to the confusion by calling it something utterly mundane, like… I don't know, Alice? Mary? Jo?"

Taylor stared, then giggled wildly. "I can just see that. A great big dragon lands on the Rig, looks around at the heroes, and says in a firm voice, ' _Take me to your leaders, for I am…_ ** _Jo_**.'"

"Jo the Dragon?"

"Yes, Jo, the dragon of the Family. She has a brother, he's called... **_Bob_**." She was shaking her head with hilarity, grinning like a fool, as was he.

"I suspect you would get some very odd looks," he smiled, putting some pancake with syrup into his mouth. Chewing and swallowing, he shrugged. "More that you're going to already."

"It would almost be worth it," she laughed. "But I probably won't do that. Yet, anyway. Good idea though."

"So what's the reason for a dragon again?"

Taylor stared at him like he was a little simple.

"It's a _dragon?_ " she said slowly and clearly. "It is its own reason. Everyone needs a dragon if they can get one."

"Brockton Bay already has a dragon. Most people here wish it didn't," he commented.

"Lung?" His daughter waved a hand dismissively. "Big salamander, like Varga said. Not a proper dragon at all. Now _me_ , on the other hand..." She grinned with a mouth full of sharp glinting teeth.

Amused, he nodded, still eating. "I see. Please try not to panic the populace, and I _definitely_ don't want to hear that you're demanding a princess in the town square."

Laughing again, Taylor shook her head, starting in on her own breakfast. "I think I can resist."

"When will our new friend debut properly?"

"I'm not sure yet. We got pretty good at flying last night, so probably soon, but I need to work out the right way." She shrugged. "I'll think about it and pick a good moment. Presentation is everything, so I've heard."

"That is the common wisdom," he agreed.

Finishing his breakfast, Danny relaxed in his chair with his coffee, watching her eat. "I was wondering how you were feeling after… what needed to be done, last night," he finally said. "We didn't get a chance to talk about it."

She looked up, meeting his eyes and undoubtedly spotting the concern there. After a second or two she sighed faintly.

"It wasn't much fun. I didn't enjoy pulling the trigger, and what happened next was unpleasant. But… it was necessary, and Varga has shown me a _lot_ of memories from previous Brains, so I knew what to expect. In a weird way, I've probably seen more death than almost anyone in the city, even if secondhand."

Danny felt worried. That wasn't something he'd considered, but he could see what she meant. Catching his expression, she smiled gently at him. "Don't worry, Dad, he didn't just dump it on me. We talked it over for a long time and he eased me in, but he felt, and I agree, that I needed to see that sort of thing. It helped a lot, having him there to explain things, and let me take it step by step. He could also help with the emotional response and stop it overwhelming me." She shrugged a little. "I won't say it was pleasant, because it wasn't, but I do after all have many of the memories of a very dangerous warrior and a very old demon floating around in here." Taylor tapped the side of her head.

"But I also have that demon to help me, which he does _so_ well… And I have you to talk to about it to give me a more human perspective as well. Although it's amazing how well he understands people, better than I do in many ways." She cocked her head for a moment, then added, smiling, "He says it's because he's had a hell of a lot more experience with them than I have. You learn a lot over the millennia."

"I can understand that, even if I have nothing to put it into context," Danny replied. "I still don't know how old he really is."

"Neither does he. He lost count." She grinned. "But it's a lot. Like, really seriously old. Much older than human civilization."

They both thought about that for a little while. It was a sobering concept.

"But going back to the main point…" Taylor shrugged once more. "I've come to terms with it. We talked it out last night, and if I was still upset I'd come to you, honest. He told me to, in fact. I don't feel guilty about it if that's what you're worried about. It was only a simple meat robot, basically. No one in there at all, and there never would be, Amy was very careful to make sure it wasn't capable of supporting consciousness. What I shot was only able to breath, nothing else."

She sipped her orange juice, then put the glass down. "But it was an unpleasant look at what killing someone for real would be, and it makes me all the more determined never to do that unless I have no choice. And if I _don't_ have a choice, to make it quick and clean."

Danny nodded when she finished speaking, feeling both worried and rather proud of the mature attitude of his only child. "I hope you always have a choice, but I'm realistic enough to know that might not be possible. Thank you for telling me. And thank you, Varga, for helping her yet again."

"It is, as always, a pleasure, Danny," the demon replied through her, sounding quietly pleased. "Do not worry, I will take care of her to the limits of my abilities."

"I don't doubt that," he said.

Taylor finished her breakfast, then got up, taking his plate as well and washing up. When she finished, she kissed him on the cheek and smiled at him. "I'll be fine, Dad. See you later."

"Bye, dear," he replied with a smile of his own, watching her leave and hearing the door close moments later.

He sat there and thought for a while, finished what was left of his coffee, then started getting ready for work himself. He wanted to swing by a couple of car dealers on the way in and have a quick look for a new vehicle, something they'd been considering for a while now but never seemed to have the time for.

"Dragon, now," he muttered as he locked the door behind him. "It's getting weirder by the minute."

* * *

Staring, motionless, at the computer screen in front of her, Lisa thought very hard indeed. She'd been doing this for quite some time now.

The ramifications of what she'd learned since she'd logged into PHO after the mission last night were… profound. And disturbing.

And very scary.

She'd been sitting there ever since, going over all the information they knew about the Endbringers and powers in general, all the information they'd deduced and guessed, and more suggestions her own ability was steadily feeding her as she thought.

Her ability.

That was another very odd thing.

She had a very definite impression it was watching her as closely as she was watching the screen, waiting to see what she did while being very frustrated that it couldn't short-circuit the entire process in one step. Something was preventing it from laying the whole thing out in front of her, but it was giving her hints, and whenever she managed to link a couple of observations together and come up with a conclusion that seemed valid, it sort of nodded.

Lisa got the very definite feeling that she was playing hot and cold at the moment.

However, all that paled into insignificance when she considered the fact, which seemed to be to her beyond doubt, that she'd spend over an hour and a half very carefully exchanging hidden messages _with the fucking Simurgh!_

Letting out a long breath, she scrolled back up the thread she'd been in and re-read all the comments, replies, and jokes, filtering out the bits that meant something from the noise. She knew with a high degree of probability the real identities of many of the posters, and a reasonable degree most of the others, her power had always been good at that. Even before The Amy had tweaked her.

It amused her that Legend was posting under the alias of ' _Flashlight,_ ' which was quite appropriate. Even through a text only medium the essential decency of the man showed. He was quite sincere in his offer of help made to ' _Winged One_.'

She smiled faintly at the thought of what he'd say if he realized exactly who he was offering to help…

Poor guy would probably nearly stroke out. Which would be a shame, she liked him a lot.

Lisa herself had nearly had an accident when she put it all together, realizing that the often very funny, but apparently somewhat depressed master troll she'd exchanged quips with for over two years was actually one of the damn Endbringers. She'd definitely felt her heart skip a beat. Her power had metaphorically patted her on the head when the light finally dawned, feeling like it was very proud of her and also sorry it couldn't have told her earlier.

In all truth she was extremely glad it hadn't. If she'd found any of this out back before she'd met Taylor she'd probably have jumped in front of a bus or something. And it made her a little ill to think what Calvert might have done with the information.

One huge question she had was how the fuck the Simurgh was even able to _get_ internet access in the first place. It seemed… unlikely. But, there were still so many things they didn't know about the things. Another big question was _why_.

Why was one of the three greatest threats to humanity posting funny cat videos and sarcastic comments about public figures on the internet, when it wasn't getting all depressed and angsty? It boggled the mind that this was in any way useful. If there was some cunning plan behind it, some way that the Endbringer hoped to cause chaos through trolling, she certainly couldn't see it. Of course, they already knew that trying to think your way around the twists and turns of a Simurgh plot was a good way to end up babbling with your underwear on your head, but even so…

It was just… bizarre.

The third of the big questions she had about her revelation was simple.

What the hell did she _do_ about it?

Lisa knew it was the Simurgh. The Endbringer knew she knew. She knew it knew she knew, and so on. She was also sure it was genuinely scared, didn't like doing what it was doing, although whether it was the actions or the coercion it had trouble with she wasn't sure, and it wanted out.

They'd inferred a lot of this already, of course, but she'd suddenly found herself in a position where she was directly communicating with the thing, in a way which went a lot further than ambiguous small smiles through a telescope. She could literally send it a private message and simply _ask_ it what it wanted, and all the evidence was that it might well tell her.

She'd found herself reaching for the keyboard at least a dozen times to do exactly that, and had pulled her hands back each time. All she'd been able to bring herself to do was exchange a series of messages that hid the real meaning from people who weren't aware of the situation. The Simurgh had definitely received the subtext, based on the answers, and had passed back indications that it was open to talking.

Lisa knew, though, that she couldn't risk it. In part because she still didn't know what the motivation behind all this was. It was still possible that she was being played, very possible, but… she just didn't feel that was true. Neither did her power, as far as she could work out. But at the same time, she was damn sure that putting messages into a public communications system to talk to a genuine enemy of mankind, whether coerced or not, wasn't a bright idea. Even a PM was only as private as whoever it was that ran the servers, in other words, not at all.

It wasn't worth the risk. If anyone ever found out and traced it back to her, she and her friends, the Family, all that they were working for would be in serious trouble, and she did _not_ want that to happen. She was very happy where she was doing what she was and certainly wasn't going to put that in jeopardy.

Leaning back in the chair and running her hands through her hair, she looked to the side where her bioconstruct was sitting watching her, as it had been since she'd climbed out of it around five in the morning. She'd left it active mostly to see what it would do, which had turned out to be to lie down on the floor and simply follow her with its eyes like a loyal dog.

"What the hell do I do?" she asked it. The artificial life form cocked its head at the sound of her voice, but didn't reply.

That was a good thing, she thought with a nervous smile. She couldn't handle too many more revelations out of the blue today, and the thing spontaneously developing sapience would be a little much.

She still had a suspicion that it was getting smarter, though. Like Amy's ' _Ianthe_ ' one, both of them tended to practically anticipate what their users intended, hardly needing the hand signals to control them any more. It was a little eerie, but not something she was actually too worried about at the moment. At some point she'd look into it, but right now she had bigger problems.

Eventually, she scrubbed at her tired eyes, then reached out and turned the machine off. "I need a couple of hours sleep and something to eat," she said to her bioconstruct, which just looked at her calmly and placidly. "I can't deal with any more of this right now."

Getting up she opened the door to the storage room, waving it in, then followed the creature into the back room and deactivated it. Stroking its head affectionately, she smiled a little, before heading off to bed.

She had a lot to think about, but she needed a clear head to do it with.

On the way to her room, she was also wondering if the other two Endbringers spent their down time browsing the web and trolling people. It was a weird thought, but she certainly couldn't dismiss it, all things considered. She decided that she'd have to keep her eyes open to see if she could find out.

* * *

Vicky watched Taylor jog towards the school, raising a hand in greeting to Amy and her other friends, who were waiting for her outside. She was standing next to Dean, the boy talking to one of the other students he knew about basketball, which she had no interest in.

She was feeling very odd at the moment, both suffering from sleep deprivation, and having read some really strange and disturbing things on the web. Half of it was obviously the ravings of someone who made that idiot Void Cowboy look positively sane, but the rest… In light of things she'd seen and experienced over the last couple of months, she wouldn't want to swear that it was totally impossible.

Although she really wished she could.

Watching the brunette girl, who today was wearing her long hair in a braid down her back, which Mandy was commenting on, smile and laugh with her friends, she couldn't quite reconcile the image with her suspicions.

Taylor just looked too normal.

But… She had a sneaking suspicion that ' _normal_ ' and ' _Taylor Hebert_ ' were, at best, nodding acquaintances. Vicky hadn't worked out which, if any, of her own theories held water, but she couldn't currently dismiss any of them outright. In light of the disturbing conspiracy ideas she'd accidentally found, some of the more insane ones seemed less impossible than she liked.

She needed to do more research, observation, and thinking.

And keep very quiet about it.

The lizards could probably smell fear.

Taylor glanced over at her at that moment and smiled, making Vicky twitch a little, then smile back, in what even she knew was probably a slightly odd manner. The other girl seemed mildly puzzled but turned back to her friends, then followed them all inside as the first bell rang. Vicky walked with Dean as he began to do the same, Dennis and Chris running up at that point and joining them.

No, research, that was the key. She had a sudden bright idea, which made her smile.

There was a free period before lunch, she'd go to the library and look up this ' _Cthuvian_ ' language that the Family seemed to like using, to see if it shed any light on the whole thing. That Lovecraft guy had apparently written quite a few stories and books around it and other things, which people on PHO were saying might be because he'd actually met Family members nearly a hundred years back. Apparently he'd lived quite close to Brockton Bay so it seemed possible. There might be some clues in those stories that would either confirm some of her ideas, or show they were silly.

She nodded to herself as she walked arm in arm with her boyfriend into the school. With any luck, she could find and read the old author's stuff, get enough information to work things out, and put her fears to rest.

It was worth a try, anyway…

* * *

Dragon looked through the Endbringer tracking log with interest, noting the sudden excursions Leviathan had taken during the night and pondering the meaning. He'd suddenly shot off at high speed, not as fast as he did when one of the Family went through the wormhole, but pretty rapidly, only to stop dead, then zoom off in a different direction. This had repeated a couple of times, leaving him stationary some distance from his now-normal holding pattern. She'd calculated that the point that presumably a Family member was currently in was somewhere off the coast north of Brockton Bay by about thirty-five miles, based on his behavior.

What puzzled her was the way he'd ended up meandering around in circles at this point, only to abruptly go haring off back towards his original position nearly as quickly as he did when Raptaur suddenly arrived too close to him. She'd checked, none of them had used the wormhole facility last night at all. But, based on observed data, he'd acted like a Family member had covered a large distance in one step, panicking him into running again.

Now he was back in his circling around the normal point, which would appear to indicate whichever one of the reptiles it was had come back to the vicinity of the city. It was curious.

Deciding it wasn't something she was going to solve without further information, she closed the log and went back to work on Leet's tricorder. She'd cracked some of the more difficult parts of the design and was very close to being able to produce a prototype duplicate. While she oversaw the remote operation of her lab back home, she thought about the Family and things she wanted to talk to them about soon.

* * *

Amy looked over at her sister, who was sitting at her usual table staring at her plate with one of the weirdest expressions on her face she could recall seeing on the girl. Taylor followed her eyes, then turned to her. "What's wrong with Vicky?" she asked curiously in a soft voice.

"No idea," she admitted. "She's been a little weird since the weekend. Did you know she flew right through a window in a building downtown on Sunday?" She smiled, but frowned as well. "Mom doesn't know yet, but when she finds out she's going to be very unhappy."

"Why did she do that?"

"She said she got distracted by something she thought of, but she wouldn't tell me what," Amy said with a sigh. "Probably saw something shiny in a shop window and is embarrassed to say."

Taylor grinned a little. "Poor Vicky. But she looks really worried."

They could both smell the blonde was stressed. "I know. I hope nothing serious is wrong. I thought it might be another fight with Dean, but they've been getting on really well recently. She actually listens when he tells her something, which is a nice change."

"Weird. Oh, well, I guess she'll probably mention it sooner or later."

They turned back to listen to Eric and Rich, who were arguing about the raid on the Merchants the night before.

"I think it was the E88 framing the Merchants for killing Squealer," Eric said. "It's the sort of thing they'd do."

"If they had her, they'd keep her, not kill her," Rich riposted. "Tinkers are really valuable to a gang. Why would they shoot her?"

"Because she wouldn't work for them?"

"When has that ever stopped one of the gangs?" Rich raised an eyebrow.

"Um… OK, that's a good point." Eric thought for a moment. "She was so addicted to drugs they couldn't trust her even if they forced her, maybe? So they took her out to deny her abilities to the Merchants."

"But," Rich said triumphantly, "you're forgetting one important thing."

"Which is?"

"There _are_ no Merchants."

Mandy laughed, making him look at her and grin. Eric sighed a little.

"Well, there were. I admit that there aren't any more, but maybe they shot her right before the Family went in."

"I think it's probably exactly what it looks like, and like the PRT said, the Merchants killed her themselves. That fits the evidence, fits the fact that they were fuckwits, and is the simplest explanation. Therefore it's most likely to be the true one."

"Maybe the Family did it," Mandy suggested with a smirk, playing devil's advocate.

"Why on earth would the Family shoot Squealer?" Lucy asked with surprise. "Aside from anything else, I can't see them even bothering with a gun. It's not like they need one. Anyway, they're friends, and good people, so I really don't think it's something they'd do."

"Neither do I," Rich said. Eric nodded, as did Mandy.

"OK, I don't either, but it was just a thought."

"Still, it's sort of a shame," Eric went on. "She was a weird woman but she had a way with cars."

"Not a good way."

"Aesthetically, that's sure true," the boy laughed. "But she could make something functional out of random crap, which is impressive."

"It looked like it, too," Rich snickered. "Ugliest vehicles I've ever seen."

"I'm more interested in that weird language they were speaking," Mandy remarked. "I didn't know they had their own language. No one seems to know anything about it."

"It sounded really strange," Lucy agreed. "But it fits them, it's just the sort of thing reptiles would speak."

"It's pretty creepy to listen to," Rich said. "There were a lot of people on PHO trying to analyze it and work out what they were saying."

"I read one comment from someone that said it would be nearly impossible, since as far as he could tell it had nothing in common with any human language, and we didn't even know if it expressed concepts that actually _could_ be represented by something like English. He was some sort of linguist, he seemed absolutely fascinated by it."

"More proof they're aliens, then." Eric looked amused.

"That's what Void Cowboy said," Lucy giggled.

"Does he think they're aliens or demons at the moment?"

"It was demons for a while, then aliens, then demons again, then alien demons, then back to aliens." Lucy shrugged. "I got bored and went to sleep at that point. God knows what he thinks at the moment. Demonic aliens, probably. Or something even less sane."

"The guy does seem to change his mind a lot," Mandy laughed. "If you can call it a mind."

"Did you hear about the dragon?"

Everyone looked at Rich. "Dragon?" Lucy queried, her eyes wide.

"That's what some guy on PHO claimed, around four in the morning. He said he'd seen it fly overhead, then disappear behind one of the buildings. Apparently it had red and green lights on its wingtips, but he couldn't make out many details because it was black."

"A black dragon."

"Yes."

"At night, against a black sky."

"That's what he said."

"With navigation lights on its wings?" Lucy sounded incredulous.

Rich was smiling at her. "So he claimed. Personally, I think he either saw a light aircraft, or had too much to drink. No one else said they saw anything and they were tearing his story to shreds this morning. He was getting really annoyed about it."

Amy glanced at Taylor, who was listening with a small smile on her face. The Dallon girl hid a smirk. Apparently her friend had been trolling the city again.

"Well, if it was real, which it probably wasn't, it'll presumably turn up again eventually," she suggested mildly. Finishing her lunch, she put her knife and fork on her plate, then started packing away the book and notebook she'd been working with while she ate.

Glancing over at her sister, she saw the other girl was now staring at Taylor with a fixed expression, like a mouse that saw a cat peering into its hole. It was a little weird. Spotting her watching her, Vicky twitched, then looked away, very obviously pretending that nothing had happened.

Sighing a little, Amy got up as the bell went, thinking that her sister could definitely be a little strange at times. When she got home she was going to have to talk to her before someone got the wrong idea.

* * *

"Are you all right, Vicky?" Dean looked at his girlfriend with concern. She was staring into space again, her face going through a number of different expressions like she was arguing with herself.

And losing.

With a slight jerk she focused on him, then smiled weakly. "Oh, yes, fine, thank you. How are you?"

He inspected her closely.

"Also fine. Are you _sure_ you're all right?"

"Yep. Fine. No problems. Nothing wrong at all." The blonde smiled again. It was somewhat creepy, if he was honest.

"Have you ever read any Lovecraft?" she asked suddenly.

"The horror writer?" he said, to which she nodded. "No, not really. I know a little about him, but horror stories aren't my favorite genre. Although I believe he's supposed to be pretty good, if you like that sort of thing. Why?"

"No reason," she said. "I was just curious. You know he lived in Providence? Pretty close to here. Close to the sea too. Like here." She turned her head to watch Taylor and Amy leave the cafeteria, talking together. Her expression was still somewhat peculiar.

Following her eyes, he wondered why she was acting like this. It was quite out of character. She seemed nervous and distracted for some reason.

As the final bell rang, she jumped up, then heaved him out of his chair. "Come on, we have to get to class," she said brightly, standing very close to him. Not sure what was going on, but also not certain that probing would be a good idea with the mood she was in, he let her drape his arm over her shoulder and walk next to him. Not that he could really have stopped her, of course.

Oddly, she seemed to be shivering a little. He thought she should probably have worn a thicker coat, it was a fairly chilly day after all.

* * *

Typing up some more thoughts on the Lindt case, Carol opened another of the files that had been sent over by Danny Hebert the day before, in folders that were labeled as originating from the PRT Parahuman crime investigative division. She raised an eyebrow at one sentence in the report, flipping back a couple of pages to double check, then made another note.

It was definitely looking like the girl had been completely railroaded by someone, or more likely several someones, in the PRT and local law enforcement in her home town when she Triggered. She was pretty sure that it was going to be fairly easy to get the case thrown out of court, and even if that didn't work, the girl acquitted.

And, with any luck, one or more people who had abused their authority in an unpleasant manner in severe trouble.

It was obvious to her that Director Piggot agreed, since the level of cooperation she was getting was unusually high. Normally they'd be very begrudging of information without court orders galore but in this case it was literally being handed over without any trouble. Either Danny had some serious pull, or serious dirt on them, or they wanted the whole thing dealt with quickly. Quite possibly it was a combination.

She was still going to have to talk to the girl to get her side of the story directly, get some holes in the account filled in, and go over what would happen if it went to court, but that was something for next week, or perhaps the week after, depending on when she got the other information she'd requested from the police in Rachel's former town. It was possible, based on the reluctance with which they seemed to be responding, that she'd have to ask Piggot to lean on them.

Even so, she was feeling quite hopeful that this would be a reasonably straight-forward case, which would make a nice change from the usual when a Parahuman was involved.

The phone rang, causing her to reach out and pick up the handset without looking away from her paperwork. "This is Carol," she said.

"Hello, sister," Sarah's voice said. "How are you?"

"Fine, thanks, Sarah, just rather busy. Did you need something?"

"Oh, nothing major," her sister said, sounding like she was trying not to laugh. "I just wondered if you'd seen a particular item that got posted to PHO recently."

"The Merchants versus the Family?" Carol asked, smiling slightly. "I heard about that. Very impressive, and about damn time."

"No, although I agree. It was something a little closer to home."

Carol looked suspiciously at the receiver then put it back to her ear. "You're up to something, I can hear it in your voice. What are you talking about?"

"Just go on PHO and do a search for Glory Girl and office building," her sister giggled. "The photos are amazing."

"Oh, hell," Carol growled. "What's she done now?" Reaching for her mouse, she opened a web browser and typed quickly.

Moments later she stared, then shouted, "Vicky! What the _hell!?_ "

Her damn sister was laughing her head off by this point.


	216. Guest Omake - Combat Specialists

**_By wizerd00 on Sufficient Velocity_**

 _Many thanks to mp3.1415player for the brilliant story to play in. Hearing allusion to more combat-oriented members of the Family gave me an idea._

* * *

"Ok. Next item."

Director Piggot was having a weird day. Other, more optimistic individuals (Assault's annoying grin flashed briefly in her mind before being ruthlessly suppressed) might have called it a good day, but not her. Good things were happening because of something the Family had done, and there was always some cost involved later. So far that cost had been purely on her own sanity, but that was all the more reason to stay alert.

Sometimes she almost wished one of those lizards would do something bad, just so she could stop waiting for the other shoe to drop. That urge, too, was always ruthlessly suppressed, because Director Piggot wasn't stupid.

"As expected, yesterday's Family raid on the Merchants has caused every known criminal organization within two hundred miles to go into what our FBI liaison called 'brown pants mode,' Renick continued. Piggot could appreciate his unfailing ability to deadpan reports concerning the Family. It was an art.

"This has mostly resulted in criminal groups, powered or otherwise, choosing to bunker down and not move at all. FBI and ATF are looking to capitalize on this, and have already planned and executed several large-scale raids on unpowered groups nearby. The fact that they managed to do this in less than 12 hours notice is, in fact, a new record, and a House committee has already been formed to investigate allegations of wrongdoing because of it."

A few people snickered, but most took his monotonous words at face value and were clearly writing this all down. Piggot wanted to start clapping.

"Regardless, they have contacted us in order to continue this success with groups that include parahuman muscle. Upon further discussion," he nodded to Piggot and Armsmaster, "we have chosen to support several plans that they have put forward for locations outside of Brockton Bay. Your handouts will contain the specifics, but we've divided the Protectorate team into smaller groups for each operation. The teams are as follows: Assault and Battery for the Teeth raid. Triumph and Velocity for the alleged parahuman group that the ATF are after down south. Armsmaster will be working with elements of New Wave to hit the Mafia target, and Miss Militia will likewise be providing oversight to the Family contingent to support whatever the hell the CIA are doing in New Jersey."

Militia, who before now had been listening calmly, jerked, looking horrified.

"Ah, Deputy Director," she began, "Surely I could be of more use somewhere, ah, _anywhere,_ else?"

Assault snickered, because he was Assault, but even Renick looked amused. "I'm afraid not, Miss Militia. It's been noted that you're still not entirely comfortable around the Family members, and with how big a part they're playing in keeping the city safe, it was decided that you needed more chances to acclimate to them." He smiled pleasantly.

'Art,' Piggot thought again.

Militia looked stunned for a moment, then whirled around to glare at Armsmaster. "You did this," she accused him, even as he looked up from the paper he had conveniently been reading previously. "I make one quip about how nice it is to not have to sleep, and you do this to me." Her face was a mask of betrayal.

Armsmaster, bless him, looked her in the eye and denied everything. Nobody believed him. Even Battery was smirking.

"Back on topic," Renick drawled, "When we called the BBFO office to request their assistance, Saurial told us that she and the other known Family members were unavailable, except for Kaiju, who she can't contact because she, and I quote, 'completely lost track of her.'"

Militia twitched. Armsmaster looked up with the first interest he had shown in the entire meeting.

"Did they give a reason? They're usually able to send at least one member. I think this is the first time that we know of where they were all out of the city at once."

Renick nodded. "Yes, she said that they had all been called home for an," he checked his notes, "annual review."

Armsmaster nodded sympathetically.

"Wait, who am I working with, then?" Militia asked, frowning. "Did they reschedule the raid?"

Renick managed to combine the best parts of smug and solemn. "No no, they volunteered the time of two new, well, to us, members. Said that we had seemed interested in meeting combat specialists previously."

Militia signed and rubbed the bridge of her nose. "I hate you all."

* * *

It took a bit of coaxing to convince herself to leave her jeep after she had parked. The command post was an otherwise nondescript warehouse, remarkably devoid of external activity, but Militia couldn't help but imagine the doors bursting open to reveal a building full of extra dimensional horrors ala Lovecraft. Or, she thought darkly, remembering the Merchant raid, the windows. Or the walls. Or the ground.

She shook her head wildly and got out.

Thankfully, the only occupants of the building were humans. Stuffy, overly paranoid CIA humans, but humans nonetheless. Specifically, a Special Agent Smith, though why the CIA thought this operation needed pseudonyms was beyond Militia's wildest guess. Or maybe his name really was Smith. She was tempted to ask, but he immediately started playing power games by giving her subtle orders and talking over her answers to his own damn questions.

She'd have been more upset if she didn't know what was coming. The time they had given to the Family operatives was a single minute away, and 'Smith' was going to be experiencing the Family's special brand of nonsense soon. So she spent the time pretending to listen and wondering what kind of entrance "Ouro" and "Boro" were going to make.

She was disappointed to hear loud banging on one of the loading dock doors. She had been quietly hoping that they would simply appear and make Smith lose his mind (or bladder). Still, everyone had gotten all hushed and nervous as one of the suits opened the door, so maybe it wasn't all bad.

She blinked along with everyone else when the open door revealed a completely empty parking l-

"Hello, human friends!" a loud voice boomed behind them, and she, Smith, and a dozen overly serious suits made identical "Eeep" sounds, followed by everyone spinning around with guns drawn. Or materialized, in her case.

What she saw was the stuff of nightmares.

Two massive eyeballs gazed back, one green, one blue, with black sclera. The pupils had no irises, and instead covered nearly the whole surface with intricate, geometric patterns that Militia couldn't quite focus on. What she could focus on was the bodies; each eye was surrounded in a scaly gray shell, and more or less composed the entirety of each body.

That, and the tentacles. So many tentacles, sprouting from all over the shell and covered in the same matte gray scales.

All this information she took in in an instant, before some idiot actually pulled the trigger.

In the time it took her to register what had happened, a tentacle blurred in movement, then stopped, holding up a still-smoking pistol.

And a recently fired nine millimeter round.

Instead of letting everyone stew in silent fear like normal horror movie villains, the green one immediately turned to his now-armed comrade. Armed. Militia suppressed a manic giggle.

"Brother! Saurial was very clear that we are not to startle the humans! You should not be so loud!" Green, at least she assumed it was the green one, admonished, his voice noticeably higher but just as loud as Blue. Blue cocked his head quizzically, though since he was a spherical, tentacled eyeball, he just rotated a bit. The realization that she understood the body language made Militia want to cry. She spared a glance to Smith, who was looking at his empty hands and gibbering quietly.

Guess he must have been the shooter, Militia snickered to herself. These Family members, that were still arguing, had at least not let her down there.

"Brother, I made sure to bang on the wall before we came in. They were well aware we were here," Blue was replying indignantly as she turned her attention back to the bickering elephants in the room.

"Brother," Green's voice all but drawled, "They shot you."

Blue just waved him off. "They _tried_ to shoot me. With this quaint little slug thrower, no less!" While speaking, he went to a table and rapidly disassembled the entire pistol, going so far as carefully arrange small piles of gunpowder next to the slugs, shells, and firing caps of each individual bullet. All done in a momentary blur of gray.

As they started discussing the merits of chemical propellants in kinetic energy weapons, Militia decided that she'd had enough. So, despite survival instincts screaming to run and hide, she morphed her weapon back into a knife, and clapped her hands loudly.

"Hey!" She yelled. Both lizards? Eyeballs? Bugbears? Stopped talking and immediately moved close, eyes focused directly on her. In a monumental expression of will, she didn't even twitch.

"We've got a job to do today. Seeing as how Special Agent Smith here," all eyes turned to the now prone agent drooling on the floor, "is out of action, I'll be taking command. Anyone got a problem with that?"

The other agents, eyes moving rapidly between Smith and the Family members, stayed silent.

The… whatever they were managed to nod without possessing necks.

"Oh, you are Miss Militia!" She couldn't quite tell if he hadn't known before she had spoken up. "Excellent. We were instructed to differ to you in all human matters," Green went on. "I am Ouro, he is Boro, and we are happy to be allowed outside to assist you!"

Militia opened her mouth to ask why the fuck they weren't normally allowed outside when Blue, Boro, she reminded herself, spoke up.

"Is it true you can materialize any weapon you understand?" He sounded way, way too eager for her tastes, but Militia slowly nodded. He beamed, his eye literally glowing more brightly for a moment. "Fantastic! I've had some ideas ..." he quickly moving an appendage across the floor, and Militia gaped when she realized he was rapidly etching a design schematic into the concrete.

It got worse when she realized she could understand it.

"Like so," he finished proudly, moving back and using two tentacles to present his finished work like some sort of magic trick. "I have adjusted the design to be simple enough for human comprehension. Would you please try to materialize it?"

"Brother!" Ouro cried, waving his tentacles around and causing every human nearby to take a step back. "We are not allowed to give weapon designs to humans! Remember what happened last time?"

Of course, even as Boro began defending himself, Militia had seen enough to ask the most pressing questions, like, "what the hell is a sustained fusion chamber," and "won't something like that set the atmosphere on fire." Altogether reasonable questions, she felt. Which was why her panic was all the more intense when the damn weapon materialized in her hands. After barely a single glance, where normally it took hours.

"What have you done?" She shrieked. More a sob, really. "This thing could wipe out a city in one shot! I'm not supposed to have weapons like this! _You've turned me into a nuclear power."_

Ouro reached over as if to pat her on the shoulder, then thought better of it as she jumped at the movement. "Ah, you too?" He asked sympathetically. "We are also forbidden from constructing the most interesting weapons. Boro over there once made a mass driver that could hit a target anywhere on the surface of a planet. Of course, the damage to the planet itself was, ah, extensive. Enough that Kaiju became very upset when we set up a demonstration. And of course, when Kaiju is upset, Saurial is upset, and that's just terrifying." Both eyes drooped simultaneously. "So now planet-scale mass drivers are off limits. So really, we understand your pain, we do."

Boro nodded and, once again, the body language took a big chunk out of what little remained of Militia's sanity. Then he sniffled. "It's just not fair! If you're fighting for real you'll have to re-build the planet anyways."

Miss Militia twitched. Again.

"So it doesn't even matter if you shear off a few bits of the mantle. Plus, nobody expects that kind of thing. It was perfect!" Boro was wilting now. Ouro patted him on the back.

"But." She paused to collect herself, then soldiered on. " _You don't even have a fucking nose!"_

They both blinked at her, which was its own horror scene, but Miss Militia was far past the point of acknowledging that. "Brother," one of them, she didn't even care any more, said. "She seems rather agitated. Are you sure this is the Miss Militia Saurial spoke of? I was under the impression our contact was rather level-headed. Certainly polite enough not to mention our inability to smell."

"I don't know, Brother," the blue one replied. He leaned forward and sniffed deeply. "She seems to be-"

"Nope." Miss Militia threw her hands up. She was done. Completely fucking done. Fuck these lizards, fuck Armsmaster, fuck everything. She turned on her heel and walked out of the door. "You can handle the raid yourselves. I'm out." She didn't slam the door, but that was only because it had one of those air pressure things. She certainly tried.

A deep voice called out to her right before the door closed:

"Ah, we already did! That's why we were late!"


	217. Guest Omake - The One what?

_**By Ack on Sufficient Velocity**_

* * *

The smell of ash and death lay over the land of Mordor. Samwise could feel the hunger lying deep in his gut as he helped Frodo over a narrow ridge of rock. Master Frodo was suffering, he could tell. _Perhaps we should stop and have some more of that elven bread?_

As he scrambled over the ridge himself, he heard another sound. The tramp of Orcish soldiers, moving closer. Something had them stirred up. _Maybe they caught that Gollum thing, and tortured him to find out where we were? Or maybe they just got lucky._

"Mr Frodo!" he hissed. "Down!" If they were discovered and captured now, if it was all for naught ...

Hiding was second nature by now; Frodo ducked down and pulled his elven cloak over his face. Samwise did the same, praying that the cloaks would work their magic one more time.

The Orcs came closer, the heavy tramp of their marching feet sounding like a death-knell. It appeared that they were coming right down the narrow gully in which the two hobbits crouched. Samwise cringed as far to the side as he could; beside him, he could feel Master Frodo doing the same.

The first Orc passed them by without incident, as did the second and third one. But the fourth one stumbled and moved out of line. His foot, harder than any shoe leather, struck Sam's ankle. Sam, biting his lip, made no sound. But the Orc stopped, puzzled. Questions were barked in that horrid tongue.

The Orc turned back, eyes searching the ground. Reaching down, it groped around, then suddenly seized upon Sam's ankle, lifting him from the ground. In an instant, as the elven cloak slid from him, it seemed as though a spell had been lifted. The other Orcs gathered around, grabbing at him, even as he tried to draw his small knife.

Once more, the inevitable happened. Even as Samwise tried to will Frodo into immobility – _far better I die and he reach Mount Doom than we both perish here –_ one of the Orcs trod on him, and he was also uncovered. Hands reached down, seizing Master Frodo in an unbreakable grip, and lifting him to be examined -

"Boys, you'll need to close your eyes now."

The voice was feminine and utterly strange to Sam's ear. No Hobbit spoke those words, nor Man, nor Elf. It certainly wasn't an Orc. Lifting his eyes, he saw the speaker. She – despite her strange form, it was indeed a _she –_ was neither Man, nor Elf, nor Hobbit, nor Orc. Instead, she was something else; tall and scaly of skin, with a long tail behind, she was _reptilian._ Or perhaps, hearkening back to tales of old, _draconic._

That the scaled woman balancing easily on the rocky ridge was a warrior, he had no doubt. She wore armour of some strange grey metal, while a sword of the same forging rode at her waist. Her head was protected by a workmanlike helm, also of that odd grey metal.

However, her hands were empty of sword, or even a knife. Instead, she held a small black object. A moment after speaking, she tossed it into the air above Sam and Frodo and the Orcs. Her warning stayed with him so after a split second, he clenched his eyes shut.

For a moment, he thought that she had called down lightning upon them. The thunder was deafening, and the intense glare blasted into his eyes, even through tightly closed lids. But he was not struck, was not killed. He was, however, dropped heavily to the ground, as his thrumming ears dimly made out sounds of pain and distress all around.

Scrambling to his feet and opening his eyes, he saw that he Orcs had also released Master Frodo; they writhed on the ground and gouged at their own eyes as if they would pluck them from their very sockets. He did not take long to understand why this was; their eyes were best in the darkness, so having that light burst upon them would have been more painful than suddenly staring into the face of the sun.

"You all right?" asked the scaled woman, descending the narrow ridge. She stood before him, perhaps twice his height, obviously dangerous yet … amused. Not at him, but at the world in general, he sensed. "They didn't beat you up too badly?"

"I … no." He fumbled with his words, then decided to let his manners answer for him. Bowing deeply, he said, "We thank you for saving us. Who might you be, and where did you come from?"

Her smile widened. "Well said, little sir. I'm Saurial, and I've come a long way to sort out yet _another_ mess." She sighed. "Dark wizards and other beings who think they can just pilfer my technology, and claim it for their own. It's getting seriously irritating."

While Samwise was still trying to work out what she meant by 'technology', she turned toward Master Frodo. "I understand you've got something very problematic on your hands. I'd like it back, please."

Frodo stared at her. "I … I thank you for helping us, but I don't know what you mean." Unbidden, his hand crept to where the Ring hung on its chain beneath his shirt.

She sighed and rolled her eyes, but still did not put her hand on her sword. "Listen to me. You want to keep it out of that thieving bastard Sauron's hands? Give." Reaching out, she snapped her fingers and held her hand out expectantly.

Master Frodo's eyes went to her sword, then slowly he pulled the Ring from its hiding place. "It's dangerous," he warned her. "It will twist you."

She snorted with amusement; Samwise would not have been surprised to see puffs of smoke from her nostrils. "Kid, I _made_ that little trinket. It was supposed to be a proof of concept. Only that light-fingered asshole Sauron made off with it, and obviously made some changes to it. Totally voided the warranty, too. I'm going to have _words_ with him."

" _Kid?"_ exclaimed Samwise, driven to reply by his indignation. "Master Frodo is fifty years old! He is no child!"

Half-turning her face toward him, Saurial gave him a crooked grin. "Come back to me in another thousand years, and we'll talk about it." She turned her full attention back to Master Frodo. "Well?"

Reluctantly, Frodo lifted the chain over his head and handed it to her. She took it, opened the chain, and held up the Ring, examining it closely. "Nice engraving," she commented idly. "Of course, he damn near broke a couple of important command links even doing that. Irresponsible idiot."

"But – but nobody can read that unless it's heated!" Frodo protested, staring at her.

"Oh?" She looked unconcerned. "Forget I said anything then." Taking the Ring in both hands, she _pulled,_ stretching the Ring into a … tube? Faint lines, pulsing red and blue, were now visible on the shimmering surface. Reaching _into_ the surface, she pulled on one of the lines, causing a large blocky object to appear in her hand. Tucking it into a pocket which was surely too small to hold it, she proceeded to do it again and again. With each of these 'pulls', the red and blue lines vanished, until there were none left.

With the air of a job well done, she collapsed the Ring into its more familiar form, then tossed it back toward Master Frodo. "Here you go, kid. Have a souvenir."

Wonderingly, Frodo caught it, then absently slid it on to his finger. Absolutely nothing happened. He and Samwise stared at each other. "It has no power any more?"

"Well, no," Saurial said. "It was just an idea I had. I think I'm going to have to be more careful with this sort of thing in future." She looked down at the Orcs, which were just beginning to stir, then at the two hobbits. "So, you guys need a lift anywhere?"


	218. Crime and Punishment

"You're a bastard sometimes, Alec," Brian muttered, rubbing his chest where his friend had got him four times in a row with a paintball the day before.

Alec grinned, raising his coffee to his teammate. They were sitting in the cafeteria, Brian having a mid afternoon break and Alec just goofing off as was his thing. Mark had commandeered one of the larger currently unused workshops for his training session, scattering the various security people, himself and Zephron, and the first batch of volunteers around the place, giving everyone ten minutes to hide themselves, before blowing a whistle and ducking.

They'd had half an hour's training on the elaborate paint guns, doing target shooting and learning how to deal with jams and misfires. He'd decided that a good free for all would be a decent way to get them used to the things, which had worked quite well. Handing out safety goggles and plenty of ammunition, he'd just let them get on with it while observing carefully.

Alec, who had been given one of the compressed-gas guns set up as a sniper rifle, had proven that he was indeed nearly as good a shot with a real-world gun as he was with a virtual one. He'd climbed up an access ladder to a catwalk along the side of the building, having looked around and assessed the situation with a surprising degree of professionalism, then thoroughly enjoyed himself taking pot-shots at anyone stupid or incautious enough to stop moving.

The magazine-loaded finned paintballs which he was using were a lot more accurate than Brian had expected, his friend quickly learning how to put them practically anywhere he wanted to within a few inches. That was more than good enough for him to pop one in the same place on Brian's chest time after time, which turned out to be really quite painful.

Alec hadn't helped by shouting "Headshot!" every time he managed it. Even when it wasn't actually a head shot.

By the end of the training exercise, the entire group of some twenty-five people were ready to string him up by his bootlaces and beat him with the guns, but Mark was very pleased. He'd moved on to practicing tactics, separating them into two groups, which alternated between attackers and defenders. Some three hours of mostly enjoyable but also quite painful work later he pronounced himself satisfied with the first session. They'd decided to train for an hour each evening, after a day off to let the first batch recover while he repeated the process with a second, larger group.

The goal was to end up with at least seventy trained auxiliaries to reinforce the fifteen or so regular security people, allowing them to field close to ninety people if something untoward started. When he'd seen how they all fared and could assess each of them individually, he'd start arranging them in squads with different specialties.

It went without saying that Alec would be a sniper. He had what the blond man called an unnerving gift for it.

Brian wasn't nearly as good a shot at range, but he was pretty pleased with his performance when the target was closer, as was Mark. The man had also said he had a good grasp of combat techniques and urban warfare skills, which could well come in handy.

They were going to start training on hand to hand combat fairly soon, when the security head had discussed the schedule with Saurial, Zephron who would be teaching karate, and a few others in the DWU who had specific skills that would be useful.

They had a couple of more than decent boxers, a judo expert in the electrical department, several people who were trained in a number of law enforcement skills including baton use, and several other combat skills. Brian got the impression that most of the DWU people could probably look after themselves pretty effectively even if they weren't noted for being experts in any one technique. Most of them were very solidly and strongly built, as befitted people who did a lot of heavy manual labor, even the females.

It wasn't too surprising that the Merchants and the other gangs tended to leave them alone.

Even a low level Brute would be careful around a group of people who could call on a couple of dozen friends with hammers, crowbars, and bats, and appeared to not be too worried about using them if necessary.

Now, he was gently rubbing a number of .68 caliber bruises, of which he had more than he really wanted. Alec wasn't the only one who was a crack shot.

Paintballs _hurt_. Even without the capsaicin load.

The anti-Merchant raid the night before had taken them slightly by surprise, a large number of PRT and BBPD people turning up and talking to Raptaur and her two cousins, but had also made everyone somewhat happier. Tension had been building ever since the rumors of Skidmark's mission to take on the Family had become known.

Not that anyone thought he could actually succeed, of course, but the collateral damage could be impressive. And no one wanted to be that collateral damage.

Now, it seemed like the threat had been abruptly reduced, but no one thought it had gone away. He was still out there somewhere with some friends, and Brockton Bay wasn't exactly bereft of other idiots either. They all felt it was time well spent to keep practicing and building up a proper defense capability, just in case.

Shit could still happen.

He looked up as Linda walked in, waving to the woman when she looked around. She smiled at him, waved, and headed for the coffee machine herself.

Alec watched, a smirk on his face. "Like an older woman, Brian?" he asked in a sly voice.

Brian flicked a left-over pea at him, catching him on the forehead. "Don't say things like that where she can hear," he replied in a low voice.

"Good looking, isn't she?"

"It's not like that."

"Do you want it to be?" His friend made a little gesture that caused the larger boy to sigh. "Trapped here with the rest of us, no one to play with..." Alec smirked as Brian muttered something rude under his breath.

"I just like her, OK? And not like that, before you say anything," he warned, raising a hand as Alec opened his mouth. "She came across as someone who needed a friend and she's interesting as well. So shut up."

The black-haired boy mimed zipping his mouth, although he was grinning.

"Hi, Brian, hi, Alec" Linda said as she walked over and joined them. "Mind if I sit here?"

"No, not at all," he smiled, waving at the chair on the other side of the table.

She sat and put her coffee down. "Why do you have little bruises all over your arms?" she asked, looking at the darker splotches down his bare forearms.

"Training," Alec said. "And not ducking fast enough."

The brunette looked curiously at the younger boy, who appeared amused, then back to Brian. "Training? With what?"

"High velocity paint," Brian grinned. "You wouldn't believe it would hurt so much." He jerked his thumb at his companion. "He was taking special enjoyment in shooting me whenever he could. Don't worry, I heal fast."

"You can always go and talk to Metis or Ianthe," Alec pointed out. "Or Amy, when she's around." He looked thoughtful. "We do seem to have a lot of healers here. Four of them in the entire city and three of those hang around this place."

"I don't want to bother them for a few bruises," Brian replied. "They'll heal soon enough. So, Linda, how are you doing today?"

"Not bad at all," she said with another smile. "I'm feeling a lot more rested than I was over the weekend, I've got a job in the vehicle depot as a mechanic, and I've also got a private workshop that Danny's letting me use for personal projects. It needs cleaning out but that shouldn't take long."

"Do a lot of personal projects, do you?" Alec asked with what actually looked like mild interest.

She shrugged. "On and off. Danny said there was lots of space when I asked, no one was using the place, so he's fine with me having it for now. I have a couple of ideas I want to play with. When I'm not fixing some of the construction equipment, there's a lot of it that needs some attention. Do you know Kadir in the depot?"

"Ah..." Brian thought, finally placing the name. "Big middle eastern guy who looks like he eats nuts and bolts for breakfast?"

"That's him," she chuckled. "Not as tall as Zephron but nearly as wide. Be interesting to see which one would win at arm-wrestling. Anyway, he runs the place, he gave me a couple of test jobs this morning, and seems pleased with the results. It was interesting. I've got a knack for repairing things without the manual, so I'm going to be working on a couple of huge old bulldozers that have been sitting in the back of the garage for longer than I've been alive. No spares, no manuals, no information at all."

The woman smiled. "I like a challenge, I think. And it'll help people, which is more than I've managed to do for quite a while."

"Good luck with that, then," Brian said. He raised his coffee to her. "Welcome on board, hopefully you'll enjoy it here. We do, or at least I do." He looked at Alec, who simply looked back with a tiny smirk on his face. "He doesn't care as long as he gets seven square meals a day and all the computer games he can play."

"You have another friend here, don't you?" she asked tentatively. "Rachel? The girl with the dogs?"

"Two, actually, Rachel is indeed the girl with the dogs, and she loves it here, then there's Lisa. Who also seems to be having a hell of a lot of fun. She's managed to end up as Mr Hebert's personal assistant."

"Oh, right, I've met her. She sorted out my DWU ID and papers. But I haven't seen her today yet."

"Still in bed, I think," Alec put in. "She staggered past me when I was going for breakfast, looking like she'd been up all night. Again."

"OK. I guess she'll find me when she needs me. Until then, I'll just get on with work." Linda sipped her coffee, falling into a pensive silence. Brian watched her for a moment, glanced at Alec, who shrugged minutely, then just sat there quietly until he'd finished his own drink.

"I have to get back to work," he said when he emptied the cup. "I'll see you around."

"I expect so," she said, looking up from the table, which she'd been gazing sightlessly at, apparently thinking hard. "Sorry, I'm not being very friendly right now. I have a lot of things to think about, and a decision to make."

"Anything I can help with?"

Linda shook her head, but smiled a little. "No, I don't think so, but thank you for the offer." Looking around the room at the other people who were coming and going, she added, "This place is… not what I expected."

"Hopefully it's what you needed, though," he replied.

"I think it probably is." Her response took a moment, but seemed sincere. "So far it's working out very well."

Picking up her cup, she looked at the clock on the wall. "I should get back to the garage as well. Nice talking to you." She gave him a smiled, waved to Alec, then hurried off.

Brian exchanged a look with his friend, then headed towards the exit, wondering what decision she meant.

* * *

Taylor watched Vicky leave the school, wondering what was wrong with the girl. She smelled worried, or more accurately rather scared, and had been giving her odd looks every time they'd passed the entire day. It had got worse after lunch.

She was somewhat concerned, she liked the blonde and hoped that it wasn't anything serious. And she couldn't work out why Vicky twitched every time she smiled at the girl.

"You sure she's all right?" she asked Amy, who was standing next to her, also looking after her sister, who had nearly leaped out the door, towing poor Dean behind her helplessly.

"I don't know what the hell is up with her," her friend said. "This isn't normal. But she won't tell me what the problem is. It's nothing medical, I checked, she's perfectly healthy. But definitely stressed."

"Maybe it's worry about flying into that building?" Taylor suggested as they headed for the exit. "Your mom is pretty intimidating, I could see her getting mad being something Vicky was scared of."

"She's not going to be happy about it, no," Amy smiled. "But Vicky gets yelled at all the time for breaking things. She's used to it, although I have to admit it doesn't happen very often these days. I think it must be something else."

"Huh." Taylor thought, but drew a blank. "Oh well. Let her know that if she needs anything, I'm happy to help out." She smirked a little. "I'm sure the Family would help as well."

"Probably," Amy laughed. "It's probably nothing. She can be a bit moody sometimes, as you know. She'll perk up and forget all about whatever it is sooner or later." They both turned when Lucy came up behind them, greeting their friend.

"I'll see you guys tomorrow," she said with a smile.

"Not getting a ride with Mandy's mom?" Taylor asked, since it was the normal procedure. The older woman worked fairly close to Arcadia and the schedules worked out conveniently to allow her to pick both girls up on the way home, as Lucy and Mandy lived quite close together.

"No, Dad's going to visit gran this afternoon and I'm going with him, he's going to be here soon," she replied.

"Oh, OK. In that case, see you tomorrow." Taylor smiled at her friend, the other girl waving as she headed down to the road to wait.

"Want a lift or are you going to run this time?" Amy asked quietly.

"I'll come with you," Taylor said. Both of them headed for the truck. Shortly, having removed the fill-in plugs that covered the tail holes, both of them were sitting in the vehicle as Amy drove carefully around the other cars that were picking up various students. They'd altered the seats over the weekend to have the fractional dimensional pockets that both of them had missed the first time around, which made life a little more convenient.

"This is much more comfortable," Taylor commented as she leaned back. "It's the only problem with having a tail, sitting in a normal car seat."

"I know," Amy giggled. "I love my tail, but that was a pain in the ass. Literally. This is way better." She glanced at her friend. "So. Dragons over Brockton, hmm?"

"That's the rumor," Taylor replied mildly. "I'm not sure I believe it. You know PHO, full of weirdos."

"It is that, yes."

They exchanged a look, then started laughing. "It was fucking amazing," she said happily, beaming at the other girl. "Absolutely incredible. The water rocket was too, of course, but there's something about feeling the air over your wings that's really cool. I could spend hours doing that without any trouble at all."

"Did you have any trouble working out how to fly?" Amy asked with interest. "I remember the water thing..."

"Most of the city remembers that," Taylor snickered. "Well, it wasn't entirely easy, I have to say. I must have had to swim back to the beach about… maybe a couple of dozen times? I'm glad I didn't try it first in public, that would have been embarrassing. But we got it in the end. The form's pretty much optimized now, it flies really well. Glides well too." She looked at her friend. "Varga suggested you might be interesting in a ride."

"Now there's an idea," Amy grinned. "That could be fun. I've been missing Raptaur-rides, I have to admit."

"Not as good as doing it yourself, but still great. We need to work out something like it for you guys."

"There are other things to finish first, but yes, I want that too."

"Think Linda's made a decision yet?"

"No idea. She was certainly looking thoughtful yesterday, though. We'll find out today, I expect. Have you worked out how to actually do it?"

"It depends on exactly what's needed, and some of the more extreme methods would need some help from you, but I've got a number of ideas." Amy glanced at her for a moment then went back to driving. "I'm looking forward to trying it, actually. This is really interesting."

Taylor nodded, feeling much the same.

A couple of miles further on, Amy turned off the main road, heading towards the shoreline. As they were driving down the new road, sirens from behind them made her look in her rear-view mirror, and Taylor look over her shoulder. There was a BBPD cruiser, lights going, coming up behind them at high speed. Amy indicated and pulled over to let it past, as did the other vehicles in the way. The car whipped past, the siren dopplering down in pitch, then slammed the brakes on and slid around the next corner on the right.

They exchanged glances. "I wonder what that's about?" Taylor said. Another siren from behind heralded the arrival of another police car, which did the same thing, followed by a PRT truck. The latter vehicle leaned heavily as it only just made the turn.

"Something interesting," Amy replied, checking that there weren't any more vehicles about to jump out at them, before pulling out onto the road again. Rolling down the window, Taylor listened, hearing gunshots, then sniffed.

"Merchants," she sighed. "Must be some of the ones that left after our first operation. I can smell the drugs on them."

"Should we go and take a look, do you think?"

"Bit difficult, we're in the middle of traffic in broad daylight," Taylor pointed out, looking around them. There was now at least fifteen other vehicles clogging the road as everyone slowed down to see what happened next. That was the problem with Brockton Bay, she thought, people around these parts not only were very used to this sort of thing, but wanted to watch. It was very nearly a spectator sport.

All it was missing was…

"Yep. There we go," she grumbled slightly, pointing to the side. "Aegis up there, see?"

"And Miss Militia coming up behind on her bike," Amy said, looking in the side mirror. The military-themed heroine zoomed past moments later, weaving in and out of the stopped traffic with great skill. Above them, Aegis was floating a couple of hundred feet up, talking to people on the ground via some sort of headset. Taylor listened to his conversation, as did Amy. By now the road was completely blocked.

"Can you hear the other end?" the Dallon girl asked. "I can't make it out, although I can hear him."

"Yes, he's reporting on the situation," she replied. "Five of them held up a pharmacy, I guess they were after drugs."

"They're probably going into withdrawal now if they didn't think to take any of their narcotics when they ran," Amy suggested.

"Guess so. Ah, the cops just got one of them with a taser. The other four scattered, they had hostages, but they've let most of them go. Two are going south towards the bay, they've got one of the clerks with them, the others are heading in two different directions with a hostage each."

She listened, concerned and annoyed that she couldn't really do much without blowing their cover, while reporting on what the tinny voice in Aegis's earpiece was saying.

A couple of minutes later, she nodded in satisfaction. "Miss Militia just got the two that went towards the bay. The hostage is safe, but has a broken ankle. The cops are chasing one of the others, but they've lost the fourth one."

Shortly after that, they heard shots in the distance again. Aegis dived out of sight behind one of the buildings. Wondering what was going on, they waited. Several people had gotten out of their cars and were videoing the entire thing with their phones, and a couple of cars over someone had a police scanner that they could hear fragments of conversation coming from.

"I think that was the one that went towards the Boardwalk, the one the cops were after," Amy noted.

"Yes, so do I. I wonder where the other one is? He's close, I can smell the bastard, but the wind's blowing in the wrong direction." Taylor listened, focusing her Varga-granted senses and closing her eyes. "Off to the right, behind that shop," she said after a moment. "Swearing like an idiot. He's not in a good mood."

"What do we do?" her friend asked, looking over in the direction Taylor was pointing. "You could shut him down in seconds. For that matter, so could I. But with everyone watching..." She scowled blackly.

"I know, it's fucking annoying," Taylor muttered, tracking the progress of the ex-Merchant with her ears as he came closer, sounds of people shouting and running around also present. They heard a couple of shots. A moment later the door to the shop, a clothing store, slammed open and half a dozen people came running out. They looked at the scene, then each other, then back to the shop in time to see a tall, skinny, and very angry man who looked like someone had already beaten him severely come running out of the shop waving a pistol.

He looked around frantically, pointed the gun at a couple of pedestrians who had made a motion to jump him, both men freezing, then ran towards the road. "You don't think he's..." Amy said in a wondering manner as the man wildly scanned the cars in range, then fixed on them.

"Looks like it," Taylor said, with inner glee. "Look helpless, quick."

"OK." Amy recoiled in visible fear as the man ran up to them and wrenched the passenger door open, grabbing Taylor by the arm and pulling. She grinned at her friend, out of his sight, then let him yank her out of the truck.

"Hey, you bastard, what the hell are you doing?" she shouted. Behind her she could hear Amy snickering very quietly.

A shout from the other side of the street made both of them look, to see several BBPD uniformed officers pointing guns at the man. One of them yelled, "Let the girl go and get down on your face, NOW!" at the desperate man.

"Fuck you, pig!" he screamed back, shaking Taylor. She went along with it, trying not to smile. "Get back or I cap the bitch."

He pointed his gun at her ear from inches away, then raised it to aim at one of the officers who had been moving in a crouch between the parked cars. He fired, the shot making everyone duck, while the round itself shattered the side window of one of the cars. The woman in it screamed, threw her door open, and dived out, rolling behind another car. As far as Taylor could tell she was unhurt, although terrified.

"You know you're not going to get away, so why not give up?" she asked in a mild tone.

"Shut up, cunt, or you get one in the face," he howled at her from close range. She raised a hand and wiped spittle from her face.

"Thanks."

He shook her again, hard enough that had she been a normal person she'd probably have bitten the end of her tongue off. "Keep your mouth shut. You, in the truck, get in the back seat."

Amy leaned over and looked at him, an expression of fear on her face. "Do you want me to leave the keys in the ignition?"

"Of course I fucking do you stupid slut!"

"Got you." She didn't move.

"I said, get in the back seat!"

"Now?" Amy leaned over again to see him.

"Yes, fucking _NOW!_ "

"Oh. OK. Got you."

Again, she didn't move, merely watched him. She was giving a good impression of someone made indecisive by worry.

Taylor was trying very hard not to laugh or look like she found the entire thing as funny as she did. She, of course, had nothing at all to fear from his silly pistol, and with all the mods Amy had done to herself, it would at best annoy her and ruin her clothes. Which would annoy her even more.

Deciding that it was time to bring this to an end, she put her free hand in her pocket, forming one of the now-standard collapsible batons in it. She needed to make sure that no one suspected anything was wrong, but having one of them on her person was entirely reasonable, especially in this city.

Looking around she could see a couple of dozen people watching, which was annoying, but better he threaten her than someone who could be hurt. The cops had been joined by Aegis, who was hanging in the air ten feet over the road looking very frustrated, since he clearly didn't want to risk her getting shot. She could smell his irritation with the man.

"Will you _move_ you stupid cow?" the drug addict screamed at the top of his voice, shaking with both fury and the results of not taking his medication. As soon as he moved his gun towards Amy, Taylor whipped her baton out of her pocket, extending it in the same move, and brought it over her body to hit his wrist a couple of inches above the hand. She very carefully pulled the blow to avoid simply severing the limb, which wouldn't have looked very good, and would have blown her cover instantly. Even so, she heard the bones shatter with a dull crack, as did everyone within fifty feet.

The ex-Merchant screamed in agony, the gun dropping to the road with a clatter. She kicked it under Amy's truck, then as he released her and grabbed at his broken arm, whacked him in the ribs in a precise blow, then over the shoulders as he folded up. There was dead silence as the man collapsed onto his face and passed out.

Stepping back, she closed the baton between her hands and put it back into her pocket, not dissipating it since there was a good chance the cops were going to want to look at it. Amy got out of the truck and rushed around to her, a mask of worry for her friend on her face, although Taylor could see the hidden amusement in her eyes. "Oh, my god, Taylor, are you OK?" she shouted, grabbing her by the shoulders, then holding her hand. After a moment, she announced loudly, "Only bruises, thank god. Here, I'll fix them."

Taylor was trying very hard indeed not to laugh at this point. The whole act was ridiculous, yet necessary.

The police, after a moment's startled shock, charged towards them, pulling her and Amy away from the criminal, fairly gently, then surrounding him with aimed guns. One of them knelt down and looked him over. "Broken arm and rib, I think," he reported.

"I can check if you want," Amy said. They all looked at her.

"Fuck, it's Amy Dallon," one of the men said, looking surprised. He inspected Taylor, his eyebrows going up. "I know you. You're Danny Hebert's daughter, right?"

"Yes, that's me," she acknowledged with a nod.

The sound of a motorcycle approaching made all of them look, to see Miss Militia pull up. Aegis, who had been reporting the progress of the drama to her, landed next to her and spoke quietly for a moment, the woman nodding, before she turned the bike off, flipped the stand down with her foot, and got off. Amy and Taylor watched briefly, then turned back to the officer.

Pushing his hat back a little, he grinned, before peering down at the unconscious man. "Like father, like daughter," he chuckled. "That was pretty impressive. Who trained you in that sort of thing?"

"Saurial showed me some good tricks and gave me the baton," she smiled.

"Ah." He nodded. "I understand. I'm glad you're all right, I wouldn't want the Family getting pissed about a friend of theirs being hurt. And I _definitely_ don't want Danny Hebert on the warpath." He turned to Amy. "If you could make sure he doesn't have anything serious wrong with him, that would help, Miss Dallon."

"Sure," she replied, kneeling down. "Yep, broken rib, fractured ulna and radius. Clean breaks." She looked at Taylor. "Did you have to hit him so hard?"

"Yes. He was about to point a gun at you."

They could each see that the other was grinning internally. "Fair enough, can't argue with that. I'll fix him, but he's going to ache for days." She smiled at her friend, then turned to the officer. "He threatened a friend of mine. So he gets to keep the bruises."

The man seemed mildly amused. "I'm not going to argue with an angry Panacea," he replied. Amy grinned, then got on with fixing most of the damage.

* * *

Carlos watched in astonishment at how efficiently and brutally Taylor Hebert laid her assailant out, wincing at the sound of bones breaking. He'd got the impression from watching her at school that she was a very calm individual, and now he added to that impression another observation that in a pinch she'd use that same calm to cause serious damage if necessary. There was no wasted motion, no panicking, merely a seized opportunity and a blur of movement.

Whoever trained her had known what they were doing, and had equipped her with some pretty effective skills. As far as he knew she was right-handed, but she'd pulled that baton and flipped it open with her off hand without any trouble at all. Perhaps she was ambidextrous? Or, her instructor had been sure to train her to use both hands, for exactly this sort of situation.

He noted that she'd immediately kicked the weapon out of reach as soon as it hit the ground, pivoting on her heel in the same move that removed the gun to very neatly lay the guy out flat with an elegant economy of effort. When she was done, she just stepped back, closed the baton, and slipped it into her pocket without any fuss, still looking pretty calm. For a moment he wished Dean was here to tell him whether she really _was_ that laid-back, or could just hide it really well. It could be either.

Miss Militia pulled up below him, so he landed next to her, both of they watching the cops rush over and make sure the perp was down. "What happened?" his superior asked after a quick look. Both Taylor and Amy were hidden behind the police contingent at the moment.

"Guy came out of the shop there, must have got in through the back, tried to jack that truck, and pulled the passenger out. It's Taylor Hebert. She was with Amy Dallon, that's her vehicle."

The woman winced visibly, at both names. "Oh, hell. Just fucking wonderful. Are they hurt?"

"No, not at all." He shrugged, smiling a little, mostly in relief. "It was pretty impressive, actually. That idiot pulled the door open and hauled Taylor out, trying to use her as a hostage, I think. He ordered Amy to get in the back, waved the gun around, fired a shot at a cop, then got careless. Turned out that Taylor had a collapsible baton in her pocket and she sure knows how to use it."

Miss Militia's eyes widened over her scarf. His smile grew. "As soon as the ganger was pointing the gun away from anyone, she whipped it out, broke his arm with it, then probably a rib, kicked the gun under the truck, and laid him out flat. It was almost a work of art, actually. Someone has trained her very well."

The woman stared at him, then turned to watch as the cops moved around, Taylor becoming visible. One of the officers was talking to her, obviously having recognized both her and the Dallon girl. They listened as the girls talked. "She's been trained by Saurial," Miss Militia sighed. "Of course. I should have known. Danny Hebert has probably had the girl training his daughter since the moment they met. To make sure nothing like what happened before happens again."

"That makes sense," Carlos nodded. "A lot of sense, actually. I can't think of many people who would be better instructors on hand to hand combat."

"Well, I'm damn glad that she did. If either one of them got hurt on our watch there'd be hell to pay, from New Wave or the DWU, and I honestly don't know which alternative worries me more."

"DWU," Carlos said immediately. She looked at him, an eyebrow raised. "They know the Family..."

She paled a little. "Very good point." Watching as Amy knelt down and started repairing the unconscious gang member, she waved him after her. "Come on, let's see how they are. We don't want them going home and saying we just stood there and let the police do all the work, that would just be embarrassing."

He hid a smile as he followed the woman towards the crowd of cops, and the larger crowd of bystanders who were indulging in one of Brockton Bay's favorite pastimes, watching the aftermath of crime.

* * *

Amy, scenting a familiar person behind her, two in fact, stood and turned to Carlos and Miss Militia, who were approaching from where the older cape had parked her bike. The boy smelled intrigued, the woman was definitely worried. Glancing at Taylor she could tell that her friend had obviously picked up on this, not surprising since her senses were wildly better than even Amy's own highly improved ones.

Both stopped a few feet away. "Hello, Panacea," Miss Militia said. "I don't believe I know your friend. Are you both all right?"

Amy could tell, almost immediately, that the statement of not knowing Taylor, or at least of not knowing _of_ Taylor, wasn't entirely accurate. Partly because of the slight change in scent, partly due to the look in the eyes she could see over the scarf, as the woman inspected both of them. Not to mention her reaction when Carlos had mentioned who was involved in the small drama.

"Wow! Miss Militia!" Taylor exclaimed, smiling. "I've always liked you. It's nice to meet you."

Amusingly, this was actually true, Amy thought with inner laughter. Her friend did genuinely rather like the older woman, and found her odd fear of her reptilian alter-egos and the Family somewhat peculiar.

"We're both fine, Miss Militia," she replied. "I wasn't even touched, and he only bruised Taylor when he pulled her out of the car. She hurt him a lot more than he hurt her." She looked down at the now-healed but still unconscious man, who the police were in the process of restraining and lifting. "Good thing, too, or I'd have got very annoyed. No one hurts my friends and gets away with it."

She met the other woman's eyes straight on. "No one."

"I see. Can you tell me what happened? We always need to file a report when a Parahuman is involved in a crime, even if as a victim. And I may need to explain this to your mother, who is… a stickler for the rules."

Carlos, even with his costume hiding his face, was now radiating a certain amount of agreement, and Taylor was grinning.

"She is a bit, isn't she?" Amy laughed. "Sure, we were just driving along..."

Going over the entire thing didn't take long. The officer who had recognized both her and her friend was taking notes, while Miss Militia had a small digital recorder in her hand. When she was done, and Taylor had given her version as well, the woman turned it off and returned it to a belt pouch, nodding to them.

"Thank you. It seems you reacted very sensibly. Although, Miss Hebert, I'd suggest that it's not entirely safe to take on an armed man."

"He wasn't very good, and I wasn't going to risk him shooting Amy," Taylor said. "Saurial trained me pretty intensively for exactly that sort of scenario. She doesn't like bullies any more than I do." Taylor met the eyes of the female cape without flinching. "I had a bad experience with a group of bullies. Never again. And I'm not going to let anyone hurt my friends either, any more than Amy would." She shrugged, smiling suddenly. "I mean, I'm not a Parahuman like Amy is, but I'm quick and tall enough to have a decent amount of leverage. He wasn't expecting anything, was so strung out he could barely walk straight, and he paid the price."

Miss Militia looked and smelled a little uncomfortable when Taylor made the comment about bullies. Interestingly, so did Carlos. Amy knew her friend was undoubtedly watching both their faces right through their disguises with her weird thermal vision and would have picked this up even before she did. Clearly both of them knew about the Winslow situation. Just as clearly they didn't want to let on that they had any idea about it.

"Bullies are always unpleasant," the woman agreed. She looked over to the ex-Merchant as he was loaded into a cruiser. "Although I think an armed assailant is slightly more than just a bully."

"Same principle, though," Taylor smiled. "And on the street, when he's waving a gun, I can hit him. In my old school I couldn't have got away with that." She thought for a moment, then shrugged. "Actually, in that damn place, perhaps I could have. Not like anyone ever did anything. Half the students were armed, a lot of them with more lethal things than batons."

"Could I see yours, by the way?" Miss Militia asked politely. "Professional curiosity only. You're perfectly at liberty to carry one for self defense, which this clearly was."

"Sure," Taylor replied, sounding happy, pulling the thing from her pocket and handing it over. "It's a nice one. Saurial made it for me."

Miss Militia examined the weapon, a couple of the cops doing the same, all of them looking interested. "Tac-Smack?" one of them laughed, when he read the lettering on the side. "Fucking fantastic. Where can I get one?"

"I think the Family are probably going to start selling them to people they trust soon," Taylor smiled. "You could go to the DWU and ask, they have a lot of respect for the police and would most likely help you out."

Flicking it open with a practiced motion, the older woman looked impressed, then tried flexing it. "It's made of that ridiculously strong metal they use, isn't it?"

"EDM. Yes, she said it was basically indestructible. I guarantee you won't be able to bend it." Taylor and Amy both watched as the cape played with it, then handed it to one of the cops, who did the same, waving it, then mock striking at an imaginary assailant. Nodding, he handed it back to her.

"Very nice. I'll definitely be looking into that. It's got a good balance. The guys at the station might want to talk to your friends as well."

Pressing the button on the end and closing the thing one handed against her shoulder, Taylor dropped it back into her pocket. "I'll mention it when I see them next," she assured him. "It came in handy today."

"If I can just get an official statement from you, ladies," the first cop said, "you can be on your way."

"Of course." They waited while he filled in a couple of witness statement forms, asking a few more questions and referring to his notebook.

"Great. That's all we need. Thank you both, and I'm glad neither of you were harmed." He looked at the car with the now-conscious and very loud former Merchant. "Those guys are a fucking pain in the ass. I'm very glad that your friends took most of them out last night. We'll probably be rounding up the last few of them for weeks, the ones that aren't still running." Turning back to them, he added, "Miss Hebert, please pass on my best wishes to your father."

"I'll do that, Officer. Thank you for coming to our rescue."

He chuckled, smiling. "Not that you seemed to need it." Nodding to them, then the heroes, he headed back to his vehicle and the other police officers, stopping to talk to a couple of them.

"Miss Militia, were there any casualties from this guy's friends?" Amy asked, jerking a thumb over her shoulder. "As long as I'm in the area, if there are, I'm happy to heal them."

"Actually, yes, there were a couple of injuries," the woman said, sounding pleased at the offer. "We're still waiting on an ambulance, so if you could do that I'm sure the victims would appreciate it very much."

"OK. Show me where they are, I'll fix them up."

The woman made a call on her headset, then motioned to them to follow as she got back on her bike. The remaining police officers quickly cleared the few cars still blocking the road, moving the spectators on, and allowing Amy and Taylor to follow in her truck.

* * *

Hannah watched the bright blue truck drive off, the girls inside waving to her and Carlos. Amy had quickly repaired all the injuries, for which she'd received some heartfelt thanks, talked to the victims for a couple of minutes, signed three autographs, and then left. The Hebert girl had watched with interest, asked Hannah for an autograph as well as Carlos, smiled at them, and gone off with her friend, apparently none the worse for her short ordeal.

"That's a pretty strong-willed young lady," she commented to the Ward as he landed next to her again, having been flying around helping the police find one of the weapons the gangers had dropped during their escape. "For someone without powers, she's not bad. I suspect that by the time Saurial is finished training her, she'd be a difficult opponent to most people."

"I'm told that's a Hebert characteristic," Carlos replied quietly. "They're stubborn and don't know how to quit. And Taylor is, according to Vicky, and Amy for that matter, very smart and very driven. And _really_ doesn't like bullies. Not that I can blame her, considering."

"No," Hannah mused reflectively. "No, you can't."

Internally, she was just happy that the girl hadn't Triggered after that fucking stupid stunt that Sophia and her friends had pulled. Colin had been right to worry about it. Based on the impression she'd developed while talking to her, Taylor Hebert with powers would be… very dangerous indeed.

She was bad enough with just an indestructible baton, given an opening. That idiot ganger was lucky to only have got a broken arm out of it.

Relieved that things had worked out so well, she got back on her bike, radioing the control room for the next assignment, and slightly wearily wondering how many more ex-Merchants were running around her city causing chaos. At least, when they finally rounded them all up, that was the end of _that_ particular gang.

Only a few more to go, and Brockton Bay would merely be a dangerous city, rather than a lethal one.


	219. Omake - Con

_Couldn't resist. Someone mentioned something that sparked an idea..._

 _(It's possible that this will become canon at some point)_

* * *

The wormhole opened around the back of the row of dumpsters, a head sticking out and looking around, then popping back in. Moments later, several…

Let's go with people.

 _...People_ exited one after another.

As the orange-bordered hole in the universe silently vanished, one of the figures turned to the first one, who had checked the coast was clear. "Tell me again why we're here?" It looked around. "Bit boring."

The tall slender figure smiled. Then pointed towards a tall building in the near distance. On top of it was a red illuminated sign that read ' _Hilton_ ' in letters twenty feet high, while a considerable distance down the front of what appeared to be a combined hotel and conference center, a large banner was strung. Everyone read it.

"Comic festival?"

"Yep."

"One of those things where people dress up in costumes, pretending to be capes?"

"Yep."

"Does this world actually _have_ capes?"

The smile widened. "Nope." With a happy shrug, the blue-scaled reptile grinned. "But they have a _lot_ of movies about them, even more comics and books, and a hell of a lot of people who put way more time into their costumes than even that Glenn character does. I bet we blend right in."

The apparently animated cloak that didn't seem to have anyone inside it laughed. " **Cool. So we're going to freak out the normals?** "

"A little. Mainly have fun, see if they have any good ideas we can get inspired by, get some souvenirs, that sort of thing. A few pranks. Nothing too serious."

The brunette girl with long hair in a pony tail, who was wearing a leather coat that looked like it was some sort of lizard skin, over similar trousers, with matching boots completing the ensemble, rolled her eyes for a moment. Behind her, a reptilian tail, the scales red and gold, twitched idly. She had a complex mechanism attached to her right forearm which appeared to have a wooden stick in it, nearly a foot long, running up her arm from the wrist.

She said in a slightly acidic voice, "Do you really think this is the best use of company resources?"

"I do. It's my company, anyway. And you work too hard, you need to learn to have fun."

The young woman, who seemed to be in her late teens or early twenties, sighed slightly and turned to look at one of the other two people standing there grinning. "Can't you talk some sense into her?" she pleaded.

One of the two reptilian creatures, even taller than the first one, shook her head, her glowing green eyes alight with mischief. "No. I wouldn't even if I could. This should be great."

"Poor humans," the other one, which was a violet-blue color, snickered.

"You do realize that everyone is going to know immediately that those aren't costumes," the young woman said.

"Wanna bet?" The leader of the little landing party chuckled, handing out several items that formed in her hands. "Here, put these on, guys," she said. Both the large lizards took a couple of the items and carefully fitted them to their heads, looking at each other.

"Horns?"

The girl wearing leather looked askance at her friends.

"Obviously fake, although very well designed to _not_ look fake, horns," the blue lizard said, putting her own on. "See? People look at them, they can see the joins, we're wearing costumes. Really professional ones, but they still have a few flaws."

"And her?"

"That's what this is for." She held up an odd looking structure, a wooden cross mounted horizontally above a series of vertical wires that came down from the arms, wrapped in thin thread so from a distance they looked like strings. Attaching it somehow to her companion, who was giggling in a weird hissing voice, she stepped back and admired the results. "There you go. A floating cloak puppet costume. Neat."

"You are all completely insane, you know," the brunette muttered, but a reluctant grin crossed her face. "Remind me why I accepted the job?"

"Because it intellectually stretches you more than back home, you get some pretty damn good perks, and even get to intimidate the occasional god."

"Oh, right, I forgot about that," the woman laughed. "That was funny, I have to admit."

"He didn't think so." They all looked at each other, then grinned. Even the cloak, which was a damn good trick.

"So that's why you told me to wear the dragon-skin armor?"

"Obviously. It's a nice costume if you don't know where it came from. Although if I ever find out who peeled a distant cousin I might have to go and worry them."

The slender lizard adjusted her armor, making a few changes to it that converted it from looking very real, which it was, into something that looked like it was trying very hard to look very real and not quite making it. She formed a couple of swords with long curved blades and reached over her shoulders with her arms crossed, slipping the blades into a pair of scabbards that also materialized on demand.

She had a mobile phone clipped to the belt of her armored skirt, and a pair of sunglasses completed the ' _costume_.'

"How do I look?"

"Like an insane lizard ninja who's trying to pretend not to be one," the woman said, her smile growing. "But without knowing you, probably the locals will just think you're weird."

"I _am_ weird." The lizard-girl formed a mirror and looked into it, the scales around her neck, above her armor chest-plate, slightly changing color in a line that made it look like a very well disguised seam was hidden there. "That's better." She smiled at herself. Tossing the mirror to the side where it vanished, she turned to the two larger lizards. "Armor out, please," she commanded.

Both of her companions grinned, then there was a rapid clattering sound, leaving them covered in color-matched armor plates from head to tail. The more lightly-built reptile cocked her head, thought for a moment, and then nodded, as the color of the metallic armor changed, becoming matte black with chrome trimmings, and a few glowing points scattered around it on the joints. "There. Reptilian power armor."

The black lizard tapped her arm. "It's made of plastic?"

"Only on top, it's still EDM under that. But this looks less real."

"Cute. Should work."

"Here, put these on as well," the blue lizard said, producing a large complex looking futuristic rifle with a couple of very alien displays on the back. She handed it to the black lizard, then made another one which she gave to the violet one, both of whom slung them over their shoulders like they were familiar with them. "Don't worry, they're not charged. But they look cool."

"That was Alec's main request," the violet lizard snickered. "Make them look cool."

"Man knows his desires," the blue lizard agreed. "Oh, don't let me forget to grab any video games we see, he wanted new ones. With any luck they'll have something he's never seen before."

"You could have let him come."

Everyone looked at the brunette, who flushed a little. "OK, stupid thing to say. Sorry. I forgot for a moment who we were talking about."

"Great, I think we're ready. OK, guys, move out, take no prisoners, and grab the goodie-bags when you see them. Strike team ' _Have-fun_ ' is a go."

"Insane. Totally insane," the woman said as she followed her friends across the hot car park towards the hotel. She flicked the stick in her holder into her hand with a slight effort of will and made a quick motion with it, then let go, the thing retracting again too fast to see. Sighing with relief at the cooling spell working, she rolled her shoulders, twitched her tail, and sped up to walk next to the blue reptile.

"I hope you got tickets," she said when they were nearly at the door, dozens of other people in costumes ranging from absurd to incredibly impressive surrounding them, and a much larger number of people in more or less normal clothes taking pictures from all around.

"Course I did, weeks ago," the lizard-girl said in tones of surprise. "I may be insane, but I'm not crazy."

"Debatable," the woman sighed, although she was smiling.

"Happy birthday, by the way."

"Thanks."

Moments later they entered the building, looking around with interest.

* * *

"This is the best Con I've been to in years," Jeff said to his stall neighbor, who was watching the crowd. "Hell of a lot of people. I'm going to sell out before the end at this rate."

"It's pretty fucking good," Brad replied agreeably. "I'm going to have to go out to the truck in an hour or so for more stock."

"Some amazing costumes, as well. Look at those ones." Jeff motioned towards where two women, one in leather armor of some sort, and one dressed up like some sort of horned fantasy velociraptor crossed with a samurai, a pair of katana hilts sticking up over her shoulders, were discussing a book. He noticed with amusement that the leather-wearing one was still themed like her friend, having an impressively well-made lizard's tail coming out the back of her pants. It was swinging slowly back and forth, some internal mechanism working it. "Damn impressive prosthetics. A dragon-kin swordswoman and her half-human friend, maybe?"

"Don't recognize the series," Brad said doubtfully. "Probably some Japanese-only anime that died after four episodes or so. But the costumes are first rate."

They watched, amused at the realism, as the pair bought the book, then a couple of others. Another pair of women walked up to them, both apparently Japanese, one tall and blonde and one short with long braided black hair with a bright blue streak in it, greeting the first set who turned and smiled. Jeff was impressed by the way the reptilian costume's mouth moved.

All four spoke in Japanese for a few minutes, almost inaudible over the din in the huge room and the various announcements, before the Japanese women waved and moved on. They were joined a few stalls further down by another woman who had a silver wig on and was wearing a long leather coat down to her ankles. The trio turned the corner and vanished.

The first pair moved down the row, then crossed it, coming back stall by stall, until they stopped in front of his, inspecting his wares. "Nice swords," the one dressed as a humanoid lizard said appreciatively, her voice somehow altered by the suit to have a slight hiss to it. The electronics inside were impressive. He found himself wondering how long it took to put on.

"Thanks," he smiled. Brad was now involved in selling some chain mail to a pair of teens who were wearing a very inferior version of the same thing, and were staring at his stuff with wide eyes. "I make them. All sorts of weapons, swords, knives, axes, that sort of thing."

"All traditional stuff, then," she said, picking up a copy of a roman short sword and looking down the blade with one eye.

"Yes. I'm interested in the pre-gunpowder sort of thing. A friend of mine is into more modern weapons, but considering his idea of a concealed weapon is a four inch mortar, they won't let him bring any here." He grinned as she laughed. "He's a little paranoid, but a good guy. Just slightly nuts."

The woman in leather, which to his eyes looked like it was probably either snake-skin, or crocodile leather, both very expensive, snorted at his comment. She glanced at her friend. "Nuts. Yes, I'm familiar with that problem," she said. The first woman smirked at her, the reptilian mask she was wearing amazingly flexible and getting the underlying expression across wonderfully.

"Quiet, you, you love it and you know it." Putting the short sword down, she picked up a hand ax and weighed it in her hand, then flipped it end over end and caught it again. "Nice. How much?"

"Three hundred."

"And the sword?"

"Five hundred."

"You hardly need another sword, you know," the second woman sighed.

"It's very well made and would be a nice souvenir for Dad."

Jeff listened with amusement as they argued in a good-natured way, casting his eyes around the venue. In the distance he could see two more reptile-themed costumes, these ones some type of alien space marine or something, both of them wearing a damn good looking sort of power armor with energy rifles slung over their shoulders. They were posing for a photo from a group of con-goers, looking pleased.

"Seven fifty the pair?" the woman in the lizard costume asked. He thought for a moment, working out the amount he'd spent, and the way stuff was selling quickly, then nodded.

"OK."

She pulled a roll of bills out of a pouch on her belt and quickly counted out the right amount, handing it over, while he wrapped both weapons in bubble-wrap, then paper. "Here you go."

"Thanks."

Putting them into one of the pair of large bags she was holding, the logo of the event on the side, the woman smiled. "Having a good day?"

"Very good, thank you," he replied. "This is a fantastic event so far. More people than I've seen for five years at least, and some amazing costumes. Yours is one of the best I've ever come across. Who made it?"

"I did," she smiled. "It's sort of a hobby."

"Is it from a Manga or something? I don't recognize the character."

"Oh, it's an original character I came up with, but based on something pretty old I doubt you'd have heard of," she said, shrugging. "Fun, though."

"It's very impressive." He looked at her companion, who was listening with an oddly amused expression. "What about yours? What are you meant to be?"

"A combat witch from another universe who has some reptilian biomodifications," the woman replied easily. "Her idea."

"It looks good on you," he grinned. "I suppose the leather is from a dragon in that case."

"Obviously, where else would a combat witch get her leather?" She laughed slightly as he shook his head in respect.

"Well, I'm impressed. You could easily sell that sort of thing for a hell of a lot of money to half the people here."

"It's a thought," the first one said, chuckling. "We have to be getting on but it was nice to meet you. Thanks for the weapons."

"Thanks for the cash," he replied.

"Any time." She raised a hand in farewell, then they wandered slowly off, passing out of sight a little later. He turned to deal with the next customer, only pausing to stare at some short kid in what looked like a Ring Wraith puppet costume who glided past, eating a giant pretzel. The way it was vanishing into the dark hood was a little disconcerting.

"Now, _that's_ an impressive costume. And a really unusual idea," he mused, before getting involved in a discussion of the merits of Japanese versus European sword manufacturing techniques.


	220. Omake - Con Tinuation

"Innnteresting..."

Jack watched the woman in the incredibly high-quality lizard/alien/ninja costume as she in turn watched the demo videos playing on the monitors around his stall. He wondered how she got the end of the costume's tail to twitch so realistically, and what the scales were actually made of. Presumably some form of plastic, although nothing he'd seen before. Attaching them all to what must be a stretchy undergarment must have taken days, if not weeks.

The dedication some people had to their hobbies was amazing.

Looking down at the tables full of movie and game props he'd painstakingly built, some of them representing over a month of solid work, he grinned. Different hobby, but the skills were at least as high, he knew.

Scratching her muzzle, in a way that made it really look like it was her real face and not a costume, something he guessed she'd spent a lot of time practicing, the reptilian-themed costumed con visitor seemed fascinated by the run-through of the game that was currently playing. In front of her were a number of full-scale props from the game, made of fiberglass resin, machined metal parts, and injection-molded sections that he'd spent days painting. She picked one of them up, studying it closely, then compared it to the game.

"Really nice work," she smiled. He watched the costume's mouth move with amusement, the prosthetic muzzle was also really nice work.

"Thanks."

"How long does it take to make one of these?" she asked.

"That one… around three weeks, but not all in one long session. I make a batch of the moldings, then paint them up, a friend of mine CNC machines the metal parts and anodizes them, then I assemble about six at once. The time consuming part is painting them, which is a bitch."

She picked up another of the same prop, comparing them. "I see, they've each got different wear patterns, that sort of thing."

"Exactly. Not mass produced low quality stuff like you can get over in aisle four, this is all hand-made. More expensive, obviously, but a lot of people really appreciate the detail. I know a guy who actually made some of the Hollywood models for a number of big feature films, he taught me a lot of these techniques, and some of his replicas go for upwards of a hundred grand."

"Serious collectors," she noted with a nod.

"Very. Lot of money in it if you do the right models and props. Getting commercial permission can be hard, though. He managed it because he thought ahead and retained the rights to the models he designed. That's why all this stuff is from lower budget productions and games, they'll usually license it to me for a sensible rate." He smiled at her. "I can't afford to license things from Lucas Arts, for example."

"Yeah, I can understand that," the woman replied, her carefully distorted voice sounding amused. Once more he was impressed by the detail she'd put into the costume. Putting one of the props down, she hefted the other one experimentally. "I have to say your work is excellent. This almost looks like it would actually work."

"I wish," he chuckled. "It's got some simple electronics in it, another friend is a genius at that sort of thing, he does special effects work for a couple of the studios, but he also helps me out sometimes. So it makes the right sounds and everything, and you get little blinky lights. People like little blinky lights."

She laughed. "That part I know all too well. Some friends of mine are really into their esoteric tech and it always seems to end up with little blinky lights. Often blue."

Looking over her shoulder, she nodded to another pair of costumed visitors who walked up, all of them obviously knowing each other. Jack inspected them, grinning at the common theme. Lizards seemed to be in this year.

He'd noticed the large black reptilian space commando or whatever she was meant to be, walking around with another one whose costume had violet scales under the matte black armor.

Which did, indeed, have little blinky lights on it. In blue.

This costume was probably even more impressive than the first one. There must have been some very complex stilts in the legs to make them articulate like that, and where the wearer's head actually was he wasn't certain. His best guess was that the costumes were probably the result of some sfx department who wanted to show off their stuff in a low-key manner, someone who specialized in advanced prosthetics and the like. There were probably cameras in the head behind the eyes and the operator was using something like a VR headset with motion tracking to drive the entire suit.

Listening carefully in a quiet moment, he couldn't hear any servomotors working, but they might well just be silenced.

Overall the effect was incredible, and for a moment he found himself a little envious.

"What have you found?" the other new arrival asked the lizard-ninja, who turned to her. This one had a different sort of costume, although the lizard's tail that came out the back of it showed adherence to their theme. The rest was some type of expensive leather, cut to fit the woman in it and give the impression of light body armor, complete with boots and fingerless gloves. On her bare right forearm, a complicated mechanism held a thin, highly polished tapering wooden rod.

He inspected it with professional interest, deciding that it seemed to be designed to deploy the stick into her hand when triggered, although he couldn't work out how that triggering would take place. After a moment, he looked at the prop blaster rifle that the larger reptilian costumed person had slung over their shoulder, a number of tally lights on it lit and at least one LCD panel on the top glowing with a logo he couldn't quite make out, spinning and rotating. The thing probably had some little processor board in it, and someone had spent a lot of time writing the software to make it look good.

He could definitely appreciate the effort, and the effect, although he had no idea what movie or game the weapon was from.

"Have a look," the ninja said, holding the prop out. Her friend took it from her, studying it carefully from all angles. "From that game," the woman added, waving at the monitor with a clawed glove. Jack smiled to himself, the detail even extended to her fingers. He could barely see the seams.

The brunette woman looked at the monitor, as did the person inside the large combat dinosaur costume, both of them watching as the recording looped. After a few seconds, the leather-clad woman was smiling a little, while deep chuckles, processed down in pitch, came from the other person. He decided it was probably a woman in there.

This was confirmed when she spoke. "I can see the way your mind is going. I like it."

"Alec will love it." The first one smiled at her friends. "So will Kevin. And the best part is the latest model will actually fit."

He frowned, wondering what they meant. Both the other women laughed. "Oh, you really do have a weird sense of humor," the one in the middle snickered.

"Yep." She looked around. "Any idea where the others are?"

"Not at the moment, Ianthe was wandering around a few aisles over last time I saw her, posing for photos, and Cloak had gone back for more pretzels."

"That girl is going to make herself sick again," the lizard-ninja half-sighed, half-laughed. "And you know what happens then."

"It's… not ideal," her more human-appearing friend muttered with a grimace. The space marine chuckled again.

"How much?"

Turning to Jack, the ninja woman somehow made her costume's face look inquisitive.

"I normally ask six thousand dollars," he said, internally wincing since this was usually the point that a lot of people paled and left. In this case, she merely looked thoughtful, glancing at the prop her friend was still holding.

"Hmm. I can appreciate the amount of work that went into it, definitely..." She tapped her chin. "Five thousand."

He gasped. "Five thousand! You wound me, miss. Fifty-eight hundred."

She narrowed her eyes a little, making him grin inside. That costume was incredible. "I _could_ wound you, yes. Fifty two."

Waving his arms theatrically, he laughed. "Completely out of the question. I couldn't possibly sell this work of art for less than fifty-seven hundred."

By now several other people had stopped to watch, and cameras were pointed their way. Con-goers liked a good show. And showman.

Or possibly show-lizard in her case.

Baring some very impressive plastic, or possibly ceramic considering how real they looked, teeth in a carnivorous smile, the woman leaned forward and put her fingertips on the table. "Work of art? This piece of plastic and metal scrap? I could find a better prop in a box of cornflakes. Fifty-three hundred. And that's me being overly generous because I'm just that nice."

Clapping a hand over his heart, he staggered. She was definitely smirking under there, and he heard another chuckle come from the space marine, who was watching with great interest. The brunette seemed resigned to the entire show, like it wasn't entirely unfamiliar.

"Nice? _Nice!_ You're a vicious reptilian creature who probably assassinates good honest craftsmen like myself in their beds."

She nodded, managing to emote a pleased look, which almost made him crack up, but he managed to keep it together. The crowd had swelled, and a few of them were laughing.

"Fifty-six fifty, and I'm cutting my own throat at that price."

The woman grinned. "You sound just like someone I met once. His food was pretty good." Tapping her fingers on the table, she glanced at the prop, which her friend promptly held up with one hand and ran the other down it in the manner of a TV telesales ad. "Fifty four fifty, and I throw in a magic ring."

He stared at her. "Magic ring?" he asked.

"I could have done magic beans, but I got peckish and finished the bag," she smiled. "So all I can offer is a ring."

Jack himself was now snickering. "Magic ring. I like that, no one has ever tried that on me before. OK, where were we? Right, hold on..." He took a breath, while she waited politely.

"Magic ring?" he shouted. "You think to tempt me with your foul sorcery, woman? This is honest _SCIENCE!_ Not... _magic_. Pah!"

A couple of people clapped, while the brunette was holding in giggles.

His bargaining opponent grinned again. "It's a very nice ring. Gold, fits anyone." She shrugged a little. "I made a few of them a while back and have some left over."

"And what… magic… does it have, pray tell? I suppose it's some sort of classic invisibiity spell or something like that." He looked skeptically at her.

"That was the original idea, yes," she chuckled. "Had some problems with it, though. We recalled them and changed the magic, so now it just stops you from getting burned while you have it on. Nothing major, but useful if you're a fireman or something."

"Do I look like a fireman?" he asked wryly.

"Not really," she admitted, smirking. "But it's still a nice ring." Reaching into a pouch on her belt, she pulled out the ring in question and flipped it to him. He caught it, feeling the weight with some surprise. It was much heavier than he'd have expected for a prop, so it probably was either gold or gold-plated tungsten. Looking at it closely, he admired the workmanship, at the same time he recognized the movie it had come from.

"Nice work," he said.

"Thanks."

"Authorized copy?"

"Well, essentially, you could put it like that," she smiled. "After a fashion."

Raising an eyebrow, he examined her, spotting the smile again. Rolling the ring in his fingers, he thought. It was a very well made prop, legit or not. "I still find myself hesitant to accept a mere magic ring in part exchange for such an item of superscience," he stated, in character.

"Don't you mean super _SCIENCE!_ " the space marine lizard asked with humor in her voice.

He pointed at her. "Exactly. Your companion can see the truth of the matter. But then she is obviously from a high tech civilization, where you are merely from some feudal fantasy world." His finger moved to the one in the middle, who raised an eyebrow, her brown eyes showing inner hilarity but her face doing a pretty good job of taking all this as routine. "You, I have no idea."

"Combat witch," she replied, smiling a little.

"Combat witch?" he echoed.

"From another universe, of course. You don't have combat witches here."

"True. Is there much call for witches in combat?"

"If the combat is the right type, sure," she replied.

"And the tail?"

She indicated her companions. "Company policy."

"Fair enough." He grinned at her. "OK. Magic ring… I suppose I can probably knock a hundred bucks off for a magic ring."

" _Genuine_ magic ring," the lizard ninja said. "Must be worth an easy hundred and fifty."

He sighed, holding the ring up to his eyes again. "I would have preferred a good blaster, myself," he commented. "Magic is no match for a good blaster. But it's shiny, if nothing else. Even if it is the result of some reptilian sorcery."

She appeared offended. "Highly skilled demonic magic, I think you meant to say. Not sorcery."

"And you think ' _demonic_ ' makes it better?" He looked askance at her as the brunette finally laughed.

"Demons make most things better," she giggled.

"You have a different definition of demon than I do," Jack grinned. "Fine. Fifty five, and one magic ring. But I expect the spells to work or I'll want a refund."

"Of course. I stand by my work the same as you do, my friend," she said. Pulling out a roll of cash large enough to choke a horse she started quickly peeling bills from it, counting under her breath. "Here you go. And thank you very much, oh purveyor of well-made props."

Bowing, he smiled. "I thank the wise and beautiful lizard-ninja," he said as he straightened up, accepting the stack of fifties.

"Ah. Someone finally realized the truth," she chuckled, looking at her friend, who rolled her eyes. "See? I said someone would one day."

"You are impossible."

"Merely moderately improbable."

Handing the prop back, they watched as he put it into the custom made box, slipped one of his cards in as well, then returned it to them. "Thank you for the purchase, and the show."

"Any time," she replied. "It was fun. Come on, guys, I want to get something to eat, then go and see that costume show."

"Are you entering it?" he asked curiously. "You'd stand a hell of a good chance of winning. Best costumes I've ever seen."

"Thanks, but probably not," she told him. "I'm too shy and retiring, I don't think I could stand up in front of a large crowd and let them stare at me."

The brunette almost choked with laughter, shaking her head at her friend, while the black lizard was shaking with quiet amusement. " _You?_ Shy? _Retiring?_ Have you gone utterly insane again?"

Jack watched with a grin as they headed off, arguing with each other about how none of them wanted to stand out in a crowd, while pushing through a huge crowd, in which they did stand out quite a lot. The last he saw of them was the head of the big lizard costume sticking a good foot over everyone else.

It was only after they left that he suddenly thought that he should have asked to have a look at the blaster rifle. Oh, well, perhaps they'd come back.

Pulling another portal gun from under the counter, he replaced the one he'd sold, then started serving more customers, many of whom had been attracted by the little skit. Business was so good as a result he half-thought that he should find that woman again and give her her money back, as a commission.

Shrugging, he dropped the ring he'd acquired into his pocket and got on with his day. So far, it was one hell of a good show.


	221. Omake - Con Fusion

Doug looked at his best friend Sandy, who looked back, her eyes wide. Then they both looked back at the man who was pointing a knife in their general direction. "I said, money and phones," the man repeated with the air of someone to whom this was routine. The mask he was wearing, a cheap dog one from one of the stands in the main hall to their left, moved as he spoke, his voice a little hollow.

They'd been curious about the rest of the conference center and had decided to have a quick explore, having grown tired for the moment of the heaving mass of humanity filling the three halls of the convention. The plan had been to sneak off and wander around to see what else was going on, for half an hour or until they got bored and/or caught, then go back and finish the main hall. After that it would be time for lunch, then the other two halls.

Doug's father had dropped both of them off, told them to try to stay out of trouble this time with a weary sort of preknowledge, and that he'd see them either at the end of the day or when the police called him.

It had happened before.

Although it totally wasn't their fault, either of the last two times.

The third time, he'd admit they might have had something to do with, but it was an accident. It was always an accident. They just happened to be in the area when odd things occurred, and he'd swear to his dying day that was the case. Sandy would as well, even though her mother had different ideas. Apparently Doug was a bad influence on her.

Which he found amusing, since his Dad said the same thing about Sandy.

Even with all that in mind, though, this was the first time they'd been mugged. And in the middle of a convention, as well, which seemed a bit much. Out on the street, maybe, but in here…

All that went through his mind in moments, before Sandy said in a low voice, "What do we do?"

"Um..."

"You give me your money, and your phones," the man said for the third time, slowly and patiently. "That's how this works. I'm mugging you, you're the victims, therefore you do what I say. Then you go away, poorer in property but richer in life experience." He almost sounded amused now, and was surprisingly well-spoken for a violent criminal.

"And if we don't?" she demanded defiantly, her hands on her hips. "We could scream and people would come running."

Their mugger took a step forward, the knife, which was in Doug's opinion vastly larger than required for the job in hand, and much sharper than he really liked, glinting in the overhead lights. "You could, true, but I think I can get to you before they can get to me. There's no need for heroics, is there? You're what, fourteen or so? I don't think I'd have too much trouble with either of you."

He was awful chatty for a mugger, Doug mused.

"It took months to save up for this, and now you want to take it all from us?" Sandy growled.

"That's the basic idea behind a mugging, yes," the man replied. "My clients earn the money, they bring the money to where I am, I get the money, I'm happy. Admittedly they're not, but life is seldom fair." He shrugged. "Hurry up, kid, I want to see the costume show."

They looked at each other again. Sandy flicked her eyes to the right, towards the nearest entrance to the hall. He shook his head very slightly, that led them closer to the mugger. She rolled her eyes a little, then flicked them the other way. He thought, nodded, looked back to the mugger, then both of them bolted.

"Oh, for fuck's sake," the man sighed, following. "You do realize that's a dead end, don't you?" he called after them.

No, they hadn't realized that at all.

Doug rattled the handle on the locked door at the end of the service corridor they'd found themselves in, then turned to Sandy, who was looking annoyed and somewhat scared. "Great job, thanks. Now he's mad, and we're trapped."

"Hey, I don't want to give him my money any more than you do. I thought this went back to the lobby."

"It doesn't."

"Well, _duh_. I can see it doesn't." She rolled her eyes again, her hands on her hips. Then she brightened up. "Oh, it was the next one along. _That's_ the one that leads back to the lobby."

"Thanks. That really helps," he sighed, turning to face the masked mugger, who had approached while they were talking and was standing a few feet away, waiting for them to stop arguing. "Um… sorry?" he tried.

"It was a good attempt, but you picked the wrong corridor," the man chuckled. "Next one along was the one you wanted."

"That's what I just said," Sandy put in. Both Doug and the mugger looked at her, making her flush a little. "Well, I did," she muttered in a low voice.

"OK, kids, fun's over, I have a job to do. Money, phones, anything else you have on you. Come on, hand it over." He gestured with the knife.

Reaching into his pocket, Doug sighed. Then he stared past the man's shoulder, as something very, very odd happened to the corridor behind him.

Raising his other hand, he pointed. "Um..."

Sandy was gaping as well.

"Nice try. How stupid do you think I am?" the man asked.

Doug kept pointing. "What the hell is that?" he squeaked.

The end of the corridor was… warping. That was the best description he could come up with. It was he was looking at it through some sort of lens, which was moving towards them, the floor curving and sliding up the walls, which in turn were rotating out of the way of the ceiling as it bent downwards. The effect was very hard on the eyes and made him feel like he was falling forwards, although he could tell he wasn't.

In the middle of it, a petite figure in a robe or something like that, a set of wires holding a flat wooden cross-shaped thing a couple of feet over its head like a puppet, was sauntering towards them. There were a number of unnerving things, other than the very disturbing warping effect, about this. One was that he could see that the lights overhead appeared to be illuminating the inside of the hood, which certainly looked from here like it was empty.

Another one was the way the figure was a good foot off the ground, floating along in mid air.

The worse part was the way it was eating a pretzel, _without using a mouth…_

" **Hello,** " a hissing voice said, making him shiver. Sandy went ' _eep_ ' and hid behind him. The mugger jumped about a foot in the air, then whirled around, gaping.

"What the fuck?" he said in a stunned voice.

" **Am I interrupting something?** " the floating thing said. Doug got the impression it was probably female, but the voice was extremely odd and while totally clear, made little determinations like that more difficult than it should be. Another bite of giant pretzel vanished into the empty hood. " **That's a big knife.** "

The man looked at the weapon, then held it up threateningly. "Stay back, whoever you are." He studied the hovering figure somewhat uncertainly. "Or whatever."

" **Good event, isn't it?** " the thing said, moving closer, the corridor distorting around it. Behind it, the lights seemed to have disappeared into a sort of rainbow ring, the corridor itself now apparently going to infinity.

Or beyond, Doug thought uneasily. He could feel Sandy pressed against his back, shivering a little.

" **You appear to be engaged in a mugging,** " it added in a reflective tone. " **Don't like muggers.** "

It moved closer. The man stepped back, waving his enormous knife.

"Get back, I'm warning you," he growled, but both teenagers could hear the worry in his voice.

" **Are you two all right?** " the cloaked figure asked, turning its attention to Doug and Sandy. Both of them nodded a little jerkily. " **Good, otherwise I'd have to be angry. Now, all I have to do is hand this guy over to security.** "

"You're not doing anything," the man shouted abruptly, diving at the figure, which didn't move.

Doug stared in total disbelief as the man appeared to somehow… stretch… his body elongating into a hard to look at shape, orbiting around the floating figure in a way that defied explanation, then snapped back into normality facing them on the other side of the corridor. He stood motionless for a moment, then ripped his mask off and puked noisily onto the carpet.

"Oh, yuck," Sandy mumbled into Doug's ear.

There was a snicker from somewhere in the cloak. " **What am I supposed to say now?** " it mused in a low voice. " **Oh, right, I remember.** _ **There is no escape, criminal scum! Drop your weapon and come quietly, or there will be...** "_ It leaned forward meaningfully. " ** _...Trouble._** "

The mugger straightened up, wiping his mouth on his sleeve. Under the mask was a completely average face, which was looking both worried and very, very confused.

"What the fuck was that?" he said hoarsely.

" **Simple spacial manipulation, causing a localized singularity, which you traveled around,** " the weird creature, which Doug was beginning to think might not actually be human at all, said in a happy tone. " **Good, isn't it? Took me a while to work out, at first everything kept coming out all crushed and ruined. Very messy. But it's completely safe now, just a bit disorientating.** "

He threw his knife at her.

They all watched as it stretched, then gaped at the silver blur wrapped around her a foot or two away like a belt hanging in mid air.

The hood cocked to one side curiously.

" **Did you really think that would work?** " It shrugged. " **Slightly less stupid than throwing a gun at me, I guess. People do _that_ all the time.** " A hand came out of the cloth and plucked the orbiting anomaly out of the air, making it resolve back into a knife again. " **Nice knife, though.** "

With a wild shout, the man tried to get past her again, pressing hard against the wall as far away from the middle of the corridor as he could get. Doug and Sandy watched as he slipped past, then charged down the weirdly distorted hallway. The figure rotated in mid air to do the same.

The mugger ran as fast as he could, but seemed to be slowing down rapidly, even though his legs and arms were pumping. Twenty feet further on he was for all intents running on the spot.

"How the hell are you doing that?" Sandy asked in a stunned voice.

" **I've got all sorts of interesting abilities,** " the cloaked figure hissed with satisfaction. It ate another bite of the pretzel it was still holding in the other hand, apparently completely unconcerned. " **Don't worry about it. You should get back to the hall, I'll hand this guy over to security.** "

"He's between us and the hall," Sandy commented, sounding nervous.

The knife disappeared into the hood, making them both stare again. The free hand pointed to the side, at an air vent which suddenly warped and distorted, growing to cover the wall, then one of the slots in it expanding into a doorway-sized opening. Through it they could, impossibly, see the main hall and lots of people milling around, none of whom seemed to notice.

"Holy crap," Doug whispered.

" **There you go.** " Their rescuer sounded amused. " **Have fun. Try one of the pretzels, they're really nice.** "

"Ah..." Sandy moved around Doug, looked at the apparent opening to the main hall, then towards the mugger who was now standing, his head slumped, watching them in a disconsolate way. Both of them knew for a fact that the hall itself was past him, not in the direction of the wall. They exchanged a glance. "Thank you?"

A hand, which they both noticed was leathery and clawed, not looking at all human, waved dismissively. " **No trouble, I was happy to help. Go on, enjoy. This is a really nice event.** "

Grabbing Doug's hand, Sandy squeezed it, then pulled him towards the passage back to the hall. Sticking her other hand through it, she waved it around, grinned madly, and yanked him through.

" **All right, my friend, let's go and find a security guard, OK?** " they faintly heard from behind them. Turning around, all they could see was the wall of the huge room, a small vent on it settling back into shape silently. A moment later everything was normal.

There was a long silence, both of them in a little bubble of isolation even in the midst of a crowd of thousands. Then they looked at each other.

"What the hell just happened?" Doug asked in a weak voice.

"I have… no idea at all," Sandy admitted quietly.

"Should we tell anyone?"

"No." She shook her head quickly. "No one would believe us." They looked around a little helplessly, then back at the wall. "Screw it. I want a pretzel," she added, turning around and pushing through the crowd towards the food court area. Doug stared at the vent on the wall for a second or two longer, then followed, sidling around someone dressed in an incredibly good humanoid reptile costume with a muttered apology, and ran to catch up.

He was _very_ confused.

But at least he still had his money, his phone, and his best friend.


	222. Press and Bulldozer

Stepping up to the podium as the applause died away, Roy smiled at the assembled reporters, aides, and various members of the public who had crowded into the city hall meeting room, the largest in the building.

"Hello, everyone," he said, his hands on the sides of the lectern in a posture that showed welcome openness, combined with confidence.

He hadn't studied crowd psychology for nothing.

"Welcome to Brockton Bay, for those of you who I haven't seen before, and it's nice to see familiar faces for those who I have." He looked around the room, meeting the eyes of several reporters. To the side, he heard a very faint snort from Emily Piggot, who was sitting in a chair a few feet away. He suppressed a smile at her attitude, knowing how much she disliked the public-facing side of politics.

"As you are aware, last night our newest local Parahuman heroic group, The Family, in association with both the PRT and the Brockton Bay police department, raided the Archer's Bridge Merchants gang's headquarters. One hundred and nine members of the gang were apprehended and placed into custody with no serious injuries on the part of the gang members and no injuries at all to any of the attending personnel. A very large amount of evidence was seized, including documentation that I am told will lead to the shutting down of narcotics supply for much of the East Coast."

Again, he waited for the ripple of applause to subside. Many of the people present looked very pleased.

"There was one fatality, the Parahuman Tinker known as Squealer, who was found during the post-action clean up by the BBPD. It has been established that she was killed by gunshot, in an apparent Merchant execution, either just before or during the commencement of the raid. No arrests have yet been made over her murder but evidence was found implicating the same weapon used in previous Merchant crimes."

"Following the collection of evidence and when the PRT and the BBPD were satisfied they had thoroughly swept the premises, Raptaur of the Family destroyed the building completely, therefore denying any fugitive gang members a place to hide. Subsequent to the raid, a further nineteen gang members have been apprehended either by the BBPD, the PRT, or various independent capes. We believe that there are, at most, some forty to fifty such members still at large, although there is also considerable evidence to suggest that the bulk of them have left the city entirely."

He paused to sip some water, while everyone waited, a dozen cameras following him closely.

"With one action, a serious thorn in the side of the inhabitants of this city has been removed. I, and the city council, wish to publicly announce our gratitude to the Family, the PRT, and the police officers who have put their lives at risk for so long against nearly overwhelming odds to keep the citizens of this city safe. I am sure that everyone who lives here feels the same. I am aware that when our new reptilian friends made their debut only a few short weeks ago there was a certain amount of disquiet, but since then they have shown, again and again, that they only wish the best for us all. Their aid to the DWU has been invaluable, as well as key to the redevelopment plan, and this latest operation shows that they are prepared to take more direct action if required."

He looked around at the crowd, then directly into the cameras.

"As both Ianthe and Saurial announced last night, on balance the Family would prefer to remain neutral, an attitude I personally can understand and appreciate. But, they also have a definite point past which they will act to prevent harm to their friends, as we have now seen in a very graphic and impressive fashion. We, as a city, should feel pleased that they count the inhabitants of Brockton Bay among those friends. Our city has a uniquely large per-capita number of Parahuman inhabitants, which for far too long was tilted in favor of the criminal element. It would appear that this balance is _finally_ shifting towards the other side of the scale."

"About time!" someone in the crowd shouted, causing a certain amount of laughter.

"Indeed, my friend," he smiled. "I feel the same." He glanced at a couple of the councilors who were arrayed behind him, then at the PRT Director. "After consultation with the council, the city administration has come to the conclusion that we should, as a mark of thanks, arrange some form of award for the Family members who put themselves forward to help deal with the Merchant problem, not to mention all the other things they've done since they arrived here. We also feel that it is time we honored New Wave in the same manner, something that is overdue. Members of that team, a home-grown group who have fought for us and the world itself against the Endbringers numerous times, once again stepped forward to help during the initial stages of the redevelopment plan."

A wave of applause ran through the crowd when he paused, making him smile again. When it stopped, he nodded. "Thank you for your support in this matter. No disrespect is intended to the PRT, the Wards, or the Protectorate members who are stationed here, many of whom are also local heroes, but I am sure that even they recognize that there is a large difference between an independent group and a federally supported agency." He glanced at Director Piggot again, a couple of the cameras turning to point at her. She nodded a little, her face expressionless.

"Details of a suitable award will be discussed at the next council meeting, which takes place on the sixteenth of next month, and will be announced after that. Public input and suggestions are welcomed via the city council website in the normal manner."

Sipping some more water, he put the glass down, then leaned forward a tiny, carefully calculated amount. "That's the end of my prepared speech," he smiled. "I'm throwing the floor open for questions. Please keep them to the subject in hand, and if possible one at a time. We have plenty of time, folks."

There was an immediate shouting match between the various reporters, which was entirely expected. He smiled again, then pointed at one woman. "You, please. May we hear your question?"

The others subsided while the woman stood up, holding a notebook. "Mayor Christner, has the death of the Tinker Squealer been definitely identified as occurring at the hands of the Merchants?"

"For the answer to that, I will defer to Director Piggot of the PRT, who have been handling the autopsy and investigation in conjunction with the BBPD crime scene processing unit." He turned to Emily, who leaned forward to speak into the microphone in front of her.

"The BBPD CSI unit has positively linked the recovered rounds from the body of Squealer, a Parahuman Tinker, to those fired from a weapon known to be in the hands of the Archer's Bridge Merchants and used in the commission of at least two previous serious crimes," she said in a calm voice. "The weapon itself has not been recovered as of yet. The time of death, the location, and the circumstances all point firmly at one or more individuals from the gang being behind the crime. Questioning of the arrested suspects is underway but so far we haven't found anyone we believe was the one who pulled the trigger. It's entirely possible that the gunman, or woman, has made their escape for the moment."

"But you're certain it was the Merchants who shot her?" the reporter pushed.

"Yes." Director Piggot's voice left no room for doubt.

"Thank you, Ma'am," the woman said, sitting down. "Mr Mayor."

"Next question?" he asked, looking around. Once again he picked a reporter.

"What does the city feel about the announcement by the PRT that the Family is a fully authorized Heroic organization with Protectorate and Guild associate status?" the man asked.

"Pleased," he grinned. The man chuckled. "Honestly, all of us are unsurprised by the announcement," he went on. "I would suggest that it was only a matter of time. While they are at pains to point out that they are mostly interested in keeping to themselves and getting on with work, rather than throwing their not inconsiderable weight around, it was obvious from the start that they are much more on the heroic side of things than otherwise. Saurial, for example, has single-handedly reduced street crime by an enormous amount in the last couple of months. She has said several times she never goes looking for crime, which does appear to be entirely truthful, but she finds it even so." Several people laughed quite a lot at that.

"But she never fails to deal with it, when she comes across it, quickly, efficiently, and with a remarkable lack of violence or damage. She has also saved a significant number of people from car accidents, fires, and other such things. Not to mention being perfectly prepared to lend a hand whenever and wherever required. Her sisters and cousins are the same. Raptaur also goes out of her way to deal with crime when she sees it. Both Metis and Ianthe have healed a number of people, Ianthe has helped Panacea in Brockton General at least twice, we all know what Kaiju is doing..." He grinned at the laughter. "Not that you can miss it. No, I think we can agree that despite their protestations to the contrary, they are definitely heroes. Unconventional ones, true enough, but real all the same."

"Thank you, sir," the reporter, one from a local paper, said with a nod of gratitude.

"You're welcome. Next question, please."

Internally, he was very satisfied with the way things were going. There was no sign that either the ABB or the E88 were likely to start trouble with the demise of the other major gang, there were a number of reports which showed that a lot of criminals in the city, and in fact the entire state, were in shock and going _very_ quiet in case the Family noticed them, and the public response was basically, ' _Thank god, why didn't someone do this years ago?_ ' It all seemed to be working out nicely.

Hopefully this state of affairs would continue. Although he wondered, not without a certain amount of fatalistic worry, when the idiot Skidmark would put in an appearance again. It seemed too much to hope that he'd take the hint and stay away.

He wasn't that smart.

Oh well. With any luck, he'd stay out of the way for a while even so and let things settle down.

Picking the next question, he settled in to answer it, knowing that this would go on for a while, but pleased how positive all the questions were.

* * *

Kevin, eating an apple, wandered over to the other side of the workshop, moving around various left-over projects from their exploits over the years. Giving his bipedal mech an affectionate pat as he went past it, idly thinking he needed to check it over sometime soon, he stopped to watch Randall, who was staring at a video playing on his computer. It seemed to be some old Chinese martial arts movie, subtitled in rather bad English.

His friend was intently watching the screen, while the protagonist of the movie beat the hell out of waves of opponents with a level of skill that was slightly scary, and as far as Kevin could see, mostly real. The other man was smiling in a weird way as he watched, unblinking and focused.

Leaning on the remains of a Mario Kart car, which had been cannibalized for parts a year or so ago, Kevin waited for the video to end. He was just finishing his apple when Randall reached out and clicked the mouse, stopping the playback.

Turning to him, his old friend grinned.

" _I know Kung Fu_ ," he said in a whisper.

Kevin raised an eyebrow.

"Really?"

"Well, I would need to practice on someone, but yes, I think I can probably do everything you can see in that movie," the other man smirked. "I can't believe how much more effective my ability is now. I need to find something else to try. But in the last day I've learned kung fu, bricklaying, plumbing, light aircraft maintenance, basket-weaving, piano tuning, banjo playing, and advanced welding. Just from watching instructional videos. It's much faster than it was and a lot more in depth now, too."

"Basket-weaving?" Kevin asked, mystified.

Randall shrugged. "The girl in the video was cute, so I watched it."

With a laugh, the Tinker shook his head. "Ah. Fair enough."

"How has your experimentation gone?" Randall asked, getting up and moving to a clear area in the somewhat cluttered room, then starting the movements of some martial arts practice kata that Kevin had never seen before, slowly and carefully.

"Incredibly well," he smiled. "I got the hologram projector working perfectly. I understand exactly how it works, but I still don't think I could actually make a new one. But, that said, I can repair this one, and I bet I can help Dragon reverse engineer it. And I've also repaired half a dozen more old devices. Including..." He paused dramatically, while his friend stopped and studied him.

"Including…?" Randall prompted.

"Including that suit of Halo power armor."

Randall stared, then began grinning like an idiot. "You got the Mjolnir armor working again?"

"I did indeed. Remember the power unit melted down? I fixed it, replaced the burned out wiring, and even found what the original fault was in the first place and fixed that too. It passes all the diagnostics now, everything's in the green. I have a feeling it'll be completely reliable from now on."

They looked at each other, then started laughing. "Oh, my god," Randall finally said when they calmed down. "The things we could do… Those girls are unbelievable! How the hell did they _do_ this? And what did they actually do, for that matter? How did they make our powers work so much better?"

"I haven't got a clue," Kevin shrugged. "We need to go talk to them and see if this was what they were expecting."

"Fine by me." Randall looked at his watch. "They'll probably be out of school by now, going to the DWU. Let's grab some more pizzas and head over in a few hours. I want to practice a little first."

"OK. I still need to put the armor back together, it's all over the bench at the moment." Kevin headed back to his workbench while the other man resumed his katas, slowly but surely speeding up, smiling to himself with satisfaction.

* * *

Pressing the starter button, Linda listened to the loud clunk that resulted as the main solenoid fired. It was followed by a crackle, then a whine from the large DC starter motor as it reluctantly freed up. The main gear didn't engage, so she let go of the button and climbed down from the cab, moving around to the open engine compartment. Picking up a small ball-peen hammer, she carefully whacked the starter in a specific place, once, then returned to the cab.

This time when she pressed the button there was a crunch and the engine began slowly turning over. Looking over her shoulder she checked the twin exhaust stacks for the huge diesel were still connected to the vent hoses that ran through the roof of the workshop, via a very large extractor fan. Around the near ends of the hoses she could see puffs of white smoke.

A moment later the engine coughed a few times, emitted a thunderous backfire, and rumbled into life. Black smoke leaked out of a couple of places in the old exhaust, but she ignored that in favor of watching the various gauges on the instrument panel. Revving it very gently as it warmed up, she waited for the engine temperature to hit the correct level, then released the throttle. It settled down to a contented, albeit very loud, grumble, the entire seventy-five ton machine quivering with life.

She smiled, looking over to Kadir, who was watching her with a neutral expression from the workshop floor about twenty feet away. After a moment, he nodded, before making a hand signal to cut the engine. Linda went through the shut-down process and a little later the echos died away in the large garage.

"Excellent, Linda," the depot manager said as he came over, smiling up at her just a little. He wasn't very expressive, she'd rapidly worked out, seldom either looking either particularly happy or particularly unhappy, so a faint smile from him was beaming from most people. "I'm impressed. I didn't expect that you'd get it running that fast."

"I got lucky, whoever was last to use it must have known it wasn't going to be used again for a while and put some effort into mothballing the thing," she said as she swung herself down from the cab to stand on one of the huge tracks, wiping her hands on a rag. "I had to pull a few parts off the other one, which is in much worse condition, though. This still needs the hydraulics cleaned out and a few spare parts, but I think I can modify some of the stuff from the D10 over there to fit. We have plenty of spares for that one. The transmission needs some work as well but that's not hard, just time consuming."

"Very good. All right, go ahead with that. What about the second unit?"

Jumping down, she turned to look at the other old dozer, green paint and rust competing for space on the chassis. A little dubiously, she replied, "I can probably get the engine running in a couple of days, but the hydraulics are completely shot. Water in the lines has rusted the fuck out of everything. It would all need to be completely replaced."

"I see." He studied it, then looked at her again. "Recommendations?"

"If it was me, I'd take the engine and transmission out for spares for this one, then scrap the rest," she said after thinking it over. "But I'll keep working on it if you want."

Her new, and immediate, boss thought for a couple of seconds. "No. I agree, it's not worth the time and effort. I'll tell Danny that we think it's scrap, only good for parts. Tomorrow, get Ben and Alice to help you strip it of anything you want, then we'll put it into the pile to get cut up." He nodded to her. "A very good first day. Thank you for your work."

"It was my pleasure," she replied, feeling remarkably happy about the praise. "I'll finish up here, then my shift is over, unless you need me for anything else."

He shook his head. "Nothing that can't wait. Go and play with your workshop." The small smile came back for a moment. "I can tell you want to."

She chuckled slightly. "Is it that obvious?"

"Only to another engineer. I expect great things from you, Miss Morgan." The smile grew fractionally. "You have a gift. Use it well." With another nod, he turned and left, heading for a group working on one of the larger excavators. She watched him go, wondering exactly what he meant by that, then went back to work with a shrug.

She was certainly having fun, and it was nice to be thanked for her work, rather than screamed at by drug addled idiots.

* * *

Closing the front door, Vicky headed for the stairs, only to find herself intercepted by her mother who came out of the living room. The older woman stood, arms crossed and a severe expression on her face. "Um… Hi, Mom," the blonde said uncertainly.

"Hello, Victoria," Carol Dallon replied, making Vicky wince. She knew that tone, it heralded a lecture.

"Do you have something you want to tell me?" her mother added meaningfully.

Looking innocent, she shook her head, smiling. "I don't think so, no."

Carol held up a phone, the screen showing a picture Vicky recognized with a sinking feeling. "Oh. That."

"Explain."

"I… got distracted..." she sighed, not wanting to go into exactly what she'd been distracted _by_. She really wasn't sure that mentioning any of her private theories to her _mother_ of all people was wise, considering Carol's overall attitude. She'd mellowed a lot in the last month, ever since the big blow-up with Amy and the following drunken lecture with Aunt Sarah, and Vicky had no wish to be the cause of any backsliding.

"By _what?_ " was the inevitable question.

"Um..." She thought quickly. "I saw someone have a minor accident on the road and while I was checking that they were OK, the building got in the way," the blonde lied with a straight face. "Sorry. I should have watched where I was going."

Carol glared at her. "Yes, you _should_ have. If you see something like that, _slow down_ if you're going to watch it. Or, ideally, _stop_. You have a responsibility to use your powers in a sensible manner, flying through someone's window is _not_ something that gives a good impression. Either of you personally, or of New Wave in general. I have had a very difficult phone conversation with the building manager over that little incident. Not to mention the entire internet has seen it by now."

Vicky sighed internally as her mother wound up for a good rant. This one was going to take a while, but at least it might take her mind off the lizard conspiracy.

Although she wondered how Carol had found out about it, she didn't look at PHO very much.

* * *

Getting out of her truck as Taylor closed the roller doors, Amy stepped back when her friend came over and quickly generated a cover for the vehicle. "I'll talk to Dad about getting access to one of the nearby empty units for a garage," Taylor said when she'd finished. "The vehicle depot is pretty busy at this time of day and we really need somewhere to hide your truck when you're here. Although I have a feeling that at least half the people in the DWU know the truth about the Family anyway, or a lot of it."

Amy smiled a little. "Best to keep up appearances and good security practices, though."

"Yep. There's an empty building on the other side of the courtyard that would probably do," Taylor replied. She was currently in her Saurial form, having changed when they'd driven through an area they knew was free of surveillance on the way here, but wearing casual clothing fitted to her reptilian body, not the usual armor. And for once not the trench-coat she seemed to like.

Walking over to the workroom, Amy unlocked the door, pulling it open. They'd spent some time the previous day moving all the computers and other equipment that was on the long bench in the main room down towards the rear by about twenty-five feet, then enlarging the workroom by the same amount, as a result of Linda's upgrade showing that Amy needed more space. Looking at the ceiling as she turned the lights on Amy mused that they would have to get the electrical guys to install some more lights since the new extension didn't have any, but it wasn't urgent considering her improved vision. To her reengineered eyes the room was well lit, and in her ' _Ianthe_ ' body it was as bright as day, of course.

The rear storage room had also been enlarged a little, to allow for more bioconstructs, since she had plans along those lines, but they were going to need to make a much larger storage area eventually since some of those plans lead to quite significant constructions. She hadn't worked out the details yet, though, so it could wait.

Picking up her container of healing symbiotes, she checked them carefully, pleased they were completely intact. The new tweaks didn't show any degradation at all, although it would take more than a few days of storage to really show up. But she was pretty sure she'd cracked that problem, they were probably more or less indefinitely stable now.

Soon she was in her alternate form, joining Taylor who was standing at the table, inspecting Vista's little spacial anomaly, which was still happily warping the fabric of the universe, hanging two feet off the surface. Taylor had moved it to be up against the wall and none of their recent visitors seemed to have noticed it, since it was a very subtle visual distortion unless your senses were either better than human or sensitive to such things.

"It's starting to degrade," her friend reported, glancing at her. "I was curious to see how long it would last. I think another two days at most. Not bad at all."

"I wonder when we'll see the kid again?" Amy asked with a smile.

"As soon as she can manage it, I think," Taylor grinned. "Poor Vista, she seems pretty bored with the Wards. I'm not surprised, from what she said they really try to keep her away from anything exciting."

"You mean dangerous."

"I stand by my description while acknowledging that yours is also valid," her friend snickered.

"It's not surprising, they're all about PR, and letting a cute blonde thirteen-year-old girl on the front lines of some major incident is probably a PR nightmare in their view," Amy suggested. "Even if she is one of the most powerful, experienced, and dangerous capes in the city."

"Probably true," Taylor nodded, going over to one of the fridges and pulling out a couple of cans, tossing her one and opening the other for herself. "I wonder if they actually have any idea how dangerous she really is? Even before our little teaching session?"

"No idea, but I wouldn't be surprised to know the answer was no," Amy said with a shrug. Popping the tab with one claw she drank the contents of the can, then crushed the container into a ball and tossed it back to Taylor, who snapped it out of the air with a quick move of her head and ate it. With a grin, she suggested, "Let's go and find Linda. I wonder where Lisa is?" The Metis construct was in standby in the store room and there was no sign of their friend.

"Don't know," Taylor mused, finishing her own drink and disposing of the can in the same way. "Probably with Dad or something. She'll turn up."

Leaving the building, they locked up, then headed over to the vehicle depot. Taylor had a quick word with Kadir, the guy who ran the place, then came back to her. "She's over at the other workshop," she reported.

Soon they were entering the large room, both of them looking around with interest. It was much like the BBFO office had been, before the upgrades to it, only larger with with a pair of large hydraulic vehicle lifts at one end, inspection pits in the floor, and a lot of random items of machinery lying around the place. They found Linda walking through a series of stacks of old metal parts, making notes on a pad.

"Hi, Linda," Taylor said. The woman looked up, then smiled.

"Hello, Saurial," she replied. "And Ianthe as well."

"Everything going all right with you? Nothing fallen off or anything?" Taylor asked with a grin. The brunette's smile widened.

"No, no problems to report. I was just looking through all this stuff to see if there was anything worth keeping." She flipped through her notepad. "Not much, a few engines that are repairable, a couple of very good transmissions, some tools… most of it really is scrap."

"OK." Taylor looked around, as did Amy. "No problem. One of the spur lines runs right past the rear door to this place, we can get an empty rail car here and shove all this stuff into it in about an hour and a half. Most of it in on pallets so it's easy. Then I can line it with something and fix the floor too. The guys got all the lights and power sorted out?"

"Yes," the Tinker replied, looking up at the ceiling. "All new fittings, the three phase feed has been replaced, and there are power points all around the room. It's ideal once some space had been cleared."

"Good. Let's get that done, then we can go back to the office and talk about the next phase. Have you made any decisions?"

The woman looked a little unsure. "I have some ideas. I think I need to discuss it with you guys and find out which ones are practical." Both of them looked at Amy, who shrugged.

"Almost anything you can think of is practical. We can experiment."

"All right, I guess that sounds… fucking weird, actually, but worth a shot." Linda grinned, as did the other two. "Where's Metis?"

"No idea at the moment," Amy said. "She'll turn up sooner or later."

"Right, then, go and open the back door, I'll go and round up a couple of guys with forklifts to help, Ianthe, you go and steal one of the rail cars and push it around back, OK?" Taylor said with a firm nod. "Let's get this done."

"Sounds like a plan." Amy nodded too. "See you in a minute." She turned around and left the building, jogging across the yard to the scrapping area and the people working there. After a short discussion, she was happily pushing several tons of empty rail car back down the line, humming to herself and wondering if her sister had cheered up yet.

* * *

Dennis stared at his friend, then the thing on the bench.

Chris pressed a button. There were some odd sounds, clicks, clunks, a definite sizzle, then a series of whining sounds, before a slot on the side of the machine opened and a perfectly sliced pepperoni pizza slid out the end of the machine. Chris shrugged helplessly at him as he looked back at the other boy. "An automatic pizza oven," Dennis stated.

"Apparently."

"Why?"

"I was hungry. I think." Chris looked somewhat confused. "I can't remember, to be honest."

Dennis reached out and picked up one of the perfectly cooked, utterly symmetrical slices and sniffed it. "It smells fine," he said.

"It _is_ fine," Chris noted. "Completely edible. Armsmaster checked it, and the lab repeated the tests. It's totally safe. And very tasty."

The red-head cautiously tried the slice, chewing in a contemplative manner. " _Damn_ , that's good pizza." He watched as the machine made another one at the press of the button, the process taking no more than thirty seconds. "Where does it get the ingredients?"

"I have no idea."

Looking at his friend, Dennis raised both eyebrows. "You… don't know?" he asked slowly. Chris shrugged.

"No idea at all. It just… makes pizza. Perfectly, every time. It's not even plugged into anything."

"Shit. That's… both very impressive and a little scary." He ate the rest of the slice. "Does it do other types of pizza?"

"Pepperoni, chicken and mushroom, with or without jalapenos, barbecue beef, and something with anchovies and shrimp on it." Chris looked mildly puzzled. "I don't even _like_ anchovies."

"Assault does."

"I know, he's been in here three times in the last hour for one. And offered to buy the thing from me."

Dennis laughed for a moment. He walked around the machine, which even when it wasn't making pizza made a faint sizzling sound and gave off the smell of fresh dough. "Incredible. You could put the local pizza places out of business if you could make another one."

"I'm scared to even try taking it apart to see if I can work out how it does… that." Chris looked nervous. "Armsmaster tried to take the cover off. It bit him."

Staring in bemusement, Dennis echoed, "Bit him?" in an incredulous voice. The Tinker nodded.

"It growled first. Then when he put his hand in the output slot, to get some leverage, it nearly took his hand off. He wasn't happy."

"Not surprised. Why the hell did you make an anthropophagic pizza oven?"

Chris shrugged again.

"Your guess is as good as mine. But if you think that's weird, look at the doughnut maker..."

They turned to peer at the other weird machine, which was making a sound that was very disturbingly like a happy cat, and extruding chocolate-coated doughnuts into a box, one every fifteen seconds or so. Dennis cautiously approached the device, picking up one of the pastries and sniffing it. "Custard?"

"Yep."

"Why?"

"Are they done yet?" an excited voice said from the door, making them both turn to see Vista grinning at them. She spotted the pastry in his hand, dashing over and grabbing it, then taking a bite. Her face formed a huge smile. "Wow. These are incredible. Thanks, Chris," the girl said in a somewhat muffled voice. She grabbed the box, then vanished again, the door closing behind her.

Chris reached out and pressed a button, the machine gurgling into silence, except for a background hum that was so deep it was more felt than heard. They exchanged a glance.

"That's why."

"Oh god. Missy on a sugar rush," Dennis groaned, massaging his forehead. "Word of advice? Hide it. Now. Quickly, before she comes back."

After a moment, Chris nodded, picking the thing up and staggering with the weight, heading towards a heavily reinforced storage room, the door of which was slightly open. Dennis pulled it all the way open for him, watching as he put the anomalous food producer on a shelf.

"So you at least worked out your specialization, while you were idly making machines that produced impossible food?" he asked as his friend came out of the storage room and closed the door, locking it firmly.

Chris looked much happier. "Yes. _Finally_." He led the way over to a whiteboard, which was covered in sketches and equations. "I was lying in bed thinking about some observations I made after watching Saurial flying around, and doing some research..." he began, while Dennis sat on a nearby chair and listened with interest.


	223. Cleanup and Testing

Heaving a couple of tons of old ironmongery into the rail car, Taylor heard it crash down on top of the stuff already in there. She turned as one of the forklifts came out of the workshop, guiding the operator to where she wanted the load. "Thanks, Bill," she called as he dropped it, then expertly spun the machine on its own axis and trundled back into the building, getting a wave in response. She picked up the next pallet of scrap and repeated the exercise.

"That's nearly all of it," Amy reported, coming out of the workshop with an entire engine that looked large enough to have come from a locomotive balanced on her head, her claws dug into it to stabilize it. Taylor inspected it and decided it had probably come out of a very large ship. Her friend pushed it into the rail car, the entire thing tipping under the weight, then shook the car to make it roll down the pile. "Just some smaller crap now, and the things that Linda wants to keep. She's getting the forklifts to move it to one side of the room out of the way."

"OK. Great. Let's collect all the small stuff, then push this back to the train so they can couple it up. The first load is moving out tomorrow."

They went back inside, Taylor making a large cubical bin on wheels for Amy, then another one for herself. They busied themselves wandering around and picking everything left up, dropping it into the bins. When they were finished, they put them in the car as well, then trundled it back to the main area. After a brief word with the crew who proceeded to connect it to the train being assembled in the yard, they headed back.

By now, both forklifts and their operators had left, Linda being the only one in the workshop. She was closing the doors as they arrived.

"Looks a lot larger now it's empty, doesn't it?" she said, looking around the room. "This place is enormous. Much bigger than my old place."

"There's a lot of room around here," Taylor agreed. "Fifty years ago, this entire area was part of one of the largest ports on the East Coast, and might have been the busiest. Well over a thousand people worked just in this facility, probably ten times that in the surrounding area. Now, of course, there's only about three hundred and fifty or so at the moment, so a lot of it is empty."

She smiled as she looked around. "Hopefully that will change soon. OK, then. How do you want this laid out? I was planning on lining the place with EDM like the office, and doing the floor in the same way, but after that, you tell me what you want and I'll make it happen."

The Tinker looked at her, then shook her head in wonder. "Your power is just insane. And so unbelievably useful."

"It comes in handy," Taylor grinned. "So does EDM. Really useful stuff."

"I can imagine," the brunette woman said with a certain level of envy in her voice, although she was also smiling. "Hmm."

She looked around the room, then started pacing off areas, both the others following her. "OK… This part would be the vehicle bay, that needs to be pretty big. Storage of finished stuff over here… Maybe a couple of smaller rooms on the sides, there and there, for small projects, parts, that sort of thing. About a third of the length of the building with a second floor, divided into one large room overlooking the main floor, then… four smaller rooms? Is that possible?"

"Sure." Amy was writing in a notebook she'd produced from a pouch, while Taylor looked around, visualizing what the woman wanted. "Not too hard. We can always change it later. I'll make some furniture and workbenches as well, but let's get the room sorted out first."

Moving to the nearest wall, she put a hand on it, then started generating EDM, which grew under her fingers outwards in all directions, flowing around the power outlets, switches, and fittings, while covering up the wiring conduits. Linda watched with stunned amazement. Amy was nodding, amused at the expression on their new friend's face, and Taylor's matter of fact look.

"Fuck me." Linda shook her head. "Just… Shit. That's unbelievable." She seemed to have run out of words.

Smiling, Taylor walked slowly along the wall, coating the entire inside of the room with unbreakable Varga produced material. She was enjoying herself, and was looking forward to seeing what the woman would invent when the workshop was finished.

* * *

Finally free of her mother, who had extracted a promise that she would go back to the place she'd flown into and apologize again, as well as pay more attention in future to what she was doing, Vicky went up to her room. Closing the door, she sighed heavily, then flopped down on her bed face down. After a moment, she lifted up a foot or two, rolled over in mid-air, and dropped back down on her back, staring at the ceiling.

' _Gah. That was unpleasant_ ,' she thought to herself, running her hands through her hair with another sigh. She loved her mother dearly, but the woman just didn't _shut up_ sometimes. ' _At least she seems to have listened to Aunt Sarah, more or less. She's treating Ames a hell of a lot better these days, which is great. Although sometimes I can literally see her catch herself, then change what she was going to say_.' She smiled a little, it was always funny to see her mother look a little uncertain. Amy clearly noticed as well, judging by the tiny smirk her sister got at those times.

Both of them obviously cared for each other, Vicky knew that, but on the dark-haired girl's side of things there were still years of irritation that she was slowly working through. She was impressed how well her sister had handled everything, in fact, if it had been her, she'd have said something unfortunate much sooner. But then Amy was in many ways a far more private person than Vicky was, something the blonde knew well. And had wildly better control of her own emotions, although it was something that Vicky was doing her utmost to learn.

Overall, she felt she was doing a good job, and was rather embarrassed now, looking back on things. Like her mother, she had changed in the last few months, for the better. Dean had noticed and mentioned it, approvingly, and the praise had made her feel good. The same with Amy, who seemed pleased.

Vicky couldn't help feeling that some sort of very unpleasant problem had been averted with the changes to their family dynamic, although she was hard-pressed to say what or why. However, she liked the new way of doing things and wanted it to continue, so she was damn well going to play her part.

' _Aunt Sarah_ ,' she mused with a slight frown. ' _I can't believe she rolled over on me to Mom_.' It had come out that her aunt was the one who'd pointed her mother at the report on the internet, although it would have come out sooner or later anyway. The older woman had a puckish streak in her which was normally something she found funny, not being above the occasional practical joke, but she was mildly irritated at being the subject of that sense of humor this time. ' _I'll have to think of some way to repay the favor_ ,' she giggled.

Deciding that could wait, she lifted her arm and looked at her watch. It was only about four PM. She had a dinner engagement with Dean later, around eight, not really a formal date but just a meal. Their relationship was a lot more stable at the moment, another thing that seemed to have resulted from her getting her temper under control, and another thing she very much liked. Idly she wished that she could have seen the light some time ago. It seemed to make life much easier on the whole.

' _Growing up, I guess. Dad always said it would happen sooner or later. Preferably sooner_.' She grinned a little at the memory of the dryly sardonic tone she remembered. When Mark was having a good day, he was a very good father. On a bad day it was like he was just turned off, although even then there were hints that he wasn't as far gone as some people thought. Just… disconnected. From life, mostly.

She winced at the memory of some of the things her mother had said during those times. Looking back on them, they seemed unfair. It wasn't like he could actually help it.

' _I wish Amy could fix him_ ,' she sighed faintly. ' _I miss our dad._ ' His depression, although sporadic, had been getting worse for years. She knew why her sister refused to work on brains, she'd argued about it with the other girl on a number of occasions over the years, and she could easily see the point. She still felt it was possibly a little over-cautious, but then Amy definitely knew more about it than she did, so was probably right. As annoying as that was.

Folding her hands over her stomach, she thought, ' _I wonder if Ianthe could help?_ ' It was a thought she'd had before, but never quite summoned up the courage to ask. But if anyone could, the big violet lizard probably could.

The problem was her worries and theories about the Family. She'd managed to push to one side the fears she'd suddenly found herself with after the somewhat ill-advised library visit, which had lead to much increasingly wide-eyed reading of some of the most terrifying horror stories she'd ever encountered. But now she started thinking about it, no longer distracted by her mother shouting at her, some of her worries came back.

It wasn't so much the material itself, which varied from subtly disturbing to flat-out scary, but the implications when considered against the background of the current situation in the city.

There were some _very_ weird parallels in the stories to what she'd seen with her own eyes. Enough that she wasn't at all convinced that the people on PHO who were claiming that the Lovecraft guy had knowledge of the Family from a hundred years ago were wrong.

The implications were… odd.

Add to that some of the things that both Ianthe and Metis had casually dropped into conversation, without any obvious irony, and other observations she'd made over things like Danny Hebert's coat, that freaky little ornament that Ianthe had given the man at his birthday meal… She could still see it when she closed her eyes and quite wished she couldn't.

No, there was definitely something very strange going on there, that was certain. And while she'd been sitting in the quiet of the library, only the ticking of the radiators warming up and cooling down and occasional sounds from pages being turned breaking the silence, her mind had gone into overdrive, linking what she was reading to what she'd seen.

In retrospect, reading ' _The Shadow Over Innsmouth_ ' might have been a bad idea.

She shivered a little.

' _Either the man knew something, or he was a little nuts_ ,' she thought uneasily. ' _Or both_.'

Mixing in some of the weird shit she'd come across on the internet as well made the entire thing about as weird as you could ever hope for. There were enough things that matched up with what she knew or suspected to be true that she definitely wondered about some of the rest of it.

She was almost certain that either Taylor was a lizard in disguise, or grew up with a lizard as a sister. There were other possibilities, but those two seemed to fit the circumstances better than anything else she could think of. Not that either theory was anything other than just peculiar, she was well aware of that, but considering how fucked-up powers made life, they seemed plausible.

In a world where people could fly just by willing it, or stop time by touching something, who was to say _what_ was impossible?

The idea that the entire Hebert family was actually a reptilian infiltration unit was just an extension of that idea, less plausible but not something she'd be prepared to swear couldn't happen. After all, there were at least five members of the Family currently known to be running around the place, and they often seemed to completely vanish without trace.

Perhaps they were pulling on their human costumes and going shopping or something?

She snorted with laughter at the thought of Metis putting a rubber mask on and pretending to be human. It seemed unlikely.

On the other hand, where did they go? Into the water? Definitely possible, it was well known they spent a lot of time in the bay, but was it the only place they went?

Vicky shook her head. It was nuts. She kept going over the evidence and her conjectures, talking herself into the idea that they were everywhere, then _out_ of the idea again. She was getting to be as bad as Void Cowboy in that respect.

Which was the most horrifying thought of all. She shuddered for a moment.

' _I have to stop reading conspiracy theories on the internet_ ,' she told herself firmly. ' _That's the problem with the damn things. They get into your head. Then you start seeing evidence everywhere. What do that call that… right, confirmation bias. Must reject it, work only on evidence of eyes_.' She smiled to herself. ' _It's crazy. I'm just blowing this all up into a much bigger thing than it could actually be. Sure, they're weird, and where they come from is an interesting question, but I doubt that the entire DWU is made up of disguised lizards. I got carried away. And they're friends anyway, they're good people. Amy says so and I trust her, not to mention I've met them and like them._ '

She shook her head. ' _Just calm down. Don't let the paranoia get to you, that's what they want_.' Snickering, she reached over to her bedside table and picked up her tablet, poking the power button. She'd check her email, have a quick scan through PHO for anything interesting, then get ready for her meal with Dean following a browse through some more clothing shops. Some new shoes were still required.

And she'd push her thoughts and speculations on Taylor Hebert away. One day, she'd probably learn the truth, after all. And even if Taylor actually _was_ a six and a half foot lizard with mad combat skills under the generally contented human teenager math wizard appearance, did it really matter in the long term? Either way, both of them were friends and good people.

A break from thinking about it was probably the healthiest thing to do. There was dinner at the Mayor's house tomorrow to think about, which was going to be both interesting and fun.

Vicky answered a few emails, giggled at a joke Dennis had sent her, which was genuinely very funny even if a little off-color, sent a couple of replies, then watched the online broadcast of the Mayor's earlier press conference, pleased at the mention of her family being in line for some sort of award, which seemed nice. The man looked to be in a good mood the entire time he was answering questions, which contrasted amusingly with the expression Director Piggot was wearing most of the time.

The woman didn't seem to particularly enjoy herself.

When one of the reporters, from a TV station in New York, asked a question that was stupid enough that Vicky herself rolled her eyes, Piggot very calmly and evenly ripped him to shreds with absolutely vicious sarcasm disguised as a polite response. It was hilarious, although not so much for the man himself, who looked annoyed.

Shaking her head with amusement, the blonde girl closed the playback, going back to the thread on PHO that had linked the video. A couple of pages later, there was a link to a TV series from the early eighties, in a comment from someone she recognized as a local Brocktonite.

Or was it Brocktonian?

Anyway, some guy who lived in the city. She clicked it, curious as to why he thought it might be relevant to a thread on the Family.

She'd never heard of ' _V_ ' before, not being particularly into science fiction. Amy had probably come across it, the girl was a keen reader of the genre. She clicked play on the episode the poster had linked to the thread, quickly finding herself amused at the hairstyles the female actors were wearing. Very eighties, she thought to herself with a smirk.

Half an hour later, she put the tablet on the bed, then lay staring at the ceiling with wide eyes.

She was shivering again.

* * *

"How's that?" Saurial asked, folding her arms and looking around with a satisfied expression. Linda followed her eyes, shaking her head in wonder.

"It's fucking incredible," she said, smiling widely. "Thank you."

"No problem," the lizard-girl replied with a small grin. "It was fun. Sure everything's where you want it? Like I said, I can easily modify anything you want."

Walking across the now completely smooth floor, covered with something resilient in the same manner as the BBFO office, Linda peered into one of the inspection pits, then studied the nearest vehicle lift. On the other side of the workshop, Ianthe was putting the various engines and parts onto a set of racking that Saurial had made.

She shook her head. "I can't think of anything at the moment. But I'm _damn_ sure going to want your help making parts, believe me."

The girl chuckled. "That I can easily do, and happily too. I'm really curious to know what you'll come up with. We need to make sure it's nothing like anything a particular villainous Tinker might have produced, though."

"I've got some ideas, actually," Linda smirked. "Transportation, like Metis said, is a very wide category. I need to work out the best project to start with but I was thinking about a few things to help out around here."

Saurial studied her, one eyebrow-ridge raised, then she smiled widely. "Oh, _yes_ , I can see this being _fun_."

They shared a grin for a moment. Linda definitely felt she was in the presence of a kindred spirit in many ways. Ianthe joined them, looking between them.

"Oh, hell, why do I have a feeling that things are going to get strange?" she asked rhetorically, although she was also smiling. After a moment, she laughed. "Great. I love this place."

"I need to get my stuff from your office and track down some more tools," Linda said.

"Easy enough. We can order anything you want online. Dear old Skidmark is paying," Saurial snickered. "Best use for the money right now. We'll also arrange to get an internet hookup in here, and another comms relay system like we have in the other building. Let's go back and talk about that, and also get you set up with your new talent."

Linda nodded, feeling somewhat nervous, but took a deep breath and calmed down. Ianthe put a hand on her shoulder for a moment in a comforting gesture. "Don't worry about it. We'll figure out something you like, and compared to the earlier work this is nothing."

That was true enough. She couldn't think of anything much more complicated than moving a functioning _brain_ from one body to another…

"All right." They headed towards the currently closed door. Saurial gave her a ring of keys as they reached it.

"Here, these are for all the locks in the place. I finally worked out how to copy the high security lock we got for the BBFO office, it was remarkably complicated. I think I improved it a bit too, I'll have to contact the company and see if they want the changes in return for letting me make them for us. But this place is about as secure as it gets now. Danny will get a copy of the main door key, and I've got one as well, both for emergencies, but neither one of us will come in without a good excuse."

Taking the keys, Linda nodded her thanks. "That's fair."

They walked around to the BBFO courtyard. "I'm just going to jump in the bay to wash off the crap I've got all over me," Ianthe said as they reached the entrance, gesturing to the oily grease she was covered with in places. "Back in a minute."

"OK," Saurial replied. She herself had made a pair of suitable overalls, which had vanished when she didn't need them any more, but her cousin had already been covered in crud by the time she offered her the same.

Linda watched as the large reptile ran towards the water and dived in, barely making a splash. She shivered a little, knowing how damn cold the bay was at this time of year. "You guys aren't actually reptiles, are you?" she commented as she followed Saurial to the main entrance to the office. "Considering you seem to have no problems with temperature at all."

"No, we're not," Saurial agreed, opening the door. She looked amused. "Not even close in some ways, but very close in others. It's kind of complicated. I'll probably tell you one day." Waving Linda inside, she closed the door again and carefully locked it. They went to the table and sat down. "So, have you had any ideas?"

The Tinker put her elbows on the table and rested her chin on her fists, thinking. "A few. We need to make sure that it doesn't look like me. Or, the new me. But at the same time Ianthe said to keep it fairly simple, which I guess makes sense. I have no idea how a Changer ability could even work, personally. I guess that the more complicated the differences between two forms the longer it'll take to change, or something."

"That's basically right," Saurial nodded.

"We could just do something easy, then, like a completely normal human form, but a different completely human form, right?"

"Yes. Although that's pretty boring." The reptilian girl grinned, making Linda smile for a moment. "We don't do boring if we can avoid it."

"I'm getting that idea," she commented. "And I can see where it would be a good idea to put in some non-human touches anyway, it makes it more convincing in some ways. I'm just a bit stuck on what sort of thing to choose."

"Do you have a favorite animal?" Saurial queried. "You know, cat, dog, elephant, sea otter… Lizards are good." She looked very amused. Linda chuckled again.

"I have nothing at all against lizards, actually. Especially since all the ones I've met recently have been really nice. But… it's not quite me." She frowned, shrugging. "If we can't think of anything else I could live with it."

"OK, we'll put that down as the fallback option, then," Saurial nodded. They looked around as the rear door opened, revealing a slightly damp Ianthe, who came in and locked it behind her. "We're just discussing what animal to use to create a hideous freak of nature from."

"Oh, good, I like creating hideous freaks of nature," Ianthe grinned, joining them. "Some of my best work falls into that category."

"You people are really peculiar," Linda sighed.

"That we are. It takes hard work and skill to do that, you know." The violet lizard grinned more widely. "We need to come up with a good name, as well. Although that should probably wait until we figure out what you're going to be."

"How complete a change can you do?" Saurial asked, looking at her cousin, who studied Linda clinically.

"With a little hands-on manipulation, as complete as you want," she replied after a moment. "Pretty much anything is possible. The trick is adding it as a _practical_ self-contained talent. Keeping the mass more or less the same is simplest, although some judicious use of the fractional dimensional technique could probably deal with that easily enough. I left hooks in the body design to add all sorts of upgrades later, that was one of them. But for now it might be best to start with something not too complicated." Walking around Linda, she examined her closely.

"There's also the matter of speed. Major bone and structural modifications take energy, and time. I can speed it up far more than nature would allow, but even so the more complex the change the longer it will take. I can see a few ways around that but I'm going to have to experiment, so it's another thing to leave for another day."

"How major can you do that still fits into something that would take… let's say, under a minute?" The smaller lizard looked at her relative enquiringly. "That seems like a practical upper limit."

"It's more than enough. OK…" Ianthe thought for some seconds, studying Linda some more. "Skin, hair, that's simple and quick. Cartilage is a little slower, but not much. So something like completely different ears, for example, is straightforward. Even non-human ones, like from a cat or a horse. Simple modifications to the skull are also pretty easy, from a cosmetic point of view. So, a small muzzle, not hard, different teeth, possible. Changing the eyes is a little more difficult but I've already upgraded them to a much higher specification already, so it would again mainly be cosmetic."

"I haven't really noticed any changes to my vision," Linda put in, a little puzzled.

"No, I haven't turned most of the mods on yet, remember? I'll do that in a minute. But I could give you cat's eyes with no trouble at all, as one option." Ianthe looked her up and down. "Tail is easy enough, although the bigger it is, the longer it will take, unless we add dimensional storage and just leave it in place. I'd need to think some more about the best way to do that."

"And changing her voice, scent, subdermal thermal patterns, all that is fairly simple, I would assume?" Saurial mused.

"Yes, that part is easy. Again, since it's switching between two patterns, rather than a completely uncommitted shape-shifting talent, it's much simpler," Ianthe confirmed. "I'm trying to work out how to do that, actually, but it's really complicated."

Linda looked between them, marveling at the entirely matter of fact way they were casually discussing things that most people would think were damn near impossible. Even for a Biotinker.

"Why don't we try a few things and see how they work out?" the blue lizard-girl finally said. "Come up with some interesting forms, you change her, then we can experiment and see if any aspects are worth keeping. We can mix and match with no trouble so you're not limited to being any one thing."

Taking a breath, Linda nodded. "I'm up for it."

"Great," Ianthe smiled, rubbing her hands together happily. "A challenge. This should be fun."

"Oh, god," she muttered, looking at the wide toothy grin. "Is it too late to change my mind?"

"Far, _far_ too late, my friend," Ianthe cackled, reaching for her, as Saurial snickered.

* * *

Randall moved his arms, then his legs, before jumping up and down on the spot, the entire workshop vibrating from the mass of the power armor. "Damn fine job, my man," he said with approval. "I can hardly feel it. You improved the motion control a lot."

"It's taking advantage of the bio mods Amy made," Kevin said with a thoughtful tone to his voice. "Before, one of the problems was that the damn thing was _too_ good. It responds so fucking fast that it could practically pulp a normal person. Don't forget, in the game, the users were heavily modified to be able to use it. But Amy's work is even better than the game allowed for, so I could turn up the speed a lot. Once you get used to it I can probably turn the limiters off completely."

"Cool." Randall dropped onto his hands, leaving marks on the concrete floor, did have a dozen push ups at a blurring speed, then went into a forward roll and stood up again. "Really nice job. I wonder how it compares to Armsmaster's armor, or Gallant's? Or Dragon's, even?"

"My best estimate is that it's probably about four to five times as tough as Armsmaster's suit, and at least five times the speed, mainly due to you being seriously upgraded. And it boosts your strength by a similar factor as well. You should be able to dead-lift about six or seven tons at least. The power system is good for about a week at maximum output before it needs refueling, but it'll maintain life support for months if you're not exerting yourself too much. Although you'll probably get tired of recycled urine pretty fast."

Grimacing a little, Randall nodded emphatically. "I have to say that I think I'd be tired of recycled urine before the first drop passed my lips," he said with distaste, causing his friend to laugh.

Deactivating the armor, he disconnected the helmet, then lifted it off, handing it to Kevin. Shortly he was out of the video-game themed power-suit, watching as the other man connected a tablet to a port on the inside and ran some diagnostics. "Everything's solidly in the green, no errors at all," he reported happily. "Fantastic."

"Pity you don't have one as well," Randall commented with a grin.

Kevin waved at the large bipedal mech on the other side of the room, without looking. "I have that. It could eat this for breakfast."

Chuckling, the larger man wiped a little sweat from his forehead, then picked up a bottle of water and drank half of it. "Even so, you do amazing work. I wonder if Dragon would be interested in it?"

"Probably. I'm not sure about her armor, it's incredibly good by anyone's standards, and might even be better than this. It's easily on a par in most respects as far as I can tell. But this still has some interesting advantages that I doubt anyone else has." Kevin closed the access panel on the back of the suit's torso, coiling the cable up and stepping back. "We should probably talk to her, and Taylor. If we could replace the outer skin of this thing with EDM plates, and some of the structure as well… god, that would be an amazingly tough system."

"Worth a lot of money."

"Damn straight." Kevin looked pleased. "Even just selling them to the PRT would make us all set for life. Although to get the full effect they'd need one of Amy's symbiotes, and I'm not at all sure she wants to arrange that yet. Or possible at all, considering. Although… if it's Family tech, that might work, assuming that they're willing to let it outside the DWU."

"Even without the Family boosts, though, this is still better than anything on the market, right?"

"Oh, sure, way better. I can turn it down to make a normal human able to survive it, obviously, and it would make a dandy combat suit even like that. Or a search and rescue one, for example. It needs better insulation against heat, that stuff Dragon came up with is fantastic."

"I wonder if she'd be interested in the computer system as well?" Randall mused. "That's her real strong point, and the computer in this thing is damn near sentient, the way it anticipates everything so smoothly."

"It's not quite a real AI, but it's not far off," Kevin agreed. "She might be able to see how to improve it. Woman is the best around on computers, definitely." He smiled at his colleague. "I'm definitely very pleased, I never thought I'd get this working again. There were a few other systems I never got around to finishing for it, I improved what the game had. That one needed implants for the neural linkage, my system doesn't, but I can still see a few tweaks. Not that I could do much when it went pop. Now, though..." He shrugged. "Bet I can finish it."

"Great. Want to bring it over to the DWU to show the girls?"

"May as well. Taylor can probably think of some improvements as well, she's got the knack even if she isn't a Tinker in the normal way."

Between them, they picked the entire suit up and loaded it into the van, which made the heavily upgraded suspension sag even more. Once the helmet and support equipment was in as well, Kevin closed the doors and locked them. "Pizza run?"

"Pizza run. We'll get more this time, those people eat like crazy," Randall chuckled, getting into the cab. "I wonder if the kid will turn up again?"

"Probably not, she said she was on duty this week," his friend said as he climbed into the passenger seat. "Pity. I like her."

"Me too." Shortly, they were rumbling through the city towards their favorite pizza place, which accepted cash and didn't care who placed the order as long as they kept the fighting outside.

Even Lung was known to be polite to them, in case they stopped serving him.

* * *

Lisa unlocked the door, yawning widely, stepped inside the BBFO office, relocked it, turned around, and stared.

"OK, kangaroo, not really practical," Taylor, currently in the form of Saurial, said, making a mark on one of her glass writing boards next to the name of the animal. There were at least twenty other names with crosses and other symbols adjacent to them, and a dozen more so far un-annotated.

"The pouch would be useful for tools, but the hopping is annoying," Linda commented, bounding to a stop next to Amy, who was watching with a small smile. "And the tail is in the way."

"OK. Back on the table, let's try the next one," Amy said, waving at the familiar ' _Igor_ ' accessory. Linda managed to climb up, stretching out on it, then waved at Lisa.

"Hi, Lisa," she said, grinning. "Your friends are completely insane, but this is sort of fun in the freakiest way I've ever heard of."

"I..." Lisa shook her head slowly, still gaping. Her power was basically rolling on the floor laughing its immaterial ass off, which didn't help.

"Can someone catch me up?" she finally managed. "I had a very late night and I'm feeling a little slow. Why is Linda half-kangaroo?"

"Seemed like a good idea at the time?" Amy shrugged. Lisa fixed the large violet reptile with a hard look.

"Right." She headed for the coffee machine. Even for her, this was a little strange, and she needed more caffeine before she could deal with it.

At least it took her mind off the entire ' _Oh, God, the Simurgh wants me to help her_ ' part of recent history, which was a relief.


	224. Changing and Planning

Sitting at the table and sipping coffee, her third cup in the last forty-five minutes, Lisa watched as Linda walked around experimentally, looking down at herself. "Any good?" Amy asked with interest.

"Hooves are very strange to walk on," the brunette commented, twitching one ear. "But goat works better than horse. Still not right, though. Although it's a big improvement on the giant wasp."

"Four arms would be helpful, I'd have thought," Taylor said with a smile.

"Maybe, but the lower ones were more like legs, and the abdomen was just weird." Linda shrugged while Lisa shook her head in mild disbelief at how quickly something like this ended up seeming perfectly normal around this place.

"OK then, what do we have?" Turning to her list, Taylor made a cross beside ' _goat_ ', stepping back and pondering it for a while. "No go on alligator, beaver, black widow, cobra, dog, elephant, goat, hare, horse, hyena, pangolin, raccoon, koala, kangaroo, octopus, ostrich, otter, skunk, squirrel, wasp, weasel..." She made another cross. "...or chicken."

"The chicken was a joke," Amy snickered.

Linda put her hands on her currently furry hips and sighed.

"Not a funny one."

"That's a matter of opinion," the violet lizard grinned, making the Tinker smile a little and Lisa grin.

Taylor watched them for a moment, then turned back to the board with a shake of her head. " _Maybes_ on domestic cat, fox, goanna, cheetah, and leopard. Although goanna is a little too complicated according to Ianthe."

"It would be possible but take too long at the moment," Amy added. "The tail is a large mass change."

"And while I don't particularly _mind_ it, I'd still prefer mammal at this point," Linda put in.

"OK, let's cross that off as well." ' _Saurial_ ' did exactly that. "We still have a few left, but looking at them they're even less practical. _Walrus?_ Why did we even put that on the list?"

All of them exchanged glances, then shrugged. She crossed that off as well, and five more. "In that case it seems to be a toss-up between fox and three feline variants. We could try some others, there are quite a few big cats if you're going that route."

"I do like cats," Linda admitted. "I had a kitten when I was a little kid, but the poor thing got run over by my dad when he came home drunk one night." She heaved a sigh, looking sad. "I was really upset for a long time, but I was six, so what would you expect?"

Lisa watched her, then looked at her friends. "I'm thinking cat, then."

"That would seem to be the most likely one," Amy smiled. "It's also one of the easiest to do. And fun, human media seems fond of catgirls."

"Mostly Japanese anime, which is one reason I wasn't sure," Linda muttered, scowling for a moment. "I had enough of being some idiot's sex object slash mechanic, I'm fucked if I'm doing _that_ again any time soon."

"Don't worry, I'm sure we can design something that's not the target of some strange human fetish," Amy said with a grin.

Taylor and Lisa exchanged glances.

"Bet you can't," Lisa remarked wisely, thinking about some of the things she'd seen online with a slight wince. "No matter what form you pick. You should see some of the Family porn fanfic that's popped up in the last few weeks."

"I have," Taylor sighed. "I don't get it. Anyway, that's not really relevant, strange humans on the internet are a thing but nothing we need concern ourselves with. So, Linda? Any favorites here, or do we look up some more animals? Or dump the animal theme completely and just go for something else?"

The Tinker turned around and inspected the list thoughtfully. "I think you're right that it might work better with some animal parts, it's strange enough to really separate _Linda_ from… whatever we pick. Just another human might not be enough. And like I said, I do like cats."

She walked over to the board and inspected it more closely, her furry ears twitching a little. Lisa watched with amusement, wondering if she even noticed. Amy's changes were remarkably thorough.

"I don't think I want fur all over," the woman finally said, looking back at Amy, who nodded. "Something less complete than that. Maybe just ears, tail, and eyes?"

"That's easy. I'd suggest claws as well, they're good defensive weapons, and some tweaks to your skeleton to make you more flexible, like a cat. It fits the theme and should help sell it to the PRT. Your current body is already a lot more flexible than normal, but I can change it a little more easily enough. And if I link the strength boost in right, you'd be noticeably stronger in human form but at full strength in Changer form."

"Put in an override so she can get the benefits without changing," Lisa suggested, "just as a safety factor."

Amy nodded. "Yes, that's a good idea. Not a problem. I can set it up so that she gets about… perhaps three or four times as fast and strong when in that form, but can select that if she needs it even normally. That should work."

"And there's not reason to pick just one, either, is there? We can mix and match. So if you're having difficulty choosing, but want feline in general, why don't we make something up? And the color can be different than nature provides as well. In fact that might even be better." Lisa watched Linda think, then glance at Amy, who nodded with a shrug.

"Entirely correct, I can do pretty much anything."

"That… that's an interesting thought," the Tinker said slowly, looking at the board. "OK, why not? Let's build a cat from spare parts."

"Easy enough. All right, let me think for a moment, I need to work out the best way to do it," Amy smiled. Linda clopped back to the table and sat on the edge of it while they waited. A couple of minutes passed, broken only by the sound of Lisa sipping coffee again.

"OK, I know what we need to do," Amy announced firmly. "Lie back and think of Tinkering."

With a chuckle the brunette woman did so, swinging her legs up and lying down. Shortly Amy was laying on hands and concentrating, while the other two watched with interest, making suggestions every now and then for the hybrid they were making.

* * *

Reading the report from Hannah on the action downtown caused by some random Merchant absconders, Emily sighed slightly. ' _Fucking Heberts again_ ,' she thought. ' _Will I ever be able to hear or read that name without getting worried?_ '

It seemed likely that the answer was probably no. Considering what had happened with the girl, Sophia, that damn school, and one of her own agents who should certainly have known better, not to mention the father's involvement with the Family, that name was probably destined to cross her desk time and time again. At least she hadn't been hurt, or Amy Dallon either. It didn't bear thinking of what the possible response from any of the parties involved could be under the circumstances. New Wave would be the least of it, although she certainly didn't want to have an angry Carol Dallon looking for a chat.

An angry Danny Hebert with an incriminating video, which she was certain he still had, and DWU backup was worse.

An angry Saurial with _Family_ backup was _much_ worse…

Luckily, it seemed that Danny Hebert had thought ahead, probably as a result of what Sophia and her co-conspirators had done, and had Saurial train his daughter to fight. She'd certainly put on a good show, the takedown of the idiot who'd tried to carjack her and Panacea had been expertly dealt with. There was already video on PHO from bystanders, as was pretty much inevitable, even though she'd have preferred otherwise, and it showed how quickly and cleanly the girl had handled the situation.

And how brutally. She was definitely her father's daughter. Fine right up to the point she was pushed that little bit too far, then everything went bad for the idiot who did the pushing without any warning at all. It was obvious to an experienced eye that she could have killed the fool with no more effort than she'd disarmed him, though, so she had clearly been taught, or natively had, a reasonable sense of restraint. Which was a good thing overall.

Even without powers, when she grew up she was going to be someone to reckon with, in Emily's view. Sophia had got off lucky, she suspected.

The investigation into that whole sorry mess had pretty much concluded, and if she'd had her way the girl would be on her way to somewhere much less cozy than the PRT building very soon. Unfortunately, people higher up than her felt she was probably still redeemable, not something she personally agreed with, and didn't want to throw away a potentially useful Parahuman talent. ' _No real harm done my ass_ ,' she thought with a scowl. ' _That's luck at best. That girl is close to being a psychopath, she's definitely a sociopath, and she's not someone I'd ever turn my back on. I've seen that sort before, it never ends well. Fucking Tagg. Why the Chief Director is going along with him I don't know.'  
_  
The other PRT director was one of the ones who had said he thought she might come in handy one day.

Emily didn't like Director Tagg. He was trustworthy enough, at least as far as loyalty to the country went, but his method of working and overall attitude was not good in her view.

And that was _her_ talking, someone who was famously cynical and not fond of Parahumans at all in general…

' _One day he's going to do something that's going to blow up in his face_ ,' she thought irritably. ' _Thank fuck he's unlikely to ever meet Raptaur or the others. They'd end up having to eat the bastard, and as much as I'd like to see that, I'm worried he'd give them indigestion._ '

The thought amused her enough that she actually smiled a little. He was one of the worst of that hawk type of director, and although there were plenty of other people in the PRT who had a similar, if not worse, attitude, his was the first name that always came to mind when she pondered the subject ' _People who should_ ** _never_** _meet the Family._ ' From what she'd heard rumored, it was likely the Chief Director thought much the same, which was something of a relief.

That diversion aside, Shadow Stalker wasn't going to face the correct punishment for her actions, although she was probably going to be reassigned somewhere else, possibly under a different name, as soon as the upper levels of the PRT could get around to working out what they wanted to do. Emily hoped that would happen sooner rather than later, the girl was a constant reminder of not only how she'd missed something that could have ended extremely badly and that she took as a personal failure, but how fucking irritating broody teenagers could be.

At least she'd been able to deal with Agent Hamill herself. The woman, somehow, hadn't _quite_ managed to do anything that would get her a nice cell somewhere, but she wasn't going to enjoy her new duties, which were going to last for a considerable time. And she was very unlikely to ever get promoted any time in the next decade.

She'd also heard rumors that the Winslow school board was on the verge of canning Principal Blackwell, which didn't make her at all sorry. The woman was clearly completely unsuited for her job at _best_ and someone who should never be allowed near children. If it wasn't for the sensitivity of the entire case Emily herself would have talked to the board and urged that she be let go.

The sad thing was that it was probably only the loss of what had apparently been quite a large amount of money that had provoked the school board into acting. Years of half-assing the job itself wasn't enough.

 _'Winslow needs a can of gas and a match_ ,' she mused, closing the report having read it thoroughly. ' _Frankly I'm surprised that hasn't happened yet bearing in mind the gangs._ ' Shaking her head in mild disgust she leaned back in her chair, thinking over the report for a moment. It had been handled well by both the two girls and the BBPD, they had all the suspects in custody, and thanks to Panacea there were no injuries. Overall it seemed to be about the best outcome they could hope for. With any luck, neither the Heberts or the Dallons would take it further.

Satisfied that particular problem was dealt with, she opened the other report, the final one on the Merchant raid, and began reading the results of the Squealer autopsy. There were no surprises there, the woman had been shot to death by a gun positively linked to the Merchants themselves. No new evidence had come to light and the coroner had signed off on the death. Unless they got a confession from the perpetrator there was a good chance they'd never find her killer. Annoying, but in the long run, nothing that would be a problem, or could have anything done about it anyway.

The woman's family had been discreetly informed of her death, and the report noted that they seemed surprised that she'd even been alive all this time in the first place. ' _Nice people_ ,' she sighed. ' _I'm almost sorry for the woman. I can see why she left_.'

While she was reading the rest of the report, there was a knock on the door.

"Enter!" she called, looking up and closing the report. The door opened to reveal Legend, who smiled at her.

"Hello, Emily, I hope I'm not interrupting you."

"No, come in, please, Legend," she replied, waving him to a chair. The man closed the door and sat down. "I was just going over the after-action reports on the Family's operation on the Merchants. I have to send the Chief Director my own final report and I need to make sure there aren't any surprises waiting for me."

He nodded. "I understand. The operation was very successful, though, so I wouldn't expect anything amiss."

"It was _unbelievably_ successful, bearing in mind the weapons used," she said with a shake of her head. "I was _not_ happy about those idiots having access to RPGs of all things!"

His smile went away. "No, that was… a little excessive. We'll have to make sure everyone is aware that they're on the street. Those thermobaric warheads are extremely destructive. They certainly shouldn't be in the hands of criminals."

"I've already got the ATF pushing very hard to talk to the captive Merchants, but our people have first dibs on them," she sighed. "I hate dealing with the ATF. They're one of the more annoying agencies, really."

"We're all on the same side, Emily," he noted with a small grin.

"Tell _them_ that," she muttered, which made him look amused for a moment.

"I have. Several times, so I understand your frustration." She nodded a little, still mildly irritated about the conversations she'd had earlier on. "But other than that, only losing one person in such an operation is almost unprecedented. It's a pity about Squealer, though."

"That woman was a menace," she grumbled. "Colin was right. Talented, but no sense of style. And, let's not forget, a criminal."

"And a person, Emily, let's not forget that either," he chided gently. "Someone murdered the poor woman. We must remember that."

"I know, I know," she said a little irritably. "But you know as well as I do that the chances of finding out which one of them it was is close to zero. No evidence, or rather, too _much_ evidence. Every single one of them was covered in gunshot residue, so that's no help, the weapon itself hasn't been found, and none of them are admitting to anything about it. So either the one responsible got away, or is keeping very quiet. We'll probably never know who pulled the trigger. Or why for that matter."

"No," he said with a faint sigh. "You're right. Still, it's a pity. She was only in her twenties, she'd have had most of her life to look forward to if she hadn't fallen in with the wrong people."

Emily shrugged. "That's life. We both know how often it happens."

He nodded, looking mildly depressed for a moment, then leaned forward. "Anyway, that's in the past and can't be changed. I'm thinking about the future. More specifically, our… snake problem."

She looked sharply at him, then around the room in a suspicious manner. "Not here," she said after a moment, getting up. He followed as she lead him to the secure conference room. It was the only room in the building they were pretty much sure was free of any possible interference from Coil.

When they were sitting down, she turned to him. "OK, we should be decently secure now. What's on your mind, Legend?"

"I want to deal with Coil as soon as possible," he replied. "I was thinking about it before the aborted Simurgh attack, but at the time I didn't want to start something that might get interrupted. Now, though, while we don't actually know what's really going on with that, we probably have a gap before the other shoe drops. I think we should take advantage of it."

Regarding him thoughtfully, Emily slowly nodded. "I see. And the longer we leave him holed up down there, the more likely it is that he might sneak out."

"Assuming he hasn't already done so," the man sighed.

"I doubt he has, I think the Family are probably keeping an eye on him and if he'd shown his face anywhere outside his base, we'd have heard about it by now." She steepled her fingers and tapped them together, thinking. "I agree, we need to do it as soon as we can. It's gone on long enough. Calvert is a slippery little shit and I want that bastard dealt with at _least_ as much as you do."

"You have history with him."

"I do. And it makes this all extremely irritating, even above the level it would already be." She scowled blackly at nothing. "But on the upside, when we get him, he's fucked." Looking up at the man from glaring at the table, she asked, "Do you have a plan in mind?"

"Nothing fixed in stone yet, just some ideas. We need to be sure to deal with the explosives Raptaur said she smelled down there somehow, and I think we'll have no choice but to evacuate the entire area just in case we _can't_ deal with them in time. We can't risk civilians being killed, but with them there he's effectively holding thousands of hostages over our heads." Legend looked frustrated as he spoke. "We also need to deal with the compromised security systems as well. I think we need to assume that there may well still be people on his payroll we've missed, even Hannah isn't perfect, and there may be traps left in the system that Dragon and Colin have missed."

"They're both almost certain of that. Which is why the entire system needs to be shut down completely and cleaned offline, they say." She looked peeved. "To be safe Colin wants to duplicate the critical infrastructure with new hardware and software, take the entire thing down in one shot, then bring up the new system as fast as possible to get us running again. It will be a massive pain in the ass until the rest of it can be checked out, but it's the most likely method to get total control back. Dragon agrees and is in the process of manufacturing new equipment at the moment. The Guild will provide it to us at cost as a favor, but it's still going to be a big hit to the budget."

"I see. That's good of them. But at least we'll have the most up to date equipment in place, which is a small positive." Legend nodded slowly. "How long until the equipment is ready?"

"Approximately a week, she said. Her factory is using all the spare capacity available at the moment."

"All right, so we can't do anything until at least next Wednesday. Depending on how long it takes to install it, possibly a couple of days longer. Well, that at least gives time to come up with a solid plan of attack."

"One of the big problems is that we'll be vulnerable for the time things are down," she pointed out. "We can offload a lot of routine work to known good handheld systems, so simple operations aren't going to be affected too badly, but if anything major kicks off we're going to be running practically blind."

"We can call in people from other PRT branches, of course," he said.

"I'd much prefer to avoid that if possible," she grumbled. "Partly because I don't want to air our dirty laundry until we've got a solution, but mostly because until we root the bastard out, we don't know who we can actually trust. There's a non-zero chance that he's got agents salted throughout the PRT, and without knowing who they are, they might take this as a perfect opportunity to help him get away."

"That is… an irritatingly valid point." The man looked annoyed, which was an unusual expression for him as he was normally pretty cheerful. "Damn. All right, we'll have to leave that as a last resort, I agree. I assume you feel the same about capes from other Protectorate sections?"

"Not the trust issue, but I'd prefer to do this with Brockton Bay people, or the PR hit will be even worse than it's inevitably going to be." She shrugged a little. "We're going to get bad press no matter what, but I'd like it to be as little as possible. The public are a pain at the best of times. Not to mention the Chief Director is going to be pissed again, and we only just got past the whole Family thing. More or less."

"I doubt Rebecca actually _blames_ you for a family of alien reptiles," he grinned.

She stared at him. "I wouldn't put money on it. On the other hand, she seems happy enough to leave it as my problem, which is marginally better than being fired."

He looked amused, but conceded the point. "I suppose, then, that if this is to be a local problem for local heroes, we can only make use of all the assets we have. The Family are a given, without them we wouldn't even know about this in the first place, but we do have other people we can call on."

"You're thinking of New Wave, I assume?" she queried.

"Why not? They were quite happy to help during the tanker move and undoubtedly helped keep things quiet just by their presence. I would suggest that we get in contact, probably via the Family, and sound them out on performing a similar function again. I expect they'd help, they're good people, and no more likely to want outsiders coming in than you are."

Emily sighed slightly, but nodded after a few seconds. "Agreed. Irregular in the extreme, but agreed."

"We could assign each member a PRT squad with an experienced officer we can trust in charge, and have them patrol while we and the Family deal with Calvert," he mused. "Along with the Wards, that should be enough to make it obvious that the city isn't unprotected by Parahumans to anyone who thinks to seize the opportunity to cause trouble. Considering that the Merchants are gone, and both the other main gangs are being very quiet, it may be the best chance we get."

"All right. I have to admit I don't like it, but… Oddly enough, I trust the Family more than I normally trust any cape." She looked at him. "With a few exceptions, of course."

"You really should try to get over your problem with capes, Emily," he smiled. "Very few are as bad as you seem to think they are."

"You weren't at Ellisburg," she muttered. "Not like I was. If you were, you might think differently."

"I can't deny that," he admitted. "Even so, that was an extremely unusual case which hopefully will never be repeated."

"I sure as hell hope it won't," she said heavily. "I couldn't go through that again."

They were both silent for a little while. Eventually she stirred, looking at him seriously. "We need to get Hannah, Dragon, and Colin together, then work on a preliminary plan, I think. Once we have something that seems viable we should probably arrange to talk to Raptaur and her relatives and get their input on the problem. Not to mention we need to come up with a plausible reason to evacuate a large section of the center of the city without inciting panic _or_ alerting Calvert, since we need to assume he's monitoring the news even if nothing else."

"I'd suggest we move this discussion over to the Rig, in that case," he said, nodding. "Colin's lab is still the most secure place, other than the BBFO office, we have access to."

She looked at her watch, grimacing a little. "Another late night, I guess. I really need a holiday after this."

"You deserve one, Emily," he chuckled. "I'll meet you over there."

"All right." Getting up she headed for the door with the Protectorate leader following, both of them knowing they had a lot of work to do. At least this time they had some warning and could take their time to do it properly.

"Have you heard the rumors about a dragon being sighted over the city, by the way?" he asked as she opened the door.

Emily stopped dead, then bowed her head. "Oh, for fuck's… It's _them_ , isn't it? It's _always_ **_them_** _._ Fucking Family..."

Chuckling, he moved past her. "It's still only a rumor, though. But if there _is_ a dragon flying around, you're probably right. I'm sure we'll find out sooner or later."

"That's what I'm worried about," she muttered darkly, closing the door then walking beside him down the corridor, wondering what would happen next.

Practically anything seemed possible these days.

That bonus pay really didn't seem enough...

* * *

"How's that?" Amy asked, looking at Linda, who was inspecting herself in the mirror Taylor had made. Lisa was studying the modified woman with interest, as was Taylor herself.

"Really fucking incredible," Linda said softly. "Amazing." Running her hands over her head, she shook it a little. "And I don't look anything like me, either old or new, either."

This was true. The changes were for the most part fairly small, at least compared to the sort of thing Taylor could do without even thinking about it, but summed up they produced a unique individual who was completely different visually from Linda _or_ Squealer.

They'd mixed and matched a number of components from different feline species, then added a few purely Amy-designed modifications as well. The end result was someone who was a little taller than Linda's base form, which was achieved by changing the spine to allow the vertebrae to space themselves out slightly as a result of expanding the cartilage between them. It was something she was quite proud of as it was surprisingly difficult to do, but it worked really well. And allowed a remarkable level of flexibility too.

Linda's face was distinctly different, the underlying structure altered by adding new bones to the skull and arranging it so they could be slightly moved again by expanding and shrinking the connective tissue. It didn't move very much in total but the overall effect was much greater than they'd initially expected. They'd gone for a rather triangular face which fitted the feline pattern nicely.

She'd also worked out a way to allow some of the teeth to change by a very rapid cellular regeneration and mineralization, based on the symbiote's healing ability, the result being that Linda's Changer form had definite fangs. Not large by comparison to a real cat but a lot more prominent than any human would have. Additionally her entire lower face was just a tiny bit pushed out towards a feline muzzle, not enough to affect her speech but enough to notice. They'd considered something much more prominent but decided after some experiments that in this case less was more.

The tail was the most complex to work out, but she'd managed it, even though it took nearly sixty seconds to fully develop or disappear. About three feet long, it was a very cat-like tail based on a cheetah's one.

Linda's ears were straight from a house cat, since she'd come to the conclusion she preferred the triangular look rather than the more rounded and proportionally smaller ones that either the cheetah or leopard they'd had on the shortlist had. They were twitching around on her head in an interesting manner. Her eyes were also very obviously cat's ones, a brilliant green. Not glowing like the bioconstructs or Taylor's forms had, but similar with a slitted pupil that was currently expanded in interest.

On top of her head, her hair was shorter, and patterned like a leopard's fur, as was the fur on her tail, but colored a rather unusual dark blue with black rosettes. They'd experimented with quite a number of colors, from the biologically-correct gold-yellow through the entire spectrum, including some domestic cat patterns, and Linda had decided that she liked the blue best. It was something that amused Taylor quite a lot as it was a shade about half-way between her Raptaur scales and Saurial scales in color, and sort of fitted the theme.

Making the hair able to be altered in length had been a very interesting problem but in the end not too hard, Amy mused, as she watched their new friend pose in front of the mirror.

"I really like this," Linda said in the end, turning around and grinning at them, her over-sized incisors glinting in the light. "It's fucking cool, and looks pretty good. Not freaky at all, just different. And not like some Anime fetish either, which is impressive. You have a real gift for this sort of thing."

Amy grinned back. "Thanks. It's something I take pride in, and it's a lot of fun. I like a good challenge."

"The effect is remarkable, Ianthe," Lisa commented, walking around Linda and gazing at her closely. "Aside from the tail, there are hardly any really major structural changes, but she looks entirely different. Add a mask or something and I doubt anyone would associate Linda with… whoever this is. We really need to come up with a name, actually."

"Not enough scales for a really _good_ hybrid," Taylor chuckled, making Linda smile at her, "but I like it. Cats are very interesting."

Holding up a hand, Linda made the retractile claws Amy had managed to give her come out of the ends of her fingers. Retracted they looked like sharp fingernails, but fully extended they protruded a good half inch and were razor sharp and incredibly strong. She was quite proud of that change. "These are a little scary, but might come in handy."

"You'll always have some sort of weapon with you," Amy nodded. "Never know when you might need something sharp."

"If nothing else I can always use them to open boxes," Linda snickered.

"Do you want anything else, or is that it?"

The feline woman shrugged after thinking for a while. "I can't think of anything right now. You can always change it, right?"

"Sure. But once we introduce you to the PRT, we'll have to be careful about changing things too much or they might get suspicious. Although, I can always just tell them I upgraded you, I guess. They know I can do that, I've never hidden it."

"We don't really want them thinking about that too hard, certainly not soon," Lisa put in. "Or they might jump to the wrong conclusion. Which in this case would actually be the _right_ conclusion, of course."

"True." Amy nodded. "Very true. So, if you want mods, probably best before that, unless they're internal. We're certain they'll end up with a DNA sample, but your DNA isn't quite normal right now anyway. As long as I don't change it too much it won't show, since I can encode the changes in parts that aren't tested for. I've added several chromosomes to it for future expansion."

"Show me again how to change back and forth," Linda requested after looking at herself again.

"OK." Putting her hand on Linda's, Amy connected to the woman's biology. "Feel this?"

"Yes. Woah, that was weird."

"These parts here toggle the change, feel them? With some practice you should be able to turn aspects of it on and off separately."

"I think I've got it."

"And this here is the override for the boosted abilities. This way is your new normal, this is the Changer form normal. And these parts here regulate the strength and speed between base human and whatever upper limit is selected. The more you turn it up, the more energy you'll use, so don't leave it up all the way when you don't need it unless you want to be hungry all the time." She walked the woman through all the internal modifications in the same way she'd done with Kevin and Randall a few days earlier. Eventually, after a few changes back and forth, Linda was fully acclimated with her new abilities.

"I can't believe how well this works," she said as she finished changing back to her feline alter-ego. "Just fucking amazing. The enhanced senses are almost overwhelming. I've never realized how many scents there were even indoors. I can smell everything, and see and hear all sorts of things I've never noticed before."

"Pity it takes so long, but it's still really impressive, cousin," Taylor said, making Amy give her a hard look.

"It's not easy, you know," she retorted to the grin aimed at her. "I could do a lot more if we weren't sticking to something human-compatible to this level. I can still probably improve on it with some more work, but I think this will do for now."

Lisa was now laughing a little, as was Linda. "Calm down, Ianthe, I don't think Saurial was trying to cast aspersions on your work," Lisa remarked. "Which is, as usual, absolutely first rate."

"Thank you. _Someone_ appreciates the thought that goes into this sort of thing, at least," Amy said with an expansive gesture, looking at Taylor with narrowed eyes. Taylor merely grinned back. Linda creased up, sitting down on the edge of the ' _Igor_ ' table and watching them both as she giggled.

"Are they always like this?" she asked Lisa, who nodded, also smiling.

"Pretty much."

Shaking her head, Linda stood up, then headed for the coffee machine, her tail flicking around. Looking over her shoulder she watched it for a moment, before poking buttons and putting a cup in the right place. "I can't believe how quickly this feels normal," she commented, turning around as she waited for the machine to get on with it. "I'd have expected having a fucking _tail_ would feel really bizarre for weeks at least, but while it's odd, it doesn't seem _wrong_. Does that make sense?" She reached up and felt one furry ear with a finger, looking bemused.

"I think so," Taylor replied, glancing at her friends. "I think a tail is entirely normal, of course, but I think a lot of it is that humans are just very adaptable, and some are much more adaptable than others. Plus you know you can pick either form without any real effort, which probably makes it more acceptable to your subconscious. I'd expect that someone, like a Case 53, if they could actually remember, might have a lot more trouble because they were stuck like that and hadn't got any warning or had any choice in the matter."

"You did, after all, pretty much design this form with our help," Lisa added. "I'm not really surprised that you don't have too many problems. Stay like that long enough and it'll probably be entirely normal to you."

Turning back to retrieve her now-full cup, Linda sipped from it, then nodded reflectively. "I guess. It sounds believable, anyway." Rejoining them, she sighed slightly. "Only problem I can really see is how do we stop people around here working out that the new part-cat Tinker is the same person as the new vehicle mechanic."

"We probably can't," Taylor admitted. "Not really. Your private workshop shows something unusual is going on, and as soon as they see you coming and going in either form, people will work it out. They're not stupid. But, the critical thing is that no one will care, or say anything. They don't know about your former life and unless you tell them, won't. Oh, sure, there are at least a few I can think of that may well work it out, but I can be absolutely certain none of them would ever tell anyone outside the DWU and probably not even _inside_ the DWU. As far as the world is concerned, Squealer is dead and gone and it'll stay like that."

She spread her hands a little. "The internal issues of the DWU stay the internal issues of the DWU, and a Tinker/Changer/Brute Parahuman who is also a DWU member is someone everyone will keep to themselves, while at the same time being pretty pleased about. Who you tell is up to you, we won't confirm or deny anything to anyone without your permission. It's your business and under your control. Although, that said, there is a small number of people we know who I think you should probably meet at some point."

"Like who?" Linda asked curiously.

"Über and Leet, for a start," Amy said.

"Amy Dallon, as well. Panacea." Taylor glanced at ' _Ianthe_ ', who hid a smile. "She's one of our most trusted friends. Also Taylor Hebert, Danny's daughter, who can keep a secret, but she's not around here very much right now."

"Über and Leet?" Linda sounded surprised. "Danny mentioned those two idiots when I got here, but I didn't know you guys knew them too. It was before your time as far as I know."

Taylor grinned while Lisa snickered. "We know them. They're both actually pretty smart guys, and decent people. We count them as friends."

"But everything Leet makes blows up!" Linda looked very puzzled and a little offended. "He's a fucking weird Tinker. At least my stuff keeps working until Armsmaster wrecks it."

"Not everything he makes blows up, some of it works fine. And it always works at least once," Taylor explained patiently. " _And_ to be entirely fair to him, he has invented some truly incredible stuff. If it helps, Dragon, Armsmaster, and Legend all think his work is impressive."

Staring at ' _Saurial_ ' in mild shock, Linda finally shook her head. "That is going to be one hell of a story, I think," she commented, drinking some more coffee.

"I can tell you _some_ of it, but some is still confidential, and some isn't my story to tell," Taylor explained, before she began going over some of their recent history. Linda listened with great interest, asking a lot of questions, and visibly considering what she was told, while Amy and Lisa sat down and occasionally joined in the discussion.


	225. Naming and Results

Scratching the fur on one ear and internally still fascinated by the feelings her currently altered body was producing in several places, Linda thought over the things she'd been told about the game-related minor villains who seemed to have mostly turned over a new leaf. Saurial clearly trusted them, as did Ianthe, and Lisa. She'd have liked to ask Metis her opinion but the second cousin hadn't turned up yet.

However, she trusted Saurial and Ianthe completely. How could she not? Considering all the things they'd done for her, and the immense amount of effort they'd put in, they obviously didn't mean her any harm. And since she trusted _them_ , and _they_ trusted Über and Leet, logically she could also trust the latter.

"You think I should let them in on it?" she asked after a time during which they merely waited for her to consider the idea.

Saurial shrugged slightly. "It's entirely up to you. I'd suggest that the Squealer part of it should be kept secret, at least for now. It's not impossible they'll work it out, but I doubt either would say anything, any more than any of the DWU would. For a number of reasons, only some of which are down to how annoyed I'd be with them." She smiled slightly, as Linda laughed briefly. "Which would be very. Not to mention disappointed. But I don't think that would happen. We've told them some fairly important secrets of our own without any problems or expectations of trouble, and they've done likewise. They may be villains, or have started as villains, but they're good people in my view."

Ianthe nodded her agreement. "Mine too. Don't feel that you _have_ to, but letting someone other than us know about at least the Linda part of it may be useful if only giving you someone human you can talk to, other than Lisa, Danny, and a couple of others. Someone outside the DWU, basically. And of course, despite his own troubles with his talents, Leet _is_ a very gifted Tinker. You might well find that you had a lot in common and might even be able to help each other."

"That's certainly happened with Armsmaster and Dragon, the team of those two, Leet, and Raptaur is pretty remarkable," Lisa put in with a glance at Saurial, who was smiling again. "And Über is a damn good fighter among other talents, not to mention his own ability lets him understand Tinkering a lot more than most non-Tinker people could ever do."

"There is also something you might not have realized yet in play," Saurial mentioned with a glance at Ianthe.

Linda raised her eyebrows curiously. "Very mysterious. What would that be?"

"Remember how I knew Vicky was at the door when she came over yesterday?"

She thought, then her eyes widened. "Scent. Shit. You mean… oh, hell, you can identify people by their _scent_."

"And so can you with some practice. Your sense of smell isn't quite as good as ours, but it's way better than a normal human's. Now that I've turned on all the boosts, you're going to pretty quickly work out things like secret identities just by smell, if you meet anyone in either identity." Ianthe looked seriously at her. "You need to make _sure_ that no one outside here finds out."

"Because of the Rules." Linda shook her head. "Fuck. That'll worry people."

"Frankly I'm slightly surprised no one has really worked it out yet," Saurial shrugged. "Several people know we have much better than normal senses, but hardly anyone seems to have put it together. There are quite a few capes that can probably do the same thing one way or another, we think, but at the same time none of them want to upset the applecart so they all keep quiet. That's my theory anyway. The Rules only work because everyone wants them to, but the whole secret identity thing is in many cases more or less a sort of willful blindness to the obvious."

"So we need to make sure we keep quiet about it, if nothing else to avoid the humans getting upset," Ianthe finished for her. "But, that means that if you meet Über, Leet, or most other Parahumans in both civilian and cape identities, you'll work it out immediately."

Linda looked hard at her for a little while. "Let me guess," she said slowly. "You've… _improved_ … them. They can do it as well."

Ianthe shrugged, grinning. "Keep it to yourself, but I needed to practice. They weren't fast enough at staying out of range."

She chuckled. "If I know anything about either of them they probably jumped at the chance. But what you mean is, when we bump into each other, we're both going to be able to work out the truth and may as well make it official?"

"Pretty much," Saurial laughed. "Like I said, no one will force you to tell anyone. They're good people, if you don't say anything, neither will they. But considering that we expect to be working with them quite a lot, and you as well, it might be simpler and easier to get it out of the way up front and avoid all the pretense."

Thinking about it, Linda finally nodded. "All right. I can trust you guys so I guess I can trust them too. When they turn up next we can meet. If they're OK with it, I will be as well."

"And Panacea?" Lisa asked curiously.

Linda shrugged. "Why not? Same deal with her. You obviously trust and respect her, and from what you said I'll run into her sooner or later since she's here a lot. It would be a little awkward otherwise, if she's basically part of your… team or whatever the fuck all this really is. And I've got no problem about Danny's daughter, I owe the man a lot."

The blonde looked pleased, and also amused. "We're not really sure at the moment _what_ this is, but the PRT seem happy to call it a hero group."

"Probably because there isn't a category for ' _bizarre reptilian families who confuse people for a living_ ,' Linda joked, making them all smile.

"It's more of a hobby than a living." Saurial looked pleased. "OK, Let's go back to your workshop and make a list of equipment you want and where we're going to put it, then come back and start looking up where to get it."

"Sounds good," she said with great interest. "Should I go like this, or like Linda?"

"Stick with Linda for now, we need to think of a name for your alter-ego, and possibly a suitable costume." The lizard-girl looked thoughtful. "I have some ideas for that. We can talk them over."

"Fine by me."

"I have to get back to work, there are some things I want to finish off," Lisa said with a glance at her watch. "And I want something to eat. I'll see you guys later."

"OK," Saurial replied. "If you see Metis wandering around, tell her where we are, all right?"

"Sure, no trouble," Lisa smiled, before getting up and heading towards the door. "I'll give some thought to a name as well."

"Thanks," Linda called as the girl slipped out and closed the door. She looked down at herself, felt one ear again, flicked her tail, then grinned. "So bizarre." Activating the internal controls she waited as her body changed, just under a minute later looking like her now-normal brunette self. "So _fucking_ bizarre."

"But cool, right?"

"Oh, yes, _very_ cool," she grinned. Adjusting her clothes where her tail had come out, she followed Saurial and Ianthe towards the door as well, eager to start planning her workshop and all the new things she could make with it.

* * *

After a short snack in the cafeteria, since she really _was_ a little hungry, Lisa headed back to the office and was soon sitting in front of the computers as Metis, looking up possible new names for Linda. She drew up a list of a couple of dozen good ones, absently flicking through web pages, while the rest of her mind was occupied with thinking about the Simurgh problem.

She needed to talk to Taylor and Amy about it, but not when Linda, or for that matter, anyone else, was around. This needed to be kept between the three of them for now.

By the time the other three came back, her list was over a hundred names long and she was no nearer working out what to do about an Endbringer wanting help to stop being a menace. Or whatever was actually going on.

* * *

"Back again?" the guard at the gate said as he looked into the cab of the van. Randall grinned at him through his balaclava.

"We are that," he replied. "Just can't stay away."

The other man sniffed. "And you brought pizza again," he noted. "New career? Not what I'd have expected from you boys, but probably better than getting Armsmaster to chase you all the time."

Snickering, Randall shook his head. "Not a career, no, just some food for some friends." He turned to Kevin, who handed him one of the flat boxes. "Want to be a friend?" he added, passing it out the window.

The guard looked at him, then the pizza, before smirking slightly and taking it from him. "I'm willing to be a non-hostile acquaintance for the moment," he chuckled. "Friend might be pushing it." Lifting the lid, he looked inside. "Pepperoni with extra meat. Nice."

"Enjoy," Randall said.

"We will. If this is poisoned, the girls will take horrible revenge on you, by the way." The man looked amused as he stepped back, waving to his colleague with his free hand.

"I'm extremely well aware of that, thanks. And neither of us would ever poison a _pizza,_ for god's sake! That's sacrilege!" Putting the van into gear, Randall nodded to the by-now familiar man who was grinning, before driving through the open gate and heading towards the BBFO office.

When they arrived, both got out as soon as the van was parked, heading towards the door. Kevin knocked, shifting his load of boxes, while Randall stood back with his own. There was a short delay before the door opened, to reveal ' _Metis_ ' standing there smiling at them.

"Hi, guys. Hold on a moment." She closed the door again, making them stare at each other.

"What the hell is that about?" Kevin asked with some surprise.

"No idea."

There was a thirty second pause, then the door opened again. Lisa grinned. "Sorry about that, we had to check something. Come on in."

"Thanks," Kevin said, moving past her as she stepped aside, his friend behind him. When the door was closed and locked again, they headed over to the table, putting the fifteen pizzas they still had down. "Hopefully this should be enough food."

Randall was about to add something to it when he spotted someone he'd never seen before talking to ' _Ianthe_ ', Amy's reptilian alter-ego nodding every now and then. Taylor, who was currently Saurial, was listening to the conversation by the computers but looked over, then joined them.

"Hi, guys," she said with a smile of her own. "Nice to see you again. I was wondering when you'd turn up next."

"Is this a bad time?" Kevin asked, indicating the slightly non-human appearing woman who was chatting to Amy with his head.

"Not really, no," Taylor assured him. "This is a new friend of ours. A DWU member now, for about a week."

"You have another cape now?" Randall asked curiously, inspecting the woman. She was clearly not a normal person, that was obvious just by looking at her. "Or did you make one?"

"We didn't… actually _make_ her," Lisa said, the pause slight but noticeable. Both girls exchanged a glance, then turned to look at the woman.

She was about five foot seven or so, Randall thought, and pretty attractive, with a nice figure. However, there were some unusual aspects to her appearance that marked her as a Parahuman of some sort. The feline additions were very obvious, but if anything added a certain exotic flair to an already attractive woman and looked completely natural.

"She hasn't decided on a cape name yet," Taylor added. "Come and meet her. Leet, you have something in common."

"A Tinker?" the shorter man asked with interest as he and Randall followed the blue-scaled girl over to the other two, Lisa staying at the table and opening one of the pizza boxes while wearing an intrigued expression.

"Among other talents," the cat woman said, turning around and inspecting them, her inhuman eyes scanning them while her eyebrows went up. "I didn't expect to meet the… famous, or is it infamous? ...Über and Leet today."

Randall laughed faintly. "You've heard of us. Good, it would be embarrassing if you hadn't. We've put in a lot of work over the years."

She looked amused. "Blew up a lot of fucking hardware as well in the process from what I heard."

"Not all of it blew up," Kevin protested. "Some of it simply caught fire. Or disappeared into a freak wormhole in space-time. Or just evaporated. Or… No, better not mention that one, just in case." He shuddered. "Don't want it to happen again."

The others all looked at him, then Randall, who shrugged. "No idea."

"And it's staying that way," Kevin said in a worried voice. "So. Tinker?"

"Slash Changer slash Brute," the woman said after a glance at Amy.

"Changer?" Randall also looked at Amy, whose reptilian face looked just a tiny bit smug. "Ah. I see, I think."

"Have you been warping the very fabric of nature again, Ianthe?" Kevin asked with a small grin.

Amy rocked a hand from side to side. "Little bit," she said. "Keep it quiet."

"Now I'm really curious," the man muttered. "Damn it."

The feline woman looked at him for a little while, then Randall, before turning to Saurial, who shrugged. "Like I said, up to you, but I trust them."

She visibly thought for another handful of seconds, then emitted a small sigh. "OK." Turning back to the two new arrivals, she said, "These guys say you can be trusted. I trust them. So… you show me yours and I'll show you mine. If you want."

Kevin started chuckling as the three reptiles smiled. Randal raised his eyebrows.

"I assume that means names, more than anything else."

The woman grinned as well, exposing a fang. "For now. From what they say, you guys turn up quite a bit, so we'll bump into each other regularly, I guess. Sooner or later you'll work it out, or I will, and it would get fucking awkward pussy-footing around the issue."

Kevin nearly fell over laughing as the woman suddenly put a hand over her eyes. Saurial couldn't stop snickering. "Oh, god, someone shoot me. I _swear_ I didn't mean to say that."

Shaking his head with amusement, Randall glanced at Taylor. "Do you think it's a good idea? Neither one of us minds if she doesn't tell us, believe me. But I swear we won't pass it on, you know we wouldn't."

"I do," the girl said, "and I told her that. Assuming you're both OK with it too. Neither one of you has to tell her either."

He looked at Kevin, who looked back, wiping a tear of laughter from his eye. "What do you think?"

"She's got a sense of humor, and she's a Tinker. And a cat. I sort of like cats." His friend looked around at the other people. "I'm OK with it, and really curious."

The mystery woman nodded, her green eyes glinting with entertainment still. They watched as her head reverted to something much closer to normal human parameters over a period of about thirty seconds, although her tail remained, twitching around behind her. "That's really cool," Kevin commented with wide eyes.

"Thanks," both Ianthe and the woman said at the same time, shooting each other a grin. Holding out a hand, the new person added, "Linda. Nice to meet you."

Kevin shook her hand, pulling off his balaclava at the same time. "Kevin. This is my best friend Randall." Randall took his own woolen disguise off too with a small sigh of relief.

"Those things itch," he muttered.

"A new era of openness dawns," ' _Metis_ ' snickered from behind them.

"For a given value of openness," Randall said, glancing back at her.

"Quite." She smiled at him mischievously. He was certain that the newly introduced Linda didn't know about the actual truth of her, Amy, or Taylor, but understood why. Presumably when they were sure of their new friend she'd be let further into the secrets of the Family, and there was also the probability that they were using her as a control of sorts on whatever experiment they were running on the nature of Parahuman powers. She probably didn't have quite the same modifications that he and Kevin did yet.

The black and scarlet lizard caught his eye, nodding very slightly when Linda wasn't looking, and pretty much confirmed his thoughts with that action. She was scarily good at nearly reading his thoughts, he mused. The faint grin she got for a moment made him roll his eyes.

' _This is becoming a very complicated conspiracy_ ,' he thought with an internal smile. ' _I hope they're keeping track of who knows what._ '

"If you don't mind me asking, what's your specialty, Linda?" Kevin asked as they all headed back to the table full of pizza. Lisa had spread the boxes out and opened them, and was half-way through one chicken and bacon one.

"Transportation," the woman said, sitting down.

He looked at her, then Randall. "That's it?"

"Yes." She looked smug.

"Just… ' _transportation_ '?"

"Yes." The smug look grew more obvious. He gaped a little.

"That's… a very wide area."

"It covers all sorts of interesting things," she nodded, pulling one of the boxes closer and picking up a slice. "I've got some fascinating ideas lurking around in my head that I never thought I'd have a chance to try, but with Saurial's abilities and the resources here… I'm going to have fun."

Sitting down as well, he kept looking at her. "Holy shit."

"We're expecting some very cool things to happen," Taylor put in with a grin. "She's got a good workshop set up a little way over, we've made a list of stuff needed for it, and pretty soon I think Linda is going to make some nice toys."

"Cars, trucks, boats, that sort of thing?" Randall asked curiously.

"Boats might be an interesting thing to play with," Linda remarked. "I'm staying away from cars and trucks right now, I don't want anyone linking me to that Merchant cape Squealer. Her ugly-ass things aren't what I want people to think of."

Kevin nodded, watching her as he ate. "I can understand that. She was talented, but not aesthetically. It's a pity about her being killed, though, especially like that."

"It wasn't very pretty," Amy sighed. "Poor woman."

"Your operation on the Merchants was amazing," Randall smiled. "I watched the video half a dozen times. Really impressive. Were the PRT happy?"

"They seemed to be," Taylor replied. "And so is everyone else."

"I'm not surprised, the Merchants were a fucking nuisance," Kevin muttered. "Can't say I miss them." He looked up at her. "What about Skidmark?"

She shrugged. "Still in the wind. No one seems to know where the guy is, even though a _lot_ of people are looking pretty hard. I'm hoping that he'll take the hint and never come back, but I wouldn't put money on it."

"No," he frowned. "Neither would I. But with hardly any gang left, and no money, how dangerous can he be?"

Taylor sighed faintly before reaching for some pizza of her own. "I hate to think. He's just too unpredictable. But we'll be as ready as we can be for him. With a bit of luck, nothing will happen for a while. I'd like to be able to get on with work rather than worry about a drugged up aggressive weirdo, personally."

"Fair enough," Kevin smiled. Turning back to Linda, who was listening quietly, he added, "We have something in the van you might like." He glanced at the others. "All of you."

"A new toy?" Lisa asked curiously. She inspected him closely, then her eyes widened very slightly.

"Sort of," he grinned.

"Bring the van inside," Taylor said, getting up and moving over to the door, past the large EDM box which Randall knew contained Amy's own vehicle. "There's just enough room for it." She flipped the door switch and waited as it rattled up to the ceiling. Kevin had pulled his balaclava back on while it was moving, and now went outside, got in and started the vehicle, then turned it around and backed it in through the open door. When he parked it she closed the door again. Everyone got up and came over to watch as Randall opened the rear doors of the van.

"Wow," Amy breathed at the sight of the power armor strapped down to the floor of the vehicle, between racks of parts. " _That's_ impressive."

"Wait until you see it in action," Kevin said with satisfaction. "It works really, really well."

Linda was studying it with great interest, her eyes wide. "Oh, boys, I can see we're going to have to talk," she said softly, reaching out to stroke the armor. "A lot."

Randall met Taylor's yellow gaze over the brunette's back as she leaned down, inspecting the suit. The blue-scaled girl winked at him, making him smile internally.

"Let's pull it out and set it up," Kevin chuckled as he started unstrapping the armor, Linda eagerly helping.

* * *

"Transporter?"

"No, that's terrible, and way too obvious."

Taylor looked at Randall, then back at Lisa, who was going through a list of names. Kevin and Linda were next to each other, half-inside the suit of power armor, while he showed her something she seemed fascinated about. She was listening, vetoing names as they went, but most of her attention seemed to be on the armor.

Presumably something like that came into the heading ' _transportation_ ', the girl thought with a small smile. Interesting things were _definitely_ going to happen soon.

"Conveyance?"

"No." Linda sounded sure even though she didn't look up.

"Transit?"

"No."

"Hmm. Monkey Wrench?"

"Do I look like a monkey?"

"You have a tail," Randall pointed out.

"A cat's tail, not a monkey's tail," Linda grinned, glancing at him, then going back to poking the sub-assembly she was examining with the probes of a multimeter.

"Fair point."

"Void Cowgirl?" Amy asked with a wide smirk. Everyone stared at her in horror.

"Not only no, but _fucking_ no," Linda snarled. "I am not, under any circumstances, going to be even slightly associated with that idiot!"

Amy held up her hands, grinning. "Joke."

"Like the chicken?"

"Yep."

Randall and Kevin exchanged a glance, then shrugged.

"Streamline?" Taylor suggested. Linda, who calmed down almost instantly, looked curiously at her.

"Why?"

"It's a term that brings to mind some of the really neat looking trains and cars back in the thirties," she explained. "And it's sort of transportation related."

"Huh." The woman thought for a while. "Not bad, but not quite what I'm looking for."

"Just a suggestion." Taylor didn't mind the rejection, they'd gone through over eighty names so far.

"You didn't like any of the cat related ones," Lisa said, flipping through her notebook.

"I can just see the pussy jokes on PHO now," the Tinker woman sighed. "No thanks, we don't need to give them any more ammunition than we have to."

"Probably for the best." Lisa smiled a little. "And you don't want the obvious car related ones either."

"I can do a lot more than cars, so why get stuck with that association?" Linda shrugged, looking up again. "And it's something else that brings to mind Squealer, which I don't want."

"All right. Well, that's most of the ones in English. I have a lot here that are in other languages, related to human mythology. That's the sort of thing we've often chosen for names to use with your people since you can't speak our language. We could try some of those."

"Let's hear some."

Lisa began reading out the names of minor goddesses and female spirits that were vaguely related to transportation, while the others listened and discussed the better ones. They stopped on one after a while.

"Vahana sounds interesting," Amy remarked with interest.

"It's very relevant in some ways," Lisa noted. "And fits the theme."

"But..." Randall looked at them, his face showing amusement and mild embarrassment. "It's also a little close to a word in Spanish that you probably don't want to be associated with."

Lisa snickered, while Linda scowled. Taylor looked at Amy, who shrugged. Kevin suddenly appeared to have worked it out and also laughed. "No, that wouldn't be good, especially on PHO," he chuckled.

"What word?" Amy asked curiously.

"Change one letter and it's sort of slang for… well, let's just say something only a woman has and leave it at that," Randall grinned.

"Oh," she said, both she and Taylor understanding suddenly. "I see, that would definitely give those odd people on the forums a little too much leeway," she chuckled.

"Pity, it's a good name otherwise," Taylor sighed. They resumed going through the list, Linda or one of the others ultimately rejecting all of them. When she'd finished, Lisa put the notebook down and picked up a slice of now-cold pizza.

"That's all the ones I've come up with so far," she said after eating it. "I suppose we'll have to do more research."

"What about just translating some of the more obvious words into different languages and seeing if any of them come out sounding good?" Kevin asked.

"Worth a try, I guess," Linda nodded, turning the meter off and handing the part back to him. He started reinstalling it. "What language, though?"

"Japanese, possibly, or ancient Greek, both of those tend to produce names that sound good in English," Taylor commented thoughtfully. "Or perhaps Latin."

Moving over to the computers, Amy started entering words into an online translator as the others made suggestions. Eventually they stopped on one, exchanging glances. "That's not bad," Linda mused, getting up and walking over to read the screen. "I could live with that."

"It even means transportation as one definition," Taylor said, joining her and reading over Amy's shoulder. "Vectura. Has a nice ring to it, it's relevant, and it's easy to say." She looked at the woman next to her, who had changed back to her feline form to get used to it. "Want to use it?"

"Why not?" she asked. "We could spend all night trying to find a better one, we've been at it for two hours already. I need to get some sleep sooner or later."

"Well, then, I think I speak for all of us here when I say, welcome to the DWU, Vectura," Taylor smiled, holding out her hand, which the newly christened Tinker took with a grin.

"I'm sure I'll find it as bizarre as anyone could wish for," ' _Vectura_ ' chuckled.

"That goes without saying," Kevin said, shaking his head. He was nearly finished reassembling the power armor. "But it's fun."

"Definitely," she replied. Looking at the time on the screen, she yawned widely, showing small fangs. "God, I'm fucking tired. This has been a long day. But interesting too."

"You should probably go to bed," Amy suggested as she got up from the computer. "After all the changing around we did, you need the sleep. Have a big breakfast as well just to top off your nutrient levels."

Linda yawned again. "Sorry. Thanks, I'll do that." She went back to the table, smiling at both Kevin and Randall. "It was good to meet both of you. I guess we'll probably see each other quite a bit."

"I suspect so," Randall replied with a nod. "See you around."

"Thanks for showing me your armor, Kevin," she added, turning to the other Tinker, who grinned at her. "It's really good work."

"Thanks," he said with a pleased expression.

"Give some thought to a costume," Taylor suggested. "I have a few ideas of my own, but we can make anything you want. When we introduce you to the PRT you'll probably want something to show off, just for the PR side of things if nothing else."

"I'll think about it," the woman said, slowly reverting back to her normal human form. "This still feels weird, but it's really amazing as well," she noted. Feeling her rear, she shook her head. "I never thought I'd have a tail."

"I don't know how you people can live without one," Taylor said with a sly grin, making Randall give her a look of resigned amusement which Linda didn't see.

Linda shrugged, smiling a little. "We manage, somehow," she replied dryly. "See you guys tomorrow."

"Sleep well," Lisa said as the brunette headed for the door. Taylor followed and let her out, locking the door behind her and returning to the table.

Reverting to her base form and dropping into a chair, she put her feet up and grinned at Randall and Kevin. "What do you think?" she asked.

Randall shook his head, obviously trying not to laugh. "I think you're nuts, but that's already been established," he said slowly. "How many more Parahumans are you going to collect?"

"All of them," she hissed, narrowing her eyes and rubbing her hands together. "Then I shall rule the world."

He started snickering as she relaxed again. "Oddly enough, I wouldn't put it past you, you very odd girl. I like your new friend, though. She seems decent, if a little sweary."

"She's a lot less like that than she was when she got here," Lisa remarked. "But she's a good person at heart. Just had a bad life up until now, so she's really relieved to be here. Everyone who's met her likes her, and she's a fucking good mechanic leaving aside the Tinker things."

"Does anyone here know she's a Parahuman?" he asked curiously.

"Almost everyone, probably," Taylor smiled. "I know for a fact of a dozen or so who worked it out immediately, and I'd think that most of the others will soon if they haven't already. But no one cares. Same as with the Undersiders. Everyone knows who they are, Rachel is sort of a giveaway there, no one thinks twice about it or mentions it. The only important thing is that they're DWU."

"Weird place, the DWU," Kevin put in with a small smile. "Very weird."

"We like it though," Lisa giggled. She inspected both of them closely. "You guys have found out some interesting things, haven't you?"

The two young men exchanged glances. Both of them sat down, then leaned forward. "Our powers are far more effective all of a sudden," Kevin replied slowly. "I still can't make anything new, but… I've fixed several things that I definitely couldn't even dare touch until recently. Like that armor, a holoprojector, a couple of other small things. And it's still improving too. Randall is learning martial arts just by watching YouTube for god's sake! What the _hell_ did you do to us? And how?"

Taylor looked at Amy, then Lisa. "What do you think? Enough data from this part of the experiment?"

"It looks like we've shown that the neural upgrades are definitely causing the results we've noticed," Amy said quietly. "We'll have to monitor Linda to see if mere proximity does anything, but I think we've learned what we set out to."

Lisa added, "I agree, we should probably let them in on the rest now. Once they're up to speed, I have some other news I really need some advice on, too."

Everyone looked curiously at her.

"Afterwards," she said firmly.

"OK," Taylor replied, puzzled. She turned to the two men. "Network fragmentation," she said, smiling a little. "It seems to revolve around that phrase. Remember it."

They looked confused, so the three girls started filling them in on the rest of the things they'd deduced and observed. The confusion turned to shock, mild horror, and great interest very quickly. Then, when she decided with his advice that they had to know about the Varga to make sense of any of it, shock and horror again...

* * *

"Demon?"

Kevin's voice was plaintive.

"Yes, my young friend. _Demon_."

The Varga's voice was amused.

"Oh."

" _How_ big?"

Randall's voice was a very weird mix of horrified and eager.

Taylor grinned.

* * *

Amy studied the two young men as they came to grips with the entire story. They'd taken it surprisingly well, although Taylor's reveal of her demonic inheritance had definitely shaken both of them. Randall looked like he wanted to see a full-scale Varga and was trying to work out the best way to arrange it, while Kevin was still gaping slightly at Taylor.

Taylor herself was looking deeply amused, or rather, the Varga was, as she'd let him join the conversation and he was currently doing the driving while she just listened.

"You seem worried, Kevin," the demon said.

"More very, very confused," Kevin replied after a long pause. "I mean, really very fucking confused indeed. Demons, Endbringers, powers being alien computers… it's a lot to take in, you know? Especially at two in the morning."

"I understand," the Varga commented, still smiling faintly. "To be utterly truthful, parts of it are somewhat surprising even to me. Bear in mind that so far we don't have absolute proof of the truth of most of this, although it holds together remarkably well and Lisa's power has more or less confirmed aspects of it. The root cause of the entire thing is still a mystery, as is the ultimate goal, though."

"I doubt it's something we're going to like, all things considered," Randall said quietly, staring at the table as he thought. "Not if it's something that the damn Simurgh is worried about. Nothing involving the Endbringers can be good, I think."

"No, I suspect you're right," the demon agreed soberly. "It doesn't appear that whatever is behind this has the best interests of humanity at heart. It is… worrying."

"And right now, only us here really know all of this?" Kevin asked.

"Dad knows some of it, but we haven't filled him in on everything yet," Taylor said, taking back control for the moment. "I will do, he needs to know, and he might have some ideas we haven't thought of. But the results of our tests on you guys seems to show that a lot of what we suspected holds up, as does Lisa's ability. We don't dare talk to anyone else about it yet, god knows what would happen if anyone found out." She sighed slightly. "It's dangerous knowledge, if only because of the way people would freak out. And, of course, we might still be wrong, but I don't think we are."

"Not to mention we don't know what we can actually do about it," Amy remarked. "If anything."

"Just getting the fucking Endbringers to stop would be a massive help," Kevin said.

"Yes. That would definitely be the ideal outcome," she agreed. "Figuring out who the controller is and stopping them is something I really want to do."

"Tell them about your dream, man," Randall urged his friend. Kevin looked puzzled for a moment, then his face cleared.

"Oh. Right, I'd nearly forgotten about that."

"Dream?" Lisa queried curiously.

"Yeah, it was bizarre." He quickly recounted what he could remember of the first night after Amy had modified them. When he finished, they all looked at each other.

"That is… very strange," Amy said after a while.

"But it sort of makes sense in some weird ways," Lisa commented, thinking hard. Everyone turned to her. "If you take it as a sort of symbolic representation of something that actually happened, rather than just something that was made up like most dreams… it's very interesting."

"The angry computer is his power, isn't it?" Taylor asked.

"Probably. Why it would be angry, I have no idea, though," the black reptile said, glancing at Kevin. "Did you upset your power somehow?" she asked with a smirk.

"I have no idea," he shrugged. "If anyone should be annoyed it should be me, I've had a power that's apparently been trying to kill me for years. Everyone else can make things that don't explode when you poke them, and can make more than one. I got a defective power, I think." He was smiling, but seemed mildly irritated as well.

She studied him closely. "I don't think it's defective, but… you might be closer than you think about it in some ways. I'll have to think about that. Anyway, moving on, I'll bet anything that the giant smiling thing is somehow connected to the Varga. Or actually _is_ the Varga."

"I'm not entirely certain how, Lisa," the demon said. "Although I agree in principle."

She shrugged a little. "I'm not sure how either, but it makes a certain amount of sense in context. Or, I suppose it's not entirely impossible it might be your greater power."

"Unlikely, they seldom interfere directly like that," he replied. "Sending me to Taylor was unusual in the extreme, although I have no regrets whatsoever."

"Neither do I," Taylor said.

"The three crystal balls..." Lisa looked mildly confused. "Those _have_ to be the Endbringers, although why crystal balls I have no idea. But it reinforces the idea that they're not doing what they do because they want to."

"And the fox-lizard?" Amy asked curiously.

"That one I don't know," Lisa admitted.

The Varga looked at her, smiling faintly, but said nothing.

"This really is a very fucked up situation," Randall muttered in aggrieved tones.

Lisa sighed. "It's worse than you might think," she said. Everyone stared at her. She produced a small worried grin which looked odd on her currently reptilian face. "Did you know that the Simurgh is on PHO?"

There was a _long_ silence, which one could probably describe as appalled, before the questions started.

None of them got to bed early.


	226. Canon Omake - Correspondence

To: Antonio  
From: Danny Hebert

Re: Reconciliation

Tony

I'll admit, I nearly deleted this half a dozen times.

But…

You're right. Maybe it is time to talk.

Dad would have wanted me to at least try.

Some harsh things were said. I stand by my words, even now, but with the passage of years and experience… Perhaps I was overly sensitive.

Let me say, even with what happened in mind, I do respect you. You were there for Dad, you were there _with_ Gramps, and you did right by Annette and me back then, even if your ways aren't mine. Over the years since, I've sort of come to realize that we're a lot closer in some ways than I could accept at the time. Very different in others, of course, but…

Family is everything.

I've always known that, Dad raised me right, and even the old bastard himself would have agreed. But losing Annette… God, that was hard. For far longer than I like to think, I was broken, _we_ , Taylor and myself, were broken. I neglected my responsibilities to my own daughter because, well, partly because my life was suddenly bereft of something that _should have been there._ Something that still should be there, and that I miss every second of every day and will do to the day I die.

I still feel her behind me all the time. Sighing gently at my stupidity, and my despair, and whispering that I should think of Taylor. Think of the thing in my life that gives it real meaning.

Family. Such a simple word, but it means so much.

That's the other part, of course. She reminds me _so much_ of her mother. She's got my height, and the glasses were the same of course, but in all other ways, she's so like Annette it's incredible. The older she gets, the more the similarity shows.

And it hurt, even though I know it's foolish and selfish, to look at her and see the other woman I'll never hear again. So to my great shame, I pulled back, threw myself into the Union, pretty much on autopilot, and didn't even _notice_ when my own fucking daughter, the person I should be most concerned about, was dragged through hell by people she should have been able to trust.

That _fucking_ school. How the _hell_ …

No.

If I let myself think about it, I'm going to do something I'll regret. Mind you, so would they, but it's not worth it. Not for those people.

Annette wouldn't want me to waste perfectly good rage on such pointless assholes.

Save it for something important, she'd have said.

Then she'd have torched the place in the middle of the night and smirked that little vicious smirk she got when she was really pissed. You remember the one, I'm sure.

Your bodyguard certainly paid attention _that_ time. She was giggling about that for _days…_

Sorry, I'm rambling, I know, but it's hard when you finally open the gates and look at what was behind them, not to let some of it out. And weirdly enough, you're probably the only person still alive who could actually understand it the way it needs to be understood.

The only good thing to come out of that disgusting mess is the way it got both of us back as a team. Heberts against the world, just like old times.

The world doesn't stand a chance...

You wouldn't believe how well the girl bounced back from that. She's made some friends, real friends, people who will stand by her no matter what. And I mean, _No Matter What._

People I also trust completely. Even if some of them are a little unusual. Or a lot unusual.

Maybe one day I'll tell you about that part. Maybe not. It's a good story, though.

The thing to remember is that the Family also takes family very seriously. In the old ways, to use your phrase.

Thanks for the offer of help in the matter of the young women in question. It's not required, I think, the situation is… well, let's say contained, although that's not entirely right. In the process of being dealt with, maybe.

Taylor is in many ways a much stronger person than I am. She's not after retribution. If she was, I'd back her completely, but she's willing to let the past stay in the past.

If it doesn't?

It'll be handled. One way or another. And she has a _lot_ of backup, believe me.

Only time will tell how things will pan out, but I have a pretty good feeling. The Union is heading back towards something that the city can be proud of. I and the others always have been, of course, but with the redevelopment plan starting to really kick off, everyone else is beginning to take notice. We have good relations with the city authorities, Roy is a decent man, smart, driven, and for a politician, remarkably honest. He's doing right by us, we'll back him all the way.

The more reptilian members of the DWU have become very popular, which I'm extremely pleased about. Surprised a little, true, but pleased.

And very proud.

Hopefully there won't be any need for external help on the other matter, even if Skidmark does eventually turn up, but… I'll bear it in mind. We don't know where he is, but your information isn't actually that much of a surprise. Unpleasant confirmation of information we've had from other sources, and deduced from various clues.

We'll have to think about what our next move is. New toys will help in dealing with that, I suppose. I appreciate it.

Huh.

I didn't expect to write more than a couple of lines, and look at it. I guess I really did have something to say. I should probably edit out half of this, but… It's been long enough.

Fuck it. I'll leave it in. It's your fault, emailing me like this.

I don't know if we can ever really get back to the old relationship. Too much time, too much water under the bridge. That said, Dad would want me to try, Annette would want me to try, and I guess even Taylor probably would want me to try.

At some point, when things here settle down, I'll have to come see you. I think I owe you something of an apology, which is best done face to face, if only for being unnecessarily rude and disrespectful. Even if it needed to be said, it probably didn't need to be said quite like that, in retrospect.

And I think Taylor would like to meet the mythical Uncle Tony.

Annette used to tell her stories…

We'll see how it goes. Until then, take care.

Say hi to anyone from the old days who still remembers Dad, will you?

 _Danny_


	227. Omake - Con Frontation

"Excuse me."

Mitch ignored the voice, engaged as he was in talking to his friends. "So, in the end I temp banned the bastard for a month," he chuckled. "Teach him to talk back to me. That's not what the forum's for."

"But he didn't break the rules, right?" John asked, looking a little puzzled. "I remember that, he was technically in the right..."

Mitch shrugged. "Rules lawyers piss me off. That's not what the community I want needs. People should be able to work that out."

"So you're working on the basis that people should do what you think they should, not what you told them was OK, explicitly or implicitly?" Anne fixed him with a stare. "Isn't that a bit hypocritical? Changing the rules after the fact then penalizing your users for it? Or enforcing the rules differently depending on whether you like them or not?"

"My forum, my rules," he smiled. "If they don't like it they can fuck off."

"And you wonder why people get annoyed with you," she sighed. "Mitch, you're a decent guy in some respects, but you're an arrogant prick in others."

He glared at the woman. She was John's wife, which was the only reason he really knew her, and she was far too acerbic for his liking. Smart, true, but critical.

"I'm trying to make my site the best it can be," he snapped. "Certain types of people don't seem to get it. It's not a place for idle chatter, they can go somewhere else if they want to swap pointless details of their lives. Facebook, whatever, I don't care."

She looked at John, then back at him, before shaking her head. "Interesting concept of community. And of idle chatter, in a way."

"Excuse me?"

Again he ignored the voice from behind him. "Look, I have a very specific goal, and people need to understand that," he said, as usual getting irate at the woman's comments. She always managed to push his buttons. "That's why the rules. And why we enforce them."

"Intermittently, and inconsistently," she pointed out in mild tones. "I've seen the complaints. Some of them are valid. If you want people to follow rules, you need to be fair about it, and punishing people for violating something that's actually _allowed_ by those rules just because you don't like them, or didn't think of that loophole, is a little excessive. Warn them if they're genuinely being disruptive, fair enough, but you always go overboard."

"It's the spirit of the thing," he growled. "Picking at loopholes is a violation of the whole idea behind the board."

"Your hobby is running a superhero games forum for geeks and fantasy nerds, full of armchair warriors, fanfiction authors, and monomaniacal gamer types, and you're surprised that they actively look for loopholes?" she asked with some incredulity. "What did you _think_ was going to happen?"

Beside her, John was grinning widely. He always found it funny when his wife went off like this.

"Excuse me!" the voice said for the third time, sounding annoyed now. Steaming, he whirled around to glare at the young woman standing behind him.

"What!?" he nearly shouted. "What do you _want?_ "

"Can you move out of the way, please?" she asked, fairly politely, but with a small frown. "You're standing right in the middle of the corridor and I want to get to that stall over there. You're blocking access."

"Oh, well, I'm _very_ sorry, Miss," he said with heavy sarcasm. "Far be it from me to block access to a stupid collection of badly made fantasy props, most of which are from books that the public inexplicably likes even though they're trite and derivative reworks of the classics. Please, forgive me." He stepped to the side and waved the woman towards the stand she was interested in with enormous sarcasm. "Does the Princess require anything else from this humble servant?"

He heard Ann sigh, and saw John put a hand on his face for a moment.

"Do you always have to act like this, Mitch?" his friend said.

"I have no idea what you're talking about, John," he said over his shoulder. "I was merely bowing to the wishes of this young lady, who is clearly more important than I am and has things to do."

He turned back to the brunette, who was watching him with an eyebrow raised and an unimpressed expression, looking her up and down and noting the leather outfit, and the lizard-like tail attached to her rear. "Not that I have any idea what you're meant to be dressed up as, or care. Cosplayers are weird. Well? There you go."

Mitch waved at the stand again.

"Obviously, I'm a combat witch from a different parallel universe," she commented calmly. "You seem to be both rather rude, and somewhat overexcited." Her English accent made the words sound disapproving even though her face didn't change. "This is a place for people to enjoy themselves. Can I politely suggest that you might want to give that a try?"

He went red, his fists clenching. "Do you have any idea who I am?" he gritted.

"No. None whatsoever. Neither do I have any interest." She smiled at him, still looking mildly annoyed under the expression. "All I really want to do is look over that stall. Thank you for moving." She walked forward, stopping when he deliberately blocked her path again. Leaning down from his six and a half foot height to something closer to her five foot seven or so, he glared at her.

"Is there a problem?" she asked.

"Yes. I don't like you."

"You don't like most people, Mitch," John sighed from behind him. The woman glanced past him, then smiled brilliantly.

"I expect the feeling is mutual, for good reasons," she said. Anne muffled a giggle, while he heard John make the little snort he did when he was trying not to laugh.

He clenched his fists harder, trying to control his temper, which was being justifiably tried by the attitude of this woman. Reaching up, he tapped the con ID badge on his chest with a finger. " _I_ am the co-owner of one of the companies sponsoring this event, a company that publishes several very popular video games and turns over nearly eight _hundred_ million dollars a year," he snarled. He pointed over her shoulder to where his stand, which filled a significant portion of the center of the main hall, could be seen a few aisles away, the red and black logo on a rotating sign sticking twenty feet in the air matching the one on his badge. She followed the finger with her gaze, then looked back to him with a raised eyebrow.

" _You_ are merely a lowly visitor, dressed in a silly costume made of fake leather with a stuffed tail sticking out of her ass. Do you have any idea how stupid you look? Why the hell people like you bother to spend money on idiotic costumes is beyond me. Fantasy nerds are the worst. I can have you thrown out of here by security with one call, so watch your mouth."

"I know someone who was a lot like you in school," she remarked after a long pause, their little group somehow isolated in the midst of the heaving crowds. Her eyes had narrowed slightly as he spoke, now radiating a certain amount of irritation. "It took him years to grow up, and while I'll never like him, to his credit he did at least mostly manage it. I fear you may not have achieved the same. Please get out of my way."

Mitch raised his hand almost without thinking. She caught his wrist before it had moved more than a few inches, her grip insanely strong. Her other hand was suddenly holding the wooden stick that had been in some sort of mechanism strapped to her right forearm, the thing flicking it out on a spring or something. "I'm sorry, were you thinking of striking me?" she asked sweetly. "Merely because you felt insulted?"

"Let go," he growled.

"When you stop trying to hit me, I will," she replied. "Honestly, Americans." The woman shook her head a little sadly.

John put his hand on Mitch's shoulder, pulling him back. "Mitch, drop it. She didn't do anything wrong. Remember what happened last time, you don't need the publicity."

Breathing heavily, Mitch pulled his shoulder out of his friend's grasp with a jerk, but lowered his hand. The woman let go immediately. He was puzzled about how strong she was. "Thank you," she said, the stick retracting as she let go of it. "Now, if you don't mind, I still would like to look at that stall."

With ill grace, and a helping hand from John on his elbow, he stepped to the side. She moved past with a nod, heading for the stall in question, the proprietor of which was watching them with a slight grin. Unable to help himself, as she passed he raised a foot and placed it on the end of her costume's tail, hoping that it would get pulled off. It was a childish move, he knew that even as he did it, but she really pissed him off. The accent, the costume, the overall attitude.

He was somewhat startled when he felt something a lot more solid under his foot than foam and rubber, and she stopped dead.

There was a pause.

"You are standing on the end of my tail," she said in a low voice. "Get off it, right now, or there's going to be trouble."

Amused at her response, and thinking that there must be an internal plastic structure to the costume accessory, he leaned on it, wondering if it would crack under his weight. The woman sighed, then made a gesture with her stick.

"I warned you," she said. Moments later the red and gold scaled appendage whipped out from under his foot, curved sideways, and returned with significant force to catch him right in the nuts.

He collapsed to his knees while both John and Anne gasped in shock. The woman turned around, her vicious smile making him worried even through the pain, but not as much as the sight of her tail, which he suddenly realized was _not_ a costume part, moving fluidly around behind her.

"I don't know why you're being so aggressive, but I don't like it very much," she said pleasantly. The end of the stick she was holding was glowing faintly. "All I wanted to do was have a look at that stall, and you decided to make a bully of yourself. I don't _like_ bullies." She shrugged slightly. "You're really lucky you didn't try the same thing on a friend of mine, she reacts _very_ badly to them. Now, what to do with you?"

"What the hell are you?" he choked out, his entire lower abdomen aching horribly.

"I told you, I'm a combat witch from a parallel universe," the woman replied. "No one ever listens."

He looked around frantically, meeting the eyes of his two friends, who appeared extremely worried and very confused, then staggered to his feet. Still holding his groin. Opening his mouth, he yelled, " **SECURITY!** " at the top of his voice.

"No one can hear us," the brunette smiled. She held up the stick, which left a trail of light behind it as she moved it. All three of them gaped at it. "It's a simple spell."

Mitch turned around on the spot, seeing how everyone around them now appeared to be looking past that precise area, leaving them in a little bubble of clear space in the crowd. Not one person had reacted to his shout. "Oh, my god," he mumbled.

"That's an actual magic wand?" Anne managed to say. The woman glanced at her.

"It is," she nodded.

"And you're really a witch?"

"I am."

"And that's a real tail?"

"It is." The smile had grown. "And I don't particularly like it trodden on."

Anne and John exchanged glances. "What are you going to do?" the latter asked quietly.

Folding her arms, the wand drooping to the side, the woman tapped her fingers on her elbows. "There are so _many_ possibilities," she mused idly. "I could curse him to only tell the truth. That's always rather funny. Or turn him into a woman, or an animal. Or a combination. That's also good for a laugh. Some people react very strangely..."

Mitch felt himself go as pale as the other two did. "No!" he wheezed, the pain still fairly intense.

"Or..." The witch fixed him with an intense look.

"Yes?" Anne said faintly as the pause dragged on.

"…he could apologize for deliberately standing on my tail."

Everyone stared, then relaxed as she grinned.

"For heaven's sake, I'm not going to curse anyone for a stupid little prank like that," she chuckled. "A good shot to the balls is more than enough."

Mitch gaped again, while Anne started laughing, although she still looked shocked. "Apologize?" he said.

"Yes. It's when you say sorry for being a bigger dick than normal," John commented. He was watching the self-declared witch with wide eyes. "I think it would be a very good idea to do it right now."

"I'm sorry for standing on your tail," Mitch gabbled. "Really sorry. Honest. It won't happen again."

"Apology accepted," the brunette woman smiled. "People don't like having their tails stepped on, for future reference." She glanced at the watch she had on her left wrist. "Just time to finish this row, then I need to meet my friends for something to eat. It was… interesting… meeting you all." She flicked her wand, then let it retract into the holder on her wrist. All three of them looked around and realized that people now seemed to be paying attention to them again. Mitch caught the eye of another cosplayer with a silver wig, who smirked at him slightly, nodded to the brunette past him, and moved on.

"I'm slightly sorry about the ballshot, but only slightly," the brunette said to him. "Considering you tried to hit me, after all. Anyway, let's leave that in the past. Enjoy the event. It's very good. I'll check out your stand later."

Smiling, she looked at Anne and John, then headed towards the stall she'd been aiming at to begin with, while they watched in disbelief. Soon she was engaged in discussion with the proprietor about a book, appearing relaxed and happy.

"Did… that really just happen?" Anne asked, moving to stand beside him. John was on her other side. "A real witch?"

"I think so," John said in a low voice. They watched the woman buy the book, then move off down the row of stalls. "Although I can't believe it."

"Should we do something?"

"What?" John looked at his wife, then Mitch, who was staring after the woman with the tail. "Who would believe us?"

"Not to mention it was this idiot here who started it," Anne sighed, jerking her thumb at Mitch.

"Hey..." he protested weakly.

"You did, and you know it," she grumbled. "Just like last time. You're really lucky that guy was only an ex-cop, all things considered."

Mitch sighed, but couldn't disagree.

"Maybe you'll learn not to get so worked up so quickly next time," Anne added. "Your temper is your biggest weak point."

They watched the woman vanish into the crowd, then turned with mutual wordless agreement and walked in the other direction. A little later, John said, "The thing I'm now wondering…" He glanced at them both, then looked around the crowd. "The thing I'm now wondering… is how many other visitors from… other places… there are here? I mean, we just met someone from a parallel universe!" His voice was barely audible over the crowd, none of whom were paying any attention at all. "Do you think there could be more?"

Anne and Mitch looked at each other, then at John, before peering around. Some way off down a side corridor, a girl in a fantastically detailed lizard costume met their eyes and smiled, before turning away.

* * *

"We never speak of this," Anne said five minutes later, when they were at the bar outside the conference hall, each with a bottle of beer.

Three bottles clinked together, then got drained. They sat and thought for a while, before heading back inside.

Mitch resolved to try to keep his temper under control from now on.

Just in case.

Especially considering how many oddly good costumes he kept spotting...


	228. Omake - The Anomaly (MCU)

Jane looked around in wonder, fear, and scientific curiosity, trying to work out where she was. The dark stone under her feet and surrounding her on all sides was unfamiliar to her, and certainly _not_ the concrete and steel of the building she'd just been in. Not to mention the way that only feet from her the ground dropped away into unfathomable depths.

As far as she could see, she was in some ancient appearing stone building, unfamiliar and half-obliterated symbols etched into the rock around the place she'd found herself. Turning around, having stepped back from nearly toppling into the dark, she took a few deep breaths. Calling out for her friends did nothing but produce echoes which died away into the moaning wind and creaking sounds of old stonework changing temperature.

Her scanner was still beeping and weebling to itself, monitoring the energy of whatever spacial disruption had brought her here. Wherever _here_ actually was, of course. Playing with it for a moment, she tried to work out that question, to no avail.

After a few seconds she lifted her gaze to the odd stone monolith which was the only real sign of civilization, other than the ruins of the building itself. Again, she didn't recognize the symbols on it, or on the ground surrounding it, but a deep scarlet light pulsing from a gap that ran all around the thing about four feet up attracted her attention. Cautiously walking over to it, mindful of the uncertain footing, she bent a little and peered into the gap, gasping in shock at the weird sight inside the stone.

She was just raising a hand when a voice from behind her said, "I _really_ wouldn't recommend that," in a fairly casual way, the slightly strange accent one she couldn't place. With a yip of shock and fear, she jumped several inches in the air, then spun around.

Standing about ten feet behind her, a tall figure was inspecting her and the monolith with interest. She gaped at the reptilian woman, who smiled at her, waving a little. "Hi. I'm Saurial. You are…?"

"Jane..." she managed after a moment. "Jane Foster."

"Nice to meet you, Jane," the lizard-like creature said pleasantly. "From Earth?"

"...yes," she replied faintly. There was a pause. "This _isn't_ … Earth?"

Saurial rocked a hand from side to side. "Not precisely. Sort of a parallel world, would be the least wrong way to put it."

"Like Asgard?"

"Aha! You know about that!" Saurial looked pleased. "Exactly. Those guys call it the nine realms, which isn't exactly right either, but close enough for most purposes."

"OK." Jane ran out of words at that point. The reptilian alien, which was about as close as she could figure the other person out, walked over to stand next to her, also bending down to peer into the crack in the monolith.

"There it is. Huh. I was wondering where that went."

Straightening up, she adjusted the fedora she was, for some reason, wearing on the fine feathers that covered her head. Much of the rest of her was enclosed in a somewhat oddly-cut trench-coat of all things, although her three-toed clawed feet were bare and a long tail stuck out the back. Jane merely watched, too stunned to work out what else to do. At least the creature didn't seem hostile.

"What is it?" she finally asked, watching her new companion rub her chin, which was more of a short muzzle, thoughtfully.

"This?" Saurial glanced at her. "Oh, it's an energy construct that's been floating around the multiverse for a hell of a long time. Nasty little bastard, although to be fair it wasn't meant to be, it sort of went wrong. A programming bug, that's all. The people who made it weren't quite as careful as they should have been. Still, it needs to be dealt with. I was on my way to Asgard to have a chat with that Odin guy and detected the thing. Lucky for you, actually, if you'd touched it..." She shrugged. "Bad things would have happened."

Jane felt herself pale a little.

"Bad things?" she echoed quietly.

"Oh, yes, _horrible_ things," Saurial said cheerfully. "Death, destruction, alien invasion, tax rises, all the good TV shows being canceled, cats and dogs living together… Nothing anyone really wants." Jane stared at her as she shook her head. "But we can deal with that before it happens. Now, where did I put that..." She felt in her pockets, pulling out and putting back all manner of weird things. "I could make a new one, but it's time consuming, and I definitely have one here somewhere..." Reaching into a pocket, she pulled out a long staff and handed it to Jane. "Here, hold this a moment."

The brunette woman did so, a little numbly. The search continued, the scientist nearly buried under odd things she'd been asked to ' _hold for a moment_ ,' until the lizard creature pulled out a small box, smiling widely. " _Aha!_ I knew I had one."

She turned to Jane, then looked her up and down. "Ah. OK, sorry about that." Putting the box in her mouth and holding it in place with teeth which were very definitely those of a carnivore, she quickly retrieved all the weird items and stuffed them back into her pockets, which were obviously much too small for the load. It didn't seem to stop her.

"OK, there we are. Here, can you hold this for a moment?"

Jane took the box, which Saurial opened, then removed something from inside it. With the best will in the world, the astrophysicist was totally unable to describe, even to herself, what the hell it was. The shape was… _wrong_.

She blinked furiously, then shook her head, but her eyes refused to focus on the little thing. Saurial seemed unconcerned, putting her entire hand into it somehow and feeling around, while glancing at the deep red light coming out of the stone next to them. "That should do it," she announced. Pulling her hand out she bent down and studied the light again.

"Better disconnect the alarm, though," she added.

"Alarm?"

"Yep. Someone's keyed this to an alert so if anyone was foolish enough to come into contact with it, it sends a signal somewhere. I doubt that the people on the other end are ones we want coming looking." She shrugged. "Call it a hunch."

Fiddling with the stonework, she ran a finger over some of the markings, which glowed faintly for a second in different colors. "There we go. No alarms going out now. Let's get this thing safely locked away." She put the eye-warping little device into the slot and let go.

There was a very weird sound, which seemed to echo around the entire cavern they were in, but didn't come in through the ears. It went on for about ten seconds then stopped. Removing the widget she held it up, smiling. It was now glowing the same deep scarlet and the light from the slot had vanished.

"Great. All I have to do is safely get rid of it, which isn't a problem. We'll just drain the energy and use it for something helpful." Poking the device, she watched as it collapsed into a smaller form, the glow disappearing, then put it into the box Jane was still holding, which she then plucked out of her hand and dropped into her pocket.

"All done. Disaster averted. Thanks for the help. Do you need a ride anywhere?"

Still trying to work out what was going on, Jane nodded weakly. "Back home would be good," she said after a second or two.

"No problem. We can go back through that gravitic anomaly, actually. Same way you got here."

Walking back to the end of the stone platform they were standing on, the reptilian woman did something, which had the effect of making a shimmering web of energy appear next to her. Jane's scanner went nuts, causing her to look at it, then raise it. The readings were fascinating. Making sure to record everything, she moved around the distortion, then put the scanner away when she was satisfied she'd got everything she could.

"There we go, that'll take you right back to the place you came from," Saurial announced in a pleased tone. "I'll come back with you to make sure you get there safely, then I need to go and yell at Odin for a while." She snapped her fingers. "And get some video of it for someone. Must remember to turn the camera on."

Stepping aside, she waved at the distortion in the air. "After you, Jane Foster," she said with a smile.

Bemused, Jane stared at her, then the faint tracery in the air, sighed a little, and walked into it.

Ever since New Mexico, life seemed to be becoming a little strange.

* * *

"Where did Jane go?" Darcy asked, getting worried. Her friend, and boss, had disappeared up the stairs over fifteen minutes before, with no sign of her coming back. They'd been so invested in amusing themselves tossing things into the gravitational warp that the little group had lost track of the time.

"Still upstairs, I think," Ian said absently, leaning forwards and peering up through the stairwell. A can hit him in the face, causing the kids who had shown them the anomaly to burst out laughing.

"Ouch," he added, rubbing his cheek.

"No sign of the car keys yet," Darcy sighed. "Why did you throw them in?"

"I got carried away," he muttered with a shamed look. She shook her head sadly.

About to chastise him yet again, she stopped when she head voices from below them. Leaning over the scaffolding poles forming a rudimentary railing, she yelled, "Jane?"

"Yes, it's me, Darcy," the other woman called back.

"How did you get down there?" Darcy shouted.

"You wouldn't believe me," Jane replied, sounding very odd. "Come down, we're done here."

"OK," she called, then turned to Ian. "Now we have to tell her about the keys, you idiot."

Waving his arms widely, he said, "It was a mistake! An honest mistake."

The missing keys dropped out of nowhere to neatly land in his outstretched hand, which he reflexively closed, then inspected with shock in his eyes. It turned to pleased triumph moments later. "Which we will never need to mention."

"You lucky _bastard_ ," one of the children commented with a grin. Ian looked at her, then shrugged, grinning back.

"I'll take it," he replied.

The entire group went down the stairs in a crowd, bursting into the lower room, which was barren dry concrete except for Jane talking to… a fucking huge lizard in a trench-coat?

Darcy skidded to a halt, as did everyone else.

"Fuckin' hell," one of the kids said under his breath.

"Uh… Jane?" Darcy began in a worried voice. The other woman looked over at her.

"Yes?" she asked, seeming like she was hiding a grin.

Darcy pointed at the blue-scaled reptilian creature as discreetly as she could, the thing currently looking around with interest. "You… seem to have met someone new."

"I'm Saurial," the lizard-thing said without turning her head. "Found your friend here in a place I can't advise visiting and brought her back with me. Little mistake with that anomaly in there." She looked over at them having finished inspecting the far end of the building, her eyes obscured by the oddest-looking sunglasses Darcy had ever seen. Smiling just enough to show a couple of teeth, she added, "It was probably a good thing I turned up when I did. Nice to meet you all, by the way."

"Are… you... an _alien?_ " a different child asked breathlessly. Saurial cocked her head to the side, then grinned.

"Sort of. And sort of not. It's complicated, but I'm not from around here."

"Coool," the boy said, drawing out the word. He didn't seem at all fussed, Darcy noticed with mild amazement.

"It's sealed," another, much deeper voice suddenly said from the side, making everyone look that way. Darcy yelped and without thinking about it hid behind Ian, which was a little awkward as he'd moved to hide behind her at the same time. The children froze, while Jane stared in shock.

"Good," Saurial replied to the much larger and extremely black lizard that had stepped out of the shadows, then turned to look in the other direction. Another one, this one a sort of blue-violet color, had entered the room in the company of a slim brown-haired woman who was dressed in casual clothes and studying something in her hand. Darcy blinked when she noticed that even the normal-appearing one of the quartet had a lithe reptilian tail moving behind her, the scales dark red on top and almost gold down the underside.

"No trace of it left now," this newcomer said in a voice with a definite British accent, sounding pleased. "I went over it twice."

"Thanks, guys," Saurial said with a smile. "It would be a little irresponsible leaving it open and prone to flinging people all over the universe."

"Definitely," the woman laughed. She looked at the others, then back to Saurial. "New friends?"

"Locals, I just met them myself," the blue lizard said. "Guys, these are my cousins Metis and Ianthe," she went on, indicating the black and violet creatures respectively, "and this is my friend Hermione. Employee of the year, applied magic division, as well."

"Applied..." Jane began incredulously.

"...Magic?" Darcy finished for her.

"Quite," the woman smiled. "I'm fairly good at it."

"She's a genuine genius at it, don't let the modesty hide that," Saurial laughed. "Most knowledgeable witch I know."

"Witch?" Ian asked faintly. The woman, who looked about mid-twenties, nodded.

"Witch. I'm not from around here either. Different universe, actually. This is a summer job." She seemed amused. "Do you need us any more, or can I get back to my experiment?" she added, turning back to Saurial.

"Actually, while you're here..." Saurial smiled. "Want to come with me and have a word with Odin about my artifacts?"

"You're not _still_ going on about that, are you?" the woman sighed. "It was only a hammer, for heaven's sake. One you threw away. Or forgot, or whatever the hell it was."

"It's the principle of the thing," the lizard said, spreading her hands. "I don't go around claiming _his_ stuff as _my_ work, after all. And it's also a spear, and I'm still not sure about that music box."

"Why would Odin of the Asgard steal your _music box?_ " Hermione asked in a reasonable tone. Ianthe and Metis were looking like they were trying not to laugh, and the actual humans were wondering what was going on.

Saurial shrugged. "I'm not accusing him of anything at the moment, not for that, but he's a bit light-fingered. You never know. I'm just going to ask."

"And yell about the tools, right?"

"Probably."

"Oh, for..." The witch shook her head a little. "All right, I suppose someone has to keep you three out of trouble. Honestly, you're like children sometimes."

"That's the spirit," Saurial snickered, not appearing at all insulted. All four of them moved to a spot in the middle of the floor, away from the others.

"Hey, wait!" Jane called, making the quartet look at her again, as did everyone else. "You're going to Asgard?"

"That's the idea," Saurial replied.

"Can you pass on a message for me?"

The lizard-girl cocked her head again, then nodded. Jane ran over and whispered something, which produced a grin. "No problem. I'll let him know," she smiled.

"Thanks."

"Nice to meet you all," Saurial said more loudly as Jane came back to stand beside Darcy, who glanced at her, wondering what she'd asked for. It was obviously in regard to Thor, her blond boy-toy, who had been conspicuous by his absence even though he'd said he'd be back.

Pulling out a small device from a pocket, Saurial raised it to her mouth and said something into it in quiet tones, then put it away. Moments later an orange-bordered hole in the universe opened a few feet in front of them, a gray metallic structure sliding out of it and opening up to reveal a perfectly ordinary-looking door. Everyone stared as Hermione turned the handle, then stepped through as if she was going into the next room. Metis and Ianthe followed, waving to the observers, leaving Saurial for last. She leaned back out and grinned. "Cool, right?"

"Fuckin' excellent!" the boy who'd commented earlier shouted, giving her a thumb's up. She nodded to them, then disappeared from view. The door retracted, the orange-limned hole vanished as silently as it had appeared, and they were left staring at an empty room with only a number of odd footprints in the dust to show anything strange had happened.

"You meet some very weird people these days," Darcy finally commented, a little faintly. There didn't seem to be much else to say. All the others nodded as one.

After a little longer, Jane nudged her compatriots. "Come on, I need to get back and try to make sense of these readings. I've got some amazing data. Who has the keys?"

Ian pulled them out of his pocket and handed them over with an innocent expression, causing a couple of the kids to snicker, which in turn made Jane look a little puzzled. Saying goodbye to their new acquaintances, the three headed for the car while thinking about the oddities of the recent past.


	229. Omake - God Bothering (MCU)

"Why are you so full of humor, brother?"

"Because I know what's going to happen soon," the dark-haired man snickered, his eyes alight with mischief on the other side of the force-field cell wall. "Or, to be more accurate, I have a good idea of what I _hope_ is going to happen soon."

Thor inspected his adoptive brother with a frown. "You speak in riddles. As is common. Would you care to explain?"

Loki's small smirk widened. "Why, brother, can you not work it out for yourself? Did you not feel the magical surge recently?"

With a slight sigh, the blond Asgardian looked steadily at the other man. "You are well aware you have far more talent for the sorcerous arts than I. What magical surge?"

Stopping his idle pacing, Loki stood in front of his larger brother, the smug grin growing to an irritating level. He leaned forward a little and looked both ways down the corridors of the prison block, lit mostly by the glow from force shields. Returning his eyes to Thor's, he said, "We have a visitor. One who said she'd be arriving eventually." Thor frowned again. "To talk about certain claims that may have been made in the past. Surely you remember?" He held his hand just above his head to the side. "This tall, scaled like a dragon, a long tail, and an amusing dress sense?"

The god of thunder paled.

"Saurial."

"Indeed, brother. I suspect she has lost patience waiting for a response. You _did_ mention her to Father, I hope?"

"Um..."

Loki shook his head sadly. "Oh dear. The young lady appeared to me to be someone you should take seriously. Perhaps you should see about that before she simply walks in and confronts him?"

The blond man looked a little ill. "Perhaps… you have a point, brother. Please excuse me, I need to see someone."

Turning with as much dignity as he could bring to bear considering he was visibly sweating, he hurried off. Loki waved mockingly. "Goodbye, brother. I do so enjoy these little chats. Stop in again when you have time."

Laughing under his breath, he watched as the other man disappeared into the distance. When he was safely gone, he turned to look to the side. "Are you planning on harming any of them?"

"No, not really," a voice said, before a figure emerged from the darkness between two cells. The occupant of the one that wasn't empty looked at her, then turned around very deliberately and walked to the other side of the cell, doing his best to pretend she wasn't there.

"But I do want to talk about this Asgardian tendency to collect my hardware and call it their work," the humanoid lizard went on, stopping in front of him. "Odin would seem to be something of an acquisitive bastard."

Loki snorted. "You have _no_ idea."

She cocked her head to the side, inquisitively. "That sounds like it's based on experience."

"You could indeed call it such."

"Want to talk about it?"

He studied her while she studied him. Raising his eyes, he spotted motion in the shadows behind her, sensing that there were more of her people around the place, although he couldn't see any of them directly. "How long do you have?" he finally asked in a wry voice.

"Long enough," she smiled. "And I always like a good story." Stepping back a pace, she sat in a chair that appeared behind her. He watched, amused. It was a remarkable piece of magic.

"We might be disturbed at any moment," he pointed out.

"Not likely." She seemed fairly certain of this, so he took her at her word.

"In that case, allow me to enlighten you on some of Great Odin's other ' _conquests_.'" he replied, also sitting down on the chair he had in the cell. His voice was hard. "Things that made me the man I am today." Thinking about it, he was honest enough to add, "Or more precisely, helped me along that path. Parts of it were entirely my own."

Clasping his hands in front of him and resting his elbows on his knees, he started talking about his origins, while the lizard in the coat and hat listened silently.

* * *

"Father, I must speak with you," Thor said respectfully while bowing his head, having finally gained an audience with his father after some threatening of the guards, who had been fairly convinced that the elder god was desirous of solitude. Odin peered down from his throne at the blond man, one hand on his spear and the other resting on his lap.

"What is the urgency, my son?" he said calmly, "You seemed most insistent. I was meditating and did not wish to be disturbed. I trust you have a good reason?"

"I do," Thor replied, before swallowing a little. "It is a matter I should have brought to your attention some time ago, but I have neglected my duty. I apologize, I can only offer that I was distracted by recent events in Midgard."

The ancient god regarded his son thoughtfully. "What matter?" he finally asked.

Raising his gaze to meet his father's, Thor said, "It relates to Mjolnir, among other things. I met someone who claims to be the one who made it."

There was a long pause, during which Odin's single eye widened slightly, then narrowed in thought. "Who is this person? Mjolnir was wrought by the dwarves at my instruction."

"That… is not what she said," Thor said awkwardly, feeling both embarrassed and nervous. His father was definitely glaring at him now.

"Who?" Odin insisted, leaning forward, his eye flashing with irritation and surprise. "Who dares to claim such a thing?"

"That would be me," a voice that Thor had heard twice before said, making both of them sharply look around, to see Saurial strolling towards them down the length of the great hall, looking around with interest. Odin jumped to his feet, while Thor sighed. This was going to be embarrassing…

"Name yourself, creature!" Odin shouted, leveling his spear at her. "How did you get past the guards?" She kept approaching until she was only a few feet away, then stopped, cocking her head as she examined the spear itself and pretty much ignoring the one wielding it.

"Yep, that's mine, alright," she said in a low voice to herself, sounding slightly peeved.

" _Yours!?_ " Odin appeared deeply insulted. "Gungnir was crafted by the dwarves for my father, Bor Burinson, and has been passed down the ages since. It is a sacred artifact of the Asg..."

"I know the various myths surround it, trust me," the reptilian female said, holding up a hand. Odin actually sputtered to a halt at this action. "You guys have told half a dozen different stories over the years about it. That hammer, too," she added, indicating Mjolnir, which Thor was very carefully _not_ putting his hand on, allowing it to hang from his belt. "But we all know they're not actually very accurate, don't we?"

 **"Who are you to come into the hallowed halls of Asgard and insult me, the king?"** Odin bellowed at the top of his voice, fury overcoming him as he hefted the spear. Thor looked at the lizard, whose eyes narrowed slightly, then his enraged father, and decided that it might be sensible to take a few steps back. **"I am Odin Borson, Ruler of Asgard, and I will not be accused of theft by some… _thing_."**

Saurial watched him with her head tipped a little to the side, radiating much less good humor than Thor had seen on her previous visits. He got the definite impression that she was somewhat annoyed.

"Oh, you want to be all formal, do you?" she asked evenly. "All right. I can do that too."

She took a breath, then roared out in far deeper tones than seemed possible from someone so slender.

" ** _I am Saurial, First of the Family, Last of the Varga, Heir to the Lost Kingdom of Rimsbell, and I do indeed accuse Great Odin of theft._** "

Thor staggered from the sheer volume, as did Odin, both of them gaping. Saurial's attire changed as she spoke from the informal coat and hat to a set of armor, made of a dark blue metal with the head in profile of some huge dragon, picked out in gold, on the breastplate, while both her hands now held a five foot long sword which she crossed in front of her, ending her display with a vicious grin that exposed many, many teeth. She took a step forward and pointed both swords at Odin, half-crouched with her tail out behind her, looking like she was mere seconds from jumping at him.

 ** _"If you want to keep going, just try me,"_** she hissed in an entirely inhuman voice that send chills down the backs of both men. **_"I'm willing to dance if you push. Or we can simply talk and resolve our differences. Your choice."_**

Spinning the swords in a manner than showed enormous skill and much practice, she slipped them into a pair of sheaths that formed out of nowhere on her back, without any noticeable effort, then stepped back, straightening up in the process.

"Personally, I'd prefer to talk, myself," she added in a far more friendly voice, smiling at the leader of the Asgard. "Why fight if you don't have to?"

Thor blinked. The sudden change from calm and friendly to instant machine of war and back again was disconcerting. He looked at his father, who seemed somewhat stunned as well.

"Lady Saurial," he said after a number of seconds passed without anyone saying anything, "I do not think any of us wish to enter into unnecessary combat." He reflected how that sentence would make most of the people who knew him stare, but was uneasily certain that engaging this person would be unwise. He liked a good fight as much as the next warrior, but was smart enough to know that they knew nothing of her abilities other than that she was clearly a very powerful magic user if nothing else. Her obvious skill with her blades, not to mention the _appearance_ of those blades from nowhere, also showed that she had more than a few surprises up her sleeves.

Caution was warranted.

Turning to his father, who now seemed annoyed again, he bowed his head respectfully. "Not that I would put words into the mouth of my father and leader, of course," he added in as calm a manner as he could manage.

Odin appeared to take hold of himself, if Thor had any judgment, a little tic in his cheek that appeared when he was angry but restraining his temper coming and going a couple of times. Saurial simply watched them, apparently now perfectly calm and more curious than anything.

"You overstep your bounds, my son," Odin grated, but when Thor gave him a meaningful look, trying to get across his thoughts, the far older and more experienced god bit back whatever else it was that he was going to say, exhaled through his nose, then nodded very slightly. "But I understand your point." He raised the spear a little so it was no longer pointing at their unexpected visitor.

Thor noticed with alarm that as he did so, two shapes resolved to the sides, one on the left and one on the right, both of them holding what appeared to be some form of very large energy weapon. One was the cousin he'd met before, the black and scarlet lizard that had been introduced as Metis, while the other was her apparent near-twin, only violet-blue. Their weapons were just in the process of being lowered, having very obviously been aimed at Odin the entire time. How neither one of them had noticed up until now he had no idea, aside from some very powerful sorcery being involved.

They quietly stepped back into the shadows at the sides of the room as Odin also noticed them, his single eye looking from side to side while his face both hardened and paled slightly.

Metis nodded to him then vanished into the dark beside a column, the other one looking faintly amused before also disappearing again.

"Sorry, but they insisted," Saurial said in a light tone. "Family, you know? They like to help."

Odin opened his mouth, closed it after a moment, then tried again, apparently reigning in his temper. "I would be grateful if you could explain yourself," he said in a stiff voice. "I am unaccustomed to being accosted in my own throne room and accused of theft by… unusual visitors." He'd clearly wanted to say something somewhat more descriptive but had thought better of it at the last moment.

"Really?" Saurial asked, looking at him in an evaluating manner. "With your background… Huh. OK. The point is basically that _that_..." she pointed at the spear he was holding in a slightly less threatening manner, "… is something I made quite a while ago, in local terms. As is tall and blond's hammer over there. I am somewhat irritated by the way that certain people are spreading around the stories that they were made by the dwarves, which we both know is not actually true."

Thor's father went a somewhat choleric hue about the face again. "Both these sacred artifacts were created for the Asgard by..."

"Me. And not for the Asgard," Saurial interrupted, scowling. "I made the hammer about fifty three thousand years ago for a job I was working on and forgot it. Fair enough, I don't care about that part, I left it behind and if you want to use it, help yourself. But don't go around telling people you made it, or had someone else make it for you. It's older than your entire civilization by this point. The spear I made for a friend, who _wasn't_ your father, believe me. I never even met the guy. How you ended up with it I have no idea. The blaster spell on it is someone else's work, true, but the thing itself is mine. I'm starting to get just a tiny bit pissed about people finding my stuff and claiming it's something they made."

Odin was still looking furious. "I do not care to be called a thief," he snarled.

"Well, stop stealing things, then," she growled back. "My hammer, my spear… I've looked you up, you have quite the reputation for helping yourself to things you want. Or people, for that matter."

Thor stared at her, as did Odin, who suddenly looked rather taken aback. And a little worried.

"People?" he echoed, a guilty expression flashing across his face before it evened out.

She squinted at him sidelong. "Yeah. People. You know damn well who I'm talking about. Skinny dark haired guy you've got locked up downstairs."

"How do you know of Loki's past?" Thor interrupted, feeling both surprised and worried.

"He told me," she replied, looking at him. He stared in shock. "We had a nice long chat about it. OK, I get that he's a sneaky little bastard who's done some pretty unpleasant things, but I have to say that his family life is enough to drive most people to the edge. It doesn't excuse it, but I think it explains quite a lot. And your daddy there doesn't really have anyone but himself to blame for that."

"Loki has killed hundreds of people on Midgard, and elsewhere..." Thor began as Odin seemed lost for words.

"True. But neither one of _you_ is unfamiliar with that either, are you?" she asked meaningfully. "And not all of it has been in battle. Even when it has, who _started_ those battles in some cases?"

He lowered his eyes in sudden shame, remembering events in his past, some not all that long ago. "I mean, _I've_ never started a war," she went on. "Ended a few, true, but not started them. I gather you can't say the same."

"I… have learned valuable lessons," he admitted.

"Glad to hear it." She looked back to Odin, who was gritting his teeth a little. "Hopefully other people can do likewise. All I want is an apology for claiming something that's not true and a promise that you'll stop doing it."

His son could tell that the elder Asgardian was trying very hard not to shout again. Odin wasn't the sort of person who took a shine to someone coming into his own throne room and pointing out a number of embarrassing things from the past. Especially when they were true.

He noted with some alarm that the tip of the spear was dropping again. Saurial eyed it, a slight smirk crossing her scaly visage. "You'd better be _very_ sure you want to do that, _Great Odin,_ " she said in a low silky voice.

The end of the spear was glowing now, while Odin's face was like stone. The reptilian woman simply waited. "Well? Take your shot if you want. Then I get to take mine." She looked around at the throne room again for a moment. "It's a nice building. But I guess you can rebuild it afterwards." Looking at Thor, she added with another dark smile, "Or rather, _you_ can. You're next in line, right?"

More than a little alarmed at the implication, and the confidence with which she was facing down what he knew to be a wildly powerful mystical weapon, the thunder god cleared his throat. He was also quite worried about the way none of the guards had come in, even with the shouting.

The faint whining sound he could hear on either side of the throne that he imagined was what a charging energy weapon might well sound like was also somewhat upsetting, as was the ominous glow he could see in the shadows.

"Father, I urge caution," he said in a carefully respectful manner. "Perhaps we can resolve this matter without violence."

Saurial squinted sidelong at him, not taking her eyes off Odin. "Huh," she murmured. "Your brother was right. Maybe you _are_ learning."

Not sure whether he should be insulted, pleased, or confused, Thor stared at her for a second, then returned his attention to the elder man, who was still glaring at the lizard. Again he cleared his throat, a little more loudly. Eventually his father grumbled something under his breath and the spear stopped glowing, the tip raising again.

"What do you want, creature?" the elder Asgardian finally gritted out.

Saurial smiled at him in pleased manner.

"Mainly, I want you to stop going around claiming my hardware as something you invented. An apology for that would be nice too. Perhaps some form of official retraction of previous statements?" She looked thoughtful while Odin went a funny color. "Do you have Asgardian newspapers? A full page ad from the leader of the Asgard saying how he was very sorry about being a bit of a klepto and it would never happen again would be a good first step." Glancing at Thor she raised an eye ridge enquiringly.

The blond man looked at her, then his father, who had gone purple, then put his hand over his face. This wasn't going to end well.

"You… _dare_..." The sound of the elder man's voice was the only thing that broke the silence, other than a low hum which had replaced the whine but was no less worrying.

The female reptile shrugged. "I'm not insisting on an advert, but I really would like someone to do something about all those stories going around about the hammer and the spear. Or, if you like, we could simply arrange to do a complete audit of Asgard and see what else of mine is lurking around." She smiled toothily at him. "If it comes to that, though, I may want to confiscate anything we find. The dwarves are a little pissed off as well, since your tall stories have sort of dropped them into the middle of all of this. I got them to agree to let me handle it but if you're not cooperative, well… They may also want to have a word. I'm told there are quite a few outstanding irregularities with your historical dealings with them."

"They said they'd hire us for security purposes under those circumstances," Metis commented from the dark to one side of the room, sounding very amused. "Since our goals align pretty well."

"Father, I think we should all take a moment to calmly think about..." Thor started, desperately wanting someone else, _anyone_ else, to be here to talk the older man down from what was building up to the most impressive rage he'd ever seen. He wasn't a diplomat, he was keenly aware of that, and _preventing_ a fight wasn't the sort of area his talents generally lay in.

Abruptly he was wishing Loki was here. They needed someone with the gift of the golden tongue, and whatever else his brother was, a good talker was one of the more impressive things.

Before he could finish the sentence, Odin snapped the spear down and activated the devastating magic held within. Thor reeled back from the enormous noise, brilliant light, and wave of searing heat that the mystical energy beam threw off as it impacted squarely on Saurial's chest.

Over the roar of the spear's magic in action, he could hear alarms going off outside the hall, as whatever magic or technology had made this meeting private was suddenly overwhelmed. Covering his head as he hastily moved away from the backwash of the weapon, he waited for what seemed like minutes but was probably only seconds until it finally stopped, the abrupt silence ringing in his ears.

Straightening up, he turned to see what the result was. As he did he noticed that his father was now standing as still as a statue, the spear no longer in his hand, but in the grip of the violet lizard who was standing next to him, while both she and the matte black form of Metis were holding the dangerous ends of their respective energy weapons to his head, the rumbling hum very obvious.

Odin was more or less ignoring this, since his one-eyed gaze was fixed, apparently in horrified awe, on the slimmer figure standing in the middle of a cone-shaped area of stone floor which was glowing red and visibly slowly flowing to the sides, several inches of it obviously molten. It extended a hundred feet or more back into the hall, an elongated shadow of darker stone showing where Saurial's body had blocked the massive energy release.

Saurial herself was completely intact, something that didn't surprise Thor quite as much as he thought it should have done. He was very aware that he himself would not have fared nearly as well in the face of even a fraction of that beam.

She looked down for a moment, then around herself at the glowing rock. "Not bad," she commented in a low voice. "Decent output for a simple blaster spell, but the duration is limited. Takes too long to charge." He got the impression that she was talking more to herself than anyone else.

A couple of seconds passed, then she started walking forward, her bare feet sinking into the molten surface and leaving three-toed footprints in it, dripping rock falling from her body as each foot rose. He stared at her, as did Odin, while she slowly stalked towards him. "Now, while that was nicely refreshing, I have a distinct impression that you were actually trying to kill me. I'm not fond of people doing that. I am not happy at all. You had the opportunity to resolve this whole thing peacefully, but you seem to want to do it the hard way. All right, we can do that."

Coming to a halt at the base of the throne steps, she looked up at her cousins, saying something in her native tongue. The violet one snickered, nodded, and tossed her the spear. She caught it, looked it over, then somehow made it simply vanish into a belt pouch which was vastly too small to contain it. "I'll hang onto this for now," she commented. "Just in case. Now, while I could retaliate in kind, I can't be bothered, so audit it is. Hermione, you're up."

Footsteps sounded off to one side, making everyone look over, including Odin who was moving very slowly and carefully. Metis and her cousin allowed him to look but kept their weapons trained on him.

Approaching from the direction of the entrance doors, which were moving slightly as someone on the other side was apparently hammering on them, was a slim brunette woman dressed in what he recognized as some form of dragon skin armor. His eyes widened a little when he noticed she had a reptilian tail very similar to Saurial's except for the color. Her wavy brown hair was pulled back in a braided ponytail, which flicked back and forth as she looked around. On the right side of her chest there was a golden badge of some sort, glinting in the light as she moved.

"Impressive," she remarked in a cool voice as she stopped a few feet from the edge of the glowing area, which was slowly becoming dimmer as it cooled. "I take it he didn't want to cooperate?"

"Apparently not," Saurial shrugged. "I asked nicely for an apology." She waved at the floor. "You see the results."

The woman nodded, then raised her arm. A wand of some form appeared in it, even Thor feeling the magical potential of the focus. She flicked the thing in a small but complex motion, which had the effect that a faint pulse of light spread out from her across the floor, instantly cooling it to ambient temperatures. "Nicely done," Saurial smiled, lifting her feet one at a time with a crackling sound out of the now-solid rock and flexing the toes, which made crumbled stone drop to the floor.

"It was a bit too warm for me," the woman, apparently called Hermione, said with a small smile. She was obviously a magic-worker of considerable ability, Thor deduced.

The wand vanished again with a motion of her hand, which then dipped into the shoulder bag she was wearing and re-emerged with a completely mundane-looking clipboard, just like you'd find in any Midgardian office. She produced a pen from somewhere and clicked the end, then flipped through a couple of pages, before turning to Odin.

The elder man was watching the proceedings with what looked like a mix of anger, worry, and disbelief in his eye. Thor himself was feeling much the same although the anger was more irritation at himself for not having taken the lizard-woman seriously enough at the first to immediately contact his father and discuss the matter. Now it was too late.

"Odin Borson, King of Asgard, I am Hermione Granger. I will be your Auditor for today. The Union of Dwarven MageCrafters has appointed me their representative under a mutual union cooperation agreement with the Family." She tapped the badge she was wearing with her pen. "My credentials, if you wish to inspect them."

Odin opened his mouth, thought for a moment, then closed it again.

"As you wish. Now, we will begin with your weapons vault. In addition to the hammer known as Mjolnir, and the spear known as Gungnir, both of which I have on my list, I would like to inspect a semi-autonomous bipedal weapon system known as the Destroyer. There are also a number of other mystical weapons, as well as a collection of magitech devices such as a pair of soul forges. I will need to see receipts, full documentation of use since acquisition, current and past warranty forms, and any details of claims made for malfunction."

Flipping a page, she ticked a couple of items off. "I have the list here." She lifted the next five pages and went through them, her eyebrows raising slightly. "It is quite long, so I expect this will take some time. You should arrange to cancel any previous engagements until we are finished." Glancing at Saurial who looked amused, and ignoring Odin who was opening and closing his mouth making little hissing sounds while suddenly appearing very worried indeed, she nodded towards the door. "Could you do something about that noise?" she requested. "It's becoming irritating."

"Sure, Hermione," Saurial smiled. "Hey, you, blondie, come and help me talk to your guards and get them to shut up. Ianthe, give us a hand, will you?"

The violet lizard nodded and came down the stairs, trailing behind them as Saurial prodded Thor into moving. Sighing, he decided he had no choice and complied.

Behind him, Miss Granger's voice went on remorselessly, "Now, in addition to the artifacts, I will need to see full details of all funds used in purchasing them, the entire paper trail for those funds, and account details both personal and for the Kingdom of Asgard. I must warn you that the Interdimensional Banking Authority has appointed me as a field agent with full authority to impose financial penalties of up to ten percent of all income for the past two thousand years. Your cooperation in this matter is appreciated. Shall we begin?"

Thor shivered slightly. No, he had no choice at all. He had no wish to be audited himself, and that woman gave him the creeps.

The discussion at the door took some time, but eventually he managed to get the guards to calm down. Odin was still talking to the Granger woman, apparently trying to make excuses, each of which she shot down in seconds. Saurial and Ianthe were watching with definite grins on their scaly faces. "Oh, while I remember, Jane says hi, hope you're well, and where the fuck are you?"

He twitched, then looked at the smirking lizard next to him. "You know the lady Jane?"

"We met. Pulled her out of a potentially nasty situation recently, then talked for a while. She's kind of pissed at you, you made a promise. I'd suggest keeping it, or giving her a very good reason why you can't."

He nodded slowly, thinking about the woman in question. "I will."

"Good." They watched as Odin slumped in defeat, then nodded to something Hermione said, following as she turned and headed towards them.

With a faint sigh he fell in behind the little procession heading towards the weapons vault, knowing that this was going to be a _long_ day or two. And probably rather embarrassing.

* * *

Loki looked up from his book when he felt something familiar outside his cell, to see Saurial standing and watching him with a small smile on her face. Marking his place, he stood up and approached the force field. "You succeeded in your task?" he asked.

"We did. All done. I'm afraid that your dear father has got a lot of explanations to do to quite a few places. The dwarves are… very pissed off."

Loki snickered, shaking his head a little. "I can't say that I am surprised."

"No, based on the stories, I can understand that." Saurial looked at him with mild amusement. "You've had your own problems with the guy, I know. I'm sorry about that. Although I'm not happy about how you handled it, I can sort of understand why."

"Everyone makes mistakes," he said. "I can admit that I mishandled some of my past actions."

"By doing them, or being caught doing them?" she asked with her head on one side and a small smirk on her face. He shrugged, matching the smirk.

"Thought as much." She didn't seem too upset by it. "But it's best not to harm innocents. I don't like that. If it happens again, I might come back. You wouldn't want me to do that under those circumstances, OK?"

"I understand," he replied after several seconds.

"Great. Well, we have to go now, lots of things to do, people to see. Not to mention that I still can't find my music boxes and slightly to my surprise your father didn't have them. I thought you might like this, though." She held out a device that he inspected closely. "A portable video player, and some highlights of the recent activities." Taking a step closer, she pushed her hand through the force-field somehow, making his eyes widen. After a moment, he took the device from her. She pulled her hand back, the force-field reasserting itself seamlessly. "Enjoy. It's pretty funny. There are a load of movies and things on there as well you might like, too. It must be pretty boring down here."

"I can't say I find it all that interesting," he commented wryly. "But I'll be out sooner or later. I can wait."

She grinned at him. "I'm sure you can. Patience is a virtue. Use the time to think about how you want to live the rest of your life, would be my advice. Bearing in mind that your previous methods obviously didn't work."

Loki looked at her, then around at the cell, then smiled with genuine humor. "Apparently not. I don't suppose I could request transportation to somewhere else?"

"I'd prefer not to interfere in someone else's sentence, considering we both know damn well you actually did it. But..." The lizard adjusted her hat on her head. "I'll probably stop by every now and then for a chat. You interest me, for some reason. We'll see how it goes."

"I look forward to it," he replied with a small bow, making her chuckle. "Your visits do seem to liven things up."

"It's what I do," she said, stepping back. "See you around, Loki."

He lifted a hand in a lazy salute as she turned and disappeared into the darkness between two cell blocks. "I suspect I will, Saurial," he remarked quietly, before turning the device he was holding over a few times, inspecting it closely. It didn't take long to find the power control.

Ten minutes later he was relaxing in a chair watching a projected image and laughing his ass off.

* * *

Nick looked at the door when someone knocked on it. "Enter," he snapped, in a worse mood than normal due to the report he was currently reading.

Nothing happened, which annoyed him. He repeated himself, more loudly, with no effect. Sighing heavily he got up, then stomped over to the door, pulling it open sharply with his gun in his hand, just in case someone was trying something.

There was no-one there, and no signs of any presence at all. He stuck his head out and looked both ways, then gritted his teeth. "Damn it," he growled. "Saurial, is that you?"

Getting no response, he slammed the door shut, then stomped back to his desk. Six feet from it he spotted a USB stick sitting in the middle of the report with one of his own sticky notes attached to it. Cautiously bending over the note he read the familiar longhand with a faint sigh.

 _Hi, Nick, I knocked like you asked. Sorry I couldn't stop for a chat, I'm pretty busy right now, but I wanted you to have this. Enjoy it._

 _See you around._

 _Saurial._

Picking up the storage device, he looked at it, then the note, before putting his gun away and pulling a standalone secure computer tablet out of the desk drawer. Inserting the stick into it, he opened the folder on it and started the first video file playing.

* * *

Agent Hill tapped on the door of her superior's office, opened it, and stepped into the room. After a couple of seconds, she backed out and closed the door again, staring blankly at it for some time.

Eventually she turned and left.

There were many things she'd seen in her life that sent chills down her back, but a Nick Fury convulsed with laughter in his chair made it to the top of her list in one step. She really didn't want to think what could have managed to achieve that and was seriously considering quarantining the entire building, then retiring.

Somehow, she just knew it had something to do with that fucking lizard, though.


	230. Omake - The Instructions

_This came about due to a conversation on Sufficient Velocity taking my mind to stranger places than normal :)_

* * *

 _Instructions for installation and use of Famtech™ Portable Abyss® Mass Disposal System, Version 1.2_

* * *

 **Installation of Portable Abyss®**

The Famtech™ Portable Abyss® Mass Disposal System should be installed in an area free from loose items, small children, pets, and eldritch artifacts of class 4 or above, unless fitted with EDM tethers.

A distance of 1 meter (approximately 39 inches) must be maintained between the Portable Abyss® Mass Disposal System input hopper and structural constructions of surrounding area.

 **Use of Portable Abyss®**

Insert mass to be disposed of into hopper to marked line. When inward tug is felt, release mass. Mass will be pulled into hopper and permanently removed from universe.

 **Caution:** _Process will continue until input mass fully utilized. Ensure that mass is entirely disconnected from surroundings to prevent reality inversion._

 **Warnings and prohibited operations for Portable Abyss®**

**Warning:** The Portable Abyss® Mass Disposal System is not designed to cope with more than fifteen giga-grams of mass per calendar day. Exceeding this limit may cause localized causality violations, intense Hawking radiation emission, and gravimetric anomalies in the ±240 G range. In the event that any of these symptoms occur, discontinue use immediately, evacuate the immediate vicinity of system if at all possible, and contact BBFO, LLC for further instructions.

 **Warning:** If during operation of Portable Abyss® unusual scents, sounds, or tactile sensations are experienced, particularly if these symptoms persist when not in immediate vicinity of system, discontinue use immediately, evacuate the immediate vicinity of system if at all possible, and contact BBFO, LLC for further instructions.

 **Warning:** If during operation of Portable Abyss® operator experiences unusual physical mutations, tentacularization, or tendency to chant rhythmically, discontinue use immediately, restrain operator if safe and possible, and contact BBFO, LLC for further instructions.

 **Danger:** Do not stare into Portable Abyss®. Risk of Portable Abyss® returning stare, causing serious cognitive hazard.

 **Danger:** Do not attempt to dispose of Portable Abyss® using second Portable Abyss®. Reality inversion likelihood will reach 98.34%. Unwanted Portable Abyss® Mass Disposal System can be removed by BBFO, LLC for nominal fee. Please contact BBFO, LLC for details of this service.

 _BBFO, LLC hopes that you find your new Famtech™ Portable Abyss® Mass Disposal System useful, and welcomes feedback and suggestions of improvements._

 _No liability can be accepted for use outside these directions. Reinstallation of damaged universe caused by neglecting above precautions not covered by lifetime warranty. Dispose of mass responsibly._


	231. Repercussions and Exceptions

**Wednesday, March 2, 2011**

Watching his daughter across the table, Danny was somewhat concerned. She seemed a little out of it, obviously communing with the Varga to the point that she was hardly in the room with him. The girl had come in very late the previous night, or more accurately very early that morning, probably nearly at five AM, so she'd only had about three hours of sleep. If he didn't know she needed very little most of the time these days he'd have been more worried.

Even so, this behavior was unusual.

"Is there something wrong, Taylor?" he asked as he got up to clear the table. After a pause, she blinked a couple of times and looked up, then sighed a little with a small shrug.

"Yes. No. Um… sort of."

"How very confident you sound," he joked, piling crockery and utensils in the sink and turning the water on. Glancing back over his shoulder, he smiled at her. She returned the expression, but he could see an undercurrent of confusion there as well.

"We learned something weird last night, about the whole powers thing," she said after another pause, getting up and bringing her glass over to the sink. He took it from her and put it with the rest, both of them watching the water run over the dirty washing and foam with the liquid soap in it.

"Oh?" he asked noncommittally, turning the taps off, then putting his hands in the water. "Something bad?"

"Depends on your viewpoint, I guess," she muttered. "Most people would probably think it was at least fucking bizarre." He handed her the first clean plate, which she started drying absently, while staring out the kitchen window with a faint frown on her face.

"Want to talk about it?"

"Not here, not now," she replied, looking at him, then the plate, which was sparkling and dry, before putting it down on the side and taking the next one. "I'm still going over it in my mind, trying to make sense. Varga is very puzzled as well. Later, though."

He studied her profile for a moment, then nodded. "All right. Don't get too worked up, though, I'm sure it's something we can figure out."

"Hopefully," she mumbled, sounding uncertain. "Even though everyone is still trying to get to grips with it." Sighing loudly, she blew a misplaced strand of curly hair out of her face, then visibly pushed whatever it was she was contemplating away and smiled at him, before proceeding to dry the rest of the washing up as he handed it to her.

"Leaving the mystery problem aside for the moment, how did things go last night with Linda?" he asked, pulling the plug out on the end of the chain, then drying his hands on a cloth.

"Very well, in fact," she grinned, her earlier pensive mood at least temporarily resolved. "We came up with both a form and a name. _Vectura_ just needs a good costume now."

"Vectura," he repeated thoughtfully, trying to remember his Latin. "Not bad. Transportation, or carriage, something like that, right?"

"Yep. We must have gone over nearly a hundred and fifty names before we hit that one," Taylor replied. "The woman has definite standards for a name."

He grinned, as he reached for the coffee pot, pouring the last of the still-warm liquid into a cup, then putting the pot under the tap and rinsing it out. Sipping his third cup of coffee, he asked, "What was the form in the end?"

"Sort of a cat-girl, made from different parts from a number of animals, and some stuff we came up with from scratch," she said, looking pleased. "Blue fur as well, which looks good. Ears, tail, claws, eyes, the rest all human, but with some serious strength and speed boosts. Everyone liked it a lot, Linda most of all."

"Impressive," he noted. "I'm looking forward to seeing it. How long does she take to change?"

"Under a minute," his daughter replied with an approving look. "Amy thinks she can probably speed that up eventually but at the moment it'll do well. She looks completely different in that form from her normal one, so it should work effectively. A good costume, which we're still thinking about, and her new cape identity should be solid. In a week or so we can talk to the PRT about her."

"Good, that sounds like excellent progress," he smiled.

"The workshop is done too, we ordered some equipment for it already, and Lisa is getting the rest sorted out today," she added. "By the middle of next week at the latest she'll be fully equipped. We poked around and found some older spare stuff in some of the storage rooms which we'd like to use too, if that's OK?"

"I assume you have a list?" he asked.

"Yep. Lisa was going to get it to you this morning."

"All right. I'll have a look, and talk to the relevant workshops to see how much is spare and how much is redundant. You can have any of the redundant stuff."

"Thanks, Dad," she smiled. "We're going to have some very cool toys soon, I think." She frowned for a moment, then said, "That reminds me, I need to finish the wormhole generator parts for Armsmaster. I got them about half done then things went confusing. I'd better do that after the Mayor's dinner tonight."

"Are you looking forward to it?"

"I am, actually," she chuckled. "I like him and it'll be nice to meet him as myself. I can remember seeing him a couple of times when I was a little kid but not for years."

"Roy is a decent person," he nodded, "even at our most argumentative I've always thought that. It should be an interesting evening."

"Vicky was sure stoked about it when she came by," Taylor smiled, shaking her head in amusement. "Even for her she was excited. I hope she can be a little less… hyper… tonight."

"I'm sure she'll behave," he laughed. Glancing at his watch, he finished his coffee. "We both need to make a move, though. I'll see you later today, I expect."

"Yes, I'll be in after school," she confirmed, quickly hugging him. "See you, Dad."

"Have a good day at school," he smiled, watching as she left the kitchen with a wave, the back door opening and closing moments later. Washing out the cup, he dried it, then headed off as well, wondering what oddness she and her friends had discovered this time. He'd find out soon enough, most likely.

* * *

"Do you mind if I come in to school with you today?"

Amy looked up from where she was poking her cereal, thinking hard about the revelations Lisa had dropped on them all the night before, to see her sister watching her. As soon as she'd arrived at the table she'd been interrogated about the aborted Merchant carjacking, which to be honest she'd practically forgotten about after what happened later, her mother wanting details and appearing pleased about them. And more than a little impressed with Taylor's take-down of the idiot who'd grabbed her. Now Carol and Mark were in the living room having finished breakfast a little while ago, talking quietly about something she couldn't be bothered to follow.

Slightly taken aback by the unusual, in fact unprecedented, request, she stared at Vicky for a moment, then nodded. "Sure. Why? I mean, you normally fly, so why do you want to drive with the rest of us poor people?" she asked, lifting the corner of her mouth in a small smile.

"I just thought it would be nice for once," Vicky replied, shrugging. "Now that you have the truck we don't go anywhere together and I miss it."

Her smile becoming wider, Amy said, "I do too." She studied the blonde, who seemed a little occupied with her own thoughts, her normally vivacious smile somewhat dimmer than normal. "Are you OK?" she asked.

Vicky twitched a bit, then nodded. "Yeah. Sorry, I've had a lot on my mind recently."

"Join the club," Amy muttered under her breath. "How did your meal with Dean go last night?" she asked more loudly.

"Fine, thanks," Vicky said. "You got back awfully late, though. I was awake until past two and you still weren't back."

"I was talking to Saurial and some other friends at the yard, they came over with pizza, and we lost track of time." Yawning suddenly, Amy put a hand over her mouth. "Which I'm now regretting." She tweaked her symbiote to clean up the left-over fatigue byproducts a little faster, feeling somewhat more alert almost immediately. They'd all spent hours discussing the ramifications of the Simurgh being a frequent poster on PHO, something that led to more questions than she currently could even _begin_ to think of answers to.

Not least of which were _how_ and _why_ , of course.

It had come as a shock to the brunette to realize that she herself had engaged in conversations with an Endbringer on more than one occasion, and had thought the responses both witty and apt.

However, at the moment, there wasn't much any of them could do about it, so in the end they'd agreed to sit back and watch, while trying to work out how to handle the situation. Everyone agreed with Lisa that directly opening conversations with the creature was probably an unwise thing to do at the moment. In effect, the next move was the Simurgh's. She probably had a plan, which was more than they did right now.

Hoping that this wait and see approach wouldn't come back to bite them, Amy sighed gently and tried not to think about it. She had schoolwork to concentrate on.

"What do you think Mayor's dinner party is going to be like?" she asked, finishing her cereal.

"Hopefully fun," Vicky grinned. "It's certainly going to be interesting."

"I suspect so," Amy said as she got up, pulling her jacket off the back of the chair and putting it on. "Come on, then, let's go." Both girls called out to their parents, then Vicky followed her out to her truck, which was soon backing out of the driveway, Amy looking over her shoulder and Vicky already fiddling with the radio.

"Is Taylor really OK after that fuckwit tried to jack your truck?" the blonde girl asked when she found a channel she liked, settling back into the seat. She looked mildly puzzled for a moment, reaching under her backside, then frowned.

"She's fine," Amy smiled. "No harm done other than mild bruising, and I think she sort of enjoyed seeing how her training worked. Really well, obviously, the idiot didn't know what hit him."

"Taylor did," Vicky snickered. "Pretty fucking hard, looking at the video. _I_ was impressed."

"So were the cops," she giggled. "Saurial is a good trainer." Which was true, of course, if misleading…

"I'm very glad she's all right," her sister said, sounding relieved. She wriggled in the seat again, then lifted herself a little and peered down. "What the hell is wrong with these seats? Why is there a hole in them?"

"It's for tails," Amy laughed. The other girl stared at her.

"Tails?"

"Saurial was complaining that the only thing wrong with my truck was the seats weren't set up for people with tails." Amy shrugged. "This is true. So she fixed it."

"Oh." Vicky stared at her for a second or two, then down at the seat again, before shrugging. "I guess that's… weird. But sort of understandable." Looking over at the driver's seat, she added after a moment, "Did she do both seats?"

"Yep."

"Why? _You_ don't have a tail." Her sister seemed amused.

Amy suppressed a grin, her hidden tail twitching a little in the fractal space it was currently occupying. "She might need to drive the truck some time, so we did both of them. There are some inserts for the holes in the back but I couldn't be bothered to put them in."

"Fair enough, I suppose." The other girl thought, then frowned. "Hey. You won't let your own _sister_ drive your truck, but you'll let some weird lizard-girl do it?"

Amy glanced at her with an evil smirk.

"I _trust_ Saurial."

" _Hey!_ "

Both of them started laughing at Vicky's slightly hurt tone. Amy was pleased to note that her sister seemed to have cheered up from whatever had been bothering her at breakfast, and the silliness took her own mind off the strange and concerning thoughts she was having, at least for a while. They talked happily for the rest of the trip.

* * *

Just as she was sitting down at her desk in home room, Taylor noticed the vice principal enter the room and have a word with the teacher. He scanned the students, then pointed to her. Meeting his eyes, Taylor cocked her head a little in an inquisitive manner. The man made a small ' _come here_ ' gesture so, with a glance at Mandy, who was watching looking a little puzzled, she stood again and walked over.

"Taylor, Mrs Howell would like a quick word," he said. She nodded, glancing at the person who pretty much ran the school. The blonde woman waved her to the door, then took her into the next room which was currently empty, closing the door and blocking out the sounds from the various students still milling around outside.

"Have a seat, Miss Hebert," the woman said, waiting until Taylor sat at one of the unoccupied desks. "I was made aware last night that you were involved in an incident yesterday after school with Miss Dallon, and a rather unpleasant man who was once a Merchant gang member."

"Yes, Mrs Howell, that's true," she nodded, wondering what this was really about.

"I see. Firstly, I wished to ensure that you were unharmed?"

"I'm fine, thanks," she smiled. "No real damage and Amy healed anything that might have been a problem."

"Good. I'm glad to hear that. Now, the other matter is regarding the apparent fact that you carry a self-defense weapon. I am assuming that you have it with you at the moment?" The vice-principal's face was somewhat blank, but her scent betrayed a certain amount of both curiosity and mild irritation.

"I do," Taylor admitted after a moment's thought, forming a baton in her pocket and making the statement true.

"May I see it, please?"

"Certainly," she replied, reaching into her pocket and removing the device, then handing it over. Taking it from her, Mrs Howell inspected it closely, weighing it in her hand, then somewhat to her surprise, holding it and flicking it open with a degree of ease that suggested she wasn't unfamiliar with the things. Taylor watched with slightly widened eyes as the older woman struck out with it, then blocked an invisible return strike, showing considerable proficiency. It wasn't at all what she'd expected.

"Very nice," the vice-principal commented idly. "Where did you get it?"

"My father thought I should have some way to defend myself, considering where he works," she said after a couple of seconds consideration. "Saurial made it for me, when she trained me." Again, this was more or less true, depending on your viewpoint, she thought. If somewhat misleading.

"I see." Closing the thing, Mrs Howell held it in her hand and studied it for a little while, then returned it. "Normal school policy would have me confiscate it, as weapons are generally not allowed on school property." Taylor nodded as she put it away. "However, considering that your father is a high-profile individual with a reputation for vigorously protecting his family, the areas you go through to visit the DWU, and your known good character, I feel that you are responsible enough that I can make an exception in this case. You clearly know how to use it and when, and more importantly, how and when _not_ to use it. The video I've seen is quite instructive. Your tutor is more than competent."

"She is," Taylor grinned.

"I would be quite interested in meeting Miss Saurial at some point," Vice-principal Howell mused out loud. She fell silent for a second, then looked sharply at Taylor. "We shall say no more about it. However, you are _not_ to bring a bladed or projectile weapon to school under any circumstances, even should your tutor instruct you in their use, which I suspect may happen. Additionally, you are not to show off or use that baton on school property, except under genuinely life-threatening circumstances. If you do, there will be severe consequences. Are we clear?"

"Yes, Mrs Howell, crystal clear," Taylor replied quietly.

"I am extending you a good deal of trust, young lady. Please do not disappoint me. Your behavior and character up until this point have been exemplary and I would very much like to see that continue."

"I'll do my best not to cause any problems, Mrs Howell. I like it here and I wouldn't want to put that in jeopardy."

"Excellent. I'm very glad to hear that." The blonde woman looked up at the clock on the wall over the door. "I must return to work, and you need to get to class. Thank you for the brief chat."

"It wasn't any problem," Taylor smiled, getting up and following her companion to the door.

"Well done, by the way," Vice-principal Howell commented as she started to walk away. "You are a credit to this school and your family."

"Thank you." Taylor watched the other woman walk off, smiled a little to herself, then went back into her home room to get ready for the day's learning.

* * *

Carlos watched from his position in the lunch queue as a ripple of comments went through the room, almost everyone in it looking over at the three girls who'd just entered the cafeteria as they became aware of them. Taylor, with her friends Mandy and Lucy, all stopped, looking around at the large number of people regarding them, then exchanged glances. After a couple of seconds they resumed moving, picking up trays and joining the end of the line. Quite a few people came over and talked to the tall girl, saying a few words then smiling before going back to what they were doing.

During this, Taylor looked mildly surprised, while her friends were definitely amused. Amy joined them shortly afterwards, the girls letting her into the line in front of them, while the two boys they often hung around with turned up a little later. From what Carlos could overhear, people were congratulating the Hebert girl on her actions the day before, and checking that she was all right. She looked somewhat startled by the number of people that were apparently genuinely concerned about her, and proud of how she'd handled herself.

Turning to Dean, who was also watching what was going on as he selected his food, he asked in a quiet voice, "Is she really that calm under pressure, do you think?"

The other boy looked at him, then over at Taylor, who was smiling at something Amy had said. Returning his attention to the server, he asked for some more fries then accepted the plate he was handed, putting it on his tray.

"She's got very good control of her emotions," he finally answered. "Icy calm, actually. And a protective streak a mile wide." His voice was kept low so no one else could overhead in the chatter surrounding them, but sounded to Carlos just a tiny bit worried. "It's not an act, she's more than capable of handling herself."

"If Saurial trained her, I'm not surprised," Carlos replied, also keeping his voice down. "I was fucking impressed with what she did and how she did it. So were… other people."

Dean glanced at Taylor again, who had looked over at them. The girl smiled a little in their direction, nodding as they met her eyes, before turning to answer a question that Mandy asked. For some reason, Carlos noticed, Dean seemed mildly worried for a moment. The slight change of expression smoothed out almost instantly, leaving him wondering if he'd imagined it.

"Not someone to underestimate," the other boy muttered, moving down to let his friend get served.

"I kind of got that impression," he chuckled. Shortly he was heading to their table, Dean following, to join Dennis and Chris who were laughing about something. Vicky turned up a little later, surrounded by a number of her female friends who were all asking questions about how she'd ended up being invited to the Mayor's house, most of them looking both impressed and envious.

Eventually drawn into the conversation, he stopped thinking about Taylor and her Merchant smackdown in favor of listening to Dennis make a whole series of jokes that had Vicky alternately glaring at him and giggling.

* * *

Sitting in class, Dinah listened to the biology teacher with half her attention, making notes occasionally, while the rest of her thoughts were on mathematics.

Percentages, to be accurate.

She'd checked again that morning, as was habit, and the percentage chance of her meeting a Family member had been steadily rising, little by little, to over 92% at some point in the next two weeks. That was her standard timescale, long enough that the odd uncertainty surrounding the lizards was at an acceptably low level, but short enough to be something her patience found acceptable.

She'd found that shortening the timescale tended to produce less accurate results, to the point that checking on a time of hours or days often gave either no result, or an obviously erroneous one. So two weeks it was.

That said, the rate of increase and some lateral thought had made her pretty sure that the actual time of running across one of them was very close. She wasn't sure quite _why_ she was so sure about this, but she was. Her ability, on the other hand, was definitely having a hard time of it and if she had to put words to the feelings she got, she'd have said it was a little freaked out.

A faint smile crossed the girl's face as she wrote down some more notes on cell division, while thinking that the people at the PRT would look at her very oddly if she'd told them that. Dinah had given up trying to explain about her thoughts on the nature of her power, since the scientists merely told her she was imagining things at best and completely ignored her in a somewhat patronizing fashion at worst. That wasn't to say they were bad people, because they weren't, she quite liked most of them, but they had their own ideas and hers didn't factor into them.

She wasn't sure if that was because she was a girl, or because she was twelve, but either way it was mildly annoying.

Uncle Roy, on the other hand, was more than prepared to both listen and discuss her experiments, when she had a chance to mention them to him. He was fascinated by the entire thing, and interested in the Family as well. She got the impression that he really wanted to know more about them, liked and trusted them, and was basically extremely curious about their origins. She was as well and was looking forward to talking to one of them, ideally Saurial, since she thought that they could quite possibly tell her a lot of interesting things.

Plus they were just cool. She liked lizards. Ones that talked back were amazing and fun.

Propping her head on her hand, she quickly sketched the diagram the teacher had put on the board, looking between her notebook and the front of the room until she was certain she had it down, then put her pencil down and flexed her hand a little. She'd been doing a lot of writing today.

So, assuming she was right, she'd meet someone scaly pretty soon. Today or tomorrow, perhaps, although she wasn't sure how that would happen. The day was half over, and she didn't think it wildly likely that Saurial or her sisters would turn up at school. Although they did turn up in the oddest places sometimes…

The Merchants had found that out the other day, she smiled to herself. That had been pretty funny, and also explained the probabilities she'd worked out the previous week of a major activity in the city. They'd gone back to normal after that, normal being down around 20% or so, which was about the best it seemed to ever get around these parts. The odds of something serious happening in Brockton Bay were never as low as single digits, which probably said something, although she wasn't sure what.

Picking her pencil up again, she wrote a few more lines, did a quick sketch of a lizard smiling at a little girl in the margin of the page, grinned at it, then closed the book as the bell rang.

On the whole she was in a very good mood and looking forward to what happened next. And seeing Uncle Roy again tonight at his dinner thing he'd invited her and her parents to. She was curious to see what Mr Hebert and his daughter were like for herself, she'd heard a lot about them recently.

Putting her things into her backpack, she joined the exodus of students heading for the door, smiling at Missy when she saw her in the corridor on her way to the next class. The blonde girl, who she'd met for the first time at the PRT building, smiled back and waved, then hurried off. So far they hadn't had a lot of chance to talk, since Missy seemed to be busy with the Wards a lot of the time and Dinah had been with the PRT scientists during the bulk of her own time since joining the organization, but she was looking forward to having a chance to sit down and talk for longer eventually.

Dinah didn't have a lot of friends her own age and she got the impression the other girl was in the same boat, more or less. But she seemed interesting, and Dinah was very impressed by her powers, which were amazing.

That said, the girl was perfectly happy with her own abilities. They were fun, although she could have done without the headaches. She'd worked out ways to minimize them when doing her experiments, but they still put a hard upper limit on how many odds she could calculate before she had to stop for some time. It was annoying, but what could you do? Everything had a price.

At least she'd got a cool hat out of the deal. Pity that excitable Chambers man didn't want her to wear it when she was in school, she really liked it.

Ah well. Even at twelve, she was aware that you couldn't have everything you wanted in life. She'd be content with what she had, and wait to see what happened next.

She had so _many_ questions to ask the Family…

* * *

Wiping her face with a scrap of rag, Linda straightened up and inspected her work, then nodded in satisfaction. The old dozer was pretty close to finished, while the dead one was almost entirely stripped of useful parts already. She'd pulled the stuff she needed to fix the first one from it that morning, then left a couple of other people to remove the remaining parts that she'd marked while she worked on her repairs. Now, apart from a new muffler and some paint, along with a top-up on the hydraulic fluid, it was just about ready for use.

Putting the adjustable wrench with which she'd been tightening the last hydraulic union down on the wheeled toolbox next to her, she went across the garage and retrieved an oil-drum full of hydraulic fluid on a wheeled cart, pushing it back to the bulldozer. Freeing the hose connected to the hand-pump screwed into the top of the barrel she put the end into the reservoir on the dozer, then started carefully working the handle while peering past the hose. A dozen or so pumps had brought the level up to the line, a last one giving a little reserve for bleeding the system.

Leaving the hose in place, she proceeded to do exactly that, moving around the huge machine and opening bleed points one at a time, until the fluid escaping no longer had air bubbles in it. She had to add more fluid twice, but in the end everything was ready. Removing the hose she coiled it up, then wiped up spilled fluid and put the cap back onto the dozer reservoir, screwing it down tightly.

She returned the barrel to the consumables section of the garage, went back to the old machine, and climbed up the side of it, quickly bringing it to life again. The engine ran smoothly now, rumbling loudly in the enclosed space. She tested each of the hydraulic circuits one after the other until she was sure everything worked, nodded happily, shut it down, and jumped to the floor.

Kadir was watching her from the other side of the workshop, so she walked over and smiled at him. "It's done," she said. "Needs some paint, a new muffler, and one of the hoses on the blade lift cylinder will need to be replaced in the next year or so, but other than that it's ready for use."

"Excellent work, Linda," the man said with a small nod, his face _almost_ showing a smile. "I'm impressed, you finished considerably faster than I expected."

"It wasn't as bad as it could have been," she replied with a shrug.

"And the other one?" he asked, turning to look at the remains of the second machine.

"Everything useful has been removed, the rest of it is scrap," she said, following his eyes.

"All right. Good work. We'll get that hauled away and I'll order the new muffler and a spare. You have a part number for it?"

"Yes, I put a note on your desk. I found a Caterpillar part that will fit with a little work, it's off the shelf."

"Very good. All right, I'm going for lunch now. Take a break, I'll work out what the next job will be this afternoon."

He turned away, then turned back and put his hand on her shoulder for a moment. "You are a good worker and fit in very well here, Linda. I'm pleased you arrived."

"Thanks, Kadir," she smiled. He nodded again, then walked off. Feeling very good about things, she watched him go, smiled slightly, then headed for the washroom to clean the dirt and grease from her face and hands before she went to the cafeteria. She was starving.

Things definitely seemed to be good at the moment. Meeting Metis had changed her life for the better, definitely, even if the circumstances had been pretty bad.

She was looking forward to seeing what ' _Vectura_ ' could do, but even leaving that aside, her life right now was about as good as it had ever been. People actually said thank you and complimented her on her work!

No one had ever done _that_ before.


	232. Battleplans and Revelations

Sophia hit play again, then watched the video carefully, her eyebrows so high they merged with her fringe. ' _Where the fuck did_ ** _that_** _come from?'_ she thought as she pondered the implications of Taylor Hebert laying out a Merchant with ease and an elegant economy of motion. And a baton, of course, although to her practiced eye she suspected that the other girl probably didn't actually need it to do what she'd done. ' _That's a hell of a lot of training in a couple of months_.'

She put the tablet down next to her and stared out the window, thinking.

' _That's_ ** _too much_** _training for a couple of months. No way she went from the pathetic gangly prey to_ ** _that_** _since she left Winslow. Those moves, that's the result of a_ ** _lot_** _of training. She was fucking quick, too, and she knew how to use that baton_.'

As far as she could see, there was no way that Hebert could have learned that amount of self-defense in the time between Winslow and now. Not to mention the entire attitude change. The girl she'd watched smash a man twice her weight to the ground like it was easy acted nothing like the quivering prey she'd hunted with glee for so long. But it was clearly the same girl.

For a moment a vague idea that perhaps her time in the locker had caused a Trigger event crossed her mind, but it faded before even fully forming. Hebert's actions weren't the results of powers, but training and skill, she was sure of that. It was nothing Sophia herself couldn't have done, and she was well aware of how long it had taken to learn how to do it.

No, Hebert wasn't a Parahuman. She was pretty sure of that. But she _was_ someone who had been trained fairly extensively by someone else who was a real expert. From what PHO said, that someone was most likely Saurial.

Sophia had no doubt that the lizard-like cape had insane hand to hand combat skills. She'd seen as much right from that first video Chris had brought back to base. Even then, she'd been incredibly impressed by the abilities shown off so well, the results of which were downright amazing.

Summed up, it suggested that the Heberts had been in contact with Saurial at least for quite a while. Taylor's father had probably asked the reptilian woman to train his daughter, which must have taken over a year, she thought. Which in turn meant the Family had been somewhere in the background for at least that amount of time, even though no one knew about them until much more recently.

It _also_ meant, she mused with a scowl, that most, possibly all, of the time Sophia and her friends had been dealing with the fucking girl their opponent could have successfully fought back. Quite possibly to a point that even Sophia couldn't easily handle.

The big question was why hadn't she?

Why had Hebert simply taken everything they dished out, up to and including allowing herself to be locked into that festering mess? No one would have got _Sophia_ into the fucking locker without a fight they'd remember the rest of their lives, yet she'd had little problem stuffing the taller girl into it. But on the evidence available, Hebert could probably have fought back at least as well as Sophia herself could.

No, she'd _let_ herself get locked inside. That had to be the case.

Why?

Her eyes widening, she realized the truth. Piggot had been right. Goddam Taylor had played them all, from much further back than she'd initially thought. It wasn't just that last day with the hidden camera, it was months and months of preparation, allowing herself to be humiliated every day, all to end up in a position where she could get the proof needed to shut all three of them down completely and permanently.

It would have taken over a year's work, possibly as much as two years worth, to eventually get her revenge, and in a way that left her utterly clean and even rewarded with a transfer to Arcadia.

Christ. Sophia rested her head back on the chair, closing her eyes and looking back at the previous year and a half with new eyes. The sort of mind that could come up with that level of deviousness… It was almost awe-inspiring.

Was it Hebert herself? Her father? Or one of the Family advising them? Probably a combination.

Talk about a deep cover operation. The bitch probably started planning it sometime in the first month or so when it became apparent that Sophia and her friends weren't going to stop. Taking direct action, which she was now sure the other girl could have arranged even then, would have had repercussions that Taylor didn't want. So she'd played a long game, manipulating all three of them, _and_ the entire school, into a place where she could bring the hammer down and get everyone in one shot. And even more impressively come out of it smelling of roses and with no one the wiser.

End result? Emma was going to be in the care of the shrinks for years, Sophia was trapped in the damn PRT building and sooner or later would get transferred somewhere she probably wasn't going to enjoy in the slightest, Madison was pretty much abandoned, and if the latest rumor was to be believed, Blackwell and several other staff members were on the way out. Probably without their pensions and with almost no job prospects.

And all because they'd decided that Hebert was a good target.

Sophia realized she either shouldn't have gone along with Emma, or found a different target instead. Now it was _far_ too late.

' _Fucking Heberts_ ' she thought blackly. She'd heard more than once that the father was someone you didn't want pissed at you, not that she'd ever really cared about that. Now, way past the point it would have helped, she knew that the daughter was as bad, if not worse. A lot of rumors she'd discounted about the history of the family started to look unpleasantly possible.

Deciding that at this point all it really meant was that when she finally went after the girl, she both had to finish it quickly, and make sure to get the father as well, she fumed about how neatly she'd been trapped for a little longer, then headed back to the console room for her shift. Sooner or later she'd figure out how to get out of here, and then everyone would see who _else_ could make long term plans for revenge.

* * *

Vicky made some more notes, none of which were relevant to the lesson she was supposed to be paying attention to. It was only English Lit, which she was fairly good at anyway, and the book under discussion was one she'd read several times, so she could easily answer any questions if called on. Right now she was more interested in her ongoing puzzling over the Taylor/Saurial issue than the common romantic archetypes displayed by a two hundred year old book.

The blonde girl was very bewildered by almost everything surrounding the entire situation. Taylor herself was bad enough, but some of the other things she'd found documented on the web cast her original wild thought that the entire DWU was actually made of disguised Family members into a less-unlikely light than she was entirely happy with. It sounded absurd on the face of it, and pretty silly even when you sat down and thought hard about it, yet she couldn't get over the sheer number of odd correlations between what she could see and deduce and what she could find in books and on the web.

The horrifying parallels between the works of that weird Lovecraft guy and the current Brockton Bay situation were bad enough. She'd made the mistake of, when she'd calmed down a little, looking up some of his contemporaries like Derleth, who had also written quite a few stories that were uncomfortably close to some of the things she'd heard about and seen speculated about on PHO. That had left her staring at the ceiling and trying to forget what she'd read all over again.

Not to mention all the weird conspiracy theories on the web about lizards running the world behind the scenes. A couple of weeks ago she'd have laughed about them, since the swivel-eyed loonies promulgating such theories were obviously nuts.

Now…?

She shivered slightly. No matter how much she tried to talk herself into believing it was all just a bizarre series of coincidences, the little voice at the back of her mind kept whispering ' _what if it_ ** _isn't?_** '

So she kept finding herself making cryptic notes, trying to sort out fact from fiction and fiction from insanity, something that was a damn sight harder than it should have been. Brockton Bay was bad enough on a normal day, but since the Family turned up, it had become downright surreal. Things that one could normally simply put down as rumor tended to have a worrying tendency to turn up out of the blue and catch criminals.

Shaking her head, she sighed slightly, scratched out the dozen or so lines of near-gibberish she'd written, then turned the page, deciding to pay more attention to Victorian literature rather than the inside of her head for a while.

Perhaps if she ignored it the problem would go away. If nothing else, she needed to step back from the paranoia, keep her eyes open for any new evidence one way or the other, and think on it. They were friends, but the thoughts she kept having were worrying her, so she needed a break from them.

And there was the Mayor's dinner to look forward to as well, which was going to be interesting and fun.

At least there wouldn't be any lizards _there_.

* * *

"The published plans for the original shelter may well not be accurate now, since we can assume that Calvert has probably made changes for his own purposes, but the basic structure should be fairly similar," Colin said as he unrolled a large piece of paper on the table in his lab, several other people putting things on the corners to hold it down. Even though a lot of people who knew him would be surprised about it, probably thinking he had a device for every possible option, he liked sketching things out on paper like this. It was surprisingly quick and efficient for certain tasks. Picking up a pen, he leaned over the table and circled one particular point.

"This is what would have been, in the original design, the generator room. Raptaur's information is that the shelter power supply is tapped into the public utilities here and here." He made notations on the relevant places. "I assume that during Calvert's undercover construction work, they surreptitiously diverted a number of power feeds from nearby underground conduits. We've checked and found that a number of buildings in the area have larger than expected power usage, but they were careful and spread it around so there wasn't a glaring discrepancy."

"Presumably much the same thing was done with the water and sewage connections?" Hannah asked while studying the drawings.

"Yes. Analysis of the outflow of this sewer main downstream from the shelter shows more biological waste byproducts than can be accounted for by the known connections to it, but it matches Raptaur's estimate of the personnel count in the bunker quite well."

Colin made some more notes on the paper. "Additionally there have been a number of water companies looking for leaks in this general area for some years, without much luck, since their monitoring equipment has shown water flows don't match known users. Again, the missing water is accounted for if you assume a medium scale industrial facility at this location, and also matches the excess outflow. All the signs point to the shelter being in use and staffed with approximately forty people on a full time basis. The total number could fluctuate about that level, of course."

"Which yet again matches our information from Raptaur. She seems to be very accurate, however she derived the data," Legend commented approvingly.

With a small nod, Colin agreed with the summation. "She is more than competent. We must assume that the original generators, water tanks, fuel tanks, air filtration, and other life support and power management equipment is most likely installed as well. Although the shelter construction was officially abandoned before any of it was brought in, it would be the most likely thing for a man as paranoid as Calvert to do, if only as a backup. I suspect that there is almost certainly monitoring equipment checking the water and air for toxins and other agents, so it's very unlikely that feeding sedatives into the shelter via water or air routes would work."

"You think they'd just switch to internal supplies at the first hint of trouble, then?" Emily asked knowingly.

"Of course. It's what I'd do, and I suspect you as well, Ma'am," he replied. She nodded absently, looking at the drawings from the other side of the table.

"Definitely. And it would give the game away on the spot too, so that's out."

"Indeed. We can't take the shelter by the normal stealth routes we'd use on a buried Tinker bunker. Aside from anything else, Calvert was heavily involved in constructing those protocols so I have no doubt he would have take precautions against them." Colin sighed faintly. "He knows almost all our procedures better than some of us do. It's highly irritating."

"Luckily we have a number of alternatives available," Legend smiled. "I have a feeling that he didn't plan for the Family."

"No one did," Hannah muttered under her breath, making him glance at her.

"No," the man agreed quietly. Looking back to the drawing, then over at the large scale map of downtown Brockton Bay lying next to it, he went on, "So we can't drug them and take our time carefully infiltrating the place, and we can't simply smash the front door in and take them by surprise without risking their explosives detonating."

"It would be unwise to do either," Colin nodded. "The amount of explosives and the type is unknown with certainty, but I did add some highly sensitive sensors to my bike when Raptaur passed on the initial information. On my patrols through the area since, I have detected various chemical explosive byproducts consistent with large quantities of C4 across this entire area here." He sketched out a several block zone on the map. "Taking into account temperature, humidity, and wind speed and direction at the time, it points to between four and eight tons of demolition explosives inside the shelter and under the foundations of this building."

Tapping a large financial services building that housed several insurance and stock management companies, he continued, "The estimated positioning of the charges would be consistent with a layout designed to collapse the shelter and drop the entire building into the crater on top of it, presumably to increase the destruction and make digging it out more difficult. I would assume that Calvert wouldn't want to do that if he was inside, so he probably has at least one escape route other than the main entrance. The original shelter design only had the main doors, as is the standard method, to make the place as hardened against Endbringer attack as possible."

The director leaned over the drawings. "You could make an exit tunnel here and connect through to this storm drain over here," she noted, picking up a pen and drawing a line on the paper. "It's fairly close and there's nothing between them."

"Yes, I agree," Colin said approvingly. "I also suspect that on the other side over here, a similar arrangement would have been made to this sewer. It's the main one servicing the entire downtown area and is nearly twenty feet in diameter, more than enough to allow a vehicle to get in and out. Dragon has send some disguised surveillance drones through it and the storm drain, and we've found some anomalous fittings that aren't on the documentation, but we were unsure what sensors might be installed so we were limited to passive scans. As a result we don't have positive proof of modifications yet."

"Let's assume that both are compromised to be safe," the woman said. "We'll need to put people at both ends of both tunnels in case an escape attempt is made." He nodded and made some notes on a pad.

"OK. If those charges go off, the result will be this entire damn building goes as well," Hannah said, glancing at him. He made an affirmative gesture. "Do we have any way to make sure the explosives are neutralized from outside?"

"Not at the moment, no," the Tinker scowled. "I could easily _detonate_ them from outside, but _preventing_ detonation is more difficult. Both Dragon and I are working on coming up with a usable technique, but so far we can't do it. The number of different methods to ensure the charges go off are almost impossible to defend against. It could be electrical, mechanical, chemical, anywhere from a computer controlled detonator to something as simple as a fuse and a lighter. I would certainly assume that there are multiple backup systems in place, and they are booby trapped as well. It's a major disarming exercise even without mercenaries actively fighting back. My hope is that the Family can suggest something we haven't thought of."

"Add that to the list of things to ask," Emily instructed. He did so.

"Assuming we can deal with the explosives, we should be able to blast our way in," the director mused. "I know how tough an Endbringer shelter is, but with the abilities we can bring to the table, it should be possible fairly quickly. If we can cover all the possible escape routes, we can get the bastard."

"We have no information on how well his mercenaries are armed, though," Legend cautioned. "We do know that they have Tinker tech weapons, laser rifles for example, and are highly trained and experienced as well as ruthless. Tattletale's information is helpful as are her deductions but we have to assume that there are weapons she didn't know about."

"And we don't know how hard they'll fight for him, either," Hannah added.

"That almost certainly depends on how well he pays them," Emily pointed out. "And since he's been holed up in there for over a month, it's not impossible that they're losing patience. We might be able to work with that. I doubt that most mercenaries would want to die for their employer if there was no chance of success. We need to convince them they don't have any way out."

"Psychological warfare could well be very effective," Colin replied, smiling slightly. "Although we can only try it after we begin the attack, or yet again we risk alerting Calvert. We don't have any idea what he'll do if he feels trapped with no exit."

"All right." Legend rubbed his forehead. "We're at risk of ending up arguing in circles, since everything is dependent on everything else at this point. I think we all agree on the difficulties of extracting Calvert from his hole, and I admit the explosives are a problem without a quick solution at this point. Let's put that to one side, assume we can't easily deal with them, and work out how we proceed if we have to leave them in place. Evacuation of the affected area and a suitable containment zone is essential if that ends up being the case. How do we do that without alerting Calvert and risking him doing something stupid?"

Everyone looked at each other. While they were thinking, the door opened and Dragon came in, her power armored head ducking slightly to clear the frame. She closed the portal behind herself and walked over to stand beside Colin, inspecting the table's contents for a moment, then picking up his notebook and scanning it. "I'm sorry I was late, I was coordinating the factory at home on a job that I couldn't delay," she said apologetically, putting the notebook back on the table.

"That's fine, Dragon," Director Piggot said, looking at her for a second then going back to staring at the blueprints. "We were just trying to work out how to clear out half the center of the city in a way that didn't spread panic or give the game away."

"That's easy enough, if you don't mind causing a deliberate incident," the Canadian woman said after a moment's thought, sounding mildly amused. Everyone stared at her.

"What sort of incident?" Emily asked suspiciously.

"A minor but very unpleasant chemical spill would seem to be the most effective," Dragon replied. "There are a number of non toxic but extremely unpopular chemicals that would make a large part of the district practically uninhabitable for some time due to an unbearable stench, as an example. Thioacetone is the one that immediately comes to mind."

Colin winced, making Emily, Hannah, and Legend look at him curiously. "I have no idea what the hell that is, but I take it from that look that you do?" the director asked him.

"Yes. It's an organosulphur compound with a fairly simple structure. The thing that stands out about it is that it has what may be possibly the worst smell of anything known to man. Oddly enough, the stench gets worse as the concentration in air drops. It's been known to cause over a square mile of affected area to become virtually uninhabitable for some time during attempts to make it, from remarkably small quantities. I would agree that it would definitely clear out the downtown area, and probably most of the rest of the city if we weren't careful."

"That sounds… not entirely ideal," Hannah commented, looking worried. "We're trying to _avoid_ panic, not create it wholesale."

"Yes, I understand that," Dragon said patiently. "I'm not suggesting that we release it in quantities large enough to cause serious problems. What I _am_ suggesting is that a very, very small amount in the right place could be used as an excuse to evacuate the commercial district of the city without making anyone suspect that we were actually hunting Coil. Look." She pointed at the map, indicating a number of buildings about a quarter of a mile further towards the bay on the same road the shelter was buried under.

"That's part of the Brockton Bay University chemistry and biology facilities, a lab complex that's part funded by Medhall for post-grad research. If we pick the time correctly, for example very early on Sunday morning when the area is mostly empty anyway, and let a very small controlled quantity of something suitably noxious escape, we could spread the story that an experiment at the lab went wrong. This entire area could then be cordoned off while the ' _incident_ ' was dealt with. We could ask the DWU to supply some crowd control people like they did for the tanker move, and tell everyone it was a low security but unpleasant problem that was well in hand."

Director Piggot and Legend were nodding slowly, almost perfectly synchronized, while Hannah was leaning on her hands over the map, tracing out streets with her eyes.

"We could use the DWU people to establish an outer cordon," Dragon continued, running an armored finger over the roads surrounding the buried bunker. "Set it up with the shelter _not_ in the exact middle, but well off to one side, so Calvert doesn't instantly realize something's wrong. Inside that, well away from cameras and the public, we set up another cordon, very discreetly, of trusted people. With care he won't work it out until too late. That gets anyone not involved out of the way in case things go wrong."

"It's plausible, Emily," Legend said after a moment. "We won't be popular, closing so much of the city, but she's right, Sunday morning would be a good time to do it. Just as it's getting light so we can see what we're doing, but early enough that even the small number of businesses that are open wouldn't be doing anything. There aren't many things that would attract people to that general area on a Sunday, so it's the best chance we'll probably get."

The blonde studied the map, then nodded again. "I can see it. Good idea, Dragon, thank you."

"We'll probably have to inform the Mayor, though," the reptilian-themed Tinker remarked. "It's going to cause a significant although hopefully short-term effect to the city and the man strikes me as someone who will be annoyed about it if we spring it on him without telling him why. A lot of people will be complaining and most of them will complain to or through city hall."

Emily sighed heavily. "Damn it. Unfortunately, you're right. He's the sort of person who won't let that type of operation go, even if I tell him he's not cleared for the knowledge. And I have to work with him, so I can't afford to make him any more irritated with the PRT than he already is." She looked up at them. "Recently he's been quite clear about how many problems we've caused the city over the years, and having looked into it I can't deny he has a point. I would rather avoid causing any more friction, especially considering the people he considers friends."

"Bearing in mind how closely the Family and the DWU work with the city administration at the moment, you're probably right," Legend agreed. "You have the authority to tell him nothing, but politically it's probably best to keep him happy."

She snorted. "Happy may be stretching it, but I'd live with ' _not furious_ ' to be honest. The man is annoyingly serious about doing his job correctly and well." After a little thought, she shrugged. "We probably don't have a choice, we'll need to read him in on the operation. But we don't need to tell him everything, just enough to let him know how serious it is and that we don't have a choice."

"Invite him to the meeting with the Family, then," the Protectorate leader suggested. "He gets on with them from what I understand, which might help. We can plan the details with them first, then bring him in and let him know enough to keep him from becoming a problem."

With a slightly disgruntled nod, the director wrote a few words on her own pad, them put the pen down. "Fine. I don't like it, but everything we do these days seems to fly in the face of standard procedure."

"We need some new standards," Legend grinned. She fixed him with an unfriendly look but nodded slowly.

"So it would seem. Damn Family. They confuse the issue with _everything_." Shaking her head, she sighed faintly, then looked back to Colin and Dragon. "How are the new computers coming along?"

"On schedule, Director," Dragon replied. "I'm sorry I can't do it faster, but I don't have a lot of spare capacity suitable for this specific job and I'm using all of it on your equipment. I'm adding more production lines right now but it won't speed things up very much this time, I'm afraid."

"Can't be helped. Let's work out some contingency plans, try to figure out some way around those fucking explosives, then get everyone else in to go over everything and hash out the details. As soon as we're sure we have a solid list of requirements, questions, and solutions, we can contact the Family and bring them in on it. I want to have this ready to go by the time the new systems are in place, we'll probably only get one chance and I _do not_ want that bastard getting away."

Colin nodded, glancing at Dragon, who did the same. Director Piggot's voice had dropped to a predatory growl on the last few words. He felt that she was looking forward to talking to Thomas Calvert, in a way that the man himself wasn't going to enjoy.

* * *

Looking up from his desk Danny called out, "Come in," watching the door open to reveal Lisa grinning at him with a slightly smugger than normal look. He smiled back, amused as ever at the way the girl seemed to enjoy life so much. Taylor and Amy were quite similar these days, which made a change he liked very much from before the Varga turned up.

Admittedly he hadn't known the Dallon girl before that point, but he'd heard things. She had a reputation as frighteningly dedicated but definitely depressed and quiet, aside from being surprisingly snarky with a level of sarcasm that could peel paint at fifty feet if you annoyed her. The snark and sarcasm were definitely still present, but the depression and quietness had disappeared entirely, leaving a young woman who seemed to be determined to extract as much amusement value from life as she could, while helping anyone who would hold still long enough. He liked that young woman very much.

Lisa seemed to have changed as well, although it was less obvious in her case. The slightly defensive need to be known as the smartest person in the room had changed to something he thought was a quiet confidence that she usually _was_ the smartest person in the room, but was fine if that wasn't the case. Not quite so in your face as before. It suited her, she was supremely competent at doing practically any task she set her mind to, but no longer seemed to need to prove it to everyone. Surrounding herself with like-minded people had been good for her, as had getting out from under Coil's thumb and whatever incident in her past had left her distrustful of a lot of people.

He didn't know what that was, precisely, although he suspected some issues with her family. She never mentioned them and he'd never inquired, feeling it was a private matter. But it was probably irrelevant in any case, as she'd quite happily found a new family, one she was clearly very pleased indeed to have joined. ' _Metis_ ' was good for her, he thought. And she, in both her incarnations, was good for Taylor, Amy, and the others in their small but steadily growing group.

For a moment, he wondered what life would be like given a few _years_ of this sort of thing, considering what less than three months had done, but decided he'd never work it out and could only wait and see. If nothing else it would be interesting…

"Hello, Lisa," he said out loud, dismissing his thoughts for now. "Is there something I can help you with?"

"I was hoping you had a little time to come and meet our newest hire, Danny," she said happily.

"Ah, you mean the young lady we hired last week is finally ready for visitors?" he asked, loudly enough for people in the outer office to overhear. He was pretty sure he wasn't fooling anyone but appearances needed to be maintained.

"Exactly," Lisa replied, visibly trying not to laugh. "She decided on a name, Vectura, if you hadn't heard, but is still thinking about a costume. A mask will have to do for now but I'm sure Saurial and the others can come up with something more interesting soon."

"I'd be pleased to officially welcome her to the organization," he said, putting his pen down and standing up. Following her out of the office, he closed the door, then looked around the larger admin office, meeting the eyes of a number of people who seemed almost universally amused and mostly looking at him with knowing gazes.

"Back to work, people," he called, smiling. "Nothing to see here, merely someone going to talk to someone else."

"Yes, Boss," several voices chorused.

"And don't call me..." He trailed off with a put-upon sigh while Lisa snickered next to him. "God, why do I even bother?" he grumbled in a good-natured manner, leaving the room with as much dignity as he could summon up.

"Take it as a sign of respect," Lisa advised as she walked beside him. "Boss."

"Watch it, girl, remember who you're talking to," he growled.

"The Boss. I know." She gave him a sideways look that almost made him laugh, it was very pleased with itself.

Shaking his head in mild resignation, he headed for Linda's new workshop. When they arrived, Lisa pulled the pedestrian door open and grandly waved him through with a bow, grinning at his sigh. "After you, sir," she said with a slight chuckle.

Going inside, he heard the door close, then the latch snick closed. Ignoring that, he looked around, nodding approvingly. "Wow. Very impressive change, considering it was a room full of rusty crap and grease two days ago," he commented, strolling over to inspect one of the hydraulic lifts. It had been carefully cleaned and there was a can of paint next to it with a brush lying across it, ready for use.

"Thanks, Danny," a voice said from the side, making him turn to see someone coming out of a side room. He studied the figure, who stopped about ten feet away, then turned on the spot. "Like it? I do."

"It's damn good," he said with an approving nod. The ' _Vectura_ ' form that Linda was wearing looked nothing like her normal form, or, crucially, even slightly like the former Squealer. He doubted that even her closest friends would have recognized her, before sighing a little internally and thinking that her closest friends were probably all inside the DWU. Poor girl.

That said, she looked pretty pleased with the whole situation now, nothing like the bedraggled and terrified young woman he'd met that first time. While he suspected that she still needed several very long talks with someone suitably qualified in psychological therapy techniques, the new state of affairs clearly suited her.

She flicked her tail, then moved her ears around on top of her head, grinning at him and showing off small fangs. "That really is remarkably effective," he added. "You look entirely different. Are you actually taller?"

"About two inches, yes," she replied. Lisa came over and leaned against one of the pillars of the lift, watching quietly. Looking down at herself, Linda smoothed her overalls down, then met his eyes again. She was wearing a clean, slightly modified pair of normal DWU issued overalls with a hole for her tail to exit, a couple of tools sticking out of one pocket. There was a basic black domino mask over her face, wide green cat's eyes meeting his gaze through the apertures in it. Under the mask the shape of her face was distinctly different from her normal one. Danny wondered anew at the sheer scale and ability of Amy, whose work was yet again truly remarkable.

"The tail was weird at first, but it's not wrong, just strange," the young woman laughed. "The more I'm like this the less strange it gets. I think in a couple of weeks I won't even notice. The better senses are _amazing_ as well. It's incredible the things I can see, hear, and smell."

"I'm very pleased it's working out for you," he smiled. "You look really good, too. Any ideas on a costume yet?"

"A few, but nothing serious so far," she replied. "Saurial had a few suggestions, and Lisa has come up with some more. I've made a couple of sketches of some things I've thought up. There's no hurry, though, so I'd prefer to get it right than do it too quick. Doing things too fast fucked up a lot of them in the past, so I'm trying to learn a lesson."

"Fair enough," he nodded. "That's a sensible approach." Looking around the workshop, he went on, "I do like the results here. I'll have to ask the girls to refurbish some of the other buildings soon, I think. We have a lot of half-decrepit workshops around the place that could do with this treatment."

"I'll make some notes on it, Danny," Lisa put in, making him look over at her then nod appreciatively.

"Thanks."

Turning back to the Tinker, he asked, "Have you decided what you're going to make here first?"

She grinned widely. "Yes. Come and have a look at this, I think it'll be pretty useful around here." The woman lead the way to where there were some whiteboards built into the walls on the other side of the side room she'd been in when he entered. "What do you think?" she asked, as he looked at the very neat drawings done in different color markers.

There was a long pause.

"I think..." he began, studying them closely. "I think you're going to be very, very popular really fucking quickly," he finally finished, making her look pleased. "Can you really make these?"

"Oh, yes," she replied with confidence. "Still transportation." Tapping the side of her head with a clawed finger, she continued, "You wouldn't _believe_ all the things I have up here. Never thought I'd get a chance to make any of them until recently. But with the DWU and the Family on my side… Let's say that there are some really fucking cool toys on the horizon."

"We'll need to have Saurial and the others make a lot of the parts, but Linda thinks she can describe them closely enough that shouldn't be too hard," Lisa said. "Might take a few tries, but I don't doubt it's possible. And some of Leet's designs are also usable. They were here last night, giving Linda ideas."

He looked at the Tinker woman, who appeared very, very happy. "So _many_ ideas," she said in a low voice, her tail flicking around contentedly.

Shaking his head in mild wonder, he went back to looking at the drawings, watching as she picked up a green marker and made some changes.

Years, hell.

Things were going to get weird _much_ faster than that.


	233. Dogs and Classes

From the door of her kennel building, Rachel watched as Amy Dallon's bright blue truck pulled up outside the office the crazy lizards used, Saurial jumping out and unlocking the door. She disappeared inside, the main roller door rising with a rattle moments later. When it was open enough, the truck drove in and vanished, the door coming back down again.

She turned around and went back into her own building, checking on the dogs she walked past in their own enclosures as she went. The ones she was still training were wandering around in the kennels, some of them asleep, some eating, and others just bouncing around wanting to come out. Murmuring words to them the girl inspected each animal carefully, watching them for a few seconds before moving on to the next. All of them were currently in excellent condition, quite different from how many had been when she got here.

At her feet, Angelina trotted along, looking around alertly, and up at her every now and then to see what she was doing. The little dog was very bright and had quickly made the new arrivals aware of who was second in command here, after Rachel herself.

Reaching the rear of the building the young woman sat on a chair, beckoning to one of the other animals, a large alsatian she'd named Meg. The animal was one of the ones that the lizards next door had healed, something she was very grateful for. Dashing over from where she'd been sniffing one of the caged dogs, Meg stopped in front of her and sat, cocking her head with her ears up.

Rachel nodded in satisfaction. Her pack was coming along very well indeed. All healthy, most of them very obedient, the bulk of them taking to the training without problems. There were a couple that needed more work, and several that were so badly affected by their time in Hookwolf's dog fighting rings that they'd possibly never be particularly sociable, but on the whole things were great.

She considered her current situation one that was almost heaven-sent. The relationships were complex in this place, but broke down in ways she understood and liked. Her pack was respected and trusted, which was good. The people in the DWU generally liked dogs, often very much, and treated the ones they already had well. She approved of that, it meant she didn't have to take action. Already she'd helped train the security dogs a little better which had made everyone happy.

No one seemed to care about her past, only what she was like in the present. As long as she pulled her weight and didn't cause trouble they merely accepted her, unlike so many places before. She was on good terms with quite a few people and found almost for the first time in her life that she trusted others. And more impressively that they trusted her.

Her human pack also fitted in well. Lisa, the talky one, seemed to have found her niche and dived right in, now obviously having more fun than seemed reasonable. Brian, the strong one, also appeared to like being here. He was respected, had people he could in turn respect, and as much hard work as he cared to do, which was something she thought he'd been looking for. Even Alec, the annoying one, was obviously contented with the current situation.

While the opportunities for a good fight were fewer at the moment, likewise there was much less requirement for it. All her needs were met, her dogs were left alone in her care, they even got fixed if something was wrong. She couldn't ask for more.

The larger pack, the DWU, had a strong leader in Mr Hebert, someone she instinctively knew beyond doubt was a man who would do anything needed to protect everyone. He didn't look like much, Brian for example was much more strongly built and younger, but there was something about him that made her think that he could take care of himself. Brian had also picked up on it immediately, she'd seen, and looked up to the man. That was something she could understand.

Then you had the crazy lizards. The first time she'd seen Raptaur, when the huge creature was giving Hookwolf the kicking of a lifetime, she'd found herself utterly terrified. The sensation of being in the presence of the biggest predator ever was so strong she'd had a hard time not just collapsing and giving up on the spot. She was tough, she _knew_ she was tough, and she'd go toe to toe with practically anyone, but she also knew her limits.

When Raptaur had apparently chased them she'd nearly crapped herself. It was only Brian taking charge and ordering a retreat that had kept her going. By the time the lizard caught up she was ready to drop, and afterward had nightmares for over a week.

The second time, when they'd been running from Lung and Oni Lee, she'd been so exhausted that she barely had the energy to be frightened and had just ended up going along with it. The fact that Raptaur had been there to save them rather than eat them had taken a while to sink in, but in the end had turned out to be true. Rachel didn't doubt that without the reptile having intervened they'd all either be in the hands of the PRT or dead. As a result, she was very grateful for the save.

Their actions since had only deepened that gratitude. She'd quickly overcome her deep-rooted fears and come to the conclusion that she'd joined a much more powerful pack than she could ever have imagined. There was no doubt that she was entirely outclassed by any of them, but that didn't bother her the way it might have done to some people. Just knowing her place in the hierarchy made life much better. The fact that the lizards seemed to understand this was interesting and good.

It was fascinating, actually. Saurial was clearly the alpha of her own group, but listened to and would follow Mr Hebert, who was just as clearly the alpha of the DWU. Even though there were others, like Zephron, who were physically much more powerful, they all looked up to him and did what he wanted. They were fine with Rachel leading her personal pack, and she still considered herself part of the group that Brian was the leader of, but Brian had put himself under the control of Mr Hebert also. Lisa was part of her pack too, but at the same time, part of Saurial's _and_ Mr Heberts. Amy Dallon was part of New Wave, but also part of Saurial's group. It was a little confusing at times.

Sometimes she wondered how everyone kept track of everything.

In the end, though, it didn't matter all that much. Her dogs were safe and appreciated, which was the main thing. Everything else was a bonus.

Stroking Meg's head between the ears, Rachel mulled over her thoughts. Yes, she definitely had it made, and if necessary she'd fight to protect her new home and her new people. Life was pretty good these days and she wanted to keep it that way.

* * *

 ****  
Knocking on the door to the BBFO office, then opening it, Danny walked in with Mark behind him. The blond man closed it behind them. Taylor, currently Saurial as she normally was when on site, smiled at them and waved them over to the table. Amy stuck her head out of the workroom doorway and grinned before disappearing back inside as they walked past her truck.

"Hi guys," Taylor said as they sat. "How are you today?"

"Fine, thank you, Saurial," Mark replied. Danny smiled a little at his reptilian daughter, finding as always the chirpy lizard-girl persona amusing. She seemed to have so much _fun_ being Saurial…

"Coffee?"

"Yes, please," Danny said, Mark nodding beside him. She headed for the machine, quickly making some for each of them, then brought it over and handed them each a mug.

"I wanted to talk a little more about training," Mark said, after trying his coffee then putting the mug down to cool slightly. "You indicated you were happy to do some hand to hand work last time we talked."

"Sure, that's not a problem," Taylor said thoughtfully. "I haven't trained a group before, only one on one, but I don't think it would be too difficult. Obviously there are aspects of the Family style that a normal human can't do, but a lot of it is transferable. I've already tried with both Amy and Über, who haven't had too much trouble learning. Über picks it up amazingly fast, actually, but then he would. He also knows a lot of tricks that he's learned from other places."

Mark looked interested. "Think he'd be up for training people as well?"

"Quite possibly," she smiled. "I'll ask him. He's a nice guy."

The security chief grinned. "That's not exactly what a lot of people would say, considering his past and his friend."

She shrugged, looking amused. "People change. I think he's always been a nice guy, just a bit criminally minded. Not because he really wants to break laws, though, more because both he and Leet had poor impulse control and some pretty wild ideas of what fun is." Taylor glanced at Danny with a sly look in her glowing eyes. "People change as they grow up. Some faster than others."

"True," Mark mused. "Very true. OK, if you could find out if he'd be interested in training some of our people, that would help. We'll pay, obviously."

"All right, I'll check with him the next time I see him," she replied.

"We've got about half a dozen experts in different close quarters combat techniques lined up for training, and I have several more to talk to," the man continued, drinking some more coffee. "That gives us karate, boxing, stick fighting, tai chi, two different kung fu variants, krav maga, systema, and Brazilian jiu-jitsu. Plus Family style, and whatever Über could bring to the table. Should be enough to cover most requirements."

"Systema?" Taylor asked curiously. "Isn't that the Russian special forces one?"

"Yes, it's something the Spetsnaz used. Pretty effective. The American military have some specific martial arts as well, we have a couple of people who are very competent with them."

"Like you, you mean," Danny put in, listening with interest. Mark smirked at him.

"I may hold an instructor rating in LINE, that's true," he chuckled. "We'll be adding that to the mix."

"I'm more surprised that there's someone here who knows a Spetsnaz martial art," Amy commented as she joined them, having come out of the workroom and closed the door, then sitting down to listen.

"Two people, actually," Mark replied, "Ilia in the motor pool, and Grigory in the engineering department."

"Why do they know Russian special forces combat techniques?" she asked curiously.

"They were taught them when they were in the Russian special forces, of course," he said with a small grin.

She looked at him, then nodded slowly. "OK, that makes sense," she sighed. "As much as anything around here ever does."

"Some of our people have interesting backstories," Danny suggested.

"As far as I can tell, _all_ of your people have interesting backstories," the girl snickered. "I'm constantly surprised by the talents available, although by now I shouldn't be."

"It's definitely a thing," Mark replied. "I suspect you could probably find someone with at least a decent working knowledge of almost anything you care to name here. Obviously it's tilted towards engineering and shipyard work, but there are a lot of people with skills in combat, field medicine, communications, you name it. Close to a third of the current roster is ex-military and half the rest have been in positions where they've picked up equivalent skills for various reasons."

"It's pretty impressive," Amy said with an interested look. "You could probably say your gang is one of the most powerful on the east coast, Danny."

"Not a gang, and not mine," he sighed heavily, as Taylor grinned and Mark looked like he was trying not to burst out laughing. "No matter what _she_ says." He waved at his daughter, who winked at him. "Or Zephron. Don't listen to him, he's a menace."

"Of course I won't listen, Boss." The Dallon girl smirked at him. He rolled his eyes and put his face in his hands.

"Oh god, why me?" he moaned faintly. "All I wanted to do is get a ferry working and keep people in employment and now look at it."

Mark gripped his shoulder consolingly. "I feel for you, my friend, I really do."

"I'm sure you do," he muttered, looking sideways at the man, who was still obviously trying to keep his laughter bottled up. "But you don't look it. Stop grinning like that."

"Sorry," the blond man said, not looking at all sorry. He turned to regard Amy, who wasn't hiding her own sly grin. "I'm surprised you haven't officially joined the DWU yet, Amy, considering you spend most of your time here when you're not in school."

Amy shrugged, looking slightly surprised. "I can't say that it really crossed my mind, to be honest." She looked at Taylor, who looked back. "I've already sort of become an honorary Family member, that was enough to make Mom look oddly at me."

"And the Family are all DWU members as well," Mark pointed out. "So you're the odd one out."

"That's a good point, Amy," Taylor smiled. "You should make it official, everyone thinks of you as a DWU member already anyway, why not get the perks as well?"

"Not like I need the dental plan, is it?" Amy asked wryly. "With Metis and Ianthe around, I mean."

"But think of the ID card? You get a terrible photo you can show people, and..." Taylor scratched her muzzle, thinking. "…other things too," she finished, a little lamely.

Danny sighed again. "If you want to officially get DWU membership, Amy, you're more than welcome, but don't let these two idiots push you into it. And don't forget your mother might look a little upset at the idea, she's already worried about your friends."

"Mom worries about everything," Amy said with a dismissive wave. "But secretly I think she's coming around to liking the Family and she's quite respectful about the DWU. Even before all this happened and I met Saurial and the others, she'd said for some time that she thought you guys were some of the saner people around this damn city. Or something like that." She looked thoughtful while the others smiled. "Not that it's much of a compliment considering the place, though."

"See Lisa about it if you want to do it, then," he said, giving up. He wondered how many different groups one person could officially be part of before it started being a problem, then decided it wasn't something he needed to waste time on at the moment.

"Oh, while you're here," the girl said, "Ianthe came up with something that you both might be interested in. You especially, Mark."

Danny inspected her, then looked at his daughter, whose scaly face was expressing mild interest and nothing else. There was a look in her eyes, though, that made him think she was suppressing a smile. "Ianthe came up with something?" he echoed.

"She did. It's pretty cool." Amy grinned.

"And she's not here to tell us herself?"

The brunette shrugged. "You know those guys, probably off swimming in the bay hassling fish or running around catching muggers or something."

"Hmm." She was definitely finding this funny. Mark was listening with a look of amusement, making him wonder how much of the real truth the other man had worked out so far. "Well, if you think you can show us, by all means do so, Amy," he said with another look at Taylor.

"It really is very cool," ' _Saurial_ ' said with a smile. "You'll like it."

"Oh, god, that means it's something particularly weird, doesn't it?" he sighed.

With a smirk the Dallon girl hopped up and went into her workroom, returning a little later with a…

"What the _hell_ is that?" he asked after staring at the thing in her hands for close to a minute. Mark was doing the same, his eyes wide.

"Family biotech, really advanced stuff," Amy said in satisfaction, holding the thing up for them to inspect.

"It's _alive?_ " Mark said with a look of mixed mild horror and curiosity.

"Sort of. Depending on your definition." She looked at it herself. "More or less."

"And what does this… thing… do?"

"It's a personal self-defense device," she said. "Watch." Glancing at Taylor, she added, "Targets?"

"Sure, hold on." Taylor got up and went across the room, quickly making a number of targets on stands near the rear wall, then came back and sat again. "There you go."

Pushing up the sleeve of her shirt, Amy held the thing to her arm, the tendrils coming off the flat side suddenly moving to clamp it firmly in position in a blur of motion. Mark and Danny both jumped a little. "Look, it fits like this," she explained, holding her arm up and showing how the semi-living creature adhered so firmly to her skin you could barely see a join.

"Then, you just do this..." She turned and leveled the thing at the first target. As she did so, Danny suddenly worked out what the creature was, barely twitching when there was a familiar ' _pop_ ' and a hole appeared in the block of foam, centered on the bulls-eye. Mark gaped, then stared at her for several seconds.

"Holy shit, it's the same thing that Ianthe and Metis have in their arms, only as an external weapon, isn't it?"

"Pretty much, yes," Amy said with a pleased smile. "It interfaces to the human neural system and is controlled that way. You need a special treatment to authorize use of it, without that it won't do anything at all. But when you can use it, you can do all sorts of things."

She turned back to the target, quickly riddling them with appallingly accurate shots in a flurry of popping sounds, culminating in a loud bang that entirely removed one of the targets from existence in a shower of small pieces. "Several different drugs, paralytic, sedative, emetic, pain inducer, and the explosive darts for serious problems," she explained, turning around and holding her arm out, the business end of the bioweapon carefully pointed at the ceiling. "Variable muzzle velocity from about a hundred feet per second to about a thousand. Built-in target auto-tracking, semi-autonomous auto-fire, a few other things that are a little complicated to explain."

"Fuck me," Mark whispered, sounding completely awe-struck. "And she just made that for you?"

"Yep. This one is a prototype, there are some modifications that are going to be made before the next one is made, and there's some support equipment that's needed too to make it a viable system that doesn't need Family support, but she was thinking that it could be a useful tool for the DWU." Amy sat down, crossing her arms on the table and gently running the fingers of her left hand over the back of the weapon on her right arm. "I know you have those modified paintball guns, and the other stuff, but she said she thought it was best to have options. Just in case."

"I'd have to agree it's always a good idea to have backups in place, but this is… god, that's terrifying," the blond man said quietly, his eyes fixed on the thing on her arm. "What sort of ' _treatment_ ' are we talking about?"

Amy looked at Taylor, who gazed back at her. Danny was sure that a silent message went between the two girls. After a moment, Taylor turned to Mark. "We have quite a lot of Family biotech available, of course. Not all of it is anything that we want to talk about for various reasons. The PRT could get funny about some of it for a start. Amy has been looking at some of the stuff we're thinking of making available to check it's safe for humans, but Ianthe is sure it is. She's worried about how fragile humans are and came up with something to help."

Amy went back into the workroom, coming out a moment later with a couple of transparent containers that each were half full of suspension goo, a symbiote floating in each. Danny looked at them when she put them on the table, as did Mark. He could see that one of them looked just like the one that she'd given him, while the other was a pale blue color but otherwise similar. He wondered what the difference was.

"We haven't talked about these much outside the Family and certain trusted friends so far, while she worked the bugs out and tweaked them until she was happy, but they're ready now," Taylor went on. "I've been trying to work out the best way to go about using them, because it's a little sensitive. I'd be interested in your thoughts on the matter. Amy, you understand them better than anyone other than Ianthe, tell them about the symbiotes."

With a nod, Amy proceeded to explain what the healing symbiotes did to Mark, leaving out anything about the aging affects. She was, Danny noted, very careful to make it sound entirely like a Family project that she was only consulting on after the fact, something he thought was sensible even though he was at least half-certain that Mark was aware of the truth to some degree or other. When she finished, the security man picked up the jar with the Mark Seventeen in it and swilled it around, staring at it.

"Jesus Christ," he said in a low voice. "I thought I was getting to understand what you girls are capable of then you pull out something like this." He gave Taylor a look of respectful and impressed pleasure. "I can understand why you didn't want to go around shouting about it, though. The PRT is going to be _very_ suspicious about these things until they can test the hell out of them."

He put the container down and continued to look at it. "It really works?"

"Yes. Amazingly well. It'll heal practically anything. Ianthe is fairly sure she can improve it too, but this is the first version she's happy is safe for anyone to use without special monitoring." Amy looked at it as well, smiling faintly. "I've checked it out very thoroughly, all the initial tests have backed that up completely. They're completely safe and extremely effective."

"They've already been tested in people?" Mark asked, looking up at her sharply.

"Volunteers, yes. People we trust implicitly," Taylor replied quietly. "They work, there are no side effects, and right now all we're unsure about is how to proceed next."

Mark glanced at her, then looked back to Amy, who nodded. Then he looked carefully at Danny. "Let me guess," he finally said. "Amy has one, and so do you."

"Guilty as charged," Danny admitted. "It was a gift. They really do work, exactly as she said."

"And you trusted their work?"

"Without question." He spoke firmly but without force. "I trust the Family completely, and Amy as well. With my life."

His security man was quiet for some time, picking up the container and looking at the contents again, then putting it down. He seemed stunned and thoughtful, but not worried.

Taylor made a small knife and handed it to her friend, who took it from her. "Mark?" Amy said. The man looked up. "Watch."

She pressed the insanely sharp blade to her left palm and drew it across quickly, barely wincing at the pain, then gave the knife back to Taylor. Mark was in the process of exclaiming something, shocked, when the brunette girl took the cloth Taylor handed her and wiped the blood from her palm to show the gash was already almost closed. They all watched as it healed without trace in seconds.

There was complete silence for a little while. Mark finally lifted his eyes from her hand to meet hers. "I can't believe it," he said faintly. "If I hadn't seen it… Jesus. That's unbelievable."

"It's basically a regenerator power that can be handed out like a band aid," Amy said in satisfaction. "It doesn't make you unkillable, of course, but it certainly improves your chances a hell of a lot. As long as you don't take a shotgun to the face, you stand a good chance of getting away with it. Little injuries like cuts and so on are basically irrelevant, as is disease, infection, that sort of thing."

"You realize this changes _everything_?" he said, looking shell-shocked. She nodded, as did Taylor.

"I do. They do. Which is why they're being really careful. We didn't want to let the secret out too soon, and we still don't want to let people outside a fairly small group know about it until we can figure out the best way to handle things. But Saurial and I both thought you should know. I'm really torn, actually." The girl sighed. "It's an ethics thing, you understand. We have a cure for almost _anything_ sitting right there on the table. From the point of view of a healer, I want to give one to everyone and save lives. From the point of view of a Parahuman, I'm worried about the reaction, especially considering how Biotinkers are regarded these days. It's Family biotech, nothing to do with bastards like Nilbog, but..." She shrugged as Mark nodded slowly.

"I can see your point. Shit. This is going to take some careful thought, I think. I'd advise not letting the public know right now, you're certainly correct there. The PRT would get very suspicious and very upset so fast you wouldn't believe it." He leaned back, thinking. "They'd definitely want to test them to hell and gone. Then they'd probably want to restrict the supply to people they approve of."

"That's not happening," Taylor said. "We're happy to let them test them, but they don't get a say in what we do with our own technology. We're not going to let PRT politics dictate who we can help."

"If it was anyone else, I'd say you had a fight on your hands," Mark replied, "But considering how the Family is seen… if anyone can get away with telling them to fuck off it's you guys." He grinned as she looked amused.

"We don't want to fight, you know that, but we feel pretty strongly about some things." She poked one of the containers with a claw. "We want to make things better. These could do that."

"True." He glanced at Danny, who was listening quietly, curious to find out what the other man thought. "Complicated problem. I'm going to have to think about the implications before I can really advise you other than ' _be cautious_ ', I'm afraid."

"I'd certainly be interested in your thoughts when you have a chance to think it over, Mark," Taylor said. "But in the meantime, if you're interested..." She picked up the container with the standard symbiote in it and offered it to him. He looked startled and a little worried for a moment.

Eventually he reached out and took it from her, inspecting it again. "It really is safe," Amy said reassuringly.

"What's the difference between this one and that one other than color?" he asked suddenly, indicating the second symbiote.

"That other one is purely a security authorization and enabling key for the weapon," Taylor explained. "It doesn't have any other abilities, it only lets you use the biogun. Ianthe came up with it for cases where we might want to distribute weapon systems without giving away our full capabilities. Another just in case scenario. She's also working on a one-shot version of the symbiote which would heal someone then break down in the body rather than staying resident like these do. We thought that might be more acceptable to the public and the PRT and also a very useful thing to carry around in a field medic pack."

"Christ, you're not kidding there," he said, sounding somewhat shocked again. "She can do that?"

"Yes, so she says, but we haven't had time yet," Taylor replied. "I have no reason to doubt it at all."

"Well, if she can, I'd suggest opening with that and approaching the PRT with it." He weighed the container he was still holding in his hand in an absent sort of manner. "This thing is probably a little past their comfort threshold right now, by which I mean it will terrify them. A single shot version would still make them very suspicious until they'd tested it six ways from Sunday, but considering the dangers of the job, they'd probably go for it as soon as they thought it was safe. It would save a lot of lives."

"Which is what we thought, yes," Danny's daughter noted.

"I could also make inquiries with some old contacts in the military," he went on thoughtfully. "When I was in service we'd have sold our souls for something like that. Even now, or possibly especially now, there's a good chance that the government would be _very_ interested in an instant fix medical device if it could be supplied in quantity. And it would soften them up for something more advanced like this." He looked at the symbiote in his hand.

"We'll be talking to the PRT soon about our latest hire," Danny commented. "That might be a good point to open talks if you have it ready by then."

"Good idea," Taylor remarked. "I'll poke Ianthe to finish some prototypes."

"You realize that they'll probably call Amy in to test them, among other people," Mark said with a grin. The brunette smirked at him.

"That crossed my mind," she admitted with a humorous look.

"Life really has gotten very weird recently," Mark said with a shake of his head. Hefting the container, he shrugged. "Fuck it, live dangerously," he added, removing the lid. "If you can't trust alien lizard biotech, what can you trust?"

"That's the spirit," Taylor snickered. "Don't worry, the agony doesn't last more than an hour or so."

"Oh, thanks," he muttered, peering into the container. "How do I use this?"

"Take it out, wipe it off, and put the concave side on some exposed skin, then press and hold," Amy told him, handing him a cloth that Taylor passed her. He took it from her and followed the instructions. The familiar faint squeak sounded, heralding the activation of the symbiote.

"It went numb," he reported.

"Good, that's activating properly," the healer said as she got up and put a finger on his neck. "Yep, all working fine."

"That's it?"

"Pretty much." She pointed at where he'd stuck the biodevice on his arm. It was already barely visible. "It's fully integrated now. Inside ten minutes you won't be able to tell you have one."

"And it can be removed if necessary?" he asked.

"Bit late to ask that, but yes," Taylor chuckled. "Ianthe can take it out if you need her to. I doubt you'll want that, though."

She slid a knife over the table to him. He looked at it, then her, before picking it up and carefully cutting the end of his left little finger. Moments later, after a small amount of bleeding, there was no trace of the incision. "Holy hell that's incredible," he breathed, repeating the process, then handing the knife back. "Just amazing."

"Don't take it as an invitation to get shot," Danny said, smiling a little.

"I don't intend to," his colleague said. "I've been shot before. I can't say I care for it, it hurts. But… I have to say, this is probably the most impressive thing I've seen out of you girls so far."

"I'm pretty pleased," Taylor smiled. "So is everyone else."

"Not surprised." He looked at both of them, then Danny. "Well, that didn't end the way I thought this conversation would."

The other three smiled. "It did drift slightly oddly," Danny agreed. "But I think we managed to cover the important things."

Mark pointed at the weapon on Amy's arm. "That thing… I'm very, very interested in it."

"I thought you would be," Taylor replied, pleased. "Amy needs to go shortly, and I have other things to do too, but when Ianthe has made the next version, I'll let you know. You can try it out, then we can work out how to integrate them into the DWU defenses. I'm half-tempted to say everyone should get issued one and a symbiote but right now that might be a little much. Even so, as something else for the security teams in addition to the other equipment it would hopefully help if trouble kicks off. Skidmark is still out there somewhere, after all."

"Annoyingly true," Mark muttered. "Not to mention the other gangs. I doubt we'll be lucky enough never to have trouble from them again. And of course, even if we are, as things improve around here and we get busier, there's always the chances of someone from outside the city coming in looking for trouble."

"If they want it, we can oblige," Taylor grinned, showing teeth. "Sooner or later they'll work out why it's a bad idea to fuck with the DWU."

"You won't hear any objections from _me_ ," the blond man smiled. "And having defensive methods that don't oblige the Family to stay around can only help in the long run. You guys have lives too."

"More or less, yes," she laughed. "Although they do seem to revolve around here right now. Which we like."

Danny glanced at his watch. "Considering that I have to get ready to go to the Mayor's house for dinner in an hour, I'd better leave. Amy, you shouldn't wait too long either."

"Good point, I need to get home and change," Amy replied. "Vicky is pretty hyper about it, she browbeat Dean into buying her two new outfits for it, even though she only needs one and can pay for it herself anyway." The girl smiled a little. "She's got him wrapped around her finger like you wouldn't believe."

"Poor guy," Mark put in with a smile. "Have fun, Amy. Thanks, Saurial, I'll get back to you when I have a better idea of exactly how and when I want to set up the tutorial sessions."

"No problem." Danny's daughter got up, as the others did too, and walked with them to the door. "I'll see you guys later."

When she'd unlocked the door and opened it, Mark stepped out. "Thanks for the new toy," he remarked, looking at his arm in wonder.

"You're welcome, Mark," she replied with a smile. He walked off, Danny waiting until he was fifty yards away before turning to the two girls.

"Good work, both of you," he said very quietly. "Don't forget to take that thing off before your mother sees it." He motioned to the weapon on Amy's arm. She grinned at him.

"That probably wouldn't be ideal at the moment," she admitted. Taylor chuckled quietly.

"No, she might get the wrong idea."

"Or the right one."

The two girls exchanged a look of amusement. "I'll see you at the Mayor's house, Danny," Amy added, heading for the workroom.

"OK, Amy," he replied. "Give my best to your parents."

"Will do." She vanished into the other room.

"I'll see you at home in about fifteen minutes, Dad," Taylor whispered as he turned away. He heard the door close behind him. Walking back to his office, he smiled to himself, pleased with the way things had gone.


	234. Bathrooms and Dining

"Hurry up, Amy, I need to use it as well!" Vicky hammered on the door to the bathroom, prompting her sister to sigh loudly enough to be heard above the sound of the shower.

"You were in here when I got home, what else do you need to do?" Amy called back, sounding irritated. "At this rate we're going to be late."

"I forgot to brush my teeth." Vicky glanced sideways at where her mother had just come up the stairs and was looking at her with a sort of amused resignation. "I was excited, all right?" she said to the older woman, who smiled and went into her room.

"You were singing at the top of your voice, Vicky," Amy said from the other side of the door as the shower stopped. "And Dad said you'd been in here for two hours. I'd have thought you'd have noticed your teeth needed to be brushed in that time." The sink tap came on, while the blonde stood outside, tapping her foot nervously.

"I'm excited about this, OK?" she admitted, anxiously shifting position a couple of times while she heard her sister brush her own teeth, then gargle a little. "I've never been to the Mayor's house before."

"Neither have I," Amy's voice responded, now sounding like she was smiling. "It's going to be good, I think."

"I know, so let me brush my damn teeth!"

The door opened to reveal the other girl wrapped in a large towel, wet hair combed into a mass hanging down her back. She barely got out of the way as Vicky pushed through. "Finally!"

"Finally?" Amy said, outraged. " _Finally?_ You always take four times as long as I do to get ready for _anything_ , and _you're_ giving _me_ **_finally?_** "

Giving her a quick bright smile, Vicky patted her sister on the head, then pulled the door out of her grasp and shut it, hearing a huff of annoyance and footsteps heading back to Amy's bedroom.

It was true enough, her sister was absurdly fast at doing things most women took some time at, although she had no idea how she managed to do it. Quickly brushing her teeth, she rinsed and spat, then checked her makeup in the mirror, before leaving the room again, satisfied.

A little later she was fully dressed and standing in the living room waiting for Amy to come down, while Carol and Mark were watching her with varying expressions. Her father definitely seemed amused by how eager she was to leave, and her mother seemed a little concerned about that very eagerness.

"Remember, Vicky, be on your best behavior. Don't let your aura out, be polite to Mayor Christner and his other guests, and don't talk about New Wave business if you can help it, please."

"I remember, Mom. I haven't had a problem with my aura in weeks, have I? You can trust me."

Carol looked mildly dubious, turning to Amy as the brunette entered the room, pulling on her coat. "Make sure Vicky doesn't do anything too… _Vicky_ , please, Amy."

Vicky grumbled under her breath as Amy giggled, nodding. Their mother hugged both of them, then stepped back. "Be good, both of you. It's a real honor to be invited like this, so make a good impression."

"Vicky always makes a good impression," Amy snickered, looking at her sister. "Sometimes deep enough that it needs to be filled in."

Mark chuckled, Vicky looked annoyed, and Carol just sighed again.

"As we know all too well. In any case, have fun, and give my best to Danny and Taylor."

"We will," Amy promised, pushing her sister towards the door.

"Can I drive?" Vicky asked hopefully.

"In your dreams."

"But the lizard, _her_ you'd let drive."

"Yes."

"Meanie."

They left the house, bickering good-naturedly with each other, while behind them their parents exchanged a look before Carol started making dinner.

* * *

"I've finally had a chance to look around, and I found a couple of vehicles that might be better than this car," her father said as he drove, looking over at her for a moment before going back to watching the traffic. "A pretty good medium-sized SUV, and a truck similar to Amy's one. There were a few cars as well, but I was thinking we need something a little larger. We could go and look at them on Saturday morning if you want, I'd like your input on them."

"Sure, Dad," she smiled. "That would be fun. I could modify the seats too like with Amy's one."

"All right, I'll call the dealers tomorrow and arrange to come and check them out." Slowing for a red light, he looked at her again. "Mark seemed impressed," he added with a grin.

"Just a little, yes," she snickered. "We needed to tell someone outside the core group about those things, though, to see how they'd be received, and he's someone I trust to be thoughtful about it."

"That weapon-creature Amy made is… a little scary," he admitted, taking his foot off the brake and accelerating again as the light changed. "But damn effective. What sort of support does it need?"

"Not too much," she replied. "The plan is for a sort of life-support system that can handle a dozen or so, based on a plant. It would be like a docking station for a phone, you'd put the weapon on it and it would service it, refill the consumables, get rid of waste, that sort of thing. She thinks she can make it live directly off electricity since it doesn't need much in the way of energy, and all it would need is a certain amount of raw materials. There's a plan to make the one-shot healing symbiotes something that can be literally grown like potatoes as well."

"Wow. That would be amazing," he said with a look of interest. "I think that the PRT will definitely want to talk about that specific invention. I can see all sorts of people who'd be beating your door down to get them."

"That's kind of what we're worried about," she said, leaning her head back and watching the city go past. "We have so many things we can make now, and lots more to come. We're going to have to seriously think about how to market them soon. Up until now it's mostly been setting things up then running around dealing with emergencies, like Endbringers that can't make up their minds whether to attack or not. And the ship move, the Merchants, the scrapping… it's been a bit chaotic."

"Believe it or not I've noticed," he laughed. "Hard not to when your entire life gets turned upside down in under three months."

"Are you upset about it?" she asked, looking at him, a little worried.

"Not at all, dear, don't worry. It's wonderful. You're having fun which is the most important thing to me, and helping a _lot_ of people in the bargain." He glanced reassuringly at her for a second. "No one in the DWU is even slightly upset about how things are working out, more the exact opposite, in fact. And you've made some wonderful and loyal friends, who themselves have been helped and gone on to help others. No matter what happens next, I believe in you, Varga, and the Family to do the right thing."

"Thanks, Dad," she murmured, touched. "That means a lot. Sometimes I look at everything and get a little panicked and overwhelmed by how fast everything changed. But I can't say I don't love it."

"It suits you, this chaos," her father smiled. "As I've said many times, your mother would be extremely pleased and proud about how you've grown and the things you've done and are going to do. So am I."

Relaxing somewhat, she nodded, looking out the side window and watching a police car go past in the other direction. A little later, she looked back to him. "We need to think about the ferry soon," she said. "You mentioned it in the office, and I realized that it was the first time you've talked about it in months. But it was your pet project for so long, even before Mom died. We need to make it happen."

He was silent for another quarter of a mile, then smiled gently. "I'd like that. All the changes recently have tended to push it out of my mind, but I still think it's something the city needs. The money will soon be there, after all."

"It's already there, considering what Lisa did to Calvert," she giggled. "I wonder if he's worked out he's flat broke yet and BBFO technically owns all his companies and assets?"

Her father started laughing helplessly. Eventually he shook his head, grinning. "I really hope he doesn't, actually. It would be much funnier if he only finds out when he's in PRT custody. I can imagine that Director Piggot would take extreme pleasure in pointing that out."

They both burst out laughing again at the mental picture of the PRT director grinning like Death while informing her old colleague just _how_ screwed he was. Both of them could easily picture it. "I'll bet she would," Taylor snickered. "I have to admit she's growing on me. I definitely respect her, she doesn't take shit from anyone. Lisa says the same thing."

"The woman is formidable and honorable, for a government employee," he nodded. "There's enough history between the PRT and the DWU that I doubt we'll ever see eye to eye, but if more of them were like her I'd be a lot happier about it. Some of the people I've heard about are far less trustworthy."

"Well, hopefully they'll stay out of the city and let us train the local branch how to deal with the Family," she giggled. "It's a slow process but it seems to be working. I'd hate to have to start all over again with someone else. Although I'm still kind of puzzled about Miss Militia, that woman definitely doesn't like any of us."

"That much is very apparent," he replied. "I'm not entirely sure why, since most of the others seem to have at least got used to you guys enough to not flinch when you smile. She's sort of highly strung around you, though, which isn't what I'd have expected from her reputation. Everyone I've ever known who's met her has agreed that she's smart, level-headed, and skilled, and normally the most likely person in the room to know what's going on."

"She's sure jumpy around us," Taylor frowned. "Odd. Armsmaster is fine, he seems to actually like being with Raptaur, if anything. I like him, he's a bit emotionless but he's really smart and very sensible."

"Dragon seems to find you all both puzzling and amusing as well," he pointed out. "And the less said about Vista, probably the better. I can't help but wonder which Ward you'll corrupt next."

Grinning again, she shrugged. "No idea. I've met all of them now and I like them all, although Gallant is definitely weirded out by us. Clockblocker is great, he's got a sense of humor that fits right in, Kid Win is cool too, and Aegis seems perfectly sensible if a little stiff. Vista is hilarious and really, really skilled at her abilities. I'm perfectly happy to talk to any of them but the PRT seems to want to keep them away from us, based on what she said."

"Somehow I'm not entirely surprised," he smirked. "Considering what tends to happen to capes who hang around you all."

"Hey, _they_ don't know that," she protested, laughing. " _We_ only found out recently. I do think I need to talk to the Director soon about making better costumes for most of them, though. That thing Vista runs around in is nearly as bad as what Amy had, it's not safe. I don't want to see any of them hurt."

"Sounds like we'll have quite a lot to talk to the PRT about when we arrange to meet them, in that case," he replied thoughtfully. "Linda, the healing things, which need a good name, and new costumes. Did you make those wormhole generator parts you were going to, by the way?"

"Yes, before you and Mark turned up I completed three sets," she nodded. "I've got them boxed up in the office, Lisa is going to drop them off tomorrow."

"OK." Making a left turn, he added, "Nearly there, Roy lives about a mile down this road."

"Nice area," she noted, looking around at the houses, which were considerably larger on average than in their neighborhood.

"It's fairly upscale," he responded. "Back in the day this was where the shipping captains and company owners lived. Some real history here, it's one of the oldest parts of the city. That house there..." He pointed at a large three story one set back from the road, "...was owned by Captain Micheal Green, the man who started the first import/export business in the city. The docks grew out of that over the years." As they drove along, he recounted similar stories for many of the other buildings while Taylor listened quietly, pleased at his good mood and amused about how much local history her father knew.

Eventually they turned into a gravel driveway. "Here we are. Please try not to do anything too… unusual? Either of you?"

"We'll be good," she smiled, feeling the Varga grin inside her.

He looked dubiously at her, but nodded as they got out of the vehicle.

* * *

Opening the door, Roy smiled at his sister and her family. "Come in," he said, stepping back and waving them through. "Hi, Cheryl, how are you?" he added, embracing her, then shaking hands with her husband Jim.

"Fine, thanks, Roy," she said. "And you?"

"Oh, everything's pretty good here," he replied as he lead them into the living room. "Have a seat. Deb is due back any time now, and Rory is on his way. Everyone else should be here in about half an hour. While we're waiting, do any of you want drinks?"

He quickly filled their requests, then sat opposite them. Dinah came over with her glass of juice and squeezed next to him, grinning at him. "Hello, princess," he grinned back. "How's life treating you?"

"Very well, thank you, Uncle Roy," she said in a calm and considered way, making him chuckle, before ruining it by giggling and snuggling into his side. "I'm so pleased you invited me as well," she added happily.

"I could hardly not invite one of my favorite people, could I?" he asked, putting his arm around her. "It's nice to see you again. Are you having fun with your new job?"

"I am," she replied, looking happy. "Although that costume they wanted me to wear was horrible. I like the hat, but the rest was awful. That strange man that kept trying to persuade me he knew what he was doing was practically crying in the end." She looked mischievously pleased about making a grown man cry. Roy laughed, looking at his sister, who rolled her eyes.

"Dinah wasn't very impressed by Mr Chambers," Cheryl said in dry tones. "He was… upset. Honestly, the entire thing was quite funny, but only in hindsight. At the time it was a little stressful."

"Hey, he tried to get me into a little boring suit at one point," Dinah pointed out with a look of disgust. "It looked silly. I'm only twelve, and a girl, not some… bank manager or something." She shook her head firmly. "No. I'm not wearing that."

"But the hat, that you'll wear," her mother sighed.

"Oh, sure, I like the hat," she smiled. "But they won't let me wear it to school. It's cool, I wanted to show my friends."

"You do understand the entire concept of a secret identity, Dinah?" Roy asked, amused. She nodded, seeming mildly irritated.

"Of course I do, Uncle Roy, but I like the hat. Lots of people wear hats. Just because I had a fedora on at school why would anyone think I was a cape? I mean, I've seen pictures of Saurial wearing a hat like that and no one would confuse her and me, would they?"

"She's got about three feet on you, not to mention the tail," he agreed with a grin. "And the scales, and the teeth, and..."

"She's really cool," Dinah said with a wistful look. "I want to meet her one day."

"Dinah likes reptiles," Cheryl commented with a fond look. "You remember that stuffed dragon you got her years ago?" Roy nodded, smiling. "She still sleeps with it next to her."

"I like him, he protects my dreams," Dinah said with a small smile that showed pride. "But he needs to be fixed again, his left hand is coming off."

"I'll do it tomorrow, Dinah," her mother said. "Since the Family turned up, she's been pretty keen on meeting them eventually. One of her friends ran into Metis at the PRT the other day, in the waiting room, and ever since she heard about it she's been envious."

"Oh?" Roy looked down at his niece, who nodded. "We'll have to see if we can arrange something, then," he said. "Danny would be the person to ask."

"The percentages say it'll happen soon," Dinah pointed out with a faint grin. "But I still can't work out more about them. It's weird."

"Certainly somewhat odd, all things considered," he agreed, still puzzled about how her power, which was remarkably effective, seemed to get very confused with anything surrounding the Family. "What do the PRT say about it?"

"They don't really listen to me when I talk about it so I stopped trying," the girl sighed. "I mean, they're really nice people, mostly, but they keep telling me they know more about my abilities than I do. I think that's silly, it's _my_ ability. I know what it does."

"I'm sure you do, Princess," he chuckled. "You're a very smart kid. Don't worry, I'm sure they'll listen sooner or later."

"Maybe," she shrugged. "It doesn't matter, I guess. As long as I can meet them. I want to know more about them."

"So do most people," Jim said, watching his daughter with amusement. "You're not alone in that." He transferred his gaze to Roy. "You've met most of them, haven't you? What are they really like?"

"Very nice people," Roy replied. "Admittedly a little odd looking, and with a weird sense of humor, but they're people I think we can trust. Certainly Danny and the DWU do, to a level that's hard to explain, and most of the cops and other emergency services people who have run across Saurial or the others say very complimentary things about them. New Wave seem to get along with them very well too, especially Panacea and Glory Girl, and from what I hear Armsmaster, Dragon, and even Legend think highly of them as well."

Jim looked impressed. "That's a lot of accolades."

"They seem to have earned them."

Smiling, Cheryl asked, "I wonder how many of the stories on PHO about things they've done are real?"

He shrugged, grinning. "Probably most of them, I suspect. Although that one guy who thinks they're demons, and the other one who flip-flops between demons, aliens, or demonic aliens, are probably both just nuts."

"Hopefully," Cheryl giggled. "Of the two options, aliens would probably be the better one, but I very much doubt either is true."

"That said, most of the things I've read about them make me wonder what they really are," Jim commented with a thoughtful look. "A lot of what they do is pretty weird even for Parahumans."

"We have no idea _what_ the limits of Parahuman abilities really are, though, do we?" Roy asked. "So we don't actually know if what they can do is unusual or not. New powers come up all the time."

"True," the other man mused, tapping a finger on his glass idly. Eventually he shrugged and sipped his wine. "Not my field, so I suppose I can only leave it to the experts."

"The PRT has no more idea than you do, but they'll probably never admit that," Roy smirked, making his sister and brother-in-law smile. Moments later the front door opened and closed, his wife appearing at the doorway seconds later.

"Hello, everyone," she said as she entered. Cheryl got up and the two women exchanged hugs, as Roy disentangled himself from Dinah and fetched Deb a glass of wine. He kissed her, then handed her the drink, before resuming his seat. She sat next to Cheryl and Jim, who moved down the sofa a little to allow it. "I can't spend long, I still have to turn the roast and put the vegetables on," Deb said, leaning back with a look of relief, "but I'm glad to be off my feet for a moment or two."

"Long day?" Jim asked.

"Excessively," she replied, sounding a little tired. "But I'm looking forward to tonight."

"You know, being Mayor and all, you should strictly speaking have people to do all this for you, Roy," his sister said with a look of sly good humor. "Making your poor wife do the work is abusing your position."

"You know my feelings on that sort of thing, sis," he laughed, shaking his head. "And I hardly ' _make_ ' Deb do anything. I pity the person who tries."

His wife looked at him, then saluted him with the wineglass, causing him to grin. "My training finally worked," she said, taking a drink. Dinah, who was watching and listening with an interested expression, giggled a little and repeated the motion with her juice.

Feeling that things were going well, Roy sat and talked with his relatives and his wife until the latter got up to go into the kitchen, just after Rory arrived. Eventually they heard a vehicle drive up outside, the gravel crunching under its wheels, so he got up to answer the door.

* * *

"This is the place, Ames," Vicky said, looking up from the GPS app on her phone and pointing. "That's Taylor's dad's car, they must just have got here."

"Looks like it," Amy replied, indicating and making the turn, pulling up alongside the Hebert car, then turning the ignition off. "Try not to pull a Vicky, OK?" She grinned as Vicky looked annoyed.

"Hey, I'm not that bad," the blonde sulked, making Amy laugh for a moment.

"I had to say it, so if mom asks, I can tell her I tried." They exchanged a look, shrugged with mutual smiles, and got out of the truck. Locking it Amy walked over to where Taylor had just got out of her father's car, flexing her tail to get the kinks out. They shared a glance of hidden amusement about their invisible appendages before Amy said, "That was good timing."

"It certainly was," Danny commented, locking his own car. He inspected them both in the light over the front porch of the large house they were outside, nodding to himself. "You both look very good."

"Thanks, Danny," Vicky said, sounding pleased. Her new dress, an expensive one in muted dark gray with gold highlights, fitted her admittedly spectacular figure incredibly well, Amy thought as she looked at her sister. The other girl had several items of jewelry on that Amy recognized as ones she'd persuaded Dean to buy over the last year. The boy had good taste, in her view, the ornaments were very nice.

Amy herself was wearing a deep red blouse with black dress jeans, never having felt she had the figure for dresses. Her hair was in a pony-tail behind her rather than hanging loose and she'd applied a small amount of make-up with some advice from her sister. She didn't normally go in much for it, but had tried something new, which had made Vicky compliment her honestly when they were done.

Taylor was wearing a deep blue dress that came down to below her knees, and combined with her unusual height looked really impressive. It seemed to be made of silk, although Amy wouldn't have wanted to guarantee that considering it was undoubtedly a result of the Varga magic. For all she could see it might have been made of synthetic unicorn hair or something. Her friend had put her hair into a complicated braid that hung down her back, tied in several places with silver bands. It looked very nice, the healer mused, and Taylor pulled the look off well.

She wondered for a moment what her friend's tormentors would have thought if they could have seen her like this, about to have dinner with the Mayor at his invitation, in his actual house. Based on what Taylor had told her, she thought they'd probably have practically choked on their own bile, which made her feel pleased.

Taylor looked at her, smiling faintly, and it seemed to her that her friend had thoughts similar to that going through her own head.

The front door opened, revealing Mayor Roy Christner himself, who smiled at them all. "Don't stand around in the cold, come on in," he called, stepping to the side and waving at the entrance. They walked over, Danny reaching him first and holding out his hand. "Glad you could make it, everyone," the Mayor said, shaking his hand, then doing the same as they all came in one by one. "Taylor, I'm very pleased to meet you finally," he said to the Hebert girl as she brought up the rear. "Danny has told me a lot about you over the years. I'm sorry to hear about the problems you had at Winslow and pleased that you're doing so well at Arcadia now."

"Thank you, Mayor Christner," the brunette girl replied with a nod of thanks and a smile. "That means a lot. Dad has told me all sorts of things about you as well." She glanced at Danny, who was watching with interest. "Mostly good."

The Mayor chuckled, looking at her father. "I can imagine that some of the _not_ mostly good parts were fairly uncomplimentary."

"Actually, no," she said with a larger smile. "Even when he was annoyed he's always told me you were a good man, just being awkward, and sooner or later he'd persuade you around to the correct viewpoint."

Danny sighed while the other man roared with laughter, Vicky and Amy giggling as well.

"Thank you, dear," Danny said. Taylor bowed a little with a small smirk.

"You're welcome, Dad," she said. "You always taught me to be honest whenever possible. So did Mom."

"That may have been a mistake," he said, frowning, which made them all laugh again.

"Nonsense, I like to see the truth even if it hurts, Danny," the Mayor said, waving them down the hall. "Believe me, it's rare enough in politics. Anyway, she's right, you did eventually talk me around, didn't you?"

"I suppose I did," Danny remarked, shaking his head with good humor. Entering a large living room, they looked about them. Two women in their late thirties or early forties got up, along with another man about the mayor's age, and there was a younger man of around nineteen sitting next to a girl about Vista's age, who were watching with interest.

"Everyone, this is Danny Hebert and his daughter Taylor, and Amy and Vicky Dallon, also known as Panacea and Glory Girl, of New Wave. I'm sure you recognize both of them." He turned to the new arrivals. "My wife Deb, my sister Cheryl and her husband Jim, their daughter Dinah, and our son Rory," he went on, indicating the various people.

Everyone shook hands with everyone, Rory getting up and doing likewise when the older people had finished. Amy knew well that he was the recently ex-Ward Triumph, but of course said nothing. In all probability Taylor had already worked it out, she thought. Dinah remained sitting on the sofa, watching with large bright eyes, apparently fascinated by the new arrivals.

Amy had noticed with a certain level of curiosity that Taylor had been looking very slightly puzzled almost since they'd entered the room, peering around in a manner that she recognized as her enhanced senses picking up something she found odd. The tells were very slight but by now well-known to her. She herself sniffed discreetly, but couldn't pick anything much up that stood out.

When Taylor shook hands with the Mayor's son, there was a very brief pause that Amy was pretty certain no one but her noticed. A faint flicker of concern went across her friend's face, but after that she smiled and greeted the young man politely. "It's nice to meet you, Rory," she said.

"Likewise," he smiled. "Dad's mentioned you, and of course talked about your father quite a bit over the years. I heard you'd transferred to Arcadia? How do you like it there?"

"It's wonderful," Taylor grinned as she released his hand. "If it wasn't for that, I wouldn't have met Amy and Vicky, I think, and just that makes it all worthwhile." Amy smiled, amused at the comment, while Vicky made a satisfied sound beside her. "I can't recommend Winslow, though."

"No, I've heard some pretty bad things about that place," he replied.

"Whatever you heard, it's worse," she assured him seriously. "A total hell-hole in most ways. But that's in the past, so I try not to remember my time there if I can."

"Sorry to bring it up, then," he said as he sat down again.

Taylor waved her hand dismissively with a small smile. "Don't worry about it," she told the young man. "I'm not upset." She looked at Amy, then back to him. "Good friends helped me come to terms with things."

"They can do that," he nodded, in an understanding way.

"So I discovered. Something I'm very grateful about."

"Is flying as much fun as it looks?" Dinah suddenly asked, staring at Vicky. The blonde turned to regard her in mild surprise, then smiled brilliantly.

"Even better," she laughed. "It's annoying not doing it, I think. Best part of the whole cape thing by a long way."

"How fast can you fly?"

"Just over the speed of sound," the older girl said. She looked mildly pensive for a moment. "Although I can't recommend finding that out when you're three hundred feet up near a military base. They get a bit funny about it." Dinah giggled at the expression on Vicky's face, the others looking at her with interest. "Then you get yelled at. A lot." She sighed. "Seriously, you wouldn't _believe_ how much."

"Sounds like a story," the Mayor's sister smiled.

"Oh, yes," Amy laughed. "Mom wasn't pleased. Neither was Director Piggot. Or the Air Force guy. Or..."

"Shut _up_ , Ames," Vicky hissed, covering her face with a hand. Amy relented, although by now Dinah was close to sliding off the sofa due to her laughter.

"Oh, dear," the Mayor's wife said, looking sympathetic. Taylor was smirking and Danny definitely looked amused. "It sounds embarrassing."

"So embarrassing you wouldn't believe it," Vicky sighed again, slightly pink-cheeked. "Not one of my finest days."

"I seem to recall a recent interaction with a building that I read about," Rory said in leading tones. Vicky became even more pink.

"I was distracted," the blonde girl mumbled.

"Let's stop teasing poor miss Dallon and go through to the dining room, shall we?" the Mayor said, visibly trying not to smile, and giving his son a look, causing the boy to mime zipping his lips. "I believe the food should be ready very shortly."

Everyone headed for the next room. Taylor hung back a little, waiting for the others to go ahead of them, Dinah looking excited and watching Vicky closely, then smiling happily when the blonde lifted a couple of inches off the floor and floated through the doorway with a wink at the younger girl. Amy smiled, before turning to her friend, who had moved to stand next to her.

"Problem?" she asked in a very low voice, quietly enough that only Taylor's Varga hearing could pick it up.

"Rory is Triumph, right?" Taylor asked, equally quietly.

"Yes," she admitted.

"Funny thing. That weird smell some Parahumans have?" Taylor flicked her eyes at the young man who was currently talking to Danny as they sat around the large table in the dining room.

"He has it too."

Amy looked at her, then at the youth in question, before following her friend to a seat, thinking furiously.


	235. Eating and Gaming

Dinah looked around the table at the other people there as she ate her dinner. As she cut another piece of beef, she thought that her aunt made the best roast she'd ever tasted. It was one of the reasons she liked coming over to their house to eat. Her mother was a good cook, but Aunt Deb's beef was better, although she'd never say it.

She was fairly certain her parents knew this too, as they never turned down the opportunity to eat here either.

Watching and listening to the older people talk, she moved from face to face, both familiar and new. Uncle Roy was discussing something complicated about the work the DWU people were doing with Mr Hebert and her father, which interested her since it was obviously important to the city, but was also well outside her level of knowledge. After a while she turned her attention away from that conversation to the other end of the table, where her mother and aunt were talking to Amy Dallon, the healer Panacea, about some sort of gang problem a few months back where the girl had put quite a lot of people back together again.

Glory Girl, or Vicky out of costume as she'd quickly told everyone to call her, was listening as well, occasionally putting in a word but otherwise quiet. Dinah thought this didn't quite fit what she'd heard about the normally quite talkative heroine and guessed that she was being very careful to look grown up and sensible. It amused her a little.

She also thought that the blonde girl was the prettiest girl she'd ever seen, and that she looked very good in that dress.

Next to Dinah, her cousin Rory was chatting to Taylor Hebert, who was a _very_ tall person for a girl, especially one that was only fifteen, she mused. She was at least an inch taller than uncle Roy, who while he wasn't the tallest man around, wasn't exactly short. Dinah knew she herself would never be likely to end up eye to eye with the brunette. That said, neither would most girls. She was also rather envious of the long dark hair Taylor had, which was in a very complicated-looking braid unlike anything she'd seen before, with shiny silver bands holding it in place every few inches.

Her mother had complimented the girl on her hairstyle, and her dress, which was a very pretty shade of blue. Taylor had told the older woman that the hair was in a style that an old friend of the family had recommended for semi-formal events, which had led to a short discussion of hair care which Vicky had joined in enthusiastically with.

Amy had listened with mild interest, but didn't seem all that concerned, and Dinah thought that Taylor herself wasn't wildly into the subject, but was being polite even so.

Still, it looked very nice.

Slowly eating, she kept looking around, jumping from conversation to conversation. Finally, when there was a break in Taylor's and Rory's talk, she asked a question that she'd been very curious about for some time now.

"Do you know Saurial, Taylor?" she asked.

The older girl looked at her, then Amy, who had glanced at her when Dinah spoke, an expression on her face that to Dinah seemed to suggest a sort of faint sly amusement. Taylor returned her attention to her and nodded, putting a forkful of peas in her mouth and chewing. Having swallowed, she replied, "Yes, Saurial is quite close to me, actually."

Dinah noticed that Vicky gave her a look which seemed just a little weird for a moment but said nothing. She briefly wondered why, then forgot about it as she asked the next, more important question.

"Is she nice?"

Taylor smiled broadly, making Dinah smile back. It was a very nice smile, she thought. "I think so, yes," she said. "As far as I know most people do."

"She's one of my best friends," Amy added, turning to Dinah as well. "Smart, funny, and very skilled in all sorts of things."

"Good," Dinah said firmly. "That matches what I've heard." Several of the others seemed to find this statement a little funny for some reason. "I really want to meet her at some point. I think she's awesome."

"She'd probably like to hear that," Amy grinned, glancing at Taylor again, who nodded.

"I'm sure we could arrange to have you meet her, Dinah," the other brunette said. "She's often around the DWU yard, as well as around the city." Looking curious, she asked, "What about the rest of the Family? Which one is your favorite?"

Dinah considered the question seriously for a while, eating some more beef, then a potato. Eventually she replied, "Raptaur is cool, she looks really dangerous and she did make Hookwolf go away and cry from what PHO said." This caused Vicky to giggle and Taylor and Amy to both look very amused. "Kaiju is just amazing, she's so _big!_ And has a weird sense of humor, all those impressions she was doing were really funny."

Taylor nodded thoughtfully. "She did seem to be enjoying herself during the tanker move, I noticed."

"I did too," Dinah told her seriously, before smiling again. She went back to thinking about the Family members she knew about. "Metis is neat, the way she can just disappear into the dark like that. I saw what she did to the Merchants, they were terrified by her. That's good."

"And she doesn't scare you?" Amy asked.

Dinah shook her head firmly. "No. She's a good guy, she only goes after the bad people who deserve it, I think. I know she looks a little scary, like they all do, but it's in a good way."

"I see," the healer said, nodding. "I'll make sure to tell her the next time I see her."

Smiling, Dinah also nodded. "Then there's Ianthe. She's funny, that thing she did when those kids were sneaking up on you and she snuck up on them instead was hilarious. I was laughing for about five minutes when I saw that. And she can heal too, which is amazing."

"Metis can as well," Amy pointed out.

"True," Dinah mused. "Also amazing."

"It's certainly useful."

"But I guess my favorite is probably Saurial. I mean I really like all of them, but for some reason I like her a little more than the rest. Maybe because she was first. And she's so good with all those different weapons and things, that's pretty cool. I like her style as well."

"You mean you like her choice of hats, don't you?" Uncle Roy asked with a grin, having stopped talking to Mr Hebert to listen. She shrugged, then smiled back at him.

"She has good taste," she replied.

Taylor snickered while her father looked like he thought that was funny. "She'd like that."

"Do you see her often?" Dinah asked.

"We see each other all the time," Taylor responded, "Although Amy probably spends more time with her. Because I changed school recently I'm still catching up which takes up a lot of my time."

"Oh." Dinah thought about it. "That's a shame."

"It won't be forever," Taylor assured her. "I'm doing quite well so far."

"Good," the girl said. "If I knew someone like that I'd want to meet her more often too."

Taylor smiled, then sipped her drink. "What do your friends think of them?" she asked after she put the glass down.

"Most people are really pleased they're here," Dinah told her honestly. "Even some of the people who are scared of them are still happy that they keep stopping the gangs doing bad things. Most of my friends like them, we all have different favorites." She scowled a little. "Andrea was at the PRT with her mom a few days ago, they were there to report that a villain wearing nothing but a smile hit her mom with a fish." She looked a little confused, then shrugged, as the others exchanged glances. "This is a weird city. Anyway, Metis was there for some reason and Andrea got to meet her. I wish I'd been there."

"I… see," Taylor said after a moment, looking like she was trying not to laugh. "A fish?"

"That's what Andrea said."

"Odd."

" _I_ thought it was strange."

"Huh."

Everyone pondered the oddities of life in Brockton Bay for a moment.

"Anyway, I'd really like to meet any of them," Dinah went on, "but particularly Saurial."

"It wouldn't be any problem to take Dinah to the DWU some time after school, would it, Danny?" Uncle Roy said, looking at Mr Hebert.

"Not at all," Taylor's father said with a look at his daughter. "We had some of Taylor's friends come by a while ago to meet some of the Family. That was when Kaiju was cutting the tanker up, which was an impressive sight. They even got to have a ride on Raptaur around the city, which most of them seemed to enjoy."

Dinah felt her eyes go round and huge, gazing at the man, then turning to her mother, who snorted with a muffled laugh. "Oh dear, Jim, she's doing that thing again."

"Wow, that's one of the best ones yet," her father laughed when she turned her expression on him. "You'd like to ride the huge scary cape, then?"

Dinah nodded. "Yes, please," she said quietly.

Taylor grinned at her. "I'm sure she wouldn't mind. If your parents or uncle want to take you to the DWU, we can ask them if they'd like to meet you. I can't see it being a problem, they're all very friendly." She turned to her father. "You can arrange it, can't you, Dad?"

"Of course. You're most likely to see them after around four PM at the moment, since they tend to be working or away before that, but that fits in nicely with school hours." He looked at her parents. "Assuming neither of you minds. It's a working facility and can be dangerous if you just wander around, but it's quite safe with a guide. You're both welcome to come as well if you'd like."

Her parents exchanged a glance, then her mother nodded. "I can't see a real problem with that. When would be a good time?"

"Any day, really. Weekends tend to be busy, so it's probably best on a week day at the moment, but either the rest of this week or next would be fine." Reaching into his pocket, Mr Hebert withdrew a wallet, then pulled a card out of it. He handed it to Dinah's mother. "That has my cell phone number on it, call me and let me know when you'd like to come. I'll check and make sure they're going to be around." He looked at Uncle Roy. "Or you can arrange it, Roy. I don't mind either way."

"I'd quite like to see how things are going at the moment so I might come anyway," her uncle said.

"You're always welcome there," Mr Hebert smiled.

Very pleased, Dinah smiled brilliantly. Things were working out well so far. It looked like her percentages were right again.

"So, Taylor, what's the story about the handbag?" Uncle Roy asked the girl, looking at Dinah's mother for a moment. Taylor also looked at her, then grinned.

"Just a matter of being in the right place at the right time," she said. "All I did was catch it when he tripped."

Dinah was soon laughing as Taylor and her own mom competed to see who could tell the story in the most over the top manner.

* * *

Listening to the talk around him, Roy felt very satisfied. The Heberts were enjoying themselves, as were his family, and the two Dallon sisters seemed to be also having a very good time. Victoria Dallon, from what he'd known, had historically tended to be rather more ebulliently extroverted than was always appropriate, but he'd also been told by several people that in the last month or so she seemed to have been making a deliberate effort to tone that down. From what he could see here, that was accurate.

She was definitely the more talkative and demonstrative of the two, laughing and joking with everyone whereas Amy tended to listen then make appropriate, well reasoned comments that often contained a significant amount of sometimes dark humor. He found he liked both approaches. Both girls were clearly intelligent, although he had formed the impression that Amy was probably ahead of her sister in that respect. Some of the things she'd said made it apparent there was a very keen mind in there.

The brunette sister was also noticeably different to the descriptions he'd had in the past. He'd noticed it before, at the DWU, but not thought too much about it at the time. People had told him that while she was an exceptionally good healer, she was also visibly depressed and had few real friends, if any. But based on what she said, and how she acted, now she was very happy with life and seemed to have quite a few people she counted as more than simply acquaintances.

His eyes moved to the third of the visiting teenagers. Taylor Hebert presented him with someone who was in many ways the spitting image of her sadly deceased mother, albeit considerably taller. The face was remarkably similar, the hair was identical if longer, and he suspected that she was rapidly growing out of the gangly over-tall teenager phase into the willowy slender adult that would make most men look twice, or more. She certainly pulled off an elegant appearance in that dress and hairstyle, again very reminiscent of Annette Hebert.

Roy had a shrewd suspicion that the changes he noticed in both Dallons was ultimately something that could be laid at the feet of the young woman in blue, who in turn seemed to have blossomed in her new environment. Hearing her talking to his son about her school experiences at Arcadia, it was very obvious that she was thriving there and loved it. He watched Danny when she talked about the subject and saw a quiet pride there that he well understood. The man had a reputation for thinking family matters above all else, and he could easily see that he was happy for his daughter, and also that he was very fond of the Dallon girls.

' _That whole sorry affair seems to have worked out very well in certain quarter_ s,' he mused as he took a drink of wine. ' _Although not for Blackwell, and some of the school board, who are going to find themselves virtually unemployable after things settle out_.' Making a mental note to follow up on the subject and see if there was any mileage in trying to set up some sort of investigative committee into ways to improve Winslow after some of the more problematic elements were out of the way, he put his glass down and picked up his fork again.

"Taylor, rumor has it that you're something of a mathematical prodigy," he said when there was a break in conversation. The girl looked at him, appearing mildly embarrassed. He smiled a little. "Word gets around if you listen in the right places. Apparently you're tutoring some of your friends on the subject?"

"Yes, sir," she replied, glancing at Amy and Vicky. "I'm quite good at it and wanted to help out. We've started a sort of regular group get together at my house with a few friends, although so far we've only had two sessions. It's a lot of fun and seems to help them."

"You're not kidding," Vicky put in enthusiastically. "Only a few hours of help and my test average is up by nearly half! She's amazingly good at math, Mr Mayor. And really good at teaching it."

"I'm not that exceptional," Taylor said modestly, "I just seem to have a knack for it."

"What's the cube root of one hundred and seventy six thousand, three hundred and five?" Vicky asked, looking hard at her friend.

"Fifty six point zero seven three," the other girl replied immediately, "but that doesn't prove anything. It's simple enough to work out."

"In your head, in under a second?!" Vicky laughed. "No, you have a gift, don't deny it."

Roy looked at her, somewhat astounded. That was definitely a damn sight quicker than anyone he knew, with _very_ few exceptions, could work the problem. Most impressive.

"What's one million two hundred and sixty thousand, seven hundred times eighty three thousand one hundred and nine?" Rory asked curiously.

"One hundred and four billion, seven hundred and seventy five million, five hundred and sixteen thousand, three hundred," Taylor told him with a smile. He gaped a little, then pulled his phone out and checked.

"Shit. You're right," he muttered, shocked.

Dinah was grinning widely. "Do something harder," she urged her cousin. Taylor glanced at Amy, both of them looking amused.

"Um..." Rory poked around on the phone for a moment. "Fourth root of Pi to twelve places taken as a whole number?"

She paused for a short time, which Roy suspected was actually for effect, then replied, "Seven hundred and forty eight point six six four eight nine. Approximately."

Amy and Vicky grinned, Dinah clapped in glee, and Rory looked very impressed indeed after checking her answer. "You should see her solve third order differentials while making sandwiches, Mr Mayor," Vicky snickered. "It's terrifying."

"Call me Roy, Vicky, I've told you all that, and I can see where it would be a little worrying," he laughed. "I am extremely impressed, Taylor. That's a very unusual skill."

"Yeah, normally people who can do that shuffle around in slippers and fixate on models of pre-war German cars or something," Amy added, smirking at her friend, who looked at her then rolled her eyes. "Rain Girl." That made the Hebert girl grin, and Vicky laugh once more.

The healer looked at Roy. "She really is just that good."

Now Taylor was looking embarrassed again. "It's nothing special, it's just math."

"It's a talent I feel will stand you in good stead, Taylor," he told her sincerely. "If nothing else, teaching your friends how to improve their own abilities is a worthy goal."

"Thank you… Roy," she said.

"OK, here's a hard one," Rory put in, looking up from his phone. "I don't even know what half these symbols _mean_." He showed her the screen of his phone over the table. Taylor looked at it, then him, sighed very faintly but in an amused manner, then thought for a few seconds before giving him a long answer. It was, of course, correct, something that made him whistle in amazement. He and Dinah spent the next ten minutes coming up with more and more esoteric equations for the teenager to solve, until Cheryl finally stepped in.

"She's not a toy, you two," his sister said a little chidingly. Taylor seemed somewhat relieved although her father and her two friends were definitely finding the entire thing very funny. "Leave her alone, please."

"Thank you," Taylor said, wiping her brow theatrically. "I didn't know I was going to have to work for my dinner or I'd have worn different clothes." She grinned when Cheryl giggled.

"Seriously, I am more than impressed, Taylor," the older woman said, "but these two are definitely starting to impose." She cast a significant look at the two cousins, who subsided, Rory slipping his phone back into his pocket with a smile and a shrug. Dinah looked slightly disappointed but accepted it too, although Roy could tell she was completely fascinated by the older girl's ability. Considering her own talent, he wasn't surprised.

"Sorry, Taylor, I might have got a little carried away," Rory apologized. "It's not every day you meet someone who can do mental mathematics some calculators would have trouble with."

She turned back to him, smiling. "No problem. I don't mind that much, it's actually sort of fun, but your Aunt is probably right this isn't the best place for it." She finished off her meal, nearly putting the fork and knife on the edge of the plate. "Although it's good practice, some of those I really had to think about."

"I couldn't even _understand_ most of the questions," Vicky said, shaking her head. "Math Girl, I'm telling you."

Amy and Taylor laughed while the others looked at the blonde quizzically. "We were working out her cape name for if she ever Triggered and that seemed appropriate," Vicky explained with a smile. "The Tallest seemed silly."

Rory started snickering wildly, leaning back in his chair. Roy looked at him for a moment. "Apparently so."

"Time for dessert, I think," Deb said brightly, giving her son a long-suffering look at this point, then standing up. Everyone was either finished or nearly so, Dinah quickly shoving the last potato on her plate into her mouth. "It's trifle and baked alaska, and I have an apple pie too if anyone wants some."

"Yes, please," several people said, Dinah and Vicky both quite loudly. The two girls exchanged a look and grinned at each other. Roy watched with approval, feeling that the entire dinner invitation had worked out very nicely so far.

Not to mention he was looking forward to baked alaska, which he really liked.

* * *

' _Nice place, the Mayor's house_ ,' Taylor commented to her head-friend as she looked around the large living room. The house wasn't extraordinarily huge, but it was pretty big, with a decent sized garden surrounding it, walls around that in turn separating it from the neighbors. The gravel driveway they'd come down stretched from the road around to the side of the house, and another path went around to the back and a big garage she could see through the window. The room faced south towards the bay, giving a nice view of the city and the water a few miles away. She could see the Rig glittering like a jewel in the middle of the bay.

' _I think I can see our house from here_ ,' she added with an internal smile, peering out the window. It was over on the other side of the bay, so technically that was probably true, but even Varga vision in human form would have trouble resolving something that small at this distance.

" _It's certainly a fairly impressive place,_ " the Varga agreed. " _Someone has good taste in art and furnishings as well, I see._ " She turned away from the view towards the wall on which were a number of framed prints depicting scenes of New England life, including some very nice ones of mid-Eighteenth century sailing vessels. Taylor had the thought she vaguely recognized the artist, probably from a book of her mother's, although she couldn't instantly identify who had done it.

Hearing the others coming in from the dining room, she selected a chair and sat down. Dinah was showing Amy something on the other side of the room, the young girl having definitely shed her earlier reserve with a vengeance. Now she was very chatty and friendly, and full of apparently boundless energy. Taylor grinned for a moment, she thought the Mayor's niece was a very cute kid and smart as well. The look on her face when she'd been playing the math savant had been hilarious.

Roy and his wife entered the room, both carrying trays, which they put on the low antique table that stretched for several feet down the middle of the room, three sofas and five smaller chairs surrounding it. There were more chairs positioned around the edges of the room, along with a roll-top desk near one of the windows, and a number of fairly impressive potted plants in the corners. All in all it gave the impression of a room people spent a lot of time in and liked.

"Here we go, we've got coffee, tea, cheese and crackers, some fruit, and water as well," Roy said, picking up a carafe that was steaming gently. He looked around. "Who wants coffee?"

Jim, his brother-in-law, and her father both indicated they would, as did Amy. Taylor ended up with a cup of Oolong tea, which is also what Dinah picked, slightly to her surprise. Shortly they were all sitting down, each with a small plate of various cheeses and crackers, along with some sort of chutney that turned out to be delicious on the cheese.

"It's certainly been a very entertaining evening, Roy," her father said when he'd tried his coffee. "Thank you for the invitation."

"It was our pleasure to have you all over, Danny," the mayor replied, looking pleased. "It's been a long time since we had any form of social interaction. Not since before… well, Annette passed on." He sighed faintly, as Taylor glanced at her father, seeing he looked regretful but not upset. "I do miss that woman of yours, she was… interesting." He looked at Taylor while both she and her father smiled. "You really do remind me very strongly of her, Taylor. I suspect the similarity will get more apparent as you get older, of course."

"It's a lot more than skin deep, believe me," her father said knowingly. "But aside from the height, you're right."

"Got that from you, I guess," Jim put in. "I'm sorry I never met your wife, she sounds like she was fun to know."

Taylor's father laughed, spreading a little chutney on a slice of cheese. He nodded slowly. "You could put it that way, definitely. At university she had something of a reputation, you know." He ate the cracker, still smiling. "One that was well deserved. She liked practical jokes on occasion, but was subtle enough that people often didn't notice for quite a while that she'd done anything, and usually couldn't figure out who did it. Or how for that matter, there were a couple that I still have no idea at all how she pulled off."

Jim snickered. "Oh, I definitely would have liked to meet her in that case." He looked at Taylor. "Does that run in the family too?"

She put a completely innocent look on her face. "I couldn't possibly say, I'm sure. I am merely a hard-working high school student, I don't really have time for practical jokes."

Everyone looked around at Amy when they heard a muffled coughing sound, making the other girl wave a hand weakly as she drank some coffee. "Sorry, cracker went down wrong, nothing serious," she gasped when she finished the cup.

" _I feel that Amy might have seen through that statement, Brain,_ " the Varga chuckled inside Taylor's head. She kept the smirk bottled up. Meeting her friend's eyes she shared a look of glee.

"Hmm," Roy muttered, looking between the two girls. Dinah was doing the same, a small grin peeking out. "I see."

Taylor shrugged innocently and picked up a cracker of her own. "Perhaps when the summer vacation comes around I could think about having fun, but until then I need to concentrate on my work."

Her father was looking at her in a way that made her fairly sure he was trying not to end up howling with laughter. She was also certain that Amy was extremely close to doing the same judging by the small changes in expression.

"Changing the subject, I was impressed by your interaction with that Merchant idiot yesterday," Deb said. "Someone showed me the video when they recognized the name. How long did it take to learn to do that? From what I gather Saurial taught you."

Taylor nodded. "It's her training, yes," she agreed truthfully. "A while. I had to practice a lot but I think I've picked up some useful tricks. I got the baton from her as well."

"It was very smoothly done," Rory commented admiringly. "Really professional. I know he was a dick but he was at least twice your size. You didn't look too worried."

"After sparring with Family members, one half-stoned Merchant isn't all that scary. The only risk was the gun and he was waving it around so wildly it wasn't even pointing at me half the time," she told him with a roll of her eyes. "Amy could have taken him as well, even without her powers." She looked at Dinah. "Dinah probably could, just kick him in the balls and jump out of the way."

Most of the males present winced. She grinned. "It works." Amy nodded with a grin of her own.

"Damn right it does."

"I could do that," Dinah suggested thoughtfully. "I'm just the right height to punch there as well."

"You are not to go around punching men in the groin, dear," Cheryl quickly said, fixing her daughter with a hard look. The girl sighed silently but nodded.

"OK, Mom," she replied, looking mildly disappointed. Rory, who was sitting beside her, ruffled her hair.

"If you need to do that, you should run away instead," he advised her. "You're awful young to be fighting anyone."

"Probably the best idea, true," Taylor nodded, grinning. The look on the girl's face had amused both her and the Varga, it was momentarily very thoughtful and just a little predatory. She wondered if there was possibly some male bully in Dinah's past that had come to mind…

"Vista is only a little older than me and she takes out gangers all the time," Dinah pointed out.

"But she is also a trained cape and doesn't generally directly engage anyone," her cousin immediately replied. "She's smart and scary powerful, so she doesn't need to."

"I would assume that the Wards are trained in hand to hand combat even so," Danny commented.

"I believe they are," Roy nodded. "It would make sense. But I know policy is that they're not supposed to get involved in combat in the first place. It's only the fact that this is Brockton Bay that ever puts them into that situation. And since the Family turned up, I suspect that sort of thing has become considerably less common as well, just based on the pretty dramatic drop in crime figures."

"It's really been that big?" her father asked curiously. "I'd heard it was quite significant but haven't seen any actual numbers."

"Street crime is down by nearly fifty percent in the last eight or nine weeks," the mayor replied. "Certain categories, such as armed robberies in shops, are down even more than that. Saurial seems to take a particular pleasure in jumping robbers in the dark and I think word has got around."

"Raptaur tends to scare them too," Rory added. "Not to mention Ianthe and Metis, both of them have done some pretty impressive roundups of troublemakers. And now we have Cloak as well, who in some ways is even scarier, so people who have met her say."

"And after those three took out the entire Merchant's base and made it look like a video game, I think the criminals have mostly decided to either find something else to do or have a long vacation," his father chuckled. " _That_ was something I'd have paid to watch. It was absolutely amazing to see."

"They looked like they were having fun," Deb noted. "The Family, I mean. I don't think the Merchants enjoyed it at all."

Roy grinned. "I can't honestly say that part worries me."

"What sort of award is the city going to give them?" Taylor's father asked.

Roy looked at him thoughtfully. "That hasn't been decided yet. We've had several suggestions from the public, and from people in the police and the PRT too, but it's still being discussed. We're not going to settle on anything just now but I think it'll be something they'd enjoy." He turned to Amy and Vicky, who were listening with interest. "We're also going to be doing something similar about New Wave and the help your family gave the city during the tanker move. It was much appreciated, believe me. You got a lot of brownie points for that."

They both looked pleased. "Thank you, Roy," Vicky replied. "Mom will be very happy to hear that. She worries about our public image and it took quite a lot of convincing to get her to go along with that at the time." She grinned a little. "The money definitely helped, as did the new costumes."

He chuckled, nodding. "I could see how that might be the case. I've had several inquiries from some of the senior members of the BBPD about asking the Family if they'd be open to providing similar equipment for our tactical squads at a minimum. I know they've made some body armor for the DWU security people that the police are somewhat envious of."

Taylor smiled, as did her father. "Saurial has mentioned that as a possibility," he said. "They're sitting on dozens of ideas for commercially viable products from all sorts of fields, but up until recently the entire DWU refit and scrapping project has taken up their time almost entirely. I know that Metis has registered several trademarks, and made a number of lists of which products to start investigating for commercial manufacture. It would probably start with small volume high value things, which would certainly cover body armor and the like. I'll mention it to her the next time I see her, and find out what their time scale is like, if you want."

"That would be very helpful, Danny," the mayor replied gratefully. "I don't want to get in the way of the current work but it would make a number of people very pleased if they could upgrade some of the equipment they have. There hasn't been all that much money in the city coffers for that sort of thing in recent years and the BBPD has ended up being pretty heavily outgunned by the gangs. I think they want to take the current low activity period to gear up for the next time something stupid happens."

"Which is practically inevitable around here, Family or no Family," Jim grumbled. "Knowing Brockton."

There was a round of nodding, everyone in the room feeling that he had a point.

"Anyway, that aside, please pass on to your family that the city is grateful for your work, both during the move and over the previous years, and we hope you'll see fit to continue to do the same in future," Roy finally said, turning back to the two Dallon girls.

Amy smiled at him. "Thank you, Roy. That means a lot." She looked at her sister who nodded vigorously. "We do it even when we don't get thanked, because we all feel we have to put the effort in, but it's nice to have that effort recognized."

"Of course it is, Amy, and you deserve that," he remarked, reaching out to refill his coffee cup. "It doesn't get said enough, though. It's the PRT's and Protectorate's job to protect the rest of us from people like Kaiser, but the independents could easily decide not to. I've always been impressed that they're willing to step up and help out."

"Especially considering some of the tragedies of the past," his wife sighed. "It can be a very dangerous activity."

They all knew what she was referring to. Amy and her sister looked glum for a moment or two, Vicky sighing quietly. "That was bad," she said softly. "I miss her."

Amy put her hand on her sister's, squeezing it gently. Taylor watched with sympathy.

After a couple of silent seconds, Deb handed around some more crackers. "I'm sorry Kyla has missed this," she said, deliberately changing the subject. "She won't be back from her boarding school until Easter, unfortunately. Her last letter said she was watching the videos on the internet with amazement and asking what on earth was going on back home." She smiled. "She wants to know where all the giant lizards have come from."

"So do the rest of us," Vicky murmured under her breath, making Taylor and Amy look at her, then exchange glances. No one else heard her and she didn't notice they had. After a second her expression cleared from the slightly worried frown it had developed and she looked up. "How old is your daughter, Mrs Christner?"

"Sixteen last January," the woman replied. "She's at a school on the other side of Boston. It's far enough away that she doesn't come home all that often, I'm afraid. But she seems to enjoy it and has made a lot of friends there."

"And when she comes back she puts on this upper-crust Boston accent that drives us all mad," Rory chuckled. "For about two days until Dad tells her to knock it off."

Taylor laughed, getting a humorous look in return. The ex-Ward seemed to be quite a personable young man, in her view.

"Anyone up for a game of Monopoly?" Cheryl asked. "It's a family tradition when we get together like this."

"I'll play," Amy replied.

"Me too," Dinah said eagerly. "I love Monopoly."

"Because you cheat like a total cheater and usually win," her cousin laughed. She didn't deny the accusation, merely stuck her tongue out at him.

Very soon Dinah, her mother and cousin, Amy, Vicky, and Taylor were engaged in a game, while the others watched and made helpful comments. Or not.

On the whole, Taylor thought that this had been an excellent way to spend an evening. She'd met some interesting new people, had a really nice meal, and listening to the Varga make jokes about the game was very funny.

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

Carefully moving some houses around on the board, Dinah inserted the new one, then smirked at her cousin. He sighed and handed over the rest of the cash she was due. "I have no idea how you always do that," he muttered. She heard a muted laugh from beside her and saw that Taylor was looking very amused by the way she'd bankrupted Rory.

The entire evening had been a hell of a lot of fun, the girl thought to herself. The Heberts and the Dallons were really cool, and she could tell her friends now that she knew both Panacea and Glory Girl. And that she'd been to dinner with both of them! That was certainly something to be pleased about in her opinion.

Plus it looked like she was very close to her goal of meeting not just one member of the Family, but possibly all of them, except maybe Kaiju. Taylor had told her a lot about the others, as had Amy, both the older girls very knowledgeable on the subject and obviously fond of their scaly friends. Dinah was still a little puzzled about the odd expression that she'd seen more than once on Vicky's face when the subject of Saurial came up, but she was no nearer working out what it meant, or even if she was simply imagining it.

With an internal shrug she decided it didn't matter. Rolling the dice, she made her move, then sat back to watch the game, having managed to miss anything critical on her way around the board.

She looked over at her parents, who were talking to Taylor's father about how the city had changed in the last twenty years. The man seemed to be a mine of historical information, knowing all sorts of interesting things about the city and industries of the past. She'd learned more just casually listening to them talk than in a dozen history classes, which somehow amused her.

Not above misusing her powers for personal gain, she'd asked herself a couple of questions at critical points in the game, which had paid off handsomely. She wasn't sure if Rory knew what she was doing but she'd caught him giving her the side-eye once or twice, causing her to hide a smirk.

Her head was just starting to ache, so she decided that she'd reserve any more uses of her power for something important. As it worked out, she didn't need to, the game eventually coming down to her versus Taylor. The older girl evaluated the board for a while on her last move, then shook her head.

"We'll be beating each other up for hours without a clear winner looking at how this worked out, so I concede," she smiled. "Let's say whoever has the most money at the moment wins."

"OK." Dinah grinned at her.

"In that case, including the IOUs we wrote, you've got twenty-three thousand and forty dollars in cash and assets, and I've got twenty-two thousand four hundred and ten dollars. You win." Taylor leaned back, as Dinah looked at all the money and bits of paper they'd used to add cash to the bank.

"Wow. You kept track of all of it?" she asked, somewhat awed. The older girl nodded.

"It's not that difficult if you pay attention."

"Have you ever thought of going to Atlantic City or Vegas and playing blackjack, Taylor?" Dinah's father asked with a slightly stunned look. "I have the weirdest feeling that you'd find card counting much easier than most people would."

"Please don't suggest to my daughter that she become a professional gambler and annoy the casinos, Jim," Mr Hebert said with a grin. "She has, I hope, better goals in life."

Taylor giggled, helping Dinah and her mother pack the game away. "It might be something to keep in reserve. In case I want a holiday."

"If you go, let me know, I'd love to watch," Dinah's father told her. "It would be very funny and I've still got a bone to pick with a casino in Vegas." He flushed when his wife gave him a look. "You know they were cheating, love. That table was rigged."

"So you said at the time, Jim. Quite loudly. Which is why they asked us to leave." Dinah's mother sounded exasperated. Dinah exchanged a look with Taylor, who was wearing that little amused smirk she seemed good at.

"They do this every now and then," the younger girl confided in a whisper. "I think someone made Dad mad once."

"Apparently so," Taylor whispered back.

Feeling satisfied with the last few hours, Dinah finished off the remaining crackers and drank some more water. She was very tired, but it had been worth it, definitely. Soon enough everyone was starting to talk about going home. Uncle Roy seemed very happy, shaking hands with all the visitors as they put their coats on.

Dinah sat curled up in a sofa, watching. Her mother was talking to Vicky, the blonde girl nodding to whatever she was saying. Looking around at the people, Dinah felt she'd like to do this again sometime.

' _Chances that we'll have another dinner like this in the next three months?_ ' she asked herself, idly curious. The answer she got was 76.34%, which made her smile tiredly.

Watching Taylor shake hands with her mother, she asked another question just for the hell of it. ' _Chances that Taylor and her friends will come back?_ '

Her eyes slowly widened as she got a completely unexpected result.

* * *

Scenting a sudden change in the myriad smells in the room, Taylor casually looked around. Dinah was staring at her like she'd seen a ghost. Confused, she cocked her head, watching as the girl's expression, which no one else in the room was watching, went through a wild series of changes, terminating in a sort of awed wonder. This instantly flicked back to an impressively neutral expression that gave nothing away when her mother turned to her.

' _Crap._ '

" _The young lady would appear to have worked something out,_ " the Varga said in musing tones. " _I wonder how?_ "

' ** _I_** _wonder if she's going to tell anyone_ ,' Taylor sighed internally. Waiting until Dinah's mother had stopped helping her daughter with her coat, she raised her eyebrow meaningfully, flicking her eyes at the others in the room. Dinah seemed to think very carefully, then equally carefully shook her head just the tiniest amount.

Taylor made an equally small nod, which was responded to in the same manner.

" _I believe she understands,_ " her companion said softly. " _That is good. It still remains to be determined how she knows, and for that matter what she knows_."

' _I think we'll have to see if we can have a private word with Dinah when she comes to the yard_ ,' Taylor replied. ' _I'm really curious as well. I wonder if she's a Parahuman?_ '

" _That would seem the most reasonable explanation,_ " the Varga commented. " _I would suggest some form of Thinker. Although as we know that Thinker abilities seem to have difficulty with us, that still leaves a number of questions_."

' _Definitely,_ ' Taylor muttered. ' _And there's whatever the hell is going on with her cousin as well. Damn, this is getting awkward and a little worrying. What the hell_ ** _is_** _that smell?_ '

" _I don't know, but I want to find out,_ " he rumbled. " _I have a very strong suspicion it's important._ "

' _Me too._ '

They'd puzzled over the odd but familiar scent most of the meal, neither of them able to come up with a good reason or explanation for it. It wasn't a normal scent, that was certain. When she'd quietly checked with Amy, her friend's enhanced senses couldn't detect anything out of the ordinary at all. So it would appear to be something that Varga senses specifically could pick up, but what that was, they had no idea.

Moving over to Amy, she spoke very quietly to her, almost sub-vocalizing, without looking at her. "Dinah knows something. She suddenly got a very weird look on her face when she was looking at me, and her scent turned into a strange mix of worried, extremely curious, and happy."

Amy glanced at her as she zipped up her coat. "Is _that_ what that was? It was a complex scent, I'm still learning what all the little differences mean," she responded in a similar manner. There was enough noise from everyone getting ready to leave that no one could have heard them even if they'd been talking more loudly, but they were being very discreet even so.

"Yep. Could be a problem, but she seemed to understand that it was important to keep it under her hat." Taylor watched as Dinah hopped off the sofa and stood next to her mother, looking back curiously at them both but still with a surprisingly blank expression. Even so, she could tell from the younger girl's eyes that she was thinking very hard. "You shook her hand earlier." Amy glanced up at her once more.

"Yes, she's a Parahuman," the healer eventually replied, somewhat reluctantly, to the unasked question. Even with her best friend, she didn't tend to talk about things like that without a very good reason, something Taylor generally approved of. Nodding to herself, Taylor let out a very faint sigh.

"I thought so. I wonder what her powers are?"

Amy shrugged minutely, then turned to smile at the mayor, who had come over to them.

"Thank you for a very nice evening, Roy," the Dallon girl said with a smile of gratitude. "The food and company were both excellent."

"I'm glad you enjoyed it, Amy," he replied. "It's been a positive joy having you all here like this. We'll have to do it again some time."

"I'd like that," she told him. Taylor nodded, as did Vicky who had approached them as well.

"Definitely," the blonde grinned.

"Danny, we'll get in touch very soon to arrange a visit to the DWU for Dinah," he went on, turning to Taylor's father. "Quite likely tomorrow, but I need to check my schedule."

"Sure, Roy, just call me whenever you're ready," her father said. "It's no trouble." Pulling his keys from his pocket, he tossed them up and caught them again, in a very good mood by the looks of it. "With that, we need to leave, I'm afraid. Deb, the food was fantastic, thanks for all the effort you put in."

Deb smiled at him, her arm around her husband. "It was my pleasure, Danny. And it was very nice to finally meet you, Taylor."

"Thanks, Mrs Christner," she replied. "See you two at school tomorrow," she added to Vicky and Amy, who both nodded.

"Come on dear, it's late and I need some sleep," her father smiled, heading towards the door. Waving to the others, with one last look at Dinah, who was studying her like a new shiny thing, she followed him out. Shortly they were driving home while she discussed the situation regarding both cousins with her live-in friend, both of them curious and a little concerned.

* * *

Lying in bed, staring at the ceiling in the dark with her stuffed dragon cuddled to her side, Dinah pondered her latest data.

She was going to have to be very discreet, and definitely not tell anyone at the PRT about _any_ of the wild thoughts going through her mind, but she had a distinct feeling that something had abruptly changed in her life.

The visit to the DWU was looking like it was going to be even better than she'd first thought, if nothing else.

It took her a long time to finally fall asleep, and when she did, her dreams were most peculiar.


	236. One and One

**Thursday, March 3, 2011**

Deep in her mind, as she lay in bed early in the morning, Taylor plotted.

Following her merging with the Varga it was almost impossible to keep anything from him. He could read her mind directly, her memories, everything that made her, her. She didn't have the same level of connection to him, at least not _yet_. As he'd said when they first joined, his mind was vastly larger than hers, containing god knows how many millennia, or possibly thousands of millennia of information, and she was sure he was right when he'd told her than giving her unrestricted access would overwhelm her.

She was only human, after all.

The thought made her smirk to herself. She hadn't been human at all for some time, and was perfectly happy with the situation. There were no downsides that she'd seen in nearly two months, and more upsides than she could count.

As time went on he was giving her more and more access to his own mind, telling her all sorts of things about his past, and she was fairly sure steadily increasing her own brainpower. One example was her mathematical ability, which had always been very good even before the Varga. Now, the combination of the significantly better emotional stability he provided which let her concentrate like nothing she could ever have imagined, serious study of the subject, and she suspected the remaking of her brain, had increased it by a pretty massive amount. And it was getting better by the day as she learned and practiced. All good as far as she was concerned.

No, she was quite content being whatever she actually was. Her demonic companion was the best thing that ever happened to her, probably the city, and possibly the world. And her best friend, one closer to her than anyone else could ever be, forever. Which might actually _be_ forever depending on how things worked out, but was certainly going to be a very long time indeed whatever way you looked at it..

There was nothing she had any issue with at all about the merging with the Varga, except one.

Having him in her head made it really difficult to surprise him with a present.

Ever since the merging, she'd felt guilty that he wasn't able to come out and play. While she understood the backstory, even if she didn't yet fully understand the motives of the ' _Greater Power_ ' that had linked them, or even its real nature, it still rankled her that someone she was so fond of was so restricted. That had led to her thoughts, and the eventual experimentation, on letting him drive their shared body, something both she and he were very pleased worked.

Even so, it seemed insufficient in some ways. So, in a little compartment of her mind that a lot of experimentation had shown her was good enough to shield her thoughts from him, at least to a degree, she had been plotting for a couple of weeks now. Running the math, trying to work out the bugs of the new technique she had derived from the experiments with folded space that led to the ' _old method of Family construction'_ which she was quite keen on unleashing on the world in somewhat larger scale than models. Events hadn't permitted it yet, but soon enough, she was hopefully going to be able to have some fun with it…

But right now that wasn't the important part. She was fairly certain that she'd finally figured out the last of the issues, and the fixes needed, to what she had in mind. Meeting Vista and helping her with her own powers had been extremely useful, the different variation on spacial manipulation leading to a number of insights in the whole theory she and her friend had come up with, in turn giving her the final clues to lead her down this path.

She looked at the multi-dimensional lattice of visualized equations in her hidden mind-part, smiling to herself.

It was _Beautiful_.

It was _Elegant_.

And, she was completely certain, it would _Work_.

' _Varga?_ ' she asked silently, turning to the immaterial presence that enveloped her with his constant warm reassurance and companionship.

" _Yes, Brain?_ " he replied, the hugely powerful voice rumbling around the inside of her brain.

' _I made you something_ ,' she smiled. ' _A gift, for my best friend. It's finally ready. This is for our two month anniversary, if you like, which is nearly here_.'

She felt his surprise and giggled. " _A present is entirely unnecessary,_ " he protested, sounding and feeling startled, somewhat confused, and quite pleased even so. There was a pause, then he added with a sensation of eager curiosity that made her grin inside her head, " _What is it?_ "

' _This_.' She let the obscuring mental construction dissipate, revealing that hidden section of her mind to him. There was a definite sensation of surprise again.

" _Oh, very clever, Brain_ ," he smiled. " _What an impressive technique, it's most..._ "

His voice trailed off as he stopped looking at _how_ she'd hidden something from him and instead looked at _what_ she'd hidden.

" _…Oh, my,_ " he breathed very faintly. " _Now that… That is a thing of true beauty. How extraordinary. It never even crossed my mind..._ "

Taylor let him examine the mental construct for a while. ' _Do you think it will work?_ ' she finally asked.

" _Yes,_ " he said, very respectfully. " _This is truly excellent work, Taylor. Thank you, more than I can say._ " She felt his presence wrap her in a mental hug.

' _The body design is going to be a little complex_ ,' she pointed out.

" _Not exceptionally so, I think,_ " he said. " _It's still just a variation on the normal approach, one well within our abilities. This is merely a novel modification of that mixed with some very clever extra techniques._ "

' _Want to give it a try?_ '

" _Very much._ " He sounded as eager as she'd ever heard, making her audibly snort with laughter.

' _I can see that there are some limitations, but I can't figure out a way around them yet. I'll keep trying, I'm sure that between us we can solve that part. But this should be enough to start with_.'

" _More than enough. There's no rush, this will do nicely for now._ " He was very pleased indeed, which made her the same. " _All right. Let me think this through and work out the best way to apply it._ "

While he thought, Taylor flipped the covers back, got out of bed, and stretched widely, before relaxing with a smile. Moving to the window she looked out at the dawn, still dark an hour before sunrise. Even so there was evidence of the sun to the east where the sky was visibly lighter to her eyesight, although she could still see innumerable stars through the gaps in the clouds above.

It looked like it was going to be a reasonably nice day. Spring was definitely heading this way, even though it was only early March at the moment. There were long range forecasts of possible late snow next week but for the next few days everything was supposed to be warm for the time of year, all the remaining ice on puddles having melted recently. She was looking forward to warmer weather, summer vacations, and the time to really experiment with all the things she and her friends could do.

And she still wanted to swim down to the Caribbean and poke around in warm water for a while. Not to mention her idea from some time ago of going and looking for the Titanic, wherever it had eventually ended up.

Closer to home, they had the issue of what to do about Dinah, which depended heavily on what the girl had actually worked out, how she'd done it, and what she intended to do with the information. It was something that worried Taylor quite a lot, although not as much as it might have done since she'd spent enough time with the younger girl the night before to allow her to come to the conclusion that she was both smart and discreet. In many ways Dinah reminded her of herself at that age, oddly enough. The Varga agreed, and had told her not to get too worked up until they had more information, which should hopefully be within the next day or two.

All in all it was still a surprise to her that so few people had figured out any of it. She still couldn't decide whether this was caused by a lack of critical thinking, an over-reliance on rumor, or simply because they were so far out of the normal expectations of people. Probably a combination, all in all. Whatever the case, it had worked out well for her and her friends and she was in no hurry to educate the public or the PRT on the truth of the matter for reasons she'd explained to her father and the others long ago. For everyone's safety, the illusion of the Family seemed to be important.

Not to mention that she found it screamingly funny whenever she considered the legends that were growing up around the entire thing...

Turning back from the window she returned to the bed and quickly made it, neatly folding back the covers at the top in the way her mother had always done and feeling the usual faint pang of loss. It was something she expected she'd never lose, but these days it was more a slight regret rather than the grief-filled abyss she'd felt for so long. From what she could tell, her father was beginning to heal from that as well, yet another thing she could thank the Varga for.

She owed him so much.

" _Ah. I have a working solution, I believe,_ " her friend stated as she put the second pillow back on the bed.

' _Wonderful_.' She was being quiet to avoid waking her father, who she could hear breathing regularly in his bedroom, since it was still some time before his normal waking hour. ' _Let's see how it works._ '

" _Let's see, indeed,_ " the demon chuckled. " _All right, I do this..._ " She felt the odd version of a spacial fold open. " _And this..._ " Another one opened a few feet away.

" _And finally… **this**._ "

Taylor grinned in absolute glee at the result, even through the disorientation she felt for a few seconds.

"Brilliant," she crowed quietly, her face alight with joy and mischief.

* * *

Whistling softly under his breath, Danny headed down the stairs, adjusting his shirt collar as he did so, dropped his briefcase off next to the door, and went into the kitchen. He'd been able to smell cooking food from upstairs when he woke, betraying the fact that Taylor was up before him this time and was preparing breakfast. Yawning a little, still slightly asleep, he moved past his daughter at the stove, aiming for the coffee which was freshly made and gently steaming at him.

"Morning, Taylor," he said, ruffling her hair as he passed her, causing her to smile at him.

"Hi, Dad," she said in a happy manner, "Did you sleep well?"

"Yes, thanks, not bad at all. You're up early."

She shrugged, flipping the pancake she was making. "You know I don't need that much sleep these days, and I thought I'd make you breakfast. You've done it every day this week and you deserved a break."

"Thank you, dear," he chuckled, filling his mug then adding a little sugar and milk. Moving to the table he sat down, picking up the paper which she'd put in his place and looking at the headlines. Glancing up at Taylor who was eating a stack of pancakes, he smiled again, then turned as Taylor put a plate in front of him…

It took at least five seconds before he worked out that something was definitely amiss, and another five seconds of looking blankly between Taylor, who was now putting a bottle of maple syrup on the table, and Taylor, who was sitting opposite him smirking at him.

Eventually his mind rebooted enough for him to open his mouth. A faint, inchoate sound came out, then he snapped it closed once more. Both versions of Taylor looked at each other, identical raised eyebrows expressing amusement.

"Is there something wrong, Dad?" the one standing next to him asked, looking at him with solicitous worry. His mouth opened and closed a couple of times, as he continued to emulate someone watching a fast game of tennis.

"I think he might be somewhat confused," the other Taylor said calmly, before picking up the forkful of pancake and putting it into her mouth. Once she'd swallowed it, she added, "These are excellent pancakes by the way."

"Thanks, the batter mix is a new one we haven't tried before."

"It's good, I like it."

"Thanks."

"Ah..." Danny raised a finger, causing them to look at him. He pointed. "Taylor?"

The standing one nodded, grinning.

"And… Taylor?" His voice was a little shaky as he pointed at the redundant daughter, who also grinned.

"Not quite," this one said, her voice suddenly sounding different, yet familiar, at the same time that the way she held her body changed slightly.

He gaped, then fixed both of them with a gimlet eye. "Varga." The duplicate nodded, still looking extremely amused. "How the…?" With a heavy sigh of put-upon fatherly concern, he demanded, "All right, explain, you two. How on earth did you pull _this_ off?" He stared hard at them both. The original Taylor brought her own plate of food over from the counter and sat at the end of the table, reaching out for the syrup.

"Good, isn't it?" she asked, sounding pleased. "I've been working on an idea I had a little while ago, and improved when Vista came over to play. You know how I was upset that Varga was stuck inside my head, and how happy we both were when we figured out how to let him assume direct control?"

Danny nodded, remembering vividly how shocked he'd been when he'd suddenly realized that his daughter's body language was all wrong that time. Finding that it was her demonic companion in control had, perversely, come as something of a relief compared to some of the alternative scenarios that had shot through his mind, fed by horror stories of Masters on the news. He trusted the demon, much more than he trusted many people, and although he knew to an outsider that would appear very weird, he had good reason to believe the creature would keep Taylor safe from anything.

"Well, that started me thinking that it would be nice if Varga could actually have some sort of independence from me. Now, the problem is that the Greater Power, whoever or whatever that really is, made sure that we can't be separated. It's all part of the original bargain between the Varga and it, via Princess Luna's ancestors."

"But..." Danny looked between the two.

The one across from him shrugged, still with a definitely air of amusement. "I know what you're going to say, but this isn't quite what it looks like. Your daughter is very clever, she found a… not a loophole, as such, but a way of… _creatively_ … reinterpreting the entire thing. I suspect that the Power is probably rolling around laughing at this situation, if it's not in fact something they predicted."

"See, the critical thing here is that we're not actually two different people," Taylor explained, still wearing a shit-eating grin that reminded him very strongly of Lisa. "This me, and that me over there, we're still one body. Just in two different places at the moment."

Danny stared at them both, before leaning back and massaging his forehead. "Oh, god, you two just don't know the meaning of ' _don't break reality_ ' do you?"

"It's really cool, Dad," both Taylors said in perfect sync. "What I came up with was a version of Vista's spacial folding, along with some modifications from my fractal dimensional techniques. Basically, we set up a fold that links me here…" The one at the end of the table tapped herself. "With me here." The alternate did the same. "Still one body in a technical, and very real, sense. Just distributed on either side of a congruent piece of space via a neat little spacial warp. Both of us are basically in both places at the same time, although that's not actually wildly accurate."

He looked from one to the other as they spoke in stereo, then shook his head. "Please don't do that, it's even worse than there being two of you in the first place."

"OK, Dad," the one across from him said, smiling. The other one nodded.

"As you wish, Danny," she said.

He gaped again. "You switched places."

"Nope. Like I said, both of us are in both places at the same time." Taylor B laughed as he stared, feeling a sense of disorientation creep across him. "OK. Look at it like this. The original Varga and Luna thing was her growing out his forehead, basically. The unlocking of his abilities and all the cool things we learned since allows much more flexibility, so we have Kaiju, Umihebi, and so on, right?"

He nodded slowly.

"Great. That's two minds in one body, which can be turned into practically anything that fits the Varga specifications. The infinitely variable dinosaur bit." She pointed at her duplicate with her fork, then herself. "Still two minds in one body. Just one body that has a gap between one part of it and the other. Because it's one body, which mouth we speak out of, or which part either of us drives, is entirely optional. It's easier for me to only work one aspect at a time, but I can do both, and with practice I think it'll be quite easy. Varga can already handle the sensory input from both sides perfectly happily, but he's still a little hazy on controlling both sides too."

"We will both require practice in dual operation, Danny," the Varga put in, half-way through the new stack of pancakes and visibly enjoying the food and the conversation equally. "We decided that it was probably best for the moment to each stick to one side as it were and gain proficiency with it, then expand our repertoire as time goes on. But this does already allow some interesting possibilities, and quite likely gives a solution to the biggest problem we have with the entire Family concept."

Danny looked at each of them, then sighed again. "Oh, god, two of you. As if one wasn't more than enough."

Both of them chuckled. The Varga said, "There are definite limitations, one is range, it becomes quite difficult to maintain this the further we separate from each other. Again that's probably something we can improve on with time and practice, but currently I estimate we can manage about… perhaps a mile and a half or so? Possibly a little more. So it's not sufficient to allow Taylor to attend school and still let me manifest at the DWU, unfortunately, but it would be more than enough to let us both be at either place. Of course, it's more complicated than that as strictly speaking we're both in both locations simultaneously, but..." He shrugged. "Close enough for the description to work."

"We also can't hold it indefinitely at the moment. The spacial fold is stable, but there's other things in play that we have to work on constantly, and until we figure out how to automate that part, we probably can't leave it running for more than a couple of hours, before we need to rest for a while," Taylor said. "It's sort of tiring, not physically but mentally. We're going to build up our stamina over time. But the thing is it allows Varga to have a little more fun than always being stuck with me does, and it lets me as Taylor be seen in the company of me as any of the others at the same time, something that sooner or later was going to be a problem. I'm still amazed that hardly anyone has worked it out, but eventually someone will who we can't talk to."

The Varga changed to Saurial, grinning at Danny, who twitched a bit. "This, of course, tends to prove that Taylor Hebert is merely a friend of Saurial's."

Taylor giggled at his expression. "Yes, we can both change either part into any of the other forms. The total mass limit is the same, but which part gets which body is completely arbitrary." She looked thoughtful. "It'll allow for some really good training possibilities, if nothing else."

"And some entertaining practical jokes," the Varga added with an evil grin. She nodded, smirking at him.

"Oh, good lord," Danny sighed. "I desperately hope that two is your limit. As much as I like Saurial and her friends, seeing the entire city overrun with copies of them would be… disturbing. Amy making new ones is bad enough."

Both laughed, exchanging glances. He could see that they were enjoying the hell out of his confusion and the situation as a whole. A moment's thought made it obvious why, the Varga had a greater degree of freedom now than he'd probably had in longer than Danny cared to imagine, and was reveling in it. His daughter was happy for her best friend. Picking up his coffee, he slowly drank it, watching both of them eat.

"I have to say this is one of the strangest things I've seen you guys pull off yet, and that's saying something," he commented after a while.

Taylor looked pleased. "We do our best."

"You realize that if the PRT ever figures this out, this is yet _another_ power you've managed to pull out of your ass that's going to worry them," he muttered. "They'd think of it as some projection power combined with a strong Master ability or something like that, I think."

"Probably," she nodded. "I know that there are capes out there who could duplicate this in some ways, possibly better than we can. We can only do this, not make as many as we like. But it's not a projection, although… I guess in a way it sort of is. Hmm." She thought, then shrugged. "Not that it really matters. It was mainly just an idle thought that turned into a way to let my best friend have more of a life."

"And you're not worried that this Greater Power would be annoyed that you found a loophole?" he asked, somewhat concerned.

"No, I doubt very much that's the case, Danny," the Varga told him. "While even I don't fully comprehend their motives or abilities, the one who is behind this has a sense of humor that would definitely appreciate the entire situation. As I said, I would be unsurprised to find that this was actually predicted and possibly desired, if only for the humorous aspect." He smiled a little. "Eternity can be somewhat boring at times and I suspect that they do odd things occasionally merely to liven it up. Helping out the lower intelligences, which all of us here qualify as, is a useful byproduct."

"How… odd," Danny said after thinking it over. Neither of them responded, they just kept eating, so he resumed doing the same.

When breakfast was over, he washed the dishes, the other ' _two_ ', which is really all he could think of them as, drying and putting them away. Having finished, he drained the sink, then turned to the pair. "I'm off to work."

"Have a nice day, Dad," Taylor said. She looked out the window at the day, then at her other half. "Personally, I think I want to ride to school today."

He looked at them, sighed, shook his head, and headed towards the front door and his briefcase. "I don't want to know. Just don't get carried away _too_ much."

"I have no idea what you mean," they chorused as he left the house. By the time he was half-way to the yard he was laughing, thinking about the step up in total chaos that was likely to result from all this.

* * *

Amy turned as she heard something odd behind her, stopping half-way up the steps to the school. She gaped, then blinked hard, before looking again.

Nope.

It was still there.

' _It_ ' being Taylor, who had just _ridden Raptaur into the car park…_

She stood next to her sister and her boyfriend watching, along with half the student body of Arcadia, as Taylor slid down off the back of her alter-ego, talked to her for a moment, grinned, then waved as the huge lizard trotted off and disappeared around the corner down the street. Turning towards the school she headed their way, looking extremely pleased with herself.

Amy stared at her, then glanced at Dean, who was watching with an open mouth. He caught her eye, closed his mouth, opened it again to say something, then shook his head and shut it with a click. Turning he just walked off, mumbling under his breath too quietly for even Amy to make out the words. Vicky, who had been watching Taylor with a somewhat weird expression herself, followed him with her eyes, looked at her sister, then hurried off in his wake.

Waiting for Taylor to arrive, Amy tried desperately to work out how the _fuck_ they'd pulled this one off. All she could think was either some weird form of magical illusion, or a mass delusion. Her friend stopped in front of her and peered at her.

"You OK, Amy?" she asked, sounding mildly concerned. "You look weird."

Amy sighed heavily, recognizing the hidden glee deep in her friend's eyes. "You utter bitch," she whispered under her breath. "You did that on purpose, I know it." Taylor winked at her before she turned to Lucy and Mandy, who were rapidly coming their way having witnessed the arrival of the tall girl.

"That was different," Mandy laughed as she arrived. "Most people take the bus or walk."

Taylor shrugged. "She offered a ride and I said yes. You both know how much fun it is. And how fast."

Lucy nodded, her eyes sparkling. "God, yes, I'd do that again _any_ day. I've never had so much fun."

"It's way better than the bus is," Taylor agreed. "And faster than running in which is what I normally do."

"I'm still surprised that you don't try out for the track and field club, you know," Mandy said. "You're really athletic. If you can run all the way from your house to here and only be slightly winded, you'd leave a lot of the others in the dust."

The brunette shrugged with a tiny frown. "Let's say that I have bad memories of a certain track star at Winslow which sort of tainted the entire sport for me," she grumbled, falling in beside the others as they headed into the school. "I'm not really interested in organized sports."

"Not even clubbing Merchants?" Lucy teased. Taylor grinned at her.

"That's not a sport, it's a civic duty," she laughed. "Like her and muggers." She nodded in Amy's direction. The healer sighed as her friends looked at her with varying levels of smile.

"One mugger, one time," she said with resigned good humor.

"The Amy and Math Girl," Mandy chuckled. "What a team up that would be."

Amy glanced at Taylor, both of them trying not to laugh. If only their friends knew the real truth.

"Are you going to be taking the Raptaur Express to school regularly, then?" Mandy asked with amusement, stopping at her locker. The others grouped around her as she opened it and rummaged inside for a moment.

"I doubt it, she was just there to talk to Dad," Taylor replied. "But it was a lot of fun. Now that I'm finally starting to catch up I might be able to spend some time at the Yard, though, seeing the others. That would be fun."

Amy studied her closely, still totally befuddled as to how her friend had done whatever the fuck it was that she'd done. Taylor gave her an amused look which made it abundantly clear she knew exactly what Amy was thinking and considered it an amazingly funny joke. Scowling internally, the shorter girl fixed her friend with a hard glare and tried to project the idea that she was going to want a very good explanation as soon as possible.

"How did your dinner at the Mayor's house go last night?" Lucy asked, stepping back when Mandy slammed her locker shut to give her room.

"Really well, thanks," Taylor replied, while Amy nodded, pushing the mystery of the duplicate reptilian alter ego to one side for the moment. "The Mayor is nice, his wife is too, and his sister and her husband. Their son Rory is funny and pretty talkative, then there's Dinah, his niece. She's a proper little chatterbox when she gets going." Taylor laughed at the memory of the previous night. "Once she got over being shy she was a lot of fun."

"The girl certainly had a lot of questions about the Family," Amy nodded, grinning. "She _so_ wanted to meet any of them. Especially Saurial. Danny offered to show her and her parents around the DWU and let them meet Saurial and the others some time, they're going to arrange a time to go there. She looked absolutely ecstatic at idea."

"How old is she?" Mandy asked curiously.

"Twelve or so, I think," Amy replied, glancing at Taylor who nodded.

"Around that. Cute little girl. I like her."

"So do I. I think everyone does, she seems friendly and it's sort of funny the way she was obviously trying to seem as grown up as possible." Amy smiled at the memory. Dinah was a nice girl and definitely seemed to want to taken seriously. She wondered what her power was, and how she'd worked out there was something odd about Taylor. Hopefully it would all end up being something they could contain.

The only way to find out, though, was to talk to her privately, which should happen soon. She was fairly certain that the girl was going to push her parents to call Danny as quickly as possible.

"Well, I'll see you girls later, I need to get to class," she said with a look at her watch. "Later."

"See you, Amy," Taylor called as she hurried off, the other three heading into their home room. As she walked, Amy tried to work out how Taylor could have arranged to be in two places at the same time.

' _Goddam bullshit Varga magic, it's going to be_ ,' she thought. ' _I'll bet that demon was laughing his ass off the entire time. The PRT would shit bricks if they had even the slightest idea of what those two are_ ** _really_** _capable of..._ '

Even through her mild irritation at being the victim of a practical joke, Amy was amused. It was a damn good one, and the thought that yet _another_ ability had been added to the Varga palette without anyone outside their group realizing was more than a little funny.

' _Poor Dean_ ,' she snickered to herself. ' _I'll bet that boy is_ ** _seriously_** _confused now, even compared to before. We're going to have to tell him something sooner or later before he has some sort of breakdown..._ '

Despite her feelings towards the lad, she didn't want that to happen to him. He was a genuinely good person and probably didn't deserve the sheer insanity of the phenomenon that was Taylor Hebert.

* * *

Picking the phone handset up when it made the double tone that indicated an internal call, Colin put it to his ear, not looking away from the monitor as he manipulated the input device in his other hand, moving some parts around on the 3D model he was working on. "Armsmaster," he said, clicking the select icon as he did.

"This is Sergeant Wills in the dock, Armsmaster, someone has just arrived with a delivery for you," a slightly strained voice said.

"Ah." He smiled. "I assume it's Metis?" The black and scarlet lizard had called him half an hour earlier to tell him that Raptaur had finished several sets of wormhole generator parts, pass on her cousin's apologies for the delay, and to arrange to come over to deliver them.

"Yes, Sir. She just swam up beside the ferry and climbed out, asking for you."

"Excellent." He smiled a bit. "Please tell her I'll be down momentarily."

"Yes, sir," the other man said, sounding relieved. The line went dead. Picking up his helmet and putting it on, Colin rose and left the lab, heading for the elevator. Under a minute later he was exiting on the boat dock level. Looking around he spotted Metis standing next to the ferry talking to Ethan who was about to go on patrol. He went in that direction.

"Hello, Metis," he said, pleased to see her. "Assault."

"Hi, Armsmaster," the reptile replied with a small smile. His colleague saluted him smartly, making Colin sigh faintly, since the man never did that in any way other than sarcastically. Metis glanced between them, the smile widening.

"It was interesting talking, Metis," Ethan said, dropping his hand with a wide grin. "See you around."

"OK, Assault," she replied. Looking past him she added, "Battery seems to be glaring at you."

"She does that all the time," the irrepressible man said with a snort of amusement, looking over his shoulder. "You get used to it."

He turned around and left, waving casually at both of them. Colin watched him go for a second, shook his head slightly, then turned back to the reptile who was still grinning.

"Interesting man," she said.

"That's certainly one way to put it," he commented wryly. "You have the parts?" He couldn't see any sign of cargo with her.

"I do. Do you want them here, or somewhere else?"

After a moment's consideration, he replied, "Actually, as long as you're already here, please come with me. I wanted to mention something to you in confidence if you have a little time to spare."

"Certainly," she said, looking curious. He turned around and headed back towards the elevator, hearing her claws tapping faintly on the concrete as she followed. Since it often carried cargo the elevator was both large enough and sufficiently rated to not be fazed by half a ton of alien lizard, it ascended quickly and silently to the appropriate floor. He led the way to his lab and keyed the door open, waving her inside before following and locking the portal again.

"Wow," she said, looking around with great interest. "Very impressive indeed. You have some extremely high tech stuff here."

"Thank you," he replied, rather pleased at the compliment. Considering who it was coming from he felt it was genuine. Once again he was mildly surprised at how much he trusted these bizarre reptilian creatures, and how much respect he had for them. It was clearly returned, which explained quite a lot of it, but even so if anyone had told him a couple of months ago how things would work out he'd have suspected they were in need of professional help.

Funny how things worked out.

"Where do you want the parts?" Metis asked.

"On that table, please," he said, pointing.

"OK." There was the same rapid clicking sound he'd heard at the Merchant raid and moments later she was wearing her armor. He studied the process with enormous interest.

"How does that work?" he asked.

"It's dimensionally nested into itself," she told him, tapping her chest around the base of her neck. "It folds away into the necklace when it's not required, but deploys very quickly when it is. It's got several modes, like this." Holding out a hand she showed him how the gauntlet could fold away leaving her hands bare, or only the palm. The helmet-like construction over her head could also be removed. "Saurial designed it based on the Family arts," she added.

He gaped a little as a large cavity opened in her chest-plate, obviously much larger than the armor could possible hold in normal conditions. Reaching inside, she pulled out a box and put it on the table, then two more, before the opening vanished. Spotting his expression she smiled. "Again, fractal space techniques. There are cargo and weapons storage points all over it. When it's folded away they all go with it. Very cool."

"Definitely," he managed. "And the mass?"

"Stays pretty much constant," she said. "Anything in folded space isn't really connected to the normal universe in some fundamental ways, so the perceived mass is only that of the deployed material." The armor folded back into the necklace form as she spoke. "Like this, perhaps twenty pounds?"

"Good god." He was extremely envious, he discovered.

"Saurial is thinking about making and selling body armor and better costumes to the PRT and Protectorate, as well as selected independents," she said after watching his face for a little while, clearly picking up on his feelings. "She feels that the Wards if no one else are seriously under-protected. When she found out that Amy was running around in what was basically a cotton robe, she was extremely annoyed. That started the whole thing off with her new costume design which New Wave all got."

The lizard woman shrugged. "She feels that it's only ethical to provide similar protection to others who are putting their lives on the line. She's not above making a sensible profit from it, but none of us are desperate for human funds so she's not going to rip you off. I expect that if you'd like to talk to her she'd be more than happy to make some new parts for your armor, for example. Or Raptaur would too. They like you."

"That would be both generous and exceptionally helpful," he said after several seconds of mild wonder. "I will definitely be in touch soon."

"I'll let her know."

"I would agree that the Ward's costumes are inefficient and under-performing as well," he noted. "I've raised the point with Director Piggot on more than one occasion. There are financial and political issues at play, but if the performance was sufficient and the price acceptable, I have little doubt that I could push a deal through." He considered the issue, nodding slowly. "Yes, I think I will have to look into that. I agree, if suitable upgrades are available it's ethically dubious not to take advantage of the offer."

"Great." Metis nodded happily. "OK, there are three sets of wormhole generator parts here," she continued, turning to the table and opening one of the boxes. "All identical to Leet's original unit. She said that if you want to scale it up or down, to let her know since it would probably take some experimentation to get it exactly right, but these should work properly. Each set is serial numbered so we can keep track of what goes where, and independently boxed."

"Very good work," he commented, pulling the inner singularity guide rail housing out of the box and inspecting it closely. "As I expected. Please pass on my thanks to your cousin."

"Sure, I'll do that," she replied. "Sorry it took longer than we expected."

"That's not important, I understand you all had other urgent issues to deal with," he replied, waving the concern aside and replacing the part in the box. "We'll assemble and test these next week since we don't have an immediate requirement for them."

Moving to the chair, he sat down, motioning her to the one Dragon normally used. His friend was currently visiting a colleague in New York and was expected back shortly. Metis looked at the chair, then pushed it to the side and sat on her tail instead. "This is more comfortable," she told him.

"Of course." He picked up a sheaf of papers and quickly leafed through them, then looked up at her. "We are very close to arranging to raid Coil's base," he said. "Both Legend and the Director are keen to do so as quickly as possible, and apprehend him before he has a chance to escape. It was felt that in the build up to the Endbringer attack it was unwise to start an operation that might be interrupted, but since the aborted Simurgh attack..." Shrugging a little, he paused, then went on, "We still don't understand that, but it would appear to give us a window of opportunity we wish to utilize fully."

"I understand," she replied thoughtfully. "Sometime soon… Over the weekend, I assume?"

"Yes."

"After you've replaced the computer and security systems?"

"Exactly." He wasn't entirely surprised she'd worked it out, she was obviously the Family equivalent of a very effective Thinker. Idly wondering what her specialty was, assuming their species actually worked that way, he went on, "Dragon is manufacturing new equipment at the moment. It will be ready either Friday night or Saturday morning. We intend to bring down the entire local network in one shot as soon as we have the new equipment installed, transfer functionality across to it, then reboot everything. That's the only way we can be sure not to leave any compromised systems in place."

"Brutal, but I expect it will work," she replied, tapping her claws on the table in thought. "I would assume that you will be using hand-held terminals during the changeover?"

"Precisely."

"That will leave you under-performing during that phase," she pointed out. "You'll need backup… Ah. Us, and New Wave."

"Yes." He was impressed all over again.

"How are you going to clear out the civilians from the area surrounding Coil's base?"

He explained the chemical spill idea, which seemed to amuse her. "Oh, dear, that's going to make that lab rather unpopular for a while," she remarked.

"An unfortunate aspect of collateral damage, but unavoidable," he said. "We can't think of a better way to arrange the same result that we can set up quickly enough, without causing at least the same degree of damage. With care it should cause minimal impact on the city."

"I understand. So you're going to want to discuss this fully with us, quite soon, I would think," she nodded.

"We're still working out the details of the operation and picking the people who will be involved in it. Obviously we need to be absolutely certain that none of the PRT personnel are compromised by Calvert. Hence the security surrounding the entire thing." He waved around his lab. "Aside from the BBFO office, this is the only place in the city I trust completely."

"All right. Well, on behalf of the Family, I can say we'll be more than happy to help in any way we can. I will talk to my sister and cousins about it and we'll think of various methods to aid you, such as dealing with the explosives." She looked thoughtful again. "That's the big unknown and the main risk factor as far as I can see. But I'm pretty sure that Ianthe and Saurial between them can work out how to disable them without danger."

"How?" he asked curiously.

She smiled at him. "Trust that the Family bio-sculptors have a _very_ good understanding of chemistry and can do some interesting things with it," she chuckled. "I'll have to discuss it with her, but I doubt it will present much of an issue."

"Hmm." He pondered her words, wondering quite how to take them. Certainly, if one really _was_ able to modify biological systems on a whim, he could understand that mere industrial chemistry was probably trivial by comparison. "I see. I'll be interested to see what she comes up with."

"OK." She glanced at the clock on the wall, then stood up. "I'd better get back. I will talk to the others about it, and when I see Amy ask her to discreetly check with her own family about providing support services again. I doubt they'd have any problems with it, especially to help take down a villain of Coil's magnitude."

"Thank you." Standing, he went over to the door. "I'll talk to the Director and Legend and we'll work out the best time to come to the BBFO office and discuss the plans, which will be after we've fully explored all our own requirements. I appreciate the talk, and the delivery."

"No problem," she smiled. Looking around again, she added, "I've been curious about your lab for some time. It was very interesting seeing it."

Opening the door, he let her out, then they walked back to the elevator and went back to the dock. With a wave, she jumped into the water and vanished from sight. Watching the ripples for a little while, he shook his head in wonder, then went back to work.


	237. Duplication and Boredom

Nodding to himself, Roy closed his day planner, then double checked the calendar on his phone. Nothing scheduled for the afternoon that couldn't be put off for a couple of hours. Picking the phone up he dialed a familiar number. "Hi, Danny," he said when the other end picked up.

" _Hello, Roy. I assume you want to arrange a time for you and your sister's family to come over?_ " Danny Hebert replied.

"I do. Is it still possible for this afternoon?"

" _Yes, certainly, it's fine then. I'll double check which of the Family will be available, but I know Saurial will be, and Metis is very likely too. Ianthe may be around later. I'd expect Raptaur will turn up. I've already mentioned Dinah to them and they were interested to meet her._ " He sounded pleased and in a good mood.

"Great. That's wonderful, Danny, please pass on my thanks. It means a lot to the girl, she's been talking about wanting to meet them for weeks now."

" _It's really not any sort of problem, trust me,_ " the DWU man replied with a chuckle in his voice. " _They like meeting new people, both from a PR standpoint and from a personal interest one, so it's no trouble. Around four this afternoon?_ "

"That will work, thanks." Roy made a note on his pad. "I'll call Cheryl now to let her know."

" _Great. We'll look forward to seeing you all then._ "

"All right. See you soon, Danny."

" _Later, Roy_." Danny hung up, as did Roy, then he picked the phone up again and dialed another number.

"Hi, Sis. We're on for this afternoon at the DWU."

" _Oh, wonderful, Roy, that's fantastic. Dinah will be extremely happy about that. She was talking about it all the way home last night and from the moment she got up this morning_." His sister laughed. " _She's looking forward to it like it was Christmas all over again_."

He grinned. "I can imagine. OK, I'll meet you there, four PM. Just say you're there to see Danny Hebert and the guards will let you in."

" _All right, Roy. Thank you very much for setting this up_."

"Hey, I love my niece and I'm happy to help, although all I did was make a phone call," he told her.

" _Still, it's something she'll be pleased about, so well done_."

"I'd better get back to work, I have to call a few other people, but I'm looking forward to it. Oh, bring your camera, I expect you'll get some interesting photos out of it."

" _I can imagine,_ " she chortled. " _I'll put it on charge now. Bye, Roy._ "

"See you, Cheryl." Once again he hung up, feeling satisfied. Shortly he was involved in city hall work, humming under his breath as he read yet another report and made annotations in the margins with a pen.

* * *

"We're nearly ready for the first shipment of scrap," Kurt said as he turned to Danny, both men watching the next rail car get moved into position under the crane. There was a train of forty-three cars already coupled together waiting on the siding, all full of cut up tanker and warehouse support material, separated into ferrous, aluminum, and other non-ferrous groups. The small engine that very slowly tugged the entire lot around as the train grew was idling quietly at the end of the track next to the switch point, as another one pushed the new empty car down the main line at a walking pace.

"It's looking very good," Danny replied. "If anything we're ahead of schedule on this part."

"Which is useful, it allows us some wiggle room when things go wrong later," Kurt pointed out. Danny nodded, knowing that some sort of problem was almost inevitable, even if it was only something trivial and mechanical. It would still take time to sort out and only a fool never assumed that things would break or otherwise screw up.

"I've gone over all the remaining track and switch gear with a crew, we've identified a couple of minor issues and some more places that about fifty yards of track should be replaced, just in case, because it's looking chewed up. Nothing fatal but it's going to fail eventually so we might as well do it now before we need it," his old friend continued. "The train yard itself is in surprisingly good condition. A lot of the electrical gear was stolen over the years, but the track and other fixtures and fittings was too much effort for them to deal with, I'd guess, and not worth all that much anyway. We're putting in new equipment and bringing everything up to current code, that will be done within two weeks at the outside. Again, we don't need most of the capacity yet but we will do soon enough at this rate."

"OK. That sounds good. Let me have the paperwork as soon as you can, please. I'll sign off on any overtime required, we want to get the infrastructure up and running as fast as we can do it safely."

"Will do." Kurt made a few notes on a pad he pulled out of his top pocket, then put it away again. "We're definitely going to need more people on the job soon, I'm running out of trained engineers with railroad experience. I've asked around and found about a dozen men so far who are looking for work, have the relevant experience, and seem like they'd fit in. I've also got feelers out on some more. Half a dozen ex-truckers, some old military guys with a lot of mechanical support skills, that sort of thing."

"Great." Danny smiled. "Sounds like our sort of people. We'll need some young ones as well, to train them up for some of the specialist jobs, but we'll start with people who won't need their hands held to begin with. Give their details to Lisa, she'll arrange the interviews."

"Got it." His friend turned to look at him for a second. "Smart girl, that one. She's _very_ good at reading people." He sounded faintly accusatory. "Considering how young she is and all."

Danny smiled again, amused. "Oh, yes, very good indeed. I've come to rely on her instincts remarkably fast. We're lucky to have her."

"Hmm." Kurt regarded him suspiciously, then shrugged. "True enough. Her friends are interesting too. That lad Brian is a damn hard worker and respectful with it. I like him."

"Most people seem to," Danny agreed. "I do too. He's going to do well for himself, whether he stays here or not. Smart kid."

"Yes." They watched the engine chug away, having finished delivering the new car, which was already receiving the first load of cut up ship. The crash and clatter of steel dropping into the car from the electromagnet on the crane was deafening even two hundred yards away. "Things sure have changed around here." Kurt seemed pleased about it. "Brenda says hello, by the way. She's getting a lot better, although she still has a limp. Lacy thinks she'll be able to come back to full time work in a week or so."

"That's good to hear," Danny responded. "Give her my best, please." He looked at his watch. "I have to make a couple of phone calls, so I'll leave you to it."

"I'll tell her. See you later, Danny." Kurt flicked a wave at his friend, then raised his radio to his mouth, getting back to work. Walking back to the office Danny wondered whether he should warn Lisa about Taylor's new trick. After a moment, he smirked and shook his head. It would be much funnier to see her expression...

* * *

Taylor finished working the calculation on the board in her assignment book, showing her method in neat figures. It had taken her longer to write it down than to come up with the correct answer. Glancing at the clock she saw that there was still twenty minutes left on the math test, and as usual she was the first one finished by a wide margin. The teacher noticed her look up and raised his eyebrows. She nodded, causing him to smile a bit, then go back to his own work.

' _Well, that means I don't have anything to do for a while until everyone else is done_ ,' she remarked to her demonic friend. Pulling out a chemistry textbook she opened to her marked place, knowing that the teachers were fine with her quietly doing other work when she finished math early. ' _May as well do this_.'

" _Or..._ " The Varga sounded sly in her mind.

' _Or?_ ' she queried, curious.

" _Or we could do some other experimentation,_ " he chuckled. " _We have, after all, unlocked a new skill. We should find out what we can do with it._ "

' _Here?_ ' she asked, surprised.

" _Why not?_ " he replied happily. " _We can use the cloaking spell perfectly well, no one will notice anything._ "

' _Good point_ ,' she mused. ' ** _Very_** _good point_.' After a couple of seconds, she got her own sly grin, which she suppressed with an effort of will. No reason to freak out the rest of the class. ' _And I have an idea..._ '

" _Go on,_ " he urged, interested.

She told him what she'd thought about doing, which made both of them laugh quite a lot, then concentrate.

* * *

Rather bored, Amy took notes as the temporary history teacher droned on about the American Revolution, with regard to the role Brockton Bay had played in it, which wasn't nearly as critical as Boston had. She thought that in all honesty Danny would probably teach this class better, he knew a lot more about the history of the city than the man standing at the front of the class talking in a monotone, and engaged with his audience a lot more effectively too. Still, she had to sit here for an hour and write things down every now and then, that was the price the adults wanted to leave the students alone for the rest of the time.

She sighed very quietly, wishing he'd just talk like he wasn't already asleep or something, or crack a joke, or _anything_ to liven things up. Half the class was at serious risk of dropping off, and they'd already had one student lay his head on the desk and moan in despair.

' _God, I hope Mrs Smith gets back soon_ ,' she thought, putting her pen down and resting her chin on her hands. ' _This guy is horrible_.' Glancing at her sister, who was sitting a couple of desks away with Dean on her other side, she noticed that the blonde had her eyes closed and was barely awake.

Dean noticed the same thing and poked her in the ribs, causing Vicky to yip faintly and snap awake, looking around wildly. Several students snickered, making her flush a little and the teacher pause, inspect them, then go back to his lecture.

Amy smiled to herself, then sighed once more. This was torture. Surely the Geneva Convention had something to say about history teachers and verbal warfare?

She was on the verge of wondering whether he'd Triggered with some sort of audio-based soporific ability when she spotted something outside the window which made her gape.

' _What the..._ '

The brunette girl glared at her best friend, who for some reason was currently in the form of Raptaur, peering in through the window with both hands cupped around her eyes, her scaly face pressed against the glass. Taylor spotted her, grinned, and waved wildly.

Looking around in worry, Amy frowned when not a single other person in the room seemed to notice anything amiss. Dean was actually idly looking out that window, which faced out over the sports ground, chewing on the end of a pencil. He seemed to look right through the _very_ obvious huge reptilian form, which was now performing some sort of vigorous semaphore that Amy couldn't make heads or tails of.

"You idiot, what are you _doing?_ ," she hissed under her breath, very quietly, while scowling at her friend. Taylor had obviously lost it completely, and was presumably using the Assassin's Cloak technique to hide her presence.

The large nearly black form smirked at her, made a couple more hand signs, then looked up, before jumping and vanishing. Amy watched, puzzled. After a couple of seconds, she groaned when Raptaur's head came into view again, this time upside down and slowly lowering into place from above the window. She was apparently now clinging to the outside of the school.

' _Oh, for fuck's sake, what the hell are you doing?_ ' she thought with annoyance. Her friend seemed to be having far too much fun.

An inverted reptilian grin was the only answer, then the head disappeared again. She sighed, shaking her own head. That girl was a menace and needed a stern talking to.

Sitting up straight she made a couple more notes, scratched out a sentence from the previous one, put her pen down, looked up at the window, and made everyone in the room jump then stare at her when she loudly squawked in shock.

"Is there a problem, Miss Dallon?" their substitute teacher said, looking more than a little surprised.

Not taking her eyes from the very large, very black, and very smug dragon that had its entire head pushed through the now-open window and was resting it on the sill, she replied, "No. Sorry. Cramp."

There was a rustle of laughter from her classmates, none of whom were any the wiser. Dean, who was less than four feet from the scaly reptilian pain in the ass, looked at her with a frown, undoubtedly picking up on the emotions she was hiding behind the blankest face much practice would allow. He looked around the room, then back to her, something she noticed out of her peripheral vision but paid little attention to.

' _Go away, you lunatic_!' Amy thought at her friend. The dragon-form Taylor winked, stuck out a long forked tongue and tickled Dean's ear with it, causing Amy's eyes to widen and Dean to twitch, then grinned again and pulled her head back. A large hand came up and gently pulled the window down. Moments later the view of the slowly greening sports field was entirely back to normal.

Gradually relaxing as nothing else happened, the healer tried to work out what the fuck had just occurred. Taylor was clearly being weird again, not that _that_ narrowed things down all that much. She was weird at the best of times. But why was she pranking the class, especially when none of them other than Amy noticed?

After some thought, she realized a number of things:

 _Taylor was nuts._

 _This must be connected to her arriving on Raptaur-back that morning._

 _She wasn't pranking the class, she was pranking_ ** _Amy_** _._

 _Taylor was going to regret this…  
_  
Growling almost inaudibly under her breath, the girl tried to work out exactly how she was going to make a damn near indestructible half-demon pay. And wondering how the _fuck_ she could be in two places at the same time, since she was certain that if she checked, her friend wouldn't have moved from whatever class she was currently in as far as anyone else was concerned.

* * *

Doing her utmost not to giggle out loud, Taylor sat quietly in Math, for all external appearances reading a textbook, her head propped on one arm and the other one turning pages. Inside her mind the Varga was rolling around guffawing.

" _Her **expression** ,_" he laughed. " _That was **amazing**. We need to do another one._ "

' _OK_ ,' she snickered. ' _How about this?_ ' Forming the spacial link in the corridor next to Amy's room, which was on the other side of the school, Taylor manifested the second part of their shared body, this one as Saurial. She looked around, allowing the Varga to take control of her first body for the moment as they'd done before, since she was still having some issues with making both of them do completely different things. It was something that was quite rapidly becoming less trouble but would certainly take a lot of practice to be completely normal.

Other than that, it was surprisingly effortless to essentially be in two places at once. She could see and hear everything going on in her math class and could step in instantly if required, and at the same time run around as Saurial with as much ease. Walking over to the door to Amy's class, fully cloaked from everyone, she peered through the window, then eased the door open and slipped inside.

Going over to stand behind her friend, she watched her for a few seconds. Amy was clearly both bored witless, and very confused at what they'd done outside the room just a little while ago. Glancing about she saw that Dean was giving the brunette odd looks every now and then but otherwise seemed fine. The cloak blocked her emotional output, she knew that from previous experimentation, so he was as unaware of her presence as the rest of them.

Reaching out, she flicked Amy's pen with a claw, which made it roll off the desk onto the floor. Amy looked down at the quiet click, then bent down and retrieved it.

Giving it a moment, Taylor repeated the action. Amy sighed and retrieved the wayward writing implement again, putting it firmly down on her notebook. She glared at it for a second then went back to listening to the teacher. Taylor smirked, and once more dislodged the pen.

This went on three more times before Amy started looking very annoyed. Relenting, Taylor stopped, then thought for a moment. As an idea struck her, she picked the pen up and wrote a note under Amy's handwriting, the girl completely oblivious, put the pen back, and walked down to the front of the room.

* * *

 ****  
Sighing again, nearly loudly enough for others to overhear, Amy looked over at the clock. This lesson was dragging on interminably, she'd just about be prepared to swear she'd been listening to this guy for an hour already yet the clock showed that only twenty minutes had passed. ' _Damn it, I'm going to pass out from boredom soon_ ,' she thought. It was almost enough to make her want Taylor to come back.

Almost.

She looked around at her classmates, seeing that her sister was nodding off once more, three more people had succumbed to the relentless drone, and even Dean was starting to blink more and more slowly. Wondering if the teacher was actually _trying_ to put them all to sleep, in which case full credit was deserved, she grabbed her pen to start doodling in a desperate attempt to stave off insanity.

As she looked down at her notebook, she froze.

' _This is really boring, isn't it?_ ' read a line of text she _definitely_ hadn't written. It wasn't in her handwriting, but she recognized whose it was.

' _Is he always this bad?_ ' the next line read.

' _Would you like to play a game?_ ' was below that.

Amy ground her teeth together. How…? When…?

God, Taylor was infuriating at times. The worst part being, Amy was now more envious than anything else. When she heard a throat being cleared, she looked up, feeling a sense of unreality when she spotted Saurial standing on the other side of the desk from the teacher, smirking at her in an amused fashion. Taylor's smallest alter-ego nodded to her, then picked up a piece of chalk and turned to the board behind her.

Amy suppressed a mix of a groan and a giggle as her friend quickly drew the classic ' _Tic-Tac-Toe_ ' game on the board. "I'll go first." She put an X in one corner, then looked back to Amy, grinning widely. "Stop me when I point to the right place." Running the tip of a claw over the board, she produced a sound that made Amy pale. "Oops. Sorry."

She didn't _look_ sorry.

The healer glared at her, glanced at the teacher who was completely ignoring the scaly menace only six feet to his left, then nodded slightly when Taylor's finger indicated the right place, the middle. Her friend put a O there, then stepped back and studied the board carefully. "Ah. Cunning. This is already shaping up to be a game of legendary status." After a moment, she put an X below her first one.

Like this, they played the game through, obviously drawing since Tic-Tac-Toe isn't difficult to not lose. By the end of it, Amy was trying not to laugh out loud since the commentary from her friend was hysterically funny. It made the entire thing, which could have been completed in seconds, last over ten minutes.

Finally finished, Taylor glanced at the clock. Putting the chalk down, she erased the game, then bowed to Amy. "Mission accomplished. Saurial out."

With that she vanished.

Amy stared, then looked around, since her friend had apparently gone back under the cloaking spell, but couldn't see anything out of place. Shaking her head a little at the way everyone else was entirely oblivious of the whole bizarre event, she grinned to herself. Perhaps Taylor would be allowed to live this time.

It was only when the class was packing up that she spotted the neat little grinning lizard face that had appeared in the corner of the chalk board. Vicky was staring suspiciously at it, her eyes narrowed in thought. After a moment, her sister looked at her, then at Dean, then very carefully around the room, before quickly leaving.

Snickering, Amy followed, hoping that the regular teacher would be available the next time they had History. And even more curious about how Taylor was doing this.

* * *

On the other side of the school, Taylor chuckled happily, trying to decide how else to capitalize on her new talent. It seemed to have even more scope for deriving amusement than either she or the Varga had initially expected.

And she was _really_ looking forward to seeing what Lisa thought of it. She had some plans for that first meeting...

* * *

Sitting down at the table, Amy put her tray in front of her, before unloading the contents. She picked up her can of soda, opened it, took a sip, then replaced it on the tray. With deliberate calmness she turned to Taylor who was sitting next to her, watching, and wearing a calm expression under which she could detect a definite smirk.

"How?" she asked quietly, but with force. "How the _fuck?_ "

Taylor tapped the side of her nose. "It is… a secret."

Amy clenched her fists, then slowly relaxed them. "I will _hurt_ you," she warned.

"No, you won't," her friend chuckled.

"Don't bet on it," the Dallon sister muttered, grabbing her fork and starting to eat. Their friends arrived moments later, all sitting down and doing much the same. During the next half hour, as they did the usual chatting and discussing lessons and the state of the world in general, Amy kept a close eye on Taylor, who merely ate in a completely innocent manner and occasionally gave her an amused look out of the corner of her eye.

Roughly half-way through the lunch hour, Dennis suddenly yelped. "Hey!" he said indignantly. "Who did that?"

"What?" Carlos said, as Amy and the others turned to look at the other table.

"Someone took a bite out of my spare burger," the red-head complained, looking around at his friends, all of whom seemed puzzled. "Look." He held up the offending item of food, showing that a large part was missing. Amy inspected it carefully.

Then she turned to look hard at Taylor, who was also watching the minor drama.

Her friend gave her a sideways look. "Problem?" she asked.

Amy sighed.

"Stop that," she whispered.

"What?"

"Who ate my pie?" a voice said with annoyance from behind them.

"That."

"I have no idea what you're talking about," Taylor replied mildly, picking up the apple that was the only thing left on her tray and biting into it.

"I still had half that sandwich left, damn it!" Amy looked over her shoulder at one of the cheerleaders who was a friend of her sister, the black-haired girl staring around her with an aggrieved expression. "Who took it?"

Dennis yelped again. "Now my soda is gone." He glared around the crowded room, fixing a boy a couple of tables away with a hard look. "Mike, this feels like one of _your_ practical jokes. How did you do it?"

"Nothing to do with me," the accused boy retorted. "Pretty cool trick, though."

The red-headed boy looked very suspicious, not helped by the broad grin the person he'd called out to was now wearing. "Yeah, _sure_ it wasn't you. You do _realize_ that I'm going to get you back, right?"

"Bring it on, my friend," the other boy chuckled. "Bring it on."

"Oh, god," Amy moaned as she listened to what she just _knew_ was the opening salvo of a prank war that would live on in infamy, possibly ending up as bad as the Great Coleslaw Explosion. She bowed her head and held it in her hands. "I hate you sometimes."

Taylor consolingly patted her on the shoulder. In fact, somehow she managed to pat her on both shoulders at the same time, while still holding the apple in her right hand. Amy groaned.

There was something deeply _wrong_ with her friend. This had never been so apparent.

The others looked at the healer, then Taylor, who shrugged. "No idea, guys. I guess she's just having one of those days."

Mandy nodded wisely. "That's definitely a thing. Cheer up, Amy, it might never happen."

"It already did," she muttered through her hands, which were rubbing her face. "Believe me, it already did."

She could hardly wait for school to end, so she could go the DWU and shout at Taylor for a while. The girl clearly deserved it.

Very, very much.

* * *

Vicky carefully looked around the room again. Leaving aside Dennis, who was now huddled with Chris plotting something, both of them casting dark glances at Mike Gregson, the other major practical joker at Arcadia, nothing seemed amiss. Amy was talking quietly to Taylor, who seemed amused about something, Mandy was giggling with Lucy, both of them chatting to Rich, and Eric was just listening. At her table, Dean was watching his two friends with the expression of someone who knows chaos is approaching and can't decide whether to run or join in, while Carlos was deliberately ignoring all of them and reading a magazine.

Something odder than normal was going on, she was sure of that. But she couldn't figure out who or what was behind it, or even put her finger on quite what was actually happening.

That appalling history class had dragged on and on and on and on, to the point she'd nearly lost the will to live, and she definitely couldn't even remember half of it. Probably because her brain had shut down in self-defense.

But… At the end, where had that little drawing of a lizard come from?

She was sure it hadn't been there at the beginning, she hadn't seen anyone draw it during the lesson, which admittedly wasn't something she'd swear to, and she couldn't see why the teacher would do it. He was clearly just trying to rack up a body count by talking them to death, which would probably take his full concentration.

The blonde girl watched Taylor carefully. The other girl was smiling, her normal cheerful self, and seemed to find whatever Amy was grumbling about very amusing based on her expression. As always, nothing looked out of place.

However, the way she'd arrived that morning was… odd. Sure, Amy had ridden Raptaur around the place several times, and all the people at that table had done the same at one point, but Vicky hadn't heard that Taylor had ever done it. Normally, as far as she was aware, she either took the bus or jogged in from home, which if nothing else showed she was in good shape. Turning up on lizard-back was a bit weird.

After a little more thought, she shrugged to herself. She was well aware that Taylor knew the Family, so it wasn't _that_ odd. Probably nothing to worry about.

So why did she have a tingling feeling on the back of her neck like she was being watched?

She shivered a little and leaned closer to Dean. She _really_ needed to stop spending her evenings reading weird conspiracy theories on the web. It wasn't good for her state of mind.

* * *

Turning her head, Taylor regarded her friend, who was staring fixedly at her. Again.

"Light's green," she helpfully pointed out.

Amy snorted, looking back to the front and putting the truck in drive, then accelerating with slightly more vigor than required. "You are..." She shook her head. "I have no words for what _you_ are."

"Helpful? Friendly? Good at math? Fun to be with?" Taylor grinned. "Stop me when I get there."

"How did you _do_ that?"

"Do what?" She looked innocently at her friend. They pulled up at the next traffic light. Both of them turned their heads to watch the pedestrians cross, Amy making a growling sound deep in her chest when Saurial, who was in the middle of the group of people passing the front of the truck, gave them a cheery wave and exited scene right.

There was a frigid silence as her friend drove away. Taylor was desperately trying not to fall about laughing.

"At times, you know, I ask myself why the hell I ever wanted a friend in the first place," Amy muttered a couple of minutes later. "Times like _this_."

She looked to the left as Raptaur galloped past, stuck her hand out to indicate a left turn, and vanished up a side street. Taylor swallowed another giggle and fixed a serious expression on her face. "Sorry, I don't understand you. Are you saying that you'd prefer to be depressed and angsty?"

There was a grating sound from beside her, apparently coming from Amy's mouth. "That's not good for your teeth, you know," she added pleasantly.

Raptaur passed them again, going the other way and waving as she did so.

Amy growled again. " _HOW?_ " she yelled. " _YOU INSANE SCALY MENACE! HOW IN GOD'S NAME ARE YOU_ ** _DOING_** _THAT?_ "

Unable to hold in her laughter any more, Taylor lost it completely and heaved with hilarity. Amy stared at her, sighed, and proceeded to ignore her in a dignified fashion until she finally ran down. "Sorry, but this has been one of the funniest days I've ever had," she giggled, wiping her eyes. " _So_ funny."

"Just tell me how you're doing it?" Amy pleaded, now sounding desperately curious more than anything.

"We really should stop tormenting our poor friend, Brain," the Varga said from the rear seat.

" _GAHHH!_ " Amy screamed, looking over her shoulder in shock. Taylor whipped a hand out and grabbed the steering wheel, keeping them straight. Luckily she'd anticipated that reaction and waited until they were on one of the access roads to the docks which had no other traffic.

Slamming the brakes on, Amy stared at Saurial, behind her, then Taylor, beside her. Eventually, after looking back and forth a dozen times, she sagged. "I give up. Demons."

Both of them grinned. "Good, isn't it?"

"It's impossible, is what it is. Give. How are you doing… _that_." Amy weakly flapped a hand at the lizard girl in the rear seat.

"By the misapplication of some cunning spacial manipulations," Taylor said. Her friend stared at her. "Hint, only one body, but two minds."

The other girl gaped, then visibly thought very hard indeed. After close to a minute, her eyes widened, and she looked back at the Varga-controlled Saurial body, then at Taylor again. "Oh, my _god_. You're using a spacial fold to put one part of your body there and the other part here, then making each part a complete individual, right?"

"Yep." Taylor nodded in agreement, very pleased that Amy had worked it out from the clue. "It's something I've been thinking about for nearly two weeks. It was a present for Varga."

"To overcome the limitations of the Varga bargain." Amy shook her head in wonder. "Fucking amazing. How did you work _that_ out?"

"It was a logical outgrowth of the fractional dimensional techniques, combined with watching what Vista was doing," she explained. "There are a number of limitations, of course, but even so it's got a lot of interesting applications. Practical jokes only being part of that, although a very important part." She grinned when Amy shook her head in resignation.

"I hope the little game in your class helped that incredibly boring lesson pass faster," she added.

Her friend suddenly grinned back. "It did, actually. Although I was _really_ confused the entire time." Amy laughed manically for a moment. "God, if Dean had suddenly noticed your fucking enormous head only feet away, he'd have had a heart attack."

Both of them snickered at the comment. "I don't want to do that, I have to admit I quite like him," Taylor replied. "Like you said, he's one of the good guys. I guess we're probably going to have to talk to him again at some point, before he just gives up on the world and becomes a hermit because everything has stopped making sense."

"The poor boy does seem to be having difficulty with the Family again," the Varga put in. "I have no idea what explanation we can use this time, though. It will need some careful thought."

"Yes, I know, but we owe it to him," Taylor agreed.

Amy nodded. She suddenly chuckled again. "Oh, god, _please_ tell me you're going to prank Lisa," she exclaimed, looking like she was going to start laughing again. "And Randall and Kevin."

"I have some ideas for them, yes," Taylor smirked. "But I'm open to suggestions."

Taking her foot off the brake, Amy resumed driving. "Oh, do I have some suggestions," she giggled.

They spent the rest of the drive plotting and laughing.


	238. Here and There

Picking up his phone, Danny listened to the brief message, then hung up again. Closing the document he was reading, he stood up and walked to the door, grabbing his coat on the way and shrugging it on as he left his office. A couple of minutes of brisk walking later he was approaching the BBFO office. Just as he left the main building complex on the other side of the courtyard, Amy drove up and parked.

She got out, met his eyes, and sighed faintly with a resigned grin.

"Got you, didn't she," he chuckled.

"Over and fucking over, yes," the Dallon girl said. They turned to look at Taylor, currently Saurial, as she hopped out, a very pleased expression on her face. His daughter grinned at him.

"Roy, his sister, and his niece are coming over in about forty minutes," he said, "so you should probably do whatever it is that you're about to do before then."

She nodded, then made her face go back to something less manically pleased with herself. It obviously took some effort. Amy watched, then shook her head, putting on a more normal expression as well. Going over to the door she unlocked it and walked in, the Heberts following.

Internally Danny was smiling with anticipation.

* * *

"Hey, Lisa," Amy said once the new arrivals had locked the door again. Lisa looked over her shoulder, smiled at the three, then went back to the work she was doing on the computer. Typing rapidly for a moment, she checked the results, saved the file, then swiveled the chair around and leaned back.

After a moment, she frowned at Danny. His poker face was appallingly good, giving even her ability a bit of a problem, but she could tell he was in a funny mood. Turning to look at Amy she saw the other girl was also expressing unusual tells.

"What's going on?" she asked, while trying to work it out for herself. With most people it would be trivial but both of the others were somewhat more complicated, Amy due to her internal mods which confused the issue somewhat, and Danny because he was just that controlled when he wanted to be.

"Going on?" Taylor asked brightly, making Lisa look at her. She wasn't hiding her good mood at all. Her Saurial face was smiling and happy. Moving to a chair next to Lisa she draped herself across it, the end of her tail twitching around with amusement. "Nothing's going on. You're imagining it. Perfectly normal day, with a hint of showers."

Lisa regarded her friend suspiciously.

"You… are being weirder than normal," she said slowly.

Taylor shrugged.

"No, just the normal level of weird." She sat up a bit. "We're going to have some visitors later. The Mayor and some relatives. Pay attention to the girl, will you?"

"Why?" Lisa asked curiously.

"She's a Thinker, I think," Taylor explained, making Lisa stare, and Danny grunt in surprise. "Normally I wouldn't say anything but last night she worked out that there's something going on with me. I could tell from her face and her scent. As far as I could manage to determine she won't tell anyone, but we need to find out what she knows, how she found out, and what she'll do with it."

"You didn't mention this before, Taylor," Danny said, sounding worried.

Glancing over at him, the lizard-girl shrugged. "I didn't want to upset you. Like I said, if it wasn't for this, I wouldn't say anything, and neither would Amy. Even to friends I don't want to give away a Parahuman normally. But this could affect all of us and we need to be careful."

"Crap," Lisa muttered, forgetting about everything else while she thought it over. "This could be awkward. Thinker?"

"Pretty sure. Amy shook her hand, she's definitely a Parahuman." The healer nodded when Lisa looked at her. "Thinker makes the most sense, since she was on the other side of the room and suddenly just looked strangely at me, went through a whole series of expressions, then ended up looking like you do a lot of the time. Like she knew something no one else did, although she seemed pretty fucking surprised about it. Then she went as blank as a mannequin when her mother looked at her."

Taylor sighed faintly. "It's annoying, but I guess inevitable. Considering how Thinkers seem to go odd when they get pointed at me, or at least you sure do and from what you found out it's a thing the PRT are aware of, I guess it was inevitable that one of them would happen to try it on me as Taylor rather than a Family member."

"Huh." Lisa nodded slowly. "That's pretty much exactly how I worked it out. I wonder what exactly her power is?"

"No idea."

"Do you think her parents know?"

Taylor looked at her father and Amy, both of whom were looking thoughtful. "I… don't know. I guess she might be able to keep it secret, but at that age I sort of doubt it. So probably. But I don't think she'll tell them about me, at least not yet."

"Roy did mention that his niece had some sort of medical issue a few weeks ago," Danny commented. "It's possible that's related."

"Could be," Lisa muttered, turning back to the computer. "Triggering isn't something you get over just like that, and if she gets the sort of headaches I used to get… At that age, she'd have a hard time. OK. I don't recall anything on PHO about a new Thinker in the Bay, but they don't normally end up very visible. I very much doubt the Mayor's niece is connected to a gang, she might be independent, or even still a secret, but..." She made a few web searches, then nodded. "Aha. This is a possible hit. A rumor that a new Ward is about to start at the ENE PRT. Codename ' _Prospect_ '. No other details so far."

She let her power go to work and guide her some more, while the others waited patiently. Eventually she sat back. "Pretty certain that's her. It fits everything I can deduce and track down. Starting official duty next week sometime, there should be a press conference announcing her around Wednesday if they stick to the usual pattern. Thinker, probably a high level one, most likely some form of precog or something similar."

"Not bad." Danny looked impressed. "You're terrifyingly good at that."

"It's my thing," she smiled.

Swiveling around again, she shrugged. "Whether any of it means she'll tell the PRT or not I can't tell you without meeting her."

"That should happen in under half an hour," Taylor said. "She's really into the Family and wants _so much_ to meet us." She smirked. "Me especially, since Saurial is the best one."

Lisa gave her a narrow-eyed glare. "Best? I believe that her cousin would debate that."

"Of course Ianthe would, clearly _she's_ the best," Amy snickered.

"Not quite what I meant and you well know it," Lisa sniffed, tossing her head dismissively.

There was a knock at the door. "Could you get that, please?" Amy said to Danny. He nodded and headed over. "But Ianthe is a talented Biosculptor, one of the most ancient arts of the Family," the healer went on, still looking amused. "Obviously that's more important than a mere Thinker."

"I believe Metis is more that just a Thinker." Lisa stared at Amy, while Taylor chuckled. "She can heal, and is a crack shot, not to mention pretty damn good with some esoteric mathematics."

"Ianthe can shoot really well too, and make new forms of life," Amy persisted.

"Do they do this a lot when I'm not here to supervise?"

"I'm afraid so, dear."

"How annoying. I'm sorry about that."

"You get used to it."

Lisa, very slowly, turned her head. She gaped at the very human form of Taylor Hebert who was standing next to her father, regarding them both and shaking her head sadly.

After a long moment, the blonde turned her head back to look at the _other_ Taylor, this one in the form of Saurial, who was watching her with glee. "I try to keep them under control, but it's difficult sometimes," this one commented.

"I can understand that. Amy is pretty stubborn, and Lisa can turn smug up to eleven," the first one said sadly.

' _Saurial_ ' got off her chair and walked over to ' _Taylor_ ', sticking out her hand. "Glad you could make it. How's the catch-up work going?"

' _Taylor_ ' shook the offered hand with a bright smile. "Really well, I'm not that far off being current in everything. Which is a relief, I'll be glad to be able to get out of the house more."

"We'd like to see more of you, definitely," ' _Saurial_ ' laughed.

"Thanks." ' _Taylor_ ' looked around with interest. "I like how this came out. Very good work."

"We like it." Waving at the wall on the other side of the room, ' _Saurial_ ' added, "What do you think of the posters?"

"Very nice."

Lisa, her mind whirling, looked helplessly from one to the other. Her power was pointing and gibbering. After a moment it became too much.

* * *

"She hasn't done that for a while."

"Pick her up and stick her back in the chair."

"You are very hard on your friends, dear. Does this happen a lot?"

"Not _that_ often these days, but at first she turned off and rebooted several times in a row. It got kind of annoying after a while."

"Here, strap her in, she keeps sliding out."

"OK, OK, there's no need to snap at me. Use this."

"That's got it."

"Poor Lisa. Although I admit this is rather amusing, if slightly tedious."

"Meh, you get used to it. Turn her back on, will you, Amy?"

"Fine. But you know she's probably going to go away again if you keep this up."

"What's the record so far?"

"Three times in five minutes I believe."

"I think so. Oh, here she comes."

* * *

Blinking, Lisa opened her eyes, then looked around. She could feel that for some reason there was something wrapped fairly tightly around her waist.

"What..." she said, then her voice hissed to silence as she stared.

"I think it needs a little adjustment at the back, my tail is wedging on the rear of the saddle." Saurial shook her head, looking over her shoulder.

"How about this?" The large, currently nameless, dragon she was sitting on peered back at her, and the Raptaur-like riding facilities mounted between and just in front of her wings, which were folded along her sides as she stood in the middle of the room.

"Much better." Saurial smiled. "Think we could make it a dual seat? We could take Dad for a ride then."

"I have to admit I quite like the idea of riding a dragon," Danny commented from where he was standing next to the pair, watching with interest. "This is a very impressive form."

"Thanks, Dad," both of them chorused in sync. "Hey, look at the lights," the dragon added, illuminating herself.

"Oh, very good." Danny looked impressed.

"I still can't quite work out how to do one of my own, but I'm getting closer," Amy said, putting her feet on the table and leaning back in the chair she was sitting in, popping the top of the can of soda open with a flick of a finger. "I really want to fly."

"It's a hell of a lot of fun."

Lisa and her power both sighed quietly and went away again.

* * *

"Whoops. I think we overdid it."

"That would appear to be the case."

"How many times do you plan on doing this to my assistant?"

"How long until the Mayor gets here?"

"Taylor, enough. Don't traumatize your friends, it's rude."

"Can we traumatize strangers?"

"Don't _you_ start, Amy. Your mother is already worried about you."

"OH! We _have_ to do something to mom with this. I need to think about it."

"Oh, Cthulhu save us from overpowered teenagers with demons in their heads..."

"Don't look so worried, Dad. We're only having fun."

"Sure, let's go with that. It's much better than ' _perverting the natural order of reality_ ,' I guess."

"Reality is largely what you make of it, Danny. It just happens that when a demon is involved, one can make more of it than otherwise."

"So it would appear."

"Better start her up again. Your dad is probably right, we've had our fun."

"Aww. I had a couple of really good ones I haven't used yet."

"Save them for the boys. Lisa will appreciate that."

"OK."

* * *

Blinking, Lisa opened her eyes, then looked around…

Remembering, she slammed them closed again.

"OK. Whatever it is that you're doing, stop doing it," she shouted.

"Spoilsport," Taylor's voice said, with a snicker in it.

"Next, explain, very clearly and slowly, what the _fuck_ it is that you're actually _doing!_ " Lisa was feeling very puzzled, somewhat nauseous, which was a good trick with her symbiote and Amy's upgrades, and as if she was the butt of some cosmic joke.

"Oh, all right. We worked out how to make the universe bend over again." Lisa heard Amy giggle. "I got to thinking about fractal space folds and had an idea..." the demonic girl began. Lisa listened with incredulity to the whole story. Half-way through, she felt her power had enough of a handle on it not to get overwhelmed again, and opened her eyes. Thankfully there was only one Taylor present, this one in her base form, sitting at the table and smiling.

When she stopped explaining, Lisa shook her head in awe.

"You are… fucking unbelievable. Do you have any idea how many so called laws of the universe you're breaking?"

"Um… most of them, one way or the other," Taylor grinned. "But to a demon they're more guidelines than actual laws."

"So you've said before," Lisa sighed. Looking down, she asked, "Can you get rid of this strap?"

"Will you promise not to error out on us again?" Amy asked, looking amused. Danny made a sound from next to her that sounded like a muffled snicker. Lisa glared at both of them.

"As much as I can. And thanks for the head's-up, you guys."

"She got both of us too, don't worry," Amy assured her. "You should have seen what she did at school. It was insane."

"So is she," Lisa muttered as the strap vanished. Standing up, she stomped over to Taylor and fixed her with a deathly glare. "Don't do that again."

"You'll be fine now, it's only that first overload," Taylor said without worry, shrugging. "But it was very funny."

"I'm sure it was, for you lot," Lisa grumbled. "Thanks. I needed the rest."

"That's the spirit."

Sighing, she sat down at the table. "Jesus. How many more powers can you come up with?"

"No idea," Taylor chuckled. "But we're both going to keep working out new tricks. It's fun. And useful."

"So you can just create a… new body, I guess, although from what you say that's not entirely right… anywhere you want?" Lisa asked, her curiosity overriding her righteous indignation in the end.

"Within range, pretty much, yes," Taylor nodded. "That range seems to be just over a mile and a half at the moment, which is what Varga thought it would end up being. We tried at school. Not as much as I'd like, but a hell of a lot more than the minimum that would be useful."

Lisa shook her head in wonder. "Just amazing. And the Varga can take full control of it?"

"We're both in here, and in the other one too," her friend explained. "It's a little difficult to explain the process accurately. Basically, it's just a matter of opinion which aspect either of us ' _controls_ ' at any time. I can do either, both, or neither, and so can he. Since it's my brain everything is going through I have to process all the data whatever happens and that seems to be the limiting factor. His brain is a _lot_ bigger than mine, even though I'm ' _The Brain_ ' in the relationship." She made a gesture in front of herself. "It's more like I'm the guiding program, the front end I guess, and he provides the heavy lifting at the back end. But as time goes on, we're balancing more and more load between us. Mainly because I'm slowly learning new stuff."

She pointed to the side. Lisa looked, and saw an identical copy of Taylor appear from nowhere. "Until we gain practice, we're each taking control of one end, Lisa," the Varga continued for her, moving to stand next to the chair his other half was in. "As Taylor says, we can switch between them with no more effort than anything else to do with her body, but for a number of reasons this is currently easier. With time and practice I fully expect she can learn to drive both aspects simultaneously doing completely different tasks, since my own multitasking ability dwarfs anything a normal human can do. She'll gain the same facility eventually."

"I can already do it to a certain point but it's hard work," the same Taylor said in her normal voice.

"So we'll have to practice," the first one added, the Varga currently ' _there_ ' now.

"Holy shit," Lisa murmured. "That is just… unbelievable." She pondered what she'd learned, glancing at Amy and Danny who were listening with interest. Her power, chewing on the new data with all the eagerness of a starving dog with a joint of beef, suddenly dropped a number of data points into her mind. Her mouth slowly opened as she considered them.

"Oh, my god, that..." Lisa shook her head. Everyone was staring at her.

"I just had a _really_ interesting idea," she said after a moment's reflection. Turning to the ' _original_ ' Taylor, or what she assumed was, she asked, "What happens if you make an… aspect… over there like that, then instead of making _it_ go away when you're done with it, make _that_ one go away?" She pointed at Taylor. "From what you said it's completely irrelevant which is which. They're both part of the same thing."

Taylor looked a little stunned. She shared a glance with her other body, the Varga looking back and raising an eyebrow. "An intriguing thought, Lisa," he said slowly and thoughtfully. "And one that shows this technique is more versatile than we originally contemplated."

After a moment, the Taylor in the chair vanished. There was a clatter and her phone, some coins, and her wallet dropped to the floor. Everyone looked at them, then over at the solitary version of the girl who was standing ten feet away.

"Fuck me," that one said wonderingly. "I can teleport."

There was complete silence in the room for thirty seconds. Danny and Amy were gaping again. Eventually Danny said, "Why did those things stay behind?"

"Because she's not actually teleporting," Lisa explained, rubbing her forehead in bemused, slightly envious, wonder. "She's making a… copy, aspect, whatever you call it, at some remote point, then turning off the one at the origin. Basically, she's indeterminate in space in some ways. Kind of like an electron. Although probably not. Higher dimensional, or fractal dimensional, magical bullshit."

She shook her head slowly. "This is just nuts. But it works, however the hell it actually _does_ it. Since her clothes are a figment of her imagination, they go with her, but the phone and other stuff are physical objects and stay behind."

Taylor was still looking shocked. Very slowly a huge grin formed on her face. She looked around, then a copy of herself formed on top of the workroom, the first one vanishing moments later. "Wow," she cackled in glee. "Just fucking _wow_. Two new abilities for the price of one. Best… Technique… _Ever_."

They watched as she appeared and disappeared around the room, getting faster and faster, until she more or less simply blinked from one point to another. Most of the time she was laughing like an idiot. Eventually she stopped and spread her arms wide, grinning. "Take that, Universe," she yodeled in total joy.

"Oh, hell, this is going to make PHO _explode_ ," Amy muttered. "And if the PRT find out, they'll crap a boulder."

Lisa grinned at her. "Hey, I bet their threat assessment will run out of numbers at this rate," she said. "She's just raised her Mover rating about four places, if nothing else. I am seriously envious."

"Definitely trying to grab all the powers for herself," the healer sighed. "I have to up my game."

"Make me a dragon suit, then," Lisa snickered.

"Working on it." Amy watched Taylor, who was picking up her odds and ends. "Now you have to figure out how to take those with you."

"Actually, I have an idea about that, but it'll need some careful thought," their friend smiled. "Varga thinks it's possible, though, using a little lateral thinking. But I can live with it for now. This is so cool." She dropped into the chair, grinning like an idiot. "Thanks, Lisa, neither of us had seen that, although I guess we would have eventually. But all we were doing today was making and unmaking the new aspect remotely, so it never came up."

"If you ever figure out how to teach that demon magic, I want to learn," Lisa said firmly. "You're having way too much fun with it, I feel left out."

"It's reminiscent of Oni Lee's ability," Danny mused, still watching his daughter with an odd mix of pride and shock.

"Not that much," Lisa pointed out. "He made a copy of himself as he teleported somewhere else, and took everything with him. The copy was independent and very short lived." She thought, then shrugged. "Or possibly the copy teleported away and the original was left behind. There were differing theories. Anyway, whichever it was, the one left behind basically fell apart seconds later. He couldn't be in two places at once for any meaningful time, and had no real way to transfer data between the copies. Taylor's trick is vaguely similar on the face of it but completely different in the mechanics. And a lot less worrying. He was basically killing himself over and over again, which might explain why he was the way he was."

"Christ." Danny looked ill. "That's very unpleasant."

"So was he."

Checking his watch, Taylor's father said, "It's nearly four. You two had better become your larger and scalier selves. I'm going to go and meet them at the gate." He looked around at the three girls. "Be delicate and discreet with Dinah. Remember, she's twelve, and not your enemy. I understand you want to find out what she knows, but do it carefully, please."

"We will, Dad," Taylor assured him as she became Saurial. Moments later, Raptaur appeared next to her.

"Definitely," the much larger lizard rumbled.

He looked at both aspects of his daughter, then at Lisa, shook his head a little with a bemused expression, and left the building. "Better get your truck under cover as well," Lisa pointed out. Amy nodded and went to get it while ' _Saurial_ ' dashed off to open the roller door.

"This is going to take some getting used to," Lisa sighed.

"I'm sure you can rise to the occasion, Lisa," ' _Raptaur_ ' chuckled.

With a look sideways, the blonde smirked. "I can do that, sure. Just saying."

"Understood." They shared a grin, then she went to get ready.

* * *

Looking around with great interest, Dinah inspected the visibly deteriorated buildings they were going past. "This place is a wreck, Mom," she said.

"Unfortunately, that's true, Dinah," her mother replied with a look at her in the rear-view mirror. "Since the riots, years ago, this entire section of the city has been slowly falling apart. The gangs moved in and made it worse, of course, and all the problems with business and no one having money to spare didn't help."

"But the Family has made that better, hasn't it? And Uncle Roy's plan?"

"It's certainly making a big difference, yes." Her mother turned the corner, looking both ways, then moved off. "I expect it will take a long time before anyone has the money to fix all these problems even so. But the Family has definitely made a huge reduction in crime, like your Uncle was talking about last night. The people at the DWU are working really hard to improve things as well." She smiled at her daughter. "I feel very hopeful about the city. For the first time in a long time, in fact. And most of it is due to your uncle, his friend Danny, and some weird lizards."

Dinah giggled. "They may be weird but they're cool. I can't believe I get to meet them."

"Please be on your best behavior, we want to make a good impression," her mother cautioned. "Try not to get carried away."

Putting a serious expression on her face, Dinah nodded. "I'll be good, mom," she assured her mother.

The woman looked very slightly dubious but nodded back. They kept driving, shortly ending up going down a potholed road that ran straight towards the water. At the end of it Dinah could see a shiny fence, a gate with some sort of little hut on the other side of that fence near it, and beyond that a large complicated mass of buildings. There was a several-story block behind the shorter front building, then some two and three story ones spreading out around it for a considerable distance. The whole thing was huge, much larger than her school which was one of the largest buildings she knew. Even larger than the city hall and its associated buildings, in fact.

"Wow. They have a lot of room, don't they?" she said in wonder.

"A long time ago this whole area was very busy indeed," her mother pointed out. "I'm sure you've learned about it in school. It was one of the busiest ports in the country, and there were thousands of people working around here. The DWU there had well over a thousand people working just in that place, from what I know." They pulled up at the gate, two men already waiting for them, having spotted them coming some way down the road.

"Good afternoon," the one who walked over to them and circled the car once said when he was close enough, Dinah's mother rolling the window down as he approached. "Mr Hebert is expecting you, Mrs Alcott. He's on his way over. If you'll please drive over and park there next to the main building in one of the visitor spaces, he'll be here momentarily."

"Thank you," Dinah's mother smiled. He smiled back.

"No problem. Please enjoy your visit, but be sure not to wander off. It can be dangerous."

"Danny mentioned that. We'll be careful."

He nodded to her, then signaled his colleague, who waved back and did something that made the barrier rise out of the way. Dinah watched with interest as they drove through, the other man waving to her. She waved back. A minute later, her mother pulled into a space with a ' _Visitor_ ' sign at the end on the wall and turned the engine off.

She turned around to look at Dinah in the back seat. "Remember, best behavior."

Dinah sighed quietly. "I remember, mom, you only told me six times so far."

Her mother smiled. "And I'll keep telling you, it's my job."

"Oh, mom," she said, shaking her head. "That's still not funny."

"From here it is," her mother laughed. She looked up, then waved, opening the door and getting out. Dinah looked as well to see Mr Hebert walking towards them. She unfastened her seat belt and opened the door, sliding out of the back and brushing herself down.

"Hello, Danny," her mom said.

"Hi, Cheryl. Nice to see you again. And Dinah too. I hope you didn't have any trouble on the way here?" The man smiled at Dinah, who returned it.

"No, we hardly saw anyone on the way over. Roy emailed me the best route in, he said some of the other ways to get here were a little dodgy."

"That's putting it mildly, I'm afraid," Mr Hebert said apologetically. "With the demise of the Merchants most of the junkies have already cleared out, but some parts of the dock area are very dangerous for all sorts of reasons. Stick to that path, though, and it's safe enough." He looked somewhat annoyed. "We're going to have to do something sooner or later to sort out the problems but there are so many of them and even with the help of the Family it's a big job."

"I can imagine," she said. "I have to admit that until very recently I didn't think it was even possible."

"No one did," he shrugged. "Not even me. And I've been trying to get this place working better most of my working life. But things seem to have worked out pretty well, as it happens." Mr Hebert smiled. "We have some big reptiles to thank for that, of course."

Hearing a car engine, they all looked over to see Uncle Roy's car approaching. He stopped at the gate, talking to the guards, who nodded respectfully then opened the gate. Dinah thought that they seemed pretty familiar with her uncle, so presumably he'd been here quite a few times. That made sense.

Moments later he stopped beside them. Shutting the engine off, he got out and locked the vehicle. "Hi, everyone," he said. Patting Dinah on the head, he added, "Excited, Princess?"

"Yes, Uncle Roy," she grinned. "Very much. And my friends were really jealous."

"Well, that's good, I suppose," he chuckled.

"Let's head over to the BBFO office, then," Danny said. "They're expecting us. Most of them are there, you're in luck, Dinah." She hopped up and down for a moment with glee. "Before we go over, you'll each need to put one of these on, since we'll take the scenic route and there are machines moving around." He pulled three brilliantly orange vests out of his coat pocket, handing one to each of them.

Dinah unfolded the one she'd been given, looking at it with interest. On the back was the word ' _Visitor,_ ' like on the car park sign, in large black letters. After a moment's fumbling she worked out how to put it on and slipped her arms through the holes, adjusting it over her coat. It was ridiculously large on her, but had little risk of falling off.

"It suits you," Uncle Roy snickered. She gave him a look, which made the snicker louder.

Mr Hebert, who was also looking amused, said, "I'm sorry, Dinah, we don't get that many people your size through here and these are probably a little large."

"That's OK," she assured him.

"All right, please follow me. I'll explain what we're doing on the way." They started walking, going past the front of the large office building that was nearest the road, then turning the corner and heading toward the water. On the right was a long series of sheds and other buildings, and on the left an enormous flat area surrounded by the fence. Nearer the water, some weird little train was parked, small engines chuffing back and forth, while gangs of men and construction machinery moved around making showers of sparks and all sorts of loud noises. They looked very busy indeed.

A tall crane was somehow picking up huge chunks of misshapen metal from a pile on the ground and transferring it into a rail car, each load crashing down with a bang. As they approached, one of the little engines took that car away, since it was now full, and another one started moving down the track to take it's place.

"That's what's left of the old tanker that blocked the bay for so long," Mr Hebert explained. He pointed at several sections of ship that had dozens of people moving around them. "We've already cut up more than half of it and loaded it into the rail cars. When we hit fifty carloads, the main engine will be coupled to it and take that load off to the smelter upstate. Then we start all over again. In a week or so all that will be gone and Kaiju will start bringing more over from the graveyard."

He looked pleased, as did Uncle Roy. "Not bad, you're several days early on that, right?" her uncle asked.

"Yes, it's gone a little quicker than we expected initially," the other man confirmed. "It gives us a bit of a buffer in case of problems later. Eventually we'll have enough people that we can start moving barges in and out and transfer the wrecks ourselves, but for the time being Kaiju is happy to help out. When we hit that stage, she'll get to work retrieving the ones in the water, which would be very hard for us to get at."

"It's very impressive, Danny," Dinah's mother remarked as she looked around. "This place looks totally different from the pictures I can remember seeing."

"We removed six warehouses and expanded the yard a lot a while back, and resurfaced the entire area," Mr Hebert replied. "It's much larger than it was, and much better equipped. We're very pleased about it."

"You're not the only ones," Uncle Roy smiled. "I understand you're about to start hiring again?"

"We are. Something that I have to admit I never expected to see." Mr Hebert definitely seemed happy. Dinah could understand, she knew how long he'd been working on this place, just from listening to her uncle. "Nearly there, the BBFO office is just up ahead on the right."

Dinah looked in that direction, seeing where a side road went around the back of the main complex, apparently separating a final rank of buildings from the rest of it. As far as she could see from here, they backed onto the bay itself with only a narrow road running right along the shore. Shortly they reached the turning, going into what turned out to be a smaller, yet still quite large, sort of side yard. She could hear a number of dogs barking somewhere in one of the buildings, but ignored that in favor of staring at the sign she'd seen on the internet several times.

She grinned. This was going to be amazing.

That feeling was only reinforced when the door below the sign rattled into operation, lifting into the air, to reveal two figures studying her with disconcerting attention. She met the slit-pupiled yellow gaze of both Raptaur and Saurial evenly.

The reptilian sisters exchanged a glance, then Saurial stepped forward. She bowed. "A pleasure to make your acquaintance, Dinah Alcott," she said gravely, then straightened up. A toothy grin replaced the somber look. "I think you're going to enjoy this."

"So do I," she giggled. They went inside and the door rolled down again.


	239. Up and Down

Colin looked around as an alarm beeped at him, not one he instantly recognized. A moment's searching through his screens and he stiffened in shock.

"Which one is that?" Dragon asked from where she was checking the new portal generator parts.

"Dinah Alcott. Prospect. Her subdermal tracker just went offline."

"Oh. Fault, or deliberate?" His friend came over to watch as he brought up the tracker log and quickly scanned it.

"Not a fault, the diagnostics show it was fully functional with no reported errors moments ago..." He put the location up on the map, showing the girl's movements for the last half hour. Then he relaxed slightly.

"She's at the DWU, the last reading was immediately outside the BBFO office," he said, indicating the breadcrumb track overlaid on the map of the city. Zooming in, he could see that the girl had traveled down what he recognized as the accepted safest way in and out of the docks, at a speed consistent with a vehicle, paused at the gate, then stopped for a while outside the admin building. After that the speed dropped to a walking pace until she vanished from the log.

"The transmitting frequency of the beacon is outside the one that the repeater system I recommended handles, which would explain why it dropped off when she went into an EDM shielded space. But I'd better check, even so."

Picking up his PRT phone, he scrolled through the contacts to find the girl's mother's number, then called it. When she answered, he said, "Mrs Alcott, this is Armsmaster. I was just checking that nothing is amiss, since your daughter's tracking unit went offline approximately three minutes ago. You are at the BBFO office for some reason?"

" _Oh, hello,_ " the woman said, not saying his name as he'd drilled into her when they'd discussed the tracker. " _Yes, everything is fine. I may have a cup of tea, in fact._ " He relaxed fully as she said the non-duress code phrase. " _We're visiting the Family with my brother._ "

"Understood. I was momentarily concerned when the tracker vanished, but that's because the building you're in is heavily shielded. Thank you. Please enjoy your visit, the Family are very interesting."

" _We've already noticed_ ," she chuckled. " _Thanks for your concern, I'm sorry to have worried you. We didn't think about that._ "

"There was no reason for you to do so, the matter is of technical interest but not the sort of thing most people would know about. In that case, I'll get back to work."

" _Good-bye_ ," she replied, hanging up. He put his phone down, then made a note in the log, before closing the window.

"False alarm, thankfully."

"Why are they at the DWU?" Dragon asked curiously.

"Apparently a social visit with the Mayor. Nothing to be concerned about." He looked at her. "I expect the Director might think otherwise, but Dinah is not yet an active Ward, and it's a matter for her parents in any case what she does in her off time. In my opinion, certainly, although I know Emily feels differently."

"She's less trusting of the Family than you are, Colin," his friend replied, sounding like she was trying not to laugh for some reason. "That does seem to be changing quite fast, though, she seems to be coming around to the point that she views them as definite friends. More so than her attitude to most Parahumans."

"Possibly because she knows they're not actually Parahumans," he commented. "Technically."

She shrugged. "Maybe. But I can tell she actively respects Raptaur and Metis at least, even if she's still a bit paranoid about them in some ways. With any luck that will help her overcome her suspicions of Parahumans in general."

"Such an outcome would certainly be helpful," he muttered. They shared a look, then got back to work.

* * *

Dinah looked at her mother, who was putting her phone away, then turned back to her task of inspecting the interior of the BBFO building. She looked at the computers a little enviously, those monitors were _huge!_ Way bigger than her one at home. It would make playing games interesting.

The big table with a number of chairs around it on the other side of the room had a few papers scattered on it, half a dozen cans of drinks, and a couple of books. The chairs themselves looked really comfortable, and a lot more complicated than most chairs she was familiar with. Looking at Raptaur, then the nearest chair, she grinned, since it was blatantly obvious the huge creature couldn't really use it. They were presumably for friends and visitors.

Overall it looked like a fairly normal office as far as she could tell. Some posters on the walls were the only specifically Family-related things she could see, and that didn't prove anything. She'd like the one of Saurial in armor about to ruin someone's day in her own room, in fact. The hammer one was pretty cool too.

On the other hand, most normal offices didn't have four lizards standing in them, watching the visitors with interest. Dinah looked back at them. "Wow," she said quietly, making all of them smile.

"Thank you all for agreeing to this, ladies," Uncle Roy said. Dinah's mother was looking around as well, her gaze constantly returning to the reptilian forms with a slightly worried look, although that was diminishing with time.

"It's not a problem, Mayor," Saurial said earnestly. "Honestly, we like meeting people, and Danny explained that your niece was interested in us." She grinned for a moment and added, "And has good taste. Obviously, she's correct in who among us is the best."

Dinah giggled, then did it again when Saurial's sister and two cousins gave her identical dubious looks. "I'm still not convinced," Metis said darkly. Ianthe nudged her, making her turn to look, then roll her eyes.

"Let the little one have her moment of glory," Ianthe whispered, quite loudly. She winked at Dinah. "Being the runt of the family is hard."

Saurial waved a hand. "Ignore them, they're just jealous," she explained as Dinah snickered. "So, you know who we all are. Metis, the mouthy one, Ianthe, the sarcastic one, Raptaur, the scary one, and me, the cute one."

She posed, making Dinah and her mother both laugh. Uncle Roy was grinning and Mr Hebert simply shook his head then sat down at the table.

"Don't forget Kaiju, the quite big one," Metis put in.

"She isn't here, she can introduce herself if she turns up," Saurial replied.

"Fair enough."

"It's great to meet you all," Dinah exclaimed. She held out her hand, which Saurial took and carefully shook. "I've wanted to do that ever since you first arrived. You're really cool."

"See?" Saurial turned to her relatives. "Someone with common sense and observational abilities."

Raptaur reached out and patted her on the head. "Well done. I'm glad you're feeling validated."

"I am. Thank you." The pair shared a look, then turned back to Dinah who was laughing yet again. It was like some weird sort of stand up comedy routine with added teeth.

"So, what would you like to do, Dinah?" Saurial asked, waving them over to the table. "Here, have a seat and a drink. Anyone for coffee or tea? Or soup, for that matter, that thing makes quite a nice cup of it." She indicated the complicated coffee machine on the other side of the room with a thumb.

Dinah hopped into one of the chairs and leaned back, impressed at how comfortable it was. Bouncing up and down a couple of times she nodded in satisfaction. "Can I have some soup, please?" she asked politely.

"Sure. Chicken noodle or tomato?" the lizard-girl asked.

"Chicken noodle." Saurial nodded, looking around at the others, all of whom asked for coffee. She turned to her sister.

"Go do something useful," she said.

Raptaur inspected her, snorted, and wandered off, making Dinah snicker once more. Ianthe and Metis were grinning as they took up positions around the table. She watched how they used their tails as built in chairs and thought it was clever and useful. Tails were cool too.

"This is a really nice chair," she commented.

"Thanks," Saurial smiled. "I made them. And the table too. They're made mostly of EDM, so they're not going to break."

"EDM is that special material you coated the tanker with, isn't it?" Uncle Roy asked with interest.

"Yep. It's more or less indestructible under anything close to normal conditions," Saurial replied. "Useful stuff for all sorts of things. It's what we use for armor too, like in the New Wave costumes." She held out a hand in which a knife appeared, making Dinah stare. "Really good for cutting implements, or other tools too." The knife turned into a claw hammer, a crowbar, a wrench, and back into a knife, before turning into a ballpoint pen. The reptilian girl looked at it with her eyebrows raised, then handed it to Dinah. "Apparently I can make pens too."

The girl took it and looked closely at it, admiring the tiny gold logo on the top, then clicked it a couple of times. It felt heavy and slick in her grip. "Neat," she smiled.

"Keep it, there's an infinite number of those where that came from," Saurial chuckled. "The biggest problem with EDM is that it's almost frictionless, but we have a method to make the parts you want to hold onto grippy or otherwise you'd be dropping it all over the place." She looked at Mr Hebert, then back to Uncle Roy. "That would make the tools dangerous. We've made a few special things for the DWU so far, and we'll be making a lot more as time goes on."

"Actually, I'd like to talk to you about that at some point soon," Dinah's uncle said thoughtfully. "Body armor for the police and matters of that nature."

"We're happy to discuss it, Mayor," Raptaur said as she came back with a tray full of the requested drinks, handing them around. Dinah accepted her soup and tried it, finding it was really good. "Some time next week? We're a little busy right now."

"Sure, that would be fine," he smiled. "And call me Roy."

"Of course, Roy," she said, also propping herself up next to the table on her tail. "So, Dinah, what do you do when you're not in school?"

Dinah shrugged. "Play computer games, read a lot, go out with my friends sometimes," she answered. "Normal stuff." She didn't mention the Wards, of course. Raptaur looked closely at her, then nodded.

"I see. Do you like swimming?"

"Yes," she said, "But it's too cold now."

"Is it?" the lizard said. "I hadn't noticed."

She laughed, not surprised. "I'll have to wait until summer to swim in the sea, but I go to the pool sometimes."

"Haven't tried that yet," Raptaur replied with a thoughtful expression.

Uncle Roy looked at her, then Dinah's mother, who had started giggling. "Why do I suddenly have a feeling that things could become… awkward..." he muttered.

"No idea," the blue-black creature snickered.

"Yeah…" He sounded dubious, making the others laugh.

"We should probably leave the humans to swim in peace, cousin," Metis said. Raptaur looked mildly disappointed but eventually nodded.

"I guess so. Those pools aren't deep enough, anyway." She glanced at Uncle Roy. "Are they?"

"No more than twelve feet," he confirmed.

"Pity. That's pretty pathetic, actually."

"How deep do you go?" Dinah asked with interest.

They all exchanged a look. "Well, I guess it's not a secret," Saurial said. Raptaur nodded.

"All the way," she remarked. Uncle Roy gaped, then looked at Dinah's mother, then Mr Hebert, who didn't seem surprised.

"All… the way? To the bottom of the ocean?"

"Yes," Raptaur replied with a humorous look. "It's pretty dark down there, but mostly quite peaceful."

"The light isn't a problem, we can bring it with us," Ianthe added. They watched as spots and lines across her body lit up a pretty green color. Dinah clapped in wonder. "Not to mention our eyes are pretty good anyway."

"Good grief," Dinah's uncle mumbled. "So the bottom of the bay isn't a problem."

"No, that's only a few hundred feet at most," Metis said with a smile. "Nothing at all interesting, and it's a bit of a mess, frankly. Ships and other junk all over the place. When Kaiju gets done with it, though, it'll be pretty nice. She likes a tidy sea-bed."

"Who doesn't?" Saurial grinned. "We're pretty sure that will make the fish come back too. We've been thinking of setting up some sort of water cleaner to filter out the crud in the water, something like the system we made for the tanker draining job only bigger. The bay isn't too badly polluted compared to some places, but it's a lot worse than it should be."

"That would be good," Dinah said. All four reptiles nodded. Uncle Roy was looking very interested, she noticed.

"Could you make the beach better?" her mother asked. "Half the sand washed away in the last big storm." She looked like she was asking the question as a joke, but Saurial and Raptaur seemed to be thinking about it.

"Hmm. Interesting idea." They exchanged a glance, then the smaller lizard-person went on, "There's plenty of sand out in the bay. When we clear away the wrecks and other garbage, I bet Kaiju could push a lot of it back onto the beach and smooth it down."

"She should do it at night, then leave a long trail of footprints all down it," Dinah giggled, picturing the scene. "Without telling anyone."

Saurial laughed, her sister and cousins grinning widely. "Oh, I like you. Good sense of humor. That's not a bad idea at all."

"Director Piggot would sigh a lot," Uncle Roy said, looking like the thought didn't worry him.

"Probably," Raptaur nodded. "But I think she'd live with it."

"Not like there'd be a choice at that point," Metis snickered. "No one is going to complain about having a better beach."

"Believe me, you'll get people who complain about _anything_ ," Uncle Roy said ruefully. "I see it every day. But the city certainly wouldn't mind, anything to increase the tourist footfall is probably good, assuming no one gets hurt. And especially if it doesn't cost us anything."

"We'll have to see how things work out," Raptaur replied.

They sat and talked for a while, all of them finishing their drinks. Dinah asked a lot of questions, watched as Saurial and Raptaur had a mock battle with each other using swords, which was _amazing_ , and learned all sorts of cool things about the Family.

Saurial made a weird little thing she called a hypercube, which made her eyes try to look around corners that weren't there. It also caused her mother to moan and look away, and Uncle Roy to suck in a breath, then close his eyes for a moment or two. Dinah found it weird beyond belief but thought their reactions were a bit over the top.

Eventually, after about an hour, Raptaur turned to her. "So, from what Danny said, you'd be open for a ride on my back?"

Dinah nodded rapidly. "Yes, please, I'd love it," she said, grinning wildly.

The large reptile looked at her mother and her uncle. "Are you both all right with that?"

"I certainly trust you to look after my niece, but it's Cheryl's call," Uncle Roy said, turning to his sister. "What do you think?"

Her mother looked at the huge lizard, then at Dinah. "I suppose it would be cruel to come all this way and not allow her to have some fun," she said with a mischievous look. Dinah rolled her eyes, her mother was definitely in a good mood if she was acting like this. "All right. Please try not to cause trouble."

"I'll be good," both Dinah and Raptaur said at the same time, making her laugh.

"All right, then. Come over here, Dinah," Raptaur said, getting up and moving to a clear spot. She dropped to all fours, then studied Dinah closely, before looking over her shoulder. She was suddenly wearing her armor, which appeared from nowhere just like the tools and things Saurial had been making, the part over her lower back forming into a saddle. She nodded in satisfaction as Dinah stared in wonder. "That should do it. Now, for safety's sake, we'll give you a helmet, and you'll probably want some gloves too. Here, try these on." She held out a pair of gloves that looked like they were made of leather and were just the right size.

Taking them from her, Dinah pulled one on, finding it fitted perfectly. She held her hand up and admired it, then put the other one on too. "These are really nice," she said. "Look, Mom!"

Her mother smiled at her enthusiasm. "They do suit you, Dinah."

"Try this helmet," Raptaur said, handing her something that looked a little like a motorcycle helmet, only with the visor permanently down. She accepted it, tapped the transparent face-plate curiously, then pulled it down over her head. Her mother came over and adjusted her hair under it. Eventually both were satisfied.

"Not bad," Metis commented. "You look the part. Take that safety jacket off, you won't need it, and zip your coat up, it's fairly cool today and it'll be a lot colder when she's going flat out." Dinah did so, handing the bright orange over-garment to Metis who folded it neatly and put it on the table.

"Great. You're all set." Raptaur looked pleased.

"Hold on, let me get a photo," Dinah's mother said quickly. "You don't mind, do you?"

"Of course not, help yourself," Ianthe replied. Pulling her camera out of her bag, Dinah's mom took a couple of shots of the pair standing next to each other. Dinah looked up at the vastly larger cape and grinned, those pictures would look ridiculous. Even when she was on four legs, Raptaur was nearly twice her height, and her hands were each large enough to use Dinah's head for a stress ball. She probably outweighed the girl by about twenty to one or more. Oddly enough, the thought didn't worry her at all, since she was certain they were all good people. Even her mother had lost her residual nervousness and seemed in a very good mood.

"Let's get you up there," Saurial said, coming over to them. She picked Dinah up and settled her on her sister's back, the older Alcott taking photos as she did this. Shortly the girl was firmly strapped in place in the saddle.

"This is so cool," she laughed, looking down on everyone else. There was no way she could have fallen off even if she'd tried, not that she was about to.

"Grab those handles there and lean forward," Saurial instructed, pointing. Dinah followed the directions. "Good. When she's climbing, or going fast, you'll probably want to do that, it'll be more comfortable. OK?"

"Yep," she chirped.

Mr Hebert walked over and hit the switch to open the main door. "We'll be back in a while," Raptaur said to Uncle Roy and his sister. "I'll take her around the docks, through the commercial district, down the boardwalk area, and back along the freeway. We might stop for a snack."

Both of them nodded, watching as she walked out of the building, Dinah feeling incredibly powerful muscles working under the armor and still with a grin fixed on her face. She wasn't certain it would go away any time soon.

The others followed to the edge of the larger open area. "Ready, Dinah?" Raptaur rumbled, the vibrations of her voice felt as well as heard. Dinah grabbed the handles and flattened herself across the lizard's back.

"Yes," she squeaked, suddenly nervous.

"Don't worry, I think you'll love this," her mount chuckled. She started walking, broke into a trot, then accelerated smoothly to a fast run. Dinah screamed with glee and held on.

"Wheeeee!"

* * *

Listening to the Doppler effect of her daughter's yell fading away across the vast yard, Cheryl watched, half amused and half worried. Raptaur was already moving faster than they'd been able to drive here, and speeding up. When she reached the fence she simply jumped it as if it hadn't been there, ran straight up the side of the nearest warehouse, and disappeared into the evening over the roof. A very faint cry of joy came back on the wind.

"She seems happy," Ianthe commented wryly from beside her.

Looking left and up at the large form, Cheryl nodded. "I'd say so. Thank you all for doing this, it's very good of you. I wasn't expecting you to put so much time and effort into it."

The violet reptile smiled. "Honestly, it's not a problem. We had some spare time, the girl is having fun, and it's nice to help out friends."

"I'm going to have to go and do some other stuff," Saurial put in from her other side, "But I'll be back in a while, probably before they come back. Danny, why don't you show them around some more." She turned to the DWU man. "Maybe Roy would like to meet Vectura."

"Vectura?" her brother asked curiously. "Who's that?"

Danny studied Saurial, who was smiling slightly, then shook his head. "A new hire that joined us a little while ago," he said. "Before all that trouble with the Merchants. She's been keeping her head down for now, until all the other problems were sorted out."

Roy looked even more curious.

"She's a Tinker," Danny explained. Both Roy and Cheryl nodded, understanding, and exchanging a glance. "We're going to introduce her to the PRT next week, officially, you see. She's interested in power testing and that sort of thing. But with the Merchant raid and so on we had our hands full."

"What's her specialty?" Roy asked. Cheryl was slightly confused, which he noticed. After a quick explanation about Tinkers, she nodded.

"Basically, more or less anything to do with transportation," Saurial said.

"What, cars, trucks, that sort of thing, like Squealer was?"

"Nothing so limited," Metis chuckled. "She's got bigger ideas." Looking at Danny, she added, "I have to go as well but I'll be back soon."

"OK. I'll see you both later."

They watched as both Family members headed off, Metis going towards the bay while Saurial waved to them, then ran towards the gate and disappeared around the corner. Cheryl heard a faint splash. "Did Metis just jump into the bay?" she asked in shock.

"She did," Danny replied. "They do that. Come on, I'll introduce you to Vectura. Ianthe, go and check if she's in her workshop, will you, please?"

"Sure, Danny," the remaining reptile smiled, turning and trotting off. They followed more slowly.

"How many Parahumans do you _have_ , Danny?" Roy asked in a sort of bemused tone.

"You know I can't actually tell you that, Roy," the other man replied calmly. "The rules apply if they don't want to be known publicly."

"Of course. Sorry, I didn't mean to pry."

"Don't worry, I understand." Danny didn't seem upset. "Let's say we have one and leave it at that for the moment."

"What about the Family?" Cheryl asked him.

"They're a… special case," he said, glancing at her, then her brother, who nodded slowly. "In almost every category you can think of. They're DWU members but we can't lay claim to them, they're more associates than anything else. Very close ones, though."

"How odd."

He grinned. "That's a word that comes up a lot these days."

Giggling, she nodded, knowing how true that was. Wondering how her daughter was getting on, she followed as he led them to a meeting with yet another interesting new person.

* * *

Colin looked up as the alarm beeped again. Opening the relevant window he inspected the log.

"Now what?"

He glanced at Dragon. "She's moving at nearly sixty miles an hour in a dead straight line from the DWU facility towards the Boardwalk. Over the buildings, not around them."

His friend snickered. "So she's riding Raptaur?"

"Most likely," he agreed, closing the window again. What the girl did in her spare time was no business of his, and he was satisfied she was about as safe as anyone could be.

* * *

' _This is the best thing I've ever done_ ,' Dinah told herself, holding on like mad as Raptaur pounded along the tops of the buildings, clearing entire streets in one jump and making it look trivial. She had no idea how fast they were moving aside from it being at least as quick as most cars went, the sound of the wind moving past them almost a roar. Thankful for the helmet and gloves, she looked around with great interest, seeing the lights of the city shoot past. The sun had set a little while ago and it was now definitely getting a little dark, which didn't seem to impede her mount in the slightest.

They'd probably covered a couple of miles by now, since they were reaching the edge of the dock area and entering the commercial district, taller buildings popping up here and there and a lot more lights on. They flashed past a huge billboard advertising a car dealership in the blink of an eye, hurdled a two-lane street, and landed on the roof of the building on the other side. Slowing, Raptaur looked over her shoulder with a smile. "How is it so far?" she asked.

"Fantastic!" Dinah cackled, her face aching from the grin she had on. " _So_ much fun! I wish I could do this."

"It's certainly fun, I have to admit," the lizard-woman nodded. "I'm going to head over that way," she went on, pointing, "And go up the side of the Medhall building. It's the tallest one in the city and you get a good view from the top."

"OK," Dinah replied, pleased and excited. Raptaur looked forward again and accelerated hard, sweeping in a turn to take her in the correct direction.

When they were just about to clear the main road, she called "Hold on tight," over her shoulder, then flung herself at the sheer face of the skyscraper. Dinah yipped a little as she contacted it, converting the horizontal movement into an upwards dash that left her feeling heavier than normal. Holding onto the grips like grim death the girl watched the top of the building get closer at a ridiculously high speed. Risking a look over her shoulder she swallowed as the ground went away equally quickly.

This made her close her eyes for a moment, then resolutely look forward again. She was in safe hands, she was completely sure of that.

98.77% sure, anyway.

Seconds later they topped the climb and landed on the flat roof, gravel crunching under Raptaur's clawed feet. She walked slowly to the edge nearest the water as her rider let go of the hand-grips and flexed her aching hands. "That's the DWU yard over there," the reptilian cape said, pointing to the side. Following her finger, Dinah nodded. It was brightly lit, an island of light in a largely dark area, only a few streetlights working. "Your uncle's house is over that way a few miles." Her mount indicated a different direction, across the bay. "And the Rig always looks pretty impressive at night, especially from high up."

They studied the glittering bluish dome over the well-lit spindly structure of the re-purposed oil rig for a moment. "It really does look nice," she responded.

"There's an aircraft coming in, look," Raptaur said, pointing up. Dinah looked and spotted a blinking light, red and green steady ones on either side, slowing down and curving towards the Protectorate base. As they watched it hovered over the dome, which blinked out for a moment to let it in, then came back. The aircraft settled down onto the top deck of the structure. Very faintly, Dinah could just make out a whine of turbines slowing down when she listened carefully.

Up here, the sounds of the city below were muted although still audible, thousands of people going about their business combining with vehicles and other things into a dull drone, broken by occasional louder and more recognizable sounds. The wind was nearly as loud, humming through the wires supporting the fifty foot antenna sticking above them. A faint bang made her look, and Raptaur as well, the cape she was sitting on tensing for a moment then relaxing again.

"Gunshot. Somewhere over next to the docks. Probably one of the left over Merchants." She cocked her head for a moment, listening carefully. Dinah did the same but couldn't hear anything. "Saurial got him."

"You have really good hearing," Dinah said admiringly.

Raptaur chuckled. "Yep."

"Thanks for doing this," she added, quietly. "It's really amazing and I love it."

"You're welcome, Dinah," the cape replied, also quietly. They just looked around for a few minutes. "OK, let's go back down and push on, shall we?" she said in the end. Dinah swallowed again, looking down. The return ride was going to be interesting...

* * *

Victor twitched, then looked out the window. The source of the scream he heard went past in a downwards direction very quickly, but he knew who it was.

"Fucking lizards," he grumbled, turning back to his computer. "Max had the right idea. I wish _I_ was skiing."

Sometimes being a super villain was simply irritating, especially around these parts. At least no one was expecting him to go out and fight the damn reptiles, so if they wanted to give people rides around the place, that was their business. He just wished they'd pick a different building to run up and down. It was getting annoying.


	240. Dinah and Taylor

"Holy shit." Dinah gasped for breath. " _Holy shit_. That was..." She ran out of words to describe the experience of running _down_ the side of a two hundred foot or better sheer drop. Slumping in the saddle as Raptaur halted and looked back at her, she breathed heavily for a while.

"You OK?" The deep voice sounded concerned.

"I'll be OK in a minute," she replied weakly. She shook her head in wonder. "Wow."

"It's a little intense the first time," her companion smiled.

She nodded, unable to think of anything else to say.

"Let's stop for a break, to let you recover. I know a good place, I'll keep the speed down until we get there."

"Thank you," Dinah mumbled, feeling her heart gradually slow from ' _AHHH! GOING TO DIE!_ ' mode to merely quite fast.

The reptile trotted at a fast walk across the next roof, hurdled the street, and slowly sped up to about twice that speed for the next few buildings. When Dinah looked up, they were somewhere about halfway between the Medhall building and the Boardwalk, the sea visible through the gaps in the buildings. Raptaur was apparently heading for a large low one with a flat roof. As they approached, Dinah spotted someone coming out of a roof access door carrying a paper bag.

Landing on the roof, they approached the person, who was waiting for them. Dinah was a little surprised, although not as much as she might have been, to see it was Taylor. "Hello, Dinah," the older girl said as they stopped next to her. Raptaur squatted down on all fours, like a huge cat. "I got you a snack," Taylor added, opening the bag and pulling out a burger and small fries.

"Thanks," Dinah replied, pulling her helmet off. Raptaur reached around and took it from her, not looking even slightly surprised about the Hebert girl being there. It was obviously a prearranged meeting. Moments later, Metis appeared over the edge of the roof and joined them.

Looking around a little nervously, Dinah smiled uncertainly.

"Don't worry, no one is going to hurt you, I promise," Raptaur reassured her. She took the food from Taylor and twisted her torso around to hand it to Dinah. "We just had a couple of questions. About last night."

"She told you," Dinah noted, as she accepted the burger and fries. Taylor was unpacking several more, one of which she kept, the other four going two each to both the others. They were the huge ones from Fugly's, the younger girl noticed.

"I did," Taylor replied, leaning casually on Raptaur's side and eating some fries. "You worked something out. About me, or connected to me, and probably about the Family. We were just wondering what it was, whether it's something we need to get prepared to deal with, and if you can tell us, how you did it." She ate some more of the actually really tasty fries, watching Dinah's face. "You don't need to tell us that last bit if you don't want to, but we are curious. And we promise no one outside the Family will learn anything you say. No one can hear us here either."

Nibbling a fry of her own, Dinah thought, looking around at them. None of them seemed mad, just as they said, curious with a hint of concern. She asked herself a question. ' _Chances that anyone will find out if I tell them, unless they or I talk about it?_ '

0.67%

That was pretty close to certain in her power's terms.

' _Chances that anyone can overhear us?_ '

0.29%

OK. She wasn't going to get in trouble, except possibly from the Family, as long as she kept her mouth shut. She thought hard, formulating a question to work around the Family-induced errors a direct approach would generate. In the end, she settled on, ' _Chances that anyone with a tail and scales means me or my family harm?_ '

There was a very slight delay, then her power gave her the answer, for some reason feeling just a little reluctant, or possibly unsure.

0.05%

She raised her eyebrows. That was the lowest percentage she'd ever received on _anything_. Odd.

"You promise you won't tell?" she asked. Better to be certain.

Taylor nodded, as did Raptaur and Metis. "We all promise not to tell anyone not a part of the Family anything you tell us," Metis said evenly. "Taylor won't tell anyone either, other than her dad, and then only if he needs to know."

Thinking it over, Dinah sighed. "OK. I'm a cape."

They didn't look surprised. "Thinker, correct?" Metis asked. She nodded, a bit startled. "I thought so. Don't worry, I am too, basically."

"Cool." She regarded the black lizard with interest. "Well, a while ago I figured out that my power doesn't work properly on the Family. It sort of gives an error, like a computer that's been asked to do something impossible." She frowned in thought, absently noticing that Metis was nodding as if she'd expected the answer. "It's weird."

"We're aware that we have that effect on human Thinkers," Raptaur commented.

"I heard that the PRT had tried it with other ones and found the same thing," she said, looking around at them. "They all give silly results, or no results at all."

"What do you get?"

"Not a number."

Metis stared at her, looking genuinely surprised, then suddenly looked extremely thoughtful. "Reeeallly," she said very slowly. "Now _that_ is interesting."

"Do you mind saying how your power works?" Taylor asked. She indicated her friend, who was staring at the ground, concentrating on something. "Metis thinks you're probably a pre-cog."

"That's right," Dinah confirmed, impressed. "I get percentages. If I get asked a question, I get a number representing the chances of it happening. Or not happening, depending on how the question is worded. And assuming the question is the right sort, one that can be answered like that."

" _Any_ time you get asked that sort of question?" Taylor queried after a moment's consideration.

Dinah frowned, nodding. "Yes. I can't help it. And I get really bad headaches if I answer more than half a dozen or so. They hurt a lot, and take hours to go away. But if I can space the questions out, I get it to be just a little painful, so it's not as bad as it could be, I guess."

"That's unpleasant," the taller girl replied. "Thinker headaches, they're called."

"That's what the PRT said. No drugs seem to do much."

"It's a problem with Parahuman abilities, and fairly common with Thinkers, hence the name," Metis said, rejoining the conversation. "There might be something Family biotech could do, I'll have to ask Ianthe. But that's a secret right now, so please don't mention it to anyone."

"I won't," Dinah promised. She looked curiously at Metis. "Do you get them?"

"No, I don't," the creature smiled. "But I know people who do and I know how bad it can be." She paused, then asked, "Can you ask yourself the questions?"

"I can. I can even do it silently. The weird thing is that if I ask a question that gives that error, I don't get the pain. So I spent a lot of time asking myself every question about the Family I could think of, because I think you're really interesting."

Metis and Raptaur exchanged a look while Taylor laughed. "I'd do the same thing. Did you get any results?"

"Not really," she sighed. "I worked out some ways to sort of go around the problem, but it doesn't work as well as I'd like. I can work out the chances of someone with a tail jumping a Merchant in the next week, for example, but if I ask if it's Saurial I get an error." She smiled briefly. "But there aren't that many capes with tails in the city so it's normally one of the Family."

"Clever," Raptaur chuckled. "I suspect you've been teaching yourself some interesting techniques in lateral thought. Well done."

"Thanks."

"So what made you think there was something up with me?" Taylor asked, before taking a bite out of her burger. She'd finished the fries by now. Dinah ate some more of her own, looking at the other girl, then explained what had happened. When she finished, Taylor's burger was gone, as were her fries, and she was munching on the rest of her snack.

"What do you think it means?" Metis asked her.

Swallowing her mouthful, she said, "I'm not sure, actually. I get the same error with Kaiju and Raptaur and Saurial as I do with Taylor. I can't quite figure it out. The obvious answer is that she's part of the Family too, but..." She looked the other girl up and down. "She looks completely normal, except for being taller than any girl should be."

Taylor grinned, looking down at herself. "I think I'm just the right height."

Dinah shrugged, not bothered. She was pretty sure she was never going to be that tall. "Anyway, unless you're actually Saurial in disguise, I can't work out why you'd give an error. I mean, obviously you're not Raptaur, or Kaiju of course, and I can see Metis right here next to me. Ianthe and Metis were in the same room as Saurial and Raptaur too, so they're obviously all real people." She grinned at Taylor, who was smiling a little. "But you weren't there, you're about the right height, and I guess you could be a Changer or something." She laughed at her joke.

Taylor looked at Raptaur, then Metis. Metis shrugged. "Your call."

The Hebert girl turned back to Dinah, who was becoming aware that something weird was going on. "Sorry about this. Chances that you'll tell anyone what I could show you?"

"0.49%" she blurted out, unable to help herself, then glared. "That was mean."

"I really am sorry, but I needed to check," Taylor smiled.

Dinah blinked.

She looked suspiciously at her remaining piece of burger, sniffed it, then looked up again.

Taylor smirked at her.

"Oh… my… god..." the girl slowly said, a smile growing on her face that was in danger of reaching her ears. "You have a _tail!_ " She stared at the appendage that had suddenly appeared. Taylor waved it from side to side, showing it was entirely real. "How did you _do_ that?"

"Sort of a partial Stranger ability, I can hide it from people, or let them see it." Taylor grinned at her. "Not many people know about it. I'm quite a bit stronger and faster than most people too."

"You're a Parahuman too?"

"Um… not quite. It's a little complicated." The tailed girl scratched the back of her head, then ran her hand through her hair. "Long, long story. But the main thing is that I'm pretty closely related to the Family in some important ways."

"That's…" Dinah stared at her. "Really peculiar."

Taylor chuckled. "I've been told I am too. I can't quite see it myself."

Raptaur snorted, making her friend look at her, then look back to Dinah, who was giggling. "Ignore her. Anyway, it's too complicated to get into right now. But that might well be why your ability gets confused about me too."

"I guess so," Dinah replied, fascinated. She wondered how Taylor had ended up with a tail, and what it was like. "Can you sit on it like they do?"

"Sure." She did so, looking like it was entirely natural to her. Grinning, the younger brunette was briefly envious.

"Neat. So now what?"

"We'll trust each other, OK?" Taylor said. "You're a good kid, I'm sure of that, and Roy is a friend, of the Family, my dad, and me now. The issue is that we're trying to protect our own families. My dad is at risk if the wrong people find out about me, the same as if you were known to the wrong people. There are some very unpleasant ones out there who would love to have a pre-cog. Or even someone who can do what I can. That wouldn't end well, considering my friends here would end up getting a little annoyed. Generally speaking people don't want that to happen." She grinned when Dinah rolled her eyes, since that was _extremely_ obvious.

"I love my dad and I'll do anything I need to to protect him, or my other friends. That's everyone at the DWU for a start. I'd like to think of you as one of them too."

"So would I," Dinah said with utter honesty. "I promise I won't tell anyone your secret."

"Thank you," Taylor said gratefully. "Even the PRT? We don't trust them completely, although the ones here in the Bay are mostly pretty decent people. But there's all sorts of politics involved, it gets messy, and my friends just want to get on with fixing things and helping people."

"I sort of know what you mean," the girl sighed. "I was telling them about some of the problems I had and hardly anyone listened to me. I'm ' _too young_ ' to ' _fully appreciate the intricacies of power interactions,_ ' she said somewhat sarcastically, making little finger quotes. "So I stopped talking about it and did my own experiments."

"And got further than they did by the sound of it," Metis said.

She nodded. "I like to think so. No, I won't mention any of this to them."

Taylor looked grateful. "Thank you."

They looked at each other for a moment, before Dinah stuffed the remains of her food into her mouth and swallowed after some hasty chewing. "I have so many questions," she remarked.

"I'm not surprised. But you need to get back before anyone becomes suspicious. Thanks for talking to us." Taylor smiled at her. "Next time we meet up, and I'm sure there will be a next time, I'll try to tell you some more. Other people are involved and I can't tell their stories though."

"OK." Dinah took the helmet which Raptaur handed her. Pulling it on, she connected the strap.

"Have fun, and I'm sure I'll see you again soon enough." She stood up, waved, then went back through the roof exit, taking the now-empty bag and the wrappings with her.

"See you back at the DWU, Dinah," Metis said, before charging towards the edge of the roof and flinging herself into the darkness, disappearing instantly. As Raptaur began running again, heading towards the Boardwalk, the girl on her back wondered what the relationship between them all and Taylor really was.

Minutes later, moving down the tourist area and waving at the gaping people surrounding them, she forgot about that for the moment. This was much more fun.

* * *

"Impressive," Roy said, turning to the part-feline woman in a domino mask and overalls over jeans and a T-shirt who was watching him. She'd shown them around the large workshop, which was clearly a work in progress, but was heading towards being very well equipped. Vectura nodded, looking pleased.

"I see you're still setting up equipment," he continued. "I assume when you get it finished, you'll start making something?"

She smiled, showing a flash of over-sized incisor. The feline traits went deeper than just the visible parts, he decided. "Yes, I have quite a list of projects I want to start on. Raptaur and Saurial will be helping with making some parts for me, and I've been discussing things with Leet. He's got some interesting ideas I can use with a little work."

"Ah, you've met those two, then," he noted. "I understand they're heading in the direction of going straight?"

Danny nodded with a sort of smile. "More or less. They've been hanging around here quite a lot, they collaborated with Dragon, Armsmaster, Raptaur, and Legend of all people on a couple of projects recently, and I think the Family has rubbed off on them. Again. They keep doing that."

Roy snickered. "I can see how they might. Meeting them tends to challenge your world view a little."

His sister started giggling while Vectura sighed and nodded, with the air of someone with whom that comment resonated well. "Tell me about it. It's fair to say that I'd be in a very bad place if it wasn't for them. But that's in the past, I've got a shiny new workshop, new friends I trust, and some very interesting possibilities coming up."

"I was tempted to point her at the Ferry," Danny grinned. "The problem is that having seen some of her ideas, we'd end up with a ferry that would hit mach four at ten thousand feet before it reached the other side of the bay, which would be awkward. And loud, I think."

Vectura looked at him, then smiled wryly. "I could make it go a little slower."

"You could, but _would_ you?" he asked knowingly. "I have the weirdest feeling you'd… improve… it. Tinkers tend to do that."

"We're not _all_ that bad," she retorted. He kept looking at her, making her shrug. "Not all the time, anyway."

"Finish some of the smaller stuff first, then we can look at large ships," he advised wisely. She nodded, smiling.

"Probably for the best."

"I'll be interested in seeing what happens," Roy said. "You're going to the PRT next week, I understand."

"That's the plan. Power testing, some paperwork to let them know about me, since they're very interested in Tinkers in general, that sort of thing," she confirmed. "Mind you, every fucker on the planet is after Tinkers. I have no interest in being forced into a gang, and I'm not interested in joining the Protectorate for personal reasons. Being an independent is a problem if I'm on my own, so when I was offered this, I jumped at it." She looked around the huge room. "I get paid to help out with normal stuff, I get my own workshop, I have access to the most ridiculously powerful set of capes I've ever heard of to help make parts, and everyone is really nice."

She smiled again. "The food's great too, and the bed is comfortable. Couldn't ask for more to be honest."

Roy nodded slowly, listening to her. She seemed entirely genuine about it to his ears, which were well practiced in discerning truth from fiction. There was obviously an interesting backstory she was avoiding, which he suspected was probably somewhat unpleasant, but she seemed happy now. Danny was listening with a look that suggested he was pleased too, and if the Family were involved, there was a good reason for it.

Privately he was pretty sure that one way or the other the DWU now had access to more capes than anyone in the city but the E88, since he was aware that the Undersiders had vanished very close to here and rumor had it that the DWU was involved in that as well. Not to mention at least five large scaly reptilian Parahumans, Vectura herself, Cloak, Amy Dallon in some ways, probably Über and Leet now, and he wouldn't be at all surprised to find out there were others he didn't know about. And New Wave seemed pretty close to them, most likely through Amy. Vicky was certainly considered a friend.

No, at this point the DWU was in a very powerful position, whether they knew it or not. Danny being who he was, he undoubtedly _did_ know, but at the same time didn't actually have any plans in that direction aside from making the entire union that much more effective at doing what they did, something Roy was more than pleased about. He was quite happy to let them get on with their jobs, since they made _his_ job that much easier and were rapidly turning the economy of the city around.

Idly wondering if the PRT was fully aware of quite how much of a force to be reckoned with the formerly moribund union had rather abruptly but mostly quietly become, he looked around again. "Well, good luck with it, in any case. I'm sure you'll have an interesting time here. I'd be interested in seeing what you come up with."

"I'll keep you up to date on anything useful that comes out of here, Roy," Danny assured him. "We'll do our best to make sure it's safe."

"Safeish," Vectura corrected.

"Safe." Danny gave her a look.

"Ish," she added with a smirk.

Sighing, he shook his head. "She fits in all too well, you see," he complained, Roy and his sister both laughing.

Hearing the door open, they all looked over to see Saurial come in. "Hi, guys," she said. "Raptaur's just about to come back. I could hear Dinah laughing from a quarter of a mile away."

Cheryl looked pleased. "I hope she had a nice time."

"I think that goes without saying." The lizard-girl seemed happy. "Hi, Vectura. How's it going?"

"Well, thanks, Saurial," the Tinker replied. "I'm going to want to talk to you soon, I have some plans that I want to go over. I'm just about at the point to make some of the parts we need."

"Great. Tomorrow afternoon? I'm a bit busy right now."

"Sure, that would be good." Vectura nodded in satisfaction.

"OK, I'll find you then." Saurial glanced towards the still-open door. "They're back."

"Let's go see how your daughter is doing, sis," Roy said, waving at the door. Cheryl turned to Vectura, holding out her hand.

"It was nice to meet you. I hope it goes well with the PRT."

The cat-woman shook the offered hand, smiling. "I think it will. I enjoyed meeting you Mrs Alcott. Mayor Christner. I'd better get back to setting up this gear."

Nodding to the two men, she turned and headed up the stairs to the upper level, disappearing between some shelves. The others left the building, Danny closing the door as he brought up the rear.

* * *

Pleased with the way the visit had gone, and satisfied with the outcome of the chat with Dinah, Taylor watched as the girl slid down off her back. She and the Varga had been handing off control of each version of her as needed, the process pretty smooth now and more or less seamless to outside observation. The younger girl had obviously enjoyed the hell out of the ride, the smile on her face was practically welded on at this point.

" _I think that went well,_ " the demon commented. " _She learned enough to satisfy her about why you, or Taylor rather, cause her ability problems. We learned somewhat more about her, and I believe Lisa has some interesting insights as a result. Everyone seems to have come out of it with enough to keep them happy. Even if she did tell anyone, the damage it could do is minimal._ "

' _I very much doubt she'll say anything_ ,' Taylor replied. ' _Leaving aside the way her own power says she won't, I don't think she has any real reason to. I think the PRT is the best place for her and she knows it but at the same time she's no unthinking cheerleader for them. The girl is smart, and a bit annoyed at being ignored by people older than her who think they know how her power works better than she does. I'm not convinced they do._ '

" _Quite likely not from what she said_." After a moment, her companion asked, " _Do you intend to tell her more about the Family and us?_ "

' _We'll have to see how things work out. I'd like to, I happen to like her and I think she'd probably enjoy things here, the same as Vista. They're pretty similar in some ways actually, come to think of it. I suspect they'll be good friends in the Wards even if they aren't already._ '

" _Good, I like Vista too and she struck me as someone who needed another female friend. She was very taken with you, you know. She trusts you a lot_."

' _I trust her a lot, and think she's got some incredible abilities_ ,' Taylor smiled internally. ' _We've learned some interesting things from each other_.'

She switched to the viewpoint of her Saurial aspect and sat at the table, Dinah and her mother doing the same next to her. "Did you have fun?" she asked the girl, who was fiddling with the strap to her helmet. Getting it undone finally she yanked it off and laughed like an idiot.

"Fun?! I've never had so much fun in my life," Dinah said when she calmed down a little. "We ran right up the side of the Medhall building! The view from up there is amazing, you can see all the way to the other side of the bay! And then we ran down it again, that was scary!" She was bouncing in her seat, grinning wildly. Her mother shared a look with Taylor, appearing very pleased.

"And we met up with Metis, and had a snack, and then walked down the boardwalk and all the tourists were taking pictures and pointing, and then passed all the cars on the freeway..." She listed everything she could think of, although she completely omitted meeting Taylor. When she finally ran down, she slumped in the chair and ran her hands through her hair. "It was good," she finished, a little anticlimactically.

Roy laughed, putting his hand on her head. "I'm glad you enjoyed it so much, Princess. Thank you, Raptaur, it was very good of you to go to so much trouble."

"Think nothing of it, Roy," Taylor's other aspect said, smiling.

Lisa came in, her Metis face looking amused. "I could hear her from fifty feet away even through the EDM wall," she reported. "I take it that she's pleased with the way it went."

"Apparently so," ' _Ianthe_ ' chuckled. "Did you get that job sorted?"

"I did, thanks," the black lizard replied, looking at her, then Taylor's aspects.

Roy checked his watch. "I believe we should probably leave them alone now, they've given us over three hours of their time, Dinah," he said to his niece, who appeared disappointed but accepting.

"It was nice to see you all, Roy, Cheryl," Taylor's father commented. "And you of course, Dinah."

"Thanks, Danny," Cheryl said gratefully. "This has been an extraordinary visit."

"You'll have to come back some time," he replied. "I'll walk you back to your car."

"Thanks," she told him. "Come on, Dinah, we've got lots of photos to show your dad, he should be back from work by now."

"And I've got a nice pen," Dinah said happily, pulling the named item out of her pocket and holding it up.

"You can keep the helmet and gloves if you like," Taylor said through Raptaur. "You never know, they might come in useful some day."

"Thank you," the girl said, politely but with a broad smile.

"You were admiring that poster earlier," ' _Metis_ ' remarked, pointing at the one of Saurial in a ready pose. "Would you like a copy of it?"

"I would, very much," Dinah assured her. Lisa glanced at Taylor's Saurial aspect, who waved at the table in front of her. A duplicate poster formed there, making Dinah produce an impressed grin. "Wow."

"Want me to autograph it?" Taylor asked.

"That would be fantastic," their visitor said politely. "I have a pen." She held out the one she had in her hand still with an amused look. Taylor took it and signed the bottom right corner of the poster, then handed the pen back and rolled the poster up, giving it to the younger girl.

"Here you go."

"This has been _so much fun_ ," Dinah smiled as she jumped off the chair. With no warning she quickly hugged Taylor, who knelt and returned it, then dashed over and repeated it with ' _Raptaur_ '. Everyone laughed at the ridiculous contrast in sizes. The petite twelve year old practically vanished into the arms of the huge reptilian figure.

"Take care, Dinah," her other aspect rumbled. "It was a lot of fun. See you around sometime."

"I hope so," she replied. "OK, Mom, I'm ready to go."

She and her mother, along with Danny, headed for the door. She waved as they left, the others waving back. Roy, who had hung back, nodded to them. "Once again, thank you. It meant a lot to her. And me."

"You're welcome, Roy," Taylor said through Saurial. "I think we all enjoyed it."

"Good bye, Ladies. Until next time. Give my best to Kaiju." He left, pulling the door shut.

The four left behind looked at each other. "Well, that was interesting," the Varga said, using Raptaur.

"Wasn't it?" Lisa replied thoughtfully. "Very interesting indeed."

"Found out what was going on with her?" Amy asked.

"Yes, Lisa was right, she's Prospect, definitely, and she's a pre-cog. A powerful one, although limited by Thinker headaches," Taylor replied, leaning on the table. "She gets percentage likelihood chances of future events if the question is formulated correctly. Apparently she doesn't actually have any choice about answering them, which is sort of annoying, I suspect. I tested it, when I asked her if she'd tell anyone about something I could show her. She told me just under half a percent chance, then gave me a really filthy look."

Amy snickered. "Poor girl. How many questions can she do before the pain gets too bad?"

"Half a dozen or so. Think a symbiote would help?"

"Probably, but it would most likely take the neural amplifier upgrade to fix it properly. Which is difficult to do if the PRT have her in the Wards, they give all the people they get their hands on full medicals which includes a detailed MRI scan. They'd spot the difference the next time they scanned her, and although I don't think they'd instantly work out what it was, they'd probably think it was a tumor." Amy looked thoughtful. "I might be able to disguise it a little more effectively, I'll have to think about it."

"Well, it's not like we're going to upgrade her just like that, but it's useful to have a plan in case it ever comes up." Taylor picked up one of the cans of soda left over and idly ate it.

"What did you actually show her?"

"My tail." Amy looked puzzled, causing her to grin. "It seemed the safest thing right now. I considered showing her Saurial, which would have been funny since she actually suggested that I might be a Changer and secretly Saurial all along."

"Which you are."

"Which I am. But the problem is that sooner or later she'd see Saurial and Taylor at the same time and she'd figure out something was up. On the other hand, Taylor with a tail is fine from that point of view and took a lot less explaining. If we get to know her better, I'll probably let her know more. Or if she works any more of it out, I guess. But that'll do for now."

Lisa looked at her, having been deep in thought up until now. "Are you going to tell Danny about any of this?"

Taylor shook her head. "I'll tell him that we confirmed some of your theories and I showed her my tail, but I won't go into details. He won't mind, he doesn't need to know that part anyway and understands that I don't want to give away any more about other Parahumans than necessary."

"All right. That sounds reasonable."

"I believe we can consider this a successful evening," the Varga stated.

They all nodded. "Definitely. And fun too. Maybe we _should_ be giving rides on the Boardwalk, there were a lot of people who seemed pretty envious," Taylor grinned.

"Something for the summer," Amy said. "So what do you want to do now?"

"Same thing we do every night?"

"Try to confuse the fuck out of the world?"

"That's it."

Taylor snickered. "I have some interesting ideas along those lines. But..." Amy and Lisa watched as Raptaur disappeared. She rubbed her head for a moment. "That was starting to be a little tiring. But it's been about two and a half hours continuously which is more than we expected."

"How long do you need to rest before you can do it again?" Lisa asked.

"A couple of hours should do it. It's basically a mental exercise, a really complicated one. Like playing half a dozen chess games against yourself and having to visualize all the boards and keep them separate." She ate another can of soda. "I'll build up more stamina with time but I'm completely happy with even this."

Forming a copy on the other side of the room and transferring to it, she added, "And I can do this without much effort, since the duplicate is only there for a moment. Which is so fucking cool I can't believe it."

"I have never been as envious of you as I am right now," Amy grumbled. "You figured out how to teleport _and didn't even realize you'd done it!_ That's just not fair."

Smirking, Taylor teleported back to her start position. "But Lisa says it's not teleporting, really."

"Close enough," Lisa said. "I don't have a better word for it, even though it's not strictly accurate, and as far as anyone can tell that's what you're doing, so you may as well call it that." She sighed, watching as Taylor hopped around the room again, blinking in and out of existence. "Stop that, I'm getting dizzy."

"You'd be doing this too," her friend laughed, but relented, stopping her popping around the place next to her.

"True," the black reptile said. "Very true."

"We really need to learn demon magic," Amy said.

"He thinks it's probably possible, but he's still trying to work out how to actually teach it," Taylor reported. "It's sort of complicated to explain if you're not in my head."

"I can wait. For a while." Amy grinned at her. "Come on, let's make another biogun. And I've finished the design for the one-shot healing symbiotes, by the way."

"Great! We need to find someone with an injury to test them on."

"That's easy enough," Lisa giggled darkly, forming a knife in her hand and flicking the tip of the blade meaningfully. They shared a look, grinned, and went into the workroom. "I also need to talk to you about explosives, Amy."

"Explosives?"

"Explosives."

"Tell me more."


	241. Guest Omake - A Day In The Life

****A Day In The Life.****

 **(By Ed Becerra)**

oOo

Antonio woke with the dawn. It had been decades since the Old Country and a small village, but that was one habit that he never seemed to break. Despite New York's severe lack of roosters.

Of course, waking with the dawn in a penthouse apartment above a nice Italian restaurant wasn't bad. He kissed his sleeping wife and headed to the bathroom.

A shower, a shave, a nice suit laid out by his manservant, then he sat down to a _prima colazione_ of _tramezzino_ , _fette biscottate_ and _cafe latte_.

After all, just because one was no longer in Italy didn't mean that one had to eat like a northern barbarian. Or like a German, God forbid.

And what the English ate for breakfast went without saying.

As he finished his coffee, Luigi brought him the day's paperwork for his legitimate businesses. His assistant and manservant had his usual frown - the boy disapproved not that he owned legitimate businesses to launder money, but of the fact that they were traditional Italian restaurants. Luigi felt that his master was pandering to the stereotypes.

Which he admittedly was. Oftentimes the best way to hide something was to show people what they already expected to see. A jovial Italian grandfather, a Mustache Pete, who owned a chain of restaurants. They saw what they wanted to see and looked no further. The smart ones looked deeper. But they were also smart enough to know the dangers of looking too deep.

Like Legend. Nice boy, that. Respectful, polite, and knew when to not look. Pity he was gay, but hey, he'd heard they might adopt. _I'll have to send them something nice. Maybe set them up with a diaper service? Joey's grandkid owns one._

Once the daily paperwork for the dozens of restaurants up and down the East Coast was finished, Luigi brought him the real paperwork. The information and requests for information that was far too sensitive to ever get near a computer. He had learned that if you turned ANYTHING digital, it lived forever on the web. The only truly secure computer was the one that hadn't been built yet.

Hmm. Another request from Phil for the latest on the Family. His old acquaintance was interested in cleaning up Boston and wanted to know if word could be passed to the Family, Kaiju specifically, asking if she could remove some of the more irritating architectural eyesores in the city.

Probably his OCD kicking in again. Though one had to admit that when Phil set out to make something look impressive, he did the job handsomely. Just look at Roy's office.

Speaking of which, an email from Roy thanking him for the snitch. He sent off a quick reply in return, thanking Roy for helping him. Settling the inter-family war that Buscafusco started through his inability to keep his pants zipped up was a great favor indeed. He appended a request for a few photos of Miss Militia giving the fool a set of black eyes for trying to hit on her.

It would happen. The man just couldn't conceive that any woman could possibly refuse him.

Ah. An email from Ms. Costa-Brown through a HyperCrypt account. _Who's being naughty now, Chief Director? Demanding everything I know about the Family? And a veiled threat, too? Shame on you, Rebecca._

He archived that email, setting it aside for now.

Oooh, look. Something from Johnny in Chicago. My, my, DiFronzo was STILL pissed. Antonio made a note to forward all the info on Skidmark, that little _stronzo_. The Unwritten Rules were one thing, but starting a war with something that could bench press a supertanker, then no-sell an attack by Eidolon was something else entirely.

 _So sorry, Adam, you_ sfigato _, but I'm tossing you under the bus here._

Nah. Not sorry at all. Addio, Skidmark. Give my regards to Satan when you get there.

And hey, "Sal the Shark" Macelli was calling in a favor... damn. Skidmark strikes again. Pittsburgh now? Looks like the little _zoccala_ was headed back towards Brockton Bay. Best warn everyone. He sent off a brief note to Danny. At least they were talking again. Maybe he might eventually get to see little Taylor again. She had been such a cute baby. Pity about Annette.

Curious how the driver who T-boned her car had another accident. Fatal, that second accident. Fell up a staircase and broke his neck. Danny didn't need to know about that, of course.

He fired off another HyperCrypt email, this one to eventually, anonymously, land in Dragon's mailbox. Gun running? Ok, it happens. But thermobaric grenades? That _merda_ stopped NOW, before the PRT became pissed enough to up the ante. Killing PRT troopers was bad for business. No surprise that Communists were involved. He summoned Luigi, and gave orders to get Manny Bergman here, yesterday. The _consigliere_ would know who those Commie bastards were, and that information would get to Piggot as fast as humanly possible.

Killing Commies was like killing Nazis. It's a public service. Heh.

He made a mental note to do something painful to Kaiser and his goose-stepping minions, someday soon. _Tio_ Marcel would have wanted it that way.

Noting the clock, he pushed himself away from the keyboard. Luigi would be laying on a nice _pranzo_ soon, and he'd always nag his boss about eating properly. It was a running gag between those in the know that the only two people who could nag Antonio were his wife and Luigi.

Luigi had laid on a nice _pasta fazool_ and an _insalata caprese_. He and Serafina had been getting on him about his weight and his smoking. Eh.

Manny arrived, Luigi set a place for him, and they discussed the situation in Brockton Bay. Word would be put out. Danny Hebert was the Boss of the Docks in Brockton Bay, and nothing that might irritate him or his daughter would be tolerated. Gun running, hard drugs and working girls were out. Soft stuff like untaxed marijuana, tobacco, and alcohol were in. Running numbers was okay, so long as you didn't run them near the Docks. And if you had to break a few legs, take them somewhere else first before you broke them. Taylor was a young thing still, and while she had grown up in Brockton Bay, it wouldn't do to push any buttons. She'd already taken enough shit from that Hess girl, she didn't need her Uncle Tony's people adding to that list.

That would do for now. The Teamsters were keeping a watchful eye out in the Bay, and would let him know if Danny needed any help, or something heavier than the "gifts" he'd already sent. Though that was unlikely, given that the Family had already expressed its displeasure about fools traipsing around the docks. The fact that Kaiju, such a sweet gal, had already solo'ed Lung had the smart people headed off for pastures new. Only the stupid and the Merchants were left - wasn't that redundant? - and that problem was about to solve itself. Hopefully without too much bloodshed. NO ONE wanted Kaiju showing up on their doorstep, demanding that they clean up a problem they might be responsible for.

Bad for business, that.

With lunch over, he got a message off to the Russian mob, pointing out that Kaiju might just feel annoyed that it was a bunch of unreconstructed Commies who'd supplied the weapons used by the Merchants, and that they really should see to things in their own house, so to speak. That should be enough for now. But it was a temporary bandage on the problem. He'd have to do something more permanent, soon.

Something a little more final.

He got out a cigar and some of the _limoncello_ that Roy had sent him and took a brief break from work.

Getting back to business, he made certain everyone knew that the idiot was headed back towards Brockton Bay (that one was a free one, getting rid of Skidmark was practically a public service), finished the last few favors of the day, and went to meet Serafina for dinner in the restaurant below.

After all, when the owner eats there, you know the place had to be good. Free advertising, that's what it was. And it _was_ good. He'd gotten his hands on every good chef in North America, and quite a few elsewhere.

Dinner took a while - it was important for the "just another businessman" to be seen out and about with his wife. Nothing mysterious here, no sir. _Tio_ Marcel had drilled that into him. Mysteries make people curious, and curious people weren't good for business.

Then, about nine in the evening, he turned in for a well deserved rest. He wasn't a spring chicken anymore. The late nights could be left to the young turks.

Speaking of which, he'd best keep an eye on Taylor. He had a feeling his grandniece was going places.

oOo


	242. Techniques and Modifications

Standing on top of a warehouse near the DWU yard, Taylor, currently Saurial, watched the lights of Amy's truck disappear into the distance. It was just after midnight now, and they'd had a productive day, all things considered. The issue of Dinah Alcott was stabilized for the moment, the girl herself had gone away happy, as had her family, and they'd had quite a lot of fun with that. Subsequently she and Amy, with Lisa's input, had made three more bioguns, incorporating a few modifications that Amy and her friends had thought of to make the things more useful. Amy had upgraded her prototype to the same specification, giving them four, enough for some sensible testing. They needed to think who they'd trust with them, aside from Mark. Zephron was an obvious candidate, the huge man was calm, skilled, and apparently a very good shot.

She'd mentioned giving one to Alec to try and the expression that Lisa had developed had caused both her and Amy to laugh for some time. Their friend wasn't of the opinion that a new, largely untested, Biotinkered weapon and the slightly amoral young man were a wildly good fit, at least not without some close supervision.

Taylor could see her point, thinking about it.

Oh, well, they'd work it out in the end. Amy was planning on making a dozen of the things over the next few days, but four would do for right now. The ' _docking station_ ' for them was next on the list and something she'd make tomorrow, since she was still designing it.

After making the weapons, she'd manufactured a pile of the one shot healing symbiotes, a box of which Taylor had in her pocket. They'd talked one of the DWU people in the cafeteria into testing one, with less effort than Taylor had expected, after requesting and getting a promise of silence about it. His cut arm, the victim of a piece of sharp scrap that afternoon, had healed without trace in seconds, only slightly more slowly than the standard symbiote did the job. Amy wasn't quite satisfied, sure she could speed it up, but Lisa and Taylor were both of the opinion that it was good enough for now and much better than nothing.

Again, next time the healer would tweak the design and they'd do some testing. In the meantime, Taylor intended to keep some on her just in case they came in handy, since she implicitly trusted her friend's work and lacked her healing abilities.

Lisa had, while they were working, filled them in on the talk she'd had with Armsmaster, and all the inferences she'd drawn from it and some later work on the internet. The plan seemed sound and she gave it a very high probability of working correctly, which Taylor's new talents would certainly increase.

She grinned. Coil wasn't going to know what hit him.

They still weren't totally sure what the villain's powers were exactly but Lisa had decided that it was a variant on precognition that most likely used some form of short to medium term reality modeling to give him a picture of how events would play out from initially set starting conditions. She also thought it possible it might allow him to run more than one model at once, something that had come to her when she'd seen Taylor's dual aspect technique, but wasn't certain of that yet. It would, however, fit a number of things she'd puzzled over when she'd seen the man at work and her power seemed to be telling her it was probably working in the right direction.

They all hoped that with some more thought the blonde could nail the threat down properly, since even that theory suggested Coil could be somewhat tricky to deal with if they weren't careful, but her deductions were still helpful and gave them some ideas on how to counter him. When the Protectorate capes turned up they could discuss the concept and see if anyone could add to it, or come up with a plausible alternative.

Given the problem of the explosives Amy had considered the issue for some minutes, then said she had an idea but would have to sleep on it. They'd left her to it, while Taylor and the Varga came up with some alternatives should they be needed. Between them, the stuff wasn't going to be too difficult to handle, although they'd have to be careful since no one would thank them even a little if they managed to collapse one of the larger buildings in the city.

' _Whoops_ ' wouldn't really cut it at that point…

Taylor grinned to herself. She'd never live _that_ down, so it was probably best to avoid it. Still, that was for later. Now, she intended to go and play with her ' _teleporting_ ' ability and hop around for a while, see what was going on, possibly upset some criminals, and generally have some fun before going home.

Making a small EDM package containing her valuables and equipment she carefully hid it in the brickwork, since they still hadn't quite worked out the best way to take the stuff with them when they jumped, then looked around.

Taking aim at another building about a quarter mile away she went through the internal mental gymnastics of the jump, before smiling as the world flickered around her. While complicated, it was becoming quite easy with practice. Turning on the spot, she shook her head in pleased wonder.

' _This is so fucking cool_ ,' she thought.

" _It's certainly an unexpected benefit of the technique you invented, Brain,_ " the Varga commented, pleasure in his voice. " _I've been working on the math and I think, with some work, it just might be possible to extend it to allow both 'aspects' as you call them to use a variant of this method to simultaneously perform the same trick_."

' _You mean we could both be out and both teleport separately?_ ' she asked, surprised.

" _Yes, I think so_."

' _But we can only do two bodies. Or one, technically, with two aspects._ '

" _That's not quite correct, as it happens. Yes, we can only correctly control two copies at the same time, for the moment. Although it's not beyond the realms of possibility we might be able to slightly improve on that with time and a lot of practice. However, ' **control** ' and ' **manifest** ' are not directly synonymous, I believe_." He was definitely thoughtful, and now so was she.

" _My thought is that, given a fast enough switch between the local and remote manifestation, it should be possible to effectively use the ' **teleport** ' ability with two simultaneous aspects. Each one creates a remote copy, takes control of it immediately, and dissipates the other one. It's still only one body, but we're dividing it into four aspects, only two of which are controlled at any given time. The other two will be manifested for so short a period it's irrelevant that we can't, yet, drive them independently from each other_."

Considering his suggestion, she slowly nodded. ' _I get it, I think. It sounds plausible. Running two different spacial folds at once is more difficult, but if you do one and I do the other, it shouldn't be too hard._ "

" _Precisely. I have been thinking about parts of this ever since you came up with the technique, although I did miss what Lisa spotted immediately, which is slightly embarrassing._ " He chuckled quietly. "S _he is **very** good. But based on that, I feel we still haven't fully plumbed the depths of the different things we can come up with from your original breakthrough. Mental processing power on your side is the main limitation. Eventually that may not be as much of a problem, but it will take a considerable amount of time to increase your capacity. I don't think that we'll be able to practically control more than a fairly small number of simultaneous aspects as distinct individuals for some time, if ever. Three **might** be practical in the end, more than that is definitely pushing it. But even so, there are several other possibilities that wouldn't require full control of that nature_."

' _Huh_.' She shook her head in wonder. ' _I can't really imagine what it would be like with more than two aspects at once. Two is weirdly normal now, but I guess that's because of our own nature. Three seems strange even to think about_.'

" _It won't be a problem you need to deal with soon_ ," he replied. " _I would suggest that it would be more useful to concentrate on increasing range and duration than number, and much easier_."

' _Agreed_ ,' she nodded. ' _So, shall we see if we can do the dual teleport thing?'_

" _I am still modifying the technique to allow for it, but that shouldn't take too much longer._ "

' _In that case, I'm going to practice this for a while_.' Peering into the distance, she jumped to the next target, half a mile further away toward the city center. In only four more jumps she was standing back on top of the Medhall building, cloaked and pleased. ' _This is sure a quick way of getting around_.'

" _It's gratifyingly efficient,_ " he replied. " _Once we can take physical objects with us, it will be a very useful talent indeed, but it's already helpful. And rather fun_."

With a laugh, she dived over the edge of the roof, then blinked out half-way to the ground, reappearing back where she'd started from. ' _Momentum isn't conserved, of course_ ,' she commented, repeating the exercise.

" _Of course. You're not, as Lisa pointed out, physically moving one body from place to place as such, you're moving part of that body. As soon as you dissipate the aspect, any kinetic energy involved with it goes away_."

' _We really are making the universe whimper a little, aren't we?_ ' she giggled on the way down yet again, this time waiting until she was only six feet from the ground to hop back to the roof. Barely pausing, she jumped from there to a point a mile away, then back to street level a few blocks over.

" _That **is** what demons do, Brain_," he snickered. " _It's a gift_."

Smiling, she walked along the street, looking around, dropping the cloak when she found a suitable spot in an alley. Going back onto the main road she strolled along nodding to the occasional pedestrian, waving once to a BBPD patrol car that passed. The cop driving slowed to wave back, then sped up again.

She found the entire thing enjoyable. In the last few weeks she hadn't been out on the street nearly as much as when she'd first started going out as Saurial, which sometimes she found herself surprised to think was only a couple of months ago. The recent work at the yard had become her main time sink outside school, which she wasn't upset about at all, since it was both useful and fun, but sometimes she missed just wandering around jumping gang members.

Taylor grinned internally. It was a slightly odd hobby but one that wasn't as unusual in these parts as it might be somewhere else.

Hearing shouting coming from up ahead, she started jogging. It was coming from a familiar shop, sounding like a serious argument, but not quite at the point of violence. Pulling the door of the convenience shop open she went inside. The man behind the counter spotted her, looking relieved, which was quite a change from the first time she'd been there when he'd just seemed confused.

Standing on her side of the counter were two young men, in their late teens, who were engaged in a tug of war with the clerk over a six-pack of beer. "I can't sell it to you without valid ID," the clerk said, returning his attention to the blond one, who was tugging on the alcohol while wearing a truculent expression. His friend, a taller dark-haired youth who looked more than slightly drunk already, was leaning over the counter waving a laminated card at the shopkeeper. "And that is not valid ID. It is, in fact, the least convincing fake ID I've ever seen. Did you get it in a vending machine or something?"

He sounded vexed and more than a little annoyed. Taylor got the impression that this standoff had been going on for a while. Standing behind the two, who hadn't apparently noticed her entry, she gave the clerk a sympathetic smile. He rolled his eyes and pulled the beer back towards him.

"Come on, man, give us the damn beer, will you?" the blond grumbled. "Look, I'll give you an extra twenty bucks."

He nudged his friend who picked up his wallet, which was on the counter-top, and pulled out some more cash, waving it at the man on the other side.

"No, I told you, no ID, no sale. Let go of the fucking beer."

"We want it!"

"You can't have it!"

"Bastard. What's your problem?"

Milo, the clerk, sighed heavily. "My problem is that it's illegal to sell a minor alcohol. Not to mention a fake ID is also illegal. Let go."

The taller one now also put his hand on the beer. Taylor watched with amusement, wondering why people were _that_ invested in the stuff. After a few more pulls back and forth, she walked closer. "Hi, Milo. Problem?"

At the sound of her voice, both teenagers froze, then very slowly looked over their shoulders in a nicely synchronized manner. Milo shrugged as they paled slightly.

"I hope not. I was just explaining to my friends here how the alcohol laws work."

Both men quickly let go of the six-pack. Milo immediately confiscated it.

Reaching out, Taylor plucked the ID the brown-haired teenager was still holding up, apparently having forgotten about it. She inspected it with interest. "Hmm. Mr John Smith?" The guy nodded spastically. "Born in 1968, I see." He nodded again, a worried expression on his face.

"I have to admit you don't look forty-three. Normally humans don't age that well. What's your secret?" She smiled sweetly at him. He swallowed audibly and looked helplessly at his friend, who was staring fixedly at her.

"Um..." He desperately glanced around for help, swaying slightly and reeking of beer. "I… I moisturize?"

She started laughing, as did Milo. "Wonderful. I like that. But for some reason I don't think this is a real ID." Holding it up towards him, she pointed with her other hand. "Not that I'm an expert, but whoever made this spelled ' _Massachusetts_ ' with one ' _T_ ' for a start. Not to mention the photo is of someone who doesn't look like you, you're certainly more than five feet tall, and your eyes are blue and not gray."

"The font's all wrong too," Milo added. "And the photo is crooked. You need to get your money back."

Smiling widely, she gave the fake ID back. "Better luck next time, guys."

Stepping to the side, she waved towards the door meaningfully. "See you."

They exchanged another glance, then reclaimed their cash and the taller one's wallet and left, giving her a wide berth. She and Milo watched through the window as they walked off, arguing with each other and looking annoyed. He chuckled, turning back to her went they were out of sight. "Thanks, Saurial, that was getting annoying. They just wouldn't give up."

"How long was that going on for?"

"About five fucking minutes. How the hell they thought anyone would take that ID I don't know, it was awful. He got ripped off."

They talked for a little longer, then she left again, going back to basically just wandering aimlessly for a while. Half an hour of enjoyably random motion later, the Varga announced, " _I have, I think, worked out the details of this variant technique, and simplified it as much as I can for speed_."

' _Sounds good,_ ' she told him, pleased. ' _Let's find somewhere private and try it_.'

Going into an alley, she headed to the far end, checking for cameras or witnesses. Not finding anything but an unpleasant smell, she cloaked, looked up, and teleported to the roof. Five jumps later she was back at the place she'd left her belongings near the DWU. Lying down on the slanting roof she relaxed. ' _OK, show me_ ' she said.

" _All right. This is your original version, this is the new one, and this is how I propose to use it...,_ " he started. They explored the implications of the variant technique, Taylor quickly learning the intricacies of it.

' _Cool. OK, I get it. Looks easy enough, actually_.'

" _It's not too much more difficult than the previous version, and if we each take charge of an aspect, it shouldn't cause any issues_ ," he agreed. " _Shall we try it?_ "

' _We shall_.' She got up, as ' _Raptaur_ ' appeared next to her. They exchanged a grin, then each looked around.

"Other side of the DWU for me," she said.

"I will take the opposite direction, then." Both of them concentrated.

Seconds later, Taylor hopped up and down with excitement, as pleased as she could possibly be. Her Saurial aspect was standing where she'd aimed for, and her Raptaur aspect was a mile away, also on target. The process had worked perfectly, a second copy of each type being formed, then the first one being dropped within a fraction of a second as they both switched control to the new one. For a moment she'd seen four different scenes at the same time, which was more than a little disorientating, but not so much that it interfered with either of them.

' _Fantastic_ ,' she smiled.

" _Very gratifying indeed,_ " he said in her head. That was another incredibly useful thing, since they were still only one body, however many physical parts in normal terms it was spread across, their internal communications was completely unaffected by the separation of the aspects. To an outsider who didn't know the truth it would seem like some form of telepathy, no doubt. It was, in a way, she mused.

Looking at the distant figure of her other aspect she waved, laughing. The vocabulary of the whole thing was a little confusing even to her but the effect was so much fun and would definitely be extremely useful. The Varga waved back, feeling more than a little pleased with himself.

She jumped to stand next to him. With a shared glance, they started zipping across the city, covering a dozen or more blocks with each hop. It didn't take long before they could perform the action with almost no effort, the skill becoming practically instinctive. When they hit the city limits, they kept going, jumping to the maximum range they currently had, the world flickering past in mile plus intervals. Eventually they stopped nearly thirty miles away from the city to the north, having got there in under a minute.

"Well, that works," Taylor said with satisfaction. They were in a field with a couple of cows three hundred yards away in a shed, the thermal output of the animals the only source for some distance. The Varga, next to her, nodded.

"Better than I could have hoped," he replied. Turning to her, he switched to the same Saurial body she was in and smiled. "Thank you, Taylor. This is the best gift I've ever received. I am more free in many ways now than I have been in longer than your species has existed. Well, your original species, if we're being accurate."

She laughed quietly, putting an arm around her current twin's shoulder. "I'm glad you like it. I love having you as a best friend, and I'm happy to spend the rest of however long it will be with you, but I'm also happy that you can get out and enjoy things, rather than just watching. I hope that the Power involved is happy too."

"I rather suspect it is. If not, we may well have found this simply wasn't something we could do. It did, after all, unlock my abilities enough to make this possible, although without your own native wit and talents we'd never have found out how to do it." He shook his head in wonder. "Even if we can only do this on occasion and for relatively short periods, it is a joyous thing to experience. You are a _very_ good Brain."

"And you are a truly excellent friend," she told him with complete honesty. "I am luckier than I can say that we came together." Taylor hugged her friend, who returned it. "Now, what I really want to do is go for a fly before going home." She stepped back and took on the dragon form. He studied her, grinned, and duplicated it.

Both dragons, utter black in the dark and basically invisible to any normal person, nodded to each other, crouched, and flapped hard, blasting into the air in a huge burst of wind. Climbing hard, they ascended rapidly, in no time at all leveling off a mile up.

Gliding side by side, they headed towards the coast, flapping every now and then with a sound like a leather coat being shaken out. As they flew they were discussing the other possibilities of this single new technique, which was turning out to be more versatile than she could ever have expected.

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

Linda slid into bed, pulling the covers up and lying back, then rolled over slightly to retrieve a pad and pen from the table next to her. She flipped through it, stopping on the last page with content, a sketch she studied for a while, tapping the end of the pen on her chin in a reflective manner. Eventually she made some careful changes to the drawing, along with half a page of notes. Satisfied that she'd got down the idea she'd suddenly had, she closed the pad and put it back, the pen as well, then turned out the light.

The last couple of days since her ' _Vectura_ ' upgrade had gone well in her opinion. She was becoming more and more used to the feline additions she could produce with an act of will, finding the increased flexibility and strength very useful and the wildly more effective senses interesting. The workshop was coming along well too. Quite a lot of machine tools had been taken in from around the place, spares and redundant equipment that Lisa had cleared through Danny for her to make use of. There was more on order as well. Quite a lot of Adam's cash had been used purchasing a number of very nice new toys over the internet, which would be turning up over the next few days.

In a couple of weeks she was going to be in the middle of an extremely well equipped workshop, something she'd have practically killed for as Squealer. Now it had been more or less just given to her, something she was still a little shocked about, but incredibly grateful for. The DWU, the Family, and Danny Hebert had done right by her, far more than she thought she deserved, and she was determined to pay them back for their generosity and kindness. Some of the things in that notebook and on the boards in her workshop would, she hoped, go some way towards doing that.

Meeting the Mayor and his sister had been unexpected but interesting. He seemed to trust Danny if she was reading between the lines correctly, and respect him as well. The man himself seemed intelligent, thoughtful, and in many ways not at all what she thought of when she thought ' _politician_.' On the face of it he really did want to do the right thing for the city. In her admittedly limited understanding of the administration she felt that was slightly unusual for a man in his position, since they normally seemed to be more about power and control than helping the citizenry, no matter what the job description was.

He'd certainly been polite and respectful to her, and seemed to genuinely find her and her workshop interesting. If nothing else he came across as a decent person. Linda thought that she could come to like him.

Her thoughts turned to the PRT, and the visit to them to introduce her new cape identity. She was rather nervous about that, considering her background. The PRT had, for close to six years, been the enemy as far as she was concerned. But Danny, Saurial, and Metis had all assured her that Director Piggot was a person who they could deal with and while she wasn't at all fond of Parahumans in general, she was respectful towards the Family at least. Hopefully that would translate out to being reasonable about Linda herself.

In some ways she was quite curious to find out what they'd make of her. She had no idea what form the power testing would take, guessing it was probably going to be some sort of question and answer session followed by some practical Tinkering tests, probably involving Armsmaster. She considered the other Tinker to be very good at his job, but on the other hand he'd been personally responsible for disabling or destroying a number of her own inventions over the years, which she was somewhat irked by. Sure, they were being used to commit crimes, but she'd put a lot of effort into them…

Leet, or Kevin, had mentioned that he'd salvaged and repurposed some of her stealth tech for the audio field inducer widget that Dragon was apparently trying to reverse engineer. He'd seemed worried that she'd be angry. At first she had been, but after only a moment she'd decided that it didn't actually matter. In some ways it was something of a compliment. If Dragon was indeed successful, he'd said that he was quite willing to come to a mutually satisfactory arrangement over sublicencing it, which was a little tricky due to the whole Squealer thing, but probably not insurmountable.

Talking to the other Tinker and examining his power armor had been a lot of fun, and also educational since it had sparked a number of ideas and solved a couple of problems she'd been having with her own designs. She suspected that being on good terms with him was going to be both useful and enjoyable. His friend was also a nice guy with some serious skills and an amusing sense of humor.

' _Those lizards have built up a pretty good group of people a lot faster than I would have expected_ ,' she thought, rolling onto her side. ' _Between us I think we can make some fucking amazing stuff_.'

She was very much looking forward to working with Saurial to make the parts for her first project, and could hardly wait to see how well it worked.

Yes. Despite all the pain, fear, and confusion, she was very pleased how things had worked out so far. With any luck it was only going to get better.

Vaguely wondering where Adam was and what he was doing, while hoping she never found out, Linda drifted off to sleep, feeling pretty content.

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

Taylor retrieved her belongings, putting them away in her belt pouches, before turning towards home. They'd had a solid hour of flying practice, playing in the air under cloak and thoroughly enjoying themselves, until the strain of the duplication technique became too much and they dropped the second aspect. Some experiments had shown that they could teleport in the air as easily as on the ground, which had some interesting possibilities. They'd also spent some time working on a method to carry physical objects with them. There were a couple of possibilities which seemed promising and in theory not too hard, but there were also some subtleties to them which still needed a little careful thought. The Varga was pretty sure he'd have it worked out by morning.

Reaching her house after an easy jog from the DWU facility Taylor hopped the back fence and slipped in the rear door, locking it after herself. She could hear her father, asleep in his room and breathing steadily, so stayed cloaked to avoid waking him until she'd washed up and gotten into bed. Shortly she was asleep, smiling faintly and more than pleased with the day.

Two hours later her eyes opened and she sat up, a sudden idea having come to her in a dream.

' _Hey, Varga?_ ' she said slowly.

" _Yes?_ " he replied.

' _Would that work?_ '

He chuckled, having seen her thoughts.

" _I believe it would, yes. It is a neat workaround for the current minimum mass limitation_."

She grinned like an idiot. ' _Let's find out_.' Moments later she stared at the new aspect sitting on the bed, before reaching out and touching it. ' _Holy crap. That's_ ** _fantastic_**.' She started giggling. ' _We're going to have fun with this_.'

" _That, my friend, goes without saying_." He was as pleased and amused as she was. " _There are still some practical limitations, but they're not ones that I can foresee being a problem_."

Shaking her head, she lay down again, closing the eyes of her ' _Taylor_ ' aspect and practicing with the new one. It was definitely a weird experience but also one that was very entertaining. ' _Oh, this is going to be_ ** _good_** ,' she snickered. ' ** _So_** _good_.'

 **Friday, March 4, 2011  
**  
Drinking his coffee, Danny wondered where Taylor was. Normally she was down by now. Her breakfast was going to get cold at this rate. He'd tapped on her door ten minutes ago and told her it was ready, but there was no sign of her yet.

Picking up the paper he'd retrieved from the front porch, he opened it and started reading the headlines. Nothing particularly unusual stood out, or at least nothing unusual for Brockton Bay. Some of the things in it would have been considered a little odd in many other places, probably.

A minute later he heard a crunching sound. Lowering his paper he looked around, wondering what it was. Motion on the other side of the table caught his attention.

Danny stared.

The eighteen-inch-long matte black miniature dragon that was sitting on the table eating a piece of bacon turned its head to look at him with glowing yellow eyes. It still had half a strip sticking out of its mouth. Very slowly it sucked the remaining part in, chewed, and swallowed.

"This is good bacon," it said in a high-pitched voice, sounding pleased.

"Oh." He kept staring. "That's… nice."

It picked up another piece and ate it as well, looking thoughtful as it chewed. " _Very_ good bacon."

He was still staring. The thing ate the remaining bit of bacon, grinned at him, and took off, zooming across the kitchen and out the door, banking hard like a model plane with its wings flapping rapidly, then disappeared up the stairs.

Danny looked at the empty doorway for a few seconds, then turned his head to stare at the baconless plate. Another few seconds passed in silence, until he called, "Taylor? A word, please?"

Laughter came from upstairs as he put the paper down and massaged his forehead.

Sometimes he really wondered what went through his daughter's mind. Did she _work_ at coming up with this sort of thing, or was it something that just _happened?_


	243. Guest Omake - The Bathhouse

**The Bathhouse**

 **(by Saproneth)**

* * *

"I have to admit, I'm interested," Dragon said.

"I'm nervous," Battery replied. "A grand opening? For something those crazy lizards put together?"

She shook her head. "It's an invitation to trouble."

Assault cracked up laughing, pointing at the invitation in his hand.

"Shut up," Battery groaned

They rounded the corner, stepping aside to let a pallet of oxygen cylinders go past, then stared.

"That wasn't there yesterday," Armsmaster noted. "Fast work."

Above the door was a legend.

 **BBFO BATH HOUSE**

 _"The Liquid's Lovely!"_

After several seconds just staring, the capes moved closer with caution...

* * *

"So, the rooms are organized by temperature," Metis explained, pointing both ways down an improbably long corridor that was _definitely_ larger - by itself - than the building footprint. "The further you go that way, the colder it gets."

"This one says ice water," Assault observed, tapping on one of the doors. "It's not very far from the middle."

"That's my sister's idea," Metis told him. "It's normalized to human body temperature at the mid point. I think she's..."

Right on cue, one of the doors opened about five to the right of where they were standing. A billowing wave of steam came out, along with Ianthe - a towel drying off her scaled back, not without some difficulty.

"Ah, right on time!" Metis called, waving. "How is it?"

"Boiling away nicely!" Ianthe replied. "I think you're right, that is a good temperature for a jacuzzi."

"You make a jacuzzi by filling it with boiling water?" Dragon asked.

"That's just the start," replied Metis proudly. "I think Raptaur went for one of the really hot pools... hold on, I'll see if she's available."

The lizard stalked off.

About a minute later, Saurial came towards them from the left, mist hissing off her own scales and feathers. "Oh, hello!" she said, smiling politely - and with more than a few teeth. "Nothing like a cold dip in the morning, right?"

"What was in the pool you were using?" Battery said.

"Oh, liquid nitrogen," Saurial replied. "We've got colder pools, but we're still working on the liquid helium and liquid hydrogen. They have a tendency to escape."

Armsmaster stared.

Saurial waved her hand experimentally, then tilted her head. "Oh dear. Has he stopped working?"

"A pool of liquid what!?"

Any further reply was interrupted when Assault pointed, and the Protectorate Capes turned in unison to look down the other side of the corridor. Raptaur was walking along, with some kind of shiny metal running down her body and leaving glowing footprints on the floor of the corridor.

"That's liquid iridium," Dragon said quietly. "You just had a bath in liquid iridium."

"It's very good at getting muck off the scales," Raptaur replied, stopping a good twenty feet away. "I'd come closer, but I think you might catch fire."

She frowned, tapping a claw against the floor and leaving more droplets of glowing, iridescent metal. "I wonder if we should invite Alexandria to visit," she said. "I understand she might be able to enjoy some of the more mild temperatures."


	244. Miniatures and Confusion

Taylor came into the kitchen and sat down, then stared at her plate. "Hey, where's my bacon?" she asked, sounding puzzled.

Danny sighed faintly, while the tiny dragon, which was sitting on her shoulder with its eyes fixed on him, made a giggling noise that sounded like Vista on helium.

"It was yummy," the micro-dragon said.

His daughter turned her head to look at her passenger. "That's not very nice, you could have left me some."

""Why? It all goes to the same place in the end."

"That's not the point, is it? Now I have eggs on toast, and no bacon to go with them."

"Sucks to be you, then." The black dragonlet looked satisfied. After a short pause, it leaned closer to Taylor's ear and whispered, just loudly enough for Danny to hear it, "He's staring at me."

"That's because you're being greedy, you idiot," Taylor whispered back. Both of them looked at him, pretty much identical smiles appearing.

"Question?" he said in long suffering tone, raising a finger.

"Hmm?" She looked innocent.

He pointed at the micro-dragon. "How?" He was rubbing his brow with resignation with his other hand, a slow massaging action that didn't really help. He didn't _get_ headaches these days, thanks to Amy, but be felt he _should_ have one, and the memory of past ones was still with him.

She looked puzzled, then glanced at the flying lizard sitting on her shoulder. It was now looking around in a manner that implied it had no idea what he was upset about and was doing its best to whistle in a casual fashion. This wasn't very successful as it didn't really have lips.

"I'm not sure what you're asking, Dad."

"Oh, god, why me?" he moaned quietly. More loudly, he added, "Please explain the very small dragon sitting on your shoulder," in tones that implied he was speaking to a dim eight year old.

Taylor started laughing once more, as did the dragon. She held up her arm and it ran along it to sit on her hand. "Hi!" the thing said brightly, waving at him.

"Cool, isn't it?" she asked, regarding it with pride.

"I really really am," the dragon stated, striking a pose with its wings half-spread and its long neck curled back. "Growl. Snarl. I am Death From Above. Fear me, human. Growl. Hiss."

It didn't _make the_ noises, it _said_ them. Danny sighed.

"How the hell did you manage _this?_ " he asked plaintively. "You told me weeks ago that your base form was as compact as you could go in a shape-shift. How did you get a teeny little dragon out of your ridiculously overpowered bag of tricks?" He watched as the dragon jumped down onto the table, then trotted over to peer up at him.

"You look weird from this angle," she commented. "I can see right up your nose."

Peering down at the small creature, he watched as she cocked her head, smirking, then raised his eyes and met his daughter's amused gaze. "It came to me early this morning," she explained. "I can't shift smaller than my base form, true. Unless we use some fractal dimensional shenanigans, which we're still working on..." She appeared thoughtful for a moment, then shook her head. "Not important right now. Anyway, I suddenly realized that with the two body trick, the second body didn't have that limitation. _Any_ size secondary aspect is actually a shift to a larger size, overall, since it's still all part of the whole thing which is me. Varga agreed, we experimented, and..."

The small dragon sat on her haunches and waved at him. "I'm the result. Neat, isn't it? This perspective is bizarre, everything's so _big_."

While he gaped, she looked mischievous, then vanished. Danny felt a weight on his head. A long neck with an upside-down head on the end lowered itself into his field of view as he froze, tiny claws prickling on his scalp. "Hi, Dad," Taylor's diminutive draconic aspect chirped.

"And it can teleport too," he sighed. "You've been reading those McCaffery books again, haven't you?"

"Might have been," both of them giggled. The dragonlet vanished and reappeared back on her shoulder. "And some other ones as well. We came up with a few good forms," the human-form version added.

Jumping down to the table, the dragon-Taylor suddenly shrank to the size of a starling, before leaping into the air and flying around the room with a sound like a hummingbird. He held out his hand and she landed in it, wrapping her tail around his wrist and looking pleased again. "I have to say, this is _not_ what I was expecting to see at breakfast this morning," he muttered, lifting his hand and studying the tiny flying lizard. It crossed its eyes as he held it close to his face, looking down its snout. A moment later she popped out of existence and ended up flying around the room again. He watched as she strafed the table, a six inch long, painfully bright white flame coming out of her mouth with a sound like a blowtorch and setting fire to the toast on the plate in the middle.

He recoiled in shock, watching the cloud of white smoke rise to the ceiling. "Oops," the seated Taylor said mildly, reaching out and pouring some of the water from her glass over the flaming bread. "Magnesium flames are hot."

Danny sighed yet again as the smoke detector went off. The tiny dragon flew up, hung upside down from it, and pressed the button to reset it. "Sorry," it squeaked at him. Dropping from the ceiling she flipped over and glided back to the table.

"You are a definite hazard to sanity, and apparently to anything flammable," he told her. She dipped her head, looking apologetic. The full-size Taylor reached out and gently patted her on the head with the tip of one finger.

"That's all right, me, he didn't mean it."

"I did," he said, grinning. "You have the makings here of the most ridiculous stage act ever."

Both of them laughed, the dragon growing back to the original foot and a half size in the process and the pitch of her voice sliding down in the process in a comical way. "This is so much fun," the dragon-Taylor remarked happily.

"So, to recap," he commented, leaning back with his coffee mug in both hands, "You can be a teleporting, invisible, indestructible, fire-breathing, mini-dragon, even while you're sitting being what passes in you for a normal person as well?"

Both aspects nodded.

"We're doomed."

"Varga doesn't agree, he thinks it's hilarious," his daughter said through her human mouth.

"Of course he does. Why would I expect otherwise?" Having finished his coffee, he put the mug down. "You mentioned other new forms?"

"Oh, right, yeah. We're not sure about when we'll use them, but this gives some interesting possibilities. Look at this," the draconic variant of his daughter smiled, before changing. He stared at the three-foot-long brightly colored snake that was now coiled up in the middle of the table. It uncoiled, unfurling membranous wings in the process, and darted its tongue at him.

"A flying snake," he stated. "Oh, god, you didn't."

"I did," Taylor laughed. "Mom liked those books, and I do as well."

Danny watched his daughter's version of one of the Alaspinian minidrags out of the Alan Dean Foster Commonwealth books slither across the table, then climb up Taylor's outstretched arm, to end up wrapped across her shoulders. It fitted the description he remembered perfectly. "I suppose you made the venom too?"

"Yep. Verisimilitude, that's the key, when you're making fantasy animals."

The unblinking gaze of the fictional snake staring at him was unnerving, even knowing it was his daughter's mind behind those eyes. "The books say it's not only incredibly toxic but unbelievably corrosive too," he pointed out a little uneasily.

She nodded. The snake did as well.

"We were curious to see if it was possible. It is." It was a little worrying how pleased she looked about this.

"What else do you have?"

He wasn't entirely certain he wanted to know, but curiosity drove him to ask. The snake vanished, a new creature appearing next to the table. It was about the size of a large dog, long and slender on strong hind legs with a long tail, and looked like a small variant of something that might have evolved into Saurial. It was partially feathered and brightly colored. "What the hell is that?"

"An actual Velociraptor," it said, with a stronger accent than Saurial had. "As far as I can work out from the research I can find on the internet." This version of Taylor tilted her head to the side, looking at him with one eye. "Weird, it feels a bit like Saurial but not nearly as flexible." She snapped her jaws a couple of times. "Good bite, though."

"Hollywood would love you," he smiled. Reaching out he felt the feathers on her head with one hand, curious. "Interesting."

"It might come in handy at some point, but it was mostly because I wanted to see what would happen," the other aspect of his daughter commented. "We tried half a dozen small dinosaurs just for fun. A few other things as well. Like this."

Danny watched with amusement as the dinosaur disappeared, then a foot tall version of Saurial appeared on the table, complete with armor and holding a pair of swords. She bowed, went through a blindingly quick kata of some form that looked like an intricate yet wildly dangerous dance, then grinned. She was instantly replaced with an eight inch high copy of Taylor in her base form, who stood with her hands on her hips seeming very satisfied with things.

"All right, I admit that's pretty astounding," he laughed. "I assume that you can survive being stepped on?"

"Oh, sure, I'm still tough enough to take almost anything like this, and I bet I could lift several hundred pounds even now." Looking around, the mini-Taylor picked up a fork and tied it into a knot.

"Thanks, dear," he sighed as he accepted the implement and inspected it. "That helped."

"I'll make a new one," she giggled, doing so. "Here's a cool form." She changed again.

He pushed his chair back from the table with an involuntary yelp, staring at the tentacled scaly horror that had appeared in the middle of it. The thing looked slightly hurt, somehow, and made a motion with one tentacle. "Too much?" it said. He nodded jerkily. "I did mention I was working on tentacles, didn't I?" He shook his head, just as jerkily, not looking away. "Oh. I'm working on tentacles. We seem to have cracked it."

" _Why_ did you want to make a microshoggoth?" he asked with forced calm.

The creature, somehow, shrugged. "Just in case?"

"In case of _what?_ " he asked incredulously.

"You know..." It waved a couple of tentacles idly. "In case. You never know when a microshoggoth might come in handy. Or a full scale one, but the last time I tried that, Lisa fell over."

"Please go back to being a dragon," he begged. "That, at least, I can deal with."

"Oh, all right," it huffed. "I didn't even get to say **Tekeli-li** ** _._** " The last word was hissed in an eerie voice that made him shudder. The horrifying, albeit small, Lovecraftian creature turned back into the equally small dragon, which was grinning widely.

"What do you think?" she asked. He shook his head, then got up, taking his plate to the sink.

"I think you're completely nuts, and that you only have twenty minutes to finish your breakfast before you need to leave for school." The dragon giggled and disappeared, while the ' _real_ ' Taylor, assuming that was even vaguely accurate now, quickly ate the remaining food on her plate. She helped him wash up, kissed his cheek, bowed to him, and vanished.

"And don't freak out your friends," he called loudly.

"I'll try not to, Dad," she called back from upstairs just before the shower started.

Smiling a little, still trying to come to grips with her latest trick, he put the crockery away and went into his office to retrieve his briefcase.

* * *

Chris leaned his head on his hand, half-listening to the remedial math lesson as he idly sketched various concepts in the margins of his workbook. He knew he should really be working more on the math, since he was awful at it due to his dyscalculia, but ever since his breakthrough he'd found it more difficult than normal to think of much other than all the cool things he could make now. It was a common Tinker malady, one exacerbated in his case since he'd been mentally spinning his wheels since he'd Triggered, not really knowing his specialization.

Now, thanks to some insight brought on by a massive overdose of caffeine, sleep deprivation, and watching Saurial casually violate a significant number of the commonly accepted rules of reality with aplomb, he was certain he knew his main ability. It seemed, in the end, to revolve around what he thought of subassembly design.

Armsmaster had called it modularity when he'd discussed it with the elder Tinker, his nominal mentor in the field. The older man had seemed genuinely pleased for him, and also relieved that he finally knew it. Mutterings of ' _This will increase your overall efficiency to an acceptable level_ ' were heard, which considering the source was probably meant as a compliment.

Dragon had emoted a smile even through her power armor, somehow, and shook his hand in congratulation. He'd spent some time discussing the breakthrough with them and had come away with a much better idea of what it meant.

He still had no idea where that fucking pizza oven and doughnut making machine had come from, though. Or what, if anything, they were subassemblies of. Perhaps some sort of robotic fast food place? Whatever, without replicating the state of mind during which he'd created them, something he was reluctant to do if only because Amy would do something horrible to him when she found out, he didn't think he could either repeat the process or work out what he'd done.

And he just _knew_ Amy would find out if he tried again…

Both machines were still working perfectly, the pizza maker becoming extremely popular and currently the subject of a petition, started by Assault and co-signed by Dennis, to have it permanently fitted to the cafeteria in the PRT building. Almost every staff member in the place had signed it, having tasted the pizza.

The doughnut maker was safely under lock and key in his secure storage area, as an anti-Missy precaution. She was hyper enough at the best of times, but when she'd gone through a box of pastries… He shuddered a little. No, that way lay even more madness than her weird drawings portended.

Although, now that he thought about it, she was walking around the day before with a bag of chocolate doughnuts and a smirk. Perhaps he needed to check the security again?

Missy was definitely different recently. More… contented, perhaps. Like she'd also worked out something that left her pleased.

Chris shook his head slightly. Whatever was going on with his younger friend was probably something only a girl could understand and hence something he should try to stay away from. He had more important things to concentrate on. Sketching yet another version of a universal interconnect unit, while trying to decide on the best mix of power and data paths, he jumped when someone beside him cleared their throat.

"Am I boring you, Mr Jacobs?" a voice said.

He guiltily looked up, to see the teacher glaring at him.

"Ah… No, sir, not at all."

"Perhaps if you paid more attention to the mathematics and less to daydreaming we might be more able to overcome your problems," the man said, somewhat sarcastically. Chris flushed slightly.

"Sorry, sir," he muttered.

"Please try to pay attention. This is for your own benefit." The man didn't really look angry, more a bit resigned, as he headed back to the front of the room. Several of Chris's classmates were looking at him with sympathy and amusement mixed together. Sighing inaudibly he put his pencil down, folded his hands on the desk, and did his best to listen. And resist the urge to pick the writing implement up again and resume drawing.

He was _so close_ to the perfect design!

* * *

Amy looked up at an odd crunching sound, yipped in shock, and recoiled. Everyone in the geography class turned to stare at her.

"Cramp again, Ames?" Vicky said with a broad grin.

Not looking away from the small black dragon that was thoughtfully chewing on one of her pencils, perched on the corner of her desk, Amy nodded. "Cramp again. Sorry." She reached down and massaged her leg to drive home the point, while glaring daggers at the small reptilian menace.

"Maybe you should get that checked out," her sister said, giggling.

"Settle down, class," the teacher remarked as several people laughed. "Eyes front. Now, where were we? Ah, yes, western Canada. On the 13th of June 1886, Vancouver suffered a massive fire which destroyed most of the city as it was at that time, yet..."

Amy paid little attention. The tiny version of Taylor's dragon-form finished eating the pencil, belched discreetly, then looked contemplatively at the other one on the desk next to where the first had been. She reached out and grabbed it, putting it out of reach. "How the fuck are you doing this?" she hissed under her breath.

The dragon smirked at her. "Brilliant, isn't it?" she chirped happily. "Watch!"

Amy blinked as the creature disappeared, then looked wildly around. Eventually she spotted it sitting on the teacher's desk exploring the contents. Picking up one of the textbooks, which was widely regarded as possibly the most boring book in the school, the dragon leafed through it for a few seconds. It looked ridiculous, the book was massive by comparison. Eventually shaking her head in disgust, Taylor-dragon closed the book again, then experimentally nibbled one corner of it. Amy winced at the toothmarks left behind, before glaring as loudly as she could manage.

Not dissuaded, Taylor explored some more, before vanishing again. This time she reappeared on Vicky's desk, peering up at the blonde girl who was looking right past her without seeing her. Amy watched, trying not to be too obvious about it, as the small lizard rearranged the various things on her sister's desk, while wearing an evil grin. When she finished moving everything around, she looked at Amy, then back to Vicky, getting a thoughtful look again.

Amy groaned internally. She knew that look, it meant something weird was going to happen. Which, considering her best friend was currently a foot and a half long black dragon patterned on something from a movie, sitting on her sister's desk, was saying something.

Taylor walked delicately across the desk, then dived into Vicky's backpack, which was propped on the floor against one leg. Only her tail stuck out, the appendage moving around as she rummaged in the bag. After ten seconds or so, she popped out again holding an ink pad, which the blonde girl used with a stamp that had her name engraved into it to stamp all her books. That was something of a fad at the moment.

Vicky's pad used a rather nice violet ink, something she'd special-ordered and that was quite distinctive. Amy sighed as she watched her friend put the pad on the desk, open it, put one forepaw/hand onto the surface, then press down. With a grin she lifted the hand and applied it to the front of Vicky's notebook having closed it, lifting the hand to reveal a perfect tiny clawed handprint in violet ink. Giving it a second or two to dry she opened the book again to the correct place.

' _Oh, for god's sake, you lunatic_ ,' Amy thought. ' _Are you trying to_ ** _make_** _her think something is going on?_ '

There was very little chance of anyone working out _what_ was happening, of course, but they'd know _something_ was.

Taylor looked over at her and winked, then blinked away. Amy sighed, looking around to see where she'd ended up. This turned out to be on Dennis's desk, where she was engaged in repeating the hand-print trick, this time on one of his books, several times. Lifting her hand she looked at the results with satisfaction. After a moment, she reached out and wiped some of the violet ink along the side of his left hand, where it was resting on the desk, as if he'd slipped when cleaning up. He didn't twitch, not noticing at all thanks to the cloak spell.

The small dragon grinned, stole his monographed pen, flew back to Vicky's desk and put it neatly next to her own writing tools, returned the pad to the backpack, then popped across to Amy's desk. "I wonder what they'll think about that?" she asked.

"You really are trying to start a prank war, aren't you?" Amy mumbled under her breath, looking at the small dragon, which shrugged.

"Got bored with English lit," she explained.

"And the tiny little dragon form?"

"I'll explain later, but it's really cool." Her friend's miniature aspect giggled, then jumped into the air and flew around the room, before diving at the window, which was closed. Just before impact she vanished again, reappearing on the other side and flying off. Amy groaned quietly.

This was going to be _weird._

And she was _incredibly_ envious...

* * *

Taylor flew around the school grounds, leaving the Varga in nominal charge of their normal ' _Taylor_ ' aspect as she sat through the lesson on a book she'd read and discussed with her mother when she was ten. Keeping part of her attention in that direction if she needed to answer any questions, her other aspect did loops and rolls around the place, enjoying the light breeze and March sunshine.

' _This is so much fun_ ,' she chortled. ' _It's weird, but being so small makes it better in some ways._ '

" _A different perspective on the world, perhaps_?" the Varga suggested.

' _Maybe. It's different when I'm much bigger too, but somehow this is stranger_.' She landed on top of the flagpole and perched there, looking around. Motion on the street caught her attention. It turned out to be a large cat that had been cornered by a pack of stray dogs, which were taking turns to dart in and try to bite it. The cat was giving as good as it was getting, lashing out with claws extended and smacking the dogs across the face, but there were enough of them that it would eventually get worn down if it couldn't escape.

Since she liked cats, Taylor decided to intervene, dropping from the pole and extending her wings. She glided down towards the fight, modifying the spell on the way so that the animals could perceive her yet no one else could. Landing between them, facing the dogs, she spread her wings and hissed loudly, which made them all spring back and look surprised. Behind her, the cat was growling loudly, spitting and hissing as well, but fell abruptly silent at her arrival.

"Fuck off, dogs," she snapped. She didn't want to hurt them, but also didn't want to see them kill or injure the cat. One of the dogs overcame its surprise enough to lunge at her, the enormous-at-this-scale jaws opening. Spinning on the spot she smacked it with the end of her tail, then fired a blast of magnesium-fueled flame towards the others. They all yelped and turned tail, running off like the devil was on their trail.

Satisfied, she nodded. "Typical gang," she muttered, more than a little amused at the parallels. Looking over her shoulder she saw the cat staring at her from a couple of yards away, its eyes wide and its fur bottled out still. "Calm down, kitty, I'm not going to hurt you," she added soothingly.

They faced each other as she turned around, the cat looking like it would bolt at any moment. "Here, kitty, kitty," she called, sitting on her haunches and beckoning to it, while conscious of how ridiculous this would look to an observer. In her head, the Varga was snickering constantly.

The cat merely stared at her, although it was starting to smell more curious than scared. She could see the fur gradually lowering as it relaxed a little.

"Maybe this will help," she said, reverting to a miniature Saurial form. The animal twitched, then stared in what seemed to be surprise. After another half minute, it very slowly crept forward, extending its neck and carefully sniffing her.

Twenty minutes later she was leaning on the cat scratching it between the ears, with the animal purring loudly and looking as ecstatic as a cat can look. It was stretched out on the ground in a patch of sunlight, apparently completely over its near-death at the jaws of the dogs.

Watching it, she grinned. Another satisfied customer.

An idea came to her. She stepped back and regarded the animal thoughtfully, while it looked reproachfully at her and stopped purring, clearly wanting more scratches. "Want to help me with a funny prank on a friend?" she asked it. The cat perked up its ears and stared at her. "This would be easier if you were smarter," she added reflectively, forming something between her hands. "But I think we can come to a mutually satisfactory arrangement."

As it turned out, they could, but it took a _lot_ of persuading...

* * *

"Where did that cat come from?"

"Look out, it's crazy!"

"Hey!"

"Ow! Damn it, what was that?"

Amy turned around in her seat, looking across the cafeteria towards the commotion. She stared, gaping, then very slowly turned back to look at Taylor who was also watching with a tiny smile on her face.

"I hate you sometimes," Amy growled softly enough that her friend was the only one that heard her.

"No, you don't, Amy," Taylor replied, grinning more widely.

They watched as the large cat bounded around the room, students, teachers, and the janitor all trying to corral it and herd it outside. Amy was sure that she was the only one to see that the animal had a weird-looking tiny saddle on it, which in turn contained a miniature Saurial who was holding a set of reins with one hand and waving a minute Stetson hat with the other while whooping with glee. She put a hand over her face as the cat got up onto one of the tables and charged along it, scattering food everywhere and leaving footprints in someone's dessert.

Shouts, screams, and wild laughter followed the pair around the room until one of the people had the wit to open a window. The cat leaped up onto the sill, mini-Saurial pulling on the reins that led to a bridle around its head, causing it to momentarily stop. She put the hat back on, waved to Amy with a massive grin, then vanished as the cat jumped down onto the ground and disappeared.

"That was weird," Taylor commented mildly as she turned back to the table. Mandy nodded, still looking after the cat. Lucy, Eric, and Rich were bent over laughing and ignored her. Over at the Ward's table Dennis was clapping and shouting "Encore!," which made Carlos reach out and slap the back of his head.

"You are..." Amy gave up and shook her head in despair. "Very you."

"Thanks," Taylor grinned.

None of their friends noticed as they were too busy either laughing or watching the chaos unfold, as everyone else ran around trying to save their lunches.

"How the _hell_ did you persuade a _cat_ to let you saddle it?" Amy whispered.

"A _lot_ of scratching of the ears, and some tuna," Taylor whispered back, still grinning. "Saving him from the dogs probably helped too."

Shaking her head in wonder, the healer went back to her lunch, more curious than ever about how her friend had managed to manifest miniature versions of herself. Yet again, they were definitely going to have to have a long, _long_ talk.

* * *

Vicky looked at her notebook, confused. What the hell?

Where had that stamp come from? She didn't remember doing it, although it was in her special ink, she was sure. And who the hell would make a stamp that looked like a tiny little lizard's…

She froze, then very carefully inspected the mark. She could see tiny claws on the fingertips, all faithfully replicated in ink. With an internal shiver, she looked carefully around. The cafeteria was noisier than usual, due to the stray cat that had caused total uproar twenty minutes ago. People were still picking things up, quite a few students volunteering to help as the janitor handed out mops. She could see Taylor sweeping up some spilled french fries over by the serving area and smiled faintly. It was very much like her friend to help out after something like this.

Considering the girl, she wondered yet again if any of her suppositions about her were accurate. And if the Family was somehow responsible for the odd things that had happened here over the last couple of days. They did seem to share a theme, after all.

But on reflection she really couldn't see how Saurial or her relatives could possibly be leaving little drawings of smiling lizards around the place, or violet footprints on her book. Or why, for that matter.

No, it had to be someone a little closer to home. Someone like…

"Hey, where's my good pen?" Dennis muttered, looking through his backpack with a frown. Rummaging around, he started emptying it onto the table, stacking books and pieces of paper next to him. Vicky spotted a flash of a familiar color and reached out to grab one of the notebooks, seeing it had a very familiar appearing reptilian handprint on it in a shade of ink she recognized instantly. She stared at it, then raised her eyes to Dennis, who was still poking through his stuff. Her eyes widened slightly before narrowing again.

"Dennis?" she asked calmly.

"Hmm?" He didn't look at her, just made a sound of acknowledgment, as he kept searching.

"Why do you have violet ink on your hand?"

"Ink?" He turned to look at her, then down at his hands. "Where?"

"There." She pointed. "Violet ink. Just like this little mark here on my book." She held it up and tapped the offending spot with her manicured fingernail. "Ink exactly like the stuff I use on my pad." Reaching into her bag having put the book down, she felt around, grabbed the loose stuff at the bottom of it having lost patience, and dumped it all on the table. Picking up the pad she waved it at him. "This pad right here."

"I..." He seemed lost. "What?"

"You stole my pad and made this mark on my book to freak me out, didn't you?" she demanded.

"... _What?_ " He looked completely befuddled now. Their friends were looking between them alternately, appearing puzzled as well.

"I can see where you were practicing on your own damn book," she snapped, pointing at it. He looked there as well and seemed even more confused, picking it up and staring at it.

Turning to her after a few seconds, he shrugged helplessly, opening his mouth to deny everything. His eyes dropped, then he stopped dead. After a short pause, he pointed.

"That's my pen," he said slowly, causing Vicky to stare in turn, then follow his finger. Sure enough, in the stuff she'd dumped on the table, a gold fountain pen with the name ' _Dennis_ ' written down the cap glinted in among her other pens and pencils. She picked it up and gaped at it.

"How did you get my pen?" he asked.

"How did you stamp my book with my own ink pad?" she retorted.

They glared at each other, then as one turned to look at Mike at the next table, who was obviously listening with interest, as were his friends. He held up his hands in protest. "Whoa, whoa, it wasn't me."

"Sure it wasn't," Dennis gritted. "That's two. My revenge will be awesome."

" _Our_ revenge," Vicky stated, putting her hand on his arm.

" _Our_ revenge. Yes. _Fear_ the team-up of Dennis and Vicky, you pale imitator of a prankster," Dennis hissed with an evil smile. Mike mock-cowered and covered his head as his friends laughed. Carlos sighed quietly, Dean looked confused, and Chris was grinning. "We will strike when you least expect it, and we will be _merciless!_ "

"As long as there's no cabbage involved, go ahead," Mike snarked, looking suddenly very amused. Vicky growled at him.

Hearing a repetitive thudding sound, she looked around to see her sister gently banging her head on her table while Taylor, who had finished sweeping up, rubbed her back comfortingly. The tall girl looked over to Vicky and shrugged.

Dismissing it as yet another odd thing her sister sometimes did, the blonde put her head next to Dennis's and started plotting, having given him his pen back.

Something had to be done about Mike.


	245. Guest Omake - The Book? (by CmptrWz)

**The... Book?**

 **(by CmptrWz)**

* * *

Dragon looked over at Raptaur as she handed Colin a small book, maybe a hundred pages by how thick it was, titled ' _Construction and use of the FamTech™ N-Dimensional Abacus, Volume 1._ ' After he took a look at the first page or two he flipped back to the beginning and started to digitize each page with his helmet camera.

She glanced across the room where Taylor and Amy were playing Pong on one such abacus. Somehow the various beads and rods of varying shapes, colors, sizes, and dimensional qualities came together to form what amounted to a fairly decent resolution touchscreen. She wasn't at a good angle to see who was winning, though that was at least partially because she was at the wrong angle to see the "screen" at all. It only really worked from the front, though she did spend a minute or two seeing if she could interpret what she could see. She gave that up as a bad job when she realized she couldn't see into the spacial folds enough.

Leaving that trail of thought behind she turned to the other, slightly larger, and much more concerning abacus in the room, currently being worked on by Über and L33t. She wasn't sure what they were doing as they had apparently been at it for hours before Colin was contacted by Raptaur to see if he was interested in seeing some Family computational devices she had brought in from home.

Deciding she didn't want to know right now as they were definitely too far in for her to catch up she instead accessed Colin's digitized pages. He was 150 pages in and she lost herself for a few minutes looking over them. Soon after that she had to take a break as several of her subroutines started to generate constant errors trying to parse the information. She had barely made it 75 pages in, and Colin had digitized another 25 while she was looking over those 75. He seemed to be slowing down for some reason, though.

Shaking her head and glancing over at Metis she wondered what the odd smirk was about. Probably better to not ask, much more likely that she will only find out when whatever it is comes to pass. Maybe. It could be hard to tell around here.

Amy yelling about Taylor cheating somehow by manipulating beyond the third dimension in the Pong game distracted her for a moment as she tried to figure out how that might work. She had to stop as her subroutines went back to generating errors as they tried to use the information she had already looked at from the manual to figure it out.

A quick check showed that Colin was just passing the 200 page mark in his digitizing, though something seemed wrong with him. Perhaps he was paying too much attention to the pages as he worked and having similar issues to her? That might explain why he had slowed down.

Suddenly Über yelled in triumph from across the room. Apparently they had somehow gotten Doom to run on the abacus, and now they were going to work on StarCraft. She wasn't sure if she should be horrified, impressed, or ask to see their work in hopes it could help her understand the devices. After a few moments she made note to ask them later and set different subroutines to be horrified and impressed at the same time. No need to limit herself, after all.

"What in the world?" Colin muttered, something she only noticed because he had left their private channel open. She looked over and after a quick check noted that he had stopped digitizing pages after page 208 and was flipping rapidly forward through the small book. Somehow giving off the impression that the book was now just as interesting as the contents. She wasn't sure what could be that interesting about a 100 page book, though.

Metis snickered over by the computers, a quick check showed that she was watching Colin flip through the book. Raptaur had started poking around in Doom at L33t's urging, and Taylor and Amy had apparently come to an agreement about how many dimensions they were allowed to manipulate in their game of Pong. She wasn't sure how many dimensions that was, though. Or if she wanted to know right now.

All of a sudden one of her Master/Stranger monitoring subroutines threw up an alert. She quickly checked it and found that it had found a discrepancy in her environmental observations. She very carefully brought up the description of the discrepancy, in hopes that whatever was causing it would be less likely to have an impact on the textual description.

 _Book's apparent dimensions and construction indicate at most 150 thin pages, but over 500 pages have been flipped through in same direction without reaching midpoint._

What?

Sure enough, looking back at her own actions she had noted over 200 pages had been digitized before Colin started flipping rapidly through the book. Somehow the _book_ was _bigger_ on the inside, holding more pages than it appeared to on the outside. Even now Colin was just reaching what looked like it might be the halfway point.

She gave this careful consideration, cross-referenced a number of things from previous interactions with the Family, and decided that it made just as much sense as most of their other abilities. Why shouldn't their books be bigger on the inside when viewed from a three dimensional frame of reference? It would also nicely explain how such a small book could hope to describe the FamTech™ abacus.

She was going to have to re-work that monitoring subroutine, though. Apparently when she corrected for Vista's abilities shortly after their first meeting she hadn't quite gotten the recognition of N-dimensional effects down correctly. Maybe she should ask to borrow one of the Family's desktop architectural models to help her get things right?


	246. Preparations and Trips

Sarah picked up the phone with a look at her sister. Both Dallons were in her living room along with her own husband and they'd spent an hour or so discussing the request that Amy had passed along from Metis, and thence from Armsmaster. Now, dialing, she waited patiently. " _Miss Militia_ ," the other person said when the call was picked up. " _How can I help you, Lady Photon?_ "

"We've received a request via Amy and Metis that the Protectorate is interested in our help," she replied politely. "We've discussed it and we're open to the idea. Perhaps we should meet to go over it in more detail?"

" _Yes, that's certainly a good idea_ ," the military-themed cape said after a short pause. " _Hold on for a second, please, I need to ask someone something_." The line went quiet for a little while. " _OK, sorry about that. Would it be convenient if I came to your house in approximately half an hour?_ "

Sarah looked around the room, putting her finger over the mic. "Half an hour?" she said quietly. Everyone nodded. Removing her finger, she said more loudly, "That's fine, we'll be waiting for you."

" _Thank you. I'll see you soon._ " Sarah disconnected and put her phone back in her pocket.

"OK, she's coming here to talk about it. We're all agreed we'll do it?"

"I think that if we can come to the same arrangement as before to do the work via the DWU and BBFO, there's no reason not to," Neil commented. "We made some easy money, not to mention made out like bandits with the new costumes, which are amazing. The DWU liked us, the city was grateful, and even the PRT seemed fairly pleased. We've got a lot of good publicity out of the entire thing aside from anything else. And if we can help take down Coil, while getting paid for it, why not?"

Mark nodded thoughtfully. Carol looked slightly dubious still, but Sarah could tell she wasn't actually against it in principle. "Carol? Everyone else seems up for it. What do you think?"

The other woman appeared mildly uncertain, then shook her head once and made a gesture of resignation. "I can't help but feel that I should be able to come up with a reason not to, on general principles, but I can't. I agree, it sounds like a sensible idea from several viewpoints. The money only being one of them. I would much prefer to be paid via BBFO, though, I don't want us to be directly indebted to the PRT."

"Fair enough, neither do I," Sarah commented. "And I'm sure Director Piggot is no more keen on the idea than you are. BBFO is a good intermediary which keeps everything neat."

They discussed the currently limited amount of information they had on the entire operation until the Protectorate cape turned up, her motorcycle grumbling into silence outside the Pelham's house. Once she was settled in the living room with a cup of tea, she began explaining what New Wave would be required to do, how things were planned to go, and the timescale. It gave everyone something to think about but in the end they were happy that it all seemed entirely possible.

* * *

Colin looked around the table in his lab. Present were Dragon, Legend, the entire local Protectorate cape contingent, three extremely highly vetted and well trusted PRT lieutenants, and Emily, making the room feel smaller than ideal. However they had little choice at the moment since for something this sensitive he didn't trust anywhere else other than the BBFO office.

"I think that covers everything we have for you until now," he finished. "Dragon's equipment is arriving very early tomorrow morning. It will take her, myself, and a small team of specialists most of the day to do a parallel install. We'll have it ready by the point we're also ready to begin the assault on Calvert's base. As soon as we turn off the entire system the raid can begin. While the raid is proceeding my team will be transferring control to the new system, entirely disconnecting the old one from everything, and isolating it for later analysis. We expect that we can use the opportunity to locate any more agents he has hidden in our midst during the process."

"Lady Photon contacted me this morning and requested a meeting," Hannah put in as he finished. "Metis asked Amy Dallon to mention we wanted to use New Wave as backup. They've agreed to everything we require, only asking that BBFO be the official go-between."

"Fine with me," Emily remarked, nodding. "It makes the paperwork vastly easier if nothing else."

"They feel the same way."

"What about the explosive problem?" Ethan queried.

"Metis claimed that Ianthe would be amply able to come up with countermeasures. I expect we'll learn what those are when we meet, but I have little doubt that she was being truthful," Colin replied. "I'll contact her soon to arrange a meeting at the BBFO office later this evening. After that, I'll be very busy as will Dragon getting things ready for the hardware and software changeover. I suggest a short further meeting at BBFO just before the raid, to coordinate all parties and make sure we all know our places and tasks."

"And I have to go and see the Mayor," Emily sighed. She glanced at Rory, who was listening with interest. "Is your father in a good mood at the moment?"

"Yes, Ma'am," he smiled. "He has been for a while. Although he's not going to be too pleased about having to shut down the entire center of the city for a few hours, but if you explain the reasons to him, he'll go along with it."

"Your father is a pain in the ass," she muttered.

He looked amused. "It's not impossible he's said the same thing about you. Ma'am."

She gave him a look which made his smile shrink suddenly. "I feel I didn't need to hear that, Mr Christner. Although I am unsurprised." Ethan was now grinning, winking at the younger man when the director took her eyes off him, Colin noticed. Turning to him, she instructed, "Call Metis, arrange the meeting."

"As you wish, Director," he replied, reaching out to the phone on the table. He hit a quick-dial number and they waited. The phone rang a couple of times, then was answered.

"BBFO, Metis speaking."

"Hello, Metis," he said at the sound of the familiar deep voice. "This is Armsmaster. I'm here with Director Piggot and our colleagues, we've been discussing the upcoming mutual project. I was calling to ask if we could arrange a meeting with your Family for later this evening."

"Hello, Armsmaster. Of course, that's not a problem. I'm the only one here at the moment but I'm expecting Saurial, Ianthe, and Raptaur to turn up later. We've been expecting your call, and we've discussed the details of the project quite a lot. We believe we see some solutions to your requirements."

"Excellent," he replied, pleased that she understood the need to be discreet without mentioning it. "What time would suit you?"

"I would suggest that you arrive at six, if that's all right with you and the Director. That will give us time to finish off some other work, and make sure we have enough chairs."

He looked at Emily, who was listening carefully. She nodded. "That would work for us. There will be," he looked around the table, "twelve people coming with me."

"Fine, that's not a problem. I'll notify the DWU to expect you. You know where to go. I have also passed on word to New Wave through Amy, hopefully you'll hear from them soon."

"We've already done so," Hannah said.

"Ah, Miss Militia. Hello to you as well. OK, that's good. I'd suggest it would be sensible to bring them as well, or at least a representative."

"I'll call Lady Photon and arrange it," his friend said. "Can you accommodate so many people?"

"Easily," the big lizard replied with a chuckle. "You've seen our facility, it's a decent size. We'll move the table out and make some more chairs, there won't be any problems. We look forward to seeing you."

"Thank you, Metis," he said, reaching out to disconnect the call.

When he'd done so, he glanced at the Director, who was making some notes. "Do you wish to use my facilities to call the Mayor?"

"I'll go and see him personally, I think this needs to be face to face," she said, then looked up from her writing. "I don't need to go into enough detail to be worried about security. And if I do, for whatever reason, we'll need to both go somewhere more secure than his office."

"His office is actually extremely secure, Ma'am," Triumph said. "He got some experts a friend of his recommended in some time ago to fit the place with more anti-surveillance gear than you'd believe. It's probably better secured than the Oval Office in most ways."

She looked mildly surprised, but nodded. "Useful information, thank you. Even so, I'm reluctant to talk about this outside somewhere we can guarantee Coil's people can't get to." She looked around the table, a forbidding expression crossing her face. "Understand this. I _do not_ want to let that bastard slip through our fingers. No one discusses any of this outside a known good secure zone, which is here, the BBFO office, and that's it. We have no idea how much of the system Coil can still access and there's no point in taking chances. Understood?"

There was a wave of nods around the table. Legend was looking thoughtful and intense, the others were similarly thinking hard about the entire operation.

"In that case, meeting adjourned for now," she went on. "We'll get together again at six at the BBFO office. For anyone who hasn't been there before, be polite to the DWU people, they take their privacy and security at least as seriously as we do, and they have some very heavy backup. Don't start anything." She looked around at them all. "Dismissed."

Everyone stood up, Dragon and Legend moving to the side, as the others left his lab. Colin watched them go, closing the door when the last person was out. Director Piggot was looking very thoughtful and like a woman with a mission.

"She's looking forward to this, I think," Legend commented mildly when they were alone.

"That was definitely the look of someone who is going to be much happier when this is all over," Dragon agreed.

"We all will be," Colin said. "I am very worried about how Coil managed to get so deeply embedded into our systems, and can't help but wonder how far that embedding went. He had years to work on this. Logically he's likely to have some sort of backup plan for if he gets discovered, most likely more than one. I'm not happy about the thought that something might get triggered when we bring the system down for a reboot."

"All we can do is go through everything as carefully as possible, hope for the best, and prepare for the worst," Legend noted. "Even if there is a backup we miss, with good planning and preparation we'll be ready to deal with it. And I trust the pair of you to find that sort of thing in the first place."

"Thank you, sir," Colin replied. "Unfortunately, neither of us can completely guarantee we've found everything, although we're confident we've discovered the bulk of the traps. The rest, even if they exist, should be rendered harmless when the computers are shut down."

"Unless there's a dead-man switch somewhere which relies on that exact scenario," Dragon pointed out.

"Indeed. But all we can really do in that case is be ready to deal with it," he nodded. "If it's too deeply hidden to find after all the time we've spent so far, we won't find it by Sunday morning unless someone gets lucky. But there's hopefully a limited amount of damage such a trap could do. We've swept for explosives, toxins, everything we could think of and all our facilities are clean."

"Well, I suppose we keep working on it, but other than that, we just have to proceed as planned," Legend sighed. "I still find the idea that one of our own could go _that_ bad upsetting. And that he got away with it for so long. However," he shrugged a little, "better late than never." Looking at the clock, he added, "I have to go and talk to someone, so I'll leave you to it. I'll see you at the BBFO office."

He left and Dragon and Colin were soon heavily engaged in planning the assault to take place over the weekend.

* * *

"We didn't arrange a session for today," Mandy said as they stood just outside the school in a group.

"No, sorry, the Mayor's thing sort of threw my scheduling off," Taylor apologized. She was watching Amy's face, which was going through some interesting if tiny changes as her friend in turn watched her secondary aspect, back to being what was becoming one of her favorite forms, the small dragon. This was sitting on her own shoulder, one hand propped on an ear, making faces at Amy and the occasional slightly rude gesture. It amused both her and the Varga to see how long they could keep it up before Amy snapped and said something about it.

Right now she was fixing them both with a deadly glare and gritting her teeth, the sound faintly audible above the students surrounding them and making Eric look around with a puzzled expression. "What's that weird sound?" he said. "Sort of a crunching noise."

"No idea," she shrugged. "Termites in the walls, maybe?"

Everyone other than her or Amy looked suspiciously at the building for a moment.

Amy glared harder.

Taylor winked at her.

So did the tiny dragon.

"It's a bit last minute now," she went on, as they all looked back to her and Amy's expression smoothed out rapidly. "Why don't we do it tomorrow? I'm free."

"Me too," Lucy said. Eric thought for a moment then nodded.

"I can do that."

Rich and Mandy both agreed too. Taylor looked around, then called to Vicky, who was huddled with Dennis again, both of them snickering in a manner that boded ill for one Michael Shea, known prankster and official rival of Dennis. "Hey, Vicky? We missed today, you up for getting together tomorrow for some math and movies?"

The blonde jumped guiltily at her call and looked over her shoulder, then smiled. "Sure, I can make it. Afternoon or morning?" she called back.

"Afternoon, around two or so?" Taylor looked around at her friends all of whom nodded. "Around two."

"Sounds good. I'll get some snacks as well this time." Vicky looked pleased. Taylor waved to her, she went back to her plotting, and Taylor turned back to the others.

"There we go. Mustn't lose momentum after all."

They all looked pleased. "Thanks, Taylor," Mandy said gratefully. "You really wouldn't believe how much your tutoring is helping my math, and it's a lot of fun as well."

Her other friends all made similar comments. Even Amy nodded although she was also giving her a stare that made her think the healer wanted a private word at some point. Which she found funny.

"OK, see you tomorrow, then," Lucy smiled, as she and the other girl headed off. Eric gave them a wave, smiled at the remaining ones, and also left in a different direction.

"Sounds good," Rich said, a satisfied expression on his face. "See you around." He went over to talk to some other friends, then left with them. Taylor and Amy stood next to each other watching, then turned to study Vicky and Dennis, who were now bent over a book in which the latter was writing while the former made suggestions.

"Get off my shoulder," Amy snarled.

Taylor's mini-dragon aspect, which was indeed sitting on her left shoulder, tickling her ear with a long tongue, smirked then vanished. Taylor's primary aspect snickered. Amy's _only_ aspect turned and gave her a long even look, sighed, and headed for her truck. "Come on, you danger to sane people everywhere. We need to talk."

When they reached her vehicle, Amy didn't even blink at the velociraptor, wearing a leather jacket and a cap sitting backwards on its head with a cigarette in the corner of its mouth, lounging against it while toying with a baseball bat. She merely waiting with aggrieved patience until Taylor relented and dissipated it. "Stop watching old movies," she grumbled, getting in and putting her seat-belt on.

Following suit, Taylor was giggling so hard she missed with the tongue of the belt clip twice before she managed to lock it in place.

"Got it out of your system yet?" Amy asked with heavy sarcasm as they drove off.

"Pretty much," Taylor replied, still grinning.

"Going to stoke the prank war I can _guarantee_ Dennis and Vicky are plotting? And Mike as well, he's _worse_ than Dennis. Did you _see_ his expression? He was more than happy to take the excuse you gave him after an unconvincing denial."

"Nope, my part in that is done." Taylor shrugged. "It wasn't deliberate, honest. I was just sort of amusing myself toward them for the prank they pulled on The Amy. She's one of my closest friends, you know, and such an insult couldn't go unchallenged."

"That was weeks ago."

"Revenge, best served cold, that sort of thing," she explained.

Amy sighed, shaking her head, but the corner of her mouth was twitching even so. "I wonder about you at times."

"Times?"

"Times I'm awake." Her friend snickered. "Then I tend to dream about it as well."

"Oh, that's nice, you dream about me." Taylor leaned towards her companion and put an arm around her. "Besties?"

"Get off me you scaly nutcase," Amy growled, pushing her away with one hand. "I'm trying to drive." Sitting back in her seat, Taylor laughed. Her friend did as well a moment later.

"Oh, god, that was… ridiculous," the other girl snickered. "A mini-Saurial riding a cat… Just insane. No one would ever believe it. _I_ can hardly believe it." She glanced at Taylor, who was watching her with a grin. "Why the sudden pranks in school?"

Shrugging, Taylor tried to think of the best way to explain. After a few seconds, she said, "It's a combination of things, I think. Part of it is that my last couple of years have been so shit in every way. Since things changed, it's been… better, definitely, a huge relief, certainly. The Varga, Dad coming back from where he'd been heading as a result, getting out of fucking Winslow, meeting you and Lisa and everyone else..." She rubbed her face with her hands, suddenly feeling a little tired. "Difficult to explain in some ways. I went from someone who was, and I don't want Dad to hear this, _very_ close to killing myself..."

Amy looked at her sharply, then gained a thoughtful look, over the appalled one. Taylor shrugged absently.

"True. Not any more of course, but that sort of relentless shit takes it out of you. And it just got worse and worse and worse with no end in sight. God knows what would have happened if it wasn't for that fucking locker ' _prank_ '," here she made viciously ironic finger quotes, as Amy gritted her teeth and looked furious for a moment, "or as I like to think of it, attempted murder. Which I'm pretty sure is how the law would actually look at it, in fact."

Her friend nodded. "Definitely. Perhaps manslaughter at the least, but I'm sure a good lawyer could make a case for negligent homicide if not worse."

"Not that it would have done me any good if I'd died, though, right?" Taylor propped her head on her hand and put her elbow on the door, gesturing tiredly. "If it wasn't for a whole string of ridiculous things, I could have died, been crippled for life, had a psychotic break, god knows what. Or possibly even Triggered, I guess, if the Varga hadn't come along." She peered out at the scenery, toying with her hair with the other hand. In her head, the Varga himself was silently listening but she could feel his sorrow for her, and the deep anger he still had over the entire situation.

"Sometimes I wonder what that would have been like? What power I'd have gotten?" She shrugged again. "Not important, and I'll never know. What happened was the stupidly, insanely unlikely best possible option, no thanks to Sophia, Emma, Madison, or any of their little minions. Or the rest of that whole fucking school, for the most part. I lucked out like I still can't believe and ended up with a whole mess of powers that are just stupidly over the top. You know about that, and you know how much I have to hold back against _everyone_. Christ, I could take Alexandria, Eidolon, Legend, you name it. I _did_ take Eidolon and I had Alexandria at my mercy. I didn't ask for this, I never really wanted this amount of power, but I'm stuck with it forever."

She glanced at Amy, adding quickly, "Not that I mind in the least, it's the best thing that could ever have happened to me. But the point is, it was a complete one in a billion fluke. And the one thing it definitely does is make sure that my life will _never_ be normal, in any way at all. That's fine, I love my life now, but like I said, I went from someone who was bullied, tormented, and very close to suicidal to someone who is loved, protected, able to do pretty much anything I want to do, and has a lot of really close friends, in only two and a bit months. I missed out on the entire high school thing, I never went to friend's houses, I didn't get involved in any of the normal teenager stuff. I was too busy just being depressed, and keeping my head down in the desperate hope that _today_ would finally be the day that they stopped. And maybe I'd get Emma back, although _that_ hope died a _long_ time ago and it's never coming back."

With a shake of her head, she idly manifested the mini-dragon, the Varga immediately taking control and resting his head on her shoulder as she stroked him. Amy looked at her again, but said nothing. They just drove in silence for a while.

"I guess what I'm trying to say, badly, is that when we worked out this sort of trick," she motioned to the small dragon draped over the back of the seat, "it gave me an opportunity to do some of the things I missed out on. Like prank people. I saw it happen all the time even in Winslow, friends playing little practical jokes on each other that _weren't nasty and malicious!_ God, you wouldn't _believe_ how much happier I'd have been if that was all I'd had to deal with. Trust me, from personal experience there's one hell of a gulf between what those bitches did and what Dennis or Mike do. If nothing else, _their_ tricks are funny even to the people they play them on, and they pick their targets carefully to avoid any real damage. Your sister too, she's got a great sense of humor, and so do most of the people in Arcadia. They're a lot better adjusted than people in Winslow, believe me."

"I think I understand," Amy finally said. She was gripping the steering wheel much more tightly than required, causing it to audibly creak under the strain. "And I'm stifling the sudden urge to make a Sophia-seeking plague and let it go near the PRT building."

"Don't go evil, Amy," Taylor smiled. "It's beneath a member of the Family. As is Sophia, and her friends. But thanks for the thought."

"I am perfectly happy to eat her if you wish, Taylor," the Varga said through the dragonlet, somehow managing to have his voice much deeper than it should have been which was peculiarly worrying. "In this form, it would take some time. Which is yet another reason to do it."

She giggled, stroking his back. "That's probably not appropriate, my friend, but I appreciate the thought. I don't want to think about Sophia, or Emma, or any of them. My revenge is knowing I win and they'll never know, thanks to you." She looked at Amy. "All of you."

"You don't need to thank me, Taylor," her friend replied. "You saved me as much as I helped save you. It wasn't nearly as bad with me as it was in your case, I think, but it was heading somewhere horrible even so. Without you and that demonic mad thing in your head, I suspect it would have ended badly sooner or later." She shivered slightly. "I can forgive any number of ridiculous practical jokes for that."

Taylor smiled at her friend. "Great. Sorry about teasing you like that but you're one of the few people I actually could do it to. And the expression on your face was hilarious… I still have a couple more in mind, but I'll save them for a good time."

Amy looked hard at her. "You do _realize_ I'll have to retaliate at some point?"

"Go right ahead," Taylor grinned. "I'm curious to see what you come up with. Make it impressive."

"I will. _Very_ impressive."

"Wonderful."

They shared a snicker, before Amy concentrated on driving again. After a while, Taylor asked, "You don't think I went too far at school?"

Amy snorted. "No. It was nothing like as much chaos as Dennis alone can produce when he puts his mind to it. And Mike can top him no trouble. Don't worry, even if they knew who did it, no one except perhaps the teachers would be that upset, you'd probably get congratulated for livening things up for a while. Although I'm pretty damn sure that things are going to get odd for the next couple of weeks, even without your help, now that you've kicked things off."

"Oops."

Her friend chuckled. "It's overdue, aside from that thing with me Dennis has been restraining himself for long enough that people were getting paranoid. Probably best to stay out of it, though, he doesn't actually _need_ your help and your particular brand of craziness might make it bad enough that the National Guard got called out."

Taylor put her head on the seat rest, grinning. "I'm pretty much done now. I just couldn't resist. I have a couple of ideas for Kevin and Randall, which should be amusing, but other than that I'll be good."

"Out of interest, why did you put a little purple lizard hand print of all things on Vicky's book? I can understand implicating Dennis, that's just common sense, but it seems slightly odd."

"It seemed like a good idea at the time?" Taylor shrugged with a smirk. "Don't know, really. It just came to me as a possibility since I'd seen her with that pad dozens of times. I was tempted to make a little stamp and leave it on Dennis's desk with my hand print on it but thought that might be pushing things too much."

"She had a weird look when she spotted it," Amy remarked thoughtfully. "She's been strange, or stranger than usual, for a week or so now. I wonder why?"

"No idea. Has anything unusual happened to her?"

"Not that I know of, although there _was_ that thing where she got distracted and flew into a building. Mom wasn't happy about it." Amy grinned. "Very loudly not happy about it."

Giggling, Taylor looked at her, then back out the window. "Hope she's OK. We can ask her tomorrow, maybe there's something I can do to help."

Amy looked suddenly amused. "You could invite Saurial along, that would make Lucy's day..."

"Hey, not a bad idea." Taylor considered it. "Yeah, let's do that, but keep it a surprise. I bet she'll love it."

"And you'll be grinning on the inside the entire time, right?" Her friend gave her a significant look.

"Like _you_ won't be too," she snickered. "I bet you really want to be able to do this as well."

"So fucking much," Amy sighed. "You get all the best powers."

"Yours are amazing too, and I suspect with some careful thought you can probably do something really cool I can't, or even something that I can," Taylor told her honestly. "I'm waiting to see what you come up with next. So far you sure haven't disappointed me."

"OK, enough complimenting each other. How the hell did you do _that?_ " The other girl indicated the Varga-occupied second aspect which was now watching the traffic go past. The tiny dragon winked at her.

"Cool, isn't it?" Taylor said.

"Very. Immensely, in fact. But I'm really puzzled about..." Amy suddenly got a thoughtful look, then stared at the dragon for a moment. "Ah. Sneaky."

"Worked it out?"

"It's all one body, so you're not actually shifting to a smaller size at all, right?" the healer responded, seeming enlightened.

"Basically." Taylor explained the process and how she'd literally dreamed it up, and all the things she'd done that morning at breakfast.

"That is fucking remarkable," Amy finally said when she finished, again looking envious. "So very cool. Lisa is going to fall over again, probably. Especially if you show her a microshoggoth."

"So you don't think I should?"

"I didn't say _that_ , now, did I?" her friend grinned. "Just make sure I can watch."

Both girls laughed again. "Oh, god, think what Lucy would do if she saw you like that?" Amy suddenly said, making Taylor giggle. "She'd go _nuts!_ "

"Vista probably would too."

"That's a point, will she detect your spacial link?"

Taylor thought about the question, glancing at the Varga-dragon, before shrugging. "I'm… not sure. The method we're using isn't quite what she does, although it's using some of the things I worked out from watching her do her thing, so maybe, maybe not. I guess we'll have to wait and see."

Amy nodded, moving out around a slow vehicle. A little later, when they'd turned onto the road to the Docks, she abruptly looked startled, then thoughtful, then at Taylor. "Purple ink."

"Hmm?"

"Purple ink. From Vicky's pad."

Her friend just looked at her, making her sigh. "I just realized that you used the _same ink_ that was on your hand on Vicky's book _and_ Dennis's. So you took it with you through a teleport. But you couldn't do that yesterday, so that means you worked it out."

Taylor was amused and pleased her friend had noticed. "Yep."

"How?"

"It's pretty interesting and not as hard as we thought it would be. Varga is the one who really figured out the main part. Basically, since it's all me, no matter how many aspects I have, there's a common reference point. We can anchor a spacial fold to that and use it to put things in, and take them out again, using any aspect. Sort of like that thing that Circus is supposed to do in a way."

"You made a stuff-space pocket?!" Amy looked envious all over again. "I absolutely _have_ to learn Varga magic at some point."

"That's more or less true," Taylor grinned. "When we do the new aspect and switch from one to the other, it turned out to be possible to sort of move anything on one aspect into the pocket, then back out again onto the other aspect. The ink was a bit difficult since it wasn't actually a single discrete object like a phone or coins would be. There's some tricky math involved and we're still working on optimizing it but it seems to work."

"So for all intents and purposes you really _can_ teleport now?"

"Yep. Only for about a mile and a half max right now, but I can do it pretty quickly over and over again." She explained their trip around the city, practicing, the night before. "We made it about forty miles in a straight line from where we started in less than a minute, and I bet we can speed that up. Nothing like what Strider can do, or most other teleporters, but it's way better than nothing and should be very useful."

"And unlike Vista, you don't get blocked by living creatures, I guess, since you're not Manton limited," Amy noted.

"That's true. We found that you can't really open the link to somewhere that's already occupied by something, or at least it's much harder to do it, so that's not a problem either. I won't be accidentally appearing in solid rock. I mean, I could survive it, but I bet the bang would be impressive and there's no point wasting all that rock." Taylor looked pleased with herself as Amy laughed.

"I really am envious of that entire trick," she sighed, but in a good-humored fashion. "Demons get all the cool powers."

"We do indeed, Amy," the Varga nodded wisely. "As is right and proper."

"Quiet, you, you're just a bad influence on everyone around you," Amy replied, grinning.

"I am a demon. That's what we do." He looked very amused.

"So I've noticed." Amy glanced at Taylor. "You can give your dad a dragon ride now and even teleport him around the place, I guess. That should be an impressive way for the DWU boss to arrive at a meeting."

They looked at each other, then all three started laughing wildly. In her head, Taylor was already working out the best way to bring that up to her father.

* * *

Danny read the email again, thought hard for some time, then very carefully wrote a reply. He looked over at Lisa, who had come in a while ago and was reading through some of the renewal program documentation with interest. "Looks like I'll be out of town next week, Wednesday and Thursday. Try not to let our scaly friends wreck the city while I'm away."

She chuckled, turning to him. "I'll do my best. Are you leaving me in charge, then?"

"Jesus, no!" he said, although he was grinning. "I'll be leaving someone _responsible_ in charge. Kurt, I think."

"Not Zephron?"

"He'd have everyone singing the Hebert Anthem by the time I got back," Danny sighed, making her snicker. "No, I think Kurt can handle it. Be nice to him, he's an old friend."

"I'll see what I can do to help," she smiled. "Where are you going?"

"New Jersey," he replied, looking back at his screen, then closing the email program. "To have a conversation I should have had years ago."

The blonde girl studied him, before slowly nodding. "OK. I understand."

He was sure she did. "Thanks."

"No problem."

She returned to reading the document and he went on to other work.

* * *

Vicky looked at Chris, who had sighed unhappily for the third time in as many minutes, while he stared at the textbook on the table next to him. She, Dennis, Chris, and Dean had all decided to have a burger after school and were currently sitting in Fugly's, food in front of them and herself and the red-headed boy with their heads together working on a plan for a prank on Mike. They had a list of half a dozen and were going through the pros and cons of each in turn. One of the cons, of course, being that some of them would be difficult to pull off without being caught, which sort of defeated the entire purpose.

They wanted something where everyone knew who did it, but no one could prove anything. Especially Mike.

It would be easy enough using their powers, of course, but that was fraught with problems, not the least of which being that their respective abilities were well known. She had little to worry about aside from her mother and the school staff, but they didn't want to give Dennis away, and Clockblocker's time stop ability was much too distinctive to risk using. So they'd have to do it the hard way. They'd just been trying to work out where to get two trained ferrets when she'd noticed Chris's despondency.

Dean, who was eating his burger and listening to them plot with a visible sense of mild disapproval mixed with occasional smiles, also turned to his friend. "What's up this time?" he asked. "You're… not happy." He didn't say what was obvious, that he could detect the emotion the other boy was emitting, but they all understood.

"It's this fucking dyscalculia," Chris muttered, leafing through the book, then closing it with a bang. "It's so frustrating! I just can't get this. Everyone else seems to but I can't understand half of it no matter what I try."

"That class not working out?"

"Not really." He slumped back in his seat, picking up his milkshake and desultorily sucking on the straw. Removing it from his mouth, he gestured with the cup. "It's meant for people who are just bad at math. What I have is worse than bad. I don't think the teachers really know how to deal with it, although I have to give them credit, they're trying."

"Isn't there some sort of specialist help you could get?" Vicky asked sympathetically. "I mean, you were only officially diagnosed with it about two years ago, I know, but surely in that time someone could have found an expert who knows how to help you."

"I've talked to half a dozen experts since then," he sighed. "Problem is that dyscalculia is a newish sort of diagnosis and there isn't much dedicated aid for it in the system yet, everyone is different anyway, and according to them I need one to one tutoring on some things. I can't see how that would actually help if I can't understand the basic stuff." He put the now-empty cup down with a look of irritation. "Adding is easy enough if I have time, subtraction is a pain in the ass, and long division…? I try to follow the rules and get a different answer every damn time."

"It took me a long time to be good at it," she replied.

"But at least you _got_ it," he retorted. "I'm nearly sixteen years old and there are kindergarten kids who are better at basic math than I am. That's not something I'm proud of."

He ate a few fries, scowling at the book as if it was about to go for his throat. Vicky reached over and picked it up, flipping through it curiously. It was a basic arithmetic primer, she saw, with a number of exercises in it that were unusual compared to the sort of thing she remembered from years ago. They seemed intended to help fix basic concepts in the mind of the student. "Arcadia is at least trying, though," she pointed out. "So they haven't given up."

"No, they haven't. Some of the teachers are genuinely trying really hard. It's not their fault, it's a big place and there are a lot of kids there, and not enough teachers to spare one to do nothing but teach me something everyone else learned ten years ago."

"Not everyone, or you wouldn't have twenty people in that class," she pointed out.

"OK, not everyone, then. Most people." He shrugged. "Still more than can be accommodated individually. And I don't have all that long left in school, but I'll never get into college with grades like this. And it's not like Mom and Dad can afford the sort of private tuition I need, we're well off but not rich. Special needs experts don't come cheap."

He picked up his burger and took a bite out of it, returning the remains to the plate. When he'd swallowed, he added, "Not to mention that there's no guarantee it would help in the first place. I've read all the teacher guidelines and other stuff I can find on the web about it and most of it says that this is something you have to deal with really early. No one knew what my problem was until I was fourteen or so, they just thought I was slow."

"Maybe you are," Dennis commented with a smile. "I mean, sometimes I have to explain a joke to you. No normal person would need that."

Chris threw a fry at him, which he caught in his mouth, then grinned. The Tinker did as well for a moment. His friend was obviously trying to cheer him up. "That's because your jokes aren't funny half the time."

"Says you."

"Yes. Says me. And Carlos, and Dean, and Vicky, and..."

Dennis sighed mournfully. "No appreciation for the art of the joke, you people. Philistines."

Vicky giggled while the others all smiled. "You're a weird little person, Dennis," she said.

"But you love me anyway, right, Vicky?" he replied, leaning his head on her shoulder and looking up at her with big eyes. She pushed him off, laughing.

"Stop that, you're just embarrassing yourself."

"No, I'm fine with it. The problem must be you," he grinned.

"Weird. I said it before, and I meant it."

"Maybe. But that doesn't help Chris, and we still don't know where to get the ferrets from." He frowned in thought. Dean watched him, then shook his head.

"I think the ferret prank might be a little hard to pull off," he said. "Try again."

Dennis looked mildly disappointed but nodded. "Probably right. Damn. I was looking forward to his expression." With a sigh he crossed out one of the items in the small notebook he was holding. "Come on, Vicky, think harder. We need a good one."

She was thinking, but for the moment about something other than their plot. "Hey, I wonder if Taylor could help you. She's brilliant with math and is really good at teaching."

"Taylor?" Dean and Chris both said the name simultaneously. Dean, for some peculiar reason, looked a little worried for a moment, she noticed, wondering why. Chris looked puzzled.

"Why do you think she could help?," the latter asked.

Vicky replied, "She helped me, and Mandy, we were both pretty crap at algebra and calculus but only a few hours with her showed us some things we'd never thought of. Amy and the others weren't as bad, but they've all improved as well. I bet our group ends up with higher grades in math than we would have otherwise by a big margin, all because of her. Maybe she can do something for more basic skills."

Now the boy was looking somewhat dubious. "You think? Algebra is one thing, basic mathematical operations are something else."

"It's worth a try, though, right? Maybe it won't help, maybe it will. But if nothing else is helping you enough what do you have to lose?" Vicky grinned at him. "Worst case you get some snacks and can watch a movie or two in good company. Best case, maybe she can figure out something to help you. She's smart and helpful, I bet she'd agree to at least try."

She held up her phone. "We're going over tomorrow afternoon. Want me to call her and ask her if you can come too?"

He thought about it, eating some more fries, then shrugged. "Why not? What's the worst that could happen? I could do with something different, it's driving me nuts."

"OK." She quickly scrolled through her contacts one handed, found the right number, and hit dial. The others listened as she had a short conversation. When she hung up, she turned back to him. "There we go. She said she was happy to at least give it a shot. And to bring some more chips."

"Thanks, Vicky," he said with a small smile. "I don't know if it'll help, but you're right, it's worth a try."

"Great, you've helped Chris. In the mean-time, _I_ have been working on something important," Dennis cut in. "We need a bag of flour, ten feet of rope, a small fish, six marbles, a toothpick, and some glue."

They all looked at him, then each other. "A fish?" Dean asked in the tones of someone who really doesn't want to know the answer, but can't help asking. "What the hell do you need a fish for?"

"To bribe the cat with, obviously," Dennis said, rolling his eyes. "Try to keep up."

He began explaining, which shortly had them all shooting his latest plan down in flames, but kept them entertained.


	247. Omake- When Pranks Go Wrong

"Are you _sure_ this is a good idea, Amy?" Lisa looked dubiously at the sealed vial her friend was holding, then at the frankly disturbing grin above it. Even outside the ' _Ianthe_ ' construct, there were a _lot_ of teeth and they looked much too sharp…

"Yes," the healer said firmly, with an undertone of suppressed glee. "I'll show her. Thinks she can prank us and not get some retaliation? That demonic lunatic is going _down_."

"The demonic lunatic who is your best friend?"

"That's the one."

"The one who you tried to prank with a yard full of fast-growing, carnivorous trees? The same trees that nearly ate Velocity, somehow evolved into _mobile_ fast-growing carnivorous trees, and actually _chased Armsmaster for nearly six miles?!_ "

"Indeed, it is she."

Lisa sighed. "You do _remember_ what happened with the copy-fish, right? They were suppose to all look like Saurial and confuse her, but they mutated into sharks with legs and swarmed the Boardwalk. The Mayor was livid, Director Piggot nearly had an aneurysm, and Taylor mostly laughed her ass off. Then ate them all, her and the Varga. Same as she did with the trees."

Amy shrugged. " _This_ will work." She frowned, glancing over at the door to the rear of the room, which was currently propped open because it was a nice day outside, and gave a view of the bay. "Although I'm pretty sure there are still some swimming around out there. She let them go to have something to chase, I think."

Turning back to her friend, she held up the vial again. "Anyway, this is much better. She always smells us coming, which is why it's so hard to sneak up on her and set anything up. This will fix that."

"By making _everything_ smell the same?" Lisa looked even more doubtful.

"Exactly. It's brilliant! This is a short lived but fast growing synthetic bacteria. Once I release it outside, it will spread and grow like crazy, while giving off a very specific scent I designed specifically to overwhelm her demon senses. It was a huge amount of work, but I did it!"

Pinching the bridge of her nose, as Amy giggled with deranged glee, Lisa shook her head. "Either you need a holiday, or _I_ need a holiday," she mumbled. More loudly, she said, "That sounds extremely unwise. A self-replicating synthetic organism? The PRT will go mental. And what if it mutates into something dangerous?"

"Firstly, it can't mutate, it uses a very carefully designed DNA-analog based on Taylor's, which is insanely error-correcting and self adjusting. Secondly, it can only self replicate for a small number of iterations, which is just enough combined with the lifespan of the individual bacterium to make it only able to spread approximately three miles from the release point before it starts to die off. It's completely safe, I promise." Amy looked pleased with herself.

"Hmm." There was a pause, then Lisa asked the obvious question. "So, after spending all that time and effort, what does it smell of? Something weird and alien, that's going to make everyone look worried?"

"Bacon."

Lisa stared at her. "Bacon?"

"Yep. Bacon. Perfectly cooked, nice, crisp bacon." Amy shrugged. "It turns out that's the smell demons love more than anything else."

"Oh, for god's..." The blonde girl slumped into a chair, scrubbing her face with her hands. "You are as bad as she is. No. You are _worse_ than she is." Amy merely looked at her. "So when you've managed to make the entire city smell of bacon, what's the next part of your glorious prank?"

"I sneak up on her while she's asleep and draw a mustache on her face." Amy snickered. "She'll never notice until she's at school. Then everyone will laugh and point. Revenge will be mine!"

She cackled to herself, while Lisa head-desked for a while, wondering what she'd done to deserve friends like these.

Eventually, she just rested the side of her face on the cool tabletop. "This entire city is nuts. I need to go live somewhere else. So when are you going to release this..."

She sniffed.

Then turned to Amy, who was holding an empty vial, upside down, over a puddle just outside the door. The healer grinned at her.

"Whoops."

"Oh, shit."

 **Fourteen hours later…  
**  
"Well, you were right about it being an overwhelming scent," Lisa grumbled, sitting on the DWU dormitory block with a pair of binoculars to her eyes. "Pity you didn't think that hours of smelling bacon _everywhere_ would make her a little… peckish."

"That's the bank on the corner of West and Main, isn't it?" Alec asked idly, next to her, as they watched a cloud of dust rise. "Kaiju just ate the front right off it."

Amy, on her other side, groaned. "Oh, god, mom is never going to let me hear the end of this."

"Raptaur is eating another telephone pole," Brian reported from where he was standing behind them, also with binoculars. "Like a fucking bread stick. Unbelievable."

"Shit, Kaiju just grabbed Armsmaster's bike and swallowed it like it was a grape," Alec said, snickering wildly. "He looks pissed."

"He shouldn't have slowed down, she's going after the slowest things first," Brian sighed. "Good job, Amy. Really, very impressive. Your best work yet."

They watched another building collapse as the facade was ingested by a hungry sea monster.

"How long until it starts to die off?" Lisa asked fatalistically.

"Another four hours," Amy admitted, looking embarrassed. She perked up a moment later. "But it worked! She was walking around with a big black ink mustache all day!" The healer looked around at the others, who were regarding her with various expressions. She slumped again. "I just need to work on the collateral damage."

Brian reached down and patted her shoulder. "No, no, I think you mastered _that_. Best collateral damage I've ever even _heard_ of."

Resting her head on her knees, Lisa just tried to pretend that today hadn't happened. It was difficult with the sound of distant munching going on.

"On the bright side, it's lots of work for the DWU, I guess," Alec pointed out happily. "And no one is ever going to mess with you again, Amy."

Half a mile away, Taylor's Raptaur aspect ate a traffic light...


	248. Guest Omake - You must obey the Law!

**By CmptrWz**

* * *

"Wait a minute" Saurial said, having looked over the full law. "This specifically states that I can't create or destroy matter or energy without a permit. But I don't do that."

"You are regularly observed doing just that!" the officer who had served the papers yelled.

"No, " Saurial corrected. "I pull energy from outside of the observable multiverse and convert it into matter, and send it back outside the observable multiverse when I am done with it. That is not creating or destroying it!"

"But..." the officer stammered, only to be interrupted by Armsmaster.

"Can you prove the energy comes from a defined location?"

"Well, I could open a direct window," Saurial said. "But I am not sure that is safe. You humans have such trouble with the most basic of higher dimensions and all."

"Please demonstrate anyway," Armsmaster replied.

Two weeks later Armsmaster's headache was finally receding. The officer had yet to recover from the initial glimpse, and for some reason tinkers and thinkers from all over the planet were trying to get to Brockton Bay to try and figure out where the window had opened to. The PRT couldn't figure out how they knew to come, though, as the incident hadn't even been officially recorded and from what they could tell most of the thinkers in particular had started moving within minutes.

(Because an unknown, undocumented, but provable source of seemingly limitless energy would probably be a very big draw for shards, regardless


	249. Guest Omake - Ftang-Zboing

(does it go eccie-eccie-eccie first?)

 **By CmptrWz**

* * *

Amy was glad for the enhanced senses and durability granted to her by the Ianthe construct as she listened to Taylor describe what she was going to try and do, if only in anticipation of how badly this could go. She assumed Lisa was just as happy to be in the Metis construct for the same reasons.

"Thus, by bouncing off of the extra-multiversal energy field we should be able to overcome the limitations of the portal spells Varga knows best," Taylor concluded.

"So, to summarize," Lisa stated after a moment of thought. "Because Varga's best portal spells are interdimensional in nature you want to bounce off of something even further out to exit and re-enter the same dimension, thus making it technically an interdimensional trip. Because for some reason you can't just turn around in the space between dimensions and making two portals to leave and return is quite difficult or requires stopping somewhere else first."

"Yep!" Taylor confirmed. "It should make everything trivial from a targeting and energy consumption point of view. In fact, if it uses more energy than expected it should automatically draw some from the extra-multiversal energy field without any extra effort being required! Oh, and avoids the potentially nasty issue of the join point for two portals cutting things, living or otherwise, in half and/or collapsing into each other and destroying all of reality."

"I think it is a very bad idea, but can't come up with a good reason why right now," Lisa stated, already trying to forget that last bit. "Also, my power has, as far as I can tell, started looking for a new notebook and a fresh pen to take notes with."

"Here," Taylor absently said as she handed a freshly made FamTech® MegaBook™ (5000 pages but only uses 100 pages of space) and a FamTech® EverPen™ to Lisa. Kindof. Maybe. Possibly. Probably not. Amy couldn't figure out what just happened, she now had a migraine, Lisa didn't look any better, and the MegaBook and EverPen had both vanished.

"So that's a thing," Lisa finally muttered. "My power now has new toys, new things to try and figure out, and Taylor has new ways to induce headaches. But at least it has a decent notebook and pen to take notes with now."

"Not to interrupt your preparations or anything Brain," Varga interrupted from the mini-dragon form he was watching all of this from. "But how exactly did you just do that?"

"Do what?" Taylor asked, not really paying attention.

"You handed my _power_ a notebook and pen!" Lisa shouted, grabbing Taylor and spinning her around. "THAT SHOULDN'T BE POSSIBLE!"

"But your power's physical form is at the end of the tether in your head," Taylor pointed out and gestured in the 8th dimension, reinforcing both Amy and Lisa's migraines. "I think it ends a couple of Earths that way."

"I can see it," Varga said after a moment. "I don't know how, but now I can see it. You handed the items to the existing link, didn't you?"

"Yep!" Taylor confirmed, going back to her portal preparations, no longer caring about what had happened. Or, more likely, no longer caring that Lisa and Varga cared because it was a distraction from her portal project.

"And I thought I was the bad influence on reality" Varga stated after a few minutes of thinking about it. The mini-dragon form then blinked out of existence.

"Let's get this show on the road," Taylor said, stepping back from the portal anchor she had just finished working on. Before anyone could say anything else she did something and the entire BBFO building started to shake slightly. A few moments later and the opening in the anchor shimmered. "It's open!"

Lisa very carefully approached the anchor, circled it once, and then backed away. She did not let her eyes leave the anchor at any point in time.

Amy sensed that something was seriously wrong and backed away as well, and was considering locking herself in her lab until Taylor was done. But EDM or not that may not be a safe enough distance. But opening the BBFO door to leave may be considered breaking containment and dooming the rest of the planet with her. Decisions…

Taylor apparently decided enough time had passed for the portal to stabilize and promptly stuck her head through it.

* * *

Two Massive Entities were approaching their target planet, setting up the cycle that would run there. One was distracted with a new toy and did not notice the slight shimmering of space in front of it. All of a sudden a head appeared from the shimmering point in space, and an Unknown Entity Error crashed all of the thinker abilities the Entity was running.

The head made a surprised expression and pulled back, the shimmering point vanishing a moment later as the Massive Entity's thinker abilities, including the ones that were assisting with the planetary approach, started to recover. They would not do so in time.

The other Massive Entity had not seen any of it and thus did not realize anything was wrong until it was too late to help.

* * *

Taylor suddenly pulled her head back out of the portal and frantically closed it. Then stopped for a moment and dismissed the entire anchor as well.

"I appear to have miscalculated," Taylor finally said after staring at where the portal had been for a bit. "For one, I missed Earth entirely. For two, I think that wasn't the correct dimension, meaning the ricochet isn't accurate enough. And for three, I think I missed the right time as I get the feeling that was thirty years or so off target. Which is just more evidence of the ricochet not being accurate enough."

"What was the first clue that you missed?" Amy finally asked. Lisa appeared to have gone into a thinker-fugue or something. She was likely going to be unavailable for the next few hours.

"The giant space whale coming at my face in the middle of the void was a good tip-off" Taylor replied. "Maybe I should stick to methods that don't rely on bouncing off of an energy field outside of known spacetime. Or unknown spacetime, for that matter."

Lisa chose that moment to faint. "That's new, she doesn't usually have that kind of issue when inside of Metis" Amy commented after a moment.

"Was it something I said?" Taylor asked, poking Lisa with a stick she wasn't holding a moment before.


	250. Guest Omake - Sorry, officer, but

**By CmptrWz**

* * *

"Hello officer" Amy said to the police officer that had waved them down. "Can we help you with anything?"

"You don't have proper headlights, taillights, or turn signals for nighttime driving" the officer replied. "I may also need to see your license and registration."

"I have the appropriate registration here," Raptaur said, handing over a document. The officer raised an eyebrow and then took a look over the paperwork, before handing it back.

"I am afraid that is registration for a flight-capable parahuman," the officer stated. "Which, admittedly, only requires that a transponder be worn, even when operating in traffic. But you aren't wearing a transponder and aren't flight-capable. As such..."

"Ah," Raptuar interrupted, holding up her left wrist to show the "watch" sitting on it. "But I am wearing the transponder. And if you want proof that I am flight capable, well..."

Suddenly four nozzles appeared on Raptaur's armor, all pointing down, and Amy grabbed on tight. A moment later Raptaur and Amy had taken to the sky, leaving the area and officer soaked. A moment after that everything was dry again and Raptaur had turned the corner down the street while flying around fifty feet off the ground.

"I have no idea why I even bothered," the officer said after a few moments. "Either pulling them over OR in challenging the flight-capable parahuman registration." He then went back to his car, where his partner was laughing his ass off.


	251. Omake - The Works of Fire and Dragons

**(Plus Lasers...)**

The two tracks originally linked in this chapter are:

www dot youtube dot com / watch?v=RkEXGgdqMz8

www dot youtube dot com / watch?v=RkEXGgdqMz8

They're underlined in the text.

* * *

 **4th of July Celebrations, Family Style!**

 **Come see FamTech™ UltraFireworks® in action.**

 **LASER SHOW!***

 **Special performance by Kaiju on the FamTech™ Mega Zeusophone! Never before shown to public!**

 **Synchronized Dragon Overflight**

 **Free Barbecue, provided by Brockton Bay Dock Workers Union in association with BBFO, LLC**

 **Pets permitted**

 **See overleaf for more details and best places for a good view**

 _*Note: No fly zone radius of twenty miles centered on Protectorate ENE base, enforced by Air Force drone aircraft. Duration two hours. See NOTAM N2017/11 for further details._

* * *

Colin read the flyer he was handed by one of the people dressed in a lizard-themed hat, turned it over, read the back of it, then opened his mouth to say something. After a moment he closed it again, looked at Hannah who was reading her own copy with raised eyebrows, and sighed faintly.

"Every time I think I've got some form of handle on what they're going to do next, something like _this_ happens," he said sourly.

"They're _your_ friends," his companion said, glancing at him with a worried look. "You know that I still find them extremely off-putting."

"I don't know why, most of the time, since they're actually a very responsible and effective group on the whole, but I admit that every now and then I do somewhat regret not transferring to another location when I had the chance," he replied. "It's too late, now, no other Protectorate base wants any of us in case they follow us."

Hannah nodded slowly, still looking at the neatly printed flyer. "How the hell could they get permission for something like this?" she asked. "No fly zone? Air Force backed? That's the first I've heard of it."

"I have no idea," he said, shrugging. "Possibly they've been talking to the defense department again. I know they have some very unusual contacts in the government, somehow. No one will tell me why, just that they provided a ' _special service_ ' which seems to have given them a very large amount of political capital. Perhaps Director Piggot can explain."

As it happened, the director was as surprised as they were. And not entirely pleased. When she put the phone down half an hour later, she was grumbling under her breath, some of the things she was saying fairly vicious from what Colin could make out. Both he and Hannah waited politely for her to cool down a little.

"It's real," she finally said. "No one will tell me WHY or HOW those fucking lizards have managed to work a deal where over twelve hundred square miles of airspace will get closed for two hours, but they did it."

"I suppose we could go and ask them," Colin pointed out.

"You think they'd tell us?" she asked, looking at him. "I'm not sure about that. Or that you'd _want_ them to if they _would_. Remember what happened the last time something odd was going on and you made inquiries?"

Colin shuddered. He remembered. He liked the lizards, he really did, but sometimes they were a little much. This might be one of those times.

"I suppose we'll have to wait and see what they come up with," Hannah said a little unhappily. "It's plenty of notice at least, the 4th isn't for a week."

"It better be one hell of a fireworks display," Emily growled, looking out her window towards the DWU yard and the various odd constructions that could be seen sticking up here and there. "That entire part of the city is becoming extremely disturbing."

"You have to admit the crime rate is astoundingly low these days," Colin remarked. Both women nodded, although neither one looked wildly happy.

"So is the overall sanity rate," Emily sighed, picking up the flyer he'd given her, then shaking her head.

"Dragon overflight?" she queried, sounding put-upon. "I just..." She dropped the flyer, put her hands over her eyes, and pressed hard, making a faint sound that Colin could just hear the words ' _I don't get paid enough for this_ ' in. He was diplomatic enough not to mention it.

Although he had to admit, at least to himself, that she might have a point at times.

* * *

Ethan accepted a plastic cup of punch from a grinning DWU operative, the woman in her fluorescent jacket looking like she was enjoying the entire event so far. The union people were everywhere, handling crowd control, making announcements and directing parking motorists, running food stalls, you name it. He'd entirely lost count of how many he'd seen but it must have been hundreds.

The BBPD was certainly not having to exert itself all that much, except in actual criminal affairs, practically none of which happened at something like this these days. Even simple pick-pocketing was at a near-all-time low, mostly because of what Cloak had done to the last one she'd caught. The video of the man gibbering in fear and pleading with the snickering item of haunted clothing had gone viral as soon as it hit PHO, and had resulted in two different organized gangs of street thieves turning themselves in and pleading for clemency in return for a full confession.

As far as the sort of thing that he and his colleagues were needed for, so little was happening in that area that he was actually starting to get a little bored. On the other hand, his wife was wandering around with a small smile and saying that she'd live with the lizards if it meant she could have a holiday without having to pay to go to Hawaii.

And no one knew where the _hell_ Kaiser was these days. Lung's whereabouts were known, but…

He turned to look at the shirtless man in the mask, his torso covered in tattoos, who was signing autographs. A deep laugh came from him as one of the kids surrounding him said something. Ethan shook his head, drank his punch while wondering if he should add something from the flask in his pocket, then turned away and headed towards the shoreline and a better view.

Some things were just better not thought about…

Some of his friends were still on the Rig, but he'd wanted to see this from the water level, and there was no denying that the atmosphere of a huge crowd of people enjoying themselves was more than a little attractive. He could smell all manner of things being barbecued all over the place around him, the park behind city hall full of picnickers, while people lined the roofs of any building with access, including the PRT one. Looking around, he wondered if anyone was actually watching the monitors at all.

 **"This is fun, isn't it, Assault?"** a voice whispered from behind and above him, making him look back. Cloak was standing on her invisible platform a few feet away, two feet off the ground. And eating a corn-dog on a stick, which was disappearing into the empty hood bit by bit. Two more were floating in mid-air next to her.

"It's certainly impressive," he grinned. "Your friends are going all out for this. How did they get the Mayor to go along with it?"

 **"They asked him, and paid for the facilities,"** Cloak replied happily. **"He was fine with it. Nice guy. I'm looking forward to the fireworks."**

"I love fireworks," he nodded.

 **"These will be something to remember, then,"** she laughed. **"I've seen the plans. So _many_ lovely dimensions..."**

He stared, then shook his head. Not going to ask.

 **"Not long now,"** she added. **"About five minutes until the show starts."** She looked at the sky. **"Just dark enough to make it look really good. I'm going to get a better view. See you around."**

"OK, Cloak," he replied with a wave as she climbed away from him in the air. Looking around for Battery, he spotted her fifty yards away, buying a burger from a vendor by one of the fountains. He headed that way, sipping his punch and just relaxing, while wondering what the difference between normal fireworks and FamTech™ UltraFireworks® was.

* * *

Emily leaned back in her chair, on the helipad on top of the PRT building, watching the crowds below. Tens of thousands of people were milling around as far as she could see, all of them migrating towards the shore and good vantage points. Thousands of glittering lights in all colors of the rainbow could be seen everywhere, as street vendors sold all manner of LED based toys, glow-sticks, and other little gimcracks. She was certain that a lot of the people down there were from outside the city, and that the result of this entire thing was going to be a significant boost in tourism.

Which probably had Roy smirking as much as any of the lizards, as well as the entire town council. And half the shop-keepers in the city to boot.

Beside her, Legend was sitting in another chair, slurping on a milkshake he'd flown down to street level to acquire moments earlier. Considering his position in the Protectorate, she felt the noises he was making were somewhat inappropriate.

A loud gurgling sound made her wince.

"This should be good," he said, removing the straw from his mouth. "One thing you can say about the Family; they never do things half way."

"As we're all too aware," she grumbled.

He grinned, then went back to making appalling, satisfied noises. She noticed he had a bag of hot-dogs on the floor next to him, sighed a little, and stole one of them.

* * *

Lucy and Mandy looked at each other, feeling excited, then went back to staring towards the bay from the shore-line of the park, in almost exactly the same place they'd watched Kaiju move the ship from. "The entire city must be here," Lucy said, raising her voice to be heard over the background buzz from the huge crowd. Intermittent loud bangs and showers of colored light came from all around them as people further back in the city and up on the hills let off their own fireworks. The sounds echoed around the buildings as flat cracks, with whistles and crackles mixed in.

"Looks like it," Eric said from behind her. All of them were sitting in folding chairs that Rich had turned up with. "I bet the view is even better from the DWU, up on top of that dorm block there. It's the perfect place to watch from."

"Probably, but Taylor said their security was very high since so many of them are in the crowd here," Mandy put in. "It's a pity, I'd have loved to see it from there, but I can understand why not."

"Here's fine, everything's going to be happening up there anyway," Lucy smiled, leaning back and looking up into the darkening sky. Stars were slowly becoming visible in the evening, while to the west the last of the sunset was fading towards violet. "Any time now," she added, looking at her watch for a moment.

The crowd was quieting down as everyone tensed in anticipation. After a little while it was almost eerily quiet, although not to the level of Kaiju's debut. Even so, Lucy shivered a little with a building sense of something portentous about to happen.

A tone sounded, not echoing at all, even though everyone in the city heard it at the same time. Another one at a different pitch came and went. Then a voice that almost everyone recognized said, with enormous satisfaction, " _Ladies and Gentlemen of Brockton Bay and more distant areas, welcome to our celebrations of the Fourth of July. We all hope you enjoy the experience as much as we did planning it. Now, join me in counting down to the introduction._ "

Über's voice rang out across the city, rich and full, and clearly very pleased with himself. " _Ten… Nine… Eight..._ "

People started joining in, individually and in groups, getting louder and louder.

" _Seven..._ "

More voices sounded out.

" _Six..._ "

The roar of the crowd echoed across the bay.

" _Five..._ "

Lucy yelled out at the top of her voice, thrusting her fists into the air. Beside her, her friends were doing the same.

" _Four..._ "

" _Three..._ "

The entire crowd was perfectly synchronized with Über, as he kept talking.

" _Two..._ "

A moment's anticipation built instantly, then…

" ** _ONE!_** "

There was a pregnant pause as everyone fell silent at once, then in the distance, out over the water towards the mouth of the bay, there was a flash at sea level. Everyone watched as a point of light ascended, almost lazily, towards the dark purple sky, arced over in the direction of the Rig at what must have been a couple of thousand feet up, then abruptly shattered into millions of brilliantly burning fragments. Moments later a thunderous report rolled across the crowd.

The points of light, far too many to count, all went in different directions, but somehow managed in the space of a couple of seconds to assemble into a vast rectangle. A sheet of light easily a quarter of a mile across hung rippling in the sky, illuminating the city like daylight. Moments after it formed, the lights shifted, some going from the white-gold color they'd all started as to pure white, some to a brilliant deep blue, and some to scarlet. The end result was a perfect American flag, facing the entire bay at just the right angle so everyone could see it.

The cheering was so loud Lucy almost went deaf.

A couple of seconds passed then the flag of light dimmed and fell away into a beautiful huge shower of orange lights that nearly made it to sea level before disappearing. Even as they winked out, another projectile was launched from whatever mechanism was doing the work, out roughly where the tanker had once been. The crowd watched, spellbound, and wondering what this one would be.

Again it burst into tens of thousands of tiny lights, these spreading out, then forming a gold emblem that more or less everyone in the country recognized these days, the same reptilian head as was emblazoned on Saurial's armor. The giant lizard head, in profile, stood proudly against the night sky. After a couple of seconds, it seemed to turn and face them, making everyone stare in amazement. One eye winked, then it fell apart and faded from existence.

Again the crowd roared its approval.

There was a pause, then the music started. Lucy recognized the **track ** and grinned, as it was weirdly appropriate considering who was behind this entire thing. Synced to the music, dozens of points of light started leaping skywards from the distant firing point, the main display starting with a literal bang. She watched, entranced, as the most amazing fireworks show she'd ever seen played itself out in front of her, half a dozen tracks playing one after another. The fireworks _began_ with the sort of thing that any other display she'd ever seen would have used as the finale, and only got more elaborate as time passed.

Enormous balls of light that spread out over vast distances, changing color over and over again.

Structured shapes, spheres, cubes, pyramids, all came and went, some containing other constructs. All were formed of colored flames, in some cases trailing sparks for hundreds of feet behind them.

More complex shapes occurred. One massive one spread out into a perfect replica of a spiral galaxy, high enough and big enough to cover half the bay. It seemed to slowly rotate as it faded, points of light representing stars flashing brightly like novae, then fading through blue to red and black.

Sheets of light rippled overhead like the aurora, turned up past eleven.

All of it set to music, all of it perfectly synced, and all of it the most incredible sight she'd ever encountered.

The fireworks boomed and whizzed, screaming around the sky, forming shape after shape. Some of them didn't even seem possible and Lucy had absolutely no idea how you could achieve such effects with mere burning chemicals. But however it was done, she was very glad that it had been.

Amazingly, she noticed after a while, there wasn't any smoke left behind. That meant that each new effect was completely unobstructed, something she'd never seen before.

Ten minutes in, brilliant beams of light started forming a backdrop, projected from several sources around the bay. One was obviously the DWU facility, one was somewhere up in the expensive area of town on the other side of the bay, and one was probably somewhere in the vicinity of the far side of the ship's graveyard. Every color one could imagine was represented, fans and sheets of glowing luminescence spreading out like a curtain reaching for the stars.

The sense of energy and fun in the crowd was beyond belief. Whoops and screams accompanied each launch salvo. She could see people dancing to the music, or just jumping up and down in place as they watched. Lucy herself was grinning so widely her cheeks hurt, but she didn't mind at all.

Around half an hour in, the launches abruptly stopped with one final burst, which formed the words above them in giant silver letters:

 **Phase 2**

Lucy wondered what that meant.

So did everyone else, from what she could see.

" _If you will direct your attention to the middle of the bay, please,_ " Über's voice sounded, " _You will be able to see something that has never been shown to the public before. Please welcome... KAIJU!_ "

Everyone craned their necks to stare at the water. Nothing happened for a moment, then a huge circle of waves lit from beneath in brilliant deep blue. The circle expanded out and faded.

It happened again, expanding and fading faster.

The circles of light kept coming, speeding up. Now, accompanying each one, a subsonic thump could be heard, like giant footsteps approaching from miles away. Lucy was almost quivering with expectation.

Something started rising out of the water, making the crowd stare in shock. Huge toroids of metal, fifty yards across, rose slowly into view, water pouring off them. They kept lifting, higher and higher, to reveal they were supported on enormous crystalline columns, which were internally lit in shades of violet. In the end, eight of these constructions formed a line, separated by a hundred yards, and at least two hundred feet tall.

"Holy shit!" Rich yelled in her ear. "What the hell are those?"

" _This, my friends_ ," Über answered him, the timing impeccable, " _is Kaiju's new Zeusophone. Harnessing the power of lightning on a scale never before seen, she will show us how to really bring the music._ "

"What the hell is a Zeusophone?" Eric asked loudly.

They all shrugged.

Then watched with open mouths as, illuminated by the lambent glow from the crystal columns, a vast keyboard rose from the water, locking into place fifty feet up. Salty rivulets dripped from it, the flow quickly dying off. Moments after, Kaiju herself rose after it, the thing at just the right height for her to reach out and put her immense hands on the keys. She looked over her shoulder at them and grinned.

"I've been looking forward to this," she called, the bass voice easily audible to everyone on shore. "Let's see how well it works."

She turned back, lifted her hands, and brought them down.

The entire crowd jumped as one, when enormous sparks immediately roared out from the metal toroids on the columns, hundreds of feet long and extremely bright. The purple and violet streamers, like the sort of thing you'd see in a good thunderstorm, each gave off a different note.

Kaiju ran down the keyboard, rippling from one end to the other, the deepest notes something you felt rather than heard. Apparently satisfied, she began playing, the music easily recognizable although most certainly not ever intended to be performed on an ' _instrument_ ' like this.

Moments later the fireworks started again, now synchronized to Kaiju, as she played Bach's ' ** _Toccata and Fugue in D Minor_** ' with quite respectable skill, the entire piece transposed down into the range of her bizarre instrument. Somehow, it worked.

The lasers came back, the music formed by sculpted raw electricity played on, the fireworks zipped across the sky, and Lucy just sat back and absorbed it all, feeling that the Family coming to Brockton was the best thing that had ever happened.

* * *

"I wonder how she's powering that device?" Colin asked absently, watching the eight vast Tesla coils produce sparks he estimated were in the megawatt range each. "And for that matter how the discharges aren't causing any radio interference or induced electrical noise?"

"Magic, for all I know," Hannah commented, watching one particularly brilliant firework burst into a perfect hollow dodecahedron, each face a different color. "Like those fireworks. I'm pretty sure that it's not actually possible to make a shaped charge do that."

"It's certainly not easy," he mused. "Impossible is clearly the wrong word since we're looking at it."

She looked at him, then back at the sky.

Then shrugged.

"It's a word that doesn't seem to mean what it used to, around here."

He nodded slowly, still wondering how the discharges were being contained. And wondering where Dragon had got to.

* * *

On the roof of the town hall, Roy sat with Phil, both of them sipping a truly extraordinary brandy that his friend had provided. "Excellent," Phil sighed, watching the display. "Another perfect geometric solid. Absolutely beautiful." He glanced at Roy. "Please pass on my pleasure to the Family for how superbly this entire event was planned and executed. I will definitely wish to meet them at some point in the near future."

Roy smiled at his old friend. "Of course, Phil," he replied. "It would be my pleasure."

They went back to watching, Phil tapping one finger on the table to the music, in as good a mood as Roy had ever seen him.

* * *

The music reached a finale, the sparks blazing out across the water, then dying away. At the same time the fireworks stopped again. Kaiju turned away from her keyboard as about two hundred and fifty thousand people screamed and cheered, taking a deep bow. "Thanks, everyone," she said loudly. "That was a lot of fun. Now, please forgive me, but I have to go. Don't worry, though, we're not done yet." Behind her, the ' _Zeusophone_ ' was descending into the water again, quickly vanishing from sight. With a last wave, she did the same.

The lasers stopped, the bay went dark, and the crowd went quiet. A single shot fired, again leaving text in the sky.

 **Phase 3**

" _People of Brockton Bay, your attention please_ ," Über said, his voice now sounding amused. Lucy giggled, remembering the introduction Kaiju had used months ago. " _Please direct your gazes towards the sea. The Family Dragon Display Team is inbound_."

Every eye turned in that direction. Lucy could see three points of light, moving quickly towards them. They neared, then half a mile away, suddenly split three ways, two arcing up and to the left and right while the middle one went straight over the Rig, a roar of jets sounding. Each one left a trail of somehow glowing smoke, one red, one white, and one blue.

She started laughing. So did a lot of other people.

The outer shapes, which suddenly lit up in blazingly bright blue and red lines respectively, were clearly large dragons, one of which she knew. The center one was just as clearly Dragon, in one of her high-speed combat suits. She wondered how the Family had talked the Canadian cape into this…

* * *

Colin stared as his best friend, along with two flying reptiles that shouldn't have been able to exist, put on a very impressive aerial display, drawing patterns in the night sky in glowing smoke. He had no idea how it was done but the effect was remarkable.

 _Why_ she was doing it was something he was wondering. Eventually he just shrugged. She got on very well with the entire lot of reptiles, they'd probably just suggested it for the pun and she'd gone along with it. It was the sort of thing she'd find funny.

He made some notes, then attempted to work out how they made the smoke trails glow like that.

* * *

The air display was soon added to when the fireworks started up again, the three flying capes looping in and out of the resulting displays, while music played. It was one of the most beautiful things Lucy had ever seen.

Eventually, though, all good things come to an end. The three fliers did three separate loops in different directions, which ended with them heading back out to sea. The two dragons were barrel rolling around the trail left by the Guild cape, which was arrow-straight. All three of them exited through a massive hoop of glowing green light caused by a firework, in a manner that was obviously choreographed. Seconds later they were gone.

The fireworks and music rose to a crescendo, the entire sky filled with points of light, then one last shot climbed into the sky after everything else had died away. This turned out to be a repeat of the one that had begun the show, blossoming into a flag as the first bars of the national anthem started. The music faded as the flag did, until all was silence.

When the applause started, Lucy thought it would never end.

* * *

"OK," Emily said, looking at Legend, who was now elbow-deep into the largest bag of popcorn she'd ever seen, grinning like an eight-year-old. "I'll admit it. That was pretty damn good."

"Best display I've ever seen," he chuckled. "I wonder if they do birthday parties."

She shrugged, helping herself to some of his popcorn, watching the cheering going on below them. If nothing else, she was sure that the Family was more popular now than ever, and oddly enough she was fine with that.

Mind you, it still didn't make life in this place any less weird, but there were _some_ perks.


	252. Lisa and MiniMe

"Think you can actually help him?" Amy asked as they headed down the road towards the DWU, Taylor now sitting next to her as Saurial with her secondary aspect having disappeared.

Her friend glanced at her, then sighed faintly. "I really don't know, but I think I should at least try. That sort of problem would be horrible for anyone, but for a Tinker? It must be driving him nuts."

"He's sure not happy about it, I know that much," Amy noted sadly. "I like the guy and I wish I could help."

"Is it something you could fix in his brain?" Taylor looked at her again. "I mean, if you did brains."

"I'm not sure, to be honest. There might not be anything organically wrong with it and I've never looked. Possibly it's basically a programming error. And you know my feelings about fiddling with brains. People live there and it scares the shit out of me to think I might fuck someone up."

"What about the neural amplifiers?"

"That's different, they tap into the spine and self-organize _around_ the personality centers, leaving them alone. I'm happy that there's no risk of doing something weird to someone's mind, all it does is add a lot of processing power as a sort of co-processor. It's a lot more complicated than that, of course, but neither of us has the vocabulary for me to properly describe it to you. But trust me when I say it's different, and safer as far as I'm concerned."

Taylor nodded thoughtfully. "You're the expert in that area, we all know that. And I agree it's not the sort of thing you want to experiment with, especially on someone you like." After a moment, she asked, "What about depression? Do you think that your symbiote could deal with that? Either the normal one or the one-shot thing?"

Amy was silent for a moment, as they drew closer to the familiar gate. "I've been asking myself that ever since I designed the things. They _do_ fix damaged neural tissue, with very strict rules on how. Some brain damage would be too much, like if parts were missing, that sort of thing. But… I'm pretty sure they would fix Dad, if that's what you're referring to. Or at least stabilize him."

Her friend looked at her again, then turned back to watch the guards wave them through, waving back at the two men. When they were slowly driving down the side of the buildings, she asked, "Couldn't you make something that would dose him with the right antidepressants, if the symbiote doesn't work?"

"I could. That's another thing I've been mulling over for weeks. The main problem is how I get it past Mom. She's… suspicious of things like that. As you know." Amy sighed again. "Even now, although she's a hell of a lot easier to live with than she was before that massive argument and the drunken talks with Aunt Sarah."

"The Family could offer them the use of our biotechnology, since Amy is a close friend and is worried about her father," Taylor pointed out after a second or two. "You can vouch for the things doing exactly what they claim they do. I was thinking that was probably the best way to talk to the PRT about the one-shot healing devices as well. They work incredibly well and I'd be happier if they were available to people who need them. You could save _a lot_ of lives with the things."

"I know," Amy muttered. "Believe me, I know. Ever since I came up with the damn thing in the first place that's been eating at me." They pulled up outside the office and she turned the engine off, putting her head on the wheel for a moment. "I'm sitting on all sorts of things that could practically eliminate disease, most accidental injuries and deaths, you name it, but there are so many obstacles in the way of _using_ them it's almost impossible. Even though I _know_ they work, they're completely safe, and they're much more effective than any drugs or things like that."

Leaning back, she shook her head. "It's frustrating."

"I can tell," Taylor smiled, looking sympathetic. "Don't worry, we'll figure something out. The Amy will conquer disease and injury sooner or later, I have faith."

The Dallon girl snickered, then opened the door. "Come on, let's find Lisa and freak her out."

"Sounds like a plan," Taylor chucked. "And we need to talk to Vectura too." They headed towards the door, Amy pulling out her keys.

* * *

Walking back to the BBFO office from Danny's, Lisa was thinking over what her power had told her about his upcoming trip. It had revealed that he wasn't precisely looking forward to it but at the same time it was something that had been bothering him for a long time.

It also said that his status in certain parts of society was steadily taking on the level of legend. It made her grin like a lunatic when she was alone, wondering how long it would be until ' _The Boss_ ' realized what she'd learned from those two delivery drivers from Antonio's colleague. The pair had been unshakably convinced they were in the middle of the most over the top and dangerous organized crime operation they'd ever heard of. She had a shrewd suspicion that Zephron also knew this and had been subtly encouraging it for his own amusement, and also to make sure that people took the place he clearly loved like a family member seriously.

In that, she was certain he'd succeeded. The two smugglers had been quietly terrified the entire time, and extremely impressed and respectful. Lisa wondered what stories they'd spread when they got home…

Danny might well find out, she chuckled to herself. He'd probably groan about it, then pretend it hadn't happened, but in her view it was on the whole a useful thing. It certainly went some way towards explaining why Antonio was so helpful, making her think that the old man was more closely connected to the Hebert family than Taylor's father had so far admitted to. She knew, or had deduced, a lot of the story, but parts of it were still missing. But she wasn't going to push, it was a private matter for someone she really respected and liked.

And she thought it likely that Antonio would find some way to make it pay off for himself as well. He definitely had a reputation of being smart and taking the long view from her research. There was a _reason_ he was still around after all these years and had never seen the inside of a courtroom. No unthinking violence from his sort of organized crime. It was more along the lines of very carefully considered violence and only when absolutely necessary to make a point. It seemed to work even better than more traditional methods, if appearances were anything to go by.

Not to mention that he was reputed to take family _very_ seriously, even more so than was common in his circles. Anyone who messed with those he deemed so protected didn't tend to be heard from again.

She was OK with that, in fact. While not a fan of violence in general, she certainly wasn't above it if required, although like Taylor, she'd prefer to talk her way out. And since she'd come here, she'd pretty much learned when not to talk herself _into_ trouble. Which she was honest enough to admit to herself had been a problem in the past. Amy's tweaks had definitely worked in her favor, not only curing her headaches, but by opening her power up so much, fixing some of her more annoying issues. Annoying to others, mostly, but still annoying.

Although she took pride in the fact that she could still talk practically anyone into an incoherent rage if required. That was bound to come in handy sooner or later.

The upcoming curb-stomp that was the Coil operation was a case in point. She _very_ much wanted to see his face when he finally realized how badly he was fucked…

Snickering, she kept walking, looking around and nodding to various people she knew.

"Hi!"

The bright chirpy voice was high pitched, friendly, and unexpected.

Stopping dead, she looked around, gaping at the tiny dragon that was sitting on a windowsill of one of the workshops looking at her with a wide grin on its muzzle.

"You're Lisa, right? Mom told me to look for a human female with blonde head fur and big… those things." It pointed at her chest, making her look down, then back at it, her face blank of expression and her power staring in shock. "Do you know where cousin Saurial is? I've been looking all over and I can't find her, although I can smell her somewhere close."

It abruptly vanished, then she felt a weight on her shoulder, making her yip and jump sideways. Small but sharp claws dug into her skin as several people in the area stopped and looked strangely at her.

"What the fuck?" she yelped.

"Sorry?" The thing sounded puzzled. "Are you all right? Only you smell weird." A tiny forked tongue tickled her cheek. "And taste worried. Is there some threat around?" She could see a small head on the end of a long neck craning about, inspecting the environment suspiciously.

"Who the _hell_ are _you?_ " she said in a shaky voice. It was about all she could think of to say under the circumstances.

The little dragon vanished from her shoulder and reappeared on a different windowsill a couple of yards away, appearing thoughtful. "I don't have a human name yet. I'm still working on that. Anyway, that's not important right now. Do you know where Saurial is?" It peered enquiringly at her, looking hopeful. "I'm getting hungry and she'll know what I can eat."

It looked at the brickwork next to it, sniffed it, then pried a small piece loose where it was crumbling and ate it. Then it made a face. "This is stale."

Lisa watched in bemused shock, her power now shaking its metaphorical head and face-palming. With a glance around she saw that no one else seemed to see the thing. The ones that were watching, were watching _her._

So, either she was having a hallucination, or…

"Taylor, you are a crazy pain in the ass," she whispered, walking over to the little dragonlet, which smirked at her. "How the _fuck_ did you do this?"

"Good, isn't it?" the thing said, dropping the wide-eyed newcomer act and somehow taking on the mannerisms of her friend, which were apparent even through the different shape to her. "I worked it out this morning. Meet you back at the office, I can show you some cool stuff." She waved, then vanished.

Lisa sighed. Perhaps being part of the Family wasn't, in fact, the right thing? If that damn demon and his host kept coming up with new powers like this, sooner or later she was going to either go entirely nuts, or just shut down completely, at the rate things were going.

Resuming her walk, after a few steps she wondered if Amy could make something like that for her.

It looked fun.

Taylor was still an infuriating pain in the ass at times, though. And a very good friend.

* * *

"Director Piggot, what an unexpected pleasure!" Roy ladled on the bonhomie with vigor, waving the solidly-built woman in as he got up from his desk. She didn't seem in as good a mood, not returning his smile of welcome. Internally amused, he let his face merely reflect pleasant cheerfulness and an air of business. "How can the city of Brockton Bay help the PRT today?"

"Must you, Roy?" she sighed as she headed for the chair he indicated to.

He briefly grinned. "Yes. Forgive me, I don't mean anything personally by it. One finds humor where one can. Would you like some coffee or something?"

The blonde woman sat down, nodding. "Thanks, actually I would. It's been a long day and I'm not likely to be stopping any time soon."

"Certainly. Hold on, please." He prodded the button on his intercom and asked his PA for some drinks, then released it when she acknowledged the message. Piggot watched with a neutral expression. "That won't take long. Now, how can I help?"

"This is more in the nature of an informational trip," Director Piggot said. "In the way that I need to inform you of that we're going to be undertaking a major operation in the city soon which will..."

There was a tap at the door, causing her to stop and look over. It opened, revealing his PA with a tray, which she brought over and put on his desk. He thanked her, both of them waiting until she'd left again. Handing the director a cup, he said, "You were saying?"

She took it, then restarted. "We're going to be undertaking a major operation in the city in the near future. I can't go into details for security reasons, but it's my hope that you'll believe me when I say it's necessary, unavoidable, and will shut down a major villain and his organization."

"I see," he responded after a few seconds of thought, during which he stirred some sugar and cream into his coffee. "Am I to assume that this operation is going to cause a significant disruption to the smooth functioning of the city?"

She snorted lightly. "This city has never functioned in a manner that could in any way be termed ' _smooth_ ' and you know it. But yes, it's unfortunately going to have a significant impact on the commercial district for some hours."

"Define ' _significant_ '," he requested somewhat suspiciously.

"Complete shut down and evacuation of several square miles." She sipped her coffee, then added a hint more cream herself.

He leaned back and studied her. "Interesting definition," he finally said. "Some might call that more ' _Catastrophic_ ' than ' _Significant_ '. You do _realize_ just how many people that would involve? And how much money?"

The PRT woman nodded, looking disgruntled. "Yes, actually, I have a very good idea of both of those. But like I said, it can't be helped."

"Who are you going after?" he asked, following another pause. "Not Kaiser, I think. No one is even sure where his base actually is, and I have to assume that you're intending to assault a stronghold with that requirement. Not to mention that from what I hear he's given orders to stay out of anything that might upset the current status quo. Lung… he's staying very low-profile at the moment, but my own investigations suggest he's waiting patiently to see how things pan out with the Family. Faultline's group is not only very careful not to piss on their own doorstep, but have been across the country for over two months now on a job..."

She watched him carefully, not reacting to his musings.

"No other major Parahuman gangs are in Brockton Bay right now, and they're not likely to try with the Family here. No new independent villains I've heard of either, at least ones that warrant that sort of response. We have dozens of minor ones, of course, but they're strictly small time and only a minor problem. So..." He drank some more coffee.

"Coil's been awfully quiet for quite a while now. What did he do to piss the PRT off so much?"

Director Piggot winced slightly, sighed, and then appeared both resigned and mildly impressed. "I can't talk about it. Security."

After studying her for a moment, he turned to the side and opened one of the drawers in his desk, which revealed a small control console. He flipped a couple of switches.

There was a muted thud from all the windows, as shutters dropped over the outside. The main door locked with a ripple of clicking sounds, as did the one to his private bathroom and the storage room. Moments later the walls briefly rippled with blue light as a force field formed just inside the room, before dimming out of visibility. He also knew that all hard-lines into the office were currently airgapped via two separate methods. Checking that all the notifications were green, he closed the drawer again.

Emily Piggot was looking around with some surprise and a degree of approval. She returned her attention to him. "That was more than I expected," she commented.

"An old friend recommended the system," he smiled. "Someone I trust implicitly. His advice is always good. The force field blocks all radio communications, recording devices are currently being jammed, no one can get in here without either a fairly unusual form of teleportation, a lot of very loud and obvious effort, or waiting for me to turn it off again. No hard-lines either, and listening devices outside the room will only get white noise."

"Tinker Tech?"

"Obviously. Very expensive, very good Tinker Tech. Some from Toybox, some from other places, and all backed up by someone who is… unsympathetic… to people ripping him off. We're about as secure in here as it gets, aside from maybe Armsmaster's lab, BBFO's office, or that room under the Pentagon they think no one knows about." He smiled at her. "So, tell me, Emily, what's going on?"

Rather than replying, she pulled out a small device and fiddled with it for a minute or two, waving it around her. Eventually, apparently satisfied, she put it away again. "I might want to talk to this friend of yours at some point," she muttered, looking unwillingly impressed.

"He's not too fond of the PRT for personal reasons but we could probably arrange something," Roy chuckled.

"OK. Fine, you seem to have something more secure here than I expected. Your son mentioned it, but..." She shrugged. "I had to see it for myself to believe it."

He made a small gesture. "Understandable. You're a professional paranoid, Emily. You don't trust anyone or anything sight unseen."

The woman nodded a little, finishing her coffee then returning the empty cup to the desk. She visibly thought about the situation for a while, during which he simply waited, in no hurry. "All right. Some time ago, we came into possession of certain information, via our scaly friends over to the west. I won't go into details, a lot of it isn't relevant, but we learned the civilian ID of Coil, and much more about his plans than we had known up till then."

"His ID?" Roy thought, watching her face and mulling over what he knew of her personality, based on his own fairly formidable skills and experience reading people. Something unpleasant occurred to him.

"You know him." He inspected the tiny changes in her expression. "He's PRT. Or was."

"Damn, you're good," she grunted with a reluctant smile. "Yes. He's a former PRT special forces commander. High ranked, very experienced, very smart. And completely amoral at best."

"Fuck." Roy rubbed his forehead. "That's… not good."

"Not even a little, no. He's been fooling us for years at least. Possibly longer. We've dug out quite a number of his spies in the PRT since we found this out, but we're not sure if he still has more, and there's always the possibility that there are others outside the city. Not to mention he managed to compromise a lot of our security and computer systems that we're sure about, and common sense says we have to assume the entire fucking thing is compromised. We've had our trusted people covertly cleaning up after him for nearly two months now and even then we're sure there are things we've missed."

"But even so you're going after him? In his own base?"

"We can't wait any longer," she replied. "He won't stay down there forever. Sooner or later he's going to try to make a run for it, and whether he gets away or not, the fallout could and almost certainly would be very bad. We're at a position where we can, with some luck, a hell of a lot of hard work, and some help from local resources, grab the fucker and shut him down permanently. But we have to act quickly."

"I see." Roy pondered his guest's words. "I assume the local resources are the Family and probably New Wave? And possibly using the DWU somehow."

"Yes."

"Why not call in external PRT and Protectorate aid?"

She sighed. "Partly security again, since we don't know who we can trust. Partly politics. Partly due to the simple fact that if we go that route, it will probably take long enough and leak enough information that he could find out and do something awkward." She shrugged a little helplessly. "It's complicated."

Roy nodded slowly, thinking it over. "That I can believe. And the need to shut down the city?"

"Raptaur discovered his base was in the old Endbringer shelter that was never finished, the one under the middle of Downtown." Roy turned his head to look at the large city map hung on the wall behind his desk. "Yes, that one. Right under at least one, probably more than one depending on how much more work he did on it, high-rise buildings. And we know he's mined the fucking thing with tons of explosives."

"Oh, for god's sake," Roy snarled. "Has the man watched too much James Bond?"

"Probably. He always was the sort of person you'd think would end up in a dead volcano with minions if he went bad," she said, almost smiling. "He likes the theater of it, I think. That was what we used to say in basic, anyway." She shook her head. "Never thought it would come true. Anyway, the end result is that there's a fuck-ton of C4 under several large financial companies in the commercial area, over the top of a huge hole in the ground. If that lot goes up, we're pretty sure that at least one building will end up in the hole, along with anyone in it. So we need to evacuate the entire area just in case we don't manage to disarm everything."

"Christ. And if you _don't?_ "

"One hell of a bang, you're down one or more buildings, and I probably lose a lot of friends," she growled. "Not something I like to think about but I'd be a fool if I didn't plan for it."

Roy rubbed his forehead again. "Oh, fucking god damn the man. Why couldn't he hide in a quarry or something miles from anyone?"

She shrugged again. "It's not in his nature. And he actually owns the company that built the damn thing, so he already had it when he decided to play super-villain."

"Thomas fucking Calvert," Roy snapped, suddenly realizing exactly who they were talking about. "He owns half a dozen construction companies, one of which specializes in Endbringer shelters. Tall skinny bastard who makes you want to wash your hands after you shake his."

Emily stared at him, then nodded. "You've met."

"More than once, at various functions. Never liked that guy. He makes me want to leave the room, to be honest, he's worse than Max Anders. At least Max _has_ a personality, even if it's over the top and smiles way too much. Every time _Calvert_ smiles I want to put my fist in his face."

"It's a common reaction," she chuckled. "And it happened more than once, believe me. He was a good soldier, and very smart as well, but he rubbed most people up the wrong way sooner or later. No one thought he'd end up like this, though. He was always extremely competent at the job he was given, so his personality issues were overlooked as long as the work was done. But it seems he was probably working more for himself than the PRT for a long time."

"OK." Roy thought some more, looking back at the map, then getting up and examining it more closely. "You want to shut down this entire area?" He drew a rough circle on the map. Emily stood and walked over to join him at the wall. She indicated a slightly different area, approximately the same size but off to one side from the Endbringer shelter.

"More this area, but that's basically correct."

"When?"

"Sunday morning. Just before dawn, going on for a few hours. We're not sure yet quite how long it will take but worst case, the entire day. If it lasts longer than that, it's all gone to shit anyway. Hopefully it will be faster and go smoothly, but..." She lifted her shoulders and dropped them, shaking her head once again. "Murphy is a bastard."

"Tell me about it," he muttered. "All right. Sunday is the best case, definitely. Mid day Friday would have been insane. What excuse are you going to use? If you just put a cordon around the place and tell everyone inside to fuck off there's going to be a riot."

"There will be an accidental, minor, but very unpleasant chemical spill at the BBU lab here," she replied, indicating a point in the center of the area she'd shown him. "Nothing actually hazardous, but I'm reliably informed the smell is going to be unbearable over a significant area. No one is going to want to stick around."

Roy looked at the map, then her, then back at the map. "Oh, god. The complaints we're going to get..." He trailed off, then sighed. "OK. As long as it's something that isn't going to render half the district uninhabitable for weeks, I guess that's an effective and more or less safe way to clear the place out. So, local news, fairly low key announcement, calls for evacuation while the city takes care of the problem and calls in some PRT expertise to help out?"

"That's the idea."

"Fine. I don't like it, and the amount of work you're going to drop on us is enough to make me wince even thinking about it, but fine. You owe me a favor, though. This is going to be, if you don't mind the pun, a very big stink. Politically."

She actually grinned at him.

"I know, and believe me or not, I'm genuinely sorry about how much trouble it's going to cause the city administration. But we need to do it, we _have_ to round that fucker up quickly and safely. Some of the things we've learned about him are… unpleasant. His long term plans wouldn't help any of us, trust me."

"I do, as it happens. I'd better get on with drafting some official press releases, I suppose." Roy went back to his desk and dropped into his chair. Emily did the same in the visitor chair. "Never ends, this sort of thing, does it?"

"Not really, no," she agreed. "But at least this time we have the luxury of planning it out rather than just reacting to events that took us by surprise."

"True." Roy nodded. "Do you think he knows you're coming for him?"

"I certainly hope not, but I can't be sure," she said. "We don't know the reason why he's holed up down there with all the doors locked, either. Although I can guess. It's very big and has a weird sense of humor."

He snickered. "Yes, that would probably do it. Well, good luck with your operation. Keep me in the loop as much as you can, but I won't get in your way. And say hello to the girls at BBFO for me."

She raised an eyebrow, making him grin. "I assume you're going to have council of war there soon, to work out who does what."

"You really are good, Roy," she said, with a slight smile of respect. "Infuriating and annoying, but good."

"I try." He opened the drawer and deactivated Phil's ridiculously over-specced security system. The faint background hiss that it produced died away. "Let me know how things work out."

"I will," she promised, standing up. "Thank you for the coffee."

"You're welcome." He watched as she left the room, before spinning his chair around to regard the map for a moment. Wondering how they were going to get into a sealed Endbringer shelter, and also hoping that they figured out how to disarm the explosives, he shook his head, then turned back to the desk to begin dealing with the calls that had stacked up during his unexpected security blackout.

* * *

Locking the door behind her, Lisa turned around and glared at Taylor. Then she glared harder at the six inch duplicate of her friend who was standing on the larger one's shoulder, one hand holding onto her big version's ear for support and the other one waving at her manically.

"How?" she demanded as she stomped over, looking between them. "How did you do… that." She pointed, her hand a foot away from the mini-Taylor, who promptly dived forward onto her arm and ran up it.

"Gahh!" Lisa shook her arm wildly, flinging the tiny Taylor terror tumbling towards the table.

Amy was laughing like a lunatic, rolling around in her chair. The full size aspect of their friend now put her hands on her hips and shook her head sadly. On the table, the small variant was standing in the same pose, doing the same thing.

"You're jumpy today, Lisa," both of them said simultaneously in different pitches. She pinched the bridge of her nose and exhaled loudly.

"You're actually _trying_ to give me an aneurysm, aren't you?" she asked, deliberately calmly. A sudden weight on her head made her grit her teeth, reach up, grab the doll sized Taylor and hold her in front of her eyes. "Please stop doing that," she requested, before opening her hand. Small Taylor fell, turned into a foot long dragon, and flapped over to land on Amy's head, also giggling madly.

"Show her the microshoggoth!" Amy called.

"No, don't!" Lisa yelped, closing her eyes on the spot, just in case.

There was a long pause.

"It's on my head, isn't it?" she said in a steady voice, feeling something tickling both ears at the same time as it was holding on.

"Yep."

"And it will make my power go wibble and fall over again if I look, won't it?"

"Possibly." Taylor sounded intrigued. "Have a look and we can find out."

"Why are you so… _You?_ " Lisa sighed.

 **"It's only a _small_ horror from beyond, Lisa,** " a voice hissed in her ear, making her twitch. **"Perhaps if you build up a resistance you won't keep rebooting all the time."**

"And _you_ are even worse, you fucking nightmare from beyond the edge of the sane universe," she grumbled, feeling her way over to a chair and letting her power, which seemed torn between laughing and fainting, guide her to a sitting position. "Get off my damn head."

 **"As you command, Oh Smug One,"** he snickered. The weight vanished.

"Can I open my eyes yet?" she asked patiently.

"Of course." Amy replied this time. When Lisa cautiously looked, the healer was stroking a two foot long dragon that was curled up in her lap looking contented, the effect pretty weird. Lisa could almost swear the damn Varga, who was obviously in control of the aspect at the moment, was purring.

The full size Taylor was draped across another chair grinning at her. "It was Amy's idea," she said.

The healer shot her a look of betrayal, then started laughing, as did Taylor. Lisa simply shook her head.

"I know now why adults say, ' _why me?_ '," Lisa sighed. "How did _I_ of all people end up being the _normal_ one?"

"You're not normal at all, Lisa," Taylor assured her. "We're just less normal than _that_."

There wasn't much she could do to deny it. "OK, explain. Joking aside, how did you _do_ that?" Lisa pointed at the dragonlet. "Not to mention the teleporting bit with both aspects out."

"It's pretty cool," Taylor smiled, before she explained what she and her live-in demon had been doing since Lisa last saw them. At the end of the story, Lisa was genuinely impressed, and seeing some amazing possibilities for the latest example of the pair making the universe cry and go look for its mother.

And very envious.

" _I_ want a mini-dragon aspect now," she mumbled, watching the Varga smirk at her with his head upside down.

"Of course you do, Lisa, it is only sensible," he chuckled. "Amy, Taylor, and I have been discussing the possibilities. There are some interesting ones that look doable, with some careful work."

Lisa smiled a little, thinking it over, then nodded. "Fractal dimensions, like with the biogun?"

"More or less," Amy replied. "I can't do teleportation, either their version or any of the more common ones, unless I figure something really weird out, but there are some good ideas that are nearly as useful. And fun."

"We'll put that on the list, near the top." Lisa sat down, still looking at the small dragon, which was now sitting on the table smirking at her. "Right now, though, we need to get ready for our meeting with half the PRT and Protectorate. And New Wave, I think."

"What?" All three of them looked surprised, exchanging glances. With a feeling of satisfaction that _she'd_ shocked _them_ , Lisa explained her conversation with Armsmaster earlier. "So they'll be here soon. I've left word at the gate and told Danny. We need to get your truck into one of the spare workshops, then make a bunch more chairs and get the coffee on."

"OK." Taylor looked at Amy again, the healer already getting up and pulling her keys out. "Looks like we're going to get to do some interesting demonstrations. Is your anti-C4 method ready?"

"I haven't made any yet but yes, I've got a neat solution for it," Amy replied as she opened the door. "Unlock the workshop and I'll be back in a minute."

A little later, they were all in the workroom, Amy and Lisa in their bioconstructs now. Taylor had both Saurial and Raptaur aspects out. The three others watched as Amy used some onion biomass to make a new creation, which Taylor supplied some containers for. After hearing how it was supposed to work, they all looked pleased.

"Really impressive work, cousin," Taylor's Saurial aspect chuckled. She looked at the clock that was sitting on the bench at the end. "Not long, I'd better make some new chairs."

"I will help, my sister," the Varga, who was controlling Raptaur for the moment, said with a grin. Both of them went out into the main room. Lisa and Amy looked at each other, then shook their heads. This was still something they were getting used to, weird even by the terms of their new lives.

But it held the possibility of some very interesting developments.

Amy went back to making some very small bio-constructs while Lisa went out to supervise the demonic pair, just in case something particularly funny struck either one of them before she could stop it...


	253. Guest Omake - Anti-Stealth Pizza

**By CmptrWz**

* * *

"AHA!" Kevin yelled, interrupting Randall's attempt to learn underwater basket-weaving. He wasn't sure why he was trying, though it was worth it just for learning Mr. Black's method for breathing underwater at the beginning. Randall paused the video and went to see what it was Kevin had done.

"Oh hey," Kevin said as Randall came in. "I think I figured out how to make an anti-cloaking tinkertech field!"

"Why do you want to?" Randall asked, after thinking about that for a moment. "I mean, don't we like using that kind of tech ourselves at times?"

"I still recall a few times Squealer monstrosities got the drop on us," Kevin admitted. "I figured if I could disable anything like that or similar things within an area it could be helpful. That and I think the girls might appreciate it as an additional security measure if it works right."

"Can't argue with that," Randall admitted. "What kind of range does it have?"

Kevin double-checked his notes before answering. "At low power it should be about ten meters, scaling up to a hundred at full power. I am kinda hoping Dragon can figure out how to duplicate it as a result so that proper coverage can occur, amongst other things."

"I can see that being a valuable thing for a lot of people who like their security if she can," Randall said, wondering just how much it could be worth. " _Very_ valuable. Shall I grab one of our scavenged Squealer-tech cloaks to test with? I think we still have the box working."

"Please do," Kevin said as he hooked a laptop into the device on his workbench and started a diagnostics and control program. Randall walked over to a closet and pulled out a test box they had rigged with a cloak device in an attempt to get the Snitch to see through it. That hadn't panned out.

Once the box was in place and the cloak active Kevin hit a couple of keys on the laptop and a small whine started in the device on the bench. Moments later the laptop threw up an error as the lights dimmed and the whining suddenly went from "small" to "I can feel it in my bones, but I can't hear it because my ears are bleeding heavily".

Before Kevin could shut the device down there was a bright flash and a visible pulse of energy exploded from the device. As the energy wave passed over the cloaked box the cloaking effect was stripped, though nothing else appeared to happen to it, the power indicator was even lit. On the other hand the device on the bench was starting to glow, and not in any way it was supposed to.

A few minutes later Kevin had shut the device down, though the device and the workbench were both in varying states of burned and melted, and their ears had healed up. Amy did good work, luckily. Randall was pouring over Kevin's notes to see if he could figure out what may have gone wrong while Kevin looked over the diagnostic data.

"I think I found something," Randall said after looking over some calculations a few times. "It looks like you missed an exponent between these two lines here due to a bit of cheese having stained the paper. On that note, stop eating pizza while handwriting calculations, would ya?"

"Crap," Kevin said, coming over to look, then paused. "Which pizza stain should I be looking at?"

"Right here in your distance calculations, which were the basis of your power calculations. I think you were off by three orders of magnitude as a result."

"Wait, that would put the minimum range at ten kilometers."

"And due to the initial power formula being slightly non-linear it used around one and a half thousand times the energy you predicted. The extra for the power bill is coming out of your account, by the way."

"I guess that means the pulse probably just hit the entire city and then some. Hopefully it won't have any negative effects, it doesn't seem to have acted like an EMP or anything."

As they discussed the potential issues that they weren't seeing they didn't notice that it took over an hour for the cloak on the box to start working again, as they had never bothered to turn it off. Kevin finally noticed it the following morning when his bowl clipped the invisible box and spilled all over him and his notes.

* * *

Across town Taylor was participating in another math night, though this time the Dallons had volunteered to host as Danny wasn't available. Carol hadn't fully gotten why the "PHO, math, movie, math, PHO again" system seemed to work so well, but as it did work she was ok with it.

They had just finished their first math run and were looking into movie ideas when a wave of energy swept through the room. Initially only Amy and Taylor noticed it at all, and they glanced at each other wondering what it was. But as nobody else had noticed it they figured investigating may have to wait.

"Woa," Eric said a moment later, dodging Taylor's tail on his way to look at a different part of the shelves holding the movies. "Taylor, watch where your tail is swinging, would you?"

It took everyone a few moments to catch up. Vicky was, unfortunately, the first to do so. It didn't take long before she screamed bloody murder and flew out of the room at high speed.

"Er," Rich said, shaking his head for a moment before turning to Taylor and Amy. "I am not positive I heard that correctly. Did she just say something about the lizards having replaced you two?"

"EEEEEEEEEEEEE" Lucy squealed, her brain having finally rebooted. Taylor and Amy were wondering if she had just triggered with a teleportation ability as she cuddled against their tails, somehow having crossed the room in an instant. Amy actually took a moment to check and confirm that no, Lucy was not a parahuman at this time. "IWANTONEWHEREDOIGETONEPLEASETELLMEWHEREICANGETONEPLEASEpleaseplease…"

"Huh," Amy commented, looking down at the passed-out Lucy. "She actually passed out because she forgot to breath. I didn't think that was possible."

"What is going on in here?" Carol asked as she was dragged into the room by Vicky. She then took a moment to look at Amy, Taylor, and their tails with a passed out Lucy still cuddling the tails. "Oh, you two just revealed your tails. You should probably be more careful about how and when you do that."

Now Amy, Vicky, and Taylor were staring at Carol as though she had just grown an extra head. Amy tried several times to say something, but couldn't seem to start. Finally she got out a "How?" just as Taylor shook her head, having apparently zoned out for a moment.

"I've known for a couple of weeks," Carol answered. "Admittedly I was very confused at first. You kept leaving tail-marks wherever you sat in the backyard and I couldn't wrap my head around them until I spoke with Danny. He explained that the family life-sculptors had come up with the tails as a means of keeping 'squishy humans' healthy and uninjured, and something about fixing the tragedy that was the lack of tails on humans. I asked and he agreed not to say anything to either of you, I was wondering when you would come clean to me about it. I am curious about the stranger effect you have been using the hide the things though."

"You mean the family can actually give people tails?" Mandy said, looking over at Amy and Taylor. "And they keep you healthy?"

"And solve the severe deformity of lacking a tail," Taylor added, having decided to just run with it for now. "Serious issue that is, you can't learn the family martial arts properly without one. The stranger effect is a family secret, though." She turned and looked at her and Amy's tails. "Kindof odd, really, it should still be working. I wonder if that energy wave did something."

"Energy wave?" Carol pondered. "I thought I saw something before the cloak failed on my toybox. Oh, oops. I shouldn't have said that…"

Amy and Vicky shared a look, then Vicky decided that she had enough panicking and confusion for now and floated over to the couch, collapsing onto it. "So sis, for some reason I think you have a lot more secrets I don't know about if you have been hiding a tail for weeks. And I suspect Taylor is involved there too, so are you two going to fess up?"

"Screw that," Lucy said, having woken up. "Beyond wanting one of my own, how long have you two had tails? And how did Amy get one anyway?"

"Well, err," Amy said, looking at Taylor. "Technically I tripped over Taylor's, injured my nose, and then had a mild loss of judgement when I noticed how different she was due to the tail as she helped me up? Things kindof snowballed from there."

"So THAT'S what you were doing in that closet!" Vicky yelled, popping up off of the couch. She then slumped. "Damnit, that means you really weren't dragging Taylor into the closet for a makeout session, were you? I think I owe Dennis twenty bucks."

Around an hour later suddenly everyone but Amy and Taylor stopped talking as they got a migraine, confusing Amy and Taylor until Varga realized that the assassin's cloak was working properly again. To save everyone's heads he added exceptions for them all.

As she recovered Vicky thought about the tail she could see again and then stopped. "You wanted the driver's seat in your truck to have the tail hole for you, not for Saurial, didn't you! That's why you never have the plugs in!"

"Duh," Amy said, rolling her eyes.

"Does that mean you will let me drive it now?"

"Nope. Still trust Saurial, and Taylor for that matter, with it more than I trust you with it."

"But whyyyyyyyyyyyy?" Vicky whined.

"Because your power only makes your head, not the entire vehicle, capable of taking a significant impact" Taylor deadpanned. "And you can't even avoid going through buildings when you aren't driving, why would she trust you to avoid them when constricted by what the truck can do while you are driving?"

* * *

Elsewhere Danny suddenly shivered for no apparent reason. He looked around and got the feeling that something annoying was going to happen when he got back home, but couldn't figure out why.


	254. BBFO and PRT

Approaching the DWU facility at the head of the small convoy of PRT vehicles, Colin nodded to the gate guard, who nodded back. "Quite a few of you this time, Armsmaster," the man commented.

"Yes, we have a total of thirteen personnel this time," he replied. "New Wave are sending a pair of representatives as well."

"Metis let us know," the guard said. His colleague and a couple of helpers were carefully scanning both the PRT armored SUVs and the troop carrier bringing up the rear. The men finished their check as Colin and the lead guard waited patiently, the second man coming up and talking in a low voice. He then stepped away and raised his radio, transmitting a short sentence to someone unseen.

"All clear, sir. You know the drill. Please don't deviate from the normal path. Saurial and the others are expecting you." The guard nodded politely again, then stepped back, motioning to the security booth, which caused the barrier to rise. Colin drove through, looking with interest at the newly upgraded fence and wondering what the towers at intervals between the two more normal looking ones were for. As they approached the admin building, a familiar pair of figures came out of it. He looked over his shoulder, at Director Piggot who was in the front seat of the lead SUV, with Hannah driving it. The woman motioned to him so he turned his bike and drew up next to Danny Hebert and his security chief Mark.

"Good afternoon, Armsmaster," Danny said. "I just wanted to check if you required anything from me today."

"At the moment, no, Mr Hebert," Colin replied. "But we will wish to speak later about a service we would like to contract the DWU to provide over the weekend, if that's all right."

"It should be," the man said thoughtfully. "Anything serious?"

"Most likely not, it's on the lines of a similar crowd control exercise as you provided during the tanker moving operation. I will be free to explain in more detail after our meeting with the Family."

"All right. I'll be in my office until fairly late tonight, so you know where to find me. If I'm not there, I'll be somewhere on site and you can have me located easily enough." Danny looked interested, but patient.

"Thank you." Colin glanced back to see the vehicles waiting for him. "I must get back to my primary mission but we'll talk again soon."

"I'm looking forward to it," the man said, stepping back. Colin turned his bike around and rumbled off, the others following. Shortly he was parking outside BBFO, just as Dragon landed beside him. Moments later Lady Photon and Brandish did the same, approaching from a different direction.

"Hello, everyone," the former said calmly, while her sister watched the various vehicles park neatly and disgorge quite a few people. "This is certainly an impressive collection. Is anyone left back at base?" She was smiling a little.

Colin nodded, sensing that the question was intended humorously somehow. "A significant number," he replied, not knowing what else to say. "Thank you for attending this meeting."

"It's our pleasure," the woman told him. She looked to the left as Emily walked up beside him. "Hello, Director. It's been a while."

"Good afternoon, Lady Photon," Emily said. "I trust the family is well?"

"We're doing very nicely at the moment, thanks."

Everyone turned to look when they heard a click from the BBFO building. The pedestrian door opened to reveal Saurial, who looked around. "Well, don't stand around out here, come on inside," the lizard-girl said brightly, standing aside. "We've got coffee and tea, and a load of sandwiches from the cafeteria."

Ethan looked interested, heading for the door immediately, his wife following and appearing resigned. Colin watched, glanced at the Director who also headed that way, then followed, the two New Wave women behind him.

* * *

Emily looked around once they were inside, Saurial closing and locking the door, then coming around to the front of the large group of people and waving towards the table. It had been moved out from the wall and extended, with a couple of dozen chairs around it now. "Have a seat," she said pleasantly, while walking over to a fixture on the wall to one side. She unplugged a number of cables from it, then closed the lid of the system. "We're completely isolated now, so this should be more than secure enough."

Nodding a little, Emily led the group to the table. She paused when she saw Raptaur come out of the separate room unit, the much larger lizard smiling at them, then taking her place at the table next to Metis and Ianthe, who were watching them with interest. Glancing at Hannah, she noticed that the other woman had also briefly paused at the sight of the second of the Family to have hit Brockton Bay. The ones that no one, aside from Amy Dallon, had apparently seen in the same place at the same time...

Saurial sat in one of the chairs next to her sister, grinning for a moment. The slightly smug look they both wore for a moment made Emily sigh inside.

' _Fucking lizard sense of humor_ ,' she thought to herself. ' _How much of what they do is simply to screw with us?_ '

She had a feeling that she wouldn't like the answer so dismissed the question with an act of will. Hannah, who had sat as far away from the reptilian aliens as possible, was watching them right back with an expression that appeared to be one of deep thought mixed with mild annoyance and some trepidation.

Emily made the introductions for the ones who hadn't met each other before, the Family members greeting each new face politely. It didn't take long, and when she was finished she took a seat.

It was interesting, she thought, to see how the various people sat around the table. Colin showed no hesitation at all at taking the chair next to Saurial, and Dragon sat next to him. Lady Photon and her sister, after a shared quick glance at each other, moved around to sit next to Ianthe on the other side of the table. Ethan took a position nearer the middle, but she realized after a moment that was probably because it put him closer to the food that was on a number of plates in the center.

Battery mumbled something too faint to make out and sat next to him, away from the reptiles. Rory sat next to _her_. Legend went across from Dragon, seemingly amused by the entire thing. Emily, after some consideration, sat opposite Ethan.

Robin and Craig both ended up near Hannah, as did the three PRT staff members, Lieutenants Gibson, Pratchett, and Gaiman. All of the latter were apparently somewhat nervous and looking like only rigid discipline was keeping them even _that_ close to all the teeth at the other end of the table.

"The Mayor sends his regards, by the way," she said. "I met with him earlier to discuss the operation in broad terms. He's not wildly pleased about it but accepts the necessity."

"Roy is a good man," Saurial commented. "His sister is nice too, and his niece is fun."

"You've met them?" Emily asked after a moment. Everyone was looking at her.

"Yep, they came for a visit yesterday, and my sister gave her a ride around the city for a while. She's really interested in us, it turns out." The reptilian cape seemed amused, as did her relatives. "We had a lot of fun, Roy and Cheryl looked around the place and met a few other people, everyone went away happy." She shrugged a little. "Good public relations, combined with doing a favor for a friend, and a young girl."

"Small humans are rather cute," Raptaur rumbled, smiling. "She had a lot of questions."

' _Who doesn't?_ ' Emily thought morosely. "I see," she said out loud. "Very nice of you, I'm sure."

All four looked pleased.

"Thank you," Metis said. "Please help yourselves to snacks. If anyone wants coffee, tea, or anything else we have, just let me know."

The humans all exchanged glances. Emily sighed when she noticed Ethan was already getting outside a sandwich with apparent enthusiasm. Various people started requesting drinks, soon all of them receiving a cup of one thing or another. When everyone was settled again, Saurial said, "Metis has filled us in on the details she currently knows, and some deductions she's made. We have a solution to the explosives and can implement it almost immediately. We also have some requirements of our own that I think Dragon and Armsmaster between them can fulfill, which should allow us to give Mr Calvert a rather hard time."

She grinned lazily, as did her sister. "Having talked extensively to Tattletale, we would like to meet the man and express our displeasure with his operating methods," Raptaur added meaningfully. "He may not enjoy the experience, but I feel it will be an opportunity to learn important life lessons."

Emily couldn't suppress an evil grin of her own, even as she shuddered a little, thinking about what it would be like to be in an underground base, almost certainly in the dark, with lizards in the walls…

' _Couldn't happen to a more deserving man_ ,' she decided.

* * *

 ****  
Thomas shivered, looking around with confusion. Something was… coming. He could _feel_ it.

He checked all the security feeds yet again, then started another series of timelines, looking for a way out. So far, nothing he'd tried had done anything other than end badly.

And he still had no idea why.

* * *

"Well, to open this discussion, we would appear to have three main points to cover. One is to determine what Coil's power actually is, as far as we can. We have some suggestions from our Thinkers and researchers on that matter," Director Piggot began, taking charge of the table full of people. "One is to work out a suitable solution to the self-destruct system that he's implemented in his base. And one is to decide how we gain entry to that base, who takes what role, and any relevant support operations required for the job. A little lower down the list is sorting out how New Wave will cover for our own capes when they're involved in the main operation."

She nodded at Lady Photon and Brandish, who returned the gesture, but otherwise remained silent, listening carefully.

"We have a few ideas on Coil's power-set of our own, ' _Metis_ ' commented with a glance at her friends. "But we'd like to hear your theories first."

"Fine." Piggot opened her notebook, as did several of the others. "Our best fit is some form of either probability manipulation, or a variant of precognition, possibly combined. It matches what Tattletale told us when she gave us the main information dump and would explain a few of the more unusual aspects of jobs we know or suspect Coil was involved with. His success rate is near enough one hundred percent, high even for precogs, which can quite often be thrown off by randomizing certain actions. Either he's affecting local probability to tilt it in his favor, which is a power we've encountered before, or he's able to predict the future for at least a short distance with unprecedented accuracy. Or possibly both which is definitely a worst case scenario."

"We also suspect he's not prone to Thinker headaches, which are a common phenomenon, especially with precognitive abilities," Miss Militia added. "We've seen it before. If he's able to use his powers without such a limitation, it makes them considerably more effective even if they're actually fairly restricted. He could possibly use them continuously, in fact."

Lady Photon looked disturbed. "If that was the case even a few seconds of precognition, especially if it was very accurate, would make him a dangerous and hard to deal with opponent. And generally the shorter the duration of precognition used the more accurate it gets."

"That's a worry of ours, definitely," the military cape nodded. "However, we may have an ace in the hole as far as that sort of power goes."

"Which is?" Brandish asked curiously.

"Them." Miss Militia pointed at Taylor and her friends, who all glanced at each other.

"The Family? How is that helpful?" Lady Photon inquired. "Not that I'm saying that they're not both helpful and effective, of course," she hastily added with a smile in their direction.

"We have, for reasons we're still not sure about, an unusual effect on human Thinkers," Amy replied to her unknowing aunt. "It appears to essentially jam their abilities to the point they either get nothing at all from us, or very erroneous data."

"How odd." The woman seemed very curious. "Does that happen with all Thinkers?"

"As far as we can tell, yes," Director Piggot said. "None of the ones that the PRT has access to can derive any useful information at all, many of them now refusing to even try. In some cases the… backlash, error, call it what you will… is so overwhelming they pass out. And normally can't remember why, aside from not wanting to try again."

Taylor shrugged. "We don't know what the cause is although we're looking into it," she said truthfully. "Even Tattletale can't get anything useful. Her inferential Thinker ability is very powerful, but that if anything appears to make it worse."

"So there's a decent chance that it's you guys that actually spooked Coil in the first place and made him run away and hide?" Assault seemed amused about this.

"So it would seem." ' _Raptaur_ ' grinned at him. "Useful, if unexpected. We didn't even know about it until fairly recently."

"And it's also likely that his powers are significantly hobbled in general, with the Family so close to his base," Director Piggot said. "We suspect that's why he's still down there. He may be so used to using his power that the lack of sensible results has made him panic and lock himself in. He always _was_ a paranoid bastard, who never made a move unless he was pretty sure what the outcome would be, assuming he had a choice in the matter."

"Our research has come to a somewhat similar conclusion, with some differences which could make it a better fit to the data we have," Lisa remarked after everyone had thought that over. "Thinker, definitely, very high level. Precognition is almost a certainty. But we don't think there's any probability manipulation going on. We feel that he is almost certainly able to simulate reality over a probably fairly substantial area at much more than real time rates, allowing him to set some starting conditions then see what happens. A limited form of future omniscience, to a point. He's probably restricted in time although we don't know for sure how much. I suspect no more than a few days to a week or so maximum."

"Which would make sense," Velocity said. "As Lady Photon pointed out, precogs get more accurate the sooner their prediction is from when they make it, and the opposite happens the further away the predicted thing is going to occur."

"That's by far the most common aspect of that sort of ability," Legend agreed. "There are rare exceptions but they often have other limitations, such as only being able to focus on a very narrow range of interest."

"Tattletale told us that he seemed to have infallible knowledge of the next few hours to days, and demonstrated this a number of times to her and others to force them into line," Director Piggot mused out loud. "He claimed he was affecting probability, but a detailed simulation would also fit."

"We also think that he can run more than one simultaneous simulation," Lisa said. "Since most Parahuman powers seem, for some reason, to have almost deliberate limitations built in, it's likely that he can do no more than two, but a higher number can't be ruled out entirely. That said, two would allow some very impressive results since he could simulate both outcomes of a binary decision and pick the one he wanted, pretty much perfectly every time. It would certainly explain how he's almost always succeeded in anything he tried."

"He'd be practically unbeatable with an ability like that," Brandish suggested uneasily. "Depending on how fast he could do it, of course. If it took an hour to simulate a day, it would limit him a lot."

"Tattletale's information suggested it was probably more or less instant," Taylor replied, thinking back to what Lisa had told them. "No more than a couple of seconds in real time at most."

"That's more than a little worrying," Dauntless commented. He didn't seem too pleased about the concept.

"And it definitely fits the data," Armsmaster added. His mouth was a straight line, showing how hard he was thinking. "I've been wondering how he managed to do everything he pulled off under the noses of the entire PRT. But an ability like that would let him try alternatives until he found a successful one." He looked around at them one by one, then turned to the director. "I feel that the Family suggestion is more likely than our own, Director," he said.

"All right." She made some more notes. "We'll work on that basis for now. Until we get the bastard and nail him to a table for interrogation we can't be certain, but since that's the worst possibility, it's got an annoyingly good chance of being the right one. I'm suddenly very glad that you lot foul up Thinkers, you're probably the only reason he's still around."

"Thank you, Director," Taylor smiled, "although we can't really take credit for something we didn't realize we were doing."

The blonde woman nodded, still writing, then looked up when she finished. "OK. We have a working theory on his power and we can work out some countermeasures. Precogs are a pain in the ass to catch but we have some protocols for that situation. Next, explosives."

"Like I said, we came up with a solution for that," Taylor said through Raptaur. She nodded at Amy. "Or rather, Ianthe did."

"What _is_ your solution?" Dragon asked curiously. Taylor, both aspects, looked at Amy, who picked up a small transparent container with a firmly screwed on lid, showing it to the various people around the table.

"This. It's a synthetic organism I designed which is specifically tailored to be attracted to cyclotrimethylenetrinitramine." Several people instantly looked very worried, Emily Piggot most of all. Amy held up her other hand. "Don't worry, it can't self replicate, and it will die off very fast if it doesn't encounter that particular molecule. I can also kill it with a simple chemical trigger, which I will give you the formula for if you wish. _After_ this operation is complete."

"What the hell is cyclotri… whatever the hell that was?" Triumph asked, sounding puzzled.

"RDX, the explosive component of C4," Armsmaster said before Amy could. "What does this organism do?"

"It basically digests the stuff, uses the breaking of certain high-energy nitrogen bonds to fuel itself, then rearranges the carbon, nitrogen, and hydrogen in the original chemical to form its waste products. These are water vapor, ammonium carbonate, free carbon, and polypropylene, with an amount of free nitrogen which can be used as a tracer to allow the progress of the reaction to be monitored remotely. Essentially, it turns the explosive RDX into water, inert plastic and a harmless chemical or two."

Armsmaster appeared impressed and curious. She smiled at him. "It's quite fast, actually, it would take approximately two to three hours to decompose the ten tons of the material you estimated was present under ideal circumstances, given enough of the agent. Since we can assume that it's probably embedded in the concrete structure of the bunker, I have made it capable of penetrating porous materials of that nature. That will take a little time, perhaps five minutes per inch of thickness, but not enough to matter. I suggest that we release it around the perimeter of the Endbringer shelter as soon as possible, certainly before tomorrow morning, then just wait. You can easily check the progress by monitoring the nitrogen content of the air coming out of the exhaust vents of the shelter, which we know are currently open to the outside since Raptaur can smell the explosives in there in the first place."

Armsmaster was nodding slowly as she explained. "Interesting. And impressive. We just wait for the nitrogen levels to rise, indicating it's accessed the C4, then wait some more until it drops off again. At that point we know the threat is removed."

"Exactly. It will only deal with C4 and other RDX based explosives, but it will eliminate them anywhere in his base. Or in the surrounding area, for that matter, so I suggest you're careful not to allow your own munitions near the place for approximately six hours after the nitrogen levels drop again. It won't release enough of the gas to be an asphyxiation hazard or trigger any air quality sensors, from the data we were able to find on the ones normally present in such a facility. Standard biosafety precautions for a class 2 biohazard are all that's required to prevent it being spread beyond the target area. It's designed to be easily killed by concentrated chlorinated cleaning agents such as bleach, and is entirely uninterested in anything other than RDX. The organism is as safe as I can make it."

Armsmaster looked at Dragon, who was studying the silvery liquid in the vial she was now holding, then looked around the table, stopping on Director Piggot. "Director?" he said. "I have to admit, while this is definitely not a normal approach, it does sound efficient and safe, assuming that Ianthe's precautions are valid. Which I have no reason to doubt. We don't have any better method at the moment to deal with the problem."

She looked dubiously at him, then at Amy. The currently reptilian healer smiled. "We can demonstrate if you want."

"That… might help," the blonde woman said slowly. "Assuming you can do it safely."

"Easy enough. Saurial?" Amy turned to Taylor's smaller aspect. "Some RDX, please?"

Taylor tossed her a two inch sphere of a white slightly waxy substance, which made several people flinch. "Don't worry, it's almost impossible to set it off without a detonator," she grinned. "It won't go bang if she drops it."

Dragon pulled produced a small scanner and waved it in her direction, then nodded. "Pure RDX with a wax binder, consistent with a simplified formulation of C4."

"Now a box, please. Sealed, transparent, about this big." Amy described a two foot cube with her hands. "Standard port on the top for access."

"OK." Taylor made the requested box on the table in front of her out of the same transparent pure sapphire she used for the costume face-plates, then slid it over to her friend. Amy retrieved the vial from Dragon, opened the port in the top of the box, dropped the RDX sample inside, then followed it with the vial. Snapping the small access port closed she nodded to Taylor's aspects. The vial promptly vanished.

This caused a number of odd looks, but no one said anything, more interested in what happened next.

Everyone watched as the droplets of silver liquid, looking like low viscosity mercury, spread out into a puddle on the bottom of the transparent box. When part of the puddle met the ball of explosive, it began soaking into it in a peculiar manner, the entire quantity of fluid moving towards the material at a fairly rapid pace. Shortly there was no trace of it left.

The ball bubbled very gently, slowly changing color from white to a steadily deepening gray that shaded towards black, and expanding slightly. The box gained a layer of condensation on the inside which ran down the walls and puddled on the bottom. "The color change is from the free carbon, which usefully shows it's done something," Amy explained. In under a minute the process was complete. Picking the box up, she tipped it back and forth, making the ball of inert black plastic roll around and click on the inside of it. "That's it. The organism will quietly die off inside a couple of hours now that it can't find any more RDX to digest. Or you can kill it by spraying it with strong bleach, or my chemical deactivator will make it go inert. No more explosive."

"Wow," Assault said, staring at the box. "That was pretty weird. But a lot faster than I expected."

"There wasn't much RDX there to convert, and the ratio of bioagent to explosive was pretty large, so it was quick," Amy replied. "In our Coil scenario, the ratio won't be as favorable, so like I said it will take some hours, but the effect will be the same. It will have easiest access along any embedded wiring, which most likely means the first C4 nullified will be the material adjacent to the detonators themselves. Even if they were triggered at that point, the result would only be some muffled bangs and an upset Coil. The latter being the desired result, I don't see a down side." She smirked as she put the box down. "Although I recommend waiting until we know all of it has been dealt with. It will also neutralize any loose quantities of the stuff, of course, which may help depending on whether it's present in an armory."

"And this stuff will go through concrete?" One of the PRT lieutenants looked at the box, then her. "It's probably about three feet thick based on standard Endbringer shelter designs."

"It's not a problem, concrete is porous on a microscopic scale and the organism is small enough to penetrate it easily," ' _Ianthe_ ' assured the man. "True, it will slow it, but it won't stop it. Even a steel box might not, unless it was completely airtight. I could make it go through anything but that could be dangerous, so I think this is the best approach."

She turned back to look at Director Piggot. "It uses an entirely synthetic genome which is completely incompatible with normal DNA based life. It's not possible for it to interact with other forms of life, they'll simply ignore each other, in the same way that a tree would ignore a rock. I understand your worries caused by the experience of that fool Nilbog, but there's no risk of anything untoward happening. And I do feel it's the best and simplest method to deal with the problem."

"I must, somewhat reluctantly, agree, Emily," Legend put in, having been listening intently the entire time. He looked at her, then Amy. "It's definitely an unusual proposition and normally we'd test it six ways from Sunday, but under the circumstances and bearing in mind who we're dealing with, both as a target and as help..."

"I can let you have some to test for yourself, but we're short of time so you'd need to do it quickly," Amy suggested, holding up another vial.

"How much of it would we need?" The director was still looking and smelling worried, but less so, Taylor noticed with satisfaction, and now she was also looking very thoughtful.

"Approximately ten gallons," Amy said. "I can make that in under an hour. We can apply it as well, Raptaur and Saurial can definitely sneak up on his base and spray it into the intake vents and in the tunnels under the street without him noticing. If we do that before tomorrow morning, I would estimate that the explosives will be neutralized by midnight tomorrow at the latest."

"And we can monitor the situation with a simple gas analyzer on the exhaust vent," Lisa added, glancing at Armsmaster. "I would expect that you could provide something small and discreet that we could leave behind?"

"Easily," he nodded.

Director Piggot was staring at the box on the table with a very thoughtful look on her face. Eventually she rubbed the side of her face, then shrugged. "Damn it all. I have to say I don't like this at all, and I have no doubt that if anything goes wrong it's my neck on the line, but I also have to admit that none of you lot have steered us wrong yet despite being extremely annoying a lot of the time."

Taylor's Saurial aspect snickered, while her other one just smiled a little. Amy and Lisa shared a look of amusement. "One finds entertainment where one can, as my big brother says," she remarked. "And humans are endlessly entertaining."

Most of the people around the table looked at her, then each other. Assault was smiling in a weird way, Legend was definitely suppressing a grin, and Armsmaster merely looked slightly puzzled.

"Yes..." The PRT director fixed her with a stare, then sighed. "OK. We'll use it. I do want to have a sample checked out first, though, if only to be able to prove to my superiors that we did what due diligence we were able to in the time available. But I also think we can claim exigent circumstances and as long as things proceed to plan I'll only get yelled at a little."

"We're open to negotiation to supply the PRT with similar agents in future operations," Amy said, passing the sample vial to Armsmaster who carefully stored it away in his armor. "That may help you. I would expect that an efficient way of disarming explosives remotely could be useful. I can tailor it to attack more or less anything you want, although we refuse to make anything that could either produce toxic byproducts, or break down any compound in a way that would cause injury or loss of life. We're not going to provide _anyone_ with chemical or biological weapons. Non-lethal defensive purposes only, with strictly limited shelf lives."

"Which makes me feel a lot happier," Legend said. "I know you're well aware of the issues caused by Biotinkers, and ones that specialize in chemical design are nearly as worrisome."

"When you control biology enough you also control chemistry to a very high level," Amy pointed out. "At a high _enough_ level you can't really distinguish between the two."

"Yes, I can see that," he replied. "Out of interest, could you make a similar agent to deactivate nitrocellulose propellant, as used in firearms?"

"Easily. I did consider that. However, there are some issues. One is that the propellant in a firearm round is likely sealed in well enough to prevent, or drastically slow, the perfusion of the organism into the cartridges, so I couldn't guarantee how long it would take. Or even if it could make it. Another one is that the agent isn't airborne, so it would be much more difficult to apply it to the rounds in the first place. I am extremely reluctant to _make_ it airborne since it becomes wildly less easy to control once released. And, of course, your people also use the same cartridges in your own weapons and would end up at risk of having them deactivated if you got them contaminated and the cartridges _weren't_ sealed sufficiently well."

He nodded, as Miss Militia was also doing. "Excellent points."

"There is also the fact that Coil's mercenaries are known to use energy weapons and aren't entirely reliant on standard firearms as a result," Velocity put in.

"Another good point," Legend said thoughtfully. "All right, forget my suggestion."

"Good. Second point dealt with," the Director said, looking a lot happier, although she was still giving the box glances every now and then with a faintly disapproving air. "Next item. How the hell do we get inside the shelter without alerting the entire gang and walking into a killbox?"

"Out of interest," Miss Militia began, looking at the others, then Taylor and her friends, "Couldn't we bypass the entire process by the use of the WCC?"

Aside from Director Piggot, Legend, and the other three people who had so far seen the wormhole facility, the rest seemed puzzled, exchanging glances. Clearly they hadn't been informed about the wormhole transportation system yet. Taylor looked at Lisa, who shook her head. Armsmaster and Dragon also indicated it wasn't a good idea.

"It would allow access, yes, Miss Militia," the latter said, before ' _Metis_ ' had a chance to speak, "but the gamma emission of the exit is large enough to set off the standard radiation detectors that all Endbringer shelters and other similar underground security facilities inevitably have fitted. Most of them are based on cold war nuclear bunker designs and there's a specific sensor suite that always gets installed. The instant we fired it up, every alarm in the place would go off and we'd lose any element of surprise. Not to mention that it could be fairly hazardous in the confined space to most people who weren't either very radiation tolerant or wearing suitable shielding."

Lisa waved at Dragon. "Just what I was going to say. We thought about it but it didn't take much research and consideration to show it was a sub-optimal solution, although in some ways convenient. We don't want to irradiate either Coil's people or yours if we can avoid it."

"No, I'd prefer not to glow in the dark either," Assault said. "What the devil is the WCC?"

"Not currently relevant," Piggot said absently, her gaze on the notebook in which she was jotting something down. "OK. So that's out. Next suggestion?"

"It's easy enough," ' _Raptaur_ ' said. "We can cut a hole in the place anywhere you want, no problem. Or just kick the front door in." She manifested a large hammer and put it on the table in front of her. "It wouldn't take more than a couple of hits. An EDM blade would go through the wall like it was cheese, or the doors for that matter."

Lieutenant Pratchett raised his hand. They all turned to look at him. "Ah, I don't believe that's a good idea," he said a little hesitantly. "If I recall correctly, the shelters run a positive air pressure system of about half a PSI, to prevent airborne contaminants or smoke getting in. They have very sensitive air pressure sensors that will trip an alarm if the pressure abruptly drops when no one is expecting it, and I'd assume that their security protocols are based on prearranged entries and so on. If we cut a hole in the place the alarms will go off for sure. Same problem as with the radiation."

"He's right," Battery noted. "I remember reading the specifications document on the Shelter program, they're definitely set up to monitor sudden air pressure changes and there's no way Coil's not paranoid enough to have every system available armed and monitored."

"Damn." Legend nodded. "I agree. I should have remembered that."

"Pump a sedative in through the air intakes?" Dauntless suggested.

"Air quality alarms would detect it and switch over to internal supplies before it built up to a sufficient level," Armsmaster grunted, visibly thinking hard. "We went into that some time ago. The original design had enough stored oxygen for a thousand people for two days. With only approximately forty people at most, and possibly an upgrade, they could hold out for a couple of weeks or more. Which might let them escape."

"How about flooding the place and just waiting for them to evacuate?" Triumph said with a small shrug. "Do it slowly enough that they had time, but fast enough to panic them."

"No, if it goes wrong that's tantamount to a slow execution," Director Piggot muttered. "If it was only Coil I'd still be tempted, but we don't know for sure he doesn't have any innocents in there, and we really want them alive for questioning anyway. Not to mention it might well wreck any data storage."

Dragon said, "There's also the point that the shelters are designed so that the entrances and air inputs and outputs are on the lowest level, which means that the upper ones would maintain an air pocket for a considerable time in case of a flood unless we pumped water in under very significant pressure. They would know this and be unlikely to panic so we'd just end up in a siege situation."

"Which we definitely do not want," Carol Dallon mentioned. "That sort of thing puts the control into the hands of the enemy far too much." Everyone nodded as they thought over the problem.

"What about making an enclosure against the structure, pressurizing it to the same level as in the shelter, then cutting through the wall?" Lieutenant Gibson suggested. "Your matter creation abilities could do that, correct?" He looked between ' _Saurial_ ' and the others.

"Yes, that's not difficult, but one problem I can see is that the base is underground. The only obvious place to do it is the main door, which has cameras and probably other sensors around it. There's a side door at street level we found, but I think that leads down to the main entrance as well through one of the other buildings, so it's probably got the same problem."

"And the possible escape routes into the tunnels would also most likely be heavily monitored," Armsmaster added. "Which would make it problematic. We could bypass the cameras easily enough but Coil would know that and most likely have other sensors in place to avoid holographic countermeasures and such techniques. I could think of a dozen or more methods that he could have used off the top of my head. Don't underestimate the man, he is very far from stupid and was responsible for most of the protocols we would normally utilize to attack exactly this situation."

"Probably because he was thinking up all the ways we could deal with him and coming up with ways around them, on the PRT's coin," the director said sourly.

Armsmaster nodded. "And if our determination of his power is accurate, he may even have tested them on his own base."

"This is annoying," Miss Militia grumbled. "If we blast our way in, we instantly have a massive fight into an armored stronghold where the defenders have all the knowledge and advantages, unless we use overwhelming force. Surreptitious entry would be detected, leading to the same problem. If we didn't care about taking them alive we could just kill the explosives and seal the place up permanently, but that's out too. So what do we do?"

{We can get inside easily enough, and they'll never know we're there unless we let them,} Taylor said to her friends, in quiet tones. The other people stared at the use of their private language. {I mean, we could probably just teleport in, grab the bastard, and get right back out before they knew what was going on, but that would definitely lead to a lot of questions I don't want to answer. Plus the ones that were left would probably wipe the computers before they legged it. It risks giving away, or at least hinting at, some of our secrets to the PRT. What do you guys think? }

Amy looked at her, then replied, {I don't think it's much of a risk, in fact. We just tell them we have a method to get inside. You two go in and make them scream for a while, take out as many as you feel like, and go after Coil. Disable the computers so they can't erase the data or something like that. Then open the doors and let the PRT come in and have some fun rounding the rest of them up.}

{There's also a risk that someone could get hurt,} Taylor said through her other aspect. {I may not be entirely fond of the PRT in general, but these are good people and I don't want them shot by some asshole mercenary who knows the place better than they do.}

{What about the mercs?} Lisa asked, not sounding particularly worried.

{Honestly, I'd prefer that they don't get killed either, but I don't mind scaring the crap out of them,} she grinned.

{I just want to be there when Coil finds out he's so far up shit creek that even a nuclear submarine wouldn't help him,} the black lizard chuckled. {And I want him to suffer. Mentally, if nothing else.}

{That can be arranged.}

Taylor looked back to the PRT contingent, who were exchanging glances. "Sorry about that," her Saurial aspect said. "We were just discussing a thought I had. My sister and I have a method that will allow us to get inside without tripping any alarms, we think, but I'm afraid exactly how is a Family secret. What we're thinking is that the both of us go in, sneak around for a while and get a good idea of the layout of the place, disable the alarms and any other traps, secure the computers, then let your people in. At that point we can sweep the entire place pretty fast and take them by surprise. Hopefully without any casualties on either side."

There was a long pause. "I find myself very curious about how you plan to do that," Legend commented slowly. "And I wonder how many other abilities you have that we don't know about yet."

"Oh, a few," Lisa chuckled. "But as my cousin said, we're not allowed to talk about some of them. Security, of course. Even so we're willing to use our talents even if we can't explain what we're going to do."

Director Piggot was watching them with her hands folded on the table, her gaze intent. Her eyes flicked from the black lizard to each of Taylor's aspects, then to Legend, who made a tiny shrug, then to Armsmaster who simply nodded once. She looked around again, sighed, and picked up her pen. "I swear your group is deliberately collecting power classifications or something," she groused quietly, writing for a few seconds. "One day..."

Taylor grinned. The woman didn't genuinely seem annoyed, more resigned if anything. She felt that they were slowly growing on her. "Perhaps, Director. One day."

"Fine. Keep your secrets. Just don't let that fucker get away."

"We won't," Lisa assured her. "Once we have him, he's not going anywhere."

This at least seemed to cheer the blonde woman up. She looked at her empty coffee cup, then over at the machine. "I could do with some more of that," she said. ' _Saurial_ ' got up with a smile and got new drinks for everyone. Assault was eating another sandwich, apparently finding listening hungry work. Taylor was interested to notice that the various people's scents showed that they were much less worried now, having apparently become used to her and her friends when nothing untoward happened.

Sitting down again, they began going over the raid in more detail, Armsmaster pulling out a large printout of the plans of the shelter as it had originally been designed, along with data on the various tunnels they had found that could well be linked to it now. An hour later they'd worked out where everyone would go during the assault on the place and what they'd be responsible for.

Eventually, Director Piggot dropped her pen onto her half-filled notebook and flexed her hand. "I think that's about all we can do on that for now. You can check out those tunnels tonight and see if you can detect if they're actually linked into the shelter?"

Taylor nodded. "Yes, I'll do that later. We'll poke around and see if we can find any others as well, just in case he's got backups for his backups."

"Good. We'll need to secure his satellite bases as soon as the main one is down, in case they have information we need, but that won't take more than a small team. You're certain they're not booby-trapped?"

"As far as I could tell, yes. At least not with explosives or any obvious toxins, although I'd take precautions even so," she said through Raptaur. "I'd guess there may be some sort of automatic emergency erase thing, though."

"Probably, it's fairly common," Miss Militia said. "We know how to handle that. We'll assign a tech squad to each team to deal with the computers."

"Will you need any of us to help those teams?" Carol Dallon asked.

"That would probably be a wise idea, Emily," Legend commented thoughtfully. "We really should reserve all our Parahumans for the main bunker, just in case something goes wrong. Forty plus heavily armed and well trained mercenaries is a serious force and we could need all of us to deal with them without causing total chaos."

"Agreed." Piggot nodded. "One New Wave member for each team. We'll make sure everyone has PRT-issue earpieces to maintain communications. Change the encryption keys first, though, since we need to assume that Coil may have the current ones."

Armsmaster nodded a little as he made his own notes. "I had already arranged that, Director," he muttered.

"How do you want the rest of us deployed?" Amy's aunt inquired.

"One member of your group to each team, to provide backup in case of serious problems." Director Piggot flipped back through her notes, then pulled a sheaf of papers out of the folder she'd come in with. "Panacea isn't a combat cape, so she needs to stay back unless she's needed for healing purposes, even with that new costume of hers. That leaves seven teams. Two to the satellite locations, five left for security operations across the city if required. Hopefully they won't be needed since the current crime level is so low but we can't risk not having them on standby."

"Each team will consist of a troop transport, an eight-person squad of vetted and experienced troopers, and one New Wave member," Miss Militia said, referring to her own notes. "Lieutenant Gibson is in overall charge of the external security detail. Pratchett and Gaiman are with the main assault force. You'll report to your squad commander, then to Gibson, and if necessary, to me, in that order depending on circumstances."

"All right," Lady Photon said, looking at her sister for a moment, who nodded. "We can live with that for the day."

"Payment for the service will be ten thousand dollars each, with a combat bonus of another eight if you see action, as agreed." Legend looked at them, then Taylor and her friends. "Paid through BBFO as subcontractors."

"Excellent. We can definitely work with that," the Pelham woman smiled. "Thank you."

"Thank you for agreeing to do this," he replied, also smiling. "Without your aid we'd definitely be spread rather thin at the moment."

"The lack of the normal systems could present issues during the shutdown and restart," Armsmaster suggested. "Hopefully the portable units will suffice for the duration although it's an inefficient method without central coordination. Each team will largely be on their own with only minimal backup until the new system is in place and running, which probably won't be until late afternoon."

"We'll make do, sir," Lieutenant Gaiman said calmly. "It's not the first time we've had to improvise around equipment problems."

"With a little luck we can get the Coil assault done fairly quickly and get back onto the street," Dauntless remarked. "I'm worried that someone might take the opportunity to cause trouble."

"Which is why we're being very cautious about security," Legend told him. "It's both to prevent Coil finding out, and any other villains who might seize the chance to do something irritating."

"What about this chemical agent that's going to be the excuse for an evacuation?" Battery asked. "Are you sure it will do the job?"

"Oh, yes, definitely," Dragon assured her. "Thioacetone is unbelievably potent. Even the minuscule quantity we intend to release will be detectable over a significant area, and the smell is reputed to be absolutely horrific. For several hours no one with a functioning nose is going to want to be anywhere _near_ the commercial district. We have a counter-agent we formulated that we can cover the affected area with as soon as the operation is underway and by the time we're done, the smell will have dissipated entirely."

"I guess that wind direction will affect the area it covers?" Velocity said.

"Yes, though the forecast for early Sunday morning is for very light winds blowing to the south, so it shouldn't spread outside the target area," she replied.

"Mayor Christner is preparing suitable press releases that will be disseminated at the appropriate time," Piggot added. "He wasn't too happy about it but city hall will do its part."

"I doubt the Sunday news will be very complimentary about the ' _accident_ '," Assault snickered. "Poor old Roy is going to get a lot of complaints."

"Something he is well aware of and will undoubtedly hold over us for months," the director sighed. "But once we can announce that we've shut Coil down, that should help."

She looked around the table again. "I think that's probably everything for now. Ianthe, we'll have the secure lab do a quick test and analysis of the bioagent, but I can't see that we have many other options to disarm the charges without calling in external help, which will inevitably end up taking time we don't really have. So I expect I'll be calling later to ask you to go and release it in the appropriate places."

Amy nodded silently.

"We'll do that when we check out the tunnels, Director," Taylor told the woman. "Assuming you give the go-ahead."

"All right. Lady Photon, Brandish, thank you for attending and your input. Get your families ready and wait for us to call." Both New Wave women also nodded.

"In that case, I think we're done. Armsmaster, Miss MIlitia, we need to talk to Danny Hebert about using the DWU for crowd control, the rest of you are dismissed." Everyone stood up and began heading for the door, Assault grabbing one last sandwich on the way and receiving a smack on the side of the head from Battery for his troubles.

"Dragon, can I have a quick word before you go, please?" Taylor said. The armored Tinker stopped and turned to her Saurial aspect. Armsmaster also paused, while the others kept going, Director Piggot talking to Legend in low tones as they went outside.

"How can I help, Saurial?" the Canadian Tinker asked politely.

"You have a reputation of being very good with computers," Taylor said.

"I know my way around them, yes," the woman replied with a slight chuckle in her voice.

"Do you have anything that would allow us to do this..." Taylor went on to explain her thoughts. Armsmaster came over and listened carefully, before looking at his friend when she finished. Dragon returned the look, then slowly nodded.

"Yes, I can provide you with what you need. Why do you actually need it?"

"Psychological warfare reasons," Taylor grinned. "Tattletale, who has become a very close friend, feels that Thomas Calvert requires something… special."

"I see." Dragon snickered under her breath. "I probably shouldn't find that as funny as I do. Sure. I'll put something together in Armsmaster's lab and get it to you before the raid."

"Thanks." Taylor turned to Armsmaster. "Thank you too. It's been nice to see you both again. We should talk again fairly soon, Dragon, once this is over. We have some more Leet-tech to discuss if nothing else."

"That would definitely be something I'm interested in," the armored woman nodded. "His tricorder design, and the audio inducer, are both coming along well, and of course the wormhole generator is something we need to talk about. I'll be in contact."

"OK." Taylor smiled at them both.

"It was agreeable meeting you all," Armsmaster said, glancing over at her Raptaur aspect, and Amy and Lisa, all of whom were still on the other side of the table. "We'll see you on Sunday morning if not before."

He turned and headed for the door, Dragon waving to them and following. When it shut, Taylor looked at her friends.

"That was interesting."

"It was indeed," the Varga said. "Hopefully things will go to plan. It would certainly be simplest to just teleport in without warning and eliminate the threat in short order, but I agree that it would give away far too many things we have no need to spread around. This approach minimizes our security issues, keeps the PRT happy, and doesn't panic anyone." He thought for a moment, then grinned. "Except Coil and his men, which is if anything a bonus."

"Light horror?" Lisa questioned with a knowing laugh in her voice.

Taylor shook her head with a very nasty smirk. "No. He upset my cousin. I don't think he's going to get off with ' _light_ ' anything..."

All four of them started laughing, looking forward to the next phase.

* * *

"Well, _that_ was fucking terrifying," Emily muttered when the door was firmly shut behind them and they were standing around the vehicles, the PRT officers climbing into the transport. "Christ. I thought Saurial and Raptaur were bad, but Ianthe… _She_ could fuck us all up without even trying."

"I think it _very_ unlikely that she ever would, Emily," Legend told her in quiet tones. "Almost any Parahuman with intelligence and a knack for lateral thought could probably leverage their power into something very destructive. The Family are more gifted in that regard than most, but I also feel that they're much more restrained than most, too. I can't think of anything off the top of my head that would be likely to push them into seriously becoming a threat. Except perhaps harming any of their people. So I would suggest we try not to do that."

"You think?" she asked dryly. "That hadn't crossed my mind."

"Oh, I'm sure you'd have got it sooner or later," he chuckled.

"Where did Armsmaster and Dragon get to?" she asked, suddenly realizing they were down two capes.

"Saurial asked for a private word," Lady Photon said, walking over to them. She held out her hand. "We'll be waiting for you to call when you're ready, Director."

Emily shook the offered appendage. "Thank you."

The woman nodded, then went over to her sister who was chatting to Battery. Shortly after, she picked her relative up and flew off. Moments later the BBFO door opened, Colin and Dragon coming out and closing it again. "Anything important?" she asked them when they joined her and Legend.

"Saurial had a request for some specialist computer equipment that would be helpful during the operation," Dragon replied. "It won't take long to arrange and it should aid the whole thing." She turned to Colin, adding, "I'll meet you back at the Rig." He nodded, watching as she stepped away, then took off with a roar of jet exhaust.

"All right. Let's go and talk to Danny Hebert, then get back and finish up for today." Emily was feeling that she needed at least twelve hours of sleep even though she still had several hours of work left.

Everyone piled back into the vehicles, the convoy rumbling out of the side yard and around to the front of the DWU facility. Emily's SUV and Colin's bike stopped there, the others leaving the site and heading back to the PRT building. Legend landed next to them as Emily and Hannah got out of the SUV and Colin dismounted his bike. They went towards the main door of the admin building, finding it opened as they reached it to reveal the security head Mark. "Come in, please," he invited. "Danny's in his office, I'll take you up."

He led them through the building to the Hebert man's office, the outer administrative room empty except for one tired looking man prodding at a keyboard and yawning every now and then. Knocking on the door to the inner office, Mark opened it and leaned in. "Director Piggot and some friends for you, Danny," they heard him say.

"Send them in," the voice of the DWU leader called. Mark stepped aside, waving them in.

"Thinking about it, your presence could be useful," Emily told him. He looked mildly intrigued and followed them in. Inside the room, Danny was standing next to his large table with a woman none of them had seen before, who was notable in that she appeared to be part cat and was wearing a mask over her eyes. She glanced at them, then said something quietly to the man, who nodded.

Moving past them with a polite gesture of acknowledgment, the cat-woman left and closed the door. "Sorry, I was just finishing up a short meeting," Danny said, waving them to some chairs. Mark leaned against the wall next to the door and listened silently.

Emily looked back at the door, then at Danny. "If you don't mind me asking, who was that?"

"She's called Vectura. A recent hire, actually. Nice woman, very talented."

"She's a Parahuman."

He smiled. "Yes, she is. What gave her away?"

"The tail was part of it," Emily commented with a sigh. "Not to mention the ears, the fur on her head… You're officially hiring Parahumans now?"

"We're perfectly happy to take anyone who can do the work and fit in around here," Danny replied evenly. "She meets both criteria, and she didn't have anywhere else to go. Metis introduced her to us, actually, they met a while ago. She's a friend of the Family, so to speak."

"And her power?"

"She's a Tinker."

Emily stared, then rubbed her eyes with the thumb and forefinger of one hand. "You have an actual Tinker now..."

"We do. She's a damn good mechanic as well, that's her job here." He shrugged, the smile threatening to become a smirk. "The Tinkering part is a bonus and will probably come in handy eventually."

"What's her specialization?" Colin asked with considerable interest.

"Transportation, basically. More or less anything to do with it. She's got an interest in boats among other things, which fits in nicely with our skillset, but she's not limited to that." Danny leaned back in his chair and regarded them. "We were going to contact you about her next week, as it happens. Vectura is interested in power testing."

Colin, Emily noticed, was looking _very_ interested now. She groaned to herself. If she didn't nip this in the bud he was likely to get involved in a long talk about Tinkers which would bore her rigid. Sometimes the man was impossible. "Later, Armsmaster. We have more immediately important things to deal with. You can talk to... Vectura, was it?" Danny nodded. "Vectura, when she comes in."

He radiated mild disappointment, glancing at the door as if he was thinking about going to look for the feline woman, but subsided after a moment with a very faint sigh. "That is true, Director."

Danny, who had been watching them and probably picking up on the subtext with ease, smiled again and asked, "So how can I help you?"

"This isn't for public consumption, but we will, almost certainly, require the DWU for crowd control purposes on Sunday, due to a cooperative operation between us, the Family, and New Wave," Emily began.

"Armsmaster said something along those lines," he replied thoughtfully. "Will you need a lot of people?"

"I would think we'd need about a hundred or so?" she said, glancing at the others. Legend thought about it and nodded, as did Colin.

"At the most," Hannah confirmed. "It's not as complicated as the tanker move was."

"We'll require the people to establish a low security cordon around part of the city center," Emily added. "If what we think will happen, happens."

He nodded slowly. "I believe I understand. And you won't answer any questions about why or what, I assume."

"We can't divulge that information for security reasons, I'm afraid," she said.

The man shrugged. "OK. I won't push. Just tell me if there's any danger to our people?"

"No, I doubt that very much. It's purely going to be a simple public order issue, to keep people away from any harm."

"All right. I'll ask for volunteers for a security exercise, then, we should be able to fill the places easily enough. Does Roy know about this?"

"He does. It has the backing of the city administration."

"Fine. Mark, get some of your people to start asking for anyone who wants some overtime and the chance to stand around in the street and get yelled at, OK?"

The security man grinned. "Sure, Danny. A hundred is easy enough, we can spare them for a few hours."

"It will be early in the morning, but we won't know exactly when until shortly beforehand," Legend said. "You should have them on standby from Saturday night, just in case."

"We can do that."

"Thank you, Mr Hebert," Emily said with a certain amount of genuine gratitude. "This will help a lot. You'll find out what it was about when it's over, but we can't risk telling you any more about it right now. I hope you understand."

"I do, Director," he assured her. "Good luck with your operation."

She stood, the others following suit. Mark opened the door for them. "We'll be in touch soon. And next week, call me when you would like your Tinker to come in for testing."

"We'll do that," he nodded. "Good bye."

"Good bye." They left the room, Mark accompanying them back down to the vehicles. Minutes later they were driving back through the derelict buildings surrounding the DWU yard. Legend had flown off and Armsmaster was driving ahead. Emily noticed absently that there were almost none of the normal junkies still around, only seeing a couple of them.

"They have a fucking honest to god Tinker now," she sighed, rubbing tired eyes. "Wonderful. How many capes is that now in the DWU, one way or the other?"

"Four ex-Undersiders, five members of the Family, Über and Leet if you look at it right, possibly Amy Dallon for most purposes, and now Vectura," Hannah said, shaking her head. "How the hell did the _Dockworkers Union_ end up with more capes than anyone but the E88 without anyone really noticing until it was too late?"

"I have _no_ idea," Emily muttered, leaning her head against the back of the seat and closing her eyes. They drove along in silence for a while. "They're not Changers, are they?" she asked after a couple of minutes.

"It doesn't look like it. We saw both Saurial and Raptaur in the same place. Finally."

"They've been fucking with us the entire time."

"I think so."

"Fucking alien lizard humor," she grumbled, not opening her eyes. Hannah merely snorted, and kept driving.


	255. Guest Omake - Predator or Prey?

**By CmptrWz**

* * *

Sophia took another bite of her pizza as she headed for one of her hidden equipment stashes, one without any of her Wards TinkerTech equipment but with plenty of sharp-tipped arrows and some poison she had never actually got around to using before she was press-ganged into the Wards. She was still amazed that the damned cuff had shorted out when she rested it against Chris's stupid pizza maker. Didn't stop her from waiting for the pizza, though that was at least in part due to the shock of the thing sparking once and falling off.

Little did she know that under normal circumstances she probably had a good three hours before Armsmaster noticed that he wasn't getting updates due to a code bug introduced when he hadn't gotten enough sleep, coupled with being slightly out of it due to not getting enough sleep. Kids, let that be a lesson: If you don't get enough sleep you make mistakes. When you make mistakes your stuff shorts out without anyone noticing. And when your stuff shorts out without anyone noticing psychopaths escape and start putting their murder plots in motion. So get your sleep!

Half an hour later Sophia had her equipment, had pre-poisoned her arrows, and realized that in all her planning she hadn't thought of a good way to _find_ Hebert. Her father was easy enough to grab on his way to or from work, but she had heard rumors of discreet monitoring of their home. Rumors with no basis in reality, granted, but she didn't know that. As she wandered, doing her best to both stay moving and undetected, she pondered the problem.

* * *

"Colin," Dragon said, sounding worried. "The Simurgh just started acting up again, though it isn't on an attack vector."

"What is it doing, then?" Colin asked. "Adjusting orbit to account for Family movement?"

"It did adjust it's orbit," Dragon responded. "And is currently looking directly at Brockton Bay. While wearing a cheerleader outfit with the Family emblem on it and eating popcorn."

Needless to say that due to unusual circumstances Sophia had a lot longer before Armsmaster would make any unaided connections to what was going on and her escape.

* * *

Lisa stared at the PHO thread Winged_One had started in the Brockton Bay forum, wondering what "The Hunt Begins! All pity the hunter for her judgement is nonexistent!" meant. The moderators were torn between closing it and waiting to see if something panned out. Though the locals had apparently started prepping cameras and escape routes, just in case.

Now that she thought about it, cameras were a good idea. She quickly called Kevin and Randall to get them to launch the Snitch as she started trying to use her power to pick the right traffic and/or security cameras.

* * *

An hour later Taylor and Amy were walking down the boardwalk as their perfectly normal human selves, on their way to meet up with Vicky and Dean. The latter two were officially on a date but Vicky had insisted that Amy at least join them at Fugly's. Amy had just finished a hospital shift, and Taylor had been told to take some time away from school and Family. Due to the latter Amy had decided Taylor should also go to Fugly's. Along the way Lucy had decided to tag along to chat for a few minutes, but had already eaten and had other things to do and was going to go on her own way instead of joining the group.

Varga was currently flying around as an invisible mini-dragon, playing harmless pranks on people like moving their drinks when they weren't looking or tieing together the shoelaces of that would-be pickpocket.

Sophia just happened to pass through and spot Taylor and in her rage tunnel-visioned, ignoring everyone else around. She had moved to be in position to get a good shot off and, being downwind, had gone unnoticed by everyone in the area other than Dean, who didn't realize what suddenly had him on edge.

Of course, the Snitch is both not a person and was broadcasting to people not in the area, so Kevin and Randall were cursing the fact that Taylor had, apparently, not brought any phones with her. In reality she had, but she also had them in an EDM-lined bigger-on-the-inside pouch right now so they weren't getting any signal. By the time they thought to try calling _Amy_ , who was right next to Taylor, it would be too late.

* * *

"Ames!" Vicky yelled, darting over to grab Amy. "What kept you?"

"I had to walk," Amy responded, looking down at Vicky's feet that were not, in fact, on the ground. "You know that thing where you use your feet to get around through the interaction between them and the ground?"

"I am sure that some day The Amy will learn to fly," Lucy said. "Until then she is slow and must contend with obstacles such as other people."

* * *

Sophia sighted down her crossbow, aiming to put the bolt as close to into Hebert's heart as she could. She just had to wait for the perfect opening. Finally Hebert stopped moving and turned around to look at the two Dallons yapping. She adjusted her aim and let the bolt loose, grinning as it was on target. And then she noticed that Victoria had apparently noticed the bolt and was moving to intercept, damnit.

* * *

Vicky happened to turn around at just the right moment to see Sophia's shot and was moving to intercept as she started yelling a warning. She almost got in position to block the bolt, but instead it glanced off of her forcefield. This caused it to just miss Taylor, passing within a hair's breadth of her shirt as she spun around in the wrong direction to see it in time to do anything.

If that was all Sophia's day would have ended up much better. Unfortunaetly for Sophia, Lucy happened to be in the bolt's new path and it lodged itself in her leg. She screamed in pain as she collapsed to the ground.

Vicky was rocketing through the air in an instant, heading straight for Sophia even as Amy grabbed Lucy.

"That arrow was poisoned," Amy growled, glancing up at Taylor. "And I think it was meant to kill you."

Taylor, for her part, was doing her best to not reveal too much as she reached into her pocket and manifested a collapsable baton to pull out for show. After all, Varga had things in hand for the moment.

* * *

Randall had been just about to initiate the call to Amy when they saw the bolt fired, glance off of Glory Girl, and hit Taylor and Amy's friend. At which point his brain decided that Amy had enough to worry about. Shadow Stalker as well, for that matter, though why was Taylor just standing there?

Then the feed from the Snitch swung around as Glory Girl stopped in mid-air, to show that a massive dragon was materializing out of the shadow of the building behind Shadow Stalker. Not that she had noticed just yet, but she would any moment.

* * *

 _SHIT!_ Sophia thought as Glory Girl rocketed towards her position. She grabbed her stuff and turned to run, only to stop and look up at the obstacle in her path. Was that a dragon?

 **"Why hello there little one,"** the dragon said, leaning down to look at Sophia. **"I do believe we have some things to discuss, given that you just tried to kill at least one friend of mine."**

Sophia made to dart to the side, only to have a _very_ hot flame suddenly flow from the dragon's mouth and stop her. How the roof hadn't caught on fire she wasn't sure as her clothing was singed from several feet away.

 **"Now then,"** the dragon said after giving Sophia a moment to consider what the flame could do to her. **"As I understand it, normally the younger members of the family would knock out and restrain people like you. You are, however, a bit fragile, so I can't guarantee that I won't hurt you in the process. Thus I think I will be nice and give you a chance to disarm yourself and surrender, as I can't guarantee that if I disarm you it won't be much more literal."**

Sophia gulped and carefully considered her options. On one hand she saw herself as a predator. On the other hand even a predator can be hunted, and her fear response was making it very clear that she was not the alpha predator in this situation. The fire the friggin DRAGON had fired a moment ago felt too hot to pass through in her shadow state from a distance, she didn't want to know how hot it was at the source. And, of course, the dragon had snuck up on her, meaning that it likely had better stealth than her.

She hadn't even realized she had made her decision when she noticed that she had carefully put the unloaded crossbow she was holding down on the ground. She followed that by removing her extra ammo, several knives, a small pistol she didn't remember the source of, and was reaching for her mask when the dragon interrupted.

 **"I do not need to see your face,"** the dragon said. **"Nor do the cameras."**

It was only a couple hours later, with multiple new cuffs attached and sitting in a cell with an electrified web in the walls, floor, ceiling, and active current in the bars that she finally realized that hurting a friend of the family was probably the exact wrong thing to do before asking them to teach her.

Where she picked up the damned stomach bug that caused her to come to that realization on the toilet she had no idea.

* * *

Amy smirked to herself, having created a very annoying stomach bug targeted to Sophia's genetics from some skin samples that had been left on the crossbow bolt she had extracted from Lucy. In theory it should actually be essentially permanent unless Sophia's entire GI tract was cleared of all bacteria, beneficial or otherwise, and kept that way for a couple of days. Sophia deserved far worse for the poisoned bolt and Lucy was lucky Amy had been right there to help her.

She doubted anyone would even consider asking Panacea to help Sophia with her illness, no matter how long it went on for. Or any member of the Family, for that matter.

* * *

The following day the video from the Snitch, essentially unedited beyond some blurred faces, had become the latest internet sensation and people were clamoring for information on the dragon while at the same time calling for Shadow Stalker to be executed, birdcaged, or turned over to the Family for punishment. Amazingly enough nobody seemed to recall the odd behavior of the Simurgh. After all, how else do you react to the family?


	256. Making and Testing

Hearing a knock on the door, Linda put down the engine part she was examining and went over to unlock it. Outside were Saurial and Metis. "Hi, come in," she said, stepping back out of the way.

"Sorry we didn't come over earlier, Linda," the smaller lizard said apologetically when the door was shut again. "We had a meeting with the PRT on short notice about something we're helping them with."

"Danny told me," she assured Saurial. "Don't worry, I've found plenty of things to do to fill time."

"It's definitely coming along, isn't it?" Metis said, looking around with interest.

"It sure is. I still can't believe this," Linda said with a smile as she did the same, leading them back to her workbench. "I'm a fuck of a lot luckier than I have any right to be, considering everything. You guys saved me and I can never repay that."

"We've said before, there's nothing to repay," Saurial commented.

"You say that, but you're not seeing it from my side," she shrugged. "To me, there's a lot I owe you."

They exchanged glances. "Fair enough. If you're happy thinking that, don't let us get in the way," Metis grinned. "Just don't think we feel the same." The large black reptile looked her up and down. "The new body working out for you?"

Linda looked down at herself, twitching an ear and waving her tail around. "A lot more than I expected," she chuckled. "This is still pretty cool." Reaching up she pulled the mask she was wearing off and tossed it onto the workbench. "Although that thing itches."

"Any ideas on a proper costume yet?" Saurial inquired, leaning back on her tail and watching her. She shrugged again.

"I haven't put a lot of thought into it yet," she admitted. "I've been too busy sorting this place out and designing stuff. It can wait, aside from the PRT visit I'm not planning on going anywhere right now." Moving over to the side, she picked up a very large transformer and shifted it ten feet away, to make room. "The strength boost is one of the most useful parts of the whole deal," she smiled. "Before I'd have needed three people and a hand truck to do that. Ianthe was right, though, when I'd finished moving all the stuff in here around I was starving."

"She's usually right about things like that," Saurial nodded. "You haven't had any trouble wandering around as Vectura?"

"No. A couple of weird looks for a while, but a lot less than I'd have expected," she replied with a small frown. "Some people stared at me for a second, looked thoughtful, shrugged, and just went on with their day. Most of the others didn't really seem to notice."

The lizard-girl snickered. "Told you."

"You did, but it's weird to see it happen. I wonder how many worked it out?"

"Most of them, I think. But no one cares."

"Kadir definitely knows, as far as I can tell," she said. "He just nodded to me when I bumped into him in the cafeteria and asked how life was treating me since joining the DWU, smiled when I told him, got his coffee, and left." She shook her head in wonder. "Interesting place."

"We like it," Metis smiled.

"I can see why."

"So what do you need to make?" Saurial asked after a moment, looking at the stack of paperwork on the workbench, then at the whiteboard on which she'd fleshed out some of her sketches.

Getting down to business, Linda went over to the board and picked up a marker. "These parts to start with, here, here, and here," she said, pointing. "The outer skin should be EDM, but it doesn't need to be very thick at all considering the stupidly high strength of the damn stuff. Under that, I was thinking a good titanium alloy would do the job, with a thermal insulation between them."

Saurial and Metis both studied the drawings with interest. "I've got a few really good alloys that are even stronger than that," the former said. "I made a costume for Brandish out of it, since her power wasn't compatible with EDM. OK, that looks easy enough. All these fasteners as well?"

"Yes, I've made a note of the threads, lengths, and diameters of all the things I need, along with the numbers of each. I want to be able to take it to pieces if needed, since it's a prototype. When we're happy with the design I'm sure we can optimize it and make it simpler, but unlike Kevin I need to start somewhere and work up." She smirked a bit. "Although I can keep doing it until I get it right, so there's that."

Saurial laughed. "Poor guy, that really annoys him. Sure. Let's have a go and see what we come up with. Metis can probably help with optimizing it, she's good at that sort of thing."

Her cousin looked pleased with herself, and very smug. Linda grinned, then watched as Saurial made the first piece, gray and silver metal appearing from nowhere in a process that made her practically salivate with anticipation.

With friends like these, who needed scrap and junk to make wonders?

* * *

"They're having fun," Taylor reported, picking up one of the left-over sandwiches and nibbling it. Assault had made a pretty fair dent in the pile all by himself, and the others hadn't been shy about it either, so there weren't many left. Amy helped herself to a tuna salad one and ate it.

"The way that you're here talking to me, and over there helping Linda make things, _at the same time_ , is really freaky," her friend said, watching her with interest. "You're getting better at the multitasking, aren't you?"

"I think so," Taylor nodded. "Varga and I are time-sharing for the most part, so it's not as hard as you'd think, but it's still a little confusing. He thinks we might be able to work up to having three aspects, but I'm more than happy with two." She abruptly changed into the small dragon version and flew onto the table, picking up another sandwich with both hands. "This is still at least as much fun as it was the first time," she giggled. "I've never _seen_ a sandwich this big."

"Can you even _eat_ tha..." Amy watched as Taylor opened her mouth and virtually inhaled the food, which was proportionately about half the size of a mattress. "...Never mind."

"Nice. The cafeteria really makes good food here," she said cheerfully, flapping over to land on her friend's shoulder, her tail draped over warm scales along her back. "So, what do you want to do now? It's still only about half past seven."

"I'll make a container of the bioagent for the shelter, while we wait for the PRT to call us about it," Amy replied, turning and heading for her lab. "You did reconnect the repeater, didn't you?"

"Ah. I knew there was something I needed to do." Taylor teleported into free air and changed back to her base form in the process, walking over and quickly doing the task. "There, we're back online."

Joining her friend in the workroom she made a pair of suitable containers for the anti-RDX agent, which Amy soon had filled with reprocessed onion biomass. Sealing them, the healer put them under the bench. "Those will keep in stasis for a few hours, I'll activate them when we're ready. Let's have a go at making a biogun docking station."

"What's it going to look like?"

"More or less a sort of plant, which is basically what it is. I figured out how to make it live directly from electricity so we can just plug it into the wall like a charger for a phone. As long as it has air and some water vapor it'll be happy, but we'll need to feed it the right chemical stock for it to refill and service the guns themselves. The entire system will be self-maintaining and should last for years at a minimum."

"How tough is it going to be? Only I remember Dad trying to grow ornamental bamboo, which is supposed to be difficult to kill, and none of it ever lasted more than a month," Taylor said with a roll of her eyes. "Mom laughed every time."

Giggling a little, Amy replied, "You'd have to work at it to kill it. Like the rest of my stuff none of it uses normal DNA, it's much more resilient and error-repairing, pretty radiation proof, and hardly any chemicals would do much. It doesn't grow, though, it merely maintains itself and the guns."

"If you _made_ it grow, like a weed, we could have gun trees all over the place," Taylor suggested impishly. The other girl gave her a narrow-eyed glance.

"Oh, yeah, I can see _that_ ending well..." she muttered. "No, I don't think I want to do that. Stop trying to make me accidentally take over the world."

"What about the healing symbiotes? Which we need to come up with a better name for, now that I think about it. Could you make a sort of plant that produces them?" Now Taylor was genuinely curious.

Amy paused in her preparations for making another oddity of nature, looking thoughtfully at the wall. "I've actually considered that," she finally said. "If we're able to get people to accept them, I can't see myself sitting here making the things by the billion. I've got other things to do, same as you, and if nothing else we don't want to make people dependent on the Family for everything. Or anything, probably. Same reason for the slightly roundabout way of dealing with Coil when we all know we could take him out in minutes worst-case these days."

Taylor nodded slowly, leaning on the bench and watching the large violet lizard-girl form of her friend. "That's certainly a valid point."

"So, yes, I could make a symbiote plant. It's actually pretty simple now that I have the design optimized. The one shot ones are probably better for that part right now, but I could do it for the standard ones as well, and the really advanced things I'm still working on. There's a hell of a lot of stuff I can do which I haven't really even touched on yet." She shrugged, getting back to work. "Like you and Varga, every time I think up something new it triggers a dozen different ideas and possibilities. I could easily spend the next century exploring the various concepts I've had in the last couple of months."

"And now you can actually put that much time in on it if you want." Taylor smiled affectionately at the other girl, who stopped again for a moment, then chuckled.

"You know… I keep forgetting that I really _could_ still be here doing this a hundred years from now. Or two hundred."

"Or two thousand. You're going to crack the limits of the current symbiote sooner or later, that much I'm certain of," Taylor laughed. "Which is a good thing. Varga and I want our friends to come with us."

"You're planning on being around in a couple of thousand years, then?" Amy grinned.

"Oh, sure, that's not likely to be a serious problem," Taylor assured her, making the grin slip a little. "Varga's pretty sure I'm not going anywhere any time soon. Princess Luna was _old_ when she finally left, and he and I have a lot more power than he and she did."

"Doesn't that freak you out?" Amy asked seriously, turning to look at her with a slightly weird expression.

She shook her head. "It did at first. Quite a lot. Right back at the beginning, he told me I wasn't truly immortal in the genuine sense of the word. He _might_ be, he doesn't know for sure, but the only thing that ever existed that really could kill a Varga is both in an entirely different universe, and was destroyed a hell of a long time ago anyway."

"To be accurate, Amy, the only thing I'm _aware_ of that could kill a Varga no longer exists. I can't guarantee, regardless of Taylor's enthusiasm, that there is nothing else out there that could do the job," the Varga chimed in through Taylor. "But I can say that anything that would certainly achieve that result wouldn't be important for humanity, as the planet would be very unlikely to exist any more. Or possibly the solar system. We are indeed very, very difficult to destroy entirely."

"What about Taylor herself?" Amy asked.

"She is less tough, admittedly, but as our merger deepens with time that is becoming less relevant. Even now, as we've discussed, and in her base form, there isn't much that would kill her and leave anything left of the city itself _or_ the surrounding area. In the other forms, she becomes even less fragile, of course. Old age, at least in terms that humans think of it, isn't going to be an issue for a substantial amount of time."

He shrugged her shoulders. "We can't say for sure what the future will bring, but I think that we are going to be together for a very long time indeed. Most likely far longer than any of my previous Brains by a large margin."

"Which I'm looking forward to," Taylor smiled.

"You're not worried about getting bored with god knows how much time in front of you?" Amy queried. "That's always one of the arguments people come up with against living for a really long time."

"Those people don't have the opportunity to actually _do_ it, so that might just be rationalization," she replied. "And no, I don't think we're going to be bored." She put her arm around her currently larger friend's shoulders. "Not with all my friends and family with me, Varga, and the entire multiverse to poke around in. We'll figure out some sort of interdimensional portal sooner or later. Varga knows some really cool advanced magic..."

Amy stared at her, then slowly shook her head. Taylor grinned widely at her. "Sometimes I _really_ don't know how seriously to take you," the other girl said with mild annoyance. "And then I think about all the craziness in just two months or so and wonder what the fuck is going to be happening in a year or two."

"Wonderful things, Amy," Taylor said, waving her free hand around. "Wonderful things. Just think. We can build our underwater city, create an entire species of eldritch horrors, then spread out across the stars, bringing puns and interesting things wherever we go." She adopted a deep resonant voice for effect. " ** _We are the Family. Our biological and technological peculiarities will be added to your own. Prepare for fun._** "

"Resistance is futile, hmm?" Amy giggled.

"Pretty much," she chuckled.

"You really are crazy." Her friend looked amused. "Well, whatever happens, it sure won't be boring. Now make me something to put this thing in, please."

"Sure." Taylor poised her hands over the bench, then said in portentous tones, "Describe your desires and I shall bring them into existence."

"Are you being this difficult to Linda?"

"No, I reserve the real me just for _you_ , oh cousin," Taylor snickered. Laughing, Amy started to explain what she wanted and Taylor began making parts.

* * *

Emily walked into the level 4 classification bio lab, looking around curiously, as she didn't come down here very often. There were half a dozen airlocks to go through, which incorporated a significant number of very lethal contamination countermeasures, both Tinker designed and more common technology. The entire place ran on its own air supply, could be completely isolated from the outside, purged with a number of chemical agents, irradiated so heavily it would be lethal for months from the secondary radiation, and if required utterly slagged in under a minute. Which would kill any known biological organism very effectively, although it would also have done the same for any poor bastard trapped in it at the time.

She wondered for an uncomfortable moment if it would be enough to kill, or even seriously inconvenience, any of the Family…

Hannah was standing next to an isolation chamber talking to a couple of the scientists who were going over a printout with intrigued expressions easily visible. She went over and joined them.

"This stuff is remarkable, Director," Doctor Tiptree exclaimed when she noticed the other woman. "The Family made it?"

"Yes," Emily replied. "Do your findings match what Ianthe told us?"

"Exactly," the scientist nodded. She pointed at one of the graphs on the printout, which Emily couldn't really make anything of. "This organism converts RDX into inert materials at a truly incredible rate, with very little heat given off in the process. It's very efficient indeed. I have no idea what the mechanism is but I'd love to find out. The DNA equivalent is utterly alien, and there's no apparent way it could perform any sort of information transfer with normal bacteria or virii. It does appear to be safe to release. We tried it on a wide range of common materials, and less common ones too, including samples of a dozen different explosives, and the only thing it affected at all was RDX."

"It's extremely targeted," the other scientist, whose name Emily couldn't immediately place, said. "Like a very specific antibody, only more so. We also fed the raw material to a number of test animals directly, which had absolutely no observable effect. It appears to be biologically inert as far as normal life is concerned."

"It definitely doesn't replicate either," Doctor Tiptree added. "The things start dying within a short period of time unless they find RDX, once they're released from the container they were supplied in. It appears to have a coating which keeps them active but in stasis, a complex chemical mix we're still trying to analyze. It would take weeks of testing to be totally certain that there was _no_ possible condition under which it could be some form of hazard, but we're fairly sure that outside something seriously weird, it's as safe as you can get."

"It's against standard protocols," her colleague said to Emily when she finished, "But we believe there's no real risk in using it for the purposes that Ianthe designed it. It's definitely safer than all manner of industrial chemicals that get released into the environment every day without any concern. Or biological agents, for that matter."

She nodded slowly, glancing at Hannah, who seemed a little worried still, but met her eyes and also nodded.

"I see. And the methods for killing it also work?"

"As far as we can see, perfectly," Doctor Tiptree replied. "We don't know the chemical agent Ianthe mentioned, but ordinary aqueous sodium hypochlorite solution above twelve percent concentration kills it in seconds. We tested that several times. You can see the cells disintegrate under high magnification, there's nothing left after less than a minute aside from simple and non-toxic chemicals. It's a very good kill switch. Lower concentrations, around the level of standard household bleach, it ignores. So it will still work even in a place that's been cleaned normally, I would guess is the idea."

"Those lizards might be weird, but they're amazingly good bio-engineers," the man said admiringly. "A lot better than anyone _I_ know about. Even any Biotinker I'm aware of, for that matter. If Ianthe really came up with this in under a day and a half, god only knows what she could do if she really thought hard about it."

"Which is a worry," Emily mumbled, looking at the innocent-appearing vial inside the isolation chamber. More loudly, she asked, "So in your opinion there's no reason other than standard protocols not to use it?"

They exchanged a look. "No, not that we can determine," Tiptree replied after a moment. "Without further testing we can't say any more than we have, though."

"Understood." Emily nodded again. "Thank you."

"What do you want us to do with the remains of the sample?" her colleague asked, also looking at the vial. "We used about sixty percent of it for the tests."

"Put it under maximum level containment in secure storage," she directed. "Just in case we need it later. Write up the report and have it hand-delivered to my desk. Contact Miss Militia when it's ready."

"Yes, Ma'am," Tiptree replied. Emily gestured to the door, Hannah following her as she left. Once they'd made their way back through the isolation locks, she leaned on the wall of the corridor and ran a hand through her hair with a sensation of relief.

"That place always gives me the creeps," she said in a low voice.

"Me too," Hannah admitted. "I'm not sure why, though. Maybe the thought that if the system triggers, I'd be glowing in the dark moments before turning into charcoal."

"That's certainly not something I like to think about," Emily replied. "What do you think?"

"I think we don't have a choice. But if anything goes wrong, you get to explain it to the Chief Director." Hannah smiled a bit.

With a sigh, Emily nodded. "That's my responsibility, and seems to be my life at the moment. All right. I'll call Ianthe and let her know to go ahead." She pulled her secure phone from her pocket and started dialing the number she'd put into the contact list earlier, as they headed upstairs. When the large reptile answered with a polite greeting, she said, "Hello, Ianthe. Our lab is happy that there's no apparent issues with your product as far as can be determined with such a short time available. I'm authorizing its use."

" _Thank you, Director,_ " the deep voice said, sounding satisfied. " _I'll tell Saurial and Raptaur to go ahead._ "

"Thank you. I'll talk again with you tomorrow."

" _Certainly. Until then_." The line disconnected and she put her phone away.

"I hope this doesn't come back to bite me in the ass," she sighed, watching the elevator lights change. "Fucking man. I wish I'd strangled the bastard years ago. The trouble he's caused..."

Oh well. Perhaps she'd get the chance. Or at least get to see Saurial do it.

* * *

Danny knocked on the door to his daughter's office, then waited. It opened a moment later to reveal her as Raptaur. "Hi," she said, waving him through. Inside, she led him over to Amy's workshop, where he looked in to see the Dallon girl in her bioconstruct concentrating on a weird looking plant-like thing that was growing out of a transparent container like a flowerpot crossed with a still. "What on earth is that?" he asked curiously.

She looked up at him, then back at the thing she was making. "The docking and servicing station for the bioguns," she replied. "It keeps them charged and maintained."

"What keeps _it_ charged and maintained?" he asked.

"You plug it in, then pour a few standard chemicals in here," the girl said, pointing at a hopper on the side of the container. "The thing is an electrovore, it lives on electricity, air, and water. The chemicals are used to build the consumables for the bioguns, and feed their living components."

"That's… disturbing," Danny noted with slight unease. "I still have trouble getting used to you molding living things like they were modeling clay."

Amy nodded absently as she fiddled with some of the branchlike constructions that fanned out and up from the central structure of the ' _plant_ '. "I know the feeling, I had it a lot when I Triggered," she replied. "Still do sometimes even now. But I guess you can get used to almost anything." She glanced at Taylor, who had turned into the small dragon again and was sitting on her haunches on the bench watching her friend. Taylor waved at her, smirking. "Case in point."

Danny snickered. "I understand. Much better than I'd have expected." He looked at the small flying reptile. "Are you planning on spending _all_ your spare time like that?"

"It's pretty cool, Dad," she laughed. "But probably not. The novelty still hasn't worn off though. It's more fun than I expected."

"I'm genuinely surprised you didn't pull that out for the PRT meeting, just to make them stare," Amy grinned, putting the finishing touches on her latest creation. "There, done. I think."

"I haven't publicly launched the dragon form in any size yet," Taylor explained with a shrug. "And I haven't come up with a good name either. It's difficult, all the best ones are taken. Not to mention I haven't worked out whether to use different names and say the different sizes are distinct individuals, or make it one dragon that can change size. I can see some amusing possibilities for both options."

"Me too," her friend remarked as she picked up one of the bioguns and inspected it, then attached it to one of the protrusions on the servicing plant via a port that opened up on the base when it was applied to the thing. She prodded it a few times then nodded happily. "That works perfectly. Everything's running to design, the gun is happy, so is the plant, and like this it will keep them going for years." She put the rest of the stack of the partially living weapons into place then stepped back and admired the result.

"It's impressive in a somewhat Lovecraftian way," Danny admitted. "Is it meant to be making that sort of… gurgling… sound?"

"Yes."

"And the deep intermittent hiss?"

"That's normal too."

"What about the high pitched chanting in some eldritch tongue, as if a tiny horror from outside time and space was calling its relatives to feast on the souls of an unwitting mankind?"

Amy reached out and swatted Taylor's dragonlet form, causing her to duck and stop making the eerie sounds, replacing them with a laugh.

"Was she always like this as a child, or did it take a demon from beyond to bring it out?" the reptilian Dallon sighed.

"Varga made it worse, but he had a lot to work with," Danny said with a faint grin. "All her mother's fault, of course."

Both girls laughed, Taylor vanishing from the bench and reappearing as her normal more or less human self next to him. "How did your meeting with Director Piggot go?"

"Fine, thanks," he replied. "They want a hundred people or so for crowd control over the weekend for some operation they were dancing around actually describing. The Coil takedown?"

"That's it," she confirmed. "We've got a pretty good plan to deal with him that lets the PRT feel they did a lot of the work and we're only helping out. Without giving away all our good tricks. I need to go out later and do some preparation work for it."

"And we introduced them to just how powerful Family life sculpting is, hopefully in a manner that doesn't freak them out too much too fast," Amy added, turning away from the biogun system, which continued to make contented gurgling sounds in the background. "I really want to bring up the one shot healing devices at least, but I couldn't figure out a way to work it into the conversation."

"Start them off easily," he advised. "If you dump too much information on them too quickly they'll panic. That's pretty normal. But if you ease into it they'll probably end up dealing with it OK."

"Seems reasonable," she nodded.

"That said, I want to have enough of those things to put some in every first aid kit in the entire site, please," he requested. "They're way too good not to be used. The PRT doesn't need to know, of course, but I'd feel better about it if we had something better than bandages and stitches. Can you do that?"

"Sure, Danny," she smiled. "I'll spend time over the weekend making a couple of thousand of them, that's a little time consuming but not hard now I have the design. Taylor and I were discussing making something to make _them_ but that'll take a little work yet. In the meantime I've got a hundred or so here you can have." She rummaged in one of the cabinets next to the bench, then handed him a container. "These ones are pretty much in spore form, they'll keep for years. They're simpler than the full symbiotes."

He opened the metal container and peered in, seeing a number of flat off-white lozenge shapes which were about a third of the size of the symbiote she'd gifted him with. "Same usage as the advanced ones?"

"Yep. You could even swallow one, but your mouth would go numb for a few seconds and I bet you'd cough a lot," she smiled. "On the skin is probably best."

"All right. I'll type up some instructions for them and get some of these to the site medical facility for emergencies, then distribute the rest among some suitable people." He looked at Taylor. "I assume you're carrying some around now too?"

"How did you know?" she asked curiously.

"I know my daughter, even the latest version of her," he said wryly. "You like to be prepared and between you and the Varga generally think ahead. With some notable exceptions."

Taylor grinned, shrugging. "Even a half demon and a full one can't think of _everything._ "

She got an intrigued expression, then smiled again. "You guys need to come see what Linda's made, it's cool," she said, stepping out of the workroom and changing to Raptaur without breaking stride.

Danny watched her with a raised eyebrow, glanced at Amy who was smiling as well, then followed. She made it look so casual these days.

"Has she finished it, then?" he asked as they left the building.

"Structurally, it's mostly done, but the drive systems and electronics need work," Taylor said. "But she's got most of the things needed in the workshop and we can get the rest tomorrow, I think. Should be fully working by the end of Monday worst case, with a bit of luck."

They arrived at the other building, Taylor's second aspect pulling the door open as they walked up.

Both versions of his daughter looked at each other with delight, then waved the others inside in perfect sync. Shaking his head, he walked through the door, then stared in bemusement and growing admiration.

Turning to the cat woman who was studying her creation with an air of quiet satisfaction, cleaning her hands on a rag, he said "Now, _that_ is impressive."

Everyone nodded as one. It really was.


	257. Guest Omake - Power from nothing,

**Power from nothing, Amps for free**

 **(By CmptrWz)**

* * *

"Again?" Taylor said, looking around the suddenly darkened DWU compound. "That is the third time this month some idiot has shut down the power grid around here." Granted generators would shortly be used to power areas people were working in but overall it was very annoying. The generators were notably more expensive than the bulk power from the electric company and the added noise and hassle made them less desirable. Not to mention the time wasted in switching over to them. Perhaps she should look into a generator that could power the whole compound? She would have to do some research.

* * *

Not that far away Kevin and Randall worked under the glow of battery-powered emergency lights.

"Are you sure you aren't coming down with something?" Randall asked Kevin. "I mean, you keep sneezing for some reason. Maybe we should have Amy give your symbiote a checkup."

"I'm fine," Kevin said, carefully ensuring that the short he had created a couple minutes previous wouldn't be an issue once someone restored the grid. "Though we should probably see why the breakers never trip on us when I do this kind of thing. The entire area gets shut down every time and I have no idea why."

"We should just ask Dragon about a tinkertech generator," Randall said. "Would probably be cheaper in the long run with the work you are doing with her anyway."

* * *

A couple of days later Taylor had researched quite a bit more on the power requirements of the entire DWU compound, including the supposed capacity of the incoming mains, and was working on her plans for a replacement for pulling power from the grid. It would require some trial and error, and a lot of work and calculations on her part, but she was confident she would get something put together eventually.

Varga had decided this was something that Taylor should figure out on her own and was somewhat intentionally ignoring her work, right down to usually running around in a second body and ignoring what Taylor was doing to the best of his ability during her experiments. She had been keeping the entirety of her mental notes behind one of her privacy fields, after all, and could always ask him if she wanted his input. Besides, how interesting could the process of coming up with a machine to efficiently move electrons around at normal levels be to him?

Pity the Varga, for he knows not what he is ignoring.

* * *

The power grid remained stable for another month, during which Taylor created, tested, discarded, re-created, tweaked, and generally improved her design. Though she did have a habit of overloading lightbulbs and frying surge protector strips as she tested the output of her designs as they were easier to replace than computers and power tools. Finally, however, she felt it was as good as it was going to get and she just needed an excuse to make and install the final version.

As luck would have it, some drunk idiot crashed into the local substation one night and took out power to the entire docks area. Taylor decided that now was a perfect time to upgrade the DWU and raced over to where the mains entered the compound while Varga popped over to where the bright flash had come from to investigate what had happened (and to render assistance if needed). She started by anchoring a new power-box to the bedrock (to avoid theft) and carefully placed her creation within it. She then tripped the compound cutoff switch before disconnecting and capping the original mains wires (on the compound side of the meter) so that they would be safe when power was restored to the area.

From there she made some new cables and attached them to the cutoff switch and her new creation, checked that everything looked ok, and sealed up the anchored box. A few warning and information labels later she flipped the compound cutoff switch and the entire DWU had power again. She monitored things for a few minutes, smiled, and then popped out of existence as she headed in the general direction of where Varga, as Raptaur, was working to extract the drunken idiot from the wreckage of the car.

Notably she had put the fact the new power source had been installed out of her mind by the time she got home and, beyond some thoughts about doing something similar at home, had put the entire thing on the proverbial back burner for now. Nobody was informed, and as everything was working at the DWU, nobody had reason to investigate at that time.

* * *

Two weeks later the power company had finished re-building the substation, having declined the help of Saurial and Raptaur due to the company having quality control procedures their creations had not passed through, and switched the docks area back over to the permanent installation instead of the temporary one they had gotten in place within a couple of days. Amazingly the temporary one had worked much better than anticipated, handling the load without any issues. They were doing routine checks of all the customers attached to the station when they found Taylor's box powering the DWU compound.

After a few calls up the chain the inspector moved on, allowing another representative to come along and see what was going on there as the disconnected wires were, in fact, properly capped and secured so it wasn't his issue. Said representative arrived a couple days later and after some confusion ended up standing next to the new box with Danny.

"As you can see," the representative said. "You appear to be connected to this FamTech® InfiniPower™ box instead of the grid."

"I hadn't realized we were running off the grid," Danny admitted. "But, looking at this, I know who to ask to find out if it is intended to be temporary or not. Why don't you grab something from the cafeteria while I go see if any members of the Family are around?"

"I could use a coffee," the representative admitted. "Though to be honest I am curious as to how this thing works. It is silent, isn't giving off any noticeable heat, the technician couldn't find any sign of radiation at all actually, and yet is providing enough power for your entire compound."

"Depending on the answers I get it may end up on the list of things the family eventually offers," Danny stated, scratching his chin. "Why would your technician be checking for radiation?"

"Tinkers," the representative said. No further elaboration was needed.

* * *

Danny entered the BBFO office to find Taylor in her Saurial guise sitting next to Lisa in her Metis suit snickering at the computers, it looked like they were on PHO actually. He assumed Amy, likely in her Ianthe suit, was in her workshop as the door was open. A quick peek and he saw that another Taylor, Raptaur in this case, was in there with Amy. Which one was controlled by Taylor and which one was controlled by Varga was probably irrelevant at this point. Still, PHO was likely better to interrupt than whatever Amy was working on.

Walking over to the computers he spoke up. "Hello Taylor."

"Hey dad," Taylor said, looking backwards over her shoulder at him. "What's up?"

"The power company sent a representative to ask about the box powering the entire DWU compound," Danny said. "The one that nobody in the union seemed to know about until said representative showed up and started asking questions."

"Oh, right," Taylor said, looking embarrassed. "Forgot about that. I installed it when that drunk driver took out the substation."

Apparently finding the situation with Danny more interesting than what they were working on Amy and Varga came out of the workshop. Lisa had also decided this was more interesting than PHO and had turned away from the computer.

"So it has been sitting there for a couple of weeks, with the entire compound running off of it?" Danny continued. "Giving off no noticeable heat or radiation, and making no noise?"

"Even if it was giving off heat or radiation it is in an EDM box," Taylor said. "As for noise, the solid-state energy tap doesn't have moving parts to make noise with."

"Solid-state energy tap?" Varga questioned. "Is that what you have been working on?"

"Yep," Taylor answered. "I started by being annoyed at the power going out due to various things damaging the grid, but the generators I kept coming up with either required more maintenance than I was happy with or were too noisy."

"We noticed," Lisa interrupted. "As did our neighbors a couple miles away when they filed the noise complaints."

"Yes, well," Taylor continued, glaring slightly at Lisa. "I first tried to come up with a way for the brushes in a generator to maintain themselves by automating the matter creation ability." Taylor stopped for a moment and looked around when she noticed everyone, Varga included, looking stunned. "But that didn't pan out," she continued. "I couldn't get it to adjust for the variable wear levels."

"That implies you did automate it," Danny said, still a bit stunned. "As in, you can set something up that just continually makes something?"

"I can't get it to make anything complex," Taylor admitted. "The math gets a lot more complicated if you aren't making small, consistent matter. Liquids and gasses are the easiest."

Amy and Lisa had gone silent thinking about the ramifications, both of their powers coming up with potential uses for a constant supply of various materials. Varga was trying to wrap his head around the concept, never having thought to do something like that before.

"It was around then that I realized that anything permanent done with the matter creation ability was tapping energy from somewhere," Taylor continued. "More specifically anything with qualities not supported by the local rules of physics, like EDM in general, spacial warping, or making more matter. That is why the permanent ones are more difficult to make, you aren't just powering the effect but creating the energy tap."

"So you figured out how to tap the energy directly," Varga said, sounding very impressed. He also prodded Taylor to let him see her work and shortly lost focus on maintaining the Raptaur body due to staring in mental amazement at her work, leaving a single physical aspect of their body in the room.

"So you powered the entire compound with an energy tap that pulls energy from wherever it is you and Varga get the energy needed for your various creations?" Danny asked after a couple of minutes, wondering about the implications.

"Yep," Taylor beamed as she held up her hand and a small box with electrical hookups appeared in it. "Free, effectively unlimited electricity. The hard part was getting the alternating current at the right voltage and amperage, it wanted to come out a lot more powerful than I wanted. After that I just needed to get three different phases going off of a single tap to replace the mains connection for the compound, which was a bit of a pain. Huh, now that I think about it I wonder if I should have just gone with three different taps and offset their phases?" She pondered that for a moment, putting the box down on the table where the others could see it.

Lisa had gone from merely being silent to gaping in awe at the little box. Finally her brain caught up enough to speak. "My power wants to know anything and everything about that box. How it is made, how it works, where the energy comes from, what variations you can make. All of it." She then paused for a moment and turned to Taylor. "Oh, and I think it is actually pissed off that you kept this secret for weeks, but will be willing to forgive you forever for information?" After a moment of slight glaring she turned back to poke at the box.

Taylor sighed and went to a computer to start typing. This was probably going to come up again as others found out. She suspected that Dragon, Armsmaster, and Kevin in particular were most likely going to want to know everything they could as well. As such a digital copy of her notes would probably be useful, and as she had no hardcopy yet either it was just as easy to enter into the computer as writing on paper.

Danny would eventually go and tell the power company representative that the box was, in fact, going to continue to power the DWU compound but couldn't provide answers for how it worked. He recommended that they direct inquiries directly to BBFO.


	258. Preparations and Cooking

**Saturday, March 5, 2011  
**  
"The nitrogen levels are still rising slightly, but the rate of change has dropped in the last half hour," Colin noted, scrolling through the log that was building on his screen. It was coming from a miniature and highly efficient gas analyzer he'd delivered to Saurial late the previous night, along with the specialized computer equipment she'd requested from Dragon. The lizard-girl and her sister had discreetly attached the device to one of the exhaust vents of the buried base during their preliminary move against Coil, then sprayed every accessible intake to the place with bio-agent, including around the door seams from what they'd told him afterward.

Ianthe's agent had clearly managed to get inside and seek out the demolition charges, as the nitrogen levels had started to rise detectably about four and a half hours later. In the last couple of hours he and his friend had kept an eye on the gas level and watched as it kept edging up, indicating the explosives were being converted to an inert form.

No apparent alarms had been given off, the other sensors they'd snuck into place over the last few weeks not showing anything unexpected, so it seemed likely that Calvert was unaware that his last-ditch plan was being rendered impotent. All in all it was a very good outcome.

Although Colin was very curious how the two reptiles had pulled off the sneaking around. Even his own sensors hadn't noticed anything, and he'd checked carefully. It suggested some impressive stealth capabilities and a lot of practice if nothing else. Possibly the same method that Umihebi had used and that they still had no explanation for. Hopefully sooner or later he could find out how they did it, but for now he was just happy that they _could_.

They'd confirmed that the two tunnels he and the others had suspected were connected to the bunker definitely were, and found a third one everyone else had missed, that led down to the water right at the edge of the docks in a part that had been abandoned even by the Merchants years ago. Checking old maps he'd finally discovered it was most likely using one of the oldest sewer systems that had been built in the city in the mid eighteen hundreds. There were a surprising number of old tunnels from various eras under Brockton Bay, many of which had been entirely forgotten about over a century ago. Some had collapsed but he suspected most were still intact.

Saurial had assured him that they'd dealt with the tunnel, blocking the end in a way that meant no one was going to get out without a lot of time and effort. He believed her, so if Calvert or any of his people actually ended up going out that way, they were simply going to get trapped and could be collected as required.

The other two tunnels had disguised doors opening into them from the shelter, which had apparently been expanded beyond the plans they had available, possibly simply by digging intersecting tunnels. The work was of a very high level and almost undetectable yet fell prey to the superb senses of the Family. They'd sealed those doors on the outside with a thin mesh of EDM fused into the structure and made to look like part of the tunnel wall. Cameras had been discovered in the surrounding area as he'd expected, but they were sure that whoever was monitoring them hadn't noticed anything they did.

The end result of their work was that the only way into or out of the bunker was the main door, or involved a _lot_ of digging. Coil wasn't going to get out without someone noticing now. They'd assured him that they were sure he was still inside.

Everything looked good. Now all they had to do was wait for Sunday, then engineer a short-lived and minor, if unpleasant, diversion.

Satisfied that things were proceeding to plan, he nodded to himself. "I'm going to get a little sleep, it's been a long day," he said to Dragon.

"Good idea," she replied with a smile in her voice. "And one of the first times I've heard you say that unprompted. There may be hope for you yet."

Colin looked at her, smiled vaguely which seemed the best response, then headed for his quarters, while going over the gas analyzer results in his head and trying to work out how to increase the efficiency of the sampling intake system. By the time he was lying on his bed he'd come up with a modification to make it 2.14% smaller and maintain the same effectiveness, which was enough to send him to sleep with a pleased expression.

* * *

Circling in the breeze two thousand feet in the air, Taylor watched the sun rise on Brockton Bay, feeling pretty contented. Her small draconic aspect was cloaked so no one on the ground would see it, and small enough anyway that even without the cloak she'd be mistaken for a bird should anyone have eyes sharp enough to spot her. In her room far below her primary aspect was lying on her bed, eyes shut, and for all visible indications asleep.

Her father was genuinely sleeping, not due to wake for an hour yet. She was planning on making him breakfast and spending some time with him since recently they'd both been running around quite a lot. ' _We should go out to a restaurant again soon_ ,' she thought. ' _He'd like that. So would I_.'

Doing a loop just for the hell of it, she smiled to herself. This form wasn't for much more than fun, but it really was _good_ at that. It would probably also be good for sneaking around in general, although with the cloaking spell she could do that with any of her forms. The tiny dragon would at least not leave enormous footprints behind.

A mental image of her as Kaiju tiptoeing around peering into sixth and seventh floor windows came to her, making her giggle.

The previous evening had gone very well. The PRT were, as far as she could tell, as happy as they got. Coil was very soon going to have a _very_ bad time, something she and the others were looking forward to with great anticipation. Unlike the Merchant raid, which was a simple rout, this would be much more of a challenge, since their opponents were trained, experienced, and armed mercenaries. None of them expected it to be particularly difficult but since they were deliberately restricting their abilities to prevent people from working out just how dangerous they really were, it would at least be interesting.

Linda, who was very obviously having a wonderful time now she was in full Tinker mode, was well on the way towards her first proper ' _Vectura_ ' design, which was going to show off just how talented she was. And probably be entertaining for everyone… Taylor grinned into the wind of her motion, wondering what people would say when they unveiled the thing.

Circling more widely, riding the wind with twitches of her wings in a manner that had become almost instinctive, she looked down at her neighborhood, relishing the view from the unusual position. She could see people walking around, a few early risers going about their business. A number of cars and trucks were on the streets, their headlights going out as the light level rose, while the streetlights were turning off in segments for the same reason. From up here it all looked peaceful, clean, and calm, and oddly pretty. On the ground there may have been signs of decay, even though their neighborhood wasn't by any means the worst in the city, but it wasn't apparent from altitude.

Swinging around to face the docks, on the other hand, she could see large areas which even from miles away and a couple of thousand feet up were obviously derelict. Hardly any streetlights to turn off in the first place, some buildings visibly damaged, destroyed, or missing entirely. Smoke was rising from one where someone seemed to be burning garbage in a vacant lot, as far as she could see from this distance. Hopefully they'd avoid setting fire to the entire area, but she'd keep an eye out even so. The fire brigade tended to avoid that whole section of the city.

The DWU yard was the main exception to the general decay of the dock sector, the new fence glinting in the reds and oranges of the rising sun. It was noticeable from her location that the nearest warehouses were in much better condition than the ones further away, while the oldest area, where she'd met Lung, was in the worst condition of the whole zone.

' _Lung. I'm going to have to follow up on that at some point soon,_ ' she mused. ' _Just to make sure that we're on the same page and nothing more is going to happen if Lisa and the others go outside the DWU. Coil's going to be out of the picture in a few days and it would be nice to know that they're able to leave. They've been stuck there for weeks._ '

" _I have some suggestions on a method of dealing with Lung that would probably settle things in a civilized manner which all parties would be satisfied with, Brain,_ " the Varga told her quietly.

 _'Eat him?_ ' she said with a grin.

Her friend chuckled, his voice rumbling in her head. " _That is one method, yes, but not in fact the one I had in mind this time,_ " he said.

' _What_ ** _were_** _you thinking?_ ' she asked, smiling to herself.

" _Lung is, as far as I can see, a person of a type I have encountered many times before. He's basically a warlord, to put it bluntly. He has his own form of personal honor, as do you, and where it conflicts with societal norms, he tends to simply ignore them. Sometimes, or more often than not based on the facts, violently._ "

' _He's still a criminal, though. And a killer_.'

" _True. I'm not suggesting otherwise. His approach to life is always going to conflict with the law if it gets in the way, and he's obviously both capable of and prepared to go through anyone who stands between him and what he desires. However, that doesn't mean he can't be negotiated with. We have already done so once, after all. I think that we can do so again, if we do it correctly, and with a little work come to an arrangement which will take him off the board entirely as far as the former Undersiders go. That's not to say that he would be neutralized permanently, we may come into opposition again in the future, but we can deal with that if and when it happens._ "

Taylor thought about his words. ' _OK. I guess I can see where you're coming from. I don't particularly want to kill him or anything, but I don't want him suddenly deciding to go after Brian or Alec just because he spotted them in the street one day and lost his temper. So if you can figure out how to make that not happen, I'm listening._ '

" _All right. My thought was as follows..._ " He began explaining while she pondered his words. When he finished, she nodded slowly.

' _Interesting. You think that will work?_ '

" _I give it a high chance of success although it's not entirely guaranteed. But there's no harm in trying it. You have the necessary skills now, and the rest is easy. It relies on approaching him in the correct manner but I can easily coach you on what I think he will respond best to._ "

' _Worth a shot, I guess_ ,' she shrugged. ' _And like you said, unless we try it we won't know one way or the other. It can wait though, we have other things to concentrate on right now. We'll look into it when we have a free moment in the next couple of weeks_.'

" _Agreed._ "

Satisfied that his solution was workable and fairly easy, she resumed looking around and just enjoying the dawn over her home, while her father snored and rolled over. In a few minutes she'd start breakfast, then get ready for the day.

Taylor smiled happily. Things could be a lot worse in her opinion.

* * *

"Sergeant? Possible problem here."

"What is it, Nielsen?" Sergeant Owens looked up from the book he was reading in the night shift break room.

The mercenary at the door, a technical specialist, was looking at a tablet in his hand with a quizzical expression. "I was checking the environmental monitors for the nightly report and spotted something a little weird."

"Weird how?" Owens asked, putting his book down. "Weird dangerous, or weird broken?"

"Just weird." He turned the tablet around and showed the display to his squad leader. "N2 level is reading point four two percent higher than it should be."

Owens took the offered tablet and peered at it, then flicked back through the graphical log. He saw that the nitrogen levels had gone up a small amount around three AM and had continued to rise for a number of hours, then settled down at a slightly higher level than normal for a couple more. Now they were reading as gradually dropping again, slowly returning to what they'd started as. "You've checked the air system?"

"Yes, sir. Everything else is in the green. It's only the newer system that Coil installed six months ago which even noticed, the standard one overlooked it completely. The level isn't dangerous, but I can't work out what's causing it. We're not running on internal air so it's not a fault with the life support system." Nielsen looked puzzled and a little worried.

"Run a diagnostic on the sensors."

"I did already. They check out."

Owens nodded absently, poking around on the tablet and checking the results for himself.

"Should we alert the captain?"

Owens considered the idea and rejected it. "No." Their boss wasn't a person who liked being woken up without good reason, and he tended to make sure people knew that. Considering the foul mood he'd been in after arguing with Coil the day before, _again_ , it was best to avoid any unnecessary reasons to attract any of the residual bile he undoubtedly still had a supply of.

They were well paid, but not so much Owens really wanted to sit through any more yelling directed at him than he had to.

' _Not like we can even spend the fucking money locked away down here_ ,' he thought irritably. ' _I knew working for that skinny weirdo was a bad idea, he gives me the creeps_.' It was true, but not something he'd ever admit to anyone else.

He was a professional, for god's sake!

"I think it's probably equipment error, a calibration fault," he finally said, handing the tablet back. "All the other readings are within normal error bounds, and the original system is also in the green. Just that one sensor seems to be drifting. It happens, not the first time I've seen it. It's only just outside the accuracy limits anyway. It will probably drift back to normal, possibly even overshoot in the other direction. Keep an eye on it and if it doesn't clear itself by shift change we'll replace it and recalibrate the system."

"That's a seven hour job," Nielsen pointed out.

"Which is why I don't want to do it without waiting to see if it fixes itself," Owens replied, picking his book up again. "Even if it's real, which I doubt, the levels aren't dangerous, like you said. Just monitor it and let me know if the situation changes."

"Sir." The man saluted, then left the break room. Owens sighed faintly, wishing that either Coil would lift the lockdown, or someone would give them something more interesting to do. It was getting very, very boring being stuck down here for weeks without any alcohol, women, or new books to read.

At least his bank account was steadily rising and he wasn't being shot at. He could put up with it for a while longer.

"The life of a mercenary," he snorted quietly. "Sitting around doing fuck all for weeks, with short periods of sheer chaos in between." He shook his head in mild amusement and turned the page.

The boredom was probably the better of the two options, all in all.

* * *

Yawning widely, Amy stretched, then blinked a few times. Rolling her head to the side she checked the time on her phone which was sitting in a charging dock on the bedside table. It was only half past seven, so considering it was Saturday she decided to stay in bed for the moment and have a rest. There was nothing wildly important until later, although she'd go over to Taylor's house well before the others arrived.

Turning onto her side she rested the tip of her tail across her ankles and punched the pillow a couple of times, fluffing it up, before putting her hand under her cheek and closing her eyes. A thought came to her and she made a mental note to mention to Taylor that she needed a second camera for her other aspect, so they could get video from both viewpoints. She definitely wanted to tape the Coil raid which, if their plans worked out, was going to be something that would make Hollywood weep.

Grinning darkly to herself, she lay there for a while working on some of the recent ideas Taylor's latest ability had sparked in her mind. Her power was poking her and suggesting all manner of interesting things, having seized the new methods and run like a bastard with them. She got the impression it was practically delirious with joy and loving every second of her life.

She understood, considering how much that life had changed recently. She certainly didn't miss her old one.

' _Need to pop into the hospital and see if there's anything going on there as well_ ,' she mused, suddenly noting consciously how little time she'd put in there in the last couple of weeks. It was a large change from her previous behavior, but on the whole she felt a healthy one. Still, her conscience was prodding her to check in and help out. She could do that for a couple of hours that morning, then go over to the Hebert's house.

Hearing a thump followed by muted swearing as Vicky apparently bumped into something and knocked it over across the hall, she smiled faintly. Her sister tended to float around her room and sometimes didn't pay enough attention to where she was going.

The blonde had been somewhat preoccupied recently, wearing a thoughtful expression a lot of the time as if she had some problem she was working through. Amy had noticed, but said nothing as she didn't want to pry. She was a private person herself and knew her sister respected that, so it was only fair that she reciprocated. Still, it had been going on for long enough that she was beginning to think she should check if there was something wrong she could help with.

When they both had some free time, she'd ask what the problem was. But it would probably keep for the moment. There most likely wasn't anything serious wrong or Vicky would already have talked to her. Amy put it out of her mind for the time being and moved on to other things.

She smiled to herself again, thinking about the afternoon and her friends at Taylor's house. It was going to be very interesting to see Lucy's response to finding Saurial there…

' _Bet she spends half the time with a big smile, and the other half asking questions,_ ' she snickered. The girl was _very_ enamored of the Family in particular, and reptiles in general.

Wondering again what Lucy would do if she saw Taylor's mini-dragon form, Amy fell asleep once more.

* * *

Dragon remotely guided the heavy transport in to a landing in the water next to the Rig, the floats deploying from under the VTOL aircraft as it approached the waves. Settling down with a huge cloud of spray from the jet wash and a massive roar, it was finally bobbing ponderously up and down as the main turbines spooled down with a loud whine. The single auxiliary power unit in the tail provided enough electricity to run the underwater motors in the floats, allowing her to move the aircraft over to the main dock using the on-board cameras for guidance. PRT staff jumped on board as soon as it was alongside the floating dock, deploying ropes and tying the craft up while she used the motors for station-keeping.

As soon as the thing was properly moored the chief of the docking crew waved to her, at which point she shut the machine down entirely and unlocked the cargo doors on the dock side of the craft, people waiting for them to fold down and the ramp to extend. Thirty seconds later the first cargo transport sled was being driven up into the hold.

It took nearly an hour to unload all the shipping containers which were packed solid with enough new computing hardware to entirely replace both the Rig systems and those in the PRT building, with spares in case of problems. She walked around and through the stacks of boxes, checking the codes on them against her manifest to ensure that nothing was missing.

Her automatic systems in her factory at home were close to perfect, after much optimizing, but mistakes could still be made. It was only common sense to check.

Finally satisfied that everything needed was present, Dragon restarted the transport's APU and closed it up, while the dock crew untied it and pushed it off with long poles. Once it was clear of the structure she piloted it over to a mooring point half a mile away, where the bulk of the watercraft were stored when they weren't in use. A small boat accompanied it, the three-person crew quickly mooring the aircraft, then returning as the machine went silent again.

She turned to Colin as he arrived, looking much less tired than he'd been a few hours ago. "We're ready to start any time," she said. "Everything's here, it's all been thoroughly tested, and in theory it's a fairly simple if time consuming process to install it in parallel with the existing systems."

"Excellent," he nodded, looking around at the substantial number of containers. "We'll begin immediately. I don't want to risk finding an issue we overlooked too late to resolve it."

"All right." She sent a copy of the manifest from her suit to his. "Do you want to run the Rig crew, or the PRT one?"

"I'll take the Rig, I know the systems here intimately," he replied. "Let's get the PRT equipment loaded onto the ferry. I've got the technical squad on the way down, they can help. I'll probably be finished ahead of you and will come over to help when we're done here."

"Red labels go over there, that's the ones on this side," she said, waving at the larger stack. "Blue labels are for here."

"Good." They looked over as the cargo elevator doors opened, disgorging nearly two dozen techs, all of whom had been checked right back to the day they were born. Four squad leaders came over and saluted.

"Harrison, you're with me," Colin said to one of them. "Take your squad and move the boxes with the blue labels into the elevator. The rest of you are with Dragon, the remaining equipment is for delivery to the PRT building." All four men nodded, saluted again, then went over to the rest of their people. Very soon, the dock was rapidly emptying in two different directions.

Pleased that things were going well, the two Tinkers went their separate ways, intent on spending the day working to remove any taint of Coil from the entire network, and both somewhat annoyed that the only way to be certain of achieving this was to replace the whole damn thing.

He really was a very irritating person.

* * *

Emily read the report Colin had arranged to have hand-delivered to her first thing that morning, very carefully. When she was finished she nodded to herself. It looked like Ianthe had been entirely correct in every respect. From the readings he'd got Calvert was now explosive-free, which was a massive weight off her mind. It didn't mean for a minute that the operation would be a walk-over, but it removed the most worrisome way for it to all go to hell.

At least there wouldn't be any toppling buildings in the near future, something that she was very relieved about.

The two Family members had also managed to do their part, locating and blocking various possible escape routes. So, in the end, their quarry was stuck where he was and in theory all they had to do was go in and get him. That, unfortunately, was much easier to say than do. Even on the original plans the unfinished Endbringer shelter was of a very considerable size, some two hundred thousand square feet spread over two floors, with a number of rooms full of equipment, food, beds, sanitary facilities, and all the accouterments to allow a large number of people to survive for up to a week. Even if the entire city was flooded, irradiated, and on fire, all at the same time.

Which had actually happened more than once…

Chasing forty-some heavily armed people around in such a place, underground, probably in bad lighting, and when you didn't know the terrain, was a recipe for fuckups and bullets in places you didn't want them. That was _before_ you factored in the likelihood that the plans they had bore only a vague relationship to what was actually down there now. He'd had possibly up to a decade to modify it, upgrade it, and extend it. The rock under a lot of Brockton Bay was fairly porous and easy to dig through, and from what Tattletale had described, the bunker was definitely bigger than it should have been. Presumably he hadn't been simply sitting down there cackling to himself, but had taken the time to make life much more difficult for anyone who came in after him.

Without the Family helping, she fully expected that they'd lose a number of people, as had happened more than once in similar raids around the country. Underground fortresses were always very difficult to assault successfully, especially if you didn't want to simply eliminate all the people inside them and most of the equipment as well. Which they very much didn't want in this case as they needed any information they could get to unravel his network.

Even _with_ the weird reptiles, she wasn't entirely sanguine about the probability of things simply working out nicely. Calvert wasn't the sort who gave up easily. Hopefully when his mercenaries worked out there was no escape they'd see sense and surrender, but you couldn't count on that. Some mercs were extremely driven and once they started something, didn't stop until _it_ was done or _they_ were.

She shrugged, making a few notes on one of the pages of the report, then closing it and locking it in her desk's most secure compartment. All they could do was plan for the worst, while hoping for something less serious. One way or another, in under forty-eight hours Thomas Calvert was out of business.

* * *

"Hey, Amy, come in," Taylor smiled, stepping to the side. Her friend entered, carrying a couple of plastic shopping bags.

"I got more snacks," the other girl said as she followed Taylor into the kitchen, putting her bags on the table, then grabbing a chair and swinging it around to sit on it backwards, her tail over the edge and her arms on the back. Amy watched as Taylor went back to the stove, where she was hard-boiling eggs for egg salad sandwiches, and also cooking some pasta. "Although at this rate we're going to have enough food to feed an army. What's that?"

"It'll be a sort of tuna casserole pasta thing with mayonnaise and chilies," Taylor explained, stirring the pot with a wooden spoon. "It was one of Mom's recipes, I haven't made it for ages. She had quite a few of them and I dug out one of her recipe books to find it. That's it on the table there." She pointed with the tip of her own tail, Amy looking where indicated and picking up a hard bound notebook with ' _Annette Hebert, Recipes, Book one_ ' neatly written on the cover.

Flipping through the pages she nodded appreciatively. "Did she come up with all these herself?" she asked curiously.

"Some of them she invented, then wrote down, some are old family recipes from her own parents," Taylor explained, turning the stove down, then opening the oven to check on the progress of the jalapeno poppers she was making as well. "A few are something like four hundred years old, she said once. Passed down from mother to daughter through the generations. Although where I'd get swan I have no idea."

"You're kidding," Amy grinned.

"Nope. Page sixty-three."

Her friend turned to the relevant page, read it, and laughed. "You're not kidding. Wow."

Closing the book, she put it down, then picked up the other one that was on the table, reading the title out loud. " _Recipes from long ago and far away, by T & V Hebert_" she quoted with an amused look. "You've started writing down Varga's food ideas, then?"

"It seemed like a good idea," Taylor chuckled. "He's given me a couple of dozen of them now and there are a lot left. Some are really, really nice."

"I've had a few of those," Amy nodded. "I'd love a copy of this when you're done."

"Sure. Dad was pleased I started doing it too, and more pleased when I told him that if I managed to publish it I was dedicating it to mom."

"I can imagine he would be," her friend replied, leafing through the book. Taylor had only documented about a dozen or so recipes to date, but she was adding new ones as she had time. "Nice. Hey, I remember this one! It's what you made the first time I came over."

"One of my favorites," she nodded. Pulling out the tray of completed snacks, she put them to the side to cool, adjusted the temperature of the oven, then started mixing up some cookie dough.

Her second aspect formed as Saurial, casually dressed in suitably modified T shirt and shorts, who bent over the tray of spicy snacks and sniffed appreciatively.

"Hands off, they're for everyone else," Taylor said.

"But I want one!" her other aspect retorted, extending a hand.

Taylor's first aspect smacked it with the spoon. "No. Bad me. Have an egg."

"Aww." ' _Saurial_ ' looked disappointed, then picked up one of the cartons of eggs on the counter and went over to sit next to Amy, who was giggling. The lizard-girl started eating the eggs, frowning at her other aspect, who folded her arms and gave her a disapproving stare.

"Less of the passive aggressive attitude, young lady, or there won't be dessert for you."

"I'm really mean sometimes," ' _Saurial_ ' sighed, flipping another egg into her mouth. She leaned on Amy. "Hold me, I'm sad."

"You're insane is what you are," the healer grinned.

"Sometimes I get on my nerves," Taylor grumbled. "I keep bothering myself while I'm trying to work, and I won't shut up. How I put up with myself I have no idea."

"See?" The reptilian girl pointed dramatically. "I'm horrible to me. All I wanted was a snack, and I won't let me have one. Why am I like that?"

"Shut up and eat your eggs," Taylor's human aspect snapped, then started giggling as Amy nearly slid off her chair with hilarity.

"You could keep that up for quite a while, couldn't you?" the shorter girl snickered helplessly.

"Dad said it was making him doubt his own sanity after the first two minutes and went out to visit a friend for a couple of hours," Taylor smirked.

"Danny is a smart person," Amy replied, shaking her head. Both versions of Taylor nodded, the taller one eating the last egg, then the box it came in.

"He is," this one said, smiling. "Can I have a cookie when they're done?"

"Only if you help make them," Taylor's primary aspect said sternly. Her second one looked eager, jumped to her feet, and dashed over to grab the bowl and start stirring vigorously. Amy watched with amusement, pulling a bag of chips out of one of her shopping bags.

"Nuts. Completely nuts," she remarked. "Oh, I got you something," she added, putting the chips down and rummaging in the other bag. Pulling out a box she handed it to Taylor's human aspect, who wiped her hands on the apron she was wearing and took it. "Another camera, so you and yourself can each video things at the same time. I think we really want a record of what happens in the bunker..."

Both Taylors grinned widely. "Oh, definitely," ' _Saurial_ ' nodded. "Thanks, Amy."

"No problem. I told the shop guy it was for you and he gave me a really good discount. Have you seen he's got a poster of Cloak in the window now as well as the one of her?" She waved at the reptilian aspect, who looked pleased.

"Yep, I saw it when I went past the other day. We should all go in one by one and talk to him, I bet we can get the entire window full of Family posters easily enough," Taylor giggled.

"It's an idea," her friend grinned.

They chatted for the next hour until all the cooking was done, then all ' _three_ ' of them went into the living room. Taylor's Saurial aspect flopped down on the sofa, looking comfortable, while her other one sat in a chair, Amy doing the same in another one. They all looked at each other in silence for a moment.

"You realize how completely bizarre this really is, right?" Amy asked after a moment, glancing at both of her friend.

"Sometimes it really does suddenly catch up with me," the one on the sofa nodded. The other one suddenly disappeared, being replaced with the small draconic form, which zipped around the room for a moment, then landed on her other form's chest and curled up. "But I can do this, which is just fucking fantastic, so I can happily live with it," she finished, smiling broadly as she stroked her small avatar.

"And I find it at least as much fun," the small dragon said with a stretch of its wings, which it then folded up. The Varga raised his head and looked at Taylor with affection. "I believe the correct saying would be, ' _Best… Present… **Ever**._ '"

"You're more than welcome, my friend," Taylor smiled back.

Watching them, Amy looked impressed, pleased, and a little envious. "You two are incredible," she finally said after a long pause. "And I'm very lucky I met you both. Thanks for being my friends."

"Likewise, Amy," Taylor replied softly. Moments later the doorbell rang. The tiny dragon vanished silently. "It's Mandy, Vicky, and Lucy," she reported from her now outside viewpoint, the Varga cloaked and sitting on the porch roof, peering over the edge at the visitors. "Looks like they all managed to turn up at the same time."

"You're going to be entirely impossible to sneak up on now, aren't you?" Amy snorted, shaking her head. "You'll have a tiny invisible dragon flying over you half the time."

Taylor winked at her, then hopped up to answer the door, thinking it would be funny to see their friend's faces when ' _Saurial_ ' did it.

* * *

Vicky spotted a familiar car as she was dropping out of the sky, landing next to it and smiling at Lucy and Mandy who were just exiting the vehicle. "Good timing, Vicky," the latter said with a nod and a smile back. "Anyone else here yet other than Amy?" They looked at the blue truck parked in the driveway.

"I don't know, I only just turned up myself," she replied. "I don't think so, though, we're about ten minutes early and the boys normally arrive a little late. They've got further to come aside from just being boys."

Both girls giggled, nodding. Mandy said goodbye to her mother, who waved to all three of them, then pulled out into a U-turn and drove off. "Let's see if we beat them here," Lucy said eagerly, heading up the path. Vicky floated after her, Mandy walking alongside.

Ringing the doorbell, they all waited. Moments later the door opened.

"eep."

Saurial, Lucy, who was now grinning in a slightly deranged manner, and Mandy all looked curiously at the blonde girl.

"What's up with her?" the reptilian cape asked, sounding puzzled.

"No idea. Why are you here? It's wonderful to see you again. Is Raptaur here? How's Kaiju?" Lucy said rapidly, disappearing inside the house after Saurial, who was looking very amused. "Where's Taylor?"

Mandy and Vicky exchanged glances, then the other girl followed her friend. Vicky trailed along behind, feeling suddenly confused again.


	259. Guest Omake - It brings all the Tinkers

**It brings all the Tinkers to the Yard**

 **(By CmptrWz)**

* * *

"This is getting ridiculous," Lisa said, looking over her notes while they waited for Amy to arrive after an emergency call had her visiting the hospital. "How did you showing us your free electricity box, or maybe just telling us about it, grab so much attention? Every tinker in town, shortly followed by every tinker in New England, and three quarters of the thinkers in New England all apparently wanting to come around to fill their sudden urge to examine _something_ , even if they don't know what it is. Apparently the protectorate has been fielding transfer requests for tinkers and thinkers from all over the country and has reports of tinkers and certain kinds of thinkers abandoning independent and villain groups, likely to head here. Dragon reported something similar with the guild, and the PRT has been getting requests from all over the planet for visits too."

"You would still be staring at the thing if I hadn't vanished it," Taylor said. "Zephron said it took you an hour of staring at the power box for the compound before you gave it up as a lost cause due to the EDM enclosure after I went home. For some reason tinkers and thinkers, or their powers at least, are incredibly interested in unlimited energy."

"Tinkers I fully understand, it is the ultimate power source. Linda, Kevin, Armsmaster, Dragon, and Kid Win all seemed to think so, anyway. As for thinkers, it is mostly those that analyse things or data, from what I can tell. On that note, my power is still somewhat angry at you for not letting it poke more," Lisa admitted. "Though we both still need frequent breaks trying to understand your math this time around, so it is content enough there."

"It is very interesting," Varga interjected, shifting a mini-dragon to Raptaur to join in the conversation. "I am starting to suspect that we have run into one of the goals of whomever or whatever is granting parahuman powers. Though how they expected to accomplish it with the way things were going I have no idea."

"Huh, that is weird," Lisa said, staring off into space. "My power not only outright confirmed that, but is essentially jumping up and down waving celebratory pom-poms around. Based on it's reaction to the fact that your automated matter creation trick could only generate temporary matter I wonder if they are looking for infinite mass solutions too? Huh, yea, they are."

"Your power can tell you that when you ask," Taylor said slowly. "But never bothered to volunteer it?"

"I think it had given up on it ever happening or something," Lisa said after a moment's thought. "And then when it did happen it got too excited about it to mention any more?"

"Definitely something to think about," Varga said. "Knowing even this much about their motivations could be very important."

A few minutes later Amy showed up, an odd look on her face. She didn't bother getting Ianthe out, merely sat at the table. Taylor and Lisa exchanged glances before the former made a stick and poked Amy with it across the table.

"Oh, sorry, hi," Amy said, shaking herself and focusing on them. "Did you know that Toybox apparently relocated here last night?"

"Really?" Lisa said, obviously thinking about it. "I suppose being tinkers they would be just as interested as any other tinker in looking at Taylor's power box."

"The emergency I was called in for was related to them setting up defenses to protect the town," Amy said. "A test-fire injured several tinkers, not that they all told me they were parahumans. They did ask me to pass on a request to have members of the family visit their current base of operations to be permanently excluded from the targeting systems."

Taylor banged her head on the table. "I just wanted to keep the DWU powered with all the issues the electric grid was having. How did it balloon into all of this?"


	260. Replacements and Teenagers

"How is it going?" Emily asked, looking around the data center. The towering form of Dragon in her armored suit loomed over the PRT techs running around trailing cables everywhere.

"Well, so far," the Canadian Tinker replied, typing rapidly on a keyboard for a couple of seconds, then turning to her. "We've got about half the server functionality in here duplicated so far, and I'm copying the data across from the original ones through my own filtering equipment as we speak. We've located several compromised systems that have very subtle back-doors in them, which have obviously been there for years. We're leaving them alone so we don't trigger anything and keeping an eye on them."

"Will it be ready in time?"

"I believe so. Nothing is jumping out at us as unexpected so far, although obviously I can't guarantee that will continue." Dragon turned back to the keyboard when something beeped at her, typed some more, then looked at Emily over her shoulder. "I'll let you know if we find anything that requires immediate action."

It was clearly a polite dismissal. Emily nodded, took one last look around, then headed back upstairs. Cables were strung all through the corridors, with computer equipment put anywhere it would fit, since all the original stuff was still in place. The new kit was in most cases smaller, faster, and higher performance than the original, but it still took up space.

In the long run this was probably good, a solid housecleaning of staff, systems, and security was never really a waste of time. But in the short term it was a fucking pain in the ass.

Returning to her office, she sat behind the desk, then pulled the next report off the top of the stack of work that kept building up. She couldn't do much about the computer upgrade aside from get in the way so it was best to try to get on top of some of the stuff that steadily built up regardless of what else was going on. Soon enough, they'd be ready to go and make Calvert have a very bad day, but for now, there were papers to check, sign, and file.

While she worked, she pondered one thing that she'd learned the day before, namely that the new Ward Prospect, otherwise known as Dinah Alcott, had apparently ended up visiting the Family and was considered a friend. That was… interesting. And potentially concerning, although there was no indication that the lizards had any idea that she was a Parahuman. Or that they'd actually care if they found out.

For whatever reason, Emily was finding that while she was still very curious about their origins, their motivations, and their relationships with the DWU, the one thing she wasn't worried about was the Family telling anyone anything they knew about civilian IDs of other capes. They seemed to take that part of the rules pretty seriously, unless you managed to do something to massively piss them off, which Calvert had definitely done. She got the distinct impression that Metis particularly found him annoying, and Raptaur was none too pleased about him either.

Knowing what she did about his past, she wasn't surprised.

So, all in all, there seemed no real reason to be concerned about the Family knowing Dinah. If anything it was another layer of protection for the girl. Between Armsmaster being able to find her more or less anywhere she went if anything happened, and the Family being able to go and retrieve her under the same circumstances, the young woman was probably about as safe as anyone could be.

Even so, she didn't really want any of the other Wards meeting the Family too closely. They tended to be impressionable, and one thing all of the lizards were very good at was making an impression.

"God help us all if Vista starts learning anything from them," she muttered under her breath. "Her and Cloak comparing notes..."

She shuddered a little. While she hadn't had the pleasure of meeting the animated clothing herself yet, she'd had some pretty vivid descriptions from several people who had, most of which had come away feeling disturbed.

No, it was probably best to keep people like Vista and Kid Win well away from the Family on anything other than a purely professional level.

And _definitely_ keep Clockblocker away from Saurial. He was bad enough simply being in the same city as Assault…

The abrupt thought of Mouse Protector turning up and getting involved made her shudder again, think longingly of the bottle of good whiskey in the cupboard at home, then dive into the next report and try to push the horrible thought out of her mind with boring minutiae about mandatory firearm certification assessments for PRT troopers.

* * *

"Visiting friends. No, I'm afraid not. She's fine. Upstairs." Saurial made a pleased face as Lucy giggled, holding out her hand which the girl took and shook eagerly. "Nice to see you too, Lucy, and you both as well. How's life treating you all?"

"Pretty well, thanks," Mandy smiled, shaking the offered hand too. Vicky did the same, but in a rather absent-minded manner. Various thoughts and theories she'd come up with in the last week or so were rearranging themselves in her mind at a rate that was making her a little dizzy.

"Taylor, get down here," Saurial shouted up the stairs.

"Hold on, you reptilian annoyance," Taylor's voice came back to them. "I was just using the facilities."

"Mammals. Always needing to deal with their biological inadequacies," Saurial snickered.

"I heard that," the Hebert girl yelled.

"You were meant to!"

Saurial smirked, then turned back to them. "She'll turn up sooner or later. Amy's in the living room, food's in the kitchen."

"Are you going to be here long?" Lucy asked with great interest.

"I'm not due anywhere, so yep," Saurial nodded. "Not planning on going anywhere until tonight. I thought it would be fun to sit in on one of these math, movie and food sessions and check she was doing it right."

"Of course I'm doing it right," Taylor said as she came down the stairs, smiling at all of them. "I've made quite a lot of food," she went on cheerfully. "I hope everyone is hungry."

"I am." Saurial held up her hand.

"You always are, you bottomless pit," the brunette chuckled. The lizard-girl shrugged, looking pleased with herself.

"Not always, but fairly often," she replied without rancor.

Taylor grinned at her, then went into the kitchen. "Come on in, guys, you'll want some of these cookies while they're fresh."

All of them went after her, Amy appearing moments later from the living room. "Hi, everyone," she said, looking around at them.

"Hi, Amy," Mandy and Lucy both echoed. "Something smells good," Lucy added, sniffing.

"That's probably the pasta dish," Saurial commented. She lifted the lid of one of the pots on the counter, peering in. "It's a nice one, I've always liked it."

Turning to the cupboards, the reptilian girl started pulling plates out of them with an ease which, to Vicky, suggested familiarity. She was shortly arranging them on the counter along with silverware, while Taylor was putting various portions of food on them and Amy was opening bags of chips. "Drinks in the fridge," Taylor said. "Same as usual. Help yourselves."

Holding up the bag she'd brought, the blonde said, "I got what you wanted, Taylor."

"Can you put that over there on the end, please?" her friend replied after a quick glance at it. "No point opening anything until we need it."

"OK."

"Grab a plate, let's go and sit down in the living room," Taylor said, following her own advice. Everyone did the same and all six went into the other room.

"So, why _are_ you here, Saurial?" Lucy asked, watching as the lizard-girl sat on one of the chairs and made herself comfortable. "And dressed like that?"

Saurial looked down at herself, then back at the Chinese girl, grinning a little. "It's my day off?" she replied, making everyone but Vicky, who was watching and thinking, laugh. "I can be casual. I often am, in fact. It's just that most of the time when people are taking photos of me, I'm wandering around in my armor dealing with criminals, or going to or from dealing with them." She glanced at Amy, who was nodding. "Amy knows, we went to that Thai place just after we first met. I was in disguise."

She ate one of the jalapeno poppers while Amy snickered. "Yeah, great disguise," Vicky's sister retorted. "Like anyone was fooled for an instant."

"Hey, it was nearly perfect," Saurial protested with a smirk.

"Oh, sure it was. A six and a half foot tall, overly talkative lizard in a leather jacket and skirt with a hat. Very inconspicuous."

"No one complained," Saurial said mildly, eating another snack.

"Because they were terrified of you, mostly," Amy grinned. "Not so much these days, we all know your Family is insane, but mostly harmless."

"That's the cunning plan," Taylor put in with a chuckle, having been looking between the two with amusement. "They sneak into our city, become practically indispensable by helping out and just acting all reasonable, then..."

Saurial cocked her head at her friend. "Then?"

" _Then_ you seize the opportunity when everyone has been lulled into a false sense of security and do whatever dastardly thing your weird alien demon family is planning," Taylor said in a low, intense voice. " _And it's too late to stop you._ "

"Curses," Saurial complained, looking entirely not upset. She ate another popper. "You're onto us, wretched human scum." Waving a finger in the air, she added, "We must fall back and regroup. Immediately. If not sooner."

The last popper went down and she looked at the now empty plate, appearing disappointed. "But not before eating all your snacks."

"Reptilian horror," Taylor giggled. "Leave some for everyone else who hasn't turned up yet." Saurial got up and headed for the kitchen, poking the girl in the shoulder with her tail as she passed, grinning to herself. "And mind the tail!" Taylor shouted. "And get my laptop!"

"Where is it?" the call came back.

"My room, of course. On the desk."

"OK."

"Have you been reading PHO again and listening to that lunatic who thinks the Family are all demons, Taylor?" Mandy asked, having been sitting with both hands over her mouth the entire time, holding in giggles. Lucy was silently heaving with laughter beside her on the sofa.

"Or worse, _Void Cowboy_ ," she added, looking horrified as the thought struck her. "Please tell me you're not listening to _him_. Even the demon guy is less annoying."

Taylor leaned back and laughed, shaking her head. "No, I would never strive to emulate Void Cowboy of all people."

"Thank god," Amy said with over-done relief, wiping her brow dramatically. "I was really worried there for a moment. Two of them would be at least three too many."

"Not to mention we're _not_ all demons," Saurial put in as she reappeared, holding a laptop in one hand and her refilled plate in the other. She handed Taylor her computer and sat again. "And we're not all aliens either. I think both of those guys have the wrong end of the stick."

Vicky listened, and cogitated.

"Do you come here lot, Saurial?" she asked after a moment, slowly and casually. Then she ate some chips, doing her best to look idly curious.

The scaled girl looked at her, with a short nod. "I've spent a lot of time here, but not as much in the last month or so as before," she replied. "I had a hole in my schedule and thought I'd visit, like I said." She grinned at the Hebert girl, who was eating a sandwich at this point. "Taylor's been doing all that schoolwork since the Arcadia thing and has hardly had time to come to see the BBFO office until recently. I think that this week was the first time we've both been there for ages."

Mandy was watching the two with interest, nearly as much as was Vicky. "So you two really do know each other well?" she asked.

"Oh, god, yeah, we're like sisters in some ways," Taylor smiled. "So close you couldn't separate us with a knife blade. Like that." She held up a hand with two fingers pressed together. "It's like we were twins, sometimes. Admittedly of different species, so I don't know how that would work, but..."

"Stop laying it on so thickly, you're worse than _I_ am sometimes," Saurial laughed, making Taylor stop and grin at them. "Yes, we've known each other for a while," she continued, looking back at the rest of them. "Her family and mine are pretty close. Unfortunately I can't really say too much about how we met, for personal reasons, but we get along well."

Vicky kept thinking. And discarding some theories, while others were dusted off and re-examined in light of new evidence.

"I think it's so cool you're here," Lucy said enthusiastically. "I had so much fun that time at the DWU."

"We noticed," Saurial laughed. "Raptaur thought it was hilarious, the expression you had the entire time you were there. What did your parents think of the video?"

"When they stopped gaping, they were laughing like idiots," Lucy giggled. "Dad couldn't believe it really happened, he was sure someone was playing a trick on me. Apparently, ' _No cape that powerful would just take people for joyrides, Lucy_.'" She put on her best attempt at a man's voice, not wildly convincingly. "And _'Even if they would, I can't really see anyone letting someone else ride on their back around the entire city,_ ' as well. He was a little shocked, let's leave it at that." She seemed very pleased.

"My parents were a little surprised as well." Mandy grinned. "My mom said you guys could make a killing in the entertainment business taking people for rides around the city."

Saurial nodded, an expression of humor on her face. "We've discussed it. Amy and Raptaur were plotting how much to charge and whether she should give them checkups first, to make sure their hearts could take it."

"Something to do in the summer when school is over," Taylor suggested slyly. "Considering that most of the criminals seems to have gone on holiday or something, you'll need to find something to keep you busy."

Shrugging, Saurial chuckled. "I guess we could consider it more. Up and down the boardwalk for ten dollars, up and down the Medhall tower for a hundred."

"Oh, god, Max would pop a gasket," Amy chortled, appearing to find the idea both funny and interesting. "Let's do that."

Vicky considered her sister oddly, then the suggestion.

Then the thought of Max Anders looking out his window at the tenth paying customer waving as they went past the penthouse on Raptaur-back.

Then she started giggling herself.

Sure, she was thinking about some worrying things, but that was actually pretty funny.

Saurial cocked her head, seemed to listen, then turned to look at Taylor. "More people arriving, I think."

"How do you know?" Vicky asked, glancing out the window behind her, having moved the curtain to the side, to see another car she recognized approaching and slowing.

The lizard-girl tapped the side of her head. " _Really_ good hearing," she replied.

"I'll say," the blonde commented, impressed. She watched as the car stopped and disgorged two people. "It's Eric and Rich, looks like Rich's father gave them a ride."

"Quick, answer the door again," Lucy urged. She was grinning mischievously. "See if you can get them to go ' _eep_ ' like Vicky did." The girl made a surprised little squeak sound, like a mouse that had unexpectedly been stepped on.

Vicky stared at her, frowning. "I did not sound like that."

"You did," Lucy grinned.

"Did not."

"Did."

"You did, actually," Saurial snickered as she got up. "It was hilarious." Walking quietly into the hall, the others all getting up as well and following to see what happened, she waited inside the door, visibly listening. Putting a finger to her muzzle, she counted down with the other hand, then yanked the door open, to reveal Rich standing on the other side with his hand raised to knock.

"Welcome to the House… of _Death!_ " she hissed, making him yip and nearly jump into Eric's arms, the other boy behind him flinching violently. "No… Wait." She looked over her shoulder at Taylor, who rolled her eyes and sighed heavily.

"Math. House of _Math_. You mad reptile."

"Not Death?"

"No, that's across the street and down two. Mr McKillystabs. This is Hebert. Math."

"Sure?"

"Definitely."

Saurial shrugged, turning back to the two boys, who were gaping at her in bemusement now. Vicky and the other three girls were creased up, partly at the dialog and partly at the expressions their friends were wearing. "Sorry, House of _Math_. Welcome to it. Come in." She stepped to the side and waved grandly into the hall.

They exchanged a glance, shrugged, and entered. Saurial slammed the door behind them. " ** _Muah ha ha,_** " she said in a low, evil voice. "More victims. I mean, students."

Eric looked at her, then turned to Taylor, who was smirking at him. "You have very weird friends," he complained.

"That's what she keeps _telling_ me, but personally I _like_ you guys," she laughed, putting an arm around his shoulder. "Ignore the insane lizard. Come and have some food, then we can work out what to do next."

With a glance back over his shoulder at Saurial, who was now grinning at him with far more teeth than were natural, he shook his head. "Why do I feel that I should have stayed at home?" he asked rhetorically, but with good humor.

"No idea," she shrugged.

Rich was watching this all with a bewildered expression. He turned to Vicky, who was closest. "Um…?"

She shrugged, still trying to work things out in her head. "Not a clue. Taylor's bad enough, Saurial is worse, and we're now seeing _both of them at the same time in the same place._ " She lowered her voice. "This might get weird."

She was at least half-serious...

* * *

Looking at the house that matched the description Vicky had given him, then the letterbox with the street number and the name ' _Hebert_ ' on it, Chris said the obvious.

"I think this is the place."

"All right," his mother said as she stopped the car at the curb. "Do you really think this girl can help?"

"I have no idea, but Vicky thought it was worth a try, so I guess I might as well give it a shot. Taylor has a reputation as being a math genius and a nice helpful girl. Maybe she really can figure something out. It's not like anything else is doing much good, is it?"

She brushed his hair back with one hand, giving him a look of affectionate concern. "Don't be disheartened, Chris. I'm sure, one way or another, that you'll do fine. Go and have fun with your friends, do your best, and even if things don't change right away, at least you've had a good day."

He shrugged, still looking at the house with a certain amount of worried anticipation. After a moment he reached for the door-handle. "OK, Mom. I'll call you when I'm ready to leave." Glancing at her he put on a smile. "Thanks for giving me a ride."

"You're welcome, son," she smiled back. "Don't forget your backpack."

Reaching into the back seat he retrieved the pack, then pushed the door open and got out. She leaned over to look up at him. "Have fun. That's the most important part."

"I'll try, mom," he assured her. Closing the door, he waved as she pulled away, then turned to look at the house again, before taking a deep breath and heading up the path to the porch, studying the house as he approached it. It wasn't huge, but it was a reasonable size, needed a new coat of paint, yet otherwise looked like it was cared for.

He'd bumped into Taylor Hebert a couple of times at school, knew she was close friends with Amy Dallon after only a fairly short time of being in Arcadia, and that she got on well with pretty much everyone. She had a smallish group of good friends who normally sat together at lunch, like he did with his fellow Wards and Vicky, but was considered by others to be likable and approachable if not outgoing.

She certainly wasn't the extrovert Vicky was, but she wasn't the introvert Amy had been either, and had somehow managed to bring the other Dallon sister out of the funk the girl had lingered in for most of the time Chris had known her. Amy was no less sarcastic or snarky these days, but seemed to be having fun rather than merely marking time and trying to ignore everyone else. So that was good.

Not really knowing what to expect, he went up the steps to the front door and pressed the doorbell button, hearing it ring inside. Footsteps approached then the door opened, to reveal Taylor smiling at him, Vicky behind her. "Hi, Chris. I'm Taylor, as you probably know. Welcome to my home." The girl held out her hand, which he shook. "Come on in. Everyone else is already here."

"Thanks," he replied, entering the house and looking around. She closed the door, then walked around him.

"Let's go into the living room, we were just discussing watching a movie to get everyone in the mood for proper learning. We've got lots of food, no one is going hungry today."

"That's for sure, the kitchen is stuffed with snacks, and that pasta thing is delicious," Vicky smiled. He glanced at the tall blonde girl, who seemed happy, yet to him also a little bemused about something. She met his eyes, gave him an unreadable look, then floated off, her feet an inch off the ground which amused him. Taylor followed his eyes and snickered.

"We permit her to fly indoors, but only at very, very low altitude," she whispered conspiratorially behind her hand. "She gets twitchy otherwise but we don't want any cabbage-related incidents."

Chris started laughing to himself. "The Great Coleslaw Explosion..."

"Exactly. Amy told me about that in great detail. Not in my house. Dad would be… annoyed."

They shared a grin, then went after Vicky who had disappeared into what turned out to be the living room. Inside, he glanced around, seeing that Amy was sitting talking to Mandy, the odd girl who ate entire burgers at once then nearly choked on them, her friend Lucy, and the two boys Rich and Eric, who he recognized from school but didn't know well. All of them looked up and nodded to him, calling greetings.

The final person in the room was…

"Hi," Saurial chirped brightly as his astonished gaze stopped on her. She waved. "I'm Saurial. You know everyone else?"

"Um..."

"Of course you do, from what Taylor says you only sit a couple of tables away at lunch in school." She seemed in a good mood, from what he could tell.

"Um..." A little helplessly he turned to Taylor, who chuckled.

"Oh, yes, Saurial is here too. She's a close friend and wanted to see what we got up to, since she was at a loose end and is incurably nosy."

"That's me!" Saurial grinned. She patted the seat of the sofa next to her. "Have a seat, Chris. Taylor, get the poor boy something to eat, he looks ready to fall over."

"Back in a sec," Taylor said, giving him a gentle push towards the lizard-girl, then heading across the hall into the kitchen. He wandered over and sat down, putting his backpack on the floor. Saurial held out her hand, which he took and shook.

"Sorry, I was gaping a bit there," he apologized when he recovered a little. "I didn't expect to meet you today."

"Hardly anyone _expects_ to meet me, judging by the expressions," Saurial grinned. "But I turn up all the time, all over the place."

"So I've heard," he replied, relaxing a lot. The presence of the reptilian cape had definitely thrown him for a moment, at least partly because he'd never thought much about her home life. With the utterly non-human appearance she'd stand out anywhere and somehow that had made him at least subconsciously not picture her simply lounging on an ordinary sofa in an ordinary living room in front of a perfectly normal TV. Not to mention in the presence of half a dozen teenagers who were largely simply treating her as one of them.

Vicky was certainly watching her closely, he noticed, although he still couldn't work out her expression. The half-Chinese girl Lucy was also watching her, but in that case her expression was easy to discern, since it was one of delight. He remembered that she was supposed to be mad about reptiles and had a pet iguana, so that part was explained.

His interactions with the lizard-girl when he was out as Kid Win had been nothing other than friendly and sometimes hilariously funny as in the case of the Tabasco sauce incident, which had entered PHO legend. She was terrifyingly dangerous when she needed to be, but everything he'd learned about her, and as far as he was aware that anyone else had learned about her, indicated that she genuinely didn't actually _want_ to be a danger to anyone.

And, if what he'd picked up from overhearing other people talking, specifically Armsmaster and Dragon, she was also beyond brilliant at mathematics. Between her and Taylor they probably had more mathematical ability than the entire university math and physics departments put together. Perhaps they really could help him?

Like he'd told his mother, it was worth a shot.

Taylor came back into the room carrying a plate and a glass, both of which she handed to him. "Here you go. Something to keep you from starving to death, and some coke. There's a lot more, so if you want anything else, just let me know."

"Thanks," he replied as he accepted the food, putting the plate on the coffee table in front of him, then sipping the coke before placing the glass there as well. Picking up one of the sandwiches she'd given him, he looked around the room again. Vicky was apparently deep in thought, glancing between Taylor and Saurial. Amy, Lucy, and Rich were now arguing quietly over a pair of DVDs, while Mandy was eating, and Eric was looking at the back of another DVD case with interest.

"So how do you do this?" he asked curiously. "Just get together, eat too much, watch movies, and do math exercises?"

"More or less," Taylor smiled. "The order is different each time, but it's basically movies, math, and food. So far it seems to be working. I've helped Amy with some problems she was having difficulty getting to grips with, that's what started it all off when we first met. Since then everyone else sort of turned up. The results are encouraging."

"I'll say they are," Mandy put in, finishing her latest sandwich and swallowing quickly. "She fixed me right up with algebra, and my calculus is coming along well. The teacher was surprised, in a few weeks I've suddenly done better than I did most of last year."

"Me too," Rich nodded. Eric did the same. "Taylor is really good at explaining the problems in ways that I can understand. Her homework is actually useful as well."

"She's very strict, though," Amy grinned. "You don't get more food if you don't finish all the questions."

"I'm so terrible at math, though..." Chris looked around at them all, feeling overwhelmed. Calculus? He'd be happy to be able to learn multiplication tables properly. "Won't I hold you back?"

"No, don't worry about that, Chris," Taylor said, sitting on the chair at his end of the sofa. "We'll figure something out."

"I can teach your friends while you talk to Chris if you want," Saurial suggested. "Have you started them on multidimensional matrices yet? Or folded space calculations?"

Everyone stared at her. Taylor was grinning a little.

"What?" Saurial looked around with a puzzled expression. "It's easy. Look." She was suddenly holding a two foot square whiteboard in one hand and a marker in the other. "As an example, these are the basic equations governing six dimensional hyperbolic space mapped onto three dimensional space-time." She wrote quickly, a series of horrendously complex symbolic equations filling the top half of the board. "Obviously, to do most of the really interesting real-world applications you need to take into account more dimensions, then start fractally nesting them, but this is a good place to begin." She wrote down a couple more equations, then studied the board.

Everyone other than Taylor was gaping at the whiteboard in a mix of astonishment, horror, and shock. "That's _math?_ " Mandy squeaked. "It looks like someone's word processor vomited. I don't even _recognize_ most of those symbols."

Eric was squinting at the board with his head on one side. "I _think_ some of those are something to do with high level number theory, but I agree, most of them are new to me."

"You're trying to introduce them to Family mathematics and I haven't even finished with basic human math yet," Taylor snickered. "I don't think they're ready."

"Sure?" Saurial looked at her, then back at the board she was holding, one eye-ridge up. "This is pretty basic stuff. You can't understand the complicated math without a good foundation to build on." Vanishing the pen, she held up a… _thing_ … that made most of those present wince and look away for a moment. "They'll never understand fractal dimensional constructs like this until they can handle the math behind it."

"I'm not sure I _want_ to understand something like that," Rich muttered, peering sidelong at the little object she was holding and rotating back and forth. Chris could almost swear that the lighting in the room was altering in time to the movements, and that he could feel that gravity seemed to be going in subtly different directions than it should. "What the hell _is_ it?"

"Just a little children's toy, for learning how higher dimensional surfaces interact with three dimensional space," Saurial smiled. She tossed it to him, everyone watching as it flew through the air, following a path that was anything but normal, in a way no one could afterwards describe. Taylor jumped to her feet and neatly intercepted it just before it would have beaned him, then frowned at her scaly friend.

"Don't throw warped pockets of space-time around the living room. You know what happened the last time. Dad will be annoyed."

Saurial shrugged, grinning. "I could fix it."

"Not the point." Taylor looked at the thing she was holding, tutted in a slightly annoyed fashion, then spun it in her hand and flipped it to one side. It arced across the room and somehow landed in Saurial's hand, even though it hadn't been aimed directly at her.

"Nice shot," the lizard laughed, making it vanish. "You compensated for the fifth dimensional gravitational distortion pretty well."

"Like you said, it's not too hard. But they're a way off learning that sort of thing. Stop showing off."

Both of them looked at each other, appearing amused at this point, as if there was a private joke they were sharing, then turned to the others. Amy was watching with a small grin of her own as if she had seen this before, Vicky was now examining both Taylor and Saurial with narrowed eyes, and everyone else was looking between then in mild shock. Chris stared, trying to work out what had just happened, and why his head was suddenly full of bizarre ideas that made no sense.

"OK, you teach them for a while, and I'll talk to Chris," Taylor said as she sat again. "But no Family math, no higher dimensions, and no more non-Euclidean toys flying around the room."

"Ma'am!" Saurial snapped, shooting to her her feet and attention, her hand at her brow and her tail tightly tucked against her legs. "Yes, Ma'am!"

"And knock it off, you're making everyone think you're strange," Taylor added, shaking her head with a grin. Saurial relaxed, smirked again, then sat down once more.

"Strange? Me?" She looked at herself, then around at the others. "I'm entirely normal. It's all you mammals who are strange. Why don't you fall over without tails to help you balance?"

"We somehow manage," Mandy said, now grinning. She'd apparently overcome her surprise at the ' _toy_ ' that the lizard-girl had made.

"Tails are cool, though," Lucy added, which made Saurial wave at her with the end of her own appendage.

"A human with good taste, as I've said before," the blue-scaled girl laughed. Lucy smiled back at her.

"Can _you_ understand that, Taylor?" Vicky asked slowly, indicating the board which Saurial had put on the sofa, leaning against the back, when she'd jumped up. Taylor looked at her, then the board, which the reptilian teenager obligingly held out.

"It's fairly straightforward," the tall brunette nodded. "Although I'll admit it's quite a long way past anything you guys are ready for."

"Interesting..." Vicky trailed off, sitting back in her chair and nibbling some chips, a faraway look on her face. Taylor stared at her, then looked at the girl's sister, raising an eyebrow. Amy shrugged, meeting her eyes. After a moment, Taylor did as well, turning back to the room at large.

"Anyway..." She walked over to where Saurial was. "Go over there and stop being any more annoying than you have to be," she instructed, pointing at her former chair. Saurial smirked at her, then followed the directions, the board disappearing as she got up. Taylor sat in her vacated spot next to Chris.

"Let's watch a movie, eat some more, and then we can get to the fun part," she said, glancing at them all.

"Fun part, she says," Mandy whispered loudly to Lucy, who leaned over to her.

"To her it is," the other girl whispered back, just as loudly. Both of them were looking directly at Taylor, who was smiling. "I think it's weird too. Just roll with it."

"OK."

Both of them straightened up and gave Taylor matching brilliant grins. Saurial was snickering to herself. Taylor shook her head, then looked at Chris, who felt that he'd somehow ended up in a peculiar variant of the Twilight Zone. "Ignore them, they're just jealous," she advised. "Did you bring any of your special textbooks, the ones Vicky told me about?"

"I did," he replied, picking his pack up and unzipping it. He pulled out the books in question, handing them to her. She flipped through them quickly, before settling on one of them and putting the rest on the table.

"OK. I'll have a look through this while we watch the movie and try to work out something that might help you. Guys, pick one and put it in the player, will you?"

Eric held up the DVD he'd been examining earlier. "The new _Tron_ one?"

No one seemed to have any objections, so he handed it to Amy, who was nearest to the player. She put the disk into the tray, closed it, and hit play, while Lucy got up and fully closed the curtains. Rich turned out the lights, Taylor disappeared into the kitchen for a couple of minutes and came back with popcorn, and then they all sat back to watch the movie play.

Chris kept glancing at Saurial for a little while, trying to figure out why her little joke had sparked such odd thoughts in his head, but in the end forgot about it and got into the movie.

Beside him, Taylor was leafing through the book, half her attention on it and half on the screen.

He wasn't expecting much to come of this, but if nothing else his mother had been right, so far it was a lot of fun, if a little strange.

* * *

Vicky watched digital people fight each other.

She ate another sandwich.

Then some popcorn.

And all the time, she was thinking about Saurial, Taylor, the Family, and the Heberts. Not to mention the DWU and an awful lot of very strange things she'd read about recently.

How did it all tie together?

The only thing that she was sure of at the moment was that there was a connection between Taylor and Saurial that was a lot deeper than it appeared on the surface, and it was _really_ confusing her trying to put the pieces together.

She ate some more popcorn and kept thinking.

* * *

" _Vicky is worried._ "

' _That's what it smells like, and looks like,_ ' Taylor agreed, glancing at her friend with her Saurial aspect. ' _I wonder what the problem is?_ '

" _Perhaps, when we have a private moment and some time, we should find out. She's a good person, I wouldn't feel right not offering to help if there was something we could do_."

' _Me too_ ,' she agreed. She watched the blonde quickly look at her Saurial aspect through her Taylor one. Neither viewpoint shed any light on what her friend was worried about, aside from making her sure there was something bothering her. It probably had to do with whatever thing had been making her get odd expressions every now and then for a week or so. Looking at Amy, she saw that the brunette was also clearly aware that her sister was acting a little oddly. She met Amy's eyes, the other girl making a very small motion with her head that conveyed puzzlement.

Oh well. It was probably nothing particularly difficult to deal with. For now, there was a movie to watch, a book to read, and a problem to attempt a solution for.


	261. Guest Omake - Biosculptor's

_I don't normally add notes to the chapters, rather I mention things in my profile, but a question has come up a few times about the omakes, so I thought I'd take this update cycle to address it._

 _This story is posted first on Sufficient Velocity, and while it obviously has its detractors as is invariably the case, it also has a fairly active fan base. Many of them are authors in their own right and have come up with some very amusing omakes for the story, which always pleases me. I also have the occasional sidetrack which turns into an omake of its own. Now, some people have suggested that these should all be collected into a separate section, or series of separate postings, so as not to interrupt the flow of the story itself._

 _There are, mainly due to the way this site works, a number of problems with that. The most obvious one is that this would produce a lot of spoilers for the main story, as well as confusing people since there wouldn't be the background information that they'd probably want if they read them before reading ' **Taylor Varga**.' Another issue is that some of these omakes, mostly mine, although in a few cases those of others, have or will eventually become canon parts of the story. As and when that happens, I would either have to move them over to the main story line out of sequence, or delete and repost an enormous number of chapters to get them into the right place. Neither option appeals._

 _The end result is that the current method, while admittedly non-optimal, is still better from my point of view than the alternatives. If you truly don't care about the omakes, all I can do is suggest you simply skip them. They're all prominently labeled and this shouldn't pose a problem. I'm sorry if you feel this isn't ideal, I tend to agree, but we're sort of stuck with it now :)_

 _The current rash of guest omakes dies down soon, since a couple of people were quite inspired for various reasons at that point in time._

* * *

 **Biosculptor's gardening tool**

 **(By Derek M)**

* * *

Miss Militia simply stared at the creature sitting in the middle of the conference room table. The three-foot-long lizard gazed blandly back at her. Below the edge of the table, her hand was cycling through a number of different weapons, from a Bowie knife, to a Desert Eagle, to brass knuckles...over and over again. Around the table, Deputy Director Renick and Glen Chambers had their mouths hanging open, while Armsmaster simply looked on impassively.

In retrospect, she should have expected something bizarre from the crazy lizards, but the meeting had been surprisingly normal until now. Saurial and Ianthe had asked for the meeting to review with them some of the products that BBFO was planning to offer on the open market. She and Armsmaster were already familiar with the collapsible batons made of EDM, and the wafer-thin armor inserts made of the same material were a brilliant concept. The panels could easily slip into standard ballistic vests, replacing the ceramic plates normally used against high penetration attacks with something that could easily withstand tinker-made weaponry. Colin had already suggested adjusting the Wards' costumes to use them to cover vital areas. Ianthe's contributions were slightly more troublesome, more due to what they represented than to what they did. The bacteria used on Coil's lair could now apparently be "primed" with a number of different types of explosives and other dangerous chemicals, and would metabolize the selected material into non-volatile remnants. The one-use healing organisms would have to go through rigorous testing, but she could easily see the utility for Endbringer fights, never mind day-to-day combat operations. This last...product...though...

"I call it the Lawn Lizard!" chirped Ianthe in a happy voice.

Chambers couldn't help but ask, "The Lawn Lizard?"

The purplish reptile nodded her head with a toothy smile. "Yes. I noticed that many humans like to keep small squares of grass in front of their houses, but they have to use machines to keep the grass short, and chemicals to keep it healthy. The Lawn Lizard handles both tasks quite handily. It eats grass, but only down to an attractive length, and as long as it gets natural sunlight, it will excrete clear, odorless fertilizer on the lawn."

"It also eats animal waste," added Saurial.

Miss Militia replied, "It eats animal...?"

"Waste, yes," nodded Saurial. "Danny Hebert suggested that based on experiences with a neighbor's pet."

"He didn't like my first suggestion," mumbled Ianthe.

"We _also_ don't eat pets, cousin."

"Does it eat anything else?" asked Chambers with some hesitation.

Ianthe gave another very toothy smile. Miss Militia shuddered slightly.

"I'm glad you asked!" Ianthe reached over, picking the lizard up and giving it a short stroke on the back of its head. The lizard instantly went rigid along its entire length. Even Armsmaster looked slightly non-plussed at that. "If you stroke it like this, it turns into hedge trimming mode. You can replace two appliances with one animal!"

Miss Militia put her head down while Glen Chambers tried to politely explain his concerns with this product.

* * *

"It's all right, Ianthe. They liked your other products." Saurial and Ianthe were riding down in the elevator with Armsmaster as escort.

"Humans are strange. The Lawn Lizard is perfectly safe." Ianthe shook her head slightly dejectedly.

Saurial patted her on the back. "Don't worry, cousin. He can live at the Heberts' house. I'm sure they'll reconsider once they get more comfortable with Family biosculpting."

Ianthe sighed. "I didn't even get to show them home defense mode."

Colin's eyes widened a little beneath his mask. He decided in an unusually insightful manner (for him) that Hannah did NOT need to hear about that. He also felt a small amount of uncharacteristic sympathy for any burglars who decided the Hebert home was an easy mark...


	262. Installing and Counting

"Found another one, sir."

Colin looked around at the call, then went over to where the tech was prodding around in the innards of one of the Rig servers, in the subsystem that controlled internal communications. He bent slightly to look at the place the woman was indicating, then sighed a little.

"That's six now. I wonder how many of them there are in total?"

"Unknown," he replied, scanning the very well disguised data tap that was cross-linking some of the optical fibers in a way that undoubtedly let someone outside the Rig monitor it without it showing up on the logs. They'd looked for such things before, _had been_ looking for them ever since Tattletale's original information, but it was only now that they were physically moving things around that some of them were coming to light. The small number of surveillance devices they'd discovered before were nothing compared to the complexity of the stuff that was popping up at the moment.

He was starting to suspect that the ones they'd found before might even have been made deliberately easier to discover than they could have been, as a decoy. Make them fairly well hidden, only locatable by someone looking seriously, and it's not impossible that your hunters might assume that they were the only ones. If they were too easy to find it would be obvious it was a trap, but the previously found hardware backdoors had been quite well hidden, as if someone had put a lot of work into it.

They undoubtedly had, but someone had put even _more_ time and work into hiding these devices, to the point that it looked like they might even have been installed before the equipment was initially delivered. He wasn't surprised that they'd missed them although he was somewhat embarrassed.

On the other hand, if what they had deduced about Calvert's power was accurate, it was entirely possible that he'd tried over and over until he finally came up with something that worked. Against that sort of ability, it would take either blind luck, one hell of a lot of paranoia, outside information, or a combination of all of those to beat it.

"Good work," he added to the technician. "Mark the location and type on the plan and leave it. We don't want to tip off anyone who's monitoring it too soon."

"Yes, sir," she nodded, delicately separating the hair-thin glass fibers that went around the tiny device, inspecting exactly how it was connected. She made a couple of notes on the Dragon-supplied secure tablet that was part of the new parallel system they had nearly finished installing. "Looks like it's connecting Trunk Feed NC103 to Auxiliary Power Control L34. Sneaky, who'd be watching for extra data on a tertiary backup power supply comms channel?"

"It's a good choice," he said, almost impressed. Looking at his copy of the data on his HUD, he considered the so-far discovered malicious data taps. In combination with the extremely subtle software changes he and Dragon had found over the last few weeks, it looked like the external surveillance feeds monitored a little over half the Rig's more critical systems, including a lot of the internal and external cameras. Hannah's paranoia about disconnecting them every time she went into a room was definitely validated.

"Carry on." She nodded absently as she worked, so he left her to it, pleased with the dedication she showed. Their hand-picked and incredibly well vetted teams were definitely proving to be worth the huge effort that had gone into it. Making a note to suggest that some of the protocols they'd come up with during the crisis were implemented as standard practice, and also recommending that all the people involved were bumped up a pay level as reward for a difficult job done efficiently and well, he headed to the next location on his list.

* * *

Lisa played the WCC Endbringer tracking logs again, pondering over the meaning of the latest movements of both the Simurgh and Leviathan. There was still no sign at all of Behemoth, he appeared to be staying entirely still at a great depth. She smiled to herself when she pictured him hiding behind the core of the planet, shivering slightly.

Who could say? Perhaps he was, perhaps he wasn't. Whichever way it was, he was not in evidence and that was all to the good. And it was an amusing fantasy if nothing else.

On the other hand, Leviathan and the Simurgh were both definitely still around, and acting oddly again. Well, more oddly, to be accurate.

The hydro-kinetic Endbringer was currently, according to Dragon's system, orbiting in a tight circle around the center of his new position, even more tightly than before. His motions suggested agitation to her, something her power agreed with, and if she was being entirely honest about it, seemed to find funny.

Her power was probably smugger than it really should be, which she was fairly certain was her fault, as she'd told the others a while ago. And it had a warped sense of humor, which she firmly blamed Taylor and the Varga for. The fucking thing was easily impressed by the looks of it and thought the pair were the best toys ever, even if it couldn't work _them_ out at all. From what she could tell, it didn't actually care about that any more, since the data that it could get simply from observing their effect on everything _else_ was at least as much fun. The thing really _loved_ that, she was completely sure.

On the other hand, Leviathan didn't seem to find either the great demon, his host, or both together any fun at all. Every time Taylor worked out a new trick, he got more agitated, and from all the evidence she could locate or deduce if the thing could actually shit itself it would have done so numerous times by now.

She grinned a little at the thought. Taylor's dual-aspect method seemed to have come as a horrible surprise to Leviathan, based on the logs. She'd wondered about what the reaction would be as soon as her friend had so dramatically shown her, and had meant to come and see what the far-off creatures did in response since then, but had only now had a chance to. It was worth the effort, since the logged movements were pretty funny in what she could read from them.

Leviathan had stopped absolutely dead in his tracks at a time she estimated was about the point Taylor had first managed the two aspect trick, with the normal slight delay they'd seen several times in the past. He'd simply sat there, in what Lisa liked to think was horrified awe, for nearly a minute, before suddenly running in circles like a demented underwater race-horse for another four and a half minutes. Eventually he calmed down and resumed his normal semi-random wanderings, although at a considerably higher speed.

When she'd demonstrated the ' _teleporting_ ' trick Lisa had suggested, he'd practically crapped himself based on the movement tracker. The Endbringer had dived off to one side, then corrected and shot back to the antipodal position at a speed high enough that he'd probably left a hole in the water. After that he'd bounced back and forth a couple of miles at a time in almost every possible direction, at ludicrous speeds that spoke of total panic, before stopping dead again and doing a good impression of something cowering in fear with its hands over its eyes.

Another mental picture she found funny.

It had taken him a good half hour to recover and resume his wanderings, which had ended up being the circling that he was still doing. Clockwise at the moment, although he changed direction intermittently.

All in all, it looked like the new abilities her wildly overpowered friends had come up with had come as a very nasty surprise to the distant Endbringer.

The Simurgh, on the other hand, hadn't reacted nearly as visibly, or at least in such a panic-stricken manner. The telescopic images from both the ground based and satellite cameras showed she had suddenly opened up some of her wings enough to expose her face, rotated in her currently very elliptical high orbit to face Brockton Bay dead on, and shifted orbital plane to put her apogee into a location where she could keep watch on them all. But from as far away as possible, the thing was currently nearly half-way to geostationary orbit on a rising phase and would take several days to finally disappear behind the planet again.

Having carefully watched the video several times, in slow motion, and compared times, Lisa was certain that the faint expressions she was sure she could make out on the otherwise serene features denoted shock, genuine surprise, what looked all for the world like impressed awe, and mild terror, in varying combinations. Coupled with resignation and determination as well.

All in all it was a very odd mix, and one that she was pretty sure most people couldn't discern.

She wondered if Dragon _could…_

If what she and her power were both almost certain was true about the Guild Tinker actually _was_ true, it was quite likely.

That particular can of worms was going to be interesting, when they finally got around to opening it. She was also pretty sure it would be Dragon who would initiate that opening, and in the not too distant future. And she was _also_ certain that Taylor had worked out the same thing she had some time ago, marked it down as a cape secret she wasn't prepared to push on, and simply filed it for later.

Her friend didn't judge, human or not human was irrelevant. A person's actions spoke much more about them than their origin in her view. _Whatever_ that origin was…

On the whole Lisa felt the same, but was still very curious. Not enough to do anything unwise, but as and when Dragon felt like confiding in them, she had a _lot_ of questions.

' _I wonder if Amy's worked it out as well_?, _'_ she mused. Her power basically smirked at her, making her roll her eyes and sigh faintly.

"You're a pain in the ass, you know," she muttered to herself, poking her ' _Metis_ ' head between the eyes with one clawed finger. "You make _me_ feel the way I make everyone _else_ feel and it's annoying." The thing more or less stuck out a metaphorical tongue at her, causing her to sigh again, but smile to herself.

Shaking her head a bit she watched the video once more, decided that there was nothing else she could extract from it, and reached out to switch the feed to the live camera. The Simurgh was staring right at the camera once again, making her stare back.

"Surprised you, didn't she," she said idly, and wasn't entirely startled when the Endbringer floating in space thousands of miles away gave a very tiny nod, then furled her wings up to cover her face and went dormant again. It was noticeable that she remained facing Brockton, though.

"We're getting closer to figuring you guys out," Lisa added quietly. "Sooner or later, I think we're going to have a very long talk. I don't know if I'm looking forward to it, or terrified about it. Or both."

There was no visible response this time.

Wondering if Dragon had looked at the same logs recently, and what she'd make of them when she did, Lisa shut the system down, left the facility and locked up, then headed back to the DWU again to see how Linda's work was progressing.

She was looking forward to seeing the thing in action.

* * *

Taylor studied Chris's face as he watched the end of the movie, seeing that the boy was now much more relaxed than he had been when he'd arrived. His scent let her know that as well. At first, he'd definitely been worried, then abruptly shocked when he'd set eyes on her Saurial aspect, although oddly enough that had quickly lapsed and left him less keyed up than before. Possibly because her alter-ego was familiar to him? Who could tell.

The movie, the jokes and comments from the others, and the food seemed to have completed the job and as far as she could tell he was now entirely at home, which was good. Returning her primary aspect's attention to the textbook she read the last few pages, then closed it, while her Saurial aspect made an amused comment about the movie. Varga was mostly running that one at the moment, filtering his speech through her so all her normal ' _Saurial_ ' body language and mannerisms seemed unchanged. In a way it was quite similar to the method Amy had come up with for the bio-suits and was inspired by it, followed by a lot of experimentation.

Both of them were pleased with the result, it let them seamlessly switch between the two aspects without the fairly distinctive mannerisms and speech patterns of the demon showing.

They were reserving that for close friends, and special occasions…

She considered the text she'd read, and the research both of them had done on the internet the night before. Being able to use two computers at the same time and correlate the results was an unexpected but very helpful benefit of the latest ability. Dyscalculia seemed to be something that was only fairly recently even recognized as a distinct disorder, having been lumped into the general dyslexia category for a long time.

It seemed to often occur in association with other issues like ADHD or anxiety disorders, but as far as she could tell, and from what Amy had told her as well, Chris didn't suffer from anything like that. Amy had checked him out enough times to be pretty certain his overall biology was working more or less normally, with the exception of something her rule about not touching brains might cover. Making a mental note to ask her friend if she thought one of the symbiotes might fix whatever organic problem was at the root of the boy's condition, assuming something actually was, she gently tapped her fingers on the closed textbook, thinking hard.

She'd found a list on a medical website of common symptoms that led to the dyscalculia diagnosis and wanted to check with Chris how many of them he had. There were some other tests that she needed to run as well, to give her a better idea of what they were dealing with.

The movie ended so she got up to turn the lights on again, while Mandy, who was closest, popped the disk out of the player. "That wasn't bad," the girl said with a smile.

"Not as good as the first one," Rich put in.

"But that one had such terrible graphics by today's standards," Eric argued, making his friend shrug.

"Maybe. For the time they were pretty good. But I think it was better."

"This one was still fun, though, right?"

"Oh, sure, I didn't say it was a bad movie, just not as good as the first one," Rich smiled. Lucy nodded, as did Chris and Amy.

"I enjoyed it," the healer commented.

"Me too," Taylor said truthfully. It had even given her a few ideas. And the Varga had been watching with interest the entire time, fascinated yet again by human imagination, as he put it.

"It was certainly watchable," ' _Saurial_ ' said, reaching for another bag of chips and slitting it open with a claw tip, then offering it to Lucy who had ended up sitting next to her. The Chinese girl took a handful with a murmur of thanks. "Those light cycles are pretty cool. I wonder..."

Amy looked at her, her eyes narrowed a little, then at Taylor, who was grinning. "Oh, hell," she mumbled.

"Hey, all I said was that they were cool," Saurial protested, belying the words with a definite smirk.

"And you're going to mention it to someone, aren't you?" Amy asked suspiciously. Taylor's reptilian aspect nibbled some chips and met her eyes with a silent yet amused look. Everyone else was exchanging glances. Vicky, who had so far been remarkably quiet although she seemed to have enjoyed the movie, looked between both of them with a slightly raised eyebrow. The blonde had spent a lot of the last hour and a half apparently cogitating deeply on some problem or other and had said very little, not that this had prevented her eating half her own body weight in snacks.

"Right, then, I guess we need to start the next phase of this little endeavor," Taylor said brightly, slapping the book in her hand down on the coffee table and making everyone twitch at the sound. "On to the wonders of… _Math._ "

"Oh, god," Mandy mumbled. Taylor fixed her with a hard look. "Oh, _good!_ " her friend immediately said, smiling widely. "I said, ' _oh, good_ '. Honest."

"Yeeess," Taylor drawled, giving her a sidelong look. Amy was quietly snickering and several of the others were grinning. "Sure you did. OK. Saurial, add a couple of extra questions to Mandy's homework, will you? I think she might be slipping behind."

"As you command, oh mammalian one," the smirking reptile said, saluting smartly.

"Oops," Lucy giggled, nudging her friend, who looked worried now for real.

"Like I said, strict," Amy chuckled. Chris stared at her, then began laughing to himself.

"You people really are very strange," he commented when he recovered. Everyone looked around at each other, then shrugged en-masse. "So what do _I_ do?"

"You come over here in the corner with me, and we talk for a while," Taylor told him. "Saurial will deal with the rest of them on the other side of the room. _Without_ mentally scarring them for life." She gave her other aspect a warning look, the demon currently driving it meeting her gaze with hidden amusement. Both of them were having a wonderful time playing off the dual-aspect situation and she was certain Amy was having trouble not breaking out into hysterical laughter every now and then.

"I'll be good," her other body assured her with an evil grin.

"Sure you will." Taylor looked dubious, but accepted it. "OK. Everyone get any food they want to keep them going, then we spend a couple of hours on the math, before we see what else we can do. Maybe look at PHO and laugh at the weirdos some more."

"That's always good for a giggle," Vicky noted wisely, apparently back with them from whatever deep thoughts she'd been working on.

Shortly all but Taylor and Chris were gathered on one side of the living room, around a whiteboard Taylor's reptilian aspect had created, on which she was writing a series of fairly simple calculus exercises. They were all listening carefully as she began explaining the process for solving them, notebooks and pens in hand.

Taylor turned a couple of the chairs around and moved them as far away as possible from the study group, shifting the sofa to make room, then waved Chris to one of them. Sitting in the other one, she regarded him for a moment. "I can't guarantee I can help you, Chris, as I told Vicky. So please don't get your hopes up too high. But I'll certainly give it a good try, and maybe we'll work out something that will be useful. Worth the attempt, right?"

The boy nodded, looking slightly apprehensive, yet resolved. "I'll take anything I can get," he assured her. "I'm not expecting miracles, trust me. But this whole condition is so fucking _frustrating!_ Kids in first grade know more about basic math than I do, all because there's something broken up here." He poked the side of his head.

Inspecting him, Taylor shook her own head a little. "I'm not sure _broken_ is the right word, personally. _Different_ might be a better description. That said, it might be worth asking Ianthe to check you over at some point if you're up for it. She knows a hell of a lot about how humans work and might be able to suggest something." Chris looked startled, then somewhat discomfited, making her smile. "Don't worry, it's only a suggestion, and my friends are people you can trust. But if you don't want to do that, don't."

"Would you let a bunch of giant lizards treat a medical problem of yours?" he asked in a quiet voice.

"Yes," she replied instantly. "So would quite a few people at the DWU, and in fact they do. Ianthe and Metis have both fixed quite a lot of things there in the last few weeks." At his somewhat shocked expression, she shrugged. "It's an industrial site with a lot of people doing sometimes dangerous work. Accidents happen, although nothing bad, since they're careful. Even so, equipment breaks, people slip, shit happens. Those two fix it. Everyone seems pleased about having them around." She glanced at the Dallon sisters, who were listening as her other aspect walked Mandy through an equation. "Amy too, she's helped a lot of people there."

Chris followed her eyes, then nodded slowly. "She seems a lot happier these days."

"I like to think I helped a little," Taylor smiled. "But right now, we're concentrating on you." He redirected his attention to her. "I've been reading up on dyscalculia since last night, since it's not something I've got any experience with. From what Amy told me, and what I've observed since I first met you, you don't seem to have a lot of the commonly associated other issues that can go with it. Does that match what you've been told?"

He nodded. "Yes. I don't have ADHD, dyslexia, any other sort of developmental issue anyone can find, and they've checked a _lot_. It's only this dyscalculia. From what the specialist said, I got lucky, but sometimes it doesn't feel like it."

"OK." Taylor regarded him with interest. "By the sounds of it, you might not have it too badly, then."

Chris shrugged. "Not as bad as some people do, I guess. From what I was told, if it had been caught when I was in kindergarten, using the most recent methods, I might have been able to overcome it a lot more effectively. But no one noticed what the real problem was until I was thirteen or so, they just put it down to math anxiety or something like that. By the time anyone realized what the real problem was it was too late for that sort of treatment to really help."

"I know you're in some sort of special class," she said after a pause to think. "What happens there?" Taylor held up one of the specialist textbooks, which seemed to consist of a large number of basic arithmetic problems laid out in several different ways, presumably in an attempt to find one that the student would be able to work most effectively with. "Is it all this sort of thing?"

"Not entirely," he replied. "There are other exercises, using counters on a board and that sort of thing to let people like me get a feel for numbers in a more visible manner. That's really aimed more at little kids, though." He sighed faintly. "They do try, I think, but there aren't many people at Arcadia with my sort of problem, and there aren't enough teachers to sit down for one on one sessions all the time, which is what the experts say is needed."

Taylor nodded, understanding his point. She put the book down and rubbed her chin thoughtfully, still watching him. "Interesting… OK, let's try to define the problem a little better. Find out where your main issues are. From what I read, there are a number of different problem areas with dyscalculia, but not everyone has all of them. So, I'll go through a list and you tell me what you know is a problem, all right?"

"OK," he nodded.

She retrieved the notebook she'd written a few things in that morning and flipped it to the right page. "Great. Let's see… can you do basic addition? What's five plus nineteen?"

He thought for a moment, gazing at the wall with his lips moving slightly. She could see he was basically counting in his head. "Twenty four."

"Yep. Thirty plus sixteen?"

"Forty five… No, forty six."

"Correct. But it's not something you just know, is it, you have to work it out?"

"Pretty much." He looked a little upset. "I can add fine, but the larger the numbers the longer it takes. And sometimes I forget where I'm getting to."

"So you take one number and add the other one to it, one at a time?" she pushed. He nodded.

"That way always works, if I can remember what I'm doing."

"OK." She made some notes. "Very inefficient, but effective. Can you do it with paper and pencil in the more traditional ways?"

"Slowly," he replied.

"All right. How about subtraction?"

"That's a little harder but not too bad."

"Multiplication?"

"I need to work it out on paper, but yes. Most of the time. It's basically just adding over and over anyway."

"OK." She was still making notes. "How about division."

"That's a pain in the ass," he grumbled. "I prefer a calculator."

"That's understandable," she grinned. "Great. So you more or less understand the four basic arithmetic functions, but you find them difficult to do in your head. Not too surprising, a lot of people do one way or the other." Ticking off an entry, she moved to the next one. "Right, count from one to twenty as fast as you can, out loud."

He looked at her, then at the others, who were ignoring them, then shrugged. "One, two, three, four..." Chris rattled off the numbers in a few seconds.

Taylor nodded. "Now do it backwards."

"Twenty, nineteen, seven… no, _eighteen_ , seventeen, sixteen, thirteen… _fuck_ … fifteen..." He closed his eyes and thought, then went on counting down, not making any more mistakes but much more slowly than the counting up was. Taylor listened, remembering what her research had shown. This was one of the common symptoms, losing number order especially when reversing it. She made some more notes.

"All right. Thanks." After a moment, she got up. "Hold on a moment, I need to get something." Leaving the room, she went into her father's study, then quickly generated a cardboard box full of a couple of hundred small plastic dice, in a number of different colors. Thinking about it, she made a few more props as well, in another, larger box, then went back into the living room and sat again. "Found them." Opening the box of dice she took out a handful and put them on the small table near them.

Chris looked at them, then at her, his eyebrows up a little.

"A little exercise," she smiled. "How many blue dice are there?"

He looked back, counting under his breath. "Seven."

"Green ones?"

"Five."

"Red ones?"

"Ten… no, eleven."

"OK." She swept them up in her hand. "How many blue ones were there again?"

"Seven."

"Good. Red ones?"

He frowned slightly. "Ten."

"And green ones?"

"Um..." There was a pause. "Six?"

She looked at him with interest. "How many dice in total?"

Staring at her closed hand, he thought hard, his lips moving. "Twenty three," he finally said, not sounding sure of himself.

"That's interesting," she noted, spilling the dice out of her hand onto the table again. "Right number in total, but the wrong individual numbers." He counted them, pushing them around with a finger, while she wrote down some more thoughts.

They did a few more tests, ones that had been suggested by the websites she'd visited, until she was satisfied she had a handle on the problem, or as much of one as could be discerned in so short a time. It was fascinating to both her and the Varga. The boy seemed to have major problems deliberately working basic mathematics problems, and recalling numbers for more than a couple of seconds, but at the same time his ability to come up with a quick estimate of the number of something when he didn't have time to consciously think about it was oddly good.

She scattered another random handful of dice on the table, instantly assessing the spread, and summing the total of displayed dots. "Quick, how many yellow ones?" she snapped. "Don't think, just tell me."

"Fifteen." There were indeed fifteen.

"Green ones?"

"Eight?" Again correct.

"Total number?"

"Thirty… two?" He sounded hesitant. "I think."

"Thirty three. Not bad. And really interesting."

Picking them up and re-scattering them, she snapped her fingers sharply, causing him to look at her hand. "OK, look at them, then back at me. Tell me how many orange dice."

He glanced at the table, then fixed his eyes on her face. "Ten."

"And the total of the displayed dots?" she said as quickly as possible.

"Thirty seven."

They both looked at the dice again. He reached out and moved all the orange ones, which did indeed number ten, into a line, then carefully counted up the top face totals. Which was thirty seven.

"How the fuck did I do that?" he wondered out loud.

"I'm no expert, but I have a feeling that your subconscious is better at math than you realize," she replied slowly. She was also wondering if his ' _processor_ ' as they were thinking of whatever was behind powers was helping him. If the thing was indeed some sort of alien computer, it would _have_ to be ridiculously good at math, which somewhat raised the question of how a mechanically-orientated Tinker could be so bad at it. But that wasn't something they could get into. "If you don't actually think about it, you get the right answer a lot of the time. If you start trying to work it out consciously it looks like you sort of get bogged down in the details and lose track. That's what it looks like to me, anyway."

"Weird."

"But not unheard of. A lot of people can come up with a decent estimate of something without knowing how they did it, or being able to prove it," she pointed out. "Although they can also come up with entirely ridiculous answers and be completely certain they're right, of course. But not being able to show your work isn't necessarily a fatal flaw, unless you're trying to produce a mathematical proof. Which I think isn't what you need right now anyway."

Chris shook his head. "Not even close. But does this help?"

"I'm not sure yet," she admitted. Looking at her notes, she referred to the documentation on dyscalculia. "I think you're right, though, you have a fairly mild case of it, and if it had been caught ten years ago it probably wouldn't be a problem now. So what do we do to try and help you?"

After a moment, she picked up the other box she'd brought in and reached into it, discreetly forming a new tool slightly different from her first thoughts. Pulling the thing out of the box, she put it on the table. "Ever seen one of these?" she asked.

"It's an abacus, right?" He looked at the device with interest. "I haven't seen one of those things since I was in kindergarten. Although that one was all different bright colors for little kids."

"This is a Japanese abacus, it's actually called a _soroban_. My mom had one like this years ago, I used to play with it when I was a little girl. She taught me math on it from a very early age. I'm wondering if this might help you. In Japan they used them right up to the disaster, even long after calculators were invented, and someone who was really good with one was even faster than a person with a calculator could work it a lot of the time."

He looked surprised and impressed.

"One of the things they're good at is teaching you to visualize numbers, which I think is one of your problem areas. That matches what I read about dyscalculia as well. I admit it's a bit of a long shot, but it's worth trying," she added. "Mom always said that learning to use one also more or less automatically made you good at mental math. When you're taught to use it properly, you're also taught to visualize one in your mind and work it there. I know it sounds weird but it works."

All this was true, but she was also leaving out the fact that the Varga had told her a lot about the variant of abacus that his former world's humans used, which was very similar. Princess Luna had used something like this most of her life and was extremely adept at it. Taylor herself was far past needing anything of that simplicity, but it seemed like it might possibly help.

Picking it up again, she held it up to him, looking at it from the rear. "This is a twenty-one rod version. It uses decimal representation, which makes life easier. The single bead above the bar here represents fives. The lower four beads represent ones. The bar is called the reckoning bar, and a bead that is moved towards it is… in use? Active? Whatever you want to call it, that's the position that says you count it. Moved away from the bar it's the other way. So you move the five bead _down_ to be counted, and the ones _up_ to be counted."

Chris was listening intently, studying the thing in her hand closely. "I think I get it."

"Great. Now, every third rod has a dot next to it, see?" She pointed and he nodded. "Those ones you normally decide to use as decimal point markers, although you could use any of them. This just makes it easier. You read it left to right just like a calculator or on paper. So, to represent, for example, six three five zero, you'd set it like this." She put it flat on the table, then moved all the beads to the off positions with her fingers.

"This is zeroed out. So, we move to the forth rod, move the five bead to the bar, then the top ones bead to the bar as well. That's six, see?" He nodded slowly. "Next one along, we move the top three ones beads to the bar. Then the next place, the five bead down like this, and finally we leave the last rod with all the beads away from the bar. Six… three… five… zero." Her finger moved along the bars one at a time.

"If we wanted to put a fractional number in, like twelve point two seven, we'd move along to the other side of the first decimal dot, then start again. Like this." Quickly resetting it, she flicked the various beads into position with her fingertips. "Get it?"

"I… think so." Chris moved the beads back to the zero position, then moved a number of them around, studying the results carefully. "Three hundred and fifty seven."

"Yep."

He did it again. "Eighteen thousand, two hundred and five point six zero."

"Exactly." She smiled at him. "Easy, right?"

"Well… not hard, let's put it like that. But how do you do actual math with it?" He looked at her, then the abacus, frowning slightly.

"There are lots of methods to use one for a whole series of math operations. Addition, subtraction, multiplication and division are the simplest ones. They can be used to find square roots, and all sorts of other things as well, a lot faster than you'd believe." She reset the thing. "The abacus is absolutely ancient, one way or another they go back thousands of years, all over the world. In all that time, people came up with a lot of ways to do things with them."

Taylor glanced at her student. "Give me a four digit number."

"Three thousand two hundred and sixty one."

"OK." She entered it into the device. "Another one?"

"Um… twelve hundred and four."

"Great. All right, to add those, we do it like this. Take the leftmost digits, which in this case are three and one, and change the thousands column to match by adding them." She moved the last bead in the units section up. "Then we move to the right and do it again." This time two beads moved, again giving four. "And repeat all the way down. Those numbers are easy as there aren't any carries involved." Flicking the beads into position, she smiled at him. "See? Just read off the result, four thousand four hundred and sixty five."

Chris stared at the soroban for a while, then nodded. "I see."

"Good. Now, this is how you do carries, which is a little more involved, but not hard. It's still just adding things up." She walked him through the relevant exercises for fifteen minutes or so, eventually setting him a number of test additions, ranging from simple to hard. He struggled a little and she had to remind him of the rules a couple of times, but he ended up with the correct results each time. And, critically, without having to count the entire thing off in his head. "It takes practice, but you can see how you could end up being really damn quick with one of these. Most of it is muscle memory and some simple rules, your subconscious does most of the work. You just read the results."

"Cool." He studied the results of his last calculation, holding the small wood and metal device in one hand. "I can't believe that works so well."

"Addition is the easiest part. Here, this is how you do subtraction, which isn't too much harder." She took it from him, then showed him the process. "It's just the reverse of addition. Start on the left again, work to the right, borrow from the rod to the left of the one you're working on. See?" She worked a few simple subtractions, then when he had the pattern, gave it back and set him some more problems. This didn't take much longer than adding had.

"OK. Multiplying and dividing are more complicated, but not really hard, just a bit tedious," Taylor said when he'd pretty much mastered the process. "Multiplying first." Teaching him the relevant actions took close to half an hour, and a lot of corrections and repetition, but the grin he was wearing when he finally multiplied thirty-three and fifteen to get the answer four hundred and ninety five was worth it.

"Holy crap, it worked," he muttered, staring at the results.

"Not too hard, was it?" she smiled. "I know the rules are a little complicated, but once you memorize them, it's easy enough to extend it to as many digits as you have rods to use. Want to try division?"

Chris nodded eagerly, obviously feeling very pleased with his progress so far. She was a little surprised how well it had worked to this point and was wondering if it would really help as much as she hoped it would, but so far the signs were encouraging. If she could get him to the point of being able to picture a mental abacus and use it, which was certainly not going to be easy, but was definitely possible, he might well be able to overcome some if not all of his math problems.

If nothing else, it was a good start. She could definitely get into this teaching thing.

After a moment, she grinned to herself. So far she'd taught two of the Wards some new tricks. What were the chances that in time she'd do the same with more of them?

And what would Director Piggot make of it if she ever found out?

* * *

Vicky watched Taylor and Chris, both of them bent intently over that little abacus thing she'd come up with, talking quietly and appearing pleased with whatever it was they were doing. Chris was definitely looking a lot more cheerful than he'd been the day before, so she could hope that her friend was actually helping. As far as she could see from Taylor's expression, she was having fun as well. The girl was definitely a born teacher.

Her attention turned back to Saurial, who was patiently explaining the integration function she'd just demonstrated to Lucy, who seemed to have a minor conceptual issue with understanding it. The reptilian girl was at least as good at teaching as Taylor was, apparently happy to go over the problem again and again until her students understood.

The blonde had been thinking very hard about the Heberts, the Family, and how both parties were connected. And what else they might be connected to as well. Some of her more paranoid suspicions had receded, but she was becoming more convinced by the moment that one of her earliest thoughts might well be right.

Clearly her first idea, that Saurial was actually Taylor, or the other way around, was incorrect considering both of them were sitting not twenty feet apart. On the other hand, the idea that Saurial might, somehow, have been brought up alongside Taylor was looking more and more plausible. It would explain a hell of a lot, in fact. How Saurial fitted in so well with her more human companions, whereas her sisters tended to have some very unusual mannerisms that made them stick out even more than the being an eight foot tall giant lizard would have done anyway.

And how both she and Taylor shared certain mannerisms of their own. Both speech and body language had some eerie similarities, something she'd noticed when she'd first had the idea and flown into that damn building. Growing up in close contact would certainly make that possible, as she'd recognized some time ago. It might go some way to accounting for the insanely good math skills both had as well. Taylor was obviously very gifted in that area anyway, but if Saurial was teaching her, and had probably _been_ teaching for years, Family math skills…

Her friend probably knew more about math than most professors did.

And, interestingly, could use some of those skills in a somewhat unusual way, if her actions with that disturbing little ' _children's toy_ ' that Saurial had made earlier was anything to go by. She'd probably grown up with things like that around the place, which was why she could apparently use it the way it was meant to be used, and didn't seem even slightly surprised about it.

For a moment, Vicky had a mental image of a half-sized Saurial and Taylor flinging weird little knots of warped space around the room like frisbees, giggling manically as they curved around the place in unearthly patterns…

She closed her eyes and shook her head a couple of times, trying to get the disturbing image out of it.

With an inner sigh, she yet again pushed the ruminations about the past interactions between the lizard-girl and Taylor to the back of her mind, so she could concentrate on the current problem, which was a difficult one.

If she didn't get the answer, she didn't get dessert.

Priorities, Vicky, she told herself, and applied her thoughts to the notebook.


	263. Guest Omake - Cognitohazard Room

**Cognitohazard Room**

 **(By CmptrWz)**

* * *

Mark looked over his notes from the latest paintball training session and sighed. Everyone was doing wonderfully, but he had come to the realization that they were going to need to find a way to get some practice in against more abnormal things. Like capes. Or, more specifically, capes using their powers, as he had several capes running around in the sessions and none of them were using their tricks. He was distracted by a knock on his office door's frame, given that he had left the door itself open.

"Hey Mark," Taylor, currently playing Saurial, said as she walked forward with a manilla folder. "Danny asked me to pass this along to you on my way out."

"Thanks Saurial," Mark said as he took the folder, still amused by Taylor's multiple identity thing. A quick glance at the folder and he placed it to the side to be filed later. "I don't suppose you have any thoughts on how we can improve the paintball training we are doing?"

"What do you mean?" Taylor asked, tilting her head. "Actually, first, what have you been doing? I haven't been following that much beyond knowing that you were and that Alec is very good with the sniper rifle. The latter being mainly due to the amount of whining about it around the compound."

"He is a pretty good shot with that thing," Mark admitted, grinning a bit. "I have been having them run around in an unused workshop or two. Sometimes in teams, sometimes everyone for themselves. We did a couple runs of capture the flag as well to provide more goal-oriented tactics."

"Sounds like you have covered quite a bit, what do you think is missing?"

"I think we need to get some practice with cape abilities, but I am unsure as to how to do so."

"I'll give it some thought," Taylor said after a minute or so. "But for now I need to get going."

* * *

Danny wasn't sure who had done what, but for some reason a couple weeks ago Lisa had obtained one of the larger unused two-story warehouses for BBFO use. They had apparently had at least one full set of restrooms installed complete with showers, the inside was likely lined with EDM now as they had gotten another set of repeater equipment, and he knew there were now new doors leading into what had been the office area even if they had been left covered for the most part. He had tried to get Taylor to tell him what they were up to but she wanted it to be a surprise. He could have pressed, but figured it couldn't be that bad.

Today was the big reveal, and apparently he was being invited to see how Mark reacted. Which made him wonder if this was Mark's fault. Mark had admitted that he wasn't fully certain what was going on either, though.

"Looks like they have a new sign up," Mark said as they walked towards the warehouse. "Covered, so as to not ruin the surprise I guess?"

"That would be likely," Danny agreed. "Let's go see what crazy thing they have come up with now."

Taylor, as Saurial, met them at the new doors. Danny noticed that there were larger double glass doors under the covered sign, reminiscent of shopping malls and such. Though he suspected they may not actually be glass. The high security lock that Taylor had installed backed up that thought.

"Hello Danny, Mark," Taylor said as Danny took a peek inside the double doors, which looked to lead into a cross between a reception area and a storefront. She gestured them over to a good position to look up at the covered sign and, without another word, allowed the covering on the sign to vanish.

 **BBFO/DWU Indoor Paintball**

 **Constructed by Brockton Bay Family Operations, LLC**  
 **" _Ahl'n'gha ngnah ah mgepahl'n'gha_ "**

"Mark," Danny said after taking some time to process what he was reading. "What ideas did you put in their heads?"

"Er," Mark replied, scratching the back of his head. "I might have said something about needing to run paintball drills against capes?"

* * *

So after a quick tour of the "reception" area (where safety briefings and equipment checks would occur and containing various lockers, a storage room or two, and leading to the restrooms and showers) Taylor led Danny and Mark to the actual arena. Which looked perfectly normal at first, if you ignored the fact that you were inside a two story warehouse. There were five story buildings at either end of the large space with another two or three stories of open air above them, surrounded by various smaller buildings with connecting streets, with open spaces painted to look like parking lots in front of those, which were separated by a small flowing stream/river with bridges over it bisecting the space. The ceiling had what looked like an observation area attached, accessible from a set of stairs next to where they came in.

"We figured around here you will almost always be working in urban areas," Taylor explained. "So we set this up with that in mind. The lights can be set to various levels, and whether or not the buildings have electricity can be controlled from the command post in the observation area. We also rigged the repeater equipment so that it can be on, off, or in jamming mode depending on what kind of communication you want to allow. The river is gravity fed thanks to some warped space and how much you open each of the two hidden dams determines how high and fast the water flows. At higher water levels basement access through the river becomes problematic."

"This is wonderful," Mark admitted. "Incredible, even. How does it help us?"

"Well," Taylor said, smirking. "I figure that we can either run your guys against the family, or invite the Wards to come play. Or both, having the Wards team up with your guys against us might be fun. Or the Protectorate, or New Wave? Lots of options. Of course, that is without activating the special modes."

* * *

A week later Mark had run his people through the facility a couple of times and decided it was far better than what they had been doing. It was almost like running sessions out in the docks, but inside where they had no worries about squatters, druggies, or random gang members. Which, admittedly, meant that they didn't get a fully realistic experience but they also weren't going to be spied on. Though most of the crew couldn't fully handle the "special modes" yet.

In addition to that Metis had somehow arranged for the Wards plus Glory Girl to face off against the family in a capture the flag game. Powers allowed and encouraged, even. Director Piggot, Armsmaster, and Miss Militia were in the observation area with a number of DWU personnel to monitor things. Danny even let Director Piggot at the control station.

In addition to cameras in various places in the arena they had set everyone up with helmet cameras. Part of the agreement was that the Family and the PRT would both get a copy of all of the raw footage and the Family would be permitted to make and post a video of each session online.

* * *

"That was AWESOME," Vista yelled as she followed Miss Militia out of the facility several hours later. Of those on the Wards team she was the least paint-covered, apparently nobody had bothered to bring spare clothing to change into afterwards. "Can we do that again anytime soon?"

"Probably not," Miss Militia answered, looking back at the other Wards that had participated. Who were in pretty bad shape, mentally speaking. The Family had at least waited until the third session to start hitting the building-specific power cutoffs built into the arena, though some of that was likely due to that being the first "night" session. Somehow Glory Girl was the only other member of their "team" that wasn't shivering and looking over her shoulder. Though fuming about the family finding a way to cover her in paint despite her forcefield wasn't really all that much better.

* * *

"Think they will come back to play some more?" Taylor mused as the group of heroes left. "I mean, they didn't even try Escher mode."

"Armsmaster actually agreed to try and bring a team of full protectorate members for that one," Danny said, coming over from the observation area. "Apparently that kind of thing might technically be against Youth Guard regulations without waivers from their parents or something, at least according to Director Piggot, but the adults can opt to try it without issue."

"Well at least we'll have something amusing to watch at tomorrow's math session," Taylor said. "I wonder how much Chris will flinch during the video once Lisa's done with it?"


	264. Guest Omake - You have mail

**You have mail...**

 **(By CmptrWz)**

* * *

"Hello Saurial," Zephron welcomed Taylor as she arrived at the DWU. Amy was at the hospital this afternoon with 'Metis' helping her today, the two of them would be around later, so Taylor was planning on working on a project or two of her own until they showed up. "Oh, about an hour ago the mail room guys asked me to send one of the family by, apparently you girls haven't been picking up your letters."

"We have letters to pick up?" Taylor wondered, curious. "Since when?"

"The BBFO building is in the DWU facility," Zephron explained. "And the entire DWU has a shared mail room for buildings within it. Deliveries tend to go straight to the appropriate building, granted, but letters end up in the mail room. You have to swing by to pick them up."

"Huh," Taylor mused. "I guess that makes sense. I suppose I should go pick things up. Thanks for letting me know."

* * *

"So that's why Jim looked so pale when I checked on him," Amy snickered as she and Lisa entered the BBFO office. "I had been wondering what that was about."

"What happened here?" Lisa asked, drawing Amy's attention to the room as they noticed a pile of mail bins next to the table that Taylor and Saurial were sitting at. Both had a wastebasket on one side of them, a mail bin next to them, and piles of paper around them on the table itself. "Is that mail?"

"We haven't been picking up our letters from the mail room," 'Saurial' said. "We are making good progress through the ones addressed to Saurial, Raptaur, and Kaiju."

"The Metis ones are over by the computers," 'Taylor' said. "The Ianthe ones are by Amy's workshop."

"Crap," Lisa said, looking at her small pile by the computers. "We are in the DWU compound, giving a valid address for letters. Why didn't I notice that we didn't seem to be getting any?"

"Damnit," Amy groaned, looking over her medium-sized pile of mail bins. "I thought I had enough of this as Panacea." She then popped into her workshop to get into Ianthe.

* * *

A couple of hours later Danny came by to check on the girls. He found the four of them buried in piles of mail. "So girls," Danny finally said after a few half-hearted hellos. "What exactly is going on?"

"Never dawned on us that BBFO would start getting letters in the mail room," Lisa said, sounding annoyed at the very concept. "So we have a bit of a backlog."

"At least they sorted them for us," Amy commented. Then looked over at 'Saurial' and added "at least Lisa and I only have one identity to get mail for, though."

"I also already went through anything addressed just to 'The Family' on top of that," 'Taylor' said. She then gestured to a specific pile of letters. "Those, in particular, would have given us an extra three days warning on Skidmark's quest, apparently, given that the entire pile is warnings that he was poking around. Many of them with apologies for the fact he got away with his life."

"Huh," Lisa said. "I guess that makes sense, not that an extra three days would have changed much. Most of mine so far have been thank you letters for helping various people with the occasional request to heal someone if I am in a given area of the country in the future."

"Most of mine are along the same lines," Amy said. She then looked down at the one she was currently reading. "This one even says it is considered 'bad form' to pester Panacea for this kind of thing these days, given her age combined with having enough on her plate already. New Wave actually hired someone to go through this kind of thing for us, and me in particular, when the number of requests coming in got excessive so I had thought I was done with it until after I graduated at a minimum."

"Saurial and Raptaur have a number of people, many of them likely tinkers, interested in their matter creation trick," Taylor said, pointing at another pile. Then she moved her finger over to a fairly small pile and continued. "Those are thank yous for fixing things broken, either right away or shortly afterwards. Apparently most capes don't bother."

"Kaiju has a number of people offering bribes to stay away from places," Saurial continued. "Though there are a number of requests for information on the matter creation there too. I think all of the family have a number of fans that have written as well without any real motive."

"I already wrote a bunch of replies to kids," Taylor said, pointing at a mostly filled bin off to the side with sealed envelopes in it. "Most of these don't need a reply, though. And the Skidmark warnings are generally all lacking a return address to reply to. Though there was one thing..." She then picked that pile up and flipped through it for a moment before stopping to read one letter again. She then turned to look at Danny. "Here it is. Apparently Antonio sends his regards."

"Well this is interesting," Saurial said reading a just-opened letter. "Fifth or sixth one warning us about Crawler possibly coming this way, but this one is addressed to Kaiju specifically and has their grandmother's meat seasoning recipe included."

* * *

Working on and off for a few days they made it through the backlog and Lisa had Taylor put up a reminder by the door to visit the mailroom at least every other day so they could keep up with things.


	265. Guest Omake - They're talking bullshit

**They're talking bullshit again...**

 **(By CmptrWz)**

* * *

"Hello everyone and welcome!" a voice called out over the island a group of people found themselves on. They generally looked confused as to how they ended up there. Except for one, who was looking at a floating sign above their heads.

 **Non-Canon Protectorate/Wards vs DWU/Family Parahuman Bullshit-Off**

 **With special observer Director Piggot**

"So everyone here other than Director Piggot is supposed to prove who has the most bullshit parahuman powers?" Taylor Hebert mused. "I wonder why I am here? Or Dragon, for that matter."

"Good point," the voice mumbled. "Hmmm, lets try this." And the sign changed.

 **Non-Canon Protectorate/Wards vs DWU/Family Parahuman, Demon, and Para-AI Bullshit-Off**

 **With special observer Director Piggot**

"Guess that cat's out of the bag for the moment," Dragon observed. "I am happy this is non-canon."

"Meh," Armsmaster grunted. "I have all but known since the first meeting at BBFO anyway. You couldn't remote pilot a suit into there with any technology either of us had access to and I knew there was nothing living in the suit. But not noticing is a thing with my character, so..."

"I find myself wondering why Amy is here," Gallant said. "Not as Panacea at that, given that most of us are in costumes. Really, Taylor and Amy are the only ones not."

"I assume it is because I am here as a member of the Family and not New Wave," Amy answered.

"Right," Gallant said. "Pull the other one."

"Taylor?" Amy asked, gesturing behind her. Taylor grinned and suddenly Amy's tail became visible to everyone. Gallant was speechless. "So yea, after I met Taylor I figured out how to give myself a tail and eventually worked with Taylor to make lizard-suits. Though since we are revealing all here, Vectura here happens to have been Squealer before we made her a new body with a brute and changer rating and transplanted her brain into it. Then we shot up a fake brain to fool everyone."

"How did nobody notice you weren't just a healer?" Clockblocker asked. "I mean, total bullshit there. Not as bullshit as empty cloaks running around playing hero, luckily that monstrosity isn't here, but still."

"Funny you should say that," Vista said. A moment later the mentioned cloak had been pulled out of apparently nowhere. A moment after that 'Cloak', empty as usual, was standing on nothing where Vista had just been. **"Hey mister narrator, which side do I belong on again?"**

"Neither, really," the voice called out over the area. "You are somewhat of an independent, working for the Wards and trolling for the Family."

"I vote that Vista is currently the most bullshit person here," Assault stated, sounding serious. "At least until we have more evidence for someone else being the most bullshit."

"You just can't handle the fact that she can play the role of an empty piece of clothing," Battery commented. "Not that I am far behind you, mind."

"You went and met with the Family against orders," Director Piggot groaned. "And they taught you, making you more capable but then you hid it. Why me?"

"Hey," Taylor spoke up. "I learned plenty from her too. Wouldn't be able to be in two places at once without her help." A moment later a second Taylor popped into existence and waved.

"You can be in two places at once?" Gallant asked, looking like the world just started making sense. "So that is how you kept doing that. Coupled with the lizard-suits Amy made, anyway."

"More popcorn?" Regent asked, holding a big bucket over to Grue. Bitch grabbed a handful while Tattletale ate a chocolate bar. Nobody asked where they got the food.

"What I don't get is why, Amy's tail aside, there are no lizard-people here right now," Miss Militia said. Dauntless and Triumph had decided to go with the flow and wandered over to nab some popcorn from Regent. Kid Win had gotten ideas and was pulling his hoverboard apart. And Shadow Stalker was sulking in the corner trying to get her stupid armband off.

"Hiding in plain sight," one Taylor said, her tail becoming visible. "Being a likely Changer 15 or so helps, of course."

"That is bullshit," Clockblocker said. "There is no way you are a Changer 15 or so."

"Really?" the other Taylor asked, grinning. Both Taylors then became Saurial, morphed into Raptaur, grew into Kaiju. One then popped out of existence for space purposes. The other then decided to morph into Umihebi and then finally went full Varga.

To drive the point home a warhammer appeared in Varga's hand just before it let out the blast voice at full power at a mountain in the distance.

"So apparently not sleeping and not fainting are two entirely different things," Amy commented, poking Miss Militia. "Oh, and I already fixed the heart attack damage on Director Piggot."

"All in favor of Taylor having the most bullshit powers here?" Dragon asked, raising her own hand. Everyone else, Varga included, raised a hand. "Motion passes unanimously. Now what do we do?"

"Guess we are done, then?" Taylor said as she shrunk back down to mainly human. "I didn't even need to demonstrate my stranger abilities."

"Is that stranger as in odd or stranger as in rating?" Armsmaster asked.

"Both," Taylor grinned, showing far too many sharp, pointy teeth.

* * *

"AHHHHHHH," Director Piggot screamed, jumping up from having fallen asleep at her desk. She looked around as she breathed deeply, calming down. "I don't recall what it was about, but whatever I just dreamt about scared the crap out of me."

Down the hall in a conference room Miss Militia was suddenly very happy she didn't sleep and thus didn't dream. She was not sure why, though.


	266. Planning and Preparation

Linda looked upon her creation and deemed it cool.

"Cool," a voice rumbled from beside her.

"Exactly what I was thinking," she grinned.

Metis chuckled. "How much more work to make it go?"

"Not that much. I've finished the mechanics, Saurial's parts all fitted together perfectly, and most of the drive electronics are in and working. Replacing the hydraulics I was originally thinking about with linear motors made it much lighter and more powerful, not to mention faster. But without that superconductor material it wouldn't have been feasible. I never thought I'd be able to get it made." She glanced at the black and scarlet reptile, who was curiously studying the machine in the middle of the room.

"On the other hand, I never expected to meet someone who could just wave their hand and magic up a custom exotic material from nothing."

"Her branch of the Family has some very useful abilities," Metis agreed with a grin.

"I'll say. I'm more envious of that single talent than anything I've ever heard of," she mumbled, turning back to her drawings on the whiteboard. A very large CAD plotter was on order which would allow her to design this sort of thing and print it out for reference, but that wouldn't turn up until early next week. A similar computer system to the BBFO one was also ordered, along with a suitable relay to allow phone and radio comms to work inside the now heavily-shielded building. They were planning on running cables between the BBFO office and her workshop to link her place to the internet at high speed, which wouldn't take long when the computers turned up.

There were a lot of benefits to working at the main industrial center of the city, even if the city didn't seem to really recognize what it had here.

Checking her notes, she nodded. "I need to install the power supply next, it's running off the main grid right now which isn't very useful in the long term." Walking over to one of the shelving units, she rummaged around and came back with one of the crates of stuff she'd brought with her from the Merchant base. "Good thing I pulled these from that stupid tank I was making. I can reuse it on something a lot more helpful and interesting," she said as she opened the bag and removed one of the three power units she'd salvaged. "I can reuse the command and control system I yanked as well, although I'll want to upgrade that when I know everything works."

Metis examined it with interest. "Is that enough output for this thing?" she asked curiously.

"More than enough, but I'm going to need to make some larger ones for the next model," Linda confirmed, putting the unit on a workbench and carefully checking it over. She connected a couple of test meters and began running functional tests, smiling to herself when it fired up with a low pitched hum at the flick of a switch. Both meters rapidly rose in reading and stabilized at the correct voltage. "Good, no damage," she muttered, adjusting it a little, then turning it off.

"Fascinating." Metis was watching her run the tests, appearing impressed. "I'd suggest that it would be worth talking to Dragon about this thing. She's already signed a deal to commercialize some of Kevin's technology, and seems interested in other things he's invented. It's possible, if this could be duplicated too, that she'd want to do a similar deal with you. It could be quite lucrative for everyone. Not to mention that you might be able to trade for some of her processing tech, which is better than more or less anyone's."

Linda glanced at her, then back at the power unit. "Huh. OK, that's certainly something to think about. If she can work out how to make these things in quantity and make them reliable enough, that'd certainly be pretty handy. I'm going to want to talk to Saurial about remaking it with her skills, and maybe Kevin as well to see if he has any insights. Despite being a crazy man, he knows his stuff." She grinned at the big lizard, who chuckled, then picked the now-inert power unit up and headed for the new construction. Shortly she was half-buried in it as Metis obligingly held several tons of exotic materials a couple of feet off the floor, installing the thing while whistling happily, her tail swaying back and forth contentedly.

Yes, all things considered, she liked it here very much.

* * *

Returning to his lab, Colin sat down and pulled a keyboard towards himself, flexing his fingers before starting to enter command after command. He still preferred typing for this sort of thing, even with all the other methods he had invented, or Dragon had, to interact with computers.

Watching the text scrolling past in several different windows on the monitor array in front of him, he nodded with satisfaction. The Rig duplicate computer network was now ninety-six percent complete, almost fully finished copying the critical data across, and guaranteed free of any backdoors or data taps. Another three hours and it would be totally functional.

It would take the tech crews a good two and a half hours minimum to transfer full control of the old system across to the new one, starting just before the raid on Coil's base started. They'd have to shut _everything_ down, simultaneously across the entire Rig, PRT building, and outlying systems, both to prevent any missed traps going off and to preserve the data for later study. That required bypassing a significant number of control systems for things as diverse as the air conditioning and snack food dispensers, which was going to be tedious in the extreme. However, he had faith that his people were up to the job.

Once that was done, moving all the connectivity over to the new network and rebooting the entire thing was a faster yet still awkward job. Assuming no problems came to light half-way through, the replacement system would be running by mid-afternoon on Sunday, although critical infrastructure would be up sooner than that. Certain systems were too important to stay down for more than the minimum amount of time they could arrange. Unfortunately, due to the scale of the threat they faced it simply wasn't possible to leave those systems out of the upgrade.

It was massively inconvenient, and made him want to test his latest taser round on Coil, preferably repeatedly, but there was no helping it. At least this meant they'd end up with a system that was some two hundred and fifteen percent faster, with nearly four times the storage capacity, and enough redundancy to make future upgrades far easier. And, no little surprises from rogue elements buried inside it to cause problems…

He sighed a little, shaking his head. All this due to one man's desire to be a Bond villain or something. Coil's motivation was something of a mystery to him and frankly he had little interest in what drove the man beyond wishing to stop him in his tracks, mixed with a fair degree of exasperation at the betrayal. Emily felt far more strongly about that part of it and it was probably going to bite Calvert pretty hard in the ass.

Assuming Saurial didn't literally do that.

The thought almost made him smile, which caused him to stop and make a note. Then he went back to work.

Finishing half an hour later, he felt pleased. Everything was going well so far. Turning to the left he used a different screen to check on the remote gas analyzer sitting in Calvert's base's air exhaust, seeing with a certain degree of pleasure that it was now reading normal nitrogen levels. That meant that all the RDX in the base was now converted to inert materials, rendering the worst-case scenario they'd all lost sleep over impotent. It was a great weight off his mind, he'd had nightmare visions of an eighteen story building gently tipping over and crushing a large part of the center of the city.

All in all it was probably good that the ground under Brockton Bay wasn't really suitable for building really tall structures, being too porous to take the weight without vast expense on foundations. The twenty-six story Medhall building was the tallest one in the city, but it was dwarfed by even Boston construction, never mind New York. He didn't like to even imagine what could happen if something a hundred stories high went over.

Quickly sending a secure message to Dragon, Emily, and Hannah that Ianthe's bioagent had done its work without any issues, he got up and left again to help finish the remaining work, wanting to get the Rig done before he went over to help his friend complete the larger work at the PRT building.

* * *

As he got out of his car Danny looked at Amy's truck parked next to him on the driveway, then heard faint laughter from inside his house. He smiled a little, closing and locking the vehicle, before regarding it with slightly rueful annoyance. Yet again things seemed to have got ahead of them, pushing off the day that he could replace it to hopefully next week. That was becoming mildly irritating as it had happened several times now, but life seemed surprisingly busy these days.

Turning away from the rather battered but still perfectly functional car he headed into the house, opening the door and going inside. As soon as he did the laughter became much louder, the sound of a number of teenagers clearly having fun bringing a private and much wider smile to his face. God, Annette would have been so happy to hear that sort of thing…

With faint regret, he put his briefcase down and took his coat off, hanging it up next to several others. He recognized Amy's, being one that Taylor had made for her, and another one he thought was probably Vicky's as it looked vaguely familiar. The rest he couldn't place but he assumed they belonged to Taylor's friend Mandy and the others.

Poking his head into the living room he looked around, somewhat taken aback to find Taylor present as both herself and Saurial. Apparently she hadn't been joking when she'd said she was going to bring her lizard-girl persona to the get-together. He wondered how the rest of her friends had reacted when they'd found out.

Lucy, he guessed just from watching her, had probably been overjoyed. The girl had a serious liking for reptiles.

"Hello, many young people filling my living room," he said as he stepped into the room. "You seem to be enjoying yourselves. How are you all?"

"Fine, thanks, Danny," Amy assured him, smiling back. Her sister was sitting next to her scowling at a notebook with the tip of her tongue sticking out of the corner of her mouth, tapping the page with a pen, but looked up and nodded with a small smile of her own before going back to her work.

"We're doing really well, Mr Hebert," Mandy assured him, looking very pleased with things. She was sharing the sofa with Rich and Eric, one on either side of her, and all three of them were grinning like he'd just missed a good joke. Glancing at the TV he saw it was connected to Taylor's laptop and was displaying the PHO forum for Brockton Bay, which probably meant they'd been laughing at one of the more swivel-eyed weirdos who tended to infest the place.

' _Saurial_ ' was propped up on her tail next to them. Lucy was lying on the carpet near her, her head on her hands and her elbows on the floor, watching as the reptilian girl did something odd to the universe in the form of one of her weird little constructs. His daughter's more human-appearing aspect was in the corner with another boy, approximately her age, who Danny didn't recognize. He assumed this was Chris Jacobs, the lad who had the mathematical disability she'd promised to try to help with. The boy was intently studying a Japanese soroban, hard enough that he hadn't apparently even noticed when Danny had come in. Taylor looked over at him and gave him a pleased look.

"Hi, Dad," this Taylor said. "How was Mike?"

"Fine, thanks. He said to pass on his best wishes to you, and that he hoped to see you again some time. Sorry I'm late, I know I said I'd be back a couple of hours ago, but time got away from us." Danny shrugged. "You know how it goes."

"I do," she nodded. "It's been going really well here too. This is Chris, by the way." The boy jolted a little at the sound of his name, looked up at her, then followed her eyes to see Danny in the doorway. "Chris, this is my dad."

"Hello, Chris," Danny said pleasantly. "I hope Taylor's been able to help you in some way?"

"She has, Mr Hebert," the boy said with what looked like massively relieved happiness. "More than I ever expected. More than anyone else has, definitely."

"Excellent," he replied, giving her a quizzical look. "Have you discovered a new talent, dear?"

"Just some lateral thought and a lot of luck, I think," she responded with a small shrug. "I don't know if it would have worked for anyone else, but it seems to be working for Chris. It turns out that his dyscalculia is weak against the abacus."

"The abacus _knows_ all, the abacus _conquers_ all," her other aspect intoned with a weird voice and a wide grin. Taylor looked at herself, smirking from two faces at the same time. Danny sighed very slightly. If she started that double-act again he might have to go back and take Mike up on his offer of another drink…

"And dare I ask why _you_ are here, Saurial?" he said wryly, going along with the whole insane thing with an internal shrug. "Instead of out upsetting our fine upstanding muggers or something?"

"You know me, Danny, I like to relax with friends sometimes," she replied, still grinning. "Kick back, put my feet up and have a drink and a meal, that sort of thing."

"I know you all too well, my dear girl," he chuckled. "All too well indeed. Carry on. Try not to break the universe too much, at least indoors." She saluted him with a flick of her hand, looking amused. Sniffing, he asked, "Is that Annette's pasta thing with tuna and chilies I smell?"

"Yep," Taylor nodded. "I put some in the fridge for you. There's some jalapeno poppers there as well, and some sandwiches too, not to mention enough snacks to choke Kaiju."

"Thanks, some of that would go down very well right now," he told her happily. "I'll leave you all to it, I have a little work to do, some emails to catch up on, then a book Mike gave me to read. If you want me, I'll be in my study."

"OK, Dad," she replied. He looked around at the happy young people again, musing how odd it was that _two_ of them were his daughter, then withdrew, heading for the kitchen and a dish he hadn't tasted in over a year.

It was an odd sort of gathering, he thought, but he felt it was good for them all. And if she'd genuinely managed to help that boy, he was very proud of her indeed. As her mother would have been too.

* * *

"Ah, _there_ you are, you annoying little bastard," Vicky mumbled under her breath, suddenly spotting the missing term in the equation that had been befuddling her for the last fifteen minutes. Danny coming in had distracted her, and when she went back to the notebook the brief interruption proved to be sufficient to allow her brain to see where it had been going wrong. Making a few corrections, she recalculated her answer, wrote it down, then handed it to her sister who was snickering at something inane that one of Dennis's alter-egos had just posted on PHO.

Amy took the notebook from her without looking, still reading the TV screen, grinned, shook her head, then looked down. After a moment she nodded. "Yes, that's correct," she said, handing it back.

Vicky sighed in relief, closing the book and slumping in her seat. "Finally. I was starting to think I was going mad. It just wouldn't integrate."

She glared at her sister. "And you wouldn't tell me the answer."

Amy met her eyes evenly, looking a little superior. "If I keep giving you the answer you'll never learn, will you?"

"As your sister, you're supposed to be on my side," Vicky grumped, folding her arms. The other girl grinned at her.

"I am," she replied, patting Vicky's knee. "Which is why I let you learn by doing, rather than taking the easy route. I have your best interests at heart."

"Yeah, so you say. Do I look like I believe you?"

"You look like you need another doughnut."

They giggled at each other, before Amy handed her the box of pastries. Vicky rewarded herself with a nice pink-glazed one and bit into it. "These are _so good_ ," she moaned through the mouthful of sweet dough. "Where did you get them?"

"That place downtown that opened up last year," Amy replied, taking one for herself. "Saurial said Cloak recommended it. She goes there, apparently."

"Only Brockton Bay would have the favorite pastry shop of a piece of haunted clothing," Mandy laughed from across the room, making them both look over and grin. "We seem to live in a very strange place, but it's a lot of fun these days."

"Certainly got both safer and weirder over the last few months," Rich agreed. "Hey, Amy, any of those left?"

"Two," the brunette replied, handing the box to Lucy who handed it to Saurial who handed it to Rich. By which point it was empty.

"Hey!" he grumbled, watching with mild irritation as both of the intermediaries ate their doughnuts. Saurial winked at him, causing him to sigh gently and reach for a new bag of chips. "Thanks. That helped."

"Glad to be of service," Lucy laughed, rolling over onto her back and crossing her arms behind her head. "This is a lot of fun. Thanks again, Taylor."

"No problem," the Hebert girl replied. "I like having you guys over, and it's been really interesting helping Chris."

"It's been amazing being helped," that boy stated, looking up from the abacus he'd been manipulating for close to three hours now, with a huge grin on his face. "Did you know that fifteen thousand six hundred and eighteen times one thousand two hundred and thirty one is..."

"Nineteen million two hundred and twenty five thousand seven hundred and fifty eight?" both Taylor and Saurial chorused instantly without even looking at each other. "Yes, we did," the latter added, smirking. "And so did you, right?"

He nodded. "Yes. Which I still can't believe. How could the solution be so _simple?_ "

"It's not a perfect solution, yet, Chris," Taylor cautioned him. Vicky, who was smiling happily, seeing how joyful her Ward friend was, listened and watched. "Yes, it's helped a huge amount, and we got really lucky that it's worked out so well, but it's going to take a lot of practice to really become good at using a soroban. And you also need to concentrate on visualizing how it works, because I'm pretty sure that with enough time you'll be able to do it without using the actual device, in your head."

"I know, you said that before," he nodded, still smiling. "But even if I never learned to do that, this alone would make it all worth while as far as I'm concerned. I don't know how to thank you."

"You just did," she laughed. "You're welcome. Keep the soroban, Saurial made it for me so it's yours. I can recommend a good book on more advanced uses of it, I've got the ISBN and title here. And if you want more help, just ask me any time and I'll see what I can do."

He looked incredibly pleased, staring at the tall girl then the little device in his hand. "Thank you," he said again.

"No problem, honestly. I'm just glad I could help."

"I'm really impressed, actually," Mandy put in, watching them both. "You're an amazing teacher, Taylor. Or should it be… ' _Math Girl!_ '"

"The Amy declares it to be so," Amy said, waving a hand grandly. "The Amy is pleased that her minion Math Girl has helped the lowly commoner. Now, The Amy wishes her minion to fetch more sandwiches."

"At once, mistress," Taylor cried, leaping to her feet then performing a wonderfully elaborate sweeping bow. "As The Amy commands." She straightened up, turned on the spot, and marched off into the kitchen, leaving a room full of snickering teenagers behind her. Vicky shook her head in amusement, thinking that whatever else she was, Taylor Hebert definitely had a flair for the dramatic.

Lucy rolled to her feet and went after her to help, the others moving around and finding new positions, with Eric going through the DVDs again and Mandy poking around on PHO. Vicky watched her friends with a sense of relaxed idleness now that her math studying had at least temporarily come to a halt. As she did, she went back to going over her theories about Saurial and Taylor. She hadn't missed the familiar manner that Danny had with the lizard girl, or she with him, which was definitely more than that of mere acquaintances. They were certainly more than just friends as well, in her private opinion.

The older Hebert had looked at Saurial with a sort of fond acceptance and slightly weary acknowledgment that her sense of humor was irrepressible and very well understood. It spoke of long and close interaction, undoubtedly more than the two and a bit months that the Family had been known about by everyone else. Much more, she suspected.

' _He looked at her in the same way that he looked at Taylor_ ,' she thought, glancing at the reptilian teenager who was now juggling little spheres that had far more corners than spheres should really have. She was actually rather good at it, keeping half a dozen in the air at once without showing any sign of effort, and chatting to Mandy at the same time. It was made more impressive by the way the things weren't forming a normal parabola but more of an inverted W shape, something she gaped at for some seconds before putting it down as yet another example of the Family's ability to play fast and loose with the rules of the universe.

She was fairly sure the universe had given up and was hoping they'd just go away, and was planning on ignoring them until this happened…

Vicky had again considered the idea she'd had that perhaps Danny himself, and Taylor too, were disguised Family members. That, though, as usual led her overactive imagination down the same path that ultimately ended up with most if not all of the DWU as hidden lizards, and who knew how many _other_ people. With a suppressed shudder she'd aborted that line of thought yet again. It was very unlikely, horrifying if even slightly true, and not something she really wanted to think too hard about. The last time she'd done that she hadn't slept for nearly thirty hours.

No, it was, hopefully, unlikely that there were _that_ many Family reptiles sneaking around the city. She liked them, but there were places she didn't want her mind going. Even so, it was slowly driving her around the bend trying to figure it all out. The unnervingly close parallels between some very weird stories on the internet, and some genuinely terrifying stories written nearly a hundred years ago, still made Vicky pale a little when she really started to think about them. Not to mention some of the comments the others had made over the time they'd been around.

Did Ianthe really remember this area covered in ice, for example?

And Danny's jacket… flying reptile skin… no, it was ridiculous. She must still be misinterpreting what she'd been told.

When she got home she was going to have to do some more research. She'd learned, observed, and deduced quite a number of new data points this afternoon and it was going to take her a while to put them into order in her head.

Ultimately, of course, in many ways the best solution would simply be to ask Saurial about it. But that was a clear breach of the Rules, which they all took pretty seriously from what she could tell. Even leaving that aside, she was more than a little nervous about what the reaction would be if the reptilian cape came to the conclusion her family or friends were under threat. _She_ was a friend, yet would that be enough to save her if she said the wrong thing?

Lost in her thoughts, she jumped a little when Amy poked her. "Hmm? What?" she yelped, looking up from her own knees, to see that Taylor and Lucy had come back bearing a couple of plates of sandwiches, and her sister was offering her a couple of ham ones. "Oh. Sorry. Miles away."

"Deep thoughts?" Saurial asked, still juggling her artifacts, now in something approaching a square, which looked utterly bizarre. Lucy was watching with incredulity and growing delight.

"Um… sort of. Not important, just something I've been puzzling over for a while, since I read a book a couple of weeks ago." The blonde took the sandwiches her sister was holding out and stuffed one into her mouth so she would have an excuse to stop babbling.

Amy stared at her, glanced at Saurial, then Taylor, before shrugging and sitting down. "Let's watch ' _Clash of the Titans_ '" Eric said, holding up the DVD in question, apparently oblivious to Vicky's peculiar actions. Everyone looked at him, then agreed. Shortly they were watching Perseus run around having a hard time, enjoying the movie.

Vicky nibbled her second sandwich and tried to stop puzzling over a problem that had no immediate solution. She was only partly successful in this.

* * *

"We're as done as we're going to be, until we shut the system down," Dragon announced, looking around the secure conference room. "We've parallel-installed all the new equipment, done all the cross-linking we can before the switchover, copied all critical data across, located and where possible isolated every compromised node… There isn't much more we can do until the morning."

"How many compromised nodes did you actually find?" Craig asked curiously.

"Far too many," Colin grumbled, pulling a tablet in front of him. "Nineteen optical fiber taps, twenty-three cross-wired networks, four _extremely_ well hidden processing node exploits of a type neither of us have ever seen before, eleven software backdoors of significant complexity, and two entirely subverted servers. And this is _after_ the first sweeps we did weeks ago, which found another couple of dozen exploits, most of which I now feel were left for us to find quite deliberately."

"Shit." The man looked appalled.

"Exactly. Calvert has had literally years to set all this up, god knows how many attempts, or simulations, and complete access to the entirety of our systems right up to the point he retired three years ago. Considering he was also consulting on certain activities for another eighteen months, he could undoubtedly have still accessed a number of systems. We've been compromised for possibly a decade or more and never would have realized it without Tattletale and the Family, possibly until the next major systems upgrade which was scheduled for two and a half year's time." Colin dropped the tablet onto the table with a clatter and rubbed his eyes. "It is very frustrating, and more than a little embarrassing that we all missed it. Myself included. I can only apologize for neglecting my duties."

"While I very much wish it hadn't happened, I don't hold you responsible, Colin," Emily said, sounding nearly as frustrated as he did. "As you said, the fucking man had top level security access to absolutely everything. His security profile was immaculate. If we're right about his power-set, he's probably been anticipating every possibility of detecting him right from the beginning. Without those mad lizards turning up and playing havoc with precog powers for whatever reason they do I doubt we'd be any closer to finding out. But now we know, so all we can do, what we _must_ do, is catch the bastard."

"That I have no doubt we will achieve," Colin replied. "With the Family's aid, and the amount of time and effort we've put into planning this operation and vetting the staff, I'm confident we're capable of apprehending Calvert and taking his base. Although I can't guarantee it will be a bloodless victory."

Emily nodded. "I want Calvert alive if at all possible," she told them all, looking around the table with a scowl on her face. "I want to know who else is in on this, I very much doubt he acted entirely alone. But… if it's a choice between him getting away and him getting dead, make sure he gets dead."

"Official PRT policy?" Ethan joked. She fixed him with a hard look, actually making him swallow slightly.

"Official Piggot policy," the woman grated. "He's much too dangerous to allow him to get away. Even with him locked out of our system, the amount of data he has on our operations is enough to compromise hundreds of people at a minimum. We can be damn close to certain, for example, that he knows the civilian IDs of every person at this table, the Wards, and probably every other parahuman in the PRT database."

Ethan paled.

"Fuck." He swallowed again. "I didn't think about that."

"I _did_. And I _do not_ want that data getting out. I doubt _any_ of us does." She looked around again, meeting grim expressions from everyone there. "He could easily cause something close to a civil war in the city at the absolute minimum, and possibly the entire fucking country, if he decided to get clever. Or simply said fuck it and went out with a bang, so to speak. So, his only two options in this operation are in a prisoner transport van or in the coroner's one, _is that clear?_ "

Everyone nodded.

"I'll take full responsibility for it if anyone is worried, and if necessary, but I have the authority to do so. I doubt there will be any fallout once this operation is complete and the full story comes out." She sighed a little. "Understand that I'd much prefer him alive and talking very fast, so a kill shot is a last resort. Still, it needs to be said."

They were all silent for a while, until Dragon stirred. "I suggest that we contact the Family and the DWU and confirm the times and places of the operation," she said quietly. "We know that the base self-destruct is now inert, so the most worrying aspect is dealt with. We can't do any more until tomorrow morning. It would be a good idea to get some sleep before what's going to be a very long and difficult day."

"Agreed." Emily looked at her for a moment. "I'll call Metis, she left a message that she was the only one at the DWU at the moment, but could get word to the others. Everyone make sure they have the new comms units Dragon supplied with them at all times, we will coordinate through those only. Dismissed."

The assembled people collected their various documents and equipment and got up, heading for the door. Dragon turned back when Emily stopped next to her. They waited until everyone else had gone, Colin pausing to look enquiringly back into the room. She waved him out, the Tinker nodding and leaving.

"I just wanted to express my thanks for your help in this whole sorry affair," Emily said in a very faintly irritated voice, the irritation, to Dragon, appearing to be due to general frustration and tension. "You've spent much more time here that we had any right to expect, considering your responsibilities in Canada and to the Guild. Not to mention all the new equipment."

"I don't mind, Director," she replied, putting a warm smile in her voice. "I enjoy working with friends, meeting and working with the Family has been a thoroughly enjoyable if somewhat confusing pastime, and the threat facing you is one that would affect the Guild as well. It's time well spent."

"Still, I am genuinely grateful," her companion said. She shrugged a little. "And I'll admit I'm not good at saying that, especially to a Parahuman, so you know I mean it." The blonde woman actually cracked a tiny smile when Dragon chuckled.

"I understand, Emily, and I appreciate it."

"Good. Now, I need to make a number of phone calls, then try to get some sleep, so if you'll excuse me..." The director nodded to her, before leaving the room. Dragon watched her go, inwardly amused at the way the woman was definitely mellowing. Exposure to the Family didn't seem to leave anyone unaffected, she mused. Even if the effect was different in each case.

Leaving the room, she headed to the roof helipad for the short flight to her room on the Rig, and a few hours of downtime during which she could catch up on her factory, and possibly check on the situation with the Endbringers. She was curious to see what they were doing now.

Ten minutes later she was examining the logs with her virtual eyes wide open, trying to figure out what the hell had the damn things so worked up _this_ time...

* * *

Miranda Jacobs watched as her son walked out of the Hebert house, a slender and very tall young woman with long curly dark brown hair behind him. In the porch light over the door she could see his lips moving as he pointed at her car, although she couldn't hear what he said. The girl nodded, smiling. She assumed this was Taylor Hebert, although she was surprised at her height considering she was only around fifteen or so. The girl looked relaxed and content with life, grinning at her son. She said something to him, holding out her hand, which he shook.

She looked a little startled when he suddenly hugged her for a moment, but appeared to laugh and hug him back. Releasing her he stepped back, grinned, waved, then trotted down the path to the car. Opening the door he jumped in, tossing his backpack into the rear seat before closing the door again and buckling his seat belt.

Miranda looked at him, then the girl who was watching them. Another, shorter brunette was standing next to her now, one she recognized after a moment as Amy Dallon. Starting the car she put it in drive and pulled off, the girls waving before going back inside.

"I take it that you had fun, then?" she asked dryly after she'd gone a block. Chris was leaning his head on the headrest, his fingers moving slightly like he was counting something under them, his eyes shut. Without opening them, he slowly smiled.

"I did, thanks, mom," he replied happily.

"And did you learn anything useful?" she pressed.

"Oh… more than a little, yes," he grinned, turning his head to her and opening his eyes. "More than a little."

Pleased, she smiled, keeping her eyes on the road.

"I have so _many_ new ideas as well..." he murmured, sounding happier than he had done for some time. She glanced at him, then went back to driving, wondering what exactly the Hebert girl had managed to do.

* * *

"That went well," Taylor smiled, as she sat down at the kitchen table, holding a mug of tea. Her other aspect was back in the small dragon form, sitting on her shoulder, the Varga driving it at the moment.

"I'd say so," Amy laughed, putting the kettle back on the counter and picking up her own mug. "Although Vicky was a little out of it. I'm going to have to find out what's bothering her soon. Other than that everyone had a lot of fun."

Taylor's father looked at all three of them, while stirring his tea, then put the spoon down. "You think you actually managed to help him?" he asked, sipping the drink.

"Chris certainly thought so," Taylor replied. "He was ecstatic about it. Hopefully he'll be able to keep progressing with the concept and overcome most if not all of his difficulties." She took a drink of her own. Lowering the mug, she added, "I suspect he'll want more help sooner or later, but I don't mind. He's a nice guy and it must be incredibly annoying to get stuck on something like simple math. Chris is smart, good at engineering, but without that particular skill is always going to feel he's missing something." She shrugged. "I'm happy to help him."

"Well, you definitely made a friend there," Amy snickered.

"He did indeed appear very grateful," the Varga added, smiling with tiny teeth. "The young man has promise, I thought. And I was most impressed with your solution to that particular issue, not to mention the test regime you came up with. Very well done."

"Thanks," she said.

"That phone call just now was from Director Piggot," her father mentioned after they'd sat in companionable silence for a couple of minutes. "The operation is on, everything seems in order from their point of view. I stopped in at the Yard on the way back from Mike's and talked to Mark, we have a hundred and twelve volunteers who are on standby for crowd control. I'll call him in a minute and update him. It's going to be an early start tomorrow."

"Good," Taylor nodded. "I've been looking forward to this for a while."

"I think we all have, Brain," the Varga snickered. "Except, possibly, a number of people in a hole in the ground. _They_ may well not enjoy the experience they're shortly going to have."

"Tough," Amy grinned. She glanced at her watch. "I'll have to go and get some sleep soon. But I'll be at the Yard nice and early, ready to heal up anyone who gets hurt in this secret PRT operation..."

They shared a look, and a laugh. "God, the amount of sneaking around..." Taylor's father shook his head. He finished his tea, got up, and put his hand on Taylor's shoulder. "Take care of yourself and your friends, dear," he added. "I'll make the call, then I'm off to bed. I expect you'll be gone by the time I get up."

"Probably. Good night, Dad," she replied.

"Night." He smiled at both of them and headed to the doorway. "And make sure that man has reason to be afraid of the dark, will you? The more I hear about him, the less I like him," he said as he left, making them look at each other and smirk.

"I think we can oblige," Taylor said quietly, meeting her friend's eyes over her mug.

Amy smiled darkly at her.

"Definitely," she chuckled.

" _Very_ definitely," the Varga snickered, sounding like he was anticipating something rather amusing in the near future.

* * *

Thomas woke from yet another nightmare, sitting bolt upright in his bed and sweating. He couldn't remember exactly what it had been about, aside from there being the overwhelming concept of ' _teeth_.'

Puzzling nervously over this occupied him for over an hour, until he finally fell asleep again, exhausted and worried about how none of his plans seemed to do other than end badly.

Hopefully tomorrow he could try again, and with luck, finally work out how to deal with whatever the fuck was going on…


	267. Guest Omake - The Book of Anti-Babel

**The Book of Anti-Babel, with Math**

 **(By CmptrWz)**

* * *

Taylor was out on the boardwalk with Amy, having been told that all trolling and no play was a bad thing. Apparently trolling the world didn't count as play, who knew? That and apparently she had made the normal "work" part of that phrase a subset of "trolling".

Because she couldn't help herself she was also practicing picking specific conversations out of the crowd while keeping up with the conversation with Amy while Varga was trying to do something similar as a small dragon nearby, though in his case it was listening to two or more conversations at the same time and keeping them straight. It was good practice for splitting attention to do multiple things at once and might eventually let them get a third aspect going.

Taylor frowned a little when she realized that a couple of likely gang members, if their appearance and the smell of guns on them was anything to go by, were chatting in German. Or at least she thought it was German. She didn't know enough German to understand them, or to be certain it was German they were speaking given that "germanic" is a description of a number of languages. Perhaps she should bump up learning German on her to-do list.

* * *

Actually, that sounded like a good idea for languages in general. Never knew where a cape might come from in an Endbringer battle, if any ever happened at this point, and not everyone was likely to speak English. A quick mental check with Varga showed that he agreed and he offered to teach her every language, currently in use or not, that he knew just because.

* * *

A week or so later Lisa and Amy were grumbling about how quickly Taylor was picking up languages. They were supposed to have the advantage there, but apparently the connection to Varga was helping a lot more than anyone expected. Even Varga himself was surprised. The teaching programs Dragon provided at request ("Our branches of the family have only frequently interacted with English-speakers, do you have anything that would help those of us interested learn the languages of other humans?") didn't hurt either, even if Amy and Lisa were using them as well.

In an unknown place at an unknown time a higher power was happy that the tweak to Taylor and Varga's language centers, originally intended to get them up to speed with each other faster than the original bond would have allowed, had brought unintended benefits.

It only took Taylor a day and a half to make it through every asian language she could find, then moved through european languages. She was starting on a list of african languages now.

Unknown to Lisa and Amy, Taylor was was taking advantage of Varga's offer and also learning every other language Varga knew, in addition to ensuring she knew variants for the blind and the deaf where available in everything. She would eventually find that programming languages and some computer protocols were included in Dragon's software and would pick up those as well, the latter in particular being eerily similar in some ways to a few languages Varga knew. Maybe he had run into manufactured intelligences before and just hadn't noticed their origins?

And if a few other little-used tricks the Varga had for languages crossed over, well, so be it.

* * *

"This is amazingly understandable," Lisa said, flipping through the digital draft of _'Family Mathematical theorems and Their Practical Applications'_ , Taylor's book on the Family math. She had been working on it for a couple of months. "It is like the concepts want to jump into my head."

"Written down like this makes it incredibly easy to understand," Amy agreed, looking over the same file on a different machine. "Though I am less sure about the jumping into the head part, that may just be your power talking."

"I suspect Kevin agrees with Lisa," Randall noted between bites of Pizza. "If only because of how many notes he is making for ideas he suddenly has."

"It obviously isn't your constructs if you are having different experiences," Taylor agreed, shifting to Saurial as she headed towards the back door. "We have a visitor, by the way." Kevin and Randall pulled their balaclavas on fully in response.

A few moments later she opened the door, just before 'Cloak' would have knocked. **"Hello. May I come in?"**

"Sure," Taylor said, gesturing for Missy to enter. As the door shut Missy pushed the hood of her cloak back.

"I was hoping for another math lesson," Missy said, looking around.

"You are in luck," Taylor responded. "Metis, Ianthe, and Leet are just looking over a draft of a book on the Family math. Would you like to take a look as well?"

"Yes please," Missy said, smiling. A few moments later she was set up on a fourth computer. "Oh wow, even the pages are pretty."

 _'Pretty?'_ Lisa thought, suddenly getting a horrible feeling. _'Isn't that how she describes…'_

"Oh hell," Randall said, having apparently caught on. "The draft has multidimensional writing?"

Taylor herself seemed a little shocked, not that Missy was going to notice. She recovered quickly as she looked over at the screens and thought for a moment before answering. "Yea, old Family technique. Avoids the need for translators, you know. You only see the language you understand or are most comfortable with. The more languages you know the more likely the concepts will make it through properly."

On a hunch Lisa passed a fingertip over the screen, feeling and understanding the braille that manifested for her. Despite the screen not being able to do that. Shaking herself after a moment she decided to play along. "Really impressive how you got the technique working in this digital form. We usually only see it applied to paper or parchment, and occasionally to stone tablets."

Taylor flipped through her hardcopy for a moment, then spoke up. "I do believe I covered how I accomplished that in chapter ninety-six." Granted, she was aiming for how she got the explanatory graphics working more than the very text itself, but the principles were the same. The technique for differing graphics for what colors you could see in chapter eighty-five was basically the same thing as the what language you can read technique as well, so she hadn't really missed anything. Just overlooked just how far she was going.

* * *

Dragon changed her internal preferred language settings yet again and marveled how the digital file was now, somehow, in Ancient Egyptian. And still understandable.

A few more minutes of playing and she disabled her human language processors entirely, wanting to see what the document looked like without them active. Only to be shocked that now the entire thing was in the form of a network stream. One that she had absorbed entirely and started processing without realizing it.

* * *

Two hours later Dragon stood up in the Rig, physically shaking her suit's head as if to clear it. She then walked into the next room where Colin was working. "That was intense."

"What was intense?" Colin asked, having noted her entering.

"Saurial sent a digital copy of her book," Dragon said. "It was a lot more impressive than I thought, and surprisingly easy to understand. Once I figured out how to best read it I found it to be surprisingly efficient at teaching me as well."

"Really?" Colin said, looking very interested. He had gotten a copy as well, but had opted to let Dragon look at it first. He had some repairs to make to his armor's helmet that he didn't feel he could put off. Repairs he had, in fact, just finished. "Perhaps I should take a look."

"As a fair warning," Dragon said, sitting down. "Each person will likely find they need to figure out how to best read it on their own." She then got a speculative look on her face. "Although…"

Ten minutes later Colin was doing his best to absorb the digital book in any way he could while Dragon was amusing herself poking at the hypercube in her hand. That was, a few minutes before, a piece of paper she had been drawing on.

She had noted that Saurial's little book may need a warning about being a memetic hazard, though.


	268. Guest Omake - A little time to think

**A little time to think...**

 **(By CmptrWz)**

* * *

"MUAHAHAHAHA," the crazed tinker laughed as his robotic minions swarmed over the Docks. Similar events had already distracted the Protectorate (currently cleaning up the Boardwalk, though Armsmaster and Dragon had decided to head for the Docks), the Wards (working on attacks at Arcadia and two nearby elementary schools, though why they were attacked on a Sunday in the middle of summer was confusing), and New Wave (defending their own neighborhood).

Due to what was either excellent timing on the tinker's part or piss-poor timing on the universe's part Taylor and Lisa were the only ones available to do anything about the attack on the Docks. Even Lung was unavailable, his civilian identity apparently having gone to visit a relative in Chicago. Even worse, Taylor and Varga had just run into their current limit for running two aspects at once and needed some time to recover.

"Now you heathens will feel my wrath!" the tinker yelled as Taylor, currently as Raptaur, and Lisa, in Metis, tore apart his robotic minions with ease.

{What is he yapping about?} Taylor asked.

{He worships the Endbringers and figured out that they are afraid of you,} Lisa answered. {I suspect he wants to wipe the entire Family out so the Endbringers will resume their attacks.}

"That is quite rude," the tinker said, knowing that the two were communicating but having no clue what was being said. "Oh well, no matter." He then lined up a shot at Metis, the robotic minions suddenly becoming much more competent and, interestingly enough, much _heavier_. Enough to hold Metis down as he fired.

Taylor was having none of that and figured that whatever that thing did she could tank it better than Lisa could. It only dawned on her as she intercepted the blast halfway that she probably should have just thrown a physical EDM shield up instead. Then again, given what happened next she wasn't going to complain too much.

Lisa watched as Taylor was engulfed in a pitch black sphere that just sat there where Taylor had been, mid-air. Her power told her that it was a time-compressed pocket dimension of some kind, yet also that Taylor would be fine within it. Her power also noted that Armsmaster and Dragon had shown up just in time to see the attack engulf Taylor.

"MUAHAHAHAHA," the tinker laughed again as a small charging meter lit up on his weapon. Lisa noticed that it would take nearly half an hour to fully charge as she tore apart the robotic minions that had gone back to incompetent. "One down! She will spend the next hundred thousand years trapped in an airless void with no light or gravity, unaging but needing normal amounts of food and water to survive! In an hour the bubble will dissipate and her corpse will be left for all to see!"

"Wait a minute," Lisa said. "You just gave her a hundred thousand years to plan and prepare? YOU IDIOT!"

"I am concerned that Metis believes that a hundred thousand years trapped in an airless void lacking food or water isn't enough to kill Raptaur," Colin admitted. "If only because of the implications."

"I am more concerned with the 'plan and prepare' part of her statement," Dragon admitted. "Given that this is the first of multiple assassination attempts this tinker has obviously planned."

* * *

Taylor found herself in a pitch black void with no air and no apparent gravity sources nearby. Generating some light of her own showed her that there was still nothing. A few minutes later and she had a platform with artificial gravity on it "under" her and a comfortable chair to lounge in as she thought.

" _This is definitely a time compression field_ ," Varga said after about half an hour of poking at the void they were in. " _Very high compression, but probably won't last more than an hour on the outside._ "

"Then I guess we better get to work," Taylor admitted. "The sooner we figure out how to get out of here the better, right?"

And thus Taylor started working on unraveling the underpinning mathematics behind the pocket they had been trapped in.

* * *

Three minutes after Taylor had been trapped Lisa was chasing after the now disarmed (less literally than she desired) crazed tinker. With the help of Colin and Dragon the remaining robotic minions had been destroyed and the crazed tinker was trying to come up with an escape plan. Lisa kept tearing them apart in various ways while Dragon analysed the weapon that they had gotten away from the idiot.

"I can't find any way to end the effect early," Dragon admitted. "I actually can't find how the effect is even generated, I think it teleports that in from somewhere else just before firing and then sends that part back."

"Keyed to my very DNA!" the crazed tinker gloated. "Without the correct access control sequence entered by my very fingers you can't summon anything!"

"I hate competent enemies," Lisa admitted. "They are so annoying to deal with."

"I would have to agree," Colin said, cutting off another attempt by the crazed tinker to use some device to escape. "So inefficient to deal with as well."

"This one didn't even introduce himself," Taylor said from behind them. Everyone stopped and turned to stare at her. "Sorry I took so long breaking out, but I got distracted re-deriving the mathematical underpinnings of the multiverse and codifying it into a Grand Unified Theory of Everything. Speaking of," she pulled out three large books and handed one each to Dragon, Colin, and Lisa. "Here, have a copy. Then I had to use the local dimensional subset to destabilize the time compression field and the associated pocket dimension."

"That took you eight thousand years or so?" Dragon finally spoke up. "Assuming a linear time progression inside the field, anyway."

"Thereabouts, yea," Taylor said. "It was what, about five minutes out here?"

"That would be accurate," Colin said.

The crazed tinker appeared to be having a mental breakdown of some sort, just standing there shocked. Right up until Lisa noticed a mini-dragon aspect leaning on a dart in the idiot's neck. Paralysis, apparently. Good choice.

"So now that this idiot is no longer a problem," Taylor said, causing Dragon and Colin to look at the crazed tinker as he fell over. "I think I'll go order some pizza. Feels like I haven't eaten since a little after the last ice age ended."

"You only knocked the idiot out?" Dragon asked.

"Long-term paralysis," Taylor said. "Fully conscious, no control. Mildly painful, inhibits sleep, but his automatic functions like breathing and heartbeat continue as normal. He'll need to be fed via tubes, obviously. Probably need a full lifesculptor to fix him up, I suspect Metis here hasn't practiced removal of that particular toxin before so Ianthe is probably the only safe bet. Though Amy might be able to do it too. Might have gone for more, but I haven't eaten and I suspect you want him available for questioning so I figured I would stick with pizza."

* * *

"What do you mean we have to update Raptaur's ratings?" Emily asked. "Didn't we just do that two days ago?"

"That was before she survived in a time-compressed airless void with only the materials she had on her for around eight thousand years," Colin said. "Not to mention apparently documented a 'Grand Unified Theory of Everything' for us."

"The book containing it is thick enough for around five hundred pages," Dragon added. "But the initial index is around a thousand pages long and refers to tens of thousands of pages. As you flip through the book more pages come and go, looks like they fold into and out of the covers."

"She then merely paralysed the crazed tinker," Colin continued. "Whose name we still don't know, with a toxin that is almost permanent and only a lifesculptor or Panacea is likely able to deal with properly. As a nicer alternative to just eating him, apparently, given that she was hungry after eight thousand years and she figured we might want to question him."

"Well at least we know to never try knocking a member of the family out with the inert gas trick," Emily admitted as she put a bottle of Vodka on her desk. After a moment of consideration she opened it up and drank straight from the bottle, foregoing the cups she was originally reaching for.


	269. Brockton and Stinkytime

**Sunday, March 6, 2011**

Yawning widely, Vicky scrubbed at her eyes as she staggered out of her bedroom, not even floating at the moment. She bounced off something and recoiled, hearing a familiar voice say, "Ow! Watch it, Vicky!"

"Sorry, Amy," she mumbled, blinking furiously. "This is way too early to be up. I need my sleep."

Her sister, who was rubbing her shoulder, smirked at her. "It's nearly half past four, that's not too early."

"It's half past four in the _morning_ , on a _Sunday!_ " Vicky looked appalled. "Of _course_ it's too fucking early. I should be in bed until at least ten. That's five and a half hours of sleep I'm giving up for this."

"In return for making quite a lot of money, a possible chance to earn more, helping the city, and both the PRT and some friends of ours. Tough choice."

Vicky squinted at her sister, whose dead-pan voice seemed far too cheerful for this time of night. And it was definitely night, no matter what any silly clock said. It was still dark outside for god's sake…

"When did you get back, anyway? You were still at the Hebert's when I left."

"Around midnight. I helped Taylor clean up, talked to Danny and Taylor, had some tea, and came home."

Vicky yawned again. "OK. How are you so awake at this hour?"

"Clean living and a spotless soul, of course." Her sister grinned when Vicky snorted. "I don't need that much sleep compared to you. It's one of the many things that makes me better."

"Sure you are," the blonde giggled, patting the shorter girl on the head in a deliberately patronizing manner. "You just keep telling yourself that." Feeling more awake, she lifted into the air, darted around her sister, and dived into the bathroom. "Ha! First!" She closed the door and locked it, smirking when she heard an aggrieved yelp then a thump on the wood. "Too slow!"

"You said you'd stop doing that!"

"I lied!"

She grinned at herself in the mirror as vicious muttering trailed away down the hall and vanished into Amy's bedroom. No doubt she'd pay for that, but it was still funny.

Twenty minutes later she was sitting at the breakfast table pouring herself a bowl of cereal, while her mother made a pot of very strong coffee and her father ate some bacon and eggs, looking oddly happy all things considered. He was definitely more perky and with the moment than he often seemed to be, which pleased her. She smiled at him, receiving a smile back that warmed her inside.

Amy, hair still damp, came into the kitchen and sat down beside her, giving her a mildly annoyed look, to which she responded with a wink. The brunette sighed a little before reaching for the cereal. Carol put the carafe of steaming coffee on the table and sat next to her husband, pouring him a mugful when he pushed the vessel towards her. Amy did the same, so she filled that one too.

"Aunt Sarah is coming here first?" Amy asked, as she pulled her full mug back and added a little milk to it.

"Yes, she and the others will be here in a few minutes," their mother said, glancing at the clock on the microwave oven. "You're going to be at the DWU yard, I take it?"

"I'll be hanging around there in case anything happens," Amy nodded, eating her cereal. "Ianthe and Metis are going to be with the Protectorate, but if they're needed for healing they can help out as well."

"All right. Stay out of trouble, please, I'd prefer to get both daughters back at the end of the day." The older woman fixed them both with a severe look. "That goes for you too, Vicky. Please attempt to pay enough attention that you don't fly through any more buildings."

Vicky blushed a little, and both Amy and their father suddenly grinned, exchanging humorous glances.

" _Please_ let it drop, mom," Vicky sighed, staring at her bowl with an embarrassed feeling.

"Hmph." The elder Dallon woman give her a somewhat disapproving look, but didn't say any more on the subject. The family ate quietly for a little while, both girls having bacon and eggs as well when they'd finished the cereal, and were in the process of clearing the table when the front door opened.

"Carol?" Aunt Sarah's voice called.

"In the kitchen," their mother called back. Moments later, there were four more people coming into the room. Vicky jumped up and hugged her cousins, Amy offering them both some of the fresh pot of coffee she'd put on. Crystal accepted with a sigh and a smile of thanks.

"God, I need _so much_ coffee to stay awake at this time of morning," the young woman commented, before draining half the precious black liquid. She looked around, then back to the other two girls. "You're somehow looking much more awake than you should be, Amy," she added suspiciously. Amy smirked at her.

"That's what she said," the brunette chuckled, nodding to her sister. "I put it down to just being the most highly-evolved person present."

"You would," Eric snickered, making himself a sandwich with the bread left on the counter and some ham from the fridge.

"Do you _ever_ stop eating, Eric?" his own sister grumbled. Mouth full, he shrugged, not looking at all embarrassed.

"Growing boy," he replied when he'd swallowed.

"Going to be growing sideways if you keep that up," Crystal muttered, making the others all laugh. She drank the rest of her coffee, looking around.

"So what's the plan?" she asked when she'd finished the mug.

"We're going to be meeting our contact at the PRT building at quarter past five," Aunt Sarah replied. She checked the time. "Which means we need to change and head out in the next ten minutes. I don't want to be late, it's unprofessional. Not to mention embarrassing." Her sister nodded agreement.

"The reputation of our group will be affected by this operation, good _or_ bad, so let's do our best to make certain it's good, shall we?" Carol added, looking at each of them in turn.

"I think we'll manage, Carol," her husband said calmly. "Come on, everyone, get changed and we can move out."

"New Wave, Assemble!" Eric shouted, sticking a fist in the air. Amy nearly fell over laughing and his sister shook her head in despair.

"We should never have let you go to the movies," Crystal sighed. "You're far too impressionable."

The young man grinned at her, then stuffed the rest of his sandwich in his mouth and picked up the bag he, along with the others, had his costume in. "Can I use your room, Amy?" he asked.

"Sure, go ahead," she nodded, still snickering.

Ten minutes later, seven of the eight people were going out the front door. Vicky, who was next to last, with their father bringing up the rear, stopped to smile at her sister. "See you later, Ames," she said.

"Be careful," the other girl said, giving her a quick hug. "Look after the others."

"Will do," Vicky replied, pulling her helmet on and doing up the straps. They grinned at each other then she left, Mark closing the door. Moments later the fliers of the team were air-lifting the others towards the PRT building, the very first hints of dawn starting to break in the east over the sea.

* * *

Amy watched her family disappear into the distance, able to see them for a lot further than they'd have believed due to her much improved symbiote-tweaked vision. When they were out of sight, she pulled out her phone.

"Everyone's left," she said when the number she dialed was answered. "I'll be there in ten minutes."

"OK. See you shortly," Lisa replied, sounding very slightly predatory. "This should be fun."

"Ohhh, yes," she chuckled. Disconnecting, the healer left the house and locked up, getting into her truck and driving off through the nearly empty streets.

It looked like it was going to be a good day.

* * *

Taylor silently popped into existence inside the BBFO office, having made it there in five jumps directly from her bedroom. Lisa, who happened to be looking in her direction, yelped and jumped back with her arms raising into a combat stance, then relaxed.

"Fuck, please don't _do_ that!" she snapped. "You lunatic. Appearing out of nowhere in front of people like a crazy person."

Taylor grinned. "I'm still getting to grips with this ability and how amazingly easy it makes moving around," she explained. "I wanted to see how fast I could get from home to here."

"So?"

"About four seconds. I can probably do better with practice."

Appearing curious, her friend shook her head in wonder. "Did you teleport to specific places, or what?"

"Jumped into free air, it seemed easiest," Taylor said. "Went about a thousand feet up, cloaked, then three jumps at maximum range, then the last one into here. It's fun, if nothing else."

"Is your range going to expand, do you think?" the blonde asked as she went over to the coffee machine. Taylor switched to Saurial, producing her second aspect as another copy of the lizard-girl and letting the Varga control it. "I know you said it was around a mile and a half to start with."

"It's somewhat more than that now that we've fairly effectively optimized the process, Lisa," the demon said. He walked over to the machine and filled a cup of his own. Taylor watched with amusement, he really liked coffee. "We have it up to approximately two miles at the moment. I feel we can improve on that with time, although I don't know what the maximum will ultimately be. Or indeed if there will be one."

"I still can't believe you managed to do that as a _byproduct_ of another ability," Lisa sighed enviously, sitting down. "You definitely got all the best powers. Amy needs to pull her finger out and figure out some cool ones for the rest of us."

Both Taylor and her twin laughed. "I'm sure she will soon enough, Lisa," Varga smiled.

"I hope so," the blonde replied with a grin.

Taylor moved over to the table and started making a number of items. Lisa picked one up and looked at it. "Gas mask?"

"More or less. Organic vapor and activated charcoal filter. It should keep most of the smell out. I told Dad I'd make enough for all the DWU volunteers. Hopefully the Yard is far enough away not to get it too badly. The wind is blowing a little away from us, anyway." She kept making the things, the Varga moving to help. Shortly they had a pile of about a hundred and fifty masks, which they boxed up in a series of crates. "He'll come and pick them up when he gets in, which should be any time now."

All three looked around at the sound of a familiar engine approaching. Going over to the main door Taylor hit the switch to raise it, letting Amy drive right inside without stopping, then closed it again after a quick look around outside. There was no sign of any of the DWU workers at the moment, although she could hear people moving around in the other buildings and Rachel's dogs grumbling to themselves next door.

Their friend opened the door of the vehicle and jumped out, looking excited and happy. Flicking the door shut with her tail as she turned towards them, she rubbed her hands together. "Ready to really worry a lot of people?" she giggled.

"Damn right I am," Lisa grinned darkly. "I've been waiting for this day for a long time. Coil, we're coming for you..."

"Let's slip into something a lot more dangerous and go find the PRT, then," the healer snickered, unlocking her workroom. She slipped inside, Lisa following, as Taylor and Varga exchanged amused looks, the demon finishing his coffee. Very soon, ' _Cousin_ ' Ianthe and ' _Cousin_ ' Metis came out again.

{Well, my Family, shall we get on with it?} Taylor asked, as her other aspect became Raptaur. Both her friends armored up, Lisa holding up her hands which were crackling with electricity. Her scales were night-black, the scarlet highlights turned off, and she looked very dangerous and very pleased.

{After you, dear cousin Saurial,} she said politely. {You were the first of us to arrive in this nice city, you should be the one to lead us into battle.}

{Hardly a battle,} ' _Ianthe_ ' snickered. {More like pest control. But still fun.} She held up a box. {Some spare one-shots. Just in case.}

{Good idea,} Taylor said, watching as she popped open a compartment in her armor and tucked the box away. {Let's go to work.}

Heading to the rear door she opened it, the others following her out. It closed, there were four splashes, and they began swimming towards the shoreline at the rear of the PRT building where they'd arranged to meet up with the PRT and Protectorate.

* * *

Landing on the helipad on top of the PRT building, the various New Wave members disentangled themselves from their rides. The PRT trooper who had waved them in with a light wand approached. "Good morning," he said politely, with a crisp salute. "Lieutenant Gibson is waiting for you in secure conference room two, if you'll follow me please."

Sarah looked at her family, then turned back to the corporal. "Certainly," she smiled.

Doing an about-face, he headed towards the access door to the building. They went after him, Sarah nodding to the two other troopers stationed at the door itself. The corporal waved an access pass over a reader, then walked through when the two armored doors slid open with a faint hiss.

A couple of minutes later they were all in the conference room. As they'd walked through the corridors, Sarah had noticed bundles of cables strung everywhere, along with a lot of computer and comms equipment piled wherever it would fit, little lights winking away showing it was all working. Technicians were running around all over the place tending to their electronic charges, looking harried but intent.

"Sorry about the mess," Lieutenant Gibson said as he closed the door, waving them to chairs. "The install is done, but we can't move anything until the switchover is complete. It's something of a trip hazard."

"It must have taken you a lot of effort to get all that done so fast," Carol noted. He nodded with a sigh.

"It's been driving the techs nuts since this time yesterday, to be honest. Everyone put in a hell of a lot of overtime and Dragon was working steadily the entire day without a break. The woman is unstoppable." He prodded buttons on the coffee machine in the corner. "Help yourselves if you want coffee or tea," he added, moving to the table when he got a plastic cup full of steaming liquid out of the thing. "It's not as good as the coffee at BBFO, but it's got caffeine in it, so it'll do."

Once everyone had a drink, they all sat down. "OK. Have you briefed the rest of your group on the mission, Lady Photon?" he asked, looking at her.

Sarah shook her head. "I only told them enough to get them here, I didn't want to risk your security, just in case something went wrong."

"Fair enough. Thank you." The dark-haired man looked around the table at the others. "Basically, we're shutting Coil down hard. To cut a very long story short, the bastard infiltrated and compromised the local PRT system, at a minimum, and may have gone further, over a period of at least seven years that we can prove so far. It might be longer. He even managed to subvert the Rig systems too."

"How the fuck did he manage that?" Neil asked in shock.

"He was one of us," Gibson sighed, making everyone other than Sarah and Carol gape at him. "Retired special forces Commander Thomas Calvert."

"Calvert!?" the huge man repeated in stunned amazement. "That skinny guy who makes you want to wash your hand when he shakes it?"

"The very same. You've met, I assume," the lieutenant chuckled, still appearing irritated but not at them.

"We've run into him at a couple of functions over the years," Neil nodded. "Never liked him."

"Very few people do, but his service record was exemplary. He's very smart, in a very specific way that the PRT found valuable. Unfortunately, it now looks like he was working more for himself than us for a long time. He was at Ellisburg with Director Piggot. She personally found him extremely annoying even before all this came to light. They have a… history." The PRT man shrugged. "Not in a good way. Now she hates his guts and would probably pay to see them mounted on her wall. The big problem is that he not only literally designed and wrote a worryingly large amount of our Cape protocols, but his power set appears to have allowed him to work out exploits and bypasses for all of them. He knows the PRT inside out."

"How did all this come to light?" Eric asked.

"Need you ask?" Carol said with a dry look.

"Ah. The Family."

"Of course."

Gibson nodded, looking somewhat amused now. "Those weird reptiles do seem to have a knack for making bizarre things happen on a regular basis. Yes, it was through the Family that we found out, initially from Tattletale of the Undersiders, who seems to have taken refuge with them from Lung. Another long story. Anyway, it turned out that she had been working for Coil under duress and when she ended up making friends with the Family, they made a deal with the Director. She told us everything, Miss Militia and several other people went to a lot of trouble to investigate, and we've found out a lot more since then."

"I assume you also found some double agents as well," Carol commented.

He frowned. "Unfortunately true. More than we expected. We dug out several people that were selling information to the E88, and the ABB as well, fairly quickly when we started seriously looking. Coil had a number of much higher-placed agents. We're fairly sure we've got all of them now, although we left one or two in place to keep feeding him information. Information we _let_ them pass along, of course." His expression turned fairly malicious. "We persuaded them it was in their best interests to play along. With him stuck in his base, where he's been holed up for close on two months now, they didn't have anywhere to turn, so they fell into line. It'll make the sentence a little lighter when all this is over."

"Can you be completely certain they're all accounted for?"

"Pretty much. We have some very good precogs we've been using to help us. There's only a tiny chance that we missed anyone. The compromised computers are being entirely replaced so that part isn't going to be an issue either. Once he's dug out of his hole and his mercs are all locked up, we're going to have one hell of a lot of work to do, but for now we're concentrating on the main goal."

He looked around again. Sarah did as well, seeing that her family were listening intently, apparently fascinated and concerned in equal measure. "The assault on his base, which is in an unfinished Endbringer shelter under the middle of the commercial district, is going to take all our own combat-ready Parahumans and a large number of other personnel. We're going to have to shut down the entire computer system both here and on the Rig at the same time, just before we start the assault, to make sure no booby-traps we might have missed go off. That means we're not only short-handed if anyone tries to take advantage of the situation, but we're running on very limited comms and data capacity."

"Which is what we're here for," Sarah added, looking at each of her relatives. Vicky seemed thoughtful, Eric was definitely excited, and Crystal was sipping her coffee with a small frown furrowing her brow. The older members were listening with interest, Neil and Mark exchanging a glance and a slight smile.

"Precisely. The odds are low that anything serious will happen, the precogs agree, but they're not zero. Nowhere close, actually, since this is still Brockton Bay." Gibson smiled as they all laughed for a moment. "The ' _shit happens_ ' capital of the country. So, what we're going to do is form up seven squads, eight troopers each with one of you as well. All the people involved are highly trained and very trustworthy. You're along to provide Parahuman backup if required. Two of the teams are technical squads, who will be dealing with the two small off-site data silos we know Coil has. The other five are general combat teams, for anything that happens to kick off during the period the main base assault is going on, up to the point the new system comes online. That is supposed to be some time in the late afternoon."

He inspected them all. "It's going to be a long day, but with any luck a fairly quiet one. However, we can't assume everything will go smoothly, which is why we need your aid."

Carol looked around at her family. All of them indicated they were fine with that. She turned back to him, saying, "We're pleased to help out."

"Thank you, Brandish." Picking up a clipboard, he quickly looked through it. Sarah could see it had dossiers on all of them. "We'd like Glory Girl and Shielder to go with the tech teams. We're working on the basis that there probably isn't going to be any fighting as such at the remote sites, but there may be automated defenses of some sort. A high level Brute and a Shaker/Blaster who can make force-fields are good choices against that sort of thing. Are you both up for that assignment?"

Vicky nodded, while Eric replied, "Sure. Sounds like an interesting job."

"You'll be under the command of your squad leader for the day," Gibson cautioned. "I know neither of you is familiar with military discipline, but it's important that you listen to the leader and only do what you're told to do. Obviously, if for whatever reason your abilities are required, you must act appropriately, but you also need to communicate your actions to the rest of your team or everyone is at risk. Can you work under those conditions?"

Both teenagers nodded, exchanging a look. "I think we can, Lieutenant," Vicky replied calmly, making Sarah smile and Carol nod approvingly. "We'll make sure we listen."

"Thank you. Your squad leader will have a full mission briefing for you downstairs when we deploy. Now, the rest of you will each go with another team, as I said. Two will remain here at the PRT facility as backup, the others will be deployed at strategic positions throughout the city. With any luck, everyone is simply going to be paid to sit there all day, but..." He waved a hand in a gesture indicating how things could change without warning.

Seeing that there were no objections, he picked a large duffel bag off the floor and put it on the table, standing to open it. "These are your communication units, and data tablets, the same thing all our troops are now equipped with." He handed out a number of wrist-mounted computers along with some earpieces. "Armsmaster has modified the earpieces to have an external antenna since we know your costumes are lined with EDM which would block the radio signal. You'll have to feed the wire out from under your helmets, but it's very thin, so I don't think that will be uncomfortable."

He filled them in on the rest of the plan after that, including the deliberate ' _accidental_ ' chemical spill, while handing out some respirators that would deal with the smell. Hopefully. They hadn't yet been tested. Gibson spent ten minutes showing them all the basic operations of the comm units and the wrist computers. Eventually they all had them fitted.

"So to recap, channel three for squad comms, two for group comms, one for PRT console. In the event of any action requiring intervention, Dispatch will pass the call along to the nearest team. If there's an emergency broadcast, everyone will hear it. Channel zero is the emergency override. _Don't_ use it unless you mean it, or the Director will yell at everyone involved. A _lot_. Console will track all the comm units so we know where everyone is. Any questions?"

Crystal raised a hand.

"Yes, Laserdream?"

"I assume that we would normally only talk to our squad, and the leader will talk to the console operator?"

"Yes. You can listen in, but try to avoid any unnecessary chatter even on local comms. With the main system down and only the portable relays in use, bandwidth is limited and we want to reserve as much as possible for serious issues."

"OK. Thank you."

"No problem. Anyone else?"

They exchanged glances, but no one seemed to have anything else to ask. "Great." He looked at his watch. "Just in time. If you'll come with me, I'll introduce you to your squads. The main operation will be starting pretty soon so we need to be ready."

They left the room and headed towards the nearest elevator, carefully stepping over and ducking under the wiring strung all around the place.

* * *

"They're here," Hannah said, hearing a faint splash and looking around to see Raptaur climb out of the bay, shaking the water off herself like a huge scaly dog. Saurial, Metis, and Ianthe followed her and did much the same. Still somewhat damp, the four reptiles joined them just outside the parking garage entrance where they'd been waiting.

"Hello, everyone," Saurial said.

"Hello," Colin replied. "Let's go inside and we can begin." They all headed into the underground garage, which was being used as a staging post. Colin had arranged to have several tables set up in one part of the vast, low-ceilinged room. These were covered with large printed plans, along with a number of Draco-Tech high end tablets containing the same data.

"I think everyone is here now," Hannah said as they arrived at the tables. She looked around, counting in her head. The entire Protectorate contingent was there, along with Legend and Dragon, Lieutenants Pratchett and Gaiman with their squads of a dozen troopers each, the Director, and a number of technical experts.

"How do you want to start this off?" the lizard-girl asked, looking around, then moving to inspect the plans of the underground base, which were the original blueprints that had been updated with as much information as they'd been able to deduce in the last few days. She ran a clawed fingertip down the presumed route of one of the escape tunnels, looking thoughtful.

Raptaur stepped up beside her, while Metis and Ianthe went over to the next table and began studying the plans there, although they were obviously listening as well.

Colin moved over from where he'd been watching one of the techs do something complicated on a portable terminal, standing on Saurial's other side. Everyone listened as he said, "We will have the last elements in place in approximately five minutes. New Wave are being briefed on their assignments now, and will be deployed shortly. The nitrogen levels in the bunker exhaust dropped back to normal values at just after midnight, as Ianthe suggested would happen, so we are sure that the self-destruct charges have been rendered harmless. There's been no signs that the inhabitants have changed their behavior so we're virtually certain that Coil and his people are unaware of what's happening."

"We've also got trusted people watching the three remaining known double-agents very carefully," Hannah added. "As soon as the assault starts they'll be taken to be detained, just in case one of them tries to be clever. We also have surveillance on all critical infrastructure and communications areas on the assumption that we may have missed someone. I'm almost certain we haven't, and our precogs agree, but there's no sense taking any chances."

"Sounds like a sensible precaution," Ianthe noted, turning around to watch them. Her sister did the same thing.

"We have people standing by to cut all the comms lines to the bunker on demand," Lieutenant Pratchett said. "We can turn off the power at any time as well, although it will mean blacking out about three blocks around the facility since we can't get close enough to just cut the main feed without alerting them."

"Although that's only going to let them know something is going on, since they have internal backup power that will come online immediately," Colin put in. "It's possibly a short distraction but it's not particularly useful unless we, or rather, you, can disable the internal power generation systems."

"That's not too hard," Raptaur remarked, glancing at her sister. "We were planning on turning out the lights anyway. Only problem is that you guys won't be able to see anything."

"We have these," Battery said, holding up a pair of Dragon-supplied night vision googles, with ultraviolet illuminators on the sides. They were less than a third the bulk of the best standard military-issue ones the PRT normally used, looking like somewhat thick sunglasses with oddly colored lenses. "We should be able to see in total darkness with them on."

"OK, that problem isn't a problem, then," the lizard nodded. "What about the thioacetone?"

"That's here," Dragon said, opening a small and heavily padded case then carefully removing a small vial. "Two hundred milligrams. Not much, but it will make half the city feel ill." She looked at the vial in her hand, then at Saurial, who had started grinning for no obvious reason. "Oh, for god's… Why didn't you say anything?"

Hannah, along with half the room, looked between the lizard-girl and the armored Tinker, who was emoting good-humored irritation somehow.

"You didn't ask," Saurial said. She held out her hand, in which an identical vial appeared. Hannah looked at it with her eyebrows up, thought for a moment, then sighed.

"You can make it go away after a specific amount of time so we don't need to decontaminate the city," she groaned. "Why didn't I think of that?"

"I managed not to see the obvious either," Colin pointed out. "Even though I'm well aware of their matter-creation ability." He looked severely at Saurial, who didn't seem affected by it. "And their unusual sense of humor."

"Sorry. I was curious to see how long it would take you," the reptilian cape chuckled. Handing the vial to Dragon, she added, "It'll last about four hours, which should be more than enough."

"I'd think so," the Tinker replied, putting her original container back into the case, then marking the new one with a pen she picked off the table before placing that into the case as well. "I'd better not mix them up. That would be embarrassing."

"How are you going to make sure the smell doesn't affect the troops?" Metis asked.

"With these," Colin responded, showing her a small low profile filter mask. "We modified the respirator filter cartridge to contain some of the neutralizing agent. It will filter out the thioacetone almost completely, although I suspect enough will get through to make it obvious even so. The literature on it is sparse as no one really wants to experiment, so we don't have any really good data on what the minimum detectable concentration actually is."

"How will it affect you four?" Rory asked.

"It pretty much won't," Raptaur replied, glancing at him. "We can choose to ignore specific scents."

"Useful."

"It can be," she smiled. "All right, it sounds like everything is ready."

"You'll need these," Colin said, handing each of them an earpiece. "Although they're designed for a more… human… head."

Saurial inspected the one she was holding, then nodded. "Easy enough," she said, holding it to the place Hannah assumed her hearing organ was, on the side of her head. The discreet harness that was holding her camera in place on the other side changed slightly, creating a mount that fixed the earpiece in position. Raptaur did much the same, then turned to Ianthe and Metis and modified the armor they were wearing to do the same job.

"Thanks, cousin," Ianthe said approvingly.

Colin showed them how to use the earpieces, which only took a minute or so.

Director Piggot, who had been watching and listening with a faintly irritated expression, now stepped forward. "Assuming there aren't any more issues, we should get started. Saurial, Raptaur, you do whatever it is that you're going to do to infiltrate the base. We'll create our inconvenient incident, and we should be ready to evacuate the affected area by half past six. I'm about to call Danny Hebert and his people and tell them where to go and when."

"The city is going to have a rather unpleasant wake-up call," Metis pointed out.

"We'll deal with the complaints later," Emily sighed. She looked around at the several dozen people there. "Any last minute issues?"

No one seemed to have anything further to add.

"Good. Let's get to work." She left, heading back into the PRT building itself.

Saurial and Raptaur huddled with Metis and Ianthe for a moment, discussing something in their language, then separated. The first two nodded to the assembled PRT people, left the large basement, and vanished into the dark.

"They'll be in position in a few minutes, you may as well drop your little stink bomb as soon as you can get to the right place," Metis told Dragon.

"I think I'll do it from the air, I don't want my armor smelling that bad even for a few hours," the Canadian said wryly. "I think you'll know when I've done it. The wind is blowing in this direction..."

She also left, her jets deploying and lifting her into the air moments later. Hannah had followed her to the door and watched the light from the exhausts disappear into the sky, before rejoining the others.

"We just have to wait for the horrible smell now," Ethan said with a grin.

He stopped grinning very abruptly about ten minutes later. Then he threw up.

So did several other people.

"I think she dropped it," Hannah said weakly, grabbing for one of the masks and pulling it on over her scarf with haste. The overpowering and near-indescribable stink rolled through the entire garage like a wave of olfactory napalm. "Fuck me, that's _unbelievable_." She was relieved to find out that the mask dealt with the smell to a large extent, although she could still detect it even so.

"Medic!" Ethan gasped from the floor, grabbing at the table with little twitches of a hand. Metis chuckled and hauled him to his feet, handing him one of the filter masks.

"It's pretty unpleasant," she noted. Everyone turned to gape at her.

"Unpleasant?!" Battery looked appalled. "Just… unpleasant?"

The reptile shrugged. "It must affect humans more."

The blonde woman stared over her respirator, then shook her head, muttering to herself in disbelieving tones that were too faint to make out.

Hannah decided there and then that if they needed proof that the Family weren't human, that would do it. She could almost _see_ the smell, even with the mask on.

Hopefully it would do the job. If not, she didn't know what would…

* * *

{We're in place,} Taylor said via her Saurial aspect.

{ _OK. Dragon dropped her load_ ,} Lisa snickered.

{We noticed,} she replied dryly. {That's a good way to describe it.}

{ _You should have seen what happened here,_ } her friend said, the grin coming through the earpiece clearly. { _It definitely causes a lot more problems to a human olfactory system than to us. Assault went_ ** _green_** _. Then he exploded._ }

{Figuratively, I hope,} the Varga said from ' _Raptaur_ ', using their Taylor filter to make it sound like her.

{ _Not as much as you'd want_ ,} the other girl laughed. { _Battery is still wiping vomit off his costume. And she doesn't look pleased about it._ }

{Poor guy.} She looked at her other aspect and her closest friend controlling it. ' _Ready to have some fun?_ '

" _Always_ " he smiled.

' _Cameras on, then_.'

Both of then switched the head mounted cameras on. They were cloaked in the storm drain right on the other side of one of the doors they'd sealed the night before.

With a look at each other, they disappeared. Some careful surveillance lay ahead of them, a little computer sabotage, some other preparations, then they could start the main work.

Coil and his people were about to have a very strange morning.

* * *

Colin listened to the incomprehensible talk in the Family language on their private channel, wondering if the recordings would ever be able to be translated. Metis looked over at him. "They're inside. Comms seem unaffected so far."

"Good. I hoped that would be the case, but we weren't sure if he'd shielded the base."

"Apparently not. Saurial says she can smell the RDX is definitely neutralized. They're mapping the base now, it should take about an hour to get a good idea of where everything is. When they've done that, they'll deal with the computers, then signal us. You can cut the comms any time after that."

"Excellent. Coil and his men will realize they're under attack at that point, no question, if they haven't up until then. Hopefully your relatives can sow enough chaos to keep them occupied and disorganized long enough for us to get inside and help."

"Oh, I doubt that will be too much trouble," Ianthe snickered. "Chaos is something of a hobby with us."

"We've noticed," Craig mumbled, causing her to grin.

"The Mayor just called, sir," one of the technicians said, turning around from his terminal. "He's liaising with the Director. He doesn't sound happy."

"I'm not surprised," Colin replied. "The smell is considerably worse than I expected." He made some notes. "This is useful data, I must arrange to update the records with it when we finish the operation," he added in an undertone. When he looked up again, everyone was staring at him. Metis looked amused for some reason, while Hannah seemed resigned.

"We're getting data from the scanners you gave the infiltration team," another tech commented before he could ask why they were looking at him like that. Moving over to the woman, he watched as the three-dimensional projection in front of her began to slowly change, updating itself with new information. Pleased, he made sure to copy it into his armor's systems. "It's already definitely larger than the blueprints show."

"As we expected," he said, nodding. "Excellent. Now all we have to do is wait for the press release, then begin the evacuation. As soon as we know the area is clear, we can begin the assault itself."

They all watched the display gradually extend itself, as two reptilian capes explored an underground facility some miles away, somehow not being noticed by any of the people inside. He briefly wondered how they'd managed to get inside, and how they were arranging to be ignored, thinking absently it was probably proof of the same sort of ability that Umihebi had demonstrated months ago. He should have expected it ran in the family.

That was something to be looked at later. Now, though, he had more immediate things to concentrate on.

* * *

Roy gagged, breathing through his mouth, as the wind direction changed a little outside his office. Even with the window shut and the air conditioning running flat out, which was making the place almost arctic in temperature, the smell was unbearable. He'd been able to smell it from his house, and that was at least five miles away upwind. The entire city could probably smell that hellish stuff.

"Jesus, Emily, you said it smelled bad. This isn't _bad_ , this is Satan's asshole after a rotten skunk curry. I'm going to get lynched over this."

"It's a lot worse here, Roy, we're directly downwind of the fucking release point, so suck it up and live with it," the woman snapped. "Have you got your press releases ready?"

"Yes, we're already putting out the website changes, and we're expecting a local reporter any minute now. Assuming she doesn't drop dead from the smell on the way here. You're sure this will go away? If not, someone's going to nuke the place to make it stop." He had to swallow hard a couple of times to stop himself having a sudden attack of puking.

He'd already heard other people lose that battle somewhere else in the building.

"Saurial made the chemical, it'll dissipate in about three and a half hours, she said," Director Piggot assured him. "Thank god. All right, thank you, I'd better get back to the operation."

"And I have a meeting with the chief of the BBPD, who is in a very bad mood right now," Roy sighed. "Something I can't blame him for. This is a little excessive."

"Can't be helped. I've contacted the DWU, you'll have a bit over a hundred volunteers shortly to help out."

"OK. Thanks for that. And you owe me a _serious_ favor."

"I know, Roy, and I doubt you'll ever let me forget it." Emily sounded resigned. "I'll talk later, I have work to do."

"As do I. Good luck."

"You too." She hung up, so he did as well. Swallowing again, he looked at the cup of coffee on his desk, then went a funny color.

No, he didn't think putting anything else into his stomach at this point was a good idea…

Sighing, he got up and headed towards the door, for an interview with the local TV station, then a talk with the Chief of police that he wasn't looking forward to.

The man's house was only a mile from the place the ' _spill_ ' had occurred in, and apparently his children had delicate stomachs.

* * *

Sergeant Owens sniffed, then slapped a hand over his face. "Mother of _God!_ " he growled. "What the _fuck_ is that _stench?_ "

It was the worst thing he'd ever smelled in his life, and he'd uncovered mass graves in the deserts of Africa, huge quantities of literally fermenting corpses under the ground. He'd never thought he'd come across anything to even match that particular experience, never mind exceed it, but he sure as hell had now.

And it was getting worse.

"No idea, sir," Nielsen said, gagging at the stink. He was trying to cover his mouth and nose with the crook of his arm, which made his speech almost unintelligible. "Nothing showing on the sensors. Whatever it is, it's at too low a concentration to register." He was looking through watering eyes at the remote tablet in his other hand. Owens grabbed it and flicked rapidly through the various graphs, seeing he was correct.

"Fuck, it's still getting stronger," he gasped. Shouts of alarm and anger were echoing around the entire base, the smell so bad it had obviously woken everyone up, including the day shift. The Captain was going to be on the warpath any moment now, as was Coil, no doubt. "An attack?"

"Nothing showing on the external cameras or sensors, sir," another technical specialist said from the security console, removing his hand for a moment from over his nose, then slamming it back. He was pale and sweating, looking like he wanted to puke. Judging by the sounds Owens could hear coming in through the door a number of people hadn't been able to suppress it.

He sympathized, he was nearly at that point himself. Nielsen was almost a pale green color. "Actually, the street is practically empty," the man added, switching between various cameras. "No, the entire city center is empty. Where the hell is everyone?"

"If it smells this bad out there, running like fuck," Nielsen said, swaying a little on his feet. "Or jumping into the bay. Or maybe shooting themselves just to get away from it."

"Check the news feed, Morales," Owens ordered. "I'm switching us over to internal support. Nielsen, ramp the fans up to maximum override, I want to blow whatever it is out of the fucking place before we all pass out."

"A complete air exchange will use up nearly twenty percent of our stored air," the other man commented, his voice strained, even as he moved to follow the order.

"Can't avoid it, it's that or we choke to death," Owens gasped, trying not to breath too much as he flicked switches, then typed in a password on the environmental console. A series of distant thuds sounded as vents closed all through the base, followed by a hissing sound. Seconds later the huge fans that pumped air through the facility ran up to a deep bass roar, making the floor tremble faintly. A distinct wind rose in the room, blowing papers around, which was more than a little unsettling in an underground base.

If anything, the smell actually got worse for a couple of minutes, but slowly began to die back. Sure his sense of scent was probably damaged for life, Owens waited for another couple of minutes, then slowly removed his hand from over his mouth and nose, cautiously sniffing.

It still stank, but it was at the level of ' _bad drains_ ' rather than ' _inner circle of hell on a hot day when the sewers had exploded_ ' now. He could deal with that.

"Got a news flash, Sergeant," Morales said, looking slightly less ill. Tapping a control he redirected the cable channel to the main monitor and turned the volume up. It showed Mayor Christner, along with a number of his people, talking to a local reporter that Owens vaguely recognized. All of them seemed to be having trouble breathing.

" _...cording to our experts, the unpleasant smell is the result of a small accidental chemical release at the BBU research facility on Bay Road. I must stress that there is no danger to citizens, despite the overwhelming stench,_ " the Mayor was saying. " _I have ordered an emergency shut down and evacuation of the entire area, which encompasses approximately eighty percent of the commercial district. BBPD is in the process of closing the affected streets, backed up by a large number of people from the DWU who have stepped forward to help. They will be acting as crowd control and aid for the police and any citizens who require help to evacuate. Both Endbringer shelters have been opened for people affected to go to, if they wish. We have also asked the PRT for help in containing and decontaminating the spill._ "

" _And you are certain that lives are not at risk, sir?_ " the reporter asked. She was definitely looking unwell. " _It's hard to believe considering how appalling the smell is_."

" _Yes, Andrea, my experts tell me that the chemical involved is called thioacetone and is widely regarded as having the worst smell on record_ ," Mayor Christner replied. " _I think we can probably confirm that for ourselves_." He tried to smile, but didn't manage to pull it off very convincingly. " _The PRT technical teams have told us that the quantities involved are actually very small, but a little goes a long way. They believe they can contain and fully decontaminate the facility by mid-morning, and say that based on the prevailing wind direction and speed they think the air will have cleared by late afternoon worst case. Normal operation of the commercial district will resume before Monday morning business opening, thankfully. I'm just relieved that this accident was good enough to happen early on Sunday, rather than at lunch time on a work day._ "

" _That would have been much worse, I agree, sir,_ " the reporter commented. " _Do we know what happened to cause the spill?_ "

" _Not in detail, so far, but preliminary reports suggest it was a failure in an automated chemical mixing unit, possibly due to some software error. The chemical causing this current problem was most likely produced accidentally in the process of the failure. Apparently such things have happened before, although not in the US. Rest assured that there will be a full investigation and reparations will be available for anyone seriously affected._ "

The Mayor looked directly at the camera. " _The city administration wishes to apologize to all residents of the city for the inconvenience and chaos. A map of the affected area is already up on our website. Please follow the orders of the police, evacuate the area, and let the PRT get on with their job so we can return to normal as fast as possible. I will be holding an official press conference about this sorry matter this evening, when we know more about what happened._ "

" _Thank you, Mayor Christner,_ " the reporter said when he finished talking. " _This is Andrea Whitby at city hall, reporting live for..._ " Morales muted the broadcast, turning his head to look at his superior.

"Looks like that explains it, sir," he said. "Fucking geeks dropped a test tube or something."

"Someone's going to get it in the balls," Owens nodded. "Even with the district nearly empty on a Sunday, there's going to be a lot of very pissed off people shouting at the Mayor." He shrugged, smiling grimly. "Not our problem."

"What the hell is going on?" a voice yelled behind them, making all three mercenaries turn to see their commanding officer, a tall and very solidly build ex-Marine, stomp into the room. "What in god's name is that smell? Who authorized the environmental switch-over?"

"I did, sir, and the smell is apparently something called thioacetone," Owens replied as calmly as he could. Captain Smith was the sort of person who, when he was having a bad day, made sure everyone else around him did as well. He was a very experienced military man, had led them both into and back out of a number of odd jobs over the years, and overall his men were loyal to him and he to them, but he did have one hell of a temper.

And _really_ didn't like jokes about his name, which genuinely was John Smith.

"Never heard of it," Smith growled.

"Neither have I, Captain," Owens said with a shrug. "We just saw a press briefing from the Mayor's office explaining it. Some sort of spill in a lab down town, they've shut the middle of the city down and evacuated it so it can be handled. Even got those Union guys running crowd control again like they did with Kaiju."

"Dangerous?"

"Apparently not, just stinks worse than anything I've ever heard of. The PRT is handling decontamination. That's all we know."

"Fuck." Their superior went over to the control console, Morales moving to the side to allow him to check for himself. After a couple of minutes, the captain grunted reluctant approval. "OK. I'll tell Coil. Double the patrols, just in case this is some sort of trick. Get Jefferson in here to man the secondary security console, then check the tunnel exits, I don't want to find out the hard way someone's using this as a cover for sneaking in through the sewers or something."

"Sir." Owens nodded. "Seems a bit excessive for a decoy, though."

"Still don't like it. It's a change, I don't like changes I can't explain," Smith grumbled. "And Coil is even more paranoid than I am, so I have to go and calm him down again before he starts chewing the walls or something. Fucking capes, they're all mad as rabid dogs at the best of times."

"The man does seem to be a little tense recently," Owens smirked.

"Like all of us, holed up down here for nearly two months," Nielsen muttered under his breath.

"Shut up, Nielsen, at least you're earning combat pay the entire time," the captain snapped.

"Not like we can spend it on anything down here. We don't even have any computer access, or cable other than one news channel." Nielsen was about to add to his complaint, but spotted the dangerous glint in his boss's eye and wisely shut up.

Smith glared at him for a few seconds more just to make sure he knew his place, then looked back to Owens. "Make sure the day shift is up and helping while I go and talk to our lord and master, Sergeant."

"Sir," Owens said again, saluting him this time. Smith returned it and spun about, stomping off while radiating irritation.

"He's in a good mood," Morales commented quietly when he was certain the older man was well out of earshot. All three exchanged glances, then went off to follow the new orders.

Privately, Owens was just glad for something a little more interesting to do than re-read the same book for the third time. Coil's library was annoyingly sparse.

He could have done without the hellish reek, though.


	270. Guest Omake - The Typing Thing

**The Typing Thing**

 **(By CmptrWz)**

* * *

"What the," Lisa said as she entered the BBFO office. Taylor had shown up earlier, but Lisa had some DWU stuff to finish up before she could come over. The thing confusing Lisa was the spacial anomaly by the computers with several cables running into it. Walking over to the computer she determined that power, video, and USB connections were running into the anomaly.

She turned the monitor still attached the computer on to find the machine had been left in "mirror" mode, and that it was currently browsing PHO. As Kaiju?

Lisa decided this needed more investigation and got into Metis before heading out the back door. Heading over to where the tanker had been processed she found Taylor, as Kaiju, with a keyboard, trackball mouse, and monitor. The keyboard and mouse were Kaiju-sized, while the monitor was normal and sitting on an EDM pole. All the cables vanished into a spacial anomaly, identical to the one in the BBFO office.

"Hello cousin!" Taylor said as Metis approached. "Saurial and I finally figured out an easier way for me to use the internet."

"I can see that," Lisa responded. "I notice the keyboard is fairly quiet."

"I ended up using hydraulic pistons instead of springs," Taylor said. "The mouse was easier, though required some calibration."

Lisa wondered when her friend had figured out how to make and program the relevant electronics, but wasn't really surprised.

* * *

"That's something you don't see everyday," Dragon said, bringing up a PHO thread. Colin stopped poking at his project to take a look. The thread claimed to have video of Kaiju posting on PHO?

A few minutes later Dragon and Colin were both stunned. Colin recovered first. "If they didn't have tinker ratings already I think that would be justification to grant them."

"Hydraulic pistons?" Dragon said, apparently giving it some thought. "I wonder what configuration she used, though on that scale I am not surprised she didn't use springs."

"Looks like she posted a blueprint," Colin said, having scrolled through the thread to the most recent posts. "Though apparently her pistons work by virtue of compressed water not liking being compressed?"

"Kaiju's brute rating needs amending again," Hannah said as she entered. "Oh, you are already looking at the thread."

"I can't come up with a good way to determine how one would compress water in a way to make the blueprints work," Dragon admitted. "The pressure would need to be extreme, though."

* * *

"So how in the world do these blueprints work?" Amy, currently not inhabiting Ianthe as she wasn't around for long tonight. "I thought water was effectively incompressible."

"Well," Taylor said, scratching the back of her head. "It is a combination of things, mainly the fact that I split the water in two and phase-shift them from reality in opposite directions. It wants to act like a single body of water in-phase but when put under pressure the two halves are able to occupy the same space at the same time. Once the pressure is released the water tries to spread out again, pushing the piston out again."

"You couldn't just use springs?" Lisa asked, not having gotten that explanation yet.

"The ones that were strong enough didn't have sufficient travel distance," Taylor explained. "I gave up after crushing the fifth set."


	271. Guest Omake - The Toybox of DOOM!

**The Toybox of DOOM!**

 **(By CmptrWz)**

* * *

Taylor and Varga were working together to create various knick-knacks for the Family to have brought/re-created "from home". They even planned on having some of the "toys" and "teaching aids" pre-prepared in a box at home Taylor or Saurial could pull out during a math night. If only they knew what that would do to Vicky's theories.

"Think this has the right number of dimensions?" Taylor asked, holding up what had been a hollow tube. It was still shaped like a tube, but it no longer looked hollow, at least in three dimensions.

"Hmm," Varga said, looking up from what he was working on. "I'd twist the fifth a bit towards the eighth, but otherwise it looks good."

"I was aiming for a teaching aid for what happens with mis-aligned dimensions."

"Oh, right, in that case it should be good as-is."

The two of them had a small pile of items already, some duplicates so one could be brought to BBFO and another left in the box at home. This included some that were more crudely altered as though they had been childhood projects for the at home box with cleaner "re-made" versions from when said children were older, the latter sometimes being designated for at home and others being designated for BBFO.

Danny had provided a number of ideas as well, looking forward to (somewhat) being in on the joke beforehand. He still ran for the hills, metaphorically, when they started implementing things after dinner.

"I think this will make a good candidate for a 'toy'."

"Looks like a normal ball with fifth and sixth dimensional interactions."

"Close, that is fourth...no, wait, you are right, I apparently did that on the fifth. Good catch."

"Thank you. So it should trace interesting paths, depending on the spin you put on it when thrown."

"Yep. Rolling should be fun too. Also a good training aid for learning to apply spin in the higher dimensions."

"You might want to lock down the fourth a smidge more so it doesn't decide to go through the walls and floor, though. Or the user."

"Oooh, good point. Hadn't thought of that, given how easy things are to fix and how durable we are."

Yes, Danny had good reason to have run when he did. If only because some things were not meant to be known by man.

* * *

"Awww," Lisa whined as they found the internet wasn't working during math night. "What happened?"

"Not sure," Amy said, pulling her phone out. "Looks like I have voice but no data. Maybe something was just crashed into?"

"I'm dead in the water too," Vicky admitted, frowning. "What takes out everything at once?"

Taylor headed to call the ISP to see if they had a clue while Saurial checked and found that the cable was out, so no TV. They could still watch movies but they were planning on a PHO trawl before getting into math tonight. Chris even subtly checked his wards phone and found that it was in emergency data only mode, meaning that only the tinkertech data feed was working.

A few minutes later Taylor returned. "Something took out a common data relay station for the entire area. They don't know what yet, obviously."

"What will we do now?" Mandy asked. "A movie will take too long for Taylor's sensibilities."

"True," Taylor said, thinking. "Hey Saurial, think I should go grab that old box of toys and teaching aids we stored away?"

"That sounds like a wonderful idea," Saurial said, grinning. "That will give them some idea of what they could eventually work towards!"

"Be right back," Taylor said as she headed out of the room. Amy caught a smirk on Taylor's face and glared when nobody else was looking.

Due to being out of the loop in this case, not knowing that a box of items would shortly be making its way to BBFO, Amy had no idea what to expect. Which was both annoying _and_ worrying.

Vicky, on the other hand, was wondering how often Saurial was around if they had an old box of stuff just being stored. If they had an old collection of toys and teaching aids stored here then that would validate Saurial having grown up with the Heberts.

Everyone else was looking confused, afraid to ask Saurial what "toys and teaching aids" meant.

It didn't take long for Taylor to return with a box, which she put on the table.

"Now be careful with these," Taylor said, pulling out a perfectly ordinary child's ball. This worried Amy quite a bit, though Vicky thought that she had been overthinking things again. "Even the ones that don't appear to be odd aren't necessarily normal as you probably see it."

Taylor then threw the ball with a gentle underhand toss to the left, and it traced a gentle lazy spiral around a semicircular path around the room until it caught by Saurial. Vicky struck down her previous thoughts about over-thinking things immediately, growing concerned about what else was in the box. She was then handed the ball by Saurial and, after a moment, gently tossed it upwards. It traced a couple of figure eights a moment before coming back down and landing perfectly in her hand. She smirked and tossed the ball up again, having it trace a knot in the air this time before landing back in her hand. She wasn't sure why, but she just understood how the ball worked.

Chris headed over to Taylor to look at the various things being pulled out, getting ideas but pushing them aside to learn more. Taylor handed him a small tube that gave him a headache when he looked into it. "This is a teaching aid to show what happens if you don't align your dimensions correctly. Pour a little water into either end. When correct the water should come out the other end with a significant spin, which direction will depend on orientation. Obviously you should be ready for it to not do that in this case."

"Here," Saurial said, handing Chris a glass of water. "This is temporary so we don't have to clean it up." Chris took the glass, held the tube away from himself, and poured it into the tube. After a minute or so nothing appeared to have happened. No water had exited the tube. Chris chanced a look inside the tube and got a face full of water for his trouble.

"See?" Taylor said. "When you are in that orientation tilting the tube after pouring the water in ejects it. Flip it and you tend to get hydrogen and oxygen beads instead of water coming out."

"Don't you mean hydrogen and oxygen gas?" Eric asked, looking confused about that as Chris found himself dry again.

"Nope," Saurial answered for Taylor. "You get solid beads of hydrogen and oxygen." She took the tube from Chris, flipped it over, and held her hand over the top. Water fell from her hand and a moment later a couple of beads fell out, and then started to sublime. "Obviously they don't stay solid long, though." The beads then vanished, presumably taking the sublimated oxygen and hydrogen with them.

"Here's a basic gravity drive," Taylor said, pulling a small transparent box with what looked like a water wheel inside out. It appeared to have a couple of crudely attached extra bits with a light bulb. "I think we used this to play with electricity at one point."

Saurial took the box from Taylor and after a glance placed it on the table such that an arrow on the side pointed down. After being oriented correctly the wheel started to spin, eventually going fast enough that the re-purposed crank-generator attached to the shaft sticking out of the box was generating enough electricity to light up the light bulb.

"Too bad they don't scale well," Taylor said, looking at the box. "Little ones work fine when you ensure the wheel is in something thick enough like the oil in this one, but bigger ones tend to get going too fast and become very hard to stop if you need to work on the thing they are attached to."

"You have a perpetual motion machine just sitting around your house?" Mandy finally asked, looking concerned. "Do you have problems with the laws of physics?"

"It isn't a perpetual motion machine," Taylor said, picking it up and turning it. "It only works in a gravity well and if oriented correctly due to the design of the internal spacial warps. As for the laws of physics, I have no problems with them."

"We are just working with a more complete set," Saurial said, grinning. "You humans generally haven't figured out most of the good stuff yet."

"Now if you want perpetual motion," Taylor said, digging around in the box before pulling out another transparent box, this one with marbles flowing in it. "Here, this should work."

"Er, what?" Mandy said as she took the box. It was, after a moment of looking, a perfect cube with six marbles in it, moving constantly and consistently along tracks. With no apparent regard for gravity, friction, or the orientation of the box.

It turned out that pulling out the box was a very bad idea from the point of view of getting people to learn math as the headaches generated were not conducive to learning. A few hours later everyone left, each person having taken Taylor and Saurial up on the offer of one "safer" item each to keep at home.

Amy wasn't sure why Vicky chose to take the child's ball home, but Carol was going to have a headache later that night.

* * *

"What have you two got there?" Carol asked when she saw Amy and Vicky carrying extra items with them.

"Some toys slash teaching aids Taylor had kicking around home," Vicky said. "No clue how it works, but this ball almost feels like it moves almost like how I fly, I think?" She demonstrated her control by tossing it off to the side where it flew in small circles as it moved over to the wall where it bounced off and came back, the small circles having transitioned from horizontal to vertical after the impact.

"Is _that_ why you took that thing?" Amy asked, looking over at Vicky as she put a small cylinder down. Carol was standing there looking shocked at what Vicky's ball had just done. "I went with this. Taylor called it a whistle."

"Whistle?" Carol finally asked, looking down at the cylinder. Amy gestured for Carol to pick it up, and she did. "Which end do you blow it?"

"Either end," Amy said. "It makes a different sound in each direction."

Carol raised an eyebrow, then blew into one end of the 'whistle'. The sound that came out belonged more in a church with a pipe organ than from a handheld anything. In shock she almost dropped the cylinder, then curiosity got the better of her and she turned it around to blow in the other side. This time a sound almost like a foghorn, but deep in a way it shouldn't be, came out. The sound gave Carol chills, as though it shouldn't exist but did and frightened a primal part of her that she couldn't understand.

"That side can be a bit much," Vicky said, somehow having gotten the ball to orbit her.

"Yea," Carol said, carefully putting the cylinder back down. "You two have a nice night."

An hour later the 'whistle' had been blown twice more and Carol and Sarah were both plastered.

* * *

"You are horrible," Amy said to Taylor as they drove towards the DWU compound after school the following day. "Dropping those 'toys and teaching aids' on the group last night. And I still can't figure out how Vicky took to that ball so easily."

"Whether she realizes it or not I think her powers give her some idea about higher dimensions," Taylor said. "Probably has something to do with how her powers actually function, even if they don't give her the ability to see or understand the math behind what they are actually doing. I think it helped that it didn't look like it had extra dimensions bound up in it, though."

"I suppose you have a pile of those things to put around BBFO too?" Amy said, glaring at Taylor after stopping for a red light.

"Of course," Taylor said, pulling a small bag out of her backpack. "Varga and I made them all at the same time, this bag has the BBFO-destined pieces."

"Lisa is going to hate you," Amy finally admitted. "If only because she is one of the last of our group to find out about these things."

"She can't always be in on the ground floor."

"True, her reactions can be just as funny, if not funnier, as anyone else's."

* * *

"We should put that gravity-drive with the attached binary counting LEDs over here," Lisa said, having gone into 'interior decorator' mode. "To offset the perpetual motion marble box I placed by the computers."

"I think I am insulted," Amy finally said. "She didn't faint, freak out, scratch her head, or even pout or anything. Just calmly got you to describe everything and started figuring out the best places to put it all."

Taylor stared at Lisa as she went on decorating with the various items, shrugged, and suddenly Saurial was standing next to her. "We need to get ready for visitors anyway."

"What visitors?" Amy asked, looking at Taylor as she headed towards the workshop to get into Ianthe.

"Kevin and Randall are coming to meet with Armsmaster and Dragon about a few more bits of Kevin's tinkertech," 'Saurial' answered. "Which should be entertaining in multiple ways now."

"I should set up the last item," Taylor said, heading over to the corner and making a table with a dome on top and a magnifying lense.

* * *

Kevin and Randall showed up, as always, with a pile of pizza. They also showed up an hour before Armsmaster and Dragon would show up, so they could catch up with the girls on various things.

They found it interesting that Taylor was there as Taylor and not as, say, Raptaur. But then again, Raptaur wasn't supposed to be at the meeting, just Saurial. So whatever. They had, however, decorated some more.

Randall looked at the box with rails inside that had marbles flowing around constantly sitting at the end of the desk with the computers. After a moment he picked it up and flipped it around a bit, the marbles ignoring everything he was doing and continuing to move at the same rate. "Freaky."

"Dude," Kevin said, having zeroed in on the LEDs counting in binary. "Is this a perpetual motion machine?"

"Nope," Taylor said. "Randall has the perpetual motion marbles over there. You are looking at a gravity drive connected up to a small generator to power the LED circuit. It stops working or becomes problematic if the wheel is turned to a different orientation relative local gravity or if it is scaled up to a larger size." Kevin proved this accurate by rotating the whole thing 90 degrees, the wheel coming to a fairly quick stop. Moving it back to the correct orientation got it spinning again in short order.

Randall put the perpetual motion marbles down and wandered around, looking at the new additions while the girls grabbed pizza for themselves. They finally snapped out of being shocked when Taylor spoke up that Dragon and Armsmaster would be there any moment.

* * *

Dragon reviewed her notes on Leet's tech as she flew over Colin on their way to BBFO. She made sure her clarification requests were properly marked on her copy of Leet's notes.

She held up as Colin approached the DWU gate. Shortly after they were waved through and turned towards the BBFO office itself. She noted that Über and Leet were already there by the presence of their van. She touched down next to Colin as he got off of his motorcycle and the two of them approached the door. Dragon knocked and they exchanged a glance as they waited.

"Hello again," Ianthe said after opening the door. "Come on in. Über and Leet are, as you likely noticed, already here."

"We had noticed," Colin said. He then noted the pizza. "And per what I understand to be their usual behaviour they brought pizza."

"Feel free to have some," Ianthe said, then gestured at Saurial sparring with a girl they hadn't seen in the office before. "Saurial will be just a moment."

The girl was tall, but probably only fifteen or sixteen. Her likely naturally curly brunette hair was tied back into a ponytail and she had a look in her brown eyes that indicated amusement when she glanced over at the two. She was also doing a very good job sparring against Saurial, both girls using collapsable batons in this case.

Colin was not looking at the sparring match, though. He had gravitated over to a small cube by the computers which appeared to have marbles moving around within it. It took her a few moments to realize that there was no visible means of powering the phenomenon. A quick look around the area showed a number of other additions.

"Do you like them?" Metis asked. "Saurial and Raptaur decided that having some, I think you call them knick-knacks, from home might make the place less clinical."

"They are certainly interesting," Dragon said after a few moments. She was not sure she wanted to know about most of these. Colin had moved onto a small platform with what looked like a diamond floating over it with no means of support.

"Some of them are amusing," the girl that had apparently finished sparring with Saurial said. "Though barring an item or two nothing too complex or dangerous."

"Hello again Dragon," Saurial said. "I don't think you and Taylor here have met before?"

"We have not," Dragon said, extending a hand for Taylor to shake. "I am, as you likely know, Dragon."

"Taylor Hebert," Taylor responded, shaking Dragon's hand.

Colin wandered over now that Saurial was no longer occupied and offered his own hand. "Hello Taylor, I suspect you know that I am Armsmaster."

Taylor shook his hand as well. "Yes, you are quite distinctive. A pleasure to meet you both."

"Out of curiosity, how did you meet the family?" Dragon asked.

"My father is the head of hiring for the DWU," Taylor answered. "I believe you have met him?"

"Of course," Dragon said. "I should have known. My apologies."

"No worries," Taylor said. "Oh, Armsmaster, Raptaur said you were interested in her creation that helped level the merchant base?"

"I am indeed," Colin admitted. "As she isn't here though I don't think she could explain it?"

"She set up a demonstration piece over in the corner," Taylor said, pointing at said piece. "Smaller than the ones she used, a bit slower, yet with larger filaments so that things were easier to see."

"If you don't mind I think I will take a quick look," Colin said, before rushing over to do so.

Dragon decided that his recordings would likely be sufficient for her to examine things later, so continued talking with Taylor. Saurial appeared to be cleaning up the sparring area and converting it into more of a meeting space.

"So what brought you to BBFO today?" Dragon asked Taylor. "If you don't mind me asking, that is."

"Training session, mainly," Taylor answered as she got a soda from the fridge. "That and sometimes I like poking the knick-knacks they brought about."

"So you are knowledgeable about them?"

"Of course. Take this one, for example," Taylor said, picking up a small cube with cutouts in the sides that, if Dragon's sensors were correct, went deeper than the cube was wide without hitting each other in any way. The effect was disturbing, but not excessively so. "Makes a wonderful paperweight, of course, and is decent at holding pens as well. But if you hold it just right and throw it you can do tricks."

Dragon then watched as Taylor threw the little cube, only for it to loop up and back to Taylor. After catching it Taylor adjusted her grip before throwing it again, seemingly in the same way, but this time it curved horizontally before bouncing off of thin air and returning back the way it came.

"That is impressive," Dragon finally said, failing to understand how that was possible. Then again, there was one possibility. "Is that an example of parahuman powers at work?"

"Nope," Taylor said, apparently not concerned about the question at all. "Just higher dimensional interactions with our three dimensional world. And because I know you won't ask but are probably curious, Panacea somewhat recently informed me that I do not, in fact, have a Corona Pollentia or a Gemma, so I am not a parahuman. Just good at the Family's math."

"I see," Dragon said. She was probably going to end up discussing this with Colin later.

* * *

"So not only do they have a very interesting definition of knick-knack," Emily said, reading the reports that Dragon and Colin had drafted. "But we can basically rule out Miss Hebert as being a changer and part of this mess as Panacea herself basically ruled out her being a parahuman at all, which you found out after seeing her sparring with Saurial."

"That is correct," Colin said. "Furthermore, Raptaur and probably the rest of her sisters, at least those with the matter creation ability, are probably yet again more dangerous than we thought. The device Raptaur used to take out the merchant base is, if descriptions of the properly configured version are accurate, capable of tearing things apart at an atomic level within its range of effect."

"Don't you mean molecular level?" Miss Militia asked, hoping she was right and he had mis-spoken.

"The EDM fibers would be able to slice individual atoms away from the rest of the molecule," Colin said. "Even the demonstration piece was able to do that, as far as I can tell from watching it likely tear the very air it was operating in apart. They could probably wreck havoc with the atoms themselves, for that matter, if they came together just right."


	272. Guest Omake - Monty Python has a lot to

**Monty Python has a lot to answer for...**

 **(By CmptrWz)**

* * *

"Think we could do something like that?" Taylor mused as she watched a video clip.

" _It will take a little work but it should be doable_ ," Varga responded. " _Worth doing if only for the amusement value_."

"So, if we start here," Taylor said, pulling up a mental construct. "Let's say we tweak this bit over here…"

* * *

"Oh god," Amy said, seeing Taylor's grin at school a few days later. "You have figured something else out, haven't you?"

"An extension of some other things, but yea," Taylor admitted. "It should be hilarious. Just need to find a good situation to use it in. Or set of situations, it is multi-purpose."

"I repeat: Oh god," Amy deadpanned. "And until those situations come up you are keeping it secret, aren't you?"

"Of course."

"You suck."

* * *

"You came up with something new again," Lisa said as Taylor and Amy entered BBFO. "Didn't you?"

"Yep," Taylor admitted.

"Well?"

"Not telling."

"She is being very smug about it," Amy added. "Wants to wait for the right situation to come up."

"Damnit," Lisa grumbled.

* * *

"Why hello there Saurial," Assault said as he walked down the boardwalk a few days later. "How are things going with you tonight?"

"Things have been quiet," Saurial said. "Not much going on, really. Haven't even spotted a mugger."

"Crime is down overall," Assault admitted. He then looked around at the crowd that had formed. "So, since we are both likely bored, how about we have friendly sparring match?"

"Hmmm," Saurial said, thinking about it. "I think I could go with that. Give the tourists a show?"

"Yep," Assault said.

Ten minutes later they had marked out an area, had an audience, and Saurial had created a couple of swords.

"Swords?" Assault asked, holding the one he had been handed. "Why swords?"

"Amusement value," Saurial answered. Her armor changed color and a full helment materialized over her head. She then stood there, sword point in the ground before her, her hands on the pommel. "NONE SHALL PASS."

"What?" Assault said, confused.

"NONE SHALL PASS," Saurial repeated.

Assault stared at her for a moment, then looked at her pitch-black armor, and grinned. "So be it." And he lifted his sword in preparation.

Saurial did likewise and two did battle, sword to sword. Assault, figuring it was amusing but not expecting much more, slipped through a too-obvious hole in Saurial's guard and struck her off-hand's shoulder.

He then nearly dropped his own sword in shock as Saurial's arm fell off, yellowish blood of some kind spraying from the wound. After a moment of just standing there Saurial looked down at the apparently severed limb, then back at Assault.

"Tis but a scratch," Saurial insisted.

Assault very quickly realized where this was going. _What the hell, why not?_ "A SCRATCH!? Your arm's off!"

"No it isn't!"

"Well, what's that then?" Assault asked, pointing at the apparently severed limb.

"I've had worse."

"You LIAR!"

"Come on, you pansy!"

And the two went back at it. A number of the spectators were in absolute shock, several felt that it had to be a trick. Then Assault found another opening, this time striking Saurial's sword arm. Which also appeared to sever and spew yellowish blood.

"Victory is mine!" Assault cried, raising his sword in triumph. No way was he starting an apparent prayer right now. Which was a good idea as Saurial went off-script and swung her tail at him.

"Come on, then!" Saurial exclaimed, swinging her tail at Assault again.

"You've got no arms left!"

"Just a flesh wound!" Assault had to jump over her tail again, but he swung his sword at her and, apparently severed her right leg. Saurial switched to balancing on her tail, kicking at Assault with the remaining leg. "Right! I'll do you for that!"

Assault was impressed at this point, but still went through with apparently severing Saurial's remaining leg. "Right, I believe I have now won!"

"Think again, cur!" Saurial said. Going quite off-script her severed right leg kicked Assault in his behind, causing him to fall forward into an uppercut from her severed left arm. After he flipped backwards, confused as to how she pulled that off, he didn't see her "severed" limbs crawling back to her. The spectators did, though.

"What the," Assault said, righting himself after a poor landing. He watched as Saurial's tail apparently dragged her right arm back into position and it re-attached seamlessly. Then the right arm picked up the left and re-attached it. Then she repeated this process with both legs.

"I am invincible!" Saurial claimed, hefting her sword again. Assault then noticed that the 'blood' had vanished.

"A bit off-script there at the end," Assault said, leaning on his sword. Which then vanished, causing him to tumble.

"The original was a bit lacking in certain areas," Saurial admitted. "So, how is Battery going to react to a viral video or fifty of you apparently dismembering a teenage cape of any kind?"

"Shit."

* * *

"Hello you two," Taylor said as she entered BBFO, reverting to base form once the door was shut. Amy and Lisa were there, in Ianthe and Metis, discussing some modifications Amy was working on for the bio-constructs.

"Hello," Lisa answered, distracted. Amy just waved.

Taylor smirked, then headed over to the computers. She wanted to see what PHO was making of her friendly match with Assault.

"Where did I put that pen?" Lisa mumbled a few minutes later. Taylor's hand tapped her with it a moment later, and Lisa distractedly took the pen. "Oh, thanks."

Ten seconds later Lisa and Amy simultaneously stopped what they were doing and turned to the table. In particular, to the hand on the table, attached to nothing. That then gave them a thumbs-up, apparently hopped onto its fingers, and scuttled across the table before jumping down to the floor. A moment later it had scuttled up onto one of the computer chairs, from which it jumped up to one of the keyboards. Which it then started typing on, occasionally moving over to operate the mouse.

"Your abilities are bullshit," Lisa finally said. "Complete and utter bullshit."

"You should see some of these videos of my sparring match with Assault," was Taylor's response.

Lisa and Amy looked at each other, then headed over to the computers. This was far more interesting than their discussion had been. Laughter filled the BBFO offices a few minutes later.

* * *

"BULLSHIT," Dennis yelled, causing all the other Wards in the common area to jump. "COMPLETE AND UTTER BULLSHIT!"

"What now?" Carlos asked, pulling himself up from the floor where he had fallen from his chair.

"Saurial's 'spar' with Assault," Dennis answered, queueing up a couple of videos on the larger screen so everyone could see them.

It wasn't long before everyone was staring, jaws dropped.


	273. Guest Omake - Public Approves!

**Public... Approves!**

 **(By CmptrWz)**

* * *

Emily looked around the table at the various capes. They had just finished watching one of the many clips covering the 'spar' between Saurial and Assault. Somehow they had ended up with all the protectorate heroes, all the wards other than Shadow Stalker, and Dragon in the meeting. Most of those present were still stunned, despite most of them having seen this a couple of times already (the Wards were on their fifth or sixth viewing at least).

Huh, if all the capes were here...no, can't go down that train of thought. Therein lies madness. Or perhaps, more madness, given the reason they were meeting.

"We are fortunate that most of the reactions are generally positive," Emily finally said. "Most of those that aren't positive are calling it an outright fake, using CGI or tinkertech holographics to set the whole thing up."

"You are damn lucky that enough clips included her quip about my reaction afterwards for people to assume it was, at worst, an attempt to get you in trouble," Battery said, glaring at Assault.

"It may very well have been so," Assault finally admitted. "Though I doubt it was anything but an amusing idea on Saurial's part. I have no idea how the apparent limb severing trick worked, though."

"I concur that it was likely not intended to be malicious," Armsmaster said. "The Family doesn't tend to be quite that mean without really good reason."

"Yes, well," Emily said, glaring at Assault one more time. "We are very lucky that PR feels this likely belongs in the 'win' column. Assault, your ban on solo patrols still stands."

"As does your ban on comedy skits," Battery added, glaring at Assault.

"Moving on to the potential how," Dragon said. "Her armor changing color and materializing a helmet is already known, as is the sword creation. We presume that the 'blood' was faked with Saurial's matter creation ability. What we don't know is how she apparently severed her limbs."

"Spacial warping," Vista said with authority. "Not entirely sure of her exact method, but I bet it was spacial warping."

"While you are undoubtedly our expert on that subject," Emily said, looking at Vista. "I would like to know why you think that."

"Simple," Vista said, gesturing in front of her. A small pocket of warped space formed in front of her, which she stuck her hand through. Nothing happened for a moment, and then with look of deep concentration her hand moved forward, off of her wrist. After two feet or so she stopped, wiggling her hand. At both ends there were obvious distortions, but there was a full couple of feet of gap between her arm and her hand. "This method isn't nearly as seamless, granted, but I think it is a decent approximation."

"I have to agree," Armsmaster said after a minute or so. "Barring the distortions it looks remarkably similar. We probably need to increase her shaker rating based on this."

Vista carefully removed her hand from her warp and dismissed it while everyone gave it some more thought.

Miss Militia finally snapped out of staring at a couple of the still photos showing the cut-up Saurial. "I am not positive, but I think she slowed down after each severing. More so than the limb detachment is likely to account for."

"Probably had to divert some concentration to keeping the limbs severed," Vista volunteered. "Especially if she wanted to move around as much as she was while keeping the warps active."

"Makes me wonder if she has a multitasking style thinker ability," Clockblocker volunteered. He got some odd looks. "What?"

"That had not occurred to me as being a potential answer," Armsmaster finally admitted. "I suspect most of us were thinking something similar."

"Just because I goof off a lot doesn't make me stupid," Clockblocker grumbled. Vista patted him on the back.

"I would be telling everyone to avoid playing along with this kind of thing in the future," Emily said, grabbing everyone's attention. "But PR has recommended that I not. Apparently this kind of stunt makes us more approachable and/or relatable somehow."

* * *

"If it hadn't taken me two hours to stop laughing long enough to yell at you I would be yelling at you for freaking me out by looking like you had actually gotten seriously injured," Danny said. "But that was just too funny."

"Lisa and Amy thought so too," Taylor admitted. "Though I was hoping for more of a reaction to my Thing impression."

"That is a bit disturbing, though I was kinda expecting something like that after seeing the black knight impersonation."

"Of course, there are other uses for the derivative technique I used for the Thing impression," Taylor said, grinning. A moment later a mini-taylor, seemingly fully human but only two feet tall, appeared on the table next to her. "Look, a mini-me!"

"Hi dad!" the mini-Taylor squeaked. Then her head fell off. "Ooops, I lost my head!"

Her only answer was Danny's head bashing against the table, followed by a groan that sounded suspiciously like "why me".

* * *

"We seriously need to get her to do a haunted house," Kevin said, staring at the video. "I suspect however she did that works just as well with her head. I can imagine it now: her head being apparently cut off in front of people, only to then keep speaking a moment later!"

"To do a proper showing she would probably have to be in human form," Randall said. "Not sure if she would be willing to show off like that."

"Haunted house, everyone assumes there are tricks already anyway," Kevin replied, waving his hand in dismissal. "They would just be trying to figure out how she pulled that one off."


	274. Deployment and Mapping

Unlocking the door to the BBFO office, Danny stepped aside, letting Mark and a couple of his people go past him, then followed them in. One of the security team was towing a trolley that rode on four large balloon-like tires. He maneuvered this to a halt next to the table. "Those eight boxes there, I think," Danny said, looking at the plastic crates sitting on the table-top. Mark opened one and investigated the contents, nodding with satisfaction when he pulled out a respirator mask of similar design to the ones used in the paint shop, although clearly not the same make.

Danny took the mask when his colleague handed it to him, Mark pulling out another one and inspecting it. He smiled at the small logo on the side next to the word ' _FamTech™_ ' which Taylor liked to put on all her stuff at the moment. "These look good, Danny," the other man said, trying the fit of the one he was playing with. "Nice and comfortable, too. Much better than a lot of ones I've used in the past. Good work."

"Saurial did warn that she couldn't guarantee they'd keep all the smell out since this thioacetone stuff is apparently pretty horrible, but she thought it would help a lot," he replied. Handing the mask back, he watched as Mark put both of them back in the crate, then motioned to his two people, who quickly loaded them onto the cart.

"Better than nothing," Mark nodded. He picked up a sheet of paper that had been held down by the crates, quickly scanning it, then handed it over. "They made one hundred and fifty four of them. That's more than enough, with some spares."

"OK. Let's go and talk to the volunteers, then," Danny replied, checking the time. "They'll need to leave in a half an hour. Director Piggot wanted our people to liaise with the BBPD at the central station by half past six."

"We can make that," Mark replied as they followed the two security men out, Danny locking up on the way. "I've got the buses standing by already. Everyone's kitted up and fed, all they need is a pep talk from the boss." He grinned when Danny muttered something under his breath, rolling his eyes. "You'll give in sooner or later. Boss."

"Sure, whatever you say. _Minion_."

"That's the spirit."

Mark snickered when Danny glared at him, although there was no heat in it.

Shortly they were back in the large shed that had been used for the deployment during the tanker move operation, a smaller but still substantial crowd of DWU workers gathered in small groups, drinking coffee and bundled up against the early morning chill. The unheated building got quite cold overnight, he mused, looking around. At some point it might be wise to sort that out.

Moving to the front he climbed up to the same place he'd used before, Mark beside him, and Zephron and Kurt both joining the other two moments later.

"Quiet!" the huge black man shouted, his bass voice easily overriding the background chatter. Everyone turned to look at them. "Friends, Minions, DWU workers, all quiet for the wise words of… _The Boss!_ " He made an elaborate gesture towards Danny, who had a hand over his face by this point. The man was worse than his daughter.

Mark and Kurt were both fighting to keep straight faces, and most of the others weren't even trying. When the laughter died down, Danny pushed Zephron to one side, his old friend grinning widely. "You are a menace, Zephron. Have you been taking lessons from Saurial?"

"Don't need lessons, _Sir!_ " Zephron shouted, snapping to attention and saluting with yet another of his invented gestures, then looking at his own hand. "No, still not right," he mumbled.

"Stop that."

"Yes, _Sir!_ Stopping, _Sir!_ "

"Now."

" _Sir!_ " Zephron gave him another salute, then took two steps backward, as neatly as any drill sergeant, still holding the salute. Mark was almost convulsed with laughter as were quite a few other people.

Danny watched him with an incredulous look, wondering if Varga madness was catching, then shook his head and turned back to the crowd, waiting for them to stop snickering. Behind him, he could hear Mark still giggling to himself, but didn't look. He didn't want to know. "My apologies, everyone. Apparently some people need… whatever the hell it is that Zephron needs. Sanity, probably."

"None of that round here, Danny!" someone shouted.

"Don't remind me," he replied, which made them laugh again. "OK. Settle down, children." When he had quiet once more, he continued, "Our mission for today, should you accept it, is to go and help the BBPD and the PRT with a similar crowd control exercise as during our recent memorable outing with Kaiju. The PRT is involved with a major offensive against a local villain. This information is currently embargoed, so it's a DWU-only secret, clear?"

He scanned the crowd, seeing to his quiet pleasure that almost as one they all nodded, looking resolute. He reflected yet again how much he loved these people, and wondered how he'd been lucky enough to end up part of such a huge family.

"Shortly, there is going to be an incident which will require a localized evacuation of the center of the city. I'm reliably informed that the conditions in the affected area will get very unpleasant from the point of view of smell for a while, which is why we have those." He indicated the cart full of respirator masks, which one of the security men held up an example of, then tossed it to him. He raised it in his hand. "Saurial and her sister made these for us. You'll want to thank them later, I suspect, since this incident is really going to smell pretty bad. She told me that they probably won't cut everything out entirely but they'll help a lot."

Lowering the mask, he said, "If anyone wants to back out, or has a particularly weak stomach, now would be a good time."

No one said anything, or moved.

"Great. All right, the plan is to meet up with the BBPD at the main station shortly. The incident will have started around..." He checked the time again. "Now, actually. Very soon city hall will release the first press briefing, I believe. As soon as we receive the call, you lot are heading over there. Same as last time, the cops will tell you where you're needed to man the barricades and that sort of thing. They'll have a briefing for you at the station to tell you what to tell anyone who wants to get into the affected area. If what I've been told is even slightly correct, I doubt many people will, to be honest, but you know as well as I do that there's always some difficult bastard with no common sense."

A ripple of laughter ran around the room.

"Back up the cops, keep out of trouble, don't start anything, but make sure that if someone _else_ does you show them why the DWU isn't a pushover, OK?"

The nods were very firm this time.

"New Wave is on standby, deployed with the PRT squads who will be arranged around the place, so be nice to them if they turn up. They're friends." He was pleased to note that most of the assembled volunteers nodded again. "That's it. Stay safe, help the city and the people stay safe too, and everyone involved earns a nice bonus."

Everyone roared their approval. "Beer and steak?" someone yelled hopefully.

"I think that can be arranged," he grinned. "If anyone wants anything after the mission."

"How bad can it be, Danny?" that man called.

About fifteen seconds later the first traces of the worst smell anyone present had ever encountered answered him.

There was a moment's appalled silence, then a mass rush to the crates of respirators, both security people already wearing them over slightly pale faces and handing more out as quickly as they could.

When everyone in the entire room had one on, Danny swallowed, feeling green. This was several miles away, and the wind was blowing _towards_ the stench zone. He didn't even want to think what it must be like downwind of it.

"Question..." The man gagged a little. "...Withdrawn..."

"I think Saurial should have made some more of these," Mark wheezed. "But they seem to work. It just takes a while to clear out of the lungs. Christ, what a stink."

Danny's phone rang. He pulled it out and answered it. "You can deploy your volunteers, Danny," Director Piggot's voice said without preamble. "We've got our incident."

"We definitely didn't miss it," Danny told her dryly. "All right. Everyone is ready."

"Thank you."

"Good luck."

The woman snorted slightly, almost inaudibly. "Thanks. I'll be in touch later." She disconnected without another word. Putting the phone away, he looked at the room of masked people, inwardly amused that they nearly _did_ look like a gang at this point. Taylor and Lisa would both laugh like idiots if he ever mentioned it, so he decided not to.

"That's the call. Everyone on the buses, and remember, you're getting paid pretty well for this. That should help."

"Slightly," a muscular woman, one of the demolition team, said loudly. Eddies in the breeze outside brought a fresh waft of the hellish stink. "Possibly not enough," she added, shaking her head. Even so, she along with all the others headed for the vehicles that were starting up outside one after the other, without pause.

He watched them go, then turned to Mark, who was doing the same. "They definitely deserve beer after this."

"Damn right they do," his friend and colleague nodded, still looking slightly unwell. "And a fucking medal in my opinion."

Smiling a little, both of them followed after Zephron and Kurt who were leaving the building, all of them getting back to work as much as they could with the horrible scent still present. Oddly enough, none of them felt like visiting the cafeteria at the moment.

* * *

"Holy fuck!" Randall slapped both hands over his nose, then glared at his best friend. "What the _hell_ did you have to _eat_ last night, man?!"

"It wasn't me," Kevin protested, his voice muffled under his own hands. " _Jesus_. What the fuck is _that?_ "

"Smells like someone fermented twenty tons of old whale and dropped it outside the door," Randall gasped, trying to keep his stomach where it belonged. "Only worse." The smell kept getting stronger. "Much worse."

They exchanged an appalled look, then scrambled for the nearest machinery with built-in life support. Five minutes later, Randall was ensconced in the safety of the power armor his friend had recently repaired, while Kevin was slamming the door of his bipedal combat mech and turning the air supply up as high as it would go. Even so, it took another several minutes before either man could breath without wanting to upchuck.

Clomping over to the computer bench, Randall reached out with an armored finger and prodded the power switch on the large screen TV they kept there for watching the news on. It was about a quarter the size of the other one that was reserved for the more important pursuits of watching movies and playing games on, which lived safely in their games room.

Already set to the local news channel, the screen came up with the logo of Brockton Bay's TV station, above the words ' _Breaking news, chemical incident in central city area._ '

"No fucking kidding," Randall grumbled. "What chemical?"

He heard the heavy footsteps of his friend's machine approach, looking back to see the smaller man peering through the armor-glass windshield at the TV. Moments later, the broadcast switched to a live feed from city hall. They listened to the report, then turned the TV off when it was finished.

"That's… a little implausible," Kevin said, his voice coming from the mech's external speakers and sounding slightly bemused. "I know that lab, I checked it out once, and they're extremely careful with their equipment. I suppose it's possible but…" He shrugged momentarily. "Just seems slightly off to me."

"Where else would it come from?" Randall asked. "I mean, from what they said, that stuff is incredibly nasty, and not something you'd normally find lying around. I've never even heard of it before."

"I have, but not recently," his friend replied absently, working on the console to one side of the main controls in his cabin. "Ah. OK, thioacetone… Here it is." He studied the screen for a few seconds. "Mmm... Barely possible they could have been doing something with organo-sulphur compounds and had it go wrong, but..." He still didn't look entirely convinced.

"Some sort of attack, then, maybe?"

"Might be. It's certainly going to clear out the entire fucking commercial district. No one with a functioning nose is going to stick around until it's gone."

"So it might be a diversion," Randall mused. "Maybe for some sort of robbery? Be a good way to get the guards away from a bank or something, and there are a lot of vaults around there. Right in the middle of the financial area, from what that report said."

"Possible. Or… it might be the PRT doing something." Kevin raised his eyebrows meaningfully. "If they wanted to make a move on someone, some villain, who was lurking in the middle of the city… That would do it. And it might even surprise them, if they're watching the news. It's a plausible scenario after all if you don't know any chemistry or that BBU lab."

"Who?" Randall pondered the concept. "Not Merchants, or ABB, wrong area entirely, not to mention Skid's little gang is history… E88, possibly? I'm pretty sure that Kaiser is connected to some of the businesses down town."

"Could be. Or, it might be Coil." Kevin shrugged. "Or someone we don't know about who's hiding somewhere there. Or, it might just be exactly what the news claims it is."

"Well, if it's anything to do with taking down a villain, I can guarantee that Taylor and her friends are in the middle of it," Randall grinned.

"What makes you say that?"

"Come on. DWU people helping out with crowd control?" Randall gave his friend a look. "That means Danny knows about it, and if _he_ knows about it, Lisa sure as hell does, and if _she_ knows about it, they all do. And we both know that there's no way that Taylor would let any of her friends get involved without providing backup."

"True enough." Kevin looked thoughtful, then amused. "In which case we can probably find out later. But until that stink clears out, I'm staying where I am."

"Me too."

They both fell silent, looking around the room for a moment. "I wonder if I can use the controller in this armor?" Randall asked thoughtfully, thirty seconds later, casting a glance towards the games room, then looking at his armored hands. "The dexterity is first rate."

"I do good work, of course you can," his friend said with some asperity. After a moment, Kevin's face fell. "But _I_ can't from in here. Damn. I need to add some sort of remote link to the games boxes..."

They shared another look.

Eventually, Randall sighed faintly. He wasn't going to abandon his best friend in their hour of need. Looking around again, he said, "I spy with my little eye, something beginning with… _X_."

Kevin started snickering, but also started guessing. It kept them amused for some time.

* * *

" _Gahhh!_ "

Missy pulled the pillow over her head and tried to block out the stink. It didn't work very well. The appalling smell had woken her ten minutes ago, very nearly causing her to throw up. She'd heard her mother run for the toilet seconds later, the retching sounds coming through the two walls between her and the smallest room. By the sounds of it the poor woman was probably getting a good look at things she'd eaten last week.

Pale-faced and sweating, Missy thought hard, then lowered the pillow and looked around. After a moment, she got up and opened the window, recoiling as the smell got, impossibly, even worse. Looking out towards the sea with her eyes streaming, she concentrated hard, forming a spacial warp between just in front of her face and as far out over the horizon as she could manage. She was trying to keep the visible distortions to a minimum and thought it had worked as she couldn't really see anything. That said, it was still dark out.

Moments later a wave of cool damp air started blowing towards her face. She nearly collapsed in relief, the simple tang of salt was a phenomenal change to whatever waft straight from hell was afflicting the whole area. Widening the warp and fiddling with it, she managed to get quite a strong wind blowing in the window, making loose papers fly around.

The smell gradually began to dissipate. Hearing a sound at the door to her room she looked over her shoulder to see her father staring at her. She gave him a tremulous smile. "It's pretty bad, Dad," she explained. "I needed to do something."

"Thank you, Missy," he said with enormous relief, coming over to sit on her bed, breathing deeply to rid his lungs of the horrible stink. A little later her mother came in as well, pale and sweating, wiping her face with a damp cloth.

Despite their differences, Missy was pleased that her parents sat quietly in her room and simply luxuriated in the fresh air, neither one for once sniping at the other.

It was oddly nice, and made her wish that it would happen more often.

* * *

' _They're not idiots, are they?_ ' Taylor asked, watching as the mercenaries ran around checking everything.

Very soon after she and the Varga, who was currently controlling another Saurial aspect, had teleported into the base, they'd had to quickly move out of the way of a team of four men who had turned up, very carefully inspecting the inside of the escape tunnel they'd appeared in. There was a background drone from huge fans that had wound up to full power as they'd arrived, blowing air through the entire place and getting rid of a lot of the smell. Clearly the diversion wasn't being taken on face value without some double-checking, proving that the mercs were professionals.

On the up-side, though, none of them looked desperately suspicious, although most of them _did_ look rather ill. They were wearing gas masks which obviously didn't work as well as they'd like, and she could smell traces of vomit in the air. Having mentally edited out the thioacetone stench, something she was profoundly grateful was possible seeing the impact it had on normal people, she could easily tell that it had caused significant gastrointestinal issues on the people in the base.

" _No, they are obviously well trained and suspicious of sudden events like this,_ " the Varga replied silently. " _One would expect that a successful mercenary team would be at least as effective as any regular military group, and it's likely that they are mostly ex-military in any case. Much like the people of a similar background at the DWU, I suspect_."

' _Like Mark and his people_ ,' she nodded. They carefully moved past another group of four mercs who were walking slowly along the corridor, one of them using some sort of hand-held scanning device and checking everything, while his colleagues kept their weapons at the ready. She inspected the guns with interest, seeing they were some form of high-end automatic rifle with a transparent plastic magazine on the top, and an underslung tube with heat-dissipating fins on it. This was presumable the beam emitter that they'd been told the mercenaries used as well as normal firearms.

Their cloaking spell was easily up to the job, all the men walking past without pause or notice. It would have been trivial to deal with them right then and there, but considering the way they were talking on headsets, and the high levels of paranoia and observation currently on display, there was a good chance that they might get an alert out. Even if they didn't, the people on the other end would probably work it out very quickly.

Without doubt they could take the base in minutes but there would be a lot of gunfire in the process, and it risked giving away more about their abilities than anyone was keen on. The same problem as simply grabbing Calvert and teleporting out again. So, for now, they'd play their part, map out the entire place, and arrange to disable any likelihood of wiping the computers, before doing anything more obvious.

After that, though…

They exchanged a look of anticipation.

After that, it was time to play for a while.

' _You go right, I'll go left_ ,' Taylor said as they reached the point the escape tunnel met up with the main base complex. ' _We'll scan the entire place_.' Looking at the device that Dragon had given her, she double-checked it was on and collecting data. The Varga had modified the Assassin's cloak spell to allow it to work correctly.

" _All right_." Her companion did the same with the other unit they had, then they split up. Not that this was actually a wildly good description, since due to her, or their, nature, it was more like two hands being moved apart, but it sufficed for the moment. She mused that sooner or later they needed to come up with some better words to explain what it was that they did, but considering how few people knew anyway, it wasn't important.

Pleased with the progress so far, she and her other aspect proceeded to walk among the mercenaries without any of them realizing it, carefully mapping the entire base and sending the data to the PRT.

* * *

Jolting awake, Thomas sat bolt upright, inchoate images blurring his thought processes. A residual sensation of terror went through him, causing him to shiver and look around at the room, flinching as the automatic systems turned the lights on to a low-level glow.

Moments later and whatever it was he'd been dreaming about left him, something he was half worried about, half thankful for.

He _really_ hadn't been sleeping well recently.

As the disorientation passed, he became aware that something smelled absolutely ungodly _awful_. Slapping both hands over his face he tried to suppress the urge to hurl, managing after some seconds. Presumably this was what had woken him, since when he looked at his bedside clock, it was only just after six AM, a good hour before his normal waking time.

Gagging, he climbed out of his bed, leaving the wrinkled and sweaty sheets behind, then headed for his office next door. Turning the ventilation up as high as it would go, which didn't help as much as he'd have liked, he quickly logged in to the base computer system and checked the alarm status. It showed that the environmental system had been manually transferred to internal closed-system operation six minutes earlier, with a full air-exchange purge having been done before the output vents were closed.

' _Christ, this is what it smells like_ ** _after_** _a purge?_ ' he thought in dismay. ' _What the fuck is_ ** _making_** _that smell?_ ' Clearly it was coming in from outside the base, and his first and obvious worry was an attack. Frantically going through the logs, bringing up all the external cameras and sensors on the video wall on the other side of the office, and checking all the internal security as well, he slowly relaxed just a little when he saw that nothing other than the stench showed up.

The streets outside were clear of any form of official or otherwise Parahumans, law enforcement, or even villain gangs. None of the tunnel sensors showed anything out of the ordinary, not even the final resort tunnel that he alone knew of, which ultimately led to the waterline below the low-tide point. No microphones or seismic sensors had detected anything digging around the walls, floor, or ceiling. All the air pressure sensors were showing normal levels, consistent with the internal environmental systems. There was a spike when the purge had happened and another one when the internal switchover was completed, but both of those were identical to the logged ones from tests.

Ultimately he couldn't see any indications that anyone was actually attacking his base. Internal cameras showed that Smith's people had increased their patrols and sweeps, were carefully checking all the entrances and exits, and doing in fact everything that he would have ordered himself. Even so, he kept flipping between camera views on the main and largest monitor for some minutes, suspiciously looking for anything out of the ordinary in any way at all.

Not finding anything, he prodded a control and brought up the external TV feed, quickly finding the local news broadcast. Resting his elbows on the desk he folded his hands and watched the live report for a few minutes, then turned to the computer and did some quick research. Splitting his timeline to allow him to investigate two separate chains of thought at once, he finally collapsed the new one and relaxed back into his chair.

This thioacetone chemical appeared legitimate, was indeed horrific in odor yet more or less harmless in other ways, and could quite possibly have been created by accident. It would only take a minute amount in the right place to cause exactly what he was witnessing.

So, on the face of it, this did look like an accident.

Why, then, was he still worried? Aside from the smell, which was still horrible.

Thomas pondered the matter for a little while, then brought up a map of Brockton and highlighted the lab being blamed for the spill. Overlaying the exclusion zone which was now up on the city hall website, he stared at the result with narrowed eyes.

Again, it looked plausible. His base was off to one side, nowhere near the middle of the zone, which was in the form of an ellipse covering the bulk of the commercial district with some of the nearer residential areas also included. There was nothing there to indicate that this was some subtle diversion, to take him off guard while the PRT kicked the door in. Aside from anything else, the streets were empty, when he brought up feeds from the city CCTV network which he'd put backdoors into years before.

The nearest PRT presence was at the lab itself, which was being invaded by a team in hazmat suits, looking like they were trying to deal with a nuclear reactor problem based on the sheer amount of equipment involved. Beyond that, the BBPD was in the process of putting barriers across every street into the area in question, with a lot of people in safety vests with ' _DWU_ ' written on the back aiding them. Nearer in, several PRT vans were also blocking some of the critical streets, all of which led to the lab, not his base.

Everything looked kosher and met the published information perfectly.

Even so, his paranoia, which was always fairly high but in the last eight or nine weeks had gone entirely off-scale, kept prodding him that something was wrong. He began checking everything all over again, spawning another alternate time line to try different avenues of investigation.

By the time there was a knock on the door, he'd run at least eight different variants of the scenario trying to figure out the trap. Twitching a little, he looked at the screen on his desk which was fed from the camera outside the door, then checked the sensor system to make sure that the picture was genuine. The height, weight, and every other measurement he could detect matched Captain Smith.

Pressing the intercom button, he said, "Two minutes."

The mercenary nodded, casually standing at ease with his hands clasped behind his back in a manner that implied he could stand there all day. Thomas got up and went back into his quarters, quickly washing his face and drying it, then drinking a glass of water. Pulling his costume on, he checked his appearance in the mirror of the bathroom, deliberately trying to calm himself as much as possible. After thirty seconds he nodded and went back to his desk. He toggled the control that unlocked the door, his other hand on the pistol in the holster mounted to the underside of his desk.

Captain Smith came in, walking over and resuming his stance on the other side of the desk. The man was somehow managing to suppress any visible signs of being affected by the horrible smell, which was something that genuinely impressed Thomas, not that he'd say it. "Sir," he stated as he stopped.

"Report, Captain," he said.

"According to the night shift, the smell is caused by a chemical called thioacetone, resulting from a chemical spill at the BBU lab downtown. It was detected at 0605 hours. The environmental system was switched to manual control, the base purged on maximum override at 0607, then switched fully over to internal air at 0611. We have reserves sufficient for sixteen days of normal operation without refilling from external atmosphere. No intrusion of any sort has been detected at this time. I have doubled patrols, ordered full checks on all entrances, and have all the men ready for action should it become necessary. External news reports suggest that the situation will be resolved by mid afternoon."

The mercenary made his report in a calm professional voice. His expression didn't change at all the entire time.

Calvert nodded. "I see. That matches what I can also determine. Do you believe this could be a precursor to some form of attack?"

"There is no evidence of such a thing happening, sir," Smith replied. "We have checked for any form of unusual radio activity, with negative results. No unexpected personnel are present in the surrounding area, the buildings above us, which have been evacuated, or the tunnels. PRT activity is high, but concentrated on the chemical incident. BBPD patrols are restricted to the boundaries of the quarantined area, assisted by DWU helpers. The nearest of any of these are over three quarters of a mile away." Pausing for breath, he looked at Thomas, who waved him to continue.

"We cannot detect any hostile activity through any conventional method, and none of the Parahuman methods we have the ability to measure. I cannot guarantee that there are not Parahuman methods we _can't_ measure, obviously, but the evidence would strongly suggest that the situation is exactly what it appears."

"So, on the whole, you think this is merely a very unpleasant smell that has caused irritation, rather than anything we should be worried about?"

"Yes, sir. I would recommend keeping the enhanced patrol schedule until the situation is resolved, and for the remainder of the shift after that, but I believe that absent any other data we can revert to normal operations following that point. We should also continue to monitor the external situation and keep alert for any unusual activity, just in case this _is_ some form of diversion, but based on current information I don't feel we need to be too worried."

Thomas regarded the other man for a few seconds. Smith was a very competent military man, and he was probably entirely correct. All the evidence suggest that as well.

"And if you're wrong?"

Smith inspected him for a moment. "Permission to speak freely, sir?"

He waved a hand in a gesture of acceptance.

The mercenary relaxed a little, then shrugged. "If I'm wrong, we may have a problem. But I don't think I am based on what my men have found out, and what I can see for myself. The PRT and the cops are running around dealing with whatever idiot managed to stink out the entire city, and when they find him are going to make an example of the guy, I'm sure. But it really doesn't look like it's aimed at us." He nodded at the news broadcast which was still playing, muted, on one of the monitors. "If it's an attack, it's a weird one. The amount of effort it would take to coordinate the PRT, the BBPD, city hall, the DWU, and everything else, just to cause some sort of diversion to attack us, is ridiculous. Brockton Bay isn't exactly the most efficient place, after all. And none of your agents in the PRT have said anything about this either, have they?"

"No, they haven't," Thomas mused. "The computer taps show normal activity as well, or at least activity compatible with this sort of incident." The recent security crackdown spearheaded by Miss Militia had taken out a few of his less-important plants in the PRT, apparently after the E88 got careless and attracted too much attention to their own double-agents. Typical Nazis, causing problems for everyone. But then, those people weren't important in the grand scheme of things, they provided useful information at times but their main purpose was to protect his real agents.

Both of _those_ were still reporting regularly, and hadn't mentioned anything at all about some sort of operation on this scale. He couldn't believe Emily could manage to hide something this big, so Smith was probably correct.

"Sir, I know you've had a lot on your mind recently, but I think we're fine," the mercenary added after he'd let Thomas stew over his thoughts for a while. "There's no sign of anyone at all anywhere near us. We'll keep on high alert until things go back to normal, but there is such a thing as being _too_ paranoid. Even if they _are_ out to get you. You end up jumping at shadows and make mistakes. I've seen it before."

Studying his hired gun, Thomas thought some more. The man seemed sincere and he made a good point. But…

Calvert split the timelines.

In one timeline, he pulled his weapon, pointing it at Smith. "You're working for them, aren't you?" he snapped. "Tell me what is going on."

The mercenary had got half-way to his own sidearm before freezing. Staring at Thomas's face, his own entirely blank, he slowly shook his head. "I am not working for anyone other than you, Coil," he replied.

The way he didn't look at the gun was impressive.

He lowered the weapon slightly, then pulled the trigger. Captain Smith shuddered as the bullet went through his lower left side, the report astoundingly loud in the confines of the room. "Tell me what the plan is," the Parahuman said in a quiet yet intense voice.

Dropping to his knees, Smith put a hand over the hole in his side, which was oozing blood, the flow steadily increasing. "I'm telling you, there is no plan," he gritted, sweat running down his face. "I'm not working for anyone else, I swear."

The gun fired again, hitting him in the right shoulder. "The plan," Calvert snarled.

"There is no plan, you fucking lunatic!" Smith shouted, his voice ragged.

Watching him bleed, Thomas finally nodded. "I believe you, Captain," he said. Then he shot the other man in the face. When the body was still, he dropped that timeline.

In the other one, Thomas nodded, saying "Thank you, Captain. Maintain the current alert status, monitor the situation, and update me immediately if anything unusual happens."

The mercenary went to attention, saluting him. "Sir."

"Dismissed."

Thomas watched him leave the office, then locked the door again.

He leaned back in his chair. The stench was still horrible but it was becoming very slightly less intrusive over time. He could live with it for now. Even so, he decided that when he finally managed to work out what was causing his power to have problems, one of the first things he was going to do was blow the fucking place up just on general principals, for causing him to feel so unwell.

Sighing a little, he split the timelines once more and began work, trying yet again to discern what the problem was that was screwing with him. In both of them he kept one eye on the situation outside the bunker, since despite the words from his mercenary, he still wasn't entirely reassured.


	275. Guest Omake - A Gift for Emily

**A Gift for Emily**

 **(By CmptrWz)**

* * *

"A gift?" Emily said, looking at the wrapped box on her desk. "Why is the Family sending me a gift?"

After examining it from multiple angles, and knowing it had already passed several scans to make it to her desk, she finally relented and opened it. She took the instructions for the odd device out of the box and started to read them, initially recoiling in horror, and then getting a nasty grin on her face.

"So you used your constant matter creation trick to make Director Piggot a gift?" Lisa said, looking oddly at Taylor. "Why?"

"I also figured out how to make the matter only stable within a certain distance of the item creating it," Taylor said. "Nine feet, in this case, and the created matter only lasts at most an hour inside that range."

"Ok…"

"It also doesn't create much matter at a time, and I figured out how to rig a safety switch. If it isn't getting a half volt of electricity across the contacts I included it doesn't create matter at all."

"Useful, maybe?" Lisa hedged, looking over at Amy. Who looked just as confused.

"And if you reverse the polarity on the contacts and put a hundred volts through it forcibly times out all of the matter the device has created."

"I don't get why she would want your creation," Amy finally said, trying to get Taylor to get to the point.

"Well it was also designed to fit inside the light fixture of a prison cell such that it shouldn't be obvious," Taylor added, grinning.

"So?" Lisa asked

"I figured Director Piggot would like to have it installed in Calvert's cell," Taylor said.

"WHY?" Amy and Lisa both yelled.

"Where else would you expect her to put it, given that I have it set to generate minute amounts of thioacetone when active?"

Lisa thought about that for a few seconds, thought about what it would mean for Coil, and then couldn't help herself. She lept over the table and kissed Taylor. Then, when she realized what she had just done she jumped back, embarrassed.

Amy was no help, having fallen over laughing.


	276. Guest Omake - Just like back home

**Just like back home...**

 **(By CmptrWz)**

* * *

" _The more I hear about Skidmark the less I think we should eat him,_ " Varga said as Taylor looked over more intel on Skidmark's actions. " _Better to throw him in an improperly anchored abyss and save us the stomachache._ "

"Improperly anchored abyss?" Taylor questioned. "What can do you with a properly anchored abyss?"

" _Stare into it until it stares back, of course. Plus a few other things._ "

"Tell me more."

* * *

A week later there was a tent set up next to the BBFO building. The tent was covered in warnings and had caution tape around it.

Lisa approached the office, still curious as to what Taylor had been doing in there. On the other hand, she wasn't sure seeing it before it was done would be a good idea, so she was avoiding it.

Amy drove up as Lisa was reaching the pedestrian door. A minute later the vehicle door was closing, Amy's truck inside the BBFO building.

"When do you think Taylor will be ready to show us what she is up to?" Lisa asked. "Has she said anything at school?"

"I think she is nearly done," Amy said. "She has gotten more smug about whatever it is."

"I finished last night," Taylor said from behind the two. Causing both to jump and scream in shock.

Lisa picked herself up off of the floor. "Did you just teleport in behind us just to deliver that line?"

"Nope," Taylor said, grinning. "I walked in next to Amy's truck while cloaked just to deliver that line."

"You suck," Lisa and Amy deadpanned in unison. Taylor suspected they had started practicing that.

"Get suited up so you can come see what I have been up to," Taylor said, waving them towards the workshop.

Ten minutes later Taylor, in Saurial guise, was holding a tent flap open for Lisa and Amy. The two entered and stood there as the flap closed, trying to figure out what they were looking at. Given the complete lack of light coming from the floor, reflected or otherwise, they weren't having much luck.

"Did you make one of those so black it is blacker than black materials?" LIsa finally asked. "The kind that doesn't let any light out whatsoever?"

"I suppose you could say that," Taylor admitted, after a moment. "But not really. See, we have been spending so much time up here that we haven't been able to gaze into the abyss back home, so I set up a smaller abyss for comfort reasons."

"You made an endless abyss next to the BBFO office just to provide more impossible evidence to the increasingly convoluted background everyone is constructing," Amy said, finally looking over at Taylor. "What did the universe do to you?"

"It stopped amusing us to the level of which we are accustomed," 'Raptaur' said from behind them, causing them to flinch. "Obviously that couldn't stand, so we need to give it a kick or twenty."

"So what do we do with this abyss?" Lisa finally asked. "I doubt you made it just for staring into, though my power wants me to do so."

"This is a standard Family abyss, size small," Taylor said, gesturing. "Perfect for staring into until it stares back, various divination techniques, garbage disposal, and 100% safe skydiving without a sky. Do not use as a garbage disposal while travelers are inside the abyss and travelers should prepare an anchor to latch onto or safe landing pad for when they exit before they enter."

"What?" Lisa and Amy said, looking at Taylor like she was nuts. Which, admittedly, she probably was, by some definitions. Still annoying, Taylor and Varga didn't like the implication in that.

So ' _Raptaur_ ' pushed them into the abyss so they could see for themselves.

* * *

"How in the world is falling through an endless black void so fun?" Amy asked an hour later. She had voluntarily jumped in another four times.

"My power likes it more than I do," Lisa said, she had gone back six times. "Or at least that is how it feels. Somehow the abyss is providing it data?"

"You two going to help me set up the cushions for visitors that are less durable?" Taylor asked from off to the side.

"You are creating them, in place, anchored to the ground," Lisa snapped back. "What help could you possibly need?"

"Testing, of course," Taylor said, jumping onto the latest cushion and bouncing into the air.

"Oh," Lisa said, looking at Amy. A few minutes later they were aiming for specific bounce patterns as they moved from the very bouncy to the less bouncy cushions.

* * *

"That is freaky," Randall said, staring at the abyss. It took him a moment to realize that Kevin hadn't said anything. A quick check showed that Kevin...wasn't there? "Kevin, man, where are you?"

"He ran back to your van and started building," 'Metis' said. "He already has three built?"

"Three?" Randall said, confused. He wandered back to the van to find that Kevin had, indeed, built three identical snitch-like devices and was halfway through what he recognized as a control unit. "Dude, what are you building?"

"Sensor system," Kevin responded. "To send into the abyss."

"Dude, your power cares more about exploring that thing than limiting dupes?" Randall said, shocked. "What the hell?"

"Dunno, don't care." He then slammed a side panel closed and booted up the control unit. Five minutes later he was staring into the output as the sensor drones 'explored' the abyss.

"What else is this for?" Randall finally asked, looking over at Lisa. "Because I can't see making a bottomless pit just because you can."

"Well," Lisa said, grinning. Randall was scared of that grin. His fright was justified a moment later as he fell into the abyss.

Lisa would be forgiven later, but only because the cushions broke his fall when he came back out.

* * *

 **To: Armsmaster , Dragon .ca**  
 **From: Leet .com**  
 **Subject: Abyss Readings**

 **So, as I understand it you likely haven't seen the latest thing the Family has installed over at BBFO. Or at**  
 **least they say you haven't been by since it was installed.**

 **I whipped up some sensor drones and sent them into the new abyss next to the BBFO office. Can't make**  
 **heads or tails of the information, though. I figured you two might like to take a look, so I have attached**  
 **a copy of the raw data and some information on the format.**

 **Of course you can always go visit BBFO and take a look for yourself. Look for the tent outside with all the**  
 **warning signs and caution tape.**

 **Leet**

Colin looked at Dragon, then back at the email. "I am afraid to ask what he means by abyss."

"I...fully understand that," Dragon admitted. "Yet despite that I am intensely curious."

"That has become unfortunately common with the Family in general."

"That it has."


	277. Guest Omake - How to annoy Tagg

**How to annoy Tagg**

 **(By CmptrWz)**

* * *

"What is the progress on getting the Family under control?" Tagg asked, looking around the table. "Because I haven't heard any good news yet."

"To cover what hasn't worked," Armsmaster started.

"Also known as everything," Assault interrupted. Armsmaster and Tagg glared at Assault.

"We started by trying to apply indirect pressure via the DWU," Armsmaster continued. "That resulted in immense backlash. We still have no union support for any actions in the city, and that continues to spread."

"On that note, we are running out of non-union contractors to call upon," Miss Militia added. "We are probably going to have to expand our own staff to compensate."

"Someone then stupidly attempted to 'take them out'," Armsmaster continued after a quick nod to acknowledge Miss Militia's point. "Fifty six assassination attempts later someone with some sense finally noticed and called a halt before we had actually angered the Family."

"Yea, the fact that attempt fifty seven was going to involve a nuke might have had something to do with that," Battery said, glaring at Tagg. She couldn't prove it, but she thought he had been behind that entire fiasco instead of the flunky that took the blame.

"Further parahuman attempts to contain them merely resulted in the parahumans being safely contained, secured, and picked up by the BBPD," Armsmaster continued. "Who have been finding the entire thing hilarious, as well as slapping fines on the Protectorate every time it happens."

"Doesn't help that they add a day before the manacles disappear every time," Triumph grumbled.

"Then we get into attempts to contain them by the PRT," Armsmaster said. "It only took three days for them to stop dodging the containment foam entirely or breaking out of it and start dissolving it instead. We aren't entirely sure how they do that, but presume that they got a sample of the dissolving agent and can now produce it on demand."

"Don't know if you noticed," Dauntless interrupted. "But they have started using containment foam on the PRT as well. Usually by Saurial or Raptaur spitting it. Last I heard the dissolving agent is becoming decreasingly effective with the Family's variant of the foam."

"I had not seen those reports," Armsmaster admitted. "I will seek them out to update my assessment."

"What about the tinkertech containment device that was brought in last week?" Tagg asked, looking impatient. "Has that been deployed?"

"So far it has been used three times," Armsmaster said. "Against Saurial, Raptaur, and Ianthe. In all three cases the containment field successfully contained them, went into lockdown, and then was brought back to PRT headquarters. Once the containment field was dropped the captured member of the family was missing and an item was left behind. With Saurial there was a note chiding the PRT. With Raptaur there was a containment foam grenade that exploded with fifty times the amount of expected foam. With Ianthe there was what we think was a nuke that generated an EMP burst to fry the device, but then vanished before radiation could be a concern."

"The remains of the device were attempted to be repaired," Miss Militia said. "But vanished overnight. Security footage showed nothing of interest happening, but the device disappeared out of a locked safe. The replacement unit arrived this morning but vanished before it could be deployed. This one vanished while moving between floors on a secure elevator."

"Damnit," Tagg yelled. "What is it going to take to get them under our control?"

"An act of a much higher power?" Assault volunteered.

* * *

"That is an interesting variation on the formula," Dragon said. "It looks like all it does is make the dissolving agent take twice as long to dissolve a given amount of foam."

"That is the goal," 'Raptaur' said. "Makes it harder for the PRT to free their equipment and resume chasing us."

"Armsmaster tells me that they appear to have given up on the containment unit idea," Dragon said. "The original and replacement both having vanished without a trace means they can't justify the expense of buying a third one."

"Thanks for letting us know when the replacement was arriving," 'Metis' said, poking at the computer. "How much longer before Tagg is out of here and everyone can stop this ridiculous dance?"

"We estimate another two weeks at most," Dragon admitted. "Politics are rearing their ugly heads on both sides of the issue. Others would be pushing harder for his removal if you weren't basically ignoring his attempts. His power play when Emily got her vacation approved was a masterpiece in some ways, as annoying as that is."

"It would be a different story if he were to come at us directly," 'Saurial' said. "He hasn't, though, and is using those under his command instead. They aren't at fault, as you know, so we generally go easy on them."

"Though we are more and more tempted to introduce Tagg to our big brother," Raptaur added. "If only we didn't think that would result in him trying to get nukes again."

"But big brother might like to eat the nukes," Saurial said. "Which would solve that problem quite nicely."

Dragon processed that particular statement and realized that Saurial did not appear to be joking. Which, coupled with their ability to ignore gamma radiation, would imply that nukes were useless against the Family itself. Yea, being told by Tagg's nominal superiors to assist the Family in keeping casualties down during his irrational campaign against them was looking better every day.

"Blocking all the reports on what is going on from reaching him outside of meetings has been fun," Metis added. "Keeps him out of the loop, but when he looks after the meetings the reports were filed correctly."

"More fun is the fact he keeps finding the hardcopies filed correctly as if he had read them," Dragon added. "Though I wish I knew how you were doing that, it has meant he added a supposed stranger rating to the entire Family based on it. He thinks that until the meetings he is just incapable of remembering the reports. Which is also amusing everyone in the meetings, though they are doing their best to hide it."


	278. Omake - Personal Defense

_Chatter on Sufficient Velocity sparked an idea, so I had to deal with it..._

* * *

"You have to be kidding me."

Hannah's tone of voice was entirely flat and emotionless. She simply didn't know what else to say or how to say it in the face of yet more Family oddities.

"What's wrong?" Missy said, looking up at her, an expression of puzzlement crossing her face.

"That."

"This?"

"Yes. _That_. Where the hell did you get… _that?_ "

"Ianthe's pet shop."

The older woman sighed heavily. "Oh, god. The same place you got that horrible cat slash great old one?"

"Yep. And please don't be mean about Shoggy, he looks all hurt and upset when he hears you." Missy frowned. Hannah glanced uneasily at the little ' _cube_ ' that was neither a cube, nor, she suspected, actually little. A furry head with disconcertingly alert eyes was peering out of it at her, even though there was no apparent way for anything to either get into _or_ out of the bizarre construction.

Wanting to avoid the reproach in the glowing eyes, Hannah turned away, but she could still feel it looking at her. To be utterly honest, she could sometimes feel it looking at her when she was at home in her apartment…

Trying to suppress the shudder, she returned to the issue at hand. "That… cat… is at least _vaguely_ plausible as a pet, I suppose. But this thing..."

She inspected the small furry animal that was holding tightly onto Missy's right wrist, making an odd rumbling sound like a weird purr. Dennis, who was watching with a grin, had a bucket of rocks next to him, and was intermittently tossing one at the young girl. The creature would suddenly lunge in the most improbable manner at the rocks, a mouth that was _wildly_ too large to fit into the vaguely canine head abruptly opening and displaying a vast quantity of glinting teeth as it snapped the pebbles out of the air.

Every time, Hannah flinched at the insane speed, the sudden appearance of more dentition than she was comfortable with, and the crunching sounds that followed. The blasted thing had already eaten at least a dozen rocks and seemed quite content to continue to do so.

"I'm thinking of getting one, actually," Dennis commented. He tossed another pebble. "They're really cool, Ianthe said they were based on the genome of a grizzly bear, with a lot of Family modifications. Some koala in there too it looks like, based on the way it's clinging on."

Dean was watching with an expression of resigned disbelief. "Why the hell would she make a tiny little bear that holds on to you and eats anything that moves too fast and gets too close?"

"Personal defense, she said," Missy commented, smiling at her new pet. "He's so quick he can catch bullets." She looked at Hannah. "Try it, try shooting me."

"I'm _not_ going to shoot you," Hannah sighed.

"Oh, go on, it works, honest. Saurial showed me."

"Saurial… shot at you."

"Yep." Missy smiled brilliantly.

"With a gun."

"Yep."

"And that… creature… _caught_ and _ate_ the bullets?" Her voice was rising in both pitch and volume.

"He did. Really well. It was amazing watching him when she used that AK-47. I've never seen anything move that fast." Missy looked thoughtful while Hannah felt faint. "Except Saurial, I guess. Or maybe Raptaur. Or Dennis at lunchtime."

The red-headed boy snickered, as Hannah rubbed her forehead.

"I'm going to take him on patrol. If anyone shoots at me, he'll protect me."

Missy stood up, picking her helmet up and putting it on her head, then stroking the little bioconstruct, which growled in a sort of pleased way and moved higher up her arm, holding on and looking around alertly.

"Missy… You can't walk around with that thing in public," Hannah said with as much weary patience as she could muster, inwardly wondering if she could get some time off soon somewhere a little less insane. Hell, possibly, or perhaps LA.

"Why not?"

"Just… no."

Missy pouted. "Ianthe says I have every right to keep him on me."

"Ianthe is crazy," Hannah muttered under her breath. "Just like everyone else around here except me." More loudly, she asked, "Why does she think that?"

"It's in the Constitution."

Staring at the girl with raised eyebrows, the military cape tried to parse that. Eventually she gave up. "I don't suppose you could explain that to me? Please?"

Missy looked affectionately at the small ursine creature holding firmly onto her, then grinned at Hannah.

"We have the right to arm-bears," she said happily, before waving and heading for the door. Hannah watched her go, her mouth opening and closing a couple of times, turned to Dennis who was rolling around giggling, then shook her head. Throwing her hands in the air, she wandered off looking for some aspirin.

And it was still only Tuesday so far...


	279. Smash and Grab

' _Calvert's in here,_ ' Taylor commented, smelling a familiar scent trace. She inspected the door, listening carefully to the sounds of someone typing on a keyboard inside the room.

" _We can deal with him later,_ " the Varga replied. " _I've found the computer room._ " She paid more attention to her other aspect's senses, both of them having separated as much as they could into individuals for this task. Her demonic friend was inspecting several rows of computer hardware in six foot tall racks, bundles of cables rising from each one to the ceiling and running into suspended metal trays. The room was humming gently to itself, dozens if not hundreds of fans making a steady roar in the background. Two of Coil's men were tending to the machines, one of them armed and looking around every now and then, while the second one was half-inside one of the racks doing something to a server.

' _OK, mark it, and we'll get back to that when we're done_ ,' she said. He made a note on the tracking system, uploading the location to the PRT base where Armsmaster and Dragon were monitoring their work.

" _Done_." He left the room, the cloaking spell meaning that no one noticed the door opening and closing at all.

' _Medical bay here_ ,' she added, looking into another set of rooms quite close to what had to be Coil's office. There was a small but well equipped mini-hospital set up there, a surprisingly large amount of top of the line machinery lining the walls and on shelves. Off that room she found a locked storage area, which opened readily enough when she slipped an EDM blade into the lock mechanism and sliced through the bolt. The room contained enough drugs to make the Merchants look startled.

' _There must be a couple of million dollars worth of stuff just in this room_ ,' she noted with interest. ' _His budget is pretty impressive_.'

" _He **is** a wealthy man,_" the Varga chuckled. " _Or, more accurately, **was** a wealthy man._"

' _I wonder how he's going to react when he finds out about Lisa's little decoys and works that out,_ ' she snickered. ' _I bet he literally screams with rage_.'

" _Hopefully._ " They both laughed at the thought. She mapped out the rest of the medical bay, relocked the drugs room with a new bolt on the inside which would prevent the mercenaries accessing it, then left.

Forty-five minutes later they'd finished mapping the entire base. The power room had been located and carefully analyzed, letting them work out exactly what to cut to kill power to various sections of the shelter, and how to disable the generators. All the mercenaries had been photographed and their faces uploaded to the PRT system, along with the three medical personnel who had been in the medbay.

They regrouped in an unused room some distance from the nearest people, closing the door even though it wasn't really necessary. The Varga changed his aspect back to Raptaur, then they reopened communications with the others.

{We've mapped everything now,} Taylor said into her headset. {We found quite a few places that weren't on the plans. Forty-six mercenaries, Calvert himself, and three people in a medical bay of some sort. One doctor and two support workers. We've uploaded pictures of all of them, and all the data we could locate on the first sweep through about the power, environmental, security, armory, and server rooms.}

{There is also a strong smell of human blood coming from a room on the bottom level,} the Varga added soberly. {Not fresh, but in a large enough quantity that I doubt the person or people who supplied it lived through the process. My best guess is a torture chamber.}

{ _Shit_ ,} Lisa sighed, her voice coming through the headsets a little tinnily, but well. { _I can't say that surprises me. Any idea who was involved?_ }

{The scents suggest Calvert and the doctor, mainly. There are traces of several of the mercenaries, but the amount tells us that they probably weren't in there very much. Probably only delivering people, rather than actually doing the work.}

{ _Bastard. It's exactly the sort of thing I can imagine him getting his jollies from,_ } their friend growled. { _How many?_ }

{Victims?} He exchanged a glance with Taylor. {At least half a dozen. Mostly female, young.}

{ _If you accidentally have to eat him, don't worry about it_ ,} Lisa muttered in disgust. { _No one will miss the fucker._ }

{ _It's probably best not to,_ } Amy added in a hard voice. { _I'd quite like to see it, and I'm tempted to help, but the Director needs him alive._ }

{ _Not necessarily fully intact, though_ ,} Lisa pointed out helpfully. { _His mouth needs to work. The rest is optional_.}

{We'll bear it in mind, Metis,} the Varga snickered. {We'd better talk to Armsmaster and the director, now, to coordinate what we do next.}

{ _OK. I'll put him on,_ } Amy replied. { _Hang on._ }

There was a short delay, before Armsmaster's voice came over the headsets. " _Excellent work, Saurial, Raptaur_ ," he said. " _Ianthe has filled me in on your progress so far. You are certain you've mapped out the entire base?_ "

"Yes," Taylor replied. "The place is close to twice the size that's on the official plans. We've explored it fully, located the power room and the relevant places to cut to disable everything we want to, and we're pretty sure we can deal with the computers. Dragon's equipment should let us access it, lock out any deletion of data, and also let us run a nice little psychological program to soften them up and distract them."

"We've also double-checked on the status of the self-destruct explosives," the Varga, speaking through Raptaur, added. "They're definitely inert. There were demolition charges in the server room which have also been deactivated, based on the scent."

" _I've looked at the images of the armory, if you can disable that it would be a good idea, since they have a large amount of ammunition and spare weapons. Without access to that they'll be limited to whatever they have available on them,_ " the Tinker remarked.

"That's easy enough, we were planning on sealing up a number of places before we start anything," Taylor told him. "Unfortunately these guys aren't idiots, they're pretty much all patrolling in squads, so we can't easily lock them into various rooms. We might get a few like that, though."

" _And you remain undetected?_ "

"Yes. None of them have the faintest idea we're here. We could probably just run around darting them and get half of them before the rest even noticed, but that might make them go a little mental and someone is going to end up killed considering the amount of weaponry they have. I'd prefer to keep the casualties to a minimum."

Taylor didn't say that she was fairly sure they could simply teleport around the place and drop them all in their tracks as it gave too much away, and in all honesty she wasn't entirely certain that was a sure thing. The mercenaries definitely seemed to be very alert and well trained, utterly unlike the normal sort of people they went after in the gangs. The ultimate outcome wasn't in doubt, of course, but she didn't want to show off any more of their abilities than they had to.

" _Impressive. All right, if you want to make your preparations for the attack, you should proceed to the server room and connect Dragon's special equipment. She can talk you through the correct process. Once we have an external connection, I'll talk to the other teams and make sure everyone is aware of the timeline. We need to synchronize our attacks closely to minimize the risk of any traps or avenues of escape._ "

"All right. We're heading back to the server room now."

" _Good_."

"Your new comms units seem to have managed to sneak in without them noticing as well," she went on as she and her other aspect left the room and silently slipped through the base to the server room. "There's a hell of a lot of advanced comms gear in the security room, and they're definitely monitoring it very closely, but they don't seem to notice this at all."

" _That was what we were hoping for_ ," he replied. " _Dragon's latest communications system design utilizes a large number of parallel spread-spectrum compressed microburst channels at very low individual powers, as well as a highly advanced encryption and error-checking methodology. In theory it's essentially indistinguishable from background noise without the key. We're well aware of the PRT communications equipment specifications, of course, and we assumed that Calvert would be utilizing it as it's currently the best available. This new system was designed specifically to avoid detection by such equipment._ "

"I assume you'll upgrade your equipment to the new standard when the switchover takes place?" the Varga asked curiously.

" _Yes, that's the plan. All the new comms units issued today are using this system, so Coil's people can't listen in on us. Using it in such close quarters was the acid test, which it appears it's passed with flying colors_."

"Certainly seems to, yes," Taylor said. They'd reached the server room again. Neither mercenary was present any more, presumably having finished the job. "OK, we're here."

" _I will hand you over to Dragon now, in that case_ ," Armsmaster replied, sounding satisfied. " _I'll be talking to the Director if you need me_."

"OK."

Entering the room, they locked the door and sealed it, the Varga quickly applying the cloaking spell to it as well. He was grinning when she looked inquiringly at him.

" _I believe this will make them unable to even locate the door now,_ " he chuckled in her head. " _That could cause some interesting results._ "

' _I'll say_.' She grinned back at him. ' _We should do that to the rest of the important places, like the armory and power room._ '

" _This particular spell won't last long on an inanimate object compared to a living thing, but it should easily manage a few hours,_ " he told her.

' _That'll help, and confuse the hell out of them as well,_ ' she noted.

" _Hello, ladies_ ," Dragon said as they were both snickering. " _Can you upload another image of the server racks, please?_ "

"Sure, hold on a moment," Taylor told her. "Pity this won't send video."

" _It can, but there isn't really enough bandwidth for real time high resolution video, even heavily compressed_ ," the Canadian replied. " _The video quality I can get through this sort of communication channel isn't good enough for this work, compared to a couple of still images. If I increase the bandwidth, it makes it more likely to be detectable by hostile forces, so it's the usual sort of trade-off between security and convenience_."

"Fair enough. This will work." Taylor held the mapper up and carefully took a number of photos with it in camera mode, turning around to cover the entire room. The upload took thirty seconds or so.

" _Good, thank you. All right, you see that console on the left, next to the rack labeled_ ** _COMSRV1_** _?_ "

"Yep, got it."

" _Under it, two units down, there's one with five blue LEDs on the front panel. The middle one is out_."

"OK, I see it."

" _Carefully pull it out until you can get to the back of it. There are sixteen ethernet ports on the back. Plug the comms tap into the third one from the right as you're looking down at it_."

"Hold on." Taylor squatted down and unscrewed the thumbscrews on the sides of the relevant rack-mounted unit, then gently slid it out a little over a foot. The cables that were carefully folded and bundled behind it accordioned out without any trouble. Handing her one of the pieces of equipment Dragon had made for them, the Varga watched as she plugged it into the relevant port. "OK, done that."

" _Great. Now, connect the other cable coming out of the tap into the free port on the unit immediately under the one you just pulled out. It should be reachable from the top, right in the middle_."

Supporting the extracted unit on her knee, Taylor reached into the rack and felt around, nodding to herself when a claw slipped into a free ethernet socket in the right spot. Unrolling the other cable, she fed it down the back and pushed it into the socket with a click.

"Done that too."

" _Wonderful. Turn the tap on and wait for all three lights to go green. It should take about fifteen seconds_."

"OK." She pressed the power button on the small unit in. Three leds lit one after another, in red. Each blinked a few times, then went on solidly, before changing to orange, then green. "All green."

" _Good, you're in. It's hacked through the firewalls and gives you complete override control of the entire system. It's also disabled any alarms which would be triggered when we take out the backup sites. Put everything back and stand by, we're nearly ready_."

"That was scarily quick for a complete system override," Taylor commented as she carefully reinstalled the extracted unit.

" _I designed that equipment_ ," Dragon chuckled. " _It doesn't present much of a problem, no matter how good they think they are._ "

Snickering, she did the thumbscrews up again, then stood up. "No, I guess it wouldn't." Looking at her other aspect, she shrugged. "Now we wait for a bit, I suppose. Let's think up some interesting little amusements for dear Mr Calvert."

The Varga was already prodding the wrist-mounted terminal that they each had a version of, which was connected wirelessly to the now-compromised computer system. He had, of course, as much in the way of computer skills as she did, which was admittedly far less than Dragon did, but also much more than needed for this particular job.

Both of them got to work, exchanging ideas and laughter, while coming up with a number of diversions for the next part of the plan.

* * *

Watching the leader of the tech squad he was assigned to check out the front door of Coil's backup computer site through a pair of hi-tech digital binoculars, Eric waited patiently for instructions. The smell of whatever it was that they'd used to cause the diversion was omnipresent, horrible, but muted enough by the respirator mask he had on under his helmet to live with. He'd forgotten the name of the chemical in question, thio-something-or-other, but it was clearly pretty powerful stuff.

Determined to make a good impression, partly to keep Aunt Carol from glaring at him, partly to stop his mother sighing a little, and partly so he didn't get the PRT troopers making any more jokes about his age, he simply sat and watched them work. They obviously knew exactly what they were doing and were only awaiting the word to begin. He checked the time on the transport van's dashboard clock, seeing that it was just after seven in the morning, the March day beginning to lighten rapidly as the sun rose higher. Still chilly and damp due to the time of year and their proximity to the bay, he was very glad for his new costume, which was easily keeping him comfortable.

After a discussion with a couple of techs, the sergeant, a woman in her early thirties by the name of Adler, turned to him. "Shielder, we're fairly sure that there is an automatic gun emplacement concealed in the building across the street from the entrance to the data silo." She showed him a tablet which had an image of the site in question, taken through a very good telephoto lens, then zoomed in on a second floor window. Tapping the screen she highlighted the window, producing a false-color graphic that did indeed suggest there was something rather lethal-looking in the darkness behind the glass.

"This looks like a mark seven automated 12.7mm gatling gun pod with fully-autonomous target tracking and fire control, the sort of thing we have on the Rig as a short range anti-aircraft battery. It's aimed directly at the entrance of the silo. There's a possible second one in the next window along but we can't get a good enough angle on it to be certain."

"Vicious," he commented, inspecting the image, then looking up at the street, squinting at the location a quarter of a mile away. "He's not taking prisoners, is he?"

"No. That thing will completely shred lightly armored vehicles like this at that range, and what it would do to body armor..." She trailed off with a look of distaste. "How the fuck he got his hands on at least one of them, I have no idea at all, but someone is going to pay for it. The good part is that the ammunition capacity is only about fourteen hundred rounds without the associated automatic reloader, which is much too large to be present from these images. The bad part is that it can go through those fourteen hundred rounds in about twenty seconds, they're probably the armor piercing explosive incendiary ones, and the gun AI is a fucking good shot. If it lights off when we're in range, we're dead in seconds."

"And you think it will fire up if we try getting into the silo, I guess."

"Practically guaranteed. That's the only reason it's there. He obviously doesn't care about civilian casualties, on a normal day that thing opening fire would probably kill everyone on the street. What I'm thinking is that you can form a force-field between us and the weapon or weapons, in case it decides to fire on us. We could attempt entry on the building to shut it down, but if it was me I'd have booby-trapped the hell out of the place, so we have to assume that he did as well. The easiest method may be an RPG round through the window, which has the side-effect of destroying the place and eliminating a lot of evidence, and might well set fire to the entire building. I'd prefer to avoid that."

"OK." Eric nodded his understanding. "So if I just block it from us, we wait for it to run out of ammo?"

"That's the idea. It'll get pretty loud for a while but from your file your force-field is easily up to the job. Just keep it there until we're sure it's out. We'll deal with the booby-traps, assuming that the Family countermeasures Saurial and Raptaur used haven't already done that. We can't be completely sure until we check."

"I can do that."

"Great. We're waiting on the word to go, but the latest information is that it shouldn't be much longer. As soon as the main assault starts, they'll shut down the system, and we'll start our move here and at the other backup as well." The sergeant looked satisfied.

Turning to her squad, she got reports from all of them, then they went back to waiting, sipping coffee in silence. Eric wished he'd made some more ham sandwiches at his cousin's house, as he was getting hungry again, but decided all he could do was live with it for now.

Not to mention that the residual smell was definitely taking the edge off…

* * *

"So I just stand in the way?" Vicky asked doubtfully. "Will that work?"

Her squad leader shrugged. "You tell me. You're invulnerable, right? And that costume the Family gave you is supposed to be practically indestructible as well from what your file says."

She was interested about how much information the PRT actually had on her, since it was obvious from what the man had said that her information was being regularly updated. That said he was correct. While her invulnerability wasn't quite as absolute as the PRT appeared to believe, something they didn't mention to others, in combination with her EDM-lined costume it was basically true that no mere armor-piercing high velocity round was going to cause too much of an issue. Not even at three or four thousand of them per minute.

However, she didn't think she was going to really be able to shield the entire squad with her body, not without risking something getting through. Unless…

"I can just hover in front of the thing," she said. "Or, why don't I just attack it and wreck it before it opens fire in the first place."

"Can you do that without bringing the entire building down on top of you?" he asked with a small grin. "Based on past episodes..."

She frowned, making the man smirk. "I don't always have to smash the entire place up, you know," she mumbled.

"You don't _have_ to, true enough, but it does seem to be a habit," he snickered. At her glare, he spread his hands. "Just saying. If you're sure you can take it out and leave the rest intact, that would certainly be the easiest solution. We're pretty sure there's only one weapon, since there isn't anywhere else that's large enough to conceal one in range. There might be something else inside the place but we won't know for sure until we breach it." He grinned more widely. "You get to go first."

"Oh, thanks," she sighed. "OK. That's what I'm here for. Fine. I'll go and beat up that gun, then kick the door in when you need me to."

"That's the spirit," he smiled. Glancing at his watch, he turned to one of the other troopers. "Daniels, any word yet?"

"No, sergeant, just the last check in telling us to hold position."

"OK."

They went back to waiting, keeping an eye on the boarded up warehouse in the distance, which had a lot more computing equipment in it than the sign over the door announcing it had belonged to a long-defunct automotive spares business would suggest. Vicky wondered how the rest of her family was doing, and how long they were likely to have to wait before something interesting happened.

* * *

Listening to the various PRT personnel talking to each other, Amy waited for the next part to begin. She'd modified her bioconstruct's sense of smell to filter out the thioacetone almost entirely and had discreetly done the same for Lisa. It hadn't affected either of them all that much in the first place, but it was still fairly unpleasant.

{How much longer do you think?} she quietly asked the black lizard standing next to her. Lisa was intently watching the various monitors in the command post, undoubtedly having a far better idea of the overall situation than almost anyone there.

{Only a couple of minutes, they're just double-checking that all the external teams are in place. The systems techs are ready to shut the existing system down any time now.}

{Coil's people will know as soon as it happens, won't they?}

{I'd think so, yes,} Lisa nodded. {From what Taylor said they're pretty competent. Coil isn't an idiot either, unfortunately. He'd be a lot less dangerous if he was. It's going to make them very worried when all their spying gear goes dead. When the external links are cut too, they'll go on the defensive and barricade themselves in even more than they are now, waiting for an attack.}

{Not realizing that the most dangerous people have been in there with them for the last hour or so,} Amy snickered. Lisa grinned at her in a very toothy way.

{They're going to get pretty upset when they work that out,} she replied happily. {Even odds that they end up surrendering and asking for the PRT to rescue them from the horrible monsters…}

Both of them laughed for a moment. {That would be hysterical,} Amy said, shaking her head with amusement. {And I can see it happening, actually.}

{I wonder if dear old Thomas has worked out what I did to him yet?} her friend added maliciously. {Or is that going to be a nice surprise for later?}

{Either way works,} Amy chuckled. Armsmaster, who was talking to Miss Militia and Legend, looked over at them for a moment, then turned to Director Piggot who came out of the elevator as it dinged and the doors slid open. She was wearing one of the respirators and seemed both slightly unwell and rather anticipatory.

Walking over to the senior Protectorate people, she had a short conversation, then nodded. "We're ready to begin, everyone. The next stage begins in three minutes exactly."

A wave of activity swept through the parking garage, all the people at the temporary command equipment suddenly jumping into action. Amy reached up and tapped her earpiece. {Three minutes, Saurial,} she said calmly.

{ _Got it,_ } Taylor's Saurial voice said with a definite note of eagerness. { _We're ready to initiate operation '_ ** _Terrify the Humans'_** _on your command._ }

{Don't get too carried away.}

Lisa shook her head. {Ignore her. Get as carried away as you want. Aim it at Calvert.}

{ _That's definitely the plan,_ } their friend giggled. { _He's not going to forget this, I guarantee it._ }

{Just make sure you record everything, I want to watch this over and over,} the black and scarlet reptile said with a certain amount of anger in her voice, although it was suppressed enough that only Lisa and Taylor heard it.

{ _We will._ } Taylor sounded calm and certain now, making both her friends sure that the next part was going to be entertaining from their point of view.

"Thirty seconds, everyone," Miss Militia called. She added "Collection teams, stand by on Coil-1 and Coil-2, apprehend on my mark and isolate. Switchover teams, ready for complete shutdown of local nodes. Backup teams one and two, begin attack when signaled. Everyone else, get ready for old system disconnect."

Everyone on the new network heard her through their earpieces. Armsmaster and Dragon were each working rapidly on a pair of keyboards, checking a number of screens as information scrolled past in dozens of windows.

"Five seconds… three, two, one, _mark!_ "

The military-themed cape snapped the last word, and dozens of people went into action.

Quite a few things happened in rapid succession as a result…

* * *

" _Mark!_ "

Vicky heard the word through her earpiece. She looked at the squad leader. "We're moving in, people!" he called sharply. "Habib, Andrews, get ready for dynamic entry. Stay behind Glory Girl until we know there are no traps. Johannsen, you and your guys get in there and shut the entire place down, you know what to do. Keep alert for booby-traps. Glory Girl, take out that gun, then meet us at the entrance. Go, everyone!"

"On it, Sergeant," she replied crisply, before accelerating down the street fast enough that her wake left dust rising into the air in swirls. Behind her the PRT truck roared into life and started to follow.

Doing a ninety-degree turn at over two hundred miles an hour as she reached the hidden gun emplacement, she smashed through the window and aimed herself at the now-revealed weapon system. Even as she entered, it whined into life, the barrels spinning up to a remarkably high speed almost instantly. By the time she was half-way across the room it had slewed to track her and begun firing, the autonomous system aiming precisely at her center of mass.

The noise was suddenly unbelievable. Hundreds of explosive rounds in an almost solid stream screamed out of the firing weapon, strobing flashes of flame reaching six feet past the muzzle. She felt very little of the actual detonations of the rounds, the EDM-lined suit absorbing them and redistributing the energy in an amazingly effective manner, but the sheer force involved slowed her instantly. Surprised, she pushed harder, overcoming the huge amount of flying metal fragments, reached the weapon, then attacked it with her fists.

At that point it was basically game over for the thing. It didn't last more than a couple of seconds before she'd grabbed the rotating barrel assembly and ripped it loose in a shower of bent parts and sparks and a screech from the motor driving it. A rising whine followed by a loud thump heralded the motor overspeeding and dying from the sudden lack of load. What was left of the turret panned back and forth, until she located the main control unit and simply punched it, turning it into scrap on the spot.

Silence, broken by the ringing in her ears, fell. She shook her head and slapped the side of her helmet without any real result. ' _Have to get Amy to check that,_ ' she thought a little dizzily. While it hadn't lasted long, the sheer noise had been more than a little disorientating. She was very grateful to Saurial for her new costume, knowing that without it even she would have had problems. Dropping the remains of the barrel mechanism on the floor of the room she looked around, raising an eyebrow at the damage. The ricocheting shell fragments had perforated every surface she could see, breaking the other two windows and making a very impressive mess.

Vicky walked over to where a small fire was burning, a couple of floorboards smoldering from red-hot metal bits, bending down and pulling them up, then tossing them out the window. After she'd checked that there was no further risk of fire destroying the building, she flew back through the window and down to the PRT truck, which had stopped outside the target warehouse.

"Gun's dead, Sergeant," she reported. "The room's a mess from the shrapnel and I put out a fire, but most of the weapon is still intact."

"Good work, Glory Girl," he nodded. Turning to the rest of the squad, he watched as the entry team ran a number of different devices over the main door, carefully checking the results.

"Sergeant, there are faint traces of nitrogen oxides that indicate there were explosives present here, but they're too low for anything to still be active. We think that the Family agent deactivated some C4 charges around the door. There are two separate tripwires on the door, we've bypassed both of them, but I can't guarantee there's nothing else." Corporal Andrews shrugged as he made his report.

"Good enough." The squad leader turned to Vicky and raised an eyebrow. "After you, ma'am," he said, gesturing to the door. "Please minimize damage, we want the equipment intact."

"Of course," she nodded with a smile. "Stand back, everyone."

All the squad members took cover behind the armored vehicle, except for Habib and Andrews, who were crouched behind a pair of Tinker Tech riot shields, watching carefully and still using some sort of scanning device. She floated over to the door, inspected it, then punched the lock. Hard.

The door, which on the outside looked like a perfectly normal exterior industrial metal portal, was clearly much more than it appeared. There was an echoing **_BOOM!_** and it shook slightly, but nothing else happened. Looking at the dent in the outer surface which perfectly corresponded to her fist, she shook her head. "Tough door," she commented.

It took four more hits of increasing force before something finally snapped. She was sure she could have smashed it down with one really solid hit, or simply flown into it at high speed, but that risked making the entire door end up coming loose and destroying whatever was on the other side. She didn't want to let these guys down and ruin the raid, so she was going carefully. When the lock failed with a crunch, she grabbed the edge of the door, sunk her fingers into the metal, and yanked hard, ripping it out of the frame towards her and against the direction the hinges were meant to go.

It screeched open, until it was sufficiently out of the way that she could see in. Inside was darkness, aside from dozens of small blinking lights at the far end of a bare concrete corridor. Stepping through the opening she twitched when there was a rapid series of very loud bangs, closely enough together that they almost merged into a single roar that went on for a few seconds. Thousands of metal fragments bounced around the place and raised a cloud of dust.

"Holy _shit!_ " she yelped, instinctively covering her helmet with an arm. "What the fuck?" When the noise and metal hail abruptly stopped, she lowered her arm and looked around, then up. Mounted on the ceiling above the door was another gun emplacement, a much smaller one that sported two automatic shotguns with large cylindrical magazines. Both these were now empty and there were ejected twelve-bore cartridges all over the floor.

She looked down and saw that the ground was covered in both buckshot and a dozen or so enormous slugs, all flattened where they'd impacted either her suit or the walls. She suspected that normal PRT-issue body armor wouldn't have saved anyone who'd been standing right where she was at the time the guns fired. "I think it's clear now," she said over her headset. "The guns are out of ammo."

" _OK, we're coming in_ ," Corporal Andrews replied, both he and his colleague cautiously entering behind her a few seconds later, their shields raised in front of them. He looked up at the booby-trap weapons emplacement, shaking his head in mild wonder. "Really didn't want anyone getting in here, did he?"

"Antisocial bastard," his companion snorted, scanning the corridor. Vicky stayed in front of them just in case as they slowly and carefully moved down the passageway, checking for more booby traps. "Found a deactivated mine here in the wall," he added a little later, running the device over the concrete, then pulling out a small spray can and quickly spraying a circle with an X in the middle of it in green paint. "C4-based explosively formed penetrator with a copper plate. Nasty."

"What would that do?" Vicky asked curiously.

"Punch a hole six inches in diameter through practically anything that got in the way," the man grunted. "At this range, even Armsmaster's armor would feel it. Here's another one." He took another step, then jumped as there was a sharp pop from inside the wall where he'd marked it, some dust floating down. "Looks like the detonator still worked," he added when he'd recovered, smiling slightly. "The main charge is inert, luckily."

Vicky peered at the floor. "What set it off?"

"Pressure switch," he replied, kneeling down and scanning the ground, before getting up again.

They found four more traps on the way to the far end of the corridor, all of which had been deactivated by whatever Saurial and Raptaur had used, some invention of Ianthe's as far as Vicky could tell. The PRT troopers were relieved that they didn't need to disarm the explosives in the normal fashion. Each one went pop as they tripped the sensors, but nothing untoward happened otherwise. By the last one they didn't even flinch, although Vicky was inwardly amused to notice they still stayed behind her the entire way.

When they reached the end, all three looked into the large room which was absolutely filled with computer equipment. "How much do you want to bet there's another trap on the other side of this doorway?" Habib commented.

"Sucker bet," Andrews replied, pulling out a small mirror on a telescopic pole, which he very carefully and slowly moved past the threshold, tipping it from side to side. Squinting at it, he nodded. "Same as the other one, right about… there." He pointed at the wall above the door.

Vicky looked up, then floated up to the ceiling. "Here?" she asked, putting her hand on the concrete.

"Six inches to the left and down three," the man said, double-checking, then stepping back.

"OK." She punched a hole completely through the wall in one hit, grabbed the metal on the other side, and yanked hard. Most of a very bent automatic shotgun came through in her fist in a cloud of concrete dust and gravel, while the remains of the other one and the mount dropped to the floor.

"Good work." The corporal looked approving. He scanned ahead of them very thoroughly. "Just the self-destruct charges as far as I can see, C4 again, on every cabinet. All deactivated. We're clear." He'd broadcast the last words to the rest of the squad.

" _All right,_ " the sergeant replied immediately. " _Johannsen, you're up. Quick as you can, please._ "

" _Sergeant_ ," the other man said in acknowledgment. Vicky looked over her shoulder to see three more troopers enter and jog towards them, two of them carrying a considerable amount of equipment and the third unreeling a drum of optical cable that led back to the truck. She moved out of the way to let them past. They spread out through the server room, inspecting everything rapidly while exchanging technical comments that were far past her level.

In a surprisingly short period of time they'd connected their equipment to the stuff present in the room and were through all the firewalls and security. Soon after that the lead tech nodded in satisfaction. "We've disabled the protection and traps, we're copying the entire data-set off. All wireless backup links are down, and we've cut the hardlines," he reported. "This site is completely isolated."

" _Stand by, I'll call it in_ ," the squad leader replied. Everyone waited in silence, the sound of dozens of fans humming in the background, as he contacted headquarters.

* * *

" _Mark!_ "

Eric glanced at Sergeant Adler. She nodded. "We'll do it just like we planned."

"OK." He formed a force-field platform and stepped onto it, then floated it a little erratically to the front of the PRT truck, where he anchored it to the vehicle. Forming another one vertically in the air in front of them, which wrapped around the truck some ten feet out to the sides all the way past the back, he motioned to the trooper behind the wheel. The truck jerked into motion and headed down the street towards the target location, two troopers walking inside the shield on each side, weapons at the ready and very alert.

Looking around somewhat nervously, while feeling like a hood ornament, Eric made damn sure to keep his fields as hard as he could make them. When they arrived at the destination, he expanded the one around the truck to cover the door into the building, then jumped down to the road.

Sergeant Adler looked around carefully, then nodded approvingly. "Can you push that side out as close to the building as you can, please?" she asked, pointing towards the known gun installation and the place they suspected one might be. "We'll try opening the door and see if that's enough to trigger it into firing. If that doesn't work, we'll have to go in and destroy them, but my guess is that without the right sequence of operations they'll open up on us."

Eric did as requested, making the gunward side of the visibly glowing hard light shield sit a foot in front of the buildings. One of the troopers was pointing some sort of scanner towards the hidden weapon. He adjusted it carefully, then slowly panned it across the brickwork, before looking up. "Definitely a weapon in there, I'm reading active electronics consistent with a targeting system. The other location has one as well, both aimed right at us. Move the truck back ten feet, will you, Zach?"

The driver, who was hanging out the window, nodded and put the vehicle into reverse, slowly backing up.

"Yes, both weapons are tracking the vehicle," the man noted. He put the scanner back on his vest, then turned to Adler. "I'm almost certain they'll fire on us if we open the door."

"All right, let's see if you're right. Jones, breaching charges on the door, please."

The addressed trooper pulled a small black disk from his pack and slapped it over the lock, then repeated the action on three places down the other side of the door over the hinges. Pulling the pins on all four charges, which made them beep and start flashing a small green light, he took cover behind the truck. Without being asked, Eric put another faintly glowing force-field between the door and the vehicle, making Sergeant Adler nod approvingly.

"Fire in the hole!" the trooper shouted, before he flipped up two safety covers on the remote control he was holding and pressed both buttons with his thumbs.

The next thirty seconds were quite exciting.

With a loud bang, all four charges fired, shattering the door and part of the frame into fragments which bounced off the force-field causing lots of small points of light. The remains of the door tipped inwards and crashed into the floor, almost instantly followed by a very rapid series of explosions and a hell of a lot more shrapnel as something inside started firing.

At the same time, there was a loud whine from two different places across the street for less than two seconds, before it was drowned out by a thunderous roar as both gun emplacements opened up on the truck. Eric staggered a little at the sudden load on his shield, having been taken by surprise by the insane volume of explosive shells hitting it. Everyone hit the deck, except him and Adler, who just stood and watched with interest, her hands over her ears. Above her respirator, her eyes showed she was pleased and impressed.

The field glittered with thousands of points of bright light as each shell detonated on it, the guns walking the fire pattern back and forth across the entrance to the backup site. Eric, ears ringing, kept his concentration on maintaining the field until the firing finally and abruptly ceased as the weapons ran out of ammunition.

"Fuck me!" he shouted when he could finally hear again. The whine was still coming from inside the buildings, but the windows and much of the walls surrounding them were utterly gone, ripped to shreds under the onslaught from the guns. "That was _loud!_ "

"Great job, Shielder." Sergeant Adler slapped him on the back. "You four, go and make sure those weapons are shut down. Be careful of booby traps." She pointed at several people as they picked themselves off the tarmac. "Make sure there aren't any fires."

All four men nodded, two each going across the road and heading into the buildings, out of which a surprising amount of smoke was now coming. Eric let them through his shield but kept it in place, just in case. After _that_ introduction to Coil's paranoia and firepower, he wasn't taking any chances.

It was only a few minutes later when the two teams came back. "Three small fires, extinguished now, Sergeant," one of the men reported. "Both weapons are disabled and locked down. Nothing else found."

"OK." Adler nodded. "Let's get in there." She regarded the open doorway with suspicion. "I'll lay money on there being other traps. Shielder, can you make a sort of force-field tunnel through that?"

Eric dropped his current force-fields, then went over to where he could carefully look into the opening. It led down a plain hallway for about fifty feet and turned right at the end. "Sure," he replied. "I can push it out into a cylinder with the end covered, and we can walk down it."

"Excellent. All right, entry team, you're with Shielder. Tech team, ready your equipment, we're running behind schedule and I want to get in there as soon as it's cleared. Let's go." She stood to the side as Eric and two troopers cautiously entered the ruined doorway, the boy projecting a protective force-field all around them as they slowly moved into the building.

He glanced up at the ceiling, seeing that the firing that had happened when the door was breached had come from some sort of device on the ceiling. It was now hanging inert, having run out of ammo as well. Returning his attention to the corridor, he looked around, alert for anything dangerous. Both troopers were scanning the entire place, moving one step at a time.

"Stop," one of them abruptly snapped, holding up a hand. Eric froze, pushing as much power into the field as he could.

"Mine in the wall to the right," the man said, pointing. "I'm reading a pressure sensor in the floor."

"Got one on the other side," the other trooper said after a couple of seconds work. "About six feet further in. Both read as inert."

"Good thing." The first man stared at the wall. "They're buried in the concrete, we'd have a hell of a job getting at them without them going off if they were still active." He looked around, then at Eric. "Your force-field would take it, I guess, but it would get hellishly loud."

After some discussion, they deliberately tripped the sensor, hearing a sharp _crack!_ sound from inside the wall. Nothing else happened, making all three relax. Moving down the corridor a little more confidently but still very carefully, they triggered the rest of the mines they found, eventually reaching the end and rounding the corner to find another doorway just a little further on. Five minutes later, after disabling another shotgun-based trap with a force-field and the long pole on which had been placed a small explosive charge, the tech teams were in the process of hacking the servers.

"Very good work, Shielder," Sergeant Adler commented, glancing at him while they stood to the side and watched the squad do their job. "That would have taken a lot longer without your help, and could well have resulted in casualties."

"Thanks, Sergeant," he replied, smiling. "It was sort of nerve-racking but I'm glad to help out."

She nodded, before turning away to talk to one of the technical experts, then made a call back to the control center. Eric leaned on the wall and listened, wondering how the others were getting along.

* * *

The lights flickered several times, went out for a second, then came back on. Lisa looked up at them, frowning. {That's not good,} she commented to Amy, who was also looking.

Another bout of flickering immediately followed her words, and both of them felt the concrete under their feet shake very slightly, a faint but deep thud transmitted through it. All the main lights went out at the same time. Emergency lighting kicked in instantly, running on batteries. None of the new equipment the technical people were working on had any trouble, running as it was on a set of Dragon's generators which were off to the rear of the garage, but the technicians themselves became quite excited.

{Crap. What happened?} Amy asked.

{They missed at least one booby-trap,} Lisa snarled. {That fucker is _sneak_ y _._ } Letting her power have free run, she watched everyone working frantically, listening and thinking hard. {There was some sort of unusual explosive in the power distribution room and a couple of critical nodes,} she finally said, moving to peer at one of the screens that showed the current status of the original computer system, which was now entirely dead. {Some low-priority and innocent-looking process running on a sub-processor here, tapped through the environmental control network over here…} A claw tip traced out the path the rogue data connection had taken as her ability fed her data. The tech at the console looked at her, then over at Armsmaster who was approaching them. She switched to English, and politely asked, "Excuse me, can you just shift over a little for a moment, please?"

The man seemed startled, but when Armsmaster made a motion of approval, he wheeled his chair to the side. Lisa took his place and quickly typed on the keyboard, bringing up several more screens of data in rapid succession. The Tinker watched with interest, as did Amy and the tech. "There. A charge in this conduit here severed the main feed to the power room around this point," she said, indicating a location on a schematic of the PRT building wiring.

"It automatically switched over to the backup feed, and started the generators at the same time. Another charge destroyed the frequency synchronization unit right at the critical moment and the generators didn't come into sync with the mains power fast enough. That caused a surge which blew the entire power regulator section and shut everything down, including the battery backup. The entire building is totally dead except for anything that has an independent battery like the lights."

Armsmaster was inspecting the data closely, nodding as he did and looking reluctantly impressed, although whether it was from her deductions or Coil's annoyingly complete forethought she wasn't sure yet. "That is sufficiently convoluted to be one of Calvert's plans," he sighed. "And it must have been put into place during the last refit eight years ago. Non-standard explosives, I would imagine, as they'd otherwise have been detected in our security sweeps. Probably some Tinker design, disguised as something innocuous."

"And it relied on letting the power feed itself do most of the damage," she added, also almost impressed. "Several hundred kilowatts of electricity can vaporize a lot of wiring."

"We're going to have to bypass half the power room," the technician complained, sounding miffed. "It'll take hours."

"No choice, though," Armsmaster said with resignation. "It won't affect our operation as we're running on the new portable units, but the new system is down too as a result. We'll have to pull some of the spare generators out of stock and connect them for the moment to get it back in operation. I'll arrange that now. Metis, good work, thank you for the quick analysis. Please tell your cousins what happened."

"OK, Armsmaster," she nodded, moving out of the way. Amy was listening with interest, and turned to her with an inquisitive look.

{Think there are any more surprises?} she asked quietly, while the Tinker went to talk to Dragon, Miss Militia, and Director Piggot.

Lisa shrugged. {My power thinks that's probably it for Coil's backup plans here. These people are very good, they found several levels of traps, but the problem is that he's had literally years to plan for all this and his ability definitely let him try a lot of things to settle on the least likely to be discovered methods. This is probably the backup to the backup to the backup, meant to create enough chaos that he could escape while everything was shut down. If it wasn't for the way they're already running on the new system for the most part, it would have completely paralyzed the PRT in the city for hours while they tried to figure out what the hell was going on.}

{But it won't have that much effect now, I guess?}

{It's going to cause a lot of little problems, they'll be finding issues for days, but I doubt it's going to slow us down all that much.} Lisa reached up and tapped her earpiece. {Guys? Minor development, but nothing too serious for you at least…}

She began telling Taylor and the great demon what had happened, while the PRT staff dealt with the problem.

* * *

" _Mark!_ "

Taylor glanced at her double, both of them grinning.

' _We're up. Let's go and cause some trouble_ ,' she said with a silent chuckle.

" _Indeed,_ " the demon replied. Turning both tracking and mapping units off, they stored them in one of her pouches. " _I suggest that we dismiss the second aspect for now, as we won't need it yet and we've had it active for an hour and a half," he added. "It's best to let us rest for a while as we set the scene, I think._ "

' _Fine by me,_ ' she replied, accepting the data terminal, camera, and earpiece he handed her, before dropping the spare aspect. Turning the device off she put it away, then looked around the computer room to make sure everything was in place. Satisfied, and after reinforcing the cloaking spell on the door, she formed a sheet of EDM over the back of it just to be on the safe side then teleported to the armory.

They spent the next few minutes popping all over the base, sealing then hiding critical openings. None of the mercenaries noticed as they lost the power room, the armory, and the medbay. In the latter, she watched the doctor reading a file, peering over his shoulder to see it was the medical report on one of the mercenaries, then looked back at the two other staff members who were playing cards in the main room. After a little thought, she formed a very sharp needle-pointed instrument coated with Amy's latest soporific and poked him in the neck with it, watching with satisfaction as the man abruptly slumped in his chair, asleep in seconds.

' _That'll keep him quiet for a few hours_ ,' she said with a nod. Moving into the other room, she quickly did the same to both the medical technicians, grabbing one of them as he started to fall out of his chair. Putting them both on a couple of gurneys, she retrieved the doctor and did the same with him. She finished up with manacles for all three to be safe.

" _That was fairly straightforward_ ," the Varga said with amusement.

' _These guys were easy_ ,' she snickered. ' _No real challenge so we may as well get them out of the way right at the beginning._ '

Her earpiece made the little sound that indicated one of her friends had come on the line. After Lisa had filled them in on the latest problem, she shook her head a little. {That guy is a pain,} she grumbled.

{Tell me about it,} Lisa replied with an irritated tone in her voice. {Armsmaster isn't happy, and the director is looking like she wants to beat the bastard to death with his own severed arm right now.}

{Not his greatest fan, is she?} Taylor asked whimsically, getting a snort of agreement back.

{She hates him even more than I do,} Lisa agreed. {Go and fuck with him for a while. Make it good.}

{ _That_ , I can do.} Grinning to herself, Taylor disappeared from the medical facility, leaving three faintly snoring men behind.

* * *

"FUCK!"

Thomas picked a paperweight off his desk and threw it across the room to shatter on the wall. Slumping back in his chair, he dropped that timeline and sulked. It was getting worse. Now, every timeline scenario he tried that involved anything outside his base in any way went bizarre almost instantly. Half the ones _inside_ his base ended either in that horrible sudden void with no warning, or some of the most peculiar things he'd ever encountered, _then_ the void.

The worst of it was he had absolutely no idea what was causing it.

Was it an attack? Some interaction with another power, possibly even an accidental one? Some medical issue? Alien intervention? God hating him?

Cauldron doing something to him?

That last one was the worst and most worrying thought. His contact number no longer worked at all for the person who years ago had given him his power. They didn't even hang up on him, it just didn't connect. No matter what he'd tried, he'd been unable to locate any trace of the people involved. He was hesitant to attempt any of the more dangerous methods of attracting their attention, for two reasons; One was that it might not work, the other was that it _might_.

He shivered slightly. Those people were… dangerous.

Not _quite_ at that level of desperation, he yet again went over a list of other possibly useful contacts that might help with the situation he'd found himself in, while absently swallowing some more painkillers to deal with the tension headache he seemed to suffer from almost continuously these days. Before all this had started he'd had tentative plans to recruit several other Parahumans, both individuals and groups, but hadn't had a chance to do so to any others than the Undersiders before everything went to shit.

Circus had been one of the ones on his list, as the cape was a very skilled thief among other useful abilities, but right now he didn't see how a thief would help anyway. Not to mention that as far as he could tell Circus had legged it some weeks ago, leaving Brockton Bay for parts unknown.

He rather wished he'd taken that as a hint and done the same…

The Travelers were also on his list, being potentially very powerful and with a mix of powersets that he had a number of uses for. Unfortunately he'd not gotten that far in his planning before the lockdown, so even if he managed to contact them now, the best they could hope to achieve was to cause chaos, and most likely not in a way that would actually help him very much. Not to mention that he didn't have very much to offer them as temptation to come and work for him, since trying to hire someone then asking them to rescue him from his own base wasn't going to give the right impression. So that was out, leaving aside the fact that the last information he had on them was weeks old and somewhere on the other side of the country anyway.

He had enough information on a number of capes, both heroes and villains, that he might be able to apply pressure to get some sort of help. The problem with _that_ plan was that it wasn't something he could walk back on, once he started blatantly violating the Rules the word would get around and without being in the right position to take advantage of it, he was at least as likely to end up finding they attacked rather than fell into line. The whole long-term plan had required him to be in a much more powerful place before he could use such data for his own benefit. Attracting any attention to himself right now seemed unwise, especially _that_ sort of attention.

He sipped some water, massaging his brow with his other hand. What to do? Sooner or later his mercenaries would lose patience and there was a limit to the number he could make examples of before he had a mutiny on his hands. The one who had decided to get clever with his documents had been bad enough, Smith had nearly lost it when he'd shot the man in front of him, despite being ready to do it himself. He didn't take betrayal any better than Thomas himself did, but he also wanted to deal with discipline issues in his own way.

And the worst of it was he still didn't know where those fucking documents had ended up. He just hoped they'd been lost or destroyed, since the information in them could really bite him in the ass if it came out at the wrong moment. However, despite a lot of paranoid checking in the weeks since they vanished, nothing seemed amiss, which was a definite relief. He'd gotten lucky there.

Not to mention that the way the Undersiders had vanished so completely had taken him by surprise. He'd been waiting for the PRT to make a move against him using the information that Tattletale could easily have given them, but so far nothing had happened. The purge of his disposable agents in the organization had worried him a lot, but since his most important and well hidden ones remained, it looked like it really was something caused by Kaiser not being as smart as he thought he was. It suggested that the disappearance of the group was possibly down to something else. Perhaps Lung had managed to kill them all after all?

He shook his head in massive irritation. This whole last two months had been dreadful, had put his plan back enormously, and he was sure was giving him more gray hairs than his age deserved. When he finally worked out what was happening and dealt with it, he was definitely going to have a holiday.

Closing his eyes he leaned back and waited for the painkillers to work, mulling over his next move in his head. There was still time to recover the plan if he could only work out what the problem was and fix it. He was smart, and devious, so it was only a matter of time.

* * *

Taylor watched the tall thin man lean his chair back, a pained expression on his face. She was standing not ten feet away, cloaked and unnoticeable, musing on the most entertaining way to screw with Coil.

' _I wonder what he'd do if I just dropped the cloak and shouted_ ** _BOO!_** ' she giggled.

The Varga grinned inside her mind. " _Possibly have a coronary,_ " he chuckled. " _But Lisa would be annoyed, that would be much too quick._ "

' _I have Amy's healing thingies with me, I could bring him back,_ ' she suggested with an evil snicker.

" _True._ " He was radiating amusement into her mind. _"Let's call that plan B. Plan A is much funnier._ "

' _Yep_.' Prodding her communicator with a claw, she added out loud, even though the other occupant of the room couldn't hear her, {I'm going to start the psyops campaign now. We'll need the outside links to stay up for a little longer, I'll tell you when to cut it, OK.}

{ _All right_ ,} Lisa replied happily. { _DO NOT forget to video his reaction or I won't speak to you for a week._ }

{Can't have that, dear cousin,} she snickered. {Camera on, action about to start. Talk in a while.}

{ _Enjoy yourselves,_ } her friend laughed.

{We will, I guarantee it.} Dropping the comms link, she raised her computer terminal and selected the right icon, tapping it then typing with two fingers for a moment. With an evil grin, she pressed another icon, then watched the result.

* * *

Opening his eyes when his computer made an odd sound, Thomas turned his head to look at the screen. After a frozen pause, his eyes opened even more widely.

 **All Your Base Are Belong To Us**

He gaped at the message box that had opened up across the width of the screen, displaying the message in large letters. After a second, he glanced at the video wall to see to his horror every single screen had the same message on, and nothing else.

"What…!"

Then the lights went out.


	280. Guest Omake - Confusing Calvert

**Confusing Calvert**

 **(By CmptrWz)**

* * *

Thomas dismissed the timeline where his men had, apparently, found that one of the emergency escape tunnels no longer existed, instead leading into the damned void, which started spilling into the base. Not only was outside the base causing issues for him, now it was happening _inside_ the base.

What did he do to deserve this? He couldn't think of anything that was worthy of this.

Splitting timelines again he had patrols reverse in one timeline, hoping to catch something out of place with the changed patrol pattern. Five minutes later two different teams reported oddness in one timeline but not the other. Resisting the urge to slam his head on the table in both timelines he checked and found that the two teams were, apparently, staring at each other through a doorway.

This would be fine, if the teams weren't at **_OPPOSITE ENDS OF THE BASE_**. The other timeline showed no such anomaly.

Dismissing that timeline before the void likely made an appearance he split timelines again. This time he sent instructions to one of his agents to cause trouble while the PRT was occupied with the chemical spill issue. That lasted all of five minutes before the void dropped on him like a hammer. No warning, no clue why, all of a sudden it was just there.

Scowling he dismissed that timeline and paced in his office for a minute or two. Looking over the video wall nothing appeared to be out of place. To be sure he went and double-checked the feeds from his backup facilities, nothing wrong there. No unusual activity. Nothing to worry about.

Considering things some more he split timelines again and checked on a routine hardware check in the data center in one timeline while running a (for him) routine test of the self destruct system at one of the remote facilities.

Five minutes later he was wondering what went wrong, as the facility reported that all charges had been fired, but nothing had exploded. If the detonators all went off how did nothing go boom? Then the damned void dropped in. Damnit, yet more oddness with whatever was interfering with his powers. He dropped that timeline, but made mental note to have someone check that facility anyway, maybe there was a problem with the detonator connections and it wasn't related to the void descending.

He split timelines and tried testing the other remote facility's self destruct. It failed in the exact same way, just before the void descended upon him. He dismissed that timeline, split again, and for shits and giggles tested his main facility's self destruct. The void descended upon him a few seconds after things should have gone boom. Dropping that timeline he thought.

A few minutes later he had no idea. Splitting timelines again he sent a patrol to check the connections to the remote facilities, maybe the problem was there. Only for that patrol to report that the door to the data center room was _gone_ , replaced with a small village, as though looking out the doors of a castle?

Scowling he dropped that timeline. Why was everything going wrong today?


	281. Memes and Psyops

Instinctively splitting the timeline by reflex, after a few horrified seconds, Thomas threw himself to the floor, ripping his sidearm from the concealed holster under the desk on the way down and flipping the safety off in the same motion in both timelines. Cocking it as he rolled under the desk, he listened intently. Aside from the normal sounds of his office, faint humming from the computer, the sound of air in the ducting above him, and a continuous bubbling noise from the small fish tank in the bedroom, he could hear nothing out of place.

He tilted his head, straining his ears. He couldn't smell anything other than the still horrible scent of that chemical, which was slowly dropping in intensity but was still the dominant odor present. It drowned out anything else that might be otherwise detectable.

After nearly five minutes, when nothing at all happened, in one timeline he very cautiously stuck his head around the corner of the desk, his gun-hand leading, and looked around. In the other he stayed safely put under the desk, which was made of half-inch thick armor steel for just such an occasion. The light from the couple of dozen monitors lit the room in an eerie gray-green color, the single line of text the only thing visible. His eyes were sufficiently adapted to the dark now that he could see reasonably well, but there appeared to be nothing else out of place. He checked the corners of the room suspiciously, then very carefully stood, waving his weapon around the entire place.

When he didn't see or hear anything that suggested there was an attack imminent, he sidled over to the door of his bedroom, kicking it open then jumping back. Again, there was no response. After thirty seconds, he leaned in and scanned the room, panning his gun around, before cautiously entering and checking everything in detail.

Nothing.

The bedside light was still on, as were the lights in the tank on the other side of the room. He watched the fish swim around for a moment, before turning around and inspecting everything once more.

Still nothing out of place.

Going back into the other room he felt his way across it to the door, putting his hand on the handle, before thinking again. After a moment he reached to the side and found the light switch, which was in the off position. Flipping it he blinked wildly as the room lights came on.

"What… the fuck." He stared at the switch, then looked around the room. Unable to work out what on earth had happened, aside from the fact that something very odd was clearly going on, he took a deep breath and opened the door…

Gasping as the second timeline collapsed instantly, the now-familiar void seen for a fraction of a second in what should have been the corridor outside his room, Thomas jolted back in his hidey-hole under his desk, slamming his head into the unyielding metal with a dull thud, then swearing viciously. He was terrified all over again.

* * *

' _That was weird_ ,' Taylor noted, smelling the strange mix of scents coming from the man hiding under the desk. ' _He got calmer and more scared all at the same time_.'

" _I wonder..._ " The Varga sounded very thoughtful, trailing off for a second or two. " _We might have seen the result of his power, I think. Or at least the aftereffects of it at any rate. If we're right about his being able to simulate two separate scenarios at the same time, perhaps he tried to work out how to escape and ran into whatever it is that we seem to do to his type of Thinker power. If one of his simulations went well and the other one went bad, that might explain why he ended up feeling two different emotions at the same time._ "

' _There_ ** _was_** _a very short delay between them, even though they overlapped_ ,' she nodded, intrigued. ' _How odd_.' Moving around to where she could see the man lurking under the desk, which was obviously designed to double as a protective shield, she bent down and peered at him at close range. His face was fixed in an expression that mixed extreme worry, anger, careful thought, and a sort of resignation, all in one weird look. She made sure to get a good shot of it with her camera. Lisa would find it amusing. At this range she could see the electrical activity in his brain, particularly around his Gemma, was going nuts, showing his power was definitely in use.

He looked straight through her, making her wonder again what he'd do if she dropped the cloaking spell. Moving back, she kept an eye on him while typing on her wrist terminal. Hitting the _Send_ icon, she grinned when the computer made its little squeak of protest again, the Dragon-supplied override working perfectly. Calvert froze, then looked up at the underside of the desk.

' _I wonder if he'll keep trying to use his power to escape_ ,' she idly commented, watching the man visibly try to decide what to do. ' _I guess if he's used to being able to try both options at the same time, finding that it doesn't work properly is going to screw him up a lot_.'

" _I suspect so_ ," the Varga agreed. " _I'd love to know what exactly we're doing to his power, and what it seems like to him. Based on his expression, it isn't all that much fun_."

The man had, yet again, suddenly emitted two opposite emotional scents, making her smile grimly. It had happened several times in the last thirty or forty seconds. He certainly wasn't enjoying himself, which was odd, because _she_ was. Snickering, she waited to see what he did.

' _Let's soften him up for a while before we move on to the next phase_ ,' she said with satisfaction and amusement, her demonic companion feeling the same thing.

* * *

' _What the fuck is going on?_ ' Thomas thought frantically. ' _Who turned out the lights? Who's hacking my system? How did they get access?_ ' The weird message was definitely the results of a pretty effective hack into his computer network, which he'd almost have sworn was impossible without physical access. None of the alarms had gone off, there had been no hint of an intrusion, so it seemed unlikely that anyone could have somehow gained entry to the base without either him or his men noticing. So it seemed more likely that it was a remote hack.

But…

If that was true, _who had turned out the fucking lights?_

The switch had physically been turned off. But the door hadn't opened, there was no other way inside…

He suddenly looked up at the air vents in the ceiling, thinking hard. No. It was ridiculous, this wasn't a movie. None of the ducting was anywhere near large enough for even a child to get through, and in any case the vents were electrified, alarmed, and welded in place. Not to mention the traps in the ducts. He wasn't stupid, he'd thought of that when he built this place.

Even so he peered suspiciously at the vents for a couple of minutes, pointing his weapon at them the entire time.

While he was doing this, he was also thinking very hard indeed. No one had come in, that he was certain of, yet someone _not_ him had turned the lights in this one room off, somehow.

' _Stranger ability?_ ' he guessed with a shiver. ' _But no alarms. How did they get into the base in the first place? Or have they been here all along?_ '

The thought was horrifying. One of the mercenaries, possibly? Or was there a Stranger wandering around, that had been living in the base undetected for the last couple of months? He couldn't see how they could possibly have come and gone without tripping at least one alarm, the number of different systems that would have to be compromised to allow surreptitious entry or exit when a lockdown was in place was insane. It would take at least three compromised locations in the security room, the power room, _and_ the server room to override everything.

Which in turn would need, at a rough estimate, three to five people to be subverted. He couldn't say it was impossible, but it seemed unlikely. One, fair enough, two was possible, but five was pushing it. And why wait until now anyway?

Was it connected to that chemical spill incident earlier?

His paranoia was going into overdrive now.

Perhaps someone had arranged that spill as a diversion, got the PRT to commit their resources to dealing with it and simultaneously managing to have the center of the city evacuated, and was planning an assault on his base. But who? The PRT themselves? Not likely, his moles hadn't had a whisper of anything as complex as this would need. Another government agency? Not impossible, but also unlikely, since he had informants in several places who would probably have warned him. It was laughable to think of the cops as being able to do anything like this, so that really only left a Parahuman group, presumably a villainous one. Possibly the E88, although he didn't think he'd attracted enough attention from Kaiser to warrant an attack yet.

Not to mention that the Nazi fool wasn't much for subtlety, he'd have tried a frontal attack rather than sneaking around.

Splitting off another timeline, in that one he jumped to his feet and emptied his handgun into the room, spinning around to cover the entire place, then dropped into cover again. When nothing happened he peered over the desk at the smoking monitors, several of which had holes in, checking for any sign he'd hit anyone. Nothing showed up, so he dropped that timeline. Spawning another one, he scuttled over to a cabinet on the wall and opened it, retrieving the P-90 that was sitting inside along with two extra magazines. He proceeded to use up the entire hundred and fifty rounds he had on shooting the crap out of both his office and his bedroom, repeating the exercise methodically through six more timelines, until he was satisfied he'd put holes in every possible hiding place.

Aside from deafening himself, he'd achieved nothing at all. No signs of a dead or wounded Stranger-capable cape, no indications at all that anyone other than himself was present. Each repetition had attracted his men within seconds, someone hammering on the door and shouting. Dropping the last timeline again, he sat under his desk and mulled the problem over. It seemed likely that unless they were very quick, there was no hidden person in his suite. He'd either have hit them, or made them give themselves away, he thought. It wasn't a perfect test but it seemed significant.

Even so, he still couldn't figure out how that light switch had been turned off. Everything else could be a remote hack, would almost have to be, but…

That fucking switch was giving him nightmares.

Generating another timeline, he calmly walked over to the door and opened it, just to double-check what happened.

Void.

Fuck.

His heart jumped, making him breath slowly and deeply for a few seconds.

When the computer on the desk above him made the same sound that had heralded the abrupt change in status quo, he froze again, before staring at the bottom of the desk, wondering what fresh hell this was. Eventually he very slowly and cautiously shuffled out from under the desk, raising his head above it high enough to see the screen. He didn't bother with another timeline since it didn't seem to achieve anything useful right now, although the back of his neck was itching as a result.

The message had changed.

 **For Great Justice**

What the fuck did that mean?

"Who the hell is doing this?" he snarled, ducking back into hiding. Again, nothing happened, and eventually his patience ran out. If there was anyone here and they wanted him dead, it would have happened already.

Even so, he waited another minute before he stood up, panning his gun around for a moment. Walking over to the weapons cabinet he flipped the lights on as he moved past the switch, then pulled out the machine-gun, putting the magazines on the desk and slinging the strap over his shoulder. Going back to the computer, he sat down in front of it and stared at the screen for a moment, then looked up at the other monitors, all of which were patiently showing him those three words.

"What do you _want?_ " he said under his breath, then twitched violently as the message changed again without warning.

 **You**

"Jesus!" he yelped, jumping to his feet and whipping the gun up. He turned in a circle, not seeing anyone, yet again.

"This is insane," he growled. "Is there someone here?" There was no visible response, although he kept looking around, even checking the bedroom again. Going back into his office he twitched when the lights in the room he'd just left went out as he walked through the door. Checking, he found that the switch next to the door was now off. He turned it back on, gritting his teeth. His fear was quickly turning to rage. Someone was definitely fucking with him.

When he sat down again he found that all the monitors had resumed normal operation. Staring at them, he flipped through all the camera channels, looking for something out of place. All he found was patrolling mercenaries, all of whom looked alert but not worried. Clearly none of them had spotted anything amiss.

He suspiciously checked the whereabouts of all his men, seeing all forty seven of them either patrolling, monitoring the security and comms consoles, or in the case of four of them, eating in the cafeteria. These last ones clearly had strong stomachs, the smell was still bad enough that the thought of food made him ill.

* * *

Taylor watched Calvert obsessively checking everything, grinning to herself. He knew something was going on but he obviously couldn't work out exactly what, which was making him very upset. She wondered how many simulations he'd run so far, and how they'd gone wrong.

" _Time for the next part, I believe,_ " the Varga commented.

' _I think so_ ,' she smiled, poking her override terminal. This one had taken some thought to set up.

* * *

 **IM IN UR COMPUTR EATIN ALL UR MONEIZ**

Thomas stared at the message that had taken over all his monitors other than his desktop computer, horror going through him again. What did that…

A sudden ghastly thought striking him, he frantically accessed his ultra-high security banking link, typing in password after password, eventually reaching the relevant page of data. He checked the various accounts and sighed in relief. Nothing amiss.

* * *

Smiling nastily, Taylor prodded another control, then watched the result with enormous satisfaction. Lisa was probably going to frame a still from this video.

* * *

The page suddenly refreshed, the updated screen changing in a few key places. Thomas stared at it, his mind blank, for several long seconds.

It was impossible.

Reaching for the mouse, he clicked the page refresh icon, watching as the screen flickered as it redrew. The results were exactly the same.

Breathing heavily through his nose, he logged out, then went through the entire long process of getting access back again. When he arrived at the same page for the second time and saw that every one of his accounts was showing as completely empty, he closed his eyes and counted to ten.

Opening them, he screamed at the empty room, his fists clenched so hard he nearly broke a finger. " **FUCK! FUCK! FUCK!** " he howled, hammering the desk and making the keyboard jump. " **HOW! WHO! WHAT THE FUCK IS GOING ON!?** "

The by-now familiar sound of whatever was hacking his computer came again. Reluctantly, still raging, he turned his head away from the desktop monitor and stared at the video wall.

 **CEILIN LIZARD IZ WATCHIN U**

The lights went out again. Very slowly, he looked up, to see in the dim glow of the monitors a pair of glowing eyes above a mouth full of teeth that were exposed in a wide grin, one he'd seen on the news more than once.

His heart nearly stopped.

" _Saurial_ ," he choked out. "How..."

Grabbing the P-90, he opened up on the reptilian figure that was clinging to his ceiling, wildly firing as it scuttled around. Bullets pinged around the room, smashing several of the monitors but miraculously missing him completely. More worryingly, he was certain he'd hit the rapidly moving creature at least once but it didn't stop or even flinch.

When his gun finally ran out of ammunition he quickly reloaded, then looked around frantically. There was no sign of her.

 **Missed me**

The message taunted him.

He shot out some more of the monitors in fury and fear.

 **Would you like to play a game?**

Watching the remaining screens with wide eyes, Thomas wondered how the hell the fucking lizard had got inside his base.

 **Ready Player One**

The latest message formed on the last few monitors, making him shiver. There was something completely horrific about the way it didn't appear all at once, this time, but came up letter by letter.

There was a long pause, then it changed one final time.

 **Game On**

Five seconds later, the power went out entirely, the room going totally black and silent, everything dying completely. Thomas, despite his best efforts and many years of military service, couldn't help himself. He screamed in shock, holding tightly onto his weapon. At the back of his mind he was frantically wondering why this time no one had come to investigate all the shooting.

And trying to remember if his office door would open without any power.

* * *

{ _Cut the computer access,_ } Taylor's voice sounded in Amy and Lisa's earpieces. She sounded very pleased with herself. { _We're ready for the next phase_.}

{How is poor Mr Calvert taking it?} Lisa said, Amy seeing that she was grinning widely.

{ _He's a little excited_ ,} Taylor snickered. In the background they could hear a burst of gunfire. { _But I think he's getting into it. Remind me to tell Über and Leet about this, I think they'd appreciate it. I got the idea from them in fact._ }

Amy waved Armsmaster over and requested that he pass on the message. With a nod, the Tinker got to work.

{Keep us updated,} she said. {We're going to be heading that way soon, I think.}

{ _No hurry_ ,} Taylor chuckled. { _I've hardly got started yet._ }

She looked at Lisa, who was smirking, and laughed under her breath. The video was going to be impressive, she was completely sure of that much.

* * *

As an alarm twittered on the main console, Morales looked up from the tablet he was reading, attracting attention from Sergeant Owens on the other side of the room where he was trying to ignore the smell. "What's that?" he asked, getting up and walking over to where the man was working on the keyboard.

"The main data link went down," his subordinate said, bringing up the window he was after with a few clicks of the mouse. "Just went completely dead a few seconds ago. No errors logged previous to that."

"How's the primary backup?"

Morales checked. He looked up at the other man, concern in his eyes. "Also down. At exactly the same time."

"Shit." Owens grabbed one of the walkie-talkies that worked in the base, via embedded feeders in the walls, and pressed the transmit key. "Captain Smith to the control room," he said, then released the key.

" _What is it, Owens?_ " the voice of the mercenary leader came back a few seconds later, sounding like he was annoyed. Nothing unusual there.

"Problem with the external computer feed, sir," he explained.

There was a pause, then the captain replied, " _On my way_."

By the time he arrived just under two minutes later, Morales had run diagnostics on everything and was looking very worried. "It's not a problem inside the base, sir," he said as he turned around. "Both primary and secondary fiber links are down, copper backup is down too, and the wireless connection is either dead or being jammed. We're completely isolated."

"Were there any signs of anyone fucking with the tunnels or outside?" Smith demanded.

"No. Nothing, we've been monitoring it since we first detected the chemical spill," Morales replied. "Do you think they're connected?"

"Of course they're fucking connected, you idiot," the captain snarled. "Someone is attacking the place."

"The PRT?"

"It might be, or it could be the E88, or for all we know right now, the fucking dock worker's union," Smith said with extreme annoyance, checking all the various sources of information. "Cable's out too. Definitely an attack of some sort. But no attempts to get inside, no signs on the cameras of any external threat… What the hell is going on?"

Grabbing his radio, he raised it to his mouth. "Everyone get off your asses and check all exits, all critical systems. Find out what is going on." Putting it back onto his belt, he turned on his heel. "I'm going to talk to Coil. Check all the security feeds, inside and out. Look for any sign at all of something not right."

He'd reached the doorway when another alarm went off. Turning around again, he shouted, " _Now_ what?"

"The power just went out in Coil's section of the base, sir," Morales said, while Owens quickly brought up a schematic of the power grid. It was showing an entire section that was blinking red, indicating a major failure. "Primary and backup grids both shut down in that sector. Looks like they were cut in the power room, that's the only place that could be done so cleanly."

"Bring up the cameras in there," Smith snapped. All three of them looked at the array of monitors, which picked that exact moment to suddenly go blank, all the images disappearing. While they were staring, the one in the exact middle of the array popped up some text.

 **No cheating**

"What in god's name…?" Smith whispered, his face showing shock. Morales, after a short pause to gape, started hammering the keyboard and clicking on icons.

"Captain?" he said after a little while. Smith turned away from the screen that was still taunting them to look at him. "That hack..." He indicated the monitor. "It's coming from _inside_ the base. Something is tapped into the main server, somehow. I think it has to be in the computer room."

"Fuck." Smith didn't look pleased. Raising his radio, he keyed it up. "Four-man squad to the server room, we have an intruder. Another squad to the power room, check for sabotage. Chen, get down to the armory and start handing out the heavy weapons. Lock down internal corridors A-1 through D-3, close internal blast doors at all exits. I want every free man sweeping the entire fucking base, if there's one intruder there's probably more. Shoot to kill."

He let go of the key, listening to a dozen messages of acknowledgment. The three could hear boots tromping around outside the security center as everyone rushed to follow the orders. Morales was already flipping switches, having pulled a key from around his neck and inserted it into the relevant lock on the control console and turned it.

A series of deep rumbling sounds came through the walls as the internal barriers operated, separating the base into a number of semi-autonomous sections, with only certain personnel having authority to open them. It limited their ability to move around to a certain degree, but should in theory limit any intruder's ability much more since they wouldn't have the codes to open any of the barriers.

"Do you think that will work, sir?" Owens asked.

"Since we have no idea how they got inside, who the hell knows?" Smith grumbled, checking the graphical representation of the base on one of the monitors. Blinking red icons showed where key doors had operated. After a moment, he nodded. "That should slow whoever it is down at least, gives us time to arm up properly and find them." He looked up at the monitor that was still displaying the message from their unknown intruder and glared at it. "Fucking funny, I'm sure," he added with venom in his voice.

" _Captain Smith, Chen reporting_ ," the radio in his hand squawked. " _We have a problem._ "

"What is it?" the captain replied, scowling even more blackly.

" _Um… It's the armory._ "

"What about it?"

" _We… can't find it_."

There was a _very_ long pause, during which Smith's face became an unhealthy red color. "What the fucking hell do you mean you can't find the armory?" he finally said into the radio, his voice deliberately even and controlled.

" _Exactly that, sir. We've walked up and down the hallway four times now and there's no sign of the door._ " The armorer sounded both very puzzled and not a little worried.

"For fuck's sake!" Smith shouted, pinching the bridge of his nose. Then he raised the radio again. "I'm on my way down. If this is a joke I'm going to shoot you myself. Many, _many_ times."

"Yes, Sir," the distant man said, still sounding extremely confused.

Smith clipped the radio back onto his vest, then punched the wall beside the door. Growling under his breath, he turned to leave. "Hold the fort, see if you can get the cameras back, and do what you can to figure out what the hell is going on," he said to Owens.

"What about Coil, Captain?" the sergeant asked.

"Fuck Coil, he's on his own for now," Smith replied angrily. "He's armed to the teeth and behind three feet of steel and concrete. I'll go and talk to him when I find out what Chen has been drinking and beat it out of him. The intruder is more important than one cape right now."

"Sir." Owens nodded, watching as their leader stomped off grumbling to himself in a way that promised considerable pain for anyone who got in his way. When the man was out of sight, he turned back to the console where Morales was still running diagnostics. Glancing at the monitor with the message on it, he stopped dead.

 **Bad tempered, isn't he?**

His in-drawn breath made Morales look at him, then follow his eyes. Both of them stared for a moment, exchanged glances, and pulled their sidearms out.

"What the hell is it?" Morales whispered, looking uneasily around.

"I have no idea," Owens replied in a low voice, panning his weapon around. The new message strongly implied that their intruder was actually watching them. "They must be tapped into the camera system or something. If they _are_ in the server room they could be watching everything going on in the entire place."

"That hack is definitely from the inside," his companion noted. "I checked, all the lines are still dead."

"Crap."

A flicker of light attracted their attention back to the rogue monitor, which now displayed a different message.

 **Look behind you**

Both of them stared for a moment, then exchanged glances. Owens raised an eyebrow very slightly. Morales nodded just as slightly. Both of them whipped around and raised their weapons, to see…

An empty doorway.

Feeling a little foolish, but still very tense, Owens relaxed slightly. "Shit. They're playing with us."

" ** _Yep._** "

The amused yet very non-human-sounding voice was right in his ear, making him spin around with a yell. Once again, there was no one there. "Jesus _Christ!_ " he shouted. "Morales. Can you see anyone?"

"Morales?"

Backing into the corner, he looked frantically around. He was the only person in the room now, and there was no trace at all of the man who'd been standing next to him seconds ago. "What the fuck is happening?" he muttered, more worried than he'd been since he left the service after one cluster-fuck too many.

When nothing horrible jumped out at him, he eventually lowered his weapon slightly, trying to pull himself together. He looked at the monitor, then shivered involuntarily at the new message. It was simple, but horrifying in its implications.

 **Level 1**

Mercenaries 46 Me 1

Reaching for his radio, not taking his eyes from the screen, he keyed it up. "Captain? We have another problem..."

* * *

Giggling to herself, Taylor carefully put the sleeping merc down on the floor on a quickly-generated pad. She'd decided that the medbay was a good place to put her collection for now. " _How many are you planning on grabbing?_ " the Varga asked with a chuckle.

' _Not that many, half a dozen or so maybe?_ ' she replied, arranging the limp man neatly on the ground and manacling him. ' _Just enough to get them really worried, I think. I'll leave the rest for the PRT. If I can demoralize them enough they might even give up._ '

" _Possible. I suspect there will be some who are dedicated enough to fight to the end, but at the same time there may well be a number who will give up fairly easily. Perhaps you should point out how they're not going to get paid, and in fact haven't been paid for nearly two months?_ "

' _I'm keeping that for the right moment_ ,' she said, grinning. ' _Right now, I'm having fun_.' Satisfied her captives were safe, she popped back into the corridor which had the armory on it, climbing swiftly up the wall and clinging to the ceiling, just in time to see the mercenary captain come storming up to the two men who had been wandering around with lost expressions trying to find where they'd left all their weapons.

"Chen!" the man shouted as he approached. "What's going on?"

"I have absolutely no idea, sir," the short Asian looking man so addressed shrugged. He held up one of the tablets that seemed omnipresent in this place. "The armory should be right here. I've been here hundreds of times. But we can't find the door. And we're both getting vicious headaches looking for it."

"It's right the..." The lead mercenary turned and pointed, then stopped dead. Moving slowly over to the side of the corridor, he felt it, a flabbergasted expression on his face. Taylor grinned, the cloaking spell was definitely pretty effective in this sort of application. They knew without doubt that what they were looking for was there _somewhere_ , which meant that the cognitive dissonance was painful, as had been the case with her father when the Varga had originally hidden her tail. But at the same time, the spell prevented them seeing, feeling, or in any way detecting what was right in front of them. Or, in this case, about fifteen feet to the left.

" _I could put more energy into the spell and they'd probably forget they even **had** an armory if you'd like,_" her friend snickered. " _But I have to admit this is more than a little amusing to watch._ "

All three men, after a short and heated discussion, had spread out and were tapping on the wall, working their way down to the other end of the concrete hallway, as if they thought that the door they were looking for had been bricked up and painted over. One of them actually ran his hand over the door in question without noticing.

By the time they'd gone all the way down one side and back up the other, the captain looked like he was about to scream in anger and the other two were definitely appearing a little scared, although they were hiding it well. Their scents betrayed them to her, though.

"When I find out who is doing this I'm going to rip their heads off," the captain growled.

Their radios crackled. " _Captain?_ "

He grabbed his and lifted it to his mouth. "What!"

" _Ah… we can't find the server room_." The mercenary reporting sounded extremely puzzled, even more than the armorer had. " _We've checked the entire sector, I could swear we were in the right place, but we can't see any trace of it_."

"Oh, for fuck's sake," the captain half sighed, half snarled. "Any other problems anyone wants to report?" he said into the radio with enormous sarcasm and a considerable amount of irritation.

" _We've lost the power room_ ," a different voice said, this one very definitely not happy.

Their captain started banging his head on the wall.

Taylor and the Varga snickered.

When his percussive anger management had finished, the mercenary leader held his radio in front of his mouth. "I want every one of you to check _everything_. Make a list of anything out of the ordinary. I don't believe that someone has stolen the armory, the power room, and the server room, we're being fucked around with. Holograms, force-fields, I don't know, but I'm going to find out and there _will be blood..._ " He took a deep breath. " _MOVE!_ " he shouted into the radio, before lowering it and turning to his subordinates.

There was a pregnant pause.

"Chen?"

"Sir?"

"Where… is… Hoskins?"

The other man turned around, then looked wildly about him. "He was just standing right there..."

Clinging onto the wall, holding an unconscious mercenary by the back of his tactical vest, Taylor smirked then disappeared, leaving two very worried people behind her, weapons out and standing back to back as they retreated.

* * *

 **Level 1**

 **Mercenaries 45 Me 2**

Owens stared at the screen, then reached for his radio again.

Today was _not_ going to be a good day, he felt.

When all the rest of the lights went out throughout the base, he decided that was a _serious_ understatement.


	282. Base and Intruders

Ten minutes and a dozen failed timelines later, Thomas finally realized that he had no choice, he was going to have to risk pushing ahead without using his powers. He also came to the worrying conclusion that it was almost certainly the Family, somehow, who were behind the neutering of his ability, which now went to void almost instantly no matter what he did. It must have been them all along, which raised a number of questions, such as how they were doing it, whether it was intentional, and whether they'd actually been working against him right from the beginning.

When he added that nugget of information to everything else he knew, it dawned on him to his horror and fury that for all intents and purposes he'd been manipulated and herded into locking himself in his base, for weeks if not months leading up to this point. All the failed plans, all the things that at the time had seemed accidental or directed at someone else, they'd all been part of someone else's plan to end up right where he was now.

The Family connection to the DWU, and the city, their interactions with the PRT, all the public works… All to get at him.

Why? What had attracted their attention to him? And how long ago had it happened? Was Cauldron involved somehow?

The last question he decided after some thought was probably not true, since he'd gotten the impression that the authorities in general were completely blindsided by the appearance of the Family, as much as he himself had been. The internal PRT communications had shown a lot of confusion and curiosity about the reptiles, where they came from, what they were doing, and why they were doing it. He still couldn't work out why no one had done anything more than watch, though.

Shaking his head he dismissed that line of speculation, it was pointless at the moment. He had to figure out how to get out of here first. There had been no sign of Saurial since the lights went out, not a sound in the dead silence, broken only by his breathing and heartbeat, to suggest that the scaly female was still present. That didn't reassure him all that much considering that there had been no sign beforehand either, and he had no idea how she'd gained access not only to the base but to his own quarters. However she'd managed it, though, she could well have utilized the same method to leave, possibly to go and deal with his men first.

Listening carefully yet again, in the end he cautiously stood up from the crouch he'd fallen into in the corner of the office, his eyes uselessly wide in the dark. It was as black as the bottom of a coal mine at night with the lights out, which wasn't all that surprising. No one who had never been underground really knew what dark was. He was upset that none of the battery powered emergency lighting had come on, even the little green tally lights on the three fittings in the ceiling were out. Apparently Saurial had disabled them to make life even more difficult.

His heart thudding in his ears and his weapon ready in his right hand, he reached out with the other one, trying to picture the layout of his office in his head. He'd become disorientated when he'd been spinning around trying to hit the skittering reptile, but thought that his desk was probably about six feet to the left in front of him. Slowly shuffling in that direction, he bit down on a vicious swear word as his knee found the corner of it, rather hard. Leaning on the desk he took pressure off that leg as it throbbed, gritting his teeth, until the pain diminished enough that he could walk.

Feeling around for his chair, he sat down, then put the gun in his lap to free up his other hand. Now that he knew where he was finding the drawers in the desk was much easier. He pulled out the top one as far as it would go, then reached under it to the back, peeling free the key that was stuck to an adhesive pad. Closing the drawer again he felt around for the lock on the lowest drawer, put the key in, and turned it. When the lock clicked he opened the double-height drawer and felt around in it for his emergency supplies kit, grabbing the tactical backpack and pulling it out.

Putting it on the desk he ran his hands over the cloth until he found the right pocket, unzipping it and removing a small but extremely bright flashlight, which he turned on.

The sudden brilliant white light made him close his eyes and swear again. It was overpowering after being in total darkness for a quarter of an hour. Blinking a few times, he squinted at the bag while his eyes adjusted, pulling out some more equipment. By the time he could see without tears in his eyes he'd half-emptied the bag, finding the head-mounted light which he put on then switched on.

The light from this one was much more wide-angle and less hard on the eyes so he turned the flashlight off to conserve the battery. Checking the equipment over, he went over various possible avenues of escape. Most of them failed immediately since without power he was definitely somewhat limited. On the other hand he was smart, experienced, and motivated.

Once he'd assured himself that all his gear was in working order, he moved around the office opening hidden cabinets and storage spaces, retrieving other weapons, ammunition, and various useful items. He went back into his bedroom and cleaned up a little, finding that the water still worked, although for how long he had no idea. The air circulation system had died with the power cut and he was uneasily trying to work out how long the air would remain breathable in these rooms without it. Long enough, hopefully.

Putting his costume on out of habit as much as any other reason, since it was obvious that Saurial knew exactly who he really was, Thomas rooted around in his closet to find his body armor, which went on over the top. He replaced his normal costume's shoes with military boots, put some fingerless tactical gloves on, then spend some time reloading the P-90 magazines. With the two spares he'd had under his bed, he now had five, giving him two hundred and fifty rounds. Four of those went into pockets in his equipment vest, as did three concussion grenades and two fragmentation ones, along with both the pistol from under his desk and the one from his bedside table. Each of those had two spare magazines as well, all using the same rounds the P-90 did.

The final weapon was the knife he kept under his pillow, which went into a sheath in one boot.

Going back to his desk he put the last box of spare ammo into the backpack along with the extra magazine, half a dozen demolition charges, the remote detonator, two claymore mines, a comprehensive first aid kit, emergency rations, several bottles of water, a dozen glowsticks, and a spare radio. The other one went on his belt. Turning this one on, he was somewhat disturbed not to hear any messages from his people. That implied… several not-good things.

Opening another drawer he removed a box which contained several PRT-issue earpieces with the current encryption codes programmed in. Putting one in he turned it on, just in case this was something to do with the PRT, so he could hear their comms. There was no chatter on them right now, which wasn't surprising so far underground, but if it _was_ them and they came inside, he'd hear them. The last thing in the drawer was a monocular night vision headset, which combined an image intensifier with a thermal imager. He took his headlight off, put the night sight on and adjusted it so it came down over his left eye, then put the light back on. He left the monocular up for the moment.

Zipping up the now quite bulky backpack he put it on and adjusted it. Satisfied with the fit, he looked around, trying to work out if there was anything else he needed. While he had quite a few other weapons concealed in the suite, he couldn't easily carry and use anything more, so rather reluctantly he decided that he'd leave them. He did, however, open the safe under the desk and remove his master data backup drive, a small solid state one with several terabytes of critically important information on it. That went into one of the concealed pockets in his costume. With it, he could restart somewhere else, although it would take some years to acquire enough funding to do the job properly.

Thomas clipped the strap of the P-90 to his vest and was ready to go. He looked down at the submachine gun, wishing he'd picked one of the ones with the laser projector fitted to it, but he'd decided that he didn't entirely trust Tinker weapons in close proximity to him. Good old fashioned nitrocellulose had seemed more reliable. Now, though, he was wondering if a beam of coherent energy would be enough to deal with that fucking reptile… Shaking his head, he stopped wishing for things he didn't have and got back to working on his next move.

' _Get out of here, try to find my men and find out what's going on, that's plan A,'_ he mused, staring at the very thick and heavy door leading into the corridor. His section of the base was isolated from the rest, another paranoid security measure he'd designed in. Once he was outside, it was a hundred yards through two more security doors and he'd be in the main part of the base.

' _If I can't do that, everything has gone to hell, so plan B is to get to a console where I can set the self-destruct, wipe the computers, and then exit through the secret tunnel. Plan C is just head for the tunnel, but that leaves too much evidence behind, so that's a last resort. I wish I'd had the tunnel come out in my quarters, that would have been a better option._ '

When he'd started the base, years ago, he'd considered having the final escape method right inside his suite, but not only was it awkward to arrange due to the construction of the place, he'd been worried about someone else using the tunnel to sneak up on him. As a result it had been put in a storage closet close enough to his office to easily get to, but far enough away that any intruder would be discovered before they got to him. Assuming they managed to get past the truly ridiculous amount of sensors and traps in the tunnel itself, of course.

Oh well. Even he couldn't anticipate _every_ possible problem and solve it before it happened. Annoyingly.

Walking over to the door he tried the switch out of vague hopefulness, not surprised that nothing at all happened. With a sigh, he pulled his knife from his boot and pried the cover off the access panel for the controls, then reached inside and grabbed the handle for the backup hydraulic manual system. He'd had to think about it for some time before he remembered how it worked, never having had to use it before.

It took a hard pull then an even harder push to work the pump for the first stroke, but after that it was easier, the door starting to move after he'd pumped it half a dozen times. Each stroke moved the door only a fraction of an inch, so it took nearly ten minutes of continuous pumping to open it far enough that he could squeeze through. Unfortunately the thing was six inches of armor plate and so heavy that the hydraulics were the only thing that could move it, he had no way to just heave it open even after it unlocked.

Pushing his backpack through first, he went after it, putting it back on when he was in the corridor. Setting the night vision unit to thermal mode he dropped it over his eye, hoping it would give him advanced warning at further range than the headlight would supplied, took a deep breath, hefted his submachine gun, and set off towards where he hoped he still had backup.

At least out here a few of the widely-spaced backup lights were working, although in some ways that made it even creepier due to the shifting shadows. The thermal imager, which was sensitive enough to pick out footprints on the ground for minutes after they'd been made, showed nothing, which was a very small hopeful item. Perhaps Saurial really had gone? He hoped so, but didn't think he was that lucky.

Feeling that life had become very unfair suddenly, Thomas pressed on, pointing his weapon at every little sound or flicker of light and wondering why he'd ever thought an _underground_ secret base was a good idea.

* * *

' _Wow, that's a lot of equipment,_ ' Taylor silently commented to the Varga, as they watched Calvert slowly and very cautiously proceed down the entirely black hallway from their position near the ceiling. ' _This guy is seriously prepared for trouble_.'

" _In human terms, perhaps_ ," the demon snickered. " _I feel he may be somewhat deficient in anything that will actually help him at the moment._ "

She laughed, nodding. Dropping to the ground, she went over to the half-open door to Calvert's office and dug the claws of one hand into the surface, slowly pulling it shut again while bracing a foot against the frame to get the leverage. ' _That should worry him if he ends up back here,_ ' she grinned.

" _Indeed. Shall we follow him and see what happens next? I'm curious to see what his reaction will be to our surprises._ "

Taylor laughed. ' _Oh, yes, lets_ ,' she replied, rubbing her hands together and smirking. ' _I still have several other things I want to set up. We've got an hour or so to play, then I guess we need to let the PRT in to join in. They'll get bored hanging around outside_.'

" _It would be rude not to let them have fun as well considering the amount of effort they went to,_ " he agreed mildly. " _We should make sure to check in on the mercenaries soon too, they'll be feeling left out._ "

' _Can't have that_.' Generating her second aspect, now that they'd fully recovered from the earlier use of it, both clones of Saurial grinned at each other, then went after the nervous and heavily armed man slowly heading away from them, discussing the ways they could _really_ screw with his head.

* * *

"Saurial reports that Calvert is on the move, looking extremely nervous and upset," Amy told the gathered people near her. "He apparently didn't appreciate some of her… little jokes."

Director Piggot seemed quite amused by this, she noticed with an internal smirk.

"Tell her she doesn't need to hold back as long as he's intact for questioning at the end of the operation," the blonde woman said with a certain amount of viciousness. "I'd prefer him undamaged physically. Mentally… She can use her own best judgment."

Miss Militia raised a finger, caught the woman's eye, and subsided, making both Amy and Lisa smile.

"We've discussed that, Director," Lisa calmly replied. "He'll be fit for questioning although he may need some time to get over it. But our cousins are less than pleased with his operation, and finding a torture chamber that's definitely been used in the recent past hasn't made them feel any happier about him. He won't forget this."

"Good. Make sure I get the video I have no doubt your family is recording," Piggot said. She smiled nastily. "I have a feeling I'll watch it several times, and probably laugh more than I really should."

"That's fairly likely," Lisa snickered. She listened to the status update that Taylor sent at that moment, then nodded to herself. "She's disconnected all the remaining camera feeds and external sensors as well, they're entirely isolated in there. We can move up to the bunker any time you want and prepare for entry."

Director Piggot looked at her watch. "No hurry," she commented idly. "We're on schedule right now, and I need to review the results of the external backup site operations. We may as well let Saurial and Raptaur enjoy themselves for a little longer."

Miss Militia and Armsmaster were both regarding the blonde woman with odd expressions, but Dragon, who had been silently listening while working on one of the computers nearby, produced a muffled chuckle. All of them watched as the director headed over to another console, adjusting her respirator as she walked. "Why do I get the feeling that she's enjoying this quite a lot?" Amy asked rhetorically.

Armsmaster looked like he was seriously considering answering, until Dragon poked him and shook her head. Grinning, Amy went back to monitoring the situation, wondering what their friend was doing now. It was undoubtedly something both funny and terrifying in equal quantity.

She almost felt sorry for Coil and his gang.

Almost.

Well… Not really.

* * *

Sergeant Owens looked around wildly, his weapon covering the entire room, which was now lit only by the residual glow from the monitors and various status lights on the equipment. Unlike in Coil's sector of the base, this latest power outage had clearly been surgically arranged to only take out the lights.

A couple of seconds later, the emergency battery-backed lights came on, one above the door illuminating the control room well enough that he could more or less see what he was doing. Sidling over to the console he flipped switches for a while, nervously glancing at the doorway every couple of seconds, in an attempt to find out what was happening. He discovered that all the camera feeds were now completely down including the external ones, all the external sensors surrounding the base and in key places in other buildings were also out, and that all of the internal systems that would allow him to track anyone had been disabled. It was definitely the work of someone accessing the main server farm, since it was so neatly targeted on leaving them blind but otherwise undamaged.

The environmental systems were still running perfectly, power was available to everything other than lights and that one sector, which he noted from the status of the internal security doors was even physically isolated from the rest of the base. He could access the public, low-security parts of the computer system as well, but an attempt to gain control over the infrastructure controls was met with total failure, none of the passwords or overrides doing anything other than eliciting a bland ' _Access credential failure_ ' on the terminal. Even their internal communications still worked judging by the very confused and in some cases panic-stricken calls that were coming over the radio

Eventually he gave up, since it was obvious he wasn't going to get anywhere with it. Possibly one of the others with more knowledge of the computers would have more luck, since he was by no means an expert, but somehow he doubted it. The hack was too clean, too quick, and far too targeted to be something that any of their people really had much chance of dealing with, at least quickly.

The big question was who was behind it? That voice in his ear… He shuddered. It had been completely inhuman, coming from something ghastly and hostile, he was sure. But at the same time it had sounded like it was having fun, like all this was only a game.

Looking at the ' _score counter_ ' on the single working monitor, he realized that was exactly what it was. A game. And whoever was behind it was basically hunting them.

Wondering for a moment if it was Über and Leet at work, he finally shook his head. This wasn't their style, going up against a large group of heavily armed and experienced soldiers. They were more into winding up the PRT and the Protectorate while putting on a show for the tourists, not wading into heavy combat, or even running some bizarre stealth infiltration exercise.

This, on the other hand… This was the work of a real professional. Some person or persons with experience, skills, equipment, and a lot more knowledge of how the base hardware and software worked than they should have had. There had been no indications at all that anyone had penetrated the place right up to the point they _deliberately_ let everyone know that they were here. He thought that was likely a psychological technique to rattle and disorientate them, which had certainly worked better than it should have done. Possibly that was actually a good thing, it might suggest that the intruder or intruders didn't have the resources to take them on in a head-on assault. If that was the case, they might have a chance.

Although without access to the computers, the server room, power room, and armory, they were definitely going to have a hard time of it. While everyone was fairly well armed, they'd been equipped for heightened patrols, not active fighting, so ammunition was limited and a lot of the really good stuff was now in a room they couldn't even find.

How the hell _that_ trick had been done mystified him. Presumably it was some Parahuman power, but that didn't narrow down exactly what the cause was or who was behind it. He could think of one or two purely technological methods to cause a similar result but all of them required a lot of setup time, which as far as he could see wasn't the case here.

Hearing a sound in the corridor outside the door, he spun and leveled his pistol at the opening, falling into a combat stance. It was pure rigid discipline that stopped him pulling the trigger when Captain Smith and Chen, the weapons specialist, appeared in the doorway, looking frazzled.

"Christ, I'm glad it's you guys," he sighed, lowering his weapon. The captain didn't respond for a moment, as he was staring at the monitor with the mocking little message on it. His eyes narrowed and his mouth went into a straight line, fury radiating from him.

"These fuckers are playing with us," he snarled, obviously on the edge. "Status," he snapped as he turned to Owens. "And where is Morales?"

"Gone, sir. No idea how or where. He was standing right next to me, then..." Owens shrugged. "Just gone without a trace in a brightly lit room. Not a whimper out of him."

"Fuck." Smith massaged the back of his neck with the hand not engaged in holding his own gun. "Fuck, fuck, fuck. Same as Hoskins."

"Presumably they're the two listed there," Owens noted with a nod at the screen. Smith simply glared at it. After a moment, the sergeant reported everything he'd determined from the security console.

"So," Smith summed up, gritting his teeth in anger, "we're cut off from our heavy weapons and most of our equipment, running blind both inside and outside, have no lights, and at any moment the rest of the power could go out, leaving us unable to even open most of the doors without a hell of a lot of effort and time."

"Basically, yes, captain," Owens replied, sighing. He shook his head. "It's very neatly done, not a shot fired but we're immediately at a massive disadvantage. And we have no idea who's even doing it."

"Got to be at least one cape," Chen put in, staring at the screen. "Hoskins just vanished. There wasn't any sound at all, he just disappeared when neither of us were looking. We couldn't find any sign of him anywhere."

"Stranger, or Tinker with some freaky tech, would be my guess," Smith stated. "Probably a team, four to five minimum. They'd need at least one in the power room, one in the server room since it's obvious that they were watching us and still might be, one or two near the armory, one here..."

"That many?"

"Everything happened at once, so I think it's obvious there are quite a few of them." Smith caressed the barrel of his submachine gun, looking like he wanted to shoot something very soon. "My guess is that they have a Tinker tech invisibility system, which is why we can't detect them. I've heard of shit like that, Toybox were selling something a while back for a crapload of cash. Coil tried to get some but they'd sold the lot. Maybe even to these fuckers."

"What are they after, though?" Owens asked. "This is a hell of a lot of effort to go to just to infiltrate one base. I didn't think we had anything here that was valuable enough for a mission this complicated. I mean, assuming they were the cause of that chemical incident, they've managed to evacuate most of the damn city aside from getting in here. Not to mention we have no idea how they got in here either."

"It's got to be information," Smith replied after a few seconds of thought. "Coil is into everything, his data is probably worth a fortune to the right people. I'll bet someone worked that out and set this whole thing up just to get at the servers. The rest of this is a diversion, like the chemical attack." He thought some more, then swore under his breath. "It might even be the fucking CIA. This is the sort of thing those bastards would do. Make it look like some weird cape game to throw off suspicion. Then when they're done, even odds they just evaporate, or manipulate the fucking PRT into coming in."

Owens looked at Chen, who shrugged. It was a pretty paranoid idea, but he couldn't say for sure it was impossible. He'd seen the spooks at work more than once himself in his military career and such black ops were certainly done now and then. He wondered what information Coil had come into possession of that was worth all this effort.

"So they're sucking data off the servers right now?" Chen asked.

"Probably. It'll take hours, there's dozens of terabytes of storage down there." Smith scowled. "If I was certain it was that, I'd just let the cunts get on with it, then deal with the fallout later. They might just fuck off and leave us alone. But..."

Chen made a small sound, causing both the others to look at him, then turn.

 **Level 1**

 **Mercenaries 44 Me 3**

" _Shit!_ "

"I don't think they're going to leave us alone, sir," Owens said unevenly.

"No. Neither do I. Damn it." Smith looked extremely angry. He thought hard for a few seconds while Owens tried the computers again, with no more luck. Eventually, their leader nodded. "OK. If they want to play, we can do that." He plucked his radio from his vest and held the button down. "Everyone fall back to the cafeteria. Collect any weapons, ammunition, useful equipment, I don't care what it is, if you have it, bring it. No one goes anywhere in less than groups of three. _Anything_ you see that's not us, kill it. Smith out."

Putting the radio back he turned to the other two men. "Grab a spare tablet, Owens. Can you route that screen to it?" He pointed at the monitor. Picking one of the tablets up, Owens began fiddling with it, then twitched when it helpfully displayed the same message before he'd done anything.

"Apparently, sir," he said in a worried tone, displaying it to the older man.

"Good work."

"I didn't do it." They shared a glance, Smith's face growing somewhat purple again.

"Oh, when I get my hands on this smart-ass, I'm going to make it _last_..." he muttered under his breath. "Right. Grab anything useful and come with me." Owens and Chen quickly went through the currently-useless room and packed half a dozen tablets, a couple of spare pistols, several boxes of ammunition, and the P-90 with underslung laser emitter that lived under the console into a box that they found in a cupboard. They even found a solitary smoke grenade that for no good reason was in a drawer.

"That'll do. Weapons hot, we're in a combat situation," Smith said impatiently, waiting at the door and covering the corridor. The three men, Owens carrying the box under his arm, cautiously headed towards the cafeteria while trying to look everywhere at once.

* * *

Putting her latest captive on a new pad, Taylor arranged him neatly, then stood up. The Varga was leaning against the wall wearing a duplicate Saurial form and watching her with a wide grin. "This is very enjoyable," he commented. "I haven't had so much fun for some time. We should do it more often."

Chuckling, she shrugged. "There are a limited number of people who I'm comfortable doing this to," she replied. "These guys, though… Even if they didn't help Coil torture whoever it was who went through that fucking room, they're complicit, so I don't have all that much sympathy for any mental trauma they might suffer, to a point. At least we're quick and neat about it. And I'm pretty sure that if we soften them up enough the PRT isn't going to have too much trouble."

"Just enough to warrant the use of the amount of force they have outside," he nodded. "Certainly, without us, I have no doubt that they'd have required those resources. This would be a difficult place to assault if the people here had enough warning to get ready for it and access to those weapons we've deprived them of. There were enough rocket launchers and grenades there to be a very serious hazard, not to mention the heavy machine guns and the like. Some of those tripod-mounted energy weapons looked rather imposing as well. I wonder where they got them?"

"No idea, but like you said, Calvert had enough money to afford the best stuff, and I bet he knew exactly where to buy it from as well," she noted. "But if we can confuse these guys enough, they're not going to be anything near the threat they'd have been otherwise, and hopefully Armsmaster and the others will take them by surprise." She grinned again. "It's probably a good training exercise if nothing else."

" _Everything_ is a good training exercise if you regard it correctly," her demonic friend smiled. "As I have taught you."

"Hai, Sensei," she giggled, bowing to him formally. "Shall we go and see how else we can upset them?"

"That sounds like a sensible plan," the demon snickered. "We can leave Mr Calvert to enjoy the experience we set up for him for now. It should keep him occupied for a while."

"We should check on him every now and then, though, just to keep him honest," Taylor grinned.

With a mutual laugh they both disappeared again.

* * *

Sweeping the corridor, including the walls and the ceiling, with his thermal imager, Thomas very slowly moved towards the main part of the base. He had to go about eighty yards along this corridor, which went in a slight curve to the right, down a flight of stairs, another thirty yards along a lower corridor and around two corners, through the security door, and then he was into the more inhabited part. The closet that concealed his secret escape tunnel was half-way down the lower hall-way.

He decided that he'd check that the tunnel was accessible, which it should be due to having its own backup power source for the lights and various sensors, then try to get at his mercenaries. If he could contact them, he could arrange to have them sweep the base for Saurial, with any luck distract her, and have time to start the self-destruct and computer purge. That would give him twenty minutes before this entire place went up, probably ending up with the building above it collapsing into the hole. The PRT would take weeks to dig it out enough to recover the bodies of anyone who didn't make it out, and find any evidence he missed, which would give him ample time to escape.

He didn't intend to mention to Smith that he'd set the charges, although it was definitely possible the man would work it out when he disappeared. He wasn't an idiot, and was very paranoid too. Thomas didn't care one way or another, really, since the man didn't know enough about him to cause him any real harm and might well make a pretty impressive distraction, since he was unlikely to go down without a serious fight. With the amount of equipment and weapons in the armory, forty-seven mercs could hold off a small army for some time, even with Parahuman backup on the part of the PRT. The ' _good guys,_ ' a description that made Thomas smile ironically for a second, would try to take them alive for as long as possible. That was a weakness he was quite prepared to take advantage of.

Even if he couldn't set the self-destruct, his men would cause enough trouble that he could still make it out.

Although he was making plan after plan, he was still proceeding with great care, alert for traps or any sign of the lizard-girl. Even so, it took him nearly ten minutes to notice that something very odd was wrong.

' _What the..._ ' He stopped, then looked around, checking where he was. Turning and looking back, he stared at the small LED emergency light on the ceiling some fifteen yards behind him. Surely he'd passed that nearly five minutes ago?

Shaking his head, he put it down to nerves causing him to mis-estimate the passage of time, something that he was aware was something that happened in times of severe stress. Turning back to the task in hand, he very slowly kept going, panning his weapon from side to side. Another few minutes passed, the corridor becoming very dark as he went out of range of the light behind him. Shortly he was approaching the next one, wishing it cast a brighter illumination. Combined with the light on his head, there were a lot of shadows around to confuse the issue and he kept having to suppress a twitch every time he thought he saw something out of the corner of his eye.

Passing under the light, he glanced up at it as part of his scanning of the corridor. No thermal sources other than the lights themselves showed, the concrete otherwise all at the same even temperature, which was to be expected this far underground. A few feet further on he stopped dead, staring at the ground through the thermal sight. Something was showing up against the monochrome background.

Kneeling, he stared at the footprint that was faintly glowing, indicating a temperature a fraction of a degree above ambient. It was very dim, showing it was several minutes old, but it was definitely there. The pattern was of a military issue boot much like his own. Looking further ahead he could see a line of them disappearing into the distance, each one very slightly brighter than the previous one.

Someone else was here. Someone not a fucking lizard. Was that good, or not?

He opened his mouth to call out, then instantly thought better of it, snapping it shut. No, he wasn't about to make any noise and let that damn reptile know where he was. Standing up, he followed the footprints intently, although not to the exclusion of keeping watch for anything scaly.

Several minutes passed, the line of spectral footprints wandering around the floor but still heading steadily away from him. His quarry was just up ahead, somewhere, although they seemed to be moving in the dark as he could see no light. Switching his monocular to image intensification mode for a moment, he peered ahead, but could see nothing moving in the now green-lit shadows. After a moment he switched it back to thermal mode and kept going.

It was just dawning on him that he should have reached the stairs by now when he spotted something ahead of him. Speeding up a little, he reached the point in question and stopped, looking at the floor in puzzlement.

The footprints went a little odd here, several of them overlapping as if the person he was following had turned around on the spot, and there was a larger diffuse heat shadow that had him confused for a second until he realized it was where his target had knelt down on one knee, just like he…

Thomas's mind suddenly went blank for several seconds. He peered at the immaterial image on the floor, visible only with his high tech device, then looked up at the ceiling. There was an emergency light a few feet away, just behind him.

His mind suddenly raced. What he was thinking was impossible, wasn't it?

After a considerable amount of thought, he swung his pack off his shoulders and reached into a side pocket, pulling out a sealed foil package. Putting it between his teeth for the moment he put the pack back on, then tore the foil and pulled out a glow stick. Snapping it between his fingers, he shook it, the plastic tube lighting up bright green, then dropped it on the floor.

Taking a deep breath, he tentatively tried splitting off a new timeline. It immediately went to the by-now horribly familiar void, which didn't actually surprise him. Sighing heavily, he held his gun ready and set off again.

A few minutes later he found himself staring down at a brightly glowing plastic tube lying on the floor.

"Oh, fuck," he breathed, shivering.

This was _really_ bad.

* * *

"Shut up, all of you!" Captain Smith roared. The assembled mercenaries snapped to attention and stopped talking, all of them looking worried but resolute. "Good. OK, we're in a situation here. There are an unknown number of infiltrators in the base, we're running blind with no camera support or sensors, and somehow we're cut off from most of our resources. The medbay, armory, power room and server room seem to have vanished. All we have to work with is what's on those three tables. You, you, and you, inventory it and we'll see what we've got. Everyone else, keep your eyes peeled, these fuckers are playing mind games with us. And..." He pulled out his pistol and turned slightly, aiming and firing four shots, each of which took out one of the cameras that covered the galley. "If they're watching us through the camera network, that should slow them down. Take out any camera you see."

"What about Coil, sir?" one of the mercenaries asked, looking around suspiciously. "Have you talked to him?"

"We've lost contact with Coil as well," Smith replied, frowning. "Nothing since the camera system got compromised."

"The radios still work, though," the man pointed out. "So why hasn't he called us?"

"He's dead, or out of action, or his radio failed, or comms in that area of the base are down… Who the fuck knows, Kowalski? I don't really care right now, we have more important things to think about. If he's still alive I'm sure he'll turn up sooner or later, probably after we've done all the work."

The man, who was one of the ones going over the piles of equipment, nodded, not looking entirely happy. He got back to work while everyone else kept their eyes on all the entrances to the room.

Eventually the three-man team finished. "Sir?" Smith turned to look at Kowalski. "We've got standard issue handguns for each man, with enough loaded magazines for three each, with four left over. Thirteen boxes of fifty rounds of 5.7mm ammunition for a total of six hundred and fifty. Twenty-nine P-90s with laser emitters, each with three magazines, plus one spare. Fifteen frag, twenty-two concussion, and six smoke grenades. Five M18A1 claymore mines. An even dozen demolition charges with two remote detonators. One M2E2 fifty cal machine gun without the tripod, but with a box of ammunition."

"I was servicing it," Chen put in, "which is why it's here and not in the armory. It's functional, I finished putting it back together."

"We also have two MGL 40mm grenade launchers and fourteen rounds for them, plus nine combined night/thermal sights. And a shitload of knives," Kowalski finished. "Radios for everyone, of course, a couple of dozen glowsticks, some flashlights, and a few odds and ends, like some medical kits, but nothing else useful."

"All right." Smith thought for a while. "Put the grenade launchers to one side for now, down here they're as dangerous to us as they are to anyone else. We'll keep them for a real emergency. You two, set up the M2 on that table covering the main door. You and you, barricade the other two doors, I want them completely sealed. This is our fallback point."

The indicated mercenaries moved to follow the orders he issued. "What's the plan, sir?" Owens asked when his superior officer stopped talking.

"We make sure we can hold out here if it goes to shit. When I'm happy that's done, we're going to take two teams of ten men each and sweep the entire base, one from each end, heading back this way." Smith looked thoughtful as he spoke, clearly working out the plan on the fly. "With any luck we can flush them out and catch them in a crossfire. If they try to get in here, we open up on them with the heavy gun."

"And if that doesn't work? Do we abandon the base and take the emergency exit?"

"We have no idea who's out there," Kowalski pointed out. "Without the cameras, we might be running into a trap."

"True. I'd prefer to catch whoever's behind this and get control back." Smith seemed quietly angry now as he made his plans. "Abandoning the base is the last resort. Once we're outside we have too many uncontrolled factors, like the PRT, the cops, and whatever backup these bastards have. In here, with some hard work, we should be able to take the initiative. I doubt there's more than half a dozen of them, and clearly they're not able to fight us on an even basis, or they'd have done it and not started playing games. Once we catch one of the fuckers we can find out who they are and what resources they have. And if Coil ever deigns to join us, he can help."

The two men tasked with setting up the heavy machine gun had improvised a mount with half a dozen fifty-pound bags of rice from the galley, which the weapon was sitting on, aimed squarely at the double doors that led into the corridor outside the room. The other two doors now had a number of heavy items blocking them, which secured them fairly well as the doors opened inwards. Smith looked around and nodded.

"OK. Owens, you're squad leader for one team. I'll take the other. Corporal Foltz, you're in charge here until I get back. Do _not_ shoot any of us when we come in that door, got me?"

The mercenary addressed nodded.

"We'll stay in contact with the radios. Assume that the enemy can monitor us, so don't say anything that will help them unless you have no choice." He looked around, then indicated nine men. "You're with Owens. You lot, you come with me. Gear up, three night vision sets per team. Take four demo charges and some concussion grenades as well, but for fuck's sake be careful with them or you'll bring the roof down on us. Kowalski, monitor that fucking tablet and let us know what those bastards tell us about their little game."

"Sir!" Everyone saluted him.

"Let's get to work. I want to see some bodies as soon as possible."

Forming up into pairs, the two sets of ten mercenaries left the cafeteria, splitting up outside and heading in opposite directions. Behind them, the ones left behind manned the machine gun nest and distributed the remaining weapons among themselves, while discussing how and where to set up some booby-traps for the intruders.

* * *

" _Interesting,_ " the Varga mused as he followed one of the teams, scuttling along the ceiling above them. " _They have very limited amounts of ammunition for their weapons, so if we can get them to waste it, that will make the entire thing simpler for the PRT._ "

' _I doubt we can get them to fire it all off, they'll work it out sooner or later_ ,' Taylor replied silently as she followed the other team in the same way. ' _But I bet we can get them to use a lot of it. We'll just have to be careful not to do it anywhere the ricochets could be too dangerous. And we should watch out that we don't get them so freaked out they start tossing those grenades around, in here they could kill themselves with them if they make a mistake._ '

" _Indeed. So we go slowly and carefully and pick our moment..._ " He snickered to himself, making her grin. " _I have some ideas_."

' _Me too_ ,' she chuckled. ' _These guys are going to take a while to get to the other end of the base, they've got about six doors to get through and that takes them some time. I'll go and see what our friend Thomas is up to, I'm curious to see if he worked it out yet._ '

" _All right. I'll monitor these people then._ "

She teleported into the corridor where Calvert had been left, which they'd spent a little time setting up a spacial loop in, based on the sort of thing Vista did as Cloak. It took more work than the girl needed since the Varga magic worked on somewhat different principles, but the effect was much the same. The corridor was now considerably longer than it should be, and also basically endless, something it looked like Calvert had just noticed.

She watched him stare at the glow stick he'd left on the floor, impressed at how quickly he'd figured out what might be going on. Clearly he'd dropped it to mark a specific point. Now he looked horrified that he'd walked away from it and come right back to the thing from the other side.

Grinning a little, she made sure to get a good shot of his expression. After a few seconds, he bent down and picked the stick up, inspecting it carefully, then dropped it again and looked around. Sighing, he turned and headed in the other direction obviously wanting to see what happened. Feeling mischievous, she held off until he was out of sight around the corner, then produced another glow stick which was emitting blue light instead of green and replaced the first one with it, eating the redundant one.

Then she waited.

* * *

Thomas walked away from the green chemical light on the floor, his head spinning. How was this happening? It was the sort of thing Vista was able to do, but he couldn't see a trace of any of the usual visual distortions that marked her spacial warping abilities. The corridor looked entirely normal, but now that he thought back, he'd definitely walked considerably more than eighty yards along it before he'd come across his own footprints laid down in minute temperature differences on the floor. Somehow he was looping past the same point even though it looked like the hallway was its standard self.

The regularly spaced lights and the lack of any real points of interest in the bland concrete tunnel meant that one part of it looked much like another part. He had been concentrating on looking out for Saurial and had missed going past the door to his office, which he must have done at least once. Now that he was looking for it, though, he spotted it coming up on the right. Stopping outside it he stared. The door was shut again, and there were five holes punched into the solid steel surface, each of them apparently made by something very sharp, and spaced perfectly to match a more or less human hand…

Feeling one hole, he shivered again, then quickly walked off. Obviously anything left in his office was now out of reach since he had no way to open the door.

After a little longer, he saw a glow up ahead at floor level. He'd been counting his paces this time and had covered nearly two hundred and fifty yards. Which was definitely not possible unless there were some very odd things happening to space in the vicinity of the hallway.

Reaching the glow stick, he gaped at it in horrified shock. Picking it up he inspected it carefully. To all appearances it was the same one he'd dropped, except that it was the wrong color.

"For fuck's _sake_ ," he gritted, now at least as pissed off as worried. Tossing it to the side, he turned around on the spot, pointing his weapon everywhere and ready to fire. When he rotated all the way back to where he'd started he noticed that the glow stick was now orange.

"Bastard!" he shrieked, firing the weapon at it. Glowing fluid splashed across the wall, slowly dimming as it met the oxygen in the air. Fuming, he looked both ways. After a few seconds, he stared into the distance, squinting.

"What the hell?" he muttered. He could see more of the ceiling mounted emergency lights than he should have been able to due to the curve of the corridor, which followed the shape of the underground base. Blinking, he rubbed his eyes. When he looked again, there was yet another one visible. Then another. Looking the other way he saw the same thing happening.

Shortly he was gaping at a string of lights that led off to the vanishing point in both directions, thirty feet or so apart. The effect was very disorientating.

When one in the far, far distance, _much_ too far away to have fitted into the base in any way at all, faded out and disappeared, he felt a slight shock go through him. The way it had vanished wasn't like it had turned off, more like something had moved in front of it. Something big…

The next one did the same thing.

Thomas peered at the distant lights. There was something very wrong about this, other than the sheer impossibility of what he was looking at in the first place.

Another light was occluded.

The time between them disappearing was getting shorter.

Yet another one went out.

Feeling cold, he turned and began walking in the other direction, looking back over his shoulder.

The next light vanished.

He could hear something right on the edge of audibility, something very, very disturbing.

Again, one went out. Again, it was slightly quicker to vanish than the previous one.

Thomas sped up.

So did the rate of the lights going out.

He began to jog.

The lights disappeared one after another, faster and faster. The sound, still impossible to pinpoint, yet something he was _certain_ he didn't want to hear any better, got a little louder.

With one last look over his shoulder, Thomas Calvert started running for his life, while something followed remorselessly.

* * *

' _Can you check on my guys? I'm a little busy right now_ ,' Taylor said, rather amused at the effect her ad-hoc modification to the endless corridor trick had produced.

" _Of course,_ " the Varga laughed, teleporting to the other end of the base, where the second team of mercenaries was engaged in going through another security door, which was a fairly tedious process even with the access cards they had. The doors closed quickly but opened quite slowly, the hydraulic systems moving a very large amount of mass to lift them. " _They seem quite busy for now, I think they'll keep for a while._ "

' _Great. I want to move this on to the next part with Coil before we get back to the mercs. You can have the honors of the first contact scenario if you want_.'

" _Thank you, Brain, that's very generous of you. I'll wait until both teams are in position, though. That looks like it will be about five minutes._ "

' _OK._ ' Taylor watched through the aspect he was using as the ten-man team closed the door and moved on, then went back to her Calvert manipulations. Finally, she was going to have a chance to try something she'd wanted to for a while.

* * *

Thomas, panting for breath and desperately, exhaustedly, wishing he'd never even fucking _heard_ of Brockton Bay, screamed in terror as he ran as fast as he could. Pulling a grenade from his vest he tossed it over his shoulder and kept going, the bass thump of the blast a few seconds later nearly deafening him.

Even through ringing ears he could hear the gurgling call, emitted from something that should not exist, that should _never_ have existed, come from somewhere back in the dark.

" _Tekeli-li,_ " it whispered, as it got closer.

" _Tekeli-li_ "

" ** _Tekeli-li_** "

 **" _Tekeli-li_ "**

Thomas Calvert howled and ran as if the devil himself was on his tail, which he was fairly certain was in fact the case.


	283. Tekeli and Li

"We're in position, Captain," Owens radioed.

" _Confirmed. Hold until I say otherwise._ "

"Yes, sir." He lowered the radio from his mouth and looked at the people around him, most of whom were nervously scanning the area with weapons ready. They were standing just inside the inner blast door that had been added to the base design when it was repurposed from an Endbringer shelter years ago, which was currently closed, blocking off the main entrance with another foot of laminated armor. The primary access hall ran dead straight towards the center of the base from that position, wide enough to get a vehicle into, splitting off into a number of side corridors along its length. A hundred yards away, on the other side of two security doors, was the flight of stairs that led to the next level.

On either side of where they were standing were storage rooms full of equipment such as medical kits, tool bags, and the like, which were mostly the standard issue shelter gear, which sometimes came in handy. It was all neatly racked on shelving and he'd had two three-man teams thoroughly search each room, one on each side. When they were sure the rooms were empty the doors had been closed and locked. Those doors weren't particularly sturdy, but anything that could get through them quickly would make enough noise that they'd notice.

They'd shot out every camera they'd come across on the way here, and planned on doing the same for the others they encountered.

Their goal was to sweep the level one corridor at a time, in a pattern designed not to allow anyone to hide then slip in behind them. Each door would be sealed as they passed it, which would help in that regard. It was going to be both time consuming and nerve-racking, but he was fairly confident that they could do it. Most of the corridors led to dead ends in storage bays, living quarters, infrastructure rooms, and one large set they were leaving for last, the vehicle bay. That had the hidden exit to the parking garage that was their main surreptitious entry point from outside, the main doors they were standing near being disguised from the other side as the wall of a building by virtue of being covered with a layer of bricks. It wouldn't stop them being opened from the inside if it became necessary, but without knowing where the door was, no one would ever notice it.

He idly wondered how on earth Coil had managed to make such an elaborate construction right in the center of the city, practically under the noses of the PRT and the city administration. Whatever else he was, and he was many things none of which were very nice, the man was a genius at this very specific skill-set.

Owens mused on whether he was still actually alive…

" _We're in position as well. Go_."

"Sir," the sergeant responded crisply. "We're moving." Clipping the radio to his vest, he scanned his squad. "Move out, Abrahams, McMicheal, take point. Trevino, Riggs, watch our six." All four mercenaries nodded, moving to the appropriate positions. They began slowly moving forward, weapons raised, one of each of the leading and following men wearing the night-vision equipment.

The next ten minutes were slow and tedious, but uneventful. They sent half their number down each side corridor while the remainder guarded the end, rotating the groups so everyone did each job to keep them alert. Each room encountered was swept, locked, and marked. Nothing out of the ordinary was found. Owens was beginning to wonder if this meant that the enemy was laying low, one step ahead of them, or simply no longer present.

Sighing inwardly and wincing yet again at the horrible smell, which was still there albeit much fainter and kept jumping out at him when his attention wandered, he went back to carefully scanning his surroundings, looking up, down, and to the sides.

He was rather wishing for the boredom of a few days ago by now.

* * *

{ _We've captured three mercenaries so far, Metis, plus the medical staff,_ } Raptaur's voice said in Lisa's earpiece. She could easily tell it was the Varga talking, the subtle differences between him and Taylor showed through the filtering effect to her ears and power, although she doubted that anyone else without long association with the demon would notice. When he wasn't trying to hide it, though, it was pretty obvious and more than a little creepy at first. { _Saurial is entertaining Mr Calvert at the moment, while I'm keeping an eye on his men. They've just started searching for the intruders._ } He sounded very amused and pleased with himself as he detailed the current status in the bunker.

{Good, that sounds like you've got them off balance,} she chuckled.

{ _Oh, so very much, yes_ ,} he replied with deep satisfaction. { _This is a lot of fun. Not for_ ** _them_** _, admittedly, but we can't please everyone._ }

{No, there's always someone who will find fault with anything you do,} she agreed, thinking of PHO with inner amusement. Internet forums were full of that sort of person. {We're about to deploy the PRT and Protectorate to your location. Armsmaster and Director Piggot are just discussing the best method of entry with Legend right now. We'll hold off until you give the word.}

{ _All right. That will give us time to whittle the numbers down a little more and get them to waste their firepower. Once they're sufficiently separated we'll let you know and you can come in and round them up_.} He paused, then laughed again. { _It's entirely possibly that Calvert will actually thank you for it. He isn't enjoying this nearly as much as you might hope for. Rude of him considering how much effort we're putting in._ }

Snickering, she glanced at Amy, who had a hand over her muzzle trying to suppress a laugh. Both of them could imagine what might be happening, and both were fairly sure they were understating it.

{Don't drive him _completely_ insane, we need to question him.}

{ _That… should be possible,_ } he replied a little doubtfully. { _Ianthe may need to work up some form of tranquilizer, though. Something a bit stronger than normal_.}

Grinning, Lisa shook her head. {OK. I'll let the others know. Speak soon.}

{ _We'll be in touch_.} The demon dropped the link. Turning to her friend Lisa shrugged.

{Sounds like we're missing a good party,} she sighed in a deliberately sad manner.

Slinging an arm over her shoulders, Amy smiled. {We're still invited and I think there will be plenty to go around. Saurial won't keep all the good stuff for herself.}

{I hope not,} Lisa replied with a smirk, before going over to report to the gathered forces who were loading a number of PRT trucks with last-minute equipment requirements.

* * *

"No, you can't go that way, sir, the road is blocked and the entire area is currently quarantined," John said in as reasonable a tone as he could manage at the moment. He looked at his two companions, all three of them dressed in the DWU fluorescent jackets and the respirators that Saurial and her sister had made for them. Each jacket was emblazoned with ' _DWU Crowd Control_ ' in large black letters on the back, and they each had an ID badge clipped to the front. He'd been quite happy to volunteer for this extra job, the money was good, it helped his friends and the city, not to mention Danny, and it got him out in the fresh air.

Well, that last part was definitely not entirely correct, he thought with a grimace. The air around here was anything but fresh, even with the respirators. In fact, going so far as to call it ' _Air_ ' might be pushing it. He could almost taste the stink. It was slowly ebbing as the wind blew away whatever satanic chemical had caused the problem, and he didn't even like to think what it would be like closer to the point it had been released, but here and now it was still one of the most unpleasant things he'd ever encountered. Certainly the worst _smelling_ thing he'd run into by a _long_ way.

"But I need to get past to buy a lottery ticket," the man, a slightly unkempt but otherwise well dressed guy in his mid thirties, said through the cloth he had clamped over his nose and mouth. "It's the draw later today and I have to get one from my lucky shop. It's the only place I trust."

"Sir, the shop is closed," John repeated patiently, for at least the fourth time. "Like I said, the entire area is quarantined until this incident is over, and was evacuated over an hour ago. You _can't_ buy a lottery ticket there. Why don't you go over to Eighth Street and Schooner Avenue, there's a shop there that sells them." He pointed in the opposite direction. "It's about half a mile that way, then take a right at the library."

"I know, but I've never won with a ticket from there," the man insisted, sidling closer to the temporary barriers that had been strung across the street, all of which were bright yellow and black striped, and labeled with ' _Road Closed_ ' signs. "Come on, man, let me through."

John sighed again, glancing again at the other two DWU people, who were watching with a certain degree of amusement engendered by the fact that this was happening to someone else. "Thanks, you bastards," he muttered in a low voice, getting a couple of smirks back. "Sir," he said more loudly. "Please understand. The shop is _closed._ There's no one there. I _can't_ let you through, my _job_ is to keep you on that side of the barrier, since it's not safe to go this way. Can you just turn around and go somewhere else?"

"This is _bullshit_ ," the guy suddenly shouted, pushing closer. John put up a hand warningly, stepping back and reaching for the collapsible baton he had on his belt, but not pulling it out. He was mindful of Danny's words and had no intention of starting anything, but didn't want to get steamrollered by the man. Admittedly he was twice the guy's size, but he'd been in enough bar fights to know that wasn't always the important thing. The rather wild look in the eyes of the idiot glaring at him showed he was pretty intent on getting to his favorite shop and he seemed to be hard of understanding.

Half-tempted to let the asshole past and see what happened when he found a locked door, John said firmly, "I'm sorry, but I can't let you through. Get back into your car and try the other place. Please."

"I need that ticket!" the man shouted, lunging past him at the plastic and metal barrier. John tried to redirect him but the guy twisted and kicked out with one boot, catching him right in the shin with a solid hit.

"OW! Fucker, that hurt!" Limping a little John turned around and grabbed for the idiot, as did one of the other DWU workers, while the remaining one was now radioing the nearest BBPD car to provide backup. "Stop, you fuckwit." By now the man was trying to climb over the barrier, which not being particularly structural, folded up under him and dropped him to the ground. Swearing loudly and not in a remotely good mood the man rolled a couple of times, got up, and violently kicked the barrier section that was lying on the ground.

"I need _my_ **_ticket!_** " he shrieked, kicking it again, then noticing John heading towards him with a grim expression. "Oppressive tool of the state!" he yelled, turning to run to the place he really, truly, couldn't buy a ticket from.

The larger man approached him warily, thinking that this was definitely getting out of hand. Possibly the smell was doing something? Or maybe he was just an idiot, he decided as the guy pulled a small pistol from his pocket and brandished it in his general direction. "Back off, I'll shoot!" the man shouted.

"Over a lottery ticket you can't actually buy?" John asked incredulously. His colleagues had both pulled out batons and extended them and were moving to the sides, leaving enough room that none of them would hit each other. "This is getting stupid, man. Put the gun away and calm down." He could hear a faint siren coming this way and just wanted to de-escalate something that had abruptly turned serious.

' _Only in Brockton_ ,' he thought wearily.

"It's a triple rollover, you fucker!" the almost incoherent man screamed at him, red-faced. He raised the pistol higher and pulled the trigger. John hit the deck as he spotted the man's finger moving and could almost swear he felt the bullet go over his back on the way down.

"Jesus, you're _crazy_ ," he shouted, before rolling to the side as the man aimed at him. Kicking out, he caught the edge of the fallen section of barrier with his foot and managed to spin it at the assailant, who stumbled when it smacked into his ankle. Lunging to his feet he ripped the baton off his belt, extended it with a practiced flick, and whacked the man's hand hard enough to crack a bone. The gun flew off into the gutter while the man screeched in pain, then took a swing at him with the other hand.

John and both the other DWU men jumped him and wrestled him to the ground, not particularly gently, as they'd completely lost their patience with the fool. "Police brutality!" their attacker screamed at the top of his voice. "Let me go! You can't do this! Don't you know who I am?"

"This isn't police brutality, it's the ordinary civilian sort," John grunted, trying to hold the man down without breaking anything. It was difficult, he was writhing around like a lunatic. "Stop struggling or you'll dislocate your shoulder."

There was a meaty crunch and the guy froze, then yodeled in agony.

"...Like that."

At least he was holding still now, so that was good. Looking over his shoulder as the siren, which had been rapidly approaching, suddenly stopped very close, John waved at the BBPD officers who were climbing out of the car that had parked just next to the barrier. "Got another one, Sandy," he called to the tough-looking woman who walked over and peered down at them. "Lottery ticket this time."

"Jesus." The officer shook her head, pulling her cuffs off her belt, while her partner radioed the call in. "That's a new one. At least _this_ one isn't a looter."

"Gun's over there in the gutter," one of the other DWU people said, pointing. The other cop retrieved it with a gloved hand, holding it up and sniffing the barrel. "Fired one shot, he missed all of us. The round went that way somewhere." Slipping the gun into an evidence bag, the officer sealed it and made a note on it.

Carefully lifting the now-sobbing man to his feet, mindful of his dislocated arm, John and the others took him to the car where he was mirandized and locked into the back. While her partner called for medical backup, Sandy took their statements. "Thanks for helping out, you guys," she said when she was done. "Being shot at wasn't in the briefing as far as I know."

"Hey, this is Brockton Bay," one of John's colleagues commented with a shrug. "It happens. We've got really good medical too."

She grinned, then got back into the car and started it. "See you soon, I expect," she called as she did a u-turn and drove off. John shook his head, knowing this was probably true, then went over to the fallen barrier and set it up again.

"You ever think people around here are nuts?" he asked rhetorically. His friends both nodded. "Lottery ticket. Christ. What a dick."

Oh well. It was money in the bank and he'd missed, so no harm done.

* * *

At the front of the squad, Abrahams suddenly held up a hand, causing them all to stop dead. "What is it?" Owens asked in a low voice.

"I heard something move ahead of us," the man said, pointing his weapon at the cross-corridor on the left. Owens thought for a moment, recalling that this one led to a series of bunk rooms that were currently unused, and at the end a storage room.

"What was it?" he asked.

"No idea. Sort of a scraping sound." Abrahams was staring at the corridor, as were the others. His partner was adjusting his night vision set, using the thermal mode to carefully scan the entire area. "Must be close to us, I think, but sounds carry in here."

That was certainly true, the echos they got from the concrete walls tended to make things sound very strange.

About to order half his group to check it out while the others covered them, Owens jumped a little when a hoarse shout came from the rear of the group. "Fuck, where'd Riggs go?"

Everyone turned around as one, weapons coming up to their shoulders. Trevino was staring around in bewilderment, while the other man who had been keeping an eye to the rear was notable by his complete absence.

"Oh, _shit_ ," Owens growled. "Not _again_."

Three of the men fanned out, looking around carefully, while the rest kept watching them with their guns ready. "Nothing here, sergeant. Not a trace of Riggs. Do we go back and look for him?"

" _Ah, Captain?_ " The voice over the radio was hesitant.

" _What is it, Kowalski?_ " the captain replied after a moment as everyone listened.

" _This score counter thing just went to '_ ** _Mercenaries 43, me 4_** _._ '"

" _Jesus_ ** _Christ!_** " Their leader sounded very put out. " _Who was it?_ "

"Riggs, Captain," Owens transmitted a little reluctantly. "We heard a sound and everyone was getting ready to investigate, when he disappeared."

" _Damn it. Find these fuckers!_ "

"We're working on it, sir,"

The radio went quiet again. Owens massaged his forehead, then turned to his squad. "Abrahams, take four men and check out that corridor."

There was a long silence.

"Abrahams?"

" _Um… It's 42 to five now._ " Kowalski sounded very nervous.

Rather a large amount of swearing came from the captain, followed by a lot of shouting, the gist of which was to stop fucking around and start shooting at things. When he finally fell silent, Owens rubbed his closed eyes.

The low, inhuman snicker that came from a different corridor on the right up ahead, combined with several of the emergency lights going out, made the eight remaining mercenaries bunch up and point their weapons in every direction, while sweating ferociously despite the cool ambient temperature…

* * *

Laying the latest capture down, the Varga grinned. He was really enjoying himself, as was his host, who was coming up with new ways to play with space in the other end of the base at a surprising and gratifying rate. Her ability with the math involved impressed him and pleased him in equal quantities. The way she was leveraging fractal dimensions and matter creation to do things that most mages he'd encountered over the past however many eons would need massive amounts of power to achieve with illusions and the like was frankly astounding.

" _Best brain I could ever have hoped for,_ " he commented.

' _Thanks, Varga. I couldn't ask for a better demon either_ ,' she giggled. ' _Oops. Hang on, this is going to be good. I need to concentrate to get it right, presentation is everything after all_.'

" _That it is,_ " he chuckled, watching through her eyes with pride. " _Very well done. I love the décor, very Lovecraftian._ "

' _Thanks. That's sort of the point. You too, by the way. You left them with only one night vision gadget for a reason, I guess?_ '

" _Anticipation is as important as presentation in this sort of thing,_ " he replied, smiling to himself, before teleporting back to the ceiling over the diminished mercenary group. They were just about ready for phase two now. After which, he needed to go and annoy the other group while this one thought about life for a bit.

This really _was_ a huge amount of fun.

* * *

Trying to watch every possible direction at the same time, the squad very cautiously approached the corridor that had emitted a horrible laugh, one that hadn't sounded at all human. They took up stations on either side of it, four men each, taking turns to quickly peer in then duck back. All the emergency lights bar the one just past that junction were out and they could see that several more further towards the middle of the base seemed to be rapidly dying. There was an odd raspy scraping sound right at the threshold of hearing coming from somewhere quite close, but none of them could either pinpoint it or work out quite what it was.

The eight men, faced with something quite outside their otherwise very experienced combat training, looked at each other in the dimly lit and shadow-filled environment. Owens was thinking that this reminded him way too much of some of the more unpleasant video games he'd played when he was younger. They communicated with hand signals for a moment. He pointed at Trevino, then waved a hand at three more of the men, before indicating the corridor which concealed something nasty.

The man, a fairly recent recruit to their group, stared at him, then the entrance to the corridor. He didn't look happy about it.

"Get in there and flush whoever it is out, Trevino," Owens hissed. "We'll cover you. Use the laser."

"No, sir."

"What?"

"No, sir. I won't take point."

Owens glared at the man. "Why not?"

"Look at me, sir." Trevino pointed at his face.

"What the _hell_ are you talking about?" They were almost whispering, but with considerable force.

"I'm black."

"So?" Owens raised an eyebrow.

"I've _seen_ this movie, I _know_ what happens to the black guy. Fuck _that_. Someone else can take point. _I'll_ cover _them_." Trevino seemed pretty insistent. Rolling his eyes, Owens sighed heavily.

" _Fine_. McMicheal, _you_ take point. Get in there and shoot something."

"Ah… I'm Irish?"

"No you're not, your great grandfather was Irish, and the Irish guy never gets shot first anyway. Fucking get in there." Owens was losing his patience. "And don't try telling me you have a red shirt on either." With a beleaguered look, McMicheal armed his laser projector, which emitted a faint whine, then took a couple of deep breaths. Spinning around he charged into the darkness, firing the energy weapon ahead of him with a series of lethal-sounding sizzling cracks, each shot punching a two inch hole six inches deep into the concrete and leaving glazed super-hot rock behind. The three other mercenaries Owens had picked out followed him, not firing but ready to at any moment.

Owens and his remaining men waited, two watching the main corridor in both directions, the others the side passage. The energy discharges stopped as the men reached the end of the hallway, which in this case led to a large storage room. They heard the sound of a door slamming open, then silence for a few seconds.

Then all hell broke loose. Energy weapons went off, at least two of the P-90's opened up on full auto, and ten seconds later there was a loud explosion as someone used a concussion grenade. Dust floated down from the ceiling as the four men left behind ducked instinctively, wondering what the fuck was happening.

"Holy crap!" one of the mercs shouted. Several metallic crashes sounded, echoing around the corridors, followed by two more grenades detonating. There was a lot of yelling, some more firing, then it all went quiet.

"Do you think they got the intruder, sergeant?" Trevino said in a low voice.

"I don't know," Owens replied, aiming his weapon into the corridor while feeling shaken. "Maybe."

 **"Afraid not,"** a voice said from behind them. Everyone froze in place, a thrill of terror going through all of them at the same time. There was something extremely _wrong_ about that voice.

"What was that?" the man who had asked the question said, deliberately calmly and not turning.

 **"Me."**

"Oh. That's fine, then."

There was another pause.

 **"Are you going to turn around?"**

"Wasn't planning on it, no."

 **"Hmm."** The horrible voice sounded thoughtful. **"All right. Would if help if I counted to ten with my eyes shut?"**

"Not really."

Owens, to his shame, found himself frozen in place, something gibbering inside the back of his mind and telling him that if he didn't look nothing bad would happen. Just like when he was six and he knew how to avoid the thing under his bed grabbing his leg.

 **"You people are no fun. I think I'm going to go see if your captain wants to play."** The voice sighed. **"I don't know, you spend ages getting ready then you find no one else wants to join in. Hardly worth the effort, sometimes."**

The voice trailed off into the distance. Silence fell once more. They all listened very carefully, trembling a little, in a manner they would later vigorously insist was down to adrenaline. Eventually, Owens managed to speak.

"Are you still there?"

There was no answer.

"Think it's gone?" Trevino, who was still staring at the wall, asked the question in a hopeful manner.

"I think so."

"Should we look?"

"Probably."

"Anyone going to mention this to the captain?"

There were four utterances to the negative. Owens relaxed a little, very slowly. Eventually he risked a look over his shoulder, then around him. Nothing was there. "It's gone."

"Thank fuck for that." All three of his remaining men sighed in relief.

"Come on, let's see what happened," Owens finally said, feeling that he should be more ashamed of himself than he actually was. That voice… Nothing good would have come of turning around to see what made it, that much he felt sure of.

The four of them, sticking much closer to each other than they normally would or was really normal, shuffled down the corridor to the room their fellows had entered what now seemed like quite a long time ago.

Sure that they'd just find body parts, assuming that anything was actually left in the first place, Owens pushed the door wider with the muzzle of his weapon, then looked around. The room was a mess, shelving tipped over, a small fire burning in what had once been a year's supply of toilet rolls, and a lot of expended brass all over the floor.

To his great surprise, all four of his men were also present. McMicheal was sitting on the floor rubbing his head, looking like something had hit him and dazed him. The other three were scattered around the place, all of them appearing somewhat tattered. Their body armor was scratched and torn, one man was missing a boot, and one of the P-90s seemed to have literally been bitten in half.

"What the fuck _was_ it?" Owens asked as his dazed compatriots slowly heaved themselves to their feet.

"What?" McMicheal said loudly, poking his ear. Apparently three grenades and a shitload of shooting wasn't good for the hearing in an enclosed space.

"What. Was. It?" Owens asked loudly and clearly, motioning to the wreckage lit by the three remaining battery powered fittings in the ceiling, the other two having been shot out. There was little point being quiet now, he felt, since the enemy definitely knew they were there, and didn't actually seem bothered by it.

"No fucking clue, all we saw was something dark moving really quick," the man said, appearing to regain some of his sense and looking around rapidly. "It was running across the ceiling, for god's sake! Big, much bigger than a man. And the teeth… Oh, god, the _teeth_."

"Teeth?" Owens looked at him with bewilderment.

"So _many_ teeth," McMicheal moaned. One of the other mercenaries nodded, not looking down from peering at the roof with his weapon aimed. The other two were rapidly reloading their guns with spare magazines. Owens and his part of the squad looked around, then at each other.

"Teeth..." Owens had a horrible feeling he knew what that meant. "I think… I think it's the Family."

"Oh, fuck me," one of the men groaned. "Not _them_. How did they get in here? What do they _want?_ "

None of them had a good answer. "Better call it in," Owens said with a grimace. Captain Smith wasn't going to be happy.

As he reached for his radio, it crackled to life. " _Kowalski here_ ," the thing said. " _Might have a problem._ "

" _Which is?_ " The captain answered immediately, fury audible in his voice.

Owens could swear he heard the other man swallow.

" _This score board…?_ "

" _What about it?_ "

" _It's saying '_ ** _Level 2_** _' now…_ "

Owens exchanged glances with his men. That couldn't be a good thing.

When they left the room and found that all the remaining emergency lights were now dark, he realized that was an understatement yet again. The way the last few lights behind them went out moments later only underscored that.

Now in pitch darkness, every one of them nearly crapped themselves when that ghastly voice suddenly said, sounding eager, **"Me again. Dark down here, isn't it?"**

Frantically fumbling for their flashlights, all eight men started to retreat with alacrity. In other words, they ran like bastards. Low, amused laughter followed them as they headed for the next level, knowing that they had four blast doors to open before they could find reinforcements.

' _If I survive this, I never want to see Brockton Bay or an underground base as long as I live_ ,' Owens thought frantically as he ran, firing back over his shoulder. He suspected that his colleagues probably thought much the same.

* * *

Thomas kept running, intermittently firing behind himself. He dropped another grenade, the blast of which thumped into his back with a hard shock, but otherwise appeared to do nothing helpful. It certainly didn't have any effect on whatever the hell was trailing him, the awful cries still getting louder and closer. He was sweating, yet felt chilled to the bone, his legs were like cooked pasta, but he didn't dare slow down or even look. Mainly because he was pretty sure that if he _saw_ what was chasing him it would be the end.

The lights overhead seemed to be changing color, shifting more and more towards red, while he could swear that the corridor itself was not only now going uphill noticeably, but was slowly narrowing while the roof was lowering. The walls were no longer institutional gray, they were almost black, and out of the corner of his eye he was virtually certain that they looked much closer to rock than poured concrete. He didn't stop to check, though.

Panting, he tossed his last grenade over his shoulder, the detonation almost too close. Yelping at fragments of casing that pinged off his body armor, he tried to run faster. His submachine gun was now empty but he couldn't spare the time to swap magazines. He managed to pull the depleted one loose but fumbled it, the plastic and metal clattering to the ground.

Abruptly, the slow slope up became a slope down instead, with enough lack of warning that he stumbled and nearly went flat on the ground. Putting his hands out he managed to recover and get back to his feet, resuming his running. It was easier now that he was going downhill and he thanked his luck even at the same time as he was wondering how the hell this could possibly be happening.

The walls were definitely made of huge blocks of dark stone now, and he could hear water dripping somewhere over the sound of his boots on the floor. The cries of the thing behind him had faded a little, making him wonder if he was pulling ahead.

A couple of minutes passed in frantic exertion. His heart was pounding in his ears to the point he could hear it easily, almost as loud as his footsteps. Spots were moving in the corners of his vision and he knew he was close to collapse.

It took a little while before he consciously noticed that the corridor was starting to bend again, rather than being arrow-straight. Ahead of him he could see it turned right, sharply enough that he couldn't see around it. Following the curve he kept going, no longer wondering how this was happening and merely accepting that it was.

The passageway, now no more than half the width and height it had started as, twisted back and forth for some considerable distance. He'd completely lost track of how long he'd been running, but he must have covered at least a couple of miles or more. The creature following him was getting closer again as he slowed from exhaustion. The sound of dripping water was getting louder as well, somehow giving the impression something was amiss with it. He couldn't explain even to himself why.

The ceiling lights were the only thing he recognized by this point. The steady dim glow every thirty feet was still the same as it had been outside his office, standing out due to the sheer prosaic appearance of it. Risking a glance over his shoulder, he saw far back at the last corner a horribly distorted shadow on the wall and floor.

The cry of _**"Tekeli-li"**_ came to his ears, the shadow moving and twisting as the thing followed. Swallowing down a mouthful of saliva, he tried to find a fresh burst of speed. He _really_ didn't want to see what was there.

' _This is impossible_ ,' he thought dazedly as he pelted through tunnels he was totally certain couldn't exist beneath Brockton Bay. ' _How is Saurial doing this? Some sort of illusion?_ ' Stumbling into the wall showed that it was entirely solid and real. ' _They're not supposed to have powers like this. What's going on? And what the fuck_ ** _is_** _that thing?_ '

Thomas had no answer, but he was pretty sure that meeting it to find out would be unwise.

So he kept going.

The tunnel he was now running through, almost on his last legs, wound back and forth. After another thirty seconds or so, it rounded one last corner then straightened out, still sloping gently downwards. He suspected that he must be several hundred yards underground by now based on the slope. In the distance, he could see something glinting at him, something vaguely familiar. Hoping that it might either be an exit, or some place he could hide and rearm, he found hidden reserves and sped up.

The shock of finding himself suddenly leaving the tunnel and running across fine pale sand towards a glass-smooth and completely black lake was enough to make him stumble. Going to his knees he slid in the sand, then scrambled to his feet again, staring at the water in front of him. Yet again, it was something that couldn't possibly exist anywhere near the city he was under. The calm water, depth unknown and unknowable, stretched out into the darkness past the limits of the final light behind him.

He looked frantically around, finding that the shoreline he was standing on curved in both directions around what gave the impression of an inlet to some vast underground reservoir. Turning on the spot, he saw that the tunnel exited through a vertical stone wall, which seemed to have more darker patches on it to the sides. Reaching up he flicked the night-sight he was still wearing to image intensifier mode, the green illumination of the enhanced scene allowing him to see that the darker spots were openings in the stonework.

Desperate, he ran towards one of them, finding when he got there it was a doorway into a room carved into the rock, going back some twenty feet and being about thirty feet wide. Diving into it, he pressed himself against the wall well to the side of the doorway, listening carefully.

All he could now here was water dripping from the roof of the impossible cavern he was inside, presumably falling into the equally impossible lake. The sound of the terrible beast that had chased him had stopped.

After a considerable period of time, during which nothing happened, Thomas slid down the wall at his back and sat on the cold floor, staring at the doorway. Dim light from the tunnel reflecting from the water gave just enough light to make it out, while his head lamp, which had been slowly dying as the battery expired, cast shadows on the walls. Without the night vision monocular it would have been only enough to avoid walking into anything.

Breathing heavily but no longer feeling like he was going to pass out, he mechanically fitted a new magazine to his weapon and cocked it. Inventorying his equipment he found that he'd somehow lost one of the pistols, and two of the fifty round magazines for the submachine gun, all of which must have fallen out of their various pockets during his headlong flight from the creature. He had no grenades left, but the rest of the explosives were in his pack, for all the good that would do him.

The battery in his head light was close to depleted although it should have been good for several hours. Possibly he'd forgotten to charge it. The other flashlight worked fine when he tried it, though, so he had that at least. Turning it off, not wanting to attract attention, he put it in his pocket. Resting his head on his knees he tried to make sense of what was going on.

A while later, which was as near as he could say since he'd entirely lost track of time, he jerked rigidly to attention, listening carefully.

 _ **"Tekeli-li"**_

The call was faint, but it was coming closer. He squeezed his P-90 close to his chest, wondering what to do. He couldn't go back into that tunnel because that was where the thing was coming from. With all his gear on he couldn't swim for it, not to mention he had no idea if anything horrible was in the water, or whether he could actually escape that way in the first place.

 _ **"Tekeli-li"**_

It was closer and louder. What to do? Stand and fight? Run and hide? Shoot himself to get it over with?

 _ **"Tekeli-li"**_

The call was now accompanied by a low _slithering_ sound, one that made his guts clench in repugnance. The sound suggested slime and noisome things that lived under rocks, only far larger and far hungrier.

 _ **"Tekeli-li"**_

It was too late now to run, the thing must have been very close. Thomas shuffled into the corner of the cave-like room, pressing his back into the cold rock behind him and aiming the gun at the doorway. A pallid illumination was growing outside on the impossible subterranean beach, a light like something that lived deep under the ocean and glided silently after its prey. A horribly virulent green that was at the same time somehow pale red, it glimmered off the damp walls around him.

 _ **"Tekeli-li"**_

The thing was right outside the entrance. He thought he could see hints of movement now, low down on the sand, the ends of what looked like tentacles writhing around only a couple of dozen feet away.

 _ **"Tekeli-li"**_

" _ **AHHHH!**_ " he screamed, opening fire as whatever it was moved into the doorway. Flashes of orange light strobed across the walls as high velocity projectiles tore up the sand outside and pinged around the room. The noise was unbelievable, completely disorientating, while at least one hard impact on his body armor made him dimly realize he'd collected a bounced round the hard way. Not paying any attention to the momentary pain of the hit, he emptied the magazine, ripped it loose, slapped another one in, and kept shooting.

When that one was empty he switched to the last of them, swapping them fast enough that his trainers back in boot camp would have been seriously impressed. At the rate the gun chewed through ammunition it only took seconds before the firing pin clicked down on an empty chamber.

Dropping the smoking weapon, he grabbed for one of his pistols.

 _ **"Tekeli-li"**_

The shadows outside twisted and shook, an utter abomination of un-nature resolving out of the dark and appearing in the entrance to the room he was trapped in. The gun slipped from nerveless fingers as he stared, wide-eyed and pale, at the mass of tentacles, eyes, and teeth that slid across the ground towards him. Unable to even move, he gaped in horror as one tentacle reached out and touched him…

 _ **"Tag. You're it."**_

The creature giggled in the voice of a young girl, one clearly originating in the depths of hell, then turned and scuttled off, disappearing out the doorway.

It had been about a foot tall.

Thomas watched it go, trying to make sense of things and utterly failing.

A few seconds later, his mind finally had enough and he slid gently to the floor, blessed unconsciousness taking him.

* * *

Taylor grinned to herself, watching her quarry fall over. That had been really funny, and the look on his face! ' _He's not going to forget this, I guarantee it_ ,' she snickered.

" _No, I suspect not. Well done, genuinely worthy of a true demon._ " The Varga sounded very proud of her.

' _Thank you. OK, now for the next phase_.'

Both of them laughed, before she applied a healing unit to him to make sure he was undamaged, then carefully picked the dead weight of the unconscious super-villain up and walked off humming happily to herself.

* * *

Emily looked around at the assembled PRT troops, and the Parahumans who were mixed in with them. Her group was going to assault the hidden main entrance to the base, with another one geared up to enter through the parking garage entrance. The tunnel exits were sealed so no one was going to make it out that way. Ianthe was going in the front with this group, while Metis was with the parking garage team.

"Saurial says give them ten minutes then go for it, Director," Ianthe called, listening on her earpiece. "They've taken out seven of the mercs and she has Coil trapped. They can't access any of the heavy weapons other than a pair of 40mm grenade launchers and a fifty caliber machine-gun, but they still have their laser emitters and a fair amount of smaller caliber stuff." The violet lizard listened some more as everyone watched her, then smirked. "She says that they're more than a little rattled and are starting to shoot at shadows. Raptaur has been amusing herself playing with them to get them to waste ammo and snagging one here and there to confuse the issue."

With a well-hidden shudder at the image of being hunted around a network of tunnels by the huge reptilian cape, Emily nodded. "Thank you, Ianthe. OK, people, we're almost up. As Raptaur put it during the Merchant assault, don't get killed. Take as many of them intact as you can, and _make sure we get Coil!_ Everyone to your positions and wait for the command."

There was an immediate rush of heavily armed troops, while the various capes headed off towards their assigned starting points. Legend was standing in front of the wall they knew concealed the main doors to the old Endbringer shelter, talking to Dragon and Armsmaster, who were looking at a portable scanner screen.

With a minor pang of regret that she couldn't go in with them and meet Thomas face to face, Emily turned and went up the steps into the back of the mobile command truck, sitting in one of the seats and leaning forward to watch the banks of monitors that showed camera views from dozens of viewpoints, ranging from aerial shots from Dragon's drones overhead to cameras mounted on the helmets of various PRT personnel.

"Well, Calvert, let's see you get out of _this_ one," she muttered, wishing that the smell would go away so she could face drinking some coffee, which she desperately needed right now. Glancing at the countdown timer on the wall above the monitors, she patiently waited along with over a hundred other people for the endgame to start.


	284. Guest Omake - Box, box, who's in the box

**Box, box, who's in the box?**

 **(By CmptrWz)**

* * *

The group of mercenaries looked at the two boxes in front of them. One was large enough to conceal a human, the other was slightly larger than a shoebox.

"As illogical as it seems," one mercenary said. "I can't shake the feeling that we should be more concerned with the smaller box as a hiding place."

"I have to agree," another said. "Which makes me think that must be a decoy and the larger box is what we should be paying attention to."

"We are overthinking this," a third said. "Just shoot both boxes!"

 **"Now why would you do that?"** came from behind them. **"I haven't needed such pitiful hiding places yet, have I?"**

None of the mercenaries were willing to turn around to look. Then again, they were too busy staring at the now _moving_ little box.

 **"Then again, my niece is a different story."**

The mercenaries booked it past the boxes down the hall, screaming their heads off. A moment later the large box tipped over, a small shoggoth that could have fit in the smaller box pouting somehow as it crawled out from under it. _**"How did they figure out that the little box was a decoy?"**_


	285. Omake - The Caller (J&W)

_Various people (you know who you are) got P G Wodehouse into my head, and this fell out the other side. I have no idea what the backstory is, or what else would happen, but there you are._

* * *

Walking into the domain of my manservant was always a somewhat daunting prospect. The dashed man had an air about him which was quite off-putting at times, such as when he felt that a gentleman was in a place that wasn't quite proper. The kitchen definitely counted as such, but dash it all, it _was_ my flat after all! And I was parched, having just woken rather early, after a late night that had been most entertaining, but admittedly had gone somewhat longer than I had planned on.

Finding oneself awake before noon was something of a shock, which I felt a good cup of tea was just the thing required to deal with. So off to the kitchen I toddled, hoping that good old Jeeves had the kettle on. Braving his disapproving look I headed directly for the stove, on which the trusty vessel was indeed boiling away.

Good old Jeeves. What a treasure he was, despite the eyes I could feel boring into the back of my head.

It was the work of mere moments to begin a pot brewing, after which I turned to regard the fellow with a bright smile and bleary eyes. Jeeves regarded me right back, his expression resigned, although few would be able to read it as well as I could. Years of acquaintance had led to familiarity with his expressions, this one being… hmm… number eight, perhaps, ' _the young master is being somewhat awkward again._ ' Yes, definitely number eight.

Fixing him with a stern eye, I motioned him back to his chair. "Sit, Jeeves. No need to jump to attention like that. I was merely after a cup of tea."

"As you wish, sir," he intoned, retaking his seat. "Is there anything else I might aid you with, sir?"

"Not right this moment, thank you."

"Of course, sir." He glanced at the pot. "It would be my pleasure to take over this task for you, sir, to free time you might find a more suitable use for."

"No, thank you, Jeeves." Sometimes you have to be firm with the domestics, you understand. Given too much latitude, the next thing you know you've been banned from your own kitchen.

I fancied he emitted the faintest of sighs. "Sir." Picking up the newspaper that he had placed on the table, he added respectfully, "Do you mind if I..."

Waving a magnanimous hand, I smiled. "Do carry on, Jeeves."

"Thank you, sir," he replied, shaking out the paper and resuming reading it.

"Would sir be interested in placing a small wager on the 3.30 at Cheltenham?" he inquired moments later, as I was pouring my now-steeped tea into a cup. "I notice that a horse I have reliably been informed is a good runner is in that particular race, at odds that appear quite worth the risk."

"Capital idea, Jeeves," I cried, the thrill of the gamble abruptly overtaking me. "Capital idea. We haven't had a decent flutter in weeks. What do you think, two pounds both ways?"

He raised an eyebrow, visibly cogitating. "I think three pounds might more accurately suffice, sir."

"Excellent." I sipped my tea, finding it exactly the thing I had been seeking. "You can take the required money from my wallet."

He patted his pocket with a small smile. "I have already done so, sir."

"You really are a marvel, Jeeves, the way you anticipate my requirements." My honest appraisal appeared to please him.

" _Thank_ you, sir. One does what one can."

At that moment the door bell chimed. He looked up from the paper, then folded it neatly and put it on the table. "If you will excuse me, sir, I am expecting an old friend. This is most likely her now."

"Ah, yes, I remember you mentioned someone from your mysterious past would be dropping by today," I said with a nod, thinking back a few days. "You didn't say it was a woman, though."

Standing, he smiled that little smile of his again. "No, sir, I was remiss in my clarity. My apologies."

"Think nothing of it, old chap."

"Of course, sir. Very good of you." He left the room, while I trailed after him, curious to see who it was.

Opening the door he looked pleased. "It's lovely to see you again after so long," he said gravely to the person on the other side. "Your message was most unexpected but most welcome. Please come in."

"Thanks, Jeeves," the caller said, her voice betraying an accent that originated in the Colonies by the sound of it. It was cheerful and pleasant, although with a slightly odd sibilance I couldn't immediately place.

He stepped to one side to allow her entry. Coming inside the apartment, she looked around as he closed the door, then took her coat when she removed it. The garment was a very high quality thing of some form of leather, ankle length, and the height of style, I absently noted. Not that I follow women's fashion, but I _do_ pay attention to the various young ladies I know, despite what some of them claim!

She gave him a quick embrace, which he returned in a most un-Jeeves-like manner.

"I'm very glad to see you again as well," she said, sounding it. Releasing him, she glanced past him to see me staring at her. To my shame, I admit the stare was somewhat fixed and impolite.

"Jeeves..."

"Sir?" He turned and raised an eyebrow enquiringly.

"Could I have a quick natter, Jeeves? Just for a moment."

"Of course, sir. Please excuse me, I shan't be long," he added to his guest, who smiled and made a small languid motion. "If you would care to wait in the drawing room?"

"Sure, Jeeves, that's no problem," she nodded, before walking gracefully through the doorway he indicated.

He followed me back to the kitchen. When he was inside, I quickly looked out of the door again. Seeing no one, I closed it and turned around, to find him peering at me with what almost looked like amusement lurking at the backs of his eyes.

"Now, Jeeves," I began sternly.

"Yes, sir?" he responded with that damnable tiny smirk playing about his mouth, the one he thinks I don't notice.

"Jeeves, about your guest..." I trailed off, attempting to think of the most polite way to put it. He waited patiently, although I could see that he was amused in the calm fashion he has.

"Sir?"

"She's… well, how do I put it..." I sighed, running my hand over my face. "She's a lizard, Jeeves."

"Yes, sir. I am aware of that."

"As in, not human."

"Quite, sir. Well noted indeed."

"There's a six and a half foot tall lizard in my drawing room," I persisted. "Wearing a very expensive silk dress, if I'm any judge."

"Most likely, sir. Miss Saurial has a keen eye for fashion and has always been a banner of sartorial excellence."

The damned fellow was definitely finding my reaction funny, I was sure of it. Not a flicker of a smile passed his rigid discipline though.

"May I ask how you happen to know a humanoid reptilian woman, Jeeves?" I finally said, feeling somewhat confused.

"You may, sir," he replied with a tilt of his head.

I sighed, knowing that once again I had walked into his cunning trap.

" _How_ do you happen to know a humanoid reptilian woman, Jeeves?" I went on, attempting to impress upon him that I was wise to his little jape.

"Miss Saurial and I met a considerable number of years ago when I was briefly in the service of Lord Weston, of the Worcestershire Westons, sir. There was a spot of unpleasantness surrounding an electrical machine that his lordship had built, after his correspondence with the famed scientist Nicola Tesla. Regrettably his lordship was not quite as careful with his calculations as might have been wished, and a number of somewhat awkward events were the result."

From the tone of his voice I fancied that the dry description might well be glossing over some details.

"Miss Saurial was good enough to lend her aid in dealing with the situation. She is most competent in the scientific arts and was able to quickly rectify the problem. His lordship was extremely grateful, but for a number of reasons, I deemed it unwise to continue in his service and requested my employment be terminated."

"I see."

I didn't, but I wasn't going to mention that to him. He eyed me in a manner that suggested he was aware of this. Damned perceptive, old Jeeves.

"Miss Saurial and I have corresponded intermittently ever since, although she has been out of touch for some time," he went on. "I find her a very interesting person and a lively conversationalist. When she contacted me to say she was in town for a few days, I requested that we meet once again to renew our friendship. If sir feels it inappropriate, I will of course arrange to do this elsewhere."

"Oh, heavens, no, Jeeves, I have no wish to impose on your relationship with an old friend," I reassured him, mortified that I might have inadvertently insulted him or his female friend. "I was merely somewhat taken aback, that's all. You must admit it's not every day that one encounters a young lady with a tail, especially in London."

"No, sir, I cannot deny that," he nodded. "While cosmopolitan to a remarkable degree, the city is not entirely used to such things. Thank you for your understanding, sir. Would you care to join us?"

"I think not, thank you, Jeeves," I replied after some thought. "The offer is appreciated but it's probably best if I don't intrude. I was meaning to go down to the club in any case." Glancing at the clock, I winced. "Even though it's far too early for most of the lads to be up yet. Not even one o'clock! I shall be the first one there. Never mind, a spot of lunch without the normal goings-on might be a good thing."

"Certainly, sir." Jeeves quickly made up a tray of tea and biscuits as I watched, as always amazed by his precision and speed. The man was frighteningly competent. "In that case, if you'll excuse me?"

"Of course, old man. Carry on. Please convey my apologies for my rudeness to Miss Saurial, if you would."

"It would be my pleasure, sir," he replied graciously, picking up the tray. I helpfully held the kitchen door for him as he passed through, then followed. While I put my overcoat on I listened to the clink of china and a feminine laugh, then left the flat, shaking my head in wonder.

The glimpse into the past of my treasured manservant was, as always, enlightening and fascinating, if somewhat confusing.

Well, in any case, I was looking forward to a nice luncheon. The day seemed agreeable and hopefully would remain so. Whistling, I went on my way.


	286. Guest Omake - Don't put THAT in your

**Don't put THAT in your mouth, you know where it's been!**

 **(By CmptrWz)**

* * *

"Are you certain this will kill the fucking lizard?" Skidmark asked the tinker. "I don't want to have to find something else if this fails."

"If this fails there is nothing else to find," the tinker responded. "Which, if you aren't careful, will also be the result if this works."

"Yea yea," Skidmark said. "Though I want to know why you aren't charging for it."

"I hate lizards," the tinker responded, shivering. "Have ever since I was a kid. My sister's pet, well, yea. Not going there. I triggered when an earthquake trapped me in the wrong part of a pet store."

"Fucking pansy," Skidmark grumbled as he left with his weapon. "Afraid of lizards? Fucking idiot. Just hope this thing wasn't over-hyped."

"Daaaaaaang this is a thick manual," his lieutenant said, flipping through the thick book. "Lots of warnings."

"Bah," Skidmark said, grabbing the book and throwing it in the back of the van they were using. "The pansy may be a fucking scaredy-cat but the controls are easy enough."

* * *

"This isn't good," Dragon said as she and Colin looked at reports on Skidmark. "He found something and is coming back."

"Have you informed the Family yet?" Colin asked, wondering if letting them know should be done over a more secure communications channel or not.

"No need," Dragon replied. "They let me know that others had already let them know."

"Really? Did they say who?"

"Looks like they got a message from an Adam Mustain? Wait a minute…"

Colin double-checked the PRT records himself. "Skidmark let them know he was coming?"

"Apparently. Though using his civilian name so as to not make it blatantly obvious that he was the one to do so is a little clever."

* * *

"Did he really think that using his civilian name was being clever?" Lisa asked, looking over the message again. "I mean, his PRT record includes that from his previous arrests so we already knew it."

"Maybe he didn't think that we had access to that information?" Taylor offered. "Of course, signing it with his real name but sending it from what appears to be Skidmark's email address doesn't make a lot of sense if he didn't know or suspect we already knew."

"Or maybe he is just an idiot," Amy offered. "Possibly was a tad high from his 'I found a weapon to kill you fuckers with' party?"

"Yea, the fact he called whatever they did that, in the email, is worrying," Lisa said. "Even if he claimed it was overhearing that party that caused him to decide to warn us. Whatever he found, do you really think it should be operated under the influence?"

"I bet it shouldn't be operated at all," Taylor said. "Because why would he find something nice and safe if used correctly?"

Amy and Lisa looked at each other, smirked, and sketched a bow to Taylor to acknowledge her point.

* * *

The entire DWU was on high alert, as were the PRT and Protectorate. Whatever Skidmark had found it was not going to be good news, so everyone was preparing for the worst.

Someone then decided that the previous worst wasn't bad enough and added "what if all three endbringers decide to attack at the same time Skidmark is deploying his weapon?" to the mix. Which was knocked down into plans for each individual Endbringer, then to "attacking Brockton Bay" and "Attacking Elsewhere" categories. Even if it was unlikely to happen.

Say what you will about them, but when it comes to making plans the Brockton Bay branches of the PRT and Protectorate were no slouches.

Unfortunately, Skidmark was also not a slouch and made it into Brockton Bay undetected. A previously secret safe house he had prepared became his new base of operations. He had used every bit of cunning he had in his bid to keep it secret, and had stumbled upon a nearly foolproof method.

He bought it. Under an alias, granted, but he bought it. Paid taxes, utility bills, and had a service maintain the property for him. Because who the fuck would expect him to actually obtain a safe house semi-legally?

As a side bonus he was actually able to vote under his alias, which was probably the only reason he had kept the place. He wasn't sure why, but for some reason complaining about elected officials when you hadn't voted bugged him. And having a nice, legal house nobody was questioning as an official address made registering to vote a lot easier, bought ID or not. That, and it was coming in handy now, so it was probably a good investment.

Now all he had to do was wait for the next ship to be dragged back to the docks for processing. He didn't have anyone in the DWU, but he did have an informant in City Hall, and the Family was giving advance notice of things as a courtesy, so he would know. The overgrown lizard wouldn't know what hit it.

It would be annoying, staying low, but he wouldn't give them any clues about what he had found or what his plan was until he was ready to make his move.

* * *

They were starting to wonder if Skidmark had gotten lost or something. He hadn't been seen for a couple of weeks, anywhere. It was quite annoying, actually. Why hadn't he made his move yet?

Still, lives had to go on, and the dockworkers were ready for another couple of ships to be dragged in. So Kaiju was in the bay, working on preparing a ship.

Unseen and unnoticed, Skidmark was also preparing. He had one shot, one shell available to take that fucking lizard out, and he didn't care who else got hurt in the process. But he also was cocky and wanted to make sure they knew who was responsible for their downfall. He had a plan for that. It might even make them think he had gone crazy in a harmless way, if it worked right.

Still, it would be a little bit before everyone was in position.

* * *

Lisa was worried. She didn't know why, but she felt something was seriously wrong today. On a hunch she wandered over to the WCC building and checked on the Endbringer trackers.

"Well isn't that disturbing," Lisa murmured. It appeared that Leviathan had stopped moving, and the Simurgh appeared to be staring at Brockton Bay in horrified fascination?

Today was apparently going to be a bad day. Or a weird day.

Probably both. Which meant she should consider heading back to BBFO and make popcorn.

Just in case.

* * *

Taylor was approaching the docks with a couple of ships trailing behind her. She was also bored, and wished she had something more interesting to work on other than waiting for Skidmark to pop up.

She was reminded of the saying to be careful what you wished for when a giant supersonic paintball slammed into her stomach, sonic boom coming with it. What the hell? Where did someone get a giant paintball that could handle supersonic velocities?

Quickly tracking the paintball back to where it originated, kicking herself mentally for not noticing it coming in the first place, she saw Skidmark up on top of a hill. Lots of broken windows and people clutching their heads between them.

It also looked like he was lining up a second shot. But she could see that the tube he had used for the paintball was discarded to the side. The tube he was preparing now was a bit smaller diameter and looked to be a tinkertech creation. It also had a number of warning symbols on it.

What to do about that projectile. On one hand she could try and catch it, encase it in EDM before it exploded or something. But if it generated enough heat that could be a problem. She could just block it, with EDM or otherwise, but then who knew what it would do damage-wise to the area. You had to be careful with tinkertech. Dodge and let it fly over the ocean? No, the angles were wrong, it was more likely to hit the rig, or land in the middle of the bay, depending on if he went for a headshot or a body-shot. Ecological disaster was a definite possibility there.

" _Just eat it,_ " Varga said. " _I highly doubt it is actually capable of harming us and with any luck we will have digested it before it can do anything._ "

"I suppose that will work," Taylor mentally replied, giving the apparent weapon a good look. "I don't think it will taste good, though. Who will I file complaints about the taste to?"

The Varga thought about what Taylor had just said. Then about the fact he found it a perfectly good, logical argument. And, being careful to keep his thoughts to himself, wondered where any previous sense of normalcy had gone when the primary objection to eating an unknown piece of technology that could possibly do almost anything was that they didn't know who to complain about the taste to if it was disagreeable.

Probably to the same place traditional human sanity went when exposed to fractal dimensions.

" _Perhaps we can find contact information on the launcher,_ " Varga finally responded. " _Or maybe he has a manual we can look over later?_ "

"I suppose," Taylor responded, mentally sighing. "Probably no tabasco sauce in the thing either."

* * *

"Why am I suddenly very happy that my propellant is based on tabasco sauce?" the tinker mused as he bought more. Hopefully there would soon be less giant lizards around, and one less idiot parahuman. Too bad it was likely to cost a large number of others their lives, but he doubted the idiot had actually read the warnings or come up with a plan to get to a deserted area first.

* * *

Lisa stared at Taylor, paintball mark on her chest. She then turned and looked at where the paintball had come from and her power froze.

A few seconds later her power gave her an estimate for what Skidmark was about to launch. She tried to come up with a plan to safely deal with it but failed. There was a very good chance that they were all going to die, because there was no way to contain that! Dodging wouldn't help, blocking wouldn't help. The best case scenario she was coming up with ended up cooking the entire bay. If they were lucky.

Frozen with indecision she barely noticed that Skidmark had fired.

* * *

Skidmark was happy. Slightly annoyed, but otherwise happy. He had acquired a target lock, had laid his power into the barrel to ensure that the fucking bomb made it to the fucking lizard, and was in the process of finding whatever safety was keeping him from firing the damned thing.

It's a fucking bomb, it isn't supposed to be _safe_.

He just hoped that the tinker's stupid little 10 kilogram payload was as powerful as claimed.

Aha, the firing system went green. He looked at the last safety that he had disabled. Minimum safe distance to target? Bah.

"Fucking lizard!" he screamed, pulling the trigger. "DIE!"

The bomb screamed out of the barrel, the sonic boom would have been deafening without the ear protection he was wearing. It was heading straight for the lizard. He was going to savor this…what the hell?

"Did it just eat the bomb?" Skidmark asked, turning to his associates.

"I think it exploded right as its mouth closed," one of them volunteered. "Though, er, it obviously didn't do much harm. If it did any?"

"Fucking hell," Skidmark said, noticing that the Protectorate was deploying. "I think it is time to leave." He paused for a moment, then turned around. He had just enough time to wonder why everyone else had decided to take a nap before he felt the sting in the back of his neck.

Amy was happy that Ianthe had been helping out in the area, and that she had spotted the paintball. Too bad she didn't get there in time to stop them from firing at all, though.

Wondering what they had been doing before she got to them she started looking over the launcher they had been using, looking to see what kind of payload they had attempted.

"Antimatter?"

* * *

Alec and Brian looked at each other, and then back at Lisa. Who was surrounded by empty beer bottles and several tubs of ice cream. And two bowls of popcorn? They had been called by a couple of the other dockworkers, who figured the two of them may have some insight.

"Any idea what set her off?" Alec finally asked.

"Not a clue," Brian responded. "Not sure I want to know, either."

Note that they do not, in fact, have the insight required.

"If we need to know I think she will tell us," Alec finally said. "Though it may be too late if she was going for drinking until she forgot."

"Works for me," Brian said. A couple of female dockworkers were going to drag Lisa to bed, so Brian and Alec started cleaning up the mess. Lisa would, after all, be more tolerable if that wasn't left to her later.

* * *

"He actually tried to use an antimatter explosive near a population center," Emily said, staring at the report in front of her. "We can even confirm it was legitimate."

"That is correct, though he didn't try so much as did and we got lucky," Colin said. "The labeled yield was 10 kilograms, but that was split between antimatter and reaction matter to leave just 5 kilograms of antimatter. And it was apparently negated by virtue of Kaiju eating it before it exploded."

"We believe it exploded in her mouth, actually," Dragon added. "There was the slightest hint of a flash having escaped, from the footage we were able to obtain. Rig sensors picked up a momentary spike in gamma radiation at the same time."

"We knew they were resistant to gamma radiation," Colin continued. "We just didn't realize how resistant."

"Have we tracked down where he got the thing?" Ethan asked. He was uncharacteristically serious. Then again, antimatter bombs were not something to joke about.

"The tinker is already in custody," Dragon supplied. "Apparently he put contact information on the launcher and in the manual for the system."

"How convenient. Any idea how to adjust Kaiju's ratings?" Emily asked.

"Not sure we need to," Colin shrugged. "We knew she was a brute and could handle a lot of gamma radiation, though perhaps an estimated just under two hundred and fifteen megatons exploding in her mouth might warrant an increase on the brute rating. Not sure this changes anything beyond increasing the lower limit of what 'a lot of gamma radiation' means on that front, and most of the blast would probably have been gamma radiation anyway. She didn't seem to have even experienced any discomfort either way."

* * *

"Ugh," Taylor groaned at lunchtime the next day. She looked over at the lunch line, barely gave it consideration, and instead claimed a seat at their usual table, no food in front of her. Amy joined her a few minutes later, giving Taylor a concerned look.

"Not feeling well?" Lucy asked as she came up with her lunch.

"I ate something I probably shouldn't have," Taylor answered. "Left me with a bit of indigestion."

"She'll be fine in a couple of days," Amy said before anyone could suggest she help out. Not that she could in this case, better to disguise why she wasn't helping instead. "The discomfort will help her learn not to repeat her actions."


	287. Guest Omake - Thor Loser

**Thor Loser**

 **(By Ace Dreamer)**

* * *

It had been a big job, and a lot of it was about showing good faith. The brothers had got together and unsunk Kyushu, their sister had spread dreams across the nearby lands of a great reversal in the fortunes of the area. And to all the millions of refugees across the world. While they were at it they'd improved the geology of the area, reducing the number, or at least the force, of future earthquakes and tsunami, changing the sea bed to dissipate their force, replacing big quakes with micro ones.

The actual un-sinking required a real spectacle. Leet had quietly got together with a few others to place a hologram over the sea area where Leviathan had last stood on land, and arranged a ghostly dawn battle between him and a similarly ghostly Kaiju, who for some reason was swinging around a giant push-broom, while wearing a yellow safety helmet and a jacket marked "Stunt Double". As the battle continued the real island rose gently up from under the waves, where it had been since before 2000, and the damage to the surroundings slowly undid itself.

After Leviathan had been driven-off, with several broom-bats to the head, and his watery after-images swept back into the sea, the still ghostly Kaiju walked the island, brushing-away the damage, including to things like bridges, though still leaving the plant life in a soggy state. Quite solid and physical "Under Construction" signs appeared on the shore. As a final step the local power-plants were replaced by thorium-powered nuclear reactors, with some really thorough safety features, and a complete set of manuals and other training material covering their operation and maintenance left clearly visible.

That night, while the media of the world boggled, a nearly invisible Kaiju walked the other islands of Japan, repairing infrastructure, and leaving behind upgrade kits for all the other power-plants so they could be made equivalent to the Kyushu ones. Rapid attempts were made to create shrines to this kami, but they tended to get mysteriously pranked, with a note suggesting checking the grand Shinto shrine at Ise.

Just outside the shrine was a neat pile of crates, properly labelled as containing refined thorium, and a request that this paid for a shrine to be built to the Norse god Thor, after which the material was named, in honour of his inspiration for the restoration of Japan.

"After all", remarked Kaiju, "I wouldn't want to be thought to be a thor loser".

* * *

Somewhere, in another universe, a marvelously long way away, a man with a hammer sneezed, and looked around suspiciously "Odin-damned lizards!".


	288. Traps and Tunnels

_There's one audio file attached to this chapter, underlined in the normal way._

 _The URL is www dot youtube dot com / watch?v=uYMpMcmpfkI_

* * *

Sergeant Owens, glow stick in his off hand, waved it sharply behind his back, the rest of his team immediately coming to a halt. He was the one in front at the moment with the rest of his men bringing up the rear. All seven of them also had glow sticks attached to their vests so they could see each other in the pitch-dark underground base. Considering the damn thing sneaking around the place could obviously see in the dark or something, there was little point not using them.

The chemical lights spread enough light around them that they could barely make out the walls of the corridors up to around eight feet off the ground, but the ceiling was still in shadow. Their sole remaining night-sight was on McMicheal's head at the moment and the man was peering around in a manner most would think betrayed nervousness.

Owens knew better.

It was sheer terror.

The thing with the horrible voice had been popping up randomly for the last twenty minutes, sometimes on the ceiling, sometimes in a corridor they were passing, once or twice on the other side of a door. None of them had got a good view of it yet although there was definitely an impression of teeth and scales.

It seemed to be enjoying itself.

None of _them_ were in _any way at all_.

After using nearly half their ammo and all but two grenades, Owens had told them to stop firing, as it was only wasting the stuff and putting them at risk of ricochets. Trevino was already limping a little from catching part of a shattered bullet in the shin and was currently quietly bitching about it somewhere near the middle of the pack of nervous mercenaries. They were all half deaf as well, which wasn't helping.

"Shut up, Trevino," he hissed, holding his P-90 with the muzzle up, the laser emitter powered and whining faintly. At one point, when the thing that was either chasing them or herding them had given them a short break, they'd all fixed their flashlights to the relevant mounting point on the weapons, so they could see what they were firing at.

It hadn't helped. He was certain they'd hit the fucking thing at least once, but not only had it not caused any apparent damage, they still hadn't actually seen it properly. The team, or what was left of it, so far hadn't lost any more members, had managed to make it back through two security doors, but still had two to go and were feeling both very tired and very hard-done-by. Being the protagonists in a monster movie wasn't what they'd signed up for…

They were now, somehow, in a part of the base he didn't recognize. ' _Must be the dark_ ,' he thought uneasily, looking around with the aid of his flashlight. ' _I don't remember this maze of twisty passageways. They're all alike, too. Weird._ ' It was proving very difficult to find a way through.

Turning back to what had caused him to bring their squad to a halt, he peered suspiciously at the faint light coming around the corner ahead of him. Thirty feet or so away the corridor bent to the right sharply enough that he couldn't see around it. After a few more seconds of thought and an internal sigh, followed by gritting his teeth, he pressed himself to the wall and slid along it, weapon at the ready. His men followed, possibly out of a morbid sense of curiosity, since not a one of them really wanted to.

Reaching the corner, he stopped, holding his gun at port arms, his finger on the trigger, then took a deep breath and quickly looked around the edge. Pulling his head back a second later, he tried to make sense of what he'd seen.

"What is it, Sarge?" one of the mercenaries whispered anxiously.

Owens looked again.

Again he retreated and puzzled over the scene, which was lit by a solitary working emergency fitting in the roof. "What the _fuck?_ " he mumbled.

He glanced back at the remains of his squad, two of whom were staring back the way they'd come with weapons ready, two of which were doing the same to the roof in both directions, and the remaining ones who were watching him. After a moment or two, he looked around the corner for the third time, then very slowly stepped out into the corridor to get a better view.

Trevino and McMicheal followed him with a certain amount of caution, stopping on either side and also staring.

"Well, _that's_ definitely a trap," the former finally said after a long silence.

"You _think?_ " Owens asked in a low, very sarcastic, voice. "What gave it away? The neat pile of P-90 mags on the floor on a very suspicious-looking piece of canvas painted, not very well, to look like the ground? Or was it the little sign sticking out the top that says ' _Free ammunition, help yourself?_ '

"The way the emergency light is spotlighting it and leaving everything else in shadow is a nice touch," McMicheal commented with black humor.

"Personally, I'm more worried about that big cardboard box over in the corner of this large room I don't remember ever seeing before," Owens sighed. "The way this side is a few inches off the ground and I can see two glowing eyes in the darkness under it is…" He trailed off.

 **"Hee hee hee,"** something sniggered. Something under the large box, which was big enough to contain a deep freeze and had the words ' _This Side Up_ ' written on it, along with an arrow. Which was, naturally, pointing downwards.

"Nope." Owens shook his head. "Just fucking _nope_." He backed up around the corner, the other two doing the same, then turned around. "Back to the last junction, everyone. Move it."

As his squad headed back the way they'd come, he could have sworn he heard a faint voice say **"Awww..."**

"I fucking hate my life sometimes," he grumbled under his breath, shivering a little. They kept moving, looking around. When he looked back the light had gone out.

* * *

" _They didn't want the ammunition, Brain,_ " the Varga said with amusement. " _I'll put it back in the armory._ "

Taylor was internally giggling too hard to answer. She got back to work on the next part of her ' _How to wind up Coil_ ' plan. It was a good one, she thought.

* * *

Captain Smith was not a happy camper either. He was down two men who had disappeared without sound or warning, they'd simply vanished when everyone took their eyes off them for a couple of seconds. One of them had been at the back of his squad, but the other one was right in the middle and had still somehow been taken. Each time, Kowalski had told them that the ' _score counter_ ' had shifted in favor of the enemy, whoever that was. His remaining men were starting to make mistakes, they were definitely demoralized, and they were beginning to piss him off.

Not to mention they'd used up a large amount of their ammunition on shadows without a single body to show for it.

When he found out who was behind all this he was going to take particular pleasure in showing them their own spleen before he slit their throats.

The radio system had stopped working a couple of minutes ago, the mysterious enemy having apparently decided to cut power to the leaky feeder system running across the ceiling. Without that to relay the radio waves, the range of the handsets underground was severely restricted. They could just about hear Kowalski with a lot of static, but they had no contact with Owens's group and apparently the others couldn't raise them either.

That might mean they'd all been taken, but he suspected it was more likely that the comms were simply down. The enemy seemed to like playing games and in his opinion for whatever reason, despite some frankly disturbingly effective stealth abilities, probably couldn't take them on in a fair fight. That was why they were being whittled down one by one, that and the psychological aspect of the entire thing. It was brilliant in its own way, something he'd appreciate a lot more if it wasn't aimed at _him._

They still hadn't heard anything from their employer. That didn't really bother Smith all that much, he'd never liked the fucker anyway, not trusting Parahumans at the best of times. The man paid well and there were some good perks, but on a personal level if he never saw the villain again he wouldn't care in the least. As long as he got paid, at any rate.

If the enemy infiltrator or infiltrators had taken Coil out, that solved one problem. Assuming they got out of this alive, he was sure his tech experts could extract enough data from Coil's computers to make up any outstanding payment. If not, it didn't matter anyway.

"Captain!" One of the men in front called out in a low tone, the chemical illumination on his vest jerking as he turned and waved. "Found something… strange."

"Strange?" Smith asked as he moved forward, scanning the scene with his weapon and eyes. "Strange _how_ exactly?"

The mercenary pointed. "Like that."

Both of them stared at the ground in front of them. There was a large black circle apparently painted on it, with the words ' _Caution, deep hole_ ' neatly lettered next to it in blue-glowing pigment. "What in god's..." Smith, after a long pause, trailed off in bemusement, then knelt down on one knee and gently touched the black surface. He raised his finger and held it in front of the light from his flashlight. "It's still wet."

"What's the point of this?" the mercenary asked in a puzzled tone. "No one is going to fall for it, it's so obviously a fake. This isn't a cartoon."

"These people are insane," Smith growled, wiping the black paint off on his pants. "Playing mind games. This is really fucking _annoying_ me." His voice was low and dangerous. "But if it's still wet they must be close." He fixed a half-open door thirty feet away down the corridor, past the painted ' _hole_ ' and just visible in the light from his weapon-mounted illuminator, with a gimlet eye. He turned and waved up a couple more men. "Murtaugh, you go left, Jackson, right." At his quiet orders both men nodded and headed in the relevant direction, sidling along the walls on either side of the hallway.

The first mercenary watched them get into position then glanced at his superior, who aimed his gun and made a signal. Both the scouts opened fire on the door, then Jackson kicked what was left open and dived through, his colleague right behind him. The first mercenary moved across the paint on the floor to back them up.

He got about half-way before screaming in shocked horror and disappearing downwards. Smith leaped back with a surprised curse, watching as his man fell into a hole that wasn't, _couldn't_ , be real. They were on the lowest level of the base aside from anything else, there wasn't anything under them except rock. The four men behind him were stunned silent, gaping at the sight.

Moments later there was no trace of anyone. At the scream, both the scouts had come back out of the room they'd entered with their weapons to their shoulders, flashlight beams waving around frantically as they looked for a target. Running back, they skidded to halt as Smith shouted ' _STOP!_ ' in a hoarse voice.

Not taking his eyes off the paint on the floor, Smith reached into his pocket with one hand and pulled out a handful of small change, which he tossed onto the black circle. All the coins tinkled to the ground, a couple of them rolling a little then falling over.

Not one of them fell into a hole.

"What the fuck happened, Captain?" one of the mercenaries behind him said in horror. "Where did Young go?"

"I… don't know," Smith admitted, more scared than he'd ever been under fire. "I… just don't know." Motioning to the two mercs to walk _around_ the painted feature on the floor, he waited for them to arrive next to him. "Fall back to the canteen," he finally ordered, deciding that there was no way carrying on was a good idea when they didn't have enough information. "We need to regroup and think this through some more. I _really_ don't like the situation. There's something very wrong about all this."

A crackly voice came through the radio. " _Captain?_ "

"What is it now, Kowalski?" he replied wearily.

" _Thirty nine to eight, sir. And it just went to '_ ** _Level Three_** _'._ " The voice sounded very worried. " _One more thing though_."

"What?" Smith was just about at the end of his rope.

" _It says '_ ** _Deathmatch..._** _'_ "

"Fuck." Smith pinched the bridge of his nose in fury. "We're on our way back," he added a few seconds later. "Keep trying to contact Owens and his squad. If you get through, have them fall back to the cafeteria as well on the double."

" _Yes, sir,_ " the distant man replied obediently.

"And get those grenade launchers loaded."

" _We did that half an hour ago, sir_ ," the merc admitted. Smith merely nodded to himself, putting the radio away.

"Come on. And for fuck's sake, keep alert for anything funny on the floor and go around it," he sighed. The squad turned around and started heading back to the center of the base, looking around everywhere. He glanced back at the paint on the floor for a moment, aiming his weapon and attached light at it, and wasn't entirely surprised to see it was gone.

So were all his coins.

Shaking his head in worried disgust, he kept walking, trying to look everywhere at once and wondering what the next idiotic but terrifyingly effective Parahuman trick was.

God, he hated Parahumans. There was a very good reason he had every one of his men checked for the presence of the brain structures that indicated one and only hired normal people. You just couldn't trust them. Every last one of them was nuts and dangerous with it.

After this, he was going to make sure they only got hired by sane people...

* * *

" _I made two dollars and sixty-three cents,_ " the Varga noted with a smug grin as he gently laid the latest captive down next to the others.

"You can buy the eggs later, then," Taylor said, appearing next to her other aspect. Both of them smirked at each other, looked around in satisfaction, and vanished again.

* * *

Thomas jerked awake, frantically looking around and grabbing for a weapon. Where was he? The last he remembered…

His breathing nearly stopped as he recalled something _horrible._ He was almost on the point of passing out when he managed to recover. He peered at the walls and floor with enormous suspicion, seeing nothing other than light-gray painted poured concrete. It took several seconds before he realized that he could actually see it properly. Looking up he noticed that the emergency lighting was on, seemingly back to normal. A glance both ways showed a familiar curved passageway. He was sitting on the floor leaning against something hard, which when he checked turned out to be the partly open door to his office.

' _What the hell?_ ' he thought in confused disorientation. ' _How_...'

His pack was, he now noticed, lying on the floor next to him. After a long moment he reached for it, only then also realizing that his P-90 was clipped to his tactical vest as it had been when he left the office. A quick check showed five loaded mags, both pistols, all his grenades… In fact, all the stuff he could remember equipping himself with. All apparently unused and ready.

Checking his pack he found it had everything in as well.

By now confusion had turned to complete disbelief, and extreme worry. What in god's name was going on?

A very faint sound somewhere off to the right made him twitch violently and grab his gun, then freeze and listen intently. It didn't repeat and after over three minutes of listening he decided it had been his imagination.

Eventually, he slowly stood up, finding that somewhat to his surprise he felt fine. He had distinct memories of running, running for what was obviously far too long to be possible, and through areas that simply didn't exist on the base. Or, he suspected now, anywhere.

But they were so vivid…

' _Fucking Saurial is playing mind games, somehow. Hallucinogens in the air, or she got me with a dart full of LSD or something,_ ' he finally decided, turning around and running one hand over the surface of his door. It was entirely unmarked, no sign of the deep clawmarks he'd thought he'd seen on it. Another hallucination.

' _I'm going to figure out how to kill that scaly bitch_ ,' he snarled silently, picking up his pack and swinging it over his shoulders. A check of his watch showed it was only five minutes after the time he remembered leaving the office. She'd obviously jumped him outside and drugged him, or used some weird Tinker device on him. God alone knew what. But it had worn off, as far as he could tell, and now he had a chance.

Screw Smith and his men, and forget the base. It was too dangerous now to try to make contact or save anything else. Who knows what she'd try next? He had his data, his talents, and contacts no one but him knew about. He'd set the self-destruct and get out, with any luck the blast would catch the lizard by surprise and possibly even kill the damn thing. In the confusion he could escape. By the time the PRT turned up, he'd be long gone.

Looking both ways down the corridor once more, listening for any trace of Saurial, he turned and started walking rapidly, the weapon held ready and his thermal sight active. Even in his hurry he didn't stop scanning the area, including behind him, for traces of the reptilian horror, but she never made an appearance. Reaching the stairs in a couple of minutes, he cautiously looked over the edge, then up at the ceiling, before making his way down them as quietly as he could. Faint metallic sounds echoed around him in the process. Reaching the bottom he swept the area, then exited the stairwell onto the lower floor. Some of the backup lights were out and a couple were flickering every now and then, but overall he could see pretty well.

Moving along the lower corridor, he stopped as a memory struck him. Somewhere along here there was an auxiliary HVAC control room and if he remembered correctly, there was a computer terminal in it that was connected to the main system.

Nodding to himself he went past the closet that concealed his tunnel and kept going, walking another fifty yards until he reached a door labeled ' **ENVRNMNT 2** ,' which he opened. Going inside he looked around for a moment, orientating himself. He hadn't been in here in at least two years, and it looked like no one else had either. Two small battery-powered lights were on, one on either side of the fifteen foot square room, and he was gratified to see that the main power other than the lighting was working based on the blinking lights on some of the equipment. There was also a pervasive deep hum coming from somewhere in the stacks of industrial equipment filling much of the space.

Moving to the right he circumnavigated the large mass of pipes and valves in the middle of the room, spotting a keyboard half-protruding from a shelf on the back wall of the room. Above it was an LCD monitor with a small green light on the bottom edge. He went over to it and prodded a key, smiling when the screen flickered a couple of times and lit with the familiar login prompt for his computer network.

Quickly typing in a password, then another one, he flipped through innocent-sounding menus until he reached one listed as ' _Cleaning Services_ ,' which he selected. Under that was a sub-menu item called ' _System Purge_.' Selecting this brought up another password prompt. He entered the relevant string of characters.

'O _perations issued from this level cannot be halted once active_ ,' the screen helpfully informed him, along with a fourth password box. He typed in the nine characters and hit return.

 **Enter supervisor command...** the machine requested.

' _Purge immediate_ ' he typed.

 **Purge initiated. Time to completion 5 minutes 29 seconds...**

' _Destruct, delay twenty minutes, no alert_ ' This command was also accepted.

 **Set.**

 **Quiet mode active.**

 **00:20:00**

 **00:19:59**

 **00:19:58**

Thomas watched the countdown for a few seconds, slightly despondent about all his hard work of years going for nothing like this, then exited the menus and cleared the screen. Now there was nothing to see or hear to let anyone know that in just under twenty minutes there was going to be one fucking enormous explosion in the middle of Brockton Bay, followed by a sudden downward adjustment of nearby properties.

Satisfied, he left the room and headed for the closet, still looking around for any signs of Saurial. Reaching it he opened the door, then peered in. A few mops and buckets, all bone-dry, met his view, along with a couple of shelves full of paint, solvents, and random maintenance items. Kicking the things on the floor out of the way he felt around under the lowest shelf until he found a hole about three quarters of an inch in diameter in the wall, which he knew looked like a place there had once been another bracket attached. Removing his right glove he inserted his index finger into the hole as far as it would go and waited. A moment later there was a faint warmth on the digit, followed by a beep, then a click as the entire wall moved a little.

Removing his finger from the hidden biometric sensor he grabbed the shelves and pushed, the concealed door swinging away from him on well-oiled hinges. Closing the door to the closet he entered the tunnel, lights coming on as he did so, then also closed the disguised door when he was through it. It clicked back into place, locking solidly.

Taking a breath of relief, Thomas checked the screen next to him that had lit up when the door was closed, seeing the status of the tunnel systems shown on it. He made sure than nothing was indicating an error, then tapped in an override code. When it was accepted he nodded. He had ten minutes to reach the other end, just over a mile and a half away, before the traps came back online. There was a rebreather system cached there that would let him exit the submerged termination of the escape tunnel and swim to a place he could get out of the water. Once he was clear, he could head for the safe house, some dry clothes, and a vehicle loaded with cash, weapons and fuel.

Once he was in it, he was out of here so fast… And he had no intention of ever coming within a hundred miles of the whole fucking _state_ never mind the city for the rest of his life.

Settling his primary weapon comfortably across his chest, Calvert began jogging down the tunnel, looking around for any signs of lizards, while feeling that he just might have made it.

* * *

' _Huh. He actually did it. He's perfectly happy to kill everyone in the place and the buildings above it,_ ' Taylor said with deep disgust, watching the tall skinny man head deeper into the tunnel. She was currently in the form of the tiny dragon, perched on the back of the well hidden door that let into the base. She'd shadowed the man the entire time, much closer than he'd have been happy about considering she'd been sitting on his backpack and grinning to herself.

" _He is a man of no ethics at all,_ " the Varga agreed with sadness and irritation in his voice. " _The only one Thomas Calvert cares about is Thomas Calvert. I know the type all too well, I'm afraid. His mercenaries may be criminals but they are far better people, they at least have loyalty to their comrades and would probably draw the line at the murder of hundreds if not thousands of innocents, by and large_." He sounded amused for a moment. " _I am becoming rather fond of Sergeant Owens. He is quite intelligent. Pity he's on the wrong side._ "

' _Make sure none of them get killed_ ,' Taylor said. ' _The ones that helped Coil need to go to prison, and there may be some who can be returned to society_.'

" _I will do my best. Enjoy your little amusements with our friend there,_ " he snickered. " _I am looking forward to seeing what happens._ "

' _Me too_ ,' she laughed, jumping into the air and winging after the disappearing super-villain, going over her plans as she flew. ' _Tell them to come in, but do the other thing first_.'

" _Already in progress,_ " her friend said, with a definite grin in his voice. She watched and listened through the other aspect as he did the other thing.

* * *

Owens twitched as he heard a click echo around the entire area. He worked out what it was it just before a sound started, one that everyone **recognized ** instantly. The noise rattled their eardrums and made them all exchange a disturbed look, then peer around with even greater worry.

 **"Endgame,"** that horrible voice said with a laugh underlying it, before the speakers clicked off once again.

Two seconds later there was a huge blast from somewhere below them, which Owens was pretty certain was the direction to the main door.

"Oh, fucking hell, now what?" Trevino moaned.

Owens had no answer, but merely waved them onward as they tried to get back to the rest of their group. He could swear he could feel eyes on the back of his neck the entire time.

* * *

In the cafeteria, Kowalski and Foltz exchanged uneasy glances. That voice was horrible. Kowalski looked at the tablet that was on the table next to him, which now displayed an extra score column labeled PRT.

"Shit," he sighed, before picking up his P-90 and making sure it was loaded and cocked.

The two men manning the 50 cal kept their eyes on the door, while the ones with the grenade launchers got ready.

"Chen, set up the rest of those claymores," Foltz said. With a certain amount of skittishness the armorer did as ordered, two of the other mercenaries disappearing out the door with him. The ones left behind looked at each other, then went back to listening to the sounds coming closer from two different directions. Not long after that, the gunfire started.

* * *

Ianthe turned to Legend, her finger to her earpiece. "Raptaur says get ready."

Paul nodded, taking position and raising both arms. On either side, Dragon and Colin readied their weapons, while behind them Assault and Battery were poised to attack, the latter glowing brightly with a full charge. Surrounding them were twenty-five heavily armed PRT assault troopers, all looking like they were ready for anything.

The purple reptile held up a hand, all the fingers extended. She started counting down, folding each clawed digit away. "Four… Three… Two..." On one she pointed at the door and grinned.

"After you."

"Thank you, Ianthe," Paul replied politely, then blew a hole large enough to drive a car through in the wall and the two meters of laminated titanium and chrome-vanadium steel that was behind it with a couple of massive blasts of his laser fire. The blue light vaporized much of the metal and scattered the remainder around the inside of the base in a shower of sparks and glowing fragments.

"Impressive," the lizard noted, watching with interest. He smiled at her, nodded to his colleagues, and headed inside. The rest of the assault team followed, splitting up to head down each corridor as they encountered them. Ianthe strolled in behind them, looking amused and anticipatory.

It didn't take very long before the first shots were fired.

* * *

Hannah watched as Metis nodded, then said something in the Family language. Turning to her and the rest of her team, she switched to English. "We can go in any time. Legend just kicked the door in, Raptaur says the mercs are looking pretty upset about it. Half of them are in the cafeteria and setting up claymores, the rest are in the corridors surrounding the area and digging in."

"All right. Thank you," she replied, looking around at her team. Craig, Rory, and Robin were tense and ready for action, while the troopers were all holding their weapons and looking like they were also looking forward to the next part. Even though the smell was still horrific, she was as well. Soon this whole thing would be over and it would be time for the next part, interrogating Calvert and his men and finding out how deep his operation went.

She was fairly sure she wouldn't like the answer, but she needed to know.

"Would you like me to do the honors, or do you want to do it?" Metis added.

Looking at the large metal obstruction, which their scanners had shown was over four feet thick and made of a number of layers of extremely tough metal alloys, Hannah stepped aside. "Go ahead," she said, curious to see what the armored reptile would do.

With a nod, Metis reached over her shoulder and grabbed the handle that suddenly was protruding from an opening in her armor that hadn't been there before and shouldn't be able to be there now. Drawing a sword nearly seven feet long, with a blade six inches wide at the hilt yet so thin in cross-section it vanished when seen edge on, she simply pushed it through the door like the metal was butter and ran it down the middle where the two halves met. Hannah gaped as the creature removed whatever locking mechanism was in there in seconds, then repeated the operation on either side of the door sections through the hinges.

Apparently satisfied, Metis put the sword away with a quick motion, then dug her claws into the door surface and the concrete floor and pushed hard.

A good twenty tons of metal grated across the concrete with a shriek, before tipping over and crashing down in a cloud of dust. She repeated the operation on the other side, leaving a gap eight feet wide in the middle. Turning to the watching people she waved at the gap. "There you go."

"Ah… thank you, Metis," Hannah managed after a few more seconds. She waved her people into motion, all of them heading cautiously but rapidly into the underground base with their night vision gear active and the UV illuminators on. Metis, when she looked back, had vanished, but she was fairly sure the lizard was in there somewhere.

* * *

 _ **"Tekeli-li"**_

Thomas nearly crapped himself. Skidding to a halt, he whipped around with his gun raised, peering back into the depths of the tunnel in the direction that lead to the base, listening intently as the echoes of his footsteps died away. He was, according to the marks on the wall, about a third of a mile from the entrance, which was too close to survive the blast wave from the self-destruct system. It would be channeled by the tunnel like a cannon barrel, so he needed to be at least twice as far away before it went off.

Not to mention that if he stuck around long enough for the traps to rearm, his base going up would be the least of his problems. He wouldn't live long enough to be killed by the shockwave.

Swallowing and hoping desperately that his ears and mind were playing tricks on him, he turned back to his original direction and resumed jogging. The tunnel had gone down about fifty feet so far and then leveled off, putting it only slightly above high tide level on the floor. He knew from the last time he'd checked that the last hundred yards of the underground passage was normally flooded, but only the final fifty or sixty feet was under serious amounts of seawater.

He wasn't looking forward to the cold water, March was way too early to go swimming in the bay, but he had no choice in the matter. On the up side it would make it very difficult for anyone to track his movements. Armsmaster probably had some widget or other that would do the job in the end but by then he would be five hundred miles away and looking entirely different. The safe house had a lot of disguise material in it and he was pretty good with the supplies, having practiced extensively for just this sort of thing.

He thought ahead.

Every now and then he tried splitting off a new timeline, not really expecting anything. Sure enough, each time he did he got the void instantly. Whatever was causing it seemed to be spreading. Hopefully once he was well clear of this hellish city his abilities would go back to normal. He was going to have difficulty if not, but even so, he'd persevere and succeed despite the goddam Family. Just somewhere else a long, _long_ way away.

The distance to the end of the tunnel and his escape steadily shrank. A couple of minutes later a pressure wave went over him, a distant echoing explosion accompanying it. He glanced over his shoulder with wide eyes, speeding up. After a moment he realized it couldn't possibly be his base going up, it was far too soon and nowhere near large enough. Wondering what it was he kept going. Probably something Smith's people had done.

The tunnel was slowly turning left, heading more directly to the shore of the bay now. He'd spent a hell of a lot of money having this dug, covering it up with a number of infrastructure upgrades to the city nearly a decade back. No one alive knew about it other than him, and he'd gone to a lot of effort to keep it that way.

Suddenly he slowed, staring into the dimly lit distance. Thomas frowned, dropping to a walk, as he approached the apex of the curve. ' _That… should not be there_ ,' he thought in a very worried fashion.

There was a door in the wall of the tunnel.

There couldn't be a door in the wall of the tunnel. There _hadn't_ been a door in the wall of the tunnel the last time he'd come down to check the place out about two years ago. He was absolutely certain of that.

But now… there was a _door_ in the _wall_ of the _tunnel…_

Part of him urged caution and suggested he should keep going and ignore the anomalous door. Perhaps it would go away if he did.

Another part of him was worried that something horrible would jump out of it and follow him if he didn't check it out.

Yet another part of him was convinced that something horrible would jump out of it if he _did_ check it out, but it was shouted down by the first two parts.

After a period of indecision, he checked his watch again. He'd used half his time, but he knew from previous tests he only needed three minutes from this point to make it to the end, two and a half if he pushed himself. He could spare a few seconds to check it out. And it was entirely sensible to do so.

He kept telling himself that as he approached the door with his gun ready.

Standing in front of it, he inspected it, seeing a door exactly like the ones in the rest of the non-secure parts of his base. Metal frame and door, heavy duty hinges, a lever handle over a high security lock. Nothing out of the ordinary aside from the way it had appeared somewhere it shouldn't be.

A few seconds passed, while he listened carefully. Then he put his ear to the door and listened again, just to be sure.

Nothing. Not a sound from the door, or the tunnel, aside from the faint lapping of water coming from the direction of the seaward exit.

Eventually, he cautiously stood to one side and reached for the handle, pushing it down, then pulling the door open.

He stared at what was on the other side of it, the blood draining from his face. He felt light headed.

The glowing yellow-orange reptilian eye, considerably larger than he was, that was peering back at him blinked. The slitted pupil widened with interest.

A faint hiss came from his throat. A couple more seconds passed in silence before he very carefully took a step back, seized the door handle, gently closed the portal, then leaned his forehead against it for a moment.

He took a deep breath. Then another.

Then he screamed like a little girl and ran for his life.

Behind him he heard a deep, deep laugh, which spurred him on.

"I _hate_ this city!" he screamed, running as fast as he could towards the sea and safety.

* * *

Dragon motioned to the four troopers that were accompanying her. All of them looked around at the distant boom of a grenade detonating, but it was on the next floor and some distance away so not currently relevant. She also heard a crackling zap sound which she easily identified as one of Colin's taser projectiles going off. "Keep watch, I won't be long," she told her escort.

"Ma'am," the corporal leading the group nodded, turning to scan to the right with his weapon. One of the others did the same, the other two turned in the opposite direction. Each of them was armed with both a foam projector and a more lethal sub-machine gun as a backup, along with foam grenades and a pistol. One of each pair was wielding the foam gun, the other one had the firearm held ready.

Satisfied that if any of the mercenaries made it past the others, the Guild cape entered the server room and looked around. The lights were on although they were out in the rest of the base, Saurial and Raptaur's work she knew. Moving to the relevant server rack after identifying all the equipment present, she pulled a high-bandwidth optical cable out of a port in her left arm and plugged it into the now totally compromised network switch, making contact with her program that was running on the system hacker unit she'd given to Saurial.

Under a minute later she was downloading the entirety of Calvert's system into her onboard storage at several gigabytes a second, quickly looking through it for anything that stood out.

One thing immediately caught her attention, and caused her do her version of sucking in a breath of horror. ' _Oh, hell, you fucking idiot_ ,' she thought to herself as she found a set of files that detailed the civilian identities of hundreds of Parahumans. ' _If this gets out..._ '

It would be absolute chaos. Possibly to the level of civil war.

She'd instantly closed the file when she recognized what it contained, before scanning more that a few names. Unfortunately her internal programming wouldn't let her wipe the memory of what she'd seen, although she was able to bury it deeply enough she had no conscious knowledge of it and set some very unlikely conditions for the recovery of it. If directly ordered, she'd have no choice but to retrieve it, but if no one knew it was there they hopefully couldn't make that order.

Encrypting the rest of the files without letting them come near her consciousness centers she did the same thing to them, then after a short period of thought erased the originals and overwrote them with random data. She was very hesitant about doing so, as it was destroying evidence, but that evidence was far too dangerous to leave lying around for any PRT computer technician to come across.

' _I just hope this wasn't on the backup sites_ ,' she thought to herself, very worried. Certain things shouldn't be spread around and she was fairly certain that there were people in the PRT who would quite happily use that data if they thought they could get something out of it. The PRT already had a lot of the information, but certainly not all of it, and she didn't see a good reason that they should acquire it.

If it became a necessity, she could pass it on, but there were damn few scenarios she could come up with where letting such vital and sensitive information out was better than not doing so.

The AI spent thirty seconds or so checking for the automatic backup scripts to see if this particular file set was replicated somewhere else. It was with some relief that she worked out that it wasn't copied over to either of the remote sites, since apparently Coil felt it was too important to risk as well. The last access to the files appeared to be from his personal computer based on the ID codes, the data suggesting he regularly read the files. It was likely that he maintained his own personal backup of them, probably to a portable storage system based on other access logs. That would either be on his person or in his office.

Hopefully she could find it first. Her simulations of the chaos that would be caused merely by the release of the first dozen names she'd read before she could stop herself were enough to make her very uneasy, and that was the tip of the iceberg.

Calvert had obviously been collecting this information for a long time, and she very much doubted it was for any reason other than to use as blackmail or simply to cause trouble. It wasn't something she wanted to see someone else try, and she could think of a few names that wouldn't balk at such actions.

' _No, let's try not to make the entire Parahuman population of the country panic all at the same time_ ,' she thought with black humor. Satisfied that for the moment she'd done what she could to prevent that, she scanned the files for anything else similarly sensitive. Nothing quite that bad jumped out, but there was a _lot_ of data present that should never have left the secure PRT systems. If they hadn't found out about Coil when they did… She didn't like to think about how bad it could have ended up.

When the data finished copying, she contacted Director Piggot. "I've located and cloned Coil's servers, director," she reported. "Saurial's bypass prevented his automatic data purge working, but as we suspected he did try it. He's also set the self destruct system, it's going to try to blow the base in about six minutes. I can stop it if you want, but even if it goes off there's only going to be a few loud bangs from the detonators. The main charge is inert."

" _Bastard._ " The blonde woman sounded coldly furious. " _Abort it, there's no need to take any chances_ ," she added.

A few seconds later, she said, "Done. I can't find any other traps, he seems to have relied on the main base destruct system to wreck this in combination with a system purge."

" _Good. Leave the rest of it for the forensics team_ ," Piggot told her. " _Go and help the others, we still haven't found Calvert himself_."

"I suspect Saurial is still worrying him, Director _,_ " Dragon chuckled as she left the room and sealed the door. Motioning to one of the troopers, she watched as he buried the entrance in containment foam, which would prevent any of the mercs getting inside if they managed to slip past. The evil laugh she got as a response made her grin inside.

" _I sure hope so. Couldn't happen to a more deserving fucker_."

Amused, she went with the troopers, deeper into the base to where the sound of fighting was getting louder.

* * *

Thomas kept running, hearing the sound of water slapping against rock get closer from the front, while there were unnerving sounds coming from behind him. When he risked a glance back, he saw to his horror that the lights were going out one by one.

"Oh, Christ, not again," he moaned. Stopping for a moment he turned and emptied his P-90 back down the corridor, then threw two grenades into the shadows. Neither one of them went off. "Fuck." He turned back and resumed running. "Fuck, fuck, fuck," he mumbled under his breath, panting for air as he ran.

The sounds from behind seemed to be keeping to a constant distance, but that didn't make it any better. When he heard that horrific "Tekeli-li" cry somewhere back there he yipped and ran faster. He was beginning to wonder if it had been a hallucination after all…

Rounding the final corner, he kept going at breakneck speed, looking for the alcove where his rebreather was stored. Just as he was passing the point that he thought it should be, he heard a different sound from behind, which made him look over his shoulder. It had sounded like a footstep.

Misjudging his footing, he slipped on the damp stone and slammed into the wall, almost knocking the wind out of himself. Gasping for breath, he leaned one hand on the cold stonework and tried to recover, then stood up.

He screeched in shock when he saw Saurial standing ten feet away watching him, motionless and with her head cocked to the side inquisitively.

"Why are you doing this?" he screamed. " _How_ are you doing this?"

She slowly smiled at him in a manner that made his blood run cold. "Why?" She chuckled, a low dangerous sound. "Let's just say that a mutual acquaintance suggested that you needed to be stopped. Someone else I met agreed. She wants to meet you _very_ much, Thomas." The lizard-girl tipped her head the other way as he stared at her, sweating wildly. "I expect you'll have a lot to talk about. Oh, by the way, your base isn't going to go bang, we've got your computers, your backup sites are also intact and being ripped to pieces by the PRT, they've arrested all your spies, and all your mercenaries are either captured or about to be."

She shrugged as he stared in horror. "You're fucked." After a moment, she snapped her fingers. "Oh, right. I also have this."

He stared at the very familiar-appearing external drive unit she was holding up with a smug look on her scaly face, then frantically patted himself down, before sagging. It was gone.

"Thirty seconds before your traps come online again, by the way," she noted calmly. "You can run if you want. It won't help."

Roaring with rage, he pulled the gun around and opened up on her. She simply stood there, the drive in one hand behind her back, while the rounds pinged all over the place. When the gun clicked empty, he lowered it with trembling hands, staring at the demonic creature which was smirking at him.

" _Run_ , little human," she whispered.

He did.

Expecting every second to feel teeth and claws sink into his back, he ran like he'd never run before.

Calvert made it about a hundred feet before he abruptly realized that the surface under his feet was much too soft to be stone. It made him stumble and catch himself on the wall of the passageway, which to his horror was also too soft and the wrong texture. The sound of the lapping water had also stopped, now that he thought about it. Pulling out his flashlight he flicked it on and waved it around, then cautiously prodded the nearest wall with a finger, his heart hammering.

Turning around, he spotted Saurial standing a little way back, still smirking at him.

The other thing he spotted, with a level of terror that completely dwarfed anything he'd so far experienced, was the array of enormous needle-like teeth, as long as he was tall, that were slowly closing and blocking off the view of the reptilian cape. He looked down again, finally realizing that he was standing on a forked tongue large enough to carpet his living room.

"Tattletale sends her regards," Saurial laughed as the huge mouth closed completely.

Dropping to his knees, letting go of the useless gun, Thomas despaired. He never even felt the prick on the back of his neck but he was very glad of the darkness that took him.

* * *

" _I believe that is probably mission accomplished in every major aspect,_ " the Varga said with satisfaction. Taylor, feeling Coil slump on her Umihebi form's tongue, smiled faintly.

' _I think so,_ ' she agreed. ' _Lisa will be pleased and sorry she missed it. The video should be good though_.'

" _I think we'll have to remove parts of it or the PRT will get a little over-excited, but I'm sure she can edit together a good version for them,_ " he replied with a grin of his own. The Saurial aspect looked very pleased. " _I'd better get back, they've nearly finished. I'll let them know we have Coil safely contained._ "

' _Think I should bring him back as Raptaur, or Umihebi?_ '

" _Well, We need to formally introduce her to the PRT sooner or later. We may as well do it now when there's no one around to get too worked up._ "

' _OK. I'll be waiting_.'

" _I'll get them to come down to the shore,_ " he told her, watching as she carefully backed the enormous sea-serpent form up into the bay, having stuck her entire head and mouth into the end of Calvert's tunnel to set up their little trap. When she was clear and submerged, he disappeared silently. Taylor swam away to their agreed meeting point, wondering how the PRT was going to react and trying to suppress her giggles before she accidentally swallowed the villain in her mouth.

Sometimes it really was good to be her, she thought happily.


	289. Umihebi and Delivery

Emily scanned the array of screens in front of her, listening to the various audio channels. Around her, PRT specialists were guiding groups of combat personnel around the base, rounding up the mercenaries. So far they'd only had half a dozen casualties, none particularly serious, mostly from shrapnel bouncing off the walls. Firefights in enclosed spaces were a bastard for that sort of thing.

Three mercs had been injured as well, one by friendly fire from his own side when he didn't duck fast enough, one from splashback from his own grenade, and one that had fallen down a stairwell in the dark. Again, none of the injuries were life-threatening but they'd taken all the men out of the game.

Interestingly, at least half the mercenaries they'd so far captured had almost seemed grateful for it, throwing down their weapons when they knew they had no chance and complying with their orders without any issue. One squad of six men had looked distinctly relieved at the sight of the PRT people and immediately surrendered, making her wonder what they'd seen before her people got there. The rest were fighting like lunatics.

" _Got two in a side room up ahead_ ," a voice crackled over the comm channel, the HUD on the relevant video feed popping up an annunciator graphic to show who was speaking. " _They've got us pinned down, can't get an angle on the door to get the foam inside_."

" _On it_ ," Assault's voice came back immediately. She checked the 3D graphical map which showed the positions of all the people in the wire-frame rendering that had been built from Raptaur's and Saurial's scouting of the base. The green icon that showed a friendly Parahuman was rapidly approaching from the other direction from the blue icons which were her troopers, bouncing from wall to wall.

Going back to the live view from the squad leader, she saw Assault appear in view just outside the door in question and flip two containment foam grenades into the room on the fly, before diving sideways out of the range of the return fire from the mercs holed up inside. Even over the gunfire she heard two closely separated pops, very familiar to her as the sound of the grenades going off. The firing immediately stopped and was replaced by shouting, then silence.

" _Thanks, Assault_ ," the PRT man said, as his camera view raised and moved to the door, where he peered in. The helmet-mounted camera showed a large mass of the off-white foam bubbling and moving slightly, with a couple of limbs sticking out, along with half a gun. Moments later it stilled as the foam finished setting. There was a considerable amount of muffled and vicious swearing coming from the stuff but no threat. " _Targets neutralized, Command. Two down, no injuries._ "

"Confirmed, Blue-seven. Move to next target," Emily said into her throat mike, very pleased at the performance of her people. The training drills were paying off.

Considering the amount of practice they got on the streets, she'd put her troops up against pretty much any PRT division in the country. Although she was sure that the Family support actions had softened the target up a lot, since this entire operation would most likely have had a completely different outcome if they'd gone in cold. Probably resulting in a very large explosion and a lot of dead people on both sides.

The confirmation that Calvert had set his self-destruct system and run for it made her more coldly furious than she'd ever been. She found the sheer callousness of the action hard to believe, even considering who it was. Without all the help and good luck so far, his death toll would have been unbelievable. In the middle of a working day, he could easily have killed upwards of a thousand people or more. Not to mention what could have happened at his backup sites with the gatling cannon if they'd opened up when the streets were full of people.

It certainly removed any qualms she might have had about doing anything required to learn absolutely everything that he knew or had done, right back to kindergarten. Not that she'd really felt all that different before, of course, but now she had a _really_ good reason for it.

A reason that should hopefully mean that none of her superiors got awkward about the entire sorry affair either, something she wasn't looking forward to explaining. In all reality there was very little that could have been done earlier, it was only the chance meeting between some very strange reptiles and a local minor villain that had made things end up here, and without that set of circumstances she had no doubt the fucking man would have kept going until he achieved whatever his aim ultimately was. She didn't know the end goal, but by god she was going to find out.

It would be a lot better if she could tell the Chief Director about all this and hand over a large amount of extra data at the same time to show that they had the situation in hand, but right now that was a fairly long way down her immediate priority list. The woman had dumped this entire city in her lap and more or less washed her hands of it, all because of the Family, and as long as that was the case, she was going to make sure she did the job right. Even though sometimes she regretted getting out of bed in the morning…

Although today was working out to be rather a good one from her point of view. As long as they got Calvert in the end, of course. Speaking of which…

"Any sign of Calvert?" she broadcast over the general communications channel.

" _No, Director_ ," Hannah replied immediately. " _We've breached what looks like his section of the base, and found his quarters, but aside from a lot of bullet holes in the walls there's no sign of him. Lots of evidence that he left in a hurry though_."

"Find him," she snapped.

A few seconds later, another familiar voice spoke. " _Don't worry, Director, we have him_." Saurial sounded pleased. " _He's not going anywhere, I can guarantee it. He tried escaping down that last tunnel to the shore. We had someone waiting for him at the other end._ "

There was something in her voice that made Emily's eyes narrow. Even for her, the lizard-girl sounded a little smug.

" _Oh, by the way, no one should try to enter that tunnel, it's trapped like you wouldn't believe_ ," the reptilian cape added in a more serious tone of voice. " _We'll go in and clear it out, but all the traps are currently activated. It's extremely dangerous for most people, including a lot of capes, as the traps are obviously built with knowledge of your vulnerabilities. I've sealed the base end for now and I'll deal with it later._ "

"All right, thank you, Saurial," she said. "I'll want some of my people to go with you to document everything."

" _Of course, Director_."

"Where is Calvert, in that case?"

" _Waiting for you, actually. I'm on my way out now, I'll be there in couple of minutes and I can guide you for pickup. He's unconscious, we should probably leave him like that until you have him in a very secure cell._ "

"Agreed. Thank you." She turned to check on the status of the troops on the surface, picking out the group she wanted. "Anderson, load your team into a transport and stand by," she ordered.

" _Ma'am_ ," the reply came back immediately.

Standing up, she added, "Armsmaster, if you're free I'd like you and Dragon to come with me."

" _Yes, Director_ ," the Tinker said, faint sounds of battle coming over the open channel. She checked and saw he was just dealing with three more mercenaries in the company of Battery and four PRT people. " _Please wait for a moment, we're nearly done here._ " There was a pause of a few seconds, then he came back online. " _All three opponents foamed and unconscious. Minor injuries, plus Corporal Nichols has a bullet wound to her left ankle. I'm bringing her out with me for medical attention_."

Looking at the screens, she watched as the last four mercs were taken down. Five minutes later it was all over. Tapping her headset, she said, "Prisoner transports and medical support stand by. Get the collection teams in there and dig the prisoners out. Take any of them without injuries back to the cells immediately. Keep any injured prisoners back. Metis, Ianthe, will you provide healing services?"

" _Happily, Director_ ," the voice of the purple lizard replied. " _We're heading out as well. Metis is just helping Triumph, he got caught in a foam grenade and stuck to the wall_." She sounded amused, while Emily shook her head with a faint smile. " _She'll be out as soon as she's peeled him loose._ "

"Thank you, Ianthe. All forensics teams, as soon as the prisoners are clear, I want the entire base swept inch by inch. Bag _everything._ Clean the place out completely. Concentrate on data storage, files, and any information sources, but don't restrict yourselves to that. All seized data is classified Top Secret from this point. Standard protocols apply."

There were a number of affirmative replies, and she could see the blue and green icons moving with purpose on the display. All the red ones were stationary, scattered around the middle section of the base, with a few outliers off to one side. Satisfied, she nodded to the lieutenant next to her. "You're in charge now. I'll be collecting our special guest star."

"Yes, Ma'am," he said with a grin, taking her place.

Leaving the command post, she went down the short flight of stairs to the ground and looked around for a moment, then headed for Anderson's vehicle, which was idling off to one side. As she walked, Saurial approached and met her at the truck. Glancing over at where the hidden door had been she saw Colin and Dragon come out, the former carrying the injured female trooper. He took her over to the triage area and put her down carefully then said something to her, which made her nod, before turning and heading towards Emily.

When all four of them were gathered at the back of the large vehicle, which had the doors open and the five-man team inside watching and listening, Saurial turned to her. She was definitely looking like she'd had something interesting happen based on the grin. "They're waiting for us down at the shore about a mile and a half away towards the docks," the reptile said, sounding amused. "Raptaur is still poking around to see if there are any more booby traps, she'll join us later. Shall we go and collect your old friend?"

"Very little would give me more satisfaction," Emily said with a smirk of her own. "I take it that you… confused the issue somewhat?"

"Oh, Thomas and I had _lots_ of fun," Saurial snickered. "Well, _I_ did. Some of the time he was screaming too loudly to be entirely sure what he was saying. There was a lot of shooting involved too. Man's a little tightly wound. I think you'll find the video interesting."

"I can imagine," she said, not entirely sure she was being totally truthful. But in a very real way she didn't care. As long as he'd had an extremely hard time, all was good. "Let's go."

All of them climbed into the vehicle, Saurial and Emily making their way to the front. Emily sat in the passenger seat while Anderson took the driver's position with Saurial leaning into the cabin from the rear section. "Head towards the bay and take the second right," the reptilian girl said.

"OK," Anderson nodded, putting the vehicle in drive and starting off. The six-wheeled transport rumbled into life with a slight jerk and moved onto the main road, then accelerated to about thirty miles an hour. Half a mile further on the trooper turned right.

"Another three quarters of a mile, then left, then right," Saurial instructed, watching the scenery go past. "Then just follow the road to the shoreline, there's a sort of wharf thing that's mostly collapsed into the bay."

"I know the place," the driver replied. "If I remember right there's a fairly large open area there where a small factory burned down about ten years ago."

"That's it." Saurial smiled. "Our friend Thomas will be there for us."

"If I might ask, Saurial," Colin said from the rear, where he'd been listening quietly, "who is with him? Kaiju?"

She looked over her shoulder and grinned at him. "No," she chuckled. "Someone else who happened to be in the area." Glancing back to the front as the vehicle turned again, she nodded. "Yep, just down here. I'd park it up on the top of the beach, it gets really muddy and sticky nearer the water and you'll get bogged down."

Anderson nodded back, slowing as she approached the point where the road ended just past a couple of closed-down businesses, the remains of the wooden wharf visible sticking out of the water for fifty yards or so. Stopping next to what had once been a fairly large building but was now mostly an empty lot with some charred timbers at one side, she did a three point turn then backed it towards the shoreline, looking at the screen that gave a rearward view from a camera on the roof. "That's as far as I want to take it, Ma'am," she commented, stopping the transport and putting it in park.

"That will do, Anderson," Emily replied, sticking her head out the passenger window and looking around. "Saurial's right, it's going to get stuck if you go any further." She opened the door and jumped out, while the others exited as well through the rear door which Dragon opened. All of them gathered around the back of the transport, the five troopers holding their foam projectors ready and Emily with her pistol in one hand, just in case.

Colin, who was still looking thoughtful since his question to Saurial, which Emily realized hadn't really been answered, peered around, then turned to the lizard, who was watching him with a small smirk. Everyone else did the same after also checking the area, which was entirely free of people at the moment.

"There's no one here," he noted cautiously.

Saurial chuckled, sounding very amused by something.

"Oh, there is. Look behind you."

They all turned to stare out at the bay.

Emily literally _felt_ her heart skip a beat or two. Beside her, Dragon made a weird electronically-generated noise that sounded like a DVD player skipping, while she could hear Colin's teeth snap together hard enough to crack enamel, the question he was just on the verge of asking vanishing without trace. Anderson yipped in a small-dog sort of way, freezing motionless, while the other PRT personnel made various tiny sounds of horror.

One of the troopers slowly fell over, but no one looked at him.

They were all _far_ too busy staring in stunned shock at the _fucking huge_ ** _sea serpent_** that had somehow snuck up on them, a good hundred feet of body visible behind the enormous head, even larger than Kaiju's, which was less than twenty feet away. After several long seconds during which Emily's vision went a slightly funny gray color, she noticed that where the thing disappeared into the water she could make out a dark shadow and some odd ripples which made it obvious that there was at least as much again of the body still immersed.

She recognized the head, of course. Anyone who had been at that initial briefing would. Not to mention it was on a disturbingly realistic poster on the wall of the BBFO office. But the actuality of the Family member known as Umihebi was _vastly_ more impressive than posters, or short video clips, especially when she was staring at her almost close enough to touch. Even over the omnipresent stink of the thioacetone Emily could smell a scent of deep sea mud drifting over them, giving the impression along with the glistening dark scales that this creature came from a very long way down and far away. The huge glowing yellow eyes, which were definitely showing a level of amusement at their reaction, added to the sheer aberrant nature of the entire thing.

She felt weak at the knees despite herself. There was something entirely disconcerting about suddenly being confronted with such vivid proof of just how _alien_ the Family really was under the facade of what in hindsight was slightly strange pseudo-normality that they managed to generate most of the time. Even having seen the figures, projections and suppositions that the PRT had come up with since that first encounter deep off the coast of Canada, being faced with this impossibly huge creature at such short range was hard to believe. Emily would never have thought she would see anything that would make _Kaiju_ look fairly petite but she was staring at it right now, her eyes beginning to burn from not blinking for so long.

Colin was breathing heavily a few feet away, sounding like he was doing his very best to stand his ground.

"How did it manage to get there without anyone hearing it?" she heard Anderson whisper in horror, the woman sounding very much like someone who was never going to go for a swim ever again.

Emily sympathized. A lot.

"I believe you know about my sister Umihebi?" Saurial chirped, sounding very pleased as she walked over and stood next to the appallingly large reptilian face. The lips of the thing curved up in what seemed to be meant as a welcoming smile, but considering it exposed the tips of an entire forest of teeth long enough to impale a grizzly bear from stem to stern, it wasn't quite as relaxing as it was probably intended to be. Especially since they were all very, _very_ aware that those same teeth could shred something as tough as one of Dragon's underwater probes like it was made of cheese.

Seeing Umihebi in real life, Emily had no difficulty whatsoever accepting this as fact. The fucking thing looked like it wouldn't have much more trouble eating the entire Rig, and washing it down with any ships that were insane enough to be out on the water at the time.

Briefly, she was very glad that the entire area was empty, since she couldn't begin to imagine what the public would make of _this_.

Less than thirty seconds had passed, but Emily felt that her entire world-view had undergone a fundamental change.

And that she was suddenly very aware that they had _vastly_ underestimated the Family. By implication, the DWU as well, since Colin had reported that Danny Hebert was aware of Umihebi and might even have met her, possibly more than once.

' _If he has, he's got the biggest balls of anyone I've ever met_ ,' she thought numbly. ' _How anyone could ever go back to something like normal life after seeing_ ** _this_** _..._ '

"We wanted to make it very clear to Mr Calvert that we weren't happy about him, and that he should be as cooperative to you guys as he could possibly be," Saurial went on after a second or two. "I managed to worry him a lot, I think, but in the end we decided it might stick better if we pointed out that there was nowhere for him to run." The lizard-girl smiled faintly in a rather bloodthirsty manner. Beside her, Umihebi chuckled, the sound like distant thunder. "I have a good idea that he now understands this. I doubt you'll have too much trouble with him now."

"Where..." Emily swallowed hard. "Where is he?"

Umihebi said something in the Family language, the voice so deep it was more felt than heard. Everyone, even Dragon, took a simultaneous step back. The sub-bass voice sounded like it was suppressing another laugh, something she registered but tried not to think about. Saurial replied in the same language. Umihebi made a sort of shrug, not easy with something that looked like an unholy cross between a lizard on a scale almost impossible to register and a gigantic eel, then opened her mouth.

Another trooper fell over, while the remaining conscious people stepped back again. No one, though, even thought of reaching for a weapon, since it was so blatantly clear nothing they could possibly do would help if the vast creature decided to do something unpleasant.

What she _actually_ did was stick out her tongue, the forked ends of the thirty-foot-long appendage wrapped around…

Emily gaped again as the tongue unwrapped and dropped the unconscious form of her old colleague Thomas Calvert on the muddy beach, then retracted. He was covered in sea serpent saliva, which was a viscous transparent goo, and curled up in a pathetic little ball.

' _Oh, fuck me, how can I_ ** _possibly_** _be feeling_ ** _sorry_** _for the bastard?_ ' she sighed mentally. Emily finally realized that wanting the Family to give someone a hard time might _just_ take that to a level that was… difficult to match. ' _Oops_.' After a moment's thought, though, she shrugged. ' _Can't say he didn't deserve it. I just hope he's not catatonic, we need to question him_.'

"Sorry, she sort of slimed him," Saurial grinned, poking the limp man with one foot and watching him twitch a little. "It'll wash off."

Umihebi said something else, which caused the reptilian girl to snicker, then shake her head. "She said he tastes terrible. But if you want her to get rid of him for you, she's willing to help."

"No, I think we'll take him," Emily replied carefully, nodding very respectfully to the hideously large sea creature, which was now resting its head on two enormous hands, each large enough to pick the transport up and crush it like an egg. The effect was weirdly similar to a teenage girl watching TV, a thought that made her wince and try to forget it immediately. "Um… Thank you, Umihebi. It was nice to finally meet you."

Saurial said something, presumably translating her words. The sea serpent nodded, and replied, Saurial looking back at them and saying, "She says you're more than welcome. None of us like people who hurt innocents. She was glad to help out."

Poking Calvert again with one toe claw, the smallest Family member squatted down as he stirred a little. "Hi, Thomas. Back with us again?"

They all watched as he blinked up at the sky, then focused on her face. He paled to the point that Emily wondered if he was going to pass out. She smirked at him, bending closer. "Your ride is here."

"Oh, Jesus," he muttered faintly, staring at her with dark eyes in a pallid face.

"No, just me. Same as always. Now be good for Director Piggot and tell her everything she wants to know, or I'll come and play with you some more. It was a lot of fun." She grinned evilly as the man went even whiter. Umihebi moved a little, causing him to look past Saurial's shoulder and fixate on the much, much, _much_ larger reptile watching him with interest.

His complexion ebbed to a pale green as they watched. Umihebi rumbled something that made Saurial snicker. "My sister says that you should stay out of the water from now on, as well. She's got your taste and while it's unpleasant, she isn't going to forget it any time soon."

Calvert passed out again.

In all honesty Emily couldn't blame him.

Saurial reached out and rolled him over, forming some EDM cuffs around his arms, then manacles on his ankles as well, before standing up and heaving him over her shoulder. "Where do you want him, Director?" she asked.

Taking a deep breath and trying to forget about the way a two hundred plus foot long sea serpent was watching them all, Emily nodded towards the troop transport. "In the back, please."

"No problem." Saurial carried the prisoner over to the truck and gently placed him on his back on the floor. She handed Emily, who had accompanied her, a complex key. "This unlocks the restraints, they'll time out in about a month otherwise. That should make sure he doesn't go anywhere."

"Thank you, Saurial," Emily said, feeling satisfied, terrified, confused, and relieved all at the same time. "If you wouldn't mind, I'd like to make a report of what you found in his base and get some idea of what you and your sister did to him and his men. The ones we've pulled out so far were more than a little shaky on the entire event. It would help with the documentation if you could go into a little more detail." She wasn't sure they'd get anything useful, but it was worth a try. Behind her, Anderson and the two conscious troopers were determinedly watching them rather than Umihebi, but Dragon and Colin were still staring fixedly at the creature, she noticed when she looked over her shoulder.

"Sure, I can do that," Saurial agreed. "We can come over to the PRT building later this afternoon or evening if you want. I need to go through that tunnel and take care of the traps first, though. Raptaur will help, that'll speed it up. We can download the video and pull out the main highlights for you as well, Metis will do that back at the office. A lot of might be a little useless since it was dark enough for the cameras not to work very well some of the time." She looked thoughtful for a moment. "I really need to find some cameras that can handle very low light conditions better. I'll have to talk to Dragon about it when we have a free moment." Looking at the Canadian Tinker for a second she smiled. "Not now, though, she seems to have other things on her mind."

"Apparently so." Emily nodded. Glancing at her watch, she added, "This stench is going to go away soon, I believe?"

Saurial glanced at her timepiece as well. "Yes, should be about another forty minutes," she confirmed.

"Thank god for that, I've really had enough of it," she sighed. "Roy is going to be impossible about this, it's much worse than I thought it would be."

"It sure carries," the lizard-girl smiled. "It surprised me too, how overpowering it was considering how small an amount we used. Hopefully all this will help make the public get over it."

She turned around and walked over to Colin, prodding him on his armored shoulder. "Hey, Armsmaster, you all right? Only you haven't said a word for the last five minutes or so."

There was a pause, then he turned his head to look at her, as did Dragon. After inspecting her smiling face, he looked again at Umihebi, who waved at him with a smile of her own, shuddered, and turned around to walk over to the transport. Dragon kept looking between Saurial and her gigantic sister for several seconds before joining him. Neither Tinker said anything.

Saurial rejoined them, appearing slightly puzzled at their silence. "That should do it here, then." She tapped her earpiece. "Metis says they're healing your guys who got hurt, then they'll do the prisoners. I'll head back now, find Raptaur, and we'll start having a look at that tunnel if you want. We'll wait for your technical team before we go in, though." She turned to Colin, looking curiously at him. "Do you know how your system upgrade is coming along?"

His mouth opened, then closed, then he cleared his throat. "Yes," he finally replied, his voice a little hoarse to start with. "It's somewhat delayed due to the power failure at the PRT building, but they've nearly finished running a power bypass. There was a small but intense fire in one of the power distribution substations as a result of the momentary overload but that was extinguished quickly. It did force an evacuation of part of the building though, which added to the problems. We expect to be back on track shortly, about two and a half hours behind schedule."

"So you'll have your systems back in the early evening, then?" she asked, seeming thoughtful. He nodded.

"Yes, we believe so. The delay is irritating but not a major issue, we had a certain amount of flexibility built into the plan as we assumed there would be some form of last-minute problem. Not this specific one, but it seemed likely that something would go amiss, as it usually does one way or another."

"No plan survives contact with the enemy," she smiled, nodding her understanding.

"Essentially," he responded.

"OK," she said after a moment. "In that case, I'll meet you all back at Calvert's base." She looked around at them all. "It was nice introducing you to another member of my family. She liked meeting you."

Emily turned to look at Umihebi, then stared. Colin and Dragon turned as well, Anderson and her two troopers doing the same seconds later.

The giant creature was gone, as silently and mysteriously as she'd appeared. The only thing left was a wide drag mark on the beach that looked like a fairly substantial ship had run aground, and one enormous handprint which the rising tide was steadily washing away.

"That… is horrifying," Dragon said in a very low voice.

"She can be pretty stealthy when she wants to be," Saurial agreed, looking proud. "Oh, while I think about it, this might come in handy when you interrogate Calvert." She was suddenly holding a cardboard box about eighteen inches on a side, which she put in the back of the transport next to the prisoner. "Anyway, I'm off, call me if you need me." She waved casually at them, then jogged away, her long legs quickly carrying her out of sight into the built-up areas. Left behind on the beach, the humans all stared at each other. Eventually, Anderson prodded her two awake troopers to go and revive the other two who had embarrassed themselves and were lying in an untidy manner on the mud and gravel.

Emily glanced in the direction that Saurial had gone, looked down at the comatose and bound form of her old colleague, then up at Colin and his friend.

"I really can't work out sometimes whether that damn lizard does this on purpose, or just doesn't notice," she commented somewhat sourly. "Christ on a crutch. How the _hell_ does something as big as a nuclear submarine just sneak up on you like that?"

"It would appear that she does indeed possess a somewhat formidable stealth ability, which would seem to work just as well above the water as below it," Dragon remarked, sounding fairly shaken even now. Emily couldn't remember the armored woman ever being quite that hesitant before, since normally she was very confident and good humored.

"That's putting it mildly," Emily replied, shaking her head. "Yet _another_ change to their threat assessment. Why don't we simply replace the entire thing with ' _Yes_ ' in every category and just call it a day?" She rubbed her forehead tiredly. "I _really_ need a holiday after all this."

The two somewhat embarrassed yet still worried looking troopers now being conscious, all of them piled back into the transport, Anderson starting it and pulling away with the air of someone who really wants to be somewhere else. No one said anything about it, since it was a fairly widespread feeling among them. Emily was wondering if she would ever be able to smell the scent of the sea again without looking around nervously.

Half-way back to the base, Dragon prodded the box that was on the floor with one foot. "I wonder what this is?" she asked. Emily looked over her shoulder and watched as Colin, rather unwillingly, picked it up and opened it. He looked inside and flinched a little, then reached in and removed…

"What the fuck is _that?_ " Emily asked in revulsion.

"It appears to be a very disturbing-looking rubber effigy of some life form I have never encountered, and very much hope isn't real," the Tinker finally said, having examined the mass of tentacles and eyestalks at arms length. Dragon was watching as he turned it over in his hands. "Highly detailed, to a level that suggests it's patterned on a living creature. As worrying as that is."

He handed the horrible thing to Dragon, who inspected it as well. Emily and everyone else other than Anderson were staring at it, feeling somewhat ill. The driver was glancing in the mirror every now and then, then making a face which suggested that she wished she hadn't.

When Dragon experimentally squeezed the rubbery mass, they all jumped at the horrifyingly bizarre sound it made.

 **Tekeli-li!**

On the floor, Calvert's eyes snapped open, then he began to scream.

* * *

Erwin leaned on the wall that separated the bay from the road running towards the docks, watching as the enormous reptilian eel-like creature glanced in his direction, seemed to wink, then slid backwards into the water and disappeared. Puffing on his pipe he considered the sight with care, peering after the PRT vehicle that drove off a few minutes later.

"Don't see that sort of thing every day," he commented wisely. "Even around these parts."

"No," the large tattooed man who was also leaning on the wall next to him, smoking a cigarette, agreed. "Times are definitely changing. I am unsure whether to be pleased or not."

"Not a lot we can do about it, right?" Erwin shrugged. "They mean well, I think. And the fish are starting to come back already."

"Are they?" His companion looked at him for a moment, then finished his cigarette and flicked the butt into the water. "I suppose that's good."

"It is from my point of view," the old seafarer grinned. Clapping the other man on the shoulder, he added, "Come on, it's my round."

"I have no idea how you can drink anything with this stench everywhere," the other man said irritably, following him back into Pat's pub, where they along with a few other die-hards had been lurking since sun-up.

"Ah, smelled worse," Erwin chuckled. "Did I ever tell you about that time we cut open a huge shark and found half a cow inside it?"

"Yes," his companion sighed. "Several times."

Shaking his head in amusement, Erwin told him again, even so. Some stories were good enough to be worth repeating.

* * *

Dragon watched as the last of the prisoner transports drove off, then turned to look at the progress of the forensic recovery teams. Close to sixty people were carrying huge amounts of equipment, weaponry, and other evidence out of Coil's base and loading it into more vehicles, having spent the last few hours documenting everything in sight. This was the fourth load, and hopefully the last. Calvert himself was currently in the most secure room in the PRT building, five levels down, behind two feet of alloyed steel armor plate at the end of a corridor full of more security checks than anywhere outside an NSA facility. The last time she'd seen him he was conscious but looking everywhere like he expected Saurial to jump out at him at any moment, his eyes never stopping flicking about.

It was more than a little disconcerting. She wondered what on earth the lizard-girl had done before she'd arranged to have her enormous-beyond-belief sister carry him off in her mouth…

Even to her, that was terrifying.

And why did he literally piss himself when he spotted that weird rubber toy she'd left behind? Dragon was pretty certain it was meant to be a shoggoth straight out of Lovecraft, but that only raised more questions than it answered. Questions she wasn't entirely sure she wanted to ask.

With a virtual shrug, she dismissed that line of thought, since right now it wasn't important. She looked around at the scene, which was still busy, even if the frantic activity of that morning had died down a lot. All four Family members had left a while ago, as had half the Protectorate capes, who were now out patrolling with New Wave. Legend had accompanied Director Piggot and her star prisoner back to the PRT building. And to everyone's enormous relief, the thioacetone Saurial had made had timed out on schedule, the smell vanishing abruptly as a result. There had been a mass cheer the moment that happened. In another couple of hours or so the BBPD would be able to lift the cordon and allow the public back into this area.

Walking over to where Colin was discussing with a pair of troopers the results of the operation Saurial and a team of techs had carried out to make Calvert's escape tunnel safe, which had taken some time and a number of impressive explosions, she waited for him to finish. When he was done, the PRT technical lieutenant saluted him, took back the clipboard her friend had been leafing through, and left them alone.

"I believe we're finished here for now," he stated, turning to her. "The remainder of the operation is well in hand. We should get back and ensure that the switchover occurs as fast as possible. We've been offline for longer than I like."

"They're very close to having everything ready," she agreed as they walked to where his bike was parked. "It shouldn't be more than an hour now. Let's check the progress at the PRT building then you can go back to the Rig while I supervise operations there."

"Agreed," he nodded, swinging his leg over the seat and settling on the machine. "Luckily there has been very little in the way of problems so far, New Wave and their PRT squads have easily dealt with it, but we can't assume that will continue indefinitely."

"I'll meet you there," she said, preparing to take off. He nodded again, then paused, a startled expression crossing the visible part of his face.

"Please repeat that?" he said into his helmet communication system. She waited, wondering what he'd heard, the broadcast apparently aimed only at him. There was a long pause, during which his mouth became a thin-lipped straight line which she was well aware meant he was very angry.

"Take everyone who is currently available and search again," he snapped. "I'll be there in five minutes. Armsmaster out." He started the bike, flipping the kickstand up with a practiced motion of one foot.

"What's the problem?" Dragon asked, worried.

He turned his head to look at her.

"Shadow Stalker has disappeared."


	290. Editing and Writing

"I take it things went well?" Danny asked as he closed the door to the office. "And can I just add, thank _fuck_ that horrible smell has finally gone away." Taylor, who was currently Saurial, started giggling. The Varga, running her other aspect, turned away from the coffee machine where he'd filled a mug several times the size of a human scale one by making and pouring in a number of normal cups of coffee. His face wore a wide grin.

"If by ' _went well_ ', you mean were we successful in capturing Coil and his men and providing backup to the PRT, Danny," he said with vast amusement, "then yes, things went exceptionally well. I fear Mr Calvert may hold a different opinion. For him, things went remarkably badly. It was extremely funny."

"God, it was hilarious," Taylor laughed, leaning on the table and shaking her head. "I kept on coming up with other ideas to try, but we didn't have enough time to do more. No point really dragging it out too much after all. I was actually getting a little worried that he'd have some sort of psychological issue, to be honest."

"I expect that he did, but probably not to the point that Director Piggot can't extract the information she wants from him," the demon pointed out, sipping his outsize coffee cup with enjoyment. "Most likely he'll cooperate very thoroughly. I think he believed you when you told him you'd come back if he didn't. The man wasn't too keen on that happening. And I very much doubt he will ever be comfortable in the dark or underground again. Or near the sea, for that matter."

Danny looked from one to the other, then turned to Amy and Lisa, who were still in their bioconstructs and were listening with enjoyment. "Why do I feel like I should almost be sorry for the bastard?"

"Because you're a _much_ better man than he is," ' _Ianthe_ ' chuckled. "Don't worry, based on all the stuff that's already been discovered down there, he deserved worse. The fucker had a literal torture chamber, which was definitely used to kill at least a dozen people as far as we could tell just from the scent of the blood they hadn't managed to clean away. There was _way_ too much of it for most of the contributors to have lived through it." She had gone from amused to coldly furious as she spoke. Beside her, ' _Metis_ ' was opening and closing her clawed hands as if she was imagining wrapping them around someone's neck.

Danny had a fairly shrewd idea of who that someone would be.

"God. You're certain?"

"Definitely," the purple lizard nodded somberly. "The PRT technicians came to the same conclusion with only the preliminary scans. There's DNA from a minimum dozen individuals practically everywhere in the room. Not to mention on the… tools." Her voice was full of distaste. "We're pretty sure that the doctor Taylor found in the medbay was directly involved as well, his scent was all over the room and the equipment. They think some of the mercs must have been in on it too, but it might not be all of them. Quite a few seemed just to be hired guns who were there for muscle and tech support."

"I found a number of them to be quite interesting people, as it happens," the Varga said thoughtfully. "Very similar in many ways to a number of your own union members, Danny. Military backgrounds in every case we could determine, mostly from the US, and anywhere from perhaps mid twenties up to about fifty. I would imagine that they were faced with the same sort of problems and choices that people like, for example, Mark was, but happened to choose something less legitimate." He shrugged. "If they'd gone to work for someone less sociopathic than Calvert they might well have stayed on the right side of the law, or at least well enough to have avoided their current fate. I would expect the PRT is going to be quite harsh with them."

Danny nodded with a sigh, sitting at the table. Taylor got him a coffee, then sat next to him.

"I've known a few people who ended up going that route myself," he said as he picked the cup up and looked at it for a moment. "Some from here, in fact, when times got really hard. Minion work can come with some good perks. Your friends Über and Leet have hired some of our guys in the past for a few of their jobs, mainly just as background characters. I've always discouraged it, but in the end if you're desperate for money, you might not have a choice. At least with those two, by and large nothing horrendous ever happened. The worst I can remember is a couple of weeks in lockup and a fine, but..." He sipped his drink then put the cup down. "It would be easy to end up too deep to get out if you picked the wrong villain to work for."

"Or the right one, if you were that type," Lisa added. He looked at her, then nodded reflectively.

"True. Some people are pretty much scum, no matter how you slice it."

"I hope that the PRT is able to distinguish between the truly evil ones and the men who were more or less stuck with it," the demon commented, finishing his coffee then glancing thoughtfully at the machine for a moment. "I feel that a number of them could be recovered with time. Sergeant Owens, for example, seemed to be intelligent and not at all someone who followed Calvert's philosophy. There were a number like that. Their captain, on the other hand, appeared to be a very unpleasant if competent leader if what we overheard was accurate."

"We need to go and talk to the Director a little later, we should mention names and suggest they deal fairly with them," Taylor suggested. He looked at her, nodding.

"A decent idea. But ultimately they're in the hands of the authorities and they will do what they will do. We have no direct say in what happens to the mercenaries now we have let the PRT take custody of them. And there's no denying they were heavily involved with someone who has committed, and shown a distinct willingness to commit, some extremely serious crimes."

"He actually activated his self-destruct system," Lisa said with disgust, making Danny stare at her. "The fucker was quite prepared to kill what could have been thousands of people just to cover his own ass. If things hadn't gone the way they did..." She shook her head, scowling ferociously. "He deserves anything they can throw at him. The _only_ reason I'm happy he's alive still and that Taylor didn't actually eat the bastard is that I can't wait to watch Piggot crucify him, and I wouldn't want one of my best friends to risk poisoning herself."

Amy patted her ' _cousin_ ' on the shoulder in a comforting manner.

"It makes your own little disagreement with him look almost friendly, doesn't it?" the healer smiled.

"Well, I wouldn't go _that_ far," Lisa replied, smirking. "I'd still have liked to put a bullet between his eyes on general principles, even though I would like to think of myself as better than that. But from what I can tell almost everyone who's ever met him feels the same."

"The director sure does," Taylor snickered. "She was _very_ happy to see him. Although more than a little worried about how he was delivered."

Looking hard at his daughter's grin, Danny asked, "That is another thing that makes me think you've got something to tell me."

She nodded happily. "They finally met Umihebi properly."

He gaped, then slowly started laughing, until he was almost roaring with hilarity. When he finally ran down, he wiped tears of amusement from his eyes. "Oh, dear. That must have been something of a shock."

"They seemed a little taken aback," the Varga said in dry tones. "I expect there is going to be a very rapid updating of the Family threat assessments in the near future."

All five of them exchanged looks, most of them grins. "Come on, let's download the video from the cameras and edit together something for Director Piggot," Lisa said after a moment. "We can do a full cut for ourselves. I bet Über and Leet will practically piss themselves laughing."

"They're going to be _incredibly_ envious about it, you know," Amy giggled.

"Oh, I'm counting on it," the black lizard grinned as she headed for the computers. "Based on just what Taylor told us so far, we could probably make a feature film from the footage and make Hollywood look pathetic. Probably best not to, though, it gives away a lot more than we want to."

Shortly all of them were gathered around the computers as the four cameras were connected and the stored video downloaded to the server. While Lisa started competently editing clips together into a full sequence that didn't show anything too difficult to explain but covered most of the useful things from an evidence standpoint, Taylor played her and the Varga's raw footage while explaining it to the others.

Even just ten minutes in, Danny was watching with both awed horror and respect for what his daughter and her demonic friend could really do with a bit of thought. And also thinking it was almost unfair to pit a mere Parahuman against them…

Not that this thought made what he was watching any less funny, of course.

And… It _was_ Coil, after all.

* * *

"Everything checks out, we're up and running," Dragon said, looking at Director Piggot as she spoke.

" _Confirmed,_ " Colin replied. " _The Rig systems are fully operational as well, and undergoing a final integration test. Nothing untoward appears to have happened. Teams are dismantling the old system and moving it into storage for further analysis later, so we can finish installing the new equipment into the final locations. Which will be a relief, everyone keeps tripping over cables no matter how many warnings they're given_."

He sounded somewhat peeved about this, but then he'd been in a bad mood ever since Shadow Stalker's absconding had been detected late that afternoon.

"When will you be free, Armsmaster?" Emily said into her own headset. "We have quite a lot to talk about. I have been in contact with Saurial, she and her sister will be here in an hour and a half and I'd like to go over some things before they arrive."

" _Understood_ ," he said. There was a pause of a couple of seconds. " _I estimate I can complete the work I am required for on site in just over fifteen minutes, so I will be there in thirty at the outside._ "

"Good. In that case I'm going to be talking to New Wave. Piggot out." She tapped her earpiece twice, then shook her head. "He's definitely more snappish than normal," she commented to Dragon, who nodded as she typed another command into the main system console.

"I know. He takes her escape as a personal failure. He's going to be pretty moody for a while until he figures out exactly what happened and how to stop it happening again."

Emily sighed slightly. "Damn it. That girl is way more trouble than she's worth," the woman muttered under her breath. Looking up at the Tinker, she shrugged. "As I told Colin, I'll be in conference with New Wave if you need me."

"All right, Director. We're nearly finished here as well, although the power room is still being repaired. But we have full functionality as of twenty minutes ago. It will take most of the night to remove all the old equipment and get the new gear into place, though."

"Can't be helped. As long as we're up and running, we can live with wires everywhere for a few more hours," the blonde woman replied. Nodding to Dragon, she turned and left, still faintly scowling. Dragon watched her go then turned back to her task. The Director was taking this Shadow Stalker thing as badly as Colin was, which slightly puzzled her. She didn't know the full story behind why the girl had been under house arrest for the last two months but was getting curious.

When she finished reconfiguring the unit she was working on, she stepped back, then looked around the server room. A couple of dozen technicians were busy carefully marking then unplugging hundreds of cables, before unscrewing rack mounted server units and boxing them up. Everything was being photographed, labeled, measured, and generally documented for evidence. It had been a massive undertaking in only a couple of days and she was definitely satisfied with how well it had worked out, even taking into consideration Calvert's last little booby-trap.

The damage had been fairly severe from the sudden huge overload, completely destroying a significant amount of power distribution equipment and causing a very nasty fire, which although quite contained had been very hot and destructive. That particular substation was a total loss, the entire room and two access tunnels would need to be completely gutted and rebuilt. Luckily, there were spares on hand to bypass it and enough room in one of the other substations to move all the functions over to it, so it hadn't been a long-term problem.

The PRT would be fixing the damage and tidying up for a couple of weeks, and the smoke from the fire had caused alarms to go off throughout the building while causing a number of problems in it's own right, but on the whole it could have been much worse. If the new system hadn't been operational at the time the entire PRT comms and data systems throughout the city would have been thrown into total chaos for hours, perhaps days.

Content that her current job was now done, she talked to the lead techs for a while, checking that everyone knew what was needed, then headed off to wait for Colin to arrive, while wondering why one Ward was so much trouble.

* * *

Sarah turned as she heard the door to the conference room open, Lieutenant Gibson doing the same. He saluted smartly as Emily Piggot came in and looked around, the door closing behind her. She returned it, then came over. Sarah's sister joined them, although the rest of her extended family stayed at the table where they were comparing stories.

"Hello, Director," Sarah said. "You look annoyed." Which wasn't, to be honest, all that unusual, but she didn't add that.

Director Piggot sighed. "An internal matter of some irritation. Nothing we can do about it right now though." She took the folder that the lieutenant handed her, flipping quickly through it, then handed it back with a nod. "It appears that you definitely earned your pay today, all of you," she said, making an apparent deliberate attempt to cheer up slightly. Moving to the head of the table she waited for both sisters and the PRT lieutenant to sit, then did the same. "On behalf of the ENE PRT, and myself personally, I'd like to thank you. Glory Girl, Shielder, from the initial reports from both your squads it's apparent that you performed admirably and quite likely saved lives." The cousins looked at each other, then grinned.

"Thank you, Director," Vicky said, sounding happy.

"You're welcome. Shielder, Sergeant Adler put a note in her report that she'd be quite prepared to work with you again, she says you thought ahead, followed orders perfectly, and more than pulled your weight. Glory Girl, Sergeant Kogut said something very similar." Sarah and Carol both looked at their respective offspring with pride. "I have no idea if we'll be in a position where we need similar arrangements in the future, but I'm very pleased how well it worked and would have little hesitation doing the same thing again if required." The PRT director actually smiled. Eric was beaming, while his sister was looking at him with amusement.

"From the reports, it seems that the rest of you also had a certain amount of excitement." Piggot looked again at the folder the lieutenant slid across to her when she motioned for it. "One attempted bank robbery in the evacuated area, stopped by Manpower and his squad. Three instances of looting, including one where someone ram-raided a jewelry shop. Two of them handled by Laserdream and her team, one by Brandish and hers. A number of minor crimes, car theft, vandalism, nine muggings, and three armed robberies, spread across the rest of you. All of you provided effective backup to the PRT personnel without any problems of note." She closed the folder and folded her hands on it.

"You all did a very good job, and I think raised the profile of your group quite considerably in the city. I will make sure to mention this to the Mayor when I meet with him. It might help calm him down after the..." She made a face. "Slightly overeffective decoy operation."

"It smelled fucking _awful_ ," Eric muttered. "How I didn't puke I have no idea, even through those respirators it was terrible."

The blonde nodded, looking like she entirely agreed, as did everyone else. Sarah couldn't even find it in her to give him a warning look about his language. That stench really had been almost unbearable. What it must have been like for anyone without the dubious protection of the PRT respirators she didn't like to consider.

"Thank you for the compliments, Director," Sarah said after a moment. She looked around at her family. "I think I speak for all of us when I say we found it an interesting if somewhat long and odoriferous day." They all nodded.

"It was definitely not the sort of thing we normally do," Mark said quietly, "But I have to admit I quite enjoyed it. I'd be happy enough to do the same thing again if needed."

"Me too," Vicky added, smiling a little. "Although I could really do without the smell."

"I am _very_ much hoping that we never have to use that satanic stuff again," Director Piggot sighed. "Explaining what happened is going to be a PR nightmare. I hope Roy's people have some idea how to handle it. We're going to have to kiss ass something terrible to keep the public from shouting for days."

"But you successfully got Coil," Crystal pointed out. "That should help. I mean, he was prepared to bring down a huge building in the middle of the city, which would have killed hundreds of people. At least. I think when that gets out a lot of people will be OK with what everyone had to do."

"Hopefully," the director nodded, not looking entirely confident about this. "It's not public information yet, though. We have to finish all our interrogations and build our case before we can be open about any of this. Remember the NDAs you all signed this morning, please. Coil may still have people out there and the longer we can avoid letting them know he's finished the better. I want to find them before they run."

She looked around at each of them, one by one. All seven members of New Wave nodded their agreement, Vicky miming zipping her lips, which made Crystal smile and Carol frown a little.

"Would he have used his explosives, do you think?" Neil asked curiously. The blonde woman turned to him, scowling.

"He tried to, as it happens. If we hadn't had the Family to disable the charges, god alone knows how bad it might have been."

"Holy shit, he actually did it?" Eric gasped.

"He did. Dragon aborted the countdown a few minutes before it would actually have gone off if it hadn't been disarmed, but that was only possible because Saurial and her relatives not only found out about the explosives in the first place, but softened the base up for us as well. If we'd gone in blind who the fuck knows _what_ would have happened, but I can guarantee it wouldn't have been good." Emily shrugged. "Mind you, without those reptiles we wouldn't even have known about it in the first place."

"We owe them a lot of thanks too," Lieutenant Gibson put in, making her nod slightly.

"We definitely do. Mad creatures though they are they're pretty damn effective. Terrifyingly so, actually." She seemed to be thinking about something disconcerting, Sarah thought, based on the slightly pale face she got for a moment. Shaking her head, she seemed to dismiss whatever it was seconds later.

"I've spoken to Saurial and told her that we're entirely satisfied with the results of today. She's got your payment ready, Panacea has checks for all of you. We'll be paying BBFO tomorrow, so I think the financial side of things is done." She opened the folder again, pulling out a number of forms. "The last item is, as always, the paperwork. I'd like you to fill out these reports, please, to add to the ones we already have from your squad members. Lieutenant Gibson will help you where needed, he has all the other information required. It shouldn't take more than about twenty minutes or so." She glanced at her watch as the lieutenant got up and distributed the sets of half a dozen pages to each of them.

"I have another meeting in five minutes, so I'll leave you to it. Once again, thank you all for the help, it's very much appreciated." She got up, watching as her subordinate handed out pens. Sarah looked through the form, finding it was a fairly straightforward one for ' _Affiliated Parahuman Activities in Support of a PRT Operation_ ' according to the title on the first page, along with an internal PRT code.

"This looks simple enough, Director," she commented.

"It's a standard form, although we don't use it much here in Brockton," Director Piggot nodded. "You shouldn't have any problems, Lady Photon, but if you do have questions, the lieutenant can answer them." She looked around one last time, appearing satisfied, then left the room. Shortly all of them were bent over the papers, the scratching of pens the only sound. Rather to Sarah's surprise, even Vicky was concentrating on the form, the tip of her tongue sticking out the side of her mouth a little.

Feeling that things had gone very well, but also very much looking forward to dinner and bed, Sarah kept filling in the relevant boxes and writing answers to specific questions.

* * *

Hannah looked around the people at the conference table. Colin was scowling at a tablet he was holding, Dragon seemed to be thinking about something as far as she could make out from the attitude of the reptilian-themed power armor's head, Ethan and his wife were talking quietly to each other, and the various others were either looking over their own notes or just waiting. Legend was reading one of the preliminary reports on the base operation at the far end of the table. Moments later, Emily came in, closing the door and taking her seat. Hannah flicked the switch that sealed the door and engaged the security, including the new systems Dragon had installed as part of the upgrade.

Casting her eyes around the table, the PRT Director was silent for a few second, as everyone stopped what they were doing and gave her their attention. Eventually she opened the notebook she had with her and looked at it.

"OK, we have a number of things to get through before the Saurial and her sister get here. I expect we'll have to talk again after they leave as well. First, what's the current status with the prisoners?"

Hannah cleared her throat. "Thomas Calvert is currently unconscious in his cell. He became hysterical when we took him to the basement and we were forced to sedate him. He was screaming about ' _them_ ' coming out of the walls to get him, something about a lake where there shouldn't be one, and some sort of underground city full of monsters." Everyone exchanged glances. "He was fairly loud about it," she added with a shrug. "Whatever Saurial did to him, it stuck. The man's a mess. On the up side, he was talking so fast we had difficulty taking notes. We're probably going to have to keep him tranquilized for a while but I doubt we're going to have to push very hard to get him to tell us anything we want."

"Does anyone else sort of wonder what actually happened in there this morning?" Rory asked slowly. "Then wonder if it might be a good idea _not_ to find out?"

Several of them nodded. Colin wasn't really listening, as far as she could tell, at least half his attention was still on the tablet, but he absently said, "The Family matter creation ability coupled with their exceptionally acute senses and unusual sense of humor lends itself to some very effective psyops scenarios, especially if they utilized the apparent spatial manipulation techniques Saurial and Raptaur have demonstrated in the construction of a number of devices. I expect they could convince most people of almost anything you care to name with some effort. Calvert most likely found this out the hard way."

Everyone stared at him, but he kept scrolling through some sort of complex schematic on his tablet and ignored them.

"Yes. Well." Emily seemed a little puzzled. "I expect we can ask more about that when they turn up, assuming they'll tell us. And his mercenaries?"

"None of them are as badly affected by whatever happened," Hannah said, "but all of them are as shaken up as if they'd been in a serious battle for hours. Any injuries sustained appear to have happened during our entrance and the subsequent fighting, from what I can so far tell neither Saurial or her sister caused any damage to them at all. Physically, at any rate." She shook her head slightly. "The preliminary questioning has thrown up a number of very weird stories, quite a few of which would seem to be both contradictory and physically impossible, although with powers who can really say? Definitely unusual even in those terms."

"Some of those guys really looked like they _wanted_ us to arrest them," Robin said thoughtfully.

"I noticed the same thing," Battery nodded. "Did you see how they were all helpfully labeled as well? Each of them had their name, rank, and the words ' _Mercenary for Hire_ ' written on the backs of their clothing. The strange thing is that none of them realized it until we turned up."

"Coil's body armor had ' _Annoying Supervillain_ ' on the back," Emily sighed. "Those damn lizards never miss a chance to screw with us and everyone else, do they?"

"Apparently not," Dragon chuckled. "I'm still trying to work out the significance of the squeaky shoggoth. Calvert goes a very unhealthy color when he sees it, and if he _hears_ it..."

"What the hell is a shoggoth?" Craig asked curiously.

The Canadian woman looked at him. "A mythical creature from the works of the author H P Lovecraft," she replied. "At least, I very much _hope_ it's mythical."

"Lovecraft again," Battery said with a frown. "I have to confess I'm getting a little worried about that theme. It seems to be a lot more… consistent… than a simple joke would warrant."

They all shared a look again, aside from Colin, who was now tapping on the screen of his tablet, looking pensive.

"They like fucking with us, that much is certain," Emily grumbled. "Even if they are more or less on our side. They're nearly as bad as the damn Simurgh, it's almost impossible to work out how much of what they do is because they think it's funny and how much is real." She sighed heavily. "Or how much is a double or triple bluff, just because they can."

Legend shrugged a little. "We may never be entirely certain, considering their origins. Or even be entirely certain _what_ those origins truly are. Whatever, they're friendly and effective and today they definitely averted a massive disaster, so I suggest we give them the benefit of the doubt."

The director didn't look completely convinced, and Hannah definitely wasn't, since she was still very, very puzzled about the weird reptiles. Not to mention more than a little wary of them. However, he had a point, now wasn't the right time to get distracted by that specific rabbit-hole.

"All right. We'll table the question of what and how Saurial and Raptaur did to demoralize nearly fifty experienced military-trained people until a better time," Emily said, making a note on her pad. "We'll definitely be revising their threat assessment as soon as we're finished with Coil and his men, though, since I can guarantee it's wrong. Not to mention we need to update Ianthe's and Metis's data, we have very little on them yet."

"I think that Umihebi is the one we should concentrate on," Dragon suggested. She sounded a little worried. Hannah watched as Colin froze, his fingers stilling on the tablet for several seconds, then resumed work more slowly. At the head of the table, Emily looked momentarily more than a little upset.

"I am currently attempting to _forget_ about Umihebi for now, Dragon," the blonde said through her teeth. "That is also something to be left for later. Mostly to allow the memory to fade a little."

"You met Umihebi?" Ethan asked, looking startled, as did everyone who hadn't been on the beach. Hannah had felt a cold shudder go through her at the name, thinking back to the images from that first contact in the deep ocean. "She was actually in the _bay? **That** fucking huge thing?_ " His voice had gone a little shrill.

"She was," Emily said after a couple of second, during which she swallowed visibly. "Let's just say that we have confirmation of an unnervingly powerful Stranger effect of some form, along with the fact that our estimates of size were… understated."

"What was she doing?" Legend asked, appearing apprehensive.

"She captured and delivered Calvert to us," Dragon said.

Everyone looked at her.

"In her mouth," she added reluctantly.

"Oh, fuck me..." Robin breathed. "No wonder the bastard is practically catatonic!"

"That would definitely do it," Battery said, her face pale.

Hannah was trying, unsuccessfully, not to think about it.

Eventually, Emily broke the horrified silence that had fallen in the room. "As I said, I would prefer to discuss that later, when the memory of what I saw is slightly less… vivid. Moving on." She turned the page in her notebook while the others tried to concentrate. "The new system."

"Is finished, tested, fully integrated, and entirely functional," Colin said, finally looking up from his tablet, which he pushed to one side. "Both here and on the Rig. All communications are back to full operation, with a significant boost to bandwidth and range. The old comms units have been completely deactivated, we're recalling all previously issued hardware for secure destruction. New units are being issued to anyone who doesn't already have them. All the vehicles in the motor pool will be completely upgraded to the new specification by the second shift tomorrow. Documentation on operation of the new functions now available can be accessed through the secure server, I have issued new credentials to everyone here, and IT is rolling them out to all staff."

"So we're back in business without any backdoors or traps, basically," Craig noted with relief. Colin nodded.

"Correct. We expect there will be minor errors and issues for a day or two until the remaining low-priority data is replaced, but all major functionality is present. Please report anything out of place that you notice."

"What about the power room?" Robin asked. "It was a hell of a mess down there when I looked earlier."

"That is in hand as well," the Tinker replied. "The damaged systems are bypassed now, and the rebuilding of the destroyed equipment will be complete within twelve to fourteen days. We'll add spare capacity at the same time so if anything of this nature happens again, we'll be able to absorb it more easily."

"Hopefully it won't," Battery said, making him nod agreement.

They spend some considerable time going over the details of the system upgrade and the new capabilities of it, Colin and Dragon between them fielding a number of questions, until everyone was up to date. Eventually, after a check of the time, Director Piggot turned another page. "All right, we can leave most of the rest until later. The final thing we need to discuss right now is Shadow Stalker. Colin, what the hell happened?"

The man frowned at his tablet, as if it had personally insulted him. "An unlikely sequence of events, essentially. We found the shock bracelet on the floor of her quarters, completely discharged of power. There was no sign of the girl. No one has seen her since last night, but the tracker in the bracelet puts her in that room up until the point of the power surge. After that we have no way to know where she went or what she did."

He sighed, rubbing his forehead. "As far as I can determine from the logs, the power surge that knocked out the building also scrambled the telemetry system that was controlling the bracelet. As it lost power it sent a number of corrupted messages to the device, which appears to have been interpreted as a command to increase the shock power to the maximum and discharge it continuously. I have no idea quite how this happened, there are a number of checks on that sort of thing as it could well be lethal under some circumstances. In any case, it completely discharged the capacitors into Shadow Stalker, which would at a minimum have knocked her unconscious. Very painfully, actually." He reached out and flicked through a couple of pages on the tablet.

"She must have regained consciousness some time later, found out that the bracelet was at least temporarily inactive, and simply phased out of it. The device is recharged by a combination of broadcast energy from repeaters in the floor, as in a wireless phone charger, and a kinetic energy recovery system in the bracelet itself which harvests power from any motion, such as walking or moving it. But with the power to the entire building out, and her passed out on the floor..." He shrugged. "It didn't have time to recharge before she managed to escape. Given twenty minutes of her moving around it would have had enough energy to shock her into giving up, but she presumably tried to escape immediately and got lucky."

"A perfect storm of both good and bad luck," Legend said with a sigh.

"Yes. I suspect she has a fairly unpleasant burn on her wrist from the discharge, and may be suffering some probably temporary neurological issues as well, but that clearly didn't stop her. The girl is arrogant and sociopathic, as well as being intellectually lazy, but she is also very persistent." Colin pushed his tablet away once more. "She had at least four hours lead time before anyone noticed she had disappeared. She could easily have left the city in that time. No vehicles are reported missing, but that doesn't necessarily prove anything."

"God damn it," Emily growled. "That damn girl is a fucking liability." She looked at Colin, then around at the others. "Would she cut and run? Or stick around and make a nuisance of herself?"

Colin looked at her, then Hannah. "Unknown. Her most logical move would be to get as far away from here as possible as quickly as possible and attempt to hide, but it's difficult to predict exactly what she'd do. She's not the most logical person I have ever met, and she holds a grudge to a level that's appalling."

"What _is_ the story behind Shadow Stalker?" Dragon asked curiously, causing everyone to look at her now. "I know she was under house arrest, but I'm not sure why she's so important. You clearly have some worries beyond the immediate loss of the girl."

Emily studied her, then glanced at Hannah and Colin before looking around at the rest of the room. Eventually she sighed. "All right. Some of you know this, but not all of you. Shadow Stalker is… a very disturbed young woman. Some months ago, she was complicit in an attack, an extremely unpleasant one, on the daughter of someone many of you have met and all of you have heard of. Danny Hebert."

Dragon tilted her head in a way that suggested surprise. "His daughter. Taylor Hebert?"

"Yes." The director scowled blackly, then explained the entire event to them all. When she finished, Ethan raised a hand and an eyebrow.

"What?" Emily snapped.

"Shadow Stalker mentally and physically tortured the fifteen year old daughter of one of the potentially most politically powerful men in the city, someone who is known to be _extremely_ protective of his family, and perfectly willing to hospitalize someone who threatens her, _and_ is best friends with the fucking _Family?_ The same daughter who can take down a man twice her size in about three seconds with a baton, and is _also_ best friends with the Family, has been personally trained by _Saurial_ , and is on top of that apparently Panacea's best friend too, not to mention very close to Glory Girl? _That_ daughter?"

"Correct," the blonde said when he finished.

"Bitch is dead meat," he commented after a few seconds, shaking his head. "She _better_ run. If she sticks around here, she's gonna get eaten."

"That's what I'm worried about," Emily said with disgust. "We have a major problem. Do we call Danny Hebert and tell him we've been sitting on one of the people who fucked with his daughter for close to two years, and now we've lost her? Do we pretend nothing has changed and hope the fucking girl runs and keeps running? And what do we tell Saurial and her relatives? I can absolutely guarantee that they know all about it, based on what we know of the Hebert's relations with them. And I'm almost certain Panacea is also aware, she and the Hebert girl are as thick as thieves from what we know. Which might well mean that New Wave knows as well. Not to mention the entire DWU, and god knows who else."

"Would he have told anyone at the DWU?" Legend asked thoughtfully.

Emily shrugged angrily. "Who knows? Possibly, possibly not. He's certainly got the recording he made of the damn girl and her co-conspirators admitting to the bullying campaign, not to mention all the other evidence he has. There are other witnesses as well from Winslow. If he wanted to he could bury us with that. I don't think that he will, now, since we seem to have developed a good working relationship with him in the last month, but I sure as hell don't want to push him into deciding we've screwed him and his daughter over. And I _really_ do _not_ want the Family on the warpath. So what do we do? I'm open to suggestions."

"We have to tell the Heberts about it," Battery said after looking around at her colleagues. "Provide them with protection, if they'll accept it. If nothing else that would show we're not trying to hide anything. If the girl decides to go after Taylor or her dad, presumably she'd do it pretty quickly. She's not a patient person."

"You think she'd make an attempt on them?" Hannah asked. Battery nodded.

"I wouldn't put it past her, I'm afraid. The girl is one of the angriest people I've ever met. From what you said she blames the Hebert girl for her being caught, never mind it was her and her friends who instigated the entire thing. She may well want to deal with what she thinks of as unfinished business."

Hannah thought it over and couldn't deny the other woman had a very valid point. Which was more than a little worrying, all things considered.

"I would have to concur," Colin sighed. "It would fit her personality. Unfortunately, her powerset is ideally suited for an assassination attempt, she's very difficult to track, can move rapidly, and it's hard to restrict her motion without some fairly specific precautions. If she does intend to go after the Heberts, it could be problematic to stop her."

"Fuck." Piggot glared at her notebook. "This is going to be bad, I can damn well feel it."

Pulling out her phone as it vibrated, Hannah looked at the message on the screen, then turned to the older woman.

"Well, whatever we're going to tell them, we need to work it out fast," she said with a sigh. "Saurial and Raptaur are downstairs."

Everyone exchanged worried glances as she got up and headed for the door.


	291. Guest Omake - Fam Man

**Fam Man**

 **(By Ace Dreamer)**

* * *

Danny awoke and looked around. Was his bedroom different? Everything looked the same, but...

"Happy Birthday, Dad!" His betailed daughter bustled into the room with a breakfast tray. He looked at her with suspicion, partly because she was dressed as a butler.

"Thanks for the birthday breakfast in bed. Why do I feel that there's something new I need to worry about?"

She smirked at him. "Eat up your breakfast, and then I'll show you around Stately Hebert Manor!"

"OK, it is very clever the way you've fitted an extra eight bedrooms in, all with en suite. The way that you can come in the original doors and just seem to be in the original house, or not, is nice too. I don't want to think too hard about the views from some of the windows..."

"I need to do a bit more work on that", mumbled Taylor.

"I do like the decoration in the ballroom, though maybe an Olympic-sized swimming pool is a little... excessive. But, what worries me, for some reason, is the bust of Shakespeare in the library..."

"Why am I dressed as a lizard-themed Batman? Why is there a lizard-themed Batcar over there, on a turntable?"

"Why are you being Saurial in a 'Robin' costume?"

A feeling of dread was slowly starting to creep through his shocked state.

"Don't you understand, Dad? This is the secret FamCave, and you are FamMan!"


	292. Guest Omake - Product Lunch

**Product Lunch**

 **(By Ace Dreamer)**

* * *

"Thank you for coming here today", Saurial looked around the DWU dining room, at the obviously eager reporters and other representatives.

"This is the latest in our series of FamCo product launches, and this time we thought we'd make it a bit different, and throw in lunch as well", a few laughs greeted this statement.

"You've probably noticed I'm cos-playing the side-kick of one of our most recent cape arrivals. And, quite generously, Danny Hebert agreed to cos-play FamMan."

She waved to one side, and an obviously not totally happy Danny Hebert stepped forward, in his lizard-themed Batman costume.

Saurial raised the side of one hand to her mouth, and leaned forward, fake-whispering to the audience, "I will not be confirming or denying that he is wearing a corset".

Danny's mouth opened, he paused for a moment, then closed it again. He acquired a rather grim expression. Saurial gave him a thumbs-up.

"Now I'll turn you over to Danny."

"Ahem", Danny continued in his best Adam West, "Citizens of Brockton Bay, you have been called here today to see the launch of the FamPhone. If you open the presentation box on your table you will see your free FamCo sample."

"First, I must assure you that these lizards are not capable of reproduction..."

The event had finished, Danny had changed into more normal clothes, and was getting a bite to eat. He paused, looked around at various amused DWU workers.

"You don't really believe I am FamMan, do you?" His tone was rather plaintive.

"No Boss!", came the chorus.


	293. Admissions and Decisions

"Any idea what's going on?" Dennis looked over at Carlos, who was peering out the Ward's common room window down at the street with a quizzical expression. The other boy shook his head, still watching something.

"No," he said, shrugging. "But I'm really- happy that horrible stink finally went away."

"You and me both," Dennis fervently agreed. The smell from the chemical leak had been appalling, having woken him far too early that morning. Even in the filtered and protected environment of the PRT building's living quarters, it had been overwhelming. All of them on site had been more than happy to get word that they were stood down for today, except in the case of emergency. He wondered how Missy and Chris had handled it at home, both of the younger Wards having left the PRT quarters at the ends of their shift the previous night.

He, Carlos, and Dean had stayed at the PRT facility in a standby capacity, as it was their turn, but had ended up playing games on the huge TV half the night since nothing happened. In recent weeks, the background crime level had dropped a lot, and the major gang activity had fallen off a cliff, all due to those crazy lizards as far as he could tell. He was pretty happy about it overall, he still got paid but didn't need to do very much other than take his turn on console duty, and when they _did_ go on patrol there wasn't a lot of risk. Most of the low level stuff was being handled by the BBPD, who seemed very satisfied with the current state of affairs, all things considered. He couldn't blame them, they finally had a chance to make a difference without being overwhelmed.

It was amazing how much crime had simply stopped as a direct result of taking a couple of hundred drug addicts off the street. The Merchants had been disproportionately responsible for muggings, armed robberies, and other such street crime, and while there were still a few of them wandering around being annoying, the bulk were either in prison or had fled the city. Just that one action had improved things a hell of a lot. There were still such activities going on, of course, but it was much better overall.

Being a native of the city, he was both cynical and realistic enough to realize this might change at any moment, but he was going to enjoy it as long as he could. It was almost like a paid holiday. It also meant he was able to see his family more often since Miss Militia had juggled the shifts around after a while, due to nothing serious seemed to be happening. Dennis was more than pleased about that, because now that Amy had fixed his father, he was making up for lost time over the last few years.

He really had to think of a nice gift for the Dallon girl. She was a good friend and a decent person, despite having a tongue like a barbed wire whip when she was annoyed.

He grinned to himself as he remembered some of the acid comments she'd made a few days ago about that horrible temporary history teacher. The man had been awful beyond belief, and she hadn't been shy about expressing her dissatisfaction in a very creative way.

Shaking his head a little, he looked over to where Dean was doing some homework at one of the tables to the side of the room. His other friend seemed mildly worried, glancing around every now and then as if he'd heard something, but always went back to the textbook he was studying and making notes on.

"Hey, Dean, what's got your panties in a knot?" the red-head asked brightly.

Dean sighed faintly, looking over at him. "I'm fine," he said.

"No, you keep looking around like you're expecting Saurial to jump out of a closet at you and yell ' _Boo!_ ' then grin like a lunatic." He snickered when the taller boy flinched a little. Dean was definitely a little wary of the Family, and for some reason Saurial in particular seemed to confuse him. Dennis had no real idea why but wasn't above using that fact for his own amusement. "So what's the problem?"

After a few seconds of staring at him, Dean shrugged. "There are some very weird emotions coming from people around us," he grumbled.

Putting his textbook down, he leaned his chair back on the rear legs. "The whole emotional background of the building went through some peculiar changes today. People were sort of anticipating something in the morning when that stench started. Then when the power went out, there was anger, worry… um, determination, maybe?" He waved a hand. "Something like that. It got really complicated. People were running around all over the place. By the time they got the power back on, everyone seemed excited, curious, relieved..."

Dennis exchanged a glance with Carlos, who looked fascinated. "You're right, that's kind of weird."

Dean nodded. "The _weird_ thing was more how _strong_ the emotions were. None of those are that unusual but normally I can ignore it, or it's too faint to pick up without trying to. But there were a _lot_ of people who were really intent on doing something big today. I'm pretty sure we've been kept out of the loop while some major operation went down."

He and Dennis looked at Carlos, who looked back, then shrugged. "No point asking me, no one told me anything."

"You're the man in charge, normally you get read into operations as the rep for the Wards," Dennis pointed out.

"Not this time." Carlos looked somewhat irritated by that fact. "I'm as much in the dark as you guys."

"Huh." Dennis scratched his nose, thinking. "I wonder how it all connects? A chemical leak in the city, a massive evacuation, some sort of major PRT operation, a power cut, plus all this new equipment Dragon and most of the technical staff have been running around installing for two days… All one thing, or lots of different things that happened at the same time?"

"Not a clue," Carlos shrugged. He looked out the window again, this time upwards, as something caught his eye. "But you can add to that the fact that New Wave just left the roof."

"Which ones?" Dennis asked curiously, also looking, but not able to see any trace of the independent hero team.

"All of them, I think," the older boy said, peering up. "I didn't see Amy, but there were at least seven people."

"I _thought_ I felt someone familiar upstairs," Dean commented, sounding a little confused again. "It was difficult over all the other people, and Vicky is almost impossible to read unless I'm right next to her, but..." He got up and headed for the kitchen unit, coming back a few seconds later with a can of Coke. "I wonder why she didn't visit?"

"Again, no clue," Carlos muttered. "Today is definitely odd. I have a feeling that Dennis is right, it's all part of one major op, but what that is…" He turned his gaze down once more. "Lots of transports coming and going, and most of them look like they're heavily loaded based on how they're handling. They've been going out empty and coming back full."

All three of them exchanged glances, then Dean and Dennis joined him at the window. There were indeed a number of the large transports, based on a military APC with a lot of PRT modifications, rumbling down the road, along with more PRT troopers in full combat gear than normal. "Weird," Dennis remarked.

The other two nodded.

"It's died down a lot, looks like it's over whatever it was, but they were all heading towards or coming back from the direction of the main commercial district," Carlos said, indicating one part of the city center. "Off to the side of where that chemical spill was. I guess it could have been two separate events."

"Pretty convenient, though," Dennis mused out loud. "A chemical incident that evacuates the city center, _and_ a major PRT operation, both at the same time?"

"The spill _was_ a major PRT incident based on what the news says," Dean pointed out.

"Well, true, but you don't need _that_ many armed troopers to clean up some stinky liquid, do you?" he replied, waving at the street. "What are they going to do, shoot it? I'd have thought they'd have used a hazmat team, maybe along with some tech people, and at most one squad for protection. I guess it might have been a terrorist attack or gang action, but even if it was that seems like overkill."

"And why would New Wave be involved either?" Carlos added. "Plus all the other stuff going on, like Dennis said."

Dean sighed a little, and shook his head. "I have no idea." All three stood there and watched the vehicles move around, most of them heading towards the underground garage and disappearing.

"I guess we'll find out sooner or later," Dennis finally said, going back to the couch he'd been sitting on and picking up one of the game controllers. Idly selecting a saved game, he started fiddling with the settings. "The thing I'm really curious about is Sophia."

He happened to glance at Carlos as he said this, and noticed with interest the look that momentarily crossed his friend's face. A second later it was gone, but he added it to the file of oddities he'd picked up on over the last couple of months. Sophia's confinement to the PRT building was something they all knew about, but none of them knew why, the girl herself was entirely silent on the subject in a very hostile manner, and they'd each been warned by Miss Militia not to question or discuss it. Which had, of course, made him _extremely_ curious about it.

"That's definitely worrying," the other boy said, moving away from the window and heading towards one of the computers, where he started poking around on PHO in a casual manner. "I wonder what happened to her?"

"No idea," Dean sighed. "In a way I'm glad she's not here, though. She's always furious, it gives me a headache just being near her."

Dennis looked at both of them for a moment, then went back to his game adjustments. Dean had never been comfortable around Sophia, he was well aware of that, and Missy intensely disliked her for a number of reasons, all of them good in his opinion. The younger Ward was professional enough, though, not to show it very much even in private. But he knew her well enough to be able to tell, not to mention he'd seen and heard some of the things that Sophia had done to her. Carlos had talked to Sophia about it on a number of occasions with little effect, and even Armsmaster or Miss Militia only seemed to be able to affect her behavior for short periods. Dennis himself found her sometimes darkly funny, but definitely didn't count her as a friend. Chris simply stayed out of her way as much as he could.

Now the girl had apparently vanished without a trace. Armsmaster had been stomping around, looking furious, for over an hour a while back, accompanied by an entire squad of troopers, Dragon, and Miss Militia, none of whom looked any more pleased than the Tinker did. They'd searched the entire Wards area twice, spent close to twenty minutes tearing Sophia's quarters apart, then quarantining it having taken everything away. After that, as far as he could work out, they'd moved on to the rest of the building, giving the impression of people who very definitely wanted a serious word with her.

He'd seldom seen Armsmaster look so pissed off, and had decided that it would be a good idea to stay out of the way, since he felt that his normal approach wouldn't go down at all well. There was a serious sense of humor failure in play.

Now, he was sure that Carlos knew something about Sophia that he wasn't saying. Probably not about her disappearance, he'd looked as startled as the rest of them when they got questioned by an angry Tinker, but Dennis was certain his friend was at least aware of _why_ the girl had been stuck in the PRT building for weeks and from what he'd worked out, being carefully monitored. That bracelet she'd always been playing with sure looked like Tinker tech to him…

He studied his team leader out of the corner of his eye while he changed the load-out of his game character, thinking about all the little clues he'd noticed. Miss Militia's interest in Amy's relationship with the Family, Taylor, and so on, Sophia's house arrest, Carlos's apparent awareness of some of that as well… He wasn't sure, and certainly wasn't going to say anything, since he was nobody's fool, but he had a feeling it was somehow connected.

' _I don't know how, or why, or what happened, but Sophia is definitely in serious trouble,_ ' he thought, hitting the start button. ' _And if it's something to do with the Family… See ya, Sophia. Can't say I enjoyed knowing you_.'

Wondering where she was, and whether he'd ever find out, he began moving his character to high ground. When he got instantly sniped by a familiar player, he growled and swore under his breath, giving the game his full attention.

"Fucking Protomancer," he muttered, prodding buttons as fast as he could.

It didn't help.

* * *

' _What's_ ** _she_** _so worried about?_ ' Taylor queried as Miss Militia came out of the elevator at the rear of the PRT building lobby and headed their way. The familiar scent of the woman betrayed a degree of nervousness, which was normal when she was around them, and a certain amount of apprehension, which was less so. They could easily see from the thermal output of the blood vessels in her face that she was somewhat uncomfortable, more so than seemed appropriate all things considered. Taylor had hoped that the military cape was starting to get used to them but on the face of it she was definitely not happy right now.

" _I have no idea,_ " the Varga replied as he also watched her approach. He was intrigued, Taylor could sense. " _I wonder if it has anything to do with our old friend Sophia?_ "

They'd both detected the scent of the girl outside when they arrived, more strongly than would be expected considering that she was, as far as Taylor knew, confined to the building.

' _You don't think…?_ ' she sighed internally.

He mentally shrugged. " _It's possible. One of Coil's little booby-traps, or just bad luck. But it would be very careless of them to misplace her. Perhaps it's something else, they might have moved her to a different facility, after all_."

' _True_.' Taylor used her ' _Saurial_ ' aspect to smile at Miss Militia as she stopped in front of both of them. "Hello, I hope we didn't keep you waiting, Miss Militia. We've got a video file for you and we're ready to give you a formal report on what we did. Well, most of it." She smiled a little more widely, causing the woman to wince slightly.

Recovering instantly, she put out her hand and shook Taylor's offered one, then did the same with ' _Raptaur_.' "No, we're all in the conference room, there's no hurry, Saurial," she replied calmly. "We have a lot to keep us busy for some time, obviously. Please follow me, the Director is looking forward to talking." Waving them to the elevator, she went with them as both aspects moved in that direction, walking next to the smaller one with the much larger Raptaur form bringing up the rear. The various people in the lobby, none of whom were civilians due to the way the cordon around the evacuated area had only just been lifted, watched as they went inside.

Pressing the correct button and tapping an access token on a reader next to the panel, which suggested that where they were going was in a more secure than normal area, Miss Militia waited until the doors closed before she said anything else. "I'd like to thank you both, and your sisters, for all the help you provided today. And before that, of course. We probably couldn't have pulled any of this off without that aid, certainly without something terrible happening, and all of us are very relieved that it went so smoothly." She sounded and smelled sincere, although the underlying worry was still present.

Taylor smiled at her again, careful to keep her teeth out of sight, since it really seemed to bug the older woman. "We were happy to help, Miss Militia," she replied with complete honesty. "Right from the point Tattletale told me about Coil, it was apparent that sooner or later we'd need to do something about him. When we found out how deeply he was involved with a lot of things he shouldn't have been, we didn't really have a choice. The entire city was at risk, and we happen to like this place. And the people, for the most part."

"We'll protect our home," the Varga said through Raptaur, nodding slightly. "And this is as much our home as anywhere. We might have some issues with the approach to Parahumans that the PRT has at times, but we have considerable respect and liking for the local branch." He smiled faintly as Miss Militia glanced at him. "To date, despite some differences early on, we feel that you have treated us and our people fairly and we wish to reciprocate. That's not to say that we will always see eye to eye, but in this matter at least, we're definitely on the same side."

She nodded back, then turned to the doors as they slid silently open. "Good to hear," she muttered, leading the way out. They passed several PRT people, ' _Raptaur_ ' having to duck a couple of times to avoid cables hanging out of the ceiling, and once pressing herself against the wall to slide past a ladder that led up to a pair of legs sticking out of an access panel, but they reached the door to the conference room only a few minutes later.

Even from the elevator, of course, they'd been able to hear voices in the rooms surrounding them. With the ease of long practice Taylor was filtering out irrelevant chatter, focusing on the voices she recognized, mostly to try and figure out whether what both of them suspected was true or not.

" _I think it would be best to be completely honest with them, Director_ ," Armsmaster was saying, sounding both annoyed and mildly apprehensive. " _To do otherwise risks the rapport we have built with the Family over the last few weeks. I personally wouldn't want that for several reasons, and I don't believe it's in the best interests of the PRT or the Protectorate either_."

" _Or the city, for that matter_ ," Legend put in, himself sounding weary, as if they'd already gone over this matter several times.

" _It puts us in a difficult position, though,_ " Director Piggot replied. " _They could accuse us of hiding critical information from them, not without a degree of truth. That damn girl very nearly killed someone they obviously value a lot. And if the Hebert man finds out, which I have no doubt he will if they do, he might become very awkward._ "

" _From what you said, Director_ ," Dragon said in calming tones, " _it wasn't entirely, or even mostly, you who made the decision to keep her here. Yes, you put her under house arrest in the beginning, but you also wanted to punish her more severely when the investigation completed. You were overruled on that or she would already have been transferred out, probably to somewhere she very much didn't enjoy_."

" _Fucking girl didn't enjoy it here in the first place and made that very clear to everybody she met_ ," Triumph, or as Taylor couldn't help but think of him since the dinner party, Rory, muttered. He didn't sound at all complimentary about the subject of their conversation. " _She was a pain in the ass from day one. I always said she should have been sent somewhere else and probably locked up in the first place._ "

" _Yes, thank you, Triumph, we're aware of your opinion of Miss Hess._ " Director Piggot sighed. " _I happen to share it, in fact. She was an accident waiting to happen, but we never expected this level of… fucking stupidity, to be frank_."

" _The young woman has a number of severe psychological issues,_ " Armsmaster said, still sounding very irritated. " _And nothing anyone has managed to do to date has changed or improved that. She simply doesn't_ ** _want_** _to change her behavior. I have felt she wasn't really suitable Wards material for some time_."

" _Yet her powers were very effective and when she listened to orders, so was she_ ," Assault commented. " _Which is probably why people further up the chain insisted on keeping her even though she's a nightmare from a personal interaction viewpoint._ " His normal cheerfulness was entirely absent right now. " _But then none of them had to put up with her, did they?_ "

" _No_ ," the director grumbled. " _They did not. Damn it. Yes, fine, thank you for your input. Now shut up, everyone, they'll be here any moment and they can probably hear us right through the soundproofing_."

' _Yep_ ,' Taylor sighed inwardly. ' _They've lost Sophia._ '

" _So it would appear,_ " her companion admitted, a note of anger in his voice. " _I expect she's going to attempt to seek some form of revenge, that would fit her personality. This is annoying._ "

' _Tell me about it_ ,' she muttered. ' _I was perfectly happy to leave her alone if she left me alone, I don't even want to waste time thinking about her. But if she's running around the city, she might go after Dad, or Amy, or any of my other friends, just to get at me_.'

" _We'll have to make sure that doesn't happen, then,_ " he rumbled, producing a mental smile that was very, very dangerous. " _Permanently if necessary_."

' _Damn right,_ ' she told him, waiting as Miss Militia tapped on a code on the keypad next to the door, entirely unaware of their silent conversation or that they already now knew pretty much the entire story which was probably the cause of her worried scent. Which, if she _did_ know, would undoubtedly have worried her a lot more.

' _We'll need to call Amy and let her and the others know, just in case the idiot tries anything tonight. But I bet she doesn't. I know that girl, she's cunning. She'll probably go and find something she thinks will help her against me, lay low for a while until she's sure she's got away, then try to sneak back and have a go at us_.' Taylor rolled her eyes in the privacy of her mind, making her friend snicker. ' _Not like that's going to work out for her. Think her little trick with phasing through matter will work on EDM?_ '

" _If I understand the mechanism correctly, which I think I do, I doubt it. At least on solid constructions of it. There is no space between the electrons for her own atoms to pass through. Any gaps could change that, of course, but from what I recall she doesn't go through holes as such, but through the matter itself. So that might not be a problem. And I have a few ideas on how to interfere with her abilities beyond that._ " He chuckled darkly. " _You personally are at no real risk from her, trust me. Even one of her immaterial crossbow bolts will only be inconvenient at best. And possibly quite funny, at least from our point of view. I think she might find it less so._ "

' _It's not me I'm worried about,_ ' she grumbled.

" _Amy and Lisa's bioconstructs will be very resistant to it as well considering the amount of EDM in their scales and bones. From what Lisa worked out, her power is disrupted by electricity, and I'm sure Amy can add a suitable electrical defense system to them without much work. Danny and other people are most at risk, but we can deal with that too. Don't worry, Brain, this young woman is not going to harm any of our friends. She may try, but she will, ultimately, fail. And then we will **deal** with her._ "

' _She'd_ ** _better_** _fail because if she actually manages to hurt Dad or anyone else I love, she's a snack_.' Taylor suppressed a spike of rage, feeling her constant companion smile at her and reassure her wordlessly. She trusted him beyond question, but at the same time she couldn't help but worry.

Still, he hadn't been wrong yet, and the ancient demon knew more tricks than every Parahuman on the planet put together.

Their conversation had taken mere seconds, so they both went through the door as their guide opened it without really breaking step. Stopping inside, they waited for her to re-lock it, then take her seat, before moving to stand next to the table at a space that had clearly been left open for them.

Taylor looked around the various faces, mostly masked, and smiled. "I suppose you're all wondering why I've gathered you here today."

Assault promptly snickered, a wide grin on his face, while Director Piggot sighed and Battery put a hand on her face.

" _I_ know," he cried, leaping to his feet. "One of us… _is the murderer!_ " He inspected each of them in turn, visibly and suspiciously, until the woman next to him yanked him back into his seat. Taylor was grinning, as was Legend for some reason. Armsmaster looked slightly puzzled and seemed to make some notes on a pad, and the rest of them were watching with odd expressions.

"Oh for..." Director Piggot mumbled under her breath, but both Taylor and the Varga heard it. They shared a look of amusement, sat on their tails, and looked at her expectantly, waiting.

* * *

Emily watched the two Family sisters make themselves comfortable, both of them looking distinctly entertained by Saurial's joke. ' _Goddam alien lizards_ ,' she sighed, slight despair mixed with a feeling that this thought alone should be proof that her life was way too peculiar for any normal person to deal with. She glanced at Hannah, who was also looking a little weirdly at the pair. Thinking back to her first meeting with Raptaur weeks ago, she remembered the comment the other woman had made, along the lines of ' _Cross that line and the humor stops and you die instantly. And you'd probably never see it coming_.'

It was a worrying thought, considering the information she had to give them.

Since that meeting, she'd seen Raptaur visibly learn slightly more human mannerisms, and had herself had enough contact with all of them that she no longer felt the instinctive fear that they all, even Saurial, tended to produce in most people. The lizard-girl was definitely far more human in both body language and overall attitude than any of the others, which now that she thought about it was somewhat peculiar, but even there, she could come across as remarkably alien. Not surprisingly, after all.

Briefly she wondered yet again, now that they were basically certain that the origins of the Family were somewhere a lot further away than the bottom of the Atlantic, just _where_ and _how_ Saurial had learned so much about human, specifically US, culture and colloquial language. It was a little odd really. Presumably she'd taught the others, which would be consistent with various things they'd all said at one time or another, but where had _she_ first come into contact with normal people? And _when?_

That possible Lovecraft connection kept coming back, which was one of the most worrying things of all. Mainly due to the possible implications…

' _Not important right now, but I bet is has something to do with Danny Fucking Hebert_ ,' she thought with resignation. ' _It always is these days. One way or another. And now we have to admit that the girl who nearly killed his daughter and might be about to have another try at it is in the wind. Fuck. This is worse than Skidmark, this is basically our fault._ '

Opening her mouth and hoping that nothing horrendous was about to happen, she said, "Thank you both for coming in. Before we get to the main point of this meeting, though… during the operation something somewhat annoying happened, I'm afraid. Something that potentially directly impacts some friends of yours."

Saurial raised one eye ridge, but said nothing. Raptaur fixed her with a look of interest. She swallowed slightly, then continued.

"I'm not sure how much of the situation surrounding Taylor Hebert's problems at Winslow, and what that led to, you're aware of..."

Saurial reached up and removed her odd sunglasses, flipping them casually over her shoulder and not looking as they simply disappeared. Slit-pupiled eyes regarded Emily evenly. "We're aware that Sophia Hess, Emma Barnes, and Madison Clements, three peers of Taylor, bullied and tortured her for nearly two years for reasons best known to them."

"We are also aware that this campaign ended in an attack that at a minimum should be considered attempted manslaughter, if not premeditated murder, and that the school authorities were complicit due to them knowing these actions were going on and doing nothing at all to stop it, despite being repeatedly informed by Taylor," Raptaur added in a quiet but firm voice. In the dead silence of the room, it almost made things vibrate faintly.

"And," Saurial said, not looking away from Emily, "We are aware that Sophia Hess is also Shadow Stalker, a Ward of the ENE PRT, and that she has been under some form of house arrest since the date that Taylor and Danny managed to trap her and her co-conspirators into confessing on camera to their actions." Her voice was soft and dangerous. "We know all about it, Director. We have known about it from the beginning. Taylor has no secrets from us, and we have none from her. She is our friend, as is Danny. We tend to be very fond of our friends, and will protect them to the best of our ability."

Emily distinctly heard at least two other people swallow hard.

"We were content to take no action, as you were dealing with it to Taylor's satisfaction. She wants nothing to do with any of them ever again, if at all possible, and decided after discussing the situation with us and her father that this was best achieved by forgetting her experiences at Winslow, making the most of her new school and friends, and moving on with her life." The suddenly extremely predatory creature that was _very definitely not human at all_ stared at her, making her feel like a mouse being looked at by a tiger. "We agree with her in this."

"As George Herbert put it some three hundred and sixty years ago, ' _Living well is the best revenge,_ ' Raptaur said after a couple of seconds pause, sounding just like her sister. "However, there _are_ other options available if required."

There was a long and uncomfortable pause as both reptilian females kept looking at her. Emily tried to think what to say next. By the sound of it, the Heberts were a damn sight closer to the Family than she'd realized, and she'd assumed they were pretty close. She wondered how they'd found out about Sophia's Parahuman status, and for that matter about her being confined to the PRT building.

' _But then, we_ ** _still_** _don't know who was responsible for Saint, those weapons tests up north, and a number of other things_ ,' she realized with a chill. ' _They know a lot of things they shouldn't, and it's not impossible that they're connected to things we don't know about yet. Almost certain, in fact. Christ, this could go very bad very fast_.'

"I assume from your hesitance that you have managed to lose the girl somehow," Saurial finally said. She glanced at Colin, who was watching with a sort of wary interest, not moving. "I'm rather surprised as I would have assumed you had a method to restrict her powers and track her, considering the people involved."

He was about to speak, Emily could tell, so she held up a hand with a small shake of her head, making him subside again. "We did. Unfortunately, due to a series of unplanned events caused by that power surge this morning from Coil's trap, there was an unavoidable and unpredictable error that resulted in those precautions becoming ineffective for a period of time."

"During which Sophia escaped," Raptaur said in a way that wasn't a question.

She nodded with a sigh. "During which Sophia escaped. Yes. We're at least as angry about it as you are."

Saurial tilted her head a little, but didn't respond otherwise.

"We felt we had an ethical obligation to inform you about it," Legend put in at this point, speaking for the first time. No one else apparently dared say anything. "We value the working relationship between the Family, the DWU, and us, and we don't want to put it at risk by hiding something this serious. There is a possibility that Sophia Hess may attempt to attack you, the Heberts, or known associates of yours. We all feel you should know that immediately."

Saurial looked at her sister. They had a short and quiet conversation in that strange language, before they both turned back to the others. "Thank you for letting us know. We're wondering what you intend to do about the situation."

"We're going to try to find her," Emily said, relaxing just a little at the way no instant death seemed imminent. "Which is, unfortunately, not easy. Her powers make her very difficult to track or hold. She was gone for several hours before we discovered her missing, and she could already have left the city. In a way we're hoping that's the case, but no one who knows her is very happy that it is. Sophia Hess is… vengeful."

"That fits what we know about her," Saurial replied, somehow looking a lot less dangerous without doing anything obvious to make it happen. "Taylor passed on a lot of background information on her and the other two. Emma Barnes and Madison Clements are more or less irrelevant, Sophia is the truly dangerous one. It seems almost inevitable that sooner or later she's going to try something stupid."

"We think the same thing," Colin said. "I would prefer that she kept running but I doubt that will be the case." He looked down at his tablet, then met her eyes, before looking at Raptaur. "I must apologize. It was my design that failed, my oversight that allowed this to happen."

Raptaur asked, "Could you have predicted this exact sequence of events and the outcome of them?"

After a moment, he shook his head. "No. I am still unsure exactly what happened. On paper it was impossible, but clearly I made a mistake somewhere."

"If you couldn't have predicted it, we can hardly blame you for it either," Raptaur responded. She smiled a little. "We don't hold it against you, Armsmaster. No one is perfect, not us, or you. Not even Legend is." She glanced at the Protectorate leader with a small smile for a moment. "Although he's closer than most. You are also a friend, and neither of us think this was something you could have prevented without knowledge you didn't have. Accidents happen, after all. The main thing is to deal with the result."

Emily was definitely feeling relieved at this point, and could see everyone else was too. Apparently there wasn't going to be the sort of response she'd been fearing. ' _Thank god these crazy lizards are so fucking difficult to upset,_ ' she thought. ' _If it was me, I'd be shooting people about now_.'

"We can offer the Heberts an undercover protection detail," she said, thinking it through.

"Can you protect everyone Taylor and Danny knows?" Raptaur asked, looking at her. "Miss Hess might well decide to get at them through their friends. She may not yet know about Taylor's relationships with people from Arcadia, but I doubt she's missed the fact that Amy Dallon is a close friend, her sister is becoming such, and then of course we have the people who Danny is regularly associated with. If she considers him a target, in fact, it's quite likely that she'd go after him first, partly to leave Taylor until last, and partly to try to scare Taylor."

"Which is unlikely to work," Saurial said with a small smirk. "Taylor doesn't scare easily, believe me. And if Sophia _did_ manage to hurt Danny, the girl would be lucky if we got to her first. If either Taylor or Amy did..." She shrugged, while everyone stared at her.

"Taylor has a lot of suppressed anger about how she was treated for so long. She's been doing her utmost to let go of it, but if something happens, it might come to the surface again. And Amy likes Danny very much indeed, nearly as much as she does Taylor. She would be unlikely to hold back."

"And of course you've been training _her_ as well," Emily said, suddenly realizing the truth with a heavy sigh. Saurial grinned at her.

"Of course. She's coming along very well. Not quite up to Taylor, but then I've been training _her_ for a lot longer. We want to make sure our friends can look after themselves, since we can't be there all the time."

"Does Carol Dallon know?" Battery asked.

The lizard-girl looked at her, then shrugged. "We haven't told her. If Amy wants to it's her business, but I can't see any good reason why someone as high profile and valuable as Panacea, the world's best healer, shouldn't learn how to defend herself. Can you?"

"Um… no, not when you put it like that," the blonde admitted. "That's why you made that new costume for her, right?"

"Yep. Seemed the right thing to do. But we're going off topic." Looking at her sister, the smaller reptile said something. Raptaur replied after a little thought. Eventually, they turned back to the others.

"Thank you for the offer of protection, but I don't think the Heberts would really benefit from it. We can protect them quite effectively. I would suggest, though, that it might pay to arrange with Arcadia to have a suitable detail stationed there, just in case Sophia decides go after Taylor or her friends at school. There are enough people there that backup would be helpful, since we can't be everywhere. And it might also be worth thinking about arranging similar protection for a number of people that are known close friends of Taylor. We can provide a list of names," Raptaur said, looking at Emily, then Hannah. "You're probably also going to have to talk to New Wave about this since it affects at least one of them, probably two."

"I know," Emily grumbled. "I'm not looking forward to that. Carol Dallon can be difficult. On the other hand, we've got the best relationship with them at the moment that we've ever had, so with a little luck she'll listen long enough to hear me out before she throws me out."

"I'm sure your winning personality will handle the discussion perfectly well, Director," the huge lizard said without a flicker of a smile. Assault made a grunt as his wife poked him, hard, in the ribs, right before he was going to say something. Legend clearly muffled a snicker, making Emily glare at him.

"Thank you for the vote of confidence, Raptaur," she said, still looking at the man at the other end of the table, who was smiling just that little bit too much to make her happy.

"You're welcome," Raptaur replied, a note of humor coming through now.

"Do you intend to provide protection for Taylor at school?" Hannah asked. "It sounded like that was what you were thinking of."

"We may have to," Saurial replied, turning to her. She smiled a little. "Taylor told me that her vice-principal expressed an interest in meeting me one day. Possibly that day will be sooner than she expected."

"I can talk to the Arcadia board of governors and make sure they know the PRT is fine with it," Emily said, making some notes and relieved that the pair were being so reasonable about the whole sorry affair. "We'll also arrange to have a couple of undercover operatives in the school, with a backup squad nearby, just in case. Hopefully nothing will happen and the damn girl will pop up somewhere across the country in a year or two, but I really doubt it."

"It doesn't seem to fit what we know about her," Raptaur agreed. Colin nodded, as did several others.

No one expected anything other than some ill-considered action from Sophia. Sooner or later.

"The DWU security teams aren't as well armed as your people, but they are very well trained and alert, so I don't think we'd need any PRT people on site," Saurial went on, thinking out loud. "If Sophia decides to try attacking there, I doubt it will work out for her. We have a few surprises we put in place for Skidmark that would probably ruin her day, and we have a number of Parahumans other than Family members who would be very effective against her. And I doubt that she realizes it."

Emily glanced at Hannah, then Legend. "We could, bearing in mind the massive aid you have provided us over the Calvert operation, see our way clear to loaning the DWU security department some containment foam projectors and grenades, if you think that would help." Legend nodded thoughtfully but said nothing to contradict her.

Saurial looked mildly surprised. "That would probably go down pretty well, Director. Thank you. Yes, I think that would be something both Danny and Mark would agree to."

"All right, I'll arrange it, we'll deliver them tomorrow morning and provide some training on them and enough foam canisters and release agent to go with them."

"You're not going to get in trouble for that, I hope?" Raptaur asked.

"No, considering who it is, that it's the PRTs fault that Hess was even still in the city, never mind escaped, and that this is Brockton Bay, I can make a good case for it," Emily replied. ' _And if the Chief Director doesn't like it,_ ** _she_** _can come here and personally explain to Raptaur why there's a rogue Ward gunning for someone she seems to almost consider family. I'd almost pay to see_ ** _that_** _…,_ ' she added in the privacy of her own mind.

With the relaxing of the tension that had happened when the two Family members had first come in, the others loosened up and made a few more suggestions. Twenty minutes later, they'd hashed out the details of how to keep a number of people as safe as possible while the Hess girl was on the run.

"If she does make an attempt on the Heberts while you're around, what are you going to do to her?" Craig asked at the end. Everyone stopped and looked at him, then heads swiveled to regard the two reptiles.

Saurial shrugged. "Assuming she's unsuccessful, capture her, restrain her, have a very serious talk with her, and hand her over. At which point we fully expect never to see or hear from her again."

There was a pause.

"And if she was, somehow, successful?" Legend asked slowly. "Not that I think that's likely, but I have to ask."

"If she managed to seriously harm or even kill someone we are protecting..." Saurial looked evenly at him. " _No one_ will hear or see from her again."

This time the room was dead silent for nearly ten seconds.

"I give second chances," the slender scaled girl said in the end, her voice soft. "I also make sure that I never need to give third chances."

"Understood," he replied. He didn't look happy, but at the same time he did look like he couldn't come up with any arguments to her implied point.

Eventually, Saurial smiled, her mood changing back to the normal cheerful one. "Enough about that. We've got a plan and we're all on the same page. All we can do is go ahead with it and see what happens. Let's get back to the reason we came here in the first place."

Emily blinked a couple of times, yet again taken aback by how quickly the blasted lizard could go from insanely scary to ridiculously content with life, then looked down at her notes. Flipping back through them she found the right place. "Hmm. Yes. Good idea."

Saurial slid a USB stick over the table towards Colin. "This is the video we took, with all the boring bits and a few things we're keeping confidential edited out. Metis put it together for you."

"Thank you, Saurial," he replied, picking it up and inserting it into the small console in front of him on the table. The hidden screens slid out of the ceiling as he operated the correct controls, then there was a brief pause as he cued up the video and started it.

"We should have brought popcorn," Ethan said brightly. His wife looked at him and shook her head in despair, although both lizards snickered.

"I'll remember for next time," Saurial grinned.

 **Family™ Productions**

 **Presents**

 **A Family™ Film**

 **Starring**

Coil . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Thomas Calvert

Demonic Alien Tormentor #1 . . . Saurial

Demonic Alien Tormentor #2 . . .Raptaur

Emily stared at the screen, then rubbed her face with a hand as the list of credits scrolled up for a few seconds to a catchy beat. She noticed she was on it as ' _Badass PRT Director._ '

Couldn't these fucking lizards do _anything_ the normal way?

Although… she sort of liked that title.

Assault was laughing his ass off, and there were smiles on the faces of most of the others. Legend was grinning widely and Dragon snickered. Hannah looked nearly as confused as Colin did, but in the end he merely made yet more notes and watched with interest, while the woman sighed and leaned back in her chair, emoting a definite ' _why me_ ' vibe. Rory kept chuckling, shaking his head in amusement.

When the actual action started, everyone sat up and watched very intently. And, after a while, with a considerable amount of confused disquiet.

It was… enlightening. And deeply, deeply disturbing on more levels than Emily could easily put into words.

She was suddenly very glad that they hadn't turned the lights off to watch it. She didn't think she would have liked that. But it certainly explained why Calvert was whimpering in his cell whenever the sedatives wore off.

When the video recording finished, with a small note that ' _Very few Mercenaries were harmed during the filming of this feature no matter how much they deserved it, and we fixed them afterwards so it doesn't matter anyway_ ' coming up as the last part, they all looked at each other in silence for a while, before turning to Saurial and Raptaur.

"Questions?" the former said brightly.

"Oh, so _many_ questions," Ethan muttered, gaping at them. "But do I want to know the answers?"

Emily thought, for once, that the annoying man was definitely correct. Even so, they had to ask them.

So they did.

* * *

' _I think that went well_ ,' Taylor said as they left the PRT building. As soon as they were out of sight of any cameras, she dismissed the other aspect, remaining in the Saurial one, since they'd pushed the time she could hold two of them to the limit at just over three hours. Her mind was not quite aching, but very relieved for the rest.

" _They seemed impressed, at any rate,_ " the Varga chuckled as she teleported to the roof of the Medhall building under cloak, then leaned on the low parapet surrounding it and looked around. " _I was amused at how you managed to stick almost entirely to the truth yet still make them believe a number of things that weren't all that accurate._ "

' _It's a gift_ ,' she giggled. ' _We don't want them knowing a lot of what we can do, after all, but it was easy enough to give them acceptable answers for some of the weirder things. Leaving that squeaky shoggoth for them was a wonderful idea, they're convinced the entire thing with Calvert was a massive gaslighting exercise_.'

" _Which, to be honest, it more or less was, but not in the way they **think** it was,_" he snickered. " _Very well done, Brain. Very well done indeed_."

' _I bet their threat assessment reports are going to be hilarious after this_ ,' she grinned. ' _Especially with Umihebi brought into it._ '

" _They'll definitely decide she has a high Stranger rating after that meeting,_ " he pointed out.

' _They already knew that from the underwater thing, though_ ,' Taylor replied. ' _All we did is confirm it. No real loss to us. They might well decide that the rest of the Family also have something like it, but they have no proof of it. We can probably keep that uncertainty going for a long time if we're careful. Which is funny if nothing else_.'

" _True_." He mentally shrugged. " _I would think that sooner or later they'll realize something closer to the truth, but better that we slowly release this sort of information than dump it all at once. I think the likelihood of them panicking is too high in the latter case, as we've decided in the past._ "

' _I still can't believe how successful the entire Family thing was in the first place!_ ' she commented, shaking her head in wonder. ' _And we didn't even do it on purpose. People are very weird._ '

" _It's a useful subterfuge,_ " he agreed with good humor. " _And, yet again, very funny. Now what are we going to do about your old friend Sophia?_ "

' _Fucking idiot girl_ ,' Taylor sighed. ' _I was_ ** _so_** _close to just letting it go, you know?_ '

" _I do._ " He gave her a mental hug. " _You have been much more mature about the entire thing than most people your age would be. Or most people in general. But look on the bright side, she may simply never come back._ "

' _We both know that's not going to happen_ ,' she muttered.

" _I'm afraid I can't disagree_."

She stood there in silence for a little while, the Varga leaving her to her thoughts. Eventually, she sighed again, feeling annoyed. It has been such a good day right up to the point she found out about Hess…

' _Let's see if we can track her_ ,' she said. ' _I bet she found a vehicle, but we might get lucky._ '

" _It's worth a try, certainly,_ " he said. " _If we could catch her immediately it would make life much simpler in future._ "

Nodding, she looked down, then teleported to the ground. Shortly she was circling the PRT building, sniffing out the movements of the missing Ward on her flight from custody.

* * *

Hannah let herself back into the conference room having guided both Family members out of the building, sitting down and looking around at her friends and colleagues. No one seemed to have said anything since she left, they were still busy absorbing the information Saurial and Raptaur had given them. Emily was reading the report form that each of them had filled in.

Eventually she put the paperwork down and looked up, casting her eyes around the table.

"Thoughts?"

"Do _not_ fuck with the Family," Ethan said quietly. "They are weird and scary and will fuck you _right_ up, and there's absolutely nothing you can do about it."

Hannah couldn't help agreeing. It seemed an accurate summation in her opinion.

"While concise and pithy, I can't put _that_ in a threat assessment," the director sighed. "No matter how true it is."

"That was a remarkably competently performed operation," Colin stated, for some reason not looking as worried as almost everyone else was. "The use of their matter creation ability is even more versatile than I expected under such conditions. It explains a lot of the stories the mercenaries have given us. I find the fractional dimensional techniques fascinating, I can see a number of uses for them other than causing psychological issues to criminals." He looked thoughtfully at the pad he'd been making a lot of notes on, while everyone else stared at him. "Although they are very efficient at that task."

Emily rubbed her eyes. Lowering her hand, she gave the apparently oblivious Tinker, who was writing something else down now, a hard look, then turned to Hannah. "We should break for some coffee and a snack. This is going to be another long meeting, I think."

Hannah nodded, as everyone got up and headed for the door. She was very glad right now that she didn't need to sleep.

It would have been quite difficult to do after seeing that recording.


	294. Guest Omake - No such thing as too

**No such thing as too hygenic...**

 **(By CmptrWz)**

* * *

Miss Militia groaned as she walked into the "BBFO Pizza Parlor". She knew that this would be a headache, but she had for some reason been tasked with doing a health and safety check on the kitchen.

She studiously ignored the menu, instead being waved into the back by Ianthe.

"Good morning Miss Militia," Ianthe said. "We were told you have some questions on our food preparation?"

"Just need to ensure you meet or exceed the legal requirements," Miss Militia responded.

Ianthe brought Miss Militia to the food prep area where Raptaur was working. "As you can see, Raptaur makes a new utensil, in this case a knife, before switching between any two food items. The used utensils are dropped into that disposal bin before they are dismissed so that anything left on them doesn't fall to the work surface."

Bit excessive, in Miss Militia's eyes, but then again how many people could manifest knives and such out of nowhere?

"The same is done for the cutting boards before a new food item is placed on them, so that no single piece of contaminated food will contaminate all those that follow regardless of type. The EDM plates we cook the pizzas on are created just before use and are dismissed when no longer needed, ensuring that the oven surfaces don't contaminate across pizzas."

Well, that would also be a bit excessive, but again with the manifest out of nowhere trick...

"In addition, at the end of the day the entire kitchen area, including the oven, is dismissed and we clean up the floor. Raptaur re-creates everything in the kitchen in the morning, ensuring that no bits of food accidentally contaminate the oven from day to day."

That...was just plain ridiculous.

"Finally, as we are only open on weekends we take delivery of supplies on Friday. After close on Sunday we dispose of the rest of the contents of the freezer before cleaning it with a heavy application of temporary FOOF. Should any residue remain we wipe it up with freshly-created wet wipes. Though we can't close off the kitchen area nearly as well due to the design of the building so we have to go with more controlled applications there."

Did she just say they use FOOF as a _cleaning agent_?

"As for personal hygiene, we each take a dip in the temporary pools out back on our way in. In order to start for the day we need to have passed through the room temperature pre-rinse, then the superheated water, then the soapy superheated water, then the superheated water rinse, and finally the room temperature rinse. If we actually handle food without having put a temporary pair of gloves on for that particular food item then we repeat the process in the sinks in the corner."

Miss Militia left half an hour later. She marked on the form she was to fill out that she did not possess the needed background to adequately determine if the food preparation methods were safe. A proper inspector could deal with that.


	295. Precautions and Escape

"She got into a car about a mile away from the PRT building," Taylor sighed as she accepted a mug of coffee from Amy. She was back in her base form, the Varga in the small dragon one sitting on her shoulder, with her friends and her father sitting around the table. Both Amy and Lisa were out of their bioconstructs by this point, and had been discussing new things to make using her talents and Amy's when she arrived.

Her father had _not_ taken the news that Sophia had run very well.

He'd gone pale, his heartbeat rising considerable, and his hands clenched into fists. Visibly controlling his temper, he'd asked in an eerily calm voice for full details of their meeting with Director Piggot and the others, then listened without a word being said until she finished. She was a little worried, she hadn't seen him get _that_ angry for a long time. It was worse than when he'd found out about Sophia in the first place.

However, somehow, he'd managed to calm down, and was now back more or less to normal although there was a certain coldness to his expression that suggested to her he'd be quite prepared to deal with the girl himself if she was stupid enough to pop up anytime soon. The Varga had commented on it, saying it was a righteous rage of a warrior finding his people threatened. He found it impressive and justified.

This had, rather to her surprise, made her father laugh and calm down a little more.

"More accurately, we think she stole a car, by the looks of it," Taylor continued after a sip of coffee. "I guess she knows how to hot-wire one. It was around the back of one of the smaller shops, must have been being stored there or something. We tried tracking it but even Varga senses have limits, and she'd been gone for hours."

"We tracked her from the vicinity of the PRT facility across the rooftops of quite a few buildings," the Varga put in. "She backtracked several times, presumably in an attempt to make it difficult to do exactly what we were doing. The total distance covered was several miles, in fact, so she put quite a lot of effort into it. It was actually surprisingly hard to follow her, since it looks like in her shadow state she doesn't have much if any scent and she moves quite fast like that. I'm not particularly surprised about that although it was annoying."

"We always managed to find her trail again, though," Taylor added. "There were two places she stopped, we think to collect something. Probably some weapons she'd left behind, maybe money, that sort of thing. We could smell oil and plastic at one place, fresh, which might have been another crossbow. The other one smelled of money and electronics. Perhaps a phone, something like that."

"The girl thought ahead," her father noted.

"Like I said, she's cunning." Taylor ran a hand through her hair, then dropped it to her lap. "Not the smartest person I've ever met, but not stupid, and with a kind of built-in survival instinct. Maybe from her powers? I don't know because I never met her before she got them. Not that I'm too upset about that."

"So she's probably armed, probably has enough money to live on for a while, is mobile, might have contacts she can use to hide her or get more equipment, and we have no idea where she is or what she'll do..." Lisa shook her head. "Nearly as bad as Skidmark."

"She's smarter than he is, which is both good and bad," Taylor replied, glancing at her. "But she's at least as vicious. And I doubt that being locked up in the PRT building for a couple of months made her any easier to live with. I'm sure she blames me for it, too."

"Probably," her father muttered. "It was her own damn fault that she got caught, she confessed right to your face, but that type never accepts that their actions have repercussions. It's always someone else's fault."

Taylor nodded. "The thing I'm worried about is that she'll go after one of you. Dad, if I'm on her list, I can guarantee you are too. Probably right under me. We both got her kicked out of Winslow and she knows it. And it wouldn't take her long to work out that Amy is my best friend, we've been all over PHO after that Merchant thing the other day. And everyone knows that Amy and the Family are close, and that the Family and the _Heberts_ are close, and so on. I have no idea how much of that she knows already but it wouldn't take her very long to find out."

"If we wanted to put the effort in I'm sure we could find her in the end, no matter where she goes, but it could take a while," the Varga said. "I don't know if it's a sensible use of resources and time. If the girl turns up again, which based on Taylor's knowledge of her seems more than likely, we'll be able to catch her, and if she doesn't, it's probably a better outcome to simply let her go. So far she hasn't done anything to warrant a serious response from us aside from the initial problems which ended up with me coming here, and Taylor has already decided to let that lie in the past."

The diminutive dragon looked at his host, who was smiling gently at him. "I almost feel I should thank Sophia, in some ways. In other ways I would like to have some time alone with her to express my own displeasure." He shrugged, grinning briefly. "But I'm bigger than that."

Everyone stared at him, before Taylor snickered, Amy started laughing, and Lisa and Taylor's father shared a look.

"He's as bad as you are sometimes," the blonde said with a smile.

"Some of my puns are _much_ worse than that," the man replied with a contented look. "It runs in the family, I think, and I'm quite happy to see that even the newest member can hold his own."

The Varga seemed satisfied by the comment.

"But going back to the problem of Sophia and leaving my linguistic humor out of it for the moment," the demon said, "I think that the most likely targets are you, Danny, obviously Taylor, and Amy. Sophia _might_ hesitate to go after a member of New Wave, and someone as high profile and valued as Panacea into the bargain, but we can't rely on that. She's definitely someone who has a quite different outlook on life than most, and her risk versus reward calculations are probably very suspect."

"What about people like Mandy, Lucy, and my other friends at school?" Taylor asked, feeling worried.

He shook his head a little. "I can't be sure. I doubt any of them are on her list of revenge, which she most assuredly has, but they might be targeted by association. Most probably for information on you. Assuming that Director Piggot assigns the people she claimed she would, they should hopefully be a low risk. I would expect that Sophia would be careful and surveil her target first, and would pick up on the escort quite quickly. That would probably be enough to make her rethink any plan she had since they'd be low priority targets at best."

"She might try something here," Lisa said thoughtfully, "for a similar reason, to find information. Danny is normally either here or at home, so it would be the logical place to attack him if she was going to. Following him around somewhere else would be a lot more work and risk exposure and capture, especially since the entire PRT and Protectorate will be alerted to look out for her now. She'll have to realize that."

They thought about it for a while. "I'd have to go along with all that," Amy said in the end. "School might be a place that she'd try something, since Taylor and I will both be there a lot of the day so we're easy to find. On the other hand, there are way too many witnesses. Assuming she's willing to ignore the Rules, home would be a good place to go after me, and since she doesn't know about Taylor, home would also be a good place to go after her and Danny. Here would be a good choice for Danny, and _maybe_ Taylor, since people know she's around sometimes."

"For everyone else that might be a target, she could try almost anywhere at any time," Lisa added. "But my power is also telling me that you two are way up at the top of her plans, before anyone else. Director Piggot is also someone who should look out, but I'm sure she already knows that very well. The woman is extremely competent and I suspect that if Sophia tries for her, it's going to end very badly and very quickly. I bet she's already arranged to have her apartment Sophia-proofed and has checked out the right sort of weapons to deal with her."

"And considering the entire purpose of the PRT in the first place, they probably have plans for dealing with one of their own that went bad," Taylor's father said musingly.

"Oh, definitely," Lisa nodded. "I've even read some of them. When I was… employed… by Coil. I've seen most of the contents of their secure system by now." She grinned at them. "The director would be very annoyed about what I know, I'm sure, but I'm also sure I'm not going to tell her." As the others smiled, she looked thoughtful, then got up and headed for the computers. Taylor and the rest watched as she started typing.

"What are you doing?" Amy asked curiously.

"Checking to see how far Family access to PRT systems gets me where Sophia is concerned," Lisa replied, hooking a chair with a foot and pulling it into position, then sitting, without stopping working on the keyboard. "Huh. Surprisingly far. Here we go… ' _Bulletin EP/SECBT/1022-07-00017694-03/06/2011, Class 4 rogue Parahuman arrest request, for distribution to all PRT stations, Law Enforcement Organizations in United States and Canada, and affiliated Parahuman groups_.' Some stuff about age, physical description, that sort of thing, which is obviously Hess although it doesn't give a name, civilian or otherwise. ' _Subject is considered armed and dangerous. See Threat Assessment Report EP/MM/THRPT/1022-03-00002786-17/11/2010(redacted), additional information, for full details of power set and suggested countermeasures_.'"

Lisa clicked on another link, then read quickly. "It's a modified standard threat report. I've read the original, this one has all personal information removed, and most of the internal PRT references to her Wards work."

"It wouldn't take a very smart cop to work out who it was referring to," Amy said, coming over and reading the screen over her shoulder.

"No, but it covers them politically under the Rules and provides at least minimal cover for her family," Lisa replied, going back to the bulletin.

"What's class 4?" Taylor asked curiously. Lisa glanced back at her, smiling a little.

"You haven't finished reading that PRT documentation we were given with the ID cards, have you?"

She shrugged. "Not completely, no. I got distracted about two thirds of the way through."

"It lists the various threat classes in an appendix at the end. People break it down into letters on PHO, but it's really a numbered system for the most part. Higher number is higher threat, or importance, or both." Lisa turned back to the screen. "Class 4 is known to be violent if provoked, aggressive, with a high likelihood of resorting to lethal force. The lower three warrant non-lethal responses except in extraordinary circumstances, class 4 is the first one where a lethal response is automatically authorized if there is no other reasonable option. Director Piggot isn't taking any chances and seems to have entirely lost her sense of humor about this."

"It's not a kill order, though, right?" Taylor's father asked with concern.

"No, nowhere near that level," Lisa assured him, still reading the bulletin. "Those are extremely rare. You have to kill a lot of people in cold blood or otherwise do something horrible to warrant one of those, like Crawler, for example. This is more like what the FBI would distribute when warning about a violent bank robber or something like that. Someone known to have a weapon and not be too worried about using it on civilians." She shrugged. "Which seems pretty accurate to me."

"The rumor on PHO was that Shadow Stalker, before she became a Ward, used hunting bolts on more than a few people she went after, and nearly killed at least one of them," Amy put in. Lisa turned her head and looked at the healer.

"It's not a rumor, believe me. She shot Brian with one of those things. A couple of inches higher and she'd have killed him on the spot. As it was, he was pretty badly hurt, and really isn't fond of her at all now."

Everyone stared at her. "You never mentioned _that_ before," Taylor stated.

Lisa shrugged again. "It wasn't relevant, and isn't really my story. She went after Brian, not me. As far as I could work out, her power and his don't get along at all well, he counters her flat, and she doesn't like that."

"Useful information," the Varga said slowly. "And possibly worth following up on. I expect Director Piggot would be very interested in that, for both the reason it is another charge to levy against the young woman, and because he might help in apprehending her."

"If we have to, I'll ask him," Lisa replied a little reluctantly. "I don't want to bring it up if we don't have to, though. He doesn't need to be reminded of how close he came to dying for a start. And I can't really see quite where his power would be needed where Taylor and you can't do a better job. That said, if she does turn up here, that's a good defense if you guys are somewhere else." The blonde sighed faintly. "I'll have to talk to him about it. Please let me do it, though."

"Of course, Lisa," Taylor assured her. "He probably deserves to know anyway, just in case she does come here. If she hates him that much, he's probably on her hit-list anyway, and he needs to be aware of the problem."

Logging out of the PRT system, Lisa swiveled her chair around and regarded the others. "Looks like the PRT is already doing what they said they'd do. My power agrees that they'll take it very seriously and have a lot of motivation to keep us happy, so I don't think there's much else we can do about that part right now. We'll need to keep a lookout for that damn girl, but my best estimate is that she's not going to turn up for a few days at the minimum. She herself may well not know what she's planning on doing yet, of course. Which will make the PRT's precogs have to work at it as well."

"That's a point, I wonder if Dinah could give us some idea of what's going to happen?" Amy said.

"Once Sophia decides on a path, almost certainly," Lisa nodded. "but if she's just making it up as she goes along, that's going to be a much more difficult thing to predict. I'm sure that the Director is already arranging to ask her, if she hasn't already. We'll get told if they get anything, and since we don't officially know about ' _Prospect_ ' yet, we can't really make inquiries of our own without disclosing things neither we or Dinah want to."

"OK, I can agree with that," the healer nodded.

There was silence for a little while, everyone busy with their own thoughts, until the Varga looked at Amy. "I believe it would be a good idea for you to think of some form of anti-Shadow Stalker defenses for yourself."

"And Dad," Taylor put in firmly. Her father put his hand on hers and squeezed it lightly, smiling at her.

"I've already come up with at least two things that should do the job," Amy replied quietly. "I'm just trying to see if there are any more that can be done quickly. I've got a whole list of things that would help a lot but most of them are pretty involved, and I'm not quite ready to start on them yet. But..."

She sighed gently. "We're going to have to push up some of our plans. What with her out there, Skidmark still bumbling around and bound to turn up sooner or later, and all the other potential threats, I'm starting to get worried that if I wait too long, I'm going to kick myself about wasting time. It's the same problem as the symbiotes and healing people in general, only more immediate. And this is something I _can_ do something about."

"Like what?" Taylor asked curiously, not liking the scent of tired sadness she was getting from her friend. She could see that Lisa had also picked up on it.

"One thing is I'm going to make a crapload of one-shots tonight, and tomorrow. A couple of thousand at least, I've worked out a way to speed up making them which will help," Amy replied firmly. "And all of us are going to carry some. I want them issued to every single DWU worker, at least fifty in every medical kit on the entire site, the same at home for all of us, and more in the infirmary. It's not just in case of Sophia turning up, it's also a general precaution against Skidmark or any other asshole who starts trouble. Or just industrial accidents, this place has a very good safety record but things can still go wrong, it's a dangerous environment."

"I can go along with that, Amy," Taylor's father said, nodding slowly. "No one will mind, and the PRT doesn't need to know anyway. We know they work and are safe."

"When we get Linda power-tested, ' _Ianthe_ ' is going to give the PRT some samples of them as well for testing," Amy added, a thoughtful expression on her face. "The bioagent got them started in thinking about Family bioengineering, they should be more accepting of the one-shots now." She looked at Lisa, who thought for a moment as well, then nodded.

"It should work," she said. "We don't need to mention that the DWU has them already, especially if they don't ask."

"The next thing is that I'm going to upgrade myself, and you, and Danny, with something that should neutralize Sophia's power, at least as far as phased weapons goes," the healer went on with determination. "Her power is disrupted by electricity, right?"

"That's what my power says, and the threat report I read, yes," Lisa confirmed. "She can't go through walls that have power cables in them, for example. I don't know about what voltage is required, or current, but anything close to mains power is more than enough. AC or DC is irrelevant as far as I can tell."

"OK. That means that what I was thinking of should work fine." Amy smiled grimly. "And if she tries actually phasing through our bodies, she's going to be in for a hell of a surprise."

"What did you have in mind, Amy?" Taylor's father asked, not looking nearly as worried about the prospect of being tinkered with as most people would be. Taylor herself was quite amused by the matter-of-fact way he was taking the entire thing, actually, and shared a glance with her draconic demon, who seemed to be enjoying himself at the moment.

"It's a variation on the electrocyte system I designed for Metis," she replied. "They're basically modified muscle cells optimized for the maximum electrical potential across them. Electric fish stack a large number of them to produce an organic battery that can produce hundreds to thousands of volts, at a pretty significant current. My version is _much_ more powerful, eight or nine times the voltage and current, and for a lot longer. I'm going to put a layer of them across our entire musculature, enough to produce maybe a kilovolt or so at a few hundred milliamps. They'll be set up to generate a continuous electrical field that will be confined under the subcutenous fat layer, which should disrupt her phasing power before it can penetrate more than maybe a quarter of an inch."

Taylor and her father exchanged a look, he raising his eyebrows a little. Lisa was nodding, thinking it over. "So if she fired a phased bolt at you, it would revert to normal on impact, before it had penetrated very far?"

"That's the idea."

"But it's still a crossbow bolt," Taylor's father pointed out. "Moving pretty fast. Just because it's no longer immaterial doesn't mean it won't keep going, it just won't go as deep."

"True. That's what the other modifications are for," Amy nodded. "I was thinking about a subcutaneous EDM mesh, which would stop more or less anything, but there are a lot of problems with that. It wouldn't work if only because of putting on or losing weight, since it won't stretch. Sure, Taylor and Varga could probably work out a way to make that work to some extent, but it's too much effort for this sort of problem. A better solution is something that can be biologically produced."

"Your organometallic material," Taylor said. Amy nodded again.

"Yes. I want to reinforce the bones with it, and use a modified version subcutaneously. I'll wrap more around vulnerable organs too. I designed that a while back, I used something very similar on Linda when I made her new body." She tapped a finger on the table, contemplating something in her head. "I'll have to upgrade her as well, this is an improved version. She's already got the bones, and the organ wraps, but the skin layers need modification and she doesn't have the electrocytes."

"Does that mean we'll get the electrical generation ability as well?" Lisa asked, looking quite pleased at the thought.

Amy shrugged. "I can add it. This was mainly intended as a defense against that particular power, but it's easy enough to bring it out to a set of contacts in the hands like with Metis. It means some more work making a more human body resistant to electrical charge, but I need to do that anyway to some level, so… yes, if you want to be able to zap people by shaking hands, I can do that."

Lisa grinned evilly.

"She wants it," the Varga said dryly.

"So I can see," Amy laughed.

"That sounds like a fairly major upgrade, Amy," Taylor's father said. "How long is it going to take?"

"All night, I'm afraid," the brunette said, looking at him. "We'll need to put you in one of the bioconstructs for a few hours to do some of the modifications. I can set both Ianthe and Metis to upgrade Lisa and me the next time we get inside, that's one of their main functions, but you'll need some work first, mostly the neural amplifier system. I'll add the other boosts I gave Über and Leet too. Plus you'll get compatibility with a bioconstruct out of the deal. I should have done most of this weeks ago."

It was Taylor's turn to put her hand on _his_ and squeeze it, as he now looked rather apprehensive. "Welcome to the Family, Dad," she giggled.

"Um..."

"Igor! The Table!"

Taylor jumped to her feet, saluting clumsily. "At oneth, Mithtreth," she lisped, limping to a clear spot in the middle of the room. "As the Mithtreth commandth."

"Oh, dear lord," her father sighed, putting his head in his hands.

The Varga rolled his small dragon body around on the table, laughing his ass off, as Amy gently pulled the now-worried-looking man to his feet.

"Trust me, I'm a professional," she said in a calm voice as she led him to the table.

"A professional _what?_ " he asked in aggrieved tones, shaking his head.

The Varga only laughed harder, joined by Lisa who was grinning like an idiot.

"Make some screens around the table and go away," Amy commanded her helper, who was hunching around the table she was making, dragging a foot behind her. "His daughter doesn't need to see this."

"Mithtreth is too kind." Taylor nodded humbly, tugging a forelock, before following instructions. Shortly she, the demon, and the smug blonde were sitting next to each other at the main table sipping coffee and listening with amusement.

"Gahh! Your hands are _cold!_ "

"Quiet, you big baby."

"Technically, as a prospective new DWU member you should be more polite to the man at the top, you know."

"Yes, Boss. Now roll over. Boss."

"Oh god, why me?"

Taylor grinned to herself, happy that they were doing everything they could to protect the people she valued.

Sophia was going to regret it if and when she popped up again.

* * *

A hundred and forty miles south of Albany, New York, having so far stolen three more cars and switched the plates around with abandon, Sophia thought dark thoughts of revenge. Every time she turned the wheel she winced. The bandages around the severe burn on her left wrist tugged with the motion, as did the blistered and raw skin under them. That was one more count against fucking Armsmaster. She was going to make _his_ death _hurt_.

She'd had about seven seconds warning of something weird happening when the lights in her quarters went out following a deep thud that shook the entire building. Recognizing it as an explosion, a pretty large one, she'd abruptly sat up, wondering if they were under attack and rubbing sleep from her eyes. "What the fuck is that _smell_..." she'd exclaimed in disgust, before her bracelet had suddenly begun beeping wildly with a couple of lights blinking furiously. Before she could react in any useful way, a massive shock had gone through her, making every muscle in her body seize and almost causing her to crack a tooth as her mouth snapped shut.

Her scream of agony was muffled by her own tongue, as she fell to the floor and writhed around. The pain just kept going and going and going…

It was a distinct relief when she finally passed out.

Waking some indeterminate time later, she'd lain on the floor staring at the ceiling, her thoughts as muddled as if she'd been recovering from an anesthetic, for several minutes. Sitting up eventually, she'd looked around in a daze, then down at her left arm, which was oddly numb. The bracelet was apparently inert at the moment and her attempt at phasing through it was sheer reflex, since if she'd been thinking clearly she'd have remembered that trying such a thing resulted in pain.

This time, though… She'd wasted a good two minutes looking at the bracelet lying on the floor before she'd finally worked out what it meant.

She was free.

Staggering to her feet, twitching intermittently and having difficulty walking straight, she'd headed for the bathroom, where she'd splashed cold water on her face. Looking at her reflection in the mirror she slapped her own face as hard as she could, twice. Then again.

"Fuck _me_ , that hurt," she'd finally mumbled, more awake and aware now. Feeling was beginning to come back into her body, unfortunately. Almost every muscle she had was protesting, bone deep aches across her entire body making her wince as she moved. Her lower left arm was still numb and her left hand didn't really want to work, while the ring of seared flesh around it stood out against the dark skin either side of the burn. She looked at it, lifting her arm to her face, smelling burnt pork past the other horrible stench and grimacing.

"Ow."

Running it under the cold tap for a couple of minutes to clean it, she'd fumbled one-handed for the first aid kit every Ward quarters had, ripping it open and quickly bandaging the wound while reluctantly thanking the mandatory first aid training. When she'd managed to get it wrapped up, she'd quickly moved around the room, packing everything she could think of that might be useful into a backpack, which she slung over her good shoulder.

It had only taken another ten minutes to get out of the PRT building unseen. The fact that the power was still completely dead helped immensely, since she could simply phase through walls without worry. She'd first headed to the infirmary, grabbing a field medic's kit and sticking it in her backpack as well, then to the armory, where she'd stolen a handgun and some foam grenades from a locked cabinet by just sticking her hand through and grabbing them. Looking around, she decided that anything heavier was too much effort at the moment, and she didn't have time to pick and choose. A couple of loaded magazines went into the pack as well, then she sank through the floor.

Another fifteen minutes of moving randomly across rooftops and through empty buildings, confused but pleased that the entire area was apparently abandoned, and she headed for a couple of her backup caches. All the time she was wondering what the ungodly stench was about, it made it hard to breath, but didn't deter her.

Well hidden in otherwise inaccessible places her power let her gain access to, she found the caches untouched since she'd set them up. One gave up two and a half thousand dollars in small bills, ' _confiscated_ ' from some of the muggers she'd dealt with before joining the Wards, and another small handgun, a thirty-two caliber revolver. There were also four unused burner phones and a charger.

The other one had a hand crossbow, twin to the ones she normally carried, along with a much larger hunting weapon, each with a dozen broad-head bolts, and a tactical vest she'd stolen from the PRT three months ago. Some careful rejiggering of her load left her with a full pack, weapons in the vest, and the big crossbow slung over her pack. It was awkward but usable.

Within a few minutes she'd located a vehicle old enough that it was amenable to simple theft, which she'd quickly enacted. As soon as it started, she headed towards the docks and the freeway, going away from the main areas of the city.

It was only when she was thirty miles outside the city that she allowed herself to relax. She was finally clear of that horrible smell, which was, according to the radio, the result of some sort of fuckup at a local lab downtown. No one seemed to be following her, at least so far, and the news program she was listening to made no mention of her at all, concentrating on the spill in the city.

With any luck, by the time they got their shit together and noticed she was gone, she'd be two states away.

In the succeeding hours, she'd engaged in wholesale car theft, switching vehicles every hundred miles or so. So far there was still no sign of pursuit.

Half an hour ago she'd stopped to change the bandages on her wrist, doing a much neater job this time, and eat some of the food she'd broken into a closed convenience store in a small town to steal. Her powers made that sort of thing ridiculously simple. She didn't yet have any idea of where she was headed, more or less just going south and inland, since she was playing it by ear. Sooner or later she'd need to stop for some sleep but she was wired on four cans of energy drink and could keep going for hours yet.

After that… Sophia didn't know quite what the future held. Heal up, that much was required. She was still occasionally twitching from the aftereffects of that fucking bracelet that had nearly killed her. Get some more money, that was easy. Weapons, also easy.

Then…

She shrugged. One way or the other, she was going to meet her prey, and exact her revenge. Only then would she be worthy to approach the most impressive predators she'd ever seen and beg to be taught what she needed, _deserved_ , to know.

Flipping through the stations she found a music program and began listening to it, a small dark smile on her lips. ' _Soon, Taylor. Very soon, we'll see just how good you are. Play_ ** _me_** _for a fool?_ ' She shook her head. ' _Can't let that go, bitch. You, and your dad, and Piggot, and..._ '

Mulling over all the people who had wronged her and how she would pay them back, Sophia Hess hummed along to the music and drove on into the night.


	296. Omake - The Delivery (HP)

**_Omake moved to its own story file as the series is now complex enough to warrant that. This is experimental for now and may not necessarily happen with other Omake series, depending on how it works out._**

 _Because of the incredibly irritating munging of URLs that this site insists on thrusting upon us, the following link will need to be copied and fixed. Remove unneeded spaces and convert the word dot into a dot, and it will work fine._

* * *

 **You can find the text of this former chapter here now:** www dot fanfiction dot net / s/12959550/3/The-Long-Slow-Lizarding-of-Hermione-Granger


	297. Omake - Bad Writing

FaerieKnight79 on spacebattles commented as part of a discussion the following:

 _But one's writing style is not a formatting issue. It's based on how you structure your sentences, word choices, and how you describe things. Starting every story you write with "It was a dark and stormy night" or variations of that would be a writing style. Never using five words when fifteen would suffice to describe something is a writing style. Starting every paragraph off with 'Bouncy bouncy bouncy' would be a (admittedly weird and nonsensical) writing style._

How could I let _that_ go?

* * *

It was a dark and stormy night.

"Bouncy, bouncy, bouncy!" squealed Missy.

" _Must_ you?" Carlos sighed. He watched the muggers as they arced through the air, landing on the ground then immediately flipping up again, shrieking, into the black and rain-filled sky. The youngest Ward was clapping her hands in glee as whatever the hell she'd managed to do to space around the empty lot basically produced a series of zones where gravity seemed to be working in reverse. She was skilfully using other small space warps to redirect the four men she'd captured into these zones, repeatedly flinging them upwards over and over. Two of them had already lost their dinners, quite spectacularly.

"Bouncy, bouncy, bouncy!"

"Vista..."

"Wheee!"

"Oh, for _fuck's_..." He put a hand over his face, pulling it downwards, before throwing his hands in the air. The sight of Saurial, who had, as usual, randomly turned up, watched for a moment with a wide grin, then thrown herself into one of the upgoer spots, was probably something he should have expected. She tucked into a roll, her tail somehow managing to direct her spin, pinged off a building, and passed one of the muggers on the way down again. The man stared in horror as she waved gaily.

When Dennis ran past him and jumped into the fray, laughing his head off, he shook his own, turned around, and headed back to the PRT building. "This is like a badly written parody of what life should be like," he grumbled on the way, deciding he simply couldn't wait until he was old enough to leave the Wards. Perhaps Armsmaster would be willing to bend the rules a little? It was only two months until his eighteenth birthday after all.

"Bouncy, bouncy, bouncy!" The cries faded into the distance as he walked.

"Wheee!"

"Bullshiiiit! And wheee!"

Sighing, he turned his face up to the stormy and dark night, complaining, "Why me? What did I do to _you?_ "

There was no answer. There was never an answer.


	298. Strange Visitor From Another

**Canonized guest addition**

 **by Ed Becerra**

* * *

oOo

It didn't take long. It didn't surprise him at all, given the stories Dad had told, and the bad examples he'd said Danny shouldn't follow. Sneaking up on his "Uncle" Tony was a lot like trying to sneak up on Eidolon. Extremely difficult to do, and likely to end painfully. So he simply made a reservation at the restaurant for that evening, and when he arrived, he was immediately escorted to the penthouse.

The elevator was impressive - there was probably more tinkertech-based scanning devices in it than anyplace outside of a villains lair. Come to think of it...

Ah, well. He had nothing to hide and not much to worry about. If there was anything he and Antonio agreed upon whole-heartedly, it was the sanctity of family.

The guard waiting for him at the penthouse was surprisingly urbane and polite. Or perhaps not so surprising. Dad had always stressed the high value the family placed on good manners. They might be planning on killing you, but unless you'd really screwed up, they'd never be rude about it.

He took a deep breath and stepped through the door Luigi had just opened.

"Hello, Uncle Tony, Aunt Serafina."

oOo

The rooftop garden boggled the mind.

"Plum tomatoes, really?"

Antonio shrugged. "Everyone needs a hobby that's in no way connected to their work. Mine is the creation of the perfect pasta sauce." He grinned at the flat "whut" expression on young Danny's face.

"I thought it might be more... I don't know. Dealing with difficult people, I suppose. Dangling unco-operative types from rooftops."

"A hobby is supposed to take you _away_ from the frustrations of your daily grind, Danny, not add to them," he laughed. "What, did you imagine me in some opulent chair, stroking a Persian cat and telling someone that they've failed me for the last time?"

"Ummm..."

"That's what I have _minions_ for," laughed the old man. "Oddly, Annette commented on that too. Ironic, considering..."

"You knew?" asked Danny carefully.

"Her parents knew, so her grandparents knew. That meant we knew. We simply kept quiet about it, respecting the rules. We **do** understand _omerta_ , Danny." Antonio laughed. "Besides, I think we both know that if the idiots in the PRT hadn't birdcaged that maniac first, Annette likely would have eventually saved them the trouble. She always did have her eyes on the prize."

"I can see that, actually. She always was the more scheming of the two of us. And the more unforgiving. God, if she'd known what that hellhole of a school was going to try to do to Taylor, she'd have been there with a jerrycan of gas and a lighter. I might even have joined her."

"Danny, Danny, Danny, five gallons of gasoline and a zippo? I'm slightly disappointed in Charles, he should have taught you better."

"Better?" bristled Danny.

"Of course! You don't bring a mere five gallons, you bring ten gallons and a tire apiece, for everyone who needs ... _chastising_. Though that's mostly to get their attention. If you've done things right from the start, they'll understand their errors and correct things. Of course, if they refuse, you go ahead and use them."

Antonio chuckled at the dumbfounded expression on Danny's face. "I've grown old, not weak. Yet. But sit, sit, we're here to talk of peace between us and the making of amends, the both of us. Myself more than you, I admit. I've made more mistakes than you have, if only because I've lived longer than you. And Jesus knows I have amends to make. Your grandfather took me in off the streets of that pesthole in Sicily, taught me everything I know, and all he asked of me besides loyalty was that when he was gone, I would watch over Charles and his family. Something I've done poorly, I admit. And I can only beg your forgiveness for that."

"Some of that - a _lot_ of that - is my own fault. I certainly didn't make it any easier for you."

"Blame enough to go around, Danny. Be that as it may. I do have some important things to tell you. Important for you, for Taylor, and for the Union."

"This isn't something I might have to testify to in court someday, is it?"

"Perhaps. We won't hold it against you, though." Antonio leaned over to prune a tomato vine, then looked back at Danny. "We're changing our operations in Brockton Bay. Beginning now, gun running, hard drugs, and working girls will not be tolerated in Brockton Bay, not by any of the Families. Smuggling untaxed goods, running numbers, anything soft is in. And if people need encouragement, they'll be taken and encouraged somewhere far away from the Docks. Little Taylor's already gotten enough garbage thrown at her, she doesn't need her grand-uncle Tony or any of his 'friends' contributing to that."

Danny tried to surreptitiously bite the inside of his cheek to keep from laughing. "She's not all that little any more, Uncle Tony."

The older man sighed and wiped a mock tear from one cheek. "They grow up so fast, these days."

"Faster than any father can imagine," grinned Danny at his own inside joke. "But thank you. I know how much you and the other families are sacrificing here."

"Not as much as one would think. We haven't lasted this long by being stupid, and only the terminally stupid would do anything to annoy you, the Union, or the Family."

"Skidmark," said Danny flatly.

"I _did_ say the terminally stupid. Speaking of which, I realize a certain other Family likely has little need of our money, but the price on that fool's head was set with honest intent. Should he have an... _accident_... at their talons, the money is theirs for the asking. Would you pass that along for us?"

"Consider it mentioned."

"Thank you." Antonio relaxed. "Did I tell you we've all seen that video of little Taylor - okay, _not_ so little any more! - giving that piece of Merchant scum a beatdown? She's so popular, some of the boys talked about recruiting her! I put a quick stop to that, but let me tell you, Danny, it was as funny as hell to listen to them giving a running critique about that takedown. Fonzi saw it over in Chicago, and he kept commenting 'Why didn't she break his knees? She should have gone for the knees!' Damn, it was hilarious. And everyone boo'ed when Panacea healed that idiot. Yeah, Miss Dallon's a hero and all, we get that, but really - that idiot is the sort that gives crime a bad name."

"And you can say that with a straight face," Danny said, rolling his eyes.

Antonio grinned back at him like the street urchin he'd once been. "I know, right?"

Serafina joined them on the terrace. Age had only honed her beauty. "Has he been smoking again, Danny? Tell me the truth. I keep telling him that if he keeps it up, I'll start _treating_ his cigars."

Danny tried not to wince. Serafina held several degrees in organic chemistry and when younger had been a "person of interest" in several incidents of fatal food poisoning that happened to conveniently strike people who'd injured her family in some way.

No arrests and no convictions, of course.

Antonio immediately began to grovel in a suitably melodramatic fashion, insisting he hadn't smoked in front of Danny since the younger man had arrived.

"Oh, put a sock in it, you silly old man. We need to tell Danny what we've done to his reputation, humbly ask his pardon, and then beg him for a favor."

Now the older man was miming a shot to the heart, and staggered over to an armchair to dramatically collapse. Kaiju herself would have approved of the over-acting.

"Favor? Nothing–"

"No, nothing like that, Danny. We need some advice. We... have another white sheep in the Family."

Danny knew it would be rude. He knew that it would be insulting. That's why his only reaction was a small smile instead of a rolling belly laugh.

"How can I help?"

oOo

Antonio explained at great length about the "Boss of the Docks" rumor that, while he hadn't started it, had certainly encouraged it when he'd found out about it, along with the report from the two delivery mooks that the "Union" was filled with stone-cold killers who openly bragged about how skillfully they were sniping people.

Danny facepalmed. "Seriously, Uncle Tony?"

"That last part wasn't my fault, Danny. Someone got Benny drunk and got the story of the delivery out of him. _**THAT**_ "someone" has been dealt with. And Benny's been _vigorously_ encouraged to stay sober from now on. I've been running damage control on the rest of the story. But I'm afraid that being 'the Boss of the Brockton Bay Docks' is something you're stuck with." Antonio shook his head. "Too many people are too proud that you're 'finally living up to his _Nannu_ Marcel's legacy'."

Serafina reached over and gently dope-slapped her husband. "And you're one of them, old man."

Antonio pouted, a hilarious expression on someone of his age. "Ok, maybe just a little."

Danny sighed, a little worried. "But you _are_ running damage control? I can't take care of Taylor if the PRT or the Protectorate stuff me in the Birdcage thinking I'm some sort of super-Godfather."

"That I am," nodded Antonio. "You're Family. Not quite as large as THE Family, but still..." He grinned and dodged another gentle slap from his wife.

"Be nice," she hissed.

"I've fallen into a Mob family situation comedy," Danny said with a straight face. "Any moment now, Timothy Van Patten's going to rush on stage, tell me I got the scene wrong, and that we need to reshoot it again."

That had all three of them laughing.

Danny took a deep breath. "So I'm not the only white sheep of the family any more, eh? What's happened, and how can I help?"

Serafina tugged on one ear in an old embarrassed tell. "Well, you see, Michaelangelo Donatello-"

"Wait, what? Really?"

Sera sighed. "We've forbidden his mother - my grandniece - from ever naming a baby again without one of us in the room holding a veto. But yes, Michaelangelo Donatello Castiglione, little Mikey Castle, is... a cape geek." She shrugged. "He has been since he was old enough to play with an action figure. He never wanted to take part in this Thing of Ours. He wasn't against us, it simply didn't _interest_ him. But he _did_ figure something out that let him take his passion and make use of it in a legal way that would also benefit the Families. As a success on the other side of the street, we'd like your professional opinion of his ... dream."

She set a small folder in front of him, along with a drink for the each of them. "We'll need them. Trust me."

It was a long and interesting read.

Danny had several drinks. Taylor was going to _love_ this.

oOo


	299. Guest Omake-My printer has more than 3D

**My printer has more than 3D...**

 **By Cmptrwz**

* * *

"We need another printer," Taylor said as she came out from the Assassin's Cloak technique, causing Lisa to jump a little.

"Don't DO that!" Lisa complained. "And why do we need another printer? This one works fine."

"It doesn't do what I need it to, and you will yell at me if I upgrade this one."

Lisa stared at Taylor, groaned, and ordered another printer. Because while some part of her had no desire to know the vast majority of her was too curious to not let Taylor go for it.

* * *

"What in the world did you do to that poor printer?" Amy asked, staring at the monstrosity that the new printer had become.

"I made it so that it can print on a wider variety of materials," Taylor answered. "Also, it was seriously lacking in the ability to print in higher dimensions, and a number of other features. Though figuring out how to re-write the driver was fairly difficult."

"And why did you need to make a printer do this?" Lisa asked, examining the printer. She wasn't complaining, mind you. Just asking out of curiosity. "Given that you can just make things appear out of nowhere?"

"Because I felt like it," Taylor said. "Oh, and this way you two can get in on the fun too."

"Both perfectly valid, and sensible, reasons," Lisa admitted. "So how do we use it?"

"Well, first you need to decide how you want it to layer the dimensions," Taylor said, producing a pamphlet for them to look at. "As well as what kind of ink you want to use. I don't recommend using the human blood cartridges unless you are intending for some very odd questions to be asked, mind you."

* * *

"What in the world is that?" Armsmaster asked, staring at the sheet of paper Metis had just put down on the table. It was registering as perfectly flat and at the same time quite drastically textured.

"You did want a safety sheet and reference document for Raptaur's building-destroyer weapon, correct?" Metis answered. "That is the basic information sheet."

Armsmaster picked the paper up, wincing as he looked at it. He found that it was mildly interactive with printed-on buttons at the bottom of the sheet, each of which brought different content to the surface. The images were also all slightly interactive, which he discovered after he prodded one and the contents spun so he could see the back of the pictured object.

"Can you explain how you made the information sheet?" Dragon asked after watching Armsmaster for a couple of minutes.

"Not really?" Metis said, gesturing at the end of the counter with the computers. "I just used the new printer. How it works isn't something my branch of the Family specializes in, after all."

Two hours later Armsmaster and Dragon left, Dragon trying to figure out how she had ended up with a headache that just wouldn't go away.

As soon as the door had shut and Lisa was certain they couldn't hear her (plus two minutes to be safe) the BBFO office was filled with laughter.


	300. Upgrades and Announcements

**Monday, March 8, 2011**

Vicky opened her eyes, yawning widely, then sat up. Looking at the clock on her bedside table she saw it was only about half past six in the morning, which was definitely earlier than she normally woke, since she could easily make it to school in a fraction of the time most people took. That said she was now wide awake, so there wasn't any point in trying to get another hour of sleep. She knew from past experience that doing so left her feeling more tired rather than less for some hours.

When she was up, she was up.

Yawning again, she rubbed one eye as she climbed out of bed, floating across the room to the door having glanced out the window and seen a slightly damp but clear March dawn. After a visit to the bathroom, a shower, and the other normal ablutions, she went back to her room and got dressed. Heading downstairs for breakfast, she stopped to tap on her sister's door. "Hey, Ames, you up yet?" she whispered, not wanting to wake their parents if they were still asleep. Old people needed their rest, after all.

Amy was normally up around this time, being something of an early to rise, late to bed type, and she was puzzled that there was no sign of her sister yet. After a moment, she opened the door and peered inside, her eyebrows going up at the sight of the neatly made bed with no sign of the other girl having used it. "Huh. That's… unusual," she muttered, quietly closing the door again and resuming her descent of the stairs. A little while later she was sitting in front of a large bowl of cereal, finding that after all the excitement the day before she was still pretty hungry, even having had a large dinner when they all got home.

Overall she was very pleased about how well things had gone. The stink of that horrible chemical had been hard to live with, but in the end it was now just a memory, so there wasn't anything to dwell on. She was fairly sure, even so, that the poor Mayor was going to have a lot of people complaining to him about it. People did that.

A lot, from what she'd seen so far.

' _Can't satisfy everyone, I suppose,_ ' she shrugged, spooning cereal into her mouth. ' _No matter what you do. Mom is always saying that anyway, and so is Aunt Sarah._ ' Having talked to the man, she felt he was easily able to deal with the issues that would come up, but she didn't envy him the job. Not that it likely that she'd ever be elected Mayor in the first place, she mused with a faint snort coming out at the concept.

She was still pleased about how unusually complimentary Director Piggot had been to them all. In the past, the woman had always struck her as more than a little intimidating and not at all happy about the idea of Capes that weren't associated with the PRT being out there, but recently she certainly seemed to have mellowed a lot in some key areas. ' _Perhaps Amy healing her up helped her mood?_ ' she thought. ' _It could hardly have made it worse. I doubt that being so ill all the time makes anyone happier_.' Whatever the truth of it, the end result from her point of view was that the blonde woman was a lot easier to deal with, not giving off the sensation of someone who was about to shout at you merely for existing any more. She had no doubt that Piggot could still cut someone down to size with a few well-chosen words, she was no less formidable than before, but it wasn't so in your face these days. Which was something of a relief.

Successfully capturing Coil was undoubtedly also something that had helped. Vicky was proud to have helped in such a major operation, however peripherally, since it could only in the long run raise the status of her family, help the city she lived in, and reduce crime.

The money was nice too, of course.

There were sounds from upstairs that suggested her parents were about to get up. She glanced at the ceiling for a moment, then once again wondered where her sister was. Had she really stayed out all night? Maybe stayed at Taylor's house? Pulling out her phone, she prodded it one-handed, then put it to her ear.

The other end rang a couple of times then was answered.

" _Hi, Vicky. Sorry about not coming home_ ," her sister said, sounding a little tired but not too bad.

"Where are you, Ames?" Vicky asked, mildly concerned.

" _I ended up staying at the DWU_ ," the other girl said. " _Some things came up that were a little worrying and I was discussing it with everyone here, until it was so late there was no point coming back. I'll meet you at school later_."

"OK." Vicky wondered what her sister meant by the comments. "Did you tell Mom?"

" _I texted her to let her know I'd be in very late, but by the time it_ ** _was_** _very late, it was too late to say I wouldn't come home at all_ ," Amy replied, slightly guiltily. " _Let her know, will you?_ "

"Sure. But she's going to look weirdly at you when you get home." Vicky giggled for a moment. "I assume nothing… interesting… happened?"

" _Define interesting,_ " her sister's dry voice commented, making her laugh again. " _Nothing like you're thinking happened. It was just a lot of talking, mostly. Taylor was here too, it affects her, and Danny. I'll explain it all when I see you. Tell Mom that if it hasn't already happened, she's probably going to get a call from Director Piggot a little later_." Her voice now sounded irritated and flat. " _Long story, but it boils down to the fact that the PRT lost someone they shouldn't have and it's potentially going to be a pain in the ass for quite a lot of people_." There was a sound in the background, Amy going silent for a moment, then resuming speaking. " _Sorry, got to go, but I'll see you in an hour and a half or so_."

"Make sure you get something to eat, you get even crabbier than normal on an empty stomach," Vicky said with a smile.

" _Oh, thanks. Don't worry, the cafeteria here is pretty good as you know, I'm just about to go for breakfast_." Her sister's voice was amused again. " _See you soon_."

"OK. Bye, Ames." Disconnecting, Vicky dropped the phone back into her pocket, finished her cereal, then got up to clean the bowl. By the time her parents came downstairs she was investigating the fridge to see if there was anything else worth eating in there.

"You're up early," Carol said with a slight yawn, heading straight for the coffee machine on the end of the counter, which the blonde had started a few minutes earlier. Her father sat down at the end of the table, smiling at her for a moment, then took the cup of coffee his wife handed him with a nod of thanks. She made another one for herself, watching as Vicky pulled out some bacon and eggs, deciding that a traditional cooked breakfast was called for as the cereal hadn't quite done the job.

"Yeah, I woke up about forty minutes ago and couldn't get back to sleep, so I decided to get up," Vicky replied, putting the frying pan on the stove and adding some olive oil to it.

"Is Amy up yet?"

"Um… Yes, but she's sort of not here," Vicky admitted as she turned the stove on.

"Oh?" Carol looked momentarily suspicious, which didn't surprise her. "Where is she?"

"She stayed at the DWU last night." At her mother's surprised and concerned look, she explained what her sister had said, while she started cooking the bacon. Mark got up and began toasting some bread, listening quietly to them talk.

"That girl..." Carol shook her head. "She has some very odd friends. Oh, well, I suppose she's old enough to deal with the consequences of staying up most of the night, and she's certainly in one of the safest places around. Did she say what the Director wanted to talk to me about?"

"No, not really. Only what I told you."

"Hmm. I suppose we'll have to wait and see, then." The older woman watched as Vicky cracked a couple of eggs into the pan. "Two for me, please, Vicky," she added, before going and sitting down at the table.

Vicky looked over her shoulder and grinned. "Happy to see someone else do the cooking for once?"

"It makes a nice change," her mother admitted with a small smile. "If we survive your work, we may have to make this a regular thing."

Shaking her head, the blonde girl went back to frying the eggs, a little amused at how mellow her mother was right now. Possibly the Director's recent attitudinal change was catching? Her father finished his own task, put the toast on three plates, and sat down again. Shortly she was adding eggs to the toast and distributing the plates.

Near the end of the breakfast, the phone rang. Carol looked over at it, then got up and retrieved the handset that lived in the kitchen. With a glance at the display, she put it to her ear. "Hello, Director Piggot. What can I do for you today?"

Mark and Vicky watched with interest as she went silent, nodding every now and then with small murmurs of acknowledgment. A minute or so into the conversation, her face changed, from neutral to somewhat disturbed, with growing levels of worry and anger. Vicky wondered what she was hearing. It didn't look good.

"I see. That seems… somewhat careless."

There was another pause. Carol sighed. "No, I'm not impugning Armsmaster's talents, not at all. I understand. Yes, I agree. But you see my point?"

Vicky glanced at her father, who was frowning slightly.

"Well, I understand that point. I'll have to talk to Danny directly, I realize you can't divulge everything without the Hebert's permission. But this also directly affects my family, so you understand my concern?"

Carol nodded again absently as the two watchers wondered what was going in. Eventually, the woman sighed. "All right. Thank you for letting me know. No, it wouldn't have helped to call me last night, I suspect. Clearly you had a difficult series of decisions to make. And it must have been rather unnerving to have to admit this to Saurial and Raptaur. How did they take it?"

This time the pause was somewhat shorter and ended up with her shaking her head. "I have no idea either. I'm almost past the point of reacting in surprise to anything those bizarre reptiles do, it's just something I guess everyone will end up having to accept. As you say, they don't do normal. All right, Emily, I'll discuss the situation with my family today and we'll work out what our next step is. Thank you for letting me know. You'll be talking to Arcadia next?" Carol nodded slightly at the response.

"Fine. I would assume that Amy already knows this since she didn't come home last night, apparently she stayed at the BBFO offices. I suspect I now know why. Yes. All right, I'll do that. Good bye." Flicking the call end button with a thumb, she dropped the phone back into the charger, then made another cup of coffee, looking thoughtful. When she had it, she sat down and rubbed her temples for a few seconds as her husband and daughter looked at her, then each other.

"What's the problem, Mom?" Vicky finally asked, dying of curiosity.

"Amy was right, the PRT was a bit careless," Carol grumbled, picking up her cup and drinking from it, then putting it down again. "Do you know Shadow Stalker?" she asked a moment later. Somewhat surprised at the apparent non-sequitur, Vicky nodded.

"Not well, not like the other Wards, she's difficult to like," she replied cautiously. "More than a little aggressive and sort of arrogant, not to mention bad-tempered. Plus she doesn't go to Arcadia."

"You're aware of her civilian ID?" her mother asked. Vicky was quite surprised at this, but eventually shook her head.

"No, it never really came up. Like I said, she's not a friend." The girl stared at her mother. "Is this anything to do with why she's been confined to the PRT building since sometime in early January?"

Carol sighed heavily. "Yes. I don't have all the details, but apparently in her civilian ID she goes to Winslow. She, along with two other girls, was involved in a serious case of bullying against another student there, which was covered up through a mix of incompetence and maliciousness by both her PRT handler and the Winslow administration." The woman looked at her husband. "I always said that place was run by some of the least suitable people to be around children that I've ever run into."

Mark nodded, smiling a little. "I remember. It's not the first time I've heard it, some of the stories I've come across from there are… Well, they make me very glad our girls go to Arcadia."

"Agreed," Carol replied.

Vicky was thinking hard. This sounded very familiar. After a moment, her eyes widened. "Shit. It was Taylor. They were bullying Taylor!"

It was her parents turn to look at her this time. "You know about that?"

"Yeah, she told me and Amy a few weeks back. We were in Fugly's and this nasty little bitch called… Madeline? Mad-something..." Vicky thought some more, then snapped her fingers. "Madison, that's it. Bad-tempered stuck up little cow, from what I saw. Anyway, she turned up out of the blue and started having a go at Taylor. It was pretty funny, Taylor shot her down cold, and the idiot and her two friends ended up getting kicked out!" She grinned at the memory. "She told us what happened after that. It sounded fucking awful. Poor girl, how she stopped from either killing herself or them I have no idea."

Carol looked intrigued, but didn't ask for details. "I see. Well, apparently that bullying campaign came to a very abrupt end when the girls were caught in the act. The end result was that all three were expelled, at least one of them is in therapy, and Shadow Stalker was put under house arrest. Long story short, when the investigation was completed Emily wanted her locked up, but she was overruled by the higher-level PRT administration for some reason. The girl was still in confinement yesterday, right up until the point that one of Coil's booby-traps killed power to the building and in the process caused some sort of error in the tracking bracelet she was wearing, which also neutralized her powers."

"And the bitch ran for it?" Vicky asked, knowing the answer and with a sense of foreboding. Her mother nodded, not even correcting her language.

"Yes. It was several hours before anyone noticed and she was long gone by then. The director is of the opinion that she's bound to turn up sooner or later, although the feeling is not in the next couple of days to a week at the least since she probably was injured in her escape based on evidence found. The PRT precogs and analysts are certain that as and when she _does_ reappear, she's going to go after everyone she feels has somehow wronged her. The Heberts are right at the top of that assumed list, as is Director Piggot herself. Armsmaster as well, in all likelihood."

"And Amy and I might be on it too since we're Taylor's friends?" Vicky guessed.

Carol sighed again, with a nod. "Probably. Amy more likely than you, but Emily said we should assume that Shadow Stalker has something of a hate on for anyone who knows the girl. They're going to be placing surveillance on a number of her friends, the Wards are all being tracked and will be told to be extra vigilant, and she offered similar support to us until that damn girl is found. I told her we'd discuss it and let her know. She's sending over the released security bulletin and some other data on Stalker by secure courier later, so we can see what we're dealing with."

"What about Taylor and Danny?" Vicky asked with worry.

"Saurial and Raptaur made it very clear that they would provide any required protection," Carol replied. "Overall it was felt unwise to do other than accept it, although they're going to provide the DWU security department with some aid, just in case the damn girl turns up there." She rubbed her temples again. "Damn it. This is _not_ a helpful scenario. We really don't need a former _Ward_ of all people upsetting the crazy lizard people, leaving aside the other trouble she could cause everyone. And if this hits the press it won't reflect well on the PRT, which is unfortunate bearing in mind how well the local office is working with others recently."

"If Shadow Stalker goes after Taylor when Saurial is around I doubt she'd have time to do more than scream in horror, very briefly," Vicky smiled, although her heart wasn't in it. "Shit. This is pretty bad."

"It's certainly not going to make life any easier for a number of people," Mark commented.

"Not even slightly," Carol agreed. "How annoying. I was hoping that with Coil gone, things would settle down since the Merchants are history now too, and both the ABB and E88 are being very circumspect. We hardly need some stupid little girl with visions of vengeance stirring the pot." She muttered under her breath for a moment, then visibly attempted to calm herself. "It can't be helped, I suppose." Glancing at her watch, she added, "You'll have to leave for school in a moment. Keep your eyes open, talk to your friends and tell them to do the same thing, and watch Taylor, please. I like the young lady and considering that she's the most likely high priority target, the more eyes on her the better. And look after your sister too."

"OK, Mom," Vicky agreed, having already decided for herself to do those things.

Getting up, she grabbed a can of soda out of the fridge, then waved to her parents. "See you later. I'll let Amy know about this."

"Thank you, Vicky," her mother said.

Retrieving her backpack from her room, the blonde pulled her coat on, zipped it up, then left the house, taking off as she popped the tab on the can. Flying directly toward Arcadia a couple of hundred feet up, sipping her drink, she pondered what the true story was about Shadow Stalker, the Family, and the Heberts.

* * *

Putting her phone on the table, Amy watched as her bioconstruct stumbled around the room, tripping over its own tail a couple of time, while Taylor and Lisa, the latter of whom was currently in Metis, fell about laughing.

' _Ianthe_ ' gave them an unfriendly look. "This is harder than it looks," ' _she_ ' said with irritation.

"It's not nearly as difficult as it should be, Danny," Amy snickered. "Lisa and I both cheat, our powers gave us an advantage in controlling the construct, although without my neural mod pack it wouldn't be possible for anyone else to do it at all. It'll come to you, you're already not falling over as much as you were ten minutes ago."

Danny, driving the purple lizard, nodded absently, attempting to stand up without wobbling back and forth too much. Amy had spend a couple of hours manually doing most of the more critical modifications, fine tuning her neural amplifier system, then fixing a few other minor things she thought of on the way, before they'd shoved the elder Hebert into Ianthe over a certain amount of protestation. Luckily he was fairly skinny, but even so it was a slightly tight fit. She'd made a mental note to improve on that for next time.

When he was safely linked up, which she'd monitored very carefully since this was the first time trying the process with someone who wasn't a Parahuman, she'd shut him and the construct down to let her reprogram it to do all the remaining structural upgrades, which being inside the bioconstruct made much easier.

It was, after all, one of the main uses she'd designed the thing to support. It could practically dismantle a human body and rebuild it while keeping the human alive and functional. Without the neural amplifier and the symbiote as well to authorize everything, though, it would only heal a person, in the very unlikely case that anyone managed to find themselves inside one.

She'd kept him asleep for several hours to allow the main work to complete while she checked on it occasionally, feeling that it was better to take things in steps. Once he was processing away nicely, she'd reprogrammed ' _Metis_ ' to do the same upgrades to Lisa and her, which was a quicker job than Danny was since she'd already added a number of what was becoming her standard Family Brute/Striker/Blaster package.

Amy had gone first, since she wanted the upgrades in place before school, and Lisa could simply stay inside the rest of the day if necessary. Once her own modifications were finished, the blonde took her place, then they woke Danny to see how quickly he could learn to run a bioconstruct. She was planning on making him a suitable one as a gift, something she'd been thinking about for a while now, and was also considering seeing if either Randall or Kevin were interested.

There was a suspicion at the back of her mind that the answer would probably be a fairly emphatic yes…

"Oops," the Ianthefied Danny muttered, tripping and sprawling face-first on the floor again. His daughter stared wide-eyed, then started laughing even harder.

"Damn tail," he added as he pushed himself to his feet again. "Keeps getting in the way."

"Tails are cool, Dad, you know that," Taylor giggled, waving at him with her own.

"I'm not entirely convinced, myself," he grumbled, cautiously taking a few steps. Despite his words, the one he currently possessed seemed to be more or less behaving itself now. All three girls watched as he walked around with growing confidence, within twenty more minutes looking just about as natural as Amy did when she was running the construct.

"Not bad, Danny," she finally said with approval. "Not bad at all. I'm very pleased how well the latest neural amplifier works."

"This is undoubtedly the strangest experience I've ever had," he replied, looking at her, then at the mirror Taylor had made on one wall. Reaching up he felt a fang with a claw, shaking his head in wonder. "Very interesting, but _very_ strange. I have a new appreciation for how much of a shock your own change must have been at first, Taylor."

The brunette girl came over to him, changing onto her Raptaur form on the way. The Varga appeared as the second aspect, in an identical form, the first time the other aspect had been out for an hour or so since they'd gotten quite tired during the very long discussion throughout the night. He and Taylor had taken turns running her body while they let the second aspect rest. "I think it looks good on you," she said to her father approvingly, looking him up and down. "I mean, it's a little weird to look at Ianthe and know it's you in there, since you sound exactly the same as she normally does, but you know what I mean. We need to decide what color your scales should be for your own bioconstruct."

"And what part of the Family," Lisa chuckled. "Our branch, or hers? Or maybe an entirely new one." The black lizard looked amused. "We don't have any boys yet, although we keep talking about Big Brother."

"Big Brother is considerably larger, though," the Varga noted, tipping his head to the side and inspecting Danny closely. "Perhaps little brother? Or an elder cousin, come to check that the young ladies aren't causing too much trouble." He grinned when Danny gave him a hard look. "Yes, that expression really sells it. Well done."

"You are a pain in the ass," Danny muttered. The demon bowed, still grinning.

"Of course. Thank you. And Taylor is right, it does suit you." He looked around at the others. "I personally approve of the theme, of course."

"Of course. Reptiles'R'Us is our motto," Lisa snickered.

"I'm still not sure how the hell we ended up like this after only two months or so," Danny sighed. He looked at Amy. "How much longer do I have to stay in here? It's interesting, but it's also..." Glancing at the time on one of the computer screen savers, he finished, "… nearly seven AM. I'm going to have to go to work soon and deal with the PRT delivery, talk to the director, and let Mark know what's going on. Not to mention I could do with breakfast."

Walking over to him, Amy put her hand on the construct and checked. "You're done, actually. You can come out. Unless you want to experiment with some of the other toys, like the dart launchers?"

He smiled at her, but shook his head. "Not right now, I really do need to get to work. But thank you for all your effort, Amy."

"It's not a problem," she assured him. "The Family helps its people. And I like and owe you a lot, same as Taylor."

Giving her a pat on the head with one large scaled hand, he grinned. "You are a very good person, Amy. I'm more than happy that Taylor and you became friends." As she looked pleased, he headed to the screened off area that still surrounded where the table of Igorness had been. "I'll just slip out of something very odd."

"Here, Dad," Taylor called, making him look back, in time to catch the large towel she made and tossed him. "You might need this."

"Thanks, dear," he replied. All four of them watched the violet lizard disappear behind the screens.

"Good work, Amy," the Varga said, nodding approvingly. "Very good work. I doubt that Sophia will show her face in the next few days, but having these precautions taken makes me much happier. Just in case everyone's predictions are wrong."

Amy sighed faintly. "I should have started on something like this weeks ago," she complained, to herself mainly. "And made a lot of one-shots sooner as well."

"We sure have a lot of them now," Lisa said, looking at the six large transparent containers full of the small off-white lozenges. There were over two and a half thousand of the things there. "You might have got a little carried away."

"They'll keep for a decade or two at least, with this latest version, so there's no reason not to have plenty," Amy shrugged. "And the new method of making them is a lot quicker, I can punch them out by the dozens per minute with no trouble. I also think I've worked out a construct design to make them automatically, too, I'll make a prototype sometime this week. Then we'll have as many as we'd ever need."

Taylor picked up one of the containers and shook it gently, watching the little spore-like lifeforms rattle around inside. "You really are amazing, Amy," she said quietly. "I can make things that kill people with no effort at all, but you can make things that _fix_ people nearly as easily. That's… impressive."

"And much harder," the demon added, nodding. "Not to mention rarer. I think you're right, you need to get the PRT to investigate using these. If you can get them to the point that they can be handed out even at a hospital, never mind just become a standard medical kit addition, you will save many, many lives."

The healer nodded with a small smile. "That would definitely be a big weight off my mind," she admitted. "Like I've said before, I feel guilty about having something like this and _not_ using it."

Taylor made a couple of smaller containers, then scooped out a handful of the healing spores into each. "I'll keep this one with me, these are for you," she said, pushing one of the boxes, about the size and shape of a phone, towards Amy, who picked it up and slipped it into her pocket.

"Great." Looking at her watch, Amy winced. "Barely time to get some breakfast now, we'd better hurry or we'll be late for school."

Moments later Danny stepped out from behind the screen, adjusting his shirt. He looked behind himself as the Ianthe construct followed him, watching him with apparent curiosity. "That is just the smallest amount creepy, Amy," he said, not taking his eyes from ' _Ianthe,_ ' who was staring at him with her head a little on one side, giving off a very catlike air. "How smart is this thing without someone inside it?"

"Smarter than she was, certainly," Amy said, watching with amused satisfaction. "She's definitely starting to pick up some mannerisms, which is interesting. The auxiliary brain retains even more data than I originally expected, which is very useful from the standpoint of control, reflexes, speech patterns, that sort of thing, but it also seems to be getting smarter more quickly than I thought it would."

' _Ianthe_ ' looked over at her at the sound of her voice, then walked over and squatted down next to her. Amy put her hand on the bioconstruct's head, quickly checking it. The artificial life-form was in peak condition. "It'll be interesting to see what develops, but I don't expect much more than a particularly smart dog or something like that." Making the appropriate hand signals, she followed it into the workroom, where she stroked it for a moment then shut it down for now. "See you later, my friend," she whispered to what was probably her best work, then left the room and locked up. "Come on, Taylor, let's get something to eat and get to school. I want to see what happens when you turn up with Saurial, or whatever you're planning on doing."

Taylor grinned, reverting to her base form, the Varga-controlled aspect disappearing for the moment. "Still working on the best method," her friend admitted. "It depends on what Director Piggot told the school, which I guess we'll find out when we get there."

"Try not to upset everyone too much, Taylor," Danny said.

His daughter glanced at him, laughed in a deliberately over-the-top manner, and headed towards the door. Danny, Amy, and Lisa all exchanged a glance.

"Poor Arcadia," the latter quipped. "Take photos."

"See you two later," Amy sighed, following her friend with a slight feeling of worry. "Danny, I'll activate the boosts later when I have time to teach you how they work, but for now you should be fine."

"All right, Amy," he called as she reached the door and looked back. "And thank you again."

With a wave, she left, walking beside Taylor towards the cafeteria and a quick breakfast. "Please don't wreck Arcadia, I like it," she mumbled.

"So do I," Taylor chuckled. "Don't worry, I won't do anything too excessive. I was mainly thinking about what Lucy is going to do if Saurial wanders in and sits down next to us at lunch..."

Amy looked at her, then both of them started giggling.

* * *

Vice Principal Lauren Howell looked up from placing her briefcase on her desk as there was a tap on the door. "Do you have a moment, Lauren?" the man there asked.

"Of course, Donald," she replied, waving him in. "Pardon me, I only just arrived," she added, taking her coat off and hanging it up. "Would you like some coffee?" She glanced at her coffee machine, a present from friends to mark the occasion of her becoming the vice principal of such a well-known school. It was something she lovingly cared for as it was a very nice present, and one she used every day, being rather fond of coffee.

"Thanks," her visitor, Donald Balmer, the principal of the school, replied, as he sat down. Filling the machine with fresh beans and water from a bottle she kept in the small fridge under her desk, she started it working.

"That won't take long. So, how can I help you?" she asked as she sat down behind her desk.

"A couple of things," he replied. "As you know, I'm retiring at the end of the year." He smiled a little. "Sixty-six is old enough to feel I've done my part in handling the young people here. Martha and I are planning on heading down south. We're both tired of the winters here, even if they're milder than some areas in the state."

"We'll miss you," she replied with total honesty. While he didn't interact with the students on the day to day basis she did these days, he ran the administration of the school very well in her opinion.

"I'll miss the job as well, I expect, at least for a while. But I'll be leaving it in good hands." He studied her for a moment. "I've put your name forward to the board of governors as my choice for the new principal. You know the job better than I do, the staff and students all respect you, and I can't think of anyone I'd trust more to succeed me. They agree."

She stared at him for a moment, slightly shocked. She'd known she was up for the job, but by the sound of it, it was more or less a done deal. "I… thank you, Donald, that's very good to hear."

He waved a hand dismissively. "It was my pleasure, Lauren. The only other person I'd trust to do it is Mrs Adil, and I know she has no interest in the job, she's happy where she is. You'll do far better than anyone else I can think of. Who else were they going to get? Blackwell, from Winslow? I hear she's looking for work now that the place is undergoing a series of significant changes." He half-grinned at her, since both of them were more than familiar with the woman in question and considered her a waste of space.

Lauren shuddered a little at the thought. "Please don't even joke about that, Donald. That woman is a disgrace to the profession in my opinion. Some of the things I've heard… Miss Hebert transferred here due to the problems Blackwell allowed to happen, and it wouldn't be the first time that occurred."

The coffee machine started making the slightly wheezy sound that meant it was about ready, so she got up and retrieved a couple of cups.

"Yes, I'm aware of that," he said, watching as she prepared drinks for both of them, then taking the one she handed him on her return to her desk. "Her records suggest she's doing exceptionally well here. Really blossoming into a very enthusiastic academic."

"The young lady is remarkably gifted in mathematics," Lauren nodded. "I've been following her classwork with great interest. She's even begun tutoring a number of her peers in advanced math techniques, which has already significantly improved all their work, according to the tests I've seen. A number of teachers are very impressed, as am I."

"Thinking of pointing her at the teaching profession?" Donald asked with amused interest.

"It crossed my mind, I admit," the blonde nodded, with a small smile on her lips, which would have astonished most of the students if they'd seen it. "She has a gift for it based on what I've learned. And would appear to have an ability to deal with trouble if it occurs."

"I've seen the video," he chuckled. "It was… instructive. And it matches what I know of Danny Hebert. I've been told he's not a man to take lightly, and that he looks after his family to a remarkable degree. Arranging training for his daughter with the best around would fit the profile."

"That seems to be what happened," she replied, putting the cup down. "She carries a collapsible baton, a gift from Saurial, who would appear to be both a friend and a mentor. I've seen it, and talked to the young woman about school policy on self-defense weapons. I believe we understand each other."

"Hmm. Normally we'd confiscate the thing," he noted.

"True. But she is the daughter of a person with a high and growing political profile in this city, one who would take a dim view of anything happening to her if the worst came to the worst," Lauren replied. "It seemed better to leave it with her, once I came to the conclusion she is both intelligent enough and well trained enough to know how to handle the responsibility. It's a similar situation to the issues surrounding the various Wards who attend the school, or the Dallon girls." She sighed a little. "I would prefer there to be no weapons present, I admit, but bearing in mind the situation, I felt a minor deviation from normal practice was acceptable."

"Fair enough," he remarked, finishing his coffee and putting the cup on the desk. "I agree, as it happens. Which leads me into the other point."

"Which is?" She raised an eyebrow and looked severely at him. "Don't beat about the bush Donald, just say it."

"I had a call very early this morning from Director Piggot," he said, looking slightly amused at her expression. "It would appear that there is a creditable threat to a number of students in the school, a Parahuman one."

Lauren stared at him for a moment, feeling her heart sink. "Oh, dear," she finally replied. "Which students, and what threat?"

"We were just discussing the main one," he said.

"Miss Hebert? Why on earth would some Parahuman criminal be after her? Because of her father?"

The gray-haired man shrugged. "I'm not sure. That would seem the most likely thing, I agree. The director didn't go into details on the phone, she's coming in very shortly to discuss it with us. I want you there as well. We'll need Ed from the security office too. She'll explain the situation when she arrives, which should be in..." He looked at his watch. "...About fifteen minutes. Hopefully it's nothing too serious and we can deal with it without causing too much disruption to the students, but from the sound of her voice, she was quite worried."

"It takes a lot to worry Emily Piggot," Howell suggested with a slight frown.

"I know. That in itself worries _me_ ," he said. Standing up, he headed to the door. "We'll meet in my office. Could you contact Ed and get him up here, and check whether Miss Hebert is on the premises yet?"

"Certainly," she replied, picking up her phone handset. "I'll see you shortly."

"Thanks." He nodded to her, then left the room, as she dialed an internal code and waited for a reply, wondering what was happening this time with a certain amount of internal apprehension.

Every time the PRT came calling, things became quite untidy, and she wasn't fond of untidy. It got in the way of teaching young people, which was unacceptable.

* * *

"Hi, Lucy."

The girl so addressed froze, then turned around, staring. "Saurial?" she gaped. "What are you doing here?"

The lizard-girl grinned at her, looking around at the other students in the corridor who were gaping as well, although rather more. Mandy, who was half-buried in her locker, looked over her shoulder, then smiled, even though she also appeared surprised.

"Long story," the reptilian cape replied. "Cut short, I'm on bodyguard detail at the moment. Taylor's body, as it happens."

Taylor herself came around the corner in the company of both Amy and Vicky Dallon, all three of them talking intently. They stopped next to Saurial, who put her arm around the Hebert girl's shoulders. "This one here."

"Is there another one?" Mandy asked with a grin.

"I don't think so," Saurial replied, snickering. "Two Taylors? That would be _inconceivable_."

"I don't think that word..." Amy began, smirking a little, only to stop when the blue-scaled lizard started laughing.

"I know, I've heard it before." She looked around at the small crowd that had gathered, almost blocking the corridor. "Nice place, but a little crowded."

"Hey, keep walking, people!" Vicky said in a loud voice. "Nothing to see here."

"Aside from the six and a half foot lizard in a trench coat, you mean?" Lucy giggled.

"Yes. Aside from the badly disguised giant lizard, there's nothing to see here," Vicky grinned. "Stop blocking the way, you guys." The crowd slowly dispersed, not without a lot of looking back. The first bell rang, signifying five minutes to class.

"So why do you rate a bodyguard all of a sudden, Taylor?" Mandy asked curiously.

Taylor sighed. "It's a long and sordid tale, which began many months ago, when I was stuck in the hell that is Winslow," she replied dramatically. "Under constant threat, I did what I could to survive it, and finally escaped! Yet it appears that the troubles have followed me." The tall girl shrugged, grinning. "Or something like that. It's weird, actually, I..."

She was interrupted by a tone from the PA, which then announced, " _Would Taylor Hebert and Saurial report to the Principal's office as soon as possible, please. That's Taylor Hebert and Saurial to the Principal's office. Thank you._ " It clicked off, making everyone look at the two people mentioned, who exchanged a glance.

"Looks like the director must have turned up, then," Taylor said.

"A PRT vehicle was arriving when we got here," Saurial nodded. "Come on, where does this Principal of yours live?"

"That way," the brunette replied, pointing down the corridor. "Let's go. See you guys later." She smiled at her friends, then both of them walked off, people quickly moving out of the way of Saurial, who towered several inches above almost all the students aside from a couple of football players. Both of whom jumped out of the way as least as quickly.

Lucy watched them go, smiling a little, then turned to Amy and her sister. "So what's going on?" she asked brightly.

Amy glanced at Vicky, opened her mouth, then snapped it closed as the final bell rang. "Tell you later," she said apologetically, before both Dallons quickly left. Lucy sighed a little, looked at Mandy, who shrugged, then followed her oldest friend to homeroom, wondering what was happening.

And very pleased that Saurial was there. It was looking like it was going to be an interesting day.


	301. Guest Omake - The Continental side of

**The Continental side of things**

 **By JefLebowski**

* * *

Today was not the day to laze about in his old baseball jacket, in a small cafe next to a trattoria. This had to be done properly, as it were. "George, we need to visit the tailor." The door of a rather stately car was held open, and Antonio walked over, generic hospital crutch on his side. Antonio loved his Newark Bears jacket. The team's logo with its intimidating, bat wielding, mascot in front of a nightly cityline spoke to him. As menacing as the logo to a baseball team could be, really. But it would be very much unsuited for his purpose; No, he needed to dress up properly. It had been a while, and he had decided that such occasion warranted the best threads indeed.

Wooden interior, warm light and the scent of fresh coffee. "Oh, signore Antonio. Please, do come in... Mazy, we are closing down for the day. Please, allow me." The tailor was bald, old- and from Italy. Not a relative of someone who was related to an Italian in the past. This tailor had earned his stripes in Rome.

"Giovanni. I need… a suit. Coat as well." Antonio had shrugged out of his jacket, and was chuckling at his own joke. Of course he needed a suit, otherwise he'd not be here.

"Formal?" The small man was already moving around him, taking measuring.

"Very. All trimmings, even."

While the suit was shaped, a tense phone call took place. "Marco. I know we haven..."  
Antonio looked exasperated; His trousers were being fitted as the faint hints of shouting wafted out of the speaker.

"I know your hand still hurts." He had stabbed it after all. "Look, it is about the one thing we have in commo..."

More rapidfire speaking from the speaker, and he allowed himself to relax somewhat.

"Yes. Their daughter, there has been an inciden..."

He held the phone away from his ear, as shouting devolved into a hacking cough.

"Hold your horses, you hot blooded Sicilian! Danny says he has the means to take care of it."  
Giovanni was used to such business meetings, and just held a leatherbound book out for the Don, filled with inked suit details. Antonio selected a cut, and Giovanni was out of his sight again.

"Yes, he says so… but I'd rather take a burden off his shoulders."  
A nostalgic gleam in his eyes, he picked a classic charcoal-and-pinstripes fabric.

"Well, not publically. But I think a formal declaration wouldn't be out of place?"  
Antonio's eyes widened at a muttered admission, and he waved the tailor away for a moment.

"Oh, I am sorry to hear that. My most sincere well wishes. ...I will have to come by then."  
Chuckling at the reply, he took a sip of the coffee offered.

"That is bound to ruffle some feathers, yes."

* * *

Manhattan had always been quiet. Despite the gentleman's agreements keeping the peace between the police and the shadows, everyone stepped just a bit more cautiously on the peninsula. Legend's presence had enforced that even further. And in Manhattan, there was a hotel. Black camisole, red carpet, a golden 'C', recently restyled to look less like a tilted Omega, it was classy in a way few things were nowadays. A remnant of ages past, really.

A car pulled up in front of it. Black, expensive, comfortable. Before the attendants could take care of it, two men in very well tailored suits got out, holding the door open. A cane was firmly placed upon the sidewalk. Antonio braced himself one last time and got out. Gone the lazy slouch, the baseball jacket; the friendship bracelets of his various grand- and godchildren hidden behind the cuffs of his crisp shirt. It was time to do things the old fashioned way.

There was a terrace, decked in marble. At a desk, under the vigilant eyes of two dour guards in black coats, sat one of the most influential men in the underworld, if you only counted the part of it mostly free from parahumans. More signs of the inert nature the Continental espoused were the thick newspaper grasped in aging hands, and the manilla folder right next to it. That, and a rotary phone with gold filigree. Winston was not a very modern person.

Gangs and warlords, heroes and villains- they were of no interest to him. True profit was done by the old syndicates. The old ways. Public parahumans, capes, were mostly cut out of that particular loop, with the obvious exceptions of Rogues. The shadows did have nothing but money after all. Over gold rimmed spectacles, Winston watched his guest approaching. Greying features, the slight sway to his gait that came from a limp and cane. Immaculate suit- italian style, of course- and heavy rings on his fingers. What amounted to a full plate armour on the social battlefield.

"Antonio, welcome back to New York." Winston had smile on his face, his voice welcoming. It was not often he met with people the youngsters currently deemed 'the old guard' had called the Old Guard. The Elder Guard, so to speak.

"Winston, I am terribly sorry it has been so long." The old Don lowered himself into his seat. "I even had to pull a favour or two to visit you- you know how territorial we famiglias can be." He carefully leaned his cane- ebony wood, mother of pearl- on to the table. An aide poured some _limoncello_ , imported, into two elaborately carved glasses before retreating. Antonio sat straight backed, sharp eyes scanning the table.

"I see you have prepared for the topic of this meeting." He gestured towards the folder labelled ' _Briefing: The Family'_ '. Winston raised an eyebrow.

"It would not do to be uninformed about this… upheaval." He took a sip. "What I do not understand is, why oh why would your famiglia be involved with this, Antonio? You usually do keep out of such… public matters."

Antonio smiled, and opened the Briefing folder with slow, deliberate movements. The known family members… their powers… associates. The DWU. A finger with a thick ring gently thumped on a picture of a lean, balding man.

"Daniel Hebert. His family history is missing, but well… let us say they are _Corsican_. His da' walked away from the business, but he remembered how to do things properly. And looking at it? Well, Danny remembers too." His smile was very toothy. "And his wife's family? _Sicilians_."

Winston breathed in. "But he did walk away, didn't he? So he is no concern of yours anymore, is he?" There was a dry, sarcastic chuckle to the last bit.

"Ah, I see you understand. No one gets away completely. We were content with letting him live his own life, but then…" He leafed towards a picture of one Taylor Hebert. Underneath was, amongst other things, a summary of the incident that brought their family back into the mind of the famiglia. "Look at her." There was fondness and pride in his voice, the bitterness on his old face nigh undetectable. "As sturdy and stubborn as only the old families can be. Made from steel that one. We weren't there and she was hurt. I offered Danny an olive branch, and he took it."

Winston sighed. "I am beginning to see the picture, though not how I would be involved in this." Antonio had gone out of his way to schedule this meeting properly. Had called in favours to visit him without diplomatic repercussions. People seldom did that if they had nothing important to discuss, least of all Antonio, who had taken to emails as a primary method of communication with gusto.

Antonio pulled out a heavy envelope. On it were two wax seals; one of them was his own. The other one… Winston had the sudden need to remoisten his mouth as he saw these two seals side by side. "When you said that his wife's family were Sicilians…" Antonio nodded once.

As Winston opened the letter, Antonio straightened out a bit. "Let us do this properly, Winston. Old Marco and I have sat down, for the first time in half a dozen years. We had a chat. Discussed the amount of shit going down in Brockton Bay, and decided to relieve Danny's burden somewhat. Decided that whoever screws with our _pronipote_ or her dad will have two more thing to worry about."

He took a sip. "Our families hereby declare Danny and Taylor Hebert _blood_. Let it be known to everyone under the purview of the High Table or the Continental that we will pursue anyone who fucks with them for some old testament style retribution. You accept a coin or offer a coin to see them hurt, even indirectly? No one will ever hear from you again."

His mien relaxed for a moment, allowing a vicious smile to show through. "That is, if they are not taken apart by Danny boy's frighteningly effective dockworkers, or the giant lizards that are their declared allies."

Winston was silent for a few moments. "If that is the will of the families…" Picking up his phone, he he ran the rotary 4 times; Three zeroes and a three. "Charon. The Red Book, if you will." The handwritten tome was only the third such thing, with the first two still being bound in vellum and currently in a very secure safe far below them. They had run out of space. It was a book for declarations- alliances, public feuds, protection.

Charon was tall, well dressed and had a knowing smile on his face. He was carrying, nigh reverently, a leather suitcase. Putting it down and opening it, he pulled out a silk sheet first, laying across the table. The interior of the case was well cushioned, and held next to the book a small, shallow bowl and a needle, as well as an ancient fountain pen. "Sir, the book, as requested."

"I trust you have the necessary identification to make both declarations?" Winston raised an eyebrow as Antonio nodded. He grasped into his coat pocket, and pulled out a ring identical in style, if not seal, to the one on his right ring finger.

A finger was stabbed, and red drops coated the bottom of the bowl evenly. Soon, in a red that was quickly fading to rusty brown, two seals sat next to an elegantly loping declaration.

 _"Whoever hears or reads these lines, reckon this warning._  
 _Daniel Hebert and his daughter Taylor Hebert are hereby declared blood_  
 _to both the Mariani and the Lauricella lines of our cause upon these shores._  
 _They who giveth or taketh Coin to bring harm to them,_  
 _shall find it visited back upon themselves sevenfold,_  
 _their faces and names scoured from the face of this earth._  
 _Thus say Don Antonio Mariani and Don Marco Lauricella, unified in this one purpose."_


	302. Omake - Let's be

Darth Thanatos on Sufficient Velocity commented:

 _You know, when it was referred as "Danny driving the purple lizard", I got the unsettling image of Danny's bioconstruct being purple and called Barney._

 _And then he is the "combat Branch of the Family"._

 _"Let's be friends!" is combat speech for "behave or else"_

* * *

 **"Let's be friends..."**

Everyone looked up.

The 12 foot tall, heavily armored reptilian figure narrowed glowing violet eyes, subtle waves of energy visibly crackling along the spinal spikes and up its neck to the head. The enormous mouth opened again, but it couldn't in all honesty really be called a ' _smile_ ,' what it was doing.

Bouncing an enormous baseball bat in one palm, in a fairly meaningful manner, the creature leaned down a little more towards the restrained form of Shadow Stalker, who swallowed hard. It then looked around at the other PRT and Protectorate staff members. **"It's better for everyone if we're friends. Agreed?"**

He reached out and rested the end of the immense bat very lightly on top of Sophia's shoulder. **"Or..."**

"No, no, I think friends is the ideal situation," Emily said very quickly. "I agree. Let's be friends. And as friends, may I welcome you to Brockton Bay?"

This time the smile was much more genuine. Still not entirely free of dentition, but no longer the definite threat it had been. The bat was removed as carefully as it had been put in place. Sophia's eyes rolled back in her head and she dropped silently to the ground.

 **"Thank you,"** the new Family member said. He looked at Raptaur, who was grinning. **"It's good to finally get to see what all the fuss back home is about."**

His gaze became a little hard, and Raptaur's smile abruptly vanished. **"And to check up on what the girls are up to, of course. There have been... stories."**

Everyone now looked between the two reptiles, then at each other, before Armsmaster picked Sophia up off the ground. He motioned with his head, the entire group slowly backing away. Raptaur was now saying something in the Family language, while her much larger relative was listening with his arms crossed, not looking entirely convinced...

" _Friends_ ," Emily muttered, very, very quietly. "I need another holiday. Soon."


	303. Omake - I was just passing (ST:TOS)

**First Encounter – System SV129F – Stardate 3141.5 (Old system 2247-05-25)**

"Well, this is a wee bit of a mess you got yourself into, lad," Montgomery Scott muttered to himself, looking at the small spacecraft with a certain amount of worry. He was standing outside the vessel, clad in the only working environment suit, and staring at a fairly substantial tear in the hull. The actual hole was the least of it, he could patch that up easily enough with the tools on hand and some jury-rigging, even if he had to strip some more hull off some non-essential sections. The various damaged circuits, energy pathways, and associated machinery that the unexpectedly fast-moving chunk of nickel-iron space junk had left in its wake was more of a problem.

He looked around again, as if he was expecting to see a spares depot abruptly materialize out of nowhere just when it would come in handy. Unfortunately this didn't happen. Sighing again, he scanned the damage with his tricorder for the fourth time, half-hoping that it would give him a less depressing result. Like the non-existent spares, though, what he wanted and what he got were two different things.

"I can dismantle the docking clamps, that'll give me enough superconducting cable to repair the power linkages," he mumbled, making mental notes and going over the schematics of the shuttle in his head. "Don't need the weapons, no one out here to shoot at anyway. That gives me some more parts, I might just be able to fettle that into a replacement for the plasma conduit. Messy as hell but it'll work. Maybe."

Kneeling down on the surface of the small asteroid he swore under his breath as he promptly floated away from it, no longer having the benefit of the mag-boots to hold him down. He grabbed at the jury-rigged magnetic clamp he'd fashioned from one of the boots of the other suit, which had taken a piece of inner hull straight through the helmet in the impact, and plonked it down onto the rough surface, activating it with one finger. Looping the cord he'd tied to the clamp over his shoulders he pulled it snug, managing to end up moored well enough that he could work.

' _Lucky the damn asteroid is mostly iron_ ,' he mused as he peered into the gap in the hull, using his helmet light to see what was going on in there. ' _A stony one would have been awkward._ '

Reaching into the gash he poked a bundle of cables, trying to work out what they were connected to. Originally at least. A couple of small sparks came from one of the severed wires and he hastily pulled his hand back. The suit was allegedly insulated to several dozen kilovolts but why take chances?

' _Brings to mind the saying about old engineers and bold engineers.._.' Shaking his head in irritation with his own lack of speed of reflex, he carefully untied himself and stood again, pushing his boots against the ground. When he was anchored he retrieved the clamp and its piece of cord and looped it around his neck for safe-keeping.

"Best get to work," he said out loud, despite there being no one within at least a parsec to hear him. The young man headed back to the airlock of the ship, which was currently gaping open since he'd disabled the inner and outer door interlocks. There was no point in an airlock getting in the way while there was no air to keep in. What had annoyed him more than anything else was how easy it had actually been to do this, he felt such an action should be much harder to arrange and was intending to raise the point with the designers when he got back.

Along with a strongly-worded complaint about the deficiencies of the small-object-avoidance part of the navigation system, which in his view was not fit for purpose. Two kilos of iron moving at about eight kilometers a second relative velocity was _very definitely_ something it should have noticed and done something about, rather than apparently metaphorically shrugging and only letting him know about it by the extremely loud bang it had made when it hit.

The abrupt depressurization had also been something of a telltale sign of there being a problem, come to think about it…

When he'd finally got his helmet on and the suit sealed, and his heartbeat somewhere near merely much too fast, he'd thanked his instructors for all the training drills in accident procedures. It shouldn't have been necessary, but once again reality was showing it could easily make a complete mockery of predictions. And that space travel, even in this day and age, was never entirely risk free.

Going back inside the ship he ran some more diagnostics, trying to decide which was the most important thing to repair first. Life support won out since it was simple enough to do, as all he had to fix was that hole, then repressurize. Luckily this class of vessel had enough air compressed to the point it was nearly solid to refill the living quarters a dozen or more times, leaving aside the air processing systems which were working perfectly. And were nearly the only systems that were, since they were all on the starboard side and the damage was on the port.

Four and a half hours later he finally finished bonding new sections of hull plate, stripped from one of the engine nacelles, over the gash in the hull. The end result was neither pretty nor regulation but it would hold air. That engine looked tattered, and was now a definite radiation hazard, but this was fairly low on his priority list. Making it work in the first place was much higher up and some cosmetic covering was irrelevant to that.

Returning to the ship he carefully closed both airlock doors, reversed his interlock hack to be safe, and tried very cautiously refilling the cabin with stored air. It took three attempts and two more short trips outside to get all the pinhole leaks, but in the end he was satisfied that this particular job was a good one. It was with distinct relief that he took his helmet off, since the smell of his own recycled sweat was getting a little much.

Sitting in front of the control console he started running more detailed diagnostics on what systems were currently still working, trying to get a better idea of what was needed next. Life support read as entirely functional, which amused him in a dark manner. The weapon systems on a small long range courier like this ship were fairly uninspiring, consisting of only two low-powered phaser cannon, the starboard one of which reported itself to be half-charged, the other one being entirely dead. He was unsure yet if that was the power cells or the beam emitter, not that it really mattered at the moment.

The ship was currently running on stored power, which would last perhaps a week at most, unless he could get the small warp reactor running again. Luckily the containment field for the antimatter was still working, or he wouldn't be around to worry about it. Not surprisingly the systems around that particular system were about the toughest on the entire vessel, since no one really wanted a few decagrams of anti-hydrogen going off pop next to anything they wanted to keep.

Navigation was currently out, the shield generator had entirely overloaded and failed when the ridiculously quick little projectile had hit a weak point in the overlapped force-fields by complete happenstance, and the entire comms array was fried due to a power surge. The subspace transceiver appeared to be mostly functional, but without the rest of it, he wasn't going to be talking to anyone more than about a light-second away. One engine was _possibly_ repairable while the other one needed a proper shipyard, the artificial gravity was off, and the coffee maker had died.

The last item on the list made him quite irritated. He needed some coffee. So he spent half an hour repairing it, before he resumed inspecting the damage to the hull from the inside, which was a lot easier than from the outside in a suit.

Six hours later he straightened up with a sigh, scratching his head with the end of a plasma interlink calibrator tool, then shrugged. "Best I can do, lass," he said, patting the bulkhead. "Let's see if that helps."

Returning to the console he leaned over the pilot's seat and prodded controls, smiling a little in triumph when the warp reactor began making a low rumble, the ignition process proceeding through the normal startup sequence. Half-way through, an alarm started warbling, his eyes widened, and he slapped the emergency abort control as fast as he could.

"Oops. That would've been embarrassing..." Glad no one was around to see him make a mistake, he hurried back to the small compartment that was laughingly referred to as an ' _engine room_ ' on this class of ship, being about the size of a garage for a standard ground car, and spent another half hour adjusting the flow injectors. Finally satisfied that at least it wouldn't go boom when it started, assuming it actually started, he tried again.

This time there was a muted thump followed by a pulsating hum, which made him cock his head and listen intently. "Still misaligned a few microns," he mumbled to the ship, tweaking settings on the intermix panel to try to compensate for the slightly bent reactor. Eventually he was sure he'd managed to get it running as well as it ever would short of a complete overhaul, not something he could do with the tools and materials available. He was good, excellent even, if he was immodest about his own abilities, but some things were out of his power to fix under the circumstances.

With the main power more or less restored, the batteries were recharging, and it was only another two hours work to get the artificial gravity up again which he was pleased about. He didn't like zero g at the best of times, it made him feel slightly ill in a hard to define way. After taking a break for a three hour nap, since he was aware that being too tired led to stupid mistakes, he resumed work.

Three days after the impact, he'd fixed all the critical systems, pulling parts from ones he didn't need to fix ones he did. The interior of the ship was a mass of cables and tubes running from places where interior panels had been removed to other places of a similar nature, making it look very untidy, but most things worked fairly well. It was certainly habitable for a considerable time, since all the air and water purifiers were running perfectly, and there were enough emergency rations to keep him alive for at least a year, leaving aside the more edible food in the stasis unit.

Unfortunately, he had finally come to the conclusion that the two systems he couldn't repair were the comms and the engines. The subspace emitter array was, when he'd checked, missing a significant and vital section that looked like it had been torn off by a fragment of the impactor that had made such a mess of his ship, and was presumably still floating around somewhere. The port engine was scrap. A small piece of nickel-iron had made a neat hole right through the main bulk of it, as precisely as if it had been aimed. He couldn't have done a better job with a cutting laser.

The starboard one, on the other hand, was eminently fixable, given half a dozen parts he didn't have. The thing that pissed him off most of all was that the parts required were on the _other_ damn engine, but _mirror-imaged!_ "What damn fool thought it was a good idea to make the engines non-interchangeable?" he shouted, slamming his hand on the console. "That's just bad engineering! Style over substance, that's what it is. I don't care what the fecking thing _looks_ like, I just want it to _work!_ "

Slumping back into his chair, he sighed, then looked around at the small cabin that was his home for now. And possibly quite some time to come. The chances of anyone spotting his ship sitting on this little kilometer-wide asteroid in an uninhabited system half a dozen light-years from anywhere people wanted to be was almost zero.

As a result of such depressing thoughts, the polite knock on the airlock an hour later while he was trying to come up with something he hadn't considered yet nearly made him have a heart attack.

* * *

Staring at the inner lock door with wide eyes, the young engineer spent several seconds wondering if he was hearing things. When the knock came again, he realized that he wasn't. As unlikely as it seemed, there was someone outside his ship. Turning back to the controls he prodded switch pads with practiced ease, trying to figure out why the short-range sensors hadn't alerted him to the presence of another vessel. The long range ones were still down, but he'd got the standard local navigation sensors working fine, and they should have…

"There's no ship," he finally said in wondering tones. "What the hell?"

Glancing back at the airlock he inspected it like he'd never seen it before. There was no evidence at all in the logs of any ship other than his own anywhere within several AU, yet someone was knocking on his door.

Finally remembering the external optical cameras, he rooted around in the relevant section of the interface, found the right one, and turned it on. The sight that came up on the viewscreen in front of him made him stare in shock.

"Now you dinna see _that_ every day," he mumbled, stunned.

The figure standing outside his airlock was looking around with interest, as casually as if they were standing on a street back home. He didn't recognize the species, and a quick search through the ship's database didn't come up with a match either. It was reptilian, as far as he could tell, bipedal, something over two meters tall based on using the height of the airlock door as a scale, with a long tail. And for reasons that entirely escaped him, not wearing any form of environment suit!

He got the impression the alien was probably female, although he'd have been hard pressed to say why. She, if it was a she, was wearing what looked like casual clothing, cut to fit her non-human body, but not something that would have looked out of place back on Earth.

And a fedora on her head.

For some reason, that made him stare more than anything else. It was definitely a fedora, which was just weird.

He watched as she raised a hand and knocked for the third time. The sound, transmitted through the hull of the ship, was clearly audible inside. After another couple of seconds, despite a certain amount of worry, he stood and went over to the airlock, pausing on the way to retrieve the sole laser pistol that the ship carried. Putting it behind his back in one hand, just in case, he tapped the control that opened the outer door, looking over his shoulder at the viewscreen.

He could see the door open, and the reptilian alien look inside the airlock, before stepping inside. Activating the lock cycling process, he watched the indicators as he moved back a meter or so. The outer door one went green, the pressurization one turned amber then green as well, then the inner one went red as the door slid open.

"Hi," the lizard-like female said, smiling brightly. "I was just in the area and spotted your ship here." She, and it definitely was a she, looked around, raising one scaly eyebrow. "Very… interesting décor."

Scott followed her eyes and flushed a little, weirdly embarrassed. "It's not meant to look like this," he mumbled.

"Oh. Good. I didn't want to say anything, but these wires are a trip hazard," she grinned. "Had a bit of trouble, hmm?"

He sighed, nodding. "Run in with a wee chunk of very fast asteroid with my name on it," the engineer said. "Made a proper mess, it did."

"So I can see," she noted. Holding out her hand, she smiled again. "I'm Saurial. Nice to meet you, Mr…?"

"Montgomery Scott. Junior Lieutenant Montgomery Scott, of Starfleet, if you want to be formal," he replied, deciding that she was too friendly to be hostile. There was something about her demeanor that made him relax despite himself. "Call me Scotty."

"Nice to meet you, Scotty of Starfleet," Saurial chuckled. "You won't need the weapon, I'm not here to hurt you. Just the opposite, in fact, I'd like to help."

A little embarrassed, he pulled the pistol from behind his back and looked at it, then turned around and put it down. "I don't suppose you happen to have a spare warp coil for a Deneb Heavy Industries type six long range shuttle in your pocket, do you? That would help a lot."

This time she laughed. "Not as such, but I think I can help anyway. Let's have a look at the damage. I'm not familiar with your specific engineering but I'm a fast learner."

Scotty inspected her. "How can you help? You don't even have a ship. Or an environment suit, for that matter. Which raises the question of how you survived a hard vacuum, actually." He was very curious indeed.

"Pff, oxygen, it's overrated," she snickered, waving a hand dismissively. "Never been too worried about the stuff. And I don't need a ship, I have… other methods... available." Holding out a hand, she grinned when he blinked in shock as a complex mechanism appeared in it, out of nowhere. "And as for how I can help… You show me what you need, I'll make it for you."

"What the..." He gingerly lifted the thing out of her hand, weighing it in his, then studied it. The device, whatever it was, was definitely real, and as definitely hadn't been there ten seconds before. Taking it back from him, she pressed a control on the top, which made it start playing music, something that surprised him.

"One of my dad's favorites," she noted, putting it down next to his laser gun and adjusting the volume to a low level. "Music always helps. Now, let's get your ship fixed up, shall we?" She sniffed as he stared at her, then added, "Any chance of a cup of coffee?"

Slowly, he began smiling. He didn't know how, or why, or where she'd come from, but apparently today was his lucky day.

"Of course, lass, no trouble at all," he said as he headed to the tiny galley. "I'm very pleased you could drop in."

"I always like meeting new people," she said as she followed, her tail-tip twitching around as she carefully inspected the jury-rigged repairs. "First time for me in your universe, and I run into someone in trouble. Weird how often that happens. Nice job under the circumstances, by the way. Why are you all the way out here in the middle of nowhere?"

"I was on leave and borrowed the ship from someone who owed me a favor," he replied, pouring out two cups of dark nectar, while wondering about that ' _your universe_ ' comment. "It's a new design, I was helping evaluate it for him as part of the deal. First time I've been out of the Sol system since I graduated the academy six years ago. I decided to take the scenic route since I was in no hurry." He handed her one cup, which she took as she listened with interest. "Unfortunately, things went a touch wrong a few days ago." He shrugged, looking around. "Could have been worse. It made a mess of the ship but it didn't kill me instantly."

"Don't you have force-fields or something?" she asked, sipping her coffee.

"Nothing solid enough to stop something moving that fast, and it hit the wrong place anyway," he commented. "It lost a lot of energy overloading the shield generator, but was still moving quickly enough to punch a hole in the hull, throw fragments all over the place, and make a mess of everything." He indicated a few places where there were small shrapnel holes in the interior panels. "Missed anything immediately fatal other than letting all the atmosphere out, but I barely had enough control on the reaction thrusters to get it to this asteroid. I thought it would mostly protect me from other bits of rubble if there were any. But the reaction mass tanks are empty now, and with the main engines down..."

Scotty shrugged. "I was looking at a long wait."

"Good thing I happened to be in the area then," she smiled. Handing him the now-empty cup, she cracked her knuckles. "Let's see what we need to do, OK?"

He finished his coffee as well, watching her with a sort of bemused wonder, then smiled back. "Why not? I didn't have anything else planned for today," he joked, leading her to the command console and bringing up the first set of engine schematics.

* * *

"What the hell did you do to my ship?" Commander Henrick yelped, staring at the vessel docked to the side of the station. "Why is it bright blue?"

"The lass liked the color?" Scotty snickered, shrugging. "I didn't have the heart to say no, all things considered."

"And what's that written on the port engine nacelle?" His old friend grabbed a pair of binoculars, focusing them on the craft a few hundred meters away. "' _FamTech™ Instant Engine Repairs._ ' What in god's name…?" He lowered the binoculars and glared. "What did you do to my brand new shuttle, you lunatic Scotsman?"

"Made a friend, learned a few interesting tricks, and wrote out a list of things I _really_ want to talk to your ship designers about," he replied, pulling out an old-fashioned notebook and opening it, then giving the other man a good hard look. "Let's talk about how daft it is to make the engines mirror images of each other for a start..."

Henrick looked at the notebook, which had at least four pages of neatly written notes in it, then at the expression on his friend's face, which didn't seem pleased. With one last look at his repainted ship, he sighed heavily, moved over to his desk, sat, and waved to the other seat, pulling a bottle of something drinkable out of his desk drawer along with two glasses. "Remind me why I keep letting you near my ships, Scotty?" he grumbled as he filled both of them, then pushed one across the desk.

"Because you need a _competent_ engineer to check your team's work," the young man replied, grinning, as he sat and picked up the glass. "And you owe me for that time in San Francisco."

"Are you _ever_ going to let that go?"

"No. Now, about this engine design..."

* * *

 ****  
"Here you go, Kevin," Taylor said, tossing her friend the thing she was holding. The Tinker caught it, inspected it, and grinned.

"A genuine Starfleet laser pistol, circa 2245, original series," he said with immense satisfaction. "That'll go in the middle of the collection. Thanks."

"No problem," she laughed. "He seemed happy to let me have it. Poor guy was in a bad situation."

"Where next?" Randall asked, at the controls of the WCC. Kevin checked his notes.

"I don't have a Peacekeeper pulse pistol yet..."


	304. PRT and Arcadia

Walking into the Principal's office's outer waiting room, where she'd never been before, Taylor looked around with both aspects. The secretary looked up as the door opened, her eyes widening slightly when she spotted ' _Saurial_ ' although she recovered nicely. "Oh, wonderful, that was quick," she said in bright tones. "Thank you both. If you'll just wait a moment, I'll let them know you're here." Picking up one of the three phones in front of her next to her computer screen, she dialed a two digit code, then waited. Taylor could smell several familiar scents nearby, including Director Piggot.

"Yes, Miss Hebert and Saurial are here, sir," she said a moment later. There was a short pause after which she nodded and said, "Yes," then she put the phone down again. "You can go in," she said, indicating one of the three doors opening off the reception room. Taylor glanced at her other aspect, which the Varga was currently running, then headed towards the door. It opened as she reached it.

"Hello, Miss Hebert," Vice-Principal Howell said, looking at her approvingly. "Excellent. And Saurial… I'm pleased to meet you," she added, holding out her hand, which the Varga shook with a small smile. "Come in."

Once they were inside, they could see that in addition to the woman, the PRT director was there, along with Miss Militia. A man she assumed was the Principal of Arcadia was sitting next to another man, who she didn't recognize, but by the looks of him he was probably ex-military or something like that. She knew the type from the DWU. This one was keeping his eyes on her Saurial aspect, not in a hostile manner, but more in the way of someone who knew who the greatest threat in the room was and didn't intend to be taken by surprise.

There was also a PRT lieutenant present, one of the ones that had been present at the meeting at BBFO, Lieutenant Pratchett she recalled.

"Have a seat," Howell said, indicating a spot next to where she was heading for. Taylor sat in the next chair, with the demon moving the one next to that out of the way and also sitting.

"Well, Director, we're all here." The Principal looked across the table at the PRT head, who was watching Taylor and ' _Saurial_ ' closely. "What's this all about? We've signed your latest NDAs and we're all very curious. I'm not altogether happy about a Parahuman, or indeed any, threat to this school or any of my students."

Director Piggot sighed very faintly as she glanced at him. "No, I expect you aren't. Believe me, I would prefer the situation to be different, but we have to deal with what's going on, regardless." Looking back at Taylor, she went on, "Hello, Miss Hebert, as you may have gathered I'm Director Piggot from the PRT ENE here in the city. I'm sorry we're finally meeting under such circumstances. And I'm more than sorry about what happened to bring us here."

Taylor shrugged. "It happened, like you said we have to deal with the fallout. But thank you."

"I assume that you're fully up to date with the situation, thanks to your friends?" the blonde woman asked, looking at the lizard-girl next to her. Taylor nodded.

"Yes, I am, Director."

"Good." She rubbed her forehead for a moment, abruptly looking very tired. Taylor wondered if she'd actually got any sleep at all yet, she looked like she was running on caffeine more than anything else. Miss Militia looked a lot better, but then she apparently didn't need to sleep so that wasn't surprising.

"I'm sorry to have to risk bringing up bad memories, but do you have any objections to me discussing what happened at Winslow with everyone else here?" the director asked. "It will make things easier to explain."

"I don't mind," Taylor said. "I think I'm pretty much past that now, so if you need to talk about it, go ahead."

"Thank you." Appearing mildly relieved, as if she'd been expecting something else, Director Piggot turned back to the school staff, who were looking between both of them with varying expressions of curiosity. "Everything I'm about to tell you is to be considered covered under those NDAs and is not to be discussed with anyone else. Understand?"

All three people nodded, although they were now looking at Taylor with a certain level of extra interest. The director noticed, shaking her head as a result. "No, I'm not saying that Miss Hebert is a Parahuman, _or_ a Ward. She is neither. This relates to someone else."

With another faint sigh, she glanced at Miss Militia, who handed her a thick folder, which she accepted and opened. Removing a stack of documents, she sorted quickly through them for a moment. Looking up again, she said, "The situation that ultimately resulted in Miss Hebert transferring to Arcadia from Winslow started nearly two years ago, and to my great shame involved someone who _was_ ultimately accepted as a Ward. Sophia Hess, code name Shadow Stalker, along with two friends, engaged in a protracted bullying campaign towards Miss Hebert there that ended up with an event that could easily have resulted in her death..."

They all listened as she competently summarized the entire story, showing the school people various documentary evidence, including the results of the investigation into the PRT officer involved, Sophia herself, the administration of Winslow, and a number of other relevant things. Taylor was quite impressed, the PRT had clearly put a lot of time into a genuine investigation, rather than trying to hide it. Director Piggot didn't whitewash or underplay the responsibility that her organization bore as a result of failing to detect and stop Hess, although she obviously wasn't pleased about the whole thing. That wasn't going to stop her doing what she felt she needed to do, though.

By the time the story was finished twenty minutes later, both the Principal and Vice Principal were regarding Taylor with significant sympathy and a certain level of appalled horror, and ' _Saurial_ ' with definite approval. The Director had explained how seriously the Family apparently took the Hebert's safety, at which the Varga had silently nodded. The third man, who was from what they could work out something to do with school security, was now inspecting the lizard-girl with a somewhat different level of interest, she noticed.

"As soon as I became aware of the situation with Miss Hess and Miss Hebert, I immediately restricted the former to confinement in the PRT building and arranged to have Armsmaster supply a device which both neutralized her abilities and allowed us to track her," the director went on. "When our investigation showed how thoroughly the girl had broken the terms of her probation, not to mention how revolting her behavior to Miss Hebert had been, as well as a slew of other lesser bullying cases that came to light in the process, I pushed to have her suitably tried and sentenced. There was no doubt we'd have been able to secure a conviction. Unfortunately..."

She shook her head with a small sigh. "Politically it proved to be infeasible. There are more reasons than we either have time for or I am cleared to explain, so let's just say that I was stuck with the girl for the time being. Her house arrest was made official and indefinite, subject to later consideration by my superiors. I personally disagreed with the situation but I had no choice." Taylor looked around at the school staff, who were all looking both thoughtful and rather annoyed for various reasons.

"That brings us up to Sunday. As you might have noticed, there was an incident yesterday which caused significant chaos in the city..."

"I don't think anyone who ever smelled that horrible stench is likely to forget it very soon," the vice-principal said with a shudder.

"I personally am very glad I live far enough away that I couldn't smell it," the principal added with a smile. "I've had it described to me. And that was bad enough."

"Worst thing I ever smelled," the security man muttered, his face showing disgust for a moment.

"Yes. Well, as you might imagine," the director continued when they'd gone quiet again, with a glance at Saurial, "we had our hands full since a large amount of the city was evacuated. The PRT was supplying backup to the BBPD, as was the DWU, and things did become quite confusing for a while. Unfortunately, due to a series of unpredictable failures of both equipment and people which happened to coincide at a moment that our attention was elsewhere, Sophia found herself with an opportunity to evade our surveillance which she promptly took."

"She escaped." The security guy sounded entirely unsurprised.

"Yes."

"And you have no idea where she is or where she's heading, but you think she'll come back and go after Miss Hebert here."

Director Piggot shrugged, looking deeply annoyed. "That is our assumption. Our psychological assessment of Sophia Hess tell us that she is someone to whom vengeance for slights, real or imagined, is of high importance. Unfortunately, she is also someone who tends not to think through the consequences of her actions very much, if at all. No one who is aware that the Family is friendly towards not only the DWU in general, but the Heberts in particular, would think that attacking any of them was a particularly intelligent course of action, for example." She nodded at ' _Saurial_ ' who smiled a little grimly.

"Sophia was under some severe restrictions, but she had read access to the public internet and I think she must know that Miss Hebert was trained by Saurial, is a friend of hers and indeed the others, and so is her father. Yet our precogs agree with the analysis that she is likely to return, sooner or later, to attempt to… ' _take revenge_ ,' I suppose… against the Heberts who she blames for her activities coming to light. Due to the randomness of her actions, though, we can't narrow it down very well. ' _Eventually_ ' is about the best we can come up with at the moment, although as and when she makes concrete plans we may have better luck."

The blonde woman shrugged slightly. "Despite the public preconceptions of precogs, most of them can only give fairly vague warnings for events more than a short distance into the future, and even then they often have a large error margin. There are a couple who are a lot more effective but it also generally requires exactly the right question to be asked, and the answer is sometimes not obvious until after the fact. As a result we can't rely only on that route to preventing the girl trying something stupid."

"How does this affect the school?" the principal asked after a moment's thought, when she fell silent. "In general, I mean. I know how this threatens Miss Hebert, of course, but is there a larger threat?" He looked apologetically at Taylor, who smiled at him.

"We're not completely sure, I'm afraid," the director replied. "We're aware that Miss Hebert has a number of close friends here, including both Dallon girls, and we have to assume that there's a non-zero chance that Sophia may well discover this and possibly attempt to use them as leverage against Miss Hebert, or as sources of information. None of our analysts believe that there is a general threat to the school or the students as a whole, there's no benefit to Sophia to do anything like that we can determine, but it's definitely possible she might try something to perhaps half a dozen or so of the student body."

"Is Carol Dallon aware of this?" Mrs Howell asked, looking concerned.

"Yes." Director Piggot grimaced. "I had a rather intense conversation with her early this morning. I've offered PRT support if the Dallons wish to accept it, and they're discussing their options."

"I assume you're about to do the same here," the security man said knowingly. She looked at him, then nodded.

"That is the reason for this meeting. The PRT, since this is both our responsibility and our area of expertise, is happy to assign a squad to Arcadia for the duration of this problem. We're hoping that one way or the other it won't last more than a month or so, but..." She spread her hands. "At the moment we can't say for sure."

"What would that entail?" the principal asked, leaning back and folding his hands on the table, watching her intently. "While this is a very troubling issue, we also have to consider the safety and the educational well-being of the student body as a whole."

"Lieutenant Pratchett here would be your PRT liaison officer," Piggot replied, indicating the man sitting next to her, who nodded at the school head. "He would have an eight-man team, armed with containment foam and a number of specialist devices that would neutralize Shadow Stalker and allow her to be restrained, without risk to the students. Protection of innocents is our highest priority, of course."

"I'm not sure that a number of heavily armed troopers prowling the grounds would present the best light for Arcadia," Howell noted, frowning a little.

"We're not planning on, um, ' _prowling_ ' as such, Ma'am," the lieutenant said with a small smile. "We would set up some very discreet surveillance systems at key points, dedicated to detecting Shadow Stalker using her abilities. It's not perfect but it would be better than nothing. If we detect her approaching, hopefully we could intercept and detain her before she was even noticed by the students. Assuming Saurial and her relatives don't get her first, of course." He looked at the lizard-girl who grinned at him. "Personally I'm not going to bet on it either way. We would also arrange methods whereby you could contact us instantly and we could respond in less than a minute if something happens we missed. Hopefully that wouldn't be necessary, but better to be cautious."

"I see," the vice-principal said, looking thoughtfully at the man. "I assume that your Wards are already, or will shortly, be aware of the situation and also ready to step in if required?"

"Yes," he replied, glancing at his superior.

She nodded, adding, "Obviously it's a little difficult since we definitely don't want any of them outing themselves except in the most serious of situations, so we'd hope that you'd help us there, but they will be fully briefed and ready to respond if required. We will issue them all with standard PRT tasers, which they will be required to carry at all times."

All three of the school staff looked surprised by this, the principal opening his mouth to say something, but she held up her hand. " _And_ they will be informed in the strongest possible terms that they are _not_ to use them, show them off, or talk about them under any circumstances except those where their use is unavoidable. We don't want that any more than you do since there would be questions, but at the same time we feel it's a useful backup. The young men in question are trustworthy and sensible, I doubt there will be any problems."

"Sensible..." Mrs Howell actually looked amused for a moment. "I believe that description applied to at least one of them may be something of a stretch, but I will take your word for it."

Taylor suppressed a smirk, knowing the woman was referring to Dennis. Personally she thought the guy was actually a lot more practical than people usually gave him credit for, but she could well understand the comment bearing in mind his nature. Like her, he enjoyed a good joke, but he tended to show it a lot more obviously, and of course had been here for a lot longer.

"Be that as it may, I doubt there would be any issues," Director Piggot resumed after a moment. "We would like Lieutenant Pratchett to primarily liaise with your security department, discuss the best methods of securing the grounds and buildings, and work out locations for the surveillance equipment. We'll keep both of you completely informed and you can contact me at any point if there's any trouble, but it would be simpler if you went through the lieutenant."

They looked at each other, then the principal nodded his understanding. "I think we have little choice in the matter. We can't risk a Parahuman fight in the school, obviously, and we certainly don't want any of our students put at risk. Including but not limited to Miss Hebert."

"Quite." The PRT director seemed satisfied.

The principal looked at his security guy. "Does that sound all right to you, Ed?" he asked. The other man visibly thought for a few seconds, turning his attention to the lieutenant, then Taylor herself, and finally Saurial. Eventually he nodded slowly.

"It'll do, I guess. I don't like the idea of a battle on school grounds, those things tend to escalate even if you try to control them, but you're right, we don't have much choice. If this Hess girl is going to try something, here is one of the better targets, since she could blend in with the students. The other obvious place is at Miss Hebert's home, of course, but I'm assuming that the Family have that covered?" His tone was slightly questioning by the end of this, clearly addressing it to ' _Saurial_.'

" _This man is far from stupid,_ " the demon commented approvingly, making Taylor nod inside. " _He reminds me very much of Mark. I wonder if they were in the same military branch?_ "

Out loud, he replied, "We have a number of plans to prevent any harm coming to the Heberts, yes. At home or here. But we're also aware that we can't be everywhere and the school is a… shall we say, ' _target-rich environment?_ '" His voice was dryly amused and the security man briefly grinned, apparently feeling the same. "Taylor's old friend Sophia could cause significant chaos with little effort and try to use that as a diversion. It wouldn't work, of course, but students could easily get hurt in the process, so all of us are happy to have backup. Or provide it if required."

"She's not really a friend, you know," Taylor commented with a small grin.

"Acquaintance, then." The Varga chuckled. "I wouldn't raise her to the level of ' _honored enemy_ ' as she has little honor and it doesn't seem appropriate."

At this Ed the security man actually snickered. "I like you," he said, shaking his head. "For some reason." Turning back to the principal, he went on, "I'll go over the school security systems and protocols with the lieutenant, and I'd like Saurial to sit in on the briefing, since it would help all of us if we're all on the same page. Personally my opinion is that this girl isn't going to attack anyone here, she seems the sort who likes sneak attacks and it would leave too many witnesses, but I've been wrong before. No harm in preparing for the worst."

"If nothing else it will be a good chance to update our disaster plans, I suppose," the principal replied with a slight frown. "It's very annoying, though, I have to admit." He looked at the director, adding, "If you could keep better tabs on your prisoners in future that would be appreciated."

Director Piggot looked like she wanted to glare, but eventually merely sighed faintly. "Fair enough, I suppose. The PRT is sorry for the inconvenience. As am I, I would prefer that the damn girl was behind bars and had been for the last two months, but..." She produced a small shrug. "Politics is a pain in the ass at the best of times."

"Agreed," Mrs Howell said with a frown. "And when it impacts on the safety of this school, it is far more irritating. I shall have to write a letter to your superiors expressing our dissatisfaction with their decision to overrule you in this matter."

The director smiled momentarily. "I'll email you the address for complaints of that nature," she offered, appearing darkly pleased. "I doubt it will help, but in this case who am I to stand in your way?" Both women exchanged a look of understanding, before Piggot turned to Taylor and her other aspect. "I'm curious about how you intend to proceed here, Saurial, if you don't mind me asking," she said.

Taylor and her demon looked at each other.

"For as long as the threat exists, we intend to make sure that a member of the Family is in close proximity to the school," the Varga said after a short soundless discussion with his head-mate. "Most of the time we'll stay well out of the way, we don't want to disrupt the school any more than necessary. You'll hardly know we're here." He looked at the school representatives as he said the last, smiling a little. "But we'll be able to respond to a threat in seconds if required, whatever that threat is. And if there is any serious trouble from other sources, we're happy to help out as well."

"I see," the PRT director replied after a pause during which everyone else seemed a little worried. "So you're going to lurk in the air vents or something, then jump out if Sophia turns up?"

"Not precisely, the air vents are probably a little small in this place," ' _Saurial_ ' grinned, looking up at the ceiling AC outlet which was directly above them. "We have other methods, though. Nothing that will cause problems." The lizard-girl looked at the principal and his staff. "Honestly, you'll hardly see us unless there's a problem, we'll do our best to stay out of your way. Although I may join Taylor in the cafeteria if that's OK with you, I'd like to talk to her friends, and if it's all right I'd be interested in sitting in on one or two of her math classes." ' _She_ ' looked at Taylor, who shrugged.

"Fine by me. I'm interested in seeing what you think about the class." Both of them turned to the principal, who was staring back.

"I… see no real issue with you auditing some Miss Hebert's classes, I suppose," he finally said. "Assuming it doesn't cause any disruption to them. I will let the relevant teachers know. And you can certainly join her in the cafeteria if you want."

"Thanks," the Varga said, sounding pleased.

There was a brief pause during which Director Piggot and Miss Militia seemed somewhat confused, exchanging another look, then the latter pulled a couple of pages of documentation from the folder in front of the former. "Miss Hebert, could you look at this list of names and confirm it's correct? Saurial gave us the details of the people you are particularly close to here, we just want to double-check so we don't miss anyone. We're going to contact their parents to make them aware of some of this, although we're hoping not to have to go into full details unless necessary for security reasons." She pushed the pages across to Taylor, who accepted them and quickly scanned the list of names.

"Mandy, Lucy, Rich, Eric, Amy and Vicky of course… Yes, those are the main ones. I know quite a few more people here now, but those guys are the ones I'd call my best friends in school," she said after a few seconds. "I guess if Sophia was going to try something stupid she'd go after one of them. Although if she tries either Amy or Vicky she's going to regret it pretty quick. Vicky will unscrew her head, and Amy will probably break every rib in her body. She can check to make sure she got them all, you know." Grinning at the look on the older woman's face, she handed the document back. "The addresses all look right too."

"Ah… thank you, Miss Hebert," the military cape replied after a second or two.

"Call me Taylor," she smiled. "Miss Hebert sounds weird."

"Taylor, then." Miss Militia smiled back. "Based on what I saw with that Merchant, you could also take care of yourself under most circumstances."

"Saurial is a really good trainer as well as a really good friend," she laughed. "But I don't know if I could handle a Parahuman. Merchants are easy enough, that guy was so stoned he could hardly stand up anyway."

"Sophia Hess, despite her many, _many_ faults, is a young woman with significant training and skills in hand to hand combat. Even leaving her abilities out of the picture it's probably best not to get into a fight with her, I have to admit," Director Piggot commented with annoyance. "If the girl had been less aggressive and somewhat smarter she could have been a valuable member of the PRT, but you'd know better than anyone that she's less… people-orientated… than ideal, I suppose."

"She sure wasn't the most friendly person I ever ran into," Taylor sighed. "To put it mildly."

"Knowing what I do about the whole sorry affair I agree entirely." Director Piggot looked very tired again. "I regret more than I can say that you had to go through all that for so long."

"It's not your fault, Director," Taylor assured her. She was being honest about it, although she'd gone through a phase just after finding out that Sophia was a Ward where she might well have blamed the PRT. They held some responsibility for the damn girl, as the briefing earlier had shown, but it wasn't something the director had known about or caused. Not to mention that as soon as she'd found out she'd done her job and investigated the entire thing very carefully, and if it wasn't for her superiors, Sophia would have been somewhere a lot more secure weeks ago.

Taylor wondered if it went as high as the Chief Director. There was definitely something strange going on with that woman…

" _We should probably look into that at some point, Brain,_ " the Varga remarked. " _Bearing in mind that whole odd interaction with Eidolon, and knowing that the Chief Director of the PRT is also Alexandria, there's certainly some oddities surrounding the upper echelons of the organization_."

' _It's not important at the moment, I guess, but we should keep an eye open, I agree,_ ' she replied.

"Thank you for understanding, Taylor," the blonde woman replied, entirely unaware of their internal conversation. She managed a weary smile for the girl.

"Thanks for being open with me about all this, and letting me hear about what you're doing and have done," Taylor replied. "It was interesting and makes me feel that it's being taken very seriously."

"It is, I assure you," Director Piggot told her.

Vice-principal Howell glanced at her watch. "I suspect that we have probably taken up as much of Miss Hebert's time as we need to by now, unless there's anything specific you require her presence for?" she commented, looking at the trio on the other side of the table.

The director looked to either side, both Lieutenant Pratchett and Miss Militia shaking their heads. Returning her attention to the vice principal, she said, "I believe we're through with that part." She looked at Taylor then. "Normally I would insist on you also signing an NDA covering Shadow Stalker's civilian ID. However… In this case, bearing in mind who your friends are, who your father is, and your own involvement in the entire thing, I don't think it's quite appropriate. I suspect that you've probably known all about her for some time in any case…" She glanced at ' _Saurial_ ,' who merely smiled very faintly,"…and there's no evidence that you have passed the information on. All I will ask is that you continue to be discreet about that knowledge and refrain from telling anyone outside the people who already know. Could you do that for me?"

"Of course, Director," Taylor assured her. "My father also knows, of course, and so does Amy, she was there when we were discussing it and I don't have a lot of secrets from her. She won't say anything either. You know how well she can keep her mouth shut."

"Panacea is covered by more NDAs than _I_ am, as it happens," Miss Militia put in with a slightly amused look. "Bearing in mind the number of Parahumans she's healed over the last few years. Does Glory Girl know?"

Taylor shrugged. "I don't know. I never mentioned it to her, although I did tell her about the bullying at Winslow a while back, but I asked her not to talk about it to anyone and as far as I know she didn't."

"New Wave are generally discreet so I doubt we'll have any trouble on that score," Director Piggot commented, making a few notes. "I'll discuss it with Carol Dallon though. All right, in that case, thank you again, Taylor. You'd probably better get back to class."

The vice-principal quickly wrote out a note which she tore off her pad and handed to Taylor, who accepted it. "If anyone asks for a reason you missed your first class, show them this."

"Thank you, Mrs Howell." Standing, Taylor looked at her other aspect, seeing the amusement at the bizarre situation in the very familiar glowing eyes. "I'll see you later, I guess."

"Yep," her lizard-girl aspect replied, the Varga thoroughly enjoying things just as she was. "Try not to get into trouble before then."

"Hey, you know me."

"Which is why I said that..." They grinned at each other, then Taylor's base form aspect left the room with a polite nod to the other people present and a small wave.

" _If only they knew the truth,_ " the Varga sniggered.

' _Their heads would probably explode for a start_ ,' she replied as that aspect headed for the next class, which would start in about ten minutes. She'd missed biology, but she didn't want to miss chemistry, which she found very interesting for a number of reasons.

" _Let's not tell them, then,_ " he said with a mental grin. " _We don't want to upset them considering how well things seem to be going with the PRT in relation to the Family and the DWU at the moment._ "

' _Sounds like a plan to me_.' Both of them took turns switching off on driving the ' _Taylor_ ' aspect at the same time they guided the ' _Saurial_ ' one through the next hour or so with the PRT visitors and the school staff, all of whom finally ended up feeling they had a solid plan to follow.

* * *

Lauren watched as the door closed behind Saurial, Ed accompanying her and the PRT lieutenant back to the security office where he wanted to go over a couple of last details with the pair of them regarding the current camera installations and such things. She was impressed. The reptilian cape seemed very quick witted indeed, dedicated to Taylor Hebert to a level that was more akin to a family member than just a friend, and extremely competent. Momentarily wondering if it would be worth asking if the scaly cape would be up for talking to the students at some point, in the same way the Wards did, she turned back to the remaining people.

"That was… quite enlightening," she said quietly. "If your missing Ward does indeed try anything where Saurial or her relatives are ready for her, I suspect you will have very little time or reason to intervene. She isn't fond of the girl and is _very_ fond of Taylor."

"So we've found," Director Piggot said, shaking her head. "If you'd seen some of the things I've… Well, I can't go into details, but dangerous is an understatement. The girl is in good hands. I just wish it wasn't necessary."

"Hopefully her presence won't be too disruptive to the normal school procedures," Miss Militia remarked. Lauren glanced at Donald, who returned the look, then shook his head.

"I don't think she will. The Family has quite a number of fans here, and of course we have the Dallons as well, so the students are used to minor celebrities and know not to bother them too much. Admittedly none quite as… distinctive… as Saurial, but I doubt we'll have any trouble. It may take a day or two for things to settle down even so, but we can live with that."

"In your honest opinion, Director, what do you think the chances of Shadow Stalker causing trouble here actually are?" Lauren asked.

The other blonde woman rubbed her eyes, looking abruptly exhausted. "Honestly? My gut says she'll try something somewhere else, as your security chief suggested. Man has good instincts. But… we can't risk merely assuming that's correct."

"I understand, and I agree," Lauren replied with a small grimace. "As worrying as it is. I do hope that Saurial and her group can protect the Hebert's home, since that would seem to be the obvious target."

"I suspect that their house is going to soon be, if it isn't already, one of the most heavily protected places in the entire city," Miss Militia put in, frowning in concentration.

"Probably," Director Piggot grunted, as she stood up and stretched with an expression of mild pain. "They don't want our help there, and to be honest I don't know that we could add anything anyway. We'll make sure that we have a vehicle patrolling the neighborhood on a regular basis, just in case they get lucky, but we'll steer clear of the Hebert house. At least it means we can concentrate on the other places, like here."

"How are you planning on protecting the young woman's friends, if I can ask?" Donald asked curiously. "Assuming you don't want to go through all this again with each set of parents."

"Which we don't if we can avoid it," the director said. "Far too much opportunity for information leaks. We'll arrange discreet surveillance of their homes and some regular patrols. We're going to have to talk to BBPD about some of this as well, although we don't need to pass on any details yet. With any luck we can catch the girl before knowledge of any of this needs to be spread any further."

"What about the times Miss Hebert's friends are all gathered at her house?" Lauren said, thinking about the math lessons that the girl was known to give. Looking a little confused, the other woman raised an eyebrow.

"Does that happen a lot?"

"Miss Hebert is highly gifted at mathematics, to a level I have seldom if ever come across before," Lauren replied. "Based on the results of her most recent tests, we're probably going to skip her up a grade or two at least. To be frank, she could probably _teach_ most of the classes here, according to her own tutors who are very impressed. She's been helping her circle of friends with their own mathematics, apparently to great success, over the last few weeks. It appears to be a regular event now."

"Is that so?" Director Piggot glanced at Miss Militia, who seemed slightly surprised. "The girl has many talents."

"She does," Lauren noted with a smile. "I'm very pleased how seriously she takes her academic responsibilities. She's helped her friends considerably based on their own recent results."

"Saurial is, according to Armsmaster and Dragon, and Legend for that matter, a mathematical genius," Miss Militia commented. "I wonder if she has also tutored Taylor?"

"I would be unsurprised if that was the case," Lauren said. "They do seem to get on exceptionally well and Saurial appears perfectly happy to pass on her skills when asked."

"Thank you for the information," the director remarked after thinking it over for a few seconds. "It complicates things slightly in some respects, but simplifies them in others. If the young people are all in one place, which is under the protection of the Family, we can probably assume that they're going to be at least as safe as when they're at home or at school. There's a small chance of collateral damage if Sophia did try anything there, but considering how much effort all of them seem to put into minimizing harm, it's acceptable."

The woman shrugged. "If nothing else with them in one place it makes our own job that much easier for that time, since we know where they are. Hopefully that will simplify things a little. I can't see it being an issue, really."

She gathered up her papers and put them back in the folder, then slipped the pad she'd made quite a few notes into it as well, handing the entire thing to Miss Militia, who put it into the briefcase she picked off the floor. "Thank you both for your time, your patience, and your understanding in this unfortunate matter. I'm sorry it was necessary."

"So are we, but these things happen from time to time," Donald said with a small smile. "Especially in this city. I'm relieved to see how seriously you're taking it, both personally and officially."

"We haven't got a choice, aside from my own feelings in the matter," she told him. "There's far too much scope for chaos if we don't find that damn girl. We really don't need that."

"No, I would say we don't," he agreed. "Especially since the city is at what must be an all-time low for general criminal activity. It would be nice to see that continue."

"At least it means we have more manpower available," she replied absently, checking the time. With a yawn, which she hastily put a hand over, she headed for the door. "We'll be in touch soon to keep you informed on our progress. Principal, Vice Principal."

"Director?" Lauren followed her to the door, Donald and Miss Militia bringing up the rear. "If I might make a suggestion? Get some sleep. You've obviously been up for far too long and you look much too tired to be thinking correctly. Two or three hours would make a world of difference."

Director Piggot stopped with a hand on the doorknob, looking at her for a moment. Eventually she sighed. "You're probably right. I've been going since four in the morning yesterday, which is pushing it."

Lauren nodded, satisfied. The very tired-looking PRT head nodded back, opened the door, and left, her associate smiling with her eyes at them over her scarf, whispering thanks as she passed, then followed the older woman out. Closing the door, Lauren leaned her back against it and regarded Donald, who was now sitting on the edge of the table looking at her with a vaguely amused yet slightly worried expression.

"If you retire you'll miss all this, you know," she said with a tiny grin.

"That is a very good point," he chuckled. "Would you like to take over earlier than scheduled? I can move up my plans."

"No, I think the end of the year is fine," she smiled. "You're not getting away that easily. If nothing else it will be interesting to see the results of having one of the Family wandering about. I expect it will cause a certain amount of talk among the students and staff alike."

"I don't doubt it," he said, standing up and shaking his head. "I don't doubt it at all. This city never fails to surprise me."

She turned around and opened the door, both of them leaving and heading off to inform various relevant staff members about what to expect, both hoping that the precautions they were taking would ultimately be unneeded, and both fearing that they wouldn't.


	305. Shipment and Lunchtime

"A PRT truck just arrived at the gate, Danny," Mark said as he stuck his head into the latter's office. Danny looked up from his computer, then checked the time.

"Not bad, the director said it would be here at eleven and it's five to. OK, let's go see what they have for us."

He followed the security head out of the admin building and down to the front parking lot, where several DWU staff were watching as a large PRT transport vehicle carefully maneuvered into a space, a sergeant giving the driver hand signals. When the vehicle was stationary, the engine turned off and the driver also got out, coming around to the back. The sergeant turned to Danny and Mark as they came over.

"Mr Hebert, sir," the trooper said, snapping off a quick salute to which Danny replied with a polite nod. The man held out a clipboard. "I'm Sergeant Foxton. We have your delivery, compliments of Director Piggot, as discussed." Danny took the offered paperwork and scanned it, while the man turned to the driver, both of them unlocking the back of the vehicle and opening the doors. Retrieving another set of paperwork from inside the truck, which one of the other pair of troopers handed him, Foxton started pointing at crates.

"Standard issue PRT foam projectors with backpack tanks, quantity twelve. Foam concentrate canisters for each sprayer, quantity ten each, total quantity one hundred twenty. Foam solvent applicators, quantity two. Solvent for applicators, quantity fifteen gallons each, total quantity thirty gallons, in one gallon units." The two troopers in the truck moved the crates to one side as he listed them, the man ticking them off on his manifest as he went.

"Containment foam grenades, quantity four dozen. Pneumatic grenade launchers, with support equipment, quantity six." These crates were smaller, the troopers piling them onto the first set. "PRT issue taser side arms, quantity twenty four. Reload cartridges for each unit, quantity twelve each, total quantity two hundred eighty eight. And finally full documentation for all the listed equipment, including training information, safety data, and other relevant subject matter, quantity two sets." Ticking the last item off as he finished, the sergeant looked at Danny, who had been following along on his copy. "Please sign here to accept the delivery, sir." He held out the second clipboard and a pen. Danny took the implement and signed in the places indicated, three times in total. "Thank you, sir. Where would you like this unloaded?"

"We'll unload it directly into the secure storage room," he said. "Mark, go and unlock it, and get Zephron as well, will you, please?"

"Sure, Boss," the blond man replied promptly, snapping to attention, a twinkle in his eyes that indicated he wasn't going to be outdone by the PRT people. Performing a crisp salute of his own which made Danny suppress a smile, he walked swiftly off, pulling his radio from his belt as he went. Danny knew the pair of them would have covered anything too incriminating by the time the rest of them got to the armory.

"I have to admit this is somewhat more than I was expecting, Sergeant," he commented, looking into the back of the large truck at the stack of crates with various PRT codes on them. "We were thinking perhaps half a dozen foam projectors at most."

"Permission to speak freely, sir?" the sergeant said. Danny smiled at him.

"Relax, son, I'm not your superior. Say anything you want to."

"Thank you, sir… I mean, Mr Hebert." Foxton visibly relaxed from his military stance. "I think the director is very worried about this current situation. From what I know, there's a chance that if it goes bad that the Family could become… irritated. _No one_ is very happy about the thought of Kaiju becoming irritated." He looked somewhat worried himself at the thought but managed to hide it fairly well. "This is her way of providing the support that she can without having too much political power of her own. In my personal opinion, you understand."

Waving at the equipment, he added, "We have a very well equipped armory and won't miss this at all. We use more foam than in that truck every time we have a training exercise, the stuff is cheap enough. And it's entirely non-lethal, so there isn't much other than normal PRT regulations to keep it out of civilian hands. The director has the authority to provide it to recognized heroic independents, which the Family qualifies as, and because of the association of them with the DWU, you do as well."

"I see. Well, it's still very generous of her." Danny pulled the paperwork off the clipboard, handed the latter back to the PRT man, and folded the papers up so he could put them in his pocket.

"We are also required to provide basic training in the use of the equipment, Mr Hebert. We have spares for that purpose so we don't deplete the provided material."

"That's fine. Let's get it put away safely, then we'll round up the relevant people who need instruction on this gear. If you'll come with me I'll show you where it goes." Danny watched as the two troopers inside the truck pulled the doors closed again and the driver got back into the cab and started it, the sergeant directing him out of the parking space with quick practiced hand signals. Moments later the pair of them were walking around the main building towards the armory, the truck rumbling slowly along behind them.

"I wanted to thank you for the support your people have provided to the city recently," Sergeant Foxton said after a couple of hundred feet. "I was born here, my family lives here, and I was lucky enough to get posted back to Brockton a couple of years ago. Although some people would say I was _unlucky,_ of course." He smiled faintly as Danny chuckled. "It's always had its problems, but I was sad to see how bad it had gotten. The last two or three months, though… Things seem to be changing for the better. And our job has become a lot easier too. Mostly thanks to your friends."

"It's nice of you to say so, Sergeant," Danny replied. "I'm sure they'd say the same. We all have our part to play, and I'm glad that it's suddenly started being possible to have that part really make a difference."

"It sure has," the man nodded somberly. "The entire docks area had turned into a complete shithole, if you'll pardon the expression. Skidmark and his idiots, Lung and the ABB, all the other stuff going on… But the Merchants are pretty much all gone, the ABB and Lung are being _very_ quiet, even the E88 is behaving itself. It's sort of freaky but at the same time a lot better than before."

"Let's hope it stays like that long enough to let us start rebuilding," Danny replied. "And that Skidmark doesn't make too large a fool of himself when he finally pops up again."

"Somehow I doubt he'll be able to resist, sir," Sergeant Foxton sighed. "The man is… not very sane."

"No. I'd have to agree with you there." They exchanged a look of understanding. "There we are, if you can get your men to park the truck just past that door, we'll unload everything into the store room."

"Affirmative, sir." Visibly barely restraining himself from saluting again, which amused Danny, Foxton made a few hand signals to his driver, who soon had the truck parked in the right spot. Banging on the back doors had the two troopers inside swing them open, lock them in that position, then jump out.

"New toys, Padrone?" Zephron, who had been standing next to the armory door watching with interest, rumbled as he walked over. Mark accompanied him along with John and a couple of the security staff, who were pushing a pair of cargo trolleys.

"Yes," Danny replied, handing his friend the manifest he pulled from his coat pocket. Zephron flipped through it, his eyebrows going up.

"Not bad. That will sure help if anything goes wrong."

"Hopefully it won't but better to be prepared, I suppose," Danny noted. He stepped to the side to allow the various parties to start unloading the crates from the vehicle and pile them on the carts. Shortly they were being pushed into the armory and unloaded onto the floor, to be racked up on the shelves later. Sergeant Foxton followed them in, looking around with interest, then tapped the nearest wall.

"This is that Family supermetal, right?"

"EDM. Yes. Saurial and the others have lined a few places with it around here. They're fairly sure it makes them quite secure." Danny nodded as he watched the man run his hand down the wall with an expression of bemusement.

"I'd think so, if the report I read on the stuff was even slightly right. This place is probably more secure than our armory." He looked up, then down, adding, "Floor and ceiling as well. And the door. Good job."

Danny noticed that Foxton had definitely seen the other boxes and crates stacked against the far wall, and passed his eyes over the currently covered-up equipment on the shelves, but the other man said nothing. "Thank you, I'll pass the compliments on to the Family," he replied with a small nod, making the sergeant grin a little. "How do you want to do the training?"

"It'll take three to four hours, it's the same basic training we give our own people. If you have a large area you don't mind making a mess in, we can do it there. The foam gets everywhere, and even with the release agent it still needs cleaning up, but the result is water soluble and non-toxic so you can just hose it down. Although the people involved will want to wear clothes they don't care about."

"OK." Danny thought for a moment, then turned to Mark. "Get your people over to building H, use the old boat shed. We can flush that out easily enough. Probably a good idea to get Brian and Alec at least trained up on the gear too."

"All right. That'll be… twenty-three people," Mark replied, glancing at the sergeant who nodded. "We can train the others ourselves. Zephron, go and round up the kids, will you? Danny, you coming to watch?"

"I'd like to but I can't at the moment, I have some other work to get back to, I'm afraid." Danny shrugged. "Lots to do and not enough people to do it all. Even with Lisa's help."

"OK." Mark nodded. Zephron had already left, so the others went outside and the security chief closed and locked the armory. "Sergeant, go with John here, he'll guide you to the right place. I'll meet you there with my squad in ten minutes, we'll just have to put on some overalls. I'm assuming from my own basic training that yours involves up close and personal experience of the non-lethal weaponry?"

Foxton smirked. "That it does. Just like with the tear gas."

"Oh, Christ, I remember that all too well," Mark moaned, shaking his head. "I was sneezing for a week."

"This stuff isn't nearly that bad, but it's not fun," Sergeant Foxton told him, still looking amused.

Danny watched them walk off, knowing that within a few minutes they were bound to end up swapping stories of their own service careers. Smiling a little, he headed in the opposite direction. He needed to thank Director Piggot, finish the current round of emails and phone calls, then go and see what ' _Metis_ ' was up to with Linda. They'd gone suspiciously quiet after the black-scaled lizard containing his assistant had announced she was going to visit the Tinker an hour ago...

* * *

Amy sat next to Lucy at the table, putting her tray down and picking up the bottle of water. Unscrewing the cap, she took a sip, then put it back where it came from. After that, she picked up the fork and started calmly eating her beef stew.

A few seconds passed until she looked around at the others sitting there, all of whom were staring at her. "What?" she said mildly.

Lucy sighed loudly, shaking her head. "You're doing this on purpose, aren't you?"

"Doing what?"

"Dragging things out. Just to annoy us!" The Chinese girl frowned fiercely. "You're worse than some of those fanfic authors on PHO with their slow pacing and constant cliff-hangers. Just get to the point already!"

"What point?" Amy put a puzzled expression on her face. "And you _read_ PHO fanfiction? What's _wrong_ with you? Those people are all nuts."

Lucy glared. "Stop trying to change the subject. As if _you_ don't. I'm pretty sure you actually write some of it, anyway." Beside her, Mandy was now giggling furiously, while Rich and Eric were grinning widely. "Spill it. You know why Taylor turned up with Saurial today, and why they went to the admin office this morning."

"Didn't Taylor tell you?" Amy asked, spearing a piece of potato and sticking it in her mouth. Having swallowed, she added, "She's got several classes with each of you, I know that."

"She kept getting distracted!" Lucy shouted, waving her hands wildly around. "And she's not here yet. You _are_. _Talk_ , Dallon!"

"Calm down before you pop something, Lucy," a familiar voice said from behind them, making the girl squeak and whip her head around, her long hair whacking into Amy's face and making her splutter. "We'll tell you, at least some of it." Saurial grinned at the girl, who stared at her in surprise, Taylor standing next to the lizard-like cape. She was also looking very amused. Both of them were holding trays.

"Shove over, Amy," Taylor commented, putting her tray down. Saurial moved around to the end of the table and sat on her tail. Half the cafeteria was openly gaping at them by now, and the rest were simply being more discreet about it. Moving a little, Amy let her friend sit next to her, inwardly chortling about the way that _both_ of them were her friend…

Sometimes she wondered about her life, she really did. It was bizarre even by Parahuman standards, but it was _so much fun_.

"Not bad," Saurial commented, trying some of her food, the curry of the day, and nodding appreciatively. "Not bad at all. They feed you well here."

"It's pretty good for a school," Taylor agreed mildly, sampling her fish. "And a decent selection." Amy wondered how eating two different meals with two different mouths actually tasted.

"So..." Lucy trailed off meaningfully, staring at the pair of them, while tapping her fingers on the table in a rapid rhythm. "Come on. Not that I mind Saurial being here at all, but it's weird. What's going on?"

"Should I tell her?" Taylor asked Amy, raising an eyebrow.

"May as well, or she'll just end up yelling at you," Amy grinned, glancing at Lucy, who was very obviously beginning to feel annoyed.

"She doesn't like secrets," Mandy added. "If they're not hers, I mean."

"And we're very curious too," Eric put in, leaning back with a can of Sprite in his hand, watching with interest. Rich, beside him, nodded vigorously. Looking around, Amy could see that a fair number of people, including her sister and the entire table of Wards, were also listening. The area around them had gone weirdly quiet for lunch time.

"Oh, all right, you talked me into it," Taylor said with a grand gesture of compliance, waving a hand at Lucy. She smirked when their friend sighed loudly. "I'm not allowed to tell you everything, I'm afraid. PRT orders, straight from the Director. But the basic issue is that there's a rogue Parahuman who has it in for me and Dad, and there's a small but real possibility that they might try something here. Saurial is going to be hanging around until they catch this person, which hopefully won't take too long."

There were a number of worried looks at this remark. Amy noticed Carlos and the other three boys lean into towards Vicky and start urgently talking in whispers, which suggested she hadn't filled them in yet. Her sister caught her eye and received a small nod in response, nodding back, then began talking. They'd shared quite a lot of information outside the school but Amy still needed to find out from Taylor what had happened when she'd met the director and the school people earlier.

She also noticed that Dean was looking at both Taylor and Saurial with one of the weirdest expressions she'd ever seen, although he was attempting to be covert about it. Not all that well, in fact. She could smell a faint scent of confusion coming from that direction as well. After a moment she realized that this was undoubtedly the first time he'd consciously seen Taylor pull off her ' _be in two places at once_ ' trick and his power was probably giving him some _very_ odd results… They were definitely going to have to talk to the boy again soon before he went strange on them. Presumably the cloaking technique had stopped him noticing anything before when Taylor was going through her practical joke phase.

"Oh, shit," Rich exclaimed in shock. "Which one?"

"That's the part I can't tell you," Taylor shrugged. "Sorry. It's not really that important, though. The PRT are stationing a squad nearby, and keeping their eyes open. The most likely thing is that the Parahuman, if they actually turn up here which isn't at all guaranteed, will get jumped and foamed long before they get inside."

"And if they do manage to do that, they'll head right for Taylor," Saurial commented, shaking her head. "Fairly single-track mind, let's call it. Trust me, that won't end well for them."

"I can imagine," Mandy said faintly, looking at the grin full of teeth that had appeared for a moment. "Is anyone else at risk?"

"Probably not," the reptilian girl said. "We think that the rogue is focused entirely on the Heberts. There's a small chance that they might try something with someone she knows, but no one thinks it's very likely, and if they do, the PRT or I will deal with it in the same way we would if it was Taylor or her dad. You're all friends as well and no one gets away with hurting our friends." She looked around at them all. "Believe me, we mean it."

"I don't think that anyone is doubting you, Saurial," Eric replied after a moment. "The only thing that surprises me is that anyone is crazy enough to think that going after any friend of the Family is a survivable plan."

Saurial glanced at Taylor, who shrugged, shaking her head. "This one isn't entirely sane," she said after a moment. "Otherwise I'd agree. Who knows, they might see sense, but we have to assume that they won't. So I, or one of my relatives, will be lurking around here for a while."

Amy looked about her and saw that various groups of students were talking among themselves, some looking worried or scared, many looking fairly irritated, in a manner that made her think they were more pissed off that someone was targeting one of them, rather than blaming Taylor for it. Most of them were also watching Saurial with looks that suggested they were glad she was here, and wanted to ask many questions.

A couple of the teachers had also stopped to listen. They didn't seem surprised, making her sure that they already knew the details, although they were obviously also interested. When Saurial stopped speaking, one of them, Mrs Adil as it happened, stepped forward.

"As you have just heard, there is a possible, although not definite, Parahuman threat against this school. Miss Hebert is correct, the PRT is stationing a protective detail on school grounds for the time being, who will be working with school security until the threat is over. You may see the PRT troopers from time to time, please be polite to them if you do, and make them welcome. They are here to help. If anyone spots anything out of the ordinary, or anything they are worried by, mention it to a teacher or other staff member, one of the PRT staff if they are present, or Miss Saurial. She is here with the full knowledge and approval of the school administration and for the duration should be considered to be one of the security staff. While she is apparently happy to answer most questions, please do not cause a disturbance in the process, or bother her excessively."

She looked around in a stern fashion at the students, who had fallen entirely quiet by this point and were listening intently. "I expect everyone to behave in a sensible manner, as you normally do. We will be sending out a letter to your parents explaining the current situation, and stressing that there is no immediate risk to anyone, which both the PRT and the Family agree with the school administration on. If the situation should happen to change, you will be notified accordingly. Until and unless that happens, go about your normal activities as usual, please. If you have any specific concerns, you may approach any of the teachers with them. Thank you for listening."

She stopped talking, and immediately half a dozen students went over to her and began asking questions, which she patiently answered. Amy watched for a moment, then turned back to her table of friends. "Seems like they're more or less fine with things," she remarked.

"They weren't happy about the threat itself, but the principal and vice-principal were very accommodating," Saurial smiled. "Mrs Howell seemed almost pleased to see me."

"She wanted to meet you, she told me," Taylor giggled. "When we talked about my baton after she'd seen the video of that Merchant idiot."

"I wouldn't be surprised if she asks you to talk to the entire school at some point," Mandy said. "They get the Wards in to give little pep talks sometimes, and that sort of thing. Most people seem to like it. Having a Family member do the same would be cool."

"Pity Kaiju wouldn't fit into the auditorium," Eric snickered. "She could probably stick about half her face into the main door at best."

"Which would definitely be interesting, but not quite what they were shooting for, I think," Rich chuckled, making them all laugh.

"If they do ask you, you should get Taylor up on the stage and show off some of your training," Amy suggested with a smirk. "You might get people wanting lessons."

The lizard-girl aspect snickered. "I have enough to do at the moment training up the DWU people, we're going to start that soon. Maybe in the longer term Family-style Martial Arts classes could be a thing, though. Pity you poor mammals don't have proper tails, you really need them to do it right."

Amy and Taylor exchanged looks of amusement, both their hidden tails twitching at the thought. Lucy started giggling, making them glance at her then grin.

"OK, that explains _that_ mystery," Mandy said as she finished her lunch. "So what the hell was the real story behind that _godawful_ stink yesterday morning? I was puking in the toilet for half an hour! There's got to be more to it than a simple accident..."

Soon they were listening to an increasingly elaborate series of bizarre theories, each of them attempting to top the others. Amy was highly amused that none of them were as weird as the actual truth.

* * *

 ****  
Discreetly watching the table with Taylor, Amy, Saurial, and the others at it, Dean puzzled over the latest bizarreness that seemed to come as part and parcel of the entire ' _Family_ ' scenario that the Hebert girl was somehow pulling off. He still had no idea how the hell she was managing to produce Ianthe and Metis at the same time as Saurial, Raptaur, and Kaiju, who he knew damn well were all her. The former two almost certainly weren't, they had entirely different and quite alien emotional signatures based on having met Ianthe, ones he had never encountered before anywhere. But who or what they really were baffled him, and worried him as well.

And recently there had been sightings of at least two of the Taylor's alter-egos in the same place at the same time! He'd initially put it down to whatever process was allowing her to pull Ianthe and her sister out of her ass, but… He was sitting not fifteen feet from both Taylor Hebert _and_ Saurial, both of whom were happily chatting to Amy and the others, and the occasional student who wandered over with a question. The real problem he had with this was that from here he could tell that both Taylor and the lizard-girl had identical emotional output. In fact, if he didn't know better thanks to his own eyes, he'd say that there was only one person there, the signatures were so well matched.

Not only was it nearly impossible to separate them, to the level he wasn't entirely sure he wasn't actually imagining it, but the odd duality of her output, which had been becoming harder and harder to differentiate over the weeks, was now almost unnoticeable. If he had only met her for the first time today he was sure he wouldn't even notice. It was only the contrast with before that made him aware of it at all.

He wondered what that meant.

It drove home yet again that she was a problem he wanted no part in. While he was content to be on friendly terms with her, he felt it best not to get involved too much, since if and when anything serious happened, it was likely to be _very_ serious. She and her friends were much too dangerous to get too close to without a good reason. Amy didn't seem to think so, if anything she was absolutely reveling in whatever she was actually doing with Taylor, and even Vicky seemed happy to know them. Admittedly his girlfriend had moments when she looked at Taylor with at least as much puzzlement as he did, making him wonder very much just why and how much she actually knew, but it seemed a little risky to simply ask.

At the moment she was talking very quietly to Dennis, Chris, and Carlos, confirming what Taylor and her friend had said. Dennis was looking thoughtful, glancing at Carlos every now and then as she spoke.

"That crazy girl is trying to get herself killed, isn't she?" Chris muttered, shaking his head. "She really _is_ nuts."

"Shadow Stalker has always been aggressive and anti-social," Carlos agreed with a sigh. He was being careful not to mention her civilian name, Dean noticed, thinking it was fairly pointless in this case since there was little doubt based on what Vicky had said that her parents would be told by the PRT. And they in turn would tell Vicky and Amy. Although he suspected that the healer already knew, considering how close she was to Taylor.

"You mean Sophia, Carlos," Vicky said equally quietly. The boy stared at her, as did Dean. Hmm. Apparently Vicky already knew. "Taylor told me and Amy about the bullying weeks ago. With the names of her bullies. When Mom mentioned who was involved at Winslow, I put it together."

"Oh. OK, but it's best not to mention that to anyone even so, Vicky," Carlos replied, looking mildly impressed. "I doubt the PRT will want it getting out for several reasons, if only to protect her family."

"I won't mention it, trust me," the blonde said, looking around to make sure that no one was close enough to overhear. "But I wanted you guys to know I know. And Amy knows as well, she's known for weeks."

"And you knew about the bullying for weeks too, didn't you, Carlos?" Dennis said slowly, staring at the older boy, who suddenly looked guilty. "You knew all about all of it."

They all looked at him, then at Carlos, who flushed a little. Eventually, after another suspicious check to see if anyone could overhear, he sighed and nodded a little. "I was involved in a meeting," he said with resignation. "Because I was the oldest. I couldn't say anything about it."

"So you knew why Sophia was stuck there all along?"

"Yes." Carlos didn't look comfortable talking about it. "Like I said, though, I couldn't say anything. I still can't, so please don't ask."

"It wouldn't have made any difference, would it?" Vicky asked them. "None of you were her friends, she didn't really have any. Except maybe this Emma girl Taylor used to know. So if he couldn't say anything, it doesn't matter much."

"Thanks, Vicky," the older boy said very quietly, as Dennis and Chris nodded a little. Dean was thinking how much more reasonable his girlfriend was these days, and how she seemed to be able to think things through a lot better than she used to. It was pleasing, but still surprised him from time to time. "Sorry, guys. I guess now that some of it has come out, you'll all get told the rest soon enough."

"Probably," Dennis muttered. "I had a text on my… special phone… that someone wanted to talk after school."

"Me too," Dean and Chris said simultaneously. It was a message requesting a meeting between the Wards and the director, scheduled for 4.30 PM. Presumably to inform them what their role in this entire debacle would be.

"What do you think Saurial and the others will do if they catch her?" Dennis asked after a few seconds of silence. "Eat her immediately, or save her for a special occasion?"

"She'd probably be a little tough, marinating in Tabasco sauce for a week would most likely help," Chris snickered, making Vicky both grin and look mildly Ill at the same time. Dean groaned as Carlos glared at the pair.

"Really not appropriate, you two," he hissed. "Saurial's sitting right there."

"And can hear you, you know," the lizard girl said from behind him, having popped up out of nowhere as he'd turned to discreetly indicate her location and stopped when she wasn't there. Carlos squeaked in shock and nearly fell off his chair. Saurial grinned, high-fived Dennis who had apparently seen her coming, and went back to her table.

Breathing a little more heavily than normal, Carlos stared at her, then turned to glare evilly at Dennis, who was resting his head on the table heaving with laughter. "Oh, thanks, _friend_ ," the boy grated.

"No problem," Dennis giggled, waving a hand over his head. "Your face..."

Vicky poked him, but she was grinning as well. Dean shook his head, glanced once more at the other table and the impossible girl or girls sitting at it, gave up for the moment, and went back to eating his lunch before it got too cold. He'd find out later what the truth of Sophia's escape was, and speculating over the truth of Taylor Hebert was a pointless exercise in frustration.

* * *

 ****  
"It's looking really good, Linda."

"It is, isn't it?" The Tinker grinned down at ' _Metis_ ', who was holding her invention firmly in place as the woman made a few final adjustments to the main power system. Sticking her head back into the open access panel, Linda tweaked the final setting, tested the result, and smiled happily. "All in the green." Disconnecting the diagnostic cable she coiled it up and put it into the utility belt she had around her waist, then closed the panel and secured it. Climbing down she wiped her hands on a rag that was slung over one shoulder, her tail waving lazily back and forth in satisfaction.

Lisa carefully lowered the construction back onto the floor, then stepped back to admire it from next to the cat-woman. "I like it. I suspect everyone else will too."

"Should we wait for them, or test it now?" Linda looked at the black scaled lizard. "I nearly had it finished yesterday, but that horrible smell put me off. The enhanced senses weren't a good thing then."

"Sorry about that," Lisa apologized.

"A little warning would have been nice."

"I know, we should have thought it through. If it's any consolation, it took us by surprise as well, that damn chemical was a lot more effective than anyone thought it would be."

"Will you tell me what the whole story is at some point?" Linda asked.

"Sure. It's privileged information at the moment, so we'll have to talk to Saurial first, but I don't see why you can't know. You're in as deep as the rest of us are and it's not like you're going to tell anyone else." Lisa smiled down at the woman. "And we can ask Ianthe to tweak your sense of smell a little to let you filter something like that out if it happens again. Which hopefully it won't, but we'll do it anyway."

"Sounds good. So, wait or try it now?"

"Try it now, I think," Lisa grinned. "I want to see what happens as much as you do. As far as I can see everything is working to spec."

"That's what the diagnostics say too." Linda cracked her knuckles, then stretched her arms. "This should be fun." Walking over to the machine, she grabbed on and started climbing. "If everything checks out, I'll get Saurial to help me make some more. I've already got a few ideas for the second version. We can make it lighter, I think, and more efficient. But this will do for now."

Entering the pilot's position, she settled into the seat and fastened the restraint system. "OK, powering up..." Reaching out, she flipped two switches with a clawed finger, then pressed a button. A rising hum made the machine rattle for a moment until it settled down to a sub-bass rumble. "Power at one hundred percent. All systems read nominal. Testing linear motors." She worked the controls. Lisa watched the results with interest.

"All tests passed perfectly. No faults logged," Linda reported. With a wide smile, she flipped another switch. "Motion systems engaged. We're hot. Let's see what happens."

"I'll get the door," Lisa replied, moving towards the large double doors at the front of the workshop. "This should make people stop and watch."

Laughing with pleased glee, Linda nodded, then took the controls again, eager to see how her first _proper_ piece of Transportation worked.


	306. Guest Omake - Lizarding

**Lizarding**

 **By Ace Dreamer**

* * *

"Randall?", he looked up, from his video game, that tone of voice from Kevin usually meant trouble, "I think I may have created a monster".

Randall paused the game by reflex, and looked over at his friend. He looked OK, no obvious bits missing, clothes intact, and he had some of that disgusting soda. The one they'd agreed to never keep in the workshop, for fear of accidents.

"You've got a can of that drink. That means you wanted to celebrate something."

He sighed, and put down the controller. "OK, tell me what happened, and what we need to do to fix things".

The sometimes called 'Leet' sipped at his can, Randall shuddered.

"Well..."

* * *

"Give me your wallet, and your phone."

Leet was a bit surprised, muggings had gone down a lot lately. And, he was masked-up. Yes, the shaking man was holding a gun, but who was stupid enough to attack people in alleyways any more? People who might be capes?

"Be reasonable", he'd got a hand near his pocket, where his latest creation was. The one he was so pleased about. He'd be fair. If the man didn't run away... "I'm Leet. I'm a cape. I'm a friend of the Family, and I don't want any trouble."

It was dark in the alleyway, but his improved eyesight let him see the man go paler.

"Give... me your wallet and phone, or I'll shoot you."

So Leet shot him.

* * *

"OK, enough of the suspense. What did you shoot him with?"

"I'd been talking with... Ianthe. About the Family arts." Randall nodded in approval. They thought their workshop was secure, but there was no point in taking risks.

"You were off getting your ass kicked by Saurial. I was talking to her about how someone, a normal human, might become... more lizard-y. We kicked a load of ideas around and I jokingly said that a lot of people would be improved by being turned into Yoshi."

"When I got back I looked at some of my old notes, the 'Boy/Girl Gun', a few others. Stuff we'd never seen a good enough reason for, that was maybe a bit too close to other stuff. But, I realised I'd never built a 'gene gun', did you know they really exist, and can be used on onions?"

"No... But before you tell me all about them, why don't you tell me what you built?"

"Well... I thought it was a 'Yoshi Ray', but I think it was a 'Grendel Gun'. You know, like in the poem about the troll?"

Kevin swallowed.

"I don't think we can fix this. I think we're going to have to tell the Family."

* * *

He'd fallen over after he'd been shot, by the green ray. Then staggered to his feet, not understanding why the man in front of him looked smaller, why his feet had hurt momentarily, then he was bare foot. He roared, in pain. Then his muzzle finished growing, his new teeth settled into place.

The man ran off, but he ignored him, looking at his hand, which was now scaled and green, though it was so dark he couldn't see any colours, earlier.

He'd staggered into his squat, roaring at the drunk who questioned him, then fainted. Now he was curled up, trying to think things through.

The shakes were gone, and he'd a clearer head than he'd had for years. Really, he felt... pretty good. Hopkirk. He remembered his name, now. Much better than being called 'Hoppy'.

It was just...

Why did he want to go into a shop, buy then swallow raw eggs, whole. Then, go out and troll people?


	307. Guest Omake - Too SLOW!

**Too SLOW!**

 **By readerdreamer**

* * *

"You know... This has gotten stale."

Danny looked up from his work to turn towards Taylor, who seemed to be deep in thought as she sat in the kitchen.

"Taking all of this time, achieving seemingly nothing... I can't believe it's taken me this long to see it."

Danny smiled resignedly at her. "What are you talking about this time, Taylor? Was it Amy, no, Lisa?"

Taylor shook her head. "No, not them. They're not important, not for this. No, it's all just me. I have all these abilities, all these powers, yet... ultimately, I'm not really achieving anything aren't I? It's gotten stale, Dad. It's gotten stale."

Danny kept on smiling. "What _is_ stale, Taylor?"

"Isn't it obvious?" Taylor raised an eyebrow at her father. "It's this goddamn _wait_ for the beef stew to cook!"

"I know it's cooking as fast as it can with the pressure cooker, but it's not fast enough. It's never _fast enough_ , Dad."

"...Patience is a virtue?"

"It is until I manage to figure out how to warp spacetime enough to cook this in an instant. Or maybe I should apply SCIENCE! more creatively? But how...?"

"...just don't break the universe too much?"

"You know that's gone and done by now, Dad, sheesh where have you been?"


	308. Guest Omake - Dream Team

**Dream Team**

 **By readerdreamer**

* * *

Apparently, insanity _was_ capable of having overflow errors, because once Skidmark accidentally killed the Butcher, he went so insane that he got bored of it and went back to being sane.

With just the minoooooor issue of being obsessed with killing the Family, so yeah, maybe he still wasn't _that_ sane.

Still, he certainly was sane enough to plan, so after a bit of effort, he put his plan into work.

"Are you sure this plan will work?"

Skidcher, Skitcher, Skidmer - aaargh, enough with combining the names, Skitter would probably do for pseudonym he mused, sounded particularly appropriate to him... well, the majority of him anyway and _yes Butcher #4 that didn't include you_ \- Skitter only smiled without showing teeth at the crazy girl before him.

"Of course it would, my dearest Shadow Stalker. You're a predator, correct?"

"Of course!"

"Then you'll do this. Predators hunt, they Pounce, they tackle their preys to the ground when they least expect it."

"...alright."

Wasn't it amusing that he was so good at manipulating people now that he was questionably sane?

A warning growl came from beneath the girl, and Skitter took the hint coming from the monstrosity before him.

Sure, Skitter managed to somehow convince Crawler to go along with this plan, but the man(?) still didn't like being turned into a ride.

"Buckle right up, Miss Shadow Stalker, because this will be a bumpy ride! Operation Predator Pounce in five, four-"

"You know what, I'm having second thoughts about this, this is crazy, I'm out-"

"Too late, ahaha! Blast _offffff_!"

Not even a moment later, the Shadow Crawler duo was sent towards the direction of Arcadia with the force of a railgun.

Skitter cackled all the way as he teleported out of Brockton Bay in the resulting chaos.


	309. Guest Omake - Clothing makes the

**Clothing makes the...**

 **By readerdreamer**

* * *

"When I saw Kaiju, something in me... snapped. My dream, my dream was to make it big in the fashion industry, to deliver a message to the rest of the world with my art."

"When the other people saw her, they panicked. They screamed. They thought it was the end of the world. Me? I was _giddy_."

"After all, before my eyes, I had the biggest model I could ever have. My greatest achievement - to defeat that be-damned Darth Vader costume and make the _outfit that could fit even Kaiju."  
_  
"Immediately, I made plans. First, I had to get the materials. I broke into banks and robbed from cloth suppliers just so I could get enough cloth. I entered major auctions to get the best of jewelry. I traveled all the way to the dangerous Africas just so I could personally hunt down beasts for their fur and leather."

"Then I needed the tools. I hired a Tinker from the Toybox to invent a device that would allow my materials to withstand nearly anything. I tracked down Kaiser to the Appalachian mountains just so I can turn him into my personal needle."

(Max: "Not here tooooooooo...")

"Then, I started making the outfit. Ten days and ten nights, without sleep I sewed and I sewed, cut and cut until I was finished with my greatest masterpiece. But it wasn't over yet - I needed Kaiju herself. I needed her to put it on for me first before I could ever call it complete. I needed her _attention."_

"So Taylor Hebert, this is why I'm here. This is why I defeated the PRT, the Protectorate, the New Wave, and took over Arcadia. Because you were here."

"Now, Taylor Hebert, be prepared to face the worst _wardrobe makeover_ you have ever come to encounter!"


	310. Guest Omake - Whoops

**Whoops...**

 **By readerdreamer**

* * *

Danny stood behind the Table, with the paperweight saying "Property of Da Boss" placed over a stack of papers. There was a minor pounding in his head, combined with a slight urge to throw Zephron's latest "offering" at the two before him.

He pressed the bridge of his nose. "Excuse me, can you two explain that to me again?"

The duo in front of him were only glad to.

"So, it all began with Taylor-" Leet began.

Uber nodded beside him, "-as is the normal course of things around here, for the a given amount of normal anyway-"

Leet, "-but the thing is, she played pranks on us, you know? Normally, all will be well with that, as long as we got to give it what we've got-"

Uber, "-but then she went and said that she and her demon would forever be better partners than we are."

"That we take a stand to, isn't it, Uber?"

"Yes, we do, Leet, so of-"

"-course we got to work."

At this point, Danny's headache went up to a migraine. He almost didn't want to ask. "And what you did was...?"

He was immediately beset with twin grins.

"Oh, we'll be glad to explain-"

"-that, Boss!"

Danny twitched, his hand moving over the accursed paperweight over his desk of its own volition.

"First, Leet here invented a-"

Leet slammed the table. "-machine that can connect minds! It's plainly unfair that they have a mental connection-"

"-when we're stuck with just body language," Uber continued without a beat, crossing his arms, "but then I realized that, perhaps the invention could also be used to share our powers."

"He was right-" "-as I usually do-" "-and then we tested if Uber can Tinker something too, and as it turned out, he could!"

"Double the hands, double the work, overcome the limit-"

"-disconnecting the two of us also refreshes the counter-"

"-we made our thing, walked up to Amy to turn us into blood brothers through DNA-"

"-and just like that, we were done."

Danny pressed his face on the cool surface of his poor Table. "So that was when you two invited Taylor into a tennis match?"

"Yep, you-"

"-got that right, Boss!"

Danny snapped. He picked up the paperweight and threw it at them, roaring,

"So that is why I woke up in the middle of the night with the entire Bay in panic due to Kaiju and a goddamn _Jaeger!?_ "


	311. Vectura and Demonstrations

"I'll see you guys tomorrow," Taylor said to Mandy and the others as they gathered outside the school, sheltering from the rain that had started coming down an hour earlier. "Let's make an early appointment this time for Friday, OK?"

"Sounds good to me, Taylor," Rich said. He looked over to where Chris and Dennis were standing, talking to each other. "Hey, Chris, you coming to Taylor's on Friday?"

The younger boy turned around, looking a little surprised, but after a moment nodded. "If I'm allowed to I'd like that, thanks," he replied.

"Of course you are, Chris," Taylor smiled. "I hope the abacus is helping?"

"More than I'd have believed, actually," he grinned. "My special class was amazed, and now the teacher is looking into the idea for several other people. You may get asked about it."

"That's fine," she said with a nod, feeling satisfied. "I'm really glad it worked so well. See you later, then."

"Have fun, human friends," ' _Saurial_ ' said with a smirk, making Lucy giggle. The girl was very pleased that the lizard-girl had been wandering around intermittently during the day. Taylor had to dismiss the other aspect whenever it wasn't needed, but it was easy enough to make it look like her second personality was lurking somewhere just in case she was needed. So far, things were working out well. The PRT troopers had parked their truck behind the sports hall and draped a huge tarp over it so it wasn't obvious, and a couple of them randomly and discreetly patrolled the grounds, one of the five-man school security team accompanying them as per the plan that their boss Ed had worked out with Lieutenant Pratchett that morning.

Neither Taylor nor the Varga thought it wildly likely that Sophia would either turn up in the near future, or attack her at school, but the girl was definitely something of a random element and prone to anger-induced lack of critical thinking. As a result they couldn't rule it out entirely, so these precautions, while annoying, were probably for the best.

Plus it let her play a little, and the Varga too, by allowing her second aspect to meet other people. It was a little weird how quickly everyone seemed to have become used to the scaly cape, but by now most people merely greeted her politely as if she was a slightly odd mix between a staff member and a student. All in all it was working well.

"Come on, both of you, I don't want to stand around in the rain and get soaked," Amy put in slightly impatiently, spinning her car keys around one finger. They all waved to their friends and ran for the car park, Amy hitting the unlock button on the way, and were shortly inside the vehicle. Handing Amy a towel she produced, Taylor used another one to quickly wipe her face and hair free of water. Both towels vanished moments later, leaving the water behind, where it promptly fell onto their laps.

"Oops," Taylor said, as her friend gave her a dark look. "Didn't think that one through."

"Try again, you menace to normal people," Amy sighed, holding out her hand. This time, when the towels were disposed of, she tossed them out the window.

In the back seat, the Varga was snickering to himself, highly amused once again. "I've enjoyed today very much, Brain," he said, letting his ' _Saurial_ ' mannerisms lapse now they were alone. Amy started the truck and reversed out of the parking space, then headed for the street. "Thank you for allowing me to do most of the work with this aspect. It was very entertaining."

"You're welcome," Taylor smiled as she leaned back in the seat, wriggling a little to get her tail comfortably situated into the hole in it. "I thought things went very well too. It was interesting finding out how seriously the PRT took the investigation into Sophia."

"What actually happened at that meeting?" Amy asked curiously as she turned right and accelerated.

"It was a pretty comprehensive briefing, in fact," Taylor explained. "Director Piggot herself, along with Miss Militia, and that Lieutenant Pratchett guy who came to the office, were all there..." She spent the rest of the trip to the DWU yard going over what had been discussed and decided.

When they pulled up at the gate, all three of them stared at the sight they could see past the fence, then exchanged glances.

"Looks like Linda got it finished," Amy said in bemused tones. Both the others nodded silently, impressed.

"I think I want a go," Taylor said when the barrier closed behind them, as she watched the action. A grin was spreading across her face.

"Kevin is going to gape, then laugh, you realize?" the Varga commented, also watching. "And I would also like to try."

"Based on the crowd, _everyone_ wants a go," Amy giggled. "We'll have to be patient."

"Quick, park the truck so we can get in line!" Taylor called, bouncing in her seat.

"What part of ' _patient_ ' are you having trouble with, you weirdo?" her friend snarked, but she was definitely driving faster than normal towards the office.

Taylor merely grinned, her head swiveling to keep Linda's device in view.

* * *

Brian wiped his face, then glared at Alec, who was smirking at him in the irritating way he seemed to have picked up from Lisa. "Was that _entirely_ necessary?" he asked with a frown. "Right in the face?"

"You have a very shootable face, Brian," his friend told him earnestly. Mark, who was watching with a smirk of his own, standing next to Zephron and the PRT guy, Sergeant Foxton, snorted with laughter.

"I thought the funniest thing was how he tripped you, then foamed you on the way down," the DWU security head snickered. "Two legs sticking straight up out of a pile of containment foam isn't the sort of thing you see every day."

"I think you pass the training course, Alec," Sergeant Foxton added, smiling a little as well, although he was clearly trying to remain professional. "Very good shot, and good tactics too. That would take out an opponent with minimal foam usage and disorient them into the bargain."

"Don't encourage him!" Brian snapped, still cleaning dissolved foam from his face and hair. "Shit, this stuff is nasty when it's all sticky like this. Like bathing in molasses, only it tastes a lot worse."

"You get used to it," the sergeant shrugged.

"Pardon me if I say, quite honestly and loudly, that I do not _want_ to get used to it," the young man grimaced. "And stop sniggering like that, Alec, you're worse than Lisa and Saurial put together."

"Can't help it," the smaller boy shrugged, still smirking. "Every time you speak all I can hear is that muffled swearing..."

Zephron started chuckling, slapped Brian on the back, and said, "He'll find someone else to grin at soon enough."

"True, I guess," Brian sighed. "Is that it? We've all been foamed, tased, which stings like a bastard by the way, and checked out with the equipment. I need a shower."

"We all do," Mark agreed, which was true enough. Every person in the room aside from the PRT troopers were covered, wholly or in part, in foam residue, and the floor had patches of it all over the place. He turned to Foxton. "I think that's probably a job well done, wouldn't you say, Keith?" Both men had ended up on first name terms quite fast once they began torturing the DWU security people, mostly smiling as they did so in a slightly sadistic manner.

"I'd agree with that," the other man nodded. "Your people are quick and competent. I'm impressed. I doubt you'll have any problems with passing on the training to anyone else you need to. Hopefully you won't need the stuff, but if you do, you'll make it work for you." He motioned to his four-man squad to begin packing up their equipment. "We'll get this loaded up, then head back."

"Stop into the cafeteria for some coffee if you have a little spare time," Mark suggested. Foxton glanced at his watch, then nodded again.

"Sure, that sounds like a good idea. Can we find Mr Hebert again so I can let him know things went to plan? The director would want me to observe professional standards and he's the nearest thing you guys have to a commanding officer."

Zephron grinned broadly as Mark chuckled. "He won't thank you for saying that, so probably best not to, but I'd agree. Very good man, Danny Hebert. He inspires loyalty in the weirdest places." The blond glanced at Brian, who masked a slight smile, realizing at least part of what he was getting at. "OK, you guys, go and shower, get changed, and get something to eat. It's nearly five now and I know _I'm_ starving."

The couple of dozen DWU staff all responded affirmatively, then headed towards the exit. Brian stayed behind to help the PRT troopers, Mark, and Zephron carry the crates of equipment towards the door and the truck parked just outside, getting a murmur of thanks from the man he was pairing up with. They hefted the large crate containing four foam projectors between them and moved off.

Just before they reached the door, Alec, who had immediately left when food was mentioned, came back inside with a very odd expression on his face. "Brian? You really need to see this." He gestured, then left again. Brian looked at Mark, who shrugged, before he and his partner followed.

Outside, they all stopped, lowering their burdens to the ground, while staring at the activity going on in the larger part of the main yard.

"What on earth…?" Mark muttered.

"Looks like Vectura has been busy," Zephron observed, also watching with great interest. He was slowly beginning to smile. "That girl is _good_."

"Vectura?" Sergeant Foxton asked in bemused tones. "Who's that?"

"Our resident Tinker," Mark said, not looking away from what he was observing. "Hired a few weeks ago because she's a fucking good mechanic even without the Tinkering. Boss and the girls gave her a big workshop on the next road over, and I think she's finished her first serious project."

"I'd have to agree," the sergeant nodded, sounding very impressed and quite startled. "I'd _definitely_ have to agree..."

* * *

"What do you think?" ' _Metis_ ' asked Danny, who was watching as Linda put her new invention through some increasingly elaborate tests. He didn't take his eyes off the sight and was smiling in a weird fashion. So were a number of the other DWU people who were standing near them, many taking photos and video.

"I think that we're going to have fun with this," he finally replied. "She's not like poor Leet? She can make more?"

"Yep. As many as you want. Vectura designs the parts, Saurial makes them, we add a few things from commercial suppliers with suitable modifications, and we could turn those out at probably around a dozen a week. More, perhaps, if we get some of the people in Engineering to help with the assembly. She thinks it can be improved a lot, too, there's a whole list of ideas on the whiteboard back in her workshop just from building this one. My… intuition…," which was code for her power, "tells me that because we can make something pretty much exactly like what her power _wants_ to make, rather than having to improvise around all sorts of missing things, they'll be a hell of a lot more reliable than most Tinker designs. I'm fairly certain of that, although it will still need periodic maintenance."

"Presumably not the hull or any of the parts that Saurial made?"

"No, those are solid. It's the Tinker-specific modifications to the electronics, mainly. They're the same sort of weird black-box mess that almost all Tinkers produce, because as far as I can see they don't really understand what they're trying to do. Leet's designs are kind of an exception to that, for Dragon at least, we've discovered. Vectura and he were playing with some amazingly advanced power armor of his last week and I think that inspired some of this as well, which is how it came together so fast. Not to mention she already had the power units built from a previous project and just reused them. Making more of those is the most complicated part right now."

"Amazing. Genuinely amazing. I mean, the drawings were one thing, but seeing… this… that's really incredible. It looks really polished and complete too, not like some Tinker designs we've seen in the past."

"Saurial does really good work," Lisa grinned, knowing he was referring to Linda's former ' _Squealer_ ' designs, which were always ass-ugly at best, even though they normally worked far better than they should have done.

She truly was a remarkably gifted Tinker given the right resources. Not to mention the collaboration between Taylor, the Varga, and Linda had made something that looked very good.

Half the workforce was now staring as the cat-woman tested everything, quite a number of them clapping at various points. She was certain that there would be no shortage of volunteers to try the thing. When Taylor turned up, too, she was bound to want to play with it.

"We could actually sell these, you know," she added. "Or at least lease them. That's probably the best approach, actually, since we can build scheduled maintenance into the contract. The PRT would definitely be interested, of course, but just general uses of something like that would be very profitable." Danny nodded absently, still observing with fascination and a thoughtful air. "Not to mention some of the spin-offs."

"Spin-offs?" he asked, finally looking up at her. "What sort of spin-offs?"

"Vectura was going to use hydraulics for the motive power, but she really wanted to use superconducting linear motors. She had several design ideas for some very efficient, powerful, and lightweight ones, but it all hinged on a number of exotic materials that she simply couldn't make. No one could. The most obvious one was a room-temperature superconductor."

"Which is the sort of thing every materials lab on the planet would probably sell their collective soul for," he noted. "I've read about that sort of thing. The best anyone's managed is a Tinker-tech improvement on something that was invented in the eighties, it's superconducting at about minus one hundred or so centigrade if I remember right."

"Yep. The theory of how it works is still a bit up in the air, although there are dozens of physicists and chemists working on it. Reading up on it, Aleph scientists aren't even _that_ close, although they have even more people trying to crack it." She handed him a small slab of a pitch-black yet still oddly iridescent material that was like some weird almost rubbery ceramic, which felt as strange as it sounded. "Here you go."

He looked at the roughly hockey-puck sized lump in his hand, then at her again, his eyebrows raised so far they couldn't go further. Lisa grinned. "Vectura couldn't _make_ it, but she had an exact description of _what it was_. Saurial was able to produce the stuff after a few attempts. And all the other custom materials that she wanted." She waved at the machine. "That's why it's so quiet, smooth, precise, and quick. Poor woman nearly fainted when she found out that she could simply ask for the impossible and the answer was basically ' _How much do you want?_ '"

"Holy shit." Danny looked stunned, feeling the black pseudo-ceramic in his hand. "This really works?"

"It does. It's an electrical superconductor right up to about bright yellow heat, at which point it sort of evaporates. Three thousand degrees or so. Saurial can make as much of it as we'd ever want, and is pretty sure that Dragon could work out how to mass produce it too. She says it's complicated but not much more so than the super-insulator stuff Dragon showed her a while back for a special project. You can melt it down, cast it with some effort, and machine it. And it's flexible enough to be used as wire."

"Christ. Dragon and Armsmaster are going to be friends for life after they see this," he said faintly.

"I think they already are," she chuckled, "but that'll sure add to it. Every Tinker on the planet who uses electricity will probably pay anything you care to name for it."

"Every time I think I've seen everything..." he muttered. She smiled at him.

"I feel the same sometimes," she replied very quietly. "Oh, looks like Taylor, Amy, and Saurial just turned up," she added more loudly, looking over at the bright blue truck that slowed down to let the occupants stare at the ongoing test, then drove off quite rapidly. "And they're going to come and want to try it."

"I want a go first," he grinned suddenly. "There must be _some_ perks to being _**The Boss**_. Which I'm not."

With a laugh, she nodded, then followed him as he headed to where Linda had apparently finished her initial test and was leaning out of the pilot's compartment talking to a couple of DWU people from the garage, who were looking like Christmas had come early.

* * *

Kevin tightened the last screw up to the correct torque, put the tool down, inspected his work. With a preliminary cracking of knuckles, he reached out and flipped the power switch to the on position. He smiled to himself when the energy weapon powered up with a faint whine, lights flickering down the heavy barrel and on a display on the back. Picking it up, he panned it around, having made _very_ sure the safety was on and the trigger interlock was enabled. Putting his eye to the high-tech electronic scope on the top, he pulled the weapon to his shoulder and aimed it at the wall between the main workshop and Randall's bedroom.

"I can _see_ you," he whispered, very pleased with himself. There was a false-color image of his friend, created from terahertz radiation emitted by the human body, which went through the wall like it wasn't there. Moving a couple of selector controls with his thumb he watched as the image changed, cycling through different modes and sensing systems, and in the process highlighting various parts of the scenery. One mode produced a ghostly image of all the electrical wiring and other metallic structures, indicating which of them were carrying power and which weren't. Another was a simple thermal vision system, albeit with much higher resolution than anything on the market he was aware of.

Satisfied, he moved the rifle to point away from anything important and out over the bay, checking with the sight that there was nothing on the other side of the wall, just in case. He wasn't planning on firing it but he didn't want to take any chances. Sure that if there was a misfire no one would get hurt, he enabled the charging sequence with a flick of a finger on the appropriate control. The whine came back, louder this time, although still fairly quiet, and was joined by a deep ominous hum and a faint glow from the barrel which reflected off the wall he was aiming at, the bluish light showing a square pattern.

Exhaling in relief that nothing had gone bang, he nodded and powered the device down. It was only charged to a couple of percent for safety's sake, but even so it could easily punch a hole in the wall large enough to drive a truck through.

Putting it down, he patted it. "Hey, Randall, come look at this," he called. His friend popped out of his room, in the process of pulling a t-shirt on and with a quizzical expression on his face.

"OK, I'm looking. What am I looking..." The other man noticed the big gun on the bench and his eyes widened, then he grinned. "Fuck me. You made the BFG work?"

"I did that exact thing, my friend," Kevin said proudly. "I mean, without test firing it, of course. I don't want to have to move just because I took the entire wall out."

"That would be embarrassing," his friend agreed with a chuckle. "It gets annoying after the third time or so."

The Tinker sighed a little. "You're never going to let me forget that, are you?"

"You said ' _oops, duck_ ,' you dick," Randall smirked. "You didn't say, ' _run like fuck_ ,' which considering how big the explosion was would have been more useful. It took us two hours to dig ourselves out and we're lucky we didn't end up fried."

With a shrug, Kevin conceded the point. "The shield generator worked, though, so we lived."

"It worked _once._ "

"It only needed to." The smaller man looked at the next thing on his list, a foot-tall cylinder about four inches in diameter. "Although it would be a useful thing to have. Best force-field system I ever heard of."

"Think you can fix it?"

He shrugged once again, smiling a little. "I can't promise anything, but I have a good feeling about it. I mean, this thing was a lot more fucked up and it was almost easy to work out the problem and repair it. Almost like my power _wanted_ me to get it going."

"Freaky, man," Randall noted with a small frown. "I know what you mean, though. I keep finding that my own power is working so well I can hardly believe it. I think it's still improving as well. More evidence for that theory the girls have."

"Sure looks that way." Kevin hefted the energy rifle, then handed it to his friend, who took it with eager hands. "I don't know what we'll use it for, we never dared take this thing into the field, it's too fucking dangerous. It might be a good thing it failed after the second shot that time in the Graveyard."

"Made an impressive hole in that old ship, though, didn't it?"

"What ship?" Kevin grinned.

"Exactly." Looking the weapon over, Randall nodded approvingly. "You do damn fine work, my man. It looks fantastic." He activated the weapon, the barrel towards the ceiling, then grinned. "And sounds good too. Not as cool as _Athena_ , but considering the difference in size alone..."

"This doesn't have a fucking fusion bomb in it either," Kevin pointed out with a slight shudder. Even though it was his own work that had led to the insanely big gun, the thing still gave him chills. He wondered with mild dread if it would ever actually get used. The simulations that Armsmaster had shown him of the fringe effects of firing it were… worryingly impressive.

He was interested to see the results, but from a long, _long_ way away…

"The power pack is good for about sixty seconds of full output on a charge," he said, picking up his notes and glancing through them. "Shot selection can vary from a continuous beam, anywhere from one to one hundred percent power, single pulses, burst pulse fire, or continuous pulse fire. The pulse length can be set between a hundred microseconds and a hundred milliseconds, which in combination with the variable output means you can dial it down to the point it's a stun weapon. Admittedly a stun weapon that's going to fuck up a non-brute pretty badly, but it's at least _theoretically_ non-lethal."

"What repetition rate on pulse mode?" Randall asked.

"Anywhere up to a duty cycle of one to one, so at minimum pulse length, you'd get five thousand pulses per second. Not a lot of point to doing that, since you're using the same amount of power as the continuous beam running at fifty percent, but it'll look cool." His friend grinned again, causing him to add, "It's all about presentation, of course."

"Obviously."

"At full power it'll punch a hole right in one side of a tank and out the other with no trouble at all," Kevin said, feeling pleased with his work. "Probably cut it in half, actually. And you can also adjust the beam focus from fine to wide. That was what went wrong on the original test. I accidentally set it to maximum power wide beam continuous, somehow. Melted the main power transfer coupling, and we were lucky the entire power pack didn't go up. That would have been unpleasant."

"Only for a very short time, though," Randall noted, turning the gun off again. Kevin nodded, knowing full well that they'd come closer to snuffing it from one of his inventions going badly wrong then than they ever had again.

"Want to know the best part?"

Randall raised an eyebrow. "Of course."

Kevin got up and took the weapon from him, turning it over to show him a covered port on the bottom of the main stock. "Interconnect to the Mjolnir armor. This will integrate with it seamlessly, you'll get the feed from the multispectral scope right through the neural link, and full fire control too."

"Holy shit." His friend stared at him, then shook his head respectfully. "Excellent."

"It will recharge from the armor as well." Kevin took the gun back and hefted it. "Good thing we got upgraded, the damn thing weighs over ninety pounds. Most people could hardly pick it up and aim it, never mind carry it around for long."

"Think Dragon could copy it?"

"Don't really know, we still don't know how she's coming along with my tricorder or audio inducer." Kevin looked thoughtfully at the repaired weapon, then carefully put it into a large fiberglass flight case and closed the lid. "I'm not entirely sure I should even let her see it… It's a pretty nasty weapon. Do I _want_ her making them?"

"You helped them design _Athena_."

"Sure. But then, Taylor's the only one on the planet who can actually _make_ the damn thing, or the ammo, _or_ fire it and live. Not a lot of proliferation issues there. This thing… I'm not sure I want the government having access to my tech in the form of weapons." Kevin looked at his friend uncertainly. "I mean, I've designed some really cool ones, but it's all for fun, you know? This thing could kill a lot of people without any trouble at all, I don't want that on my conscience."

Randall put his hand on his shorter friend's shoulder. "I know, Kev, I know. Neither one of us wants to hurt people, and I'm sort of ashamed, looking back, on how many times we fucked up and managed that. Too easy to get carried away." He looked around at the vast number of game-themed devices scattered around the old warehouse they'd taken over as their base. "All we ever wanted to do was have fun and make cool videos. We did that OK, but we might have started to get a little over-enthusiastic at times."

"Recently, I've been thinking we should probably take Legend's advice," Kevin remarked, sitting down again and leaning his chair back on two legs. "I mean, considering the people we know now, and the things they've done for us already… We could make a real difference. In a good way for once, other than just getting YouTube views and likes on PHO. You know, help out more." He waved his hands at the machinery. "If I can fix even ten percent of this shit and Dragon can copy it, we'll be filthy rich for a start, and we could make a lot of people have easier lives." He pointed at one odd-looking machine. "That water collector, for example. You know how much difference it would make in someplace like a desert? It worked fucking well, until it blew the top off."

"Why did we come up with that, again?" Randall scratched his head. "What game was it from?"

"We watched _Star Wars_ while we were drunk and that thing was the result," Kevin grinned. "I thought I was going to make a land speeder but I got distracted."

"Oh, right, I remember," the other man said, laughing a little. "Sort of. Tequila isn't kind to me."

"Not when you drink it by the pint, it isn't."

Randall waved this off as the minor point it was. "OK, fair enough, I get what you're saying. You think we should ' _go straight_.'" He made finger quotes as he said the last two words. "You want to join the Protectorate?"

"Hell, no!" Kevin snorted. "I mean, I respect Armsmaster, I could learn to like him, I _do_ like Dragon and Legend, but are you _nuts?_ They'd never let either of us have any fun at all. I want to help people, not get told what to do all the time."

"The Guild then?" Randall was smirking at him.

"No. Stop being deliberately obtuse."

"Ooh, nice one."

Kevin sighed, as his friend snickered. "Asshole."

"So you want to talk to Taylor and her friends and come to some official arrangement? More than just visiting sometimes, I mean?"

"Why not? Linda seems to be doing OK, from what we saw. She's got a nice workshop, DWU backing, more resources than you could believe thanks to Taylor, Lisa, and Amy, and that crazy demon… Why don't we get us some of that?"

"And leave this wonderful man-cave?" Randall gestured at the room.

"Of course not. We take it with us."

They looked at each other for a few seconds, then both studied the room. "You know, my friend, you might have a point. This place is drafty and the roof leaks in the kitchen."

"And, of course, if we have a closer relationship with the DWU and BBFO, you realize we could also probably do some really cool videos..." Kevin wiggled his eyebrows. "We still need to do that one we were planning when we first met Taylor."

"Good point. We haven't done anything big for weeks..." Randall thought some more, then spread his hands wide. "Why not? You only live once, after all. Unless you're a demon. Maybe it's time we upped our game. Let's go and talk to them, see what they think."

Kevin dropped his chair back onto all four legs and hopped up. "That, my old friend, is a very good idea. Let's do it." Picking up the weapon in its case, he added, "I want to show this to them too, and maybe use the WCC to find somewhere we can fire it without making the PRT go completely insane. Piggot would blow a gasket."

Randall grinned at him, then they headed towards the truck, Kevin putting the cased weapon in the back, before climbing in with him. Both of them pulled balaclavas on, Randall started the vehicle, and the Tinker flipped the switch that opened the main door. Moments later it closed behind them as they headed deeper into the docks.

* * *

Powering her invention down, Linda checked the displays, tapping a couple of touch panels which had started life as a pair of high end tablets. She was very pleased with how well everything was working. Although the tests all showed things worked exactly as she'd hoped, she'd already come up with another page of notes in her mental list of improvements to make. ' _Build the second prototype, leave this one intact, though_ ,' she thought. ' _It works more than well enough to be a useful system, and there seem to be a lot of potential pilots..._ ' She peered out of the small cabin at the huge crowd watching her with extreme interest, feeling slightly embarrassed suddenly. Checking the domino mask she'd hastily grabbed before leaving her workshop, she decided that she really needed to come up with a decent costume.

' _Saurial and the others can help with that_ ,' she mused. ' _I want something that looks at least reasonable for the PRT visit. Greasy overalls and a stupid mask aren't the image I want. Not any more._ ' Flicking the end of her tail, she looked at it, then grinned a little. ' _Not that anyone is going to look at me like this and think_ ** _Squealer_** ,' she snickered. ' _Even Skids wouldn't know me. Damn good thing too. If that bastard shows up here and tries to ruin it for everyone, I'll shoot the fucker myself._ '

Running a full diagnostic on the internal systems, she opened the cockpit by lifting the top half, which hinged up with a faint hiss and locked in place. Grabbing the handholds, she pulled herself out of the seat, swung over the side, and dropped ten feet to the ground without bothering with the built-in steps, amused at how easy it was with her new body. She could easily jump right back inside if she wanted, which was still something she was having trouble believing.

Walking around the machine she inspected it closely with an expert eye, nodding in satisfaction. Nothing at all was out of place. The EDM-skinned hull was pretty much indestructible anyway from what she knew, but even taking that into account, the entire system had held up perfectly. The linear motors were a dream, they were almost entirely silent, even faster and smoother than she'd hoped for, and had a lot of power capacity left over. The thing wasn't running anywhere close to its limits and had already exceeded her expectations by close to fifty percent.

' _Saurial is fucking amazing_ ,' she thought with a wide, slightly awed grin, running a hand down the slick exterior. ' _Without her… no way I could have done this. Not even close. But now..._ ' She shook her head in wonder. There were _so many_ plans rattling around in her head, and she could _actually make them!_ Even the really weird ones. If she could describe it well enough, the lizard-girl could make it, and the ramifications of _that_ were enough to make her dizzy.

Lost in her dreams of ever more elaborate machinery, she twitched when someone a few feet away said, "That is a damn fine job, Vectura."

Turning around, she smiled at Danny. "Thanks. It works even better than I expected. Lots of upgrades to add, of course, but so far I'm more fucking pleased than a kid at Christmas."

"I can see why," he chuckled, looking up at the large machine. "It's extremely impressive when it's not a lot of drawings and a pile of parts. Bigger than I expected as well."

Most of the crowd had started drawing closer, many of them still taking photos, both of her and her creation. An awful lot of them looked weirdly proud, like they were genuinely pleased about it. She looked around, feeling a little overwhelmed. Metis followed her eyes, then turned to her. "Don't worry, everyone here is impressed with your work and pleased that you _made_ it work. Why don't you explain it to them?"

The black lizard, before she had a chance to respond, faced the crowd, which Linda suddenly noticed had several PRT troopers on one side for some reason, next to most of the security department as well as Brian and Alec. She momentarily wondered if anyone was still watching the gate…

"OK, people, Vectura is feeling a little startled by the attention, so try not to push in too much. Give her room and she's going to tell us about her construction here." Metis's deep voice rang out across the damp yard, everyone going silent and listening with interest. "I know a lot of you have been very curious about her work, and now you can see what she's designed."

Looking back at her, the lizard grinned. "Go on, then, they're listening."

"Oh, god," the Tinker sighed. "Thanks. I've never fucking spoken to this many people before."

"It's easy enough, Vectura," Danny said quietly. "Just tell them about it. Don't go into the technical details too much right now, anyone who's interested will ask later, just mention the main points. And possibly explain why it ended up looking like a hybrid of ED209, a walking forklift, and Kaiju."

She grinned suddenly, gazing at her invention. That was a fairly good way to put it. She'd been loosely inspired by the bipedal cargo loaders from the _Alien_ movies, but having thought it over for a couple of days more or less continuously, she'd kept modifying the design. Originally the idea had been to make something that would help the DWU, and the loader concept had been an obvious one, but it was lacking a few things.

Linda had fixed that.

The machine that everyone was looking at stood nearly twelve feet tall, from the ground to the top of the armored cockpit. That part was a roughly egg-shaped, horizontal cabin, large enough for even Zephron to get into easily, although Metis or Ianthe would have been very cramped. Not that they'd need to drive it, of course, each of them was tougher, faster, and probably as strong.

The cockpit was mounted on top of an articulated midsection, from which heavily built legs on birdlike feet sprouted, one on either side, three toes coming out at the front and one at the back. The main power units and most of the control systems were in that midsection, behind even thicker armor than the rest, although since it was EDM, it was actually less than an eighth of an inch thick at the most. Even so, it would take anything she could even begin to think of. Oddly, it had made the entire mech lighter than she'd originally calculated when she'd planned on using titanium and steel for the construction. Under the armor was a layer of some weird super-insulation that Saurial had told her Dragon invented, which meant that the thermal superconductivity of the EDM wouldn't cause the entire thing to get either too hot or too cold for the occupant.

The upper half of the cockpit, which currently stuck up at a forty-five degree angle, was made of two inch thick synthetic single-crystal sapphire, just like the helmets the Family had made for New Wave. It was, again as per that pattern, covered on both sides with a fine EDM mesh. The mesh was barely coarse enough to see, but since you tended to focus past it, it didn't get in the way, and made the window tough enough to take an armor piercing tank shell without damage.

She was already planning to upgrade the instruments to use the inside of the windows as a transparent HUD, but at the moment it was all on various screens.

The legs and the ' _head_ ', or cockpit, definitely did give off a distinct similarity to the ED209 robot from _Robocop_ , which was partly intentional since she'd thought it looked cool, and partly just the way it had worked out. On either side and somewhat below the pilot's compartment, a pair of complex arms were folded. These terminated in hands three feet across with three fingers and a thumb, the entire thing on a joint that allowed it to rotate three hundred and sixty degrees. The articulation and length of the arms was sufficient to let them reach behind, above, or beneath the main body as easily as if it was a human. Each wrist had a high definition camera on it so they could also be used as remote inspection systems. More cameras were mounted on the top of the cockpit pointing in every direction, and underneath in the same way. When she finished the next generation version she intended to use these cameras to allow the pilot to look out as if the entire thing was transparent, a system similar to some that were being designed for military aircraft. If she got that going properly, which needed quite a lot more hardware that hadn't turned up yet, the transparent section of the cockpit could be replaced with another EDM section making it even tougher.

The main resemblance to Kaiju was down to the long and vaguely reptilian ' _tail_ ' that came out of the rear of the thing. It did, in conjunction with the gyros, aid in balance, but she'd also needed somewhere to mount the cutting lance, and that worked remarkably well.

The entire thing was colored deep blue, with safety-orange stripes in key areas to make it very visible. She'd even added the standard flashing orange warning beacons to it in a few places, since this model was intended to basically be a piece of construction equipment more than anything else.

It amused her that she'd pretty much done what Tinkers were stereotypically thought to do, and made power armor. She'd just done it on a rather larger scale than most, and not to go out and fight crime, but to go out and fight scrap metal...

' _Although the combat version will be interesting_ ,' she thought with a small smirk. Looking back at the expectant crowd, she sighed minutely, then jumped up and grabbed hold of the edge of the cockpit, slipping inside and standing on the seat. From this vantage point she looked down at the close to two hundred people who were watching her, which now included Saurial and a couple of brunette teenagers she didn't recognize, one remarkably tall and the other one several inches shorter. Both of them were talking to Saurial in the manner of close friends.

The taller girl bore a distinct resemblance to Danny, so was probably his daughter Taylor, which meant the other one was likely to be Amy Dallon, she surmised.

"Hi," she said out loud, then cleared her throat nervously. "I'm Vectura."

 ** _"Hi, Vectura!"_** the crowd shouted almost as one, making her nearly fall out in shock. She glared at Saurial, who had started the shout, the lizard-girl grinning at her. Everyone laughed for a moment, then slowly quieted.

"Um… Thanks. OK, as you have probably worked out, this thing is something I came up with and Saurial helped me make. You guys are really nice and I wanted to make a machine that would be useful around here. This is the result."

She waved at the mech she was standing in. "It weighs seven and a half tons, can lift over twenty tons if it's balanced right, should be capable of running at over sixty miles an hour, and can probably leap at least a short building in a single bound."

There was a certain amount of laughter, making her smile and relax a little. "The whole thing is armored enough to take almost anything I can think of short of a fucking tactical nuke. It's currently got life support capable of keeping the pilot alive for about a week, anywhere from a hard vacuum to at least ten thousand feet underwater. I can improve all of that, but it's only the first prototype. It'll definitely walk around on the bottom of the bay no trouble, even so."

They were looking both impressed and very interested by now, everyone going dead silent again.

She went on to explain the various main functions, then the controls, in very general terms. "You've got a feedback system in the two joysticks in here, so you can pretty much just feel what the hands do. I've got a better design in mind for the next one that'll make it even more natural to use, but I had to make this one first to check everything else."

Dropping into the seat, leaving the cockpit open, she engaged the external PA system and put the headset that was hanging over the seat on her head. Her cat's ears demanded a somewhat different design than a normal human used, but she had a standard set down the side of the seat for other people. "OK, there's a PA system as you can see, and a radio comms system as well so you can talk to people on the walkie-talkies too," she continued, powering the mech up as she spoke. It lifted slightly, suddenly looking very alive from the outside. She was incredibly pleased with how well the motion control algorithms had learned and adapted after the first few tentative steps in the workshop earlier. By now it was so fluid it looked almost organic.

Rotating the machine with a twist of one control, she faced it towards them, then tilted the pilot's cabin down a little so they could see her. Thinking that she needed to examine Kevin's neural interface again, and see if she could make something like that which would be even better than her current next generation controls, she made it wave at them with one hand, then interlinked both hands in front of her. "At the moment it's a matter of using both hands and both feet at the same time, with some pedals and two joysticks, along with a few other controls on the handles. It's a lot like an excavator in some ways. I can make that better too, but this was simpler and works fine."

"What about the tail?" Metis called up. She sounded amused.

"Well, if you don't have one of your own," she laughed, since she was actually using her own tail to control the mech's one, "You have a pair of thumb controllers for it. It'll take practice but I think anyone could use it, the onboard computer does most of the work."

"OK, so that's the basic idea." She pirouetted the mech on one foot, then made it jump up and down, bend forward, then squat down so the main body nearly touched the ground, with the legs folded up on either side. Bringing the arms in as well, it became surprisingly compact, small enough to fit into a mid-sized shipping container. "There are thrusters for underwater operation, it'll be capable of about forty knots under water. I haven't installed the flight system yet."

"Flight system?" Danny asked in shock. She leaned out and grinned at him.

"Of course. Everyone needs a flying walking construction mech that can swim."

"Oh. Well, of course, what was I thinking?" he asked loudly, shaking his head. Quite a lot of the assembled workers snickered.

"There are a few other things too," she said. "Say you're working on that chunk of hull over there." One mechanical hand came up and an eighteen-inch long finger pointed at a large piece of tanker hull that was lying on the ground fifty feet away, ready to be cut up and loaded into the train. Raising the mech to full height, she walked it over to the piece of scrap. "You want to cut it up, since it's too big to fit."

Bending down, the mech grabbed one side of the twenty by thirty foot piece of two inch thick steel and lifted it smoothly to a vertical position.

"Normally you'd use a thermal lance or a torch. But with this thing you can either do this..." She brought the segmented caudal appendage around and ignited the plasma lance in the end, which projected a ten foot brilliant white flame. Moving it across the middle of the piece of scrap she quickly cut it in half, molten metal running down to the ground in showers of orange sparks.

Dropping one piece, she held the smaller piece up in one hand as she shut down the lance, she lifted the other hand, working a control which made the hand fold out of the way and an eight foot long EDM blade slide out of the wrist. Edge on, it vanished entirely from sight. Saurial had suggested it as a useful tool, it was basically the same as the one both Metis and Ianthe carried. There were shorter ones for precision work in the fingers, replicating claws, but they were normally retracted. Waving it through the steel, she watched as the end dropped to the ground with a crash, the cut edge gleaming. "...or that."

Retracting the blade, she grabbed the other end of the piece of steel, which was now about four feet across and fifteen feet long, then rolled it up like a piece of cardboard, a loud metallic groan coming from the stressed metal. Lifting the resultant lump in one hand, she tossed it underarm towards the nearest empty scrap car, pleased and slightly relieved that it landed directly inside on the first throw. The car rocked with the impact, the clang echoing around the yard. Spinning the mech around, she tipped it down to look at them. Everyone was staring at her, then the car. A good thirty seconds went past before they started clapping.

"The advantage of the plasma lance is that it'll reach about fifty feet, but the blade is quicker and neater for shorter distances. So, who wants to try it?"

Every single hand in view went up, including Saurial's, all the PRT trooper's, Taylor and Amy's, and Danny's. Linda grinned widely. The only one who didn't raise their hand was Metis, who was grinning back and shrugged when Linda looked at her, the lizard looking amused.

And she hadn't even mentioned the stealth systems, or the auxiliary mounting points for add on modules, or the quadrupedal mode for speed, or any of the other cool things she had in mind, yet...

* * *

 ****  
"I don't think your Tinker is going to have any questions asked aside from, ' _How many can we have_? _'_ when she goes in for power testing," Sergeant Foxton said in a slightly stunned voice as he watched Vectura's construction mech go charging across the yard with one of the heavy excavator operators at the controls, a massive grin on his face. Several of the DWU workers had taken to the machine like they'd been born in it, proving how good the feline Tinker's work was.

Mark nodded, observing with his arms crossed, heedless of the drying goop in his hair from the containment foam and solvent. "Looks like she's done fucking well with it," he said. "I wasn't sure what she was making, but I was pretty certain it would be impressive if Saurial was involved as well. And Metis."

"And they did that in, what, about three or four days?" the man asked, still looking astounded.

"As far as I know. I mean, I think she'd been thinking about it for a while, and I know a lot of stuff was ordered a week ago which was probably electronics and things like that, but they made the hull and most of the machinery from scratch." Mark followed the mech with his eyes as the current pilot hurdled the scrap train, landed with a massive crunch on the other side of it, spun on one foot, and belted off in a different direction. The crowd was yelling and whooping, calling his name, with his work colleagues laughing like idiots. "She's made a lot of friends very suddenly."

"I can see that," the other man commented wryly. He shook his head in wonder. "Jesus. If she can do this that fast, what can she do with time to think?"

"No idea at all. I bet we find out, though." Mark grinned. "Should be fun."

"The director is going to be… confused? Let's go with confused." With a look at his watch, the sergeant mumbled to himself for a second, then shrugged. "Sorry, I have to check in, we'll never get back on time now."

"Going to stay long enough to have your turn?" Mark asked with a small smirk. The other man smirked back.

"Oh, definitely. I'm sure Director Piggot would want me, in the interests of security you understand, to get a full appreciation of the current status of the DWU for my report."

"Of course. Entirely reasonable, really. You'd only be doing your duty."

"Exactly. I was always taught that a good soldier is one who can use his initiative when necessary." Foxton glanced at him, then both of them laughed. "I'll be back in a couple of minutes."

"Sure, take your time," Mark smiled, waving at the mech, which was now juggling three half-ton lumps of steel, Vectura herself staring in amazement. "Looks like these guys are going to be a while."

The sergeant wandered off, pulling his PRT phone from his belt, while Mark waited patiently along with a hundred and fifty of his closest friends for his turn.

* * *

Driving up to the gate, Randall looked around, puzzled. "Where are the guards?" he asked. "Normally they're watching us from half a mile away."

There was no response from his friend, so he turned his head to look at him, then followed his eyes, which were very wide. "Fuck me," he whispered. " _That's_ … new."

"I want one," Kevin said in a voice full of envy. "I _really, really_ want one."

"Me too," Randall replied, staring. After a moment, he started honking the horn. "Come on, you guys, let us in," he shouted out the window. "We want to play too!"

* * *

 ****  
Sophia, feeling both very tired and somewhat nauseous from the pain of the burn on her wrist, finally decided that she needed something more substantial to eat, not to mention a break from driving.

She'd been going all night and most of the next day with only a few short half-hour to hour breaks here and there. The sheer amount of caffeine she'd consumed was also starting to give her minor heart palpitations, which was disconcerting although she was aware of the possibility, and an absolutely vicious headache that the painkillers she'd been taking had little effect on. In her flight, she'd so far stolen nine cars and one pickup truck, which was what she was currently in. Each time she changed vehicles, she also lifted some plates from another one, and swapped those onto the next car she took. It was going to take a lot of work for any pursuer to trace her after the sheer mess she'd made of them. Not to mention that she'd been careful to locate and remove vehicles that were clearly not in regular use, to make sure they didn't get reported stolen too quickly.

Having spent some time once reading up on precogs, she'd also been flipping a coin every forty minutes or so to decide which way to go, other than the general heading of ' _Away_.' From what she knew, that would tend to foul up any real ability to track her using Parahuman powers, at least for a while. Sophia was intent on using any edge she could find. The resultant track on a map would be a totally confusing zig-zag pattern with little real indication where she was going. She didn't even know that herself. More than once she'd doubled back on herself, or suddenly ended up going at right angles to her previous direction.

Now, as far as she could tell, she was somewhere in the general vicinity of Pittsburgh, between there and Cleveland. Having dumped all her phones except for one burner one she was certain wasn't traceable since it was still sealed in the packaging, and eschewed the use of a GPS mapping system on the off chance it could be somehow tracked by external forces, she was forced to resort to paper maps. Unfortunately she wasn't very practiced at map-reading, so she wasn't completely sure of her current location. If anything, this was a positive, since it made it even less likely that anyone else would know where she was or where she was going.

' _Have to get some more phones soon_ ,' she thought, adding them to a growing mental list. She'd found a good hunting knife in the last place she'd raided, in some small town two hundred miles behind her, along with a pack full of MREs and another small pistol. While she didn't routinely use a gun, she'd taken the relevant PRT course on basic firearms use and was sure she could hit someone with the thing if required, at least at close range. She preferred the pistol crossbow since it was more or less silent, but it was also quite distinctive, and the ammunition was harder to get.

Bullets, on the other hand, those she could get almost anywhere. This _was_ the US. The PRT issue weapon she'd stolen on the way out was a last resort, since she was pretty sure that they routinely made ballistic records of all their weapons so they could be traced more easily if required. It would be a dead giveaway if someone found an expended round that could be linked to the PRT ENE armory.

Her collection of cash had expanded to close to twenty-five thousand dollars, since she'd also cleaned out any money left in the registers of the stores she'd raided. The larger ones always emptied the tills every night, but apparently a lot of smaller ones in out of the way places didn't bother. She'd also found one isolated ATM which she'd approached from the rear, to avoid any possible cameras, then simply phased her hand into and removed all the bills from it. The theft had taken seconds.

Slowing down as she began to encounter a slightly more built-up area in among the trees and hills, she read signs with bleary eyes and looked for something suitable. Spotting a roadside motel with an attached tavern, she shrugged and indicated, pulling off the road into the gravel car park. There were half a dozen big rigs drawn up to one side of the lot, with a few other cars and a couple of small trucks parked closer to the building. Turning the engine off, she stretched widely, then rubbed her ass, which was killing her from sitting in the lumpy seat for hours.

' _Better not take one of those cars_ ,' she thought, looking out at the gray afternoon. ' _Too obvious. I can find something in the next town._ ' Removing the keys from the ignition, she checked that the pistol was tucked into her jacket, which was something else she'd lifted, along with all her current clothes, then got out and locked the truck.

Walking into the main entrance, she looked around, wrinkling her nose a little at the disreputable air of the place. It was very definitely someplace that had seen better days and a hell of a lot of business.

Regardless, it was somewhere to rest for a while, get some real food, and plan the next stage of what would be a triumphant return to Brockton Bay, and her destiny.

Heading towards a table at the back of the dingy restaurant, Sophia sat down, picked up the menu, and began perusing it, not noticing the balding truck driver in a baseball cap who had been watching her discreetly but intently from moments after she entered...


	312. Omake - Quiet on set! (SG1)

"Does anyone else think this is a bad idea?" Cam looked around at his companions. " _I_ think this is a bad idea. I've seen something that looks a _lot_ like that before, and I still have trouble getting to sleep when I think about what happened next."

All five members of SG-1 stared at the device sitting innocently on the rock ledge below them, some three and a half miles from the site of the local stargate. A remote drone had noticed the glint of light from a metallic surface half an hour after it was launched through the gate, which lead to it being sent to have a look. The results of that photo-reconnaissance mission had led directly to their presence here on an otherwise unremarkable world that was, as far as they could so far work out, uninhabited. The presence of the gate and a few remnants of masonry they'd found showed it had once had people, but based on the sheer age of the remains, they were long gone for whatever reason.

"It's different from the first one," Sam noted while inspecting it with binoculars. "Smaller, slightly different shape, and the arrangement of the various… lenses, maybe? That isn't the same either."

"It looks like it's stuck to the rocks too, not just lying there like the other one," Daniel added, also inspecting it.

"Is anyone listening to me?" Cam complained. "We really should just leave that thing alone and go find something else to get into trouble with."

"Indeed," Teal'c said gravely. "Colonel Mitchell is correct. We know that whatever entity is responsible for these devices has abilities far beyond those we can field."

"Aren't you just a _tiny_ bit curious about who they are?" Vala asked with a typically smug grin.

"As I recall, you yourself said that you would turn and proceed in the other direction should you encounter such a device again," the huge Jaffa replied with what was almost a tiny smile. His sense of humor was very deadpan, but it was also very real. The woman merely shrugged at him, not looking embarrassed.

"That was six months ago and nothing else has happened. And I'm not suggesting that we _take_ it, just that we look at it." Leaning over the cliff edge, she peered down, then looked from side to side. "Although _getting_ to the thing will be interesting."

"It's a good hundred and fifty feet down a sheer cliff," Daniel nodded, lowering his binoculars and looking down as well. "And if you slipped and missed that ledge, it's another half mile to the ground."

"Don't slip, then," Vala said brightly. "Or if you do, don't miss."

"The ledge or the ground?" the archaeologist asked.

"Don't be silly, Daniel, you won't miss the _ground_ ," she told him with a wider grin, slapping him on the back, then grabbing him as he stumbled. Glaring at her as she looked embarrassed, he took a deliberate step back and put Teal'c, who was wearing a very small smile again, between himself and her.

Sam ignored the byplay, used to it by now, and kept inspecting the alien device with immense, although cautious, curiosity. Cam sighed and leaned back on a rock, waiting for the woman to finish her studies. " _Definitely_ a bad idea. Remember the hand big enough to pick up a Humvee like an apple?"

Everyone nodded as one. Not one of the people who had been present for _that_ would ever forget it.

"Do you want to meet the hand again?"

The heads all shook.

"So let's go home. We still need to work out what happened to the Ori, you know. They just up and vanished right when they were starting to be a problem, which makes me nervous. Why? What happened to them?"

"General O'Neill wants us to learn what we can about whoever or whatever made that device, Cam, you know that," Sam replied after a few absent seconds, lowering the binoculars. "That's why we're here. The Ori mystery can wait since it's no longer a threat. I agree we need to work it out at some point, though, they could come back again."

"They're not here, and that _is_ ," Daniel put in, pointing at the glinting machine sitting on the rocky outcrop that protruded from the side of the mountain. "And we came all this way."

"It would be a shame not to at least have a quick look," Vala added helpfully. Cam looked at the three, then at Teal'c for backup. The taciturn man merely returned his gaze with no indications that he was going to intervene one way or the other.

"You're no help at all sometimes," Cam grumped, slumping a little. Moving his weapon around to a more secure location on his vest, he took his backpack off and pulled out a coil of rope. "Great. Let me guess who goes first..."

* * *

Vala looked embarrassed. "Whoops."

Everyone glared at her. Rubbing her neck, she shrugged, looking up for a moment at the place, high above, where the rope was secured.

The rope that was currently lying in an untidy pile at her feet.

 _Supposed_ to be secured.

"You said you could tie a knot," Daniel grated.

"I _can_ tie a knot. Those two even checked it!" She pointed at Cam and Teal'c. "It was securely tied off."

"Yet this bit here," the man said, bending and retrieving the end of the rope, then waving at her, "is supposed to be way up _there._ " He pointed up with the other hand. "Which is where _we're_ going to need to be sooner or later. You were the last one to climb down, so what did you do?"

"Nothing! I promise! All I did was tighten it a little."

"Do I need to teach you the difference between _tighten_ and _loosen_ , Vala?" Daniel shook his head as the brunette woman put her hands on her hips and scowled at him. "Good job. Well done."

"We're not going this way, that's for sure," Cam sighed, lying on his stomach and looking over the side of the thirty foot wide by forty foot deep outcropping they were standing on. "It's damn near straight down, without a lot of serious climbing gear there's no way to do it."

"And the cliff actually overhangs us a little above this ledge," Sam said, looking up, then to the sides. She pointed. "We _might_ be able to climb it if we went sideways about two hundred feet, but you couldn't tell for sure until you got there."

"At which point you would find it difficult to return," Teal'c mentioned. She sighed and nodded.

"It's a hell of a long way down," she admitted.

"Hey, there are lights on inside this thing," a voice said from behind them, making the other four turn and look. Vala, having apparently lost interest for the moment in how they were going to get back up the cliff, had climbed up the short rise to where the alien device was adhering to the extreme edge of the outcropping and was peering into one of the transparent areas, her hands cupped around her face and her forehead nearly touching it. "I think it's on."

"Well, don't _touch_ it, then, you idiot," Cam snapped, hastily going over as well and pulling her back from the machine. "How the hell are you still alive? You're always doing this."

She smiled winningly at him. "I'm a nice person and people trust me."

"Yeah, right," he sighed, making her snicker for a moment. She was irrepressible, unfortunately.

"I'm being serious, I saw a light on in there," she went on, pointing back at the machine. "The other one seemed entirely inert but this thing is doing something."

"I wonder what?" Sam mused out loud, pulling out a hand-held scanning device and turning it on, then fiddling with it while pointing the business end at the egg-shaped construction. This one was about a quarter the size of the one they'd originally found, somewhat flatter, and had more of the transparent areas. Most of the rest of it was the same gray metallic substance they'd failed to identify at the time. "I can't detect any known energy signature coming from it, but it's slightly warmer than ambient, so I think Vala's right. It's doing something."

"Something dangerous?" Cam looked at the alien device and stepped back. "Knowing our luck, it's arming a bomb. That's the sort of thing that normally happens."

"Little paranoid there aren't you?" Vala said although she also stepped away. Just in case.

"Maybe, but considering what I do for a living..." The man shrugged. "And the sort of people we run into."

"Good point."

"Can anyone else hear a very high pitched whine?" Daniel said a couple of seconds later, looking around. The others glanced at him, then each other. "Really faint, right on the edge of audibility."

"Now that you mention it..." Sam tilted her head a little, listening. "Yes, I can."

"Where's it coming from?"

They all turned to stare at the machine.

"Of course. I told you this was a bad idea." Cam stepped back some more. "Now it's going to explode. Or attack us. Or attack us _then_ explode. It's a weapon, it's _always_ a weapon."

"It's an ultra high resolution multidimensional wideband video and audio recording device, actually," a voice they were _not_ expecting suddenly said from behind them, sounding a little annoyed. Vala yipped and nearly jumped into Daniel's arms, Cam and Teal'c whirled around and leveled their weapons, while Sam dropped the scanner and pulled her sidearm out.

"And you've walked right into frame in the middle of a recording I was making for my dad and ruined it," the alien creature who was looking at them from the other side of the ledge complained with an air of distinct miffedness. "Thanks a lot. Now I have to start all over again." She, as far as they could work out, shook her head. "I mean, I pick a perfect place, no one around, no visitors through that weird little wormhole thing for years, set everything up, and the next thing I know there are a bunch of humans rappelling down and poking my camera. Don't you guys have something else to do?"

Walking over to the device, she somehow pushed her hand entirely through the surface, did something, then removed it, as they all gaped in shock. There was a short pause before the device folded in on itself and shrank/distorted/warped into a horribly hard to look at _thing_ the size of a hen's egg. The alien picked it up and slipped it into a pocket, sighing. "Maybe I can salvage some of the footage. It's only an hour or so out of nearly a month. But I had almost the entire sequence done… crap."

"Who the hell are _you?_ " Cam finally managed to say, interrupting the complaining, which was done in perfect English with an odd but faint accent, coming from a mouth that shouldn't have been able to speak like that. They inspected the reptilian figure which inspected them right back. Reaching up she pushed her hat, which he noted with a sense of disoriented curiosity looked like a perfectly ordinary fedora, back on her head over what appeared to be fine feathers. Her expressive scaly face took on an expression of cheerfulness, the irritation that had been so clear before fading away.

"Me? My name is Saurial. Pleased to meet you." She looked at where the ' _camera_ ' had been, then back. "Sort of. It would be better to meet when I'm not shooting a recording." She shrugged a little. "Oh well. Shit happens. I'll find another place that's harder to get at and start again."

Sam, who was now gaping a little, her weapon drooping as she stopped paying as much attention as she should have done, asked the thing they were all thinking. "Why are you recording here?"

"Look at it!" Saurial turned and spread her arms, indicating the scene in front of them. "It's incredibly beautiful, isn't it? No pollution at all, no dust in the air, all that violet and blue vegetation… You can see for miles and miles and it's all completely natural. It makes a wonderful ambient background for an office, you know, to relax people. My dad loves that sort of thing. All the sounds of the birds, or what this place thinks are birds, as well." She smiled, tilting her head up to the sky. "And those two suns are pretty damn cool too. This place is neat."

Turning back she fixed them with a look. "You guys really do seem to be tripping over our stuff a lot, though. First you lifted my sister's camera, now you're poking mine. Any particular reason why or are you just lucky and nosy?"

"That, I think," Vala said after a moment. "I know _I'm_ nosy, definitely."

"Oh. Fair enough, then. Try not to do it again, if you could?" Saurial grinned briefly. "Or I'll have to complain officially."

Cam stared at the sheer number of teeth shown in the grin and tried to suppress the faint shiver that ran down his spine.

"Your sister?" he echoed. "That hand was _your sister?!_ "

"Part of her," Saurial smirked. "She's a bit larger than I am."

"A _bit?_ " He gaped. "The hand _alone_ was twice your size!"

"We grow them big in my family," the reptilian alien chuckled. "I'm the runt."

They all looked at each other for a moment. "What did you do to that… camera…?" Sam finally asked. "How did it shrink?"

"It's fractally folded in on itself," Saurial replied. "Useful technique, makes things simpler to carry."

"Did you come through the gate? Where do you come from? How do you know English? How did your… sister… track that other device to our home world? Have _you_ been to our home world?" Daniel suddenly produced a whole series of questions, causing everyone to look at him. Sam seemed to also have quite a few things she wanted to ask, Cam noticed. He was mainly wondering if this was some weird trick to get them to lower their guard. He'd never heard of whatever species this was, and had no idea how or why she could have learned English like a native.

Or why she was wearing a fedora…

"No, we have our own methods of travel," Saurial replied patiently. "I come from another universe, to put it in terms that you could understand. I'm good with languages, and we can track our tech anywhere eventually." She smiled a little. "It might take a while in some cases, but we always turn up sooner or later. Recently I've had to be quite firm with some people who kept borrowing my stuff and trying to claim it. We seem to have mostly stopped it now, although we had to make a few examples." Looking around, she added, "This was just a personal project, though, I had some spare time. Weird universe, this one. Energy beings all over the place, and some of them are really rude. Couple of galaxies over there were a whole bunch of them who were extremely unpleasant, we had to come to an arrangement."

"An arrangement?" Cam had a sudden clenching sensation in his gut. He could see out of the corner of his eye that Teal'c seemed to be looking very thoughtful.

"Yep. We arranged that they'd stop being unpleasant. Seems to have stuck." She seemed pleased. "The ones around here are much less annoying, they keep to themselves for the most part. It's a bit weird, this constant wanting to become immaterial energy some species have. The real world is so much more interesting. I mean, just look at that view!"

She pondered the horizon for a short time, while the entire SG-1 team stared at her, then each other, wondering what the hell was happening. Eventually she sighed with a sort of faint pleased tone mixed with disappointment. "Well, can't hang around here all day, I have things to be getting on with. Like finding a better place to put my camera where hikers won't trip over it."

Saurial looked up at the cliff behind them. "You guys like climbing, then?"

"Not really," Daniel said, turning his head to glare at Vala, who flushed, looking away from fixedly peering at the reptilian female. "We _had_ a rope."

"Forgot to tie it to something?" Saurial asked sympathetically.

"Sort of." He sighed. "More or less."

"OK. Want a lift somewhere, then? It's going to get dark in about three hours and it gets really cold here when the suns go down." She examined them for a moment. "You guys aren't dressed properly for night around here."

Finally lowering his P-90, since it looked like she genuinely was both non-hostile and friendly, Cam looked at her, then around them. "How did you even get here?" he asked. "We didn't see or hear you until you spoke."

With a smile, she shrugged. "I can climb well, as it happens, but I also have other methods available." Walking over to Vala, who was closest, she put a clawed hand on the woman's shoulder, then both of them simply vanished without a sound.

"Holy shit!" Cam turned on the spot, looking wildly around. "What the fuck?"

Teal'c was also looking about for the pair, Daniel was staring at where they'd been, and Sam had pulled out another scanner and was fiddling with it.

"Up here!"

All four of them looked up, to see Saurial, and a stunned-appearing Vala, looking down at them from the top of the cliff.

"Teleportation?" Sam appeared totally fascinated. She squeaked in shock when Saurial suddenly appeared next to her.

"Not quite, but sort of yes," the humanoid lizard laughed, the end of her long tail twitching back and forth. "If you want I can take you right back to your wormhole terminal."

"The gate?"

"That's the thing. It's sort of primitive, but I guess it works."

Sam appeared shocked again, as she turned to Cam with a look of wordless confusion.

He sympathized. A lot. He was also very confused, and had more questions than he could articulate. After a moment, though, he decided that he'd rather ask them in front of the gate rather than half a mile up the side of a vertical drop on a piece of rock the size of a tennis court. "Back to the gate would be fine, thank you," he managed.

"Sure. I'll just get your friend." She disappeared again, reappearing a second later with Vala standing next to her looking like she couldn't figure out what to say, but apparently rolling with it. "OK. It's easiest if I take you one at a time," Saurial said. "Back in a second."

She and Vala vanished once more, the woman barely having time for her eyes to widen. Moments later Saurial was back, next to Sam. Half a second after that both of them had disappeared.

"Holy crap," Cam muttered, shocked at the speed and casual nature of the whole thing. There wasn't even any light effects like the Asgard beaming technology produced, she simply appeared and disappeared like flipping a switch.

Blink, she was there next to Daniel, blink, she and the archaeologist were gone. Then Teal'c. Before he had time to do much more than wonder what it felt like, he found himself standing in front of the stargate DHD, with the rest of his team looking around in amazement. Saurial vanished one last time, and reappeared five seconds later with the rope they'd left behind, which she handed to him having coiled it neatly. "There you go."

"Ah… thanks?" He couldn't think what else to say.

"No problem." She studied them all closely, then smiled. "See you around, maybe. I have to go find another place to put my camera, so no one trips over it again."

"Hey, we have a lot of..."

Cam lowered the hand he raised. The lizard-woman or whatever she was was gone.

"That was… different," Daniel said very slowly.

Sam opened her mouth, thought for a moment, then closed it. Then opened it again, before sighing and closing it once more. With a shrug she began dialing home. As the ring ground into action, Cam tried mentally working out what he was going to put in his report.

It wasn't going to contain very much of use, he was fairly sure of that. Aside from the comment, ' _Do not interfere with Saurial's cameras, unless you want life to become weird._ '

At least now he suspected that they had a reasonably good idea of what had happened to the Ori, though. Or, rather, _who_ had happened to them. He wondered what her ' _arrangements_ ' had actually consisted of, then firmly decided it was probably better not to know.

Exchanging a look with a very thoughtful-seeming Teal'c, he followed the others through the wormhole when it stabilized. Moments later the gate shut down and the area was silent except for the songs from the bird-like creatures.


	313. Running and Tasers

Taylor's Saurial aspect settled back into the seat of Linda's mech, pleased that they'd managed to design one that a normal human could use as well as someone, like her, with a less standard body configuration. It was adjustable to allow for tails, and could move around enough that her somewhat differently jointed legs in this form would also fit properly. Although she'd made all the parts, this was the first time she'd sat in it, since the last time she'd seen it the thing was half-assembled on one of the benches in Linda's workshop.

It also fitted her nicely as herself in her base form, or Amy for that matter, but she'd dismissed the other aspect a while ago when she'd heard Kevin and Randall's truck approaching since she wanted to amuse herself with her teleporting multi-aspect ability which they didn't know about yet. Having two of her standing around would have given the game away. That aspect had already had a go in the mech, then begged off further playing for the moment on the basis of having to go to the BBFO office for an errand. As soon as she'd walked through the door of the office she'd let it vanish, both she and the Varga concentrating on the other one.

Nearly half the people present had so far tried the machine, and everyone had managed to drive it pretty well since the onboard processing was actually handling most of the detailed motion control. Several of the heavy machinery operators had turned out to be incredibly good at it after only minutes of experimentation, impressing her and Linda alike. One of them was even better than Linda herself, they'd been pleased to discover. He was practically pleading with them for the chance to try the next one. As soon as possible, please…

Fastening the restraint harness, she looked at Linda, who was hanging onto the side of the mech cabin with one hand watching her closely. "Having fun?" she asked in a low voice.

The currently feline Tinker winked at her. "So fucking much. This thing works way better than I hoped. Thanks for all the help, and when can we start on the next version?"

Taylor chuckled. "Tomorrow, I think. I have some stuff to do later, or I'd happily start making more parts for you today. If you want, we can make up kits of parts for half a dozen or so, your designs are pretty modular as far as the motors and so on go. We could put together several frames with drive systems and you could fit them out with whatever else you want, then we put the outer skins on later."

"That would probably work," Linda nodded, looking thoughtful. "I need to come up with some standardized parts for them, I don't want everything to be a one off. This one let me see where I need to change a lot of things, but I can redraw the plans and add in all the new ideas, that should give us a first production model. Half a dozen is enough to get people using them and working out what needs to be changed. Several of these guys have already shown me better ways to lay out the controls, for instance."

"We'll need a mech hangar next, at this rate," Taylor grinned, prompting a return grin from the other woman.

"There's lots of room here, I bet Danny can find someplace useful. I think the garage shed next to my workshop is empty for a start. Sort of, it's got more crap in it than my unit did at the moment, but it's basically just oily junk."

"It'll get cleaned out soon enough anyway, everyone is loading up the train with any scrap they can find to get rid of it. I'll ask him later if we could use it. We'll have to write a manual for them as well. People need instructions, even if some of them never read them."

"I'll make some notes, but manual writing isn't something I think I'd be good at," Linda shrugged.

"There are people here who can do that, if we make sure they have all the relevant information, and Lisa could certainly help a lot. She's really good with words."

"Where is she, anyway?" Linda looked over her shoulder at the diminished but still quite large crowd, which had been joined just then by Kevin and Randall who were staring at the mech with wide eyes and even wider grins.

"Around somewhere, she'll turn up," Taylor smiled, looking over at ' _Metis_ ,' who waved with a small grin. "She'll want to play as well. Everyone does. Especially those two." She pointed at Leet who was almost drooling. Linda turned her head and met his eyes, then burst out laughing.

"God, he looks like a ten year old girl who's seen a pony," she giggled.

"You should make him a robot one, then."

"Don't joke, I could do it," the Tinker snickered. "I seriously considered a line of robotic animals. Just because it's possible."

"You'll definitely have to do that one day."

"I'm going to go talk to the boys," Linda added, shifting her grip preparatory to dropping to the ground. "Have fun. Don't wreck it."

"I'm not sure I could considering it's mostly made of EDM," the lizard-girl laughed. "Aside from this bit, you could practically nuke it." She reached up and tapped the transparent windscreen, then shrugged. "Have to come up with something we can see through that's stronger at some point, but this works for now."

"It does. See you in a minute." Letting go, the cat-woman tucked into a reverse flip and landed neatly on the ground, making Taylor grin, before walking over to meet the two reforming villains. Lisa and Danny joined them, all five quickly involved in a conversation which Taylor didn't bother to listen to.

' _All yours_ ,' she said to the Varga, who had been patiently waiting, as she relinquished control.

" _Thank you, Brain,_ " he replied with satisfaction, reaching their hand over to the control that closed the cockpit and prodding it. The upper transparency hissed closed and locked with a click, most of the exterior noise abruptly cut off. The sounds of a good hundred people talking and having an interesting time was surprisingly loud.

" _This is a most excellent machine,_ " he added approvingly. " _I understand why Zephron claimed that a tracked vehicle was more suitable in many cases, but having seen how well it works, and how much power it has, I'm not entirely sure he's correct._ "

' _He did say that it didn't matter anyway because this thing was way cooler than a forklift, though,_ ' she pointed out with amusement. ' _Something about the rule of cool. Sounds like a perfectly good rule to me_.'

" _And to me._ " Powering up the mech, he put their hands on the controls as it rose into the normal bipedal walking position. " _I have no trouble at all declaring this to be **extremely** cool._"

' _And better than weapons like she was making for Skidmark,_ ' Taylor agreed, watching as he rapidly accelerated across the yard, the large birdlike feet and legs blurring into action beneath them with a series of faint crunching sounds through the hull. ' _Construction equipment is much more helpful for everyone. It'll be cool when it has the flight system installed_.'

" _Indeed. And able to go to places it couldn't at the moment. Although there are surprisingly few of those._ " The machine was light enough, mainly due to the EDM construction allowing it to be far more delicately built than conventional materials, that it didn't have much more ground pressure than a human did, at least while unloaded. The hard stone material she'd used to resurface the place was wasn't marked by it at all. Linda claimed that it could even handle quite soft earth or hard mud with the built-in systems that deployed flaps from each toe sideways to spread the load, and it was more than powerful enough to wade through mud up to the hips anyway.

Not a lot was going to stop it, as long as the power systems held out.

" _This would make a fearsome weapon, though,_ " he noted as he hurdled the train, pelting across the ground at fifty miles an hour into a gentle curve along the waterfront just inside the fence. " _It would allow some impressive urban combat uses, although it wouldn't fit inside a building very well._ "

' _It could_ ** _get_** _inside a building without any trouble at all_ ,' she snickered. ' _The plasma torch or the blades would do the job nicely. Or just punch a hole in the wall. No distance weapons though_.'

" _It's capable of throwing things at a significant speed, so it's not entirely incapable in that respect even without adding something more dangerous,_ " he pointed out, straightening up, then making the mech crouch mid run, before somersaulting forward with a push from the arms to make sure it landed on the feet again. He grinned. " _I wasn't sure that would work. Impressive._ "

' _Everyone else looks a little shocked_ ,' Taylor laughed. ' _Even Linda_.'

" _The more it's been used the better the motion control has gotten,_ " he said approvingly. " _It appears to learn rapidly. From the outside one would almost swear that it was alive now. That young woman is very gifted, she's done a superb job on everything. A truly excellent piece of design, and a lot of fun. I feel that if we end up mass-producing them, though, that we're going to have to think quite hard about how to stop them being used for detrimental purposes. We have the example of Saint and his people stealing Dragon's power suits and causing a lot of chaos with them, after all. Some very good security is probably required._ "

' _Good point. We'll need to think about that. I wonder what happened to Saint and his group, anyway? He hasn't been in the news for months._ '

" _I have no idea. Possibly Dragon finally caught him?_ " The demon shrugged a little. " _I doubt it really matters, he's never come near Brockton Bay as far as we know and probably has no reason to do so._ "

' _Good point. Lots of closer criminals to look out for anyway, we don't need to worry about some weirdo who doesn't like Dragon. Try the quadrupedal mode,_ ' she suggested. He nodded, reaching for the relevant control and toggling it while at the same time slowing down to a walk. The mech smoothly leaned forward, the arms adjusting somewhat to end up working as legs while the hands reconfigured into feet, and the cockpit slid back and tilted so it stayed upright. The end result left them sitting a couple of feet lower, but the machine was even more stable now.

" _I wonder how fast it can run like this?_ " he commented. " _No one has tried it yet._ "

' _Let's find out_.'

" _Just what I was thinking._ " With a small smile, he ran it towards the farthest corner of the yard away from the buildings, hitting over sixty mph, then slid into the legged version of a power-slide, chips of stone spraying up from under all four feet.

' _Hey! I'm going to have to fix that now!_ ' Taylor laughed as he merely grinned more widely, spun the mech around to point down the fence towards the bay a quarter of a mile or so away, and pressed another control.

" _I believe this was the one that Linda said removed the speed limiters,_ " he commented, letting go of the controls for a moment and cracking their knuckles.

' _She also said she wasn't sure what would happen_ ,' Taylor pointed out.

" _There's no one better to find out, is there? It's not like we can be hurt if it goes wrong. But I doubt it will, so far her work appears to be very reliable,_ " he smirked.

' _Fair point. Go for it._ '

" _As you say._ " Grasping both sticks again, he slammed them forwards to the limits, the machine grabbing at the ground with its feet and taking off like a scalded cat. They were pressed back into the seat momentarily with the acceleration, the cabin rocking a little for the first time she could recall. Normally the cockpit stabilization system damped out the movement of the legs eerily effectively, producing a ride like it was on rails.

The Varga kept an eye on the instruments, even while he held the sticks in ' _go for it_ ' mode. The mech galloped towards the water, its legs moving almost too fast to see. " _Sixty miles an hour. Eighty. One hundred… One hundred and twenty two, and we have no room left._ " Yanking back, then wiggling the controls frantically, he made the machine flip end over end, clearing the ground by a good fifteen feet and spinning it around to point the other way in the process, then slide to a halt only feet inside the fence. " _That was very nearly embarrassing,_ " he said after a moment.

' _Left it a little late there,_ ' she giggled.

" _It can swim, so the only risk was being laughed at,_ " he chuckled as he brought the mech back onto two feet and aimed it back towards where Linda was staring with her mouth open and both Randall and Kevin were almost rolling on the ground. " _And replacing the fence, of course._ "

' _It's even faster than she thought it was_.'

" _Considerably so. Those motors are very effective, I remember the projected output was much higher than the original hydraulics._ " He nodded a little. " _That was fun. Thank you again for letting me play with it._ "

' _Like you're always saying, Varga, no thanks are necessary, but they're appreciated,_ ' she told him quietly, feeling very pleased. Both of them fell silent as they jogged back towards the crowd, more than satisfied with their new friend's work.

* * *

"Does anyone know what this meeting is about?" Missy asked as she accompanied her team-mates towards the conference room. "Is it something to do with that horrible smell yesterday?"

"My money is on something Sophia did," Dennis said.

They all looked at Carlos, who looked back, then shrugged. "Your guess is as good as mine, all I know was what the email said. Meeting with the Director at half past four in conference room six."

"It's got to be connected with this rogue Parahuman threatening the Heberts," Chris commented, looking up from his tablet on which he was flipping through some sort of technical document. Missy had already had to subtly redirect him with her powers to stop him walking into a wall twice now.

"We'll know in a couple of minutes, so why bother speculating?" Dean shook his head as they all now looked at _him_.

"Because that's what we _do_ , man!" Dennis replied. "We make guesses about things we have no knowledge of, then extrapolate from those guesses into the least plausible outcome and get upset about it. _Everyone_ does that." He was grinning again.

Dean stared at him, sighed faintly, and shook his head a little.

When the elevator door opened silently, they all trooped out and headed towards the conference room, Carlos in the lead. Opening the door he led them inside. "Wards reporting as requested, Director," he stated when they had entered. Missy looked around, seeing that besides Director Piggot, Armsmaster and Miss Militia were present.

"Good. Sit, please, and we can get started." The blonde woman watched as they all took seats on the other side of the large table. She assessed them without saying anything for a few seconds, then looked down at a thick folder in front of her. Flipping through it for a moment, she appeared to be thinking.

Missy inspected her. The woman appeared somewhat tired and stressed, which wasn't particularly unusual, her job was both tiring and very stressful after all. But there was a slightly different air to her than normal, as if she'd had more trouble recently. Missy hoped it wasn't anything too bad, she sort of liked the older woman, even though she could be very shouty sometimes. Normally after Dennis did something particularly aggravating, although she also appeared not to like Sophia at all, which was very much returned.

The lack of Sophia at the moment was refreshing, in her opinion.

"Carlos knows some of this already," the director said after perusing the page she'd stopped on for a few seconds and looking back to them. "But not all of it. We have something of a situation, a very unusual and potentially both embarrassing and dangerous one. While I'm not entirely pleased about having to do so, I have no choice but to read you all into it and request your aid."

They exchanged glances, confused.

"I believe that four of you know, or at least know _of_ , Taylor Hebert? The daughter of Danny Hebert, from the DWU? She attends Arcadia High School as do you four."

She was looking at Carlos, Dean, Dennis, and Chris. Missy watched them with curiosity, wondering at their various reactions. Carlos had suddenly looked thoughtful, which quickly turned to worry. Dean had stiffened, his face remarkably blank, and then in her opinion, forced himself to relax. She knew him well enough to think that this was an act. Miss Militia was looking at him a little oddly as well.

Dennis, strangely enough, had turned his head a little and was watching _Carlos_ out of the corner of his eye, his expression to her eye suggesting he was thinking very hard. The boy came across as a happy-go-lucky sort of practical joker, which he definitely was, but she was well aware that he was also very intelligent and capable of some impressive leaps of logic. He reminded her a lot of Assault who was very much the same. Both of them tended to get underestimated since people got fooled by the surface act and often missed the quick wit below that.

Chris merely looked somewhat confused. He stared at the director, then looked around. "Taylor? Yes, I know her, she's really nice, and incredibly smart too. She's been helping me with my disability."

The three adults immediately focused on him, Director Piggot with an intensity that made him lean back a little. "Is that a fact, Mr Jacobs? How did _that_ come about?"

"Vicky suggested it," he replied, a little uncertainly, since her expression was… odd.

"Victoria Dallon?"

"Yes. She, her sister, and four of Taylor's friends all go to Taylor's house once a week for math tutoring. Taylor's unbelievably good at math and has been helping them, so Vicky suggested that maybe she could figure out a way to help me with my dyscalculia." He smiled widely. "She did."

" _Did_ she now..." The director was still staring at him. Miss Militia appeared, as best Missy could make out over her scarf, somewhat surprised, and Armsmaster was…

She looked again.

He was _smiling_ a little? That was… different.

"How did she manage to help you, Chris?" the older Tinker asked with what looked like significant interest.

"She came up with all sorts of tests, thought about things for a while, then gave me a Japanese abacus and showed me how to use it. We practiced for a while and it's a hell of a thing, I actually get it. That's never happened before with any of the methods the school tried." Chris seemed excited, which Missy couldn't blame him for. He was smiling a lot and expressively moving his hands around as he spoke. "I can do long division with it! Slowly, that's true, it's not easy yet, but it's way better than anything else I've ever tried. She lent me a book on how to use them and I'm going back on Friday so we can see how it's coming along. My tutor in school was amazed, he's started looking into whether the same method would help other people, and said he was going to have to talk to Taylor about it. Mom and Dad are so happy too, we're going out tomorrow night to celebrate."

Chris was definitely pretty pleased, Missy thought with amusement. Director Piggot looked somewhat startled, on the other hand, although Armsmaster was emoting a definite sensation of satisfaction. "Saurial showed me some tricks with it too. _Her_ math ability is just _insane_. You wouldn't believe some of the things she showed us. They both think that I might eventually learn to do the same thing the abacus does in my head, which would be _incredible._ Apparently people in Japan have been taught with this method for centuries. I looked it up when I got home and it's really interesting. I've already managed to pass a test at school using it, they're completely happy with me using it in class."

His enthusiastic commentary died away, the boy looking slightly embarrassed when he saw how everyone was looking at him. After a moment or two he shrugged. "Sorry. But you can't possibly know how much it meant to me unless you have the experience. She's the first person to really _help_ me for that problem _ever._ "

"Understood," Armsmaster nodded. "And impressive. It is not something I would have thought of. Miss Hebert appears to be good at lateral thought."

"And math. Even Family math, which is _weird,_ " the boy smiled. "Saurial showed us this odd little widget that she said was a children's toy, for teaching how to look at the world. It did… _really peculiar things…_ to gravity. No idea how. But if you threw it across the room it didn't fly right, it took a strange path and made your eyes hurt. Taylor seemed able to throw it perfectly fine, which was bizarre to watch."

Director Piggot held up a finger, making him stop again. "Question?"

"Yes, Director?"

"Saurial was present at the Hebert's house?"

"Yes." Chris smiled. "It was a surprise to me too, but I think she must have spent a lot of time there, she seemed to know her way around as well as Taylor did. Mr Hebert didn't look surprised to see her when he came home. Amy was fine with it too, I guess that's obvious since they know each other and are really good friends."

"I see." The woman fixed him with a hard look. "And the reason I am only hearing about this now? After, as I remember, a ruling was put in place that all Wards were to minimize contact with the Family except for meetings on patrol, and to report all encounters?"

"Um..." Chris was now looking nervous. "She doesn't know I'm a Ward, I didn't know she was there until I arrived, and it was only a social visit?"

She kept looking at him. Missy watched, as did the others.

"I didn't think it was important, really," Chris stumbled on. "I mean, I was excited about learning something new that could help me, Saurial was just there as a friend of Taylor's, no one else seemed to think it was odd… She made sandwiches! Good ones!"

Missy felt sorry for him, the poor guy was almost babbling under that stare. She thought it just reinforced her feelings that _they must never find out_ about her Cloak-time. Which she was overdue for, actually…

"I see." Director Piggot repeated herself. She glanced at Miss Militia, who was watching without a word, and Armsmaster on her other side, who seemed if anything interested rather than worried. "All right. We'll drop it this time. Considering the current issue, you'll have plenty of contact with her anyway, and I suppose we have no choice to accept that the Family are here to stay and on balance are a net benefit to the city. However, in future, should you find yourself in a situation that I have said I want to be notified about, make sure that you notify me about it, please, regardless of your personal leanings. Clear?"

"Yes, Director," he said with a slight quaver in his voice. "Does that mean that we need to tell you every time we meet Saurial or her relatives?"

It was her turn to stop and think. Eventually, she emitted a tiny sigh and shook her head. "I believe we've probably moved past that point. They seem to turn up in the oddest places anyway, and we know enough about them to know they're not hostile."

"And are remarkably non-violent and very hard to provoke," Armsmaster noted.

"Luckily, yes," she nodded. "Just… if you learn anything particularly noteworthy about them, report it. If nothing else so that we have _some_ idea of what those crazy lizards are likely to do next." She seemed oddly resigned. "Not that we can probably do anything about it anyway."

"Does that mean we can visit them at the DWU yard?" Dennis asked with a grin, sounding quite interested in doing that exact thing. Probably immediately.

"I would prefer that you still keep your distance officially," she replied, a slight expression of annoyance crossing her face. Missy suppressed a giggle at the thought that this was more or less due to who it was, not the subject, as she tended to look like that whenever she talked to him. "Although if you happen to bump into them in a social context I can see no reason not act normally. Actively seeking them out, at the moment, isn't something I'm wildly keen on. We'll see how events proceed."

Shaking her head a bit she made a few notes, then closed her notebook and folded her hands on it. "No doubt you are all aware of the situation at Arcadia by now?"

"Rogue parahuman threat targeting Taylor Hebert, probably her father, and maybe some of her friends like the Dallons? PRT squad assigned to protect the school and cooperating with Arcadia security? The Family present for the foreseeable future, personally protecting Taylor? Saurial an officially unofficial member of staff for the duration?" Dennis rattled all this off in a professional monotone, then grinned. "No idea."

Director Piggot glared at him. "Thank you. You seem to have covered the highlights. And what do you mean about Saurial?"

"There was a lot of chatter in the cafeteria at lunchtime, Director," Carlos explained, having discreetly poked Dennis in the ribs. "Saurial and Taylor explained most of it, then one of the teachers made an announcement. Saurial spent half an hour answering questions. No one seems too worried at the moment, between her and the school staff everyone thinks they have it in hand, but there's a lot of rumors about who this Parahuman is. It's all over the PHO local affairs thread as well. People are coming up with the weirdest ideas of who it could be, and why they'd be after Taylor."

He shrugged. "No one seems to have any real idea, though."

"It's Sophia, isn't it?" Dennis said suddenly, having got that calculating expression again, which had attracted Missy's attention. Everyone turned to look at him, the adults with neutral expressions. "There have been rumors for months that something nasty happened at Winslow, and a couple of people said it had a Parahuman link. Sophia got taken off active duty around the same time, she's been locked up in here ever since. Half the staff, including the principal, of Winslow have either resigned or been fired and the board of governors is going nuts. Taylor transferred in to Arcadia half-way through January, and I've heard she came from Winslow after something unpleasant happened to her. And now Sophia has vanished without a trace, the PRT is all over Arcadia, the _Family_ is all over Arcadia, a rogue Parahuman is threatening Taylor… It's Sophia."

He leaned back and folded his arms as the room fell silent. Missy stared at him, thinking about the things he'd said, and what she'd read on PHO and the news. As far as she could see it hung together, although she didn't know this Taylor girl.

"Excellent analysis, Dennis," Armsmaster said approvingly. "You are correct, of course."

"Play the video," the director sighed. He reached out and poked the relevant control on the table console, which made a screen fold down from the ceiling. "None of this is to be talked about outside this room. It is both confidential PRT information, and a private matter of the Heberts. I leave it to you to work out who you would least like to upset, me or the Family. Neither would be a good idea, trust me."

They watched the playback. When it ended, there was silence, until Dennis chuckled. "Note to self, don't piss off a Hebert. That was epic. Serves the bitch right."

"Why was Sophia being so mean to that girl Taylor?" Missy asked, more than a little puzzled. It was clearly something that had been going on for a long time, but even for Sophia it seemed a little excessive. And what was that about a locker?

Director Piggot pulled a few copies of a three page report out of her folder and slid them across to the Wards. "This is a somewhat redacted background briefing on what led up to what you just saw. As I said, this is confidential information. I'm showing you only because you require some context."

They all started reading. Missy felt ill half-way through the first page, and by the time she finished was furious. "How could even _Sophia_ do that?" she sputtered. "And why? What did Taylor do to her?" She had a definite sensation of indignation on behalf of someone she'd never even met, especially as she could relate to a degree based on the way Sophia had treated her.

"As far as we know, there's no real reason," Miss Militia said with an expression of anger in her eyes. "She's… not entirely sane, I suspect. She's definitely a lot more aggressive than we realized, and seems to have taken a lot of that out on Miss Hebert. Her liaison officer and the former principal of Winslow actively covered up most of it, right up to the locker incident. For whatever reason, Mr Hebert appears not to have known about it until then, but when he found out, he took immediate and remarkably effective action. We suspect that he also had Family help."

"I'm surprised that Saurial let Sophia live," Dennis said, dropping his copy onto the table with a flick of his hand. "Guess she wanted to let Mr Hebert handle it. But I can understand why she probably wouldn't like Sophia very much. Hell, _I_ don't like Sophia very much, for that matter."

"I doubt anyone does," Dean muttered, shaking his head and looking appalled. "God. That's nasty."

"And you knew all along, didn't you?" Dennis said, turning to Carlos, who immediately appeared slightly guilty.

"I was ordered not to say anything, it was a sensitive matter," he replied a little defensively.

"Carlos did nothing wrong, he was doing what I told him to do," Director Piggot snapped. "Forget about that for now. The main thing is that you understand that Sophia is out there, on the run, armed, dangerous, and almost certainly sooner or later going to make an attempt at some misguided form of revenge on the Heberts. Most likely other people as well, she had grievances with almost everyone she ever met, but they are the presumed priority targets."

"Armed?" Carlos queried.

"An audit showed a handgun and a quantity of ammunition missing from the armory, along with some other items," Miss Militia responded. "This happened immediately subsequent to Sophia absconding, so we're assuming she's responsible. It's more than likely that she also had a weapons cache somewhere and stopped to collect it on the way out of the city. That's on top of whatever else she finds."

"Is there a real risk to Arcadia?" Chris asked.

"We don't know, but we have to assume so," Miss Militia replied. "It's most likely that she would try to attack their home, but it's certainly not impossible that she might go for her at school, or threaten one of her friends for some reason. That's why the PRT patrol is there, and why Saurial is accompanying Taylor there. Until we catch Sophia, the Heberts and a number of other people are at risk."

"Which is why you will be carrying these with you from now on," Director Piggot added, leaning sideways and retrieving a box from the chair next to her. She put it on the table on top of the folder, opened it, and swiveled it around so they could see into it. Missy inspected the PRT type three taser, the small one that was used for undercover work, then looked at her teammates with raised eyebrows.

"Even at school?" Carlos asked, looking very surprised.

"Especially at school," she said. "They are aware of this. There are a number of restrictions. You will not show these to anyone under any circumstances, unless a clear threat to life is present. Even then, you are to attempt to contact the on-site PRT staff first, ideally Lieutenant Pratchett. We don't want you exposing your Parahuman status unless there is no choice at all. Got me?"

"Yes, Director," everyone chorused.

"You will be responsible for keeping these weapons out of sight, safe, and ready for use, until further notice. Not even your parents are to know you have them, and if they find out, you will notify me personally and immediately. As I've said, this entire matter is very sensitive, and we do not want the press, PHO, or any other uncontrolled actor obtaining any of this information. The embarrassment to the PRT would be… difficult to deal with, politically, and there's also the Family and the DWU to consider. If I had a choice, I wouldn't do this, but under the circumstances..." She looked annoyed.

"Why isn't Sophia in jail?" Dean asked. "I mean, from that report what she did was nearly murder. Or manslaughter at least. Taylor could have died in that locker. Or if nothing else been badly injured, mentally if not physically."

"Miss Hebert appears to be remarkably resilient," the director said. "Having met her, she seems to have suffered no ill effects. And I agree, Sophia should have been arrested and charged with assault immediately. Unfortunately, for reasons that are far too complex to go into now, politics demanded that she be kept accessible." She didn't look even slightly happy about that. "A mistake in my opinion. One that seems to have been borne out by subsequent events. When we catch her, I will be doing my best to make sure that situation is rectified as quickly as possible."

"If _Saurial_ catches her, you probably won't need to do anything except arrange a tombstone," Dennis snickered.

"I would much prefer not having to do that," Director Piggot muttered. It didn't look like she disagreed with his comment, though.

The five Wards were brought up to speed on a number of related issues over the next twenty minutes. When the director was finally satisfied that they understood the situation and all the ramifications, she passed out four tasers to everyone except Missy, who felt a little left out until she thought about how she could be a lot more dangerous than some little electric gun.

' _If I see Sophia, she's going to wonder what the hell happened for_ ** _months_** ,' she thought with an internal grin. ' _I might even let her out one day_.'

She didn't like the older girl before learning about her hobbies, and now she liked her even less.

"You've all been trained on these, but you'll take a refresher course with Miss Militia this evening before going on patrol," the director finished up as she gave, rather reluctantly, Dennis the final taser. "Don't mess it up. I will be _very_ upset if you do."

"We'll be very careful, Director," Carlos assured her. "Won't we, guys?" he added, turning and fixing Dennis with a hard look.

"Of course, Captain Carlos," the red-head chuckled, saluting his friend snappily. "Totally professional. You can trust us, Director."

She gave him a hard look, which made him smile back.

"For some reason I'm not entirely convinced about that… However, I have no choice. Remember, this is all highly confidential. Dismissed."

"Ma'am," Carlos said with respect, getting to his feet. The others did the same.

"I'll meet you in the firing range in fifteen minutes," Miss Militia said to them.

With a nod, their senior member led the rest of them out, then back to the elevator, with the boys carrying their new toys very carefully. When the door slid shut, he sighed heavily. "Fuck, Dennis, do you have to do that right to her _face?_ One day..."

Dennis merely snickered and resumed reading the small manual that came with the stun weapon, his face expressing interest. Missy watched him, smiled a little, and leaned on the rear wall of the elevator as they descended silently.

* * *

 ****

 **"I** nteresting that Dennis worked it out," Hannah commented a few seconds after the door shut behind the Wards.

"The boy is annoying at the best of times, but he is hardly stupid," Colin said. "I'm not particularly surprised myself. All the data was there. I'm more interested in the fact that Miss Hebert appears to have devised a method to aid Chris with his dyscalculia. A successful method. I would never have considered an abacus." He seemed thoughtful, she thought. "Perhaps I should have. The girl is clearly very smart with a gift for problem-solving. If he can truly overcome his disability it will make his Tinkering considerably more effective."

"Saurial is teaching her Family mathematics," Director Piggot remarked. "Why does that sound… slightly worrying?"

"Having encountered Family math, I find myself very impressed. It speaks to Miss Hebert's abilities if she can understand it, what I saw was remarkably advanced. Probably past the level that most professional mathematicians could handle," he replied, looking at her. "That matches what you were told by the staff at Arcadia. The young woman would seem to have a number of talents."

"Do you think that it's evidence that she actually did Trigger in that locker?" Hannah said slowly, looking at them both. "Maybe she got some sort of math-based Thinker ability."

Emily looked back, then shook her head. "I suppose it's not impossible, but I looked up her transcripts from before she joined Winslow as a junior. She was definitely gifted before all that mess started, her grades in mathematics and related disciplines were very high. If, as we suspect, the Heberts have been in contact with the Family for possibly years, it's not all that unlikely that she's been tutored in their own version of mathematics for some time. Possibly other things as well. Whether that's good or bad I can't decide right now."

"Interestingly, if she does have a good working understanding of that form of mathematics, she might well qualify for a low Thinker rating anyway," Colin said after a moment. "From what Chris said, she can understand at least enough to utilize a Family training aid, which may well mean she knows a significant amount about their dimensional manipulation techniques. If he was reporting accurately, the device must be doing something unusual to gravity, probably through fractal dimensional modifications as in the case of Ianthe's and Metis's armor. But Miss Hebert appears to be able to handle that."

Emily and Hannah exchanged glances.

"It implies some interesting things, actually," he went on with a thoughtful expression. "One is that it can be taught to and understood by normal humans. Another is that the Family may well have been in contact with the Heberts for longer than we thought. Possibly since the girl was born. I have no idea how, or why, though."

"It implies to _me_ that the Family trusts, likes and will definitely go out of their way to protect both Danny and Taylor Hebert," Emily sighed. "Not that I really had any doubt."

Her phone made a low sound, causing her to retrieve it and check the screen. "Sergeant Foxton is still at the DWU?" she exclaimed with a slightly surprised expression. "Why? He should have finished training them by now and be on the way back."

It beeped again, so she prodded it, then stared.

"Oh, for god's sake..." she finally said, handing it to Hannah. Colin looked over her shoulder at the screen. Inspecting the photo of the large blue-with-orange-highlights bipedal mech that was displayed on it, Hannah felt her eyebrows go up and a slight sinking sensation fill her stomach.

"What the hell is going _on_ in this damn city?" Emily grumbled. "Lizards all over the fucking place, Wards threatening civilians, and now the fucking _DOCK WORKERS UNION_ is making fucking _robots_ straight out of a science fiction novel. With a cat-woman Tinker on top of that! Where are all these people _coming_ from?"

Once again the phone beeped, this time with a short video segment. Glancing at Emily, Hannah played it when the woman made a resigned gesture. They all watched the screen show the feline Tinker close the cockpit of her machine, start it up, then proceed to run around at high speed with a remarkable fluidity of motion. Far, far more convincingly than any similar device Hannah had seen before.

The feeling in her stomach got a little worse.

"Very impressive," Colin said approvingly. "I wonder what the drive system is? It appears far too fast for hydraulic actuators, unless they're running at extreme pressures, and that would require a large heat radiator. I can't see anything of that nature. Possibly some form of electric motor..." He trailed off, pulling out one of his notepads and sketching something. "Can you replay that, please, Hannah?" he added absently, still sketching, and working a calculation in the margin.

Hannah dropped the phone on the table in front of him and tapped play, looking sympathetically at Emily, who had a hand over her face under which faint muttering was happening.

It was that sort of day…


	314. Mech and Debrief

"Hi, guys," Taylor said as she approached Kevin and Randall, both of whom were staring at Linda's mech with envy. "What brings you here?"

"We wanted to catch up, say hi, and talk about a few things, but now we mainly want to try _that_ thing," Kevin replied, not taking his eyes off it.

"Join the line, there's quite a few people in front of you," Linda herself said with a look of satisfaction. They all looked around, seeing a large number of people were still waiting patiently for a go in the mech.

"Where did they get popcorn from?" Danny asked, suddenly noticing that most of them were munching on the snack.

"Zephron decided we needed something to eat," Mark commented as he wandered over and heard the remark. "They're making hot dogs next."

"Oh, for… This place is just getting weird," Danny sighed.

"But it's a lot of fun, right?" Randall snickered.

" _You're_ not the one trying to keep it running, are you?" the older man asked with mild exasperation. "It's a total madhouse and somehow with this sort of thing happening, I can't see that getting _less_ true any time soon."

"Fair point," Randall laughed.

"I need to go and keep an eye on these guys, so I'll see you later," Linda put in, nodding to them all, then dashing off to help the next DWU employee, who was staring up at the mech with wonder, climb aboard.

"Sergeant Foxton wants a quick word before he leaves, Boss," Mark said, turning back from watching the Tinker. They all looked over to where the PRT squad was standing and watching with great interest as well. All of them had managed to try the mech, coming out of it with expressions varying from seriously impressed to flat out envious.

"All right. Gentlemen, I'll probably see you later." He nodded to both not-really-villains, then headed over to the PRT people. Taylor listened curiously from where she was, hearing that he was confirming that the security people had been successfully trained with the new equipment, to his satisfaction and Mark's. He was also very complimentary about how professional they all were, which pleased her, her father, and Mark as well based simply on their expressions. The scents were added proof of that, she thought, smiling inside.

The man was also _very_ impressed by the mech. She listened for a few seconds as he asked a couple of questions, looking thoughtful, and wondered what his report to Director Piggot would say…

While demonstrating the thing for the first time in front of a number of obviously alert PRT personnel hadn't been in the initial plan, it would probably work out well for them. When Linda went to the PRT for her power testing in a couple of days, it was more than likely that they'd already have a fairly good idea what she could do. Or at least what they _thought_ she could do. Taylor was fairly certain that the full extent of their friend's abilities was a little more extensive than the authorities were going to be all that prepared for, which amused her.

' _Metis_ ' and Amy joined them, having been chatting to Zephron. "Hi," the latter said, handing her a hot-dog with a grin. "Back already?"

"We just can't stay away," Randall chuckled. "And it looks like that was the right decision. That thing is… unbelievable."

"It's pretty good," Lisa agreed, looking over her shoulder at the mech, which was now jogging around the yard again, Linda watching with approved interest as the newest pilot got to grips with the machine. "I'm really impressed by how many people here can operate it so well."

"Lots of heavy machinery experience, I guess," Taylor said. "Plus Vectura's control system is amazingly good. I'll bet even a child could operate it with a little instruction. These guys wouldn't have any trouble at all." After a moment, she gestured towards the BBFO office. "Come on, let's go somewhere private. You can try it out later when everyone else has finished amusing themselves."

With a last longing look at the rapidly moving mech, both young men nodded agreement. The group headed back towards the office, Kevin stopping at their truck for a moment to retrieve a large flight case from the back. Holding the door open, Taylor waited for him. "New toy?" she asked curiously. It smelled of synthetics and electricity.

"An old toy I fixed," he replied.

Inside, once the door was locked, both of them pulled their balaclavas off, Kevin putting the case down and scratching his head frantically. "Fuck, that thing itches," he complained.

"Why not work out something a little more effective?" Amy asked with a small grin. "Hardly anyone just uses a balaclava, for god's sake. You guys always look like extras from a bad crime thriller."

"Except when we're being really cool in a good costume, right?" Randall asked, smiling. All three girls looked at each other.

"Um..."

His smile slipped.

Lisa snickered. "Don't worry, we're pulling your legs," she assured them. "Sometimes you do look cool. Sort of."

"After a fashion," Amy added, draping herself over a chair and stretching, then relaxing. "More or less."

"Well, don't keep praising us _that_ much or we'll just get big heads," Randall snarked, sitting next to her and putting his feet on the table. "Thanks a lot, guys."

"You're entirely welcome," she giggled. "How's things with you anyway? Modifications still working?"

"Perfectly, thanks," he said. "Both of us think our powers are still getting more… efficient? Cooperative?" He looked contemplative. "It's hard to explain."

"I know what you mean," she agreed, Lisa nodding from the other side of the table where she'd leaned back on her tail. "My power is practically purring all the time now. It's different than it was before I met her." She jerked her thumb at Taylor who had retaken her base form and was making coffee, watching them occasionally and listening. "Back then it wanted to be used, sort of, but not necessarily in a good way. Now… now it keeps suggesting things that fit into our whole theme, improvements to them and all sorts of other things like that. It's not being _pushy_ , it's being _helpful_. And apparently enjoying the hell out of life."

"Pretty much exactly that with mine, too," Lisa commented, looking thoughtful. "With an added feeling that it _really_ wants to tell me something important, and is getting frustrated because it can't. And kind of pissed off too, not at us, but at something else. I have the definite impression it's hoping we'll do something about something, but so far I don't know what that is. It's annoying both of us."

"Both of you?" Kevin echoed, a little oddly. She looked embarrassed, her currently scaly face shifting.

"I know, it sounds mad, but it really is a separate thing, one that's joined to me. I'm sure of it. Powers are… maybe not intelligent, as such, but I can't help but feel they have the _capacity_ for intelligence, and mine at least seems to be getting slowly closer to that level. A bit like her and the Varga, in a really primitive way, I think." She waved at Taylor who was now distributing coffee to everyone. "Although I wouldn't blame you if you said you thought it was nuts. _I_ think it's nuts, and I'm living it."

Sitting down with her own coffee in hand, Taylor said, "What about our theory that the power ' _processors_ ' are computers of some alien sort?"

"I still think that's probably about as close as we can get," Lisa shrugged. "It doesn't preclude them from being intelligent, though, I can't see any reason that there couldn't be an alien AI after all. And my power agrees with me and got quite excited when I was thinking that."

"Huh." Taylor pondered the idea, the Varga doing likewise. With the evidence and suspicions they already had about someone else, it wasn't a stretch. "Fair enough."

Kevin sighed a little, leaning his head back over the rear of his chair and staring at the ceiling. "We're all crazy. Even so, I agree, I think. It fits with my own experiences all too well."

"Mine too," Randall added, picking his coffee up and sipping it, then putting it down again. "My own abilities seem to be steadily improving, like I said, and I keep getting this weird sensation of… happiness… from somewhere. Somewhere that isn't me. Although I'm pretty happy even so." He grinned for a moment. "Largely because of you insane girls."

Bowing from a seated position, Taylor smiled at him. "We live to please."

"You live to confuse the hell out of everyone you meet," Amy sighed. "As you well know."

"Like you're any different. Or her." Taylor pointed at Lisa with the end of her tail. "We're all so similar in some respects sometimes I really wonder if we actually _are_ sisters." She grinned widely as Amy giggled. Lisa laughed for a moment.

"Personally I can't see how I could have ended up closer to any other people even if I was related to them," the black lizard said. "You all are a lot more valuable to me than my actual parents are, so there's that."

Giving her a curious look, Taylor wondered at the comment for a moment. Lisa didn't talk about her family, although it was obvious to her that they hadn't had the best relationship. However, she didn't feel it was her place to pry, so said nothing about it. The look in her friend's eyes thanked her for that.

"So how have things been for you guys since last time?" she asked, turning the attention back on the two men. "It's been pretty quiet with us, nothing out of the usual at all."

Lisa nearly choked on her coffee and Amy lay back laughing hysterically, making Kevin and Randall exchange glances, then fix her with a hard look. "Really? Nothing at all unusual?"

"Nope," she grinned. "It's just been normal business around here. To be honest, I'm star..."

She broke off as a sudden weird sound came from the far corner of the room. Everyone looked sharply over at the strange whistling _twang_ noise, which preceded that corner abruptly looking very weird indeed. It wavered and lost focus in a roughly spherical zone about eight feet across, the light acting very oddly around it like it was going through a lens of some sort. The sound was replaced by a subsonic hum that grew as the center of the distortion darkened, while around them they could feel things vibrating.

"Holy shit," Kevin yelped. "What the fuck…?"

With another weird wrench to the eyes, the spherical zone suddenly turned into a dark void, out of which popped a familiar figure. Everyone stared in shock as Saurial dived forward, rolled to her feet, and looked frantically around. Her trench-coat was smoking in a few places, her fedora was on fire, and she looked generally tattered. Spotting them, she charged over.

" _You have to stop her!_ "

"What?" Lisa gaped in horror as Saurial grabbed and shook her.

"You have to stop her! Before it's too late! I can't stay long, holding the temporal window open is dangerous. But remember. _Stop Vista!_ "

"Vista?"

Several people said the name at the same time.

"Vista! The cuteness! The horrible, horrible cuteness. It's everywhere!" The lizard girl moaned in horror, covering her face, as they stared. "We made a ghastly, terrible mistake teaching her Family math. She opened a pathway to..."

A roar came from the open void. Saurial flinched, whipping her head around. "Oh, _hell_. It's found me. Too late. I have to go _right now_. Remember, stop Vista before it's too late, or we're all _fucked!_ You have less than six months."

She looked at a complicated watch-like device on her arm, manipulating it as she ran back to the apparent portal, everyone turning to track her. "You're our only hope, Lisa. You'll need their help, so stick together, no matter what happens."

Everyone twitched violently as whatever she was about to say next was cut off by a huge scaly tentacle that shot out of the portal, wrapped around her several times, and yanked her back in. Moments later, with a weirdly humorous _pop!_ sound it vanished from existence, all the odd light and sound effects stopping at the same time.

There was dead silence for some time.

Kevin was on his feet, pointing at where the anomaly had been. Randall was gaping open-mouthed, staring alternately at that spot and Lisa, who in turn was looking incredibly confused and very worried. Amy was watching her as well, her brow furrowed in deep thought, half out of her chair with a bioceramic knife in her hand that she'd apparently instinctively formed by reflex.

After close to a minute, Lisa shut her open jaws with a snap of tooth enamel, then faintly asked, "Did anyone else see that?"

"Yes."

"I did. I wish I didn't, but I did."

"I saw _something_."

She nodded absently, still looking at the corner. "I was afraid of that."

The pause went on for a little longer.

"So, like I said, nothing out of the normal around here," Taylor finally said. "More coffee?" She hopped up and went over to the machine as everyone looked at each other, then slowly turned to stare at her.

"Oh, for god's sake, Taylor," Amy finally said in exasperated tones. "Was that you or him that had that idea?"

"What idea?" she said, looking over her shoulder with a raised eyebrow.

Amy pointed at the innocent corner with the knife, apparently only then noticing it. Reabsorbing it, she added, "That. Freaking us all out with a time-traveling Saurial with a warning from the future."

"That _was_ odd, wasn't it?" Taylor smiled. "Maybe we should talk to Vista again, just to be safe."

The Dallon girl folded her arms and glared. Lisa was now sitting with a hand over her face, muttering to herself. Kevin looked at his friend, then the two girls, then Taylor, who had turned back to the coffee machine. "Um..." He raised a hand. "Excuse me?"

"Yes, Kevin?" Taylor looked back at him with an innocent look.

"What just happened?"

"How do you mean?"

He waved that hand at the corner, then Lisa, mutely asking for clarification. She shrugged.

"Some weird sort of temporal incursion, maybe? Strange things happen sometimes. Do you want more coffee?"

"I do, this one is empty," a small voice said from next to him. Freezing, he slowly turned his head and looked down.

When he saw the six inch high version of Saurial that was leaning on a coffee-cup nearly as big as she was, he quite eloquently shouted " _Gaaah!_ " and leaped sideways, almost falling over. Randall pushed his chair back from the table so hard he ended up tipping it backwards, while both Amy and Lisa merely glanced at each other and sighed simultaneously.

"Sugar?" Taylor asked.

"Please." The mini-Saurial looked satisfied, then stared at the two young men, who were gaping at her from a safe distance. "What's wrong with them?"

"Not a clue. Boys, you know?"

"I think it's humans in general, they seem easily spooked." She turned into a tiny dragon and flew over to sit on Taylor's head, the brunette girl ignoring her as she kept making coffee.

Amy shook her head. "You are a complete menace," she growled.

Snickering, Taylor came back with a tray of steaming new cups of coffee, including one about the size of a thimble which she handed up to her passenger. "Just livening things up. I needed to show them some of my new tricks."

Randall, getting up from where he'd been kneeling on the floor, his eyes so wide it looked like it hurt, asked very slowly, "New tricks?"

"I learned some new things recently," she grinned. Then teleported to stand right next to him, holding out his new coffee, as he yelped and jumped two feet in the air. "Like this."

After a _long_ pause, he stepped closer and took it from her, still staring. Kevin was speechlessly watching from the table. Lisa was now shaking her head, grinning, and Amy was trying not to collapse in laughter.

"I… think... we may have missed a few things..." Randall looked _extremely_ confused. "Want to fill us in?"

"Sure!" She teleported back to the table and sat down, putting her feet up and crossing her legs at the ankle. The tiny dragon enlarged to the more common foot and a half or so, sitting on the table and smirking at them.

"It's a very good technique that my host invented, isn't it?" the Varga said in his normal voice, sounding extremely pleased with himself. "You'll enjoy the video we have as well."

Both of them sat again, Randall pulling his chair over, then exchanged a glance. "You sure about your idea, man?" Randall asked his friend. "It would mean being around these lunatics more often."

Kevin scratched his chin, beginning to grin. "I think it would be worth it," he chuckled. "So. Spill. What the _fuck_ have you been up to?"

The next couple of hours was very interesting to them.

And Amy was giggling under her breath for nearly ten minutes.

* * *

"Come in, Sergeant," Emily said as the man in question looked in through the door Hannah had opened when he knocked. Entering her office, he took a seat, saluting first.

"Report, please."

"My team successfully delivered the shipment to the DWU security department this morning on schedule," he began. "Mr Hebert signed for it after we checked the manifest. The equipment was offloaded into a purpose-built on-site armory constructed with the EDM material the Family use, which also had a very high security lock. I can see no way that any unauthorized personnel can gain access without the cooperation of the DWU administration. In my opinion the equipment is stored in a safe manner."

"Armory?" Emily asked sharply. "With weapons?"

"I… am not entirely certain, Ma'am," he replied. "Based on the size and shape of some of the crates there, which were covered up, they _might_ contain submachine guns, but I couldn't smell any normal gun lubricants or solvents. You know how most armories have a very distinctive smell?"

She nodded, knowing exactly what he meant.

"Nothing like that. Just light machine oil, I'd say. I wouldn't be prepared to swear to it but I don't think they have normal firearms in there. Their security chief also made a couple of comments during the day which suggested that Mr Hebert wasn't particularly interested in arming them, other than with non-lethal crowd control systems such as the foam projectors and the like. In my opinion he wasn't completely happy about this but respected it. I would also expect, as an ex-soldier, that he most likely has his own private weapon somewhere close to hand if circumstances demand it, but it would take a substantial threat to make him use it."

"I see. Do we have any information on his service history?" She glanced at Hannah, who slipped her a folder, which she looked through with interest. "Hmm. Yes, with this background, I expect he would. Special forces training… Urban warfare expert… Impressive."

"Several of the security team have similar backgrounds," Foxton noted. "They were quite open about it. The DWU is known for being fairly heavy on ex-military types, a lot of people with those backgrounds traditionally struggle to fit into civilian life. From what I know, the Union prizes the exact same qualities that make a good soldier, and they tend to fit in well. They also seem to end up ferociously loyal to the DWU on top of that, which would probably work out for both sides."

"You appear to know a lot about it, Sergeant," she said a little curiously.

He shrugged. "Friends of friends, Director. You hear things when people with our backgrounds get together in a bar or something like that. Even in the bad times, the Union was good to a lot of ex-service people who would have had a very poor life otherwise, especially these days. Word gets around. ' _The Union looks after its own_ ' is definitely a thing. A lot of people respect that."

"I see. Continue."

"Once the equipment was stored, I and my squad engaged in standard training exercises for twenty-three designated individuals. This took slightly over four hours. The performance of everyone involved was very good, several of them I would rate as excellent. They will train more people as needed. We left them with our excess inventory of foam and solvent that wasn't used during the training exercise for that purpose."

Emily nodded, making some notes, as he looked enquiringly at her. "That's fine, Sergeant, the stuff is cheap. It sounds like everything went well from that point of view. With any luck, should our absconder resurface there, they can handle things."

"I expect so, Ma'am," he said with a small smile. "Even without the input of the Family, their security people are _good_. Now that they know about Shadow Stalker, I doubt she'll be able to infiltrate for very long without attracting the sort of attention she wouldn't appreciate."

"All right. Thank you for the verbal report, I'll expect the full written one by tomorrow shift end."

"Of course, Ma'am. Mr Hebert wanted me to express his gratitude for the quick response, the generous amount of equipment, and the training. He seemed pleased."

"Also good. We need him and his people in a cooperative mood," she sighed. "Thank you. I'll have to call him at some point to keep him updated on our own progress. Not that there is much of it yet." Reaching out, she pressed a key on her keyboard, causing the screen on the wall of her office to switch from the PRT logo background to a high-resolution image of the DWU mech. "Now. What can you tell me about _that_." She waved at the screen.

He looked at it for a moment. "Only what I heard and observed, Director. I'll do a separate report on it, obviously, pulling in the data and observations of my team."

"Understood. Just a verbal impression for now, though."

"Yes, Ma'am. Well, the machine is approximately seven and a half tons in weight, standing roughly twelve feet tall when active on two legs, and about nine feet on four legs. The outer hull is entirely made of EDM, while the cockpit canopy is a giant single crystal of perfect sapphire with a mesh of EDM on both sides. Vectura was quite open to answering most questions on it," he said, forestalling her own question. "I am unsure of the power source, it's some Tinker design she wasn't talking about, but whatever it is would seem to be very high output, clean, and silent. It's apparently driven by very advanced linear electric motors throughout, which give it a remarkably high speed. She quoted ' _in excess of sixty miles an hour_ ' when running, but we witnessed Saurial drive it on four legs to what was easily twice that and it was still accelerating when she had to stop before hitting the boundary fence."

Hannah and Emily exchanged a glance. "That's… more than a little impressive."

"It's extraordinary, Director. I have seen a number of attempts at this sort of mech before, from a number of Tinkers, and DARPA for that matter, but nothing even remotely this effective." He shrugged a little. "The thing is intuitive to control, amazingly quick and stable, and the motion control system is practically alive. It was definitely some sort of adaptive computer, the machine got visibly more stable and fluid in its actions as time went on. It was learning from the people piloting it as much as they were from it."

"Christ." Emily looked back at the image. "They're making war mechs now?"

"Not at all, Ma'am," he said, shaking his head. "That's a construction machine."

There was a pause. "What?" she asked in flat tones.

"That's what Vectura designed it for. Construction, demolitions work, that sort of thing. They're planning on making a quantity of them for aiding the city's renewal project, and were discussing leasing them to other organizations. Hence the warning lights on it, and the safety orange stripes. OSHA regulations, Mr Hebert said." He grinned at her expression. "I know, it sounds insane, but they really are making giant walking mechs to use in place of forklifts and excavators. Vectura had some quite sensible arguments about how for a lot of what they do that thing was a more useful alternative. And a lot safer, the occupant is _very_ unlikely to come to harm from an industrial accident. They seem quite concerned about that eventuality."

Hannah asked, "In your opinion, _could_ it be used as a weapon?"

"Oh, definitely, Miss Militia," he nodded. "Almost anything could, of course, but that machine would certainly make a very effective urban assault vehicle. However, I honestly don't think, after talking to both Vectura and a number of the DWU people, that they're thinking along those lines at all. True, it's technically armed, in a sense. Both arms can deploy EDM cutting blades which will slice through almost anything, and the tail has some sort of plasma lance in it which is terrifyingly effective, but they're very short range. Ideal for cutting up a ship, not so good at shooting down an aircraft, as an example. I have no doubt that they _could_ weaponize the machine but I don't believe they have either the intention or desire to do so."

Emily stared at him, then the image, for several seconds. Eventually she sighed. "This city is… Anything else about it that you can tell us?"

"It's capable of extended deep underwater operation, and Vectura mentioned adding a flight mode at some point." He quickly hid a slight expression of amusement at the expressions of his superiors, not being an idiot. Even so, Emily caught the flicker of his lips and glared a little.

"Of _course_ she did. What would a giant mech be without the ability to fly?" she grumbled.

"Did you have a chance to operate it, Sergeant?" Hannah asked curiously.

"I did, yes. I was more than impressed. Vectura said she was working on a better control system, this one only being a prototype, but it's already as I said far better than anything I've ever even heard of before. My squad agreed. Several of them were saying that we should discuss leasing some of the machines ourselves."

"All right." Emily shook her head in mixed wonder and despair at the weirdness of the city these days. "Thank you, Sergeant Foxton. Please ensure that you fill in a standard Tinker encounter report as well, and get your men to do likewise."

"Yes, Director," he replied, standing.

"Dismissed."

"Ma'am." He saluted them both, then about-faced and left. When the door was shut, Emily leaned back in her chair and scrubbed her face with her hands.

"Is it me or is the DWU getting more peculiar by the day?" she asked plaintively. "Alien reptiles, Tinkers making walking mechs that actually _work_ , to cut up _ships_ of all things, a security team that's mostly made up of highly trained ex-soldiers, and god knows what else. How did we get here?"

"The security team predates the Family," Hannah replied, "but I think everything else is, one way or the other, due to them. They do seem to have an odd effect on people."

"Tell me about it," Emily sighed. "I give up. I'm just not going to be surprised any more by _anything_ they do. It's getting monotonous." Closing the notebook, she stood up. "I'm going to get something to eat. This has been a _very_ long day."

"Can't argue with that," the other woman smiled. "Mind if I join you?"

"Help yourself," she replied, locking her computer and heading for the door. "I wish we had beer in the cafeteria, I could do with one about now..."

* * *

Knocking on the door to the BBFO office, Danny waited for a moment. It was shortly opened by Amy, who was grinning to herself, and quite a lot of laughter was coming from further in. "Hi, Danny, come in," she said, stepping aside. He did so, hearing the door close and lock behind him. Über and Leet were adjusting their balaclavas, making it obvious that they'd only just pulled them on, which told him that they had unmasked to the girls. He wasn't surprised by this now.

All of them were gathered around one of the huge monitors, which was playing what he recognized as the tail end of the Coil takedown, video shot by both Taylor and her demon's head cameras. Both young men seemed impressed, a little envious, and slightly worried by it.

"That was incredible," Leet finally said when the recording stopped. "You two are crazy effective. You could have taken that entire place single-handed in minutes, couldn't you?"

"Oh, sure, we could simply have grabbed Calvert and teleported right out before anyone knew what was going on," Taylor, who was in her base form lying back in a chair with a bowl of popcorn in her lap and the Varga in dragonlet form on her shoulder, smiled. "But that would tell the PRT way too much about what we can do. We don't want them to know some of it for some time, and some of it at all. You know as well as I do that they'd probably overreact."

They nodded soberly as Danny walked over and put his hands on the back of her chair. She looked up at him with an upside-down grin. "Hi, dad. What do you think of Linda's little toy?"

"I think it's absolutely amazing and proof she is very talented, dear," he replied. "Everyone else thinks the same. I'll bet those PRT guys gave Director Piggot a very strange report, too."

She snickered, nodding, then ate some more popcorn. "Probably. It wasn't what we were planning on, but it should work out OK. They'll have some idea of what to expect."

"Don't forget that I'll be away Wednesday and Thursday, and possibly Friday as well," he remarked. "I can call her to arrange an appointment for power testing for our new Tinker tomorrow, though. I'd guess that they'll want to go ahead fairly soon, so it might be while I'm down in New York, but considering the whole Coil thing, they may put it off. They're going to be very busy dealing with everything that came out of it."

"They'll want to talk to us sooner than that," Lisa said with assurance in her voice. "Call them tomorrow, and I think we'll be in the PRT testing facility by Thursday morning at the latest." She poked the keyboard of the computer next to her ' _Metis_ ' body with a couple of claws, then indicated the screen. "There's already video of the mech up on PHO."

"There were an awful lot of people recording the tests," Amy noted. "And no one said not to mention it."

"Actually, this video is from one of the PRT troopers, I think," Lisa replied, watching it play with her head cocked to the side. "I haven't seen anything from a DWU employee yet, aside from a couple of people pointing out that it's not a weapons system, it's a construction one." She grinned for a moment. "You wouldn't believe some of the comments."

"I suspect I would," Danny sighed. "PHO is a strange place full of stranger people."

"That it is," she laughed. "Fun, though."

"If they want Linda to go in for testing on Thursday morning, that means Amy and Taylor won't be available to go with her, and I'd rather not have her go on her own. Will you go?"

"Of course, I was planning on it. I'm the reason the woman is here in the first place, I'm not going to abandon her now," Lisa assured him. "She's a friend."

"But not yet a member of your little club of reformed villains," he remarked, looking meaningfully at Über, then Leet. The former gave him a thumb's up, while the latter simply chuckled.

"Not all the way, _yet_ ," Taylor said. "Probably only a matter of time."

"Quite." He shook his head a little. "Are you planning on collecting them all?"

"It's a thought," she giggled. "Probably not, though."

"Actually, while we're on that subject, Danny," Über said after a glance at his partner in crime, "could we have a word?"

Danny looked at them curiously, then Taylor, who shrugged. Lisa was studying the pair with interest, as was Amy. "OK," he replied slowly. "Am I going to need to sit down?" Both of them shrugged.

Hooking a spare chair with the end of her tail from where she was sitting in another one, Amy flicked it towards him, then looked pleased with herself. He caught it, smiling a little, and sat. "All right. Talk to me."

"We've… been thinking about things," Über said, sounding a little nervous. "Our hobbies, lifestyle, that sort of thing. And what we want to do with life."

"It's possible that we need a change of direction," Leet added. "We like the game themes, and the pranks, but we've become aware that we got carried away a few times. Luckily not so far that we can't walk it back, but..." He shrugged with a sigh. "It would be easy to screw things up. The PRT and the Protectorate don't take us seriously, which helps, and we've been very careful to keep it like that."

"But with the way things are going around here recently," his friend continued, "we decided that we should try to be more… socially responsible, maybe?"

"Legend himself suggested that we could always try not committing crimes," Leet chuckled. "And believe it or not, I respect the man. A lot. He seemed perfectly happy to work with us, as did Armsmaster and Dragon, but I think he'd be happier if we were on the same side. Or at least not opposite sides. And looking at what Taylor and her friends here are doing, how well things are working for the DWU, the city, and the Family, and now with Linda too..."

Über took a deep breath. "What we're sort of talking around is… Would the DWU be open to another Tinker and a professional jack of all trades?"

There was a long silence. Danny rubbed his forehead for a few seconds. "Oh, for god's sake," he mumbled, looking hard at his daughter, who was definitely smirking now. "This is all your fault. Both of you."

She shrugged, grinning.

"We do seem to have an entertaining effect on the locals, Danny," the Varga said with satisfaction. "Personally I feel it's an excellent thought."

"You would," Danny sighed. Turning back to the two apparently now ex-villains, he studied them closely. "Let me get this right. You two want to become productive members of society, and you feel the best way to do this is by joining the DWU?"

They nodded.

"And you're planning on stopping any crimes as a direct result of that?"

They nodded again.

"And you expect me to believe you?"

The nod this time was more tentative. "We hoped you would, definitely," Über said. "I mean, I know we've caused some problems around the city before, but we've also helped out quite a lot. Here, even. You didn't have any issues with our work against those Merchants, right?"

"No, that was actually very well done," Danny admitted. "And as long as I've known you two, you've at least been respectful and polite. That says a lot. Not to mention you didn't tell anyone about Taylor's tail that time." He looked at them for a while longer, then glanced at the three girls and one demon. "Thoughts?"

"I've got no problems with it," Taylor said immediately. "I like these guys, they're talented, smart, and fun as well. I think of them as friends already. If they want to make it official, why not? The Family could do with some new members."

"Oh, god." Her father sighed heavily while Amy and Lisa both laughed. "Lovecraft, what hast thou wrought?"

"It's not that bad, Dad. There probably won't be all that many tentacles." She turned her left arm into one as she spoke, stretching it past Amy to retrieve a can of Coke, which she opened and sipped. Everyone stared for a moment, then as one decided not to comment on it. The Varga was now sniggering under his breath.

"Riiight. OK. Lisa? Amy?"

"They know some useful stuff, Leet has some amazing inventions which Dragon is really interested in, Über can learn to do damn near anything to grand-master level, which is bound to come in handy, and the DWU is hiring at the moment anyway," Lisa replied. "Why not these two? At least we know them fairly well, unlike some random job applicant. And they're not going to screw us over, that much I'm certain of. For a whole stack of reasons."

"Honest to god, no matter what, we'd never cause any of you any trouble," Leet hastily said, raising his hands defensively. "And not only because she could eat us without even trying," he added, pointing at Taylor, who grinned at him with a mouthful of glinting teeth two inches long. "Please stop doing that..." he added in a faint, disturbed voice.

"I'm in favor as well, Danny," Amy said, looking amused as Taylor closed her mouth again, which made both of them relax quite a lot. "They've been helping us out with some experiments recently, and I wouldn't have roped them into it if I didn't think they could be trusted."

"Ah, yes, your mysterious experiments and discussions," Danny remarked. "At some point I'd really like to learn what that's all about."

"Sorry, Dad, I haven't deliberately kept you in the dark," Taylor apologized, "it's just that there are so many things going on at the moment I haven't had time to fill you in on all of it."

"It's not a problem, Taylor," he assured her. "I'm just curious."

"I'll make time to talk about it tomorrow night," she promised.

"That would be fine. Right, then..." He looked at the two young men. "All right. Fine. You can join the insanity ward if you really want to." He pointed at Über, then Leet. "But remember what I told you both a while back. I'm still serious about that."

"Yes, sir," Über said, nodding quickly, his friend doing the same. "We remember. We'll be good."

"See that you are. Or at least, don't get caught. And _don't_ drag the DWU into anything that will reflect badly on it."

"We won't." Über reached up and yanked his balaclava off, Leet following suite moments later. "Randall Martins. Nice to meet you, Boss."

"Kevin Sherrill," the other man added, as Danny sighed a little, but shook both offered hands. "Boss."

"Oh, god. I'm going to regret this, aren't I?"

"No, of course not, Dad," Taylor grinned, clapping her hands in glee. "What could possibly go wrong? Now all we need is another building, we can fix that up like we did Linda's place, get all their stuff over here..."

The ex-villains smiled at each other as Danny rubbed his eyes. "Good lord, it's worse than I could have ever thought it would be," he muttered. "What's next? Nilbog?"

"I hate that prick," Amy commented with a scowl. "If he comes around, I'll get into Ianthe and eat him. Why should Taylor be the only one who can threaten that?"

"Please don't eat villains, Amy," Danny moaned. "Your mother would never let me hear the end of it. She's probably already going to make inquiries as to why you haven't been home for two days."

The Dallon girl looked at her watch, then paled. "Oh, shit. I should probably go. It's already nine, and Mom is going to want to talk about all this PRT stuff aside from anything else. I'm surprised she hasn't called me already."

She hopped out of her chair and began collecting a few things. "I'll see you tomorrow at school, Taylor."

"OK. Say hi to Vicky for me."

"I will." Moments later the girl was gone, the door closing behind her. The remaining people looked after her, before going back to the discussion.

"We'll need to get your civilian IDs set up with DWU cards, employment records, and that sort of thing. We can work out what you'll do here later. Randall, from what I know about you, you'd excel practically anywhere, but Kevin might be more of a problem."

"I'm pretty good at electrical work aside from the Tinkering," the man in question pointed out. "Although I'm not professionally qualified in that. I'm a fair machinist as well."

"OK. We can point you at the relevant departments, the guys there can assess you and figure out where you'd fit in. Based on that we can work out a salary. Lisa's right, we do need more people regardless. A building… There's one two doors down from Linda that would probably do the trick. It's a little larger and the roof is sort of falling in, but Taylor and her friend there can fix that easily enough." Danny looked at his daughter, who nodded.

"Speaking of which, as soon as we have time, I'd like to assess all the buildings on site and work out what needs to be done to bring them up to code. You two will make that a lot easier than it would have been. We may as well clear out all the scrap we can while the train's here, we have enough rail cars. It'll be going out next week."

"Sure, that's not a problem at all," she replied, smiling. "We can do that no trouble. A couple of weekend's worth of work will get most of the places around here fixed up, at least as far as the structure goes. It won't cause anyone any loss of work, will it?"

He patted her shoulder. "It's very good of you to think of people like that, Taylor, but trust me, no one minds you, any of you, helping out. In the long term it adds a lot of work and everyone realizes that. Don't worry about it."

She nodded, looking pleased. Danny turned back to the two men. "We'll leave it there until tomorrow. It's been a long day and I'd like to get home reasonably early for once. I'll tell Mark and Zephron about it, and Lisa will see to the records being updated. Come see me tomorrow morning and we'll get the paperwork sorted out, look at that building, and figure out what the next step is." He stood up, stretching a little, then looked around. "What's in the case?" he asked curiously, spotting the flight case on the floor next to the main table.

"Oh, right, we didn't show you that yet," Kevin exclaimed, also getting up. He went over to the case, picked it up, and put it on the table, before unsnapping the latches around the edge. Opening it, he smiled down at his creation as everyone else gathered around. "Cool, right?"

"Holy crap," Danny said, gazing at the enormous energy gun. "What the hell is _that?_ "

"Something I made a while back, nearly blew both of us up with, and only recently fixed," he replied, lifting the weapon out carefully. "It's loosely based on the BFG10K from the Quake games, but it's got a lot of other influences as well, and loads of things I thought of at the time too." Flicking the power switch, he listened to the faint whine. Danny took a step back, although none of the others moved. Taylor was inspecting the thing with great interest, the Varga, sitting on her head, leaning over to do the same. "It's way too dangerous to use in any of our pranks, so it's probably a good thing it sort of broke. We might have been tempted to use it anyway and that would have been… not good."

"It's sort of what led to our decision," Randall put in.

"This and a few other things. I don't really know what I want to do with it, but it's way too good to break up for parts, and way too dangerous to let anyone else know about right now. Especially if it was just him and me. Someone might try to steal it if they knew how powerful it was," Kevin said, turning the gun off again. "We get ignored because most of my stuff breaks pretty quickly, but if anyone really realized just what some of it did… This thing, the wormhole generator, the power armor..." He shivered a little. "I have no wish to get raided either by the Protectorate _or_ the E88. Or someone worse."

Danny studied him, seeing that the young man was genuinely worried about the weapon, at the same time he was proud he'd managed to repair it. He wondered how that had come about and surmised it was something to do with Amy's experiments, which had _all sorts_ of interesting implications.

"What do you intend to do with it?" he asked.

"Find somewhere a long way away to test it, then lock it up somewhere safe," Kevin replied. "Here, probably. No one sane is going to try breaking into the Family office, and anyone nuts enough to try couldn't do it anyway. Not with a quarter of an inch of EDM surrounding the place."

"You're welcome to lock it up in Amy's workroom," Taylor nodded. "We can find somewhere on the other side of the WCC to blow holes in things, that's no problem. But not tonight. I still need to go home and fix a few things there." She looked at Danny. "Like reinforcing the walls with EDM, stuff like that. Just in case."

Kevin looked at her, then Randall. "That sounds… Ominous."

"It's the last part of yesterday," Lisa sighed. "We haven't mentioned that yet, but if you're joining the club as Danny puts it you should probably know about it. It might affect you too."

"I'll leave you to it, then," Danny said. "I need to go and do a few things before going home. I'll see you later, Taylor."

"OK, Dad," she smiled, hugging him. With a last glance at the two newest members of the DWU, he shook his head and left, wondering who would be next. So far his daughter had somehow reformed seven former villains, apparently without even trying very hard.

Where would it end?

* * *

"Here you go," Amy said as she sat at the table, her mother opening her mouth with an expression that showed a mildly caustic comment, probably on being late for dinner, was about to come out. She handed her an envelope, then did the same to Vicky and her father.

Carol snapped her mouth shut, took the envelope, and opened it. Pulling out a check she inspected it, the expression turning into a tiny smile.

"Wow!" Vicky said enthusiastically. "I've never had so much money before. We need to do this again, Mom."

"We'll see, Vicky."

"Sorry I'm late. I had a lot of things to talk to Saurial and Raptaur about, and Danny too. Then we got distracted by the thing that Vectura made."

"Vectura?" Carol looked at her. "Thing?"

Amy pulled out her phone, found the relevant recording, and handed it over to her mother. Vicky got up and leaned over her shoulder to see the screen.

After thirty seconds, both of them stared at her. "Um…," Vicky began. "What… is _that?_ "

"A really cool toy," Amy laughed, retrieving her dinner from the oven and putting it on the table, then sitting down again to eat. "Vectura is amazingly good."

Showing her phone to Mark, Carol raised an eyebrow. "Could you explain, please?"

She began the story, pleased that she'd headed off what might have been a minor issue, and relieved too. That was happening more and more these days and made her think that her mother really was changing for the better.

* * *

Dropping into bed with a sigh, Taylor closed her eyes and relaxed. She and the Varga had spend three hours interleaving EDM throughout the structure of the house, on all exterior walls, the roof, and the foundations. In the process they'd repaired a number of small problems that her father had intended to fix for years and never quite gotten to, although they'd left the exterior looking the same. Even the windows were now duplicates using the same single-crystal synthetic sapphire with ultra-fine bonded EDM mesh that she was making a lot of use of in helmets and Linda's mech cockpit. Very little was going to get through them, although they were the weak point in the whole thing.

Neither she nor the demon were entirely certain it would stop Sophia's powers, but they thought that at a minimum it would drastically interfere with them. Normal weapons didn't stand a chance. So it seemed likely that there was now a good first line of defense in the obvious place for the girl to attack.

' _We should have done this weeks ago_ ,' she thought to the Varga.

" _Agreed, although we didn't have any real reason to so do until recently other than general paranoia,_ " he replied quietly. " _And you can get far too carried away with that. Amy has managed to add significant protection to your father, Lisa, and several other people, while we have done what we can to divert attention from Danny. It's unfortunate that Sophia has made herself such a nuisance, for whatever reason she has come up with. Regardless, we're taking all the precautions we can, the PRT is doing the same, and if the girl is foolish enough to reappear we will deal with her._ "

Taylor nodded a little, reassured by her best friend's words. ' _We will_.'

" _I was amused by Kevin and Randall's sudden request,_ " he added, sounding it. " _Although not as surprised as I might have been. Their reasons for it are sound._ "

' _They certainly liked Linda's mech_ ,' she giggled. ' _Their eyes! I've never seen people look so… so…_ '

" _So much like they'll do anything you ask to be allowed to play with your toys?_ " he asked slyly.

' _Yes. That. It was amazing!_ '

The pair had, before they'd left, gone with ' _Saurial_ ' and ' _Metis_ ' to talk to Linda. She'd finally finished letting everyone who wanted to try the machine about an hour before Amy left, and was back in her workshop studying the diagnostic logs from the thing. She and Kevin had spent nearly an hour and a half discussing the intricacies of the mech's systems, while Randall played with it, then the Tinker had also had some time in the cockpit. Both of them were extremely impressed and had been suggesting improvements the entire time, which Linda had noted down, looking interested.

Eventually, at around midnight, they'd all gone their separate ways. Kevin had given her the cased energy gun, which she'd carefully locked up under the workbench in Amy's room, then she'd teleported home in three jumps. Her range was still slowly but steadily increasing, which pleased both of them. Her father had been asleep by then so she'd cloaked to avoid disturbing him, then both of them had got to work.

' _It's been a long day, and a slightly weird one, but pretty good_ ,' she smiled sleepily.

" _It has, Brain. I find myself looking forward to seeing what happens next,_ " he said. " _Good night, Taylor._ "

' _Good night, Varga_.' Rolling over, she fell asleep.


	315. Omake - Minor Miscalculation (J&W)

"Damn and blast!"

"Sir?" I queried respectfully, putting the tray down on a nearby workbench and regarding his lordship with the utmost calm. It is a manservant's duty to be as imperturbable as possible at all times, lest an unseemly emotional outburst reflect badly on one's employer as well as oneself. I like to fancy that I am most effective at this.

"Not you, Jeeves, old boy, not you. It's this infernal contraption here." Lord Weston was a solidly-built man in his late fifties, fairly short and stout yet of a certain vigor that bespoke a life spent engaging a number of physical activities slightly unusual among his peers. He kicked irritably at a large contraption that had a number of impressive coils of wire sticking out at various points. It resonated with the impact, a fat spark crackling from the terminus of one of the coils, which ended in a polished brass ball two inches across.

Both of us stepped back slightly. One must keep a stiff upper lip, of course, but there are limits.

His lordship, of the Worcestershire Westons, was something of a tinkerer, and spent at least as much time in his workshop as he did in the more refined settings his position in society would normally suggest. Considered ' _mildly eccentric_ ' by his peers and ' _barking mad_ ' by his detractors, Lord Weston had told me on more than one occasion that he thought of himself as a forward looking investigator of the sciences.

His recent correspondence with a Hungarian inventor of some renown in the scientific world, one Nicola Tesla, had, after a considerable number of letters back and forth and the promise of funding for a new project, resulted in a parcel full of notes and diagrams. The machine that his lordship had spent close to six months building at great expense was the result.

Unfortunately, he didn't appear satisfied with the outcome of his project. Or, rather, the complete lack of it. Aside from half a dozen deceased sheep that had wandered a little too close from the adjoining field next to the old barn on the estate where the peer of the realm had been experimenting during one particularly spectacular failure, very little of note had happened.

They had been quite delicious once properly cooked, true, but it was small recompense for the significant expense of the project. And it must be noted that the tenant farmer whose animals they were was quite put out by their abrupt and unexpected, not to mention deafening, cessation. A certain sum of money exchanged hands to settle the disagreement, and the remaining sheep were moved to a more distant field.

Needless to say, this story was passed on in the village and embellished with the telling, which hardly helped his lordship's reputation. Although, it must be said, there was a notable drop in the rash of minor thefts that had been occurring with regrettable regularity in the locality. Apparently the miscreants were beginning to believe they should seek their fortunes further afield, out of range of unusual bolts of artificial lightning with a demonstrated propensity for causing injury.

"Tea, sir?" I inquired once it was clear that his lordship had fallen into a moment of reflective pondering. I have often found that the drink aids the intellect when facing a stubborn problem and it was my hope that it would so help my employer. I had only been with him for just under a year at this point, but I must confess to having become quite fond of him.

"Thank you, Jeeves," he remarked, not diverting his attention from the recalcitrant machinery. I poured him a cup, adding the correct amount of sugar and milk in the process, then gave it to him on a saucer. Taking it with a murmur of thanks, he sipped absently, still regarding the equipment in the middle of the barn.

"It's damned annoying, you know, Jeeves," he said after a moment, gesturing with the hand that held the teacup and very nearly spilling some. I prepared my handkerchief should it be required to dry his sleeve. Such a thing was not unknown, I must confess. "I have followed old Nicola's instructions precisely, with only the slightest of modifications where required due to the absence of certain materials. My substitutions are certainly within the limits of his specifications. The electrical generator itself is working perfectly..."

He glanced at the complex machine in the corner, harnessed to an ancient steam engine that had been repurposed from originally pumping water into the duck pond some two generations ago. It was chuffing away magnificently, puffs of steam emitted from the gleaming valves as they busily shuttled back and forth.

"...I think," he added after a moment's thought, completing the statement. Walking over to the generator device he experimentally prodded one of the large brass terminals that a thick rubber-covered cable was attached to, which resulted in a popping sound, a small spark, and a considerable amount of colorful language from him.

"Damn and blast!" he shouted when he'd stopped waving his singed finger in the air. "And I spilled my tea!"

"Most regrettable, your lordship," I noted, expressing a suitable amount of remorse. Levity would not be appreciated at this juncture, I felt sure, although his lordship normally had a lively sense of humor. "Does sir desire a fresh cup?"

"Thank you, Jeeves, that would be excellent," he replied, calming down quite rapidly. His lordship seldom stayed aggrieved, although the continued failure of his efforts were certainly eroding his normal puckish good nature.

I poured him another cup, having taken the precaution of bringing several sets of crockery with me. This was not an unexpected outcome, unfortunately being fairly commonplace. I also handed him my handkerchief so he might dry his hands, which he did.

"As I was saying, the generator is _definitely_ working..." he stated, taking it and giving the aforementioned machine a baleful glare, which it entirely failed to notice. "The cabling is all connected properly, the internal wiring is correct, and I was most careful to wind the coils correctly. Admittedly I did scale everything up by four times, there's no need to make some silly little thing when one has all this space available, but that shouldn't cause any issues. Just give it four times the voltage and there you go!"

"I hesitate to contradict his lordship, but if I may inquire, are you entirely certain the relationship between scale and the required voltage is linear?" It was not my field, I have only a smattering of knowledge of the scientific arts, but I am quite adequate at basic mathematics. One has to be when one is in a position such as mine.

My employer stopped the motion of his hand, the cup hovering between saucer and mouth, as he stared at the machinery. His expression slowly changed from troubled to enlightened, then he turned to me. "Jeeves!"

"Sir?"

"An excellent thought, my good man! How could I have missed it? Non linear response! You are most likely on the right track. I've been foolish, I should have thought of that. Must be getting old, I think."

"Nonsense, my lord, you are scarcely fifty years old and in the peak of health. I am sure you would have arrived at the same conclusion momentarily." It is very important to ensure that one's employer never feels threatened by one's own intellect, you understand. And truthfully, my employer was both in robust health and of a very keen mind, he undoubtedly _would_ have considered such an eventuality in due time. I merely managed to apply a fresh eye to the problem and was fortunate enough to come up with a possible issue.

"Good of you to say so, Jeeves," he enthused, finishing his tea and handing the cup and saucer back to me. "Good of you to say so. But I still missed the obvious. Thank you, my good man, thank you very much. I will have to rewind the transformer, change the gearing on the generator, possibly increase the boiler pressure to compensate..." He trailed off into a fugue of scientific musings, falling silent and staring into space.

After a few seconds I cleared my throat politely. "Will that be all, sir?"

"Hmm? What? Oh, yes, thank you, Jeeves. Please let Matilda know I may be late to the dinner table."

"As you wish, sir." I performed the appropriate minor obeisance, retrieved the tray and the broken cup and saucer, and left his presence. As I did so he was approaching the generator with a spanner in one hand and the light of invention in his eye. I hoped he had the forethought to stop it before he…

"Damn and blast!"

Unable to help it, I shook my head. My employer was… occasionally just the slightest amount over-enthusiastic. Returning to the main house I resumed my duties there, wondering if he would succeed in making his machine perform correctly.

* * *

The very unusual sound that flooded over Weston Manor early on Tuesday two weeks later made everyone give a start and look around. It wasn't precisely an explosion, having a longevity to it which went on for some seconds, but it shared some characteristics with one. There was also a considerable amount of very oddly colored light, all of it coming from the direction of his lordship's workshop.

"Oh, dear," the lady Matilda exclaimed, nearly dropping her monocle. "What ever do you suppose that was, Jeeves?"

I finished serving her a portion of smoked herring on toast, then proceeded to the nearest window facing in that direction and peered out. In the distance I could see a strangely virulent green light flickering over the low hill between the manor and the workshop in the barn. "I fancy that his lordship may have succeeded in his efforts, your ladyship," I replied. As a distant figure topped the hill and rapidly headed in our direction, I added, "Possibly too well, I fear. He is coming towards us apace. I will meet him at the front door and provide what aid I can."

"Thank you, Jeeves," she said, smiling a little. "On your way, could you perhaps pass the quail's eggs?"

"Of course, your ladyship," I said, performing the requested task. Shortly I was standing outside the main entrance to the manor, awaiting his lordship, who seemed unduly hurried today. He also appeared to be lightly smoking in the general area of his back and sleeves.

"May I take your jacket, sir?" I asked as he reached me. "It appears to be smoldering."

"Thank you, Jeeves," he puffed. "My word, that was a stiff walk. I haven't covered that much ground in such a hurry since the time I had that minor incident with the rhino in Rhodesia ten years gone. Blasted animal was much more resilient than I expected, nearly ran me down. Took three more shots to finish the blighter off."

"I recall your lordship recounting the tale," I replied, relieving him of his burning outerwear and placing it in the water trough outside the door, a relic of the days when horses were brought right to the main house. "I fear this jacket is a complete loss, sir."

"Never mind, old boy, plenty of them in the closet."

"As you say, sir."

In the distance, the crackling sound that had been just above the threshold of hearing intensified somewhat, causing us both to look in that direction. The pellucid glow had strengthened, adding a certain amount of faint purple sparks to the display. It was oddly pretty, I must admit, but I was also somewhat concerned it presaged some event of unusual proportions.

"If I may ask, sir, what is that?"

"Ah. Funny story, actually. I may have _slightly_ overestimated the required voltage for the rewound machinery. When I passed eighty-eight percent on the main dial, it seemed to become a little more enthusiastic than I was expecting. Hopefully once the fuel to the boiler runs out it will stop."

"I see, sir." Removing the now-extinguished jacket, I carefully draped it over a nearby stone lion, intending to arrange to have the maid dispose of it. "While we wait, breakfast is served."

"Capital, Jeeves!" he exclaimed, smiling widely. His mustache quivered with anticipation. "I do hope we have quail's eggs. I adore quail's eggs."

"We do indeed, sir."

"Excellent. Lead the way, my good fellow."

"As you wish, sir." With a slight bow I did as requested.

* * *

Half an hour later there was a much more traditional explosion, which echoed across the grounds. His lordship paused in his repast, listening carefully. "That would be the boiler exploding, I expect," he sighed. "How annoying. I will have some difficulty arranging for a new one, that poor steam engine is an antique. Been in the family for eighty years, you know."

"So you informed me, sir," I nodded.

"Pity. Oh well, I expect the show will soon be over."

Unfortunately, some twenty minutes passed with the lights and odd sounds not diminishing, but visibly and audibly growing in intensity. This puzzled my employer considerably.

"Very strange," he commented, putting his teacup down and pushing the saucer to the side as he rose, then paced over to the window to examine the hill beyond which eldritch occurrences were ongoing. "In the absence of a source of power I would have expected it to have stopped by now."

"Perhaps we should investigate, sir. There could be some risk of untoward effects on the house."

"Capital idea, Jeeves. We must proceed at once."

"I will fetch sir's replacement jacket."

"Thank you, Jeeves."

Shortly we were both standing on top of the hill, on the gravel pathway that led down to the old barn which contained the machinery that was providing such a strange performance. I must confess that I was openly staring, although I hope without the slack-jawed look so often seen in people experiencing the out of the ordinary. His lordship, beside me, was doing likewise, and intermittently mumbling under his breath. After some minutes he pulled a small notebook out of his breast pocket and opened it, inspecting the calculations therein.

"In my admittedly uneducated opinion, sir, it would seem to be increasing in activity, rather than decreasing," I noted. It was somewhat concerning, to be frank. There was what could be described as a bubble of lambent energy surrounding the location the barn had been. I say, had been, due to the fact that there was no sign of the building itself. The sight was quite odd.

"Yes, I can see that, Jeeves," he mumbled, retrieving a pencil stub from behind his ear and scratching out one or two numerals, then writing in new ones. Working a complex calculation, he wrote down the final figure, inspected it, then paled slightly. "Oh dear."

"Sir?"

"I… may have made a slight error."

"May one inquire as to what that would entail?"

"You were correct about the non-linear response to voltage with respect to scale. I worked it out to be a square law relationship." He paused, then underlined the figure. "Unfortunately, I missed the minor detail that the _output_ of the machine is operating on a _cube_ law relationship." Looking back at the bubble of light, which appeared to have grown, several yards of ground having disappeared into it, he looked somewhat worried. "I fear that the feedback will keep it going even in the absence of external power sources. That's awkward."

"Certainly an undesired state of affairs, sir," I responded. "Do we have a method of turning it off?"

"Not that I can see at the moment, Jeeves," he stated with a grimace. "Damn and blast. Matilda is going to be furious. It will be eating her flower garden in an hour or so at this rate. I'll never hear the end of it."

"Perhaps we should retire to the house and allow you to consult your references over a brandy, sir," I suggested.

"Excellent thought, Jeeves. A little golden nectar will definitely aid the old brain cells. Let us repair to the study and contemplate the best method to save my wife's roses."

"As you say, sir." We proceed to do just that.

* * *

Of course, it wasn't quite as simple as that. His lordship paced the study, pausing every now and then to fetch another learned treatise from his extensive collection, and making notes on the large chalkboard that graced on end of his private study. During this time, the anomaly in the rear gardens steadily increased in size, after an hour and a half consuming the decorative rose garden that her ladyship had spent ten years designing and planting. Needless to say, she was quite miffed, and made her feelings known at length.

Two hours later, the bubble of glowing light was visible over the hill, largely because it had enveloped it entirely. It was coming unnervingly close to the outbuildings and I was pondering the wisdom of suggesting to his lordship that we retire to a somewhat greater distance. One doesn't like to be the bearer of bad news, of course, but needs must.

My employer was still solving fearsomely complex mathematical conundrums on his chalk board, surrounded by technical manuscripts, the notes he'd received from Mr Tesla, and his own documentation. While he was doing this he was muttering under his breath almost constantly, apparently without noticing.

"Damnation," he finally shouted, throwing his chalk at the board where it shattered. "I can see no way to turn it off that doesn't involve entering it. Which is clearly undesirable, not to say impossible. This is going to be very embarrassing."

"I suspect that you may be correct, sir." I looked out the window to gauge the progression of the nearest edge of the light. "There appears to be a steady albeit slow increase in speed, I notice."

As he opened his mouth to reply, the door bell tinkled. "Pardon me, sir, I will attempt to ascertain who is calling."

He waved a hand at me, nodding. "Thank you, Jeeves." Returning to his chalk board and calculations, he produced a fresh stick of chalk and began writing a new set of figures on the board. I headed towards the front door, intercepting the downstairs maid who had been going to perform the same task.

"Return to your duties, Mary, I will answer the door," I said politely.

"Thank you, Mr Jeeves," she replied with a winsome smile, before turning about and heading up the hallway. Reaching the door, I opened it.

"Hello," the figure on the other side said in a cheerful manner, removing her hat as she spoke. Once again, I must admit to a certain amount of staring.

Embarrassing, I realize, but it is somewhat unusual to find oneself in the presence of a humanoid reptilian woman some six inches taller than oneself, wearing a smart leather trench-coat of unusual styling.

And a fedora. A rather elegant one.

Even in Worcestershire this raises eyebrows.

"Sorry to disturb you like this, but I can't help noticing that you seem to have a small spacial distortion behind your house," she went on after a few seconds, which was long enough to allow me to regain my composure. "I'm not sure if you know, but those things tend to keep growing unless you shut them down."

"We have noticed it appears reluctant to cease its activities," I said, still somewhat taken aback. Hopefully I managed to project the correct air of polite attention that is required. "His lordship is most irked, his experimentation has taken a distinct turn for the inconvenient over the course of the day."

"Would you like me to look at it for you?" she offered. "I'm quite good with this sort of thing." After a moment, she frowned a little, then sighed. "My apologies. My name is Saurial." She held out a hand, which I shook carefully. I found the fact that she had a distinct American accent, along with something from possibly much further afield than the colonies, somewhat odd. "I was just passing and noticed the thing. I don't mean to intrude, I just thought I'd offer my experience."

"Thank you, Miss Saurial," I replied as calmly as I could manage. "Under the circumstances, I'm sure that his lordship wouldn't consider it an imposition. Won't you please come in?"

"Thank you, Mr..."

"Jeeves, Miss Saurial. I am the personal manservant to His Lordship Lord Weston, whose abode this is." Standing aside, I waved her in. Entering, she looked around, nodding in approval. "May I take your hat and coat?"

"Thank you, Jeeves," she smiled, handing me the fedora, then removing her coat and doing likewise with it. She was wearing a very high quality silk dress under it, of the latest fashion. It was slightly unusually cut to allow for her long tail and uncommon legs, which were unshod, but looking at them and the sharp claws that terminated each toe, I felt it best not to comment on the fact.

Hanging both garments on the appropriate pegs in the nearby cloakroom, I returned rapidly. "Please follow me, Miss," I said, waving her towards the hallway to my employer's study. "His lordship will undoubtedly be most pleased to meet you."

With a smile she followed, and I have to say I had some trouble suppressing the tiny smile that threatened to cross my face when Lord Weston first set eyes on her. However, after that minor incident, which required another brandy to fully deal with, he was quite sensible. Shortly both of them were deep in an esoteric discussion of which I could follow very little.

Leaving them to it, I went down to the kitchen to see about some tea and biscuits. The proprieties must be observed, after all, even in the face of encroaching luminous doom.

* * *

"Are you entirely certain about being unharmed, Miss Saurial?" I asked, since the glowing bubble of light appeared to be voracious in its appetite.

"I'll be fine, thanks, Jeeves," she smiled. It was an unusual smile if only due to the sheer amount and size of the dentition, but I felt it was meant to be reassuring. "I've handled worse. This is a simple class two self-sustaining spacial distortion, they're a nuisance but not difficult to deal with when you know the trick." Looking at the towering half-globe, glowing deep green and emitting virulent violet sparks in copious quantities where it was inching across the rear lawn, she added, "I'll be right back."

With that she stalked across the grass towards it, her gait and posture showing concentration, and disappeared inside without pause. His lordship whistled in a low tone, sounding impressed.

"Unusual young lady, what? But by god she doesn't muck about. Straight in there like a rat up a drainpipe, not a moment's hesitation."

"Indeed, sir, it is most admirable. One hopes that she is successful."

"Quite. Getting a bit close to the house, hmm?" He inspected the progress of the barrier, looking between the rear of the house and the anomaly. "Be undermining the foundations soon. Never hear the end of that."

"Hopefully Miss Saurial will achieve her goal before that occurs, sir."

"Let's hope so." He looked down. "Wine cellar's only ten feet away from it and there are some damn fine vintages down there."

"As you say, sir. It would be a shame to have to restock."

We fell silent, waiting to see what would occur next. In the end, it was somewhat anticlimactic. The bubble of light suddenly winked out, the rumbling crackle that had accompanied it ceasing at the same moment. We both blinked, as the sudden removal of what had become a rather bright light was startling. When we could see again, we looked at the completely flat plane of bare, smoking earth that was all that remained. Even the small hill was gone.

"Capital job!" His lordship clapped his hands. "Wonderful. And look at that, it's as flat as sheet glass. Pity about the gardens, but this would make an excellent croquet lawn with a little reseeding."

"Quite, sir. Possibly a bowls course as well?"

"Damn fine idea. I must make a note." He fumbled for his notebook, writing in it for a moment, then looking around. "Yes, yes, this will do nicely. An unusual method of redevelopment, but most effective. I wonder if it could be commercialized?"

"I fear that it may be considered somewhat avante-garde, sir. People would possibly look askance on a landscaping method that was so… enthusiastic."

"Blast. You're probably right, Jeeves. People these days have no sense of adventure." He shook his head sadly while still writing. In the middle distance I could see Miss Saurial returning, looking quite pleased with the results of whatever act she had performed. When she reached us, she turned and studied the results as well.

"Sorry about the damage, but all the missing stuff is sort of… somewhere else. Not really retrievable. I can make some new ground for you if you want."

"Nonsense, don't trouble yourself my dear girl," my employer exclaimed, looking up from his notes. "This is fine. We've been discussing redoing the gardens for years, this is just the impetus we needed. Thank you very much for your aid."

"Well, if you're sure. And you're welcome." She smiled again.

"You must stay for dinner," his lordship said. "My son is coming home tonight with his new wife, I'm sure they'd enjoy meeting you. We're having roast beef. We are having roast beef, aren't we, Jeeves?" He turned to me.

"We are, sir."

"Wonderful. I love roast beef. Well, my dear? Will you stay?"

"Sure," she replied, appearing amused. "Why not? I like roast beef too."

"I will ensure that another place is set at the table," I said, with a slight bow. "If you'll follow me, Miss Saurial, I will show you to the drawing room."

"After you, Jeeves," she said, waving towards the house with a contented air.

* * *

Although I left Lord Weston's service some months later, for a number of reasons feeling that it would be for the best, I stayed in touch with Miss Saurial. She dropped by every now and then, invariably with an interesting story, and proved to be well educated and forthright in her opinions, while always open to those of others. On occasion she would arrive with one or other of her relatives, of which she seemed to have an inexhaustible supply. Over the years since, I have thoroughly enjoyed our intermittent relationship, and hope to see it continue for years to come.


	316. Running and Messages

**Tuesday, March 8, 2011**

Looking in the rear view mirror, Sophia frowned. ' _I could swear I've seen that semi before,_ ' she thought uneasily.

The huge truck rumbling along a quarter of a mile behind her was a dark green color, twin chrome exhaust stacks trailing a thin plume of barely visible smoke. It was nothing out of the ordinary, thousands just like it plied the roads of the US constantly, and indeed she'd passed dozens of them since she'd fled Brockton Bay. Yet, there was a definite feeling that this one was the same one that she'd seen four times now since that diner.

This was more than a little worrying, considering that she'd changed vehicles twice since then. She was somewhere in the middle upper part of Indiana by this point, heading in the rough direction of Chicago, although she had no intention of actually going there. It was far too large a city to risk, the local law enforcement and Parahumans might well be, probably were, on the lookout for her. Her random back and forth last-minute decisions on direction meant that she'd driven close to six hundred miles to cover the more or less two hundred or so since she'd stopped for a break at the roadside place, and a few hours of cautious sleep.

Nothing amiss had happened there and she'd allowed herself to relax a little, although that hadn't stopped her leaving as soon as she felt up to it, and lifting another car when she was far enough away not to have it linked back to the diner. She'd hidden the pickup in a wooded ravine half a mile from the cabin she'd located, then stolen the old SUV that had been parked under a tarp, presumably for a backup vehicle of whoever owned the property. That had been sometime around ten the previous morning, some twenty hours ago.

As she'd pulled out onto the main road again, a truck that looked an awful lot like that one back there had gone past, turning off onto a side road a dozen miles later. At the time she'd vaguely registered it as one that had been in the parking lot of the diner, presumably due to the driver having stopped there overnight just as she had.

A couple of hours later, she'd again seen what could well have been the same vehicle in her rear-view mirror, glinting in the sunlight a couple of miles back as she rounded a curve. At that point not concerned, she'd ignored it, and it had disappeared again shortly afterwards.

Now, though, three hundred and fifty miles further on, having dumped the SUV in a deep ditch and stolen a small hatchback from someone's garage, she was looking at a _very_ similar vehicle some distance behind her. Was it possible that, somehow, someone was tailing her? If so, how? And why in such a large and indiscreet vehicle? And for that matter, why? She highly doubted that her description had been publicly circulated yet, and she'd been listening to the news regularly to check. How could they keep finding her, after changing vehicles? She was certain that no one had been around to see her steal the new ones, _or_ dump the old ones. And she had carefully checked all her belongings for any hidden trackers as soon as she was clear of the city, not to mention it was very unlikely that anyone could have bugged her in the mean time.

Resolving to check as soon as possible, just in case, she retrieved the road map she'd grabbed at the last supply stop, unfolding it one handed and glancing at it while trying not to drive off the road. Finally locating where she was, she checked ahead and found a small turnoff on the right a mile and a half ahead, around a sharp bend to the left.

Dropping the map into the passenger seat, she sped up slightly, checking the mirror as she did so. The truck kept moving at a steady speed, not reacting to her at all that she could see. As soon as she rounded the corner and lost sight of it, she floored it, slammed the brakes on when the turnoff came into sight, and fishtailed around the ninety-degree bend at forty miles an hour. Swearing under her breath as she nearly lost control, she wrestled with the wheel until the car was going in a straight line again and headed down the slight dip in the track, wishing that Indiana wasn't quite so flat. The dirt road curved around a copse of trees which she slammed to a halt behind, before opening the door and getting out.

Looking back, she saw to her satisfaction that the light rain that was falling had suppressed the dust nicely, so there was no obvious trail leading to her. In dry conditions you'd have been able to track her progress from miles away. Peering through the trees, she could just make out the big rig as it came around the same corner and trundled past the turnoff without slowing, although she waited until it was completely out of sight before she got back in.

' _No idea if that was following me or not, but no sense taking chances,_ ' she thought as she started the car again. Doing a three point turn and nearly ending up in the ditch, she retraced her path, coming to the main road and turning left. Better to have to go back for ten or twenty miles than risk anything. Pleased that her quick thinking had possibly saved her, presuming that she really _was_ being followed, she accelerated back up to a sensible speed and went on her way.

Twenty-three minutes later a dark green semi went past the turning in the same direction, its turbocharger whining over the sound of the big diesel engine and the CB aerial waving in the wind of its passage.

* * *

" _I think that now Coil is out of the picture, it may be time to begin dealing with Lung_ ," the Varga commented as Taylor showered. " _I would prefer to wait until both Sophia and Skidmark were dealt with, I admit, since it would leave us only one thing to concentrate on, but since we have no idea when, or indeed if, either one of them will turn up..."_ _He sighed a little._ _"It's most annoying. I dislike having problems stacking up in the background_."

"So do I," she replied out loud, picking up the bottle of shampoo and squeezing some into her hand, then slapping it on her head. "Every time I think we might have a chance soon to sit back, relax, and maybe just enjoy ourselves, something else happens. I mean, I'm enjoying the _hell_ out of life right now anyway, but it would be nice to have time to plan things out, rather than react to them." She laughed a little, massaging her scalp. "Some days seem like they go on for weeks as it is."

" _Indeed_ ," he chuckled. " _That seems to be a hazard of our existence. Still, perhaps it's best to deal with Lung sooner rather than later. It would allow Lisa, Brian, and Alec at least to leave the Yard, which I'm sure they'd appreciate. Obviously Lisa can always go out as Metis but she might like the ability to do it as herself_."

"Probably. She can check on her apartment as well, which I know is something that bothers her. We know no one has interfered with it, at least to the point we checked last time, but sooner or later something might happen. And the guy's old hideout still has some stuff they may want back."

" _Alec's save games?_ " The Varga sounded amused.

"I think he's having more fun redoing everything now, actually," Taylor snickered. "I have to go and try playing him some time. Half the people in the DWU have so far, and he's kicked almost everyone's ass at everything."

" _He does have a lot of practice,_ " her companion pointed out.

"True, that's practically all he does except eat, sleep, and shoot Brian with things." Rinsing her hair, she combed it straight with her fingers, then turned the taps off. Squeezing out the excess water she got out of the shower, manifesting a towel in the process which she wrapped around her head. "Mark said he's an eerily good shot. With practically anything they've tried so far."

" _I would still be interested in seeing what he did with one of Amy's bioguns_ ," the demon said with a laugh.

"Horrible things, Lisa said. _Horrible_ things." She brushed her teeth, then finished drying herself. Shortly she was back in her room making sure she had everything for school. Satisfied that her backpack was in order, she pushed it into a pocket that was usefully much larger than it should have been. When she arrived at school she'd make sure she was wearing it normally, but this was much easier to carry. The fractal dimensional technique was useful for all manner of day to day problems, she mused with a smile as she headed downstairs. "If we leave a little early we can arrange things, I think. I know where we can probably get word to him discreetly."

" _Agreed. Let's do that, and see what happens. Hopefully we can come to an arrangement that is satisfactory for all concerned_."

"That would be good," she smiled, beginning breakfast preparations.

Shortly after she started, Taylor heard the sound of footsteps approaching the door, and a familiar scent met her nose. Glancing towards the doorway she commented, "That's the mail."

The Varga, who was now in the second aspect of a small dragon, sitting on her shoulder as he liked to do, vanished silently as the sound of several envelopes coming through the mail slot and landing on the carpet met her ears. Moments later he was back, appearing as Saurial and leaning back on the counter as he sorted through the mail.

"Several bills, what appears to be a catalog for a company attempting to sell no doubt wildly overpriced roofing supplies, and this," he remarked, putting everything but one item on the table for her father. He held up a medium-sized padded envelope. "Which contains a DVD based on the feel and scent."

"Who's it from?" she asked, cracking eggs into the pan.

He looked at the printed label on the envelope, then took the egg she tossed him and crunched it up. "Thank you. The television company that was filming at the Yard a few weeks ago. Addressed to your father."

"That must be the documentary they were shooting," she said. "I was wondering when that was going to turn up. The reporter said a couple of weeks, it's been longer than that."

Both of them looked up as they heard her father get out of bed, the floor creaking a little as he walked across it. "Shall we wait for Danny, or open it now?" he asked.

"Open it, see if there's a letter," she said, checking on the progress of the bacon. Slitting the seal with a claw he popped the envelope open, then looked inside, before extracting a sheet of paper. "What's it say?"

Scanning it, he smiled a little. "She apologizes for the delay, apparently they wanted to include new footage of the Merchant raid and a few other things they found on PHO. She says that she'd appreciate any feedback on any inaccuracies as she has no wish to offend the Family or the DWU. Which is nice."

Taylor giggled. "I think Kaiju made an impression."

"I suspect so," he grinned. Removing the cased DVD he looked at it. "I suggest it would be a good idea to watch this tonight, talk to your father about some of the things that you promised to tell him, and then perhaps go out and see if we can upset any criminals. We haven't done that for a few days."

"It's a plan," she said, putting bread in the toaster. "One I like. We also need to make some more parts for Linda too. And get ready for her power testing, assuming the PRT does want to go ahead with it this week."

"Lisa seems sure they will, and she's normally correct," he suggested, putting the DVD and letter back in the envelope, which he put with the rest of the mail. "I think we can fit everything in. If necessary we can dispense with the patrol, although I do enjoy it."

"Me too." She looked around as her father came into the kitchen, looking at her, then her alter-ego, who was eating another egg he stole from the carton.

"You know, I keep thinking I'll get used to that, but somehow..." Her father shook his head a little. "I guess eventually I will. It's still very weird, though."

She laughed for a moment. "Sorry, Dad, I can't help it. And he doesn't want to." She pointed at the Varga with her spatula, the demon smirking at them.

"It is still a novel experience for me, Danny, having this level of autonomy," the Varga said happily. "You have no idea what it's like to be even slightly independent after so long. Longer than your species has existed on this world, in fact. Your daughter is more generous than I can express to allow me to use this aspect at will in this manner, something I can never repay her for."

Taylor smiled gently, patting her other aspect on one scaly shoulder. "You know you don't owe me anything, my friend. It's the right thing to do. You've given me so much I had to give you something in return and this is so easy anyway."

Her father watched both of them for a moment. "Still weird. But I can't say I don't enjoy it." With a smile of his own he moved to put turn the kettle on. "And it makes both of you so happy it wouldn't matter if I didn't."

Taylor pointed at the envelope on the table. "A DVD came from that TV company in Boston."

"Oh? That documentary, I suppose?"

"That's what the letter said. We looked."

"OK." While the kettle was slowly coming to the boil, he pulled out the letter and quickly read it. "I see. All right, I'll watch that tonight and give her some feedback. Will you be here?"

"I said I would, didn't I?" she asked.

"You did. But you're busier than I am these days."

"Not all the time, and I want to see it too," she replied, shaking her head. "Now sit down and eat your breakfast."

"Yes, dear," he said, grinning and following her order. "Just like your mother."

With a giggle she served three plates of food, then all of them sat and ate, talking about the day to come.

* * *

Pouring himself a strong coffee, Pat got ready for opening. It was only just after seven, but he knew that if he didn't have the doors open by eight a number of his regulars would be clustered outside waiting impatiently and Erwin at least would have a very sarcastic comment for him. Generally something about being a typically lazy Irishman, which would annoy him if he didn't know it was meant in good humor. The old bastard was a snarky pain in the ass sometimes, constantly owed him at least a month's worth of bar bills, but was as reliable as a brick and willing to defend the pub to the death. Not to mention quite happy to jump in to any bar fight to protect the beer.

His ability to drink an entire pint of brandy over the course of a morning was still something that left the barman in awe when he thought about it. As was the way he'd greeted Kaiju like an old friend when she'd floated past, something that made Pat pale a little when he remembered it.

In fact, as he thought of it, he also realized something. "That old sot never paid for that brandy yet, either," he muttered, pulling chairs off tables and flipping them the right way up. "How the hell does he keep managing to change the subject whenever I mention it?"

Shaking his head, he kept working, finally getting the bar area ready. As he was going back behind the bar to clear the beer lines, there was a knock on the front door.

"We're not open yet!" he shouted, carefully pulling on one handle and allowing the stale beer to run into the drain. The knock came again, three firm raps.

"Damn it, Erwin, can't you wait for your alcohol another ten minutes?" he snapped, releasing the handle. Grabbing a bar towel he dried his hands from the splashes, flipped it over his shoulder, and stomped towards the door. Unbolting it, he swung it open. "You are a right pain in the backside, you crazy old… eep!"

A very recognizable reptilian face grinned at him. "Hi."

"Ah… Hello, Saurial. Sorry, I thought you were someone else."

"No problem. Say hi to Erwin when he turns up, Kaiju says he's cool. Sorry to bother you, but I was hoping I could ask a favor?"

Trying not to think about the fact that an eighty-foot-tall sea creature from his nightmares thought one of his regulars was ' _cool_ ' he nodded a little jerkily. "Of course. Anything for the Family. Come in."

"Thanks." She followed him inside the building, looking around with interest. "Nice place."

"Thank you," he said as he retreated behind the bar, staring at the armored reptilian creature standing in the middle of the room. "How can I help?"

"I need to get a message to one of your patrons and this seemed a quick way to do it." Walking over to the other side of the bar she produced an envelope from somewhere, putting it down on the polished mahogany surface. It was made of a heavy cream paper, he saw when he picked it up, and there was writing on it in Japanese characters. "I expect you'll recognize the description. Japanese guy, tall, very strong, tattoos, doesn't talk a lot?"

Pat knew exactly who she was talking about. "Oh. Yes, I know him."

"Could you give him that when you next see him, please? Along with anything he wants for his first drink." She put half a dozen twenties on the bar as well. "Keep the change. It would be really helpful to me. He'll probably have an answer, I'll swing by tomorrow morning and pick it up if there is one."

"I can do that," he nodded, wondering what was in the envelope but quickly thinking it probably wasn't his business.

"Thanks very much," she smiled. "Oh, by the way, can I get a can of Coke?"

"Of course." He put the envelope down again then turned and opened one of the under-counter fridges, quickly retrieving a can, which he handed to her. She dropped another dollar bill on the counter and nodded her thanks.

"Great. See you around, Pat," she said, giving him a jaunty wave, then heading towards the exit, her talons clicking faintly on the floor. Seconds later she was gone, the door swinging closed behind her.

Pat looked at it, then down at the envelope and the cash, then around the now-empty room. Finally he picked everything up and stared at it. "Well, _that_ happened," he said in a weak voice. "Tiny Ring Wraiths, lizard warrior girls, what next?" Shaking his head, he opened the till and put the envelope under the cash drawer, the money into the relevant section, then slammed it closed.

"This city is..." He couldn't finish the sentence, not knowing which words would do it justice best. Sighing, he went back to getting ready for the morning rush.

* * *

"There's Taylor," Amy said, waving at her friend as she parked. Vicky looked to see the Hebert girl standing next to the unmistakable figure of Saurial, both of them talking to Mandy and Lucy. They glanced over, waved back, then resumed their conversation. She pondered the pair, still not able to come to any solid conclusion about them.

Her paranoia had diminished somewhat over the last few days, partly because she recognized full well it _was_ paranoia to an extent, and partly because she'd made a deliberate effort to try to suppress it. The Family, while weird, were definitely friends, both personally and of her family and the city as well. Taylor was a good friend, Saurial was _very_ close to her, and also a friend, Amy was very close to both of _them_ as well as the others…

She suppressed a sigh as she got out of the car, her sister prodding the remote locking fob as they walked towards the school. She was desperately curious to figure out where they came from, how the Heberts had met them, whether Saurial had actually grown up in the city with Taylor, or anything else about the situation. But she couldn't see any way to find out more. All the reading she'd done had led her down a number of rabbit holes with no signs of bottoms, and no indication that any of them were remotely correct. Sure, there were some very weird similarities between current events, things that one or other of the reptiles had casually said, and some extremely disturbing stories and movies, but did that actually _mean_ anything? It could just be a whole string of coincidences.

She snorted very gently under her breath. Yeah, right. _That_ many coincidences in a row?

No, there was something buried in there, she was sure of it, but she was also sure she didn't currently have a clue what, aside from a number of vague feelings. Every time she went over the evidence again she came to a different conclusion, all of which were crazy. The _most_ reasonable one was that Saurial had been fostered by the Heberts and grown up alongside Taylor as a sister of hers, which explained a lot of things, but left a huge number completely _un_ explained. And opened up a whole slew of new questions. Everything else made even _less_ sense.

She had a sudden insight into why Director Piggot seemed intent on pretending most of the things the Family did or said hadn't happened. It was probably the only way the woman could get through the day.

"You OK, Vicky?" Amy asked as they walked. She glanced at her sister, who was looking at her with a slightly furrowed brow and a mildly concerned face. The other girl was remarkable perceptive, she thought, she picked up on all sorts of emotional states as if she could practically smell them.

"Yep, I'm fine, Ames. Just thinking about something that was bothering me."

"Want to talk about it? I've always got time for my sister and her petty problems of being too popular," Amy smirked, making the taller blonde put her arm around her shoulder and giggle.

"Such horrible problems they are!" she exclaimed. "So many people wanting to be around me."

"The perils of being tall, beautiful, and blonde," Amy noted wisely. "Luckily I chose otherwise. It must be hard, being you."

"It is. So very hard. But I bear up under the strain, somehow." Vicky sighed dramatically, pressing the back of her free hand against her forehead. "Perhaps one day I can pass on the burden to another, but for now it's mine to bear."

"Poor girl. Perhaps you should talk Dean into buying you another pretty, you haven't done that for weeks." Amy grinned at her.

"You've changed, sis," Vicky snickered. "So much. I'm glad."

"Thanks. You're not so bad yourself these days," the brunette replied, still smiling a bit. "Almost bearable. Meeting Saurial was as good for you as it was for me."

After a second or two, Vicky nodded, conceding the point. Despite the way it had happened and the problems at the time, it seemed to be the single event that had changed all their lives for the better. "You're right. Weird, isn't it?"

"So is she."

"Hey, I heard that," Saurial called from twenty feet away.

"I know. Do I look like I care?" Amy shot back with a smirk.

"Not as such, but you're a cold and heartless human, Amy," the reptilian cape chuckled, making Taylor and everyone else laugh. Even Amy.

"I do my best. Someone has to," Amy replied regally, bowing her head for a moment. Then she grinned. "Hi, guys, how's it going?"

"Fine, thanks," Mandy said with a smile. "We had a PRT lieutenant come by the house last night and talk to us about this Parahuman rogue problem, which made my parents look worried for a while. The weird thing was that when he mentioned that the Family was helping out at the school, they got a lot less worried." She glanced at Saurial who was smiling faintly. "Seems their reputation is growing around these parts."

"Same thing with me," Lucy added. "Dad was pretty annoyed that there was a threat like this, and even more annoyed that it was aimed at a student. When he heard who it was, he looked really pissed. He respects the DWU quite a lot for some reason, and Taylor's Dad too. I don't think they've ever met, though. But he was pleased to hear about Saurial hanging around here." She looked at the tall reptilian figure with a grin. "Maybe you could visit some time, that would be funny to see. I could introduce you to Newell."

"Ah, the very distant cousin," Saurial nodded, looking amused. "Perhaps we can arrange that."

"Did the PRT guy tell him who was involved?" Vicky asked.

"No, I did when he'd gone," Lucy said. "He only said it was the child of a prominent local citizen and that he couldn't say more due to privacy regulations. I didn't think it was something Taylor would mind."

"I don't," the tall girl noted, shrugging. "Everyone in school knows, he'd find out sooner or later, and it doesn't matter."

"Prominent local citizen?" Amy queried, looking at Taylor, who smiled.

"I know, I've never heard Dad called that before," she laughed. "How things have changed recently."

Everyone, even Saurial, nodded at the comment.

Eric and Rich arrived moments later, joining the group. "Hi, everyone," the latter said.

"Hi, Rich," they all chorused in eerie synchronicity, making him take a step back and look at Eric, who looked back.

"Girls are scary," he whispered loudly.

After a moment, everyone started laughing. When the bell rang, they headed inside, still in a good mood. Spotting her boyfriend near his locker, Vicky headed towards him after waving to the others, deciding that for now she'd put her questions about the Family to rest until she could find out more. And that, just possibly, it might be safe to ask Saurial and/or Taylor the truth of the matter. If only to stop her overactive imagination coming up with yet another bizarre scenario.

But not quite yet. She needed to think of the best way to broach the subject, one that wouldn't get her bitten...

* * *

Her cellphone rang as the driver parked the PRT SUV outside city hall. About to exit the vehicle, Emily pulled the phone out and looked at the display, then sighed minutely. She prodded the relevant icon and raised it to her ear. "Hello, Mr Hebert," she said. "How can I help you?"

" _I just wanted to speak briefly, if you've got a minute? We wanted to arrange to have Vectura come in for official power testing, as we mentioned last week_."

"I see." She thought rapidly. "Yes, that can be arranged. I'm just about to have a meeting with the Mayor regarding Sunday and the fallout from that, which I have to admit I'm not looking forward to, but I'll call Miss Militia and have her call you to set up an appropriate time. Probably tomorrow afternoon, I think. Is that acceptable?"

" _Certainly_ ," he replied, sounding unsurprised. " _We'll fit in around your schedule, there's no hurry. We realize you've probably got an awful lot of work to do because of the operation over the weekend._ "

"You have no idea," she sighed. "Thank you. Expect her to call later this morning."

" _Thanks, Director. Have a nice day. Bye._ " He hung up, as Emily lay her head back on the backrest for a moment and closed her eyes.

"Tinkers, Lizards, and Dock Workers. God, what a combination..." Raising her head again she fiddled with the phone for a second.

" _Miss Militia_ ," the woman in question answered.

"The DWU want their pet cat-woman Tinker to be officially tested, MIss Militia," she said in reply to the greeting. "Please contact Danny Hebert when you have a free moment and arrange that for as soon as possible. Best to get it out of the way, perhaps they'll go away after that."

" _All right, Emily, I can do that. Is she going to be bringing her mech? If she does we'll **never** get Armsmaster away from it._ " The cape sounded amused.

Emily sighed. "God, I know. Him and Dragon both. But they'll at least be able to assess her abilities. Which, knowing the sort of people the DWU seems to dig up, will be _Tinker: Yes_."

Hannah chuckled, although it sounded sympathetic. " _That wouldn't surprise me. I'll check with the research department and find out who's available and when we can fit it in. Tomorrow sometime, definitely._ "

"That will be fine." A tap on the window made her look, to see Legend standing there. "Sorry, I have to go. Legend just arrived. Hopefully he can help smooth over some pretty ruffled feathers. Roy is… unhappy."

" _Oh. That's not ideal,_ " Hannah said.

"Not really, but it's to be expected. That fucking chemical was a hell of a lot worse than anyone said it would be. I'm minded to pass a regulation that says anyone even _thinking_ of ever doing that again should be shot on sight." She grumbled to herself a little as she took her seat-belt off, while Hannah snorted with laughter.

" _I expect the poor Mayor has had a lot of complaints_."

"He seemed to think they were a little excessive, yes," she agreed, opening the door as Legend stepped back. "Now we have to go and play nice, since we owe him one. A much bigger one than I wanted."

" _Good luck_ ," the woman said. " _I'll get right on that matter_."

"Thank you." Emily tapped the disconnect icon, then put the phone away. "Let's go and see what we have to give Roy to make him happy," she sighed as Legend offered his hand. The Protectorate leader looked amused, which she felt was a little excessive. He seemed to be having far too much fun these days.

"I'm sure we can come to some arrangement everyone is happy with," the man said as they headed towards the entrance.

"You haven't _met_ him," she muttered, which only made him smile.


	317. Placating and Packing

Linda nodded to herself as she finished torquing down the last bolt on the hydraulic pump transmission of the excavator she'd just serviced. Quickly checking with the handheld light that everything was back in place, she put her tools away, before scuttling along the inspection pit to the steps at the end, straightening up as she climbed out. Wiping grease off her hands on a rag, she stretched a little, then climbed into the cab. Moments later it was wheezing as it turned over, before the big diesel caught with a roar. Gently working the throttle she let it warm up for a minute.

When the gauges showed normal temperatures and pressures she put the machine through its paces, checking that everything was working correctly. The pump itself had been fine but the worksheet had shown that it was consistently losing pressure after a couple of minutes of operation. She'd traced that fault to a seal in the regulator section of the main distribution valve which leaked internally when hot and pressurized. It was easily replaced, aside from the annoyance of having to take a lot of parts off to get at it, which had added two hours to what would otherwise be a fifteen minute job.

Satisfied that the machine was now functioning correctly, she shut it down, then made a few notes on the clipboard sitting on the dash, ticking the relevant boxes off then writing a short description of the fault and the repair she'd made. The DWU motor pool had a very well organized set of paperwork for damn near everything, she mused as she signed the document.

Climbing out, she checked the hour meter on the engine, then put that figure down as well, and double-checked that the serial number matched the one on the form. Finally finished, she headed over to Kadir's office. "That job's done," she announced when he looked up from his computer. "Five dollars worth of high pressure sealing washer on the regulator, that's all it needed."

"Excellent, Linda. Thank you." He accepted the clipboard, scanning the documents with an expert eye. "All in order as usual. Here's the next one." He gave her a different clipboard. "The DP150 in the corner, the lift mechanism has failed."

She looked the paperwork over, then leaned back slightly to look out the doorway to the relevant machine. The large yellow forklift was parked in the far corner behind several other vehicles being worked on by the other mechanics. "OK. I'm just going to go to the cafeteria for a large coffee first." She yawned a little.

"It was a long day yesterday, wasn't it?" he commented, turning back to his computer. "One full of some interesting machinery."

She looked at the back of his head for a moment, then shook her own a little. "Want a coffee, Kadir?"

"Thank you, Linda," he replied, not looking up. "Black, please."

With a nod she turned to leave.

"I was very impressed, by the way," he added quietly. "I can hardly wait to see what happens next." Looking back she saw he'd turned his head a little to look impassively at her. After a moment, he went back to work, but she could almost swear she'd seen a wink.

Smiling a little, she left the garage, waving to a couple of the other workers and feeling that life was going well right now.

* * *

Roy sighed, shaking his head. "All right, Emily, I believe you. No one knew this stuff was so potent because no one really has any data on it. I'll figure out some way around the complaints." He looked up from his desk at the PRT Director, who was sitting on the other side next to Legend. "It would help a lot if we could tell the truth. You stopped a major super-villain, broke up a huge and possibly years-old criminal conspiracy, and prevented what could very easily have turned into a bloody massacre. I mean, that fucking man actually tried to detonate his self-destruct! If we tell the public that, I'm sure we can spin..."

Legend shook his head regretfully, interrupting him mid-word. "I'm sorry, Roy, I don't think that's a good idea. Not yet, anyway. There is still a lot of work to do on rounding up everyone who could be involved. We're fairly sure we got most of them, but we still haven't finished interrogating the prisoners, so there may be others out there we don't know about."

"We've barely started interrogating them," Emily grumbled, picking up a shortbread cookie and biting into it viciously. "Goddam Calvert is still too shaky to talk sense, although he's calming down slowly. He freaks out if we turn the lights off, which is both somewhat amusing and more than a little worrying." She looked pensive for a moment. "Knowing what Saurial did to him, I almost feel sorry for the bastard every now and then, before I remember what a shit he is. He deserved every minute of it, but even so..."

"She and her sister are horrifically good at psychological warfare," Legend shrugged. "We could rewrite the entire manual based just on what they did on this operation. God knows what they could do with more time, or against someone they had a real grudge against." He smiled briefly. "Luckily they don't seem to hold grudges, and are generally fairly disinclined to go after people. I admit it would bother me more too if I hadn't seen the inside of that torture chamber."

"A genuine torture chamber?" Roy asked, feeling ill. The other man nodded soberly.

"Very much so. Let's just say that the DNA evidence so far is compelling, suggesting more people than I care to consider went in there. It also tells us that some of them at least didn't come out alive."

"Christ." Roy stared at them both. "Well, on behalf of the city, thank you and your people for shutting the bastard down. And the Family, of course."

"They made it possible, if only by alerting us to the problem in the first place. And without their help I have little doubt that the casualties would have been immense." Emily looked angry again. "How that man could have been that deep into our systems for so long… He had to have had high-ranked help, at least one other person at his level or above. I'm almost sure of it, but so far we can't find any real evidence."

"There may _be_ no evidence, Emily," Legend pointed out. "It's possible it was entirely his work. He's very smart, skilled, and persistent. And has been working on this for at least a decade."

"Yes, Yes, I know all that, but it still smells wrong."

Both of the others looked at her, then each other. She put a hand on her face for a moment, then sighed deeply. "Sorry. That was unintentional."

Roy grinned. "Maybe Saurial is rubbing off on you?"

She glared at him. "Don't even joke about that, Roy. I know you like the lizards, and _he_ thinks they're hilarious..." She jerked a thumb at Legend, who was abruptly smirking, the expression quite unlike the normal one he wore in public and one that made him look a lot more normal in a way. "But while I'm slowly coming to grips with them being here, it's still a lot to take in. Let me deal with it at my own pace, please."

"As you wish." He let the grin lapse, although he was still amused. Her reactions to the Family were always worth watching, even though she _did_ genuinely seem to be trying to learn to deal with it. "OK, so we can't come clean for now. Annoying, but we'll have to work around it. But it's also leaving the University in an awkward place, people are blaming their lab practices for this and I've heard there is already a call for boycotting them, or protesting, or some such foolishness. Which would inevitably get the students out on the street, probably on _both_ sides of the argument, and you remember what happened the last time..."

She groaned. "Oh, god. Why can't we lock young people up until they're twenty-five and have learned some common sense," she said, looking irritated. "I swear they're getting worse."

"We were just as passionate about things in our youth, Emily," Legend gently chided her. "I know I was. And I'm sure you were. They mean well."

The woman didn't look any less irritated.

"It's something we have to deal with, though," Roy went on. "We need a convincing story, some cover for now that doesn't put the blame on a completely innocent research lab whose name we have publicly dragged through the mud. And one we can walk back on without too much trouble later, when this eventually _does_ come out, which I guarantee it will." He shrugged. "There are already rumors on the internet. Aliens, of course, that's the usual first one, then some Parahuman villain, which is oddly close to the truth, the Russians, the Canadians, the city itself doing something nefarious, the government in general… Oddly enough the only people _not_ being blamed are the PRT and the Protectorate. Which is quite funny, considering."

Director Piggot sighed loudly. "I hate politics," she groused. "And I hate you. And everyone else in this benighted place."

"I know you don't really mean that, Emily," he chuckled, exchanging a glance with Legend who was smiling.

"Don't bet on it," she muttered, but there was no heat in it. "God, I'm not paid enough to deal with this shit. I have actual _work_ to do."

"Look, leave it with me for the moment," he suggested. "We'll come up with some plausible cover stories and you can run them past your own PR people. Check them over to make sure they stand up for now. We can't keep it bottled up indefinitely, there are way too many leaks in this city, but we should be able to keep a lid on it for long enough. My own people are very experienced at minimizing the impact of things on the public."

She gave him a narrow-eyed look. He grinned, shrugging once again.

"Around Brockton Bay, you learn you have to be… careful… with the truth. Or people tend to get upset. On the other hand, the citizens of the city are a remarkably pragmatic lot in general. They have to be considering our history. They'll calm down quick enough, if we're as open with them as we can be. Which isn't enough, I admit, but we just have to deal with that as we can."

"Your silver tongue is going to get you in trouble one day, Roy," she sighed.

"It's in a good cause, though," he snickered. "We've all done things we regret, I'm sure, but in my case at least I like to tell myself it was with the best intentions. And yes, I know the saying."

"I've dealt with a lot of politicians over the years, Roy," Legend said with a good-natured smile, "but you are one of the very few I genuinely believe is doing his job to the best of his abilities, rather than purely for personal gain."

"Thank you, Legend," Roy grinned. "That means a lot, considering the source."

Emily looked between them. "For god's sake, don't encourage him," she snapped. "He's hard enough to deal with at the best of times. And is far too close to those lizards."

Legend laughed for a moment, then helped himself to one of the shortbreads. "I feel the city is in good hands, overall, Emily," he replied with composure. "I wish the New York city authorities were so… helpful."

"It's a much bigger place," Roy pointed out. "And there are a _lot_ more people. And a hell of lot more money. That makes a difference."

"It does," the other man nodded.

"All right. That's that issue out of the way." Roy made a few notes on a pad. Emily appeared to relax slightly. Putting his pen down again, he leaned back in his chair, regarding them both. "Now… Tell me why the PRT is setting up shop in Arcadia, and all about this rogue Parahuman threat, please." He reached out and pulled a printout of the PRT security bulletin out of a partly open drawer in his desk, dropping it in front of them. His smile sprouted a certain amount of teeth, in a manner he liked to think would make Saurial proud.

Emily suddenly wasn't looking at all relaxed.

* * *

Danny put the phone down and looked at the note he'd jotted down, before getting up. Very shortly afterward he was tapping on the door of Lisa's office, next to his. "Come in," she called, at which he opened the door and entered. "Hi, Danny," she smiled as he closed it again. Looking at the paper in his hand, then his face, she added, "Quiet, and the Incredible Lisa will guess your secret."

He closed his mouth, having been about to say something, and folded his arms, raising his eyebrows.

"Thank you," she said, the smile gaining the slightly smug look it tended to when her power was at work. After a moment, she snickered. "I was right. Tomorrow afternoon, around half past two."

He handed her the slip of paper, which read ' _PRT building, main entrance, 2:35 PM_.'

"The Incredible Lisa is pretty good," he chuckled. "Although her act needs work. Not enough build up."

"I'll think about it," she replied, grinning. "OK. Want me to go tell her?"

"She'll still be working in the garage," he said, shaking his head. "After lunch, I think. I'll come with you."

"All right."

He looked at the computer screen in front of her, on which was a complex spreadsheet, along with a number of open pages from the employment and payroll records system. "I've added our new hires to the relevant places, Randall joined us two days ago and Kevin a week before that," she said, following his eyes. "All the timestamps and other data prove that beyond doubt."

"The Incredible Lisa is nearly as good as she thinks she is," he commented, making her smile again for a moment. "Good work."

"I thought it was best that they're not directly associated with each other in the records, just in case. It's a fairly weak cover, no one in the DWU will get taken in by it, but it should help against outsiders if anyone comes sniffing."

"OK, that's reasonable," he nodded, pulling a spare chair over and sitting. He glanced at the door, checking it for any signs of eavesdroppers.

"There's no one close enough to hear anything," she smiled, tapping her ear, then her nose. "' _Ianthe_ ' does excellent work."

"How good _are_ your senses now?" he asked curiously.

"Not as good as Saurial's, say, but way, _way_ better than practically anything below that. It was a bit overwhelming at first," Lisa admitted. "Took me a while to get used to it, but my power was ecstatic. It seems to thrive on new information and this lets it get far more than it could. It loves the Family."

He looked at her for a moment. She flushed a little. "Yes, I know how that sounds. They get the same look. But it's true."

"I am definitely out of the loop on some things," he muttered.

"Your enhancements haven't been turned on yet, you'll understand more when they are," she assured him. "Even without powers, it's going to be interesting. Make sure you get that done before you go away."

"Why?" he asked, looking at her expression.

She shrugged. "I can't say for sure. It's not even really my power, although it agrees. More a gut feeling. Let's call it a precautionary measure."

"Hmm. Now I'm feeling worried," Danny commented wryly. "Thanks."

"All part of what you pay me for," she snickered, turning back to her computer. "I've also been going through the new applications Kurt and a few others passed on to me. Most of them look good. This guy here, he's E88, but I'm about ninety-five percent sure Kaiser doesn't know about him applying for the job, considering he's ordered his people to stay as far away from us as possible. I'm not completely certain if he's trying something of his own, or whether someone put him up to it."

He looked at the photo she'd brought up on screen, that of a shortish, strongly built young man with very short hair and scar on the side of his chin, blonde and blue-eyed. Of course. He was smiling cockily in the photo.

"Recommendation?"

"Let Metis interview him," she said with a dark grin. "It should prove useful. And if it turns out Kaiser _does_ know about it, we need to have words with him. If not, we might get helpful data anyway."

After some thought, Danny nodded. "OK. Try not to traumatize the poor bastard _too_ much. It's not impossible he wants to get out of the E88 and into something more legal."

"You'd take someone like that?" she asked, not sounding particularly surprised.

"We've had worse, even before the recent influx of actual super-villains," he grinned. "Believe me, the backstory for some of the guys, and at least two of the women, is pretty bad. But they sincerely wanted to make amends for it, have successfully done so one way or the other, and are valued members of the Union. If that guy genuinely does want out, and is willing to leave his baggage behind..." He shrugged. "All that really matters is that the past stays in the past, like I said before."

"And if he turns out to be a multiple murderer trying to hide?"

"Well, in that case I guess we deal with it." He glanced at her, seeing she was watching him with interest. "It's not like that can't be done easily enough."

"Very true." She nodded, making a note in the file with a rattle of the keyboard, then flicked through a few more photos. "What about this one?"

"Another gang member?" he asked, studying the older man, probably in his thirties, who looked like he'd gained a lot of experience in things the hard way, somehow.

She laughed for a moment. "Sort of. Undercover cop."

He stared at her, then at the photo. "You sure about that?"

"One hundred percent. But not BBPD. State cop."

"What does he want?"

"I don't know yet, but it's not the first one we've had apply. Two more have tried it, none of them came through Kurt, Mark, or any of the other personal recommendations. Those are mostly either ex-military, ex-sailors, or guys from various industrial jobs. I haven't found anything unusual about them so far, or rather, not unusual for the sort of people we have around here." She looked amused. "In some places they might raise eyebrows. We do seem to have a hell of a lot of people who were trained by various militaries."

"They tend to be very good workers, know all about teamwork, and look out for their friends," he nodded. "Even if they were technically on opposite sides at one point. Sometimes especially then. There's a couple of guys who were missile operators, for example, one of ours and one of the Russians. Spent years underground during the worst parts of the cold war ready to kill each other's countries. Best friends now, they'd die for each other."

"I know them," she replied. "In the scrappage crew."

"Yes." He inspected the face on the screen. "What should we do about this one, and the other two?"

"I think we let _me_ interview them, and ask a lot of polite and innocent questions," Lisa said, also looking at the monitor. "With… I think Kurt as well. Between us I suspect we can find out what they're after."

"It's weird, we're not doing anything illegal at all, or anything that would even look suspicious as far as I know," he remarked, puzzled. "Weird, fair enough, but this entire city is that. What would the state cops want here?"

She shook her head. "I don't know. Possibly they think that someone here is a person of interest, possibly they're just fishing. Not enough data yet, but I'll find it."

Getting up, he put a hand on her shoulder for a second. "That, I have no doubt of, Lisa. Thank you."

"No problem. I'll come find you later and we can go and talk to Vectura. And I'll contact the boys and arrange transport for all their crap, once Saurial and Raptaur finish setting up the new workshop. That'll probably be tomorrow night."

"Great. Talk to Zephron and round up half a dozen drivers. Knowing those two, there will be a _lot_ of stuff to move."

"Got it, Boss," she said, mock saluting him. He pointed a stern finger at her, shaking his head, then left to the sound of her laughter. Smiling to himself, he headed back to his office, pleased that the girl was enjoying herself so much. She was rapidly becoming indispensable to both him and the DWU, leaving aside the fact that he liked her a lot.

' _You really do bring the most interesting people home, Taylor_ ,' he thought. ' _Wonder who the next one will be?_ ' Thoughts of that and why someone was trying to sneak a cop into the place kept him busy for a while, but eventually he got back to work. Time would tell, after all.

* * *

Heaving the crate off the ground, Randall carried it over to the side of the warehouse, putting it down on top of the previous one. It was big enough that without his Amy-boosted strength, he'd have needed either the power armor or a forklift to move it, but now he could pick it up with fairly minimal effort. While still bulky, it wasn't hard.

Kevin was carefully packing up the next one, while around him a couple of dozen more lay around, the lids mostly propped next to them, and a few with various items in. They'd been sorting through the vast amount of equipment, tools, props, and random items they'd collected over the years and trying to put it into some sort of logical order.

Looking at the row of six identical four foot cubes, each with ' _miscellaneous_ ' written on them in large black letters, he grinned wryly. Not always with any great success, it had to be said.

Picking up a partly disassembled and blackened piece of machinery, he turned it over in his hands, trying to remember what it had done. "Hey, does this go into ' _anti-gravity_ ' or ' _invisibility_ '?" he asked, tentatively identifying it. Possibly. He thought.

Kevin looked over, cocked his head a little, then shook it. "Garbage. That's the innards of the old food processor."

Randall inspected the thing more closely. "You sure? It's sort of complicated."

"It was a very expensive food processor."

"I remember, I bought it. Then you took it to pieces and did something horrible to half of it."

"Still don't need that crap. Toss it."

Randall did, scoring a direct hit into one of the large garbage cans on the other side of the room. "Goal."

"Idiot." His friend grinned at him, then went back to his task. Looking around, Randall sighed gently. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing, really, it's just… this has been our home for three and a half years. I'll sort of miss it now that we're going."

"I won't," Kevin snorted, scooping a final handful of packing peanuts into the crate from the large bag of the stuff at his elbow, then quickly nailing the lid on. He wrote ' _Things man was not meant to tamper with, box #3_ ' on the side, then turned to his friend. "It's too far from the takeout places, too close to Lung's territory, leaks, when the wind gets up it blows right through in half a dozen places no matter how often we fix it, and it smells funny."

"I think that's you. Did you shower last night?"

Kevin sniffed, then made a face. "Only half of it's me. God alone knows what the other half is, but it died a _long_ time ago."

"OK, you have a point. Still, it's a change that came pretty quickly. Yesterday at this time we were independent entertainers, and now we're going to be actual working stiffs." He shuddered, very obviously, which made Kevin snicker.

"We'll still be independent. We'll just be independent with a lot of other people who are _also_ independent."

"I'm not sure that word means what..."

"I know the quote. _Everyone_ knows the quote. Stop quoting it all the time."

Unable to help himself, Randall started laughing. Shortly Kevin joined in. When they ran down, they got back to work, slowly building a large pile of crates full of weird inventions, most of which they'd never thought would be anything other than scrap again. But now?

Things were going to change, and it was going to be very interesting.

Randall paused after a while as a thought struck him. "Hey, think we can talk Amy into making us lizard suits?"

Snickering, Kevin shook his head. "I doubt we could actually _stop_ her at this point..."

They shared a look, grinned at each other, and resumed work.

Yes. _Very_ interesting.

* * *

Pat looked up at the sound of the door opening, seeing a familiar person enter. The large Japanese man walked over to the bar, nodding to a few of the other patrons as he passed and waving briefly to Erwin, who was inflicting some of his friends with yet another story of the sea, and slapped a ten dollar bill on the top.

He looked surprised when Pat picked it up and handed it back, before pulling him a pint of his favorite beer and giving that to him as well. "Already paid for," the barman said.

"Who?" The voice was rough, but not hostile, more curious that anything.

"Saurial."

He'd timed it perfectly, the cough his patron made into the mug sent beer everywhere. More amused than he should have been, he tossed a towel to the customer, poured him another beer, and then held out the envelope the lizard-girl had left. "She left this for you."

When he'd finished wiping his face and glaring at Pat, who was suppressing a smile, the Japanese man grabbed the letter and flipped the towel back in the same move. He inspected the writing on the front, his face expressing momentary surprise, then opened it. Pulling out an oddly folded sheet of the same sort of high quality paper he smoothed it out on the bar surface and stared at it. Pat could see it was more Japanese writing, the calligraphy looking very elegantly done.

Scanning it, the other man's face changed through a number of odd expressions, before settling into one of neutral interest.

"Pen."

"Here you go," Pat replied, handing him one of the ball-points he kept next to the till in a glass. Taking it without comment, his customer turned the letter over, thought for a moment, then quickly wrote some more ideographs. He refolded the letter, put it back into the envelope, handed both envelope and pen back to Pat, picked up his replacement beer, and walked off without another word.

The barman watched him go, shook his head, smiled a little, then put the pen back where it had come from and the letter back into the till under the cash drawer. He had a reply for Saurial when she stopped by next time, although he had no idea at all what it was about.

' _Odd fellow, Kenta_ ,' he thought as he watched the man sit near Erwin and roll his eyes at the tall tale the old bastard was spinning. ' _Very odd. But he's a good customer, and they're all nuts in here anyway, so there's that._ '

Sitting down on the stool behind the bar he picked up the novel he was working his way through and flipped through it to the place he'd left off, resuming reading while waiting for someone to order some more drink.

* * *

Taylor felt someone staring at her. Casually turning her head she saw that in fact the entire table of Wards was looking at her. As soon as she moved, all them went back to their food as one, smelling guilty, concerned, and a little embarrassed. Vicky was looking at all of them with a slightly befuddled expression, turning to glance at Taylor, who shrugged with a small smile. The blonde smiled back, then prodded Dean and asked him what he thought he was doing. The boy mumbled something inconsequential then changed the subject.

" _I would assume that they were informed about you and the Trio_ ," the Varga said in her head from the other side of the table, where ' _Saurial_ ' was sitting, eating some fried fish. Her other aspect looked at her for a moment, carefully _not_ looking at the Wards.

' _Guess so_ ,' she replied silently. ' _It's pretty much what we expected. I have a feeling that Carlos knew about some of it, based on the way they're looking at him_.'

" _That would make sense as he's their leader. I expect that he's informed about a number of things his team-mates are not._ "

' _Might explain why he's been a little stand-offish, both as Carlos and as Aegis_ ,' she commented. There was a sensation of agreement from her demonic comrade. ' _It doesn't matter, I told Vicky and Amy about it some time ago, and I don't think I really care any more. Emma is basically gone, Madison is irrelevant, and if Sophia turns up, we grab her and hand her over to them. Assuming they don't get her first. Which they may well do, they're serious about it._ "

" _I'm not surprised about that, not only does Director Piggot have the embarrassment about losing someone she was responsible for, but they desperately don't want to have an incident on their hands involving either us, or the DWU._ " He glanced at her again. " _They're going to do everything they can to avoid that_."

' _Fine by me_ ,' she smiled internally. ' _I wonder where she is?_ '

" _A long way away, plotting and planning, I suspect_ ," he said. " _We'll probably see her again sooner or later. Unfortunately._ "

' _Well, if she comes, she comes. We'll be ready. I'm more interested right now whether Lung will agree to meet._ '

" _He'll agree_ ," her friend assured her. " _If nothing else, from curiosity._ "

' _I'm looking forward to it_.' Both of them turned to the others and resumed their interrupted conversations.


	318. Nails and Decoy

"That's still a very cool thing to see," Lisa said as she looked past Linda at the mech, which was sitting in the middle of the largest clear space in her workshop, several of the outer panels removed and a surprising amount of test equipment wired into it.

"When I put it back together you can try it if you like," the other woman smiled, closing the door behind Danny who entered last. "Nice to see you both. You missed all the fun yesterday, Lisa."

"I got a good account of it from several people, so I know more or less what happened," the blonde replied. "Sorry, I was otherwise engaged most of the day. But it sounds like you made an impression."

"She certainly did _that_ , Lisa," Danny said, watching both of them. "I've had at least ten people ask about being on the ' _Mech Squad_ ,' which is something I wasn't aware we actually _had_."

Linda started laughing, looking at his expression, which was a mix of amusement and resignation. "Sorry, Danny. I may have underestimated how many people would find these things interesting."

"Practically everyone who saw it, I'd say," he sighed. "Even the PRT troopers were casting envious looks in the direction of your new toy."

"We'll have to come up with a sensible leasing plan, then," Lisa snickered. "I'm sure we can do that. At this rate we'll need an actual marketing department soon."

"You may be right. Can you look into it?"

"I've already started," she grinned. He gave her a look, which caused her shrug. "Just trying to be a good assistant and anticipate your requirements before you know you have them."

"Sometimes you're a little _too_ good," he grumbled in a good-natured way. As she laughed again, he turned back to Linda, who was finding their byplay quite funny. "I talked to Director Piggot this morning, and Miss Militia called back later to confirm an appointment with the PRT Power Categorization Department at 2.35 PM tomorrow. That OK with you?"

Suddenly having a rash of butterflies to the stomach, Linda closed her eyes for a moment, her tail twitching sharply with her feelings, then nodded. When she opened them both the others were regarding her with compassion. "We can put it off if you want," he added quietly.

"No, I need to do this. It's sort of the final bridge to cross to my new life," she said, before swallowing. "Sorry. Sometimes all this comes back and hits me in the face with how much things have changed, and how fucking quick." She looked around her private workshop for a few seconds, then back to them. "It's sort of overwhelming when I think about it."

"Understandable," he nodded sympathetically. "I think I have some idea about what you're going through. For what it's worth, you're doing a really good job handling it. Kadir is most complimentary about your work, and I doubt anyone can say anything bad about your other abilities having seen that thing." He nodded at the mech.

She was silent for a moment, then smiled. "Thank you, Danny. That means a lot."

"I'll be away for a couple of days, I'm leaving early tomorrow morning to drive down to New York, but Metis will accompany you. The Family isn't going to leave you to the mercy of the PRT, she said," he added, looking pleased. "I don't think Saurial or Raptaur will be able to make it, though, they've also got things they need to do."

"I was told about the possible Parahuman threat to you and Taylor," Linda said. "I know Saurial's protecting her at school." She grinned for a second. "PHO is going nuts about it."

"So I gather," he remarked. "I haven't had time to look at the local forum for a few days. Anything particularly good?"

"That guy who thinks they're all demons is warning that having one running around Arcadia risks corrupting other innocents," Lisa put in, appearing very amused. "But said in a more doomsday-like way, of course."

"Oh, god, _that_ guy is _nuts_ ," Linda sighed. "Nearly as bad as Void Cowboy. Who is just… _Void Cowboy_."

All three of them nodded wisely. There was little doubt of that, and no better way to put it. "I find it rather disturbing," Danny said after a reflective moment, "that he is nearly as famous on the internet as Saurial, or Legend. I'm sure it says something very profound about people but I'm not sure what. Or that I want to know."

Again, they shared a common moment of empathy. Eventually, Linda walked back to the workbench next to the dormant mech and picked up a USB stick. She tossed to to Lisa who snagged it out of the air with a remarkably quick motion of her hand, then peered at it. "Saurial suggested we would need a manual for the mech," she explained. "That's got my notes on operation, diagrams of the controls, that sort of thing. She said you could work out the best way to do the rest." With a shrug, she added, "Me no good with words, only Tinkering."

At Lisa's laugh she smiled. "I'll have some more data once I've finished typing up my notes from yesterday and the feedback from everyone who tried it. The controls are going to change quite a lot but most of the rest should be fairly stable now."

"OK. I'll have a look at it, sort it into some sort of order, and find a couple of guys from the technical drawings and documentation department who can help," the blonde girl said, putting the stick into her pocket. "That OK, Danny?"

"Of course, go ahead," he replied. "Will you do a technical servicing manual as well?" He looked between them. "Can you even _do_ that for a piece of Tinker-tech?"

Lisa studied the mech for a moment, then glanced at Linda, who shrugged slightly. "To a point, yes, I think," she said after a few seconds of thought. "I'm thinking that only parts of that thing are genuinely Tinker-tech in the normal sense, right, Linda?"

"Pretty much. The power source, definitely, and the computers started out as off the shelf equipment but Saurial and I made quite a few modifications to them. That might be a problem, I'm probably the only one who can service them right now, unless Dragon can work them out. We need to talk to her about that at some point." She felt a little nervous about meeting the famous Guild Tinker, but at the same time was looking forward to it. "On the other hand, Saurial made a lot of the other parts, admittedly to my design, but she understands how they work. The linear motors are pretty simple, it's the superconductor that makes them so unusual, the mechanical parts aren't particularly difficult except for the stuff they're made of… She could easily make as many of that sort of thing as we'll ever need."

Looking at the mech as he nodded his understanding, she went on, "Parts of it are something we'll need to treat as a black-box system, but most of it is something that could be understood and maintained by a good mechanic. Even if they couldn't make some of the parts, but those parts aren't going to break in the first place."

"How reliable will a production one be?" he asked. "I've heard that Armsmaster needs to spend an awful lot of time working on his own equipment, for example, and that it's not all that unusual with some Tinker made stuff."

Linda snorted. "Armsmaster is so obsessed with miniaturization and efficiency that he packs _far_ too fucking much stuff into most of his gear, so of course it breaks down. A lot of it is pretty fragile, although I'll admit it's really impressive even so. And he's a perfectionist, always fiddling with things to make them better. _My_ stuff is much tougher. Not to mention I deliberately designed this thing to be as simple as possible and very robust, because I don't _want_ to spend all my time fixing them. I want to design new stuff."

"That's _simple?_ " he exclaimed, pointing at the mech, looking shocked. She nodded with a smile.

"Oh, compared to some of the designs I've been thinking about, it's very simple indeed," she chuckled. "Trust me on that. But it'll do for now, there's lots of things I can add."

"Hmm." Danny studied her, while Lisa looked like she had some idea about what she was talking about and couldn't wait. "I'm not sure to whether to be impressed, worried, or both."

"Pity Saurial can't come with me," she said after a moment. "It would help if they want me to make anything on demand. I have to admit that she makes me a much better Tinker in some pretty important ways, since I can just tell her what I want and it appears out of nowhere. That's a much easier method than making it the hard way, especially when it's something you can't actually make in the first place."

"Like that superconductor material," Lisa commented.

"Exactly. I was amazed that she could do it, and I still am. It'll be interesting to see if Dragon could reverse-engineer it, so it could be made by someone else. It's a complicated material." Linda smiled slightly. "On the other hand, if only the Family can make it, it's going to be a real moneyspinner for a long time." She waved at her whiteboards, then walked closer to them, the others trailing after her. "I've got half a dozen designs here that rely on high temp superconductors in one way or another. A better antigrav unit..." She pointed at one complex, half finished drawing. "A new, improved power supply, and then there's that thing."

They both looked at the workbench she was indicating. On it was a nine-foot-long piece of machinery, with an opening about four inches in diameter showing at one end. Danny bent down and peered into the thing, then straightened up again and inspected the exposed and complex workings, which included several pieces made of the superconductor.

"What is it?" he asked.

"It's a rail gun," she smiled.

He stared at her, then the machine. "A rail gun?" he echoed, a little weakly. "You mean, something to fire hypersonic projectiles? That sort of rail gun?"

"Well..." Linda also looked at it. "If you turn the power up, it'll sure make the thing you put in one end come out the other really fucking fast. But that might be dangerous. It's meant to fire metal pins into the ground to hold down railway track. Like a really big nail gun, only electromagnetic."

"A… _rail_ gun," Lisa said slowly, then started giggling. "Oh, for gods sake."

"I'm not really ready to make weapons," Linda grinned. "I'm making tools. All related, at least loosely, to transportation. This transports six inch long sharpened spikes of steel into rail ties. Very quickly." She picked up an example spike, which was roughly the same as a standard one, but with a more symmetrical head. "Obviously, if you override the safeties, it would be possible to aim the device at a remote target. And increase the firing velocity to definitely unsafe speeds. The manual will recommend against that."

Danny put a hand over his eyes for a few seconds. "Promise me you won't let Alec anywhere _near_ this thing, please," he said in a pained voice.

"Don't worry, this is going on my personal experimental unit," Linda assured him with a glance at Lisa who was still quietly laughing. "It's mostly to see if it will actually work, but it might come in handy. And it does genuinely work to spike track down. If you make sure the power is around 0.05% or so, of course. Any more and you'll probably only get a hole in the tie."

"Yes, you certainly fit in here," he sighed. She snickered, as did Lisa, who seemed oddly proud.

"Hey, want to see something cool?" she asked.

"Will it be able to kill people ten miles away with a single shot?" he asked warily. "Or engrave your name on the moon?"

"No, I haven't finished the moon-engraver plans yet," she assured him with a twitch of her lips. "This is entirely non-lethal. Old tech of mine, actually, although I made a better one last night." She pulled a remote control out of her pocket. "Watch."

Pressing a couple of buttons, she nodded at the mech, both the others turning to regard it. "I just do this..." Linda hit the last button in the activation sequence.

"Fuck me," Danny squeaked as the towering machine wavered slightly and faded from view in under a second, the effect looking like it had abruptly gone transparent, before even the outline disappeared. The various cables plugged into ports in the mech now seemed to hang in thin air with nothing holding them up.

"Not bad, is it?" she asked, satisfied with the result.

"That's… amazing," he managed to reply. Lisa was staring with great interest, moving her head from side to side and waving a hand in front of her eyes.

"It's a really good stealth field," the blonde finally said. Danny was now walking around where the machine was, before he cautiously reached out and felt for it. Finding the surface, he ran his hand over the invisible hull, appearing fascinated by the way his fingers blurred a little in the process. "It extends slightly past the surface, correct?"

"Yes. It's got about a quarter of an inch of the distortion field past the hull," she nodded. "Should work across the entire visible spectrum, and for most radar systems too. It also handles thermal radiation, and goes into the ultraviolet a ways. Most of the detection systems I could think of. Kevin's snitch camera might see it, sort of, because it uses some bizarre imager only he could have come up with, and I'm pretty sure Armsmaster has some way to see through it as well. He was getting annoyed about the old vehicles sneaking up on him." She studied it with a certain amount of amused mild pride. "Took him about a year to crack it, though. I think I can get around that with some work."

"Why do we need invisible walking forklifts, Linda?" Danny eventually asked.

"Invisible _flying_ walking forklifts," Lisa corrected. "With very big nail guns on." She looked like she was trying not to burst out laughing again.

"It blocks sound too, so it's a method to avoid disturbing people during construction operations," Linda replied in reasonable tones. He gave her a flat look, making her smile. "That's perfectly sensible, isn't it?"

The man shook his head, then sighed. "I can tell this is going to be a theme. ' _Perfectly sensible_ ' ideas taken to ridiculous extremes."

She shrugged, still smiling. "It's what I do."

"So I see," he replied in long-suffering tones. "Oh, they're going to crap themselves tomorrow, aren't they?"

"I don't think you'll have any trouble impressing them," Lisa added.

"Please try not to traumatize the PRT any more than you have to, Linda," he finally said. "The Family are bad enough from their point of view. What with you as well, and Kevin and Randall when they finally find out about them, they're going to become… puzzled. Very, very puzzled."

"That's one way to put it, Danny," Lisa grinned.

"I almost feel sorry for them," he mumbled, tapping the invisible machine once more. Linda deactivated the stealth generator and they watched it fade back into view. "Armsmaster is going to have a _lot_ of questions for you."

With a deep breath, Linda nodded firmly. "And I'll answer all the ones I think he needs to know about," she replied. "The PRT will be happy, or as happy as they're going to get, I'll be finally completely rid of the parts of my past I've left behind, and we can get on with fixing this place up properly."

Walking back over to her, he looked her in the eyes. "You'll make us all proud, Linda. That much I'm sure of." While she felt very pleased, he checked the time. "Sorry, I need to go, I have some phone calls to make and a few things to tie up before tomorrow. I'll see you later, I expect."

"See you, Danny," she replied. "And thanks. It means a lot."

"You're welcome."

Lisa smiled at her, glanced at the mech, gave her a quick thumb's up, and hastened after him. Seconds later she was alone in the workshop.

Almost collapsing onto a stool, she ran her hands over her head, smoothing her ears down, then sighed heavily. "God, I hope it goes well," she mumbled to herself, abruptly nervous again. In some ways she was looking forward to it, and in others she was terrified. What if they worked out she had been Squealer?

Looking at one hand, she flexed the claws in and out a couple of times, then flicked her tail. ' _That's pretty fucking unlikely,'_ she finally thought. _'Ianthe and the others went to an insane amount of effort to make sure it wouldn't happen. And I'm going to do everything I can to help them all, and the other guys, and make sure things work out for everyone_.'

Standing up, she moved to the bench that held the half-completed electromagnetic accelerator cannon. Running a hand over it, she mused, ' _And if Adam does turn up again, trying to start something…_ '

After a moment she shrugged, briefly mourned the man she knew she'd lost for good a long time ago, and went back to work on the mech, humming to herself and content.

* * *

"Try to keep a lid on this place while I'm away, will you?" Danny said as he signed a few work orders. Glancing up at Kurt, he grinned. "I know it's not easy but I have faith in you. And listen to Lisa, that girl is very perceptive."

His old friend nodded agreement. "She does seem to be much better at the job than I'd have thought considering her age. Everyone likes her as well which helps."

"I trust her to do the right thing," Danny said, finishing the paperwork and pushing it to one side. "Listen to Saurial and her relatives as well, they're very smart and have an interesting viewpoint on things. On the other hand, try not to let them get too carried away. Or Vectura either."

"And running around the yard at a hundred miles an hour in a machine out of a sci-fi book isn't getting carried away?" Kurt asked with a smirk.

Danny sighed faintly, shrugging. "Not these days. To be honest, I'm not entirely certain what would be too far for that lot. Especially considering how everyone else here is perfectly happy to egg them on."

Sitting down, Kurt leaned back and regarded the man behind the desk for a few seconds. "Things have sure changed around this place. And the city itself."

"That they have," he agreed readily. Looking at the email on his computer for a second, he closed it. "That they have. More than I would have thought possible."

"Everyone seems to think it's a good thing," Kurt noted.

"Do you? Still?"

"Yes, actually," the other man smiled. "If only because it got me my oldest friend back the way he was. It's great to see you enjoying life so much these days, Danny. And Taylor is looking amazingly happy."

He smiled back. "You wouldn't believe how happy. She's made a lot of friends in the last few months and completely turned her life around, dragging me with her. Which is good." Both of the looked over at the door when someone knocked, opening it a moment later. Zephron stuck his head inside.

"A shipment of parts for Vectura turned up at the gate, Padrone," his deep voice rumbled, causing Danny to give him a hard look, which only provoked a smile. "Should I take it to her workshop? She hasn't got a phone installed yet so I can't call her, same problem with the radio."

"Talk to Lisa, ask her to chase up the phone company and the radio repeater equipment, then run it around to her workshop," Danny replied. "Actually, thinking about it, ask her to order half a dozen sets of equipment for the repeaters, if she hasn't already done it. We're sure to need them sooner or later."

"Got it." The man nodded to both of them and withdrew.

"Listen to Zephron as well," Danny advised when he was gone. "The man's a menace, he's got some funny ideas about this place, but he knows how to get things done."

Kurt snorted with laughter. "Zephron is as crazy as those lizards are, you mean. He's convinced he's either in the Mafia, the military, or both."

"Have you seen his latest ' _DWU salute_ ' yet?" Danny asked with a shake of his head. "You might be right about him, actually. Even so, he gives good advice. Same with Mark. I'm not expecting any trouble, but we do have that rogue Parahuman out there somewhere, and of course Skidmark. Hopefully he's either seen sense and abandoned his plans, or someone else got him first, considering that he hasn't turned up yet. But we can't assume that, so make sure people are alert for anything out of the ordinary."

As Kurt opened his mouth, he raised a hand, frowning. "And before you ask what ' _out of the ordinary_ ' means around here, just use some common sense."

His friend closed his mouth and grinned. "OK. Have a good trip, Danny." He stood up, his smile disappearing. "And give my best to Antonio. It's about time you two got over whatever it was that is between you. Your Dad wouldn't have liked you falling out."

Danny regarded him for a moment, then nodded slowly. "You're right. There were good reasons, though, but… I regret the way it went down if nothing else." He sighed a little. "Oh, well. That's the past. We'll see what happens."

Kurt nodded once, then turned and left. Alone, Danny leaned back in his chair, wondering how it would actually go, before deciding that was a waste of time and all he could do was wait to see. Sitting more upright he reached for his keyboard and started replying to the next email.

There were a _lot_ of emails these days.

* * *

"Fuck, fuck, **fuck**." Sophia slewed the car around the corner, floored it, spun the wheel hard to the left to counteract the power slide, then hung on as the back end nearly went out on her. Sweating, she briefly considered abandoning the vehicle with her power, but as it rocked back onto all four wheels she decided to keep going. Watching the speedometer edge up to eighty, she glanced in the rear view mirror then swore again when a horribly familiar truck came into view behind her. It negotiated the sharp bend much more sensibly, not showing any signs that it was pursuing her, but she knew better.

"Fuck, who is that guy?" she screamed in frustration, hammering the wheel for a moment. "Every time I think I've lost the fucker he turns up half an hour later. How is he doing that?!"

It was true. She'd been playing follow the leader with that exact same truck for hours, with her in the role of the leader. After losing him, or her, possibly, for the sixth time, she'd gone to extreme lengths to circle back on herself, flip coins at every junction she came to, and do everything she could think of to randomize her path. Hiding between two other trucks for twenty miles, lurking under a bridge for half an hour, and even cutting across a field, none of those seemed to work either. Within a short period, that damn green truck would come into view, following her at a respectful distance that was just close enough to make her absolutely certain it was deliberate.

If it was a precog, it was a better one than any she'd heard of before, and if it wasn't, she had no idea how the trick was being done. But it was driving her nuts.

She'd zigzagged across three states so far and was ready to kill someone. Looking at the gun in the passenger seat, a .45 caliber hand cannon she'd stolen from under the till in a shop she'd burgled over night, she considered ambushing the bastard and just shooting him in the head. But that would risk too much heat, so she wasn't yet at that point.

Another possibility would be to somehow stop the truck and beat the answer of who he was and who he was working for out of the driver. That was easier, but if he was reporting back on her location, his handlers would know she was onto them. She snorted with irritation, it wasn't like they couldn't possibly realize that by now anyway. Maybe it was worth the risk?

A sudden light on the dash attracted her attention. The low fuel indicator was blinking at her now. "Christ, what next?" she growled in fury. She was going to have to steal a new vehicle.

Having gained a couple of miles on the truck, she slowed so she could check the map. At the moment she was climbing slowly, the landscape having become much more hilly, and the road was winding around the hills and often obscuring the view behind her. Ignoring the other vehicles that occasionally passed in the other direction, she manipulated the map, looking for a small town close to her where she could find a replacement vehicle.

"That'll do," she finally grunted, noticing that there was a tiny town off to the left about four miles further. The map indicated it was some distance lower than the road she was on, by about five hundred feet it looked like. Following the road with her eyes, glancing up every now and then to make sure she stayed in her lane, she saw that she'd have to go past the town, take a turning to the left a couple of miles later, then double back on herself. By the looks of it the main road ran along a ridge above the edge of the town itself.

That gave her an idea.

Glancing in the mirror, she checked the truck was barely visible in the distance. He was still following. Good. That suddenly worked in her favor.

Sophia folded the map and reached into the back seat, slowing to forty to allow her to take her attention off the road for a moment. Slipping the map into her main pack, she then heaved it across into the front, sticking the pistol and a few other things in as well. She zipped up that pocket and reached back again, grabbing her other stuff, which she'd compacted into another pack about the size of the first one so she only had to carry two. The second one had the big crossbow strapped to it, the bow itself removed and stowed separately.

There was some food, a few more stolen weapons, and a couple of changes of clothes in the trunk, which was a nuisance, but she couldn't spare the time to stop and dig them out. They were all stolen anyway and she could easily replace them. The things she actually wanted were in the two packs.

Making sure both were firmly secured, she returned her attention to the road, speeding up again. As she came around a corner and went over the top of the ridge, she could see down on the left the town she was aiming for. To her relief the road did indeed go past some distance up the side of the hill, which was a sheer drop of a couple of hundred feet before it started to level off.

Perfect.

She reached out to the nearest pack, unzipping a side pocket and removing the only item in it, which she hefted. It had been a lucky find in one of the places she'd raided on her road trip. It was very unlikely that the previous owner would report it missing either.

She wedged the fragmentation grenade down between the seats, then rummaged through the top of the pack for a length of strong cord and a carabiner, which she had half a dozen of. Holding the latter between her teeth she tied one end of the forty foot line to it, then clipped it through the ring on the grenade. The other end she wrapped around her fingers, holding on firmly.

Preparations complete and hoping it would actually work, she returned her attention to the road, looking for the best spot. Eventually she found it, a sharp bend on a steep descent. Aiming at the guard barrier took off her seat belt and floored the accelerator, checking that the truck was still back there.

It was.

Gritting her teeth, she held on, until the car was doing over a hundred. At the last moment she dived sideways, grabbing both packs and the coil of cord, taking them all along with herself into the shadow form that her power provided. She and her payload ghosted through the car as it slammed into the barrier square on at nearly a hundred and ten miles an hour, flipping right over it into the air then plummeting over the edge of the cliff. By the time it did so she was flying through the air as a shadow, paying the line out behind her.

As she'd hoped, the line she'd been holding was still in shadow form, with only the last foot or so which had been out of range of her ability still corporeal. The car went past her as she slowed rapidly, then the line jerked itself out of her hands. She let it go, watching it return to normal a moment later.

Sophia fell slowly through the air, buoyed by her power, while the stolen vehicle arced downward trailing broken glass from the windshield. Just before it disappeared into the trees there was a sharp explosion as the grenade detonated, her improvised trap working as planned.

' _That should slow them down_ ,' she thought, sinking towards the ground. She was still moving quite fast, since not only was this the highest leap in shadow form she'd ever tried, but she'd never been moving so quickly before either. Even so it was slow enough that it wasn't going to be a problem. ' _Hopefully they'll think I'm dead_.'

Glancing up she could see the bent barrier for a moment before it vanished behind the lip of the cliff. A few seconds later she landed, reverting to normal just above the ground and rolling as she let go of her packs.

"Ow," she muttered, climbing to her feet rubbing her elbow, which had found a hard piece of ground or a root or something. Having retrieved and put on the larger pack, she picked the other one up, looked around, and headed down the slope away from where she could see smoke starting to blow around from the wreck.

With any luck that would throw her pursuer off the track for good. Now all she had to do was sneak into town, find a suitable vehicle, steal it, and head off in a random direction until she could locate a suitable place to hole up.

And change the bandages on her wrist, which was throbbing nastily, the sudden action apparently having torn the scar tissue that was forming.

Swearing under her breath about the perfidies of Tinkers and their stupid tech, she stomped as quietly as she could manage through the woods towards the town, while also wondering who that fucking trucker had been.

* * *

A couple of hundred feet above her, a green semi ground to a halt next to a badly dented section of guard rail, the occupant looking at it for a few seconds. He got out, checking both ways for traffic, then walked over to the other side of the road, peering down the drop. Raising the binoculars he was carrying to his eyes, he scanned the woods below, inspecting the place where smoke was rising, then looking around it for a while.

Eventually, he lowered them, walked back to his truck and climbed inside. Moments later it hissed as the airbrakes came off and started moving again, while he reached for his phone and hit a speed-dial number. It was time to report.

* * *

"Hi, Amy," Taylor said as she entered the bathroom between classes, seeing her friend standing in front of the mirror frowning at her reflection. "Problem?"

"Just wondering if I'd look better a little taller," the other brunette smiled.

"You're fine the way you are," Taylor assured her, amused.

"Says Miss nearly-six-foot-tall Hebert."

"Sorry, you'll have to shout, I can't hear you all the way down there," Taylor giggled. Amy shook her head, trying to look annoyed and failing. "Oh, I've got a math study period as the last thing today, so I'm going to leave early, since I don't really need it. The teacher doesn't mind. I'll meet you at the yard later."

"OK." Amy washed her hands, then dried them. "I'll see you later," she added, as the bell rang to give them a one minute warning. With a wave she left, Taylor hurriedly finishing her own business and doing likewise.

' _We can make Linda's spare parts as soon as we get there, that shouldn't take too long, and we'll have enough time for the other things we need to do tonight_ ,' she thought at the Varga.

" _Hopefully, yes,_ " he agreed. Right then they didn't have the second aspect out, having used it quite a bit so far today. Their ' _run-time_ ' was steadily rising with practice but she still needed a break between uses. " _I wonder if the PRT has been contacted about Linda yet?_ "

' _We'll find out when we get there_ ,' she replied. ' _But I think probably yes. Dad said he was going to call Director Piggot_.'

" _How far away do you think the PRT building is from Arcadia?_ " he asked as she went into the next classroom moments before the bell rang for the last time.

' _I've never checked_ ,' she admitted. ' _A little less than three miles or… Ah. I see your point_.'

Sitting down she pulled out the relevant biology textbook, and her notepad. " _It would undoubtedly help Linda to have Saurial available. Shall we test it?_ "

' _I think so_.' Manifesting her other aspect as the small dragon outside on the roof, she looked around, splitting her attention between listening to the teacher and the other aspect. Getting her bearings she launched into the air, gaining height for a few seconds, before teleporting a couple of times. Moments later she was flying around the PRT building, cloaked and smiling to herself. ' _Great. That's useful_.'

" _Indeed it is._ " Her companion sounded pleased. " _Pity we can't yet manage the DWU from the school, but it's only a matter of time. I suspect that when we have enough practice, our range will go up quite substantially at a rapid rate_."

' _It's increased quite a lot already_ ,' she noted. ' _We couldn't do this at first_.'

" _Practice generally improves most skills,_ " he told her with a mental smile. " _This is no different. Now, I believe your teacher asked a question about mitosis._ "

' _Oops_ ,' she thought, having put a little too much attention into flying around three miles away from the classroom. Quickly reviewing her memory, she answered the question, causing the teacher to nod and write it on the board.

Leaving her friend to the second aspect, she withdrew to the Taylor one and gave the class her full attention. She would have time for fun after school.


	319. Omake - A Business Trip (DC)

_I've wanted to do a DC crossover for a while. Part of the reason I haven't is that the continuity of the DC universe is even worse than the Marvel one, to the point that I don't think that DC themselves know how it works. I mean, just for Batman, we have the TV series, the movies, the rebooted movies, the other rebooted movies, the animated movies, the other animated movies, the animated TV series, the comics, the different comics, the other different comics, the other other different comics... It's a complete mess._

 _On the other hand, that means that I can basically pick and choose, taking bits I want from different places and putting them together into my own version, secure in the knowledge that this is almost certainly what DC do as well_

 _So that's what I did._

 _This is a sort of experiment, to see what it would come out as. I may extend it at some point. I may also try something completely different..._

* * *

Donny groaned and rolled over, weakly retching a little, before he managed to get to hands and knees. Blood dripped from his face, some of it coming from his nose, some from a cut over his right eye, and a little from one ear. Everything he was looking at was at least doubled, there were halos around the lights above him, and he could hear a faint whistling sound every time he moved.

' _Another concussion_ ,' he though blurrily. ' _Having a lot of those recently_.'

"Donny?" a voice rasped, sounding pained. He barely recognized it for a moment.

"Mikey? You still alive?" He tried to stand up, but collapsed again, almost ending up on his face. Looking around he could see several comatose bodies lying untidily around the alley between the ranks of shipping containers, steaming slightly in the light rain that was falling. One of them moved, a hand rising then falling back onto the pitted wet concrete with a splat.

"Think so. Not sure I want to be." His old friend's voice was weak, but held a note of black humor. "Could do with a drink. Think my left leg's busted, can't move it."

Trying again, Donny managed to stagger erect, bracing himself against the container next to him. Several of the other forms were beginning to move a little, but he ignored them for the moment and made his way to Mikey, using the container for support. He swayed a lot as he shuffled along, rain water washing blood from his face into his sweater, but he finally made it.

Dropping to his knees next to his friend, the act nearly making him black out again, he looked at the other man. Mikey's left leg was definitely broken, since it sure wasn't meant to bend that way. Donny winced a little at the sight. He was pretty sure that if he cut the leg of the jeans off, which was the only way they were _coming_ off, he'd see bone sticking through the skin. Glancing to the right he saw that one of the containers had a pretty impressive dent in it where his friend had hit it.

"You're fucked up, man," Mikey said with a weak chuckle, looking up at his friend's face. "Broke your nose again."

"Don't remind me," Donny replied, his voice nasal due to the shape of his nose. "Got a busted rib too, I think. And concussion."

"Is he gone?"

The question made Donny look around, then up at the tops of the containers, stacked five high. Beyond them he could see a couple of the shipyard cranes swaying a little in the wind, back lit by the city beyond. The poles with the sparse lights on were casting cones of orange light into the rain, and down at the end of the alleyway formed by the two walls of containers were the lights of the first warehouse, currently mostly off since it was after working hours. There were only a few security lights on to show the sides of the run down building.

He couldn't see any sign of the one that had laid out a dozen men, though. Thankfully.

"Can't see the fucker," he reported. A glint next to him made him blink, not sure he was actually seeing a real thing for a second or two, since his eyes were definitely not playing ball right now. Wiping them, feeling congealed blood under his hand, he blinked again, then shuffled a foot to the right and picked up the thing that he'd seen.

Donny looked at it, then around the area again. A couple of the men were now sitting up, or attending to their fallen comrades. Several were groaning loudly in pain, one was weeping softly, a sound that made him wince. It told of immense pain.

He spotted a few more traces of their assailant now his vision was clearing a little. He was still having trouble seeing straight, but it wasn't as bad as it had been the last time, thankfully.

"I hate that bastard," Mikey said in a low voice. "Never listens. Just keeps hitting people and asking stupid questions. We don't have answers for him, do we? Not this time. But try to explain that, get a busted leg."

"Or nose," Donny agreed. He counted the people he could see, coming up two short. "Can't find Jeff or Nick."

Mikey raised his head a little, then turned it. "I saw them go that way," he said, indicating towards the warehouse. "Heard a scream. After you were out. He got them." His friend was speaking in shorter sentences, now, sounding exhausted. Donny was getting worried, watching the blood spread on his leg through his jeans, the entire leg below the knee now black with the stuff under the sodium lights.

"We need to get out of this place," Donny sighed, turning the object in his fingers over and over. "It's going to kill us."

"Too many idiots in spandex," Mikey agreed weakly, almost smiling. "Honest man can't make a buck."

"Well, sort of honest," Donny replied with a quirk of his lips. Mikey produced a horizontal shrug, his face showing pain.

"Close enough," he grunted. "Donny? Gonna pass out again."

Moments later his eyes closed.

"Mikey?" Dropping the small object with a clink, Donny prodded his friend. "Mikey? Oh, fuck." He tried to think what to do, medical training being something that had largely bypassed him. He could patch up a cut, and knew how to fix his nose, although he wasn't looking forward to it, but blood loss from a severely broken leg was beyond him. None of the other guys were any better, and looking at them, most of them were bashed up enough not to be able to help much anyway. One was lying ominously still, as it was.

Turning his face up to the rain, he clenched his fists. This was the third time in nine months that lunatic had come through and kicked the shit out of everyone while he was looking for information on someone he was after. No one ever said anything about the trail of bodies he left behind, but when he finally got his high profile bad guy, the papers were full of it. Either side, for or against his sort, all they really concentrated on was the money side, or the spectacular stuff, the things that affected the wealthy of the city. Some poor fucker in the dockyard who lost his home because he was off work for six months because he'd been thrown through a wall, _he_ wasn't important enough for anyone to care.

Not the crime bosses, they could find more mooks easily enough, and not the so called good guys, because the dock worker was a petty criminal who sometimes supplemented his low income with a couple of minor thefts to make ends meet. To stop his family from starving.

And the guy himself had the nerve to go around all high and mighty because he didn't kill. He didn't seem to care that the damage he caused was sometimes worse. Donny had personally known at least two people who'd offed themselves because of that guy, since they were unable to work any more and lost the will to keep going. Not like there were a lot of jobs around for unskilled labor that couldn't labor.

Putting a hand on his friend's shoulder, he squeezed. "Sorry, Mikey," he whispered. "I can't do anything."

"I can, if you'll let me," an unfamiliar voice said from the darkness between two stacks of containers. He turned sharply, then swayed as his dizziness got worse. The other conscious men did the same, several of them reaching for knives or pistols, although many of those weapons were scattered around the ground where their initial assailant had left them. "Sorry, didn't mean to make you jump," the voice added. It was female and sounded concerned, with an odd accent Donny didn't recognize.

"Who are you?" he growled, wiping more blood out of his eyes and straining to see into the blackness. The middle of the night in the rain wasn't the best environment to let him see, though, and he could only make out a rough silhouette, which seemed to be that of someone tall and thin.

"Someone who wants to help," she replied. "Try not to freak out, OK? I'll come out. I'm honestly not your enemy, so don't overreact."

Now worried, since that sounded ominous, especially in this city, he tensed. She took a couple of steps forward, the light from the nearest pole casting a glow over her. Donny's eyes widened at the sight and he leaned back, almost at the point of rising to his feet and backing away, aside from the problem that he physically couldn't at the moment.

"Mary, mother of god," one of the others said, in a whisper. Donny didn't take his eyes off the new arrival but could picture the man crossing himself.

"My name is Saurial," the humanoid lizard watching him said in a low voice. She looked at Mikey, then cast her eyes around the area, before returning her attention to him. "I'm just in the area on business and I smelled blood. What happened?"

" _He_ happened." Donny spat to the side, wiping his bloody mouth on the back of his hand. "Again. Wanting info. We told him we didn't know, but that never stops the bastard."

"I see," she said, her alien face moving in a way that he thought was a frown. "Some sort of bad guy?"

Donny snorted with sudden laughter, feeling light-headed. This entire situation had gone from bad to surreal very suddenly. "He wouldn't think so. Probably try to beat you up if you said that. Thinks he's a good guy, so do half the city. The half he doesn't keep fucking up."

"Ah." She nodded slowly, walking closer. He looked at the claws on her scaled toes, then the tail that was twitching around slowly behind her, under the hem of the long trench-coat she had on. "One of those. OK. I'll have to look into that. Forget it for now, let's get you boys fixed up, all right?"

"You really can help?" he asked, hope warring with suspicion in his voice. "Why?" In his experience people didn't do things for you without wanting something in return. He had no idea what a lizard-woman would want.

She shrugged slightly. "It's sort of what I do," she smiled. He managed to suppress a shiver at the sight of the sharp teeth. "I keep running into weird shit when I travel, and I like to help if possible. Sometimes it isn't, of course. But healing people is easy enough." Putting a hand into her pocket, she pulled out a small device which she flicked open, then spoke into, the language one Donny had never in his weirdest dreams encountered. It was utterly inhuman and made him nervous, but she didn't seem to notice or care.

Moments later he could hear a faint response in the same language, which she nodded to, before closing the device and slipping it back into her pocket. "Just calling my cousin, she's the real healer. Your friend here will need her help. I can deal with the simpler problems."

Moving to right next to him, she knelt down. "Hold still a second," she said gently, reaching out and taking hold of his head. The feeling of the strong, slender fingers, covered in fine scales, on his skin was odd but not unpleasant. She moved his head around, feeling the back of it. He sucked in a breath at the sudden intense pain.

"Minor fracture there," she noted, releasing him. "Nothing too serious, though. Lie down."

He stared at her, then very slowly did as requested, feeling disorientated. How had he ended up being tended to by what might well be an alien?

Whatever. At least she was trying to help, not hitting him. That was an improvement over the most recent events in his life. He lay on the soaking concrete next to Mikey, feeling cold water run down his back. His clothes were absolutely saturated, both with water and blood, so it wasn't like it was going to make them any more ruined.

"OK, this is going to feel strange," the lizard-woman said as she produced a small flat metallic container from somewhere on her person and opened it. "Just bear with me." Removing a small whitish object from the container, she closed it with one hand and made it go away, then held the object to his forehead. Pressing with one finger, he heard a faint squeak. Moments later that spot went entirely numb.

The numbness spread to the injured parts of his body, which meant that a lot of him was abruptly without sensation. He heard a crunch and could literally _see_ his nose move back into the position it was meant to be in, although he couldn't feel anything at all. His eyes widened, but he kept his mouth shut, not wanting to upset her.

Ten seconds or so passed then sensation came back in a rush. His head swam for a moment before his vision snapped back into normal operation.

"Holy fuck," Donny whispered, reaching up and gingerly prodding his nose, which felt entirely fine. He raised his hand further and felt his brow, finding there was no cut there. Sitting up, ready to feel dizzy, he was startled to discover he actually felt completely fine, even the dull ache in his foot where he'd been slightly run over by a forklift the day before now gone.

"Feel better?" she asked, smiling.

"Fuck, do I," he muttered. "How the hell…?"

"An invention of my cousin's," she replied, holding up the container, before putting it away again. "They'll fix most things."

"What about Mikey?" he asked suddenly, looking at his friend, who seemed very pale.

"He's still alive, and Ianthe will be here in a second," Saurial said. "He'll be fine." She seemed sure of herself. Standing up, she moved away, heading towards the others, a couple of whom started to back away. Donny climbed to his feet and went with her.

"Let her help, guys, I don't think she's an enemy," he advised. They stopped, although everyone was looking very nervous. Saurial began examining them, pausing and turning a little later to look along the row of containers towards the warehouse.

"There she is," she said, waving to the approaching figure. Donny, as well as everyone else who was awake, looked to see a much larger form jogging towards them. It was also reptilian, he noted uneasily, and looked wildly more dangerous, what with the armor and all. There were also two unconscious people in its arms, being carried remarkably carefully. When this new arrival stopped a few yards away directly in the pool of light cast by an overhead bulb he could see these were the two missing men.

"Found these guys dangling by their ankles from a wire back there," the huge reptile, which was way over seven feet tall and built like a tank, said in a voice that sounded annoyed. "I put them out for the moment, they were in a lot of pain. Dislocated hip on one of them, shattered knee on the other, along with a lot of contusions. Someone gave them a real working over."

"Fixed them yet?" Saurial asked, as the bigger lizard, presumably her cousin, put both men down with care.

"Yep, although I didn't want to turn them back on until you were here to explain," she replied with a grin. "I make the humans nervous for some reason."

Donny looked at the teeth and didn't volunteer why this might be the case.

Snickering, Saurial nodded. "OK. That one there is in a bad way, and so is this one over here. Serious blood loss from a broken leg..." She pointed at Mikey, "and I'm pretty sure a torn liver in this other guy." This was accompanied by a wave at the comatose worker, who was a very odd color. "I didn't want to risk anything until you had a look."

"All right." The big lizard delicately stepped over Mikey and went to the second man, bending down and touching him for a second. "Yep, he's bleeding internally. Stick a fixer on him, it'll recover the blood as biomass."

"Got it." Saurial pulled out her container again and proceeded to do much the same to the unfortunate man as she had done to Donny, while the other reptilian creature went back to Mikey, squatting down next to him. She put one hand on him again, Donny watching as weird little tendrils came out of that hand and dived through his skin.

He felt a little ill watching, but didn't look away.

"Wow, someone really doesn't like this guy," she muttered, a compartment in the violet armor she was wearing popping open. Reaching inside, she pulled out a handful of what looked to Donny's incredulous eyes like ordinary onions. "Lost over a liter of blood, half a dozen internal injuries… Two broken vertebrae as well. Did someone throw him into a brick wall or something?"

"Something like that, I think," Saurial commented from where she was monitoring the progress of the other man, who Donny could see was looking a lot better. She waved at the dented container, which her cousin looked at, then shook her head.

"Fuckwits. These guys aren't Brutes, just normal humans. You could kill someone hitting them that hard."

Donny wondered about the capitalization he could literally hear on the word ' _Brute_ ,' as if it had some significance that he was missing.

"I know," Saurial sighed, moving on to the next person and putting one of the little ' _fixers_ ' on his forehead, then watching for a few seconds before nodding in satisfaction. "This is way over the top. Looks like the guy has done it before, from what that one says." She indicated Donny with her tail, which made Ianthe look at him for a second. "It's one thing if they're coming at you like the E88, guns blazing, but it looks like they were jumped by the guy and tried to defend themselves. These injuries are just a beating, not a valid response to a threat."

"Who was it?" her cousin asked. "One of the local Capes?"

"Think so," Saurial said, concentrating on her work for a few seconds. "You can guess which one. Look over there." She pointed.

The second reptile bent down and retrieved the object Donny had originally found, inspecting it. "Ah. Him."

"Man's got a problem," Saurial said.

"Looks like it. Like Stalker, sort of, but worse." The big one dropped the thing again, then smiled down at her patient. "He's fine now."

Donny noticed that the onions had somehow disappeared and wondered what they had been in aid of. Mikey groaned, then rolled his head to the side, his eyes opening. A moment later he yelped in shock and tried to jerk himself to the side. "Calm down, I'm not threatening you," the lizard said calmly. "My name is Ianthe, I'm a healer. You're fine, now, but you'll feel a little dizzy for a few minutes. You'll also want to eat a good meal soon, and drink a couple of pints of water." She straightened up and stepped back, letting Mikey stand as well.

He did so, looking mightily puzzled and quite scared, although he calmed down when he noticed Donny, who was now leaning on one of the containers simply watching, having given up trying to work out what was going on. "Who the hell are they? Or _what?_ " Mikey whispered hoarsely to his friend.

Donny shrugged. "I have _no_ idea. But they're fixing us up, not breaking bones, so that's a plus."

They watched as over the next five minutes or so, both reptilian creatures moved about and fixed all the injuries. By the end, a dozen dock workers were clustered in groups staring at the lizards in shock, looking very confused but healthy and undamaged. Saurial, when the job was done, went around and collected all the traces of the man who had done this, looking at the pile of hardware for a few seconds before somehow making it disappear into her coat, which didn't show any signs of the stuff.

"So, tell us what happened, please," she requested, looking around. Everyone exchanged glances then fixed their eyes on Donny, apparently electing him spokesman by unanimous silent vote. He swallowed, sighed, and began talking.

* * *

"That was weird," Mikey said quietly, as he and his friend watched the two reptilian creatures disappear around the end of the row of containers.

"You're telling me," Donny responded, shaking his head. "Even around here. Fucking city."

"What did she call them? Capes?"

"Yeah. Good name, actually." Donny snorted. "Considering how many of them wear the things." He stretched, then felt his nose for about the tenth time in as many minutes, in a wondering sort of manner. Mikey understood the feeling, it was one he was experiencing as well. By the looks of it, so were the others.

"I need a drink," he finally said.

Mikey nodded fervently. He also felt that alcohol would play a part in his near future. They exchanged glances, then turned around and started walking back to the warehouse and clocking out. From there, it was a short trip to their favorite tavern just outside the dock area.

After a second, he grinned. "Bet we can get some drinks for free with _this_ story," he said, feeling suddenly quite pleased. Physically he felt in better shape than he had in years, and he'd survived something that could easily have killed him. The surreality of the experience was bizarre but on the whole things had gone a lot better than they could have done.

"Good point," Donny chuckled. Several of the other workers joined them as they walked. "Wonder if those two will have a word with the crazy man?"

"They seemed pissed about it," he nodded. "Be funny if Saurial finds him and kicks his ass."

Both of them laughed at the thought.

"That would piss him off something terrible," Donny snickered. "Who would win?"

"I have five on Saurial," Mikey grinned.

In an oddly good mood, they kept walking, discussing what might happen if the lizard-like female went up against any of the multitude of costumed weirdos that infested the city.

Gotham was a very dangerous place, he reflected. Even when the so-called good guys _weren't_ kicking the shit out of you.

* * *

"Mr Fox, your three o'clock appointment is here."

Lucius tapped the blinking icon on his desk console, then spoke to the air. "Thank you, Marty. Show them in, please."

"Of course, sir," the man said. A few seconds later, the door opened, his assistant waving two women in. Lucius was inwardly amused by the way the man seemed completely unaware that neither one of them looked entirely normal, merely smiling politely at them.

"Get us some coffee, will you, Marty?" he asked. The PA nodded then withdrew. Standing up from his desk, Lucius walked around it to greet his visitors, holding out his hand. Both of them shook it, smiling.

"Hello, ladies. It's been a while. I still can't figure out how you manage that trick." He motioned to the door, causing them to look amused.

"Magic, Lucius," the taller of the two said as she took her coat off and draped it over a chair, then sat down. "I've told you that before."

"I know. But I'm an engineer, I have trouble with magic."

"I could show you the math if you want."

He shook his head, grinning briefly. "You offered the first time we met. I was seeing weird things for two days after that. Your math is… unusual."

She snickered. "You're not the first one to say that," she replied with a smirk. "How have you been?"

"Really pretty good, actually," he noted, then looked around as Marty tapped on the door, before pushing it open. Entering with a tray which contained all the relevant materials for several cups of coffee, along with some cookies, he put it down on the side table, smiled at the two women, then left again. Lucius leaned over his desk and tapped the relevant icon that locked the door and told his people he was in conference. That way they wouldn't be disturbed unless it was an emergency. "And you two?"

"Not bad at all," the other woman said, investigating the tray for a moment. She poured three cups of coffee, handing him one, then her friend, before taking the last and sitting down as well. He followed suit, all of them in the comfortable chairs at the side of the office. "Things at home are going well, we're completing work on the new ship right now. Should be ready for a test in a couple of weeks."

"I'd love to see it," he commented.

"I'll send you a recording," she promised.

"Thanks, Vectura." Lucius sipped his coffee, observing both visitors. Inwardly he mused that the presence in his office of a part-cat woman and a humanoid reptile was less strange now that it had been the first time a few years ago. _That_ time it had been a distinct shock. These days it was a pleasant diversion from normal business.

"Production of the new design of reactor is going well," he remarked, putting his cup down. "It's a good thing I talked to you about that project, the issue with the previous version could have been very unpleasant if anything had gone wrong."

"Glad to help," Saurial smiled. "It was a good attempt, with only a couple of problems. We've seen something similar before which is why we noticed the flaw."

"Thank you, in any case," he said. "We all missed it entirely."

"No problem."

Vectura produced a briefcase, which she opened, removing a couple of folders from it. Looking through them, she nodded then handed them over. "These are the final specs for the updated Tumbler armor, and the aircraft you wanted. Full design notes, detailed parts lists, everything you should require. We've built a prototype and tested it, the thing works to specification. Your tech base shouldn't have any trouble with it."

He accepted the folders and leafed through the contents, inspecting the printed schematics with great interest. "Impressive. Again. Thank you." On the last page of the each folder was a pocket that contained a couple of USB sticks.

"They're encrypted with your public key, as per usual," Vectura added.

Saurial held out a clipboard on which were a stack of forms, while smiling a little. "The normal paperwork."

Putting the folders down he took it from her, pulling a pen from his pocket. She made the one she'd produced in her other hand go away. "Still have that?"

"One of my most treasured possessions," he told her with a small grin, signing in the indicated places. When he finished, she took it back and separated out the copies, handing him the ones he required for his own records.

"Always a pleasure doing business with you, Lucius," she said as she put everything away.

"I feel the same," he assured her, picking up his coffee again and helping himself to a cookie. "Are you in town for long this time?"

"We might be," Saurial said as she also took a cookie. "Something came up last night. Ianthe is following up on it."

"Can I ask what the problem is?"

Saurial studied him for a moment, then ate the last piece of the cookie in her hand and reached into her pocket. Pulling out a small piece of razor-sharp metal in a very distinctive shape she put it on the glass tabletop between them. He looked at it.

"Oh."

"He's getting carried away," she remarked, sipping her coffee. "We had to heal over a dozen people he ' _interrogated_ ' down at the docks. Two of them could have died from their injuries. Sure, they're small-time crooks in some cases, but that doesn't mean he needs to beat them half to death just to ask some questions."

She smiled with teeth showing. "Normally I just have to ask politely, I find."

Lucius grinned briefly. "I wonder why that works so well?" Vectura snorted with humor as Saurial shrugged.

"I'm not sure."

"I've heard that you've had your fair share of interactions with criminals," he commented.

Saurial shot her companion a look, which was returned with a small smile. "Hmm. Well, yes, that's true. Our home city is, or was, even worse than this place. But I've always at least tried to be as minimal-violence as I can be. Humans are fragile, and breaking them too much gets the authorities looking at you with an annoyed expression. Especially if they don't actually present much of a threat. But your guy..." She nodded at the modified shuriken on the table. "...He's really hurting people, quite a lot of them. But at the same time the real villains, the ones who have killed hundred of people, they just get locked up for a while until they escape. You know that as well as I do."

He sighed. "I do, as it happens."

"We had similar problems at home," Vectura put in. "Revolving doors on the prisons for the really dangerous villains. It doesn't end well."

"I can imagine. But for various reasons some people are difficult to deal with." He finished the coffee, then poured some more into his cup. "As much as one or two of them deserve a bullet in the back of the head. Not that I said it."

"Of course not." Saurial regarded him for a moment, then refilled her own cup. "I may have to do something about at least one of them soon myself if no one else gets around to it. But in the meantime, your friend needs to control himself. If he gets too carried away, the public will lose all trust in him, and he's in trouble. I've seen it before. People in our position need to think about what the ordinary guy in the street thinks, no matter how powerful we are. It matters. Unless you're willing to take over completely, which is way too much work anyway."

"I'll mention it to him," Lucius assured her. "Thanks for letting me know about it."

"No problem." She smiled, then changed the subject, the three of them soon laughing about a very strange story involving a hammer and a god.

When they left, an hour or so later, he sat down behind his desk, thinking for a while. Finally, gently running a finger over the edge of the sharpened stylized metal bat in his hand, he dialed a number only about three other people in the world had access to, waiting as various encryption systems bounced it around the place.

When it was answered, he said, "We need to talk, Bruce."


	320. Omake - A Polite Request (DC)

Parking the car, Lucius spent a few seconds inspecting the front of the enormous mansion house in front of him. Every time he saw it he wondered at the sheer amount of effort, time, and money that had gone into its construction over a hundred and fifty years before. It was simply staggering on a number of levels.

The Wayne family had been _very_ wealthy for a long, long time.

Putting such thoughts to one side, he opened the door and got out, locking the car behind him without looking at it. The double beep let him know the thing was now secure enough that anyone who tried anything would regret it. Crunching across the gravel to the main entrance, he ascended the marble stairs and stopped in front of the imposing double doors. Pressing the bell, he listened to the sound that could be faintly heard through the portal, then waited patiently.

After a couple of minutes, the door opened, revealing a tall and well preserved elderly man in a nice suit. "Hello, Alfred," he said, smiling at the old family retainer.

"Good evening, Mr Fox," the other man said, returning the smile. "Please come in. He's in his study, expecting you."

"Thank you," Lucius said, entering as Alfred stepped to the side, then closed the door behind him. He waited for the man to precede him, then followed him down elaborately decorated corridors, up two flights of stairs, and through a couple of large baroque rooms to a smaller one near the middle of the house on the third floor. Walking into the familiar room, Lucius looked around for a moment, seeing that it looked the same as it always did, before turning his attention to the younger dark-haired man sitting at the desk in the far corner, typing on a keyboard.

"Hi, Lucius. I'll be right with you," this man said, waving a hand at a chair without turning away from the huge screen in front of him. Lucius and Alfred exchanged glances, ones that shared a certain amount of understanding, then he headed for the seat, removing his coat as he went.

"Allow me to take that, Mr Fox," Alfred said calmly, relieving him of the garment as he shifted the case he was holding from one hand to the other. "Perhaps a small glass of something?"

"Just a little, please," Lucius replied. "The bourbon, I think."

"Certainly. I'll be right back." Alfred left the room almost silently, fifty plus years of practice making him remarkably discreet. Lucius sat, folding his hands on one knee, then waited for his friend and nominal employer to finish whatever he was doing.

Eventually this occurred, the man at the desk clicking the mouse a couple of times, then tapping a key which made the screen go blank. Turning his chair around he regarded his visitor for a moment, then smiled a little. "You made it sound urgent. You hardly ever call me Bruce."

"It's… fairly important," Lucius noted carefully. He looked up as Alfred appeared next to him, holding out a small silver tray on which was a shot glass with an amber liquid in it. "Thank you," he added to the retainer, taking the glass. Alfred nodded gravely, before discreetly moving to the other side of the room again, busying himself with the various bottles on a table there. The faint clink of glass was all that could be heard.

Bruce Wayne came out from behind his desk and joined Lucius, taking a seat opposite him. Alfred materialized again and provided him a drink also, before once more making himself discreetly absent. "So, what's the problem?" Bruce asked, sniffing his drink appreciatively, before taking a small sip. Lucius did the same, then put the glass down on the small table next to his elbow. Retrieving his case, he opened it on his knees, pulling out an envelope which he handed to the other man.

Weighing it in one hand, Bruce took another sip while studying his CEO, then put his drink down and opened the envelope. Tipping it up he raised his eyebrows when a very familiar piece of high-tech steel alloy slid out into his waiting hand. He picked it up with the other one, holding it up, then looked enquiringly at his visitor.

"The Bat is… becoming a possible issue," Lucius said, picking up his drink again. "Certain people are taking notice. People that it would be best not to argue with." He sipped his bourbon, watching the face of his companion, which had gone oddly blank.

There was a silence for some time. Eventually, Bruce, who had been rubbing the metal bat shape between thumb and forefinger, said in a quiet voice, "I'm not sure I take your meaning."

"My meaning is that if this continues in the manner it is currently going in, there's likely to be some… push-back. Trust me, it wouldn't end well, if it goes there. I'm asking that it doesn't."

"Someone is causing trouble?" Bruce frowned slightly. Lucius looked at him over his glass, then finished the bourbon.

"Yes."

"Who?"

The CEO of Wayne Enterprises didn't reply, but kept his eyes fixed on the other man's. Bruce looked back, his frown deepening.

Eventually, Lucius sighed. "Four times in the last month there has been an interaction involving a number of minor criminals, or in several cases, people who were merely associated with minor criminals. _Someone_ beat these men to a pulp. The last one of these incidents was last night. I was informed about it before I called you. After I called, I looked into the reports again."

Bruce kept looking at him.

"My information is that in the most recent case, two people were hurt badly enough that without immediate medical care they could well have died."

"Who told you that?"

"The people who saved their lives and fixed them up. Old friends of mine."

"I see." Bruce took another sip of his drink, then put the glass down and held up the bat-shaped shuriken. "And they gave you this?"

"They did. They recovered a number of them, actually. Along with a line-throwing pistol, several wire lines from it, and a few other toys. All of which I made for..." He made a small gesture. "Our friend."

"Interesting."

"Isn't it?"

They stared at each other for a while.

"I was told," Lucius commented, toying with the glass in his hand, "something to the effect of people in the position of our friend still required the support of the public, one way or another. And that abusing their power over others is a bad way to go about that goal." He lifted the glass and looked into it for a moment, then tipped it up to get the last drop of bourbon. "Considering the source, I think that's good advice, and should probably be taken seriously. It's spoken from long experience."

He carefully put the glass down with a faint click. "If these beatings continue, sooner or later there's going to be a problem I probably can't help with. I'd prefer that not to happen. He does good work on the whole and this city needs him. But he's getting… overenthusiastic… in his search for justice. Or the next best thing to justice that we're likely to get in Gotham."

Bruce looked over at Alfred, making a small gesture. The older man appeared with a refill for him and looked enquiringly at Lucius, who held up a hand with a shake of his head. "No, thanks, I'm driving."

"Of course, sir."

"Who are these people, Lucius?" Bruce finally asked, looking at him with a mix of curiosity, concern, and mild annoyance.

"People I met quite a few years ago," he replied after thinking for a moment. "Unusual people. But very, very skilled in their field. We subcontract some of the more esoteric design work to them. They've never let us down, and as I said, they have experience in… odd matters. Ones that are relevant here."

"Got a name?"

"Probably not one you'd have heard of, unless you've been poking around in some very strange places," the engineer said with a sudden smile.

"Indulge me."

"As you wish. They do business under the name of BBFO, which stands for ' _Brockton Bay Family Operations._ '"

Bruce looked oddly at him. "I've never heard of them. Or Brockton Bay. Where is it?"

"On the East Coast, between Boston and Portland, I believe." He watched the other man's face with well-hidden amusement.

"There's no city of that name on the East Coast," Bruce replied slowly.

"Not _our_ East Coast, no," he said.

Once again, they looked at each other in silence, only this time Bruce seemed quite puzzled more than anything else.

"I don't even pretend to understand how it works," Lucius finally said. "The mechanism is incredibly complex, the math is far past anything I can make heads or tails of. But they basically come from another version of Earth."

Bruce stared at him. "Parallel worlds?" he asked after nearly thirty seconds, his voice a little strangled. Lucius nodded.

"Essentially. They seem to enjoy traveling around and meeting new people," he replied. After a moment's thought, he smiled a little. "And confusing them, generally. That seems to be a theme."

"You're telling me that you met some people from a parallel world years ago and have been subcontracting design work for Wayne Enterprises to them ever since?" Bruce asked very carefully.

Lucius nodded again, feeling quite amused.

"Correct."

"And these… people… are warning you that a certain person is acting in a manner they feel is unwise." Bruce's voice was flat and expressionless.

"Also correct."

"You expect me to believe that?"

Lucius spread his hands. "Have I ever let you down?"

They looked at each other. Bruce was the first to look away. "No. No, you haven't. But… this isn't exactly the most believable thing I've ever heard."

"We live in a city where a penguin-themed super-villain regularly commits crimes, a lunatic called the Joker has killed hundreds of innocents, and a former psychiatrist put a chemical that causes uncontrollable fear into the water supply," Lucius said calmly. "Visitors from another reality are almost pedestrian by comparison. And they're _much_ easier to deal with. Not to mention a lot nicer."

"Even so, this is hard to take in." Bruce looked thoughtful now, but still unconvinced.

"I realize that. I'm passing on a message given in good faith, and one I think needs to be said. But I can't make you believe me. I urge you to pay attention, even so, before something goes too far. Or someone." He studied his companion's face, trying to work out what he was thinking. It was always difficult, the younger man had an amazing ability to mask his thoughts and cover them up with the playboy impression he showed the public.

"I can't help thinking that if things _did_ go too far, the next message might be delivered personally. That could be… less than ideal, from the point of view of our friend."

"They're dangerous?"

Lucius snorted with laughter. "You have _no idea_ how dangerous. Not hostile, definitely, but not the sort of people you want to annoy if you can avoid it. They tend to keep out of local issues for the most part but as far as I know sometimes take an interest. If that happens… Well, let's say that as good as our friend is, he's outmatched. By a lot."

The other man put his second, now empty, glass beside the first one and leaned forward, propping his elbows on his knees. He inspected Lucius closely, then leaned back again. "You're serious."

"Completely."

"Who _are_ they?"

"Would you believe me if I said a family of sapient reptile people?" the CEO asked with a slight smile.

Both men twitched at a sudden clatter from the other end of the room, turning to see Alfred picking up a bottle he'd knocked over. He looked back at them, his expression both embarrassed and somewhat alarmed. "Are you all right, Alfred?" Lucius asked.

The elderly retainer stared at him for a few seconds or so. "Sapient reptile people?" he asked quietly. "My apologies, I couldn't help overhearing."

"That's what I said," Lucius replied, curious about the reaction.

"Is one of them called Saurial, by any chance?" the older man asked after a moment.

More than surprised, Lucius nodded. Bruce was looking between them, his expression hard to read.

"Oh, dear," the other man said in a low voice. "Master Bruce, I suggest it would be sensible to take Mr Fox's advice seriously."

"You know something about this, Alfred?" the Wayne heir asked with an expression of confusion. Alfred sighed very faintly, then nodded.

"Just stories. An old friend of mine, the man who trained me, actually, he used to tell me about friends of his. Reptilian friends. They'd visit sometimes and talk. That was years ago, before the war, back in England, you see." The man looked like he was remembering something he missed. "He was a wonderful man, my friend. The very epitome of a gentleman's gentleman. And he spoke of someone called Saurial with great fondness." The gaze sharpened, coming back from wherever he'd been and focusing on them. "He told me that they were very good people, but not ones you wanted to get on the bad side of."

Glancing at his watch, he added, "I must see to dinner, Master Bruce." With that he exited the room, leaving two slightly puzzled men looking after him. Eventually Lucius turned back to his companion.

"I can't say I expected that, but perhaps I should have," he commented wryly. "They get around and seem to have a very hazy idea of the normal flow of time."

Bruce stood up, pacing back and forth for a while. "I'm having difficulty with this," he said after half a minute or so, while Lucius patiently watched. "And wondering if Alfred put you up to it. He's… not happy about some things."

"I'm aware of that, but he didn't ask me to do this. I was as surprised as you are about what he just said."

"You understand that the idea of lizard people or whatever they are from another world complaining about excessive violence is a little hard to take." Walking over to the window, he looked out into the rear gardens of the manor. "I mean, I know we live in a world where strange things can happen, but this is going… a little..." He trailed off, causing Lucius to watch him with slight confusion.

While the older man observed, his younger colleague visibly paled. His gaze was fixed on something outside, by the looks of it. Curious, Lucius finally got up and joined him at the window.

His eyes widened.

The absolutely vast creature standing on the rear lawn, its head as high as the top of the hundred year old oak it was standing next to, narrowed glowing yellow-orange eyes at them, leaning down slightly to come level with the window about eighty feet away. While they both watched the figure, back-lit by the sky glow of Gotham in the distance, it raised a hand large enough to pick up Lucius's car and crush it like a beer can, folded back all but two fingers, then made an unmistakable gesture with them.

It pointed to its own eyes, then directly at Bruce.

Then, _very slowly_ , it smiled widely. The teeth exposed by the expression were at least six feet long and there were a _lot_ of them. All of them glinting in the light from the windows of the house in a dim but very, _very_ memorable manner.

There was a long frozen moment, before Bruce swallowed hard. When Lucius looked at him his eyes were closed. Looking back at the immense reptilian creature he was just in time to see it wink at him, the grin turning mischievous, before it abruptly vanished. Suppressing both a grin of his own, and the faint feeling of lightheadedness that had come over him, he reached out and put a hand on the shoulder of the other man, who had opened his eyes again and was looking out into the now-empty darkness with a bewildered expression.

"There are some things in the shadows that are much more dangerous than a bat, Bruce," he said softly. "Things it's best not to upset. Do you understand my point?"

"Yes," Bruce replied hoarsely. "I believe I do."

"Excellent." Lucius nodded. "In that case, I have dinner with an old friend in an hour. I'm glad we talked. Can I assume that our mutual friend will think hard about his current methods?"

"The message will be passed along," the younger man replied after several seconds, turning away from the window. He still looked shaken, which was an unusual expression for him.

* * *

A short while later, just as he was getting back into his car, Lucius stopped. After a little thought, he reached into the glove box for a flashlight, then closed the car again, walking towards the side of the house. With the aid of the light he made his way into the rear garden, glancing up at the windows of Bruce's study, which were now dark. Going to the middle of the garden, he cast the light around for a moment, before stopping it.

He walked closer, looking down, then shook his head in wonder. After ten seconds or so, he turned around and headed back, leaving the enormous footprint to its own devices.

If nothing else, it would be a good reminder in the morning, he thought with mild amusement. Feeling that he'd done what he could, he drove off to his next appointment.


	321. Omake - Questions (DC)

Standing on the roof of a downtown Gotham building, three hundred feet in the air on a breezy and damp spring night, the dark figure looked down at the city. His cloak rippled around him, as sharp eyes scanned for any traces of the person he was after. The sound of a shot in the distance made him snap his head around, listening intently, while the wind moaned past, until he relaxed a little. Such things were the normal night sounds of this place, and by the looks of it the police were already handling it. At the moment he had more dangerous people to go after.

Making a decision, the man pulled a small device from his belt, aiming and firing it with the ease of long practice and hardly looking as he did. Whipping out with a whine, the weighted line shot a hundred feet across the street and wrapped around the base of a flagpole, a mechanism on the end locking it in place. The line gun itself, anchored to the harness built into his costume, easily took his weight as he leaped off the building and dropped, his plummet converted into horizontal motion moments later.

Swinging out and down, he reached the end of the line and arced upwards again, his path nicely calculated to aim him at another high vantage point a couple of hundred yards away. At the right point he pressed a control which had the effect of making the end of the line release and retract at high speed into his mechanism, allowing him a couple of seconds of free flight in which he repositioned his body to let him land neatly in the desired place.

Again, he took up a watching position, looking and listening. A high-tech pair of electronic binoculars were brought into play, scanning the entire area.

The process repeated over and over, with only a couple of interruptions when a criminal made the mistake of pursuing his trade a little too close. Eventually, at nearly 4AM, he gave up for the night.

There was no sign of his quarry, and he decided that this was a waste of further effort.

He'd try again tomorrow. Even he needed to rest on occasion, as people close to him repeatedly pointed out, and he was certain that the evil clown would show up sooner or later. The bastard always did, normally surrounded by bodies and laughing about it.

Angry, tired, and concerned about what his arch-enemy's next move would be, Batman headed for his hidden vehicle and was soon racing through darkened streets inside a technological wonder, various late night witnesses looking up at the by-now familiar sound of a nearly silent machine zipping past. Some smiled, some scowled, some merely shook their heads and got back to what they were doing.

* * *

" _…lum last night, in a straight-jacket which was tied to a lamp post. A note found at the scene reportedly explained that the Joker had been caught red-handed in the process of setting up some form of nerve gas weapon although the target is currently undisclosed, and sources tell us that with the note was a USB storage device with time-stamped video recordings of the entire operation. Police are being unusually uncooperative with the press about what these videos revealed, an unofficial spokesman telling our reporter off the record that he would have nightmares for weeks, and he wasn't the one the people involved were going after._ "

" _Commissioner Gordon stated at the time that the Joker was currently comatose, although uninjured, and would be questioned when he regained consciousness. That apparently occurred some twenty-five minutes ago, a contact inside the asylum telling us that he immediately began screaming wildly and had to be sedated again. Our information is that he was mumbling over and over the words '_ ** _I'll be good, don't let her get me_** _ **.** ' One can only guess what that might mean, although it would seem that the multiple mass-murderer may finally have met his match._"

" _There is no word of the involvement of Batman in this capture of the most wanted individual in the city, if not the state. We will continue to follow this unfolding story as the day goes on. This is Kate Jackson for Gotham Morning News, reporting live from..._ "

Bruce stood in his bedroom with his toothbrush sticking out of his mouth, half-gaping at the TV mounted on the wall which he'd turned on as he normally did to catch up with the news. Numbly switching channels with the remote he saw that the same basic story was playing on every local station, and was also on CNN.

"What the hell?" he mumbled around the toothbrush.

"I take it that this is unexpected news, Master Bruce," Alfred commented as he appeared in the doorway, an expression on his face that was hard to interpret. Bruce looked at him, then back at the TV, feeling that the remark was a serious understatement at a minimum.

"Just a little," he finally said, pulling the toothbrush out of his mouth. "Who did this?"

"I have no idea, sir," the old family retainer replied, moving to the closet and opening it to begin laying out a suit on the bed. "Although I will admit to being rather pleased. As I expect most people will be, that ghastly man has been a thorn in the side of the city for years. Perhaps he'll finally stay put."

He looked up for a moment. "You have an appointment at the bank in an hour, sir. I would suggest that breakfast would be the next order of the day. It is ready in the dining room."

Bruce looked at him, then the TV, then the remote he was still holding. Eventually he prodded the off button and put the device down, before going into the bathroom to rinse his mouth and shave.

He had a lot of questions and no answers, not a position he enjoyed being in. It looked like he was going to have to pay a visit to an old friend tonight.

* * *

"Who did it?"

Jim Gordon suppressed the twitch towards his service weapon, merely sighing slightly at the sound of a familiar gravelly voice. "Would it kill you to knock for once?" he growled, turning to see a caped-and-cowled figure taller than he was step out of the shadows of his office. "That's really starting to get old fast."

The shadowed eyes simply watched him, even though he got a faint impression that there was a slight amusement in them, not that anyone else could likely pick up on it. They'd known each other for nearly three years now, as much as you could call this weird relationship ' _knowing_ ' someone, and while he trusted the man in the costume with his life, he still found him annoying at times.

"I assume that you're referring to the Joker's capture," he added as he sat behind his desk. Batman merely nodded once. "We don't know."

"What happened?"

"More or less what the news has been reporting all day. He was unconscious in a straight-jacket, strapped to a lamp post outside the main entrance to Arkham Asylum at approximately five AM this morning. Not a mark on him, so the assumption is that he was drugged, although so far forensics haven't been able to determine what drug was used. Nothing normal, certainly, all the toxin screens came back negative." Jim pulled a folder out of a drawer, opening it and flipping through to the relevant report, which he handed over as the vigilante walked closer. He waited for Batman to read it, then hand it back, his eyes thoughtful behind the mask.

"The only evidence was a puncture mark on the back of his neck, which the examiner says _might_ be from some form of dart. Since no one could determine what, if anything, had been administered to him all they could safely do was wait for it to wear off. That happened around ten this morning. When he woke up, he looked wildly around like he was expecting to see something horrible, and screamed like the devil himself was after him. Made the orderlies nearly crap themselves, I was told."

Jim half-smiled, shrugging. "Can't find it in me to care, I have to admit. Something or someone scared the _shit_ out of the bastard. They had to shove enough tranquilizers into him to drop a horse before he'd shut up. At the moment he's rocking back and forth in his padded room saying ' _Don't let her get me_ ' over and over. I can't help thinking that he's not a problem any more."

"It could be an act. The man is insane, but he's brilliant as well." Batman sounded, to Jim's ears, puzzled and worried.

" _That_ I know all too well. He's escaped enough times to make it clear. But… I don't know, this time, there's something different." He shook his head. "I can't explain why. The man's… broken." Raising an eyebrow at his visitor, he asked, "I assume you had nothing to do with it?"

After a few seconds, Batman slowly shook his head. "No. I've been looking for him for more than two weeks. No sign, until today."

"Wonderful." Gordon sighed. "So we have someone _else_ running around taking down super-villains. This city is going to be the death of me yet."

"The report said that there was other evidence found with him."

"There was. Two USB sticks, one containing video, one with a large amount of other data. Taped to a note that was stuck to him. The note said..." He flipped through the folder, looking for the photocopy. Finding it, he read, "' _Try to keep him away from people this time. If I have to come back and do it for you, I'll make it permanent. Have a nice day_.' It was signed with the letter ' _S_ '."

He handed the copy to the other man, who read it for himself. "No fingerprints, DNA traces, or any other evidence that the lab can find so far," he added.

"I have other resources, I might have better luck."

"Possibly. When they're finished with it, I may be able to arrange something."

"What was the video?"

"Disturbing."

The masked face looked at him. He looked back.

"Very disturbing." Picking up a remote control, he aimed it at the large flat-screen TV mounted on the other side of the room, turning it on, then put the remote down and poked around on his computer for a few seconds. They watched the large monitor as a very high quality recording began playing.

Jim shivered a little as he watched. It still affected him on a gut level, watching the various minions of the Joker running and shooting while screaming like little girls, all the time hearing something, several somethings, laughing and talking to each other in a completely alien language. The recording changed viewpoints several times, apparently shot from body worn cameras of some form. What the bodies that were wearing them actually _were_ wasn't clear, aside from glimpses of what appeared to be scaled arms with taloned fingers that came into view every now and then. He was oddly glad that he couldn't make out more.

The voices were bad enough.

When the recording finished, he tapped a key, then turned the screen off again. "There was a note with the video file that said that it was shot in a particular warehouse on the edge of the city, where the rest of his minions were. We found sixty-three people, all unconscious and restrained, again with no injuries at all."

"Sixty-three people?" The rough voice had a definite note of shock.

"Yes. And enough weapons to fight a small war. Not to mention over two tons of what the lab says is a new variant of that fucking Smilex shit he likes, along with something they're pretty sure is an even more potent neurotoxin of some sort. The Pentagon got _very_ interested when we put out a discreet request for an external expert, they're rushing an entire team here tomorrow morning. The documents on the USB stick and in the warehouse show that he was planning some sort of attack on several schools in the city. God alone knows why."

There was silence in the office for a while, only broken by the sound of them breathing.

"I see."

"Any idea who it was?"

"I..." Jim could swear that the super-hero actually swallowed. "… may have a possibility in mind."

"Want to share it with me?"

Batman seemed very thoughtful. "Not at the moment."

With a nod, Jim leaned back in his chair, regarding his visitor. "Well, whatever or whoever did it, they made some friends today, as well as freaking out a lot of people. The number of innocents that bastard has killed… I'm just glad someone took him down. If it sticks for good, so much the better. We'll never be able to prosecute him properly, he's not fit to stand trial, unfortunately, but if he stays put that'll do as far as I'm concerned."

With a slight nod, his visitor glanced at the now-dark monitor again, seeming to Jim both curious and just a touch apprehensive. Eventually he replied, "Thank you for the information."

"You're welcome. If you find out who it was, shake their hand for me."

His desk phone rang, causing him to look at it. When he looked back, the man was gone, leaving only an open window. He shook his head, almost amused. "How the _hell_ does he _do_ that?" he muttered, picking up the handset and putting it to his ear. "Gordon."

* * *

Bruce glared at the city below him, thinking dark thoughts. In the last four weeks he'd made a lot of inquiries in a wide variety of places, but had come up empty on any more information on the people Lucius had warned him about. He was certain that they were the ones who had captured the Joker, who was still in a completely cowed state in the city asylum, so terrified he screamed if they turned the lights off. None of his men were quite so badly off, but they were definitely afraid of the dark these days.

On the one hand he was pleased that the most dangerous man he'd so far faced was apparently finally in a position he was unlikely to be able to cause further trouble from. On the other hand, the way that this had happened worried him. He knew nothing about these mysterious reptile people from another world, aside from what Lucius had told him that night. He hadn't wanted to ask for more details, for a number of reasons. At least one of them being that he wasn't sure the man would actually tell him and he didn't want to risk their relationship. Lucius was a friend, but he had a very serious ability to not betray a trust, which Bruce wasn't certain would work in his favor in this case.

Visiting a number of people who might be expected to know things that weren't common knowledge had produced some odd effects. Most of them had looked at him like he was crazy when he'd tried to find out more information, apparently completely unaware of the subject of his interest. One or two of them had suddenly seemed very worried, glancing around carefully, then told him that it wasn't a line of inquiry that should be pursued further. No amount of looming or offers of compensation had swayed them.

In the not too distant past he might have resorted to more… effective… means of persuasion, but after that night… No, he felt it had been an experience he didn't want to repeat, so he was being a lot more careful these days. It had taken a few weeks of careful reflection but he came to the conclusion that he had indeed been getting carried away, so on the whole it was probably a good thing.

Pity it had left him with some very odd dreams for a while. Not to mention the requirement to have a very large footprint discreetly filled in and seeded over.

Even now he wasn't entirely certain that it had been real, but there was enough evidence that he wasn't going to dismiss it.

All that being true, though, he still had a burning need to find out _what_ or _who_ was running around Gotham dealing with the worst of the worst. The Penguin had very abruptly gone entirely inactive, word on the street being that he'd decided overnight to retire and go somewhere else. No one had seen the Scarecrow, who had escaped from Arkham six months ago, for over two weeks. There was a rumor that he'd left the country and said he was never coming back.

And Two-face had calmly walked up to a mental institution and asked politely if he could be treated for a whole range of psychiatric conditions, please, and by the way here is a list of all the crimes I've committed.

Commissioner Gordon was still pleased about _that_ one.

Bruce wasn't quite so sure, since he didn't have a clue what had happened to any of them.

Hearing a scream nearby, he whirled, then started moving. Moments later he was looking down into an alley where two men with pistols were menacing a young woman. Deciding that his ruminations could be shelved for the moment he snapped out a throwing line, wrapping it around a handy fire escape, then slid down it to land silently behind the two muggers. Grabbing one by the shoulder he spun the man around, hitting him with two precisely calculated strikes on nerves in his neck, then even as his first opponent dropped limply to the ground, ducked.

The other man had shown commendably quick reactions and appallingly bad judgment simultaneously, spinning around at the sound of the blows and raising his weapon, before firing half a dozen shots. The bullets whined and pinged around the alley, making the woman who had been attacked scream again, then run for it.

"You!" the mugger shouted, firing again. Bruce leaned sideways as the round barely missed him, although even it if had hit the relatively low-velocity 9mm bullet would have bounced off his armor, then kicked out.

"Me," he growled. "Bad mistake." The man fired again, missed again, then pulled the trigger one final time.

The gun merely clicked.

Smiling grimly, Bruce moved in for the takedown. Moments later the second mugger was unconscious beside the first.

"Nice moves, mate," a British-accented voice said out of the darkness further down the alley. Despite iron control, Bruce twitched violently having had no idea there was anyone there. He whipped around in a defensive pose, staring into the shadows.

A match scraped across the brickwork and ignited, the flare of yellow light illuminating a face he knew as the new arrival lit a cigarette with it, then flicked it to the ground.

"Constantine."

"Got it in one. Been a while. Having fun?"

"What do you want?" Bruce snapped. "Every time you turn up, trouble follows you."

The blond man pushed his hat back with a finger, then took a drag on his cigarette, exhaling the smoke slowly. He inspected Bruce closely. "Funny coming from you." He glanced down at the two muggers, who were breathing steadily, but not likely to wake up soon. "You're asking a lot of questions recently."

After a short pause, Bruce replied, "I need to know some answers."

"You sure you really do?" The man facing him tipped his head quizzically, the red glow from the cigarette in his mouth barely showing his eyes. "Trust me, you'd sleep better if you _didn't_ know. I know I would."

"Trust _you?_ " Bruce snorted. "With your reputation I'd have to be a fool to do so."

Constantine shrugged, apparently unconcerned. "Suit yourself."

They stared at each other for a few seconds. "Who are the Family?"

"Your worst nightmare or your best friends, possibly at the same time."

"Very helpful."

"I thought so. Took me ages to think that line up." The other man smirked at him.

"Where do they come from?"

"Somewhere else. Parallel world sort of thing, as far as I know. Don't ask me how they do it. Magic and tech way past anything I know about, or anyone else."

"Magic." Bruce said the word with distaste.

"Yeah. Not like anything you've ever seen." The blond shrugged again. "Don't bother trying to figure it out. You won't."

"You seem sure."

"I am. Asked around, got told a few things. Things that make me wish I'd kept my bloody gob shut, to be honest. By people you wouldn't believe for that matter." He took another drag on the cigarette. "One thing everyone agrees on. _Don't_ fuck with the Family."

His voice was very serious.

"They're… weird. And more dangerous than you could possibly imagine, if you manage to provoke them enough."

"What do they want here?"

"Dunno. Trade, probably. That's what I'm told they do. I guess they're cleaning up a bit to make that easier, or maybe they just didn't like some of the local arseholes. Leave them alone, they'll leave you alone, and they'll probably be gone soon anyway. Honest, mate, you'd be better off just forgetting about it. Go deal with the other crazies around this damn place and stop asking questions no one has answers to. Or would tell you if they did."

Bruce examined the man he'd run into a few times before, always in very unsettling circumstances. Trouble did indeed follow him around like a close friend, or possibly it was the other way. He didn't trust him further than he could throw him but at the same time he definitely knew a lot about the paranormal, something Bruce himself tried to stay away from whenever possible. He was much more comfortable with technology than magic, even though he knew damn well it existed.

The ' _answers_ ' he'd received matched more or less with what Lucius had said. He wasn't happy about it, he didn't like things he couldn't explain or prepare for, but he was also certain that he wasn't going to get anything more useful from the damn man. Constantine was a pain in the ass at the best of times.

With an internal sigh he said, "Are you planning on being in Gotham long?" Implying by his tone of voice that the answer he'd prefer was ' _No_.'

The man grinned at him, puffing the last of his tobacco down to the filter, then flipping the butt into a puddle where it went out with a hiss. "Nah. Got someone to see, then I'm off. Problem down south in a swamp, I need to talk to a few people." He glanced at the muggers, one of whom was stirring. "Your boy there's waking up. Better kick him in the head or something."

Bruce looked down as well, to check if the man was going to be trouble. When he looked up there was no sign of the other person, only a trace of tobacco smoke hanging in the air. He checked all around him, not seeing any signs of where he'd gone. Taking a step towards the total blackness at the back of the alley, the most likely exit route, he stopped dead when he heard a faint sound that was reminiscent of something a _lot_ larger than a human moving slightly.

Something with scales…

After a moment's uneasy thought, he turned back to his captives and bent down, slinging the groaning one over a shoulder. Grabbing the other one's left leg with his free hand, he headed in the other direction, intending to put them somewhere the cops would find them, call it in, then go somewhere some distance from whatever had made that quiet noise.

He was paranoid, intensely curious, more than a little cautious, but _not_ an idiot. Alfred was right, some things were best left alone for now. One day he might revisit the issue but at the moment he had other things that he should probably concentrate on.


	322. Omake - The Start of Something (HP)

**_Omake moved to its own story file as the series is now complex enough to warrant that. This is experimental for now and may not necessarily happen with other Omake series, depending on how it works out._**

 _Because of the incredibly irritating munging of URLs that this site insists on thrusting upon us, the following link will need to be copied and fixed. Remove unneeded spaces and convert the word dot into a dot, and it will work fine._

* * *

 **You can find the text of this former chapter here now:** www dot fanfiction dot net / s/12959550/4/The-Long-Slow-Lizarding-of-Hermione-Granger


	323. Production and Costume

Missy looked out the classroom window, somewhat bored. The history teacher was droning on about shipping in the nineteenth century, a subject she found it very hard to become enthused about, although she was still listening with half an ear, while the rest of her concentration was on thinking about going out as Cloak again. She decided that since she wasn't on duty tonight, she'd try her other alter-ego out again and have some fun. ' _I need to see if I can figure out how to be Cloak when I'm supposed to be Vista as well,_ ' she thought, idly doodling a little drawing of Saurial that had more depth to it than it really should have done. ' _She was right about that, if I can pull it off in front of witnesses no one will think we're the same person_.'

It was a potential problem, since ' _Cloak_ ' so far only turned up when ' _Vista_ ' wasn't around, and sooner or later someone might start to get suspicious. ' _Maybe Saurial can think of a way to do it,_ ' she mused, looking around when one of her friends coughed a little, then going back to looking out the window at the trees on the other side of the playing field, which were just starting to bud. ' _If anyone can, I bet she can_.'

Making up her mind that she'd swing by the BBFO office after school, she turned the page and began taking notes when the teacher started writing on the board. Since the Director had told them that they didn't need to actively avoid the Family any more, she didn't feel at all guilty about visiting her friends. Not that she really did anyway, of course, but if she ever got found out it wouldn't be so bad now as when the older woman was trying to keep them away from the reptiles.

Not that it had actually worked, she snickered silently to herself.

Very quietly humming the ' _Mission Impossible_ ' theme to herself, as she remembered her first visit to the DWU facility, she wrote down the assignments the teacher was giving them, all the while wanting school to hurry up and end for the day.

* * *

"Interesting."

"And worrying, sir."

"Yes, to some extent. Although it also raises some possibilities I hadn't considered."

The man behind the desk perused the report in front of him, turning pages slowly and carefully. "These creatures do seem to be considerably more effective than we expected. Coil was a difficult man to pin down, but from what I can see they made it look easy."

"I have a suspicion that they were deliberately downplaying their abilities," his subordinate commented, which made him look up for a moment.

"It's certainly possible, I suppose," he nodded, going back to the document. "They show a significant level of cunning in their interactions with the PRT. That's both useful and potentially troublesome." Finishing the report, he regarded the last page for a few seconds. "And now they have somehow recruited a high level Tinker as well. I wonder how that was arranged? And why have we never heard of her before? Her… less than human appearance is quite distinctive."

"I've been unable to find any background on a part-cat Tinker female, sir," the other man shrugged. "None of our contacts in Europe or anywhere else have anything either. My assumption is that she's a new trigger, which would fit with the admittedly minimal information on her. I will continue to investigate."

Flipping back a few pages, the first man studied the image on the paper. "This machine is remarkable. Do we have full specifications on it yet?"

"Only what's there. We've extrapolated from the online videos and the comments made on PHO, but that's not going to do more than give fairly vague parameters at best. I'll keep looking for more information."

"Excellent." He closed the report, then dropped the entire thing into the industrial-grade shredder next to his desk. A loud whine mixed with a crunching sound as the paperwork was rendered down into tiny particles in mere seconds. "And what progress on getting an agent into the DWU can you report?"

"Very little as of yet, I'm afraid, sir," his underling sighed. "It's proving hard to find someone we can use who can't be traced back. Kaiser has locked down the E88 as far as the DWU is concerned, and surprisingly enough his people are listening to him. We've attempted to persuade several of the people we've used before, none of whom were interested at all. The ABB are even worse. Lung has apparently issued orders that no ABB member is to go within half a mile of the DWU at any time under any circumstances. I'm not entirely certain why, but he's definitely treating them with the same respect that he seems to have for the Family as a whole, possibly simply by association."

"Where is that lunatic keeping himself at the moment?"

"I'm not sure, I'm afraid. He appears to be simply waiting to see what happens next. Kaiser is still in Aspen, apparently genuinely on a skiing holiday. Victor was left in charge and as far as I can find out is doing a good job of keeping the E88 busy and mostly off the streets. There are some low level gang members still engaged in minor street crime, but the organization as a whole is more or less dormant at the moment. Most people believe this to be due to the Family, which is probably largely true. The crime levels in the city are lower than they've been since the days of Marquis. The reptiles are definitely gaining a lot of acceptance, people are well aware of why crime has plummeted so quickly and seem to like it. With their takedown of the Merchants even people who were on the fence about them seem mostly to have gone over to being in favor of the group."

Leaning his chair back, the man behind the desk nodded slowly. "Understandable. Crime in Brockton Bay was reaching unsustainable levels, and it was only a matter of time before something dramatic happened. I have to say I didn't expect this, though."

"No one did," his agent shrugged, smiling slightly for a moment. "They were a total wild card."

"True. So, to recap, the Merchants aside from Skidmark and a small number of his most trusted people are now entirely out of the picture, Lung appears to have hunkered down and is just watching, Kaiser has left the city in the hands of his underlings and gone to recover in a ski resort, and Director Piggot and her people are actively working with the Family. In the process of which, they entirely dismantled Coil's whole operation in one day, captured him and all his people without any real injuries, and cleared out all the double agents he and others had inside the PRT."

"Essentially, yes, sir. We still don't know where Skidmark is, he's overdue to arrive back in the city from my information although I don't know why. It's possible someone managed to take him out, there's a number of bounties on him from several sources, adding up to a very significant sum. However, I would have thought that if someone did get him we'd have heard about it by now and we haven't."

"Irrelevant for the moment." He waved a hand dismissively. "The main thing is that the four most powerful villain organizations in the city have been effectively neutralized with barely a shot fired." He tapped his fingers on the desk, thinking hard. "As I said. Impressive."

"The minor groups have also undergone a significant change too. The Undersiders, who were remarkably slippery and much more competent than they were generally given credit for, have entirely vanished from public view. Faultline's crew left the city very early in the timeline, shortly after Saurial's debut, and have stayed away from Brockton ever since. I'm not sure if that's a coincidence or not, but the woman is nobody's fool, so it may well be deliberate. Über and Leet have gone very quiet as well, and there's some information that they've visited the DWU facility on a number of occasions. All of it is in some way linked to the Family, even if only circumstantially."

"I wonder if they're doing this on purpose?" he mused out loud. "It's… slightly unsettling if so."

"Based on most of the data I've acquired over the last couple of months, sir," his minion said a little uneasily, "It's either the result of a remarkably odd set of coincidences and near-accidents… or the result of a very clever and intricate series of interlinked plans, carried out with virtually no errors at all. I'm not sure which alternative worries me more."

He sighed faintly, nodding again. "I have to agree, although I think the first option isn't hugely likely. There are too many things that would have to line up to make it work, and even with powers in play, it seems a little infeasible. But that would imply that they have more resources than we expected, even in light of the information we have acquired to date." Falling silent, while the other man waited patiently, he thought hard for a while.

"All right. Continue to attempt to get someone inside the DWU. _Carefully._ We do _not_ want the attention we would attract if anyone realizes the truth. We might have to call in a professional contractor if you can't find a local that can be utilized successfully. I'd prefer not to, those people are always difficult to work with, but..." He shook his head a little. "Make some discreet inquiries even so, through the usual cutouts."

"Yes, sir."

"And the Shadow Stalker situation? Any progress on that?"

"No, sir. She's disappeared entirely, although there have been tentative sightings of a young woman matching her general appearance across half the eastern US. Most of the ones I investigated are clearly wrong, but there are a couple that look plausible. Based on them, she's driving randomly across several states, probably in an attempt to throw off any prediction of her behavior or final destination. So far it would seem to be successful although that might not last forever. But she's a determined and vicious girl, I have little doubt that she's planning her return to the city and some sort of revenge attack."

The agent shrugged a little. "When she'll do that, who can say? It could be in a week, it might take a year if she's patient and careful. I doubt either of those are true based on past behavior but people change sometimes. With the PRT waiting for her, as well as the Family, she's going to have to be very careful, but I'm not sure she realizes how difficult it will be. Saurial is accompanying the Hebert girl to school and as far as I can find out has no intention of stopping until Stalker is dealt with. Which, incidentally, makes any attempt at putting pressure on the DWU via the Heberts problematic at best. The Family appear to value them, and have made it clear that they'd take a dim view of their friends being threatened."

"We need to work out a way around that," his boss mused. "But there's no hurry." Standing up, the man whose office this was walked across it to look out the window. "This could work out in our favor, I think," he said after a moment. "Those creatures have, one way or another, eliminated or drastically reduced the most annoying elements in the city. When we find a way to safely apply pressure to them…" He smiled a little. "They've done a lot of our work for us, without anything that can be traced back. Rather convenient all things considered."

"I'd have to agree. Although gaining control over them could be difficult. They're definitely dangerous."

"Oh, very much so," he agreed, turning to look at his companion. "Which is why we need to be slow, careful, and methodical. But we have the advantage, we know about them and they have no idea at all about us." He moved to the other side of the room, pouring himself a fresh cup of coffee, to which he added a small amount of expensive whiskey, not offering any to the other person. "We can work with that. It will take time, but sooner or later our goals will be met. Then…" He sipped his drink and smiled. "We'll finally have the upper hand back."

"As you say, sir," the agent nodded, also smiling.

"Keep me informed. Dismissed."

As the door closed quietly behind his man, he went back to the window and looked out, sipping his coffee and thinking.

* * *

"That's better," Taylor said with satisfaction, looking back along the road, which now had a perfect surface complete with lane markings rather than the heavily pitted tarmac it had been. She was currently using her Raptaur form in one aspect, while the Varga was controlling the other one. ' _Saurial_ ' turned to her and grinned.

"I think it looks very nice," her demon replied. They'd decided to repair the road into the docks on the way and had been experimenting to see how fast they could lay a similar coating to the one she'd used in the DWU yard. With a little practice it proved to be possible to do it at a decent walking pace, and as a result they'd resurfaced over two miles of road in under half an hour and were getting steadily faster at it. "We could spend a few days doing this and fix every road in the docks area."

"We should definitely do that at some point soon," she nodded, smiling. "Not now though, but this will do nicely for the time being. Should make it easier to get in for everyone, those potholes were getting horrible." That was true enough, they'd filled several that were almost large enough to swallow a small car. "We've got that list of other things around the place that need to be fixed too, we'll need to set some time aside for that as well." The guy on the city works team she'd talked to at the point she'd smacked into that bridge support had dropped it into the main office a few days later, having come up with a much larger list of things that required repair than she'd expected. Years, if not decades, of neglect had left a large part of the city in desperate need of maintenance for which there simply weren't the funds available.

Making a mental note to see that this was dealt with, she looked around again, feeling pleased, then both of them started moving again, new surfacing flooding out under their feet as they walked, one on either side of the pitted and damaged road.

* * *

Cocking an ear towards the faint knock, Linda glanced up from her whiteboard on which she was making a more detailed set of plans for another useful addition to the mechs. She capped the pen and put it down, then walked over and unlocked it, pulling the door open. On the other side were three familiar reptilian figures. "Hi," she said with a smile, standing aside to let Saurial, Raptaur, and Metis come in. "Nice to see you guys."

"How's it going?" Saurial asked, smiling back, then looking around. She peered at the drawings on the boards with interest. "We need to make some more of those for you, you've filled all these ones up."

Linda grinned. "I do seem to have a lot of ideas and I like writing them down."

"I hope you're making copies," Metis said.

"Oh, these are just draft versions," the Tinker assured her friends as she walked back to the whiteboards, the others trailing along. "I make better copies in my notebooks, but it's quicker and easier to sketch them out like this first." She waved a hand at a large pile of boxes next to one of the workbenches. "I need to set those computers up and then I can scan the stuff I've already done by hand and get it into a nice neat digital file. But I've been working on this and haven't had time yet."

"I can do that for you," Metis assured her. "It's the same sort of equipment we have over at the BBFO office."

"That would help, thanks," she replied, pleased. Metis nodded, then went over to the boxes and started opening them with a quick flick of a claw on the tape, although she was obviously still listening.

Raptaur looked at the newly delivered equipment for a moment. "That includes all the new hardware you needed for the mech systems, I assume?"

"Yes, there should be enough parts to put together half a dozen control systems," Linda replied, following her gaze. "All that stuff on the right side is stock parts for that job. There's some more coming, they apparently ran out of some of the processor boards Lisa ordered for me, those will be available later in the week. But it's enough to get started with."

"So if we make perhaps a dozen sets of the other parts, and some spares as well, that should keep you busy for a while, I guess?" Saurial commented, inspecting the mech that was now back together and powered down at the side of the main workshop.

"That would really help if you could," Linda nodded. "I've got some more designs I'd like to try, too. Parts for a better power supply, I want to make a couple of dozen of them and put them into stock, a new design for a stealth field generator, and the prototype flight system as well. How much time do you have right now?"

Saurial chuckled. "We have some things to do later, but we can put in a couple of hours. That should get you started."

"Great, thanks." Linda shook her head for a moment. "I still can't believe how easy you two make doing some of this. It would take weeks doing it the normal way even for the simple stuff."

"It's really not a problem at all, Linda," the slim lizard assured her, her sister nodding beside her. "We really enjoy making things, even though neither one of us is a Tinker like you. The results are incredible, too, which is a lot of fun."

"I think that as far as the PRT are concerned you'd both be classified as Tinkers to at least some level," she laughed. "And you sure understand a lot more about the stuff I design than most people would. I wish you could come tomorrow for my power test."

The lizard girl smirked at her. "As it happens..." she said, glancing at her sister. "I can make it, at least for a while."

"What about protecting Taylor?" Linda asked curiously.

"We can do that as well," Raptaur assured her calmly. "Taylor will be perfectly safe. But this is important to you, and having Saurial there will let you demonstrate what you're really capable of. Or at least as much of it as you want to let the PRT know about."

With a small sigh of relief Linda smiled. "Thanks. Very much. It's making me nervous, I have to admit, and knowing you'll be there to help is a fucking weight off my mind. We work well together."

"I like to think so," Saurial noted with a small grin. Cracking her knuckles, she spread her hands again. "Forget tomorrow for now, let's concentrate on doing something useful. What do you want to make first?"

Thinking for a moment, Linda picked up a sheaf of papers, spreading them out on one of the clear workbenches. Raptaur and Saurial came to stand on either side of her, inspecting the documents. "This, I think. It's the Mark 2 prototype hull and actuators. I got enough data yesterday to let me redesign the Mark 1 over there to make it simpler to assemble and a fair amount lighter as well. I've eliminated nearly fifty percent of the nuts and bolts and other fixings, and this new design of linear motor should be a little simpler. It should have more power as well, although not by much, but the main thing is that it's less bulky."

"Which means there will be more space inside the mechanism," Raptaur said with a nod.

"Exactly. That leaves room for some other upgrades I'm still working on." Linda tapped part of one drawing. "I keep underestimating how fucking impossibly strong EDM actually is. These parts can be made _much_ thinner than would otherwise be possible, without compromising any strength in a way that we'll ever notice. The whole design is cleaner and easier to work on. Much neater than the first one."

"Which is the entire point of a prototype, of course, letting you see how to make it better," Saurial pointed out.

"Very true. So, if we can make one complete set of these, then see how they fit together, modify it if required..." Linda shrugged a little.

"And when you're happy, make a whole pile of parts?"

"That would do it."

"Sounds like a plan to me," Saurial chuckled. She glanced over Linda's head at her sister. "You make the motor parts, I'll work on these?"

"Fine by me," Raptaur rumbled, moving over to another workbench and taking a couple of the dimensioned drawings with her. Moments later the first parts began appearing in her hands, the huge reptile carefully fitting them together to check the tolerances. Linda watched, still amazed at how quickly her drawings and concepts turned into real hardware with these two around.

Shaking her head in wonder, she left the larger lizard to it and turned to Saurial. "How I could possibly have managed to make _anything_ that worked before without you guys helping I have no fucking idea."

Saurial snickered. "You did a pretty good job considering. For certain values of ' _good_ ,' of course. Which didn't include ' _pretty_ ' I'm afraid."

Linda laughed. "No, not at all. But those days are behind all of us. Now we make..." She looked at the mech on the other side of the room. "...incredible things," she finished after a few seconds.

"And this is just the beginning," Metis put in, from where she was quickly building an elaborate desktop computer system from a large pile of components and boxes. "I can hardly wait to see something _really_ impressive."

"That's not good enough for you?" Saurial remarked, waving at the mech with an inquiring expression.

Metis shrugged. "It's not _bad_ I guess. But..."

Raptaur made a sort of amused grunt, glancing at her. "You have too much imagination sometimes, cousin. It's a very good first attempt for our friend here, and everyone knows it. Let her work at her own pace."

"OK, OK, I'm just saying I think there will be some interesting future developments." Metis grinned at Raptaur, who merely looked back at her with a smile, before both of them got on with their respective jobs.

Saurial, who was also looking amused at their comments, turned to Linda, while indicating one drawing. "This one first?"

"Yes, please, that's a good starting point."

"OK." The lizard-girl inspecting the drawing closely, checking a couple of points, then started manifesting the part, which changed shape slightly as she frowned at it. Comparing it to the drawing, she made more tweaks. "Hey, while I think about it, I had an idea for a transportation-related project if you find yourself at a loose end..." she said after a moment, trailing off suggestively.

"Oh?" Linda looked at her, as did the other two, Metis with an expression of curiosity and Raptaur with a slightly knowing look.

"It's sort of more along Kevin's lines, being from a movie, but it would be really cool if you could do it." Saurial inspected the part in her hands very carefully, then made a couple more changes. "Really cool indeed. And I bet it would make Armsmaster sort of jealous."

Linda looked hard at her. "You have my attention," she finally replied.

"Ever seen ' _Tron_ '?" Saurial's sidelong glance was mischievous.

After a moment or two, Linda started a small smirk of her own, her mind suddenly giving her design after design.

"Oooh, I _like_ the way you think," she murmured, reaching for a whiteboard pen.

"Good thing _someone_ does," Metis said under her breath, snickering when her cousin looked at her with a small frown.

"Hey!" the lizard-girl complained.

Linda ignored both of them, and the bass chuckle from Raptaur, since she was now concentrating on drawing yet another design on the only whiteboard that wasn't covered in multicolored sketches.

* * *

Amy pulled up to the office, then turned the truck off and got out. Going inside the building, she looked around, wondering where everyone was. It was nearly six, since she'd stopped off at Brockton General after school to see if they needed any Parahuman healing done, finding several cases she spent some time on. Three cancer patients, two heart attacks, and a pair of victims of a particularly nasty car accident. She'd also put in an appearance in the trauma ward repairing a number of broken limbs and other less life-threatening issues, just because she was there and it seemed worth doing for herself and more importantly the people involved.

' _Probably over at Linda's workshop, I guess_ ,' she thought, while unlocking the door to her workroom. A minute later ' _Ianthe_ ' left the room, then the office, heading over to the Tinker's building to see what was going on. Knocking, she waited for Linda to answer the door.

"Hi," she said when this happened, the feline woman smiling when she saw who it was.

"Hello, Ianthe. Come in, the rest of your family are here as well."

"I expected that was the case when I couldn't find anyone," she chuckled as she went inside. Linda locked the door again then moved to stand beside her when she stopped dead and stared at the contents of the room. "Wow. You guys have been _busy_."

"It's pretty good isn't it?" Taylor's ' _Saurial_ ' aspect called as she put a half-completed mech cabin on a stand that hadn't been there the day before. There were several more laid out across the room, each with a nearly finished cabin on, while down one side there were six sets of legs and a number of disassembled arms and tails next to them. "We've got a nice little production line going here. You're just in time, you can help put them together."

"There's quite a bit of wiring and fine detail work to do before I can get them finished, plus I need to put some more power units together, but this is coming along really well," Linda remarked as she went over to a workbench. Indicating a couple of dozen piles of intricate parts, some of which were very delicate looking and oddly pretty, she added, "Saurial made all the things I need, though. These ones will have about forty percent more output than the ones I normally make, and they're half the size. I always had to improvise around not having the stuff I needed to do it right."

"I can imagine that it's a lot easier now that you don't have to," Amy said.

"God, you wouldn't _believe_ how much easier it is," Linda replied, picking a component up and turning it over in her hand. "This thing would have taken me a week of machining to make something barely equivalent out of the crap I had access to, and it would have burned out in a few hours of use. The units I brought with me took me two months each to make, were the best ones I ever managed to do, and they look like crap compared to what these ones will be like."

"They still work very well even so," the Varga, who was running ' _Raptaur_ ' over on the other side of the workshop, said as he picked up a completed leg mechanism and moved it to a pile of similar ones laid out on the floor. "The first prototype appeared to have more than enough power for anything anyone asked of it."

"Yes, but I don't think the power supply would last as long as I'd like," Linda noted, looking at him. "These ones will work for decades with a little luck. It's annoying that they only seem to work if I put them together and tune them, though."

"There's something very odd going on with that," Taylor said, looking at the parts and frowning a little. "I can't quite work out what yet. I'll need to sit down and think about the math for a while at some point."

"If you can work out how to make one of these yourself, that would be impressive," Linda smiled, putting the part down. "But even if you can't, I can easily build them now that you've made all the components. These should keep me going for a while."

"If you need more, just ask," ' _Saurial_ ' replied. "Ianthe, grab this for a moment, will you, while I attach the top half?"

Amy walked over and steadied the heavy assembly, watching as her friend retrieved the crystalline cockpit window, which already had the hinges, lift mechanism, and locking system installed. In fact, as she examined it, they appeared to be part of the thing. Taylor and Linda had apparently optimized the design to reduce the part count a lot. Holding the lower section in place with one hand, she let go with the other and guided the protruding spigots of the rear hinges into the relevant sockets in the cockpit lower half as Taylor maneuvered it into place. There was a solid sounding _clunk_ and it locked firmly into the bottom section.

"Good, that's that done," the lizard girl said with satisfaction. "You can put it down again."

"OK," she replied, carefully moving the completed cockpit unit into its cradle. "How many are we making?"

"Six completed units, and six more as subassemblies for now," Lisa, who was standing next to a pair of elaborate computers set up on a purpose-made table on wheels, said in response to her question. She was typing away on one of the keyboards at high speed, apparently installing new software.

"What she said," Taylor nodded. "Linda thinks that's enough to be getting on with. We can have all six running by the weekend then we're thinking about picking a few people to test them on the job. There are sure enough volunteers."

"There are so _many_ volunteers we'll be busy for the next month making these things if everyone ends up with one," the Varga snickered. "At this rate no one will be driving cars around here, they'll be taking mechs home."

"Less easy to steal, I guess," Linda said with a grin. "The security system is a little more… enthusiastic… than anything Ford puts into their vehicles."

"Danny might have things to say about building a few hundred mechs," Amy grinned. "Like ' _where are we going to put them_ ' and ' _oh, god, why me?_ ' Or words to that effect."

They all exchanged looks, then laughed. "That sounds quite likely," the demon commented, looking like he was enjoying himself. "We should probably not go too overboard just yet. Although we can certainly make space, some careful fractional dimensional work on one of the spare warehouses would make a decent mech hangar."

"Six is enough for now," Linda said firmly. "It'll do to test them properly and let me work out the best control system for them, with feedback from the guys running them. When we have a final design, we can make more and modify the first ones to the same specification."

"Fair enough," Taylor nodded, moving one of the leg assemblies over to the cradle with the completed cabin. "Raptaur and I need to go and sort out Kevin and Randall's new place soon, before doing a few other things tonight. Let's get the mechanical parts all put together. Ianthe, if you and Metis can help, we can do that pretty fast."

"I'm nearly finished over here," Lisa said, typing some more, then clicking the mouse, which looked absurdly small in her talons. "Five minutes."

"All right." The lizard-girl aspect looked over at her other one.

"This is the last of the leg units," the demon replied without looking up as he finished snapping it together. Examining his work, he nodded in satisfaction. "All the arms are assembled as well, and the tails."

"Great work, everyone," Linda said, looking around with her hands on her hips and the end of her tail moving lazily back and forth. "Still can't believe how fucking fast all this comes together, but I'm not going to question it."

"It's not a problem, Linda," he assured her, turning around and smiling as he put the finished unit down. "It's enjoyable work, the results are very impressive, and as my sister said earlier, we like making things and helping our friends."

Shortly all five of them were busily building mech hulls from stacks of parts, each section slotting together nicely. Amy was impressed yet again how precisely Taylor and her demon could repeatedly fabricate things out of thin air. There was little doubt that all this was happening far more rapidly than could be done by normal techniques.

She and ' _Saurial_ ' were assembling the lower sections with the legs and tail, while the Varga-controlled Raptaur aspect and Lisa were attaching arms and the relevant sections to the bottoms of the completed cabin units. Linda was putting the controls together on the bench ready to be installed into the finished hulls when they were ready. In under an hour and a half they'd completed five units.

Picking up the most recently completed one, Amy and Lisa moved it over to the row of four more, while the other two reptilian figures got the final one ready for connecting the top and bottom halves together. Linda watched, having finished making the control systems moments before. "Not bad," she said, looking at the time display on one of her new computers. "About five and a half hours to get to this point."

"We're definitely getting faster," Amy chuckled, as they put the penultimate mech hull down, then went back to help with the last one. "I'm not sure it's a job I'd want to do all day every day, but it's interesting."

Shortly the last one was assembled. Linda climbed up it and opened the cockpit, while Lisa handed her the seat sub-unit. Both cat-woman and seat disappeared into the mech, sounds of a ratchet driver coming to them moments later. "Hand me one of the dashboard sections, will you, please?" she said, reappearing over the side of the mech. The Varga retrieved the requested part and handed it up. "Thanks."

A few more tool sounds came to them, then Linda stood up in the cabin and stretched. "Done. The others can wait. I'll wire this one up and install the power systems, and when I'm sure it all works we can do the rest. Thanks again, all of you."

"No problem, Linda," Taylor smiled, looking up at her as she clambered over the side and dropped lightly to the floor. Stroking the new machine, the Tinker looked pleased. "What color do you want it?" All of the mech hulls were currently the normal dull gray of EDM.

"I haven't decided yet," Linda replied, turning away from the completed unit. "It's not that important, I'll leave it for now."

"OK." Taylor leaned on one of the other mechs, studying the part feline woman. "Have you thought about what you want to take to the PRT tomorrow?"

"I'd like to take that," Linda replied, waving at the prototype mech and grinning. "Obviously. But I'm not sure walking down the road in it is a wildly good idea, people are going to run into each other staring at it. Or panic and run away."

"We could easily get someone to drive it over on a truck," Lisa said.

"I have a better idea." Taylor's Saurial face formed into an evil grin. "One that's much more fun."

"Do I want to know?" Linda asked warily, looking askance at her.

"You'll like it," Taylor assured her, walking over to the original mech and inspecting it. The Varga joined her, both of them exchanging a glance and a smirk.

"You're going to do something odd, aren't you?" The feline Tinker sighed faintly.

"A little unusual, fair enough, but not actually odd. It's quite normal where _we_ come from." Taylor winked at her. Lisa and Amy looked at each other, the former appearing to be trying not to laugh. "Right..." Taylor tapped her muzzle with a finger, thinking. "How to do this without killing everyone within a mile..."

Linda stepped back.

"Joking," the lizard-girl snickered. "Probably."

"That makes it _so_ much less worrying..."

Amy was fairly sure that both the demon and his host were silently discussing things that would make an unsuspecting physicist have a minor coronary. They walked around the mech a couple of times, then ' _Raptaur_ ' turned to her other aspect and nodded.

"That should work."

"I think so too. Let's see what happens." Taylor's smaller aspect stepped forward and put her hand on the mech, appearing to concentrate hard, while the larger one watched carefully. "Hmm, don't want to warp the power supply, it's doing something a little odd to space around it, so we need to wrap it in it's own fractal pattern..." Taylor mumbled under her breath for a few seconds, most of what she said leaving Amy none the wiser. Lisa seemed to be listening with interest and some understanding, she noticed.

"Ah. That's got it."

Taylor stepped back a pace, then studied the machine, which didn't appear to have had anything happen to it. ' _Raptaur_ ' nodded slowly, smiling a little. "Yes, I agree. Very nicely done."

"Thanks."

"You're welcome."

"Will you two stop being all smug and tell us what you did?" Lisa asked with a sigh. Taylor looked over her shoulder, then turned around, grinning widely. She looked very pleased with herself indeed.

"Did?"

"You _did_ something to it. What was it?"

Both aspects walked towards them. "This," the smaller one said with a smirk, stopping ten feet from the mech and raising a hand.

She snapped her fingers.

There was a weird sound, followed by dead silence.

"Holy fucking hell in a handbasket," Linda said in a tone of flat disbelief. Amy shook her head, while Lisa looked quite surprised, then extremely interested and curious.

Both of Taylor's aspects turned around to inspect the place the mech had been. It was gone, at first glance. Only when one looked closer, or had been watching as Amy and the other two had done, would you spot the small two inch diameter ball that had apparently taken the place of the formerly hulking machine.

Linda wandered over and looked down at it, then bent down and reached out. Gingerly touching the sphere, she then experimentally picked it up, looking surprised that she actually _could._

"How...?" She sounded completely stunned. "I mean… where did it go?"

"You're holding it," the Varga said in tones of satisfaction.

Raising the metallic sphere to her eyes, Linda studied it, then looked at him plaintively. "This… is my mech?"

"Yep," Taylor's other aspect said, sounding very pleased with herself. "Fractally folded in on itself. Like the fence, or these guy's armor. Almost all of it is sort of somewhere else right now, that's the part that's in the normal three dimensions. Tricky little problem but we've had a lot of practice with doing weird shit to space recently." She exchanged a look of amusement with her other aspect, while Amy and Lisa chuckled. "Comes in handy more often than you'd think."

"How do you get it back, though?" Linda finally said in a wondering voice, turning the sphere over in her fingers.

"Throw it at the ground and shout ' _Mech, I choose you!_ '" Lisa suggested with a snicker. Linda looked hard at her and sighed loudly.

"Very helpful, Metis. Thank you for that."

"You're welcome, of course," the black reptile said with a bow and a grin.

Taylor, who was laughing at Lisa's comment, took pity on the bewildered Tinker and walked over to her. "Look, you do this," she said, gently taking the sphere from her. "Squeeze on both sides here, and push here with your thumb." She did the relevant actions, evoking a distinct click sound. "Then put it down and step back."

Placing the sphere on the floor she took Linda's arm and moved her out of the way. A few seconds later the sphere warped in a disturbing manner and expanded back into the familiar blue and orange machine in moments with a weird noise. The cat-woman gaped, before she began slowly smiling like a lunatic.

"Fuck me, that's incredible. How do you make it into that little ball?"

"See that sort of handprint shape on the side of the leg?" All of them looked at the indicated place, Amy able to see there was a subtle change in color there forming the outline of a hand. "Put your hand on it and press, then let go. It won't work for anyone else but you if I did it right, it's keyed to your biosignature"

Linda looked at her, then the mech, before walking closer and reaching out. Putting her hand inside the outline, she pushed hard, then jumped out of the way. A couple of seconds later the mech folded into itself with the now familiar sound of the universe sobbing gently.

"Fucking _unbelievable_."

"It worked even better than I thought it would," Taylor said with a happy smile. Lisa was staring at the sphere that Linda bent down and picked up again with wide eyes. Amy glanced at her and recognized the look of her power telling her many new things with inner amusement.

"What happens if someone is inside it when that happens?" Linda asked cautiously, sounding a little worried.

"Not much, it won't hurt them. Everything should keep working like it always does, the space inside the mech will remain normal, but it's folded away from normal space until it's opened out again. The life support would keep them alive." Taylor shrugged. "It can't happen accidentally so you won't get trapped. And I don't see you putting someone else in there either unless you really have to."

Linda examined the sphere in her hand, shaking her head in wonder. "You just keep coming up with impossible things, don't you?" she asked rhetorically. Taylor grinned at her. "You have no idea how many new ideas seeing that gave me."

' _I've got more than a few myself_ ,' Amy thought to herself, thinking about some interesting possibilities. Taylor and Varga did seem to be making the most of that bizarre excuse for mathematics they'd come up with…

"We need to come up with a costume for you before you meet the PRT," Taylor said, looking her up and down. "The overalls are a theme, certainly, but it doesn't really say ' _Fear me for I am the Feline Tinker of Doom and Cool Vehicles_ ,' does it?"

"What do you think the FTODACV should actually wear?" Lisa asked, tilting her head a little and apparently coming back from wherever her powers had taken her. "And that's a horrible name by the way, Vectura is much better."

"I have a few ideas, and Metis suggested a couple of things too," Linda replied, chuckling a little at the comment. "Nothing too fancy. Basically a helmet with a visor that can be closed, something I can put a decent visual interface into, along with some armored clothing. A little like what you made for New Wave. Dark blue with deep red trim, possibly?" She looked at ' _Metis_ ' who grinned when she added, "As a tribute to the person who saved me." Lisa looked down at her arms, moving one so the scarlet highlights rippled over the scales.

"That sounds reasonable," Taylor nodded. "OK..." She spun her finger vertically in a circle. "Turn around."

Linda did so.

"All right. Let's try this." Moving to a clear spot on a table, she began making a new set of clothing very much like the one she'd made Amy the first time. Glancing at the older woman every now and then, she finally held up the result. "Like this?"

"Looks pretty good," Linda replied, inspecting it with interest. "Even a sleeve for my tail."

"It's lined with EDM mesh, insulated, and all the usual stuff," Taylor explained. "The pockets are much larger on the inside too. There are some inside ones as well." She opened the top part with the zip, folding back the lapels. "Two on either side. You can put any electronics you want in there, I can make them larger or smaller as you need. The collar here will lock onto the helmet, so it can be made air-tight. I was thinking you can probably build in the same sort of life support system as you used in the mech?"

"That's a good idea," Linda said with appreciation. Putting her hand into one of the inner pockets she felt around curiously, getting up to the shoulder inside it. "Amazing. That'll sure help."

"Around the waist here is a sort of built in utility belt, lots of storage for tools and so on. And a big one down the back so you can put something large in it." Taylor showed her how to get at it. "Want a sword?"

"I don't think that's required," Linda snickered. "I have no idea how to use one anyway."

"I could teach you, but there's no hurry." She examined her work, then looked at Linda again in an evaluating manner. "I can probably make this work like those guys armor with a little thought. It would be easier if it was rigid armor, but..." She rubbed the scales on her chin, thinking. "I'll work on it. It would probably be useful to have it available whenever you wanted it."

"Give her a storage bracelet," the Varga suggested quietly. "That will do for now." Amy remembered the device her friend had come up with for Vista and nodded to herself.

"Yep, that's a decent plan." Taylor spend a few seconds making a slender silver bracelet then handed it to Linda, who took it and inspected it with interest. "Put it on," she suggested. When Linda had it around her wrist, the lizard-girl pointed at part of the delicate design. "Press there, and slide it sideways."

Slightly nervously the cat-woman did as instructed, twitching slightly when a fuzzy distortion appeared a foot from the bracelet in front of her hand. "Ah… What's _that?_ "

"A trick I learned from a friend," Taylor replied with a smile. "It's linked to the inside of the bracelet, which is about a cubic yard or so. Look." She rolled the costume up and poked it through the distorted section of space, then let go. It vanished inside without a trace. Linda's eyes widened.

"Not bad," she managed after a few seconds.

"Just reach in and grab it." Linda looked at Taylor, then carefully inserted her hand into the distortion, feeling around for a moment, before pulling her new costume out again. "If you slide that back, it closes," ' _Saurial_ ' added, indicating the bracelet again.

Performing the relevant action, Linda shook her head a little. "For some reason that's even weirder than pockets that are larger on the inside. The laws of physics are just guidelines to you guys, aren't they?"

"More or less. Now, let's see about a helmet." Taylor thought again, before making a helmet that was rather different than anything Amy had seen her produce before. "This is based on a design I saw online for a really neat motorcycle one, but I improved it. The back opens up like this, then you stick your face into it." She hinged it open and handed it to Linda, who looked curiously at it for a moment.

"That _is_ neat," she noted, before carefully putting it on the front of her face and closing the back half. There were places for her feline ears to fit into, which gave it a very distinctive profile that made Amy and Lisa exchange a glance and a small smile. "How's the fit?"

"A little tight," the Tinker replied, her voice slightly muffled. Reaching out and feeling the helmet, Taylor made some adjustments while the others watched with interest. "That's better."

"The faceplate will open as well." Linda reached up and felt for the catch, moving it with a faint click and opening her faceplate. "I can make it mirrored if you want."

"Just the top half, I think. That should look pretty good and also obscure my face enough so it looks like a mask."

"OK." Moments later the last of the changes were done. "Try the rest of the costume and see how it all fits." Taylor handed her a pair of boots and some gloves. "These should finish it off."

"All right, I'll be back in a minute," the Tinker replied, taking the items and heading for the small shower room at the back of the workshop. She came back a few minutes later, tugging on a sleeve. "This is pretty fucking nice. You have a gift for this sort of thing."

Reaching them, she turned around with her arms out, then stopped facing them again. "How does it look?"

"Very good," Lisa said approvingly. "A little dangerous, very professional, and pretty cool. I like the color scheme as well." The suit had deep red pinstripes down the sleeves and legs, and on the back forming a stylized cat's head that was vaguely reminiscent of the Varga logo that Taylor had on her armor. "It's also sort of similar to a racing driver's suit."

"Which is oddly appropriate," the Varga smiled.

"I like it." Linda flipped up her visor and grinned. "Very much. Thanks, again. I owe you something cool considering how many things you've made for me today."

"Forget it, this is what we do," Taylor laughed, waving a hand. "Want your name on it?"

"I doubt people will forget who I am." Looking down at herself, Linda flicked her tail a couple of times in the armored sleeve it currently occupied. "I have a feeling there aren't a lot of people who could be mistaken for me after all."

"Probably not."

"I believe with that, we should go and deal with the new workshop for our most recent recruits," the Varga rumbled, looking at the other aspect, who nodded.

"Yep. Better get that done. It shouldn't take too long. Then tomorrow we can get the electrical department to wire it all up and it'll be ready for them to move in tomorrow evening."

"New neighbors," Linda smiled, picking up the tiny storage form of her prototype mech from the bench next to her, flipping it in her hand a couple of times, then slipping it into the appropriate pocket. "I hope they're not too noisy, I have work to do."

"I'm sure you'll come to an arrangement," Amy said. "Probably one that involves copying ideas from each other."

"Probably," the female Tinker nodded. "Kevin's got some really good ideas, and I can see some possibilities for using a few of them. From what he said he's got something like ten years worth of crap to sort through. I might help." She grinned briefly.

"I'm looking forward to seeing what happens," Taylor said. With a final look around at the partly completed set of mechs and all the other parts and components, she seemed contented. "A good evening's work, I think. Well, we'll be a couple of doors down if anyone needs us, for an hour or so. Then we've got to leave."

"I need to talk to Danny so I'll see you later as well," Amy added.

"And I have some work to do too," Lisa put in. "So it looks like you're on your own for now."

"That's fine, I have plenty of things to do," Linda replied, taking her helmet off again and putting it on the bench. "I guess I'll see you tomorrow."

"I'll meet you at the PRT building," Taylor assured her. With a wave, she and her other aspect headed towards the door, the Varga unlocking it and letting his host out, then following her with a final smile back at them. Amy and Lisa followed them out, the Tinker closing the door behind them with a quiet ' _good night_ ,' sounding thoughtful and pleased.

{That went well,} Lisa said softly, speaking Famtalk even so. {She's a lot more confident recently.}

{That mech and all the nice things people said about her really boosted her confidence,} Amy agreed. {Especially when even those PRT guys looked so impressed.}

{She's very nervous about the power testing, you know, even though she's hiding it,} her friend commented with a look at her. {When that's all sorted out I want to see about getting her to talk to a therapist. While she's doing a _lot_ better than I expected, I can't help thinking that her earlier life is still sort of haunting her. Which isn't surprising at all, it was pretty fucking horrible.}

{I can ask a couple of people I know through the hospital for some advice on that,} Amy mused, going over a list of possible candidates in her mind. {It shouldn't be too difficult to find someone who can help. It's not like we can't afford the best now.}

{Thomas is going to be paying for a lot of things,} Lisa snickered. {He'd probably be really pissed if he ever found out.}

{How much did you… confiscate… from him?}

The other lizard glanced at her, grinning evilly. {A fuck of a lot. I'm still going through it, but he was, at one point, a _very_ wealthy guy. Half of it is probably stolen from what I can find out. I'm going to see if I can figure out how to get it back to the people it belongs to. The rest is legitimate spoils of war, even legally, considering we're authorized good guys now. Confiscated from a villain in the process of capturing him.} She chuckled as they stopped outside the BBFO office, Amy unlocking the door. {Technically BBFO owns that Endbringer shelter too. On paper, at least.}

{What the _hell_ are we going to do with an underground bunker?} Amy asked, closing the door when they were both inside. Lisa shrugged.

"No idea," she said in English, grinning. "But it's there if we want it. Paintball arena, maybe? We'll have to think of something to do with it when the PRT have finished going over it with tweezers and microscopes. Maybe donate it to the city or something."

Shaking her head in amusement, Amy picked up the phone and dialed the code for Danny's office. "Roy could probably think of a use for it," she said, cutting herself short when the other end was picked up. "Hi, Danny. I'm glad you're still here. Can you come over to the office?"

" _I was about to come and look for you, Ianthe, so that's good timing. I'll be there in a few minutes_ ," Taylor's father replied. In the background she could hear Mark and Kurt talking about something to do with the gate security. " _I just need to finish with this meeting._ "

"OK, no hurry, I'm not going anywhere," she assured him. "See you soon." Putting the phone down, she headed towards the coffee machine, which Lisa was already fiddling with. Once he turned up, she intended to activate all his boosts and test them thoroughly. With him being away for a few days, and Sophia still wandering around somewhere out there, she intended to do everything she could to make sure that if anything went wrong he had all the advantages she could arrange.


	324. Activations and Interiors

Missy listened until she was certain that both her parents had stopped arguing again and gone to bed. Her father was sleeping in the guest room as he did quite often these days, while her mother was snoring a little in the master bedroom, the sound letting her know that the older woman had decided that a little drink before bedtime was just what was called for. This wasn't unusual after an argument.

To settle her nerves, she said.

Missy sighed faintly. Her mother was ' _settling her nerves_ ' more and more these days.

Her father, on the other hand, seldom drank, but he did sleep like the dead once he was out. Nothing short of an air horn in the ear was going to wake him before morning, she knew for a fact. More than once she'd tried to get him out of bed early on Christmas or her birthday, utilizing techniques up to and including jumping up and down on him, to no avail.

Silently getting up from where she'd been lying on her bed reading and resting, she got her ' _Cloak_ ' cloak from her storage bracelet and threw it over herself, putting her backup mask on as well under it. Checking in the mirror over her dresser, she nodded to herself with satisfaction.

 **"Perfect,"** she hissed quietly to herself in her second alter-ego's voice, grinning in the darkness of her hood. **"Cloak rides again. Beware evildoers, your time has come..."**

Pulling on her gloves, she turned to the window and exerted a small part of her power, which oddly enough seemed to be coming to her more and more easily in recent weeks. The tiny gap under the closed window expanded to fill the opening, while she faded from view and dived through it. Moments later the room was empty and the window was soundlessly returning to its correct form.

* * *

"So what do I do?" Danny looked at Amy a little cautiously, as she walked around him studying him.

"Just stand there." She smiled at him, then reached out with one violet-scaled hand and poked him for a couple of seconds. "There we go. That's turned everything on."

He felt weird. Then he felt weirder. Then he fell over.

"Oops."

"You broke him, Amy," Lisa sighed.

"Nah, he's fine," the healer said, leaning over him and poking him again. He looked up at her glowing eyes and tried to glare. "More or less. Too much information all at once from the boosted senses, it looks like. I'll turn them off again for a moment."

"Grbl," he mumbled as the world went back to being more or less what passed for normal around this madhouse. Sitting up on the floor, he held his head in his hands, trying not to drop it.

"Sorry, Danny, it looks like without powers there are some minor, almost unnoticeable issues with the sense upgrades," Amy said, squatting down beside him and putting her hand on his head. "I'll need to make some adjustments, it won't take long. Just stay there for a minute."

"Ig." He licked his lips, then tried again, while Lisa watched with a smirk on her face. "You're a menace," he finally managed, making Amy snicker as she worked.

"Just a minor miscalculation, poor base level humans aren't put together very well," she giggled. "That should do it. All right, I'll turn it back on part by part this time."

Suddenly he could hear _everything_.

"Holy crap," he mumbled, putting his hands over his ears in reflex, then slowly lowering them when he realized with some surprise that while he could literally hear his heart beating, and theirs as well, it wasn't the painful assault on his mind it should have been. Somehow, this incredible girl had managed to make the entire crazy idea actually work.

Tipping his head from side to side, he looked around, trying to identify all the sounds. The influx of audio settled down in only thirty seconds to something he could handle, which he was pretty sure shouldn't have been possible. Looking at Amy, he listened carefully, then shook his head in wonder. He really could hear a deep, slow heartbeat which was obviously the one from her reptilian body. Lisa's was also audible, slightly slower and fainter. All the computer fans were individually distinguishable after only a few seconds, there were several high pitched whines which he'd never noticed before, along with a bass grumble that came and went every few seconds.

The whines seemed, after some thought, to be coming from various electronic devices, including his phone. He pulled it out and looked at it, then shook it. "Nothing wrong with it," Lisa said with a smile. "That's something to do with the power supply, I think. All sorts of electronics make faint noises that are normally much too high pitched for humans to hear. I noticed the same thing when Amy modded me. It's even more obvious when I'm in Metis, the frequency range of these ears is insane."

"It should be really annoying and hard to live with, but it's not," he noted wonderingly, putting his phone back in his pocket. "All those sounds… I had no _idea_ you lot could do this."

Amy looked pleased. "When you were in Ianthe I turned the gains down on the senses quite a lot since I didn't want to overwhelm you with everything at once. It takes some time to get used to. Now, though, I'd feel half deaf and nearly blind without the boosts in my human body, never mind the scent sense, which is amazingly useful." She touched his head again, then nodded in satisfaction. "It's all integrating nicely. The neural mods sort out the information and pass it along to your brain in a way that it can handle. You'll find it gets easier and easier over the next day or so as everything settles down into the final configuration."

"What's that deep rumbling sound?" he asked, listening some more. "The one that's coming and going."

"Waves," Lisa replied. He looked at her, puzzled.

"Waves?"

"Yep. Not in the bay, out on the coast. It's the sound of breakers on the shore, transmitted through the water and then the rock under us. It's more obvious outside, the EDM this place is made of blocks most of the sound." The black lizard looked amused. "Like I said, impressive frequency response, even in the base human form, once Amy's had a go at you. Right down into the infrasonic range at the low end, and up into a pretty high ultrasonic one at the high end."

"The best I can do without significant modifications which would be obvious on a normal human body," Amy explained, "is somewhat better than an elephant's low frequency response at one end, around two hertz or so, up to something above what a dog could manage at the high end. So about fifty-eight to sixty kilohertz. Linda goes considerably higher in her feline form, well over a hundred kilohertz, and these bodies extend both ends to a stupid level. Down to deep sub-hertz frequencies and up to a couple of megahertz or so at least. But we need to be underwater to hear those sorts of sounds properly, they don't carry through air very well."

"Which compared to what Taylor can manage is still more or less being disabled," Lisa added with a grin. "Varga senses are total bullshit. Even in her base form she's got better ones than I do as Metis, and in any of her other forms, it's simply unbelievable."

"Astounding," he mumbled, listening to the waves breaking miles away with an expression of amazement on his face. "You are _very_ good at what you do."

"Thanks, Danny," she smiled. "You can turn it off if you want, or turn it up or down as well. Feel this?" She did something, a very odd sensation going through his mind. After a couple more times, he slowly nodded. "And this?"

Again he nodded.

"This one turns the audio boost on and off. This is off..." All the sounds vanished, making him feel abruptly dizzy for a moment, as he found himself with ordinary human senses again. "And back on like this. Then this one pretty much turns the volume up and down."

"I see," he replied. "I think. Let's..." A little experimentation and he smiled. "I've said it before, but I'll say it again. Astounding."

The reptile-like girl looked pleased. "Great. I'm glad it works without needing powers, that's really useful information. I was just a little worried about that. Hang on, I need to make a couple of tweaks." She concentrated for a while, then nodded. "OK, that's done. It's looking really good so far. Let's try the vision next."

Half an hour later he finally stood up, the girl in the lizard stepping back. "All right. All the sensory modifications are working perfectly, and I've got lots of data on how to improve this for the next normal person I work on," she said with a gratified nod. "You can turn the strength and speed boosts on and off too. Let's test how that works."

Lisa walked over holding a block of EDM, which had a handle coming out the top, in one hand, putting it down in front of him. "Taylor made a few of these last night. See if you can pick it up."

Danny looked at her, then the block, before shrugging and grabbing the T-handle sticking out of the lump of gray metal. Lifting, he found it heavy but manageable. "How much does this weight?" he asked curiously, hefting it a couple of times, then trying with one hand which was just possible.

"Two thousand pounds," Lisa replied with a grin. He nearly dropped it in shock.

" _How much?_ " he squeaked, looking at the weight with wide eyes.

She repeated the figure.

"Good god." Putting the block down, he stared at it. "A solid ton. Unbelievable."

"Think you could manage more?" she asked.

He picked it up again, smiling widely, then nodded. "Yes, this isn't my limit, definitely."

"It should be quite high, I made some significant improvements to my mod package," Amy, who was watching with her arms folded and emoting satisfaction, commented. "I've gone up to nearly two tons, Lisa can manage about two and a half, and when I do Kevin and Randall I'm expecting over three for them. Linda can already do more than two."

Lisa retrieved another block. It was the same size as the first one, making him look between them with a raised eyebrow, which caused her to chuckle. "Taylor made them all the same size, but they're hollow, so the weights are different," she explained. "So no one realizes how much they're trying to lift until they succeed. The weight of the block is written on the bottom. She made ones from five hundred pounds to six thousand in five hundred increments, which is enough for our testing purposes."

"Oh, all right, I understand." He heaved on the new one, lifting it to his chest, then put it down again. "A lot heavier."

"But not your limit?"

"No."

"OK." She brought another one over, which he grabbed. This time he had to put his back into it, but got it up to his waist level without too much effort. "Great. That's the three ton one."

"Fuck." He put it down carefully, mindful of his feet, then gaped at it. "I can't believe that." Turning to Amy, he pointed at the weights. "You can basically make mid-level brutes to order?"

"Pretty much," she said with a pleased expression. "I could obviously do a lot more if I really tried, but it'll start needing a complete rebuild, and at that point it's probably easier to make a new body and move you into it like I did with Linda. Plus there are limits to what I can change without it starting to become obvious, or at least detectable without too much trouble. I'm trying to make these modifications discreet enough that without some serious tests someone can't find them."

"Still, it's remarkable work even so. Not needing powers to do this is incredible."

She shrugged slightly. "I can't, _yet_ , duplicate some of the weird things powers can do. We have no idea where the energy for things like force-fields comes from, like with Vicky, or any of the weirder tricks like teleportation, flight, that sort of thing. The Varga says it's definitely not magic of any form, but even he can't tell us what it _is_. So I have to stick to more or less normal physics, chemistry, or biology, although I have a _lot_ more knowledge about how to do that than anyone else I'm aware of at the moment. It lets me do things that should be impossible in practical terms." The girl indicated him with a finger. "Like you are now, and ' _Ianthe_ ' and ' _Metis_ ' too. Although in those last two cases, Taylor and her demon made a lot of it possible."

"So energy production is the biggest limiting factor," he mused. Amy nodded. "Which is why I'm really hungry right now?"

"Yes. With the boosts running flat out like that you're using up stored biological energy at several times the level of a normal human," she confirmed. "I told everyone else I've done this to, don't leave it turned on when you don't need it, or you'll eat like a starving man all the time. I'm working on better methods to provide the power but right now it's a massively more efficient but otherwise fairly normal biological digestive system." She indicated her present body. "These use a different system, which isn't really compatible with anything that would easily pass as human, at least on the inside."

"I wonder what powers _do_ use?" he remarked, flipping the internal switch that turned off the strength boost, then experimentally trying to pick up any of the blocks, without success. They might as well have been welded to the floor. Lisa grinned, then went to bring another one over.

"I suspect that when we work that out, we'll learn an awful lot about powers themselves," Amy said as she watched her friend put the new block down next to him. "Assuming that we manage to work it out in the first place."

"Try that one," Lisa suggested. Squatting down he grabbed the handle then exerted himself, managing to get it off the floor by a foot. "Not bad. That's the five hundred pound one."

"You'll be a lot stronger than you were even without the boosting active," Amy noted as he put it down again. "Now that I've unlocked the limiters I put in place when I did the changes. It'll probably take a couple of days to sort of recalibrate yourself properly, but I didn't have too much trouble."

"How much of your human body is original issue these days, Amy?" he asked with a glance at her, his eyes narrowed a little. She snickered slightly, rubbing the side of her face.

"Um… not all that much," she admitted quietly. "I've improved a _lot_ of things. If I wasn't trying to look completely normal I could do more, but on the inside I've experimented a fair bit."

"Be careful," he said with a slightly concerned sigh. "We don't want to lose you to some silly mistake."

"Don't worry, I have no intention of killing myself either," she assured him. Pointing at Lisa, she added, "I test them all on her first."

Danny started laughing as the other reptilian form gave the first one a hard stare. "Oh, very comforting," Lisa snapped.

"It is to me," Amy snickered. "Seriously, Danny, I'm not taking chances. Between us my power and I know what we're doing and it loves all this so much it's not going to let me make a mistake. As crazy as it sounds I trust it."

"And I trust you. Or I wouldn't have let you do all this to me," he smiled. "Just take care of yourself."

"I will. Now, let's try the speed." She made a couple of bioceramic batons and tossed him one, which he caught, then spun around his hand which made her stare and grin. He grinned back.

"I know a few things about these, although I'm not up to what Mark knows, never mind my daughter," he told her.

"So I see. Well, I'm still learning too, of course. Let's see how quick you are." She took a step closer and whipped the baton in her hand at him. He quickly parried with his own, the two dark gray rods clacking together, before striking back. She did the same thing as he'd done, grinning widely.

Enjoying himself he tried to remember all the things he'd been taught by a few people over the years, ducking as her baton whooshed over his head. The reptilian girl was obviously going much more slowly and gently than she could, he'd seen her train with Taylor several times, but she wasn't holding back to the point that a normal human would have much luck. She sped up a little and he responded, privately surprised he could.

After a couple more minutes of increasing speed, she looked surprised when he tried a trick he'd been taught years ago by someone who spent far more time in fights than he should have done, neatly disarming her with a twist of his baton. Hers leaped into the air and landed in his other hand.

Lisa clapped, smiling, while Amy stared first at him, then her empty hand. "Wow. Not bad, Danny. Not bad at all. How did you do that?"

He tossed her weapon back, then showed her. "Neat," she commented with admiration when she could do it too. Lisa was watching closely.

"I had some good teachers, but I never kept it up, not being into the violent side of Union work," he said, handing her the other baton as well. She reabsorbed both weapons.

"Except where Taylor is concerned, of course," Lisa chuckled. He ducked his head and rubbed the back of his neck, a little embarrassed about something that seemed to have been heard about by a lot more people than he'd realized.

"Ah. Yes, that's true," he laughed a little ruefully. "My temper got the better of me, I'm afraid. I try not to let it out, it's… somewhat overwhelming."

"So we've heard," Amy nodded. "But people also say it takes an awful lot of provocation."

"I'd like to think so," he sighed. "It's not something I'm proud of."

"Taylor is," she said with a gentle pat on the shoulder. "She's very proud about everything to do with her father."

"Nice to know," Danny replied quietly, feeling pleased despite himself. "Thank you."

"No problem. Well, speed checks out."

"Definitely," Lisa told them. "He was going about three times as fast as a decent trained martial artist could manage. Not quite past the limits of what a normal human can do, but getting up there. And it wasn't his top speed either, if he really tried."

Amy nodded thoughtfully while Danny stared at the black lizard in surprise. It hadn't felt all that fast to him at the time. "Really?" he asked.

Lisa nodded. "Yep. It was pretty impressive to watch. Not quite a blur but very fucking quick."

"Proper training will improve that, as will some practice," Amy said. "I could boost it even more, but if I do you'll end up with problems until you get used to it. That can wait until you have a chance to learn your new limits. Since you're going away tomorrow I didn't want to do anything that would cause issues for you."

"Fair enough. Thank you again."

"When you get back, you should get Taylor to train you the same way she's helping us," Lisa suggested. "I know you're not likely to go looking for trouble, but we'd all feel better about it if you knew as much about how to keep yourself safe as possible."

"I'll talk to her about it," he replied thoughtfully. "You're right, of course. No harm in learning new tricks."

"Nope." Amy looked pleased. "All right, the only things left are the electricity generation ability and the weapons extruder."

"You gave me that _too?_ " he asked in surprise.

"Of course I did," she smiled. "I told you I was going to do everything I could to keep you safe. You've got the same package I gave Lisa and myself. Kevin and Randall have most of it too, I'll update them when I get a chance while you're away, and Linda will get an upgrade too. I want to make sure all my projects are kept up to date."

He couldn't help it, he laughed at the comment. "You sound like you're discussing making a birdhouse or something, not doing unnatural things to human beings," he chuckled.

She shrugged. "To me the latter is a lot easier than the former," she replied with equanimity. "OK, I'll show you how to electrocute someone with a handshake now."

"I can hardly wait," he said in dry tones, holding still while she put her hand on his head again.

* * *

Gliding along high above the city, Missy looked around, enjoying herself immensely. It was oddly liberating, running around like this, without the restrictions of being a Ward and Vista laid on her. No one knew who she was, no one really knew what she could do, and because of her association with the Family, no one was wildly keen on pushing her in case they found out. And they took her a lot more seriously than they did a thirteen-year-old short blonde girl in a dress.

 **"Fear me, for I am mysterious and bad-ass,"** she said under her breath, a hissing giggle following it.

 **"Cloak is everywhere and you'll never know it until it's too late,"** she added. **"Oooh, doughnuts!"** Sniffing, she looked down, realizing that she was over her favorite shop again, not having been paying all that much attention to where she was going while she was wandering around. With a smile she started hopping down her invisible staircase in large jumps, feeling that a box of the sweet treats would make this evening out perfect.

Just a small one this time, though, she remembered what happened last time. But she wanted to compare them to what Chris's latest invention produced.

In the name of proper experimentation, of course.

* * *

"It's back."

"What's back?"

"The cloak that eats like a… hungry cloak?"

There was a short pause as one of the clerks peered out of the back office into the main shop, which had gone weirdly quiet rather suddenly. "Oh. Her."

"That's the fifth time now. I think we might be getting a sort of a reputation. Some of the things people are saying on PHO are just strange."

"Is that why business is so good the last few days?"

"Might be. You know those nutcases. It can't be a coincidence that everyone in the shop had a camera ready."

Both of them watched the floating empty clothing as it consumed a doughnut, then made an eerie sound that seemed to convey appreciation. "Well, if she improves business, no harm done."

"Guess not."

"Hey, see if you can get her to pose for a photo with a box full," the first clerk said in the slow tones of someone with a sudden idea. "Sally at the print shop across the road owes me a favor."

"What fo… Oh. Right. Like the electronics place down town."

"Worth a shot, isn't it? I heard their business doubled when they got half the Family endorsing their shop."

"You're not as stupid as you look."

"Hey!"

"Mind you, you couldn't be and still walk and talk at the same time."

" _Hey!_ "

One of them glared while the other one grinned. "If you weren't my brother I'd fire you."

"We own the place together, you _can't_ fire me."

"I meant out of a cannon. Get out there and talk to her. _Politely._ "

"Sir, yes, sir." The second clerk saluted clumsily, still grinning, then turned around and went back into the main shop, where at least a dozen people were currently recording the possessed clothing with a sweet tooth, who was apparently ignoring them in favor of hoovering up an unhealthy amount of sugar.

"Fucking weird place, this city," the first clerk sighed, watching through the office doorway. He snapped his fingers. "Order more custard powder, right." Grabbing a pen he made some notes.

 **"Like this?"**

"Yes, perfect. Hold it a little higher."

 **"Want me to say cheese?"**

"..."

"With all due respect, miss, what good would that actually _do_ …?"

* * *

Taylor looked around with satisfaction. "That's not bad," she said. "I think the boys will be happy here. We'll need to get all the facilities hooked up tomorrow morning, but the guys can do that in a couple of hours. I'll talk to Dad about it later."

"It does seem to meet the requirements quite well," the Varga agreed, dropping from the second story mezzanine floor. They'd converted the interior of the warehouse, which was somewhat larger than Linda's one by about twenty percent, into a lower workshop area with an upper floor stretching about three quarters of the way from the back to the front. It had walkways down either side that went the rest of the way, and they'd used some fractional dimensional shenanigans to expand the space available as well. The end result was a very large open room, with several smaller ones upstairs around a central area about eighty feet square, the lower room being nearly twenty feet high. The upper ones were closer to normal dimensions at around eight feet.

They'd decided that Kevin and Randall might want living quarters in their new workshop, so had set aside four rooms for that purpose, and given them a kitchen and a couple of other rooms for whatever purpose they wanted. At the rear of the lower workshop were a couple of substantial store rooms and another bathroom with a shower.

"We're getting pretty good at this," she laughed, joining her other aspect and slinging an arm around his shoulders. Both of them were using a Saurial form at the moment, but had taken the precaution of locking the door they'd made first. The new EDM walls, roof, and floor made it very private so there was no chance of anyone interrupting them. "By the time we finish repairing the rest of the buildings we can probably call ourselves interior designers with a straight face."

"It's surprisingly enjoyable," he chuckled, nodding. "I suggest that we should rework the office soon. We talked about a tunnel to the bay some time ago, and I think we could easily expand the place several times, which is bound to be useful sooner or later. Perhaps we should also do that to your house. I doubt Danny would mind having a larger basement or attic."

"It's a thought," she replied. "I'll ask him. And we do need to work on the office. But this will do for now." They wandered around for a while making notes on what needed to be done by the electricians and plumbers, making holes in the appropriate places as well as channels in the walls and ceilings for the cables and so on. When they were done, they exchanged a glance, smiled at each other, doused the bioluminescence they'd been using to see in the otherwise completely dark building, and teleported back to the BBFO office.

Which made Amy shriek in shock and then swear at them quite a lot for a while, not having expected it.

"...idiotic demons!" she finished some five minutes later, winding down. Lisa was grinning, while Taylor was writing down some of the better insults in a notebook she'd manifested. The Varga was rolling around on the table laughing his ass off in the small dragon form, finding the entire thing hilarious.

"And stop that!" Amy snatched the notebook from her friend, who smirked at her.

"Would saying sorry help?"

" _No! Stopping appearing out of thin air without any warning would help!_ ," Amy snapped, folding her arms. Her ' _Ianthe_ ' eyes were narrowed at Taylor. "Or maybe just appearing somewhere other than _almost touching me!_ You crazy scaly mad woman."

"Hey, if _you_ could teleport you'd be popping around all over the place," Taylor pointed out in reasonable tones, making Amy sigh heavily. "Come on, you know you would. So would she." She pointed at Lisa, who nodded happily.

"Gah!" The healer threw her arms in the air. "You're impossible."

Taylor bowed. "I do my best." Straightening up, she added, "Did you sort Dad out?"

"I did." Amy rubbed the scales between her eyes with a long-suffering look. "He is _much_ saner than you are. I can only imagine you get it from your mother. And _him_ of course." She fixed the still-giggling demon with a glare which entirely failed to have any useful effect.

"Probably," Taylor grinned. "Thanks, Amy." She hugged the much larger reptilian form of her friend's lizard suit.

Amy sighed and returned it. "You're welcome. You weirdo. I really like your dad and I don't want anything to happen to him."

"None of us do, Amy," the Varga said quietly as he sat up on the table, Lisa reaching out and stroking his head with a small smile. "Danny is a very decent man and someone we will all do everything in our power to keep safe. As any of us would do for any of us." He looked around at the three girls, all of whom nodded silently.

"Damn right I would," Lisa said firmly. "I owe you all everything up to and including my life. You're family." She poked the mini-dragon. "Even this offense to the orderly running of the universe." The demon snickered at her, making her smile again.

"Nice to hear it. Both of us feel the same," Taylor said with complete sincerity. She dropped into a chair and put her feet up.

"Danny said he'd meet you at home later, apparently you have a DVD to watch?" Amy looked curious now.

"Yep, that one from the TV studio turned up. We're all interested in seeing it."

"I'd like to see it too," the healer said, Lisa nodding as well.

"Of course, I'll bring it to school tomorrow," Taylor told them. She looked over at Lisa, thought for a moment, and added, "With a little luck I might have a nice surprise for you and your old gang by then too."

"What surprise?" Lisa asked, looking slightly suspiciously at her.

Taylor grinned knowingly. "A nice one."

"And it's now driving her nuts that she can't read you to figure out what it is," Amy giggled, both of them watching the expression on their friend's face.

"I know," Taylor whispered loudly from behind a hand. "That's half the fun."

"You're horrible sometimes," Lisa grumped.

"Half demon."

"All pain in the ass."

"Yep."

The Varga, looking back and forth between them, appeared very amused. "She learned so well," he said with a contented smile. "My best work _ever_."

"Oh, shut up." Lisa poked him with a claw, making him rub his small head into her hand, which in turn made her start smiling.

They talked for a while, Amy explaining how her work on Taylor's father had gone, which made all of them pleased. Eventually, Taylor looked at the time on her phone and stood up. "I'd better go, I need to see Dad, talk about a few things, and then go for a wander around the city. We haven't worried the muggers for a while."

"I might go out and have a little fun like that myself later," Lisa put in. "Something relaxing."

"Me, I'm going for a swim, I haven't done that for days," Amy said firmly. "Then I need to get home, I've been out late several times in a row and Mom wants to talk about this Sophia issue."

"What did your family decide about it?" Taylor asked.

"They're still discussing it, Aunt Sarah will be over by now, but I think they're going to turn down PRT protection for the most part. I suspect that there will be a suspiciously large number of PRT patrols through our neighborhood for the foreseeable future even so," Amy replied, shrugging. "And I think that Mom will conveniently not notice or comment on that fact. Everyone gets what they want and no one loses face."

"Sounds plausible," Lisa said, nodding. "The Director doesn't like owing favors, but she also wants to keep the Family, New Wave, and the Mayor happy and knows this is at least partly their fault."

"It's entirely the PRTs fault in most ways," the Varga noted. "Although at the same time, not the fault of the local branch, or the Director. Or Armsmaster. I believe they were acting in good faith the entire time. If it wasn't for their superiors wanting the girl free for their own reasons, which I'd be quite interested in finding out, Director Piggot would have been able to get her dealt with appropriately months ago. She was completely truthful about not trusting or liking her."

"Well, the Shadow Stalker issue is something we'll all have to deal with now, one way or another," Taylor shrugged. "With luck she'll come to her senses and never head back this way. Not that I believe it for a moment, of course."

"No one does," Amy growled. "That girl was and is mental. She'll be back. Probably at the most inconvenient time."

"Probably." Taylor looked at her friends. "I'm going to fill Dad in on what we know, or suspect, about the powers thing and the Endbringers," she went on a little uncertainly. "He knows some of it but not all, and I don't want to keep it from him. Unless either of you have any problems with that?"

Amy and Lisa exchanged a look, then shook their heads. "Not from my point of view," the former said. "Maybe he can come up with something we've missed so far. I still can't work out what all the information we have now actually adds up to other than something that we're probably not going to like when we figure it out properly."

"I've got no problems either," Lisa added with a shrug. "Danny's a smart guy, he might have an insight. And a fresh set of eyes can't hurt."

"OK. Great. In that case I'll see you both tomorrow." Taylor smiled at her friends as the Varga disappeared from the table and reappeared on her shoulder. "Say hi to your family, Amy."

"Will do." The healer waved at her. "Have fun. And make sure you bring that DVD tomorrow."

"Definitely." Taylor waved back to both of them and vanished.


	325. Aisha and Friend

{We need to do this more often,} Lisa said, smiling widely as she swam along the bottom a couple of miles outside the entrance to the bay, just where it started to get deeper. {It's a lot of fun.}

{Definitely,} Amy agreed happily. {We've had so much stuff to do recently, though, we've managed to avoid the simple pleasures in life. Like being alien sea monsters deep under the ocean.}

{I _do_ like being an alien sea monster,} Lisa laughed, darting sideways and chasing a school of herring who seemed to have been attracted by her bioluminescence. The fish scattered instantly, the school reforming at a safe distance. She grinned at the result.

{You mostly like scaring the fish,} Amy giggled.

{Only sometimes. Other times I like scaring the muggers. But there aren't a lot of them four hundred feet down,} the black lizard pointed out in reasonable tones.

{True enough.} They swam around for a while, before Amy sighed. {I'm going to have to go back, like I said I need to get home and it must be nearly half past nine now.}

{OK.} Lisa turned with her as they began swimming back to the bay at a leisurely forty miles an hour or so. {I may as well go back too. I'll wander around the city for a while, show the Family flag so to speak. Hey, we need a Family flag.}

{It's an idea,} Amy replied a little doubtfully.

{A good one. I'll look into it.}

{You do that.} Her friend gave her a sidelong look, making her grin.

Only minutes later, they were near the shore next to the city hall area. {I'm going to head in here,} Lisa remarked, slowing. {I'll see you tomorrow. Say hi to your family.}

{I will do,} Amy replied, slowing with her, then watching as the other reptilian figure waved briefly before doing a curve to the right and heading for the shoreline. Speeding up again, she aimed towards the DWU yard and her truck, idly wondering what Taylor's surprise was as she swam onward.

* * *

Aisha leaned back on her hands, looking up at the sky and the stars visible through the low cloud. She was sitting on the roof of an apartment building a few blocks away from home, thinking about things, and worrying about her brother, who she hadn't seen now for weeks. While she was sure he was OK, since Saurial had assured her of that and oddly enough she trusted the crazy lizard, she still missed the stick in the mud. He was cool enough for someone getting on in years, and she was also about seventy-five percent sure was a cape.

And probably a minor villain, which was also sort of cool in its own way.

When he finally got in touch, she was going to yell at him for a while. He needed that, for worrying her by disappearing for so long. But at the same time she was going to be very pleased he was back.

The young girl told herself very firmly that he _would_ be back soon. She had the word of a weird reptilian woman with a sense of humor that was at least as nuts as her own was, and if you couldn't trust weird reptiles, who could you trust? Teachers and cops?

She snorted. No, not based on the ones she'd met.

Admittedly, most of the ones she'd had contact with were generally annoyed at her, but some people just didn't see how boring they were. They should be grateful for her livening things up. And she hardly ever got caught these days anyway.

Actually, since Saurial had played those bizarre tricks on her, she hadn't been caught at all. This was mostly because she'd resisted the urge to pinch things, having made a promise. She was working on the basis that if she kept _her_ word, the lizard-girl would keep hers and make sure nothing happened to her brother.

Sighing a little, she lay back on the roof, pulling her coat tighter around her. It was pretty cold up here, although the weather was steadily improving. Hopefully the spring would start warming up soon, she was tired of chilly weather and the rain, although she had to admit that this winter hadn't been nearly as bad as the previous one. The downside was less snow, which was both less fun and more annoying since school wasn't closed as much, but the upside was she wasn't freezing her ass off as much as she had done last time.

Hearing a gunshot, which was something depressingly familiar although less common in recent weeks, she sat up again and peered around, trying to work out where it had come from and how far away it was. Another one happened, echoing around the buildings in a strange manner, but allowing her to work out it was coming from off to the left, towards the bay. Standing up she scuttled over to that edge of the roof, keeping low so she wasn't too visible, then crouched behind the low wall that bounded the top of the building and looked cautiously over it.

Five stories below the road was mostly empty, a few cars going past in both directions, but since it was nearly ten in a low rent residential area, most of the inhabitants were either in bed, drunk, or both. Or possibly high on something, although with the demise of the Merchants as a force in the city, that too was changing quite a lot.

Yet another shot rang out, followed in quick succession by two more, then a very strange sound accompanied by a scream. It was an odd scream, not one of pain, but one that sounded both masculine and terrified. She jerked slightly at the sound which was definitely not normal.

Based on the noises she thought she had a pretty good idea where the action was. There was an alley that joined Boston Drive, the road below her, to West Avenue, the next one over, about two blocks down from her current position. It doglegged twice and in the middle was a small loading dock for what used to be a storage facility and was now low cost offices, most of which were empty. Aisha was familiar with it because she'd spent a lot of time exploring the neighborhood when she should have been in school, and had used the alley a number of times for hiding in for various reasons. There were lots of places someone her size could fit into that an adult couldn't, and she'd stashed a couple of useful things there for emergencies.

' _This is probably a stupid idea_ ,' she thought to herself, even as, after a moment's hesitation, she went over to the fire escape at the rear of the building and headed down the creaking metal steps as quietly as she could.

But her curiosity and her current mild boredom made a powerful combination. Plus, if as she suspected, there was some cape-related shenanigans going on over there, she wanted to see.

Reaching the lowest point of the fire escape, she slipped down the ladder that hung to within six feet of the sidewalk, then dangled at arm's length from the end before dropping and rolling, springing to her feet easily having done this more times than she could count. Getting back up was the tricky part.

Cautiously, she headed towards the place she was pretty certain something interesting was happening in.

* * *

 **"Seriously, what's with the guns and throwing them at me?"** Missy hissed, yet again puzzled at this behavior. If the bullets didn't do anything, why would the gun that fired them? **"You humans are very slow on the uptake sometimes."** She looked up at the man who was currently lying flat in mid air twenty feet off the ground, staring down at her with wide, horrified eyes. She'd found him in the process of attempting to break into the rear of a shop and when she'd pointed out, quite politely, that this wasn't very nice, he'd immediately pulled a pistol out of his belt and fired at her.

Less than impressed, she'd redirected the first bullet into the ground, taken the next two into her hood and thence into her cloak's storage space, put the next one into a dumpster next to her, and the final one, having lost her patience, into his foot. That was the point where he'd screamed and chucked the pistol right at her head. Now he was whimpering a little on the invisible platform she'd made for him, then warped him up to.

He didn't seem to be keen on heights...

 **"What a baby,"** she sighed, **"It hardly grazed you. I was very careful."**

"Monster!" he whispered, gaping at her as she put folded her arms and gave him a look he seemed to feel the intent of even if he couldn't see her face.

 **"That wasn't very polite,"** she pointed out. **"I mean, _you're_ the criminal who tried to kill _me_. Sure, it was never going to work, but it's the thought that counts."**

Retrieving her Cloak phone from the depths of her hood, she dialed a familiar number and waited. **"Hello,"** she said when it was answered. **"This is Cloak. I've apprehended an armed burglar at..."** She looked around. **"Hey, what's the address here?"** she called up to her captive.

"9118 Boston Drive," a voice said from behind her, sounding like it was trying not to laugh. She looked around to see a young African-American girl, about her age, very pretty and apparently trying not to laugh. The new arrival was dressed casually in torn jeans and a t-shirt under a warm if somewhat battered coat and was staring up at the would-be burglar who was illuminated by a streetlight on the main road.

 **"Thank you,"** Missy said gratefully. She repeated the address to the police dispatcher. **"He was breaking into the back of the building down the alley off the main road. Then he shot at me a few times. He's not going anywhere, although you'll need a ladder to get him down."**

The man on the other end sounded both a little confused and also nearly as amused as the girl, who was now looking around for random items like small pebbles which she was tossing up at the captive. He twitched whenever one landed on him. The girl seemed to be trying to work out where the edge of the invisible platform was, grinning to herself in the process.

 **"OK, thanks,"** Missy said in reply to him saying that a patrol car was on the way to collect her capture. **"Have a nice night, police person."** She hung up and tossed the phone back into her hood, which made the other girl gape a little.

"Oh, cool," she said. "I'm Aisha."

 **"Cloak,"** Missy replied, holding out a hand, which the girl shook without hesitation.

"I thought it was," Aisha said, smiling widely. "Not many floating cloaks around, even here."

 **"I suppose not,"** Missy nodded, inwardly also smiling. Aisha looked up at the man who didn't seem even slightly happy about his current position, then turned to gaze at a piece of scaffolding pole that was lying next to the building. She sadly shook her head after a moment.

"Not long enough," she sighed.

 **"For what?"**

"Poking him."

 **"Why do you want to poke him?"**

"Why not?"

They both looked up at the man, who stared back, whimpering a little. **"Excellent point. But I don't think the local police want me to poke criminals I catch."** Missy shrugged. **"They can be funny like that."**

"Aww." Aisha looked disappointed. "I always wanted to poke a criminal." She tossed the last pebble she was holding in her hand up and down a couple of times, then surprisingly accurately lofted it over the edge of the spacial warp and got the guy right on the back of the head. He yelped in pain.

 **"Probably shouldn't throw rocks at him either,"** Missy said after a moment in which she tried not to laugh. The expression on his face was very funny, he didn't seem to know what to do.

"I'm done," the girl snickered. "That was fun."

 **"I assume you live around here?"**

"Yeah, up that way." Aisha waved in the general direction of away from the bay. "I heard a weird sound and got curious."

 **"Possibly not the safest thing to do in Brockton Bay,"** Missy pointed out.

The other girl shrugged. "Not really ' _safe_ ' anywhere in this city," she replied with a sort of world-weary attitude that bespoke considerable experience. "Compared to a lot of places. But with those crazy reptiles around it's a lot safer than it _was_." She looked Missy up and down. "You too. PHO seems to think the creeps are running scared of you as well." She looked back at the almost comatose burglar, who seemed to be praying with his eyes shut, although who to was anyone's guess. "Somehow I can believe it."

Snickering, Missy nodded. **"They do seem to find me… worrying."**

"I wonder why?" Aisha said with heavy sarcasm in her voice, grinning.

 **"I have no idea, all I do is wander around and try to help out here and there."** They looked at each other and laughed for a moment.

"Neat. I always wanted to meet a real cape. Now I've met two inside a couple of weeks."

 **"Who else did you meet?"** Missy asked curiously.

"Saurial. She's… a little odd." The girl seemed thoughtful. "But cool too, I think. Actually, she came looking for me. It was weird."

 **"Why did she do that?"** Missy asked, following as Aisha started slowly walking to the end of the alley.

The girl sighed slightly. "My older brother got himself into some sort of trouble. She came to find me and my dad to let us know he was OK but couldn't see us for a while. And she promised to let him know I was worried. She told me he'd be able to call us sooner or later, when whatever it was got fixed."

 **"Oh."** Missy looked at her new acquaintance, who seemed abruptly somewhat morose. She seemed prone to somewhat sudden mood swings. **"I'm sorry to hear he's got problems. But I'm sure that with Saurial helping him he'll be fine."**

Aisha nodded, smiling brilliantly again. "I guess so. She seems to be able to do some weird shit and if PHO is telling the truth, there isn't much that can get in the way of the Family. Not without getting fucked up."

 **"That's true enough,"** Missy laughed. **"They're very good at what they do."**

"Fuck with people?"

 **"Well, that's not really what they do,"** she replied slowly. Aisha put her hands on her hips as she stopped walking and faced her, her head tilted and a skeptical expression on her face. **"Not _all_ they do,"** Missy temporized. Which was true enough, they did other things as well. But they seemed to make sure to enjoy themselves doing it, which she could definitely appreciate having spent time with Saurial and her friends and family.

"Sure. They fuck with people _while_ they're stopping crimes and wiping out the Merchants," Aisha said, shaking her head but smiling again. "Livened the place up a lot though."

 **"It's certainly much more interesting these days,"** she nodded. **"I like it here."**

"Me too, most of the time. It's better than it was. If Dad could get some more work it would help, but he seems in a good mood at the moment. Now if only Mom could..." The girl stopped talking abruptly, looking away. Missy wondered why, with a sense that she had some idea. "Never mind."

They could hear a siren approaching. Aisha looked in that direction, towards the bay, and sighed. "The cops and I don't get on. I'd better go. It was nice to meet you, Cloak." She turned away to head in the other direction.

Missy watched her for a couple of seconds, then grinned to herself. The girl needed cheering up and she knew what worked for _her_.

Moving after her she caught up and walked alongside, a foot off the ground. Aisha looked sideways at her with a quizzical expression. "Are you scared of heights?" she asked.

"Not really," the girl replied, looking confused.

 **"Good."** Missy stopped, making some changes to her platform. **"Want to have some fun?"**

The girl also stopped and stared at her. Missy waved at the space just in front of her. Aisha looked at the sidewalk where she was motioning, then back at her, before very slowly she started to grin like an idiot.

"Really?"

 **"Why not?"**

"Does it work for other people?"

 **"If I want it to, sure."**

With a mad grin the other girl bent down and felt around, her eyebrows vanishing into her hairline when she found the immaterial yet solid platform Missy was standing on. Straightening up, Aisha lifted a foot and very cautiously put it down again, nearly a foot of clear air between it and the sidewalk.

She moved it around, looking amazed, then leaned forward and lifted the other one. Moments later she was standing on nothing, gaping downwards in stunned amazement. "Fuck me," she whispered in shock.

 **"It's an interesting system,"** Missy said contentedly. **"Lots of fascinating math involved. But the end result is worth the work."** Aisha looked at her empty hood, then down at her feet again, appearing speechless. **"Come on, you'll like the view."**

Waving her new friend forward, Missy started forming stairs, this time adding sides to them to make sure the girl wouldn't fall off, since she had no idea where the edges were. Rather tentatively the other girl followed her as she started climbing. Her expression when she instinctively reached out and actually managed to find a handrail that wasn't really there was hilarious.

"What about that guy?" she said after a few seconds, both of them fifty feet in the air by now.

 **"Oh, he'll be fine, that platform will last an hour or so and the police will have him down by then,"** Missy assured her, looking back. **"They're nearly at the alley. How are you doing?"**

"I think I'm dreaming," Aisha said, staring down at the ground as she kept climbing stairs she couldn't see, her steps coming more confidently now as she seemed to gain assurance in what she was doing.

 **"It's not a dream, Aisha,"** Missy laughed. **"Just a lot of fun. Hey, do you like doughnuts?"**

"I do," the other girl replied.

 **"Here, I've got lots left over."** She retrieved the box those nice guys in the shop had given her, pulling it out of her hood with a flourish. Aisha stared, then took one when she held the box out. Missy took another and put it away again.

"This sure isn't what I thought I'd be doing tonight," Aisha said after a couple of seconds. She looked down again, around at the scenery below them now that they were above most of the rooftops, at the doughnut in her hand, and shrugged. "Roll with it, I guess," she mumbled, taking a bite.

 **"I find it's the best way,"** Missy assured her. Eating their pastries, both of them kept climbing, heading across the city and enjoying the cold but bracing night.

As far as Missy was concerned this was a very entertaining way to relax from her normal life. ' _Vista_ ' was fun, but sometimes a little boring.

' _Cloak_ ' was _never_ boring.

* * *

"I think that on balance that's a pretty good documentary," Taylor's father said as he prodded the remote, stopping the DVD at the end credits. The screen of the TV went blank, only the small icon showing the selected input channel coming on for a few seconds. "They left some of it to the imagination, were honest about the fact that they didn't have answers for a lot of it like where the Family comes from, and why they turned up right when they did, but didn't try to spin it too much either way."

"I liked it," Taylor said, putting the now-empty bowl that had contained popcorn down next to her feet.

"I thought it was rather well done, indeed," the Varga commented from where he was draped across the back of the sofa both of the Heberts were sitting on, as usual in his favorite mini-dragon form. "The reporting was nicely done, your Saurial interview gave the impression we wanted, as did the Kaiju one, and both Danny's and Roy's interviews were well balanced and informative. I can't see anything in it that would require either changing or being worried about."

"I'll call Roy in the morning and see what he thinks of it before I leave, he must have received his copy today as well," her father said, getting up and turning the TV off. "But I doubt he'd have any problems either. It makes him come across as a clever and dedicated politician, which he is, of course. It certainly doesn't do him any harm."

"Quite the opposite, I suspect," the demon noted. "Everyone involved comes out of it looking responsible and effective, with a clear positive goal for the city. And it manages to add to the mystique of the Family quite nicely, if only by implication. That can only help us in the long run."

Taylor smiled as she leaned her head back. "I guess it does. The myth continues." She giggled when he laughed quietly. "And they didn't mention any of the trouble with the Triumvirate either, which is good. I don't want Legend and his friends to get in trouble, even if Eidolon is a bit weird. He seemed very confused at the time."

"The way they showed just enough to imply that the main heroes of the Protectorate dropped by for a friendly chat with Kaiju was nicely edited together," her father grinned. "It glossed over what happened next. But I doubt they wanted to upset either the Family _or_ the Triumvirate, never mind both at once."

"No, I suspect that would have been an easy choice to make. The cameraman did delete most of the footage when we asked politely, but he had enough left to work for their purposes." The Varga rolled onto his back and relaxed, looking very contented. "We have nothing to worry about from that source."

"I've never been on TV before," Taylor remarked. "Well, not like that."

"And now you've been in the same documentary as two separate people," her father chuckled. "Which is very odd." He picked up her bowl, and his coffee cup. "Do you want anything else to eat?"

"No, thanks, Dad, I'm fine right now," she told him. "I'm going to go out later and poke around for some muggers or something, since we haven't done that for a while. I might get something then."

"All right." He went into the kitchen, coming back a couple of minutes later with a fresh cup of coffee. "One of the things I appreciate about Amy's work is that I can drink all the coffee I want before bed and still get to sleep," he smiled as he sat in a chair opposite her.

"How are the upgrades working so far?" she asked lazily, slipping over sideways to lie full length on the sofa. The demon dropped down and curled up on her stomach, looking pleased when she stroked his back between his wings.

"A hell of a lot better than I'd have believed," he replied. Lifting a hand he formed a small knife in it, as she watched with a smile. "Being able to do that is just unbelievable. Like powers, without all the trauma that apparently goes with getting them."

"You'll never have trouble opening a letter again," she smirked, which made him chuckle.

"No, or cutting toast either. I wonder if I could learn to make a fork too?" He inspected the bioceramic knife then made it go away again, watching with impressed interest as it dwindled to nothing in his hand. "Simply amazing. God, I wish your mother could have seen this. Mind you, she'd have had a tail and been running around with you inside a week, and I'm not sure the city could take that. You and your friends are bad enough."

Taylor giggled, watching his face. He seemed in a very good mood, even with the reference to his wife. He was definitely improving in that regard, as was she. It still hurt and always would do, she suspected, but it was less immediate these days, something they both could deal with. Looking down at the dozing demon in her lap, she knew why…

"The hearing is incredible too, as is the better vision, and the sense of smell," her father added after drinking some coffee. "Not to mention the strength and speed. And of course I can tase people by poking them, if that ever becomes useful. Not sure it will, but..." He shrugged, smiling. "You never know."

"The main thing is that if Sophia turns up and has a try for you, you can probably deal with her now," she said, causing him to stop smiling and nod soberly. "Hopefully she won't. I don't like the thought of her trying anything. But I'm a hell of a lot happier now than I was. If I can't be there, Amy's work is the next best thing."

"I'd have to agree," he sighed. "It's a very annoying problem. I wish that blasted girl had never met you, or you her."

"So do I, Dad," she replied softly. "But if she hadn't, none of this would have happened." She indicated the Varga, who lifted his tiny head and regarded her. "That gets her some leeway from me. Not enough to save her if she hurts my family, but some."

Her father watched her face for a few seconds, smiling a little. "I understand, dear. Now, tell me about the things you girls have been doing that I've missed."

"Ah." She organized her thoughts, while he waited patiently. "OK." Waiting for him to take another drink, she grinned evilly. "Did you know the Simurgh posts on PHO?"

The explosion of coffee was _very_ satisfying, causing both her and her demon to laugh for some time.

* * *

Kevin nailed the final lid onto the final box and put the hammer on top of it. Straightening up he looked around. Randall was moving the next to last one to the side with the rest of them, leaving the large space they'd occupied for several years looking oddly empty. All the smaller stuff was boxed up and the large items were either disassembled and packed away, or in the case of a few of them, wrapped in plastic sheets intact.

"Done," he sighed in relief. "Finally. That took a _lot_ longer than I thought it would."

"Yeah, I had no idea just how much crap we'd collected over the years," his best friend nodded, coming back to get the final crate. It soon joined the others. They stood next to each other and stared at the huge pile of stuff. "We're definitely going to need a bigger truck," he said after a moment.

"For sure. Or a lot of trips in mine. Lisa said they could arrange some help from the DWU guys. They've got some pretty big vehicles there."

"I wonder if they've finished with the workshop Danny was talking about yet?" Randall said. Kevin shrugged.

"I don't know, but probably. They're pretty good at that sort of thing. Anyway, we don't need to worry about that now, we can call Lisa in the morning. Right now I'm starving." He headed towards the kitchen. Ten seconds later he stopped, stared, and sighed. Randall joined him.

"Oops. I think we might have got carried away."

"Dude, where's the fridge?"

"In the big crate there." Randall pointed. "I think."

"The one on the bottom, you mean. Under about forty tons of other crap."

"Yep."

"Fuck it." Kevin sighed. "I'm going to get some pizza."

"Fine by me."

There was a long pause. "Where are the keys to the truck?"

They exchanged a look. "Probably the same place my wallet is. They were in that green bowl thing you kept from that Mariokart project."

"The shell. Which is…?"

"In the crate next to the one with the fridge in, according to the label." Randall pointed again, sagging.

"Oh, for god's sake."

Kevin rooted through his pockets, coming up with twenty dollars and some change. His friend had another fifteen. "That'll do, it's enough for a pizza each and a beer. Barely. Next time, we put the important stuff to one side."

"Agreed. How are we getting to the pizza place?"

"On foot." They both sighed at once, before heading towards the door.

"Got the keys to the place?"

" _Damn it!_ "

* * *

"Thanks, Cloak," Aisha said gratefully as she reached out and slid her window up, relieved that she hadn't locked it. "This was fun."

 **"I thought so too, Aisha,"** the apparently empty item of clothing replied in a quiet and eerie hiss. Both of them were standing on a solid yet utterly invisible surface several stories up outside her apartment building. She'd had a very strange but very interesting couple of hours wandering around much further off the ground than seemed feasible, oddly unconcerned about any possibility of falling. Something about the weird cape made it seem unlikely. Watching the traffic downtown from five hundred feet in the air was strangely satisfying, making her wish she could do the same thing.

The girl slid through her window and turned around when she was standing on the floor. "See you around, maybe?"

 **"I think that's pretty likely,"** the floating cloak replied, somehow producing a nod even though she apparently lacked a head entirely. Putting a hand into her own hood, she produced a final chocolate doughnut, which she handed over. **"Last one. Take it, I've had enough."**

"Thanks," Aisha said again with a smile.

 **"Bye, Aisha. I'll mention to Saurial that you'd appreciate an update on your brother the next time I see her."**

"That would be good," she replied honestly. "He's an idiot but he's my idiot."

Snickering, the cloak lifted a hand, then turned around and sort of skated off into the darkness above the street. Aisha watched her until she faded from view, then closed the window, lay on her bed, and slowly ate her doughnut, smiling to herself.

You could meet some very cool people in alleys sometimes, she thought.


	326. Events and Agreements

**Wednesday, March 9, 2011**

Looking at his face in the mirror, Danny carefully tilted his chin to the right and ran the blade over the underside of it, scraping foam and hair off with no effort at all. Each stroke produced a faint scratching sound, after which he rinsed the residue off under the tap which was dribbling a thin trickle of water.

As he shaved, his mind was awhirl with a number of subjects. His visit to New York and an old and terrifying man who he respected greatly even after their issues was the main part of his ponderings, of course. But he couldn't help also spending time on thinking about the remarkable and even more worrying things that his daughter and her live-in demonic friend had told him last night, about the discoveries, deductions, and theories that they and their other friends had come up with.

The fact that the goddam _Simurgh_ apparently regularly posted on PHO was scary.

The fact that the Endbringer appeared to concentrate on the Brockton Bay sub-forums was both scary and bizarre.

The fact that she seemed to be both very upset and very scared, and if Lisa was right, was asking for help in a roundabout way… _That_ was _horrifying.  
_  
It was only the proximity of the stupidly sharp blade to his adam's apple that kept him from shaking his head in disbelief. Tipping his head the other way to get a better view, he kept shaving, the morning ritual he'd been doing every day for over thirty years relaxing and allowing him to think calmly.

He was aware, ever since Lisa initially brought it up some time ago, that the Endbringers seemed very wary if not outright scared of Taylor, or more likely the Varga. That, while peculiar, at least made a certain amount of sense. The ancient demon was ungodly dangerous and powerful, to a level he was fairly certain that no-one but Taylor knew more than the tip of the iceberg about. Even the things he _knew_ she and her enormous friend could do were simply overwhelming and he was pretty sure she wasn't talking about a lot of other things the Varga had told her. And it was entirely possible that the demon himself hadn't told _her_ all the things they could do with some effort either, since he'd been quite open about not wanting to overwhelm her mind with too much data too quickly and too soon.

That much made sense. Even an Endbringer, as appallingly overpowered as the things were, could well find itself in a bad place if it happened to pick a fight with the Varga and his host. As much as it worried him, he had to admit that his daughter was probably one of the, if not the only, threats that could seriously stand any chance of killing one of them. And they seemed to know it.

If what Lisa said was correct, they'd known it longer than the _Varga_ had. But that was the Simurgh, her precognition was feared precisely because it _was_ so good.

But the new information suggested that the creature was actually _more_ scared of _something else_ than the demon. Or at least found it to be a greater or more immediate threat in some way. Based on what Taylor had told him, and his own reading of the messages on the relevant forum from a while ago, the Endbringer was attempting to ask for help against this other issue, whatever it was. An issue which would on the face of it, when one had all the background information, to be the true reason that the Endbringers kept attacking and had killed millions and millions of people for _years_ , all over the world.

The implications were… He lowered the blade and rinsed it, then stared at his own eyes for a moment, before finishing the job with his upper lip, feeling overwhelmed again.

The implications were utterly terrible.

It seemed to say that there was someone or something out there which was _using_ the Endbringers against humanity as a whole, and based on what Taylor and her friends had come up with, quite possibly against Parahumans specifically, for some reason. A reason that might well be basically to train their _powers_ , not _them_ , to fight better. The humans involved were merely collateral damage.

It all fitted together a lot better than he liked to consider when it was laid out logically like she and the Varga had done last night. Not all of it was verifiable, and some of what _was_ wasn't with the resources he had himself, but _enough_ of it fitted to make him very, very nervous about what it meant in the long term.

Danny doubted that anyone was going to enjoy whatever the intended endgame was. Not based on the players involved.

The rest of it, the true nature of powers as possibly an alien computer of some sort that got linked for reasons so far unknown to particular human's brains through the organs that all Parahumans had, that was almost prosaic by comparison. Still remarkable, of course, and if they were right, they'd probably worked out more about powers themselves than possibly anyone else around, but…

The _Simurgh_ posted on _PHO_ and had asked _Lisa_ for _help!_

He put the shaving tool down on the sink, turned the tap up a little, and leaned forward to wash the remnants of the foam off his face.

For god's sake, he'd actually replied to the fucking Endbringer _himself_ at one point when she'd made a joke that he thought was hilarious!

 _He'd replied to the Simurgh's joke on PHO!_

There was so much wrong with that sentence he didn't even know where to begin. So with a shake of his head he firmly pushed all the thoughts, speculations, and mild panic about _that_ crazy situation to the back of his mind and nailed a lid over it for now. He couldn't do anything himself, he didn't think mentioning it to anyone other than the people who were already thinking about it with more ability to do so than himself was a good idea, and he had other things to deal with right now.

Picking up his blade he looked at it with a small smile. It was even better than Gramp's old straight razor, which was so fucking sharp you could cut yourself with it and not notice until your ear landed in your lap. Up to the point he'd been upgraded by Amy the first time, he'd only used _that_ thing half a dozen times, because while it gave the best shave he'd ever had, it frightened the spit out of him.

Knowing the provenance of the thing and what it had quite likely been used for that _wasn't_ shaving made that fear rather more immediate than it would otherwise have been…

Flipping the bioceramic knife over his fingers for a second, in a trick that his father had taught him when he was twelve, he toggled the mental control that made it get reabsorbed into his hand through whatever biotinker-based witchcraft that Amy had managed to come up with. Still amazed by being able to do it, he grinned, brushed his teeth, and headed downstairs to start breakfast. He was very hungry still from the experiments last night at the Yard and had a long drive ahead of him.

* * *

Linda got out of bed, stretched widely, scratched her back right in the point that's normally hardest to reach, remembered what she was doing today, and collapsed back onto the bed again.

After a minute or so of mild hyperventilation she pulled herself together. ' _I'm Vectura, the best transportation Tinker in the country if not the world, I'm a friend of the Family, a member of the DWU, and I can make shit that people won't believe_ ,' she told herself firmly. ' _And I'm not worried about the PRT. Not at all. Nope, not me._ '

Scrubbing her face with her hands, she tried to convince herself of that. It took a while, but eventually she felt able to go and have a shower, then head to the cafeteria for breakfast. Brian, Alec, and Lisa were there so she ended up sitting with them, Rachel joining them a few minutes later and grunting at her as she sat down. It was only a grunt, but it seemed about as friendly as the odd girl ever was to a human.

Looking around at them, then the other dock workers on the morning shift who were coming and going, many of whom greeted her as they passed, she smiled a little to herself.

Whatever else happened, she was lucky enough to be in a place that valued her for herself, with people she could genuinely call friends. Not something she'd thought she'd ever have again, and something she'd go a long way out of her way to keep.

The PRT had no idea what they were dealing with, she decided after she'd finished her scrambled eggs. And they were going to have a shock…

Beside her, Lisa glanced at her, grinned conspiratorially, winked, and went back to talking to Brian about his current work. Alec did his usual thing of interjecting unhelpful but often funny comments, and Rachel seemed busy eating, although she was definitely sitting with them by choice.

It was a weird place, the DWU, but somehow it worked.

* * *

"Try to avoid taking over the city while I'm away, Taylor," Danny said as he set a plate of pancakes in front of his daughter, then another one in front of his daughter on the other side of the table. He shook his head about the way there were, again, two identical copies of her. It was pointless asking which was the real one since both of them were. As well as both being the Varga. They seemed to enjoy this little trick, making him wonder what would have happened if she'd ended up with a sister.

He shuddered a little, picturing the possible results, and hastily stopped thinking about that too.

While he loved his daughter beyond anything else in his life including his life, he had to admit she was a force of chaos. And with the demon in her head, that was a damn sight more literal than he'd ever expected.

"Or call forth horrors from beyond, at least without them making an appointment, or summon any more demons, or ideally eat anyone. That last part is possibly the most important one but all of them are _quite_ important." He put his own plate on the table and sat, watching them grin at him.

"We'll be good, Dad," both aspects chorused in perfect and somewhat disturbing synchronicity.

"And please don't scare the PRT so much they go and hide in Coil's old base, dear," he added. "It would give off the wrong impression."

The one on the right giggled, while the other one shrugged. He looked between them, sighed again, and started eating. "My life is very odd sometimes these days," he mumbled under his breath.

"How long will it take you to drive to New York?" a Taylor asked a little later, sounding curious.

"It's normally about four and a half to five hours if I do it in one shot," he replied, thinking back to the last time he'd made the trip. Which was a fair while ago now. "But I'll stop about halfway, probably in Hartford. There's a nice little diner there, or there was about six years ago, and I can have a break. So…" He glanced at his watch, doing some mental calculations. "I'll be there about half past one or so. I'll be back either late tomorrow or more likely sometime on Friday. If I have any delays I'll call you and let you know."

"I could probably teleport you there in about ten minute's worth of hops," she pointed out. "Or fly you there. It would look good turning up on the back of a great big dragon."

He stared hard at her, while she grinned. The other one was snickering, obviously currently under the control of the Varga. "Yes, I'm _sure_ that's a good idea, Taylor. Nothing like a huge black fire-breathing dragon with someone sitting on it arriving in Central Park to pull off the discreet business trip. And I doubt you want to let people know about your little teleporting trick."

"Not really, but I'd do it for you, Dad," she said with a laugh.

"Thank you, dear, but I think simply driving is the easiest and least likely to attract half the Protectorate method. Leaving aside the little matter that while Antonio would probably find it hilarious, he wouldn't want the official attention it would bring with it."

"Just a thought."

"Hmm."

Shaking his head a little, he resumed eating, as did she. There was silence for a while, broken only with cutlery on ceramic. "Be careful, Dad," she said softly.

"I will, Taylor. I promise. And if I run into anything I can't handle..."

"Call and you'll have more backup than you'd believe in mere minutes," the Varga said, speaking for the first time. "And your enemies would fall like wheat to a scythe. Only with a _lot_ more screaming."

They all looked at each other, smiled a little grimly, and finished breakfast.

* * *

Sitting up in bed Aisha yawned widely, then grinned like an idiot. Last night had been amazing and she had a feeling that it wasn't going to be the last time she saw Cloak. The weird little floating piece of clothing was a lot of fun and had an interesting sense of humor, not to mention good taste in doughnuts.

Flipping the covers back, the girl jumped to the floor and left her room, whistling happily. Her father who was sitting at the table looking through the jobs section of the paper glanced at her, shrugged a little, and went back to what he was doing.

"You were out late last night," he commented as she had her head in the refrigerator, poking around for something to eat before she headed to school. "Where were you?"

"Just looking around," she said without removing herself from the appliance. "Met a new friend."

"Someone interesting?" he asked absently, circling a listing, then scanning down the page again.

"I thought so. We walked around for a while and talked."

"Well, be careful, Aisha, this neighborhood isn't the best place for a kid."

"I'll be fine," she assured him confidently, grabbing the materials for a large sandwich. Running around a few hundred feet in the air with a cape that was actually a cloak left a growing girl hungry, she decided. Shortly she was slicing salami onto the lettuce that was sitting on the cold left-over bacon which in turn was on a piece of cheese on the lower half of the bread. A few more ingredients and she'd have a decent result, she thought with satisfaction.

Her father circled another listing, before watching her. "Make me one too, will you, please?" he requested with a smile.

Aisha sighed but complied. "I guess you haven't heard from Brian?" she queried, knowing it was unlikely. Looking over her shoulder she frowned when he shook his head.

"He'll be in touch sooner or later," her father assured her.

 _"He'd better or I'll go looking for him_ ," she muttered under her breath.

"What was that?"

"I said, do you want mustard?" she lied without hesitation.

"Yes, I think I do."

When she finished her sandwich, and the various other things she needed to do, she rather reluctantly got ready for school. On her way out of her room, she stopped and looked at the little glass statue of herself that Saurial had made, giving it a quick rub for luck like she did every day.

It couldn't hurt, after all.

* * *

"Roy's in a good mood," Taylor's father commented as he put his phone away and picked up his bag. "He really liked that documentary. I thought he would."

"I'm glad about that," Taylor said, feeling pleased. She was putting the DVD into its case having retrieved it from the player. "Lisa and Amy want to see it too."

"Don't lose it, or at least make a copy, I want to hang onto that," he replied, watching for a moment. He opened the door and went out onto the porch, Taylor joining him a moment later. She pulled the front door shut again and locked it, then followed him down the steps.

"Drive safely, Dad," she said, hugging her father for a moment, then moving back. He smiled at her as he turned to unlock the car.

"I will, Taylor. I'll let you know when I get there."

"Good. Have fun."

He looked a little uncertain for a moment. "Fun… I'm not sure that word is the right one, but…" With a shrug, he got into the car. "I need to do this anyway." Rolling the window down and closing the door, he put his seat-belt on. "I'll see you in a couple of days."

"Love you, Dad," she replied. He started the car and put it in reverse. With a glance at her and a quick smile, he turned and looked back, moving the car out of the driveway and onto the street. She waved as he drove off, waving back, and watched until he was disappeared from sight. Her other aspect, flying under cloak a few hundred feet up, followed until he was out of range, while her first one went back into the house and got her stuff ready for school, with a short side trip.

* * *

Pat put his towel down and walked over to the door at the sound of the knock, unlocking it and pulling it open to reveal, as he'd half-expected, Saurial on the other side smiling at him. "Hi, Pat."

"Hello, Saurial," he replied politely. Always best to stay on the right side of someone who could unscrew your head, although he doubted she ever actually would. The reptilian family was peculiar but friendly and much safer than many of the crazies who wandered the city. "I've got a reply for you. Come on in."

"Thanks." She followed him back to the bar, which he went behind, proceeding to open the till. Lifting out the cash drawer he retrieved the letter in its envelope and handed it to her. She pulled out the paper and flipped it over, reading the note his patron had left her with an interested expression that changed to a pleased one. "Great. Thanks for the favor. I owe you one."

"It was my pleasure," he said, pretty much truthfully, as he closed the till again. "Can I get you anything while you're here?"

She looked past him, then pointed. "Actually, yes, why not? A couple of those bags of beef jerky, please." He turned around and took the requested items off the shelf, handing them to her. She put a twenty on the bar. "Keep the change. Thanks again. I'd better run, I've got someplace to be. See you around."

With a wave she left, the bartender watching, then slowly walking over to lock the door again before he resumed getting ready for the day. "Polite, that's nice," he muttered as he swept the floor. "Tips well too."

He shrugged. "Not what I expected I'd be doing but it could be worse."

Five minutes later, a much louder knocking shook the entrance-way. "Open up, you lazy Irish bastard, there are people out here who need a drink!" a familiar voice bellowed.

"Shut up, Erwin, you're ten minutes early," he shouted back, putting the broom away. Even so he let the old pain in the ass in, since it was easier than keeping him out until opening time. And quieter, of course.

* * *

' _Looks like we have a lunchtime meeting_ ,' Taylor remarked as she hopped and teleported invisibly across the city towards Arcadia. ' _He responded quickly, which is probably good. Or bad, if he's holding a grudge, I guess._ '

 _"I expect he's very curious if nothing else,"_ the Varga said, sounding pleased. _"We probably confused him and he wants to find out what we want. That is essentially what I expected. With any luck we can turn that confusion into acceptance of the new status quo."_

' _You think it will work?_ '

 _"I'm fairly confident it will, yes. I believe I have a good idea of the way his mind operates, as I've said I've seen the type before. Personal honor, or a specific interpretation of it, plays a large part in his actions. We can use that to our advantage, and hopefully come to a mutually satisfactory arrangement that benefits both parties. If we can, it removes him as a problem from our point of view at least for the immediate future, which in turn means we can concentrate on more important things such as Sophia, Skidmark, and genuinely useful work."_

' _What do we do if it **doesn't** work?_ '

He was silent for a moment. _"We have a number of alternatives. Which one we'd need to use would depend on his reaction. But until we find out what that is there's no way to be certain which would be the best one. Obviously we can deal with him permanently if required but I believe that is a matter of last resort. Having him at least minimally cooperative is probably more helpful in general than removing him with prejudice, and is less likely to cause issues with the other factions in the city. Which, admittedly, are now mostly just Kaiser, but the point stands."_

Taylor grinned as she shifted into a human-scale dragon form and flew for a couple of blocks, clearing the early morning traffic jam that was building around the center of the city. The thought of what the people below would think if they could actually see her amused her, but it wasn't time for _that_ little revelation just yet. ' _We do seem to have managed to change the political landscape more than a slight amount recently, haven't we?_ ' she snickered.

 _"It was inevitable, no matter how neutral we would like to be. I still think that staying out of Parahuman fights as much as possible is the correct approach, at least for the near future,"_ her demonic companion replied with a mental nod. _"The Merchants brought it on themselves and I have no doubt that both Kaiser and Lung feel the same. Coil was a threat to everyone, and again due to his actions towards the Undersiders in general and Lisa specifically was a legitimate target. If we'd immediately attacked any of them at the beginning, we'd have precipitated the exact series of events your father warned you about, but the way it ended up happening will hopefully avoid such results. The PRT are happy, Lung is cautious, and Kaiser is sufficiently worried that he will probably stay out of things for a while."_

' _Much better to slowly work to change things from the bottom up than try to rapidly change them from the top down, basically._ '

 _"Exactly. And it would appear to be working nicely so far, even if parts of it were driven by circumstance rather than careful planning in advance."_ He chuckled. _"We still managed to get some careful planning in even so, and I'm pleased with the end result. As are the bulk of the inhabitants of the city, by all appearances."_

' _It'll be interesting to see how things work out with a few more months, but at the moment I'm pretty happy,_ ' she smiled, landing on a roof and shifting back to Saurial. ' _Now if we can just deal with Sophia without too much trouble, and get back to fixing things, I'd be **completely** happy._ '

 _"The first move is hers, unfortunately,"_ the Varga sighed. He brightened up a little, adding with just a touch of predatory eagerness, _"The **last** move, of course, will be ours..."_

Both of them laughed, then she teleported to the ground a couple of hundred yards from Arcadia, picking a good point to switch to her base form and jog towards the school and her friends.

* * *

Somewhere in the general vicinity of Olney, Illinois, Sophia sneezed violently and nearly went off the road. Swearing to herself she yanked the truck she was currently driving back onto the horribly badly pitted back road and kept going, although she slowed down a little. It was absolutely pouring with rain, blowing a gale, and generally the sort of weather in which no sane person would be out and about. Unfortunately she didn't have the luxury of being able to stop and wait it out, she was still too close to where she'd managed to lose that creep in the semi.

By the time she'd finally found a vehicle she could lift without witnesses, she'd been in a foul mood even for her. It had taken hours, hours during which she could almost feel the search for her which she was certain was going on closing in. However, in the end, nothing particularly exciting happened and she eventually discovered this light truck in a barn on the other side of the town she'd entered after her dramatic decoy action.

Getting the damn thing running had taken longer than she'd liked, and it was clearly not in good health judging by the intermittent backfires when she shifted down, but it ran and had helpfully come with a full tank of gas. Once she was clear of the town she'd started randomizing her path again, zigzagging across the scenery like a lunatic, only taking a couple of hours out when she found some cover isolated enough to make her feel more or less secure and allow her to get a little rest. She'd slept badly, with a loaded gun in her hand, but when she'd woken there was no sign of any pursuit.

Now, she was cutting between two back roads down something that didn't even deserve the word ' _road_ ' anywhere near it. Cursing as the front left wheel dropped into another pothole hard enough to make her bite her tongue, she heaved on the steering and pressed the accelerator down a little more. "Fucking Heberts," she snarled, weaving between the various holes. "I'm going to make it _last_ , you bitch. If it wasn't for you I'd be where I should be, not running like prey."

First Taylor. Then her father, although maybe he should be first, while she watched? Whatever, they were on the top of the list. Then fucking Piggy, and Armsmaster, and probably Dennis too, just because he was that fucking annoying.

Going over her list in her mind, a savage expression on her face as she plotted their various methods of demise, Sophia drove onward.

" _Fucking_ potholes!"

* * *

Picking up her phone as it buzzed and rattled around the desk next to the keyboard, Lisa looked at the number, then answered it. "Hi, Über. How's it going?"

" _Fine, Lisa_ ," the general purpose specialist said with a smile in his voice. " _Aside from having managed to get just the tiniest amount carried away with packing last night._ "

" _Overdid it?_ " she giggled.

" _You could put it that way_ ," he sighed. " _Leet is never going to let me hear the end of that. But we found the keys to his truck in the end. And my wallet_."

"There's probably a story behind that."

" _There is. I'll tell you when we get there. So, on that subject, got a big truck available?_ "

"I have, as it happens," she replied, opening her notebook to a fresh page. "Got an address?"

He told her a location which she wrote down, then looked up on the map on the wall of her office, a duplicate of the one Danny had in his. "OK, got it. Yep, we can have a couple of vehicles there in about forty minutes. And some people to help load them."

" _Great. There's a crap of a lot of stuff. Looking at it, I'd say about two semi-trailer's worth._ "

"Not a problem. You'll like your new place, Saurial and Raptaur pulled out all the stops. It's being wired up right now, it'll be done by sometime after lunch." She sat down again, leaning back in her chair. "Metis will come and help too. But she has an appointment later this afternoon so once you're unpacked you're on your own."

"That's fine, it's going to take days to sort all this stuff out properly," he replied. In the background she heard a massive crash then some swearing. " _Sorry, got to go, **someone** just dropped the crate with all the plates in._ "

She grinned to herself. "Oops. Never mind, Saurial can make new ones easily enough."

" _I liked **those** ones_ ," he grumbled. " _Thanks, we'll be ready_."

"OK. We're looking forward to it. Talk later."

Tearing the page out of her notebook, Lisa stood once more, leaving her office and heading to Danny's one a couple of doors down. Knocking, she opened the door and stuck her head in. "Hi, Kurt," she said to the man behind the desk, who was going through paperwork and shaking his head a little, apparently in mild amazement. He looked up at her.

"Oh, hello, Lisa. Need something?"

She held up the page in her hand. "Über and Leet are all packed and ready to move in. Their workshop is mostly done, the crew doing the wiring and plumbing said it would be finished by about one this afternoon. I was just going down to shipping to give the address to Andrew, he's going to take a couple of the big trucks and some guys over to load up all their gear. That OK with you?"

He nodded, turning to make some notes of his own on Danny's computer. "Yes, that's fine. Let me know when they're back, but they're all yours until then," he replied as he turned back.

"Thanks. Metis is going with them so I doubt there will be any problems," she smiled.

"No, probably not," he chuckled. "I'll come over and say hi when they're moved in. Is Zephron going too?"

"He said he wanted to. Probably because he's just nosy," she grinned. "You know what he's like."

"I do, all too well," Kurt said with a smirk. "I've known him for twenty years or more and he's been barking mad the whole damn time. But we all like him anyway."

Laughing, she nodded to him and left the room, waving to some of the admin staff. After a stop into the main vehicle depot and some discussion with the people there, she headed to the BBFO office and her waiting ' _Metis_ ' construct.

* * *

Concentrating on his work, Colin ignored the phone until he'd finished moving the minute component he was positioning under the microscope into its final place and soldered it down with the laser tool. Exhaling slowly, he relaxed, satisfied that the fiddly job was now done.

Only two hundred and seven more to go and he could test the new addition to his latest halberd.

Reaching out he pressed the speakerphone button and curtly said, "Armsmaster."

"I wanted to make sure you remembered that you had an appointment in the main testing facility at the PRT building in three hours, Colin," Hannah's voice said pleasantly. "I know you were talking about an upgrade for your equipment and I know all too well how you get lost in it sometimes."

He checked his appointments screen as she spoke, nodding to himself. "Thank you, Hannah, I'm aware of the meeting, but it was good of you to remind me. The upgrade is going well, I'll be finished well before I need to leave."

"All right. I'll still check again, even so. It wouldn't be the first time you forgot..." She sounded slightly amused, according to his best estimate.

"Acceptable."

"Is Dragon back yet?" his old friend asked. Turning to another monitor he checked the data there.

"She's on her way now, she'll be landing in twenty minutes," he reported having checked the flight plan for the Canadian Tinker, who had made a quick hypersonic trip back to her base in Vancouver the night before to catch up on some of the things she'd missed since she'd spent so much time in Brockton recently. He'd found himself regretting her absence, having grown used to her presence in his lab. Normally he much preferred to work alone, but she added something he found hard to quantify, he'd discovered.

"OK. I've got other work to do, but don't forget."

"I won't," he said, tapping the button again and turning back to his microscope. Thinking about the videos he'd seen of the mech that the new DWU Tinker Vectura had produced, which between them he and Dragon had drawn some fascinating insights from, he looked forward to meeting the woman. She was clearly very talented and he suspected was heavily leveraging Saurial's and Raptaur's skills as well. The report from the PRT troopers who had witnessed the demonstration and even got first-hand experience of the machine had left him eager to see it, and to talk to Vectura herself.

There were far too few good Tinkers around in his opinion and it was always nice to meet another one who was on the side of the heroes. Or at least, in this case, _not_ on the side of the villains. He still wasn't entirely certain what the DWU counted as, or the Family either, but they definitely leaned more towards the heroic side whatever they said when asked. Chaotically, true, but one couldn't have everything.

Pondering the matter at the back of his mind, he resumed teasing delicate little parts into alignment and fusing them in place.

Only two hundred and six left, now.

* * *

Hearing the rumbling sound of a couple of very big diesel engines approaching, Randall went over and looked through the slightly open door to the warehouse, peering down the road towards the city. He could see a large truck carefully negotiating the sharp corner a quarter of a mile away, the familiar figure of Lisa's reptilian alter-ego directing it with hand signals. "They're here," he called over his shoulder, pulling his balaclava out of his pocket and putting it on. While he was pretty sure that the DWU people would work it out in short order once they were working at the yard, there was no sense taking chances in public. Which this still was even though with the demise of the Merchants hardly anyone came by these days.

Kevin came out of the bathroom, the only room left in the place that they _hadn't_ packed the contents of, drying his hands on a towel which he tossed back inside without looking. "Right on time," his friend noted, putting his own balaclava on. Joining Randall at the large double doors that formed the main entrance, he grabbed the crowbar they'd used as an impromptu lock the previous night when the lack of keys for the padlock became apparent and heaved, bending it out of the U shape that had held the door closed. Each of them took a side and rolled the old doors back, leaving an opening large enough to get his own vehicle in and out of.

Very shortly afterward, ' _Metis_ ' arrived, the two semis bringing up the rear. "Hi, guys," she said with a grin. "Lisa thought you might need some help."

"That was good of her," Randall said, laughing internally at the complete craziness of her referring to her ' _human_ ' form as a different person when both of them knew the truth of it. "Come on in."

The large lizard followed him inside, looking around with interest. "I knew more or less where you guys kept your lair but none of us thought it was polite to invite ourselves over," she commented. "It's… nice."

The last two words were slightly doubtful.

Kevin snorted. "It's a dump, but the rent was the right price. Free. And it's more or less secure, out of the way of most people, and of course, free. That last part is important."

"I understand," she snickered.

"But it's still a dump," Randall shrugged. "I'll sort of miss it, but probably not for long."

"You won't after you see what Saurial and Raptaur made for you," she assured him with a wide grin. Both trucks drew up outside, making her turn and leave the building again, the two young men following. The drivers turned off the engines and several large men got of the cabs, some more exiting the rear having flung open the doors. A number of them busied themselves unshipping a pair of small folding forklift trucks that were stowed under the backs of the trailers, the rest pulling gloves on.

"Hey, Zephron," Randall greeted the enormous black guy who walked over and held out a hand, looking genuinely pleased to see them.

"Hi, guys," he replied in his deep voice, looking between them and shaking Randall's hand with a grip like iron. Without his Amy-boosts he'd probably have winced. "Everything ready to go?"

"It is," Kevin nodded. "The really delicate stuff is in my truck already, the rest is in those crates just inside." Zephron looked into the warehouse and whistled.

"Wow. Lisa was right, you guys have a lot of crap."

Kevin grinned. "It sort of took us by surprise when we started boxing it all up. More there than I remembered."

"Crap does that, multiply when you're not looking, I mean," the DWU man smiled. "You should see the inside of my fucking garage if you want proof." He turned to the waiting DWU workers and made a signal with his hand. Two of them climbed aboard the forklifts, which whined into action, entering the warehouse. Lisa's large scaled form joined them, as did Randall and Zephron. Very quickly they were involved in moving the stack of crates outside, where they were competently and carefully loaded into the trailers, the remainder of the DWU personnel shifting them around inside and strapping them in place. Kevin supervised the more delicate crates, while everyone else did their part.

In much less time that Randall had expected the entire contents of their old base had been loaded aboard the semis. When the last box was out, Kevin drove his truck outside as well, before joining him at the door looking into the now-empty and cavernous space. They examined it for a while. Lisa came and stood next to them, silent but watching.

"End of an era, man."

Randall sighed faintly and glanced at his oldest friend, then nodded. "Yeah. But the start of a new one I guess."

A scaled hand came to rest on each of their shoulders. "We all move on to new things sooner or later, guys," Lisa said quietly, smiling faintly when he looked. "Sometimes it's hard to let go, sometimes it isn't. But change is part of life, right?"

"It is," Kevin nodded. "And maybe we were due for a change."

"Guess so." Randall heaved a sigh, then helped his friend pull the doors closed for the last time, leaving them unlocked. "You never know, someone else might find this place and get some use out of it."

They turned around and looked at each other, before heading to Kevin's truck. A couple of minutes later, the small convoy was heading back towards the DWU facility, the black and scarlet shape of ' _Metis_ ' jogging in front.

* * *

Linda looked at her watch, then at the forklift she had nearly finished fixing. Kadir had quietly told her that as soon as she got it done, or by noon, she should knock off for the day, once again making her wonder exactly what he knew and how. Even so, she wasn't going to ask. He'd become a friend more quickly than she'd expected and treated her with a good deal of respect, which was reciprocated. She didn't mind at all if he'd worked out some or all of the truth.

Flipping the page in the ratty copy of the service manual she'd finally found for the machine, she compared the wiring diagram with the actual wiring, finding yet again that the people who wrote most vehicle service manuals had no idea about how to draw wiring diagrams in the first place. She grumbled a little, tracing the relevant wire across three pages that would have been collapsed into one if they'd used someone with a clue, then checked the innards of the machinery. "It's _supposed_ to be blue with a _white_ stripe, not blue with a _green_ stripe," she muttered in annoyance when she finally worked out why the document and the reality didn't match.

Picking up her test meter she poked the probes into the mass of wires, which showed ample signs of having been worked on many times before by people with a mix of abilities, some of which were low enough that she was a little surprised that the thing had ever worked at all. Five minutes later she found the short circuit she'd been looking for. "Fucking _finally_ ," she cheered, putting the equipment down and reaching for a pair of wire cutters. Another fifteen minutes and she'd removed the old, very badly installed and now very faulty, wiring and neatly replaced it with something that was the right color code and in the right places. Double-checking her work, she nodded, then wrote the correct things in the correct places on the worksheet.

Having done a final test on the operation of the large forklift, which now worked to spec, she signed off on it and took the clipboard back to the office. "All done," she reported. "I fixed the original fault and found four more in the process. Fixed them too." Linda gave Kadir the paperwork, which he checked carefully.

"Excellent. Well done, Linda."

"Thanks, Kadir."

He nodded, a typically very small, almost unnoticeable smile coming and going. "I think that means you're done for today. Go and do the other things you need to do." The smile came and went. "And do it well, as I have no doubt you will."

She smiled back with a nod of her own. "I'll try," she replied.

"There is no _try_ , there is only _do_ ," he said calmly, turning back to his computer and paying her no more attention. She stared at the back of his head, grinned, and left the garage. The man was surprising at times, but a good boss.

After a short early lunch, she headed for her workshop, going inside and quickly using her Family-made Changer ability. Under two minutes later, Vectura was pulling her new costume's gloves on and looking at her reflection in the mirror of the bathroom attached to the workshop. "Not bad," she told herself, quelling the butterflies in her stomach with an effort of will.

Going into the main room she picked up her helmet, looking at it. Design ideas went through her mind at a high rate. Putting it down again, she picked up a pen instead and started sketching for ten minutes or so, before inspecting her work. "Got the parts in stock, I think," she mumbled to herself, taking the pad with her as she wandered off into her storeroom, checking the shelves for what she needed.

It was only about an hour's work to re-purpose a number of components, some from commercial equipment, some from a couple of her old inventions that had been in the stuff she'd grabbed when she'd escaped. One of the new power units was quickly checked out, then added to the design. Eventually she was done.

Picking up the wearable part, which had been built onto the frame of a pair of safety glasses, she turned the thing over in her hands checking for flaws. Seeing it seemed fine for a prototype while also thinking that she needed Saurial's help to make it correctly, she put them on, then adjusted the modified arms carefully. With her non-standard head shape around the ear region she'd had to make a number of structural changes, which required a little adjustment, but in the end the device fitted nicely.

' _Not bad_ ,' she thought, pleased. Reaching up she connected a slender cable to the end of one of the earpieces, then plugged it into a small processor and sensor box she'd assembled from parts intended for one of the mech cockpits. The power unit plugged into that as well. When she turned it on, the displays mounted over her eyes flickered and lit up, projecting a nice bright image over her vision. ' _Really not bad at all for under two hours work_ ,' she congratulated herself, fiddling with the HUD optics to get them focused properly. Finally satisfied, she tried the fit under her helmet, discovering it was more than adequate.

' _I'll need to get Saurial to make a small mod to the suit, but this will do for now_ ,' she mused, taking the helmet off again. The cable currently ran down the outside of her suit, from under the helmet, which meant it interfered with the sealing and was also vulnerable, but it would take the lizard-girl only moments to make an internal space for it. For now, she could put most of the electronics into one of the larger-on-the-inside pockets and live with the external cable.

She was happily engaged in adding sensors to the new HUD system and working on the programming for it, which leveraged a lot of the work she'd already done for the mech project, when she more felt than heard a deep rumble just outside. Curious, got up and headed for the door, opening it to see a pair of very large trucks backing past her workshop. Metis was watching them maneuver, with Kevin and Randall standing next to her, Kevin's slightly battered and nondescript truck parked off to the side.

"The new neighbors arrive, I see," she said, coming outside and pulling the door closed. Walking over she joined them, shaking hands with both former villains.

"Hi, Vectura," Kevin replied, sounding pleased to see her. "Yeah, we're here to stay now."

"Which is probably going to be fun, but also weird," Randall added. "Considering we've been a two-man act for years. All these people around will take some getting used to."

"On the bright side you'll have good food available all the time and the opportunity to earn an honest living, along with a lot of resources for… special projects," Metis put in, making him nod after a moment's thought.

"True, I guess. Oh well, since it was my idea in the first place I sure can't complain. Let's go and have a look at our new place."

Metis produced a set of keys and tossed them to him, handing Kevin an identical set. "It's all hooked up now and ready for use. We can get all your boxes inside in an hour."

Linda followed as the three people walked to where the two large trucks had just parked, the big lizard using another key to unlock the door to the next-door-but-one warehouse. She disappeared inside, the large roller door grinding into action moments later. When it opened, she stood in the opening and waved grandly at the now brightly lit interior. "All yours, guys," she said with a pleased tone.

Kevin and Randall walked inside, then looked around, their eyes wide under their woolen disguises. "Fuck _me!_ " the latter said. "This is..." He turned to look at Kevin, who was gaping.

"A lot more than we expected," the Tinker finally added, appearing stunned.

"Where do you want these boxes?" Zephron, who'd come up behind them and peered over their heads at the inside of the refurbished warehouse, said. "Nice place by the way. Those girls do good work."

"Just a fucking little," Randall breathed, looking up at the balcony that ran around the large main floor. Kevin was wandering towards the stairs to the upper level in something of a daze.

"Put them over there to the side, Zephron," Metis said, pointing to the right. "They'll be out of the way for now." She was grinning, watching the two young men look around. He gave her a little salute with two fingers, appearing to find the reaction funny, then went over to the truck crews who were already unloading the vehicles onto the ground.

"There's about ten more rooms up here!" Kevin said from the tops of the stairs, reappearing and waving his arms around. "And a kitchen, a good one! And..." He seemed to run out of words and wandered away again. Randall was exploring one of the store rooms. Turning to her reptilian friend, Linda laughed very quietly.

"I think they like it."

"Whatever gave you that idea?" Metis snickered, both of them watching as the two men met halfway up the stairs, looked around, then grabbed each other and did a little happy dance.

Finding the entire thing very funny, Linda added, "I think I'm ready for the PRT now. I'm going to have lunch properly first, though."

Metis nodded. "OK. I'll help move some of this stuff inside then join you. We'll need to leave in about an hour."

"All right. See you in a while." Waving to the two young men, who were now running around working out where they were going to put things, she headed towards the cafeteria and something to eat.

* * *

Pulling into the parking lot of the diner he was pleased to see was still there and open, Danny parked and switched the ignition off. Getting out of the car he stretched a little, working the slight kinks of sitting in the same position for several hours out of his back, then locked the vehicle. Checking the doors were properly locked he headed inside. It was definitely time for a break, although he'd made good time.

Checking the time he nodded to himself. ' _About another two hours unless I hit traffic. Not bad. Although I really do need to get that thing replaced, it's starting to get a little noisy at high speed_.' He glanced back at the car, then went into the diner.

Selecting a table which gave him a view of the car park, just in case, he sat down and picked up a menu. Ten minutes later he was on his second cup of coffee and half way through a small steak and potato meal, which was as good as he remembered.

While he ate he wondered how this trip would pan out. He hadn't seen the old man for nearly as long as Taylor had been alive, and not spoken to him for almost as long. Mild regret went through him yet again at the way he'd acted, even though he still thought he'd been right. In hindsight, though, he'd been considerably less respectful than both common sense and family ties would have demanded, which he put down to youth and a certain degree of stupidity on his part. Antonio had taken it with a level of grace and acceptance that he wasn't entirely sure, now, that he'd deserved.

And he was absolutely certain that if he'd been anyone else he couldn't have gotten away with it. Not so much what he said but how he said it.

It had taken him years to realize that his own father would have been very upset about the entire thing, but it wasn't until very recently that he'd come to the conclusion that he needed to set it right. While the elderly man's ways weren't his, he was, in his own way, family. And one thing Danny knew and believed right to his bones was that you did right by family. He'd lost his way for longer than he liked to think about in that area, with Taylor, but an exceptionally odd set of circumstances had led to that mistake being rectified.

He had to see it through to the obvious conclusion.

Finishing his steak, he looked at the menu, then picked it up and opened it.

However, while he had an appointment, he also had both time and room for dessert.

* * *

"Heard from Danny yet?" Amy said as she sat beside Taylor, who was eating faster than normal. Her friend looked up, then smiled.

"I went outside just before lunch and got a message, he's making good time. He'll be in New York by just after one, he said."

"He's back by Friday?"

"That's what he said. Possibly tomorrow, but I don't think he expected that to happen."

"Your Dad lets you stay at home alone?" Mandy asked, looking impressed.

"She's not alone, though, is she?" ' _Saurial_ ' commented as the lizard-girl appeared next to her with a tray in her hands. She sat down next to Amy. "Hi, everyone."

"Hi, Saurial," Lucy said with a grin. "Still here?"

"Of course. Where she goes, I go." The reptilian female pointed her fork at Taylor, who raised an eyebrow. Amy grinned to herself, the Varga seemed to enjoy pulling off the Saurial act nearly as much as Taylor did. "Although, that said, I need to go and do something else for a while this afternoon. But Raptaur will be lurking around somewhere, so no one get any ideas." She looked over at Dennis who was blatantly eavesdropping from two tables away, the redhead smirking at her and pointing at himself in a flamboyantly ' _Who, **me?**_ ' way.

Lucy started giggling, with Eric, Rich, and Mandy all smiling at the byplay. "What's your father going to New York for, Taylor?" Eric asked.

"He's meeting an old family friend who he hasn't seen for a long time," Taylor replied, finishing her glass of juice after she spoke. "They had a sort of… falling out, I guess. Years ago. But recently they started talking by email and Dad decided that he needed to reconnect."

"A family friend or a Family friend?" Rich asked with specific emphasis on the second one.

"The first type," the tall brunette smiled. "He was friends with my great-grandfather on my dad's side, a long time ago back in Europe. I think he's about eighty now. Apparently I've met him, but I don't remember it, I was something like a year old at the time."

"Oh, I see," the boy nodded. "OK. I hope it works out."

"So do I," she replied as she finished her meal. "He was a little worried about it but I'm sure he'll be fine."

"Going somewhere?" Mandy asked as Taylor got up. The other girl nodded, all her friends watching her.

"I've got to pop out before the next period, someone I need to talk to for a little while," she said. "Don't worry, I cleared it with the secretary."

"And you've got your bodyguard," Rich pointed out, making Saurial nod happily. "Somehow I doubt you'll have any problems."

"Hopefully not," Taylor grinned. "It's nothing too serious, but it's also a little short notice. See you guys later."

With a wave, both aspects left, the people left watching them head out of the cafeteria. "I wonder what that's about?" Lucy said as she turned back to her own meal.

"No idea," Amy said truthfully, very curious. "Guess we'll find out later." They resumed eating and talking about other things, although she was wondering what Taylor was up to this time.

* * *

Kenta looked up from his drink as the door opened, idly thinking that he much preferred the beer in a different pub. But Somer's Rock seemed more appropriate for this meeting.

Someone he recognized on sight entered, alone, carrying a duffel bag in one hand. He'd never met her personally but he was aware of her work.

And her relatives.

Saurial looked around, appearing mildly curious, then came towards the table. She shook her head as the waitress stirred, causing the woman to shrug and sit back down again. He inspected her armor with interest, seeing how well it was made, up close.

The reptilian female wore it well, he thought. She projected an air of competence and confidence. No one he could intimidate, that much he was certain, although he was curious to know if she was as tough as her sister Raptaur had been. That one was remarkable, she hadn't hesitated to take him head on, and in a way that if he hadn't been such an incredible regenerator, would have left him dead.

He had an uneasy feeling that she'd been holding back as well.

Even though she'd ultimately called in her gigantic older sister to deal with him, he still wondered if that was because she couldn't work out how to stop him without killing him, and was reluctant to do so. Many would consider that a sign of weakness, but...

One thing he was certain of was that weakness and the Family didn't belong in the same sentence. While he'd never say it, he was fairly sure that they could be as ruthless as anyone he'd ever met given sufficient reason. They were merely powerful enough to be able to show mercy.

Although it did gall him that he was the one that mercy had been shown to. It puzzled him as well, given that they were heroes.

More or less.

On the other hand…

On the other hand, Raptaur had actually _fought_ him. She'd dived right in with a vicious grin and had obviously been enjoying it, in her own way, as he had been in his. In some way he felt that this showed a certain level of respect. She had deemed him worthy of personal attention, in the protection of someone she considered hers. Likewise, Kaiju had bargained with him after _somehow_ shutting him down. The insanely enormous reptile could have simply finished him on the spot, very obviously, and had nothing whatsoever to fear from him by that point, but she hadn't seized the opportunity to remove an enemy permanently. In almost anyone else that would have suggested overconfidence or arrogance. Yet in this case…

Kaiju certainly wasn't overconfident. She knew exactly what she was capable of, and ending him like a bug was easily within her abilities. Neither did she, or any of them, strike him as arrogant. Not like Kaiser, or, he was honest enough to admit, like himself.

And there was the odd little fact that he had received information from a trustworthy witness that she had become involved in a spat with Eidolon, of all people, who had apparently attempted to anger her, right up to the point of shooting her in the back of the head!

Madness. The man was clearly suffering from some illness of the mind. Why would one of the three premier heroes of the Protectorate try to initiate combat with someone that powerful right in the middle of a crowded area? Even he himself would at least try to lure her away from anything he valued, and if nothing else, the Protectorate was _supposed_ to value the lives of the citizens they allegedly protected.

Yet even then, having been deliberately and in a most cowardly way attacked from behind, completely unprovoked, Kaiju had merely turned around and asked him what he thought he was doing. Not the response anyone would expect. _Definitely_ not the response _he_ would have given.

The man he'd talked to had told him that at that point, from what he knew, the ' _Hero_ ' had apparently _dared her to try attacking him_. She'd assessed him curiously, looked at Legend and Alexandria who were on the face of it as surprised as she was, then did… something. No one was sure what, but the idiot had dropped like a stone without warning. She'd neatly caught him, then handed him over to his colleagues, before simply going back to work.

Kenta was very curious to know exactly what she'd done. That aside, it was interesting for another reason. Eidolon hadn't been deemed worthy of a fight, he'd merely been disposed of. No bargaining, just _poof._ Kaiju could very obviously have killed him just as easily, but had shown mercy there too, yet in the case of the Protectorate cape it was almost an insult. _He_ wasn't worth the effort. That was a very clear message. But Kenta _was_.

Interesting.

His introspection was cut short as Saurial reached the table, pulling out the sole other chair, then sitting in it, moving her tail to the side to allow this. She dropped the bag at her feet. Reaching up she removed her dark glasses, putting them on the table near her elbow, glowing yellow eyes with catlike pupils scanning him.

"Hello, Lung," the girl said calmly, "Thank you for agreeing to meet with me."

He was more than a little taken aback by the fact that she was speaking perfect Japanese, albeit with an archaic accent he found odd. It was like listening to one of the elders from his childhood, which added to his unease. It also, when he considered it, matched the strangely formal language of the note she'd arranged for him to get.

"What do you want, Saurial?" he asked, finishing his drink and motioning for another, then reaching up and adjusting his mask, settling it more firmly on his face.

"We are not friends, neither are we allies," she replied after studying him for a second or two.

"This is true."

"However, we would prefer not to be enemies."

He raised an eyebrow. After a few seconds of silence, he asked the obvious. "Why?"

"It is a distraction, largely pointless, and a possible cause of danger to innocents we are charged with protecting," she said. "We don't agree with your actions in many cases, but at the same time we have no intention of spending our time getting any more involved in politics than we are forced to. None of us have any reason to go after either you or Kaiser as long as you leave us alone."

"You went after the Merchants. Everyone knows what happened."

She smiled in a rather predatory manner. "Skidmark started it. You know as well as I do that he was planning on attacking our people, our home, and we had no choice. The Docks are ours to protect. It was, or was going to shortly become, personal. That cannot be allowed."

Kenta watched her warily, then nodded slowly. "I will admit that is true. Are you claiming that should he have kept out of your business you would have left him to peddle his drugs and women?"

"As far as it didn't impact on our people, and as long as he didn't do it directly in front of any of us, yes," she shrugged. "We don't go looking for trouble. But if it finds us, we deal with it. The same is true of your people. I, for example, don't spend my time tracking down every ABB member and arresting them, although I do have both the ability and authority to do so. Unless I find them committing a serious crime right in front of me, I ignore them. You know that to be true."

Oddly enough, he did. They were the strangest heroes he'd ever encountered.

"Granted," he said with a small nod. "I don't understand why, though. Such behavior is... unusual. Most people in your position would use the power they had to seize more. It is the way of the world."

"This world, perhaps," she smiled. "And we are not most people. We have all the power we require."

There were a number of things about that comment he was going to have to think on for some time. They looked at each other for a little longer. "To return to your original question, what we want is to settle things between us. Not with violence, though."

"You cost me, or people you have taken responsibility for cost me, a very large amount of money, a valued friend, and considerable face," he replied, feeling sudden anger.

She didn't appear to notice, or possibly care, as his hand tightened on the glass he still had his hand wrapped around, causing it to splinter and crack.

"Oni Lee was no one's friend, he was a lunatic who liked killing," she remarked. "Even you know that. However, I agree that he was a valued member of your organization, and even though the Undersiders did not actually kill him, they are at least partly responsible for his death. The money is also a valid point. I would debate the loss of face. No one in my family has mentioned Kaiju's conversation with you to anyone outside us, Tattletale has said nothing either, and none of the other Undersiders has divulged their connection to the death of Oni Lee. We have no wish or need to shame you. Our fight is over, no more need be said about it."

He thought for a moment and realized she had a point, oddly enough. All the information and speculation about what had happened to him and the ABB on that bizarre night had come from the PRT, the Protectorate, both of whom didn't actually know much, and PHO. The last of which having made most of it up out of whole cloth.

"This may be true, but it is beside the point. You and yours cost me and mine a lot."

Reaching down, she retrieved the bag, putting it on the table. "I agree. I would like to settle that debt. I cannot replace Oni Lee, obviously, but the money is straightforward." Unzipping the bag she removed a large stack of cash, putting it on the table between them, then repeating the action. He watched in amazement as far more bricks of money came out of the bag than it could possibly have held.

When she finished, the waitress, who still hadn't brought him his drink, was gaping, as was he. Saurial looked at him over the pile of cash. "One million dollars, more than the amount you lost."

He picked up one stack of twenties and riffled through it, then sniffed it. It was, as far as he could tell, real. "This only replaces the money," he noted, dropping it back onto the pile. "Oni Lee was irreplaceable."

"We both know that in a very short time, he would have either been headed for the Birdcage or dead," she calmly replied. "The PRT was on the verge of signing a kill order for him. They had a reward for his capture which was in the top twenty offered throughout the country, half a million dollars, and the implication was that it would be paid whether he was alive or not. One suspects that they rather hoped he wouldn't be."

Kenta scowled, but couldn't deny that either. This damn reptile kept making good points. Extremely annoying ones, but good ones.

"I would still have received at least a year of service from him before that point, I think," he finally growled. "His loss was an insult and an attack on me."

"His loss was largely due to his own madness and blood lust overriding his intelligence," she corrected mildly. "You know that to be true also. He killed himself with his own grenades in what could easily be considered suicide. That _is_ what the PRT finally filed it under. The man was far too enthusiastic and bloodthirsty."

Irritatingly, that was also true. "I also lost two minions."

"To their own weapons," she pointed out, still calm and reasonable. He wondered for a moment how old she really was, she projected an aura of experience and wisdom that belied her apparent age. Although it was difficult to tell for sure, considering her non-human features. "I hardly think that we, or even the Undersiders, can take responsibility for your people not knowing to stop firing when they can't see what they're firing _at._ "

He growled under his breath, turning to the waitress and making a sharp motion with one hand. She finally came over with his drink, removing the badly cracked glass from the previous one, and nearly ran back to the bar.

Controlling his temper, he drank, then put the glass down again. "Fine. I can't deny it was a display of gross stupidity. I have dealt with the people involved. That still leaves the fact that I am down one cape, a very useful cape, and months to years of his service."

"Agreed." She inspected him for a moment, then reached into the bag again. When she removed her hand, he looked at the large gold bar it was holding in some disbelief. "Weregild is an old custom, in this world and others. What is an acceptable quantity of gold in exchange for the... let's settle on eighteen months... of service that your subordinate would have given you if the Undersiders had not become involved?"

She handed him the gold bar. Taking it, he looked at it, then her. The reptile simply waited for him to answer.

Scratching it with a fingernail, then weighing it in his hand, he came to the conclusion it was damn near pure. He also wondered where the hell she'd got the stuff. There were no assay marks or anything else, it was merely a blank six inch by two inch by one inch bar of soft yellow metal, more than eight pounds of gold. "You offer gold in exchange for Oni Lee's life?" he said after a moment. "You think I will put a price on him?"

"Correct. We both know that you considered him merely a tool. A very useful one, but a tool nonetheless. You had no personal connection to the man, or he to you, beyond what you both gained from the association. His usefulness was also limited, in time if nothing else."

"You wish to buy my cooperation."

"No. I'm offering to recompense you for what our people inadvertently helped to take from you, and settle any remaining differences we have between us. There is a difference, as you well know." She looked at him in a manner that suggested she was amused, but she didn't smile.

Sitting back in his chair, Kenta watched her and thought, rubbing his fingers over the gold bar and feeling the almost greasy texture. He had no doubt she was serious, and no real doubt that she would make good on her word. Everything she had said was true and well thought out.

Oni Lee's death was entirely inevitable, he knew that. The man had been barely functional for most purposes, and while utterly loyal, starting to attract more attention to him than he really liked. It was only Kenta's own reputation that had kept the PRT out of his affairs so long, since they knew damn well they stood little chance of taking him down. He'd proved that.

Weighing the bar, he came up with a rough estimate of the value, not being completely unfamiliar with the current cost of gold although he seldom held it. But he couldn't deny there was something about the feel of it he liked.

"Dragons traditionally like gold," she smiled, as if she was reading his mind.

"Indeed," he rumbled, examining her. Eventually he put the bar down. "Ten of these."

"Acceptable," she replied, putting her hand into the bag.

"And..."

"And?"

"I want a rematch with Raptaur."

She pulled her hand out again, then folded both of them on the stack of money, watching him closely. "A rematch?"

"My fight with her was interrupted. I wish to see what happens if it is not." He smiled grimly. "Call it a matter of personal honor."

"I understand," she said after a few seconds. "To the death?"

"That won't be necessary." He shrugged. "We can put a time limit on it. One hour, no holds barred."

"Fifteen minutes. At the rate you ramp up, that should be sufficient."

"Forty five minutes. It needs to be a real fight."

"Half an hour."

He thought, then nodded.

"That is adequate."

"We set the time and location," she said. "Somewhere far enough away from people that damage is minimized."

"I can live with that," he told her, feeling a slight sense of happiness.

"Agreed. Ten bars, half an hour of personal combat with Raptaur, time and place to be determined, in exchange for which you relinquish all past grievances against the Family, the DWU, or the former Undersiders."

"Deal," he said, holding out his hand. She reached over and shook it firmly. Moments later she had stacked up nine more bars of gold from the bag of many things.

He drank his beer, staring at the pile of money and gold. Raising his eyes to meet hers, he shook his head. "You people are... odd."

She shrugged, smiling slightly, then stood, picking up her dark glasses and putting them on. "We are Family."

The lizard-girl looked at him, then the money. "We'll be in touch. Thank you for meeting with me." She bowed to exactly the correct level to suggest respect to an equal, which he found a little confusing, yet pleasing. Turning away, she glanced back over her shoulder. "You can keep the bag, it'll help with carrying all that."

Watching her leave with a polite nod to the waitress, and the man behind the bar, both of whom were staring at the huge amount of money and gold on the table in the middle of the room, he finished his beer, then got up.

It was only when he'd put all the treasure into the bag, which somehow managed to hold it without showing a bulge even though it was at least three times the volume the damn thing should have been capable of handling, that he stopped and wondered.

' _How did she know how much gold to bring?'_ he mused.

After a little while, he shrugged, zipped the impossible bag shut, and left the bar, trying to work out what the new dynamic in the city meant for him.

If nothing else, he was at least going to get to see how tough Raptaur really was.

And he felt he had new insight into this peculiar Family. While he didn't understand them as much as he'd like to, he understood enough. In some ways they were similar, he and them. Treat them with respect, they would reciprocate. And he had no doubt they kept their word. Unlike certain Nazi leaders he could think of, unless the man had changed significantly, which seemed unlikely.

He could accept that, and work with and around the new power in the city.

Walking to his waiting car, Kenta wondered with a slight feeling of amusement what Saurial would offer Kaiser if something of a similar nature occurred between the E88 and the Family. And whether the man would be smart enough to accept, or would decided to poke the dragon where it lived.

That wouldn't end well, although he suspected it would end very rapidly indeed.

* * *

 _"That went better than I feared it might, although I didn't see his last request coming,"_ the Varga commented as Taylor jogged back towards Arcadia, fully cloaked and thinking about the meeting. _"I probably should have."_

' _With what I've learned about him, I'm not that surprised_ ,' she replied after a few more yards. ' _I think he's the sort of person who likes to fight, and the way it ended left him unsatisfied. I can actually understand that, sort of. The big problem is making it a good fight without either accidentally killing him or completely wrecking the entire area_.'

 _"We'll need to think about a suitable venue,"_ the demon agreed. _"Not anywhere that's within many miles of inhabited places. After half an hour of no holds barred conflict he'll have ramped up to a fairly impressive level."_

' _I hope he can actually stop ramping up at the end of it._ ' Taylor was slightly worried that the pyrokinetic Changer would get carried away and she really would have to kill him to stop him.

 _"I suspect he will,"_ her friend said. _"But I also think he's not going to hold back at all. He probably knows at some level that he can't actually stop you, but he's certainly going to give it his best shot."_

' _Well, it'll be good in a way to have someone I can really cut loose with myself, without too much worry about damaging the scenery_ ,' she smiled. ' _It'll be interesting whatever happens. Maybe we should talk to Dragon and see if she can find us a place. We still need to test Athena too, although the way the Simurgh aborted her run took the pressure off a lot on that project. The same place that Dragon was thinking about for that test might be good for Lung's fight._ '

 _"It's certainly worth asking her,"_ he replied. After a moment he chuckled.

' _What?_ '

 _"It suddenly struck me that we must make sure we record this event properly for posterity. I have a strong suspicion it would find a considerable reception in certain areas, regardless of the outcome."_

' _I wonder what Lung would say if we cut him in on half the profit of a **Raptaur vs Lung** DVD?_ ' she laughed.

 _"I wonder what the PRT would say..."_ he remarked slyly, causing her to laugh harder.

' _Oh, that's something I'd love to see. Maybe we should send Director Piggot a complimentary copy…?_ '

She was still giggling when she reached the school, reverting to her base form and slipping in with Saurial beside her and no one the wiser as to what she'd done or where she'd been. And now she had a nice surprise for Lisa and her old team too.

All in all, it had been a productive lunch break.

* * *

Erwin looked up from his card hand to see his friend sit down, beer in hand. The large man took a deep, appreciative sip. "Wondered where you'd got to."

"Had a meeting," the other said quietly as the third man at the table dealt him in without a word.

"Go well?"

"Yes." He took another sip. "Beer was shit though."

"Ah." Erwin looked at his hand, then put a card down. "Snap."

"Fucker," the dealer said sourly. "I don't know _how_ you're cheating, but I _know y_ ou're cheating."

Erwin merely grinned and took another mouthful of beer. Which was definitely _not_ shit.

* * *

"Ready?"

Linda looked at Metis, who was standing next to her. She was wearing her entire new costume for the first time ever in public, and both of them were a block from the PRT building where the lizard had arranged to have a DWU light truck drop them off. Turning back to the large building at the end of the road, she adjusted her helmet, then nodded firmly.

"Ready."

"So am I," a familiar voice said from her other side. She suppressed the twitch, looking around to see Saurial grinning at her. "Let's go blow their minds."

"Sounds good to me." Linda grinned back, then all three of them started walking towards the building, a number of passers-by taking photos.


	327. Reservations and Bowling

Pulling up at the traffic lights, Danny looked to the right, spotting his destination a couple of doors down the side street. It didn't look like much from outside although if you knew what you were looking for, there were signs that the business might not be _quite_ what it appeared as. Oh, it was what it looked like as well, definitely, he knew that for a fact, but it was also… more.

And something of a stereotype, one that Antonio found very funny, which was why he'd done it.

Flicking the indicators, he turned when the truck in front moved off, driving slowly past and looking through the windows of the traditional Italian restaurant. A number of people were inside, scattered around the dozen or so tables, a surprisingly large percentage of them men in nice suits and looking like they weren't people you wanted to get on the wrong side of. Mixed in with them were more normal patrons, all of whom seemed to be enjoying themselves.

' _Jesus, Tony, could you_ ** _get_** _more clichéd?_ ' he thought with a slight sigh and a small smile. The place looked even more like something from a fifties mafia movie now than it did the last time he'd seen it fourteen and a half years ago. Glancing up, he counted floors, seeing that there was another apparent dining area on the next one up, then two that were from what he could recall office space, and above them all the penthouse which was the entire top floor. That was the old man's personal area, one you would have one hell of a time getting to without authorization or a _lot_ of help.

You'd have even _more_ trouble getting out again…

Antonio took his privacy very seriously.

From what he'd been told in the last email, the man himself was out on business until the early evening, but he'd be back around half past six. Danny was going to stay in a hotel he used on his occasional business trips to New York, since he hadn't felt he was quite at the point of accepting Antonio's offer of a room here. For numerous reasons.

After a moment's thought, he indicated again and turned left, into the alley that led back to the parking lot behind the restaurant. This far from New York proper the buildings were a lot smaller and more spread out, although it was still pretty busy compared to back home. Only when you got into the commercial district in Brockton did you tend to see so many people. Parking the car he got out and locked it, walking back to the road and around to the main entrance. With a deep breath, he opened the door and went inside.

* * *

Benny glanced up at the sound of the bell over the door tinkling and froze. Opposite him, Rudy looked at his face, then over his own shoulder. He also froze, then swallowed a little. Their wives looked at them, before exchanging glances of mild worry.

"What's wrong, Benny?" his wife Clara asked in a low voice.

He didn't reply, engaged as he was in tracking the progress of a man he recognized instantly, one he'd thought he was safely several hundred miles from. Rudy was doing the same. Around them, a number of Antonio's senior people had gone quiet, exchanging looks before Gino, the old man's head leg-breaker and security chief, wiped his mouth with his napkin and got up.

The guy who almost everyone who knew him thought of with a definite amount of caution and a hell of a lot of respect met Boss Hebert near the till at the back. The tall skinny man stopped, as did the one who outweighed him by about three times, all of it muscle and scar tissue.

"Been a while, Mr Hebert," the enforcer finally said after they'd simply looked at each other for a few seconds. All conversation in the restaurant, even from the few civilians who were in for a late lunch, had stopped by now, so Benny could hear every word.

"It has. How have you been, Gino?" the new arrival said in calm, polite tones. "Business going well?"

"Can't complain," the very large, very dangerous man replied, equally calmly and politely. "And yourself? I hear things have become… interesting… in Brockton Bay recently."

Boss Hebert smiled thinly. "Yes, you could put it like that. We've certainly seen some unusual things happen even for us. But on balance it's working out well."

"How's the daughter?" Gino asked, not looking away. "Taylor, was it? I haven't seen her for a long time."

"She's doing very well," the Hebert man said, sounding fairly contented about it. "Thank you for asking."

"We were sorry to hear about your wife, by the way." Gino genuinely sounded like he meant it. Boss Hebert looked down for a moment, sighing regretfully.

When he raised his eyes once more he nodded. "Thank you. It was hard for both of us, but we're slowly healing."

"Good. I'm glad to hear that, Mr Hebert. I'm afraid Mr Castiglione is out at the moment."

"I'm aware of that, I'm only stopping in to make a reservation for later. Around seven, I think."

Gino nodded, turning around and reaching behind the counter, while the young lady who ran the till stepped back, her eyes somewhat wider than normal. Benny, Rudy, and the rest of the patrons and staff watched with some shock as one of the most feared heavies on the East Coast personally wrote the details into the reservation book. "I'll let him know you dropped in, Mr Hebert," he said as he finishing writing in an oddly elegant hand.

"Thanks, Gino. I'll see you later, I expect."

"Probably." The enforcer put the book back and held out his hand. Boss Hebert looked at it for a moment then shook it. "Welcome back."

The man nodded again without saying anything, then turned and started to leave, Gino and his colleagues watching impassively. As he passed Benny and Rudy's table, he stopped and looked at them.

"Benny, right?"

Benny licked his lips, then nodded.

"And Rudy?"

"Yes, sir, Mr Hebert," Rudy said with the faintest catch in his voice.

"Glad to see you made it back OK." The Hebert man, one of the scariest men Benny had ever met, largely because he simply didn't _look_ as dangerous as both of them knew beyond doubt he was, smiled at them. "Thank you for helping out like that."

"No problem, Mr Hebert, it was our pleasure." Benny glanced at his friend who was paler than normal. Both their wives looked confused, but were wisely saying nothing. The Brockton Bay Boss nodded politely to them, then resumed walking, leaving the restaurant and turning left. When he was out of sight, Benny relaxed so suddenly he nearly dropped his chin into his risotto. Gino went past on his way back to his table where several of Antonio's men were talking together very quietly, slowing to give them an evaluating look. Benny smiled weakly at him.

Looking thoughtful the enforcer kept going, sitting down with his colleagues. The sound level slowly resumed its previous characteristics.

"Christ," Rudy whispered, sounding shaky. "He remembered us."

"People like that _always_ remember you," Benny mumbled, trying not to think about it. " _Always_."

"Who _is_ he?" Clara asked in a very quiet and subdued voice.

"Best not to ask, love," Benny replied, just as quietly, with a glance at Gino who he noticed uneasily was watching them. "No one we want to get involved with."

It was certainly more evidence, if it had been needed, of how well connected the man was. Gino obviously knew and respected him, his attitude was proof of that. Benny had never seen the guy act in that way to _anyone_ other than Antonio. Even to people like Benny's boss he was polite, but in a way that made it clear he knew full well he worked for someone who outranked practically everyone else by a large amount, if only in seniority. And Benny would never consider the man he directly worked for as someone you could think of as a low level guy, mainly because he _wasn't_. Not at all. But he also wasn't Antonio.

Benny was definitely regretting coming here for a meal. The food was excellent and he knew a lot of the people who frequented the place, and also knew it was very unlikely to have anything untoward happen anywhere near it. Antonio made sure of that. But…

If Boss Hebert was in town, perhaps they needed to find somewhere else to eat for a while.

Just to be on the safe side. After all, if _he_ was around, it was always possible someone… _scalier_ … might also be. Someone like Boss Hebert would have protection, and bearing in mind what he'd seen on that memorable trip a while back, it wasn't protection he wanted to bump into down a dark alley. Or in full daylight, for that matter.

Suppressing a shiver he resumed eating as quickly as propriety would allow, almost sure he could feel some _thing_ looking at him. The feeling was even more unnerving than Gino's eyes.

* * *

Setting his bag down on his bed, Danny quickly checked out the room, used the facilities with a sigh of relief, washed his face and hands, and sat down in the single chair at the desk next to the window. He had just over five hours to kill, which wasn't enough time to get into Manhattan for any shopping or wandering around, but more than he wanted to spend sitting around doing nothing. Pulling out his phone he sent Taylor a text to say he'd arrived safely, knowing she wouldn't be able to receive a phone call due to Arcadia's phone-blocking system.

Dialing another number from memory, he waited as it rang. "Hi, Kurt," he said when the line was picked up.

" _Danny! You made it to New York, I guess?_ " his old friend's voice said.

"Yes, just checked in to the hotel. I'm going to see Tony this evening, so I think I'll go out and look for something to do in the meantime. Have a light meal, maybe. How are things going back home?"

" _Everything's fine, no problems to report. Über and Leet have moved in, the trucks just came back from loading up all their stuff. Lisa and Metis are working on that, with Zephron along to supervise._ "

Danny chuckled. "Who's supervising _him?_ "

Kurt sounded slightly weary. " _God, I know, don't remind me. The man is nuts. But there are enough people around to make sure nothing too excessive happens. I hope..._ "

"OK. Let me know if anything serious crops up, I'll leave my phone on, but if you can avoid calling after about half past six that would probably be best. I want to give Tony and this situation my full attention."

" _Fair enough. Say hi to the old man when you see him from me._ "

"Will do. I'll be in touch."

" _Bye, Danny_." He flicked the call end icon and put the phone down on the desk, leaning back and stretching, then relaxing. Briefly considering a short nap, he dismissed the thought since he wasn't nearly as tired as he'd expected. Since Amy's symbiote he'd had the energy of a twenty-year-old anyway, and after all the boosts he felt better than he had in his life. He was also pretty sure that his hair had stopped receding and was gradually coming back, something that she could easily have done on the spot but suspected had arranged to happen slowly. Most likely to avoid it looking too suspicious.

The overnight change to not needing glasses had been easy to explain to the few people who hadn't worked it out. Knowing Amy Dallon was a friend of his daughter's and fixed both of them to have perfect eyesight was entirely plausible, and in his case essentially true even if it was glossing over _a lot_ of details.

' _I seem to remember driving past a bowling alley a couple of blocks away_ ,' he thought as he put his coat on again. ' _I haven't been bowling in at least four years. Wonder if I still have it?_ ' Deciding that it was a good way to kill some time, following a little to eat in the restaurant attached to the hotel, he made sure he had his key card in his wallet then left the room.

Just under an hour later he was hefting bowling balls experimentally, deciding on the best weight. Not even the heaviest one posed any difficulty, of course, but he wanted to look more or less normal doing this.

When his first ball was a perfect strike, he smiled to himself. Apparently his upgrades hadn't thrown him off too much at all.

Danny happily lost himself in the mechanics of bowling, the rumble of the balls and the crash of pins falling a background to his ruminations on what he was going to say to Antonio. Hopefully things would go smoothly.

* * *

"Come on, Colin, we need to be at the PRT building in forty minutes," Dragon said with good-natured exasperation, watching her best friend test, yet again, his latest modification to his weapon of choice. The other Tinker nodded absently, watching the readings on half a dozen different pieces of test equipment which were connected via fine wires to many places on the three-dimensional set of electronics on the bench. He tweaked a couple of settings very slightly on one device, then tapped on the keyboard of the computer with was also plugged into the entire setup.

Finally, apparently satisfied, he straightened up and smiled a little. "Excellent. A zero point three seven percent decrease in power consumption. Very gratifying indeed."

"Zero point three seven percent?" she asked. "So that'll give you… approximately four seconds more output on a charge on that particular system?"

"Three point nine one seconds, yes."

"So you'll get just under four seconds more use, out of the more than seventeen and a half minutes possible you already had power for, on a weapon that will overheat in fifteen seconds and takes two minutes to cool down." She gazed at him. "And it only took you _how_ many hours of work to manage this?"

"Approximately..." He looked at his screen. "Twenty one."

She paused, before synthesizing a sigh. "You do _realize_ that your drive for efficiency might be getting just a _little_ out of hand, Colin?"

He looked back, appearing mildly puzzled. After a moment, he turned to his bench and quickly disconnected all the test gear, then reassembled his halberd, sliding the guts of it into the outer casing. Once the last screw was tightened to the correct torque with the relevant tool, he collapsed it and stowed it on the back of his armor, standing up at the same time. Reaching for his helmet he said, sounding just a little defensive, "There is nothing wrong with striving for optimal efficiency."

"Oh, Colin," she said with fond exasperation. "At some point we need to talk. Now, though, we need to leave." She picked up the case she'd brought in and put it on the nearest bench, opening it. "Although before we do, I have something for you."

Colin turned to look at her, then at the thing she'd taken out of the case. "Leet's tricorder?" he asked curiously.

His eyes widened slightly when she pulled out another, identical one. Internally she smiled, her humor subroutines finding his abruptly eager expression quite funny. "You managed to duplicate it!" he stated, sounding both pleased and slightly shocked.

"I did indeed," she replied with pleasure. "It wasn't easy, and I'm still having some trouble with the audio inducer which is a lot more complex than you'd expect, but I had a breakthrough yesterday morning with this design. Leet is very, very talented at producing incredibly clean and elegant devices. Why he can't duplicate them is a mystery to me, and I'm very sorry for him, it must be unbelievably frustrating."

She handed him the duplicated tricorder. "Studying this taught me some extremely interesting new concepts I can see a large number of derivative applications for. Without the experience in copying the wormhole generator it would have taken a lot longer, though. It's conceivable I wouldn't have been able to do it at all. But with the data I got from that task, this was… not easy, it was actually extremely hard, but possible. And I can now make as many as we require." She turned the case around to show him it had a dozen of the devices neatly stowed inside in a foam insert. "These are the first off the production line. I want to field test them, then tweak the design if necessary to optimize them. I'd love your input into that process, I've sent all the documentation on it to you."

"I am genuinely impressed, yet again, Dragon," he said softly as he turned the instrument over in his hands, then opened it. It made a small sound and lit up a number of displays. Examining the thing, he smiled a little. "More than impressed. Of course I'd be honored to assist in optimizing this design. I will study the files as soon as I have spare time."

"Thanks. Keep that one. I've got his original here, I need to get it back to him, along with some of the new ones. We'll need to decide who to let have the others for testing purposes. I also have nearly finished the manual, it's a very complex device to use properly, but remarkably versatile. Even more so than the TV series that inspired it showed."

"This may be useful for our assessment of Vectura," he noted as he put the tricorder into a storage space in his armor, then grabbed his helmet again, having put it down to take the device from her. Putting it on and connected it to the rest of his suit, he picked up an equipment case he'd prepared, and followed as she headed to the door. Shortly they were both making their way via different methods to the PRT facility.

* * *

Emily read the very sketchy information they had on the DWU Tinker, code name ' _Vectura_ ,' then closed the report folder with a snort of annoyance. "Hardly anything useful. We know nothing about where she came from, much about her abilities other than she can make appallingly effective walking mechs straight from an SF movie, or anything else other than she's part cat."

"I've still had no luck finding any documented encounters with a feline-human Tinker anywhere," Hannah said with a shrug. "It strongly implies she Triggered fairly recently."

"Or was very careful to stay out of sight," Emily suggested.

"Or that. There are a number of possibilities as to how she could have done it, if she did. Where and when the DWU or more likely the Family got in contact with her, though, I have no idea. Or why for that matter. But they do seem to be collecting Parahumans fairly quickly at the moment."

"Oh, god," Emily sighed, rubbing her temples again. "I can just feel that this is going to get strange again. At least she's not another goddam lizard. I might be able to deal with a cat-woman Tinker, and I never thought I'd say _that_."

Hannah smiled a little, retrieving the report. "They'll be here in an hour. I'll go and observe after Colin, Dragon, and the technical team have had a chance for an initial evaluation. Perhaps I can find out more about her."

"Worth a try. Keep me informed."

"Of course, Director," the military cape said as she stood up. "I'm going for lunch now, first."

"I've got to finish some of this work before I can do that," Emily muttered, looking at the pile of reports that needed signing off on. "Calvert's little operation has generated enough extra paperwork to make me tempted to ask the Family if Umihebi wants a chew toy for a while."

Hannah laughed a little uneasily, then nodded and left. Mumbling to herself about how someone should have shot Thomas Calvert at birth and saved everyone a lot of trouble, she picked the first report off the stack at her right elbow and started reading it, making notes in the margins with a red pen.

* * *

"Hello, we have an appointment," Lisa said to the PRT receptionist, who was looking up at her with slightly widened eyes. It wasn't the same one she'd met the first time she came in to talk to the Director, but the look was very similar. Like that time, the various members of the public that were in the lobby and the gift shop had all stopped to stare, many of them taking photos or video recordings. Linda was deliberately ignoring them, but she could smell the woman's nervousness.

Taylor's Saurial aspect put a hand on the Tinker's shoulder for a moment, which made her look at the lizard girl, then relax a little.

After a second or two, the woman at the desk looked down at her computer screen and moved the mouse, clicking a couple of times. "Yes, I've got it here, um, Metis." Lisa smiled very carefully at her, which seemed to help a little. "Armsmaster is on his way, in fact, you're a couple of minutes early."

"All right, thank you. We'll just wait over there, then," she replied. All three of them walked over to the waiting area, Linda sitting down in one of the free chairs. Lisa and ' _Saurial_ ' stood next to her. The half dozen people who had already been there stared at them fixedly, one of them with a cup of coffee half-way to his mouth.

"Hi," Linda said, after thirty seconds of silence. The rest of the lobby had more or less gone back to normal, although several of the PRT troopers were watching them closely, out of interest more than anything else. These days they seemed to take the Family in their stride, by and large. The Coil takedown and the Merchant operation had done wonders toward making them accepted as normal.

Some of the public, though, when suddenly confronted by two large lizards and an armored cat-woman… They looked a little shocked even now.

"Who are _you?_ " one of the people opposite them asked curiously. She was a teenager, probably about fourteen or so, and had been typing rapidly on her phone when they walked in, while blowing bubbles with her gum. Lisa had noticed she was one of the ones who had immediately started recording them, and even now her phone was being held in a way that she probably thought was surreptitious, pointing at all three new arrivals.

"I'm Vectura," Linda introduced herself, smiling through her faceplate. Only the bottom part of her face was visible, the top half of the visor reflecting the rest of the room. The girl nodded, studying her, while the guy with the coffee resumed drinking it. "I'm with the DWU."

"Cool. Why does your helmet have those cat ear things on top?"

"That's where my ears go," Linda replied. "If they weren't there this thing would hurt." Going by scent she was relaxing a lot as she spoke which Lisa found interesting and helpful.

"Huh?" The girl looked mildly puzzled, then enlightened. "Oh! You, like, _have_ cat ears?"

Linda nodded, smiling.

"O. M. G." The young woman said each letter slowly and clearly, staring at the Tinker. "And you have a _tail_ too!" She seemed fascinated. "That's so _cool!_ "

"I like it," Linda replied, still smiling.

Smelling a familiar scent, Lisa looked away from the now very excited young lady who was asking a lot of questions over towards the bank of elevators, where one had opened to disgorge Armsmaster and Dragon, along with a couple of PRT people in the classic white lab-coat. She glanced at Taylor's aspect who looked back with a small nod.

"Hey, Vectura, they're ready for us," she said, cutting into the conversation the girl was having with her friend.

"Oh, right." Linda followed their eyes as she stood. "Sorry, I have to go."

"It was cool to meet you," the girl said, lifting her phone and snapping a photo of them all. She watched as they all headed across the lobby to meet the two Tinkers. Lisa could hear her phone making little clicking sounds as she kept taking photos.

"She says cool a lot, doesn't she?" Taylor said under her breath, grinning. Both the others snickered.

"Some people have favorite words," Lisa replied in a whisper. Nodding discreetly at Armsmaster, who was waiting for them, she added, "His is probably ' _efficient_.'"

Her friends suppressed laughter as they approached the people waiting for them. "Hello, Armsmaster, Dragon," ' _Saurial_ ' said politely. She indicated their own Tinker, who was smelling nervous again. "This is Vectura, as you may know."

"Pleased to meet you, Vectura," Dragon replied, stepping forward and holding out one armored gauntlet, which Linda took and shook. Armsmaster did the same.

"It's an honor to meet both of you," Linda replied, sounding sincere. "Your work is very impressive."

"Thank you," the Canadian said, emoting a definite smile even through her armor, which was a good trick. "We're looking forward to seeing your own work."

"I am definitely intrigued by the limited information we so far have," Armsmaster added. He looked past them at the people all watching them. "However, here is not the place to continue the discussion. Follow me, please, we're going to testing room two." He led the way back into the largest elevator, both technical people, who hadn't said anything yet, stepping aside to let them all follow him then bringing up the rear. Once the doors closed and the elevator started moving down completely silently, Armsmaster turned to them again.

"This is Doctor Wilson, he's an expert on Tinker research, and Doctor Ikari, who is a powers specialist." The former was a tall thin man with graying hair pulled back into a ponytail, and a face that looked like it was familiar with smiling a lot, as it was doing at the moment. The latter man was nearly a foot shorter, at least ten years younger, and combined short dark hair with piercing black eyes which were examining them all curiously. "There are other specialists we will call in if required but they are the ones we will mainly be using today, in addition to Dragon and myself."

Doctor Wilson stuck out his hand, which Linda took. "I'm very interested in seeing what you can do, Vectura," he said in jovial tones, his voice much deeper than they expected. "A new Tinker is always fascinating. I understand your specialty is transportation?"

"Yes," Linda replied, releasing his hand and nodding. "As far as I can work out." The elevator stopped and the doors slid open. Armsmaster led them all out into a wide corridor that Lisa's power told her confidently was ninety-seven point three feet below the parking area under the PRT building. As they walked along it, the woman continued, "There are a lot of other things I can do too, but they all seem to relate to transportation in some way, at least a little."

"Interesting," Doctor Ikari commented, pulling out a notebook and flipping through it, then jotting a few words down in quick shorthand. "Is this transportation expertise limited to such things as cars, motorcycles, and similar vehicles? Or is it more extensive?"

Linda glanced at Taylor's aspect, then Lisa. "More extensive. Much more extensive."

"I see." He made some more notes. "So, in some ways a superset of what the deceased Merchant Tinker Squealer was capable of," he added under his breath, scribbling away. " _Most_ intriguing."

"Squealer was a talented hack in my opinion," Linda sighed. Lisa exchanged a glance with Taylor, who was keeping silent and just listening. "I can do a hell of a lot more than she ever dreamed of. And I have no intention of making anything that butt-ugly either."

"I'm very relieved to hear that," Armsmaster said with a dry tone, coming about as close to humor as Lisa had ever heard from him. "While she was talented in her own way her aesthetic sense left much to be desired, as did her judgment."

They reached the end of the corridor, having gone past a dozen or so doors, from behind some of which interesting sounds were coming. One of them had been labeled as a firing range, while some of the others were obviously other testing facilities or equipment storage. The double doors facing them were enormous, filling the fifteen foot by twenty foot corridor completely, and heavily reinforced. The Tinker reached out and put his hand on a sensor pad on the wall next to him, which beeped a couple of times.

"Armsmaster, authorization code alpha nine two slash five eight charlie," he said in a calm and even voice. The panel beeped again, a light going green, then the doors slid open with a hiss of hydraulics. "It's a rolling code that changes every six hours," he added to them, in a sort of general informational manner, before leading the way inside. Lisa wasn't entirely sure if it was just out of a wish to explain, or a subtle warning that the code would be different next time. Her power suggested it could be both.

The room on the other side of the door made them stop and look around with amazement. "Wow," Taylor said quietly. "This place is huge."

"Three hundred feet by two hundred by forty, the walls are ten feet of a Tinker-designed ultra-hard ceramic with a melting point of over three thousand degrees centigrade, and they're reinforced with a similar force-field to the one on the Rig," Dragon said. She went over to a control console on the wall and tapped a couple of icons. The doors closed and the walls flickered a pearlescent blue for a moment. "I've turned them on. Standard procedure in case of accidents. Which happen more often than you'd think." Her voice was knowing and slightly amused.

"We have a number of storerooms here full of almost anything you might require," Doctor Wilson said, waving at a door on one side which was much less solidly made than the main entrance. On the other side of the large double doors was a long window that stretched about fifty feet along the wall. "Over there," he went on, pointing at this, "is the viewing and control room. The window is nearly as tough as the walls, it's a hideously expensive laminated polymer and super-glass material, it would take a depleted uranium tank shell at point blank range in conjunction with the force field. If anything dangerous is done in _here_ , we observe from in _there_ , and we can record everything too. Not to mention analyze the results of our tests."

"What's the procedure you want to use?" ' _Saurial_ ' asked, looking around again, then at a set of half a dozen tables covered with various items that were set up in front of the window to the control room. "How do you actually _test_ a Tinker?"

"The procedure varies greatly depending on the type of Tinker, the specialty if they have one, their limitations, and other such constraints," Doctor Ikari replied, writing something else in his notebook then slipping it back into his pocket and turning his full attention to them. "We have a selection of both normal technology and Tinker technology over here, along with a series of standard test approaches that we can use once we have some idea of what type of Tinker the testee is. Obviously with many new Parahumans that come to us, they themselves may not know much about their own abilities, and some of these exercises are designed to derive information about them."

"Since you already would appear to know a lot about your own powers, Vectura, we can skip some of the tests entirely. It would be helpful to try some of the remaining ones even so to give us a better concept of what you can do. But having seen the recordings of that extraordinary walking mech unit you built at the DWU, I suspect that there is probably little _we_ can tell _you_ about how your powers work." Doctor Wilson looked like he was more than a little dazzled by the memory. "I'd certainly like to see it for myself at some point, the machine is remarkable."

"I'd like to see it as well," Dragon said, sounding interested. "As would Armsmaster. The reports from the PRT troopers you let try it were very complimentary."

"We thought you might say that," Linda commented with a deliberately calm voice. "It's easy enough to arrange." She was already reaching into the pocket that held the fractally compressed machine. Pulling out the small sphere, which both Parahumans and scientists looked at curiously, she pressed it in the right places with one hand then casually tossed it past them. The sphere landed on the floor with a faint metallic clink and rolled about twenty feet, everyone watching it.

Lisa found their reactions when it suddenly unfolded into the blue and orange machine with the typical sound of stressed reality _very_ satisfactory.

* * *

Still feeling somewhat shaky, Benny watched the streets go past as Rudy drove his car back towards home. Their wives, in the back seat, were talking in low voices to each other. They appeared to find their husband's reaction to seeing Mr Hebert somewhat peculiar but had stopped asking them about it after they'd made it clear they didn't want to reply.

"I was hoping for a nice relaxing afternoon out after the last job for the boss," he said after they'd driven a few miles away from Antonio's restaurant and were safely out of his territory. "Some good food in a quiet place, you know?"

Rudy nodded silently, watching the road ahead.

"Then _he_ walks in. And Gino Corbi of all people greets him like a friend he hasn't seen in years. And Gino _personally_ makes a reservation in Antonio's restaurant for him, just like that. No questions, he just does it."

"The man is definitely connected," Rudy agreed quietly. He sounded to Benny like he was doing his best not to think about the fact that the man had greeted them each by name on the way out the door. Benny himself was trying and failing to do the same thing.

"Fucking right he is," Benny said vehemently. "To places I don't want to think about. And he's managed to make everyone think he's just some harmless accountant or something. I mean, look at him! Skinny guy like that, he looks like Gino could break him in half." He shivered. "Right up to when you look in his eyes."

"He seemed nice enough to me," Clara said, both women having fallen silent and listening to the people in the front.

"You didn't see the things we saw, Clara," he replied, remembering, then trying to forget again. "Brockton Bay is fucking insane. And he's the man who runs it. The people he has wandering around there..."

"And the things," Rudy put in.

"Which may or may not also be people," Benny nodded. "You could feel you were being watched the entire time. God knows who or what by. Trust me, love, that guy is seriously dangerous and seriously high up in the organization. So high _no one knows_ ** _how_** _high!_ "

Rudy's wife Ella said, "Are you sure you're not imagining things, you two? I've never heard of a family connection to Brockton Bay before. _The_ Family, sure, you can't miss _them_ , but not..."

Rudy shook his head sharply. "Benny's right. That trip was…" He swallowed. "Not fun."

They were all quiet for another few blocks. Eventually Clara said, in an apparent effort to change the subject, "Well, I still want a nice afternoon out. You ran out of there so fast I barely had time to finish eating."

Benny sighed very softly. "OK, what do you want to do now?"

She looked out the side windows, then pointed. "How about bowling? That's fun and we haven't been for a while."

Benny glanced at Rudy, who shrugged, indicated, slowed, and turned right, driving into the parking lot of the bowling alley she'd seen. "Why not?" he said. "I could go for some bowling and they serve good nachos here."

"That's the spirit," Ella giggled. Slapping him on the back of the head, quite gently, she added, "Come on, let's go have fun and forget about your worries."

"Yeah," Clara smiled as she got out, waiting for the others to exit the car. "It'll be great."

Also getting out, Benny looked over the car roof at his friend and partner, both of them rolling their eyes a little, but they followed as the two women headed into the establishment. She was probably right, he thought, this would take his mind off running into Boss Hebert. He enjoyed bowling.


	328. Omake - Beta Test Program

An Omake sparked by a discussion on Discord...

* * *

Taylor, who was lying on her bed reading, slowly turned back a page. She read it carefully, then the next couple, then lowered the book to meet the eyes of the Varga, who was sitting as her twin at her desk noodling around on the internet and snickering about how he was mercilessly trolling Clockblocker with Vista's willing aid.

" _We_ could do that," she said.

"We could indeed," he agreed with a smile, before looking back to the screen of her laptop. "Do you want to?"

"Do you need to ask?"

"Obviously not, but for the purposes of this discussion, it seemed appropriate," he said, glancing over his shoulder. Her own face looked back at her in a way that before the locker would have freaked her out a lot, but now seemed entirely normal and the way things should be. "Should we invite the others to help, or should it be a surprise?"

"I think surprise," she giggled. "Very much a surprise."

"In that case, shall we find an appropriately private place and see what happens?"

"Yep. Basement?"

"Basement."

Both of them got up, looked at each other with identical mischievous grins, and vanished.

* * *

"Excellent. Stable dimensional warp, internal structure is good… The energy output is a little low."

"Yeah… OK, what about..."

"Oops."

"Hmm. No, that's probably a _little_ too much." Both of them stared at the results for a moment. "Definitely too much. Nice and warm, though."

"Perhaps we should put this one to one side for our use, and try again with something somewhat safer for others."

"Good idea. It was _nearly_ perfect, though."

The Varga shrugged. "It's a learning experience, I've never done this either. But it's coming along nicely and is a very interesting idea."

"We'll need Amy's help later, for the livestock."

"That can wait for now. All right, let's do that again, but using half the mass. That should still be stable but not quite so… enthusiastic."

"OK." There was silence for a few minutes, broken in the end by a sub-bass _THUMP_ that shook the entire house. "It ignited fine, so that part worked. Now to tune it..."

The odd sizzling sounds that came out of the basement of the Hebert household, which had been massively expanded via Varga magic and dimensional trickery over the last month or so, would have made most people look worried. The only two in the building at the moment, on the other hand, looked satisfied. "Now _that's_ what we're looking for," Taylor said with deep satisfaction.

"Agreed. Shall we make another to check it wasn't a fluke?"

"Yep."

They did.

The _THUMP_ came again. "Perfect! Looks like we cracked it."

"The key would appear to be a slightly lower density to begin with than we originally estimated. The muon flux does seem to help catalyze the reaction, which is in line with what the research paper you read last week theorized."

"We should write it up for Scientific American."

"I suspect they wouldn't believe us." The demon chuckled. "Perhaps we should provide a sample?"

"That's a thought." Taylor looked amused. "Later, though, we need to make a load more of these then add the rest of it before we can do that."

"Yes, that's true enough. I'll just put this one over here with the first one. Perhaps a dozen to start with?"

"That'll do for now. We'll have them finished by this afternoon at this rate."

They resumed work, the _THUMPs_ coming regularly and causing the neighbors to look at the cups rattling in the cupboards with some puzzlement.

* * *

"Done."

"Finally. That took longer than I expected."

"It's very detailed work. The main structure is easy enough, but all the fiddly parts inside are definitely not trivial. But I'm very pleased with the end result."

"Me too, it worked even better than I hoped for. Let's finish the instructions and box them up."

"Who are we going to let test them for us?"

Taylor and her demon thought for a while. "Well, Dad would like one. It's even better than that music box I made. Amy, of course… Lisa would get all grumpy if we didn't give her one."

"A grumpy Lisa is a thing of horror."

"So are we, but I get the point," Taylor snickered. "That's three. Randall and Kevin would happily share one. That one, I think."

"All right, that seems reasonable."

"Lucy. She deserves one. Newell would love it."

"Excellent suggestion. In fact, all your friends at school should get one."

"When we've beta-tested them, they might need tweaking a little. OK, let's give one to Vista, she'd absolutely love it, that special one we experimented with over there."

"Why not give one to the Wards as a group as well? That could be amusing."

"Oh, brilliant. With the extra functions?"

"Why not?"

"There's probably a good reason but I can't think of one right now."

"Sanity?"

"No, that's not it… Huh. It'll come to me. Never mind."

She thought some more, then smiled widely. "And one to Director Piggot. She's been really helpful, all things considered, especially since we've really caused her some sleepless nights. Let's give her that one."

The Varga considered her suggestion, then nodded slowly. "Yes, I think you're right. That should do for now, we'll have some spares left over if we need to modify them based on user feedback."

"I wonder what Lisa will come up with for a product brochure?"

"You think we should sell them?"

"Why not? I'd think it would be very popular. Some people need to relax mo… Oooh. I just had a _wonderful_ idea who should get one. It'll drive him nuts trying to work out the hidden meaning but I bet he uses it anyway."

"Now _that_ is truly amusing. We'll need to make a few changes to it, I think."

"Easily done. OK, let's customize them a little and deliver them. It'll be a nice surprise for everyone."

"Well… _A_ surprise, definitely..."

Two identical voices laughed in noticeably different ways, then the house was filled with the sound of reality weeping and trying to look away.

* * *

Missy looked at the package the PRT internal mail delivery service had delivered. It was a cardboard box about six inches square and one thick, about the right size for a book. The label on it was addressed to Vista, care of the Wards program, Brockton Bay, and it had another label to say it had been scanned by the security department and nothing suspicious had been found. Picking it up, she shook it curiously, hearing nothing.

Closing the door to her quarters so she could have some privacy, she sat on the bed and turned the box over a couple of times, before retrieving a small pen knife from her desk drawer and slitting the tape holding it closed. Putting the knife down again, she placed the box on her knees and peeled the flaps back. The first thing that she found was a small card, about twice the size of a business card, made of what felt like extremely high quality paper. It had a familiar logo on it, one that made her smile. Picking it up, she read it carefully.

 _Dear Vista, you have been selected to beta test our latest product, the FamTech™ iWorld®. Your_

 _new iWorld® needs no maintenance, external power supply, or consumables. As a beta test unit_

 _it currently does not come stocked with life, but this can be acquired through BBFO, LLC. An order_

 _form is in the rear of the manual, and custom life can be designed to your specification. Please note_

 _that with few exceptions iWorld® custom life forms are restricted to your iWorld® to prevent_

 _accidental environmental damage._

 _Please read the manual thoroughly before using your iWorld®. Note that injuries sustained by misuse of_

 _the iWorld® are not covered by the FamTech™ unlimited warranty. As a gesture of goodwill, a supply of_

 _FamTech™ BioFix Instant® capsules are included in the package. While we hope that they will not be needed,_

 _accidents do happen!_

 _While using your new iWorld®, please note any omissions, errors, or suggestions for improvements or additions_

 _on the included survey form, which can be returned to BBFO, LLC, for actioning. Thank you for participating in_

 _this exciting beta-test program, and we hope that your iWorld® will give you many hours of enjoyment._

 _Sincerely, Saurial, of the Family._

She was slightly amazed, but not as much as she would have been a while back, that all that was printed on a card only two inches by three and was completely readable. Putting it down beside her, she lifted the bubble wrap sheet that was protecting the contents of the box, finding underneath it a nicely printed manual as promised, about half an inch thick, and beneath _that_ a… thing.

She stared at it, mesmerized by all the pretty dimensions that were, to her at least, visibly almost flowing around it in hypnotic patterns. It was by _far_ the most complex instance of that sort of thing that she'd ever seen, putting her own drawings to shame. After close to three minutes of gaping in awe, she reached into the box and removed the whatever-it-was. Holding it, she tried to look past the fractal oddities to see what most people would see, which turned out to be something that looked almost like a wooden book. It was slightly smaller than the box it had come in and perhaps half an inch thick, with a fine seam all around the edges. Feeling it, her fingers found what might be tiny hinges on one side, and a place that moved a little on the other that seemed to be a catch.

Resisting the urge to investigate, since she was well aware that you _always_ read the instructions first, she proceeded to do precisely that. Under a minute later her eyes were wide and round and she was giggling in an unnerving manner.

* * *

"What the hell is an iWorld?" Dennis asked, looking at the note that had been in the box that was sitting on the Wards common room table, the label addressing it to them all generally. He'd opened it immediately, Chris taking possession of the manual while he was reading the card with befuddlement. His friend was entirely silent, making him look.

The Tinker was staring at the second page of the small booklet with what looked like complete stunned shock. Puzzled, Dennis walked around behind him and read it over his shoulder.

Both of them kept reading for some time, occasionally shooting the little flat wooden thing that was in the box awed glances, that were slowly being replaced with wider and wider grins.

* * *

"So fucking cool..." Lucy breathed, reading the manual carefully, flipping page after page. Newell was lying on her chest as she lay on her bed, his head resting almost on her throat, absorbing her body heat with what looked like complete contentment. She stroked his rough scaly skin absently with one hand while she held the booklet up with the other, astounded by what she'd been given. Half an hour later she finished, carefully moving her iguana to her bed then sitting up. Putting the manual down she instead picked up her brand new FamTech™ iWorld® and inspected it with great interest and anticipation.

"This is going to be fun," she laughed as she got up, getting ready to test the thing. " _So_ much fun."

She was right. It was. And Newell seemed to approve.

* * *

"Oh, for god's sake, Taylor," Amy sighed as she looked at the contents of the box. "You can't leave that girl alone for a second, or something like _this_ happens." She read the manual, shaking her head in varying amounts of amusement, resignation, and impressed shock at various points. "Mind you, it's a fucking nice job. I can see some uses for this..."

Shortly she was taking notes, and thinking of what to make for her new iWorld®.

* * *

Lisa started laughing hysterically as she read the manual, her power almost hopping up and down at the thought of all the new things to see. Both of them were soon having a wonderful time.

* * *

Emily, on her way back from a late lunch, stopped a few seconds after she passed Missy Biron going the other way, heading towards the Ward's on-base quarters. For some reason the girl was carrying an inflatable rubber dingy on her head. The other odd thing was that she was wearing a bathrobe over a swimming costume and had a set of swim fins and a mask and snorkel hooked over her shoulder. Turning back she watched the teenager disappear into her quarters, the corridor and doorway shrinking back to normal from where she'd used her powers to make the inflatable boat fit.

Curious, she retraced her path. The door was closed, but she could faintly hear through it a shout of "Cowabunga!" and an enormous splash.

The PRT director stared at the closed door for some seconds, then finally decided that she _did not_ need to know. Things were going far more smoothly at the moment than normal, most of the oddities of the last couple of months had died down to a background rumble which she could easily ignore, and so far the day had been unusually good. Why risk seeing something she'd have to do something about and ruin it for herself?

She turned around again and walked off.

Going past the Ward's common room a little while later, she stopped and stared as Chris and Dennis came towards her pushing one of the heavy-duty quad-bikes that were occasionally used for off road operations. It only just fitted into the corridor and she had no idea how they'd got it up here from the parking garage.

Both boys stopped dead when they spotted her, looking instantly guilty. "Director," Dennis said politely, although he was sweating a little, not all of it from exertion.

"Gentlemen," she replied, inspecting the vehicle that shouldn't be there. "I assume you have a good reason for this?"

"We do. It's..."

"And you signed that machine out properly?"

"Yes, but..."

"And you're not going to do something with it that will cause me, personally, any problems before I go home tonight?"

"No, but..."

She held up a hand and moved as far to the side as she could. "Carry on."

They looked at her, then the quad-bike, then each other. "Thank you, Director," Chris said in a slightly stunned voice. They pushed the machine past as she half climbed over it. Moments later, the young Tinker somehow managed to open the common room door without the normal delay, looking back at her with a remarkably guilty expression.

She said nothing.

They did a complicated twenty-point turn and succeeded in getting the vehicle through the door, which closed.

She waited.

After about thirty seconds, she heard an engine start. It was a lot fainter than it should have been. A couple of whoops sounded, the engine revved manically, and then the sounds faded away into the distance. A far greater distance than could possibly have been available in the room they'd gone into.

Emily sighed, and resumed walking to her office. "I know, I just _know_ , this is somehow something to do with Saurial and her fucking family."

When she reached her office she went inside with a feeling of relief, heading directly to where she kept a small bottle of something drinkable. After two shots of that, she felt able to go on with her day.

Right up until she spotted the box in the middle of her desk.

* * *

Max stared, then closed his eyes. "Oh, god, now what?" he half-sighed, half-moaned. "Those fucking reptiles will be the death of me yet, and the worst part is that I don't think they're even trying..."

Opening them again, he read the page in the manual that had accompanied the delivery which had somehow found its way into his office without going through any of the normal channels. Having scanned it _very_ thoroughly, he'd gingerly opened it and read the note inside.

Even though he knew he shouldn't, considering who was involved, a sort of morbid curiosity had kept him from just throwing the fucking thing away and made him read the manual. Now, finished, he tossed it onto the desk and picked up the small wooden box or whatever it was. It didn't look like much.

After another swig of whiskey, and preemptively removing his shoes and locking them into a desk drawer just to be on the safe side, he got up and walked over to the largest clear wall area in the room. Remembering what the manual had said, he pressed the catch on the side of the box and opened it out flat, then held it against the wall at chest height. Entirely not to his surprise, it stuck exactly as the book had claimed it would.

He stepped back and regarded it, then sighed again. "This is so… stupid," he grumbled. But even so, he raised his hand and loudly snapped his fingers.

There was a very odd sound.

He gaped in shock. Then he moved forward and very gingerly turned the doorknob of the door that had appeared in the wall where the box had been. It clicked and the door opened when he pulled it. A wave of cold air washed out and pooled around his feet, making him shiver.

Stepping forward, he stuck his head through the doorway and looked around. Up, down, and to the sides. Then he knelt down and put his hand out, before retracting it and looking at the snowflakes melting and running to the floor.

"Only in fucking Brockton Bay," he mumbled, genuinely awe-struck. "Those crazy lizards are..." He couldn't think how to finish that thought.

Standing up again, he looked out at the vista before him, before shrugging helplessly. "Why the fuck not? If it's a trick, it's a good one, and if they wanted me dead I'd be dead." Max closed the door and went over to the closet where he kept certain equipment. A little later he walked back, stopping en route to pick up the telephone handset and poke the button that called his assistant.

" _Yes, Max?_ " Victor said.

"If anyone wants me, I'm going skiing," he said.

" _Skiing?_ " His second in command sounded startled. " _Where?_ "

"In my office." Max laughed helplessly, looking at the impossible door. "In my fucking office. Blame the Family. I'll be back in a couple of hours."

" _Ah… Whatever you say, Max._ " Victor's voice sounded very much like a man humoring someone whose sanity was suspect. Putting the phone down without another word, Max went over to the door to his new iWorld®, opened it, and disappeared inside for a couple of hours of sliding down the snow-covered slopes that were in there, under clear blue skies with a bright sun high above.

The door closed with a click and the office was silent again.

* * *

"So what did you two get up to today?" Danny asked as he pulled the casserole dish out of the oven, glancing over at Taylor who was making mashed potatoes with the mini-dragon Varga wrapped over her shoulders. Both of them looked pleased with themselves, which was always cause for slight concern.

"Nothing much, Dad," she replied, adding a little milk to the saucepan. "Read a book, did some work in the basement, cleaned the kitchen… It was nice to have a day off for once, we've been so busy for weeks."

"We should go on holiday sometime," he suggested. "Somewhere warm and sunny."

His daughter and her demon exchanged a look. "Funny you should mention that," she giggled. "I made you a present..."


	329. Omake - Informercial

The FamTech™ iWorld® is not an entire universe despite initial appearances to the new user. Rather, it is a small, although still fairly large in absolute terms, self contained world. An iWorld® can be arranged in a number of ways, including micro Dyson sphere, Flat Earth, and others, please see the catalog for details of current models.

New PicoStar® technology allows full spectrum stellar objects to be incorporated, the output of which can be precisely tailored to any specific requirement. EDM mass concentrations are used to produce local gravity gradients sufficient to retain an atmosphere on even very small iWorlds, although at low diameters tidal effects across the body may become disorientating.

Any desired environmental conditions can be designed in, ranging from desert worlds to luxurious rain forests, through arctic paradises and even water can be designed to order, or picked from a constantly expanding library of predesigned variants, including _SkiWorld_ , _Tropical Beaches_ , _Pocket Solar System_ , _Space is your Bitch_ , _Dune Buggy Heaven_ , and many, many more.

Contact BBFO, LLC for further details and to discuss your requirements with a representative in complete confidence.

 **FamTech™ iWorld®**  
 **_Your imagination is not the limit!©_**


	330. Omake - Customer support

_Quick little omake of an omake, or omake^2 :)_

* * *

"I've got a report here from Clockblocker, about the Ward's iWorld," Amy said, reading the screen. "Apparently he's been having problems with the door opening upside down. The last time he opened it, about half a beach worth of sand fell out and Director Piggot made him shovel it all back inside by himself. He's not happy."

"I imagine the other Wards are, though," Taylor snickered, coming over to read the report email. "Wow. Has he been taking lessons from Skidmark? Or maybe you?"

"Is that even physically possible?" the Varga asked, cocking his head as he also read the somewhat profane description an apparently irked Clockblocker had filed with his standard beta test bug report. "Even _I'd_ have trouble..."

"Poor guy." Amy was, despite her sympathy, grinning widely. "What do we tell him?"

"He was holding it wrong. You have to be very careful to use the correct grip when operating your iWorld," Taylor said firmly. Both her demon and her best friend looked dubiously at her.

"You _really_ want to go with that?" the healer asked.

"Yep."

"OK." Amy sighed a little, but quickly typed a reply and sent it. "Moving on... This one is from Max Anders. He's very happy with his iWorld, on balance, but he said the upgrade from the iWorld 1 to the iWorld 2 removed some functionality he enjoyed, specifically the automatic snow generation. He has to buy a pair of snow creators now, which he says run out of power at the worst moment possible. I told you that was going to be a problem."

"Hey, we at least we had the courage to take that move," Taylor exclaimed indignantly. "Not many companies would. If we want to make this a viable revenue stream, we have to differentiate our products, and an iWorld with an infinite amount of snow is never going to allow us to sell upgrades."

"True. Still seems a little harsh, though."

"Meh, he'll get used to it. If not, with iWorld 3 we can put the snow generation back in. We'll have to think of what to remove instead."

"Gravity?"

"That might work."

"OK. You're nuts, but OK." Amy typed some more. "Done. Next one is Director Piggot. She's a little miffed that we included a free FamTech™ MegaFauna2® package with her last upgrade. She says it's taking up half the space, she doesn't want it, and one of the bigger animals stepped on her house."

"It was free! We gave them to everyone when we upgraded them. Except Max, his iWorld was too cold."

"She still doesn't want it. We'd better do something to sort that out. I'll schedule a service call."

"Oh, all right. God, some people just don't realize all the things we do for them. We're giving them not only a lifestyle but somewhere they can live it, but do they appreciate us?" Taylor slumped in a chair and crossed her arms, looking annoyed.

"Why don't you go and work on that tiny wrist-mounted iWorld you were talking about while I finish this," Amy suggested. Taylor brightened up, nodding.

"Yeah, not a bad idea. That one will revolutionize the entire custom world market. Everyone will want one." She hopped up and headed for the other end of the workshop, the Varga going with her. Amy watched them, shook her head a little, and went back to work.


	331. Tinkering and Testing

As the mech appeared out of more or less nowhere, Armsmaster actually stepped back, making a surprised grunt, Dragon froze in shock, and Doctor Ikari started swearing in Japanese under his breath, which caused Taylor to snicker. She said something back to him in the same language, surprising Lisa since she had no idea her friend spoke it. He looked at the lizard-girl, raised an eyebrow, and nodded.

Doctor Wilson stared for several seconds, then grinned like a lunatic. "Incredible," he breathed. "That's some form of dimensional pocket storage, correct?"

"It's her work, not mine," Linda said, indicating Taylor's aspect with a thumb over her shoulder. "I was as surprised as you were the first time. But it's fucking useful I can tell you."

"I can imagine," the scientist agreed. "Do you mind?" He motioned at the mech.

"Help yourself," she invited, looking at Dragon and Armsmaster as well. Both Tinkers followed the taller man over to the machine, inspecting it closely. Doctor Ikari said something to Taylor, who replied, then both of them chuckled, before he followed his colleagues.

"He said that considering the things the Family had done so far he shouldn't have been surprised, but it wasn't every day you saw a pool ball turn into a science fiction prop," Taylor explained as she looked at Lisa, who grinned.

{Since when do you speak Japanese?} she asked in Famtalk.

{Since about three days ago, Varga taught me the same as he did this language,} her friend replied, looking somewhat smug. {The bizarre thing is it's the language Princess Luna's people spoke, almost. It was close enough that we could easily learn the differences. I think I've got a strange accent, though. People look at me oddly when I speak it.}

{You do realize that there are a lot of reasons _other_ than your accent why people might look oddly at you, I hope?} Lisa said with a smirk. Taylor shrugged, returning it.

{I can believe that.}

{So why did you want to learn Japanese in the first place?} the black lizard queried. {What the hell are you up to now?}

{It is… a secret.}

{You really are a pain in the ass sometimes.}

{Takes one to know one.} They shared a look, then joined the others. Linda had climbed up and opened the cockpit, then activated the mech and lowered it as far as it would go into a squat, both scientists looking into it as she explained the controls. Armsmaster was listening intently, scanning the thing at the same time with what looked like Leet's tricorder, while Dragon was walking around it with her head tilted a little, looking inquisitive and curious.

Taylor inspected the instrument the Protectorate Tinker was manipulating with interest, then looked at Lisa, who was doing the same. {Looks like Dragon was successful,} she said in a low voice, nodding to where the Canadian had produced an identical one.

{Seems like it. That will please him. And it's a good sign, although I wonder how she's coming along with the audio inducer.} They were talking quietly enough that apparently Armsmaster didn't notice.

"Our information is that you are using superconducting electric motors for the drive systems," he commented, fiddling with his tricorder and giving off a slightly frustrated impression. "The outer hull being constructed of EDM is blocking my scans, of course." Lowering the device, he studied the mech. "Based on the recordings I've seen, the mechanism works very smoothly and well."

"Thanks," Linda said, looking down at him from where she was standing in the cockpit. "That's correct, it's using superconducting linear motors. They're extremely powerful, very light, and don't take up much room compared to hydraulic systems. And they're much more efficient as well. Not to mention vastly faster in operation. EDM bearing surfaces make them virtually frictionless. Each actuator is specific to the application but they share characteristics."

Armsmaster and Dragon looked at each other. "What superconductor material are you using?" the latter said, turning her head back to look up at Linda. "Where do you keep the liquid helium reservoir? Do you have an onboard cryostat, or does it run total loss?" She examined the mech more closely. "I can't see any outgassing or venting of coolant."

"Liquid nitrogen and a high temperature superconductor, perhaps?" Armsmaster suggested, also looking at the hulking machine.

"Still no venting. No low temperature spots, although the EDM hull would tend to mask that."

Lisa watched and listened with inner amusement as they went through a number of possibilities, with Doctor Wilson giving his input as well. Linda was leaning on the rim of the cockpit enjoying the show.

Doctor Ikari looked at them all, then slowly turned his head to peer at the Saurial aspect who was standing next to him wearing a small, slightly evil, smirk. He said something in Japanese to her, which made her chortle with glee and nod, then reply at length. His impassive look briefly showed surprise, then a faint smile.

"Gentlemen, and Dragon, I suspect that you may be overlooking something," he said after another minute or so of Tinker talk. Dragon, Armsmaster, and his PRT colleague all looked at him. He indicated the lizard girl. "Remember the matter creation ability we've recorded Saurial and her sisters using."

Linda was appearing amused now. "I can design more things than you'd believe," she said, causing them to look up at her now. "Including specialist materials with some very useful properties. _She_ can _make_ them." She tapped the side of the mech. "Case in point. I sure didn't fabricate most of this myself, only the Family can make and work EDM."

' _Saurial_ ' held out a hand, in which a rod of the black superconductor appeared. She handed it to Doctor Ikari, who looked at it closely, then gave it to Armsmaster who came over, pointing his scanner at it for a few seconds. "This is the superconductor material in question?"

"It is," Taylor replied with a nod.

"What's the critical temperature?" he asked curiously, putting his scanner into a cavity in his armor, then experimentally bending the foot long, half inch diameter rod. It easily flexed, acting like rubber in his grip. "It appears similar to some of the high temperature ceramic superconductors, although it's clearly not a ceramic substrate. My scans are inconclusive."

"The critical temperature is just below the melting point," Linda said as she jumped out of the mech cockpit, Both she and Dragon joining the others. Doctor Wilson was listening but still inspecting the tail plasma emitter.

"Which is?"

"Two thousand nine hundred and sixty-four degrees centigrade. Approximately."

Total silence fell over the room for some seconds, broken only by the very faint hum of the forcefield generators.

"Excuse me?" Dragon, very carefully, said. "Did you say…?"

"Two thousand nine hundred and sixty-four degrees centigrade. Yes, I did," Linda grinned.

"You're saying you have an electrical superconductor material that remains superconducting to very close to three thousand degrees centigrade?" Armsmaster asked in tones of disbelief, as if he was thinking he'd misheard twice.

"You're holding a piece of it."

Both Tinkers stared at the dull black rod in his hand, then looked at each other, before turning to look at the mech again. Doctor Wilson was now gaping at both Taylor and Linda, looking stunned.

"Keep it, run tests on it," Taylor suggested. "It's not very important right now, it's only one small part of the design."

"A fairly critical part," Linda put in.

"Well, true, but it's not the main point."

"Agreed."

After close to thirty seconds, Dragon said in a slightly awed tone, "When this testing is over, I think we need to talk again."

"That can be arranged," Taylor smiled. "We have a few other things we want to discuss at some point anyway." She looked meaningfully at the tricorder in the armored gauntlet of Dragon's suit. The Tinker raised it, looked at it, then her.

"Yes, I was intending to talk to you about this very soon," she said with good humor. "Sorry, I got caught up in the moment. I've got his original unit and some of the pre-production ones to return to him. I'll be in contact shortly, if that's all right."

"Any time," Taylor replied.

Armsmaster was now scanning the sample in his hand, in a way that even with half his face hidden produced the effect of considerable surprise, as did his scent. "This is..." He didn't seem to be able to work out what to add to the sentence.

"Something of a game changer, I expect," Doctor Wilson said as he came over and looked at the black material. Armsmaster handed it to him after a few more seconds of scanning, before turning to look at the mech and Linda yet again.

"That is a good summation," he remarked, sounding a little faint. "Not only room temperature superconductivity, but extreme _high-temperature_ superconductivity… The number of fields this would revolutionize is hard to overstate." He looked back at the lizard-girl. "And you can make it on demand? It's not something that requires Vectura as the creating Tinker?"

Taylor held up another rod of the stuff. "It's her design, not something I came up with, but I can make any quantity we need. Why, do you think it's something we could sell?"

She looked innocently at him as he made a faint choking sound. Dragon, who was looking back and forth between them, shook her head in what looked like the manner of someone trying not to laugh. Doctor Ikari was wearing a small, private, and restrained smile, while emitting a scent of someone who was enjoying himself.

"I have no doubt it has significant commercial application," Armsmaster finally said with a tiny sigh. "As do almost all the things your family and friends come up with. I wish to talk further about this when we all have more time, as I expect Dragon will also do."

"Definitely," the other Tinker nodded, sounding enthusiastic. "I can think of literally dozens of places that stuff would make a huge impact just in my own products."

"We'll discuss it when we talk about the tricorders," Taylor promised. She handed the second sample to Doctor Wilson who had come over to stand next to his colleague, the man taking it reverently. "But for now, let's get back to Vectura and her testing. What next?"

"Agreed," Armsmaster replied, facing the mech. "We could spend hours going over the specifications of this machine, and I would be interested in doing exactly that, but you're correct, now is not the time. Vectura, if you could briefly demonstrate the operation of your mech while we record it for later analysis, that would be very helpful and a decent first test."

"Sure," the cat-woman said, moving back in the cockpit and sitting down. They could see her upper torso as she fastened the restraints. Moments later, the transparent top half closed and locked into place with a quiet clunk, the mech then standing up smoothly and almost silently as she activated it. There was a click that echoed around the vast room as she turned on the external PA system. " _Can you hear me properly?_ " she asked, her voice ringing out clearly and a little too loudly.

"Turn it down a bit," Taylor called.

" _How about now?_ "

"Perfect."

" _OK_." The mech took a couple of steps away from them, the footfalls solid but much quieter than seemed plausible. Linda spun it to face them, then made it gesture at itself with both hands. " _As you can see, the machine is fast, stable, very smooth in operation, and almost silent_." She waved at them with one metal hand. " _I'll go over the full specifications later if you want details_."

"We're aware of the basics from Sergeant Foxton's report, thank you, Vectura," Doctor Wilson said, watching with great interest. "I would appreciate more data if it's available, though."

" _Of course. Right, there isn't enough room in here to go anywhere near full speed, but I can put it through some simple routines_." The feline Tinker spun the machine again, then jogged off across the room. When she was a safe distance away, she proceeded to run it back and forth, both on two and four legs, jump more than half-way to the ceiling, do a forward somersault like the one that the Varga had managed, and even make it stand on one leg.

"Truly remarkable," Dragon muttered, watching closely. "The liquidity of the motion control is excellent, better than anything I've ever seen in something even close to that size and mass." Raising her voice, she asked, "What is the control system?"

" _It's a hybrid of a network of digital processors for the main CPU cluster, with a large array of analog processing running a form of nested neural network which does the low level motion drive. The system is pre-programmed with a basic set of control logic which is sufficient to get it running adequately well for the pilot to operate it, but it's heavily adaptive and learns on the fly to work at peak efficiency_." Linda sounded pleased with her work, Lisa mused, as well she should be.

" _It can compensate for uneven ground, or weight distribution, different operators, different terrain, high winds, underwater operation, you name it. Even lower or higher gravity. If one leg failed, for example, it would adapt to the loss and work around it in under a second._ " She waved at Taylor, who seemed to expect this, dashing closer and making a huge block of steel with a handle on it, twice the size of an oil drum. Linda's mech picked it up, shifting its weight as it took the load and making it look trivially easy. She proceeded to jog around the room again, moving the several ton weight from hand to hand as she went. The mech compensated for this so smoothly with motions of hips and tail that it was entirely seamless.

Doctor Wilson whistled to himself, shaking his head in wonder. Doctor Ikari was making note after note, watching the demonstration very closely, with a definite impressed expression trying to break through the otherwise imperturbable one he clearly cultivated.

Coming to a halt fifty feet away, facing them, Linda put the block down. " _The control electronics are adapted from commercial high-speed FPGA and GPU arrays intended for massively parallel computing in graphics generation, while the analog processing section is my own design, put together from a signal amplifier and processing system intended for a radar receiver. We just connected a shitload of them together in a block, using very thin EDM heatpipes to cool everything. The next generation is more powerful and a lot smaller, Saurial made them based on this prototype._ "

"It's the same little block of surprisingly simple electronics repeated over and over," ' _Saurial_ ' explained when Armsmaster and Dragon looked curiously at her. "I'm still learning about this sort of thing, and at the moment the digital electronics are a little past what I can duplicate, but I'll get there. It's very interesting seeing how this sort of technology works. But Vectura knows a hell of a lot more about it than I do."

"How much of this technology can you duplicate without Vectura's input?" Armsmaster asked, sounding fascinated.

"I can make all the mechanical parts, the electrical bits, and _some_ of the electronics so far," Taylor replied. "Vectura still needs to do whatever it is a Tinker does to the processing boards, write the software, that sort of thing, and the power units don't work unless she fiddles with them. None of us can work out why, yet. I mean, I understand that's normal with Tinker tech, but it _shouldn't_ be."

She frowned a little. "The power supply unit isn't exactly simple, but even so I sort of see what's happening with it. I'm still working on the math, but it appears to pull power through a small spatial warp of some sort, although I'm not sure where from. Even so, I can make all the parts, put one together exactly like Vectura does, and it doesn't work. If I take it apart again and give her all the same bits, when she builds it, it works fine. There's something very weird going on there."

"As you say, it's very common, to the point of nearly being an immutable fact," Doctor Wilson said, having been listening with a thoughtful look and much interest. "I'm not aware of many Tinker designs, certainly in the technological areas rather than biological or chemical, which can be duplicated by anyone other than the originating Tinker at all. Dragon has a definite gift for doing that, and there are a couple of others who can do much the same with certain technology, but it's very rare indeed."

"I remember Armsmaster talking about it some time ago when he and Dragon visited our office," Taylor nodded. "It still seems strange to me."

"If you do ever manage to work out what the root cause of it is, please let me know," the scientist said with an honest smile. "I would be totally fascinated to find out. It's something that we've puzzled over from the very first time Parahumans came on the scene, with no good or even particularly believable answer so far put forward. There are a _lot_ of theories but very few can even be tested, never mind disproved."

"I'll keep thinking about it," she assured him with a smile. "If I work it out, I'll tell you."

Doctor Ikari made some more notes, then looked up. "I would also be interested in any insights you might obtain, Saurial," he said in a calm voice. "The nature of powers is my entire field of expertise but I'd be among the first to admit we do not yet have a coherent explanation that fits at all well. However, this is somewhat beside the point at the moment, I feel, and should perhaps be left for another time."

They resumed watching the mech, as Linda activated the tail plasma blade and brought it around, slicing a piece off the huge steel block. The red-hot surface exposed by this action slowly cooled down and went dark. She flicked out one of the arm blades and cut another slice off about as easily as someone using a knife on a block of cheese. Armsmaster looked impressed, and appalled, in equal measure. Once again, Doctor Ikari made copious notes. When she'd finished putting the machine through an abbreviated version of the initial test, Taylor called out, "Show them the sound suppression system."

Everyone looked at her, Lisa with a grin, the rest appearing slightly puzzled. "Sound suppression?" Doctor Wilson queried. "You can hardly hear it right now, why would it need..."

He blinked, several times, then started chuckling in a sort of awed way. Armsmaster stared, turned to Dragon who was audibly suppressing a faint laugh of her own, and said in a flat voice, "And it turns invisible."

"It turns _inaudible_ ," Taylor corrected with a smirk. "The invisibility is a side effect. Vectura has put in a lot of safety features. Construction or demolition can be dangerously noisy. This fixes that problem."

"Of course." Dragon snickered. "I understand completely. Perfectly reasonable."

"You are _not_ helping," Armsmaster muttered under his breath. Lisa tried not to laugh. The mech faded back into view, a grinning Linda visible inside. She lowered it to the floor, powered it down, and vaulted over the edge of the cockpit, grabbing the top section and making it start to lower on the way down. Landing nimbly next to it, she waited for the canopy to hiss closed and lock, before she put her hand on the activation point for the dimensional storage mode. Moments later, she bent down and retrieved the small spherical form that was left, walking over to them with a definite air of satisfaction.

Everyone looked at the ball which she slipped back into her pocket.

After a short silence, Doctor Ikari raised his pen and attracted her attention. "May I ask how long it took you to design and build that machine, Vectura?"

Linda thought for a moment. "Um… The design phase was probably… three or four days?" She glanced at Taylor and Lisa who nodded. "Something like that. I was thinking about it for a week or so before I started making the plans, and I guess I've _wanted_ to make something like it for years, but never had the resources. When it turned out Saurial could make any custom exotic material I could describe, that made a fucking enormous difference to the design and I started all over again on the motors."

"It took about two days for us to make the first set of parts," ' _Saurial_ ' added. "My sister and I went through a few versions before Vectura was happy with the results. Then another two or three days to put it together, wire it all up, and write the software. She was doing that while we were making the parts, in fact, so it all worked out pretty neatly."

"Elapsed time from beginning of planning phase to a working prototype of approximately a week, then," the man noted, writing some more. His eyebrows had gone up a little. "Very good indeed. I would imagine that the fabrication talents your family can bring to the table speeded that up enormously."

"It would have taken a _lot_ longer to do it the normal way," Linda nodded. "Assuming I even had the resources in the first place. And it wouldn't have ended up as good as it did, I'd probably have gone for high pressure hydraulics which are shit compared to the linear motors."

"I understand." He looked up from his notebook. "How long would it take to duplicate?"

"The next dozen took about two days to build," Linda said cheerfully.

After a second or two, Doctor Ikari bent down and retrieved his pen, which he'd dropped. Armsmaster was breathing a little heavily, Dragon was staring fixedly at her, and Doctor Wilson was grinning widely again. "Oh, I _like_ you lot," he said with laugh.

Lisa winked at him.

"To be fair, we've only assembled six of them completely so far, but we've made a dozen sets of parts so she has some spares for experimentation," Taylor explained, looking amused at the reactions. "Vectura improved the design, making it simpler to produce, after the thorough testing all the DWU people gave it. They had a lot of really good suggestions for improvements, too."

"Some of those guys are _unbelievable_ at this sort of machine operation," Linda put it, shaking her head. "Just off the scale good. Years and years of practice. I'd be an idiot not to listen to their ideas, and I like to think I'm _not_ an idiot."

"I feel sure in saying that you are in no way an idiot, Vectura," Dragon said slowly. "How many mechs are you planning on making?"

"We're not sure yet," the cat-woman shrugged. "At least a dozen or two, there are that many people who need them for the work we're doing at the DWU. We're still thinking about commercializing them, but even if we never do, it'll be useful to have them available. I still need to add the flight mode systems, improve the control and feedback issues, finish the underwater drive, life support, maybe a better canopy, add cameras to the underside..." She cocked her head, thinking. "Lots of improvements. But it's very modular so I can upgrade them easily. The mark 2 units are much neater internally than this one is."

She tapped her pocket with a finger. "Everything more or less snaps together. When the manual is finished, we could easily have the mechanical department at the DWU build them. It depends on how many we end up making."

Everyone other than Lisa and Taylor were listening with odd expressions. The latter two exchanged a glance, smiling a little. This seemed to be a theme at the moment.

Eventually, Doctor Wilson cleared his throat, making them look at him. "Shall we get on with the rest of the tests?" he suggested, indicating the tables full of equipment and parts. "I've already got a fairly shrewd idea of a tentative rating, but some more testing should let us nail that down better, and work out if there are other categories than Tinker in play."

"Sure," Linda replied, following him over to the tables. The others accompanied them. Lisa and Taylor stood off to the side, watching, as both scientists started going over what they wanted to do, Armsmaster observing carefully and apparently over his earlier shock. Dragon glanced at them, then him, before coming over to join them.

"This will take a while, I expect," she said.

"What are they going to do?" Taylor asked curiously, keeping her voice low so as not to interrupt them. Lisa was pleased to see that Linda now seemed completely calm and was obviously enjoying herself, the demonstration of her mech having had a good effect on her even as it somewhat unnerved the others.

"There are a number of different ways to test Tinker abilities," Dragon explained. "Some as simple as presenting the person being tested with as large a selection of random parts and equipment as possible and seeing what happens. A newly Triggered Tinker typically starts drawing or planning projects almost unconsciously. That's one of the key signs, as is them going looking for parts in places like junk yards, second hand shops, that sort of thing. It's one of the things both the PRT and the gangs look out for. Unfortunately it's often the gangs who get there first, of course."

She watched as Linda picked up a few different circuit boards from the pile of them at one table, inspecting them, then putting them down again. "Luckily your friend there found you. You can provide her with safety, friendship, and help with her designs, probably better than almost anyone could." Turning to look at the lizard-girl, she paused for a moment, then asked, "If you don't mind the question, how did you meet her?"

Taylor nodded sideways at ' _Metis_.' "My cousin came across her a while ago. She was in a bad place, hiding from people she _really_ didn't want to meet again. And terrified of both the gangs, like you said, and in a way the PRT. She doesn't entirely trust them. To be honest, with her background, which I think was pretty unpleasant, she doesn't trust most people."

"She trusts _you_. And Metis. I can see that clearly just in her body language." The armored Canadian woman looked back at Linda for a moment. "She was very nervous when you got here, and didn't like to get too far away from either of you, I noticed. Showing off that incredible mech relaxed her a lot but she's still a little cautious, even though she's trying her best. She keeps looking at either you or Metis, almost unconsciously, like she's worried that you might vanish."

"I know, I can see the same thing," Lisa sighed. "Trust me when I say that she had a very nasty time of it the last few years and she has… a number of issues. We offered her sanctuary, somewhere to live, and a job. She agreed. The DWU is good for her, they simply accept her. I don't think that ever happened before, certainly not since she Triggered. Which from what I know was under some highly upsetting circumstances, even for a Trigger event."

"What about her family?" Dragon asked. Lisa and Taylor exchanged a look. It was obvious the woman was probing for information, which was to be expected. Much of it would go back to at least Director Piggot, there wasn't much doubt of that, but it also seemed likely that the Tinker would use discretion. On the whole, both of them trusted her quite a lot.

"I think her parents are still alive, but I know she hasn't seen or spoken to them in nearly a decade," Lisa replied after thinking it over. It was true, after all. "And from what she said, she has no intention of ever contacting them again. I don't have all the details but she was definitely relieved to leave her home town. She told me once that she was pretty sure she'd be dead now if she hadn't."

"Nasty."

"Yes." Lisa shrugged. "The woman has reasons to be both distrustful and wary of other people. It's gone bad before and she was lucky to get away."

"If you don't mind the advice, I suspect she could benefit from talking to a therapist," Dragon remarked after nodding thoughtfully. "More so than most Parahumans could, and the bulk of them definitely need at least a little psychological counseling all things considered. It comes with the whole Triggering problem."

"We've discussed it," Taylor replied. "She's aware of it herself. Vectura hides it well, but sometimes she goes quiet and I can tell she's remembering things she doesn't want to think about. I can literally smell it when it happens. But we'd need to find someone very discreet who could be trusted." Glancing at Dragon, she added with a small smile, "No disrespect meant but that probably precludes anyone associated with the PRT."

The woman sounded mildly amused when she spoke. "I understand. To be honest, there aren't enough good therapists to go around in the PRT already. Director Piggot is very irritated about that, she's been trying to get someone assigned to Brockton Bay permanently for at least a year or so. As far as I know Chief Director Costa-Brown was looking into it, but nothing has happened yet. Hopefully it will soon."

"We've got a few possible leads," Lisa told her. "Amy Dallon knows a couple of people who might be able to help, or know someone who could. We can easily pay for it, so that's not a problem."

"Would you have her seen as Vectura or in her civilian ID?" Dragon asked, looking at her again.

"I'm not sure yet. It would be up to her, of course. It presents some difficulties either way, but we'll figure it out."

"Good luck. If I can help, let me know."

"Thanks."

They fell silent again, observing as their friend wandered around the tables for a while, picking out parts here and there. She seemed to have something in mind for them. Armsmaster was staying out of the way but was clearly very interested indeed in her selections, while the two scientists were taking notes and occasionally discussing what she was doing in quiet voices.

* * *

"I'll get some nachos and stuff," Rudy said as he looked over at the concession counter. "Who wants some?"

"I'll take it," Benny replied, glancing at his wife and Ella.

"Grab me a hot-dog and some vanilla coke, Rudy," Ella said.

"Christ, I don't know how you can drink that shit," Rudy complained.

"I like it," she replied, hands on hips. Benny smirked, this was a familiar scene. Rudy hated the stuff with a passion, his wife loved it.

"Nachos and water for me, please, Rudy," Clara said, nudging the other woman to get her to stop the argument she was about to have. "Benny, let's find a lane." She looked past the video games that were scattered around the entrance area towards the rear of the large building from where the typical sounds of bowling were coming, and people were wandering around. Many of them were in their twenties and quite a few of those had beers in hand and smiles on their faces. "Looks busy. I hope there's a free one."

"This place has like sixteen lanes or something," Ella said, shrugging. "There'll be one free."

"I'll pay, love, you and Ella find a good place," Benny said, reaching into his pocket for his wallet. Rudy was now heading for the junk food dispensing area. The two women nodded and turned around, disappearing into the main bowling area. Walking over to the counter, Benny attracted the attention of one of the two middle-aged men working there. "Four," he said when the guy came over.

The transaction was swiftly completed, and he put the receipt into his wallet and his wallet back into his pocket. As he was heading past where the bowling shoes were kept, Rudy joined him again, holding a tray piled with nachos and soda cups. "Fuck, you got a tapeworm or something?" Benny asked with a grin. "We just _finished_ a meal."

His friend shrugged. "Can't go bowling without snacks," he pointed out in an entirely reasonable way.

"Good point." Going toward the lanes, they stopped and looked around. "Clara's right, it is pretty busy." It looked like all the lanes were in use at the moment, with bowlers ranging from some teenagers who should have been in school to a group of old men which probably had something like eighty as the lowest age of any of them. "We may have to wait."

"Where are the girls?" Rudy asked, peering up and down the large area. The clash and clatter of falling pins mixed with the noise of balls going down lanes, background music, and lots of people yelling in either disappointment or triumph.

"Rudy!" A yell from a familiar voice to their right attracted their attention, both men looking to see Ella waving frantically at them from the lane on the far right next to the wall. Clara was sitting down on the semi-circle of seats around the computerized scoring console, talking to someone half-hidden behind the low wall that separated the console ends of the lanes from each other, down three steps from the main floor that they were on.

"Looks like they found someone leaving," Rudy said, turning in that direction. Whoever it was appeared to be retying their shoe, bent over so only their back was visible. Both of them went over, smiling at their wives. Ella seemed in a good mood and Clara was laughing about something the guy had said.

They were about ten yards away when he straightened up.

Both men stopped dead, gaping in horror.

"Oh, you've got to be fucking _kidding_ me," Benny moaned, feeling the blood drain from his face, apparently heading for his shoes. Rudy had made a little pained sound and was now totally silent, the tray in his hands starting to tilt and the things on it in danger of falling off.

Ella ascended the steps and hurried over to meet them, grabbing the tray just before Rudy dropped it. "Careful, Rudy," she admonished her husband. "Isn't this nice? Mr Hebert recognized us from the restaurant and said we could join him, all the other lanes are full."

"Of _course_ he did," Rudy sighed, almost inaudible over the background noise. He looked at Benny, who looked back. Both of them swallowed hard. Boss Hebert turned towards them and smiled, waving them over. Feeling uncomfortably like he was walking to his doom, Benny began moving again, his friend by his side, fine beads of sweat breaking out on his forehead and neck.

"It's good timing, I was just about to start another frame," Boss Hebert said in a jovial manner, waving at the console which Clara was entering their names onto. He looked down. "You'll need the shoes though."

"We were going to get them after we found a lane," Rudy mumbled. He looked at Ella, then the tall thin man watching them with a knowing, amused look, before hurrying off again.

"I'll… I mean I… Be right back," Benny said, gesturing vaguely back towards the shoe collection area. He also turned and walked away as fast as he could without making it look like he was running.

"So, Mr Hebert, do you bowl a lot?" he heard Clara say brightly from behind him.

"Please, Clara, call me Danny," Mr Hebert said. "I used to, with my wife and daughter, but when my wife passed away..." He trailed off.

"Oh, that's so sad." Ella sounded sympathetic as Benny passed out of earshot.

' _He's doing this on purpose_ ,' the man thought with dismay. ' _He has to be. People like Boss Hebert, there are no coincidences. It looks like there are, but that's the point_.' Joining Rudy in collecting bowling shoes in their and their wives sizes, the two men exchanged a glance, each seeing similar thoughts in each other's eyes. ' _What did we do to attract his attention and how do we lose it?_ ' He picked up the two pairs of freshly cleaned shoes the attendant handed him, took a deep breath, pasted an unconvincing smile on his face, and turned around to go back to what he was pretty sure was going to be a very scary bowling game.

Which wasn't helped by the way both women were hanging on every word out of Boss Hebert's lips, and being very impressed by the way he'd raised his daughter on his own. Left unsaid was that the girl was probably already more dangerous than Gino if she'd been brought up by _this_ man and his reptilian friends…

* * *

Eventually, after some time and a lot of discussion with the scientists and Armsmaster, who were apparently trying to discern what she was interested in for each selection, Linda stopped with one table full of harvested equipment. It ran the gamut from processing boards through optical emitters to various bits that Lisa thought were heavy duty power control electronics. She looked over at them, smiling through the faceplate of her helmet. "I need you now, Saurial. Time to make something new."

"Anything good?" Taylor asked as she walked over. Linda looked very pleased with herself and nodded.

"Remember that idea you had a couple of days ago? From the movie?"

The reptilian girl cocked her head, thought for a moment, then started to grin. "Oh, yes, definitely do _that_."

"It'll need some fractal storage, to make it work."

"Power source?"

"The standard module, I brought some with me." Linda reached into one of her pockets and pulled out a box, which she opened to reveal several of the power modules she'd designed, which she now had quite a pile of in her lab. "This new one is much smaller and more reliable, it'll do the job well. OK, I need a diamond lens like this..." She started sketching rapidly on a large pad of paper she produced from another pocket of her costume. Doctor Ikari was apparently fascinated by the process, and Doctor Wilson, Armsmaster, and Dragon had all come over to watch over her shoulder as she drew.

Lisa sat back on her tail and enjoyed the show, while her friends quickly fell into a practiced routine where Linda designed things and Taylor made the parts, both of them working like they'd been doing this for years. The machine they were making grew steadily on the table, as the PRT scientists and the other two Tinkers watched, appearing more than a little startled at the speed of the process.

"OK, an EDM tube about fourteen inches long, an inch and a half in diameter. This shape."

"Got it."

"This part needs to be made of an alloy of forty-six percent ruthenium, two percent zirconium, fourteen point two percent silicon, and the balance iridium."

"Like this?"

"Um… Add some osmium. Half a percent."

"Half a percent of osmium always helps, and it tastes nice, too."

"So you keep saying. OK, that fits. Now a superconducting coil, but it needs to be a möbius strip, two hundred and forty-three turns. We need two of them, mirror images."

"Yep. Here you go."

"I need another diamond, this one an octagonal prism. Put a hole in it here, and another one here, like this. Fill the holes with an alloy with this atomic structure."

"Ohh, very pretty. It glows nicely."

This process went on for about an hour. When they were finally done, Linda connected the last of the subsystems, typed on the laptop she'd brought for another ten minutes, verified a few measurements with a series of test meters she pulled out of various pockets, then smiled. "Everything checks out. Fold it up." She disconnected the half-dozen cables plugged into the close to a cubic yard of equipment on the table.

Taylor did something to the odd-looking device, causing it to make an extremely disturbing visual effect, a sound like a very heavy door slamming at a great distance, and collapse into a tube about a foot long, capped with a black rubberized grip on each end. Linda picked it up and turned to the watching group, who mostly seemed shocked. "All done."

After some confused silence, Doctor Wilson stepped forward. "All right. You made… that. In a way I've never encountered before in all the time I've been in this job, I have to admit. The question is..."

"What does it do?" Armsmaster finished for him.

"This," Linda grinned, grabbing the ends of the rod, twisting, and pulling.


	332. Light and Walls

"See you guys later," Taylor said to their friends as she and Amy, along with Mandy, Lucy, and Eric, walked out of the school. Behind them, Rich was discussing an assignment with the English teacher who he'd trapped as the man came out of the staff room.

"We're still on for Friday?" Mandy queried.

"We are. I'll get some more snacks in. And some real food, because we can't grow up into well-rounded members of society on snacks alone."

"If you live on snacks alone, you probably _would_ grow up to be _very_ well rounded," Lucy giggled. "Not in a good way, though." The others all laughed.

"No, I think I'd prefer to be a little less well-rounded than that," Amy grinned. "I mean, I saw someone in the grocery store the other day who was practically spherical, and her cart was completely full of junk food. Not a vegetable in sight, and damn near no protein. It's not healthy but what can you do?"

" _You_ could probably do a lot, although it might be awkward mentioning it," Mandy noted.

"It's not impossible I'll run into her again, after the heart attack," the healer sighed. "You'd be horrified how many times _that's_ happened. Oh, well, that's life. But I'm keeping an eye on my friends, so don't do anything stupid."

"This is a medical intervention, ma'am. Put the cake down and back away with your hands in the air," Eric intoned in a dark voice, pointing at someone who wasn't there and frowning fiercely. "Trust me, I'm a healer."

Taylor nearly collapsed laughing, supporting herself on Amy's shoulder, as the shorter brunette stared at the boy. He looked back innocently. "What?" he asked as she kept staring.

"I do _not_ sound like that."

"You do when you're annoyed," Lucy said, removing one of the hands over her mouth that was failing to keep the giggling in. Mandy was grinning widely next to her.

"Thanks, _friends_ ," Amy sighed. "You, stop leaning on me, you overly tall crazy person. Come on, we have places to be."

She led a still-chortling Taylor away, both of them waving to the others. Vicky came out of the school and looked over at them, then the small group near the door who were all laughing, shook her head, and lifted into the air heading towards the Dallon residence. Both of them got into her truck once she'd unlocked it. "How's it going?" Amy asked as she started the vehicle. Taylor smiled happily.

"They are… impressed. Or is it terrified? I have trouble telling the difference sometimes," the other girl laughed, making her friend grin.

"Anything interesting happen?"

"All _sorts_ of things."

Amy was fascinated yet again that her friend was in two places at the same time, both sitting next to her as she pulled out of the school car park and joined the flow of traffic, and somewhere under the PRT building with Linda and the various people testing her. She listened as Taylor described some of what was going on and had happened so far, until her phone buzzed at her, signaling an incoming text.

Taylor picked it up from the center console, tapping in the pass-code and looking at the result. "Brockton General, there was a bad accident on the freeway just outside the city. They have about a dozen casualties inbound and are requesting Panacea's services," she reported.

"Uh oh. That sounds nasty." Amy glanced in the mirror, then indicated, changing lanes and speeding up.

"I can't help there, really, and it's out of range of the PRT building, so I'll get out here," Taylor said as she put her friend's phone back. "Call if you need backup, though."

"I should be fine but thanks," Amy replied. She looked around, then in the mirror again. "No one watching."

"See you at the yard," Taylor gave her a small salute with a finger to her brow, before simply vanishing. Amused, Amy shook her head, wishing _she_ could do that, then took the next turn, heading towards the hospital and hoping that she was in time.

* * *

Hannah checked the console on the wall outside testing chamber two, making sure that it wasn't indicating anything dangerous happening inside. Seeing that the protective force-fields were active, which was standard operating procedure, but that there was nothing else flagged, she typed in her access code and gave the correct password for this time period. The force-field over the door turned off and it opened. An odd sound immediately came to her ears, a faint electronic whine that was getting louder and softer again, apparently moving.

Quite curious to see what was going on, she went into the test room, hitting the door close button on the other side as she entered, then stopped dead and stared. After a long period of her head moving back and forth, she walked slowly over to the group just outside the control room who were also watching what was going on, both scientists and Colin all taking notes eagerly. Dragon was apparently simply enjoying it, and both Saurial and Metis were talking in their own language and grinning.

"That is… not what I expected," Hannah said when she reached them.

"It took them by surprise too," Saurial chuckled, glancing at her. "Hello, Miss Militia."

"Hello, Saurial. Metis." She looked back at the current activity. "May I ask what… that… is?"

"Vectura decided to build something impressive, based on a comment Saurial made recently," Metis explained, not looking away from the feline Tinker, who seemed to be enjoying herself. "She may have got a little carried away."

All three of them, along with the others in the room, tilted their heads up, panned sideways, then down again. "Definitely took the idea and ran with it," Saurial commented, deadpan. "But it's very impressive. _I_ want one, now."

"I have to admit I do too," the new arrival said despite herself. They all followed Vectura again as she repeated the previous move in the other direction. "And I suspect Armsmaster may be getting somewhat… enthusiastic." She motioned to her friend, who was actually smiling at the sight. It wasn't a large smile, admittedly, he didn't really do those, but it was real and approving. "For him that's more or less rubbing his hands together in glee."

"Makes a change from the distinct worry of earlier," Metis remarked with amusement.

Hannah restrained herself from commenting that ' _distinct worry_ ' was more or less her default state when around these reptiles. She still didn't know why, since it was now very obvious that they were going out of their way to be friendly, but something about them left her deeply uneasy even after all the things they'd done. Or possibly because of that in some ways. They still didn't know enough about the Family, which niggled at the depths of her mind, like she had a subconscious worry that the other boot was yet to drop. And there was always the point that, by all the information they had, they were genuinely aliens.

She mentally stalled for a moment, then wondered when, in the last few months, that concept had become so familiar that she could be this calm about it. She was standing next to _two literal aliens…_ Who were now discussing movies and the things they could get Vectura to make from them. It was… beyond bizarre.

But such was her life these days, and even before Saurial had turned up, it wasn't exactly normal.

The whining sound dopplered past again.

"All right, Vectura, I think we've seen enough," Dragon said, raising her voice. The cat-woman looked over at her, then turned around and came back, stopping in front of them.

Hannah inspected the… thing… she was sitting in. It was quite familiar in some ways, and not at all like what she expected in others. The Tinker responsible for it grinned, then got out.

Blinking several times at what happened next, Hannah gaped.

"Good, isn't it?" Saurial said approvingly. "I was talking about how it would be neat to have something like the _Tron_ light cycles, because we watched the movie recently at the Hebert's place. But I didn't expect her to come up with that."

"The _entire thing_ … is a hard light projection?" Hannah finally said, staring at where the feline woman was standing, holding what was basically a set of handlebars. The rest of the vehicle had disappeared when she'd got out, with an odd light show that ended in a brief flash of deep blue light.

"Pretty much," Saurial nodded. "There's a lot of hardware in the bit she's holding, folded fractally so it doesn't take up much space." They watched as Vectura twisted the ends of the part she was holding, collapsing it down to about a foot long straight rod which looked more like a flashlight than anything else Hannah could think of.

"She decided that a motorcycle on its own was boring, so she added some extras, though," the lizard-girl went on. "That quad-bike, earlier she had a sort of small dune buggy, the classic light cycle of course, and there's a jet-ski mode too, apparently. She can add more, it's mostly a matter of programming the thing properly. It's really cool, you need a good 3D computer model of what you want and it will recreate it as a functional vehicle. She downloaded these ones off the internet, there are dozens of them available."

"The light trail behind it is just for effect, though," Metis added with a grin. "It's not a solid barrier like the movie version. That could be dangerous and she's very careful about things like that."

Hannah stared at her, then the Tinker, who was talking to the two scientists and both Colin and Dragon. She could easily tell her friend was itching to try the thing Vectura had made. She covertly checked the time, then asked, "Did she bring that with her as a demonstration?"

"No, she made it here, from parts those guys provided and some bits I made," Saurial replied.

Less than three hours. That was… insane. Hannah shut her mouth with a click, then walked over to meet yet another one of the Family's peculiar friends.

And she really wanted to try that thing herself.

Glancing up, she shook her head. On the _ceiling?_

Insane, definitely. But it also looked like fun.

* * *

Watching Boss Hebert help Ella with her throw, Benny sighed. Both their wives were all too taken with the man, and in turn he was giving an appallingly good impression of being a nice and harmless guy who was way better at bowling than they were. It would have been embarrassing for him and Rudy if they weren't so worried. And if they didn't know it was all an act.

The Brockton Bay Boss looked over at them and smiled a little.

Benny shuddered, as unnoticeably as he could. The damned man kept doing that. He was enjoying himself, probably because he liked seeing them react.

It was most likely some sick sort of warning, or something like that. He wished he could figure out how they'd managed to attract Boss Hebert's attention.

You _didn't want_ to come to Boss Hebert's attention.

Nothing good would come from that. This he was sure of. And he was also sure you'd never see whatever it was coming. It would all be friendly bowling lessons and smiles… then BAM!

He shuddered again.

"That's better, Ella," the man said encouragingly.

"Thanks, Danny," she replied, smiling, as she was left with only two pins on her first ball. Her second one took care of those. "Wow, you really know how to teach someone!"

"My wife was the really good bowler," he said as he waited for the pins to reset, holding the heaviest ball from the rack like it weighed nothing. Benny had seen him throw it dozens of times now, and he didn't even have the decency to look tired. And he was a fucking good bowler too, he'd pulled off six strikes in a row at one point, as well as some split shots that involved enough back and side spin that Benny knew he'd never be able to duplicate it if he practiced for the rest of his life. "But I'm not bad, although a little rusty. We taught Taylor between us, from when she was small enough that she had to use both hands to get the ball down the lane."

Cupping the ball in his free hand, he squinted over it at the pins, then drew his arm back, lightly jogged half a dozen steps, and released it so smoothly it barely made a sound when it touched down. Rumbling down the exact center of the lane, the ball spun at a slight angle, the course abruptly deviating at the last possible moment to come into the pins at just off the lead pin. Benny was entirely unsurprised to see them all go down in yet another strike.

"Well. Luck's with me today, it seems," Boss Hebert said jovially, turning back to them.

Ella and Clara beamed at him.

Benny and Rudy looked at each other.

Yeah.

He was doing this on purpose. You could tell from the smile.

* * *

Linda watched Armsmaster drive her latest, somewhat improvised, design around the room, the man looking about as pleased as she'd ever seen him. Which wasn't all that much, he was hardly all smiles and laughter at the best of times, but the small curve to his lips under his visor seemed to say he was more than satisfied. As did the scent, something she was still finding a little odd. The amount of information she could get about someone from that sense was remarkable to her even now.

It was a change from the initial reactions the PRT people had shown. Doctor Ikari had been about the calmest after Dragon, who merely stared for a moment, then somehow seemed very thoughtful. Linda still wasn't sure how the completely armored woman managed to emote so clearly through her power suit, but she was _very_ good at it. Probably an awful lot of practice aside from any inherent talent. From what Linda had heard, no one had ever seen Dragon outside one or other set of armor, and she couldn't even smell a trace of the occupant on the thing. It implied she stayed in it all the time, which fitted some of the theories on PHO.

Aside from taking a _lot_ of notes, then pulling out a camera and taking even more photos, Doctor Ikari had appeared quite calm, although impressed. Doctor Wilson had gaped a little, then grinned like a kid with a new toy, almost hopping up and down in glee. He'd had an awful lot of questions about it when she'd finally finished testing the device, which she still didn't have a good name for.

Armsmaster had stared in shock, then gotten very pensive, rubbing his chin thoughtfully as he watched her drive around the room in the initial motorcycle mode. He'd seemed shocked when she'd reached the wall and neatly tilted sideways, allowing the hard light wheels to adhere to the surface and keep going. The entire thing worked even better than she'd hoped for. It generated a bonding force that attached the vehicle to any surface it was on, regardless of the direction of gravity, but still allowed travel along that surface to proceed unimpeded. The seat did much the same to the pilot, so there was no danger of falling off.

When she'd been designing it, it had seemed obvious to make it much more versatile than the movie showed. After all, if you were going to make a vehicle from nothing other than shaped force fields, why limit it to one form? It could make almost anything you could program it for, up to a limit set by the hardware and power supply, which for this prototype was about the size of a two seater sports car. That included an awful of options.

She was looking forward to trying the jet-ski version. Some sort of aircraft was certainly going to get added, but that was more tricky due to issues surrounding propulsion. It was possible, but would take a new variant of the hardware. There were also some limitations around the ' _structural strength_ ' analog of the resulting projection, it was never going to make a very good tank or armored vehicle, but it was at least as solid as a normal car.

' _And solves parking problems pretty well_ ,' she thought with amusement. ' _You can put your vehicle in your pocket when you get to work. I bet this is another thing Lisa could sell_.' She glanced at Miss Militia who was observing her colleague drive up the wall with an expression that was trying hard to remain neutral but was sadly failing. ' _I can see some customers right in this room..._ '

Half an hour or so later everyone, even Saurial, had tried the vehicle generator. Doctor Wilson was measuring the deactivated system very carefully and writing down his results, his colleague watching and making suggestions. Armsmaster turned to her. "I believe we can dispense with the rest of the practical Tinkering tests, Vectura. It would be difficult to surpass that invention in the time we have available and I think it tells us everything we need to know on that specific subject. We do have a few more questions about your abilities, though."

"Sure. What do you want to know? I'll try to be as open as I can, but I'm not answering any questions about my background, my Trigger event, or my life before I joined the DWU."

"We never ask about Trigger events, Vectura," Miss Militia assured her, coming over from having been talking to Dragon. "Some people will volunteer that information but as you know it's intensely private in most cases. PRT and Protectorate policy forbids asking about it."

"And your former life is no concern of ours either," Armsmaster said. "Again, if a new Parahuman wishes to talk about it, we'll listen, but in many cases they do not for a wide variety of reasons. On joining the Protectorate we do make a certain number of checks, and it's different if the Parahuman is a minor, but neither applies in this case."

Saurial and Metis joined them, standing to either side of her and behind. She felt a lot more secure knowing she had backup from hell if she needed it, although she was fairly sure that the PRT as a whole, and these people specifically, didn't mean her any harm. And had not the first clue about her true identity. _Former_ true identity, since her new one was the real one now as far as she was concerned. Even so, she couldn't help a slight tinge of worry at times.

Two friendly lizards standing next to her helped with that a lot more than she'd have thought possible a few months ago.

"OK. I can go along with that."

"Excellent." Armsmaster looked over at the scientists and Dragon, who was now waving one of her tricorders over the programmable vehicle generator. "Before we continue, may I ask if you are willing to leave that device with us for further tests? While we provided some of the hardware, something produced during a session like this is deemed the property of the Tinker who made it, unless it's immediately dangerous or a hazard to the public. That doesn't meet those standards, but we're all very interested in exploring the ramifications of the device."

Linda glanced at Saurial, who shrugged slightly. "Your call. It's safe enough, we know where they live."

With a small laugh, Linda nodded. She looked at Metis, who nodded. "All right. Please try not to break it. I like to keep my prototypes."

"Any Tinker does," Armsmaster said with a small smile. "I still have all my first attempts at everything I've ever made. They are… special. I promise we will be careful with it, and return it as soon as we have all the data we require."

"We can make some more later," Saurial said. "Get Lisa to order in anything you need, I'll make several sets of the rest of it." She grinned widely. "I can see a lot of people wanting to play with one, almost more than the mechs. Über and Leet will love it. Possibly too much."

Linda laughed while Armsmaster and Miss Militia exchanged glances. "Über and Leet?" the latter echoed.

"Yep." Saurial looked contented. "We came to an arrangement, they're going straight and we gave them a workshop at the DWU yard."

"Über… and Leet… have joined the DWU?" Miss Militia rubbed her eyes with thumb and forefinger, emitting a small and weary sigh. "For reasons that escape me I find myself unsurprised. I'm not even going to ask."

"They'll be good," Saurial assured her. "Mostly. Probably." She looked thoughtful for a moment. "I think."

Linda could swear the woman, very quietly, moaned " _Oh, god._ "

"That is good news," Armsmaster said approvingly. "Having worked with both young men, I feel they have considerable potential once removed from a life of petty crime. While I would obviously prefer to have them join the Protectorate, I'll agree that the DWU is probably the next best thing and politically less troublesome at the moment. Anything that removes villains from the street is normally a helpful action, especially non-violently."

His colleague looked at him, rubbed her eyes again with a wince, then dropped her hand and took a deep breath. She appeared to be visibly trying to forget what she'd heard. "Moving on," she said. "The next stage will take place somewhere else more comfortable. If you'll come with me, please?"

* * *

"This one's crashing on me!"

Amy looked up from the woman she was putting back together at the trauma doctor on the other side of the emergency room. "Fuck," she growled. "Keep her going for a couple of minutes, I've fixed the shattered leg but she needs more work."

"Yes, Panacea," the middle-aged nurse who was standing next to her said as she moved in to do what she could. Amy nodded, dashing over to the young man who had abruptly stopped working. He'd apparently been triaged wrongly, she discovered as she grabbed him and probed the damage, but it wasn't surprising. There was a small fragment of glass that had worked its way into his heart down the basilic vein, presumably having been shoved into his arm during the pile-up on the freeway. The arm itself was sufficiently messed up that it wasn't obvious, since the puncture was small enough to not bleed all that much. But even a small obstruction in the right place was more than enough to trigger a cardiac event, which was exactly what had happened.

"OK, I've got him stabilized. Give me that scalpel." She held out her free hand. The doctor, without questioning her, put the handle in her hand. "Hold him still," she instructed, leaning over the boy, who was only about thirteen. Making a quick incision in the right place, she probed between his ribs with the blade for a moment. "Forceps."

The scalpel was switched for the relevant tool, which she put into the wound she'd made, guided by her power. Moments later she removed the instrument, a small blood-covered and glittering shard of glass clamped in the jaws. "Here," she said, handing it to the doctor, then concentrating. The wound closed in seconds and moments later the boy twitched. The ECG machine he was connected to with pads on his chest stopped wailing in horror and resumed beeping contentedly.

"Normal sinus rhythm," the doctor reported, looking relieved. "Good work, Panacea. Thank you. We nearly lost the poor kid, we'd never have got him to surgery in time."

Amy stepped back, wiping her hands on a paper towel. She smiled wearily. "That was too close." Looking around, she counted. "Only three left, including this one. Finally."

"It was a bad accident," he agreed, shaking his head. "Haven't had one like that for a year or so."

She went back to her previous patient, who was still leaking blood from a few minor places. With only a couple more minutes work she'd repaired all the damage she could. "This woman has a fairly bad concussion," she reported. "I can't do much with it. But it looks like it will heal normally. Other than that, she's fine now. Want me to wake her?"

"Better leave her unconscious until we finish," the trauma doctor said after looking around. "Let's get the last one done, then we can move them all to recovery and do the paperwork."

"Joy," she said in neutral tones, making him smile a little. Both of them went to the last casualty, who was semi-conscious and covered in bandages, but not too badly off, which was why he was last. The team who had been treating and stabilizing him moved out of the way without a word.

Not too long afterwards, she was finished. Sitting down she looked at her costume, thankful that Taylor's version of it was practically impossible to stain. The blood would wash right off without a trace, unlike her previous one, which would have had to be thrown away after something like this. The doctor slumped down next to her, his scrubs covered in all sorts of noxious things. "That was more action in one room than I like to see," he sighed. "Thank you for coming in on such short notice. We'd have lost at least one of them for sure without you."

"You're welcome," she said, leaning her head back against the wall and closing her eyes. "Sorry for ordering you around like that." While healing like this didn't tire her in the normal way, especially these days, it was mentally quite a workout. Not to mention seeing people so smashed up was never fun, no matter how often it happened. Which, luckily, wasn't all that often outside an Endbringer battle.

"Don't worry about it, you knew what to do and did it," he told her, not sounding concerned. "Sometimes that's the only thing that matters. You saved his life. My feelings aren't important, not that I'm upset anyway. The results speak for themselves." Opening her eyes she rolled her head sideways and looked at him, seeing he was smiling.

"Good to know," she replied, smiling back.

They sat in companionable silence for a few minutes, just resting, while around them the remaining doctors, nurses, and other medical personnel got all the former casualties cleaned up and moved to the various recovery rooms where they'd be allowed to regain consciousness and discover that they were fine, at least physically. She suspected that at least one of the children was going to need some serious therapy. Seeing your own hand more or less fall off wasn't the sort of thing that the average ten year old just got over, even if someone like her put it back on.

"How long have we known each other?" she said after the chaos died down.

"Three years, I guess?" he said, sounding puzzled. "Why?"

"Do you trust me?"

"Implicitly." The response was instant.

She looked at him again.

"You may only be eighteen, and not have a medical degree, but you're the best healer I've ever come across, dedicated, and honest. And very smart. Not to mention have saved more lives than every other professional in every hospital in this city put together. Yes, I trust you, with my life. I think the answer would be the same from anyone in the hospital."

Somewhat taken aback, but rather touched, she nodded. "That's… very nice to know."

"Why did you want to know?"

She reached into her pocket and pulled out a pill bottle, handing it to him. He held it up to the light and shook it gently, watching the contents rattle around. "This is?"

"Family biotech."

He stared at her for a moment, then at the bottle again. It contained a couple of dozen of her instant fixers.

"What does it do?" Now he looked intrigued, more than anything, which she found interesting.

Waving a hand around the blood-spattered room, she replied, "More or less what we just did."

Inspecting her for a moment with raised eyebrows, he returned his attention to the bottle. "Is that a fact?"

"Yeah, it is. Problem is, it's not been through PRT testing yet. In fact, they don't even know about it at the moment, although that will be changing probably later today." She sighed a little. "It's something Ianthe came up with. Those things will fix almost any conceivable disease or injury, and if they can't fix it, put the patient into a form of biological stasis until they can be fully repaired by other means. They'll repair genetic damage, cure cancer, regrow a liver, you name it."

He gaped at her for some time, barely breathing. "And this actually _works?!_ " he said disbelievingly.

"It does. I've seen it, and it's been tested on volunteers. Does exactly what it says on the bottle." He looked at the small container again, rotating it to read the label. Then he snickered slightly. She smiled.

" _Fixes what ails you._ "

"Nice and simple. And true."

"I can't help but notice it's your handwriting."

She shrugged. "Had to put something and so far they don't have a name."

"Fair enough. Ianthe designed these?"

"Yes, she put a lot of effort into coming up with them. I've got access to a significant number and she can make any amount you care to name."

"So why tell me like this?"

Amy frowned, then sighed. "I've been carrying those things around for weeks, and known about them for longer. They work incredibly well. I've examined them in operation, they're entirely safe, completely effective, and far too good not to use. But it's the result of what the PRT would call a Biotinker, even though that's not really accurate in this case, and you know what they think of Biotinkers. And what the public does too. For obvious reasons."

He nodded thoughtfully, still rolling the bottle between his fingers. "Nilbog."

"Exactly." She took the bottle back and looked at it. "I've been trying to work out the best approach with these for some time. This..." she indicated the room again with her free hand, "just drives home that I'm sitting on something that could, no, will, save lives. But I've been letting worry about what the PRT would think stop me from talking to someone about them, someone outside the Family. It's… a medical ethics issue, I guess. Do I make sure to stay on the good side of the PRT if it costs someone their life when I know I could save it, even if I can't be there?" She turned her head to regard him. He was watching her thoughtfully.

"I've been wrestling with that since these were invented. How many people have died that wouldn't have if they'd had one available?"

He mulled it over some more as she fell silent, wanting to explain more of her thoughts but unable to really put them into words. "OK. First, don't think like that. It's ultimately as self-destructive as you were heading towards a while back. You can't be everywhere, and you can't fix everyone. _No one_ can. Even with some magical cure-all, there would always be cases where it would fail. Deliberately harming someone, and not being able to help them, are two entirely different things, and you have no cause to feel guilty about it. Especially with an untested Parahuman medical treatment."

She nodded, feeling a little better. This was a problem that had been gnawing at her for weeks and even after talking it over with Taylor, the Varga, and both Lisa and Danny, she was still conflicted.

"Second, let's get all the paperwork finished off. That needs to be done no matter what else is going on or the administration will get pushy."

Amy smiled a little. "We don't want that."

"No." He smiled back. "Third… you've really seen these work?"

"I have. It's not a drug, it's a single use, self-destructing synthetic life form. You put one on the skin, press until it makes a sound, and let go. The thing will repair essentially anything in seconds to minutes, depending on the severity of damage and the available biomass to use as resources."

"Disease as well as traumatic injury? You mentioned genetic problems. Huntington's?"

"Yes. And MS, and Parkinson's, and Alzheimer's, and..." She spread her hands. "Pretty much anything. And if you somehow found something it didn't repair, Ianthe could add that. Even if it didn't completely fix it, it would keep the patient alive for a long time."

"Brain injuries?"

"Assuming there's enough left to repair. It's conceivable someone could get injured in such a way that they lost memories or personality functions, but it would repair the organic damage."

He inspected the bottle with awe. "Jesus Christ. This is… this is a game-changer. It could put us all out of business."

"Yeah." She looked at him a little warily. "Does that change anything?"

"Not from my point of view," he replied. "In my opinion a doctor is a doctor to help people above all else. Making money from it is fine, but _becoming_ a doctor _purely_ to make money is something that I can't agree with. Although I will admit it's not uncommon."

He turned back to her. "What do you want to see happen with these?"

"I'd like to see them available to anyone who needs them," she replied honestly.

"And what do the Family want to see happen?"

"The same."

"How much do they want?"

"Hell, they'll _give_ them away if people need them," she said with a shrug. "They have more than enough ways to make money, and it's not that important to them in the first place. Ianthe would rather see people get healed. Same with the rest of them. She did this because she thought it was the right thing to do, not because it was profitable."

He nodded slowly. "You have some odd friends, but I think they're good people."

"So do I."

He turned the bottle over and watched the single-shot healing symbiotes roll around in it. "The PRT will have a conniption fit about these, you realize."

"Yep."

"They'll need testing. Very careful testing, and you'll need to vouch for them and monitor the results."

"I know."

"But if they really do work..."

"They do. I guarantee it."

The doctor nodded again, then looked at his watch. "Right. Let's sign all the papers we need to sign, make sure our patients are comfortable, then you need to come with me and talk to the head of treatments and a few other people." He stood up, as did she. "And thank you for telling me."

"You're welcome."

Both of them went off to sign some reports, then upset the medical applecart. Amy felt surprisingly content about that.


	333. Omake - Ianthe Halps out

_Watched a silly TV animation late at night. Silly show led to silly idea, which led to silly omake..._

* * *

' _Ianthe_ **'** looked at ' _Saurial_ **',** who looked back.

Both of them turned their heads to watch the group of people wandering in a loose circle shouting slogans, while waving signs. After a moment, they exchanged a glance again, before heading over to investigate what was going on.

"Strange place, this town," Amy said as they approached. "Is it me or are the people a little… dim?"

"Oh, I'm glad it's not just me," Taylor said in relief. "I didn't want to be rude, but for god's sake, some of these guys are as thick as a thick thing. And I can hardly understand a word they're saying, which for me is unusual."

"Colorado is odd at the best of times. Must be the altitude."

They stopped and watched from closer, trying to understand what the group of men, with only a couple of women, were shouting. Something about ' _jerbs_ ', whatever they were.

Amy, in the form of Ianthe, stepped forward after a moment and tapped on of the men on the shoulder. He looked around, having apparently not noticed them before, and flinched violently. "Jeebus!" he yelped.

"No, just me."

Taylor smirked a little, but said nothing.

"What's going on?"

"They took our jerbs!" the man, who had rallied when his grievance was brought up, yelled. He pointed at the large factory they were milling around outside. "Them bastards took our jerbs!"

Amy scratched her head. "Really?"

"Yep, yep, they took our jerbs. We wants our jerbs back!" He turned around again and raised his sign, his fellows all doing the same in a weird synchronized motion.

"They took our jerbs!" the crowd roared. "We wants our jerbs back!"

 **"I** can do that," Amy said brightly. "Got any onions?"

The crowd, as one, turned to her. Taylor put a hand over her eyes. "The purple lizard says she can give us jerbs!" one of the milling multitude of militant muddlewits cried.

"JERBS!" they all roared.

Amy smiled.

* * *

Four hours later, there were a lot of puzzled people looking at the very strange animal she handed to one of them. More of the things were sitting in the back room of the bar they'd all, for some reason, ended up in. Taylor was watching from a nearby table, shaking her head and smiling a little at the commentary from the Varga in her head, who had been laughing more or less constantly for the entire time. When he wasn't muttering about how ' _She truly is one of us..._ '"

The dog-sized creature, something like a cross between a lizard and a rodent, looked around alertly, then lifted its head and made a cry that sounded like ' _Jeeerrrbbb_ ,' before jumping down off the table and scuttling over to the man who'd started all this. Rubbing against his leg, it purred, the soft scales making a rasping sound. He uncertainly reached down and stroked the head of the thing, feeling the feathery fur that ran down the back.

"What is it?" he asked.

"A Jerb, of course. They'll guard your house, they lay eggs that are a perfect human food, they're very smart and interacting with them is a good way to keep yourself busy, and they'll lower your blood pressure and provide companionship."

"Um..."

He looked somewhat confused. More of the Jerbs came out, each one looking around then picking a person, before heading over to them and making friends. Shortly the entire bar full of people were each stroking a happy Jerb, all of them looking very relaxed. The odd purring sound the creatures made seemed to strike right into the heart of the human mind, causing sensations of comfort and happiness.

Everyone was still looking a little puzzled, though, like they couldn't work out what had happened.

Amy pulled a notebook from her armor, flipping through it to the relevant form, which she quickly filled in. Tearing off one page she handed it to the first man, the one who was now feeding his Jerb some snacks. He took it, looked at it, shrugged, and handed her five dollars. Taylor watched with a raised eye ridge.

When they were heading out of the weird little town, she looked at her friend. "What was that form at the end for?" she asked curiously.

"I had to charge _something_ for all that work," Amy replied with a shrug. "Otherwise people wouldn't take it seriously."

"So, you wrote out..." Taylor started giggling.

"Yep." Amy looked smug. "I gave him the Jerb bill. Nice of him to pay up on the spot."

Snickering, both of them went on their way.


	334. Whoops and Summation

Putting the ball back on the rack, Danny turned around and smiled at the four people who had joined him for a pleasant afternoon bowling. Ella winked at him, her friend Clara smiling prettily. "That's it for me, I'm afraid," he said. "I have an appointment, so I need to get back to the hotel and change. Thank you for a nice time."

"Thank _you_ , Danny," Clara said, taking her bowling shoes off and replacing them with her street ones. "This was fun. You taught both of us a lot."

Ella nodded, glancing at her husband, who along with Benny was sitting at the far side of the row of seats for this lane. Both men seemed oddly depressed. Danny couldn't work out why, really. But they certainly hadn't seemed to enjoy the bowling nearly as much as their wives had. "Rudy, say thank you to Mr Hebert and stop being so down. What's wrong?"

"Nothing, Ella," the man said, sitting more upright and putting a look on his face that wasn't all that convincing. He smiled weakly at Danny. "Thanks for inviting us to share your lane, Mr Hebert."

"Yeah, thanks very much," Benny added, not sounding like he was being entirely sincere. Danny put it down to the amount of nachos the pair had eaten. They weren't very good, an upset stomach was definitely a risk in a place like this.

"It was no trouble, I enjoyed the company. Bowling alone can be a little boring." He looked up at the scoreboard hanging over the lane, nodding in satisfaction. "Although I'm quite pleased with the results."

"I've never seen anyone bowl a perfect game before," Ella said, following his eyes. "That was amazing."

"I think I got lucky," he said modestly. "I've never done it before either. I might have been inspired by the company." He smiled at Ella, who looked pleased.

Bending down, he removed his own bowling shoes, stuffing the laces inside them. Pulling his normal ones out from under the seat he sat down to put them on. Clara did the same next to him. Benny and Rudy watched them, sighed faintly, and started to do so also.

Those nachos really hadn't agreed with them, Danny thought sadly. Poor guys.

"Ow! Fuck _me_ that hurts!"

"Jesus, look out!"

The shouts, in an urgent tone, made everyone whip their heads around. In the next but one lane, a quartet of young college age men who had been becoming more and more enthusiastic about their game, lubricated by probably more beer than was sensible, had been horsing around with the balls. One of them had apparently attempted to juggle two of the lighter ones, with the fairly predictable result that he'd dropped one.

It had landed on his foot, and by the look on his face as he hopped around yelling and swearing, done some damage. This led him to a certain amount of waving his arms about, although in his pain he'd apparently forgotten he was still holding the other ball. Very quickly the situation had turned into one where he _wasn't_ holding the ball, instead having managed to fling it in a high arc over the next lane, the users of which had seen it coming and ducked. The ten pound sphere of plastic was now plummeting towards the back of Benny's head, the man only just turning around, much too slowly to do anything about it.

"Benny!" Clara shrieked, easily able to see what was about to happen from where she was sitting.

Danny didn't even pause to think about it.

* * *

Linda followed with her friends as the entire group of people left the huge testing room and went back to the elevator, ascending several floors and exiting into a corridor lined with doors. They ended up in a large room with a table in the middle of it surrounded by chairs, various telephone and computer terminals in the middle of it and accessible from either side. She looked around with interest, deciding it was a cross between a conference area and a discreet interrogation facility. There were cameras in a couple of places, but as far as she could see they were wide-angle security ones that were merely monitoring the area, not something set up for interviews.

Even so, she was sure that everything that happened in here was recorded, and decided to be careful what she said and did. When she glanced at Saurial, she saw that the lizard-girl was looking around as well, before meeting her eyes and nodding slightly to her unasked question.

"Please take a seat, everyone," Miss Militia said, moving around to the other side of the table. Both scientists sat near one end, putting down a collection of notepads, recording equipment, and the other data from the testing area. Armsmaster and Dragon ended up next to Miss Militia on a pair of reinforced chairs that were obviously meant for power armored people, while Linda herself sat opposite the military cape with Saurial and Metis to either side of her.

"All right, let's see what's next," Miss Militia said, flipping through some paperwork in a folder she put on the table. "Definitely a high level Tinker based on the preliminary results. Doctor Ikari thinks there is also a Thinker rating involved, based on the ease with which you calculate the requirements of your designs, and how well you operate them."

"Probably only around Thinker 1, but it's definitely present," the scientist in question put in.

"There is also a Mover rating, since the end result of your specialization allows rapid transportation," Armsmaster added. "Even with what we've seen so far, it's a fairly impressive rating, and I can imagine that it could go higher based on later work. All in all it's a significant number of categories that you occupy."

Saurial raised a finger. "You may also be missing a couple," she said in a good-natured manner. Linda looked at her, making her grin. "We want to be completely open with the PRT about your abilities, don't we, Vectura?"

"I suppose so," she replied, inwardly amused about how they were managing to be open yet still tell them nothing truly important. "They'd find out sooner or later anyway."

"Find out _what?_ " Miss Militia asked somewhat suspiciously. The PRT scientists were watching them with what looked like intrigued interest, as was Armsmaster. Dragon was remaining silent but Linda thought she was if anything finding this all funny, as she had been for some time.

Saurial made a steel rod in the half an inch thick and two feet long, then handed it across the table to the Protectorate hero, who stared at it for a moment then accepted it. "What's this for?"

"For you to satisfy yourself it's a real steel bar." Saurial looked at her as she studied the metal object.

The woman seemed confused, but examined the bar carefully, tapping it on the table. "It's definitely solid metal, I assume steel."

Armsmaster produced his tricorder and scanned it, then nodded. "Standard high carbon tool steel. A very good alloy, actually. The purpose of this exercise eludes me, though."

Saurial nudged Linda, who reached out her hand. "I think I know what she wants," she said. Miss Militia gave her the rod. "Something like this?" Linda asked, glancing at the reptile next to her who was looking like she was enjoying things, then bending the steel bar into a circle with a distinct creak of stressed metal. It took some effort but nothing like as much as it should rightly have done. Putting it gently down on the table in front of her, Linda smiled over it at the three people across from her.

Everyone looked at the circle of metal.

Then everyone looked at her.

Then everyone looked at each other.

"Oh, for god's..." Miss Militia sighed, rubbing her forehead. "A Brute as well. You didn't mention _that_ earlier."

"We never seemed to get around to it," Linda apologized, although she found the reaction funny. "We were enjoying ourselves too much with the Tinkering. Sorry."

"We should go down to the Brute testing facility, we can get some accurate..." Doctor Ikari began. Metis shook her head, making him stop.

"There may be no need for that, we've done our own tests, and we can tell you the results if you want."

"That is probably a better use of time for now, since we've spent considerably longer in the Tinker assessments than we planned for," Dragon said. "Not that I think that was a bad thing, it was very interesting."

"OK. I can dead-lift about two tons, according to Metis my reaction times are at least five times faster than those of a baseline human, I heal a lot more rapidly as well, and my overall speed is also several times quicker than a normal person."

Doctor Ikari was writing this down, nodding absently. "Impressive. Mid-range Brute, low end Mover, healing factor as well… An effective package." He looked up from his notebook. "I would still be interested in testing you further at some point if you're agreeable, to get hard numbers on these abilities. But there's no pressure on you if you don't want to."

"I'll think about it, Doctor," she said, privately not thinking she'd take him up on it. They had enough information on her already.

After a moment, she reached up and unfastened her helmet, lifting the back of it and pulling it forward while leaving her prototype HUD visor in place. It had been quite useful during the testing session, but she'd also thought of a lot of things it needed added to it as a result of the same thing. It covered the upper half of her face nearly as well as her mirrored faceplate though, so it worked as a mask.

Not that her current face was one that could be associated with her ' _normal_ ' one anyway, of course. It didn't really matter if they saw it but she wasn't about to mention that to them.

All of the others looked at her curiously. "It was getting a little uncomfortable, I'm not used to wearing it yet," she explained, which was partly true. Another part was that she'd discussed this with Metis and Saurial earlier. They needed the PRT to think they had more information about her than they did, so that they could hide some truths about her in plain sight. This was part of that plan.

"An interesting helmet design," Armsmaster said approvingly, looking at the helmet. "Your work, I assume, Saurial?"

"Yes, it's based on a commercial one I came across, with my own improvements," the reptilian girl nodded. "I'm going to talk to the company about some sort of cross-licensing deal."

"May I?" he requested, transferring his gaze to Linda, who pushed it towards him. Picking it up he examined it closely, inside and out, then scanned it with his tricorder which he seemed to enjoy using. "Very nice work."

"Thanks. We're probably going to work on something like this for law enforcement, or even just motorcyclists," Saurial replied. "We have a lot of simple but useful ideas for that sort of thing."

"The PRT would undoubtedly be interested as well."

"We're aware of that. We'll be in contact fairly soon."

He nodded, handing the helmet back. Linda took it and put it on the floor next to her chair. She flicked an ear at them. "Just to get it out there, since you're all obviously wondering… No, this isn't my real face. Or, to be more accurate, it's my real face, but not the only one I have."

"A Changer too?" Doctor Ikari asked, apparently intrigued. Linda nodded, while noticing that Miss Militia had an odd expression in her eyes for a moment. She wondered what that was about, but ignored it as she turned to the scientist.

"A limited one. I can change between this feline form and a more normal human one at will. Nothing very spectacular but it helps with my identity and keeping it private."

"I see," he replied, nodding as he made yet more notes. "Very impressive collection of abilities. Nothing other than the Tinker one is at what I'd term a high level, but the aggregate effect is definitely quite potent."

"So we have Tinker, Changer, Brute, Thinker, and Mover powers, then," Miss Militia said, jotting down some notes of her own. Armsmaster was watching and listening with interest but appeared content to let the woman do most of the talking.

"The transportation specialty of her Tinker talent would significantly raise the Mover rating," Dragon pointed out. Miss Militia nodded absently, still writing.

"That's fairly normal for any Tinker who can make vehicles at all," she commented after she finished, looking up. "Although I can't recall meeting anyone, or even hearing of anyone, who could do something as impressive as we saw downstairs, certainly not that quickly."

"Saurial helps me a hell of a lot," Linda pointed out.

"Granted, but the designs are yours," Armsmaster nodded. "And they are very good ones. That projected hard-light multi-form vehicle is extraordinary."

"I'm happy you think so. I'm going to have fun with _that_ one," she grinned.

The way he looked at her made her think he was, as Saurial had suggested would be the case, more than a little envious. It made her oddly happy in a way.

Turning the page in her folder, the military cape read it, then looked at her again. "The last part of this for now, unless you want to come back and put yourself through more testing with Doctor's Ikari and Wilson here, is some general background information. We won't pry, but we're interested in anything you are willing to tell us about yourself."

Linda inspected the three people facing her, glanced at the two scientists who seemed fascinated by her although in a good way, then looked at Saurial. The lizard girl made a small sign indicating it was her choice. Metis, when she checked, did much the same. She sighed a little, thought for a moment, then started carefully giving them some of the mostly made-up background of ' _Linda_ ' that they'd come up with. It took some time.

* * *

"Jesus, look out!"

The near scream from behind them, following on from all the laughing and shouting from those football players or whoever they were, made Benny jerk, then turn around. He barely registered the sound of Clara screaming his name as he saw a bowling ball out of the corner of his eye, implausibly in mid air and closing fast.

Before he had time to do anything other than begin to recoil out of the way, something that was clearly futile considering it was about a yard away, there was a solid smack of flesh on hard plastic. A rather awed silence fell as everyone who had been tracking the flight of the rogue ball to its inevitable end gaped.

Boss Hebert straightened up from where he'd lunged sideways, transferring the ball he'd somehow caught at arm's length to his other hand. Standing, he fixed the idiot who'd managed to throw it with a hard stare, which even though it wasn't aimed at him made Benny gulp.

"That was a very stupid thing to do, young man," the DWU boss growled, sounding dangerous and pissed. "You could have killed someone with this." He walked around the end of the row of seats and over to the group of people watching him nervously. The ball-tosser was still standing on one foot, but lowered the injured one to the ground with a wince when Hebert neared him. "Please think about what you do _before_ you do it next time," he added, handing the ball back. The guy took it numbly, apparently lost for words. "If I'd missed you'd be in serious trouble."

"Sorry, man," the man said, sounding very guilty. "It slipped."

"Because you were being foolhardy." Boss Hebert reached out and tapped his forehead, hard enough to make him wince. " _Think!_ "

His friends were glaring at the idiot. "He won't do it again, mister," one of them said with a look that promised a lot of shouting later. "I'll make sure of that." He brightened up after a moment. "Fucking amazing catch, though. You play football or something?"

"No, just have good reflexes, I guess, and I was in the right place." Hebert shrugged, smiling now. "Luckily for Benny."

"Guess so." The other student looked over to where Benny was sitting with his heart hammering, Clara now holding him. "Really sorry about that."

The other two also apologized, then all three of them scowled at the perpetrator, who looked very guilty and mumbled something conciliatory. Boss Hebert studied him for a moment, before shaking his head a little. "Just be more careful, OK? This could have gone very wrong. Bowling balls aren't meant to be juggled, especially if you can't juggle. And I'm afraid that you _can't._ "

The man's friends all looked like they were now trying not to laugh and the guy himself was sweating a little. Benny had calmed down slightly, and found himself to his irritation almost feeling sorry for the one who had come close to killing him being pinned in place by Hebert's gaze.

Eventually, the older man nodded. "We'll say no more about it. I'd advise laying off on any more beer, though."

"Yes, sir," the student said immediately and respectfully. "Sorry again." He looked at Benny as he said this, who merely moved his head in a way that was more or less a nod back. He still felt very unnerved about how close the call had been.

Boss Hebert rejoined them, immediately being hugged by Clara, who was nearly in tears. "Thank you, Danny," she said in a tremulous voice. "Thank you."

"You're welcome," he smiled, patting her shoulder comfortingly. "It was my pleasure." He looked over at Benny and smiled more widely. "We wouldn't want anything to happen to your husband, would we?"

Benny met his eyes, feeling cold. What did he mean by that? Clara took it at face value, but he knew better. There was _always_ a deeper game with people at this man's level.

Glancing back at the four students, three of whom were berating the fourth in low but angry voices, he shivered.

If it really had been an accident, it was _way_ too fucking close for comfort.

And if it hadn't… A demonstration? Those four guys didn't have local accents. More like they came from somewhere around Boston, which was quite close to…

Slowly he turned to look at Rudy, then both of them looked at Boss Hebert, who nodded calmly to them with a mild smile, apparently entirely over his earlier anger at the event. "I must be off. I don't want to keep Uncle Tony waiting," the Brocktonian said, picking up his coat and putting it one. "Perhaps we'll bump into each other again some time. Look me up if you're ever around the DWU."

He felt around in one pocket, pulling out a couple of things, then putting them back. "Now where did I put my keys?" he muttered, checking another pocket. Benny was pretty certain he saw at least one knife come out and go back in again. "Aha! _There_ they are. Had me worried for a second." Looking pleased, he grabbed the bowling shoes, raised a hand in farewell, and left.

All four of them watched him walk towards the exit.

"What a nice man," Ella said when he'd disappeared. She looked at the two men. "I have no idea _what_ you were worried about, he's great."

"I like Danny," Clara added. "And he saved you. He's got incredible reflexes. That was amazing to watch." She still looked shaken.

Benny looked at Rudy again, who seemed speechless, then both of them stood. It was definitely time to go, before anything else happened.

* * *

"That went well," Metis remarked as they strolled out of the PRT building several hours after they'd entered it. Saurial had stayed behind, having requested a meeting with Director Piggot, and said she'd meet them back at the yard later.

"I thought so," Linda agreed, smiling to herself. "It was a lot of fun too."

"Feeling less nervous now?"

"I am. Thanks to you two, aside from anything else. It would have been pretty bad on my own." She looked at her scaly friend, who was watching her with a look of understanding. "It _was_ pretty bad on my own," she added much more quietly. "Thank you for everything."

"You're welcome, of course," Metis smiled. "Any time. But you realize now that everyone at the DWU is going to want one of those light-vehicles, right? Hell, I want one, although it'll need to be a little larger..."

Linda grinned with glee. "That can be arranged. I'm amazed how well it worked. Without your cousin I couldn't have done it, aside from it being her idea in the first place. Leet is going to love it too."

"Oh, that much I think we can bank on," Metis laughed. "As we can assume that Zephron will be asking you for one every day until you give in. And Alec, of course."

She shrugged. "We'll need to order in some more parts, then."

"We'll make a list when we get back." Metis looked around at the crowd of people who were watching them, some of whom had followed them out of the PRT building, and most of which were holding cameras. "Looks like you've hit the public now for sure. Wave to your admiring fans." She waved herself, quite vigorously, making Linda chuckle then follow suit.

All in all it had been a good afternoon, she thought. Very productive and a lot of fun.

* * *

When the knock on the door came, Emily was staring at the small container of off-white roughly round flat things that Saurial had left behind, having spent a while explaining what they were and what they did. She was still reeling from the implications that had been casually dropped on her by the mad reptile, like they were nothing.

"Enter," she called, not looking away from the bottle. The door opened to admit Colin, Hannah, Dragon, and two scientists she recognized as powers experts, although the names escaped her for the moment. She looked up at them, frowned a little, then put the bottle into her desk drawer. Colin noticed, she saw, although he said nothing.

Wilson. That was it. Wilson and Ikari.

"I assume you've finished with the preliminary report on the DWU Tinker Vectura?" she inquired as they all took seats, Dragon standing off to one side since there weren't enough chairs and none of them would fit her power-suit anyway.

Hannah nodded, putting a thick folder on her desk. "Any surprises?" she asked, opening it.

"You might say that, yes," Doctor Wilson said, shaking his head in wonder.

"What's her rating?" Emily asked, flipping pages.

"You remember when you joked about _Tinker: Yes?_ " Hannah asked dryly. She looked up, meeting the other woman's eyes.

"Oh, god. Really?"

"She's probably around a Tinker 3 to 4 on her own, with Brute 3, Thinker 1, Mover perhaps 2 to 3, and Changer 2 as well," Doctor Wilson commented. Emily's eyes widened, then she looked back at the report, turning to the summary of the power testing and scanning it.

"Changer? Brute? Where did that come from?"

"She's got enhanced strength, speed, and durability, with a healing factor, according to both her and Metis, although we didn't thoroughly test any of them," Doctor Ikari replied for his colleague. "We might be able to persuade her to come back for that reason although I'd suggest not pressing it. The Changer rating is due to her feline additions, which are apparently something she can control. It would be one of the major reasons we've been unable to locate any Tinker meeting her description, I would expect."

"The Thinker rating is down to the way she can clearly learn to operate her own inventions at an accelerated rate," Doctor Wilson added. "She is an exceptionally good driver in my opinion, and we saw her design something new completely from scratch and end up driving it around the test room with complete confidence in only minutes. I would put some of that down to inherent skill, some to practice, and some to her powers, although without further testing I can't break down the ratios."

"That's not particularly important at the moment," Emily replied, looking at some photos with raised eyebrows. "She made this in _how_ long?"

"Under three hours from conception to working prototype," Colin said, holding up the deactivated form of the multi-vehicle that she was looking at a photo of. Emily felt somewhat shocked.

"She let you keep it?" Most Tinkers were very protective of their inventions, especially ones that were entirely new.

"Borrow it for examination. And I was somewhat surprised she agreed myself," he replied. "I will endeavor to return it promptly. Dragon and I both feel that it is worth investigating in depth, though, it contains some remarkable technology I've never encountered before."

"I would suggest that, bearing in mind who her friends are, you are careful with it," Doctor Ikari remarked. Colin nodded, apparently not offended. He put the rod back into the case he'd removed it from and put that in turn on the floor.

"I made a promise and I will keep it," the Tinker replied.

"All right, she's a high level Tinker, definitely, I can see that from the report," Emily said, turning back to Hannah. "So why is her rating comparatively low? And what did you mean, ' _On her own_ ,' Doctor?"

"Both things are related," Doctor Ikari replied after a glance at Hannah, who waved a hand to him to do the talking. "While it's not my field of expertise, I suspect she is somewhat psychologically dependent on the Family, specifically Metis and Saurial, at least to some extent. She was definitely quite nervous when she arrived, and at various points during the testing. Their presence gave her a noticeable confidence boost."

"I noticed that myself," Dragon agreed. "I was talking to Saurial about it. They are aware of it and intend to get the woman some professional help."

"Good. That is always an issue with Parahumans, and some have severe need of such help. I don't think Vectura is quite at that point, but she has some deep issues that need therapy, I have no doubt. That's not unusual considering the nature of Triggers."

All three Parahumans in the room nodded thoughtfully, Emily noticed.

"However, that aside, there is also the fact that Vectura's abilities work in a synergistic manner with Saurial's. They're virtually made for each other, in my opinion. Without access to the Family and their matter creation ability, many of Vectura's designs would be difficult or impossible to realize," the scientist carried on, looking intrigued. Doctor Wilson was nodding next to him.

"She discussed, briefly, some of the ideas she'd had. Thinking small is not that woman's problem, I can assure you. The things we've seen so far are essentially toys."

Emily wasn't sure whether to be worried yet, but could feel her stomach contracting just in case.

"Her inherent ability, limited by what she can access if she's on her own, would put her at a Tinker 3 to 4, as my colleague remarked. With sufficient resources, for example if she joined the protectorate, I would judge that would go up to Tinker 6 or better without much difficulty. However, with access to the abilities and techniques Saurial can bring to the table, including her frankly astounding mathematical expertise..." He shrugged. "Tinker _Yes_ is not far off the mark. I have no idea how far they could take things as a team but I would be prepared to bet we have never seen anything close to what they could do if they decided to really try."

"Oh, good lord," Emily groaned. She leaned back and massaged her brow, feeling an incipient headache coming on. "Another one we can't properly categorize. Where the _hell_ are they coming from? And how do they all end up, one way or another, working with or for Danny Fucking Hebert?"

"I cannot answer that, Director," the Japanese man said regretfully. "Although I will add one interesting note, for what it's worth?"

"Am I going to want to shoot myself when you do?" she asked with a scowl.

"Hopefully not," he replied with a tiny smile. "Saurial speaks perfect Japanese, I discovered."

"And?" Emily looked at him, somewhat puzzled.

"Her accent is… archaic. Easily understandable, but there are words and phrases she used that are extremely old. I've heard something similar on pre-war recordings of elderly people in Japan, people who were ancient in the twenties and thirties. It's an interesting data-point, I thought." He looked around at them. "What it means, if anything, I couldn't tell you. Perhaps she learned the language from a very old person."

Thinking about it for a moment, then firmly pushing the thought back to where it belonged, Emily decided she wasn't even going to attempt to work that one out. It was merely yet another oddity of a group that was composed entirely from them.

"All right. Based on this information and testing session, does Vectura present a threat?"

"If she was pushed, very much so," Dragon replied immediately. "She could easily make a number of weapons based only on the technology we saw today. However, I would also hasten to point out that from what she, and her friends, said, she has no interest or intention of doing so. Except maybe in self-defense, of course, but that's always a possibility. She was at pains to explain that all her current projects are intended as construction equipment and were heavily based around safe working practice. Saurial made the same point, and I believe both of them."

"I concur," Colin said. "Unless forced to, I personally doubt she has any real interest in making weaponry, or for that matter involving herself in any conflict at all. She appeared much more interested in creating new inventions with her friends. Which is, from all appearances, a definite theme with the Family."

"What about her background?" Emily asked, looking at the report again. "Do we have any idea where and when she Triggered, for example?"

"She was unwilling to go into details on that," Hannah explained. "Not all that surprising. The impression is that it was a particularly unpleasant Trigger. She was open about the fact that she paid a significant amount of money for an entirely new identity, mostly to disassociate herself from any possibility of her previous associates tracking her down. It's not the first time I've come across something similar, I have to admit. While we might be able to track down more information, I would strongly recommend against it. It's a blatant breach of the Rules aside from anything else, and we already know that the Family takes a dim view of that sort of thing. I can't see any purpose to it."

"I would agree also," Colin nodded, as did Dragon and Doctor Ikari. Doctor Wilson was reading some of his notes at the moment and didn't seem to notice.

"All right." Emily rocked her chair from side to side as she thought, then she picked up a pen and signed the relevant page of the report. "Thank you all for dealing with this."

"It was very interesting," Colin replied, looking down at the case by his feet in a way that made it clear he was itching to get it to his lab and start poking around trying to figure out how it worked.

"In that case, you can all get back to what you were doing," she said. "Miss Militia, will you stay behind for a moment, please?"

The others, aside from Hannah, all stood and headed for the door. Dragon and Colin turned left, towards the elevator to the lower floor and presumably the ferry to the Rig, while the scientists went the other way, already deep in discussion. When the door closed, Emily rubbed her eyes tiredly. "They've done it again, haven't they?" she asked rhetorically.

Hannah smiled sympathetically. "Apparently so, Emily," she replied. "Ah… I'm not entirely sure how to say this so I'll just say it. Saurial said that Über and Leet have both joined the DWU..."

Dropping her hand, Emily stared at her for several seconds in silence, before opening her drawer and pulling out her brandy bottle. "For fuck's sake," she sighed, pouring some into a glass she also took from the drawer. A glance at her companion resulted in a shake of her head. "What next? More aliens, I expect. Or spaceships. Or god knows what."

"I doubt spaceships are on the cards, Emily," Hannah said soothingly as Emily tossed the small shot back then screwed the cap onto the bottle again and put it away.

"They have _a transportation Tinker_ now," she replied darkly. Hannah looked worried for a moment, but shook her head.

"There are limits, though."

"You'd think so. I'm not so sure." The PRT director tipped her chair back and tried to relax. "Tell me that Vectura isn't another alien?"

"Colin scanned her DNA with a new device Dragon made," Hannah replied. "He said she was human, with some feline DNA mixed in. Nothing out of the ordinary for a low level Changer. We've seen that sort of thing before."

"Did he happen to scan Saurial or Metis?" she asked, abruptly curious.

"He did, actually," Hannah said with a small frown. "Metis matched the results we already had. Not even vaguely human, never has been, or related to anything on the planet. Saurial was inconclusive."

"Which means?" Emily asked after a moment's thought.

Hannah shrugged. "I have no idea. Neither did he or Dragon. Dragon theorized that Saurial's matter creation power may produce some sort of effect that scrambles or blocks the scan, but she's not sure. The results didn't suggest anything _less_ weird than Metis, though."

"OK. Fine. Aliens it is. I don't care any more, they're good citizens and keep to themselves most of the time." She reached into her other drawer and pulled out the bottle that Saurial had given her. "Next question. What the hell do we do about _these_ fucking things?"

Hannah leaned forward and looked closely at the bottle. "What are they?"

"Family biotech, apparently. Ianthe made them when she found out how fragile we poor humans are." Emily swilled the bottle around, listening to the little clinks the things in it made on the glass.

"What do they do?" Hannah asked with a suspicious look.

"If Saurial is to be believed, cure people."

"Of what?"

"Everything, she said."

Hannah stared at her for some time, then looked back at the bottle which Emily had put on the desk.

"Oh. Oh, dear, that's going to cause some… issues." After a pause, she added, "I wonder if they work?"

Emily couldn't help the snort. "Of _course_ they'll work. Family tech always works, even when you wish it didn't." Her companion nodded thoughtfully. They both studied the bottle, then she retrieved it. "Back to the isolation lab, I suppose," she said as she stood up. "We need to test it even so. This is going to get weird, I can feel it."

"Max Anders will pop a gasket when he finds out," Hannah said as she also stood.

Brightening up, Emily smiled nastily. "Oh, _that_ is a _very_ good point. A very good point indeed..."

If nothing else, she was going to be able to share the headache.


	335. Information and Freedom

"Saurial wants a word with us, Brian."

Brian looked up from the technical manual on wiring codes he was reading, to see Lisa standing in the doorway to his room in the dorm block. "Oh?" he commented, marking his place in the thick book with his finger. "Any idea what about? That sounds sort of… ominous."

The blonde smiled at him. "I doubt it's anything bad. She seems in a very good mood even for her, and is wandering around with a sort of ' _I know something you don't_ ' look."

"Something you'd be familiar with from looking in the mirror?" he said with a raised eyebrow and a quirk of the corner of his mouth. She shrugged, still smiling.

"It's not impossible I have a passing knowledge of that sort of thing. But I think she's probably got good news."

"You _think?_ I'd have thought if anyone would _know_ it would be you."

The girl glanced over her shoulder, then lowered her voice. "She's impossible to read, they all are. My… intuition… can't get more than vague impressions. All I get is that she's in a good mood which even Alec could have worked out."

"Hey, I'm not _that_ obtuse," the boy himself said as he came out of the room on the other side of the corridor. "What's all this whispering about, you interrupted my game."

"Good, you're here. Come on, both of you, let's go. She's waiting for us in the office."

"Who is?" Alec asked, looking mildly confused. Lisa grabbed his shoulders and turned him around, then urged him to walk. "Who?"

"Saurial. Come on, don't keep the lizard girl waiting. Brian, hurry up!"

The sound of a vexed Alec being forcibly propelled down the corridor by their team-mate, if that was even the right word these days, faded away. Brian shook his head, carefully marked his place in the book with a sheet of paper he'd been making notes on, put it away, and got up to follow the pair.

Lisa was certainly acting somewhat differently these days, he reflected as he went after them. Calmer in a hard to define way. But at the same time obviously having a wonderful time. Working for Mr Hebert agreed with her, and becoming friends with the Family and Amy Dallon, as well as Taylor Hebert, had done wonders for her overall attitude. It wasn't nearly as smug and annoying as it had been at times, although she could certainly do that if she wanted too. On the whole, though, she gave off the impression of someone who had found their place in life and was going to enjoy it to the hilt.

He sympathized. While he didn't like to remember how they'd ended up here, he was glad they had. Being more or less stuck in the DWU compound wasn't ideal, but it was much less onerous than it could have been. He was being well paid to do work he both enjoyed and was good at, had somewhere warm and comfortable to sleep, got fed well, and had made a lot of friends that he certainly wouldn't have if he'd kept going down the path they were all headed in before the job against Lung. Sometimes he woke in a cold sweat remembering that day and it took a while to get back to sleep again.

The situation with his father and his sister was still sort of up in the air, but he had hopes it would work out sooner or later. It was certainly closer than it had been before, and now none of them needed to commit crimes, risk their lives, or those of anyone else, or work for that bastard Coil. Which was something he was still a little ticked off at Lisa about, not telling them who was paying the bills, even though intellectually he knew she didn't have a lot of choice at the time. Whatever, it was in the past and he'd more or less gotten over it.

Alec seemed to be enjoying himself, but he was easily amused, and Rachel was very obviously exactly where she wanted to be and would probably fight to the death to keep everything she currently had, as well as protecting the people she clearly saw as… He shook his head a bit, he never could work out quite how the girl thought. Pack, maybe, although that was almost certainly not right. Not quite family, but certainly a group of people she felt very determined to stay on the right side of and help however she could.

Rachel was a hard person to like at times, and found it hard in turn to relate to others, but when you got her loyalty, you had it pretty much unconditionally. The DWU had managed that en-masse, which was impressive whichever way you looked at it.

"Stop pushing, will you?" Alec's voice squawked, drifting back to him and making him grin a little.

"Well, start walking properly then, you idiot," Lisa replied in aggrieved tones. "Or do I have to carry you?"

"Think you could?"

"Damn right I could. Now move."

There was a loud put-upon sigh that echoed up the stairwell, but the other boy apparently gave in. Brian followed them down, still grinning a little. Sometimes it was weirdly like having two sisters and an annoying little brother with those guys. They might not be a gang any more, but they'd become strangely close through proximity, shared hardship, and a very scary night of near death followed by miraculous salvation.

A couple of minutes later all three of them were walking across the yard down the side of the main building complex towards the BBFO office. "I'll go get Rachel," Lisa said as they entered the side yard. "Back in a minute."

Brian nodded and followed Alec towards the office door, which opened as they reached it to reveal a smiling Saurial. "Hi, guys, come on in."

"What's this about?" Alec demanded as he went through the door, the reptilian cape standing aside to let him in. "I was right in the middle of a massive firefight, I nearly had that bastard Protomancer in my sights."

"Your game can wait, Alec," Saurial chuckled, not at all offended. "Sit down, I'll get you a coffee. You want one, Brian?"

"Thanks," he replied as he followed his friend to the large table which had sprouted more chairs around it since the last time he'd been in here. Sitting down he looked around curiously, seeing that there were now bookcases which were filled with what looked like high level textbooks on a wide variety of subjects from where he was, along with magazines and other paperwork. The table had a number of them spread across it, making him pick one up curiously and flip through it.

The book was some sort of mathematical theory one, full of equations so dense he couldn't make anything at all out of them. Half the symbols at least were entirely new to him. "It's fairly basic but a good primer," Saurial remarked as she came back and handed him a mug. "I think I got this the way you like it." She gave Alec another mug, then put the third one she was carrying down on the table next to him.

" _This_ is _basic?!_ " he exclaimed in horror, looking at the book again, then up at her. She looked amused and nodded.

"Fairly. You need a decent grounding in number theory to understand it, but..."

He put the book back and gave it a suspicious look, then pushed it a little further away. "I'm not even sure it's real math."

"Not your hobby, then?"

"Not so much, no."

All three of them looked over to the door as it opened to admit Rachel, the canine form of Angelica, and Lisa. The dog looked around alertly, wagging its tail, then after a look at Rachel who made a small gesture, trotted over to sit in front of Saurial, appearing pleased to see her. The lizard-girl squatted down and scratched the small dog's head between the ears, making her tail wag even faster.

"She looked happy, Rachel," Saurial said, glancing up at the auburn-haired girl who had stopped next to her.

"Likes you," Rachel said shortly. "Knows you're friendly. And scratch in the right place."

Saurial grinned, scratching a little more with the tips of a couple of talons, which Angelica seemed to appreciate, then stood up again. Both the girls took seats, Lisa picking up her coffee and sipping it. "Want a drink, Rachel?"

"No." The girl thought for a couple of seconds. "Thanks."

"No problem," Saurial replied as the other three stared at Rachel, who looked back with a somewhat embarrassed and truculent expression. Brian was privately amazed, that was almost a human response. Being here really _was_ good for the young woman.

Moving to a position at the end of the table where she could see all of them, Saurial sat on her tail, then leaned forward and put her elbows on the table with her hands folded in front of her. She examined each of them in turn.

"Stop channeling Monty Burns and get on with it, you scaly menace," Lisa finally said with a sigh.

Smiling suddenly, Saurial stopped the rather intense observation that had been making Alec look mildly worried and Brian wonder what was going on.

"Aww. I was having fun."

"I presume you got us all over here to tell us something and not just amuse yourself?" the blonde asked, giving her a hard look.

Saurial smirked in a very Lisa-like manner. "Oh, yes, now what was it again…?"

"You're a pain in the ass."

"Takes one to know one."

Alec snorted with laughter while Brian smiled a little.

"OK. Enough fun." Saurial looked around at them again. "I've been working on a way to get Lung off your backs permanently for a while now. Earlier today, I met with him and we came to an arrangement we can both live with. You're all in the clear from his point of view."

All four of the former Undersiders gaped at her, even Lisa apparently completely blindsided by this statement.

"You're welcome, by the way," Saurial added with a grin.

"You… How..." Lisa seemed stunned. "What?" she finally finished, a little weakly.

"We met, we talked, I made him an offer he didn't want to refuse, he accepted after some discussion, and we parted ways as… definitely not friends, but people who understand enough of each other to be able to make it work." Saurial watched their reactions. "As long as you don't do anything to him, he'll leave you alone."

There was silence for a while as they all absorbed the information. Eventually, Lisa asked, in a slightly disbelieving manner, "You expect he'll keep his word?"

Saurial nodded. "I do, actually. Lung is someone to whom his word is important, I think, assuming you can get it in the first place. He knows full well that my family would take it very badly if he went back on it, and also knows _we_ will stick to our side of the deal. Unless you deliberately provoke him, which I suggest you _don't_ do, he will keep up his end of it. The ABB will do what he tells them to do so they'll leave you all alone as well. You're in the clear."

"What does that mean for us?" Brian asked after thinking about it some more.

"Mostly that you can leave if you want to. You don't _have_ to, Danny is fine with you guys staying here like you have been if you want and so are we," the reptile replied immediately. "The only one who still has anything to worry about is Rachel, because of the trouble from her triggering. But Danny has Carol Dallon on the case, Director Piggot is being remarkably cooperative about it, and I think that in the not too distant future that will get sorted out as well. The local PRT will almost certainly leave her alone, as will the BBPD, since both of them know she's under our protection. The cops like us, and the PRT are pretty happy with us at the moment as well."

She shrugged a little. "I wouldn't advise wandering around the city even so, Rachel, since your face is fairly well known and there's always the possibility of some idiot overreacting, but even there if you were discreet you could probably go shopping or something. Best to take one of us with you, though."

Rachel looked up at her from where she'd been scratching Angelica under the chin, apparently listening and thinking. After a few seconds she grunted. "Happy here, don't need to leave. Don't need anything else."

"Fair enough. No one is going to try to make you leave, you have a home here as long as you want it," Saurial replied, smiling gently. Rachel smiled back, very slightly and very quickly, then went back to watching her dog. Looking at the rest of them, the lizard-girl went on, "For the rest of you, that's about it. Brian has, or had, some minor charges against him, but I checked with the PRT and they honestly don't care, and a contact in the BBPD said that as long as you keep your nose clean from now on they have much more important things to worry about. All things considered you're very, very low priority and given a year or so with no trouble I suspect any remaining charges will be quietly dropped."

"And neither Alec or I have anything to worry about at all," Lisa mused out loud. She was smiling to herself in a genuinely happy way.

"Nope. Nothing on file against either of you. The Undersiders didn't stick around long enough to really get on the radar, although I suspect if you hadn't run into Raptaur you'd have ended up in a place where you'd have had trouble walking away from it. But we'll never know, now." Saurial grinned at her. "Considering all the things Über and Leet have done, which haven't stopped them turning their lives around, perhaps I'm wrong, though. Whatever, it's not important any more. Welcome to being productive members of society. Sort of."

"So, we can just walk out that gate any time we want, now?" Alec said slowly in a way that made it obvious he was trying to make sure there were no hidden traps.

She nodded. "Sure. And right back in again if you want. No one will keep you here, but no one will kick you out either."

"Cool," he replied, visibly thinking about the entire thing.

"What about Coil?" Brian asked, thinking about the last possible issue.

Saurial regarded him for a moment. "I'll need your promise that you won't spread what I'm going to tell you around..."

Brian looked back, then at his friends. Lisa immediately nodded, in a way that made him think she already knew whatever the scaly cape was going to say. He signaled his acceptance of the terms as well. Rachel wasn't far behind them in agreeing, not looking up from where she was stroking Angelica beside her chair. Alec sighed faintly. "Oh, all right. I'll keep quiet. All these secrets…"

Lisa poked him in the ribs and he grinned.

With a chuckle, Saurial nodded as well. "Good enough. It's not for public consumption since the PRT is still working the case and probably will be for months, but Coil isn't an issue any more. On Sunday, the PRT, with our help, took Coil and all his mercs down. They're all in custody, all his assets were seized, his base searched, and he's out of action for good. I can't say any more about it now, though."

Brian stared at her. Lisa was smiling again in a knowing manner, Alec was looking suspiciously at the blonde, and Rachel merely appeared pleased. "Shit. That's impressive. Hey, was that horrible stink something to do with that?"

"Can't tell you," she replied.

"I see." He regarded the lizard-girl, then looked at his friends. "So we can go back to our old base and see if anything's left?"

"You can. We've been keeping an eye on it discreetly, since we didn't want to tip off Coil's people until he was shut down, and I made sure it was secure. Everything should be there. Zephron said he's happy to get one of the trucks and help you clear it out."

"I can get my save-games!" Alec said with a wide grin, that slowly fell. "But I've already redone half of them… Meh, whatever, I'll have some spare consoles and the sofa was sweet. I want _that_."

"We have room," Saurial laughed.

"I want to check my apartment too," Lisa put in. "I know it's probably untouched, it was in a good area and we haven't been gone _that_ long, but there are some things I want even so."

"Will you move back there?" Brian asked curiously, turning to her. She looked indecisive, which was an unusual expression for her.

"I'm… not sure. I'll have to think about it. I like it here, and it's close to work..." She grinned when he chuckled. "But I had more privacy there." She tugged one ear gently as she thought, then shook her head. "Don't know right now."

"Well, whatever you decide, there's always room here for all of you." Saurial leaned back a little and indicated the room and by extension the rest of the DWU facility. "You're part of all of this and the DWU looks after its own. As does the Family. Just, as a favor to me, _please_ don't poke Lung again? I'm not sure I could persuade him to back off again and I don't want to have to kill him unless there's no choice."

All of them exchanged glances, and even Rachel smiled at her comment. "I think I can speak for everyone when I say ' _There's no way I'm going anywhere near that lunatic again if I can avoid it,_ '" Brian said vehemently.

"He's not that bad when you catch him in a reasonable mood," Saurial snickered.

"I wasn't aware he _had_ reasonable moods," Lisa retorted dryly. "What the _hell_ did you offer him to make him agree to this?"

Saurial looked smugly pleased. "A million dollars cash, a little more than eighty pounds of gold bars, and half an hour of unrestricted personal combat with Raptaur at a time and place to be determined." She watched all of them stare at her in total shock. "The funny thing is that in hindsight I think he might have gone for just the personal combat on its own. Live and learn, right?"

There was yet another long pause. Brian finally closed his mouth, shook his head, and stood up. "I'm not even going to ask for more details, knowing them would only freak me out. Thanks, more than I can say. For everything."

"You're entirely welcome, Brian. And the rest of you guys." She smiled at him. "You can contact Aisha and your dad now if you want."

"That _was_ what I was thinking about," he admitted.

"Go find Zephron and tell him I'm asking him to drive you over to your Dad's apartment if he doesn't mind," she suggested. "He won't, I talked to him about it earlier. Get that out of the way first. Family is important. Tomorrow you can get all your stuff from your old place."

Brian nodded, his mind slightly numb. All this had come out of the blue and his circumstances had abruptly changed in ways that were still sinking in. He regarded his friends, who were all looking thoughtful too. He could tell Lisa had genuinely been surprised by the revelations and was still mulling them over. Alec, for him, looked quite pleased and relieved, but he was always hard to read, since his emotional response was sort of low key at the best of times. Rachel, oddly, was looking a little worried. After a moment he realized one possible reason and walked over to her, crouching to look in her eyes. "Whatever happens, Rachel, we're not going to abandon you. I promise."

She peered back, searching his face, then nodded once before casting her gaze down to Angelica who was looking at her with her head cocked to the side. "Good," she said in a low voice. It was only one word but it expressed a lot.

Straightening up, he turned back to Saurial, who was watching them both with a sympathetic and rather knowing expression. "Thanks again."

"No problem, it was my pleasure. Go see your family. Say hi to them for me and get Aisha to show you the statue I made her."

A little puzzled, he stared for a moment, then nodded, turning to the door. "I'll see you guys later," he called as he headed for the exit. A few minutes later he was looking around the cafeteria for Zephron, the huge man grinning at him when their eyes met.

"Need a ride?"

"I do, as it happens," he replied, feeling surprisingly contented with life. Things definitely seemed to be working out well right now.

With any luck, he might be able to get his sister dealt with properly now, which would be a relief to him, her, their father, and probably the cops and the school too. The thought making him smile faintly, he followed the older man out of the room.

* * *

Lisa waited until Alec, who still seemed thoughtful, and Rachel, who was definitely looking happier than normal, both left the BBFO building and the door closed behind them, before she slowly turned to stare accusingly at Taylor. The Varga popped into existence beside her as Raptaur, grinned at both of them, and wandered off to annoy people on PHO for a while.

"How the _hell_ did you convince Lung to drop it, even _with_ close to two million dollars worth of cash and gold? And where did you get a million in cash in the first place?"

"Oh, right, I owe you guys about six hundred grand," Taylor snickered as she got up and headed for the fridge, pulling a couple of cans of coke out and tossing one to her, for once popping the tab on the other and drinking it normally. "And Linda another four hundred."

Lisa looked up at the top of Amy's workshop, then back at her friend, rather accusingly. "You stole our money?" she grumbled, looking peeved. "We worked really hard for that."

"The money _you_ stole in the first place. Yep. But I only borrowed it, I needed a lot of small bills in a hurry. And you have nothing to complain about, you ripped off Calvert for a hundred times as much at least."

Lisa smirked, suddenly happy again and holding up three fingers. " _Three_ hundred times as much. At least. I still haven't gone through all the property holdings and worked out the full values, there have been too many other things to do. Plus the DWU technically owns two construction companies now, not to mention a few other things that could come in handy."

Taylor laughed, finishing her coke then eating the can, before reverting to her base form and dropping into a chair, the end of her tail waving back and forth slowly. "So you don't need six hundred grand in used bills anyway."

"It's the principle of the thing," her friend said as she took another seat.

"Here, if it'll make you happy," Taylor chuckled as she handed Lisa a large block of pure gold.

"Oooh, shiny," the blonde cooed, cuddling the big lump of yellow metal. "You should do this. Make lots of gold."

"I don't want to crash the economy, like I've said in the past." Taylor shrugged. "You know as well as I do that the value of things like that," she indicated the gold brick, which was indeed about the size of an actual brick, "Are mostly a shared delusion. If people suddenly get the idea that there's an unlimited supply of the stuff that I'll just hand out when they ask, the value of gold would go through the floor overnight, regardless of whether I actually _made_ much of it or not. I'm not going to risk it. Same with most precious metals, gems, that sort of thing. They're for special purposes, not handing out like candy on a whim."

"And we counted as a special purpose?" Lisa asked with a smile.

"Of course you did, ' _cousin_ '," Taylor giggled. "Anything for family."

"Thanks." Lisa put the gold block on the table and rested her hand on it. "Don't worry about the cash, I'm only joking anyway."

"I know. I'd have asked you but I wanted it to be a surprise. I _will_ put it back when we get some more liquid funds in, it's always useful to have a cash reserve and you guys did steal it fair and square. Same with the stash we lifted from Skidmark, that's earmarked for Linda, but she won't miss it for now."

"It was definitely a surprise," Lisa said with a shake of her head. "I had no idea at all what you were doing."

"That was the whole point," Taylor replied. "It was easy enough. Varga came up with the idea, which is why he taught me Japanese. He showed me how to be… sort of formal, I guess, as well. How to speak in a manner he'd respect." They both looked over at the demon who was grinning to himself, trolling PHO again, which he seemed to enjoy more than he probably should have. "It worked. Lung looked very surprised at first, but he did listen, and I'm sure he'll keep his end of the bargain. The guy is… more complicated than I'd expected."

"Lung is in his own way an honorable man," the Varga said, still typing rapidly. "He has little patience for laws and rules that get in his way, but he will keep his word when he gives it. As I explained, he's in many ways a classic warlord type. Personal power and personal honor are paramount to him, above any normal politics. And we intrigue him. He's not sure what we are, what we want, or why we work the way we do. He also knows that he wouldn't do the same thing under the same circumstances, nor would most of the others he's come across over the years. Which explains some of his comments."

Glancing over his shoulder for a moment, the demon shrugged. "I suspect he feels that your willingness to take him head on showed a degree of respect for his own power that he appreciates, and reciprocates. The request for personal combat would tend to reinforce that idea. Regardless of the outcome, he will be satisfied if he feels that both of you did your best and didn't insult each other by holding back. I've come across that type many times."

"I remember from some of Princess Luna's experiences," Taylor nodded. Lisa looked at them both and wondered, not for the first time, what it was like to be able to remember the experiences of people who had passed on possibly millennia ago, and universes away. She didn't ask, though, since it was unlikely that either of them could explain it enough to really _explain_ it.

"Any idea where and when you're going to give him a kicking?" she asked after a moment. "Mostly so I can stay well out of the way, but partly so I can get some bets laid."

Taylor giggled. "I'm not sure you'll find anyone who will take those bets. No, I don't know when yet, it won't be in the immediate future since there are so many other things to do first. Where… Not sure, but we need to talk to Dragon soon anyway about lots of things so we could ask her for advice. I bet there's somewhere up north in Canada we could trash without anyone getting too worked up about it."

"Probably. I'll think about it myself and do a little research." Lisa leaned her chair back and propped her feet on the table. "You still surprise me all the time. I have to say I _did not_ see any of this coming."

"You're welcome, Lisa," Taylor smiled, doing the same thing. "It was my pleasure. I hope it goes well with Brian and his family. His father seems a decent enough guy and his sister is sort of amusing."

"Aisha is a little pain in the ass most of the time, but she's also a smart kid," the blonde replied. "I have to admit I like her. Even though she seems to go out of her way to be difficult."

"Says..." Taylor grinned at her.

"Oh, shut up, you're worse than Aisha and me put together," Lisa snickered. She looked at the time on the computer screen next to the one the Varga was annoying people on. "Amy's taking her time."

"She'll turn up sooner or later," Taylor shrugged, changing back to Saurial. "Let's go and see how the boys are getting on."

"OK." Both of them got up, the demon joining them moments later, and all three went off to see what the newest DWU members were doing. The gold brick, left on the table, silently evaporated into thin air a short while later.

* * *

Aisha got off the sofa, where she'd been watching a movie on the TV, and stomped over to the door mumbling to herself in annoyance. "Forgot your keys, didn't you!" she said loudly. Her father had gone out a little earlier to get some stuff from the convenience shop on the next block and it wouldn't be the first time he'd managed that. Unlocking the door she yanked it open, adding, "Considering how many times you've done it I'd have thought that..."

She stopped talking abruptly when she realized that the guy on the other side of the door grinning at her wasn't her dad. But it _was_ someone she was very familiar with.

" _Brian!_ " she yelped, after a couple of seconds of shock, smiling widely until she managed to get herself under control. Forcing the smile off her face, she glared severely at him. "Where the _hell_ have you been?"

"Working, little pain in the ass," he replied, reaching out and ruffling her hair, which he knew full well she hated. Pushing his hand away she smoothed it down again, then stepped back.

"I guess you'd better come in, then," she told him.

"If you're busy, I can come back..." He looked at her with a glint of humor.

"Get in here, you asshole," she snapped, reaching out and grabbing him by the belt, then yanking hard. He made a funny sound of surprise and followed her urging. Slamming the door behind him, she walked around to look him in the eye from the more than a foot difference in their heights. "Fucker," she snarled, planting a fist in his gut like their dad had taught both of them. Taken unawares, he grunted in pain, although she was aware she'd done minimal damage. The big guy was _very_ solidly built.

"What was _that_ for?" he asked, sounding slightly winded.

She glared fiercely at him, then suddenly wrapped her arms around him and squeezed, resting her head on his chest. "I thought you'd really gotten into trouble, you big idiot," she sighed, sniffling for a moment. "Then when that crazy lizard turned up… That was really fucking strange."

"Language, Aisha," he remarked, but there was no heat in it. He put his hands on her shoulders and pushed her gently back so he could see her face. "I'm sorry. Really. I didn't want to worry you."

"Worry me?" She let go of him and affected an unconcerned air, wandering back to the sofa and throwing herself onto it, bouncing a couple of times. "You didn't worry me. I was just… just..."

He sat beside her and pushed her a little. "Just what?"

"Pissed," she finally said, pushing back. "You said you'd visit and you didn't. I don't like being lied to."

"I didn't lie to you," he protested, still smiling. "I was… unavoidably detained."

Giving him a narrow-eyed glare, she waited.

"For a while. Nothing I could do about it. Honest."

"Yeah, right," she growled. "Couldn't even call me? You had to send an insane reptile to freak me out instead? What's that all about? How did you meet _Saurial_ of all people? And why's _she_ doing favors for _you?_ "

They both looked up, just as he was about to say something, at the sound of a key in the lock. Their father walked in and stopped dead when he saw Brian sitting on the couch. After a few seconds, he wordlessly pushed the door shut behind him, put the bag of groceries he was carrying down on the small table just inside the entrance, and removed his coat which he hung up in the closet on the other side of the hall. Retrieving the bag, he headed past them to the kitchen.

"We're having spaghetti," the elder man said as he went into the other room. "Aisha, set the table. Brian, take your coat off, and wash the dishes."

Brother and sister looked at each other, then went to do the relevant tasks.

The conversation they had over the meal was a little odd. When Brian left some time later, she extracted a promise from him not to stay away so long, to introduce her to some more of the Family, and to be careful.

Lying in bed in the dark she stared at the ceiling for a while, then closed her eyes, a small smile on her lips.

He might be an idiot, but he was her idiot, and she was relieved he was both safe and apparently enjoying himself.

* * *

Zephron lowered the book he was reading and looked over as the young man opened the door and got into the passenger seat. Finishing his coffee he crushed the cup in his hand and dropped it into the paper bag his doughnuts had come in, balling the entire thing up then flipping it over his shoulder into the rear seat. Turning the interior light off, he started the truck. "Go well?" he asked as he put the vehicle in drive.

Brian, who was looking both thoughtful and fairly content, nodded. "Yes, thanks. Not bad at all."

"Your old man happy to see you?"

"Difficult to tell with him, sometimes," Brian replied, watching the road they were driving along, heading back towards the DWU. "I think so, though. He didn't shout which is probably a good thing."

"The money probably helped." Brian glanced at him, making him smile a little as he caught the motion out of the corner of his eye. "No, she didn't tell me, but you're a good kid, you'd have had her pass some cash on when she went to tell your family you were OK."

The boy nodded, going back to looking out the windscreen. "What about your sister? Aisha, right?"

"Yeah. She… was annoyed." Brian rubbed his stomach ruefully, making Zephron grin. "And has a hell of a punch for such a small girl."

"But I guess was also pleased."

"I… yeah, I think she was. She seemed happy, which is good."

"It is. Always best to keep your sister in a good mood." They exchanged a glance, then both chuckled.

"Thanks for helping like this."

"No problem, Brian. Like I said, you're a good kid. And one of us, not to mention a friend of Saurial's. I don't mind."

Both of them fell silent as he kept driving, but when he looked over a little later, Brian was definitely looking happier than he had been for a while. Pleased, since he liked the young man, Zephron went back to paying attention to his task, while wondering how Danny was doing with _his_ family reunion.

* * *

"I need a drink."

Rudy looked at Benny, who was feeling very much like he shouldn't have gotten out of bed that morning, before nodding. "Liquor store about half a mile way."

"That'll do."

"Get a crate of the good beer this time," his friend said as he indicated, then turned towards the source of alcohol.

When they arrived, he parked outside the store. Benny got out. "Be right back," he said as he did so. Walking into the shop, he looked around, then headed to the beer section, grabbing a twelve-pack of a brand he liked. Heading towards the till, he put it on the counter and reached for his wallet as the clerk looked at him.

"Hey, small world, isn't it?" A horribly familiar voice spoke from right behind him. Benny, his heart feeling like it had just stopped out of sheer terror, turned his head very slowly and looked over his shoulder at the smiling face of Boss Hebert, who was holding a bottle of expensive wine. The dreadful man held it up.

"I thought I'd take a nice red to Tony's tonight," he explained, although Benny wished he wouldn't. He _didn't want to know._ "I thought I remembered this place, even though I haven't been here for years." Glancing around, he added, "Seems pretty much the same." Putting the bottle on the counter, he pulled out his own wallet. "Here, let me treat you to that, Benny."

"That's not..." Benny managed.

"No, it's no problem," Boss Hebert smiled. "After that fright you got it's the least I can do. We wouldn't want you to go home unhappy, would we?"

He handed the clerk, who was watching without much interest, the relevant amount of cash. "Keep the change," he added.

"Thanks, man," the guy said, putting it in the till and slamming the drawer shut, then going back to his magazine, ignoring them completely.

"Well, I'd better be on my way," Boss Hebert said with a look at his watch. "I don't want to be late. See you around, Benny." He smiled again, his eyes clear and focused on Benny's face, then turned and left.

Benny waited long enough to hear an engine start, then recede into the distance, before he picked up the crate of beer in shaking hands and went out as well. Getting into the car, he stared at the wall of the shop in front of them.

"What's up?" Rudy asked, looking curiously at his motionless friend.

"Boss Hebert doesn't follow you," Benny said hoarsely, leaning back and closing his eyes. "Because he's _always already there. Waiting..._ "

There was a long silence. Eventually Clara leaned forward between the seats and poked the crate he was holding in his lap. "How many of these did you drink in there, Benny?" she asked suspiciously.

Benny merely sighed, trying to work out just how and when his life had turned into a horror story.


	336. Interlude - The job is finally over, let

Everyone in the lobby of the fairly expensive but also very discreet hotel, a business that catered mainly to a clientele that didn't want anyone discussing their mere presence never mind their movements, stared at the four people who trailed through towards the elevators.

All of them were in various costumes, which wasn't at all unusual here. It went with the territory.

Two of them didn't look particularly standard-issue either. One was slender, had orange skin, a long tail, and odd-looking blue eyes. Not to mention a scowl you'd need a crowbar to remove from his face.

The other one was a slightly translucent-skinned, very heavy man, bald, with odd skin excrescences, who was muttering to himself in something other than English. He did not look pleased.

The remaining pair were both female, one probably quite young, the other in her early twenties based on the little that could be made out of her appearance. The young one was slumped and appeared very tired, and was being helped along by the lizard-like orange boy, who couldn't have been more than sixteen or seventeen himself. The older one was, even though no one could see her face through the welder's mask over it, palpably fuming.

Everyone who stood between them and the elevator they were heading for moved out of the way with some alacrity. They didn't give the impression of people who intended to slow down or stop.

Even that wasn't the odd thing. Again, it wasn't uncommon to find dangerous and even furious people both coming in and leaving from here. The reception staff were used to it, and knew what to do if trouble broke out. It seldom repeated itself.

No, the thing that stood out, and made everyone move hastily to the side, was the smell.

And the slime.

The faint glowing of the latter didn't help.

All four of them were utterly covered in it. The young man on the reception desk peered over it at the sets of footprints that were being left in the carpet, which appeared to be slowly bleaching where the foul stuff landed, sighed faintly, and called for housekeeping. He was far too professional to hold his nose like most of the other witnesses were, but he dearly wished he could.

The smell really was fairly appalling. Beyond that it was impossible to describe with accuracy.

"Never again." The obese bald man spoke as they reached the elevator. "I mean it. Never. No amount of money is worth… what happened."

"We were never going to speak of it again," the orange youth snapped, glaring at his compatriot.

The man shrugged. "I merely wanted to make sure my views were heard."

The currently silent older woman wordlessly poked the elevator button as the audience watched with rapt attention. "OK. Fine. I agree, never again. Now we will never talk about it again. Got me?" The boy seemed very insistent about this point.

"Agreed."

As the doors slid open the boy sighed loudly. "A shower. And some TV. Two months without either is too much."

"I admit I would like to catch up on the news. And a shower wouldn't go amiss."

"Pff. News. Why, who cares?"

"You never know, something important might have happened." The older man followed his companions into the elevator. "We were hardly in a position to find out recently."

"I doubt anything interesting happened in only two months," the boy retorted. "Compared to what happened to us, of course."

"How is this never mentioning..."

"Shut up. I just want a shower, and a bed."

The doors started to close behind them, the sound of the big man cut off mid-chuckle. Everyone stared at the elevator for a few more seconds, then business reasserted itself. Housekeeping turned up, the man and woman representing this service gaping with dismay at the job ahead of them, while the man at the desk went back to his own job. 

* * *

Newter leaned against the wall of his shower cubicle and sighed in relief as the water, as hot as he could stand, ran down his back and along his tail. After a couple of minutes just luxuriating in the sensation, he grabbed the bottle of mint body-wash and squirted a generous handful into his palm, taking the bottle from his other hand with the end of his prehensile tail when he'd done that. Rubbing his hands together for a moment, he began scrubbing himself.

For the third time.

"I hate this job sometimes," he grumbled under his breath, applying more of the soapy substance to his hair, which was still matted down with the disgusting crap. "I hate the cold, I hate chemical Tinkers, I hate people who think it's a good idea to put traps in the ceiling filled with whatever the fuck this is, and I completely hate underground bases. Who the hell lives in one? And how did that lunatic make one _that big?!_ "

He rinsed himself again, and started to wash his hair for the fourth and hopefully last time. "Fucking seven weeks in the middle of nowhere in Alaska, only to have another solid week poking around underground looking for something _that wasn't fucking there in the first place!_ " The young man sighed heavily, rubbing his head vigorously. The horrible goop had finally washed out, but he could see from his reflection in the glass shower screen that his hair was much paler than it should have been.

"Time to dye it again, I guess," he decided. Turning around he flicked the lever that controlled the water with his tail, shutting it off, then slid the door open. Shortly afterwards he was standing in front of the mirror by the sink brushing his teeth, after which he went back into the room he and Gregor shared. The two women in their group were in the next room.

He found his friend and co-worker watching the TV, his eyes appearing a little glassy. Looking at the device, he frowned. "Hey, I didn't know they'd made another Godzilla movie," he commented on his way past. There was no reply from the older man. Opening his suitcase he rummaged through it looking for something clean to wear. The clothes they'd been in when they'd come in were now in a double set of garbage bags, heading for the nearest incinerator he suspected.

Pulling the towel he'd had around his waist away, he dropped it on the bed, then put on a pair of modified jeans, followed by a t-shirt. Combing his hair before putting it into a ponytail, he flopped onto the bed face-down and put his head under the pillow. "Thank god _that's_ over," he moaned in relief. "I just want to go home."

The music from the movie Gregor was watching got louder for a moment, then faded. He frowned to himself, that was awfully similar to the sound-track from ' _Pacific Rim_.' Apparently Hollywood was even less creative recently than it had been before. "Turn it down, Gregor, I need to rest. Bathroom's free, as well."

Again, there was no response. He sighed. Sometimes the older guy was annoyingly quiet.

Newter rolled over, pulling the pillow down around his ears. He wanted to sleep, but he was also starving, and weirdly, considering the last couple of months, bored. He was looking forward to going back to Brockton and the club. A couple of girls he knew would undoubtedly be up for some fun, which he desperately needed. And Elle was certainly going to require some decompressing time, the poor girl had worked her ass off on this job.

Now the TV produced a massed roar from a crowd of thousands, or something along those lines. Moments later there was the sound of someone speaking, over the noise of a helicopter, based on what he could hear. Idly wondering what movie it actually was he sighed again.

"Go shower and turn that off, will you?" he requested in a muffled voice. "Why would you even want to watch a movie before washing that crap off?"

There was a pause of a few seconds, in which more odd sounds came from the TV, before footsteps were followed by his pillow being yanked away. A large hand, still wearing a glove covered in yuck, grabbed his shoulder and pulled him upright before he had a chance to resist.

"Hey!" he yelped in shock. "What the hell, man? What's the problem?"

Gregor wordlessly pushed him to stand in front of the TV.

"That," the other man said, simply but eloquently. "That right there is the problem."

Newter looked at the TV, then his friend, puzzled. Then he looked back at the TV again, tipping his head to the side a little. It showed a scene where the Godzilla creature was swimming through the water with a huge ship following it, shot from above and to the side. Based on the apparent size of the vessel, which appeared to be some sort of oil tanker, the creature was at least a hundred feet long.

He squinted.

"Fuck, that CGI is some of the best I've ever seen," he said, momentarily involved in the images. "What's this one called?"

The camera in the aircraft, apparently a helicopter, moved slightly as the giant lizard looked around, the thing appearing oddly amused. He grinned at the way the animators had managed to make such an inhuman face easily convey human-like emotions. It was very well done.

Then he focused on the background that the shot now showed, of the bank of what was some sort of river or bay. There was something about it…

"Why are there so many people just standing there watching the monster?" he asked curiously. "Weird movie. Normally people would be screaming and running and shooting and shit. What's the plot… supposed..." He trailed off, before leaning closer.

There was a silence between them for some moments.

Newter pointed at the screen.

"That's the PRT building."

"It is."

"The PRT building in Brockton Bay."

"Yes."

" _Our_ Brockton Bay."

"Correct."

Another few seconds passed in silence.

"Why did they set a monster movie in _Brockton Bay_ of all places?"

Gregor put his hand over his face and sighed heavily, waiting for the next thought to process.

"Holy _fucking_ ** _shit!_** "


	337. Interlude - You CAN go home But shoul

"What do we do?"

Newter looked at their leader, the woman known in public as ' _Faultline_ ,' then turned back to the TV. All four of them were in her and Elle's room, the older woman having plugged her laptop into the TV on the wall so everyone could see it. She was currently playing a number of videos pulled off the web, showing the exploits of the Parahuman group called ' _The Family_ ' which seemed to have come out of nowhere while they'd been on their mission. Now, the group appeared to be deeply embedded into Brockton Bay in almost every way one could think of, and quite a few he'd never even considered.

Gregor was reading something on his phone, looking up at the TV every now and then, while Elle was watching the videos with a curiously focused attention that was a little odd. Melanie, their boss, friend, and leader, clicked on another video.

This one was very recent, only a few days old, and showed an honest-to-god walking mech right out of a computer game running around what he recognized as the DWU yard at a ridiculously high speed. The background shots of the yard itself showed it was much larger than he remembered, and a number of the old warehouses in the area seemed to be missing. There was also an obviously brand new fence around the entire thing, while he could also see a long train of rail cars, all of which appeared full of cut up metal. Just at the sea wall was the remains of the ship that this ' _Kaiju_ ' creature had towed there in the report that Gregor had found on the TV in their room, that ship being the tanker than had been blocking the entrance to the bay for something like fifteen or twenty years.

He shivered a little, remembering the information they'd quickly found on Kaiju. She was fucking _enormous_ , nearly a hundred feet tall, and if PHO was to be believed, probably five hundred tons or more in weight. But even with all that, she moved so fast it was impossible to believe. He felt faint when he though about how strong she must be to even stand up, never mind being able to move faster than many Brutes built on a more human scale.

He couldn't figure out where so many reptilian capes of such enormously disparate sizes had come from. One called Saurial was the first, arriving just after they'd left town for the job they'd finished earlier. A little while later, her sister Raptaur turned up, and promptly curb-stomped _Hookwolf_ of all people so hard Newter was pretty sure he was still feeling it.

And she'd made it look _easy…_

He shivered again. That was flat out terrifying.

Then Kaiju popped up, somehow connected like the rest of them were to the DWU and that Danny Hebert guy who seemed to run the place. He and Mayor Christner had come to some arrangement, it looked like, since the Mayor was way too pleased with himself not to have been in on it for a while. Apparently this Family was going to help clean up the bay and the Ship's Graveyard, the DWU doing the bulk of the work, which wasn't something he'd ever expected to see happen. That tanker was the first, and very spectacular, move in the process. Probably at least as much for the publicity as the work itself, he suspected.

Some time later two more turned up, Ianthe and Metis, apparently cousins. Then this cat-woman Tinker Vectura just the other day, with her mech, and there were even rumors that Über and Leet had joined them, or were at least associated with them in some way. Not to mention the Undersiders who had disappeared somewhere in the docks area after some sort of interaction with Lung and the ABB. Normally that would just mean that Lung had killed them, or Oni Lee, but in this case _Oni Lee_ had ended up dead and Lung had dropped off the radar completely. No one seemed to know what had happened, although there were an awful lot of theories on PHO.

He couldn't believe that a mere two months or so could have changed things that much back home. It was insane. Yet the evidence was all over the web. News reports, PHO and YouTube postings and videos, even things from other countries about it. Several governments seemed to be quietly freaking out about Kaiju from what they'd read so far but no one seemed ready to do anything other than stare in horror yet.

And even the _Triumvirate_ had apparently decided not to interfere after talking to Kaiju. _That_ was even _worse_.

Mel played another video, this one showing yet another new cape called ' _Cloak_ ' who was at least as weird as the reptiles, and was somehow connected to them. She was wandering around ten feet off the ground like she was walking on the road, giving some muggers a very unpleasant experience while laughing in an eerie hissing voice.

Newter sweated a bit. It went right down his abnormally long spine, that sound.

 **"I** t would appear that things have changed considerably in our absence," Gregor commented, scrolling through something on his phone with the flick of a finger. "Much more rapidly than I would have thought likely."

"Looks like it," Mel agreed, her aquiline features fixed in an expression of concentration and thought. "There's definitely some new players in the game and they're heavy hitters."

"Without any real battles they've entirely neutralized the E88 and the ABB from what I can determine," he added in a way that was almost admiring. "Their only real fight, if you can call it that considering how one-sided it was, was with the Merchants."

"That was more of a pest control operation," she snorted, bringing up the relevant video. "Very well done, I admit."

"What do we _do_ , though?" Newter asked again, a little plaintively. "Do we go home? Do we stay here? What?"

"I like the lizards," Elle said without looking away from the TV. "They're pretty."

Everyone looked at her for a moment. Then each other, before deciding that there was no good answer for the young girl's comment. Mel reached out and stroked her hair for a second, then picked up her phone. She dialed a number as Elle lay on her stomach and propped her chin on her hands, appearing weirdly happy as she smiled faintly at the screen.

"Benjamin," Mel said a moment later, having put the phone down on the table and tapped the speaker icon. "Talk to me. What the _hell_ is going on in Brockton these days?"

The voice of the Palaquin night club manager, the guy who looked after their affairs when they were off on jobs, and was a first rate intelligence source as well, came out of the device. " _You've missed a lot while you've been away_ ," he remarked, almost sounding amused. " _How did the mission go?_ "

"We don't want to talk about it," Newter shouted. Mel cast a warning glance at him and he subsided, grumbling a little under his breath.

"Newter is right, it wasn't one of our proudest moments," she sighed. "I'll tell you later. We only just found out about this ' _Family_ ' group half an hour ago. What on _earth_ is going on back home?"

They could virtually hear the shrug in his voice. _"Your guess is as good as mine, Faultline. No one really knows much, most of the stuff on-line is a guess more than anything else. The Family don't talk all that much about their origins or anything like that. Metis and Ianthe have PHO accounts and seem prepared to discuss certain things but they're very tight-lipped about anything that could be considered private. Good security. As far as I know Saurial, Raptaur, and Kaiju don't have any presence on-line although Saurial and Raptaur have both been in the background of a couple of photos Ianthe took. This new Tinker Vectura, no one knows anything about her at all so far, same for Cloak. Although in_ ** _her_** _case there is a_ ** _lot_** _of video of her doing weird things. The tourists really seem to like her for some reason_."

"And none of these people are starting fights or going after the gangs?" Mel asked, sounding a little confused.

" _Not really, no,_ " Ben replied. " _I mean, you start something around any of them, they'll fucking finish it for you, that much is true. Hookwolf found_ ** _that_** _out the hard way._ "

"We saw," Gregor called. "And were impressed."

Ben chuckled. " _I can understand that, brother. Couldn't have happened to a nicer psychopath. Word is that Kaiser was absolutely furious about it, and when Kaiju turned up and scared the shit out of the entire city, passed on the word that the DWU, the Family, and any of their friends were completely off limits. Couple of his boys have tried things and he came down on them like a freight train, I'm told. He's been on holiday for a couple of weeks, just got back. Guess he probably needed time to recover_."

"Understandable," Mel nodded. "And Lung?"

" _No idea, sorry. He's gone totally quiet, more than ever before. Rumors are that he's been seen in a few places, including in a pub on the Docks, which seems pretty unlikely. Just drinking and playing cards. It's pretty weird. I did hear that he might have met with Saurial a couple of days ago at Somer's Rock but I can't say if that's true or not, I don't have anything more on that yet_."

"Interesting." Their leader scratched her chin, thinking visibly.

" _Got one bit of news you'll like, though_ ," Ben went on. He sounded amused.

"Which is?"

" _Coil's gone_."

Mel froze, then looked hard at the phone. "Is that a fact…?"

" _Yeah. Talked to a guy I know in the PRT. They had some massive operation on Sunday, some sort of chemical spill or something. Worst fucking stink you've ever smelled. Shut down the entire center of the city and evacuated it for hours. I'm thinking that either it was something that Coil did that went really badly wrong, or it was a cover for some covert operation. Anyway, end result is that apparently practically the entire PRT, the local Protectorate, Legend, Dragon,_ ** _and_** _the Family all jumped him at once. His base was right in the middle of the fucking commercial district, underground, if you can believe that. Bastard didn't stand a chance. They've got him, all his mercs, all his data, and everything else locked up in the PRT building and are probably dancing with glee by now_."

There was silence for some time, then Mel started laughing, sounding very pleased. "I always hated that bastard. Hats off to the PRT and I never thought I'd say _that_."

" _Thought you'd like it. No one liked the fucker. Not many people know yet, it hasn't hit the public, and from what I was told, it's not going to for a while. Probably best to keep it quiet, I don't think Piggot has any sense of humor about that guy at all._ "

"I think there's some sort of history there," Mel said.

" _Dunno, but that woman can sure hold a grudge. Coil's fucked. No one is going to even think of trying to help him escape, he burned all his bridges months ago._ "

"Good." She fell silent for a moment, then asked, "Any danger in us coming back?"

Ben was also silent for a couple of seconds, taking his time to reply. " _I… doubt it. The Family keep to themselves most of the time. Anyone who fucks with their friends, the DWU, anything like that, they're going to regret it, but other than that so far as long as you don't commit a serious crime right in front of them they ignore you. Weird people. But everyone knows it. Hasn't stopped most of the locals either retiring or going on holiday for a while. Street crime is apparently lower now than it's been since Marquis was around. Probably less that that, even."_ He chuckled again. _"They don't_ ** _need_** _to fight people, no one wants to find out what they'd do if they got mad. They're bad enough when they're just having fun._ "

Mel nodded slowly. "I can understand that, having seen the videos. I wonder what that means for business?"

" _If you keep to avoiding any local jobs, if anything it'll probably be good for it_ ," Ben replied. " _I know you don't like to take on work in Brockton anyway, but I'd say you_ ** _really_** _don't want to from now on. Just in case._ "

"I see." The black-haired woman thought some more. "Any word on the Undersiders?"

" _No. No one's seen them since that time Lung went after them and Oni Lee ended up dead. I have no idea what happened, but the word is that the PRT put it down as suicide, for what it's worth_."

"Going after the Family probably counts as that," she remarked. He snickered.

" _Might be. Or maybe he fucked up with those grenades he liked, or something. Don't know. But he's in the ground, Lung is the only ABB cape left as far as anyone knows. And he's either retired or is taking time off too. E88 are hiding somewhere, Merchants except for Skids and Mush are gone too, Squealer's dead, Undersiders have disappeared, Über and Leet seem to have joined the Family from what I hear, Circus fucked off weeks ago in a hell of a hurry, most of the other independents have done the same or just gone dark..._ "

"That's a very large change in only two months," Gregor said, sounding astounded.

" _It is. And the really funny thing, or maybe weird thing, is the way it just sort of… happened,_ " Ben replied. His voice sounded bemused. " _Except for the Merchants, and I guess Coil, the rest of it was almost accidental. And even there it wasn't an attack, it was a counter-attack. Everyone knew Skids is trying to set up something to hurt them, they shut his organization down flat along with the PRT and the cops. Coil… I don't know what happened there but rumors are that the PRT asked for their help. The cops seem to think they're the best thing ever, even Piggot seems to respect them, but they aren't going looking for trouble at all. Doesn't stop them finding it, of course, not around here, but there's a lot less of it than you'd think_."

"What about Skidmark?" Mel asked curiously. "From the reports I've read there are a lot of people looking for him."

" ** _Everyone_** _is looking for that bastard,_ " Ben said. " _Massive reward out for him, from everyone from the FBI to the fucking mafia! It's just crazy. But no one seems to know where the idiot is, although everyone knows he'll turn up at the worst possible moment and make a fool of himself. Then get eaten or something._ "

Elle giggled, making her friends glance at her again with quizzical looks. She didn't say anything, though, so they went back to listening to their comrade across the country.

" _The biggest weird thing right now, though, is the Parahuman who's apparently after Hebert's daughter. Lots of people talking about that. The PRT are at Arcadia where the girl goes, and Saurial is her personal bodyguard._ "

"Any idea who it is?"

" _Not yet. I'm still working on that_."

"I see." Mel leaned back in her chair with a small sigh. "Life is very strange sometimes."

" _Tell me about it. You guys haven't seen the weirdness up close yet. Trust me, it's a lot more peculiar than you think it is._ " He was quiet for a moment, then added, " _Hey, Newter, think they're your long-lost relatives or something?_ "

Everyone in the room looked at the orange boy, who froze. "Um..." He looked around. "Noo…?" After a long moment, he added weakly, "I think?"

" _How would you know?_ " Ben said slyly. " _You can't remember anything. Maybe you're Saurial's little brother or something. She's said she's got a lot of relatives and they keep turning up._ "

"I don't have scales," Newter replied quickly, very embarrassed.

" _But you have a tail. She has a tail. You're sort of like a lizard. She's a lizard. You.._."

"Oh, shut up, Ben," Newter yelped, while Elle inspected him closely, her head tilted and a definite look of amusement in her eyes which were much more focused than they often were. Ben laughed for a moment.

" _Just yanking your chain, bro. But maybe there is something there. Might be worth asking if nothing else._ "

"Have they said anything about Case 53s?" Mel asked intently.

" _Nope. Or, more accurately, I was told a while ago that when Saurial first met the Wards one of them asked her about it and she said she wasn't one and could remember her entire life. Don't have any more on that, though, it was just an idle comment from a guy I know in the PRT. Sorry_."

"Don't worry about it. Thanks, Benjamin." Mel thought again, looking at her watch. "We're going to relax for a few days and unwind, this mission was not only a bust but an expensive and tiring one. The client is going to get a very large bill. I'm minded to add a ' _don't fuck me around_ ' surcharge to it." That made Ben laugh again, since her voice was completely disgusted. Newter knew exactly why. "We'll be back on Monday. See if you can find out any more about any of this, I'm curious, and it's best to know the situation you're entering."

" _Got it, Boss. I'll see what I can find out. Might cost, though_."

"That's fine, within reason."

" _OK. Take care, bring back some souvenirs or something._ "

"I'll see what I can do," she smiled, before tapping the disconnect icon. "Well. Home does seem to have had some interesting things happen to it."

"Implausibly so," Gregor nodded. "I wonder where these people come from?"

"This guy says they're demons," Newter said, pointing at the screen where Elle, who had taken over the laptop, was scrolling through some PHO threads and giggling under her breath. "Or aliens. Or demonic aliens."

"That _has_ to be Void Cowboy," Mel commented without looking, from where she was staring at the table and her phone, obviously mulling over the information they'd received.

"How did you know?" Newter asked wryly, reading the various posts.

"Experience," she sighed. He snickered.

"Oh, look, now he's saying they're alien demons..."

"Someone needs to find that kid and shut him the hell up for everyone's sanity," their leader grumbled, picking her phone up and putting it in her pocket. "I'm going to lie down for a while and think about this. We'll go out for something to eat this evening."

"OK, Mel," Gregor replied.

"Keep the children quiet, please," she added, smiling a little as Newter scowled at her. Elle didn't seem to notice, as engaged in reading the thread as she was.

"That's difficult at the best of times," the large man grinned.

"Hey!" Newter scowled more fiercely, which didn't seem to help. Gregor merely chuckled and went back to his phone. In the end Newter lay on the floor next to his younger friend and they read the latest idiocies out of the virtual mouth of the Cowboy of the Void, both of them laughing every now and then.

The guy really didn't seem to know anything about _anything_ , not that that stopped him having an opinion which he was more than happy to share with the world... 

* * *

Mel woke from a light doze on her bed to the sound of her phone making little twittering sounds at her, the ring tone for a number not otherwise assigned to a contact. That was slightly unusual, since she didn't give that number out to anyone she wasn't dealing with, and they got assigned unique sounds.

Reaching out she picked up off the bedside table and looked at it, seeing it was about four hours after her conversation with her club manager. The number shown had a Brockton Bay prefix, but she didn't recognize it. After a couple of seconds thought, she prodded the call connect icon with her thumb and put the device to her ear. "Hello?"

" _Hello, Faultline,_ " a voice that sounded familiar although she couldn't immediately place it. " _I understand you've finished your most recent job and are coming home._ "

The voice was male, very smooth and confident, and with a slight current of amusement under it. After a few more seconds she recognized it with a jolt of shock and mild confusion.

"Mayor Christner." Her own voice was flat, not giving anything away.

" _Quite_ ," he said. The amusement was a little more obvious in the word.

"How did you get this number?" she asked after a short pause.

" _I have my sources, as you do, my dear young lady_."

"More to the point, _why_ do you have this number?" she asked, not sure she liked being called young lady, although the way he said it wasn't in any way insulting or demeaning. He sounded if anything somewhat respectful, oddly enough.

" _I merely wanted to have a quick chat. I understand that you're going to be returning to our fair city shortly, as I said. You may have already discovered that there have been a number of… changes… to the overall social dynamic in Brockton Bay during your absence_."

"The Family," she replied. "Hard to miss hundred foot tall lizards pulling ships around the place." Her voice was now rather dry, causing him to chuckle for a second.

 _"Yes, that one did rather leave an impression. Favorable, to my relief. Overall things are going very smoothly here at present_." He paused, then added, his voice not altering tone at all, " _I would prefer that doesn't change_."

She thought quickly. The subtext was clear and easy to read, but her response required a little care. "You know we don't take local jobs, Mayor Christner," she replied carefully after a couple of seconds.

" _I am aware of your aversion to… shall we say, '_ ** _fouling one's own doorstep?_** _'_ " he said, sounding thoughtful himself. " _A sensible attitude that I wish more people would learn. All I'm saying is that it would probably be in your best interests to ensure that this doesn't change. Speaking as your Mayor, of course. City hall is fully behind local businesses that are responsible and civic-minded. With the recent changes to the city, I feel this is more important than ever, since we seem to have been gifted an opportunity to improve the lot of every Brocktonian_."

"I thought it was Brocktonite?" she couldn't help saying.

" _Opinion is divided on the subject_ ," he said. " _One day we really should work it out properly. That aside, none of us want to risk anything that would prevent the economic and cultural recovery of our city, do we?_ "

His voice was still calm and amused, but she got the message loud and clear.

"No, I don't think we do. Brockton Bay is my home as well, Mayor."

" _I'm very glad to hear that. And call me Roy, my dear, there's no need to stand on ceremony between two friends_."

" _Are_ we friends?" she asked carefully.

" _I suspect that for most purposes the answer to that would be yes. Or, at a minimum, people who can work together with mutual respect for the complexities of their own and each other's jobs._ " His tone was now slightly pleased. " _I'm glad we had a chance to talk like this. Perhaps we'll meet at some point. In any case, I hope you and your people have had a successful time and have a good trip home. Goodbye, Faultline_."

"Goodbye… Roy," she said, feeling both confused and just a little worried. The phone connection went silent and she put the thing down slowly, then spent some time staring at it and thinking.

Eventually she got up and changed, before heading out to take her team for a very well deserved meal.


	338. Ethics and Antonio

_This chapter builds on and incorporates elements that Ed Becerra came up with, and surrounds the guest addition "Strange Visitor From Another..."_

 _It may be helpful to read that again, if you haven't already, when you encounter the correct point in this. You'll know it when you see it..._

* * *

Danny put his phone away, having spent a few minutes letting his daughter know everything was going well and he'd met some new friends of his own. She'd passed on the results of the PRT testing for Linda, which seemed to have gone superbly, at least from their point of view. And mentioned that ' _Saurial_ ' had, as she put it, ' _sorted out_ ' the last of the problems with Lisa and her friends vis-a-vis a certain local threat. He was rather curious to find out what exactly that meant, but didn't think now and here was the best time and place.

He had a horrible feeling whatever it was she'd done with the aid of her demonic friend was going to make him go pale…

On the whole, though, it didn't seem that so far at least things back home had spiraled out of control in the way he'd somewhat worried they would. He didn't know if that made him less nervous, or _more_ nervous.

Deciding that there was nothing he could do one way or the other and that there were enough people to deal with it anyway, he got out of the chair by the window and used the facilities. After a shower and a change of clothes into something more suitable for dinner with Antonio, he put his coat on, slipped the bottle of quite expensive wine he'd bought into one of the pockets where it disappeared without trace, and left the room.

He was hoping that tonight would go well. Even so, he felt a little worried about how Antonio would greet him, considering how they'd parted so long ago. Hopefully, with the passage of time, things would work out. After all, the old man had reached out to _him._

He'd find out soon enough.

* * *

"You're joking." The tone of voice was flat yet still conveyed shock.

"No, I'm not," Amy replied, looking around the table at the faces gaping at her. "These things do indeed do exactly what I told you."

They were in the conference room attached to the hospital administrator's office complex, ' _they_ **'** being the administrator himself, the heads of the general medicine, endocrinology, and infectious disease departments, and several people from the legal department including Marine Vachon who was the lead legal counsel for the hospital. There were also three other doctors including Doctor Eriksen, her friend from the trauma department, and Doctor Hernandez who was her main point of contact in general healing work. The final person was the chief medical bioethicist, Doctor Caffon.

She turned back to Doctor Phipps, the head of General Medicine and the one who had spoken. "The healing spore seeks out and repairs any injury, disease, or abnormality that the patient has. It can correct genetic faults, repairing the DNA throughout the body. It will regrow lost limbs or organs, fix broken bones, regenerate neural tissue, remove tumors of any kind… all subject to available biomass and resources, of course."

"And if the patient does _not_ have the required resources?" Doctor Dias, the Endocrinology head, asked with a fascinated look on his face.

"It puts them into a deep state of hibernation, effectively biological stasis, until the resources are available," she replied, looking at him. "Ianthe thinks, and I agree based on some tests, that it could probably keep someone alive for several years at least like that, if necessary cannibalizing non-essential systems to preserve the essential ones. Maintaining viable life is the primary consideration. It would, in theory, even allow someone to recover from being drowned for weeks, if they had one active just after they went into the water."

"Testing that could be… controversial," Doctor Eriksen commented, making her nod with a slight smile.

"I doubt we'd have a rush of volunteers," she agreed calmly.

Everyone around the conference table inspected the innocent little bottle sitting in the middle of it in silence for a while. Eventually, the lawyer Vachon reached out and picked it up, tilting it a little to watch the one-shots rattle around. "You have definitely dropped us into the middle of a very large minefield, Panacea," she said quietly, tilting it the other way. "The number of laws that are involved in something like this is… difficult to calculate."

"I wouldn't really know," Amy shrugged. "I've got a basic understanding of medical legal systems and I know quite a bit about the parts that directly affect my power, but the rest of it is more your field of expertise. I'm much more concerned about the medical ethics of it than the legalities."

Everyone looked at Doctor Caffon now, who was quietly thinking while idly stroking his short beard. He looked up, then around at them all. "Tricky," he said.

"Very helpful, Dylan," Doctor Aikin, the administrator, sighed.

Doctor Caffon smiled. "But honest. It is indeed tricky. I can understand why Panacea has been so conflicted, having had this knowledge for some time. Parahuman powers complicate medical ethics considerably, if only due to the public concerns involved. But if these things do what she claims, they're an incredible breakthrough that could change the face of medicine permanently. It will take a lot of careful thought on how to proceed."

"I'd think the first thing would be to prove they actually _do_ work as advertised," Doctor Phipps said thoughtfully. "Not that I have any reason to disbelieve Panacea, of course," he added, glancing at her. She made a small gesture of one hand indicating she wasn't offended. "But as Dylan says, there is a certain public… distrust… of anything that could be thought of as the result of a Biotinker. For obvious reasons."

"Ianthe isn't really a Biotinker," Amy pointed out truthfully.

"Agreed, but most people don't have the knowledge or understanding to appreciate the fine details of something of that nature," he nodded. "It could be a problem."

"How do we go about testing the claims?" Doctor Chin, the Infection Diseases department head asked. "Panacea says the PRT will by now know about these from Saurial and I have no doubt are already working on them under the strictest isolation conditions. I know a couple of people in their research department, I can ask some questions, but..."

"They may well not tell you," Doctor Aikin said. The other man nodded.

"Probably not, at least not while they're still working on them."

"It's possible that the PRT would decide that they didn't want these being released to the general public," Ms Vachon remarked, putting the small bottle down again. "Mostly for political reasons. It's happened in the past. They might well want to keep them for people they approved of."

"That's not going to fly with the Family," Amy said. "They will be rather annoyed if anyone tries to restrict them like that. Ianthe wants to help people, not just benefit a few in a position of power."

"And from what I hear the PRT, at least locally, is doing what it can to keep the Family happy," Doctor Hernandez remarked. "On the other hand, there are definitely elements of the organization that are… somewhat biased. And prone to doing things that many would consider ill-advised."

Several people nodded at this.

"Can we class this as an experimental treatment and run some carefully monitored tests of our own?" Doctor Aikin asked after a short pause, looking around at a few key faces. "Obviously with fully informed consent on the part of the patient in question."

Doctor Caffon was stroking his beard again, but eventually slowly nodded. "It's a viable approach. Institutions without the benefit of Panacea's aid do use experimental treatments with a fairly low likelihood of success in cases where there is no other option. Including Parahuman-produced ones. Compassionate use exemption is one route. The FDA has a number of other exemptions for such things these days, put in place after the Marburg virus outbreak in Kansas in ninety-nine. The experimental treatment that was rushed into production proved so successful and safe the rules were changed to make it simpler to do something similar in future."

"I remember how messy that nearly got," Doctor Chin said, tapping a finger on the desk. "Politics almost caused a disaster. Good thing some people kept their heads."

"Medhall also runs small clinical trials of proposed new drugs and other treatments," Doctor Eriksen noted. "Some of those are Parahuman-designed drugs as well."

"We have the major advantage of having Panacea available to monitor the treatment and intervene if necessary," Doctor Phipps added, looking at the girl. "Which removes most if not all of the genuine risk."

"That's a very good point," Vachon said, writing a few lines in the notebook she had open in front of her. "And Panacea has already vouched for both Ianthe's work and the efficacy of this treatment. You said you've seen them in use, Panacea?" She looked up at Amy, who nodded.

"Yes. Ianthe asked for volunteers from the DWU when she designed these, having checked them very carefully to make sure they'd work. Those people trust the Family completely so she didn't have much trouble finding someone with some minor injuries to test them on. They worked perfectly in all cases. I monitored several of them and they do what they're meant to without any side effects."

"Remarkable," the woman murmured. "Legally, I expect we can find a viable solution for some discreet testing," she went on more loudly, looking around the table, then checking with the other people from her department who were all making notes, a couple of them flipping through reference manuals. "The PRT could cause problems if they wanted to, but on the other hand we have no current obligation to inform them of everything we do."

"Assuming they do work, what does it mean for the medical industry as a whole?" Doctor Dias asked. He glanced at his colleagues. "Someone has to ask."

"In the long run… It will cause a very large change, I expect," Amy said with a shrug. "These things fix basically everything. As in, _cure_ the problem, not just _treat_ the problem. That's going to have a massive impact on pharma companies, places like this, insurance companies, you name it. I'm well aware of that, as is Ianthe. On the other hand, it won't happen overnight. Even if they were approved for public release tomorrow, Ianthe isn't in a position to make them in the quantities needed to give them to everyone in the country, never mind the world. Yet."

"Even the distribution of them on that level would be an immense task," Doctor Eriksen pointed out, making her nod.

"Very true. There are over two hundred and fifty million people in the US, and you'd need more than one per person per year since people are going to keep injuring themselves. That would mean billions a year just in this country. Probably trillions world wide. Ianthe says she can work out a way to make them in any quantity needed but it will take some work, and as Jakob says, getting them to people would also be a big job."

"It would probably require some discussion with one of the pharmaceutical companies," Doctor Aikin remarked. "Although that has its own pitfalls, of course."

"There would also be issues with cost, profits, and a large number of other areas," Ms Vachon said. "However, that isn't something that we need concern ourselves with at the moment. The commercial and political implications of this are profound, but until we have some verifiable and documented data on the effectiveness of the treatment, somewhat irrelevant."

Doctor Aikin nodded. "I agree that would be the first requirement. So how do we proceed?" The assembled people began discussing various possible methods to test the one-shots, and the protocols for doing so. Twenty minutes later they were still arguing about the first step, making Amy sigh faintly. It wasn't unexpected since this was a completely novel situation, but it was annoying.

Doctor Eriksen, who had mostly been listening quietly, finally looked at Amy, then the bottle on the table. He reached for it. "There's a very simple first test," he said, interrupting a long series of questions from one of the lawyers as he unscrewed the lid of the bottle and shook one of the spores onto his hand. Putting the bottle and lid down on the table, he reached into his pocket and pulled out a disposable sterile scalpel, handing it to Amy.

"Are you sure?" she asked, while everyone else fell silent. Doctor Caffon raised a hand, making the other man look at him and shake his head.

"Informed consent. I'm aware of what I'm doing, I'm giving permission to Panacea to inflict a small injury on me for the purposes of testing an experimental treatment, and I verbally acknowledge that I do not hold either her or this institution to blame in any way for the consequences of my actions." Everyone looked at Ms Vachon, who shrugged as she pressed the stop button on the dictaphone she'd pulled from nowhere obvious.

"Good enough for me," she said. "I hope you know what you're doing, Jakob."

"I do," he said. Holding out his other hand to Amy, he waited.

She studied him for a moment, a little shocked and quite impressed, then nodded and tore open the prepackaged scalpel. Pulling out the instrument, she very carefully made an inch long incision on his index finger, which immediately began bleeding although not all that much because of how sharp the blade was. Doctor Chin, who was sitting next to him, handing him a handkerchief which he rested his hand on, the blood slowly making it go red.

Amy was impressed that he didn't flinch at all as she made the cut.

Everyone watched as he held the one-shot on the palm of his other hand and put his thumb on it. "Press until it makes a sound, right?" he asked her.

"Yes."

He did so. The familiar little squeak sounded. "Huh. OK, my hand went numb."

"That's expected, it turns off pain receptors as the first action." She watched, not touching him, as he looked at his bleeding finger. The wound was already closing.

"Holy shit."

Amy smiled, while everyone else stared, the people on the other side of the table half-standing to get a better view. A few seconds more and it was done. He picked up the bloody handkerchief and folded it differently, wiping away the remaining blood with a clean part, then held up his finger. "Not a trace left," he said.

"Eight seconds," Doctor Phipps noted, looking at his watch. "That was remarkable."

"May I?" Amy asked, motioning to his hand with hers. Doctor Eriksen nodded, so she put a finger on the back of his hand and checked his body. Everything was working perfectly. "Nothing out of the ordinary happened," she reported, removing her finger. "It did what it was supposed to and broke down immediately."

"And it will do that do cancer? MS? Amputated limbs?" Doctor Dias looked astounded as she nodded each time.

"Ianthe thinks, and I agree, that they will cure anything I can, and some things I can't like certain brain injuries," she replied quietly. "She believes that while it would be possible to engineer something that wouldn't be curable by them as they stand now, that would be something it would take someone like her to do, and it could easily be modified to prevent it if that ever happened."

"Christ." She didn't see who said it, but most of the people around the table seemed to be thinking the same thing.

"Well, it's not the normal approach to clinical testing, Jakob, but I can't deny it's an impressive demonstration," Doctor Aikin remarked as he watched the other man collect all the things with his blood on them and drop them into the biohazard container every room in the hospital had, then return to the table. "All right. I'm convinced. We need to properly document this, run as many tests as we can think of, and work up a set of data that the FDA and the PRT can't argue with. After that..." He sighed. "I have no idea what the next step will be, aside from that it's going to change things out of all recognition."

"If it heals people, it's worth it," Amy stated.

"I tend to agree, Panacea, or I wouldn't have become a doctor," he assured her. "However there are going to be a _lot_ of entrenched opinions who will be quite upset about this development for one reason or another. The medical industry is an _industry_ after all, and you have something there that can disrupt it beyond belief. There _will_ be push back."

"I know," she replied calmly. "So do the Family. I and they are ready for it."

"I wonder if the industry is ready for _you?_ " Doctor Hernandez grinned.

Amy shrugged, not worried. And a lot less conflicted than she'd been about the matter for some time now. The first step had been taken, but it was going to be a long road to walk.

The talking resumed, even more enthusiastically now that they had proof positive that the one-shots did what was claimed, at least to some level. There was nothing like a little blood to make people sit up and pay attention, she reflected with inner amusement.

And gratitude to her friend, who had proved his trust in her in a way that she was still surprised by.

But very pleased about.

* * *

Entering the restaurant, Danny adjusted his coat a little and headed towards the rear. Several of the people inside were the same ones who had been there earlier, a number of them ones he recognized as Antonio's people. Gino, who was sitting at a table with a couple of his colleagues, got up to meet him at the till.

"Hello, Gino," he said.

"Mr Hebert. Good to see you again," the other man replied respectfully. Danny had always got on with Antonio's chief enforcer, finding that despite his occupation he was an educated and well-spoken guy with a good sense of humor. Not to mention Annette had liked him a lot, the feeling being mutual. "Mr Castiglione is expecting you."

"Thanks," Danny replied with a small smile. Gino directed him to a door to the side of the till labeled ' _Private – No Entry,_ ' opening it for him. He went through with a glance back at the currently nearly full restaurant to see that almost everyone in it was watching him for some reason. Many of them with odd expressions that reminded him of Benny, although he couldn't quite decide why.

Dismissing it he returned his attention to his surroundings, hearing lots of people start talking quietly as soon as the door shut behind him. Although his Amy-improved hearing was now good enough to make out a lot of the conversations he deliberately didn't try as he felt it was something of an invasion of privacy.

At the end of a short hallway was a small elevator, which had a card reader next to it rather than a call button. Gino produced a card which he inserted into the reader, making it beep once and illuminate a green light. Moments after he removed it the doors slid open silently to reveal a small and luxurious elevator that Danny was almost positive would be lined with scanning equipment. Antonio was both smart and very careful so it was pretty much guaranteed that no weapons would enter his home without his knowledge.

"You'll be met at the top, Mr Hebert," Gino said, stepping to the side.

"Not coming up?" he asked as he went into the elevator and turned around. Gino shook his head.

"No, I'm needed down here. I expect I'll see you again later."

"Most likely. Thank you, Gino."

"It was my pleasure, Mr Hebert." The enforcer stepped back and watched as the door closed.

* * *

"Looking good, guys," Taylor said as she inspected the inside of the two young men's new facility. They'd unpacked quite a lot of the crates so far, with packing material strewn all over the place, and the entire main room was now occupied by the contents of the boxes. They appeared to be trying to work out where everything was going to go.

"Thanks, it's coming along pretty well," Kevin said as he looked around with satisfaction. "We've got most of the kitchen stuff up there now, and the fridge plugged back in, so at least we can have a cold beer when we're done."

"We can have a cold beer right now," Randall called from above them on the walkway around the room, making everyone look up. He tossed down a bottle to Kevin who caught it one handed then pulled the top off, quickly putting his mouth over it to stop the liquid foaming everywhere. "Anyone else?"

"No, thanks," Taylor replied.

"I'll take one," Lisa said, holding up a hand. It was quickly filled with another bottle. Randall looked at the Varga while the blonde opened her beer. The demon looked back, then glanced at his host.

"Go ahead if you want," Taylor smiled.

"It all ends up in your stomach, you realize," Lisa snickered.

"So? I don't drink alcohol because I don't want to, not because I can't deal with it," ' _Saurial_ ' grinned, watching her demon catch the last bottle. Randall headed for the stairs, joining them moments later. "But he can if he wants."

"That… makes no sense," Lisa frowned. "He's you. You're him. One body, your minds are connected, so if _he's_ drinking a beer, _you're_ drinking a beer."

The Varga poured some of the drink into his Raptaur mouth, winking at her. **"It's quite good actually,"** he remarked. **"Princess Luna was fond of a drink on occasion, but it wasn't as nice as this is."**

"It's a local craft beer," Kevin said, looking at the label of his own half-depleted bottle. "Randall's favorite. I like it too, but it's not the best one I've come across."

"But..." Lisa watched the Varga finish the bottle, look at the container in his hand, then eat that too. "No, I'm not going to even try to understand," she finally said with a shake of her head. "Both of you give me a headache when I start thinking about some of the weird crap you do."

Taylor grinned at her, as did the demon. "Sorry."

"No, you're not," her friend sighed. "Not even slightly."

Kevin, by now, was chuckling to himself and Randall was watching them all with a smirk. "This is the sort of thing that goes on all the time around here, isn't it?" the taller man asked. Lisa nodded with a sigh.

"You wouldn't believe how often. They do it just to see people's expressions."

"That's as good a reason as any," he laughed. Looking around the room, he smiled. "Thank you all for helping us out like this. And your dad, Taylor. This place is incredible."

"You're welcome," Taylor said as she reverted to her base form then leaned casually on the demon, who draped an arm over her shoulder and rested his head on hers. "It'll be nice having more people around who are in on the whole thing."

"And lets us do some more thinking about the whole powers issue, too," Lisa added. "I'm still working on that although it's been a little busy recently. I can't help feeling that we need to figure it out sooner rather than later."

 **"It worries me also, Lisa,"** the Varga said quietly. **"The conclusions we've already drawn are disconcerting. But we're missing a large part of the story, I have no doubt, and I agree that we may not like what we discover when we fully work it out."**

"Think we will?" Kevin asked curiously. The Varga looked at him, then nodded.

 **"I do. Although I can't say how long that will take. Between all of us, Amy, and Danny, we have a fairly formidable think tank, if you want to put it like that. And we're steadily learning and deducing more information on the subject. Sooner or later we'll get to the bottom of the problem, I'm sure."**

"Then what?" Randall asked, putting his empty beer bottle down on a nearby crate and leaning on the same box, folding his arms in the process. "Do we tell someone? The PRT? The government? The papers?"

"Definitely not the papers," Taylor replied quickly, shaking her head. "That would be asking for people to go completely nuts. But I'm not sure about the PRT or the government either."

"I wonder if they already know?" Lisa mused, making everyone look at her. She shrugged. "It's not impossible, right? They have a lot of Thinkers working for them, they have to have at least looked into the problem before. Admittedly they don't have anyone as good as I am..." She grinned when everyone looked dubiously at her. "But considering that people have been trying to work out where powers come from since Scion first turned up, _someone_ has to have found out _something_."

 **"Yet there's not even a hint of what we've conjectured in any place we've looked,"** the Varga pointed out. **"Many very odd theories, yes, but this particular one seems notably absent."**

"Maybe someone is censoring the truth," Lisa retorted.

 **"Who?"**

She paused, her mouth open, then closed it after a few seconds, shrugging. "No idea. Just thinking like a paranoid person for a moment. But I wouldn't want to swear it couldn't happen."

 **"You have a point, I admit, but large conspiracies are actually extremely difficult to successfully pull off in most cases,"** he replied. **"Despite what some on the internet would have you believe. The ramifications of our theory are significant enough that I'd have thought someone would have talked in the last thirty years if there were sections of the government, _any_ government, who had evidence for it."**

"Maybe it's some shadowy cabal of people in the know who go around suppressing the truth about powers for their own ends," Randall suggested, smiling evilly. "They've infiltrated the governments of the world and the internet at the highest level and are constantly stopping this information coming out."

The demon looked at him with his head tilted to the side. **"May I inquire as to how many of those you've had today?"** he asked, indicating the empty beer bottle next to Randall. Kevin and Lisa both laughed.

"Not that many," Randall snickered. "Crazy idea, I know. I've been reading PHO too much."

"You're in danger of sounding like Void Cowboy," Taylor told him, which made him shudder.

"Oh, _god_ , I am. Help me."

"You'll get over it, man," Kevin consoled his friend, patting him on the shoulder. "Just think about something normal, like the demons and the Family. Forget conspiracies and aliens."

They all exchanged glances then roared with hilarity for a little while.

Wiping a tear of laughter from her eye, Taylor shook her head. "Good one. Let's get some of your stuff put away and I'll tell you how Linda's power testing went today."

"Well, I expect," Kevin smiled.

"Oh, like you wouldn't believe. And she made something you two are going to _love_..."

* * *

As the penthouse door closed behind him, Luigi discreetly making himself absent, Danny opened his arms as the elderly but amazingly spry and still very good looking woman smiled widely and grabbed him in a hug. "Danny, dear child, it's so _good_ to see you again after all this time. How are you doing? How is Taylor? I haven't seen that wonderful little girl since she was two." Serafina kissed him on the cheek. "We've missed you so much. I was so sad to hear about poor Annette."

Releasing him a little she moved back slightly, peering up at him. She was nearly a foot shorter, but met his eyes with hers, searching his face for something. Whatever it was, she seemed to find it, and nodded in satisfaction. "You're looking well. Come, sit, have some wine."

She linked her arm into his and practically dragged him towards the next room.

He hadn't managed more than four words so far.

Looking over at Antonio, who was grinning at the display, he shrugged a little. The old man shrugged back. "She missed you," he said calmly.

"So I gather," Danny replied dryly as he was urged to a chair, made to sit in it, and then handed a glass of wine that Serafina poured him. "Thanks, Aunt Serafina," he added politely.

"You didn't even give the poor boy a chance to take his coat off, dear," Antonio said, sitting down on another chair. His wife of more years than Danny had lived tutted and handed him a glass too.

"That can wait. It's been too long. Danny, we'll eat in about half an hour." She looked at him in a way that could only accept an answer of a nod, which he gave her, before sipping his wine. It was, as he'd expected, excellent. "Now, tell us, how is Taylor? How are you two getting along? We've heard stories, and seen some very interesting videos. She seems to have some interesting friends."

Danny laughed, putting his glass on the small table next to his chair. "That she does, Auntie. Very interesting, and very good friends. She's doing extremely well now, I'm happy to say. As am I." He sighed, momentarily sad as he thought back a few months, both the others watching with knowing expressions. "It was hard for far too long. I neglected my responsibilities in a shameful way, and she paid the price for it."

"Losing someone as close as your wife affects you, my boy," Antonio said after a second or two of respectful silence. "You and Annette were as close as anyone I've ever seen. I'm not surprised you lost your way for a while." He sipped his wine. "The important thing is you found it again. And never forgot, deep down if nowhere else, that family is all. That I am sure of." He gazed at the much younger man. "I know you. Much better than you might think. And your father, god rest his soul, was the same."

"Thanks," Danny replied eventually. "It still makes me feel ashamed, though. I could have spared her some very hard times."

"What could have been is pointless to dwell on, Danny," Serafina said, taking a seat next to her husband and putting her arm around him. "All that matters is what is. We all miss Annette, and always will. But you have a wonderful daughter, many people who rely on you and respect you, and are from what we hear doing amazing things to and for your city. So. Tell me. How did you meet… ' _The Family_ '?"

She made a little finger quote gesture and smiled at him as she said the last words. Antonio started laughing under his breath.

"She's been wondering about that ever since we first heard about it, Danny," the old man said with good humor. "Won't stop talking about them. I think she likes lizards or something."

Danny grinned. "A friend of Taylor's is like that. The girl has a pet iguana and is mad about reptiles. She loves the Family and they seem to like her a lot too." He thought for a moment. He couldn't really tell the entire truth, but he could say enough to keep them contented. But…

"Before we get onto that, Uncle Tony..." He took a deep breath again, then stood, moving to stand in front of the elderly man. "Antonio, I would like to apologize with all my heart for the disrespectful way I spoke at our last meeting. It was uncalled for and I regret it." He bowed his head, not meeting the other man's eyes, and feeling embarrassed. "I still stand by what I said, but the way I said it was wrong, and I should have thought before speaking. My father and grandfather would have been disappointed in me, which I regret very much."

There was a long silence, then Antonio stood. He put his hands on Danny's shoulders. "Look at me, Danny."

Danny raised his eyes, to see his grandfather's oldest living friend smiling at him with warmth in his eyes. "You're forgiven. I forgave you many years ago. I understand why you said what you said, and how. The impetuousness of youth has made most people say things they wished they hadn't at one point or another. I promised your grandfather I'd look after his family and I always have, and always will. And despite some harsh words, both your dad and him would have been proud of you, trust me."

Feeling relief, since he hadn't been certain what the response would be considering what and how he'd argued the last time they'd met, many years ago, Danny finally nodded. "Thank you, Uncle Tony." He glanced at Serafina who was looking pleased and slightly amused. She gave him a quick thumb's up behind her husband's back, making him suppress a smile.

"Forget it, my boy, it's long since done with. I don't hold a grudge."

Serafina made a coughing sound, causing Antonio to smirk. "With family, that is."

"Understood." Danny nodded again.

"Now, sit, drink your wine, and tell us about Brockton Bay and all the peculiar things we keep hearing about. We can talk more about other matters later. I have things to say and things to ask, but that can wait until after dinner." Antonio sat again and looked expectantly at him.

"All right," he said, retaking his seat and picking up his wineglass. "I suppose it all starts with Saurial..."

* * *

Kevin opened the door to find both Linda in her ' _Vectura_ ' guise and Amy, as herself for once, standing outside. He waved both of them in. "Hi," he said, locking the door again. "I hear you had some fun at the PRT building today, Linda?"

The cat-woman nodded, smiling in a slightly tired way. "It was pretty intense but very interesting. When we got back I was wiped out, at least up here." She tapped her head. "Went into my workshop, lay down for a nap, and woke up about ten minutes ago. It was hard work, but I think it was worth it."

"Taylor told us you made a cool new toy," he said as the three of them walked across the floor to join the rest, who were discussing the best place for the four pinball machines they'd uncrated.

"It worked pretty fucking well," Linda grinned. "You should have seen their faces! Really funny."

"I'm surprised you let Armsmaster borrow it," he said.

She shrugged. "Without Saurial or Raptaur he can't do that much to it, and if it makes them happy and keeps them out of the way, why not? He's a pretty decent guy even if he's weird, and I like Dragon, I think. Might as well let them play with it." She smirked a little. "And it'll annoy him how much better _my_ bike is than _his_ bike..."

Amy started snickering, not having said anything yet and also looking very tired in some hard to explain way. Kevin glanced at her. "You're quiet today," he said.

"Been a long day," she replied, sitting on one of the chairs they'd unpacked and not yet moved upstairs yet. "I've been in a meeting since about four this afternoon at the hospital."

"Anything serious?" ' _Saurial_ ' said, looking over from the pinball discussion with some concern on her scaly face. Amy sort of shook her head and nodded simultaneously.

"Important, but not serious, I guess," the healer said, running a hand through her hair. "I told them about the healing one-shots."

"Ah." Taylor joined them, as did the others. "How did they take it?"

"About how you'd expect. A hell of a lot of ' _you have to be fucking kidding me'_ for a while. Then a lot of blank expressions, followed by a _lot_ of talking." She sighed again. " _So_ much talking."

Taylor laughed for a moment. "I can imagine."

"You probably can't, unless you've been in a room with seven doctors and five lawyers for three and a half hours," Amy grumbled.

Kevin looked at Taylor with a small grin. The lizard-girl shrugged, then reached out and patted Amy on the head. "There, there, you're safe now, Amy," she said consolingly.

"Stop that, you idiot," Amy grunted, brushing the hand away, but she seemed to cheer up. "Did you give Director Piggot the samples?"

"Yep. And she looked about like your doctors probably did," Taylor said cheerfully. "I bet that keeps them busy for a while."

"Probably. Did everyone in the PRT building have a collective aneurysm thanks to you and Linda, or did you leave survivors?" Amy seemed quietly amused now.

"There were some odd looks but it went well," Taylor replied. "And we need to make some more of Linda's latest invention. They're really cool."

"We'll need some more parts first," Linda said.

"Got a list?" Kevin put in. He waved a hand at the large collection of still-packed boxes and the things that had so far come out of them. "I bet I have most of what you need other than the stuff Saurial made."

Linda looked around, then smiled. "I'm up for it if you are. It's still early. Sort of."

"Early enough." Kevin turned to Randall who was listening with a small smile. "Go and get some pizzas, there's Tinkering to be done!"

His friend snapped off a salute, clicking his heels together. "At once, sir!" he said briskly. Then he looked around, slightly puzzled. "Did you see where my wallet went this time?"

* * *

"I don't fucking _believe_ it," Sophia snarled, looking in her rear view mirror. "How the fuck…?"

There was a very familiar looking green semi trundling along behind her, a hundred yards back, the color coming and going as it went past the streetlights of this little town in the middle of nowhere, Kansas. She hadn't seen a sign of the damn thing ever since her dramatic diversion many hundreds of miles from here, yet now the thing was behind her as if it had never left.

Looking at the map on the passenger seat with the aid of a small flashlight, she nodded to herself. Another mile, and she was out in the countryside again. Then she was going to see if this latest car really would do the hundred and forty miles an hour its speedometer claimed. She was through with sneaking around, perhaps balls-out speed would work…

And failing that, she had a _lot_ of weapons with her.

* * *

"This is a wonderful meal, Auntie," Danny said admiringly after he swallowed. "The tomato sauce is amazing."

"That part would be his work," the elderly woman smiled, nodding at her husband, who seemed pleased about the comment. "He'll show you later. But I did the rest. So thank you."

Antonio reached out and poured the last of the wine into Danny's glass, then looked at the bottle. "I'll get another one," he said, beginning to stand.

"I've got one here," Danny smiled, turning and reaching for his coat, which was folded across another chair next to him. Antonio and Serafina both looked somewhat puzzled as he reached into one of the pockets, then gaped as he pulled out a full-size bottle of wine. They stared as he inspected the label, before handing it to Antonio. "I'm not an expert but I remembered this is supposed to be a good one," he said in a deliberately casual manner.

After a moment, Antonio took it from him, still looking at the perfectly normal-appearing coat. "Danny?"

"Yes, Uncle Tony?"

"Did you just pull a bottle of wine out of a pocket too small to hold it?"

"I did, yes."

Antonio blinked a couple of times. "I see. That's… an interesting trick."

Relenting, although very amused, Danny explained about his dragon-skin coat with its pockets of holding. Antonio shook his head, exchanging a look with his wife. "Your reptilian friends have many talents," he said wryly, fitting the corkscrew to the bottle and starting to turn the handle. "I don't suppose they'd be interested in some commissioned work? I know some… business men… who would have a few applications for some way of discreetly storing large quantities of goods in places people wouldn't expect."

Danny looked narrowly at him as he drank the last of his wine, then held his glass out. "I'm sure you would, Uncle Tony," he said somewhat suspiciously. " _Honest_ business men?"

"Of course. That's the only type I will deal with," the old man smiled as he popped the cork out, looking entirely too innocent. Serafina was giggling a little.

"Unfortunately I doubt they'd be interested in that particular business opening," Danny remarked.

"Pity," Antonio murmured as he refilled Danny's glass, then his wife's, before his own. "If they should change their minds have them get in touch."

"I'll bear it in mind."

All three of them smiled. "We have some wonderful home-made ice-cream for dessert, so eat up," Serafina urged. Danny didn't need any convincing.

"When we're done I'll show you upstairs," Antonio added. Looking at the ceiling, Danny felt puzzled this time. Weren't they already in the penthouse?

Apparently he wasn't the only one with some surprises up his sleeve.

* * *

Brushing her teeth before she went to bed, Amy reflected on the day. It had been a very long one in many ways, with a lot of surprises and revelations. Linda at the PRT, her at the hospital, Taylor negotiating, _successfully_ , with Lung of all people…

' _That was a surprise_ ,' she thought, rinsing out her mouth. ' _She and her demon kept it quiet. Lisa looked pretty damn happy about it, though, and I'll bet Brian and the others were too. But where is she going to go where she and Lung can really get into it?_ '

That fight was going to be one for the history books, she had no doubt.

' _Oh well, there's no hurry and I guess we'll find somewhere sooner or later. Kevin and Randall nearly fainted when she mentioned it, so I bet they'll have so many cameras recording it the entire thing will be like a movie_.' She smiled at the thought. Both young men had looked astounded, then very, very eager.

' _And Linda made two more of her omnivehicles, which should be fun_ ,' she thought as she washed her hands and dried them. ' _When the DWU people see those things, they're_ ** _all_** _going to want one..._ '

Hell, _she_ wanted one!

' _I like my truck, but a vehicle you can put in your pocket could be useful_ ,' she grinned, before turning the light off and leaving the bathroom. ' _That woman has some serious skills._ '

The upstairs hallway was lit only by the light coming from her room, the door to which was open, and a little illumination under the doors of both her sister's and her parent's rooms. She could hear Vicky talking very quietly to Dean on the phone, apparently arranging a date for the weekend. Going into her room, she sat on the bed, arranging her tail beside her, then sat there for a little while stroking the warm scales while thinking.

Eventually, she sighed very quietly and got up again. Going to the window she looked down at the driveway, seeing that Carol was still out. She'd said at breakfast that she was going to be late at the office and had arranged to visit her sister on the way home, so they shouldn't expect to see her until past midnight. Peering out into the darkness, which to her improved eyes was still quite well lit, Amy pondered things for another couple of minutes, her hand in her pocket, before she nodded once and left the room.

Tapping on her parent's room door, she pushed it open. "Dad?" she said when she saw Mark, who was sitting up in bed reading a novel. He looked up at her and smiled a little.

"Hello, Amy. Did you have a good day today?"

"I did, thanks," she replied, moving to sit on the edge of the bed. After a couple of seconds, she pulled her hand out of her pocket and opened it to show a small bottle. "I've got something for you."

* * *

Taylor went to bed with the feeling of a long day that had worked out very nicely for everyone, talked to the Varga for a little while, then fell asleep with a smile on her face.


	339. Omake - Human prank day?

_As usual, the embedded music links don't work. They're underlined and bolded in the test, and in order are:_

 _www dot youtube dot com slash watch?v=GXFSK0ogeg4_

 _www dot youtube dot com slash watch?v=81ZtmBAA_NE &feature=youtu . be&t=6_

 _Just replace the dot and slash words with the relevant symbols and remove the extraneous spaces. Pity this is so difficult to do, but blame !#this site!_

* * *

Amy looked thoughtful. "So, basically, you still can't run more than two bodies at once?" she asked.

Taylor shook her head. "No, or more accurately, four at once. Sort of. One each for me and Varga, plus the duplicate for the teleporting trick. But only one of them is… active? I guess. We create one where we want to go, and then drop the one where we are now."

She vanished from the chair and reappeared on the other side of the room. "Like that. If I try making two..." Another copy of Taylor's base form appeared next to her and waved at Amy. "That's simple enough. I can run both of them at once, we're both getting pretty good at that." Amy watched with amusement as the Taylor on the left did a little jig while the other one juggled half a dozen balls that materialized from nowhere. "You'd think it would be possible for Varga to do the same with two more, but it doesn't seem to work like that."

 **"Which is because ultimately, all of this is going through Taylor's mind,"** the demon said, taking control of the juggling copy and turning the balls into knives, which he managed with aplomb. Amy clapped, causing him to smile. **"One day I expect many of these limitations to be something she can overcome but it will take time. We have to go slowly or risk damaging her, a Varga's mind is… considerably larger… than most other beings can manage. Even now I can't risk connecting us more deeply than we already are."** He added three more knives, and Taylor joined in, the juggling going back and forth between them. **"I have no wish to harm my best friend and Brain."**

"Nor does _she_ wish it either," Taylor grinned, adding a flaming torch to the collection of knives looping back and forth between them.

"No, I can understand that," Amy replied thoughtfully. "But what actually happens if you try making more bodies? I mean, you have enough mass available to carpet half the city in Taylors, as horrifying a thought as that is." She smirked as Taylor looked at her then rolled her eyes, although she was smiling.

"Don't know, really, we haven't tried past a couple of experiments early on," the other girl said, catching each item as her demon tossed them to her and making them vanish. "Last time we played with it, it was sort of confusing. I can see out of all of them, and weirdly enough that's not too hard to deal with, but moving them independently doesn't work properly at all."

Amy sat up in her chair, staring at the two, her expression slowly turning both fascinated and evil.

"Moving them… independently?" she asked with a tone of great interest. Taylor nodded, then stopped dead. Beside her, her identical twin gradually began to smirk.

"Yeeesss..." Taylor drawled. "Independently… I _like_ the way you're thinking."

 **"As do I. An experiment is in order, perhaps?"** The Varga turned his grin to his body-mate. She nodded.

Amy watched with her hands folded in front of her as a third Taylor appeared, then a fourth. Three of them moved in weird synchronicity to lift their left hands and scratch their noses. "Nope, can't do it with each of them separately, unless I sort of time share it," the one in the middle said, the other two freezing. Then the one on the left end waved at Amy, the middle one stopping. After that all of them jumped up and down, again perfectly synced. "But this works."

" _Excellent_ ," Amy hissed in her best Monty Burns manner, rubbing her hands together. "And it's March thirtieth today, you realize?"

The two spare Taylors vanished, while the remaining ones nodded. "We'll need to talk to Roy, and we'll need Brian, Lisa... Kevin and Randall will kill us if we don't involve them, Linda and her mech, plus a really good sound system," Taylor said happily, while the Varga turned into Raptaur and headed for the computers.

 **"And a suitable sound track, I think,"** he put in, already looking for something on the web. He clicked a link, music filling the large room. **"That one."**

"Ooooh, perfect," Amy and Taylor both chorused. "Nothing like a good piece of classical music to start off the day," Taylor commented. All three looked at each other and laughed, then started making plans.

* * *

Hannah glared at Dennis, who was looking so innocent he was very obviously guilty of something. "It wasn't me, I didn't do it, you can't prove anything," he said rapidly.

"Dennis, it's _always_ you, of course you did it, and if I could _prove_ it we'd be talking to the Director right now," she snapped. "How the hell did you..."

"Um, Miss Militia?" Dean said a little tentatively, looking out the window at the street below, his shoulders tensed and betraying a certain level of worry.

"What, Dean?" she asked, not taking her eyes off the red-headed boy, who didn't even have the decency to look worried. Beside him, Missy was snickering under her breath, a slightly unusual thing, but since Sophia had gone AWOL the young girl seemed to be enjoying life a lot more.

"Something's happening outside," the other boy said uncertainly.

"Define _something_."

"Ah… It's getting dark? Sort of?"

She looked at him, then the clock on the wall. It was only four in the afternoon, it should still be light for a while yet, and it had been a spectacularly good day for April anyway so there wasn't a cloud in the sky.

"What do you mean?" she asked, turning away from Clockblocker, having given him the evil eye again to keep him honest for a moment. She joined Dean at the window, as did Missy and Dennis a moment later. He pointed down at the large open area that the PRT building was on one side of. Pedestrians were stopping and staring and the light traffic had also come to a halt.

What they were looking at was the steadily thickening clouds of black smoke, or what looked like it, that was pouring down the side of the city hall on the other side of the square and flowing like water across the ground. It pooled and eddied like water, filling the side streets and slowly encroaching across the area towards them.

That side of the square had been closed off the day before for some road repairs to be done. There were a number of serious potholes that had been causing issues for weeks, but the previous evening the road had been shut at both ends and a number of DWU people had been patching them most of today. At this point in time the work appeared finished but the barriers were still present, although the workers had gone for the day.

As a result there were hardly any people in the area of the ' _smoke_ ' or whatever it was, the few pedestrians who had been cutting through that area quickly retreating to a safe distance. In true Brockton Bay style, though, as soon as they were clear they started taking videos. Hannah shook her head as she watched, sometimes she thought that no one in this city had any survival instincts at all nowadays.

"That's got to be Grue," Dennis remarked. "I can't think of anything else that does that and looks like that."

"Grue?" Dean sounded puzzled. "No one's heard from him for months. Why would he be covering all that area in his smoke?"

"Dunno, but I bet that's who it is."

Hannah was forced to agree, it certainly looked like the result of the former minor villain's power. She wondered why he would be doing something like this. He and his entire team had been completely silent ever since Raptaur rescued them and gave them sanctuary at the DWU.

' _DWU..._ ' she thought, suddenly becoming suspicious. ' _And the DWU has been working over there all day. Closing off the road..._ '

"Should we do anything?" Missy asked curiously, her face and hands pressed to the glass. Carlos and Chris came in moments later, none of the four at the window turning to look.

"There's something weird going on outside," the former said.

"We know," Dean, Dennis, and Missy all chorused at once.

"It looks like Grue's smo..."

" _We know_ ," they all said again, making Chris snap his mouth shut.

By now the entire side of the square was dark and completely impenetrable to vision, the ' _smoke_ ' rather improbably stopping forty or so feet out from the city hall and forming a wavering black cloud that was slowly billowing higher and higher. It soon covered the entire front of the city hall building, towering high above the square. Everyone in sight had stopped and was staring at it, most of them with cameras and phones out and active. Hannah sighed, shaking her head in disbelief. The way people around here just… accepted… the bizarre was quite unnerving.

"I'd better go and see what the hell is going on," she said, turning away from the window and heading towards the door. Five sets of footsteps followed. "Stay here," she added without looking, hitting the door open switch. Moments later she was gone.

" _Are_ we going to stay here?" Dennis asked after a few seconds. He looked at his friends, then added, "Where's Missy?"

"Come on, then!" the girl in question called, leaning back in the exit and waving urgently to them. He grinned and followed.

"We _really_ need to start following orders around here," Carlos sighed as the other two headed after the first two. Even so, he brought up the rear. "Wait for me!"

* * *

Emily stomped out of the front entrance of her building, a pair of armored troopers following, and joined Hannah at the side of the street. Passers-by, all of whom were now watching intently in case the huge black cloud did anything interesting, rather begrudgingly moved to the side to let her get a clear view. A couple of them muttered under their breaths but shut up when they caught her eye.

" _Now_ what the hell is going on?" she queried with asperity. "That's Grue's power at work."

"I believe so," Hannah replied absently, studying the cloud with a hand on the riot gun she'd formed with her own power.

Emily looked at her, then the cloud, then sighed loudly. "It's them, isn't it?"

"Probably. Think about the date."

Emily did, then growled under her breath. "And Roy's in on it, or they wouldn't be using city hall for whatever the hell they're doing."

"I suspect so."

"But what are they doing?" She felt both reluctantly curious and quite peeved. Was it too much to ask that a single week went past without those crazy lizards doing something bizarre?

A figure stepped out of the black cloud and bowed to the by-now huge crowd. Straightening up, Metis looked around with a wide grin on her muzzle, teeth glinting in the sunlight. "Hello, People of Brockton Bay," she said, her words amplified and covering the entire area with perfect fidelity. "It has come to our attention that on this first day of the fourth month of the year, it's a traditional human pastime to play some form of prank or jape upon the unsuspecting. We felt that since we've had such a friendly welcome to Brockton Bay, it would be uncivilized to simply jump straight in with such a thing as there was the risk of alarm, but at the same time we should take the opportunity to entertain you all. So, after some careful thought and discussion, we came up with something that we feel should be fun."

Spreading her arms, she grinned widely. "Please welcome what we call… ' _The Family Choir_ ,' appearing for the first time anywhere, with an accompaniment by Vectura and her Dancing Mech Squad."

Metis jogged off to one side, Ianthe appearing from the smoke and moving to the other side of the area in a matching motion. Emily and Hannah exchanged looks that mixed apprehension and curiosity with a large helping of ' _Oh, god, what now?_ '"

There was an anticipatory pause, with the entire crowd which had swelled to at least a couple of thousand, including lots of people hanging out of windows in the surrounding buildings, all watching with great interest. Then, without warning, the blue and orange mech that had been the subject of a lot of discussion on PHO and in the PRT literally pounced out of the opaque cloud like a giant cat, landing on all fours in the middle of the empty road, its ' _tail_ ' raised like a scorpion's. Emily, despite herself, flinched violently, while Hannah's riot gun instantly turned into an anti-tank weapon. The woman looked embarrassed as Emily stared at her and converted the imposing thing into a small knife which she put in her pocket.

Moments later, one after another, four more mechs in various colors, although all had orange stripes on them, did the same thing, arranging themselves in an arrowhead formation. Emily could see that the ones on either side of Vectura were being piloted by Über and Leet, while the other two seemed to have a couple of people she'd never seen before, all four of them wearing balaclavas. The mechs froze for a couple of seconds, then in perfect sync rose to two legs and bowed.

Complete silence filled the square for ten seconds. Then, without warning, the first chord rang out at a volume high enough to make windows rattle around the area, but without any distortion at all. Emily instantly recognized the **music**.

"Oh, hell, why _that_ piece?" she sighed.

A voice started singing, the black cloud swirling away from the front steps of the city hall to reveal Saurial dressed in her armor, but with a fedora on her head. She was grinning and seemed to be having fun.

Emily, despite herself, thought the reptile had rather a good voice.

The first bar of Carl Orrf's ' _Oh Fortuna_ ' movement played as Saurial sang, her lone voice filling the square, then everyone twitched as it abruptly swelled into a massive choir of voices. The smoke roiled and billowed, rapidly retracting downwards and inwards in a completely unnatural manner, until it vanished through the front door of the city hall building.

Emily stared, then looked slowly around at what was left behind, feeling a cold chill run down her spine.

Saurials.

 _Everywhere_.

There were hundreds of them, arrayed on the steps in ranks, along the roof-line looking down at the square, standing on ledges all up the front of the building, even clinging to the walls.

And every one of them was singing, perfectly synced.

Not only that, but on each flank of the vast crowd of lizard-girls, there were neatly arranged formations of multiple copies of Raptaur, each of them behind either Metis or Ianthe. All of _them_ were singing as well, adding a bass counterpoint to the contralto voice of the smaller reptile.

The overall effect was incredibly impressive and extremely creepy.

The five mechs began a sort of dance, moving in a horribly fluid and lifelike manner to the music, in a way that was completely unlike any machine that Emily had ever seen before. Vectura, in the middle one, was grinning like a madwoman, obviously enjoying herself massively.

The performance went on for several minutes, until the first movement of ' _Carmina Burana_ ' wound to a close. With one final chord, the entire assemblage fell silent, then as one bowed deeply. The first Saurial straightened up and looked directly at Emily, then smiled and waved. "Hi, Director Piggot!" she called chirpily.

Almost the entire, totally silent, crowd turned to look at Emily. The rustling sound of thousands of people moving as one was even more disturbing than the vast choir of impossible reptilian figures, who were now watching silently as well.

Emily sighed very, very quietly.

The crowd turned back to look at the huge number of identical lizard-girls. Almost all of them were holding their phones up, and despite sanity suggesting otherwise, didn't seem too worried. Just as she was wondering if that was it, music began **playing** again.

Putting a hand over her face, the PRT director shook her head in despair. She definitely wasn't paid enough for this. She wasn't sure anyone _could_ be paid enough for this…

How the hell the damn Family was managing to pull this off, she had no idea. And she was at the point that she really didn't care any more. Holograms, Vectura's hard light projector, time travel… whatever it was, it was something she was going to deliberately ignore and hope would go away if she did. She watched for a few seconds as the crowd became very excited, hundreds of tourists joining in, then shook her head again, turned around, and proceeded back towards the PRT building. There were reports to do.

Pausing only to glare at the Wards, who were dancing along to the music, she gritted her teeth and kept going. Dennis waved happily at her. Missy was giggling to herself and apparently having a lot of fun.

With a last look over her shoulder, seeing that dozens of DWU people had appeared from nowhere pushing various food carts, which were already doing a roaring trade, Emily went back inside.

* * *

Hannah watched as Grue's smoke quickly fumed up around the impossible crowd of duplicate Family members, reaching the roof of city hall in seconds, paused, then sank away again. She wasn't surprised to see that every single one of the lizards had disappeared without a trace except for Metis and her sister.

The five mechs formed up into a two by two arrangement with Vectura's one at the front, snapped off a neat salute that made the crowd laugh, about faced, and trotted off down the street. Moments later they were gone. Metis and Ianthe exchanged glances, looked around, smiled at each other, and headed for the nearest hot dog cart, quickly picking up a collection of tourists who wanted pictures with them.

Not entirely sure what had happened, Hannah watched for a little while, before shrugging and leaving. It was weird, but it was, after all, Brockton Bay.

Better whatever _that_ was than gang warfare _any_ day.


	340. Breakfast and Paperwork

**Thursday, March 10, 2011**

Sitting down to breakfast in the cafe next to the hotel, Danny reflected on how grateful he was to Amy for the physical upgrades. Between them, he, Antonio, and Serafina had emptied two and a half bottles of wine during the evening, followed later by a snifter of an incredibly good brandy, but he felt completely fine only a few hours later. Not a trace of a hangover, or even a dry mouth.

Perusing the menu, he decided on what he wanted, then gave the order to the waitress who arrived moments later. Shortly he was sipping a cup of coffee and thinking about the last day.

The revelations that Antonio had disclosed to him were still sinking in. They'd talked for hours, catching up on each other's lives for the last fourteen or so years, and discussing all sorts of things. It had been a very nice evening, one he'd treasure for a long time. He hadn't realized quite how much he'd missed the old man, or his wife. Criminals they might well be, and they'd only smile at the description, but they were still in many ways good people. Weirdly enough.

And, even after all this time, family in a very real way. Something he'd always known, but not given enough thought to for far too long. As he'd said, their ways weren't his ways, but from both sides they could each see themselves in the other's place.

One of the more bizarre things he'd learned, he'd suddenly concluded after he'd returned to his hotel, explained why Lisa had been wandering about giggling to herself for some time after Benny and Rudy had delivered Antonio's shipment. Her ability had probably told her, assuming that she hadn't already worked it out, about this rumor of him being the head of the Brockton Bay mob or whatever was currently going around.

The whole thing sounded nuts to him. How could any sensible person think there was anything even remotely associated with organized crime involved with the DWU? Anyone who'd ever looked into him would realize that he'd done his level best to keep criminals _out_ of the union, unless they were reformed and willing to work for a living. On the whole he was pretty satisfied with the result.

Sure, they had a lot of people who had somewhat sketchy pasts, and lots of ex-military types as well, not to mention a few guys who simply didn't talk about their pasts at all, but…

Danny groaned, resting his head on his hand for a moment. ' _Oh, hell, I'm beginning to see how this rumor started,'_ he thought with a rueful sense of dismay. _'Zephron probably knows and is doing everything he can to encourage it too, knowing that lunatic. With Mark's help, and probably half the rest of them. Most of them would think it was hilarious. And god help us if Taylor and her demonic friend learn about it, they'll be wandering around making people offers they can't refuse before you can say Tony Soprano..._ '

Sighing slightly and wondering whether it was better to pretend he didn't know, or firmly ask everyone to knock it off, he decided that for now he'd try not to think about it. After all, it was not only untrue, but patently ridiculous if you did your research. There was no real way that anyone who looked into it could think otherwise. He looked up and smiled as the waitress came back with a tray of food, unloading it onto his table, then asking if he wanted a refill on the coffee. Shortly, new cup steaming next to him, he dug in while planning out the rest of the day.

Antonio had insisted he come back for lunch, which would probably mean he ended up staying for dinner too. The old man was inordinately proud of his roof garden, which was admittedly spectacular, and obviously wanted to try out some more recipes for pasta sauce. There was no reason not to indulge him, since if nothing else only one evening wasn't enough to make up for a decade and a half of no contact. Plus Danny was getting some extremely good meals out of it, which was always a treat.

Thinking he needed to phone Taylor later to let her know he'd probably be staying overnight again, and Kurt to make sure that the DWU was still there, he ate slowly and enjoyed his breakfast. It was nice not to have anything specific calling for his attention for once and he was going to enjoy this brief break from routine. Not to mention reconnecting with some old friends and making new ones.

Idly, he wondered how Benny, his wife, and their friends were doing. Perhaps he'd bump into them again before he went back... 

* * *

Amy lay in bed staring at the ceiling for some time after she woke, mulling things over. The end of her tail twitched a little as she pondered various thoughts. Eventually, though, she decided she might as well get up, flipping the covers aside and sitting on the edge of the bed. Stretching widely she yawned, then stood, wandering over to the window while scratching her back with one hand. Moving the curtain to the side she looked out at the dawn, seeing it was a rather dull and unimpressive one. Windy, too, judging by the trees flapping around in the neighbor's back yard.

Checking her clock she saw she'd anticipated the alarm again, by nearly forty minutes. Her last round of tweaks had definitely paid off, she was down to needing only about four hours of sleep to get the benefits that used to need a solid eight. That was about as far as she felt was safe to push it at the moment, but was a very useful modification. And necessary, considering that not only was she burning the candle at both ends these days, but in the middle too, and probably some other places only accessible by Taylor's bizarre fractal dimensions…

Smiling a little at the thought, and musing about how that brought to mind some further experiments she needed to try soon with her friend's help, she rummaged around in the closet for the clothes for the day. Making a mental note to have Taylor make her some more suitably tail-friendly pants, she then headed for the bathroom, finding she was the first one up again. She could hear her parents stirring though, and there was a slight snore coming from Vicky which the blonde always did just before she woke.

By the time she'd had a shower and got dressed, her mother was in the kitchen making breakfast. Carol glanced at her as she came into the room, looking her up and down for a moment like she always did. These days, though, it wasn't in the sort of judging way it used to be done, but more along the lines of a mother just checking that her daughter had worked out how to get dressed respectably. Apparently satisfied the older woman went back to work. "You're up early, Amy," she said, turning the stove down a little under the saucepan of porridge she was making.

"I don't seem to need so much sleep these days," Amy replied, honestly but somewhat misleadingly. "How are you today?"

"Fine, thanks," Carol replied, putting some bread into the toaster and depressing the level. "You?"

"Not bad at all," Amy smiled as she headed for the fridge. Pulling out a bottle of orange juice, she found a jug and filled it, putting it on the table and the now-empty bottle into the garbage. She poured herself a glass of the fluid then sat down, watching her mother cook. After a little while, she quietly took a deep breath and asked, "Did Dad talk to you last night when you got back?"

Carol looked over her shoulder again, apparently curious. "Talk? About what?"

Amy relaxed a little. Apparently the answer was no. "Just something I was discussing with him," she said. "That smells good."

Her mother looked oddly at her, but was distracted from a reply by Vicky literally flying into the kitchen and nearly falling over a chair. "Vicky! No flying in the kitchen, you know that!" Carol snapped.

"Sorry, mum," the blonde girl said with an embarrassed smile. "I got a little carried away."

"Again," Amy added with a smirk. Her sister reached out and knuckled her head, making her wince. "Stop that."

"Make me."

"I will!"

"Bet you can't."

"Bet I can."

"Prove it."

"I will."

"Bet you won't."

"Want me to?"

"Go on, if you think you… Ack! Get off!"

Carol sighed as she watched the sisters wrestle from where Amy had lunged at the taller girl, somehow putting her into a sort of submission hold that was using Vicky's own strength against her. "That's very good, dear, but not in the kitchen," she said in a remarkably mild tone of voice.

"Sorry, Mom," Amy said, pushing her sister into the living room while still keeping her arm in a complex hold. The blonde was struggling a little, and wincing every time she did. "I'll let go when you apologize."

"Mom! Amy's being a bully!"

"I'm just proving I can make you stop."

"You're proving that you're mean."

"That too."

Both of them burst out laughing as Amy let her sister go. "That was a fucking good hold," Vicky said admiringly, rubbing her shoulder. "How much of that sort of thing has Saurial taught you?"

"Language, Victoria!" Carol's voice came from the kitchen, making Vicky wince again.

"Sorry, Mom!" she called back.

"She's shown me a few good moves," Amy grinned, flopping into a chair. "Nothing like all the things she'd taught Taylor, of course. But she's been teaching her for a lot longer than me."

"Yeah..." Vicky studied her, in a slightly odd way. "Longer..."

"They've known each other for ages," Amy shrugged, not sure why her sister was giving her a look like that. Vicky seemed about to ask something, but got distracted by Mark coming into the room, turning to smile at him.

"Hi, Dad," she said brightly. Amy also smiled, seeing that their father appeared to be having one of his better days. He was also holding some paperwork she recognized. Meeting his eyes, she cocked her head a little, which got a small smile back.

"Hello, girls," he replied, looking at them with affection. "I could hear the shouting upstairs. What on earth was happening?"

"She was brutalizing me!" Vicky accused, pointing dramatically at Amy, who rolled her eyes a little then grinned evilly. "Using my own strength against me with some sort of lizardy martial art."

"Are you learning a lizardy martial art, Amy?" Mark asked with a smirk. "That sounds interesting. Wouldn't it need a tail to do properly, though?"

Amy twitched her invisible appendage, feeling very amused. "Probably," she responded mildly. "But I do what I can despite my disability."

He chuckled, making her smile again and think that he _was_ having a good day if he could joke like this with them. He'd obviously taken his meds for once. When they worked, they worked well, but the dose was so critical and the common side effects so unpleasant that it didn't often work out this effectively. And it seemed to depend on him already being in the right sort of mood to produce the proper effect, which wasn't always the case. Depression of his kind could be a nasty trap, feeding on itself in a spiral to the bottom.

"Does your mother know Saurial's teaching you things?" he asked.

Amy looked into the kitchen, where she could see Carol's back as she leaned over the stove, then back to her father. "I haven't explicitly said anything," she replied quietly, Vicky listening with interest, "but Saurial thought that I should be able to protect myself if something happened. She's been teaching me for weeks. Do you think Mom would mind?"

"You know what Carol's like with sudden changes," he responded, equally quietly. "But she doesn't want you hurt any more than the rest of us do. I'm glad your friends are helping you, and she will be too. Just… probably best not to mention it right now." He raised the hand with the paperwork in it meaningfully. She nodded. Vicky followed the exchange with a puzzled look, glancing at Amy, who shook her head. The blonde girl didn't ask any questions but she clearly wanted to.

"It's ready, Vicky, set the table please, Amy, come and give me a hand," Carol called, the clattering sounds that had covered their quick conversation dying down as she finished with the stove. All three of them went into the kitchen. Mark kissed his wife on the cheek as he passed on the way to the coffee maker, causing her to smile, then look a little surprised.

Shortly they were all sitting down to breakfast. Amy ate more slowly than normal, eyeing her father with curious interest. She wasn't sure how he was going to bring up the subject that she was sure he was. He met her eyes a couple of times, but said nothing until they were about half way through and Carol was on her second cup of coffee. By that point she was normally about as mellow as she got most days, so it was probably the right time, Amy thought as she watched him turn around in his chair and retrieve the stapled-together pages from where he'd left them on the side counter.

"Could you have a look at this for me, dear?" he said in a surprisingly casual manner, handing the paperwork to his wife, who swallowed her last bite of scrambled eggs, then put her knife and fork down to take them from him with a quizzical expression. He went back to eating, giving Amy a quick glance and what might have been a flicker of a wink. She smiled inwardly, even as she braced herself for whatever happened next.

"What's this?" Carol asked, licking egg off her lips, then flipping through the half dozen pages. "Experimental Parahuman-derived medical treatment? Brockton General department of clinical medicine, research section… Legal waivers for use of non-approved biotechnology… Consent form for treatment, followup by..." She muttered to herself as she scanned the pages, then stiffened in shock and surprise.

' ** _There_** _it is,'_ Amy thought with mildly apprehensive and detached amusement.

Her mother turned back to the first page and started reading it very intently, pushing her plate to one side to make room. Everyone watched her, Amy with interest, Mark with what looked like amusement, and Vicky with a confused look.

"Mom, what's..."

Carol held up a hand without looking away, making the blonde subside abruptly. She glanced at Amy, who shrugged.

When the older woman had finished reading the entire thing, she closed her eyes for a moment, then got up. Rummaging around in a drawer for a moment she came back with a pen, then sat again and started going through the documents once more. This time she made notes in the margins, crossing out a couple of words here and there and writing in corrections. Eventually she finished, the others having eaten their breakfasts and ended up just sitting there watching, although Mark had made more coffee for all three of them.

Putting the pages in order, Carol laid the pen across them, then lifted her head to stare at her husband, who gazed back mildly. Her brow twitched a couple of times, one of her little tells that she was somewhat annoyed, but not enraged. Eventually she turned her head to fix Amy with the same look.

"Explain, please."

"I'd have thought the documents were clear enough," Amy said quietly.

Carol's look became more intense. "I want to hear it from you. This," she tapped the paperwork, "tells me one thing. But I need to hear you say it, that tells me something else. And I can't help but notice that the name ' _Panacea_ ' is mentioned in here several times, in places and ways that indicate that the hospital administration consider her an expert that's easily the equal of any of their doctors in certain fields. I find that… intriguing."

"You didn't really listen to me when I've talked to you about some of the things that have happened there, did you, Mom?" Amy asked, smiling a little at the brief flicker of uncharacteristic embarrassment which crossed Carol's face. "You made sure the legal documents were in order then more or less forgot about it."

"I… have made mistakes, I admit," Carol finally sighed, after looking at Mark who simply looked back. "And while I like to think I'm overcoming many of our past… problems… it's possible I'm still making them. I'm sorry about that, Amy."

"That's OK, Mom, I know you're trying, and you really are a hell of a lot better these days." Amy smiled more widely.

"So. That aside, what's this about, really?" Carol tapped the document again. "I know what it says but I want to know what it _means._ "

"OK," Amy replied cheerfully, making Vicky look at their father, then back to her and their mother. Her sister was still wearing a slightly befuddled expression but appeared content to listen for now. "It's all to do with something Ianthe came up with..."

Carol appeared dubious, Vicky suddenly fixed an intent look on Amy, and Mark merely leaned back to listen, as Amy started talking.

She had a feeling she was going to be late for school, but that was all right. She could always claim, truthfully, that it was a medical matter that Panacea was required for. 

* * *

"No. I'm not going back there."

"But, Benny..."

" _No_ , Clara! Fine, the food is amazing, but _HE_ might be there."

Clara looked at her husband with irritation, then turned to Ella, who shrugged. "You're more paranoid than usual, Benny, and that's saying something," she complained, turning back to him.

Benny sighed a little, turning in his seat to look back at the two women. "Look, I know you seem to like the guy, but I'm telling you, he's dangerous. You saw how _Gino_ of all people talked to him! And he called Antonio ' _Uncle Tony_ ' for god's sake! We _really_ don't want to mess with someone like that."

Clara looked stubborn, folding her arms across her chest. "He saved you from a bowling ball to the head, you idiot, he likes you. Danny's a good man, raising a daughter all on his own. You're blowing this all up for no reason."

"We're avoiding any place Boss Hebert might be and that's final," Benny said firmly, turning back to look straight ahead. He ignored the ' _Hmph_ ' from the back seat, and the whispered conversation that then started between the two women. He was pretty sure that the name ' _Danny_ ' came up more often than he was comfortable with, but then _once_ would have been more than enough. He shivered, thinking about the appallingly dangerous and sneaky man who even when he wasn't there seemed to end up interfering with his life. Why, he had no idea, but it was obvious when you looked at it right.

He was still at least half-convinced that those guys who'd chucked that bowling ball right at his head had done it on purpose. And if they _had_ , he knew who was behind it.

Him. Boss Hebert.

Why the hell had he ever spilled the beans on that man? He should have kept his lips zipped even if he was drunk, but no, he had to be an idiot and talk about things he shouldn't have talked about. Ever. That had led to one of the most unnerving conversations of his life, both his own boss and old Antonio himself pointing out that it was best in their line of work to know when to keep quiet and when to stay sober. Basically, always and always.

This pointing out was done in a manner that suggested there wouldn't be a second warning… He was grateful yet a little surprised that there had been a _first_ one, but he guessed that his record was good enough that they were willing to cut him a little slack.

Once.

Then, just as he was starting to think he was in the clear, who walks into Antonio's place but the very man who he was trying not to think about. Someone who was easily as worrying as Antonio himself, at least partly because he looked so… normal. If you didn't know the truth, you'd never guess it. More proof of the genius of the man.

He shook his head a little in respect. He could admire the abilities and skills, while heartily wishing that he never laid eyes on the owner of them again. Hopefully that would be the case.

"I could do with some coffee," Rudy said, glancing at him. "You hungry?"

"Coffee and a doughnut would be good," Benny agreed. "We can stop at Christo's place, it's on the way to dropping the girls off."

"OK. They do some really good coffee," Rudy nodded, looking in the rear view mirror, then indicating and turning left in one motion. He ignored the honks from the cab that had been tailgating them for the last half mile. "Idiot," he muttered.

Another two minutes of driving brought them to a side street and the small cafe they were aiming for. Rudy slowed down outside it, looking for a free parking spot. Benny idly looked into the front window of the cafe as they passed it at a walking pace, then froze, the blood draining from his face.

The man sitting at a table next to the window looked up at that moment, glancing out into the street in a motion designed to look casual and accidental. His eyes met Benny's and he smiled, raising his cup in recognition.

"Keep going," Benny said in a rough and shaky voice, not looking away from Boss Hebert, who seemed to find this all amusing in the extreme. "Don't fucking stop, just go."

"Why, what's the..." Rudy's voice tailed off, presumably because he'd looked to where Benny was looking. "Oh, fuck _me_ ," he whispered moments later. "You're _shitting_ me."

"He's _looking_ at us," Benny hissed out of the corner of his mouth. "Drive. _Now_."

Rudy put his foot down, the car jolting forward, while Benny watched the Hebert man peer after them as the restaurant vanished rearwards. Was it his imagination or had there been a sort of evil grin there at the end?

No, it probably wasn't his imagination…

"Boss Hebert knows where you're going to be before _you_ do," he mumbled, leaning back against the head-rest with his eyes closed, his skin clammy and his pulse too high.

"I thought we were going to get coffee, Benny," Clara said from behind him. She poked him in the shoulder. "Hey, are you asleep again? What the hell is wrong with you?"

"Probably too much of that beer last night," Ella snarked. "Look, he's all pale and sweating. I thought he said he wasn't going to get drunk any more."

Clara tutted, then poked him again. He didn't have the mental energy to do more than twitch at the moment. "I bet _Danny_ doesn't get hungover like this," she said disapprovingly. " _He_ has a daughter to look after."

"Poor Danny," Ella sighed. "He's a good man."

"He is," Clara agreed, sounding approving.

Benny closed his eyes tighter, hoping that if he pretended nothing was happening, it would become true.

Probably wouldn't work but it was worth a shot. 

* * *

"Hi, Dad," Taylor said happily, tossing her other self an egg. The Varga caught it, turned her duplicate's head into Saurial's, ate it, and reverted back again, making her grin. "How did things go last night?"

" _Very well, in fact_ ," her father said, sounding cheerful. " _We were talking for hours, I didn't get back to the hotel until about 2AM. We apologized to each other, accepted it, and moved on. Antonio and Serafina both send their best wishes to you and say they'd like to meet you at some point. You were probably too young to remember the last time you saw them._ "

"I was, umm, maybe one and a half or so?"

" _About that_."

"Can't remember anything of them, I'm afraid," she admitted. "Although obviously I know the names. What did you guys have a fight about anyway?" She'd always wondered.

" _Ancient history, Taylor. It's really not important any more_ ," her father replied after a couple of seconds. " _Best to leave it in the past where it belongs. Circumstances have changed and we've all moved on._ "

"OK." While she was curious she well understood not wanting to think about or discuss certain things that had happened, and could accept it without difficulty. "Are you staying overnight again, or coming back today?"

" _I'll probably be staying over again_ ," he said. " _I'm going to go see a couple of other people I know in the area, then heading back to Antonio's place for lunch. That'll probably mean dinner too I expect, and I don't really want to drive all the way back in the middle of the night. So I'll stay over one more night and head back tomorrow morning. If that changes I'll let you know._ "

"All right. That sounds good. Nothing major going on here, things are pretty normal really. Amy was in a good mood last night, although she was pretty tired, thanks to a very long meeting at the hospital. I'll tell you about it when you get back. Other than that I can't think of anything to report from good old Brockton."

He chuckled. " _That probably means that all sorts of things that most places would consider very weird happened, but no one at home actually noticed_."

With a laugh of her own, she said, "I wouldn't be surprised. I'd better get back to breakfast or I'm going to burn something. See you tomorrow."

" _OK, Taylor. Try to keep out of trouble_."

"You know me, Dad."

" _I do, yes_ ," he replied dryly. " _Hence the request_."

Giggling, she disconnected the phone and dropped it into her pocket, then ate an egg in the same way the Varga had moments earlier, before cracking two into the now-hot frying pan. "Dad seems in a good mood," she commented.

 **"By the sounds of it his reconciliation with Antonio went better than he expected,"** her demon said, leaning back on the edge of the counter with his elbows on it. **"I'm glad about that, it seemed to be bothering him."**

"I think it's bothered him for a long time," she nodded, flipping the eggs to brown the other side. "I don't know exactly what happened but I do know it embarrassed him a bit. I think his temper might have gotten away from him or something like that. Mom knew, and I think she sort of approved, but I also know she missed talking to Aunt Serafina and Uncle Tony. She talked about them sometimes and I could tell."

 **"Well, it looks like that problem is in the past now, which is good,"** he replied. **"And Danny undoubtedly needed a break, he's been working at least as hard as any of the rest of us for months. Without the benefits some of us have until recently as well."**

"Yep, I think so too," she agreed, sliding the eggs onto some toast on a plate next to the stove, then adding some bacon. She handed him the plate, then began her own, smiling to herself about how well things were working out and happy for her father. 

* * *

"You mean this thing can cure Dad?" Vicky asked with barely suppressed excitement, swilling the spore around in the little specimen bottle that Mark had put on the table during Amy's explanation. Everyone was looking at it, Amy with satisfaction, Mark with quiet pleasure, and Carol with a weird mix of annoyance, apprehension, and hope.

"It can fix the biochemical imbalances and the organic issues that cause them," Amy corrected calmly. "That doesn't equal an instant fix. It might not mean a complete fix at all. But it should mean that he no longer needs the drugs and with some time, as his brain chemistry normalizes, should find that the depression issues either go away or become much less of a problem. Psychological problems and physical problems aren't directly synonymous even if they're linked, and fixing one doesn't necessarily fix the other one."

"But it might fix him? Properly?"

"It should do. It certainly won't make anything worse, that much I can guarantee."

The blonde Dallon sister raised her eyes to her sister's, showing that they were full of grateful hope, then turned them to her father. She held out the bottle. "Well?"

"I have no objections," he said. All three of them turned to Carol, who was biting her lip in an oddly nervous gesture both sisters recognized as she stared at the tiny bottle in Vicky's hand. "Carol?"

"It's experimental..." the older woman began.

"But carefully tested a number of times on volunteers, by Ianthe, and monitored by Amy. And tested again at the hospital, again monitored by our daughter, who they obviously trust implicitly." He shrugged. "For what it's worth I trust the Family as well. And it goes without saying that I trust Amy with my life."

"Thanks, Dad," Amy smiled.

"It's a non-approved Parahuman medical treat..." Carol said, once again being cut off, this time by Amy.

"Which is allowed under the relevant FDA waiver if signed by the appropriate medical experts, the patient's physician of record, and suitable legal representatives of both the hospital providing the treatment and the patient in question." Amy indicated the document on the table. "Page four. Dad's already signed it. So have all the other people needed except for his legal representative. Which would be you."

Carol looked down at the papers, then back at the one-shot which Vicky was gently rattling around enticingly.

"The PRT..." She sighed faintly as Mark interrupted her yet again.

"Are aware of them, since Saurial gave them some samples at about the same time Amy was talking to the hospital," he said with a slight but definite smirk. He seemed to be enjoying himself. "I'm sure they'll work themselves up into a frenzy, but they don't have the legal authority to prevent anyone using those things after the waivers are signed, until they bump it up the chain to someone right at the top like Costa-Brown. And I'd almost lay money on Director Piggot not doing that until her own people have tested those things to death. After the whole Coil thing she's nearly as paranoid about the PRT itself as she is about Parahumans in general."

"And she actually likes the Family," Vicky added with a grin. "Not that she'd admit it, but I'm pretty sure she does. She thinks they're nuts, which they are, but she knows they're good people."

"It's the result of a Biotinker..."

Amy raised a finger. Carol stopped talking once more, pinching the bridge of her nose between finger and thumb.

"Point of order; Not Biotinker, _Life Sculptor_. There's a difference, a big one."

"Fine! _Life Sculptor_. Whatever the hell _that_ is. The point I'm trying to make is, what if something goes..."

"Wrong?" Vicky cut in, smiling brightly. Carol gritted her teeth. "We have Panacea right here! How wrong can it go that she can't fix it? And she can get Ianthe and Metis here with one phone call."

"Stop that," Carol snapped. She glared at them all. All three were now looking amused, but hastily made their expressions go blank. After a little while, apparently satisfied, she nodded.

"All right. Shut up, all of you, and let me think for a moment." They exchanged glanced as she started looking through the papers again. "And someone get me some coffee."

Ten minutes, and one coffee, later, she nodded and got up. "I'll be back in a minute." She picked up the pile of papers and headed out of the room, only to return moments later and grab the bottle with the one-shot in it. "Just to remove temptation," she muttered, looking suspiciously at them all.

When she'd gone again, heading towards her office, Vicky leaned forward and whispered, "You have more of them, right?"

"Whole pocket full," Amy whispered back, grinning. Her sister looked satisfied and sat back, both of them glancing at Mark who was deliberately not listening in a very obvious manner. They exchanged a look, then waited patiently for their mother, who they could hear on the phone now, to return. A little later the sound of the old fax machine she still used for legal paperwork, as was common in the business, came to them. There was more talking on the phone which Amy didn't try listening to, merely sitting there drinking the remains of her coffee.

Eventually Carol came back, dropping a larger stack of papers than she'd left with onto the table. She sat down and stared at it for some time, before looking at her husband, her brunette daughter, and the one-shot in its bottle, in that order. Then she sighed very faintly, picked up the pen, found the relevant form, and signed it.

"I'll need to talk to your friends at the hospital, they made a couple of mistakes on these documents that could cause problems in the longer term," she commented, putting the pen down again. "Fine. You win. Go ahead."

"Thanks, Mom," Amy smiled, Vicky looking extremely pleased and happy as well. Their mother merely watched as she picked up the one-shot bottle, removed the top, and shook it out onto her hand. "Here you go, Dad," she said, handing it to Mark, who took it from her. "Just put it on the back of your hand and press."

"All right," he said, following instructions without a qualm. Moments later the familiar almost plaintive little squeak sounded. Vicky, who was watching with wide eyes, twitched slightly.

"Is that what it's meant to do?" she asked urgently. Amy nodded, projecting calm satisfaction, although inside she was both jumping up and down with happiness and almost paralyzed with doubt. Years of practice let her avoid showing either on her face.

"It's fine, that's normal. Your hand should have gone numb now."

"It has," Mark replied. He looked curiously at it, watching as the thing sank into his skin and disappeared. "That's… unnerving."

"Will he feel anything?" Carol asked somewhat worriedly.

"Shouldn't do, it's not like it's fixing a broken bone or anything," Amy said, getting up and going around the table to put her hand on her father's. "It's just fixing all the little problems in his brain and neuro-endocrine system that cause the chemical imbalance. OK, looks good, it's working normally…" She fell silent for a handful of seconds. "And done. Everything was repaired and it broke down. What's left will get flushed out in the usual way." She looked at her father's face. "How do you feel?"

"Fine," he replied, appearing thoughtful, like he was checking himself out from the inside. "How will we know if it worked?"

"We wait," Amy said, returning to her seat.

"Just wait?" Vicky demanded.

She nodded. "Can't do much else. All we can do is see what happens over time. In theory it should be like he took the exact right dose of antidepressants, without any of the side effects. But it will take time for his brain activity to settle down and renormalize. Days at least, possibly a couple of weeks. We should see an improvement in less than a day, though. And I'm completely certain it won't make anything _worse_."

Her sister listened to her explanation, then looked at their father. Eventually she smiled widely. "Thanks, sis."

"You're welcome, Vicky," Amy replied. "And you are too, Dad. Thank you, Mom, I was worried that you'd react… well," she shrugged apologetically, "like you tend to." Carol looked at her, sighed, and nodded.

"I know," she said quietly. "Honestly, my first reaction was a flat _No._ But I stopped to think about what it implied that you had so much backing from some very senior people at the hospital, and how much good those crazy reptilian friends of yours have done in the last few weeks." She sighed a little. "Although I still find them very… strange."

Amy grinned, as did her sister. "Even I'll admit they're strange," she laughed. "But a lot of fun and very nice people."

"Hmm." Carol examined her, then shook her head. "Whatever. But ultimately… the thing that made me rethink it was that it could help my husband. And _that_ , I want very much." She put her hand on Mark's, which was lying on the table. He turned it palm up and gripped hers, smiling at her. "Thank you, Amy."

"It was my pleasure, Mom. I've wanted to do this for weeks and I'm glad I finally could."

Carol nodded slightly, looking… contented? That was probably about as close as Amy could put it, and she was sure it wouldn't last long, but it was nice seeing it there. She hoped the fixer would improve her father as much as she thought it could.

"You girls had better get to school," the older woman said after a moment. Vicky looked up at the clock on the wall and paled a little.

"Oh, _shit_ , it's nearly half past nine!"

"Language, Victoria. And don't panic, I called the school office and explained there was a minor medical emergency that would make you late," Carol replied calmly. "That said, you should go."

"Thanks, Mom," Vicky said, jumping to her feet, then lifting off and zipping out of the room.

"And no flying in the kitchen, Victoria!" Carol called after her.

Amy smiled to herself and followed her sister. That had gone a damn sight more easily than she'd feared it might.


	341. BBFO Tales: Experiments in Human Science

_I was in a funny mood and this happened. Don't judge me..._

* * *

Colin closed the door to the BBFO office behind him, turned around, and ducked.

The high velocity potted plant slammed into the door at exactly the height his head had occupied, the pot it was in apparently made of something tough enough to take it and merely bouncing. The plant and the earth it was in was another matter, as he was covered in a veritable explosion of both.

Brushing himself off, he looked quizzically at Saurial, who appeared apologetic. "Sorry about that. Some of Ianthe's experiments are a little… lively."

"What on earth was _that?_ " he asked, looking at the mess on the floor, then at the lizard-girl who had admitted him.

"An imbalance in the endochronic chemicals expressed in the leaves," an irritated voice from further into the building said, making him look over. "It was _that_ close, too." A thumb and forefinger were held with the talons nearly touching. Ianthe seemed mildly miffed, but otherwise in a good mood. "Sorry, it got away from me at just the wrong moment."

Metis was sitting at the far end of the table that her sister was working on, looking amused, with Raptaur standing next to her grinning. He nodded to both the other reptiles as he followed Saurial over to her cousin. Inspecting the large number of very weird things scattered on the table, and then looking around with widening eyes, he felt he should probably have waited for Dragon to come with him.

He could already tell he was going to have a headache when he left…

"What… is this?" he asked, indicating a similar plant in a pot, the green leafy thing looking a little familiar to him. He thought it was possibly some sort of herb or other.

However, most herbs didn't glow a faint purple color.

Neither did they, and their pots, hover six inches off the table. In general.

The deep, faint, and slightly wavering hum was also oddly unnerving.

"An experiment," Ianthe said, examining the floating plant closely, while not looking entirely satisfied. "We were reading some of your human scientific literature and came across a number of interesting concepts which seemed to have been sadly neglected. After some thought we decided to work on perfecting a few of them, by combining them with Family tech. It's good practice and quite a lot of fun. But we do seem to keep running into places your scientists didn't fully explain their work properly, so we're having to derive the solutions from first principles."

The humming got a little louder, the plant starting to vibrate slightly. Ianthe quickly grabbed a small mister and sprayed it a couple of times with something that smelled like aniseed, which made the humming die back to the original level and the vibrating stop. "This one is a good example. I've managed to get modified chloroplasts to produce a minute amount of thiotimoline in the leaves, but it's annoyingly difficult to balance the production of the stuff with the consumption of it, and at the same time stop it becoming endochronically unstable."

"Thiotimoline?" Colin asked, thinking that sounded familiar for some reason that he couldn't quite put his finger on.

"Well, not pure thiotimoline, of course. This is a modified version of it. Very complex molecule, with some fascinating properties. The temporal instability of it is quite hazardous in pure form, but with some modifications I managed to make it more spatially indeterminate than temporally so. It's more useful like that, we were thinking that Vectura could use it for…"

The glow suddenly spiked to a higher level, and the potted plant left the vicinity so fast there was a distinct ' _crack_ ' as it went supersonic. Colin instinctively ducked, although none of the lizards did more than follow it with their eyes. The pot pinged around the room several times until Raptaur reached out with a blurringly fast motion that would have made Velocity jealous and snagged it as it came past. Holding it firmly as it wiggled in her grip, she waited for her cousin to spray it vigorously before putting it back down on the table.

The glow died away and the plant wilted, making Ianthe shake her head and mutter something in her own language, sounding peeved. "Unfortunately, the stability still leaves something to be desired, and it's also somewhat toxic to the host plant. Perhaps I need to try something else as a base, but this one seemed a good choice for several reasons."

"You just liked the name," Saurial laughed. Ianthe shrugged, smiling a little.

"It was an amusing idea, I'll admit." She picked up the pot and looked sadly at it. "Vectura would have had a good laugh about being able to use this as the power source for Thyme Travel."

Colin winced despite himself.

"If I can ask," he said after a moment, desperate to change the subject, "What is _that?_ "

He pointed at a huge transparent container in the middle of the room. Gently bouncing around inside it was a ball-shaped… thing… about five feet in diameter. A pair of mournful-appearing eyes blinked at him as it rotated slowly. The large black and white patches all over it made it look even weirder.

Ianthe brightened up as she looked over her shoulder. "Oh, that thing actually worked pretty well," she smiled. "I'm still working on making it more robust but it's already usable." She walked over to the container and peered in. "Look, it's looking at us," she added. "Cute, isn't it?"

He didn't want to, but he had to ask. "But what… _is…_ it? Is it alive?"

"Of course it's alive, it wouldn't be much use if it wasn't, would it now?" she asked, staring at him like he was an idiot. "Once I get the bugs worked out, I bet your physicists will love it. We'll lease them at a very reasonable price."

"Physicists?" He looked oddly at her, then at the floating thing. A mouth opened in a soundless cry, the eyes blinking, then closed again. He shivered, there was something entirely wrong about it. "What would a physicist want with whatever that thing is?"

Ianthe looked puzzled, then turned and asked her family something in that language. They had a brief discussion, then she turned back. "It's in a lot of papers Saurial's read, but no one seems to have actually used them for doing the experiments and testing the math," Ianthe said. "Saurial claims that the math doesn't need to be tested, it's either right or wrong, but I think it's nice to be able to prove it empirically. So I made this."

Saurial picked up a tablet from the table and brought it over to him. He looked at the document that was open on it, at her, then at the thing in the container. Then he sighed.

The lizard-girl reclaimed the tablet and read out loud, "Consider a spherical cow in a vacuum..."

He put a hand on his visor and sighed more heavily. "Of course, for some projects you end up working with very small or very large numbers," Ianthe said cheerfully. He looked up to see her holding up a small transparent globe which seemed to have a number of teeny tiny specks floating around in it. "So I've got some micro-cows too. I'm still working on nano-cows, they tend to have trouble with electrostatic attraction, and we don't have room here for the mega-cow. We'll have to wait until Vectura works out the bugs in her orbital launcher."

Colin didn't ask.

What he _did_ ask was, "How is that… spherical cow..." He couldn't _believe_ he'd just said that, but pressed on anyway, "just floating in there?"

"Oh, that's one of mine," Raptaur said, sounding pleased with herself. "We found a reference in a paper from over a century ago, from a scientist called Wells. Neat stuff he described. It took some careful work to make it, since it's sort of dimensionally peculiar, but I managed in the end. It's a very effective gravitational shield. The bottom of the containment vessel is made of it."

She frowned slightly as Colin stared. "That Wells guy was _very_ hazy on the math, annoyingly, and he completely neglected to mention the requirements for something to negate the effects of the Cavorite put above it. If you don't use that, all your air will go shooting off into space eventually, although a lot of it would come back. Even so, it's a hazard, if only to birds and aircraft, so I designed a neutralizing version that sort of blocks the gravity blocking. I can show you the math we came up with if you like, it's really interesting."

"Cavorite," he echoed. _That_ name he recognized, although he wished in a way he didn't.

"Yep. I was a little grandiose, I'm afraid, and called the other version Raptaurium, but hey, if this Cavor guy Wells talked about is allowed to name things after himself, who am I to go against tradition?" She shrugged, smiling. "The ceiling's lined with it."

"I see."

"Your literature is full of useful materials," Metis commented, picking up a couple of paperbacks and showing them to him. "Some of them are clearly too dangerous to use, but a few are pretty good. Saurial's working on this one called scrith at the moment."

"It's not as strong as EDM, but it's lighter, and I can see a few places it could come in handy," Saurial added, holding up a rod of a pale metallic substance about a foot long. "EDM is also completely rigid whereas this stuff can be worked, although admittedly with a lot of effort. I'm surprised no one seems to be using it, though. We couldn't find any references to it outside these manuals."

She cocked her head at him enquiringly.

Colin wondered how he was going to explain science fiction to them, and whether he should even try…

And was well aware that Dragon would, by now, be laughing like an idiot. She was a little odd that way, and seemed to find the Family endlessly amusing.


	342. Guest Omake - The Elevator Pitch

Lisa stepped into the warehouse and immediately regretted it. Taylor was not… normal. In fact the girl/lizard/daemon was the furthest thing from normal that Lisa had ever encountered, and she'd once run into a condiment themed supervillan. For the sake of Lisa's sanity, at least Taylor fell into a few predictable phases.

At her most sane, there was the constant low grade 'trolling' that she performed with glee and which had led to a statistical rise in Brockton Bay's daily alcohol consumption. It was something that Lisa was learning to deal with. Although, she'd found a five foot long winged lizard hanging in her closet that morning and had screamed loud enough that Brain had come running from two buildings away. Perhaps it was better to say it was something she was developing something rather akin to Stockholm syndrome. Either way, she was coping.

When things ratcheted up a level, Taylor moved on to full scale 'pranks'. These resulted in at least one person seeking therapy and PHO exploding with pictures that hurt people's brains. Taylor's ability to invent entirely new forms of physics and willingness use them for practical jokes was alarming on multiple levels. Lisa carried a bottle of extra-strength painkillers mostly because she kept glancing at Danny's _paperweight_ and getting a migraine. Still, it was an improvement over Amy's attempts to build an all natural squirt flower. Lisa had at least been assured it couldn't survive in the wild, but no one had seen stem nor stigma of the thing in days.

Then things got truly dangerous. On occasion Taylor would get 'ideas'. The most infamous of which was the water powered, hypersonic surfboard; a string of syllables that did not belong together in a sane universe. It also included the whole Family mythos which was, to Lisa's knowledge, currently consuming the attention of a full third of the world's intelligence gathering community. Given another six months there was a good chance there would be more spies working for the Dockworkers Union than actual workers.

Worst of all were the 'plans'. Fortunately for the world only two of which had ever gone anywhere. The first, which had almost started a full scale riot, was Kaiju's enthusiastic dredging operations. The second was the fully functional Star Gate that Taylor mostly used to traumatise kangaroos.

Lisa was fairly sure she'd walked in on plan number three.

"Okay, I was going to bring you a message, but I think I have to ask first. What they hell are you guys doing now?"

"Oh, hey Lisa!" Raptaur exclaimed, waving one of her tree trunk arms. "We're working on a great idea."

Lisa shuddered, as a chill ran down her spine. Raptaur, Leet and Vectura stood around a device that Lisa could only describe as a great glass elevator. Cables, bracing and what looked like some beefy thrusters cradled a transparent box. The three tinkers formed an efficient production line, Vectura drawing blueprints as fast as she could, Raptaur manifesting the parts with a snap of her fingers and Leet throwing them together at lightning speed. A half tube of EDM stood behind them, perfectly sized for the elevator.

"Do I want to ask?"

"We're building an elevator," Raptaur replied, grinning. "Like it?"

Lisa stopped in front of the elevator, looked it up and down, then pointed at the large hole in the ceiling. "What is that?"

Raptaur shrugged. "Well, it's got to be reasonably high if we're going to test it."

Lisa pursed her lips. "An elevator?" she continued, frowning.

"Yep." Raptaur popped the p, her grin widening. She had a lot of teeth.

"A _space_ elevator?"

"Well, that depends. See, scientists are divided on just where space begins. We're gunning for about a hundred miles. Should be good enough for a demonstration."

"Any more and there's a good chance it will rip itself out of its foundations," Leet interjected, unhelpfully.

Visions of an indestructible tower falling from low Earth orbit flashed before Lisa's eyes. They'd be lucky if the state survived that kind of disaster. Although, knowing Taylor's bullshit she could just vanish the damn thing if it ever went that badly wrong.

Sighing, Lisa rubbed the bridge of her nose. "Right…" She took a steadying breath. "Raptaur, remember when you asked me to tell you if you were going to traumatise millions, disrupt world orders or upset the President."

Raptaur frowned. "I don't remember phrasing it like that."

"Well, you actually said "don't let things get out of hand" and that seems to be about your limit." Lisa pulled a small card out of her jacket pocket. "Well, I just got this message. Raptaur, please please please please please—" She flipped over the card. "— _Please_. Stop. Signed, Winged One."

"Oh…" Raptaur gave a sheepish smile. "No space elevator then?"

"Lets shelve it for a few months, shall we?"

"Aww, come on," Vectura interjected. "At least lets get a couple of miles does. I've got some great plans that just need a little altitude to work."

Lisa shot her a look. She wondered just when she'd become the sensible one. "Later," she said, through clenched teeth. "Maybe after we've had a long discussion with the FAA."

"Ugh, those guys again." Raptaur sighed. "Okay. Well guys, I guess its back to project Orion."

"Yeah, I'm not touching that one," Lisa said, spinning on her heel. "Let me know if you plan to detonate anything larger than a firecracker." It would give her at least half a chance to talk them out of it."

With another heavy sigh she retreated from the warehouse. "Right then. Next, stop, Panacea."

Lisa pulled another card out of her pocket, addressed to Amy. She had no idea if the Simurgh was really was keeping tabs on the girls. However, Lisa was sure that she and Endbringer were in full agreement in at least slowing them down.


	343. Coincidences and Phoning

Entering the grocery store, Benny picked up a basket from the stack inside the door, walked three steps, stopped, stared, turned around, put the basket back, and left. He got back into the car which Rudy was waiting in, his friend looking oddly at him.

"I thought you were getting some snacks."

"Boss Hebert was buying cheese."

Benny's voice was almost calm. Inside, he was shaking.

"Oh, for fuck's sake," Rudy sighed as he started the car. "That's four times now. First he was buying a bottle of brandy when we went in to deliver Guido's shipment. Then he was visiting that bookshop and just _happened_ to come out as we were walking past. Then the woodwork store on fifth right at the same goddam time we were going next door. Now here. How is he _doing_ this? And why?"

"Boss Hebert works in mysterious ways."

Rudy looked at his old friend with some worry, the note of barely suppressed hysteria was growing... 

* * *

Dinah finished writing the essay, putting her pen down and flexing her hand a little as she leaned forward and read it over for mistakes. Muttering to herself she found a couple of minor spelling errors and painstakingly corrected them, hoping the teacher wouldn't subtract marks for that. The scratching of pens on paper was almost the only thing she could hear in the room as her classmates wrote their own essays.

She wasn't the first to finish, Melinda had had that honor and was now sitting quietly reading a book at the front of the class, but she certainly wasn't the last either. Satisfied in the end that she'd done about as well as she could hope for, the girl leaned back in her chair and closed her eyes for a moment, thinking about the next few hours.

Once school was over, she was going to make her debut as the latest Ward in the city, the thought making her nervous all over again. Despite her power assuring her there was only a 5.74% chance of anything going wrong, which for this place was pretty low. She was still going to have a lot of people staring at her in her first press conference, which was enough to make anyone nervous.

Luckily, her experience with Raptaur down the boardwalk a little while ago had exposed her to a lot of public staring, not to mention shock, so she was fairly sure she could deal with a mere PRT publicity exercise. Or so she was telling herself. If she kept doing that, hopefully it would become true.

The teacher looked up from her own work, then at the clock. "Five minutes, everyone. If you're not done by then, just put your pens down."

The people who were still writing started writing faster, but Dinah was pretty sure at least half of them didn't stand a chance if they weren't done yet. Feeling quite happy that she'd bothered to review the relevant chapters in the geography book last night, she went back to wondering what would happen later.

And what the Family were up to. And, for that matter, what _Taylor_ was up to. Her new friend seemed very interesting, and Dinah thought that the fact that she had a tail was really cool. As was the way she could stop people seeing it. _That_ was amazing.

Smiling a little as she pictured what her mom would say if she came home with a tail one day, she doodled idly on some spare paper as she waited for the class to end. If nothing else, it took her mind off the event later, although she was pretty certain it wasn't something that was ever likely to happen. But one day she wanted to find out how Taylor had become Tail-or.

Snickering under her breath at her own joke, she kept doodling and thinking. 

* * *

"Nope."

"Just get in there, it's a McDonald's for god's sake," Rudy growled. "Someone like _him_ isn't going to be in a place like _that_ , and _I need some coffee!_ "

"It's not worth it. He's ' _bumped into_ ' us seven times in the last three hours, for Christ's sake!" Benny waved both hands at the fast food joint, his eyes a little wild. The drive through queue was packed, so they'd parked outside. "He'll be in there. I don't know why, I don't know how, but _he'll be there!_ " He grabbed Rudy's shoulder and shook it.

"He's doing it on purpose, I'm telling you. He's following me."

"He's there _before_ we get there, Benny," Rudy said in as reasonable manner as he could, unclasping the fingers gripping him painfully tightly. It was certainly becoming more than a little worrying the way that Boss Hebert seemed to pop out of nowhere like that, but he was trying to be reasonable about it. Most likely it was just a run of bad luck on their part, the guy couldn't possibly know where they were going every time, and even if he did, why would he be waiting for them like this? Someone like him wasn't going to waste time with a couple of low level if very talented professional goods relocators like them.

" _That's the point!_ " Benny hissed, looking around suspiciously. He even looked in the rear seat, just to be sure. Rudy was glad they'd dropped the women off earlier at the salon, if Ella saw his friend acting like this her caustic comments were certainly not going to help matters. "He's always there! Boss Hebert is _everywhere!_ "

"Stop being a fucking lunatic and just get me some coffee, will you, Benny?" Rudy sighed. "Look, we can see inside, right? There's no sign of him. So just go and buy some coffee and we can get on with work."

" _You_ go and buy the coffee," Benny said, folding his arms stubbornly and almost pouting. "I'm staying here where it's safe." Rudy glared at him, then turned the engine off.

"Jesus, fine! _I'll_ get the coffee. God, you need to get a hold of yourself, Benny, the boss won't be happy if we're late because you keep making me take some weird shortcut to get away from Boss Hebert."

"But we _can't_ get away from him!" Benny said, looking around again and staring at everyone walking past with suspicion. " _No one_ can get away from Boss Hebert if he doesn't want to let them go. He's got eyes everywhere. That sort of man always does. Anyone could be working for him. He's been running Brockton Bay for over twenty years _and no one knew it!_ " His friend turned to him, twitching a little. "You know how much work that must have taken? How many people he must own? How hard it would be to make his organization just look like some normal dock worker's union? And what about the Family? Where do they fit? They're taking out the competition one after another and you know as well as I do who benefits. _HIM_."

Rudy couldn't help the involuntary shiver that went through him at his friend's words. He remembered that trip to Brockton Bay at three AM sometimes, and he could never get to sleep again afterwards. Perhaps Benny was onto something…?

He shook his head firmly. No, that place was certainly somewhere he didn't plan on visiting again, ever, if he could possibly help it, but he didn't think the man behind it would waste all this time following the two of them around even if he _could_ do it. All this had to be some weird sort of coincidence.

Although…

Someone like Hebert would be an expert at making things _look_ like a coincidence, even if they were anything but.

Or _especially_ if they were anything but…

Shaking himself a little as his paranoia started to get away from him, he scowled at his friend. "Benny, we've known each other since we were kids, and it's as a friend I'm telling you, stop freaking out about all this before you drive yourself nuts."

"You're starting to think the same way, right?" Benny asked knowingly.

Rudy stared at him, then got out without another word and stomped off towards the golden arches. He heard the doors lock behind him but didn't look back.

And he hated the way the back of his neck was tingling the entire way across the parking lot, but he couldn't help it.

Once he'd got the coffees, and a couple of muffins as well, he returned to the car, again finding himself walking just that little bit faster than normal and looking around somewhat more cautiously than he usually would. Even up at the surrounding buildings once or twice, since he couldn't forget what Benny had told him about the sniper kid in the DWU cafeteria. Even though he knew he was being stupid, he couldn't help it.

' _Fucking Benny_ ,' he thought with irritation. ' _Sometimes he gets something stuck in his head and just won't drop it_.' At least he wasn't going around asking the wrong sorts of questions now, since he'd come back white as a sheet from a _meeting_ with the boss, and Antonio himself. His friend hadn't said a word about what they'd told him, but Rudy could guess.

Tapping on the glass when he reached the car, he waited impatiently for Benny to finish checking it was really him, then unlock the door. Once he was inside he handed the cup-holder and the bag of muffins to his friend. "Hold this," he said curtly, restarting the vehicle, then backing out of the parking space. Moments later they were slowly heading to the next location on the list of jobs for the day. Benny, his hand slightly trembling, handed him one of the coffees, then leaned back sipping the other and inspecting the occupants of each car they passed with alert worry.

"Turn left up ahead," his friend suddenly said.

"Why?" Rudy sighed. "That'll take us an extra ten minutes, it's the long way round."

"Maybe we can throw him off," Benny explained. Rudy rolled his eyes, but with a sigh indicated and turned. By the time they'd negotiated the maze of roads this new heading had led them into he'd finished his coffee and muffin, idly wishing he'd bought two of the latter since he was still hungry.

Eventually they reached their destination, an innocent-looking dry cleaners down a side street in a semi-industrial area. He parked the car, then both of them got out. While he opened the trunk to get the package, Benny was looking around carefully, one hand in his pocket. This was good in a way, he was at least as alert as you could possibly hope for, but in another way it was bad, since Rudy was pretty certain his mind wasn't on potential hijackers.

"See?" he said as he slammed the trunk lid, the heavy box in his other hand. "No sign of him. You're imagining things, after a few weird coincidences."

Benny didn't stop looking around, but seemed to relax just a little. He tensed again as they reached the entrance to the dry-cleaners, but after a cautious look inside, appeared less stressed. Shaking his head slightly Rudy followed him inside. The old man behind the counter reading a newspaper, a cigarette dangling from the corner of his mouth, glanced up at them through the smoke. "You're late," he muttered in a hoarse voice roughened by too much tobacco.

"Sorry, bad traffic," Rudy replied mildly. He put the delivery on the counter. The old man stood with a grunt, dropping his paper on his chair, then picked the box up.

"Wait here," he said, before disappearing through the curtain that separated the dingy front part of the place from the much larger rear part, from which mechanical sounds and odd smells were drifting. Rudy and Benny looked around while they waited, the latter eventually just standing staring out the window at the small amount of traffic going past. A couple of minutes later the old guy came back with a different box, which he put down, before picking his paper up and sitting in his chair again. After that he ignored them.

Rudy grabbed the box and turned on his heel without a word, Benny following him out. "Get here on time next week," the old man called as they left.

"Never liked that old bastard," Benny grumbled.

"No one does," Rudy said. "Not even him." When they got to the car he popped the trunk and dropped the box in, closed it, then headed for the driver's door. Benny got in the other side and they pulled away from the curb.

Rejoining the main road and the flow of traffic, they resumed their journey. After a while Benny seemed to relax even more, which made Rudy relax as well, since sitting next to someone full of that much nervous energy was tiring. "See?" he said a few minutes later. "No sign of him. Told you. All a weird coincidence."

"Maybe," Benny replied eventually. He dropped his head back on the headrest and closed his eyes. "Maybe not." He didn't sound convinced.

Rudy sighed. "Just keep your head in the game and forget Boss Hebert. We'll probably never see him again and we have a job to do."

"I'd pay good money to make sure that never happened," his friend mumbled, but didn't press the point. He seemed to be on the verge of falling asleep, despite the coffee and the early hour. Too much stress, probably. At least it would keep him quiet for the next twenty minutes until they got to the next job, Rudy thought.

He shook his head a little. His friend had too much imagination sometimes. Sure, Boss Hebert was a scary, scary guy, as bad as Antonio was at least, but Rudy was sure he wasn't going to follow them around all day just for shits and giggles. That was just paranoia at work.

Pulling up a the red light in front of him and Idly turning his head to follow the path of a spectacularly good looking woman walking down the sidewalk, he smiled a little. As he looked away, he met the eyes of the driver of the car in the next lane who had done the same thing as he also slowed for the light.

Rudy paled.

Boss Hebert winked, then waved, before indicating right and disappearing down the side road ahead.

It took the guy behind him leaning on his horn before Rudy twitched and put his foot on the gas.

He decided not to mention anything to Benny, although he was starting to think his friend might just have a point... 

* * *

Aisha sighed, leaning her head on her hand, as she half-listened to the teacher drone on about something to do with fractions. It was very boring. Math and her were definitely not good friends, although she wasn't completely hopeless at it. She just found it hard to concentrate long enough to really get it a lot of the time, there was always something more interesting to do. Brian tried to help her, he really did, and to be fair so did their father as much as he could, but she just couldn't find it something she enjoyed doing. Or even tolerated given an alternative.

She assumed that there probably were people who had math come easily to them, but that didn't describe her at all. And they were probably really boring people who never did anything fun anyway. Glancing around she wondered if she could get away with doing something to liven things up, but she didn't really have anything good in mind and there wasn't much scope for amusement in math class anyway. Not like chemistry, there was always something you could do by mixing random chemicals and pouring them down the sink that would cause a little welcome chaos if the lesson got too boring.

The trick was doing that and getting away with it.

She liked to think she was pretty good at that part, although she wasn't perfect. Not through lack of trying though.

Softly kicking the leg of her chair as she mused on the unfairness of keeping people locked up in school when they could be outside having fun, she looked out the window. After a little while, watching the trees across the road bend nearly double in the strong wind, and the rain splatter on the windows, she amended her thought; they could be inside _somewhere else_ having fun. It really didn't look like the sort of day she wanted to be wandering around in at the moment.

Hopefully it would clear up later. Her dad had said it was supposed to be fairly dry that afternoon, although it was likely to be windy for the rest of the day. With any luck when she finally got out of school it would have stopped raining and she could find something interesting to do.

Possibly go down town and take a look at this new Ward that was supposed to be introduced at a press conference at the PRT building? She'd seen a report in the paper that it was happening around four that afternoon. Sure, she probably wouldn't get in, but it was worth a try. She'd managed to sneak into places she wasn't supposed to be in the past, after all. And was pretty good at it.

Sitting up and raising her head as the teacher glared at her, she tried to pay more attention. Brian wanted her to behave, and she didn't want to let him down, but this was _so boring!_ What good was math in the real world anyway?

She remembered something Cloak had said, about how what her powers did being interesting math. OK, then, perhaps if you were some weird family-associated floating clothing math was useful, but since she _wasn't…  
_  
Thinking of the friendly disembodied apparel made her think of doughnuts. Which made her stomach growl.

She could really go for a doughnut.

OK. Get through the day without passing out from boredom, seek doughnuts, then go look at the new Ward if she could. You never knew, she might bump into Cloak wandering around. That night had been one of the best ones she'd ever had and she'd jump at the chance to do it again.

Picking up her pencil she made a few notes, to show willingness if nothing else, then went back to listening with half an ear and day-dreaming. The sooner school was out the better as far as she was concerned. At least she had lunch to look forward to.

Aisha sighed again. Perhaps she should try sneaking into the DWU after sneaking into the press conference? She'd like to see where Brian was working, and maybe meet more of those crazy lizards.

Whatever else Saurial was, boring wasn't part of it. 

* * *

Getting back into his car, Danny pondered his day so far. Aside from stumbling across Benny and Rudy more often than chance would suggest was likely, there wasn't anything that particularly stood out about it. He'd asked Antonio and Serafina last night for some suggestions for places to get various little gifts and souvenirs from, finding that the shops they'd recommended seemed to be just what he was looking for. Antonio had even told him the best order to visit them in to minimize travel time, which was very helpful. Danny's own knowledge of the roads around here was somewhat out of date and things had changed quite a bit.

Annette's favorite bookshop had yielded a couple of nice works on weaponry throughout history that he suspected Taylor would like, along the lines of the Roman engineering book she'd spent some time reading. He didn't himself know enough about math to even begin to know where to get her any good books on the subject, and suspected she was far past anything that he was likely to find in a shop in any case. He'd asked Antonio where he'd got that very nice brandy and had picked up a bottle for himself as a treat.

Then he'd visited a place that the old man had recommended he check out, an establishment that was run by an ancient woodworker who'd made a lot of the furniture that was in Antonio's and Serafina's home. The guy was ninety if he was a day, but acted a good thirty years younger, and was a true artist. He'd perked right up when Danny had mentioned who'd sent him and the pair of them had spent a happy hour going around his workshop looking at various things he had for sale. In the end Danny had bought a beautifully made box intended for jewelry or something similar which he intended to keep his watches in. It was too nice not to get.

He'd also picked up a few little carved figurines, made of some very dense African wood he'd immediately forgotten the name of, which the elderly man made just as a hobby to keep his hands supple. He thought they'd make nice little gifts for various people in his life. Taylor got a little dragon, which seemed appropriate, Amy had a delicate little palm tree, Lisa had a very smug looking monkey, and he'd found suitable ones for Kurt, Lacey, Zephron, and Mark too.

Overall he was pleased with the results of his shopping trip. After stopping off to get some of the cheese he'd liked the night before from another place Serafina had recommended, he'd just visited a few places he remembered from years back. Now he was pretty much done with that part of his trip and was heading back to Antonio's place and what was undoubtedly going to be another enjoyable afternoon and evening.

Pausing to watch a remarkably pretty young woman walk past as he slowed for the light, he smiled to himself. ' _Even at my age..._ ' he thought to himself, a memory of how Annette would have poked him in the ear for a wandering eye if she'd been sitting next to him as he so wished she was coming to him with a tinge of regret. Looking back to the front, he caught sight of a familiar face in the car that was waiting to go straight on, the driver having clearly just seen the same young lady. He winked at Rudy, who seemed a little embarrassed at being caught looking, smiled with a small wave, then made his turn and went on his way.

Yes, this trip had been the right thing to do, he mused. Reconnecting with Antonio and Serafina was what his father would have wanted, and having done so, what he wanted too. He hadn't fully realized how much he'd missed the old pain in the ass. Despite their differences, they also had an awful lot in common. And this problem he had with a family member of his own could be interesting, depending on how things worked out. Hopefully well.

Danny thought it was nice, as much as he loved his home and his people, to get away from the craziness of Brockton for a little while. Not too long, he'd probably end up missing the excitement after a while, but a couple of days was good. He'd made some new friends, who certainly seemed to be busy and conscientious workers based on how much he'd seen them making deliveries and pickups around the area, had fun bowling… Things had definitely worked out well.

Hopefully Kurt had managed to keep a lid on the DWU in his absence, and Taylor was restraining herself and her friends from the more bizarre activities they so enjoyed. He'd find out sooner or later one way or the other but he'd much prefer not to do that via the news... 

* * *

Lisa grinned at the object on her desk, then picked up the phone. Dialing, she waited for a moment for it to be answered.

"Roy Christner," a familiar voice answered.

"Hello, Mayor Christner," she said politely. "This is Lisa Wilbourn from Danny Hebert's office. We've met a few times in the past. He gave me your direct number."

" _Hello, Lisa,_ " he replied with a smile in his voice. " _Yes, I remember. Danny's assistant, right?_ "

"That's me," she said. "I've been asked by the Family to contact you about arranging a time to talk about how they can help provide the city with some upgraded equipment for the police and fire services. Apparently you were talking to Danny about it at your dinner engagement and also mentioned it when you last visited."

" _Ah. Yes, indeed, I and my people would be most interested in discussing the matter,_ " he said, sounding abruptly very invested in the conversation.

"Unfortunately, with the current trouble with the rogue, Saurial is tasked with guarding Taylor, and the others are busy on various projects quite a lot of the time. They've asked me to represent them for an initial meeting to go over some of the ideas that they've come up with, and take any requests or suggestions that your people have. I have a good working knowledge of the capabilities of the Family and should be able to answer most of your questions. Anything I don't know I can talk over with them. Raptaur said that she was hoping to finish her current workload by next week and she could make some prototypes of whatever you decide you want to try then. And demonstrate them as well, where required."

" _I see._ " She could hear pages flipping, her power telling him the Mayor was someone who liked traditional methods of organizing his time. Although he certainly was more than comfortable with technology too. " _That sounds entirely reasonable. All right, I'll need to talk to a few people and work out the best ones to meet up, but… Would later this afternoon be possible? Perhaps around half past two? I think I can get most of the necessary personnel together by then._ "

"Of course, Mayor Christner, that's no problem at all. I can bring a few samples that have been prefabricated, mostly as a result of making costumes for New Wave and Vectura, as well as body armor for our security department. Saurial thinks that it's pretty close to what the police might want, but obviously it can be customized however you need."

" _Excellent. Thank you, Lisa, I'm looking forward to seeing what you have. I'll leave word in reception here to have you brought in as soon as you arrive. Unless you hear otherwise, we're on for half past two_." He sounded pleased. " _I've been meaning to chase this down and you've saved me the effort._ "

"Always glad to help, Mayor," she told him, smiling a little. "Bye, then."

" _Good bye, Lisa_." The line clicked and went silent. Putting her desk phone back into the cradle, she leaned her chair back and put her legs on the desk, while picking up her notebook and crossing off one of the items on the list. ' _Going well so far_ ,' she thought with satisfaction. While she could just as easily have done this as Metis, she thought it was a good idea to put forward the idea that the Family were often busy and couldn't always drop everything without warning. It wasn't entirely untrue after all and would become steadily less so as time went on.

She'd been wanting to start commercializing some of Taylor's work for a while now, as she could see that it both would make a decent profit, and help people out. Not to mention get them used to FamTech equipment and ideas. Amy's fixers were one step in that direction, and a somewhat radical one. Balancing that with something much more prosaic yet valued like top quality and essentially impenetrable body armor, protective equipment of other types, tools, and the like would help make that little golden Varga logo become well known and symbolic of the best equipment on the market.

Too much, too soon, was a recipe for chaos. But holding too much back for too long put people at risk needlessly. She well understood the dilemma that Amy had faced with her one-shots.

In a way it was the other side of the problem, she mused. Amy could fix people who got smashed up. Taylor's equipment could hopefully stop them being smashed up in the first place. Between the pair of them, a lot of people were going to have a much better time of it.

On a slightly longer timescale they were going to have to think about how and what to do about Linda's mechs, and the re-programmable vehicles. The latter were likely to be the sort of thing that was a real game-changer, she thought. Her power had gone completely silent when it had first worked out what was going on, then nearly fallen over itself with glee. It was completely in love with the Tinker's abilities, nearly as much as it was fond of Amy's and Taylor's. In the latter case, it was actually closer to completely awestruck almost to the point of worship, she thought with a mental grin.

But that could wait. Right now, protective clothing, armor, batons, and a few other things were quick and easy for her friend to make in quantity, didn't have any of the Tinker Tech maintenance issues, and didn't have nearly the same potential problems if they got into the wrong hands. Hopefully that wouldn't happen and they were going to take precautions, but you couldn't always guard against everything. They'd all discussed this last night while setting up Kevin and Randall's new place, settling on the current approach.

' _We probably need to find someone who knows more about clothing in general to bring in on this at some point_ ,' she pondered. ' _Perhaps it would be worth talking to Parian? Her business is doing pretty well from what I hear and some of this is right up her street. Maybe she'd be interested in some commissioned work. Taylor can't spend all her time making this stuff, she has far too much to do already. Confusing the crap out of the world is a full time job on its own..._ '

Snickering to herself, she tapped her pen on her notepad a couple of times, then reached for the phone again, dialing another number from memory.

"Hi, this is Lisa Wilbourn from the DWU calling on behalf of BBFO. I'd like to talk to Armsmaster if he's available..."


	344. Guest Omake - In The Name Of SCIENCE!

Just a sudden thought...

Roy looked at the lab coat wearing man that had called to him as he left the office. His driver was reaching for a gun as the masked man raised both hands. "No weapons, no intentions to do any physical harm, just need to make a request."

Roy thought for a second. Masks generally meant capes and powers, and they had no idea what this one could do. If he wasn't going to start a fight right now, it might be better to listen to him. "You have my attention, Mr?"

"Ah yes, how rude of me to not introduce myself. I am SCIENCE!, and I have some issues with the state of the educational system here in Brockton Bay." He carefully pulled a manila folder from his lab coat and offered it to Roy. "Mayor, this is a list, by school, of all the Science problems that have local fixes. Mostly, it is about money, and I am fully aware you cannot fix that by yourself, due to politics. However, you can talk to the people that can fix the issues and let them know that continuing to ignore the Science related eductional issues in this city will have... consequences."

Mayor Christener looked at the cape. "What sort of consequences? You do know that no one will tolerate attacks at school"

"I would never damage a school," SCIENCE! said hastily, "nor would I stoop to physical violence. I am a scientist, not a brawler. I am, as you have guessed from my attire, a cape. Specifically, I am a chemical tinkerer."

Roy blinked, a sudden horrible thought coming to mind and SCIENCE! smiled. "I think you begin to understand. I have a certain amount of thioacetone, enough to cause Brockton Bay to be uninhabitable by humans for a hundred years." He reached into his pocket and offered Roy a small glass ball. "Please, have it examined, assure yourself that it is what I claim it is. Then, you can tell all those people listed in appendix b of the analysis I have given you that their homes and businesses will be my first targets if progress towards fixing those issues is not made within thirty days." He raised his hands, palms out. "I am aware that you can't fix it all, but there are a number of small fixes that can be done." SCIENCE! hesitated, then muttered in a much quieter voice. "Could you maybe get Ianthe to give me an autograph?"

SCIENCE! stepped back and started around a car. "I'll be in touch." There was a bright flash that made both men blink, and when the spots went away, SCIENCE! was gone.

Roy looked at his driver. "Did a cape just threaten to use stink bombs on the city if we didn't improve the education system?"

His driver nodded silently. Roy rubbed the bridge of his nose and got in his car. As they headed for his house, he called a number that was becoming a common one.

"Hello, Metis. Is Saurial around? We have a little problem."

Somehow, the idea of somebody holding the rich people of BB up with stink bombs to improve the education system is amusing. That everyone in the city knows exactly how bad it can be, just makes the threat more real.

Naturally, Taylor and co can fix the problem, although they may allow the biggest offender's house to get bombed first, some creepy guy, name of Anders.

Edit:minor errors, damn autocorrect to smurfville.


	345. Apartment and Presentation

"How did it go with your family, Brian?" Mark asked, causing the young man so addressed to look over his shoulder, then put his nail-gun down and stretch a little as he turned around.

"Fine, thanks, sir," he replied. Mark smiled a little. "Dad was..." He shook his head. "Less surprised than I expected, and seemed pleased when he found out where I'd been. I guess meeting Saurial gave him some idea that odd things had happened."

"And your sister? Aisha, wasn't it?"

"Yes. She was _less_ happy at first." He rubbed his stomach ruefully, making the security chief grin. "And very pleased at the same time. The girl hits a damn sight harder than you'd expect considering how small she is."

Mark chuckled. "Didn't like you not telling her where you'd gone, hmm?"

"Not as such, no," Brian agreed. "I wouldn't say that we're close in some ways, but I love her even if she is a pain in the ass at best. And she has a very… proprietary… attitude to me, I think."

"Sounds like an interesting girl," the other man noted.

"Inquisitive, acquisitive, mouthy, doesn't like authority, too smart for her own good, and with poor impulse control..." Brian sighed. "You could put that all under the heading of ' _interesting_ ' I guess. When you're dealing with the fallout, it's more ' _incredibly frustrating_ '."

"I can imagine," Mark replied, shaking his head sympathetically. "How old?"

"Not quite thirteen."

"Ah." His companion winced a little. "That age is sometimes… difficult."

"Tell me about it. And Dad, as much as I respect him as a man and love him as a father, isn't someone who really knows how to handle a teenaged girl, never mind one like Aisha. Oh, he tries, I'll admit that, but it could be better."

Mark nodded in understanding. "Your mother?"

"A waste of oxygen, unfortunately." Brian frowned, as Mark watched him. "I don't like to say it, but it's true. She's so fucked up on drugs most of the time she barely even remembers she _has_ kids. And the men she brings home..." He stopped talking, thinking back on an event he didn't like to remember.

"Not good role models, I assume."

"No. Fucking _Lung_ would be a better role model than some of them, he at least keeps his word from what I'm told." The young man leaned against the drywall sheet he'd nearly finished fixing in place in one of the refurbished buildings, a new set of offices. "Aisha still loves the damn woman, and I guess at one level I do too, but in most ways I try not to think about it. I've tried to get her clean, never had any luck, and it always ends badly. Finally just walked away. If it wasn't for my sister I doubt I'd ever see her again."

"I see." The blond man looked sympathetic. "Unpleasant situation. I've come across similar things in the past, it's always hard to deal with. Family gone bad is never easy to deal with."

"Not even a little," Brian nodded, folding his arms and lowering his head. They were silent for a few seconds. Eventually he shrugged. "Nothing I can do about it, though. Maybe with the Merchants more or less gone she won't be able to get that crap anymore and will clean her act up."

"It would be nice to think so, but my own experience tends to suggest it's unlikely," Mark replied quietly. "Generally you can only help people who want help, or will accept it. Unfortunately there are a lot of people who _don't_ want to be helped for one reason or another. Not a lot you can do in those cases except keep the drugs or alcohol away from them, and that's almost impossible to do without locking them up. Or even if you _do_ lock them up."

"Yeah, drugs are much too easy to get," Brian scowled, "Especially around here. Even without the Merchants, there's always someone who's happy to sell that shit."

"It'll get better, Brian," Mark assured him. "They were the worst by a long way. With the way things are going, the streets will be a lot safer pretty soon. But even so, I doubt even the Family can get all the drugs out of Brockton."

"Yeah," Brian sighed. "They're amazingly good, but there are limits." He picked up his nail-gun again, slipping a new gas cartridge into it since it was blinking the ' _low gas_ ' warning light. "Even for crazy lizards."

"Yep." Mark slapped him on the back. "But your sister is fine, you've talked to her and your father, and you have a good job where people like and respect you. Look on the bright side."

The young man grinned, turning back to the wall. "Fair enough. You'll change your tune if Aisha decides she wants to visit, though."

"She'd probably fit right in with Saurial and the others," Mark laughed. Brian looked at him slightly wildly, since it was far too accurate a comment, then tried to relax as he got on with his work. Chuckling to himself, the security man left. As he fired nails into the drywall, Brian did his best not to think about how much trouble his sister could get into if Saurial started taking an interest in the girl.

He wasn't entirely successful in this. 

* * *

Taylor scented a familiar person coming up behind her, looking back and smiling at Amy who was approaching. "What happened with your dad?" she asked softly as the other girl drew level with her, slowing to match speed with her friend. Some distance back, Vicky and Dean were also heading in the same direction. The blonde girl was apparently in a very good mood based just on her smile.

"Mom took some convincing, and she rewrote half the documents before she'd sign them, but it worked out in the end," Amy replied, looking quite happy. "She spent some time on the phone to the hospital legal department and some colleagues of hers too, they were faxing things back and forth for a while. As far as I can see she made it better, and I doubt the hospital lawyers would have lived with it if she hadn't done a good job."

"Your mother is very good at what she does," Taylor smiled. "Even when it's only terrifying car dealers."

Amy giggled. "Yep, that was really funny. And sort of impressive. But I was pretty worried she'd just say no, which would have caused all sorts of trouble. I think Dad would have done it anyway, he doesn't like being this depressed any more than the rest of us like it. When he's aware enough to notice, I mean, which isn't always. That would have been even more of a problem, though, Mom would have gone nuts."

"I'm glad she agreed, then," Taylor said.

"So am I. Both of us want our real dad back."

"I know what _that's_ like," the taller girl sighed. Her friend looked at her, then nudged her in the side.

"Sorry."

"Don't worry about it," Taylor smiled, putting her arm around Amy's shoulders. "It's in the past, everything's good now."

"And Danny's a lot better than he's been in years," a familiar voice said as ' _Saurial_ ' popped up next to them, looking amused. Amy grinned at her friend's other aspect, who had come out of an empty classroom where she'd presumably appeared from nowhere. The lizard girl moved to walk next to them on the other side, making an odd image.

"This must look silly," Amy snickered. "You've got nearly six inches on me, Taylor, and _she's_ six inches taller than _you_. I feel so short."

"You _are_ so short, Amy," the blue-scaled reptilian figure grinned, ruffling her hair.

"Stop that you scaled lunatic," Amy snapped, running her fingers through it to set it to rights. ' _Saurial_ ' merely laughed a little.

"I'm glad your family accepted my cousin's work," she said as they reached the cafeteria door, pushing it open with one hand. Amy was sure it was the Varga speaking at the moment.

"So am I," she nodded. "I just hope it works." They shared a look, then headed for the food, each of them taking a tray. Taylor reflected on the oddness of the scene from an outside viewpoint, with a tall and slender lizard girl in casual clothes standing in line for school food, the students and staff merely nodding to her in passing. It hadn't taken long for her other aspect to become entirely familiar to everyone to a level that seen objectively was definitely strange.

But that was Brockton Bay for you. Not a lot fazed the inhabitants of the place these days, which was something she liked.

Soon enough they were all sitting at the table, their other friends arriving moments later. "That documentary looked fantastic," Mandy said as she sat down, smiling widely. "Thanks for the DVD."

"No problem," Taylor smiled back. She'd made copies and given them to all her friends. "It'll be interesting to see the reaction when it's on TV."

"Hopefully it will be positive," ' _Saurial_ ' added, popping the top on a can of Sprite and taking a sip.

"How could it _not_ be positive?" Lucy asked, sounding surprised. "You guys are the coolest thing that's happened to this place in years. Ever, even!" She seemed genuinely startled that anyone could hold a different opinion. Everyone looked at her, then grinned.

"Not everyone likes lizards as much as you do, Lucy," Eric said with a snicker. She stuck her tongue out at him while shaking pepper on her meal.

"They should do," she retorted.

The lizard girl nodded agreement. "I would have to say she's right," she said.

"Of _course_ you would," Amy snarked with a look of amusement, which made them laugh.

"Hey, I heard that the DWU have a new Tinker," Rich put in with interest. "There's all sorts of stuff about it on PHO. Lots of photos and video of her, Metis, and you coming out of the PRT building yesterday afternoon."

"I saw that," Mandy commented, nodding, then looking at ' _Saurial_ '. "A cat woman? Really?"

"Vectura's part cat, yes," the reptilian girl smiled. "And a very good Tinker, not to mention friend. Next time you guys come around I'll introduce you to her."

"What's her specialty? And why were you all at the PRT anyway?" Eric asked, leaning forward.

"Transportation, and she was getting power tested," she replied. "She thought it was a good idea to let the PRT know about her, what she could do, and that she was associated with both us and the DWU. Just to stop any rumors, or some stupid name getting attached to her. You know what PHO is like in that respect."

He nodded, grinning. "Oh, all too well. Some of the names people have ended up stuck with are hilarious, although probably not so much for them."

"Raptaur's happy enough with her name, that was one that was suggested on PHO," Taylor remarked.

"Yeah, but _no one_ who saw that video of her and Hookwolf was ever going to try to give _her_ a stupid or insulting name," Mandy snickered. "Except possible Cowboy. And he'd get outvoted or suspended or both anyway."

"Like he always does," Lucy added with a giggle.

Everyone nodded sagely.

"That does seem to be a theme," Taylor agreed.

"So, transportation?" Eric sounded intrigued. "Just that? No other limits?"

"Not really, no," ' _Saurial_ ' said, picking up a fork. "She's very versatile."

"I saw that incredible mech as well," he nodded. "That thing was insane! How fast was it going when you nearly ran it into the sea?"

She grinned. "Very nearly made a fool of myself there. I got it up to just over a hundred and twenty miles an hour, but ran out of space. Vectura was impressed, that was a lot faster than she'd expected."

"And that thing is a _construction machine?_ " Rich asked with a fascinated look. She nodded.

"Yep. That's what it's meant for. Construction, demolition, salvage work, that sort of thing. Should be pretty useful."

"Is she going to make more?"

"Yes, there are some more half-built in her workshop at the moment," she replied. "We're going to have to train some more operators but based on the first tests, we won't have any trouble finding them."

"I can see why," Mandy giggled. "It looked like fun."

" _So_ much fun," Taylor grinned. "I had a go, it's amazing."

"Now I really _am_ jealous," Eric snickered. They all smiled, then went on with the discussion until the bell rang. 

* * *

Lisa finished packing things into the special backpack Taylor had made for her the night before, which was amazing even to her and her power. Hefting it, she nodded in satisfaction. It only weighed about fifteen pounds, belying the amount of equipment in it.

Putting it on over her jacket, she pulled on the helmet that had also been made, something similar to Linda's only without the allowances for feline ears, then headed for the door. Locking up the BBFO office once she was outside, she looked around, then up, seeing that the weather was still pretty damp and blowy, but it had almost stopped raining. With luck it would clear up soon.

Reaching into her pocket, she removed the object she'd been wanting to try again all morning, giving it a twist and pulling. The bar snapped open, then she pressed the relevant switch as she hurled herself forward with a maniacal grin.

The programmable vehicle shimmered into existence around her before she hit the ground in a manner than would have made Hollywood envious if they'd seen it, forming a hard light motorcycle. Giggling to herself she twisted the throttle and accelerated hard out of the side yard, turning right into a wide curve and heading for the gate. Rain spattered on the force-field windscreen, sliding from the frictionless surface instantly and leaving her view clear.

The guards at the gate barely had time to react as she reached it, the gate rising just enough as she approached to clear the top of the low slung virtual vehicle. She gave them a cheery wave and gunned it, zipping down the newly repaired and completely smooth road with a low whine and a rush of air past her.

' _Yeah,_ ** _definitely_** _keeping this_ ,' she thought as she pulled off a nearly right angle turn onto the next road at close to eighty miles an hour, having a hell of a lot of fun. ' _Running around as Metis is great, but this is fantastic too. Linda has some mad skills at vehicle design_.'

When she finally reached more traveled roads she slowed to something legal and kept going, merging with the traffic on the freeway and heading downtown towards her apartment. Passing a police car she waved, the occupants looking shocked, then apparently noticing the Family logo that Taylor had suggested that Linda arrange to have appear on the vehicles her latest invention generated. The two cops exchanged a glance, shrugged, and let her go without intervening.

' _We'll have to see about the correct Tinker vehicle licensing_ ,' Lisa mused as she rode. ' _I read something about it a while back, didn't look too hard at the time._ '

Quite a few people took photos or video of her as she passed them, a couple of cars following for a mile or so, and one other motorcyclist riding alongside her for a while staring in raw envy. She grinned at him, then indicated for the next junction, pulling off into the city streets while he kept going, looking back over his shoulder until he was out of sight. Amused, she negotiated her way through the streets until she reached the building she hadn't entered in nearly two months and pulled up outside. Hopping off the hard-light bike she deactivated it in the process, closing the control unit up and dropping it into her pocket. A couple of pedestrians who saw this gaped at her in disbelief.

"Makes parking a lot easier," she grinned to the one a few yards away. He didn't say anything, apparently too startled to come up with a reply.

Walking into the parking garage under the apartment block she looked around, then headed over to her car, which appeared fine although completely covered in dust. As far as she could tell no one had interfered with it since she'd been gone. That fateful day she'd nearly died she'd left the vehicle here, since she rarely drove it anywhere near the old Undersider's base due to not wanting it noticed.

Letting her power inspect it, she finally nodded when she was satisfied no one had planted a bomb under it or anything of that nature. You couldn't be sure when Calvert was involved, it was just the sort of thing he'd have tried. Unlocking it with her keys which she extracted from her pocket, she sniffed, then made a face. It smelled pretty moldy and was going to need a thorough clean. Not that she really needed the thing any more.

After retrieving a few odds and ends from the car and stuffing them into a pocket in her backpack, she locked it again, then headed for the door to the stairs up. A few minutes later she'd arrived at her apartment, having stopped twice to talk to neighbors who'd greeted her after her long absence. Putting it down to an extended holiday combined with a search for work seemed to satisfy them.

Again, she cautiously checked the door for traps, then unlocked it when she was sure it was safe. Taylor had stopped by a few times to make sure it was intact but there was always the possibility of some problem occurring between the last visit and now. Inside, she looked around at the familiar scene with a small smile. Nothing seemed out of place although she could smell that the contents of the fridge were _far_ past their use-by dates. The entire thing was going to need to be emptied and sterilized.

Opening it made her gape, recoil in horror, and slam the door again. "Christ, that would put _Amy_ off her feed," she muttered in disgust. "Even Taylor wouldn't eat anything in there." Deciding that she'd leave it for another day, one when she had a proper set of biohazard protective clothing available, she went into her bedroom and rummaged around.

It took a while, but in the end she'd packed up quite a lot of clothing, her laptop, several USB sticks and external hard drives, and a number of books and notebooks. All of it went into another compartment in her backpack of holding. Cleaning up as much of the place as she could face, which definitely _didn't_ include the fridge, took an hour or so. She sorted through two months of mail, made a few phone calls and paid outstanding bills, and generally sorted out all the things that an unexpected absence had produced. When she'd finished, having had a shower and changed, she sat on the couch and looked around.

Lisa still wasn't sure if she'd move back here, stay at the DWU and keep the apartment, get rid of it, or what. She could certainly afford to pay the rent indefinitely, or even buy the place outright, but she couldn't decide what the best move was. There were pros and cons to each option. Eventually she decided it was easiest for now just to keep the status quo and that she'd work out a better solution when things settled down slightly. She'd achieved her main mission of getting the things she valued that she'd missed. This place had been home for a number of years, but it wasn't some place she was absolutely determined to keep no matter what.

On the other hand it might be useful to have it available so there was no harm in keeping it going for now.

Looking at her watch she saw she had forty minutes until her first meeting, with the Mayor and the various representatives of the city police and fire departments. That was more than enough time, she was only about two miles from her destination, so she could afford to stop for a quick meal. Getting up she put her helmet on again, shrugged on the backpack, and left the apartment to fend for itself for now.

Very shortly people were staring at the glowing hard light motorcycle as it hummed through the streets of the city, many of them pointing cameras and phones. 

* * *

"How did your shopping go, Danny?" Antonio asked with interest. "Did you manage to find everything you wanted?"

"Yes, thanks. That woodworker of yours was amazing."

"Old Eduardo is a true artist indeed," the other man smiled, making Danny internally grin at the thought of the seventy-five-years-plus Antonio calling someone ' _old_.' "The world will be a poorer place when age finally takes its toll, I fear." He shook his head sadly. "But it comes to us all in the end, no matter what we do."

"Oh, stop being so maudlin, you silly old man," Serafina said brightly as she came into the room with a tray full of tea things and some home made cookies that Danny had been smelling ever since he came out of the elevator. Even Luigi had looked longingly towards the kitchen when he'd admitted Danny a little while ago. "None of us are in danger of falling over dead right now, and who knows what the future will hold. Sit down and drink your tea and stop trying to be all mysterious and wise."

"Yes, dear," Antonio said obediently, doing as ordered, but winking at Danny as he did. Holding in a grin, the younger man accepted the teacup Serafina handed him.

"Thank you, Aunt Serafina," he said. "Those smell delicious."

"They're one of my best recipes," she smiled, filling another cup for her husband, then one for herself. Sitting down she passed him the plate, waving it a little to urge him to take more than one. "It's been in the family for generations. I'd be happy to give it to you for little Taylor."

Danny smiled. "She's really not that little any more," he chuckled. "She's only about two inches shorter than me."

"They shoot up so fast at that age," she agreed with another smile. "Their bodies start changing and it can be a hard time for them, boy or girl."

' _Bodies changing_ ,' Danny thought with inner amusement. ' _If you had any idea..._ '

"Yes," he nodded with a mild tone, "Puberty and the years following it can be hard for a kid. Taylor's doing well, though. She's turning into a very pretty young woman. She wouldn't believe me when I told her for a long time, though, she was stuck thinking she was a gawky beanpole. It was never really true although I'd admit her height came in before anything else."

"Did you show her the photos of Annette at her age?" Antonio grinned. "The dear girl was the same, although not quite as tall. But when she finally came into herself, she was stunning. I expect Taylor will be so too."

"I like to think so," Danny smiled. "Since she moved schools after that… unpleasantness… her confidence has increased in leaps and bounds, and she's far, far less self conscious now. Every now and then she and I have a talk where she tells me some of her fears, but those have diminished a hell of a lot recently."

"It's good you two can talk like that," Serafina remarked approvingly.

"It wasn't always easy," he sighed. "For years I was… too broken to notice _how_ broken I really was. And how it affected my daughter. That's a shame I'll bear for the rest of my life." He made a small gesture of unhappiness. Antonio reached out and gripped his shoulder.

"You had a good reason for it, Danny. I'm sure Taylor doesn't blame you. Yes, you forgot the important thing, that you still had someone alive who needed you more than the poor woman who died. But it's understandable. You loved dear Annette more than almost any man I've known loved a woman, and she was the same to you. And in the long run, things worked out. From everything I know, Taylor has grown up into someone you can be very proud of, as I'm proud of you. And I know your father would have felt the same about both of you. As would your grandfather, god rest his blackened soul." The old man smiled at Danny in a way that made it clear he felt his words were completely true.

"Forget the past, move on with your life, and enjoy what comes next. If a long life has taught me anything, it's that." He dropped his hand and picked up a cookie, biting into it. "Oh, and make sure you have good cookies. They help." He grinned impishly.

"He's an interfering old idiot at times but he's also right," Serafina added after a moment, putting her teacup onto it's saucer with a faint clink. Antonio stuck his tongue out at her. "Although he's the oldest child I've ever met," she sighed, making both men chuckle.

"Taylor is a fine young woman, from what you told us she has a lot of good friends now, and is doing things she very much enjoys. And you're doing well too. What's a couple of years of unpleasantness out of an entire life?" The old woman shrugged. "Twenty years from now she'll barely remember the names of those horrible little girls, and what they did to her will be a nasty story long since recovered from."

Danny thought about their words, then slowly nodded. Both of them had entirely valid points, although they didn't assuage the guilt he still felt from having neglected Taylor's needs like he had done for so long. But then, she'd forgiven him, the end result had been the Varga turning up which was probably the best possible thing that could have happened, and things seemed to be going well. Perhaps he should try to stop worrying about it.

Easier said than done, it was a gnawing pit deep in his mind, but with time, he hoped it would fade. Shaking his head slightly he put a smile on his face and deliberately pushed the momentary melancholy to one side. "Good advice. Thanks, both of you."

"Any time, Danny my boy," Antonio said with a broad smile. "Now, tell me, did you happen to bump into young Benny in your travels today?"

"As it happens, yes, I came across him and Rudy a… few..." He trailed off, looking suspiciously at the old man, who was visibly biting the inside of his cheek with a suppressed grin. "What did you do, you old reprobate?" he asked with a sidelong look.

"Oh, nothing, nothing. Just keeping the lad honest." Antonio reached for a new cookie and grinned. Serafina sighed faintly.

"He's in one of his funny moods again, Danny. Just ignore him, he'll calm down soon enough. Tell me more about these reptilian friends of yours. I heard a rumor that there's a particularly large one swimming around out in the ocean."

With a narrow-eyed glance at the snickering old Mob boss, Danny turned to Serafina and picked up the conversation more or less where they'd left off the night before. 

* * *

"Your two thirty appointment is here, Sir," Roy's assistant said when he poked the intercom button at the buzz it had made.

"Thanks, send her in, please."

"Will do." The device fell silent, then a short time later the door to his office opened to admit a slender and very attractive blonde girl he recognized immediately from the DWU. He'd seen her a number of times in the company of Danny Hebert. Keen green eyes in an attractive freckled face looked around approvingly, then fixed on him as he walked out from behind his desk, his hand outstretched. She strode over and firmly shook his hand.

"Hello, Mayor Christner, it's nice to see you again."

"Likewise, Lisa. Please call me Roy." He waved her to a chair, taking another one at an angle. She sat, putting the military-style backpack she'd been carrying by the straps on the floor next to the chair. He examined her for a moment, seeing she was well but informally dressed in black jeans and an expensive shirt, with practical-looking combat-style boots on her feet. She was also wearing a jacket that was similar to the one that he'd seen Danny wearing, made of some sort of unusual leather-like substance, although in a feminine cut. Overall she gave off an impression of competence despite her youth.

He suspected that was at least partly very carefully calculated, seeing in her eyes that this young woman was both determined and quick witted. And, if he was any judge, assessing him at least as carefully as he was her.

Both of them smiled a little.

"Have you heard from Danny? I understood he was out of town for a couple of days."

"Yes, he's in New York visiting old friends," she nodded in response to his question. "I'm told it's going well. He'll probably be back tomorrow, I think."

"I see. Hopefully he left someone in charge able to contain Saurial and her family?" Roy grinned at the girl's expression, which was both amused and understanding.

"Yes, the place is in good hands. We're not expecting anything unusual to happen." He raised an eyebrow, making her snicker. "More unusual than normal, anyway."

"How's the scrapping process going? Still on track?"

"It is," she assured him. "The first train is nearly full. It'll be leaving on schedule, or possibly even a couple of days early. Your colleague's modifications to our original plan, along with some hard work on everyone's part, have let us keep things going very well. Once that shipment is at the smelter, we'll get the first block of cash in which will fund the next stage. We're already assessing which ships we'll move onto once the tanker is completely scrapped, we've had teams out in the Graveyard selecting the most profitable ones to start with. And the Family have spent some time locating all the wrecks that are easiest to move first."

"Wonderful. Phil will be pleased to hear it. He's often complained that people tend not to follow his plans and it annoys him."

"So I gather," she replied with a look that suggested she might know a little more about his old friend than was common. He examined her again but didn't ask. His questions had satisfied him that she was both well informed and smart, and that it was likely that Danny confided in her without much limitation, which was interesting. He could think of a few reasons for that, sheer competence aside.

He also had a slight suspicion he might know something of her recent background.

She looked at him, her face unchanging, but there was something in her eyes which made him think she was well aware of the direction of his thoughts and found it somewhat amusing, which only tended to confirm those thoughts.

Again, interesting, but not important. But it suggested she was someone to watch.

He glanced at his watch. "Chief Mellor from the BBPD will be here in a few minutes, with a couple of his technical people, and Fire Commissioner Hoskins will join us at about the same time with one of his techs as well. Until they get here, would you like some coffee?"

"Thank you, Roy, that would go down well," she smiled. He got up and prepared some coffee from his machine, handing her a cup when it was done and taking the other one. They talked about the DWU and the redevelopment plan for a little while, which made him even more impressed about her knowledge of the entire situation. Danny had found a good one here.

When his intercom buzzed again, he went over to his desk and prodded the relevant button, talking to his assistant. Five minutes later there were five more people in the room. Once they all had drinks, he led them over to the large table he'd recently had added to his office and the chairs around it. "So, Lisa, what do you have to show us?"

"Many things I think you'll find interesting," she smiled, putting her backpack on the table. She unzipped it, then pulled out something like a high tech motorcycle helmet. Everyone stared at it, then the bag it had come from, which was only barely big enough to have contained it. The problem was that she was now extracting some collapsing batons, a folding riot shield, some body armor, what looked like trauma plates for the standard bullet-resistant vests only much thinner, and quite a number of other things.

Which shouldn't have been possible.

With a small smile she kept going until the table was covered in equipment, then zipped the bag up and put it on the floor. Standing at the end of the table she picked up the baton, extending it with a quick flick of her wrist.

"As a duly authorized representative of Brockton Bay Family Operations, I'd like to introduce you to the FamTech™ brand of advanced safety equipment for law enforcement, search and rescue, and hazardous environment operations..." she began, sounding rather pleased with herself.

Roy, at the other end of the table, leaned back and listened, feeling that this was if nothing else a very good way to get people to pay attention. He suspected that they were likely to be putting quite a large order in the direction of BBFO, LLC quite soon.


	346. Contemplation and Catalogs

Watching Taylor and her friends leave the cafeteria ahead of them, Amy turning right and the other younger people going the other way, Dean pondered things. Saurial, who was talking animatedly to Mandy and Taylor, glanced back at him with a quick reptilian smile before all of them disappeared down the corridor. He picked up his tray and headed over to where they were put when finished with, Vicky doing the same moments later. Looking at his girlfriend he noticed she was also peering after the other group.

"You OK, Vicky?" he asked, which made her twitch a little as if she hadn't expected him to speak.

Smiling at him, she nodded, replying, "Yes, thanks," before smacking herself on the forehead. "Except I forgot my books," she added, hastily retracing her path. Dennis, who was the last one at their customary table, met her halfway and handed her the small backpack she used to carry her school materials around in. Taking it with a smile she rushed back to Dean, who had waited for her. "Come on, we'll be late," the blonde said, grabbing him by the arm and towing him after her.

Sighing faintly, he let himself be dragged to the next class, biology, not that he could really have stopped her.

When they were sitting listening to the teacher explaining in some detail the workings of photosynthesis, he found himself yet again mulling over a subject that had been coming up more and more in recent days.

Taylor Hebert.

He simply couldn't work it out. The girl was… friendly, nice to talk to, smart, helpful, and utterly _terrifying_. All that was something he'd come to accept some time ago. However, he'd started having entirely new problems with the whole situation when Ianthe had popped up out of nowhere.

The new lizard had confused the _hell_ out of him. Taylor had flat out told him that the ' _Family_ ' was her in her various forms thanks to an absurdly overenthusiastic Changer ability, and having met Saurial and Raptaur he was convinced that explanation was in fact correct. Not to mention he'd had proof of it provided when he'd had his meeting with her and Amy that time at the DWU. Something he was still very glad that no one, especially the Director, knew about.

He'd been waiting for a summons to her office for a good two weeks after that little adventure, entirely unsure _what_ he'd do if it happened. Luckily, it hadn't, so it looked like he'd gotten away with it.

Taylor had also confirmed that Kaiju was _also_ her, and that she had other forms as well. Including, he assumed, the impossibly large sea serpent that there were rumors of both in the PRT and on PHO. He'd also seen a couple of people who had claimed to have seen a genuine _dragon_ of all things flying around the outskirts of the city on a couple of occasions, although there was no evidence of this other than their word. Bearing in mind the people in question no one was currently taking them seriously, but there were a lot of jokes about it.

Dean wasn't so sure it was untrue. Having _met_ Taylor, he certainly wouldn't put it past her to come up with, or already have, a functional dragon form. And he was entirely certain that if she _did_ have such a form available, she'd both enjoy the hell out of it, and reserve it for a particularly good time when she could get maximum mileage out of revealing it. He wasn't sure whether he was looking forward to seeing what happened, or praying that he would have enough warning to be somewhere else _when_ it happened…

Or possibly both.

In any case, he knew for a fact that the brunette was, at a minimum, at least three other ' _Parahumans_ ,' with a high likelihood of also being more as and when opportunity presented itself. That was, while deeply scary, something he could accept.

 _So what the fuck was Ianthe?_

Taylor's dual emotional output, something he still couldn't work out at all, was now virtually undetectable except at point blank range and then only because he knew what he was looking for. If he'd met her/them for the first time recently he'd never have noticed anything unusual at all aside from her being undetectable to his power. What the cause of it in the first place was, and why it had gently gone away, he had no idea.

Reading her was now nearly as hard as he found Vicky, and getting harder by the day. At the current rate in a few weeks at the outside she'd be entirely gone from his emotional sense. He wasn't sure what that meant, whether it was a good thing, a bad thing, or simply some weird effect of her own powers whatever they truly were. But it was another oddity to stack on top of the vast number of them she already presented.

The main thing about it, though, was that Ianthe's own emotional signature _was not Taylor's._ It was entirely distinct, nothing like hers at all, and while very muted compared to a normal person's, definitely there.

And not human. He was certain of that. It was the signature of something that was very smart, completely sapient, totally self aware and alive, but not a human being. He was sure in every way that counted.

He'd noticed the first time he'd met the violet lizard, the time she'd turned Vicky's prank on her sister around on them, and having met her several times since had double checked more than once. It was sufficiently different from a normal human's that he'd entirely missed it that time, although now he knew it he could detect it more easily. Not as far away as for a normal person, true, but at close range it was distinctive.

So… what _was_ Ianthe? That had been bugging him for weeks. The Family was entirely a figment of the popular imagination, ultimately like so many other things the fault of PHO and the lunatics who inhabited it, which Taylor had seized on both because it helped protect her father and friends and because she obviously thought it was hilarious. In his less paranoid moments he could also see the funny side, when he wasn't simply trying to not think about the Endbringer that walked like a schoolgirl. He was profoundly grateful that Taylor was indeed both at heart a good person and very laid back anyway, since it was probably the only reason nothing other than weirdness had happened.

Bearing in mind what that complete asshole Sophia had done to the girl, he thought that everyone in the entire state had probably got off far more lightly than they could have done. The night after he'd found out from that little meeting with the Director just what their erstwhile teammate had done he'd gone to bed and lain awake staring at the ceiling for hours, his imagination in overdrive picturing what an irate Kaiju could do if she decided to get annoyed.

It didn't bear thinking about, so he tried not to. Not entirely successfully although he was getting better at it.

But if you accepted that the Family was an invention that had taken on a life of its own, happily encouraged by the girl who was all its members, _where had a seven and a half foot tall intelligent reptile come from?_

He kept circling back to that thought.

She shouldn't _exist_. She _did,_ that wasn't in question, but she _shouldn't_. He was missing something important, something fundamental to the entire scenario, and he had not the first clue what it was. Which worried him on a gut level to an extent nearly as bad as Taylor herself did.

When Metis had also turned up a few days later, his worry had spiked again, since two impossible lizards was even worse than one. He'd met her a few times as well, and yet again her emotional output was different from Taylor, Ianthe, or anyone else he'd met. Yet it shared a strong similarity with Ianthe, which very much suggested that she was, as stated, the violet one's sister. And if _that_ was true… how many _more_ of them were there? _Wherever_ they were coming from.

All of that was bad enough. It had given him some sleepless nights, and enough worry that he was starting to wonder if he was heading for an ulcer or something, despite his age. If it wasn't for the fact that despite their alienness, both Ianthe and Metis were friendly and helpful just like Taylor was, he'd probably have ended up hiding under his bed. He didn't have even the faintest inclination to mention any of his thoughts to anyone else, _especially_ anyone in the PRT, since about the only thing he was certain of was that threatening ' _The Family_ ' was a very good way to abruptly disappear.

He didn't want to disappear. So he was keeping his mouth firmly shut on _everything._

But he couldn't help wondering.

The _really_ worrying thing was much more recent, though. It dated from the point that he'd run into both _Taylor_ and _Saurial_ in the same place at the same time. Which should have been impossible, considering they were _the same fucking person!_ He was certain of that, even leaving aside the talk he'd had with her. Saurial's emotional signature, as faint and weird as it was, was _identical_ to Taylor's. He'd seen both of them standing next to each other and for a moment felt very disorientated, getting a reading from two distinctly different places like that. It was… odd.

Idly noting down some of the things that the teacher was explaining, his mind elsewhere, Dean shook his head a little. The entire situation was so far from anything he could easily explain it made the word ' _confused_ ' seem like a gross understatement.

One possible solution was some weird version of a Master power, creating Saurial as a projection of sorts. Raptaur as well, since both of them had been seen simultaneously, as had Taylor and Raptaur on more than one occasion. But it didn't _quite_ fit in his opinion. Saurial seemed as alive as ever, she was more than happy to eat lunch with them, she'd been seen at the PRT building on Wednesday which was miles away… If it _was_ a Master power, it was a very unusual one. And had much greater range than was common for such things.

And there was also the point that if Taylor could do _that_ as well on top of all the other bizarre things she was capable of, why wait until now to bring it out?

He sighed slightly, making more notes, then frowning when the tip of his mechanical pencil broke off as he pressed a little too hard. Flicking the flecks of graphite away, he prodded the end of the implement to extrude some more and resumed writing.

The entire thing was weird beyond words, and the worst part was he didn't dare talk to anyone else about it, except possible either Amy or Taylor herself. He wasn't keen on either course for several reasons.

One was that they might not tell him.

Another one was that they _might_. And he wasn't sure he could handle the truth. Handling the things he already knew was hard enough.

With a glance at his girlfriend, who was scribbling her own notes with an expression of concentration, he wondered if she'd noticed anything amiss herself. He'd seen several times that she was looking oddly at both Taylor and her own sister, and that when Saurial had turned up in the school, had spent a day apparently very distracted. Perhaps she'd worked out there was something strange going on?

He couldn't risk it, he decided. He had no intention of violating the Rules at all, never mind doing it about someone who could literally eat him in one bite.

Dean shuddered slightly, then deliberately did what he could to concentrate on the lesson. Some things it was best not to think about.

Even though he was very, very curious and _really_ puzzled. 

* * *

" _How_ much water?" The firefighting expert looked stunned as Lisa held up one of the items she'd brought for this meeting. She, Taylor in her various aspects, Kevin, Randall, Linda, and Amy had spent quite a lot of time brainstorming about useful products for these applications the previous night. Not to mention she'd been making notes on possible solutions to existing problems for well over a month so far. They'd ended up making quite a few prototypes of things that could be saleable, most of which were scattered around the table in front of her.

"This holds twelve thousand liters, or just over three thousand gallons," she repeated, displaying the insulated EDM canister, which was about a foot tall and six inches in diameter. "Maximum real-world mass is ten pounds. It can be refilled through a normal hydrant and the filling adapter here. The pump unit that attaches to the end will flow up to two hundred and fifty gallons per minute at full output, with a pressure of up to twenty bar." She indicated a coiled pipe connected to a small block that the tank attached to, a vaguely gun-shaped system on the other end of the hose. "The nozzle system is adjustable from a fog to a coherent stream, depending on requirements. Obviously it's interlocked to prevent a dangerously high flow rate, although it's possible to override that if it's fixed to a mount rather than used hand-held."

The tech gaped at her, as did everyone else. "Three thousand gallons?" Commissioner Hoskins echoed in disbelief. She nodded. "That's more than a standard tanker holds!"

"We know. That was the design requirement." She hefted the tank, then handed it to him. He took it numbly. "Each firefighter can carry enough water for almost any plausible scenario in a completely self-contained package. No requirements for hoses, pump appliances, hydrant connections, or any of the usual systems. The entire system weight is under sixteen pounds. From our research fogging water systems are one of the more efficient methods of extinguishing fires if used correctly. Obviously retardant chemicals could also be added to the tank as well, the EDM lining will resist anything. It's also capable of handling any required pressure. The fractally folded space allows a huge capacity and disassociates almost all the true mass from the real world. Much like my backpack here only on a larger scale."

"Is there anything in it right now?" the tech asked, still looking like he was hoping he'd misheard what she'd said.

"It's full," she grinned. He blinked several times, then stared at the thing his superior was holding.

"What powers the pump?" Roy asked curiously, the only one other than her who seemed to be taking things in stride. The representatives of the BBPD were listening silently, occasionally looking at each other.

"There's a power unit here, which goes on the backpack unit and runs everything," she explained, picking up another cylinder. This one was about eight inches across and four thick, weighing just under five pounds. "It's basically a battery."

"How much energy does it store?" one of the police technical people asked curiously. "And how?"

"It's a flywheel storage system, again fractally folded away," Lisa replied, making his eyes widen a little.

"A flywheel that small wouldn't..." he began.

"Fractally folded, remember," she smiled. "The flywheel is just under sixteen feet in diameter and weighs a ton. It's in a total vacuum, running on almost entirely frictionless bearings, with a superconducting motor/generator coupled to the shaft. The design allows for a very high speed indeed, although in this model it's limited to two hundred and fifty thousand RPM."

His jaw dropped and he paled.

"If it came loose it would..." His voice faded in shock.

She shrugged. "It won't. The materials used are tough enough to take a point blank nuclear detonation. Trust me, it won't break or fail in use. The total kinetic energy storage with this model is nearly six hundred kilowatt-hours at the rated speed. We can produce them with power capacities up to almost anything desired but this output should be enough for this application."

Indicating the connector on the top of the device, she added, "The control electronics are set to output sixty volts DC at two hundred amps, for a total power output of twelve kilowatts. That's more than enough to run the pump at full power and also provide energy for other required equipment such as radios and the like. We limited it to sixty volts for safety reasons but it can be designed to output anything the customer desires. The other connector is the power input for spinning up the flywheel, it takes a standard industrial four hundred and eighty volt sixty hertz three phase feed at one hundred amps maximum. That's forty eight kilowatts, obviously, so it would take about twelve hours to spin up the flywheel from a standstill to the maximum rated speed. Input to output efficiency is better than ninety-six percent."

The design was one of Linda's ideas, modified to take advantage of Taylor's abilities. The really neat thing about it was that it wasn't Tinker tech in the normal sense, it was a very efficient variant of something that people had known about for centuries, remade using Varga bullshit. Leaving aside the EDM and superconductors most of it was off the shelf equipment and electronics. When Linda had suggested the concept after some thought, Taylor had gotten a faraway look for a minute or so, then started talking about building one on a massive scale and spinning it up using Kaiju sitting on an enormous bicycle…

Lisa very much wanted to see that happen, mostly to see the expressions on other people's faces, but for now this would do.

"Placing the flywheel into a fractal storage system not only decouples almost all the mass, it removes the inertial effects in both directions," she added, handing the power storage unit to the police technician, who took it gingerly and inspected it closely. "Which hugely increases the efficiency since it doesn't lose energy to gyroscopic precession."

"You seem to understand it well, Lisa," Roy commented. She glanced at him for a moment.

"I listened to the people who designed it," she grinned. "Very carefully. There's enough energy stored in that thing to run this building for a week, that thought is enough to make you concentrate."

Roy laughed slightly. "I can understand that," he replied.

"How fast does it lose momentum?" the technician queried, looking up at her.

"We could _barely_ measure the slowdown after a few hours of running, and our best estimate at the moment is that it would take about twelve to thirteen years to spin down entirely in the absence of any power input," she said. "Saurial thinks she can improve on that, but considering that this model is meant for short term storage, it's not really an issue right now. We could spin it faster as well, which increases the storage density and spin-down time by a huge amount, but the recharge time ends up being a bit silly. This seemed like a good compromise."

He nodded, pulling out a pen and doing some calculations on a piece of scrap paper. Then he stared at the results. "At a million RPM it would store… nine and a half megawatt-hours?!"

"That sounds about right," she agreed. "But it would take more than eight days to recharge, unless they redesign the power control electronics to run at a much higher voltage. Saurial said that she could easily do that, but the problem was that most facilities wouldn't have the right power supply available to run it. It didn't seem very useful to do that."

"OK, I'm impressed so far, assuming this stuff works to spec," Commissioner Hoskins said thoughtfully, putting the tank he was still holding down and picking up the pump and nozzle subassembly. "I can see a few issues, although looking at all the stuff you have here you may already have answers for them. The big problem I can see is this is all Tinker tech, right? So maintenance is likely to be an issue. That's always the main stumbling block with this sort of thing."

Lisa smiled widely. "It's not Tinker tech. It's FamTech. Maintenance free, guaranteed."

Everyone stared at her, then looked at each other.

"EDM doesn't wear out. At all. The only weak point is the electronics, which are _heavily_ over engineered to maximize lifespan. It's built to military specification or better throughout. If it fails, we'll replace it free of charge, but we don't expect failures." Her power had told her that the design would last at _least_ fifty years without any issues and she trusted it to be right in things like this.

"Christ," the fire tech muttered, staring at the flywheel unit. "That's… a game changer."

"We like to think so," she admitted with a feeling of satisfaction. "Now, the next part of the system is the protective clothing." Lisa pointed at a folded suit on the table, a helmet with a gold metallic visor next to it. "This is based on the protective costume Saurial designed for New Wave, with some modifications for firefighting. It's heat proof, impact proof, water proof, environmentally sealed, and has a built in life support system that can store a week's worth of air in ultra high pressure tanks embedded in the suit. A scrubber system removes most of the CO2 through a semi-permeable membrane and dumps it outside the suit, and also keeps the nitrogen and water vapor from building up. Required support equipment will also be provided."

Picking up the helmet, she tapped the faceplate. "Mono-crystalline synthetic sapphire with EDM mesh layers on both sides, with gold plating for IR reflectivity. It will take an armor piercing bullet at zero range. And this is the weakest part of the entire thing. The suit itself will tank explosive rounds at several thousand rounds per minute without damage, although the occupant won't enjoy the experience unless they're a Brute."

"How do you know?" Chief Mellor asked.

She grinned. "It's been tested." He looked oddly at her, but nodded. "Wearing one of these, your people could walk through a major fire without any problems at all," she went on, turning back to the fire commissioner, who was looking extremely interested by now. "Even if the entire building fell on them, they'd be fine for days until someone dug them out. They wouldn't have a lot of fun, but they'd live. Even if they ended up under water. You could probably eventually work out how to kill yourself wearing a FamTech suit but you'd have to put a lot of effort in. And if you can think of anything we missed, we'll upgrade the product free of charge to include it."

He took the helmet she handed him, inspecting it closely, inside and out. "We'd need to thoroughly test everything, of course," he said slowly, fiddling with the mechanism that opened the rear of the thing, then looking impressed when he worked it out.

"Of course. We're happy to supply test units with full manuals for evaluation," she agreed calmly. "BBFO expected that would be required. As I said, we welcome feedback from clients. We've already discussed most of this with the DWU fire teams, they've provided a lot of input, but you guys put out a lot more fires than they do. You're the experts. Tell us what you want and we can make it happen."

"I see," he remarked, examining the inside of the helmet for a few more seconds, then handing it to his tech who was now appearing excited. "If this does in fact perform as you say, I believe the city will be very interested in taking it further." He glanced at Roy who nodded from where he was listening at the other end of the table.

"We have some ideas for advanced fire suppression chemicals and materials that we'd like to discuss with you when we take them further, but we wanted to get this out first," she said, indicating the remaining equipment she'd divided into law enforcement and fire fighting groups on the table. "Ianthe thinks she has a good design for a non-toxic and environmentally sound fire suppressant that should outperform anything on the market, for example. And Raptaur was talking about man-portable EDM heat-sink systems that could be used to rapidly cool a large fire, since the stuff is a thermal superconductor. She's planning on experimenting with it soon to see if it actually works the way she thinks it will. But that can wait for now."

Pointing at a few items, she went on, "We can provide unbreakable tools, from the common versions you already use through some we've designed which we think you might be interested in, up to custom designs to order. Also boots, gloves, other things of that nature. Basically, pretty much anything you want. And all at competitive prices with minimum delay." She handed him a flyer they'd designed and printed up. "This gives some pricing information on the current range."

He took the paperwork and glanced through it, his eyebrows rising. "This is… surprisingly affordable," he said cautiously, like he was expecting something bad to happen.

Lisa chuckled. "The Family isn't hurting for income, Commissioner. This is their home, they want to support it, and they want to help people. Overcharging for this sort of product means it won't get used as much as it should be, which means people get injured. No one wins in that scenario. So the pricing is set at an appropriate level to make a fair profit but still let the customer get what they want. It seems the best approach."

The man eyed her curiously for a moment, then studied the paperwork in his hand a little more before turning to the mayor. "We definitely need to discuss this, Roy. If this is even half as good as the young lady claims, we _need_ this equipment. I lost fifteen people last year, this could stop that happening again."

"I'm fine with the idea," Roy replied with a shrug. "Let me know what you want to do, I'll put it before the council. But I doubt anyone will complain considering how much the Family has done already for the city."

The commissioner nodded, turning back to Lisa. "How soon can we have some evaluation systems?"

"How many do you want?" she replied. He glanced at his tech, the two of them talking in low voices for a few seconds.

"Four sets would be sufficient for preliminary tests," he told her, looking up.

"We can get those to you early next week," she assured him. "Along with the support equipment for the suits." Pulling a notebook from her pocket she wrote a few figures down, then put it away. "We'll have the first revision of the manual done by then as well."

"Thank you, Lisa," he said, smiling broadly under his mustache, looking very pleased. He turned back to Roy. "Once we've had a chance to test everything I'll have a report on your desk along with a requisition order."

Roy nodded equably. "All right."

"I'd leave this set with you but I'm also talking to the PRT about similar requirements and this is the only one I have," Lisa put in apologetically. Commissioner Hoskins shrugged.

"We're not in _that_ much hurry," he replied. She nodded, reclaiming all the fire-fighting specific equipment and stowing it away. He watched, then added, "We'd be interested in bags like that as well, it would make equipment storage much easier."

She grinned at him and pointed at the brochure. "Last page." This made him chuckle and check the relevant place, nodding in satisfaction.

"Excellent. Thank you for the information."

"You're welcome, Commissioner," she said. Looking at the BBPD chief and his people, one of whom was still playing with the baton she'd opened with, she continued, "Did you have any more questions about the body armor or other equipment?"

"You covered most of it very well, young lady," Chief Mellor replied. He picked up one of the EDM trauma plates. "I still have difficulty believing that something this thin can take a fifty cal bullet like you said."

"It'll take a lot more than that, sir," she smiled. "But the inertia still has to go somewhere. If someone shoots you with a thirty millimeter cannon it'll probably put the plate through you instead. But no normal firearm will do anything to it at all. We can provide those immediately, I have a few boxes of them with me, which should be enough to upgrade most of your existing standard ballistic vests. We're happy to donate those to the BBPD."

He looked momentarily shocked, but nodded.

"We can provide full replacement body armor, shields like this one, helmets, batons, and all the other equipment we covered in a matter of weeks. The batons can be supplied in quantity early next week, the remaining equipment would need a little longer. Saurial and Raptaur are still working on making some of the equipment more adjustable since it can't be changed by anyone except them, and I doubt you want to have it all custom-fitted for each officer. We'll have a generic solution within a month worst case, though. And for SWAT usage we can obviously provide similar armor suits to the fire fighting one, only optimized for police work."

He looked at the folded suit on the table, nodding thoughtfully. "I'm half tempted to say we'd use those exclusively, but I could see it being a political issue. It would make the police force look too… military, or perhaps too closely associated with the PRT."

"I'd have to agree, Nick," Roy put in. "There are already complaints that the police are a paramilitary force, we don't need to add to that. But I don't want any of our guys being shot or stabbed either."

"The upgraded armor is nearly as thin as normal clothing, especially compared to the normal sort of vest," Lisa said. "It doesn't cover as much as the suit does, but it's not nearly as obvious and would make most situations much more survivable. Combined with EDM-lined boots and gloves you'd get most of the benefits of a full suit and still look more or less like a normal officer. And we're happy to redesign it to your requirements for uniforms or anything else."

"That sounds worth following up on," Chief Mellor commented. "I'll talk it over with the relevant people and get back to you on that."

"Sure, you have my card," she smiled. "Call if you have any questions." She handed him a slightly different brochure, the one for law enforcement equipment. "I'm looking forward to discussing it further."

Glancing at her watch, she looked at Roy. "I'm going to have to leave, I have another meeting at the PRT building in half an hour," she said. He stood up, nodding, as she began packing the equipment remaining on the table into her pack.

"Of course, Lisa. Thank you very much for the demonstrations and information. It was fascinating and very useful. Please pass on our thanks to Saurial and the others."

"No problem," she assured him. "I'll be seeing them later, I think, so I'll do that." Finishing putting everything away, she zipped up that compartment, then opened a different one. Pulling out a number of heavy flat cardboard boxes, she piled them on the table. "That's two hundred and fifty trauma plates, Chief." Another box came out. "And twenty Tac-Smak batons, as a gesture of good will."

He grinned, looking at the one the technician next to him slightly reluctantly handed back. She put it in her pocket having collapsed it. "I can see those things being a very good seller," he observed.

"We have a lot of people who want them," she agreed with a smirk, zipping her pack shut and standing. "Gentlemen, it's been a pleasure talking to you all." She shook hands with each of them in turn. "Until next time."

Shortly after that she exited the city hall building, feeling it had been a couple of hours well spent. Checking her watch again, she saw she had enough time to get another snack, so pulled her helmet on, put the pack on her back, and activated her virtual motorcycle which she was becoming very fond of. Moments later the hard light bike merged with traffic and headed away from the shore in search of a coffee and a doughnut. 

* * *

****  
Roy looked out of his window, watching the blonde make a motorcycle from nowhere and zoom off, smiling to himself. ' _They have the coolest toys I've ever seen,_ ' he mused, before turning back to the others for a long talk about what they'd seen today. He wondered if Lisa was going to make the PRT as startled as she'd managed to make his own people.

And whether BBFO were going to be selling hard light vehicles any time soon. That had looked like fun...


	347. Dinah and Sneaking

"Freeeee!"

Aisha smiled as she sang the blessed word, charging out of the school building and nearly running a couple of other students down. Finally, she was done with this boring waste of time for another day. And there was only one more day of it until the weekend, which was even better.

"Hey, crazy girl!" another somewhat older student shouted as he dived out of the way of the hurtling Aisha. "Slow down, you nearly hit me!"

"Missed though, right?" she shouted back, spinning around and running backwards for a few steps while spreading her arms wide. He glared at her, but didn't reply, so she spun around again and headed towards the gate and the sidewalk. It had stopped raining earlier during the afternoon, although it was still very breezy which made it pretty chilly too. Splashing through the puddles left behind she dropped into a steady jog, heading towards the city center with her backpack bouncing on her back.

Ten minutes later she'd slowed to a fast walk, not because she was tired as such, but more to conserve energy. Overall she was in pretty good condition and could easily jog all the way home from school although at the moment she was heading in the other direction entirely.

Looking around, she orientated herself, then took the next right turning, before going left again. Her destination soon hove into view. Appreciatively sniffing the breeze blowing from the bay towards her, she homed in on the bakery half-way down the street. When she reached it she looked at the large poster in the window with a smirk, shaking her head in amusement. Cloak looked back, holding a large box of doughnuts and with one of them half-vanished into her hood. The camera flash had very clearly shown that the garment was completely without occupant, although the bite out of the pastry tended to show the opposite.

Even the photo was somewhat eerie, especially if one was aware of the circumstances. It looked very weird, but oddly enough not like a special effect. She wasn't sure quite how that was pulled off but it was a nice touch. Once she'd inspected the poster she headed inside, joining the surprisingly large crowd around the counter. An awful lot of them seemed to have cameras to hand, which made her grin after a moment's thought.

 _'Bet none of_ ** _them_** _have gone walkabout with Cloak_ ,' she mused with satisfaction. Her new friend seemed to have quite the fan club, based on what she could see and hear around her. And this place seemed to be the unofficial headquarters of said club.

When she reached the front of the queue she looked again at the menu board behind the register, snickered under her breath, and said, "One Cloak Special, please."

The guy working the register didn't bat an eyelid, instead turning around and preparing her order with quick efficiency. Shortly thereafter, box of pastries in her pack, one of the contents in one hand, and a bottle of coke in the other, she was happily munching away while walking towards the PRT building. With any luck she'd be able to sneak in and have a look at this new Ward at her press conference. Even if she failed, it would at least be interesting.

And she had doughnuts, so all was good for now. 

* * *

"Nervous?"

Dinah looked at her mother, then smiled.

Nervously.

"No, of course not," she said, trying to convince herself. Her mother giggled, adjusting her clothing a little, before leaning forward in her chair and giving her a quick hug.

"I'll believe you," the older woman said with a smile back. "The question is do you believe _yourself?_ "

Taking a deep breath, the young girl nodded firmly, adjusted her hat to a rakish angle, and turned to inspect herself in the mirror on the wall. Fiddling with the mask that covered the top half of her face down to just above her mouth, she replied, "I do. I think."

Gently moving her daughter's hands away, her mother carefully straightened the mask again. "Leave it alone, and it'll be fine," she advised. Dinah nodded again, doing her best not to fiddle. The thing wasn't really uncomfortable, but it felt weird and she was having trouble not playing with it.

"You look nice," her mother added. They studied the reflection in front of them, which showed a small figure wearing a dark blue skirt down to around her knees, cut so the sides of the skirt were longer than the middle, coming down past her knees by about the amount the center was above them. There were black leggings under it leading down to practical ankle boots with a very slight heel, and a lighter blue top above all this. She had a narrow leather belt around her waist with a silver buckle in the shape of a percent sign, something that she'd come up with herself as a fairly subtle nod to her power.

She'd actually wanted a dragon's head, thinking of her own stuffed dragon, but the PRT people had been nervous that this suggested she was associated with the Family. Dinah herself had no objection to that at all, feeling that it was a good association with new friends, but they'd insisted it wasn't suitable. Hence the change, which had ended up being something that weird Mr Chambers seemed to like.

On the left side of her top a small Protectorate logo was visible, also in silver. The overall effect was feminine but businesslike, in her view, and less girly than Vista's costume. And much, _much_ better than the horrible thing Mr Chambers had tried to get her to wear. She rolled her eyes at the memory.

A suit.

What a weirdo.

The hat was nice, though. She liked the hat a lot.

Whatever, she could live with this. It was even slightly reminiscent of Saurial's armor, if you looked at it the right way. Dinah found it a little funny that apparently no one else had noticed. Or at least mentioned it. She'd have been quite prepared to have something that looked even more like that if the chance had presented itself, although even there she'd have preferred her normal jeans and T shirt. But that was apparently too casual for a superhero. As if she was going to be wandering around outside beating up villains…

Slightly wishing her powers allowed that option, since it looked like it might be fun, she shrugged mentally. You got what you got, and even with the headaches her power was still pretty cool. On the whole it was better than no powers at all, although she'd have liked to have more control over it. Being forced to answer was a pain in the ass.

Director Piggot had made it _very_ clear to the other Wards when she'd been introduced to them that they were to watch their speech around her, and under no circumstances play pranks involving asking questions that she would have to answer. The older woman had been looking steadily at Dennis the entire time she'd been talking, making it abundantly clear who she thought was the most likely potential culprit. The red-headed boy had looked distinctly nervous at the basilisk-like glare even though he was normally pretty much irrepressible according to Missy.

She'd also been told that similar warnings had been given to everyone else she was likely to come into contact with. Partly due to worries about her own safety, and partly due to not wanting to waste her power on silly questions and then find out too late that she couldn't answer something critical at the right moment. It was a rule she was fine with, since those headaches were very unpleasant at best. Even though she'd grown accustomed to them to a point and had a fairly high pain threshold she still didn't want to push it.

Hopefully, at some point, maybe her new friends could help with that? Ianthe had seemed to think it might be possible. But for now, she had to grin and bear it.

A tap on the door preceded Miss Militia opening it and sticking her head inside, her eyes showing she was smiling under that scarf. "It's getting close to the event, Prospect," she said in a kind voice. "Are you ready?"

Dinah nodded, adjusting her hat again just a little, to make sure it looked exactly right. Just like Saurial's. Satisfied, she gave her reflection a wave and turned around. "I'm ready," she replied.

"Great. Follow me, then, please." Both Dinah and her mother left the room as Miss Militia held the door for them, then trailed after her through the corridors of the PRT building to another room on the next floor up. The heroine held the door again and waved them in.

"Good afternoon, Prospect," Armsmaster said in a calm even voice, standing up from where he'd been sitting at the table in what looked like a conference room. Dinah looked around quickly, seeing it wasn't particularly interesting, although it did have a lot of technology built into it all over the place. Director Piggot was still sitting at the table with a pile of paperwork in front of her, next to one of the people she recognized from the PR department and had been introduced to a while back. Mr Garson, if she remembered correctly. He was studying her with an approving expression on his face, making her smile briefly at him.

She turned back to Armsmaster as everyone else watched and listened. The Tinker picked up a small box that was on the table, opening it to reveal something he'd mentioned the last time they'd met. "As we discussed the last time these communication earplugs will hopefully allow us to minimize any potential issues with the press conference. They will add a delay of three seconds to what you hear, which will allow a handler to interrupt any questions you may get asked that would trigger your power. This can be overridden if required, and they will also act as standard PRT comms earpieces. Dragon and I are working on a more effective solution using a neural network speech recognition system which would hopefully remove the need for a third party to filter out the relevant queries but it's a complex task we haven't quite finished yet due to other priority matters."

She understood most of that, although she once again thought the man wasn't very good at talking to kids. He probably didn't get much practice, she mused as she reached out and picked up one of the small earpieces. It was exactly the same color as her skin and she assumed it would be completely invisible when it was in her ear. Both of them were a weird shape, which had been produced using an unpleasantly cold goo that had been squirted in to take a cast of the inside of her ear canal. The PRT tech who had done this told her it was the same thing that was used for making custom hearing aids, which was more or less what these things were.

"Cool," she muttered, squeezing it gently and feeling the rubbery substance squish in her fingers.

"Indeed," he said with what was almost a smile. He seemed to like his work being appreciated, which she could understand. "Please sit here and I'll fit them for you."

"OK." She hopped up into the nearest chair, glancing at her mother who was standing next to Miss Militia, both of them watching her.

"Tilt your head to the right, please," Armsmaster instructed. Obediently she did as requested, holding still as he carefully pushed the left earpiece into place. "This applicator tool will also remove them, it connects magnetically to the device," he explained, glancing at her mother who nodded. "They're safe to leave in for extended periods, the polymer used is fully bio-compatible." Dinah could only hear him from her right ear, the left one was completely blocked by the thing in it.

Satisfied after a few seconds of work, he asked her to tip her head the other way. Moments later both were installed. She couldn't hear anything but the sound of her own pulse at this point. Stepping back he picked up a small remote control device and pressed a button on it. "Can you hear me, Prospect?" he said, his voice coming through perfectly. She nodded.

"Yes, it's fine. Before you pressed that button I couldn't hear a thing."

"Excellent. Obviously, this is the override mode. I will now test the delay mode." He prodded another button. "Can you hear me now?" This time she could see his lips move and only heard his voice after a weirdly unnerving pause. She nodded again.

"Yep. Oh, wow, that's really freaky." She could hear her own voice inside her head, and then again through her ears three seconds later. "Testing… Testing… Hello, I'm Prospect..." She giggled at the effect which was going to take some getting used to.

Pressing another yet another button resulted in her hearing him again, only this time his lips barely moved. " _This is the comm-link mode, I'm speaking to you via secure PRT radio. Is the reception adequate?_ "

"It's perfect," she replied, smiling. "Very cool indeed."

"Good." He switched her earpieces back to override mode, then turned to Director Piggot, who had been watching silently. "That should be a suitable interim solution until Dragon and I finish the enhanced version."

"Thank you, Armsmaster," the severe looking blonde woman replied with an approving nod. "As usual, first rate work." Dinah noticed with inner amusement that although he tried to hide it, the comment pleased the Tinker. He straightened up a little and nodded back, before sitting down once again and picking up some sort of computer tablet which quickly absorbed his attention to the point that he practically ignored them all.

The director seemed to stifle a tiny sigh, turning to look at Dinah, then her mother. "We'll be heading down to the public arena in ten minutes. Mrs Alcott, you can either watch from here on the big screen over there," she waved at a huge monitor that made up most of one wall, "Or from behind the scenes at the event itself. We won't put you somewhere that's visible to the public, since it's a security risk having you even peripherally associated with your daughter. There are people who might well go to some effort to note anyone at the press briefing who wouldn't normally have any particular reason to be there."

"I understand," Dinah's mother said, sounding a little sad but not too much. She put a hand on Dinah's shoulder, looking down at her. "Sorry I can't watch it from the front but I'm proud of you, dear."

"I know, Mom," the girl replied, placing her own hand on her mother's.

"If you need to use the facilities, now would be a good time," Miss Militia put in with humor in her voice. "Trust me, that's one pressure you don't want when talking to the press."

Snickering, Dinah nodded. "I'll be fine, I went before I changed."

"All right."

The director and Mr Garson, who _was_ in fact named Mr Garson so she'd remembered correctly, went over the sort of questions she was likely to be asked, as well as the sort they hoped she wouldn't be. They told her the correct form for answering, information she'd already had the last time, and also mostly things Uncle Roy had talked to her about. He was really good at handling the press and made it look easy, something she was very impressed by, so she'd listened carefully. Once the pair had gone over everything, the director checked her watch. "It's time. Let's get down there. Mrs Alcott, if you could go with Mr Garson please, he'll take you to the viewing area in the PRT recording studio. Prospect, please come with me."

Standing, the woman headed rapidly towards the door, Miss Militia with her and Dinah coming too. She looked over her shoulder to see her mother heading in the other direction, also looking back. They smiled at each other then went their separate ways. 

* * *

Aisha studied the problem with care. There was the PRT building, _that_ was the public entrance, and _those_ were the PRT guys who were watching very carefully as people went inside. The reception lobby was easy enough, people could simply walk in off the street and wander around inside, but she could see that there was a stream of obvious press people heading to one side through a set of doors towards what she assumed was the place that they used to introduce new Parahumans.

From the news she remembered it was a large conference room, half the size of the school gymnasium, with a sort of stage at one end. Sometimes they did this outside in good weather, but it was much too windy and wet for that right now, as well as cold.

"Hmm," she mumbled to herself, nibbling a doughnut. "Tricky."

She could lift one of the press IDs easily enough, but there was no way that anyone was going to believe she was a reporter unless they were both blind and stupid. Despite what people said about the PRT she was pretty sure they were neither. She looked around, seeking inspiration, then watched as a large van pulled up outside the building and stopped. It had the logo of a large Boston TV station on the side, one she was very familiar with from her dad watching the news. The woman who climbed down from the passenger side was also familiar as a reporter she'd seen any number of times.

The back doors of the van opened and two big guys started unloading and setting up some equipment, while the dish antenna on the roof of the thing slowly folded up with a whine of motors, then swiveled around to face roughly south. It hunted back and forth a little, before stopping. Moving to a better position she could see right inside the vehicle, which had a good dozen monitors above a console built into one side with several seats facing them.

' _Cool, just like a movie_ ,' she thought with interest, watching as a technician connected cables to panels, the other end being handed down to one of the guys outside. Quite rapidly they had a complicated camera set up on a tripod, the reporter and one of the other guys talking in front of it while referring to a clipboard with a thick stack of paperwork on it.

Aisha's eyes drifted towards pile of equipment the two men had unloaded. Some of it was now in use, but there was a certain amount that had been put on a sort of cart thing which looked like it was destined to go inside. She thought about it and decided that they were probably going to have a camera outside and another one inside, rather than carrying this one around with them. It made sense to her. She knew from watching TV that sometimes this sort of thing was done with hand held cameras, but a formal event often had much larger and more complicated ones. They were sometimes visible on the broadcast itself.

The thing that was relevant about all this was that cart. It was a metal one about a yard tall, with a flat top and four large tires which looked like they were designed to easily roll over rough ground. The lower part of it had on the side she could see from where she was a pair of doors, and it obviously had a storage compartment there. This was proven when one of the techs opened the door and put a box of cables inside the thing. Her brief glimpse of it suggested it was mostly empty…

Looking down at herself for a moment, she looked back at the cart with her head on one side in an evaluating manner, then finished her doughnut. Looking both ways, she crossed the street when the slow moving traffic left a gap, then idly headed towards the van, looking around like any other tourist. There were lots of them watching the news van and the other cars and trucks stopping to disgorge people outside the building.

She stopped a few feet from the entrance to the PRT building and studied the scene. How to do this?

Sidling closer to the van while innocently peering up at the building, she jumped a little when there was a screech of brakes followed by a lot of swearing. She, along with everyone else in the area including the PRT troopers who were supervising the arriving press people, looked to see that a cab had tried unsuccessfully to wedge himself past one of the other TV vehicles, this one the local Brockton Bay channel, and was now involved in a vociferous argument with the driver of the truck in question.

The cameraman from the Boston channel turned his camera to point in that direction, looking amused, while the blonde reporter shook her head. One of the PRT guys started going over to sort things out, an annoyed expression on his face.

Aisha looked around and smirked. Sometimes life just _handed_ you what you wanted. Moments later the side door on the equipment trolley softly clicked back into place. 

* * *

****  
Missy brushed herself down, making sure her costume was immaculate, then leaned over and flicked a crumb of chocolate chip cookie off Dennis's costume. "You shouldn't be eating now," she told the boy with a look of exasperation. "You know there are cameras all over the place downstairs. We need to look good."

The red-head shrugged, reaching for another cookie. She slapped his hand. "Hey!"

" **No**. Wait until later."

"You're really strict," he complained, which made her grin.

"Someone has to be. Stop it." When he reached for the cookie again she exerted her power a little and made the box end up about forty feet away. He stared at it wistfully then sagged a little.

"Meanie."

"Idiot."

"Yeah, I love you too, Missy." He poked her on the forehead, making her giggle. But she still didn't let him have another cookie.

"We need to get down there, guys," Carlos announced, coming back from his quarters, still combing his hair, with his helmet under one arm. Putting the comb down he pulled the helmet on and adjusted it. Missy looked him up and down and gave him a thumb's up. Moments later Chris and Dean came in as well, both already fully costumed. Dean's power armor looked freshly polished, glinting a little under the light from the windows.

"Put your mask on, Dennis," Dean suggested. Dennis was still glancing at his cookies which Missy was keeping firmly out of reach, but sighed and nodded.

"Try not to embarrass us, OK?" Carlos requested. Dennis tilted his head in a quizzical manner, which didn't fool Missy or any of the rest of them.

"Don't screw this up for Dinah," she warned him, frowning. "I like her. We need more girls around here. And if you do something silly I will be very annoyed." She leaned forward as menacingly as someone about four and a half feet tall could manage. "You wouldn't like me when I'm very annoyed."

Dennis snickered, as did Chris. "Ooh, scary Vista," he replied, chuckling.

"Do you want me to draw some graffiti in your room, right over your bed?" she asked sweetly. He went very still. "I have some really neat new designs. Want to see?"

There was a distinctly uncomfortable pause. "I'll be good," the boy finally replied in a small voice, after swallowing hard. She smiled, nodded, then turned and marched towards the door.

"Come on, then, we'll be late." The others trailed after her, all of them staring slightly. She could _feel_ it and it felt nice.

She was definitely going to have to mention this to Saurial, who would probably find it really funny, she thought.

"Is it me or is she getting sort of... worrying?" She heard the quiet whisper from Dennis and suppressed a grin. 

* * *

****  
Lisa slowed her virtual bike, weaving in and out of traffic, which was pretty dense now both due to the proximity to the rush hour and to the main hub of the city. She was heading back from picking up a very good coffee and a sandwich, having gone about a mile away from the plaza which had the PRT building on one side and city hall on the other, along with a number of other admin-type facilities around it including the largest bank in the city. Approaching from a different direction than she'd left from put her on the opposite side, very close to the PRT building and coming from more or less the rear around the side to the front.

She could see a lot of people and vehicles milling around outside, Dinah's debut as Prospect attracting the usual media circus. The announcement of a new Ward was always a big deal and it hadn't happened around here for a while, which merely piqued interest. The much lower level of Parahuman activities recently had added to that and the result was the press came from as far away as Boston and New York, based on what she could see and what her power was telling her.

Her appointment with Armsmaster, Dragon, Director Piggot, and a number of technical people was scheduled for just after the event itself. She'd have expected them to want to wait a little but as far as she could work out they were so busy right now they were hard-pressed to find a slot. Yet at the same time, probably at the suggestion of the pair of Tinkers, they were _very_ interested in acquiring some Family technology. Since she was interested in seeing the event herself, she'd decided to attend the public viewing area which was easily arranged using her Family backing. All she'd had to do was mention it to Armsmaster and he'd emailed her a pass moments later.

The press conference would only last about twenty to thirty minutes depending on how many questions the reporters had, or at least how many the Director had the patience to allow. Probably not that many, knowing the woman.

Pulling in behind one of the cars that had parked to disgorge some functionary or other, she deactivated the bike and dropped the control bar into an expanded pocket, looking amused when several people gaped. That never got old. Moving easily through the crowd of tourists and random passers-by who were watching the goings on and taking a lot of photos, she approached one of the PRT troopers who was standing around keeping order among the chaos.

"Lisa Wilbourn, from the DWU," she said politely as he looked at her when she stopped in front of him. "I've got a pass for the press event." Reaching into an inside pocket she pulled out the printed pass and showed it to the man. He took it and scanned the 2d barcode with his phone, glancing at the screen. After a moment he nodded.

"Thank you, Miss Wilbourn, you can go in. Take a left after you pass the reception desk."

"Where all the other people are going?" she asked with a grin, taking her paperwork back.

He chuckled slightly. "Exactly. You'd be surprised how many people can't work that out."

Snickering she moved past him and followed a team of techs from the same Boston TV studio who had made the very-soon-to-be-aired Family documentary, one of whom was pushing a cart full of recording equipment. Moving past him as he stopped to ask one of the other PRT people inside a question, she went a few steps further before her power poked her.

 _Mild steel cargo cart_

 _Mass 41.8 pounds empty_

 _Pneumatic tires at nominal 35 psi, rear right tire has faulty valve, losing air at 0.02 psi per hour_

 _Contents: 3 off triple-sensor HD cameras, 5 off TV lenses, 400 feet of optical interlink cable, 200 feet of multiconductor data/power cable, 1 off Aisha Laborn, 2 off power units, 1 off signal distribution unit, 2 off disassembled tripods, 1 off toolkit, 8 off 9-terabyte solid state hard drives, 1 off mixing desk, 1 off master sync unit, 1 off short range high bandwidth wireless link transceiver, 3 off…_

Lisa blinked as her power reeled off dozens of facts about the otherwise ordinary cart. These days it tended not to simply randomly spout facts unless she deliberately asked it to, unlike the tendencies it used to have of giving her information whether she wanted it to or not if she looked too hard at anything.

' _Wait, what was that one?_ ' she thought in a rather startled manner.

 _1 off toolkit_

' _No, not_ ** _that_** _one, you trolling pain in the ass_.' She scowled internally. The damn thing had been hanging around Taylor and the Varga far too much, they were a worse influence on whatever it really was than _she_ was and that was saying something. ' _The other one.'_

 _1 off Aisha Laborn_

' ** _There_** _it is,_ ' she sighed mentally. ' _Oh, for fucks sake, you little nuisance. How the hell did you get in there?_ '

She got a sort of immaterial shrug back.

 _Random distraction on street due to minor traffic collision allowed for surreptitious entry to cart_

 _Cart used as discreet entry vector to PRT building_

 _Likely intent to attend press conference due to low boredom threshold and curiosity_

 _Will be discovered when cart undergoes routine security scan at door to conference room_

"Of _course_ she'll get caught," Lisa grumbled under her breath, very quietly. "The PRT aren't idiots, and right now they have no sense of humor at all."

 _PRT unlikely to press charges due to current high workload and low priority of offense_

"But it will embarrass Brian and possibly the DWU and the Family," she sighed. "Damn it."

She looked around, trying to work out the best method to extract her friend's little sister from the trouble she was about to find herself in, while moving a little closer to the knot of TV technicians, who were now discussing where to connect their equipment with their PRT counterpart. Glancing over at one of the elevators as the display over it showing what floor it was at changed and attracted her attention, she got a helpful hint.

 _Wards arriving in four seconds_

' _Aha. A distraction. Thank you_ ,' she thought, quickly shuffling to the side to conceal herself behind a group of new arrivals that got between her and the nearest PRT staff member. She checked the position of the cameras, her power helpfully telling her all sorts of things about who the people monitoring them were likely to be concentrating on and when. It seemed oddly cheerful and if she'd been forced to explain it, would have said it was having fun.

As soon as the doors to the elevator slid silently open, Vista and the other Wards stepped out and looked around. She could practically _feel_ Clockblocker thinking up something inappropriate to say, something Vista apparently also managed as she stepped heavily on his foot as soon as he began to speak.

Grinning a little, Lisa waited until everyone was looking over at the new arrivals, every camera in the hands of every press member in the lobby swinging that way. The blonde woman from the Boston TV station started heading over, waving her cameraman after her, which set off a rush to interview the wards before the conference. ' _Wonderful_ ,' she thought, following along in the mass of people going towards the conference room and the Wards, who were being ushered in by a somewhat harried looking PRT woman who was simultaneously attempting to fend off the reporters. There were now so many people in the lobby it was getting hard to move without bumping into them.

Arriving next to the cart, which the lead TV guy had resumed pushing, she quickly arranged to nudge someone else into its path. The poor man she'd picked on grunted in pain as it smacked into his knee, the guy pushing it stopping abruptly and apologizing as he got a filthy look and some quiet swearing. At the precise moment her power told her there was the maximum chance of no one seeing, Lisa reached down, flicked the door open with one hand and stuck the other one inside, grabbed the shoulder she found without trouble, and yanked.

Smoothly guiding the now-exposed Aisha, who was looking extremely startled, to her feet next to her she turned around and shut the door with her leg in the process of moving away. "Smile and keep quiet, Aisha," she hissed out of the corner of her mouth as she dragged the girl with her, getting as much distance from the cart and tech as she could before he investigated the sound of the door closing. A glance back showed he was peering down at it with a puzzled look but apparently decided someone must have accidentally kicked it on their way past. Shrugging, he went on his way, heading towards a door to the side of the main entrance to the conference room, the PRT tech leading and his colleagues bringing up the rear.

No one seemed to have noticed anything amiss.

' _Still got it,_ ' she thought with a hidden smirk. Amy's boosts had made that sort of thing a lot easier, she was far faster and stronger than before, not to mention with reflexes that would make an Olympic athlete cry and look for her mother. ' _Hopefully that wasn't caught by the security cameras._ '

 _View of cameras obscured by crowd for 1.45 seconds during extraction_

 _Near-total confidence no usable recording produced_

' _You're pretty sure of yourself, aren't you?_ ' she thought with amusement. There was a definite sensation of smugness that came and went from somewhere, increasing her amusement for a moment. Looking down at the shorter and younger girl who was staring at her, a fixed smile on her face and both shock and guilt in her eyes, she sighed audibly.

"What the hell are you doing here, Aisha?" she asked in a low voice, barely audible over all the people talking at once, and the intermittent PA announcements from speakers in the ceiling.

"How did you know I was in there?" the girl asked, not answering her question. "Let go, you're crushing my shoulder." She tugged futilely at the grasp Lisa had on her, which the blonde didn't relinquish for a moment.

"Nope. I'm not taking my eyes off you for a second," Lisa replied with equanimity. "You. Here. Why?"

"I wanted to see the new Ward," the girl said in a slightly sullen tone. "School was boring, I've been looking forward to this all day." She brightened up a little. "It was a good way to get inside, right?"

"Until they checked the cart, you idiot," Lisa grumbled. "Didn't you think about that? Their security is pretty damn good and at something like this you can guarantee that they'll scan _everything_ that gets anywhere near the Wards. They'd have found you and god knows what would have happened but I doubt you'd enjoy it."

Aisha looked worried again, nibbling her bottom lip. Apparently that thought hadn't crossed her mind.

"Oops."

"Yeah. Oops." Lisa scowled at her. "Now what do I do with you?"

"Why are you here anyway? I haven't seen you for over a month." Aisha stared at her as they came to a halt near one wall of the lobby, out of the way of the people still entering the conference room. "Heyyyy…" The girl studied her with suspicion. "Are you at the DWU with Brian?" She snapped her fingers, looking enlightened. "You're in his gang, right? I bet you're staying there too."

Lisa put her hand over the girl's mouth and bent down. "Shh, we don't talk about things like that in public. _Especially_ in the middle of the goddam _PRT building lobby!_ Got it?"

She wasn't surprised that the girl had worked it out. No one had ever accused her of being stupid, only very easily bored and with the attention span of a gerbil on amphetamines. But here and now were hardly the right time and place to talk about such things, even if the PRT didn't care about the former Undersiders these days. She wasn't keen on her civilian ID being compromised after all.

Under her hand, Aisha nodded frantically. She carefully lifted her hand, ready to slap it back. "Sorry. I didn't think about it."

"Try to, please." She removed her hand entirely, then rubbed her forehead. "Damn it. OK, come on, better if I take you with me so I know where the hell you are. It's safer for everyone, probably."

Aisha looked pleased and just a little smug.

"And afterwards we're going to have a nice long talk about what I'll do if you try this again..."

The smug went away very quickly. Lisa grinned with a certain amount of malice, channeling Saurial as much as she could. Aisha paled a little, but fell into step beside her obediently as she began walking towards the conference room entrance.

"I've got doughnuts," the younger girl offered as they went inside, Lisa showing her pass to the guard at the door, who waved them both through after checking it. "Want one?"

It was meant as an apology, Lisa knew, and she nodded. 

* * *

****  
Missy slipped through the door at the side of the stage in the conference room, glancing around. It didn't look any different than when she'd been sitting where Dinah currently was, one of the PR people talking to her in a low voice while she nodded occasionally. Director Piggot was discussing something with Miss Militia and a man in a suit, another one of the PR department if she remembered correctly. They were referring to a stack of paperwork as they talked.

Dinah spotted her and smiled, lifting a hand. She went over and smiled back. "Hey, how's it going, Prospect?" she asked quietly. "I thought you might need a friendly face." Missy waved back in the direction she'd come from. "I remember what it was like, I was pretty nervous."

"I'm OK," Dinah said, sounding slightly apprehensive but covering it well. "Armsmaster made me these cool ear things to help stop people shouting stupid questions at me." She pointed at her left ear, tilting her head a little. Missy could just make out something deep in there, like a hearing aid, but it was only visible if you looked for it. "Is everyone out there?"

"The boys are in the front row," Missy confirmed. She grinned a little. "I told them to stay."

Dinah grinned back. "Neat. Dad would say you run a tight ship."

Buffing her fingernails on her costume, Missy looked modest. "I do my best."

They shared a giggle. "Are there a lot of people out there?" the brunette asked, her voice quavering a little.

"About a hundred or so, I think," Missy confirmed. "The room's full. It's been ages since the last Ward was introduced here, and I think all the fuss with the Family has made people really interested in Brockton Bay. Especially with everything that happened with the Merchants and that horrible smell on the weekend."

"That was nasty," Dinah grimaced. "I never want to smell anything like that again as long as I live."

"Me neither, I nearly puked," Missy muttered. The PR guy, who had moved a little further away to let them speak, nodded, his face showing he agreed entirely.

Both of them turned around as the Director approached, the others behind her. "Are you ready to meet the public, Prospect?" she asked brusquely, although it didn't seem personal. She just tended to be a bit abrupt. Missy didn't think she'd ever consider her a friend, the difference in age alone seeing to that, but she certainly respected her a lot. Director Piggot was pretty bad-ass if she wanted to be.

"Um… Yes?" Dinah replied in a slightly hesitant manner. Missy put her hand on the slightly younger girl's back in a show of support, making her look mildly grateful. "Yes," Dinah repeated more firmly. "I am."

"Good. All right, you know the plan. Wait for the signal, come out, wave to the hyena… I mean, the press, and then walk over to stand next to me. Mr Garson will make sure your earpieces get cut if any fool asks something they shouldn't, if that happens, just look like you think they're an idiot and wait. Normally they'll give up at that point. Be polite, but don't show fear, I think they can smell it." She actually smiled a little as Dinah laughed. Missy was amused, as the woman did seem to have become noticeably less tightly wound since the weekend. Harried, true, but in a sort of pleased manner.

She wondered why, but that was a question for later. Possibly it had something to do with the way Shadow Stalker wasn't around any more? That was enough to cheer _her_ up considerably, even with the threat to that poor Hebert girl and her father.

"I can do that, Director," Dinah assured their superior.

"Excellent. Miss Militia, if you'll accompany her, please?" The heroine smiled under her scarf and nodded. "Vista, please return to your place. And see if you can keep Clockblocker quiet."

Missy saluted in as ironic a manner as she could, did her best to click her heels together, then spun around and marched off. She was almost certain she heard a faint chuckle from behind her. 

* * *

"I wonder how Lisa's getting on with the sales pitch?" Taylor commented as Amy parked outside the BBFO office and switched the engine off.

"Considering her abilities, never mind her own intelligence, she could probably sell sand to people in a desert," Amy snickered as they got out. "I pity them in a way."

Taylor grinned. "It would be interesting to see who would come out on top between her, Roy, and Danny." Going to the door of the office, ' _Saurial_ ' unlocked it and went inside, Amy following. "If they were all working together on something the world would just give up on the spot."

"They _are_ all working on something, really," Amy replied, closing and locking the door again, then heading for the coffee machine. "This whole city is finding that out, even if it doesn't really know the details."

"Good point," the blue-scaled lizard girl chuckled. The small dragon form of the Varga appeared draped across her shoulders and nodded wisely.

 **"We have a fearsomely effective team,"** he noted with satisfaction, relaxing as Taylor rubbed his head softly. **"It pleases me."**

"It pleases me too," Taylor told him. "OK. What should we do next?"

"Same thing we do every day after school, _Brain,_ " Amy remarked with a smirk as she unlocked her workroom and went inside. Taylor started laughing while the Varga nearly fell off her.

"Confuse the hell out of everyone?"

"That's it." Thirty seconds later a violet-blue and much larger lizard came out, grinning. "We have a gift for it, after all. Be a shame to not use it."

Both aspects of her friend nodded wisely. This was true.

"Let's go and see what the boys are up to later. Before that, though, I have an idea I want your input on," Amy continued. "Make one of those glass board things and some pens. I need to sketch some ideas out to see if they make any sense." Taylor did as requested, tossing the other girl a pack of markers. Amy uncapped one and approached the free-standing board. She began drawing as both Taylor and her demon watched with interest, and growing smiles.

"Very cool," the former said after a moment. "Very cool indeed."

"I thought so. Now, I was thinking about a power source, that was the big problem, but then I realized you'd solved it accidentally last night..."

"Ooh, yes, good point. Can we use that?"

"I've already cracked the direct consumption of electricity," Amy nodded. "True, this is a big jump in output, but we figured out how to do it overnight. I think."

"We?"

"Me and my power."

"Ah. Have you given it a name yet?"

"No. You weirdo."

 **"Why not?"**

"I… no, we're not going there. Shut up and listen. What I need is like this..."

Taylor grinned at her demon, who was sitting on her shoulder and watching intently, then both of them began making suggestions and modifications, the trio soon thoroughly enjoying themselves while perverting the natural order of things.

As they did every day after school.


	348. Canon Omake - Another Discussion

"This should be pretty impressive if it works."

"It'll be a lot more impressive if it _doesn't_ , and a fuck sight louder too."

 **"True. We need to add a failsafe to it, I believe."**

"Instead of a fail dangerous, you mean?"

 **"Ideally, yes."**

"OK. What about if we do this? If it goes horribly wrong, it'll disappear up its own spatial fold. That should contain any unscheduled rapid disassembly event pretty effectively."

 **"Excellent idea. Hmm, if we tweak it a little, the energy release from any catastrophic failure will actually power the failsafe, which should keep anything from escaping permanently. And it won't cause any other external problems, it's entirely isolated from the external world except for the power connections. Amy, are you certain your new design can handle this much energy?"**

"I am, that bizarre superconductor Linda and Taylor came up with is absolutely perfect for this. My power nearly fell over when we worked out we could use it in a biological system. It was practically giggling to itself most of last night."

"Your power is pretty weird."

"Says the half-demon crazy girl."

"Yep. So just think how weird that makes _you!_ "

"Shut up. And how likely is it that this thing will fail at all, never mind catastrophically? You're making me nervous now."

 **"It won't fail, Amy, we're both certain of that. But we're not taking any chances with the lives of our friends."**

"Nice to know."

 **"I thought so."**

"OK, it's ready. Let's fold it up, then spin it up."

 **"Done."**

"How are you pumping energy into it?"

"We can simply form the flywheel with as much kinetic energy as you want. This prototype is running at four million RPM, which is a nice round number."

"Will that be enough energy for what I want?"

"..."

"What?"

"You really need to learn some more advanced math, Amy."

 **"What Taylor is trying to say, slightly crudely, is that the energy storage of a one ton EDM ring flywheel five meters in diameter turning at four million RPM is just over one hundred and fifty two gigawatt-hours."**

"That sounds like a lot."

"It's quite a lot, yes."

 **"Approximately enough electricity to run New York city for two weeks."**

"Huh. OK, that should do it, I guess."

"If you need more than _that_ you're probably doing it wrong. And we'll need some _much_ more over the top power control systems. This setup will give you a couple of hundred kilowatts continuously, which should do it as a test. We can play around with the configuration during the initial tests. But it should be _more_ than enough for any practical version of what you're making."

"OK. I've added enough biological capacitor storage to power the whole thing for at least ten minutes even if we lose all the flywheel power as well, just in case. And it can give a huge boost if needed."

"Sounds good. All right, this thing checks out. Here you go."

"Cool. How long will it take before it needs recharging?"

"At the maximum configured power output?"

"Yep."

"Just under eighty seven years."

"..."

"Oh."

"Long enough?"

"It'll do for now."

"You look a little stunned."

"I keep getting shocked all over again at the things you and your lunatic demon pull out of nowhere."

 **"It's what we do."**

"Apparently. OK, let's get the skeleton finished. And we're going to need a _lot_ more onions."

"Lisa ordered a truckload of the things last night, they should turn up tomorrow morning. We should probably work out a better source of biomass. Pity your power seems to have issues with any organic material I produce."

"Yeah, that's a little weird, but it just looks confused when I try using it, then sort of shrugs. I guess it's not alive enough, somehow. Doesn't matter, onions are cheap enough and no one seems to notice. Any vegetable would do, but they seem slightly more efficient for some weird reason. It won't tell me why."

 **"Perhaps it just likes onions?"**

"No idea. Doesn't matter, anyway. We've got enough in stock right now to get enough of it done to test out the conversion system, anyway. I can link it into Ianthe for that. We'll finish it tomorrow night."

"OK. Then take it for a good long test run."

"Sounds like fun to me. I can hardly wait. And I have some really cool ideas about some modifications to it when we get the basic system finished. I'll need you guys to help me with that, though, it's way beyond anything I can calculate. It did lead to some interesting thoughts on upgrades for Ianthe and Metis, though. Look at this."

"I can see where you're going. I like it."

 **"As do I. Good work, Amy. It has some interesting possible applications for us as well. We've been considering something not dissimilar but it's slightly fiddly to arrange and we haven't really had the time to sit down and work out all the details with recent events. Perhaps we should take the time now, it could be very useful."**

"Damn right. I can see all sorts of possibilities for this. And you know that the boys are going to start giggling like schoolgirls when we show them. They'll want to have a play too."

"Fine with me, we need to talk to them about new Family members anyway. And we're going to have to think about bringing Linda into it soon as well. But I want to see how her power does with the neural mods before we tell her the rest."

 **"It's having an effect even without her knowing, isn't it?"**

"Pretty sure, yes. She seems to be working steadily more efficiently as time goes on. I think the amplifier and other mods have had at least as big an effect on her as on the rest of us. It seems to show that we're thinking on the right lines."

 **"That's good, although it's also worrying."**

"Tell me about it. We need to talk this over with Lisa again pretty soon, and Randall and Kevin as well. And Danny."

"Hope his trip is going well. He seemed in a good mood when he called me earlier. He's definitely staying overnight again, he's driving back tomorrow and should be here by lunch time."

"Glad to hear it. Yes, that's right. A little more. OK, now do the other side. This joint needs to be like this, see?"

 **"I believe it would work better if we modified it slightly, like this, Amy."**

"Hmm… yeah, that actually is better. My power agrees, and is a bit annoyed it missed it. Me too."

 **"You're still learning, I have the advantage of rather more experience than either of you."**

"I guess there are some benefits to age."

 **"Quite."**

"She's being snarky again."

 **"She wouldn't be Amy if she wasn't, Brain."**

"True."

"Wonderful. It's coming along pretty well. Let's get the basic musculature in place and cover it up, then I can make some temporary neural tissue to control things for testing. I want to make sure the electrovore converter system works before we go any further. We'll need a load of the superconductor as fine fibers as well, like this. Damn, my pen's died."

"Here."

"Thanks. OK, like this, see?"

"Easy enough. How much?"

"Um… let's start with about five hundred feet and put it in the hard way to get things going. Once I see how it works, I can redesign it and you can make it in one shot, that'll be easier and more reliable."

"All right."

 **"You know, if this does indeed work..."**

"Of course it will work. I'm a professional."

 **"...as I was saying, _when_ this works, which of course it will do since it's being designed by a professional, I can foresee some more peculiar comments than usual on PHO."**

"Ah. I thought about that. Look."

 **"Oh, very nice indeed. Most effective."**

"I got the idea from one of those stupid Bond films from Aleph. My version is horribly misusing some fairly normal biological structures, in a way that made my power get very interested. Works pretty well, doesn't it? The big problem is resolution, I don't think it will work close up. But at a distance it should do the job. I'm going to have to think about it some more and see if I can improve it."

 **"We do have the cloaking technique available."**

"I realize that, but it's useful to have a backup. That reminds me, Taylor, I need some more clothes that fit my tail. I've got the rest of my normal wardrobe in the truck, can you copy them and make new ones?"

"Sure, no problem."

"Good thing that Assassin's cloak _is_ so ridiculously effective, no one at home has a clue. Mom has been washing my pants for weeks and never noticed the tail sleeve."

"Bet she'd look confused if she did!"

"God, don't even joke about that. She'd go _nuts_. And probably blame the Family for corrupting me."

 **"Which is ironic considering it was as much the other way around as anything."**

"Yeah. But I doubt she'd see the funny side."

"Well, we'll deal with that when we have to. Hey, any idea why Vicky is still wandering around looking and smelling like she's worried and confused?"

"No. I guess I'll just have to come out and ask her. I didn't want to add to it and was hoping she'd work out whatever it was that was bothering her if I left her to it. She was distracted by the Coil thing for a while, but today she was back to being weird. Not as bad as before though."

 **"Dean was smelling concerned again as well."**

"I noticed. We're going to have to tell him something sooner or later or he's going to end up running in circles whimpering. Poor bastard."

"I like the guy, I don't want to drive him nuts."

"Why not, you're driving the entire _city_ nuts on a daily basis."

"Thanks."

"Not sure I meant it as a compliment..."

"I choose to take it as one. But what I meant was that Dean knows enough to get a lot more confused than some random citizen. You can see he's desperately trying to figure out how to ask what the hell is going on. Ianthe made him look _really_ puzzled."

"I know. It was both funny and a little cruel. Didn't mean to upset him like that. He's one of the good ones. What do you want to do?"

"Not sure. I know you don't want to let him know about what you can do. And I agree, it's dangerous for you, and possibly for him. I guess we'll have to work out some story that makes him happy."

"I somehow doubt we can actually make him _happy_ with any story we can come up with. True or not, he's going to freak out."

 **"It's a difficult problem. There's no immediate requirement to enlighten the lad, though. He's clearly more than prepared to keep quiet about it, as he promised, and unless we somehow manage to convince him we're a threat I doubt that will change. He strikes me as a man of his word."**

"Oh, I don't doubt that. I'm just a little worried about the state of his mental health."

 **"Fair enough. We'll ponder the issue."**

"All we can do. OK, go get the rest of the onions and I'll get the converter set up."

"Ath the mithreth commandth."

"Stop limping you bizarre excuse for a friend! And you can stop laughing as well, you're not helping, you mad demonic nuisance."

 **"My apologies, Amy. As always I am profoundly thankful for my current situation, it is endlessly entertaining. And I suspect Lisa is going to have a surprise when she sees this."**

"Probably, yes. Then she'll want one of her own."

 **"Undoubtedly. She's said as much in the past."**

"She can have the next one, this is mine. OK, pour those in and we'll get started."


	349. Debut and Lightcycle

Dinah swallowed as she heard her name come from the auditorium just on the other side of the door. She glanced at Mr Garson who was standing next to her, the man nodding in a comforting manner. She nodded back and he opened the door, following her out as she headed up the steps to the stage towards where Director Piggot was standing, having just introduced her after a short speech about the Wards program, all the good things it did, and so on. Camera flashes went off all over the room amid shutter sounds and subdued chatter. She kept her eyes on the director for the first few feet as she tried to quell her nervousness, stopping half way to turn and look around at the people attending.

Fixing a small and polite smile on her face, she lifted a hand and waved in the general direction of the couple of hundred people staring at her, many of them through lenses or via screens. There were a couple of large TV cameras at the rear of the room, one on each side, the operators of them slowly tracking her with the things. She recognized a couple of the reporters from the TV news and was a little taken aback that all this was because of her.

At the front, Missy and the other Wards were sitting in a row in full costume, the ones whose faces were at least partially visible all smiling. Missy herself waved back, making Dinah's smile a little more genuine. The blonde girl was becoming a good friend, their shared Ward-hood bringing them closer together. Even Dennis was radiating a sort of pleased air, which made her look a little suspiciously at him. Just over the time she'd known him she'd learned that this often meant _something_ was going to happen. Hopefully he'd restrain himself until he wasn't being recorded for posterity, but there was no absolute guarantee of that.

His own name was proof enough of this…

She noticed a pretty blonde of about seventeen or eighteen sitting next to a black girl of roughly her own age a couple of rows back, both of them watching with interest while nomming some doughnuts. There was something about the blonde that was just a tiny bit familiar although she had no idea why. The younger girl was grinning in a mischievous manner that gave her a remarkable resemblance to Dennis when he was in one of his moods, which made Dinah think she was someone else who liked a good joke. Aside from herself and the other Wards, the girl was the youngest one in the room. Perhaps she just liked press conferences?

It was a weird hobby but whatever.

Her ruminations had taken mere seconds. Deciding that she'd stood there long enough, she turned to the left and carried on, arriving next to the Director who somehow managed to radiate mild approval without changing her fairly neutral expression at all. "I am pleased to introduce the newest member of the ENE Protectorate Wards program, Prospect," she said into the mic that carried her words around the room through the incredibly good sound system. "Prospect is an intelligence focused Parahuman with significant abilities to extrapolate percentage chances of future events. She'll be behind the scenes working with the PRT to prevent small problems turning into big ones, as her powers don't lend themselves to street level operations. As such the public will seldom see her, but rest assured she is helping out in many places to the best of her ability."

Dinah heard the words after the short delay, which showed that Mr Garson had activated the anti-question system. She was rather glad of that, since with this number of people, if they started shouting out questions that she was forced to answer she'd be overwhelmed in seconds. Glancing at him where he was standing to her right and behind she got a tiny nod back, showing he was on the ball.

"Do you mean she is a Thinker, Director?" one of the reporters in the middle of the room called.

"That is correct."

"Can you tell us Prospect's official rating?" another one loudly asked.

"The exact details are restricted for security. Suffice it to say she is highly rated." Director Piggot seemed now mildly amused at how this clearly didn't satisfy the woman who had asked the last question, but the reporter didn't push for more. Dinah suppressed a smile of her own, trying to strive for the same expression of polite neutrality coupled with a ' _don't screw with me_ ' aura that the older woman so competently produced, apparently without even trying. Standing with her arms at her sides in a relaxed, open, yet professional stance as the PR people had taught her, she waited patiently for all this to end. 

* * *

"She looks a little bored," Aisha whispered to Lisa, offering her another doughnut at the same time. Lisa took the pastry and nodded.

"Wouldn't you be? She has to stand there for twenty-five minutes while a load of reporters ask the same questions they ask every time."

Aisha rolled her eyes as she bit into her chocolate glazed snack. "That would drive me nuts. It's bad enough sitting here and I've got something to eat."

"Hey, you're the one who snuck in here, you only have yourself to blame," Lisa snickered. Aisha glared at her.

"And you're the one who nearly pulled my arm off getting me out of that cart."

"The one you'd have been caught in for sure..."

"Um..." Aisha fell silent, making Lisa smirk a little. The girl had noticed how thorough the PRT security check had been and there was no doubt at all that they'd have found her on the spot. She didn't seem to think that would have been exactly what she wanted, based on the muttering as they sat down. Privately, Lisa was surprised that her companion was being as well-behaved as she was. By now, half-way through the short press event, she'd rather expected that Aisha would be looking around for some way to, as she'd probably put it, ' _Liven things up._ '

It was a phrase she'd heard Brian complain about more than once. It normally preceded something weird enough to have been the result of Taylor having fun happening, normally at the expense of someone else's peace of mind.

Extracting a couple of cans of coke from one of her coat pockets she handed one to Brian's sister, who looked slightly puzzled about where it had come from but happily accepted it nonetheless. Both of them popped the tabs and drank. Lisa was very pleased with her new coat, it was both very stylish and full of surprises. It had taken quite a lot of convincing to get Taylor to make it for her, since she was insistent that Danny's was a one off special creation, but eventually she'd agreed to make something that was close but not identical. Even then she'd claimed that she was reserving this version for specific people.

And had promptly made one for Amy and one for her base form, custom fitted to each. That had amused Lisa quite a lot.

Still, it was a very nice coat.

They'd spent a while coming up with a standard design for a DWU jacket as well, something more industrial than her one, and made a couple of prototypes. Taylor was going to talk to Zephron and a few others about them and get feedback on any modifications they wanted, but her goal was to outfit every member of the union with the things. Her unstated thought was obviously that it was a good way to essentially get everyone to wear the equivalent of nearly inpenetrable body armor without making this apparent. She was definitely worried about Skidmark or some other threat turning up when she wasn't around to protect the group who she obviously cared a lot about and was doing what she could to forestall problems, something Lisa and Amy both completely agreed with.

The press introduction wound on steadily, eventually coming to a close some fifteen minutes later, which seemed to make both the director and Dinah heave a discreet sigh of relief. Lisa found it quite interesting, at least due to what _wasn't_ said as for what was. Emily Piggot was nearly as good as managing the press as Roy was, something that seemed likely to be the result of an awful lot of practice. But where the Mayor steered the reporters in the direction he wanted them to go by avuncular good humor, sly jokes, and slight misdirection, the PRT woman did it with hard looks and the occasional lethal glare, which seemed to work nearly as well. Lisa thought it was instructive and quite funny.

Dinah seemed to have relaxed a little, having been very tense when she came out of the back room, although she hid it quite well considering how young she was. But after a while, when it became clear that the director was managing the questions expertly, she slowly untensed and seemed to be more or less enjoying herself although also visibly wishing it was over.

Lisa's power had helpfully informed her that the girl was wearing some electronics in her ears that could essentially add a delay to everything she heard when it was active, most likely one of Armsmaster's designs. It was a neat solution to the problem of having an always-on power that insisted on answering any question it heard that was correctly asked. The man standing behind and to her left was apparently screening anything asked of her to ensure it didn't trigger her ability. Presumably the long term goal was to have some smart computer system that would remove the need for a human in the loop. In all probability that would ultimately be supplied by Dragon.

Overall it had worked out well for everyone. The press got a number of soundbites, got to see the new Ward and ask some inane questions and the much rarer insightful ones, the girl herself got some exposure to the press under controlled circumstances… Not to bad for only forty minutes.

When the Director asked for any last questions, casting a look around the room that suggested it would be a brave reporter who took her up on it, Lisa stretched a little. Then she nudged Aisha who was half-asleep next to her, having apparently decided that doing something ' _Interesting_ ' right in front of the PRT director was probably not the wisest of courses to take. Moments later Emily called an end to the event, Dinah and her minder quickly disappearing into the back room, followed by the rest of the Wards and Miss Militia who had been standing to one side of the room keeping an eye on things with several troopers.

"Huh? What?" Aisha looked around rather blearily, then blinked a few times. "Oh, is it finally over?"

"Yes."

"Thank fuck for that."

Lisa chuckled, as did someone a couple of seats away who had been writing notes on the questions. Her power told her it was a reporter for a Parahuman special interest magazine based out of state.

"These things do tend to drag on," he commented as he closed his notebook and put it away. "But if you want solid data on the heroes you have to come."

"Still boring," Aisha retorted.

He shrugged, getting to his feet. "No argument from me, young lady. Have a nice day." Giving them both a small smile he headed for the exit, joining a number of other spectators. Several of the TV station reporters were doing summations to camera, although almost everyone else seemed to be leaving.

"Can we go now?" Aisha asked plaintively, fidgeting a little.

"I have a meeting with Armsmaster and the Director along with some technical people from the PRT," Lisa explained.

Her companion looked suspiciously at her. "Why? How did you end up having meetings with the fucking _Director of the PRT_ for god's sake? Or Armsmaster for that matter?" She sounded more than a little puzzled.

Lisa smiled evilly. "I have connections, you know."

" _Sure_ you do."

"Honest. I know people. And lizards. Who are also people. And DWU members... _most_ of whom are people."

Aisha looked amused as the older girl smirked. "I've seen some of those guys around, _people_ might be pushing it."

"Even so, I have a meeting. And I'm not comfortable about letting you out of my sight, so _you_ have a meeting too. At which you will sit quietly in the corner and say nothing."

"Oh, my _god_ ," Aisha sighed. "I should just have gone to look for Cloak and not tried to see Prospect."

"Cloak?"

"She's a friend," the girl replied, now wearing an evil smile of her own. She was quite good at it. "I know people too."

" _A_ person."

"Well… I'm not really sure she's _actually_ a person, she might be a haunted cloak. But she's really cool too and I like her."

"Fair enough. At some point you need to tell me how you met." Lisa was quite curious. Vista seemed to be enjoying herself by the sounds of it and it was an odd coincidence that she'd bumped into the sister of one of her own best friends. "But right now, as long as we're in here, you're coming with me. Don't worry, it'll be a lot more interesting than this. And afterward, if you don't try to steal Armsmaster's helmet or something, I'll give you a ride on the coolest bike you've ever seen."

"Bike?" Aisha echoed, sounding interested. "What bike? Why do you have a bike? I thought you had a car."

Lisa smiled. "Believe me, it's pretty cool. I'll show you later." She leaned closer to the shorter girl, adding in a low voice, "It's in my pocket."

Aisha stared at her as she got up, then hurried after her when she headed for the door back to the lobby. "In your pocket? What the hell? What are you talking about?"

Grinning, Lisa aimed for the reception desk as the girl dashed after her, feeling more than a little amused. "Hi, I'm Lisa Wilbourn from the DWU, here to see Armsmaster? He's expecting me," she said when she managed to get the attention of one of the staff behind the desk, most of whom were dealing with various news people wanting more information on Prospect. She handed over her DWU ID card, which the man carefully checked, before looking something up on his computer.

He nodded after a moment or two, returning the card to her. "Yes, I've got your appointment here, Miss Wilbourn. Armsmaster is on his way, he'll be here in less than two minutes. If you'd like to wait over there, please?" The man indicated the waiting area seats on the other side of the lobby, next to the small gift shop. Lisa smiled her thanks and turned around, heading in that direction while snagging Aisha on the way. She noticed that there was already some Prospect themed merchandise on the shelves as she went past, next to the various other things representing the rest of the Wards. Interestingly all the Shadow Stalker memorabilia had disappeared since the last time she'd been here as Metis.

By the time the local Protectorate leader came out of the elevator, Aisha was poking around in the shop with an acquisitive air about her, and Lisa was keeping a discreet eye on the girl just in case her fingers became a little too sticky. She got to her feet as the Tinker approached. "Hello, Armsmaster," she said politely.

"Miss Wilbourn," he replied. "Thank you for coming in. If you'll follow me, please?"

"I have a companion," she said, waving Aisha over. The girl inspected Armsmaster carefully as she came and stopped next to Lisa, then stuck out her hand.

"Hi," she said cheerily. "I'm Aisha. Aisha Laborn."

Slightly uncertainly, in Lisa's opinion, he held out his own hand after looking at the younger girl and shook hers. Aisha seemed pleased, while Armsmaster seemed confused. "Sorry, I'm sort of stuck with her for the moment," Lisa explained. "Her brother is a good friend of mine and a co-worker. I bumped into Aisha just before the press conference and didn't think it was a good idea to let her run around with everything going on like this." She glanced at the girl who was now looking at her with a miffed expression. "She's… prone to finding herself in situations that are less than ideal."

"Look who's talking," Aisha muttered in a very low voice, which Lisa could still clearly hear. She didn't react but found it funny, and also sort of true.

"I… see." Armsmaster still sounded a bit puzzled.

"If it's not too much trouble I was hoping you wouldn't mind her sitting in on the meeting," Lisa added. She could see from his face, what part of it was visible, that he wasn't too keen on the idea. "Trust me it's better than seeing what happens if she wanders around without supervision. And she could learn something."

"I should just go and look for Cloak, and have some fun," Aisha grumbled.

Armsmaster twitched slightly. "You know Cloak?"

"Oh, yeah, she's a friend," Aisha replied brightly. "She even showed me the best doughnut shop in the city! It's really good." Looking at the crumpled box that she took out of her pocket, she went on a little sadly, "Sorry, they're all gone now."

"I have no need for a doughnut at the present moment, thank you," the Tinker replied with a faint sigh. "All right, Miss Wilbourn, if you feel that your companion won't cause any problems I suppose there's no harm in allowing her to attend. It's not a high security meeting, after all. But we would prefer that she didn't talk about it too much even so."

"Got it, Aisha? Keep quiet about things," Lisa instructed. The girl sighed a little but nodded.

"Your bike better be _fucking_ cool," she replied quietly.

"It is."

Armsmaster looked between them, then appeared to suddenly become enlightened. "Ah. You possess one of Vectura's virtual omnivehicles, I assume? She made some more?"

"Yep," Lisa replied, smiling. "A couple so far, and we've ordered the parts we need for more too. She and Leet only had enough of the electronics in stock for a pair to begin with but everyone wanted to see how it worked. Pretty impressive, isn't it?"

"It's an extraordinarily competent piece of design," he agreed, seeming genuinely enthusiastic about it. "Dragon and I have enjoyed examining the prototype. We both want to discuss it further with Vectura when we have time, as there are some very interesting possibilities present that we feel deserve more research..." He visibly restrained himself after Lisa's power informed her he'd checked the time in his helmet display. "However, now is not the time to discuss it. Please follow me, both of you."

"Of course," Lisa nodded, motioning for Aisha to walk beside her. The girl had been watching Armsmaster with her head on one side in an oddly Saurial-like manner, smiling a little. He took both of them back to the reception area, to one side of the normal public-facing part, and spoke quietly to the man behind the desk. This resulted in a pair of ID cards on clips which he handed to each of them. They had the word ' _Guest_ ' emblazoned in bright yellow across a complex hologram of the PRT logo along with their names and the time and date.

"Please put these on, and don't leave my presence," he told them. Lisa clipped hers to her jacket collar, Aisha hanging hers from the right pocket of her jeans having inspected it with interest.

"These don't look like the ones I've seen on the internet," Lisa commented.

"We've recently upgraded the entire security system in the building," Armsmaster replied as he swiveled around and headed back towards the elevators. "All previous security tokens were invalidated at that point and we are using much more secure methods now."

"I see." She knew, of course, that this was the aftereffect of the Coil operation and the replacement computer system, but didn't mention that she was aware of it. There was after all no good reason why _Lisa_ would know that fact. He led them into the elevator and pressed a button, the doors immediately sliding silently shut. Aisha was looking around with interest, being surprisingly quiet.

Lisa had been slightly concerned about having more or less ended up accidentally in charge of the girl but based on both her recent activities and stories that Brian had, with great irritation, told her in the past, didn't feel it was a good idea to let her get away until they were at a safe distance from the PRT and anything breakable or thievable. She quite liked his sister but could certainly agree that she was a handful when she was in one of her ' _I'm bored_ ' moods, which weren't all that uncommon unfortunately. She was unnervingly reminiscent of a younger and female version of Alec. The usual result was official annoyance and a certain amount of lecturing from teachers, police, or both. How the girl had managed to talk herself out of some of the things she'd dropped herself _into_ in the past was a mystery to everyone. Their father had certainly found himself very nettled by it all, since he didn't seem to know quite how to stop her doing things like that and despite his faults would never hit a girl.

Brian had been thumped more than once when he was a similar age, although he was quick to point out that it was never malicious and he'd normally probably deserved it anyway. Their father was a person who was far more comfortable with physical actions than emotional ones. Her friend had been at pains to say that the man wasn't a bully, but he had been a lot stricter with Brian than he had been with Aisha. That had probably not helped in the long run, although Lisa was well aware that the girl in many ways couldn't help it. She had poor impulse control, definitely had most of the symptoms of ADHD, and was generally prone to doing whatever she felt like at the time. Luckily she was also pretty bright and at least _tried_ not to be sufficiently indiscreet that she got caught too many times, which wasn't to say she _never_ got caught.

If she'd been able to get away with all her non-boring activities it probably wouldn't have caused poor Brian, or their father, quite so much trouble. And Aisha wouldn't be so well known to the local cops.

Interestingly, both her friend and her power told her that the young girl was being a lot more careful recently. In fact, approximately since ' _Saurial_ ' had talked to her. Which was very interesting.

Yet again, Taylor was having odd effects on people, without really trying and possibly without even noticing. She did that.

A lot.

Lisa smiled to herself. That demon and his host had certainly changed things much more quickly than anyone could have ever expected and all without doing much more than existing. It was pretty impressive.

Oh well. All she had to do was spend an hour or so going over the same sort of talk she'd given at the mayor's office, then give Aisha a ride on the light-cycle for a while and take her home. Hopefully at that point the girl would be content, and she'd definitely be safely out of range of the PRT which was probably good for the sake of everyone involved. After that she could go back to the DWU and find out what bizarre new trouble Taylor and Amy had caused without her there to supervise.

' _Either one of them is capable of almost anything if they're at a loose end_ ,' she thought. ' _God help the entire city when they combine forces… A demon, a half demon, and a whatever-the-hell Amy is doing something amusing. It makes Aisha look positively dull by comparison._ '

Which was more than a little worrying.

' _How did I end up going from a talented yet, let's be honest, minor thief and private spy into someone who's more or less the_ ** _responsible_** _one?_ ' she mused as the elevator stopped as silently as it had started and the doors slid open. ' _Life is very weird sometimes_.'

Armsmaster led them to a familiar conference room, being the one she'd met the Director in as Metis when they'd been planning the Merchant raid. He opened the door and stood aside. "Please take a seat. The other people attending will be here momentarily."

"Thanks," she said, going into the room with Aisha following, looking around alertly. She indicated a chair to one side, next to a smaller side table. "Go sit there and please at least try to be quiet, will you? Here, take my phone, it's got some good games on."

"You're going to owe me more than one ride on this magic bike at this rate," Aisha said with a scowl, but accepted the phone and earbuds, which Lisa unlocked with a quickly entered passcode, setting it to a games console mode that should hopefully keep the other girl out of her private data. Moments later Aisha was poking around on the device, earbuds in, looking through the selection of games with a raised eyebrow until she found something she liked.

Putting her backpack on the floor next to the main table, Lisa sat down and waited. Armsmaster glanced at her then went back to setting up one of his customary tablets, as well as the sketchbooks he seemed to like for notes. The door opened again a few seconds later to admit Director Piggot, Miss Militia, who seemed over the last few weeks to have practically become the former's aide for some reason, and a couple of men in the standard PRT research division lab coats who were discussing something esoteric on a tablet that one of them was holding. Without really paying attention to anyone else the latter pair walked around the table, the one with short red hair and glasses nearly tripping over Aisha's extended legs as he passed.

She glared at him as he sidestepped, the man looking up for a moment, staring at her, then shrugging and going back to explaining something to his colleague who hadn't even noticed.

Director Piggot approached Lisa, who stood again and held out her hand. "Miss Wilbourn, I believe?"

"Yes, Director. It's a pleasure to meet you. Danny has mentioned you quite a lot," she replied with a smile. The other blonde _almost_ smiled back, her power told her, but most people wouldn't have noticed past the remarkably neutral expression the woman habitually wore. She was a very controlled person.

"Has he," the director said noncommittally.

"Oh, yes, he's told me all sorts of interesting things about the PRT and the history it has with the DWU," Lisa nodded. She noticed that Miss Militia winced very slightly, feeling inwardly somewhat amused. While recent relations with the PRT had massively improved both her own and Danny's opinion of the branch of the organization here in the Bay, largely due to this woman and her oddly pragmatic approach to the problem posed by Taylor's appearance, neither one of them was hugely fond of them in general for a number of reasons. And it was clear that both Miss Militia and Director Piggot knew this.

She mentally amended her thought to add Legend's influence to the reasons she was a lot more tolerant of the PRT, since she found the Protectorate leader to be quite possibly the most genuine and decent person she'd ever met. He'd clearly decided that the Family were a good thing and she could well imagine he'd talked to Director Piggot quite a lot on that matter.

She turned and shook hands with Miss Militia as well. "It's nice to meet you too," she continued. "I'm a fan." Which was pretty much true.

Both women exchanged a glance then moved to sit down. Emily Piggot apparently only then noticed Aisha, who was now thumbing the screen of Lisa's phone with a grimace of concentration, looking well into whatever game she was playing. "Excuse me, Miss Wilbourn, but who is that?" she asked with mild suspicion.

Lisa sighed faintly. "My apologies, Director, she's the sister of one of my best friends," she replied. "We ran into each other downstairs just before the event. Aisha has a… slight… tendency to get into trouble and I didn't feel it was wise to leave her on her own with all the chaos going on with the press right now. Past experience shows that such things can lead to… well, let's say I could do without the headache. Or her brother shouting at me."

Thanks to the earbuds Aisha apparently didn't hear her explanation, merely muttering in a barely audible voice, "Get _in_ there you furry little bastard..." She mashed her thumbs on the screen then smiled triumphantly. "Got you! Stupid squirrel."

The director and Lisa exchanged a look of understanding. "I see. Well, if she's quiet, she can stay."

"Thank you, Director. Once again, I'm sorry for the imposition."

The woman waved this off and sat, Miss Militia doing the same. Lisa did too, looking across the table at Armsmaster, who was tapping on his tablet and making notes with the other hand. Miss Militia cleared her throat meaningfully, causing him to look up, then push the device to the side. Both the scientists were still talking about something to do with, as far as Lisa could work out, how large an explosion one could create by misusing some of the supplies found in the PRT cafeteria kitchen.

She blinked a little, since this was an odd thing to think about. The sandy-haired one was being quite enthusiastic about it while his companion, a shorter man with a beard much like Armsmaster's and a beret on his head, was nodding slowly in a calculating manner.

"Gentlemen?" Piggot's voice was sharp. Both of them twitched and looked up, the red-head smiling unconvincingly. "Put it away. And you are _not_ to attempt to prove your theory. Not after last time. We're _still_ cleaning caramelized coffee creamer out of the roof of the vehicle depot."

"I _told_ you that was too much to start with," the behatted one murmured to his colleague who shrugged a little.

"Go big or go home," he whispered, then folded his hands in front of him and smiled innocently at his boss, who fixed him with a glare for a few moments. Small beads of sweat broke out on his forehead.

Lisa was impressed.

Apparently satisfied, Director Piggot turned to her. "OK, we've got an hour before I have to get to the next meeting. Please show us what you have."

"Of course, Director," she nodded, picking her pack up and putting it on the table. It had been searched, as had Aisha's, at the security checkpoint at the entry to the press room downstairs. Of course due to the interesting upgrade the Varga had come up with for their weird fractal dimensional technique, if anyone other than herself poked around in it they'd find it was apparently empty. The pockets of her coat benefited from the same technique, which she had an idle thought would have been incredibly useful during her criminal days.

Armsmaster looked interested as she reached into it, pulling out the demonstration helmet. She found it almost hilarious that he was the only one who _wasn't_ surprised as she went on to remove half a van load of other things from the bag, merely nodding in respectful admiration. "Impressive," he commented, curiously inspecting the things she put on the table. Both scientists were gaping, the taller one beginning to grin like an idiot. His friend was stroking his beard again, looking thoughtful. "I really must speak to Saurial about some upgrades to my armor using that ability."

"I'll mention it to her as soon as I see her next," Lisa promised him. "All right, let's start with the fire suppression system sub-components, shall we?" She picked up the water tank and began her talk, the practice of doing the same thing with the Mayor's people only hours before making it easy.

The expressions on the various faces, even Armsmaster's by thirty seconds in, made the entire trip worthwhile in her opinion. 

* * *

"Looks like your city has another interesting young person," Serafina commented as they watched the news report on the Brockton Bay Ward debut of Prospect. Danny nodded, considering the girl who was looking at the cameras and answering questions after a short but noticeable delay each time. She seemed slightly nervous but was holding up gamely while Emily Piggot looked on with a vaguely approving air.

"A Thinker. I wonder what sort?" Antonio said, swilling a little brandy around in the snifter he was holding. "Ah, some sort of precog. Impressive. Parahumans are pretty young sometimes, aren't they? She can't be more than twelve or thirteen."

"Vista is only a little older yet she's one of the more effective and powerful Wards," Danny pointed out. "Taylor's met her, she thinks highly of the girl, as does Amy Dallon who knows her quite well from what she says."

"Still, no matter how powerful or effective, they're still only children," Serafina noted, pouring herself some more coffee. "It must be hard for the parents, knowing that their kid might be out there on the streets and getting involved in something unpleasant."

Antonio grinned. "I wasn't much older than that one when I was on the streets being involved in something unpleasant," he pointed out with what was almost pride. "Admittedly, I was the one doing the unpleasant thing at times, but..."

"We hardly need you boasting about how good with a knife you were, dear," his wife said tartly. "Poor Danny doesn't need to hear it."

"From what his father said Danny wasn't a complete angel either at that age." Antonio looked sidelong at the younger man, who sighed faintly and felt embarrassed.

"I admit my childhood wasn't entirely strife-free, Uncle Tony, but I prefer to think I was more reacting to provocation than anything else. Brockton Bay has always had somewhat… enthusiastic… streets."

"I remember," Antonio nodded. "It's something when a super villain actually calms a place down and reduces crime. Marquis was an interesting man."

"You knew him?"

"I met him a couple of times, many years ago, yes," the aging mafioso smiled. "He was, in his own way, a decent man. Not a nice man, and certainly not a _good_ man in common terms, but he was trustworthy. If he said he was going to do something, he did it, whether that was to keep out of somewhere like the docks, or kill someone. And when he _did_ kill someone he took no pleasure in it. It was only business." He sipped his brandy and shrugged slightly. "I can respect that."

"I wonder why?" Danny asked with a small smirk. It was met with a similar one from the other man.

"Can't imagine."

Serafina looked between them and shook her head. "You two are _far_ more alike than either of you realize," she mumbled, before getting up and heading for the kitchen. "The cookies are ready," she called moments later, a waft of warm air redolent of baking coming out into the living room.

"Oh, wonderful!" Antonio said brightly, hopping to his feet with the energy of a man thirty years his junior. "I adore ginger snaps."

Danny watched one of the most feared and respected crime bosses in the US hurry into the kitchen to get fresh cookies, grinned, finished his own coffee, and followed. While he still had, and probably always would have, differences with the man and his lifestyle, he was very glad that he'd agreed to meet up and clear the air. When you came down to it he was basically family, and that counted a lot.

As he bit into a warm cookie he wondered how his daughter and her friends were getting on. Hopefully, no news meant nothing bizarre was happening back at home. Well, he'd be back tomorrow and he'd be able to find out. 

* * *

Missy stopped for a moment, looking at the people who had just gone into one of the conference rooms at the other end of the corridor, feeling slightly surprised. ' _Aisha? What's she doing here?_ ' Her new friend had been accompanied by a pretty blonde girl who looked to be about seventeen or so, a military-style backpack slung over her shoulder. Both of them were following Armsmaster. Resuming walking she looked at Dinah and shrugged slightly.

The two girls were headed back to Dinah's mother, in their respective costumes, after the press event. Dinah had asked Missy to come with her because she wanted to introduce them, while the other Wards had gone back to the common room. Missy was technically off duty now, so after this she was planning on ' _Cloaking up_ ' as she was thinking of it and heading over to the DWU to see what was going on there. She'd meant to a couple of days ago but what with one thing and another never quite seemed to have time to do so.

She was a little startled to spot the girl she'd met the other day, and wondered what was going on inside the room they were both currently passing. As they reached the other end of the corridor, the Director, Miss Militia, and those two crazy scientists who were always blowing things up for no obvious reason came out of the elevator and headed past them, the guy with the beard giving them a quick smile. She smiled back and looked over her shoulder to see that they were indeed going into the conference room.

"Wonder what's going on?" she commented as they took the elevator that had just been emptied. She pressed the button for floor nine.

"Dunno, _is_ something going on?" Dinah asked curiously.

"I thought I saw someone I might know," Missy replied, not going into details. "Huh. Never mind, it's probably not important." She thought for a moment, then added, "If you ever get asked to help out those guys in the lab coats, _say no!_ "

"Why?"

"Just trust me, they could make _carrots_ explode. And before you know it you're missing an eyebrow." She rubbed her face thoughtfully. Dinah looked surprised, then grinned mischievously.

"Go on, tell me."

"You wouldn't think that a pound of flour, some duct tape, a desk fan, a cardboard box, and a lighter was that dangerous, would you?" Missy began, shaking her head a little.

By the time they reached Dinah's mother, who appeared very proud of her daughter, both of them were creased up. "Honest, it smelled like a bakery had burned down, everyone's face was covered in soot, the fire alarms were going off, Armsmaster was taking notes, and the Director was _furious…_ " Missy giggled. Dinah could barely speak, she was laughing so hard.

"So _don't_ offer to help them, OK?"

"OK." Dinah managed to say, grinning widely, then turned to her mother. "Hi, Mom. Did you watch it?"

Missy watched as the two hugged, feeling happy for her friend and a little sad that her own parents were like they so often were these days. But that was life. 

* * *

****  
Emily watched as Colin sat down again, having escorted Miss Wilbourn and her younger friend out of the building and returned. The Laborn girl had spent the entire time playing games, thankfully, although Emily had noticed she'd definitely been watching the demonstrations the young DWU representative had performed, trying to hide her interest. The kid wasn't an idiot, she thought.

"Well?"

She looked around the table. "Any thoughts?"

Colin flipped through his notebook, then dropped it on the table and leaned back in the reinforced chair, which creaked under the weight of his power armor even with the heavy construction. "Every time I think I've finally got a decent grasp on Family talents something proves me wrong," he grunted after a moment. He glanced at the two experimental scientists, both of whom were still looking shocked, yet extremely excited.

"I personally am having a lot of trouble believing Miss Wilbourn's figures," Professor Whitney said, pulling his omnipresent beret off and putting it next to his own notebook. Emily had tried to get the damn man to stop wearing it, but even shouting at him never seemed to help for long. She'd more or less given up by now but even so eyed the thing balefully. He reached out and picked up the flywheel energy storage unit that the girl had, after a request from Colin and a quick phone call to BBFO, left behind for testing purposes. "The implications if she's right are… startling."

"I have no trouble believing them myself," Colin stated, peering at the device. "My experience is that Family tech always does what they claim it does. So far that's been the case and I have no reason to think it will change. However, I agree that the implications are considerable."

"It stores a lot of power, I get that," Hannah said, watching as Whitney handed the thing to his colleague, who took it eagerly and turned it over, studying the electrical contacts on the bottom with interest. "But there are a lot of Tinker tech power storage devices around. What makes this one so impressive?"

Colin slowly turned his head to stare at her, as did Whitney. Professor Franklin, on the other hand, was ignoring everyone in favor of prodding the contacts on one of the multipole connectors protruding from the FamTech flywheel. Emily sighed faintly when he yelped and nearly dropped it as a tiny _pop!_ sounded.

"Ow."

If there was a way to hurt yourself with something, the damn man would find it every time. How he was still alive baffled her.

"You may be suffering from a misapprehension, Hannah," Colin said quietly. "That device is not Tinker tech. Lisa stated as much. It's Family tech. Certainly that means that it's unlikely that anyone other than the Family could manufacture such a thing, but what it also means is that it suffers from few to none of the drawbacks of Tinker tech. Based on our experience so far, I have little doubt it will work indefinitely with no maintenance at all required. The electronics for the power conversion are the sole weak point and assuming she was correct about the specifications, they are massively over-engineered to the point that the expected working life can be measured in decades."

"It's not even that specific unit that's the really interesting thing," Professor Whitney added, pushing his gold-rimmed glasses up his nose as he nodded at the flywheel unit. "The power storage is impressive considering the size, but the output is, probably deliberately, fairly low." He didn't flinch when there was a bright flash and a louder **_pop!_** from next to him, although everyone else did. Professor Franklin looked pleased, inspecting the end of the small screwdriver he'd used to poke the connector which was now rather melted. Emily sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose.

"The interesting part is the scaling factor," Franklin muttered, putting both screwdriver and flywheel unit down then rummaging through the pockets of his lab coat, pulling out several test meters, one of which he connected to the device and started playing with.

"Exactly." Whitney turned away from his colleague to look at Hannah. "Bearing in mind the sheer strength of stabilized EDM, the upper working limit of the construction of this flywheel is… almost implausibly high. As kinetic energy storage in a flywheel goes up with the square of the rotational velocity, obviously this means that by running it at much higher speeds it could store huge amounts of energy. And there's no reason at all that I can see to prevent a vastly larger version being manufactured. Depending on the ratio of internal to real world space the Family fractal dimensional technique provides, it's possible that a much higher capacity one might well be no larger on the outside than this one is."

"I still don't see the real problem," Hannah said after a few seconds thought, frowning slightly. "How much energy _could_ it hold?"

Armsmaster scribbled some figures on a page of his notebook, then stared at them. He was a little pale.

"We don't know the ultimate upper size, mass, or speed of this method, but at a conservative estimate using the physical data I know about EDM and some logical extrapolation, it quickly ends up requiring comparison with measurable fractions of the output of the sun. The _entire_ output."

They all looked at each other. Except for Franklin, who was muttering to himself as he connected another meter to the rat's-nest of cables he was building.

"OK, I have to admit that's more than a little terrifying," Hannah admitted. "Although they still have to produce that energy, and get it back again, I suppose."

Emily noticed Colin was looking pensive, but he didn't say why. Whitney nodded slowly. "This is true. But the point I wish to make is that this one device has more commercial possibility than anything else we saw today, and possibly than I have ever seen in my entire career. Forget making small ones for firefighting equipment, as important and useful as that is. If they merely concentrated on making ones large enough to use as grid-tied energy stores on a city-wide scale, every city on the planet would be knocking on their door. A clean, efficient, quiet method of storing gigawatt-hours of power which is, and I have trouble believing I'm even saying this, _small enough to put in a backpack_ is the biggest game changer I have ever encountered."

"They're sure not going to be short of income," Franklin agreed absently, then swore as one of his wires went up in a cloud of smoke.

Emily glared at him, the man shrinking back, then quickly unhooking all the cables and putting them away in his pockets. "Stop that," she snapped.

"Sorry."

After a couple more seconds of glaring, she looked back to Colin. "Thank you for the explanation, both of you. I assume you will be recommending that we go ahead with ordering this equipment?"

"Subject to the satisfactory results from testing the units Lisa promised to deliver, yes, definitely," Colin replied. "It's a formality, of course, as I have no doubt it will all perform to specification, but the protocols must be observed. I recommend that we discuss having the Family supply as many flywheel units as they are willing to as soon as possible after the testing phase. The list of places we can use them is very long. And I will definitely be talking to Dragon about the requirements we would have for some customized versions with higher output."

He thought for a moment, then nodded to himself. "I suspect that she will probably be interested in entering into a commercial relationship with BBFO over a number of the things we've seen this afternoon, as she has done with Leet's tricorder and audio device."

Checking the time, Emily picked up her folder and pen, putting the latter into her pocket, then stood up. "All right. I have another meeting to get to, and some reports on Coil's latest interrogation to read. Keep me in the loop on the tests on the BBFO hardware, please. I agree that it sounds like something we need to equip ourselves with as soon as possible. When we have hard figures, bring them to me and we'll discuss an initial order."

"Director," Colin nodded politely. Emily headed for the door, Hannah going with her, after bending over and looking on the floor.

"Lost something?" Emily asked.

"I can't find my good pen," Hannah complained. Eventually she shrugged. "It'll turn up."

As they left, Emily heard a quite loud **_Pop!_** and sighed.

"I _told_ you that wouldn't work!" Whitney commented with a certain level of mildly malicious schadenfreude apparent in his voice.

"Ow." 

* * *

****  
"OK, I sat quietly in a corner and played games for an hour, despite wanting to scream by the end," Aisha complained as they reached the street and started walking away from the much-reduced number of people coming and going from the PRT building. "Let's see the payoff."

Lisa looked at her, inspecting the pen the girl was twirling through her fingers with a raised eyebrow. Aisha flushed a little and made it disappear. "All right. I agree, you were surprisingly restrained. Good job. If you can do that more often you'll make Brian a happy man, and probably your Dad too."

The girl stuck her tongue out at Lisa, who grinned.

"Very mature."

"I'm _twelve_. Learn to live with it."

"Good point." Lisa reached into her pocket and removed the collapsed form of the omnivehicle, showing it to her companion.

"That's it? Doesn't look like much," Aisha said in an unimpressed tone after inspecting the thing. She put her hands on her hips as they stopped next to the curb at a point where there were no cars. "Prove it."

"OK." Lisa twisted the grips and pulled, then pressed the activation switch as she flipped the device to the side. Aisha gaped in awe as it produced the glowing light-cycle from nowhere in moments.

"Holy _shit!_ " the girl muttered, a massive smile forming.

"I know, right?"

"That's the coolest thing I've ever seen," Aisha nearly squealed, hopping up and down with excitement. "Come on, let's try it. Quick, quick, I _need_ some _speed_."

Unzipping her pack Lisa pulled her own helmet out and donned it, then dug around to find the demo helmet from the fire suit and handed it to the other girl. "Put this on," she said. Aisha grabbed it and yanked it down over her head, nearly twitching with glee. Getting onto the projected vehicle, Lisa fiddled with the controls, then checked over her shoulder as the back of the machine altered to have a rear seat. "Hop on," she smiled. Her companion was moving before she'd finished speaking.

Once they were both in place, Lisa rolled open the throttle and pulled away, indicating as she merged with the traffic. As seemed to happen every time, quite a few people were staring and pointing, as well as taking photos. With Aisha grinning so widely Lisa was almost certain she could feel it on the back of her head, she sped up and headed for the freeway.

All in all it had been a very good afternoon, even with the unexpected appearance of Aisha. 

* * *

"This is coming along better than I thought it would," Amy remarked as she leaned into the new creation, carefully adjusting some of the neural connections. Taylor watched with interest, amused at how her friend could work on living tissue as if she was Linda with an engine in pieces. She was fairly sure that most people would have found the sight of all the glistening and gently pulsating protoplasm rather off-putting at best, but to both her and her demon it was fascinating more than anything else. "Hand me another ten feet of superconductor, please."

"Here you go."

"Thanks." The purple lizard accepted the long strand, quickly weaving it into the rest of the structure that was growing like magic inside the foam EDM skeleton. "Great, that part is done. Now, I think the power supply wants to go right _here_ , so we'll need some supports for it here and here."

"Sure." Taylor leaned in beside her friend and started making changes, the Varga in his favorite mini-dragon form sitting on her head and peering down which gave a useful second perspective. "Like that?"

"Add another… eighth of an inch, maybe? Yeah, perfect. OK, let's have the power unit and we'll hook it up and see what happens."

"How does the rest of it check out?" Taylor glanced at the temporary umbilical connection Amy had produced that ran between the chest of ' _Ianthe_ ' and a point deep inside the new construction.

"Perfect so far," the other girl reported. "Everything's working exactly as my power wants it to. It's very pleased. Lisa can probably help fine tune things, but so far so good. It won't take long to finish it off when we have more onions tomorrow."

"Good, this is going to be fun," Taylor chuckled.

"Oh, so _much_ fun," Amy smiled. A moment later both of them looked up at the knock on the door.

Taylor sniffed. "Kevin and Randall," she announced. "And some pizza."

"I could eat." Amy straightened up and also sniffed. "I could definitely eat."

"Is it safe to stop right now?"

"Sure, I'll just cap it off and it'll be fine in standby, we've finished all the really critical stuff. Go let them in. And close the door, I don't want them seeing this until it's done."

Taylor nodded, heading for the main entrance and pulling the workroom door shut as she passed through it. The Varga disappeared from her head and reappeared next to the coffee machine in the Raptaur aspect, turning it on and getting some mugs ready.

"Hi, guys," she said as she opened the door. "Come on in."

"Busy?" Kevin asked as he came inside followed by Randall, who was carrying a dozen large pizzas.

"I've been helping Amy with a new project," she replied, closing the door again.

"What is it?" Randall asked curiously, heading for the table with his load.

"A secret," Amy laughed as she slipped out of the workroom in her human form and quickly closed the door before either of the new arrivals could see inside. "Don't worry, you'll like it."

"Now I'm _really_ curious," Kevin said, staring at the shut door with a small frown. She ostentatiously locked it and grinned.

"Not ready yet. Come back tomorrow."

"Let me guess, you need more onions," Randall said in knowing tones. She winked at him, causing him to smile. "You two should just start a farm and grow the damn things. You've probably increased the total number sold in the Bay by a noticeable amount by now."

"It's easier to buy them," Amy told him, walking over to the table and beginning to investigate the pizzas. She found one she liked and picked up a slice, biting into it with relish. "So far I'm not using enough to make all that effort worth it, but we might need to work out something sooner or later. Speaking of onions, we need to talk."

"About what?"

"Potential new Family members," Taylor said, lying back in one of the chairs in her base form, her feet up and a pizza box on her lap. The Varga came back with a tray of coffee mugs, handing them around, then sat beside her, switching to the Saurial aspect in the process. He looked at Randall's expression, smirked, and was suddenly another copy of Taylor. Both identical twins looked at each other, raised their mugs, and clinked them together.

"You two are weird," Kevin snickered, also sitting down. "OK. Family members. We thought this might come up and have been working on it as well."

"Excellent," Amy said with glee. "Let me get my notebook. We need to write this down." Glancing at Taylor, she added, "I told you last time we need a form."

"We'll work on it," Taylor replied, waving a hand airily. "That's not important right now, though. So, guys, what are your opinions on tentacles?"

She turned her left arm into one and reached past Kevin for another pizza box. Then grinned toothily as he recoiled a little.

There was a long pause.

"Are you _sure_ this is a good idea, Kev?" Randall asked in a low voice, leaning close to his friend. Both of them looked at Taylor, who waved with a tentacle-tip. Amy had her hand over her eyes, and the duplicate Varga-Taylor was rolling around laughing in his chair. "We may be in a very weird place."

"Meh, how bad can it be?" Kevin asked, watching with an amused look.

"Aha," Taylor said with a broad grin, "a _challenge_..."

" ** _Gaaahhh!_** " 

* * *

****  
Leaving the PRT building through one of the secret exits that came out across the street in the city hall parking garage, Missy took the stairs at a rapid pace. When she reached ground level she went out the door next to the bus stop, looked around, then headed away from the bay towards a place she knew was nice and private with no cameras in the area.

It was once again time for Cloak to cast fear into the hearts of evil men.

And go see what the Family was doing.

Before that, though, there was a distinct possibility that some form of sweet pastry was in her future, and she needed to make a couple of other stops too.

 _ **"Cloak rides again, Brockton Bay,"**_ an eerie voice hissed from above moments later, making a couple of people on the street look around with slightly worried expressions. They didn't see anything, which didn't actually make them _less_ worried. 

* * *

"So _fucking_ cool!" Aisha sounded excited to a nearly implausible level as the glowing bike rocketed along at just over the speed limit, the girl holding onto Lisa's waist with a grip of steel. It was easy to hear her as the force-fields that made up the structure of the thing suppressed almost all of the noise that a normal motorcycle would have suffered from, and the drive system was practically silent in any case. It was no louder in the riding position than a good car was.

"It'll go right up the side of a building too," Lisa called back.

"DO IT!" Aisha screamed in her ear.

"Sorry, nowhere good to try it right now. Maybe next time." Lisa checked the rear view mirror then indicated and changed lane, taking an exit ramp towards the general area her passenger's apartment was. Once they were in a largely empty street, she pulled over. "OK, jump off for a moment, I'll show you something even cooler."

Aisha, rather reluctantly, got off the omnivehicle. Pulling her helmet off she showed she was grinning manically. "Watch this," Lisa said, hitting the correct switch. The vehicle flowed into a new configuration, ending up as a futuristic dune-buggy-like car. Aisha's eyes widened, then her grin did too.

"Oh… my… God..." she breathed. "That's amazing! How many different things can it be?"

"It's got about a dozen programmed in right now and Vectura, the Tinker who made it, says this one will hold a couple of hundred at least." Lisa patted the dash of the virtual vehicle in a proprietary manner. "I love this thing."

"So do I. Where can I get one?" The girl walked around the vehicle staring at it. "I want one _so much!_ "

"You're a little young to drive, Aisha," Lisa chuckled. "Sorry. But I don't mind giving you a ride now and then. Especially if you keep trying not to be so much of a pain in the ass to Brian."

Her companion jumped back into the vehicle, sliding into the passenger seat and looking around with glee. "I try," she said without looking at Lisa, in a sort of embarrassed way. "I don't really want to upset him _or_ Dad, but sometimes I just..." She shrugged with a sigh, her mercurial mood swinging from happy to slightly depressed again. "You know."

"Yes, I think I do," Lisa acknowledged as she pulled away again, driving more slowly on the narrower roads and heading towards the Laborn apartment. "To be honest I'm impressed how well you've behaved today. I'll let Brian know."

"Please don't tell him about that cart," Aisha requested, glancing at her, then going back to watching the scenery pass. Lisa looked sideways for a moment before nodding.

"OK. Nothing happened in the end so I don't see the point in mentioning it."

"...Thanks." Aisha seemed embarrassed but pleased.

They drove along in silence for a few minutes, until the younger girl looked up. "So why are _you_ selling Family crap to the PRT? How did you end up working for the DWU? What happened to your gang?"

"How do you even _know_ about that?" Lisa asked, looking at her for a moment.

She got a long-suffering look back. "I'm not an idiot, you know," Aisha sighed. "I've known my brother was a Parahuman for a while now. That dog girl is one too, I've seen her on TV. So it wasn't very hard to work out that you must be too, considering how you were always hanging around with Brian. And that other guy, what's his name, Alec?"

Mildly impressed, Lisa nodded after a moment. "You realize that you really _can't_ talk about that, right? I'm serious, you could get a lot of people very upset if you mention it to anyone."

"I know, I know. The ' _Rules_ ', or something. I've read about it on PHO." Aisha made finger quotes in a sarcastic manner. "Seems pretty stupid, it can't be _that_ hard to work out who Parahumans really are." She grinned at Lisa. "I worked out four of them in under two months."

Lisa shook her head. "It's _not_ hard, if you want to know the truth. At least for some of them. But if you _do_ bad things happen. I mean, really bad things. Yes, it's sort of silly, but it protects a lot of people from getting hurt, _including_ me and Brian, even if it only works because most people _want_ it to work. So, I'd suggest you don't try to work out any more people's IDs, and if you _do_ manage to by accident, _keep quiet about it._ For all our sakes."

She looked seriously at her passenger for a second or two, then went back to watching the road. "You don't want Lung coming after you because you blabbed, trust me."

Aisha stared at her, then cocked her head, thinking. "OMG," she finally breathed. "You got Lung after you guys! _That's_ what the ABB went mental about weeks ago in the docks! It was _your_ ga..."

Without looking, guided by her power, Lisa reached out her left hand and pinched Aisha's lips together. "Shh!" she hissed. " _We do not talk about things like that._ Got me?"

Aisha nodded frantically. Lisa released her and put both hands back on the wheel. "Sorry," the other girl said after a few seconds, sounding abashed.

"No problem, just don't talk about it. Like I said, bad things could happen."

Aisha didn't say anything else before they arrived near her home. Pulling over, Lisa stopped and turned to her. "I have other things to do, so this is where you get out. Please, as a favor to me, don't try to sneak into the PRT building again? It might not end like it did this time _next_ time. They're not in a good mood right now and I can guarantee they won't see the funny side."

The girl looked slightly disgruntled, but nodded. "Oh, _fine_. I'll just do boring things instead."

"Probably for the best," Lisa grinned. Aisha got out, adjusting her backpack, then stepped back.

"Thanks for the ride," she said, looking at the omnivehicle again. "I still want one."

"Of course you do, who wouldn't?" Lisa laughed. "See you around. Try not to get into trouble."

"Funny, coming from _you!_ " Aisha yelled as she pulled away, making her snicker. Glancing in the mirror she saw Brian's sister disappear down the alley next to her apartment building. Pleased that she'd prevented possible disaster from striking a relative of someone she liked, she headed for the DWU and a discussion with the others about a number of orders that were headed their way. 

* * *

****  
' _I still want to know the real reason you and Brian ended up at the DWU_ ,' Aisha thought as she watched that weird glowing car thing Lisa was driving head down the street. It was getting pretty dark now, and the machine stood out like a special effect from a movie. ' _I'll figure it out sooner or later._ '

The older girl had seemed very insistent that it was a bad idea to try to work out Parahuman IDs. Aisha could, after pondering the issue for a while, see why. She wouldn't want Kaiser or some other E88 idiot coming after her parents or brother if _she_ was a Parahuman, not that this seemed likely to happen. And that probably went double for a villain, she doubted they'd be amused if someone told the world who they were. An awful lot of them seemed to take these Rules pretty seriously, even if they weren't official. Even the PRT, from what she'd heard, was very cautious about breaking them without an extremely good reason.

She shrugged. Not really something she needed to worry about as long as she kept quiet about Brian and the others. She didn't know any other Parahumans except for Cloak and she still wasn't certain that there was actually a human in there at all. From the information she'd seen online, neither was anyone else…

' _Oh well. Guess the excitement's over_ ,' she thought as she resumed walking towards the entrance to the apartment. ' _I was hoping I'd see Brian and maybe that crazy lizard, but I'm not walking all the way to the Docks if I can avoid it. Too far and too dangerous. Next time, maybe._ '

It had been a mostly entertaining way to spend the time since school, though, even if she could have done without sitting for over an hour listening to Lisa scam the PRT into buying a lot of weird equipment. Although her phone had some nice games on.

She resolved to see about getting a better phone. Hers was cheap crap.

' _Got a nice pen out of it, though_ ,' she snickered, pulling out the implement and inspecting it under a streetlight. ' _PRT logo and everything._ '

Tucking it away once more she kept walking, then jumped with a yell of shock when something poked her in the back. She spun around even as she jumped away, stared, then grinned slowly.

 _ **"Hi. Want to go have fun?"**_

Very soon after that the street was entirely empty.


	350. Omake - WHY did you show them YouTube?

"Right. Who showed Ianthe that video on YouTube?"

Emily glared at the entire room full of people, including the whole Protectorate ENE complement and all the Wards as well, plus a number of scientists and technicians. They exchanged glances in a way that, to her, spoke volumes about guilt.

Eventually, Dennis put his hand up. "Um… I may have posted a link to a funny video?"

She fixed her glare on him and dialed it up a notch, making him fidget. Another hand going up distracted her. Professor Franklin smiled in a somewhat worried manner. "I was corresponding with the Family on some technical details of their latest product and may have, sort of accidentally, maybe… emailed Saurial a link to an interesting video? Or two?"

"Or three," Professor Whitney said under his voice from next to his colleague. "Or ten."

"Shh, don't tell _her_ that," the other man hissed, not looking away from Emily's face. Which, she could tell, was going somewhat darker in color at this point.

She damn well knew the sort of videos this lunatic thought were ' _interesting_ ' after all.

Opening her mouth to shout, she instead closed it again when Ethan put _his_ hand up. He was grinning. Of course. "I met Raptaur and Metis down town and we were talking about what sort of hobbies the Family had back home. Then I showed them some cool stuff on my phone."

"Of _course_ you did," she gritted. "Have we learned _nothing_ from experience? I take it everyone remembers the giant flying turnip incident?"

Quite a few people winced, including Colin and Hannah. Ethan snickered. "Oh, yes, that was absolutely _epic._ "

"I'm glad _you_ think so," she snarled. "Chief Director Costa-Brown was less enthusiastic about it."

The irritating man merely shrugged. "She needs to lighten up."

Emily stared at him for several seconds, then looked around the room some more. "Anyone else feel like sharing with us?"

A number of other hands went up, one by one, and she sighed, pinching the bridge of her nose. "Oh, god. Why me..." Eventually, she decided the only way to keep track was to play the videos on the big screen and take notes.

That way she would know _precisely_ how much blame to assign. And to whom.

There was certainly enough to go around. 

* * *

****  
"All right. That explains the reports of giant crabs armed with short swords who have been terrifying the E88 for the last two days," Emily groaned, writing a few more things in her notebook. "They've literally, actually, complained about it." Dennis looked annoyingly pleased with himself, until she shot him a filthy look. "Although so far no one has taken credit for the chainsaw-wielding coyote. Or the outsize road-runner with the anti-tank gun who was chasing it all through the boardwalk last night."

"I think they may have come up with that themselves," Dean suggested with a faint smile on his face. "Although I did read something on PHO about Über and Leet thinking about doing a cartoon-themed event. Maybe that was something to do with it?"

"I neither know nor care," she grumbled. "As long as it doesn't happen again."

"The coyote _was_ seen buying bird-seed in fifty pound bags this morning down at the farm supply..." one of the PRT troopers began, only to snap his mouth shut and come to attention when she _looked_ at him.

"Moving on," she said, not looking away until she judged he was sufficiently pale. "I can reasonably assume that the massive blast in the middle of the bay three days ago was down to one of your videos, Franklin. It has your name all over it. Literally."

"I have no idea how they managed to get five tons of sodium to go off like that in such a complex pattern," the scientist smiled happily, "but it was amazingly impressive. I suggested that mixing it with potassium might..." Again, she glared. Again, someone swallowed their next words.

" _You will not suggest anything explosive to the Family,_ " she said in a low, steady voice that still made several people shiver. "We do _not_ need another example of how large a bang one can produce with enough thermite and ice. Once was enough. The Coast Guard was complaining for over a week, both about the unexpected iceberg, and the very sudden _removal_ of said iceberg. Apparently they were rather closer than they liked to what Commander Niles vividly described as ' _A doorway into hell_ ' in his report."

"It _was_ pretty impressive," Franklin smiled, looking pleased.

"He underlined it. Twice. With four exclamation points. The man is _not_ happy, and oddly enough, while he said he was sure it was down to the Family, your name also came up." She stared at him. "Apparently he remembers the attempted tsunami generator with less fondness than might be desired."

"I _told_ you that we should have used less explosives," Professor Whitney said quietly.

"Less?" Franklin looked surprised. "I thought you said more."

"You're an idiot."

"You smell funny."

"Gentlemen?" Both of them looked at her. "Be quiet."

Satisfied that she'd briefly restored order, she looked down at her notes, then at the video that was currently playing. "OK. Now, which one of you geniuses talked about sentient noodles? Only this particular incident is going to go down in the record boo..."

There was a commotion at the door, causing everyone to look over. Corporal Savage from operations was hurrying in with a clipboard in hand. He dashed over and handed it to her. Reading the report on it, she sighed heavily, rubbing her forehead. ' _I need another holiday_ ,' she thought. A little further down, she read a particular word, which caused her to stop, then re-read the report. Smiling a little viciously, she handed it back. "Owls armed with tasers are definitely a little weird, but as long as they're only targeting mimes we can let it slide for now. Monitor the situation and let me know if it changes."

"Ma'am," he said, saluting, then left again.

"OK, where were we?" A check of her notes let her gather her thoughts. "Ah." Looking up, she examined the group. "Forget the noodles. Who mentioned sharks and lasers in the same sentence? We're getting complaints from the fishing industry, apparently they keep finding nets that have had holes melted in them. Underwater, which is a good trick."

Carlos looked around shiftily, then slumped in his seat.

"I see. We're going to have to have a little talk, I think," Emily muttered, shaking her head. "Before that, though, I would like some _sensible_ suggestions concerning what to do about the large octopus that keeps stealing sushi from the various restaurants on the boardwalk while wearing a mask and shouting about the violence inherent in the system. It's beginning to even annoy the tourists..."

"We could oppress it?" Dennis immediately said in helpful tones.

She looked at him, then her notes, before leaning back in her chair and putting her hands over her eyes. Pressing hard, she tried pretending that she'd never heard of either Brockton Bay _or_ the Family.

It didn't seem to help.


	351. Brother and Sister

"OK, a naga is cool, I admit, but it's not very practical for most purposes," Kevin said somewhat doubtfully, watching Taylor slither around the room. He reflected on how she could make some of the movies he'd seen in recent years terrifyingly realistic if she wanted to. And decided, yet again, that they absolutely _had_ to come up with a good prank leveraging her and Amy's abilities to mock the natural order of things.

The currently half-snake version of the teenager shrugged, coiling up next to the table. "Yep, you're probably right to be honest. But I still want to come up with a good reason to use it one day."

"When you finally meet Sophia again you could probably traumatize her for life with that," Amy said with a dark smirk. Taylor looked thoughtfully at her then grinned in a manner that made Kevin's blood run cold. The girls had informed both him and Randall just after the former Ward had disappeared exactly what had happened, both filling in the details they didn't know from her Winslow days, and the aftermath of the anti-Coil operation last weekend. If he was honest what he'd heard didn't particularly surprise him. There had been rumors about a lot of pretty unpleasant things connected with Shadow Stalker over the last couple of years.

She wasn't a nice person at all.

The only part of it that _did_ surprise him was that Armsmaster's tech had failed enough to let her get away. He wouldn't have expected it, the Tinker hero was very competent. But then, anyone could have a bad day, and by the sound of it fucking Calvert had booby-trapped so many different PRT systems it was a miracle that nothing more serious had happened.

"It's a thought," Taylor remarked after a few more seconds of grinning to herself in a manner he suspected would have made the missing girl keep running indefinitely if she'd seen it. Then she shook her head, becoming much less worrying as the smile turned less predatory. "Probably not a good one, though. Anyway, we have no idea when or even if she'll come back."

 **"She'll come back sooner or later, Brain,"** the Varga said, sounding sure of himself. He was, yet again, in the tiny dragon form, draped around Taylor's shoulders. The demon seemed to really enjoy that form, having told Kevin when he'd asked that it was a very interesting contrast to being so much larger than almost everything normally. **"That type is hard to dissuade from anything without physically stopping them. But we can usefully do little until she reappears except take sensible precautions, which we've mostly done."**

"That's a good point, actually," Amy said, turning to look at both men in an evaluating manner. "You guys need the latest upgrades. Linda too, although she's not so critical since she's already got a lot of them. And is probably less of a potential target since Sophia probably doesn't even know she exists yet."

"Upgrades?" Randall asked curiously. "New toys?"

"And some extra protection, what I hope is a counter to Shadow Stalker's power, things like that." Amy held up a hand and put thumb and forefinger an inch apart. Both of them flinched in shock as a thick electrical arc jumped between the digits with a vicious crackle. "A few other useful talents too."

"Fuck," Randall breathed. "You gave yourself Metis's electrical power too?"

"I did indeed. It was Lisa's request. I added a subcutaneous energized layer to break her power if she tried firing one of those crossbow bolts into us. That was mostly for Danny since he's a priority target. I'm less of one, and Lisa even less, but why not just do everyone to the same level? Lisa asked for the ability to discharge it through the hands which was easy enough to arrange." Amy smiled. "I'm pretty pleased with the end result. It makes you a lot stronger and tougher than the last upgrade."

"I'm in," Kevin said when she finished explaining. "I've learned to trust your fucked up powers."

"Thanks very much," she snickered, making him wave grandly with the hand not holding the last slice of pizza from the box he'd worked his way through.

"Think nothing of it my dear."

"OK." She smiled as he snickered.

Randall shook his head with amusement and dug out some of the remaining garlic bread, leaning back and grazing on it. "So what do we do? Back on the table with Igor helping?"

"No, for this I need to stuff you into Metis or Ianthe, that's the easiest method, and the mod package is already set up in them." Amy studied him, then Kevin. "Kevin is easy enough, he's smaller than Danny and he went in reasonably well, but you're going to be a challenge."

"Might be time to try that idea you had earlier," Taylor put in. Amy looked at her, then back to Randall.

"Yes, you're right. Wonderful! Another experimental subject." She cackled a little, rubbing her hands together. "I love it when I get one of those."

Randall stared at her a little uneasily. "Your insanity is showing, Amy," he said slowly, looking like he wanted to back away.

Kevin slapped him on the shoulder then stole his garlic bread. "You'll survive. Probably."

"Oh, I guarantee it," Amy grinned, showing teeth.

"For some weird reason that doesn't make it any better," his friend mumbled.

"Lisa's back," Taylor announced, looking towards the door. Moments later the rest of them could hear the distinctive albeit faint sound of one of Linda's virtual vehicles, something Kevin was seriously impressed with. They'd had a lot of fun building a couple of them the previous night, and even more fun playing with them in the yard. They were nearly as good as her mech and probably more practical for day to day use.

The blonde came in seconds later, locking the door again and joining them at the table. Randall pushed one of the pizzas they'd saved for her across to where she sat down, causing her to nod her thanks then open the box.

"How did it go?" Taylor asked.

"Very well indeed," Lisa smiled, pulling out a slice of still barely warm pizza and trying it. She made a face and got up, taking the box over to the microwave and digging a plate out of the cupboard underneath it. When half a dozen slices were heating up again, she turned to them all. "The city is _very_ interested in all the law enforcement and fire fighting stuff we came up with. I promised them some evaluation systems for next week sometime. Assuming they're happy with the results, and let's face it, they will be, they're definitely going to want to purchase quite a lot of it."

"Great. That's easy enough, we'll make a load more over the weekend. You ordered the rest of the electronic parts we need, right?" Taylor replied.

Lisa nodded. "Yes, in the same order for the stuff Linda wanted. We've got enough stock on order to make dozens of omnivehicles and probably a hundred of the flywheel packs, which should do for now."

 **"By the time we use those up, we'll most likely have a good grasp on manufacturing them ourselves,"** the Varga commented. **"We're already self sufficient in the analog control electronics for the mechs. The power systems for the flywheels are simpler but much more heavy duty. They won't pose an issue shortly."**

"It's the computing hardware that's a pain to make," Taylor added. "We'll get there in the end but it's _really_ complicated."

"I'm amazed you can even make the power control gear," Kevin said with respect. "It's pretty impressive. And damned useful." She smiled at him, pleased.

"What about the PRT?" Amy asked.

"That went well too. I went to the new Ward press conference where they introduced Prospect first. It was the usual sort of thing, very managed, but the reporters seemed happy. Prospect made a good impression too, she acted a lot older than she is and they liked it."

"She's a precog of some sort, right?" Randall asked curiously. The three girls exchanged a glance, making Kevin sure they knew a lot more about the new Ward than they were saying, which he could respect even though he was curious.

"Yep," Taylor confirmed. "A pretty powerful one too."

"Anyway, after that I met with Armsmaster, Director Piggot, Miss Militia, and a couple of scientists from the PRT research department. They seemed impressed. The flywheel unit was the thing that Armsmaster and the two scientists fixated on as soon as I told them what it was."

"That's what we expected," Randall nodded. "It's the really important part of the system. I wouldn't be surprised if Armsmaster was already designing new hardware around it, and typing up an order for a crapload of them."

"Well, he did ask me to leave it with him to test, so you're probably right," Lisa smiled.

"I couldn't see any reason not to," Taylor confirmed. "I like him, and I trust him. And it's not like I can't make as many as we want. All he can do with it is test it, charge it up, or run it down, too. There's no problem with him keeping it."

"He smelled completely shocked for a moment, then _really_ interested when he realized I was serious," Lisa chuckled. "I don't think either Director Piggot or Miss Militia knew why. The two scientists did, though, their eyes went very round when I gave them the specifications."

"Sounds like it was worth the effort," Taylor remarked. "And it's got some useful equipment out there, things that will help a lot, and slowly get people used to Family technology."

"Yeah." Lisa carried her now-hot pizza back and dropped into a chair, hungrily eating a slice. "And I can practically guarantee that the city is going to work out that they can order some really big flywheel storage systems and upgrade the grid sooner rather than later. I _can_ guarantee that Armsmaster thought of that on the spot."

"We'll have to come up with a good pricing structure for all this stuff," Amy put in. "It's pretty much entirely profit, so we can sell it a lot cheaper than anyone else could, but if it's too cheap people probably won't take it seriously."

"That's definitely a thing." Kevin shook his head a little. "Value-based pricing, I think it's called."

"Something like that," Lisa confirmed. "Anyway, there's no real hurry, that can wait for now. We'll have our hands full, or rather, those two will have their hands full, just filling the orders we're going to get for Tac-Smaks and other things."

Taylor grinned. "We'll spend a few hours every other day or so making stock," she said. "It won't take too long to make it all. We've finished the design for the body armor, I think, although I want you to check it over and see if we missed anything. The helmets are easy, and the inserts, batons, and that sort of thing are trivial. We can make a room full of it all in a week or so without any effort at all."

"Good, we want to establish a reputation for reliability more than anything else." Lisa looked very satisfied.

"Anything else interesting happen?"

Lisa glanced at Amy, then smirked. "You might say that. Guess who I found trying to infiltrate the PRT building? More successfully than should have been possible, too."

"Brian's sister Aisha," Taylor and the Varga chorused. "We can smell her on you," Taylor added, grinning a little.

Lisa rolled her eyes. "Of course you can. The question is why do you think she was there?"

Everyone leaned forward curiously.

Taylor looked puzzled, then looked at Amy, who shrugged. "Why?"

"Bored and wanted to see the new Ward, she said." Lisa related the whole story, which had them all laughing by the end. "That girl is a handful," she finished up. "She'd probably fit right in around here. Although Brian wouldn't be pleased at all, I suspect."

"You should have brought her back with you," Kevin grinned. "She sounds like nearly as much fun as Vista."

"Oh, the best bit? She knows Cloak. As far as I can work out she bumped into our animated clothing friend when she was taking down a mugger and they got to talking." Lisa looked amused. "I have a feeling that there was a lot of running around a few hundred feet up involved."

"This is starting to get ridiculous," Kevin said, shaking his head. "We're going to need a manual to keep track of who knows what about who at this rate."

"It's easy, look," Taylor said, jumping to her feet and materializing a glass board and a pen. She started writing rapidly. "Amy knows everything. So does Lisa. Obviously Varga does too. We go up here at the top. Now, you guys and Dad are here, you know everything as well except for a couple of minor details about other Parahumans that are covered by the rules." She drew some boxes and connected them with lines, writing names in them. Everyone else exchanged glances while she kept working.

"Linda knows about you and Randall, as far as the non-Family things go, and you know all about her, except for some personal things. All of us here know about Cloak, and Vista knows some of the Family tricks like the cloaking technique. Gallant knows about me, sort of, but not about Amy, which is confusing the poor guy. Vicky doesn't know any of this, but knows Taylor and Saurial are old friends, as are the Heberts in general and the rest of the Family. So do Lucy, Mandy, Rich, Eric… Well, most people at school probably. Zephron knows about Linda, and Kadir most likely does too." She filled in some more boxes, studying the result. "Oh, yeah, Mark probably knows that as well. Then we have Rachel over here, along with Brian and Alec, they don't know anything as far as I know, but _everyone_ knows about _them_."

Running out of room, she moved sideways and kept going. "Now over here, the Protectorate and the PRT knows about the Family and the DWU, they know that you two are here now as well, and Linda too, not to mention the Undersiders, but they don't know the truth about Cloak. Nor do they know about the cloaking technique, aside from Umihebi being very sneaky. They probably suspect by now that the rest of us can do it too but they don't have proof. None of them have a clue about me teleporting either. They also know that we confuse the hell out of Thinkers in general, of course. Legend knows some more things I don't think he's told the rest of them, and I'm pretty sure suspected things about the Family that he didn't tell Alexandria or Eidolon at the time. We know some things about Dragon, and she knows some stuff about Kevin's inventions that she may or may not have told Armsmaster, and I'm pretty sure has also worked out some things about the Family."

She was now making smaller and smaller boxes at the bottom, connecting them all with differently colored lines. "Roy knew about Kaiju for a while, and I wouldn't be surprised if he at least suspects some closer connection to the Heberts than he's been told. He's a very smart guy. Everyone knows about Sophia now too, and I'm sure he does as well. We know about Calvert, as does the PRT and Roy. The DWU also knows. The PRT knows about Umihebi and so does Erwin and a friend of his." Randall raised a finger but she ignored him, causing him to drop it again and sigh. "Down here, the Simurgh probably knows about all of this, or most of it, and we know about her posting to PHO. And finally, PHO, like any internet forum, doesn't know anything about anything but guesses a _lot_."

She stepped back, spinning the marker in her fingers, and proudly examined her work. Lisa sighed, massaging her forehead, while Amy and the Varga were leaning on each other laughing. "Easy, see?"

"One question?" Randall asked politely.

"Yes?"

"Who the hell is Erwin?"

"Oh, he's cool. Old fisherman guy I met as Kaiju right back at the beginning. He goes to Pat's pub."

Randall sighed faintly. "Who's Pat?"

"Irish guy, runs the ' _Captain's Table_ ' over down by the fishing docks?" Taylor cocked her head, peering at Randall, who was looking confused. "I'll introduce you sometime. He's nice too. Lung likes him, I think."

She turned back to the board and made another note. " _Right_ , Lung knows about Kaiju, and the Undersiders, and a little about the Family. Nearly forgot that."

Folding his arms on the table, Randall rested his head on them and groaned. "Oh, god. You _are_ nuts." Kevin stared at the board with his head on one side, following some of the lines with a finger and feeling bewildered. Randall raised his head and gazed at her. "Anything else?"

She looked at the board, then shook her head. "Nope, I think that about covers it for now."

"I'm glad you can keep track of it all and I'm even more glad that I don't have to," Kevin finally said. "You have a very complicated life."

Taylor dropped into a chair and put her feet up, smiling. "It does seem to have gained a certain level of complexity recently, I have to admit."

"Your gift for understatement is still very obvious," Randall mumbled. She grinned at him.

"OK, with food out of the way, where were we?"

 **"Designing new Family members,"** the Varga said. **"And Amy was going to do something odd to Kevin and Randall."**

"How far did you get with the design stage?" Lisa asked curiously. Randall handed her a pad on which they'd written down quite a few ideas. She flipped through it, nodding to herself. "Huh. Not bad. There are quite a few good ones here."

"The problem is we can't really decide yet," Kevin said. "There are all sorts of possibilities, and of course we need to make sure that we don't make it obvious that these new Family visitors are in any way connected with a couple of guys who may or may not have recently joined the DWU."

"We need to be careful about that," Amy agreed readily. "I think we should probably introduce them one at a time for a start, and do something similar to ' _Operation: Ianthe Confuses The Issue_ ' with them. That's easy enough to do after all. If we make sure that new relative A and new relative B are seen at the same time as both Über and Leet, _and_ Kevin and Randall, in various combinations..." She shrugged slightly. "It sure worked for Ianthe and me. And as far as I know nobody has associated Metis and Lisa either."

"Sounds good," Lisa nodded, flipping back to the first page and handing the pad back. "Are we going to have new sisters or new brothers?" She grinned as Kevin glanced at his friend, feeling a little uncomfortable.

"I… would prefer not to be a Family girl," he said cautiously. Then he raised his hands as the three females, and the Varga, all looked at him. "Nothing against girls, most of the ones I know can kick anyone's ass without breaking a sweat. But I don't see myself as female."

Taylor started giggling, making him smile back. "You really looked worried for a moment there," she commented.

"I have reason to be worried. Between you, _him_ …," the Varga smirked at him, "Lisa, and Amy, you four can wipe the floor with anyone I can think of. I don't want to upset any of you." He looked around at them, adding, "Not just from self-preservation. You're friends, and I don't have enough of those to want to annoy the ones I _do_ have."

"Fair enough, Kevin," Amy said, "but don't worry, you're not upsetting any of us. I don't mind one way or the other, although another female Family member would certainly divert suspicion. Even though, technically, the constructs are genderless anyway." She paused, then asked, "But do we make them brothers of Taylor's side of the Family, brothers of _our_ side of the Family, or an entirely new branch?"

They all looked at each other, thinking. Eventually Randall said, sounding thoughtful, "It's probably best not to make them Taylor's side, I think. She has abilities you can't duplicate due to Varga bullshit, and sooner or later someone would notice."

 **"That is a valid point,"** the demon nodded. **"I have been thinking about it and I suspect that with time I probably can teach some of the magic I know to others, but I am very unsure if I could pass on the matter creation abilities. It's highly unlikely, in fact, it relies on my own nature, and Taylor's now, so I doubt it's possible. Other aspects of magic, on the other hand..."** He shrugged, from his current position sitting on Taylor's left shoulder.

 **"I believe it's something that could work. Certainly there are purely human magical methods I have learned over the years that should be usable, although I will have to translate them into a form that will work in this universe. Demon magic works anywhere, it's a very… call it low level form of magic. Many human forms are far more tightly tied to specific worlds, since they often draw on energies that are unique to their origin due to the way human magic-users simply don't have access to the amount of power something like myself can bring to bear."**

"That would be seriously cool," Kevin said after an awe-struck moment of consideration. "Put me down for lessons when you work out how."

 **"Gladly, although I warn you it won't be soon, and will be a lot of work in any case,"** the Varga nodded.

"So it's not something that will make much difference in the short term," Lisa noted. "As a result we can probably ignore it for this current discussion. Although put me down as well, I would _love_ to learn to do some of the things you guys can."

 **"When I work out the details, I expect I will be teaching the entire Family,"** he replied with a chuckle. **"But you're right, it is only of academic importance at this point."**

"I think they should probably be cousins," Amy put in, having been deep in thought. "Brothers of Ianthe and Metis, or even cousins of theirs too. That side of the family anyway. It encompasses the right sort of talents that mean Randall will fit right in, and I expect Kevin will as well. Especially once they have the other abilities too. Kevin's Tinker power is almost the least important part. He's a good mechanic and knows a lot about engineering things even with that left out of it, so if he sticks mainly to that side of things, it probably won't be obvious he even _is_ a Tinker. Randall can learn anything we need him to, which I have some ideas about as well. It could come in handy..."

She went quiet, looking even more thoughtful, as they exchanged glances. Eventually, she added very softly with a slight laugh, "Oh, yes. Very handy _indeed_."

Everyone watched her think, until Lisa cleared her throat. " _Anyway_ … Amy's disturbing giggle aside, we'll need to pick a final form, come up with names, and work out some minor backstory details. I assume that the new guys will have all the standard abilities of our side of the Family? Healing and that sort of thing?"

Amy came back from wherever she'd been, blinking a couple of times, then nodded. "Oh, sure, that's easy. I've got enough information now from both Ianthe and Metis that I can upgrade the healing ability quite a bit. Your power is a remarkably good fit to it anyway, it didn't take long to adapt, and I expect Randall's will probably be even more effective. Learning new things practically instantly is his thing, after all. Kevin will likely need more practice but I doubt it will be too hard. And we have the one-shots as well, of course."

"We're certainly adding a lot of healers to the city," Kevin laughed.

"Which is good," Taylor said firmly. "There are too many people who can destroy things and hurt people running around already, it's about time we tilted the balance a little back towards fixing things and helping."

"Oh, I don't disagree," he smiled. "Believe me, I don't. And I doubt anyone else will either."

"Unless they don't like reptiles," Lisa added.

Taylor looked horrified. "Don't… like reptiles?" she echoed in a faint voice. "What… Why would you _say_ that?" She put the back of her hand on her brow and dramatically swooned, collapsing into the mass of coils her current form was supporting her upper torso on. "Someone who didn't like reptiles… The mere thought… Oh, hold me, Varga!"

The demon-run aspect took on the form of Saurial and gently held her shoulders, massaging them. **"There, There, Brain. She didn't mean it."** He gave Lisa a hard look, then went back to consoling his host.

Lisa watched them with a raised eyebrow, then shook her head. "Six out of ten at best. Far too overdone."

Straightening up Taylor's demeanor changed entirely, the girl grinning at them. "I'll do better next time," she snickered.

Amy, Kevin, and Randall were all laughing at the silliness. When they ran down, Amy turned to the two men. "OK. Taylor's bad acting aside, let's start with upgrading you guys. That's going to take a while to do and it's a prerequisite for everything else. It'll take a couple of days at least to build your constructs and we need more resources anyway, so you can think about what you want them to look like and get back to me. There's no huge hurry after all. And we need to teach both of you Famtalk as well, of course."

"Fine by me," Randall nodded. "So what do we do?"

"Well, like I was saying before Lisa came back, Kevin is going to be the easiest one." She looked at the Tinker in an evaluating manner for a few seconds, then nodded slowly. "Yeah, he'll fit inside Ianthe OK. I'll have to make some changes to Metis with Taylor's help before we can do you, though. I'm beginning to think we need to build a dedicated upgrade unit for doing this, it'll make life easier and we can use it on people who aren't in on the secret." She stared into the air for a moment, then looked back at him. "I'll have to give that some thought. Yet another idea for the list."

"This list of yours must be quite the thing," Kevin chuckled.

"Oh, it's terrifying in its implications," she agreed with a smirk. "Igor!"

"Yeth, Mithtress?" Taylor replied unctuously, snapping to attention.

"Make me… a screen!"

"A screen, Mithtress?"

"You know, something to let our friend here disrobe in privacy." Amy waved at Kevin.

"Ah! Igor underthandth, Mithtress! At oneth, Mithtress!" The girl slithered off to the middle of the room while the rest of them laughed at the dialog. Shortly there was a free-standing cubicle there, with curtains that could be moved aside.

"Right, Kevin, you get in there and strip to your underwear. I'll get Ianthe." Amy rubbed her hands together with a look of anticipation, then hopped off her chair and headed for her workroom.

Kevin looked at Randall. His friend reached out and grasped his shoulder. "It was nice knowing you, dude. Die well."

"Oh, thanks," Kevin sighed. But even so, he got up and headed for the screen, Taylor bowing obsequiously to him as he passed. "Stop that."

"As the Mathter commandth," she lisped, smirking, then turned into a small dragon and flapped over to land on her other aspect's Saurial head. He watched, shook his head in amused wonder, and went through the curtain, pulling his shirt over his head.

"Completely barking mad," he muttered, although he was more than a little envious even so.

Shortly afterwards, Amy guided the Ianthe construct through the curtain to join him. It peered at him with what he could almost swear was interest, then looked at its creator. He swallowed, wondering what the next part would feel like.

Amy grinned at him.

He swallowed again, harder. That grin… 

* * *

"There's one," Aisha whispered, pointing downwards. Missy peered in that direction, then smirked inside her cloak. Her friend was right, that guy was definitely up to no good.

The skinny man was sneaking, there was no better word for it, down an alley towards a side street with a number of bars on it. A fair number of people were wandering around, going in and out of the various establishments, even though it was very early in the evening yet. As they watched from a couple of hundred feet directly overhead, unseen due both to the now-dark skies and Missy warping the light around them, their target crouched behind a dumpster and peered around it at a couple who were heading for the nearest bar, chatting and laughing. The woman was rummaging through her purse for something and they could easily see his attention was fixed on it.

"He's going to grab it," Aisha added. "Get ready."

 _ **"I'm ready, don't worry,"**_ Missy hissed, still grinning to herself. This was fun. Having a spotter and working from above made trapping criminals much easier than it probably should have been. She still had to wait for them to actually commit, or try to commit, a crime of course, since intervening _before_ they did something was wrong, but that didn't normally take very long. Not in Brockton Bay, even these days.

There were a _lot_ of petty crooks.

"Any second now… wait for it… There he goes!" Aisha hopped up and down with excitement, pointing at the man who had pulled out a switchblade, snapped it open, and charged out at the couple as they came close enough. His knife was outstretched ready to slice the strap when he suddenly found himself running directly _back_ into the alley he'd just emerged from.

Before he could stop he smashed pretty hard into the dumpster he'd been using as cover, then slid down to a crumpled heap next to it, the knife dropping from his hand. Both his intended victims, who'd frozen in shock when he'd jumped out at them, exchanged a glance.

Missy had used a small spatial warp to bring the sounds from down there up to them, so they could clearly hear both the would-be snatch and grab man moan in shocked pain, and the couple starting to snicker. "Why did he do that, Ryan?" the woman, who was about mid twenties, asked.

"I'm more interested in _how_ he did that," Ryan replied with a smirk. He peered around, even looking up, but not seeing either of the two girls watching and trying not to howl with laughter. "Bet it's a cape."

"Which one?"

The mugger climbed to his feet, looked around for his knife, picked it up, and turned back to his intended victims. He staggered three steps then found he was half way back down the alley, still facing them.

"Cloak. It's got to be Cloak," Ryan stated with a knowing nod. "I've seen this on line. She's around somewhere."

"What's going on?" the mugger wailed, turning to run away, then discovering to his horror that he couldn't go more than five feet in any direction without ending up going the other way instead. After a couple of cycles of this he threw his knife away and collapsed to his knees, looking distraught.

"I'm almost sorry for him now," Ryan's female friend said.

"I'm not, he had a knife and tried to attack us," the man muttered. He looked around again. "Thanks, wherever you are."

 _ **"You're welcome, citizen,"**_ Missy said in his ear, which made him yelp and jump. She was having trouble speaking without giggling. Aisha was rolling around on the invisible surface underfoot heaving with laughter at the sight of the mugger feeling around to see if he could figure out how to escape. It wasn't doing much good.

"Er… OK. We'll be going, then..." Ryan looked a little unnerved himself now, although still grateful. Both of them hurried off, looking back at the trapped criminal for a moment before they disappeared into the bar.

"That never gets old," Aisha chortled. "Six in a row. Let's do a dozen then go see Saurial."

 _ **"OK, but we should get some more doughnuts on the way,"**_ Missy agreed happily. She looked down at her current captive, frowning slightly. He was pretty pathetic now, and she was beginning to feel sorry for him. On the other hand he _had_ just attempted armed robbery. Eventually she sighed and called the BBPD to come pick him up, giving a quick precis of what had happened to the dispatcher. Once the woman on the other end of the line was satisfied, she tucked her phone away in her hood again, then hauled a still snickering Aisha to her feet.

A thought opened a sound-carrying channel to the distraught man. _**"Just stay there, the cops are on the way. Please don't commit any more crimes, someone could get hurt."**_

He looked frantically around, then slumped. They could hear a siren approaching and looked to see a BBPD car heading towards the alley. "Think this really does any good?" Aisha asked as they began invisibly skating through the sky, Missy forming walls as well as a floor so her friend didn't risk falling. Aisha trusted her so much now she didn't even question the whole thing, merely followed the other girl. "He'll be back on the street pretty quick, I know that much."

 _ **"Probably, there are too many people like him to stop them all, but we have to try, I think,"**_ Missy sighed, the sound coming out as a faint hiss like steam escaping a kettle. _**"He wasn't very good anyway. Maybe he'll try to find something better to do to get money."**_

"Not always easy even if you want to," Aisha pointed out with a sigh of her own. "My dad told me that. Sometimes people end up doing things they don't want to do because there's nothing else for them."

 _ **"I know,"**_ Missy nodded. _**"But I can't stand by and watch someone rob another person at knife-point. If this plan of the Mayor's works, maybe people like him will be able to get a job."**_ She shrugged. _ **"With the Family and the DWU helping him, it'll probably work out."**_

"I sure hope so," Aisha replied. "They've made a big difference already. Hey, there's another one, that guy is stealing that car."

Missy paused, looking down. There was a very shiny new SUV parked on a driveway next to a small apartment building, the thief bent over the lock on the driver's door and fiddling with it using some small tool. He was out of sight from the road, but clearly visible from above. _ **"BOO!"**_ she loudly projected right into his ear. The young man shrieked in horror, jumping back and spinning around with his fists raised and dropping the tool in the process. It rolled under the car and vanished.

"What the fuck!" he screamed. "Who said that?"

 _ **"I did."**_ She lowered her voice and added menace to it. _**"Run away before I get mad, human criminal."**_

"Cloak?" he muttered in shock.

 _ **"That's me,"**_ she said in his other ear, apparently from mere inches away. He violently jerked sideways and spun the other way, not seeing anyone.

"Fuck _this_ ," the guy said, sounding terrified, and began rapidly walking away.

 _ **"Faster,"**_ she urged, projecting from behind him. He broke into a run, quickly disappearing down the street. A number of pedestrians were watching with peculiar expressions since none of them could hear her side of the conversation as it was far too focused. From their point of view he'd abruptly jumped up from behind the car, acted like a lunatic, then run for it.

Aisha was hanging over the invisible barrier and laughing, watching the process. "That was way too easy. But impressive, all you did was scare him and he ran like Saurial was after him."

 _ **"Sometimes that's all it takes,"**_ Missy laughed. _ **"Not everyone needs me to get serious at them."**_ She looked around, then pointed. _**"Let's go towards the mall, there are often a lot of muggers and that sort hanging around there."**_

"OK," Aisha agreed equitably, following as her friend resumed traveling. "Thanks for turning up, by the way. I had a weird day and this is a lot more fun than homework."

 _ **"No problem,"**_ Missy smiled. _ **"It's nice to have company."**_

They glanced at each other, even though Aisha couldn't see Missy's face. Then the other girl pointed down at an angle. "There are a lot of them around tonight. Look."

 _ **"You're good at this,"**_ Missy noted admiringly. They studied the two guys with handguns ready who were walking meaningfully towards a convenience store, while discussing which way of stopping them would be effective, safe, and funny.

On the whole, the two girls were having a good evening, even if most of the people they encountered were _not..._

* * *

Dragon finished scanning the small device on Colin's workbench, then closed the tricorder having saved the results. "Fascinating," she said.

Her friend nodded soberly. "The implications are extraordinary as well," he replied, looking at the monitor which was displaying the results of the ongoing tests he was running on it. The flywheel unit he'd received from the DWU girl was connected with heavy cables to a series of power supplies and programmable loads, which were alternately pulling power from it, then putting it back. "As I expected, it performs exactly as described. I have little doubt it will continue to do so essentially indefinitely. It would be very interesting to examine the power control electronics, as it's entirely possible that they could be optimized further, but since it's a sealed unit we can't get at them."

"We should talk to Saurial and her sister about that," Dragon agreed. "I can immediately see some extremely interesting uses for this sort of power storage device merely in my own equipment, but I would need higher output. As would you. And it would be worth finding out whether they could be made physically smaller as far as the real-world dimensions go. I'm sure the internal dimensions can be increased significantly as so far there doesn't seem to be an upper limit for the Family fractal dimensional techniques."

"My suspicion is that there effectively isn't one," he noted absently, flipping through a series of graphs. "It's probably mostly the complexity of the mathematics involved and the amount of effort they wish to put into it more than any limitation of the ability itself that sets the size and ratio between internal and external volumes." She watched as he ran some more calculations, then leaned back, nodding in satisfaction. "Excellent. The input to output efficiency is remarkably high already. I believe that can probably be improved, but even as is, it will revolutionize power storage systems. The energy density even of this model far exceeds anything other than some Tinker power systems. Assuming larger ones can be made, which I have no doubt at all is the case, they could indeed run an entire city from one. Professor Whitney was correct."

"He generally is," she replied with a smile in her voice. "He's a strange man but a very smart one. Even his colleague Professor Franklin is as well, although his obsession with explosions is somewhat disturbing."

Colin unconsciously felt his beard, making her humor subroutine produce a grin-equivalent. She knew why. "Indeed," he said darkly. "Unfortunately this is true."

Suppressing laughter, she patted him on the shoulder comfortingly. "It grew back perfectly, Colin. Don't worry."

Looking back at the flywheel unit, she added, "I assume that you have also worked out some of the other interesting things about these devices?"

"If you mean how they can almost certainly create such a flywheel with as much rotational energy already present as they wish, yes," he responded, following her gaze. "Saurial's experiments in flight with the water rocket proved that she can manipulate other aspects of matter than its mere creation from apparently nothing. It's logical to assume that they have control over any properties of matter they desire, which also, of course, means the same thing about energy as well. I suspect that they have been deliberately downplaying quite how… broken… that ability is. Even though the presence of stable EDM showed much of this very early on."

"It's more than a little terrifying when you consider the implications of what they could do if they really wanted to," she said quietly. "I think you're right. And I think we have only seen a small fraction of what the Family is truly capable of. I'm more glad than I can say that they're friendly and very hard to upset."

"As am I." He nodded at her words. "I must hasten to say, though, that I think it unlikely in the extreme that they would present a threat to us. I consider them friends and allies, and I believe they reciprocate."

Dragon chuckled. "I'm sure they do," she said. "Raptaur definitely likes you, I could tell when we were working on Athena. She's got a lot of respect for your abilities."

"You think so?" he asked, sounding pleased.

"I do." Amused at his faint smile, she looked at the flywheel unit again. "I need to visit them very soon anyway, probably over the weekend, so I'll mention that we'd like to discuss this thing in more detail as soon as possible."

"Good. I would certainly like to obtain more with higher output," he replied, turning back to the monitors and bringing up another window. It showed a detailed exploded diagram of his motorcycle. "I've been working on an upgrade for my bike and Miss Wilbourn's visit came at a very convenient time. It wouldn't take long to redesign the power train to incorporate a flywheel storage unit, it would fit perfectly right here."

"You'll need to upgrade the wheel motors if you want to take full advantage of it," she pointed out, leaning over his chair to inspect the diagram. "And in that case these power linkages will need to be replaced."

"The Family superconductor would allow them to carry massively more power and still be made a small percentage of the current size," he remarked, spinning the 3D diagram around and highlighting a section. "Which in turn would allow for further expansion of storage space under the seat, you see? In fact..." He thought for a moment. "Yes, I believe I will have to talk to the Family and request their aid in a number of places. Fractal dimensional storage here, here, and here would increase the utility of the design massively. And I've been meaning to ask about commissioning some EDM upgrades for my armor too."

"Let's design what you need, and I'll take it over when I visit and ask about it, shall we, Colin?" she said, pulling her chair over next to his and sitting down. He was already opening a new design document, his expression intent but also oddly _content_ , something she enjoyed seeing.

She was grateful to the Family. Every time they showed him something new, he started thinking about how to use it for all sorts of applications. It gave him enjoyment in a way that most things didn't, and he seemed pleased to have her help, which gave _her_ enjoyment too. The last couple of months had brought them closer together, something she intended to see continue. 

* * *

"Trippy," ' _Ianthe_ ' said, looking around the room. "I still can't get used to how ridiculously effective these senses are. I can see _everything_."

Randall watched the large violet lizard peer at the computers, then shake her… his… its head. He was having trouble remembering it was his best friend in there, since the bioconstruct's own neural filters made it sound exactly like it normally would with Amy driving. Even most of the, fairly alien but very recognizable, body language was identical. He was impressed all over again at how incredibly good the Dallon girl was at this. How the hell she'd managed to persuade the entire world for _years_ she was only a superb healer was beyond him.

It was also very obvious that meeting Taylor had saved her sanity, since suppressing this part of her powers would have inevitably ended badly sooner or later. He felt a little faint when he considered what an evil The Amy could do, or merely one who decided that she didn't care any more. The girl had rigid self control to a level he was pretty sure he didn't to have avoided that fate for as long as she had.

That crazy demon might have saved all of them merely by turning up from wherever it really was that he came from, not just Taylor. And, of course, it had made his own life a lot more interesting as well.

Weird, but interesting. And he was enjoying every moment of it.

"What's it like, dude?" he asked. The scaled head turned to him, cocking to the side a little in a mannerism he recognized and which made him smile slightly.

"I can't really explain it," ' _Ianthe_ ' said after a few seconds of thought. "I mean, I can say things like I can literally hear your heartbeat from here, and see it in the blood flow in your face from the thermal emissions, but that's not the same as being able to _experience_ it. I've been in here for less than an hour and it already feels completely natural, as bizarre as that sounds."

"That's mostly down to the neural amplifier working in concert with Ianthe's own brain," Amy said from where she was kneeling on the floor next to the Metis construct, Taylor next to her and Lisa watching with curiosity and a certain level of mild concern for her alter-ego. "The whole design was made to make it work that way. Remember that when you're in the construct, you _are_ the construct in almost every way that matters. Kevin's brain is practically dormant right now, you're running on Ianthe's one, and in every way that matters other than memories and personality, _you are Ianthe_."

Both the violet reptile and Randall nodded. They understood the principle, but it was still surprising to see it happen, he thought. Watching his friend move his tail around while looking back at it, he grinned. It was apparently even more surprising to have it happen _to you_.

"I still think that's one of the most incredible things I've ever come across, Amy," he said.

She smiled up at him, then went back to concentrating on what she was doing. "Thanks, Randall," she replied. "OK, nearly there," she added to Taylor. "A little more… stop. OK, hold on for a second, I need to make a few changes."

"Please don't hurt her," Lisa said quietly.

Amy looked at her friend and smiled. "She's fine, honest. She won't feel anything."

Taylor stroked the scaled skin of the black construct, which was lying on its side, currently deactivated and with her eyes shut. "We would never hurt Metis, Lisa. She's family."

The blonde girl smiled back. "I know, and my power says it's going to plan, but… She's part of me now, you know?"

 **"We understand, Lisa,"** the Varga assured her softly, his current mini-dragon form across her shoulders from where he was watching too. **"I suspect it's not vastly different in some key ways from how Taylor and I are. Metis will be fine. Trust The Amy."**

"Everyone must trust The Amy," Kevin intoned, waving taloned hands in mystical patterns. "The Amy is all powerful. Worship The Amy."

"The Amy needs to concentrate, so shut up a second," Amy snickered. She rolled up her sleeve and pushed her arm into the access slit in the construct's belly, an expression of intense thought on her face. "Got it. OK, tie it off, Taylor, and we're done. It worked perfectly." She pulled her arm out and waited for the faint sheen of dampness to evaporate before adjusting her shirt.

Standing up, she turned to the observers. "We've used the fractional dimensional technique to enlarge the size of the internal storage pouch quite a lot. It'll take someone bigger than Zephron now no problem. We could go larger, but right now there isn't any need, and it's a little fiddly making it connect properly to all the living parts, so it seemed a good idea to take it slowly. I'll think about how this went and see if I can improve it. My power loves it, though, it opens up all sorts of interesting possibilities. We've been considering some of them for a while now so this is a useful test."

Bending down, she activated the construct, which opened its eyes, blinked, then gracefully rolled to its feet with ease. It looked down at her, before lowering its head to rest on hers. She reached up and stroked it, smiling, as Lisa grinned. "Hi, Metis," the brunette said. "Sorry about all that, we had to improve you."

Randall got the distinct impression that the construct seemed content, and even happy. It lifted its head and looked around at the others, meeting his eyes for a moment. He wondered at the way he was momentarily sure there was more intelligence in that green gaze than he expected, then was distracted by Lisa making a gesture. Metis padded over to her and stopped next to her. She reached out and stroked the side of the huge reptilian figure, which squatted down beside her and waited quietly.

Amy and Taylor watched as well, exchanging a smile, then the former turned to Randall. "You know the drill. Behind the screen, clothes off. Hop to it."

"At once, your healership," he said, lifting a hand to his brow. "I live to obey."

"Don't _you_ start," she warned him, although she was grinning. Snickering, he headed towards the screened enclosure, hearing her follow. Very soon he was staring at the now-open entrance to the dormant form of the Metis bioconstruct. Looking at Amy a little plaintively, he asked in a weak voice, "You're sure this is required?"

She smiled at him. "I am. You'll be fine. I know it looks weird, but it's easy and painless. I think you'll enjoy it, everyone else sure seems to."

"Oh, god," he sighed, kneeling down in only his boxers. "I must be crazy. This is so wrong on so _many_ levels."

"That's what they all say," she giggled. "Now get in there."

"Ick." He tentatively felt the opening, which was slick and warm, shuddered a little, then sucked it up and went for it. The next couple of minutes were _very_ weird but he finally blinked, looking around and lifting his head.

Much further than he should have been able to.

Reaching up he felt his head, then a tooth, before raising his hands in front of his eyes. "Oh my fucking god, that's unbelievable," he said in wondering tones.

"How do you feel," Amy asked, studying him closely. "Metis..."

"I… just don't have the words. Amy, you're a genuine miracle worker," he breathed, experimentally rolling over, then cautiously rising to his feet. The sensation of a long muscular tail behind him aiding his balance made him look back at it in amazement, then try moving it deliberately. It was peculiarly easy. "This is just nuts."

"Raise your hands over your head and touch your middle fingers together, please?" she asked. He did as requested. "Excellent. Now close your eyes, turn in a circle, and open them again." He did that too, feeling her hand on his skin. Or scales. "Working perfectly. All the neural linkages are properly connected, the Randall body is shut down except for maintenance functions, and the neural amplifier is relaying your consciousness to and from the bioconstruct's brain." She stepped back, looking pleased. "And as I half-expected, your own power is obviously having a wonderful time with this."

He looked curiously at her. "How do you mean?" he asked.

"You're at the point where Lisa and Kevin needed about an hour to acclimate to in less than two minutes," she replied. "It feels completely natural already doesn't it?"

Thinking about her question, he nodded after a moment. "Yeah. Weird. I didn't really notice, but you're right. This just feels… normal. Like I've always been like this."

"I thought that might happen." Amy walked around his form, examining it carefully, then stopped in front of him. "I also suspect that you'll learn Famtalk very quickly indeed. In fact..." She paused, then said something in a strange voice, before coughing. "Ow. Human vocal cords aren't meant to do that. I'll have to do something about it."

He stared at her. {Understood that…} he tried, fumbling for the words. "What the hell?"

"Not bad, though your accent is weird," she laughed. "OK, I'm genuinely impressed."

"How did even I learn a language that alien in only minutes?" he asked, shocked.

"Technically, I don't think you did. Metis knows it, or the bioconstruct's brain does, if you want to think of it like that. That's what I designed it to do. The language centers of her brain are huge, _much_ larger than a human's or anything else that lives on this planet. And it's vastly more densely packed with my own version of neural cells which are a hell of a lot more efficient than human ones too. So is your neural amplifier, for that matter, which is why it works so well considering how small it is compared to your brain. When Varga taught Lisa and me Famtalk, we were in the constructs, and their brains were what allowed us to learn it much, much faster than it should have taken. The low level linkage to our human bodies let the information get transferred in and permanently retained over time."

She looked justifiably proud of her work, as he gaped at her. "It should work with any language, although so far we haven't tried much proper testing. I _have_ experimented with Spanish and I've improved, but it was only some idle playing around rather than a serious attempt. In any case, the point is that _her_ brain has all that information still in there. It's got a fuck of a lot more storage than a human one does, so there's no point not retaining everything that might come in handy. And since it has a very low level and direct access to your own brain via the neural amplifier, and your _ability_ is _also_ wired directly into your brain..."

"My power can access Metis's brain and use it like it was my own," he finished when she trailed off meaningfully. "And it's basically downloading Famtalk and learning it."

"Yep. Probably already done it, actually. My upgrades improve powers _a lot_ as far as we can tell so far, like the way upgrading Lisa fixed her Thinker headaches. When she's connected to Metis her ability gets even more effective, because as far as I can work out it's using the bioconstruct brain as well as hers, however the processors actually connect to a brain in the first place. I've noticed the same thing when I'm in Ianthe. My ability absolutely loves her, it gets even more helpful and imaginative then."

"Which is why you do a lot of your work when you're Ianthe?" he guessed. She nodded with a smile.

"Right. It's easier, it just sort of… flows." She gestured at herself. "Like this, a plain boring human..." He snickered, making her grin. "...With a lot of upgrades, true enough, but more or less standard brain still, I'm pretty damn good if I say so myself. But when I'm in Ianthe, it's just…" She shook her head with a wondering expression. "Incredible."

"Unbelievable," he said in low tones. Lifting a black-scaled hand he stared at it, turning it over and flexing the taloned digits. Without any effort he made the scarlet highlights disappear, leaving total blackness behind, then turned them back on. "Just fucking unbelievable. How the fuck do I know how to do that? I wonder how much of the various users is being retained by her?" He looked up at Amy, who was watching with interest. "I mean, Lisa's been in her for literally weeks of accumulated time, you've been in her a couple of times that I know of, and now me. And you, Lisa, and Danny have all been in Ianthe as well."

Amy shrugged. "To be honest I can't answer that yet. I'm becoming more and more convinced that they're learning a lot faster than I expected, but I still can't say how intelligent the construct brain can become in the end, or how quickly. I've noticed that they're definitely more..." She made gesture indicating uncertainty. "More alive, I guess? Taylor's noticed it too, and so has Lisa. Both Metis and Ianthe are more aware in a way, I think. That's one of the reasons I leave Ianthe active a lot of the time when I'm not in her, it almost seems cruel to force her asleep."

The girl sighed faintly. "Maybe I'm anthropomorphizing too much. They weren't _designed_ to be able to become truly sapient, but on the other hand they have an awful lot of brainpower, at least in theory."

Randall studied her for a few seconds, then shook his head with impressed respect. "Only you, Amy, could possibly _accidentally_ create another intelligent species."

"Hey, I'm a proper mad scientist, I'll have you know," she retorted with her hands on her hips. "I can accidentally do all sorts of bizarre things!"

"And even _more_ bizarre things on purpose, right?"

"Oh, definitely," she grinned. "Anyway, enough metaphysics and pondering the meaning of life for now."

"It's forty-two. Everyone knows that."

"Quite." She pulled the curtain away and waved to the others, who were talking quietly around the table, although he noticed that Taylor was looking over at them having certainly heard everything. For that matter, considering the people present, they all probably had. "You'll need to be in there for a few hours to cook so let's go do something else."

"I would suggest that this would be an opportune moment for some more training in Family combat techniques," the Varga said, taking on the Raptaur aspect next to them with no warning. Randall suppressed a twitch, which he was mildly amused to note would have ended up with him lashing out with the tail he'd only had for under a quarter of an hour. By the look in the glowing eyes watching him, the demon had noticed and found it funny. **"As long as you and Kevin are in there, we might as well take advantage of the enhanced learning abilities to get in some practice. I'm also very intrigued to see how it interacts with your Parahuman ability as well, since we can assume Amy is most likely correct."**

Taylor appeared on his other side, as Saurial, then handed him a pair of batons she pulled out of nowhere. The Varga was, when he looked back, holding an identical pair and grinning, appropriately enough, like a demon.

"This is going to hurt, isn't it?" he asked with a sigh, looking back at Taylor who was holding a third set with an almost identically predatory grin on her muzzle.

"Don't worry, you can take it," Amy chuckled, stepping back. Behind them, the screened enclosure disappeared as both aspects moved apart to put him between them.

"Ten bucks on Taylor," Kevin called.

"Oh, thanks, _buddy,"_ he growled, taking up an appropriate stance and bracing himself. His best friend merely laughed, until Taylor smirked at him.

"When we're done with Randall, you're next," she said happily.

The smirk vanished rather rapidly. 

* * *

Brian sat down at the cafeteria table with a feeling of relief and anticipation of a good meal, putting his tray in front of him. He'd had a solid day's work, achieved all his tasks, and now he could eat and relax. He still needed to decide what the next step was as far as his sister went, and for that matter whether he kept living at the DWU or found an apartment somewhere.

Aisha was the more important thing, of course. But that also influenced whether he stayed here or not. While he found the place very enjoyable, fitting in far better here than he really had practically anywhere else so far, it wasn't exactly the place for a thirteen year old girl. Especially one as inquisitive as Aisha was. She'd be into everything in minutes, he was sure of that.

He was still thinking over the previous night at their father's apartment. The guy genuinely tried, he knew that, and in his own way had clearly been relieved to see that his son was all right having gone incommunicado for weeks. Saurial's visit had, he'd eventually mentioned, made him both very curious about what Brian had got mixed up in, and much less worried that whatever it was would kill him.

Brian hadn't told him about the Undersiders, or that nightmarish run from Lung. Or, for that matter, about Lung at all. Lung was definitely not someone he intended to think about, talk about, or ideally, ever even _hear_ about again.

How Saurial had managed to convince the lunatic rage-dragon to leave them alone was beyond his ability to understand, but he sure wasn't going to question it. And if nothing else it proved that the Family was even more dangerous than he'd assumed, and he'd assumed they were hideously dangerous in the _first_ place.

"Pass the salt, please, Brian."

He picked up the salt shaker and handed it across the table, still deep in thought.

What to do about Aisha?

With Danny's backing and help, Lisa and he had completed an update of the relevant documents that would let him hopefully gain guardianship of his sister. His father was cooperating, and now that he had a stable job and people to vouch for him, the papers would probably go through without too much trouble. No longer having to hide would help a hell of a lot.

"Pepper, please."

He handed it over.

So there didn't seem to be anything standing in the way of sending the documentation in to update his case, now. He resolved to arrange that tomorrow, even though it probably wouldn't get anywhere for at least a few weeks. This sort of bureaucracy ran slowly at the best of times. And there would undoubtedly be yet another visit from some annoying official who would ask a lot of stupid questions, tut at his living accommodations, make irritating remarks about his parents, and all the other crap that always seemed to come along with this sort of thing.

On the upside, though, Coil was gone, he was no longer a criminal, he was being actively supported by people he looked up to, and for whatever reason Aisha seemed to be on what for her counted as her best behavior.

"Are you done with the ketchup?"

"Yeah, here you go," he replied, pushing the bottle forward. He took a forkful of his roast chicken and chewed slowly, savoring the taste. The food here was, if anything, getting better. It was definitely at least as good as some diners he'd visited, and a few of the dishes were remarkable.

Going back to his thoughts, eventually he shrugged to himself. He'd have to wait and see how the application changes affected his case. Probably it would help, and Danny had told him that he was more than happy to put in a good word. Aisha was better off where she was until everything was finalized and at that point he could, if he hadn't already, work out where the pair of them would live.

He looked up as Alec sat next to him. "Hi," he said, then went back to eating and pondering his life issues. Dimly he registered Rachel sitting on the other side and plonking her tray down with a grunt.

"Hey, Brian, how's it hanging?" the younger boy said, popping open a can of soda. He sipped slowly, then put it down.

"Not bad. I'm exhausted, though, I've been worked off my ass all day."

"Ah, the life of the working stiff," his friend laughed. "Me, I finally managed to take out fucking Protomancer _twice_ in one game."

"Happy days," Brian responded dryly.

"You know it, brother." Alec snickered, then looked around. "Where's the ketchup?"

"Here."

"Oh, thanks, Aisha."

"No sweat."

Brian ate half a dozen more mouthfuls of his dinner before he froze with his fork in front of his face. He replayed the last few minutes in his head, then clenched his eyes shut with a feeling of dread. Opening them after a second or two he lifted his head.

"Hi, Brian!" his sister chirped, grinning at him as she leaned back in her chair, nibbling on a fry.

"Oh, Jesus," he moaned, dropping his fork and burying his head in his hands. "Aisha. How the _hell_ did you get in here?"

"Cloak brought me," she replied happily. He moved his fingers apart to allow him to gaze at her. She seemed sincere, which was worrying in several ways.

"Cloak?"

 ** _"Cloak."_**

The voice from behind him made him yelp in shock and whip his head around so fast he nearly got a crick in his neck. Aisha snickered, as did Alec, and even Rachel made a sound that was very close to a laugh.

 _ **"Hi. Brian, right?"**_ the floating garment that was… standing…? behind him said politely. He noticed absently that she? It? the cloak, anyway… was holding a tray of her own. He could also clearly see there was no one inside the hood at all.

"Er… yes." He watched with wide eyes as the thing walked _over_ the table to the other side using motions that suggested it was climbing then descending an invisible flight of stairs. He'd heard about that, and even seen video on PHO, but it was a lot creepier in real life. And weirdly a lot more disturbing than someone simply flying. Glory Girl floating around without a care in the world was one thing, but this was… wrong. Although he couldn't for the life of him work out why he felt like that.

Cloak put her tray down next to Aisha's, then sat beside his sister. More or less. There wasn't a chair there, but whatever. Picking up a fry, the thing pushed it into the hood to where a face _should_ have been, half of it disappearing in an invisible bite.

' _Where does it_ ** _go?_** ' he wondered in a bemused way. ' _If she's actually invisible shouldn't I see it through her? Is there actually anyone in there or not?_ ' The rest of the fry went after the first part, leaving him none the wiser.

 _ **"These are really good,"**_ Cloak hissed in tones of enjoyment.

"Yeah, I can see why you like it here, if you get to eat like this all the time," his sister said with a nod, picking up another one of her own and dipping it in ketchup before eating it. "So. How's things?"

The expression on her face was one he recognized and dreaded. It boded ill for his state of mind. The way that Alec was looking between them with a definite smirk of amusement didn't help.

"Things _were_ going pretty well," he finally replied with a deep sigh. "Somehow, though, I can't help feeling that's going to change now."

She merely grinned at him, with Cloak making odd little hissing sounds that seemed to be her version of laughter. How the two of them had met and how she'd ended up here in the company of the very disturbing cape was merely one of many, _many_ questions he rather suspected he wasn't going to find comforting answers for.

Alec going and somehow finding a large bowl of popcorn which he was shortly sharing with Rachel as they observed didn't help, either.

And the way everyone else in the entire cafeteria simply glanced at them and went on with their business was just _weird._

* * *

Linda looked up from her workbench, then went over and unlocked the door, swinging it open. "Hello, everyone," she said with a smile. "Anything wrong?"

"No," Lisa replied, entering at the head of the procession as she stepped aside. All four of the usual members of the Family came in behind her, Amy bringing up the rear. "We just thought we'd visit and I could let you know how things went with the Mayor and the PRT. And I wanted to thank you for the omnivehicle. That thing is _amazing._ "

Linda closed the door behind them, chuckling at the enthusiasm in her friend's voice. "Thanks. I'm glad you like it."

" _Like_ it?" Lisa grinned widely. "It's my favorite machine in the world right now. And you should see the reactions of people who see it. I'm telling you, if we could sell those things just in this city, practically everyone I've met would buy one. Oh, Armsmaster asked me to tell you he and Dragon are having a lot of fun examining the prototype and they'll get it back to you when they've finished playing with it." She snickered. "He didn't put it quite like that, of course. More formal, but you've met the guy."

"I have." Linda laughed. "Despite my worries, I kind of like him. And I sure respect his Tinkering abilities, even though I think he gets carried away with trying to put far too much shit into one device." She put a hand on her chest, her tail flicking from side to side with her humor. "Someone like Vectura builds things to last, you realize. _My_ stuff isn't all delicate and prone to failure."

"Speaking in the third person is the first sign of something weird going wrong with your mind," Saurial smirked. "Saurial knows this."

"Lisa agrees," Lisa said. They shared an amused look.

"So it went well, I assume?" Linda asked after a moment.

"Very well. Pretty much as well as it could go, in fact." Lisa looked very pleased. "We're definitely going to get a lot of orders soon."

"Wonderful." Linda felt happy for her friends. "That's really good, both for all of us and the city."

"It's an excellent beginning," Raptaur agreed.

"Hey, have you seen Kevin and Randall this evening?" Linda asked, looking around at the others. "I was half expecting them to drop by."

"They're probably not too far away," Metis replied with a smile. "You know those two, though. They get completely absorbed in their projects sometimes."

Linda laughed. "Oh, god, yes. Even when those projects blow up in their faces." She shook her head in mild wonder. "How they're still alive is a bit of a mystery sometimes."

Ianthe snickered, then motioned to one of the mechs. "That looks like you've been doing some work on it."

Linda followed the violet lizard's gaze, nodding. "Yeah. I've been working on a new control interface, partly inspired by Kevin's Halo armor system. It should work a lot more intuitively than the current one, it's a neural induction linkage. More or less. I came up with some improvements."

"Ooh." Amy peered at the mech, looking very interested. "How does it work?"

Pleased at the interest, Linda went over to the machine and climbed up it, the girl following with surprising ease. Shortly she was engaged in a discussion with the healer who was remarkably competent at understanding it, thoroughly enjoying herself, while the rest of her visitors listened and asked questions from the floor. 

* * *

****  
Looking at his watch, Danny said, "I'll have to go soon. I want to get an early start tomorrow, so I can be home by about lunch time."

Antonio poured the last of the wine in the current bottle into his guest's glass, then held it up to the light. "That was a good year," he murmured. "I must see about getting some more." Putting it down on the table, he smiled. "I understand, my boy. It's been truly wonderful having you visit after so long."

Serafina finished clearing up the remnants of the after-dinner dessert they'd enjoyed in the living room then sat on his other side, taking his free hand in both of hers. "Don't leave it so long, Danny," she said with a smile of her own. "We missed you. And I want to see Taylor all grown up. Watching her beat up a mugger was inspirational, but nothing can replace seeing someone face to face."

"I've come to appreciate that," he replied with a chuckle, putting his arm over her shoulders and hugging her briefly. "Thank you both for the hospitality, Aunt Serafina. Uncle Tony."

"You're more than welcome, Danny," the old man laughed. "Make sure you send our love to that girl of yours. And tell that lunatic Zephron that the job offer is still open."

"Hands off Zephron, he's _my_ lunatic," Danny warned with a grin. The ancient mobster spread his hands with an innocent look.

"You can't blame a man for trying."

"Want to bet?"

They shared another chuckle. "Thank you, Tony," Danny said again in a low voice. "I didn't realize how much I'd missed this. Again, I'm sorry."

Antonio waved his comment away dismissively. "Pah. All in the past, forget it. Just remember what we talked about and keep an eye on the lad and we're fine, OK?"

"Of course."

"And if you see Benny and Rudy, tell them I said hi," the other man said with an evil smirk. Danny gave him a hard look. "Just to keep them on their toes!" he added with amusement.

"Sure. Not like you'd ever try to scare anyone, right?"

"Oh, I never _try_ to scare anyone, Danny."

Unable to help himself, Danny snickered. "Understood."

"I made some more cookies for you to take with you, I'll go get them," Serafina said, standing up. She winced and massaged her back for a moment.

"Something wrong?" Danny asked, mildly concerned.

"Only age, Danny," she sighed. "It catches up with everyone in the end. Even those who have led good and pure lives, like the two of us." She gave him a mischievous look over her shoulder, one that belonged on the face of a woman fifty years younger, then disappeared into the kitchen. He watched her go, thinking again about something that had occurred to him some time ago, before finishing his wine and putting his glass on the coffee table.

"I've got a couple of jars of my best sauce to take back with you too," Antonio said, watching him. "Along with Sera's recipe for her risotto. I think Taylor will probably like it."

"She definitely will," Danny agreed, looking back at his companion. "Did I tell you she's writing a cook-book?"

Raising an eyebrow, Antonio looked impressed. "No, you didn't. Her own recipes?"

"Some of hers, some of her mothers, and a few that a good friend taught her," he said proudly. "She's got about forty or so now. Annette had quite a few more but some of them she doesn't want to let out of the family. I'm not sure when she's going to finish it, it's sort of a slow work in progress, but I'll make sure to get you two a copy when she's done."

"I'd like that very much," the old man replied with a nod of thanks. "We'll have to think if we have some she might like too."

"I'll tell her you offered." They looked around as Serafina came back carrying a cardboard box about a foot cubed which both clinked a little and smelled delicious.

"Don't eat them all on the way home, leave some for little Taylor," the woman warned him with a severe look as he accepted it.

"I'll be good," he promised with a grin.

"See that you are. My recipe is in there too, along with the old fool's precious sauce." She winked at him as Antonio put an outraged expression on his face and sat bolt upright.

"Old fool? Old _fool?_ You forget your place, woman!"

"Hush."

"Yes, dear." He settled back radiating amusement, although his face was fixed in a scowl.

"And don't look like that, your face will freeze in that expression."

"It might help with discipline," Antonio said thoughtfully, then yelped when she flicked him on the forehead. "Ow!"

"Old fool. As I suspected."

Danny was snickering under his breath, the byplay between them was always funny. It was even funnier thinking about the dichotomy between how they acted in private and their more than slightly terrifying reputations.

As he watched them bicker with clear affection, he came to a decision. Putting the box next to him on the sofa, he retrieved his jacket from where he'd draped it over the arm and reached into the pocket, removing a small box. Both of them watched as he put the jacket down, then weighed the box in his hand.

"What's that?" Antonio finally asked.

Danny popped the lid open and held it out. The elderly man peered into it, then raised his eyes to his guest's, looking puzzled. "Still none the wiser, my boy."

Picking one of the one-shot healing units up in his other hand, Danny inspected it for a moment, then began explaining. He found their expressions rather gratifying. 

* * *

Aisha looked at her brother, who was rubbing his forehead again with a pained look, then glanced at Cloak with a tiny grin. It was always funny pushing his buttons like this. "Well, can't stay here all night, we have lizards to talk to," she said brightly, hopping down from her chair. He looked up, alarm on his features, while Alec laughed. Rachel watched them both with a look that was nearly amusement then went back to her third helping of dessert.

"Lizards…? Oh, hell. Aisha! Get back here."

She turned around halfway to the door of the cafeteria and waved, grinning. Beside her Cloak was snickering. "See you later, brother dear," she called, before darting after her weird friend.

 **"Bye, Brian,"** Cloak called. _**"Nice to meet you."**_

By the time he ran after them they were invisible and giggling, heading over to the BBFO office to see who was around.

 _ **"It won't take him long to follow, you know,"**_ Cloak suggested as they exited the building, one of the DWU workers looked around at the door that opened and closed with no one to do it, then shrugged and kept going.

"Sure I know. Doesn't matter. I want to see Saurial again," Aisha replied. "That crazy lizard sort of grows on you."

 _ **"She's a lot of fun,"**_ Cloak agreed readily. _ **"Let's see if we can find them."**_

It took them a few minutes, and there didn't seem to be anyone in the BBFO office, but in the end they spotted Saurial, Raptaur, and the other lizards, along with a couple of perfectly normal humans. They were standing outside a building a few hundred yards away and watching that cat-woman Tinker the DWU had got the other day putting one of her mechs through its paces in a clear area. "Oh, cool," Aisha said with great interest, peering down at the machine. She found Saurial and Raptaur both looking directly at her. "Hey, I thought we were invisible," she added in a quiet voice, pointing.

 _ **"We are,"**_ Cloak said with a grin in her voice. _ **"Doesn't help with them. Come on, let's go see what's going on."**_

They quickly descended the invisible spiral staircase to the ground, Cloak dropping her invisibility on the way down. Saurial grinned at them. "Hello, Aisha. This is a little late for someone your age to be running around."

"Bite me," the girl said tartly, which only made the lizard grin much more widely and open her mouth to say something. Aisha looked at the teeth and added hastily, "But not really."

"Aww. Humans are no fun." The lizard-girl chuckled. "Does Brian know you're here?"

"He does. For some reason he seemed to be a little… confused?"

She grinned back as all four lizards laughed. "Poor Brian," Lisa said, walking over. "I thought you were going home."

"Got bored."

"How long did that take? About five seconds?"

"Hey, I sat through your entire scam without saying anything," Aisha retorted. "Cut me some slack."

Lisa merely shook her head, then went back to watching the mech. Aisha and Cloak did as well. Vectura, or whatever the Tinker was called, finished doing her tests and walked the thing over to them, making it squat down in front of them. Aisha watched with great interest as the top of the canopy raised and the cat-woman lightly jumped out, landing on the ground next to it. "Works perfectly," she announced. "Thank you, Amy, that was a good idea about the brain interface modifications."

"No problem," the brunette girl who Aisha realized was Amy Dallon, or Panacea, replied. "Can I try?"

"Sure, go ahead." Vectura watched as the girl climbed up into the cockpit and strapped herself into the seat in a way that made it obvious she'd done it before. She pulled a sort of partial helmet down over her head, then did something that made the canopy close and the mech stand up. Aisha stared as she then made it run around like it was alive, hop on one leg, wave the armored tail thing around, and a whole series of other maneuvers.

"Holy shit, that's nearly as cool as those light vehicles," she said in amazement.

"You like the omnivehicle?" She looked to the side to see Vectura looking at her with interest. Up close it was obvious that the woman really was part cat, it wasn't a costume.

"Yep. Lisa took me for a ride in one. It's fantastic." She frowned a little. "But she said it would go up a building then didn't do it. That wasn't much fun."

"People get annoyed if you drive up the front of their buildings, Aisha," Lisa said patiently.

"Except the Medhall one, of course," Metis added with a grin. The blonde looked at her for a moment, returning the grin.

"I expect old Max is just as annoyed, but we don't actually care in his case."

"Good point."

Aisha laughed. Then, looking slyly at the people-people and lizard-people standing around, asked, "Hey, can I have a go in that thing?"

Saurial inspected her, glancing at Lisa who was looking worried, and Vectura who was looking thoughtful. "That's… probably not a brilliant idea. Sorry."

She pouted.

"However..." The slender lizard pulled a familiar looking long cylinder out of a pouch on her belt. "We can probably let you have a little fun with this."

She beamed.

Lisa put her hand over her eyes and groaned. "Ignore her, she gets all responsible sometimes," Saurial advised, snapping the omnivehicle projector open.

Aisha exchanged a look with Cloak. This evening was getting better and better all the time. 

* * *

Brian rounded the corner into the BBFO yard, then jumped back as a glowing blur shot past.

"Wheeeeee!"

Two voices dopplered into the distance.

He looked after them, then sagged. The light-cycle was now zipping in huge circles in the middle of the yard, his sister's voice whooping with glee. He could see she was driving it, with Saurial on the rear seat apparently enjoying the experience.

"Asking that insane lizard to talk to them was apparently a mistake," he sighed, before deciding he might as well go back and let Alec beat him at some game or other. He could see that these two would be busy for a while…

Wondering whether perhaps he was making some grievous error in attempting to become her guardian, he headed back to the dormitory block, hearing a whine grow louder then fade away again.

"Wheeeeeeeeee!" 

* * *

Antonio embraced Danny, then stepped back to let his wife do the same. The younger man smiled, before picking up his box and stepping into the elevator. "I'll see you around," he said in contented tones, much happier than he had appeared when he'd arrived the previous day.

"Make sure you do, Danny," Antonio replied, his arm around his wife. "Fourteen years is too long. Take care, and take care of your family and friends."

"Always, Uncle Tony," Danny smiled. "Family is everything."

"Your father would have been very proud of you," Antonio told him with utter honesty.

"Thanks." Danny glanced at Luigi, who nodded and swiped his access card through the reader. The doors slid silently shut, the last they saw of their visitor being a smile and a raised hand. After a moment, they turned and went back into their apartment while Luigi returned to his duties.

"I am so glad he came," Serafina said, wiping a tear from her eye. "And so sorry he left."

"He'll be back," Antonio told her with a quick hug, before following her into the kitchen. He sniffed. "Are there any of those wonderful cookies of yours left?"

"A few," she laughed, retrieving a plate from a cupboard. He eagerly took one of the baked pieces of heaven and bit into it. "Leave the rest for tomorrow."

Putting it away again having taken one for herself, she stretched, smiling widely. "My god, that feels so good. Our boy's friends are amazing."

"They're certainly changing the world," Antonio agreed, watching her with pleasure. "Although I didn't expect this. It was nice of him."

"It was beyond nice," she responded, shaking her head. Quickly making them each a cup of their favorite tea, she went back into the living room and relaxed on the sofa. He sat next to her, putting his arm over her shoulders and just resting. "This was such fun."

He nodded, watching the distant lights of the city through the bullet-proof windows of the apartment. They sat there in silence for some time.

"You didn't tell him."

"No."

"Any reason? Or are you just being secretive for your own amusement?" Her voice was soft and content as she leaned on him.

"That little _cagna_ hurt family," he replied after a few seconds. "I want to have my fun first. Just to show her what it's like."

He looked at her face, which was showing mild exasperation and amusement at the same time, shrugging a little guiltily. "Forgive an old man his small pleasures."

" _You_ are evil," she giggled, poking him in the side. "It reminds me why I love you so much."

Laughing, they went back to just thinking about their visitor and everything he'd told them. Antonio made a mental note that he owed Sean McLoughlin a case of the good whiskey. _Emerald Isle Trucking Company_ was, yet again, being very useful indeed. 

* * *

****  
"Oh, for fuck's _sake!_ "

Sophia hit the steering wheel with her undamaged hand, staring at the rear view mirror in absolute rage.

That fucking truck was back again.

"How!? How is he _doing_ this?"

She'd thought for nearly an entire day she'd managed to finally lose the bastard, having been engaged in a manic series of vehicle thefts, license place swaps, random directional changes, and even hiding in an old mine entrance she'd found on a map she'd stolen at the last place she'd raided. Her current vehicle, a completely non-descript dark blue sedan, should have been completely anonymous. It was also loaded down with enough food and water to last a week or more, and enough weapons to assault a decent sized SWAT team and win.

Yet now, she was watching the _same fucking green semi_ come around the corner a mile back, passing under the streetlights of the small town she'd just blown through in seconds due to it being so insignificant. At the moment she wasn't even sure _herself_ where she was other than somewhere in the middle of Iowa, surrounded by fields in every direction. So how had the fucker tracked her?

There was no way there was any actual tracking device on her, _or_ in the vehicle, she was certain of that. She'd looked enough times, and gone through so many different vehicles it just wasn't possible. The only thing she still had from Brockton Bay was her crossbow and some bolts, she'd dumped everything else over time as paranoia got the better of her. Even the PRT-issue handgun was at the bottom of a river she'd crossed the night before. And she couldn't see any way the crossbow itself could contain a tracker since no one other than her even knew about it, or could have got at it without her abilities. It had never been within two miles of the PRT building.

' _Precog? Maybe, but if some cape is doing this, why are they only_ ** _following_** _me? Why not attack?'_ She shook her head in frustration. It didn't make any sense. That damn truck just popped out of the background and then followed her far enough back that if she didn't _know_ it was following her, she'd probably have ignored at it.

And it Just. Didn't. _Stop!_

' _It's like the fucking Terminator,_ ' she thought with momentary black humor. ' _Only on wheels._ '

What could she do about it, though? Having it chase her all the way to the Pacific, or Canada, or even Mexico, was out of the question. Even if she actually knew at this point where she wanted to end up anyway, which she didn't. Not having time to stop and plan for a while had definitely screwed up her last few days, although on the other hand it was probably playing merry hell with the ability of most Thinkers to predict her movements too based on her training.

Which, again, led right back to how was he doing it? And why?

Fuming, she kept driving while plotting her next move in the bizarre game of chess she'd found herself in. It was unbelievably annoying, since she'd rather have been planning her return to deal with her foes back in Brockton.

When she checked the mirror again, the semi wasn't visible, but she wasn't fooled. It was out there. Somewhere. 

* * *

Aisha climbed over her bedroom windowsill, then turned to grin at her friend. "See you around," she whispered.

 _ **"You sure will,"**_ Cloak whispered back, her eerie voice even stranger like that. _**"It was a lot of fun. Thanks for the help with all those crooks."**_

"Any time, it was hilarious. So was Brian's face."

They both giggled. Cloak raised a leathery hand in a wave, then started walking away and faded out of sight. Aisha gently slid the window shut, closed the curtains, and got undressed, soon sliding under the covers. As she fell asleep, she mused on how well the day had gone. At times it felt like it had lasted about a month, and at other times it had gone past all too fast, but on the whole it was one of the better ones she'd had.

She'd met Vectura, played with one of those ultra-cool light cycles, met the rest of the lizards, annoyed her brother, and helped catch fourteen different minor criminals. All in all she couldn't complain.

She even got a nice pen out of it.

Contented, she fell asleep, a smile on her face. And didn't even stir when her father quietly opened the door, looked at her, nodded, and went back to bed himself. 

* * *

"You'll need a good night sleep and a big breakfast, but everything went fine," Amy said with satisfaction, removing her hand from Randall's neck.

He nodded, looking at his friend, who was amusing himself by making a torrent of sparks arc between his fingers. "Thanks, Amy. It's been… weird."

"That's what we do," she grinned, making him chuckle. "Let me know when you work out exactly what option you guys want to go for."

"We'll think about it and get back to you soon," Kevin promised. Randall got up, clapped his friend on the back, then headed for the door, the other man trailing after him.

"See you, girls. Don't break the universe too badly," he called back as he opened the door, then left. She was right. He needed some sleep.

When the door clicked shut, Amy turned to Lisa who was stroking her Metis construct, the creature lying on its chest next to her and looking like it was enjoying it. "She's fine, trust me," the healer said reassuringly.

"I know, but I just wanted to check," Lisa replied.

"Fair enough." Amy looked at Taylor, who was standing as Saurial watching them both. The other aspect had been dismissed since they'd had it out for quite a while that evening, on and off. "Should we show her?"

"If you want," Taylor said with a shrug. Lisa looked at her, then Amy, her eyes narrowing.

"Show me what?" she asked slowly.

"Something cool."

"Is it something I should be worried about?"

"Oh, no, definitely not," Amy responded instantly. "Probably not. I don't think so… No, it should be fine."

Lisa stood up from where she'd been kneeling next to Metis, putting her hand on her forehead and sighing. "Oh, crap."

"It's good! Really!" Amy grinned as the hand was lowered and their friend's gaze met her eyes a little skeptically.

"Forgive me, but when you get that look in your eyes," Lisa began, "Yes, that one right there, all unholy and gleeful, any normal person starts to back away slowly."

"Normal?" Amy walked over and unlocked the door to her workroom, Taylor and Lisa following. She waved the green-eyed girl inside. "I don't _do_ normal."

She exchanged a smirk with Taylor as Lisa's retort died half-formed.

There was a long pause.

"No, you _don't_ do normal," Lisa finally said in a slightly strangled voice. "Sorry I said it. I should realize by now that _none_ of us do normal. One question?" Her head came back out the doorway, a grin stretching across it to a point it probably impressed even Taylor. "Where's mine?"

"Hands off, this one is for me. You get the next one."

Lisa's grin got even wider, then all three of them, followed by the two bioconstructs who exchanged a look and trotted after their owners, disappeared into the workroom.


End file.
